A/N - Ugh. It's been ages since I wrote in this fandom, hasn't it? I'm planning to finish the WIPs, really I am. In the meantime...

A short snippet written for SusanMarier for Christmas 2012.

Happy Derekus

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Derek has always gotten the best Christmas presents ever! - He says this with a wide smile and a sunny disposition so that no one will know that he is being completely and utterly sarcastic.

His father, ever the failed-joker, always gives him things that would fool others into thinking that they are fun. Only Derek knows that they are subtle hints for him to do work. Edwin recycles his own things and gift-wraps them to show off his bow tying skills. Smarti gives him hugs, the Cheapskate.

Sam gives him vouchers. Ralph draws him a card every year. It amazes Derek that he hasn't improved in the colouring-within-the-lines department.

Lizzie tries, but fails miserably. She thinks sports, which is not too bad, but he rather likes to think that he will get equipment for free anyway. Nora gives him cash, which is sweet! She also puts that cash into an account which he won't be able to access until he is thirty-five and boring.

Then there is Casey McDonald, who does her best to give him the perfect gift. – As if that exists. She gift wraps things and goes out of her way with extreme Casey-ness to give him something memorable, which never happens.

Then, this Christmas, where Derekus is awesome like always, she fights back with his pranking hard. She takes his CDs, he takes her shirts, she takes his hockey equipment, he reads her diary in a Shakespearean tone to everyone! It is not until they physically fight over a bowl of spaghetti and she trips, gasping when the food falls on her head, that Derek laughs long and hard after her famous, "De-rek!".

Derek chokes through his laughs, his stomach paining him. But he doesn't care. "You look awesome, Case." He laughs louder when she pulls out spaghetti from inside her top. "Best. Christmas. Ever."

"Aha! I knew it!"

Derek stops laughing when he realises that she's smiling widely.

"Huh?" Her smile confuses him.

"I told you that I will give you the perfect present, Derek." She's cocky when she comes towards him. She gestures to her messy state. "All along, all you ever wanted was this."

It suddenly hits him that she has spent the whole of the season pranking him, escalating their games, pushing him to be bigger, better in his schemes. It suddenly hits him that she has been concentrating on nothing else but him for a whole month. No one else. Just him. So she can prove that she knows him best. So she can one-up him in the greatest game of all.

As he watches her smug expression under messy strands of spaghetti, her hands on her hips and her blue eyes sparkling mischievously, it's the first time he thinks… God, I love her.

Casey pulls him by the collar and leaves a sloppy, sauce-filled kiss right on his cheek. Logically, he should push her away, for self-preservation and all that other nonsense. Instead, he blinks at her, his heart thudding a mile a minute as he realises that he will have to get down on his knees in front of his father and beg to be placed in a mental institution.

He has feelings for Ms. Priss!

He has feelings for Klutzilla!

He has feelings for his step-sister who happens to be Casey!

…Fuck.

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A/N - No longer Christmas but... Happy Future Derekus, Everybody! :D