A Dash of Dash
A/N: A collection of fills from tumblr prompts in which the scene or story is set within the Dash universe. These will be posted in the order in which I wrote the fills, not in chronological order. They are also completely unedited, as I want to preserve the prompt/fill nature of their origin - a simple first draft of one scene, without revisions, much like improv.
no girls allowed
— ANONYMOUS
"No girls allowed." Kate lifts her eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest.
Castle fidgets, shifting on his feet, swallowing thickly. Cop glare always gets him. "Um. Yes?"
"Are you asking me?" she says. "Because that sounded like a question rather than an assertion."
"Yes," he says, trying for assertive. "No - um - girls allowed."
She's silent.
Castle is sweating. But Dash comes running from the living room into the study and barrels into the back of Kate's legs, hugging her hard. "Mommy, it's my day!"
She narrows her eyes at Castle first, but she leans over to hug Dashiell around the shoulders, combing the hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, my wild man. I heard."
"Just for this," Castle says quickly. "Just for a few hours, Dash, buddy. Not for the whole day."
Dashiell's face crumples. "Not my day?"
Castle grunts, his son's disappointment sharp. Kate drops to her knees and wraps her arms around Dashiell, kissing his temple softly. "No, baby, that's not true. It's your day. Daddy just means that I won't be gone for long."
Dashiell lifts a hopeful face to his father. "It's my day?"
"Yes, yes, of course, my best man. It's your day. I just - well - I told Mommy no girls allowed, like we said, but I think Mommy was looking forward to spending some of the day with you too. So, well, you want Mommy here, right?"
Dashiell glances back to his mother, tilts his head. "But it's no girls allowed, Mommy."
Kate huffs, giving Castle a death glare like it's his fault. Well, it is kinda his fault. He did really talk up their boy's day.
"And Mommy, you're two girls." He pats Kate's stomach, the bump that nudges between them. "You got my baby in there."
Kate lets out a little strangled laugh, lifts her eyes to Castle.
Yeah, that got him too. "You're right, wild man. Mommy counts twice, doesn't she? But how about we make an exception for Baby K, since she's not even born yet?"
Dash screws up a face, eyes Kate as if he has to think about it. "I guess." He shrugs a little and glances back to his father. "But we're still gonna do cool guy stuff, right?"
"Definitely." He reaches down and scoops his son into his arms. "But you know what? Mom does a lot of those cool guy things already. Probably better than your old dad too. So, I promise - we're gonna have a great day." He turns to Kate. "Right, Mommy?"
"Right, Daddy. Thank you for letting me spend the day with you," she says, so conciliatory that it makes him nervous.
Castle shifts Dashiell to his other arm, reaches out to knuckle her lower back. A peace offering for unintentionally excluding her. They both are trying to spend quality time with Dash before the baby comes.
"Dash, buddy, go find your coat," he says, letting Dashiell to the floor once more. "And Mommy's too. We'll leave in a minute."
Dashiell speeds off, back through the living room, leaving Castle alone with his very pregnant wife.
He rubs hard into her lower back and offers her his support, letting her bones rest. She groans and tilts her head forward. "Hey, tonight," he murmurs, wriggling an eyebrow. "More where that came from."
Kate smirks at him, steps back carefully. "I'm sorry, Castle. But no girls allowed."
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