Her office was quiet. The only sounds at this point were her pen scribbling against her paperwork and the clock ticking in the corner on the shelf. The clock was a curious little thing, a present from her husband made of various bits and pieces from around his lab. She was initially worried that it was radioactive but was assured by her friend, Wade, that it wasn't. There was too much lead for it to be.

It was a piece of her life that gave a good view of what it was like. A crazy mix of ends that shouldn't have worked but, somehow, turned out fine. Everything functioned so everyone was happy.

She couldn't help but flourish her pen as she finished the last sentence of her recommendation. A minute sigh was followed by her relaxing in her seat. Her eye traveled to the clock. As expected, it was far later than she would have liked it to be. Several hours later. In fact, she had missed date night.

Again.

Her head rested against the back of her chair. She relished the silence of her office. It was completely opposite what her day had been. A massive rush of both villains and supervillains into her office for their weekly or monthly recovery sessions to try and go straight. Some were more successful than others. Her current report was on one of her more failure-prone cases.

Her lips quirked as she looked at her favorite picture of herself, her husband, and their best friends that was sitting on her desk. Her husband had, somehow, convinced them all to go to an amusement park in Japan. He was grinning like a fool, all three of the others in his grip. She looked reserved yet amused, the green woman looked positively constipated, and her best friend forever was grinning as widely as her husband.

She picked it up and pulled it close. That had been...had it already been fifteen years? It was so long ago. She still had both eyes back then. Ron and Shego hadn't even acknowledged that they were attracted to each other that far back. It hadn't been until Shego had given birth to their twins that she reluctantly said that there was something 'ugly cute' about Ron.

Their wedding? A disaster. It was so bad that the two ditched out in the middle of their own ceremony to get hitched in Vegas. They hadn't told anyone, either, leaving their best woman and male-of-honor to clean up the mess.

Still, it somehow went better than her and her husband's wedding. An intergalactic incident interrupting your wedding and suddenly pitting your family against a lawyer that knew the laws of the Galactic Federation inside and out definitely ranked up there on a scale of bad weddings. At least the Grand Councilwoman had been nice enough for a bureaucrat.

...She was dilly-dallying. She didn't want to see the disappointment on her husband's face. He'd been so excited to finally have a night where they could veg. They'd had a virtual movie rented to watch on their trideo that they'd been struggling to find the time to watch together for a week. He'd also planned on cooking a nice ribeye dinner with her favorite sides. She hadn't been getting as much iron as she should which is why he insisted on a steak.

The day had to end at some point. Better then than even later.

Kimberly Anne Possible-Lipsky got up from her desk and made for the door.

When she got home to their not-lair in Middleton, she was glad to note that the outside light wasn't on. That meant that her husband was still awake. Kim didn't have to worry about waking their daughters up. They were on a sleepover at Ron and Shego's place. Tonight was supposed to have been just them.

She couldn't hold back the disappointed sigh as she opened the door. Her hand limply dropped the keys into the decorative radar dish next to the door as she walked in. She made her way through the bulky middle sections of the house up to the main living areas. If he wasn't there, she expected him to be in his lab at the very top of the building.

Noises echoing down the hallway told her there was no need to go that far into the house. She rounded the corner to the main living room to find Drakken wrestling with the trideo.

Kim stopped for a few moments to watch him.

He was wearing a relaxed pair of khakis and a dress-up shirt. Something that was a bit 'higher-class' than his normal labcoats and pants. It was probably for date night. It was a little weird as they were having a night in for date night, but when wasn't Drakken weird?

She couldn't help comparing what he looked like now to what he'd looked like in the picture. There actually weren't too many differences. His hair was streaked with bits of white, unsurprising considering his age. Besides that and his jowls being more jowly, he didn't look much different. He was easily recognizable.

Compared to how she'd changed, he could've been mistaken for a brother while Kim could be mistaken as her mother. It made her feel self-conscious; he'd handled aging far better than she had despite his various mutations. Or was it because of them?

Either which way, it didn't matter. What did matter was fessing up to being late for the same villain as the last time they'd tried to have date night.

She cleared her throat just as he'd climbed on top of the display arm and began pulling on it in the wrong direction. His head snapped up. A bright smile was on his face as he exclaimed, "Kimberly! You're home!"

"Yeah…" She sighed, then dejectedly said, "Sorry I'm late. A certain captain acted up again."

"Oh, that guy." Drakken suddenly fell off the trideo, shock on his face as he faceplanted. He easily shook it off as he hopped up and grumbled, "It's always that guy! Are you sure he hasn't bugged our home to figure out when you're supposed to spend more time with me?"

"I'm sure," Kim said with more certainty than she felt. This was the third time it had happened. Maybe there was more to Drakken's paranoia than she thought.

"Hmph. Oh well!" Drakken shrugged as he scurried over to her. Sweeping her up in a hug, he happily hummed, "My Kimberly~ Is hoooooome~"

Kim laughed as he buried his face in her neck. "You're such a dork."

