Prompt: "In episode 3x11, Nikki Heat, Castle proposes to Beckett when trying to get Ryan to have some huge, elaborate proposal for Jenny. How about an AU where Beckett actually gives him an answer, preferably a yes, and see where it goes?"
"You should get a hot air balloon, or maybe a jumbotron. That'd definitely leave her speechless," Castle concludes as he returns what will hopefully be Jenny's engagement ring to Ryan across the table.
"But - but I don't want her to be speechless," Ryan replies, looking utterly distressed. "I want her to say yes."
"Way to go, Castle," Esposito mutters when Ryan drops his head to the sticky surface of the table they're all sharing.
After closing the case of the murdered matchmaker and sending Natalie Rhodes back on her way to Los Angeles, they had agreed to celebrate at The Old Haunt for the first time. They were all a little buzzed, but Ryan has probably had the most alcohol of the four of them due to his current dilemma of finally proposing to Jenny.
"I was just trying to help," Castle shrugs.
"What's wrong with him just asking?" Beckett questions, setting her half empty beer bottle back on the table and shifting at his side.
"He can't just ask. He has to make a statement, it's gotta be big."
"Oh yeah, because your last two marriages have been such a staple of success," she volleys back and Rick arches his brow in surprise. She's been a little sharper with him lately, ever since she apparently caught Natalie Rhodes pressed up against him in the precinct elevator yesterday. "Take it from me, Ryan," she adds. "Most girls prefer something a little more intimate."
"And how would you know this, Beckett?" Castle challenges. "Seeing as you've never been proposed to and all."
Ooh… he may have pushed a little too far with that one, but Beckett doesn't seem phased by his remark.
"Because despite that observation, I still know what I would want, just like any girl, and no one wants to share the most romantic moment of their life in a helicopter with Reggie the chopper pilot."
Castle scoots from the booth, snatches Ryan's engagement ring from the table and then risks his hand and grabs Beckett's arm.
"So what," Castle continues, surprised when she allows him to drag her out of the booth with only slight protest and a single threat to saw his arm off. "He's just supposed to be boring and ask-" Rick pops the ring box open, holds it out between the two of them as he locks eyes with her and drops his voice into the most sincere tone he can manage. "will you marry me?"
He watches as her breath catches. It's not noticeable, not to anyone else at least, but he sees the hitch in her chest, sees the flare of something foreign and beautiful in her eyes as they flicker from him to the ring.
"Yes."
The word is nothing more than a whisper, one he almost misses, and for a moment, he forgets about the point he was trying to make in favor of holding her gaze, trying to reading the deeper meaning in those endless eyes.
"Yes?" he echoes and her mouth falls open, words on her tongue, but then Esposito clears his throat and snatches the ring from Castle's fingers.
"Stop tainting Ryan's ring," he grumbles, shaking his partner until he rouses and lifts his head from the table. "C'mon bro, let's get you home for the night."
"But I haven't figured out how to 'pose to Jenny," Ryan protests weakly as Esposito escorts him towards the exit.
"Were you being serious?" Castle asks when Ryan and Espo have disappeared and Kate's grabbing her belongings from the booth.
"What are you talking about? I was just proving a point," she dismisses, sliding her arms through the brown trench coat and flipping her hair over her shoulders.
Castle snags his own coat when she starts for the exit and jogs to catch up with her.
"But you said yes," he reminds her as he follows her out of the bar and into the crisp night air. "And you looked like-"
She spins on her heel, nearly has him stumbling into her.
"Looked like what?" she snaps, intimidation radiating from her tense shoulders, but he squares his own, refusing to back down when for once he has the confidence to be honest.
"Like you meant it," he answers matter-of-factly. "If I would have been proposing to you right then, you looked like you would have said yes."
Her jaw clenches for just a second before she releases a forced scoff.
"Why are we even having this conversation? Don't you have Gina to get home to? Or maybe Natalie's waiting back at the loft to surprise you," she growls and he's surprised by the subtle but fierce ferocity in her voice, as if… as if she's hurt by the idea of him with another woman in a way that appears deeper than jealousy.
