Title: Permeable

Chapter: One

Fandom: Greek

Coupling: Casey/Cappie

Words: 4,925

Rating: PG-13/T

Author's Note: This is part one of the two, or three, part story. It's mostly written with a few details that need to be smoothed out here and there. This is basically how I think freshman and the beginning of sophomore year went with a bunch of dialog lifted from the show and my thoughts stringing it together.

Cappie spent a whole year living in a tent at Yellowstone National Park before the park rangers found out and called Child Protective Services. CPS told his parents they had to get him a suitable home and put him in school or else they'd risk losing him. And somehow through a friend of a friend of a friend they got the job at Camp Kitchiwahwah as the arts and crafts counselors. Under the promise of a lot of kids to play with, he didn't complain when the loaded the tent in the Volkswagen van and headed for Ohio.

It wasn't until June that Evan Chambers arrived with his ironed clothes and dry cleaned sheets and Cappie had already spent a whole month in one of the cabins alone, disenfranchised with the whole idea of living there. Mom and Dad, or Lily and Benjie as they insisted he call them, told him that since camp started, he'd be living with the other boys just like a real camper. Cappie wasn't thrilled with the idea, told his parents there was no way in hell he'd share a bunk with a bunch of sissy boys but they told him he had to, which totally went against their free spirit parenting style, and moved him into one of the cabins.

Evan introduced himself first, stuck his hand out and everything. Cappie just stood there, hands jammed in the pockets of his ratty blue jeans and stared Evan, and his parents, down.

"You can have the top bunk."

Cappie guesses that's what broke the ice between them and pretty soon he and Evan were doing everything together. Signing up to be on the same canoeing team, breaking into the mess hall for some late night snack.

Although, looking back now, the counselors probably wouldn't have given a damn if they had even found out. Evan was the Golden Boy because his parents had money and they were major benefactors of the camp.

And when camp ended, they didn't exchange letters or any sissy thing like that figuring that when summer rolled around next year, they'd pick up right where they ended.

There really wasn't a discussion that he and Evan would room together once college started because Cappie hadn't really planned to go to college per say. Lily and Benjie never placed a real high importance on education but Cappie's really smart, according to his high school guidance counselor, and he "shouldn't waste his intelligence working some dead end job," so he half-assed his applications and when acceptance letters began arriving, picked Cyprus-Rhodes University because it was where Evan said he was going to go three summers ago since it was his dad's alma mater and all.

He haphazardly scrawled Evan's name on the roommate request form, left a message with the Hispanic woman who answered the Chambers' home phone, and packed his bags for Cyprus, Ohio.

He never planned to rush or anything but he's always had this fascination with Old School and once Evan says dorm parties are just "sausage fests" and the Greeks are guaranteed to have parties, boozes, and girls, he's totally there. Plus, he figured it would be something he'd have in common with Evan besides the eight by eight cell they shared.

He spent thirty minutes at Omega Chi listening to Evan discuss vacations in the Hamptons, his father's company, and the alumni job assistance program, all the while waiting for someone to jump out and say "JK! Party's out back!" because, hell, even the Lambda Sigs, who asked him how fast he can run, had some decent music playing, rather than this touchy, feely crap. It's when the conversation turned to J. Crew that Cappie decided the whole Greek thing isn't for him and after making a pit stop to swipe a pledge paddle of the Omega Chi's wall, he followed Evan and the rest of their group out of the house.

"Do you use gel or wax? Did we really have that conversation?" Cappie asks as they exit the house and Evan groans in response. "And what was with the jock house?"

"Oh, I know," Evan starts with another groan as they make their way to the next house on their tour.

"The…What is it? The…" he searches for the answer as he puts his hand on Cappie's shoulder. "The Lambda Sigs."

"Lamba Sigs," Cappie echoes. "Yeah, they asked me how fast I could run the forty."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Are you serious?" Evan asks with a touch if disbelief in his voice.

"They loved you," Cappie replied, drawing out the 'o' in 'loved.'

"I didn't even have to drop the Chambers bomb once, man."

