A/N: More short fluffy stuff. Warning, this one is rated M. Mild spice, but still...

Apologies for the lack in quality lately, just pushing out everything as I try to get past writer's block.

Date

Drakken checked his watch as the chemicals spun in the centrifuge in front of him. It was ten minutes to five... Which meant he had ten minutes to dress before it was time for he and Shego to leave for their date. But the cycle was almost complete, and he needed to see if his theory was correct, or if it was another bust. That was all, and then he would put the work on hold until the following day.

The centrifuge stopped as a small timer went off, and he quickly grabbed the test tubes of emulsified compounds and stuck a pipette into the first. He deftly piped the liquid onto the waiting slide and slid it under the microscope. As he adjusted the focus his eyes narrowed and then widened. The two chemicals should not have combined in that way. Had something gone wrong?

He grabbed another test tube and repeated the procedure, only to find the same result.

"But...that's not possible..."

Shego leaned against the side of the hover-car, shivering. She pulled her wrap around her more closely as she checked her watch again with a grimace. It was five-thirty. She grimaced and after a few more minutes of indecision, sighed and pushed off of the place she had been leaning. He had lost track of time...again.

She considered storming down to the lab and berating him, but that wouldn't allow for any salvaging of their date. They would lose their dinner reservation if they didn't leave in fifteen minutes anyway, and there was no way Drakken could be ready in time. The argument wouldn't be worth it...

Back inside, instead of heading to the lab she simply went back to her room and took her shoes and wrap off before flopping on the bed. She understood Drakken forgetting, and yet she didn't. He had been very excited about the evening and had been rambling about the exclusive restaurant he was taking her to for weeks. Apparently getting a reservation there was next to impossible. So what was so important that he would forget?

With a scoff of frustration she finally got up to head down to the lab. As far as she was concerned, anything less than the cure for cancer wasn't worth being stood up again.

When she arrived and the doors slid open, it was no surprise to her to find Drakken muttering to himself as he moved almost frantically about his workbench, alternating between looking in a microscope and hurriedly scribbling notes on a piece of paper. Shego opened her mouth to speak, but then Drakken let out a growl of frustration and gripped his hair with both hands, yanking on it before dragging his hands down his face and going back to the microscope.

"It makes no sense!"

Shego's expression softened as she realized it wasn't a mere forgetting of the time, but something else... Something unexpected. She watched for a few more minutes as Drakken continued his mutterings and frantic scribbling before he set a row of test tubes into a centrifuge and started it running. She frowned and turned to leave the lab.

The evening was most definitely not going to be salvaged... But, Shego smirked as she realized, it didn't mean they couldn't still have a date night.

Drakken watched the centrifuge spin, sitting heavily in his chair and rubbing his eyes. He was finally, finally close to figuring out where the formula had shifted from what was projected on paper to what actually came out in the testing. As he yawned he realized he was tired...and then his chest seized in fear.

He frantically looked at his watch, remembering needing to be ready for the date with Shego.

Two-forty-three.

His lips parted in a silent gasp as he stared at the time, willing it to be an illusion. But it didn't change. He looked up at the centrifuge, spinning away, and then back to his watch. With a pained growl he shoved away from the desk in his rolling chair, and then rose and rushed for the door.

Shego was startled awake by the hurried opening of the bedroom door, and she blinked sleepily and smiled softly in amusement at Drakken's anxious expression.

"Shego, I... I'm so sorry," he said breathlessly. "I didn't forget, I... It's just..."

Shego sat up and stretched, and Drakken paused in his rambling as he noticed her attire. She was wearing a sheer black negligee, excepting that most of the sheer places were hidden by a pattern of velvet royal blue flowers, vines, and leaves. Drakken fell speechless as she posed demurely and gave him a come-hither look.

"Shego, you're...you're not mad? About tonight?"

"Last night, actually," she said.

Drakken's eyes widened before his face fell in shame. But he looked up as Shego chuckled.

"You missed me hanging out in the lab in this, since I didn't know when you were gonna snap out of it."

"What...but...? Shego... Why aren't you upset?"

Shego lifted her hands and beckoned him forward, and he complied.

