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He can barely contain his excitement when he steps out of the cab. He doesn't even remember how much money he shoves into the cabbie's outstretched hand, but honestly, he has better things on his mind. He takes note of the bold lettering above the entrance of the 12th precinct and casts his gaze around, looking for the cafe Kate had referred to.
Oh.
Castle purses his lips as he realises he's in a little bit of a conundrum. There are two cafes and both can very well fall within the definition of 'around the corner' of the 12th, as she'd described. He's about to pull out his phone when he spots her.
Detective Kate Beckett steps out of the precinct, tugging her coat tighter around her body. Her hair is in a tight ponytail, sleek and formal. She's in ridiculously high heels, but she's surefooted as she strides through the throng of people milling about. She hasn't spotted him and Castle scurries after her, eager and enthusiastic. He earns a couple of angry glares from the other people he bumps into as he hurries to catch up to her.
"Kate, hey!" He calls out and stumbles ungracefully in front of her when she stops and turns around.
She's a little startled, but the corners of her eyes crinkles in delight when she sees him. "Did you ... run here?" She asks, taking in his breathlessness. "You know, it would have been okay if you were a little late."
Castle straightens his sports jacket and clears his throat, calming himself down. He falls into step with her as they navigate through the other pedestrians. "I just uh. Wasn't sure which cafe you were talking about. There seems to be two here. So I followed you."
She chuckles in amusement as she leads him to the right one. She pushes the doors to the café open and steps aside, letting him walk past her. "Ladies first," she murmurs, winking at him. He pretends to look offended for a second, but the smirks anyway as he walks in.
They make their way to the counter and order their coffees, Castle taking note of her rather fancy, elaborate choice (skim latte, two pumps sugar free vanilla?). They don't wait for long and soon enough, they find themselves seated in a cosy booth in the corner of the café.
She's positively radiant, and the way the afternoon sun glances off her skin mesmerises him. He's bursting with questions, feels like the words are about to spill from the tip of his tongue. He's itching to know her, this gorgeous detective who looks like she doesn't quite belong in her current profession but carries herself with such confidence that he's sure she's the best person for the job.
"So, phone problems?"
Castle wants to kick himself. Of all the questions he wants to ask her (is Kate short for Katherine or Caitlin? How did you become a cop? Are the murders you work really gruesome? How do you walk in those heels?) of all these questions, he asks her that? He's such an idiot. A true failure as a writer.
Kate looks a little surprised herself, but she schools her features almost instantly and fishes her phone out of her coat pocket. "Um, yeah, here you go. It's just – you'll see."
Her fingers brush against his as she passes him her phone. The contact sends electricity down his digits, through his soul, he thinks. He has to forcibly tear his gaze away from her face to look down at it as he thumbs the standby button to turn the phone on.
"So, solve any murders today?" He asks casually, mentally congratulating himself on not making a further fool of himself with his words. "Lock up any psychopathic killers, keeping the streets of New York safer for mere mortals like me?"
She chuckles good naturedly at him and takes a sip of her coffee before answering him. "A body dropped at Drake's Magic Shop this morning, if that counts for anything," she tells him, a sparkle in her eye. "In Houdini's water tank!"
Castle's eyes widen in excitement, his jaw dropping. "No way! I used to go there all the time when I was younger!"
"Yeah, my grandfather used to take me too. I loved it there," she says. "Anyway, that's still ongoing so I can't really say much about it. But we're waiting on more information from our ME and CSU at the moment so we can't do much until then."
"I think it's so amazing that you're a cop," Castle prods at her phone haphazardly, not really knowing what to look for. He glances up at her, but Kate doesn't seem to mind that he's pawing through her phone. In fact, she doesn't look like she cares what he's doing at all. Kate's sipping her coffee casually, occasionally glancing out the café's wide windows at the people walking past on the sidewalk.
They make small talk as he opens and shuts the applications on her phone. She talks about a baseball game she went to over the weekend (he'll need to brush up on the sport, Castle notes), about the shortage of stationery at the precinct, about one of her partners proposing to his girlfriend right in front of her the week before.
Castle takes it all in, files away the little titbits of her life like they're pieces of a puzzle that he wants to put together eventually. He absorbs the cadence of her voice, memorises the way she speaks, clear and sharp (She's well-read too. She's got a big vocabulary, and that's just so hot) – he wants to know everything about her. She's not really giving up anything important about herself, though. She's so careful when she speaks, revealing just enough but not really giving anything at all.
He takes his turn too. He tells her about Alexis, about not wanting her to grow up. Tells her about his mother and her penchant for drama. He briefly contemplates telling her about how she's inspiring him, making him more productive than he has been in years, but he doesn't. He's not sure how she'll take knowing he's writing about her, or rather, the idea of her. He'll admit it's a little creepy.
Eventually they fall into a comfortable silence and it dawns upon him that this really, really feels like ...
... a date?
Oh, does he dare get his hopes up? He swallows the lump in his throat and goes for it.
"Kate?"
