A/N: I had originally planned an angst filled future fic, but this is what i landed up doing. maybe it will get a little angsty in the later chapters. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I had begged and threatened...but alll in vain.

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The first time it had happened…Derek Venturi had blamed it on a severe case of temporary insanity caused due to close association with the McDonalds….

George had tried his hand at cooking (yet again) only leading to disaster (and yet again) and they had been forced to ring for pizzas… (Thank God for small mercies), when Derek noticed it…them….

He really hadn't meant to….all he had wanted was to reach up for the ketchup bottle Lizzie was handing him (only organic tomatoes used…mind you) when Casey decided to reach forward for the sole pizza slice still left (that there was a slice left convinced Derek that the cosmos had just decided that it was going to be one of those days …) and the V in her T-shirt had dipped lower giving Derek a full view of her very exposed cleavage…

The ketchup bottle crashed to the ground.

But contrary to what Edwin would say, that was not the worst part…the worst part was that Casey had noticed .She had looked up just in time to see Derek averting his eye…his cheeks going pale (would he ever admit that they could go red? He would rather go ghastly white than girly pink)…an unreadable expression on her face…

That expression remained in his head even when he had the music on to the loudest and the auto magazine he was reading hanging upside down in front of his eyes…(he wasn't reading it anyway….)and mentally ticking away every possible possibility of how Casey would react to this (situation?)situation …

Option 1…..Casey would come into his room and discuss (calmly) that as a teenage boy it was pretty much natural for him to peep down girls shirts…but it just wasn't right when it came to siblings..(step siblings included )…(like he didn't know that already)(crossed out)

Option2….Casey would come into his room and yell…"De-rek…..how can you be such a pervert….."(Not doing…he was not going to listen to her especially when he knows that Edwin and Lizzie probably have their ears glued to the door anyway)(Could happen but crossed out)

Option3….Casey being Casey would come into his room and bring him a book from the library...'how to escape the urges of growing hormones' (Ha! Did she really think that chastity would solve the fact that he had infact…infact what?...oh God this was so so wrong)(so so crossed out)

Option4…Casey would come into his room and locking the door behind her…"Derek, you only got to see a little trailer earlier …wouldn't you want to see the entire movie"…her hands lifting higher along with the t-shirt she was wearing…(he had to throw up in the bathroom to get over the nauseating feeling this one caused…..seriously Casey? Why had he not stopped thinking a long time ago…..) (He was too busy puking to really cross out this one)

He had only been glad that Casey had not come in at all.

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Derek made a beeline for the bathroom the next morning…..if he got to it first then he could get ready for school before Casey and not have to give her a lift to school …and there was hockey practice and he could easily get a date for tonight and he would come in late and Casey would be asleep and viola! he would not have to see her for the entire day..(Was it possible to stick to this schedule for the rest of his life?)

Apparently Casey had had the same idea….

(Oh God! not again) Casey was coming out of the bathroom …her hair still wet and sticking to the back of her neck and he had this sudden urge to brush them away…(wet hair on the nape…it sure must be an uncomfortable feeling…he was just being nice….he was you know, her brother (step) after all)

And he was probably going to be sick again.

"Are you sick?" Casey asked

Hmmm…..was that an alternate version of option no.2 or she meant sick as in ill….?

"You look slightly green"

(So it was sick as in ill)

"Only because I encountered you first thing in the morning Space Case"

Her eyes narrowed and then, "funny, that's not how it looked like last night"

Take this line and add it to that expression and he knows that this was what was going to keep him up for a couple of more nights…. (A couple of nights does not mean a life time ….yeah he assumes he knows that)

And before he could retort she continued (and he was glad because his mind had already shifted to expression + line mode. Apparently a couple of nights also amounts to broad daylight...) "I'll take a ride from Emily today and then there is this poetry class I have to go to and maybe then I'll be out with Emily…just tell mom I will be in late"

Her voice was dead cold…

And that was exactly the type of shower he would need right now….