The tap at the window made Ann look up in surprise from the tea mug she was washing in the sink. Shego was on the other side of the glass, wearing a dress that matched the green of her usual outfit. She had red flowers and a box of chocolates in one arm, and she was pointing at the kitchen door with the other, a questioning expression on her face. Ann nodded and went to open it.

"Are those hydrangeas?" she asked as the villainess walked in.

"Yeah. And strawberry liqueur chocolates." Shego blinked as a late-coming thought struck her. "Uh, if that's okay. I dunno how you feel about me feeding Kimmie-"

"Just make sure she knows what's in them," the doctor told her. "She's in the shower right now, washing off tonight's mission. You can wait for her in her room. Just keep quiet on the way there, I'm not sure the boys are asleep yet."

"Thanks." Shego plucked a mophead from the bouquet. "This one's for you," she stated. Once Ann took it, the green girl treated the neurosurgeon to a kiss that almost made her drop the offering. She watched mutely as Shego sauntered out of the kitchen.

Kim was wearing one towel wrapped around her body and another containing her hair when she found Shego in her bedroom. At first she thought the villainess was enjoying the view, but her attention was more focused and serious.

"How's your hand?" she asked. "Your grip seemed fine after blocking the glow..."

It took a moment for the teen hero to remember she had blocked instead of dodged one of Shego's opening attacks. "Oh, it's okay now. The mission gloves are based on the battle suit. Wade made them... uh, specifically for... when I go hand to hand with you."

Shego's frown did not lessen. "Why not just wear the battle suit?"

"Because it's so... glitchy? The gloves don't do anything else, they're just... resistant to the glow. Well, the kinetic aspect; it didn't do as well against the heat, but it cooled down pretty quick..." Under Shego's disbelieving gaze, Kim stopped rambling, cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Speaking of snug clothing, why the dress? I thought you didn't like it."

Apparently Kim was fine now and Shego wasn't in the mood to press the issue, so she let it drop. "Just came from a date with Martin Smarty," she told the teenager.

"Really?"

"Don't worry," Shego said with an eyebrow raised at Kim's curious tone, "It won't happen again."

"That's not what I... why not?"

"I met his son." Shego was about to describe the effect the phrase, 'Hi new mom,' had had, but her inner voice told her to shut the hell up before she gave a point away to the buffoon. However questionable the quality of his sperm, he had a better chance of making Kim a mother than she did; and there was every chance that the girl who could do anything wanted to be a mother someday. She gestured to the flowers and chocolates. "I'm passing these on to you. My way of apologizing for the latest caper."

"What? Why?"

The villainess grunted in resignation. "The only reason I let Lucre into the lair in the first place was because of how much he bugs Dr. D. For a while, it was very entertaining. But then they started bonding, and, well... it was Lucre who gave Drakken a target to use the URC on. I tried to remind him what happened the last time he tried the robot army approach, but..."

"I guess that explains why you walked out. I'll admit, that surprised me..." Kim didn't want to dwell on the little diablo fiasco any more than her guest did, so she turned her gaze to Shego's offerings, which she supposed had originally been Martin Smarty's. "Are hydrangeas really your favourite flower?"

"Yeah. The chocolates are strawberry liqueur. Save some for your mother."

"Strawberry, huh?" The redhead was well aware of Shego's favourite fruit.

"Marty did some research on me before the date. Apparently my online fan club have their share of obsessed freaks."

A smile finally graced the teenager's lips, and she headed over to her wardrobe to change into her sleepwear. "Mine too. Though to be honest, most of the info I wish they didn't have was leaked by the tweebs. Or caused by the tweebs," she added with a growl.

"Yeah, all the villains had a good laugh with that desktop background."

"What desktop background?"

"The photo of you the twins emailed all over town? The freaked expression with the face cream and what I assume was toothpaste, not rabies..."

"And the villains made it a desktop?" the redhead whined.

Shego sniggered at the combination of frustration and embarrassment coming from behind the dressing screen. "There's a betting pool on whether or not the Possible twins turn evil, too."

"They better not..."

"You can't rule it out. Not after meeting Betty and Sheldon."

Kim emerged and gestured Shego to the far side of the bed, so she could lie on the near side. "The tweebs are nowhere near as harsh as Gemini, okay? The only thing the tweebs are that obsessive-compulsive about is building gadgets. A few of them can't even explode." The teenager placed the flowers on her pillow before opening the box of chocolates. "Already had a couple, huh?"

The villainess shrugged. "The flight here took over half an hour. I was weak." She then snagged herself a third without the barest hint of apology.

"Oh, these are good," the redhead mumbled around the confectionary she had popped into her own mouth.

"Belgian," Shego mumbled back before the chocolate in her mouth gave way to the liqueur, forcing a short, satisfied moan from behind sealed lips.

A couple more chocolates were consumed before Kim mentioned, "The security guards weren't happy, by the way."

"Only because we were facing the same way they were. And at least it stopped you from hopping about the place. It's not a real fight if you just keep running away from me."

