PROMPT: Set just after The Limey, Beckett wakes up in a hotel bed completely naked, with an equally completely naked bed companion. She worries she's made some terrible mistake, but when she turns to look at her bed mate, she finds out it's Castle.

(Author's choice if they did the deed or just somehow ended up sharing the bed in the nude).

* I kind of took this and did whatever I wanted with it, so there are some details that are not the same, but mostly, it fits this prompt.

Also, this is the first tumblr prompt I do, so please, forgive me if it sucks.

Enjoy!

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Her head was pounding. Hard. Her brain was pumping rhythmically against her skull and she felt like her eyes were trying to come out of their sockets. Literally.

God. Why did she think that drinking herself to oblivion was a good idea? She lost the count after the seventh vodka. It burnt down her throat at first, but after a few shots, it was like drinking water.

She remembered Hunt's face when she swallowed her fourth shot without blinking, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and handing him the bottle. He had smirked at her and swallowed his drink, putting the glass down and asking if she was trying to forget about something.

Intuitive bastard… Couldn't he leave his detecting skills at the door of the bar and let her unwind in peace?

She was lost in her thoughts about the British agent when she heard a grunt.

Ok. That was weird. She held her breath and tried to turn in the direction of the noise, but she was trapped. There was something holding her in place. Something wrapped around her waist that she was too afraid to look at.

Slowly, as if she was scared of breaking herself if she moved, she raised the sheets covering her and peeked inside, trapping the gasp that came out of her lips against her palm.

Shit!

She was naked - completely naked. And to make things worse, there was somebody's arm wrapped tightly around her middle, and probably, the arm's owner was naked too.

Oh, fuck.

How did she do this? How could she be so freaking stupid?

She let out her breath slowly, trying to calm herself down by controlling her breathing.

Ok, Kate. Now you just need to get up, get dressed and get the hell outta here.

She extracted herself from the strong arm surrounding her, and as carefully as she could, she got out of the bed, pulling the comforter along with her, so she could cover her nakedness with it.

She hadn't taken two steps, when she heard that grunt again.

"Hmmm. Cold!" The voice whined. "Beckett, stop hoarding the sheets."

What the f-…!

"C… Castle?" She asked; almost tripping with the long tails of the duvet. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The writer sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, and frowned. "What do you mean what am I doing here? This is my hotel room, Kate."

"Oh." She muttered, distracted by his use of her name for the first time in what felt like forever. Then, "What? Hotel? What hotel? Where are we?"

"The Four Seasons?" Castle blurted matter-of-factly. "Now, could you hand the comforter back, please? I am freezing here."

Kate shook her head stupidly and licked her lips, feeling her cheeks warm up. Crap. She was not going to live this one up. "Um… I… No?"

"No?" The writer asked dumbfounded.

She huffed. "I can't give you back the comforter, Castle."

She watched as one of his eyebrows raised in his forehead and a smirk bloomed in his face.

"And why is that, Beckett?"

She glared at him with such intensity that she made him flinch. "I think you know perfectly well why, Castle." She barked. "What the hell happened last night?" Her gaze changed from murdering to pleading in a millisecond.

The writer sighed, losing the smirk. "You don't remember?"

Kate shook her head and let herself fall into the armchair by the bed. Her body felt too heavy, suddenly.

With a huff, Castle got out of bed, showing her in the process that he was still wearing his underwear, and walked to the bathroom to retrieve two fluffy bathrobes, handing one of them to Kate. "Here, put this on."

She obliged, wrapping her body in the garment and tying the knot as hard as she could. She was mortified enough without accidentally flashing her partner.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

The writer nodded as he took a seat on the bed facing her, but not really looking in her direction. "By what I could pick from your rambling last night, you went to my place and my mother told you I was here, so you decided to come by and tell me about how I was being a jerk." He muttered. "You were pretty drunk, so I assume you went out with Lanie before crashing my pity party?"

"Um… Not really. But I did drink a lot."

"Hunt then?" He asked, his eyes finally meeting hers. "He seemed pretty interested in you. I can't blame you."

She felt herself blushing again. "I… You left with Jacinda and…"

"Save it, Kate. That's not important anymore." He added shaking his head. "You… You were very talkative last night. I already knew about Hunt. Just wanted to see if you'd admit to it right now."

