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| 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐞 |

It's almost 3 AM when I appear at Castle's house.

He doesn't know I'm here which is unfortunate for him since he doesn't have time to run away from me.

I take out my phone and ring him.

He answers within seconds, surprising me.

"Were you awake?" I question, furrowing my eyebrows.

There's silence for a while on the other end.

"Holly?" His voice sounds low and throaty.

There's another second of silence before he lets out a low curse. "I thought it was my alarm. Why did you call me this late at night?"

"I'm taking you somewhere."

"Huh?"

"Put on your darkest clothes and meet me outside," I say.

"Goodnight, Holly." He hangs up.

I pull my phone from my ear, looking at the screen in disbelief before dialling his number again.

He declines my call.

I call again.

He declines it.

I call again.

He declines it.

I call again.

Guess what he does next? He declines it.

The war doesn't stop as I keep calling him and he declines it.

Finally, he answers me.

"What do you want?" He snaps through the phone.

"Hellooo Castle," I say in my sweetest voice. "Having a good night's sleep?"

"Im hanging up."

"Wait!" I stop him.

He makes an annoyed noise.

"Im giving you five minutes," I say as I adjust the schoolbag on my shoulders. "Quickly get dressed and meet me outside."

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I meant no, Holly. I'm not meeting you outside. I'm gonna hang up and go back to sleep and you should also do the same."

"Be outside in five or I'll ring the doorbell," I warn.

There's silence for a while.

I hear rustling on the other end of the phone before Castle's loud baffled voice booms in my ear.

"What the fuck are you doing standing outside my house looking like a robber!"

I step back and look up towards the windows where I see the faint outline of Castle's body.

I grin and wave my fingers at him.

He steps back from the window, "Go back, Holly." He says through the phone.

"My mind is too difficult to change right now," I respond. "Just come outside."

He sounds wary. "Why?"

"We're going somewhere."

"No, we're not." He quickly declines.

"Yes, we are. It's high time to loosen the stick inside your ass. You'll be on your knees, thanking me for showing you this wonderful thing called Life."

I can imagine him rolling his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Go back home or I'll call your dad telling him that you snuck out."

I narrow my eyes. "You wouldn't."

"Don't test me."

A snicker escapes my lips, "Oh Castle, Castle. What do you think will happen if you call my dad?"

"What do you mean?" He asks, confused.

"Let me rephrase that question," I grin, running my tongue over my teeth, "What do you think I'll do to you if you went against me and called my dad?"

He goes silent.

After a while, he asks silently. "Are you threatening me, Holly?"

I shrug. "You're the one who threatened me with Dad first."

He sighs, muttering. "Why are you like this?"

"If you mean why am I this perfect, then the answer is because I just am," I say. "I'm giving you five."

He gives out a tiny frustrated groan before hanging up.

Satisfied, I slide my phone back into my black hoodie's pocket and wait for Castle to come down.

After exactly five minutes, the front door of his house opens and he steps out, wearing his hoodie with the hood over his head.

He glares when he sees me. "One day someone's going to call the cops on you."

My grin is easy when I look at him. "Who said they haven't already?"

He blinks. "Tell me your joking."

"I'm not a Jokester, Castle."

He stares at me in disbelief, blinking. Then he just shakes his head, as if saying 'Fuck it, I'm not gonna bother myself with this'.

"So, where are we going?" He questions, instead.

"On an adventure," I reply, turning around and starting to walk down the road.

Castle catches up to me with his long legs, his head bent as he tries to look at my face. He frowns. "What adventure?"

"The thing is Castle, if you know what lies ahead of you, it's not called an adventure."

"Holly?" Castle raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, Tutor?"

He watches my face, warily. "Are you going to do something illegal?"

"What kind of a question is that?" I give him a ridiculous look.

He relaxes slightly. "No, because I can't trust you—"

"We are going to do something illegal," I say.

He halts. "What?"

"It's more like a necessary job that needs to be done."

"Holly!" Castle hisses, hurrying up as I quicken my pace. "Illegal means you're not supposed to do it!"

I shrug. "Just because it's written on paper that it's illegal doesn't necessarily mean it is actually illegal."

"It exactly means that!" He yells.

"Shush down, will you?" I give him a pointed look. "Don't wanna wake anyone up."

He glares at me. "What illegal stuff are we doing?"

"Nothing big," I assure him.

He gives me a waiting look.

