It had slipped out completely accidentally.
"Oh, Castle, you know I love you."
They were ice skating and when Castle had tripped, Kate laughed and skated away. When he finally caught up with her he snagged her waist and pulled her back so she was next to him.
"Kate, really?" He's said, "Laughing is one thing, leaving me alone to be harassed by evil teenagers is another." Kate giggled and grabbed his hand.
"Oh, Castle, you know I love you." Kate expected him to stop, or kiss her or do something, but he didn't do anything. She didn't want to say it, not now, not here, but it kind of just slipped out. He just squeezed her hand and kept skating. "Rick, I didn't mean –"
"Can you jump?" He turned to her, a giddy smile covering his face.
"I – you mean on the ice?" He nodded eagerly and she skated up a bit, and released his hand, already missing the contact. She leaped into the air, and her breath caught her as she hit the ground. She made her way back to him and returned his hand to hers, smiled and looked down as he praised her.
"Can you twirl?" Oh, this beautiful man. She could see in his eyes and the way he was moving his body that he was happy, and he could tell that she was feeling iffy about what she'd just said. So he changed the topic, went from jumping, to twirling, to skating backwards. So she jumped, and she twirled, and she skated backwards, because the smile on his face was definitely worth it.
Kate gasped and turned to Castle, the empty cup in her hand slipping and shattering onto the kitchen floor. Why do things keep slipping?
"Kate told me she loved me today."
"Jesus, I'm – sorry," Kate reached behind her to grab the paper towels as Martha reached for the dustpan under the sink. Alexis and Castle sat at the island, a smirk at Castle's face.
"Oh, darling, don't even worry about it. Nobody can predict some of the things that come out of Richard's mouth." Martha swept the glass pieces that Kate didn't get into the dustpan, and then tossed them into the trash. Kate thanked them and threw away her own paper towels, and then leaned awkwardly against the kitchen sink.
"Well you've already broken a glass, tell us the story!" Martha demanded.
"It kind of just slipped," Kate looked down at her hands, too embarrassed to look at any of them.
"We were ice skating and someone tripped me," Castle started.
"Yeah, your own feet," Kate cut in.
"Someone," Castle repeated, "tripped me, so I slipped and fell and sweet Kate over here just laughed and skated away, letting the demons –"
"Teenagers."
"– come for me. Once I was finally up and able to catch up to her, she put her arm around my waist and said "oh, how I love you, Richard Castle." Castle sighed and put his hands on his chin. "Then we went to a beautiful restaurant, ordered only desserts, and snuggled in the back booth."
"Oh, that sounds so romantic!" Martha exclaimed.
"Yeah, too bad it's not true." Everyone looked at Kate and she finally stood straight and crossed her arms. "Everything about him falling was true, but when he caught up with me he said something about the teenagers, and my response was 'Castle, you know that I love you,' and then he asked me if I could jump on the ice."
"That sounds more like Kate," Alexis laughed.
"No, I know," Castle said, smiling brightly, "I just wanted to hear you say it again."
Later, when they were both sleep dazed and Kate was half draped on Castle's chest, her cheek on his bicep, she lifted her head and whispered, "I do love you, you know. So much. All the time. Every day." Castle kissed her forehead and tightened his arm around her waist.
This time the slip was not accidental.
A/N: Meh. Not much to say about this. It's pretty basic. Fun fact: I wrote this in computers class, as our school was being searched for drugs.
