LYBCD chap 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Ron, Shego, Kim or any of their acquaintances. I am a student with very little money and make absolutely no money out of these stories, so please no suing. ;)

Chapter 11 for everyone! I hope you all enjoyed chapter 10, and thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews I got. I hope you will enjoy this chapter, and give me some more. ;)

I am very sorry about the lateness of this chapter. I had a lot of problems, both with the chapter itself, and with my computer, which kept breaking, or else my monitor would break, etc. Anyway, next chapter will be out soon. Promise.

This chapter is dedicated to those who feel that they can never be good enough.

Ron was waiting.

He sat comfortably in the sculpted iron chair and gazed out at the sky, aglow with the unhappy flush of city lights. He had had some time, he now felt, in which to collect his thoughts and prepare for Shego's return. It's silly to get worked up in any case, he told himself as he settled back on the cushion. We both knew this wasn't going to be a date, and so far I've had a lot of fun. He stopped for a moment to think about that. I had fun with Shego, and apparently…she had fun with me. He felt a warm glow inside him at the realization. Besides Kim and occasionally Felix, he didn't really know anyone who could have a good time with him, or who even wanted to give it a try, except for Rufus of course.

"Man, am I hungry," Shego announced smoothly, slipping back into her chair and giving him a small smile. Ron was momentarily caught up again in how un-Shego-like she looked. It wasn't just the clothes; it was her whole manner, the relaxed, normal attitude which she had adopted tonight. And it was what he saw in her face most of all. He shrugged off the passing weirdness and smiled back.

"That's good," he answered. "I took the liberty of ordering for us, since I knew you would be taking my sage advice about your menu selection."

"All right sage," Shego said, smirking slightly. "So approximately how long will it be before our food is done?"

"Shouldn't be too much longer." Ron dithered for a moment, examining the pattern on their table, before lifting his eyes to meet Shego's. She was taken aback by the sudden shyness there. "Can I ask you something?" Ron said seriously.

Here it comes, Shego groaned silently. However, she merely made a show of getting comfortable in her chair.

"Go ahead," she replied nonchalantly. Ron offered her a small smile and tapped his fingers against each other thoughtfully.

"Why is it that you don't like mini-golf?" he asked.

"What?" Shego was caught off guard. That was not what she had been expecting him to ask. She glanced sharply at his face and then, seeing his careful smile, she relaxed slightly. He knew exactly what he was doing.

He was too good.

Now, she really relaxed; this story would be much easier to tell, although still a little painful. Carefully, Shego sorted through the story in her mind, and then took a deep breath for courage, and spoke.

"My family was never really what you'd call close," she began, looking not at her companion, but at her neatly folded hands on the table before her. "My mother was always working and my father divided his time between endless business trips and volunteering for Go city's various institutions." She paused and gave Ron a small, rather bitter, smile. "They were good people, just never really good parents.

"But occasionally one or the other or both of them would get a free evening to spend with us and they'd take us some place for dinner or something." Shego waved a hand as though indicating vast distances and possibilities beyond words. My brothers used to love it," She continued after a thoughtful moment. A sigh. "So sometimes we would go mini-golfing. My brothers and I had fun, and my parents were sometimes able to head out for a little while if a problem came up at work, while we continued to play.

"And I don't know exactly when it first happened, but that was where I started to realize that they didn't really think of us as their kids, not inside, not…properly. I would see the other families; how the children seemed almost to melt into their parents, as though they were parts of a single whole. There was hugging and laughing and private jokes and, well, a…kind of sparkle when they looked at each other and…I started to notice that it was never present when my parents looked at me. It…it wasn't the same."

Shego glanced up once again, almost timidly, but with hard lines surrounding her mouth. Even she didn't really know what she feared seeing, but nevertheless, she did not find it in Ron's face. His large brown eyes were clear and their depths contained, not pity, but a kind of understanding, as well as an awareness of her pain. This awareness was mirrored in every muscle of his face, and in his large hands, which were closed on each other a little too tightly.

The sight made Shego bite her lip and look away from him, and out over the café, lit against the night. After a moment, Shego continued.

"I kept noticing this, and other things, every time we went there, as well as other places, and after a while I started to think 'I'm not really their daughter; I'm just another obligation.' I knew they only spent time with us because they felt that it was their responsibility. The other parents, they wanted to be there, and share their kids' lives." A painful pause. "The thing you didn't know was missing hurts the most when you discover it, I guess."

