MILE THREE:

She has settled into a rhythm when they passed mile marker two, and their pace was good. The clock read 27:30, and she did the calculation: they started 9 minutes after the gun went off, so 18:30, divided by two. A brisk pace for Castle's first half marathon, their pace was 9:15 minute miles, and she decided to slow down over the next mile during this story.

She felt his gaze on her, and she smiled to herself for a moment, because she loved that he's this eager, before speaking. "What's up, Castle?"

He pouted. "We finished the second mile! I want my story."

"Always patient, Castle. It's one of your more attractive qualities." She snarked back, softening the words by turning to him and giving a little smile. "But since you asked so nicely…"

She pulled back the pace, slowing them and reaching for the memories in her mind. "I wasn't always this way, you know? The poise, the beauty, the grace – I bloomed in high school. In middle school, I was an awkward kid, tall with long lanky limbs, all bones and skin, and a big nose. I didn't know how to do anything with my hair so it was always in a braid or a pigtail."

A smile shone on Castle's face, and she gave him an exasperated look. "Sorry, just… pigtail takes me to pigtails takes me to slutty schoolgirl, and there is NOTHING unattractive about that picture."

"Now that I know another one of your fetishes, can I continue?" He nodded. "Alright, so while you might want to see me in a schoolgirl outfit now, back then nobody really gave Katie a second look. I was one of the guys, but never anything else. I was learning about love and had crushes on guys, but I was always Katie, the girl who was like a sister, the girl left behind when they went to go hold hands with blonde Ashley or blithe Christine."

She narrated the story of the day on the playground when Michael, the hottest guy in her year, asked her if he could talk to her in private and she got so excited. When they met in that secluded corner of the schoolyard, she was ready for her first kiss ever, but he just asked her whether her friend Anna had any crushes, because he really really liked her. Kate had swallowed the hurt and told him the truth; Anna couldn't stop talking about Michael. The next day, the latest gossip informed her the two were together, and she was disappointed, because, yeah, crushes didn't really matter, but they did to a twelve-year-old.

Castle looked at her, and awkwardly put a hand onto Kate's arm, messing up both their strides. "You know he was an idiot, right?"

"I know. So do you want to know about my first ever boyfriend?"

"Do I?"

"You do. His name was Colin, and he is still to this day the single most awkward, geeky person I have ever known – and YES," she interjected, before Castle could tease, "that includes the Nebula-9 fans I hanged out with at Stanford. Nobody was as geeky as Colin, and nobody really talked to him much but me. We liked comics, and that was our bond. Five days after Michael and Anna became an item, Colin asked me out." She laughed. "I honestly still don't know why I said yes, but I did. He took me to a movie – he tried to hold my hand in the 1 train, and I moved it out of reach – and then to ice cream because it was half price day at Baskin Robbins."

"Baskin Robbins? Seriously?"

"Seriously. The date was awkward and clumsy, and I spent the whole time imagining it was Michael there, and at the end he put this chaste kiss on my lips."

Castle grimaced, "Ugh, so I'm sharing your lips with Geek-boy?"

"I'm sure he'd be pissed to know I'm with a writer now. I think he wants to believe I ended up with Captain America, because THAT he could lose me to gracefully."

"Captain America?" Castle arched an eyebrow.

"Comics, remember? Captain America was always my favorite."

"Ahhh…" He smiled, tapped his head. "I've gotta store that away, you know, for some fun roleplaying night."

She smiled, decided to ignore the bait, before continuing. "The kiss was terrible. It was the classic crappy first kiss. I was disappointed because I was naïve enough to believer there would be fireworks and love and all the crap from rom coms. Colin asked me to be his girlfriend seconds after the kiss, and I was so startled, I said yes. He spent the next two weeks trying to hang out with me every day, calling my house, and I spent it hiding in empty classrooms and yelling at my parents not to answer the phone. We never had a second date or a second kiss – I walked up to him after school and told him we weren't going to go out anymore."

Kate stopped speaking for a moment, needing to catch her breath. In a minute, she began again. "The next day, shoved through the slots in my locker, I found a hand-drawn comic about an evil woman who broke the hero's heart. I don't even remember the end; I think the hero got some other girl who was prettier in the end? I do remember there were tears on the page." She sighed. "I felt so terribly about it. He wouldn't speak to me after that." A small laugh escaped. "I asked Colin when we graduated high school if he had forgiven me yet. I figured enough time had gone by, that maybe we could be acquaintances at least. He wouldn't even turn my way."

"Can you blame him? You broke his heart. He lost you." Castle's tone was serious, and it startled Kate, who expected him to tease and be lighthearted. She stole a glance at him. His gaze was hard, trained on the ground ahead of them.

"Castle?"

"I'm not going to make that mistake." He turned and looked at her, waited until she was looking at him. "I'm never letting you go, Kate."

The sincerity in his eyes left her off balanced; her breath hitched not from the exertion of the race, but from the love in his eyes. The moment hung between them, before she broke it with an exclamation. "Castle! Look out!" He stopped seconds before he was about to trip over a traffic cone, and the ungraceful leap he took to avoid the cone made her laugh aloud. "My boyfriend is so smooth."

He shot her a look at the use of boyfriend, but did not comment on it. "Scandalous comic book liaisons, secret meetings on the playground… you were groomed to go undercover."

"Tripping over traffic cones, breathing heavily after only two miles of running… you were bred to be a writer."

"Touché, detective, touché. Speaking of which, where the fuck is that mile three sign? We've been running for miles and miles now."

"Oh, calm down, you big baby. Look over there, that'll cheer you up." Kate pointed to a sign that read "Run like you stole something!" He smiled, and she laughed. Her calves burned and her feet were slightly sore, but the pain was starting to fade into a runner's high, each step getting lighter and easier. She liked telling Castle these stories. She thought it was going to be a trial to let him in for twelve narratives, but she was enjoying this.

She looked at Castle. She was enjoying him.

She's in love with him.

Oh yeah, the runner's high was definitely kicking in. But Kate didn't mind much. She grinned at Castle. No, she didn't mind at all.

Author's Note: Well, if you follow me as an author, and not just individual stories- aren't you guys just in love with me filling up your inbox? Crappy times for me = more writing for you! As always, reviews are really appreciated. I actually can see myself improving in specific areas because of your feedback, and I'm so grateful for that. This fiction shouldn't take me that much longer - I actually already have mile 7, mile 11, and mile 13.1 written, haha - so I'm hoping to finish it by Christmas at the latest! :)