Future!Fic: Beckett gets home to find Castle goofing around while bathing their kid – Lou

"Pew! Pew!" Came Rick's voice from somewhere in the loft, "Aha! I've got you now, Skywalker!"

"Never!" Their son, Arthur, shouted back, "You'll never catch me, you stupid Imperial!"

Kate snorted, it was just like Castle to play Star Wars with their kids on a day off instead of working. She followed the sounds of space warfare to the master bathroom, peeking in to find Rick waving around an Imperial starship whilst, Arthur piloted a miniature X-wing fighter.

"Bzzzzt!" Arthur sounded, pretending to shoot at Rick's ship.

"Oh no!" Rick cried, making his ship crash into the bathtub where Arthur sat splashing around in victory.

"Yay! The Rebels win!" He cheered before Rick gave him a noogie and began washing his hair.

"Alright, enough playing. Let's finish this bath before your mom gets home and goes all Xena on you, Mister Arthur Conan the Barbarian!"

"Dad! She wouldn't be mad at me! She would be mad at you! She'd even do the yell! Aiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi!" He shrieked, doing the famed Xena war cry.

"Ouch! Jeez! Where did you learn how to do that?" Rick asked him, holding his hands over his ears.

"From mom! She's really good at it! She taught me when we had a Xena marathon while you were away on your book tour last month!" He exclaimed animatedly, while Rick's face slackened in shock.

Kate chose that moment to interrupt. "Oh come on, Castle, you didn't think that I only ever went to Con as Lieutenant Chloe, did you…?" She smirked, sauntering into the room and lifting his chin to close his mouth.

"Wh-what…? Y-you were… Xena?!" He finally choked out, his eyes wide and full of wonder, though not nearly as full as his brain, buzzing with fantasies of Kate dressed as Xena the Warrior Princess. He swallowed hard as she chuckled and shook his head slowly to clear it, then pulled her ear to his mouth, "We're going to discuss this further later." His whisper was ominous, and it made a shiver of anticipation run down her spine.

"So, Sherlock, what did you do to earn yourself a bath at four in the afternoon?" Kate asked, kneeling beside the tub by Castle, and arching an eyebrow at their son.

"Well, Dad was writing, and I know I'm not supposed to bug him when he's writing, so I tried to get the juice down off the top shelf of the fridge and I spilled it everywhere," he admitted, looking genuinely apologetic and sad. "I didn't get to drink any," he pouted.

"So, what did you learn?" Kate asked him, trying to at least make this a lesson.

"To ask for help, even if Dad is busy?" He guessed, his answer having the inflection of a question, as if he hadn't given it much thought.

"Almost," Kate encouraged.

"To ask for help…" he thought a moment, "and to ask you guys to put the juice on a lower shelf?"

Castle chuckled, holding out his hand for a low-five. "Good one, Artie, and yes, we'll put the juice on a lower shelf for you."

Kate rolled her eyes at their interaction. Arthur was practically a miniature version of Castle that she liked to corrupt while he was gone on tours and the like, but then again, if the scene she witnessed when she got home was any indication, Castle was doing plenty of corruption of his own.

"Alright, let's get you out of the bath and into some PJs! We'll have breakfast for dinner and watch a movie, how does that sound?" Kate grinned at him, kissing him on the top of his head and ruffling his hair.

"Awesome! Can we watch that space cowboy one with the guy that looks like dad?"

"Sure sweetie," she smiled, hugging him about his shoulders with one arm and squeezing.

"I'm gonna go throw on some pajamas. You okay to finish in here on your own Castle?" She asked, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah, we'll be out in a few minutes," he murmured in response, quickly kissing the tip of her nose.

"Ewww! Not in front of the K-I-D!" Arthur groaned, covering his eyes.

"Oh, calm down. That kiss was as chaste as they come, Artie," Rick teased, scrubbing his hand through his son's hair, tousling it further.

Kate left the bathroom with a huge grin on her face, they really were a big family of dorks.

AN: I couldn't help myself, I waited all of 24 hours before posting this one. :P As always, if you have any prompts just laying around, you can submit them to my ask box on tumblr under 'msmorg' or even my twitter of the same name!

*hearts* Morgen