"No, no, I am so full," Montserrat laughed when she finally managed to pull Rafael out of the dessert shop that had called both of their names.

"You were eyeing that coffee cake pretty strongly," Rafael pointed out and watched her eyes slightly widen at the accusation. He stopped walking, prompting her to do the same. "Montserrat, if you want, we could—"

"Oh my God, no! No more eating!" She laughed again and rubbed her stomach. "If we keep having dates like these, people are going to think I'm pregnant!"

"Now you're exaggerating." He wound an arm around her waist and inadvertently touched her arm. Her skin was cold.

Their evening had started out pretty warm which explained the reason behind her dress for the date. She was wearing a short, black dress that was snug around her body. There was a bit of lace going around the dress' v-neckline.

They'd gone out for dinner, this time somewhere French. The night had gone by and once they left the restaurant they both agreed that while the food was great, their sweet tooth had yet to be quenched. Dessert was mandatory for their dates, even if it meant visiting a second place. They spent a lot more time in the small bakery they found only a block away from their restaurant. They discovered they pretty much had the same taste for desserts as well as the bottomless pit in their stomachs for sugar.

Now that they left the bakery, it was much later and the air had turned a crisp cold. Whether or not Montserrat was actually cold, Rafael pulled off his jacket and set it around her shoulders.

Montserrat smiled at him as she tugged the jacket closer to her. "Thanks."

"As much as I love that dress on you, I know you're cold," Rafael put his arm around her waist again and continued on their way down the street.

"Oh, that's good to know," Montserrat smirked.

"Don't start," Rafael rolled his eyes at her. He shouldn't have said anything because now he wouldn't hear the end of it.

"The bad news is that this is Kara's dress." Montserrat almost laughed at how quickly his head turned again. "I borrowed it."

"Any chance you can keep it?"

Montserrat laughed and even more so when she saw him looking her over without the least bit of effort to hide it. It brought up a blush on her face but she was truly more amused than anything else. "Who would've ever thought that Rafael Barba would be checking me out?" she threw him a smirk.

"Oh be quiet," he kept his eyes trained on what was ahead of him for the time being. He'd sneak looks later when she was more distracted.

"That didn't mean you had to stop. I like the attention."

"I know you do." And by the looks of his smile, he loved giving her the attention. "You sure you don't want to stop by for anything else?"

"Trust me," she chuckled. "It's been a wonderful night, just like all the other ones."

With that, the pair started heading for Montserrat's apartment. It was pretty late and they both had work the next day.

"Oh, you know, Liv mentioned that Nick is coming back to work now," Montserrat remarked as they went into her building's elevator.

"Really? That's nice…" Rafael said, unusually quiet for some reason. He pressed the floor number and straightened back up before noticing Montserrat's look on him. "What?"

"Something on your mind?" she asked with a slow smile forming across her face. "You don't seem that happy about Nick."

"I am," he clarified. "But I also know that as soon as he gets back you're going to start up again."

"Start what?"

"You know, the flirting. I don't like it."

"What?" Montserrat laughed. "We're on this again?"

Rafael grabbed her hand once the elevator doors slid open and led her into the hallway. "You and Nick like to flirt. And you initiate it sometimes."

"I do not!"

Rafael stopped and turned to her, tilting his head at her. "Don't make me argue about this because I will win."

Montserrat crossed her arms. "And when has that line ever worked on me, hmm? I hate your ADA mouth."

"And I hate your Slovakish flirt when it's with someone else!"

Montserrat narrowed her eyes at him. "It's harmless." Rafael scoffed. "Seriously, he's like a flirt. I can't help it. If someone fires I have to fire back."

"Maybe hold back on the 'firing' then? You know that it's harmless but he doesn't. To anyone else, they don't know that you're not single anymore." Rafael sighed and took her hand again. He didn't want to sound like an annoying jealous boyfriend but it was more frustrating to stand on the side and watch someone flirt with her because they thought she was single. He couldn't say anything or he would out them both.

