He tugs her into the employee washroom, pushes the door closed in the faces of his giggling staff. They clean themselves up as best as they can, try to make it look like they didn't just fuck like drunken teenagers in an alley. Castle runs his damp fingers through his hair, pushing it back and forth across his scalp and sighing.
"Oh, not this again," Kate sighs, wrapping her fingers around his wrist and tugging his hand from his head. "Your hair looks fine, Castle."
"You messed it up with all that grabbing."
"Didn't hear you complaining at the the time."
"Well, no," he huffs, his eyes drifting back to his reflection swimming in the slightly warped and yellowing mirror. "But now it looks -"
"Like you just had mind-blowing sex in an alley?"
"Yeah."
Kate leans in, her lips brushing over his ear. "Good." She nips at his neck, light and playful, her nose brushing against his still pounding pulse. "Now let's go out there and say our goodbyes so we can go home and -"
"Try on my present?" He sees his own eyes light up in the mirror and feels her chuckle wash over his skin.
"Don't think it'll fit you, Castle."
Growling, he wraps her hair around his fingers, tugging her mouth to meet his. "You're such a tease, Beckett."
"You love it."
"Yes, yes I do."
Twining her fingers with his, Kate steps back and pulls him through the door and back into the cacophony of the bar. Castle watches her move, her body lithe and liquid as she winds her way through the thinning crowd, her hand stretched back to hold his. He grabs it and she squeezes, her lips mouthing silent words. Soon.
Soon turns out to be not so soon after all.
The bar is empty now except for the six of them, their family as Kate had once called it. They're in the back room sitting around the pool table with bottles and bottles of tequila. Because it's his birthday. So why the hell not.
And he's drunk. Stupidly, awesomely, perfectly drunk.
He's forgotten whose fault this little game is, but he slams down another shot of tequila, salt and lime long since forgotten. Kate is next to him taking her own and he can almost feel the shiver that runs down her spine, wants to run his tongue over her shiny, alcohol infused lips. She's sitting on the green felt of the table, legs dangling over the edge, her bare feet tripping across his thigh every time she swings them and he wants to grab her, throw her up against the nearest wall, counter, staircase but there's this game and he's not sure he can move right now because there's alcohol, so so much alcohol.
"Next question," Kate calls out. "Dirtiest place you and your significant other have ever had sex."
On his left, Ryan writes on his little board and he's not drunk because Ryan knows his wife and Castle grunts scribbling something down. He looks at it, crosses it out. Damn it. There was that lecture hall at NYU where he'd given a speech about the importance of literature, Gina's office during the Christmas party at Black Pawn (Beckett would kill him for putting that, wanted to kill him in the moment because it's apparently inappropriate to - right,not the point), oh, the alley. He grins, can feel Kate's eyes on him and he looks up and fuck, she looks so gorgeous and loose and he needs to stop playing because who cares about this game when it's not going to end up with Kate naked on that pool table.
"Espo?" Kate asks.
Esposito sways on his chair, holds up a board. "Mojito?" Castle asks, squinting at the illegible handwriting. "Is this some new sex game I don't know about where you climb into a glass of mint?"
"It says morgue, you jackass."
"Oh, I forgot about the morgue," Castle mumbles looking down at his board, but clearly not low enough and right, that was supposed to be a secret because Lanie is looking at him like she wants to get away with murdering him him and Beckett doesn't look all that thrilled and he bites down on his lip, glancing back and forth between each woman. "I mean, I forgot the morgue was," he pauses, searching for words and he's a writer for god's sake, "there. I forgot the morgue was there."
"That was smooth, Castle," Ryan smirks.
"Quiet down, honeymilk."
"Morgue?" Lanie says, and she's not looking too happy. She turns over her board. "You think the morgue is kinkier than the Staten Island Ferry?"
"Birds don't crap on you in the morgue," Esposito seethes.
"Why would you go to Staten Island?" Castle asks, handing them both a shot.
