#my mom gifted me her hot air brush and sometimes (mostly when I’m bored and too lazy to do my curly routine) I use it

[spacebell]

lately I’ve been feeling cute when I have straight hair and I don’t know how to feel about it

[realrollypratt]

[WIP Wednesday #1]

This is my first edition of Work in Progress Wednesday!

I’ve been working on this Dom!Casey one-shot for too long 4-5 months and it is mostly finished, but has been kicking up a storm during editing so it’s not quite ready for posting yet. I’m just too excited about it to wait any longer though, so here’s a snippet to give you a taste!

This passage contains 1,715 words (full version to be approximately 10k). Set ten years after George and Nora’s wedding.

Inspired by @wroteathingtoday​‘s story Es(Courting) which brought up the idea of Casey being a total Dom.

Lemme know your thoughts! :D

“Ten years, huh?”

Casey turned towards the voice, watching Derek saunter towards her with a wicked smile.

When he settled next to her, leaning against the railing with a bottle in his hand, she turned back to the view in front of her, unable to ward off the small smile on her own lips. He always sought her out at the end of an evening, no matter how much he’d insisted on ignoring her just hours before.

“Yeah,” she sighed, tucking a curl behind her ear. “I’m not sure if it feels like ten... or a hundred.”

He stayed silent for an instant, and all she could hear was the rustling of leaves in the wind and sirens resounding from a few blocks away. It made the moment feel surreal, somehow, calm, as if she was surrounded by a bubble and time just stretched on and on. From the corner of her eye, she saw him take a swig of his beer before answering.

“Probably a hundred,” Derek said, and leaned against his side to face her. “But in a good way.”

Moving her head slightly to the side, she caught his gaze. He wore an open expression, soft eyes catching the light from the city down below, as his lips curled up in his signature smirk.

She chuckled, shaking her head. “How is it a good thing?”

At her question, his eyebrow quirked up in consideration. “It’s one of those things, you know,” Derek said. “Like ‘gosh it’s like I’ve known you forever’.”

He emphasized the word and dipped forward to be on her eye level, bringing their faces closer. It wasn’t quite cold, but she still shivered when the soft breeze carried the scent of his cologne to her nose. She could smell the beer on his breath too.

“I’d have thought that knowing me forever would be like a death sentence to you,” Casey said, leaning in to whisper conspiringly.

His laugh then was low and deep, and a bit self-deprecating. “I adapted.”

“You’re adaptable?” Casey teased with a raised eyebrow.

“Eh,” Derek uttered, shrugging.

Casey rolled her eyes at his typical response and turned around to face the venue, crossing her arms over her chest protectively (though to protect herself from what, she wasn’t quite sure).

Through the archway she saw her mother and step-father dancing in the middle of the room, smiling in each other’s arms as they swayed to the music. Nora looked affectionately at George while sweeping cake icing from the corner of his mouth.

“At least they’re happy,” Casey said thoughtfully, unable to picture a world where Nora didn’t love George, but not quite able to make all the pieces fit together in her head either.

There was a scoff coming from him and she eyed him somewhat insulted.

“So you’re what, unhappy now?” Derek asked doubtfully, like she was being dramatic or something.

“No,” Casey defended, frowning, “I’m not. I just meant that however we feel about it, what matters is that they’re actually happy.”

Frowning in turn, Derek put his beer down on the flat railing in order to slowly step forward into her personal space, making her look up to hold eye contact with him. She would never shrink back against his towering height, which he knew, she wasn’t small or helpless, but his proximity still made her breathless, his radiating heat spreading to her neck and cheeks.

“How exactly do you feel about it?” Derek asked softly, his expression unreadable beyond the crease on his brow. 

Even though his physical presence didn’t scare her, and she was usually the first person to glorify communication as the solution to all problems, the thought of having an honest, truthful conversation - with him - was terrifying.

She was scared of what lay underneath, the things she never dared to put into words for fear of giving them form and having to face that they were real.

She looked away.

“It doesn’t matter,” Casey said weakly. “That’s the whole point.”

Needless to say, Derek wasn’t convinced. “This coming from the girl who almost broke the parents up because they didn’t consider her feelings.”

“Obviously,” she said, keeping her voice even through her gritted teeth, “I’ve grown.”

“And I’ve adapted, isn’t it great?”

Sighing in resignation, she looked back at him, finding his gaze instantly. He bore into her with an intensity she usually hated coming from him. It was so heated and earnest it made parts of her melt, her walls crumble, and she was seconds away from coming apart.