"I've never seen you so worked up," Montserrat tapped her fingers along his shoulders. He rolled his eyes. "I especially didn't know you felt like this towards poor Nick. He didn't do anything wrong."

"I know I just don't like it," Rafael said flatly. He didn't intend on blaming Nick, he just wanted Montserrat to be aware of things. He wished everyone could be aware that she was no longer available. And maybe that's what had been bothering him lately.

The fact he was getting over their 'blissful bubble' was a new revelation to him but it was one that he felt genuinely prepared for. He'd been seeing Montserrat for a while now. It was nice being in the bubble all this time, not having to deal with people's dozens of annoying questions about 'when it happened', or 'how it happened' but now that time passed...he was kind of looking forward to it. He actually saw himself smirking at the stunned faces their co-workers would inevitably have once they learned of their relationship. Their Detective Novak was no longer single. And perhaps it would be good so that a certain someone who also had feelings for her would get the message that he'd lost his chance. She wasn't looking for anyone else. He just wondered if Montserrat had gotten to the same place. She didn't mention anything of the sort but then again, he never really asked.

"Okay, if it's that bothersome I will tone it down," Montserrat chuckled. She draped her arms over his shoulders. In her eyes, she hadn't been 'properly' flirting with Nick anyways but he did look genuinely upset by the matter. Plus, it was kind of nice seeing him get jealous (even if it was for the wrong reasons). It showed that he cared, that he especially cared about the fact people didn't know she was seeing somebody. She would feel the same way towards him if some woman was flirting with him (right in front of her too).

"Although I have to say it'll be incredibly hard for Nick to cool it down. I mean, I am pretty...what he did say?" Montserrat made a face as she tried to remember the Spanish words Nick had told her at the bar.

"La pelirroja más ardiente que he conocido," Rafael said it without a moment's thought. He was pleased to see her immediate blush. "You're the most ardent woman I've ever met."

"He said ginger, he said...ginger…" Montserrat's intention of being casual wasn't well endeavored.

Still, Rafael obliged with her 'subtle' request. "You're an ardent ginger," he ran his fingers down a few of her curls.

Montserrat leaned her head to the side with his touch. Each time he touched her, in whatever way, she would get chills. And now she had him saying these things to her too? She was really lucky.

"Happy?" Rafael asked despite being able to see the answer right in front of him.

Montserrat's answer came in the form of a kiss. She wouldn't waste her breath trying to deny it. She learned fairly quick that anything he said to her in Spanish would automatically make her want to kiss him senseless. And he didn't mind one bit so it was a win, win.

Rafael wrapped his arms around her waist and walked her up to the wall, almost next to her apartment door. He learned fast that his Spanish voice elicited the best response from her no matter what the situation was. Within a minute, his arms unwrapped from her waist with the purpose of letting his hands touch her body. He was cautious at first, in case she reacted negatively against it, but he heard her muffled laugh and relaxed. He could tell that she'd started to grow even more comfortable with him, which truly warmed his heart. It wasn't too long ago that she'd warded his hands off her and while there was still some guarding on her part, there was a stark difference between now and then. And each time Rafael remembered why she had been so guarded, there was a fierce drive to make her feel safer and happier.

Montserrat eventually had to lean away from him so she could breathe. She rested her head against the wall and panted for air. "Does that...settle our...argument?"

Rafael had to catch some air before he could answer, even if it was only one word. "Somewhat…"

"Somewhat?" Montserrat made a face.

Rafael brought his hand up along her side, making her shift with a sly smile. "Can I ask you something?"

"Always."

"What would you...say...about maybe...starting to let others know that-that we're not really...single anymore?"

Montserrat tilted her head at him. She had no idea how nervous Rafael suddenly was, a true novelty for him because he didn't know that feeling before meeting her. He was wondering if he'd made a huge mistake asking her that, especially because she was taking a while to respond and he couldn't really read her face right now.

"Letting others know that we're dating? I thought you wanted to keep it a secret for now?"

"Yes, but I think the 'for now' has sort of...passed?"

"Oh."

