Work Text:
2013
As soon as Olivia stepped into the apartment, before she could even take off her boots and jacket, and lock away her service weapon, she was greeted by Elliot pulling her into his arms for a hug. She naturally relaxed into him briefly, and then was ready to leave his arms to greet her son she had missed all day long, but he didn't let her. Then she thought she was imagining things, when she heard Elliot count the numbers.
"El, are you counting?" she asked.
Elliot hummed but kept counting.
Fifteen… Sixteen… Seventeen… Eighteen… Nineteen… Twenty…
He stopped and moved his head just enough that he could kiss her.
"Welcome home, Sergeant," he greeted her with affectionate tone regarding her recent promotion.
"Hmm…." Olivia hummed in response.
He released her so she could put away her gun, take her shoes and coat off, before 6 year old Ben launched himself at her with loud squeal of "Mom" and Elliot sat back on the couch with his crossword puzzle.
The next day, when Olivia walked through the door, the same thing happened again. Elliot ambushed her and hugged her tight against his chest while counting to twenty. This time Olivia decided to question him before their son would take her attention away from anything else.
"El, you were counting," she stated.
Elliot hummed and kissed the side of her head, then turned around to go back to his crossword puzzle. But Olivia grabbed a hold of his upper arm and stopped him.
"El?"
Elliot sighed, and ran his palm over his face, preparing for defeat.
"I was counting," he admitted.
"Why?"
Elliot turned his eyes away from her. "I saw this article somewhere on the internet that a twenty second hug a day will relieve stress, release oxytocin and lowers anxiety," he said shyly. He scratched the back of his head. "I also read it creates stronger bond."
Olivia smiled.
"You should set a timer next time," she suggested.
Elliot lowered his hand from the back of his head and smiled. "I need to buy one first. I might call it my Liv timer."
Olivia rolled her eyes playfully. She reached for the back of his head and pulled it closer until she could press her lips against his. "Whatever you say," she said, released Elliot and proceeded in leaving her Sergeant gear in the hallway, so she could transition into a mom.
Elliot remained there; he stood in the same spot observing her.
"I wanna make that our thing. Every day when you come home, I wanna hug you for 20 seconds," he spoke.
"I like it," she replied with a smile. Yeah, she had noticed that they were not quite as connected as they were before he retired, and their relationship had seen better times. She also missed the way Elliot used to touch her before, the way he always found a reason to have his hands all over her.
"I also read that you need four hugs a day for survival and eight for maintenance," he continued.
Olivia took a deep breath, shook her head against the lovable idiot she was in love with, closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his neck in a hug. She kissed his cheek.
"Mom," Ben announced his arrival.
"Hi, my sweet boy," Olivia said, as she released Elliot and squatted down to hug Ben against her chest. "I missed you so much."
"I went to the park today and I played soccer. I scored against dad," Ben said proudly.
"You did?" Olivia asked and glanced up at Elliot, who simply shrugged.
Olivia back up, then bent a bit to pick Ben up in her lap.
"Liv, he's heavy," Elliot said with caution, but Olivia ignored him completely. She cooed at Ben and then took a step closer to Elliot so that they were nearly touching. Elliot's hand ghosted next to hers around Ben, wanting to take some of his weight off from her, but not really knowing how to.
"Ben, let's give dad a big hug, what do you say?" Olivia asked.
"Yes!"
Ben reached out and Olivia lifted him slightly, when his small arms went around Elliot's neck. Olivia held onto Ben with one arm and the other one was around Elliot, she leaned into him.
"I'll give you another hug for good night, perhaps a bit different type of hugging, so we get four, and we can work our way up to eight tomorrow," she whispered into his ear.
Elliot smiled.
"Mom, we built a LEGO house, come see," Ben turned back to his mother and tried to leap back into her arms, but Elliot held him and took him from Olivia, then lowered him to the ground, where he took Olivia's hand and guided her towards his room.
"You might wanna read how many kisses you need in a day while you're at it," Olivia suggested quietly, while allowing Ben to pull her away.
Elliot smirked, he looked after Olivia and admired her from behind. She turned around, obviously catching him, but she only winked her eye at him and swayed her hips just a bit more for him until she disappeared into Ben's room.
***SVU***
2021
Elliot got home late from his new job with OCCB, he had given Olivia a text letting her know that he'd be in a bit later, but making sure not to mention his determination to put Richard Wheatley away by any means possible.
Imagine his surprise, when he expected Olivia to be home with Noah probably ready for bed and Ben playing video games somewhere, but he was greeted by the boys watching TV on the couch waiting for him and Olivia nowhere to be found. Ben turned the TV off, when Elliot descended from the hallway.
