Summary; Castle swings open the door to find his favourite detective wearing glasses, and he'll be damned if he doesn't tease her about it for the whole day.

Because I can't resist how adorable Stana looks in glasses.

Enjoy!

Castle smiled to himself as he walked out from his office and into the kitchen, basking in the image of his mother and daughter together eating breakfast.

"Good morning, ladies!" He exclaimed to announce his arrival, making the two redheads turn around on their chairs.

Martha gasped, "Dressed already? And it's before eight o'clock! What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing yet, but I wouldn't mind some breakfast." Rick confessed, leaning over the counter to grab a piece of bacon and shoving it ungracefully into his mouth.

"Dad. Gross." Alexis commented, not even looking up from her textbook.

"Wow. What's made my darling daughter so grumpy this morning?" He teased as he leaned over her, attempting to read her notes, before realising they were in another language.

"Spanish homework."

"Why are you doing Spanish? I thought you were taking French this semester?" The doting Father asked questioningly.

"I can do both, can't I?" Alexis said defensively, causing Rick to frown.

He looked up at the older woman, who whispered into his ear as she handed him a piece of toast and glass of orange juice, "Pi wants to take her back to Costa Rica."

He groaned quietly and replied in the same hushed tone, "What? Like she didn't see enough bananas last time?"

Martha rolled her eyes, and hastily changed the topic of conversation, "So, pray tell, why are you up so early?"

"Because, Mother, murder never sleeps. And apparently neither does Beckett."

She nodded with a dramatic flair, but before she could say anything else, three loud knocks rang from the door, "But she does have wonderful timing."

He scurried over to open the door, instantly being met with the sight of his partner dressed in a dark red sweater, navy blue bootcut jeans and black high heeled boots. Nothing different from what she usually wears, but then why did she seem so different? She raised her eyebrow at his gaze wandering up and down her figure, her eyes sparkling with amusement behind the thick, black, square frames of her glasses.

Wait.

"Glasses?" Rick sputtered out awkwardly.

"Good morning to you too, Castle." She said teasingly.

"Morning. Glasses?" He persisted, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Yeah. Glasses. After three years of working together, you didn't notice I wore contacts? What kind of writer are you?" She reprimanded with a minute shake of the head.

"I- Well- How would I have known that-"

Kate chuckled to herself, "Come on, Castle. You ready to go?"

He looked back into the loft, his two girls sharing a knowing glance at his antics, which worried him slightly.

"Do I have time to finish breakfast?" He pleaded, puppy dog eyes focusing on Beckett's face.

"Trust me. Once you see the victim, you're going to wish you didn't eat."

"Awesome!" He said with glee, making Beckett scoff. Rick quickly hurried back into the kitchen to say goodbye to his family, a brief kiss on the forehead to both of them, then grabbed his coat and quickly slung it on as he followed his partner to the elevator.

Kate managed to drive for about three minutes, before she had to call out her companion on his never wandering gaze, not even sure if he was aware of it.

"Castle. Staring. Still creepy." She stated, eyes never wandering from the road ahead.

His eyes snapped away from her as he lowered his head in shame, looking like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, causing Kate to smirk slightly.

"Sorry. It's just, you look different in glasses." He explained in a small voice.

"Good different or bad different?"

"Just… different."

She hummed in response, then continued to drive in silence, then Rick's voice piped up again.

"That's cute."

Kate looked at him in confusion, "What is?"

"The way you push up the glasses." He explained, since she didn't even realise she had done it, "It's cute."

"How can me pushing up my glasses be 'cute'?" She asked in an exasperated tone, but as he opened his mouth to reply, she cut him off, "You know what, it's too early for this."

They stayed in silence until they reached the crime scene, and Rick pretended not to notice the blush that crept onto her cheeks.

Once they arrived at the place of the murder, it had begun drizzling with rain, much to the dismay of all the officers working the case. The two soon made it to Lanie, who – after grumbling for a while about the weather – informed Castle and Beckett about the victim whilst Esposito and Ryan walked around the block trying to find witnesses.

After everything was accounted for at the crime scene, Kate turned to her partner, who chuckled lightly.

"What, Castle?"

"I think you need some windscreen wipers." He joked, as he saw the sight of Kate's glasses, covered in raindrops, leaning forward and using the backs of his thumbs to wipe the two small pieces of glass.

Beckett huffed as his fingerprints covered the lenses, leaving them blurry and making it even more difficult for her to see, "Wow. Thanks, Castle. What would I do without you?" She deadpanned as she removed the glasses, wiping them hastily on her coat sleeve.

He shrugged, "Just trying to help."

She rolled her eyes at him, then began walking back to her cruiser, "Come on, then. You've been proven to be at least some help in the precinct, but not so much with cleaning glasses."

