This Needs To Stop, Yesterday, a castle fanfic

Ttitle: This Needs To Stop, Yesterday

Disclaimer: Don't own Castle or any of the rights to, so don't kill me.

Notes/Prompts: For FreekyDisaster18's prompt of 'Ryan gets jealous of Esposito and Lanie'. And for JewDrop91 who had not had a story out of me that she would be inclined to read in ages!

This is my 1st ever Castle fiction and it will be moderated, as I go along. Sorry that it's so long. Review if you like it and let me know with suggestions on improving it :)

Present

'Okay. None of what you just did explains anything to me, man' Esposito stood at the kitchen counter, covered in fruit juice and scowling at his partner.

'Which part, the fruit juice or the shouting?' Ryan asked, still holding the carton of cranberry juice drink in his right hand.

'Both to be honest'

Ryan aimed the carton at his bin and chucked it, and it landed in the top, slipping past the lid.

'I'm gonna make you pay to get this out. I'm pink, dude' Esposito motioned towards his torso. Ryan eyed the shirt and frowned at it. It was a crisp white shirt that had slightly curved cuffs, a more formal shirt than his everyday 'cop shirts' that Esposito called them.

'Lanie gave that to you for your birthday, didn't she?' Ryan asked, trying to sound at least verging on normal.

Esposito gave him a look, which said you-are-still-not-helping, and pulled at the material that clung to his chest.

'Yeah, so?'

Ryan hoped that looking at his partner long enough would work. Esposito stared back at him, an eyebrow raised.

8 weeks ago

Ryan sat at his desk, nursing bleeding finger which had unfortunately suffered a cut, and scowling at his screen. Esposito walked in in his usual swagger, but he was on the phone talking to someone animatedly. Ryan flicked his eyes at the wrong moment and Esposito nodded at him, still listening to the person on the other end of the line, and gave him a wink. Ryan grinned and returned to his work, because Esposito does that all the time now. He just winks to let Ryan know something, like in this case it was to say I'll be with you in a second hold on there. So Ryan went back to the report and growled at the messy handwriting on the scanned paper. Honestly, the guy – Detective Wainwrights - had worse handwriting than Castle. He peered at it, and began correcting a procedural note, idiot, when there was a creak on the back of his chair. He turned his head, nearly colliding with Esposito in the process.

'Yeah, that wasn't the smoothest' Esposito replied as he dodged the accidental head-butt. 'You alright Ry?' and Esposito's pointed at Ryan's mouth, which still had his index finger inside.

'Mnnnm' he said and then removed his finger, tasting the tang of a little blood on his teeth, 'Yeah, I'm good' he said.

'What d'ya do?'

'Yeah that stapler doesn't like me' he waved his hand at the stapler on its side on the desk. He had tried to staple the report together from the homicide last week, but apparently the stapler wasn't going to let Ryan off easily. He had to fiddle with the object, and in doing so scraped his finger across a jagged, useless, staple. He was not amused, at all. Because he couldn't be bothered to go to first aid for a small cut, he saw his best option was just to carry on.

'Have to be wary of these things man, they're gonna take over the world someday' and Ryan nearly missed the smirk. He whacked Esposito on the arm, and received a chuckle.

'Should be a comedian. Who's on the phone?' he asked, out of curiosity and friendly nosiness.

'Lanie, reminding me about Tuesday' Esposito said, and he crashed down onto the chair, swivelling slowly. Tuesday? 'We're having dinner' Esposito clarified and Ryan nodded.

'Oh cool, have fun. You got anything?' Ryan asked and his partner – who doesn't tell him anything it seems – shook his head.

'Nothing, there was a call out but it was another prank. Where do people find the time to prank call the police?' Ryan sniggered, it got on Esposito's nerves a lot that people did that. He'd even seen Esposito back a young boy up against the wall because of his little game with the NYPD. 'How you doing with that report?' Esposito asked, and Ryan looked around the computer at him.

'Almost done'

'Cool cause I want to catch some lunch before-'

'Castle and Beckett get back?' Ryan finished and Esposito smirked at him.

'Hurry it up man'

Ryan typed up the last bits, and grabbed his jacket from the chair and headed out with Esposito to the lifts and the deli.

He wasn't going to say anything because, well, it wasn't something set in stone, was it? The it being the Tuesday that Esposito was going out with Lanie. See, Ryan and Esposito had started the tradition of going out to a game, dinner, at either ones place, whatever, to mark the day that they became partners.

Yeah, okay it sounds a bit stupid and even thinking about it made it worse. But Ryan had always, no matter what happened, or where he was, kept that day free. It just wasn't an option. He'd turned down Castle and Alexis (a pair very, very hard to squirm out of their grip) because of it. Yeah they were partners, but as people keep saying 'they best partners fall in and out of step like a married couple'. Ryan's head snapped up at the thought, and the sound of a dumbbell being dropped echoed through gym.

