Castle raised his eyebrows at her. He remembered the last time she drove his car. It might've been sexy, but she had driven like a bat out of hell and right now was the lunch rush hour. It was amusing though, since she was usually a boring driver and a stickler about rules in her crown vic. He didn't imagine she'd let him be the one to drive, either.

"I have a better idea," he suggested easily, holding his elbow out to her. "Do you want to walk?"

Kate smiled coyly. Castle was trying to be smooth. She supposed she would have to let him get away with it since she had been teasing him so much. "Yea okay," she accepted and placed her arm in the crook of his elbow.

They walked almost ten blocks before Kate's stomach growled up at her They had already passed by two Italian restaurants and a Chinese buffet, with all of the smells wafting out to her. Looking around, she noticed that they weren't headed toward any pizza joints she was familiar with. Honestly, she couldn't care less if it was pizza they were eating anymore as long as she got some food.

"Where are we going, Castle? Are we almost there?" she asked. She was getting a little bit impatient.

Castle just smirked in her direction. "We're almost there I promise. Don't worry you'll love this place, it'll be worth it."

Kate took his word for it, because he looked a little excited. Exactly what kind of restaurant could he be taking her to? Sometimes the food he liked was just a little bit too "out there" for her. But when he stopped in front of a place with a line all the way out the door and he walked straight to the front, she knew it would be something interesting.

"What is this place?" she asked him when curiosity got the best of her.

Castle's smirk got a little bit bigger and he leaned in a little closer to her so she could hear him. With the crowd around them it was starting to get a little bit loud. "Do you remember the pizza place from Gathering Storm?" When Kate nodded he continued. "Well this is it."

When Castle got them in and sitting at a table near the middle of the restaurant, Kate looked all around her. There were round tables with red and white checkered tablecloths, and booths against the far wall. The walls were covered in Italian paintings and cooking paraphernalia, and the place was full of excited waiters and good smells. The kitchen was open for all to see and the pizza was cooked in old-fashioned pizza ovens up high on the wall. Standing in the kitchen were three Italian men with tall chef hats, making a show of preparing the food. They were throwing pizza dough up in the air to stretch them and juggling them between the three.

Kate remembered reading about this place in Gathering Storm, but she had no idea it was a real place. It was so much cooler, actually being there. She remembered that you could build your own pizza, choosing from all the sauces, toppings, and cheeses that you wanted. She could hardly wait to check out the menu. How did Castle find places like this?

A young waiter came over to give them some menus and get their drink orders. They both just ordered Pepsi's and went ahead to look at the menus. By the time the waiter came back, the two had decided on sharing a large pizza and each deciding on toppings for half. However, it would take a good twenty minutes before their food would arrive and Kate was hungry now, and her stomach grumbled loud enough for Castle to hear this time.

He smiled over to her. "You know what to do," he said. She had almost forgotten about this part.

Kate gave in after a moment and shouted, "Bread!" loud enough to hear over the chatter and excitement about the place. A waiter carrying around a bread basket stopped to toss her a breadstick from halfway across the room that she caught with both hands. Now she looked around, but nobody seemed to be paying that much attention. Apparently this was normal. Kate just shrugged and dug into her bread, but stopped mid-bite when she noticed Castle watching her.

"What?"

"Oh nothing," he said and met her eyes. "This just isn't the day I was expecting."

"Yea I'll agree with you there. It's been a pretty interesting day. I can't wait to get back and get started with actually writing something," Kate shared with some amusement in her voice.

"Oh I know, I'm glad you're liking it. Let me know when you're ready to admit that writing is difficult."

"Ha, yea that'll happen. Now that I know what I want to do this is going to be easy stuff," she said with a sly grin plastered on her face. He was just too easy. "As a matter of fact we should eat fast so I don't lose my idea. I know just how I want to start it."

That put a bit of a pout on Castle's face. He had brought her here hoping that she would be impressed and enjoy herself. "Come on, you won't forget. Your memory is like a vault, and if you're that worried you could just tell me about it and I won't forget," he suggested, waggling his eyebrows even though he was completely aware that she wouldn't share her top secret idea with him. "I thought taking you out to lunch would be a good break. Let's just relax and have a little bit of fun."

Castle waited for Kate to make some kind of remark about keeping her idea secret, but her eyebrows scrunched up a little in thought. "I want to get started, though. We can have fun later," she told him.

"What? At least relax a little bit, it's your day off. I took you out for a reason; you could really use the break."

Well that wasn't expected. Kate didn't need him to get her to take a break, this had already been a fun day off so far already. It's not exactly like sitting around at the loft making stuff up had been real work.

"Well if it's such a big deal, don't worry about it, I can take care of my own lunch. I'm perfectly capable of relaxing when I need to," she huffed out on a breath.

"Oh don't be ridiculous. I brought you here, I can take care of it," he said incredulously.

"No, I'll get it. Don't worry about it, it's not like it's a date, Castle!"

Castle's jaw dropped a little bit. Why did she have to be so difficult? He hadn't even hinted that it was a date, even though he had tried to impress her today by bringing her to one of his favorite places. He was hoping it suited her more than some expensive, fancy restaurant.

"Well yea! I just thought I could get it anyway. Besides, this place will be a little bit expensive."

Now Kate's jaw dropped. Had he really just gone there? "Just because I don't make a fortune, Castle, doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. I'm perfectly capa—"

Then Kate was cut off by a high pitched, excited shout on her right side. "Is that Richard Castle?"

Hey guys! I'm so sorry that I waited so long for an update. As it turns out my mom dragged me to visit my cousins for like a week and I didn't get to bring Gladys (my laptop) with me. I just got back this morning.

As for this chapter, I hope you guys like it. The restaurant is based off of a place near where I live, so it's not something they have in New York or something that was actually in Gathering Storm. It's such a great place though. I also figured an argument was something that had to come eventually between the two, but it'll all work out in the end.

As long as I don't get dragged out of the state for a week with no technology and civilization again, I'll be updating soon. It's not likely that I will.