I wish I had something more interesting to say other than thank you guys so much for reviewing, I think I replied to everyone who sent me one. Any and all questions will hopefully be answered in the next few chapters, don't worry I do have a partial outline in my thick skull.
Enjoy.
Chapter 10, You're Really All That We Wanted
The rush of water coming from the bathroom drowned out the sound of the television in front of Monique- not that she was even paying attention to it. Kim had just gotten home from a long run and the first thing she did was get in the shower. The darker woman was busy surfing a frequent fashion blog until a knock sounded at the door.
She glanced up and ignored it.
A few seconds later the knock reappeared and she sighed, "Kim someone's at the door." Receiving no response she reluctantly stood and looked through the peephole. Her eyes widened and she reached for the lock, flicking it and yanking the door open, then jumping out at the person on the other side of the threshold. "Ron!"
The blonde boy hugged her cheerfully and stepped back, looking her in the face. "Hey, Mo, how have things been?"
"Oh, pretty boring really. I can't believe I'm getting credit for an education by sitting on my butt all day."
He chuckled and shook his head back and forth. "You know they generally give those out under the impression that you actually go to class."
"What they don't know won't kill 'em." She lead him inside the apartment and shut the door after. "So this is a nice visit! Does Kim know you're here?"
"No actually, I thought I'd surprise her." He rested a hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it slowly. "It's been quite some time since we talked actually and I realized how much I miss what we used to have."
"Ah, here to win back the girl?"
"Something like that hopefully." His hand dropped to his side and he looked up towards the bathroom. "Did I come at a bad time? I wanted to wait a week after you two started classes so I didn't interrupt any other plans you guys might have had."
"No, your timing is perfect, and she's actually done with classes for the day."
"Oh, uh..."
"Just take a seat on the couch, tell me how school's been for you." They both sat down next to each other as the shower shut off.
"Yeah, so I'm into my second semester now and things are great. I'm actually a straight A student if you can believe that."
"What? Really, that's amazing!" Monique glanced in the direction of the bathroom, as the conversation fell into an awkward silence. The thought didn't escape her at how far apart her and Ron had drifted as friends. Not that they had ever been particularly close, Kim being one of the main reasons they hung out in the first place.
The shower door clicked open and Kim walked out, with a towel around her body, and one in her hands that she used to dry off her hair. "Mo, I actually wanted to warn you that I'm expecting a visi... tor." She paused abruptly in the entrance to the living room with her mouth half open. "Ron?"
"H-hey, Kim." Ron stood and turned towards her noticeably gulping.
"What are you doing here?" She removed the towel from her hair and pushed the mess out of her face with a swipe from her hand.
His demeanor dropped in surprise. "Are you not happy to see me?"
"I just... I'm shocked is all. I mean I haven't heard from you in over a month and you just show up at my apartment?"
Monique stood up slowly, creeping out of the room and into the kitchen.
"Well, ok yeah there are some things we have to talk about, but I didn't think you'd be disappointed to see me!" He raised both hands up waist high.
"I'm not..." Kim pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to change, and we can talk about this after." She turned and left, leaving Ron alone in the living room.
He dropped his arms and sat on the couch, resting his head in both hands.
Monique came back into the room with a yogurt in one hand and a spoon in the other. "Well, you kinda had to expect this right?"
"Yeah, but I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance, and I was hoping it would lean towards the fifty where she ran over and hugged me like you did."
"Ron you have never been great at understanding the ladies."
"I got the Kim Possible didn't I? And she's the best catch in the whole world, thank you very much."
"And the rest of the world is still trying to figure out how." She laughed and took a bite from her yogurt.
"Hey, never question the Ron factor. It works in mysterious ways."
"That's for sure."
There was another knock at the door.
Monique headed towards it and looked through the peephole one more time. The yogurt in her hand fell to the floor and rolled across the hard wood, spilling its contents in an arc as it tapped the base of Ron's shoe. "Mo, what are you-"
The girl spun around, her hand grasping dangerously at the door handle as she landed on her knees, shaking a hand wildly back and forth. She harshly shushed him, then crawled across the apartment and opened the kitchen window. Monique was nearly half out and straddling the frame, when Ron went to the door and called out to her.