I let out a sigh. "I promise it's nothing big. Even if we get caught, I'll take the full blame and let you slip out."

"That doesn't assure me in the slightest."

"See what I mean? The stick is too thick inside your ass."

"Stop saying that." He snaps. "Also why the hell did you call me for whatever you're doing?"

I shrug. "I didn't wanna be alone tonight."

He raises a confused eyebrow.

Honestly, I don't mind being alone, but tonight something was wrong.

There was a nagging feeling of slight helplessness and it kept me awake. I don't know why. And I hated it. So to help that, I picked up this nighttime adventure.

But halfway there, I realized the nagging feeling kept bothering me. So to help more with that, I decided to call the only person I could think of who would be useful.

Sure there was Riley and Sean, but in front of them, I'm two different versions of myself. Riley sees me as someone completely invincible and Sean sees me as a hardcore person.

The only person who has seen almost all of me was Castle. He might be snappy and annoyed with me most of the time, but I always almost enjoy the time I'm with him.

He holds a different version of me against me but he doesn't constrict his thinking when I show him bits of myself.

So I changed routes and headed to his house.

"What are we even doing? Why are you dressed like that?" Castle questions.

"To play the part of course."

"What do you mean?" He furrows his eyebrows.

"You'll see."

He gives me a suspicious look.

"Relax, Castle," I drawl out. "Trust me, you'll enjoy this. You'll actually be thanking me."

His suspicious look doesn't go away but it does wear off a little.

"If anything happens it's completely your fault." He warns.

"Absolutely," I promise.

"Are you not gonna tell me where are we going?"

"Nope."

His lips move to ask another question but instead, he sighs, giving up. "Sometimes I wanna strangle you."

"Kinky." I wiggle my eyebrows at him.

He shoots me a glare.

"I promise you," I tell him. "This moment won't come again in your life. So you better bet that you'll enjoy it."

His suspicious look is back on but he doesn't argue or question me instead he mumbles a defeated "Alright."

We walk in silence after that, into the dark roads.

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

"We're breaking into someone's house!" Castle's yell has me wincing.

"Shh!" I glare at him before I try to get the locks to the backdoor of the house to open as quietly as possible with my lock picks. 

"Whose house even is this?" He demands.

"Shhhh!" I shush him louder. "You'll get us caught," I whisper, gritting my teeth.

"Why the hell are we breaking into someone's house?" He hisses, angrily behind me.

I ignore him and instead focus on the task.

After a few minutes, I hear the satisfying click.

Shooting Castle a grin, I open the door and step inside.

When I realize Castle isn't following close behind me, I turn around to see him standing at the doorway, giving me a very unhappy glare.

"We shouldn't do this." He states.

"Come in before you let the cold air in and make anyone suspicious." I hiss.

His glare doesn't waver.

We both stare at each other for what seems like minutes before he finally gives up and reluctantly steps inside the house, slowly closing the door behind him. We're in the kitchen right now.

"You are so going to jail for this." Castle points a finger at me.

"Only if we get caught," I reassure him, before doing a quick scan of the bottom floor. There's no one downstairs and the lights are all closed. The garage's empty meaning her parents aren't at home. Perfect. Makes things less complicated.

"Come on." I gesture with a tip of my head for Castle to follow me.

We creep into the living room and I do a quick search inside the drawers and shelves as quietly as possible. There's no noise coming from upstairs which means Maddy bitch is asleep.

At least I hope she is. If she catches me inside her house, it's all done for me.

Castle hovers right behind me, like an anxious nervous ghost. I can feel him breathing down my back and can feel him tense whenever the wood creaks a bit beneath our feet. If we weren't supposed to be quiet right now, I would've laughed at his nervousness.

After finding nothing on the bottom floor, I decide to move upstairs. Before I can take a step up though, Castle latches onto my wrist. I look back.

"Are we stealing something?" He asks in confusion.

"What on earth would I want to steal?" I ask.

"Exactly why I'm confused. Why are we here then?"

I turn to face him, giving him my mischievous smile. "We're here to look for dirt."

His brows crease in confusion. "Dirt?" He whispers.

I nod. "I need to take care of a certain bitch on my team. And to do that, I need to find some dirt on her."

Castle gives me a serious look. "That's a wrong thing to do, Holly."

"Look at you being such a good boy." I ruffle his hair.

He jerks away from me.

