Hot Tubs and Hazards
Shego looked out the doorway of the frigid mountain lair. She pulled her coat closer, listening to the vents as they pumped heat slowly through the new residence. Drakken could have chosen something warmer, but no. He had to choose something desolate and freezing. She rolled her eyes. He could do as much or as little in a nice warm atmosphere where she could spend her off time on a beach. When she'd brought this up he simply clarified that she could travel to a warmer climate on the weekends if she wanted. She knew this was very accurate, but knowing full well she doubted she would do so.
"You know, it would heat better if you weren't standing there with the door wide open," came Drakken's voice from behind her.
She closed the door and turned to see him up on the raised platform of his lab. The lair was less the dark cave motif she had grown accustomed to but more new age and with clean lines. Sure there was stone and mountain, but it was still unfamiliar. When Drakken had said downsizing, he hadn't been joking. The new lair could fit nearly twice inside of their old one. The lab was on the top-most part of it, with other rooms far below into the belly of the mountain itself. Their first few days there she'd found it hard to sleep without the sound of the gentle water flowing through caves.
"Explain to me how you managed to put a timer on the heat again?" Shego flopped onto her chair and cringed. It no longer matched their new residence.
"I was trying the Eco feature," grumbled Drakken. "I'll fix it."
She watched him move a few boxes around for a second before speaking.
"Actually fix it...or you fix it?" she smirked.
"I will fix it!" he snapped. She waited and he sighed. "I will use the manual."
"That's all I wanted to hear," she nodded and stood back up. "Well, if the heat is in fact back on. I'm going to set up my closet."
She heard Drakken repeat what she had said in a whining tone under his breath as she left. She chuckled to herself. After a very long-winded argument in which Shego walked away from Drakken unnoticed, she had in fact claimed the room with the biggest closet, for which Drakken was still bitter.
She made it less than three feet from her chair before Drakken called out to her.
"Shego! Your obscene purchase is here." She could hear him grumble as she turned back around. The monitor on the screen in fact showed a helicopter with a large crate.
She rubbed her hands in excitement as she glided past Drakken towards the larger entrance door.
"Shego, what are you doing?" came Drakken's voice. She looked at him and they both mirrored a confused expression.
"Opening the door for my hot tub's arrival," she snorted. "Just in time. Hope it doesn't take long to set up."
"Shouldn't you have them go to the ground entrance?" sighed Drakken. "Evil or not, having poor delivery men haul that monstrosity down flights of stairs is just cruel."
"Downstairs?" asked Shego. "You're kidding right? Where?"
"Your room...or the recreation area," stated Drakken. Shego let out a loud laugh that startled him.
"You expect me...to what...run up the entire height of a mountain when you need something mundane and less than five feet from you?" asked Shego. "We don't even have an elevator."
Drakken was looking at her as if processing her words slowly. Shego rolled her eyes and hit the open switch for the door, pulling her jacket tighter as the landing pad slid out and the cool breeze swirled into the lair.
"In the lab!?" yelled Drakken. Shego smirked and shook her head as he finally got it. "Absolutely not Shego. I caved on the heating lamp, but under no circumstances is there going to be a hot tub in the lab."
"I'll put it off to the corner," Shego waved over her shoulder dismissively. "Won't even know it's there."
"That is a hazard," he sputtered. Shego opened her mouth to push buttons but shrugged instead as he made to continue. "It's also highly unprofessional. This is a place of work."
Shego snorted.
"Since when?" She practically laughed at the shade of his face. He'd apparently marched over to her during their argument. "Oh relax. Putting it up here makes more sense. If Kimmy shows up or something goes down in the lab, do you want to wait for me to get up here or take care of it right away."
"The hot tub is only supposed to be for down time and to unwind when you're stressed... I recall a speech—" Shego cut Drakken off.
"And you don't think listening to you isn't stressful most of the time? Hot tub in the lab...essential to my health." Shego waved the helicopter to land.
