I had another chapter planned, but then I got writer's block, which sucked, but then inspired for a different chapter, which didn't suck. Then I got writer's block for the other chapter AND this chapter, which sucked worse!

So without further ado, the next chapter.

Natalia awoke for work in the morning just like any other day. She felt, however, like something was off. As more of her senses came to her, she noticed that her throat hurt. And not just a scratchy, morning-after-screaming-at-a-sports-event kind of hurt, but a throbbing, unnatural pain.

Natalia was stubborn, however, and dictated that she was not sick. She would be fine after she had something to eat for breakfast. Somehow she convinced herself into believing this and pushed herself out if bed. She entered the kitchen and retrieved an English muffin from the fridge, then placed the little baked-good into the toaster. While she waited for the muffin to toast she retrieved the butter from the fridge and a knife from the drawer. Eventually the toaster popped and she lathered butter on her breakfast. She took a bite, but soon after regretted it. The muffin tasted like ash in her mouth, and hurt to swallow. She might compare it to taking a bite of a pincushion and trying to eat that.

She set the little pastry on the counter and grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge. She real quickly grabbed a glass and poured herself a some milk, hoping that it could get the taste the muffin had left out of her mouth. The milk, however, had a similar taste to the afore-mentioned food. Still sputtering, she poured the rest of the glass down the drain so she wouldn't have to suffer through the noxious drink. Apparently she wasn't going to have breakfast this morning.

Natalia could hear clumsy footsteps, and soon enough Alfred entered the kitchen bearing a bright, albeit tired smile. "Morning," he greeted cheerfully as he opened a cupboard to get himself some cereal, most likely of the sickeningly-sweet variety.

"Morning," Natalia responded. Or at least she tried to respond. In reality what came out of her mouth was more of a wordless growl than a word. Alfred raised an eyebrow at this.

"You okay?" he asked. Natalia nodded and tried to hide her surprise. She didn't normally have a "morning voice," like some people did, so she didn't expect herself to sound so gravelly. "You sure?" Alfred asked again. Natalia nodded again, this time more decisively. "Okay, if you say so."

Natalia flashed him a small smile and walked back to her bedroom to get dressed. She's barely walked through the doorway, though, when a heavy tickle settled in her throat. Natalia tried clearing her airways daintily, but the action quickly changed into a rough, painful cough.

While she was coughing and wheezing, Alfred ran into her room. "Hey, you okay Nat?" he asked with a concerned look on his face. Natalia held up her finger to say "Give me a minute."

Soon after her fit was over and she was breathing deeply with her hand massaging her throat. "I'm fine," she breathed. Her voice was still as gravelly as it had been before, however.

The worry eased off of Alfred's face for the most part, but some remained, accompanied by a newfound sense of suspicion. "Are you sure you're fine?" he asked again. Natalia simply nodded and waved Alfred off, walking over to her closet to select some clothes for the day. Alfred frowned slightly and left the room.

Natalia opened the wooden doors to her closet and chose a nice white blouse and black pencil skirt. She had just started to pull her night shirt up when Alfred walked back into the room through the still-open door. Quickly Natalia shoved her shirt back down to cover up her slender torso, heat quickly flushing her cheeks. "Hey!" she scolded, embarrassed. Or she tried to, at least. It came out more like a surprised yelp.

Alfred, realizing what he had done, quickly looked down, a faint blush blooming across his face. "Sorry!" he stammered. Then he looked up sheepishly to make sure Natalia was decent before approaching her. He placed his hands on her arms and guided her across the room to the end of her bed, where he sat her down gently. Next he produced a thermometer from his pocket and held it out to Natalia. She looked up at him skeptically.

"Just taking a precaution!" he said, and he waggled the thermometer. Natalia rolled her eyes and took it before roughly placing it in her mouth to placate her boyfriend. Alfred gave her a thankful smile. "Okay, you can keep getting ready now. I'll be back when it's time to read the thermometer." Then he smirked. "I'll remember to knock this time." Natalia rolled her eyes again and stood to continue getting ready. She only got as far as getting dressed before she realized she couldn't brush her teeth with the thermometer in her mouth, so she sat on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for Alfred to come back.

After a while she heard a knocking on her door. She tried saying "Come in," but her scratchy throat and the object in her mouth made this impossible. This became apparent when Alfred shouted, "What was that? Can I come in?" from the other side of the door. Natalia sighed and stood up, walking over to the door to open it herself.

Alfred smiled at her from the door frame. "Still feel the same?" he asked. Natalia shrugged, then pointed to her mouth, raising an eyebrow. Alfred chuckled a bit, understanding the foreign girl's silent words. "Yeah, I'll check your temperature, now." Alfred plucked the thermometer out of Natalia's mouth and shook it a bit before reading the number where the red line stopped. He frowned, his usually cheery face turning somber, and he looked back up at Natalia.

"Change back into your PJs and get back to bed, you have a fever." Natalia opened her mouth to protest, but she was silenced by Alfred's index finger touching her lips. "No arguing, Nat. You need to rest. You get into bed, and I'll make you some chicken soup. I'll also call the book shop and tell them that you can't come in today."

