Fic: Cheerios (Rick, Alexis)

[xfirefly9x]

Title: Cheerios
Fandom: Castle
Characters: Rick, Alexis
Prompt: cheerios
Word Count: 539
Rating: G
Summary: The water boils. Castle grins as he grabs the brown package off the counter and takes a few long strides to return to the stove.
Warning: Written for songandsilence. 1/1/10. Note it's the meat type of cheerios rather than the cereal.

The water boils. Castle grins as he grabs the brown package off the counter and takes a few long strides to return to the stove. He rips the package open and one by one, lets the cheerios inside slip down into the pot. Each one causes the water to slosh up against the sides of the container. The third cheerio splashes and he jumps back to avoid the spray.

"What are you doing, dad?"

The corners of his mouth curl upwards even more so as he lets the next cheerio slop in amongst the rest. Added to the sound of the stove humming and the water boiling, is soft footsteps. Alexis.

"What does it look like?" he asks, not bothering to look up. He only flicks his eyes up when he feels her brush up against him; he watches her staring into the pot for a moment.

"Cheerios, dad. Really?"

He nods and smirks when she covers a yawn by putting a sleeved arm up across her face. The silk of her gown flows over her slender arm like water over a stone on the bottom of a lake.

"It's three in the morning," she says pointedly.

"So?"

Rolling her eyes, she moves around the counter and takes a seat on one of the stools there. "So, it's a bit early for cheerios, don't you think?"

"Daughter of mine. It's never too early for cheerios! What have I been teaching you all these years? Clearly I've made some mistakes along the way."

"How many are you putting on?" she asks.

"Is my perfect daughter considering moving over to the darkside?"

"No, dad. I just want to be sure there'll be some left for tomorrow. Beckett is dropping by, remember?"

"Right. Of course." He had not forgotten about his partner's expected arrival in the morning. In fact, it is part of the reason he is still up. When he invited her over, she said something that gave him a completely new idea for Nikki Heat's character and it has been eating at him since.

Castle holds up the brown package to show Alexis there are plenty more cheerios left. "See? I'm a good guy," he says. "I saved some for my girls."

He smiles when Alexis nods sleepily and waves a hand in the direction of her room. "I'm going back to bed. You get some rest too, dad. Okay? For me?"

Some of the humour leaves his expression. He nods. "Sure, honey. I'll get some z's once I'm done here."

She stands and quickly gives him a hug. "Thanks, dad. Night."

"Good night, hon." He plants a kiss on her forehead. "Sweet dreams." He watches her stumble up the stairs towards her room and then turns back to the stove. The water is still bubbling and his cheerios are coming along nicely. The skin at the ends is starting to peel and curl up on itself.

Castle switches the stove off and collects the cheerios in a bowl. He squeezes tomato sauce on them and heads back to his study. "Nikki Heat," he muses, dipping his hand into the bowl and fishing out a cheerio between his index finger and thumb. "Just what will you have me do next?"

Comments

[rainne]

What is a meat cheerio? I've never heard of this.

Aha. After looking this up, I see your problem. 1) In America, Cheerios are cereal only. Those little sausages are just called cocktail sausages. Also, 2) they are eaten with barbecue sauce, not tomato sauce. Most Americans don't eat anything with plain tomato sauce.

Outside of that (which, I am sorry to admit, had me going WTF the entire story) it's a cute scene.

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the curse of being Australian. :P Sorry for the confusion.

I'm really glad you liked it anyway. :)

[truthmaker]

Also known as cocktail weenies. Usually eaten, as xdawnfirex said, with BBQ sauce and a toothpick.

[rainne]

Trufax: After reading this earlier, I totally went in and put a bunch of cocktail weenies in the crock pot with some bbq sauce. Nom.

[truthmaker]

Best way to eat 'em. Let them slow cook for 6-8 hours and they are delicious.

If you want to try something different, use a mixture of buffalo seasoning, butter and a bit of water. Smokin' hot weenies.

[rainne]

uhhhh god, that sounds delicious, but I can't eat hot stuff; it makes me sick. :(

I gotta say, no disrespect to the Aussie, that boiling them til they're dead and drowning them in tomato sauce (that's like ketchup with less flavor, right?) just really sounds like weenie abuse.

