I had a long night fixing the mess Vidal had created. Sometimes that boy drove me insane. He was the best person in the world for Kiara. He was one of the best people I knew. But the boy just blanked out sometimes and I couldn't understand what he was thinking.

But when we arrived at the mansion and I went to get my stuff, I heard Kiara giggling in their room and I figured he'd made up for his stupidity of leaving a girl after kissing her.

I went out to find my beautiful doctor in my car. I smiled at the sight of her. She was scrolling through her phone, looking tired and bored.

Luckily I still had all the comforters and pillows in the trunk of my car from our pre-exam date when she got super stressed out. Ava was more emotional than she liked to show people. And being her boyfriend meant that when holding her feelings in became a little too hard, I witnessed the hurricane than came down on her surroundings.

Just a week ago, I had been driving to her place when I got a call with Ava crying. I didn't know what happened, I hadn't really experienced her tears yet, not to the level that she was crying that day. She told me she hated tomatoes and she hated cooking. I got to her apartment to find that she'd haphazardly started cleaning everything at once, making the place more messy from all the cleaning supplies she'd left everywhere.

She also tried to cook, which wasn't pretty. She has three burns on her poor fingers and she had spaghetti in her hair, which I didn't tell her, I just removed it quietly and kept it a secret. She had also cut herself in the process of cutting some tomatoes. I finished her spaghetti project for her and joined her cleaning spree. Then we sat down and we studied for her exam together. And after that, she finally agreed to go out and relax. I ended up watching the sunset alone with a sleeping Ava on my chest.

I hoped that she actually stayed conscious today when we watched the sunrise. I wanted to show her the product of our hard work that day when we planned Lily's stories on our date.

I got into the car with her and I kissed her gently before starting the car.

"Are you ready?" I asked her.

"I am." She smiled, tying her hair up in a messy bun.

When she yawned, I smiled, admiring how cute she was.

"My backpack has some brownies in it, baby. You can eat some if you want." I told her.

She grinned and immediately grabbed my backpack, taking her brownies and setting my backpack near her feet.

"Thank you." She giggled as she took a bite of her first brownie.

"No problem. I'm proud of you, Ava." I smiled at her.

"Me? What did I do?" She giggled.

"You made it. You're done your licensing exam, baby! I'm so proud of you! You reached your goal!" I told her.

"Are you just saying that to be cute?" She asked me.

"Of course not, baby. I'm so damn proud. My girl is showing the world how strong she is!" I said to her.

"When are we going to get to the spot?" She asked me.

"Soon. I love you so much, Ava." I smiled, bringing her hand to my lips and kissing it.

"You know, Gabe. I never thought I'd get here. Not the doctor thing. But you. I always thought that everyone exaggerated love. They talked about butterflies and tingles and happiness like it was a fairytale and I never believed it would be true. Then you came into my life and damn, Gabe, you made it real. You are my fairytale... the fact that you can genuinely even say you're proud of me for fulfilling my career goals is incredible to me." Ava told me as I made the final turn towards the little sunrise look-off.

"I am proud. I'm proud that my girlfriend is one of the strongest, smartest women ever. And you're so kind, generous and sweet." I smiled.

"And I'm proud to have a man like you in my life." She said to me as I let the back of my seat decline so I could climb into my trunk. She did the same and we relaxed in the soft pillows and comforters that were still set up back there.

I opened the trunk so we could have a better view and Ava cuddled up to me, continuing what she was saying earlier.

"I'm proud that I'm with such an amazing man. You're so selfless. You'll help literally anyone and you put others before yourself. You take care of the people you love and cheer them up. You're just incredible. And you're very special to me." She told me.

"I am?" I asked.

"Yes. You're the first man to ever give me butterflies, the first man who made me feel truly loved and cared for, besides my dad of course." She laughed. "You make me feel like I can achieve anything. You don't get in my way, you don't make things harder for me. You make my goals easier to achieve and with you, I feel complete."

"You do the same for me, Love." I smiled, running my fingers through her hair and redirecting her head so I could kiss her.

"I love you, Gabriel." She said, and just looking in her eyes was enough to tell me how serious she was.

After two years of waiting on her to be ready to be with me, becoming her friend before anything, supporting her in everything that I could. Loving her with every last bit of me, she loved me too. It was worth it. Knowing her feelings were as strong as mine was so special.

"You... you love me?" I asked her.

"How could I not, baby." She asked me.

I laughed, pulling her even closer and kissing her again. She deepened the kiss, playing with the hairs on the back of my head.

As soon as we pulled away she started laughing, hiding her face in my shirt as she did.

"What?" I asked her.

"That felt good." She said. "Telling you how I actually feel."

"You can always tell me anything. Just like I tell you everything and you give me a diagnosis." I told her.

"I like that. Never stop using that phrase." She said to me.