"If you're not ready, just say so and we can drop this—"

"I didn't say that," Montserrat used her grip over his shoulders to bring him closer. "I was just surprised. I thought we were doing what you wanted...what we wanted…"

"I know, I know, I just thought - I've been thinking - it would be nice to let others know."

"Would it be?"

"Of course!"

A warm smile spread across Montserrat's face. Things were changing. He wanted to make their relationship known. She would be lying if she said that she didn't think about the same thing but there was a different feeling now that she knew he thought about it first.

"What do you think?" Rafael asked her. "Are we...are we on the same page?"

Montserrat nodded slowly, biting her lower lip. "I think we should. It would be nice to see their reactions. Of course that also means that we'd have to officially disclose to our bosses."

"At least you get to have your talk with Liv…" Rafael muttered. It would not be a pleasant moment for him when he had to see his bosses.

Montserrat chuckled and gave him a peck on the lips. "How about the day you have your conversation I give you a few kisses to ease you?"

"Before and after, right?"

"Of course."

"We have a deal then."

"I thought I'd have to argue a bit more here…"

"Not when it comes to you," Rafael's tone turned soft as he looked at her. Even if it made him completely nervous, he didn't care who he had to talk to in order to make their relationship known.

Montserrat felt the usual butterflies in her stomach when he looked at her that way. "So we're doing this? Disclosing…?"

"Maybe not right away, we could ease everyone into the idea...have one last bit of fun in the secret?"

Montserrat was quick to smirk. "Oh, I like that. One last game. I like the way your mind thinks. One of the reasons I'm attracted to you."

"Really? Is that the only thing?"

"Other things definitely factor in, but I'll get to those another day."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. And remember, please watch out for Amaro…?"

Montserrat laughed. "Oh my God! He's not even starting tomorrow!"

"I still mean it!"

Montserrat grabbed his face and kissed him again, making it a slow one. "An insecure Rafael is novelty but there's nothing to worry about," she whispered against his lips. "I can't wait to tell everyone that you are mine. In case there's anyone out there who thinks they have a chance with you."

Rafael chuckled lightly. "Right."

"Hey, I'm just saying."

"Goodnight, Montserrat." He looked her over with a content sigh slipping through. He gave her one more kiss before truly leaving.

Montserrat smiled to herself as she unlocked her door and walked in. She only realized that she was still under his coat when she moved to take it off. "Whoops." Just as well, another excuse to see him in his office.

"That dreamy smile means you had a good night," Kara's voice startled Montserrat in the middle of folding the coat in her arms.

"Jesus Kara, aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "Not until you're back home safe and sound."

"Seriously?"

"Alright, Sonny's snoring a bit more lately. I was so close to throwing him a pillow or something."

Montserrat smirked at her. "You wanted to go out with him. And you're the one who invited him over so...it's a you problem."

Kara mock-glared while Montserrat started heading for her bedroom. "Well, I'd say you're in a good mood but I can't actually tell. That's another thing you and Rafael have in common. You guys have the same broody faces."

Montserrat chuckled as she pushed open her bedroom door. "You're ridiculous. Go to sleep."

"Noo! Don't make me!"

Montserrat went straight for the foot of her bed where she could take off her heels. "By the way, this dress is now mine."

Kara gasped. "What?" she set a hand on her hip. "And why is that?"

"Because Rafael really liked this dress. Gave me some very fun moments."

"Oh, and here I thought you didn't get lucky again! The dress is so yours!"

Montserrat cleared her throat automatically. "Kara, don't say that. Nothing happened." She could practically hear Kara's mouth hitting the floor. "He just liked the dress."

"What!? But it's been over a month! I am so confused!"

Montserrat went for her vanity desk to pull her jewelry off. "Kara, please don't."

"I'm just curious why you haven't slept with that gorgeous man! I mean, he has his scary aura but I bet he's really good in—"

"Kara, if you truly love me, don't finish that sentence," Montserrat shuddered, much to her amusement.

