Author's Note: I know, I know. I am waaaayyyyy behind on updating. But life happened and I didn't have time to write as I planned. This is a one shot that I decided to write to hopefully get the creative juices flowing again so I actually can get those stories updated.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy!
And as always, thanks to the awesome encantadaa for the awesome betaing and help on this story. (especially the guitar stuff)
Richard Castle is bored out of his mind.
When they had planned their weekend trip to their Hamptons house for the Labor Day weekend, they had not expected a huge tropical storm to roll through, dropping sheets of ice cold rain and bringing turbulent winds that whipped through the shores of their beachfront home. And the booming claps of thunder and bright bolts of lightning were nothing to be contested with.
They had only been on the beach for about two hours when the dark clouds blew in, and it was only a half hour more before the sky opened up, soaking them within seconds. It was fun for a while as he watched his wife turn her head up to the sky, a huge grin on her face, as she started twirling with childlike glee, letting the rain fall onto her face. After a few seconds, the chill set in, and she collapsed in a fit of giggles as he hauled her into his chest and walked her inside, both shivering from the biting rain. They dried off and huddled together next to his enormous fireplace to warm themselves up.
So here they find themselves, Kate laying across the couch with her feet in Castle's lap, completely engrossed in a book (one of his, he notices happily), as he sits staring at the ceiling, his head tilted back on the couch, and mindlessly massaging her feet.
Luckily, the storm has not knocked out the power yet, so he is able to play Angry Birds on his phone and write for a while without worrying about exhausting the batteries. He quickly grows bored of those, though. He wants to do something. He lets out a long sigh, and a moment later, he hears her lay down the book against her thighs with a loud slap. He jumps and turns his head to find her glaring at him.
"Castle," she admonishes, annoyance tinging her voice.
He lifts his head and blinks at her in confusion. "What?"
"That is at least the fifth time you have done that in the past fifteen minutes," she says, her eyebrows arched questioningly as she levels him with her gaze.
"Oh," he frowns. "I'm sorry, I'm just so bored. We were supposed to be walking the beach or skinny dipping in the pool, not-" he gestures with his hand to indicate their current position, "-this."
Kate huffs as she sits up, and she scoots next to him so that their shoulders are pressed together. She links their fingers together where his hand rests on his knee and lays her head onto his shoulder. "I know, babe, this wasn't what you imagined when we planned this trip. But we can still make the best out of it."
He lets out a breath "How's that?" he asks, dryly.
She lifts her head and regards him softly, bottom lip pulled between her teeth, lips upturned into the shy smile he loves so much. "I have an idea." She slips off the couch and dashes up the stairs, to their bedroom he imagines. A few minutes later, she trots back down, a guitar case clutched to her chest. He blinks in surprise, He didn't remember her bringing that in. She must have slipped it inside when he wasn't paying any attention.
Regardless, he now finds himself very intrigued
She plops back down on the couch, grinning at what he thinks must be the ridiculous look of awe on his face as she takes the instrument out of its case. "You always love playing Guitar Hero, so how would you like to learn how to play a real one?"
"Really?" he practically squeals, and she laughs as she hands him the guitar.
"Yes, really! I brought it for a reason."
He stares at the instrument in his hands for a moment, then looks back up at her, a lopsided grin spread wide across his face. "This is awesome!"
She beams at him in return. "Okay, you ready?"
He nods with vigor.
"Okay. So first, you hold the guitar on your lap with the back pressed against your stomach. And you grip the finger board with your left hand, like so." She places her left hand on his, lifting it to the neck of the instrument just below the tuning pegs. "Your other hand is going to rest atop of the body of the instrument to where it rests above the sound hole." She repeats the gesture with his right hand, placing his fingers where they hover just above the strings. "How does it feel?"
"Great! Really comfy," he chirps.
"Okay, good. So now for the strings. Starting from the bottom string, you have the low E string." She motions for him to pluck it, and when he does, a deep sound twangs, a bit harshly, from the guitar. "Great! Except a little gentler next time, please," she chides. "So next you have A, then D." He plucks the strings obediently, one at a time.
"Next is G," she says. He plucks at the string, then stops to give her a sideways glance, a sly grin breaking across his face. "What?" she asks, confused.
"G-string," he chuckles, as if it's the most clever thing in the world.
She just rolls her eyes and huffs. "Really, Castle?"
"Sorry," he says, not really sorry at all. "Continue."
"Anyway, after G, you have B, and then high E-"
"Wait, there are two E strings?" he asks with a slight frown.
"Yes, Castle. There is one high E and one low E. It's called an octave," Kate explains.
"Ah," he concedes. Judging by the crease between his furrowed eyebrows, it's obvious that he doesn't really understand.
"It'll make more sense later," she tells him, and he nods, giving her a soft grin this time.
"Got the gist of it?"
"I think so!"
"Think you can take on a scale?" she asks playfully, a challenging, glint in her eyes.
"Oh, absolutely," he throws back.
It's a slow process, teaching him all of the varying finger positions, and he is clumsy and awkward with it. But after about thirty minutes, he can roughly pluck through the melody of Blackbird. He doesn't stay focused for long, though, quickly adding his own variations to the melody until it dissolves into a rapid plucking of notes. Castle begins to compose his own lyrics to his song, adding his singing of nonsense words to his out of tune, almost atonal melody. The cacophonous tune is grating on her ears, but he looks so proud of himself that she gives him his moment, allowing him to serenade her with his terrible song. At least he knows how to sing.