"There are far too many hazards—"
"Yeah, and if I don't have something to de-stress on site...I will become a hazard to your health." Shego crossed her arms and pursed her lips in agitation.
She wasn't really annoyed or bitter... He was actually making sense if she was being honest. However her expression and posture won her the argument. Drakken let out a frustrated growl and stomped back off to his platform. She smirked and looked at the blank space near said platform as the men began to unload the hot tub crate.
"Where would you like it ma'am?" said one of the men. Shego's grin became devious as Drakken saw where she had been looking.
"No..." he breathed.
"Right over next to the platform," shrugged Shego. "Ignore the blue man throwing a tantrum."
"Shego!"
Drakken looked at the jumbled mess around his work space, bins of nuts, bolts, screws, and nails all a frustrating sight. Somehow in the move all of them had become jumbled and spilled, and despite designing a robotic sorting machine...he wasn't exactly able to make it until the bins were sorted for the parts he would need.
He'd tried ignoring it and working on his latest plan, but the reality that he would eventually need those items had stopped any further concentration on his work... Simply knowing they were still a problem had driven him mad. He'd barely slept because of it.
"Dr. D? Are you still staring at those bins?" He heard Shego snort. "You know, looking at them doesn't sort them."
"Neither does splashing around in a hot tub," he growled under his breath. "Shego will you get out of there and come help me?"
"Nope. Still on break," she replied.
Drakken glared at the bins and began slowly sorting them. He heard the bubbles from the hot tub start and grit his teeth in agitation. Two weeks. They had been at the new lair for two weeks. Some things were still left unpacked because Shego found every chance to lounge in her new toy. Drakken knew if he had the henchmen there it would be easier, but he'd rather have the upkeep done on the old lair to sell it faster than worry about items that could wait in boxes below.
He glared over at Shego as she had her head laid back and was contently smiling in the bliss of the bubbles. Drakken threw a bolt in a bin and stood up and balled his fists.
"Shego!"
She opened one eye and looked at him.
"What?" she gave an exasperated sigh as she closed her eyes again. "Can't you see I'm de-stressing here."
Drakken rubbed a hand across his face in frustration.
"Shego. All you have done since you got that thing is lounge. I need your assistance in getting the lair done so we can get back to taking over the world...and I can't do any of that...until I have those bins sorted." Drakken forced his voice to stay calm. "I knew this hot tub in the lab was a horrible idea. Not only is it a hazard, it is taking focus off of what's important."
Shego opened her eyes and moved to the edge of the hot tub. Drakken glared at a few boxes as she began talking. He waited for whatever snide remark she had geared up yet again. When he'd told her she needed to have a changing area so as to not get water everywhere, she'd only asked if seeing her in swimwear was a distraction...in a very Shego way that made him flustered and enraged. When he had slipped on the puddle she'd left and fallen into the hot tub, she had made a snide remark to the effect of if he was joining her, the boots had to go.
He could live with the comments, jokes, small hazards, and all its frustration-causing issues... He could not live with her seemingly careless attitude at his plans to take over the world...or the fact that despite the tiny changing area, he was still horribly aware of the difference between Shego in a swimsuit sunbathing and the effects of the fabric once it was wet.
He didn't look at Shego as he heard her voice... He waited as she let out a small sigh.
"Clearly, you are way too stressed right now. Take a break and then we'll sort the bolts," Shego stated. Drakken chanced a look at her but there was no smug look on her face. "I mean, we have a hot tub. Hop in."
Drakken glared.
"I will not partake in the main cause of my stress...in order to somehow relieve it," sneered Drakken. "That would be like joining Kim Possible to save the world versus defeating her to take it over. Not going to happen."
"Don't be so dramatic," snorted Shego. "First off we both know that you somehow saving the world is laughable... And second, it's a hot tub. I got it so we could take a break and de-stress."
"No. You got it for you to de-stress and cause me annoyance," whined Drakken.
