A/N: fun fac – this chapter was supposed to be just the last scene to the previous one. Then the previous chapter got too long, I had to cut the last scene and said last scene turned out in a chapter on its own. Not that I'm surprised given my track record, but my utter incapability to plan out anything in a fic still scares me XD
"… well, that was fun," Gemini's voice resounded in the helicopter after what felt like an eternity of silence.
Shego grimaced a little. Fine, she had to admit it hadn't been that bad seeing Motor Ed crashing against a wall, still she definitely liked it better when she was the one to deliver the blow. "I could have gotten rid of him by myself, you know," she pointed out. She had actually been more than ready to blast him when he had spotted her at the convention and had tried to hit on her in his usual unpleasant way, but Gemini had been faster to hit him with one of his finger-missiles. Amusing as it had been at first, she couldn't help but feel somewhat annoyed by how Gemini had shot him the moment he had tried to grab her – she was perfectly capable to get him off her, so why the heck had he interfered?
Gemini scoffed. "Well, I wanted to shoot him myself," he said somewhat childishly, folding his arms on his chest "we were talking, and he interrupted us. I don't like being interrupted, let alone by some idiot with a mullet who tries to get his hands on my top agent!"
"Yeah, and since it was me he was bothering, I would have liked getting to blast him myself," Shego retorted a little more sharply than she had meant to. She couldn't really tell why Gemini's reaction annoyed her that much, it just did. Not that she really had any issue with him shooting people who interrupted his conversations, still…
But he didn't shoot him for interrupting, did he? Hench interrupted you as well at some point and so did DNAmy in the cafeteria, and he certainly didn't shoot them. The only reason why he sent Motor Ed crashing against a wall because he was hitting on you.
Shego scowled and tried to chase away that simply ridiculous idea. "I could have taken care of him myself," she repeated, staring almost viciously at the control panel of the helicopter.
"Oh, really?" Gemini snapped "then why didn't you?"
"If you gave me just a second--"
"You had more than one second!"
"I barely had the time to realize he had an arm around my shoulders before you shot him!"
"Odd, last time I checked your reflexes were quicker than that!"
Fine, that was enough. Shego snarled and set the automatic pilot so that she could turn to face him. "You know, unlike a certain someone I like thinking of some new line when I hit someone instead of using the same old one over and over and over," she snapped "I would have gotten him off me in a moment if you could just mind your own business!"
Gemini gritted his teeth. "You were on duty, agent Alpha!" he snapped "it was by business!"
"It's not like I was about to leave you there and get away with that idiot, you know!"
"Really? Then how come you keep complaining?" he retorted "I got him off you, didn't I? If you really wanted to get him off you, you'd be glad I did!"
Shego blinked. Was he really thinking she could want that idiot to hit on her? What the heck was he thinking? "Whoa, hold on there, boss," she snapped, sarcastically emphasizing the last word "I can't stand that idiot, in case you didn't notice!"
"Well, you seemed to be putting up with him just fine!" he shouted.
"What?" Shego's eyes narrowed dangerously "now listen here and listen close, boss – I can't stand that guy. But you know what else I can't stand? People who just can't mind their own business!" she shouted back, clenching her fists so tightly that it hurt and barely holding back form igniting her hands and doing something that would change drastically Gemini's facial features.
He seemed taken aback for just a moment before he scowled and retorted. "Agent Alpha, I suggest you to watch your tongue!" he barked "I'm your employer, and what happens to you while you're on duty is my business!"
"Oh, yeah? It's not like I was doing anything!"
"That's exactly the point, you didn't do anything! You should have--" he trailed off as Shego gave an exasperated groan.
"Why do you even care?" she snapped, straightening herself on the seat so that they would be on the same eye level – he was a little taller than she was.
Gemini opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out for a few moments. He stared at her for a few instants, just realizing how close they actually were at that point, how green her eyes were and how beautiful and dangerous she looked when scowling in anger, then he realized he was supposed to retort somehow. "It's because… I don't really…" he tried, his voice sounding suddenly oddly weak, but he seemed unable to come up with anything but some babbling – it was like his brain had just frozen, and he really couldn't think of any logical reason why Motor Ed's rather laughable attempt at hitting on her should infuriate him like it had.
