Disclaimer: I don't own LWD!

A/N: ((watching out for angry readers and slowly climbing out of my hiding hole…)) Hello guys! It's been an eternity since I last updated, and I really want to apologize to you for that. The lack of any updates requires a good explanation, so here you go: 2 days after uploading the last chapter I got a letter from the University of Zurich…telling me that I got a place there to study medicine!! (Here in Switzerland you can study Medicine from the beginning, just after high school, unlike in the US. You don't have to study Chemistry or something else before Med-School) Even now I can barely believe that I'm a Med-Student! The first weeks have been really hard, since now I have to travel to another city to study and the courses are really hard. I'm finally getting used to things, so I found a little time to write a new chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it, and once again, I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting for so long! ((now climbing back into my hiding hole))

I Dream of Derek

You know, when I was a child I used to close my eyes to hide myself from the world whenever I felt scared, threatened or just utterly pathetic and immensely humiliated. Well, even though I wouldn't exactly refer to me as a child anymore, my reaction to my "outburst" was pretty much the same, until…

"Casey, why do you have bits of ice cream in your hair?"

"What? I didn't just say that…never mind. Wait, what did you just say? I have ice-cream in my hair?!"

"Wahahahahahaha! You really didn't notice Case?"

"Derek! Why didn't you tell me? Oh, don't you dare to laugh at me, Der-ek!"

And with my usual battle-cry I storm behind him chasing him around the living room while he keeps laughing and my parents shake their heads resigned to the fact that their oldest children will always fight over petty things. I don't know if the alternative, of me actually saying of what I cried out in my head, would have been better. In a sort of short and painless way I would have let them know of what has been bugging me in the last few days. On the other side, why didn't anybody tell me about my hair? Lizzy must have seen it too!

"Kids! Please stop the silly fighting, you're almost adults now!"

"I didn't start it! Spacey here went berserk on me!"

"Oh just shut up, will you?"

And after yelling at him for the millionth time I run up to the bathroom to wash my hair. Under the shower I reflect on what just happened. Derek nearly confessed to me who he is in love with, and as soon as our parents walked in on us, he began acting like the ass he normally is again. On the other side, while we were eating and throwing around ice cream, we didn't say one insulting word to each other. And when we were arguing about dinner we also didn't call each other names or humiliate each other. Maybe there's actually a progress in our relationship. But if he acts nice when we are alone only and like an idiot in front of everyone else – will I be able to live with that? In all my other relationships one of the things I loved most was to be able to shout my love from the rooftops and to show everyone how happy I was. If a relationship with Derek would be a continuous struggle through fights, hiding places, excuses and lies, wouldn't it be better if I just forgot about it? Neither I nor he, as much as he has broken other people's hearts, deserve to be miserable. And it's not like we already have a relationship going, there's still time to pretend that I don't feel anything but a siblings' affection for him, or, well, rivalry as it is. We have kissed, and those kisses I will never forget because they both meant a lot to me. Waaah! Maybe I should just stop thinking and overanalyzing things! This whole situation is driving me crazy!

So I finish washing my hair and get into my pyjamas, ready to go to bed. When I step out of the bedroom, I nearly bump into Derek. Was he waiting for me to come out? I consider asking him, but I'm too exhausted and somewhat depressed to talk to him. So I just step around him, trying to get into my room.

"Why so sad?"

"Not your business."

"Come on, only you would make such a fuss over your hair."

"It's not the hair, ok? So stop asking and just go away, I don't want to talk or even see you now!"

"Hysterical much?"

I try to ignore him and close the door of my room behind me, but he follows me into my room, looking a little pissed off and if I'm not mistaken confused.

"We were actually getting along today, why the sudden change in your mood? Don't you like me anymore?"

While saying that, he pulls Marti's trademark puppy-dog-eyes act on me. Despite my bad mood, I can't suppress a chuckle escaping my lips, he does look cute…

"Never underestimate a Venturi's power to make the world laugh."

I grin and say: "Oh please, Edwin can't tell a funny joke to save his life."

"Well, he may not be able to get people to laugh with him, but certainly at him."

"Don't be mean to your little brother, when our parents get old you'll want them to live with him!"

"Yeah, there's no way they are moving in with us…uhm, I mean me…"

Interesting Freudian slip, he thinks we'll end up living together? But I decide not to rub it in his face after all he seems to be trying to lift my spirits up, which is really nice of him.

"Can you imagine Mom and George as old people? George will probably try to reunite his old band one more time, trying to imitate the Stones, while mom will be freaking out because, once again, he mistook her denture for his!"

"Looks like living with me has actually given you a sense of humour."

At this moment we both start to laugh, not at, but with each other for the first time since, ever! If somebody was watching us he would probably shake his or her head and mumble something about teenagers in love. And as far as I'm concerned it's pretty much true. These moments make me realize why I'm falling in love with a guy I used to be allergic to. God knows he is better than me at not meddling with other people's business. And yet he is not able to just ignore it if he sees that somebody he likes or even loves is in trouble or sad.

