He scoffs under his breath and she barely catches the low "tcht!" that whistles through his teeth as he querulously returns to his repair work. Bending over, Gwen reaches out to curl her fingers around his ankle and yanks at the stained denim. As he rolls back into view on his Creeper from underneath the vehicle, his face screws up into an expression of sheer annoyance.

"What?" he implores, noting the way she has her arms crossed in some sort of tiff, one leg popped out, and lips pressed thin. It doesn't take him long to recognize that she's in a battle stance.

Her apple green glare holds his bewildered gaze, and the tension is enough to cause Kevin to slam his tools down and get to his feet. He knows that towering over her has never been able to get Gwen to budge in an argument, especially when she's pissed at him, but he can't resist the way the heat between them smolders as he steps closer to her.

"You're unbelievable," she tells him with a flare of her nostrils. The low words set him ablaze.

"Oh, oh okay, I'm unbelievable. Right. Of course." At this point, he doesn't even care how passive aggressive he sounds. With a snarl to his voice, he brings up the damnable matter right in her face. "It's not you and your heroic stints that are so hard to believe. No, not at all! Not even after all we've been through!"

"All we've been through?!" With that outburst, they're nearly toe to toe, and Gwen almost has half the mind to stomp on his shoelaces and storm out of the garage. About a year of dating him and even longer of dealing with him had just barely kept her in check. "Kevin, I thought you of all people would get this!"

"It's not that I'm upset with you kicking butt as Lucky Girl." His tone is changed, deep with a resolve so strong, Gwen looks away. "Really babe, I dig the pink hair and short skirt getup. I just don't see why we can't go around like we used to…" he ducks his head low and tries to catch her gaze again. She relents in time to see his lips form sad little smirk. "just without Ben."

As if realizing for the first time how in Kevin's face she is, the closeness and heat in her veins makes the air overwhelmingly stifling, and Gwen starts to step away. "We… we can't, Kevin. Things are different now. I'm buried with more schoolwork than ever and am trying to lay low. And you have the shop to look after. Besides," she adds with a shrug, "you'd be bored. The crooks around school aren't exactly a challenge."

"Sure," he admits, brushing his sweat matted bangs out of his eyes, because he'll give her that. "But I'd still get to be with you."

She goes still at that, all nervous fidgeting and shuffling stopped completely, and stares. There's a sudden weight in her chest and she fleetingly wonders if he can hear her heartbeat.

"We live closer than before but I feel like I see less of you."

It hits her then, and she hates herself for not noticing. All the missed calls from him, the fact that he actually bothered with a cell phone, make sense. The way he never made his bed after she left for class, the spontaneous lunch dates he'd arrange at a campus café, how PDA they'd become over the past few months…

Oh.

Reestablishing their earlier intimacy, Gwen makes her way back to him and doesn't hesitate to get up on her tip toes and throw her arms over his shoulders. His arms slide over her hipbones and she can feel his hands gathering the fabric of her shirt in their embrace. "Kevin," she mumbles into his chest. Her nose drags his shirt down ever so slightly at the collar as his stubble scratches at her forehead. "I miss you too."

The rumble of laughter in his chest causes her to press her face even closer. "I moved with you so we would never have to say that."

"Maybe," she begins to say, chills picking her skin as his hands brush over the bare skin of her lower back, her shirt having ridden up while they held each other, "we were meant to be inseparable."

Settling over the slight swell of her hips again, he grips her lightly and holds her out in his arms. If it wasn't for the rosy blush spreading over her cheeks, he would have thought he heard her wrong.

"Y'think, babe?"

Her teeth scrape up her bottom lip as she looks at him. "Mhmm," she nods, and her nervous habit breaks into a full out grin. He barely has time to appreciate the brilliance of it before he's distracted by her body leaning flush against the front of him, hands plunging into his back pockets.

"The next time I'm up against someone, I'll let you know."

He smiles as he realizes that she's feeling for his Plumber's badge. Well, mostly, he amends when he feels a quick, sharp pinch through the denim.

"Good." His voice is filled with emotion, and it bates her breath as he leans down to nuzzle her ear. "Stay the night."

"Mmm, maybe," she hums, letting go of his Plumber's badge and bringing her arms back around his shoulders. "I have a paper I need to start tonight and a reading to look over… and you still have some cars to finish fixing up."

He doesn't miss they way she shivers against him when he lowers his mouth to her neck. "Come around for dinner, then."

"Kevin, you're basically asking the same thing."

"I'll get you Mr. Smoothie."

"How do I manage to stay away?" she asks, her tone laced with fond sarcasm, and pushes on his chest. "Okay, okay. I won't be able to come by if I don't get back to campus now."

"Let me drive you," he insists with a wet, lopsided smile.

She actually laughs at that, and it only makes him smile wider. "No."

He's under the belly of another customer's car when his Plumber's badge notifies him of a distress call a few hours later.

A/N: A review is worth a thousand faves.