Chapter Text
Rafael Barba
He told her what he felt and left.
For years he held it down, never confessing but always realized he cared for her. They have been acquaintance for years, working by each other side until he quit the DA office and decided to become a defense attorney.Never in a million years he wished to be back in New York under these circumstances. He wanted to see her smiles and laugh like the old days. Although they managed to video call each other during the time he was away, but the last embrace they had before he left always remained on his mind. His memories and feelings towards her were the only reasons that fueled his decision to defend Richard Wheatley.
He could see it. The way Stabler handled the whole situation, involving Olivia and dragging her career to the tipping point of the scales. Another wrong move and she would have lost her career for good.
Barba couldn't bear that happening to her. Not to Olivia.
"What I don't get... why you feel more anger at me than you ever let yourself feel towards Stabler?"
It was a genuine question that Barba deep down knew the answer to. But he needed a final confirmation from her.
She was denying, deflecting and most importantly defending her old partner which had left her for more than 10 years. From there, he knew it wasn't going to go anywhere else.
"Please don't tell me how I feel." she said sternly. He knew he was hitting it right at her home, the exact place he wanted it.
Someone has to say it. If she was going to think he's the villain in her story, so be it.
"In this case I can. Because I do know how it feels to love someone unconditionally." He watched her fell silent upon his words. It was his confession, it was his feelings, it was his sentiment for her and it was also his frustation.
"When you are ready to stop feeling betrayed by me, I'll be here." He broke the silent to her lastly, eyeing those once warmed eyes of hers before getting up from his seat and walked passed her.
"Rafa." She called. He stopped just beside her, refusing to looked at her.
"What?"
"I miss you too." He felt his face softened just for one second. But it was too late, he has made up his mind. At least for tonight.
He walked out of the bar, stopped a taxi then hopped in. He then instructed the driver to head back to his next destination, another bar that he knew of, a few blocks from here. He closed off his eyes briefly, swallowing of his bitterness of his previous encounter.
He did it. He's her villain now.
It didnt take that long for him to arrived at the next bar. He nodded the familiar bartender whom he hadn't seen in a while and sat on the empty bar seat, except for a woman sitting at the end of the bar.
"The usual. If you still remember." Ordered Barba. The bartender nodded and worked on the order.
Rafael looked around, the bar hasn't change much as he could remember. There wasnt much customers in, just a few tables filled and two people sitting at the bar, the woman he saw and Barba himself.
She was Asian in her thirties with long flowy hair and was wearing a white cardigan. She was eyeing her own drink, raising her glass to drink with a blank expression as if she was spacing out.
"Here is your drink."
Barba nodded at the bartender and just eyed the scotch infront of him. He couldn't finish his scotch at the previous bar, not after his encounter with Liv.
"How long are you planning to let the ice melt into that drink?"
Barba turned and saw the woman looking at him, the drink in her glass empty. She eyed him softly as if she was concerned .
Barba picked up his drink, "You need to let the ice melt into the scotch, you know. For temperature and taste."
"I know that." Said the lady smiled lightly, her words rolled in a foreign accent. "I was just trying to make a conversation."
She sounded genuine to Barba, not a tinge of flirt nor making fun of him. Her eyes, though seemingly tired and concerned, it also radiated in curiousity. As if she just found an amusing stray cat on the street.
Barba unconciously smiled as he took a sip of his drink. He lost a drink company tonight, might as well earn a new one.
"I'll have what he's having." Said the lady. "Double."
Barba gulped in surprised among hearing the request. He looked at the bartender fulfilling the request, before handing in the glass to the lady.
"Tough day?" Asked Barba to the woman. "You might want to dawn that slowly."
"I know." Said the lady eyeing the glass, she raised her glass and looked at him "Kanpai?"
"Salud." Said Barba raising his own glass and taking a sip once again of his drink.
The two didn't talked much and just enjoyed their drink in silence. Both knew that another conversation was bound to happen soon, but the two seemingly was still enjoying their solitudes with the drink in their hand. After what seems like eternity, more people started to flow into the bar. As tables and seats were starting to be filled in, Barba spotted the woman's eyes once more, eyeing the seat next to him. He tilted his head to the seat, signaling her to come over. A whiff of bergamot found it's way into Barba's sense as the woman finally sat next to him.