But that isn't fair because if anyone has the right to be jealous here, it's not her.
"Why do you care, Beckett?" he demands, slicing his tongue over the t's of her name. "You've got your perfect doctor to go home to."
Her lips purse, anger sparking gold in her eyes.
"We broke up," she grits out and just like that, his own anger deflates.
He's about to bombard her with questions, like when and why and does this mean you actually wouldn't mind marrying me? but a fellow pedestrian bumps into his shoulder and grumbles a few not so nice words under his breath, reminding Castle they're standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Can we go back inside? Down to my office?"
Kate scrapes a hand through her hair. "Castle, I should really just-"
"Please?" He's not above resorting to begging and making scene of it if he has to. She must realize this because all he receives is a huff before she acquiesces his request and enters the bar once more when he holds the door for her.
His head bartender gives him an odd look, but Rick waves him off and guides Kate towards his office with a tentative hand at the small of her back.
"You know Gina and I broke up," he reminds her as they descend the stairs. "And that the incident with Natalie was totally one sided."
"I don't need you to defend yourself to me," she mutters once they reach the floor.
Kate drifts towards his desk, trailing her fingers along the rich wood. She hasn't been down here since he redecorated the place and despite her obvious irritation towards him, he can see the approval in her eyes as they rove around the enhanced space.
"I think I do, seeing as you're obviously going to be my future wife and all."
Her spine stiffens and her gaze head snaps towards him. He fails to hold back his laugh at the horrified expression claiming her face.
"I hate you," she grumbles, crossing her arms and awkwardly attempting to lean against his desk, similar to the fumbling position she'd taken on around Natalie Rhodes earlier in the week. It's cute.
Maybe it's the home field advantage of being in a space that is his, maybe it's the alcohol still humming in his veins, but his newfound courage has him stalking towards her, coming closer until he's standing mere inches from her tense figure at his desk.
"What's your middle name?" he murmurs and her lips quirk as she tilts her head in confusion.
"Why?"
"Beckett," he says seriously, dropping his hands to her shoulders. "This is important and there's no time for questions."
Kate rolls her eyes and sighs in reluctant defeat.
"Houghton."
He pauses amidst his plan and rolls the name around in his head. Unique, sophisticated, he likes it.
"Well then, Katherine Houghton Beckett." Her eyes grow so wide as he eases down to one knee, he thinks they may bulge out of their sockets.
"Castle, what the hell are you-"
"Shh," he waves her off, snatching one of her hands and encasing it in both of his. "Like I was saying, Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you do me the great honor of going out on a date with me?"
She wretches her hand from his and uses it to slap him on the shoulder.
"Is that a yes?"
Her lips are pursed tightly, but he realizes that she's not angry, but trying to hold back a smile. There's an actual laugh bursting at the seams of her mouth and he rises from his knee when she tugs him up by the collar of his shirt.
The advantage he thought he'd had vanishes as she draws him so close he could kiss her with nothing more than a simple tilt of his head.
"I'll go on a date with you," she murmurs, her thumb circling in a maddening pattern over his thrumming pulse point. "One condition though."
"Name it."
"Never give my coffee away to another woman again. Ever."
He smirks. "You're still mad about that?"
She shrugs, a hint of self-consciousness flickering in the sultry pool of her eyes. "That's supposed to be our thing."
He softens at that and settles hesitant hands on her waist, waiting until her body relaxes under his palms to speak.
"It's still ours," he promises, tracing the jut of her hipbones with his thumbs through the fabric of her jeans. "But I promise, from now on, I'll reserve my coffee delivering duties for you and you alone."
The smile that flirts along her lips is shy but pleased, and she migrates the fingers at his neck to the base of his skull, stroking the fine hairs there and sending goosebumps scrambling down his spine.
"I have one more condition," she decides.
"Which would be?"
Their noses bump as she leans in, her lips brushing his when she murmurs her final condition.
"I don't want to wait until our date for you to kiss me."