A/N: Many thanks to those who've taken the time to review and/or favorite. This little fanfic's just fluff, I hope you enjoy it.
Again, Life With Derek isn't mine.
Enjoy.
Derek and Casey: 2/3
It had already been three weeks since he and Casey had that talk at school about his situation. Since then things had been going well, rather well and quite normally too. Normal for him and Casey that was; they had once again settled to that once-in-a-while verbal spars that they usually get into, only because, he thought, that they just couldn't help it. Derek, for his part, had kept on living his life just as he had before the whole Christmas incident; after all, it was just basically the same situation. The only difference this time was the fact that Casey knew.
And even though Casey had yet to stay alone in one room with him or even hold a decent conversation with him while holding eye contact for more than fifteen seconds; she had quite gone on with her daily routines as well. At the very least she had stopped with the breaking of the breakables, effectively getting their parents off his back.
It was currently a bit before eight in the evening and full of purpose and resolve, Derek got out of his room and bounded down the stairs. The house was quiet; because of this particularly tiring week, his parents had decided to sleep in early tonight while the young ones were already upstairs working on their homework.
Derek Venturi was about to go to the mall at this hour. And the best part? Not only was he granted total freedom for tonight, he had also been allowed to drive to the mall at this late hour. They had to watch some boring Spanish film for one of their Literature class and it was only scheduled to run in their theatres for only a week. True to the Derek Venturi lifestyle, he had managed to put off watching the film as he had been sufficiently preoccupied by their hockey practice. Today was actually the last day of showing and he fully intended to catch the last full show so that he could write something decent and half-truthful in that paper they were made to do.
He was going solo tonight as most of his friends had already seen it days before. He guessed it would be more enjoyable with some companions, but what could you do, right? He stepped into the receiving hallway to get his coat when he almost bumped into Casey, who was in the middle of putting on her own coat.
"You're going out?" he asked, pulling his leather jacket off the rack.
Casey zipped up and fixed her hair but didn't look at him. "Yeah, I've got to catch that movie for Lit. class,"
He looked at her quizzically, wondering why she was catching the last full show as well. "You haven't seen it either?"
"No," she answered, giving out a loud sigh. "I got so swamped by all other things that I completely forgot to see it. Remind me never to entrust Emily with my homework reminders,"
He opened the front door and the pair of them walked towards their garage.
"Okay," she started. "You have fun on your date, or whatever it is that you're going to be doing tonight and I'll try to stay awake for this movie. Goodnight," she said and proceeded to walk towards Nora's car.
"I was just about to go catch the last showing myself," he stated, heading to his Dad's old Toyota. "If you wanted to catch a ride?" he asked. He knew that she wasn't that good of a driver yet and it was actually a wonder how she got Nora to let her drive at night. He glanced at her and saw that she looked as if she really was thinking about it. He suppressed a snort. Any other girl, any other girl but this one would've jumped at the chance to be alone in a car with him and go catch a late movie. "I'm still not going to jump you, you know,"
She cracked him a nervous smile. "Well if it helps to save gas, why not, right?"
"'Atta girl," he said with a smile as they both got in. He started up the engine and backed out of their driveway very carefully.
Their drive to the mall, although a relatively short one, was filled with silence. So much so that Derek was actually forced to push the play button on his Dad's tape player even though he didn't know which tape was in there. Still she kept silent as Burt Bacharach belted out songs he didn't know the titles of. Truthfully speaking, he was beginning to wonder if asking her to ride with him was a good idea after all.
They pulled into the mall's parking lot, which was only sparsely littered by various cars, as was expected by the late hour. They reached the top floor where the cinemas lay, still in silence. Derek had been almost tempted to start up some form of small talk but thought the better of it.
It had been an especially awkward moment when they were in front of the ticket booth.
"Look," he started. "It would be pointless to sit apart from each other tonight, considering that the cinema's probably almost empty by now," Derek raised his eyebrows up at her, prodding her to decide.
"I guess we could sit together," she said. "But only if you keep very, very quiet, Derek; I need to understand this movie for my paper,"
"Hey, I'm going to need someone to explain it to me anyway," he said, going up to the booth to get their tickets. "I'll probably just sleep through it tonight though,"
With a roll of her eyes, she turned away from him, muttering something that vaguely sounded like 'figures' and said, "I'm going to get some popcorn, want anything?"
He thought for a moment and replied, "Yeah, get me some taffies,"
"Got it," she said and walked towards the food stand.
A couple of minutes later they were both inside the theater, fumbling for seats in the darkness, their arms laden with a couple of tubs of buttered popcorn, a couple of sodas and a handful of knick-knacks. Derek had been right; the cinema was practically empty. There probably were only five of them inside at the most.
Teasers and theatrical trailers rolled on the giant screen, providing them some kind of light as they settled down somewhere in the middle aisle. He had been on dates like these before, but unlike those circumstances, he had no intention of doing anything frisky tonight. Sure, he wanted to, but he didn't want to make things anymore awkward than they already were with Casey.