"Yeah, you didn't have to at Omega Chi, either," Cappie replies as he points back over his shoulder with his thumb at the house they just came from.

"Yeah," Evan says as he runs his right hand through his hair as he process the realization that everyone on campus already knows who he is.

"Yeah, they were so busy sucking up to you I got to swipe this," Cappie says as he pulls the stolen pledge paddle from his coat pocket.

"Okay," Evan replies as he pulls the pledge paddle back down out of sight. "Now we're breaking the law. What are you doing?"

Cappie just laughs.

"Come on," Cappie says with a nudge. "Can we just go now?"

"No. Come on, Cap. Listen," Evan replies. "I swear. You just haven't found your right fit yet."

"I have found the right fit," Cappie fires back as he ticks it off on his fingers before making quotation marks. "It's called the dorm room."

"No," Evan says on a sigh.

"Three squares a day," Cappie highlights as he once again ticks things off on hier fingers. "Cable T.V. What…What more do you need?"

"Cappie," Evan starts as he throws his arm around his friend's shoulders and pats his left chest. "Trust me. Alright? Think of a fraternity as…four more years of camp, alright? But this time, your cabin is equipped with girls and beer."

"Okay," Cappie says as he reverts back to ticking things off on his fingers while Evan pulls the pledge paddle out of the waistband of his pants and throws it in front of them. "Well, the last two came with abusers…"

He pauses as he picks up the chunked souvenir.

"And men with frosted tips. Come on, Evs, you've gotten three invitations already," Cappie says as he lightly smacks his friend's shoulder. "What are you holding out for?"

"This one," Evan replies, pointing toward a white column house with Christmas lights still hung up. "Okay? This is house that I'm real interested in."

Cappie sighs and points towards the wooden letters hanging on the exterior of the house.

"What do those letters mean again?"

"Kappa Tau Gamma."

"Kappa Tau Gamma," Cappie echoes before sighing with a shrug. "Alright. One more."

"Let's do it," Evan replies before Cappie leads the way to the front door.

From the outside, the house looks completely run down but as soon as they get in the house and the Kappa Taus double check for any "spies and traitors," they are all lead to the backyard where the music is blaring and scantily clad women are dancing.

It's the ice sculpture that makes him realizes that this is the house for him and after finishing off the bottle of alcohol, Cappie's kind of became a one hit wonder amongst the crowd. He was talking to some guy with a mullet named Charles and another guy who just came up to him when he first caught a glimpse of her swaying side to side, moving with the beat of the music but still seeming a thousand miles away in her own little world. He couldn't take his eyes off her—refused to take them off of her as he pated the guy he'd later find out is Egyptian Joe on the shoulder and made his way over to her.

"Cappie," he said gesturing to himself with his free hand.

"That's your name?" The blonde asked with a touch of disbelief in her voice.

"Please, regale me with yours."

"I'm…I'm Casey Cartwright."

"Wow. Sexy alteration. Casey. Cartwright. Simple yet elegant…Wanna do a body shot?" Cappie asked and Casey laughed nervously.

"Someone's already getting me a drink."

"In a cup? How boring!"

"Well, at least I get to keep my clothes on."

"Rarely a virtue in my experience," Cappie told her as he tried to catch her line of sight, ducking down a bit in the process. "And, just for the record, I was hoping you'd do the shot off me."

"I'll stick to the cute guy with the boring cup."

"That's what they said at Jonestown. Do you really trust your drink with a, uh, complete stranger?"

"Well, let's ask him."

"Hey, hey," Evan said as he walked over to them. "Whoa, you know Cappie?"

"Evan's the guy? Then I stand corrected. He's the safest guy I know."

"Uh, thanks," Evan replied. "I think."

"You guys know each other?" Casey asked.

"Yeah. We're roommates, actually. Can you believe someone just left him on my doorstep?" Cappie asked her and Casey laughed. "I opened the door and there he was looking for somebody to take care of him."

"I don't need anyone to take care of me," Evan replied dryly and Cappie remembers thinking 'What's his problem?'.

