Work Text:
Carisi could barely concentrate on what Barba was saying because the man kept pacing, moving like a pent up animal beside his desk as he drilled Sonny on the case they were working. Sonny hadn’t taken a note in five minutes, distracted by Barba’s increasingly frequent outbursts in angry Spanish and the way he had rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt.
Sonny chided himself for being one step away from scribbling hearts in his notebook, trying to rub his eyes awake with one hand. When he glanced down at his watch the display read 10:39.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I boring you?” Barba broke in, staring Sonny down with irritation.
“No, it’s not that. I was just thinking that we should call it a night maybe. Make a fresh start of things in the morning.” He ran his fingers nervously through the back of his hair. Barba regarded him with tight-lipped skepticism.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. You don’t work for me on Saturdays,” Barba snapped. Even though it was counterintuitive, when Barba got all patronizing it made Sonny's insides go molten.
“No I know, I mean… I don’t mind. Coming in that is. I gotta have dinner with my sister tomorrow night, but there’s plenty of time to work on the case before that…” Sonny stopped talking before the babbling got out of hand, swallowing a nervous laugh with difficulty.
There was a moment where Sonny thought that Barba was going to lay into him again and it made him shrink back in his chair, but instead Barba moved to collapse onto his uncomfortable looking leather sofa with apparent exhaustion. He reached over to the table beside him and poured a generous whiskey.
“You want a drink before you go?” He asked, the bottle poised over a second glass as he waited for an answer. Sonny’s heart seized in his chest, going dumb as his mind rapidly filtered through a million competing thoughts. Barba never asked him to stay for a drink. But they didn’t usually work this late, and in fairness whenever they did work together things tended to end with Barba shouting him out of his office.
Barba made a movement to pour before Sonny finally spoke. “I can’t,” he said, tripping over the words and waving his hands no. It pained him to refuse, after all, this was how all of his best fantasies started. Sonny imagined that he saw a look of disappointment cross the other man’s face. Unable to let the moment pass, Sonny launched into an unnecessary explanation. “No, I mean I want to. I just, sorta gotta be somewhere,” he finished, looking down at the missed texts and calls on his phone.
“Then you’re dismissed Detective,” Barba said, capping the bottle and taking a drink of whiskey as he watched Carisi shrug into his overcoat and pack up his briefcase with heat. Sonny couldn’t even look over at him, his sprawling posture on the couch making Sonny’s mouth salivate and go dry simultaneously.
Clearing his throat he said goodbye with a flustered half-smile. “I’ll see you in the morning Counsellor.” Then after a pause, “Uhh, nine?” He asked, trying to regulate his breathing as he turned to face Barba full on.
When he nodded his assent Sonny concentrated all his energy on moving to the door at a regular speed instead of a sprint and slipped out into the darkened hallway.
This crush was a problem. It had been manageable before they’d started working on legal stuff together – good idea dummy, Sonny mentally scolded – but now that he spent half his week with him he was barely sleeping. His brain was full of Barba all the time. His suits, his voice, the way he smelled. Sonny groaned knowing he could get hard in seconds just thinking about it.
Glancing at his watch again Sonny winced. He was so fucking late, they were gonna kill him. He hadn’t expected work to last so long, but once things started going with Barba he couldn’t bear to tear himself away.
“I just need to stop thinking about him,” he muttered firmly, jamming a finger into the buzzer of his friend’s apartment and waiting to be let in.
*****
That the man had gotten under his skin was becoming painfully obvious. Barba shook his head darkly as he swilled the last of his whiskey around the bottom of his glass. What was he thinking, offering Carisi a drink late at night in his office like some lothario. Barba scoffed. He needed to go fuck someone before he had to spend another day being tormented by the younger man’s presence.
Slipping his suit jacket back on he closed up the office, downing the amber dregs in his glass before he left. There was a bar he always went to near his apartment and Barba gave the address to the cabbie as he settled in the back. The clock in the taxi read just after midnight.
When he saw the line spilling out onto the sidewalk, Barba remembered again that it was Friday. It wasn’t a fetish bar, but there was certainly a wide variety of dress represented by those waiting for entry. Instead of joining the queue, he walked down an alley to the side of the building and was let in a back entrance by the owner, who knew him and didn’t mind if he bypassed the line to drink quietly at the bar.
It was hot and smoky inside, probably because the place was packed, blue-lit everywhere by strobing lights. Barba immediately shrugged out of his blazer and made his way to a stool that stood away from the press of the dancefloor.
