Okay! Who's ready for some teen fluff?

Summer at the Cabin Part Three

After their hike, Castle practically collapsed onto the hammock in the front year, his face pressed into the rope that it was made out of. Kate and Lanie shared a look and shook their heads.

"That boy is crazy," Lanie whispered to Kate, making her giggle, "and absolutely perfect for you." Kate grinned, hugging Lanie. "I'm happy for you, girl," Lanie added, "but I stink and I gotta go take a shower. Make sure your boy don't slip into a coma, okay?"

Kate laughed and let her friend go, before turning and making her way towards her boyfriend.

Castle's eyes were still closed as Kate slipped beneath the hammock, looking up at his adorably smushed face. "Having a nice rest?" she asked.

Castle groaned. "I might never get up again."

"I guess you're not gonna have any of the sirloin that my dad's grilling up for dinner then, huh?" she asked, grinning.

"You can feed it to me," Castle suggested, still not opening his eyes.

"You can feed yourself, Castle," Kate replied, rolling her eyes. "You're not a baby."

"I'm your baby," Castle replied, finally opening his eyes and wiggling his eyebrows at her. Kate rolled her eyes again and laughed.

"You're ridiculous, is what you are," she replied, snorting and biting her lip. Immediately, Castle's eyes darkened, his gaze going to her lips.

"Don't do that," Castle said, his voice deeper than usual.

"Do what?" Kate asked, innocently.

"You know what," Castle said. "You know exactly what."

Kate bit her lip again and shook her head. "No," she said, "I don't think I do…can you explain it to me?" She batted her eyes at him, innocently.

Oh yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing to him.

"You're biting your lip," Castle said, his voice still deeper than normal and a tad rougher. Lately, his voice had been changing, going from the higher, squeaky voice of his youth, to a much deeper timbre that signaled the changes from adolescence to manhood he was just beginning. And, aside from that, his shoulders were also broadening, making him appear less lanky and a bit more muscular.

"So?" Kate asked.

"So…you know what it does to me when you bite your lip like that," Castle growled.

"No," Kate said, raising one eyebrow, "I don't believe I do…"

"It makes me want to kiss you," Castle said, his eyes locked on her bottom, which was currently trapped between her teeth. "It makes me want to kiss you until you can no longer breathe—until I can no longer breathe. It makes me want to kiss you so hard that your lips bruise and your mind goes completely blank and the only thing you can remember is the feeling of my lips on yours."

Kate's eyes widened for only a split second before she gave him an impish grin. "So do it then," she challenged, biting her lip again.

Castle groaned and shook his head. "Too tired," he mumbled. "Can't move."

"Can't or won't?" Kate asked.

"Do you think that if there was even a miniscule chance of my ability to even roll off this hammock that you'd still remember your own name?" he poised, his eyes narrowing at her abused lip. "Now stop that."

"Make me," she retorted.

"As soon as my legs work again," Castle promised. "Until then…" he trailed off as he all too suddenly fell asleep. Kate snorted, shaking her head, before leaning up and kissing his lips through the mesh fabric. He didn't even stir.

X_X

By the time Castle woke up, the sun was already setting and he could smell meat cooking somewhere on the property. He practically threw himself out of the hammock, groaning at the pain that radiated through all his sore bits, and stood up on shaky legs, making his way towards the backyard, where he could see smoke billowing out from, presumably, the grill.

He ambled down the path and through the gate separating the front and back yards, smiling sleepily when he caught sight of Kate and Lanie lounging by the pool, their feet dipped in as they talked and laughed.

He loved her laugh.

Jim was standing at a grill, watching steaks and ears of corn cook as he laughed with his wife over something or other. But before Rick could even announce himself, Johanna caught his eye and waved.

"There you are, Richard!" she exclaimed. "We were wondering if you were ever going to wake up!"

"Well now you have your answer," Castle replied, cheekily. Johanna rolled her eyes, looking very much like Kate, and turned back to her husband, who laughed.

Castle grinned and made his way over to Kate and Lanie, sitting down next to his girlfriend and peeling off his hiking boots, which he'd never seemed to have bothered with when he fell asleep, hours earlier. He sighed, wiggling his toes as he lowered them into the cool water.

"Ahh," he sighed, "so much better."

"You're such a wimp, Castle," Lanie laughed. Castle stuck his tongue out at her and she made a face back.

"You guys are like four-year-olds, I swear," Kate laughed.

They both made faces at her and she burst into infectious giggles. Soon, they were all hysterical, leaning into one another, tears streaming down their cheeks as they laughed.

Johanna caught sight of this and smiled, nudging Jim, before reaching into her apron pocket and pulling out a camera, snapping a few quick pictures, before turning to show her husband. He laughed, shaking his head and making a mental note to have those printed and framed, especially with the way the setting sun perfectly framed their silhouettes.

"Alright, everybody!" he yelled. "DINNER IS READY! Go set up the table now!" The three teens stood, their laughter subsided, and made their way to the outdoor picnic table, setting everything up as Jim approached with the steaks and corn on a platter. Jo, meanwhile, ran inside, retrieving a pitcher of iced tea and a couple of glasses and placing them on the table in front of the kids.