"Oh, my god. I love this song," some girl exclaimed as she grabbed Casey's hand and lead her out to the mass of dancing people. Cappie shrugged his shoulders in an almost what the hell kind of way as Casey grabbed his free hand.

"Come on," Casey yelled.

"Hey, uh, what about your drink?" Evan called after them.

"Just put it down and come dance," Casey told him.

The music was upbeat but Cappie and Evan awkwardly danced side by side, each vying for her attention. Until, that is, Casey turned toward him and brushed her body up against his making her decision. Her right hand settled on his neck for a brief moment before it slid down his back, their eyes locked on one another, and her face inches from his.

Kappa Tau Gamma became a big part of his life after that night, which is ironic considering he never planned to rush or anything. And looking back on it, Cappie's really glad he did because, if nothing else, it's the reason he met Casey.

In a way, Cappie has a lot of regrets about his relationship with Casey freshman year besides the obvious he's no longer dating her one. There was a lot of hurt, a lot of ignorance, a lot of obliviousness.

He was oblivious to her pain every time he ran off with his Kappa Tau brothers but, mostly, he was oblivious to Evan's feelings for Casey.

Technically, he was supposed to follow the "bro code." Technically, since Evan got her a drink first, since Evan met her first, Casey was his. But Cappie was never one for technicalities and Casey made her choice. She danced with him, she grabbed his hand. Not Evan's.

And he thought it was okay. Evan didn't confront him; Evan didn't say a damn thing. Besides, as Casey dubbed them one night at Dobler's, they were the Three Musketeers and he thought there was more than just one string that held them together.

Casey, while Cappie's girlfriend, was also Evan's friend. And he and Evan were pledge brothers, they shared that common bond of digging up the Omega Chi's flower beds and using the plants to spell out 'We're gay' on the front yard.

That is until the conversation of nicknames comes up one night at a house meeting.

"Why am I 'Bing?' What's 'Bing?'"

"Well, when the brothers were deciding who to honor with a bid, there was some discussion. You," Egyptian Joe says as he points to Evan, "fell somewhere between bid and a ding."

"So I almost got 'dung' out?" Evan asks after a brief moment of awkward silence.

"Bingo!" Egyptian Joe replies. "No offense."

"Hey man," Cappie says. "Don't sweat it. You're in."

"Of course you're in," Egyptian Joe seconds. "Bing. I mean, you guys are like a package deal. If he's in, you're in. If you're in, he's in. If he's not in, you're not in. If you're not in, he's still in."

When they got back to their dorm that night, Evan shaved off his beard. Cappie pretended not to notice what caused the sudden change, told him that he was glad he got rid of that "fuzzy rat patch" on his face. Evan didn't say anything, didn't even say anything to Casey when she asked about it the next night at Dobler's before the two of them ran off on their date to his "secret place."

It was ten days later that Evan came into to their dorm room, interrupting his make out session with Casey, and told him what Cappie had tried to deny was coming. He sat there, trying to figure out what to say, stroking the inside of Casey's thigh as they both listened to his words.

"Wait," Cappie interrupted. "So you're leaving Kappa Tau to pledge Omega Chi?"

"Yeah," Evan replied. "Well, I mean, it's done, Cap. But it's okay, man. It was the right move for me."

"I only rushed because you did."

"I know that. And look how well that turned out for you, man. You're a superstar. Come on. I'm just…"

"Bing?"

"Yeah. Bing."

"Wait, you can't be a part of something unless you're the superstar?" Cappie asked, sitting up on his bed.

"Let's be honest. It's not like you're not enjoying being the Golden Boy."

"So you're in different houses now?" Casey asked, interrupting their stare down. "Big deal. Nothing has to change."

"No. No. No," Cappie replied. "I just want to understand why Evan's making a very, very, very poor decision here."

"Omega Chi has a lot to offer me," Evan replied and Cappie can remember how much he wanted to demand a do over.

"What?" Cappie asked with a snort. "Like starched collars and sailing lessons?"

"And better athletics, an alumni job assistance program, an emphasis on academics."

"Okay, who cares? We're in college. We should enjoy the six or seven years and don't worry about making contacts."

