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Encounters.

A Kim Possible fanfiction by Shaggley

Part 2

The woman stood still for a moment, like thinking how to answer that question; then she spoke slowly, weighing each letter.

"Angela."

The girl opened her mouth slightly, and pierced her gaze into that of the woman; she remained like this for a couple of minutes, before nictitating and letting her mouth opening in a strange smile, half sad, half surprised.

"I understand."

They remained silent for still more minutes, while the reddish colour of the sky shaded darker and the light became more and more dim, and the outlines of houses became those of apartment blocks and churches. They were approaching the downtown of Rome.

It was the girl who started talking again, this time.

"Well... you shouldn't be so hard with your friend, you know. She surely suffered a lot for quitting with her family. And maybe even... more so, if she resigned from the work she wanted so hard to achieve. Maybe it wasn't entirely her fault, you know."

The woman chuckled.

"Don't say. No, she was just too stupid to understand who she was losing, and too afraid to see again the events that took herdown happening to another person. She fled, like she had always done."

"Maybe she fled because she didn't feel understood and cared. Maybe people around her where taking her for granted."

The woman narrowed her eyes, more in interest to this new point of view than annoying.

"What are you saying?"

The girl shuddered, her cheeks a little flushed in the setting sun's light.

"It's... it's like what happened with Kim. She thought that everything in her life was granted, even her friends, even her boyfriend. She thought that she hadn't to win them day after day, that they will always be there for her, no matter what."

"It's normal."

Commented the woman, again putting her head on her finger.

"It' unjust. She thought that just because she knew better she wasbetter. And being better came with don't asking herself questions, painful questions about who she really was, what she really wanted. And that day, the day of the Lil' Diablo accident, she took the easy way."

She paused.

"She tried to murder the one who was causing her so many question; she tried to murder her future. Or, at least, one possible future."

She paused again, hands opened on her lap, her gaze lost.

"And when she tried to... reconcile with that future, she just couldn't get past what she had tried to do and wha... who she had become in the process, what she had discovered about herself, and the reaction of... other to it. Can you forgive something like that? Because surely I cannot."

She sighed.
The woman stood silent for a second, then, moving slowly, put one of her hands on the girl's knuckle.

"In time, yes. And if this friend will be wise and mature enough to say this to you by her own will, you will know that she had understood it already."

The girl locked her aquamarine gaze into the older woman's black one.

"She was just a spoiled brat."

The woman nodded, smiling slightly.

"She sure was. I bet she was as annoying as hell. But I can say she was good enough to come here to search for her. I wouldn't have done anything different."

She paused a little, and bowed her head.

"Even if... Angela maybe is not worth it."

"She is."

The girl responded. She had took the hand the woman had put on her knuckle into her own.

"When you flee, like your friend did, it means that no one actually stood there really caring for you; that no one was actually able to show you how much really you were their centre, their foundation of strength, and that when you fled it was for their fault, not just yours."

The girl started to shake the woman's wrist, when the light of the sun was disappearing and the train was entering in the actual city, just a couple of kilometers from stopping in its tracks.
The woman shook her head, her eyes redder and redder as the sky was becoming grayer and grayer.

"She was just too stubborn and stupid to ask... to ask how someone could feel, and she couldn't help anyway. She's lost. She fled, and didn't nothing but that."

The girl's grip on the woman's wrist got stronger.

"She didn't flee: right now, right here, she didn't flee. When she could, she didn't flee. And if she had been able to... to..."

The girl's hand were shaking now.

"...to forgive me for wanting to kill her, I can forgive you for fleeing!"

The woman opened her eyes wide, letting the tears flowing freely.

"I... don't..."

"I want to try again! I want to come back together and this time I want to let the world know! I want to see Ron's face and I want to see the shock in my mother's eyes and I want to see my dad faint and I want to see my head on newspaper screaming things like 'Kim Possible, the Teenage Lesbian Hero'... " she gulped, the emotions clashing together in her throat.

The train started slowing down.

"... I want to see you when you wake in the morning. I want you to be the very last thing I see when I fall asleep. I want you to hold my hands in the evening and I want to repeat at your remarks and I want you to start again calling me Princess and Cupcake and Pumpkin, and I want the world knowing it, and I want you to show me the way, because sure as hell I cannot walk that path by myself!"

The woman stood silent again, dumbstruck. Then she slowly came closer and freed her hands, putting them on the girl's shoulder; she shifted them on her back and closed the girl in a tight embrace.

"I'm. Sorry. I'm sorry."
Cringed the girl said between shudders.

The girl returned the embrace, passing her hands on the other's back. She started smiling behind a veil of tears; she raised he head and put her nose on the other woman's.

"I am too."

There was the noise of the train's brakes starting to moan over the tracks, the rustling of passengers grabbing their luggage. The girl asked again, her voice broken.

"Can... can we start it all over again? No more secrets, No more hiding. I promise."

She passed her thumb over the woman's cheek, cleaning layers of foundation in a single move, and showing the pale green skin beneath.

The speaker announced their arrival at Roma Termini, still in that Frank Sinatra-like voice; both women chuckled at the funny tone, shudders of sorrow confusing with spasms of amusement and joy, their lips curled, their eyes watering.

The woman closed her eyes again; this time, it was in bliss.

"No more hiding."

And with those words,the train stopped; Shego took Kim's head into her hands, and put her lips on hers.

And that's the end.

But even if it's the end of this story, there's still something I want to show you - next chapter, guys.

Really hope you liked it - if you did, please let me know.
And if you didn't and want to show why, definitely let me know.

A presto.