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| 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐞 |

Dinner went painfully awkward. There are so many things I want to tell Castle. There are so many ways I want to touch him. There are so many ways I want to comfort and assure him.

The only problem? Dad.

He kept talking and talking and talking, completely unaware of the looks Castle and I gave each other.

I hope Castle's ready to tell Dad about us soon because I can't keep up the pretense of him being only my "friend".

"Castle! Tell her about the new job!" Dad perks up in his seat.

Castle swallows the food in his mouth, before speaking. "Your dad, uh, offered me to be a chef in one of his restaurants."

My eyes widen in surprise. "That's amazing!"

"More than amazing!" Dad cuts in between. "You should see Castle at work! He's so fast and efficient with everything. Everyone wants to eat the food made by him."

'I bet it's because they find you hot.' I secretly mouth to Castle.

His cheeks tint pink before he looks down at his food.

"Wait, how long have you been working?" I ask.

"A month now," Dad answers. "He joined almost immediately after the exams. I'm so happy. Talents like yours shouldn't be wasted." He places his hand on Castle's shoulder, giving him a grin.

Castle gives him a small smile back.

I know this means a lot more to Dad since he couldn't follow his passion for cooking and becoming a chef. Problems led to him choosing a job that brought money into the house.

So now, having Castle follow the same passion, must be making Dad so happy.

After dinner, I help clean up the table and the dishes.

I want to be alone with Castle, but Dad doesn't want to leave me alone. He calls me into the living room to sit and talk to him. Castle and I look at each other before shaking our heads with a smile and following Dad to the couches.

A couple of hours later after a hell lot of talking, insulting, and catching up, Dad starts getting sleepy.

"I didn't sleep well last night." He mumbles.

"That's okay. You can take a nap. I think I'll take one too." I respond.

"Let's go." Mom stands and pulls him up before he refuses. "I think I need a nap too."

Dad mumbles a goodbye to me before following Mom to their bedroom.

I wait in anticipation, watching as my parents move toward their room and head inside. Their door falls shut.

Castle and I are finally alone now.

My eyes snap to his, sitting on the couch adjacent to me. Our eyes meet. I waste no second. Jumping off the couch, I race towards him. He moves to stand up but doesn't get to when I jump on his lap, straddle him and press my lips to his.

A low moan forms in his mouth as he kisses me back, his arms tugging me closer to him. My senses erupt in bliss at being able to touch him again. To taste him again. My tongue strokes his needily. My hands rub his back, his chest, raking through his hair. I missed him. I missed him so goddamn much.

I deepen the kiss, pressing myself against him, not wanting to let go at all. His hands roam my back, touching my hair. My head. My face.

Needing to breathe, we finally pull away, panting.

I look at his sharp face, blue eyes, and dark hair. A smile forms on my lips. "You look like you missed me."

He's breathing heavily when he answers. "No one takes my insults as good as you do."

I smirk. "That sounds sexual you know that, right?"

He rolls his eyes. "Shut up."

My smirk softens into a warm smile. "I missed you."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell." His fingers come up to touch my hair, taking a strand between his fingers.

A concerned look comes on my face. "How are you?"

He pauses, the soft look in his eyes disappearing. He breathes out a breath through his mouth. "A lot better than I was."

I bite my lip. "Dad said you...he found you with alcohol."

He looks away from me. "He caught me on a really bad day."

I open my mouth, but he stops me, looking back at me. "I know what you're going to say. And before you do, let me tell you." He inhales. "You don't have to help me."

"What?"

He sighs. "When you were gone I realized how much I started...depending on you. Depending on you to make the pain go away or for you to distract me from it. And you've always been there to help, Holly. I don't know how you handle everything with this perfect life you have. You don't deserve some broken boy to mess it up when your Dad did everything to give you a much better life than he had."

"But it's not—"

He cuts me off again. "I realized that for me to heal from my father's abuse and..." he swallows with difficulty. "...mom's death, I have to do this by myself. I can't move on when there's so much tugging me down."

