Happy Birthday to my dear friend Kevin Levin is my life! I hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you for being my friend and always supporting me! This Gwevin fluff is all for you.

The story takes place early on in their relationship, Gwen and Kevin are dating but are still new to confessions of love.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 and characters.


"Morning," Kevin greeted Gwen as she climbed into the car and closed the door behind her.

"Good morning, Kevin," she replied. She was dressed in her school uniform and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. Despite her hands being full, she managed to expertly maneuver herself into her seat.

"Busy day today?" Kevin asked as he pulled out of the Tennyson's driveway and back onto the road.

"Yeah," Gwen replied sadly. "Again, I can't thank you enough for offering to drive me to school. You really didn't have to."

"I know, but I don't mind," Kevin answered truthfully. The other night when she'd been over hanging out in his garage, he'd overheard Gwen talking to her friend Emily. They wanted to meet up forty-five minutes before school started in order to review some last-minute material for an exam. He knew he didn't have to drive her to school, but he wanted to. It would save her from walking and having to wake up at an even earlier hour. Gwen deserved to be as rested as possible before her test. They'd been up late last night helping Ben so he knew she was already working on little to no sleep.

"What are you going to do with the rest of your day?" Gwen asked him. She took a tentative sip from the travel mug she'd brought with her. Kevin could smell the bitterness of the coffee and see the steam escaping from the opening on the lid; it was fresh.

"Don't know," he admitted. "I'm sure I can find some tech to work on."

"You could always go back to sleep," Gwen suggested. She smiled softly as she looked at him.

"I'm okay for now. I can nap later this afternoon if I'm too tired."

"I'll probably join you if that's the case," Gwen replied as she ironically fought off a well-timed yawn. "I studied a bit more after you dropped me off last night."

"You told me you were going to go straight to bed," Kevin said. He frowned as his mind raced to process the new information. She must have barely gotten three hours of sleep.

"I know," Gwen said dejectedly. "I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep and all I could think about was how I still couldn't remember some of the grammatical rules and exceptions in French. So, I panicked and studied until I physically couldn't stay awake anymore."

"Do you feel ready now?" he asked. He didn't like Gwen's frequent habit of studying to the point of exhaustion, so he hoped it helped and she felt ready.

"No. Maybe. I don't know," Gwen sighed. "I think I'm overthinking things too much."

"Do you want to study some more right now?" Kevin asked. He kept his eyes on the road as he crossed an intersection. They were about halfway to Gwen's school.

Gwen was silent for a moment as she thought about what she wanted. From the corner of his eye, Kevin saw how she was staring at one of the textbooks in her hand. Her books were normally in her bag, which gave Kevin the impression that she did, in fact, want to study.

"Practice some French with me," Kevin offered, hoping he was properly reading the signs he was seeing.

"You don't mind?"

"I won't be very helpful since I barely know any French, but at least you'll be practicing," Kevin told her honestly.

"Okay." She started flipping through the pages of her textbook, trying to locate the page she needed. Once she found it, her finger glided across the page as she read.

"Je suis nerveuse pour mon examen," Gwen recited in French. Her accent was a bit heavy but Kevin could tell she was speaking the right language.

"Oui oui," Kevin replied in a terrible imitation of a Parisian accent. He had no idea if saying "yes" was actually an appropriate response to whatever Gwen had just said. But the word "examen" sounded very similar to "exam".

"Is that the only French you know?" Gwen asked, unable to stop the giant smile that appeared on her face.

"Oui oui!" he repeated, just as enthusiastically. He was also smiling. He never cared about keeping up appearances when he was alone with Gwen.

Gwen laughed in response. "I can work with that," she said. She took a moment to think of her next sentence. "Tu aimes ta voiture."

"What's that one mean?" Kevin asked as he rolled up to a stop sign. He looked in all directions before turning right.

"I'm just practicing using different verb tenses. But I was just remarking how much you love your car," she answered.

"True. So, oui oui," he replied. Maybe Kevin would actually learn some new French words thanks to Gwen's mini practice session.