"Oh come on. Join me," smirked Shego as she gestured around her.
Drakken looked at the bubbles around her in the steaming water. It did look very appealing if he was being honest. His skin twitched as if trying to sway him into it as well. He looked back up on the platform he didn't remember descending to come talk to her...and then back at Shego. The tint of her face from the water, her feet slowly drifting behind her and gently splashing... The twisting in the pit of his stomach and nerves from the past two weeks of seeing her in a damp swimsuit returned. He felt his own face grow warm as he turned around.
"I need to get those bins sorted."
"How about this..." Shego propositioned. "Half hour in the hot tub and then we sort."
Drakken raised a brow and glanced over his shoulder at her.
"Sort now and then the rest of the night in the hot tub?" he countered. He saw Shego's eyes light up and he cursed at his own internal twists.
"Deal," she smiled. Drakken bit back the nerves more.
He needed that hot tub out of there. He'd made himself completely oblivious to Shego in certain aspects since the whole New Year's fiasco. The hot tub, her flushed expressions, and the tight attire she'd been spending hours in for weeks was not helping anything. He looked at the bins as he walked up the platform and glared. It might also be his frustrations at the lack of progress in the lair...but for now he was blaming the hot tub.
Shego tossed another bolt into the bin. She had half a mind to plasma blast them all but it would only have defeated the purpose. It would have been done much sooner if not for Drakken stopping her halfway through to argue about sorting old ones from new ones. He'd failed to express he'd wanted the clean ones and ones that had seen better days put in separate bins until she'd been nearly done.
She looked up at Drakken contently humming as he sorted his piles around him. It made her a little less irritated that they were almost done and he seemed in better spirits than when they had started. She was eager to return to the hot tub and actually relax. Watching Drakken tinker away for the last two weeks had not helped Shego relax at all, with her mind alternating between future villain goals, uncertain motives, and all falling back onto his comment before the move; the smirk on his face as he'd joked about her not being around for his evil genius.
Why am I here?
She had been thinking about that for weeks, even before he'd said it. She found all she wanted to do lately was just...exist. It frustrated her, and the point of the hot tub was to help her focus. Let her mind and body relax so she could renew her focus on exactly what Drakken was preaching to her. World domination plans. The day before he'd been venting about his new plan involving something with pollination but she barely listened. She'd spent most of his rant watching how excited he seemed by it and the other half knowing it was going to fail and how miserable he would make himself and her in its wake.
Drakken tossed the last of his screws into the bin and dusted his hands in accomplishment. Shego snorted and finished her own last few before getting up from there they had been sitting on the ground.
"You know, we're supposed to have henchmen for this stuff." Shego stretched as she stood. "I mean, you're getting a little too old for sitting on the ground sorting these kinds of things Drakken."
Drakken's content grin faltered before he smirked.
"Funny. I'm not the one stretching and cracking all over when I stand up." His smug tone caught Shego off guard as she heard a few cracks from her body. "I thought your precious hot tub was supposed to help you not make your bones fatigued."
Shego shoved him which only earned a snide snicker from him as she turned to head down the stairs of the platform.
"Mock all you want," she said as she went behind her changing area. "You'll change your tune once you feel how relaxing it is."
Shego yanked the strap of her swimsuit up as she walked around her changing area towards the hot tub, the damp chill of her suit sending shivers through her as she practically ran to get into the hot bubbling water. It took only seconds to feel the warmth run up her spine and over every inch of her body. She let out a relieved shiver and grinned towards the platform. She blinked as she saw Drakken sitting at his desk doodling away, still humming, still smiling contently. She gestured around herself in her own confusion before scoffing.
"Hey, genius!" she called. Drakken looked up. "Hot tub, remember?"
"Yes. I remember very well that there is a pain in my rear in the middle of my lab," he said casually and then smirked. "And you know...currently sitting in a hot tub."
Shego rolled her eyes and smiled before gesturing to the water.
