Sorry for the very long wait since the last update. Lot of things happening at the same time for me lately, and not necessarily good things so... I just had my mind somewhere else for a while. But here it is... next chapter is finally up! More to come.

CHAPTER 38

Castle slowly woke up, his back turned to Kate. He blinked a few times and stretched gently. That was when he felt her arm wrapped around him like a lock around a bike, as thought she was scared of having him being stolen from her. After the way he had scared her the morning before, she didn't want to wake up alone in bed again. Castle cracked a smile.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said gently.

"We never know..." Kate answered.

She was awake. Castle turned around to face her and she immediately put her head on his shoulder. It felt good, and safe, to be in his arms.

"I'm fine right there," he whispered, putting a soft kiss on her temple. "Actually, I could stay like this all day. We should take the day off. Call in sick. Mono!" he suggested. "Too much kissing," he smiled. "Okay, not funny..." he added after she gave her the look.

They stayed cuddling for a minute, before Castle started covering her with kisses as he was going down.

"Nope, Castle, you stay up here," she said holding him back as her cellphone rang.

She instinctively went for it.

"Don't pick up, don't... Nooo!" he sighed as she picked up anyway.

He buried his face on her side and kissed her softly, not far from her long scar.

"Ryan! How are you?" Kate asked.

"Leave us alone!" Castle said loud enough for Ryan to hear.

"Is that Castle I hear?"

"You bet that's me. Who do you think she'd be with at this time in the morning?"

"What's up?" Kate asked as though nothing happened.

"I'm sorry... Am I interrupting something?" Ryan asked, thinking the situation was a little awkward.

"You're not interrupting," Kate reassured him.

"Yes you are," Castle jumped in. "We're busy," he said before moaning.

"Castle!" Kate exclaimed in a whisper, telling him off.

If only he could keep his mouth shut.

"Maybe I should call back later..." Ryan suggested.

"That's right, when we're done here," Castle joked. He got punched by Kate who didn't like his false allusion. "Ouch, Kate, not that hard," he said with a sensual voice as though they were doing something different. He got another punch. "Mmm, that's good. I like it, keep going," he said as he started laughing, his hand running along her leg.

"Ryan, I'm gonna have to call you back," Kate said in a hurry, hanging up on him.

Castle was almost dying of laughter, proud of his childish trick. Kate vigorously made him roll on his back and straddled him, holding his hands down on each side of his head.

"Mmm, sexy..." he said.

"Castle! Are you out of your mind?! What do you think is going through his mind right now?"

"He's undoubtedly thinking we're having fun... Adult kind of fun. And given the way you're straddling me right now-"

Kate was giving him her look. She was not in the mood.

"He's my friend but he's also my colleague. I work with him, everyday. He can't keep his mouth shut so you can bet that Espo will be told this little-"

"Oh please! They know we're together. They should suspect we would be together at this time in the morning. In bed. Either sleeping or..." he said looking down to her breast with a mischievous smile. "By the way now that he thinks we're... maybe we could actually..." he suggested.

# # # # #

Beckett and Castle arrived at the crime scene a little later than the rest of the team. Esposito and Ryan were already there, taking notes.

"Guys," Castle greeted them.

"Interesting... No coffee? You got another stimulant already today?" Esposito asked all smile seeing them empty-handed.

Kate gave Castle her look. She was right. News, and rumors especially, traveled fast.

"We already had coffee back home and since it was getting late... I didn't said getting laid, I said getting late," Castle made clear seeing Ryan and Esposito share a look.

"Could be both," they laughed.

"Castle played a joke on you Ryan, okay? We were not really-"

"Hm, hm," he did, looking at them both.

Kate could see Ryan was trying to picture them together and she would have a hard time making him change his mind.

"Okay, what do we have?" Kate asked rolling her eyes, wanting to go back to work.

"An interesting information. You are more the morning type apparently..." Lanie jumped in, giving her a wink.

"Morning, evening, day, night, it's all good, trust me," Castle joked.

"You're digging your own grave, buddy..." Esposito said, shaking his head.