Shego had expected him to shout again, so his sudden silence startled her. She stared at him for a few more moments, trying to figure out what was wrong with him, then she noticed how he was looking at her and realized what he had already noticed – they were leaning close, so close that their faces almost touched and definitely way too close to feel comfortable.
They both snapped out of their trance in the same moment. Shego immediately pulled back and deactivated the automatic pilot so that she could concentrate on piloting the helicopter, and Gemini turned to glance with extreme interest at the clouds, his arms folded on his chest. There was a long, awkward silence, neither of them saying a word.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Gemini cleared his throat. "Anyway, I don't care," he said quietly, his gaze still fixed outside "you can deal with whatever idiot you want by yourself next time."
"Sure," Shego replied in a dull tone, and neither of them spoke again.
"Agent Beta, tell agent Rho he's the new agent Phi," Gemini's voice came from the interphone, and Beta had barely the time to reply with his usual 'yes, sir' before the communication was cut off. Beta sighed, faintly think it was a pity since Phi was a pretty decent guy, then he turned to agent Gamma.
"Go let him know," he said. He stayed silent for a few moments as Gamma rushed out of the room, then he turned to Shego. "He's… kind of nervous lately, uh?" he muttered.
Shego shrugged, not even glancing up from the magazine she was reading between brief looks to the security cams. "Who, Gamma?" she asked in a bored tone, pretending to not be getting who Beta was referring to. Maybe he'd give up on trying to talk about him if she looked bored enough, Shego thought before taking another look to the gossip section of the magazine, and for a brief moment she was almost amused to notice that apparently Gemini really had gotten someone to spread the rumour about Dementor being a drag queen, but then her gaze darkened as she recalled what had happened after that convention. That stubborn idiot…!
"Er… no, I mean Gemini," Beta said a little nervously, his fingers fidgeting around some coin necklace he was supposed to keep under the uniform but was careless enough to pull out every now and then when he was nervous "I mean, he's disposing of agents very easily lately, isn't he?"
Shego snorted. "He's always like that."
"Well, yes, but lately it's even worse than usual. We're kind of wondering what--"
"Don't know, don't care," Shego suddenly snapped, glaring daggers at him and causing his mouth to promptly shut "why are you asking to me anyway? It's not like I'm his babysitter."
"Fine, fine," Beta said quickly, holding up his hands in a somewhat defensive gesture "I was just asking…"
"Don't be asking," she said dryly, apparently turning her full attention to the magazine again, a scowl on her face as she kept staring at the same point on the page.
Well, Beta mused, it looked like Gemini wasn't the only one who was nervous after all. He seemed about to say something, but the frown on her face was enough to make him change his mind. He turned back to the console, and only a moment later Gemini's voice came from the interphone again, causing him to wince. "Agent Alpha to report," was all he said, somehow managing to sound even colder than usual.
Shego rolled her eyes and grimaced, looking anything but pleased, but she did get up, throwing the magazine aside. "Coming," was all she said through gritted teeth before stiffly walking out the room.
Beta turned to look at her retreating back, a thoughtful frown on his face. He had been pretty sure there was something more than a merely professional relationship going on between Gemini and agent Alpha for a while – so sure that he hadn't hesitated to bet fifty bucks that they're hook up by the end of that month. As the end of the month approached he wasn't that sure he was going to win the bet anymore, but he was certain of two things: that there was a lot of tension between those two – just what kind of tension he couldn't really be sure – and that all that tension was getting so high that something was undoubtedly going to happen.
"Did you want to see me, boss?" Shego asked a little stiffly, stepping inside the control room and glancing up at the elevated platform where Gemini's desk was. Just the previous week she wouldn't have hesitated to walk up the stairs so that they could speak without having to raise their voices, but now she's rather avoid getting too close to him, and he hadn't told her to approach either. Not that there was any particular reason, of course. They just wanted to… keep some distance, that was all.
