They woke the next morning comfortably wrapped in each other's arms. Kate had had a dreamless sleep - something that was extremely unusual for her in recent times - and she finally felt fully rested. The air was already warm inside their shelter, and it seemed that the rain from the night before had long since passed.
After a few minutes of revelling in the quiet, Kate could sense Castle moving towards consciousness. His body twitched and shifted around her and she raised onto her forearms to place a kiss on the side of his nose. When she drew back she could see his sleep-filled eyes watching her.
"Morning" He groaned as he stretched his body from head to toe, before rolling over and tugging Kate with him. She chuckled from her position squished up against his chest.
"Hey yourself." She grinned, wholly comfortable as he wrapped her in even tighter.
Kate hadn't been a cuddling type of girl in the past, but she was quickly becoming one with Castle beside her. Instead of feeling smothered, she enjoyed the warm sense of security that it provided, and equally enjoyed returning the favour.
Castle leaned in for another kiss, and she untangled her arms from his embrace and curled them around his neck.
"I've never seen you so smiley this early in the morning without the help of coffee." Castle joked gently, thoroughly enjoying the experience of affectionate Kate Beckett.
"Yeah, well," She shrugged coyly and looked at him through her lashes, "I have a date tonight, and I'm a little excited."
Castle perked up a little and planted a faux pout on his lips.
"Just a little excited?" He asked, "What would it take to make you extremely excited?"
Kate rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
"Well," She patted him lazily on the chest, "That depends on what you have planned."
Castle smirked, eyes shining with mirth.
"Well that, Detective Beckett, is for me to know and for you to find out. Later." He punctuated with a kiss to her forehead.
"But-" She opened her mouth, but before she had the chance to argue he halted the movement of her lips with his index finger, smooshing her lips together goofily.
"Ah, ah." He shook his head, eyes gleaming, "Later."
Deciding she wasn't going to glean much more information from the giddy writer, Kate teasingly parted her lips and grazed her teeth across the finger still held there. She felt his breath hitch as she nipped at the digit, and then soothed it with her tongue.
Kate could feel Castle lean his head towards her, but she pushed him back down by the shoulder and focused her lips on his neck. Laying fully atop him, she worked her way across his pulse point and then down towards his collar bones. She flicked her eyes upwards to look at him, and could see his considerably darkened pupils eyeing her, and she dipped back down to lathe affection on the dip between his clavicles.
Finally, she moved upwards again until their foreheads were pressed together, breath mingling. Kate could feel Rick lean forwards once more, but when his lips brushed her own she held up her index finger and mirrored his earlier actions, pressing it against his lips.
"Uh-uh Castle," Kate tutted, grinning mercilessly, "Later." She whispered, climbed smoothly off of him and sauntered out of the shelter and left Castle suspiciously feeling like he'd just gotten played.
Around midday Kate found herself alone as she washed in the pond. Castle had not-so-subtly requested that she entertain herself away from camp for the afternoon, and while she really wanted to know whatever it was he had planned, she decided that after this morning she should play nice and just go along with it. It was really sweet that he wanted to do this for her, and she wanted to show him just how much it meant.
It felt strange to be alone after spending the last two and a half weeks together and more intimate than ever before. While she enjoyed spending time with Castle and missed the hustle and bustle of the twelfth precinct, she was an introvert at heart and a small part of her missed the alone time that her apartment in Manhattan provided her.
An even bigger part of her, however, felt disjointed and wrong at being apart from her partner in (solving) crime.
Castle and herself had needed to lean on each other to get themselves through their latest terrifying ordeal, and for someone that thrived on having alone time to recharge, it was an unusual feeling for Kate to be so needy and yearning for the presence of someone else. Even if that someone else was Castle, who she had been growing steadily closer to over the last four years, in spite of their ups and downs.
Kate hummed under her breath as she took advantage of being alone and removed her bikini completely to wash it thoroughly with her other clothes. She thanked the heavens that her clothing - while somewhat worn and tattered - was holding together well, as it was all she had with her. She could only hope that rescue arrived before their clothing disintegrated completely, or Castle and herself would have no chance keeping their hands off of one another.