Castle realized that he was right. That was not the best comment to make in presence of Kate Beckett when her colleagues were around.

"We're here for work, remember? " Kate said hoping they would change subject.

"I told you we should have taken the day off," Castle reminded her.

"To do what?" Esposito asked in a serious tone, as though he was really interested in knowing what they plans would have been.

"Stay in bed all day," Castle said with a smile before realizing his mistake.

"That's just too easy..." Ryan smiled looking at Esposito.

Castle wasn't making any progress on learning to think before speaking.

"Castle?" Kate said very gently.

"Yes, honey?" he said turning to look at her.

The boys and Lanie were looking at them with a grin on their face when they heard that. They sounded so married. They already did before but now that they were together, it was a hundred times worse. Or better, depending on how you looked at it.

"You say one more word about this and not... him..." she said pointing at the dead body, "you won't have fun for an entire week," she warned him, using the three-letter word he had used that morning.

It was nothing short of blackmail. Castle chuckled, not taking her seriously.

"You wouldn't-" be able to stay a week without... "... want to tell us what this poor gentleman is doing here?" Castle rectified, in a serious tone, turning to the boys and Lanie.

"Not much at the moment, except lying there, dead," Esposito said looking at the dead body.

"I know, I meant why," Castle said sounding like an experienced cop. "Do we already have a name, age, profession? Any witnesses maybe? Lanie, any cause of death yet?"

"What did I say... Stimulant," Esposito said with a smile.

##########

Castle's fingers were on the move. He had finally managed to take time to work on the end of his chapter while Kate was spending the afternoon with her father. She was supposed to come take him out for dinner that evening.

Castle was typing when he heard a noise. He stopped and took his eyes off the screen. Nothing suspicious. He went back to typing after a few seconds. But he soon stopped again and looked up, like a predator on a lookout for his prey. Through the shelves used as walls for his office, he could see a shadow crossing his living room. He got up to check.

"You're... early!" Castle exclaimed taking a peek at his watch.

"Yeah, sorry. I should have called," Kate said as she put two bags of groceries on his kitchen counter.

"No, no, please you're here at home," he said approaching. "You can come and go as you want," he told her. "Well... come. Go... I'm not fond of that, I'm not fond of you leaving," he joked. "What is this?" he asked looking into the bags.

"I know we said we'd go out for dinner but I saw this recipe on a website that I'd really like to try. If you don't mind..." she asked shyly, as she took off her coat.

"I don't," he said with a smile. "And... what's the occasion?"

"No occasion. Nothing special."

"Oh," he did sounding disappointed. "And I thought it was because I solved your case, that looked unsolvable to many. Or maybe because of last night... But cooking for no reason is good too. Here, let me help you," he said wanting to take care of the second bag.

"No!" she exclaimed, taking him by surprise. "You go write that book," she said.

"Well I..." Castle was hesitant. He looked to his office and then turned to look at Kate again. He was almost scrutinizing her. "Are you sure?"

"You think I can't handle it?" she frowned.

"No! No, it's not that... It just feels awkward to let you do this on your own."

"Thanks for wanting to help, but I'll be okay," she reassured him.

"Okay... Hm... Well if you're looking for something feel free to look everywhere. And you can always come ask me. I'll be right there," he said pointing behind him, to his office. "I'll leave the door open-"

"No... I don't think it's a good idea. It will distract you. And me," Kate said with a smile.

"Okay. I... I'm going back then... I'll come check on you," he said before turning back, looking at her one last time before closing the door of his office again.

# # # # #

Castle had surprised himself writing names of vegetables and spices in that last paragraphs. The delicious smells coming from the kitchen weren't helping. Fortunately he had noticed his mistakes. But he would have to read that chapter again to make sure he hadn't left out a few of them in the middle of it.

He slowly opened the door of his office and stood there, staring lovingly at her. Kate was completely focused on her cooking. She would sometimes take a quick look at her phone to read the recipe. His eyes were full admiration and wonder.

"How's the Chef doing?" Castle joked as he joined her to the kitchen.

"Oh Castle, can you look how much red wine I need for the sauce?" she asked as she seemed to be doing five things at the time.

