Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to ABC Disney, Shonda Rhimes and the TV show Scandal. All credit to them.

A/N: HUGE THANKSS for all your input on what you guys thought was the best next step for them. I went with the majority. Enjoy..


"Liv?" He looks up at her surprised.

"I guess you didn't hear me before when I said I wouldn't be able to stop.." She whispered in his ear before sitting up, pulling her shirt off and throwing it across the room.

"Mmm..Livvie.." Fitz says as he licks his lips and sits up. "..Wait.."

"What?" She leans back and looks at him.

"Wait..I can't do this." He says moving from under her, standing up and going to get her shirt off the floor.

"Ughh." She moans out loudly and falls back down on the bed. "What is your problem Fitz?"

"Please don't be mad. I know I started this but it was for the wrong reasons." He moves back on the bed sitting against the headboard and pulling her up. "Put this back on so we can talk."

"I don't want to talk." She says pouting as she pulled her shirt back on.

"So you don't care about the real reason I was trying to have you in my bed a couple days after I said we should slow down?" He said looking at her questionably.

"Of course I care." She says with an attitude upset that he was making her seem like she was the only one going full speed less than 2 minutes ago.

"You aren't acting like it."

"Whatever Fitz. Say what you have to say." She says growing impatient.

"How do you know Jake? You two seemed pretty cozy." As soon as he said it he wanted to take it back.

"What?! So that's why you wanted to have sex? To prove I wasn't his or that I was yours? What is wrong with you?" She says standing and looking at him.

"With me? What's wrong with you? It's not like you've been acting like you are mine. You don't text or call me then the first time we are in the same room together you are all over him!?" He yelled from the bed.

"Wow. First, I need you to calm your attitude. Second, I'm not sure of the type of girls that you are used to dealing with but simply hugging an old acquaintance does not equate to me wanting to be with them. Third, last time I checked a relationship was a two way street. If you want to talk to me is it too much for you to text or call me?"

"I didn't mean to have a attitude but-" He started.

"No buts Fitz. What are we doing here? Are we exclusive? Is it you and me because if it's us then I expect you to text me, call me, shit even FaceTime me whether I do it first or not. Why is that so hard for you?" She says as she looks at him from across the room.

"It's embarrassing.." He says not looking at her.

"What's embarrassing?" She walks back over to the bed and sits next to him leaning her head on the back of the headboard.

"The fact that I don't even know the rules of texting and calling in a relationship. Or the fact that I don't even know how to express to the person I feel like I'm falling for how much she affects every part of my being."

"I'm right here Fitz and you don't have to hide or being embarrassed with me. If you can't be yourself with anyone else, ok fine but I need you to be real with me. If you miss me, know that I'm probably missing you too." She scoots closer to him and snuggles into his side leaning her head on his shoulder. "You aren't winning any points by keeping that to yourself or losing any by letting me know. That's what people who play games do and I don't want that to be us."

"I feel that if I text you every time I think of you that you would run away...I want to share everything with you and I'm not sure if that's what you want. I want us to be exclusive because I can't stand the thought of someone stealing my time with you." He says turning and looking at her.

"I want that too." She says smiling. She couldn't believe how incredibly sweet he was. He was completely oblivious to the effect her had on her.

"Even after tonight?" He asked unsure of how she took his attitude.

"Yes Fitz. I don't scare away that easily plus I think I'm falling for you too." She says honestly.

"Yeah?" He says smiling.

"Yeah." She says running her thumb over his lips. "So don't worry about Jake or anyone else. No one can steal me away from you."

"Can you tell me how you two know each other?" He asks a little tentatively not wanting to start things up again.

"We met at the AAU Jr Olympics over the summer. I joined his swim team late but we traveled to meets together towards the end of summer. We were cool with each other and always joked around after practice and at Swim Meets. Nothing big, just hung out a bit while we swam."

"Oh." Fitz said dejectedly.

He didn't like that Jake got to spend time with her, that he met her first and possibly spent mlre time with her than he had. He didn't want anyone joking with her especially not his cousin.

