Conversing

Drakken grumbled as he looked at all the clutter in his lab. When he had asked his henchmen-staff to organize the storage rooms, it hadn't dawned on him that this would mean space being needed to sort. The sounds of voices and movement wasn't something he was used too anymore. He had become complacent and content with silence, Shego's voice, and the peaceful tranquility of his wonderful seaside lair... which was now loud jokes, laughs, and items being tossed.

He let out a shuttering sigh as he rubbed his temples from all the distracting noises. It only focused them on the voices. The workers sorting boxes were laughing about a prior weekend at the Villain's Inn, the filing cabinets in the far back was arguing about sorting them and the system in general, workers cleaning up the residual mess off the floor were teasing each other, and-

A loud slam interrupted Drakken's analysis. He spun in his chair to look at the drop down hatch to the water basin, where Mitchell stood in scuba gear and looking alarmed by the loud sound that had now silenced everyone.

"Sorry, boss," he gave a nervous laugh as he pulled the mouth piece away, "But the outer hatches are reinforced... it's nasty down there but nothing else will be getting in... but I think the filter is broken."

"Yes, good work. Have Hector and his crew take care of the mess... someone order a new filter," Drakken sighed. A file slammed and he made his way over to the argument that had broken out, "What is going on over here?"

"Clark doesn't know how to read," huffed Lucius. He shook the log in the other man's face, "It's alphabetical!"

"Its chronological!" snapped the other.

"Do you see all G's... because I do," snapped Lucius.

"Do you see the dates... because-"

Drakken cut in.

"It's both!" he yelled and snatched the log, "It's chronological, alphabetical, by square footage, and by material. Why is this so hard to understand?"

They both looked at him and then each other.

"I'm lost," said Clark.

"Yeah, boss. How are they all those things?" Lucius scratched the top of his head, "Like, is it by alphabetical and then broken down or by material or-"

The loud sound of something crashing turned his attention to where a few workers froze near his work station. Boxes and his papers all on the ground. Drakken could tell they had been trying to stack boxes near it but had overshot and knocked over his work. Drakken clenched his first and did his best not to begin screaming due to all the interruptions... just as Lucius and Clark began arguing about the files again.

"Shego!" yelled Drakken. He looked towards where her vacant chair was shoved against a wall, "Shego?"

"She's not been down here since that annoying alarm went off hours ago," interjected Lucius.

"Yeah, you hit ignore and she said something to you, remember," chimed in Mitchell across the lab as he took off his flippers.

"Maybe she's doing whatever that was about," shrugged Clark.

Drakken looked at the monitor where he'd hit ignore on two of Shego's alarms. He'd been in the middle of dictating the reinforcement of the basin bellow at the time. He grumbled at remembering how he'd dismissed whatever Shego had been telling him about the alarm. He rolled his eyes at the fact she was probably upstairs annoyed that he'd done so... which he knew he'd been in the wrong with... but all the commotion around him was not letting him process that.

"Ngn," sighed Drakken as he slid a hand over his face in frustration, "I'll be right back."

"I think the boss is in trouble with Mrs. Boss," he heard Clark whisper.

"Marcus!" snapped Drakken as he headed towards the stairs.

"It's Clark, sir," the worker stood straighter.

"Clark," Drakken waved over his shoulder as he walked up the stairs, "I want you to get started on cleaning out the grime from the water basin."

"That was Hector and his crew's job," Clark stated.

"Yes. Well now it's yours," smirked Drakken, "I expect it to sparkle by the end of day."

Drakken walked into the elevator to see Lucius snickering and Clark's shoulder's slump. The moment the door closed Drakken let out a loud whine. His lab was a mess, his files were a disaster, and he couldn't even concentrate enough to do the simplest calculations. His whine turned into an annoyed pout.

I can't believe Shego just wandered off.

His pout fell and he shook his head slowly. He could believe it. He could understand her agitation towards his dismissal of her alarms and reminders... and the fact he'd ignored her when she'd verbally tried to remind him of the break and water he probably needed. It was still frustrating she'd chosen to simply not return to the lab. The door opened and he was mentally telling himself to calm down when he heard Shego laughing. His brow raised as he moved to round the corner to the kitchen.

His mental calm faded.

Shego was laughing cheerfully as she sat on the counter with the landline, kicked back as if the lab wasn't even an idea to be entertained. He crossed his arms and watched her make a joke about onions that while he might have otherwise found amusing, it only fueled his bitterness.

It's as if she doesn't even realize we have work to do.

