Simmer

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle - just inspired by it.

Backstory: This takes place after "Inevitable", beginning with what was supposed to be their first date on an upcoming Friday evening, but life has a way of getting in the way.

Author's Note: I anticipated this being three short chapters, each covering three very different kinds of dates. I very nearly titled this "A Non-Date and Two Dates". I realized though, that I'd really miss writing the other characters if this were JUST Castle/Beckett, so interludes involving Alexis, Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie may appear, extending this.

Update 06/02/2010: I wasn't happy with this chapter so I rewrote some of it. I decided to switch back to past-tense (and every time I read it, I keep finding more verbs to fix). I apologize for the ongoing tense issues. It drives me nuts too AND I appreciate those kind folk who point them out.

The Non-Date

All hell broke loose on one of their cases that Thursday early in the morning. A murder accomplice turned witness was nearly gunned down, and Beckett got word that a perp she'd tried to put away years ago for murdering a young mom may get early parole on a technicality and those cases really got to her. Long after she made Castle go home that night, he knew she was still at the precinct trying to wrap things up.

He showed up at the precinct on Friday afternoon after spending the morning promoting Nikki Heat, far more concerned about her real life inspiration. Dark circles were under her eyes, and Montgomery was clearly trying to get her to go home. Castle made a couple of calls before adding his proverbial weight to the conversation, after gauging that Beckett as just tired enough to (maybe) let him.

"So...raincheck on our night out? Why don't I take you home and we just do a mellow night in?"

She ran her hand through her hair impatiently, and sat back in her seat with an air of exhaustion. (And really, all she wanted was a hot soak and a good book.) "I'm sorry...look..."

He cut her off, softening his voice. "I get the hours. I know the routine." He tried charm next, with a smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes. "I've got take-out from Wah Fung being delivered to your place and Alexis is sending over my entire DVD boxed set of Battlestar Galactica. How about that?"

"Castle, I don't need to be taken care of. There's a ton of paperwork." She fixed him with the evil death stare that's made other mortals quake, all the more scary because her eyes are a little red from lack of sleep.

He pushed back gently with, "Does it really need to be done right now?"

She considered it...and considered it some more. She glanced back at the screen where her work was starting to get sloppier by her high standards, and then she looked at him watching her solemnly, with a steadfast look in his eyes that made her heart flip-flop and the solitary bath seem less appealing. She gave in with a soft huff. "Okay, but only if you got me those flat noodles I like."

She was silent the whole drive home, and he knew it'd been a long week between his information about her mother and all the crap at the station. When they got to her place, he suggested with a playful waggle of his eyebrows, "Why don't you change into something comfortable?". It earned the intended eye-roll from her, and she headed to her bedroom as the doorbell rang. Letting him deal with the food, she donned loose fitting yoga pants and a sweater. She glanced at herself in the mirror on the way out, with a little tired twist to her lips. Not exactly what she'd been thinking for a first date with Castle.

By the time she wandered back into the living room, he'd gotten the food plated, the DVD player set up, and a cozy, mindless evening-in prepped, taking up the best seat on the couch. She smiled at him, snared her chopsticks and the coveted noodles, and settled in, keenly aware of him by her side, of the ease of familiarity and the edge of something different. He'd rarely been to her home, but eating takeout and listening to him make color commentary peppered with extraneous information was soothing, normal...fun. It took the edge off her day, and he made her laugh. Having someone at home, sharing the evening after a hard day - that was new, and there was a sweetness that she didn't want to let herself get used to or think about too much just yet.

Episodes of Battlestar Galactic flickered across the screen, while Castle kept up his running mouth til she made him shut up by stuffing a fortune cookie in his mouth. (Man, he really hated this Anders character.) She felt herself relax against the warmth of him, and it felt easy...and somehow just plain safe...to let her eyes close, for just a moment...