"May I remind you, the deal was bins sorted...then hot tub the rest of the evening." She made arm motions in the water. "Why are you sitting there?"
"I was just wrapping up a few sketches before calling it a night." Drakken went back to doodling. Shego slowly sunk in the water. "If I get some rest now, I can start fresh and early on my Pollinator."
Shego's eyes narrowed.
"After?" asked Shego. Drakken looked at her.
"After what? The bins are sorted." He chuckled as he sketched away.
Shego shot his pencil with a plasma blast.
"Hey!" yelled Drakken before glared at her. "What now?"
"Doy! The deal was you join me in the hot tub...not I go back to the hot tub. I would have just stayed in here with the original offer then." Shego felt a wave of frustration building in her.
"Shego. I have said before. I want no part of your hot tub fun. There will be time for leisure and relaxation after I take over the world." Drakken glared and pulled out another writing utensil.
Shego clenched her fists at being unintentionally tricked and she lashed out as she got out of the water.
"Like that's ever going to happen," snorted Shego. She didn't mean to say it but she had.
"Well thank you for your vote of confidence!" snapped Drakken. He didn't stand or argue, just sketched away. "If my partner maybe helped more instead of lounged around all day, I'd probably be a lot farther."
"Maybe if you took a moment to look around and I don't know...join me in lounging around," she snapped back as she walked through the lab, leaving puddles. "Who knows. Maybe you'd notice there's more to life than evil schemes that go nowhere... Pfft. Pollinator. What are you, taking up botany now? I recall you saying you don't do well with plants."
"Well if you would listen to the plan—"
Shego was already stomping down the stairs in annoyance. She was aware she was in the wrong yet again since they had gotten to the new lair, but her own frustrations were not letting her listen to reason. She had been so lost in thought about all the failed plans, his trickery...though she knew he had probably not intended it or he would have been cocky about it...and the overall internal struggle of where her mind kept going...she'd not remembered getting back to her room.
Let alone her grumbling and yanking of a brush through her hair. One strong tug cracked the handle off and she finally let out a frustrated sigh. She looked at her reflection in the mirror as she pulled out the broken part still in her hair. Something about it made her snort but it wasn't out of amusement at the brush breaking. That angered her.
Shego grumbled as she tossed her broken brush in the trash. It was really her mistake attempting to brush her chlorine-affected hair when she was upset. She normally would wait and saturate it with a conditioner in a shower, but she had been too bitter about the argument to wait. She'd needed something to fixate on other than her own mental state. She knew full well that she had no right to be angry at Drakken for wanting to focus on his work rather than float in the hot tub with her. That her words, though some of them may have been born from truth, were not appropriate. He was also correct in declaring the hot tub a hazard to their work environment... But his logic only encouraged her emotions.
She flopped on her bed and rubbed her hands over her face in frustration.
"What is wrong with me?" She let out a loud groan before falling back against her bed.
She stared at the mountain's painted stone ceiling and let out a small sigh as she let her mind race. She knew exactly what was wrong with her. She had gone from squashing her feelings about Drakken to attempting to squash her wavering feelings on villainy. It was her own fault... She'd been the one to call villainy a distraction... Question how long Drakken would keep going at it... She'd never really given herself some sort of villain timestamp; she didn't imagine others did either. Something about the constant repeat of trying to take over with the same failed results...just felt...uncomfortable.
There was a blankness in her mind as the questions and concerns swirled again and she let out a loud snort at her own pathetic thoughts. She could leave villainy...go on heists of her own...or even just retire in luxury with a few quick thefts. Yet. She stayed. She came back time after time...and she knew how she felt about the so-called evil genius, probably back to tinkering on his latest invention in the lab above her.
She found herself content to just lounge around and space out as Drakken worked, letting that be her life in some sort of comfortable acceptance.
"Pathetic," she scoffed and pulled herself off her bed. "You need to get out, get a grip on yourself, and focus. Drakken's right, your mind is not on villainy like it should be. I need a better outlet than lounging around...something—"
She cringed after listening to her own statement.
