keeper (d. Hale)

summertime sadness.

"Derek, I love you but do we really need to be doing this right now?"

Derek looked up at Delilah from his place in the sand. She was wearing a large white sun hat to keep the bright sunlight out of her eyes. Even as the wide brim tipped down he could still see her smile peaking out from the bottom. And just by the sight of it, he knew she wasn't actually upset with what they were doing. 

"Oh I insist." Derek said as he scooped sand into his hands to add to the wall they were building.

She tried to hold back her laugh as she took in Derek's face of concentration. She didn't think he would be this serious about sandcastle building but she couldn't deny that he looked adorable, almost carefree. She felt butterflies form in her stomach as she watched him move. 

"You're heart is beating really fast," he commented as he snuck another look at her. He wasn't sure why but he was almost shy under her gaze.

He knew he made the right choice for their time away from Beacon Hills as she shifted on her knees in the sand to get closer to the sand structure. Derek decided right then that he really liked Delilah in a bikini and he would happily spend the rest of their vacation right there on the beach as long as she wore them or nothing at all. What ever worked for her.

"Well you're drooling darling."

He smirked at her, "I can't help it when you look like that." He gestured to the thin straps on her bikini bottoms. 

"Like what? Do I have sand on me?" She twisted around and tried to wipe the sand from the edge of her bottoms.

Derek almost fell over onto their structure as he watched her.

"You're killing me." Derek said dramatically.

"I highly doubt that, but maybe I should go wash off," she said with a wink.

She stood quickly and sprinted to the ocean waves that crashed against the beach. Derek scramble behind her as her hat blew off in the warm wind landed amongst the towels they had laid out earlier. His feet kicked up sand in a flurry as he tried to grasp her running form.

Delilah laughed as Derek caught her around the middle as she hit the water. No matter where she was he seemed to always be right behind. He spun her through the waves as the salty spray struck their bodies. Derek laughed along with her as he gently settled them to sit in the sand and look out at the water. The tide was coming in now and eventually the water would reach their sand mound that Derek had called a castle. 

The waves lapped around them and Delilah rested her back against Derek's back as she turned her face up towards the sun.

"When I moved to California, this is what I thought everyday would be like. I would go to work at the hospital in the morning and in the afternoon I would spend my time on the beach."

"And instead you ended up in the middle of a forest." He laughed into her hair. "Were you disappointed?"

"I thought I would be but I rationalized San Francisco was close and I could always drive to the water if I could afford the gas."

"You've never been?"

"No, if you didn't realize I've been pretty tied down in Beacon Hills."

"We can go there next. Maybe take Issac if he's interested."

"I think he would like that. I know I would," she said as she reached up to place a kiss on his chin. Derek turned his head quickly and caught her lips with his.

"What would you like?" She asked as he pulled away slightly to rub his nose against her.

"Right now?" He asked with a suggestive raising of his eyebrows, "or in a general sense?"