Author Notes (image)

Commissioned that nice little cover pic from a Miss Martina Guarino. It's actually bigger than that, but cuts it off a bit. I'm planning on commissioning her again~

DKDKDKDK

Nine years, seven months, three weeks, and a handful of days. That was how long Drew had known Kimberly and her best friend. He knew this because he'd taken care to memorize the day that he first met his arch-foe for when he would eventually be victorious to hang over their heads.

His chest panged in a weird flip-flop way at that thought; as he'd learned to do from experience and some practice, he shoved it aside and swallowed down the bad feeling it made in his throat, all the while telling himself that it wasn't like that anymore. What did it matter what he used to think? The mad scientist he had been was gone, replaced with...well, another mad scientist, but one that was decidedly less villain-y.

Being 'good' came with strange side effects as he'd found out rather quickly. People didn't scootch away from him on the rare occasion that he was in public. Do-gooder agents from organizations such as Global Justice stopped jumping out of bushes to try and nab him. He was occasionally stopped by random people that wanted his autograph for his work during that incident with the Lorwardians. And relationships with certain people changed.

Shego was...gone. Even that brief thought was enough to, as the blond sidekick had said once in reference to his new relationship status, 'rustle his jimmies'.

That blond guy now joined him on weekends to play Pathquestor. He was still the distraction, much to the younger man's obvious annoyance. Really, what did he expect when he created characters that specialized in illusions or stealthy shenanigans? At least Dementor varied his characters enough to fill in a bunch of different roles in the group!

Dementor was just as annoying as always. There was a modicum more respect in their interactions. Somehow. It would've taken some fancy scanning electron microscopy to measure it, and even then Drew felt that it would appear as a thin, flat thread that lacked substance. It was there all the same at least, which was better than what he could say about the rest of the villain community. As for the hero community and the goody two-shoes groups, they were receiving him better than he had thought they would.

Betty had made some rather, er, forward offers, but he knew better than to get involved with that hornet's nest. Goodness knows that he'd heard Gemini grumble about killing any suitors enough to dissuade any thoughts of that kind. Otherwise Drew's interactions with the more savory characters and groups were less forward and more welcoming. Well, save for some of the more scientific groups who still claimed that mad science wasn't science. But at least he could talk (and occasionally yell) with them on the points.

James and himself were on better speaking terms. He still found James' insistence on canonical shipping in their shared science fiction interests annoying to the point of heated arguments. Other than that, they could at least be in the same room without barbs being thrown back and forth. Which was good, since he and Kimberly...

Drew glanced down briefly to look at the tuft of red hair laying against his chest. The changes in his and Kimberly's relationship had been gradual and, if he was honest with himself, a touch awkward. Hatred had cooled to annoyance in that last year of her secondary schooling. Annoyance had turned to tolerance with their continued contact from the fallout from the Lorwardian incident. Tolerance turned to a strange mixture of understanding and curiosity as they continued to rub elbows from their mutual acquaintances. And that...well...

He stroked her along her side, his hand dragging the material of her shirt a bit, knowing after far more trial and error than he'd care to admit that it was one of several things that she enjoyed during their now non-hostile time together. Just as Drew had predicted, she lightly moaned in pleasure at the touch. And just as he was starting to predict accurately, the strange feeling in his chest bubbled with her noises.

Drew had thought a lot about this strange blob in his chest, trying to dissect just what it might be ever since it started up a few months ago, just before himself and Kimberly had, as the sidekick had put it, upgraded their relationship. There was a pattern to it, one that he was starting to carefully map out with the same analytical precision that he gave any project that he worked on.

It was agitated whenever he was around Kimberly, or thought about her. Whenever he thought about their shared past, it was a mixture of warmth, some kind of painful prickles that he thought might be guilt, and a pinch of the familiar emotion of frustration. That made it even more frustrating; he knew it was a new feeling, but the fact that it changed how he felt about past feelings completely threw him for a loop!

She shifted against him on his oversized couch, tucking her head into his shoulder more as the bland whatever movie played. Drew was pretty sure the film involved some kind of time-traveling letter and a mailbox with a wormhole or something. It was rather hard to pay attention to it with him thinking as hard as he was. His attention was eaten even more as some of her hair brushed against his face, causing the blob to quiver with a delight that made him almost shiver.

