Just a quick little piece of Christmas fluff, late though it may be.
DISCLAIMER:I don't own anything….
Also, I wrote this in about... 2 hours, and didn't bother to proofread cause I was tired and wanted to post it. Please ignore any mistakes. And don't forget to review!
Hot Cocoa Christmas
"Is this really necessary?" Ron Stoppable asked for the umpteenth time, his breath coming out in a puff of silvery air as he closed the car door behind himself. "I mean, if they're really living normal lives, do you think they want you to come rub their faces in it?"
"No way!" Rufus chittered, though he had not been addressed.
"I'm not rubbing their faces in it!" Kim protested as she locked her car and joined Ron on the sidewalk. "I'm just… checking up on them! Making sure they're doing alright."
Ron looked skeptical.
"And who wouldn't want free homemade gingerbread cookies?" she asked, waving a seran-wrapped plate under Ron's nose.
"Shego," he answered.
Kim sighed.
Instead of arguing the point any further - it was too near Christmas to be fighting with her best friend - she turned her attention to the house before her. It was a small cookie-cutter style, in red brick and white side paneling. There was a snowman constructed of white Christmas lights glittering in the front yard and the tiny, rainbow-hued lights of a Christmas tree glittered in the window.
"Are you sure this is the right house?" Ron asked, just as Kim began digging through her purse to find the piece of paper on which the address was scribbled.
"Yep, this is it," she said dubiously.
"Creepy," Rufus stated.
"I hear ya, little buddy," Ron agreed, staring at the snowman.
Kim glanced once more at the address before shoving it back in her purse, all the while juggling the cookies and being blinded by Creepy the Snowman.
"Let's do this," she said finally, and started down the walkway. Ron followed, shying away from the giant snowman.
"How do I look?" Ron asked before Kim could ring the doorbell.
"About the same as always," she answered, giving him a strange look. "And why do you care?"
"Just hoping Drakken will remember my name this time."
Kim smiled at him, shook her head, and took a deep breath.
Then she rang the doorbell.
Thirty seconds later, nothing had happened.
"And you're absolutely sure this is the right address?" Ron asked, briskly running his hands together. His fingers were going numb.
"Yes Ronald!" Kim answered, ringing the doorbell again.
A loud clanging noise issued from inside the house, followed by the sharp swears of a woman's voice, and what Kim assumed could only be the wailing of a child.
"If I didn't hear that swearing with my own ears, I'd definitely say we had the wrong house!" Ron all but squeaked, stepping away from the door. "You know Kim, we could always just come back tomorrow! Or on New Years… or never!"
"Stay right where you are, mister!" Kim commanded, and plastered a smile on her face as the door flew open.
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Shego stood silhouetted in the light of the doorway, looking much the same as she had all those years ago, and yet somehow completely changed. She was flushed and short of breath, the familiar snarl twisting her lips. Her long hair was pulled back into a messy braid, and she was clad in an oversized green sweatshirt, black flannel pajama bottoms, and pink bunny slippers.
"Oh holy God," she muttered, barely audible (even to herself) over the wailing of the child.
"Merry Christmas!" Kim and Ron both exclaimed, keeping fake smiles fixed on their faces.
Shego took one good look at them, murmured another obscenity to herself, and slammed the door in their faces.
"That went well," Ron said sarcastically. "Let's just drop the cookies and go!"
"Ron, we can't just-
"Ah, Kim Possible!" another familiar voice exclaimed as the door was thrown open again, this time with much less force. "Merry Christmas! Won't you come in?" Drakken asked, ushering Kim and Ron inside before either could answer.
"Are those for us?" he asked excitedly, pointing to the plate of cookies. At Kim's slight nod he exclaimed "Wonderful!" and snatched them up.
Kim and Ron followed their ex-arch nemesis into his kitchen, and watched in morbid fascination as he went about putting cocoa on the stove.
"Killigan called and said you'd be visiting, but I didn't really believe him," Drakken began, as if nothing were amiss. "I figured he was just being… Killigan. Marshmallows?"
Kim and Ron both nodded, and Drakken continued to prattle on about mundane, everyday things. Meanwhile, the loud wailing continued on in the background.
"Here you go, kids!" Drakken announced to them, handing them cocoa and ushering them into the living room, and into the soft seats of a well-worn brown leather sofa. He took a seat in the recliner by the Christmas tree.
Before their conversation could begin anew - conversation meaning Drakken talking with Kim and Ron too stunned to do anything but listen - Shego shuffled into the living room, a wailing toddler balanced on her hip.
"I told you not to let them in," she hissed menacingly down at Drakken.
"But darling, it's Christmas!" He protested.
She ignored him and wandered into the kitchen, cooing comforting sounds to the child in her arms.
Finally finding his voice, Ron managed to choke out, "So… are you two married?"
Drakken scrutinized Ron as if he had just now noticed him. "What's your name again? John? Lon?.."
"It's Ron," Ron deadpanned.
"Ah yes, I remember now," Drakken said quickly, sitting back in his chair and sipping his own cocoa.
Sharing a bewildered look with Ron, Kim prompted, "You and Shego?" feeling slightly sick as she already guessed Drakken's answer would be positive.