"Okay, let me think of another one. I need to practice the perfect tense now," Gwen explained. She pondered for a moment before carefully sounding out the next sentence. "La semaine passé, j'ai complété ma recherche."

"What's that you say? You also think Ben should stop shouting 'It's hero time'? I completely agree!" Kevin joked as he watched Gwen roll her eyes.

"Not even close to what I said," she retorted. "I said that I completed my research last week."

"I guess 'completed' does sound like 'complété'. Do a lot of English and French words sound similar?" he asked curiously. Kevin genuinely enjoyed learning things from Gwen. She was a fountain of information and she never got tired or angry if he asked her to explain something to him. Plus, it made her happy to share fun facts with him.

"From time to time yes," Gwen replied before taking another sip of her coffee. "French is actually more similar to Italian. I'll try the future tense now." She flipped through her book once more, looking for what she needed. "Tu seras toujours mon ami."

He couldn't cheat this time, there were no words in that sentence that Kevin recognized. Gwen must have sensed what was happening because she translated what she had just said.

"You'll always be my friend."

"Ditto," Kevin replied without hesitation. He wasn't sure how else to respond to Gwen's statement. Were these just random words she'd learned in class or was she actually confessing this to him? Okay, it was way too early in the morning to be having this kind of crisis. He was probably reading too much into the situation. Right now, Gwen was probably more worried about her exam, she obviously wasn't wasting her time serenading Kevin in French.

Gwen hummed in response, a strange expression falling over her face. Maybe Kevin shouldn't have answered the way he did. Maybe she had been confessing and he had ruined it by saying "ditto". Who even used that word these days? He was just about to come up with some excuse when Gwen started speaking in French again.

"Tu es mon meilleur ami et tu me complètes. Je t'aime beaucoup," Gwen recited expertly, she was looking at him as she said this.

It was her longest sentence yet and he recognized some of the words because she used earlier. "Impressive. See, I knew you were ready for your test. I'd give you 100%," Kevin said as they finally arrived in front of Gwen's school. He placed the car in park, stopping alongside the sidewalk that led to the main entrance.

"You're biased, I'm not sure my teacher will be as generous when he's grading my test," Gwen told him, but she was smiling as she said this. "Thank you, Kevin."

"Good luck, Gwen," he told her.

"Thanks. I'll see you later," she said as she gathered all of her things. Kevin nodded in reply as he waited for her to get out of the car. "Have a good day." Gwen then stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

"Wait! You forgot to tell me what that last one meant!" Kevin yelled out to her through the open window of the passenger seat.

"Figure it out, I taught you everything you need to solve it!" Gwen answered. She gave him a teasing smile and a knowing look before turning around and walking up the path that led to her school.

Kevin sat in confusion as he watched Gwen walk up the path leading to the school's front door. Emily was already there waiting for her. Once Gwen joined her, the pair disappeared inside the building.

Why did Gwen want Kevin to decipher her message? Was he even capable of it? He'd only just learned those words and he didn't really understand French. But Gwen seemed to believe in his ability to do so. He wouldn't want to disappoint her and he'd be lying if he didn't admit he was curious about what the secret message was.

He could do it. He needed to do it.

New game plan. Instead of working on his car back at his garage, he'd go to his mom's place and use her computer to figure out what Gwen was saying. Given what he'd learned from Gwen and the internet, he was confident that he'd be able to solve the mystery. Hopefully.


"See you tomorrow, Emily," Gwen said as she waved to her friend who was going in the opposite direction.

The hallways were mostly empty seeing as the bell signaling the end of the day had rung over ten minutes ago. She didn't have karate practice, so she was free to head home. Unless Ben needed her help again tonight, she was planning on taking a small nap before jumping back into her homework. She closed her locker door and made her way toward the exit.

As she stepped outside the building, she was a bit surprised to see Kevin's car parked alongside the sidewalk, exactly where he'd dropped her off this morning. Sure, they'd mentioned possibly seeing each other later today, but she didn't think he'd come to pick her up. He'd already done her a favor by driving her to school this morning.

If she had known Kevin was waiting for her, she wouldn't have taken as much time chatting with Emily after their exam. She sped up her pace as she walked to his car.