They’d been here before, and every time, she fell for his puppy eyes like she could actually believe that he needed her, that he was open and vulnerable in front of her. Every time, she found out, she’d been the fool falling on her knees with the leash in her hands.

“What do you want me to say?” Casey shrugged, hugging her arms to her sides. “That I resent my mom and your dad for bringing our families together, even though it was the best thing to happen to all of us, because I’m… selfish and ungrateful?”

His frown softened into an easy smile. “Yeah, that,” he said cheekily. “And also maybe something about how being so close to me ruined you for every other guys.”

She scoffed, once again rolling her eyes in exasperation. Of course he’d make some egotistical comment, making it all about him like she wasn’t opening herself up -

“Hey,” Derek uttered softly, breaking her out of her spiralling anger. He gently wrapped his hands around her upper arms, brushing his thumbs lightly against her skin. “I’m not exactly overjoyed either.”

Her skin prickled at his touch and she hated that it affected her so much that she softened against him. She especially hated the way his hands rubbing up and down her arms soothingly actually calmed her down.

“And I’m definitely not selfless,” he confided into her hair, his lips grazing the shell of her ear.

He’d pulled her against his chest, the contact making her shiver. Her face was tucked into his neck, from this close she discovered that he was using a new body spray, a sweeter, more subtle scent than before, with hints of cinnamon and sandalwood.

It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating.

Though her eyes were closed, she found enough strength to move her hand up to his chest, pushing him away reluctantly. “Derek,” she breathed, a sad attempt at sounding stern.

Reminding herself that catching her in her step-brother’s arms on their tenth anniversary was not quite the gift their parents were expecting, she pulled away, looking around self-consciously.

Catching her hand, Derek pulled her back against him, wrapping his other arm around her waist. “We’re just dancing,” he reassured, starting to sway them slowly to music that seemed too distant to hear. “What are they gonna say?”

Her free hand gripped onto his shoulder as she followed his movements, her head spinning. “We said we weren’t doing this anymore, Derek.’’

“Dancing?”

“Yes, dancing.”

Around the issues. Around each other.

He looked at her strangely, almost like he was surprised to be reminded of their agreement, or startled at being caught returning to a bad habit. His eyes moved to the archway behind her before he turned and tugged on her hand.

“C’mere,” Derek said, leading her to the side, away from view, and pushed her back against the wall between two tall junipers.

“De-rek!” Casey scolded.

“Just hear me out,” he said, his hand settling on her hip burning through her dress.

“Der-“ she started, intent on nipping whatever he was thinking right in the bud. But of course he didn’t let her finish.

“Come on,” Derek interrupted, “I’m just saying... we used to have fun. Didn’t we?”

Casey’s shoulders dropped, stomach sinking deep as she considered his beady eyes and alluring smile. This was the point in their dance when she always caved in, coaxed into yielding by the wistful memory of the way she used to feel. Fearless, beautiful, worshipped… and caring, and giving.

Until things got so mixed up that she couldn’t make sense of them anymore, and they were both hurt in the end.

Sometimes she wondered if pain was all they had to give each other.

“You know we can’t do that again,” Casey said, shaking her head sadly. “We can’t.”

“Why not?”

She huffed, dismayed, releasing the last of the air she had in her lungs. “How many times did we go over this? You know why.”

Derek leaned closer, supporting his weight with one hand against the wall, and licked his lips, selecting his words carefully. “I wouldn’t be out here begging if I did.”

“That was you begging?” Casey asked, slightly skeptical.

“You tell me,” Derek said, his breath hot on her cheek. “You know what my begging looks like.”

She was burning up, her eyes glued to his like in a trance, remembering all too well just how good begging looked on him. She was tempted, really tempted, to make him do it all over again, knowing that she had that power, that she could make him look up at her from the heel of her foot, and that he would be keen to oblige - as if it wasn’t the only thing she could make him do voluntarily.

His hand skimmed up her side, travelling leisurely from her hip to her neck where he let his fingers plunge into her hair. There were the goosebumps again, softening all her hard edges, rendering her putty and pliant as he cradled the back of her neck and pulled her face to his.

“Why are you doing this?” Casey mumbled under her breath when their noses touched. To me, she almost added.

“Because,” Derek started, pausing to brush his lips against hers, a feather light touch. “No one makes it hurt like you do.”

Her soft gasp was silenced by his mouth fully covering hers, the kiss dizzying, but a bittersweet confirmation that he didn’t need her, just what she inflicted on him. She never thought that knowing how to reach in all of his tender spots was a bad thing until she discovered that he liked it, actually derived pleasure from it.

He didn’t like her, he just liked the pain.