She hated this. She hated it being all bright and sunny and perfect outside and she was stuck inside with the nastiest of colds she ever did have. Laura wasn't sure how she got the flu-like cold, but it hit her hard and three days into it, she wasn't getting any better. Bundled up in the fluffiest of blankets, Laura cozied herself back into her big Wonderland chair and dove back into one of her favorite books she had grabbed randomly from the mini bookshelf beside it this morning. She had absolutely no shame in re-reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis. She loved Lucy's imagination and Edmund's determination and the way the famed author wrote this world, there was just something so enchanting to her.

"'Girls aren't very good at keeping maps in their brains'," Laura read aloud in her stuffy voice. "'That's because we've got something in them.'" She giggled then, also remembering how funny the two younger Pevensies could be. Throwing some water back into her throat, Laura let it sink down as she glanced over at the clock again. Four o'clock. It wasn't that she was bored, because she did have the Kingdom of Narnia at her hands, it was more that she couldn't believe that she'd been suffering for three days with the cold from hell and wouldn't even be able to kiss Ross until she got over it.

With just a week and a half to go until they both headed off for New York for September, she wasn't risking anything. Kissing him with a cold could mean he'd get sick like her, or even sicker. She had told him to stay away for a few days while she got over it, but it was torture. How she was ever away from him for that long before was astonishing. She didn't want to become that girlfriend - you know the one that is always around their boyfriends, having to touch them, draping themselves on them, and clingy - but when your boyfriend was Ross Lynch and as addicting as sugar...well, she was becoming one of those girlfriends.

Leaning her head back on the cushioned back of the chair, Laura closed the door on Narnia for now and placed it on the seat in exchange for the remote on her other side. Maybe music would help, yea, some nice classical music to put her back to sleep and will the cold away. But first, first she needed to get through her emails and call Mona back about the plans for the rest of the week. Even with having the worst cold ever, Laura still needed to work - for the most part. She had to finalize flight plans, and get her brain working on eastern standard time, and not to mention get a new time to record bits of a song for Calum's show.

Ross had gone in earlier in the week to record a random Austin Moon song that was written many years ago, but never put out. Calum had reworked it for it to be a duet and she had been scheduled to record right with Ross...until the cold from hell came. Responding to the emails she needed to and marking the other ones as read, Laura flipped her computer closed and trudged herself to the bathroom for a few more aspirin. She didn't have a fever anymore, but she could still feel the remnants of it and wanted to make it all go away as fast as possible. Burying herself inside the blankets only a few minutes later, Laura flipped from the music to the History Channel. Falling asleep to random things about the United States sounded like a plan to her.

...and a plan it was. When Laura finally opened her eyes, she was suspiciously not in the living room anymore, but in her bed and as she stared back at the deep teal of the walls. The blankets were snug around her body and the lights had been dimmed with only a few streaks of light peeking in from crack in the door out to the living areas. Having a huge suspicion of who put her in bed and was invading her apartment right now, Laura planted her feet on the ground and had all her thoughts confirmed. She had told him to stay away; to stay put in his parent's home for at least five days. Did he? Nope. Not one bit.

She caught him behind her counter again, stirring something slowly in a pot that was making her nose twitch in delight. It smelled so good that she wanted to dive right in, but she needed to kick him out first. Getting him sick was not on her agenda. Getting him sick meant he could potentially get his band sick and it would be all her fault. Well...technically his fault since he broke his promise not to see her until she was better.

"Good morning, sleepy head."

"What are you doing here? I told you to stay away."

"Do you know how hard it actually is to stay away from you?" Ross glanced up at her, leaving the pot for a moment and pulling down a few bowls from the cupboard. "Plus, you told me three days. It is day number four."

"Five. Five days."

"Nope, three. I can call my mom, who heard our entire conversation if you want me to prove it."

