LYBCD chap 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Ron, Shego, or anyone affiliated with them. No profit is gained from this activity save the enrichment of my writing ability, and my soul. ;)

Thanks to everyone who is still reading, and an extra thank you to all those who sent me lovely reviews for chapter 9! I really don't know what I'd do without you guys! (I would be very, very lonely.)

(Excuses for the lateness of this chapter are in my profile.) ;)

Inspirations for this chapter come from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which was a wonderful, touching movie. It hasn't inspired any actual events in this chapter, just some moods. This chapter is dedicated to this lovely slice of childhood.

This chapter is also dedicated to my family, who help me with my classes, work, and every aspect of my life. Without them, this world would be a very lonely place.

As the sun set the sky turned from rosy pink to a purple dream. The glowing globes of light on their poles seemed not to merely illuminate the golf course, but instead to drape it in soft splendor wherein every shining surface gleamed and everything else seemed muted and gentle. Faint laughter drifted over from the far holes from distant, contented couples.

The whole, beautiful scene gave Shego an overwhelming urge to cry, to sob out her aching chest. She wasn't even really sure why, only that there was a terrible burning pain inside her. The burning clawed up into her throat and behind her eyes as she stood waiting for her turn. But she couldn't let it take over, not today. She fought the tears, beat them down and stamped on them. Then she turned from her internal battle to meet her partner of the evening in the fairy light.

All in all, Ron was a fairly decent player, not terrific, although his hand-eye coordination was better than most people would expect. Shego wondered what had compelled him to choose this particular activity. But she found that once she got beyond the unfortunate memories it was kind of fun. The course he had chosen was the kind where every hole was a series of angles and perfectly aimed shots. It was nearly impossible to get a hole in one without being a total math geek, and Shego knew it would have been extremely frustrating if she had been trying to win, that is, if she had been playing with anyone but Ron.

At the moment he was trying to coax his ball through a series of underwater obstacles; a forest of seaweed, a jelly-fish and the ten arms of a giant squid, all of which were doing their utmost to make certain he never got past this hole.

"Alright Buddy," Ron was telling his ball. "I know you can do this." He lowered his voice as though he was imparting the deadliest of secrets, but Shego could still hear him. "All you have to do," he continued, "is bang off that wall, through the squid's tentacles, around that rock, off that other wall, and…" He trailed off and eyed his spherical warrior uncertainly. "Just let me know if you want me to repeat anything," he added.

Shego just barely managed to keep herself from laughing, but she was strangely reluctant to indulge too much in this unusual activity, almost as though she were still a child, afraid her face might stick that way.

She cast a furtive glance around to make certain that they weren't holding anyone up, but fortunately most of the other patrons were further on in the course, and those behind them were still a couple of holes away.

Shego was still not quite certain that she wasn't dreaming. She was here with Ron and they weren't on opposite sides for once. She didn't have to watch him through a security camera or sneak furtive glances of him in between punches. She had of course never told anyone, but her rivalry with Kim stemmed almost entirely from the red-head's abuse of her blond sidekick.

She had never had him, never anyone like him. Shego had never had anyone she could trust, talk to, know.

So Kim had him. She had won some universal lottery of fate.

So why did she always act as though she had lost?

The problem with Ron was that he always aroused these unanswerable questions in her mind; questions that she ought to be pretending she had forgotten.

Ron's golf ball bounced improbably around the last obstacle and came to rest innocently not three feet from the hole.

"Booyah!" Ron exclaimed triumphantly, effectively snapping Shego out of her confusing reflections.

"Not bad," she commented, leaning nonchalantly back against a gaily painted arch. "You know, you're quite good at this," she continued honestly. "Do you come here a lot with K… anyone?"

"Nah." Ron moved off to the side of the green so Shego could take her turn. They didn't have to hurry since there was no one directly behind them. "Would you believe I'm actually quite good at angles and stuff? When it interests me anyway. I just can't stay awake in those math classes though. I seriously think the teachers put some sort of sleeping gas in the chalk dust."

Shego smirked a bit as she lined up her ball. She said pensively, "I always enjoyed math in high school."

"Really?" Ron asked. He sounded genuinely interested.

"Well I wasn't a genius with it," Shego said offhandedly. Inside she felt as though she were walking a tightrope through memory. She stepped carefully from one word to the next for fear of falling into the abyss. "I used to really like the word problems especially," she continued. "It was like the whole world was becoming a math problem, and I could solve it. And solving the problems felt wonderful. Every one brought me closer to understanding everything." She stopped talking and looked up from her motionless, pink ball. Ron was watching her with his large eyes just as though he knew what she was talking about.

"I never figured I'd have math in common with anyone," Ron said, but his eyes told her something different. Shego suddenly felt a little self conscious. There was too much understanding here. That was the only way she could think to describe it. The whole scene felt unreal. She was in fairyland with the floating will-o-the-wisps of the course lights in the background, the small, ivy-covered bridge off to her side, and Ron standing before her, smiling, his pale hair melting into the night.

She found herself saying "Do you mind if we take a break and get something to eat?"

"Sure," Ron said immediately. "We can finish up after."

It had worked and she was off the hook for…something. But oddly, Shego felt her heart sink a little as they picked up their golf things.

Go figure.

As they headed for the café, Ron stole a glance at Shego. So far, this night had gone wonderfully. He had initially thought he would be on edge all evening, just from playing golf with Shego, who was not only a villainous, but also a woman. And sure, there had been a few awkward spots, generally whenever Kim came up in conversation, but on the whole it was surprising how easy it had been to just be with her. Easy and fun. It brought to mind something he had always thought when he and Kim fought villains, but had never really been able to prove to himself until now. They're just like us, he thought.