"Yeah, but then what, man? We're not going to be in college forever."

"So much for having fun, huh, Mr. Chambers?"

"Alright, you know what…" Evan replied.

"What?" Cappie challenged.

"Hey, hey," Casey interrupted, ever the mediator. "I know. I know. Why don't we go get some hamburgers?"

"Hamburgers. Yum…" Casey said as Evan picked up some course guide and Cappie crossed his arms. "Come on, guys. Don't fight over something like this. It's just the Greek system. Don't let it ruin our friendship. We're the Three Musketeers."

"Hey, it's okay," Evan assured her. "It's…It's totally fine. I'm not even…I'm not even hungry. I've got to study."

"Alright," Cappie replied putting his arm around Casey. "Let's go."

"I'm sorry," Casey whispered back and Cappie can remember thinking he was too.

But Casey was wrong. It's never been just the Greek system. All of the sudden, he and Evan were on opposing teams. Kappa Tau hates Omega Chi. Omega Chi hates Kappa Tau.

And slowly but surely, Cappie and Evan start hanging out less and less. Occasionally, they were their dorm room together but one of them was always quick to leave, making up some bull shit about having some pledge thing to do, Evan's lie, or having to write a term paper, Cappie's lie. And really, Cappie's so caught up in Casey and Kappa Tau that he stopped caring.

Some time before Halloween, after Casey pushed him off her during one of their make out sessions, Cappie finally asked her why they haven't had sex yet. Because, in all honesty, there were girls throwing themselves at him during Kappa Tau parties when Casey wasn't looking or Casey wasn't there and Cappie, without fail, pushed them away, told him he had a girlfriend and all.

"Do you not find me attractive or something?" He asked as he pulled her back down on top of him.

"No, no," she insisted dropping her head down to kiss him again. "You're very attractive."

"Then why no sex? Why no McNasty?" He asked her, a way he wished he could take back now because it sounded so sleazy. She dropped her head so her she could bury it into his neck and mumbled something he couldn't quite make out.

"What?" He asked as she pushed up on her fingers so she hovered over him and concern immediately etched its way into his face when he noticed her eyes were glistening in the corners. He wanted so desperately to lighten the mood, make her smile again.

"You're not a dude, are you?" He asked and she laughed lightly, nervously as she shook her head no.

"I'm a virgin, Cap."

"Oh."

"Yeah," she trailed off.

Cappie didn't know quite what say. Congratulations for keeping your cheery unpopped for eighteen and a half years? He had lost his virginity at the age of fifteen to Claire Naylor, one of the girls visiting from the girl's camp across the lake, in the camp's storage shed down by the lake one summer while everyone else was at the bonfire roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Afterwards, he asked if he could keep her bra to show his friends.

"Okay…" he drew out as he sat up in bed. She searched his face for his own answer and he figured he might as well make this into another round of that game they played while eating dinner after the movies three nights ago. "Truth or lie?"

"Truth," she replied and he figured as much because Casey's hated liars.

"Claire Naylor. Fifteen. Lakeside storage shed. And afterwards, I asked if I could keep her bra."

Casey scrunched her face up in disgust and he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at her question.

"Did she let you?"

"Yeah. And she was a lot smaller than you."

"Pig," Casey replied.

"Hey, now. Evan's the one that kept it," Cappie told her because Evan did, in fact, swipe it from his stuff three days later and he never asked for it back. What he doesn't tell her is that Claire Naylor told her friends and when the next Camp Kitchiwahwah and Camp Fern bonfire rolled around, he was the most popular guy there.

"You two are disgusting."

Casey went back to her dorm room saying Frannie, her big sis he met at Dobler's a couple of weeks ago, picked her to help plan for the mixer between Zeta Beta and Omega Chi next weekend.

The mixer was planned for the same night as the Pi Pi Pi's, or TriSluts as Casey called them, wet t-shirt contest. An odd choice for October at any other university in the United States but Cappie attributed the decision to the weather force field around Cyprus. Not that he was complaining because it meant Casey could still wear short skirts and tank tops and Cappie realized he was in it deep when he blew off being pledge judge in the contest for some mixer with Casey.

