A/N: I was on the bus home and saw a post on tumblr that basically said what if on your 18th birthday, you woke up with the first words your soulmate would say to you tattooed on your body so you'd know when you met them. It then had an addition with someone saying 'Kate waking up with "where would you like it" and being really confused.' So, I thought I'd write it!

PS: we're assuming Kate didn't go and get her book signed like Sorensen mentioned ;)

This chapter will probably be quite short, but if it's well-received then I'll keep it going.

It was one of those things. Like how water had no taste..it's just tasted like water. There wasn't a real explanation for it, it just happened - on your 18th birthday you woke up with the first words your soulmate would say to you tattooed on your body. It was somewhere hidden; as in covered by everyday clothing, in an attempt to stop anybody trying it on - one tended to assume that at least some words had been exchanged before the other person had the chance to see underneath the clothing.

It was a strange way of going about things but it was all people had ever known. It had been happening for as long as could be remembered, no one could remember a time when it didn't happen. For some, it was exciting - with every new person they met they waited anxiously for what they would say first, wondering if this could be the person they were to spend the rest of their lives with. And if it didn't work out at first - well, they knew it would in the end, once they realised they were the one with the tattoo of their words.

For others, it was a source of absolute torture. Who wanted to go through life, wondering if the next person they met would be 'the one'? And what happened when you got to say, 35 and you still hadn't met that person? What if they'd been killed in a freak accident before they got the chance to meet?

You could be in a relationship with anyone, of course - it might seem silly to some, being a relationship with someone knowing it wouldn't last, but the majority of people didn't want to spend their whole life searching for someone when they didn't know when it would be - it would happen when it happened and that's how children were brought up. They were told to not go searching for love, let love find you. Because like their parents and their parents before that said, it could happen when you we're least expecting it and nothing would ever be the same after that.

It was okay for some, with their less-generic tattoos, things you didn't generally hear as the first words from someone you met - but for Richard Castle, his tattoo said "Mr Castle," and that was it. His name! Of course, given that on his eighteenth birthday when he'd first seen the tattoo, he was a little confused - he was still Rick Rogers at that point, hadn't decided on his pen name and to be fair, he didn't know if the tattoo had encouraged it or if it would have happened whatever the tattoo said, but that's what it said. It had been exciting for him at first, especially once he'd published his books, but the novelty soon wore off - 'Mr Castle' tended to be the first words a lot of people said to him. So he gave up looking, figured the only way he'd ever know if he'd met his soulmate was when he discovered the first words he said to her were tattooed on her body.

Anyway, it wasn't as if his mom was with her soulmate. She said she'd met him - it was his father, but he'd had to leave and she hadn't seen him in over forty years. So what did it matter if you had a soulmate out there somewhere? His mother was proof that it wasn't always a happy ending.

Kate Beckett was one of the luckier ones if you like, she woke up on her eighteenth birthday with the words "where would you like it?" Tattooed on her body, to which she had been thoroughly confused. Who was going to ask her where she wanted something before they even said hello, or said their name? But at least she had more of a chance of knowing than some, imagine having your name or something tattooed on you! You'd spend everyday wondering if the person who had just said your name was your soulmate.

Kate wasn't too bothered either - well her parents had been each other's soul mates and look what had happened. Her mother had been killed when Kate was nineteen and her father had never got over it. She used to catch him sometimes, in the months after her mother died just staring at his tattoo, knowing it had been the words her mother had first spoken to him and knowing he'd never hear her voice again. So she for one wasn't overly bothered about meeting her soulmate - if she didn't then she wouldn't be hurt when it all came crashing down.

And so, as it came to that night at the book launch for Castle's last Derrick Storm novel, he didn't think anything of it when the beautiful brunette said, "Mr Castle," and he didn't think anything of it when she then introduced herself as the police. He didn't even notice the look of shock on her face when he said "where would you like it?"

The second Kate heard those words, she almost turned around and ran straight back out - it couldn't be him, could it?

A/N: let me know what you think, I know it's crazy and weird but I couldn't get it out of my head! Longer chapters will be up if you enjoyed this, and I'll take it back and do it from their birthdays, when they first got the tattoo and subsequent relationships etc.

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