Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Fluffy little one-shot, placing Caskett in the middle of the woods. :)
A/N: This can take place anytime after they get together, but probably before In the Belly of the Beast. Hope you enjoy!
Fluff Friday. That is all.
What Happens in the Woods
The first rays of sunlight on the clouds streak the sky with color, all changing from pinks and purples into oranges and yellows. The sun, itself, hasn't totally come over the horizon, but he knows it will soon.
How Kate talked him into this, Rick will never figure out, but at the same time, he can't complain. The sunrise is beautiful. One of the most vibrant he's seen, to be honest.
He stretches, feeling the bandage pull across the burn on his chest. He checks it, and it's still holding together well. It's probably going to make a scar, but the fun was worth the damage. Smiling, he unzips his sleeping bag and gets up.
The morning air is chilly, and he can feel the warmth still radiating from within the fire ring Kate made yesterday. The camp fire needs to be rekindled, and now is as good a time as ever. He hasn't ever done that before, but he's read plenty of books about it, so how hard can it be?
Castle goes over to the stack of firewood and kindling and picks a few pieces to place into the fire ring. He sets it up like he remembers and before long, the leaves begin to smoke and the first flickers of flame start to crackle into life. As the smaller stuff burns, he adds larger pieces onto the flame. After a little while, he's made a pretty decent fire.
He sits back, feeling more than a little proud of himself as the fire grows warmer. Just to his left, he sees a one of the long sticks they used to roast marshmallows last night and picks it up.
The shifting of Kate's sleeping bag catches his attention. "Wow... How did you manage that?" she asked, the surprise not hidden in her sleep-laden voice, "After your incident with the marshmallow last night, I'm surprised you wanted to get that close to another flame."
For once, he's the one rolling his eyes. One minor incident with a melting marshmallow, and he'll never live it down. "You're not going to forget that any time soon, are you?"
The smirk playing across her face when she shrugs warms him more than the fire in front of him. "Not on your life," she answers, "You're the only person I've ever known to have that happen. But then, this is you we're talking about..."
"Yeah, well, I can't help what happened, and I'm sorry if it has impacted your weekend in a negative way." He turns away, poking at the fire with the roasting stick, sending embers floating into the air.
"I wouldn't say it was negative. More like, amusing. Who else would have thought to do that, Castle?"
Frustrating, maddening... what else is she? He rubs the bandage on the middle of his chest, still feeling the cool, stinging prickle of the burn underneath. "You know, I wouldn't be making fun of you if you were injured."
"Thing is, I wouldn't be injured." He hears Kate shuffle around inside her sleeping bag more as she continues, "You were the one who decided it was a good idea to start a flaming marshmallow war. It's NOT my fault your catapult idea backfired and the marshmallow dropped down your shirt."
"At least I remembered to stop, drop, and roll, right?" He turned to see what she was doing, moving in close.
Castle leans over her, and Kate kisses his cheek. "After I pushed you down, yeah."
Castle sighs. There is no way for him to win the argument if she's going to insist on being right. Besides, he'd rather her be happy than angry... she's scary with she's angry.
So, he kisses her again, as he realizes her clothes are in a pile beside her sleeping bag.
She will never stop surprising him.
"You hot in there?" he asks.
"Not yet, but maybe you can help with that." She smiles, teasing him.
Castle looks at the sleeping bag. It would be snug, but yeah, he can fit in with her. "Scoot over," he says, "I'm coming in."
"I certainly hope so," Kate replies, "but your clothes have to come off first."
"Do you know how cold it is out here?"
She shakes her head, "Not the point. There's not enough room for both of us with you squirming around while you take them off." Then, before he can say anything else, she adds, "And I'm not getting out. You have a fire you can stand by. Just... don't get burned."
"Very funny," he retorts, stumbling toward the fire as he wrestles with getting his foot out of his pants leg.
Kate's laughing, saying, "Slow down, Hotshot. I'm not going anywhere."
When he gets to her, he's going to take that laugh and turn it into something else, and she'll definitely have a reason to call him 'Hotshot.'
Yeah, this is going to be a memorable weekend.