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The decorations were the expected green, gold, and purple, but tastefully done. There were no tacky plastic bead necklaces. There were sparkling glass beads surrounding glass votives to cast flickering colored candlelight. The servingware was all wooden platters painted in gold leaf with plenty of food piled high. Jenny's mother, dressed as a barwinch (not the slutty kind), was there to help with keeping the platters and punch bowls full. She even brought the King cake, made from her cousin's recipe straight out of Louisiana.

"Is my crown straight?" Kevin asked her again, nervous about hosting this. Castle was the one who always did the big parties. But he felt like it was his turn to go all out and treat their friends. They probably invited a hundred and fifty people, only expecting about a third of them to be able to attend.

"You look fantastic, everything's ready, and you two did a great job," his mother-in-law reassured. The doorbell rang and she nudged him with a smile. "Now, go; enjoy your guests."

Jenny opened the door, looking radiant in her Middle Ages Queen costume. A pale blue gown with gold soutache and a tight bodice, she looked perfect alongside her husband. Clearly, he was Louis XIV, with his solid gold king's costume. Everything Kevin wore looked like it was made of golden silk. The only exception was the pale blue jewels encircling his crown, tying his costume to his wife's.

Jenny's best friend and her husband gave hugs all around as they entered, music began playing (Oh, yeah, he forgot music – thank God for Jenny's mom!) and the room quickly filled with people. Their siblings and their spouses, neighbors, friends, and co-workers all came in grinning. Lanie and Javi arrived in feathers. Awesome feathers, but, still, Esposito was in feathers.

"Apparently, Trinidad loves Carnival, too. Les thought tribal costume would work on me." He acted like he hated it, but was flexing his bare pecs.

"Mmm hmm, he was right too," murmured Lanie.

He had a metallic lime green mask that gave him a hawk-like nose, tribal arm bands, a necklace that had a large gold breastplate with green jewels and tribal etchings, green leather pants with the same gold tribal pattern, and phoenix-like lime green wings. He thought he could pass as a Southern-hemisphere X-man.

Lanie was a peacock. Les explained that it pained him to use the vivid colors of the male peacock on a costume for a female, but the store's owner insisted that it was acceptable. Les still apologized. If there was a place with classy showgirls, this would be a costume for them: a feathered headdress, a sequined bodice, a fringed skirt, and a huge feathered tail. All of the feathers were real, and her entire outfit was iridescent so that it shifted from green to blue to purple.

It was only about twenty minutes into the official party time, and most of their guests weren't "fashionably late" because they had to pay babysitters and needed to be able to get home at a decent hour. But Kevin expected to have to wait a little while for Castle to make his grand entrance (as he always does). It happened sooner than he expected; and when he opened the door, he couldn't believe what Castle and Beckett were wearing.


That morning:

"I am not wearing that." Kate looked into the box and saw fur. No. Freaking. Way.

"Oh, come on, you were the one who insisted we use this Les guy and didn't even look in the box when we paid. He even told us the entire fascinating history of Liberalia and how early Christians tied pagan Roman festivals into their own festivals – like Fat Tuesday- because it was easier than getting rid of them altogether."

"But you get to be a god! A party god, at that! What am I supposed to do… fawn all over you?"

"Ooh, that was a really bad pun. But I won't stop you if you want to fawn all over me. Just try it on? Pleeease?"

Rick was already trying on his costume, and –of course- looked sexy as hell as a Greek god.

She relented and huffed, "Uughh. Fine. Just tell me the truth about how it looks."

She shimmied out of her jeans and tee shirt in front of him just to make him not want her to put on the costume and slapped his hand away when he tried to pull her close. "Nuh-uh. You want me to try this on, right?" she teased.

She pulled up the tight pants (they felt thoroughly weird) to find that it was a body suit. The top was cut like a very revealing swimsuit, covering the center of her abs, her breasts, and not really anything else, clasping behind her neck with a narrow strip of the same material. Fur. Whatever. At least it was very short, very soft fur. And it had a cool sheen to it that almost made it look like a sparkly leather.

"Is it awful? It feels like it looks awful."

Rick swallowed hard. "Uh. No. Not awful. Just. Um." Definitely not awful. "You can't wear a bra with that. It'll show."

He smirked, unfastened the costume from around her neck and let it fall. He unhooked her bra and dropped it. Then he peeled the costume from her body, showing her just how not awful she looked.


Ryan's eyes went wide when he saw their costumes. Dionysis and a faun. (Faun Beckett looked so much hotter than Mr. Tumnus.) Rick wore a toga that didn't cover all that much of his upper body, a wig with long, wild curls, a crown of grape vines, delicate golden bands around his biceps (who knew Castle had those kinds of guns?), and carried a huge ale mug. Kate's costume was made of fur, but from more than a few feet away, it looked more like suede. But there was a whole lot of Beckett skin showing. Pointed ears and wild hair and thin gold arm bands like Castle's (only frillier) finished out the faun costume.

"Damn, girl! That's hot!" called Esposito from across the room. He was already on his third drink, and Lanie gave him a good, hard whack across his chest for his exclamation. Jenny shook her head, and couldn't quite understand the dynamic going on there. Javi often acted like Kate's over-protective big brother, but then he'd say things like that… and neither Lanie nor Rick seemed to mind. She guessed they all felt completely secure in their relationships and knew there was nothing to worry about. She hoped that was what it was… this wasn't going to turn into a swinging orgy, right? Kevin grinned and mumbled in her ear, "Totally platonic observation of hotness." Jenny giggled and went back to mingling. Her husband knew exactly where her mind just went. Dirty minds must think alike.


The apartment was full, the drinks were good, the music was fun, and the food was delicious. And it was late. Really late. The last of those with children were heading out, leaving behind the closest friends – the ones who will help clean up – and the die-hard partiers who don't know when they've worn out their welcome. The friends were sobering, while the lushes were smashed.

Kate hadn't bothered to learn people's names, but there was an ADA she knew whose arm candy was clearly looking for someone else to take her home. The young lady's make up was smudged and she looked barely legal. Surely, she was legal, right? Lanie and Kate had already started helping Jenny pick up the used cups from around the apartment when Lanie saw. She nudged Kate and nodded toward Castle.

Barely Legal was hanging on his arm. And he was laughing.

Oh, hell, no.


A/N: Please review! They're addictive like the slo-mo clips of the kissing scene in Always. How many times have you watched?

If you're curious about Espo's costume, do a bing image search for "men's carnival costumes" and scroll down. There are a couple of tribal ones with green feathers. I made up this with those in mind.