He let out a deep aggravated sigh as he moved closer towards her. He had work to do, things to get done, deadlines to meet... she should be the one in the lab getting the henchmen- workers organized. It was her job after all.

Does she think she's excluded from it now...

A question that should have been asked in a rational calm, perhaps to set lines between work and personal life... but that did not come. Drakken felt the lair shake slightly and knew something in his lab had been disrupted, reminding him of just why his mood was so foul.

"Shego!" he yelled.

Shego nearly dropped the phone as she spun around to look at him.

"I need you in the lab, now." He gestured aggressively towards the elevator, "Those nitwits can't wrap their head around your simple system-"

"I am on the phone," she huffed before returning to the call, "Sorry about that, apparently he's gone blind."

Drakken's eyes narrowed.

"Shego! Now," Drakken interjected.

Shego blinked at him and for a moment he hesitated to take a step back, even to back pedal. Instead he began to sputter out his reasoning's.

"You have been gone all morning-"

"Oh, you finally noticed," her eyes narrowed and she shoved the phone towards him, "Fine. Then you take the call."

Drakken watched her grab something from the fridge and storm off to the elevator. He grimaced at this before regaining himself to snarl into the phone.

"Shego is busy-"

"Don't you dare take that tone with me Drew Lipsky!" came a haughty reply. Drakken nearly dropped the phone.

"M-Mother?" he stammered, "H-How nice to hear from you."

"Oh now your all sweet. I did not raise you to act like a loud mouthed hooligan! Interrupting a conversation with such a nasty tone," she chastised, "Especially when you are far to bust to take my calls. At least someone does!"

"Mother-" he attempted to regain composure.

"Don't you 'Mother' me, young man," she continued, "Yelling at your girlfriend like that. When you can't even be bothered to call me back!"

"Mother, I am working-"

"My last nerve is what your working, Drew," she gave a loud huff, "I expect an apology for both myself and Shego."

Drakken took a slow break before doing his nicest and calmest voice he could muster.

"I'm sorry, Mother."

"That's better," she scoffed. There was a humming sigh and her voice became its normal cheerful tone, "Now, are you working on any little projects to help the world with those genius brains of yours."

Drakken bumped his head a few times gently into the wall behind him before responding.

"Yes, Mother... which I have to get back too," he pinched the bridge of his nose, "I will talk to you later."

"Alright, Drewbie," she said sweetly before her voice became stern again, "And you better go apologize to Shego."

Drakken hung up the phone and made his way back to the lab. Which took a shorter time then he'd imagined as he barely remembered stepping into the elevator and then suddenly the doors opened and he was in the lab. Drakken barely stepped onto the platform before he suddenly wondered if he was having a mental break down of sorts. The lab he had left barely a few minutes ago, was not the same lab... at least the messes were no longer there. No workers or boxes remained, there was no mess of scuba gear, his desk was organized again, and Shego closed the last of the filing cabinets as he reached the last step down the stairs.

He looked around before slowly approaching her.

"Where did everything go?" he asked cautiously.

Shego crossed her arms and gave him an expressionless response.

"I had Tweedledee and dumb move all the boxes and junk to another storage room to sort instead of gunking up the lair. I sent your water cleaning crew to get actual cleaning supplies... you know unless we were planning on destroying the ocean with bleach for funsies?" Shego gestured to the basin. He shook his head, "As for the files... they're incompetence amazes me sometimes. I'll just do it myself."

"Oh," Drakken looked around his now silent and clean lair before sheepishly looking at her, "Er, my apologies about earlier."

"For throwing a tantrum and yelling at me or for ignoring me completely?" asked Shego with a head tilt.

"Both... but mostly for the hostility upstairs," he gave a hopeful smile.

"As you better be," she scoffed, "I'll let it slide because of the mess I walked into down here, but if it happens again-"

Drakken felt his stomach twist.

"You'll leave?" he asked fearfully. He was about to apologies again when she snorted.

"No, but you'll find our how Flower handles plasma blasts real quick," Shego shook her head, "I also sent Davis to get a fridge for in here since I can't trust you to adhere to my water alarms."

She indicated to the desk where a jug of water sat and Drakken felt his shoulder's slump and a sudden wave of dehydration come over him. He chose to ignore this and focus on where Shego now looked more calm herself.

"Brilliant job at wrangling everything so quickly," was all he could get out. It earned him another snort and an eye-roll.

"Yeah, well. I know I'm invaluable," she smirked, "About time you realized it."

