AN: Hey! I'm so sorry I haven't written anything for a while. Hopefully, this sorta long one-shot can make up for it. ;-) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope. Not yet.

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10 ONE-SHOT CHALLENGE

Finger paints

"Hey Casey! Can you finger paint with me? Dad and Nora got me a new finger paint set!"8-year-old Marti exclaimed excitedly.

"Sure, Marti, but aren't you a little too old for finger paints?" Casey questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not, Casey. You're never too old to finger paint!" Marti stated happily, as she set up the supplies.

"You're so right, Marti…" Casey zoned out, reminiscing on her last encounter with finger paint.

XXXX

Flashback:

"Derek, I was thinking…"

"Oh no. Here we go again." Derek sighed. It was the third day of Derek helping Casey with summer fun, and Casey had some complaints.

"Okay, so I was thinking that I haven't been contributing much to this whole summer fun thing, and I really have some good ideas!" Casey said, as she brought out a list of her ideas and a pen out of nowhere. Derek chuckled at the very "Casey-like" action.

"Okay, Casey, tell me your ideas."

"Okay, my first idea is Jigsaw Puzzles." Derek gave Casey a "Are-you-serious" look. "You're right. Never mind." Casey crossed out the first line. "Next is… abstract collages."

"What the heck is 'abstract collages'?"

"Oh it's so fun! We give the kids a bunch of magazines and let them cut out pictures and colors to put together to make a new picture."

"Uh… sounds boring." Casey sighed deeply and crossed that out.

"Okay, how about finger painting?" Derek got a thoughtful look on his face.

"I thought you tried painting once and if I remember correctly… you came home with rainbow colored hair" Derek inwardly chuckled at the memory.

"Oh don't worry. It's different this time."

"Oh okay. But don't say I didn't warn you."

"Okay. Finger painting it is! Come on. We have to go."

"What?! We just got home! Where do we have to go?!" Derek asked, not wanting to leave his comfy chair.

"We have to buy supplies, Derek!" Casey pulled him towards the door by his sleeves. "We need paint, paper towels, aprons, paper, but not the regular kind. We need the thick kind…"

XXXX

"Are the supplies set, Derek?"

"Yes, Casey. For the last time, the finger painting supplies are ready!"

"Okay okay. No need to get snappy." Casey said, feeling a bit offended.

"Oh… sorry."

"It's okay- wait! Did you just say 'Sorry'?" Casey asked, surprised.

"No!" Derek covered. "Why would I?"

"Right…" Casey decided to let it go.

"Your school's bathroom is so much nicer than mine! You guys have soap!!" Marti said, walking into the room.

"The boy's bathroom doesn't." Derek grumbled. Casey laughed.

10 minutes later, the rest of the kids walked into the room.

"Okay now that all of you are here, we're going to tell you what FUN activity we're doing today. Tell 'em Derek." Casey slapped Derek on the shoulder.

"We're finger pain-"

"We're finger painting today!!" Casey cut off Derek, too excited to hold in the EXCITING news. The kids cheered. "Okay, so if you would go to the nice finger painting station I-"

"Ahem!" Derek cleared his throat.

"-we created over there, we can get started."

"The children scrabbled to find a set of paint and paper for themselves and quickly started painting. Casey walked around to observe the kids' paintings. Most of them had pictures of animals or their family on their paper. Before reaching Marti, though, she hid the painting from Casey.

"No, Casey, you can't see it yet. It's gonna be a surprise." Casey smiled.

"Okay, Marti, I can't wait to see it." Casey quickly walked over to Derek with a big smile on her face. "This is going better than I thought!"

"Yeah… you finally came up with a good idea, Space Case."

"Hey! Don't call me Space Case." Casey said, secretly happy about the half compliment. But Casey had spoken too soon because what she couldn't see with her back turned to the child was Carlos whispering something to Brooke, who whispered something to Jack, who whispered something to Nick, who whispered something to Nathan, who whispered something to Marti. All at once, they all got evil looks on their face.

Then suddenly…

"Casey, watch out!" Derek yelled, as he pulled her to the side, taking the hit of a blue paint glob to the chest.

"Derek, what was th-" Casey started, but was soon hit with a pink paint glob. Just like that, a paint war had started. Globs of red and green and purple paint were flying toward Derek and Casey.

"How could you Alpha Force Star Troupers turn your back on your Captain?!" Derek yelled. In return, he was hit with more paint globs.

"Kind of like that, Derek. Now come on!" They flipped a large table on its side to build a fort of some sort. "Derek, what are we gonna do?!" Casey panicked.

"Calm down, Case. It's just paint. Plus, they gotta run out sooner or later." Casey, then, got a smirk on her face, one resembled Derek's.

"Oh, I know that look. Casey, you have an idea, don't you?"

"Do you think you can run to my bag really quick? I have 2 extra packs of paint."

"Ohh, I like your thinking, McDonald. We're gonna fight back." Derek was now smiling, as well.

"Exactly."

XXXX

30 minutes and 7 packs of paint later, the room, along with its contents and people in it were covered in the colors of the rainbow. When the kids' parents came to pick them up, Casey and Derek did receive a few odd looks, but as long as the kids had fun…

2 hours later, Casey, Derek, and Marti were still left mopping and scrubbing the room.

"Hey! You guys wanna see my painting now?" Marti asked excitedly.

"Yeah."

"Sure, Smarti."

Marti unrolled the picture and showed Derek and Casey a picture of a boy (who looked a lot like Derek), and a Girl (who looked a lot like Casey) holding hands.

"Wh- who-who's that, Smarti?" Derek stuttered.

"Yeah Marti… who is that?"

'Can't you guys tell? I drew you two!" Marti stated, with the biggest smile on her face. "Do you like it?"

"Of course, Smarti. I love it!" Derek said, picking Marti up and hugging her. Casey looked at Derek and he looked back at her. She looked away and blushed, hoping he didn't see. (He did.)

"I like it too, Marti."

Flashback end

XXXX

Derek came walking down the stairs to find Marti and Casey finger painting.

"Hey Smerek! Wanna paint with me and Casey?" Derek looked over to Casey and saw her smiling a knowing smile along with a blush.

I'd love to, Smarti."

XXXX

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom. But you guys keep painting, kay?" Marti announced.

"Kay Smarti."

"Okay Marti." Marti walked away.

"Hey, Derek… I didn't get a chance to thank you for the time you pulled me away from the paint ball that one time." Casey smiled shyly.

"You mean the time at summer fun? That wasn't a big deal."

"Yeah., but thanks for that."

"No problem, Casey." Derek look into Casey's eyes just as she tilted her head up. He saw some kind of look in her eyes. Was it lust or love or was he just imagining things? He decided to take a chance.

Derek leaned in closer, and Casey leaned in a little more closer, and…

"I'm back. What did I miss?" Casey and Derek flew apart.

"Oh, nothing, Smarti."

So close…

Derek felt Casey's hand caress his under the table. He smiled inwardly.

"Yeah… you didn't miss anything, Marti."

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Words: 1,223 words

AN: Oh my goodness. That took so long to type. Well, I hope you liked it, and even if you didn't, I'd really like it if you reviewed. :) I'll give you a virtual slice of pie. Please & thank you!!

XOXO

-Maya