"Is there something going on?" Kara asked after a moment. She watched Montserrat toggle with the ballerina necklace around her neck, her birthday present from Rafael. "I mean, I'm really not trying to pry but it's never really taken you this long…"

"It just hasn't happened, alright? Nothing wrong just...not the time." Montserrat offered her friend a kind smile, reassuring that what she was saying was true. "Now go back to your snoring boyfriend. I have work tomorrow."

"Yeah, alright," Kara waved her off and headed out the door. "And keep the dress!"

"Thanks!" Montserrat laughed. She unclasped her ballerina necklace and held it by the ballerina pendant. She smiled at it and sighed. "It just isn't right...for me." She put it down on the vanity desk and sat down to remove everything else on her face.

At least the dress is yours for when the time does come. Montserrat actually laughed to herself. The voice in her head was bold tonight. And honest.

She looked at herself for a moment, the dress she was wearing. There was a silly zipper on the back that she'd struggle taking down. Rafael would not. She smirked. He had wandering hands and as much as he complied with her wishes, sometimes he would slip. And sometimes she wished he would...for a bit.

She didn't know what it was nor why it was so difficult for her to be clear and not confused. She knew she wasn't quite ready to move to the next step and yet sometimes her body screamed that she needed to move on. She felt it. She rationalized, whenever she would get over the moments, that maybe she was moving towards the idea of it. That had to be a win. Time was she wouldn't even consider letting a man near her, much less hold her and kiss her like Rafael would.

Maybe in the future, things would move forwards.

~0~

It was early when Montserrat heard her cell phone go off. She would've cursed her late night sleep until she remembered what that night had entailed. She'd take all the sleepiness in the world. She left the apartment quick to meet Amanda at Hudson University.

Montserrat barely hid her contempt for the school as she walked into the resident building Amanda instructed her to. This school had so many problems all the time that she had already warned Gael to keep his daughter from applying here when the time came. Juliana shouldn't be anywhere near the school.

Amanda was waiting for her on the designated floor, already getting the jist of what they were dealing with. "I sent your partner and Fin up to the fifth floor to talk to the guys."

"Guys?" Montserrat caught onto the plural of the word. "So we have multiple rapists today?"

Amanda gave a silent nod and turned to walk alongside her down the hall. "The R.A. made the call. He found the girl in the lounge and she disclosed to him."

"And he directly called us?"

Amanda smiled at the genuine shock on Montserrat's face. "Yeah, I know."

"Guess he knows how the things really run," Montserrat mumbled.

The two detectives met with their victim, Evie Barnes, who was unsurprisingly reluctant to talk about the matter.

"I didn't ask anyone to call the police," she was pacing around her dorm, clearing things off like it was the utmost important thing to do that early in the morning. "I don't even want to press charges."

"It is your right but your assailants do live in the same building," Montserrat pointed out, watching how the piece of news made Evie pause for a slight second.

But just like that, Evie shook her head and continued to clean. "I shouldn't have told Justin their names, but he was just being so nice."

Amanda crossed the room to stop Evie from moving around so much. As was expected, the girl's head was everywhere and she was displaying with her fast feet. "Um... Can you... Can you just tell me what happened? You went to a party, right?"

Evie scrunched her face, assumingly thinking about the previous night. "I wish I'd stayed in my room and studied. But he knocked on my door. Daniel Pryor. He's one of the cool guys. He barely looked at me before last night. And then, out of nowhere, he came downstairs and invited me to a party. I should have known why."

"What do you mean?" Amanda stepped back when she noticed the new hesitation on Evie's face.

"This spring, before I started college, I needed money, first semester's tuition. And my dad was sick, so I answered an ad for modeling work. But... It wasn't modeling…" Evie purposely avoided the two detectives' gazes.

"Whatever you've done before, it has nothing to do with you being assaulted," Montserrat said cautiously. Evie was hugging herself, probably waiting for the opposite to be said.

"I think it does. They saw me. The modeling work, it...it was a video. It was...it was porn. Please, don't tell my parents!"

"Evie, like I just said, it does not matter," Montserrat took a few steps towards her. "But let's just take this one-step at a time. Did you take a shower?"

Evie shook her head. "No, the bathroom's co-ed."