After two teasers of upcoming movies, a Spanish one and another French one, the opening sequence played and El Crimen de Padre Amarro officially began.
A few minutes into the film, Derek could feel his eyes drooping. He should've figured that this whole movie would be in subtitles. After a quick glance in Casey's direction, if only to make sure that she wasn't going to sleep as well, he closed his eyes and dozed.
The incomprehensible noises coming from the actors on screen lulled him into an easy but shallow sleep. He didn't dream of anything, at least he didn't think he dreamed of anything, but he did wake up in what seemed to be evenly spaced intervals all throughout the movie. Okay, new priest in town, living with an older priest, hot girl confessing, hot girl and new priest making out. Basically he got the gist of the movie but he never figured out how it ended as the next time he opened his eyes, he saw Casey's face, leaning in real close.
"Derek, wake up," she called, shaking his shoulder lightly. "The movie's over, let's get out of here,"
"Huh wha-?" he answered, trying to get a hold of where he was. After a few minutes of blinking around, he composed himself enough to stand up. "Yeah, okay, let's go,"
The house lights in the cinema were turned on, making their trip out significantly easier. Once outside the theatres, they stepped onto the one remaining functioning escalator that headed down.
"I can't believe you really slept through it," Casey said, turning to him.
"Subtitles really aren't my thing," he replied, biting onto his uneaten taffy.
"Well you missed a great movie," she said, a lilt in her tone.
"I'll get a better understanding of it if you explain it to me," he hinted, a wide grin pasted on his face.
Again, she rolled her eyes at him and turned away, smiling. "Only if you pay me enough,"
At her words, an idea flashed inside his mind. "I've got the perfect thing to pay you with," he said, excitement coursing through him. He knew, just knew, that she would love seeing it.
She looked at him, puzzled at the sudden burst of energy that presented itself in his stepbrother's form. They were still in the second floor of the mall when he hopped off the escalator and, grabbing her hand, ran off somewhere in the middle of the structure and away from the escalator that'll bring them downstairs.
"Derek, where are we going?" she asked, shouting to get him to hear her while they ran.
"You'll see," he said, looking back at her to flash her a smile. He grasped her hand tighter and ran faster to a place that he was pretty much sure she's never seen before. He heard from someone at school that there was a new structure built a few days ago somewhere near the fountains in the middle of the mall. He hadn't seen it himself, but from what he'd heard, it's pretty much artistic – exactly the type of thing that Casey would like.
Abruptly they stopped running in front of the fountains, which, predictably, were turned off at this hour. He glanced at the scene before him and frowned. Okay, so the so-called structure wasn't somewhere near the fountains per se; it was the new backdrop for the whole thing.
"What is it?" she asked, stepping a bit closer to the gigantic wall, at least ten feet tall, that now provided for one whole side of the fountain.
"I don't know exactly," Derek answered truthfully. "I heard from somewhere that they built a modern art piece near the fountain; didn't think it'd be this huge though,"
The wall was made of stone, he presumed, of some mud colored material. In it was a mural of some sort. Derek titled his head to the left, trying to figure out what exactly was painted on there.
"It's a forest," she gasped. He turned to Casey and saw a big smile start to form on her lips.
He glanced back again at the mural. Maybe those crisscrossing lines were the leaves of the trees? He stared harder and finally saw that she was right; the picture was an entrance to a forest, not exactly a forest itself. The brown and green lines made up the branches that hung low, meeting somewhere in the middle to form some kind of roofing, providing a shade for the dark brown path that lay below.
"So it is," he said, jumping onto the ledge of the fountain. The floor of which was now so dry that he could actually walk on it.
"Derek," she called. "What are you doing?"
"Taking a closer look," he answered. He knew that she wanted to take a closer inspection as well so he offered her his hand.
She looked at their empty surroundings, looking for anyone who might call them on it. After seeing nobody, Casey finally accepted his offer and stepped onto the ledge as well. They crossed the fountain and in seven steps, they were face to face with the wall's surface.
The design wasn't just painted on as he had first thought, rather it had been sculpted on there first; at least he thought it was, as the painted leaves and branches seemed to be embossed on the surface. Derek turned to see Casey, who, for her part, was inspecting the detailed work on the leaves.
Smiling, he whipped out his phone from his pocket and switched it to camera mode. "Hey Case," he called, focusing her form on the tiny screen. "Smile!"
She had been caught unaware when the flash went off so the picture of her on his phone was that of a surprised Casey.
"Hey, no fair," she said.
He let out a small laugh and switched his phone back to the camera mode. "Okay, okay, pose this time, okay?"
