Derek and Casey were at the bus station near Kingston, waiting for the noon bus to London. However, due to the increasing amount of snow falling around them, their bus kept getting delayed.

"Urghh," Derek huffed out after noticing their expected time had been pushed back another 20 minutes. They had already been there over an hour. "Why can't we just take the Prince back?" he complained, kicking at the gathering snow by his feet.

"Because the Prince doesn't have 4-wheel drive and will probably break down on the way home," Casey stated matter-of-factly. She had already told him this the other day when he suggested it. The bus was the safest way for them to travel home for the holidays.

"This is ridiculous though," Derek said, gesturing to the ticker hanging above their heads that indicated the arrival times. "At this point, we're never going to get home."

Casey rolled her eyes, never taking her attention off her book. "You just have to be patient," she told him, flipping to another page.

Derek snorted as he paced the platform, trying to find something to do. The bus station was literally in the middle of nowhere. There weren't any stores or cafes of the like to kill time at, nor was there anyone else around besides Casey to talk to, and she was pointedly avoiding him after they had a fight the other day.

"Hey, Case," he called out to her. She ignored him. "Caseyyy," he tried again. Still nothing. "What would happen if I put my tongue to the pole?"

"Don't," she dryly said, turning a page.

"But what would happen?" he questioned, twirling around a pole.

Casey sighed, peeved. "Your tongue would get stuck to the pole, obviously."

"Like in A Christmas Story?" he asked, eyeing the pole curiously.

"Yes," Casey said shortly. "Now be quiet," she demanded. "I'm trying to read."

Derek rolled his eyes and continued to study the pole. He surely wouldn't stick to it if he gave it quick lick, right?

"ACE!" he hollered out as best as he could. "ACEY!" he tried again when she didn't look up. "ACEY!"

"Derek, I told you to be-," she started, but her eyes blew open once she saw the scene in front of her. "DER-EK! I told you not to do that!" she hollered, running up to him, the tip of his tongue fixed to the pole.

"I fought wew err idding," he spoke, almost gibberish because he couldn't use his tongue.

"Why would I be kidding?" Casey hollered, letting a worried hand rest on her forehead as she tried to figure out what to do. "Derek, I'm going to have to call an ambulance."

"Ahbulance?!" he shrieked, eyes wide open in panic.

"Yes, genius," she yelled with a snuff. "How else are you planning to get your tongue back?" she sarcastically asked, whipping out her phone to call.

He made a show of trying to pull his tongue off.

"Don't try to rip it off either, or you won't have a tongue at all," she pointedly told him, causing the Venturi to cower in fear. What the hell had he done to himself?

Casey then held up a hand, signally for him to be quiet as she talked to whoever answered the emergency line. "Yes, hi, I'm at the Kingston Bus Station and my stepbrother got his tongue stuck to a pole…"

…

After a firetruck came to their rescue, pouring hot water over Derek's tongue and the pole, the hockey player was freed relatively unscathed. One of the firemen had told him he was lucky it wasn't too bad, or he would have had to be taken to the hospital. He shuttered, oddly thankful that his tongue was just sore and numb.

"Just wanted to let you know that we just got on the bus to home," Casey said into her cell phone. It had been 2 hours later and they had just gotten a bus, their original one coming and going while the firefighters worked on releasing them.

"There were a lot of delays and…hiccups," Casey told her mother, glancing knowingly at Derek who merely frowned. "But we should be home in about 5 hours."

Casey then shut her phone after saying goodbye to Nora. "I didn't tell them – yet – but they're going to find out one way or another," she told him.

"Waiting," he merely stated, it was still weird to talk.

Casey rolled her eyes. "I told you not to stick your tongue on the pole, and yet you did it? What goes through your mind?!"

Derek shrugged helplessly. "You weren't tawlking," he said.

The oldest McDonald child snorted. "So every time I don't talk to you, you're going to do something stupid?" she asked, her voice getting angry, attracting some of their neighbor's attention. "What's next? Jumping off a bridge?"

He shook his head angrily, refuting that he would be that stupid.

"This is all your fault you know," she pointed out. "I would have been talking to you if you had just talked to me about that kiss like a mature adult."

Derek's eyes bulged at the topic on hand.

"But no," she said, glowering at him, "you just ignored it, pretended it didn't happen, refused to talk to me about it!" She was getting hysterical. "You were the one who kissed me!"

"Ah know!" he let out, slightly muted by his numb tongue. "ah know," he repeated, softer. "Ah ike ew," he confessed.

"You like me?" she asked, her lips curving towards a smile by the second. "Why didn't you say anything?"

He sighed, closing his eyes. "Scared," he said simply.

Casey face pinched inwards. "Scared?" she asked, her demeanor suddenly a lot calmer as she regarded him. "Scared of what?"

"Famwee," he told her honestly.

Casey took in a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm scared what the family would think of that too…" she admitted, looking down at her lap.

Boldly, Derek reached for to grab her hand with his. The action caused his stepsister to look at him both puzzlingly and curiously. "Try?"

"Try us?" she questioned. Derek nodded, his eyes gazing at hers imploringly. "Yeah, I think we can do that," she said, squeezing his hand.

Derek smirked and leaned down to kiss Casey, but immediately snapped his head back.

Casey chuckled at his reaction. "It hurt to kiss?" He nodded fervently, a frown back on his face. "Well maybe now you'll listen to me when I tell you not to do things," she told him sternly.

She then continued to lecture him, talking all about the science of why what happened to him happened to him and the reasons he should listen to her more. Meanwhile, he repeatedly knocked his head against the bus window. What the hell had he done to himself?

A/N: I don't know, I can just see Derek sticking his tongue to a cold pole. How about you? lol. Hope you enjoyed this silly little oneshot. Let me know in a review please how you liked it and if you have any future one-shot suggestions! :)

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