"I didn't say I wasn't. I'll pretend you blew me off to cure cancer. But that excuse only works once," she said. "Now take your coat off."

Drakken complied, watching as Shego leaned over to the small fridge he kept by his bedside and pulled out a prepared plastic-wrapped plate of delicacies.

"It's not that fancy place you were gonna take me, but it's something."

Drakken stood next to the bed in some confusion as Shego began laying out the appetizers she had prepared, and when he didn't move she smirked up at him.

"How about you put on something more comfortable?" she said softly, biting her lip as her cheeks flushed in spite of herself.

She watched Drakken's confusion turn to a devious grin.

"How about nothing?" he said with a less-than-subtle growl.

Shego smirked, but shook her head. "Gotta have dinner before dessert."

A few minutes later found Drakken wearing his plush blue bathrobe, sitting cross-legged on the bed and popping individual cheese and grape appetizers into his mouth. Shego was kneeling behind him, massaging his shoulders slowly. Drakken pressed gratefully into her touch as he ate the decadent morsels with his eyes closed.

"Shego..." he fairly slurred after several minutes. Shego was glad she'd decided against wine; he was tired enough from two days awake in the lab. "I still...don't understand why you're not mad at me..."

She leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Because... I love you."

The small bite Drakken had been about to eat was dropped back into the plate as he turned and grabbed her shoulders, hesitating but a moment to look into her eyes before pulling her into a powerful kiss. Shego's breath caught and her head swam at the passion... But she pulled away, to his dismay, resumed massaging his shoulders.

"Dinner before dessert, remember?" she said with a smirk.

Drakken turned back to the tray where he had nearly finished the cheese and fruit and had been ignoring the vegetables.

"Says who..." he grumbled.

"Says the one offering the dessert," she chuckled. "So eat up. I already ate, and I want my dessert too."

Shego continued massaging his shoulders as he ate the small but diverse plate she had put together for him. His neck and shoulders were extremely tense, and she was curious about the work that had pulled him away from the date he had planned so extensively for, But she wanted him to relax, so questions about that could wait.

She knew he was hungry due to his lack of protesting and his making quick work of the plate. When it was nearly finished off she finally felt his tension start to fall, made more obvious by his leaning into her. She settled down behind him, her legs folded and her knees on other side of his hips as she set her chin on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. She held him tight with one hand while her other slipped into his robe and rubbed his chest in long, broad strokes.

"Shego?" he began a bit anxiously. "I'm sorry. I—"

"Shhh... We're having a lovely date right now," she said softly.

Her words were enough, and he rested against her as he drank the large glass of juice that accompanied the tray of food. Then he pushed all of it aside, off of the bed and onto the nightstand.

Shego nestled her cheek against his. "Ready for dessert?"

Drakken hummed in reply, and she moved the hand that had been gripping his shoulder down inside his robe. She slid her hand below the belt, to where he had taken his boxers off in anticipation. He grinned as she began a very different kind of massage.

He leaned more heavily against her as she attended him, earning hums and hisses for her gentle and well-practiced efforts. After a few minutes, his weight became a bit painful and she shifted and indicated for him to lay down. He blinked at her, and the tiredness she saw in his eyes offered a different story than the warmth within her hand was telling as he complied.

She lay down next to him and half lay on his chest, tossing his robe open just enough so she could see what she was working with. Drakken's arms surrounded her loosely and his fingers pressed lightly against her hip. His eyes remained closed. She smiled softly as she realized dessert was going to be delayed for at least several hours.

With her free hand she lightly stroked his cheek, while her already occupied one moved more gently. She watched the lines on his face begin to smooth, and she let the fingers caressing his cheek travel up to his hairline. She gradually ceased her actions below his belt and instead swirled her fingers in the dark hairs below his bellybutton, and then ran her hand up and down his middle in slow strokes.

She lessened this touch as well as Drakken's breathing had already slowed, and when his hand began to slip from her waist she caught it and set it on his chest. She closed his robe and curled against him, using her toes to pull the bed sheet up over their legs slightly before laying her leg across him. She smiled as she turned out the lights, content to join him in sleep. She didn't need a fancy date, or a wild evening... All she ever wanted was him.