I need to stop talking to myself.
She looked at the boxes still near her closet door and rolled her eyes. She'd barely even unpacked. She looked for the box labeled with her spare vanity and nightstand items which would hold another brush, letting her mind focus on basic necessities other than how she felt slightly guilty for snapping at Drakken. Not that she would apologize for it...but it was there. She opened the box she was looking for and froze.
"Uhg! I can't believe I packed this," she grumbled as Junior's Christmas gift still lingered in its box, unopened and obscene.
She thought back for a second as to why it hadn't been burned into melted blue goo and an ashen box in a wave of green. Drakken. He'd walked into her room to ask if she had needed help packing and she'd thrown it in the box quickly before he could finish walking in. She nodded at the memory and then looked at her door. She double checked that it was locked. Normally Drakken knocked, but as she was about to burn something and him being as nosy as he was...the last thing she wanted was him walking in on that.
She walked back over to the box and took the package out and snorted as she looked at it. It was comically unrealistic and the fact there had been a sword attachment almost made it actually funny. If had been any other color...any other name...she would have probably been amused by Junior's antics... But instead it made her very uncomfortable. As if Junior knew and didn't see it as a joke. Shego rolled her eyes as she thought about Dean, the blue light, and the surge of panic that had run through her before she had stopped them from progressing and had a very strange heart to heart conversation.
She'd almost forgotten about that with all that had transpired after. She rolled her eyes at the mental list of pathetic antics she had been slowly adding to her daily life. Her mind fell back to the hot tub as she let the box in her hand fall back into the bigger one. She had pestered Drakken since the hot tub came about joining her in it. Why the night had gotten so out of hand was beyond her. She knew it wasn't his thing. When they'd had to stay at that hotel months ago, she'd gotten mad then... And when he had showed up and joined her and Dean, he had looked extremely uncomfortable in his swim shorts and shirt.
She thought back to his bruised back in the dark and how he'd blocked her from looking at his tattoos. She pursed her lips in thought as she wondered what they were now, perhaps a little more eager to get him in that hot tub just to possibly see them. They had to be embarrassing. She snickered and imagined what horrible and comical tattoo he must have on his chest. Imagined trying to see it through a wet shirt in the water...or playfully pulling his shirt off. Shego felt the heat rush to her face and she let out a groan.
"This is not helping." She covered her face and kicked her feet slightly at her own self-pity.
She tried to think of other things but her mind kept falling back to her focus on the hot tub and what she might have been subconsciously trying to do as less than innocent, casual, comfortable chatter. The scenes playing out in her mind were differently not innocent.
"What am I just...making a list of the many ways to be pathetic?" she huffed. She continued to mentally talk herself into a different focus and perhaps blowing up that hot tub herself...but the images still stayed and the reactions coursed through her body against her will.
She turned her head to look at the box that still held her unopened gift from Junior. Her brows knitted in frustration. She grumbled under her breath as she got up and walked over to the box, her face flushed.
"What the hell," scoffed Shego under her breath as she picked the box up. "Might as well add one more to that list... Curse you Drakken."
Drakken grumbled under his breath as he walked down the hallway. Shego's room was a far greater distance from his now and it felt counterproductive to walk away from the stairs that led to the lab just to knock on her door. He knew if he called her phone it would just seem silly. He sighed as he raised his hand to knock on her door. He paused as he heard concerning sounds for a second. He wondered if she was grumbling to herself about the whole ordeal from earlier. He nodded and rolled his eyes as he heard his name through the door. She was bemoaning their argument. He knocked on the door.
"Shego," he said. "If you're done in there, I'd like to talk—"
Drakken heard a loud thud and a lot of movement in a matter of seconds.
"Drakken!" Shego gave a panicked scream through the door. Drakken tried the handle.
"Shego, are you okay...? Did you fall...? You're door's locked—"
"Go away!" Her voice was a tangle of tones he couldn't distinguish.
