...His eyes shot open the moment he realized he was waking and the dream hadn't ceased.

"Oh God." He squeezed his eyes shut again, fisted his hands in the sheets, and tried with everything in him not to move.

A few moments later she kissed the corner of his mouth and crawled off of the bed, headed for the bathroom.

Awake was better.

Always better when reality like this was waiting.

He stayed where he was and listened to the silence of the house. The toilet flushed, gently thanks to the model he'd purchased. Then water flowed from the sink before welcoming the silence once more. He cracked an eye and peered at her in the darkness. She looked almost shy.

"What?"

"It's...nothing...just...you are really beautiful. That's stupid." That was stupid. After...and then...and he just….but she was.

The mattress dipped as it accepted her weight. He pulled her to him, kissing her softly. "Thank you, " he whispered. She hummed against his lips in reply and kissed him again. Asking.

He would never say no.

Chapter 31

"The best intentions are often fraught with disappointment," he pouted.

"Is that a Castle original?" she smirked, peering over his shoulder, face falling at the mess of what should have been breakfast. "What is...er...was that?"

"Not original, from a crime show I used to watch. Tell you what though-this is a crime. Are you going to arrest me?" He looked back at her with an evil glint in his eye.

"Crime? Yes. Arrest? No. Didn't bring my cuffs," she said as she trailed a finger around the collar of his shirt. "Though I might have to punish you later...if you don't feed me."

He caught her hand and twirled her around until she was in front of him, trapped between the counter and his body. He sniggered, "If I remember correctly, I already fed you once this morning." The swat to his shoulder was half-hearted.

"Food you big bully. I require sustenance." She shimmied out of his grasp and pecked his pouting lips as the chattering voices of his mother and daughter descended the stairs.

"Morning Dad, Kate," Alexis greeted before taking in the sight of inedible mush. "Did Gram cook breakfast?"

"Pish! Nonsense, darling. You know I wouldn't waste my talents on…" she waved her hands at the catastrophe before them, "..whatever that is."

Castle harrumphed, "No, sadly this is my fault. I tried adding a secret ingredient and overestimated how much I would need. It may have affected the consistency and burning point of the dish."

"Tell you what," Kate said, head in the refrigerator, "You make coffee, I'll take care of breakfast. Give me...20 minutes."

Martha and Alexis retired to the living room with hot beverages. Castle busied himself preparing coffee for Beckett, first-taking the time to make a heart in the foam, and then one for himself. Kate's back was to him as she dug in the fridge a moment longer so he set the coffees aside lest they spill, and then wrapped his arms around her middle.

"Castle!" She spun with a can of biscuits in each hand, "What are you doing?"

"Helping. I love watching you be domestic in my kitchen."

She narrowed her eyes and moved around him to begin working. Ignoring his comment about domesticity she snarked, "If you want to help hand me two round pans and heat resistant cups."

"Mean," he pouted, but produced the requested items in moments. Kate turned to dump cinnamon and butter on the counter next to the biscuits and caught sight of the coffee he'd set out for her. Smiling wide, snark aside, she tugged his head down to smear a kiss to his lips before pushing him away again to begin breakfast.

20 or so minutes later the aroma of cinnamon drew everyone back into the kitchen as Kate dished up breakfast.

"Wo-Hooooot!" Castle fanned his tongue after shoving a steaming forkful into his mouth. "Owww." Kate smirked and shook her head

"Manners Dad!" Alexis exclaimed as she accepted a plate of her own, inhaling deeply. "What is this!? It smells delicious!"

Kate blushed as she served herself last. "Poor man's monkey bread. Easy in a pinch, but just as good." She quirked an eyebrow at Castle across the table. "Seemed appropriate."

Martha snorted, "Quite right my dear! Quite right!" Alexis turned pink and giggled between chewing.

"Well then," the matriarch said after swallowing, "Is everyone ready to get their fashion sense on!?" She looked at the delicate watch on her wrist and clicked her tongue three times, "You have half an hour to ready yourselves and get those creative juices flowing. Then meet back here so that the games can begin!"

