A/N: So, Sundays are going to be my new publication day for this story now that I've finished my latest SwanQueen AU, Quarantine Quarrels (check it out if you're in the UK and feeling bleak about the lockdown we're about to enter into … or if you're in the US and are feeling like a national lockdown is sorely needed!)
Amanda was fairly proud of her commitment to education. Her parents hadn't been particularly supportive of her schooling. While they hadn't directly spoken out against her decision to pursue higher education, it certainly wasn't something they had pushed for or expected her to complete. After graduating high school, she became the first in her family to go to college, obtaining a bachelor's degree in Forensic Science. From there, she'd steadily worked her way up the Atlanta PD, making Detective and then managing to get her transfer to Manhattan SVU.
Yes, Amanda Rollins was proud of her intellect. Which was why she was annoyed at herself when it came to her seeming inability to work out how many dates she and Olivia had been on. She might not have been great at math but she could definitely count, right?
Two, she was sure of. The first, ice skating at the Rockefeller Centre. The second, brunch. While she knew the latter wasn't a classic date, even the brunette detective had agreed to count it as a date. But then things got fuzzy. For example, their planned third date had been on Olivia's birthday but had been cancelled when work got in the way. So they'd rescheduled for the following Friday, but then that had changed from dinner and drinks to driving around the city trying to track down a witness. Technically they had spent the whole night together but it was most definitely in a professional capacity, so Amanda was fairly sure she could discount that as a not a date.
However, that night's work had bled into the next morning when she and Olivia had been told to go home and get some sleep and, without discussing it, they had ended up back at her apartment and climbed into bed together. They'd slept soundly, for about five hours, in one another's arms. Once awake, they'd made out, their bodies becoming more involved than ever before. But … was that a date? Could Amanda claim that passing out with exhaustion and then waking up for a quick fumble before going back to work was a date? There hadn't even been any proper food involved, unless you counted the defrosted bagels she'd toasted for the two of them before they'd left. And somehow she didn't think Olivia would count that.
Then there were those delayed birthday drinks the previous night. Wine in a fancy bar, the two of them snuggled up together in a booth, sharing stories and exchanging personal information sounded date-like. Except for most of the evening, Amanda and Olivia had been joined by Alex Cabot. Surely it couldn't be a date if there was a third person there. Even if she and Olivia had ended the night back in the brunette's bed, entwined in one another's arms once again.
This was what Amanda was trying to decide the following morning when, nursing a mild hangover, she sat up in bed, failing to concentrate on a long-neglected novel, the older woman still sleeping soundly beside her. Two dates? Three dates? Four, at a push? Was the five date rule even still in place? True, they'd not gone further than heated kissing and touching one another over clothes yet. But was that because they'd both been drunk the two times they'd ended up in bed together? Or was it because Olivia really did want to go on five dates before their relationship became sexual?
That said, Amanda thought to herself, arguably their relationship was already sexual. True, they were yet to have 'sex', but she knew their time spent in both of their beds was far from platonic and their kissing had gone beyond even those enthusiastic make out sessions which had been iconic of her teenage years and been heavily overlaid with sexual tones. She herself knew that feeling the woman's body against her, firm and warm, had been an unbelievable turn on and were Olivia to hint that she was ready for more, then more most certainly would have happened.
But Amanda hadn't pushed and Olivia hadn't indicated that she wanted more. Olivia was the one who'd suggested five dates and that meant that she was going to be the one to tell Amanda when it was time. Even though, as far as Amanda was concerned, she was more than ready. After months of working with Olivia, and weeks of spending time with her outside of work, she knew what she wanted, what she needed from the woman who snuffled lightly beside her at that moment and reached her hand out towards Amanda's body.
"Jesus," Amanda sighed as the woman's cool hand landed on her bare thigh beneath the duvet. She closed the book and decided to focus once again on counting their dates. Two? Definitely. Three? Maybe. Four? Pushing it. Five? In her dreams.
By the time Olivia joined her in the land of the living, Amanda had managed to read two chapters of her book. She'd been distracted frequently by the cute little noises Olivia made as she slept. As well as the comforting weight of her hand on her body, fingers occasionally twitching against her skin. So when those big brown eyes blinked open, Amanda eagerly put her book to one side and snuggled herself further down under the covers, placing a chaste kiss to Olivia's lips.
"Morning," she murmured. "You slept well."
"How long have you been awake?" Olivia asked, noting that the blonde was completely awake whereas she was going to need some time to recalibrate to a new day.
"A while," Amanda shrugged. "I like watching you sleep."
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, because that doesn't sound creepy at all," she deadpanned.
Chuckling, Amanda slithered herself closer, pressing her body against Olivia's and lifting her right leg to hook over the top of the older woman's thigh. "You look cute when you sleep. Did you know you snore?"
"No, I don't," Olivia said at once, even though she wasn't sure why she was getting defensive about a perfectly natural human behaviour. And she wasn't actually concerned at the idea of Amanda watching her sleep. In fact, it was somehow comforting. Over the years, she'd had cases which made her cautious about being a single woman living alone in New York, and there had been nights when her overactive imagination had freaked her out to the point where she couldn't get to sleep. So there was something reassuring about sharing a bed with someone, especially someone who looked at her the way Amanda Rollins did.
