A/N: It's been about a year since I published anything here and this tidbit barely qualifies as a story, but the idea kept lingering until I decided to get it down. My Castle muse and I haven't been on speaking terms for quite a while, so I thought a foray into another fandom was in order. I'll likely be adding other chapters with a progressive alphabetical theme.

Disclaimer: The characters are so very not mine.

Apple

"You're creeping me out, you know."

"Am I?" He seems surprised. "I should've thought you'd be well used to having an audience whilst operating."

"It's a snack, not surgery."

"That doesn't make it any less artful." He continues to study her hands raptly as she finishes coring the fruit and slices it into thin wedges. She arranges them in a circular pattern before dropping a generous dollop of peanut butter onto the middle of the plate. He picks up the discarded center of the fruit and looks at it thoughtfully. "It's a painfully obvious metaphor for our relationship, isn't it? You've performed a surgical excision of the addict and are hard at work improving what's left. I suppose that one doesn't become a surgeon unless possessed of an almost-pathological desire to fix broken things."

"I don't like that adjective," she says curtly. "The only people that use it are those that don't understand you."

"And you think you do?" He raises his eyebrows and smirks at her.

"Better than most." She drops her knife into the sink. "Enough to know that, as much as I've learned from you, you'll never run out of new things to teach me. Enough to know that I will never be your equal in the kind of work we do."

He hums noncommittally.

"Of course the one time I'd prefer you argue with me..." she adds sarcastically.

"I respect you too much to attempt to bolster your ego with empty platitudes—" He nibbles around the edges of the core before tossing it into a discarded cereal bowl, "—but I believe you're underestimating the importance of the role you've had in my recovery."

"I didn't fix you, Sherlock. You might've been lost for a while, but you were never broken."

He cocks his head thoughtfully for a moment. "In that case," he says softly, "please accept my gratitude for helping me find my way." He seems humble and sincere and she's entirely unsure of what to make of him, so she takes an apple slice, drags it through the peanut butter, and holds it out to him.

Instead of taking it from her, he takes her hand inside his own, cradling it within his grasp as he lifts it to his mouth. His touch is warm and far gentler than she expected. She shivers a little at the contact and he tightens his grip in response. His eyes stay glued to hers as he eats the fruit from her hand, and she finds herself using the techniques he taught her to get a read on him. He blinks once, then again as his pupils dilate, and the nasalis muscles at the sides of his nose contract, causing his nostrils to flare. His facial muscles are broadcasting his arousal, and she feels an answering flush suffuse the skin on her face and chest. The weight of the knowledge of their shared attraction hangs heavily between them for the space of several breaths. Then she ventures a small, secretive smile and he grins broadly in return.

Their eyes are have been opened, they've seen each other naked, and they are not afraid.