A/N: Sorry the prior prompt was late, and sorry this one is even later! I'm afraid that might be a trend for a little while now... Writer's block has hit me hard. However, I hope you will still enjoy.

Recall that this fic has a T rating; this chapter is one of the reasons.

18. Comfort

December, 2005

Drakken was pacing as he fumed and ranted over the encounter with Kim Possible. They had barely escaped with the stolen materials for his plan, but it was the second time she had caught them working on the same plot and he was worried she would figure it out. Not to mention the destruction of the hover-car that had forced them to take three taxis before stealing a boat to get back to the lair.

Drakken had wondered idly during the trip why the teen hero had yet to show up at the lair, seeing as she knew its location and it was their most-used one that felt the most like home. But it was a thought that was fleeting as he worried instead over the possible—he smirked and cringed simultaneously at his internal pun—preemptive ruination of what was perhaps his greatest plan ever.

He ranted about it until his throat hurt, and when he paused to consider maybe he should have some cocoa-moo and just call it a night, he realized that Shego hadn't said a word throughout his tirade. Startled, he looked around until he spotted her on the couch, and then let out a relieved breath and was about to ask if the cat had got her tongue until he realized...she was acting atypically.

She had pulled off her boots and gloves and was pressing the soles of her feet against the edge of the coffee table, while one of her hands was massaging her leg and the other her neck.

"Shego...?" he finally ventured, when she said nothing into the silence either.

She didn't even glance up, but gave him a tired wave of one hand.

"I'm listening. All your plans ruined by one all-that teen, yada yada..."

Drakken blinked. "Usually you're sniping at me before now."

The green-skinned woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well nearly falling off a skyscraper kinda takes the fire out of a person, you know?"

Drakken thought back to the horrifying moment, when Kim Possible had kicked Shego out of the window of the lab they were stealing from. He had watched in terror as his side-kick spun through the air, somehow managed to cling to the side of the building amid the tumble down its side, and then leap to the hover-car as he flew near. Though in retrospect he wasn't sure she hadn't just fallen and he'd happened to be there to catch her.

She was pressing her feet hard into the coffee table, her expression contorted in pain for a split second before she tried to school it again with a frown. She finally realized he was staring and looked up at him.

"Go on. Hating on the cheerleader is one of my favorite pastimes. Ugh, I need to go to the spa..."

Drakken bit his lip in dismay at the thought of her leaving. Especially when she had seemed so not herself lately. And as she twisted on the sofa, clearly suffering a number of pains from the fight, he found words flying out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying.

"Would you like a massage?"

Shego looked up at him sharply, and he felt as though time stopped. He was seeing in tunnel vision as he waited for the green blast and furious tirade that were sure to come, and possibly worse. He had no idea what had made him suggest that. Perhaps her mention of the spa, and the knowledge that all of her vacations (except the most recent which she'd ditched) were getting longer and longer. Regardless, he knew without doubt he'd crossed a line and the consequences would be dire.

He was surprised when several seconds later Shego had said nothing. He realized he was tensed, cringing, and cowering a bit as he waited for the impending pain. Perhaps that had stayed her anger, if she saw he already knew he'd spoken poorly. He felt his heart rate gradually begin to calm. Until...

"Yeah, sure," Shego replied, scooting up on the couch a bit.

Drakken's heart raced even faster as for a moment they stared at each other in confusion, and then Shego thrust her sock-clad foot toward him and wiggled her toes as she smirked. He gulped nervously and decided the best way out of the situation he'd put himself into was to get it over with. And so without having any idea what he was doing, he sat down on the coffee table and after a painfully long moment of hesitation, took her foot in his hands.

He refused to let himself think about how intimate the touch was, or of any impossible implications that her allowing it could mean. Instead he clinically zeroed in on the actual purpose of a massage, which was relieving muscle tension.

He in fact knew how to massage feet, as he did his own plenty, and thus began pressing his thumbs into the spots on her soles she had been so fixated oh.

"Oh!" was Shego's gasp of surprise, followed by a longer and softer moan of relief.

