"'Hey, are you still in DC?'"

It was an innocent text, but still Sherry blushed when she saw it.

"'O ya y? u n town 4 sumthin?'" she replied. Leon had sighed when she'd started using chat speak in her texts but didn't bother to correct her after the first time. Then she'd started to text him with numbers and emotes only. Helena had to text her to ask what she was sending Leon. ti

"'Yeah. I'm picking up a mission from H. Meet you the apartment in 10?'"

Sherry checked her watch before replying. "'bttr b 20 m. 2 bzy w/t wk. c u soon! :D'" She slid her phone into her pocket, and turned back to the paper work still sitting on the desk. Why were they making her deal with Simmons' desk anyways?

"'bttr b 20 m. 2 bzy w/t wk. c u soon! :D'"

Jake stuffed his phone away, before turning to Hunnigan. "You mentioned that you had something for me?"

She hid a smile. "Hm, yes. Here." She passed Jake an envelope, and turned back to her laptop. Jake could see that Leon and Helena had gotten tangled up on something again and she was concentrating, typing something too long, complicated, and foreign for Jake to make out.

He instead opened the envelope, and shook out two…tickets.

"H, what are these? I'm pretty sure this isn't work related." He asked, shaking the tickets at Hunnigan, who shushed him while she started to relay instructions to Helena.

While Hunnigan was occupied, cursing under her breath as the pixilated satellite images showed an explosion that was rather close to Leon, Jake examined the tickets.

'Romeo and Juliet, 9PM'

Hunnigan, now finished muttering into her mic, turned to Jake. "Okay, what was it you wanted Jake?"

"These. What are they."

"They're tickets. For Romeo and Juliet." Hunnigan smirked.

Jake rolled his eyes. "I can see that they're tickets. I thought you said you had something important for me."

Hunnigan sighed. "What is the date today, Muller."

"The…14th?"

"Of?"

"…February. Why, what does that have to do with anything." Jake blinked twice, and looked back at the tickets. "Oh."

Hunnigan laughed. "It was either this or Leon was going to punch you both until one of you made a move. This way is much less violent." Seeing the look on Jake's face, she clarified. "You two are so mushy and cute, but you don't act on it. It's getting insufferable."

Jake nodded, a little stunned, before shoving the tickets in his pocket and leaving quickly. Hunnigan shook her head, a smile on her face, before returning her attention back to Leon and Helena.

Sherry inserted her key into the lock of her and Jake's joint apartment, slightly disappointed that he wasn't there before her. She shut the door behind her, not bothering to lock it, before going to set her stuff on the table.

Or, she would have had there not been a humongous bouquet sitting in the middle.

She smiled, put her bag on one of the chairs, and pulled the delivery card off the vase.

'To my saviour- Jake'

Smiling like a goof, she slipped the card into her pocket and pulled one of the blossoms out and stuck it behind her ear. She didn't know what the flower was, something that started with a B, maybe, or an R, but it was colourful and it smelled nice.

She was poking around in the fridge, mostly empty because she'd just returned from a mission and hadn't had a chance to stock up for the week, when Jake arrived.

"Yo! Super Girl, you in? Or do I need to punch out some douche-bag thief who's rummaging in my fridge?" Jake walked into the kitchen as Sherry straightened, and noticed the flowers. "Oh good, those got here. I asked the super to put them in here if you weren't home."

"So, why did you buy me flowers if you were going to drop in anyways?" she asked, settling for a cheese slice to settle her aching stomach.

"Well, I wasn't sure if I'd have time to stop, before I had to go. Besides, I had those flower pre-ordered for at least three weeks. They were coming whether you wanted them to or not." He swooped in, smooching her on the cheek. "What sort of work were they having you do?"

Sherry made a face, and offered Jake a cheese slice. He declined and she shoved it in her mouth, talking around it. "Dealing with Simmons' shit. His office had been 'cleaned' while the shit in China was happening, and since I finally managed to grab a few days off, they asked me to come in and clear out the rest of the stuff. And no, there wasn't even anything interesting in there to talk about. But I did hear that his office at the agency is going to the new power house, some lady whose last name starts with H and ends in Unnigan."

"Good for her. Oh, and speaking of Hunnigan, she gave me these." He pulled out the tickets and passed them to Sherry. "Apparently, everyone thinks we're too cutesy, but we don't act on it, so Hunnigan wanted me to take you out…I think."

Sherry looked at the tickets with disgust. "And she wanted you to drag me to see this? Really? Romeo and Juliet? It's like they're trying to say that we're doomed to die or something." She set them on the table, intent on walking away, before pausing. "Wait…" she turned to Jake. "You mean they don't know we're already dating? I thought everyone knew already."

Jake shrugged. "Eh, obviously not. Hunnigan didn't know, and, apparently, Kennedy didn't know either. That just leaves Harper and Redfield's kid sister."

"Oh, trust me, Claire knows…Or she should. I think I told her when I mentioned that she should stop trying to set me up on blind dates." Sherry shook her head, before heading down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Jake asked.

"To get changed. I don't wanna sit around in my work clothes right now."

"Okay, well wear something great, I'm taking you out tonight." Jake called down the hall.

"Like, great casual or great sexy with special undergarments?" Sherry asked with a laugh.