"Indeed," Gemini replied, not even looking up at her – he seemed too busy looking at the monitor on his desk to turn to look at her for one moment, and Shego suddenly felt both relieved and oddly annoyed by that. "It's about your next mission."
Shego relaxed a little – if anything, that was familiar ground. "Sure. What is it about? More technology to steal? More people to turn evil? Just a 'let's spread chaos' thing?"
"A kidnapping," was Gemini's reply. He turned to press a button that would result with the picture and info he was viewing showing on the large screen behind him so that she could see it, then he frowned as the screen stayed blank. He tried to press the button a few more times, still with no result. "That thing broke again," he muttered with a scowl before he reached for another button. "Agent Beta?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Who's responsible for maintenance in the control room?"
"Agent Chi, sir."
"And where is he now?"
"Er… in sector five," Beta's voice replied after a few instants "do you wish me to tell him--"
"I'll deal with him myself," Gemini cut him off "wait half a minute and then let agent Psi know he's the new agent Chi. Also, contact that Bill Dooley in the backup recruits list: he should have the skills required to become our new agent assigned to general maintenance. Let him join as agent Omega and move the current Omega to the rank of Psi."
"Yes, sir."
"Good," Gemini said approvingly before interrupting the communication and reaching to press the button of the interphone in sector five "agent Psi to the interphone."
Only a few seconds later, a man's voice came from the other side. "Yes, si--" a scream abruptly cut off whatever was about to say as Gemini pressed yet another button before he gave a satisfied nod and turned his attention back to Shego… who, on the other hand, had been looking anywhere but in Gemini's direction while he was busy getting rid of yet another of his agents.
"As I was saying?"
"Something about a kidnapping," Shego reminded him.
"Oh, that's right," Gemini hesitated for a moment, then he finally gestured for her to join him on the platform – he didn't really feel comfortable at the thought, but he had to show her who the target was and give her all the info she needed.
Shego hesitated only for a moment, then she clenched her jaw and resolutely walked up the flight of stairs. She wouldn't let him intimidate her in any way! "So, who's the target?"
Gemini gestured the monitor on his console. "As you can see--" he paused and glanced up at her as if he had just realized that she couldn't look at the monitor since it was encased in the console and facing him while she was standing on the other side of the desk "… no, you can't see it. You should, er…" he cleared his throat "get behind the desk."
She hesitated for a fraction of second, then she just shrugged. "Okay," she said, but she was less at ease than she would have liked. Even when they were in good terms and discussing of all kinds of random staff, she had always stayed across his desk; it was like a boundary she had never crossed, and now the thought she'd be standing right next to him in the control room felt weird. Still, she ignored the nagging sensation – a such closeness wouldn't have been an issue at all with Dr. D, so why should it be an issue with Gemini? He was her employer, period.
It wasn't like getting behind that stupid desk was going to change things, she told herself as she went to stand behind his seat so that she could look at the monitor from over his head. She didn't want to admit it, but despite all her attempts to think logically she still felt uncomfortable at the thought of being right next to him, and standing behind him instead somehow made her feel like she was in control.
For a moment Gemini considered telling her to move where he could see her since the thought of having someone who could melt metal with her plasma behind him wasn't exactly reassuring, then he decided against starting an argument. It wasn't like she would do anything against him – would she? – and he would rather avoid talking with her of anything that wasn't related to the organization, at least for time being.
He eventually just gestured to the monitor. "That's your target," he said "Sarah Renton. She's an expert in advanced cyber robotics, and she's been working on some top-secret projects that could be extremely useful to us. She'll be our guest just enough time for us to have a chat," he grinned a little "she lives in Middleton, but since everyone and their grandma knows Team Possible is attending college somewhere else and having a busy semester, I doubt they're going to show up. Especially if we act quickly and--"
"Renton?" Shego muttered, frowning a little as she tried to remember where she had heard that name already. She lived in the same town as Kimmie, so could it be she had met her one way or another? No, her face didn't tell her anything. Still, she was sure someone had mentioned that name at some point…
"Are you familiar with her?" Gemini asked, sounding a little confused. He turned to look up at her, and he grimaced a little as he realized how she was towering over him – he dislike having anyone above him, let alone one of his agents! "Agent Alpha, if you have any kind of information on the target you better share it," he said, getting up from his seat and turning to face her. Not that he really thought it would be that relevant, but it was still an excuse to get up so that she wouldn't he be looking down at him anymore.