Once she was finished in the pond, Kate combed her fingers through her damp hair and decided to leave it down and let it curl around her face for her 'date' that evening. Him braiding her hair had become a ritual that they both enjoyed, and Kate had grown so used to the time spent as he gently and carefully weaved her hair into braids that she hadn't worn her hair down since he had first tamed it for her two weeks earlier.
When Castle had won the right to retain hair braiding rights during their bet, Kate had internally revelled in it, as it was something that she hoped continued long after they returned to civilization.
Though maybe she wouldn't sport Pippi Longstocking braids at the precinct.
Deciding to give Castle more time to prepare whatever it was that he had planned, Kate opted to walk down to the beach of their original landing site onto the island. She chose to leave her clothing hanging from one of the nearby trees to dry, and donned her newly washed bikini and headed down the familiar path to the beach, tennis shoes dangling from her fingertips.
Wary of the last time she had made this trek alone, Kate took the walk one step at a time and was careful about where she placed her feet, making sure to avoid tripping on any of the loose rocks and branches that littered the ground. Kate knew she was babying her ankle, but she didn't want to reinjure it anytime soon.
Castle had laid on thick the significant risks of reinjury of a recently sprained ankle. While he swore his warnings were based on research for one of the Storm novels, Kate didn't want to take any chances. The joint was still somewhat sensitive - almost two weeks post-injury - and Kate was reluctant to chance the risk of needing to rely so heavily on Castle to help her around once more.
Kate knew that he hadn't minded - in fact, he had revelled in being allowed to care and help her so intimately - but he already had so much stress and worry on his plate that she didn't want to add to it.
If she could help it, anyway.
The poor man was missing his family so fiercely that Kate was determined not to put any more weight onto his already-sensitive chest. They were partners, and it wasn't fair for Rick to have to do all the heavy lifting. It was just as important that he allow her to support him as he did for her.
Kate eventually emerged onto the sandy beach, and allowed her toes to sink into the warm sand. She dropped her tennis shoes at the entrance of the mangroves and carried on westwards down the beach, back towards where they had originally landed on the island. As she rounded the curve of the beach she could see the luminous orange of the life jackets still laying in their S.O.S. formation on the sand.
At Castle's suggestion - though she knew it was more for a distraction for her than anything else - she began collecting branches and pieces of driftwood that spanned the treeline, and then piled them into campfires strewn across the sand at regular intervals. Castle had been under the impression that it would aid them in gaining someone's attention should they appear, having read somewhere that it was considered an international signal for needing assistance.
Kate rolled her eyes as she wondered why he hadn't miraculously remembered that fun fact any earlier, but guessed that it wouldn't have helped any as no rescue had been forthcoming as of yet.
Still, anything helped, and it gave Kate something to do whilst Castle was being a secretive man-child.
She hummed to herself as she worked, occasionally singing a line of a song here and there, trying to fill the silence save for the swell of the waves on the rocky shore. The notes of Fly Me to the Moon by Sinatra had Kate reminiscing of times where she had found her parents slow dancing to the radio in the kitchen of her childhood home.
Sometimes Kate would remain quiet and watch on from the kitchen doorway as they swayed from side to side, but other times they would each hold out a hand to her and she would join them. When Kate was younger she would happily stay sandwiched between the pair, and then when she grew older her mother would step to one side and Kate would dance with her father, taking it in turns.
Fly Me to the Moon was always her parents' song, though.
It made her nostalgic, not only for both of her parents, missing them so painfully, but also for the love that had permeated the air as they danced together. She had always craved that feeling for herself but never expected to find it, not until Castle.
Kate wandered closer to the shore and let the waves lick her toes as she gazed out into the distance. For all of her teasing, the way she felt about Castle surpassed the way she had felt about anyone ever before. While that was an absolutely terrifying feeling, Kate wanted to jump into the abyss that was Castle without second thought.
She'd always wanted what her parents had, and she might have found it.
Kate stopped walking once the water rose to her knees. She knew logically that she was safe here on the beach, but the memories of flailing in the open water as the waves choked and crashed over her certainly gave her pause.
Between their arrival on the island and her car sinking in the Hudson, Kate would be happy if she never had to swim in open water ever again. And even then that would be too soon.