'Yo, Ryan, earth to Ryan?' and he must have spaced out a bit. Esposito was grinning up at him from the bench. He was wearing a white wife beater that stretched over the well-toned chest. Ryan averted his eyes back to Esposito's face.

'What's up with you? You're doing that smile again'

'What smile?' he countered, and trained his face back to being blank.

'Y'know that smile you get when you're thinking about something you like' and it took will power not to blush at the thought. He didn't even know he was doing it. How often did he do it then?

'Uhm nothin'. You finished admiring yourself in the mirror?' he teased and Esposito chuckled, standing up and looking at their reflections.

'Can't help it if I look how the gods intended it' and Ryan rolled his eyes.

'Yeah, you're a real stud' he deadpanned and picked up the boxing hand strips from the box. He held them out to Esposito who took them wordlessly, and began wrapping Ryan's hands up. It was another routine that they just hand down, because neither one could put on their own strips. He didn't think it was weird that at one point they were basically holding hands. Ryan would be lying if he said he didn't like the feel of Esposito's hands. They were quite soft for a cop's. When his hands were covered he moved to the punch bag, and Esposito stood on the other side of it, holding the blue leather with a hand on each side.

'Whenever you're ready, man' Esposito's voice carried, and Ryan tensed his shoulders, and punched the bag with full force. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Castle, and stopped, giving a wave. Castle waved, grinning, Ryan warned Esposito and got back to work with the punch bag.

They had a callout on a burglary, at four in the morning and Ryan – even though his body was used to this – got up and out grumbling the entire way. When he turned up at the scene, he saw Esposito and Lanie chatting, she touched his arm. Like he saw Beckett did with Castle before she slapped him (long story). It was one grievous bodily harm victim, the other family members were unharmed.

'Morning Ryan' Lanie said cheerfully.

'Morning Lanie' he said on autopilot – his brain having not really caught up yet - and carried his cup of coffee to Esposito who informed him about the case. While Ryan looked up at the house, Esposito nicked his coffee.

'Hey, that's mine'

'I want some' and Ryan didn't argue as Esposito drunk from the same side of the cup as Ryan had just done not moments before. Beckett walked over, sans Castle which meant he didn't really want to get up.

'Guys, could you just go inside and have a chat with the sisters?' she asked, and Ryan nodded, holding his hand out for his coffee. Esposito handed it back to him, and from the weight of it he had drunk quite a bit.

'I'll buy you another' Esposito said at Ryan's raised eyebrow. Beckett looked like she was close to laughing when Ryan downed the last bit and chucked the paper cup in the bin.

The burglary was quite straightforward thanks to DNA off the victim, and Esposito stuck to his word about buying him another coffee.

Ryan decided to take up the offer of the guys from the precinct to go to the The Road Side for a beer or two on Tuesday. He got on well with a few of them, and Wainwrights was under the impression that Ryan was dating someone called Lucy, who he hadn't heard of before. He looked at his beer, knowing that Lanie and Esposito were probably having a lot of fun at dinner together. After all, he was an NYPD detective, he wasn't a preteen girl. He ordered another beer and took his mind off Esposito by playing a game of darts, badly with a fellow beat cop he used to know.

Ryan came in the next day, and frowned at Esposito's lateness, but then his heart sank just a little bit when he remembered where Esposito had been last night.

'Ryan, have you seen Esposito?' Beckett asked across the room as she ambled in with her bagel and coffee.

'Uhm, no sorry. We're not Siamese twins y'know' he mumbled and Beckett shook her head at him, holding out her palms in surrender.

'I know, I just asked. Are you two okay, though?' and Ryan nodded, flashing a smile, but he could see she was reading underneath it. Castle's fault, him and his book. He was writing more subtext in, so that every time Ryan read one – or a chapter – he got more confused as to where the ideas for the two cops, Roach and Oaley, came from.

The lift doors pinged open and in walked Esposito and Lanie. Not that that really surprised Ryan and he grinned at the pair, not realising that it didn't really go to his eyes.

He did a double take, and looked at the shirt Esposito was wearing. It was white, and had an open collar. In looking at the cuffs that poked out from underneath his jacket, they were slightly curved. He knew that shirt.

Lanie had bought it for Esposito's birthday present, but never got round to giving it to him. Ryan knew this because Lanie showed it to him, and told him not to tell Esposito. Ryan had bought him a watch after Esposito broke his in smashing a perp's arm against a window.

If Esposito was wearing it after being out with Lanie the night before that only meant one thing surely?

