No one had ever held Chloe's hand before. Sure, the boys at school had held it, but no one had ever really held her hand; with feeling and warmth and happiness included in just the subtle act, Chloe fell instantly in love with the sensation.

Derek may have been tremendously warm, but his eyes always looked so extraordinarily cold. Chloe often thought that it looked as if he was denying himself happiness because she had seen him happy… She knew the way his eyes could light up with amusement or a smile.

"Why don't you smile very often?" Chloe inquired.

"Monsters don't deserve to smile."

"Well, do good people deserve to smile?"

Derek only shrugged his shoulders. Chloe smiled, satisfied, and said "Then you ought to smile, Derek, because I know you well enough to know you're not a monster, you're just really strong. You wouldn't hurt someone for no reason."

"What makes you think that I wouldn't? I bet I could easily slaughter someone who hadn't hurt me without realizing how awful it was until afterwards..."

"You wouldn't hurt me, Derek," Chloe whispered.

Derek sighed and dropped her hand, walking a little bit faster so he wouldn't be able to see her through the corner of his eye. He detested when she looked disappointed like that.

No one had ever looked as saddened as Chloe when he had called himself a monster, so why now? Why her? Why did the girl he loved have to look caringly at him when he was down and out to begin with?

Chloe ran past him and skidded to a halt in front of him, just barely managing not to slip on the wet pavement. She threw out her arms and glared at him as angrily as she could manage, her eyes piercing and bright against the smooth, creamy porcelain of her skin.

"If you're a monster, then I'm a monster too. I put the unfortunate souls of innocent people back into their decaying corpses, and then didn't know how to send them back. I'm a monster, too, so shut up with your self-pity and talk to me, Derek!"

"What the hell do you want me to say?! I haven't lived the ideal life, Chloe, so I don't smile much. Happy now?" Derek huffed crossly and started to sweep past her arms at the same time that Chloe decided to clamp her arms tightly around Derek's waist. She mumbled something into his chest, buried her head even further into his shirt as her body trembled, and she very obviously began to cry.

Derek sighed, exasperated. "What did you just say, Chloe?"

Another incoherent sentence and a few more trembles as the front of his shirt began to dampen again. Finally, after hours in the rain, the awning had given it a long enough break to dry out, and here she was making it all wet again… 'Girls are such a pain,' Derek thought sarcastically.

"Still can't hear you, Chloe."

Chloe's head shot up and she choked out a few words through her tears, eventually conveying the message, "I love your smile, so I want you to smile more…"

"Well, I love your smile too, so stop crying, okay?"

"You're lying to get me to shut up," sniffed Chloe, her once clear eyes now red and brimming with unshed tears while she wiped away the dampness on her cheeks.

"Chloe, listen, okay? I love you too, so just calm down."

Chloe's head shot up and her eyes opened wide as she stared at Derek seriously.

"You really do? You really mean that? You promise you're telling the truth? Do you really, Derek?!" Chloe's voice took on a curious, frantic, and overall excited tone.

"Yes, Chloe, I really do, I really mean it, and I promise I'm telling the truth." Derek said, exasperated.

"I love you too, Derek," Chloe whispered through a delicate smile.

"What?! When did I ever say I loved you?!"

Chloe's eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement, "Just now, Derek… You swore you were telling the truth…"

Derek backed away, reflecting for a moment, then swore under his breath. At last, he turned back to Chloe. "Don't tell Simon," he begged, "It'll destroy him if he knew I told you after I promised him I wouldn't. He would never trust me again, Chloe. I shouldn't have – shit…"

"I thought I loved you as a friend but then you said you loved me, Derek, and I was suddenly the happiest person in the world… Don't tell me you don't love me like that…" Chloe's eyes began to fill with tears again.

Derek wrapped her up in his arms for one small hug before pushing her away again.

"Chloe, you're better off with Simon. Go to Simon, tell him you like him, and you two can be happy together. He loves you, Chloe… give him a chance…"

"I won't date someone I don't love, Derek. I love you."

Chloe propelled herself up onto her tiptoes before planting a hard kiss on Derek's pale lips. He couldn't help but kiss back and when the two separated a short time later for air, Derek couldn't help from leaning in for a second short and sweet kiss.

For a few moments, Chloe and Derek merely looked at each other, occasionally glancing down to one another's lips in a fluttering glance of desire, but as Derek stared into Chloe's beautiful eyes, he realized that love shouldn't be denied; no matter what.

Finally, Derek put one hand softly against the small of her back, smiled at her, and said only "forget Simon" before pulling Chloe up to meet him in another kiss, more passionate than the previous had been. While the two kissed softly, rain beating down hard around them and soaking them thoroughly, they could only grin into the kiss and laugh together before Derek lifted Chloe up and deftly swung her around in the air before setting her back down for one more round of sweet kisses.

When they broke apart one more time, Chloe looked Derek in the eye seriously and said to him, "Derek, thank you."

"What for?" he asked before he kissed her once more lightly on her swollen lips.

"For smiling, of course…"

Hey, everyone, I'm back with the second part of this story. Since I just didn't like the un-fluffy ending of chapter one in the least, I decided I would simply HAVE to add this second chapter. Hopefully you guys really like it, because I somehow managed to slice open my finger on the edge of a key on my keyboard and got blood all over the place before I noticed it. It's now very difficult to type because it hurts to use my pinky... I love my pinky finger :(

Anyways, guys, REVIEW PLEASE to make me super duper happy!!!