"No."

"But-"

"No. I mean it, Gwen. I'm not lettin' you leave."

Kevin stood by the door of Gwen's dorm room, arms crossed. Gwen was mere inches away from him, dressed in her usual attire, holding her books to her chest with both her hands. Nothing unusual about that... except for the fact that her eyes were puffy and she looked exhausted and weak. If she were to be pushed with a single finger, she would probably fall over.

She spoke in a soft, hushed tone. "Class starts in 20 minutes. I'm gonna be... be- ACHOO!" She sneezed, dropping her books. She wiped her nose with her hand (which disgusted her) and, just as she bent over to pick her books up, Kevin collected them within seconds.

He sighed sympathetically, shaking his head. "See what I mean? You sound like Swampfire! You can't go out like this. Not only are you in no shape to be doing anything but restin', but you'd probably get your classmates sick too." He walked over to the coffee table by the TV, setting down her books.

"I can't risk ruining my perfect attendance streak.", she retaliated, just a tad annoyed. "My mom-"

"Ain't here."

He was right, and she was losing the argument. She had to think of something. "What about work?", she asked him.

"Told my boss I wasn't comin' in today so I could be here for you. Just slip into something more comfortable and get back to bed. I'll go get you some medicine.", he said authoritatively as he walked back towards her.

She sniffled. "Wait, really? You took a day off work, raced like a jet to come here and, what, babysit me?" She really didn't get what all the fuss was about. She could take care of herself perfectly fine.

He pulled her in for a hug as she coughed, kissing her forehead. "Well, when you put it that way, yeah. I care about you, y'know. I don't want you to stress yourself out. I wanna help you get better. Is that weird?"

A part of her felt very warm and fuzzy because of how protective Kevin was of her. For most of her life, she was independent. She always took care of herself, so the fact that he dropped everything to spend all day with her even though he knew fully well that she could take care of herself was very heartwarming.

If she were back home, her mother would have made her go to class no matter how sick she was. That was also why she was so determined to go to class despite her current state. She was too used to having a perfect attendance streak to not go. It was hardwired in her brain.

She smiled at him, her expression softening. "No, it's not weird. It's sweet, it really is, but I can take care of myself, I swear. It's not even that serious. Plus, I've been sick before. I know how to handle myself."

"Exactly why I'm not lettin' you lift a finger today. You've always taken care of yourself. It's my job as your totally awesome boyfriend to do that just this once.", he replied.

Gwen pouted. He really wasn't going to leave her alone, was he? She was starting to think he'd be willing to carry her everywhere if she were sick enough. "Aren't you worried about getting sick yourself?"

He pulled away from her, then chuckled as if her question was absurd. "Nah, I haven't been sick in..." He tilted his chin upwards and placed a finger on it. "Well, I can't remember." He shrugged. "Eh, that's probably a good thing. Anyway, stay put. I'll be back as soon as I can. I love you."

"I love you too.", she said in an almost robotic manner. She watched as he turned on his heel and walked out the door, slowly closing it behind him. She turned to her books, then the door. An idea popped into her head, a mischevious smile forming on her face.

If she timed it right, she'd be able to sneak off to class before Kevin came back. He would notice her absence when he came back, but she had no choice. She knew she just had to maintain her streak. She could just come back and rest later. After waiting a few seconds, she walked towards the door and stuck her head out, looking left and right multiple times.

The coast was clear.

With a special key, Kevin opened the door to Gwen's room 30 minutes later to find it completely empty. With a small white plastic bag in his right hand, he closed the door with his left. "Gwen?" He looked at where he put her books down earlier. Sure enough, they were gone.

A part of him knew she wasn't going to stay put despite his nagging. She was too stubborn for her own good. Once she made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. Most of the time, he loved that about her. This was not one of those times. Oh, well. She'd be back within two hours, if not less. He might as well wait for her.

And so he did, passing the time by chatting it up with Rook on the phone. They talked energetically about alien vehicles, getting into debates about which species made the coolest cars or the fastest spaceships. For someone who was all proper and polite, he had very good taste. Unfortunately for Kevin, Rook eventually had to hang up because he had to go on patrol.

The few minutes after that consisted of Kevin playing with his phone or staring at the ceiling in intervals, depending on what entertained him more at any given moment.

Thankfully, the door opened to break the monotony. Gwen stepped into the room and closed the door, looking as if she was going to collapse at any moment. "I regret everything." She wobbled, holding her hand to her head.

Kevin ran towards her and she fell into his arms, burying her head in his chest. "Easy there. I got you.", he assured her, taking her books out of her hands to ease her load. "How do you feel?", he asked.

"Like you were right all along.", she admitted, a tinge of guilt in her voice. She knew she should have listened to him all along. He was wrong about a lot of things a lot of the time, but when it came to her well-being, he always had her best interests in mind and thus, was usually right.

