When Words Intertwine

Summery. Derek has to find a way to let Tori know he isn't holding a grudge against Tori. That he doesn't mind she's technically his foster sister. But this is still Derek, the guy who isn't good with words. How on earth his he going to do this?

Inspiration: Dedicated to suzi1811, who suggested this during one of her reviews in my Tori/Kit one-shot. Thanks! Once you suggested it, I was so hyped up with all of these ideas I never knew I had! Thanks, and I hope you like this!

Warnings: Cussing at the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own Darkest Powers! Or Derek. *sad face*

When Words Intertwine

Alright, Derek will admit it.

As he sat in the back of the black mini-van with Chloe close besides him, he couldn't stop sneaking Tori glances, who was sitting in the middle seat/basket with Simon, looking at his drawings. He could do this, right?

Yeah, he told himself. Just act like I always do around her.

Yup, because that'll show just how much you accept all of this. His wolf mocked. Not only was the wolf voice mocking him, but his dad kept making eye-contact with him in the rearview mirror from the driver's seat. Derek tried his best to ignore it, but then that will mean his dad would think he was ignoring his father's request from this morning before everyone else woke up.

He sighs deeply, and Chloe looks up from her book to look at him worriedly.

"Its nothing." He assures her as he kisses the top of her head. Chloe looked as if she didn't believe it, as usual when it came to Derek lying to her, but one small glance at her book in hand, and she gave him an apologetic smile before diving right back into it.

Derek didn't mind, especially since it was his fault for, um, distracting, Chloe from reading the damn book yesterday, which was supposed to be finished by the time she entered the devil's cousin's room. Derek rather not end up snapping at the short-tempered man Chloe calls Mr. Sutor because he decides to "chastise" Chloe for not completing the assignment.

The loud yelling's of teens running amuck and the heavy smell of smoke informs Derek that they reached their destination and six seconds later, he can see the high school right in front of him.

"Alright kids, get out of here!" Kit kicks them out of his minivan as Simon hastily puts away his drawing book.

"God, you have got to stop calling us kids!" Tori makes sure to retort as she swings her designer bag over her shoulder after hoping out. But there's a smirk hidden, and Kit smiles back. In there, Derek knows they have a hidden secret.

"For once, I agree with Tori." Simon chances a glance at Tori, trying to hide the small smile, but Derek sees it as bright as daylight. Simon continues. "Seriously though, dad, we're not kids anymore." Simon tells his father after getting out.

Derek steps out and helps Chloe with her bag as she tries to walk out without her eyes leaving the book, but history of her clumsiness steps in and she trips, almost flying out the car.

Derek, who was already anticipating this, caught her and wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her against him, chuckling.

"Hey! That's not funny!" Chloe scowls and plasters her two palms on his chest, but she hesitates, before pushing him away and straightening her clothes. She catches Tori's eyes, and tries to hide a blush. An inside joke? Derek wonders. A girl thing?

The bell that signals they have five minutes sounds, and Simon waves them to hurry up, seeing how all of their individual homerooms happen to be on the far end of the school, the complete opposite.

They walk, and though Derek isn't so mushy-mushy with Chloe at school (now, at home?…), he keeps an arm around her waist, seeing how she's very stubborn and decides to continue reading while walking. Maybe Derek shouldn't have asked if she wanted to go for a walk?

Images of what happened during their walk came into his head, and he decides to answer his own question with a definite no.

"Tori! I like that bag, where'd you get it?" Derek hears a girl ask Tori.

Tori tried to feign surprise and shock, but Derek had known her too well to know she was hiding a smirk at the attention she was grabbing. "Oh this? Chloe's aunt bought it for me yesterday!" Derek stopped dead in his tracts. There it was. All the evidence he needed to have to come to one single conclusion: Everyone had someway or the other found a way to tell Tori she really is accepted into his family. Whether it was helping with a nightmare(dad) sharing a secret conversation(Simon), talking about boys, (Chloe) or buying her a $340 dollar bag(Lauren)

And Derek? He has done completely nothing. Which makes him look like the bad guy. The jerk who doesn't want to consider Tori as part of his family. Couldn't Simon have asked Derek to tag along with him and talk to Tori when he did? Simon knows Derek isn't good with words!

