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Title: Running Hot and Cold
Series: Life
Fandoms:Castle
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, Romance, Fluff.
Warnings: Slash, AU, genre!crack, zombies, naughtiness, boys in bathrooms, PWPish, unbetad.
Characters/Pairings: Javier Esposito/Kevin Ryan
Wordcount: 663
Summary: Javier's condition meant their relationship was one of constant compromise, but not all of those compromises were a burden... Another angst-fluffish ficlet from the Life 'verse.
Details: Takes place in the same universe as "Quality of Life" (i.e. that weird AU where Javier is a zombie and Montgomery is still alive).
Javier would wind up blaming Kevin because he was the one who left his toothbrush in the shower—and really, who even did that? Kevin would choose to blame Javier… Though only because he refused to forgive him for the shocked not-a-shriek that came out of his mouth when the water hit him as he leaned in to retrieve it.
"Holy crap." Kevin exclaimed, voice still carrying a little bit of a squeak, and Javier tried not to smile. "Do you always run the shower that cold?"
"Usually," Javier admitted with a small shrug. "It doesn't bother me. It doesn't even feel cold to me."
And technically it wasn't. Slightly warm on his skin when he'd first got in, it was at least higher than room temperature...
"Thought you liked the heat?" Kevin asked, with just a touch of curiosity.
More and more, Kevin seemed to be growing comfortable enough to ask him questions. Just about the little things. More and more, he believed that was because Kevin knew Javier had grown more comfortable answering them. Tamping down on a stab of reflexive self-consciousness, he hitched another slight shrug.
"Yeah. Just seems like a waste of hot water."
"That's very green of you, Javi," he said, lips twisted in that way Kevin thought was seductive, but that Javier quietly thought was cute more than anything else. "But don't you think there are more valuable things we could be saving?"
"Like what?" Javier asked, a little curious himself now, if a little wary about where the conversation was going.
"Time."
"Time?" Javier echoed skeptically.
"Time." Kevin repeated with a dangerous hint of a smile.
"I give up," Javier said after a moment, "How would running the water warmer than I need it save time?"
Suddenly, that hint was anything but.
"I'll demonstrate," was Kevin's immediate answer.
Javier raised an eyebrow as his partner leaned in to twist the knob on the hot water before ducking back behind the curtain. A short time—a very short time later—it twitched open again, and Kevin slid in behind him. Arms circled his waist, drawing them together, and the sudden full contact of so much warm skin was criminally distracting. The water might have grown warmer, but it wasn't that warm, not yet, and Kevin's presence behind him was like standing in front of a furnace.
"Okay," Javier conceded, a low note creeping into his voice that held amusement and something else. "You may have a point."
"Oh, I definitely have a point."
Kevin shifted his hips to emphasize his— And, really, there was only so much ridiculousness Javier could be expected to take. The noise that trickled out of him as he turned wasn't quite a growl, but it wasn't quite not either. He pulled their bodies flush against each other, capturing Kevin's mouth to kiss him dirtily. Pulling back he saw a hot gleam shining in Kevin's eyes.
Begging him...
The warm, humid air felt heavy in his lungs and against his skin, a sensation that, with his arousal, left him feeling almost drugged. Leaning in close, his lips brushed Kevin's ear.
"Okay," he rasped, "But only if you never pull a line that lame ever again."
Kevin's chest shook as he snorted a laugh.
"No promises," was the answer murmured against Javier's neck.
It was risky without the cuffs, and they both knew it. Risky...though not terribly so. Some days his control would hold; others, like that first impatient night, it wouldn't, but he was always aware when that control began to degrade. Kevin trusted him, and he was learning to trust himself to stop before it ever became too much...
That morning, their luck held.
They wound up using more than twice the amount of hot water Kevin usually did in his showers, and they were both late for work. Still, they both agreed that what Kevin's idea lacked in practicality, it more than made up for in artistic merit.
Author's Note: Promised fluff is delivered! Yay!
Series: Life
Fandoms:Castle
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, Romance, Fluff.
Warnings: Slash, AU, genre!crack, zombies, naughtiness, boys in bathrooms, PWPish, unbetad.
Characters/Pairings: Javier Esposito/Kevin Ryan
Wordcount: 663
Summary: Javier's condition meant their relationship was one of constant compromise, but not all of those compromises were a burden... Another angst-fluffish ficlet from the Life 'verse.
Details: Takes place in the same universe as "Quality of Life" (i.e. that weird AU where Javier is a zombie and Montgomery is still alive).
Javier would wind up blaming Kevin because he was the one who left his toothbrush in the shower—and really, who even did that? Kevin would choose to blame Javier… Though only because he refused to forgive him for the shocked not-a-shriek that came out of his mouth when the water hit him as he leaned in to retrieve it.
"Holy crap." Kevin exclaimed, voice still carrying a little bit of a squeak, and Javier tried not to smile. "Do you always run the shower that cold?"
"Usually," Javier admitted with a small shrug. "It doesn't bother me. It doesn't even feel cold to me."