Drakken frowned.

"I already knew that," said Drakken, "Why do you think I paid you so much? It wasn't because I liked you."

"Really?" Shego smiled, "Not even a little."

"... perhaps at the beginning," he muttered under his breath.

"Mmhmm, there's the truth," she teased. Shoving him slightly to head upstairs, "Now if your don't mind. I would like to have lunch. I've been on the phone with your mother for two hours."

Drakken's eyes shot open and he gave her an apologetic look. She only shrugged in response. He looked at his worktable with the water and the work he could finally concentrate on. After a moment he looked to see her on the platform before moving towards her direction.

"How about dinner tonight," he asked quickly.

"Pass," shrugged Shego as she hit the button.

Drakken's face scrunched up in annoyance before he fought a whine.

"I apologized," Drakken heard the whine and yelled internally at himself.

"I know," said Shego, "Not that I even cared... it wasn't even top five of your angry tantrums over the years. Pfft, you have that silly contract meeting with the henchmen- sorry- staff tonight, remember?"

Drakken felt more relaxed but suddenly frustrated at himself for forgetting that.

"Oh, well... perhaps after we have the meeting-"

"We?" Shego laughed loudly as she stepped on the elevator, "I won't be there."

"What?" asked Drakken. Shego shook her head, "Well are you at least coming back after lunch?"

"We'll see," she smirked as the door closed.

Drakken let out a frustrated groan before falling back against the filing cabinet with his arms crossed. He yelped as three of the doors opened and the files fell out, leaving a mess on the once clean floor.

"Oh... Doodles!"

Shego stretched as she watched the sun beginning to wain over the horizon. She'd clearly drifted off as she pulled out her earbuds, which had long sense faded to silence from the dying of her music player. She felt jumped slightly as she noticed vines wrapped around the chair she was on and a haphazard canopy they had made over her. She sat up and waved them away, and watched them retreat to the edges of the patio. She'd opted to avoid the pool and simply spend sometime relaxing on the patio outside her room.

"Little too relaxed," she mused as she got up.

She felt a thin vine around her hand and looked at it.

"Hey Peri," she shook her hand slightly and the flower retreated to its normal space near her windowsill, "Drakken still in a meeting with the henchmen?"

There was no movement among the vines and Shego smirked.

"The strangers," she asked again. The vines flitted and relaxed, "Taking that as a no then... you know they work for us, right... appreciate if you'd let Hector clean the windows."

A few of the vines moved around the windows.

"Rubbing pollen on them is not clean," she sighed, "It's actually the opposite."

Shego ignored the flowers as she went inside and went down to the kitchen, having slept through the normal time she would have had dinner. Her thoughts returning to what she'd been thinking before she'd drifted off.

Drakken.

More specifically, things Estelle had been telling her about Drakken. She had no idea when Drakken would have even told his mother they were dating since he avidly avoided her calls- Shego paused as she opened the fridge.

"Eddie?" scoffed Shego with an eye roll as she resumed her conquest for food.

She didn't really care how the women had found out, but the two hours of talking about Drakken as if it were assumed they were engaged, not simply dating... was the problem. She enjoyed all the fuel she gained from it for poking fun at Drakken later, but some of the topic had made her more than a little uncomfortable.

Not because of the subject in general... but the fact none of this was talked about with Drakken.

Haven't even talked about our feelings, let alone a future.

The thought alone made her nerves prickle. She shook it off and narrowed her eyes as she began making a sandwich. She slowed her movements as she thought about what they had talked about... about how they liked each other... how they we're a couple.

She snorted at Drakken's words of "Going Steady." Replaying in her head.

Her smile faltered as she grabbed more bread.

That alone had been an awkward conversation... the sudden idea of expressing just how deep her feelings ran for him, made her face grow warm. She rolled her eyes at this, trying to imagine Drakken doing the same and reminding herself it was like pulling teeth just to clarify they were a couple at all.

Yet your the one telling your friends that it's nothing serious.

Her shoulder's stiffened at this memory. Her stomach grew tight and a sudden fear ran through her that somehow it would get back to Drakken. She knew it wasn't true, but she couldn't imagine Drakken even thinking that as being progressive. She made another sandwich and grabbed a few drinks from the fridge.

"I'll just explain it to him now... just in case," she muttered to herself as she headed to the elevator.

Imagine him proposing and then him hearing that-

Shego's eyes shot open and she shook the thought from her head before glaring.

"Damn it Mama Lipsky, get out of my head," she growled as the door to the lab opened up.