Shego frowned a little. "Hey, chill – I just said her name sounds familiar," she retorted "it could be a coincidence."
"But you did happen to be in Middleton more than once, and she happens to work for Kim Possible's father," he pointed out "it could not be a coincidence at all."
Shego's frown deepened as she kept thinking. "Well, I think there was a kid with that surname. A kid with a technologically advanced wheelchair, maybe?"
"Then it was her son you met," Gemini said – he remembered reading that she had a disabled son when collecting information about their target "he's off to college right now. How did you exactly meet him?" he asked. Maybe he could get more info on that boy as well so that they could kidnap him should they ever need to blackmail that woman.
"It's nothing special, boss, really," Shego shrugged, making a vague gesture with her hand "he had this robotic wheelchair that Motor Ed set his eyes onto, and Dr. D and I helped him to steal it."
"What?" he seemed taken aback, then he frowned "you didn't tell me you worked together!" he exclaimed, accusingly glaring at her.
Shego blinked. What the heck was wrong with him? "Hey, it's not like it was some big secret, he was my empl--" she trailed off as she realized it wasn't Drakken he was referring to. She had to hold back from groaning – she had made it darn clear just how much she disliked that idiot, so why in the world did he have to turn into a rabid dog just because she had mentioned working with him once? "Wait a second, I had to work with him! Dr. D decided that he should team up with his stupid cousin and hello, I was his sidekick – I had to play along!"
"You had to, sure," he snorted "I'm not stupid, agent Alpha! I knew you weren't trying hard enough to get him off you at the convention!" he barked, suddenly feeling irrationally furious.
Shego could just feel something in her mind snapping. Fine, she had had enough: that idiot had really crossed the line. She didn't know what enraged her the most – the fact he kept insinuating she could like Motor Ed or the fact he was behaving like some jealous overgrown kid – but she knew that this time no amount of self control could keep her for yelling back at him.
"Oh, right, you're not stupid – you're just the biggest idiot who ever walked on Earth! Who the hell do you think you are?" she shouted, not even trying to think of anything witty or sarcastic to say: she only wanted to scream at him just how utterly frustrating, childish and downright unpleasant she thought he was.
Gemini seemed startled for a brief instant before he gritted his teeth. He wouldn't be treated like that by one of his own agents! "I'm your leader to begin with!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, his face reddening, his featured twisted in anger "watch your tongue, or else--!"
"My leader? You're more like a kid playing with toy soldiers just to piss of his sister!" Shego went on. She felt some kind of vicious relief by making him furious; it besides, it was better dealing with his wrath than with his stupid jealousy and the awkwardness that came from it. "You're just a spoiled, whiny, overgrown brat who can't let go of mommy's gown to save his life! No wonder your sister could mop the floor with you – I bet that unlike you she used those blasted four more minutes to get a brain! And you know what?" she sneered "the way you behave around that rat you insist calling a dog is just pathetic!"
"ENOUGH!" Gemini shouted, too furious to articulate any kind of more complex answer, anger boiling in his chest. He didn't stop to think – he just turned to the console and reached for the button that would make a trapdoor open beneath her feet, but before he could press it a blast of plasma hit his shoulder, causing him to jerk and stumble backwards with a surprised yelp. He somehow managed to not fall and turned again to glare at agent Alpha, a furious scowl on his face – she was scowling as well, her hands raised, a threatening green glow surrounding them.