"It would've been wrong if I planted something false to get her kicked out. But I'm not doing that, aren't I? I'm just trying to find a tiny secret of hers to blackmail her with so that she leaves." I explain to him.

"You're one twisted bitch." Castle states.

"Thank you." I grin. "You can let go of my wrist now."

He looks down and realizes he'd been holding onto my wrist since he grabbed me.

"Hrg!" He snatches his hand away as if it caught on fire.

"Let's go." I motion up the stairs and soon we're climbing up.

I know which room is Maddy's after I did a light stalk on her social media accounts where she posted pictures and selfies with her house in the background.

Before entering her room, I peer through other rooms in the house. There isn't a single soul here...which is weird since Maddy has two siblings. A younger sister and an older brother.

Her older brother could be outside doing late-night stuff so I don't give too much attention to his absence.

I frown in confusion as I pause in a bedroom.

"What happened?" Castle asks as he takes in my face.

"Her little sister should've been here in bed," I whisper as I look at the princess-themed bed where the blanket is halfway thrown down. "If she's not in bed meaning—"

A tiny gasp has Castle and me whirling to face the doorway.

A tiny girl barely the age of six, stands by the door, her small pink mouth open in a gape as she stares with wide brown eyes at me and Castle.

"Well, shit." I curse under my breath.

"Tell me you have a plan," Castle mutters down to me, as he warily stares at the girl as if expecting her to erupt into a loud blaring siren.

I stare at her, watching her eyes. There's no fear in them. She's entranced as she stares at me then moves her head farther up to take a look at Castle.

I pull my lips into a sweet velvety smile. "Hi, sweetie," I say, softly. "Having a good night?" 

She stares at me, her long brown hair cascading down her shoulders to her waist.

I take a small step towards her, slouching my shoulders so that it makes me look small. Standing right in front of her, I crouch down until I'm at eye level with her.

She stares at me with stars in her eyes as if she's seen an angel.

"Are you real?" She asks me in a dreamy breathy voice.

I tilt my head at her, my expression gentle. "Do you want me to be?"

She reaches out with hesitant hands to take a lock of my golden hair between her fingers. "Are you an angel?" She asks.

Oh boy, she does see me as an angel.

Instead of breaking her heart, I nod. "I am, and you must stay quiet, alright? Angels can't stand it when someone not special looks at them."

"You think I'm special then?" She gasps.

I nod, enthusiastically. "Very."

"Who's he?" She points a tiny finger in Castle's direction.

"Who do you think?" I ask.

"Your Prince?" She guesses.

I hide a chuckle as I nod. "Yup. You're so smart."

She grins at me, happily.

"Are you here to make me an angel too?" She questions, her eyes lit up by childish innocence and excitement.

"Who said you aren't already?" I smile, tucking her hair behind her ear. She blushes.

"Are you and your prince married like in the fairytales?" She asks.

I glance at Castle before looking back at her. "He doesn't want to marry me."

Her smile crumbles and tears spring to her eyes. Oh shit. "Why not?"

"Uh..." I try to think of an answer before deciding to throw Castle under the bus. "Ask him!" I jab a finger at Castle.

He widens his eyes, taken aback before he shoots me a glare.

"Why don't you wanna marry her?" Her bottom lip trembles as she looks at Castle.

Castle scratches the back of his neck, as he tries to come up with an answer. "Uh...because...because..." He trails off before his eyes light up as he thinks of something. "I couldn't find anyone to host our wedding! Yeah, that's the reason."

"Oh." The little girl's mouth opens in realization.

Castle nods, coming near us and looking down at her. "It's sad." He says.

She turns towards me, putting her tiny hand on my shoulder. Her voice sounds excited and bubbly when she says, "Don't worry, Angel! I'll make you both marry! I'll give you your happily ever after!"

Castle pales. "W-what?"

I discreetly elbow his knee for him to act normal.

I give the girl a forced smile. "You will?"

She nods, rapidly. "I make Princess Poppy and Branch marry all the time! They're married seven times now." She bounces on her feet excitedly, as she points at her stuffed toys.

"How sweet," I comment, forcing my smile to not slip.

Oh fuck, how are we going to get out of this mess now? It'll be too late before I get rid of this delusional child and search the house. I'll just have to give up and plan for some other convenient night.

"Come on!" The girl grabs mine and Castle's hands and pulls us to her bed. "Sit down." She makes us sit beside each other as she stands before us, looking up at us with wonder in her eyes.