"Uh…great semi casual? I'm thinking a nice dinner at this restaurant I stopped in at before I got here. It's Edonian cuisine. Then, I don't know, we could wander the park or something, look at the cherry blossoms. The restaurant is really the only thing I had planned, really, other than the flowers." Jake shrugged, before heading into the bedroom himself to get changed, which took a little longer than planned when a tickle fight broke out, followed by make-up smooches for the loser, Jake.

Finally they were ready and changed, sherry in a pair of dark jeans with a light blue cashmere sweater that Jake had given her for her birthday with a white silk blouse underneath, and Jake, for once, wearing a mostly buttoned up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. After double checking to make sure they had everything before leaving, personal phones, work phones, wallets and ID, Jake grabbed the tickets and they headed out the door.

"Why'd you grab those?" Sherry asked, and Jake shrugged.

"You never know, we might get drunk enough to actually want to go to this." He said, and Sherry rolled her eyes.

"I doubt it."

There was seating set aside for Jake and Sherry when they got to the restaurant, and the owners made sure they had everything they wanted and then some. One of the owner's mother even came out to talk with Jake, speaking quietly and asking him about the state of the country they'd left behind, bringing with her a complementary dessert.

After Jake paid for the suspiciously cheap meal, they started walking towards one of the parks, stopping in at the various stores that were on the way. That is why, once they reached the park with red and pink streamers in the trees, Sherry was now sporting a new necklace and Jake had a pair of sunglasses that Sherry'd assured him did not make him look like his father.

Laughing at how the sales person had tried to convince Sherry that she needed, absolutely needed, to buy Jake a chia pet in the shape of Obama's head, they found a bench near the pond, recently vacated by another giggly couple and sat down.

Sherry pulled her legs up and curled up against Jake, still laughing. "I mean, maybe he thought you looked like the kinda guy who collects memorabilia based on the president. And if you were, I can see why you'd want that chia pet. It was looking mighty fine." She started giggling again, and Jake looked down at her face and smiled.

"I have no clue why no one at work knows we're dating. I mean, it's pretty obvious to me." He said, running his fingers through her hair with a smile.

"Well, maybe if we worked together more often they'd figure it out. I mean, with you working as an independent contractor, we don't get to see each other enough." Sherry stretched out and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I'll ask Hunnigan if she can try to send me places where you're working too."

They started to see how much PDA they could inflict on the world before some asked them to stop when Sherry heard a man frantically talking into a cell phone.

"Oh, you're in town?! I, I thought you were going to be away at that conference for the week? It was cancelled, oh darling I'm sorry. Listen, give me some time and I'll see if I can find us something to do. No shh, its okay. I'll see what I can do, we can still go out tonight, it'll be okay. It's no bother to me." Sherry pulled away, to Jake's disappointment, and looked up at the man.

He checked his watch, before shushing his significant other. "No, it's okay, I'll see if I can get us reservations somewhere. No, we're not going to Big M, it's Valentine's Day! I want to take you somewhere nice, if I'm taking you out. I'll meet you at home in a few, okay? Love you, ta." He cancelled the call, before looking up at Sherry and Jake. "How bad am I? I had nothing planned as a back-up. I didn't even think the conference would be cancelled."

"Yeah, well it happens to the best of us. I didn't even think I was going to still be in town at this time-hey!" Jake said, as Sherry shoved her hands into his pockets. "What up, Super Girl?"

"Those tickets. I mean, we're definitely not going to use them, let's give them to him." She said, and Jake pulled them out of his wallet and passed them over. "Here, you can have these. Work gave them to him, but we're not going to use them." She passed them over, and the man almost passed out.

"Really? You're not going to use these? This showing of Romeo and Juliet has been sold out for weeks! Are you sure I can have them?" The man asked, and Jake nodded.

"Yeah. You may as while take them, otherwise they're just going to go to waste. What kinda food does your other half like?" Jake and Sherry then proceeded to give the man the address for the Edonian restaurant, before sending him on his way, talking eagerly into his phone about the 'greatest two people' who'd helped him and the 'great night' they were going to have.

"…that was nice." Sherry said, settling back onto the bench.

"I agree. It's tough trying to find something romantic when it's the big day." Jake replied, slinging his arm around Sherry's shoulders. "What do you want to do now?"

Sherry looked up at him. "Wanna raid the movie rental place and get all their foreign language romance movies?"

"I'll let you grab the movies, and I'll go get snacks. Meet you back at home in, say, half an hour?" Jake stood, gave Sherry one more kiss, before they started walking. "Oh, and you can phone Hunnigan and tell her we gave the tickets away. Knowing her, she's going to have surveillance on the place to make sure we actually show up."

A/N:This is my first real stab at writing something romantic, so I hope it turns out okay XD

-My head-canon is that Jake is this big mushy teddy bear and he just loves Valentines because he can inundate Sherry with cute things and then he thinks to himself that he's so lucky and Sherry's just like

Wow

Candy hearts

Lots of them

Jake you big dork ilu

(And then they smooch lots)

I also like to think that Jake kinda works for the US government…like as someone who works with them, but not for them? Idk. But he chats up Hunnigan when he's working n shit and sends Sherry inappropriate text messages.

(Also Helena knew they were dating from the start.)-