Disclaimer: I own nothing except the internal flail that still continues from Always and just intensified over that renewal...

Everything is dark

It's more than you could take

But you catch a glimpse of sunlight

Shining

Shining down on your face.

She's standing in the blazing ray of sunlight.

Head lifting to feel of tingles over her neck, feather light and enchanting as it moves slowly across her collarbone. Slow sweeps that steal her breath away.

Warmth and heat and beautiful burning waves of vitality that rain down over every inch of her skin. Eyes closed she arches her body closer to the feel of everything that re-energizes and wakes her up. The curve of her spine lifting her closer, the angle of her head and open lips allowing her to absorb it all.

His lips trail the skin hidden by her wet hair, pressing aside each damp strand with a gentle flick of his tongue, finding her pulse and playing with it. His mouth finds purchase, sucking in soft rhythmic beats against her skin until her mouth opens and she's arching into him yet again.

It's glorious, this sun.

She basks in it like a quivering flower in the early morning light of dawn. It teases her skin until it ripples with life and heat. A burning lover's caress across every inch that she has exposed.

Inside and out, she feels herself come to life.

His mouth pulls away from her neck, tongue reluctant until he starts kissing a path around her shoulder and finds her chest instead, buttons opening readily under his fingers.

Until he falters, the barest hint of a waiver and she sees the moment he lost her reflected in his eyes.

Gathering his hand in both of hers, fingers dwarfed by the magnitude of what she offers now so easily, she lays them over her heart.

Her scar is under his fingertips too but it's her heart she focuses on, letting him feel every beat.

Each one a call to life.

Each one speaks his name.

She can hear it now so clearly, every thud the very echo of him that lingers deep inside. His voice wrapped so tightly around every inch of her soul, every thread of the things that tie them together.

It all comes back to his voice, loud, forceful telling her to hang on.

To live.

He called her through the ether and told her not to give up.

She wouldn't have anyway, all the things they could have together, should be to one another, far too precious. But she didn't see it clearly until she heard his voice.

And now...

She can hear it, she can feel it, taste it even as it sparks to life between them with every touch. Not just his voice but the affirmation of everything.

She holds his hand there, over her thudding heart ,with both of her own. His large fingers splay over her chest and she sighs, letting him feel everything he awakens in her before lifting one hand slowly.

She draws it up his arm and ghosts her fingers over the edge of his jaw. Just a tentative impulse to question if he understands, but his lips have already found hers.

This kiss so much slower than the others, so much more.

Lips meeting properly, grief, anger, and the need for forgiveness washed away, washed clean.

This kiss is flooded with truth, with hope and change.

Another burst of sunlight.

Their lips still, almost breathing each other in, before they press another kiss to each other's mouths, soft and easy, parting gently around each other.

And when she pulls back, her eyes open slowly and the wonder of it all fills her up, the smile breaking widely across her face. She watches every ounce of it bouncing back at her from him.

Finding his fingers is the simplest thing and pulling him with her, leading him to his bed sends flickering heat dancing down her spine. The tender look he gives her steals her smile, makes the tug of her fingers all that more compelling. He still needs her reassurances, even as the reality darkens his pupils, sets fire to his skin.

It's fine, whatever he needs, she'll give it.

They walk in silence, though they steal heated, word leaden glances at each other. A myriad of 'Are you really here's?' 'Are we really doing this?' mixing with 'You, just you, nothing but you.'

All the heat and build-up simmering through their joined fingers, until her back meets his bedroom door and her progression is hindered by the slow smile that meets her eyes.

He curls his hand around her waist reaching behind her for the handle, but rather than opening the door, he lingers, pressed against her. His fingers lift the hem of her sodden shirt, testing the way her skin ripples under his touch. His other hand slides through her wet hair, cupping the back of her head in the cradle of his palm so he can breathe her in.

His lashes brush across her skin before he chases the movement with his mouth. As she raises herself up to meet him, he presses his lips to the corner of her eye, feather light touches across her cheek as his hand at her back pulls her forwards.

He hums across her skin, breathing deeply and trailing silent words with silken lips until they meet her own.

This kiss isn't the in the same vein as hard against the door...oh god yes finally. And its not the soft brush and sigh of happiness, widening smiles and joining hands.

It's somewhere in between.

It's a steady, slow simmer. Unfurling tendrils of heat that spill from his mouth and wrap around her tongue, slide slowly down her throat and set fire to the pit of her stomach. It's a leading dance towards something more, something she started tonight, but a journey they began together so very long ago.

Further steps down a path they have been travelling together since the very moment they met.