Natalia wasn't pleased with this one bit. She didn't like to admit defeat to anything, and a small fever shouldn't be enough to keep her from work. Unfortunately for her ego, Alfred was already determined to keep her in bed and to take care of her all day, and once he was this decided on something there was no convincing him otherwise. So, she had no choice but to change back into her pajamas and crawl back under her covers.

Before she knew it, Natalia was being shaken awake by Alfred, who was holding a tray with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup on it, though she didn't even remember falling asleep. "Have a nice little nap?" he asked jokingly. Natalia ignored him and instead reached up for the soup. The bowl was hot against her hands, and sent steam billowing into her face when she blew on it. She brought a spoonful to her mouth and sipped it lightly. The hot liquid soothed her now aching throat and had a little more flavor to it than her previous attempts at breakfast had. She smiled graciously at Alfred, since she could not thank him verbally. It seemed that Alfred understood her thankful smile and returned it.

"It was no problem to make, I just want you to be happy and to get well soon," he said, leaning over to lightly plant a kiss on Natalia's forehead. It was small gestures like this that often left Natalia wondering what she did to deserve someone as wonderful as Alfred. Sure, he could be annoying and childish at times, but he was also the most caring person Natalia had ever met. This contradicted Natalia's cold attitude on multiple levels, but Alfred still loved her no matter how mean she could get. Alfred could have his pick of pretty much any girl in the world, and yet he for some reason chose this European girl with a mean streak and an attitude, and it baffled Natalia. At the same time, though, she couldn't be more grateful.

Alfred sat on the edge of Natalia's bed and patiently waited for her to finish her meal, chatting about random topics the whole time. Natalia quietly listened while she ate, occasionally nodding to show that she was, in fact, paying attention. When she finished eating Alfred took her dishes and left the room to put them up. By this point Natalia was exhausted, so she laid herself down, snuggled into the fluffy comforter covering the bed, and promptly started to again drift off. She was nearly completely out of it when she felt the bed shift. Confused, she turned over to see Alfred settling himself under the covers on the other side of the bed. Alfred noticed that he had awoken Natalia and gave her a bashful, apologetic smile.

"Sorry," he said, blushing and looking down slightly. "I didn't mean to wake you. I just thought maybe since you were sick you would want something or someone to cuddle with."

Natalia failed to see why he would figure that. She was not a cuddly-type of person, and he knew this. It was more likely that he felt lonely without Natalia to talk to all day, and he was the one wishing for someone to cuddle with. At least this was her assumption. Still, in her sleep and sickness-addled mind she also failed to see a reason why he should not be granted access to her bed. So, instead of telling him to go away and leave her in peace, Natalia merely shrugged and rolled over so that her back was turned to Alfred. He took this as an invitation to continue burrowing himself under the sheets and Natalia felt the bed shift with his weight again.

Natalia was once again almost to the point of sleep when she felt something tickling the back of her head. She snapped her neck around to discover it had been Alfred, who was playing with her hair. He laughed nervously at being caught. "Sorry, I thought you were already asleep," he explained, his voice barely above a whisper.

Natalia sighed slightly. Alfred was being sort of annoyingly clingy at the moment, but oddly Natalia found it almost endearing. She figured that was probably crazy, or maybe her flu was affecting her mind. Still, she turned herself around and snuggled closer to Alfred's touch, finding his warmth comforting and welcome in the winter cold. She was finally starting to fall asleep when she felt Alfred's arm wrap protectively around her shoulders. She didn't shrug him off.

A few days later Natalia was feeling perfectly healthy again, and was back to her normal self. She still had to take time off of work again, though. The reason was not her own health, but instead someone else's...

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't doted on me the whole time and insisted on cuddling twenty four-seven while I was sick!" she chastised as she brought about a tray bearing tomato soup with Goldfish crackers floating in it. Alfred, who was laying out wrapped up in a blanket on the couch gratefully accepted the food.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." he muttered before raising the soup mug to his lips and drinking from it, completely ignoring the spoon that had been laid on the tray, too.

Natalia frowned slightly. "Shouldn't you be in bed, anyways? You made me stay in bed when I was sick!"

"Nat, there's a Supernatural marathon going on today that I cannot miss," Alfred explained, his voice sounding a little croaky from the sickness.

Natalia's frown deepened, but she didn't object. She really did like Supernatural, too. The different creatures and occult beings the Winchesters fought were quite interesting, to say the least. So, instead of telling Alfred he'd have to miss the marathon, Natalia sat down on the couch next to him. "Don't say I never do anything for you," she muttered.

It's my headcanon that Alfred introduced Nat to SPN and she's totally addicted, now. It says on her Wiki page that she likes the occult, so it would totally make sense.

I started this chapter during Flu Season when I was sick. That's how slow my writing process is, ladies and gentlemen. I hate myself, sometimes...

So yeah, new chapter! Yay! I'll try working on the other one soon. Hopefully with school out now I can actually write well.