Note: None of these characters are mine

Sunscreen Art

"Castle. Castle, wake up." Castle twitched in his sleep as a little gust of warm air brushed over his ear. "Castle, wake up. We have things to do." Castle pushed a hand out, trying to fend off the annoying force shaking his shoulder. When his hand collided with something that felt suspiciously like soft skin, his eyes popped open.

Kate was lying next to him, still snuggled into the cocoon of blankets and pillows he'd constructed for her the night before. She had, however, managed to extricate one arm, which she was now using to pester the living daylights out of him.

"Go back to sleep, Beckett," Castle mumbled, trying to roll out of her reach. "Lanie told me to make you sleep for at least ten hours."

"It's been ten hours. Eleven, actually. I'm bored, Castle. Let's go to the beach." This woke Castle up far more effectively than the shoulder shaking.

"The beach? Are you serious?" Castle stared at her incredulously. "I'm not even supposed to let you out of this apartment! Lanie will shoot me!" He rolled away from her, muttering to himself, "The beach. As if."

Just as he'd started to drift back to sleep, his unexpectedly annoying bed partner struck again, this time drifting her toes along the bottoms of his feet, making his legs twitch violently.

"Beckett!" Castle rolled quickly to face her, trapping her feet between his shins, effectively preventing further torture.

Beckett smiled, having accomplished mission #1 of the morning. Castle was now wide awake and hopefully too wound up to slip back into sleep. Now for mission #2…

"Castle. Rick. I've been inside for weeks. First the hospital, now my apartment. I miss the sun! It's the first beautiful day of the summer. Don't make me miss it! Please? I need to feel human again! I look like a ghost. Trapped in this apartment, I feel like a ghost! Please, let's go to the beach." Castle listened as she rambled on imploringly. As she talked faster and faster, her breath turned to pants, providing Castle a painful reminder of why she was stuck in this apartment arguing with him instead of driving herself to the beach.

He knew he should say no. Lanie truly would shoot him for even considering it. But he'd learned long ago that he can't deny Kate anything. And gosh she was cute…

"Fine. One hour, and you stay in the shade."

"Two hours and thirty minutes in the sun, and I'll tell Lanie we played scrabble all day."

Castle opened his mouth to refuse, but Kate cut him off.

"Castle, I need this. Let's go have fun. Well, as much fun as you can have with limited mobility and a chest wound." He gave a half hearted smile at her self-deprecating humor, but she saw the all too familiar worry take up residence in his eyes. "Castle, I haven't seen you smile for real in ages. I haven't heard a single inappropriate comment. Not a single juvenile prank. Nothing! You have me here, at your mercy, asking you to let me put on my red bikini and head to the beach with you, and you're going to say no? Who are you and what have you done with my Castle?"

At her honest and somewhat indignant rant, he really did smile. He loved her best when she was stubborn. If she wanted to push herself a little and get out of the apartment, he'd let her push a little. And if she wanted childish pranks, he'd give her childish pranks. And if she wanted to wear a red bikini, he'd certainly let her.

"Alright, you win." Castle crawled out of bed and walked around to her side to untangle the mess of blankets she was buried in. He offered her his hands and hauled her up, careful not to jostle her.

"Can you get into that bikini by yourself, or will you need some help?" He added a wink and a bit of an eyebrow dance for added effect.

Kate laughed out loud, relieved to see a hint of the Castle she knew and (yes, yes, it's true) loved. When she winced at the pain the laugh caused her, he was thankfully already out of the room, shouting something over his shoulder about packing cold soup and pizza.

Two hours later, they arrived at the beach, and with some cajoling, Castle had managed to convince Kate to let him carry her over the unstable sand. He plopped her down on a beach towel and began to assemble an umbrella.

"Not so fast, Castle. I believe the warden has granted me thirty minutes of sunshine."

"Fine," reaching into the beach bag, he whipped out a large bottle of sunscreen, "but safety first!"

"SPF 75? Where did you even find that? And I thought we were here to make me look slightly less ghosty."

"A tan was not in our terms of agreement. Stop arguing or I'll revoke your sun privileges."

Grumbling good-naturedly, Kate propped herself up on her uninjured side. To her surprise, she discovered that Rick Castle was not your ordinary sunscreen applier. He was a highly talented sunscreen masseuse! Under the slow smooth movements of his fingers, Kate drifted off to sleep.

"Hey girl! Long time no see. How's my favorite patient?" Lanie wandered into Kate's apartment, having just arrived from the airport from her vacation.

"Oh, hey Lanie." Kate gave an uncomfortable little laugh. "You've got great timing. I appear to have gotten myself into a bit of a predicament."

Lanie turned the corner into the bedroom and froze, staring at Kate's bare back. "Oh. My. God. What did you do?"

"Ha, I know, I'm only supposed to wear button down shirts, but the AC turned on and I wanted something a warmer. I've gotten a little stuck though. Guess I still don't have the range of motion to get my arms into these sleeves… Lanie?" Kate turned to look at Lanie who was staring at her like she had three heads. Slowly, a smile started to work its way across Lanie's face, leaving her grinning.

"Girl, I've got to show you something." Lanie helped Kate stand up from the bed, and walked her over to the closet door so she could stand with her back to the full length mirror. She grabbed a small hand mirror from the bathroom and held it up for Kate.

"I'm going to kill him." It was all Kate could say. There were no words. Well, there were words. That was the problem. Written in tanned skin on the canvas of her pale back, encased in a tanned heart, was:

R+K Forever

By this point, Lanie was hysterical. "Honey, were you aware that you're in love with a ten-year-old? How did he even manage that?"

"Crap." Kate strained a little, trying to see more of her back in the mirror. "This is what happens when you let Rick Castle put your sunscreen on your back for you. I should have known better. Sunscreen art, for goodness sakes!"

Lanie's laughter had stopped abruptly. Kate looked up at her, finding Lanie standing with one hand on her hip, extremely annoyed. "Girl, you want to explain to me why you were in need of sunscreen?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders guiltily, cursing her slip of the tongue. "Scrabble can be an extremely sunny game? Safety first, right?"

Thanks for reading!