Glow
A Trinity Sitch Interlude - starring Shego and Neil Argus
Ignoring the cold wind, Shego took stock of her surroundings. From her vantage point she could see the entire island, from the high arching bridge approaching from the mainland, to the distant sandy tip. Her gaze traveled to a darkened house, not far from the tall black and white lighthouse she was using to survey her target. If it had been daylight out she would have seen the dark red shingles rising above the live-oaks that made up the property.
A vehicle pulled into the gravel driveway, dousing its lights as the engine shut off. Her research had been thorough and she knew the make, model and color of the SUV, even though she could not readily make those details out from her angle. She turned toward the door, discovering a problem using the old tower as a lookout. There was no quick and easy way down! Frowning, she started down the spiral staircase.
Normally when her target was acquired, she would get a rush of adrenaline that she found both pleasant and invigorating. That helped to focus her power and her other abilities and she enjoyed using both. Tonight there were only questions. Questions and nagging feeling in her gut that other people would call butterflies. She was utterly unaccustomed to the feeling and thus couldn't properly identify it.
What the hell am I doing here? Just what do I expect to accomplish?
Without any ready answers, she just repeated that over and over as she made her way to the base of the lighthouse.
"Damn." The man said, struggling with an arm load of plastic grocery bags and his keys. Once again he had miscalculated how long he had been gone and forgot to turn the porch light on. Years of living in an apartment where such things were routinely taken care of by others had left him without the skills needed to live in his own home. On top of forgetting the light, he had also forgotten to select the right key before shutting the door of his SUV, therefore having to figure out which one it was in the murky twilight of the Georgia coast in winter.
To top all that off, his cell phone started ringing.
Crap!
He didn't like doing it, but he let it go to voice mail while he struggled with the unfamiliar keys. It didn't help that the lock on his house was the same brand as the one on his store in the small beach community town. He cursed himself for not taking the bone-headedly simple precaution of counting exactly how many keys over the one for his front door was. Squinting at the jingling bits of machined brass in the moonlight, he finally found the right one and started hunting for the deadbolt.
The door swung inwards, already unbolted and unlatched.
Quietly he sat his groceries on the porch, wrapping his hand around the keychain, letting the tips protrude through his fingers. It wasn't much of a weapon, but with his training, it would hurt! He was a more than a bit upset by the intrusion. His old apartment in his hometown had been broken into twice in the last year, but that had been in a major Southern metropolis. Then again, Tybee Island was only a dozen or so miles from Savannah.
Senses he thought long dormant were still there, or so he thought. Silently creeping around the darkened home he decided there was nobody actually there. Hoping he was right, he flipped on the lights.
Unless somebody was hiding, he was alone in the well-weathered beach house.
He spent the next ten minutes roundly cursing himself for leaving the door unlocked. Just to be sure, he inspected the lock. No sign of tampering – good! Satisfied his sanctum had not been invaded he put away his food and plopped down on the worn but comfortable couch in the living room and opened a half chilled cola.
Being a former "Teen Hero" he was equipped with a built-in 'weirdar' and it was still going off. Little clues started to tickle his subconscious. Nothing he could put his finger on quite yet, but something was just a little bit off. He took a hesitant sip of the soda, opening his mind to the details around him. He had been in the house for just over three weeks and the only people who had been inside it other than him were his parents, and they had last been there two weeks before.
Hoping the evening news would settle his nerves, he reached for the remote.
His hand closed on nothing. Looking to his right at the end table, he couldn't see the device. He grumped a little to himself and started looking through the cushions, again verbally berating himself since there wasn't anyone else to do so. He had been doing so good putting it back in the same place every time!
He was about to start pulling the cushions off when he noticed it sitting on the coffee table, half covered by an open magazine.
That's funny. I remember seeing that in the mail but I don't remember reading it yet.
Need caffeine! He finally thought, taking a deep swallow of the too hot Coke. He picked up the copy of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News and started leafing through it, forgetting his jitters for the moment. He glanced over the majority of the magazine, spending the most time reading about new gadgets coming out soon, then paying particular attention to recall announcements.
