andiloveyoukate:

“This is part is so boring,” Castle whines, “can’t you make Ryan and Esposito do it?”

"I could. And then I’d send you to do it with them,” Beckett deadpans, approaching one last couple she spies sitting on the bench in the park.

Castle huffs, muttering beneath his breath, looking like a kicked puppy as he follows her at the heels like a loyal dog. Kate has to smother the smile that rises at the image of Castle as a dog - probably a golden retriever. Kinda cute, too.

"Excuse me,” Kate says, holding up her badge. “Detective Beckett, NYPD.”

The man shifts to stare at them curiously, eyes sparkling the same way Castle’s do when they have a strange case. The woman beside him simply sighs, the lines on her face not so much weary as they are endurable, as she tucks a long lock of red hair behind her ear.

“How can we help you, Detective?”

“We’re investigating a murder that occurred about two hours ago actually,” she says, nodding over to the crime scene, where an officer is taping the perimeters. “How long have you been here?”

“Oh, not long enough to have seen anything,” the man says, pulling a sunflower seed from his pocket and popping it in his mouth. Beckett watches Castle wince in the corner of her eye as the seed makes a loud crack sound. “Anything suspicious about it?”

Before Kate has the time to even frown, the woman beside him rolls her eyes, elbowing him in the side.

“Ouch. What was that for?”

“Mulder, we are on vacation. Let the police do their job.”

Castle practically jumps in their laps, eyes sparkling with delight as his jaw drops.

"Did you just say Mulder? As in Agent Fox Mulder?”

The man, Mulder, raises his eyebrows. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly call myself an Agent anymore, but yes.”

"Castle,” Beckett interrupts, pulling him aside for a moment, glaring. “You know that every witness we meet is a potential suspect. Could you possibly stop making buddies for one second?”

"But Beckett,” he whines, “that is Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.”

She raises an eyebrow. “And?”

“And? Beckett, they’re only the best FBI agents ever.”

Behind them, a throat clears, and they turn to find Mulder and Scully, standing now. Beckett certainly can’t exactly picture them as the best FBI agents ever - Mulder’s arm is around Scully’s waist, who’s smothering a smile, their height difference almost laughable. She barely reaches his shoulder.

And then Kate’s thinking about the height difference between herself and Castle, when she’s wearing flats, how she’d be the perfect height for him to rest his head atop hers if she wound her arms around his waist, how she’d have to press up on her toes to kiss him, how his large, warm hands would -

"Sorry,” Scully says, eyes darting between them. “Do you have any more questions?”

“Yes,” Castle jumps in, “firstly - should I be worried about aliens coming down and stealing us all away from Earth and life as we know it? Second - the Tooms case you investigated - ”

“Castle. Aliens, really?”

“How do you know so much about our work?” Mulder asks.

“I know people,” Castle replies instantly.

“Okay,” Beckett says, placing a hand on Castle’s chest and pushing him three steps back to end his ridiculous fanboying. “You? Stay there. I am going to finish the canvas because, as you said, it’s boring. You can go back to the precinct with Ryan and Esposito.”

"Beckett,” Castle whines.

“I don’t think we have any answers to your questions, Detective,” Scully says, smirking as she glances between them. “At least, not ones you want to hear anyway.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Scully shrugs, eyes perusing over Beckett for a silent moment before she speaks.

“Just that sometimes, the most frustrating person in your life - becomes the most important.”

Beckett can feel her face growing hot, Castle suspiciously quiet behind her, so she clears her throat and tucks her badge back into her coat pocket.

“Thank you for your time,” she says hurriedly, flipping her notebook shut.

Mulder grins. “Anytime.”

Before he and Scully walk away, he takes a step forward, pressing something into Castle’s palm. Scully nods at Beckett as she walks past, orange hair shimmering like fire as she begins to walk away with Mulder, and it makes her wonder exactly what it is Scully’s been through that makes her eyes so full of spirit.

Beside her, Castle gasps, making her whirl on the spot.

“Oh. My God.”

“What?”

Castle opens up his palm, grinning.

“He gave me a sunflower seed!”

Beckett rolls her eyes. “Are you going to be like this all day?”

“Uh, Beckett, sunflower seeds are one of his favourite things, besides Scully. Didn’t you ever see it when they were involved in that case where they hunted down the werewolf?”

“Some of us have better things to do in our free time that sit around and watch a Cops episode about werewolves.”

"Ha! You so watched it! I never said they were on Cops.”

"Okay, maybe I watched it. But now, Castle, we have a case. A real-life, non-supernatural case.”

“And I have a sunflower seed. Oh, this is so going to be one of my favourite things.”

"Besides your extensive hair gel collection?”

Castle scoffs. “Beside Alexis, and…”

“And?”

Castle looks down at the ground, fist closing around the sunflower seed, face beetroot red.

“And you,” he mumbles.

Kate stills in her tracks, eyes wide, heart beating furiously. They don’t talk about this. Them. Oh, they most definitely don’t talk about it. It’s one of their unspoken rules.

But she wants to talk about them.

Castle shrieks when she steals the sunflower seed from his fist, his face falling dramatically as she pops it in her mouth.

“Beckett! What did you do that for?”

Kate purses her lips. “Now two of your favourite things are one. Just so you don’t lose track.”

He’s silent for a moment, face watching her neutrally, and for a moment she’s worried she has pushed too far. But then suddenly his palms are on her face and he’s walking her backwards and her back hits the solid bark of a tree and ohhhhhh his lips are on hers.

She should maybe, probably, definitely care about the only thing shielding them from the eyes of CSU is the tree he’s pressed her up against, but then a moan is escaping her mouth as he tilts her head back and she opens her mouth against his, their tongues sliding together, her hands reaching up to grip the lapels of his suit -

And then suddenly he’s stepping away, leaving her gasping against the tree, hair mussed and lips swollen.

“Castle?”

He grins, and then pokes his tongue out, to reveal the sunflower seed sitting on it.

“Sorry, Beckett. Mulder only shared that seed with me.”

Kate huffs, reaching out to shove his shoulder before heading back to her cruiser.

It’s hard not to pull over and climb into his lap the whole way back to the precinct.