"Derek?" Chloe asks after a few seconds of watching guilt written all over his face.

"Er, sorry, my bad." Derek continues walking, but his time, Chloe stops him. He's about to ask what's wrong, when she presses a finger to her lips, then to Simon and Tori, who hadn't heard them halt and are currently walking nonchalantly with a friend besides each of them.

"Derek…" Chloe sighs, looking slightly uncomfortable. She wants to tell Derek to try and…talk with Tori, but then that would mean being a pushover, considering she doesn't know what Derek thinks of Tori yet. Though hopefully, he doesn't hate her as much as he once did. Telling him to tell Tori he's okay with her being his foster sister is like just shoving words into his mouth, which she didn't want. "H-have you talked with Tori yet?" She finally settles with a conversation starter.

Chloe sees the guilt on his face just before it disappear. "Actually no, not really." He says slowly while shoving a hand through his hair. "Not really" is an underestimate. He hasn't shared a single word with the witch since yesterday, when everyone found out she was dad's daughter.

"So, what do you think? Of Tori being Simon's half-sister?" Chloe questions, curious. She knows Derek isn't a bad person. She also knows he wouldn't tell someone off just because he can remember her being nasty to him. He has a heart, and its in the right place.

"Well, its definitely not how you guys are making me seem." Derek says aloud, and he regrets it immediately. No, it really isn't any of them's faults.

Chloe is shocked, and she shakes her head rapidly. "No! We never told Tori anything a-"

"No, forget I said anything." He shoves his hands in his pocket. "I…I'm not mad or anything. Honestly, I'm actually…okay with the situation. I just…don't….I'm just not good with words." He looks helplessly at Chloe, and Chloe wants nothing more then to help Derek with this, give him advice on how to approach Tori. But that would be like giving him a script on what are the right things to say, but that wouldn't count. Derek should express what he really thinks, not reciting some words from someone else's mind. She gives him a small smile.

"Derek-" the bell rings, and Chloe's eyes widen. "No, no, no!" She grabs Derek and pulls him through the hall, bumping into people and muttering apologies. She can't be more then ten seconds late! Maybe, that dragon who's using a human body as a vessel hasn't noticed she's late-

"Chloe Saunders!" The roaring voice of Mrs. Barbato sounds just as Chloe turns to her homeroom. Uh-oh.

There, is Mrs. Barbato with her arms crossed in front of the door and looking directly at Chloe with her red-beady eyes. Chloe gives a half-hearted smile, and when the dragon-woman is about to speak up, Chloe notices she stops. Confused, Chloe looks behind her to see an emotionless Derek with his arms also crossed (Which makes his biceps look more bigger and intimidating) staring right at the women, his eyes daring her to say anything bad about Chloe.

So all she does is point inside her room and Chloe enters shyly. "Mr. Souza, I am sure you have somewhere else to be?" Seeing how the teacher's attention is away from Chloe now, he uncrosses his arms and nods.

"Heading there right now, ma'am." This time, Derek lets some of the sarcasm seep in, and he hears other students chuckling and giggling at his braveness, since it is rumored Barbato can spit fire out her mouth and eats kittens for dinner. With that Derek heads the other way to his class.

He really wishes he had more time to speak with Chloe. Chloe always helps him, is always there to listen. And that's exactly what he needs. Someone to tell what he's thinking about, and how, deep down, he wants to do the right thing. But he just doesn't know how to express it.


Derek has only one period with Tori, and that's a woodshop elective, since even though they're in the same grade, Derek has all advance placement classes.

As Derek walks down to that class, he suddenly feels…scared.