[weird-fin.livejournal.com]

boiling them til they're dead and drowning them in tomato sauce (that's like ketchup with less flavor, right?) just really sounds like weenie abuse.
Haha! Some people do do that, but i thought that would be like any/some kids anywhere. Haven't you seen a kid sink (and I do mean sumberge TOTALLY) something in BBQ sauce then eat it with a happy smile? xD

Ketchup is just another word for tomato sauce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup

But for parties (which is often where these little sausages come in) people just have toothpicks and dip them a bit in ketchup. Just as truthmaker said, but replacing BBQ with ketchup/tomato sauce. But then again, there's of course people who don't like tomato sauce (just like anything) and dip it into other condiments or sauces. We eat them with BBQ sauce too, or at least I know some people here that do! :P

And of course each to their own cooking, some people prefer them boiled to death, others really don't. xD I find little children like them dying they A) look "cool" all broken skin and B) they are easier to peel the skin if they don't like the skin or prefer to eat the skin first.

Wow. I haven't had a hotdog or cocktail sausage in awhile...mm, should try to change that... ;)

[weird-fin.livejournal.com]

Ohhh thank goodness it saved the comment!! I would have been annoyed if it hadn't... i got a error page thing when posting it! DX

[musicgeekster.livejournal.com]

So cute. I admit, I was really confused as to the Cheerios thing (thanks for the info xdawnfirex !) Now that I got that, it makes more sense now :) Really cute.

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

Ah, the curse of being Australian. Sorry for the confusion. I didn't even consider the differences in what a cheerio is there and here when I wrote it..

[love-kate-walsh.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should've read the warning before reading the fic cos I was kinda confused while reading it lol And I gotta thank xdawnfirex as well. I would've been too lazy to look it up.

Anyway, after getting rid of the confusion here and reading it again that's my reaction:
Naw cute! I could totally picture the whole scene.

[weird-fin.livejournal.com]

I read the "Cheerios is not cereal but meat" thing and so went to look it up! I found out... hotdogs! Frankfurt sausages! (For Americans) Cocktail sausages! Weiners! So then I had a perfect scene set. ;) Even though I've eaten Hans branded sausages (including frankfurts) before.

Hm, I'd have added mustard and if you're wanting to sound American mixed it with ketchup, since I used to only ever see in movies at hotdog stands people being asked "Do you want ketchup and mustard with that?" xD

I thought it was great, the only two points really being Ketchup instead of tomato sauce and cocktail/mini hotdog sausages instead of using a brand name Cheerios.

[lorilann.livejournal.com]

This is a really cute story. I can so imagine Castle working out his idea late into the night, in need of something to eat and in turn waking the house.

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[vixen-in-violet.livejournal.com]

Good thing I read that little note. (I'm guessing you added it later..?)

Really cute, though I'm not even a watcher of Castle. (But I was intrigued by the whole cheerios =/= cereal thing.)

LOVE your Psych layout, btw. :-)

(sry, reposted because i fail at leaving comments)

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Yeah. (And no, I added that note before I pressed "post", having learned from ff.net.. though people there didn't fixate only on the cheerios thing.)

Thanks. And thanks. :)

(np lol)

[anna-sg1.livejournal.com]

Very cute. Poor Beckett... what will he do to Nikki Heat next? *g*

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :P Yeah... Got to wonder..
(Sorry for the extra late reply. I must have missing your comment when it was posted.. only just saw it because adja999 commented.)

[adja999.livejournal.com]

Oo

It took me a while to get that you weren't writing about the cereals. It seemed weird to put them in water instead of milk, and when Alexis didn't comment on it, I figured something was up. So i asked Aussie friends and it suddenly made a lot more sense.

And now I'm hungry.

Wait. Castle's never done this? It's awesome!
I loved that Alexis thought it would do anything to remark on the time. :p

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Does no one ever read author's notes these days? :P
Beginning to think I should write a companion piece in which the first time Alexis has cheerios is in Aust. when Castle is on a book tour, so she calls them that instead of cocktail sausages/whatever they're called over that way.

I sort of wanted to make Alexis more parent-y in this one, you know? I think it worked out all right. Thanks for readings. XD

[adja999.livejournal.com]

Everybody knows Alexis is the adult, anyway. ;)

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Truuuue. :P
I guess I should have said then that I wanted to emphasize that lol