They were running through a house, attempting to distract the bad guy long enough for SWAT to show up and take the bastard out! Unfortunately, Kate's gun had just run out of bullets. And Psycho Killer still had plenty. So they were running, playing the deadly version of Hide-And-Seek until backup arrived.
Kate led the way upstairs, skipping every other stop in her haste, Castle somehow managing to keep up. If her heart weren't pounding, adrenaline flooding her system, and her mind on surviving this encounter for the next however many minutes, she'd have been impressed by how Castle was keeping up without managing to get in the way. But more important consideration number one was quickly advancing on the stairs and Kate had to think quickly.
The big house had hallways everywhere, as well as open doors to rooms full of hoarded stuff. Most people would have picked a room and found a good hiding place, but Kate thought he'd expect her to choose one of the cluttered rooms. Only an idiot would choose a tiny, dark broom closet, so that's what Kate did. Hiding in the unexpected places- unexpected because they were so obvious- was one of the things she'd learned as a girl. And she'd always been Hide-And-Seek champion back then.
When she was sure she wouldn't be seen, she opened a narrow door, grabbed Castle, threw him inside and quickly followed, closing the door as quickly and quietly as she could.
There was barely enough space for the two of them, and no matter which way they might have turned in the small space, their bodies pressed against each other. Kate didn't like having her back to the door though, so, with her hands on Castle's biceps, she maneuvered them until each had their back to a side wall of the cupboard. Kate discovered that the back wall had shelves, so technically there was more space, but none that they could really use. She continued checking out the small room, listening for sounds from outside the closet and desperately trying to ignore the way her breasts flattened against Rick's chest every time she inhaled. The run and the adrenaline had her breathing hard and fast and Castle's nearness was not helping her attempts to calm her breathing. But if she couldn't breathe slowly, she could at least breathe quietly.
Kate closed her eyes, her head facing the door and breathed as quietly as she could as she listened for sounds from outside the cupboard. There were loud stomping footsteps and furniture crashing in rooms nearby. A moment passed as the noise continued, and then moved farther away. Kate breathed a deep sigh of relief, but she knew that she and Castle were stuck in this closet until help arrived... Or 'Psycho' found them and well... She preferred not to contemplate that possibility.
When she looked up at Rick to let him in on the plan, she found his eyes closed. Dim light entered from the grille above the door and Kate could see the blank look on his face, his lips slightly parted. As her vision adjusted, Kate realized Rick's eyes weren't closed, he was just looking down so far, that it appeared as if they were closed.
Her gaze followed his and when she saw what he was watching so intently, she snapped, "Castle! Eyes up here!"
"Shh!" he hissed desperately in reply and for a moment they both listened for the sounds of approaching footsteps.
When the crashing sounds of dislodged furniture continued to move farther away from them, Kate attempted to fix her clothing. Her coat she'd unbuttoned as they'd approached the house, so she'd have better access to her gun. The first button of her cobalt blue blouse had torn off in the tussle downstairs and the second button was one of those pesky fastenings that tended to slip loose if the first one wasn't done to keep it in place. With their bodies pressed together, crammed into the tight space, her shirt had been pushed askew, revealing the top of her left breast and a little bit of pale white lace. She tried to push her hand between their bodies to shove the fabric back in place, but the blouse wasn't cooperating. Next, her hands delved between their stomachs and as she pulled on her shirt's hem, the backs of her hands pressed against him. Kate felt the muscles in Rick's surprisingly solid abdomen flex at the contact.
Kate looked up at his eyes again when she heard him inhale sharply, but he was looking down again. The exposed white lace at the center of her bra almost glowed in the dim light of the cupboard.
"Castle!" she whispered sharply.
"Sorry," he whispered back, sounding a little exasperated. But when she looked back up, his gaze was on her mouth and Kate could have sworn he swallowed hard just then.
Her breasts were still pressed against him and she was quickly becoming uncomfortable. Putting her hands up between her breasts and the solid wall of his chest, she pushed, just managing to put about an inch of space between their bodies. She idly noted what a hard body he had before he was panting noisily.
"I can't breathe," he complained.
"Well, what do you want me to do, Castle?" she snapped quietly in response.
