This story takes place during Ultimate Alien.
"Kevin?", Gwen called out for what felt like the 100th time, knocking on his front door. She had been standing outside for minutes and Kevin was nowhere to be seen. His car was parked nearby so he was definitely home. Maybe he was asleep. Whatever the case, she wasn't eager to wait any longer, so she reached for the door handle and pressed it. To her surprise, the door opened. Kevin wasn't someone who locked his door, it seemed. Oh, well. She wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
She stepped in and closed the door behind her. If her mother were here, Gwen was sure she would have given her a lecture about how it was impolite to enter someone's house without explicit permission.
Gwen walked down the hallway and made her way to Kevin's bedroom. She opened the door and gasped as she took in the sight before her. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, and she spotted a few large cardboard boxes by the edge of his bed. Miscellaneous items, ranging from stationary to small gadgets, were littered all over his desk. Kevin's room was rarely ever tidy, but this was on a whole other level. Amidst all the clutter, the object of her affection sat on the ground by his closet, rummaging through his clothes with his back turned to her. He rocked his head back and forth to the beat of the music blaring through his headphones, oblivious to her presence. He was in his own little world. The redhead stood in place for a few moments, admiring him. Seeing him so happy brought her immense joy.
She tiptoed towards him, crouching as she got closer, and draped her arms over his shoulders. "Boo!"
Kevin shrieked. Whatever immersion his music gave him shattered in a split second. "Gwen?!"
She giggled at his reaction, then kissed the top of his head. "Hope you don't mind that I came in unannounced. I did knock, but you didn't answer the door."
"Of course I don't mind. Mi casa, su casa and all that.", He paused his music and put his headphones around his neck, his heart still pounding from the scare. "J-Just maybe don't creep up on me next time, 'kay? I'm too young to die of a heart attack.", he joked.
Sensing the panic in his voice, her smile disappeared. "Yeah, okay, that was my bad. I'm sorry." She pressed her hands into Kevin's shoulders, massaging them in an endeavor to soothe him. "Better?"
The Osmosian let out a sigh of relief. "Better."
"So...", Gwen stood up, taking another look around her. "You gonna make me ask about the mess?"
He stood up too, turning around to face her. "I'm goin' through my old stuff, deciding what I wanna keep and what's gonna go to charity."
She briefly put a hand over her mouth, suppressing a laugh. "Since when do you do spring cleaning?"
"Mom's idea.", he admitted.
"I'm not sure laying everything out on the floor was the best idea." She bent down and picked up a grey T-shirt by her feet, tossing it onto his bed. "Well, now that I'm here, I can speed things up!"
Kevin snapped his fingers, having formulated an idea. "Ooh, one of your spells could come in handy right about now."
Gwen shook her head, raising a finger in the air to offer a counter-suggestion. "Actually, I was thinking of doing it the old-fashioned way."
Kevin blinked at his girlfriend's response. "Why?" With her powers, they could be done in no time. What possible reason could she have for wanting to do things the normal way?
"Sometimes, doing things without my powers makes me appreciate having powers even more.", she explained. "Plus, it'd be kinda nice to spend most of the afternoon doing something mundane for once, don't you think?"
He gave her a reluctant nod. "I guess it's a change of pace from bashing Forever Knights for the millionth time."
"I knew you'd get it." She clapped, ready to get to work. "Alright, what do you want me to sort out?"
"That shelf over there has a few books I don't need anymore." He pointed at a bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, then at the cardboard boxes by his bed. "If it ain't about cars or tech, it's goin' into one of those boxes."
"Don't you think we should clean up the floor first?" Gwen was being polite, but Kevin knew her question was more like a command. He smiled smugly, knowing fully well that leaving the floor in its current state would drive her up the wall. "Eh, we'll save that for last."
She huffed, resisting the urge to prod him further. "You're lucky this is your house."
"Technically, it's my mom's house." Counting Gwen's lack of a response as a win, Kevin resumed going through his closet, chucking old clothes behind him and scattering them all over the floor.
Rolling her eyes, Gwen walked to the bookshelf and knelt on the ground, removing several books from the bottom shelf at once. As she expected, most of them were about the fastest cars or the most cutting-edge technology, but some appeared to be books aimed at kids; junior novels and comic books and such, likely leftover from when Kevin was a young boy. Gwen guessed Kevin's mother probably didn't have the heart to give them away after he ran away from home, so they must have been sitting on the shelf for years, collecting dust. She sorted the books into two stacks; one for the books that were going back on the shelf and another for the books that were not.
She removed a few more books from the shelf, sorting them. One book in particular stood out against the rest. It wasn't about cars or tech and wasn't for kids. It had an illustration of a castle atop a grassy hill, with a largely red cover. Curious, she peeked at her boyfriend across the room, reading the title of the book aloud. "The Princess Bride?"
Kevin's ears perked up. "I'm keepin' that. Mom used to read it to me when I was younger."
