MorgieSan and I stumbled across a list of date ideas on tumblr one day, and being the awesome person she is, she came up with the idea that we should write Caskett fics based on those ideas.

So here we go: We decided to just post on my account, because it's simpler, (I forward reviews for her chapters to her) so we will take turns writing a chapter each for this based on which ever date idea we choose.

Also for future reference if you happen to actually read the AN on these chapters: hallow777 = Nikki, MorgieSan = Mogie.)

Prepare for fluff.

Date Idea: Go to a major chain bookstore, and leave notes to future readers in copies of your favorite books.

I've never been in Strand Book Store before, as a matter of fact I've never been to New York City before, so I can only provide a general layout of what Google tells me is where in the store. If I get any of those internal details wrong, like which sections are where on the floors, don't hold it against me?

This is obviously a future!fic, and since I can't seem to go a single story without bothering the heckles out of Nikki for something, she gets a holler too. Thanks for the book title!

(As you can probably tell, Mogie wrote this chapter. Even though I was supposed to go first... That didn't really happen though, stupid internet.)

Neither of us own Castle, or the date ideas. They were just randomly found on tumblr and the internet.

Kate linked her gloved fingers with Rick's and slid her free hand around his bicep in an effort to get closer to him. "Where are we going?" She asked, her breath coming out in puffs.

"A bookstore," he laughed, as he nuzzled his nose into the top of her wool hat.

"You're taking me to a bookstore?" She tipped her head up to look at him; her warm and fuzzy winter boots failed to give her those precious extra inches her heels normally did, and she found herself enjoying being so much shorter than him.

He kissed the tip of her nose, and just smiled at her. They swung around a knot of people listening to a group of carolers and continued on down to the corner of 12th and Broadway.

"I love New York at Christmas."

"I love you at Christmas."

"I love you all the time," she teased knocking his side with her elbow.

"I love you too," he murmured against the top of her head. He pulled her to a stop in front of Strand Book Store, and wrapped her into a tight hug. "We're going to leave notes in books."

"Really, Rick? You brought a cop along with you to vandalize property?" She quirked her eyebrow up at him.

"Post-It notes. I brought a stack of Post-It notes, and some pens. We're going to leave notes in our favorite books for whoever buys them later."

She got on her tiptoes and whispered, "That actually sounds pretty fun," before kissing him.

"Glad you think so. " He kissed her again, and released her long enough to find a hand to hold. "Lets go, before one of us freezes." He gave her a gentle tug toward the doors, and they went in and immediately went over to a staircase that would lead them to the third floor.

"It's been years since I've been up here. I think I was still in high school," Kate commented as they weaved around the throngs of people to get deeper into the Rare Book Room.

"It's intimidating. All of these old books. They smell amazing though, don't they?"

"Yeah." She smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist while they made a slow loop around the top floor. Stopping now and then to admire the books on the shelves, but never touching them. After an hour of quiet conversation between the 'oohing' and 'ahhing' over the books they made their way down to the second floor.

"Over here," Kate said, pulling him to the far wall.

"Geek," he whispered into her ear before wrapping his arms around her middle as she flipped through the stacks and rows of graphic novels in front of them.

"Like you have any room to talk," she teased before running across a pristine copy of Watchmen. "I love this one!"

"How is it you manage to get hotter with every passing second?"

She pressed her head back against his shoulder and kissed his jaw. "Give me a pen and note."

He shivered as her breath tickled his neck, but somehow managed to get her what she needed from his pocket.

"Thanks." She scribbled out a quick note on the piece of paper, and after a quick look around she placed the note nearly on the inside cover and slid the book onto the shelf.

She chewed on her bottom lip as they inched their way down the busy aisle, pausing to look at the shelves and leave little notes. By the time they'd made their way back to the stairs again, they'd had to grab a tote bag for the books they wanted to buy. Halfway through the first floor they ran across a section of his books.

"Oh would you look at that. Twenty-five of my favorite books."

"Are they any good?" He teased.