"Hmm?" She murmurs, turning back from the window to look at him, arching an eyebrow quizzically when she notices he's done absolutely nothing with her phone except pull up her Candy Crush Saga app. "Were you planning on beating my high score?"
"Oh, what – oh, no," Castle says, flustered. "I just... I can't help but feel like this is... uh, did you call me... for a date?"
She smiles at him impishly but shakes her head. "I called you for tech support, Rick," she denies easily. The twinkle in her eye suggests otherwise though, and Castle feels a little off balance at her reaction.
He's supposed to be the smooth one, he's never had a problem with women. He's charming and polite, two traits he knows for sure that can win the hearts of many. He's used to the art of seduction and it's usually effortless for him. He knows the words to say, the right moves to make – and yet with Kate Beckett he's reduced to a stammering, blundering idiot.
"Oh, right."
"I'm assuming you can't fix it then?" Kate asks, tugging her phone gently out of his hand. He relinquishes it voluntarily and shrugs.
"Way out of my realm of expertise this time, unfortunately," he admits to her. "But since we're already here, and you haven't finished your coffee, we can use the time to uh … get to know each other a little better?"
Oh wow, he's really, really, off his game. Get to know each other better? Worst line, ever. She's probably dying on the inside, probably going to down the rest of her coffee so she can get out of there as fast as she can. She's probably hears lines like that every day, better lines. Lines more deserving of her beauty –
"Beckett? Castle?"
A familiar voice calls out from behind him, startling him and he turns around and realises it belongs to Esposito, Eddy's friend from the Special Forces whose birthday party he attended. He hears Kate mutter 'Castle?' underneath her breath, but he doesn't get a chance to see if his last name means anything to her. Esposito looks confused for a second, but then a boyish grin breaks out over his face and Castle suddenly feels very, very wary.
Wait.
Did Esposito just say say 'Beckett'? Do they work together?
"Oh, Beckett are you on a date?" Esposito drawls, winking at Castle. "Is that why you took off so quickly before? Cause you had a hot date?" He punctuates his sentence with an emphasis on the 't', grinning at them. Kate is visibly irritated by his appearance and folds her hands in front of her in indignance.
"Espo –" Gone is the teasing tone from Kate's voice, and instead now there's a hint of frustration that drips from her words. They must work together. Unless – Castle feels a twinge of jealousy shoot through him at the thought – unless they knew each other … some other way.
"I'm hurt that you didn't feel you could share things like this with Ryan and me. C'mon Beckett, I thought we were more than colleagues. That we were friends," Esposito says, a little too delighted with himself. He pulls up a chair from another table and sits himself down between them. He turns to Castle then and narrows his eyes. "And you, is this why you left my party so early the other night?"
"Wait, how do you two even know each other?" Kate interrupts, clearly annoyed by the entire situation. She's sporting a stormy expression on her face, her eyes glinting dangerously and she's glaring at Esposito like he's currently public enemy number one.
Castle clears his throat, thinking of ways he can diffuse awkwardness that has settled upon the three of them. Esposito is having way too much fun at Kate's expense, and he's suddenly afraid that it means he won't get a chance to see her again if she thinks he's not worth all this trouble.
"Look Kate, Javier here is a good friend of Eddy's, from the store. That's how I know him. He's… y'know, an acquaintance," he ventures. "And hey, Javier I'm only here cause she needed tech advice –"
Oh.
He's said something wrong. She's glaring at him now, her eyes wide in warning. A sharp heel comes into contact with his foot and he groans in pain. Oh damn, he's definitely done something she doesn't approve of, because Esposito looks so gleeful that the grin he's wearing is threatening to split his face in half.
"Espo," Kate warns, like there's something she's trying to stop him from saying. "Espo, don't."
Esposito doesn't comply.
"Tech support, you say?"
"Um ... yes?" Oh god, she's going to kill him. Her hands are wrapped so tightly around her coffee cup as if she's getting ready to throw it at his head. Maybe he should just stay quiet from now on. Something's clearly going on between the two colleagues and he so does not want to get in between the two of them.
"You know, Beckett here just got our resident tech nerd to fix her broken phone."
"What-"
"This morning, in fact."
"Espo…"
"Yeah, so her phone's actually perfect. Wouldn't stop bragging about it this morning in fact. So, I wonder – what exactly she wanted you to fix?"
Castle looks over at Kate, and oh – she's adorable.
Kate's blushing furiously, obviously embarrassed at being caught out in such an obvious lie.
"So you didn't just get outfitted with new apps for the NYPD?" Castle asks Esposito pointedly.
"Um, no."
"Shut up. Both you, just shut up," Kate grouses through her teeth, her eyes darting furiously back and forth between the two men.
Castle smirks at her, and leans back in his chair, revelling in this new piece of information. So this how Kate Beckett plays the seduction game. She lures him here under false pretences, makes him feel like an inadequate buffoon, when all this while – all this while she's been equally just as interested in him as he is in her.
Yes, he thinks. Now this game, he can play.
One more after this, thank you for reading!