You Know He Loves You When He Makes You a S'morelette
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone in regards to Castle; the show and its characters belong to a bunch of people who aren't me. I am merely borrowing the characters for my own amusement. Dance puppets, dance.
Author's Note: Greetings! I gobbled up the first three seasons of Castle a few weeks ago and have fallen in love with the show. This is my first fic attempt with them so I hope you like it. Thank you very much to Amichevole, LosingInTranslation, and Smacky30 for their feedback and beta work. They are fantabulous friends.
ETA: I sincerely apologize about the random i's in the previous version. They were from the html code I used when I posted on LiveJournal. I thought I had fixed it here, but my changes seemed to have gotten eaten. Again I am so sorry for the mistakes.
"Are you ready for your mouth to experience the most intense food orgasm you've ever had?"
"Rick, my mouth was ready to experience breakfast fifteen minutes ago. What the hell is the hold up?"
Cobalt eyes twinkling, Rick flipped the omelet that he'd been working on in secrecy. When Kate had woken up earlier, she went to join him in the kitchen, but he completely freaked out. He shooed her back to the bedroom, promising to let her know when he finished up. She waited approximately ten minutes before she threatened to twist his ear off if she didn't get a cup of coffee.
Sitting at the counter, she found he'd been working on an omelet. Just a garden variety omelet. Why did he need to keep that a secret?
"Oh my dear detective, when you taste this, you will want to use your mouth to thank me in wonderful, delightful…" His voice deepened. "…freaky ways," he finished, waggling his eyebrows.
Shaking her head, Kate rolled her eyes as she bit back a smile. He looked so adorable standing there, hair disheveled, wearing a grey NYPD shirt over blue striped lounge pants, with that stupid, smug grin. There was no way she could have him thinking she actually liked his behavior.
With practiced flair, he flipped the omelet on a plate and placed it front of Kate. "Breakfast is served, milady."
Finally, she thought gratefully as she cut a piece with her fork. This was shaping up to be a pretty good day: a good night's sleep, waking to Rick's soft snoring, a full pot of coffee, and a delicious breakfast…
Taking a bite, Kate nearly gagged. No, not a delicious breakfast. Not at all.
She tasted a vile combination of eggs, chocolate, graham cracker, and…was that marshmallows? Her stomach churned in protest against the disgusting flavor in her mouth.
Rick bounced excitedly on his toes, waiting for her reaction. Yes, he'd been sweet and made her breakfast. But this…this was absolutely horrible. For a man that could make gourmet marinara sauce with nothing more than tomato paste and garlic powder, this omelet (if it could even be called that) tasted liked he'd dumped in whatever he could find in the pantry.
Picking up the napkin, she spit the contents of her mouth into it. "Rick, what the hell kind of omelet is that?"
"Not an omelet, a s'morelette. Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows all wrapped up in the wonderfulness of eggs."
She took a large gulp of coffee to clear the remnants of the s'morelette flavor from her taste buds. Kate knew he had crazy ideas, but this reached a whole new level.
Shaking her head, she pushed the plate away. "No, this is not wonderful. These are two foods that never should have met."
"Oh c'mon," he pouted. "These are foods that should've been paired centuries ago. It's like peanut butter and chocolate, strawberries and bananas, milkshakes and French fries."
"Please do not insult those combinations by comparing them to your s'morelette."
"A s'morelette is the king of flavor combinations-"
"Dad! What are you doing?"
Turning, Kate watched as Alexis came downstairs, followed closely by Martha. Alexis stood next to Kate peering balefully at her plate. Kate felt her cheeks heat up, hoping the girl wouldn't take too much notice of her wearing one of Rick's button up shirts. Thank God she'd decided to also throw on a pair of running shorts.
"And good morning to you too, Daughter," he greeted. "May I offer you a s'morelette? I'll make you a fresh one."
Alexis' face scrunched up in disgust. "No, and why in the world are you offering Kate one? We talked about this."
Rick appeared crestfallen, like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away. "Well, yes…but I thought…"
Strolling into the kitchen, Martha grabbed a coffee cup from the cupboard. "Really, Richard. I thought you loved the poor girl enough to refrain from putting her through…" she waved her hand in the direction of the plate. "that."
Alexis snorted, shaking her head. "Or Dad loves her as equally as us, and has therefore decided to include her in one of his crazy experiments." Smiling sweetly, she patted Kate's shoulder. "Congratulations. You're one of us."
"One of us. One of us," Martha chanted in a robotic tone causing Alexis to laugh.
Both of them seemed oblivious to the fact that Rick kept his gaze downward, not meeting Kate's eyes. They'd only been together two months, and had never discussed the "L word." Oh sure, she remembered him uttering the words after she was shot last spring. And when they finally had the long awaited discussion about their relationship in the hospital, Kate admitted she cared for him deeply. Though with all that had been going on with her mother's case, she admitted she wasn't ready to be in a relationship with him yet. Yet, she'd emphasized, but that day would come soon. Nodding solemnly, Rick held her hand, telling her understood and he would wait as long as she needed.