Regardless, Kevin didn't need to rub anything in her face. He was sure she had learned her lesson. "Get changed and get to bed, okay? I'll be with ya in a sec.", he said, planting a kiss on her head to soothe her.

Gwen exhaled a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She composed herself, pulled away and nodded weakly, dragging her feet towards her bedroom. Kevin watched her go before putting her books down on the coffee table. He made his way to the fridge, pulling out two differently-labeled bottles of medicine and checking to make sure that he got the right ones.

After waiting about 15 minutes to make sure Gwen had changed, he entered her bedroom with a tray holding the medicine bottles and two spoons to find her lying on her bed, wearing red pajamas. Her eyes were half-open. She must have been really tired.

Kevin set the tray down on the end table by her bed and pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. "You're really hot." She rolled her eyes. "So you keep telling me." A laugh escaped his lips. Even while she was sick, she was still very much herself. "You know what I meant.", he replied.

He grabbed one of the medicine bottles, opened it and poured the thick orange liquid inside it on one of the spoons. "Say 'aaaah'." He brought the spoon to her lips, smirking. She sat up and crossed her arms, half unamused, half embarassed.

"I may be sick, but I'm not a baby, you know.", she whined. "I know, I know. I guess you're kinda cute when you're sick."

"I don't feel cute.", she replied. As if the universe wanted to prove her point, she sneezed rather loudly, grabbing a tissue to cover her nose. She crumpled the tissue up and threw it at the trashcan right by the door, but it landed next to it instead.

She let out a low growl, irritated. Kevin sat on the edge of her bed, gently holding her chin. "Aw, cheer up, baby. This'll be over in no time. Don't worry 'bout a thing. I'm here to help."

She groaned in frustration, shaking her head. "I know, and I appreciate that. I just hate feeling so tired and weak. I have a bunch of other things I should be doing."

"You're so busy all the time that you forget to rest. Maybe getting sick is your body's way of tellin' ya that you gotta take it easy." He smiled warmly at her. "If you wanna get better, you should just relax."

Gwen stayed silent for a few seconds, then digressed. "Sometimes, you make sense." She took a deep breath, nodding in agreement. "You're right. I guess it wouldn't hurt to sit back and do nothing for once." She paused for a few seconds. "I'm glad that I have you to look out for me."

Kevin moved his free hand to her cheek, tenderly caressing it with his fingers. "I'd do anything for you." She gave him a toothless grin, then pointed at the spoon in his hand. "Alright, let me have it."

He brought his hand to her mouth, and she gulped the medicine down. He removed the spoon from her mouth and put it down, rubbing the back of his head. "So, uh, what's it taste like?", he asked out of curiosity.

She clicked her tongue a few times, trying to find the words to describe it. "Well, I'm not quite sure how to put my finger on it, but it's not that bad."

"Huh, good to know.", he replied. He repeated the process with the second bottle and second spoon, except this time, Gwen playfully opened her mouth wide, even saying 'aaaah' just to humor him. Kevin played along and slowly put the spoon in her mouth. "Here comes the choo-choo train.", he said in the most upbeat, albeit a bit cartoonish, voice possible.

He held the spoon in place, giving Gwen time to finish swallowing the medicine. She opened her mouth once more, allowing Kevin to remove the spoon.

She smirked devilishly. "Happy now?" He put down the spoon and reached over to kiss her lightly on the cheek. "You're tired. You should get some sleep."

Gwen secretly wanted to stay up and just bask in the presence of her boyfriend, but he had been right all day thus far, so she decided to heed his advice. Besides, even if she didn't want to, the medicine would probably knock her out.

Kevin stood up from the bed, allowing her to adjust her position. She placed her head firmly on her pillow, and Kevin pulled the covers over her shoulders. "Babe?", she called him.

He grabbed the chair by her desk, pulling it closer to her bed and sitting on it. "Yeah?"

"Not a word of this to anyone.", she said sternly. "Not even Ben?", he asked. He seemed genuinely confused.

"Especially not Ben." If word got out, he would either tease her for getting sick or accidentally publicize the unfortunate event, and she really didn't want the entire universe to know what was going on in her life.

"You got it. You go right to sleep, alright? I'll be right here if you need anything." He paused to think about what he just said. "That's not weird, right? Me watchin' you sleep? I just wanna make sure you're okay."

She giggled, then reached out to hold his hand, squeezing it. "There's nothing to worry about. I trust you."

She pulled her hand away and used it to cover her mouth as she yawned, then closed her eyes. "I love you."

No sooner was she in the land of dreams, and Kevin watched her like a hawk, only taking his eyes off her to keep track of the time. Her breathing was a little shaky and she snored louder than she usually did due to her nose being stuffy, but overall, she looked like she was at peace.

After an hour or so, a loud sound broke the calming silence in the room.

"ACHOO!"

Gwen bolted upright on her bed fully awake, her hands lighting up with mana. She looked around her room frantically, before noticing Kevin sitting by her side, snot dripping out of his nose.

"Uh-oh."