A/N: Have yourself a little Drakgo... I started writing this months ago, forgot about it, and just finished it because I'm trying to get the inspiration for my bigger WIPs. Needed to get my feet wet with something small. Hope you enjoy!

The microwave was broken. Shego stared in perplexity at the appliance that simply wasn't functioning. Its lights weren't on, the buttons made no sounds, and no amount of pushing them changed either fact.

Shego frowned and stared for another ten seconds at the device. Perhaps it was unplugged? But discovering where it plugged in behind the stove would take altogether too much effort. And if it wasn't obvious, probably that wasn't the problem.

She sighed and crossed her arms before turning back to the frozen packaged meals sitting on the kitchen counter.

'Well... That's not happening,' she thought to herself. She put the two packaged meals back in the freezer and opened the fridge instead.

Ordinarily she'd just holler for Drakken to fix the microwave, but the blue man himself was the more pressing issue at the moment. He'd contracted a bad cold of some kind and Shego was attempting to prepare meals for them both. Truthfully, she was getting tired of having eaten only microwaved food and take-out since he'd fallen ill; usually he prepared at least two meals a day.

She opened the fridge and started staring at the various containers and jars that she had always been able to identify but had no idea what to do with if she couldn't just pour from them or stick a spoon or fork in them and be done.

'How does he know what to do with all this stuff?'

She saw the peanut butter and jelly...but then remembered she had eaten the last of the bread the night before. Toast and sandwiches she could make, so toast and sandwiches she had eaten...for more meals than she cared to admit.

She saw a carton of eggs and considered them. She couldn't mess up fried eggs, right? She pulled the carton from the fridge.

As she began searching the cupboards for the skillet she thought about the unusual cold Drakken had gotten. Usually when he was sick he kept working, albeit in his pajamas, robe, and slippers, and with a great deal of whining. Not to mention the mountain of tissues that would pile up around the workbench.

This time was different. He had actually elected to stay in bed after the first day and told her to take some time off. Which meant either it was a really awful cold, or something more serious like the flu. When she had checked on him the night before it still seemed like a cold. She could reassess after bringing him breakfast.

She had found the skillet and set it on the stove top. She lit the burner and then slowly cracked two eggs into the pan.

"Eugh..."

She dropped the egg shells in the sink and quickly washed the cold, clear egg white from her hands.

"Can egg shells can go down the garbage disposal...?"

After considering, she shrugged and decided to try it. The shells vanished with the rumble of the machine, and she grinned in satisfaction. Then she turned the tap to hot and squirted some dish soap into the sink where the egg shells had touched. She used the sprayer to foam the soap and rinse off the bottom of the sink.

"There! I wonder what he'll have to say about...oh no."

Shego smelled burning and turned back to the skillet. The eggs actually looked near-perfect—bright yellow centers that were still liquid with white all around them—but tiny wisps of smoke appeared to be rising from the pan.

"Oh no. Uhm..." Shego started yanking drawers open in search for a spatula. When she found one the wisps of smoke had grown more numerous.

Shego turned the burner off and grabbed a plate from the cupboard for serving the eggs. She angled the spatula carefully—trickier than she thought, with the second egg getting in the way—and then quickly shoved it under the first egg.

Or at least, that was what she tried to do. What actually happened was the white of the egg crumpled like snow in a plow, and the yolk burst and sent its golden liquid spilling over the crumpled whites and into the hot pan.

"Agh..."

Shego dropped the dripping mess onto the plate and lined the spatula up for the second egg. With only the one left in the pan, surely it would come out successfully.

It didn't.

The result was exactly the same as the first. Shego dropped it onto the plate with the other and then stared at the pan. It was dirtied with brown burns, bits of white that had been left behind, and streaks of yellow yolk.

With an angry snarl, she grabbed the pan and dropped both it and the spatula into the sink.

She stepped around the kitchen island, as far from the eggs as she could get, and then leaned on her elbows and stared with narrowed eyes at the offending dish. How had she messed up eggs? Eggs!?

