#16 & #51
Josh, knockdown, kiss
— ANONYMOUS
(author insertion: Countdown)
"I kissed Castle."
His head whipped around, that dark delineation of his eyebrows. Raised. "You did what?"
"I kissed Castle," she said again, fingers laced together in her lap. He came back to stand before her on the couch.
"You wanna run that by me one more time? Because I could've sworn you said-"
"I did. That's what I said. He kissed me. And then I kissed him. Though maybe it could be all one thing."
"You're joking." He was looking at her like she couldn't possibly have done that to him. Not to him. Not to Dr Extraordinary.
She had always found that funny. That the nurses called him that. Like he was one of Castle's characters, just as she was too. Both of them characters, caricatures.
"You - kissed - you kissed him?"
"We were trying to distract the guard outside. Where Espo and Ryan were being held. Were being tortured for information."
"Hell," he cursed, pacing away from her with his hands on his hips. "You toss that into our conversation like a damn grenade, Kate. Comparatively, you kissing Castle is nothing against two of your partners being tortured. So it makes me look like a schmuck if I say something about how unfair it is, you cheating on me-"
"I wasn't cheating."
"What were you doing then."
"Acting."
His jaw worked as he looked at her, studied her. For signs. She showed none.
"Acting," he said, as if working the word around in his mouth. "Right. You said you kissed him back." His lips twisted and he threw up a hand before she could answer, just as she'd figured. Counted on.
He didn't want to know. He never did.
She waited, but he was gathering his things, his keys, the helmet to his bike. Quietly. No comment.
And then he left.
Beckett let out a slow breath in the silence of her apartment, her hands still folded in her lap, her legs crossed in namaste.
But she felt no peace.
It wasn't acting.
#51
Number sixteen continued.. (see how creative I am with these things? 😅)
— ALITTLETUNE
It was not in his nature to confront.
His mother had raised him quite passively-aggressively, and Castle did his confronting on the page, with characters named Schlemming poorly cloaking his intentions.
But he found himself at her apartment, his hand curled in a fist to knock, raised just before the door opened.
Josh worked his jaw, flared his nostrils, and slammed the door shut as he left.
Left. Left Castle standing in the hallway, left the door perhaps unlocked, left the apartment.
It was not his nature to confront, but passive-aggression won the day, as it always did.
"You going somewhere?" he called out, trying for cheery, winding up with darkly sarcastic. A claim he had no right to. The lingering taste of her tongue in his mouth.
Josh raised his middle finger in salute and trooped down the stairs, hitting his motorcycle helmet on the railing with every step.
And Castle's heart soared.
He knocked as he tried the knob, opened the unlocked door with a held breath's anticipation. She was sitting serenely on the couch, eyes closed, but her face tilted towards the door. "Josh, I don't think-"
"It's not Josh."
Her eyes opened. She looked narrow and worn thin. He wondered if her bones felt as brittle as his own, still fragile with cold. "Castle."
It was not in his nature to confront.
He sat down on the couch beside her as if she had invited him and he purposefully left his posture open, palms up on his thighs. "I got cold," he told her. "Wondered if you were too. So I brought hot chocolate."
She gave him a sideways look, a closer inspection. "I don't see any hot chocolate."
He tapped the side of his head. "All up here. Secret recipe."
"Does your secret recipe include cinnamon and real cocoa?" she murmured, lips flirting with a smile.
He let his face fall, slumped his shoulders. "You already know."
"I already know," she said softly, as if delivering a blow. And then her hand touched his and her fingers curled around, tightening. "Yeah. Can't get warm."
He nodded as if this was the end of things, end of their conversation, end of the intimacy. Secret recipe for hot chocolate was his one way in. He had no other tricks.
She pulled his hand in against her stomach and his nerves jumped. Closeness, heat. His heart began to pound.
"Castle," she said.
His eyes lifted to her face.
"I told Josh. We're over."
His stomach dropped out.
And then she shifted on the couch and slid her knee across his lap and sank down, down, hips colliding.
"Oh, God." He was going to combust.
She leaned in, their joined hands between them, and his fingers unfurled to stroke-
"Much better," she breathed, taking his mouth with hers.
—–