"I guess people do come in much later at night." Said the woman sipping her drink again.
"In case you did not notice, we actually started drinking around 5 PM." Said Barba crispily before sipping his drink again.
"Fair enough." Said the women leaning back at her chair, eyeing Barba on the side. "Early leave from the office then straight to drinking?"
"You can say that." Said Barba folding his arms on the bar table. "What's your story?"
"I just quit my job." Said the women with a slight smirk. "I'm celebrating."
"By yourself? That sounded lonely." Said Barba. He found the women slightly intriguing, from the her body language she looked genuinely happy to be celebrating on her own. "You must have hated your job."
"Not really. No." Said the women eyeing the her own glass once again. "I love it. But it gets frustrating sometimes."
"An emotion everyone has in common." Commented Barba twirling his glass before taking a sip as he remembered his own love and frustration he left at Forlini's.
"How about you? What's your love and frustration?"
Barba was never really one to talk about his feelings much, not until he met Olivia. Back then they would be console in each other about so many things, the case, their personal lifes, she was by his side when his abuela died. She was his anchor, the colorful painter to his black and white world, the one that he would eventually love unconditionally.
The one that eventually ended up frustrating him as well.
"Unconditional love." Said Barba finally after some thoughts. "Using sentiment such as love as an anchor to justify any actions to says otherwise. It will get frustrating in the long run."
"Will?" Asked the woman, her glass stopped in mid air. "Are you manifesting?"
"Not a manifestation." Said Barba watching her amusement. "Just being realistic."
"Cheers to reality I suppose." Said the women offeeing her glass for a cheer with him. The two glass clanked and they came to sip their drinks again.
"I've never seen you here before." Said the women, eyeing his appearance. "But the bartender knows your order, so I assumed you came back here after a while."
"I usually go to Forlini's." Said Barba loosening his tie. "Things happened and I ended up here. This is my second bar go-to."
"Don't let the bartender hear you that." Said the women cheekily. "He gets jealous."
"I heard that, Iori." Said the bartender with a raised eyebrows as he mix an order not far from them. Iori just winked and poked her tongue in mischief to him in which he just smiled and shaking his head. The playful interaction between the women and the bartender does amused Barba a bit.
"You must have been a regular then if he calls you by name." Guessed Barba. "Iori sounds like a very uncommon name."
"Uncommon indeed." Said the woman sipping her drink again in agreement. "I go by many names but Iori is one that stuck."
She peered into his eyes afterwards, "Is your name uncommon too?"
"I'm afraid not." Said Barba rolling up his sleeves, exposing his forearms. "Millions would have the name Rafael. I bet at least a couple hundred in this city alone."
"Sounds like a very common gentleman name indeed." Said Iori agreeing once more. "You looked kind of familiar now that I think about it. Were you on TV once?"
Barba raised his eyebrows, there's no doubt that the Wheatley case has been responsible for that. Involving underground criminal organization activities and even goes as far as bombing, the entire trial was all over the news, gaining possibly the whole attention of the city.
However Barba was not in mood to brag nor to lead Iori to it. He hated the case and hated how it led into his conflict with Liv. Wheatley might be gone in that crash, but the consequences of his actions spreads like wildfire, leaving those affected either dead, jailed, physically wounded or mentally screwed. He wasn't proud being Wheatley's lawyer. Protecting Liv was the only reason he would defend that piece of garbage.
And now even she is gone.
"Are you okay?" Iori's question broke his silence, she looked concerned once again. "Look, if you are not comfortable with the subject I can drop it."
"No it's not that." Said Barba shaking his head shamefully. He smiled a bit, "I was on TV at times. Sometimes I do get interviewed for the job."
"Cool." Said Iori. "And your job..?"
"Defense Attorney." Revealed Barba, secretly wishing that she won't connect the dots of him to any of the Wheatly case coverage.
"Oh.." said Iori as her amused expression just faded away upon his answer.
"Did I dissapoint you?" Asked Barba, now it was his turn being amused of the change in expressions.
"No..not really." Said Iori looking at her own glass, seemingly thinking. "It's just that... I do get it if you are ashamed of the job."
