Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not Kim Possible, not Shego, not Ron Stoppable, nothing, okay? Thanks for rubbing it in... *goes off to cry in a corner*
Like a Hail Storm in May
So there she was, no shit, just outside Baghdad, Iraq, sitting in a guard tower shack at an American run detention facility, watching in awe as hail bounced off the vinyl mats laid out along the catwalk. It was seventy plus degrees outside, and had just minutes before been warm and sunny, but now it looked more like a late autumn day than early summer. Kim Possible, the girl who could do anything, just could not believe what she was watching.
"This can't be normal!" the young redhead muttered, running a hand through her hair. As per her usual, Kim was out doing her normal saving the world thing, as a favor to Dr. Director and Global Justice, when reports of severe weather managed to halt her current task. The mission itself- something involving the Senor Seniors and a bid to turn half of Iraq and all of Pakistan into the world largest private, and expensive, beach resort, complete with sand surfing and similar sports- had to be postponed, even if for the span of an hour or so, according to the Army Sergeant who would be giving her the lift. Kim was well adapted to sudden changes in plans, all things considered, but this?
"It's not, not for Iraq at all," the linguist huddled next to her mumbled, readjusting the government issued wet weather top that was obviously borrowed and three sizes too big. The shack was barely big enough to hold five people, the water cooler, and the wooden desk, the latter two being permanent pieces furnishing the small space. Not that Kim was complaining; the actual tower guard herself was outside in the storm, shotgun in hand, watching intently as the jumpsuited figures were urged to return to their housing units.
Kim sighed, leaning back slightly against the wall of the shack. At least she was right; this wasn't normal. Then again, a lot of things about her life weren't normal. All she had to do was rattle off a typical week in high school to prove it. That, or glance at her left hand. Taking off her glove, Kim examined her wedding band, a faint smile on her lips as she traced the emerald and ruby that were fashioned into the ring, making it unobtrusive when she was wearing her mission gloves. 'I never want you to take it off, especially if I'm not there, so I'm always with you.' Shego's words exactly.
The emerald woman herself was half a world away, in Brazil of all places, doing Dr. Director yet another favor as she quashed some sort of Doomsday plot, courtesy of Professor Dementor. It was strange too that, after the two women started dating, Shego became rather adamant about joining Kim on her missions as often as possible. She even took a position with Global Justice to facilitate which missions the two received and when, though the current cases, obviously, had been exception to their usual workload. Still, it was stranger that Shego was working against her former, well, 'co-workers' (for lack of a better term) than what missions they did and did not take.
Most of Kim's friends and family hadn't thought the two would make it through the first date, let alone get married. Too much tension, too much arguing, too many old habits to allow for any sort of a healthy relationship between the former arch enemies. Yet, there they were, two happily married women, rather proud of the oddities that brought them together. It surely wasn't an easy road but it was well worth it.
"I wouldn't think it was possible," the female soldier muttered, looking up at the sky with a wistful smile. Kim couldn't help but smile herself; those were Ron's words exactly on the day of their wedding. He was seconded by several others, though they all had that same glinting in their eyes that, though they'd never thought it possible, they also believed it inevitable. Hego made a completely different comment, something along the lines that their relationship stood a snowball's chance in Hell. No one really backed him up though and not even Mr. Stoppable knew how to calculate that sort of probability. Anyway, the soldier's comment is directed at the weather, not a wedding. "Never thought I'd see a hail storm in the middle of May. The rain I can believe, but not the hail."
"The rain is uncommon too," the linguist chimes in while looking around, somewhat in fear of the harsh wind blowing the tiny guard shack and causing the entire structure to tremble. Kim didn't even react, thinking about how things that 'weren't supposed to happen' always found a way to manifest themselves. Perhaps it was wistful thinking, but the redhead liked to imagine that those old stories of how true love always found a way to prevail were rather accurate. She'd seen it with her own eyes, like the hail storm, the 'impossible' could happen in the blink of an eye. Guess anything is possible for just about anything, not just a Possible.
"This country continues to confuse me." The soldier replies with a chuckle, returning her attention to the yard below. Bright green eyes move to follow her gaze but are instead drawn upward, out the window, to admire the swirling clouds, the falling mixture of rain and hail, plus the sparse lightning darting from cloud to cloud. A strange storm indeed but beautiful in its power. There were times, it seemed, that Mother Nature appeared bound and determined to remind Humankind of her brilliance and power, her strength and wisdom, her sheer majesty. There were times when Shego did the same, and when Kim managed to mimic it as well, a quirk the two shared and would remark about often. Sometimes it was a competition between them- some things never faded from their unorthodox relationship- but mostly, it was admiration and appreciation. "Finally on lockdown! Now we can-"
Suddenly, the rain and hail stopped, the storm completely passing as the sun broke through the clouds and instantly started shining down on the tower.
