A/N - I may flesh this out or at least clean it up during the planned canon-compliance rewrite (should TPTB give us enough information to figure out where Barba has landed). I just felt like I needed to write SOMETHING to get myself out of the post-exit funk!
PART A: Chapstick and Personal Space
They'd been all but ignoring each other for the last two hours, Liv at his conference table and Barba behind his desk. He'd invited her after he'd knocked on the door of her office earlier that afternoon and she'd nearly bitten his head off. She was quick to apologise, of course, to explain that she was drowning in administrative paperwork and her squad had chosen that day to apparently believe they couldn't do anything without bothering her about it first. Barba's suggestion that she come hide out in his office where Carmen would be on duty to protect them from intruders was immediately accepted, revealing the depth of her desperation as she wasn't one to abandon her post.
Every time he'd glanced at her she'd seemed focused, productive. Until now. Now she was digging around in her oversized purse Mary Poppins' style, and he half expected her to pull out a coat rack.
"I'll looking for my Chapstick," she explained when she caught sight of him watching. "It's dry in here." More rummaging, followed by a defeated sigh. "I give up."
"I should have some in my coat pocket," he offered helpfully.
"You use Chapstick?"
"It's dry in here," he parroted with a wry grin.
"Fair enough," she conceded, reaching inside the coat he'd carefully folded across the back of the chair next to her. "You sure you don't mind?"
"As long as you don't have cholera or dysentery or something, I suppose it's okay."
"Well then, it's my lucky day. I'm entirely free of Gold Rush era diseases."
He huffed a little laugh and turned his attention back to his work.
A few weeks later, Barba opened his office door and was surprised to hear Olivia's voice. Doubly surprised because he'd been talking to Carmen in his waiting area for the last five minutes or so and she'd neglected to mention he had a visitor. He found her behind his desk, talking on his phone. She gave him a little smile and wave and carried on as he sat across from her to wait.
Finally - "Hey, Rafa. How did things go in court?" And as they chatted it became clear that once again she'd just needed to get away from the precinct.
A few weeks later, he pulled out the Chapstick as he walked with her to the courthouse, and when he finished applying it he offered it to her. She accepted.
And after that, no more offering was needed. If she needed Chapstick, she reached into his pocket and got Chapstick. Sometimes while alone in his office when Carmen hadn't seen a problem with letting her in.
PART B: Coffee
Their ritual was that whoever requested the meeting brought the coffee. Or that the bearer of bad news (or sometimes good news) brought the coffee. Or whoever showed up for an unexpected visit. Sometimes the rules weren't quite as clear and they ended up with four cups between them. But always coffee. And always (at least) enough for two.
Well, USUALLY enough for two. Occasionally they ran into each other by accident, unprepared. And one of those times was in the courthouse when Olivia was running late and hadn't had the time to stop at the coffee cart on her way in.
"What are you doing here?" Barba inquired when he met Olivia in the hall.
"I've been called in by Judge Armitage about a chain of custody issue."
"Need backup?"
"What I need is another few hours of sleep or a caffeine IV."
Barba smiled sympathetically. "Here," he said, handing her his coffee cup. "Not exactly an IV but might give you a boost."
"Bless you. Walk with me?"
And so she sipped as they walked and as he delivered her to her destination she passed the coffee back. After bidding her farewell, he drank what was left and tossed the cup in the nearest trash bin.
A few days later she'd found him hiding in a booth at Forlini's. "That's not scotch," she pointed out needlessly as she slid in across from him, signalling to Anthony for the usual. "But it doesn't look like regular coffee, either."
"Still on the clock, but you're right: Anthony talked me into trying some hipster coffee-like something or other from the new machine. Jury's still out."
"Need a second opinion?" He pushed the tiny mug toward her and Liv took a sip. "I like it."
He gave her crooked smile. "I'll take that under advisement."
And after that, Olivia didn't hesitate to sample his drinks or steal his coffee in a caffeine emergency.
PART 3: Clothes
The hooded sweatshirt from their Christmas adventure she'd already laid claim to. But she'd collected a few other items of his clothing along the way which she'd never bothered to return. She'd told herself that it made sense to keep them at her place in case he ever needed them there, in case he was over and she got called out to work and he ended up staying the night with Noah. In case they were up late prepping for court and it made sense for him to crash there. In case he didn't have time to change before coming over for spaghetti night and he wanted to be comfortable or avoid getting sauce on something that would need to be dry cleaned.
Perfectly good excuses. Perfectly logical arguments.
But the morning he'd shown up unexpectedly and found her dressed in his things literally from head to toe, there was no excuse or logical argument for that.
She had blushed, but he had only commented that he'd forgotten she had those particular socks before jumping into the reason he'd stopped by.
And after that, Olivia stopped kidding herself and would often wear his clothes to bed or when home and relaxing with Noah.
PART 4: Cherry tomatoes
"I'm so sorry; I've got to take this."
Noah reached for Barba's abandoned lunch and was about to abscond with the pickle when Olivia diverted his hand. "Noah, you know it's rude to eat off of someone else's plate without asking."
Normally Noah was the type to take correction in stride, apologize and move on. However he was entering a questioning phase and noticing inconsistencies in the rules as he'd been taught them. So Olivia was neither surprised nor unprepared when he pointed out, "But you did it."