He still hasn't said anything to Tori. He hasn't gotten the chance to-

Lies. You just don't know what to say. The wolf muses in Derek's head. Derek scoffs, but soon finds truth in those words. He really doesn't know what to say. Yesterday, he had all the time to grab Tori and tell her. But he decided not to, because he thought Tori wouldn't care anyways.

I mean, why would Tori care if I was okay with this or not? We're not blood related or anything, that's Simon and dad. She won't even have to call me her brother, because I'm only her foster brother. You know what? Not even, considering dad isn't legally my foster dad either. But even as he thought it, he couldn't help but to feel pathetic.

Derek enters his class and hunts down his table, where Jarred and Zach are currently sitting at, the latter making paper airplanes. Mr. Harnett is erasing the blackboard, so Derek takes the advantage, since this is his fifth time being late. Because the teacher's back is to him, and adding the noise from the talking students and yelling girls, Derek silently creeps to his stool and puts his backpack down.

Zach looks up and smirks at Derek from across. "Late again, huh? Might this have anything to do with Chloe?" Derek sees the tell-tale of Zach's tongue licking his lips, and Derek can't help but to growl out silently.

"No."

Jarred, who was sitting next to Zach , but facing away from the table as he read, spins around without looking up from his book. "Zach…" he warns as he turns a page.

Zach only rolls his eyes. "Chill, he knows I'm kidding." And he turns around to throw the paper airplane, which lands directly on the all girls' table…which Tori happens to be sitting down at.

Once the girls look up, Zach smirks and whispers to the boys, "So, wanna have some fun?" Because he is so used to asking the same question and getting the same response, he gets up and walks towards the girls to flirt without wasting another second.

"I swear, I have no idea how he manages to fit through the door with such a big ego." Jarred comments dryly while turning another page. Derek chuckles, and looks up to see Zach commenting on a girl's eyes, while all the same, watching another girl in the corner of his eyes. Then, he makes the mistake of looking at Tori. She catches his eyes, and again, guilt consumes him, so he turns away once more to look down at his folded elbows on the table.

All the while, Jarred notices all of this and sneaks a peak at Tori, to see her laughing at something a girl retorted back at Zach.

"So, how come you guys decided 'til now to tell the school?" Derek looks up to see Jarred cocking his head at him.

"What?"

"You know, that you, Simon and Tori are all related." Derek feels his eyes bulging out at this comment, surprise and shock evident on his face.

He regains himself, but Jarred saw it all. "Well…" His ears are trying to detect Tori, seeing what she was saying.

"…you tell us!" A girl asks.

"And what does it matter to you?" Tori asks back.

"When I asked you to try and hook me and Derek up, you said you guys barely know each other, besides the fact you carpool together!"

"And….?"

"You lied. Because really, that's your foster brother, so he must listen to you when his foster sister tells him about a hotter girl!" Tori actually laughs at this, unable to resist.

"I didn't lie. Me and Derek don't really see eye-to-eye, even though he is my foster-brother. He doesn't listen to me, nor does he care what I have to suggest." And that cuts Derek much deeper then it should have. So he chooses to drown out the rest of the conversation.

"Does it really matter?" He asks Jarred.

He shrugs. "Not necessarily. Its just, people don't normally go around saying they have neighbors, when in reality, its a family member."

Thinking fast, Derek replied. "Well, when we first applied for this school, we learned that if it's a family of three or more, they tend to separate them into different schools. Dad didn't like that, so he asked Lauren, our neighbor, if she could fake being Tori's foster mother. Ta-da."

Jarred raises an eye-brow. "All of that just to have his family in the same school?"

"Dad hates it when we get separated." Derek replies nonchalantly.

"Over-protected father, huh?"

"Major." And he has no idea…

Suddenly, Mr. Harnett claps his hands to get everyone's attention. People silent down, but Zach is still flirting stupidly with the girls. "Zach, get your ass on that stool!" Zack winks at Tori before going back to his seat. Once everyone is quiet and seated, Harnett begins his announcement. "Great news everyone, the school is letting us woodshop teachers take you all on an amazing, spontaneous field trip!"

