Drabble: You've been hit!
Title: You’ve been hit!
Author: interpretthis
Fandom: Law & Order: SVU
Pairing: Elliot/Olivia
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was Munch’s idea to take the annual department office party to the ever-so-sophisticated field of laser tag, foregoing the usual stuffy restaurant for a good ol’ every-man-for-himself showdown.
Notes: For kansasspice.
It was Munch’s idea to take the annual department office party to the ever-so-sophisticated field of laser tag, foregoing the usual stuffy restaurant for a good ol’ every-man-for-himself showdown. After providing the bored-looking teenager at the desk with their “code names” and securing their laser vests, the team was set free into a cavernous world of snaking ramps and tunnels, a world whose walls crawled with neon stripes and bright webs of glow-in-the-dark paint.
Olivia, who had never been laser tagging and wasn’t entirely sure just yet what she should do, was marveling at the network of vibrant light and weaving darkness before her when she heard a thick zap and saw the panel on her gun flash:
You’ve been hit by the MUNCHINATOR!
Olivia whipped around, leveled her own gun, and pulled the trigger. There was an answering zap as her laser beam connected with the target on Munch’s chest. She gave him a sly grin and ran up a ramp to her left, losing herself in the maze.
She stopped behind a wall on the second floor to get her bearings. The darkness was intoxicating. Anyone could be aiming at her from afar. Anyone of her friends could be hiding in the darkness. And the best thing about it? Nobody could die. Nobody would die. It had been so long since she’d had real fun.
She heard a screech from the lower level and peeked through a slant in the wall to see Fin (code name: “The Finisher”) zap a laughing Casey (code name: “Novakain”). Olivia grinned and shot Fin, who glanced around wildly, unsure of who had hit him.
Olivia took off to her left, giving Cragen (code name: “Captain Cool”) a sheepish grin and shooting him in passing as she zipped around another corner, climbing higher.
As she ran down a long, dark corridor high above the ground, she heard another whirring zap, saw You’ve been hit by HELLiotRAISER!, and turned with a wide grin, finger on the trigger. Another zap and she’d hit Elliot square on the chest. Another and her screen flashed wildly. She took off again, laughing, weaving her way through the labyrinth of darkness and bouncing neon, Elliot’s heavy steps following close behind. She whipped around a thin wall and hid, hand clasped over her mouth, trying not to let her breath and silent laughter betray her. She breathed carefully, quietly, in and out, in and out, vision bright with neon and dark with the absence of it.
And then suddenly he stood before her, grin plastered across his face, eyes bright, gun at his side because he didn’t need it to prove he’d beaten her. Her hand fell away from her mouth. Silence hung between them for one second, two. One moment they were playing laser tag in a giant, timeless, darkened room - playing kids - and the next their big fake guns were hanging at their sides and their faces were close, so close in the darkness and Elliot’s lips were brushing her cheek and he was inhaling sharply against her skin and Olivia’s fingers were dancing over his hot neck and they were breathing each other’s air softly, quietly, and their hearts beat once, twice and the targets on their chests were close enough to zap zap zap each other.
And then all at once the room deflated, laser sounds fading into silence. The game was up. Elliot kissed her forehead and Olivia slipped their fingers together and they made their way out of the maze together, leaving the safe exhilaration and the shared breath and the silly names to sleep in the neon-dark world forever.