Author's Note- So I know I should totally be updating Forbidden- don't fret, it's coming soon- but I recently decided that I wanted to try my hand at one of these 30 day challenges. So, naturally, I picked a writing challenge for 30 days of goodness with my favorite pairing.

That's right, 30 straight days of Chloe and Derek! :D Each day will be different, of course, and set in my Darkest Powers Chronicles universe. I'll do my best to let you know when in the timeline each day falls within with the parenthesis below the chapter's title.

Enjoy!

Day 1- Holding Hands

(Post: Mission Impossible- Pre: Surprise.)

Going on walks was kind of our thing. The campus didn't really have any trails or back woods to slip off to when we wanted to escape the world. Changing was done once a week in the woods behind Dad's farmhouse about a half an hour away. School was such a time consumer, we struggled even with that much.

But we always found time for our walks and made do with what we had. Chloe had a giant production project presentation due and I was supposed to be preparing for a physics mock lecture for my student teacher program. But, for a blissful- and thankfully uninterrupted- half an hour each night, Chloe and I put those responsibilities aside and simply- well, walked.

Being Corvallis, it rained most spring, summer and fall nights. The snow was sloshy and irritating in the winter. But we didn't care. Giving up our walks was like Chloe giving up her mother's necklace or me giving up my usefully heightened senses. It was a part of who we were. What we were.

It was the one time whenever we meandered around campus together that we were totally and completely ourselves.

Chloe's fingers were loosely laced through mine. Despite us being fairly physically interactive with each other for a while, this remained to be my favorite form of contact with her. It was just so simple, so easy. My lips never failed to quirk upwards whenever she slipped her hand into mine. And she knew it too.

At this point it had almost become a secret language between us.

If I felt the Change coming on- maybe I had waited a day too long to just bring it about myself because we were just so busy- it was a quick question of 'You okay?' with all the underlying questions of 'Do you need to head off to the farmhouse?', 'Is it coming quickly?', 'Want me to come with you?'

Usually I simply squeezed he fingers as an affirmation to the answers she already knew.

'I'm fine. Should probably take off soon, just in case. And of course I want you to come with me.'

If Chloe's stutter slipped back into her speech- which, since she's evolved from that quiet, self-conscious, stuttering girl that I had first met back at Lyle House, meant that something was really, really, bothering her- it was a reassurance.

'Slow down. Take a breath. I'm right here.'

If my temper flared it simply meant that it was her turn to calm me down.

If we were in public and there was a ghost then I'd act as if it were me she was actually talking to.

Sometimes I'd take her hand because guys were looking at her. Sometimes she'd take my hand because girls were looking at me. Neither of us were fully above expressing to others that they needed to back off. And neither of us judged each other for it.

But mostly, especially when we just wandered around with no particular destination or task in mind, it simply meant that we were there.

'You're mine and I'm yours.'

"-and then she- hey, you know, this isn't supposed to be a funny story. What are you over there grinning about?" Chloe muttered dryly, grabbing my attention.

"Sorry. Continue. I'm listening."

Chloe ignored my urge to go on about that 'annoying-little-freshman-that-thinks-just-because-her-family-paid-for-her-to-go-away-to-an-expensive-prestigious-filmography-summer-camp-every-year-since-she-started-middle-school-that-now-she's-all-kowing' and her expression softened. Her loose grip tightened just slightly.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

Only because I wasn't as verbally a cheeseball as I was inside my own head, I didn't answer. Physically, though, as Simon so graciously put it, I was pretty corny. So I squeezed her fingers and lifted her hand to my lips. I gently kissed her wrist, inhaling her sweet scent as discreetly as possible before dropping our hands back to our sides.

She raised an eyebrow at me, but couldn't hide the hint of pink creeping over the bridge of her nose. I smiled.

"So she turned her noes up at your production efficiency plan and then what did she do?" I asked, once again pressing for her to continue with her story. It took her a moment but she went on and we resumed our walk, hands locked a little tighter now.

'You're mine and I'm yours.'

And I hoped that if holding hands made that idea seem so simple, that it stayed that way for a long time to come.

At least long enough for me to build up the courage to pull the ring out of my pocket that I had picked up over a year ago. That way, after, I would feel more affirmed that she wanted the exact same thing.

I think that most of these will be pretty short, nothing more than drabbles littered in the timeline here and there. It would be pretty hard to make anything too long if I'm going to really go through and write something every day.

Anyways, what do you guys think?

Also, say this is successful in the end, and I wanted to try and take this 30 day challenge with two of my own characters, would you guys want to see that? Review and let me know! Until tomorrow!