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Bruno lets out a small groan. Rubbing his fingers against his temples, as he pours himself another cup of coffee from the break room.
"You okay, Bruno?" Silva asks, walking up next to her partner.
"Yeah. I'm good, just remind me never to go out drinking with Fin ever again." he says, handing her the pot so she can fill her own empty cup.
"You should have seen him, Silva, he was completely wasted," Fin says, stepping into the breakroom and heading for the vending machine.
"Okay, hold up, I wouldn't say I was completely wasted," Bruno says defensively, leaning back against the counter and holding his hands up like he's about to be put under arrest.
"You started singing along to the song that was playing at the bar." Fin points out. Silva raises her eyebrow, smirking.
"Alright, alright. So I sang, big deal." Bruno mutters, pushing off the counter and heading back toward the bullpen.
Fin chuckles, tearing into his snack. "You and I have been out more times than I can count, and not once have I heard you sing. Couple shots in you and suddenly you're auditioning for The Voice."
Silva's mouth curls into a smirk as she leans her hip against the counter. Her coffee resting between both hands, "Oh yeah? What song?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Bruno shoots back with a smirk, already making his way toward the bullpen.
Fin lingers just a step behind, leaning toward Silva with a grin. "Wagon Wheel. Old Crow Medicine Show," he tells her, loud enough for Bruno to catch every word.
Silva shakes her head, grinning over her cup. "Figures—only takes a few drinks to turn you into a country star."
Bruno groaned under his breath as he sank into his chair, setting his coffee cup down with a muted thud on the desk. "You guys are impossible." Silva and Fin followed suit, taking their seats with matching smirks.
"What's going on?" Velasco asks, brows knitting in confusion.
"Bruno got drunk and sang last night," Fin says, grinning.
"You sing?" Velasco asks, shocked.
Bruno rakes his hands over his face and over his hair. "Do you know how to keep your mouth shut?"
"Nope," Fin says, still grinning. Enjoying the chaos he is causing for his colleague.
"What song did you sing?" Velasco asks.
Before Bruno can answer, Benson walks into the bullpen. "Can I have everyone's attention?"
"Thank God," Bruno mutters under his breath, relief in his tone.
Only Silva catches it, her smirk widening as she turns around in her chair to face the Captain.
"What's up, Captain? Do we have a new case?" Silva asked, leaning forward slightly, her tone casual, though curiosity edged her voice.
"No." Benson's gaze softened as she gestured toward her. "Actually, Silva—this is about you."
A crease formed between Silva's brows, confusion flickering across her face. Around her, Velasco, Bruno, and Fin exchanged quick glances before looking at her.
Bruno leaned forward, lowering his voice in a mock whisper. "What did you do this time?"
Silva turned her head just enough to catch his eye, a sly smirk tugging at her lips. "Wouldn't you like to know." Bruno mirrored her grin and eased back in his chair, arms crossing loosely over his chest.
"I've just received word," Benson says, a smile breaking across her face. "Our own Kate Silva has passed her sergeant's exam."
Silence falls over the room. All eyes turn to Silva—surprised at first, then breaking into smiles. Bruno is the first to stand, clapping loudly and proudly. Velasco and Benson join in one after another, their applause echoing through the squad room.
The clapping stills as all of them start walking over to congratulate her on her promotion.
"When'd you take that?" Fin asked as he pulled Silva into a quick hug.
“Before I joined SVU,” she smirks, pulling back from the hug.
“Well, way to go. Sergeant Silva. I like the sound of that,” Fin said, giving her shoulder a friendly pat.
Silva turns around to face a smiling Bruno.
"Congrats, partner," Bruno says, giving her a fist bump.
"Thanks," she says.
"Congrats," Velasco says, pulling her into a hug.
"Thank you," she says, pulling away.
“Hey! Drinks on me tonight,” Bruno called out as he made his way to his desk.
Silva raises an eyebrow before pulling her chair out and sitting down to continue working on her case notes from earlier.
“Alright, moneybags. You sure you wanna do that after last night?” Fin chuckled.
“I’m sure,” Bruno shot back smugly, dropping into his chair.
“Good,” Fin grinned. “Then I’ll make sure to run up the tab.”
Silva smirked down at her notes.
"What?" Bruno asks softly, noticing her smirk.
“Nothing,” she said without looking up.
_____________
Silva pulls the heavy bar door open. She was already late, and everyone was already gathered towards the center of the room, drinks in hand, chatting. No doubt waiting for her to get there, so that Benson could do her usual celebratory toast.
She meets Bruno’s gaze across the room, and his laugh fades into a smile. He quickly says something quietly to the beat cop he was speaking with, before stepping away, and making his way toward her with two beers in hand.
“There you are,” Bruno says with a smile as he walks over to her, his arms spreading slightly as if to say, Took you long enough.
“Hey,” Silva replies with a teasing smile. “Isn’t it a little early in the night to be double-fisting beers?”
He chuckles. “Nope," he says, grinning in his usual goofy manner. "Besides, one of them’s for you.” His smile broadens as he hands her the beer he hasn't started drinking yet.
“Thanks,” she replies, returning the smile before taking a sip. “So, How long you been here?”
The door swings open behind her. A well-dressed man and woman stand there, waiting for her to step aside.
“About ten minutes,” Bruno replies, taking a sip of his own beer. He gestures for them to move closer to the wall beside the doorway so they don’t obstruct the people entering. "So, have you gotten your assignment yet? I'm guessing you put in for one after you found out."
"Uh... yeah... they put me back with Brooklyn Homicide," Silva says, her gaze dropping to the ground before she lifts her eyes to meet his.