"Where are we going?" A girl asks. To this, Harnett's smile drops to a frown.

"Does it really matter? You guys get a chance to go out doors for an hour. And leave this shit-hole." He mutters the last part so no-one hears, but Derek does. "Okay, so just leave your stuff here and lets go out to the buses." Jarred tucks his book under his shirt and the two boys walk out. As they step out, they notice a bunch of other students stepping out as well. They must also be going on he field trip. They all, simultaneously, look out the large window to see only two buses. There is no way they could all fit in two buses.

Three, two, one. And they all bolt, knowing the slowest will end up sitting either with a random person instead of their friends, or on the lap of someone else, which might be okay in cars, but not in old school buses where you can feel each bump.

Derek runs, and Jarred catches up quickly, one of the perks of being on the track team. Derek and Jarred are one of the few who get to sit next to a friend, and after five minutes, the buses drive off.

It was a construction site, that was the ever so amazing field trip Harnett was talking about. Of course, Harnett didn't care they just drove off twenty minutes away from school to see a construction site. No, he just wanted so badly out of that horrid classroom.


His excuse? Well, he wanted his students to see how construction workers use wood and cut the planks, careful and masterful…it sounded better in his head. But whatever, it still worked. "Alright, go back to the buses!" Derek complies when he catches a whiff of Tori scent. But this scent isn't heading towards the buses. No, this goes around a huge machine and into no-where.

So, after glancing around to make sure no one is looking, Derek runs to the machine and goes behind it. He picks up her scent and follows, walking on the dirt and debris of the wood. He comes across a small forest when he hears voices.

"-invite me to your house?" He hears a boy his age ask seductively.

"Seriously?" Tori's voice asks in disbelief. Derek stops. "This is the reason why you brought me out here?"

"Baby, that ain't the only reason…" Derek continues to walk when he spots Tori pressed against a tree, and a boy from school in front of her, his elbow and arm resting above her head. Oops. Great. Now Tori is going to have even more reason to hate him, because he not only is acting like a jerk, but he interrupts a make-out session with her and a boy.

"Oh, please, don't call me baby!" Tori shoves the boy, and he stumbles for a bit, but grabs her arm and presses her back against the tree.

"No, you can't leave just yet." He says as he leans down.

So they still haven't seen me? With that, Derek silently takes a step back, and plans on going back to the bus, but he stops besides a bush and crouches down, hidden. Why? That's a good question, which he doesn't have the answer to. But he suspects it's the wolf that is ordering him to do so.

"I'll leave when I want to." Tori spats and pushes his arm away. That's when Derek realizes Tori doesn't want to make-out with this kid. His heart skips a beat and he feels his face get heated. He's about to jump up and interrupt when he the faint smell of something burning stops him for a millisecond.

"No." The kid grabs her chin and forces his lips on her.

"You might want to get off her." Derek's deep grow vibrates through the forest and the boy jumps back in surprise. He looks at Derek and his big built, before finally looking at his eyes.

"Yeah? What's she to you?" Derek blanches, caught off guard. What was Tori to him? Why is the wolf so…angry? He catches Tori's eyes from behind the boy, but then answers. "I'm going to ask you to leave." he repeats. God damn, can he be anymore stupider?

The boy scoffs, but when Derek crosses his arms and purposefully makes his biceps look bigger, the boy stops. "You know what? Whatever. That girl doesn't know she has it good when a guy like me invites her to have me. You can have her, she's probably still a virgin anyways." And with that, he walks around Derek without glancing back at Tori. And Derek's glad the boy made a huge gap between them when he walked around Derek, or else Derek would have grabbed him and thrown a punch.

"Fuck you! Everyone knows you have a small penis!" Tori yells loudly at the boy, but he only flings her the birdie above his head and continues walking

"Thanks Derek. Really. Here I was, ready to beat that asshole, when you show up and let him get away!" Derek looks back at Tori to see her huffing with anger.

