I thought Derek and Simon needed some bonding time LOL.

Hey thanks for sticking with me guys! ENJOY!

*Disclaimer* I don't own Darkest powers... or the moon, but if I save up enough until... eh, I'm working on the moon, then Darkest Powers! :P

~ Chapter 28: Just Tell Her! ~

CPOV

Those warm arms around my shoulders fell away, along with his eyes to mine. I felt the tears well up behind my lids and whimpers began to crawl up my tightening throat.

"D-Derek, I'm so sorry." He suddenly snapped back to me and grabbed my shoulders. He pulled me up along with himself until we were standing, but still he wouldn't let go.

"No," he said, his head shaking. His eyes scared and shining, was he crying, or was that his night vision? His grip tightened, but it didn't hurt me, he was being very gentile. I saw his body stiffen, then his face came down to mine so we were at the same level. "No, I'm sorry." He clenched his teeth, his fangs showing as he faced me with his stressed features. "This is my fault, if I didn't get you didn't get involved in the escape from Lyle House with us then you would of been_."

"Probably dead!" I added; he flinched at my remark.

"What are you_?"

"I mean is if you guys didn't decide to run away from that god forsaken place we all would have ended up like Liz, Brady...Amber..." I gulped."And Rea,"

Derek shook me.

"Don't think that way Chloe, Rea isn't dead, we will get her back!" I shook my head, my brain was just not letting the right words leave my lips but I trudged onward with what I was saying.

"Without you Derek, I don't even want to imagine what could have happened to us." I grasped his hand, which I found to be shaking until I laced my fingers into it.

"I will never let anything happen to you- I mean you guys." He said, his arm was stiff in my hand; I looked up at his eyes, so green and intense with worry. I had to say something to relieve them, anything.

"My aunt told me that they will "be done" with your father in one week if he won't cooperate. Apparently they have had him in their custody for only a short while, they were the ones who captured him at first but he escaped and wasn't found until now." I lifted our conjoined hands and squeezed harder, his eyes wide."Right now we need to focus on getting your dad free, we have one week, let's make it count." That's when he pulled me into him, his shoulders shaking as he tried and failed to hold back sobbing.

"Thank you." He uttered with his voice cracking.

That morning we all clambered together to figure out what to do. I must say that Andrew was completely against storming the place with our powers blazing demanding Kit, which Tori suggested, and sitting passively by waiting for the resistance members to come together was completely out of the question.

"It could take weeks to contact and gather them all, and even longer to have a meeting to figure out what appropriate actions to take." Andrew stated. After I told them the location Aunt Lauren showed me in the dream she wove, the adults talked for a bit. We teens dispersed to do our own things at the mean time, and I went up the stairs with Tori and guess what I saw?

"Simon, what are you wearing?" she said, Simon looked up, his face flushing.

"Well," he pulled at his parachute of a shirt."I didn't have anything clean to wear so I borrowed one of Derek's." He must of been desperate, that shirt was almost to his knees, more of a dress than an actual shirt. Derek came stomping down the hall, his chest bare.

"Give me that." He grumbled, stripping his shirt off Simon.

"Hey! I was just borrowing something clean!"

"Well bad timing," Derek pulled it on. "This is my last fresh one." I look over to Tori, her face red from the male streak-fest going on right in front of us. I had to say, Derek was indeed something to look at. I swallowed that thought before it even materialized, that's enough of that!

"Well, why don't you guys just put on a load of laundry?" I asked, and I got the reaction I figured I would.

"I've never even thought about it?" they said in unison, Simon scratching his head.

"Well, I need to wash some of my own too so I guess I could..."

And that's how I got nominated to do everyone's laundry. Whoopee!

As I dumped all the lights into the washer, read the detergent box that I found brand new- never used by the frat pack-(I can just imagine how many times they wash their clothes) and set the correct water temperature, I smacked down the washer door and called it a day. Well, until about a half hour to forty-five minutes anyway, that's when I got to come back and toss them into the dryer.

When I came back I found Derek folding dry laundry into everyone's own little piles.

"What," I waved at his work. "Is all this?" he flashed a sheepish grin and handed me my pile.

"I felt bad for making you have to do all the work. Here, theses are yours; I think they are all there." I was astonished by how neatly he could fold things; the shirts were laid flat and crisp without even as much as a wrinkle. I looked back up at him with shock.

"You did this?" he just huffed at my question and went back to his folding.

"When you live in a house full of men for most of your life you start to get used to doing stuff you wouldn't expect a guy like me to be able to do." He held up one of his shirts, and I saw a big old ketchup stain possibly years old, he laughed at the memories it brought back. "Like laundry."

"Or cooking?" he raised one of his eyebrows then shook his head.

"Nah, that was dads department." I saw his jaw set for a second. Oh Kit, I shouldn't of brought that up.

"A-And what about Simon?" I asked trying to get his mind off of his father.