Shaking her head, Kate turned and headed back to dry land. The old Kate Beckett would have made herself stand there in the water until the tremor left her knees and she had looked the danger firmly in the eye, but now Kate understood that it was okay to have weaknesses, because they were what made you human. She didn't need to be strong all the time.
When she was with Castle she could lean on him and he would be strong when she was too tired to do it herself for a while - and that was okay.
Kate continued down the beach, began searching for driftwood once more and got back to the task at hand. She spent the better part of the afternoon building bonfires, and as she looked from one side of the beach to the other she could see them dotting the shore as the sand curved around the island and out of sight.
Once Kate decided the job was as good as done, she made her way back to the stream and put on her tennis shoes, before heading back up the trail to camp. As she passed the pond, Kate slipped her newly dried shirt and shorts back on and then carried on further upstream. The closer she got to camp, the stronger the smell of smoked fish permeated the air.
She gasped as she emerged from the trees.
Castle had clearly been hard at work. The ground had been brushed clear of sticks, stones and loose dirt, and a picnic blanket sized section of earth had been covered in large, waxy jungle leaves beside the fire.
"Rick…" She breathed as she stepped closer to the writer as he stoked the flames, "This is amazing."
Castle grinned nervously as Kate surveyed his handiwork. He'd cut and staked branches of wood into the ground and lit the tips with the campfire, bathing the area with light from the dancing flames from the makeshift torches.
Kate joined him beside the fire and took his face in her hands, leaning upwards to press a soft kiss to his lips. When she looked down she could see the makings of their dinner laid out on plates made from big leaves.
"I know it's not Le Cirque or anything but…" Castle trailed off and bit his lip, watching her expression as she took it all in.
"No, Rick, this is better," Kate told him with certainty, wrapping her arms around his neck with a shy smile as he pulled her tighter against him by the waist, "This is perfect."
She gave him another kiss, longer this time. When they parted she took a step back and swiped a lock of hair behind her ear.
"So, what's on the menu tonight?" She asked and he smiled more confidently this time.
"First," Castle turned around and picked something up from the ground, "Here is your drink, m'lady." He presented her with a coconut still in the husk. He'd carved a zig zag pattern around the opening, and a straw in the form of a bamboo cane emerged from the top. Kate grinned effortlessly, amazed at the trouble he'd gone to for the attention to detail.
"Why thank you." She smiled, taking a sip as Castle took her free hand and tugged her down to sit beside the fire.
"For dinner we're going to be dining on this fine fish I caught this afternoon," Castle unhooked the spit from the makeshift smoker and laid the sizeable catch on the leaves between them, "with a handful of the island's finest almonds on the side." He placed the almonds beside the fish, which he had put inside a bowl made from a split coconut shell.
"This looks incredible, Castle, thank you." Kate said honestly, the firelight flickering in the reflection of her eyes.
"It was no trouble," He said, which Kate believed to be a complete lie, "Besides, that's not the best part." Excitement glinted in his eyes as he placed a kiss on the back of her hand.
Kate was immediately intrigued, not sure what the man had up his sleeve.
"What is it?"
This was already the most trouble any man had gone through for a first date, and she wasn't sure how he would be able to top it.
"I found us something special for dessert." He grinned and extricated his hand from hers to reach beside him and pick up an upturned coconut shell on a thick, waxy leaf, hiding whatever treat it was he had found.
Castle placed it beside the fish and almonds and inclined his head towards it, inferring that Kate should take a look for herself. She dutifully did as she was told, and lifted the shell to reveal-
"Is this mango!?" She gasped, corners of her mouth lifting in a beautiful smile as she looked at the neatly diced, golden fruit.
"It is indeed," Castle replied, "I found it just off the trail down to Whale Beach," He told her, referring to the beach on the Southern side of the island that they'd discovered seven days earlier.
He picked up a piece of the glistening fruit and held it up to her lips. She opened her mouth hungrily, her teeth grazing his fingers as she wrapped her lips around the offering and hummed at the burst of flavour on her tongue.
"That's incredible," She moaned through her mango-induced ecstasy. A trail of sticky juice trailed down her chin and Castle kissed it away.
"Right?!" Castle agreed, taking a piece for himself. They laughed then, finding humour in the sheer bliss from the small bite of food.
