Prompt 41: My neighbor's sister got the wrong house number and barged into my apartment
college au, Alexis is Castle's little sister
(Kate)
Insistent knocking pulls her out of bed at 2 am. She doesn't bother checking the peephole, and barely gets the door open before she's being wrapped in a bone-crushing hug and a teenager is crying into her shoulder.
She's still half asleep, so a confused "um…" is all she manages.
The girl freezes and pulls away suddenly, looks up at Kate with watery blue eyes. "Oh," she says, her voice catching. "You're not Ricky."
Kate hides a yawn behind her hand. "Nope, sorry." She studies the redhead for a moment. "But I think I know who you're looking for."
The girl's smile is small, but genuine. "Really?" she asks, sniffling.
She nods, stifling another yawn. "Really tall, brown hair, blue eyes. Likes hitting on girls in the laundry room."
"That sounds like my brother," the girl says, giggling.
"I think I know which apartment is his," Kate tells her. "You can wait here while I go look for him. There's tea in the kitchen; you look like you could use some."
The girl is shuffling around her kitchenette, and she's almost out the door when she remembers something important. "Oh, um, what's your name?"
"Alexis."
With a name in her head and slippers on her feet, she makes her way down the hall to the apartment she knows is his. (And, no, she's not stalking him or anything. It's just that they somehow always end up in the laundry room at the same time, and she's noticed the 4G written in permanent marker on all of his stuff.)
He's sleepy and rumpled when he opens the door, his hair sticking up at all angles. He rubs at his eyes like a little boy and stares at her. "Hi?"
"Hi," she says. "Don't freak out or anything, but your little sister, Alexis, is currently crying in my apartment."
He frowns. "How'd she get in your apartment?"
Kate shrugs. "Wrong door, I guess. Wanna come collect her?"
"Yeah, I'll be right down," he says, yawning loudly.
"4C," she says, to be helpful.
He nods. "I know, Kate."
(She doesn't think to wonder how he knows her name until after they're already gone. When he knocks on her door the next morning, coffee in hand, she decides she doesn't care.)