It was two weeks and three days before the Nikki Heat movie premiere, and Richard Castle was really not sure what he had just done.

He paused, as did Beckett, both of them frozen. Her eyes searched his face, looking for an easy way out of what he'd just said. There wasn't one.

("Will you be my date? For the premiere?")

Even he had no idea where the words had come from, so he had no idea what she was thinking. Probably bad things. Maybe she was going to hit him. Oh, God, what was he going to do? The sentence had been too long to be passed off as a really odd-sounding cough...

"Castle. Castle."

"Wha- yeah?"

"Yes. I said yes." Yes. She said yes. Why did she say yes? He hadn't anticipated that.

"You said yes?"

"Yes." Well, that was pretty clear. She had actually agreed.

"Well. Uh. Okay, then. It's a date?" The last three words slipped unbidden out of his mouth and he found himself wishing he could swallow them back. A smile quirked over her lips.

"It is a date." Beckett replied. No question mark? No question mark. Just a statement. It's a date.

"It's a date?" He should really write a book on this. 101 ways to look like an ass in front of your future wife, part one.

"Yeah, Castle, it is." Was she blushing?

"Okay."

"Okay." She WAS blushing. Holy crap, she was blushing, she was actually blushing- oh, and she was leaving. Leaving with a bit of a spring in her step and twirling a lock of hair around one finger. He watched her go.

We're going on a date.

We're going on a date.

She kept repeating it, over and over, her brain almost unable to grasp the concept. A date. With Castle.

They were going to the movies together. It was an overwhelming cliche. She kicked her bike into gear.

(Well, it was a premiere of a movie based on the books he'd based on her, and that didn't happen to most people, but the general idea of it was cliched.)

The misty air, not quite heavy enough to be called rain, tugged at her hair, beading the long strands with tiny crystal droplets.

It must have been cold, but she couldn't bring herself to feel it, couldn't bring herself to focus on anything but the cold hard fact that, in three weeks, she would already have been on a date with him.

They were going to walk down the red carpet together.

They were going to have photos taken together.

They were going to watch as their on-screen pseudonyms fell in love and- oh. Damn. That part was going to be interesting.

Maybe they'd even do the whole fingers-brushing-in-the-popcorn-bucket thing.

Did you have popcorn at movie premieres?

-At movie premieres... oh my God, what am I going to wear?

This was an idea that jumped out at me late at night (does anyone sit in bed and write fanfictions in their heads? I do.) Caskett having an incredibly cliche first date.

Anyone who is interested in hearing more of this story, say aye.