So, the morning after? At work? Is kind of weird. And by morning after, Javier Esposito is referring to the morning after the first time he and his very attractive, blue-eyed, Irish skin-toned, partner Kevin Ryan, did things… (sexual) things… together.

And it's not the kind of weird where he's worrying that he ruined their partnership and/or very important friendship, because they'd talked about it. Kind of. In between the panting… and the grinding… and the saliva swapping on Ryan's roadkill red couch… they'd determined that this was serious. For real. Because neither one of them would jump into something like this without being sure. They were too important to each other to risk losing everything.

So, no, it's a different kind of weird… The kind where Javier is having trouble not imagining Kevin's mouth around his cock every time he turns to hand him a file. And yeah, that makes for an awkward work day.

Kevin finally corners his partner in the break room under the pretense of more coffee.

"Hey man, everything… good?" He asks Javier as casually as possible, while fiddling with the far too complicated espresso machine that Castle insisted on purchasing for the precinct.

The worry that Espo had decided that their… encounter… was a mistake, that he was grossed out by the things they did together, that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with Ryan, was clear in barely-hidden tremble in his voice.

"Everything's fine, bro." Javier assured him. "Everything is good." It's so good I want to rip your clothes off right now, and it's kind of freaking me out a little bit because this is new and we're at work, but it's also giving me some kind of fuzzy feeling in my lower gut that I'm not looking to get rid of so I think that's good, he thought to myself.

"Yeah?" Kevin asked, not totally convinced.

Javier smirked. "Yeah, just finding it a little hard to… concentrate."

Kevin chanced a glance at his partners face. "In a... good way?" He clarified sheepishly, trying to hide the way his eyes were clearly admiring the lines of Javier's jaw.

"Yeah, bro. Definitely in a good way."