It was the first mixer that Casey invited him to. Technically, the girls aren't allowed to bring dates who aren't a member of the co-mixing fraternity but Casey apparently talked to Frannie and Frannie managed to pull some strings or something. He didn't want to go, almost told Casey as much until she sent a picture of her dress to his cell phone. So he showed up wearing a tie over his plaid button up shirt and a pair of pants that only had one stain on them.

The Omega Chis weren't too keen on letting him in but Casey spotted them trying to shove him back out the door, grabbed his hand, and pulled him over to where she had been standing with Ashleigh and Frannie.

"Oh, look, it's the Kappa Tau fling," Frannie mumbled and he looked down to see if Casey noticed. She didn't seem visibly upset and he let the snide comment go, allowed her to drag him around the room introducing him to one preppy girl after another.

Jenna Acierno. Samantha Snow. Rachel Herrick. Marissa Garcia. Melissa Flandreau. Alyssa Johnson. Lindsey Phillips. Kristen Maloney. Brittney Baker. Lauren Gates. Carly Fryer. Jessica Fox. Leah Frasier. Sarah Fait. Audrey White. Michelle Coleman. Susanne Kelly. Lauren Layne. Jennifer Holbrook. Molly Sprigs. Courtney Winfield. Meredith Gosforth. Julie McKee. Annie Crawford. Betsy Liu. Elise Benson. Mallory Carter.

And the queen bee herself, Zeta Beta Zeta president Caroline Langley.

They all looked the same to him, their hair straightened and pulled back by a clip or pinned on top of their head. And they all greet him the same too and he would have bet his own life that Frannie wasn't the only one who considered him to be "the Kappa Tau fling."

After about twenty minutes of listening to more of that crappy touchy, feely music and having everyone treat him like dirt, he decided he had enough of all this bullshit. He was tempted just to put his glass down on a table without a coaster underneath it but figured the action would probably start a brawl since they were all watching him out of the corner of their eyes and decided to return the glass to the bar instead.

"Evan?" He asked, unsure of the identity of the guy next to him.

"Cappie," Evan replied dryly and Cappie was a little taken aback by the harshness in his voice. He sat the drink down on the counter and turned to figure out where Casey was so he could tell her he was leaving. She stood in a small semicircle with Frannie and Caroline and a girl he thinks is Alyssa. Or maybe Melissa? But he, figuring it's important and not wanting to interrupt, turned back to Evan.

"Make sure none of these douche bags make a move on Casey, will ya?"

"You're leaving?" Evan asked and the tone of his voice made Cappie a bit angry.

"Yeah."

"And you're not telling Casey?"

Cappie didn't answer his question, figured that Casey would understand and he didn't have to explain himself to her.

The guys cheered when Cappie crossed the street and headed over to where they were hosing down the TriPis. Beaver jumped out of his seat, Egyptian Joe said something about the prodigal son returning, and Dan handed him a red, plastic cup brimming with beer.

He had made it through two rounds of judging when he looked up and spotted that dark green dress under the lamp light. Arms were folded and though he couldn't make out her face, he knew it was her. She didn't make any gesture for him to come over there, didn't make an attempt to cross the street or anything. Joe nudged him, turning his attention back to the girls and when he looked back again, she was gone.

It's the third day since "The Incident," as he called it, that she finally took his call. Told him how embarrassed she had been, told him that she was madder at him for not telling her he was leaving rather than she was for him actually leaving. He showed up with an apple pie and apologized.

Apple pie was the first pie they ever shared.

Cappie managed to convince Casey to go to the Kappa Tau Halloween party instead of the one at Omega Chi for Zeta Beta. It was a costume party but by the time the two of them manage to get down to the costume shop together the only two things left were an Ecoy and an Elvis costume. Casey was the only one who could fit in the Elvis costume and he laughed when he saw her slip on the glasses and move her hips in Elvis's trademark move. The Ecoy costume required a second person, and while Casey suggested he ask Evan, Cappie asked one of his fellow pledges, Wade, to do it instead. Wade relented but said Cappie had to be the horse's ass as the trade off.