"Well, there went the severe weather... looks like we'll return to normal operations any minute now." Kim frowned at that. She had been enjoying the storm somewhat, the quiet time it gave her to reflect on a life lived to the fullest in the strangest of ways. As a teenager, Kim Possible had traveled the world, been places most people only dreamed of, and fought battles most could only imagine. Now a woman grown, Kim was still finding unexpected joys in the simplest of things, like the sudden storm and going to the movies on 'date night'. Maybe it was a bit antithetical to what most seem to think but, after all the death rays and aliens, the most mundane ways of expressing affection seemed to do wonders for the redhead. Her reverie was broken at the sudden jolting that vibrated through the tower, the telltale sign that someone was climbing the steps. Of course, it was the Sergeant from earlier.
"Miss Possible, we're ready to commence the operation, now that the storm has passed," he seemed in good spirits, probably ready to do anything but pull guard duty. Bright green eyes returned to the sky, squinting slightly against the bright sunlight, before Kim's lips quirked up in a slight smile.
"I'm sorry, Sergeant, but there's been a change of plans," Kim abruptly stood up, exiting the tower and heading towards the stairs, brushing past both the soldier on guard duty and the Sergeant. "You'll have to wait until someone else gets here; I have something else to attend to."
"Uh, um, okay? Uh, Ma'am," the Sergeant stumbled over his words, looking to the female soldier with the shotgun for some sort of explanation. She gave him the only one she could.
"Sergeant, no shit, chicks are crazy."
Kim, however, wasn't crazy. Just realistic. And perhaps a little overly sentimental. Activating the Kimmunicator on her wrist, the redhead quickly informed Dr. Director that she needed to send Will Du or some other agent to dispatch the Seniors. They weren't really that bad anyway, just a bit overzealous in their attempts to do anything for whatever 'evil' reason they chose to use. Kid's stuff; she'd never really been in any dire situations with those two, surely a GJ agent could handle them no problem.
Then she called the person who really mattered.
"Princess?" Shego seemed just as surprised by the call as Dr. Director had been. "I thought you were on radio silence for a few more hours."
"Change of plans; I'm coming home," Kim spoke in her 'there's no way you're talking me out of this' voice. Shego had learned long ago about that tone and just how stubborn the redhead could be, when the situation demanded it. "Is your mission over?"
"Yeah, just got back, actually," Shego paused, obviously worried. "Kim, are you okay?"
The redhead stopped then and looked up at the now cloudless sky, a smile on her lips. "Yeah, Babe, I'm alright. Just... realized a few things."
"Oh?" Kim didn't need to see the woman's face to know she was blushing, at least a little; the older woman still hadn't gotten used to the pet names Kim had chosen for her beloved wife. Of course, there were more embarrassing ones, ones used only in private, but those would be used, well, later. Namely, once Kim was home. "What did you realize?"
Kim stopped walking, thinking over what answer to give Shego. She'd noticed a lot of things about the hail storm and how it metaphorically fit her marriage: unexpected, far from normal, and beautiful. Yet what really hit her, what had prompted her sudden departure, was that the hail storm, like life itself, was fleeting. Over before one could really grasp what was going on to begin with. That seemed a little too heavy a concept to relay over a tiny radio, no matter how advanced. Plus, Kim could gush for hours about how much she cared for her wife and their life together. That was precious time she could spend getting home to said wife. "I'll tell you when I get home. See you in a few hours."
"More like half a day, Princess," Shego chuckled, letting the issue rest for the time being.
"I'll bend the laws of physics if I have to; I'll be there as soon as I can," Kim started moving again, already determining who and where she needed to find in order to get home quickly. "I love you, Shego."
"Love you too, Kim." Shego only used Kim's name in that sense, to express her adoration of the younger woman, in all its forms. Kim smiled at that.
It was true. Kim loved Shego; Shego loved Kim. Strange as it may seem, bewildering as it may be, unpredictable and so nearly impossible, it was just how things played out, and for the best, one might add. Despite thier snowball's chance in Hell, it had happened, they had happened. And Kim wanted to be there to witness every minute of it. Shego's love, Kim's love, their love, was just one of those things you had to see to believe.
Just like a hail storm in May.
Author's Note: Yet another little drabble that came from a random thought and about an hour of typing. Because of its origins, (and Kim's moment of 'screw being selfless, I want Shego!') I'm going to classify this as part of the Poisoned Rationality Universe but it can double as a simple one shot.
I promise I'm working on everything else I have going; I just had the urge to write this real quick and acted on it. I have terrible impulse control, apparently. So shoot me? Oh, and yes, there was a hail storm in Iraq today, didn't make that part up. Some things are so strange, you just can't make them up!