Drakken backed into the wall across from the door. He blinked in shock and felt anger rising as he took a step towards the door again. He understood she was angry with him, but her reaction was to the extreme. He looked down at his swim trunks and towel and grumbled under his breath. She'd even won…not that she knew that yet, but he had half a mind to storm back to his room and put his lab coat back on.
"Shego, this is a tad bit dramatic because I didn't want to float around in a hot tub, don't you think?" he stated. "Nehn! And just so you know I was about to go use it, so the overreaction can stop now."
There were a lot of sounds and then the door creaked open to reveal a very flustered Shego who seemed very focused on her doorframe. Her hair looked tangled and she no longer wore her swimsuit but her pajama robe. Her hand was smoothing her hair and she glanced at his attire.
"Were you going to sleep?" asked Drakken. Shego nodded. "Are you okay? You seem flustered...did you fall?"
"Yes... Yes I fell," she scoffed. "I'm fine...so why are you bothering me? You can use the hot tub without my permission."
Drakken narrowed his eyes.
"I know that," he sighed. "I just thought since..."
Drakken trailed off at his own words. He hadn't needed to get her or even let her know he was using it. Especially if it was doing nothing to fix the argument but agitate them both further. He shrugged his shoulders. He was lying to himself to think he hadn't wanted to lounge in the hot tub with Shego and talk, but his previous conversation with himself about boundaries was making him feel suddenly embarrassed.
"I just thought you should know, so you don't think I don't appreciate it." He fought the sigh of relief as she glanced at him again. There was no anger in her expression but her face was still flushed.
"Pfft, what is this like a lame apology?" she snorted. She looked up at him. "Did... Did you like, want company or something?"
Drakken shrugged.
"It might be nice, but I clearly interrupted—" Drakken didn't get even close to saying the word 'sleep' when Shego interjected.
"Nothing. You interrupted...nothing," she cringed. "Let's just...I'm going to change. We can talk about whatever evil plan you were ranting about earlier."
The door closed in Drakken's face and he wondered if he was supposed to wait for her. He wondered suddenly why she had seemed so flustered upon opening the door. He felt his own face grow warm as he remembered trying the handle as he wondered if she had been changing while she'd been grumbling to herself and it had startled her. He was suddenly relieved she'd locked the door as he wasn't exactly keen on being plasma blasted into space anytime soon.
Boundaries.
He practically hissed at himself. He had spent the last few days locked on this topic due to the hot tub.
"This is exactly why you should just go back to work," he grumbled under his breath.
He'd in fact, lost time debating this instead of working on his new creation...or rather theory of his new creation.
"I'd be much farther if not for that infernal distraction," he scoffed.
There was a sigh as Shego's door opened.
"You get distracted by bolts that are shinier than others, don't blame the hot tub," stated Shego. She rolled her eyes to look ahead of them as they began walking.
"I do not get distracted by shinier bolts... I just don't like them mingled with the old ones when I'm working on something," he whined.
"Oh...that's it?" asked Shego. He saw her smirk. "Hmm, so it would be a real shame if they got mixed up."
Drakken stopped in his tracks as Shego continued walking.
"You didn't," he breathed. He saw Shego shrug her shoulders. "Shego. Shego?"
"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't." He heard amusement in her voice as he continued walking again. "Maybe there's just...one...shiny bolt, in a sea of old ones... Or maybe one old one in a sea of new ones... Guess we'll wait and see."
Drakken felt a wave of discomfort wash over him. He practically darted towards his room to get his lab wear back on and begin his search. His hand barely touched the door when her green hand grabbed his arm and wordlessly pulled him along with her.
"Oh calm down. I'm just joking," snorted Shego. Drakken sighed in relief. "Maybe."
Drakken's attempt at turning back to his room again was foiled as Shego tightened her grip and they ascended the metal stairs. He would simply have to worry about her possible prank later.
... Alright grab your caps... let's graduate! -