Ice Bucket Challenge

Castle is feeling charitable.

Castle giggled with glee – perhaps with a little less masculinity than he would have liked. He glanced over his shoulder confirming that no one had heard him anyway. Besides, it was really funny. He supposed as a best-selling novelist he should probably have one of these ice bucket challenge thingies uploaded to YouTube by now. He'd donated, that was the important part, nonetheless, he kind of felt like he owed it to the world to contribute to the hilarity. He'd read a news report recently about a girl screaming so hard from doing it that she'd dislocated her jaw! Not so funny, but definitely a learning experience. It would have been so cool if the whole thing had been around when he'd been writing Frozen Heat, Rook dumping a bucket of ice on Nikki's head and making the title literal. Fun, fun. Speaking of Beckett, kind of, she sure was taking her time in the shower. Castle checked his watch and shrugged, they still had plenty of time before their dinner reservation.

Beckett watched the steam rise above the warm water, taking the day's tension with it. It had been a long week, she was looking forward to an intimate meal. She wasn't quite ready to leave the serenity of the shower just yet though. She closed her eyes and let the cool tiles take her weight as she leant into them. Peace.

She heard a squeak as the door to the bathroom opened and a small smile graced her lips, Castle's impatience clearly getting the better of him.

"Hi hon…" she started only to be cut off by the sound of her own shriek. Cold. Cold, cold, cold. There was ice cold water running down her body, mixing with the warmth from the shower halfway. She opened her eyes to form a glare. Castle's face was above her, hanging over the wall of the shower as he stood on the toilet. An empty bucket less than subtly clasped in his hand.

"Oh, hey love," he beamed. Beckett's jaw wobbled up and down as she attempted to find words and failed.

"What… what the hell, Castle?" she finally managed.

"Ice bucket challenge, we're doing our bit for charity," he replied, tone solemn, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"I might donate you to charity in a minute," she managed, through tightly clenched teeth. He shrugged and grinned again –

"Still, totally worth it. You screamed like such a girl…"

"I'm going to start locking the door," she murmured, turning off the shower and reaching for her towel.

"You love that it's never boring with me, the unexpected and every turn. No complacency, Beckett."

"Uh-huh. Sure," she pressed a soft kiss to his lips, contrary to the sarcasm of her tone.

Castle should have known better. He really should have known that she wouldn't let it go and leave it at that. Beckett was clever though, it wasn't until three weeks later when he was in the middle of washing his hair that the light in the bathroom flickered ominously before going out. In the pitch black, her footprints echoed around the room in every direction. Castle tried to squeeze himself into the far corner of the shower. It wasn't enough. In retrospect, the biggest takeaway of the experience was that Castle's scream was infinitely more ladylike than Beckett's.

AN: I wish I could say this wasn't based off anecdotal evidence from my own life. My boyfriend thinks (in a completely unrelated to the ice bucket challenge way) that throwing cold water on me in the shower is hilarious. I finally managed to get revenge on him once and then he did the whole light flicking off thing and I've never been more terrified. Fairly certain the experience was psychologically damaging…