One week Later...
An echo reverberated around her mind. The soft whispers of thank yous that had left Pumpkin's lips as they lay on the roof cut through her thoughts. The fierceness of the hug Kimmie had been giving her in the air and on the roof could still be felt on her body. All over her body. Inside and out, her body remembered Pumpkin just as her mind tried to push those very feelings out. They would do her no good in the life she had chosen.
And there was the crux of the problem. Shego had so much she wanted to say to Kimmie. And their positioning at polar opposites of the law, which once would have thrilled Shego, now left her a little forlorn. Sure she could tear after Kim Possible and vow to have her, to corrupt her even.
But Shego was all bark and no bite really as a villain these days. She could maim, thwart, thieve, fight but she had never actually killed. She knew her morals had not been entirely corrupted and with the pardon she and Drakken had received after the aliens were whipped, she wasn't as enthusiastic as she had let on to resume their crime spree and take over the world. She had a clean slate now and just needed the push to move on, change gears. And when that little gear clicked into action it brought about the beginning of that dreaded term: resolution.
When she had abandoned Team Go, it is generally agreed that the brains of the Team went with her. She had been the glue that bound the family of superheroes together. But they had all been so impossibly young for Hego's plan. She was just a teenager, a freak of nature and the most obviously different from the others. There was no easy alter ego for her because she was always green. The make up she had to apply for anonymity seemed like a betrayal of her true self and the growing pains of the angst ridden teenage years left their mark and made her run from Go Tower as her anger flared and took control. Hego and Mego had been insufferable and the Wegos had their moments that made her feel hemmed in to Hego's plan for her entire life. For what? To save the world? Bah! People were not worth saving. They were always after something. Even the opposite sex were a series of failed attempts at intimacy and women just hated her. She'd been outside from the start. It suited her.
She was older now, had had experience with the opposite sex but not a lot in the ways of the heart. Her lovers had been in the villain category as men from the general populace had only seen her as a hero or villain and most of all green. Villains were a little more forward thinking and saw woman with beauty and power and they worshipped at her feet. This type of meaningless intimacy was all rather too easy though and she was aware that she'd never connected with one person before.
Shego never trusted herself enough to let go and usually was the first to take off at first light. Now, however, she was pausing to consider love. It really did take the wind out of her sails, the barbed wire from her tongue. She didn't want to admit it and though she tried to fight it, something was growing in her heart. A fire of sorts for a certain red-headed beauty, another woman. This threw Shego for a loop. Not that she might be in love with another woman but why that had never occurred to her years before this. And Kimmie was so young. She didn't like that fact either. Perhaps it was something just about Kim. All the times she had foiled Drakken, had escaped deadly perils before her. She thought of the embarrassment potion Dr. D had cooked up and how she had delighted in torturing Kim. She also remembered some sound whupping being served to her too. Yet again, Kim succeeded but Shego never doubted she would. Even when she was just a head, she had been formidable against the embarrassment ninjas who really were the embarrassment.
What could she offer Kim? Trouble with a large S for Serious. How would she go about it? Telling her nemesis she was attracted to her? It was unbearable to think about it and made Shego boiling mad. So mad she fried a few items of furniture in her immediate vicinity. It was ludicrous to think that Kimmie would return the feelings. It was insane to think that her parents would approve and it was madness to think that the world would understand. Her mind started throwing up the possibilities: A hero with a thief. Kim would be ridiculed and no longer trusted to make decisions. A hero with an ex-thief? It was a possibility. A hero with an ex-hero? Sounded a little better but made her sound ancient like she'd retired or something. A hero with a hero. That sounded about right. But could she go back to that life? Sure her brothers were older now. She'd even had a few run-ins with them with Kimmie tagging along.
The best bet was to go to Go Tower and check things out. Maybe they could reform. She did have that pardon after all. The general public saw her as a kind of hero again. Drakken hadn't gone public with his idiot plans yet though the underworld knew well he'd gone back to the dark side since the petals had stopped sprouting around his neck and as Senor Senor Senior was once heard to say that a villain is known by the excessive force of his retribution. Drakken hated the world and nothing had changed that. But she owed Drakken nothing. She was a hired mercenary, she could walk away.
So a hero with a hero was the way to go. Getting on pumpkin's parents' good side also a good way to go…earning Dufus boy's respect would help but she could not be bothered by that yawnsome task. And what exactly did she want from Kim? Love, Marriage, friendship, companionship, a future?
Yes a future which included proximity and love and more of that goofy grin. She also needed an older Kim. One who'd been to university, who'd made her own decision about where and what to study not influenced by a partner's proximity. She almost laughed at her certainty that Kim would feel the same. It made her pause and take a look at herself. Was she worth waiting for? Kim would probably meet someone in college and then what? Should she tell her then how she felt? Probably. But first things first. Her jet was in pieces. One huge IOU from Kimmie should do it she smirked.
Not waiting another second, she grabbed one of Drakken's hovercrafts and headed to GO city to check in with the boys. To check in and see if even the first part of her grand strategy would work. Then she was off to see Dr. D and then if her stomach had not flipped she would go and talk to Kim. Yes not princess, not pumpkin, not Miss Priss…Kim. She'd go and see if there was even the slightest chance that Kim felt something too. It was a giddiness she'd never felt before, liberating and terrifying for a green thief. World destruction was a whole lot easier than facing your own heart and the fear of rejection was more numbing than the prospect of life imprisonment. But Shego wasn't a coward. And if there was even a faint hope that the young hero might feel something for her, then she'd win her, woo her, do whatever it took to bring them together. She would be subtle, she would be patient…she would try to figure out how to be those things because the prize, the beauty of it was a simple thing experienced by so few people…true love. Shego sighed and smiled and admitted out loud, " I'm in love...I'M IN LOOOOVE!!!" as the hovercraft whizzed over the rooftops and ever west.
A/N I finished it here because I will continue in a T rating I think. I sat on this chapter for over a week trying to decide what to do with it and of course then life creeps in and writing goes out the window! I found all comments really helpful. Thank you. I can see my shortcomings so clearly and I've cringed upon rereading to find typing errors. But I'm glad I tried. Thank you for the support. Go raibh maith agaibh!