And sure enough, almost a year later when she appeared at his doorstep, telling him the songs had made sense for her a long time ago, he was there. In the time since, neither one of them had actually uttered the word "love." Maybe Rick was afraid he'd scare her off. Not any more, she thought. For Kate, it was one, plain simple truth…she was a chicken when it came to this stuff.
The young redhead pushed away from the counter, patting her father on the shoulder. "Stick with chocolate chip pancakes and whipped cream."
"That sounds lovely!" Taking the milk from the refrigerator, Martha went about gathering various bowls. "You get rid of that," she told Rick. "And I'll start on the pancakes."
"I'll start on the pancakes, Mother." He pulled the bowls in front of him. "Just enjoy your coffee."
As Martha went to the living room, Alexis took away the plate with the s'morelette. Kate mouthed a "thank you," and got the same silent "you're welcome" in return.
Kate could've sworn she heard Rick whimper a little when Alexis threw his food in the trash. "You mark my words," he said, opening the canister of flour. "The s'morelette will catch on and when every restaurant is serving them, none of you will get a cut in the profits." With mock menacing eyes, he pointed the white dusted spoon at each of them.
Alexis sighed heavily as she went to join her grandmother. "Darn. I guess I won't get my name in your Wikipedia entry as the s'morelette inventor."
Rolling his eyes, Rick managed a smile at Kate. "Great artists are never appreciated."
"I'm sure your under appreciation has nothing to do with the God awful taste of that thing." Pushing the chair back, she went around the counter to refill her coffee cup. While she spooned in some sugar, she watched Rick continue to mix the bowl of pancake batter. Kate felt a surge of bravery go through her and the next thing she knew, she was wrapping her arms around him from behind. Pressing her nose into his back, she inhaled his musky scent. He always smelled good, and she had happily discovered he used an expensive body wash that turned her knees into mush.
"So which is it?" she murmured.
"Which is what?"
Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she took a breath. "Don't you love me enough to save me from a s'morelette or…do you love me like them?" She jerked her chin in the direction of the living room where Martha and Alexis sat, happily chattering away.
She didn't know where this bravery was coming from, or why, but for whatever it was, Kate decided to go with it. There was something about their words that had jolted Kate into action. Because even though the s'morelette was the most disgusting thing ever, it was sweet that Rick thought of her enough to try to feed her one.
Oh lord, she really did have it bad.
She felt him take a deep breath as he carefully set down the whisk. Holding her breath, Kate let go him while he turned around. Rick looked at her with intense blue eyes. He worked his jaw several times before opening his mouth.
"Well, that depends," he told her in a deep, husky voice. "On if enough means more than beating Angry Birds, more than actually becoming a Jedi, more than ever getting a Pulitzer Prize?"
Now it was Kate's turn to swallow hard. He pulled her a closer to him as he went on, "And does loving you like my mother and my daughter mean I can buy you your own laser tag gun and you'll be here for Thanksgiving when I try to deep fry a turkey again?"
Placing her hands on his cheeks, she yanked his head down to kiss him. Of course it was hard to do when she was busy grinning like an idiot. When they finally pulled apart, Rick blinked several times as if to regain his composure.
"Thank you," he squeaked before coughing. "Thank you," he said again, this time with a more manly tone.
Kissing his cheek, she nuzzled her way to his ear. "I love you, too."
He jerked back suddenly, trying to look serious, but even she could feel the surge of excitement running through him, much like a kid a moment before they could open presents on Christmas morning.
"Really?"
She laughed. "Yes."
"Really, really?"
"Yes, yes."
"Really?"
She huffed. "Yes. Really. Enough that I want to brave another breakfast here even though you might possibly serve me a s'morelette again."
Now it was Rick's turn to smile brightly, the kind of smile she absolutely loved where his eyes crinkled. He laughed before twirling in a circle, pumping his fists in some sort of victory dance. Kate rolled her eyes again, this time at herself; oh yeah, she had it bad to put up with that.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he cheered as he swept her up into his arms. Her smirk was swallowed up as he kissed her again, and she completely forgot about his goofy dance. She simply concentrated on the smoothness of his cheeks and the wonderful, sweet caramel, coffee taste of his mouth.
They stayed like that for a long time, until they heard someone clear their throat. Turning, Kate found Alexis staring expectantly at them.
"As sweet and nice as it is that you two are finally together, some of us are still hungry for breakfast."
Rick cleared his throat. "Of course, Pumpkin." He saluted her with a spoon. "I'm on it."
Kate went back to her coffee, letting her hair fall forward to hide her now red face.
"Don't use up all of the chocolate chips, Dad," she heard Alexis say. "I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies later."
"Chocolate chip cookies…interesting." Looking up, Kate could see Rick pondering something decidedly not good. "You know what would be good with chocolate chip cookies?"
"No!" The three women yelled.
The End.