"He..." he looked down at the ground for a moment in thought. "You know what? I don't think Simon really did much of anything around the house growing up, he was too busy at sports meetings and dances to really make a mark in his chores." I shook my head.

"Typical Simon." I laughed.

"Yeah, I know." Derek picked up a separate hamper, mostly darks. He poured them into the washer and went to close the door when I stopped him.

"Hey you forgot," I picked up a black article of..."Uh_!" Derek swiped his boxers from my hand and shoved them into the washer faster than I could say hit director: James Cameron.

"Thanks." He mumbled, his face flushing for a moment.

After a while we were still folding... and drying... and folding again. So much for only an hour out of my day, there was a week's worth of laundry here!

I saw Derek lean into the washer, and noticed that he was having trouble.

"What's wrong?" I asked finishing up folding one of Tori's jeans.

"There is something," he grunted. "stuck at the bottom of the tub." He pulled and as he did I tried to look but no matter what I did I couldn't see it from this angle. "It won't come...wah!" he let go and fell backward; the article went flying and landed on the floor between us.

It was lacey, it was purple, and it had Tori written all over it literally in jewls.

"How does she wear something like that?" I asked, nudging the bra with my toe. Derek shook his head in astonishment.

"I have no idea." We stood there kind of dumbfounded for a moment looking down at this creepy spectacle.

"Um, who wants to pick it up?" I asked. Derek jabbed his finger at me.

"I vote you." I gave him a sly grin.

"What's wrong?" I lifted up the frilly garment. "Is the big bad wolf afraid of a little_?"

"That's enough Chloe." He grunted with a laugh.

"Okay." I smiled up at him and his shoulders stiffened.

"C-Can you handle the rest from here?" Derek stuttered, and my smile faded.

"I guess so, why?" he looked away as he passed; I followed him with my eyes.

"Just-a, need to go do something." I caught a quick glance of his face, at how flustered and nervous it was. I was prompting my mouth to utter something to him, anything!

But then he was gone, the door slammed absently. That is when I said it.

"Derek..." I whispered, my arms falling to my sides as I stared at the bone white- wood that separated me from him. "...don't go."

DPOV

I couldn't take it, I couldn't take that grin. I couldn't take her cheerful little smirk and her shining blue eyes. My heart was on the verge of exploding, if I didn't get a hold of myself soon I might of ended up dying of cardiac arrest.

"Simon," I sighed, plopping next to him in the reading room (which was not much more than a storage room full of junk with a couch in the middle) and looked over at him. "I couldn't do it."

"What?!" he manoeuvred to face me, putting the comic he was working on aside as he laid all his attention on me. "I thought the laundry scenario would of worked, what went wrong?"

"Your plan was flawless; we had fun but then..." I found myself trailing off, those mesmerizing blue eyes and that cheerful curve to her lip appeared before me in my mind and I couldn't help staring.

"Then what happened?" I shot awake from my daydream.

"She smiled at me." I looked to him for reassurance but all he did was slouch at my words.

"You're telling me you bailed because she smiled?" When I heard this I realised how stupid it made me sound.

"I know what I did was dumb, but I couldn't take it Simon." He sat up on his knees with his hands down in front of him.

"I understand how nervous you must be bro... but a smile?"

"Did you or did you not keep me awake at night describing to me every single detail of that girls grin every night at Lyle House Simon?" I argued and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Doesn't count in my opinion, you're the one who turns into a red tomato every time you see the girl beam."

"It's not my fault!"

"Then who's is it?"

"It's me, but not me. I honestly like her a lot, but my senses... they go all haywire and I can't think straight whenever I see her, it's my body acting that way not me!"

"You mean the wolf?"

"No I do not mean the wolf! The wolf is just a metaphor to describe my werewolf instincts; there is no actual wolf in me!" At this he raised his hands.

"Okay okay! Don't have to start yelling."

"I'm not yelling!"

"Uh, yeah you are!" I back peddled for a second to calm myself. What is going on with me???

"I'm sorry, I'm not meaning to." He clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay bro, just explain this to me I am having a hard time trying to comprehend it so far."

"What?"

"What I want to know is why it is so damn hard for you to just tell her!?"

"I-I can't!"

"Why?" he came up to my face with an upturned snarl on his face. "Give me one good reason as to why you can't go up to Chloe and tell her you like her or so help me I'll_!"

"I can't tell her I like her Simon, because I don't!" he flinched and the anger in his eyes evaporated. His left brow raised as confusion set in.

"You don't like Chloe?" I shook my head, my attention going to my feet.

"No I don't, and that's why I can't tell her," his eyes met mine and I could feel his stare burn through me although I knew he wasn't trying to. "That's because I don't like Chloe, I... love her." He fell back, his arm clutching the arm rest in disbelief.

"I'm scared if I tell her that then she will..."

"Hate you?" I gritted my teeth at his words.

"Exactly."

If only I knew what was going to come from admitting this.