Hi there!
Prompt from TessHardingfan: Kate comes home from work to find the loft a war zone and has to line up her kids to give them a good chewing out... her husband included.
Note! I don't always do prompt requests in order so all requests will be up eventually.
Enjoy!
Kate walked down the hall of the building, her head pounding. She had went into work early, her paperwork a literal giant on her desk. Being Captain was all paperwork all the time. So much so that she had to go in early most days before Castle even got out of bed. He usually showed up later, though, and helped with whatever case he could. But not this day. It had started snowing early in the morning. She was already at the precinct when the snow started sticking and it was 7:30 when they called off school. So that meant that Castle wouldn't be at the precinct with her that day. He would have to stay in the loft and hang out with the kids all day; his life was so hard. So Kate had to go about her entire day alone which was not her favorite. Neither was winter, but that's a different story. Her day had been long and her patience short. All she wanted was to lay on the couch and drink a glass of wine in front of the fire.
She knew the moment she opened the door that that fantasy would never become a reality.
"You have got to be kidding me." She rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath. Before her was her loft, but not the quiet, organized, upscale loft that she normally walked into. No, this was laser tag, pillow fort, that better not be food, war zone. The lights stayed on in the kitchen, the ones in the living room and office were off. All the blinds were pulled tight. She swore she heard a blender going off somewhere in the house.
She took two long steps into the room, her heels clicking once, twice. Her mouth stood agape as she mechanically placed her keys in the dish and laid her bag near the closet. She kept the heels, though, she would need them.
She stole another step into the space, her facial expression not changing. "Oh that better not be jelly on my walls."
She could hear squealing from upstairs and pounding in her bedroom as the 'pews' from Rick's laser tag guns rang out. Before another sound found her ears, Kate made the call.
"Castle! Hayden! Harper! Blaine! Living room, now!" She rattled the names off of all three children and her husband; so technically all four. She rarely yelled, but there was enough edge in her voice that they would know she was serious.
All of a sudden, the loft fell silent. There was not one peep coming from any corner. No pews, no blender, not even a breath. The space stood still for a moment longer before she heard movement again.
"You said she wouldn't be home until six." Kate heard the voice of her oldest, Hayden, whisper from her bedroom.
"Shh!" Castle whispered back.
Slowly, her twins, Harper and Blaine tip toed slowly down the steps, their heads down. She gave them the look; her eyes narrow, one eyebrow raised. She folded her arms in front of her chest, standing tall, feet planted.
Both kids stood in front of her, eyes wide.
"No, you have to, too! Dad!" Hayden whispered again, shuffling feet accompanying him.
A moment later, a pair of arms shoved him into the open living room. He stumbled forward then regained his balance. The ten year old walked forward slowly, his arms behind his back. He lined up next to his brother and sister who didn't dare turn around to watch the debacle.
"Castle." Kate's voice rang out throughout the loft. She only had to wait a moment before her husband popped his head out from around the corner.
He took a step forward, his arms out. "I can explain."
"Uh uh. Here. Now." She pointed next to Blaine who still hadn't moved an inch. Harper played with a lock of her hair, her eyes down. Hayden still had his arms behind his back, his shoes seeming very interesting.
Castle slumped over to the line, his shoulders hunched forward just a bit.
"Okay, well now that I have all of you here, we're going to talk about why my house, that was perfectly clean when I left this morning, now looks like a bomb went off." She walked back over to the wall that had purple splats on it. "Now who wants to tell me why there's, what I hope is jelly, on my wall?"
Hayden raised his hand. "It was for the smoothie challenge during the obstacle course so we stayed hydrated."
Kate broke eye contact and stared at the wall behind her, blinking once. Then she looked at Castle, her expression blank. "Okay, explain."
He started quickly, talking with his hands. "Okay, well you see, we created an obstacle course. You start here, in the living room. There's two people on a team, obviously." He walked over to the skeleton of the couch, all of the cushions stacked meticulously. "Two people go through the cushion maze and then you run over to the kitchen to the string maze."
"Well I hadn't seen that when I walked in." Kate rolled her eyes again.
Castle smiled, "Cool, huh?"
"No."
"Okay, right, sorry, moving on. Then you run up the stairs to Blaine and Hayden's room. You make a gross smoothie for the other person to drink. That's the smoothie challenge. You drink it, and then you run to Harper's room. There you play hamper ball. You have to get five shots in the hamper before you run back downstairs and into the office."
She stopped him before he continued. Kate pointed at the wall again. "So how did this get down here?"
"I couldn't tell you. We get competitive." His eyes were wide, just as confused as she was.
She shook her head, still trying to figure out what exactly the goal of destroying her loft was. "Okay, so why are you playing laser tag in my bedroom?"
Harper piped up, then. "That's the last part of the obstacle course. The other two people play laser tag after their partner comes to the office. Whoever gets there first gets free shots and then when the other person gets there it's the real game. Whoever gets fifty points first wins."
Kate rubbed her forehead, her eyes closed.
"We were in the middle of our third game!" Blaine told her. "Best three out of five!"
"Blaine! Shh!" Castle hissed through clenched teeth, dragging a flat hand across his throat.
"Oh, right. I mean we just started." The little boy lied, terribly.
Kate walked back and forth across the line, her arms now behind her back. "So if I go and open that fridge, there's going to be food in it? And if I go upstairs, there's not going to be smoothie splatter everywhere? And if I go into Harper's room, there's not going to be clothes everywhere? And one more, if I go into the bedroom, my bed is going to be made? Correct?"
Each kid glanced at the other and then shook their heads in unison, not exactly sure how to respond. "Probably if you ask again in, like ten minutes, you'll be correct." Hayden spoke out, his words carefully chosen.
"Hmm, okay, ten minutes. Cool." She stood still, scanning the room once more. "Hayden, you can go make the bed." She pointed towards the office.
He shrugged his shoulders and nodded his understanding.
"Blaine, you get to fix the couch and take down the maze in the kitchen."
He nodded as well.
"Harper, you can make sure your clothes are picked up."
"Okay, mommy." Kate's clone gave one, swift nod.
"Alright," Kate clapped her hands three times. "Get to work, troops." As her kids scurried off to put the loft back together, Kate turned to Rick who started to make off towards the kitchen. "Nope, not so fast." She stood in front of him, a hand on his chest. "You get the best job of all." She got dangerously close to him, her mouth just inches from his.
"You bet I do." Castle chirped.
Just as they were about to kiss, Kate stood back, a rag in her hand. "You get to clean up your marvelous smoothie challenge in the boy's room. Starting with my wall." She shoved the rag at him and raised her eyebrows up and down before making her way to the wine fridge.
"I deserved that." Castle argued, walking over to the wall.
Kate poured herself a glass of white wine and stood at the counter. Blaine came over from the living room, getting ready to untie all of the string. "Dad's going to be cleaning for a while." He giggled and then continued on.
Kate palmed the back of his head as he walked by, a grin on her face. She could already hear the other two getting done with their chores and coming back to where she was.
Rick was just starting to walk up the stairs to get the blender and clean up the food as his wife sat on the couch.
"Don't miss a spot." Kate looked at him and winked, a smirk on her face.
"Yeah, yeah." He waved the rag at her and proceeded to the top floor.
She moved over to the couch, the fire already burning. Hayden walked out of her room and Harper hopped down the steps. All three came and sat around her; Hayden in the chair next to her, Blaine sprawled out on the loveseat, and Harper snuggled into Kate's side. It wasn't exactly what she had expected to happen when she got home, but this was okay too.
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