It felt squishy. Squishy and warm. He had faint inklings of something that resembled this, back when he was a still-awkward and hopeful teenager. It also somewhat resembled the feeling he got when he occasionally witnessed his mother spout off on how proud she was of him. Not quite that feeling, though. If he thought really hard about it, he remembered feeling a ghost of this feeling back when Shego was with him, before she-

He cut that thought off, instead trying to focus on the feeling in his chest, trying to forget the pain from before. It was quickly accomplished with a glance to his left, where Kimberly was curled up against him. He must have started to tense up as he felt his body begin to relax. The redhead had turned her head to give him a querying glance, letting him know that she had noticed. He answered with a frustrated grunt.

"Not enjoying the movie?" she asked, sitting up a little to look at him. Kimberly sounded like she was teasing, though to Drew's knowing ear he could hear the whisper of concern in the words. He knew it was because he had, for a reason he still had no explanation for that must be connected to the feeling, let her pick the movie for tonight. Because she'd had a bad day involving some old high school evil prep gone supervillain.

Normally he didn't care about anyone's day but his own, especially before he joined the goody-goods. But the way she'd been acting, the things she'd said-frustration, anger, a tremor in her tone that betrayed something a bit more-had triggered something in his brain and chest. He'd felt...it wasn't anger, not really, but it was something related to that and the bubbly feeling mixed with a touch of concern. For her, again, not him. And so he let her pick a movie even though he hated most of the movies she picked out.

He knew this was out of character for him, and he knew she knew it was out of character for him. Even then, they both continued on as if it wasn't out of the ordinary, as if there wasn't something weird about him doing that. But now here she was, trying to hide her own worry about her day to give him the option to go back to the norm and be his usual selfish self.

A chill went through him at that thought, the cold settling in his stomach under the warmth as he considered his usual selfish self.

"I'm...er...just thinking. Hard. About stuff," he heard himself answer as he began to pout a little. The pouting helped him to ignore the little voice in his head saying that yes, they should change this terrible movie and put in one of the good, even-numbered Space Passage movies.

"Would you like to share with the rest of the class?" Kimberly straightened up more, giving him a lopsided look that told him that she was starting to get irritated. Probably because the last time he thought hard like this he ended up blowing up half a city block.

On accident, of course.

"Nnnnngh… I-it-it's personal." Her eyebrow raised a bit more, reminding him faintly of Shego for a moment before he dismissed it as ludicrous. In a rare moment of clarity, he continued, "I'm not comfortable talking about it. It's…er…" He trailed off as a flash of what he was pretty sure was hurt crossed her face.

The warm feeling suddenly felt like a knife going through the center of him.

Desperately scrabbling to think of what he could say to take that horrible expression off of her face, to remove the dagger from his chest, he hurriedly said, "I don't have it all the way figured out. I, I just...nnnngh… I-I DON'T UNDERSTAND MYSELF SOMETIMES!" Finished far louder and angrier than he'd intended. And the arm-waving and hair-tearing was certainly not necessary. It wasn't his fault; SHE was the one asking him about something that he still didn't have figured out! Yet he still felt-

Her expression shifted to one of confusion and something else. Drew didn't have time to analyze it, though, as she quickly shook her head and said in what he was pretty sure was some kind of fondness, "Drew, I'm sure that whatever it is you're thinking of will be easier to figure out the less you think about it." He raised his own eyebrow at that. "Have you ever had a puzzle that you just couldn't figure out no matter how hard you tried or thought about it?" Drew nodded tentatively, thinking back to the tangled puzzle that had been his Diablo plot. "How did you solve it?" This was something he would never, ever, ever tell Kimberly about; his plot only came together once he'd finally decided to listen to the inane ramblings of the buf-er, sidekick, and take things slower and easier. Things just fell into place after that. Probably should have kept that bit of advice and followed it to the letter.

"I, uh, stopped trying so hard?" It sounded lame to his ears, but Kimberly seemed to think it was the right answer if her nod said anything. He paused for a moment before raising his finger in protest. His words were stopped short when she looked up at the screen in some surprise before she almost forcibly curled up in his lap and looked up at the screen.

"My favorite part's coming up," she answered the unasked question. Drew paused again before letting his face settle into an annoyed scowl, crossing his arms over his chest and resuming his pout.

"You know, for a twenty-something know-it-all, you certainly seem to act like...well...you know it all," he grumbled. Feeling it needed some clarification, he gruffly added, "What I mean is that you sound like a wised old mother or something."

"Good! My mother is the wisest person I know, and the more I sound like her the more I must be maturing," she countered playfully.

He felt like he should be annoyed at that. If he was acting like his usual self, he would shove her off and slide over to the end of the couch. It was an annoying retort that he didn't have anything for.

To his surprise, Drew realized he didn't want to do anything like that and, more importantly, didn't feel like that. He didn't want to be and wasn't annoyed; instead he allowed himself a harrumph before letting his arms settle on her back as he considered her advice.

