I happened to hear an 80's song called 'Talking in your sleep' by The Romantics...funny but cool, and this idea was born! :B

Here you will find a small reference to Mike Seater's personality in Derek, couldn't help it xD..as some people mention they may seem a little OOC ..but I hope you like it none the less.

Dasey. One-shot. Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I own nothing of Life with Derek. If I did, believe me, Dasey would be the main reason for massive rating increase :B

Talking in your Sleep

The sun was setting. People were heading home from their usual works as the wind of autumn waved hello. It had been an exhausting day, specially for Derek. His mom had visited the week before and due to failing Spanish class, not only was the threat of an all-boys private school mentioned, she had almost taken him to Spain with her. If he wanted things to stay the same, he had to keep his grades up. So he had to take some tutoring classes after school for the following weeks.

He had come from school that afternoon and slammed the door shut behind him, put his jacket in the coat hanger, threw his backpack on the floor and jumped on his recliner, happy to be finally home. He had only had one tutoring session with SeƱora Sanchez, he could not imagine surviving the rest. His fingers were playing with the ends of his brown shirt until he noticed the eminent silence of the house. His eyes searched for movement around him.

"Dad?...Nora?...Anybody?!" Nothing.

"Very well...an order of uninterrupted, loud hockey coming up!" Derek turned the TV on and danced his way to the kitchen as the cheesy music from a supermarket ad filled the room. He grabbed a soda from the fridge and held a big bag of chips in his arms for the game. Enjoying being alone, he tapped his feet and shook his hair in a way that he would never do in public, never letting go of his snacks. Quite a sight, but luckily for him, no one was there to blackmail him later.

He danced back to the living room, set everything up, and as he found a game on the sports channel, Casey walked in and slammed the door shut. He stopped dancing abruptly and sat on his recliner scratching his neck as he pretended to have been watching the game for some time now. After regaining his cool, he could not help but smirk a little, he wouldn't be alone after all. And well, bugging Casey was more entertaining than watching hockey, not that he would ever admit it to any other human being. Then again, he questioned if it was a good idea at all, there was no one else to play referee for them. He was about to ponder into this when he finally looked at her.

She had an extremely tired expression and let out a soft 'sup' before she sat on the couch next to him.

"Sup.." He said back, still looking at her drowsy, blue eyes. She just yawned and leaned her chin on her hand. Derek's smirk softened as he noticed her overall exhausted features. Her pink blouse and her gray skirt wrinkled as she shifted on the couch for comfort.

"Why so tired?" He tried for small talk.

"Huh? Oh, I just didn't get ANY sleep at all last night, I forgot we had a project due today and went to the movies with Em... I had to work on the project the whole night." Derek snorted and put his hand on his chest in mock sentimentalism.

"Awe, I'm moved. I've become a strong influence on you. Though I would give it some more time, I would never skip sleep for a school project."

Casey closed her eyes, and raised her index finger against him.

"The day I become like you, I...I-" She interrupted herself with a yawn.

"You...you?"Derek teased.

"...I don't know, I can't think right now. I need... sleep." She said as her eyes seemed to fight to stay open.

"Ah, the rewards of being a keener. Why do you think I get Ed to do my work?" Derek said before he took a sip from his soda.

"...why didn't you leave for Spain again?" She rolled her eyes.

He pretended this did not bother him one bit and just played the game they both knew so well.

"And leave You? How could I ever deal?" He gave her a look of mock concern.

"Ah, now I'm touched. You stayed for me, how moving Derek."

"Well, Space Case, at the end of the day you're just too entertaining. I'd be bored to tears in Spain without you."

She would usually have a witty reply; a fun, sarcastic comeback, but as time passed her brain felt foggy, and she could only mumble a simple reply.

"How comforting. Glad, I amuse you." She replied absent-mindedly.

"Always." He finished with a smirk. There was no retaliation from her and he turned to look at her only to see her dozing off, leaning on her hand.

"Whatever, I'm trying to watch some hockey." He turned his attention to the game trying to look indifferent.

"...You and your stupid Hockey," Derek jumped slightly at her sudden chatter but managed to pull it off coolly as his famous smirk appeared once again.

"don't you have anything more exciting to watch?...besides bimbos in bikinis?."Casey finished, lazily. Derek stuffed his mouth with chips as he answered; his speech was unintelligible but Casey was so used to this she understood every syllable as if he was a professional orator.

"Nope. And now that you mentioned it, I think I'm gonna watch some female beach volleyball after the game." He stated just to rile her up, but she was too tired to take the bait. Casey rolled her eyes before she closed them again.

"Ugh, you are... disgusting, Derek." Her voice came out slow and dull from exhaustion, mistaken as a too serious remark.

