All This Aggravation
A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me.
-Little Less Conversation, lyrics by Mac Davis & Billy Strange
"Well, that was awkward," she murmurs, shifting in the precinct's elevator. Castle's hand comes her waist and brushes at her back, drops away.
"Not too bad, though," he says quietly.
He's maybe too quiet. She reaches out and finds his forearm, tickles her fingers at his inside wrist to draw his hand into hers. He gives her a sideways look, a crinkled eyes smile which tells her it's not a bad quiet. Just reflective. He does that sometimes to her now.
"I didn't think Gates would be so upset," she sighs out. "I thought..."
"I know," he says carefully. "But don't worry about it. Let's celebrate instead."
She grins, turning to look at him even as the elevator doors slide open. She nudges the back of her hand into his hip and takes him by the thumb, but he doesn't have to be dragged. He comes along willingly.
"I'm surprised," he says.
"What? Why?"
He shrugs as they move through the lobby, his arm tucked up against his chest and cradling her hand. Weird, but effective. The ring catches their attention; she gets a few comments and some congrats, mostly just smiles and nods in Castle's direction.
"Surprised you let me do that," he grins then, laughing a little at her. "Show you off."
"Show me off?" she murmurs, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know I wasn't showing you off?"
He chuckles, a rich baritone that trembles in his chest so that she can feel it against her hand. "Good point. I'm quite a catch."
"The white whale, or so I've been told."
Something flickers across his face and she realizes he's been told as well. Or he's overheard. And not so flatteringly.
She grins as she puts a shoulder to the front door of the 12th Precinct, opening it. "Let me put your mind at rest, Castle. I'm only after you for your money."
He laughs again and follows her out into the sun. Kate shakes loose his hand to find her keys, fishing around in her jacket pocket as she carefully doesn't look at him. The ring catches on the material; she'll have to get used to that, find a way to work around it. She's already noticed it catches in her hair too.
"You know we have some serious stuff to talk about," she says then, glancing back finally.
"I know. Yeah. I can do that."
"Can you?" she asks. But she heads for her car parked with the rest of the units just down the street. Castle is following her, his broad shoulders at her peripheral vision, always just there at her side, a half step behind. I go first, she told him once.
She gets to her car, remote unlocking it, but Castle moves to the driver's side door before she can do anything. She stares at him a second - it's her car; he's not driving it - but he leans in close to her and her breath catches, her fingers curling against the key ring, his mouth close-
He opens her door for her. Steps back.
"After you," he murmurs.
Yeah. Yeah, okay, who needs talking?
"Castle," she says softly, reaching out to hook her finger in his belt loop. "How about you kiss me?"
"Thought we were supposed to be talking?"
"You said it - celebrate first."
"I guess now is the time to talk?" he asks. Kate has her hips propped against his kitchen sink, rinsing their dinner dishes. "Kate?"
She glances up with a little sigh. "Yeah. Probably right."
He doesn't want to have to do this; he wants the talking thing to have be a lot easier on them than it is. He wants her to turn to him and say, Hey, Castle, I got this job offer - what do you think?
She won't though. "So how do we start this?" he says, sinking down to the bar stool at the counter and watching her finish up the dishes. He cooked; she's cleaning up. They work in tandem so well with so many things. Just - not this.
She flicks her eyes up to his. "Why are you asking me? You're the professional with words."
"Yeah, but you're the one who's been in therapy." He winces and catches the dirty look she throws his way. "Whoops. That came out wrong."
She flicks water towards him with her fingers and then loads the last plate into the dish washer. "Yeah, I'll say it did."
"I meant professionally talking. Rather than professionally writing - which is a totally different thing. I could write you a hundred letters. But being forced to open up about stuff, face to face - how does that work?"
She shakes her head and rolls her eyes at him, but she locks the dish washer and clicks it to start then comes around and leans against the counter beside him. Castle lifts a finger and strokes it down her forearm, watching her skin ripple in reaction to him.
"Okay, so that's stupid," he says finally. "Forget I said that."
"Not stupid," she sighs. "Usually he asks me specific questions. I answer."
"Oh," he murmurs. He lifts his eyes and she's not looking at him, staring off through his loft windows. "Are you going to move in with me?"
She laughs, eyes startling back to his, more surprise than anything. "Well, that's probably a logical step. More so than this," she says, wriggling her fingers at him. The ring glints.
"When have we ever really done this the normal, logical way?"
"Mm, good point." She leans her elbows back on the counter and watches the ring for a moment. He grins because she likes it; he can tell she really likes it. "Okay. We said long engagement, Castle. So moving in with you would be next."
"I guess I should offer to move in with you-"
She glances at him, a smirking satisfaction on her face. "You probably should. But we both know that's not going to happen."
"You don't want me in your space?"
"Nope," she grins. "But you want me in yours."
