Castle's gaze stayed on Kate as he leaned over and reached down to pick up the scattered cards. "What? … Um yea. A romance?" he sputtered out. After a moment he snapped himself out of it and spoke more confidently. "I guess I just pinned you for a mystery girl, for obvious reasons."

"Well yea," Kate said giving him a small smile. He had pinpointed her correctly. "But I investigate murders for a living and read about it all the time. It's my day off. What better way to get my mind off of all that?" she lied. She lived and breathed for murder, mystery and mayhem. It was almost all she thought about. In fact, reading a good mystery was the most often way she did spend her days off. She couldn't tell him that she had no idea how to write one, though.

A romance would be good, too. Kate Beckett was a hopeless romantic. It would be so much easier to come up with a story with all of the fantasies she conjured up in her head when she actually took in the people of New York City. Even when she just walked through the park on a weekend, she could a woman snapping a photo and laughing while a man ran around with a little girl perched up on his shoulders, an old couple sitting on a bench and holding hands, a nervous teenager buying an ice cream cone for him and his girlfriend that smiled at him coyly.

"That makes sense," he said bringing her out of her thoughts. "Do you know what it's going to be about then?"

"Yea. Yea I think I do," she said turning to a fresh page in the notebook Castle had handed to her earlier. Ideas were now running through her like crazy, but there was a specific one that latched on. Even thinking about it brought a slight blush to her cheeks and she turned her face down so he wouldn't notice.

Just as she brought the tip of her pen to the page, she heard an expectant, "Well?" from Castle in his seat.

"Well what?" she asked looking back up at him again.

"Weeelll … whats your idea?"

"I'm not going to tell you. You have to wait until it's finished just like Ryan and Espo do," she said matter-of-factly, even though she was internally relishing the fact that she was driving him crazy. This could be fun.

"Oh come on," Castle pouted and gave her the best pleading look he could come up with. When she just shook her head and finally began writing something he just slumped back into his seat. "Well this sucks."

….

After Kate had spent a while writing down character traits, settings and ideas for scenes that popped into her head she stopped her pen. She was a little excited to get started on her story and knew just how she was going to open it up, but she didn't know if he wanted her to write the whole story in the notebook or what. She shot a glance over at him to find him staring at her. How long had he been doing that?

"Can I help you?" Kate asked him a bit sarcastically. She'd caught him watching her way too many times today. What was so interesting about her sitting and writing in a notebook?

"Me? No," he replied returning to the latest James Patterson book that was now in his hands. When she didn't stop looking at him, he slid the book back down to give her his attention. "What's up?"

"I'm ready to start writing," she told him with a bit of enthusiasm in her voice. "Do you want me to just write it all in the notebook? I didn't bring anything to type with."

"You could do that if you want to. I have a computer and a couple of typewriters, too," he explained. "But why don't we take a break for a while. We've been in here all morning. I'm bored."

"I have the perfect idea, though!" she practically whined, staying put in her seat when Castle got up and walked over to her.

Castle laughed at her and held out his hand, "No, come on. It's break time. If you're ready to start writing already, then you're already ahead of your deadline. Let me take you to lunch."

At the mention of lunch, Kate suddenly felt her stomach protest at how empty it was. She had been so engrossed in her story that she hadn't even noticed how hungry she'd gotten. It was like when she was working a case sometimes, and she could sit and stare at her murder board for hours just throwing ideas around in her head, wondering where to start next. It was then that she came to the realization that even though they were two totally different things, Castle was right. Writing took more critical thinking than she had thought. She wouldn't tell him that just yet, though.

"You don't have to take me to lunch. We can just make something here," she said, giving in and taking his hand so he could lift her up out of her seat. He did it fast and with so much ease that she had to stand straight for a second to catch her balance. When she was good, she let go of his hand and her own went down to adjust her shirt.

"I actually just wanted to get out of her for a little bit and get some fresh air. Besides, there's nothing to eat here right now anyway. We can go get some pizza or something," Castle suggested.

Oh god, pizza sounded delicious. "Yea okay," Kate decided. "That sounds good."

She walked into the living room to find her shoes next to the couch where she had left them. Sitting back down again to put them on, she watched Castle walk out of his bedroom door to see that he had changed his clothes. She smiled and supposed that sweatpants wasn't exactly the right outfit to go out into the city. Now he was wearing a pair of jeans and a fresh t-shirt with some sort of circle and Chinese writing on the front. She pondered what it could mean while he made his way over to the closet to get his own shoes.

Kate walked over to the door once Castle had slipped his shoes on, grabbing her phone off the couch on the way. She didn't grab her sweater though, because the day would've warmed up enough by now to not need it. They headed down in the elevator silently and walked out the door. It was then that she remembered she had driven her motorcycle that morning.

"I think we're going to have to get a cab," she said simply looking down at her bike.

He followed her gaze and his face lit up. "What? No this is awesome, you should give me a ride."

Kate looked at her bike, up to Castle's excited face, and then back down to her bike again. She had a small urge to give in. "I don't have a second helmet for you. Maybe some other time."

Castle just shrugged and didn't seem too disappointed. She figured he was taking a mental note to invest in a helmet sometime soon so he could coax her into it. Thinking about giving him a ride on her motorcycle made her stomach flip, and she internally smiled when she pictured him wearing a silly helmet and trying to hang on.

"We could take your car," she suggested, getting her head off the subject. She really had no focus today, all of this romance stuff was making her sappy.

Welp, there you have it. Okay, this chapter was a bit less eventful. At least I feel like it is. There will be more fun to come, though. I have a lot of things I want to happen all planned out in my head, getting them all down is just the thing. I can still hardly focus on anything Castle related without freaking out over the last episode some more.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, favorites, and alerts and things. It really makes my day. I'll probably be posting another chapter up tomorrow.