Prompt: "Beckett gets some good news, a promotion, closing of a tough case, or anything. When Castle finds out, he kisses her and the boys start hooting. They straighten up, but then Castle says ''screw it'' and kisses her again."
(AU to Cops and Robbers, 4x07)
They won't let her in. The bank just exploded, smoke still clouds the air, burning her eyes, her lungs, reaching its way down her throat to curl around her heart, and they won't let her in the damn building.
They won't let her get to him.
"My partner is in there," she hisses to the fellow cop continuing to block her path, poking him in the bullet proof vest, but he still refuses to budge. The guy has a death wish. "Do you hear me? I'm NYPD and my partner is in that bank, let me in there or so help me I'll-"
"Beckett?"
His voice breaks through her growing rage and her eyes skid wildly towards the choked, coughing sound of him. Castle. Alive and waving at her with a shy smile from just a few feet away.
"Castle," she breathes, sidestepping the cop and all but running towards the bottom step of the bank entrance he's standing on, his daughter in his arms, his mother at his side.
Alexis relinquishes her hold on him when Beckett stops short, meeting Kate's eyes for a split second, giving her the smallest hint of a smile before drifting off towards the nearest ambulance with Martha.
Kyra Blaine's words flash through her mind.
He's all yours.
And she doesn't waste another second.
Neither does he.
He comes for her, striding forward, inadvertently reassuring her of his health, and then he's right in front of her, hands cupping her face just before he seals his mouth to hers.
It's not what they do, not what they're supposed to be doing yet; she's not ready, but she almost lost him. She was convinced he was dead mere seconds ago, that he was buried beneath the ash and rubble of that bank, and she surges into him at the thought, wrapping her arms around his neck and slicking her tongue along the seam of his mouth.
He tastes of destruction, of the devastation that lies only a few feet away, but kissing him amidst the sea of wreckage he just walked out of gives her more hope than she thought possible.
"Thank god you're okay," she manages around the reverent press of his lips. "I thought I lost you. I thought you were-"
"No, no, I'm here," he promises, stroking her jaw with his thumb. "Right here."
A loud whistle and a couple of catcalls have them jerking apart, heads turning in unison to find Ryan and Esposito watching them from the slew of ambulances with crossed arms and smug smirks.
She shoots the two of them a glare even as the blush claims her cheeks, but when she glances back to Castle, he's still looking at her.
"Screw it," he murmurs, capturing her lips once more, kissing her ever so softly, tentative and giving her the chance to pull away, but Kate cradles his face in her hands instead, focuses on making sure he can taste the relief on her lips, the love on her tongue.
He doesn't know it yet, but she heard him profess his love to her on a warm day while she bled out on the grass and it's anything but unrequited. At this rate, she may be letting him know sooner than she thought.