Sitting cross legged and facing each other, the pair dug into the fish, using the pocketknife that Castle had cleaned after cutting the mango to cut the fillets into bite size pieces. They chatted comfortably as they ate until everything had been consumed, and finished their meal with a final slurp of coconut water.
Then they moved to sit on the edge of the lookout with Kate resting in the vee of Castle's legs and reclined against his chest, and watched the sun move down the horizon in a beautiful show of colour. When it had finally dropped below the horizon, Kate turned her chin upwards and kissed the underside of Castle's jaw.
"Thank you for tonight, it was wonderful." Kate said, and smiled when he turned his head down to meet her lips with his.
"Best date ever," Castle hummed before pulling back, "Is it bad of me to say that even though I can't wait to go home, it was nice to have this night with just you and me; no distractions?"
Kate shook her head and leaned to one side so that she could lift her arm and card her fingers through his hair.
"There's nothing wrong with finding a silver lining, and this one is pretty great if I say so myself." She agreed with a wry grin. They looked one another closely in the eye for a few moments before Castle patted her side to have her stand.
"Dance with me?" He asked, holding out an arm and tugging her to stand with him on the leaves, surrounded by the flickering flames of the torches dotted around the area.
Kate acquiesced and loosely wrapped her arms around his neck as Castle guided them to start swaying gently in place to mirror his plans for their first date back home. She looked up at him with a smile, noticing just how stark the height difference was when she wasn't wearing her usual heels. The orange light of the torches and campfire lit Kate's golden mane of curls, and Castle placed a soft kiss on her brow.
"You look beautiful," he told her, honesty deep in his eyes.
A little bashful, Kate swiped her thumb back and forth on the nape of his neck.
"You're not so bad yourself." She said and leaned up to kiss him once more.
When Kate pulled back she relaxed fully into his hold as he twirled them gently in a circle, pressing the side of her face into his chest so that she could feel the steady thrum of his heart. She startled when she realised that he had begun to hum The Way You Look Tonight. It was one of her favourite songs; Kate and her mother adored watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together as she grew up, though she was sure that Castle was not aware of that little-known fact.
She pressed her face more firmly into his chest as her eyes began to water.
"Hey, what is it?" Kate closed her eyes as Castle stopped humming and used his hands to tilt her chin upwards to see the tears on her cheeks. He brushed them away and placed a kiss on each cheekbone before the tears were soon replaced by new ones.
"Nothing," Kate shook her head before opening her eyes once more," Just… I love you." She said earnestly, before soaring upwards and kissing him firmly, both of her hands matching his and framing his cheeks. When the kiss ended, Castle pressed his forehead against hers.
"I love you too, Kate." He whispered, and a watery smile lit her face through her tears. If her eyes were open she would have seen the same expression on Castle's.
They'd not said those three little words to each other since their original confessions on the lookout days earlier, and in this moment they felt even more special. Despite the awful circumstances, Kate was grateful to the island for pushing the two of them together in a way that they hadn't quite managed by themselves back in New York.
She really did love him.
On that thought, Kate pushed forwards into his embrace, kissing him more forcefully this time. Castle reciprocated in kind and it quickly grew into something much more heated, though neither of them were complaining. One of his hands threaded through Kate's loose hair, while the other slipped under her shirt and palmed her breast to the building crescendo of insects buzzing around them.
Kate pulled away momentarily to start unfastening the buttons on Castle's shirt, and he took the respite to remove his hand and still her fingers.
"Kate, are you sure?" He asked breathlessly, before Kate's fingers carried on their descent down his chest.
"I'm sure." She nodded, quickly placing a kiss to his chin as Castle reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out his wallet.
"I thought you wanted to wait, we only have one shot, remember?" Castle reminded her as he referred to the solitary foil package held between his forefinger and thumb, "We can stop if you want to." He insisted, though it pained him to do so.
"I'm sure, Rick," Kate silenced him again with a quick kiss, "I wanted to wait because we have one chance and I wanted it to be perfect, and this is the most perfect moment. I don't want to wait anymore."
Castle stared down at her as they both breathed for a second to take the other in. He saw no hesitation on her features and could see that he had the same effect on her as she did on him. She was right.
As Castle tenderly removed her blouse and pressed a kiss against the scar between her breasts, Kate knew.
They'd waited long enough.