#emdashes

Mike: Best Friend’s Older Brother. Think about this. It feels right doesn’t it? He’s mature, a bit emotionally aloof, holds his professional relationships in high esteem, and very protective. Imagine you’re best friends with his younger brother and quietly pining after Mike, but not doing anything because you’re younger than him and you don’t want to damage your relationship Matthew (his younger brother). Years pass and *gasp* he sees you for the first time as a viable romantic prospect, and precedes to pine. And pine. And pine. He could just be coming back from Ranger school (jacked af, this is important), but lacking human connection. You could be moving back to New York for the first time since childhood and Mike offers to reteach you the ropes. If you’re a fan of jealousy, you could even reconnect when you first start dating another member of the squad. I want to see Mike bottle up his feelings forevvver and accidentally come off as cold and then counteracting it be being quietly vulnerable then go back to being cold until he realizes he is irrevoably in love with you and spills- my favorites are guiltily (because of a miscommunication naturally) or accidentally (because it fills up his mind and his heart so much that it just -slips) 

Peter: Exes. I’ll admit, Peter was a tough nut to crack because I can’t imagine doing anything to mess up his professional relationships or do something wildly reckless/immature even under stress. So when was a time where he wasn’t like that? To see the young, carefree side of Peter. Answer is exes. You knew him in high school, when he was a cocky talented baseball player (he was the jockiest jock to ever jock you can’t convince me otherwise). You knew him in college, still cocky but a bit more focused on his studies (cue a studying montage, late night movie marathons, and helping him *stretch*). You knew him as a ball player, young but still very talented (you could wear his jersey too, I dunno I don’t make the rules). You knew him when he got his injury and when his sister was diagnosed, forced to deal with all of life’s curve-balls (pun very much intended), but still managed to be mature and kind to those around him. And then you break up (messily, maturely, with a bang, or with a whimper). But reconnect when he’s at SVU. For Peter, I think a more equal power dynamic would be better so imagine FBI agent on a special task force assigned to work with SVU or a new ADA who’s there to help the 8th floor. 

Rafael: Enemies Rivals to Lovers. This one practically wrote itself. The witty banter would be OFF THE CHARTS, the teasing and flirting disguised as professional tension slowly leading to greater and greater emotional and professional intimacy- until one day something snaps and you’re making out like your life depends on it. This situation works well with people who are forced to work together, so another ADA would be most obvious choice, but we have other options as well. Think a victim’s advocate (a position in some courthouses to protect the interests of the victim and sometimes help prep them for trial), or a bodyguard (oh I like this one, shielding his body from gunfire?? Going to his house and meeting his mom??), or a stubborn sergeant he has to go on a long road trip with to interrogate a suspect with waaaay in upstate New York. 

Nick: Hooking up to Real Feelings. This one is stolen from cannon, but (personally) I never understood him hooking up with Rollins. It’s not that he wouldn’t date a colleague (he maybe did that with Maria) but that the writers just kinda dropped that gem and didn’t go anywhere with it. It would make more sense if he did it with someone who he didn’t work with, someone similarly professionally minded and didn’t want anything serious. Here I think women and uniform would make an appearance, so someone in the service stationed at a base in New York, an FBI agent with the local field office, or (my personal favorite) a security agent for the UN for an international *flair*. They even could be hooking up, you move, then reconnect when you’re forced to work together in SVU.