More pressing matters needed attending to, so he put the magazine back down and headed to a door just to the right of his bedroom. Knowing his way around, he didn't bother turning the light on as he unzipped. He looked down just in time.
How in the bloody blue blazes did the toilet seat get down?
Somebody HAS been in here! Growing up in a home with just one female (and one who never cared about or mentioned such things) he never, ever put the whole seat down.
What else was out of place?
He turned around and came face to face with a woman who once tried to kill him.
"Um, Neil, uh… X Y Z." Shego said glancing downward with an odd expression.
"Uh…oh shit." He muttered as he corrected his faux pas. "Shego?"
"Hey, you." She greeted him just as she had so many times years ago.
"What are you doing here?" he was still in shock seeing the villainess standing in the door of his bathroom.
"Can't a girl look up old friends?"
"Um, sure." He paused, still considering the situation. "I'm kinda surprised considering you maybe said two words to me the last time I saw you."
"I'm sorry." She turned back into the main room. "I was a little messed up then."
Neil wondered if she was still a 'little messed up.' In the light he was able to get a good look at her. The green and black jumpsuit was gone, replaced with a shabby sweater and blue jeans that had obviously seen better days, though considering the fashion for artfully worn out denims, that was no indication of anything by itself. The whole picture, though, wasn't as good.
He surmised she had been on the run. On the run and for the first time, perhaps ever, alone.
She sat down on the couch, right in his favorite spot and curled her legs up underneath her. She wasn't even wearing makeup, though in the dim light of his living room her pale green skin simply looked just plain pale. The black lipstick was gone, though the green flesh of her lips still looked dark compared to the rest of her face. He sat down beside her, fighting the notion that, to him, she still looked beautiful.
"Can I get you anything?" he asked after a few minutes.
"A beer would be nice."
"Sorry, don't have any. I don't drink the stuff and I wasn't expecting company."
"So I'm guessing you still don't drink coffee?" he shook his head in response.
"All I've really got it Coke, and it's not real cold yet."
He got up and went into the kitchen, his mind on anything but the refreshments he had. What had happened to her? He was aware of the years she had spent working for Drakken and during that time she seemed happy. Happy? Maybe not. Every picture, every video he had seen in the Global Justice reports he still got about her showed her scowling. Then again, she did that before when she was in the hero business with her brothers.
Back when she dated Neil Argus.
He put together a couple sandwiches and poured two drinks over ice. He didn't normally like drinking iced sodas, but like he said, they were still hot. He turned and saw her standing in the door of the kitchen.
"Neil, if it's not too much to ask, can I stay with you a little while?"
"Sure." He said, without hesitation. Despite their history, despite the fact in a moment of madness she had tried to kill him only weeks after she had turned down his proposal, he could refuse her nothing. There was also the notion at the back of his mind that maybe she could come back, to turn away from the evil she had embraced over the last half decade. Since the day she stole one of the escape pods of the X.S.S. Trinity, she had effectively disappeared. Maybe she had already turned her back on that part of her life and all she needed was a hand to show her the rest of the way.
He wasn't even considering the possibility they might have a future together. Some things are better left in the past.
Shego tossed and turned on the small bed. It wasn't the fact the sheets were stale – the bed had been made for a long time and Neil hadn't had much of a reason before that night to freshen them up. They didn't stink, they just weren't fresh. It was still the nicest bed she had slept in for quite a while.
It was her one-time boyfriend she couldn't get out of her mind. Seeing him again was having more of an effect on her than she expected. He was more muscular now and somewhat heavier than he had been as a teen, but he had lost some weight in the last six months now that his ruined ankle had been miraculously healed. It wasn't his appearance that was getting to her (well, it did have a lot to do with it. Pudgy middle or not, Neil was a hottie!) it was the man himself. Just the smell of him made her all warm inside. Memories of their time together played in her head, memories of his touch. Memories about the first time they made love! They had lost their virginities to each other. In reality it had been a clumsy, embarrassing episode, but the intervening years had altered the memory into something more special.