"Oh they're okay, I mean they're not Patterson, or anything, but they'll do in a pinch."

He pulled her to him and growled in her ear. She laughed and kissed his cheek. "They're wonderful, Rick. You have nothing to worry about."

"Glad to know... Hey!" He groused, when he realized she had once again had her hand in his pocket without his knowing it. "You're going to have to teach me that pick-pocketing trick of yours, Kate."

She just grinned at the note she was writing. "Maybe one day, grasshopper."

"Uh-huh, just as soon as pigs sprout wings, right?"

Her response was to pull the note off the stack and stick it to his forehead. While he was reading it she quickly jotted down a note and stuck it into a copy of "Heat Wave."

He plucked the pad from her hands and wrote the words I love you too and stuck the note to her cheek.

She pulled the note from her cheek, and smiled. "Come on, Writer Man," she yawned, "I'm ready to go curl up on the couch with you and good book."

"Lead the way, Extraordinary Woman." He let her cut a path to the registers so they could take their own haul home.

"What's in here, an anvil?" she questioned, after taking the bag from him so she could lean back against his broad chest.

"Two, actually. His and hers." He propped his chin on top of her head and draped his arms over her shoulders.

"I see."

He reluctantly let her go when the line moved forward, and swapped her the bag for his phone. "Find us some place to eat."

Kate wasted no time in finding the number for Hell's Kitchen and making a reservation. "That okay with you?"

"Whatever you want is fine with me. Why don't you go on over to the car and get it warmed up for us?"

"And leave you here to get mauled?" she teased, and held his phone out for him.

"I think I can survive the cashiers," he shot back as he dug into his pockets for the keys.

"You better."

"I love that jealous streak of yours," he whispered before dropping his phone into his pocket and the keys into her hands.

"Just one of many things, right?" She turned her head to the side and gave him a bright smile.

"One of the many, many things," he replied honestly before dipping his head to give her a sweet kiss.

"Make it quick," she whispered before darting out of the store and across the street.

Castle made the purchases, with minor incident, because he would get the one cashier in the whole store who was a fangirl, and hurried to join Kate at the car. He popped open the back door and stowed the bag in the back; making sure he hid the four books on top into the little hideaway compartment in the SUV. "What are you looking at?" he asked coming up to stand beside her at the hood of the car.

"The snow."

He hadn't even noticed the flurries as he moved through them to get to her. "Thank you."

"For what?" She turned to look at him.

"For letting me see you this happy. For letting me make you this happy. For letting me love you."

Kate wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him down for a searing kiss. "Thank you for giving me a reason to be happy."

He couldn't decide if her cheeks were red from the chill or the kiss, but he pulled away and directed her around to the side of the car. "We need to eat before you do that to me again," he explained as he held the door open for her, "Otherwise we'll never make it to dinner."

She laughed and climbed into the car.

They shared a quiet meal over pan seared Chilean sea bass, and grilled vegetables. It was peppered with flirting, joking, and stolen kisses, and topped off with banana empanadas. Rick hauled their bag up, once they got back to the loft, and they sat curled into one corner of the couch picking through their bag of treasures and reading.

One week later Castle was sneaking those four hidden books into his office, where a fifth one lay waiting in his desk drawer, to wrap for Christmas. In the four books he placed post-its with one word written on each, and in the fifth, an advance copy of his latest Nikki Heat book "Keeping Heat," he hollowed out a small space and place a single object inside of it. Once done he stacked the books in a specific order, and tied them together with ribbon. He dropped the books down into a gift bag, and placed it next to the stack of gifts by their front door to take over to her Dad's tomorrow. With a proud smile he went back down the hall to join her in bed.

"Where'd you go?" she mumbled, snuggling into his side and resting her head on his shoulder.

"I had to wrap your present, and didn't want you sneaking a peek at it," he whispered, brushing her hair aside to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Mmmmmokay." She draped her arm over his stomach and tangled her leg in his before drifting back off to sleep.

