Tagged in a post by elephantstheyneverforget to fill this prompt:
i really want an “i accidentally broke into your house/apartment because my friend lives next door to you and i was in the area, drunk, and i thought i was climbing into the right window and falling asleep on the right couch (and i did wonder when my friend got two cats but i didn’t question it) so now i’m hungover and shirtless in your living room so um hi howya doin” au
The sunlight coming from the windows blinds him, has him burying his face in the sweet smelling pillow beneath his face.
“You’re lucky I haven’t arrested you,” the woman sitting across from him states, sipping from the mug in her hand.
He didn’t think Andrew had a girlfriend, but maybe he was wrong.
The woman arches an eyebrow when he fails to respond, continuing to stare at her like an idiot instead.
“Probably would have if Starsky and Hutch didn’t think you made such a good pillow,” she muses, hazel eyes sliding from his face and he follows the line of her gaze, checking over his shoulder to see two felines curled atop the bottom of his spine.
Oh, he remembers those two from last night, they had twined around his legs in greeting while he was stumbling to the couch and aided him in taking a tumble onto this woman’s sofa. He knew Andrew didn’t have cats, he also knows Andrew wouldn’t have tasteful art on the walls, nor a beautiful woman like her in his living room.
Yep, he’s definitely in the wrong apartment.
Mortified, Rick pushes onto his elbows, wincing at the massive effects of a hangover that have already formed in the forefront of his skull.
“Care to explain yourself, Mr. Castle?” she continues, and at least there’s a smirk on her face, and she knows him apparently. Probably the real reason she didn’t call the cops.
“I’m - wow, I am so sorry,” he attempts to say with as much dignity as he can manage while laying shirtless on her couch with two cats sleeping soundly on his back. No wonder she looks so amused. “My friend lives in this same building on the same floor and I was positive it was his apartment I was breaking into last night.”
“You do know breaking and entering is a felony, don’t you?” she questions, so eerily calm and collected. It makes him feel as though he’s sitting in the principal’s office, hopelessly awaiting his punishment.
But he never once had a principal who looked like this.
“Where did you learn to pick locks anyway?” she adds.
“Oh, I followed this ex con around once and he showed me all the best techniques and…” His sentence trails at the inching rise of her eyebrows. He’s really not making himself look too good. “It was for a book,” Castle tries to add in his defense. “But I swear, I didn’t know this was your apartment.”
The woman narrows her eyes and rises from the armchair, transferring her now emptied blue mug into the sink of a tasteful kitchen.
“So um, my name’s Rick, what’s yours?”
“Why would I share my identity with the idiot who crashed on my couch in the middle of the night and nearly gave me a panic attack this morning?” she questions, her eyes sharp when they cut back to him and he winces under her glare.
“Because… you seem like a lovely woman and I mean, I’ve already won the approval of your cats, so I can’t be that bad,” he reasons, watching the corner of her mouth twitch with the barely discernible hint of a smile.
“My cats are apparently bad judges of character,” she muses and he huffs in mock offense, twists awkwardly on the couch to stroke his hand over one of the multicolored cats back, grinning when it purrs in approval.
She hums a noncommittal noise, but when he glances towards again her, she’s padding back into the living room, coming towards him this time.
“Here,” she murmurs, offering him two aspirins from the palm of her hand that he brushes with his fingertips with as he accepts the pills.
“Kate,” she relents on a sigh and he’s grown so enamored with this woman over the last ten minutes that his celebration at learning her name overpowers the force of his headache. “Do you want some coffee, Rick?”
Her tongue clicks over his name in a way that has him wide awake and he carefully sits up, easing the cats from his back and onto the unoccupied cushion of her couch, and snags his shirt from beneath the coffee table while Kate returns to the kitchen.
He studies her as she retrieves another mug from her cabinet, forcing himself not to stare for too long at the long length of her body, the smooth skin and the strong outline of muscles hidden beneath her leggings and t-shirt. Her hair is in a messy bun, her face clean of makeup, and her body clothed in pajamas, but she’s still far more intriguing, far more beautiful, than any of the women he’s met in a long time.
He stands from the couch and they share coffee in her kitchen before she sends him on his way, but not before he asks her out for coffee again.