Their physical relationship was kept secret then. They were seventeen at the time and her oldest brother, who was her legal guardian, already disliked Neil in a rather extreme way. So the sex had been all about sneaking around, though somehow the adventure of it added to the fun, especially in memory.
Now they were adults and had been for some years. He was there in the next room.
And here she was.
Almost without thinking about it, she found herself turning the knob of his bedroom door.
"I could hear you when you got out of bed." He said without rolling over.
She smiled, trying to hide her slight embarrassment. "You could always here even a ninja trying to be extra sneaky."
"Not hard in here, this floor is pretty creaky." He rolled onto his back and looked at her in the doorway. In the dim moonlight she saw his eyes get wide.
Not having anything to wear but the clothes on her back, she had been sleeping nude.
She glided toward his bed, climbing up on top of the covers and took his face in her hands, kissing him, breathing in his scent, trying desperately to convey to him what she wanted. She broke away and started kissing his neck, he hands going under the covers, searching.
"Shego? Sherry? Ah, I don't think…"
"Shhhhh." She said in a bare whisper as her hands reached their target.
"Sher! No, not like this." He was now trying to sit up but wasn't having much luck. She straddled him and forced him back down to the pillow.
"Not like what? Nothing wrong with two people having a little fun." She pressed herself against his chest, kissing him again.
He grabbed her shoulders and forced her away. "Sher, I said no! That was all in the past. I told you I'd let you stay here for a while, but that doesn't mean you should feel the need to throw yourself at me for old time's sake or something."
Anger flared in Shego's eyes as she slid off the bed. "Fine. But just for the record, I wasn't throwing myself at you for old time's sake, Neil." She turned toward the door. "You ever consider that I just plain might be horny?" She stomped out, slamming first his door then hers.
He sat up on his bed, staring at the door for what must have been quite a long time. Any other time he might have been willing to oblige her. Not just willing, but happy, but somehow at this moment it just felt like he would be taking advantage of her.
Could he trust her? Did that even matter when it came to sex?
Somehow the answer in his still-young mind was yes.
The dismal winter finally gave way to a slightly hopeful spring. The days were slowly getting warmer, though it seemed to rain much of the time. Most of the time that suited Shego just fine. The fewer people who knew a mint green woman who was wanted in eleven countries was living among them, the better.
The problem with the warmer weather was her clothing. She could go out sometimes with everything but her face covered, heavy makeup taking care of that. She was used to being fully covered, but there was quite a difference between a gloved costume and street clothes and it had now been many months since she wore the old green and black jumpsuit.
Despite having to be a virtual prisoner in Neil's house most of the time, not wearing it felt like freedom.
They were settling into a comfortable routine. After a few uncomfortable days following his rebuff, she came to realize that he was truly willing to be a good friend if not a lover. He even drove into the city to pick her up a few things. True, he really had no idea about her size when it came to certain articles of clothing (he can be forgiven for that, being a guy and all) but the thought was really sweet. She actually had a bit of a laugh that the clothing included a nice set of flannel pajamas.
"You know what." Neil said as he came in from work in the middle of April. "It never occurred to me exactly why you were evil."
She was taken aback by the statement. Her recent past was almost never discussed. In fact, the intervening five and a half years had barely been broached.
"See, you were born to be evil." He continued with a very familiar look of evil mirth in his eyes. She was beginning to get an inkling where he was going with this.
With a flourish he produced a box. Grinning, he opened the lid, displaying a large cake. Written in light green icing (on the dark fudge chocolate) was 'Happy Birthday Sherry' using her given name. There was a single green rose decorating the top of the cake. "See, you were born on the most evil day of the year!"
She stopped giggling long enough to ask "What's so evil about April 15th?"
"Doy, tax day!"
She just shrugged, "You don't exactly pay taxes on the kind of money I make."
"Didn't think of that. Happy Birthday, Shego."
"I'm amazed you remembered." She said, tasting the frosting. "Is this what I think it is?"
"Double fudge cake with white chocolate chips and fudge frosting." He wagged his eyebrows, and effect that was actually hilarious considering how serious he always looked.