Stop trying so hard? It seemed ludicrous to him. The best way to figure out how anything worked was to take it apart and examine the parts. He thought about that for a second and dismissed the assertion. It wasn't always the best way to figure out how something worked. Sometimes you needed to watch parts working together to really know how something worked, like a clock.

So… He should try to examine the bigger picture. See how the parts all work together. Okay then. Drew could do that. The bigger picture. He tried to relax more, letting his scowl fall from his face as he considered what the 'bigger picture' concerning this feeling even was.

There was the feeling. There were things that influenced the feeling. The feeling changed some of his thinking. He was doing things that he would have never done before, such as the movie and not getting upset at getting mocked. No, not mocked. She was teasing him…

Wait.

His forehead crinkled as he examined that correction. How did he know she was teasing him? Why didn't it feel like she was mocking him anymore? Everyone mocked, laughed at, or was sarcastic at him, always. Harsh laughs, vicious smirks, and hurtful scoffing were all he heard when it came to 'joking' related to him.

...when was the last time Kimberly had done any of those? She never really truly harshly laughed at him, but she had certainly thrown her share of smirks and scoffs at him. As far as he could remember in the last couple of years, though, there hadn't really been any sort of mocking, hurtful words from her, or even their shared acquaintances. In fact, when she or they laughed with him around, it was rather...nice. He didn't feel like a target; if anything, he felt like an actual member of a group, enjoying something together with her and their mutual acquaintances.

Was this what it was like to be part of a group? He'd never considered it before. When he had been with his posse, it was more for the convenience of being in a large group that discouraged bullies. The one time he tried to do something generous using his prodigious talents and limited resources, they had mocked him into isolation for over a decade. If he were to ever do that now with his acquaintances and Kimberly, at least one of them would try to track him down and check on him within a week at the most. ...and vice-versa.

It was then Drew realized that he and his posse had never been friends. Even more shocking, he realized that the people that he continuously called acquaintances were actually friends. And to put the shockingly tart cherry on top of it, he finally noticed that he repeatedly separated Kimberly from their shared group of acqu-friends. She was a friend, no doubt about that, but there was something...more...there, beyond friend. She was his girlfriend, but that still had the word friend in it! What was there beyond girlfriend that wasn't married?

Mar...ry…?

SNK!

Syntax Error Code 1337-101.

Drew has stopped responding to input commands. Reboot? Y/N

...

A hand slid through his field of vision, snapping him out of his sudden blue screen.

"Drew…?" Kimberly trailed off. He looked at her owlishly, now noticing that the movie had finished. She was standing in front of him, concern etched on every corner of her face. "Are you okay? You just.. You froze up. I was trying to ask you if you even caught the end of the movie." She bit her lip for a second before asking in a sterner tone, "You aren't trying to mentally map out a 5th dimensional object again, are you? I don't think I need to remind you about what happened last time…"

She didn't. It had been embarrassing enough to have Dementor of all people talk him down at that physics convention with his sudden maddened ranting about Atlantis being hidden in an ultradimensional space.

"I'm fine," his voice said in a manner reminiscent of the time he had gotten slammed into the side of that mountain during his concentrated mind control formula scheme. Traces of frustration flitted through his head, driving him to suddenly smack himself across the face. He cried out in pain, his mind more solidly taking hold of his body, before answering more strongly, "I'm fine!"

She had backed up a step. Kimberly tilted her head and asked, "Are you sure?" The doubt in her voice and the sudden tension from his slap made him even more frustrated.

"Yes I'm fine! And I'm not mapping out any fifth dimensional objects! I'm just, erm, having very...heavy thoughts, dog."

His hip-hop words were unintentionally added, but they served to break the tension as Kimberly repeated his last word. "Dog? Trying to string together another rap?" More teasing, something which he suddenly decided to play along with.

"No! The bu-uddy beat me last time." He chuckled. "Why even try to compete with something that was so superior to my own work? What was the tune…? Na na na nanana na nanana?"

Kimberly looked...surprised?...before giving him one of the biggest smiles he could ever remember her ever giving him. His chest swelled with warmth. "Something like that. Ron certainly did something with that. Not sure I would call it 'superior'." She walked over to the wall where the rock was opened up to reveal his hidden movie collection, some of which were actually her movies added a few at a time. "What did you want to watch next?"

"Next?" This confused him. They always watched one movie and only one. With their busy schedules, it was hard enough to manage to get private time together. On top of that, even with his hovercar it took a full three hours to drive her back to the campus of her school. If they watched another movie, she wouldn't be able to get back in time to do any meaningful studying that weekend. Wondering if she might have forgotten about how late it was, he inquired, "Kimberly, need I remind you of the time?"