Castle was complementing Esposito on his shirt and Beckett said something to Lanie. Ryan caught Esposito's eye, and his partner gave him that. Need to talk to you look, and then his eyes transferred back to Castle.

'Kev, talk to you?' Esposito nodded his head towards the break room and Ryan followed him. It took a couple of seconds for the noise to die down from the rest of the precinct, and Esposito to turn around that Ryan concluded something was up.

'What's up?'

'I'm cool man, shoulder still hurts but other than that…' Ryan trailed off. He had been thrown to the floor by a suspect who had bowled into him, and let's just say that he wasn't exactly light.

'I meant that it seems like you're not telling me something' Esposito reasoned. If this had been his summation of a suspect on a case Ryan would have happily patted him on the back. No. How do you say: Oh by the way partner, I'm a little jealous over you spending time with our favourite MD.

That just wasn't going to happen.

'It's nothing Javi, just got a lot on my mind that's all'

'So that pretty head of yours actually works?' Esposito asked, and Ryan laughed.

'See, unlike you I actually used my brain to get to where I am'

'You suggesting I hit home a few to become a detective?'

'Well…' Ryan said, smirking at Esposito's mock horrified face. The break room door opened and one of the other cops popped his head in.

'Sorry, Detective Beckett told me you'd be in here' it was one of the guys Ryan had gone to drinks with 'Ryan, you up for a round this Friday?'

'Uhm yeah, sure' and the guy grinned.

'Cool. Try not to hurt that shoulder, I want a good game of darts of you' and he nodded a 'bye' to Ryan and Esposito, leaving the door slightly ajar. Ryan looked at his partner and Esposito's whole aura had gone black.

'You're going out with him on Friday?' and Ryan got a saddened feeling of reversed roles. Weird that.

'Yeah I went out with him and the guys from Robbery on Tuesday. He's lousy at darts' Ryan lightly laughed.

'Friday's Madden night' Esposito said calmly, but Ryan could hear the crackle of fire in his best friend.

There isn't a line in the whole world of soap operas to deal with this kind of situation. Right now, that would come very much in handy.

'Miss one night of beating me, it's not that big a deal' and Ryan shocked himself, because yes it was a big deal, but this stupid dance between them that had gone on for the last few weeks was getting stale. Ignore it or do something about it.

'If you say so' Esposito said through gritted teeth, and he left, without a word.

Ryan didn't go with the guys on Friday. He could have gone, and shrugged it off and not thought that he missed Esposito's company, but he didn't. So instead he was going to make the hot cranberry syrupy thing that his grandma had taught him to make. He could never remember what it was called but it made him feel better, and his shoulder was playing up.

He was about to add the cranberry juice to the syrup, but there was a knock on his door. Unfortunately he reacted first as a cop, and second as a normal citizen. His first instincts were to calculate how far away his gun was, and anything he could defend himself with. Pathetic maybe, but he would rather be alive. Then he walked over to his door.

'Who is it?' he called and then he heard a cough.

'It's me, Esposito' and Ryan breathed hard through his nose. It had truly come to the point with his partner that he was either going to yell at him or kiss him senseless. Both seemed very likely. He opened the door and the guy stood there, quirking his lips into a grin. He wore the shirt – which had obviously been in the wash and drier – that Lanie gave him. Ryan chose to ignore the fact.

'Guess you didn't go with Matheson then?'

'Guess not. My shoulder kills' Ryan lied.

'Can I come in?' and Ryan moved out of the way to let Esposito inside. Ryan led the way into his kitchen, not that Esposito didn't know where it was. He began fiddling with the drink he was going to make, just not really getting anywhere with it. Esposito, clearly thinking he would be here a while, took off his jacket and laid in on the chair.

'Look, man this – ' and he motioned between himself and Ryan in a wave of his hand 'has to stop, yesterday' and Ryan looked over the counter at Esposito who's eyes had gone wide and on the verge of being vulnerable. Not that he was vulnerable; Ryan just knew that some door had been unlocked inside his partner's head that his partner thought he needed shutting.

'What are you talking about?' Ryan's hand stopped on the carton of cranberry juice, his fingers tightened, ready to pick it up and mix it in with the syrup.

'Kevin, we're not the same. Something is up, and I've gone over about what it could be but I haven't a clue. It's certainly not all on me!'

'So it's all my fault then?' Ryan retorted, yelling, forgetting briefly that he had just acted like he had no idea what Esposito was going on about.

'No. Just, why are you acting weird?' Espostio asked. It all happened in slow motion and before Ryan could stop it. He picked up the carton and the word slosh doesn't clarify. The red juice seemed to grow hands and the stain clutched onto the white cotton. Ryan's eyes went wide.

'Sorry' he apologised, and Esposito, still in shock licked his lips.