"But let me—"

"It's kind of a self-journey type of thing," he says, looking at me firmly. "You can't fix me if I myself can't address what the problem is. The problem is that I've been so used to torture and pain that I've learned to suppress it deep within. I realized I need to...let it out. To let go."

There's still that bubbling need to protect him from everything. To make sure no one harms him again. To take all of his problems and crush them.

But...

He's right. I never thought about it that way. Maybe I do need to step back a bit and let him find his way through.

"But if you ever need me, don't you dare hesitate to ask," I warn.

He nods. "I promise."

"You started going to therapy."

"It helps a lot." He says, "I feel...lighter now. I thought everything was in ruins when you left. Like there's nothing ahead for me. But then Elias talked to me and explained things. He suggested therapy and persuaded me to cook dinners with him. Eventually, he asked if I wanted to cook for a lot more other people to keep my mind busy. First, I cooked at your dad's restaurant only for the purpose of keeping me busy. But then it grew on me, and I realized I...like it. I told Elias and he asked me if I wanted to take that up as a permanent job."

A warm affectionate smile comes on my face. I bring my hands up to run my fingers over his cheeks. "I'm so happy for you."

He truly is the strongest person I know.

He gives me a small smile back. "What about you? How was it over there?"

"I...broke a few people's bones then had to wash the entire school's dishes as a punishment."

He blinks at me.

Then blinks again.

"Holly."

"Yeah?"

"That's a disciplinary school," he says.

"Well, to be honest, breaking someone's wrist is normal over there. This one girl bashed a wooden chair on a teacher's head. So that makes me pretty gentle compared to them."

He gives me a 'what the fuck?' look before shaking his head, sighing. "Never mind. Let's forget about it."

"Yup. Let's. I heard you were bullied."

He nods. "I was."

I crack my knuckles. "I need names and details on what they said and did to you."

"Holly." He groans. "You just came back from that school."

"No one will know I did it."

"Don't be rash." He scolds me. "Besides, they don't bully me anymore after I..." His words trail off until he goes silent, pausing with wide eyes.

"Until you what?"     

A sheepish look comes on his face, and he averts his eyes from me. "Remember how your dad and you were teaching me how to fight?"

I nod.

"So I kinda...punched Justin across the face."

"You did what?" I exclaim.

"I accidentally, um, broke his jaw."

"You broke what?"

"Someone recorded it and for a whole month, I was trending online."

"You were what?"

"No one bullied me after that, and Justin got suspended for bullying and harassing."

Wait. Wait. Wait.

What?

Castle punched someone?

Like he raised a fist and just slammed it against someone?

I can't believe it. Castle punched someone. My Castle.

A huge grin splits my face. I take his face in my hands and press a long, hard kiss on his mouth. "I'm so proud of you!"

"I was embarrassed, Holly." He murmurs.

"I'm so, so, so proud of you."

"Only you would be proud of me for breaking someone's jaw." He mutters.

"I'm so turned on right now, you have no idea."

"Me hitting someone turns you on?" He cocks his head.

"Yup."

"You're twisted." He shakes his head, trying to hide a smile.

"Speaking of twisted..." A serious look comes on his face. "My therapist suggested that part of my healing was to open old wounds and heal those first. So a few weeks back, I went to meet my father."

My hands freeze on Castle's shoulders. "Oh."

"He was in a wheelchair with almost half his body bandaged and a lot of cuts healing on his face."

I blow out a breath. "Seriously?"

He tilts his head, looking at me with prodding eyes. "Do you have any idea, why, Holly?"

I shake my head. "Why would I know?"

"Because it happened right after I told you where they lived."

I sit still on his lap, not sure what to reply with.

He cocks up an eyebrow.

"Just to make sure..." I drawl out. "You don't love your father at all, right?"

"No."

"Not at all?"

"Nope."

"So you won't get mad if I say that I was the one who did it?"

"No."

"Then I was the one who did it," I admit.

He remains silent for a while, staring at me with a blank face while I fiddle with my bottom lip between my teeth, waiting for his response.