Derek's smirk left his face, his light demeanor changed into a cold one. He chugged his soda until he was almost done with it; his eyes stayed glued to the screen as he spoke one last time.

"Say what you will, McDonald, but ninety-nine percent of the female population would disagree." It was meant to be a fun comeback even though the humor was obviously gone from his voice, but she did not notice. Too tired to speak anymore, Casey grabbed one of the cushions and hugged it, leaned her head on the couch and her eyes started to close slowly, she felt way too heavy to go upstairs to her own bed. At her silence Derek simply put the volume of the game higher and concentrated on it.

The last thing she remembered was the noise of a cheerful crowd.

~x~

"Goooooaaaal!"

The previous conversation was all but forgotten. Derek was more than excited, the Oilers had just won six to five in overtime. Surprisingly, Casey never woke up with all the noise. The hockey game had ended and Derek glanced at his soda cup, it was empty. Derek groaned and stood up to get some more at the fridge, considering more kinds of junk food as well. Regardless of the joke, watching beach volleyball wasn't such a bad idea after all.

He wondered why the rest of the family was not home yet. Maybe his dad and Nora had forgotten to pick Ed, Liz and Marti up... again, and had gone hurriedly after them. He chuckled at the thought of his dad running with his briefcase in hand, papers flying everywhere.

"...Derek... " A voice said, interrupting his thoughts. He quickly peaked his head over the fridge's door.

"Yeah?"

No one answered.

"Did you call me?" Derek frowned and closed the fridge, forgetting his drink and headed back to the living room. He looked over and saw Casey sound asleep. He shook the thought away and sat back on his recliner, ready to watch something else.

"Derek..you-"

Derek jumped from his seat and looked over at Casey. That was definitely her voice. He checked if she was awake, but he saw her eyes completely shut and long, soft breaths were taking place. Great, he was losing it.

"Idiot." She spoke.

He almost fell from his seat. Klutzilla talks in her sleep? and she's dreaming with... me? ...wait, she called me an idiot!

"-you are so...dense." She spoke again.

Without taking his eyes off her, his hands quickly looked for the remote under his butt and awkwardly pressed some buttons until he finally found the MUTE button. One of his eyebrows perked up and an unexpected blush made its way to his cheeks when he saw her hug the cushion tighter as his name escaped her lips once more.

Derek quickly got off his chair and sat on the floor in front of her. For some reason he found Casey's mumbles more interesting and rested his chin on his hands. He didn't know if he wanted to hear or wait, who was he kidding, of course he wanted to hear.

He thought of what Casey would feel for his 'invasion of dream privacy' (as lame as that sounded...) but he was so desperately curious that he let his selfish butt stay where it was, after all, he was involved, right?
He had heard before that one can have brief, funny conversations with people who talk in their sleep. He wondered if it was true as he tapped his hands against his knees, eagerly waiting for her to say more.

"C'mon Casey what were you saying?...I'm dense?" He whispered. She frowned, and for a moment he thought he had just woken her up.

"I want...don't...go." Relieved, he let out the air he did not know he was holding and leaned closer to hear clearer, his face was inches from hers, but he didn't care. He saw her smile slightly and hug the cushion even tighter. This made him more impatient.

"You thought... that I didn't...but...I do." She mumbled.

"You what?" He whispered.

She shifted a little as her smile faded and her brow knitted together with profound sadness.

"...please no...don't...don't go...please.."

So in her dream, he was leaving. Why would she ask him to stay? She was more than ecstatic when she thought he was leaving for Spain. He frowned as he remembered their past, her words from before.

Ugh, you are... disgusting, Derek.

"...Why should I stay?" He decided to chance it, to see if speaking to sleep-talkers actually worked.

"...don't go...we...I... need you..."

Derek's eyes had widened so much he was surprised his eyeballs hadn't come out.

"...What?" He looked at her with complete disbelief as his pulse seemed to quicken.

"...idiot." She replied with a frown.

"Why?"

Derek took a deep breath as he asked once more.

"Why, Casey? Why do you want me around? You hate me."

"No." She plead. "No, don't...I love...you, s-so please..."

Derek forgot how to breathe.

"Derek...I love you..." Casey let out once again and hugged the cushion against her.

"...don't go..." She slurred.

He simply could not breathe. His heart was now hammering against his chest.

"...Der-" Casey kept on mumbling but Derek was not listening anymore. He was too busy trying to register the words that kept echoing in his head.

Derek...I love you...

He was the one dreaming. He had to be. This was not happening.

...I love you...

She would never, could ever...

...I love you...

The air made it back to his lungs and he ran a hand through his hair, still in shock.

