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Sonny found that it had gotten increasingly harder for him to do things when Rafael was around. Like right now for example, he was missing the final episode of his favorite cooking show because Rafael was laying on his chest, reading a book.
He wasn’t demanding attention, he wasn’t even mouthing off to whatever was on, he was reading quietly, engrossed in what seemed to be a crime novel. Sonny had been curious about that choice, given their line of work, but Rafael had explained that he liked to judge the Detectives’ competence and think about what he would have done differently from the lawyers in the story.
Rafael had explained it nonchalantly, unbothered as he opened his book where he’d last read, but Sonny had been stunned by how goddamn endearing it all was.
They had shifted and turned on the couch until they’d both lied down horizontally, Sonny with one foot on the ground so Rafael could fit between his legs and lay comfortably against his chest. Sonny had been immediately distracted from then.
He’d caught himself watching Rafael’s eyelashes flutter against his cheeks as he blinked, he’d watched Rafael’s fingers run across the pages, following words. He had even started reading along with him, his nose buried in Rafael’s hair, breathing in the fresh smell of his shampoo.
The TV show was long forgotten, and Rafael read faster than him, so Sonny stopped following the story and got lost in the rhythm of Rafael’s breathing. He was struck by how amazing this was, just being with Rafael, coexisting beyond their bouts of passion on top of white bed sheets.
It’d been a couple months now and they’d spent every weekend with each other, between their apartments, going out to dinner, and even going to watch a play on Broadway once. Sonny had also convinced Rafael to join him at a janky dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen one time, where they found a corner to drink, eat appetizers and whisper provocations into each other’s ears.
Sonny closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, thinking back to the feeling of Rafael’s body pressed so close to his under the low light of the bar. He’d felt so young, so free, flirting with his work crush and sharing slow kisses.
“What are you thinking about?,” he heard Rafael suddenly ask. He blinked his eyes open to see Rafael had closed his book, bookmark in place, and set it aside.
Sonny wrapped an arm around his middle and squeezed. “You,” Sonny said. “Us, in that nice tiny bar in Hell’s Kitchen.”
Rafael hummed, smiling knowingly. “That was a nice night.”
“It was,” Sonny inhaled again, and Rafael’s eyes fluttered closed. “I think I might be falling in love with you.”
Rafael’s eyes opened immediately, and he moved slowly so he could turn to his side and look up at Sonny. “Oh. Really? Last time we talked about it you said you had a crush.”
Sonny nodded, brushing away the strand of hair that fell on Rafael’s forehead. “It started as a crush, but then you made that ‘get yourself a kewpie doll’ comment that one time and I knew there was something else there. It made me want to kiss the living days out of you right in front of Liv.”
“Yeah? Well, let’s say I wasn’t unaffected by your show of brains,” Rafael smirked slowly. “I couldn’t ask you to bend me over the desk so the next best thing was teasing you.”
Sonny couldn’t help the loud laugh that escaped him. “Is that your seduction strategy?”
“It has worked pretty well for me so far,” he said, cheeky.
“So that ‘booyah Fordham Law’ was you trying to resist my charms, too?”
Rafael chuckled. “Yes, and the ‘obfuscate? Yummy’ as well.”
Sonny laughed again, even louder, remembering the look on Rafael’s face when he said that. It was sassy at best, provoking at worse. “Wow. That puts a lot into perspective.”
“What about you?,” he asked, then moved over to lay between the backrest and Sonny, getting more comfortable when Sonny wrapped an arm around him and Rafael pillowed his head on his shoulder.
All the while, Rafael’s bright green eyes never once left Sonny’s light blue ones.
“Well, I thought you were attractive from the first time I met you,” Sonny started.
“Of course.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled. “You were wearing a cream suit and I was like who is this guy and how did he manage to pull that off? So firstly my interest was purely for your fashion sense.”
Rafael was already pretty self-satisfied already, but he pushed, “Until?”
“Until I got to shadow you. We spent, what, two weeks together every day? I got to know you as a person and I was intrigued, to say the least.”
“Was that when you got a crush?”