Kate frowned when she felt a wave of anger growing inside her. "Why would I deny it, Castle? You and I are free to go out with whoever we want, aren't we?"

Rick laughed softly at her offended reply. "That's not what you said last night."

"What… what did I say last night?"

"You said you were sorry."

That was all he said, but it made her heart clench and her stomach travel up to her throat. She was sorry? About what? What the hell did she told him?

"You said you'd never wanted to lie to me and that you couldn't let me fall into another woman's arms without telling me the truth." He paused and smiled briefly. "Then you started taking your clothes off."

Kate tried to swallow down the lump in her throat, but by then it felt like she had swallowed the moon. Could this get any more embarrassing?

"You know, you're normally an incredibly strong woman, but when you're drunk, it's like you become The Hulk." He pointed out with a chuckle. "I had to wrestle you down to put you to bed. Not an easy task…"

"Sorry." She whispered, as if trying to avoid making herself noticeable at all. "Did I hurt you?"

Castle scoffed and shook his head. "No. You went down as soon as your head touched the pillow." He explained. "I took the couch, but you woke up a couple of hours later crying and calling my name." He took a deep breath and looked at her with a pleading smile. "You asked me to stay with you, so I did."

She felt the smile as it grew on her face. He had stayed with her to comfort her, even when he was obviously still mad at her. "So, nothing happened?" She asked, feeling somehow disappointed. "We just slept."

"Yes. We just slept." He affirmed.

After a few silent seconds, he got up from the bed and went to stand by the window, giving his back to her.

"You know, you never said what you were sorry you lied about." He muttered, his breath blurring the glass in front of him. "But I already knew…"

His confession made her heart skip a beat. "You knew? How?"

"I heard you. During the bomb case. You blurted it to a perp." He sighed. "Not the best way to find out that your partner, the woman you love, has been lying to you for almost a year."

Her mouth fell open and her heart, that had been on stand by since he admitted to know the truth, started to beat so fast that it felt like it was going to come out of her chest.

The woman you love… Did he still love her?

"I thought you lied because you didn't love me back. I thought you had been stringing me along just for fun, or maybe because you didn't know how to tell me that I had been fooling myself for years."

Kate licked her lips and left her shelter of her seat to move closer to him. "You thought, but you don't anymore?"

Castle shook his head. "No. I don't." He agreed.

He turned to look at her, his gaze hard and his guard up, but she still could sense how much he wanted to believe he had been wrong to assume she didn't love him back.

"When I got into bed with you, you… You turned to me and smiled and then pressed your hand to my heart and said 'this is mine, please don't take it away from me'. So, I want to believe, Kate. I want to believe that I was wrong all along and maybe you…"

"Love you? Maybe I love you?" She asked, taking another step closer to him. "Castle, I know I've messed things up between us in the worst way possible, but please, never doubt that I do, ok?"

His eyes met hers and she could she the shadows melting away. "That you do?"

"Yes, Castle. I do." She repeated. "I love you."

She was expecting him to hug her so hard she couldn't breathe, or kiss her senseless, or maybe even take her to bed right away and catch up with all the time they had wasted being stupid, but he didn't do any of those.

He just stood there, his eyes stabbed in hers and a lonely tear rolling down his left cheek.

This should be the happiest moment of their lives, and it was breaking her heart.

"Castle?"

He exhaled slowly and wiped away the tears, blushing lightly when he realized he was crying. "I'm sorry. I've waited a long time to hear those words from you."

She gave him a watery smile and nodded, feeling more than a little bit guilty for having made him feel like she didn't want him.

"I've waited a long time to be able to say them to you." She admitted. "I thought I was too late."

He vanished the space between them in two long steps and kissed her then. It was slow and thorough, like he was trying to memorize every single nook in her mouth. It was all she had ever thought it would be and more. So much more.

"You could never be too late, Kate. You know why?" He asked, his lips brushing over hers in a tortuous caress. "Because I can try to forget you, or stop loving you, but that will never, ever happen." He whispered, making her skin stand up in goosebumps. "You are under my skin, in my blood, in the air I breathe. There's no way I could ever stop loving you."

She was the one crying now, but she didn't care. The tears she was crying, they were happy tears. The kind she hadn't cried in a very long time.

FIN