He never thought of ever accepting or mentioning what he felt toward her, because he knew she hated him. Well, he thought she hated him, so he went along with the torture. He did whatever he knew to shove those feelings away, but with every day that passed, he could not stop her from invading his life and his mind. He would roll his eyes, grunt, and yell 'get out!' when she came blurting into his room, yet, he would miss her when she went away. He would follow her normal topic, turn it into an argument, tease and joke just to get a satisfactory reaction from her and keep the conversation going until he felt it was creeping him out and eventually leave.

It was complicated. He couldn't stand her, but he liked being around her, at the same time...if that makes any sense.

At first he had struggled with his thoughts and the torture of having to live with her and be near her all the time, until he finally gave up and admitted that she attracted him, and he wanted her. But with the years, mere want turned into something else, a greater something that pulled at something within him...but he would keep it all... to himself.

He fought with her because that was all he could ever have. He cursed the day his father married her mother and their children all became a big happy family...forcing him to see her as his new sister, for his family's sake. Except she wasn't, she never would be. As much as it tortured him, he was willing to accept the fact that her eye-rolls, her smirks, her dorky smiles, her winks, her nerdy ideas and her playful punches would only be in a friendly way, or worst, in a sibling kind of way.

Some days, he would be all sunshine. Other times, out of the blue, he would get angry and upset and freak everyone out. He had to be a jerk to push her away, it was the only shield he had. He had promised to himself that he would do anything to keep her away from him, that what he wanted had to go to the grave with him. He always thought he was strong enough to succeed, but only a smile and bare touch of her skin against his would cause him to weaken in seconds.

He had accepted his fate, he had tried to move on. Failing, he decided to live in denial and accept his cursed role as just her annoying step-brother. Be cheerful, and pretend to be when he was not.

But he never expected for her to think of him that way, to feel the same way. Never. Not once. It was absolutely unreal. His disbelief forced him to go down memory lane and analyze things. He had to admit that when they fought, sometimes it seemed more like they were flirting. She always stated how much he annoyed her, but instead of walking away, she always stayed. Always kept the game going. His defense mechanism refused to allow hope and wanted to chalk it up to wishful hearing and unintelligent mumbling, but she had said it clearly, twice. He had no idea what to do with himself now. All those feelings he thought he had pushed away rushed back into him so strongly that it ached all over, fighting against his cynicism until it faded away; his brain seemed to malfunction, his vision could only concentrated on her, just like he used to, not long ago.

His heart seemed like it could burst out of his chest any minute, the overwhelming urge to be close to her gripped at him. Unable to hold back any longer, Derek stood up and crossing all the barriers that he had spent years building, he leaned down and kissed her. He had waited for that for so long and didn't measure himself one bit. He had measured himself enough, for years.

Casey, obviously, woke up in shock and when she realized what was happening, she pushed Derek away.

"D-De-rek? what-what are you doing?!"

She sat up, her eyes were wide, mouth ajar, rouge coloring her face. Derek opened his eyes slowly, they were glowing, his lips were curved in a small, disbelieving smile. She had never seen him like this before. His silence and the way he was looking at her broke the little composure she had left and she blushed deeper, feeling something warm flip at the pit of her stomach. Finally, a soft smirk appeared on his features.

"Why, I'm kissing you." He answered calmly, stating the obvious. This was not an ordinary situation, his calmed response unnerved her.

"But-"

Derek didn't allow her to speak for he pressed his lips against hers once more. He kissed her as if he had never kissed anyone before, as if she was the oxygen he was longing for after being a long time under water. His lips, expert dancers of their art.
He wrapped his arms around her, giving her no chance of getting off his grip any sooner. Casey's eyes were wide open and was completely frozen, her heart was breaking havoc within her rib cage and as he pulled her closer, she felt his heart beating a thousand miles per hour as well. She was blushing fervently, as he was there trying to kiss her with all his might and she, awkwardly, just stayed static in his arms.

Derek stole two, three and four more kisses, but she was simply in shock. His determination faltered, he hesitated, it was small but it grew enough to grip him with fear. She was not responding in any way. What if he interpreted it all wrong and he just crossed a line he could never go back to? It was just a dream she was having! What in the world had he done?

He broke away from her, avoiding her eyes, terrified. He felt humiliated and scared at the idea of facing her, what he would have to say to her. What would happen to them. But the moment his hold loosened and he tried to let go of her, her hands held his face and she kissed him. Every spec of her resolve had shattered, and she just...kissed him. This time he was the one taken by surprise.

Who was she kidding, she had dreamed of kissing him countless of times; she would even daydream about it at school or while actually chatting with him, causing only for him to give her weird looks when she trailed off in the middle of his sentences.

But she never thought that it would actually happen. In that moment, reality was better than fantasy.