He was following her before she even finished her sentence.

"Here you go, dear Detective. Something to warm you up." Rick said gallantly as he offered her a cup of hot coffee, their fingers brushing as she accepted it.

"Thanks." She grinned, bringing the beverage up to her lips.

He took a sip from his own cup, but paused when he heard her groan.

"What? Did I mess it up?" He turned to her, biting the inside of his cheek at the sight of her steam covered glasses.

"This is not funny." She growled, taking off the glasses.

"Aw, come on, it's not their fault!" He whined, making her give him one of her famous death glares.

"I just want my contacts back." She huffed, taking another sip of coffee.

"Why aren't you wearing them, by the way?"

She shrugged, "I accidentally fell asleep on the sofa with them in last night."

Castle's brows furrowed in confusion, "So?"

"So when I woke up, I took out the left one, and then when I went to take out the right one, it wasn't there."

He startled, "You mean there's a contact lens in your brain right now?" Rick all but yelled, causing Beckett to roll her eyes as she shushed him.

"I don't think that's how it works, Castle."

"What if you go blind? What if your eye falls out or something?" He said with panic lacing his voice.

"It's not a big deal, it's happened before."

"There are multiple contacts in your brain? That can't be healthy! You need to go to the Doctors!"

She scoffed, "If it makes you feel any better, I called my optician, and he said unless I feel any pain, I shouldn't worry. Therefore, neither should you."

Castle stayed silent, but the worry remained present on his face, so Beckett spoke up once more to distract him, "Anyway, I'm picking up new contacts after work tonight."

He gasped, "You're buying more? After that!?"

"I've been wearing contacts since high school, it's fine."

Rick huffed out a large sigh, his gaze returning to his coffee, "Fine. But I won't want to be near you during the zombie apocalypse. They'll be angry at the pieces of plastic hidden in your brain and start attacking more violently."

She rolled her eyes, making her partner gasp, "Maybe that's why you roll your eyes so much! It's a medical condition! From the contacts!"

"No. The only condition I have in annoying-partner-itis."

Rick pouted as he slumped back into his chair, "That's not a real thing."

Kate barked out a laugh, "But zombies are?"

She instantly regretted baiting him after he spent approximately the next thirty minutes regaling her with facts on why zombies, were in fact, an apparent real and present threat.

Soon after Castle had finished his speech on the reality of the upcoming imminent zombie apocalypse and his thoroughly details plans from zombie survival camp, Esposito quickly jogged up to Beckett's desk.

"We got a location on the suspect." He stated, passing Kate a small, white piece of paper covered in Ryan's scribbly handwriting.

Beckett and Castle instantly stood up, and hurried to the elevator.

"Too bad our suspect isn't a zombie, huh? Then you'd be prepared."

Castle gasped, "What if he is a zombie? Then I would start by…"

Beckett cursed the fact that the location they had to drive to was twenty minutes away.

As soon as they arrived, they found that the apartment has two entrance doors, causing the team of four to split up.

"Espo, you're with me. Castle, go with Ryan." Beckett said matter-of-factly.

With a curt nod of her head, Javier and Kevin both kicked their respective doors down, shouting their arrival.

Once the break in was over and the suspect was caught, Rick waited not-so-patiently by Beckett's cruiser, tapping his feet nervously. Suddenly, Esposito's voice approached behind him.

"Bro, I told you, she just got a bit banged up in there, so the EMT is quickly checking her out. No reason to be scared."

"I'm not scared." He retaliated, slightly puffing out his chest.

Esposito retreated with an 'mhm-hmm' that sounded suspiciously like Lanie, but Castle knew not to bring that up unless he wanted something to be scared of.

Suddenly, his partner emerged from the chaotic building and he immediately ran up to her.

"What took you so long?" He asked, but as soon as she looked up to meet his stare, he realised.

Her lenses had broken, the parts that still remained cracked in numerous places, and he couldn't tear his gaze from the small criss-crossed white strips that were stuck to her temple and how they were stained with red.

Seeing the distressed look that donned his features, Kate tried to lighten the mood, "At least the pieces didn't go into my brain. Then the zombies would be really angry."

Castle couldn't resist lifting his palm to her forehead, his fingertips gently stroking the injured side of her head, "Oh, Kate, how did this happen?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I think they were just smashed in the name of justice."

"Smashed in the Name of Justice? Sounds like a really bad comic book name."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, staying silent as he continued to run his fingers over her smooth, slightly stained skin.

"Hey. You might want to record what I'm about to say next." Kate said with a small smirk.

"What?" Rick asked with a nervous shake in his voice.

"I'm letting you drive." She explained, holding out her car keys in front of him.