"…What?" Derek asks in disbelief.

"I said, I was planning on making him sorry he messed with me. But then you show up, he makes fun of me, and he gets to prance off, probably off to tell everyone of how 'helpless' I looked! Thanks for making me look pathetic!" And that's as much anger as Tori can re-direct to Derek, so she decides to walk around him and head towards the buses. But then, Derek catches her arm, halting her.

"Wait." She tenses, but doesn't make an attempt to move or struggle. Alright, I have her attention…now what? "I just saved you from…whatever that was. Why am I being yelled at?" Shit, the wrong words came out.

"From whatever that was?' Really Derek? God Derek, all of this love you're showing me, I just might suffocate." Tori says sarcastically. "Look, I would thank you for 'saving' me, but the thing is, I had it all under-control." She stares up coolly at him.

"Completely under-control? Tori, you were up against a tree, in a forest where if you screamed, no one could have heard you. Besides, he was a good foot taller then you. And lots stronger. He could have seriously-" he stops suddenly.

"Could have seriously what, Derek?" She stares defiantly up at him, daring him not to finish the sentence.

"Could have forced you to use magic! Then what? He finds out there's something wrong there, and we have to go off and move?" Its as if he had just slapped her, but a million times worst, because instead of retorting, she doesn't met his eyes anymore.

"Of course. How can I be so stupid? For an instant there, to actually believe…" She whispers under her breath, but stops when remembering Derek was still there and can hear her perfectly well. She turns sharply around and heads toward the buses, Derek following silently behind, not making a sound. This was not suppose to end like that.

Once they got to the bus, Derek was happy to find an empty three-sitter, saving them for Jarred, and maybe Zach. Just then, all of the students jumped in the bus after being chased by some teachers (who had to round them up, because many sneaked out to fool around) Derek waits, happy to find that even though girls have grown an interest in him, they still don't dare to take a seat besides him. Neither do the boys

Someone clears their throat and Derek looks up. There, staring right at him, are four girls, no, not girls, teenagers, smiling at him, with Harnett behind them.

"Derek, I know you hate sitting with teenagers, but there are no more empty seats." He says. Derek jumps up and looks around frantically. His world came crashing down when he realized every seat was taken, and many at the back had people sitting on other's lap.

"I…uh…okay." As soon as he finished, the girls rushed in, each fighting to get the seat right besides Derek.

"Hey Derek, remember me?" A girls asks him sitting way too close for his liking. He nods, just to be polite, but moves as close to the window as possible. A girl sits on her lap, and tries to put her leg on top of him, but he glares and she stops. Two seconds later, and she puts a hand on his knee.

"You have a sturdy knee-cap. You should join track." He shoves her hand away, disgusted. A sturdy knee-cap? Really?

"Sandra, wanna move over?" Derek hears a voice over all of the noise and immediately recognizes it as Tori's. And she was talking to the girl sitting on another girl's lap on the outsider seat, in the same basket as Derek.

He sees light lit up in the girls eyes, and for the first time in a long time, he's scarred.

"I'll sit on Derek!" she gets shoved away.

"No! I do!" Someone pulls her away from Derek.

"No way! I call dibbs!" The four girls are crawling on each other, trying to get on his lap and Derek crashes himself against the window. They look like zombies, all reaching out for him hungrily. Correction: He's scared shitless!

Just then, in the mist of the girls wrestling, Derek see's Tori staring at the front of the bus, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Without thinking, Derek grabs her arm, and pulls her in. Stupidly and stunned, the girls stop attacking each other and stare as Derek puts Tori on his knees, all the while Tori has no clue to what just happened.

"Okay! You four, shut the hell up, and lets get out of here!" Derek's roar makes the girls obey immediately, and the school driver starts the bus, since Derek's loud yell reached the front of the bus. Once settled, the girls all look at Tori with jealously.

"What the hell?" One asks.