"Alright, eat up you three," Jim said, placing their plates in front of them, each with a large piece of steak and an ear of corn. All three dug in, immediately, while Johanna poured them each a glass of tea, shaking her head.

"Look at them go," she sighed. "Oh, to be young again and to have a fast metabolism…" She patted her stomach.

Jim chuckled, pulling his wife down into his lap and kissing her cheek. "I think you look perfect no matter what speed your metabolism moves at."

Johanna rolled her eyes, but leaned down to kiss her husband's lips sweetly. Kate pretended not to notice, but she was watching them out of the corner of her eye, a slight smile on her face as she ate, before glancing to the boy next to her, who was gobbling down his corn impossibly fast.

"Slow down, Castle," she said, "you're gonna choke!"

"It'll be worth it!" Castle exclaimed, grinning at her before digging back into his dinner. Kate rolled her eyes and shared a look with Lanie, before going back to her own food.

X_X

Hours later, after everybody had finished eating dinner, then a delicious dessert of s'mores by the fire, Castle lay awake in his bed, wondering what Kate was doing.

She and Lanie were probably up talking about clothes and makeup and boys…wait, were they talking about him?

Castle sat up, glancing at his balcony door, before standing and walking towards it, opening up the door and listening carefully for any sign that the girls might be up. He heard nothing.

He crept down the balcony, peeking in through Kate's window and seeing both girls asleep in their beds, knocked on the window.

Kate, of course, was the first to wake, ever alert as she was, and glanced up, smiling brightly at him. He waved and then she waved and put her finger to her lips, before creeping over to him, opening the sliding door silently and slipping out.

Castle embraced her immediately, covering her mouth with his and kissing her breathless, like he'd promised to do earlier.

"Whoa," Kate breathed when he backed away. "That just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" she chuckled.

Castle grinned. He hadn't had much experience with kissing—his last girlfriend, before Kate, had been Kyra and they'd only shared tiny kisses, like twelve-year-olds do; though he hadn't even been twelve when they'd been 'dating' since she broke up with him on his birthday—but with Kate…they'd had about two weeks before they left for the cabin and in those two weeks, they'd moved with simple, chaste kisses on the lips, to slightly open mouth, and, most recently, French-kissing, which he found both disgusting and exhilarating at the same time.

He was a complicated guy.

He wondered if Kate had any more experience than him with…

No, don't think about that right now. Just kiss.

He leaned in again, recapturing her lips and wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to his body. Kate was wonderfully soft, but not in a chubby way—not that he'd really mind that—but in a way that it was obvious that she was developing curves. Not that he'd noticed…that much.

He's a teenage boy, after all.

But her curves were gorgeous to him and he didn't just pay attention to the obvious ones. He liked that her hips were getting a bit wider and that her legs were just a little more shapely—and impossibly longer. He loved that her belly was just a tiny bit round and firm—he'd seen her in swim suits and hadn't been able to stop staring until Javi hit him in the back of the head. And he loved that all her curves seemed to match all the ever-growing spaces in his body. How her head fit under his chin and his arms were able to wrap around her body, perfectly.

He loved everything about her. And he loved her.

But he couldn't tell her that—not yet. Of course she already knew that he loved her—as a friend. They'd known each other since they were six so it was foolish to think that he wouldn't at least love her like that.

But he loved her in the romantic sense, too. He'd known that since he was about nine and he saw those peanut-brains, Will Bracken and Dick Coonan, picking on her on the playground.

Immediately, he saw red and he wanted to march right up to them and kick their snide little asses, but Javier, ever Kate's pseudo-brother, beat him to it, knocking both Dick and Will to the sand and telling that that if they ever messed with her again, that he'd hold them down while Kate beat the snot out of them.

They never bothered her again. But Castle made it his duty from then on to defend her. Despite the fact that his growth spurt didn't come on until middle school, he was still strong enough to punch a guy out if they called her a name or pulled on her pigtails.

He knew that Kate was strong enough to fight her own battles—Kate herself had told him so after burying his face in the sand more than once after she found out he hit somebody trying to defend her—but he just couldn't help it.

That's when he knew he loved her.

But he didn't want to tell Kate that…not just yet. Not when he was about to go off to a different school, in a different state…

No. He'd wait. Until the right moment, even if it was more than a year from now, when he finally returned to his old school to be with her. He'd wait.

"What are you thinking about?" Kate asked. Castle blinked; he hadn't even realized they'd stopped kissing.

"Nothing," he lied. Kate called him on it and he sighed. "Alright," he said, "I was thinking…about how gorgeous you are in the moonlight." Kate rolled her eyes.

"Seriously," she said, blushing.

"I am being serious!" Castle exclaimed. "You're beautiful! Really!" Kate rolled her eyes and looked down.

"You're just saying that…"

"Would I lie to you?" Castle asked, looking seriously into her eyes. Kate shrugged. "Wrong answer," he said, "the correct answer is no; I would never lie to you, Kate." Kate smiled up at him.

"You think I'm beautiful?" she asked. "Even with my tin teeth?" She frowned, closing her mouth self-consciously.

Castle lifted her chin so that she looked into his eyes. "Always," he said, bringing her lips back to his.

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