A/N: Instead of posting a separate story for any post-eps or inserts that I might write, I've decided to collect them here. I cannot guarantee that I'll have something for every ep though, sorry.
Thank you to Jo (honeyandvodka) for the inspiration for the title, without her this would have been called "Season Sex."
Valkyrie - Episode Insert
It isn't until she's catching her breath, lying on her back in bed with a sheen of sweat covering her skin that it hits her.
He's here.
She flings herself to the side, an arm and leg swinging over his chest and thighs respectively. He grunts in surprise as she makes contact, her move a little more forceful than intended but she doesn't back off, just settles herself against his side, buries her face in his still damp neck. His arms come around her, one firm across her back, the other looped around her waist. It should be too hot, she should feel completely stifled but it's perfect, being surrounded by him. Him.
"You're here," she breathes, warm air ghosting his skin with the words.
He huffs a short laugh. "You're not just realizing that, are you?"
"No," she says on a laugh but it's almost a lie. Because of course she was aware that he was there, she knew because she had her hands, her lips on him. But it felt like a fantasy, like yet another daydream of not coming home to an empty house, of having him waiting for her at the end of a long day. But the reality has just occurred to her and now she knows that he's here, revels in his physical form, the bulk and breadth of him in her bed.
She hoists herself up to lay half across him, balling her left hand into a fist against his chest to prop her chin up. He raises a hand to rub his thumb against her ring, the remembrance of how determined he was to get it off the chain and on her finger again drawing honestly out of her. "Okay, yes, I kind of just did. Because you weren't supposed be here but you are and I'm just so damn glad to see you." She chokes out the last of it, emotion clogging her throat.
It's been so much more difficult than she had told herself it might be. All of it, the job, the miles separating them. She puts up shields of stoicism at work to mask the stress she feels on a daily basis but she can't deny that the pressure of it wears on her, the constant fear of failing shredding the edges of her emotions and leaving her exhausted. But here with Castle (with Castle), she doesn't need the protection, knows he wants to see all of her and she is unafraid of exposing herself like this. She doesn't even fight the tears that drip from her eyes and he raises a hand to brush them from her cheeks, his eyes tender and overflowing with love and her heart tumbles all over again.
Most of it is really difficult, but this part? Loving him is remarkably easy.
"I missed you," he murmurs as he lifts his head to press his lips to hers, his hand sliding through her hair to rest at the back of her skull.
"So much," she agrees, the words muffled as she kisses him in return.
He pulls back with one last nip to her bottom lip, eases her head down to lie on his chest. She flattens her hand out against his skin, the diamond glinting softly in the low light. The jewelry is a reminder that he's always with her but there is nothing, nothing, like having the real thing here.
A/N the second: Sorry this is so short and is post-sex, but there's plenty of great fics out there that cover that part, closingdoors' "out of words" and airbefore's "inflames the great" for starters.
