Author's Note: Hey everyone! This little incoherent slice of drabble was originally a deleted scene in my other story "The Heart of the Matter", so some of you may recognize it from the brief time it was up the day of the finale. Though it was mainly supposed to be stress relief while waiting for the finale to air, I've decided to edited it a little and re-post it as a separate one-shot. Enjoy!
I'm With the Band
Making her way down the hall to Castle's apartment, Kate Beckett tiredly blew an errant strand of hair from her face and shook her head. She could already hear a steady stream of noise emanating from the door ahead.
"Nice. Poker night with a live band…"
She was told it was going to be just him and boys, that it would be a nice break from the murder board for a night. Even though nearly every exhausted fiber of her body was screaming at her to just find a bed and hibernate, she said okay. The case was three days old, there were no leads, and still she said okay. It wasn't that she really needed a break. It wasn't the prospect of letting loose, nor was it the near-sappy depths of groveling that Castle reduced himself to- and it most certainly wasn't those blasted, though utterly captivating blue eyes of his that swayed her. No.
Well…
Okay, maybe it was.
But that's not the point.
The point was that whatever was going on in there was not nice, nor was it even in the realm of quiet. And she desperately needed some semblance of quiet right now. She could be in bed; she could be swaddled up in blankets, drinking a nice glass of wine and reading a good book…
But nooo… she had to say yes. She had to go and promise him while drowning right into those treacherous, beady little eyes of his. She grew closer to the door, sighing in defeat. If she backed out now, she would never hear the end of it.
Might as well face the music, the grumbled to herself. Leave it to Castle to turn a nice, quiet poker night into a-
"I was just a skinny lad, never knew no good from bad. But I knew life before I left my nursery!" Becket stilled at the apartment door. Leaning closer, her eyes narrowed in confusion when she heard someone singing…
Castle…?
As quietly as she could, she opened the door and laid the small bag of groceries down. Tiptoeing closer to the source of the growing music, she peered around the wall into the living room. The scene before her made her mouth drop.
What the…
"Left alone with big fat Fanny, she was such a naughty Nanny…" he crooned while banging his head to the beat- and holy hell it took everything Kate had to not burst out laughing. "…Hey big woman, you made a bad boy outta me!"
Esposito was quite busy banging his head while pounding away on the tiny plastic drums, and his partner…
"Why are there so many buttons?" Ryan's complaint pitched over the song as he furiously tapped away on the guitar.
"The chorus, bro! The chorus! Let's do this!" Esposito shouted.
"Oh, won't you take me home tonight. Oh, down beside your red firelight. Oh, and you give it all you got!"
Beckett doubled over; clutching her sides in pain from catching her laughter as the three grown men suddenly began belting the words out as loudly as they could.
"Fat bottom girls you make the rockin' world go round!" They all sang together, laughing and pumping their fists in the air; she was torn between thinking it was either the sweetest or the saddest spectacle she'd ever seen.
"Fat bottom girls you make the rockin' world go ro-"
"Having fun there, boys?"
It seemed as though her voice dropped buckets of ice water over the three of them- Castle had the decency to squeak in shock before he turned to her with a lopsided grin on her face. Esposito, with his drum sticks frozen above his head, wasn't moving a muscle. And Ryan, poor Ryan, watched glumly to the television as the phrase, "Song Failed", flashed across the screen.
"Detective Beckett! We were just-"
"Oh no," she cut Castle off and smiled teasingly. This little scene was going to fuel her blackmailing options for weeks. "I think I have a good idea of what's going on."
Her moment of gloating was short lived, for Castle was only silent for a moment before a mischievous grin stretched across his cheeks.
"Want to sing the next one, Detective Beckett?"
6 minutes, and 12 seconds later…
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"I'll do your paper work for a week," Ryan added.
"No."
"Castle can shadow us for a week," Esposito chimed in.
"Hey!"
"No, but I'll admit that one almost got me." She said.
"We'll let you pick the song." Castle said after a moment.
"I can pick? Wait, no. We really have to get to work…"
"Come on, Beckett!" Esposito chimed in, twirling a stick in his hand as he took the seat behind the drums. "Let's end this night on a happy note."
"What's the matter, Kate?" Castle slowly made his way in front of her, his eyes seemingly darkening with each step. With an almost practiced motion, he took one step further and slightly tilted his head, bringing a pair of lips she suddenly found herself focusing on inches from hers. For the briefest of moments, the case vanished to a blissful memory, the warning voice inside her head was happily silent, and a very sudden, very real heat exploded in the pit of her stomach as images of a rather carnal nature deluged her unprepared mind.
Is this really happening?
Castle's lips parted the most enticing of breadth. Her eyes fluttered to a close.
This is really happening…
"You're not chickening out on us are you?"
…
1 hour, 22 minutes and 12 seconds later…
"This thing called love, I just can't handle it. This thing called love, I must get round to it!"
"I gotta be cool. Relax. Get hip, and get on my tracks," Kate sang while dancing and- as far as she was concerned- rocking the hell out. "Take a backseat, hitch-hike; take a long ride on my motorbike, until I'm ready!
"Ready Freddy!" the boys shouted.
"Crazy little thing called love."
Looking over to Castle as she shimmied to the music, she noticed there was something different about the way he was looking at her. He was staring absolutely dumfounded at her, even missing a few of his notes. But that wasn't all. His normally sky blue eyes seemed a shade darker, brilliant and filling with an energy that inexplicably made her stomach feel like it was dancing as well. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the strange glow in his eyes, but something made Kate want to show him how thankful she was for getting her to have a little bit of fun. She slowly, playfully licked her lips, and sent a wink at him right before she started belting out her next verse…
…and his jaw promptly threatened to unhinge itself.
"That was… so hot." She heard him say in a deep, raspy voice.
Hiding a secretive smile behind the microphone in her hand, she happily sang out the next verse with a pleasant, new feeling. She always loved it when she could turn one of the most eloquent men she'd ever met into a drooling, mono-syllabic muttering, Neanderthal.
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AN: I gotta admit, I was really thinking of making Beckett sing "Another One Bites the Dust" or all of them singing "Bohemian Rhapsody". Good mental imagery. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Now back to finishing the next chapter on my other story :)
