Smallfandomfest entry 1
Title: Syncopation
Author: remorseful_rain
Fandom: Caslte
Pairing/Characters: Javier Esposito/Kevin Ryan
Rating/Category: PG-13 for some mild cussing
Prompt: “reading each other's minds”
Note: This was written in less than an hour and hasn't been heavily edited, so let me know if there is anything horribly wrong with it. Oh, and Esposito kinda acts like a schoolgirl in this so he's a little ooc.
Late New York summer heat still hung heavy in the air despite the fact the sun had disappeared hours ago. Most people were inside with their air conditioners working hard to keep the heat outside.
Despite the less than pleasant weather Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito were still up after a hot case. Beckett had her bubble bath, and Castle went home and wrote about more murder and dead bodies, but ‘the boys’ had their own routine.
“Comein’ up behind ya.” Ryan easily slipped under Esposito’s defending arm and sunk a two pointer. “That’s H-O-R buddy.” He grinned cheekily as Esposito made a face and picked up the ball.
“I still think you’re cheating.”
“How? It’s HORSE.”
“Technically it’s not.”
“It’s our new and improved version of HORSE. I still don’t see how I can cheat. It’s all about the mad skills.”
Esposito snorted and passed the ball to Ryan. “You’re just plain mad.”
“Oh, that one hurt.” Blue eyes grew sly and before Esposito could stop him he had
H-O-R-S.
“Man your game is really off tonight.” Ryan commented, eyeing his partner.
“Tell me about it.” Esposito growled, catching the ball and bouncing it hard against the court.
It was all Castle’s fault really.
It had all started last week when Ryan gotten up to refill his mug and grabbed Esposito’s too. Castle had watched him walk away and turned to the detective.
“You know you guys act like a dating couple.”
Esposito about choked on his own spit.
“Think about it. You can finish each other’s sentences, you do stuff for each other without having to say anything, you’re in perfect sync. You two are like a dating couple that can read each other’s minds.” Castle had done a weird finger wiggling thing around his head, which Esposito had ignored rather choosing to start choking on his spit.
Heavy coughs had brought a concerned Ryan back and Esposito couldn’t quite stop his blush while Castle just chuckled. Thankfully his blush had gone unnoticed.
Things quickly went downhill from there. Their first case was one of the easiest, Jack shot Jill over Bill. They had the perp nailed, or so they thought. While chasing the guy down, because they always ran, Esposito got distracted by thinking about what Ryan would look like without a shirt and promptly tripped over an old beer bottle and took Ryan with him.
Then came and apparent suicide. Ryan and Esposito spent two hours grilling the guy but Esposito was listening to the Sound of Ryan’s voice and wondering what other noises he could make. Needless to say the pair ran over each other’s sentences and couldn’t find the right buttons to push. Beckett came in and broke the guy in five minutes then proceeded to chew her two detectives a new one.
It was all like watching a horrible train wreck, Esposito just couldn’t look away. The dynamic duo were losing their edge. The more he thought about what it would be like, the more he grew disgusted with himself. The bad part was Esposito could feel them falling out of sync and he didn’t know how to fix it. It was all Castle’s fault really.
“Dude you okay?” Ryan’s voice pulled him back to the game at hand.
“Hmm? Yeah.” He dribbled the ball a few times, ignoring Ryan’s concerned look and took off towards the net. Ryan reached for the ball and Esposito fumbled it before grabbing it again, dodging to the side and dunking the ball in.
“H-O” Ryan grinned.
“Don’t rub it in.” Esposito rolled his eyes.
“You okay Javi?”
Esposito’s insides quivered a little. Ever since the whole supposedly dead ex-partner fiasco Ryan had started calling him Javi whenever it was just the two of them hanging out. He could almost hear Castle harping on about the fact they had cute little nicknames for each other.
Esposito just grunted. No he wasn’t fine the whole internal battle of ‘I think I might like my partner, but wait he’s a guy’ and all the pent up emotions that went with it were making him sick to his stomach not to mention the major headache. Might as well face it he was acting like a school girl.
Taking the ball he swerved around Ryan’s flailing arms, faked his way to the net and sunk another basket. The landing was wobbly and Esposito hit the ground hard. Ryan was at his side in an instant hovering over him with concern.
His left arm stung and he turned it so he could see the damage in the light from a streetlamp. It was a shallow scrape nothing serious but it stung like a bitch and was oozing blood slowly.
“Damn.” He hissed flexing his injured arm.
“Stop that.” Ryan growled smacking him upside the head. “You’re just going to make it worse.” He grabbed Esposito’s arm and began examining it for himself. The feel of his partner’s hands on his skin and the thoughts that went with them nearly made him pull away.
