Center
Summary:
A bet is made. Terms are set. Emotions flare.
Elliot and Olivia make a bet with each other but when emotions start to permeate the picture, things start to get out of hand.
*~~~~*
The squad room is painfully quiet. He's not sure where everyone is but they've all but disappeared leaving him in the space alone with his partner – the partner who hasn't said a word to him in hours, the partner who is avoiding him like the plague. The room shrinks with each tick of the minute hand. It feels about the size of a shoebox right now. The air is thick with sour rivalry. And he's slowly losing the uphill battle. He knows he's being a sore loser. But he hates to lose, especially to his partner. She's doing her best to not flaunt it or rub it in his face but he's angry with her none-the-less. Even though he knows he's wrong for directing his anger toward her he continues to do it. As she plops another folder in her outbox his jaw tightens.
It was stupid of him to even pose the challenge but he honestly thought he would win – no contest. He thought this time he could actually buckle down and do it – he did, after all, have a head start. But now he is going to have to suffer the consequences for his ignorance. His partner has more self-discipline and better focus than he thought. The stack in her outbox is more than double the size of his.
Stewing miserably he repeatedly taps his pen on the desk. He hears her sigh for the millionth time today. The noise is enough for him to want to pick up his desk and throw it through the wall. The sound of her drawer opening scrapes the inside of his head. She shuffles things around inside it for a few minutes. He grits his teeth and exhales harshly. Finally she finds what she was seeking and slides the drawer closed. Silence once again shrouds them and they work quietly for thirty minutes without interruption.
The silence is broken by sounds of paper crinkling and soft moans. They float over their desks and snakes into his ears. He looks up at her. She stretches her neck from side to side then reaches up to massage the back of her neck. His eyes climb to her face. Watching as she moves her lips around he feels his breath catch in his throat. Her mouth moves covetously as she swipes her tongue along her bottom lip. As he continues to watch her mouth carefully his eyes light up and he licks his lips slowly. Standing slowly he walks over to her desk and stands at the edge.
She lifts her eyes to his. He's standing with an intense look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest in the threatening way he uses when he's in an interrogation room. The air around her changes and she narrows her eyes, suspicious that he is standing wordlessly at the end of her desk.
"What?" She asks tersely.
"You lied to me," he states simply with a slight edge of astonishment.
"Lied about what?" She asks completely confused.
They hadn't said more than a few words to each other in hours. Nothing of consequence was said since they arrived this morning. And even then it was a cordial good morning. After each had their coffee, they settled in and started on the mountain of paperwork.
The reverberation of his voice hits her in her center. "What is wrong with you?" She asks sliding her chair to the right to get farther away from him. From the corner of her eye she sees him lean his hands on her desk.
His face fast approaches hers. "I asked you hours ago…"
"What?" She turns her head to his as her mouth drops open. "Are you kidding me? Elliot, go sit down." She places her hand flat on his sculpted chest and pushes him away. Or tries to.
He barely moves. Leaning closer to her he breathes in her surrounding air. The sweet smell causes a hunger deep in him to rumble furiously. Just as Elliot opens his mouth to speak, Fin walks through the door. He stops in his tracks and gives them a look of confusion. When he sees Elliot twitch angrily at him, he rolls his eyes at their ridiculous behavior. They'd been squabbling for days. Shaking his head, Fin continues to his desk and sits.
"Are you two still goin' at it?" He asks as he shoves his nose in a file.
"Stay out of this, Fin," Elliot growls and turns his head to their colleague.
"Elliot," Olivia barks at him. "Stop this," she says through clenched teeth. "You can't keep doing this." Her eyes flare at him and beg him to drop it. She begs him to not start this, especially here, especially now that there is someone to witness it.
Elliot sighs and backs up slightly. "We'll talk about this later," he spits. As he walks back to his desk he clenches his fists. He drops heavily into his chair and makes a large production of opening a new file.
"You're being a baby," Olivia says without looking up.
Elliot's head pops out of his file. He shoots her a glare. On the opposite side of the room Fin chuckles into his file. Elliot turns to him to fire off an angry retort.