"Don't you even try," she hissed, her eyes narrowing. That idiot just had it coming, she told herself. He had no right to complain, let alone to try firing her! Nobody fired her, she was the one who quit if she felt like it – and she would do exactly what once she got to burn his stupid face off!
Gemini, on the other hand, didn't seem inclined to let her. "How dare you!" he barked, raising his mechanical hand to shoot some missiles from his fingertips, but she was faster and no missile hit her as she leapt forward. Gemini let out a gasp as her foot hit his stomach in a powerful kick and instinctively bent forward, and he was still gasping for breath as she grabbed his neck – he would later be thankful that her hands were no longer lit up – and slammed him against the wall behind him.
"Now see here, you--" she began, but she trailed off as she felt the jab of one of Gemini's metallic fingers against her chest, followed by a clicking noise – he was ready to fire a missile directly at her heart.
"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't shoot a hole through you," he said in a low, threatening growl.
If he wanted to, he would have done it already.
Probably, Shego thought, still for a moment she felt almost scared before she scowled again. If she let him see he could scare her, she would give him an advantage. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck," she retorted, raising her gaze to glare at him again, and she froze as she realized just how close their faces were: they were even closer than they had been in the helicopter, so close that she could feel his panting breath against her skin. It cost her some effort to ignore that thought, and apparently he wasn't having too much success to ignore it either, at least judging from the somewhat awkward look he gave as their gazed met for a brief moment before he forced the frown back on his face.
Good, if he feels uneasy you have an advantage. Use it to get yourself out of this mess.
Shego hesitated for a moment, her mouth feeling oddly dry, her eyes still fixed on his face, then she let her grip around his neck slacken a little against her own judgement.
What are you doing? What the hell are you doing? He could shoot you if you lower your guard!
I don't think he would.
That's not a reason to take stupid risks!
However, Shego wasn't listening to that part of her brain anymore. Gemini seemed to sense her hesitation, for he tried to recollect. "You… better let me go this very instant, agent Alpha," he said, trying to keep his voice steady and somehow threatening with rather little success "let me go now, and I might be generous enough to--" he trailed off as her grip on his neck tightened again just a little, as if to give him a warning. He shut his mouth, clenching his jaw tightly, and he could have sworn his heart had skipped a beat. He tried to tell himself it was just a normal reaction to a life-threatening danger, but he couldn't really pretend he couldn't see what the actual reason was.
She's close, dammit. Too close.
"You know, I don't think you're in the right position to give orders. You'd be in deep trouble if I decided to light up my hands now," Shego whispered "my plasma can burn through metal. Just thought I'd let you know," she gave him a crooked smile, not really listening to any part of her brain at the moment and not really wanting to.
"Well, that's… quite impressive," Gemini admitted, but an odd smirk was curling his lips as well after a few moments of confusion "you could kill me with pretty much no effort if I leave my guard down. But you wouldn't live more than an instant longer," he pressed his finger a little harder against her chest, still gazing at her face "not even if you act before I can shoot. You see, there is a bomb in this hand. Small, but very powerful… and it would reduce anything in a mile to dust the very same moment my heartbeat stops, unless I deactivate it first. How about that?" he said somewhat smugly.
Shego had to admit it was rather clever: and if it weren't enough to stop whoever could try to kill him, Gemini would at least take his killer with him… and anyone else in a mile, and rather spectacularly too. It was almost delightful in an evil way. "Well, now that is one effective life insurance," she said, then she dared to let go of his neck. Gemini didn't move, and she could have sworn the pressure of his missile finger against her chest had decreased and he certainly made no move to push her away. Her fingers trailed up the side of his face and reached to play with the rubber band that kept his eye patch in place – he tensed for a few instant, only to relax when he realized she wasn't going to take it off. "Still, you don't need to kill people to hurt them," she added, her voice lowering.
"Good point," he admitted, finally pulling his hand away from her chest and reaching to grab her wrist and pull her hand away from his face "but it would be the last thing you'd ever do. Hurting someone you can't kill is never a good idea."
