Disclaimer: Wherein the author is adamant in the fact that they own nothing to do with the story, except possibly the angle for the story.
My jaw can't get any lower at the moment. I mean, that can't be true! A thief? A master thief? That's just impossible! I'd remember something like tha-
Wait. I don't remember anything at all.
I close my mouth with a lot of effort, and compose myself as best I can, sipping as I think. This could very well be true... but how would I know? She's got to show me proof... I can't just take her word for it. I raise my point to her, and she laughs. Laughs! At me! Not that I know who I am...
"It's a lot to process, I know. I'll get you that proof, but don't worry about it for now, cupcake, because I'm going to need to re-teach you some important stuff, and we need you at top physical condition again." She reaches for my hand, and begins playing with my palm. "Just worry about getting better for now, ya?"
I nod mutely, watching and feeling everything that she's doing with my hand. There's that comfortable silence again, with her concentrating on my hand, and me too... puzzled? amused? to want to interrupt her.
Her sudden jump onto her feet made me double take. She's out the door, leaving me alone with ... I think she'd said something about food. At the thought of something to eat, my stomach abruptly rumbles loudly. She'd mentioned a few months without drinking liquids... that means months without eating anything, right? So I'm hooked up to an IV... I didn't notice that the first time I looked around.
I move some pillows to support my back... I'd gotten uncomfortable. As I finish, my stranger-frie... Shego walks back in with a tray of food. It looks like fruit, some sandwich thing, and soup. Before I have time to think, she tosses an apple at me... and I catch it, too. I stare at the thing; I didn't even ... I just reacted! I look over at her, and she smiles genuinely, not smirky like the first couple times.
"Your reflexes are still amazing... that's a good sign." Oh, so it was a test. That makes sense... and you'd need reflexes if you're a thief, I'd imagine. I go to eat the apple, but before I can eat it, it's not in my hand anymore. I glare at her as she plays with it. She'd taken it from right under my nose! "Thief, remember? Besides, soup first, then the sandwich, and by then I'll have the apple and other fruit ready for you, okay?" I grudgingly agree, and when I'm finished the chicken noodle soup and the chicken salad sandwich (obsession with chickens?), she has the apple peeled and in slices, the orange cut, and the grapes off the vine.
Just as I reach for a slice of apple, she slaps my hand away. "What? Why not? I finished my soup! and the sandwich! And you said!1" I pause... I'm acting like ... How embarrassing. I can feel my cheeks getting warm. I even have her looking at me like I'm being a petulant child! CHANGE OF TOPIC! "By the way, do you have some freakish obsession with poultry? I mean, there was chicken in the sandwich and the soup..."
She looks at my ever reddening face, and laughs. "No, I don't, and... as for why? I want to feed my girlfriend. Is that allowed?"
Hold the phone. Girlfriend? As in romantic-person-of-interest? Sweetheart of the female persuasion? Oh. "I... thought those fruit things were for me...?" She nods, evidently amused. "So they're for me... so..." I pause as the puzzle pieces come together slowly in my head. "I'm... your girlfriend?"
She smiles warmly, making that Doy noise again, and holds out a piece of apple, which I take with an eager mouth. "Well, you were before the accident. I'd like to think you'd like to continue it... I won't push." I swallow, and open my mouth again, acting like an underfed baby bird. She chuckles and holds out another piece of fruit. As I chew, she continues. "We can go slow, of course... Since you don't remember anything. Slow is good... you may end up hating me for the physical conditioning we'll have to go through later anyways..."
She seems to be winding down... to sadness, and I'm not sure why. "Is... it a bad thing to be your girlfriend? I'm willing to try... I mean, I'm already your partner in crime, apparently, so this isn't that much different, right? You fed me with poultry, and you seemed sad when I wasn't waking up... and you're the only person I've seen so far, so I'm sure you're a good person." I mean, none of my other... friends, I guess, or even family, have shown up to visit. Sure, I've only been awake for a couple of hours, but still...
She smiles at me as I think, chewing another piece of fruit thoughtfully. "Where are we, by the way?"
"Underground. It's our safe house... a couple months ago, one of our targets didn't go as planned, and ... I guess you hit your head. I didn't see for sure, but alls I know was that you didn't get up when I moved you. Didn't for a long time."
"Oh."
The silence is awkward this time, and I can see she's getting a little uncomfortable, so I smile at her. "What was the accident anyway? What was the target?"