"What do you mean?" Asked Barba sipping his drink again. "I'm not totally ashamed of my job. It's just..."
"The people you represent." Finished off Iori slowly peering up to him once again. "They're not all good people, weren't they?"
Barba fell silent, he knew it wouldn't be professional of him if he answered the question honestly. He could divert the question easily into another topic, that is what he was trained to do in his job, to control the conversation, manipulate the agenda of the jury etc.
But not here. Not infront this women he barely knew of, Iori. Heck he doesn't even know anything about her other than her name and her employment status.
After a while he finally answered, "I can't answer that."
Iori tilted her head, her dark irises was staring at his, as if she was trying to find out if he was hiding something. She blinked and for a split second, Barba saw a flicker in her eyes and her mouth grew a bit into a daring smile.
He is Rafael Barba, a renowned ex-Asistant District Attorney turned defense attorney. He was known for his sharp and daring performances in trials. He pressured countless criminals to plead and sent them to jail. He broke and torn appart witnesses that may jeopardize his cases on the stand, earning enemies left and right..
And yet here he was, finding himself being stared down by a younger woman he barely knew of in a bar, without violence. It was as if he was back on the stand of a cross-examination.
Barba could swear for a split second he though he was facing a much younger, intimidating, asian version of Rita Calhoun.
He gulped, unconciously. Her eyes blinked once again, and broke into a chuckle. His heartbeat was secretly still pounding hard, but slowly calmed down upon seeing her laugh. He coughed and scowled as an attempt to speed up the process, watching her shaking her head and patting herself on the shoulder as she slowly come down from her laugh.
"I guess I still have it in me.." she said with a proud smile to herself.
"Are you finished?" Asked Barba. He felt slightly annoyed by the stunt Iori pulled on him. But in the same time he was secretly impressed upon it. Her eyes was piercing on him, as if it was trying to dig secrets out of him. Her smile.. her daring smile was what caught him the most. It wasn't flirty nor naughty but it was if she was challenging him. Daring him to see if she could dig into him faster than he can hide the secret inside him.
"I'm sorry for that." Apologized Iori offering a hand to shake as a piece offering. "I forgot that I'm not what I used to be."
Barba frowned upon her answer but accepted the hand to shake anyway. "I'm sorry, do you actually do that to every man you encounter at the bar?"
"No." Said Iori leaning back on her seat once again. "Just towards lawyers that's all."
"So you have a hobby to intimidate lawyers then? How interesting." Said Barba no longer annoyed but once again, amused.
Iori scoffed with a smile, "I used to be a procecutor back then. It's not a hobby, that's my jobdesk."
No wonder she was that good.
"No wonder I thought I saw Calhoun for a sec.." he muttered to himself, bringing his drink to his lips again.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Nothing." Said Barba putting down his drink. He watched Iori swepting her hair behind the ear, showing a black and dark green piercings on her ear. Seemed very exessive for a regular procecutor to have that many piercings, not that he was judging.
As if Iori can read his mind as he eyed the piercings, she smirked. "Don't worry. I have resigned since six years ago. I'm no longer involved in courts and trials anymore."
"Really?" Asked Barba raising his eyebrows. Iori nodded. "So what do you now? Or at least.. what were you doing before you quit your job today?
"Funnily enough, I'm a cook." Said Iori with a sheepish grin. "I used to work at a restaurant downtown. But yeah.. I just quit that."
Now that is interesting.
"A cook? You?" Asked Barba impressed once again. This woman was definitely full of surprises. "You're not joking are you?"
"How could I lie infront of an attorney?" She smiled at him, giving him another daring smile. "Can't put myself in perjury, can't I?" she shrugged.
Barba froze at the daring smile once again, it was the same one she gave previously. Only this time, her eyes was on to him with a tantalizing sparkle.
Damn, she's good.
"Are you hitting on me?" He asked the woman, returning the smile in intrigue. He knew the answer, but he wanted a confirmation once again.
"Did you feel like being hit on?" She asked back with a surprised expression before returning back to the tantalizing smile once again. "I'm sorry. Do you want to press charges against that, Counselor?"
Shit, she is good.
"Fine, I'll bite." Chuckled Barba before leaning in to Iori closer. "Tell more about yourself, Ms. Iori."
They talked non-stop at least for the next two hours.
