Knight Rider Alpha…..Online.
My Prompt: Inked (S4 - ignores cemetery declarations and 47 seconds)
Disclaimer: All respective characters and themes belong to their respective owners, Andrew Marlowe and ABC Studios.
Usually, the fourth floor of the NYPD 12th precinct was normally a hive of activity, but not today it seemed the murderers of New York City were having a slow day. From her desk, Detective Kate Beckett was mulling over an updated incident report before she gave up and grabbed her blue mug and stomped towards the break room.
Her partners Ryan and Esposito were sort of in the same boat updating paperwork and sorting through files, that is when they weren't playing paper football hoping she wasn't looking. She didn't mind of course because they would continue to play, even if she said something just to rile her up.
They were both like annoying little brothers in that respect.
Talk about annoying she wondered where her shadow could be, he was usually in his seat beside her desk staring or just talking about anything trying to distract her. She learnt long ago he wouldn't just leave alone because she told him to, but if she was being honest with herself she liked that he distracted her on slow no cases days. She had tried to come to terms with her feelings on numerous occasions, trying to accept that she was falling for him, confirming in her mind that she was madly in love with him.
With a whoosh of steam, fresh coffee flowed into her blue ceramic mug, adding freshly steamed milk and vanilla favouring her drink was done. As her phone buzzed she became distracted staring at the screen as she stepped back into the bullpen and she failed to notice the arrival of her partner, that was until she walked right into him.
About half her mug sloshed over the rim and right into Castle's shirt and jacket covering his chest, as the hot liquid covered his clothing Castle stepped back groaning.
"Oooh that's gonna leave a mark" cried the writer, clearly in some discomfort. "This is karma from that time two years ago right"
"Oh my God, Castle!" said Beckett horrified. "I'm so sorry.."
"No, no Beckett, it's fine," said Castle trying to calm the panicking detective down "I have some spare clothes in the gym downstairs, so I'll go and change," he said before he quickly descended the back staircase heading to the precinct gym.
Beckett still chastising herself walked back into the break and threw her remaining coffee down the sink, she still felt like she need to apologise far more than she already had, so she quickly followed Castle's path down towards the gym.
As she approached the door and stepped through she was soon stopped dead in her tracks, she blinked rapidly in astonishment at a topless Richard Castle.
Who for the lack of a better word was ripped, with bulging and defined pectoral muscles that sloped down to a perfect set of six-pack abs, his waist tapered to a V-shape descended below his slacks that sat low on his hips. His arms were sculpted with huge biceps and defined forearms, his deltoids formed perfect circles and were attached to defined trapezius muscles to his neck, and his back was a mixture of defined and shifting muscles that moved beneath his skin.
This sight alone would have been enough to turn any heterosexual woman into a pool of mush, but the other surprising thing about Castle was the series of brightly coloured tattoos that covered his body.
His right arm sleeve contained twin koi carp and Chrysanthemum flowers surrounded by water on the forearm. His bicep saw a Chinese-style dragon coiled and climbing up to his shoulder the remaining space was filled with peony roses, wind swirls, and waves on the inside of his bicep was a grinning Hannya mask with a katana in its mouth.
His left arm saw a large Asian-style tiger climbing up to the shoulder, surrounded by water and set in a bamboo forest, his forearms saw a winged Phoenix wreathed in flames, and the remaining spaces were filled with lotus flowers, swirls and waves. The inside of his bicep held the traditional 'Kanji' symbols for love and courage.
His back was covered by a masked and red armoured samurai, with its katana blade drawn and stood in front of a Japanese temple surrounded by flowers and cherry blossoms.
He turned to face Beckett where she saw another tattoo on his chest above his heart amusingly was a small pumpkin with a date and a roman numeral clock showing a time of four ten am linked with a chain, her detective skills connecting that to Alxeis' birth.
On the right side of his chest were an open book, ink well and quill and the words quoted 'Nevermore' from the timeless poem 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe a nod to his literal middle namesake and his writing.
