I've been reading for YEARS but never actually contributed. This idea came to me and I just couldn't resist.
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, which is a shame, but probably the best for the longevity of the show.
Assumes an early established Castle/Beckett relationship
After an exhausting day of paperwork that her probative boyfriend decided to abandon her to; all Kate Beckett wanted to do was draw a hot bath with a glass of wine and try to recover some of the warmth that the cold January day had sapped from her. Instead the rattling of her new key to Castle's loft seemed only to alert him that she had finally arrived for their scheduled dinner.
As she cracked open the door she saw Castle grinning widely at her, almost bouncing in his excitement to greet her. As much as as she teased him for this sort of behaviour, she was secretly flattered and excited to have a partner who always seemed so delighted to see her and had no problems expressing that. Kate shrugged off her jacket as she dropped her keys in her handbag by her feet. As she turned to hang her heavy coat on the hooks by the door, she felt Rick's arms wrap around her waist as he took a not-so-subtle sniff of her hair and kissed the junction of her neck and shoulder.
"I missed you" he murmured against her neck as he dotted more kisses along her shoulder.
"Well I wasn't the one who got distracted by online gadget shopping forcing me behind schedule on the books I'm supposed be writing" she gently teased back as she turned in his arms and finished with a peck on his lips. "Something smells good" Kate commented as she pulled out of his arms and started drifting towards the kitchen.
"I made your favourite Chicken Peppercorn for dinner." Kate turned and looked at him suspiciously.
"What have you done?" she asked, squinting her eyes at him suspiciously. He looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"What? Can't I just make my outrageously gorgeous girlfriend her favourite dinner because I missed her?" Rick sent her a sulky look " I spent so long scavenging for the freshest ingredients, then slaved over the stove, risking life and limb as a I grappled with that vicious dial on the stove that always seems to be out to get me and my food only to be met with suspicion instead of thanks?" He shot a puppy dog look at her, making Kate feel guilty for a fraction of a second.
"Thank you very much for dinner Rick, it's just what I needed after today." Kate walked behind the bar, expecting to see the food still sitting on the stove. When she found it empty she looked at him, puzzled.
"I've set it all up in the sitting room" he replied to her unasked question. "I thought it might be nice to do something other than veg out on the couch or eat at the breakfast nook". He turned, grabbing her hand and leading her into the sitting room. Kate quietly gasped as she walked in. He'd set the lights low and covered the small table by the window with a nice tablecloth, a few candles and a bouquet of her favourite flowers. Their dinners lay on covered plates on the table.
"Rick it looks lovely" she sighed as she took in the room. Her expression quickly shifted back to a more suspicious one. "I still think you are up to something though" Rick made no response, only looking at her with a faux-innocent smile on his face.
"Am I going to get a reaction like this every time I feel like spoiling you?" he asked as he poured her a glass of wine.
"Only for as long as this pattern of giving me beautiful dinners followed by you asking me for a favour or forgiveness continues" she sassed back. He jerked a hand up to cover his heart.
"Detective, I'm hurt! Name the last time I committed a crime as heinous as you are accusing!"
"Last Tuesday. I came home to flowers and a box of chocolates which you used to butter me up for breaking my favourite coffee cup at the precinct."
"OK, so it's happened once, that doesn't make it a pattern" Kate cut him off before he could talk his way out of it.
"Then what about the week before that when you not only brought in my bear claw and coffee from that bakery I love that's all the way across town, you also brought in lunch from my favourite Italian place that's not even supposed to be open for lunch! I believe that was reparations for fiddling with then breaking the handle on my chair that you have been told I don't know how many times not to play with!"
"OK so maybe it's happened a couple of times, but not this time" Rick replied as he took a mouthful of his food. Kate looked at him with an indulgent smile on her face. Though his breaking of her coffee cup and her chair annoyed her, his terror at whatever his imagination dreamed up she would do to him in revenge and his efforts in placating her more than made up for the inconvenience.
"I'll believe it when I go to bed having no favours asked of me". Kate took a bite of her dinner. It was delicious as always. Rick had a knack for knowing just how to make her favourites. She still wasn't sure how he figured them out in the first place. She couldn't help but smile at him. "It tastes fantastic, thank you Rick". He beamed at her, and snuck a sock clad foot over hers under the table.
"Enjoy it while it's hot, I have a surprise for you after dinner" Rick had an overly pleased with himself grin on his face. The last time she had seen that look on his face was when he gave her that ridiculously expensive dress with matching jewellery that he insisted would look great on her at his next book launch. Kate struggled to accept the outrageously lavish gift with grace and it had resulted in their first real quarrel. She tamped down on the uneasy feeling, vowing to give him the benefit of doubt and continued with their meal.
After a slowly eaten meal, filled with conversation, Rick stood up and gathered their plates and move back to the kitchen. Kate grabbed their empty wine glasses and followed behind him. Rick place the dishes in the sink relieved her of the glasses then led her back to sit on the stools by the breakfast nook.
"You know how you have that silly 'No PDA at work in front of others' rule."
"Yes" she replied, a hint of trepidation in her voice. "We've talked about this, you know why we decided to play it like this."