"Oh, yes," he said absently, waving a ringed finger at them. "Three years last October."
"Congratulations," Ron said glumly, looking somewhat green.
As Kim offered her own good wishes, a small bundle of purple fleece and black pigtails came tripping into the room, and scrambled up into Drakken's lap.
"Well, I tried," Shego quipped, following her daughter into the living room with a mug of tea, and curling up on the loveseat. "She saw we had company, started squirming, and the minute I put her down she stopped crying and bolted in here.
"Kimmie, Ron," she said, "meet Bailey."
Bailey, for her part, giggled and buried her little red face in her daddy's sweatshirt.
"Watch it there, cuddles," Drakken said, setting his mug down on the side table. "Don't want me to spill cocoa on you."
Bailey continued to giggle, and glanced shyly at Kim and Ron. They smiled at her, and she hid her face again. She reached for the mug on the table with her sticky little hands, and Drakken handed it to her and helped her take a sip.
"Drew!" Shego exclaimed. "It's almost eight! She's never going to go to sleep if you let her drink that!"
"It's fine, Shego," he reassured, and Bailey giggled, knowing daddy was about to get in trouble.
"It's fine for you!" Shego huffed, crossing her arms. "You don't have to put her to bed! Bailey, stop that!" she ordered when Bailey began to tip the cup farther. Bailey responded by drinking down the rest of the cocoa as fast as her little mouth could.
Shego jumped up from the loveseat and attempted to snatch the little girl off her husband's lap, cocoa cup and all, but Bailey was too quick. With a gleeful shriek she darted away from her father, and climbed up onto the sofa, where she sat between Kim and Ron. She quickly changed her mind and crawled into Ron's lap and buried her face in his coat, just as she had done previously with her father.
Shego just glared at Drakken.
"Don't look at me!" he exclaimed. "She gets this from you! I was always avery shy and quiet child..."
"I don't give a damn who she got it from! I was perfectly content to get to bed early, until Miss Priss and her Buffoon had to come and ring our doorbell!"
"Hey!" Ron said, looking offended, and Kim began "Now look, we didn't have -"
"Shut up, Possible!" Shego all but shouted. "Don't you even dare come into my house and tell me how-"
"Sweety," Drakken interrupted, "It's Christmas, don't you think we should-"
"So help me, God! Do you want to sleep on the couch?!" Shego yelled at Drakken. "And I told you not to call me that! I've been telling you for two years not -"
And she stopped suddenly, a tiny "Oh!" of exclamation escaping her lips. Her face changed in a flash, from angry to amazed, and her eyes took on a slightly unfocused air. She stumbled backwards, and Drakken was at her side immediately, guiding her back to sit down on the loveseat.
"Gimme your hand," she murmured absently, eyes still seeing past the gleaming tinsel and sparkling lights of the Christmas Tree. Drakken complied immediately, and was puzzled for only a few moments when she moved the hand under her sweatshirt to press against her slightly swollen abdomen.
And he felt the baby kick against his palm.
Bailey moved off the couch where Ron and Kim sat astounded. She stood quietly in front of her parents, and waited for them to notice her. Daddy took her hand and moved it to where his own had been.
"That's your baby brother," Shego said softly, pulling the little girl into her lap and wrapping her arms around both Bailey and Drakken.
After giving her husband a quick kiss, Shego looked up slyly at Kim and Ron.
"Com'ere Kimmie," she said, motioning with her head for Kim to join them.
Kim blushed. "I really couldn't-"
"I don't mind," Shego said quickly, giving Kim what seemed like a genuine smile: the first real smile Kim could ever recall seeing on the woman's face.
Bailey shifted aside as Kim shuffled nervously over to the couch. It was odd, that she should feel so safe inside their home, but whether it was the Christmas lights, the cocoa, or the sticky-fingered child who looked so much like Shego, Kim couldn't help but feel a sort of camaraderie with the occupants of the house: the three faces beaming at her and Ron smiling nervously from the couch set her at ease in a way she hadn't been all year. The stress from college applications and final exams melted away when Bailey grabbed her hand and pressed it against Shego's abdomen. And there, light as a feather, she felt it against her palm: the pressure of one tiny life.
Kim leaned forward and pulled all three of the Lipskys into a hug.
"Merry Christmas" she said, unable to find any other words.
"Get over here, Stoppable!" Shego ordered, her eyes brimming with happy tears.
Ron did as he was told, and joined in the group hug.
"Do come and visit again sometime," Drakken said, waving as Kim and Ron made their way past Creepy again and back to Kim's car. "Give us some warning next time, and we can have dinner! I make mean meatloaf!"
"Merry Christmas, Dr. D!" Ron called as he got into Kim's car.
"Merry Christmas!" he called back, before closing the door against the cold.
Shego and Bailey were both bundled into bed, and Drakken helped himself to a gingerbread cookie before gathering up the cocoa cups, tidying the kitchen, and joining his wife in bed.
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"Well…" Ron began as they drove away "That was weird."
"But good," Kim added, smiling over at her friend.
"Good!" Rufus chorused, and then curled up in Ron's pocket to sleep.