Barba learned more about her. She's Japanese, specificaly from Kanagawa, the eldest of two siblings and has a profound love for alcohol borderlining alcoholism.
No wonder she didnt mind the double scotch.
She didnt say much about her prosecutor days, but Barba noticed her eyes sparkled again when mentioning about food and cooking. Coming to New York for her was like going on an adventure, especially with the amount of multicultural influences blending together in the city's food industry, it was as if going on a trip around the world just in one city.
Then it was his turn to tell about himself. He didnt sell out much, just the basic like his cultural background, educations etc. When he mentioned his Cuban background, Barba saw her eyes sparkled once again.
"You're Cuban? Wow.. what is Cuban food like? I haven't had one yet." She curiously asked him.
Before he knew it, he was describing her the food that he would have in his household since he was little. He watched her listened to him in genuine interest, nodding once in a while, urging him to keep describing it as well as describing himself.
If his abuela was still alive, Iori would get along well with her. He sadly imagined his abuela alive in the kitchen at home, stirring a pot of stew with Iori peering next to her, asking what she put in the pot and all other things.
The two former procecutors continued to exchange stories about themselves and what they do. Barba was careful not to spill much details of his cases and so was Iori. Slowly she opened up about her cases back when she was a procecutor in Tokyo, Japan. Barba can see her eyes weren't as sparkling as to how she talked about food and cooking but he can sense that she was still fond of her old job.
Sipping drinks and laughing together, the two continued to enjoy each other's company. For a moment Barba was not thinking about him and Liv and just simply enjoy his conversations with Iori. Exchanging light banter and subtle inviting looks, they were the two people that other people would whisper about in the bar. The one that everyone in the bar will start betting on if they will continue even after leaving the bar.
Before they knew it it was already late. It wasn't midnight but Barba and Iori was talking for hours and had at least 1 more order each of their drinks. Together, they paid their own tabs and walked out the door, still laughing at each other's story.
"This is nice." Said Iori after they were out of the bar, smiling widely at him.
The night was cold, but the alcohol inside Barba has sucessfully spread warmth throughout his body. Though that wasnt the only warmth he felt tonight.
"How was that for an unemployment drink?" Asked Barba. "Not that lonely anymore, I hope?"
Iori shook her head. "Nope. I had a good time, Rapael."
Impulsively Barba smiled, in an attempt to hold his laugh.
"What?" Asked Iori. "Was it something I said?"
"No it's just..." Barba tried his best to compose himself. He knew he should not be laughing at her accent. "You.. have a really cute pronounciation of my name."
Barba watched her face blushed upon his words. She averted her eyes from him, smiling sheepishly as if embarassed but also smitten by his compliment.
"Kuso, 'F' to wa ienai.." she muttered embarassedly, sounded like she was cursing herself in her language. "I should really practice pronouncing your name properly."
"I can help you practice." Offered Barba tilting his head slightly in interest towards her. "The night is still young."
He watched her mouth curled in smitten once again upon his words. Amused, he saw her turning her head away from him as if urging herself not to fall for his offer.
"I'm afraid I can't." She answered, seemingly trying her hardest to compose herself. "You see, I have an early day of prepping kitchen tomorrow and-" he raised his hand to stop her.
"Did I just caught you in a lie?" Asked Barba taking a step closer towards her, giving his own best cross-examination look towards her. "You're unemployed now, remember dear?"
He watched her jaw dropped in shock. She was flustered, shocked and speechless. Her eyes were blinking a lot as if trying to snapped herself out from his attempt on her. After what it seems like a minute, she closed her jaw closed her eyes, biting her lips.
She then opened her wasn't and peered back towards his eyes, this time she wasn't smiling nor challenging him. Instead she gave him a playful puppy eyes.
"You caught me." She sighed, then her eyes shifted into a pair of alluring orbs. "Are you planning to arraign me tonight, Counselor?"
Barba felt another wave of warmth spreading through his chest and travelled to his neck and face. This time is was his turn being smitten by her.
Barba watched her break character and laughed at his expression. He couldn't help not to chuckle as he shook his head, beyond amused of his findings tonight.
"Let me call a cab. I'll teach you along the way." He smirked and raising his arm to stop a cab.