"Yes, Yes, I know, I know, but sometimes you just say something or you look so adorable looking at the murder board, or look at me or you breathe and I just want to hug you so much it hurts and I can't, and I stumbled upon these as I was 'wasting time online gadget shopping' as you put it and I couldn't resist" Kate melted a little at his words. Although she wouldn't tell him, she had lots of moments like that too. If she admitted it though, their 'No PDA' would be broken so quickly and irreparably they'd never be able to hide their relationship. They were already pushing their luck as it was.
She reached out and took the proffered tissue paper covered package from him and laid it on the bench in front of her. She gently pulled away one flap of the paper, glancing up at Rick, seeing the excitement of giving her this whatever-it-was written all over his face. As she gently ran a finger between the taped overlapping edges of the paper Kate looked at him, her painstakingly slow movements obviously frustrating him.
"Come on, open it up" Rick egged her on, looking almost like he was about to tear open her present for her. Kate grinned at him and quickly finished opening the present, pulling out what looked like a tight fitting white long sleeved shirt with weird patches sewn all over it. She looked at him puzzled. It didn't look anything like what she'd usually wear.
"Uh thanks, Rick" She didn't want to appear ungrateful, but she also didn't know what to make of the odd looking shirt. Rick turned around and pulled out a matching shirt in his size. "You got us matching shirts?" Kate almost looked appalled. She wasn't ashamed of dating Rick, but she wasn't one of those people who likes to walk around in matching outfits. Kate was sure she was missing something, Rick looked far too excited for them to be just shirts.
"What's this got to do with you not being able to hug and kiss me at the precinct?"
Rick didn't answer, he just moved closer to her and asked her to go put it on. Her curiosity and his excitement was starting to rub off on her. Kate swiftly pulled her work shirt over he head and reached for her new shirt-thing, expecting to feel her Rick-dar going off, which usually indicated he was staring at her again. She looked up at him, surprised to see him fiddling with her phone rather than leering at her as he usually would when she was topless. Kate's brow creased and she finished pulling the tight fitting shirt on. She shifted closer to Rick, so that she was looking over his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of what was so important on her phone.
Rick dropped her phone down on the bench and picked up his own, then turned to face her. He looked up at her adoringly and pressed a quick kiss to her lips as she settled her arms around his shoulders and played with the hair on the back of his neck.
"Those patches on our shirts aren't just some wacky fashion statement, they actually do something. Although I am renowned for my skills with words, in this case, I think showing you what it does will be better than trying to explain it myself" With that, he looked down at his phone, typed something then moments later, Kate felt it.
The shirt tightened and warmed around her and she could suddenly feel his strong steady pulse like those times he gave her a really tight hug for 'just being her'. Kate looked at him with wonder in her eyes.
"It almost feels like you're hugging me" Rick beamed back at her, nodding enthusiastically.
"They're called 'Hug-Shirts'" he explained "I saw them when I was online and I couldn't resist. We can wear them under our usual work clothes and no one will know, so next time I really want to hug you, but not get shot I can hug you with this!"
Of course Rick would find the one thing that could sneak around all her rules and still allow him to shower her with the affection he wanted to give her. And that she secretly wanted to give him. For all the times she glanced up from her paperwork or the murder board to see him watching her, a dreamy smile on her face, there were times when she watched him unknowingly, the same thoughts running through her mind.
"How do they work?"
"Oh they're fantastic" Rick babbled "You see, you can record all sorts of different hugs with this app, and then it can send a text message to another phone which will send a bluetooth message to your shirt and hug you! All you have to to is keep your phone with you and I can hug you from anywhere I can get a signal. Or vice versa of course"
Kate pulled him up to her and gave him a long kiss. "Thank you very much Rick, I love them" Only one thing puzzled her. "Why the bribery dinner though?"
Rick looked a little abashed. "Well I know you don't really like it when I spoil you with gifts and I thought I might have to bribe you a little to get you to actually wear it, but you do still amaze me with your hotness so it was a dinner for that too but I..."
Kate interrupted his tirade with another long kiss. "It's a very sweet gift Rick, and it shows a lot of thought, so maybe I don't mind it as much as your offers to buy me a pony, or an entire stores worth of Loubatins"
He looked at her with a gentle smile on his face. "So you'll wear it to the precinct tomorrow?"
"I was thinking that I should wear another layer tomorrow, I was a little chilly today, and it just happens that I have a very thoughtful boyfriend who gifted me with a lovely undershirt today, so yes, I'll wear it tomorrow"
He gave her that smile that just melted her heart, the one that made her feel like she was the most important thing in the world to him. "Come on, I'll show you how to program it so you can send hugs to me too if you want."
In all the excitement of having received his package yesterday, Rick hadn't got much actual writing done, so he was again sequestered in the loft, ostensibly writing.
She hadn't even been in the precinct for an hour when she heard her phone beep, soon followed by an invisible hug. Kate smiled as she read the message, Rick saying that he missed her, and grinned a little wider as she sent a hug back to him. Kate glanced up to catch Esposito and Ryan looking at her oddly, but Kate just turned to look down at her paperwork, the smile never really fading from her face as the warmth from Rick's hug slowly faded away.
AN: For those who are curious, the Hug Shirt does actually exist, though I don't believe it is commercially available at the moment.