Castle and I share a helpless look.

The girl walks over to her toy basket and rummages through it. I wince when her toys make a rattling noise. I hope Maddy doesn't wake up and comes to check on her little sister.

"How are we getting out of this?" Castle hisses to me.

"We don't." I sigh. "We play along or get ready to face one of the worst things ever; Child Tantrum."

He shoots me a look that says, 'This is all your fault'.

I ignore him.

The little girl comes back to us, carrying two Haribo rings that have dirt and dust stuck on them. She hands one to Castle and gives me another one.

She claps her hands excitedly and I wince at the sound again.

"Make each other wear the rings!" She demands, in her cheery high-pitched voice.

I look at Castle as he looks at me at the same time.

"Wanna get married, Tutor?" I raise my eyebrows at him.

"As long as we get a divorce an hour later." He grumbles.

"What?" Heartbreak enters the girl's eyes at Castle's words.

Castle widens his eyes. "I meant as long as we get flowers later." He rushes out.

"Oh." All the sadness vanishes instantly from her eyes.

Castle I look at each other again. There's a hint of annoyance etched on his eyebrows as he looks at me.

"You know?" I lean towards him, whispering. "We can do a lot of stuff within the hour before we get a divorce. Some of those stuff include the very bed we're sitting on."

He jerks away from me. The tips of his ears turn red as he glares at me. "Have shame, Holly. We're sitting on a kid's bed."

"I'm not a kid!" The girl crosses her arm, glaring at Castle.

"I'm sorry," Castle tells her.

"Wear the rings!" She demands.

He gives her a tight-lipped smile, before looking back at me.

An amused smile comes to my face I take in Castle's annoyance. "Oh come on. It's not that bad getting married to me."

"You're right." He nods. "It's the worst."

I roll my eyes at him. "I can be a very good wife."

"Uh-huh."

"Put the ring on her finger! Do it!" The little girl jumps impatiently on her toes.

Castle drawls out a sigh as I hold my hand up to him. He slides the sticky Haribo ring on my ring finger.

"Yay!" The little girl cheers, clapping her hands excitedly.

Then he holds up his hand and I take a look at his very long white fingers that look straight out of a Korean movie. He's one of those guys with the prettiest hands and pink nails.

I slide the ring on his finger.

"You are married now! Yay! Yay!" The little girl dances around the room, throwing her hands in the air, and jumping in pure happiness. "The Angel and her Prince can live happily ever after!"

"This is why I prefer dogs," Castle grumbles, looking at the girl.

I snort into laughter. "Rude, Castle. Plain rude."

He doesn't respond.

The girl finally stops her dancing and points at me and Castle. "Now kiss!"

"What?" Castle and I give out a startled response.

"You're married now so kiss!" She demands.

Castle's eyes snap to me, and his face instantly goes red. "Holly." He whispers.

"It's just a kiss," I assure him.

His eyes are wide, and his hands start to tremble, looking ten times nervous. Oh boy, I don't wanna kiss Castle when he's not ready for it.

"Why aren't you both kissing?" The girl looks between Castle and me. "Don't you love each other?"

"I do. I do." I nod, rapidly when I sense the instability in the girl's voice which could mean only one thing; she's about to start crying.

"So kiss," She says.

"Aren't you supposed to cover your eyes when people kiss?" I give her a look, flashing her a smile.

She blushes. "Mommy and Daddy kiss in front of me all the time. You can kiss too. I promise I won't say Ew."

"That's...reassuring." I sigh.

I look back at Castle and that's when I realize that he's completely stopped moving since the word 'kiss' left the girl's mouth.

"Are you alright?" I quietly ask him.

He looks ten times paler, his body frozen.

He stares at me as if I'm going to clamp his skin with my razor-sharp teeth and take a big chunk out of him.

I can definitely say this guy hasn't been near girls at all.

"Why aren't you kissing?" There's a wobble to the girl's voice now and tears spring to her eyes. "Do you not want a happily ever after?"

"No, sweetie, it's not that, it's just—"

A tear slips down her face.

I look at Castle in alarm.

The girl's bottom lip starts to tremble, and before I know it, I'm grabbing Castle's face in my hands.

I pull him towards me and he lets out a surprised noise. Before Castle can object or pull away, I place my mouth right beside the corner of his lips and angle our faces in such a way that it gives the illusion of us kissing.

