The air was filled with the raucous voices, loud Celtic music and the smell of tasty, fried food and good alcohol. The air was warm and Javier Esposito was pretty sure he smelled a hint of smoke amidst the other odors, despite the fact that smoking was no longer allowed inside bars in the city.

Somehow, Javi doubted many in this crowd would make much of a fuss over someone with a smoke. Especially on St. Patrick's Day.

"Wow," Rick Castle, looking around at the happy crowd, a big smile on his face. "See, I was feeling like a bit of a traitor, coming to a bar other than the Old Haunt, but this is pretty awesome."

Kate Beckett chuckled under her breath and tried to move through the mass of people, barely missing a collision with a pretty, young girl carrying a tray laden with pints of Guinness. She looked barely old enough to be serving alcohol and smiled before hustling off to a table full of waiting patrons.

Earlier in the week, during a conversation about St. Patrick's Day celebrations, Kevin Ryan, Javi's partner, had said he was taking the day off to help out at his cousins pub. There had been some light hearted teasing about that and eventually he'd told them to drop by after the end of shift. It was good to see him happy about something, as he'd been rater melancholy since Jenny had called off their engagement.

Which was how they found themselves in the East Village, at Ryan's Irish Pub on March 17th. The outdoor café area had been packed, full of people downing far too much green beer and attempting to sing along with the music. Problem was, several of the establishments in the area were playing competing songs, so it was just noise.

Inside wasn't much quieter, but at least there was only one tune pouring from the speakers.

Through the crowd, Javi caught sight of Kevin, who waved as he filled glasses behind the bar. He wore the same black t-shirt as the rest of the staff, with the green bar logo scrawled across the chest.

It took a minute for the three of them to reach the bar and, as they neared, Javi jumped when someone pinched his rear. "What the…?" he said, whirling around and peering down at an elderly woman in astonishment.

She raised her glass and said, "You're not wearing green, sonny." Then she sauntered off into the mob.

Javi gaped, sputtering as Castle and Beckett snickered. Ryan grinned at him across the bar and commented, "No green, man?"

"I'm not exactly Irish," he replied, taking note of the several lipstick smudged kisses on his partner's cheeks…and why was the man covered in green glitter?

Ryan handed him a drink and said, "Everyone's Irish today, Javi…Fi!"

He called out to one of the waitresses, a young woman who had clearly emerged from the same gene pool as Kevin. The girl approached, all smiles and pink cheeks and green carnations woven into her intricately braided hair and, when Kev waved at Javi, she laughed.

"Did Mrs. O'Grady get a piece of you bum, luv?" Fi asked, making Castle nearly choke on his beer. Beckett slapped him on the back as the waitress plucked a flower and a hairpin from her braids and fixed it to Javi's lapel. Then she was gone, off to gather empty glasses from a group of loud college age men.

"Javier!" Kevin's mother appeared beside him, pulling him down to plant a kiss on his cheek. She had always been fond of him. "So good to see you," she said, then noticed Castle and Beckett watching in amusement.

"Mammy," Kevin said, "Meet Detective Kate Beckett and Richard Castle."

As he stepped to the side to attend to some customers, his mother said, "Oh, yes, my boy has told me all about you two and I'm a big fan of your books."

"Why thank you," Castle replied happily, shaking her hand and looking almost comically large as he towered over the tiny older woman.

"Enjoy yourselves," she said happily, then spotted something off to the side and narrowed her eyes. "I'll bring you all a plate of cruibini, just after I take care of those eejits."

With that, she was off catching the ear of a young man who seemed to be about to escalate the argument he was involved in. Amazingly, everyone settled down as Mrs. Ryan issued a scathing tongue lashing.

All around them, people continued to go about their celebration. A particularly wobbly group seemed to be singing…something unidentifiable and the weren't at all worried about being seated so close to the dart board.

Someone else was practically shouting a joke.

"An Englishman, a Scott, and a Irishman walked into a pub. Each ordered a pint of beer. Then a fly landed in each one's beer. The Englishman, turning slightly green, pushed his beer away and asked for another one. The Scott took the fly out, shrugged, and drank his beer. The Irishman pinched the fly between his fingers and yelled "SPIT IT OUT!" "SPIT IT OUT!"

That was followed by a burst of laughter.

Kevin made his way back to them, after helping a small swarm of giggling young women whom had all felt it necessary to come up to the bar and place their own orders. Seemingly out of nowhere, a burst of confetti shot through the air and a small cheer went up.

"LIAM," Kevin bellowed over the din and a young guy turned to him with an 'oh, shit' expression on his face. "How many times do I have to say, take the canon outside."

The kid bolted and Ryan shrugged at them. "At least he stopped stuffing it with glitter."

Javi grinned. The green sparkles on Kevin's skin, clothes and hair indicated he'd been caught in a glitter shower earlier. "Ah," he said teasingly, then waved at the shining flecks. "See, I was starting to worry that you'd taken that guys Twilight comment a bit to seriously."

"Twilight?" Beckett asked with raised brows, exchanging a devilish glance with Castle.

"My interest is piqued," the author agreed and they turned to Kevin, who had on his disgruntled face, and Javi, who smirked.

"Remember that case with the male stripper?" Javi asked, swatting at the handful of peanuts Ryan tossed at his head. "His boss thought Ryan over there would go over well with the ladies as a Twilight impersonator."

