Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Just a moment I couldn't get out of my head. I was feeling nostalgic listening to Savage Garden and this happened. Also this is kind of a nod to my fic Lie With Me because I wrote that one almost a year ago and I wanted to try something like it again. Enjoy.
Maybe it's intuition
But some things you just don't question
Like in your eyes
I see my future in an instant
and there it goes
I think I've found my best friend
I Knew I Loved You - Savage Garden
It was a sleepless night for some whilst others slumbered without trouble. Their minds relaxed enough to slip away but not his, not Castle's. Darkened shadows spread across the loft in long sweeping strokes with every shift of the clouds in the sky. He'd stared out the window for a good ten minutes, trying to slow his thoughts. He'd hoped the bustle of the streets would calm him, make him sleepy but if anything he'd walked away more awake than before. He'd also spent several hours typing. A full chapter hashed out of his inability to sleep and then he'd stopped. No longer in the mood for Nikki but he still wasn't anywhere near tired.
He was restless. His hands incapable of being still. He was touching everything. Fussing over books on the shelves, straightening a few that his detective had placed back a little sloppily. Not that he was picky. But she could sometimes be a little messy. She'd drape clothes over the chair or her robe would end up half in the floor. And he tripped over at least one pair of heels each time he stepped into the closet. Little things. It was always just little details that left him stunned.
He paused in the doorway to watch her, the rise and fall of her chest as she slept peacefully. The lamp cast a glow across the room, highlighting and shadowing. She must have been too tired to turn it off. Her face so serene and pressed into his pillow. He loved that about her. The fact that they could cuddle in one spot and she'd never move but some nights, she was a complete bed hog. Shoving at him, pressing her body into his until he had nothing but a small strip of mattress. Not that he minded.
He didn't complain. He would tease her about it occasionally but that was just to see the way her face flushed and her eyes sparked. He enjoyed when she pressed so close that he almost tumbled off the bed. He adored it because it was as if some part of her craved him even when she was asleep. She'd admitted it once, told him that she couldn't help it.
And then there were the nights she kept to her side, the nights he ended up face down in the pillow and woke to her fingers stroking over his scalp and her sleepy smile. Lazy kisses over his cheek or her hands pinching playfully at his side. With Kate Beckett, there were a million different scenarios for waking someone. He had his own arsenal for the times his eyes cracked open before hers.
It was late though, she was tired. He shouldn't want her to suffer through his insomnia with him but he did. With her buried in blankets and a mess of hair, he felt his heart clench at her beauty. A strong visceral punch of it every time. He would never stop being amazed by her.
His feet carried him over to the bed, the side that started out as 'hers' was vacant. He'd claim the space before her legs conquered it for their own. Leave the woman in bed by herself and she'd take up all of it within a couple of hours. Her legs stretched when the mattress shifted beneath his weight, her toes pushing against his feet. He trapped them and reached across the bed, his palm seeking her.
He was bored and there were plenty of gadgets, plenty of games to keep his hands busy and his mind numb but he chose this. He wanted her. So he sought her out, his fingers closing over her hip and tugging until he could wrap his arm around her. He felt her stir, felt the sigh against his shoulder. And he let his eyes drop to watch her, to see her mouth pucker in confusion and the way she scrunched her nose.
He knew she was about half awake when she pressed closer, twined her legs through his. He almost let her slip back into sleep. Told himself he'd be satisfied just feeling the weight of it settle over her. But he wasn't, he was too wired. His hand drifted up along her spine, pressed to the base of her skull as he tangled his fingers in her hair.
She hummed. Her lips tugged at the corners and he closed the gap, pressed his mouth to hers for just a brief kiss. Short and sweet, the warmth and softness of her melted into him and he nudged at her nose with his. He just wanted her to open those eyes. And she did. Slowly. Sleepily. As if it took all her energy to just pry them open. Sometimes - when she had her gun out and was spitting orders or when she was cuffing someone - he forgot that she was like this. That she was like a cat when she stretched and curled into him, how feminine and gentle her hands could be. How she reached for him the moment he caught sight of her ever-changing eyes.
He stayed close, his muscles relaxing the moment she laid her palm over his ribs. She still took his breath away, left him clutching for solid ground as she ripped it right out from under him with a smile that screamed of exhaustion and happiness. He made her happy. And that was still something that wrapped like a fist around his heart.
"Time?" her voice was soft, barely audible when the blankets rustled.
"Late. Well, early."
"Finish with Nikki and still couldn't sleep, huh?" She knew. She always did. He didn't need to answer, they both knew it was in his gaze. It was in the alertness of his fingertips as they stroked down her back and played along the strip of skin between her shirt and shorts.
"Sorry I woke you."
"No you're not." She was smirking at him, amused that he actually thought she'd buy his lame apology and he had to admit she was right. He wasn't the least bit sorry. "It's okay, not that tired."
It was a lie. She was but he'd let her have this one.
"Well since we're both awake," his palm slid up the back of her shirt, stroked over bare skin and her eyes sparkled playfully as she caught on. "we should find something to do."
"You know, you're right. No sense in just lying here." Her eyes drifted to his mouth, her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip and he almost groaned. Almost decided to forgo their playful teasing but then he felt her nails scrape along his ribs and it was game on. "We shouldn't waste such precious time."
She knew she was capable of turning him into a puddle but he was just as good as leaving her an incoherent boiling mess. He leaned in, left merely centimeters between their mouths, his hips pushed into hers and curious fingers slid beneath the waistband of her shorts. He heard her suck in a breath, reveled in having the upper hand.
But she was smiling, pulling back and when she shoved at his shoulders and rolled away, he was confused. Dazed and unsure why the smile only brightened. Her melodic laugh filled their bedroom as she wiggled out of reach. He chased, his hand following her and she squealed when he almost caught her hip.
"Kate,"
"C'mon, Castle. I almost beat you last time and I want a rematch." She was up. Standing there watching him with her hand on her hip and her hair in complete disarray and he had no idea what she was going on about.
"Rematch?"
"You, me, xbox?" Oh. Oh. Not what he'd had in mind at all but he couldn't say no. Not when she was warm from sleep, eyes still tired but filled with the excitement of possibly beating him.
"I thought we were..." He let it trail off, gestured to mess of blankets she'd left and tried to tell himself that she was only kidding. Any second, she would crawl back in bed, strip out of those sinfully short shorts and let him kiss every inch of her.
And then her eyes darkened, she bit her lip and he was powerless. He was a moth and she was the brightest flame.
"Winner gets to use my cuffs." Her tongue wrapped around the words, bathed them in hot arousal. Left them dripping with promise and him burning as he kicked at the blankets.
"You're going down." He darted after her when she chuckled at him for tripping over the sheet. Had her pinned to the shelves, books pressing into her back and his mouth hot against hers before they ever made it out of the room. He was so gonna win.
a/n: No idea where this came from or why it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it, but there it is. :)