"Yeah, you do. And it's adorable," the blonde said, brushing some of the lightly tangled brown hair off Olivia's sleepy face.
"There's that word again," Olivia said, remembering when Amanda had called her that in the bar the night before.
"Well, it's true," Amanda replied. "You're adorable."
"So, how many hours have you whiled away watching me?"
Amanda scrunched up her nose. "Ok, that sounds creepy. And it wasn't hours. I was reading too. And thinking."
"Thinking about what?"
"My inability to do math," Amanda replied simply.
Olivia frowned. "I'm sorry, I've only just woken up so I'm going to need more explanation than that. What are you talking about?"
So Amanda explained. She talked Olivia through her logic about how many dates they may or may not have been on, debating whether or not each of their out of work meetings met the criteria for being a date and therefore how many they could genuinely consider themselves as having been on. Olivia smothered her laughter as she listened to the blonde's earnest analysis of their budding relationship. The woman may be questioning her capacity to count but Olivia sure was impressed with her in-depth thinking and intellectual probing into what number date was coming up next.
"Now it's my turn to call you adorable," Olivia said when the woman finished speaking at last.
"Adorable and confused. Can you count?"
"I can count," Olivia said slowly. "I'm pretty sure a basic grasp of arithmetic is a requirement to get into the police academy, which means you can count just as well as I can."
Amanda rolled her eyes at her pedantic girlfriend. Wait, what? Girlfriend? Where did that word come from? Olivia watched the look of mild horror which followed the exasperated expression and grew suddenly concerned.
"Are you ok?" she asked when Amanda failed to speak.
"Yeah, um, fine," Amanda said, finding her words and trying to breeze past her internal thoughts. "So, how many dates can I say we've been on, if you're so good at counting?"
Olivia pretended to consider the question for a while. In truth, she had had a similar train of thought the night before when she followed Amanda into an Uber after having ordered the service to her address, with no additional stops. Their sleepover on Friday night certainly couldn't be classified as a date but the same could not be said of the previous evening. Considering Amanda's analysis, she surmised that Alex's presence in the winebar hadn't detracted from the undeniable romance of the evening.
"Well, I may not have a PhD in mathematics but I think we can say we've had three dates," Olivia said eventually, trailing her fingers up and down the blonde's back, feeling the knots of her spine through the thin material of her sleepwear.
"Three?" Amanda repeated, almost too distracted by the questing fingers to concentrate on what Olivia had said. "Which one are you considering our third?"
"Last night," Olivia clarified. "I mean, we had some time on our own before Alex arrived. You certainly paid for most of my drinks in a very traditional, date-like manner. And, I think it's safe to say we had a goodnight kiss or two."
Amanda grinned. "One or two," she agreed, remembering how the couple had tumbled through Olivia's door, lips sealed in a passionate kiss which had carried them all the way to the brunette's bed when they'd only separated to get changed into their sleepwear (Amanda borrowed an old t-shirt from Olivia and paired that with her underwear, something which made Olivia temporarily forget how to breathe). They'd fallen asleep only when the alcohol which fizzed through their veins overcame their lazy, relaxed make out, lips still touching when they finally lost consciousness.
"So, yeah, I think we can say we've been on three dates. Why? Are you getting a little bit impatient there for some reason, my dear?"
The blonde slid forwards, getting even closer to the woman whose body was already pressed against her. "You know, I have something on my mind." Her heel dug a little into the back of Olivia's thigh. "Can't quite remember what it is though." She kissed the woman firmly, smirking at her. "I think you said something special about the number five. Or was it ten?" Olivia laughed at that. "Or was it twenty? No, you're not that mean. I don't think my little heart would cope with waiting twenty whole dates to experience … you."
Olivia splayed her palm across Amanda's back, pressing their chests even closer. "I don't think you have a little heart, Amanda. I think you have one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know. And you know what else?"
"What?" Amanda breathed out.
"No matter how long it takes for us to steal a couple more evenings away from work for our dates, I promise you it will be worth it."
Those words, in the sultry tone of the woman whose eyes were burning into hers made Amanda wonder whether she'd died and gone to heaven. She'd certainly felt her heart skip a beat. Which she had always thought was a stupid literary cliche which trashy romantic novels threw around with abandon. But, thanks to the woman whose fingers were still trailing their way up and down her spine, she was pretty sure she'd just experienced exactly that.
"You're going to be the death of me, Detective Olivia Benson," Amanda sighed.
"Well, that certainly isn't my intention. I guess we'll have to keep your cardio up. I know a workout you might be interested in."
It was going to take Amanda some time to get used to this new side of Olivia. She was still used to the professional, serious and somewhat straight laced detective she saw at work each day. Compared to that persona, the woman who was lying beside her, a cheeky glint in her eye and her fingers now dancing along the top elastic of her underwear, was almost unrecognisable.
"Tonight?" Amanda managed to stutter.
"Tonight, what?"
"Date four. Can I take you out?"
Olivia pretended to consider this for a moment before breaking into a wide grin. "I suppose that would be ok," she said, chuckling as the woman rolled on top of her and kissed her hard, sealing the deal.
A/N: I promise, we'll get there soon. I just love writing these two together!