"What did I just say Fitz?" She says kissing him lightly. "No one holds my attention like you."

He looks her in her eyes and is about to say something when he phone goes off.

"Shit, it's Abby. I forgot that there were people here and that there is a get together downstairs! You completely pull me into a zone.." She hops off the bed and walks into his bathroom and fixes her hair and lip gloss. "Your room is huge by the way."

He sat on the edge of the bed contemplating if now would be a good time to tell her about the very dumb plan he made up. He finally gets the courage to just tell her and put it out there.

"Hey Liv." He calls from the room.

She comes out of the bathroom with a finger over her lips and singaling that she was on the phone.

"What? No that was nothing." She says into the receiver as she slips on her shoes. "Are you sure? We just got here."

He walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist snuggling his face in the crook of her neck. He wasn't ready for her to leave.

"You aren't leaving are you?" He asks sadly as he kisses her neck when she hangs up.

She turns in his arms and wraps her hands around his neck. "I gotta go Abby isn't feeling well." His face drops. "But..I was thinking I could come over and swim in the morning, nap then we could go do something fun if the weather permits?"

"Just us all day?"

"Mmmhmmm." She says nodding.

He pulls her body into his and kisses her softly. "Ok. You should go down first then I'll head down and walk you both out."

Olivia makes it downstairs undetected and goes to find Abby.

"What do you think is wrong?" She asks Abby when she sees her in the bathroom downstairs.

"I don't know. I think I ate something wrong but I need to just get home and lay down."

Abby said after she rinsed her mouth with the listerine that was on the sink.

"Ok let's go then. I have to be up early to swim anyway. Do we need to get you a plastic bag? I don't want your throw up in my car." Olivia said as she walked with Abby to the door.

"Relax, I am not going to throw up in your precious Prius."

She looked around and didn't see Fitz. Where was he? She thought to herself.

"Come on Liv, what are you waiting on?" Abby asked by the door.

"I..uhh..nothing. Let's go." She says walking out the door behind her.

She feels a pang of sadness hit her as she drove off. She wanted to see him one last time but he must've gotten stopped on his way through the crowd. She feels her phone vibrate and she is tempted to turn around and go back. She knows it's him, she didn't need to see the screen to tell, she could feel it. Fighting the urge, she continues driving towards Abby's house.

"Thanks again Olivia."

"No problem. Get in bed and rest." Olivia says as she snuggles under the covers finally reading the text from Fitz.

Fitz: I had to play mediator to two people guessing you couldn't wait?

Liv: I didn't want to take a chance on Abby getting sick again and throwing up in my car..

Fitz: Understandable. Go to sleep beautiful I want you well rested for tomorrow and I need to kick some people out.

Liv: K. Good night babe.

Fitz: I love it when you call me that..Night.

She bit her lip and stored that bit of information in her mind for later use. She tried to go to sleep but she found herself reflecting on her conversation with Fitz earlier that evening. She wondered how a guy as sweet as him made it all these years without one serious relationship. He was handsome, disciplined, in amazing shape and unlike some of the guys on his basketball team he was incredibly smart. What was it is about me? She wondered to herself, that made him change everything that he usually did and begin to fall for her. She felt her core start to ache as she remembered the feeling of his fingers deep inside of her. She let a low moan and prayed Abby didn't hear her.

"You ok down there Liv?"

"Ahem..Yeah I'm fine." She says crossing her legs and forcing herself to count sheep until she falls asleep.


Fitz woke up early as usual. He was too excited to sleep very long. Olivia would be over in half a hour and would be there the whole day. Nothing else mattered to him. Not even the half dressed cheerleader that tried to tiptoe past him like he was some statue. He was going to have to sit down with Jake and give him some house rules. What if Olivia had walked in when she was walking out? He didn't want her around that. He looks at his phone when he it vibrates on the counter.

Liv: I'm outside.

He smiles and shakes his head. He asked her to text him when she was on her way and of course she took that to mean text when you get in the driveway.

"Livvie, this is not texting when you are on your way." He says opening the door for her.