"Yeah," he sighs, a smile flirting with his lips. "You got me there."
"I got you, period."
He huffs and reaches an arm around her waist, drags her between his legs, does a little having of his own. She drapes her arms on his shoulders and pushes her hips into his touch, leaning back to look at him.
Her face is smiling, but there's a serious brown to the green of her eyes. "Your place is bigger, more expensive, better security. Your family is here. We basically lived here together already. That's why."
"I know," he says easily.
"So why'd I have to say it?"
"That's really not the kind of stuff that has to be said." He rubs his thumbs over her hipbones, rucking up her shirt just enough so that he can lean in and kiss the skin at her belly button. She takes a gasping breath, hands lifting to frame his face, fingers curling in his hair in that way he loves. A little reckless, out of control, a little tender.
"What - what've I got to say to you, Castle?" she sighs.
"You've said enough," he murmurs against her skin. Her body is arching, seeking his, and he palms the backs of her thighs, draws her closer. "You tell me all I need to know."
Her fingers tighten in his hair and she draws back a little, making him grunt in displeasure, her body away from his. "Wait, wait," she mutters, a flick of her wrist against his ear that tugs him back. "Hold on."
"But the celebrating," he whines, lifting his head to look at her, that gorgeous desire rippling through her. "I know you want to celebrate with me."
"Oh, I do," she hums, her eyes dropping to his mouth. She shakes her head though, glares at him. "Wait. The talking is important because you seem to think I don't do enough and-"
"I seem to think-?" he starts, jerking back. He growls when he sees that triumph in her eyes, but she's good. She's not a master in that interrogation room for nothing. He's in this now. "I think you don't do enough sharing, Kate. It's not the amount of words that come out of your mouth but the distinct lack of sharing. If we're together, then we're together."
"It wasn't about that," she sighs, but her fingers trace his ear. She can't do that - can't use her body to wind him up and not talk, and then change her mind and use it to make her words softer than they are.
"You're distracting me."
"No," she says, but she drops her hands. "When I got the offer, the job wasn't real to me. It seemed fantastical. A little ridiculous, actually. Telling you about it before I knew anything-"
"But that's what people do. Who live together in long engagements. That's what happens."
"Pointless to talk about an offer that might not even be real. Pointless to get all worked up and fight about something that wasn't even going to happen."
"But it did happen. Kate, you took a flight to DC for a job interview and then you kept on not telling me. When were you going to say something?"
"When I knew," she says simply.
He opens his mouth, closes it.
She frowns and steps back. Castle flinches at her movement away and she pauses, something dawning in her eyes. Her fingers come up and circle his bicep, as much as she can, and then she pushes her thumb into the vulnerable skin at his inner arm. "Castle. When I knew. When I had something concrete to tell you. Then our conversation would have gone like this: Castle, I got a job offer in DC and it seems like a good next step for me but I don't know - what do you think?"
He studies her for a moment. "And I've had said the same. Why didn't you tell me?" But as he watches - watches the way she purposefully keeps a hand on him, keeps her face open and her body language readable - he realizes. "But you wanted all the evidence. Right. I got it now."
She frowns, a shimmer of hesitation. "Well. Yes."
"You always do that?"
"I think so." She chews on her bottom lip a moment. "I do. I like to be in control of every piece."
"Huh." Castle hooks his hand in her pants pocket and draws her in. "And I like to know. I like to know everything the moment it happens. Stick my nose in everyone's business and hash it out and talk it over, weigh everything, get everyone's advice-"
"Huh," she mutters, tilting her head at him. "That's a problem."
"Yeah, it really is. Has been. Will be."
"Will be?" she murmurs, a smile lifting the corner of her mouth.
"Yeah, in years to come. Growing old with you is going to be pretty damn aggravating."
She's smirking now. "Don't worry, Castle. You'll get there ahead of me anyway."
He chuckles and wraps an arm around her back, draws her quickly forward so that she stumbles and falls into him. He wriggles an eyebrow at her and she rolls her eyes but slides into his lap, arms at his shoulders.
"Was that too much talking?" she murmurs.
"Yeah, I think so. Reminding me that I'm older than you is a low blow."
"Just keeping you humble, Castle."
"Dropping to one knee on a children's playground isn't humble enough for you?"
She grins, her face split wide with it, and he feels her playing with the ring on her finger, right against his neck, twisting it around.
"Pretty humble," she concedes, that grin ever brighter, making her eyes light up. She leans in and touches her lips to his. "And for you - kinda epic, I think."
"What can I say? You bring out the best in me."
She hums against his mouth, a laugh that makes his whole body warm, and she hooks her elbow at his neck to keep him close. "You're the one who wants to marry me. Better get used to it."
"Yeah," he grins back, nudging into her mouth to kiss her softly. "I do."