"Shut up!" he breathed urgently. They both listened for a moment as the crashing grew louder for a second. When it grew quiet again, he whispered, "I'm sorry, I meant, 'shh.' And stop being such a baby, we're both adults."
Rick pulled her hands away from his chest and he took a deep breath. When the motion pressed her breasts flat against him, Kate glared at him, telling with a look that she knew exactly what he was doing and he was going to pay for it later. "Do that again, Mr. Castle, and I'll make you regret it," she threatened him, keeping her voice barely louder than an exhale.
Grinning cheekily, Castle said nothing but his breathing became shallow and slow. Kate's breathing had slowed considerably by now, but her heart continued to race frantically. It's only the adrenaline, she reassured herself, positive that her heart rate had everything to do with the killer just outside, and nothing at all to do with the big man pressed to every line of her body.
Kate shifted uncomfortably, trying to put some space between their bodies, but there was just no way to do it. As she shifted, her thighs brushed his, her toes bumped his shoes, her abdomen tightened in an effort to pull away from his, and her breasts slid across his chest as she swayed back and forth on her feet. At least she thought she could put some space between their legs, so she widened her stance until one foot touched the door and the lowest shelf pressed into her calf on the other side. Rick's big, powerful thighs were no longer pressed down the front of hers; he was now pressed between them. Rick shifted his weight just then- quickly becoming... bothered by the way Kate kept moving her sleek little body against his- and his thigh brushed against the inside of her leg, the heat from her body nearly scorching. And that friction on the inside of her thigh was not lost on Kate...
As Kate watched his face, his eyes closed tight and he grimaced. "Stop moving," he begged her quietly. "For the love of heaven, please stop moving." He started to take deep breaths in an effort to calm himself, then groaned softly in pain when the action just pressed his chest to hers again.
Annoyed, and perversely happy that she had the opportunity to throw his own words in his face, Kate arched an eyebrow and told him, "Stop being such a baby, Ricky. We're both adults."
Rick cracked open one eye only long enough to glare at her, and then closed it again. He began reciting to himself a list of the number one bestselling books- along with their authors- for the past three months.
He had just recalled the third James Patterson novel when Kate decided it was probably unwise for Rick's thighs to remain between her legs; his groin was entirely too close to the apex of her thighs for comfort. So Kate stood straight again, closing her thighs and brushing against him in all the wrong ways... or right ways if you were Rick's libido.
Suddenly, Rick forgot who James Patterson was much less how many bestselling books the man had written. His blood rushed south and Rick sighed in defeat about three seconds before Kate gasped- pushing her breasts against him yet again, thank you very much.
"Castle! Show some self restraint!" she snapped, louder than she'd meant to, but she had completely forgotten the killer outside when she felt certain parts of him moving against her body.
Rick finally opened his eyes and glared at her. Keeping his voice low, barely above a husky whisper, he informed her, "A: you already know how much self restraint I possess and this right here is more than I'm usually capable of. 2: I already warned you to stop moving, so it's your own fault that Big Rick is awake. And D: every other time I've ever had a beautiful woman pressed up against me like this, we usually end up naked, so forgive me if my body responds well to its behavioral conditioning."
For a long second Kate was silent, glaring, and finally a slow, sarcastic grin brightened her face. "It's 'A, B, C' Castle."
"Huh?" He asked, working on slow shallow breaths that would hopefully calm him without pressing her any closer.
"You said 'A, 2, D.' It's 'A, B, C,' Castle," she informed him teasingly.
Rick rolled his eyes then said, "Right now, it's a miracle I can even remember letters at all, much less put them in order."
There was a sudden, loud crash outside their cupboard followed by the tinkling sounds of shattered glass, policemen shouting, and Kate straightened up in preparation to spring from the cupboard if necessary. Something else jumped against her when she moved and Kate finally acknowledged that her racing heart had little to do with what was happening outside the cupboard and everything to do with Rick's proximity- and the smell of his familiar, heady cologne. Oh, that and the knowledge that just the press of her body could affect Castle so strongly.
"I think we can leave here now," Kate said quickly, eager to put some distance between her traitorous body and Rick's.
"No," he snapped quickly, putting his hand on Kate's arm to stop her from opening the door.
"What?" She paused, looking up at him.
Rick's eyes were pleading. "I can't go out there just yet," he said pointedly, and as if on cue, his hardness moved again against her abdomen, just inside her hipbone.