Then he does something to my utter bafflement. While I'm busy worrying that he's really mad at me for doing something like that, Castle closes his eyes and lets out a small laugh, shaking his head.

My eyes widen, staring at him in confusion. "You're...laughing?"

He meets my eyes with a grin. "You should've felt what I felt when I saw him all damaged and bruised, Holly. I know I should feel bad, but I don't. Fuck, I don't. He hurt my mom. He hurt William. He hurt me. I so badly missed you when I saw him."

"Were you also turned on at the thought of me abusing your father?" I smirk.

He shrugs. "Maybe."

My eyes widen. "Seriously?"

"I wanted to kiss you...deeply."

My hands snake around his neck, leaning closer toward him. My voice becomes low and lustful, drawing out. "We can do that now."

Desire enters his eyes and his arms slowly come around me.

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

We're finally going to tell Dad.

Yesterday after a little fun session, I asked Castle if he finally wanted to tell Dad about us. He agreed after a little hesitation.

So now here we are in the living room with Mom and me standing in front of Castle as a shield, as Dad sits in front of us on the couch.

"I have to tell you something." I start.

Dad looks wary as his eyes flicker between me and Mom. "Why has your mom dialled 911 ready?"

"Precautions," I reply.

"Precautions for what?"

I shrug. "Heart failure or shock coma, something like that."

He frowns. "Wait, what—"

"I need you to remain calm when I tell you what I'm about to tell you."

Behind me, Castle tenses up. He's already wearing shoes in case he has to make a run outside the house.

"What did you do...?" Dad questions, eyeing me warily.

There's no less-shocking way I can put my words into. So I just rush it all out at once. "Castle and I are dating."

Silence falls in the room.

Such heavy, heavy, silence.

The type of silence that makes you go 'Did everyone turn into a statue?'

Dad sits still on the couch, staring up at me.

Then he whispers. "What?"

I swallow, gathering my wits. "Castle and I are...dating."

He blinks. "What?"

"We're dating, Dad. Castle and me."

"What?" He asks again.

I play with my fingers. "We're dating."

"No, you're not." He says, simply.

"We are."

"You're not."

"We are."

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"That'll be incest then." He states.

I pause, blinking. "No...it won't. We're not siblings."

"You are going to be."

I furrow my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I was going to adopt Castle."   

"What?" Castle breathes out from behind, his mouth dropped open in shock.

I look at Mom for confirmation, but she looks equally shocked.

"Elias," She starts gently. "You can't do that now."

"Of course, I can. I'm going to adopt Castle and we're going to be one big happy family."

"You can't do that now, Dad. Castle and I are together—"

"One big happy family." He repeats.

"Dad we can't—"

"One big happy family!" He says, forcefully.

"Dad! You can't—"

He cuts me off by putting his hands on his ears and shaking his head. "No. No. No. No. Take it back! Take it back!"

"That's childish," I grumble.

"I don't care! Take it back!"

"I would but that wouldn't change the fact that Castle and I are still dating."

He removes his hands from his ears, giving me a demanding look. "For how long?"

"Um...it would be six or seven months now."

Life nearly leeches out of him. His eyes pop wide open. "Six-seven months?"

I nod.

"You've been keeping this from me for nearly half a year?" His voice rises. He looks at Mom with wide eyes. "You knew?"

She nods.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He demands.

"Look at the way you're acting." She replies. "There was never a right time."

Dad snaps his gaze back at me. "So you mean this whole time when I let you go to Castle's house alone, when I let you remain with Castle in the living room alone, when I let him go up to your room alone...you both were together?"

A wince comes to my face, and I nod.

His mouth drops wide open. His hands come up to his heart and he falls back against the couch, staring at me and Mom with betrayal in his eyes.

"I think now would be a good time to call 911 for the ambulance," I whisper to Mom.

She nods, matching my wince.

★・・・・・・★

The next chapter has what you've been waiting for ;)

Don't we just loveeee a dramatic dad who makes everything seem so serious? I don't. But I like Elias. And I'll accept anything from him.

How was this chapter??

Words: 2,400

Date of publishing: 19th August 2023