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year 17

Meredith Grey had a new bad habit. Well, maybe it wasn't new. A year isn't really new, but in the grand scheme of things it was new. She had been alive for nineteen years so that's roughly five percent of her life. So for five percent of her life she had been kissing Derek. She had been doing it since that one party, that one party where she had convinced herself that Derek was jealous of a guy flirting with her. But that was crazy, why would Derek be jealous of some guy?

They had been kissing. Not making out kissing, but generally light pecks on the lips, when she was drunk the kisses sometimes lingered a little longer. And for a year, neither of them have said a thing about it. It was just a natural change in their relationship, they sometimes kissed. Like the French. That's probably what Derek thought, she had just picked up the habit of kissing people as a greeting. Except Derek had spent a lot of time with her and she never kissed anyone else.

She had no idea why Derek hadn't said anything or tried to stop it. He clearly wasn't interested in her since he had never made a move, but he never seemed to mind the kisses. Every time they saw each other, she kissed him. She just couldn't stop. She knew she should. There was no reason she should be kissing Derek, none whatsoever, but every time she actually thought about stopping, her stomach did some sort of knotty thing.

"Meredith!" Mrs. Shepherd greeted as she opened the front door.

"Hi," She said leaning in to hug her, "Thanks for inviting me."

"Don't be silly, you've come since you were a little girl, Thanks Giving isn't right without you." Mrs. Shepherd said as she released their hug. They walked together into the living room where all the Shepherd sisters were sitting along with Mark and Derek. Meredith plopped herself down next to Derek on the couch.

"Hey Mer." He said as he turned to her with a small smile on his face.

"Hi." She responded as she quickly pressed her lips against his, then leaned back against the arm of the couch. Every one in the room looked up and stared at them.

"What was that?" Kathy asked.

"What was what?" Derek asked as Meredith's cheeks reddened. She really hadn't meant to kiss him here in front of his family.

"You two kissed." Chuck said with wide eyes.

"Oh." Derek replied, glancing at Meredith.

"Are you two together?" Mrs. Shepherd asked.

"Finally?" Lizzie added.

"No they aren't." Mark groaned.

"But they are kissing." Nancy frowned.

"Yes they kiss and Meredith spends half her nights sleeping in Derek's bed but that's all they do." Mark sighed.

"You sleep in his bed?" Chuck asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I-" Meredith tried to answer but an explanation wasn't coming.

"She just crashes with me, we usually hang out at my place and my couch isn't comfortable enough for someone to sleep on." He explained glancing at Meredith again.

"And neither of them are sleeping with other people." Mark added.

"So you're in a relationship but not?" Nancy asked.

Meredith shook her head. "We aren't in a relationship, we-"

"Why aren't you?" Lizzie asked.

"Oh." Derek breathed.

Meredith looked at him quickly, "We don't feel that way about each other." As the words came out of her mouth she could almost see a hit of sadness in Derek's face.

"Sure." Mark said as he rolled his eyes.

"Let's change the subject." Mrs. Shepherd said eying the two.

Then Meredith caught Chuck leaning into Lizzie and whispering, "You win the bet again this year."