"Your dork," he easily countered, kissing the angle of her jaw before releasing her.

"My dork." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. A deep, lingering thing that would have made their girls, Annabelle and Veronica, flinch and gag. Reluctantly she pulled back before cuddling into his chest. "I wish I could've been on time."

"We seem to be taking turns being late for date night," Drakken grumbled good-naturedly. "I got sucked into an alternate universe last month, you once again had to deal with that noob of a villain…" He sighed. "We just can't catch a break!"

"Well…" Kim peered at the clock on the mantle. There was still an hour or so before their pre-agreed bedtime. "We could start the movie and eat some of the warmed-up steak?"

Drakken snorted and complained, "The trideo broke!"

Her jaw sat loosely for a moment. "What? We just got it fixed!"

"I know!" He crossed his arms and pouted. "The image is 2D instead of 3D. And considering where the main screen is…"

"...It's unwatchable," Kim finished for him. "Okay. So, that's wrecked. But what about supper?"

Drakken flushed purple as he ducked his head. "I, erm, may have gotten frustrated and blasted it to bits with a raygun."

"Oh." Kim didn't want to know if it was from frustration with her not being on time or fury at it not cooking evenly.

"It's okay! There's always a back-up plan," Drakken proclaimed. He suddenly began pushing Kim towards the wraparound couch. Excitedly he said, "Here! Take a seat!" As she obediently sat down, he said, "Kick your feet up! I'll be back in a minute!"

Kim watched him skip out of the room. Deciding to simply listen, she put her feet onto the center table and waited. Only a few minutes passed before Drakken came in just as excited as he was when he left. In his hands and vines were a variety of items.

"Is that…?" Kim peered closely at the things he had. "My spa kit?"

"Yes! AND your favorite ice cream flavor!" Drakken gushed, "You had a bad day when I had a pretty good day, and you pampered me when my alternate universe stuff went sideways. So it's my turn to spoil you."

Her lips quirked. It touched Kim; Drakken wasn't very good at being empathetic, so when he was it was very special to her.

Drakken handed her the ice cream with a giant serving spoon before sitting down on the floor between the couch and the table. As he unpacked the kit, Kim popped the lid off of the ice cream. She scooped out a large chunk and took a small bite. To her happiness, she'd managed to get a chunk of caramel in the bite. Sweet, sweet caramel…

Drakken took her left foot, the one that ached the most, into his hands. He took a foot file out and began scraping away the layers of dead skin from her feet. He giggled as he said, "Now, as I'm the beautician person, you need to gossip with me!"

"Gossip?" Kim tilted an eyebrow. "You know I have to try and protect patient confidentiality. Even when it's obvious." A flash of guilt at complaining about her repeat customer hit her. She quickly shook it off; it wasn't like he couldn't have guessed by basic maddie gossip.

"Bah! Like I can't guess from the villainous grapevine," Drakken snorted, somehow reading Kim's mind. "I may be out of the game conquering-wise, but that doesn't mean that I don't hear things."

"Uh-huh." Kim knew exactly who Drakken talked with. She still felt twinges of jealousy here and there whenever certain villainesses tried to catch his attention. It only took a look at their family photos to remind her that Drakken was hers. No one else was a threat.

"Now then, Captain Blastrous. What did he do this time?" Drakken asked, his gaze occasionally darting up from her feet to look at her.

She sighed, then began, "You'll hear about it on the news soon. He took a transdimensional anchor and tried to link an ancient Incan civilization with the ruins we have now."

"Again? Does that guy have any hobby outside of bothering you while trying to revive long-dead civilizations?"

"It doesn't seem so." Kim actually did know that he liked windsurfing. It was irrelevant and private, which is why she didn't share it.

"Hmph." Drakken focused a little too hard on the callous on her heel. "He's jealous. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to kidnap you."

"He's tried," Kim said before her brain registered the question.

"WHAT?!" Her husband was bristling, vines waving angrily, and he growled, "The nerve! How could-nnnnnnngh…!" The foot file looked like it was going to snap in his hands. "If I ever get in the same room as him…!"

"That won't happen," she said quickly. And it wouldn't. GJ would make sure of that.

Drakken grumbled but settled down.

Deciding to change the subject, Kim asked, "So, how was your day?"

"Marvelous!" His demeanor completely changed. "I was able to break down that plastic molecule finally. All it needs now is a patent and we'll be set!"

"We're already set," Kim reminded him. "All your other patents plus my salary?"

"How in the world do you get paid by a secret spy organization?" Drakken said in wonder. "You've never explained to me before."

"Because it's top-secret," Kim replied as always. He didn't need to know about the various dummy accounts in the world. It would keep his paranoia more in check.

Drakken shook his head. "Whatever. Anyway, I was thinking of tackling the plastic lagoons in the Pacific first…"

As Drakken began listing his targets for his experimental plants, Kim relaxed into the sound of his voice and the pampering of her feet. This life...it was hers. It made her happy. Sure, she didn't get much personal time. But the time she did get? It was precious.

She wouldn't trade any of it for the world.