Eek, next chapter, ENJOY:)

"DE-REK!"

A smirk curved on his face as he heard his girlfriend yell his name from the shower. Since it was his last day with her for six months, he figured he'd bring out the old school pranks and pour some honey into her shampoo. That wasn't his first prank of the day, either. All of her clothes, other than her under garments, had miraculously disappeared without a trace.

He was a bit rusty, but it was harder to prank her now that not only did she expect it, but he was afraid she'd be mad enough to kick him out of her room and he'd go a night without sleeping in the same bed as her (he didn't know how he was going to go six months).

"What do you expect me to wear?!" she burst into the kitchen. "And do you have any idea how hard it is to wash honey out of your hair?" she glared daggers at him.

"Sorry, babe, maybe this'll help." And before Casey knew it, from across the kitchen, Derek had one of Casey's bras into slingshot position and a waterballoon was thrust through the air and into her face. A high-pitched screech and running away, she was gone.

"I can't stand you sometimes!" she yelled from her room. "You better clean that up!" and her door was slammed.

"Shit..." he murmured. When she chose not to fight back with him, it usually wasn't a good sign. He was hoping for witty remarks and for her to run towards him to grab the rest of his balloons.

Quickly, he grabbed a towel, and dried up the water from her face balloon. Then, he made his way to their bedroom. He was suprised to see that she locked the door on him, which rarely ever happened.

"Case, c'mon!" he knocked on the door.

"Leave!" she said sullenly, and he could hear the thickness in her voice on the edge of tears. He rested his forehead against the door and sighed.

"Casey, let me in." he mumbled.

Swiftly, almost making him fall face forward, she swung the door open, and was glaring at him. Usually, he'd be terrified when she looked at him like this, but she was wearing only her bra and panties, so it pretty hard for him to feel intimidated. It was little moments like this that he was glad that Casey still danced and took yoga.

"What am I supposed to wear?!" she snapped him out of his perverted gaze.

"I don't know, I like this look." He grinned lazily at her, and leand a shoulder against the doorframe.

As if on instinct, Casey reached for the nearest object and threw it at him. Luckily for him, it was her lipstick. With ease, he caught it, and laughed.

"I hate when you do this!" she growled, and walked to her dresser drawers. "You didn't leave me a thing! I still have class before I drop you off with the guys, you know!"

Derek walked to the bed, and flopped onto it with a light laugh. "I don't know, I left some of my clothes in there. You should try wearing those."

Casey rolled her eyes, and found that he'd left a few shirts in there for her to choose from. One was a navy longsleeved Queens shirt. She sighed, and pulled it over her head.

Derek looked over to her and grinned. "How am I supposed to leave you looking like that?" And then he winked at her.

Casey stuck her tongue out at him, and made her way to the laundry room where she knew a pair of her black leggings were nealty folded over the washing machine. Knowing she was going over there, Derek couldn't hold back the smirk that curved his lips.

"I hate you!" she ran into their room with her leggings. "These were my favorite!" She held them up, and in plain sight, you could see that Derek had cut the crotch out of Casey's favorite black leggings.

"I think it makes a statement, don't you think?" He flinched away from the mascara that flew at his head. "C'mon, Case! I did it for easy access!"

"Derek Venturi, you are by far the most infuriating person I've ever met!" she screeched, and went back to his drawer, pulling on his red plaid pajama bottoms. She struggled to tighten them, for they were old and the string was almost nonexistent. "There! Are you happy?" she yelled exasperated.

He eyed her over. Casey could wear a paper bag and still completely take his breath away. "I'm ecstatic." he winked at her, and stood up, walking towards her.

Before he could wrap his arms around her, she held her hands up to stop him. "I'm so mad at you right now." she whispered, the actual anger quickly vanishing just by being in this close proximity to him, and Derek sensed that.

"Case, I had to leave with a bang, don't you think?" he reached up, and caressed her face. He saw her lip tremble, and he saw the inner struggle of her trying to hold back.

"I have class..." she whispered, and leaned her face into his hand, closing her eyes.
Without warning, Derek leaned down and captured her lips in his. "I'll drive." he whispered against them, never really removing them from hers. "I'll be out there waiting when you're out."

Casey's arms had wound around behind his neck during this exchange, and she sighed heavily.

Casey was walking with her friend Bethany after class had finally let out. By this time, she'd already cooled off, and was excited to see Derek. They only had a few hours left together after all, so she'd make the best of it.

"Are you going to tell me why you're dressed like this today? Rebelling?" Bethany teased her. Casey bumped her friend's shoulder with her own with a laugh.

"Derek stole my clothes and refuses to tell me where they are. I checked everywhere, even the vents, and nothing." Casey groaned. "I'm sure he'll tell me once he's going to leave, or something." She shook her head with a roll of her eyes. By this time in their friendship, Bethany was used to Derek torturing his poor girlfriend, so all she could do was shake her head with that look that said "Oh, that Derek."

"I have no idea how you'll ever survive without him." Bethany gave Casey a genuine sympathetic look.

Casey sighed sadly. "Me neither. I haven't spent more than a day away from him in like seven years...how am I supposed to survive half of one year?" Casey begged her friend for an answer.

"Believe me, lady, nothing can get between you two." Beth put her arm around her saddened friend.

"Ladies." Collin's voice rang next to them cheerily.

"Hey Collin." Bethany smiled prettily at him. Casey giggled lightly at her friend's obvious attraction to him. Beth's fluttering lashes went unnoticed by Collin, as all his attention was focused on Casey.

"What's with the get-up?" he grinned, pulling at the fabric on her arm.

"Derek pranked me." She shrugged like it was natural.

