couple of notes
- Kate is not Ricks rebound
- This story is set in the 90s
- what characters would we like to see in the story
- and I need someone to do a cover art for me
Rick walks through the door of the small coffee shop just one mile from his building, shivering off the frigid air from outside. He goes to the counter and orders his usual cappuccino, hoisting his backpack up over his shoulder while he finds a table to sit at as he waits for his drink. The coffee shop is as busy as it usually is, but there's still a few tables open, most people only coming in and out in between classes to grab a cup that will keep their chilled fingers warm.
Rick finds a booth in the corner against the brick wall, decides sitting away from the window where he won't be distracted by the people passing is probably a good idea. He hears his name being called and he leaves his backpack and coat sitting in the booth to save his spot while he goes and grabs his drink. He thanks the barista behind the counter, turning around and running right into someone, apologies falling out of his mouth.
He stops, staring at the brunette he just nearly knocked over.
"Kate?" he asks, a smile taking over his features.
"Rick," she says, grinning shyly at him. "Hi."
"Hi. What are you doing here?"
"I was just planning to study, get out of my dorm for a little bit."
"Yeah, me too. Did you order?" He asks, pointing at the counter. She shakes her head no.
"What's your regular?"
"Grande skim latte, two pumps sugar free vanilla," she tells him.
He rattles it off to the barista, paying for the drink as well.
"No, Rick," Kate says, her chilly fingers landing on his arm. "You didn't have to pay for that."
"Don't worry about it," he says. "Want to sit with me? Be my study buddy? I've got a booth saved," he tells her, waving his arm in the direction of his table.
Her eyebrow quirks up. "Study buddy?"
The barista hands him Kate's coffee and she takes it from him gratefully.
"I didn't hear a no," he tells her, leading her to the booth. They slide in across from one another and it's comfortable, feels like they've done this a hundred times before. "So, Kate. I don't know your last name."
"Beckett," she supplies for him.
"Kate Beckett," he says it slowly, tasting it on his tongue. "I like it."
"So? You gonna tell me yours?"
"Castle. Rick Castle."
"Castle, huh? Sounds made up," she tells him, giving him a skeptic look.
"It is," he says, laughs when her eyes widen in surprise. "I changed it. I want to be an author. Actually, I've already got a publisher and I'm working on my first book. So I guess I am an author. Rick Rodgers just didn't sound like the type of name a best-selling mystery novelist would have."
"Rick Rodgers has good alliteration, but I suppose I can see where you're coming from, Castle."
He grins at her and takes a sip of his drink. "So, Kate, are you from New York?"
Her face falls and Rick's both intrigued and saddened, wonders what put that look on her face.
"I, uh- technically I am, I guess." He stares at her, waits for the rest of the story. She draws her lower lip between her teeth, looks like she's contemplating telling him the rest or not. After a minute or so she speaks again. "My parents died when I was five. Got into a car accident when they were driving back to the city after a weekend at the cabin they owned upstate. My dad didn't have any family left, not anybody close enough to take me in anyways. My mom's sister still lived in Manhattan when it happened, but when I was six she met a guy from California who was in the city on a business trip. Long story short, they got married when I was seven and we moved to LA."
"Oh, Kate," he says, finds her hand and tangles their fingers together on the tabletop. "I'm sorry. What made you come back to New York for college?"
"I don't know. I got into Stanford, but New York is home. It's where my parents wanted to raise me. So I came back."
"And your aunt and uncle? They were okay with it?"
"Yeah, of course. My aunt has always told me I'm exactly like my mom. Ambitious and stubborn. So I think she saw it coming since I was a freshman in high school."
"I would take a California winter over New York's winter any day," he says.
"I don't know," Kate replies, shrugging, eyes wandering over to the window where flurries of snow are blowing about. "It doesn't feel like Christmas if there isn't any snow on the ground."
"Are you going back to LA for winter break?"
"Only for the week of Christmas, I think. The holidays are so much better on the east coast. But enough about me," she says, squeezing his hand that she hadn't even realised she was still holding. "Where are you from, Castle?"
"Right here in the Big Apple," he says, grinning. "My mother's an actress, a true Broadway diva. My father and I can't get her to leave even if we wanted to."
Kate laughs and he's so happy to see her smile again.
"I don't blame her one bit," she tells him, taking a sip of her latte with the hand that isn't attached to his.
He smiles at her, letting out a soft sigh. Kate Beckett makes him happier than he's been in a long time, happier than he even was with Kyra, and they've only just gotten to know one another. He plans on spending his time making Kate as happy as she makes him for as long as she will let him.