Beckett blinked, smiled and sank her teeth into her bottom lip to keep from laughing and Castle snorted.

"For that," Kev said, shaking his head and cheeks flushed pink with amused embarrassment, "I shouldn't warn you about the cruibini."

"What is that, by the way?" Beckett asked, settling onto a finally vacated bar stool.

Kevin grinned. "Brined, breaded and grilled pigs feet."

"Pigs feet?"

Kevin nodded.

"Seriously?"

"I thought that was more of a southern food," Castle mused, seemingly morbidly fascinated.

With a shrug, Kevin offered, "We serve ours with mustard."

That really didn't help the underlying issue of the fact that they were discussing pigs feet. Casting his gaze around the room, Javi noted a mostly illegible menu scrawled on a blackboard and some of the people at tables had little laminated menus, so he simply asked, "What's good?"

"Gammon steak in whiskey sauce or the stew," Ryan replied, passing a full tray of pints to a rematerialized Fi… no, it was another girl, clearly another Ryan. There were a lot of them, Javi knew, as Kevin had once mentioned that his parents, with their six children, had one of the smaller broods in their extended family.

Javi smirked and couldn't help himself, teasing, "What, no haggis?"

He knew it was a Scottish food, but it was weird and, after the pigs feet, all bets were off.

Sniffing, little nose scrunching in distaste, Ryan commented, "We're Irish. We don't eat sheep guts…unless someone's figured out how to turn them into fine whiskey."

Before Javi could come up with an appropriate response to that, there were shouts and a flash of flame was visible through the crowd as they stepped back from the bar. Moment's later, the flames were out and a man was holding a fire extinguisher high and shouting, "No worries, folks!"

A cheer went up and normal chatter resumed.

Huh. Apparently a small fire wasn't enough to deter people at this bar. That was pretty hardcore.

Especially since Javi was fairly certain the bar itself had actually been on fire.

Kevin didn't blink.

Castle was gleefully jotting events down in his little notebook.

Javi wondered if he'd wandered into Bizarro World and was almost absurdly grateful that Beckett looked a bit startled herself. At least he wasn't alone.

"There's a table opening up in a moment," Ryan said suddenly, nodding across the room. "Over by Sean…He's the one with the black eye and the attitude."

There was indeed a sullen looking young man waiting to bus a table that was about to be vacated. Following Ryan's advice, they laid claim to the table and shortly thereafter Fi - Javi was sure it was her by the flowers in her hair - appeared with a tray bearing fresh drinks and a variety of foods. It seemed that Ryan had sent them an assortment of…interesting looking things to try.

"Boxty," she said, pointing to a plate of what appeared to be potato latkes, "potato bread, gammon, mackerel in a rhubarb sauce, Ballymaole stew for each of you…Kev'll be over soon."

She plunked a final pint glass down at the empty spot beside Javi and seemed about to say something more, but spun, raising her serving tray just in time to intercept a wildly thrown dart. Eyes wide, she peered at the projectile, embedded in the tray, before scowling and stalking off towards the person who'd thrown it, a terrified looking frat boy.

From the non-reactions of most of the patrons, the sight of a 6'2" linebacker with no discernable neck fleeing from a 5'0" girl with flowers in her hair was not a rarity.

The spent the next few minutes sampling the array of foods and Javi had to admit that everything was really good. By the time Kevin practically fell into his seat, they had all finished their bowls of stew and made progress with the rest.

"Hey, what a day, huh?" Ryan greeted them, pulling his own soup close, grabbing a hunk of bread, shredding it and dropping it into the broth before starting to shovel spoonfuls into his mouth.

"Hungry?" Beckett asked with a smile.

"Mmm," Ryan replied, finally pausing to take a breath. "We've been going non-stop since 9am. I'm starving."

On a normal day, the youngest detective ate a lot more than his lean frame would indicate, so if he'd gone that long without eating, it totally explained his impersonation of a Hoover. Javi watched for a moment as Ryan sipped his drink and again noted the incongruity of the glitter on his pale skin. Flecks were caught in his ruffled hair and glinted on his eyelashes…

Damn it. Javi looked back at the Gammon steak on his plate and sliced off a bite of ham.

Pretty much since the day they'd been partnered up, he and Kevin had been tight and, as their friendship grew, things got…complicated…feelings….

Yeah, not the sort of stuff Javi was good with dealing with and though he was an open minded man of the 21st century, as was Kevin, he'd never thought of acting on things. Then Kevin had gotten engaged and Javi and Lanie had their thing…then Jenny had left Kevin and Lanie and Javi had drifted apart….

Nope, tonight was not for thinking about that, he decided.

Tonight was for friends, good food and beer. They shared laughter and smiles and a desert called a Donegal Oatmeal Cream that was really indescribable.

Castle and Beckett took off after a few hours and Kevin could have moved over to the other side of the booth…but he didn't.

It was totally cool for two guys to sit together, laughing, occasionally bumping shoulders.

Heck, most of the guys in the place (the ones that weren't belligerent drunks) had proceeded to the 'I Love You, Man' phase of the night, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Kevin grinned then, and the smile reached his eyes, something Javi had missed recently and, after the bar closed, they went to crash at Kevin's, as it was closer than Javi's and they had to be at work early.

Beckett and Castle were polite enough not to point out the glitter that had migrated onto him during the night.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

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