Not in my Mouth
They were warm. Two bodies flush against each other in a large, overly comfortable bed. Two sets of eyes closed, two minds breathing and dreaming in the same space. Wrapped up in the knowledge that the other was right there beside them.
And then there were eight little legs.
Skittering across his sheets. Invading in their slumber and climbing up onto his legs. He twitched, his eyes scrunching, his mouth drawing into a grimace before he settled. Feeling nothing more. Hearing only the faint sound of Kate sleeping soundly beside him.
But then his blues eyes shot open. Huge shining orbs in the darkness of his loft. His skin was crawling. Little tiny feet scampering along his arm and it sent disgusted chills through him.
"Kaaaaate." He whispered into the darkness as he brushed his arm, only feeling his own hair meet his palm as he swatted at them again. "Kaaaate." He whispered more urgently, and lifted the covers, peering through the dark at their now exposed bodies.
Kate shivered, curling even more into a ball by his side, the cold air of his room sending goosebumps all over her. "uhhh?" she moaned, pushing her cheek further into her pillow, blocking her eyes and murmuring something else just as incoherent.
" I think theres something in the bed." He said a little louder, his own voice sending a sleepy terror through him.
Voicing what he hoped to god wasn't true.
"Cassle." Kate slurred as she tugged the blankets down over her, pressing her nose to his shoulder. "Shhhh." She soothed, caressing his neck with a lazy finger as she started to drift back to sleep.
"But Kate." He protested, scratching at the creepy crawlies now invading his blood, freaking himself out.
His hand wiped along the sheets between them, on the other side of him, but he still found nothing, and Kate was waking up, teeth gritting, heavy sighs gusting through her nose as her eye popped open and she stared at him.
"Castle." She said sharply, taking a fistful of his hair, and yanking him to her. "Go to sleep."
"Hey." He hissed, turning fully towards her, "don't get all sexy and rough if you're not gon-" He gulped seeing he had in fact woke a sleeping bear. "na finish...it..."
Her green eyes were dark and narrowed, her nose scrunched up as she tried to glare at him but ended up yawning in his face.
"Its probably just a little spider." She closed her eyes, ignoring his comment. She was too tired, and yawned again. Kate patted his cheek and rubbed her palm up his chest, hand hooking over his shoulder as she moved in closer and curled deep into his chest.
"A... a spider!?" He yelled, toppling backwards out of the bed, leaving Kate to fall into his warm indent in the mattress with a huff.
Kate pulled all the sheets towards her, tucking herself into his now lonely bed, but not before throwing a pillow over the side, and hearing an "Omph," as it landed on his face.
Castle stood beside the autopsy table. His hands fisted in his pockets, staring as Lanie started to press her scalpel into the flesh of this morning's unfortunate victim.
He was antsy, rolling back and forth from the balls of his feet to his heel, bouncing on every other beat, and Kate was trying desperately to ignore him. Lanie kept shooting him glances, and both women knew he had something at the tip of his tongue that his pursed lips were holding back.
But the question was, do they let him release it?
He answered them both, by pulling on hand from his pocket, his gloved fingers tapping at the edge of the metal table. A repeated drum as if they were tiny legs skittering away.
"What's the matter with you?!" Lanie snapped causing both of them to jump.
Castle cleared his throat, as Kate crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. Her eyes were dancing with mirth, a mischievous knowing lurking down deep. Because she knew he had slept on the floor last night. And then had been pressed deep into the mattress sometime very early in the morning when he found his way back and hugged her close to him murmuring something about the ninjas defeating the spider army.
She choked back a laugh, covering her smile with the back of her hands and peered at him over her eyelashes, "Yea, Castle, what's the matter?" She mocked.
"Um... Nothing." He said, just as his skin started crawling again, and he rubbed his tongue along his top teeth while making a face at the body.
Both women stared him down, Lanie having placed the scalpel back on the tray, the cling of the metal pressuring him.
"Do...Do you ever find... spiders in your patience stomachs?" He asked tentatively, as if he knew, what he was asking was a very stupid question. Not to mention completely random.
Kate laughed at the same time Lanie made a face, crossing her arms "What in the hell?"
"Hey!" He yelled, looking between them. "It's a well known fact," He raised one gloved finger. "The human body digests up to ten spiders in a lifetime..." He paused for a moment as his eyes drifted to the victims mouth. "We eat them." He said, shivering and taking a few steps away from the table.
Lanie made a pfft sound, picking up her scalpel once more. "Then don't sleep with your mouth open." She scolded half heartedly.
He closed his mouth.
"Castle." Kate tried not to laugh.
But Lanie stopped her. The writer and the detective turned towards the sassy ME as she began to hum the itsy bitsy spider.
Kate grinned, catching Lanie's eye. "What, you don't like the itsy bitsy spider, Castle?"
"Not in my mouth!"
That night, Kate came out of her bathroom to find Castle checking under the bed, searching along the walls and ceilings, and then thoroughly scanning every last sheet she owned, before settling in her bed.
"There's none in the bathroom either." She said with a laugh, pulling her hair out of her shirt, and sitting on the edge of the bed. She looked over her shoulder at him, as he scrunched down in her sheets, arms crossed over the top blanked, and his shoulders pushing down into her pillows.
"Ha ha.. not funny Kate..." He said with a scowl. "don't come crying to me when you start choking on the little bastards in your sleep."
"I don't sleep with my mouth open." She replied calmly, "And I'm not afraid of spiders." She said confidently, falling back into his arms as he opened them too her. She sighed contentedly, scraping her fingers lightly up and down his arm until he sighed as well.
He kissed the top of her head, and she soon felt his body relax fully beneath her, and that slow breathing that indicated he had in fact fallen asleep. Kate shifted, just a little, just enough to make sure he was going to stay asleep, and she peeked at him, seeing his eyes dancing behind his eyelids as he already fell into a dream.
She smiled, turning over onto her stomach as she reached for her nightstand. Pulling the drawer ever so slowly open, and delving her hand inside. Kate suppressed a giggle, tongue poking between her teeth as she rolled back over.
And then she rose up on her knees, the blanket falling down around her, and hovered her hand a few feet above his face. In her curled fingers, was a stick, with a long fishing line tied at the tip, and all the way at the bottom, dangled a plastic spider.
Then she waited.
Castle slept obviously, breathing calmly through his nose, until, ah, there, his mouth opened, and a long sigh escaped him before he smacked his lips.
Kate grinned.
An evil wicked grin, fingers playing along the stick before she bit her lip, and started to lower the spider down down, until it barely touched the corner of his mouth.
He screamed when she let it rest there, two of its little plastic legs falling into his mouth. She nearly fell off the bed laughing, still managing to keep the spider at high level as his eyes grew horrifically wide and he shot up in bed.
"Get your gun!" He yelled, still so groggy from sleep, ducking away from what he must have thought was a web, slapped his hand over his mouth and rambled on about how it was not going to crawl down his throat, and Lanie would have to cut it out of his esophagus.
And when he finally calmed down, chest heaving Castle let out a relieved sigh, picking up the plastic spider, huffing at it, and glaring at Kate who was doubled over in hysterics.
"Its Fake." He stated, all remnants of sleep gone.
She couldn't breath, and only nodded her head as she dropped the stick.
"Kate! It was fake!" He yelled at her, as if still trying to convince himself.
She took in a long heavy inhale, before calming letting it out with a smile. "Yes...it was just plastic." She said, "Except." She then added, pointing to something over his shoulder. "that one, is real."
