Note: I bumped the rating up just to be safe. Enjoy!

Steve opened up Natasha's laptop and sent emails to her professors letting them know that she would not be attending class that day. He then sent an email to her director letting her know that she wouldn't be able to be at rehearsal that night. After he sent off the emails for her, he exchanged her computer for his so that he could let his teachers know that he wasn't going to be in class that day either. Luckily a couple of his classes were just having work time that day, so it wasn't a big deal that he wasn't in class. His mind was still turning from his worry about Natasha being sick, running into Sharon at the store, and being worried that Sharon was going to do something to try to hurt Natasha. Steve sighed, pushing himself up off the couch. He opened up his bedroom door to check in on Natasha. He stood there until he saw the slight rise and fall of her chest. Once he was sure that she was okay, he quietly pulled the door closed and walked back into the living room. He walked over to his desk and pulled his sketchbook out of the drawer.

Steve opened the sketchbook up to the page where the sketch of Natasha that he'd been working on was. He smiled at the page before grabbing his pencils out of the drawer so that he could begin working on it more. He decided to start with her hair since it was one of his favorite things about her. He worked meticulously blending different shades of red and orange together to get her color just right. Once he was satisfied with the hair, he moved on to her eyes. He sat there for a moment, wanting to make sure that he got every fleck of deeper green right. For a moment, he thought about waiting until she was awake so that he could study her eyes, but just the thought of doing that was causing his stomach to do flips. Instead, he pulled out his phone and quickly opened it up. He looked at the home screen picture of him and Natasha from lunch on move-in day. She'd grabbed his phone from across the table at the Chinese restaurant before sliding out of her side of the booth and over to his. Steve had complained because he wasn't particularly a fan of having his picture taken, but Natasha insisted that they had to commemorate their first day on campus.

Just before Natasha snapped the picture, Steve had thrown his arm around her shoulders. She'd accidentally snapped a picture as he did. They were both looking into each other's eyes and smiling. Steve felt butterflies in his stomach thinking back to that. He opened up his photo gallery to the picture that she took immediately after. In the picture, Natasha's holding the phone up with her right arm, and she looked absolutely stunning. The light had been shining through the window in a way that enhanced her red hair, her eyes were especially green that day, and her skin looked like it had been carved out of stone it was so smooth. As beautiful as she looked, that wasn't what her eyes normally looked like, and that wasn't what her eyes had looked like yesterday. Steve kept flipping through his photo gallery sifting through the seemingly endless silly photos of Natasha that she takes whenever she steals his phone. There was one particular photo that he was looking for. It was a picture that he had taken of her whenever they had gone to Colorado together after graduation. When he finally found it, he couldn't resist smiling. She was standing up on top of a mountain, the sun was shining and illuminating her skin. Her hair had been pulled up into a messy bun on the top of her head. She was flushed and exhausted from the hike, but she still had flashed him the brightest smile. She wasn't wearing any make-up on her face, yet her eyes still absolutely shone. He zoomed the picture in on her eyes, so he could use it for reference.

Steve wasn't sure how much time had passed whenever he finally finished working on her eyes, but he was positive that it had to be at least an hour. He stretched and got up from the desk. He peaked in on Natasha once again before going out to the living room and laying on the couch. It wasn't long after he'd laid down that he fell asleep.

Steve sat straight up when he heard Natasha yell his name from in the bedroom. He launched himself off the couch and ran into the room.

"Nat? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Natasha was curled up in a ball on the bed, "everything hurts," she groaned.

Steve walked over to the bed and put his hand on her forehead, he held it there for a moment. She was still burning up. "Do you want to try taking a bath?" he asked.

"I feel too weak to move, I don't even feel like I could undress myself, let alone walk there," she croaked. He sat down next to her and brushed her hair out of her face. Steve had an idea, but he was hesitant to even suggest it.

"What's hurting, Nat?" He asked after a moment.

"My body is aching, my head still feels like it's being split in half, I feel like puking, I'm dizzy, I'm freezing, my throat hurts, do you want me to go on?" Steve frowned.

"I'll be right back." He got up from the bed and walked into the kitchen to grab the medicine that he got her. He dosed out everything that she would need before taking it back into the room to her. "Alright Nat, hopefully this will help you. Do you think you can sit up?"

"No," Natasha whined.

"It's okay, I've got you," Steve said. "Here, hold this." He handed her the pills that he brought into the room before climbing up onto the bed with her. He put his back against the wall and put one of his legs on the other side of her curled-up form before sliding his arm under the upper half of her body and slowly pulling her up and against his chest.

"Steeeevve, it hurts," Natasha groaned. He gently shushed her and smoothed her hair down. He grabbed the water bottle off of the table next to the bed and opened it up for her.

"Use this and take that medicine." It took Natasha a little while to get all of the medicine down, but once she did, she leaned her head back against his chest. Steve's previous idea came back into his head. "Nat?" He asked after a moment, "Do you think that a bath would help?"

"I already told you Steve, I feel too weak to be able to."

"That's not what I'm asking Nat. Just, do you think a bath would help?" Steve asked again.