"Trust me, honey. I have no idea." Tori replies while prying Derek's arm (which was slightly around her) away from her. Derek complies, and just then, the bus jumps, making Tori jump high up and grab hold of Derek's shirt. He gives her a smug look, in which Tori returns with a glare and a look, and Derek puts his arm back around her, subtly and hesitantly. Mainly because he didn't want others to get the wrong idea-

"Wait! What's going on?"

"Whoa, I think hell just froze over!"

"What happened to Chloe?"

"How long has Derek been single?""Is he cheating?" You see, while Derek had had girls throwing themselves over him, he has never showed any kind of interest. Zip, nada. He didn't take their crap. He made it firm Chloe was his girlfriend, and if someone as so much as-

Well, needless to say, the likelihood of Derek ever touching a girl like this that didn't go by the name of Chloe Saunders is the same as finding out Barbato is actually a beautiful angel that loves all students.

Maybe Derek took it too far with this? One look at the girls beside him, and there was no way in hell he was going to let any of them sit on him. He'd much rather it was Tori then them.

"Tori, you just stole Chloe's boyfriend?"

To this, both Derek and Tori simultaneously rolled their eyes. "You're so stupid, you know that?" Tori retorted just as some guy in the seat in front of them jumped up and turned to look down at her.

"So, that means you're still single?" He wiggles his brows, and Derek recognizes him as Nick Harper, the school's quarterback star that happens to be currently cheating on five girls. Derek can't help but to scoff at the idiot.

"And ready to mingle." To his utter surprise, Tori actually mutters this to the guy!

"Cool. How about you come over-" the boy suggests with total lust in his face, it disgusts Derek.

"Nuh-uh. I don't think so." Tori whips her head sharply and views Derek with disbelief. But Derek doesn't acknowledge her, and only then does Derek realize he said this aloud.

"Sorry dude, but no one's asking for your permission. Tori, you look uncomfortable, how about sitting on my lap?" He grins and without even getting an answer back, he reaches down for Tori, his eyes directly looking down her shirt, as if meaning to pick her up from there. The vibe strongest coming from Tori surprises Derek. Its fear, and so his grip on her suddenly tightens and he lets out a low growl. Derek likes to believe he has three different growls. There's the growl he has for only those he specifically and personally hates and despises. Then there's the growl he only emits for protecting Chloe. His mate. Then, the one he threatens others if some one as so much as takes another step towards his family. His pack. And there is great suspicion that the latter may fit this growl Derek had just emitted from his chest. Only, subconsciously, Derek is aware of that fact.

"Get, off." He says slowly, and he knows the guy is about to oblige, but doesn't when he remembers they have an audience.

"I don't know what you're problem is, Derek. You've already have one girl, and I want this one. I'm not sure what she is to you, and neither do I give a-"

"She's my sister, and if you so much as take another step, you'll be sorry." He growls again, and only then is he aware of the students either staring at them, gasping at what he just said, or yelling "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"Damn it, Derek, she ain't your sister! She's a foster sister, and that doesn't mean she needs your blessing. I can do whatever I want with h-"

"She. Is. My. Sister. And finish that sentence and I swear-"

"God damn kids! Start a fight on the bus, and the principle will never let us out on field trip ever again!" Mr. Harnett comes to them, irritated. "Both of you, sit down!" Only then does Derek realize he is standing up, face inches away from the boy with Tori thrown in his discarded seat behind him.

He lets out another growl before picking up the witch and sitting down, once more placing her on his knees. He looks out the window as everyone else sits down and go back of their last conversations.

"You know, technically speaking, you're only my foster brother." Tori's voice is low, so no one else can hear, but Derek catches it just fine.

"Actually, technically speaking, we're nothing." He feels Tori tense, and he knows the words came out wrong. "Because Dad isn't legally my foster dad, seeing how I am unknown in the Child Database." He feels Tori relax slightly, and he's glad he didn't make matters worst.