She was a turmoil of emotions inside. At first, she wanted to fight and push him away, yell at him like he had made just another terrible prank, but she couldn't. She simply couldn't. She wouldn't. Derek's muscles relaxed, he forgot about the world and immersed himself into the abyss of the moment, holding her again and taking charge of her lips once more.

...Finally.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers ran through his hair as his arms pulled her tighter. She finally understood that famous fact that Derek Venturi was a great kisser.

Was this really happening? He was absolutely positive he was dreaming. He just had to be. All those years of fights had been a complete waste.

Every time Derek went out on a date, he would brag about it. He would date girls that were the exact opposite of her just to rile her up. But he was too blind to see her real jealousy. Then came the time when he inexplicably stopped dating. Sam always questioned him about it, but he would just avoid to answer. He just didn't feel like it anymore. He felt it was useless to try to make her jealous if the girl always hated him.

Knowing he was single, she would try to be amiable with him, but he would be the usual jerk and push her away. He didn't want to get close to her if that would only bring him torment. She then started dating Max in hopes of forgetting about him. But she would find herself flirting big time with Max just around Derek. She would batter her eyelashes, bite her lower lip, embrace Max and kiss his ear while looking at Derek, and he would just look in shock, then roll his eyes and glare darkly as he walked away. But she never knew if it was because he felt disgusted or jealous. When Max was ready to return the favor she would run and say she was late for class.

She knew she was being evil, Max did not deserve that, but the desire for Derek to see her as a woman and not as an annoying step-sister had become simply too great to suppress, it had almost taken over her.

She wanted to get Derek jealous, which worked darn good, but she never knew it did. She never got to see him pushing his teammates during hockey practice, tackling and punching everything in his way, causing for the coach to send him to sit at the benches and calm down, thus Sam throwing questions at him. After her break up, seldom times she would smile at Derek for no reason, of course when no one was around. He would love the smiles but quickly return them with indifference.

Now it was totally clear. He finally felt those lips that haunted him day and night. Those infuriated lips that always called his name across the hall.

They pulled apart to get some air. Both blushing they rested their foreheads against the other. Casey was as happy as she could ever be, but she was still curious as to why the sudden show of desperate affection. Derek stared into her eyes, as his hands played with her hair.
She was so confused, she had never seen him like that or.. felt him like that, for that matter. They still had some difficulty breathing.

"...w-why..how..you..." she blurted clumsily.

He smiled and placed a small, tender kiss on her lips as the volleyball game remained mutely forgotten. He felt her lips smile under his. She couldn't believe what was happening.

"Me too, Casey." He said out of nowhere.

"You too, what?" She asked, confused. He smirked.

"Nothing..." He trailed off as he felt her fingers brush away a few bangs off his forehead. She could not help herself, she had always wondered how that would feel like. He stared at her as she then ran her hand over his hair until it rested on the back oh his neck, making a shiver run down his spine. She looked completely absorbed. He cleared his throat to break the moment before he ended up looking like a very shaken, and smitten little kid before her.

"Ahem, me thinks somebody needs to take back a certain statement made about a certain someone being disgusting, eh?..." He ignored the warmth he felt on his face as he stared hard into her eyes until she was the one who blushed a new shade of red and had to look away, completely embarrassed. She ignored his words, trying to get a hold of herself and simply asked again.

"You said, 'me too, Casey' what did you mean by that?" Of course, this was Casey. It was silly for him to think that he could ever get away with anything.

"Nothing...you just need to make sure no one's around when you go to sleep, Miss McDonald."

"Huh?"

"Except y'know, me..." He gave her a confident, boyish grin.

"...excuse me?"

He was not making any sense. He hugged her until he was close enough to speak into her ear. This was so new to her, so wonderfully new.

"You just say some really interesting things in your sleep, that's all." He whispered.

The moment he said that the grasp of her hands on his shoulders loosened and her eyes went wide with horror.

WHAT?

What in the world did she say in her sleep?!

She began to stammer, trying to step back, maybe even plan an escape but he held her in place, and she found no place to hide. She wanted to disappear, how could she fall asleep on the couch?! She hadn't had that problem in years, but it usually happened when she was way too exhausted; she slept like a brick and her mouth took a mind of its own.

"No!...I...but-...you didn't...what did I..."

He saw she was starting to freak out, so before she could even enter into Drama Queen phase one, he brought her back to him and claimed her lips with his own again.

She tried to break away, to clarify things, to inquire about whatever it is that she may have said, but he held his ground until she felt too dizzy to fight.

Oh, Klutzilla could fight all she wanted. But this time, he wasn't letting go.

Me too, Casey.

I love you, too.

FIN.


...I am SO glad I don't talk in my sleep...

So? What did you guys think? :P Lemme know!

I loved writing this, hope ye liked (:

~Amorekristall