"I know but I forgot." She says pulling him by the waist of his sweats.

"I guess I can let you slide this one time." He says leaning in close to her.

She raises up on her toes and gives him a soft kiss.

"Come on so I can do a quick swim then cuddle with my favorite." She turns and pops the trunk so that he can grab her bag.

"Will I ever be able to convince you to put your bag in the back seat?" He says laughing.

"Nope. I don't think so."

They walk down to the pool and he leaves her there while he goes and lifts weights.

After an intense forty five minute workout he goes to see of she is done. She pops up out of the water right when he walks through the door. He can't help but smile at how silly she looks with her goggles and swim cap.

"What are you smiling about?" She asks as she lifts her goggles to the top of her head.

"You." He says simply as he sits at the edge of the pool.

"Come in with me." She says gesturing to the water.

"No I don't want to get wet."

"Fitz you are alredy wet from sweat..come get in with me please." She says pushing her bottom lip out pouting.

"You know I can't say no to that face Livvie."

He kicks off his shoes and socks, pulls off his Under Armour workout shirt and drops his basketball shorts to ground.

"Is the water freezing?" He asks as he readjusted himself in his sports tights.

"Get in and find out yourself." She says smiling.

He jumps in cannonball style making sure he splashed her.

"Fitz! You are going to pay for that!" She yelled when he came up from under the water.

"Oh yeah?" He pushes her to where her back is against the side of the pool. "How exactly am I going to pay?"

"You'll see." She says as she puts her arms around his neck pulling his forehead to hers.

He reaches up and removes her swim cap and googles in one swoop and her hair falls to her shoulders.

"How mad would you be if I dunked you in the water right now?" He asks playfully.

"I don't think theres there's a chart out there that could accurately describe the level of anger that a black woman reaches when she gets her hair wet unwantedly." She said seriously.

"So I guess I shouldn't do this then?" He says as he dips her down and the almost touches the ends of her hair.

"Fitz." She says warningly. "I am not even joking with you."

"Ok, ok." He says laughing. "Note to self, never wet Livvie's hair."

"Mmhmm much better." She nods and pulls his mouth to hers kissing him slowly. She licks his lips and tries to part them with her tongue. As soon as he does she teases his tongue with hers until she can't hold back anymore and starts kissing him with everything she has. She feels his body tense when the door to the pool area opens.

"Fitz, don't you have a room?" Jake says walking in disgusted at the site in front of him.

Fitz breaks the kiss and places his forehead back on hers and sighs. He completely forgot that Jake might come swimming this morning.

"Technically this is one of my rooms." Fitz says turning around and putting his arm behind Olivia.

"Olivia? You and Fitz? Wow. Would have never guessed." Jake says shaking his head.

"Why what's wrong with that?" She says while pushing herself out the pool and smiling when Fitz decides to give her a hand by placing his hand on her ass and giving her a push. "Thanks Fitz you helped me a lot."

"That's what I'm here for." He says smiling pushing himself out the after her.

"Nothing wrong with that. Just saying I didn't think you two matched that's all."

"Yeah well we are kind of keeping it quiet so if you don't mind not mentioning it that would be great." Olivia says as she dries off and throwing her warm up bottoms back on.

"Quiet? Why?"

"Just beca-" Fitz started to get out trying to stop Olivia from giving the real reason bit she cut him off.

"Because he plays for my dad and he would not be happy about that."

"Your dad? Rowan is the new basketball coach?"

She nods.

"Rowan is the new basketball coach." He says again giving Fitz a look finally connecting the dots.

Fitz sends him a pleading look behind Olivia's back and Jake nods.

"Well if you are around at lunch time we should all grab lunch."

"We will think about it." Fitz says grabbing his things and opening the door for Olivia to walk out.

"Enjoy your swim." She says over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?" He questions when she heads in the opposite direction from him.

"I was going to the lock room to shower."

"You can use my shower." He says grabbing her hand. "I can wait until you are done."

"You sure? I don't mind the one down here."

"Yes. I don't want you too far away. Today is our day remember?"