"But that doesn't stop you from calling Kit dad or Simon your brother." Tori states mater-of-factly while staring straight ahead of her, not turning to look at Derek.

"Nope" A slight pause. "So why stop now?" Tori turns around and can't help but to smile at him. So Derek smiles back. True, it's a bit awkward, just them smiling while Tori is sitting on him, but Derek also feels so unbelievably relieved. At first, he told himself that he was doing all of this for Chloe. And for his father. But as it is finally out there for Tori to understand, Derek feels as if a lot of weight that he didn't know was on his shoulders, suddenly disappear as the wolf applauded him.

No, Derek and the wolf wanted to get it off their chest. "Who would have thought, me and Wolf-boy would be having 'a moment'?" Tori makes air quotations around "a moment" and Derek rolls his eyes at her nickname. Then he shushes to her, pointing at the students around them. "What? After seeing you growl like that, they'd be idiots not to suspect you really are a werewolf."

"I…I went a bit too far there, huh?" Derek asks quietly, a bit embarrassed.

"No shit!" Tori laughs, but it subsides. "It was the wolf, right?"

Derek manages to control the blush trying to show, but he still looks uncomfortable. "Yeah…he's like that. Over-protective." He mutters and Tori raises a brow.

"Over-protective? Wait, I thought- I thought he only "protects" those in his pack?" Tori asks, sincerely confused. Derek can only raise a brow at her. He thought…

"Well…yeah. Duh." There's a moment of silence as Tori just stares at Derek weirdly. Finally, it dawns on her and she slaps her forehead while her tongue slips out. "Oh! I get it now!" Derek only nods, and they both go silent. Just staring. So now she knows he considers her truly part of his pack. He wonders what must be going through her head. Maybe-. "God, Derek! Must you be so evasive? Why can't you just straight out say things?" Derek blinks, not sure of what to say.

"Umm…"

"Like, why can't you say. "Yo, Tori, I, like, consider you as my pack and stuff. Wanna go hunt down rabbits?' Is it really that difficult?"

"Hey! I don't sound like that!" Derek immediately goes defensive. But Derek can see the ghost of a smirk on her lips before she continues.

"Just like you can't tell Chloe you sometimes want to go beyond second base. And-"

"Hey!" He covers her mouth his large hand, and he feels Tori smiling underneath.

And like that, the moment in which Derek had been playing out in his head when he tells Tori he's part of her pack disappears. Their supposed 'moment' dissipates. And yet, Derek is quite glad Tori 'ruined' it. That's what he likes about her. She doesn't let things get too awkward, and make it seem as if things are going to change forever and ever. Nope, Tori is still going to continue teasing him. Of course.

She removes his hand and continues on speaking like nothing just happened. "You know, Derek, I have always told Chloe that honesty is always the best policy in a relationship. So if you want to tell Chloe…" And the rest of the drive back to school is spent like that. Tori giving random advice on how to tell Chloe things, and Derek alternating from covering his ears or covering her mouth. Or even the seldom small, small blushes when Tori tells him that Chloe doesn't understand why Derek always pulls away first.

"So Derek, don't be thinking Chloe's this innocent little girl. Wanna rip off her shirt? Go ahead. Wanna take off yours? Be my guest. Wanna lay down? Have fun! Wanna-"

"God damn, Tori, you just don't know when to quit it, do you?"

She smirks. "Nope. So where was I? Oh, right. If you wanna-"

This time, Derek covers his ears. He watches as Tori uses many spontaneous hand-gestures and wonders what the hell she might be talking about.

On second thought, knowing Tori, I probably won't like the answer….

And Derek can feel the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.


Oh, God! Someone help me! I always, always end up making my chapters much longer then I first intended to! So, so sorry, please don't kill me!

So, you like? Please review and tell me on what area is should improve on.

Hey, anyone know any cute names that seem as if Chloe and Derek would ever pick for their own son and daughter?

Would you guys read a one-shot with Chloe and her dad?

Again, thank you so much for the inspiration, suzi 1811