Law and Order: SVU imagines and preferences

Barba ending

food. While everyone else went off in different directions you and Barba stopped by the break room.

You made a beeline to the fridge and started pulling out everything that was in there.

"What are you doing?" Rafael asked, incredulous. He stood behind you, looking over your shoulder.

"Getting food." You replied. "Here, can you carry this?"

You tossed him a sub which he almost dropped.

He inspected the wrapper. "These aren't yours, this is stealing. This literally says officer Daniels on it."

"It'll all get ruined anyways since the fridge isn't working." Without warning you threw him another sandwich.

"Hey, stop throwing them, jeez." He muttered. "You know, you could get sued for stealing other people's food."

"Are you going to be the one to prosecute me?" You turned back to look at him with a mischievous look in your eye. You loved these little banter moments you had together. They were especially refreshing considering the seriousness of your job- sometimes you needed something to make you laugh. And rafaels dry wit never failed to do that.

He pursed his lips, deep in thought. "No, you could defend yourself by saying the food would have gone bad. If the owners of the food came back and ate it, they could get sick. So technically you could say you saved them from a stomach ache."

"See!" You laughed. Without asking Rafael took some of the sandwiches and chips in your arms.

"I hope one of these is a BLT." He said.

"If there isn't one I'll buy you one." You replied without thinking. A blush crept across your face as you realized the implications of what you'd said. Okay, okay. You could play this cool. You resisted the urge to blurt out some half assed correction.

Rafael smirked. "Really, you'd buy me a sandwich?"

"I mean, I guess. Yeah." You made your way to the door, making sure to keep your eyes away from him. If you looked at him right now you didn't know if you could control yourself- you'd either vomit from excitement, jump his bones, or cry from nervousness.

"I like that. There's a deli a couple of blocks from here. They have the best BLTs." He smiled but he had a serious look in his eyes. He was studying you carefully, trying to gage what you were really thinking.

You shifted and finally raised your gaze to meet his. Anxiety clouded your brain. Could he see the look in your eyes? The look that revealed how much you actually liked him? Fuck it, he was a lawyer for gods sake, he probably already had you figured out. Time to throw caution to the wind.

"Maybe when it's not blizzarding." You smiled. "That sounds like fun."

Something unspoken passed between the two of you. It was like you had realized that you liked each other, like a spark that had been there ignited. Even though your heart was pounding you weren't nervous. Everything seemed to just .. Make sense.

"Then it's a date." Rafael said. The smile reached his eyes finally as he was certain you liked him back.

You nodded in agreement, glancing at the ground then back up at him, not even trying to hide how happy he'd made you. "Okay. It's a date."