"There was some big expo, and all these rare antiques and stuff were making there way around the country. We decided to be, well, us, and take one item at each of its stops. You said something about how the increase of security after each hit would exponentially increase the challenge for the next location..." I look at her blankly, and she chuckles. "Yeah, I didn't understand it either... but things started getting challenging after the fifteenth hit, and by the time we got to the twenty-fifth location, they'd caught on to our antics, and we got separated..."
She swallows hard, and I grab her hand, squeezing lightly. "When I realized your weren't with me, I got scared, and doubled-back to find you..."
Shego ran hard, searching frantically with her eyes for any movement in the distance, any flash of colour, ANYTHING! that would let her know where her partner was. She didn't care about the guards, she'd stopped them pretty quickly after realizing that Cam wasn't with her. She knew that Cam should be able to take care of herself, but... these men had some pretty high-tech weaponry that they hadn't seen before.
On one hand, Shego was kind of happy about that, because that meant that the world was watching. It would be on the news! 'Shego and Camellia, the internationally wanted master thieves, strike again!' That would get them publicity... again. And the expo people knew they were being toyed with; if they'd wanted, they could have taken everything that first time... but the increasing challenge was good for them. Kept both of them on their toes.
But where the hell was Cam? Shego was on the verge of panicking, so... It'd be nice to find Cam. Really. For the sake of her sanity.
Over the wind howling by her ears, due to her speed, Shego heard a squelching fleshy sound, and turned towards it. She knew that sound: the sound of a weak downed thing being tortured and hurt. She's heard it from the source before, and hated it. She found herself at an alleyway, because that's totally cliche, and...
Cam was on the floor, and the men were standing around her, with sneers on their faces. That wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be the men on the ground, with Cam standing triumphantly. There'd be a happy "I won! It's no big!" from her, a happy embrace, but... nothing. Not this time.
Shego saw red. It wasn't a pretty red either... and it quickly became green. Those men wouldn't stand a chance.
When it was all said and done, Shego checked on her partner... the squelching sound had come from kicks to the head. Monsters who got what was coming to them. She gingerly picked Cam up, and carried her away... praying to any higher power that Cam would wake up... and soon.
"Thank God you were there! But... green?"
She holds up her hand, and suddenly there's green glowing vapor-thing flowing around it. I go to touch it, and... it's warm, and I can feel it slithering around my fingers, almost like a caress.
"Wow..."
There's really no other word for it.
"Like my plasma, princess?" I nod wordlessly, completely in awe of this amazing beautiful writhing green... thing. I interlock our fingers, reveling in the caress of her... plasma. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her relax from the tense stressed position she'd been holding since she started telling me about what happened. There's a shrug, and she says, "I just turned it on full destructivity, and... well... they got what was coming to them." She smirks at me. "Your butt always needs saving when I'm around, Princess."
I look up at her, and blink innocently. "Oh really? From who?"
There's a wolfish smile, and I swear she looks like the cat ate the canary. She's leaning forward, and if she thinks I don't see this coming from a mile away, she's insane. I initiated it, I'm the one using blatant innuendo. And she's bad to the bone, obviously, in a good way. As bad as me, I should think. It hurts to be predictable...
The closer she gets, the harder it is for me to keep a wry grin off of my face. When her lips are millimeters from mine, she huskily whispers, "Me..." and softly, tenderly, kisses me.
I just said I could see this from a mile away. I never said it wouldn't blow me away anyway. I can't breathe much when we're sharing the same breath.
A/N: Oh! Hi! Um... Yes. An update. Yay me!
If you're following Veronica Shih... I'll have something up for that soon. The third chapter's half done, I'm just trying to see how to write this particular section I'm stuck at... But I should be all good soon. Also, I'm moving soon, and I have to set up internet and... stuff. The good news about that is that I get to write more without internet til I get internet. The bad news is that I can't come on to update... until I get internet. Or access free wifi.
For the record, I hate plot exposition as much as the next reader, so... I wanna get into the action soon on this one. I hate set up... Hopefully with more action comes longer chapters.
In the Next Chapter:I actually have no clue. Leave a comment letting me know how it should continue... But... nothing too steamy, since I"m not all that sure I can write that just yet... If I use your idea, you get a shout out! And one billion theoretical dollars, and maybe even some theoretical muffins...
