Casey drowsily walked out of her bedroom in the middle of the night, all intentions to just go to the bathroom. However, when she walked out she nearly tripped over someone's leg, but luckily caught the wall nearby, preventing a surely bruising fall.

"Case?" she heard someone sleepily call out to her.

After righting herself, she turned to the person. It was Derek, of course, and he was sitting between her and his bedroom doors with Marti, who was curled up into a ball besides him sleeping.

"Der-ek!" she whispered shouted. "What are you doing? You nearly killed me."

He rolled his eyes at her exaggeration, knowing it was purely an embellishment. "Marti wanted to stay up for Santa," he simply reasoned, shrugging. "She wanted to stay near the steps, but not at the steps, so that Santa wouldn't see us, but we could hear him."

Casey crossed her arms, but her anger at Derek was quickly dissolving. "Derek Venturi, you are a big softy," she lightly teased.

He lightly groaned, but didn't refute it.

"Why don't you take her to her room?" Casey suggested, seeing now how tired Derek must have been, especially sleeping the way he was. "She's sleeping."

Derek let out a noise that sounded like a hybrid of a chuckle and snort. "Tried," he told Casey. "I got her all the way into her bed before she woke up and then yelled at me," he recounted the event. "Apparently, I'm the one who is supposed to stay up, and then wake her if I hear Santa," Derek said with an eye roll, but he still looked down at his little sister fondly.

Casey couldn't help but smile. Derek may be selfish and arrogant most of the time, but he still could be incredibly sweet too. "Are our parents going to tell her about Santa soon? She's getting a little old," Casey questioned, bending down to join him on the floor.

"I think they said after this year they would tell her," Derek answered. "I think my dad hasn't yet because me and Edwin both found out so young. He was just happy to have one kid believe for this long."

"How young were you guys?" she wondered curiously.

Derek thought back. "I was 5, and I think Edwin found out when he was around 6."

Casey's eyes bulged. "Wow," she breathed out in disbelief. "How did you find out?"

The oldest Venturi cracked a grin. "I snuck downstairs to steal a cookie, because my mom wouldn't let us have any before Santa did, and I walked right down just as my dad was putting presents under the tree. He wasn't very good at denying it either."

Casey let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head. She could just picture it clearly, George panicking about what to say and not making the situation any better no matter what he did.

"You?" Derek queried. "How did you find out?"

"I was 9 and had gotten in trouble at school," she began, which caused Derek to fake gasp. She slapped him lightly on the arm, but smiled nonetheless at his antics. "Anyway, there had been this girl in my class that had been going around telling everyone Santa wasn't real, and I ended up having this huge screaming match with her, telling her she was wrong," she remembered with a chuckle. "After I got sent home, my mom told me the truth to prevent any other instances. I was devastated."

"So even when you were little you were dramatic," he teased. "Fitting."

She playfully glared at him. "Hey, watch it."

"Or what?" he taunted, smirking at her. "You gonna break up with me? I think you like me too much to do that," he boasted proudly. "Not that I blame you."

Casey rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself," she said, but laid her head down on his shoulder.

The action amused Derek. "Oh, I see. You only keep me around to be a pillow."

"Mhmm," she hummed out, closing her eyes.

His eyes softened as he felt her ease against him. "Go back to sleep," he encouraged her, his voice oddly gentle.

"No," she persisted, wrapping her arms securely around his. "I'm fine. I missed cuddling you at night," she drowsily admitted.

"See," Derek pointed out. "You like me too much. You can't get enough of me."

Casey's eyes flickered up to his. "And are you just staying around for my benefit then, or is this a mutual thing?" she sarcastically questioned.

Derek puckered his lips in thought. "Well…" he began, "yeah, I guess it's kinda mutual," he said, winking at her.

"Good," she stated, picking her head up from his shoulder to give him a light kiss.

When she made to pull away, Derek quickly cupped her face, keeping her close. "You missed the cuddling, I missed this," he said right before lowering his lips back onto hers.

It's not like they didn't find opportunities to steal a kiss here or there, but with a house as filled as theirs and everyone wanting their attention since they were home for holiday break, it was a lot less frequent than Derek would have liked.

They continued to kiss languidly, enjoying the quietness of the night and the solitude that came with it, when "Smer-ek!"

The two ripped away from each other in surprise. They then turned to the pre-teen next to them, who was not happy.

"Smerek, how are you supposed to be hearing out for Santa when you are kissing Casey?" Marti insisted, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"I can multitask?" Derek weakly tried, but his little sister only glared. "I'm sorry, Smarti," he said more honestly. "But it's late, and either Santa already came and went without us knowing or he's not coming until we're in our beds."

Marti's eyes widened. "He might not come if we aren't in our beds?" she asked fearfully. She scrambled to get up. "Goodnight!"

The two oldest chuckled at the retreating form of Marti, until Derek ended it with a groan. "I should have thought to say that hours ago," he mumbled tiredly in his hands.

Casey patted his leg assuringly. "Well, we still have a couple hours before morning," she optimistically pointed out as she got up from the floor. "Might as well make the most of it," she said, turning to go back into her room

Derek quickly jumped to his feet, grabbing for her hand to hold her back. Casey turned to her boyfriend confusingly. "What?" she asked.

He nodded his head towards his door. "You said you missed cuddling me. Come to my room."

"Derek…"

"If I said I missed it too, would you?" he asked, staring intently into her eyes, even having the audacity to jut his lip out in a pout.

Casey bit her lip, but ultimately the battle was lost before it was even started. "Fine," she relented, which caused Derek to smirk. "You better hope George and my mom don't find out about this though."

"Case, stop worrying," he said, a self-satisfied grin plastered on his face. "You gotta live a little dangerously," he then added as he opened his bedroom door and guided his girlfriend in.

A/N: Someone requested Marti finding them making out, I believe. So, I put that part in there. :) Hope everyone enjoyed this. Don't forget to review!

REVIEW REPLY:

Thanks for reviewing jperks, Balyndaba, Camikila, and tvd1992!

geetika: Casey definitely wouldn't have gone to such great lengths if she was pranking Lizzie or Edwin. lol. Derek brings out Casey's little devious side, and I love it. Thanks for reviewing! I enjoyed reading it. :)

Guest: And I'm so happy that you're happy. Thank you for reading and for reviewing!