“Javier.” Ryan’s voice held a note of command and Esposito looked up.
Ryan’s eyes looked sad and disappointed. Hidden in them he could see a question he wasn’t quite ready to answer.
“It’s nothing.” He growled looking anywhere else and roughly lurching to his feet.
“Javier Esposito don’t start pulling that shit with me!”
The sharp sound of his partner’s voice made him jump and if that hadn’t the fact Ryan was right up in his face would have.
“This past week you’ve been acting strange. On top of that it’s like we’re not on the same wavelength any more. We can’t do anything right when we’re working together.” Ryan always liked talking with his hands and Esposito watched them wave around. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
“No.” With a partnership like there’s any distance between them was like a chasm.
“Then tell me what’s going on Javi.” Ryan’s blue eyes were crackling with anger and Esposito shrank back a little.
“This is all Castle’s fault.” He vehemently muttered to himself.
“What do you mean this is Castle’s fault?” Ryan accused.
Esposito opened his mouth to explain, but closed it again. How could he explain it, especially to Ryan of all people?
Something seemed to click and Ryan’s eyes widened in understanding, then his mouth curved in a mischievous smile. “Is this about the whole dating couple thing?”
“How’d you know about that?”
It was his partners turn to look embarrassed, “Because he had the same talk with me.” He shrugged, “It’s not that big of thing y’know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s okay if you have a crush on me.”
“I don’t-” Esposito sputtered, fighting and failing to hide a blush.
“Because I have one on you too.” Ryan coyly watched his partners reaction out of the corner of his eye.
“What?!” Esposito was choking on his own spit again.
“Breathe man, breathe!” The pounding on his back really wasn’t helping and he waived his partner off.
“I’m fine.” Esposito wheezed.
“I could always give you mouth to mouth.” Ryan wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
They both broke out laughing and the strain between them from the past week evaporated.
“You really do need that arm taken care of. My place is closer.” Ryan offered, watching Esposito face.
“Sure, we can order out and stay up until the wee hours of the morning play madden and me kicking your ass at it.” Esposito easily grinned and his partner returned his mega-watt smile. “Besides you never know, I just might need some mouth to mouth at some point.” Esposito all but sashayed past Ryan without a backward glance and a grin splitting his face.
Author: remorseful_rain
Fandom: Caslte
Pairing/Characters: Javier Esposito/Kevin Ryan
Rating/Category: PG-13 for some mild cussing
Prompt: “reading each other's minds”
Note: This was written in less than an hour and hasn't been heavily edited, so let me know if there is anything horribly wrong with it. Oh, and Esposito kinda acts like a schoolgirl in this so he's a little ooc.
Late New York summer heat still hung heavy in the air despite the fact the sun had disappeared hours ago. Most people were inside with their air conditioners working hard to keep the heat outside.
Despite the less than pleasant weather Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito were still up after a hot case. Beckett had her bubble bath, and Castle went home and wrote about more murder and dead bodies, but ‘the boys’ had their own routine.
“Comein’ up behind ya.” Ryan easily slipped under Esposito’s defending arm and sunk a two pointer. “That’s H-O-R buddy.” He grinned cheekily as Esposito made a face and picked up the ball.
“I still think you’re cheating.”
“How? It’s HORSE.”
“Technically it’s not.”
“It’s our new and improved version of HORSE. I still don’t see how I can cheat. It’s all about the mad skills.”
Esposito snorted and passed the ball to Ryan. “You’re just plain mad.”
“Oh, that one hurt.” Blue eyes grew sly and before Esposito could stop him he had
H-O-R-S.
“Man your game is really off tonight.” Ryan commented, eyeing his partner.
“Tell me about it.” Esposito growled, catching the ball and bouncing it hard against the court.
It was all Castle’s fault really.
It had all started last week when Ryan gotten up to refill his mug and grabbed Esposito’s too. Castle had watched him walk away and turned to the detective.
“You know you guys act like a dating couple.”
Esposito about choked on his own spit.
“Think about it. You can finish each other’s sentences, you do stuff for each other without having to say anything, you’re in perfect sync. You two are like a dating couple that can read each other’s minds.” Castle had done a weird finger wiggling thing around his head, which Esposito had ignored rather choosing to start choking on his spit.
Heavy coughs had brought a concerned Ryan back and Esposito couldn’t quite stop his blush while Castle just chuckled. Thankfully his blush had gone unnoticed.