"We're on the third floor, Mo." He reached for the handle and slid the door open, both figures on either side freezing in response. Ron could not move, every muscle in his body had tensed up as flashbacks to the Atlantic Quake drifted in and out of his mind.
Shego took a step back and readied herself for an attack. That's when Kim entered the room and the two women exchanged glances before Ron turned around and looked at his old friend.
"Are you kidding me?"
Kim opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
"Are you fucking now too? Is that what this is? She comes around and you two get together behind my back?"
Shego smirked and stood up straight, drawing out her next sentence. "Looks like the jig is up, Princess, little Rony's learned our secret."
Ron turned towards her and jumped, tackling Shego to the ground and throwing a fist which the villainess caught easily. The two struggled briefly before flipping positions. A flaming hand was inches away from Ron's face before Kim pulled the older woman off the boy.
She shoved Shego to the side and looked down at Ron with intense features. "Really, the first time I see you in over a month and you're starting a fight in my apartment? You still haven't grown up, Ron." She turned to the side for a split second before biting back again. "And you know what? Shego is my enemy and she still visited me more often than you did." A warm sleeve brushed up against the side of Ron's cheek as he partially sat up."And before I get called out for it, yes Shego and I have been fighting behind your back. I'm sorry I broke your trust."
Kim turned to the other woman.
"And Shego, Ron means a lot to me, and he's been through a lot because of you. And you will not come to my house uninvited and give him a hard time."
The green skinned woman broke a smile.
"It's not funny, Shego."
"Yeah, actually it is. You know why?" She brushed past Kim and picked Ron up by the collar. "Because this pathetic excuse for a man has consistently helped bring Drakken down for no other reason than his absolute stupidity, and when he disappears you forgive him without hesitation. But when I treat you well, and go out of my way to be friendly I get the third degree.
"I understand there's a lot of stuff between us that seems crazy, too crazy to forgive, but I..." She pushed Ron back and turned to face Kim. "You know actually I'm just going to leave. Enjoy your life with Wonder Bread, here." Shego headed down the stairs outside the door and disappeared.
Ron waited for Kim to say something, anything, but when he was sure she wouldn't he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Look I never wanted to be the reason you were unhappy, Kim."
He took a step forward, but she still refused to look at him choosing instead to lightly scratch the scar on her arm.
"We need to talk about Shego. Clearly something has been going on between you two that no one else knows about, judging by the fact that Monique almost jumped out of the kitchen window after seeing who was at the door." He turned to the right and eyed the room in question. "Actually I hope she's still in there, you should probably explain this to her, or at least check to see she hasn't broken a leg or something."
Kim sat down on the couch behind her and called out to the kitchen, "Mo, come here there's something I have to say and you need to hear it too."
Her friend moved from her position, pressed up against the door listening intently, and opened it casually.
"Everyone sit, this is kinda a long one."
And so she described each event in as much detail as she could, pausing to clarify when something was questioned, and leaving out the... more private details concerning her budding feelings towards the older woman that even she could not explain. Calming Ron down when she explained all the new physical scars that were the result of her efforts in taming Shego, and avoiding having her eardrums popped at the loud protests that Monique gave off. Until finally the narrative was over and all three of them sat in silence, absorbing what had happened.
"So..." Ron was the first to break the subsequent silence. "Is Shego good now?"
Kim sighed in response- she really didn't know the answer to that herself. "As far as things have been over the past few weeks she hasn't been... a threat? I can't really answer that question. Things have been different though, she's changed a lot. Not that the beginning wasn't pretty bad, with her trying to actually kill me and all."
"But, now she's making house calls so I mean, I guess you're at the point where you kinda just accept that she's going to be showing up more frequently in your life?" The blonde boy sat back in the couch and put a hand over his eyes.
