A/N: Oh look, I wrote another... This is the same story as the prior chapter, but from Shego's POV instead of Drakken's. Reminder of a soft Mature rating. Enjoy!

For split-n-splice.

A Touch of Warmth

Shego's eyes opened in sudden wakefulness. It took her but a moment to realize it wasn't the warmth of the sunrise on her face as she lie stretched out in bed, blankets discarded and bare form exposed, that had caused her to stir; it was the absence of a different warmth.

Her equally bare cuddle companion was now sitting upright with his knees bent over the edge of the mattress and eyes closed, leaning forward slightly in tiredness. But as she looked at his still, peaceful expression she could already see the wheels of the intelligent mind beginning to turn behind the heavy eyelids. She couldn't help herself but to smile and then shifted toward him just enough to lean up to rest her face against his cheek.

She felt his instant relaxation at her touch, as the man always carried some level of tension, and she leaned further into him with a hand on his thigh for support and her other caressing his jaw before resting against his chest. His hand crept around the small of her back where his fingers idly began playing with her no-doubt tangled locks of hair, and she sensed both his happiness and his need to be even nearer to her as he took a deep breath in through his nostrils and released it in a long, silent sigh.

She didn't want to admit to herself how his ardent, honest love for her warmed her heart, more than the rays of sun that poured over their bare skin like liquid gold. He never pushed too far, and only wanted to give to her. And perhaps it was just that which had spurred her affections to run so deeply the night before, and that spurred them further now.

"Hmmm," she sighed in contentment, breaking from the racing of her mind to simply stay in the moment with him. She softly pressed kiss-swollen lips against his jaw and felt the muscles beneath blue flesh turn upward in a broader smile.

"Are you going to tell me you love me again?" he asked softly. His voice was calm, and pleasant. But she knew that somewhere deep at the heart of it was a request.

She leaned more heavily against him, following the yearning of her own heart, and placed a tiny kiss on his neck even as her instinctive defenses began to rise.

"Mmh...that wouldn't be very evil of me," she said as she brought her lips back to his jaw.

She almost held her breath awaiting his response, wondering if something would happen to break the spell of the morning and send them back to the place of sarcastic quips and rolled eyes in a dark laboratory. She didn't want to admit to herself that the sunrise and his hands moving to hold her arms were far more appealing.

There was nothing but bliss in his tired eyes as he blinked at her and pulled her back down to the bed, where she curled upon his chest with her legs between his, he seeming to read her subconscious much to her satisfaction.

"You were plenty evil last night," he finally said, mirth in his tone that caused her to chuckle. She idly traced his collarbone as his fingers felt through her tangled hair to massage her flesh, and she tilted her jaw up to look at him.

He was smiling and seemed to have let anything else in his mind drift away but for the joy they were sharing in simply being together. It was infectious, and a smile curled her lips upward as she gently nuzzled his chest.

"Was I? Do I need to balance it out with something sweet?" she said, her decision already made.

Whatever he'd been about to say died on his lips, his dark eyes staring up at her in awe when she moved to smile down at him. The love he reflected back to her almost took her breath away, but she gathered her emotions as she cupped his cheek with her hand, feeling a sudden need for him to know for sure.

"I love you, Drakken."

His gaze remained fixed on hers as she watched everything within him melt at her words. She ran her fingers through his sleep-tousled hair as she shifted her knees to be aside his hips to make their cuddling even more intimate and let herself fall into bliss as her lips met his ready ones for what she knew would be the first of many more kisses that morning, his arms wrapping tightly around her. She could indulge in this warmth...a little longer.