She looked back at him again; forced herself to meet his eyes, and felt her mouth twitch into another of those bitter little smiles. "I know it's stupid," she said softly, although her hands clenched the edges of her chair, out of his sight, "but I always associated those…revelations, as well as what came after, with miniature golf courses. I hated them after that." Except for today, with you.

She was finished.

"It's not stupid," Ron said. "Nothing you feel is." They sat for a moment, not awkwardly, but as though both were exhausted by Shego's recitation, and needed time to come to terms with it. Several of the dining families had already left, and they could hear the other patrons chatting as they ate. Someone laughed softly.

He didn't ask what came after, and she didn't tell him; not tonight.

The moment was broken when they heard the clumping of rubber-soled shoes on tile, and their waiter appeared, with two glasses of ice water, and the platters of food. The waiter was a young man in his twenties, who made polite conversation which neither of them really listened to. At least, Shego knew that she did not. Instead, she stared blankly at her plate. What was this again? Ah yes, eggplant parmesan. Ron said it was really good. It certainly smelled good.

It had the aroma of several mouthwatering cheeses, along with tomatoes and some interesting spices. That was all well and good. It smelled kind of like a spicy pizza. It even kind of looked like a pizza, with the yellow and white cheeses covering the red sauce, except for the pieces of eggplant which she could see poking out sneakily from the edges of the cheese. The flesh of the eggplant, where she could see it, was kind of gray, and the black peal hung off of it in strips. It looked sort of like fish skins. Not appetizing. Shego had never even tasted eggplant before.

It was kind of a relief to be worrying about something as unimportant as her dinner.

"Ron," Shego said, her voice incredulous and her eyes still riveted to the frightening vegetables, "you're sure that this stuff is good?"

"Absolutely!" Ron declared enthusiastically. Shego glanced up and saw he was grinning. A sly smile pulled at her mouth as well.

"All right, than you try it first," she countered. If he is trying to trick me into eating something disgusting for a joke than he's got a death wish, she thought, amused. However, Ron merely raised one eyebrow at her and then, still grinning, he sliced off a sizable portion of his dinner and, with a flourish, inserted it into his open mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed dramatically, giving little sounds of enjoyment.

Shego was still suspicious, but nevertheless, she slowly sawed off a corner of her own meal with her knife, then she brought the morsel to her dark lips. It entered. There was a pause as Shego gradually allowed the bite of food to move around her mouth, as though she had all the time in the world. Then she bit into it, and chewed.

Ron was watching her again with his grin still firmly in place. He now looked slightly smug.

"It's not bad," Shego admitted, after swallowing her mouthful. It was delicious; a quintessence of cheese, sauce and spices overlaid with a strange, almost mushroom like flavor that was most likely the eggplant, but after all the fuss she had made beforehand, Shego decided she was not about to praise it to the skies. She smirked across at her dinner companion, daring him to see through her nonchalance. "I might have known you weren't stupid enough to try and trick me," she teased.

"Ah, but I did trick you," Ron declared proudly. "And I did it by being perfectly honest."

Shego couldn't help but laugh at that, although if Drakken had dared to try something similar he would have most likely received a plasma blast to the face. But somehow, with Ron, Shego didn't feel like she was being degraded or mocked. It was relaxed, and easy. And it felt so good to laugh, as though it helped to shake off the pain of her story, as well as all the worry and heartbreak that had preceded this night.

It wasn't completely gone, of course, but at least for the rest of the evening, the air was clear, and the company was the best she could imagine.

Finally, the night was over. Shego sighed as she eased the sleek, green hovercraft into its alcove in the lair's hanger. She felt…drained, mentally. Telling her story had taken more out of her than she had let on, more than she had admitted even to herself. Even though it was such a small story, it was exhausting. Now she thought about it, when was the last time that she had let anyone into her life, or told them anything at all about her past?

It had not happened for more than eight years.

But she had already promised herself that she would be honest with Ron, at least as far as was possible. How could she ask him to get to know her if she refused to allow him to see who she was? And this story, as painful as it had been, was at least one that she had been able to tell. He must have guessed that, Shego marveled once again. He is far more astute than he realizes.

How on earth had Kimmie never noticed it? Was it possible that she simply couldn't see it because it was too obvious? Had she really just taken Ron for granted because she really had no idea of who he really was? Shego found that difficult to believe. It was a puzzle, but it was a puzzle that Shego would have to solve another time. She smiled tiredly as she locked up the hovercraft and headed out of the hanger and towards her room. There were no elevators in the lair, unfortunately, but oddly, Shego found it almost relaxing to walk, to move her feet, slowly and calmly. It gave her time to really think about the night.

