A/N: For LittleLizzieZentara. Happy incredibly-super-duper-belated birthday!
Castle felt Kate's hand run through his hair and he bit her bottom lip in response. She moaned and fumbled for her keys. He distracted her some more by moving his lips to her earlobe and biting ever so softly in the way he knew she loved.
"Stop it, Castle," she breathed.
"Never."
He pressed her against the outside of her apartment's door and pulled her into a deep kiss. She wrapped her leg around him and pulled him closer.
Suddenly her neighbor came into the hallway. Kate pushed Castle away and flattened her shirt. She smiled with a slight blush.
"Hi Mr. Romanov."
The old man grunted and pushed past them with a bag of garbage. As soon as he rounded the corner, she let out a breath.
"Do you think he noticed?"
"If you mean, 'did he just interrupt our hot make-out session?' then yes, I think he did."
Kate laughed and stuck her key in the lock, turning it with a click. "Then let's continue this inside."
She pushed open the door and Castle followed her inside. As the door closed shut behind them, he twirled her around to face him, then immediately began unbuttoning her shirt. She ripped open his shirt and trailed kisses down his chest.
He had almost gotten her shirt off when a furry creature crawled its way up her body.
Castle let out a yelp and jumped away. "What the hell is that?"
Kate giggled and pulled the enormous creature into her arms. "This is Boo."
Then he saw it – a gray and brown tabby cat with its ears perked up. It was looking at him, sizing him up. Probably devising a way to kill him.
"Wh- what? When did you get a cat?" He pulled his shirt over his chest self-consciously and took one step back. Boo was staring at him like a piece of meat.
"I didn't. I'm just pet-sitting."
"Why?"
Her eyes widened. "What do you mean, 'why'? I'm a nice person."
"I'm not debating that. You're practically perfect -"
"Practically?"
"You know what I mean. But why would you want to pet-sit that monstrosity?"
"He's adorable." The monstrosity started to purr. Kate scratched it behind the ears. "What do you have against cats, Castle?"
"Oh nothing. But this one killed the mood and stopped me from taking your shirt off. I take offenses like that very seriously. This will not go unpunished."
"What, are you going to punish Mr. Romanov too?"
He seriously thought about that for a moment. "Maybe?"
She kissed the cat's head then set it on the floor. It sat down on its haunches and watched Castle. He could sense the bloodlust.
Kate sidled over to him and kissed his cheek, grabbing his hand. "Come on, Rick. Let's finish what we started."
But it was too late and Castle was distracted. He was having a staring contest with the evil cat. "It's looking at me."
She let out an exasperated sigh. "Castle, let it go."
"But Kate, it-"
"Do you want to see me naked or not?"
"Of course I do! But I can't do it with Boo playing peek-a-boo. It's creepy."
"Fine. We'll lock him out of the room. Okay?"
Castle looked at the cat once more. He started slowly walking towards her bedroom, never taking his eye off of the cat. Its eyes followed him. "Okay..."
She took his hand and led him through the doorway, shutting the door behind her. She kissed her way up his neck and slid his shirt off his shoulders. He started to relax.
He forgot all about the cat for the rest of the night.
The next morning, he awoke to a tangle of sheets and Kate curled up in the crook of his arm. The comforter must have fallen off during their sexual escapades. He grinned. Good times.
But as much as he would have liked to stay with Kate like that all morning, she was really hot. Temperature-wise, although she was also hot, obviously.
So he gently slid out of the bed, taking extra care not to wake her, and walked towards the door. When he got there, he saw that it was open and didn't think anything of it, just kept walking. But then he stepped on something furry, heard a loud "meow", and before he knew it, he was on the hardwood floor with a giant cat scratching at his chest.
"Ow! Ow!"
He threw the cat off of him, earning several scratch marks on his arms in the process, and scrambled to his feet. He looked at the cat. It was lounging in the doorway as if nothing had ever happened. The evil Houdini taking pride in its ability to open and defend the door. Castle took a step forward and it hissed at him.
He hissed back.
He took another step forward, determined to get to the kitchen and make coffee. Then the cat moved. He yelped and jumped away, arms flailing. He must have looked like a madman, buck naked and running scared from a cat.
He didn't care. It was then that he decided he didn't really want coffee. Besides, it would be more fun to make coffee with Kate. Why should he be the one to make coffee every morning anyway? Never mind the fact that he liked doing it... He eyed the cat. Its ears perked up and its eyes narrowed. Routines were made to be broken and this particular routine was going to be broken today. He doubted she would even notice.