Of course, that was her first attempt at making them... There was probably some trick she didn't know.

With a groan she dropped her forehead down onto her folded arms. She had absolutely no domestic skills or instinct. None of which she had ever cared about in the past.

But now...

Three weeks prior, aliens had invaded Earth. And two weeks after that, she had confessed to Drakken that her feelings toward him went far deeper than sarcastic evil side-kick...

"Drakken?"

He turned from the workbench where he was analyzing some of the alien technology with his plant mutagen and raised his brow at her.

"Shego, there you are. Where have you been?"

She had been hiding out anywhere in the lair but where he was, after she had realized the real reason for her panic over his abduction. It had become all too clear to her after his vine grabbed her on stage at the United Nations and forced them into an embrace. He had laughed it off, but she couldn't forget it. And soon she was imagining not the vine, but his arms around her.

But with that understanding came the second, sobering realization that he held no such feelings for her. He had gone straight back to business, planning to find a way to make the alien technology impervious to his plants and then use both to take over the world.

It wasn't the shock of her own feelings that caused her pain, but his complete lack of reciprocation. He had barely paid any attention to her since they returned to the lair. And so she had come to a painful, but necessary decision.

"I...I've gotta tell you something."

Drakken had started walking toward her but stopped suddenly. Perhaps it was the tense timbre of her voice. Or maybe the barely contained tears in her eyes. Whatever it was, he was staring at her in astonishment. When his gaze met hers, he nodded slightly for her to continue.

She looked down. He wasn't helping by being so serious. Couldn't he just...barely pay attention, like usual, so she could get it over with?

"I'm gonna move out..."

His lips parted. Several seconds passed.

"...Why?"

Shego felt a dark, clenching pain in her chest. He wasn't even going to try to stop her?

"Because I... Rgh, I'm sorry, I... I've fallen in love with you." She chanced a glance at him and saw his jaw had slackened, but the look in his eyes hadn't changed. "And I've tried to stop, but...but I can't. I'm sorry, I know this ruins a lot of your plans."

She felt a tension in her neck and realized she was hunched over and tensing her shoulders. She tried to straighten up and took a long, slow breath. She lifted her eyes to his and saw that his expression still hadn't changed from the initial surprise he bore when she had gotten his attention. It only made the lump in her throat worse.

Didn't he have anything to say? Wouldn't he at least...express some surprise or frustration or...something?

"So I'm...just gonna go," she said, dropping her gaze again. "I'll pack up and try to be moved out by morning. I can give you some references for other side-kicks..."

She looked up at him once more. His expression was still the same. She hung her head and turned to go, the pain in her heart spreading like a wave over her entire body.

Through the pain she suddenly registered the sound of footsteps, and then hands gripping her shoulders and spinning her around. She grabbed his forearms for balance and looked up into his eyes, wide and still unchanged.

"...What?" she asked meekly.

A second later his lips were on hers, his fingers gently sliding under her jaw to tilt her face up toward his. Her breath caught and after a moment she wrapped her arms around him, pulling herself tightly against him as he kissed her deeply. The tears finally slipped from her eyes and fell upon her cheeks.

They had laughed about it later. Much later. After so much kissing that her lips hurt and she was short of breath, and didn't care about either. She could have died happy in that moment in his embrace. The memory was fogged by how frenzied they each had been, trying to capture each other's souls through the wild caresses of lips and hands.

When they had finally collapsed against a wall in the lab from exertion, she saw the smile of unbridled joy on his kiss-swollen lips.

"I didn't think I had a chance," he had said simply.

More kissing had followed, and then a delirious stumbling to the sofa and falling asleep in each other's arms. Waking up the next morning curled against his chest was something she thought about daily. And she had been eager to broach the subject of perhaps soon waking up in his bed when he starting showing signs of illness.

As suddenly as things had changed, they shifted again as he was driven to a sickbed and had only left his room once in the past three days.

Ordinarily when he was sick and working, Shego would stay at the far end of the lab and things would continue like normal. Except for the whining and the tissue mountains. And her running scared when he would approach her or make some request, such as for chicken soup.