"I won't.... actually, I need you to diagnose something now." I told her.

"Really? What?" She asked me.

"There's this girl that I know. She had this big test coming up, and she hated every second of studying for it. But she loved learning from her books. Her teacher told her how important the test was, and she seemed to understand. She took the test yesterday." I smiled.

"What am I diagnosing?" She asked.

"I have some stuff for you to look at. Kind of like scans. It'll help you diagnose the little girl's case." I told her, taking Lily's test out of my backpack.

Ava smiled, realizing what was going on and she took the test from me.

"It's not marked." She said.

"I know. That would be like me giving you the diagnosis." I laughed.

"Have you looked at it?" Ava asked me.

"Yeah. I graded it, but I didn't write anything on it yet. I just wanted you to see what those stories we wrote have done for her." I smiled.

"Did she pass?" Ava asked excitedly.

"You tell me." I laughed, pointing to the test.

"The poor kid. This is a long test." Ava sighed.

"I know." I laughed. "But she doesn't have a problem with sitting around for long periods of time and working on something."

"Alright. Can I mark it?" She asked me.

"Yeah. Here." I said, handing her my red marker.

"Yes! I have teacher powers now!" Ava chuckled.

I laughed and she grabbed my clipboard.

"Damn, this is actually some tricky stuff." Ava said, flipping through.

"I know. Her teacher got permission from the principal to modify Lily's test... she made it fifty times harder than the one the others wrote." I sighed.

"That's so unfair! Why would she do that?" I asked.

"She really hates teaching Lily. She genuinely just doesn't want to teach her anymore. So I think she's trying to fail her." I explained.

"That's not fair though." I sighed.

"I know... but what can I do other than try to teach Lily everything?" I asked with a shrug.

"Get her another teacher. It's not your job to teach Lily.... she's that other teacher's student and that teacher is failing." Ava said angrily.

"Ok... we'll talk about that later, let's mark this." I smiled.

"Please tell me she passed with flying colours!" Ava begged.

"Mark it, baby." I laughed.

Ava looked down and marked all of Lily's math problems, finding six correct and four incorrect. She flipped the page, finding the science problems. Lily got eight of ten questions completely correct, and the other two were partially correct. She aced the English section, not a single question was wrong, and then she moved on to some math word problems mixed with some science matching problems and a few multiple choice and critical thinking problems.

"This is stressful." Ava said, finding five wrong answers in a row. By the time we were done marking everything, Ava was stressed out.

"No. No. It's so close, what if she failed?! Gabe!" Ava said, setting the clipboard aside.

"Just count the points, Ava." I smiled.

"Ok." Ava sighed, taking the clipboard and counting up the points to find that Lily had a grade of fifty nine percent.

"What does this mean?" Ava asked, her eyes lighting up.

"I'm not the one diagnosing this." I laughed.

"Gabe!" Ava whined.

"What's your diagnosis, Doc?" I asked.

"Ok, fine. You wanna hear what I think?" Ava asked me.

"I do." I nodded.

"I think she passed, success! She's a little genius kid for this! I mean she's not really present in class, she's been studying with you and trying to cram everything in her head. Then she gets this hard test and she got a passing grade! So she's good! She's learning! She's smart! Please tell me they accept this!" Ava said, moving to straddle my lap as she waited for me to tell her the conclusion that the principal, her teacher and I had come up with.

"You're right... she is learning. Her teacher isn't right for her. She's a very intelligent little thing and she needs someone who can teach her the way she learns... so, she passed and that means she's staying at the school... but, she's going to go to the resource centre and chilling there all day with her books and worksheets. The lesson plans will be dictated by me, which I have volunteered to do, and she has lunch and after school tutoring with me as well." I explained.

"Are you sure you can do that?" Ava asked me.

"It'll be a lot of work, but I can do it. She's a smart kid, you just have to give her the work and she'll do it. The only problem will be math, which is why I need lunch and after school tutoring sessions." I explained.

"Gabriel, you're such an amazing guy. I mean, all this for one kid?" Ava asked me.

"Yes, that kid is something else, Ava." I smiled.

Ava smiled and kissed me leaning forward and resting against me.

"So that's why you like teaching, huh?" She asked.

"What?" I asked.

"She's learning so much! You watch her fail and then you help her get back on her feet and succeed. It's fulfilling, it feels good to see your students succeed." Ava explained.

"Yeah, it does. I just love seeing them come in clueless and leave full of knowledge. It's amazing how much they can fit in those tiny heads. People underestimate kids." I said.

"I agree." Ava smiled. "So... Gabriel... I have something to discuss with you." She smiled.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"It's about my apartment." She told me.

"What's up with your apartment?" I asked her.

"I like it and all, but... if I could get something a little closer to town... more homey and less bachelor pad kind of thing... I'd really like that. I was thinking of starting to look for one, and maybe getting a car if I can afford it." She said.

