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Disclaimer: Castle is not mine :/

[Chapter 6]

"You are so gonna pay for that!" Rick growled up at Kate, swimming through the plastic balls.

She got a frightened expression and booked it. Running down the stairs, careful not to run into little kids, Kate looked for a place to hide. But, of course, there was none. She scurried around, desperate to take shelter somewhere. Taking a daring glance behind her, she saw Rick nearing in.

He scanned the arcade, towering over the small children. His eyes hunting for a beautiful detective with alluring eyes. After a few seconds, he found her. She was trying to blend in, her normally sneaky detective skills lacking. He grinned, stalking toward his prey. She was standing by a couple of adults, who were chatting amongst themselves about their kids. He crouched down by a claw machine, peering over to Kate. The little kid playing on the machine gave him a questioning look before going back to the game with his tongue poking out, his little eyes focused on a stuffed parrot.

Kate casually looked around, not seeing her partner anywhere. She froze, where did he go? She gulped and began making her way to a Whack a Shark machine where a little girl with pigtails was pounding at the shark heads with a foam mallet. She smiled sweetly at the girl who completely ignored her, too absorbed in her game. Kate began to watch the small girl with great interest as she hit the sharks, an obnoxious sound effect following every hit.

Rick snuck over to her, and with Kate's back turned he had the perfect advantage. Being as discreet as possible, he closed in on her. Standing at his full height Rick towered Kate, she still had no idea he was there. He could only grin as he leaned in, placing his hands by her middle and tickling her sides.

Kate jumped at the contact, her police training going into full effect. She swung back an arm, nailing Rick directly in the right eye. He stopped his movements, a hand flying up and covering his aching eye.

"Ow!" He yelped in pain.

"I'm so sorry!" The little girl at the machine turned around at his yelp and pointed at him, laughing. Kate couldn't help but laugh along with her, finding the whole situation rather amusing, too.

"Why are you laughing? That really hurt!" Rick complained, frowning.

"I-I'm sorry, Castle. It's not f-funny..." she lifted a hand and covered her mouth, attempting to keep the laughter in but it didn't work very well.

He glared at her with his good eye open. "It's not nice to laugh..."

Kate took a deep breath, gaining composure. After about a minute, she cleared her throat. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry," she apologized sincerely.

"Can we get some ice please?"

Kate nodded. "Come on, let's ask someone." She moved over to assist him, guiding him to the ticket counter. "Why did you sneak up on me? What were you thinking?"

"I-I thought it'd be funny," he groaned with a sigh. "And you were the one who ran; I was merely trying to catch you."

She shot him an apologetic look, holding onto his free arm and helping maneuver through the crowded arcade. They eventually reached the counter. "Excuse me?" Kate asked politely, still holding onto Rick.

An older gentleman with graying hair turned around. He had on a simple white button down and a red vest. "Yes? How may I- oh, boy. What happened here?" He asked concerned.

A guilty expression found its way onto her face. "He, um, snuck up on me and I kind of got him on the nose..."

"It was an accident," Rick mended quickly.

The older man let out a tiny chuckle in understanding. "Let me go grab you an ice pack. Go have a seat over there and I'll be right with you," he said, pointing to a bench in the corner. He moved around the counter and headed for the staff area on the opposite side of the arcade.

"Thank you for your help," Kate called, shooting him a grateful smile as she led Rick over to the bench. They sat down; Rick lowered his hand and tried blinking. Kate placed a hand on his knee. "I'm really sorry, Castle. You just snuck up on me and my police training kicked in and-"

"Hey, it's okay," he smiled lightly, stopping her from rambling on apologies. "I should've known better than to sneak up on you. I was messing around and we were just having so much fun that I didn't think things through. And it was kind of funny," he added, continuing to blink furiously; the small actions were quite painful.

"Let me see," Kate commanded gently, reaching her hands up and cupping his face.

He had a bit of stubble on his cheeks and Kate shivered a bit at the touch. Rick did a bit, too. He liked that Kate was taking care of him, it was a nice feeling. She carefully lifted a finger and ran it over the already swollen eye. Rick sucked in a breath, he was in pain but he didn't pull back from her touch. Kate only shook her head in shame, guilt bubbling through her.

"H-how's it look?" Rick winced.

"You'll live. But it's already swelling and I can see a hint of a bruise coming in. You're gonna have quite the black eye in the next hour or so."

"I bet it looks so cool," he grinned, acting like the twelve year old he is.

The older gentleman returned some minutes later with an ice pack. "Always gotta have these handy, you never know what's gonna happen. Especially with children running around and playing. They get hurt all the time."

"Yes, they do," Kate poked Rick's stomach with a grin. She turned to the older man, "Thank you." She took the freezing ice pack and gently raised it to Rick's eye.

He pulled back, "Sorry, it's just cold."

"I know, but we have to keep this on to make sure the swelling stays down." Rick bit his lip, the pack causing him to shiver as Kate held it.

The older gentleman grinned. "Well, it seems you are well taken care of, so I'll leave you to it. Try to be careful next time, yeah?"

"Thank you," they both said with smiles. "We will."

The older man chuckled at them, smiling at the fact that they said it at the same time. "Oh, and go ahead and take that ice pack with you. We've got plenty in the back," he jabbed a thumb behind him.