"What am I supposed to do? Tell her off and ignore the fact that she's finally becoming the kind of person I tried to change her into in the first place? I think she's respecting me as an equal now that we don't have any reason to fight. And maybe she sees us being friends? Maybe she's just lonely.
"Drakken has been in prison for months now, and as far as I know she's spent the majority of her time here in Go City. She doesn't have any family, and I don't know, I think she looks forward to seeing me."
"Ok, no." Monique stood up and put her hands on her hips. "I'm going to be the voice of reason here and tell you, you're both nuts. You think I don't know what that woman put you through during high school? Heck the whole world knows what kind of person she is, and if you just brushed it off, she almost killed Ron two seconds ago."
"But she didn't."
"And why? Because you intervened? What if you hadn't? I mean we saw what she did to your arm and leg Kim, she could have done that to Ron."
"He attacked her!" Kim stood up clearly agitated.
"Yeah, after she made that smug remark about sleeping with you!" Ron was standing now too.
"I never said she was perfect! Her and Ron never had a good relationship, and I didn't say she was completely good, I said I didn't know. Clearly she has some issues still, but that doesn't mean she can't change."
Ron and Monique both crossed their arms.
"I know that since you've been off in lala land playing Cooking Momma that you've probably forgotten that I'm still saving the world, but don't you think it's about time you got back to reality? CoCo is still out there. And in case you were wondering, the last update I got they were floating around Syria possibly playing with biochemical warfare. And I know that's not our job, but we are probably going to have to get involved with this if Global Justice needs us."
Ron uncrossed his arms and looked down at the floor.
"The threat is real, and it's more serious than it's ever been. Drakken may have killed thousands of people, but we can't even hope to estimate how many CoCo are targeting. And if Shego is turning good, I'd rather have her on my team fighting with us than taking on this threat without her.
"She's one of the strongest people we've ever fought against. And she has information on comet powers that we've yet to discover, which I might add is the exact thing we're fighting against."
Her old sidekick shook his head. "Maybe Kim's right. Plus if anyone could handle Shego it's her. I'm not saying I completely trust this woman, but I'm willing to let Kim have some room on this one. Especially if you think you can convince Shego to fight with us against CoCo."
Now it was Kim's turn to shake her head. "In case you also missed her walking out, the relationship is now unraveling at the seams. Who knows what she's feeling right now, or if she'll even want to talk again. But Ron you're going to have to apologize."
"What, me?" His mouth hung open.
"You think she's going to apologize considering you attacked her?"
"But she-" He looked at Monique for support, but she wasn't having any of it.
"This ain't my battle."
"Kim you can't honestly expect me to apologize to her after everything."
She sighed. "I guess not, but the least you could do is try and treat her like a normal person you know? You don't even have to get a long, but it would be great if you didn't act so hostile towards her. And I mean who knows, maybe she doesn't even have an interest in helping us out with CoCo, I haven't really even mentioned it. I mean up until this point we've still kinda had an all work no play relationship so..."
"Well if something is going to happen between you two, now would be a really good time for it to start. The earlier we can get Shego into the mix, the easier it'll be to start working with her to train, so that if she does team up we're not running into each other during the fight." Ron looked down at his abdomen and blushed lightly. "Plus I... kinda need to get back in shape. Cooking school is not helping."
"How long are you going to be in town, Ron?" Kim wondered.
"Uh, not too long, just until tomorrow. That is if things went well I thought I could crash at your place? If not that's cool I was going to spend the weekend with my folks anyway. You're not the only person I haven't seen in a bit."
Kim looked at Monique who made a clicking sound with her tongue. "Boy of course you can spend the night. It'll be just like old times right?"
"Yeah." Ron's face lit up and he turned to Kim.
She smiled politely, and reached into her pocket, fumbling with her Kimmunicator. "I uh, gotta make a call to Wade to check on something, you guys don't mind if I head out for a bit right?"
They both shook their heads no and she went out the front door, and down the stairs into the atrium of their building. It only took a few rings before Wade's familiar voice was on the line. "Kim, long time no see, how's college going?"
"Things are good, I really had a favor to ask you."
"Shoot."
