Lessons in Love: Respect and Responsibility
Lessons in Love: Respect and Responsibility
A/N: Aww, thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited "Lessons in Love"! I squee at reviews of any kind, so please- keep them coming. Since many people expressed an interest in a sequel, I am happy to present just that! It was a lot harder to write, for whatever reason, but I hope you enjoy it. :)
SUMMARY: Now that Casey knows a thing or two about the art of flirting (Derek style), she feels the need to put her newfound knowledge to good use.
Chapter 1
"So," Casey seethed at a certain stepbrother, "it's not enough that you have to empty the entire ketchup bottle on me… but you also feel the need to douse my hair with mayonnaise?" She threw a broccoli stem at him from across the dinner table, but Derek dodged it easily. "What's next? Mustard down my shirt?"
"Of course not." Derek waved a hand lazily in dismissal. "I hate mustard."
"Guys, guys," soothed Nora. "Let's try to have a nice, family dinner, ok?"
"There's nothing NICE about Derek!" Casey spat.
"Yeah, and there's nothing remotely family-like about this," Derek added.
"Look," George said, "Please, if you won't do it for your Nora or my sake, please try to set a good example for Marti, ok?"
"Hey!" Marti squeaked from somewhere below the table. "Derek isn't a good example! He taught Daphne how to—"
"Okay!" Derek hastily interrupted. "Truce, Case?"
Casey just rolled her eyes at him. A bit of flirting and a kiss or two didn't change anything between them. He was just as annoying as before….
"Yeah, whatever, Derek. No truce is going to help with whatever it is you have against me."
"Oh, that's coming from the girl who likes to boss me around every chance she gets, like the control freak she is?"
"Enough!" George yelled. "You two" he motioned at both Derek and Casey, "upstairs, NOW. You're staying in your rooms until you can learn to respect each other."
Casey slammed her glass of water down. Fury rose within her, and she barely noticed Lizzie scoot several inches away from her. "I can't BELIEVE that you're asking me to take the punishment again! Derek started it all with his ketchup-spraying frenzy."
"Well, honey, why don't you be the one to finish it then?" Nora gave her a quick smile. Casey opened her mouth to refuse, but caught Derek's eye. He was smirking at her, one eyebrow slightly raised. Suddenly he jumped up from his seat and went upstairs.
"Fine," Casey replied. She rose, cleared her dishes, and stomped upstairs, still furious, yet also undeniably curious. What was on Derek's mind?
She reached the top of the stairs, expecting to find Derek waiting for her at his bedroom door, a "come-hither" look on his face. Instead, his door was closed, its red paint glaring at her with a smug sheen under the fluorescent lighting.
"Hmph." Casey made a face at the door and waltzed by it. She didn't care about Derek or any of his stupid lessons. And anyways, they were all just completely… stupid.
She flopped onto her bed, considering what she wanted to do. To her extreme annoyance, she couldn't banish the image of Derek sprawled out across his bed, just a few yards away, his hair falling into his eyes and his long legs stretched tantalizingly—
"Pajamas!" Casey shrieked to herself. That was a good way to distract herself. She ignored the fact that it would be a very brief distraction. One step at a time…
She pulled her sweater over her head and reached back to unfasten her bra. It was stuck. Frowning, she tried to twist her arm around to get a better angle.
"Need some help?" a voice asked her to her left. Casey screamed, her hands dropping from her bra and crossing her chest quicker than lightning. Panicked, she glanced over, but all she saw was her closet. A low snickering, however, gave away Derek's hiding spot.
"Are you spying on me?" she demanded, livid with rage. She yanked open her closet and found Derek wedged in its corner. He flashed her a mischievous grin.
"Just wanted to see if we're the same shoe size," he said, completely serious. "I was hoping to borrow a pair of yours for the upcoming prom!"
"De-REK!" Casey screeched, and Derek burst into laughter.
"Oh my God, you should have seen your face!" He collapsed onto her bed in spasms of laughter, clutching his sides.
"Oh really?" snarled Casey, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Which part? When you watched me undress or when you claimed to be a cross-dresser?"
Derek paused in his laughter, pretending to seriously consider her question. "Both, actually. Although I have to say the view was – to my great disappointment – cut short during the first part." He rose from the bed and sauntered over to her side. "Care to continue?" he asked, leaning toward her ear. His breath fluttered the hair at her neck and sent a shiver down Casey's spine.
"NO!" she dashed away to sit on her bed. "And somehow I don't think this is what your father meant when he told us to learn to respect each other."
Derek looked chagrined. "You're right," he sighed. Casey raised an eyebrow. Derek plopped down next to her on the bed. "I should have asked you sooner if you needed help with that bra."
Casey whacked him with a stray stuffed animal. "You are un-be-LIEV-able!" she hissed.
Derek grinned. "You've got that right." He smirked to himself, then faced her with a wide grin, his brown eyes twinkling in a way that Santa Claus's might when he discovers a cake waiting for him instead of a tray of cookies. "So… you gonna teach me a lesson?"
Casey could only blink at him. Did I hear that right? She asked herself. Daring a look at Derek, Casey realized that he was very serious… and very close to her. She gulped. How did he keep doing that? Invading her personal space without her realizing it was an invasion?
"Wh-what?" Casey stammered.
"I said," Derek repeated, "Do you wanna teach me a lesson?" His gaze lingered pointedly at her chest.
Casey bristled and crossed her arms again. "And what lesson would that be?"
Derek only smiled, his lips tugging upwards lazily as he probably imagined all sorts of disgusting things. Casey grimaced in disgust. She was livid that he was viewing her the same as any and every girl: as a body with boobs.