"Hi dad," Noah greeted him with a smile.
"Hey boys, is mom home?" he asked cautiously.
"Mom sent a text that she'll be home late and not to wait up for her," Ben replied with palpable coldness.
"Okay. What's happening?" he asked with even more caution.
Ben crossed his arms and glanced at his younger brother, who had equally serious look. Ben squinted a bit and stared at Elliot, he had definitely picked up some tricks from Olivia.
"We wanna know if you and mom are gonna break up?" Ben was blunt.
Elliot's mouth fell open. Whereas he and Olivia had been having some – a lot of – problems as of late, he had been confident they hadn't let the boys see any of that, he was certain the boys hadn't seen them fight. They were trying to sort things out before telling the boys anything. Besides Elliot was confident Olivia didn't want to break up, neither did he. Hence why they were fighting, but also trying to keep the façade of a functional marriage and trying to figure things out.
"What makes you think that?" Elliot asked in his detective mode.
"First because you're home late and have no idea where mom is," Ben replied coldly.
Elliot shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes for Ben was right.
"And you never hug mom anymore, when she comes home," Noah added, then fell into thought and paused. "Or when you come home. You used to hug her for so long every night. You don't anymore. You don't hug her in the mornings either."
Elliot took a deep breath.
"And you've been sleeping on the couch a lot in the past year, since you went back to work," Ben added. "We're not stupid."
Elliot ran his hand over his face. He was so busted. And he didn't know what to tell them.
"Dad, we're old enough to know," Noah claimed, to which Elliot strongly disagreed.
"Yeah, and we have decided that if you divorce mom and move away, we will come live with you. I'm legally old enough to make that decision and you can't separate me from my brother," Ben added proudly.
Elliot furrowed his brow.
"Why wouldn't you wanna live with mom?" he asked, that was the most surprising thing so far.
Both boys were quiet.
"Noah?" Elliot prompted his youngest.
Noah pouted and crossed his arms. Ben warned him not to talk, but Elliot was staring the boy down until he eventually broke.
"Because we know that you and mom would never agree to this, so you can't move away," Noah said, he jumped up from the couch and ran to Elliot, who picked him up.
"Oh, Noah," Elliot said while soothing now crying Noah on his shoulder. He took a seat on the couch next to Ben, with crying Noah still in his arms.
He cleared his throat and ran his arm soothingly over Noah's back. He had been certain that he and Olivia were much better at hiding their problems but apparently, they were not good at all. He had seriously underestimated the observations from his sons.
"Boys, I need you to listen – me and mom are not getting a divorce and I am not moving away either," Elliot said firmly. Noah lifted his head to look at Elliot and validate his words while Ben kept looking at Elliot with crossed arms and disbelief written all over his face. "Yes, we're having some disagreements at the moment, but I can assure you that neither of us wants to live in separate homes. It's just a fight, boys, we're not even talking about the possibility of separation. I can assure you that you don't need to worry," he spoke, he meant every word.
"You promise?" Noah asked.
"I promise," Elliot replied.
Ben stared Elliot down, he was finally convinced, so he uncrossed his arms, then turned the TV back on.
"What are we watching?" Elliot asked.
"New Spider-Man movie," Noah said, he turned to watch the TV, but remained sitting in Elliot's lap.
Elliot released the breath he'd been holding, glad to have diffused the problem before it could escalate or even worse before Olivia came home.
Olivia arrived home past midnight, when the boys were already asleep and Elliot was sitting on their bed on his side with his phone in his hand, he was still wearing his suit with his tie loosened and some of the buttons opened. She entered the bedroom quietly expecting Elliot to be asleep, but she was surprised to see him awake.
"Hey," she greeted him
"Hey," he replied.
He got up from the bed, dropped his phone and approached her. He slid his arms around her midsection and hugged her.
"Elliot," she said with a sigh.
"Liv," he replied.
"I don't have the energy to have sex tonight, I'm so tired," she said with slight annoyance.
"Not expecting sex," he replied.
"Then what are you doing?"
"Hugging you for twenty seconds to relieve stress, anxiety and release oxytocin."
Olivia sighed, but didn't reply, she relaxed into him and breathed in the familiar scent of him which used to have a soothing effect on her. They hadn't done that in awhile.
It was probably much longer than 20 seconds, when Olivia started pulling away and Elliot let her. They shared a brief look with Elliot almost thinking about kissing her, but the moment passed and they parted.
"Why are you still awake?" she asked, as she started taking off her work clothes.
"Waiting for you," he said, he gave her some space and went to the other side of the bedroom.