'Least we both cranberry, huh?' he said, easing the mood a bit. 'Okay. None of what you just did explains anything to me, man' Esposito stood at the kitchen counter, covered in fruit juice and scowling at his partner.

'Which part, the fruit juice or the shouting?' Ryan asked, still holding the carton of cranberry juice drink in his right hand.

'Both to be honest'

Ryan aimed the carton at his bin and chucked it, and it landed in the top, slipping past the lid.

'Lanie gave that to you for your birthday, didn't she?' Ryan asked, trying to sound at least verging on normal.

Esposito gave him a look, which said you-are-still-not-helping, and pulled at the material that clung to his chest.

'Yeah, so?'

Ryan hoped that looking at his partner long enough would work. Esposito stared back at him, an eyebrow raised.

PRESENT

Esposito's eyes went comically wide for a moment, and Ryan looked down at the glass of syrup that was now useless.

'She gave it to me on…'

'The Tuesday night, you guys went out?' he offered and Esposito nodded. 'Thought so, cause you were wearing in the next day, man'

'Ryan, she gave it to me before I left. Explaining something about you and the shirt…'

'Wait, so you two didn't…' and they locked gazes, and Ryan quickly shut his eyes, with a groan. Esposito chuckled.

'Wait a second, you thought Lanie and I had rocked the Kasbah?' the laughter in his voice was really quite irritating.

'Kinda, yeah? And rocked the Kasbah, seriously?'

Esposito rocked on his heels and looked thoughtful. If Ryan was hopeful, Esposito would ignore the fact that that had made Ryan annoyed.

'Kev, that still doesn't explain the thing between the two of us. Like that fact that you obviously weren't fine with me going out with Lanie on the Tuesday' Esposito said in softer tone of voice.

This was going to be interesting.

'You know we got that idea of celebrating our partnership as cops?' he asked and he watched Esposito nod his head slowly. He waited.

'Tuesday was… oh man' and it looked like the world crashed down on top of his partner, right in front of him.

'Ryan, why didn't you say?'

'Well I thought, you know, you and Lanie…' and he frowned at his own sentence, not sure where he was going with it.

'So that's why you went out with Matheson?'

'It's a stupid thing to do, right? We're like Castle and Beckett' Ryan chuckled.

'No it's not Ryan. I guess that whole thing with Matheson was revenge?'

'Not premeditated, but I guess it was kind of high school playground' Ryan reasoned. 'We should ask Castle to put in his new book' he mused.

'Knowing our luck he already knows' Esposito grumbled, but his partner had a point. Castle probably did know the entire plot line of this event between him and Esposito, Ryan just hoped he hadn't picked up the subplot, and neither had his partner.

'So it's a no go on Madden or Partner nights?' Esposito cleared and Ryan nodded.

'Partner nights, you make it sound like something off HBO'

'You got any more of that Cranberry juice hidden about?' and Ryan's eyes dropped to Esposito's chest that had now dried red on the cotton. Damn. He felt guilty about the shirt now.

'Yeah' Ryan moved to his fridge and dug out a carton at the back.

'One of the first things I learnt about you' Esposito said, referring to the cranberry juice. That memory made him smile. Ryan got out another glass and poured the syrup into it. He was paying too much attention to measuring that he forgot all about Esposito. When his partner's breath cascaded down his hairline, he jumped.

'Jesus you're like a cat, man'

'Ryan, there's something else I want to know' Esposito's voice sounded low next to his ear.

'What goes in this apart from a lot of syrup?' Ryan asked, and then turned so his hands were on the work surface behind him. Luckily Esposito had stepped back so Ryan could look directly at him.

'Nope, but I still want to know that. Seems to me, that we haven't got everything entirely out in the open' he remarked, and Ryan's system went into alert mode of run, run, as fast as you can. But he didn't move.

'Okay' he said, trying to grin and avoided looking at the fleck of pink at the collar of Esposito's shirt. The stuff got everywhere!

'If I'm wrong just tell me to stop' he said and before Ryan could ask as to what he meant, he had his partner's lips on his. Ryan dropped his mouth open, and the kiss was more sensual. Nothing like they were on beat, this was Ryan and Esposito, the friends behind the badges. Esposito nipped at his bottom lip and when they parted they rested their foreheads together.

'You're right' Ryan answered the unasked question and the flash of a white smile from Esposito made Ryan grin.

'You're still payin' for this to be removed, man' Esposito said haughtily.

'Gladly' Ryan said before capturing his partners mouth once again.

'Am I right in saying that the other reason you didn't like Lanie and I-'

'Yes' Ryan stopped him and sealed his mouth, hesitantly un tucking Esposito's shirt.

'Something tells me I'm not going to need my shirt' Esposito said, letting Ryan slip his hands onto his belt.