"Thanks," Kate stated appreciatively as she focused on Rick's face.

He nodded and turned to Rick, gently slapping a hand on his shoulder. "No more sneaking up on your girlfriend, okay?" And went back to the ticket counter without another word.

The duo sat in silence as Kate iced Rick's eye. Both were shocked at his assumption. It became awkward fast and they sat there not speaking, not having the courage to. Every so often Kate would pull the pack away to check on his bruising eye without saying a word. Rick would sit there obediently as she tended to him. The swelling was going down a bit, but a large bruise surrounded the entire area of his right eye.

Rick spoke after some silence. "I've definitely learned my lesson. No more sneaking up on Beckett."

The detective only smiled. "Wait until the boys see you on Monday, they'll think that it's the coolest thing they've ever seen. Well, after they make fun of you, of course. You were hit by a girl."

"Yeah, I definitely deserve their teasing. But, really, black eyes and cuts, it's just how us males are," Rick smirked with a small shrug of his shoulders. "We're fascinated by blood and gore, we find it...interesting."

"Men," she whispered with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head. "I can't believe that little girl laughed at you."

"She wasn't the only one," he pointed out.

Kate gave a weak smile, nudging him lightly in the shoulder with hers. "I know, I know."

He smiled at her. She knew that he was just teasing and that he thought that his black eye was the coolest thing in the world. She felt bad about it but he didn't seem to mind, which lifted that guilt a little bit off her shoulders. After a few minutes of icing, Kate took the pack off and examined his eye. The swelling had gone down but the bruising definitely did not.

"That's a real beauty," she whistled, her hands resting on her thighs.

Rick did his best model look; he pursed his lips and gave her a smoky expression. But with his right eye all bruised and colored, his model look didn't quite turn out as well as he'd hoped. Kate burst into a fit of laughter, something she realized she's been doing a lot today. Rick laughed along with her, enjoying the beautiful sight; his smile reaching his eyes. The two sat there laughing hysterically, grateful to share this crazy-filled day with their partner.

A day that was far from over...

"Since when did you learn to dance?" Rick questioned, trying to concentrate. He was dancing like he had two left feet, and he had been told by several individuals that he was quite the dancer. Apparently, he was misinformed.

After they had calmed down from their little laughter fit, the duo walked around the arcade some more. Rick was still in some pain, the skin around his eye was tender to the touch and the bruising had darkened in color. Kate was right, it was a real beauty.

The two had made small talk for a bit until Kate spotted a game that she desperately wanted to play. It was a Dance-Dance Revolution game where the objective was to step on these arrows at the same time as the arrows on the monitor. She challenged him to a dance off. And Rick foolishly accepted, little did he know that Kate has been dancing for a very long time.

"Well," she began, stepping in time with the music. "I took ballet when I was four and did that for about three years. After that I took dance classes all through out junior high and high school. But I haven't danced in a long time."

"Could've fooled me," he truthfully admitted. "I just had no idea you were such the dancer," Rick mused, missing the next few steps. "I'm glad to know this about you, even though you are kicking my sorry ass right now."

Kate smiled, not looking over at the writer. She was completely focused on the game. She had only missed one or two steps the entire time while Rick was the exact opposite. He had only gotten about one or two steps right, missing the rest of them. And he was on easy mode while Kate was on expert.

The song ended about a minute later with Kate coming out on top. "I win!" She cheered, turning to Rick with her arms in the air.

"Congratulations," Rick laughed. "I get to pick the next song!" He called, already skimming through the variety of songs he could choose from.

"Doesn't matter what song you pick, you're going to be crushed either way," Kate boasted, seeing as Rick was taking his sweet time.

He shrugged, "Yeah, probably."

Rick finally landed on a song. Kate gave him a bewildered look, an eyebrow raised in question. "Out of all the songs you could've picked, it had to be this one?"

"What? It's a classic!" He defended, clicking on the Go button. "And I thought you said that it doesn't matter what song I pick, I'll still be crushed anyways. So don't complain." She didn't say anything, mentally getting ready for the song to begin. The monitor counted down from three to one; the song began to play.

"Why this song?" Kate whined as the two danced, one more successful than the other.

"I thought I said no complaining?" Rick chided, but he quickly shut up when he received a glare from his partner.

Kate hid the little smirk she was wearing, trying to go back to their normal banter. "Seriously, Castle. Why Shake Your Groove Thing?"

He got a huge grin. "One: because it's just plain awesome! And two: how could you turn down Peaches and Herb?"

She did a series of complicated steps. "The song is obnoxious! Just listen to the lyrics and you'll understand why. It's...cheesy."

Rick looked appalled. "It is not! You take that back!"

"Why should I?" She challenged, stomping left then right on the arrows. Rick attempted to do the same as what the monitor showed but it was of no use. Besides, he had given up on this game long ago. The only reason he kept playing it was to see Kate boogie down.

"Because...I-I said so."

"Oh, so I'm taking orders from you now, huh?" She asked, joking.

"Uh...yes?" He replied, unsure; it was more of a question than an actual solid answer.

Kate smirked. "Wrong answer." And she went all out for the last steps of the song, putting Rick in his place.

Ouch.

There ya go my friends!

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