Disclaimers, authors notes, ratings, ect in chapter one.


Chapter Two: Chocolate, Soft, Ears, Innocence, Jealousy.


Chocolate

It's their first real fight of what they are now freely calling a 'relationship'. They've fought, obviously (they are who they are and relationship or no, that's not changing) but nothing like this.

Casey saves all her money through the year so that when summer break rolls around she can take the college's summer dance seminar. She's always tired and her muscles ache by the end of the summer but she loves every moment of it. The whole family is coming down for the performance at the end – she got a solo.

Casey and Derek haven't told the family about their relationship yet so he plans to sit in the back where they won't overhear comments about 'his girlfriend' since no one at school know about their step-sibling status.

Except Derek forgets.

He goes to a friend's house to pick up some stuff for hockey practice (honest) but the friend is having a party. One drink turns into two turns into "Five more minutes…seriously!" turns into a couple hours. Turns into a missed call from Edwin telling him that the family was taking Casey to dinner and maybe he should come by. Turns into a missed call from Lizzie telling him that they were having desert and if he was planning on coming by and saying hi to Marti he'd better get here fast. Turns into a missed call from his dad saying that they were headed home and Marti missed seeing him (he can hear Marti in the background, 'I love you, Smerk') and that he really should have shown up for Casey, no matter how much they didn't along.

He knows he's fucked.

He stops at a small store and picks up flowers and chocolate and tip toes into the apartment. He can hear the sound of music from Casey's room and he taps his knuckles against the door a few times before pushing on it. "I'm sorry" he says before she's even turned to look at the door. The thing is that he really did want to be there, he messed up and he knows that and he's sorry and there's nothing he can do and he really wants to go back to the days when he didn't care if he hurt people because that was a whole lot easier on him.

She sighs a little and rolls her eyes before she stands to face him, "Derek…" she starts but trails off. He sets the flowers down on her desk and tosses the box of chocolate on her bed and walks over to her. He leans into kiss her and she tilts her head away. "How could you not show up?" she asks, her voice small.

He ghosts his hands down her arms and doesn't know what to say. "I messed up, I'm sorry" he whispers, his lips brushing her forehead as he speaks. She nods a little, says she just wants to go to bed and he sighs before he nods and goes to his own room.

The next morning she's dropping pieces of the chocolate into a cup of coffee and he knows he'll pay for not being there…but also that they'll be okay.


Soft

His hair is soft under her fingers and her brain keeps flashing words like 'bad' and 'wrong' and 'sick' but his hand comes up to cup her cheek and he mumbles "You're gorgeous" against her lips and she melts into him, her brain shutting down completely.


Ears

They've been at college for about a month and Derek has never seen Casey leave the apartment for anything other than class or the library. They don't talk much (outside of what needs to be done for the apartment). They made a sort of silent agreement when they'd moved in; they were forced to live together and they couldn't change that but they did not want their respective college experiences ruined by one another so they would stay out of each other's lives as much as possible. So when he barges into her room at eight on a Saturday evening it's unexpected (which, in its self is weird).

He invites her to a party being thrown by one of his hockey teammates. She's reluctant (and sure it's some sort of a trap) but making friends (which was always so easy for her back home) has been unexpectedly hard for her here. And really, it'd be nice to leave the apartment for something other than class or studying so in the end she goes.

On the way home, she sits in the passenger side of The Prince and plugs and unplugs her ears repeatedly, trying to stop the ringing produced by the volume of the band that played at the party.

The next morning, she wakes up early and makes breakfast for Derek (and he knows she had fun). It's the beginning of something different for them, the change in the air slight but definite.


Innocence

She walks out of the bathroom, twisting her still wet hair into a bun and Derek glances over at her; she's wearing a black tank top and black boy-short underwear with Tinkerbelle on the side. She walks over, and giggles when she straddles him, and as his hands trail down her sides he knows that he's in dangerous territory.


Jealously

It's been two weeks since she told him that she 'could not do this anymore'. They hadn't been in a relationship exactly (they'd never really talked about it) but there had been kissing and hands under shirts and one day Marti called and said she was glad Casey was her big sister before asking to talk to Derek and she passed the phone off silently, her stomach twisting painfully.

That night she went to Derek's room and kissed him, hard and slow and with want and pain and everything else. When she broke away he had a look of happy surprise on his face, until she cleared her throat a little (unable to get the tears out) and said that she couldn't…wouldn't do this anymore.

Now, she's sitting on a bench in the student union, reading a book for class when she glances up. Derek's a few benches away (he clearly hasn't seen her) sitting with a pretty blond girl. Casey wants to look away, wants to just go back to reading her book like any step sister would. But she can't look away, but then the blond girl grabs the front if Derek's leather jacket and pulls him to her, kissing him soundly and Casey trips over the bench as she grabs her book and leaves.

A few hours later, Derek walks back into the apartment, dropping his backpack on the couch and walking back towards his room. When he passes Casey's room he can hear the television playing and looks inside (not sure what he's going to say). But Casey's lying across her bed, sleeping. So he walks in and turns off the television and pulls a blanket over her. As he does, he sees tear tracks on her cheeks and his eyebrows furrow together in confusion. He wants to wake her up, ask her what happened but she told him (in no uncertain terms) that she was no longer interested so he swallows the lump forming in his throat and kisses her forehead lightly before walking back to his room.


Authors Note: Thank you to leanaplumz, Jaz719, GhostWritter, Pointless(dot)Love , Mac-Reye, and Frogster for reviewing I REALLY appreciate it!

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