black_sluggard | (Fic) Roach Motel: A Postmodern Tale of Slashy Goodness

Title: Roach Motel: A Postmodern Tale of Slashy Goodness
Fandom: Castle
Genre: Romance, Angst
Rating/Warnings: T/PG-13 (possibly R-level swearing), slash
Characters/pairings: Ryan/Esposito, Raley/Ochoa, Castle, Beckett, Lanie Parish, Nikki Heat.
Summary: Heat Wave has been a big success. However, fan interpretation of two of the book's minor characters leaves Detectives Ryan and Esposito both a little concerned... (Two slash fics for the price of one! Written for the ryanandesposito ficathon.)
Spoilers: Major for Den of Thieves, possible minor spoilers for seasons 1 and 2 up to and including Overkill.
Author's Note: I know I'm not the only one to ever have come up with this idea, and I've read a few well written stories based on the same premise. But I've had this idea in my head since Heat Wave came out, and I just had to do it my way. This was originally meant to be an angst fic during the Roach segments only, keeping the Ryan/Esposito relationship relatively light. Didn't happen. Hope it's still good. It's my first slash fic, and my first completed multichapter fic. Booyah.

Thanks to betas foolish_m0rtal and justaotherwitch, and my sister bad_catty , who doesn't watch the show but ships Ryan/Esposito anyway.

Dedicated to my grandmother, with whom I watch Castle religiously every week. And who will, hopefully, never find out how I choose to express my enjoyment of the show. :)

Prologue (Which, Being About a Prologue, Is Somewhat Recursive)
Chapter One (In Which Life Begins to Imitate Art)
Chapter Two (Which Is Also Technically "Chapter One")
Chapter Three (In Which Art Painfully Imitates Life)
Chapter Four (Which Begins With Angst, And Ends With an Incredibly Lazy Pun)
Chapter Five (In Which Attempts at Recrimination Turn Into Self-Incrimination)
Chapter Six (In a Backward Analogy, Things Left to Steep Are Heated to a Boil)
Chapter Seven (In Which Esposito Finally Cuts to the Chase)