The door was unlocked. Kevin was reclined in his seat, the radio softly playing one of the only physical CDs Kevin kept in his car. His eyes were closed, but Gwen could tell he wasn't sleeping. His arms were stretched out and interlaced behind his head, creating a sort of pillow. Maybe he'd been waiting a while and got tired of sitting.

"Hey," she said in greeting as she settled into her usual seat. "Sorry for making you wait; I didn't think you were picking me up."

"You're the one that said you wanted to join me for a nap after school. It would be criminal for me to deny you your wishes," Kevin replied as he raised his seat back up. He gave her a devilish little smirk as he waited for her to put on her seatbelt.

She rolled her eyes in response which made Kevin chuckle. "Your couch is too small for the both of us, so you'll have to be a gentleman and settle for the floor."

"We'll see about that," he promised. He turned on his car and then started driving back to his garage. "How was the test?"

"I think it went well. There were a couple of questions that took me by surprise, I hope I managed to figure them out."

"I'm sure you'll get a good grade," Kevin said reassuringly.

"Thanks. How was your day?" Gwen asked.

"Busy," Kevin told her. His answer was vague, which made Gwen curious.

"'Alien busy' or 'you started working on a new upgrade for your car' kind of busy?" she persisted.

"None of the above," he answered as he kept his eyes on the road.

"Oh?" Gwen was surprised by his answer. She turned to study Kevin's face. She'd known him for a while now and took pride in the fact that she was able to read his emotions. He had a good poker face, but not around her. "Am I going to have to guess what's going on or are you going to tell me?" she asked in a quizzical tone.

"Je t'aime aussi," Kevin said. It's clear he'd practiced those two words a lot while she'd been at school because his fake Parisian accent from this morning had disappeared. His voice, instead, had taken a deeper tone as he spoke to her in French.

Three simple words. But they were enough to make Gwen smile. Kevin had not only taken the time to decipher her message but he'd also understood its meaning and decided to answer in a language he barely spoke and understood.

Maybe others would find it weird that the first time they said that they loved each other would be in an unfamiliar language, but Gwen couldn't help but feel special. It felt right.

Kevin kept his eyes on the road, but Gwen could tell he was anxious to know her response to his confession.

"So did I pass the test?" he finally asked, giving in to his curiosity.

"Oui oui," Gwen replied jokingly. Kevin grinned in response. "Thank you," she told him sincerely. She reached out towards the control stick and rested her hand on top of Kevin's right hand.

They were silent for a couple of seconds, Gwen felt a mixture of happiness and shyness after Kevin's confession and she could only imagine he felt the same. She looked out the window of the car and noticed they were getting closer to the garage.

"There's one thing you didn't teach me during our French lesson this morning," Kevin said breaking the silence. His voice had taken a playful tone.

Gwen turned back around and stared at him in confusion. If hadn't been a serious lesson, if he wanted to learn French, Gwen's lessons would be more structured and thorough. But she'd just been having fun this morning and had spontaneously thought of a fun way to thank Kevin.

She felt her eyebrows raise as the realization of what Kevin was implying struck her. "I swear to God, Kevin if you're about to make a joke about French kissing—"

"I think we should appreciate all aspects of French culture!" he cut her off, trying to sound innocent.

Gwen rolled her eyes in fake annoyance. "Maybe after our nap."


If anyone has read my story Probabilities, consider this story a distant relative. Flirting by means of Math and now French grammar? I hate to break it to you Gwen, but you're a giant nerd!

Also, here are the translations for all the French I used.

(Title) Le mystère. - The mystery.

Je suis nerveuse pour mon examen. - I'm nervous for my exam.

Oui, oui. - Yes, yes.

Tu aimes ta voiture. - You like/love your car.

La semaine passé, j'ai complété ma recherche. - Last week, I completed/finished my research.

Tu seras toujours mon ami. - You'll always be my friend.

Tu es mon meilleur ami et tu me complètes. Je t'aime beaucoup. - You are my best friend and you complete me. I really love you.

Je t'aime aussi. - I love you too.