He played idly with the ends of her hair for a few minutes before joining her in slumber.

The next morning brought a rush of Christmas excitement at the loft. After presents Martha and Alexis went to the kitchen to make breakfast, Castle played with his new 'toys,' and Kate went to shower and get ready to head over to her Dad's house. Two hours later they were loading the gifts into the car, and leaving the city to go join their friends, who may as well have been family, as well as some of Kate's extended family to celebrate the holiday.

Kate gave her Dad an enthusiastic hug when they got there, and greeted a few of her cousins while Rick, Esposito, and Ryan tag unloaded the car. By the time the gift exchanges rolled around a good seat was a hot commodity, so Castle sat down on the floor with his back against the side of Jim's recliner and Kate sat in the 'V' of his legs. Jim, and one of Kate's uncles passed out all of the presents, and everyone watched the three small children in attendance tear through their gifts and cheer over each toy they got.

"What's in the water that makes all of you Beckett girls so cute?" He whispered in her ear while they watched the munchkins. She just blushed and settled back against his chest.

"So, Katie," Ayla, one of Kate's closer cousins, started, "When are you going to get married?"

"Whenever I feel like it," Kate fired back. She grinned when she felt Castle chuckling into her hair.

"Uh-huh," Ayla said, sounding suspiciously like Lanie, both of whom were shooting questioning looks at Castle.

"Be nice, Ayla," her father scolded from across the room, "she has every right to be asking you that same question."

Alexis squatted down next to her dad, and poked him in the side. When she had his attention she whispered, "When are you going to ask Kate to marry you, Dad?"

"Patience, Baby Bird, patience." He gave her a wink, and watched as she rolled her eyes and walked back over to her own little pile of presents.

As the little kids wound down to their last few gifts the rest of the room started opening theirs and Castle pulled the bag full of books around from behind the recliner to place in front of Kate.

"Open this one first?" she asked, turning just enough to look at him.

"Yes, please," he answered wresting his chin on her shoulder.

She turned back and reached into the bag to pull the stack of books out. She untied the ribbon and checked out the titles. "You know I've read all of these right?"

"I know. Except for that one," he gestured to his book, "I knew these were your favorites. Seemed like a good idea."

All five books were hardback, and she took the top book, Keeping Heat, off the stack to examine. The book launch party was going to be in January, and she had read the book, but she was curious to see what the dedication would be. She flipped to that page and rather than finding what she was looking for she found the small hole he had cut into the book. She looked at him quizzically, and pulled the next book off the stack. She flipped it open to it's dedication page, and saw a bright pink post-it note, with the word 'Will' inked in his familiar scrawl. She repeated the process for each of the other three books, and found three different words on their dedication pages: 'you,' 'marry,' and 'me?' She went back to his book, and looked at the ring nestled into the pages.

"Well?" Castle whispered in her ear, "What do you say?" He punctuated the question with a kiss to the side of her neck.

She just kept staring at the ring.

Jim had watched the whole thing unfold, and his apparent interest had the rest of the room watching them too. He broke the fourth wall and urged with a gentle smile, "Kit-Kat, you need to answer him."

She picked the ring up and spun around, as well as she could in their slightly awkward sitting position, to face Castle. Wordlessly, because she couldn't make her vocal cords cooperate, she slipped the ring onto her left hand, and nodded.

"Yeah?" he asked leaning forward.

"Yes," she breathed, finally getting her voice back. "Yes." She smiled despite the tears streaming down her cheeks and closed the distance between them to place a gentle kiss on his lips. Around them everyone cheered, and they broke apart with big smiles on their faces.

"I love you, always," he told her quietly, sincerely.

"Always," she repeated before capturing his lips in another kiss, this one not nearly as gentle, but still well within the realm of appropriate for a room with little kids in it.

"Ewwww, Mommy, she's giving him cooties!" one of the little boys, James, yelled in disgust.

Kate began to chuckle against his lips, and dropped her forehead down to his shoulder. Castle tangled his hands in her hair and held her close.