"I suppose you're right, but that was a little different," she explained patiently. "I was taking the cherry tomatoes out of Rafa's salad because he doesn't like them."
"Oh. Okay." And it looked like he was poised to accept that answer until his little brow furrowed. "But wait. He DOES like them. He told me."
"I think you're mistaken, babe."
"No, really! We ate some as a snack when we were waiting for you to come home for spaghetti night!"
There was no sense arguing with him since it was kind of beside the point she was trying to make. "Anyway, Noah, Rafa and I have an arrangement. That means he already told me that I could always have them. So I had permission." She was also very sure he was wrong about this.
It had been months ago over a working lunch that Barba had ordered a large garden salad that contained a rather ridiculous number of cherry tomatoes. He'd immediately commented on this with what she has discerned was distaste.
"I think it looks incredible," she had told him.
"I take it you're a fan."
"They're my favourite, actually. If you DON'T like them, I'm happy to take them off your hands."
And after that, any cherry tomatoes on his plate had found their way to hers.
"You look mad," Noah said of Barba when he returned to the table.
"Not mad, kiddo. Just disappointed. Sorry, team Benson. I've gotta run."
"Everything okay?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah, just someone camped out at my office insistent we meet today." He popped the last of his sandwich into his mouth and then tipped the remaining pickle onto Noah's plate, much to the boy's delight. "Can you get this, Liv?" Their bill hadn't arrived yet. "I'll get the next one."
"I suppose that's okay, especially since I'm pretty sure I'm three or four behind," she agreed with a grin. It was probably more than that but they had stopped keeping score a long time ago.
"Uncle Rafa, you like cherry tomatoes right?"
The question caught Barba off guard and he paused in the middle of shrugging on his jacket. "Well..." He glanced at Olivia, then back to Noah. "Let's just say I don't like them as much as your mom does." Then he snatched a french fry from Noah's lunch and made his escape before Olivia could comment. "Later, you two."
Noah was pleased to have been vindicated all around, and went on to share that pleasure with his mom, pointing out in his childlike way that Barba did indeed like cherry tomatoes, and also that if Uncle Rafa could steal food from him, it was unlikely that he found it rude and certainly turnabout would only be fair play moving forward.
PART 5: Liberties
The next day, Barba was surprised to find Olivia sitting outside his office, looking subdued. "What's up?" he asked as he gestured for her to follow him in after a quick exchange with his assistant.
As he got settled behind his desk, Liv reached into the shopping bag she was carrying and began to lay things out in front of him: all of the clothes she had borrowed and not given back, a gift card for his favourite coffee shop, lip balm still in the package, and a tupperware container filled with cherry tomatoes and topped with a festive bow. "Leave it to my son to bring to my attention that I've been taking some liberties with you. I didn't know how to wrap 'respecting personal space'. But I'm assuming you get the idea."
Barba was amused. "I take it that it hasn't occurred to you that I have never considered anything about our friendship as 'taking liberties'. Can't it just be that I LIKE sharing with you?"
"You never drink out of MY coffee cup or use MY chapstick."
"That's because I can't stand the way you take your coffee, and if YOU can't find your chapstick in your purse, how am *I* supposed to find it?" He smiled and continued. "And before you ask about the rest: I don't take over your office for the same reason you DO take over mine. And I don't wear your clothes because a) there hasn't been a need, and b) most of your clothes aren't exactly my size. Or style, for that matter."
"Oh, I don't know. I have a few low-cut dresses you could probably pull off." They chuckled together, but then she pressed, "What about the cherry tomatoes? I'm guessing you don't have a quick come-back for those."
He rolled his eyes. "Jesus, this seems very junior high to have to say out loud."
"Humour me."
"Fine." He took a moment to collect his thoughts, but it didn't help to make his words feel less ridiculous coming out of his mouth. "The cherry tomatoes... it's our thing. And really, you making yourself at home in my office, all these 'liberties' you take, those are 'things' too. And I like having 'things' with you. Because close friends have...'things'."
Throughout his explanation, Olivia's expression had turned tender. But her voice was still a bit teasing as she clarified, "So you're saying you like it when I use your lip balm or wear your clothes or whatever because it reflects intimacy between us? That's honestly pretty precious."
He could feel his ears turning red. "Suddenly I'm preferring my junior high explanation."
"In that case..." She was on her feet now, and the bag was back in her hands. "These clothes are mine now. You're not getting them back. The Chapstick you can keep because I'll just end up borrowing it - maybe keep it in your desk so it's here even when you're not, since you know I probably will be. The coffee card you can keep too, since you'll just be buying coffee for us to share. And you can snack on these today - " she removed the top on the cherry tomatoes - "but I'm taking some with me for the road." She paused for effect. "Unless I need to take all of them in order for it to still be our 'thing'?"
"I'm going to take the 'liberty' of telling you and your sass to get out of my office, Lieutenant. You're going to be late for work." Then he leaned forward and raised an eyebrow, throwing some sass of his own. "And just to warn you, I will also be planning in the future to take the 'liberty' of teasing you about this grand gesture more than once. But to be clear, it was honestly pretty precious, too."
Olivia flushed with equal parts embarrassment and pleasure. They shared a laugh, and she went on about her day with a little more insight into Barba's feelings for her and a warm contentment that accompanied that insight.
And after that, it was 'taking liberties' itself that became 'their thing', expressing their care for each other and the importance of their friendship much more clearly than words ever could.