"Well," Casey replied, slowly and deliberately, as if speaking to Marti (although no conversation with Marti would follow this train of thought, Casey thought to herself), "We could start by learning about proper respect. Your dad had a point when he wanted us to learn to respect each other."
Derek groaned and flopped onto his back on her bed. "You sure know how to ruin the mood," he muttered darkly at towards the ceiling.
"Well, sor-RY!" Casey spat, more stung at his accusation than she cared to admit. "But if you want to get anywhere with me, you have to respect me and respect my fellow gender."
Sitting up, Derek raised his eyebrows at her. "Who says I want to go anywhere with you?" His sly smile was back. "You're the one who stripped to her bra." He got up and waltzed to her dresser, opened it, and held up a turquoise bra with one finger. "And, really, Casey? I never would have guessed your size!" He examined the bra's tag. "You really should wear tighter shirts. Wear your endorsements with pride."
Casey – who had been sitting with her jaw open in speechlessness – snapped out of her shock and gave Derek a shove. It barely even moved him.
"I can't believe you just said that to me! That is so rude, Derek!" She gave him another, more forceful shove, sending him toppling from her bed. Casey started to smirk herself, but then she realized that Derek had grabbed her wrists and she was falling with him off the bed…
--
"OOF," Casey groaned as they hit the hard floor. They landed in a tangle of limbs and skin and – Derek forgot how to breathe for a moment as Casey's hair fell over his face. It smelled like lavender and tickled his lips. "DEREK!" Casey's voice screeched in his ear. "I could have DIED!"
Rolling his eyes at her dramatics, Derek tried to straighten himself, ignoring the way that Casey's chest was pressed into his knee. He felt a brief, familiar twinge deep in his gut at the feeling of so much of Casey's exposed skin touching him. The thin cotton of his t-shirt wasn't much protection.
"You'll be fine, Klutzilla," he managed to half-choke out. God, sometimes he hated being a guy….
"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Casey's eyes snapped dangerously at him. He couldn't help grinning back at her.
"You know you wanted this," he replied, lowering his voice a notch for effect. It obviously had the right effect; Casey's face had a taken on a rosy tint and her chest – her chest – had started to rise and fall with her quickened breathing. Her bra, he was fascinated to note, was just a simple, pale pink thing – no frills or lace or anything fancy about it. And yet, it captivated him – almost as much as the way it curved around her boobs did. He really wanted to just snap it off her. They'd come close yesterday, he reminded himself, but after he'd doused her in ketchup before dinner she hadn't wanted to "study" anymore. He only hoped that his plan would work.
"You wish," Casey said, but her voice was a bit shaky. Derek leaned closer to her, hoping to catch her off guard with a kiss. When his lips pressed against something soft and… fuzzy?... he drew back in revulsion.
"What the hell happened to your—" he cut himself off as he saw what he'd almost started to make out with. "YOUR TEDDY BEAR?"
Casey gave a bark of laughter. "That's what you get if you think you can just kiss me whenever you want to. Mr. Fuzzy Muffins does not approve of unchaperoned behavior between two members of the opposite gender." She shoved the stuffed animal into his neck and pretended to make it snuggle up against him. "You're going to have to learn a few of my lessons, Derek."
"First of all," Derek made a face of disgust at the teddy bear, "Never mention that thing's name to me again. Second of all: Ew. You've got a sick sense of humor, Case. I mean, after all those times you just 'burst in' during my special couch time, I figured you were into watching me, but I never knew you fantasized about me and inanimate objects!"
That brought a squeal of protest from Casey. "Oh my God, Derek! You are a disgusting pig!"
"Thanks," Derek flashed her a smile. But despite the grin he gave her, he couldn't help feel disappointed in how this evening was turning out. And with Casey practically half-naked, too, he thought. Dammit.
"Out!" cried Casey. "Out of my room NOW!"
"Fine, fine," Derek muttered, rising and walking to the door. "Good luck getting the bra off," he snapped, leaving the room. "Let me know if you change your mind about needing help!"
The door slammed behind him.
--
It was 9am on a Saturday, but Casey had a long day ahead of her. After Derek had stormed out (upset that he didn't get his way), she'd spent the past evening hatching a plan. Thanks to Derek's tutoring from the other day, Casey had a few ideas about the art of flirting and putting her femininity to good use. She knew that she had a certain appeal to Derek (why would he have tried to kiss her again last night?), and Casey had decided to put that appeal to good use. It was time to teach Derek a lesson of her own. He's had the upper hand in this household for the past 5 months; now it was definitely her turn.
She glanced down at the brainstorm list she'd come up with the night before, of all the things about her (and women in general) that made Derek squirm with pleasure:
1. Perfume
2. Hair
3. Lips
4. Breasts
Pretty much anything attached to a female would work on Derek. She felt blessed at her good fortune in that regard. That many more things she had against him! She smiled to herself, and chewed her lower lip in thought. What kind of things can I get out of him? she wondered. She didn't just want to make her… "lessons" about simple day-to-day matters, like having him wash the dishes for a week or do her laundry or anything boring like that. This had to be good. She wondered how far he would go for a thing or two on her list….
Casey had a plan. With each request she asked of him, and every lesson she ingrained into his head, she would offer him a reward, a bribe. With Derek, you couldn't just ask him nicely and expect him to obey out of the kindness of his heart. Derek needed something else, and extra incentive, if you would. That's why she'd planned out four different lessons with four different rewards. Rewards that were very much connected to a certain stepsister he seemed keen on getting a bit more intimate with. Well, Casey snickered to herself, in my book, it's work before play for good old Derek. She glanced down at her list with an impish glee. And for me… a well-deserved vacation!
A/N: Now the plot is REALLY going to pick up and get juicy, if you haven't already guessed. Hope you liked chapter 1. :)