Based on the Ausiello spoiler, "Something conspires to keep Rick and Kate apart on Christmas — and that something is *o**." He later added a second letter to that: "*or*."

Personally, I was looking forward to writing about "goat", but in some way this makes it much easier. Will try to post a different one-shot centering around a new word every day from now up until the night before it airs in the US - but due to geographical issues, this may not always be possible.

I should note that this morning, I read a Caskett fic that was eerily similar to this entitled, "Nocturne." I assure you this was completely unintentional.

It was exactly the same and yet completely different, the warm glow in her chest, the excitement bubbling through her, washing away the foggy remnants of sleep and replacing them with giddy, nervous energy. She was a child waking up on Christmas morning. Only, she wasn't a child at all. She was all-woman, in love with the man typing away at his laptop next to her, hair tousled, face unshaven and marked by pillow creases, sleep in his eyes, chest bear; loved him heart, body, mind and soul; in ways a child could never comprehend.

Yet she still felt like a child when she was with him. Being with Castle reminded her of how it felt to run so fast she thought her legs would fall off; to open her lunch-box and find her mother had packed a little extra snack; to watch her grandfather perform a magic trick for the first time and be absolutely amazed, captivated. He brought out both sides of her, woman and girl.

Her fingers crept across his stomach slowly.

"Merry Christmas," she grinned.

"Merry Christmas," he replied, barely looking away form the screen to smile at her briefly.

She slid herself up the side of his body, nuzzling his neck.

He turned his head.
"Kate, I'm working."

"It's Christmas," she whined softly, nibbling his earlobe.

He pulled away from her again, chuckling.

"I can't control when or where the muses choose to strike - "

"I thought I was your muse – and right now, I know exactly where I'd like to strike - "

"Kate," he warned, taking hold of her wandering hands firmly. "Please. If I don't get this down now, I'll lose it."

She sighed in exasperation.
"Fine.

He released her wrists.
"Thank you, Sweetheart."

She threw him a death glare he didn't see as he continued to type.

"You're cheating on me with Microsoft Word," she complained a few moments later.

He chuckled without stopping or looking up.

He chuckled. "You got me. Temptress seduced me with her 'Word Count' and her 'Track Changes' feature – and check out the fonts on that baby. Ooh! Yeah.
"That's right. Auto-correct me. Put me in my place. You know how I like it."

She groaned.
"That's not funny. Today is sacred. I wanted to celebrate the birth of Christ with you by... getting biblical."

He laughed. "You're seriously trying to use Jesus to get sex? That's a whole new level of sacrilege."

"I don't care," she said, her hand slipping under the laptop beneath the waist-band of his pyjama bottoms.

"Hey! Hey! Stop!"

She reluctantly released him.

"I promise you, we will get frisky, and it will be amazing, ok?"

She brightened.

"Just as soon as I've finished this chapter."

Beckett slumped back down onto the bed in disappointment. This was not how she'd pictured spending her first Christmas morning with Castle.