Castle freezes in my hands completely, his eyes wide, and his breathing stopped. With him this close to me I can inhale his scent perfectly. He smells sweet and fresh as if he took a shower before going to bed. His face feels narrow and soft in my hands as I hold it close to me.

For a second, only for a second, my mouth twitches to move to the side just by an inch. To let my lips meet his and feel what he tastes like. The urge is so strong, it messes with my thinking for a second.

After a moment, I pull back, leaving a very shocked-looking Castle. I catch him discreetly sniffing the air as if he's trying to catch my scent.

"Now you both are officially married!" The little girl jumps in happiness before she flings her tiny arms over mine and Castle's legs.

I put my hand on her head in return while Castle pats her back.

"I can't wait to tell Mommy this!" She grins.

I tense. "You can't tell Mommy or anyone."

She furrows her eyebrows. "Why?"

"Because if you reveal my secret then we angels die where we are."

She gasps, horrified. "Really?"

I nod, giving her a sad look.

"I will not tell anyone then!" She says.

"You promise?" I ask her.

She nods, holding a hand to her heart. "I always keep my promises."

"Good girl." I grin at her, ruffling her hair. "Want Angel to put you back to bed?"

"Will you stay with me?" She asks, catching onto my arm.

I nod. "Of course. Why not?"

She grins, happily at me.

Castle and I stand up from her bed and let her lie down on it instead. I take a seat beside her and run my fingers through her hair. I kiss her forehead like how Dad kisses mine before I go to sleep.

Within minutes, she's asleep.

"Phew, what a pain," I comment, standing up from the bed and looking at Castle.

"Angel." He snorts.

"Don't be an ass." I glare at him. "Let's just get out of here now. Crybaby over here wasted our time. At least we're married now." I wink at him.

He glares at me, yanking the Haribo ring off his finger and tossing it back into the girl's toy box.

We then creep out of her room, closing the door behind us, softly before making our way downstairs. We escape from the same way we came in and in the next minute, we're back on the road.

"You wasted one hour of my sleeping time." Castle narrows his eyes at me.

"You're still pretty without sleep, so I guess it doesn't matter much," I respond, as we take a turn on the road.

"Don't call me pretty." He glares, his cheekbones tinting pink.

"I kinda had fun, to be honest." I shrug, as I peer at him. "It's not every day you break into someone's house and have a little brat wed you off with Haribo rings."

"She was annoying."

"But she was cute. Better than her bitch of a sister anyway."

"I'm guessing since you didn't find any dirt on her, you're going to go back to her place again?"

"Yup."

He sighs. "I don't get how you have the guts to do this."

I shrug. "When the task comes down to being a necessity, nothing seems wrong."

"What did Maddy do to you?" He asks.

"Except for being a jealous pain in the ass who keeps plotting against me to get kicked out of the Cheer team?"

"That's it?" Castle raises an eyebrow.

I give him an incredulous look. "What do you mean that's it?"

He shrugs. "She's just a jealous person. I don't get why did you bother yourself—and me—in the middle of the night to fucking break into her house."

"Jealous people are dangerous people, Castle," I tell him. "Maddy hates me. It's obvious to everyone. I bet she's also eager to find some dirt on me."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Do you have dirt?"

"Does marrying my tutor at midnight count?" I grin at him.

He rolls his eyes.

"I have secrets," I admit. "Everyone does. But she can't uncover them no matter what she does so it's pointless to worry about her finding it."

My only secrets right now are Sean's secrets. I'm a pretty open person otherwise. I have no past traumas, no tragic backstories or sins that have scarred me. I go by the notion of living a carefree, untroubled life. Secrets make life hard to live. I prefer to keep them as little as possible.

"Do you have secrets?" I peer at Castle.

"Does having urges to strangle a certain blonde count?" He gives me a sideways look.

"Depends on what the certain blonde did," I respond. "What did she do?"

"Except barge into my life and refuse to leave?" He raises his eyebrows. "Oh, she might also be the reason why I might have a criminal record before I turn eighteen."

I chuckle. "She sounds fun."

"She's a brat."

"Oh shush, she's wonderful."

"She's loud, annoying and refuses to give up."

"See? She sounds amazing."

"She's like a hurricane to my peaceful life."

I snort. "You have a life?"

"She's reckless, impulsive and a big disaster that I can't seem to shake myself off." 

"She's," I level him with a pointed look, crossing my arms against my chest "soft and delicate as a cloud."

