They got at Casey's apartment that night, the little tiger of a cat quickly coming to meet them at the door, hearing her human and her friend behind it.

"Hold the beast, Liv!" Casey said, walking in first to Olivia coming right behind her.

Olivia came inside as well, calling Florence as she did it so she wouldn't escape outside. Florence rubbed herself around Casey's legs for a moment on her way to Liv's, meowing before the detective picked her up and shut the door with her heel.

"It's your child, woman." Olivia said with amusement in her voice, holding the cat with both her arms as Florence kneaded her chest, purring.

She wasn't expecting that growing so attached to Casey's pet and vice-versa would come along with the bundle of dating the ADA, but it was just one of many pleasant surprises of her decision of finally confessing her feelings to Casey. She asked herself why she never got a pet for herself, too. Nights in her apartment wouldn't have been as lonely.

Not that they are lonely, now.

She would stop at Casey's place and vice versa pretty much every night, except when they had to stay in at work for some reason, which happened quite frequently. But they would always try to find a way to make up for it as their feelings for each other were clearly escalating.

"I's not my fault my cat loves you more than me now.", Casey joke-replied, serving food on Florence's bowl, who quickly forgot about Liv and released herself from her arms at the mere sound of cat food being shaken to her.

"Treason!" Liv said to Florence as she ran away.

The detective went to the kitchen as well, leaning forward on the little division wall separating it from the living room. Casey did the same on the other side, resting her chin on her palm and closing her eyes, sighing as if she only then realized how tired she was.

"Long day?"

"Yeah."

"Go to bed."

"I wish. I still have to study the next case, I have a trial in two days."

"The sooner you get it done, the sooner bed will be available to you." Liv encouraged. "Also, you should have told me you had a lot of work, I would have gone home not to get in your way."

"Oh, come on, Liv. You know you don't get in the way. Besides, I like having you around."

Olivia smiled and rested her forehead against Casey's.

"I like being around, too."

Casey opened her eyes to look at her, a soft happiness dwelling inside the crystalline spring of her stare. She had words right on the tip of her tongue but instead of letting them out, she leaned forward to kiss Olivia's cheek, right under her right eye, lingering there for a moment.

Liv's pulse was instantly thundering with her gesture - she knew exactly what Casey meant with it.

But she didn't say anything when Casey broke the contact and straighten up, ready to face at least another hour or two of reading boring documents. Olivia watched her move to her living room, sit on the sofa and start taking off a ridiculous amount of paperwork from her briefcase, spreading them around in organized piles.

At first, Olivia was a bit confused when Casey would do that - simply leave her be, and just going to do her own thing. It took a while to realize the ADA just trusted her a lot, and felt so comfortable around Liv she wouldn't "give instructions" the way you do with visits, like telling them to make themselves comfortable, or offering stuff. For Casey, that wasn't necessary because for her, Olivia was already part of her life, of her home.

Not to mention that after having someone touching you in places you didn't even know existed before would turn such formalities oddly unnecessary anyway.

She then heard it when Casey reached out for a controller on the coffee table and turned on the sound system on a classical music station - probably for some soft background noise to help her focus, and because the music was mostly instrumental, so she wouldn't be distracted by lyrics. Probably not to kill Olivia with boredom, too.

The music made her instantly think of that night when everything had started. She thought of her miserable self a little more than three months before, and where she was now - how much everything had changed since then. She was brought back to the present when Florence landed on the little wall right next to her, slowly crouching on that way cats do when they are at ease.

"Seems it's just you and me now, girl." Liv whispered with a dash of humor.

She petted the cat a few times before joining Casey in the living room, taking her shoes off and spreading herself lazily on the other sofa. Of course, Florence came right behind her, seeing the perfect cuddle opportunity, since her human wouldn't have time to pay attention to her. Olivia let her lay by her side and roll herself into a huge ball of fluff and orange stripes.

She looked up at Casey, who was frowning at her papers as she read them, taking notes with a pen on a notebook nearby, so immersed on her task she didn't even notice Olivia's look on her. Even without direct interactions, they loved to just hang out around each other, silently. The mere presence filling in the spaces between them like full sentences in a conversation, or the classical music playing softly in the background, or a kiss they would share.

Olivia was used to being silent for hours on her own, and she could definitely tell the difference. Sometimes, it was the other way around when she was the one who had to burn the midnight oil at home, looking into gruesome pictures for unseen leads, or things that her and her team might have let slip between the small cracks on their attention, caused by stress and physical exhaustion.

It was good to have Casey nearby, and she would often just stay in for the night, making it even better for she would have someone to hold and be held in return after long hours of walking among criminals and seeing the devastation they left behind.

Casey's presence comforted and reassured her that there were still some good things left outside her daily life of taking creeps out of the streets.

It wasn't for another hour and a half or so that Olivia heard her gather the papers around and close the folders, piling them up neatly. She then just let herself fall on her side on the sofa with a tired groan.

"Victory." she celebrated, but not sounding excited at all - just sleepy and as if the side of her face was being crushed against the soft surface. Olivia couldn't contain the laugh, as she caressed Florence still laid next to her, deep in her sleep.

Casey turned her head up to look at them. Liv turned her eyes from Florence, when she saw Casey move from the corner of her eye, and she held her gaze on the ADA. She was looking tired but still lovely with her sleepy eyes and a small satisfaction smile on. It then turned into a mild, amused squint.

"What is it, Liv?"

"I love you."

The relaxed, amused expression was taken by one that couldn't be described other than Red Alert! , as her cheeks and tips of her ears followed precisely that color protocol.

"God, you are cute.", Olivia laughed, saying that out loud for the first time ever, referring to her flush but also seeing Casey was once more out of words under a confession.

Casey got up and went towards her, moving a protesting Florence from the space next to Olivia to the space near Liv's legs. She then took the cat's place, the small of her back against Liv's body.

She leaned against the detective laid down, looking at her with that same look she had given her before, but this time she let out the words that had been trapped behind her lips for a while now.

Olivia's heart thundered with the same warm, soft happiness Casey had in her eyes with her reply as she caressed Olivia's hair tenderly, playing with it between her fingers. She slipped her fingers down, touching the detective's face, the classical music still playing in the background. Liv retributed the gentle touch, caressing Casey's face.

The sunlight on Olivia's skin reassured the detective of the path laid beyond from now, like ice melting under spring's warmth.

She smiled at Casey.

Let it be flowers.

Author's Notes:
This was very experimental, as I wanted to explore more of this "introspective" style of writing (where characters ramble about their thoughts and feelings a lot, without much interaction per se).

Casey's kitty-cat Florence is actually a reference to the same named cat that my "Hogwarts Mystery" character, Lizzie King, has.
Which actually makes her a double reference, since I named Lizzie's cat after Florence Welch.

And as you can see, I am a major music nerd, which was also part of this writing experience - I mostly listened to the complete "Bachianas Brasileiras" by Villa-Lobos as I wrote, also making a small ref to Ravel's "Bolero". A cookie for anyone who can spot it ;)

I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did when I wrote it!