He felt like a teenager again, and even tried the yawn-arm-stretch move to wrap his arm around her shoulder, feeling the slim lines of her frame come to rest with greater pressure against his side in a way that evoked his protective side. His senses felt alert and alive to the nuances, any shifts in weight she made, any subtle movements. When her head came to rest against his shoulder, he curved his arm a little tighter around her and wondered what other moves he could make til the tiny snore tipped him off that she'd fallen sound asleep.

His smile turned a little wry. It'd been a really long time since he's stayed up just to watch a woman sleep, and that's all he does once he's turned the TV off with the remote control. He liked watching Kate in all of her forms, but asleep is something different. Her face lacks the guardedness of day, enchanting him in a different way.

Eventually, he picked her up and carried her to bed. He considered undressing her (just so she'd be more comfortable…) but decided it's not worth losing his life over, or waking her. He also thought about kissing her, but he'd really rather she be awake for that After a moment of uncertainty, he settled onto the couch rather than go home, propping a pillow behind his head and looking around her apartment before drifting off to sleep himself.

She woke up to soft light filtering into her room, and the heavenly smell of pancakes. She wandered into the living room, and watched him competently maneuver his way around her kitchen. "You're still here. Pancakes again, huh?" she teased, pulling her tousled hair into a loose ponytail with strands slipping free. He stopped in his tracks, arrested for a moment (except without the fun of handcuffs). She met the intensity of his gaze, and there was a simmer to the new intentionality between them. For her, there was a catch that was half-fear, half-anticipation, and she put the kitchen counter between them, sliding onto a bar stool.

"Esposito once told me that pancakes were an edible way of saying thank you so much for last night," he replied, deftly flipping pancakes onto plates and sliding a plate towards her.

"Shouldn't I be thanking you for taking care of me?", she asked, reaching for the fork he offers her moments later, pausing to pour a generous amount of maple syrup onto the buttered pancakes.

"Anytime you want to make me breakfast, you're welcome to. Especially if you wear one of those cute little maid skirts…" He grinned impudently at her, and then turned abruptly to get the paper on the far counter and handed it over to her. "By the way, I got the paper. And there wasn't a body outside." They shared a macabre sort of smile at the memory of the last time he made her pancakes in her own home.

She rifled through the paper the sports page before he could get it, and he settled instead for Page Six. He watched her for a moment, loving the disheveled Kate in her jammies reading the paper intently and comfortable ease between them along with a faint tension in the glances they kept stealing at each other over the top edges of their papers. Eventually, he shook Page Six open, and skimmed the articles until he made a startled yelp of exclamation and his face rearranged itself in complete disbelief. "I'm not on the New York's Most Eligible Bachelor's List anymore!"

She smirked at him, and opened her mouth to tease him before his next words forestall her. He exclaimed, "You're Bachelorette Number 10!"

She snorted. "Right, Castle. Very funny." She was convinced it was a joke. It couldn't be real. That would be ludicrous. She reached out to make a grab for the paper, which he eluded handily as he started to read out loud in his own disbelieving tone, "New to the list this year is the beautiful muse for the famous author Richard Castle. NYPD Detective Kate Beckett was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine for inspiring the kickass character Nikki Heat, with a movie scheduled to hit the big screen based on the book Heat Wave. This real-life heroine has been lauded by the Mayor for cracking some of New York's toughest murder cases..." He stopped reading to add in an aggrieved tone, "What about me?"

She was torn between horror and laughing at the priceless expression on his face. Laughing won out first, because he was really adorable at the moment, his ego still occasionally needed puncturing, and she was still living in denial about the whole thing. She stopped laughing enough to pick up her phone as it started to ring, still grinning at Castle - though her face sobers in the midst of the conversation that brings home all-too-clearly the fact that her status as Number Ten is not a joke. "Beckett. Oh, hi Dad…Yeah…I just saw it. I'm…umm… glad you think so…I'm doing great…Yes…Thank you…I'll call you later, okay?...Love you, good-bye."

