A/N: Trick or Treat?
DISCLAIMER: Tstabler owns the story; Dick Wolf owns the characters.
The bar was smoky, owing to the fog machine and red and blue strobe lights flashing in every corner. The smells of liquor, cigars, cheap perfume, latex, heavy metals, rubber, cinnamon and something pumpkin filtered through the fog and filled the lungs of New York's finest.
Among the crowd of cops and lawyers, Elliot and Olivia occupied stools at the bar, trying to have a conversation as loud, thumping, rock versions of Monster Mash and Time Warp hit their ears.
Elliot gulped his beer and shook his as he tried to focus on Olivia's eyes rather than somewhere much lower, where his eyes had been wandering since he'd arrived. "I just...don't get it." He shrugged and shook his again. "I've never...in all the years I've lived in that neighborhood..."
"You're a cop, El," she interrupted, shooting back a shot of something too dark. "Kids are growing up; maybe we arrested one of Dickie's friends and didn't realize it? Or one of your neighbor's kids?"
"No, you know I would know," he shook his head. "I would always know." He watched her wave at the bartender, who then lined up six small glasses and poured. "You'd better slow down, there, Tinkerbelle."
"Eat me, Captain Hook," she spat, grabbing a shot glass and downing the hard drink before he had time to stop her.
He sighed, ran his hook less hand down his face, and said, "Who would do that, Liv? I mean, TP-ing the trees I get. It was mischief night, whatever. But egging my car? Then playing Ding-Dong-Ditch? All at once? That just screams personal and I doubt...I mean that's too immature even for Kathy."
"Yeah," Olivia huffed, taking up another shot and swallowing it back. "Well, you deserved it."
"Excuse me?" He narrowed his eyes. "Wait, Liv, you didn't..." He slammed his bottle down and wagged his plastic hook in her face. "You pulled all of that shit on me? Are you fucking...please, tell me you're fucking joking!"
After throwing back the last of the already-poured shots and signaling the barman yet again, she looked at him with a drunken haze masking the anger and pain in her eyes. "The trees..." she pointed a wobbly finger at him, "that was for kissing Beck...and not telling me when I came back...whatever."
Elliot had to laugh, though it wasn't actually humor he found in the situation. "Liv that was a mistake! One kiss! I was drunk and she...didn't mean shit to me!"
"Eggs!" She added a second finger, either counting to two or making Tink a drunk hippie. "The eggs, that...that was for every night you spent on my couch, or alone with me in the cribs or undercover for the last decade and now when it can really be more than...never mind. Maybe that's not what you..."
He reached for her hand, wincing when she pulled it away.
She blinked, took a breath, and turned away from him to look at the pile of empty shot glasses, the remains of the courage she needed to tell him the truth. "And the doorbell, well, that...that was just me...losing my nerve last night."
"Liv...you know." He understood now. "So many lawyers, you were bound to have heard it from somewhere. I know you know, it's final and yeah, I should have said something, but did I really have to?" He reached for her hand again, this time grabbing it gently.
She looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Woulda been nice."
He chuckled. "I always run to you," he said, leaning into her, "You're my safe place, my true North. I thought we were beyond needing words, that there were things now that just didn't need to be said."
She bit her lip and for the first time she looked nervous. "El, I...I knew what I was to you when you were married but now I..."
"What you are to me...what you have always been...always will be...is everything." He cupped her face between his hand and his hook. "So I'm not married and now this is it, it's you and me, and that's really what scares you, because now..."
"Don't say it," she whispered, closing her eyes.
"Liv," he looked intently at her and kissed the end of her nose. "I don't need to say it, you already know." He kissed both of her cheeks. "You're paying to get my car washed." He kissed her lips softly. "You're coming over to help get the fucking toilet paper out of the trees."
"El, what are you..."
He kissed her again, silencing her, wrapping his arms tighter around her. He slipped his tongue between her lips, sweeping it over her tongue. He pulled her off the bar stool, her unstable legs wobbling as he led her toward the dance floor.
She melted to him, her fingers gripped his red and black velvet lapels, curling around the material as she moaned and rocked her hips against his body, begging him to love her.
He growled as his grip on her tightened and he bit her lip. "Liv," he said, it came out like pure temptation.
"El," she returned on a whimper. She felt his hook sliding down her back and slipping under her green dress and she froze. "El!" She looked around; the dark, smoky bar was filled with friends and colleagues who were all lost in their own dates and conversations.
She gasped when the fingers on his other hand teased at the fabric of her thin panties, and she looked sharply at his glinting blue eyes. "Hook, you sly dog."
"So they tell me," he said with a smirk. He leaned down, kissed her, pushing aside her underwear and teasing her flesh. "Liv, why, baby?"
"I thought..." she paused to moan at the way he expertly manipulated her body in the dark as they danced. "God, El, I thought that once I wasn't your only other option you'd..."
"You..." He kissed her. "Liv, you are the only choice I have. My only option. My only hope. The onliest only one for me. You were then, you are now." He kissed her again as he slipped his index finger into her, chuckling as he knew no one around him knew. "Next time you feel mischievous, Liv...we can cause a little trouble together." He kissed her hard, possessively, and crooked and twisted his finger; make more than just the wings of her costume flutter.
She trembled as she nodded quickly, moaning into his kiss, and letting herself relax. She smiled against his lips as she came down from the unexpected release. They slowly and softly kissed, laughing, for a full minute before pulling apart as the song changed to something they couldn't dance to.
"El," she whispered, "Last night, I didn't mean to piss you off, I was just so..."
"I know." He took her hands, linking his fingers with one and wrapping the other securely around his hook. "I'm just...I'm sorry I gave you a reason to doubt that I would..."
"We both suck at this," she laughed, "Don't we?"
"Together," he kissed her, "We will be incredible." He kissed her forehead and said, "I wasn't kidding, though. You're seriously paying for a car wash."
She laughed and threw her arms around him, thinking to herself that her plan could not have gone any better. Mischief, managed.
A/N: Happy Halloween!