"You think you could get a hold of Shego? Or at least a place where I can leave her a message please?"
"I could probably leave her a message if you wanted." Wade put his drink down and scratched the side of his face. "Uh, Kim is there something going on between you and Shego that I should know about?"
Kim turned her attention away from the path in front of her towards the Kimmunicator.
"I mean I've kept this between just us, but if there's something dangerous going on I can't keep this a secret anymore. I just... I almost told someone after the last time I set you two up, but..."
"Ron and Monique know about everything now. That was actually why I called. Shego and Ron both showed up at my place unexpectedly earlier and things got a little heated, but Shego stormed out and now I need to talk to her, so if you could please just leave her a message?"
"Uh, yeah sure."
"Tell her to meet me at the football stadium tonight at 1."
"That it?"
"Yeah, thanks again, Wade." The connection ended and Kim turned back around towards her apartment. It was going to be a long night.
When Kim was sure that the other occupants of her apartment had gone to sleep, she opened her window and scaled down the brick facade with help from her hairdryer grappling hook.
While she wasn't expecting Shego to actually show, she wanted to offer up the olive branch first, and especially not let any time pass in which the other woman had time to think about how much of a mistake it was getting involved with her.
Kim picked the lock on the stadium entrance and headed into the open field sitting back on the grass with her legs stretched out before her. She looked up at the sky getting an unobstructed view of the stars and slowly picked out the constellations she knew as time passed.
Half an hour later and Kim was getting anxious. It seemed that she had been expecting too much after all. She sat up from where she had been resting back on her elbows and started to brush them off, pausing slightly when she heard approaching footsteps.
"You're late."
"I was early actually."
Kim bent her head back and looked up at the green woman behind her. "I've been here for like forty-five minutes."
"I've been here for an hour."
The young girl's eyebrows knitted together. "If you were here for that long then why did you make me wait?"
"I don't know." Shego kicked the grass beneath her and pointed up at the stadium seats. "I was over there watching."
"Watching me make an idiot out of myself?"
"Nah, you just looked really peaceful, I didn't want to disturb you. And anyway it looked like you could use the time to clear your head."
"Ok..." Kim stood up and brushed off her pants.
"It's not very often I get to see you so chill."
"You realize that's kinda weird right? What's your obsession with watching me?" Kim teased, but after seeing the look on Shego's face she held out a hand as if that would take it back.
"Yeah sorry I just..."
"Uhm, Shego about earlier. Look I didn't invite Ron over, I was just as surprised as you were that he even showed up. And you have to understand he's been my best friend since we could hold conversations." She smiled softly. "Plus we dated for a bit, so give me some leniency in cutting him slack. Things for us are a lot different than they used to be, a lot has changed since high school. I guess it's partially my fault, but... I really don't know what I was thinking."
Shego just watched as Kim talked.
"And yeah you coming into my life as a new person, that's what I wanted all along- ever since the memory wipe at least. Now that it's happening, I kinda, it's a big surprise you know? I thought I'd handle it differently but then the Quake happened and I sorta gave up as horrible as it is to say that.
"But now Mo and Ron know everything that we've been up to until now and while a little skeptical at first, they're warming up to the idea of having you around. Obviously you're gonna have to work a little bit to completely convince them, but that's to be expected right?
"I guess I just..."
Shego closed the gap between them, her eyes partially open as she looked down at Kim who was trying to find the next thing she wanted to say, completely oblivious of their current positions.
"Just..."
A green hand grabbed the bottom of Kim's jaw and pulled the girl forward.
"Wanted to..."
The small distance between them all but disappeared as Shego froze half an inch from connecting their lips. Kim could feel the abnormally warm breath on her face as her eyelids partially closed in anticipation. "Just wanted to kiss me?"
The girl in her hand nodded slightly, completely lost in the moment. The green fingers on her jaw glowing slightly, warming her skin in contrast to the cool breeze that came in and circled the base of the stadium.
Kim didn't have a single thought in her head. She closed her eyelids the rest of the way, waiting for Shego's next move.
