It started in the kitchen.
Her fingers brushed against his side, dipping under the worn t-shirt to touch the warm skin. He nearly spilled the pasta sauce he was tasting to make sure the salt wasn't overpowering, red spots dotting the granite countertop as the wooden spoon fell from his hand.
She smiled innocently, moving around him to pull down plates, take silverware from the drawer. Until he wrapped his arms around her waist, fingertips bunching up the fabric of her sweater to get at her stomach. She ducked away, dancing backwards on toe tips toward the living room even as he followed.
He has his hands reaching out, the pads of his fingers touching her sleeve as he corners her against the arm of the couch. She swats at him, kicking out with her bare feet. It gives him enough opportunity to get his fingers at her sides.
Her laughter spills into the room, loud and infectious and free, as he tickles at her. As his fingers trip over to her back, she arches forward, squirming away from him even as he presses closer and tips her onto the couch.
She screams before the breath is pushed from her lungs as his body falls on top of her. His hands bracelet her wrists, pinning them over her head so that he can attack her neck.
"Uncle!" she gasps, trying to hook her leg over his thigh to flip them onto the ground. "Uncle!"
He pauses, just the short nails of his fingers trailing over the sensitive skin over collarbone as she sucks in air beneath him. And then he rolls over to the back of the couch, keeping them safely on the cushions.
Her fingers frame his face, tips curling into his hair as she presses a kiss to his smiling mouth. Still out of breath, eyes shining with amusement, her voice is barely a whisper that drifts into his ear. "God, I love you, Castle."
He freezes even as she rests her head on his chest. She can't feel him breathing, body tense under her. She lifts her head, lips sliding along his jaw. "You okay?"
His hand twists gently into her hair, tugging her down for a kiss that screams his love back at her. "More than. So much more than okay," he sighs.
The world hadn't ended. He hadn't disappeared and neither had she.
She couldn't even wipe the happy, contented smile off her face when they smelled the pasta burning on the stove and set off the fire alarm before they could scramble off the couch and back into the kitchen.