Things quickly went downhill from there. Their first case was one of the easiest, Jack shot Jill over Bill. They had the perp nailed, or so they thought. While chasing the guy down, because they always ran, Esposito got distracted by thinking about what Ryan would look like without a shirt and promptly tripped over an old beer bottle and took Ryan with him.
Then came and apparent suicide. Ryan and Esposito spent two hours grilling the guy but Esposito was listening to the Sound of Ryan’s voice and wondering what other noises he could make. Needless to say the pair ran over each other’s sentences and couldn’t find the right buttons to push. Beckett came in and broke the guy in five minutes then proceeded to chew her two detectives a new one.
It was all like watching a horrible train wreck, Esposito just couldn’t look away. The dynamic duo were losing their edge. The more he thought about what it would be like, the more he grew disgusted with himself. The bad part was Esposito could feel them falling out of sync and he didn’t know how to fix it. It was all Castle’s fault really.
“Dude you okay?” Ryan’s voice pulled him back to the game at hand.
“Hmm? Yeah.” He dribbled the ball a few times, ignoring Ryan’s concerned look and took off towards the net. Ryan reached for the ball and Esposito fumbled it before grabbing it again, dodging to the side and dunking the ball in.
“H-O” Ryan grinned.
“Don’t rub it in.” Esposito rolled his eyes.
“You okay Javi?”
Esposito’s insides quivered a little. Ever since the whole supposedly dead ex-partner fiasco Ryan had started calling him Javi whenever it was just the two of them hanging out. He could almost hear Castle harping on about the fact they had cute little nicknames for each other.
Esposito just grunted. No he wasn’t fine the whole internal battle of ‘I think I might like my partner, but wait he’s a guy’ and all the pent up emotions that went with it were making him sick to his stomach not to mention the major headache. Might as well face it he was acting like a school girl.
Taking the ball he swerved around Ryan’s flailing arms, faked his way to the net and sunk another basket. The landing was wobbly and Esposito hit the ground hard. Ryan was at his side in an instant hovering over him with concern.
His left arm stung and he turned it so he could see the damage in the light from a streetlamp. It was a shallow scrape nothing serious but it stung like a bitch and was oozing blood slowly.
“Damn.” He hissed flexing his injured arm.
“Stop that.” Ryan growled smacking him upside the head. “You’re just going to make it worse.” He grabbed Esposito’s arm and began examining it for himself. The feel of his partner’s hands on his skin and the thoughts that went with them nearly made him pull away.
“Javier.” Ryan’s voice held a note of command and Esposito looked up.
Ryan’s eyes looked sad and disappointed. Hidden in them he could see a question he wasn’t quite ready to answer.
“It’s nothing.” He growled looking anywhere else and roughly lurching to his feet.
“Javier Esposito don’t start pulling that shit with me!”
The sharp sound of his partner’s voice made him jump and if that hadn’t the fact Ryan was right up in his face would have.
“This past week you’ve been acting strange. On top of that it’s like we’re not on the same wavelength any more. We can’t do anything right when we’re working together.” Ryan always liked talking with his hands and Esposito watched them wave around. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
“No.” With a partnership like there’s any distance between them was like a chasm.
“Then tell me what’s going on Javi.” Ryan’s blue eyes were crackling with anger and Esposito shrank back a little.
“This is all Castle’s fault.” He vehemently muttered to himself.
“What do you mean this is Castle’s fault?” Ryan accused.
Esposito opened his mouth to explain, but closed it again. How could he explain it, especially to Ryan of all people?
Something seemed to click and Ryan’s eyes widened in understanding, then his mouth curved in a mischievous smile. “Is this about the whole dating couple thing?”
“How’d you know about that?”
It was his partners turn to look embarrassed, “Because he had the same talk with me.” He shrugged, “It’s not that big of thing y’know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s okay if you have a crush on me.”
“I don’t-” Esposito sputtered, fighting and failing to hide a blush.
“Because I have one on you too.” Ryan coyly watched his partners reaction out of the corner of his eye.
“What?!” Esposito was choking on his own spit again.
“Breathe man, breathe!” The pounding on his back really wasn’t helping and he waived his partner off.
“I’m fine.” Esposito wheezed.
“I could always give you mouth to mouth.” Ryan wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
They both broke out laughing and the strain between them from the past week evaporated.
“You really do need that arm taken care of. My place is closer.” Ryan offered, watching Esposito face.
“Sure, we can order out and stay up until the wee hours of the morning play madden and me kicking your ass at it.” Esposito easily grinned and his partner returned his mega-watt smile. “Besides you never know, I just might need some mouth to mouth at some point.” Esposito all but sashayed past Ryan without a backward glance and a grin splitting his face.