Fic: Someone To Share Papaya With

[coffeebuddha]

Title: Someone To Share Papaya With
Author: coffeebuddha
Rating: PG/FRE
Characters/Pairing: Kevin Ryan/Javier Esposito, background implied Castle/Beckett
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.
Word Count: 633
Summary: The one where Kevin and Javier are crime fighting lemurs in love.
Notes: starscythe awesomely bought me the apron of my dreams and her birthday is coming up, so I wrote her a story where Kevin and Javier are lemurs. (You know, as you do.) Thank you for being so lovely, hun! See the end notes if you're interested in exactly what kind of lemurs the guys are.

 

It's raining again, just a light shower that barely penetrates the upper canopy, but the occasional drop still drips down on Kevin where he's crouched in the cradle of a web of intertwined branches. A drop splats down on his nose and he flicks his ears in annoyance, curling tighter around the fruit clutched to his chest to help shelter it. He'd grown up dreaming of the dry forests at the south of the island; it was a fantasy he had nurtured through long years of what felt like constant rain. The delay in leaving the eastern rainforests was supposed to be temporary--a favor to Beckett while she was searching for a more permanent member for her peace keeping team. Best laid plans of men and lemurs and all that, because he had been barely a week away from setting out when he'd accidentally stumbled across a whole new reason to stay. 

The branches suddenly jolt, announcing the arrival of that reason, then tremble slightly as it moves closer.​

"Castle's got Beckett's fur ruffled again," Javier says as he carelessly picks his way across a narrow branch, circling around to nose affectionately at the back of Kevin's neck. Kevin tips his head forward in invitation, and Javier playfully nips at the edge of one of his ears as he winds his limbs around Kevin's much smaller body. "One of these days she's going to snap and kill him and nobody will be the least bit surprised."

"I'm not helping her hide the body." Kevin digs his claws into the flesh of his fruit and peels away a long strip. He twists until he's facing Javier and holds the fruit up so that he can take a bite. "If she wants to kill him so badly, she can clean up after herself and eat him."

He winds his tail around Javier's arm for balance and stretches to lick the juice from his fur. Javier makes a pleased kissing noise and shreds off a bit more fruit that he shoves in Kevin's mouth. "That's what he gets for chasing someone further up the food chain than him."

There's a loud crack, like a tree being felled, and then the rain's coming down harder. Kevin's fur is water-slicked and heavy in seconds. His nest hole is a few trees over. Sometimes it doesn't seem to matter that he's genetically engineered to climb and scamper through trees; when it rains like this, there's a small part of him that's always afraid the slightest breeze will blow him down to the forest floor below. 

Unease bubbles up in the pit of his stomach and the rest of the fruit falls from his small hands, but almost before his eyes have time to adjust to the suddenly dark sky, Javier's scooping him up and bounding effortlessly through the canopy. They land with a slight bounce, and when Kevin manages to lift his face from where it's buried in the thick fur around Javier's neck, he sees that they've settled on the branch right in front of his nest.

"You can unclench now, bro," Javier says with a laugh. "I think your nails broke skin that time."

Kevin smiles, warm inside in spite of the rain, and nuzzles his face against Javier's jaw for a moment, then slides down to take shelter. Javier settles down on the branch, his bulk blocking the worst of the storm from getting through the hole, one of his arms inside so that Kevin can huddle into its warmth. He keeps talking, expounding on whatever it is Castle's done now, and Kevin nods sleepily as he absently grooms Javier's fur.

Yeah, Kevin thinks as he curls himself tightly around as much of Javier as he can reach. This is more than worth the rain.

Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated!

Kevin is a greater dwarf lemur and Javier is an Indri lemur, which really does make kissy noises when it's feeling affectionate. How cute is that?! Kate is a fanaloka and Castle is a blue coua. The fact that the blue coua is a type of cuckoo bird makes me giggle far more than it should. My apologies to anyone who actually knows anything about lemurs or the rainforests in Madagascar.