"Your glow kept coming and going when we started grappling. What was that about?"

"...I guess I got a little nervous after giving your hand that tap."

Kim looked over at Shego. The green girl was lying on her right, and the slit up the left side of her dress revealed the majority of her pale thigh. "I thought you weren't supposed to care, anymore," she said softly.

"Yeah, well..."

Shego didn't have time to come up with a reasonable explanation - or admission - before Kim leaned over and planted a kiss on her thigh, as high as the dress would allow. Kissed, and then very gently bit. The villainess suppressed the moan trying to crawl up her throat. Her legs scissored together, trapping the fingers that had just started tracing the curve of her inner thigh. "Clearly you've had enough chocolate, you're already drunk."

"Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, you know," the redhead murmured, her lips still on Shego's skin.

"That's never been scientifically proven. Stop it."

"You really want me to stop?" Kim asked coyly before suckling on the flesh available.

"Nnn... no, but as I keep saying, I refuse to deal with the drama that will follow."

"We've always kept the guys we see seperate from us..."

"Ron's not any guy!" Shego hissed, her patience fraying. She grabbed the offending hand and yanked it out from between her thighs, then shoved the teenager back over to her side of the bed. Kim was too surprised to hear Ron's actual name pass between Shego's black lips to resist. She just stared at her former lover instead, wondering what was going through the older girl's mind.

"Your relationship with Ron - and I mean the whole thing - does it compare to any other relationship you've had?"

To her credit, Kim gave the question serious thought. The only other people she'd known for most of her life were her family, but she had always been closest with Ron. They'd grown up together. When they started doing missions - something the boy could take a fair share of responsibility for - they almost always did those together, too.

"Until the last year or two," she finally said, "Ron hadn't been a guy, he'd been... well, Ron. Then came the sitch with the moodulators, and I started wondering. So when that wedding in his family came along, I... ran a little experiment, and it wasn't so bad." Shego snorted at that, but Kim only nodded and went on. "I know, 'not bad' isn't enough; that's why I didn't really consider it again until I met Yori. Like you said, I got jealous."

"Uh-huh. Why, exactly?" Shego asked.

"I think at first it was because he was keeping stuff from me. He'd never done that before. And when I learned the truth, and that she liked him like that, I didn't want her to take him away... so when he suggested us getting together..."

"And the timing of that isn't suspect in the least," the villainess drawled sarcastically.

"Okay, yeah, I thought you'd betrayed me and that made m-"

"I was referring to the synthodrone." Shego interrupted, then sighed. "See? Ron isn't some side dish, he's the main course. You've had your forbidden lesbian thing and now you're back on the straight and narrow. Well, I'm not gonna be the side dish. Not after what we had. I can't..." Shego swallowed before her voice hitched, emotion suddenly threatening her composure. "I can't be that close to you and not have you."

"Don't do that," Kim said forcefully, "Don't ever think I'd diminish what we had. It was never just a thing." She fidgeted with a chocolate wrapper, pressing it into an increasingly smaller ball as she thought things through. "No judging. That's what we said, remember? And mom... she didn't, once she knew enough. She believed what we had was real, and she was happy for us. No one else could have given us that, not like she did. It was a secret because you had your rep... your professional reputation to worry about."

"And you're just afraid of what the world will think of you if they find out."

"...Maybe. It'd be bad enough if everyone in high school knew, but that's nearly over. I thought dad would freak; he still might, because it's me, not mom. But Ron... I dunno if he'd ever understand. Even if I told him now..."

Shego got to her feet. "I don't care if you tell him any of it or not. Just sort your shit out, Possible."

"Are you telling me to choose?" Kim asked the green girl's retreating back.

"No. I'm telling you to realise what you really want."

The redhead let Shego disappear down the stairs without another word. To her surprise, she heard the kitchen door open and close softly, an exit she never expected to hear from the thief. What she didn't hear was the whispered repetition of, "Dammit, dammit, dammit," as Shego stalked off to her transport, hidden beyond the back yard.

Kim moved the flowers and chocolates so she could slide under the duvet. The scent of the hydrangeas remained on her pillow, and she turned onto her side and breathed it in as she thought about things. She knew what she wanted, but it was becoming very clear that she wouldn't be able to have her cake and eat it, too. After Shego had made her point, she wasn't even sure she wanted to anymore.

She could do anything. It had never occurred to her that she couldn't love Ron and Shego equally. Differently, yes, obviously; but equally. But that was just her. For all her talk of Ron's potential to freak out, she'd never properly considered the other two points of this triangle. While it could be hard to change his mind once it was made up, she'd rarely had a problem talking Ron into anything. She'd always believed that once he got used to the idea, he'd be capable of sharing her. But now the prospect of actually telling him was weighing on her mind, she was no longer certain. And Shego had just made her own position quite clear.

Kim was forced to accept the probability that neither of them would accept the other. She would have to give one of them up.

She could almost feel her heart cracking.