His phone started ringing in the midst of her call, and he grabbed for it, answering with, "Yes Mother. I saw it…I know I'm not on the list anymore!...Well, I'm glad Alexis is at least happy…Yes, she's here…No! We didn't!...Listen, I'm just going to..umm...Call you back later. Good-bye, Mother!" He hung up, glaring at his phone.

Her phone rang again scant seconds later as she finally tore the paper from him to validate it for herself. The article is real, spelled out in all its black and white glory. The icing on the cake was that they'd somehow gotten one of the shots of her holding Ying-Ying right next to the tagline of "NYPD Heroine." She snatched her still-ringing phone and snapped, "Beckett." This time she listened for a moment and then just hung up. "That was Ryan and Esposito," she said, gritting her teeth. She closed her eyes and inhaled a calming breath before fixing Castle with a fierce this-is-your-fault look. "Between Naked Heat, Ying-Ying*, and now Bachelorette No. 10, I'm not getting made fun of at all."

He was still recovering from the blow about not being on the list anymore, but at least tried to shoot her placating look accompanied by a faux-innocent smile. "Maybe you won't be Bachelorette No. 10 for long?"

She threw the Times at him. "I don't even want to know what you think you mean by that," she retorted acidly, embarrassment flushing her cheeks as she speared a piece of pancake with more force than the poor pancake warranted.

He was about to reply when he fixed his eyes on her mouth. He reached out to lift a tiny smudge of sticky syrup from her bottom lip before she could lick it off, and his thumb just lingered instead, tracing the line of her lower lip. Whatever he was going to say slid out of his head. The mood shifted to smoky in moments. Subtle details came into sharp focus in his awareness - like the quickened rise and fall of her breasts beneath the thin tank top, the slow blink of her eyes, the way she'd gone still, and the abrupt silence that was no longer an easy or teasing one. Her dark eyes were wide, aware.

She held his gaze, something daring and challenging the way she looked at him, in the slight tilt to her head and in the way she didn't draw back from that single point of contact between the rough pad of his thumb and the softness of her lower lip.

He swallowed, unwilling to be the first to look away, and really, he just didn't feel like he could.

The alarm beep on his phone went off abruptly, and he swore under his breath. "I'm supposed to take Alexis to finally meet Chet." His voice was a little rougher than he expected it to be.

He could feel her lips curve up in a smile before his thumb dropped away to briefly trace the line of her jaw. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he registered the incredible softness of her skin. He loved the line of her jaw. It spoke to the strength of her and the stubbornness too, and yet…so soft.

"It okay, Castle…Rick. You should probably get going." She still wasn't used to his first name coming first to her tongue.

He shook his head, still holding her eyes. "Can I cash the raincheck in for tonight?"

She just nodded, and he made his way around the counter separating them. He slowly leaned in…kissed her cheek…kissed the bare corner of her mouth, and drew back with his hand in his pocket, already jingling car keys. "See you at seven."

She stared at the door as it shut behind him, a little disbelieving, a little disappointed, and left just wanting...a little more. She let out a long, slow exhale as her body abruptly reminded her it'd been holding its breath.

He'd been driving her nuts since the day they met, so why should that change?

On the other hand, sometimes turnabout was fair play.

A little, wicked smile lighted her face...right until her gaze fell on the paper again and she swore. She really was never going to live this all down.

*Author's Footnote: In "Inevitable", Castle adopts a baby panda cub named Ying-Ying for Kate as a precinct mascot, and the panda shows up at the station for a photo op. That day is commonly known in the precinct as the Day of the Panda. Ying-Ying will definitely be appearing on their third outing, unless other inspiration gets in the way.

Author's Note: I feel like I've neglected Kate's POV. I may try writing the next chapter from that one. The first segment felt a bit flat to me, so we'll see how it continues.

Thanks for all the support from my first fic. :) The reviews, fav stories, etc. have brightened my days and are really motivational. Feedback is very welcome, and it's been a lovely way to welcomed to this community. I've been posting a bunch as it's now my new favorite form of procrastination, but I do have a heavy workload this week so we'll see how the frequency goes.