"Ross..." she started to whine before she caught the scent of the soup again. There was no room to argue with him now. She wanted the soup. She could smell the carrots, the peas, there was even a scent of potatoes mixed in with the beef. With no cans in sight in her kitchen, Laura was sure she wasn't ever giving him up. He had put her into bed, let her sleep, kept the place actually clean, and made soup from scratch. Nope, not ever giving him up.

"You know I'm right," he poked back at her, and placed one of the bowls in front of her. "Eat up, gotta get your strength back."

Laura looked down at the bowl he had cooked up. Would it be wrong of her to ditch the spoon and just drink it straight from the bowl? Ross had known her for almost ten years, he knew how she ate so doing that would not be of any surprise. Right? Ultimately, she did choose the spoon and the Stew a la Lynch was just as tasty as is smelled. In fact, it was downright delectable. Normally, she wasn't the biggest fan of plain beef stew, but whatever he did to it - spices, salts, a little pinch of whatever - it was working. "What time did you get here?" she asked him as he sat next to her at the counter instead of the dining room table they'd spent all night Thursday putting together.

Swallowing the bite he had just taken, Ross cleared his throat and glanced at the clock just beyond her head. "Around 5:30. You were out like a light on the couch and I didn't want to wake you with all the noise I'd be making."

"Thank you," she smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but stopped shortly and let out a groan.

"What was that?"

"I want to kiss you and I can't. Not just kiss you for the soup and you taking care of me. But kiss you because I haven't seen you in four days and I missed you and kissing you right now is all I can think about."

Ross smirked at her, letting his spoon slant up against the bowl in front of him. Twirling over to her, he reached out to wipe a smidge of the sauce from her lip and leaned towards her, his own lips caressing her forehead. "You're welcome. Only one more day."

"One more day. That's one more day than I wanted. Stupid cold."

"Yes, very stupid cold. How'd you get it anyway?"

"Question of the century," Laura shrugged, eating up the rest of the bowl in front of her. "Another question of the century. Where'd you learn how to cook like this?"

"Um," he laughed at himself for what he was about to admit to her. "Well, I had three days away from you and between auditions, I made my mom try and teach me something. Out of about ten recipes, this is the one that stuck. Ryland suffered."

Thirty minutes later, Laura was snuggled into Ross' side on the sectional while he flipped through the channels for something entertaining to watch. They had flipped past the news, sports and even one of his favorite movies, not that she was really paying attention. She was more interested in how good it felt to be nestled into his side again. She felt him pull the soft blanket around her more just before he pulled her legs over his, rubbing the bare skin just above her ankles. It was almost a picture perfect moment and she didn't want to ruin it at all. He finally landed on another movie, an old Marx Brothers one and just as the brothers started to pull another funny prank, he broke the silence.

"You ready for next week?"

She put her chin up on his shoulder and looked up at him. "I think so. I still have to get my final schedule and pack and make sure my stylist is coming with me. I'm a little nervous about Valentino."

"You are going to blow them away. Remember how Ryland used to plaster up all the posters from the Sports Illustrated issue all over my band posters in our room? I'm predicting that other guys will be doing the same thing with your campaign. I know I will."

She laughed into his shoulder, a little blush creeping up on her cheeks.

"Just remember that after you become even more super famous, you remember me."

"I'd never forget you," Laura smiled and almost immediately punched his arm.

"Damn woman. On top of winning eating contests, you would make a killer fighter if you weren't an actress."

"Serves you right with tempting me to kiss you."

"I didn't do anything of the sort." She saw it in his eyes, along with his toothy grin. He just couldn't help it. "You're still coming to the concert?"

"Wouldn't miss it. It's been a while since I've been to an R5 concert. Got any new tricks?"

"We've got a lot of new tricks. I think you'll be impressed."

"I'm always impressed," she confessed, and it was the truth. "When's your flight?"