"Yeah," Natasha replied. Steve took in a deep breath.

"Well then I have a suggestion, but if you're not comfortable with it, then it's completely fine. I just want you to feel better,-" he started.

Natasha turned her head slightly to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed together, "what?"

"Do you want me to help you get undressed so you can take a bath?" Steve resisted the urge to close his eyes in preparation for what he was sure was going to be her yelling at him for even suggesting the idea. Natasha didn't yell, she didn't even look at him weird for suggesting it.

"I have a better idea," Natasha said after a moment.

Steve raised an eyebrow at her, "and that is?"

"Take a bath with me."

Steve felt like he'd been punched in the stomach the way the air seemed to leave his lungs. "I-uh, Nat, are you- I mean-do you really? Are you sure?" He sputtered.

"I didn't mean naked, Rogers. You'd go get my bathing suit and put yours on," Natasha elaborated, letting out a slight chuckle which quickly turned into a coughing fit.

"Oh," Steve said, slightly relieved. He could feel the heat coming off of his face from him blushing.

"But you will have to help me get into my bathing suit," Natasha looked up at his face and Steve looked down at her. "Are you okay with that? I just don't think I can sit up in the bath by myself or wash my hair."

Steve kept looking at her for a moment, not saying anything. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a little concerned about this, especially knowing how he felt about her, but he did want her to feel better and if she thought that this would help, he was willing to push aside any other feelings to do so. "Yeah Nat, it's okay."

"You're sure?" she asked again. "If you aren't comfortable with it, I understand. You just had offered to help me get undressed anyway and I,-"

"Nat, it's fine, seriously. I'm going to lay you back down on the bed and go get your bathing suit and then I'll be back. Will you be okay here by yourself for a few minutes?" Steve brushed her hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she replied.

"Okay," he said. He slowly laid her back down on the bed before crawling off careful to jostle her as little as possible. "I'll be right back."

"Steve?" Natasha called after him.

"Yeah Nat?"

"Thank you for always taking care of me," she gave him a small smile.

"Always Nat. Be right back."

Steve walked into Natasha's dorm room to see Bucky and Wanda sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey punk, how's it going?" Bucky yelled from the couch. Steve walked into Natasha's room and began digging through the drawers of her dresser. He couldn't seem to find her bikini anywhere.

"What are you doing?" Wanda said. Steve turned around to see Wanda standing there, a curious expression on her face.

"Uh, well," Steve brought his hand up to the back of his neck, "I kind of-need Nat's bathing suit, but I can't seem to find it."

Wanda looked at him her brows knitted together, "why do you need Natasha's bathing suit?" She asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"She, uh-Wanda, uhh." Steve groaned. "I need it so she can take a bath," he whispered, his face getting redder by the second.

"What?" she asked again, a smile spreading across her face.

"Please don't make me say it again Wanda," Steve whined.

"Why would she need it for a bath, Steve? Hmm?" Wanda teased, raising an eyebrow expectantly at him.

"Because," he replied, gritting his teeth slightly, "she can't sit up on her own, so-i'm going to take a bath with her."

"DUDE WHAT?" Bucky yelled from behind the door.

Steve hung his head, exasperated, "it's just a friend helping a friend Buck. She's really sick, just come on, Wanda, do you know where her swimsuit is?"

"Mhm," Wanda hummed, "I have it in my room. I borrowed it. I'll get it for you." She flashed him a big smile before disappearing out the door.

"Dude, we've got to talk about this later," Bucky said to Steve after Wanda left.

"No Buck, we don't," Steve groaned.

"Oh, we definitely do," He replied, walking away to sit back on the couch.

Wanda reappeared moments later with the bathing suit and Natasha's shampoo. "She'll want this too, let us know if you guys need anything else," she chirped, winking as him as she left the room.

"Thanks Wanda," he said as he left the room. Great. They're definitely never going to drop that.

When Steve got back to his room, he went into the bathroom and set her shampoo down before drawing the bath. He then went out to the kitchen a grabbed the lavender essential oils so he could put a few drops in the bath water before they got in. He heard that it was supposed to be calming, as well as nausea, so he was hoping that it would help her with that too.

After he was satisfied with the way that the bathroom was set up, he went to go and get changed and get Natasha. Steve took a deep breath before stepping in the room. You can do this.

"Alright Nat, you ready?" He asked.

"Yeah," she said weakly from the bed. Steve walked over to the bed and set the swimsuit down. "What do you want to start with, tops or bottoms?"

"Top, it'll be easier since I'm not wearing a bra anyway." Steve was grateful that the room was dark enough that Natasha probably couldn't see just how hard he was blushing.

Steve cleared his throat, "alright." He climbed behind her on the bed once again and took her into his arms. He got her sitting upright and gave her a moment to rest before getting to work. He gently slipped her arms out of her shirt before pulling it up and over her head. He felt his breath hitch and was really hoping that Natasha couldn't feel just how fast his heart was beating. Steve quickly reached over and grabbed the bikini top and threw the top portion around her neck before grabbing the two loose bottom strings and pulling them behind her back so he could tie them. "You doing alright Nat?"

