Chapter 1: Chapter 1

A/N: All hail, it's time for a fic from my favourite Ed Sheeran song of all times, "Wake Me Up." Now, because clearly, I don't have five other fics to update or anything, but sometimes you gotta get other ideas out of your head before you can focus on others… each chapter in this fic can stand on its own, it's all one story, but each chapter can be treated as a one shot. So I hope you enjoy this and much as I enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 1: Tattoos

He lightly traced his fingers over her bare rib cage, smiling into her hair as he remembered last night. Her back was pressed up against his front, not a space between either of them, their legs tangled together. She held one of his hands captive between hers, settled on her stomach, while his hands traced loving words and designs on her skin.

She sighed in content when he placed a kiss in her hair and buried his face there, inhaling her unique scent. Cherries and Kate, a scent he had longed to wake up to every morning for a long time and now, even after two years, he would never get used to it. He could never calm the beating of his heart, when she emerged from the bathroom, face wiped clear of all make up, her hair damp and cascading around her shoulders, usually dressed in his clothes.

It was the long days at work, he realized made her more prone to cuddling. Not that she wasn't a cuddler in general, but after going through stressful situations or long hours when they would find no leads, she would just need him a bit more, need to feel him, take comfort in his presence and he would let her, he had no complaints.

He traced his finger along her ribcage, over the small tattoo she had there. He was surprised when he first discovered it, it wasn't something he would imagine Kate for, but then again, she was a lot of things he had never imagined and that's what he loved about her. She always had him guessing, always surprised him with some new aspect of her just when he thought he knew everything about her.

She arched back into him and hummed, he smiled, loving the feel of her bare body pressed to his. The night before, he had surprised her with a full body massage, he knew how much she needed it after her long day at work. She came home sometime after 11, looking tired and stressed out and he always knew what she needed. So he prepared her dinner and led her back into their bedroom.

He sat her on the bed, holding her up as she was basically falling over, how tired she was. Her eyes fell shut when he started peeling her clothes off slowly. On other nights, this would lead to something else, but not tonight, that's not what she needed, she needed to relax and that's what he had planned for her. When he managed to get all her clothes off, he laid her on the bed and poured hot oil all over her body, he could see the beginnings of a smile on her face when she buried her face into the pillows, letting him work his magic on her.

He spent the next hour or so, slowly working out all the knots and tension in her body and he could tell she was almost asleep. When he finished, he let her stay for a while, the hot oil, now cooling soothing her sensed, before he lifted her up and took her to the shower. He stood her up under the hot water, stripping himself of his clothes and stepping in behind her. She instantly relaxed and placed all her weight against him, while he reached around her to grab her body wash.

He carefully washed the oil off her body, before moving to her hair, massaging her scalp as she rested back against his chest. He ran the water over her, watching as the soap trailed down her body, making sure she was clean and relaxed. He stepped out, pulling her into a big fluffy towel, drying her hair before laying her back in the bed, not bothering to dress her and pulling the covers over her. Quickly he climbed in behind her and wrapped his arms around her as she snuggled back against him. He held her tightly, breathing in her scent as her breathing evened out and she fell asleep.

He woke up about an hour ago and remained still, embracing her, letting her rest. She had the day off and he didn't want her to wake earlier than was necessary, so he stayed still, tracing patterns over her body. But now he knew she was awake as he felt her bring his hands up her lips, kissing his knuckles before rolling over in his arms to face him. She pressed a kiss to his chest and smiled.

"Thank you, for last night. I needed that." She whispered against him.

"That's what I'm here for, to give you what you need." He murmured in her hair.

"Why doves." He said, as he continued playing with the skin by her tattoo.

"What?" She asked, leaning back to look at him.

"Your tattoo, I never asked. Why did you choose doves?" He asked again.

She was quiet for a moment, "My mom," She spoke, "She loved doves."

He nodded. That was the only explanation he needed. He sensed the mood changing, to a solemn one and he didn't want today to be a solemn one, it was supposed to be fun.

"You should get another one." He said, joking.

"Of what?" She asked, playing along.

He pretended to think for a moment, wrapping his arm tighter around her.

"My name." He said.

"Seriously?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Seriously."

She pursed her lips, considering him for a moment. She knew he was joking, but truthfully, she had considered doing just that for some time now, but wasn't sure how he would take it.

"Only if you get one too." She said.

He looked at her, "Kate, I was joking."

"I know, but I'm not." She said.

He leaned back, "You'd really get a tattoo with my name?"

She nodded, "Why not?"

"And you want me to get one too?" He asked.

She nodded, biting her lip.

"But, what about when I get old and wrinkly, it's gonna look weird." He pouted.

"You're already old and wrinkly." She teased.

"You're mean." He frowned.

She leaned over, kissing away his pout, rubbing his cheek with her thumb.

"It doesn't matter, I'll still love you and all your wrinkly tattoos." She smiled against his lips.

"You really wanna do this?" He asked.

"We could look back at it as one of those couple, spontaneous moments, although this really isn't spontaneous since we're talking about it, but we can leave that part out of the story." She said, threading her fingers through his hair.

He watched her for a moment, thinking about it. A tattoo, she wanted them to get tattoos. He never had anything against tattoos and quite frankly, he found the fact that she had one hot, even though it was of birds.

"Okay." He agreed, before he could talk himself out of it.

"Really?" She asked, surprised.

"Sure, I mean, what can it hurt and – "He pressed a kiss on her forehead, "I'd do anything to make you happy."

She grinned, the smile he loved to see, when she was genuinely happy and he loved being the reason that smile was on her face.

He smoothed her hair back out of her face, "When do you wanna do it?"

She bit her lip and untangled herself from him, ignoring his protests.

"Right now, come on let's go." She said, standing up, not bothering to cover up.

He took this moment to rake his eyes appreciatively over her body, his body responding immediately to the sight before him. She rolled her eyes at his obvious distraction.

"Come on big boy, let's go do it now before you change your mind and then – "She leaned over on the bed, her face a few inches from his, "We can come back and celebrate." She winked and then sauntered away to find some clothes, leaving him staring after her.

He jumped up immediately, when what she had said registered in his brain and quickly got dressed. Within minutes they were sitting side by side at the tattoo parlour. He reached out to her, silently asking for her hand.

She laughed at slipped her hands into his, he was such a big baby, being afraid of needles.

"Ready?" The tattoo artist asked, rolling over in her chair towards Castle with her needle in hand.

He looked over at Kate, who had her tattoo started already and she didn't even flinch. She nodded supportively and grinned at him. He turned back to the artist and nodded.

"It's now or never." He sighed.

He shut his eyes as he felt the needle pierce his skin and he thanked Kate for having a four letter name.

"All done." The lady said after a while.

He opened one eye and noticed Kate facing him in her chair, her feet curled up underneath her, her hand in her chin and a huge smile on her face.

"How is it?" She asked.

He looked down at his side where his new tattoo was and nodded in approval, "Perfect, yours?"

She lifted her shirt to show him.

He smiled, glad she had talked him into this, it wasn't that bad and now they always had a piece of each other with them where ever they were.

He looked back down at his own tattoo as Kate came out of her chair and stepped over to him, standing in between his legs and wrapping her arms loosely around his neck.

"Was it so bad?" She asked him.

He shook his head, "Not at all, I'm glad we did this." He smiled up at her.

She returned his smile and leaned down to kiss him softly, playing with the edge of his hair by his neck.

"Maybe next time, we can get matching piercings." She said, quickly covering his exclamation with another kiss.