"I think we leave on Tuesday. Ryland and Rocky were making all the arrangements. Speaking of," Ross pulled out his phone from his back pocket and scrolled through his text messages, landing from the one from Rocky. "He had a message for you."

Taking the phone from his hand, Laura read his brother's message. It wasn't about their upcoming joint trip, or his payment for helping to move her in. She was already living up to her promise on what he wanted anyhow. Instead, this was about the Austin Moon song - which Rocky was producing. After R5 had returned from their tour, Rocky was the one still going head first into anything and everything music. She remembered him talking about producing and working with a few artists on the band's bucket list and when they had said yes to Calum, apparently, Rocky was the first one Calum called up for the song.

"So I have to record when we're in New York?" she raised her eyebrow, trying to understand what Rocky was actually on about. "Am I reading that wrong?"

"Yes," Ross didn't hesitate. "He means that as soon as you get back from New York, he's whisking you away to record your part before you get booked up and stolen away by Hollywood."

She nodded, understanding it all now and quickly responding to the text. "Got it. I can do that."

Nuzzling back into his side, she placed his phone on the side table and brought her attention back to the screen in front of them. She was comfy, so so so comfy and didn't want to move for anything. And she didn't. All she did was cuddle even more into him as they watched old re-runs of How I Met Your Mother. The good seasons, not the last one which she was still upset over. She just couldn't get past how much of Ted and Tracy's love story they cut out only to come back to Ted and Robin. Before she got even more mad about it, Laura brought her mind back to the present and she found herself very thankful that her and Ross' relationship wasn't anything like that.

She felt his lips press against her temple once more. Throughout the whole week, it had been hard to fall asleep and relax with the cold from hell keeping her up. This right here, was what she needed apparently. She could feel her cold slowly escaping her and when it did, she'd be thanking the man right next to her. Many times over.

+++

New York in the fall was one of his favorite times to be in the city. It wasn't too hot or too cold, it was just right. Looking down the street outside his hotel, Ross was surprised that there weren't fans around - but then again, he was taking the back exit. He had flown in with the rest of the band ahead of their concert on Friday night. R5 was in the Big Apple for a charity event, raising funds for a organization that was close to their hearts - Free the Children. The band had gotten involved with Free the Children when he was still a teenager and their attachment and involvement had only gotten stronger. They had played and performed over 50 concerts to raise funds specifically for Free The Children and WeDay. They had even adopted a village in Libya, and Rydel had taken it upon herself to head that operation. As far as Ross knew, she was still doing it too.

Headed towards the subway, Ross buried his hands in his pockets and hopped a ride on the line. R5 had arrived the day before and while rehearsals weren't until later in the day, he was taking the time to go exploring and hoping to crash into his gorgeous girlfriend who joined him on the flight out, but was stuck in another hotel altogether. After practically living with her for a month, he immediately felt the weirdness when he woke up solo this morning in a hotel room that he was once again sharing with Ryland.

The band wasn't staying far from where Laura was, but just knowing that she was over 20 blocks away, was kind of agonizing. He never thought he would be that boyfriend that was mega clingy, but he was turning into one. Just the fact that he was missing kissing her goodnight for only one night was hell for him. Slipping past Radio City Music Hall, Ross checked his phone that was buzzing inside his pocket and smirked at Riker's message. No boom boom before big fight. Rolling his eyes at Riker's Friends reference, Ross shoved it back into his pocket and picked up his step. He was way too anxious to see her and hopefully steal her away for an afternoon in the city.

There were three hours until he had to be at the Gramercy for rehearsals and that meant he could steal her away for a stroll in the park, or an adventure to the parts of the city that no one would find them, or even to a whole in the wall burger place because he was getting hungry just thinking of the possibilities. He could see a huge burger in his future with everything on it. Yea, they were going out to eat as soon as he got to her hotel and just his luck, was right up the block. He was making really great time walking there and this was with stopping every so often and grabbing an interesting shot with his camera.