"You know what you have to do to make this right," Olivia says quickly, not giving Elliot the chance to rip their coworker apart.
Elliot turns his stubborn glare to his partner. "No, I don't. Why don't you tell me, Olivia," he says sarcastically.
She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Stop being such a child, Elliot."
He huffs and sits back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. Olivia shrugs her shoulders and continues to work. Another light chuckle escapes from between Fin's lips. Elliot turns his chair and opens his mouth in a threatening manner.
"Elliot," Olivia warns lowly without looking up. "It's not Fin's fault that you're being a sore loser and too stubborn to make it right. Leave him alone."
Turning his shocked face to his partner he tries to think of something to say to her. Not being able to come up with anything he turns in his seat to shoot a scathing look at Fin who sits wearing an arrogant smile.
"Don't know why you're so smug, having a girl fight your battles," Elliot grumbles lowly.
"What was that?" Olivia asks leaning over her desk and boring a hole into Elliot's head.
"Nothing," Elliot breathes out.
"That's what I thought," she says smiling. "Can we all just get along? At least until the end of the day?" Looking down at her wrist she sees they only have two hours to go. She stares down each man.
A noise resembling a growl falls from Elliot's mouth as he mumbles his consent.
"No problem here, Liv," Fin says laughing.
Elliot grumbles again then loudly grabs his file and stares at it. Olivia closes her eyes and prays that the hours fade away quickly. She doesn't know how much more of Elliot's grumpiness she can take. She knows he's irritable and she knows why. And they both know it's ridiculous but neither is willing to give. He started everything with this bet. If he wants to end it he knows what he has to do.
Periodically Olivia shifts in her chair or lifts her hand to push the hair from in front of her eyes. Every time Elliot lifts his eyes. From the cover of his file he stares at her. He's always loved the way she chewed on her lip when she thinks. He's always loved the way she twirled her pen in her fingers. And he's always loved the way she taps the desk when she's frustrated. She does all three. He feels the small smile tug at his lips.
He hates acting the way he is but he feels he needs to perpetuate the façade. All he'd have to do is admit defeat. After all this time he can't even remember the terms. But he's sure whatever he was supposed to win wouldn't be worth it. There's not a doubt in his mind what he wants. But Olivia wouldn't hear of it. The job is too important. She would never risk it. He sighs heavily and goes back to the file sitting in front of him.
After an hour, the tension hasn't eased at all. Olivia decides that after the next hour she's going to take care of this issue once and for all. For the next hour she watches him. Her head stays bent over the file but her eyes track his every move.
She can tell he's frustrated. His shoulders are tensed and hunched over his desk. Every few seconds he clenches his jaw and breathes out heavily through his nose. She knows what he wants but she just can't seem to bring herself to give it to him. His request had come as a shock. If he won, he had simply wanted to hold her hand. In public – for everyone to see. He wanted to try "them" without barriers, without secrets. She had been mortified at the thought. But she accepted because she knew no matter how determined, he would never win. Then things could go back to normal and without complications.
But after seeing the triumphant hope in his eyes when she accepted, she wasn't so sure she wanted to win. There were so many things wrong with his request but one blaringly obvious one that made perfect sense and made her melt like chocolate in the sun. A warm gooey mess with no hope of being the same as it was before, no matter hard you tried.
He wanted more. He wanted her.
She sighs as she thinks about it. They had made the stupid bet one afternoon in the midst of an argument. It was ludicrous and petty. She was tired of him going through her desk looking for things and taking them without permission. She was tired of him not having boundaries anymore. It seemed like ever since the divorce what was hers was now his. It always had been but he had always had the decorum to at least go through the motions of asking. She didn't like that now it was assumed and that there was never a discussion about it. He just started doing it out of the blue. In their moment of absurdity they split his Snickers bar in half instead of shaking hands on it. It seemed ridiculous but she wanted half and he had eaten her last Hershey bar an hour and a half before.
