Title: Step At A Time

Author: ZombieJazz

Fandom: SVU

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law&Order: Special Victims Unit and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The character of Jack, Benji and Emmy have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.

Summary: With the fall upon them, Olivia Benson and Brian Cassidy help their young children start a new chapter in their lives. They must work to come to terms with the new challenges and struggles facing them — including Benji's health, middle school, Grade 1 and new developments, colleagues and dynamics at their jobs. All the while they must make the necessary adjustments to their family and work life to operate within their new reality.

The story is set in the Hello Goodbye, Welcome Home, Facing Forward, Best Laid Plans AU.

CHAPTER 5+6 WERE ADDED WITH LESS THAN 24 HOURS APART. IT WILL NOT HAVE BUMPED TO THE TOP AGAIN AND THERE MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN TWO ALERTS. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO READ IT. GO BACK AND CHECK.

****** CONTENT WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS AN M.********

"Kiss me," Liv breathed into Brian's ear.

And he listened – returning his mouth to hers again. She still tasted of the strawberries she'd hulled for the kids to snack on as they watched a movie a few hours earlier. Maybe just a hint of Paloma – the grapefruit in it – that she'd ordered with her meal. The drink choice that'd confirmed for him that she'd needed this tonight too. That and how her hand kept finding its way into his at the table while they listened to the kids banter, silliness and food commentary like they were some kind of master chefs when it came to chips and salsa. The looks – the soft smiles – she kept giving him as they stared at the little creatures that were theirs and stared off across the river at the city they worked in.

Brian knew her body language. And he'd known what she needed – and wanted – that night would be unrushed. And they hadn't been. The kids had passed out fast and hard. So that had meant they could go long and slow.

'Kiss me'. It was one of Liv's few verbal demands – or requests. Her other ones were just as simple and direct. That was Liv. Maybe it was even more so Liv when it came to sex. For all the ways they needed to work on communication, they definitely had communication down in the bedroom. But they had too. Maybe that was fucked up. But it also just … made him feel fucking closer to her.

He'd definitely felt closer to her that night. There'd been those moments where she grabbed at him like she was trying to figure out how to just get his body to merge with hers. Other moments where they'd been so close together – her legs and arms around him – that they might as well have been meshed as one.

And now he could feel it in their shared breathing. The taste and feel and heat of her just everywhere. It could fucking overwhelm the senses.

And then she went and did that thing of hers she did. That tease. Where her tongue stroked the top of his mouth. And he nearly choked – and nearly came – it felt so unexpected and so fucking good.

"Fuck," Brian groaned breaking away from her mouth and hanging his head a bit while he worked to recompose himself and keep the rhythm they had going. But he just felt her smile against his jaw and then her lips and teeth were there too. A fucking tease. But that was Liv too. She liked getting him good. And maybe he liked it a bit too.

"Look at me, Bri," she breathed at him.

He exhaled a bit and shifted some. He let his weight fall onto his one elbow as he did, giving them a bit more space but positioning them for a bit more eye contact without going cross-eyed.

Brian had struggled with the eye contact she liked for a long time. He'd really struggled with it again back around February when all that shit came tumbling out into the limelight. But he knew she needed it – maybe more since Lewis. And it wasn't like he didn't like watching her when he managed to get her off – or in the build up and watching her feel that kind of pleasure. Letting herself enjoy it and just letting herself let go a bit. But he also just figured Liv pulled off the beauty thing a whole lot better than him and whatever faces he pulled in the build-up and pay-off. Like she needed to see him grimace more than was his natural state of being.

But she still stared at him – her damp and lips parted slightly – with the slow rock they had going on. And she made a quiet sound amidst her quiet but aroused breathing. Her lips parting a little more to allow it. And he smiled at her. And she caught it and smiled up at him.

"Good?" he grinned.

"Mmm …," she allowed with more of a smile, and reached to pull his mouth back to hers. It was Liv who pulled away first that time – just barely. "Cum for me," she rasped at him.

He sort of would've liked to go a bit longer. He knew she'd already gotten off. But he also knew he could help her get there again in this position. If they kept at it but this was definitely a low and slow haul where the end game was only part of the goodness of the session. But it wasn't like he had a chance to go for any kind of game plan or looking at how to finish out this play – because she'd already made a move on both their behaves. She'd made the call. And That slight husk in her voice was enough to tip him a bit closer.

But it was that trick she did next that did him in. Her lips below his ear, her tongue pressed on his pulse there – and her fingers stroking along his jaw on the opposite side. Brian felt the twitch in him – and she must've too because he also felt her tighten around him in response. A quiet moan slipped from somewhere down in him. His breathing labored a bit more with it and he moved more firmly, letting his head hang again. He could definitely get there quick. God – he felt her everywhere. But his focus point became her fingers still stroking against his cheek and jaw. These little touches and massage of her finger pads. He could almost feel the ridges of her fingerprints.

"Look at me," she urged gently.

He exhaled hard and made himself look her in the eyes. He let her watch. Her one hand staying on his cheek while the other caressed at his bicep and then rested on his hip and then pressed and held onto his ass as he ground hard against against her. Keeping himself flush to her with swallow movements. It felt so deep. Her thighs and her abdomen and her breasts – her skin and her being – just there against him. So fucking close. So warm.

He kept feeling his eyes drift and her hand kept gently adjusting his head to bring them back to her. She was so there. So present. And Brian tried to stay there with her. Though his eyes got heavy with the arousal and then the fucking release. He felt that one. Pulsed out of him. He radiated in his spine. His back. All the nerve-endings in his skin – as much as it did inside her.

But as good as it felt – what he felt more was her hand right there – on his cheek.

Maybe what he felt more as he struggled to calm his labored breathing and his shaky muscles so he didn't collapse too much of his weight onto her was the simple – but so fucking profound – statement: "I love you."

Hearing her say it … it didn't get old. It still felt like he had to earn it every time. And every time she said it – it was like a jolt. Bigger – greater – than any orgasm. But he knew it too from that hand – right there, on his cheek – as he settled next to her and leaned in again to taste her and those faint strawberries and tequila.

"Love you too," he said.

That was his wife. His life. Strawberries and tequila.

Not a bad combination.