A/N: This is just a short drabble I imagined while brushing my teeth. It takes place sometime after the series ends, unless these two hook up during the series (I would simply die), in which case it would take place any time after that. Enjoy.
Edited: 8/16/09
The Jealous Type
"I was always jealous, ya know," Mark confessed from the doorway, where he was posed like a god and wearing nothing but boxers and stubble. Derek raised an eyebrow, electric toothbrush vibrating against the inside of his cheek. "In high school . . . Well, and in college, I guess," Mark continued explanatorily, watching disbelief dance across Derek's features as he hovered over the sink.
There was a buzz-filled lull in the conversation while Derek made sure to clean each of his teeth thoroughly before spitting with precision Mark would never have been able to achieve. Derek cleared his throat, ran a towel over his mouth and turned to face the door.
"Why?"
The way he drew out the question made the answer seem inconceivable, and Mark smirked a little at how well he must have concealed his feelings all those years. "Come on, man. You're telling me you never noticed?"
"You were jealous of me?" Derek asked for clarification, head cocked to one side in puzzlement.
"Yeah . . ." Mark narrowed his eyes as it occurred to him that Derek might have been mocking him.
Derek sensed Mark's growing indignation and stepped forward with a warm smile. "Mark, I was so busy being jealous of you, I never had time to even think you might feel the same," he declared seriously, viewing his friend's immediate surprise without comment.
"But you--you were a genius," Mark stammered confusedly, his bewilderment having nothing to do with Derek's nearness.
Derek glowed at the compliment and wanted to return the gesture, but, as always, he was hesitant to increase Mark's already abounding arrogance. "Well, you were . . . reasonably attractive."
In spite of the way Derek had carefully molded his appreciation of Mark's good looks into what sounded like a compromise, Mark's smirk was back in an instant. "You still got all the sassy doctors-in-training," he countered, flirtation fluttering in his tone.
"You got all the sexy nurses-to-be," Derek shot back with a grin, forgetting to check his admiraton.
"Of course." Mark's ego was quite capable of comandeering his voice box, and he couldn't help expounding, "I was the bad-boy they'd always dreamed of having."
"Of course," Derek repeated wearily, though laughing in fondness, before his eyes glazed over to make way for some distant memory. "It's crazy how much I wanted to be you," he reminisced with humility, "especially in high school."
"Okay, you were kind of a geek in high school," Mark pointed out more earnestly than Derek would have liked, "but, if it makes you feel better, I was more jealous of your girlfriends then, anyway."
Derek's brows shot up at this confession. "Of my girlfriends?"
Mark was not blushing when he muttered, "Don't make me say it."
"Say it," Derek automatically ordered, his fingers somehow finding their way to the taut skin above the waistband of Mark's underwear.
Impending embarrassment aside, Mark really couldn't resist. "It's crazy how much I wanted to be with you, Derek," he ceded, rolling his eyes. "Like you don't know that now, sadist."
"Oh, you might have to show me," Derek suggested innocently and made a rewarding move closer.
"Again, Shepherd?" Mark questioned with a mock-appalled stare, which was backlit by arousal. "I dunno if I ever gave the girls you dated enough credit; you're insatiable."
Derek's lips pulled back to reveal his minty-fresh teeth as he breached the remaining space between them. "I taught you that word before our vocab test, junior year."
Mark was pleased that Derek remembered. "I never got the meaning until now," he quipped leeringly, one hand reaching for Derek's shoulder as the other clasped the back of his neck. "Let's put it to good use."
Derek didn't react until right before their mouths met, pulling back just enough to look into Mark's eyes and teasingly ruminate, "Never thought you were the jealous type, Marky. Kind of contradicts your carefree attitude, huh?"
"Can it," Mark growled and yanked Derek into him possessively.