Shaken from her daydream, she turns her eyes to Elliot as he shifts in his chair with a loud sigh. Fin also looks up to see if there was a problem. His gaze connects with hers and Olivia shrugs her shoulders. Fin rolls his eyes and returns to his file. Watching Fin's face for any signs of suspicion over their situation, Olivia sighs relieved that he didn't seem to recognize anything and that he didn't say anything to Elliot. She was also grateful that Munch was in court. He would have without a doubt made things ten times worse with his two cents and continuous jabs at Elliot's foul mood. Olivia sighs again then returns her attention to her file.
With thirty minutes to go until the end of the day, Olivia raises her eyes when she feels like she's being watched. They immediately fall upon steely blue as Elliot almost glares at her. She rolls her eyes then glares back in warning. His look confirms that they definitely need to talk and the sooner the better.
After sighing at him for the millionth time today she goes back to work. She's surprised she has any oxygen left in her body from the amount of sighing she is doing today. Working uninterrupted, she starts to breeze through the rest of her paperwork. Each time a folder is placed in her outbox with a sharp slap, Elliot grumbles and shifts in his chair. And each time she smiles. Her pace is swift; she's finished three files in the past thirty minutes to his one.
"Well people," Fin says placing his hands on the edge of his desk. "I am going home." He looks to Olivia and smirks.
Sitting perfectly still, Olivia watches as Fin stands from his desk and prepares to leave for the night. Once he's done, he walks toward the exit saying goodnight to them on his way out the door. He doesn't wait for a response. Throughout the last few days he has seen the stares and the way each of them was restless. Now, he just wants out of their tension strung web.
When she hears the soft ding of the elevator, Olivia stands quickly and blocks Elliot from getting up from his chair. "Alright, enough," she whispers into his ear. "You're being unreasonable. We're being unreasonable."
Standing she leans her hip against the back of his chair to keep him from pushing out. A low noise forms in Elliot's throat as he tries to speak. The heat of her body sends tremors down his spine.
Placing her hands on the top of his chair she leans down again. "Meet me in the locker room in ten minutes."
When the air shifts he misses her sweet scent and the heavy way his heart was beating. For five minutes he fidgets in his seat. He looks to the clock for the eighth time since she left. Just as he's about to get up and follow her, Fin walks back to his desk.
"Forget something?" Elliot grunts at him, settling back into his chair.
"Don't concern yo pretty lil head 'bout it, Stabler," Fin says then grins at the way Elliot shifts in his seat. He looks over to Olivia's vacant desk. "Where's Liv?"
"Dunno," Elliot responds tersely. His glowering eyes pointed at his co-worker.
Fin's questions sit precariously on the tip of his tongue. After thinking about it for a moment, he shrugs his shoulders and swallows them, knowing he'll never get a straight answer to his questions. He never does. He's always wanted to pose a multitude of questions to or about Elliot and Olivia. They've existed ever since the day he stepped foot in the 1-6, maybe even a little before. Word travels through their tight knit community. But everyone else always seems to skirt around them, even Munch, so he figures he'd have even worse luck with the two of them.
"Have a good night," Fin calls over his shoulder as he leaves.
Elliot breathes deeply and looks at his watch again. He still has two and half minutes. But he decides he can't sit still anymore. After looking around for a few seconds he walks swiftly toward the stairs, hoping not to attract the attention of anyone left in the squad room. Taking the stairs two at a time he's up them in three seconds. When he gets to the locker room door he glances at his watch again. He still has a minute and a half. He paces in front of the door for a minute. Then he stands facing it for thirty seconds before pushing it open and walking through.
When she hears the door, she turns to him and smiles around a full mouth of chocolate. A thin string of caramel hangs from the corner of her mouth. He slowly approaches her and lightly pushes her into the lockers. His arm raises and he runs his thumb along her full lips to detach the long strand of sugary confection.
"Why'd you lie earlier, Liv?" He asks impossibly close to her lips.
"What about this?" She asks once she's finished chewing. Holding up her hand she smiles flirtatiously.
He smells the chocolate and it warms his entire body. Something about Olivia and chocolate has always been appealing.