Kate regarded Castle and Alexis in turn, her face contorting and no doubt conveying her confusion. Fashion sense? She'd only brought jeans and sweaters for the most part for this trip.

"Ugly Christmas sweater time," Alexis provided, "we each get to design and create one. Then we do a kind of...yeah...fashion show. Doesn't take very long with only 3-I mean 4 people."

"Don't worry," Castle interjected, "You don't have to ruin one of yours. We have a supply just for this purpose."

"No glitter."

"No glitter?"

"It's the one rule. I don't want to be showering later and finding glitter where the sun don't shine. I also don't want to be cleaning it up from every surface of the house until the end of time. You do know that glitter travels right?" He huffed. "No. Glitter. It's the only rule."

Alexis punched him in the shoulder, "Not true! You know as well as any of us that you make up rules as you go!"

He grinned sheepishly. "Ok," he conceded, "Maybe I sometimes might invoke parental privileges and declare a new rule."

Martha reeled around and dumped the beads she had been laying out in a pile on the table. "Parental privileges? My dear boy, I believe your exact words last year were 'Mother, if you would like to continue enjoying the fruits of MY labor you will do as I ask.'"

Kate hid her smile behind her palm before picking up where Martha had left off. "What did he ask?"

"I politely requested that everyone make a matching hat to go with their sweater…"

"Which meant we had to chop off an arm of the sweater. Which meant we really had to chop off BOTH arms. Which meant that we had arm-hats and ugly sweater-vests," Alexis chimed in. "It was not one of our more successful ugly sweater years. Dad, next time you make an unreasonable request...you should prepare better by having the supplies that we'll need ahead of time."

"I-" His words were cut short as she covered his mouth with her fingers.

"It's ok." She pet his shoulder soothingly, "Just don't throw any curveballs this year huh?" Her hand slid down to tweak his rear, achieving its intended effect of pulling him out of his defensive pout. "Besides, if you expect me to be doing any kind of a fashion show...I should let you know that I don't respond well to demands. It's that rebel thing," she said and winked as she pulled a blank shapeless green sweater canvas from the pile of red, white, and green and tossed it at his face. She took a white sweater for herself and inspected the materials available.

The table was cleared to set up individual workstations while the counter space was covered in bits and baubles for decorating. Martha and Alexis, having known what to expect, got straight to work on the designs they'd already planned.

Kate stood unmoving for a long minute. She didn't relish the thought of working on something in the open. Especially if they were supposedly going to model their artwork later on. Castle must have sensed her unease and turned her towards the breakfast nook without uttering a word. Perfect. Now what to put on the sweater…

Martha's clapping brought him out of the cloud of creativity and back to awareness of his surroundings. "Alright! Showtime! Since we're all going to modeling we'll take it one at a time. Alexis, darling, you first, then Richard, Katherine, and I will wrap it up. Everyone in front of the fireplace." Castle herded Kate away from her crafting and tugged her down on the couch beside him without preamble, Martha's voice still giving instructions, "Yes yes, take a seat. Take a seat. Ok, Alexis-whenever you're ready."

Alexis had chosen a pale blue sweater and kept her design rather simple. A strand of fake pearls emphasized the collar and cuffs and she had adorned the body with felt snowflakes that she had cut from white felt. The tips of some of the snowflakes were punctuated with pompoms and there were some subtle sequins tastefully placed. She turned in front of the fireplace and Kate's hand flew to her mouth as she unexpectedly barked out a laugh. He grinned. This was where the "ugly" part came in. Along the bottom of the back was a cutout reindeer backside, tail up, with the phrase "Leave all your cares behind" emblazoned across the danger zone.

Beautiful.

"That's my girl!" Castle preened as his daughter turned back to face them, face a little pinker than usual.

"At least I know I come by it honestly. Ok Dad, your turn," she said as she shoved him out of the way and joined Kate on the couch.

Castle donned his green sweater and did his best catwalk impression. Anything to get his girls to smile. Mmmm. His girls. Yes indeed. He struck a pose and Kate's tongue poked out from between her teeth.

Yes indeed.