"That's actually a good thing. We're gonna get you to the hospital, okay?" Amanda waited for Evie to agree. Eventually, the girl did.

~ 0 ~

Later in the day, Olivia gathered up her detectives into her office to hear what they had for their case. Rafael stopped by shortly afterwards but he was not impressed.

"18 with a bang," he handed Olivia the movie Evie starred in that they'd managed to find.

"Yeah, it's a series. They claim to get girls who dream of making a porno the day they become legal," Sonny said as the finder of said movie. "Most of these girls haven't been 18 in a while."

"But ours actually was," Amanda cut in to remind. "Evie. She even used her real first name."

"Film class is over," Olivia turned the movie's case over on the desk. "Whatever Evie did has no bearing on what happened to her."

"Well, these guys say it does. Because she wanted it in the porn movie, she wanted them," Fin said, only repeating what the two idiot college boys said to him and Sonny earlier.

"Right, and we're going to stop and believe them," Montserrat did very little to keep her sarcasm face hidden. Fin threw her a brief, mock glare. "Men, in general, are idiots, and college boys take the cake."

"I don't appreciate that comment," Sonny made a face beside her.

"I'm actually going with Carisi on this one," Rafael chimed in. Montserrat rolled her eyes at the two of them, but the slight smirk on her lips warned that she would very much enjoy if they poked more at her comment.

"Alright," Olivia ended the moment without knowing it. "Evie said no. She wasn't drunk. She gave a detailed account of the assault, and the exam in the E.R. was consistent with forcible penetration. The rape kit showed the presence of semen. So she made one first-timer pornographic video."

"Yeah, in New Hampshire. One of the few places you can still make pirn without a condom. Live free or die," Sonny said with a sarcastic grin that still made Montserrat glance his way.

"Please stop."

"What else do we know about Evie?" Olivia asked her and Amanda since they had been the only ones to speak to Evie so far.

"Her R.A. says she's a shy, nice girl. She has no history with law enforcement," Montserrat dutifully replied. "I've checked her record. She's squeaky clean. Kind of model if you ask me. She's made no prior allegations."

"It's still they-said, she-said," Rafael pointed out. It would still turn out to be a difficult case if that's all they had.

"But maybe not," Amanda suddenly said, "because at the hospital, Evie told me, after a minute, that Daniel turned on his cell phone cam. So she thinks that the whole thing might have been recorded."

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her, for a moment letting her annoyance seep through her words. "Rollins, you're just telling me this now? Novak—"

"She never told me that," Montserrat said fast, shooting Amanda a similar annoyed glance.

"It was just me in the room," Amanda explained again. "You were taking Carisi's call. And I haven't had a chance to speak with you today, sergeant."

"Well at least that's more promising," Rafael straightened in his seat. "I'll get you a warrant for his phone. See if the video confirms her story."

"Okay, Fin, Carisi, go back to these two," Olivia tapped a finger over their suspects' profiles on the desk. "Get me that video, if it exists. Rollins, Novak, find out everything about Evie's background, okay? No surprises."

All the detectives nodded their heads and filed out of the office to do their respective tasks.

"What do you think?" Olivia asked Rafael once they were on their own. She had half an idea of what he would say, but it was still nice to hope a bit.

"You know what I think. I'd like this case a lot more if she hadn't made a pornographic video."

There was a slight knock on the door before Montserrat opened it herself. "We've got uninvited company," she announced.

Buchanan stepped under the doorway, giving the detective a sharp look. "Is that any way to announce a visit?"

"You're right," she only offered him the briefest of smiles before looking at Rafael and Olivia with a flattened face. "I bring terrible company. Good luck."

Rafael smiled as she left the office. He wondered if she'd always been that amusing or if it was because now he knew that those sarcastic lips of hers were beyond talented. Plus, it was always nice watching her take jabs at his enemies. It showed she listened to him.

Montserrat seemed to guess his thoughts because when she closed the doors, she flashed him a smirk.

Author's Note:

Can I say that I just love writing these two in their fluff moments? They seem rare moments xD

P.S I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's also a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.