Disclaimer: If I owned them, I wouldn't be writing about them here. I'm just playing with Andrew Marlowe's characters and I'll put them back when I'm done.

"That totally reminds me of this one time with Maddie." Beckett mused.

"Yeah, and so I said that—wait, what?" Castle became momentarily derailed at his partner's words.

"Did I stutter, Castle?" She was all fluttery eye lashes and seductive smile behind her coffee cup.

"Uh- no. No, you didn't stutter at all." His recovery was quick, his tone quickly switching to low and leading, "Why Detective Beckett, exactly which part of my story about Alexis and Paige stealing money from their college fountain on a dare reminds you of that 'one time with Maddie'?" He didn't actually motion the air-quotes, but Kate could tell he wanted to.

"Well, there was a fountain and it started as a dare. But we were seniors in high school and we definitely weren't stealing pennies." She responded with a teasing lilt, her eyes twinkling.

"And what exactly were you doing, Kate?" He asked in that same flirtatiously inquisitive tone.

Castle knew what was coming. As much as he prodded for the juicy parts of the story, Kate only ever seemed to give him a glimpse before they'd get interrupted. And this is what he was expecting now.

Kate knew she wouldn't have to tell him. This was their thing. She would give him a teensy little tidbit, a taste, and then they would inevitably have to start talking about the case, or someone would start talking to them.

But this time, there was no case. No one to interrupt. Nothing to stop them from talking about it.

To anyone watching, you would have seen the moment that each of them realised it. For Castle, it was the moment that his face morphed into a large grin, not entirely un-lecherous, like the dirtier version of a kid who'd been told Christmas had come early. On the other hand, a fraction of a second later, Kate's face changed to reflect something closer to someone being told they have a pretty good chance of getting cancer, stunned, but cautiously hopeful like maybe it wouldn't happen after all.

"Nowhere to go, Kate," Castle spoke softly, dangerously, one brow raised in a challenge.

Kate released her bottom lip from her teeth and taking a deep breath, conceding defeat.

"Okay, Castle. You sure you wanna know?" The man was nodding before she'd finished her question.

"Alright. You remember Maddie?" Another nod, "Well, when we were in senior year we went to this party at Bradley Stanic's house; he was the quarterback and we'd just won an away game at this school that had always beat us."

"Really, Kate? The quarterback's house after an away game? Cliché much?" Despite his words, the tone was light and teasing, eyes sparkling.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, "Do you want to hear the rest of the story, Castle?" "Aaaand shutting up now!" "As I was saying, we were at Brad's house, and Maddie and I were a little bit drunk as was almost everyone else. And so a group of us started playing spin the bottle," She deliberately trailed a little, letting his excitement grow, his smile a little wider, "It was so funny, this guy I'd broken up with ended up having to make out with this guy who shall we say was… hygienically challenged. I mean, hello halitosis!" She let out a short laugh, while Castle looked like someone had kicked his puppy.

"So, you two ladies didn't… you know?"

"Oh, we did!" She confirmed with a short laugh, "It was the first time I kissed a girl, Castle. To this day, she's still the girl I've enjoyed kissing the most."

"That is so ho—Wait, the first time? Kate Beckett, have you kissed more than one girl?" Castle's eyes were practically bugging out of his head at this point

"That's a story for another time, Castle." She tossed back her head with a short laugh. "Don't you want to hear about the rest of this one?"

"There's more?" He was back to looking like someone had told him that he was being given a hovercraft.

"Where in that story was there a mention of a fountain, Castle? As I was saying, after the guys had gotten sick of spin the bottle, we decided to play truth or dare. Yes, Castle, my high school parties were that cliché," she added, anticipating his train of thought.

"So I didn't want to answer a truth, so the guys dared me to go skinny dipping with someone else from the circle. They were obviously expecting me to take one of the guys, but instead I took Maddie. We'd been friends for years, so by this stage, we'd seen each other in our underwear so often that I thought it wouldn't matter.

"We left the party and went out to the back yard, but there were so many people there and we didn't want to skinny dip in front of everyone; I was wild, but not quite that adventurous… yet. Another time, Castle." She warned when he opened his mouth.

"We decided to go to the back of the estate where Maddie said she knew somewhere we could go skinny dipping. We were getting pretty drunk by this point, so I thought it was a great idea! We walked to the fountain and started stripping down."

"Uh huh…?" His chin was resting in his elbow, eyes alert and voice leading.

Kate smiled at how interested he was, couldn't help but think how easy boys are.

"So, we're naked in the fountain, and because we're drunk, we're giggling and suddenly Maddie started getting really close, her hands reaching out for my body." Kate looked to Castle's face, noting the slack-jawed, glazed eyed expression on his face, revelling in the knowledge that her words were causing his imagination to paint a vivid picture.

"She placed her hand on my hip, and came really close so that our bodies were almost touching. Then she knelt down in the water and brought her lips to my hip. I'd only gotten my tattoo a couple of weeks before and Maddie was the first person to kiss me right. There." Kate's voice dropped a couple octaves and stayed there, flicked her eyes down to Castle's hand where it twitched in his lap.

"That kiss turned into more kisses trailing across my stomach and her hand was stroking up and down the back of my leg. She started kissing up my body and over my breasts and along my neck before catching me in an almost bruising kiss. And the weirdest thing? I wasn't nervous at all. It just seemed… I don't know. Not right, exactly, but just this side of wrong. Enough to make it dangerous, and naughty. And before you knew it, we were…" Her voice had turned husky, and his eyes were a dark inky blue.

"I was so hot for her. The one guy I'd slept with before that night had never really… taken me all the way," She smiled that flirty, closed-mouth smile, "He was just a teenage boy, and we were each others' firsts so I guess that wasn't unusual. But Maddie… Well, Maddie seemed to know exactly what she was doing. Had me questioning if maybe I was gay after that night."

It was almost comical, the way Castle's head slipped from his hand. Or it would have been, had it not been for the the way his lips had changed into an almost predatory smile.

"Of course, the next guy I dated was a little older than me, and he definitely blew that theory out of the water. But every so often, I find myself thinking about that night." You could have almost said that Kate's voice sounded wistful, were it not for the playful darkness in her eyes or the way her tongue darted out to whet her lips, loving the power, the way his eyes were drawn involuntarily to her mouth.

"So Castle…" she started, a little breathily and a lot seductively.

"Yeah?" came the reply.

"We should go," And with three words brought the writer back to reality.

"Wh—Oh. Yeah. No, yeah we should go. I mean, you should. Not because I want you to, but this is my place so you know I wouldn't—I mean, It's getting late and you probably want to go home." And with that he rose, bending back down to collect the two wine glasses from where they lay, forgotten on the coffee table.

Before he could connect, he felt her delicate fingers close around his wrist and he forced his eyes to lock with hers, taken aback and drawn in by their depth.

"No Castle, I meant we should go." She stood up, dragging her free hand through her hair, stepping backwards until their fingertips were no longer touching, and "I think your hot tub would be a pretty good place to recreate that night." She finished, biting her bottom lip around a smile.

Before he had a chance to process what she was proposing, she had pulled her shirt over her head, hair tumbling over her now exposed shoulders.

"Are you coming, Castle? Or should I call Maddie?" she asked with a wicked grin.

"One day," he growled, stalking towards her, "You are going to tell me the rest of your stories," He reached her, one hand on her hip, the other buried in her hair.

"But right now? We're going to start writing our own story. And tonight we're skipping to page one-oh-five."

fin

My first foray into land of Castle fic, I'd love to know what you think!