Derek openly admitted that he was no planner. He was, in fact, almost perversely proud of that fact, even though some people seemed quick to call it a flaw. Casey did that a lot, at least when it suited her purposes.

But just the night before, she had contradicted her own oft-repeated quips by telling Derek that he did have the ability to make a plan, even though he only demonstrated it when it came to pranking.

Besides proving once and for all that Casey was in fact the hypocrite that Derek had always known her to be, that little comment had also demonstrated that Casey actually overestimated Derek. Who would have thought, huh?

The thing was, pranks were not something that Derek really thought a whole lot about. They were like an instinct- no, something more than that. It was like some higher being, some sort of fate planned his pranks for him. And yeah, he was serious.

There were no steps plotted in advance, there was no careful consideration of possibilities or outcomes. Hell, Derek sometimes couldn't even see as far as the next stage of a prank when he started one.

A drip of honey from the toast he was eating would make his fingers sticky, and he'd pick up the bottle off the counter in front of him. The next moment, he would be pouring the stuff into her shampoo bottle and screwing on the lid.

That's how things worked for Derek. So, the point is, when suddenly one day, the urge struck him to lean in and kiss Casey right in the middle of her explanation of Romeo and Juliet, he went with it.

That worked out well enough, like things tended to do for him. She gasped, and then she kissed him back. Sure, a minute after that, she got up and ran for her bedroom, leaving behind on the coach not only Derek, but the pile of homework they had been working on. But she didn't scream or slap him or anything, so he figured that overall, this impulse had been a good enough one.

Two days later, Derek's satisfaction was reinforced, to his mild amusement. He'd been watching her mutter crazily to herself, weighing pros and cons and trying to come to some sort of decision. He'd kept a bit of space, except for once that morning when she had burst into his room and stood, unable to speak, until he took pity on her. Sighing, he'd come and placed a hand on each of her shoulders.

"Breathe, Case. Relax, just go with it," he said. It was hard not to laugh at the look of absolute horror on her face. He'd kissed her on the forehead and sent her on her way, smiling all the while.

So when she came to him that afternoon, seeming a lot more sane and grounded in reality, Derek was a bit surprised. She looked about to speak, so he held up a finger, chugged his juice and then led her up to his bedroom.

"So, I've been thinking-" she said as he shut his door behind him. But she didn't get any farther, because he grabbed her hand and used it to pull the rest of her to him.

"Just go with it," he said, and this time she was the one sighing and leaning in to kiss him.

And after that, things mostly stuck to the same pattern. He just went with things while she freaked out, and then eventually just went with it. Their relationship was more or less guided by Derek's impulses and instincts, even though Casey didn't really seem to accept that way of doing things very easily.

Still, it somehow got them through the last months of high school, and nearly all of university, right up until that morning when Derek got up and spotted his high school ring lying on top of his dresser, mixed in with a pile of jewelry that Casey had expelled from the box while looking for the right sort of earrings to wear to a job interview.

She was long gone by the time Derek was getting dressed, but he'd probably catch up with her around noon in the park where they had been eating lunch and studying over the last few days. Final exams-the very final exams of their university career- were next week, and even Derek was trying to be prepared.

Frowning slightly, Derek tried to slide the ring on to his finger, but found that it would only fit on his pinky.

Just then, his phone rang, and he got distracted trying to explain a concept to the panicked classmate on the line. It was some time before he realized that he hadn't put the ring back, and he spent the rest of his morning fiddling with the thing, flipping it between his fingers and tucking it in his pocket, only to fish it out moments later.

He was still worrying the thing when Casey plopped down on the bench beside him, shortly after noon. "Let's walk," he said lightly, pulling her to her feet again, so they could stroll down the paths that criss-crossed the park before getting down to the real work.

He asked how her interview had gone, and she set off in a chattering explanation that made him smile, even as he found himself tuning out the details. Derek was playing with his ring again, smiling softly at the sound of Casey's voice when the thought struck him that he wanted to see how the ring looked on Casey's finger.

So he pulled her gently to a stop, and slipped the gaudy thing with its Thompson crest stamped over the stone (a sizable red rock that Derek assumed was made of only the very finest plastic) onto Casey's dainty finger. And she looked down at it, and up at him, and suddenly she had tears in her eyes. "Derek…"

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean what I think it does?" Derek looked down himself, and noticed that he'd put the ring on the third finger of her left hand. Huh.

"Go with it, babe," Derek said, and before he realized it, more words spilled out, "Marry me."

And there was crying and hugging after that, and Derek smiled as she went crazy thinking about the details already. It was Casey's world in so many ways, and he was just glad enough to be along for the ride.