"Did something happen?"
Elliot was quiet for a moment then took a deep breath, turned back to her and for a moment considered not mentioning getting ambushed by the boys, but then changed his mind. "They boys had some questions."
"Yeah? About what?"
He swallowed. "About us." Olivia squinted her eyes at him and raised an eyebrow. "About us breaking up," he elaborated.
"What?" she asked and stopped trying to get her shirt over her head and let it slip back down.
"I told them we're not breaking up, but they know something's up," Elliot spoke.
"How?"
Olivia went back to pulling the work shirt over her head, while Elliot turned around.
"I think Ben has seen me sleep on the couch sometimes and I don't hug you anymore," Elliot spoke.
Olivia sighed. She'd finished undressing herself and was looking for her sleepwear.
"I was scared that might happen," she said with regret, she was pulling on his shirt she had been sleeping in and was locating her shorts. "What did you say?" she asked.
"That there is no reason for concern," he spoke.
"You can turn around now," she said and proceeded in putting all of her clothes into the laundry basket or back in the closet. "Did they accept it?"
Elliot nodded. He looked at her and inhaled. "They said that if we break up, they wanna live with me," Elliot said, but regretted pausing the second he saw her face fall. "Olivia," he gasped and closed the distance between, then pulled her into his arms again. "No, no… they love you. They just know you'd never let it happen, so you can't kick me out. You're a great mom," he spoke quickly and kissed the side of her head. He rubbed his hands on her back soothingly.
"I don't wanna break up," she admitted.
"Neither do I," Elliot agreed.
"I think we should talk to someone," she decided.
"Like a shrink?"
"Yeah. I think we need it."
Elliot rolled his eyes. He didn't believe paying someone way too much just so that he and Olivia could argue on that fancy couch would help their troubled marriage. But he'd do anything to save it.
"But right now, I need to sleep," Olivia ended the discussion.
"Do you want me to take the couch?" he asked with caution.
"No. I think we can share the bed, we've been doing this for awhile for an appearance of a functional marriage," she said and rolled her eyes.
Elliot huffed. He released her to get changed while Olivia went to the bathroom. Elliot got to the bed before she did, but when she arrived, he didn't roll over to her side or even make a move to gain some physical contact.
They woke up in the middle of the bed wrapped into each other when the alarm went off. Her head was against his chest and his arms were protectively around her, their legs tangled together. Old habits die hard.
***SVU***
2023
When Elliot opened the door, he was greeted by a smell of pasta and loud noises of boys playing some sort of racing game.
"I'm home," he announced his arrival.
"In the kitchen," Olivia voice rang out.
Elliot took off his badge and placed his gun in the gun safe next to Olivia's. He left his jacket next to her elegant coat and his boots next to her ankle boots with low heels. He watched the timer he had placed on the hallway wall set to 20 seconds. He loosened his tie as he walked by the living room and greeted the boys, but he barely got a response as they were so into the game they were playing and probably didn't even notice Elliot walking by.
His next stop was in the kitchen, where Olivia was stirring the pasta sauce and keeping an eye on the boiling pot of pasta.
"Hey," he said softly.
"Hey," she replied, but didn't turn her eyes from the sauce.
Elliot frowned for he wanted more from her, if not physical contact at least he wanted to see her smile. Therefore, he took matters into his own hands and approached Olivia from behind and wrapped his arms around her midsection, his chin ended on her shoulder and he pressed a quick kiss into her cheek.
"Hey," he tried again.
"Mmm… Welcome home," she replied.
She turned her head towards him and kissed him. She pulled away to put her focus back on the pasta sauce, then turned the heat to low and turned her attention to the boiling pasta. Satisfied with the maturity of the pasta, she turned the plate off and lifted the pot to pour the pasta into the sieve already waiting by the sink, but Elliot didn't bulge and kept his arms around her.
"El?" she questioned.
"20 seconds, babe," he replied.
"Elliot, seriously?"
"The pasta can wait, but you can't, you need your oxytocin now and so do I."
Olivia sighed and put the pot back on the plate. She resigned and turned around in his arms. She rose to her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her cheek into his shoulder and closed her eyes.
"One... Two… Three… Four…" she started counting.
"It still counts as one, just so you know," he teased her.
Olivia smiled. "What's that? Number four? Five?"
"Five."
"Mmm… Just means I get to hug you three more times today."
Elliot smiled to himself approvingly and kissed the side of her head. "You can hug me as many times as you'd like," he said. Everything was perfect for the following 20 seconds. He remained happy for having read that article about hugging a decade prior, there probably was some truth to it.