She complied with his instructions easily enough, posing and smiling in front of the mural. Derek took a couple of steps back to accommodate the wall into the picture. After snapping the photo, he stepped closer to her, crouched down to her level and held his phone at arm's length away from their faces. "Say 'cheese'!" he said, adjusting his phone so that they could have at least one picture together in front of the mural.
"Hey!" someone called out to them. "What do you kids think you're doing?"
Derek looked at the direction of the voice and found a rather chubby man donning a security guard's uniform, a frown on his face. Uh-oh.
"The mall's supposed to be closed at this hour, didn't you know that?" the guard called, walking towards the fountain. "Now get off of the damned fountain!"
Very quickly they stepped off of the fountain and apologized vehemently. The guard – Stu, his nameplate read – was not quite convinced that they weren't a couple of law breakers and escorted them out of the mall personally, scolding and preaching as he went. Again in the parking lot Casey apologized profusely for the trouble and bid Stu a hasty and incredibly apologetic goodnight.
Stu, with a somewhat loud 'haroomph', locked the front mall gates slowly, steadily watching them with squinted eyes as they made their way back to their car. Once out of Stu the night guard's earshot, Derek let out a soft laugh at their situation.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said, letting out a soft chuckle. "Probably wasn't the best of ideas, huh?"
"No," she said, a soft smile playing at her lips. "What're you talking about? That was cool. Now we can add to our list of miscreant-ry getting kicked out of the mall at late hours,"
"I'm just glad that you stuck it out with me, you know," he said. "I've got some pretty whacked out friends who probably would've ran away the moment Stu came waddling down towards us,"
"Yeah well you know some pretty weird people," she said, laughing. "And besides, that's what friends do, right?"
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Just friends?"
"Okay, okay," Casey caved, rolling her eyes. "Good friends then,"
He looked at her pointedly, raising his eyebrows. He knew that he was baiting, but she wasn't hitting him yet, so that was a good sign, right? Shameless flirtation every now and then never hurt anybody, and apparently Derek Venturi could not go on a day without doing it.
"Best friends?" she asked, her bright smile replaced by a nervous one.
Abruptly he stopped walking and turned his full body so that he was facing her and took a full step towards her form, effectively reducing the space in between. He didn't know what had happened, but everything suddenly turned serious. He hadn't meant for it to happen; at best he was hoping for her to flirt back a little and then they'd be on their way home.
Before he could stop himself, he gently lifted his hand to brush away a stray strand of hair on the side of her face. "Casey," he whispered, knowing full well that his words, and not the cold air around them, were responsible for the coloring on her cheeks.
After a few seconds of extremely uncomfortable silence punctured only by her loud breathing, he stepped back, willing himself not to feel any kind of emotion akin to defeat. He knew that he was pushing it when he made it perfectly clear that he wouldn't. It was perfectly excusable that she wasn't looking at him right now – Casey was a shy girl and what he did probably made it all the more uncomfortable for her.
But even so, he didn't regret doing it. Still hurt as hell though.
He cleared his throat a little too loudly as they approached the car. "I guess we should be heading home right about now, right? Dad and Nora are probably missing our usual ruckus at home,"
They both got into the car in awkward silence that lasted for at least a third of the way home. Again, Burt Bacharach worked his magic in filling up awkward silences as Derek steered the car.
In silence, he contemplated on berating himself for that stunt he pulled at the mall. Great. Now Casey probably thought of him as some weird maniac who just might do something nasty to her when she's taking a bath or something. He really did want to do something nasty to her when she's taking a bath at home, but not without her consent. He liked to think that he wasn't deprived enough to resort to rape.
After parking his Dad's car on its usual spot, Derek killed the engine and unbuckled himself from the driver's seat, fully intent on walking up to the door without saying anything. He didn't think he could dish out anymore self-humiliation tonight. As he was about to open his car door open, Casey's hand landed gently on his leg. He stared at it for a few seconds, all thoughts of getting out of the car momentarily forgotten. Okay, her hand was on his leg.
"Derek wait," she called. Not really necessary as the mere fact that she was touching him made him pay attention. "Listen," she started, looking as though she was having some difficulty in continuing with whatever it was that she had to say.
Just spit it out, he wanted to say. It was already embarrassing for him to stay out here in the car alone with her after what he did earlier and he wanted nothing but to just collapse on his bed and sleep what remained of the night away. "Yes?"
She took a deep breath as if bracing herself for something to hit her. "I really had a nice time tonight,"
He smiled at her words, even though he knew they were just said to comfort him, a doggy bone to placate his wounded ego. He wasn't one to receive charity acts from anybody with grace but just this one time, he'd gladly accept her offer to end the night civilly.
"Maybe we could have a repeat?" she asked in a hopeful tone.
Right, he thought. She almost freaked out at the somewhat intimate gesture at the parking lot earlier and she was offering him another try? Personally he knew that he didn't need what she was throwing his way.
"Sure," he said with a smile.
He sure wanted it though.
-tbc-