He hadn't overdone it this year. Had tried to be a little more conservative-ish. And if you squinted at it just the right way...it might be a little dirty. Taking up most of the front, he had fashioned Rudolph's face. Large felt eyes near the neckline, face tapering to the large red bulbous nose at the hem. He winked at Kate as he turned and posed again. His "ugly" had been the creation and addition of gold pipe-cleaner antlers that stuck up off of the shoulders.

Kate's palms started sweating a little. It wasn't sexy. It wasn't cute. And she didn't even know why it was happening. She'd taken a little bit of a different twist on the ugly part of ugly sweater concept. She had gone for a joke. A little more-hopefully-cute. Also it was the only thing she had been able to think of at the time, but she was happy with it. She must also be nervous about its reception.

As Castle reclaimed his seat next to her, squishing his way between his daughter and her-other than the inch or so lost with his added presence on the couch, Kate didn't move. Martha was expounding upon this or the other before she realized the fashion show had come to a halt.

Tutting, she reached for Kate's hand and pulled her up-Castle was no help as he laughed at her and poked her side-and turned her in the direction of her sweater. "Trust me my dear, nothing you made could possibly be as bad as the one Richard made two years ago," she encouraged.

Of course, without reference Kate just found the statement confusing. "Kate-two years ago Dad's sweater was supposed to be fruitcake, but looked more like a pile of…" Alexis started, but was interrupted by the artist himself. "A dung heap. Ok? My fruitcake looked like a pile of poo. It was...not my finest artistic moment."

And encouraging dove straight to gut twisting. Kate released her breath and turned back towards the family in the living room, arms crossed over her abdomen. When she reached the center of the fireplace she dropped her hands and her chin, considered her work upside down, and cringed as she awaited the first comment.

"Oh wow." Alexis piped up after about fifteen seconds of silent agony. "Kate-you win. That is amazing!"

Martha laughed and swatted her son's shoulder. "She's too good for you kiddo. Ah! Gorgeous!"

She looked to Castle for his reaction and was not disappointed. His mouth had dropped open, still lamenting his fruitcake sweater fail, and turned into a wide smile. "Clever girl."

Kate blushed and tried to shrug it off.

Her white sweater depicted a few brown and orange boxes that fit together and were outlined in black. She'd given it a face, bright eyes and a small smile, and a nametag bearing her name. It was decorated with varying colors of pompoms.

Fruit-Kate.

Castle tugged on her hand and pulled her back to him, landing her on his lap. "Cutest fruit cake I've ever seen." He nipped at her shoulder, but she squashed his progress. It was mid-afternoon and his mother still needed to show off her work. They could use these sweaters as a springboard for other activities later-once in private.

Martha twirled into the room having changed while Kate's attentions were otherwise preoccupied. Her sweater-also green-bore gold garland wrapped around the body as well as on the sleeves. She had fashioned ornaments that hung here and there, and clutched a star in one hand. She reached up and clasped her hands together above her head making her look like a decorated tree. It was actually quite tasteful.

"Bravo!" Kate called, impressed. Her sentiments echoed by both Alexis and Castle.

"Thank you my dears, thank you. I must admit, I may have had a little help coming up with the design in advance. You know Luke, from the village? Pure genius! Anyhow, wonderful show my darlings! Katherine, you made a fine first showing. Richard will let you know what to do with your sweater. Now then, Alexis my dear….if you wouldn't mind helping an old woman figure out what tonight's feast will be..."

A quick glance between Castle and Alexis ended with the two redheads heading upstairs to meal plan so that Martha wouldn't be solely responsible for feeding them and had the added benefit of leaving Castle alone downstairs with Kate.

She leaned in and kissed his cheek softly. He squeezed her middle and started nibbling her earlobe. "I want to unwrap you and eat you for dinner," he growled in her ear.

"Mmmm. You can't always get what you want. I don't know about dinner, but pre-dinner...I was thinking a nap. Or a bath. Or both. What I want is to kiss your nose," she shot back as she nipped at his jaw.

He pulled her up along with him as he stood and shepherded her into the bedroom, tugging his sweater over his head. "Maybe we can both get what we want before dinner."

TBC