It Wasn't A Date
By golden orange
Medium(s): Castle
Summary: Because it really wasn't, you know. Really. (Post 2x14, mild spoilers)
Rating: All Ages
Disclaimer: I don't Castle or anything to do with it. But then, that's kind of obvious, really.
Author's Notes: Just a brief reflection on the ending of 2x14, "The Third Man". My first foray into Castle
*
It wasn't a date.
Really. It wasn't. I've been on dates before. (Oh, don't laugh. It's really immature.) Dates have wine and fancy food in expensive restaurants, fine clothes, maybe a bit of dancing. Flirting and teasing and the possibility -- and sometimes if you're really good and lucky the actuality -- of sex later. Dates are… romantic.
This wasn't a date. Know how I know? Firstly, I was with Castle, and so automatically it wasn't a date. Why? It just wasn't, that's all. If you think otherwise you've really been reading the Ledger too much.
And secondly, I was on a date earlier tonight (which sucked, by the way, thank you very much) and this was totally different. Me and Castle, well, we just… hung out. We had a burger and shot the breeze. No romance, no flirting, not even the slightest possibility of sex either tonight or in the near or distant future. Just two people who work together socializing. That's all it was.
Well, yeah of course we went to a restaurant (if you can call Remy's that). We were hungry -- didn't get to eat at the restaurant earlier (not that eating there would have helped, given what the food was like and how little there was of it -- you know, I'd have thought that the food critic at the Ledger would have had better taste, but apparently not) so we just had one of those delicious cheeseburgers they do, and the milkshakes (mm, I can still taste the strawberries)…
Was there flirting? It's Castle. I'm honestly convinced that man doesn't know how not to flirt. But it was all one way.
Of course I didn't flirt back. As if!
Okay, I may have flirted a little. But, you know, it's Castle. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. But it wasn't romantic. So, you know, definitely not a date. No romance. Okay, so he carried my dress and paid for the meal and walked me home, but you know, that's just being a gentleman. Or at least as close as Castle gets to being one. It was… comfortable.
Yeah, okay -- so it was fun. I had a laugh, I really did. But, you know, can't two people just have fun? Can't a man and a woman sit down at a table and talk and laugh without people automatically thinking it must be some kind of date?
'Cause it wasn't a date at all. It was just dinner. Seriously. Just dinner. It wasn't a date at all.
It wasn't.
Stop looking at me like that, Lanie.