I don't own Castle, but I certainly OWE the creators a debt of gratitude. The friends I found through fanfic have saved me, over and over.

A/N: Crack fic for those that love these characters as much as they HATE Valentine's Day. The challenge? Dare to write something fun enough to whisk away angst in 50 minutes or less. You game?

47 Synonyms for Love

"Castle, are you bored?" Beckett demanded when she found him staring at the ceiling, his mouth agape, as if he'd acquired a 'flip-top' head.

"No, I'm stuck on 'adulation.'"

"Come again?"

He straightened his posture and picked up the yellow legal pad he'd been notating. "It's Valentine's Day and the boys threw down a little challenge for me. I have to come up with 50 synonyms for the word 'love' in 50 minutes and use each in a sentence that expresses something that only they would recognize."

Rick addressed the growing disbelief gathering between her eyebrows. "I know there's a case. This is just a lunchtime exercise to remove my creative blocks. Like yoga for writers. You'll see, once I crush this, I'll have your killer fingered by noon."

Kate couldn't resist. "Okay, yogi, I'll be over here in the real world where we use evidence for handy things like 'fingering' suspects. But you let me know when you are through with your little exercise, and we can get back to work."

Deep in self-important thought, Rick vented. "The beginning was easy…

'Affection - She wasn't drinking her coffee so much as the rich taste of affection, patiently roasted over years of warmth between them.' Ya see, that really tackles two synonyms, but I'm not counting the second…"

Beckett scowled.

Ricked glossed. "…anyway, moving on…

'Appreciate - Even if he didn't have an actual date for Cupid's special day, there was one detective who could appreciate the curves of a car as much as the imaginary women who might one day be riding along.'"

Kate smirked.

"'Devotion - Men have always showed devotion to their wives through self-sacrifice, but none so valiantly as when he bravely wore in public her ties.'"

Kate's brows fell. "Too easy."

"Emotion - He'd never met anyone so adept at holding tenderly the painful emotions of others, while so completely shunning her own.'"

Rick moved on before allowing her time to respond.

"Fondness - There was a fondness in the morgue, a lightness in his soured brow, whenever a certain examiner looked up from his work, to find his favorite author hanging on his every gruesome word."

"That's cheating," Kate accused.

"They didn't outlaw sarcasm, or lying, just proper nouns."

"So, what's next?"

Smugly satisfied that Kate was hooked, Rick continued haughtily, "'Friendship - The best partnerships are built on a solid friendship, especially when one partner's skills far exceeds that of their counterpart."

"It's awfully big of you to admit that after all these years."

Castle lit up under devilish eyebrows. "Who do you think will take that bait first?"

"I'll put $20 on Espo."

"You're on." Rick extended his hand to shake. "Next is infatuation…

'Infatuation - A red fox walked down the hallway, out of her morgue, leaving a trail of infatuation in her wake.'"

"I dare you to read that to Lanie."

"Not for all the cool gadgets in Sky Mall, may it rest in peace." After crossing himself piously, Castle scanned over his shoulder to make sure Parrish hadn't heard already. "Moving on…

'Passion - Even swing sets feel passion when so moved.'"

"Castle, you can't read that to the boys…!"

"They'll think it's about a case. We've had at least 3 vics on playgrounds."

"I veto. Do that one over."

Rick's chin pouted upwards into his lips. "But it was so brief and poetical."

"Poetical? You do need writer yoga." Kate reached the back of her palm for his forehead. "You feeling okay?"

"Respect - There was no sir worthy of the respect she demanded of them.'"

"That's a gimme."

"Yearning - Each season with the force was an edifice to patience; each new novel a monument to yearning."

She ignored the blatant self-revelation. "That's two sentences."

"I know," Rick admitted. "I think that's why I'm stuck on 'adulation,' now."

Beckett soothed. "That's easy. 'Adulation - Most days, 4 inches under her heel wasn't enough to wade through the river of his adulation."

"Perfect. Only 39 more to go…"

I heart my fellow Rick-Kate-Kev-and-Javi lovers. PM if you've got a Syn to confess.

Peace, WOML