He ordered a double and put his back to the counter to scan the crowd. Barely 10 minutes had passed before he spotted him. There was a group of thirtysomethings lingering against one wall to the side of the dancefloor, and in their midst stood the very thorn that wouldn’t leave his side. Barba’s intensity should have burned a hole straight through him, but Carisi didn’t clock him at all and Barba turned so that he could only see him in his periphery.
For a minute Barba seriously considered just leaving, the coincidence too much for him to take and threatening to overthrow his self-control. But before he had made a decision one way or the other, he noticed Carisi staring at him from across the room. In a second it was too late. Carisi dislodged himself from his entourage and weaved through the crowd in the direction of the bar.
Barba froze when he registered what Carisi was wearing. Some sort of sleeveless mesh top and fitted black jeans with torn knees. Lust washed over him as he met Carisi’s squinting look, which turned into a smile when he finally reached the counter.
“I thought it was you,” Sonny said, just loud enough to be heard over the music. He had the tact not to seem surprised to see Barba in a place like this. It hardly mattered, Barba could barely focus, shamelessly trying to make out the details of Carisi’s lightly muscled torso through the gaps in his shirt. With a laugh, Carisi realized what Barba was staring at. “Oh, yeah. My friend Georgie sort of twisted my arm to let him dress me,” he said, pulling at the fabric to indicate that mesh wouldn’t have been his first choice. This time when he spoke he leaned in closer so he didn’t have to shout, warmth and the not unpleasant smell of sweat radiating from him.
Barba bit back a reply that would have left no doubt about how good a choice he thought the outfit to be, instead saying nothing.
Sonny felt momentarily self-conscious, but the feeling was quickly replaced by the easy confidence of alcohol.
“I guess we will get to have that after work drink,” he said, leaning past Barba to signal the bartender.
Now it was Barba who was flustered by the situation. Here, outside of work, it was impossible to deny how much he wanted him. Carisi was different off the job. There was an ease to him that stayed hidden beneath the surface when he was busy at the precinct or sifting through files at the district attorney’s office. But away from all that Carisi’s earnest charm was given free reign and Barba had to try not to glower with jealousy when the bartender wrote his number on the napkin that he passed Carisi with his drink.
“Cheers,” Carisi said, presenting his glass for toasting. They brought their cups together and each threw back the entire contents.
“So, what’s the occasion?” Barba asked, finally recovering himself enough to make conversation.
Carisi looked quizzical with a how-did-you-know expression as Barba signalled the bartender to bring them two more drinks.
“Well, you don’t exactly strike me as the party hard, out every Friday type,” he said by way of explanation. “I am actually sort of a perceptive guy Dominick,” Barba said in an attempt to be funny.
Sonny’s laugh was genuine, but it also served to gloss over how it made him feel to hear his name coming from Barba’s lips. No one ever called him Dominick, but he certainly had no problem with Barba doing it.
Then Sonny looked sheepish, fighting off a blush and forcing himself not to reflexively run his hand through the back of his hair as he answered. “It’s uh, it’s my birthday,” he said shrugging loosely. “It’s after midnight right?” he confirmed, taking a quick look at his watch. 12:42.
Barba was taken aback. “You never said anything,” he replied lamely.
“I dunno, it never really came up so… It’s not a big deal. I mean, I’m not a big birthday guy or anything. I sort of got roped into this whole bar night anyway.” It was harder to stop the babbling this time. Barba’s eyes were directly on his when he looked up, the intensity of it flooding his body with desire.
“Why did you say you’d work tomorrow?” Barba asked in confusion.
“Because I do want to work tomorrow. I love working with you.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth they drew attention back to the tension that always lay there between them. “You’ve helped me get so much better at all the legal stuff,” he clarified, in an attempt to backtrack away from the emphatic language of his previous statement.
“Well, I know I’m a pretty demanding boss, but I don’t know that I want to have you working on your birthday on my conscience,” Barba said, taking a sip of the fresh drink that had been set down in front of him.
Now Sonny looked distressed. “No, I want to work tomorrow,” he said, raising his voice a little louder than was strictly necessary.
“Why in the world would you want to spend your birthday working with me?” Barba asked, turning over the ethics of flat out forbidding Carisi from setting foot in the office until Monday.
“Why wouldn’t I want to spend my birthday working with…?” The reply was instinctive, guileless, and completely unplanned. Sonny, only seeming to realize his blunder mid-sentence, left the word “you” hanging unspoken between them.
Barba’s mouth opened to speak, morphed into a little ‘O’ of surprise, said nothing, then closed again.
The embarrassment that would normally have crippled Sonny after his candid revelation was nowhere to be found. Instead, he felt bolstered by the whiskey coursing through his veins. Without hesitation he stepped forward, took Barba’s face between his hands and pulled him into a kiss that both of them had been waiting for a very long time.