Stepping into the hotel's lobby, he could easily see why this hotel was on the top of everyone's list to stay at. The Mandarin Oriental was the definition of luxury and Ross could see why Valentino had put Laura up here...to make her feel like she was the Queen of the World. She was to him, but for many different reasons. Heading into the elevator and pressing the floor button for her suite, he leaned back against the wall and felt the lift pull him higher and higher and closer and closer to Laura. He sent her a text as the light passed over the 45th floor button, giving her a heads up that he didn't care who else was there with her, he was kissing the hell out of her as soon as she opened the door.

Before they left, they went over their schedules during their time in New York. While he was leaving next week, she on the other hand was there until the next weekend. She'd been invited to almost every fashion show that was going on within the next week and on top of her campaign shoot, this could possibly be the only time they would actually have with each other while they were here...and he was going to soak it up. It wasn't like he hadn't spent every waking moment with her in Los Angeles or Cape Town, but he had and spending even more time with her in New York. He was taking it all.

He didn't even knock a full knock before the door in front of him was thrown open and her tiny stature pulled him inside. Within seconds, he was backed up against the wall and her lips where on his, gnawing at his skin. Smiling against her mouth, Ross flipped Laura around and pulled her up, her legs hooking around his waist. "I take it no one else is here?"

"Gone for the night. I'm all yours." Her hands twisted in the hairs at the back of his neck and only helped to entice him more. "I would've done this anyway if they were here, but now I don't have to be dragged away."

"This playful side of you," Ross let his head dip and he kissed up her neck. "Is my favorite thing ever."

Laura kissed him again, deeper this time before letting her legs slide down his own jean-covered ones and let her bare feet touch the ground. "What time is your rehearsal today?"

"I have to be there at six. I was thinking we eat first."

"So you have time to play," Laura turned on her heel, biting her lip. If she wanted to play, they would definitely play. A lot. A hell of a lot. "But, when we go out, we have to avoid SoHo. Mona's orders. I have no idea why."

Ross watched her escape into the bathroom for a quick minute and when she returned, she had on a new blue sweater that hugged her every curve he loved to feel and was slipping on her boots that covered her own jeans to her calf. "No SoHo? I think we can avoid that since it's all the way down the island. I was thinking Roberta's."

Laura stopped him after they left her room. "You want to go to Brooklyn?"

"It's the best pizza though."

"I'm not arguing about that. But you only have a few hours and it will take us what, a half hour to get there, a half hour back, we'll get ten minutes before you head out to rehearsals and then tomorrow is out of the question because I'm being kidnapped all day..."

Ross caught her hand as the elevator doors opened. "Laur. Breathe." He clutched her hand tight. "So Roberta's is out...even though we will be going there before we both leave."

"You and pizza," Laura leaned into him. "What about PJ Clarke's?"

"That's the place with the amazing burgers, isn't it?" He asked, and put this on the list of reasons why she was it for him. "Perfect. I was actually craving Shake Shack on the way over here."

"Great minds," she looked up at him and pressed her lips against his quickly before the doors opened. "Let's go eat."

Hours later, Ross was back at the Gramercy with his band and after wrapping up their latest song they were going to perform, Ryland caught his attention at the edge of the stage. Flipping around his laptop, Ross groaned at the website his younger brother had pulled up.

"Not that I need to tell you guys to be careful, but just so you know."

Our favorite couple were spotted last night in New York City! Laura Marano and Ross Lynch were snapped just hours ago grabbing a bite to eat together in the Big Apple ahead of Ross' big gig with R5 for Free The Children. The two were seen laughing and sharing a few kisses in between their meal and when Ross got some on his chin, Laura made us all aww our heads off by wiping it away. How adorable are these two?

R5's concert is happening Friday night for Free The Children and was sold out within one hour! Lucky for us, we got some tickets to the show and we're hoping that Laura, who is in town for fashion week, will be there too.

Stay tuned for all your Raura news!