Natasha was also working to make sure that her breaths were coming out even. If she didn't feel so terrible, she might actual enjoy the way that he was undressing and redressing her. "I'm okay," she croaked out, her voice raspy. Once Steve had the top done, he kissed the top of her head and she hummed happily. He worked quickly to get the bottoms on and had to try even harder to calm himself once he'd seen her exposed. When he was done getting her ready, he picked her up and carried her into the bathroom.

"I'll be right back." Steve walked into his room and grabbed his swim trunks. He took his first deep breath since before getting Natasha ready. You've got to focus, Rogers.

Meanwhile, Natasha was also trying to calm herself down. She'd seen Steve without a shirt on more than once, but that didn't make it any less attractive. She could spend the rest of her life looking at his bare chest and still never get tired of the sight, and he'd just seen her more exposed than he had in years. She might've even been a little offended that he didn't seem very effected by it if it weren't for the fact that her head was spinning and not just from her thoughts about him.

Steve returned to the bathroom and scooped her up in his arms placing her in the bathtub gently before dropping in a few drops of the lavender essential oil, grabbing her shampoo off of the counter, and joining her in the bathtub.

"You brought my shampoo?" She asked, unable to help the smile that spread across her face.

"Wanda suggested it," he replied with a shrug.

"Wait, you told Wanda what was going on?" She seemed shocked.

"Uh, yeah, well not on purpose," Steve stuttered. "I couldn't find your suit and Wanda asked what was going on and it turned out she had it, so her and Bucky kind of know now. Sorry."

Natasha relaxed back into his chest, "it's not a big deal Steve. I don't really care, I just thought that you would avoid telling her at all costs."

Steve chuckled, "well I definitely tried." Natasha smiled and tilted her head so she could look up at him. He really was something else. He grabbed a small cup that was placed on the edge of the tub and scooped the warm water up in it before pouring it over her head. He did this a few times before grabbing the shampoo. Natasha had her eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of Steve pampering her. He squeezed the shampoo out of the bottle and onto his palm, already hypnotized by the mango scent that he loved so much. It was the scent that he associated with being able to hold Natasha close to him since he could always smell it the strongest whenever she was cuddled up against him. He began working his fingers through Natasha's hair and she moaned at the sensation. The sound made Steve's heart race and his stomach tighten, but he kept his focus on washing her hair. Once he was satisfied with the amount of shampoo in her hair, he began rinsing it out, running his fingers through her hair once more to make sure he'd gotten it all. Natasha hummed in delight.

"Thank you," she whispered as she leaned her head back on his chest again. He leaned his head down to kiss the top of her head.

"Anything for you," he murmured, his lips still pressed against her hair. They sat there in silence for a while longer, Steve's arms wrapped tightly around her both of them enjoying the closeness of the situation. When Steve began to notice the chill of the water, he carefully stepped out, and dried himself off before turning around to pick up Natasha. He had laid his towel down on the edge of the bathtub and used her towel to dry her off. She watched as he worked meticulously. "Feel any better?" he asked.

"I think so," Natasha replied. "Definitely more relaxed than before if nothing else." He smiled knowing that he played a part in that. He picked her up and carried her back into the room. Steve quickly dressed her in the art shirt she loved so much and a pair of sweatpants (she'd been saying she was cold despite her sweating, so he figured it might help warm her up). He gently laid her back on the bed, "are you hungry?" She thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know that I can eat, but I'll try," he nodded.

"Then I'm going to changed really quick and go get your soup started, I'll be right back. Call me if you need anything." She hummed and closed her eyes.

Steve exited the room, threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and began grabbing everything to make the soup. He'd just grabbed the pot out of the cabinet and set it on the stove when he heard Natasha yell for him. It wasn't a significantly different yell than normal, but Steve's blood ran cold. He burst into the room and saw Natasha sitting on the edge of the bed. She was breathing heavily, her arms braced on her knees, she looked up at him and he could see sweat dripping down her face.

"Steve," she gasped out, she attempted to stand up, but her eyes went glassy and seemed to roll back into her head as she passed out, falling to the floor. Steve caught her just before her head hit.

"Nat?" He said, shaking her slightly. "NAT!" He yelled. He could feel his eyes beginning to brim with tears. Her breathing was heavy, and she was unresponsive. Steve quickly pulled her into his arms, grabbed his keys and phone off of his desk, and sprinted out of the room. He ran down the hall to Wanda's room and began kicking furiously on the door.

"What the fu-" Bucky cut himself off at the sight of Natasha passed out in Steve's arms. He could see Steve was holding back tears and trying not to panic. "Wanda meet us at the hospital!" Bucky shouted.

"What?!" Wanda yelled back, stepping into the living room.

"It's Natasha, we've got to go. I'll see you there, I love you," Bucky quickly grabbed the keys out of Steve's hands and the two of them took off running. When they got to Steve's car Bucky hopped in the driver's seat with Steve jumping in the back with Natasha. Please Nat, please be okay. I can't lose you, he thought.