"What? You don't want to go back?" Bruno questions, raising an eyebrow.
"It's not that. I just... I was finally starting to figure out SVU, you know? And now I'm being sent back to homicide. I like homicide, I really do, but..." she trails off, a hint of frustration creeping into her voice.
He looks down for a moment before meeting her gaze again. "But you don't feel like you've paid your penance," Bruno finishes. She looks at him, her lips slightly parted, an expression of uncertainty flickering across her face.
"Something like that, Bruno," she replies, a smirk playing at the corners of her mouth as she takes a swig of her beer. He shakes his head, a smile forming on his lips, before taking a swig of his.
They lock eyes for a long moment, the surrounding noise fading into a soft hum as they become lost in each other's gaze. The noisy atmosphere around them dimmed as they stared into each other's eyes. The tension between them radiates through the air. However, the moment lasts only a second before the sound of Fin's booming voice pulls both of them out of their trance.
"Hey, Silva, get over here. Bruno, you too," Fin yells from the center of the bar. The partners glance at each other, rolling their eyes but smirking playfully. They share another brief look before turning back to the squad and making their way over.
_________
"So, Silva, Bruno holding you hostage over there? How long you been here?" Fin asks, laughing.
"No, was just bringing me a beer," she says with a smile, looking to her side to give her partner a quick glance. "I just got here a little over five minutes ago."
"So when you leaving us?" Velasco asks
"Why already ready for me to leave, Velasco?" She says jokingly, smirking. "End of the week, I start back up with Brooklyn Homicide next Monday."
"Well, we'll miss you here Silva." Benson says with a smile.
She smiles. "Thanks, Captain."
"To Sergeant Silva," Benson says, raising her glass. "I'm sad to see you go, but Brooklyn homicide will have one hell of a sergeant helping them out."
"Here, here," Fin says as everyone else in the squad raises their glasses before taking a sip of their drinks. After, everyone individually goes over to Silva, congratulating her on her promotion. All but one person who was standing idly by, leaning against a wall away from the crowd, waiting for the commotion to die down.
Silva walks over to him after the swarm of people surrounding her has died down.
"What? I don't get congratulations from my partner?" Silva smirks, giving him a hard time.
"Please, I gave you a celebratory fist bump earlier." Bruno rasps with his signature charm and smile. He hangs his head for a minute before lifting it again. His piercing blue eyes stared into her brown ones. "So this is it, huh? one more day and I lose one of the best partners I've ever had."
"And I lost one of the worst." Silva jokes, making him shake his head and laugh. This was their partnership from the jump. The ability to give each other a hard time without offending the other. Their humor matched from the beginning.
"You know, Silva, I'm going to miss having you as my partner. As well as our monthly game nights."
"Hey, just because I am leaving SVU doesn't mean our monthly sessions of me dominating you at Sorry have to end." They both laugh before a silence falls over them. They lean one of their shoulders against the wall, facing each other, drinks still in hand, staring into each other's eyes.
Silva breaks the silence a moment later. "For the record, Bruno, I'm going to miss having you as my partner too." They stare at each other, smiling for another minute, before Bruno shakes his head, his face filling with a look of realization.
"What," Silva asks softly enough for no one else to hear her, but loud enough for him to hear her over the ruckus being caused by the drunk cops several feet away from them.
Bruno looks to the side towards the rest of their squad. "Nothing..." he looks down, "I just..." he looks at her. "Now I know how Velasco felt when Muncy left."
"Who's Muncy?" Silva asks, confused by the comparison.
"Muncy was Joe's partner two years ago. They'd always bicker. Pretty sure they liked one another, because when she left for the DEA Task Force "He well..." Bruno looks over at Velasco, who is currently talking to Fin, smiling and having a good time. "He became kind of lost." Bruno looks back over at her. She shifts her gaze towards Velasco for a moment before looking back at Bruno. A silent awkwardness falls over them. The weight of Bruno's words was floating in the air around them.
Bruno sucks in a breath, "But you know Sergeant Silva doesn't sound half bad," he breaths, forcing an awkward laugh.
She laughs. "Yeah," she breathes. He awkwardly takes a swig of his beer, staring out into the middle of the room, watching his colleagues. "Hey, Bruno," Silva says.
"Yeah," he says, shifting his attention back to her.
"Thank you," she says.
He squints, confused. "For what?"
"For being my partner, having my back, and teaching me the ropes of SVU," she says, smiling.
"No, problem," he says, smiling, and both of them take another swig of their beers. Before they once again find themselves in a staring contest with each other. They stay like that for a couple of seconds before Silva finally leans in and kisses him. He kisses her back. His hand goes to the side of her cheek, switching their position on the wall so that her back is against it and he's in front of her. They pull away.
"Oh, so we are doing PDA in public now," Bruno jokes.
Kate shrugs.
"I'm not with the unit after tomorrow anyway." They smile at each other before leaning in for another kiss. His arms circle around her waist as the kiss deepens, before they once again pull away from each other, their foreheads touching for a second, before Silva leans back against the wall.
"Hey, do you think they'll notice if we bail early?" She leans towards him more, her hands going to the side of his arms.
"We?" Bruno says, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I mean, if you’re for it?" she teases, raising her eyebrow.
Bruno smiles and looks around. Everyone is engaged in some kind of conversation. He looks back down at her, "Let's go," he says quickly.
She smiles before pushing him away from her and making her way to the bar's entrance, trying to discreetly escape her own going-away party. Bruno follows close behind.
Fin watches them from afar and shakes his head. "I knew it." he mumbles to himself before tuning back into his conversation with Velasco.