Now... They were a couple. Sort of. They hadn't actually talked about it much, as they hadn't had the chance. But if she was his partner in more than crime...then bringing him food was the right thing to do. And after she had eaten dinner the night before she realized...she hadn't been. She had only been in to check on him once each day.

Which meant he might not have eaten at all since the day he took to his bed.

With a sigh of frustration Shego moved back the freezer and got out the two zucchini lasagnas she had intended to microwave before. She knew there were instructions on the box for using the oven, but after the failure with the eggs she wasn't about to attempt it.

'I could just ask one of the henchmen... No.'

She shook her head at herself as she ripped both meals out of the packaging. She dropped the frozen bricks of food into the two bowls that Drakken always used when reheating something in the toaster oven. And then holding both bowls in her palms, she hopped up on the counter and gently ignited her glow.

It would take time...but so would an oven. And at least with her glow she had some control.

As she sat frowning at the bowls, she began to wonder... What would it be like, to be domestic? Was that what he would expect? Would he want her to slip into a traditional womanly role, now that they were romantic partners?

She suddenly realized...she intended to be with him forever. She had meant exactly what she told him earlier that week. She wasn't just infatuated... She was in love with him. And even though she didn't know what their lives would look like...she knew she wanted him.

The lasagnas started to steam as the cheese sizzled on top, and she let her glow go out. She grabbed two forks and started toward his room. Hopefully he wouldn't be upset with her for ignoring him... She just...didn't know how to be, yet.

"Hey...Drakken?" she said after arriving and unlocking his door.

The room was lit only by the moat and she could see his form curled up in the center of his bed under blankets that had been pulled and twisted. In response to his name, he shifted slightly and she could just barely see his eyes open.

"Can you turn the lights up?" she asked softly as she approached the bed, a bowl in each hand.

He reached for the control built into his headboard and the light level in the room rose slightly so she could see where she was stepping. He watched her as she approached, and she saw the dark circles under his eyes were much deeper than usual. She also saw that the bed was covered in yellow petals that he had no doubt been pulling from around his neck, as well as at least a hundred used tissues.

"A cold can't stop your little mutation, huh?" she said with a half-smile as she sat on the edge of the bed.

He lifted his head slightly, appearing more alert, but still didn't say anything. She set the bowls atop his headboard and started pulling the covers to be straighter.

"Don't..." he said, and his face twisted in pain from the effort. His voice sounded like someone had run his throat through a cheese grater.

"Come on, this doesn't look comfortable," she said, standing up and rearranging all his blankets with determination. She found that her heart was beating harder and she was nervous to look at him. Was this the sort of domesticity he would want, or was she overstepping?

"You'll get sick..." he rasped quietly, his face contorting again.

"Sore throat?" she asked.

He nodded with closed eyes.

With the blankets smoothed over him and the petals and tissues discarded on the floor, she sat down again and placed one of the bowls on the bed about six inches from his face.

"Maybe this will help," she said.

He opened his eyes and peered at the bowl.

"It's not chicken soup, but...better than nothing, right?"

He looked up at her curiously.

"Look, the microwave's broken and I tried cooking and..." She stopped abruptly and looked at his face. Amusement had filled his eyes. "Yeah, it didn't end well."

She grabbed her own bowl and took a bite of the lasagna, which was still warm. It might actually be too much, she thought, considering his throat.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I tried to fry some eggs. But they started to burn and then they were stuck to the bottom of the pan," she said with a scowl, looking down at her hands.

Drakken looked sympathetic. "Butter the pan first. Low heat," he murmured.

Shego blinked twice as she processed the instructions. That was it? She felt a growl building in her chest at the stupidity of it all.

He smiled lightly and she looked up as one of his hands emerged from beneath the blankets and grabbed at the fork in his bowl. He then tried to use the fork to pull the bowl closer to him.

"Come on, you're not that sick, are you? You can expend a little energy," she complained, her residual annoyance at herself coming out against him.