Still, in a state of stupefaction she didn't notice Castle finally register her presence, the writer merely smirked in her direction as she tried to regain some semblance of normality.
"Hey! Beckett," said Castle amusement lacing his words. "If you wanted to see me topless all you had to do was ask"
"Castle! What the hell! You have tattoos" said Beckett waving her hand at him. "Also why do you look like you've stepped off a 'Men's Fitness' cover"
"Well the arms and back ones are from a misspent youth, love of samurai movies and because they look cool" chuckled the writer. "The chest ones are for my loves Alexis and my writing"
"Alright, so your..." sputtered Beckett indicating to his musculature trying to keep the blush off her face.
"I was bullied a lot in school because I was for the lack of a better word 'heavy', so when I left I hit the gym and took up kickboxing" explained Castle as he pulled on a new black shirt from his bag "I mean last summer I even joined one of those Muey Thay Kickboxing camps in Thailand"
"Seriously!" exclaimed Beckett smiling.
She knew those camps were harsh and gruelling, but her smile then faltered when she realized the summer he was referring to was when she was recuperating from her bullet wound at her father's cabin.
"Yep! I've never been in more pain in my life" said Castle grimly as he buttoned up his shirt and tucked the bottom into his slacks "But it was a dream I can check off my bucket list"
Beckett was completely lost for words because she'd learnt more about her partner in the last few minutes than she had in the last three years, to think he looked that good under those tailored suits, the tattoos which strangely suited him and the fact he could kickbox, now knowing he could fight maybe they could test it out with a spar sometime.
"Well Castle," said Beckett with a smile "I am pleased to know this about you and I am sorry for spilling hot coffee down you".
"That's ok Beckett," said Castle smiling now fully dressed as he closed the locker door "but if you want to get my clothes off I can think of easier ways"
Beckett folded her arms and chewed on her bottom lip "Easy Castle, don't tempt me" she said eyeing him.
"Oh but it's so much fun tempting you Beckett" whined Castle.
"In your dreams writer-boy"
Castle smirked before he stepped closer to his partner and leaned down seductively to her ear. "It's writer-man detective...writer-man" he whispered.
She shivered at his actions before he stepped away and excited the gym, leaving a flustered Kate Beckett in his wake.
Today had been eye-opening but it revealed yet another layer of the Castle onion, but she would enjoy punishing him with a spar soon. So taking a few minutes to regain her composure she left the gym and headed back upstairs, where she found her partner sitting in his chair with a coffee, ever the considerate man Castle had even made a fresh cup for her.
"Thanks, Castle," said Beckett falling into her seat and reaching for her mug.
"Anytime Beckett" he replied smiling.
The day passed without a body dropping, so the detectives and writer departed for the day. Castle pulled out his phone as climbed into a cab and headed to Hell's Kitchen. In the now-upmarket neighbourhood was 'Renji's Ink' the only tattoo studio Castle had ever visited, run by Renji Ichigawa a second-generation Japanese-American and award-winning tattoo artist who specialized in Japanese traditional tattoo art known as 'Irezumi'.
As Castle entered the store he was escorted through to Renji's studio and took a seat, the writer passed his phone to the middle-aged ink artist, who was already set up. So Castle once again removed his shirt and laid down on the table on his right side and lifted his left arm to expose his ribs.
As Renji removed the stencil and lifted his needle gun after dipping it in black ink, he pressed it to the writer's skin, as he slowly moved along the stencilled lines. Thirty minutes later the artist was done and with a smile, handshake and payment Castle departed climbing back into the cab and heading home.
Another month passed before Beckett saw he had another tattoo, when she asked what the new Kanji symbol meant, the response he gave melted her heart.
"Always"
It was another month before he found her tattoo when she arrived soaking wet, at his door in the middle of the night after nearly dying hanging from a rooftop chasing her shooter. The ink on her hip is a silhouette of a small bird and surprisingly two kanji symbols meaning.
'Truth' and 'Justice'.
I love the 'Irezumi" style tattoos and I have a sleeve myself so this was fun to write.
Knight Rider Alpha...offline