"Yes, about this," he responds wrapping his fingers around her wrist.
Trying not to smile too brightly she turns her head away from his for a second. "I guess…I guess I like watching you squirm," she answers and turns her eyes to his.
His eyes widen when he sees that her warm brown is laced heavily in seduction. His fingers lose their grip and her wrist slowly falls from his grasp.
"You said you didn't have it," he says staring at her mouth.
"So I lied," she says arching her eyebrow.
"We're supposed to share that, you know."
He thinks back to the day their competition started. They had broken a Snickers bar in half and toasted their deal with it. After bumping the two halves against each other they bit into their own half. There was something incredibly sexy about the moment and he's not sure if it was the combined smells of Olivia and chocolate, the way her eyes flirted with his or the way she looked as she chewed the coveted candy bar. He thinks it was combination of all three but ever since that day he can't help but watch when she eats.
The second Snickers bar he had purchased that day from the vending machine was to be saved for the completion of the bet. He had asked her earlier in the day if she still had it. She said she didn't. Then in the late afternoon the smell wafted over to him and his whole body became alert at the smell. Looking to his partner, he saw her wrapping her mouth around the bar of chocolate and taking a bite then deliciously chewing it. She moaned as the rich chocolate hit her tongue and he licked his lips at the sight and sound of it. The force it created within him threatened to break him in two. It worked him up and over. He went from being excited to frustrated to hungry for her to angry. All over a damn candy bar.
"You lost the bet, so it's mine." She grins and tilts her head at him bringing the sugary treat back to her mouth.
He has to suppress the groan that starts low in his stomach. "That bet wasn't a fair one." He narrows his eyes at her and pouts.
Again she finishes chewing before speaking. "You made it," she says laughing.
"You cheated," he retorts quickly.
"How did I cheat?" Her wide eyes turn to him and her mouth falls open in shock.
"I…I don't know but you cheated," he says smiling. Inching his face closer he stops an inch from hers.
"Think they bought it?" Olivia asks arching her eyebrow.
"Munch did. I don't know about Fin though. You really think us betting over something so stupid as paperwork and then arguing about it for days threw him off the scent?"
"It's worked before." She shrugs her shoulders.
"Yeah but before I could control myself better. I can't help but react when you're around now, Liv. I know…more of you now." He reaches out and touches her shoulder. The look on her face and the practically inaudible sigh almost cause him to lose all control. He runs his hand up and down her arm. Finally he comes to rest it on her shoulder again. "I don't think Fin buys that we're competing on who finishes their paperwork first. You always finish your paperwork before me."
"But this time there's incentive." She smiles mischievously at him. "Incentives always motivate you, Elliot." Playfully she cocks her eyebrow at him.
"You honestly think he buys that you buying me lunch for a week and getting me coffee would motivate me enough to finish all that paperwork in a timely manner?"
"Who cares Elliot?" She asks lowly and stares at his mouth then bites her lower lip. She takes two deep breaths and collects herself. "Well, I'm…I'm gonna," she says in a cheery voice and starts to push herself off the lockers.
"Hey." Elliot stops her by trapping her between his arms. He leans into the lockers, pushing her back again.
Slowly she lifts her eyes to his. There's a hint of mischief in them and he raises his brow at it. Leaning closer to him she doesn't remove her eyes from his mouth as she torturously licks her lips. When she's within a few inches from his face she smoothly brings her arm up. Opening her mouth she lifts her eyes to his. Then when she knows his attention is focused on her mouth she lifts her hand and takes a large bite of her candy bar.
"Liv," Elliot groans. "That was not fair."
She smiles as she chews victoriously. He leans back slightly and groans again. Just as she swallows he quickly situates his lips on hers, catching her off guard. He invades her mouth. He tastes her. He's craved her since the first time their lips touched. She tastes like she always does but covered in the lingering chewy nougat center. Pulling away they both lick the chocolate residue from their lips. His lips curve into a smile.
"You taste good covered in chocolate," he says leering seductively at her. Smiling at her, he connects their lips and kisses her deeply and the world fades away.
*~~~~~*