After a few minutes, though, she's had all that she can handle. She brings her hand up to the neck of the guitar to grip the strings, effectively halting his tune and directing his attention back to her.
"That was… lovely. But how about I teach you a couple of chords so that you can start playing some real songs, huh?"
"Why, Beckett, I'm offended! Are you making fun of my music?" he pouts in faux hurt.
She swats his shoulder good-naturedly and rolls her eyes. "I'm sorry, Castle, I didn't mean to mock your musical genius. I just thought you might want to learn more, but if you think you've already mastered it all…" She reaches for the guitar as if she's going to take it away from him, and he yanks it back, hugging it greedily to his chest.
"No, no, no! I'll be a good student, I promise," he begs, shooting her his best puppy-dog eyes. He looks so adorable when he pouts like that, and she has to try really hard not to giggle.
He leans in and gives her a quick peck on the lips. "May we continue? Please?"
"Alright, I'll be nice this time, but only because I love you," she returns with an exasperated sigh.
Castle sits ramrod straight in his seat, eyes trained on her, ready for the next lesson. He bats his eyes at her and she breaks, erupting into a fit of giggles before she schools her features and finally continues.
"Focus, Castle. I'm gonna teach you the G chord now." He smirks in response, and she shoots him a glare before he has the time to make another "G-string" quip.
"So, put your index finger here. No, right here," she starts, directing his finger to the appropriate fret. "Now your middle finger goes here- no, Castle, you're on the wrong string- right. And then your ring finger goes right here…"
"Come on, Kate, I can't stretch my fingers that far," he whines.
"My hands are smaller than yours, and I don't have any problems. Suck it up," she grins. "Ring finger, right there. Perfect. And strum."
He strums his fingers across the strings, and his eyes immediately light up when he hears the chord ring out, perfectly in tune. "Hey, that sounds great!" he exclaims, playing the chord a second time.
"Yeah, it does, compared to the so-called music you were playing earlier," Kate laughs as he begins strumming in a pattern, as if he's playing a song, completely ignoring her jab.
"This is my one-chord song," he sings on a single note. "I can play this all day loooooooong,"
Kate reaches to the neck of the guitar and places her finger on a single string, instantly messing up his chord. "Now your chord is wrong," she sings, grinning.
"Hey, not fair!" Castle exclaims, as he halts his playing "Interference! I call foul."
"It's not baseball, Castle, you can't call foul. Besides, you're mixing your sports. Interference is a basketball term"
"Whatever," he grumbles, a bit put out. "May we continue?"
"Oh, now you're ready to learn?" she goads.
He narrows his eyes at her, and she relents. "I guess we can move on to the D chord now."
She repeats the same process to teach him the new chord, and after a bit of tweaking, he strummed a perfect chord, just has he had with the first one. "Very good, Castle!" she praises, actually quite proud of what he achieved in the past hour. "You ready to learn your first two-chord song?"
"Um…" he hesitates.
"What?" she asks, confused by the change in demeanor.
"Can we go over the first chord again?" he asks sheepishly.
"You're kidding me, right?" How did he already forget it?
"Uh, no?" At least he has the gall to look embarrassed.
She lets out a long breath. "Okay Castle lets go over it again." She guides his fingers to the appropriate strings, reminding him how to play the chord. After about a minute spent solidifying the chord, she is confident that he has it down.
"Now that we have that down, can we finally move on to an actual song?" she asks, eyebrows raised.
"Can we go over the D chord again?"
She drops her jaw and simply stares at him. "Wh-"
"Just kidding," he grins.
"You jerk," she mumbles, whacking him on the arm.
"I know I'm a jerk, but it's just another quirk. So please don't… go berserk," he sings, strumming easily between the two chords.
And as always, his charm wins her over, and she can't stay mad at him long. She shakes her head and smiles. "You and your rhyming."
"Well, at least its better than miming," he continues.
"Castle, stop rhyming. I mean it," she sighs.
"Does anybody want a peanut?" he sings in response, grinning mischievously.
She'd just set herself up for that one, hadn't she? Well, two can play at that game...
They continue going back and forth for another couple of minutes, trading rhymes and jokes, before their little game runs dry and they erupt in a fit of giggles. Kate glances at the clock and realizes that they have been sitting here for well over three hours, and it's almost dinner time. As if perfectly on cue, Castle's stomach gurgles loudly.
Kate laughs as Castles cheeks turn a bright shade of red. "Alright, Dr. Seuss, I'll teach you one real song, and then it's time to get you fed."
"Hey, now," he grumbles, but he's smiling.
He picks up "Mary Had a Little Lamb" quite easily, and he plays it through three times before he starts making up his own lyrics.
"Beckett has a cool tattoo, cool tattoo, cool tattoo…" he sings, quirking an eyebrow.
This time Kate really does snatch up the guitar, strapping it back inside the case before Castle even has time to blink.
"Okay, that's enough for the day," she declares. "Let's eat."
"Aww, but I was having so much fun!" he pouts.
"C'mon Castle, pull your lip back in and come help me find something to eat." She pushes herself off the couch and turns towards the kitchen. But before she is able to take a single step, Castle grabs her by the wrist and pulls her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. "Thank you for my guitar lessons, Kate."
She smiles up at him and presses her lips against his once more. "It was my pleasure," she whispers before slipping out of his arms and sauntering towards the kitchen, turning around to face him once more before she rounds the corner.
"Maybe if you're good for the rest of the night, I'll give you more lessons tomorrow."
"Deal!"