He leaned back on the couch, his muscular form, cradled by the soft cushions. His eyes, intense and somewhat serious as his gaze settled on her face.

"You know what I thought when I first met you?" he asked.

Here it comes, she thought to herself, the classic Castle twelve year old.

What ridiculous comment is going to fly out of his mouth now?

She hummed her response. His eyes never wavered from hers.

"That you were a mystery I was never gonna solve."

Whoa. That's not what she had expected. At all.

"Even now," he continued, "After spending all this time with you, I...

I'm still amazed at the depths of your strength, your heart..." he paused for a brief moment.

Oh wow. This was DEFINITELY not what she had expected.

He had a sudden gleam in his striking azure eyes and smiled briefly before concluding,

"And your hotness."

Ah, there it was. There was the twelve year old. She smiled in spite of herself.

"Yeah, well you're not so bad yourself Castle" she gave him a faint smile.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. They just sat, watching one another.

Until he covered her hand with his, tracing tiny circles over it with his thumb.

She tried not to react to the tingle running up and down her body. She glanced at the clock, 11:30. She needed to go to bed.

Standing, she pulled him up to his feet. She leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. The stubble tickled her lips. She pulled away and looked up at him, still holding his hand.

"Good night Castle." she whispered.

She dropped his hand and turned to make a hasty retreat to her room when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned back around to face him. He smiled and leaned in close, kissing her gently on the lips.

"Until tomorrow detective." with that he turned and walked back to his room.

She stood there for a minute completely dumbfounded.

What the hell just happened? She thought.

She quickly spun on her heel and high tailed it back to her room, hastily closing the door behind her. She leaned against it as she ran her fingers through her hair. She definitely wasn't going to sleep well tonight.