A/N: It's been many years since I have attempted fanfiction, so I went with something light and fluffy to start. Just a smutty holiday one-shot, with very minimal angst. Reviews are welcome. E/O of course, as I currently can't imagine writing any other pairing for this show.

Spoilers: Fault, Fat, Underbelly

Rating: K+ for the first 3 chapters, but my fics will always (ALWAYS) end up at M

Disclaimer: Law & Order: SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. No copyright infringement intended, and no money is being made.

Olivia never had any issue keeping pace with Elliot, so they rushed together down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk as if they were on a case, hot in pursuit. "Elliot, I really don't think . . ." she started again, "I mean, you don't have to."

"I want to," he said simply.

So, for a few minutes, Liv stopped trying to argue and tried for once to enjoy the evening. It was Elliot, after all, so what did she really have to complain about? She pushed her gloved hands deep into her pockets and looked up at the still-falling snow. Every now and then she snuck a sideways glance at her partner. It was true that he'd been different since the separation; he'd thrown himself even further into his work (a feat everyone thought impossible) and he worried over his time with his kids. Still, Olivia hadn't seen him happy much - and tonight he was. As happy as a man like Elliot ever got, truth be told.

They crossed a street and rounded a last corner as Elliot said, "Right up here." Sure enough, ahead of them in a small, empty lot space, was an older man standing under a banner with X-MAS TREES scrawled on it.

"I can only imagine what's left," Olivia smirked. Elliot shot her a look.

"Merry Christmas folks!" the salesman said brightly as they stepped into the lot, and the detectives both nodded politely.

Of course, Olivia had been mostly right - it was Christmas Eve, and the leftovers were slim. A lot of the trees were very obviously too tall, too short, or had noticeable holes. She chuckled as Elliot disappeared among tree rows, wondering what Charlie Brown specimen he would come up with.

The smell of evergreens was still strong, and Olivia breathed deep, allowing herself to relax a little. She chided herself for being wound so tight. It wasn't as if she and Elliot never spent time together. Countless, endless hours in fact - of meals, all-night stakeouts, drinks at cop bars, and yes, even time spent at her apartment over beer and pizza, when the job got too hard and spouses like Kathy cold never understand.

That voice in her head, the one becoming increasingly harder to ignore, spoke again. It reminded her ruthlessly that this was Christmas, and therefore different. A family and lover holiday . . . But she ignored it and followed El into the trees. Liv absently trailed her gloved hand along tree branches as she went, momentarily lost in her own world at last.

"I think I found it."

Elliot's voice came from behind her, and it did succeed in startling her a bit. She turned to find him supporting the tree he'd rummaged, with both hands. Liv did as best she could to swallow a chuckle. It was a little shorter than Elliot, and almost . . . aggressively . . . bushy. El raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

Olivia smiled warmly, touched by how hard he was trying, and everything that had been wound in her let go, making her realized how much she wanted to enjoy herself. "I think it's great, El." He returned the smile, and she knew he'd been in need of praise. She followed him to the front of the lot and the sales guy, Elliot navigating carefully by peering through branches.

"A real beaut!" the seller crowed. Elliot fished his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans under his jacket. "For you, fifty bucks."

Elliot took a deep breath, and Olivia knew without even seeing his face that the blue of his eyes had just changed. Not wanting anything to mar the excitement that had finally started rising in her, Olivia stepped forward, smiled her best fuck-me smile and blinked her long lashes slowly. "How about for me?"

The older man met Olivia's eyes and it worked before she even had to blink a third time. "Aw, alrite. I know it's Christmas Eve, and I'm a softy. Just don't wait so damn long next year, doll." He looked back to Elliot. "How about 30?"

"Sold."

Back out on the sidewalk, Liv looked around the tree curiously. "Now what?"

"Now we drag it home." Liv's heart pounded at the way the word home sounded from him.

"Do you need a hand?"

"Nah, I got it," he assured her, using both hands again to manage it, making Liv smirk at his masculine posturing. "There's a park nearby, on the way back. Let's take the scenic route."

The light snow had finally tapered off when they got to the park. It was next to deserted, but decorated modestly for the season. Elliot had to give in and take a break, so he leaned the tree up against the nearest bench, brushing pine needles from his jacket.

"You're showing your age, Stabler," Liv told him, letting a laugh escape her.