"That's amazing, baby! I'll help you find the perfect apartment for you and I'll help you get a good car." He smiled, kissing my forehead.

"I want a black or white car." She told me.

"I'll get you the most amazing white car." I smiled.

"No! You'll find it, I'll get it." She said.

I laughed and nodded. I knew she'd never let me buy her a car let alone help her with any financial matters.

"Hey, Ava. I know you don't want me to buy things for you and help you out financially. Not that you need help. But... after we get married. What's mine is yours... so... you'll let me fix your car, for example, or go buy you some clothes if you need them, right?" I asked her.

"Of course. But I'll be helping you fix your car, buying you a new one. Spending money on you. What's mine will be yours too." She told me.

"You'll always let me take you on dates, right? Even when we're old and wrinkly?" I laughed.

"Of course. You'll take me to the waterfront, sit on a bench with me and watch the sunset." She smiled, turning in my lap so she could see the beginnings of a sunrise.

She relaxed against me and we watched until the sun started peeking out on the horizon.

"Hey, Gabe... I was thinking that maybe in a week or two, I might go see Mom and Dad." She told me.

"That could be fun." I smiled, kissing her on her cheek.

"Do you want to come back with me and meet them?" She asked, looking up at me.

"I would love to. As long as you're comfortable with it." I smiled, feeling very happy that she brought it up.

"Of course. I want you to meet them. Dad said he really wants to meet you in person." She told me.

"Alright. Then I'll come." I chuckled, playing with the ends of her hair.

"I also need to get a haircut. It's getting annoying." She smiled.

"How short did you want to cut it?" I asked her.

"Like just back to where it was when we first met." She shrugged.

"So like, a little longer than shoulder length?" I asked her.

"Yup... I think it looks better that way." She shrugged.

"I think you look best when you're feeling yourself. But you always look good, Love." He said to me.

"So cute." She laughed, kissing my cheek.

"Let's take some pictures with the sunrise behind us. It's a new beginning for you, Doc. You're independent now, huh?" I said, nudging her.

"It is a new beginning... you're right. Lots is going to change from here, I'm going to try really hard to solidify our future together now." She said.

"Is our future together not already solid?" I asked her.

"It is... but we're going to start actually acting on it. We've planned a lot. It's time to start taking steps forward." She said to me. "I'm ready for that with you."

"I'm down for anything." I chuckled. "I can never just sit around... I think we're both like that. We can't relax."

"Yeah. I like to constantly have something to do or be working on something. Now that the residency is over and I've taken the exam, I'm ready to start focusing more on our relationship. I'm going to start getting more free time, and I want to spend it with you, spend it on us." She smiled.

"What were you thinking to do?" I asked her.

"Well. Step one is you meeting Mom and Dad. Then when we get back I want to work on finding an apartment and a car, and after that, I'd like us to figure out a way to spend more time together. I mean, I don't like going days without seeing you. I know we talk every single day, but... seeing you is different. I don't need space from you... you know what I mean?" She asked me.

"I know exactly what you mean. I like having meals with you and talking and stuff... it's a shame when we don't get to do that." I smiled, kissing her.

"Exactly. And when I don't see you, it feels like.... it's not good for me... because I never get to have fun unless I'm with you. If I don't see you, it means I'm working too much and not giving myself a break." She explained.

"Do you ever just feel like you need time to yourself?" I asked her.

"Sometimes. But I get plenty of that. Whenever I get off work and I don't see you, I'm basically just going home and sitting alone. I'd rather be with you than alone." She said to me. "And if I need time to myself, I'll take it. But I feel like I'm always alone, even when I'm at work."

"Ava. You'd tell me if you felt lonely, right? Those days we spent apart... we didn't have to... I could've come over for dinner or something." I said to her.

"I don't want to be apart." She said to me.

"Alright. Then every night, when you're ready for some dinner, if you want me over, call me." I told her.

"I want to watch the sunrise more often." She told me.

"Then we can do that. It's very pretty, huh?" I asked her.

She smiled, pulling her phone out and snapping a picture of it.

"Very pretty." She smiled, kissing my cheek and laying back against my chest.

I held her close as we watched the sunrise and somehow, I was the first to fall asleep. I woke up on my side with Ava facing me, sleeping as well. But I went back to sleep almost immediately. The next time I woke up, I had my arms wrapped around Ava and her hair was all over my face. I just went back to sleep and then the next time I woke up, she was playing with my hair. She ran her fingers through my hair, my head rested on her abdomen. I was on top of her, cuddled up to her.

I heard her humming and I felt much calmer. I lifted myself off of her and dropped back on top of her, higher up so that my head could rest in the crook of her neck. She giggled and continued playing with my hair. The comfort I felt in her arms was unlike anything I'd ever felt. I wanted to wake up that way more often.