Esposito looks at him like he's insane. "To have sex on the ferry."
Oh. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
"Ryan?" Kate asks.
"Well, um, I thought that you meant the dirtiest place as in health code violation dirty, so I said this little restaurant in Chinatown," he says, turning the board around.
"Finally!" Castle exclaims with glee. "You can take a shot."
"Actually, Rick," Jenny says, and she's grinning and shit. "I also put that restaurant in Chinatown."
"You're cheating!" Castle whines. "There is no way you two know each other that well. I've followed Beckett around for almost six years, written five books about her, been dating her almost a year and I still don't know that much. Are you passing each other notes? Mind melding?"
"Doesn't sound like you're putting much faith into our relationship, Castle," Kate teases, and when he looks at her she's smiling, eyes dancing with mirth. He grabs her swinging foot, holds it in his hand. He slides his palm over the smooth arch and she lets out a small moan and this stupid game is never ending and they need to go. Now. "Okay," she manages. "Castle? Answer?"
"I debated long and hard because there was the pool at the precinct and-"
"Bro, really?" Eposito asks. "We swim in that."
"It's not like I left my-"
"Castle, stop," Kate says, holding up her hand. "And please don't name all the places in which we've had sex."
"Just how many public places have you had sex in, Beckett?" Ryan smirks.
Kate lifts an eyebrow. "I guess Jenny doesn't tell you everything, Ryan." She wiggles her toes in Castle's hand. "Answer?"
"Dugout, Yankee Stadium."
The way Kate smiles at him now has his heart pounding. She flips over the board. "Dugout, Yankee Stadium."
Kate takes the bottle of tequila from his hand, fills the shot glasses and hands them over to Esposito and Lanie. Who might be more drunk than him.
"Number one celebrity your significant other wants to have sex with," Kate says, and she keeps mentioning the word sex and she's looking at him now, eyes full of heat and desire, hair tumbling over her shoulders, dress pulled a little higher than it should be, and that's it, this is the last question because he wants her at home in bed and -
"Write it down," Kate murmurs, toes drifting over his thigh.
Castle stands up, presses his lips to hers. "Last question?"
She must not care that their friends are around because she threads her fingers through his hair, kisses him back with a slide of her tongue across his lips. "Deal." She pushes him back. "Castle, what's the answer?"
"Jason Bateman!"
"Please don't tell me that's what you're going with." She rolls her eyes. "Castle, you don't even look like him anymore."
"Is it because I can't get my hair spiky now? I really don't know what happened there."
"You really love your hair, don't you, Castle?" Lanie asks, amused.
"It's so thick!" He slides his arm around Kate's waist, leaning against the table. "Real answer is Jeremy Renner."
"That's cheating," Ryan mentions.
"Oh shut up," Castle and Kate respond simultaneously.
Kate turns back to him and the smile she gives him is almost more than she can take. "Correct. For you, I'm going to say-" She stops, thinks about it for a second. She's not going to get it, he doesn't talk about her, he's only ever mentioned her once and not in context, he's - "Kate Beckinsale."
He's startled and she does know him, even without talking about things, without rehashing details again and again. He kisses her hard, triumphant. "KBecks."
"Oh that's so cute!" Jenny exclaims. "You're both KBecks."
Esposito shakes his head, nodding at Beckett and Castle. "You're both disgusting."
Kate laughs and he stops listening to answers the moment she leans into him, her hair rustling across his shoulders, the smell of her perfume and conditioner and sex radiating off of her in waves. He presses his lips to her head, slides down until he's at her ear. He focuses on the sharp intake of breath, the way he can almost feel her soft whimper.
"I love you," he whispers. "More than you know."
She tilts her head to look at him, flushed and happy and so fucking sexy. "You're drunk."
"Yes I am. Very much. But that doesn't make it any less true."
"I love you too." She presses her lips to his neck, bites down on his heated skin. "Take me home, Castle."
Game over.