"Really?" He said excitedly, his face instantly brightening up.

"Well, I don't think I'm allowed to drive with a head injury and smashed eyewear."

"Yes!" He exclaimed, throwing his fist in the air, before guilt flooded his features, "I mean, not that I'm happy about your injury or anything-" He began to apologise.

"Just drive, Castle." She cut him off, walking over to her vehicle.

"Can do." He replied gleefully, a small bounce present in his walk as he followed behind her.

She plopped down onto her office chair, borderline throwing the glasses onto the desk with a grunt. Her partner eyed her nervously, and she emitted a long sigh.

"It's just… I hate them." She explained, "And it's not just all the problems that came with them today."

Castle raised his eyebrow in interest, prompting her to continue, "I first needed them when I was sixteen. My Dad came with me to the opticians for the first time, and I picked these frames." Her face grimaced slightly as she remembered them, "They were awful. They were kind of a muddy brown – which I thought went well with my hair, but it definitely didn't – and they were round and wire-y and just… they were old lady glasses."

Rick tried and failed to hide his smile at the image of a sixteen-year-old Kate Beckett donning the glasses, but luckily she didn't pause her story to scald him, "I only bought them because my Dad was there. He was always saying that I looked good in all of them, as he would with anything I tried on. Whereas Mom was a lot more honest. I'll never forget the look on her face when I walked into the house with those damn glasses on. She was speechless. And not in a good way."

She smiled slightly, her mind filled with images of her Mom, but she soon looked solemn again, "They made fun of me at school the next day. I was so proud of my new 'look', but everyone just started calling me Katherine because they said I looked like an old lady, or Ms Beckett because I could be the librarian. It was stupid stuff, but in high school, I really thought people's opinions of me mattered. As soon as I got home, I threw the glasses at a wall, shattering them. I just remember how my Dad was yelling at me that we hadn't bought the warranty." She chuckled, reminiscing on the looks on her parents' faces at her outburst.

"My Mom just sprung up and hugged me, promising that we could go buy new glasses. But instead I insisted on contacts. She understood, and we went to get them the next day." She concluded.

Kate looked up to see a look of wonder on Rick's face; the same look that always emerged when she spoke about her past, she noticed.

Castle finally spoke, "Do you have any photos?"

Beckett burst into laughter, "Really? I tell you the whole dramatic backstory, and that's all you have to say?"

"Well, my go-to advice was going to be 'I bet you looked just as cute as you did today', but I can't actually confirm that without photographic evidence."

"In your dreams, Castle."

"You will be." Kate's eyebrows shot upwards at his comment, "Wait, the you from today, not the sixteen-year-old you. Oh shit, now I sound creepy."

Kate chuckled, "Well, dreaming is the only time you'll ever see me in these glasses again."

Before Rick could question her, she shot up from her chair, grabbing the glasses and dropping them into the trash bin.

"Was that therapeutic for you, Beckett?" Castle teased as she returned to her desk.

"A little bit." She admitted with a shy look.

The two gazed at each other with smiles plastered on their faces, their eyes never wandering. Suddenly, an alarm from Kate's phone broke the comfortable silence. She snapped back as she looked at the screen.

"Alright, I need to be off now, hot date with Dr Burke."

Rick's smile faltered slightly, causing Beckett to smirk, "My optician, Castle."

"Oh. Right. Yeah." He replied hastily, standing up as she did.

He aided her arms through the sleeves of her coat, resisting the urge to brush her hair out from under the collar, scared that was too intimate. She turned around with a sweet smile gracing her features.

"Night, Castle." She murmured as she grabbed her bag from the floor.

"Until tomorrow, Detective." He said cheerfully, watching her as she left the bullpen.

Kate walked into the precinct the next day, slightly begrudgingly as she thought in advance about the paperwork and incident reports she would inevitably have to fill out. As she reached her desk, a white, rectangular box with a small yellow sticky note taped to the top caught her eye.

She slowly opened the box, shaking her head with a grin as she saw the contents.

Her black frames with fixed lenses, looking as good as new.

The smile on her face only grew as she read the note.

"You might hate them, but I still think you look adorable. So use these once in a while. Also, I think you'd be a great addition to my zombie apocalypse team, so try not to get any more pieces of plastic stuck in your brain. For me.

-RC"

I wrote this pretty quickly as I noticed it was 11:30pm and I hadn't reached daily NaNoWriMo word count goal, but I hope it was still okay!

Thanks so so much for reading. As always, reviews would be great, if you're feeling particularly lovely. Also, I'm still very much open to prompts for NaNoWriMo! Leave them in a review, PM them to me, or get in touch on Tumblr, whichever method suits you.

See you all later!

Lou xo