The party was genuinely fun. Especially since Beaver spent most of the night telling people that his costume was that of a beaver and not of a skunk and Wade kept trying to get luau girl Ashleigh to go upstairs with him. But Cappie remembers most of the night to the soundtrack of Casey's laughter.

The party was in full swing when he led her into the house and up the stairs.

"I'm not sleeping with you, Cap."

"You say that now," he told her as he opened the door to the one room he knew nobody would be hooking up in. While the rest of the pledges spent the afternoon setting up for the "spook-tacular" party, Cappie picked up Joe's room, made sure it was presentable with clean sheets for him and Casey to sit upon, if nothing else.

"What's goin' on?" Casey asked slurring her 'G' in that way that Cappie loved so much as he shut the door behind them. He didn't have to answer; the hitch in her breath told him she had already figured it out.

"You bought a pie," she said opening the pink box.

"Pumpkin pecan," he told her as he handed her a fork. Not taking it, she turned to him and shoved the pie in his face.

"What the…" he sputtered as Casey laughed. He pulled the pie tin off his face, dropped it on the floor, and pulled her against him. She laughed as he rubbed his pie covered face into the curve of her neck, some of it getting into her black wig and the hem of her white jumpsuit.

"Cap, this is a rental," she squealed, squirming against him and pushing him away from her.

"You should have thought of that, Ms. Cartwright," he told her before she stood on her tippy toes and kissed him square on the lips, some of the pie filling transferring from his lips to hers. Breaking away, she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips.

"I think this is my new favorite."

They didn't do any more than kiss that night because he wasn't sure if it was the right time or not. There's something not quite right about having sex when you're the horse's ass and all, so Cappie didn't press the issue, didn't even try to slide his hand under her jumpsuit or anything.

But Cappie realized they were entering his favorite territory when, for the first time since they started dating, Casey let him take off her shirt during one of their make-out sessions in early November. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop once he unhooked the clasp of her bra but Casey didn't push him away while he fiddled with the clasp. Until, that is, Evan threw open the door to their dorm room.

"Oh, sorry," Evan mumbled. "Sorry."

Cappie could have punched him right in the face if he had the opportunity but Casey looked a bit relieved and Cappie didn't want seem like some sex crazy, pubescent boy by yelling at Evan for interrupting. Instead, he threw Casey her discarded shirt, pulled his own on, and pulled his wet, discarded towel from this morning over his erection. Evan stood there, mouth agape as Casey mumbled a 'call me' in Cappie's ear and ran out of the room.

"Thanks, roomie," Cappie spat at him as he headed for the community bathroom, towel in front of his "problem," for a cold shower.

It was five days before Thanksgiving break when the Omega Chis decided to get back at Kappa Tau for the flower stunt. Somehow, they managed to get their hands on a skunk and deposited in the basement of the KT house through a window. Beaver spooked the skunk and for days the basement, and the house, reeked.

"If it wasn't stupid, it wouldn't be boys fighting," Casey told him when he explained why he smelled so bad.

The night before her flight to Chicago, she ran her hand down his chest and mumbled those three big words against his lips.

"I. Love. You."

He didn't response at first, at least not verbally. Instead, he captured her lips in his and kissed her until his lungs screamed for oxygen. Her lips were red, swollen from that kiss but she looked up at him expectantly and he decided to throw caution to the wind.

"Me too."

She didn't invite him to Chicago for the quick Thanksgiving break. Of course, he didn't expect her to but Evan's earlier offer for him to come to Cleveland with him had been revoked, although no word about it past between them.

Casey returned to campus five days later, regaled him with stories of her Uncle Bob getting drunk and eating the whole bowl of cranberry sauce. She asked him how his mini-vacation went and he told her the truth, said he had eaten at the International House of Pancakes on Thanksgiving Day since the school cafeteria was closed and all. She gave him a weird look, said she thought he was going to Evan's but trailed off when she realized the offer had been revoked.

And that was when Cappie realized Casey finally understood how far to the wayside his and Evan's friendship had fallen.