Castle shakes his head, his lips twitching up. "She's a storm. A big loud storm that threatens to yank me off my feet. She's messy and abrupt."

I narrow my eyes at him.

He looks away, his cheeks tinting pink when he mumbles, "And maybe, quite often, I like storms."

"You're terrible." I shake my head in pity at him. "Now I know why you can't find yourself a girlfriend. Who calls a girl a fucking storm and calls her messy and a disaster? Seriously, Castle you better brush up on your flirting skills."

He glares at me. "I wasn't flirting with you."

"Sure. Sure." I pat his arm. "For what's it worth, I'm touched you at least gave me a chance to critique your flirting skills."

"I wasn't flirting, Holly." He grits out.

"Yeah, no, you were terrible. Want me to give a demo of actual flirting?" I ask.

"No." He quickly says.

"Why?" A grin lights my face. "Afraid you'll actually fall for me?"

He walks ahead of me, shaking his head. "You're way too damn confident in yourself."

I do a short run to catch up with him. "Admit it, you like my confidence."

"As much I like biting off my fingers."

"You can always bite something else," I suggest, giving him a flirty smile.

He ignores me, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and trying to out-walk me.

I'm getting short of breath trying to keep up with his long legs. While he's fast-walking, I'm doing a little run.

"Hurrying to get me to bed already?" I smirk at him.

"Shut up, Holly." He scowls.

"Ooo, look at you commanding me. I didn't know you preferred to be the dominant one."

"Get lost."

"Another command." I fake a moan and to my amusement, a horrified look comes on Castle's face that almost has me bursting out in laughter.

"You're..." When Castle can't find the word he wants to call me, he huffs out an annoyed breath, his face red in exasperation.

"Amazing? Stunning? Sexy? Absolutely gorgeously marvellous?" I bat my lashes at him.

"Shut up."

This time I let out a laugh. "How is it that even when you're completely rude or sour to me, I still manage to have fun with you."

"I am so glad I'm something for you to laugh at." He says, dryly, rolling his eyes.

"I don't laugh at you, Castle. You make me laugh." I state.

He flicks his frown at me. "I don't try to do it purposefully, in case you're thinking that I enjoy my time in making you laugh." 

I wave my hand dismissively. "Of course not. Of course not. You're too much of a busy man to be spending your time on a dumb blonde bitch like me."

He rolls his eyes.

"I can't wait to come to your house tomorrow." I grin at him excitedly. "What will I uncover if I snoop?"

He shoots me a warning look. "You're not snooping."

"A stack of Grinch movies?" I guess.

"No."

"Your childhood Barbie dolls?"

"No." He grumbles.

"Sex toys?"

"No." He gives me a horrified look which makes me laugh again.

I open my mouth to say something else when Castle cuts me off quickly.

"Anddd that's my house. Goodnight, Holly. Thanks for the horrible time. Get the fuck lost." He rushes towards his house.

"Hey!" I jog after him. "Wait up!"

He lets out a frustrated groan, slowly down to a stop before whirling around to glare at me. "Now what?"

"Aren't you so delightful?" I mutter, sarcastically.

He raises an eyebrow at me.

I roll my eyes. "I wanted to thank you."

That catches him off guard. His glare slips. "Thank me?"

I nod. "Even though I'm the one who woke you up and forced you to come with me, I still had fun you know?"

He stares at me, not sure what to say.

A genuine smile appears on my face as I look up at him. "I don't know why I'm so drawn to you."

His breath hitches and his eyes soften as he looks at me but then something flashes in them and suddenly, his guard is up. He gives me only a single nod. "Goodnight."

I tilt my head in confusion. Did I say something wrong? "Goodnight...?"

He turns around and walks away. I watch him unlock his door and step inside the house. He gives me a single glance before shutting the door, leaving me alone to the open night.    

What the heck did I do now?

★・・・・・・★

This chapter wasn't included in the original draft. I wanted Castle to spend one more moment with Holly before we get to the next chapter where Castle states his boundaries CLEARLY to Holly.
But boy, Holly is not someone to expect rejection from...well anyone.

Anyways, I'm in Canada now! Currently in Seton, Calgary. Damn nobody told me it was gonna be this cold 😭 I can't feel my face at all and my fingers are so stiff most of the time. And people here are telling me that this is the normal weather--like what?? IT'S GONNA GET COLDER???

Where are you people from?

Words: 5,000

Date of publishing: 6th April 2023