"Sure," he said pushing the home button to turn her phone on.

He froze for a second seeing the background photo she was now using. He hadn't seen it yet. It was a picture of the two of them together. A picture she had taken with her phone. She could use it now that their relationship had been made public.

"Castle?" she asked, not leaving sight of her saucepan.

"Yeah," he said hurrying to unlock it and look at the recipe. "750-milliliter."

Castle went around her to get closer from the pan, as she was adding the wine. It looked good. It smelt good. Castle was eager to find out if it tasted as good. He plunged his finger in the pan of sauce and licked it.

"Mmmm, that's... incredible, excellent!" he exclaimed, eyes-closed.

He couldn't help but plunge his finger back to get some more.

"Castle!" she exclaimed. "That's... You had your finger in your mouth and you put it back in it!"

"Oh, as though you had never taste my sali-" he stopped when she gave her one of her looks. Saliva. Yeah, kissing. Not in the food. "Want some?" he said, holding out his finger covered with sauce.

"I..." she said hesitantly, but she eventually gave it a try, sucking his finger. "Wow!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide open.

"Right? Don't touch it, don't add anything else. I don't care what the recipe says. This is perfect. You can cook for me whenever you want," he said his hand on her lower back, staring at her the same way he had a few minutes earlier, from his office.

"What?" she asked with a smile.

"Nothing," he said going to the cupboard to get the plates.

"No seriously, what is it? Why were you looking at me like that?" she said, turning around to face him.

Castle leant back against the kitchen cabinet.

"I don't... want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"Too late, you already have. More than once..." she joked.

"Right... Hm... Okay. The... The other day, you said... you loved me," he started and soon saw her look down. "I was just wondering... how you came from hating me to liking me... a lot," he smiled.

"I didn't hate you," she answered, surprised he would think that. "I was a fan."

"Yeah well, of my books. You weren't so fond of me if I recall."

Kate slowly came closer. He wasn't wrong after all. She didn't hate him, but at first she couldn't stand his attitude, his childish behavior.

"We both changed a lot," she said playing with the button of his shirt. "That self-deprecating, always-making-fun-of-everything playboy you were let place to the real you, more authentic, genuine. I really like that. And... when we met, it was a time of my life where work was my life. I didn't even know what fun meant anymore. You brought back that fun into my life again. You made me feel alive again. And for that I'm so happy we met," she said with a tender smile, caressing his cheek.

"Funny... how I feel the opposite," Castle said, pensive. Kate looked at him confused. Did he mean he wasn't so happy they had met? "I feel like... you brought some seriousness to a life overran by fun. You made me grow up a little-"

"Just a little," she teased.

"Just a little..." He smiled tenderly. "I started taking things more seriously once I knew you. I cared more," he said as though he was thinking back of those years spend by her side.

"Maybe the yin has found its yang... while yin-yin is living a quiet life in a Chinese forrest," she joked.

"Nice," Castle chuckled.

Yin-Yin... the panda. She remembered that joked he had made about how her dating a male version of her was more yin-yin than yin-yang and how it sounded like a panda name. Castle leant forward for a kiss but he pulled back quickly.

"Wow, watch out!" he exclaimed going for the hot plate.

The water from the pasta was boiling over.

"I'm sorry," she said, wincing.

"It's okay, it's okay, I got it," he said taking the pan off the plate. He wiped the water off the plate and put the pasta in the colander, adding some butter. Kate was looking at him handling the situation. She could tell he was used to cooking. He knew what he was doing, like a little chef. "There you go," he said softly, putting the pan back on the plate, giving her a smile as he put his hand on her lower back again. "Well... if it's like you and tastes as good as it looks... we're in for a treat!"

This time, there was no boiling water. They could share a kiss in all safety. Castle seemed to be craving for more.

"Mm, mm," she did her lips still locked on his. "Dinner first," she said.

"Right... you're my desert. My little sweet," he smiled. "Oh, desert! Just so you know, I often add whipped cream to my desert..." he said with a mischievous look.

"We'll see about that..." Kate smiled.

To Be Continued...

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