A/N: Just some Valentine's Day fluff! Happy (late) day of love!
"New rule," Rollins declared once she emerged back into the living room of her apartment after tucking Jesse into bed. "Next holiday…no candy after 4 P.M."
On the couch, her boyfriend had been flipping mindlessly through a magazine she had brought in from the mailbox and tossed without a second thought onto her coffee table.
Her boyfriend.
It had been almost a year and she still found that she couldn't get used to calling him that. She sort of hated the term anyway. It seemed so frivolous…juvenile even. The little blonde boy whose name she couldn't remember from when she was in kindergarten had been her "boyfriend." She wasn't one hundred percent sure what else he would actually be, but she knew that "boyfriend" didn't exactly seem fit for someone who had become such an integral part of her life as Sonny Carisi had.
He chuckled and offered her an amused smile when she grabbed the bottle of red wine he had brought over from off of the kitchen counter and sat down next to him on the couch. With one hand, she grabbed a now room temperature slice of pizza, and with the other she unpaused the show they'd been waiting to finish while she attempted to get her oldest daughter settled into bed.
"That bad, huh?" He asked.
"Please. I thought she'd never fall sleep." She paused to take a bite of her pizza. "I still can't believe the sitter cancelled last minute. Today of all days. I know your idea of our first Valentine's Day together probably wasn't cold pizza and cheap wine."
"Trust me…I could think of plenty worse ways to be spendin' the night."
It was true. Just the fact that they were spending their first Valentine's Day together made it the most memorable for him in years. He would never admit it aloud — especially to her face — but he had been waiting for her for so long that there were times it still didn't quite feel real when she'd do something even as simple as lean down to sneak a kiss when she'd pass his desk at the precinct.
Spending the most romantic day of the year on her couch with a bottle of wine and her curled up almost subconsciously against his side was definitely one of those surreal moments.
When Rollins had finished her slice of pizza, she almost immediately reached over to grab the box of candy hearts that Jesse had given to the two of them when she'd come home from school that afternoon. Carisi watched and she shook some out into the palm of her hand, but stopped her before she could pop them all into her mouth at once.
"You're not even gonna look at 'em first?" He asked.
She shrugged.
"What's the difference?" She asked back in response. "They all say the same crap anyway."
"Always the romantic," he teased.
As hard as she tried not to, Rollins had to laugh, and she rolled her eyes playfully before indulging him by looking down at the colorful candies in her hand.
"So which one would you deem romantic? 'Too hot' or 'xoxo'? I know...it's tough."
"Alright, so maybe they're not too romantic," he chuckled. "But reading 'em is half the fun. You know they taste like chalk anyway."
"Well I gave all the good candy to Jesse to hand out to her classmates so they're kind of all we have," she told him. "I'd suggest acquiring a taste for them if you're lookin' for something sweet later."
"I think I'll be okay just skipping dessert tonight."
They shared a small smile, and Rollins leaned up to kiss him. She intended for it to be a simple peck that she would quickly interrupt to add in another snarky comment about the babysitter cancelling, and about how they could have been at least five spoonfuls deep into a bowl of gelato by then if they had actually gotten to go out to the Italian restaurant they had made reservations for in advanced. But when his hands found her waist and pulled her closer to him, and her fingers subconsciously moved to run through his hair, all other thoughts seemed to drift away.
He had a funny way of doing that to her. And, despite not knowing it for a fact, she had a way of doing the same to him.
The feel of the warmth of her body pressed against his and the now familiar taste of her lips was essentially all he needed for the night to be considered a success despite its unexpected turn. Hell…they could have been sitting in an empty room for all her cared. As long as he was able to kiss her like this, nothing else mattered.
"Mommy? Uncle Sonny?"
The small voice seemed practically deafening in the quiet room, and the two adults pulled away from one another with an urgency they hadn't possessed just seconds prior. The tiny blonde stood in the threshold between the hallway and the living room, clutching onto the stuffed dog Carisi had gotten her for her last birthday as she looked at them with big doe eyes.
"Jesse…" Rollins huffed. "I told you before, you've gotta go to sleep."
"I can't. I'm scared of the monster."
Rollins sighed deeply this time and pinched the bridge of her nose as she gathered her thoughts. She never would have imagined that letting her daughter watch a movie as seemingly harmless as Monsters, Inc. would have led to this, but ever since that night she had been convinced that there was something living in her closet. Next time they would just stick to princess movies.
"Hey...I'll tell you what," Carisi started before she could respond to her young daughter. He stood up from his seat next to her on the couch, reaching down to offer Jesse his hand. "How about I come talk to him and let him know I'll have to arrest him if he doesn't go somewhere else, alright?"
Jesse nodded enthusiastically and grasped his hand to lead him down the hallway and into her room. Rollins followed, grabbing the box of candy hearts off of the coffee table before doing so. She soon found herself standing in the doorway, watching as Carisi shined the flashlight from his phone into the closet and announced his presence much like he would do when they were about to question a suspect.
With a small smile, she mindlessly plucked another pink sugary heart out of the box while she waited. Glancing down at it, she took notice of the two small words printed on it in red:
Be Mine.
Her eyes shifted back to Carisi. He was now showing the "monster" his badge. As she watched him put on the little performance to ease her daughter's fears, she couldn't help but smile again, practically able to feel her heart swell in admiration.
Luckily for her…after all this time…he was.
He was hers.
