Title: Wake-up Call
Summary: It's unexpected. But it's nice to know that they haven't run out of surprises.
Rating: Kids
Pairing: Beckett/Castle
Category: Fluffity fluff fluff
Spoilers/Warnings: None
A/N: Thanks to supplyship for her beta work
Of all the surprising things that he's learned about Beckett over the years, this one ranks right up there.
"You have an incredible amount of socks under your bed."
"I get cold feet," she replies. "Then during the night I get warm and I don't need them anymore and I pull them off."
It's hitting Rick that this is an odd conversation for them to be having. Not odd in terms of content, but rather, the time and place was perhaps odd. He was probably supposed to be caressing her and saying all sorts of sugary sweet sappy stuff into her ear. That's what guys do the morning after, right? Especially when it's the first morning after and she's the one you've waited a long time for.
Yeah, sappy stuff exactly like that. But no, they wake up to his cell phone buzzing and as he lunges for it, he falls unceremoniously out of Beckett's bed. Now he's at ground level looking at the pile of socks under her bed.
"But why are they under the bed?" he asks, rubbing his ass and hoping it won't bruise. It'll only renew her laughter over him falling in the first place.
"They just sort of migrate under there." He hears one final snicker from her. "Come back to bed before you break something, Castle."
He looks at the offending phone long enough to see that the call he missed wasn't anything important (just a contact getting back to him about an appointment next week), before crawling under the blankets again. The really warm blankets on the nice bed, with a naked Kate Beckett in it. He wants to grin like a fool. How great is his life right now?
She presses up against him and he snakes a hand around her waist to secure her close. She relaxes in his arms.
"So," he says. "I'd really love to continue discussing how you're a dirty girl with dirty socks under your bed—"
"Nobody's perfect."
He continues on, "But it occurs to me that I should probably say something sappy about how great last night was."
He can feel her smile against his shoulder. "It was pretty great."
"Yeah?" he asks, in a moment of passing concern that she wouldn't be honest with him about something like this.
She smacks him lightly, something she does often in lieu of saying, "Don't be stupid, Castle."
"Maybe I'll impress you with an even better performance tonight."
"Oh." Her head pops up and she blinks at him. "I can't."
He shrugs, keeping it casual; whatever she wants, he's told himself that he's going to be fine with it. But he'd secretly hoped that this thing that happened between them wasn't done on a whim. It certainly didn't seem like it at the time.
"That's fine," he says, and he thought he'd kept it neutral, until she rushes to explain.
"I already had plans with Lanie. Girls night, I'm sorry."
He kisses her forehead. "No need to apologize."
"Thursday?"
"Thursday is good."
She settles herself back down, puts her head on his shoulder, and Castle smiles. He's actually making plans with her, like this is really happening. He's not sure how a fool like him got here but he plans on enjoying every second.
"Hey, Kate."
"Yeah?"
"Nobody's perfect." After all, dirty socks under the bed are probably not even close to her worst habit. "But you are in my eyes."
There's a beat, and though he can't see Beckett's face to confirm it, for some reason he's sure that he has stunned her. She says, "Was that your attempt at being sappy?"
"Um. Yes." He's sure she's going to make fun of him and roll her eyes. But she does something completely unexpected.
Her head turns and she presses a warm kiss against his cheek. "Every day you surprise me."
"And that's a good thing?" Because he's a little unsure if he's lost the thread in this conversation somehow.
"A very good thing."
Yep, he's grinning like a fool, and content to wait for the next big surprise.