"Ten drama points for you," she grinned, a shiver running down her spine as she realized just how threatening he managed to sound. Not that it intimidated her, but it surely made things more… interesting "but I guess you'll be relieved to know I don't really feel like causing the loss of any other limb. For now."
"Most relieved, yes," Gemini said, their lips so close than they could almost touch, and Shego didn't exactly stop to think: she just tilted up her face to close the distance between them the same moment he brought his mouth down on hers, and for a while neither of them spoke.
That certainly wasn't his best workday ever, agent Epsilon mused as he nervously approached the control room. Everything had seemed to be going well until a few minutes before, really – it had been a rather uneventful day after all, at least in his sector – but now they got a report saying GJ had managed to seriously hinder some of their operations in China.
Since agent Alpha was already talking to him, so he and the other had sorted to decide who would have to deliver the bad news to their already moody boss… and he had been the lucky one. Gemini didn't usually dispose of agents without a good reason – it would be rather hard to have any agent left after only a week if he did – but now he was in such a bad mood that he was unpredictable, and he definitely tended to dispose of them a lot more easily when GJ was involved in any way.
"I'll be lucky if he doesn't send my down some endless pit," he muttered to himself before he took a deep breath and finally stepped into the control room. He was about to clear his throat and start a little speech he had been trying to come up with and that he hoped would save his butt, but whatever he had been thinking to say just left his mind at the sight in front of him… or, better yet, above him, because Gemini was standing on the elevated platform where his desk was. Together with agent Alpha – no one but her was allowed to actually get on the platform Gemini's desk was onto. They were both there. And they were kissing.
Fine, that was it – he needed a vacation: it's never a good thing when you start hallucinating. Epsilon closed his eyes, shook his head and opened them again…but the scene didn't change: Gemini and agent Alpha were still standing on the platform and they were still kissing, his hands holding her waist and her arms wrapped around his neck.
Kissing. Gemini and agent Alpha. Kissing.
For a moment agent Epsilon could have sworn he could hear the sound of his brain shattering. He opened his mouth and then closed it a few times, but he was unable to make a sound – and, as what was left of his brain somehow managed to catch up, he realized two things: that he had just lost the bet since he had been certain that nothing could ever happen between those two, and that it was probably better for him that he couldn't speak since he didn't even want to know what would happen should Gemini spot him now. He tried to step back as silently as he could, hoping he could get out without neither of them noticing…
"Ouch!"
Fat chance. The poor guy stumbled in his own feet and fell backwards, letting out a yelp that caused Gemini and Shego to wince and immediately break apart. Shego took a step back, looking just a little embarrassed but overall amused by the interruption.
"Agent Epsilon! What in the world are you doing here?" Gemini barked, apparently forgetting that it was perfectly normal for the poor agent to walk in the main room and that maybe he was the one who should have chosen a better place to start making out with what happened to be his top agent.
"I… uh… I…" agent Epsilon blabbered, struggling to get back on his feet "I had to tell you… you see… the reports from China…"
Gemini seemed to calm down. "Oh, I see," he said "well, don't just stand there on the doorway – get in and tell me," he said, and Shego could see the shadow of a smirk curling his lips as his mechanical hand reached behind his back for a button on his control panel.
Agent Epsilon seemed somewhat reassured, for he took a few steps forward while still avoiding to look at Shego. He cleared his throat, trying to sound calm and utterly failing at it. "Well, sir, one of our--" whatever ha was about to add turned into a shriek as a trapdoor suddenly opened beneath his feet.
Shego raised an eyebrow as the trapdoor closed again. "No witnesses, uh?"
"Of course – I can't have him telling everyone what he saw here," Gemini said nonchalantly before he pressed another button. "Agent Beta, tell agent Zeta he's the new agent Epsilon. Give him a new uniform and tell him to come over here to inform me of whatever report we got from China."
"Yes, sir."
Gemini nodded to himself, clearly satisfied, then he turned back to Shego. "So, uh…" he cleared his throat, the satisfaction quickly turning into uneasiness for both of them. Shego turned to the spot on the floor where poor Epsilon had been standing until a few moments before.