After standing there grinning at each other like idiots for half an eternity, I eventually say: "Well, good night Derek"

"Night' Casey, if you dream of me you'll have sweet dreams."

If only he knew…

Later…

"Casey, Casey wake up!"

"What?! Marti? What happened?"

"Nothing happened! Today is the day of my first school excursion; we're going to go to the museum to see the big dinosaurs! I wonder if there are any violet ones."

"That's great, but did you have to wake me up at 6 in the morning for that?"

A sleepy Edwin, with Lizzie right behind him, says: "You got lucky! She woke us up at 5.30, and Mom and Dad are up since 5! Derek's the only one still sleeping."

"Oooh! Come on everyone, we'll wake him up together!" says Marti while tugging at my sleeve to get me out of my warm and cuddly bed.

"Yeah, I'm not going to expose myself to Derek's morning-wrath, I want to live long enough to watch 3D-movies on regular television."

"Edwin, don't you realize that by then the earth will be a terrible mess due to pollution, global warming, the rise of the ocean's water-level and Britney Spears?"

All of us roll our eyes about Lizzie's pessimistic view of the future and eventually we all follow Marti into Derek's room as quietly as possible to wake him up.

As I watch his sleeping form, I nearly let a sigh escape my mouth. He looks so peaceful. His hair falls into his face in a way that makes me want to run my fingers through it. Until now I've never noticed that he sleeps with a smile on his face. Or maybe he's just having a good dream? Maybe he's been dreaming about me just like I've been dreaming about him? Nah, that's way too far-fetched…is it? Oh, Marti is giving us the signal to shout:

"De-rek!! Wake up! Marti is going on her first school-excursion!!"

"What? It's 6 in the morning! Get out of my room and let me sleep!"

"Sme-rek! You are such a girl! Or since when did guys start to need beauty sleeps?"

"That's it! Be prepared Smarti, I'm going to tickle you until you promise never to wake me up at such unholy hours again!"

And so he jumps out of his bed and chases after Marti. The poor girl has no chance to escape him. He starts tickling her while she laughs and screams:

"Help! Help! Will nobody help the princess to escape from the claws of the tickling monster?"

Laughing, Edwin and Lizzie go to help Marti and start tickling Derek.

"Whoa there! Three against one is not fair! Casey, help me!"

"No way, you deserve that!"

Laughing, I lean on the frame of his door and watch them try to tickle the life out of each other. Seeing this scene unfold is rather heart-warming. I think Derek could be a great father for our kids. Whoa! When did I begin to think of him as my future husband? I got to try not to stay with both my feet on the earth, I can't just go around thinking like that, or if we ever start to go out together he'll soon be running the hell away from me. The guy has enough commitment issues as it is, he shouldn't have to deal with my overzealousness too. Maybe if I loosened up a bit like he's always telling me to he'll be more attracted to me? It can't hurt to try, I guess.

Oh, Mom's calling: "Kids, breakfast is ready!"

You wouldn't believe how fast Lizzie, Edwin, Marti and Derek stop tickling each other and begin to run towards the kitchen! Still, Derek finds the time to smile at me and ask me if I had sweet dreams while winking at me. Jerk.

I follow them down to the kitchen and see…the unhealthiest breakfast in the world! Pizza, chocolate cake and coca-cola and fried eggs and bacon and left-over chicken?! I don't think even the British could have a larger breakfast! I slowly sit down at the table, and Derek must have seen the expression on my face because he asks: "What's wrong Casey? Is this breakfast too unhealthy for you?"

Time to loosen up, or at least try to.

"Why, no Derek, I'm perfectly ok with it."

"So it won't bother you if Marti takes some of this chocolate cake with her to her excursion.

"Why should it?"

"Then you'll surely be okay if we eat like this every morning from now on…"

To hell with loosening up!

"Are you crazy? Do you even randomly know how unhealthy this breakfast is? We'll all get fat and die from heart attacks!"

"And so the good old Casey we all love returns."

Everybody stops eating, except Derek.

I think that this is the first since we moved in together that all the Venturis and the MacDonald's have been silent together at the same time. All of us are staring at Derek while he just goes on smiling as if he hadn't admitted that he loves me.

I can't believe what he just said! My heart is beating very fast and at the same time I think it just skipped a beat when he finished talking. I guess that I have a very red head by now and my hand have gotten sweaty. He loves me? Or did he just make a mistake? From the way he's smiling he may not even have noticed what he said. Maybe he just went crazy. Or he's just seconds away from taking it back or adding an ironic sentence to it.

Or not?

I hate suspense!

A/N: So, what do you think? Hate it, love it? I'm sort of anxious about this chapter since it's been a while since I've written anything. Please review and let me know what you think!