It had been difficult to tell her story, but now she felt…lighter almost, and she was glad that she had been able to tell Ron, to confide in him. All the time she had been speaking, even when she wasn't looking at him, she had felt his soft brown eyes on her, not judging, only accepting. He received all that she gave him and did not ask for any more. He was so easy to talk to, honest and understanding.

It was kind of scary how open she had been with him. What would she end up telling him when they went out together next time? 'When.' It wasn't an 'if' anymore. She would see him again. With that thought in her mind, Shego slipped silently through the silvery hallways until she reached her rooms. At last, faced with the familiar black door, Shego stopped in the act of unlocking it, when she noticed the note which was stuck to her door with scotch tape.

Shego, I couldn't find you and so this is to inform you that project Doppelganger is a go. Come to my lab first thing tomorrow morning to discuss the details.

- Dr. Drakken, future ruler of Earth

"Charming," Shego murmured sarcastically. She glanced with disgust at her boss' title at the bottom of the note, before tearing the annoying piece of paper off and frying it until only gray, feathery ash remained. She unlocked her door and entered, shutting out the sleeping lair, as well as any unfortunate idiots whose heads were two sizes too big.

This was something else to worry about, but she would have to worry about it tomorrow. For now, all she wanted was to sleep.

Tomorrow would come soon enough.

Walking home in the dark, Ron was happy. The half moon and the glittering stars over his head smiled from their resting places in the sky, and a few playful clouds chased each other over trees and behind sleeping houses. Ron hoped that Rufus was also smelling the sweet bouquet of night air. When he got home, Ron decided, he would open the windows wide and let the cool starlight dust his room with silver.

He wasn't thinking anything in particular, but only walking, enjoying the cool, gentle evening. He would think about think about this night, and what had happened, what had…grown between him and Shego, but not now. Now, it was enough just to walk in the night.

He started idly wondering where Shego was now; whether she had already arrived back at Drakken's current lair, or where else the moonlit paths of night might have lead her.

Ron sighed and pulled his thin jacket more tightly around him. It had been a good night. He hadn't really found out much about Shego, except that he had discovered that he liked being with her, plus a few crumbs of her past. But that was more than he had really expected. The mini golf game had been fun and…easy. He hadn't felt awkward, or obliged to force the conversation. And now he knew a little more about who she was as a person, and where she was coming from. Maybe he could be her friend after all.

As he rounded a corner a familiar restaurant came in sight.

"Ahh Bueno Nacho," Ron sighed blissfully, inhaling the aromas of cheese and meat which wafted invitingly from the brightly coloured restaurant. It was true that he had already had a large supper, but eggplant parmesan, delicious as it was, just didn't last long enough, and the strong odor of hot cheese was making saliva come to his mouth. Of course, it was very late, almost eleven, but then again, Ron decided, it was on his way home….

Not giving his traitorous common sense a chance to rear its ugly head, Ron advanced to the colorful restaurant, and pushed open one of the swinging doors, causing a small bell to tinkle above his head. The room was brightly lit, reflected constantly against the darkness outside, and almost deserted. Although Bueno Nacho was open twenty-four hours, this was still the dead time of the night, when fast food cravings were at their lowest. However, as Ron walked farther into the restaurant, he noticed a familiar red head of hair in one of the booths at the far back. But it couldn't be, not at this time of night. Then the rest of the scene came into his line of sight, and his feet froze to the suddenly icy ground.

A hypothetical question; if you have betrayed everything your friend stood for in a single night, do you still have the right to feel the gnawing pain of her betrayal?

It didn't matter, because Ron felt it anyway, as though he was burning from the inside out. They hadn't seen him yet, and Ron forced himself to turn away before they did. The least he could do was to disappear; that was probably his most useful function.

Then he was outside, underneath the cold neon lights and distant, hazy stars. He wasn't hungry anymore, and there was no thought in his mind except getting home, to Rufus. Above his head, the moon was distant. She had hidden her face behind a few wisps of cloud, as though she could not bear to watch.

He didn't think, he ran.

Thank you for reading! I dearly hope that Shego's story was believable and interesting. Of course, it is only a very small part of a greater whole, but I thought it worked better this way. After all, they are just getting to know each other.

Oh, and no, that question wasn't really hypothetical at all. ;)

Believe it or not, your reviews do help me to update, and I love getting them. I hope everyone enjoyed, and the next chapter should be easier.

See you all soon!