Gwen flipped through its yellowing pages. The book was much older than everything else on the shelf, but it was well-maintained overall. "You've taken really good care of it." How strange. If something in his possession had nothing to do with his car or the Rust Bucket 3, or if it wasn't of alien origin, Kevin usually couldn't be bothered to treat it properly. The book didn't seem like something he'd enjoy, based on what she knew about him.
"It used to be my dad's favorite book.", he revealed. "I wouldn't forgive myself if I let somethin' happen to it."
All of a sudden, Gwen handled the book much more delicately, as if it were a priceless antique. She wasn't going to risk ruining one of Kevin's prized possessions. She set it on top of the stack of books that were going back on the shelf and continued sorting the remaining books, which took her all of 10 minutes. After arranging all the books from the first stack on the shelf, she picked up a few books from the second stack and walked to Kevin's bed, putting them into a box. Three trips later and she was done.
While Kevin was distracted with cleaning his closet, Gwen noticed his walls were rather bare. There were only a few pictures and she was in none of them. "Should I be offended that you don't have any framed pictures of us here or in your apartment?"
He turned to her, wearing that seemingly ever-present smirk of his. "Only if I can be offended that you don't have pictures of us in your room."
"I do have a picture of us!", she pushed back. "It's on my... uh, next to my..." It was at that moment she remembered she never got around to putting up a picture of her and Kevin anywhere in her room. "Huh, I- I guess I don't have a picture of us after all. I could've sworn I hung one up at some point."
Kevin stood up and walked to his desk, prompting Gwen to join him. He grabbed his wallet and opened it to show Gwen one of its transparent pockets, which had a small picture of her posing elegantly. "Maybe this'll make things better."
Without saying a word, Gwen proudly took her phone out of her pocket and showed Kevin her wallpaper; a candid picture of him laughing.
"I guess this makes us even, huh?", he asked.
Gwen happily nodded in agreement. "More or less." She directed his attention to the bookshelf at the opposite side of the room. "I'm done with the books, by the way, in case you haven't already noticed."
Impressed with how neatly the books were arranged, Kevin whistled. "You did a much better job than I could've." He glanced at his desk, which was still cluttered. "Before I forget, I kinda need your opinion on somethin'."
He picked up a small rusty metal lock among the items on the desk and showed it to her. "What should I do with this?"
"It's junk, isn't it? Throw it away.", she replied.
He looked at the lock with a mixture of sentimentality and regret. "I wanna, but I have a weird attachment to this thing."
Eyeing the lock more closely, Gwen found it familiar. "Oh, that's right! You wore it when we first met."
"Uh-huh. Lookin' at this thing brings me back." Memories of escaping his neighborhood on a stolen bike and seeking shelter under bridges came back to him in flashes, causing him to wince. "On second thought, you know what? I don't want it anymore. It's goin' straight into the trash."
Just as he was about to walk away, Gwen grabbed him by the arm. "Wait, maybe you can keep it as a reminder."
"Of what it was like to be a homeless kid?" He couldn't help but snort at her suggestion.
She loosened her grip on him. "Of how far you've come since then. That homeless kid would be thrilled to know that six years later, he'd have completely changed his life for the better."
With some hesitation, Kevin shoved the lock into one of the desk's drawers, and smiled at her. "Dunno how you do it, but you always seem to know the solution to my problems, even when I'm too dumb to realize the answer's right in front of my face."
"Hey, don't put yourself down like that." She placed her hands on his chest. "You've helped me solve my problems plenty of times. You convinced me not to go to Anodyne. That's a pretty big deal."
"Hm, yeah, I should pat myself on the back for that. If you left Earth, I wouldn't be able to do this." Putting his arms around her waist, he drew her close and kissed her passionately on the lips. She responded by letting out a little giggle, grabbing a fistful of his shirt as she lost herself in the moment.
Kevin soon separated from the kiss for air, his gaze travelling down to take notice of Gwen's hand holding onto his shirt. "Getting a little eager, are we?"
"Maybe just a little." She moved her hands up, looping them around the back of his neck. "Can you blame me? We barely get time to ourselves these days. I'm glad we're spending today together, at least. I know spring cleaning is a little boring for you, but I don't mind it."
"Boring and tiring." Kevin looked at the state of the room around him, dreading all the work he had yet to do. "Tell you what, maybe we'll go to the lake after we're done. We can stop by your place to get whatever you need."
A smirk formed on her face. "You just want an excuse to see me in a swimsuit."
"If it'll sway you, I'll let you take the wheel this time.", he offered.
She squealed in excitement. Although she had gotten her license a while ago, Kevin always refused to let her drive his precious car, despite her constant efforts to convince him. "Really? You'll let me drive?! No tricks?"
"No tricks. Think of it as my way of sayin' thanks."
"Great!" Gwen unwrapped her hands from his neck and looked at the other items on his desk. "Let's sort the rest of this out so we can go." She immediately began dividing the items on the desk into different groups, leaving Kevin to watch her work.
"You could use your powers to speed things up.", he suggested.
She shook her head, a playful smile tugging at her lips. "Nice try, but no."
"It was worth a shot."
Yeah, not completely sure about the ending (feels like I've said that about most of my stories), but this was still fun to write. Feedback is appreciated as always!