Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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'Castle, I've done this a million times. I think I can manage without your assistance.'

Brushing off her comments with a wave of his hand, he continues to scrutinise her appearance.

'It's not that hard – all I need to do is pretend to be a simpering university student asking for assistance from my more-than-happy-to-assist lecturer. It's ... are you even listening to me?'

Ah ha, he knows what is missing. Turning away from her, he opens her desk drawer and begins rifling through it.

'Castle! What are you doing? Get out of my drawer.'

Her words fall on deaf ears, until he finally re-emerges with a scarf of hers. 'This is what you need.'

Snatching it from his grip, she looks at him with disbelief. 'A scarf?'

Taking it back, he places it around her neck. 'But you see, it's not just any scarf. It's a red scarf. And if you hadn't noticed our Mr I-can't-help-it-if-the-chicks-dig-me has a particular fondness for the colour.'

Stepping back to critique his work, he steps forward to make another change. Accepting the fact that she won't be able to leave until Castle is happy with her appearance, she stills as Castle gets close and grasps the edges of her scarf, pulling her closer to him.

Raising a hand to his solid chest to stop him getting any closer, she avoids his eyes as Castle bites his bottom lip, concentrating on looping the scarf around her neck, and making sure that the ends are balanced.

Needing to get away from this closeness, she steps back once he is done, arms outstretched. 'Happy?'

'One last thing methinks.'

Stepping closer once again, Kate finds herself holding her breath as he rests his hands on her hips, feeling for the edge of her shirt. Pulling it down a little, she swore that his hands drifted lower.

'Castle, get your hands out of my pants.' Whipping his head up at that retort, he widened his eyes and mouth in his characteristic expression of delight as he saw Beckett trying to hide a smile as she poked a finger in his face. 'Don't.'

Raising his hands in mock surrender, he stepped back for the final time, and nodded his approval. 'Yep. Go knock his socks off.'

Castle opens the office door with a flourish as Beckett moves past him.

'Finally boss!'

'Don't blame me. Mr Fashion Expert over there wasn't letting me go anywhere until he was satisfied.'

Seeing Lanie open her mouth, and certain that she did not want to know what was about to come out of her mouth, and knowing with a certainty that Richard bloody Castle has one of his stupid grins plastered all over his face behind her, she points her finger in Lanie's direction. 'Don't go there.'

Composing herself, she faces the team.

'Let's do it people.'