Drakken felt some of his nerves fade at the idea she might feel better from the effort. But when he looked up and saw her face contorted in a mixture of pleasured pain, that image combined with the soft sounds escaping her lips brought him back to a dirty movie his cousin Ed had forced him to watch years ago. In an instant his nerves increased tenfold.

He gave himself a mental scolding for allowing his mind to stray even for a moment to places he couldn't let it as he methodically tried to ease her aches. He told himself firmly that he would probably be in a similar state of suffering had he been the one kicked off of a skyscraper and tumbling down its side for several seconds, not to mention the usual battles with the teen.

That reminder helped him somewhat, and he massaged her foot until she held up the other and wiggled her toes. He didn't look up at her face when he switched over, but her long sigh told him she was most certainly pleased. He was blessedly able to tune out the sounds she was making as he focused clinically on what he needed to do to bring her relief, his mind running over his knowledge of anatomy and the nervous system for distraction.

When his hands strayed to her ankle, Shego affirmed his action with a strong, "Yes!" and again Drakken didn't look up as he mentally cursed his cousin. He felt a further rush of nerves when she rested her other leg on his lap while he continued with the one he was doing. This distraction led him to realize too late he'd not returned to her foot after massaging her ankle, but was working her calf. Thinking too hard on anatomy was clearly not helping either.

"If I'd known you could do this I'd never go to the spa," Shego said, and Drakken looked up with a small start. That was certainly an appealing idea... But he didn't know if he could keep servicing her if she was going to always make those sounds...

He yelped in surprise as Shego suddenly pulled her leg out of his grasp, and he started babbling some apology but then stopped as he realized she had just changed her position to be lying face-down on the sofa. She flipped her hair away to reveal a content smile on her face as she lie there with her eyes closed.

"Go to town, Dr. D.," she said.

Drakken swallowed nervously, hesitating. But as he looked at her peaceful expression, he couldn't not oblige her.

Shego really needed the massage. If she didn't have so many pains that Drakken somehow knew how to find and bring out before soothing away into nothing, she might fall asleep under the apparently expert touch. But the racing of her subconscious that was rapidly winning its way to the fore of her thoughts was preventing any sleep from happening.

She didn't need to be moaning and humming her enjoyment of the massage as loudly and frequently as she was. But as she had let him already do her feet and legs, and at last her back, neck, and shoulders, there was no lying to herself that she was trying to goad a very particular reaction, or action, out of him. But as always, Drakken seemed uninterested in her. Little hints she'd seen that he might be, especially over the past two months, must have simply been imagined or else signs of close friendship.

She didn't want to like him like that. She didn't want to let the thoughts out of her subconscious. And yet there she was, hoping his hands would stray to places they shouldn't as he massaged her low back.

When it occurred to her she could change out of her suit to make it easier, she halted that thought and any that wanted to follow. While the massage had been his idea, her changing into something else would certainly make him run in terror. And the way she felt after that fight and the fall, she never wanted the massage to end.

She gave herself a mental slap for even subconsciously imagining beyond innocence, and another one for letting the thoughts creep to her conscious mind. Drakken was her boss. And seemingly also...a friend. She wouldn't let herself think beyond that ever again.

"Shego?" Drakken asked suddenly, breaking into her thoughts.

"Hmmm?" she hummed at him, suddenly feeling a strange wave of sadness.

"You, ah... Well you weren't... You got quiet, so I wondered if you fell asleep or...if something is wrong," he explained haltingly.

She rolled her eyes at herself behind closed lids.

"Nothing's wrong. It's one of the best massages I've ever had," she replied, though she knew her tone didn't match her words.

"O-Oh..."

"Don't stop," she said, and let herself begin to drift as his thumbs pressed in circles over pressure points at the base of her skull.

It was fine if he was just a friend. And maybe that's what she had needed to accept all along; he wasn't just her boss, but a friend as well. Any other thoughts or feelings were just misplaced. That was all.

She let herself fade into a twilight where her mind was no longer tormenting her. Unfortunately while there she missed the single slightest straying of Drakken's hands at her sides in his own test for her feelings. And with her lack of response, he drew his own conclusions.