"Was that a giggle, Detective Benson?" his tone was one of genuine surprise. "Huh. I didn't think that ever happened."

She shrugged. "Before SVU, I laughed a lot, El." They shared a look that only police partners could master - a metaphor of the darkness, the evil you have to allow to touch you in their line of work. She turned to admire the lights in the big park trees, and the smell of cold in her nostrils.

It was then that the snowball hit her.

Her gun hand twitched, unable to evade her cop reflexes, but she reminded herself this wasn't work, turning to look at Elliot in disbelief. It hadn't been a very big snowball, and he'd lobbed it from close by, so it had splattered softly on the shoulder of her jacket. Still, it was so immensely foreign within Olivia to react to fun for the sake of fun that she had to bite her tongue before a reprimand came out. Elliot, not surprisingly, was grinning like a damn fool.

"El . . . "

"Liv?" he tipped his head, innocently.

"A snowball? Really?"

"Now who's showing their age?" he smirked. Liv let out a breath that punctuated the cold air with a white cloud. "How does a 20-second head start sound?"

"You're serious."

"Very." He crouched down on his very muscular haunches and began packing his next snowball. Olivia sighed, opening her mouth as if to protest, but El shook his head. "Tick-tock, Liv. Better run."

She surveyed the blue of his eyes one more time. And then she did - she ran. She sprinted as far as her runner's legs would take her in a quick bound and then crouched, grabbing as much loose snow as she could. Turning as she packed it together, Elliot wasn't where she'd left him. She let cop mode take over then, pulling into herself, looking for signs. Her eyes narrowed, scanning.

The bench, where they'd leaned the tree. He threw then, fast and accurate from years of playing catch with Dickie, and Olivia saw his arm appear from behind the bench just a moment too late. It got her square in the chest, and the shriek of enjoyment mixed with competitiveness shocked them both. Elliot caught his breath at the sound of it. Liv was normally so serious - they both were - and he shivered at the sight and sound of her so joyful.

The moment gave her just enough time to start running again, and Elliot launched from behind the bench to follow. Years of chasing after the bad guys had made both of them all too familiar with the game of dash-and-cover - except they had always been running towards each other, without a reason for trying to get away.

Olivia rounded a turn in the walking path and dashed into a small stand of trees and brush, still holding the snowball she hadn't thrown. She heard him enter the stand, earlier than she had, so she immediately cut a diagonal path and kept going in order to exit as far on the opposite side as she could. It worked - she broke from the brush about six feet ahead of Elliot, who had his back turned, looking for her in the opposite direction. She hit him in the back, between his shoulder blades, and she nearly clapped in triumph, before she hit the ground running again, knowing he'd be coming. Needing more ammunition, this time Olivia chose an open expanse on a slight rise, no cover in sight.

Her career-sharpened hearing was aware of the muffled crunching of Elliot's bootsteps catching up to her, so she dove for more snow as soon as her feet reached the highest point of the knoll's rise. Miscalculating her balance was her fatal mistake, when she tried to scoop snow with her long arms and tried to maintain her the majority of her speed. She had already started to topple when she felt Elliot's hard frame catch up and collide with her, taking them both rolling down the other side of the knoll.

They came to a stop, both out of breath and laughing, with Elliot on top of her. Bringing her hand up, she smashed what snow she had managed to grab onto his knit cap and said, "That's a tie game, El," with pride.

"Nah, nah," he denied, "Time out! I want the Ref to call it!" They were both catching their breath, coming down a bit, and he said, more softly: "You okay?"

It was so easy, sometimes, for Olivia to forget that they did this - easily and unintentionally acted like a couple, and a longtime one at that. A long moment passed before the weight of Elliot's body, protecting her from the cold, ignited that slow burn again. It reached her eyes before she could tamp it, and she saw El lick his lips.

"I'm good," she assured him, and rolled to make him move. His warm breath tickled her ear and neck as they sat up together, and she worried he'd see her pulse, furious at the pulse-point in her neck, galloping. "What if someone steals the tree?" she asked.

"Who?" he chuckled, waving a hand outward at the empty park. He rose to his feet and gave her his hand to pull her up. "I'd buy ya another one," he said simply.

It moved her, and Olivia started wondering if she should be trusting her reactions anymore, as she was approaching giddiness. Maybe a silent night, another Christmas alone would have been less dangerous. This ground was so unfamiliar.

The tree was still there, so they took it home.