"I'll go out and you can come out when you can." Again she moved to open the door and again Rick stopped her.
"No, please! If they see you come out, they'll know I'm in here and when I don't follow soon enough, they'll wonder why I'm still hiding in a closet."
"Oh..." Kate said slowly. As eager as she was to get some distance between their bodies, she could appreciate the more uncomfortable situation Castle was in. "But how are you going to... you know... calm yourself with me in here? Aren't I the problem?"
"I can think of a way you could help-"
He broke off when Kate snapped, "No."
Grinning, Rick closed his eyes. "Just hold still for a minute, please." He focused on relaxing his breathing, taking long shallow breaths. He leaned his head back against the wall and breathed. Slowly, his hands moved forward, beneath Kate's jacket and rested on her slim, curvy hips. He inhaled the scent of her perfume, her shampoo and her natural Kate-smell, and oddly, it all helped calm 'Big Rick.'
"You know," Kate began conversationally. "That's one of the many things I love about being a woman."
"What's that?" Rick asked, talking to her with his eyes closed. "How easy men are?"
"No, I mean, when a man's turned on, it's fairly noticeable. But a woman's tell isn't as obvious."
Suddenly, Rick's eyes snapped open and he stared at her, wide-eyed. "Are you turned on right now?"
The faintest trace of a wicked smile teased the corners of her lips and she told him, "You'll never know."
His eyes narrowed at the challenge and his own wicked smile made his mouth into a sexy curve. "There are ways of telling," he informed her, hinting that he'd be able to find out if she challenged him.
"Really?" She asked mockingly. "How?"
Rick studied her face as he withdrew a single hand from her hips and he raised it to brush some hair back behind her shoulder. His fingertips skimmed over the skin at the base of her neck, lingering for a moment over the pulse point, and he said, "Your heart is beating quite fast."
"We were just chased in here by a psycho killer. Of course my heart is beating fast," she said in denial.
"That's funny, because my heart beat slowed a while ago. But fine," he ceded graciously. "I'll give you that one." Rick lifted his hand from her shoulder and brushed his fingertips over her forehead, pushing back more of her hair. His touch travelled down, over her cheekbone to the corner of her jaw. "Your skin is warm, which means you're blushing- though I can't see it clearly in the dim light."
"I'm blushing in embarrassment- you're touching me and it's uncomfortable," she argued.
Despite the venomous words, Kate didn't make a move to lose Rick's touch from her face, so he knew she was only offering a token protest- she didn't really mean it. One brazen fingertip skated across her jaw and up to brush softly over her lower lip. He traced the contours of her mouth and licked his own suddenly dry lips when he thought about how much he'd always wanted to kiss her. "Your lips are warm and fuller than usual, meaning blood has rushed to them. And indicating that you're ready to be kissed."
Slowly, Kate leaned her head back until it was resting against the wall. His fingertip was still on her bottom lip when she said, "Fine. I'm not entirely indifferent to having your body pressed so close to mine." Rick smiled, so Kate added, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to do anything about it."
Rick frowned. "Why not? We'd be amazing together."
Kate finally reached up and took his hand in hers, moving it away from her mouth. Down at their sides again, Kate didn't relinquish her hold on him and slowly, Castle entwined his fingers with hers. "I'm dating someone, Castle. And I really like him. I'm not going to throw away a possible future with him for a few minutes in a linen closet with you," she said, almost apologetically.
"Minutes? You mean hours," he corrected bombastically. More seriously now, he added, "But I meant more than just today, right now. Why couldn't the two of us-"
Running footsteps approached their cupboard and the door was thrown open. Rick and Kate both threw up a hand to cover their eyes against the bright beam of light aimed at them.
"Well, don't you two look cozy," Detective Kevin Ryan teased.
"Like two well dressed little sardines in a can," Detective Javier Esposito added in the same tone.
Kate rolled her eyes and followed them out of the closet. "It's about time you guys got here," she complained, totally ignoring the three men- two of them teasing, one of them staring at the side of her face as he followed her out to their car.
A/N: So yeah, the only plot of this little story is that Castle and Beckett get stuck in a series of closets and fluff ensues. Not going to be a long series, maybe another two chapters at most.