"Yes I remember. Let's go."

They get upstairs and she starts the water in the shower and walks back in the room.

"I didn't bring any nap clothes..Do you think I can borrow one of your shirts?" She says biting her lip.

"Uhh..yeah. Let me find one."

"Just place it on the sink. I'm getting in the shower."

He must've looked through thirty shirts trying to find one that wasn't too long or wasn't too short and was the right color. He needed it to hang just right. When he finally found it she was getting out the shower.

"Geeze are you making the shirt out there?" She called from behind the bathroom door.

"Sorry, here." He sticks the shirt in the door and waits for her to grab it.

As soon she saw the shirt she smiled. It was one of his team t-shirts and it was purple and black her favorite colors. He amazed her with his thoughtfulness.

"Thanks babe." She said walking up behind him and placing her arms around his waist as he grabbed his sweats out of his drawer.

"I'm glad you like it." He runs his fingers up and down her forearms.

"I love it. Hurry up and shower before I fall asleep without you." She gives him a squeeze then jumps on his bed and grabs her phone off the night stand next to it.

"You better not." He jogs to the bathroom and showers quickly.

She starts to rethink this whole nap idea when she sees him come out of the bathroom with no shirt and his sweat pants hanging low on his waist clearly showing that he wasn't wearing another under them. If that wasn't proof enough, the very distinct outline of his manhood hanging in his pants, was. She was going to have to work extra hard not jump his bones.

"You stayed awake." He says smiling and sliding under the covers with her.

"Yes, I did but barely." She places her phone back on the night stand and moves to lay on his chest. "When we wake up I want to know everything about you."

"Ok but there is not much to know. Right now though, I want you to go to sleep in my arms, where you belong." He squeezes her tight placing his hand on possessively on her ass and they both fall asleep.

He was awakened by the vibrating of her phone. He thought it was the alarm so he grabbed it to press snooze. When he looks at it there's a picture of her leaning up and kissing some guy on the cheek while he hugged her from behind. The contact was listed as Mark something with a heart emoji next to it. He was so close to throwing the phone against the wall and offering to buy her another one but he wasn't sure if she had backed it up lately. He tosses the phone down loudly hoping it would wake her up but it made her just move in closer to him. He removes her arm off his waist and gets up.

"Babe..comeback." She whined half sleep.

"I need some water." He lied leaning down and kissing her forehead softly.

"Ok, hurry back."

He goes downstairs and sits at the bar fuming.

"You look like you have been having sex. Where are your damn clothes?" Jake asks.

"Chill, no ones having sex."

"Oh right, you did that last night." Jake says laughing.

"Nope. Wrong again. Mind your damn business."

"Oooh someone's pissy. Shouldn't you be happy though? Got a beautiful girl in your house no parents and she seems to like you too. What's your problem?"

"My problem is that stupid fucking plan I made up and how I don't know how to break it down to her. What if she leaves me?" He says placing his head in his hands.

"You want me to tell her? I'll break it down nicely." He says smirking.

Fitz' head pops up immediately. "Hell no Jake. I don't want you anywhere near her."

"Insecure much? Trust me I don't want her. I want that red head friend of hers. Liv is like a little sister to me. Which is why you need to tell her soon. I don't want to see her get hurt. She really is one of the good ones." He says sincerely.

Fitz doesn't know if he should be grateful or pissed off that Jake was talking about her like that. He knew who she was and what she was worth. Jake didn't know the real Olivia, not like he did. All he knew was "friend" Olivia and that's where he needed to stay in the friend zone minding his business.

"It's not that simple." Fitz says getting up and grabbing a gatorade out the fridge.

"Stop over thinking it. She is going to be pissed either way. Just tell Olivia the truth. I'm sure she will appreciate it." Jake says as he finished his grapes.

"Tell me the truth about what?"

Fitz gulps hard and his throat goes dry when he sees Olivia standing behind the refrigerator door with her arms crossed.

"Ummm..." He chokes out.


A/N: I hope you enjoyed the latest. Let me know what you think! Til next time.