Once Upon A Time
Vague spoilers for 4x17: "Once Upon A Crime". Imaginary conversation based on the US promo. One-shot. Complete.
"You get cute when you get angry" he says, looking at his partner with thinly veiled appreciation. "But…not when you get angry with me," he adds quickly, and she rewards him with a smile so beautiful it lights up the room.
"Just when I'm angry?" she asks, full on teasing him now.
What? Is she serious? She really wants to do this now? He's not sure he's reading the signals right, but oh! Apparently she does, because she's smirking at him, eyes sparkling, full of humor, and she's waiting for him to reply.
"Eh…no. That would be a…" he stutters, unprepared to answer her leading question.
"A what?" she asks coolly, the smile now accompanied by an amused little frown as she watches him flail.
He swallows. Licks his lips. Shit if he gets this next bit wrong, he's done for. And she's sitting so close it's bound to hurt.
"A factually incorrect statement," he says, hoping it's the right answer, and judging by the look on her face, he did good, because she's running her hands through her hair, flirtatiously lifting it away from her face as curls tumble through her fingers.
Oh how he wishes he were those fingers.
"Factually incorrect – how so?" she asks, pushing the boundaries just for fun it would seem.
Because they're working hard on this Beckett-flavored case. Hell, this Beckett-Castle-flavored case. No, Caskett, he thinks. Yeah. Caskett. That sounds good – for his ears only.
So, anyway, the Brothers Grimm have somehow muscled their way into the 12th, and now they're knee deep in Little Red Riding Hood, and a pale and very dead Snow White, poisoned apple and everything!
He's secretly hoping for Rapunzel next, he thinks, staring, mesmerized by Kate's long, silky curls, aching to reach over and just...
But she's watching him, suspicious, her eyes narrowing.
His mind wanders further. The Frog Prince could also have its merits, because he'd willingly play a frog, or any other amphibious creature, if it means he can get Kate Beckett to part her soft, pale pink lips on his and…
"Castle?" she asks, still waiting for his answer apparently.
But his answer to what exactly? Because he's momentarily forgotten, carried away in a haze of ivy-covered towers, and a silk-clad Kate Beckett waving down to him, hair tumbling, impossibly long and tousled, and then there's the idyllic, babbling brook, where he sits atop a lily pad while Kate's rosebud lips descend towards his…
And, oh my god. Now she's glaring. What did I say? Please god it wasn't out loud?
"Castle, you okay? You left me for a minute there."
Left you? No way. Never. Still right here, Kate. Waiting.
Get a grip, Rick.
"Sorry, you were saying?" he asks lamely.
"No, I think you were. Factually incorrect statement?" she prompts.
"Uh, right. Yeah, just that you're cute more times than you're angry so…"
"I'm cute? That's how you'd describe me?" she asks and now he's terrified.
Because he knows, just like every man knows, that when a woman asks you how you'd describe them it's…oh no. Trouble. He's in big trouble now.
"Well, not exactly. Not just that," he says, kicking himself that he ever mentioned her cuteness at all.
Because the things this woman can do to him have nothing to do with cute most days, and in her seriously scary moments he swears she can shrivel him up with a single glance - manhood in tatters, psych eval required, before he can put himself back together again.
"So, more than just cute?" she prompts, toying with him, like a cat with a tiny, terrified mouse.
He registers that she's smirking at him, but it's like he's lost control of their dynamic. The cut and thrust, the banter, his love of innuendo that she pretends to hate, delighting him by giving it right back, just as good as she gets. He forgets to shut this down with some pithy one-liner; something like 'wouldn't you like to know' or 'I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you'. The safe option.
And somehow he sees, in the shadow that flits across her eyes perhaps, that a throw away line won't cut it this time. Because they've just come off a CIA case, and the lies and imperfect truths told by a certain ex and former muse of his still weigh heavily on her, while she tries to unravel the facts from malicious fiction. So she needs this…this whatever he's about to say, to put them back on track.
But what can he tell her to make this right? That he wouldn't have waited for Sofia Turner – not even for five minutes? That Kate Beckett sees the man he'd like to be, not the poor excuse for a man he was when he met her? That she completes him in ways no other woman ever has, even although they're not quite there yet? That she is special and unique and the pull she exerts on him is something he hopes never to free himself of? That she makes him better in every way possible, even when his own weakness pulls him back down? That he loves only her?
And though these are truths, every last one, they are too heavy for this moment they're in. So…
"What's wrong with cute, anyway?" he asks, looking for a bit of a steer from her. "You said I was cute once."
"Yeah, once upon a time," she says, laughing at him.
Oh, right. Now she's laughing at him. So not fair!
"Just 'once upon a time'?" he teases, eyes twinkling.
Two can play at this game, Kate.
"What, you're fishing for compliments now?" she asks, flirting with him.
"Like you weren't?" he counters, and now she's blushing, and his heart stutters, because…there's hair twirling too!
"I…" she starts and then obviously thinks better of whatever it is she was about to say.
"You…?" he prompts, regaining control when he leans his chin on his hands, leveling an amused gaze at her face, pinning her in place. And he's so delighted.
"Shit, Castle. Just hand me the goddam file," she says, surrendering this round, pink with shame at her own needy, traitorous ego.
"Yeah, well I guess I was wrong before," he says solemnly.
"About what?" she asks vaguely, fanning her warm face with her hand, trying to feign a lack of interest.
"You're cute when you get angry with me too, Kate," he winks.
The End.
(Oh…and they lived happily ever after).