The handsome blonde's head twisted to the side, confused as to why Casey was so nonchalant about it.

"That was...nice...of him..." he murmured. Casey laughed softly, and Collin felt the breath leave him. How could this girl look this beautiful when she was wearing an oversized longsleeve and worn out old pajama pants?

"So, Collin, how was the interview?" Bethany asked him, cutting into his thoughts.

"Great! I start on Monday! Thanks for the kind words, McDonald!" he squeezed her shoulder with one hand, and when he heard a throat cleared in front of them, he looked up to see a cocked eyebrow of Derek Venturi standing in front of them.

"Hey, Der." Casey said softly, walking away from her friend, and Collin, and into her boyfriend's embrace. After a kiss was delivered to her, Derek made direct eye contact with Collin.

"Peterson!" He said with over enthusiasm. "How you doin', bud?"

Collin was quiet for a beat, and put on a fake smile for the group. "I'm great, I was just telling your girl how thankful I was for her kind words to the manager at the restaurant. I'm starting next week." Collin didn't miss the cloudiness that spread through Derek's face, and was instantly proud that he could see that he intimidated him.

"Well, that's great, eh, Spacey?" Derek put his arms around Casey and squeezed her to his body to show Mr. Peterson who she belonged to.

"Yeah, it is." Casey murmured, finally catching gist of what was happening. "You know, Der, I think we should head back already." her fingers brushed over his that were over her belly softly, and removed them, and made her way to the passenger side of the Prince. "See you two!" she waved at Collin and Bethany.

Once Derek took off, Casey gave him a pointed look.

"What?" he feigned innocence.

"You know what you did. I'm not saying it." She couldn't hide the smile in her voice.

"Well, he was eye fucking you! He thinks that once I'm gone, he's going to have some claim on you! I can see it, I know guys like him!" he ranted.

"Der, you honestly think I'd do that to you? Plus...once he works with me for a week, he won't stand me." she grinned. All of Casey's coworkers knew she was a pain in the ass when it came to cleanup.

"True...okay, I feel better." He shrugged happily. Casey scoffed, and punched his arm. "Seriously, Case, he makes one move, or looks at you the wrong way, you call me and I'll be on the first flight out to kick his ass."

"Derek, this isn't the first time that a guy has shown interest in me when you're around. It's fine, I'm fine." she shook her head. "No need for you to go all caveman!"

"There is a need! The difference between those guys and this one is that the other ones knew better, Case!"

"Derek..." her voice softened, and her hand found his shoulder as she traced circles on him, the act sending shivers down his spine. "If he tries anything on me, I'll knee him so hard in the groin, it'll turn him gay. Now stop this, and enjoy your last hours in town with me before you have to leave me all by myself." she pouted.

Derek looked at her and sighed, grabbing onto her hand that was on his shoulder with a smile, murmuring "Sorry." to her.

When it came time to drop him off with the guys from the festival crew that were also touring the next six months. Luckily the tour was going through their hometown, that way Derek would still be able to say hi and bye to the family. Casey wouldn't be able to make it home for that occasion. She couldn't risk missing school, especially since that stop was around the time of her midterms.

When they stepped out of the Prince and got all of Derek's bags out, Casey leaned against the car, and looked up at him as he made his way in front of her. Slowly, he reached up and cupped her face in his hands, simply looking down at her.

"I don't do cheesy romance, Case...but you look beautiful..." he whispered above her lips.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me where my clothes were. I look homeless, Der." she whined. "I just wanted to look pretty for you before you left." she sighed.

"Case...you don't have to wear nice clothes for me to think that you're pretty. Without the nice clothes..." he pressed her into the car so that there was no space between their bodies, and Casey's arms found their way around his back. "I want you, right here..." he murmured, finishing his sentence.

"De-rek..." she groaned. "We said goodbye...plenty of times...at the apartment today...and last night..." she tried to compose herself, but Derek's lips were on her throat.

"Venturi, you got less than five!" Gerald, the head of the tour yelled out to him. Derek peeked up and nodded at his colleague. He sighed, and leaned his forehead to Casey's as they both quickly cooled off.

"The neighbor." he said.

"What?"

"The neighbor has your clothes." he tried not to laugh. "Told him I was pranking you, and he gladly just held onto them for me."

"De-rek!" she screeched, and pushed him away from her.

He laughed, and grabbed for her hand, and grabbed one finger, and looked into her eyes. "I know I'm leaving, Case, but I want you to know that I'll think of you the whole time I'm gone. I love you. I love firing you up...I love when you're just...you...I love that you could look beautiful wearing the ugliest clothes that I own..." Casey felt something on her thumb. She looked down to see Derek's high school class ring. "This is a promise that even this stupid distance won't do anything to us. I won't let it." he pressed a kiss to her lips, and his fingers found her face, wiping away the tears that had fallen.

When he released her, he finished wiping her tears and smiled down at her. "Try not to cry too much, babe. I'll skype you first thing when I get to the hotel tomorrow."

Within seconds, Derek was gone on the gigantic bus with a few other people who were on the film tour and she realized that she'd only just now started crying while she was saying goodbye. She figured out that the reason he was pranking her all day was to take her mind off of the sadness, and it had really worked. Never had she ever thought she was going to be able to admit that she was thankful for Derek's pranking. Or how much she was going to miss it.

So I know that tours like this probably don't exist, but it's my story okay? lol let it be.

So Derek's gone, and who knows what'll happen with Collin? I like a jealous Derek.

I wrote a zombie-esque one-shot, on my once upon shot folder! y'all should read and review that one.

Anyways, please leave me some love, and have an amazing November:)