At some point, the intensity of it makes her knees weak, but it no longer matters. She's safe, she's uplifted, tethered to solid ground even as the intensity threatens to send her floating away.

The lightning breaks again, white flashes that light up the rooms, their skin, everything. But the sun just gets hotter, the warmth increases and she moans. Everywhere feels relaxed and tense at the same time, building winding and curling from within, all around this spark of sunlight.

She melts into him, pulling him closer at the same time. The door opens behind her and she tilts backwards, falling into the room and his arms, with a mumbled huff. But he catches her mid-stumble and laughs into her mouth, teasing breath across her tongue, before he continues on with his apparent mission to turn her bones to liquid fire.

Thunder rages and they imitate each crash with their bodies, colliding tempestuously in the middle of their own storm.

She should be wet and cold, dazed confused, lost.

She should shudder when they stumble into his bedroom and he peels her clothes away steadily, before she in turn reaches for his.

She should be bruised and sore, broken down and crumbling.

She should cry out for different reasons when he lays her on the bed and learns every angle and curve of her body, head to toe. When his lips brush the tender skin of her abdomen and she feels herself shake under his touch, she gives up on wondering what she should be and just...exists.

Because she's none of these things in the moment.

He climbs higher over the bed, his weight held away before he leans in peppering kisses into the hollow of her neck, fingertips following to ensure each kiss is seared into her skin. His mouth working miracles over the soreness, he seeks out pain he can't possible know she has and somehow soothes it. All whilst igniting that spark, teasing at it, prolonging it.

She rocks back taking him with her, creating a space for him to fall into in the welcoming cradle of her body. Her hand at his neck when his mouth finds her chest again and this time he moves up, only his tongue tasting her skin.

Her eyes slide open slowly, finding his, her reflection coming back at her fierce and strong. Images of herself swimming in the depth of his feeling for her so vivid and alive and it takes her by surprise all over again.

The sun isn't beating down on her at all.

She's inside wrapped in his arms, pressed firmly and securely into his mattress, and it takes her a second to comprehend what she is truly bathing in...

Love.

It emanates from him, in glorifying rays that ripple across her skin even as his fingers do.

His gaze too deep, too penetrating, too absorbing as she loses herself in him. The very ebb and flow of life as he sinks forwards and moves down her body. His mouth closes over her softly, the flick of his tongue making her lift away from what they once were, thunder rolling as she sprints towards all that she wants them to be.

His questing lips move back, heading for her mouth, he can't seem to be parted from her kiss for more than a few seconds without returning to claim another one.

He devotes himself to this one with such tender ferocity that her hips arch, her arms wind around him and she hears herself whimper.

She revels in every word, every sigh, and every moan that he pulls from her. Seeking the same from him, sliding her fingers through his hair. Roaming over his back and shoulders, raking muscle, twisting closer with every breath, until she doesn't know where he ends and she begins.

Except then she does know because he shows her.

Sliding forwards, his fingers tense over her thigh. He shows her just how far apart they have kept themselves, before he brings them together and shows her how perfect they can be when melded into one.

Even now, with the tender touch of her fingers along his glowing skin, she can feel those rays of love and devotion wash over her, wrap around them both as she opens herself to it fully and envelops him in a warmth all her own.

It expands into something monumental until she's not just bathed in the sun, radiating warmth and heat over his body as she tugs him with her, she's standing at the very epicentre of a supernova.

It explodes outwards with each surge of his body.

It ripples inwards with each clench of her own.

Until they are both circling higher, swirling into oblivion. Her fingers clench at his neck, tight through the muscle and hair as she drags him towards her, needing to claim his mouth and his heart all over again.

When their lips touch this time, the world explodes into white light.

Existence ripples steadily, as they crest the waves and she's gasping as she clings to him, but it doesn't matter, because he's just as lost and...it's him. And oh it shouldn't spark it all off again but it does, that she is here doing this with him, at last.

Pinpricks of heat dance across her skin, as the feelings slide away, still wrapped him, until everything is darkness.

Darkness but for that glorious sunlight of his love that she plans to bathe in for eternity.

Later when he curls into her side, kissing gently against her mouth as he mumbles "Goodnight Kate."

She turns, slowly, languorously into his embrace, her hand soft against his cheek "I would say until tomorrow Castle but..." She sighs gently against him.

His eyes open heavily, confusion playing sleepily there with everything else. Love and wonder, awe and devotion. "But?"

She smiles widely her lips against his mouth as she speaks "It's already tomorrow."

Their tomorrow, the one they create together.