Sure, they had a different moral code. Villains did bad things and that was why they had to be stopped, but most of them, when you actually stopped to hear them talk, sounded like real people. He knew Drakken slept with a teddy bear and enjoyed watching Snowman Hank, and that Killigan had a soft spot for goldfish and a favorite niece. They were real people, no matter what they had done.

But the really funny thing was that he hadn't been thinking of Shego as a villain for most of the evening. Once he started talking and joking with her it was easy to forget and to just see her as a person.

He shot a glance at her as she slid gracefully into her seat at one of the umbrella-topped tables. They had picked one out from under the awning because most of those underneath were crowded with families. Outside the calm of night still reigned for the most part.

Shego looked nervous. Her face was perfectly calm, but her hands were unsettled. Her long, slender fingers tapped on the foe-glass table. Ron suddenly realized that he had never seen Shego nervous before. The sight took him back to their conversation last night. Was it only last night? She had said that she loved him. Ron drew a breath slowly, felt the air silently fill his lungs, and he suddenly felt nervous to.

Why him? Was there no justice that she had fallen for him? It should be someone better, someone who could return her feelings. He couldn't fathom why she felt this way about him, but he didn't want her to be nervous, just for him. He felt awful.

"What's good here Ron?" Shego asked, breaking into his thoughts as though she had swung a sledgehammer through a plate-glass window.

Oh, that was right. They were here to get something to eat. They weren't on a date, but they were here to get something to eat. As friends. As if he and Kim had come here, except that they didn't come here anymore because Kim had stopped liking mini-golf after fifth grade, decided it was too young for her; and anyway, if he ever did come here with Kim again he would hope that it was a date because he would love to go out on a date with Kim and after all, this was a very relaxed atmosphere, and…

"The eggplant parmesan!" Ron burst out. That was better. People were staring, but his embarrassment was definitely preferable to the chaos that his mind had been a mere moment before. Except that Shego was staring at him as though he came from another planet. You just couldn't have everything.

What on earth was that about? Shego wondered. He had seemed to be enjoying himself, relaxed and playful. She kept forgetting how much he was going through.

Possible. Had Possible done something? Or was Ron feeling guilty about being here with her, behind the princess's back? Should she ask him what was bothering him, or was it better to ignore it and change the subject?

Argh! She wasn't any good at this! Friendship! She hadn't had a friend for years. Heck, she'd never had a real friend. She had discovered that years ago.

But Ron…Ron was different. And she could at least try. She had to be a better friend than the princess.

"Is there something wrong, Ron?" The blond boy hesitated, and then shook his head.

"I'm…just a little crazy today Shego," he said with a wry smile. The villainess nodded and let the subject drop. She would wait, and if he really needed help, maybe he would ask her.

"Okay," she said then. "I have another question for you."

"Uh…sure," Ron agreed warily. Shego raised one slender eyebrow and allowed a small smirk to emerge.

"This place, the café on a miniature golf course, serves eggplant parmesan?" she asked incredulously.

"Oh!" Ron grinned. "Yes actually," he said. "It serves a lot of good dishes; linguini, pizza, a really nice chili dog, but the eggplant parmesan is my favorite. They use four different cheeses, and the peals are scored in this special way, so they don't come off whole in your mouth. It's not quite as good as home made, but…" he trailed off and shrugged, so much as to say 'what is?'

Shego held up her hands in surrender. "All right Mr. Gourmet, you've convinced me," she said with a smile. "I'm gonna go freshen up, and then we can order, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she rose and headed for the corridor which led to the restrooms. She might have put a little extra sway in her hips as she walked, but not too much.

Once in the washroom, Shego placed her hands on the wall on either side of the mirror and looked at herself.

"What am I doing here?" she asked her reflection. Her reflection merely looked back at her out of clear, bewildered, green eyes. "I'm not going to be able to keep this up," Shego continued when she didn't receive an answer. "Even Ron won't be able to put up with me forever. And what am I supposed to do if he and the princess come for a visit? I can't see him get hurt by Drakken and his goons, but if I do anything to compromise my job there I won't have anywhere to go." Her reflection maintained a stony silence. "The best thing I can do," Shego told the slim woman before her, "is sneak around back and take off. I get out of his life now before we get any closer, if we're even likely to get close that is, and he won't have to try to be my 'friend' anymore. Plus I won't have to tell him anything about my life," she added. "He probably won't even want to be my friend after I've ditched him anyway."

This thought was somehow not comforting.

Shego drew a deep, slow breath. She already knew she wasn't leaving. To leave now would hurt Ron, betray his trust, and she had already promised herself that she would not hurt him. She wouldn't be like Kimmie. But of course, that was only part of it. She wanted to be here. She felt as though she were on a roller coaster, up and down, dizzy and laughing, screaming with delight at the breathtaking ride.

It was a crazy night, but if she could get through it, then maybe there would one day be others. Maybe she and Ron could be friends, and maybe one day they could be something more.

It was time to go out there and face the most gentle and frightening person in the world.

"I can do this," she told the mirror. "Just try and stop me."

Thanks for reading guys, and I hope you enjoyed! Next chapter probably won't be out for a while because I am insanely busy right now, but I'll do my best. And yeah, feel free to yell at me about my slow update times. ;)

PS: Eggplant parmesan is delicious. I am a vegetarian, and we make it at home most of the time, but I have had it in some restaurants as well, so I know that some serve it. Ron eats meat, it's true, but he is also something of a gourmet, and I think he would like this dish. As for the golf course serving it…it is unusual, certainly, but they would probably serve some dishes for vegetarians, so it is possible, in my mind. Thank you.

Review if you like, they make me happy.

See ya!