After the initial contact Sonny pulled back a little, a question furrowing his brow. In response Barba hungrily dragged Carisi’s mouth onto his again with one hand at the back of his neck and the other upon his lower back, fingers easily moving under the hem of the mesh shirt to find bare skin.
The kiss was hot and greedy, Barba’s tongue seeking entrance to Sonny’s mouth after only a few moments, Sonny sliding his hands down to feel the build of Barba’s shoulders beneath his shirt.
Barba felt the lean of Sonny’s weight pressing down upon the length of his torso, the man tightly situated between his legs. When Sonny’s touch moved to explore the hard lines of Barba’s thighs, steadily travelling towards the rigid bulge in his pants, Barba gasped.
“Dominick,” Barba groaned warningly into the other man’s mouth, tracing the curve of his ass with both hands. As he kneaded the flesh beneath his fingers, Carisi attempted to thrust against him, breathing ragged as he let his head fall onto Barba’s shoulder.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sonny said, lipping at Barba’s neck as he spoke, eyes dark with lust. A feral smile appeared on Barba’s face as he placed a handful of bills on the bar and led Carisi by the hand through the press to the back exit.
The second they hit the alley Barba pinned Carisi to the side of the building, rolling their hips together to create the friction they were in such desperate need of and eliciting a moan from both of them. Sonny groaned in frustration when Barba took a step back
“I can’t wait,” he whispered, drawing Barba back into a kiss that pulled their bodies flush. “Please,” he begged, taking Barba’s hand and placing it over the place where his cock was straining at the front of his jeans. Without hesitation, Barba began to stroke him through the fabric.
“Is this what you want?” he taunted, even as Carisi’s head fell back on the brick in ecstasy. “You want me to make you cum in your pants in this filthy alley?”
“Fuck yes,” Carisi said through gritted teeth, the tendons standing out in his neck as he got closer to the edge.
“Look at me,” Barba ordered.
“Rafael,” Sonny whimpered pitifully when their eyes met, the way he said Barba’s name sending a jolt straight to his painfully erect cock.
Why had they waited so long to do this? Now that it was happening Barba couldn’t think of a reason. All of the months they’d spent working together had been building to this moment.
In an effort to alleviate some of his own need, Barba forced Carisi face first into the wall, aligning their hips so he could rut against his ass while he brought him off.
“I’m so close,” Carisi said with a gasp. “God I wish you were inside me,” he groaned as he felt the rhythm of Barba’s thrusts.
“I will be as soon as I get you back to my place. Fuck I want to feel the clench of your hole. Hear you cry my name,” he said, voice low and gravelly at Carisi’s ear.
The words sent Carisi rocking desperately into Barba’s hand. “I’m cumming.” His movements stuttered to a halt as he coated the inside of his boxers with hot spurts of cum. He fell forward bonelessly, the wall and the arm still wrapped around his waist the only things keeping him standing in that moment.
When he turned back to face Barba his look was soft and blissful.
“Happy Birthday,” Barba said meaningfully.
Carisi smiled as he tried to regain his composure, chest heaving as he drew deep lungfuls of air into his body. Taking a step back Barba admired Sonny’s outfit again, raking his eyes over him with obvious pleasure.
“Whoever your friend Georgie is, I’ll have to thank him later. You look so completely fuckable I don’t know how you could possibly have been alone in that bar before I got there.”
With a blush, Sonny shot him a skeptical look. “Are you fucking kidding me with this? Coming from the guy who wrote the fucking book on looking fuckable? I mean, let’s be serious. God I just want to touch you all the time,” Carisi gushed, approaching Barba again, kissing him and letting his hands trail over his chest. When one hand dipped lower and grazed his hard, oversensitive cock, Barba jerked away from the touch.
“I live a few blocks up. Let’s get going or we’ll need to find another alley before we can make it there,” Barba said in half-jest. They moved out onto the street together.
“What, you mean you don’t wanna go back to the office? ‘Cause, if I’m being totally honest, that’s definitely on the to-do list for me.”
“Never say never.”
“Hey, wait a minute. You came here to pick up some other guy who wasn’t me.”
“Maybe. Why? Are you getting jealous already?”
“I’m not jealous, just what would’ve happened if I hadn’t’a been there?”
“But you were there.”
“But what if I wasn’t?”
“You were,” Barba said with a smile, silencing Sonny with a kiss.
“Okay, I’m gonna let it go for now, but that doesn’t mean I’ll forget.”
“Whatever you say.”