He was wrong.
"Where's my coffee, Castle?"
"I- I didn't make any," he said as casually as he could.
She cocked her head. "Why not?"
He gestured weakly at Boo. "It wouldn't let me." He could have sworn he heard his voice crack a little bit.
"Seriously?"
"Yes! Look at these scratches!" He held out his arms for her to see and pointed to his chest. Of course now the scratches were more like faint red lines. Some of them weren't even visible anymore.
Kate giggled. "You couldn't get past one little cat?"
When she put it like that, he saw her point, but he was prepared to defend himself. The cat was not going to win.
"First of all, that 'little' cat is probably twenty pounds. Secondly, you don't mess with a cat who knows how to open doors. It will kill you in your sleep. And third-"
He was interrupted by a fit of laughter from Kate.
"It's not funny!"
"Yes it is!"
It was hard to argue with her logic sometimes. But he was going to try. "Look Kate, the cat or me. You have to choose."
She rolled her eyes. "Seriously?"
"Seriously! If you want me to stay at your place, the cat has to go."
"Fine." She gathered up his clothes from the floor and tossed the pile to him. "I choose the cat."
"What?"
"Castle, I can't just stop pet-sitting because you don't like the cat. My neighbor's counting on me and so is Boo. He needs to stay somewhere."
Kate pushed past him and walked out into the hallway. She knelt down beside Boo and ran her hand over his fur in long, fluid motions. "You can go."
Castle stood there in disbelief for a moment. Then he quickly threw on his clothes and walked to the front door. He looked back at Kate once, silently pleading with her to change her mind, but she didn't even give him a glance. She was too wrapped up in petting the dark overlord to notice that he was leaving. So he left, making sure he slammed the door. You know, to ensure that she heard him leave. Not because he was being petty or anything.
He thought about not going into the precinct today, but they were in the middle of a case and he just couldn't stand the suspense. Besides, they both agreed that they wouldn't let their relationship affect their job. But he certainly wasn't bringing her coffee today – no siree.
He walked up to her desk and sat down in his usual chair. "Good morning, Detective Beckett," he said.
She raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, Mr. Castle."
"So how's the case coming? Any leads?"
"Ryan and Esposito are interrogating a suspect as we speak." Her voice was clipped and professional with an undertone of annoyance.
"Really? Awesome!"
Castle jumped up from his chair and practically ran to the observation room without another word. He was running to something, which gave him an excuse to run away from Kate. Being professional is a lot harder than it looks.
He watched through the glass as Esposito slammed his hand down on the metal table. "Why'd you do it, Angelo? Why'd you kill her?"
Ryan spoke in a quiet voice. "We have you on tape leaving her apartment just moments after her estimated time of death."
Angelo, a burly Hispanic, blinked at that. "What?"
"Bet you didn't know her building has cameras," Esposito said with a smug grin. "Probably should have checked that before you killed your girlfriend."
Castle laughed. This dirtbag was an idiot.
"You're bluffing," Angelo said.
"No, we're not," Ryan said. He picked up the remote from the table, pointed it at the monitor that had been wheeled in before the interrogation, and pressed play. A security video appeared which showed Angelo leaving an apartment in a rush and running down a hallway.
"Okay, fine, I killed the bitch!"
Castle said, "Why?" at the same time Ryan did.
"Because she chose her stupid kid over me. Joke's on her – now she's dead and that kid's gonna be in foster care."
Ryan and Esposito handcuffed Angelo and led him out of the room. Two officers took him down to booking.
Castle slowly pushed the observation room door open and shuffled over to Kate's desk. Ryan and Esposito joined them.
"Got a confession!" Esposito said.
"Why'd he do it?" Kate said.
"Turns out he gave her an ultimatum – him or her son. Obviously she was going to choose her kid, but he wasn't too happy when she did."
Kate immediately turned to Castle and they spoke at the same time.
"I'm so sorry, Castle!"
"I shouldn't have-"
"It's okay."
"No it's not!"
"I'll find another pet-sitter."
"Boo can stay. I had no right."
"I shouldn't have kicked you out."
"You were right to."
"But Castle-"
"Kate. How about we go to my place tonight? Boo will be okay overnight, right?"
"Sounds good to me."
By that point that were standing up and facing each other, the distance between them closing fast. Their lips were inches apart when Ryan and Esposito both coughed loudly. They jumped apart.
"Right, we're at the precinct..." Castle said.
"Right."
"Shake on it?"
Kate smiled and held out her hand.