Chapter Two: Fight

A/N: Kind of angsty, but hey, it works. Oh and in case you were wondering Derek and Casey are about 17-18, but by the end, they're both 20. I almost made them all their own little stories, but oh well, it's too late now.

When Casey met Derek, she knew he was an annoying jerk. He was loud and obnoxious and drove her up the wall. And that was what bugged her most, that fact that he did bug her. She was supposed to take the high road, be the mature responsible one and ignore his antics, but then he'd do something, look at her funny, play a prank, say something irritating and she'd find herself loosing all that careful cool, maturity that she prided herself on.

She couldn't stop it either, stop going to him with her problems, stop trying to get back at him, stop letting him affect her. It was like there was this pull in her very veins, drawing her to him that wanted her to give in, to laugh at his jokes, to admit that yeah, Derek was right sometimes, to push their fights just a little further and see what happened, and to acknowledge that yes, sometimes it was fun to "live a little dangerously," but she couldn't give in. Not to Derek. So she fought, they fought, because she knew he felt it to, that pull, desire, to just push everything just a touch farther, to go just that one step too far and to cross that stupid line. Casey couldn't though, because she knew that was what he wanted, he wanted her to be the first to cross it; to move things from what they were to, whatever it was that was beyond. Her pride wouldn't let that happen, wouldn't let Derek win; wouldn't let the boy who claimed to always get what he wanted, actually get what he wanted, not this time.

They were fighting, although she couldn't even be sure over what anymore, they were just yelling, not really bothering to think about what was being said, or what the other was saying. She was moving closer to him, being pulled in by him, as he was to her, something that only happened when she, he, they were loosing control. She should stop this, but he was yelling, and she was so-ugh, and then he smirked and all she wanted-grrr- and then he-ahhh. It was all so- and he was just- and she- and then… they were doing something. She wasn't sure it could be considered kissing; it was too painful, too violent. It was more of just a press of his mouth to hers, a different type of fight, a new way to battle for control.

They didn't pull away gasping or staring in awe, they just both stopped, like they knew that it was done. They had crossed that line, and both had the same look, the one that said, "Oh, so this is what's on the other side." They could, would go on fighting it, go on with the insults and ignore this… whatever it was, but they had crossed that forbidden line, the one both had pushed the other towards, and now they couldn't go back. Derek knew it, Casey knew it. It was impossible. The pull wouldn't go away, and she had failed once, failed to go against it, failed to keep herself safe from it, and this is the price she paid. Tangled with a man-boy?-that she could barely stand to be in the same room as without fighting with, and with no escape from him. They hadn't fought hard enough, hadn't kept away like they should have, but they were both so stubborn, so bull headed that they would continue to fight, to try and stop the slow steady decline they were on.

She wouldn't give in.

Casey fell in love, and she fought the whole way down. Every encounter, ever whisper in the dark, she fought harder to stop the pull of her body to him, to resist. It didn't work, she knew it wouldn't, but she had always been stubborn and so she tried. She tried until she was too exhausted to fight anymore, to pretend it all meant nothing.

Two years later, she was asking the question, the one most people get to within the first few weeks. "Derek?" she whispered to him.

"Hmmm." He was half asleep, the clock beside him reading 2am casting a harsh red light on the skin of his back.

"What are we?"

He looked at her then, peering at her from under his arm before giving a half-hearted shrug. He had stopped fighting it,whatever it was, about three months before. "I guess we're kind of…a couple." She nodded once, it made since. Neither of them dated anyone else, hadn't for at least a year, and she spent more time at his apartment than she did in her own.

"Yeah, I guess we are."

She stopped fighting after that. What was the point? She had lost. She had given in. In the dark, Casey cuddled closer to him, allowing her body to relax completely against him, and for the first time in since they started this felt content.

A/N: Not sure I like the ending. It'll have to do though. Reviews make me post faster.