"I know what time it is." She continued to browse the movies, apparently forgetting that she offered to let him pick.

"Then you know that there isn't time-"

"I want to stay the night."

The following silence was loud enough to nearly make Drew deaf.

"You…?" he trailed off hesitantly.

"Surprised?" She grabbed a movie from the shelf and walked back over.

"You-you-you didn't even-how can I-I don't have anything ready!" His mind began panicking, thinking on all of the things that he didn't do that might make her upset. The bathroom still had his pajamas all over the floor! The fridge was mostly empty; how could she have a late-night snack with nothing in there?! The guest room sheets hadn't been washed for at least a week, and he bet that it was horribly dusty in there!

"Guest room?" Kimberly's brow furrowed in confusion as he suddenly realized that he'd shouted-not said, shouted-all of his worries at her. "Drew, why do you think I would stay in the guest room…? Unless…" She suddenly looked uncertain, ducking her shoulders and looking away. "Yeah, I guess I did spring this on you. I can understand not wanting to move that fast." The next part was muttered, but he managed to hear her clearly all the same. "Sleeping in the same bed is a big step…"

Same...bed…? Suddenly, Drew felt like he was about to shut out a good big step in a direction that might lead to even better things. He did entertain the thought that it was too fast, but the rest of him squished it flat. It wasn't like he was a good judge for relationship stuff! Kimberly clearly thought that they had reached a good point in their relationship to do, erm, shared sleeping. Together. Sleeping.

Kimberly had turned to put the video back on the shelf. He wasn't about to let this slip away. Just as she was lifting it up to slip it into its spot, she found it snatched from her grip by a leafy tendril. She looked back to Drew, watching him as he took the video from its grip and looked at it.

"Space Passage II: The Fury of Jaan?" He looked at her, surprised once again at her knowledge of Space Passage films. "You have actual good taste in Space Passage movies!"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't really my choice. Know everything about the show; hate everything about it, too."

To his chagrin, he gave her a questioning eyebrow.

"My dad...it's a long story," she said, shaking her head. "Anyway…" Her head ducked again; she looked up at him through her short curtain of hair. "You… You want to watch that?"

"Well duh!" Drew said with some force. A little too much force he realized when she had a flash of a challenge in her gaze. Backpedaling, he continued, "Er, I mean, well, you, erm, clearly have more experience than I do. With people. And relationsh-nnnnngh, together stuff. If…" He had to look away at this part, the flutter in his chest letting him know that if she changed her mind, it wouldn't be silent on the matter. "If you think we can… Do something like sleeping together to sleep…" His face felt hot, but the rest of him was cold. Was he getting sick?

He was torn from the beginnings of his health musings by hands lifting his face up. The thoughts were quickly lost when soft, gentle lips met his, drawing him into a chest-melting, head-spinning kiss. To his great regret, she broke the kiss only a few seconds later and rested her forehead against his.

"I would love to spend the night here with you," Kimberly answered. His chest flipped strangely at something she had said or the way she'd said it, but he became far more distracted by the blob in his chest coming to life and bursting through his veins like their blond friend charging toward a nearby Bueno Nacho.

The feeling was still a mystery to him. Drew couldn't say for certain what it was, not now anyway. Whatever it was, all parts of him agreed that it was good. He wanted to feel more of it, especially when it blurbled into the rest of him like some kind of stream and made everything tingle with hints of pleasure and fulfillment.

Fulfillment? Oh, that's another part that he just identified! The rare, filling feeling that came from doing something meaningful. Only part of it, but another piece to the puzzle was a good thing. Thinking less intensely on it actually seemed to be working. He was certain that if he could get all the clues together and figure out what it was, there would be a turning point for him.

He would figure it out eventually. For now, he would just enjoy the night with his girlfriend.

Author's Notes

Ron, Dementor, Drakken, Cousin Larry, and Ron Reger all play Pathquestor together. Drakken loves being an alchemist.

James' denial about the captain and the science officer's obvious attraction annoys Drakken to no end. Clearly it exists or else there wouldn't BE such an episode as the mating one. *shifty eyes*

Kim's hair is cut short like her picture in the 'future' thing where she's the head of GJ, which is why it's a tuft and a short curtain.

Monique would stop by later after a quick message from Kim with a change of clothes. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment decision, so Kim wasn't ready for it either. Good thing it's the weekend. At least she can slip in some studying on the fly back from Drew's place.