A/N: Just a bit of fluff for #CastleThemeDay and Halloween. This is in the Dragonslayer universe, set about three years earlier than that story. I hope you enjoy!
Hannah Castle was stomping around the loft, high stepping and shout/singing at the top of her lungs.
"Twick or tweet, smell my feet, gimme somefing good to eat!"
"Castle!" Kate scolded. "Did you teach Hannah that?"
Rick had the good grace to blush a little – before denying it, of course.
"Ummm…she must have picked it up from the kids in the park."
Kate gave him 'The Look'.
"Uh-huh," she said, her lips twitching, betraying the lie in her glare.
Rick decided to play it up.
"Come on, Kate," he wheedled; not whining, but not far from it. "It's Hannah's first Halloween."
"It's her third," she retorted with a grin, then ticked off her fingers. "You took her out when she was three months old – "
"Hey! That candy corn costume was adorable!" he interrupted, "And I seem to recall you enjoyed the candy explosion we got from that."
"Never said I didn't," Kate replied calmly and continued. "Last year, you and Alexis took her trick or treating up in the Hamptons."
She frowned at that. She'd had to work and missed the whole thing.
"So this is three," she went on, getting back to the matter at hand.
"But it's the first one where she really knows what's going on, Kate," Castle continued to cajole. "And, since I'm 90% kid myself – "
Now it was Kate's turn to interrupt.
"That low?" she smirked.
Castle gave her his own version of 'The Look' and sidled up close to her side.
"You know how much of a man I am," he rumbled, waggling his eyebrows.
"We are talking about our two year old, Castle," she chided.
He jumped back as though Hannah had just caught them doing something naughty.
"Right. My point being is that Halloween is a kid's holiday. What's wrong with a goofy poem?"
Kate deflated. In truth, she hadn't been scolding very hard.
"Maybe it's just that she's been singing it nonstop ever since you got home from the park. Besides, my mother always refused to give any candy to kids who said that. I always thought that was harsh, but she hated it."
"I think that saying is the bane of mother's everywhere. My mother didn't ban me from saying it, but whenever I did she'd give me an eyeroll that would rival one of yours.
Kate rolled her eyes at that and Castle said; "Exactly."
"At least she never told you that the day was an empty hot dog casing like my dad did," she quipped.
As Rick stood there trying to figure out what Jim had meant, Hannah ran up to them.
"Mama, Daddy! Mama, Daddy! It spookypumpkinghostscawyfuncandytime!"
She began hopping around the room and wearing out her mother just by watching her.
"A hollow weenie, Castle," Kate said, seeing that he was still confused. He looked at her incredulously.
"That was terrible, Kate," he said. Under his breath, she heard him continue; "Gonna have to remember that one."
Grinning, Kate turned to her daughter.
"It can only be spookypumpkinghostscaryfuncandytime if you're in your costume, baby girl," she said to Hannah. "We'd better get going."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yay, yay!" Hannah yelled, one word for every hop.
Castle ran up the stairs to get the costume out of the guest room. Coming back down, he stopped on the steps to watch his wife and their daughter. Kate may not have been hopping, but she was just as excited as Hannah.
Hanna looked up to see him standing there.
"Daddy! Daddy! My sun! My sun!" she screamed.
"Okay, Hannah," winced Kate at the sound. "Inside voice, sweetie."
"But it my sun, Mama!"
"We know, Hannah," said Rick. "And it's okay to be excited, but it's also okay to not be quite so loud."
Hannah pouted for about a half a second, then put on her biggest smile.
"Put on sun?"
Kate's smile was just as big.
"Yes, let's get it on you."
The costume – a large yellow sun – was easy to put on the little girl. First they put on yellow tights and tennis shoes, then a long sleeved yellow t-shirt and then the sun itself, her face right in the middle.
Rick ran into the bedroom and came back carrying the full length mirror.
Hannah beamed as she looked at herself.
"We're not leaving the building this time," Rick said. "But if we were trick or treating out in the Hamptons, we wouldn't need a flashlight."
He grinned at Kate.
"True," she replied. "What do you think about that, Hannah?" she asked. "You're outshining the real sun."
Hannah scrunched up her eyes, thinking.
"No wanna ev' day," she said. "Just Hall'ween."
"Yeah, that would be a lot of work," said Castle seriously, then smiled. "You know, Kate, I've been trying to figure out a nickname for Hannah."
"A nickname?" asked Kate.
"Yeah. Something along the lines of 'Pumpkin' for Alexis."
"We see 'Lexis?" Hannah asked. She idolized her big sister.
"She said she'd try to come over tonight sometime," Rick told her. "But she probably won't be able to go trick or treating with us."
"Dat okay, I share candy."
"You're a good sister, Hannah," said Kate. Then to Castle, "What nickname?"
"Sunshine. I mean it's not just the costume, it's her entire personality."
Kate laughed.
"How about it? Do you think we should call you Sunshine sometimes?"
Hannah looked a little confused.
"I Hannah."
Now Rick laughed.
"Yes, but look in the mirror. What do you see?"
"Sun!"
"And you're like the sun, so Sunshine."
Hannah smiled, looking at herself in her costume. Then she looked up at her daddy.
"Spookypumpkinghostscawyfuncandytime?"
"Sure Sunshine. Spookypumpkinghostscaryfuncandytime."
As Hannah marched toward the door, her parents right behind her, she began chanting again.
"Twick or tweet, smell my feet, gimme somefing good to eat!"