Author's note: Hello, SVU fans! Did you miss me?... Huh?... What do you mean you didn't know I was gone?
Disclaimer: I don't own Law & Order in any of its incarnations, and therefore hold no claim to the charac... Seriously, you didn't even think about me once?
"How are we supposed to work like this? It's hotter than hell!" Elliot complained, tossing the file onto his desk. He had long since abandoned his tie, undone the top two buttons, and his shirt was untucked. He had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, but sweat still beaded his forehead and ran down his back, leaving a dark line on his shirt.
Munch leaned back in his chair and said, "Does anyone find it the least bit suspicious that—"
"No, Munch, nobody finds it suspicious," Fin interrupted. "Man, it's too damn hot for your paranoid sh—"
"Guys, knock it off," Elliot said halfheartedly.
They all went back to perusing files. A few minutes later, Elliot looked across his desk at the empty chair in front of him. "Where's Olivia? She should have been back by now."
"I'd take my time, too. It's cooler outside than it is in here," Fin said.
"Do you want to know why I think the government cut off our air conditioning?" Munch solicited.
"No!" Elliot and Fin answered together.
"God, it's hot in here. How can you work like this?" Liv set the box down on her desk and looked around at the three of them.
"Well, look who finally decided to join us," Elliot said dryly.
Olivia pinned him with an amused stare and pulled a brown paper bag from the box. "Okay, who wants Elliot's ice cream?" she asked the group.
Two hands went up. Liv chuckled and tossed Munch and Fin a Drumstick ice cream cone each. She pulled another out of the bag and unwrapped it, taking a bite out of the chocolate coating and catching the falling peanuts in her cupped hand.
She sat down and leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the desk. Elliot got up and walked around to her side. He sat on her desk and peered into the bag, folding his hands in his lap and giving her a pleading stare.
"Whoever came up with Drumsticks is a genius," Olivia said, ignoring Elliot's puppy dog face. "You've got the ice cream, of course, and then the chocolate shell. But the surprise, and the best part, is in the cone," she pointed to the cone. "It's lined all the way around with chocolate. And just when you think it can't get any better, you reach the bottom and bam! A whole chunk of chocolate. It's like a chocoholic's wet dream."
All three men sputtered, and Munch almost dropped his cone. Olivia acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
She continued to slowly nibble at the chocolate shell. Elliot's mouth began to water, and he had a nagging suspicion it had nothing to do with the ice cream.
He watched the progress of a solitary drip of ice cream as it slowly dribbled over the edge and made a zig-zag pattern along the waffle cone, its path finally obstructed by her index finger.
"Whoops," she said, looking at the small stream of sticky goodness. Her tongue intercepted the flow and moved up to the point where it had spilled over, then made a full sweep around the top to remove any other possible escapee drips.
Elliot watched this with growing anticipation. She brought the ice creamed finger slowly to her lips to remove the viscous liquid, and the only thought running through his head was, Please, let me.
She noticed his fixed stare on her mouth, and she said to him, "Is something wrong, Elliot?"
"Huh?" he asked, waking himself from his stupor. Her eyebrows shot up inquisitively. Finally coming to his senses, he shook his head and said, "Uh, no. Um…is it hot in here? I th-think I'm gonna go get s-s-some fresh air," he stuttered, pushing himself awkwardly off of Olivia's desk and almost running out of the squad room.
Fin and Munch, who had been holding their breaths watching the exchange, finally burst out laughing. Olivia gave them a fleeting look and muttered, "You guys," before grabbing the remaining ice cream cone and following Elliot out.
She instinctively headed for the roof, going slowly to give her partner time to cool down, as it were. The door creaked open slowly, and she spotted him right away, leaning against the ledge and peering out at the city.
She sidled up beside him and also gazed out at the buildings. She presented the ice cream cone in a gesture of truce. He looked down at the fitted wrapper and noted that she was still working on her own ice cream cone. She chanced a sideways look, but realized that he caught her, so she turned her head and said to him,
"You know I was only teasing, right?"
"I know," he said, accepting the offered dessert and unwrapping it. She turned so that her back was against the ledge, and looked up at the darkening sky.
"I really hope it rains," she groaned, her tongue taking another portion off the top of her cone. Elliot concentrated very hard on peeling the rest of the wrapper away.
Once the final vestiges of his distraction…er, wrapper…were peeled off, he began work on the half-melted ice cream cone.
A crunch next to him told Elliot that Olivia had started work on the actual waffle cone. Against his better judgment, he looked her way. She snorted a laugh as a piece broke off against her chin and landed on the ground, just missing her feet. He shared a chuckle with her as she swiped with the back of her hand at the mess on her chin.
"Did I get it all?" she asked him, jutting out her chin so he could see. He shook his head and pointed on his own chin where she'd missed.
When she kept missing the same spot, he said, "Here," and reached out to help. She froze as his thumb brushed her bottom lip, and she gazed just a little too long at his face, because he realized it and his eyes shot up from her chin to her eyes. He was close to acting on an impulse brewing somewhere in his abdominal region when he was alerted to his own dripping ice cream cone by a cold dribble across his hand. He pulled his thumb away and showed her what he'd rubbed off, then brought it to his lips and sucked the sticky caramel.
She let out her breath and shook herself from the awkward moment. A light breeze blew through, ruffling her hair. She leaned her head back, trying to catch the breeze. The movement caused her to arch her back, her shirt riding up to expose the soft skin of her stomach. Elliot took another deliberate bite of his ice cream.
They finished their cones quickly, but were in less haste to get back inside.
"Thanks for the ice cream," Elliot said.
She smiled warmly. "You're welcome."
A few more minutes passed in silence, the breeze picking up and making it even more difficult for them to motivate themselves back inside.
"Did you feel that?" Olivia asked suddenly.
Elliot looked at her. He'd felt a lot of things in the last twenty minutes. None of them he was willing to discuss with her. He cleared his throat. "Feel what?"
"I think I felt a raindrop."
Sure enough, a drop of water clipped Elliot's ear and another his outstretched hand.
Seconds later, the sky opened up. Lightning flashed in the distance, and Elliot started to walk back towards the door. He stopped when he realized that Olivia wasn't behind him. He turned and saw her still leaning casually against the ledge, face turned up and eyes closed, letting the rainwater wash away the stickiness of the ice cream.
He moved back to where she was and said, "Okay, Liv, I think the ice cream is all washed off." He took her hand and tugged lightly.
She looked at him and grinned, letting him lead her towards the doorway. He tried turning the handle when they got there, only to find it locked.
He looked at her and she stared wide-eyed at him. Olivia reached out and tried the door herself, but to no avail. She raised her hand to start pounding on the door, but Elliot stayed her wrist. She looked at him quizzically.
A mischievous grin spread across his features. "Give it a minute," he said before closing his eyes and turning his face skyward, spreading his arms wide.
Olivia stood transfixed. With the contours of his muscles showing through his soaked shirt and the honest joy of the grin on his face, Liv felt herself caught up in a storm of a different kind.
Elliot broke from his reverie to find Olivia staring at him. He tilted his head questioningly. She closed the gap between them. She reached up with both hands and cupped the sides of his face, pulling him down to meet her lips. His hands found their way to the curve of her hips, and he pulled her closer.
She apparently didn't think it was close enough, because she dropped her hands down and dipped her fingers under his waistband, her fingernails lightly scraping the skin of his lower stomach. She tugged him towards her so that any space that may have existed between them was eliminated.
They broke contact with their lips, but remained close everywhere else, heedless of the water pouring down on them, soaking them through and through.
Elliot made a show of licking his lips, then smirked.
"Mmm…chocolate."
The end
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