And technically it wasn't. Slightly warm on his skin when he'd first got in, it was at least higher than room temperature...
"Thought you liked the heat?" Kevin asked, with just a touch of curiosity.
More and more, Kevin seemed to be growing comfortable enough to ask him questions. Just about the little things. More and more, he believed that was because Kevin knew Javier had grown more comfortable answering them. Tamping down on a stab of reflexive self-consciousness, he hitched another slight shrug.
"Yeah. Just seems like a waste of hot water."
"That's very green of you, Javi," he said, lips twisted in that way Kevin thought was seductive, but that Javier quietly thought was cute more than anything else. "But don't you think there are more valuable things we could be saving?"
"Like what?" Javier asked, a little curious himself now, if a little wary about where the conversation was going.
"Time."
"Time?" Javier echoed skeptically.
"Time." Kevin repeated with a dangerous hint of a smile.
"I give up," Javier said after a moment, "How would running the water warmer than I need it save time?"
Suddenly, that hint was anything but.
"I'll demonstrate," was Kevin's immediate answer.
Javier raised an eyebrow as his partner leaned in to twist the knob on the hot water before ducking back behind the curtain. A short time—a very short time later—it twitched open again, and Kevin slid in behind him. Arms circled his waist, drawing them together, and the sudden full contact of so much warm skin was criminally distracting. The water might have grown warmer, but it wasn't that warm, not yet, and Kevin's presence behind him was like standing in front of a furnace.
"Okay," Javier conceded, a low note creeping into his voice that held amusement and something else. "You may have a point."
"Oh, I definitely have a point."
Kevin shifted his hips to emphasize his— And, really, there was only so much ridiculousness Javier could be expected to take. The noise that trickled out of him as he turned wasn't quite a growl, but it wasn't quite not either. He pulled their bodies flush against each other, capturing Kevin's mouth to kiss him dirtily. Pulling back he saw a hot gleam shining in Kevin's eyes.
Begging him...
The warm, humid air felt heavy in his lungs and against his skin, a sensation that, with his arousal, left him feeling almost drugged. Leaning in close, his lips brushed Kevin's ear.
"Okay," he rasped, "But only if you never pull a line that lame ever again."
Kevin's chest shook as he snorted a laugh.
"No promises," was the answer murmured against Javier's neck.
It was risky without the cuffs, and they both knew it. Risky...though not terribly so. Some days his control would hold; others, like that first impatient night, it wouldn't, but he was always aware when that control began to degrade. Kevin trusted him, and he was learning to trust himself to stop before it ever became too much...
That morning, their luck held.
They wound up using more than twice the amount of hot water Kevin usually did in his showers, and they were both late for work. Still, they both agreed that what Kevin's idea lacked in practicality, it more than made up for in artistic merit.
Author's Note: Promised fluff is delivered! Yay!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Saturday, 19 November 2011 10:22 pm (UTC)From:Sexy & sweet & hot. ♥
no subject
Date: Saturday, 19 November 2011 10:32 pm (UTC)From:I'm seriously considering adding a tag just for that.
no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 November 2011 01:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 November 2011 01:53 am (UTC)From:The body heat issue just seems so obvious where undead characters are concerned, but none of the stories I've read only ever seem to mention it except in passing. They'll maybe mention cold hands or allude that something, but they never really do anything with it, even when it's the POV character. :(
Actually, now that I look at it, a lot of my weirder fics came out of a feeling of inadequate exploration of details in horror and fantasy fiction... Kind of like "Yeah, okay, but what would that actually be like from the inside?"
no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 November 2011 02:24 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Monday, 21 November 2011 10:03 pm (UTC)From:One thing that could make me go for a slash pairing with Damon, which, oddly, hasn't been mentionned once as far as I know (okay, maybe it makes a bit of sense because you'd peg it as a top)... I want to see him crave gay sex *because* for once, once every decade or something, he can *feel* warmth inside himself. I dunno, it seems insanely existential and you've touched to that in your fic.
Instead of just making it a zombie fic, you make it "Hey... You say 'ew' or 'scary'. Have you ever asked yourself how it feels to them to be postvital?" And you do it beautifully, I may add.
no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 November 2011 03:10 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Sunday, 20 November 2011 03:46 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Monday, 21 November 2011 01:34 pm (UTC)From:And I hope they were both conscious beforehand that it really...; wouldn't save time at all. :P
I love this little bits and pieces of them. :D
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Date: Monday, 21 November 2011 07:00 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Monday, 21 November 2011 09:56 pm (UTC)From:Kate didn't properly defend herself, and we know what it lead to: First she got annoyed, and then she got seduced. (damn you, Richard. :P)
Kevin has developped this geeky/slightly starstruck bond with Castle (they're the Mulder to Espo and Beckett's Scully).
Javier probably chose to block it out. *pictures a very Lanie-like wave of hand in front of face accompanied by a "Shhh!" or something along the lines of this.*