Two hours was definitely more than enough time to skew her thoughts out of whack. Glad Drakken had only spoken with his mother a handful of minutes as not to interrupt his own already chaotic mind. She looked to see Drakken hunched over a bunch of papers with only the light above his work desk lit. He didn't even look up as she approached him, clearly deep in focus. She put the plates and drinks down at the desk before moving her chair closer and kicking her feet up. She waited for him to say something but shrugged at the silence and grabbed her food as she watched his eyes dart across the papers in front of him. She didn't mind the silence as she began to eat.

His voice interrupted the silence as she took a bit of her sandwich.

"Shego? Maternity leave? Yes?"

Shego chocked on the sandwich she had just attempted to swallow. A sudden whirlwind of confusion and panic began swarming through her. Followed by a series of questions and remarks that were simply too overwhelming to attempt to begin.

"Excuse me?" she finally choked out.

"Maternity leave?" Drakken spun around in his chair, "I'm making an amendment to the contracts. Er well, paternity and maternity leave? Am I generous or simple..."

He trailed off as he seemed to finally register her reaction to his words. She watched him look suddenly uncomfortable before she managed to pull her features. She could have played it off if her chest wasn't suddenly pounding and her expression took longer to pull back then normal.

"I didn't- I wasn't implying," she watched him do a far worse job of controlling his reactions then she had, "I should have premised with it being amending to the Henchmen-Staff contracts."

"Yah think? Took me off guard a little. That's a relief. I was just about to tell you 'Slow your roll there Lipsky," chuckled Shego. Though her heart was still wildly beating.

"Yes. Agreed, that is quite a topic that is not something- I would never premise," Shego watched him attempt to find his words to lessen the awkwardness he had caused.

She did it for him.

"I say be mildly generous, but not too much," Shego watched his expression slowly become more relaxed, "Why are we adding this?"

Drakken seemed to shake off the last of her panic and cleared his throat.

"Ah, well it appears Lucius and the misses are planning on starting a family... Just want to get ahead of the stork if you will," Drakken chuckled nervously, "Since I have to redo the contracts anyway... Shego?"

"Sounds like a plan," Shego slid Drakken's sandwich over to him. Shego's heart and panic finally fell away as Drakken took the sandwich, "Yikes. One of the henchmen having spawn?"

"I'm as shocked as you are," Drakken shook his head.

Shego listened to Drakken ramble about the contract meeting she had purposely not attended, though given the concerning moment... she regretted not. It was almost laughable that she would even think Drakken would suggest something like that, she had just gotten him on the idea of not being hesitant to make a move. She shook her head at her overreaction. They had only been officially together for a few months. Surely Drakken would suggest marriage before something like that...

He hasn't even hinted at that even...

Her thoughts trailed off and she smirked, finding something new to tease him about later.

"So then- Did you use chunky peanut butter?" asked Drakken. He grumbled, "You know I like smooth-"

Shego cut him off before he ruined her mood.

"Since were on the subject of babies... when are you going to stop whining about the crust like an adult," she smirked.

Drakken glared.

"I didn't even bring up the crust... its the least problematic about the sandwich... what jelly is this?" asked Drakken, "It tastes strange."

"Peach," Shego's brow narrowed. She had not avoided him ruining her mood, "Why? Got a problem with it?"

Drakken took a bite of his sandwich and glared at the contracts.

"I thought-"

"Who eats peach jelly," he broke. Shego snatched his plate, "It's- Hey I'm still eating it."

"Well now I'm eating it," smirked Shego, "First you harass me about maternity leave and now your insulting my cooking."

"I did not harass you," scoffed Drakken, "And a sandwich is hardly cooking."

"Someone's making their own lunch from now on," Shego rolled her eyes and took a bite of food.

Drakken went back to looking at his contract notes. It was silent for a few beats before-

"Shego can I have my sandwich back?" Drakken whined.

Shego raised a brow before rolling her eyes at him and sliding his plate back over.

"Here you go, you big baby," she grumbled. She watched a devious smirk on his expression appear.

"You keep bringing up this baby subject... is there something you want- Nrgf," Shego shoved the sandwich in his mouth.

"Chew your food there Doc," smirked Shego as he glared at her.

The conversation returned back to the contract meeting and Shego had an internal sigh of relief at this.

Definitely not going to have that conversation.

Shego shook her head and glared out the window.

Mama Lipsky, get out of my head!

Ah. Prying. Always a fun mental invasion!