DISCLAIMER: I TOTALLY OWN LIFE WITH DEREK!...ignore those men in the white coats... (I don't actually own LWD).

A/N: So, yanno how the main summery of this little project is "Mostly Dasey fluff"? This one isn't fluffy. As always my thanks to sheyesplease for the second set of eyes.

"I love you, too. G'night, Smarts." Derek rang off and leaned back in his desk chair with a sigh, absently chewing the end cap of his pen and refocused his attention back to the computer screen where he was in the middle of editing his latest project for his Media class. The last twenty minutes had been filled with Marti, Edwin and Lizzie's excited chatter about life back home.

Ed and Lizzie had teamed up in their Geography class to give a report so awesome, they were apparently being invited to give it again in front of the school, at the next PTA meeting. Marti was gonna be in a school play and had gotten much encouragement and several tips from both the fam, and Casey. Simon was starting to walk now, and getting into everything. The family news had filled the silence of his dorm room, but now the only sounds Derek was left with, was the quiet hum of his computer and the music he'd turned down to better accommodate the phone call. He turned the volume back up to a comfortable background level and checked the time. He had another hour before his room mate and fellow Gael came back from a team outing and Derek wanted to finish his project in time to get a decent start on his History paper before the other boy returned. Steven was rarely subdued and while he made an excellent left wing, he was kind of a pain to be around if one wanted to focus on studying.

If asked nearly two years ago, when Derek had started at Queen's, he would have professed to be thrilled to be rid of Casey's uninvited presence during his time at Uni. But then, he'd been so sure that the college experience would be much the same as it had at JSTHS, and hadn't that been a kick in the pants? It had taken no more than one semester for Derek to realize how much bigger of a pond Queen's was, and how much bigger the fish were, too. He was good as a hockey player; a terrific center, but there were others who were better. It was Spring semester of his Sophmore year before Derek was even allowed to be a starter. It took less time to recognize the fact that Casey had her own thing going on. She'd declared herself a double major from the start and between that, her placement on the dance team, and her various extra curriculars, she rarely had any time to bully Derek into studying or calling home, or just simply harassing him. It was jarring to see how Casey had gone from life with Derek to college life without him, especially since she didn't seem to even notice or care.

She actually chided him when he'd tried a few pranks to get her attention-called him out in front of a group of people she'd been studying with and explained seriously and a little tiredly that she was busy and she really didn't have time to deal with him right then. "I'll catch up with you later, okay?" she'd said soothingly, looking at him with something akin to pity.

It was with dawning horror that he recognized how it might look between them from the outside. A guy trying to get the attention of his crush. He had scoffed and backed off immediately. "Nevermind Spacey. Go do your keener thing," he'd replied a little forcefully.

Casey had sighed but let him go and that had been it.

That really had been it, because they seemed to drift apart after that. He passed her in the quad, but they didn't really talk. She saw in him the dining hall but never approached him, choosing to sit with her own friends and classmates, or alone with her nose in a textbook. They ran into each other on accident in the athletic building, each coming from their own practice, but all Casey asked was how practice had gone for Derek, and what time to meet at the Prince for their trip home to see the family. And while they shared the same family and Derek watched while she enthused about life a Queen's, it seemed like the girl who he had shared a wall with for nearly four years in his family's home had become a virtual stranger over the years. He could count on one hand the amount of times he'd actually spoken to her this semester, much less seen her, and still have fingers left over.

It had fallen to Derek to keep his own grades up to keep his place on the team, and once he got over the weirdness that was no longer Casey harping on him, he settled surprisingly well into decent study habits (though he had to bribe some of the nerdiest guys he could find, to help get him started and scheduling tutoring sessions was like planning for a sneak attack. God forbid someone would mistake him for an actual keener).

He was just about finished with his editing when bellowing in the hall outside his room pulled his attention from the screen in front of him. As it got progressively closer, Derek realized he could make out the voice belonging to Steven...who apparently thought drunken karaoke wasn't just for sorority sisters and desperate divorcees. Double checking the time, he swore softly and saved his progress just as the rapping on the door cut through the room. Steven was back early, which usually meant he'd been kicked out and cut off of where ever the team had previously been.

Sighing, he opened the door and saw John, one of the smallest guys on the team, struggling under Steven's exuberant mass. Derek almost felt a moment of pity for the kid. Steven wasn't the largest guy they knew by far, but he had a good four inches and a solid thirty pounds on the younger man, all of it leaning pretty heavily on John as the left wing continued his enthusiastic singing, at least until he caught sight of Derek, and greeted his roommate with a boisterous hello and a heavy clap on the shoulder. Between the three of them, they maneuvered Steven to his bed and Derek settled the waste bin next to the bed where Steven could ralph (heh, mental note: check on Ralph) and grabbed one of Steven's sports drinks from their mini-fridge, forcing his roomie to drink before grabbing some things to work on his paper elsewhere.

Despite the later hour, the campus wasn't actually dead and Derek nodded a few times to people he knew as he crossed the area to head to the library.

As fate had it, he caught Casey coming out, looking tired and sluggish. She offered him a small smile and held the door for him as he passed. "Monthly phone call?" she asked, knowing their family's new familiar routine of just checking on Derek once a month.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding in her direction. "Bi-weekly?"

"Yeah," she parroted. "Simon's getting big."

"Yeah."

She heaved a sigh. "I gotta get going. I wanna sleep before my six am."

Startled, Derek looked at her sharply. "Who the hell has a six am class?" he cried.

Casey shook her head. "That's my workout group," she informed him.

Derek shot her a disbelieving look. "You actually convinced some poor saps to form a six am workout group?"

"Actually," she admitted with a shrug, "they invited me to join them."

And made her all the more tired for it, if the dark circles under her eyes was any indication. "Don't you ever say 'no' to any of these groups?" he asked before he could help himself.

"I must've used them all up on you," she teased.

And wasn't that such a fucking story of their damn lives? It hadn't occurred to him until just then, that maybe Derek had kinda missed Casey...just a tiny bit. She'd said 'no' and had apparently meant it. He'd been so sure that whatever messed up thing they'd had as high schoolers hadn't been just a one-sided thing, he seen the look in her eye when they bantered and fought. But the knowledge that Casey had let-whatever it was-go sat bitterly in his chest.

"Yeah, must have," he agreed just a shade too dark. "Well, I gotta get in there," he stated, jerking his head towards to library interior. If Casey wanted to quit, fine, but Derek was sure as hell not going to be left standing alone. "I'll see ya around."

Casey nodded looked faintly surprised but nodded once. "Good luck," she offered.

"Bye," he replied.

Please Review.