Chapter Text
Sonny had just finished putting the leftovers in the fridge and was starting to fill the sink with soapy water when Rafael walked out of their bedroom, wet hair and towel around his waist.
“What are you doing?” Sonny asked, faking frustration.
“Just grabbing coffee,” Rafael said with smile, and then took a sip of coffee without breaking their eye contact. He made a happy humming sound before turning to walk back to the bedroom. Once he stepped into the bedroom, Rafael undid his towel with one hand so that Sonny had a shot of his ass before shutting the door to get dressed. Sonny returned to the dishes after an eyeroll and giggle, he moved extremely slow, distracted by the image of Rafael’s ass. The older man had grown increasingly more confident in his body since they got together, Sonny wanted to hate how cocky he had gotten, but that same cockiness is what gave Sonny those same images day after day.
Ten minutes later, Sonny was drying his hands after finishing the dishes and Rafael was walking out of the room. “How do I look?” He asked. Sonny’s answer was his frozen hands and dropped jaw. “Hello, earth to Carisi.” That statement brought Sonny back.
“Don’t call me that. Not today. You call me Sonny today.” The younger man said sternly.
“How about husband? Can I call you husband?” With that, Sonny went soft again. He walked over and raked over his partner, his soul mate. Rafael is wearing a white suit, it wasn’t painfully white, but a pure white, matching with his soft, silk white button up. The lapels were lined in black, his bowtie was black, and so were his shoes. Sonny couldn’t help but think he looked the best he had ever looked, he wasn’t sure if it was the color of the suit or if it was the fact that in less than three hours the man in this suit was going to be his husband.
Sonny kisses his cheek. “Not until 1:30,” he responds, with a light smile.
“Go, get in the shower, we have to be at the court house in an hour,” Rafael said, tapping lightly on Sonny’s ass as he walked towards the bedroom to get in the shower.
At the doorway of the bedroom, Sonny turned around and looked at Rafael. “I love you.”
“Yeah yeah, I love you too,” Rafael said, turning to look at Sonny.
“I can’t wait to finish our lives together,” Sonny said before turning to enter the master bathroom. Rafael smiled. Sonny said finish, he always says finish together because, “We have already started our lives together, Rafi, this is just our next chapter,” Rafael remembered that line from the day he had proposed.
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The moment Sonny walked into his office, Rafael went weak-kneed.
He always went weak-kneed when he saw Sonny; it took everything Rafael had to keep them from buckling.
“I ordered Chinese to go,” Sonny said, holding up the bag of to-go food. Sonny was perfect, he knew that Rafael was busy, he knew that he was forcing himself to stop his work for their date night. This was why Rafael loved Sonny.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Rafael said with a sympathetic smile on his face.
“I know I didn’t, I wanted to, I want to spend time with you, it doesn’t have to be at a restaurant. In fact, I kind of prefer eating in your office. It reminds me of our beginning.” With that, Rafael stood up, walked over to Sonny, kissed him and whispered,
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Sonny responded. Finally, Rafael lets his weak knees buckle, one of them landing on the floor. The door was still open, everyone could see them, hear the boxes of Chinese food crash to Sonny’s right side. “What are you doing?” He asked, taking his right hand and swinging the door shut with a slam so they were finally alone.
“I don’t have rings. We can go pick those out together.”
“Excuse me,” Sonny said. Rafael chuckled and opened his mouth to finish.
“I love you so much, Sonny. An-”
“I love you too.”
“Seriously, I am trying to ask you to marry me, can you please stop interrupting.” Rafael said without any hint of anger or frustration in his voice.
“Yes.”
“Okay, Dominick ‘Sonny’ Cari-,” turns out Sonny couldn’t help it. He blurted out his answer before Rafael could finish the question.
“Yes. Yes I will marry you. Now please stand up so I can kiss you,” Sonny said, pulling Rafael up by his wrists. Rafael let him, chuckling. He still felt the need to ask the question, he didn’t know why, but he had to ask the question. Maybe to prove to himself he could. After Sonny cupped Rafael’s face and finished kissing him, Rafael put his hand on the younger man’s chest and started over.
“I can not wait to start my life with you, will you marry me?”
Sonny didn’t say yes, instead he responded, “We have already started our lives together, Rafi, this is just our next chapter.” Rafael grabbed Sonny’s waist and pulled him in, wrapping his hands around the
younger man’s back, and kissed him. Sonny couldn’t figure out if it was a hard of soft kiss. All he knew was his heart was beating hard and his feeling for this man were so soft.
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Rafael had just set his coffee down and sent his final email for the day when Sonny walked out of the bedroom. His graying hair was pulled back with a little bit of gel, just enough for it to stay without looking greasy. It was the same way he always did his hair, but there was something especially beautiful about it today. Maybe it was the way it matched the rest of his outfit. Could hair match an outfit? Rafael wasn’t sure, but in this moment, he would swear it could. The way the all black suit, and button up hugged Sonny’s body made Rafael glad he had something to lead on. The white tie he wore contradicted everything else in the outfit but somehow manage to compliment the white in his hair. That was it. The way the white tie seemed to match both Rafael’s suit and Sonny’s whiting temples, that was what reassured Rafael that they were meant to be together. He didn’t believe in fate or serendipity, he believed in choice and purposeful actions; until Sonny. When that lanky, Italian chef walked into the precinct, he realized his entire life was leading up to this moment. Going to Harvard, becoming a lawyer, an ADA, transferring to Manhattan SVU; it was all for Sonny.
Sonny straightened his tie, buttoned his jacket, and smiled at the man staring at him. Rafael immediately pushed himself off the edge of the counter, catapulting himself towards Sonny. He needed to touch him, to feel that this was real. Once he reached the taller man, he wrapped his arms around his waisted and pressed his forehead to his chin. Sonny reflexively kissed the top of his head as he wrapped his arms around his shoulders and Rafael immediately sunk his head down so that his forehead was touching the younger man’s chest.
“Did you call a car yet?” Sonny asked without letting go.
“No, I will right now,” Rafael responded without budging. Sonny held Rafael a little tighter.
“It’s okay, we have a little bit of time,” Sonny said before taking Rafael’s head in his right hand, lifting it up, and kissing his forehead again. It was soft at first, and then Rafael leaned into it and Sonny made no move to end the contact.
After several minutes that felt like seconds to the two men, Sonny pulled away and bent his head down, touching their foreheads. “We should probably head out before Amanda spam texts me.”
Pulling away slowly and as little as possible, Rafael grabbed his phone and ordered an Uber. They had agreed on no fancy cars or drivers, it was just another day, just another chapter in the middle of the book that was their life together.
“It will be here in six minutes,” Rafael said before slipping his phone into his inside breast pocket and looking at Sonny. “You ready?”
“Since the moment I met you.” Sonny kissed Rafael’s forehead one last time. It was quick. Too quick for Rafael’s liking, but he knew it wouldn’t be the last time so he let it happen. “What about you? Are you ready to be a Carisi?”
“Depends, are you ready to be a Barba?” Rafael quipped back.
“I am ready to start our own legacy, I am ready to start the Barba-Carisi family,” Sonny said with the same certainty in his voice that he had when said I love you for the first time, with the same certainty he had when he said yes to Rafael’s proposal. That certainty kept Rafael grounded everyday for the past four years.
“Well lets go,” Rafael huffed out with a smile, grabbing Sonny’s hand and leading him out the door after they put on their jackets. Sonny smiled and his blue eyes sparkled brighter than the shiny black shoes he was wearing.