A/N: Please review! :D

CHAPTER TWO

The group was sitting around in Elliot and Fin's apartment, preparing to eat their once-every-six-months Sunday lunch: fried chicken, potato chips, and strawberry lemonade.

Elliot pulled out the bag with everyone's lunch in it, and handed Casey her meal first.

"Here you go, two chicken breasts and one leg," Elliot said. Casey took the meal and looked at it strangely.

"Are you sure there's no peanut oil in this? I don't want my throat swelling up like last time," Novak pointed out.

"I asked the manager himself; he said that the oil is peanut-free," Elliot replied.

"Since it is not bee season this month, you can borrow my Epi-Pen," Fin said after swallowing his bite of Lay's Barbecue Potato Chips.

"Do we have any forks?" Munch asked, grabbing a paper towel.

"This is fried chicken, why would you need a fork?"

"Ask him for a napkin, Munch. I dare you. I'll pay you five bucks," Elliot said. He was interrupted by a knock on the door. "I'll get it."

He opened the door and saw Olivia standing outside.

"Hi Elliot," she began.

"Hi Olivia."

"Am I interrupting anything? Do you want me to go?"

"No, you're okay. We were just eating lunch. I think we have some extra fried chicken."

Olivia suddenly overheard Fin shouting at Casey.

"I'm puffing up!" the redhead complained. "I thought there wasn't any peanut oil in the chicken!"

"You're not puffy," Fin replied.

"Look at my fingers. Do they look normal to you? Or do they look more like sausages?"

"Sounds like your friends came back over," Olivia said.

"Yea, I don't think they'll be leaving anytime soon. They always come over for several hours," Elliot replied. He closed the door.

"Well, my furniture is getting delivered here tomorrow, and I was wondering if I could get some help carrying it up the stairs. Would that be ok?"

"Yeah, that should be ok. I get home from work around five."

"Hey Fin!" Olivia shouted into the apartment.

"Hi," he replied, then went right back to his food.

"Hey Munch!" she shouted.

But he just gave her an uncomfortable look.

"You still can't talk to me?"

"Don't take it personally; he can't talk to women he's not related to," Fin piped up.

"He just can't talk to attractive women, or in this case, a computer hacker and FBI agent!" Casey shot back, but her statement earned him a punch on the arm. "Ouch!"

Elliot turned his attention away from his friends and back to Olivia. "So, there's furniture being delivered…?"

"Yea, if you could just sign the papers, the movers will put it in my apartment. Here's my spare key." She handed it to him.

"Olivia, wait," he said before she walked away.

"Yes?"

"If you don't have any other plans, do you want to join us for a fried-chicken and potato chip lunch?"

"Sure, that sounds great."

Later that evening, Elliot was downstairs in the main lobby, signing the delivery papers. But the delivery man took off, leaving Elliot and Fin to carry the furniture upstairs. But they had called Munch and Casey to help them, and the other friends would be at the apartment building in ten minutes.

"I hardly think we'll be able to carry all of this up there by ourselves," Fin said.

"Remember that Casey and Munch are going to be here in less than fifteen minutes," Elliot reminded his friend. "There will be four of us helping her."

"Just give me a fulcrum and a lever and I'll move the world!" Fin pointed out. "How much do you know about levers?"

"Not much. I only took a couple of Engineering classes in high school, and I barely paid attention."

"You need to know that there are three types of levers: First class, second class, and third class. Every lever has a fulcrum."

"And why would I care about a lever? How does that apply to moving Olivia's furniture upstairs?"

"I just thought it would be something interesting for you to know. You never know when that might come in handy."

Elliot started to push the heavy package towards the bottom of the stairs. But since the box's weight was a lot more than Elliot's, the man began to stumble. He pressed his knees into the floor to prevent himself from falling over. Fin ran over to his friend and held the package up for him. The two men laid the box down on the stairs and decided it would be easier to push it up the stairs than having to carry a heavy package.

Elliot and Fin, after ten minutes of pushing, managed to get the package up to the fourth floor. As Fin got onto the top step, he grabbed the box and tried to pull it up onto the solid ground. But, the package slipped from his hands and down the stairs until it reached the third floor.

After five minutes, the two men managed to get the package back onto the correct floor. They entered Olivia's apartment and Fin gasped in horror at the sight of how messy it was.

Elliot noticed his co-worker's expression. "So what if Olivia's place is a little messy? No one has to compulsively organize and clean their residences. Also, no one organizes their cereal boxes by the amount of calories they have!"

However, that didn't stop Fin from throwing some of Olivia's clothes that were in piles on the floor into her bedroom and laying them across her throw blanket.

"Fin! What are you doing? This is not your home!" Elliot scolded him.

"I'm straightening up. I can't imagine living in a place like this," Fin replied. "How can anyone live like this? It's crazy!"

He walked out of the room just in time because less than 30 seconds later, Olivia walked into her apartment.

"Hey guys," she said, completely unaware that Fin had moved some of her clothes.