He frowned slightly, but she could tell she was basically right. He sighed through his nose and propped himself up on one elbow to eat. She watched him chew the first, very large bite and then swallow with another grimace of pain.

"How...did you make this?" he asked quietly.

She flared her hands briefly and his brow rose in understanding. He took another bite.

"Ah..." she began.

He looked up at her.

"I'm sorry I didn't bring you anything sooner. I'm not used to thinking about...taking care of other people."

Drakken looked confused. "What day is it?" he whispered after swallowing the second bite.

"It's Thursday... Have you slept all week?"

He nodded. "Mostly."

She realized then that he had indeed been asleep each time she had checked on him. She grimaced at herself for not being more proactive, since clearly he had more than a cold.

"Fever?"

He nodded and took another large bite of lasagna.

"Okay... You probably don't want to go to the doctor, huh?"

He frowned at her.

"All right, relax. Sheesh. But if you don't get better you'll have to go."

He pushed the lasagna away after another painful swallow and let his head drop to the pillow.

"Not gonna work?"

He shook his head.

"Okay...um." Shego looked at the nearly-full bowl and wondered if she should try to heat some chicken soup with her hands instead. But since swallowing hurt him—

"Ice," he murmured.

"Huh?"

"Ice chips. And tea... With honey, and lemon," he said just above a whisper, his face looking more pained with each word.

"Lots of ice chips, I'm guessing?"

He nodded.

"Sure... Hey...um. Sorry I don't know how to do this... I wasn't sure you'd want me taking care of you anyway."

He smiled softly at her as he burrowed back beneath the blankets. His hand felt across the blankets toward hers, but then stopped and retreated again.

"Don't want you to get sick," he rasped painfully.

She looked into his earnest eyes and felt a sudden warmth flow out of her heart until it all but overwhelmed her senses. He was suffering, and all he cared about was her... She glanced away and bit her lip mischievously.

"If I get sick..." she looked back at him, "then I'll just have less time to wait before I can get in your bed."

She delighted in the way his expression morphed from confusion to shocked understanding and then turned crimson in embarrassment. She leaned down and placed her lips against his forehead in a long, soft kiss. When she moved back his expression had calmed and he was staring up at her adoringly.

"Thank you for the food," he said quietly.

She was surprised to find the compliment made her blush. Or maybe it was just a side-effect of her bold statement before.

"Just the last in series of failed efforts," she said with a shrug.

He took a slow breath.

"You still tried," he said and smiled.

For some reason, whenever he looked at her like that it was like being under the warmth of a perfect sunrise.

'No, not just some reason...'

"I love you," she blurted out, blushing shyly a second later.

His smile grew and his eyes looked brighter as he continued staring at her. This time he reached for her hand without hesitation and held it tightly.

"I love you," he whispered back, his own cheeks coloring.

She glanced away and brushed her hair back with her free hand.

"Um..." she said shakily as her heart pounded in excitement. "How about...I clean up this mess, and...then I'll make your tea and get some ice chips?"

He looked suddenly concerned. "Do you know how to make tea?" he asked, each word softer than the last as his face scrunched in pain again.

"Yeah?" she said in confusion. "You put the water in the microwave... Oh..."

"Ice," he said.

Shego sighed. "Okay. But I'll still clean this up, and...um..." She wondered what to do after that. Just...go back to doing nothing in the lair and waiting for him to get better?

"Talk to me."

She nodded, and standing up she started toward the door to get his ice chips and wondered what to talk to him about. They rarely talked about things not related to taking over the world in one way or another... But...she supposed all relationships had to start somewhere. Theirs was just happening slightly out of sequence.

As she reached the door she heard a soft rustling, and turned back to see that the yellow petals had popped out and were framing Drakken's face. He frowned slightly as he stared at them.

"Aw, flowers for me? You shouldn't have."

Drakken pursed his lips in frustration but after a moment his lips parted in silent laughter. Shego answered with her own silvery laugh, loud and joyful enough for them both.

fin.