Sonny considered it for a moment, thinking back to the time he’d felt like a pining fool whenever Rafael was around.
“I think so, but I only realized it much later, when you started getting the death threats,” he frowned. “I was so worried. I mean, I’d be worried for anyone in the squad, but because it was you, I was terrified. I just felt so protective of you, and I couldn’t explain it.”
Rafael smiled softly. “I see why you were the head of my protective detail team.”
“I had to be, I had to know that you’d have people taking care of you. I put the fear of God into those Unis, I swear,” he laughed self-deprecatingly.
“Really?”
“Yeah, when they were briefed I made sure to tell them what I’d do if anything happened to you. They had to know your safety was top priority, and Liv backed me up.”
He raised an eyebrow at Sonny. “You threatened the Unis? That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“I know,” Sonny sighed dramatically. “That’s when I was like oh. ”
Rafael laughed lightly. “Ah yes, I know all about those oh moments.”
“When did you have one about me?,” he asked, settling deeper into the couch and pulling Rafael closer to him.
“I had more than one, to be honest,” Rafael started. “You know how stubborn I can be.”
Sonny hummed in agreement, then laughed when Rafael threw him an unamused glare.
“Were any of them when you saw my mustache?”
“Absolutely not,” Rafael said without hesitation. “That thing was horrendous. But maybe there was a tiny oh when you shaved it. I felt betrayed that you had kept your attractiveness hidden away like that.”
Sonny laughed again. “Just a tiny oh?”
“A minuscule one,” Rafael smirked.
“Okay, then tell me about a really big oh .”
Rafael paused, thinking about it. Sonny could see it in his eyes, the moment he went back to that time to reminisce on everything that happened between them through the years. After a couple minutes, he spoke, his voice soft and low.
“It was a little after yours, when I went to identify Heredio at the line up,” he said, and Sonny tightened his grip on him reflexively. “You never left my side, then I asked you if you still wanted to be an ADA and you said you were thinking about it, but not immediately, not after what happened to Dodds.”
Sonny nodded. He still got an intense wave of sadness whenever he thought of the time Mike had been at the hospital. Every night he still thanked God for bringing his best friend back from that.
“Yeah, I remember,” Sonny said. “You said there was an opening in Brooklyn.”
“I did.”
Sonny tilted his head. “Then what was the oh moment?”
Rafael looked at him fondly, a hand reaching up to caress Sonny’s chest. “You said you couldn’t leave just then because it didn’t feel right, because of Dodds. And that show of heart just…”
“Oh?”
“ Oh .”
Sonny smiled fondly and dipped down to kiss Rafael. The other man’s mouth immediately fell open to him and the drag of their tongues together was wet but lazy, neither in a hurry to turn this into anything other than a casual, quick make out session.
Rafael was an amazing kisser, putting his passion into it the way he did with everything else, and Sonny constantly found himself unable to stop drawing kisses from his addictive mouth.
From the very first time they kissed, Sonny had been amazed to find just how compatible they were in the way they moved and the perfect pressure they traded back and forth as they licked, nipped and sucked kisses from each other.
When they parted, Rafael’s eyes were shining. “I knew I was in love with you the day you made arroz con pollo for me,” he said, and Sonny’s jaw dropped slightly.
Rafael chuckled at him and kissed his parted lips softly. Once, twice, until Sonny was able to speak again.
“That was almost a month ago,” Sonny said, sounding just as breathless as he felt.
“I know,” Rafael sighed dreamily. “But I walked in and it smelled divine . You looked so gorgeous in your dark blue apron, rolled up sleeves, and you were so happy to just cook my favorite meal... I knew I never wanted that to stop.”
Sonny blinked rapidly, his chest filling with so much emotion he felt overwhelmed for a second. “Oh,” he breathed, because God he loved this man so much.
Rafael laughed, his nose scrunching up with it. “Did you just have another one?”
“I think I did,” he beamed at Rafael, feelings blowing up inside of him. He was sure Rafael could feel it under his palm. “I’m in love with you, Rafael.”
Rafael smiled back at him, eyes bright. “About time.”