"I always wondered what happens to the guys who fall through those," she said, her brain looking for an excuse to change subject "is there a shark pool down there or something?"
"Of course not – I told you I have no shark pools. The first thing you learn by watching movies is that keeping vicious beasts in your lair is never a good idea: they could end up tasting you sooner or later, and I think I already lost my fair share of limbs. No, they just get into a… special area of the lair."
"A dungeon?"
Gemini snorted. "That was my first idea, but it ended up being too crowded," he said with a frown "feeding the idiots down there was a problem, and if I didn't disposing of corpses could be an even bigger problem. The again, I couldn't just have dismissed agents walking around to tell everybody where my bases are or where I'm planning to strike next."
Shego raised an eyebrow. "Sound like a real brainer."
"Yes, it was," Gemini said with a shrug "but it was solved quickly enough. I got some memory-eraser stuff from HenchCo – that's what they get through after they get launched or fall into a trapdoor."
"You mean brainwashing?" Shego asked, somewhat impressed – messing up with people's minds was rather evil. Alright, Drakken had tried to do some stuff like that a few times, but it hadn't really worked… not to mention that he had tried it on her as well, and it hadn't been as funny as watching it happening to someone else was.
"It's more like…getting rid of unnecessary information. When they're brought out of here to be dropped somewhere else, they think they spent the past few weeks or months or wherever in Congo to find themselves."
"Why Congo?"
"Why not? Tibet is overused."
"Okay, one for you. Do they know this is how things work once they fall down the trapdoors?"
He shook his head. "Of course not – they wouldn't be as scared as they are if they knew," he grinned a little, then he frowned "now that I think about it, you shouldn't know it either," he pointed out.
Shego shrugged, somewhat amused by how he had apparently forgotten she was one of his agents after all. "Too late now. Does that mean there is a trapdoor for me too?" she asked a little tauntingly.
"There would be one for anyone else," he said somewhat sulkily – it was clear he didn't like it how easily he had revealed that secret to her. What the heck was he thinking anyway? "You're only not getting down one of those because… well… because you're the most capable out of my agents, and I still need your assistance," he finished, looking just a little uneasy.
She raised an eyebrow, suddenly annoyed by…by…well, just by him for some reason. "Why, I'm flattered," she said somewhat coldly "I guess I'm lucky you're not going to use that memory eraser thing to mess up with my brain and delete these past few minutes. Why don't you just do that? It's not like it's anything important I need to remember."
Gemini blinked, a little taken aback as he realized she was telling him she wouldn't care if he erased the memory of those past few minutes from her mind. He frowned, as if taking it as a personal offence. "It didn't seem so bad that one would want to forget about it to me," he snapped, folding his arms a little defensively "and you were kind of enjoying yourself, if I'm not mistaking!"
"Uh?" it took Shego a few moments to realize he had misunderstood what she had said – he had assumed he was referring to the kiss rather than to the information he had given her about where trapdoors and rocket seats led. "Er… boss, I was referring to what you told me about the memory eraser and the agents thinking they went to Congo or something," she pointed out, feeling just a little uneasy.
Gemini stared at her as if she had just spoken in some foreign language for a few moments, then he glanced to the spot on the floor where the trapdoor – one of the trapdoors – was. "Ah," he muttered, not really knowing what to say… and Shego seemed suddenly too busy smoothing her hair to say anything herself. There was a brief, awkward silence.
"Well…"
"Yeah, uh…"
Gemini cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could the door buzzed open to let in agent Zeta – or, more accurately, the new agent Epsilon. It was pretty clear that he had been given the first uniform they could find so he could rush to report immediately, for it was definitely too tight for him and clearly made him uncomfortable, which rather amused Shego. "I have the reports from China you requested, sir."
Gemini nodded. "Very well," he said before glancing sideways at Shego "agent Alpha, you are dismissed."
Shego nodded quickly as walked down the platform and to the door without saying anything, just grateful for the fact she had been spared a rather awkward moment.