Author's Note: I know a lot of you wanted to see this one. I hope this is what you had in mind.

3x19 – Law And Murder

"So, it starts off as..."

His eyes never leave her form as they descend to the ground floor, cross the lobby and exit the building. He walks next to her on the sidewalk, nearly bumping into more than one person because he's not watching where he's going. And maybe he should look forward instead of at the woman next to him but the way Kate is talking, so animatedly and passionately as she embraces her love for Forbidden Planet...

He already loves her but he just might be falling a little harder right now.

Because Kate Beckett is an unabashed sci-fi fan.

And she's taking him to a movie.

Despite two more attempts, he still can't convince her to stop for dinner first. But when she buys the largest size of soda, a giant tub of popcorn, and a box each of Junior Mints and Mike&Ikes, Castle decides that it really doesn't matter. Because she's bubbling with excitement and she's feeding his inner child and to be honest, she looks positively giddy right now.

She looks giddy and she's on a date with him.

Kate plops the soda cup in the cup holder on the armrest between their seats, hands him both boxes of candy, and rests the popcorn bucket on her lap. Castle smiles to himself as he settles in next to her, sets the candy aside for now and reaches his hand out for some popcorn.

The first time, she's paying attention, waits until his hand is out of the way before grabbing her own handful.

The second time, she's silencing her phone while absently reaching for more popcorn and their hands brush, her fingers against his. Castle startles, drops half of the popcorn back into the tub, and Kate smirks to herself but says nothing.

After all, with the way her heart is racing, she really has no room to talk.

She slips her phone back into her coat pocket, leans back against the theater seat and takes a lazy drink of soda. Castle swallows another bite of popcorn, reaches for his own soda before realizing that he doesn't have one.

Hmmm...

He's not going to make it through half a bucket of popcorn and a movie without at least a cup of water.

"I'm gonna...go get something to drink," he explains as he half-stands, motions towards the lobby.

"You can just," she reaches for her own giant soda, "here."

Castle freezes, hesitates. It's not that he's averse to it per se. He just...didn't think they were quite at that stage yet.

She takes another sip while he debates with himself, extends her arm again as he sits back down, completely unsure. But he's not exactly going to turn down her offer, not when she's gone to all the trouble to take him on a date in the first place. And not when she's willingly sharing her soda with him.

"Just drink it, Castle. I don't have cooties," Kate teases, waggling the cup at him, and this time he takes it from her, slowly lifts it to his mouth.

He takes a tentative swallow, catches her smirking at his hesitance, but she was just drinking from the straw that's currently in his mouth and the way her lips were wrapped around it and just...

Kate rolls her eyes, returns her attention to the popcorn, because amusing though it is that Richard Castle is being scared off by the prospect of sharing a soda with her, she has a feeling that if she keeps watching him he's never going to actually take a drink.

From the corner of her eye she sees him give in, take a giant swig of Sprite before returning the cup to the holder.

"Better?" she asks without lifting her head.

He shrugs, aiming for unaffected. "Sure, uh, thanks."

Kate rolls her eyes, shakes her head affectionately.

Nervous Castle is completely adorable.

Halfway through the movie, Kate catches Castle's eyes fixed on her and yeah, maybe she's kind of having fun teasing him, her tongue peeking out from between her lips as she pops a junior mint into her mouth. He's just so easy.

But she wants him to watch the movie because she's pretty sure he'll love it, so she tones it down a bit, relaxes into the oversized chair and fixes her eyes on the screen once again.

Five minutes later he's still staring at her.

"Watch the movie," she whispers, nudges his arm with her elbow.

He jerks his eyes back to the screen, forces himself to focus.

He lasts three minutes before his eyes are back on her, gaze glued to her mouth as she captures another candy with her lips, works it around with her tongue and he's pretty sure she knows exactly what she's doing to him but he's not really complaining. And it's not like he hasn't seen the movie a gazillion times.

She glances at him, the brightness of the screen reflecting in her eyes, and smiles softly. The same excitement that's been there since she first invited him along still lights up her face and Castle takes that as his cue to tear his focus away from her and back to the movie.

That's why they're here, after all. She invited him because she wanted him to watch the movie.

But it's so difficult to focus. Kate is absolutely gorgeous today, an openness in her every action that's not usually there, and he wants to savor it. Her smiles, her laughs, her enthusiasm, the way she's taken the lead and reeled him in even more than he already was.

He just...

God, he loves her. So much.

She nudges him again, nods to the screen to indicate that something good is coming up and he already knows and he likes this part too but it's so much more interesting to watch her reactions.

Truthfully, she doesn't seem to mind all that much.

"So what'd you think?" she asks curiously as the credits begin to roll across the screen.

The lights in the theater flicker back to life and Kate reaches for her jacket, stands and slides her arms into the sleeves in one fluid motion.

"I, uh, I liked it," Castle answers, busying himself with the buttons on his coat.

"Oh, you mean the twenty minutes of it that you actually watched?" she teases, collecting their leftover food containers before following him out of the theater.

"Hey now, I knew exactly what was going on," he protests. It's not untrue.

Kate throws an eye roll over her shoulder, stopping to discard their garbage and then extracting her phone from her pocket.

"How late is it?" Castle asks, peering over her shoulder, and he can't help but notice that there's not a single text or voicemail from Josh.

"Just after ten," she replies, pockets her phone again. "Come on," she nods toward the door, "I'll drive you home."

He can't help but smile because more time with Kate could never possibly be a bad thing. Especially tonight, because she's spent the last three hours giving a whole new meaning to the phrase 'sexy as hell' and he's not ready for that to end just yet.

Not that he's ever really ready for their time spent together to come to an end.

But tonight has already been orders of magnitude better than he planned when he woke this morning and though he's slightly saddened by the fact that he can't kiss her good night, he has three hours' worth of new memories and the feeling of her hand on his arm as she tugs him towards the exit and out into the night.

"So you liked the movie?" Kate asks as she pulls out into traffic, and she sounds almost nervous, as though his answer means a lot to her.

(It does.)

His eyes are fixed on her like always, mesmerized by the way the city lights cast a shadowy glow across her features.

"Yeah, I did," he answers easily, because maybe he didn't really watch much of it tonight but he loves Forbidden Planet and now that she took him to see it he loves it even more.

She nods to herself and they fall into silence for the remainder of the drive, his eyes on her and hers on the road. Only once she pulls up to the curb outside his place does he speak again.

"Thanks for inviting me tonight," he says softly, voice low and intimate, and she forces herself to meet his eyes despite the heat that's staining her cheeks. "I had a really good time."

She smiles shyly, brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm glad."

It's too polite, too stilted, because this is totally a date even though they're both currently pretending it isn't and dammit, he just wants to kiss her.

Instead he opts for resting a hand on her arm and leaning in close, and the shiver that races through her has nothing to do with his touch or his breath on her cheek or the deep tones of his voice so close to her ear.

"Good night, Kate."

By the time she manages to formulate an answer, he's already halfway across the sidewalk.

A year and a half later, she stumbles across his VHS copy of Forbidden Planet. The box is old and worn, the edges bent as though it's been watched on numerous occasions.

When she brings it to his attention he admits that yes, he has seen it. Multiple times. And the only reason he pretended not to have seen it was so he could go with her that night.

She wants to be annoyed but she honestly finds it adorable.

She swallows his apology with a kiss and indulges his desire to watch it again. They share a giant bowl of popcorn and a bottle of wine. Castle actually watches the movie this time. Mostly. Though Kate distracts him every few minutes as she tilts her head to press kisses to his cheek, his jaw, his lips.

Because she can.

Because this time, it is a date.

Thoughts?