simple
Kate rolls over onto her stomach and pillows her chin at Castle's sternum, dusting a kiss to the cleft of his chin. He peers down through the shadowy fringe of his lashes, cracking on the dawn of a grin.
"You sleep okay?"
It still gets her, the gritty cadence of his voice in the early hours. The dive and fall that curls quiet and sure in her gut. "Good. You?"
"Yeah. It's too quiet." He murmurs, a sleep-heavy palm coming up to settle between her shoulder blades. His thumb arcs out to circle over her top vertebrae. Even after all these years, he still touches her like he's paying tithe, kneeling at the font of her body.
She smiles up at him, bracing her hands at his sides to lift herself off of his chest, skimming his mouth on the way. He arches into it, catching his teeth in her lower lip a moment. "She wouldn't be up yet anyway. It's no different."
"I can sense she's not here."
Beckett rolls her eyes at him, sitting up in bed and letting the sheets pool around her waist. Her husband turns to set his mouth at her hipbone, the warmth of it startling even through her pajama pants. "You know she's not here. That doesn't count as one of your Dad-powers."
"Either way, I miss her. Both of them." Castle shrugs, sitting up against the headboard and slipping his arm around her waist. He nudges his way underneath her shirt and the brush of bare skin at hers is like fall, the leaves of night shedding.
The soft touch of her mouth draws a smile from him, the same crinkled mischief she's seen on both of their children so many times over the years. "I know. But I got you through Alexis leaving for college; I'll get you through Beanie too."
"It's not the same. Beanie's your kid too. You miss her too."
"Okay." Kate cards a hand through his hair, the salt and pepper dash of it that tumbles in her gut. "So we get each other through, then."
Rick nods at that, coming up on his knees to kiss her again and then sliding out of bed entirely, hissing at the rolling chill of the hardwood as it hits his bare feet. She doesn't even bother to stifle her laughter, grinning wider when he turns to frown at her.
The first time she noticed just how deep the lines of wear unravelling from her eyes and mouth had gotten, it had stolen the mirth right out of her. And of course it was her husband that she'd been laughing at in the first place, the two of them reflected back in the bathroom mirror.
But Castle brushed his thumbs to the entrenchment of her life's happiness and drew it back out of her, kissing her softly. He told her that the older she got, the more beautiful she was to him as he saw the winding path of their life together marked out in her skin.
So it's okay. They're getting old, but it's okay.
She's sort of looking forward to a quiet retirement, lazy summers at the Hamptons house and walking Snicket at the beach.
Well, more like trying to get the poor old dog to even stand up, these days. That had been the hardest part for their daughter. Snicket has always been her dog, loyal beyond the norm to her. Leaving him behind, knowing there's a good chance she won't get to say goodbye. . .it had almost been too much.
"So, our first day to ourselves in twenty years. What does today look like?" Castle hovers in the doorway, the morning light spilling in from the living room. No one remembered to shut the blinds last night. Usually Bea does, since she goes to bed later than her parents.
It hits Kate hard, malignant and twisting in her gut, just how much reorganising they're going to need to do. Rebalancing their lives around not having the kids at home.
She pushes it back, climbing out of bed to join her husband and twine her arms at his waist. "I bet you can guess what I'd like to do with an empty house. An empty day."
Castle starts walking her backward, his thighs nudging at hers with every step. She has her hands underneath his shirt and sliding upwards already, pressing the grinning sentry row of her teeth to the papery skin at his neck.
He grunts, his hips canting carefully into hers. Even just that touch makes her blood rush, his pulse pounding hard in echo against her mouth.
"I don't know, we could read?" He says into the crown of her head, smirking.
Kate catches at the soft skin of his sides in retaliation, huffing a sigh at him and shaking her head. "Mm, we could watch TV."
He beams at her, their foreheads meeting so her lines of wear clash with his. "We could get something to eat."
"We could do that." Kate nods, stretching up onto tiptoe as her calves hit the edge of the mattress. She gets her mouth against his right as he tips her backward and ends up breathing the shock of her laughter into his mouth.
Castle arranges them against the sheets, nestling his body between Kate's thighs and cradling her cheeks in both palms. He takes a moment to really see her, none of the shyness of their first morning there anymore. Not for a long time.
He's seen every shard, every facet she has to give. And still he looks at her like she's fascinating and beautiful and forever. "What would you like to do, Mrs Castle?"
"I think we should make good use of the fact that no one can possibly overhear us, or walk in unannounced."
Rick nods above her, sliding a hand down to tug at her thigh, bringing her knee up to meet his hip. "And do what?"
"Get back to basics."
A/N: Penultimate is a great word. But sometimes (now), it doesn't feel so good.