"Hey Olivia," Elliot replied. "Your dining room table arrived. We had a little trouble bringing it up the stairs - it fell down a couple of floors - but we managed to get it up here in one piece."

"Thanks again, I really appreciate it."

The two guys headed back to their apartment, while Olivia settled down on her couch with a glass of white wine and some grilled halibut, green beans, and brown rice.

At around two in the morning, Elliot was awakened to the sound of a door outside the apartment being opened. He was afraid that someone was trying to break into Olivia's place, so he grabbed his flashlight and gun.

"Fin?" he asked quietly. But there was no response. Only the sound of someone moving around in Olivia's apartment was heard. "Fin?"

Elliot quickly ran out of his apartment and into the one across the hall - only to discover that Fin was the person inside. Olivia's apartment had been cleaned up somewhat, and Fin was in the middle of moving a couple of boxes into a corner to look more organized.

"Fin!" Elliot shouted in a loud whisper. "What are you doing? You don't live here! You can't just clean up someone else's apartment!"

"I couldn't stand the mess," Fin whispered back. "You might want to be quiet. I can hear her snoring, but you never know if and when she will wake up during this time. She will kill us both if she finds out that we've been here."

At eight in the morning, an hour before the two men had to go to work, Elliot was in the kitchen, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. His SVU credentials were lying on the kitchen island by his car keys. He was eating a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal when Fin came out, wearing a striped-collared shirt and black jeans.

"Morning," he said to Elliot.

"Morning."

"I slept surprisingly well last night. I think I even got a full six hours."

"Well, I think you had a slight case of insomnia," Elliot replied, setting his cereal bowl down on the island and walking over to the fridge. "I guess the best way to cure that slight case was to break into our new neighbor's apartment and clean it up."

"Sarcasm?"

"You think?"

"Maybe tonight we should shampoo and wash her carpet."

"That just crossed the line, Fin!" Elliot snapped, slamming the fridge shut with one hand while the other had a large bottle of Kirkland Signature Cranberry Raspberry juice in it. "Do I have to have a sign around here with 'Sarcasm' written right across the center of it?"

"Do you even have one of those?"

"No I don't, why would I?"

Before Fin could grab his breakfast, he and Elliot both heard some gorgeous singing, then an angry yell from next door.

"'I'm not looking for somebody, with some superhuman gifts. Some superhero, some fairytale bliss. Just something I can turn to, somebody I can kiss…OH MY GOODNESS, WHO DID THIS?!" shouted an angry Olivia.

"Sounds like she's up," Odafin said.

"You…!" Olivia snapped. She couldn't even finish the sentence and entered their apartment, looking upset.

"This can't be good," Elliot muttered to himself, seeing her angry facial expression.

"Why'd you break into my apartment last night when I was sleeping? I almost called my boss and had both of you arrested. Do you even realize how creepy that is?" she demanded.

"I wasn't the one who broke in, that was all Fin. I heard him moving around and was trying to get him back over here before he got me and himself into trouble," Elliot replied.

Olivia just narrowed her eyes at him.

"Give me back my key," she snapped.

Elliot handed it over, and she turned on her heel and started to walk away, but he stopped her.

"Benson, I know you're upset at the situation, but I was only trying to help you. Maybe when you're not as angry, do you think we could talk about this?"

"Stay away from me," Olivia snapped, her teeth clenched together. She immediately stormed into her apartment and slammed the door shut.

Elliot was furious. He was thinking that he might have just ruined the only chance of getting to know her better and possibly asking her out. She was definitely an attractive woman, and she deserved to be with a guy who loved and cared about her, not someone like her cheating ex.

"You get yourself over to her apartment right now and apologize to her right now," Elliot said angrily to his roommate.

Fin obeyed, but ended up getting a slammed door to the face instead after he tried to explain his actions.

A MINUTE AGO

"I'm sorry for what I have done," Fin said to Olivia. "I take full responsibility for my actions. Elliot had nothing to do with cleaning your apartment. I am sorry once again, and I promise I will not do it again. I hope that my dumb actions will not affect your opinion of my roommate. Not only is he a wonderful detective, but he is also a great lover, which is what I have been told."

Across the hall, Elliot threw his head back in frustration and then put his head in his hands because he was embarrassed at his roommate's conversation with Olivia.

Elliot was just about to go on his lunch break, when he heard from the desk receptionist on the first floor that a brunette woman was here to speak with him. He immediately headed to the first floor and saw Olivia sitting on a bench, looking upset, but not angry like she had been earlier that morning.

"Olivia…" he began.

"Elliot," she finished. "I'm sorry that I got angry. I don't want to mess up a possible friendship between us. I know my apartment's messy, but I do like living that way. Can you tell Fin not to come in and do that again?"

"Yes, I can tell him," Elliot replied. "I'm about to go out for lunch, would you like to join me?"

"Sure. Are the others coming?"

"No, they've got to work on a case."

Up next: Elliot sees Olivia with a guy and gets a little jealous. The guys all gather at the apartment to play video games. Elliot and Olivia enjoy dinner together.