She stared at him a moment, finally saying "Well, don't just stand there like a butt bump. Make with the plates and moo-juice Argus." He grinned, then rushed to comply.
He set the plates and glasses on the kitchen table and she put her hands on either side of his face, giving him a quick kiss. "Thank you, Neil." She said, still holding his face.
Taking one of her hands in his he said, "Let me show you something."
She marveled in how warm his hands were, how gentle they actually were. They were large and calloused from his work, but that didn't matter to her. She actually felt a tingle, like a very faint electrical current, making her loath to let go of his hands.
"Okay, what?" she asked when he didn't make any move to take her anywhere.
"Look at your hand."
She did so and took a sharp breath.
Her hand looked normal! It was very pale, like it had not seen sunlight in many years, but it was a creamy peach color, much like the skin of a porcelain doll. She held it up to her other hand. It was still light green, just as it had been for almost ten years. Carefully, he took it in his hands as well. This time she was sure of it. It was not just the excitement of his touch, he was actually doing something that reversed the effect of her Go Team Glow!
Neil placed his hands on the sides of her face. She could feel his power flowing through his hands, changing her. Her hands went to his, caressing them as he moved his over her face, and through her hair. She was almost hesitant, but there was a sudden, burning desire to see herself in the bathroom mirror.
What she saw shocked her. It was like she was fourteen again. She was still quite pale, but she always had been, especially considering how dark her hair was. She took a handful of her hair and looked at it closely. It was still raven black, but now the shine reflected the light with deep blue highlights instead of green. Then she looked at herself closer. Her eyes were still green, but there were flecks of brown in them now.
Not caring that he was standing in the doorway watching her, she pulled her turtleneck sweater fight over her head, throwing it on top of the hamper. Most of her body was still green, the effect of his touch only traveling several inches.
She felt his hand touch her shoulder and power coursed through her flesh again. In the mirror she could see the green slowly fade back to normal, the color spreading a couple inches from his fingertips. A shudder went through her body as his hands traveled down her arms. The tingle of the power was joined by a feeling of pure pleasure she felt at his touch. Again she looked in the mirror at the healthy skin tone. She turned and admired the small of he back, pulling her hair out of the way to see it. She was so engrossed in her new coloration she failed to realize he had left the bathroom. Finally noting his absence, she called out. "Neil?"
"In here!" He was in his room, opening a package.
"How did you do this?" She asked, following him in there.
"It's a part of my healing powers. So far I can't do much except heal scrapes and cuts and the like, but I got to thinking about it and started experimenting a little on myself."
"Huh?" she said, a little confused and just slightly concerned about what form such an experiment would take.
He peeled his t shirt sleeve up, revealing a patch of smooth skin. "Tattoo's gone!" he said. She had literally forgotten the small bicycle wheel he had there, with the words "Cycling is life" on a small banner. She hadn't seen it often, considering he had gotten it long after their time together.
"So my skin color was like a tattoo?"
"Not exactly. I don't know enough of the science involved with it, but your power is a form of mutagenic radiation. It literally manifest as part of the pigment in your skin, right down to the melanin. It wasn't harming you, but it was like healing a kind of damage. With my tattoo, it was more like causing the skin cells there to slough off and expel the ink." He let the sleeve fall and pulled at the collar. "The final test was an old mole. I not only was able to change the color, I was able to make it completely disappear."
"So what if this didn't work? Were you just going to stand there holding my hand?"
"If it didn't work, I'd have still given you your birthday present." He held up a silk top of shimmering pink, with spaghetti straps.
"Wow, that's, like, beautiful, but how would I wear it if I was still green."
"Uh… d'oh!" he smacked his forehead, mimicking Homer Simpson.
"Okay, now finish the job." She said, suddenly unbuttoning her jeans, stripping the rest of the way down to her underwear and laying down on his bed so he could reach her legs.
The rest of her birthday played out a lot like a first date. They drove into Savannah for the first real dinner out they had had together and walked down River Street holding hands. She wore the new top, even refusing his jacket as the air turned cold again.
She wanted to show the world that she was normal again.
That Neil consented to some light kissing put her on top of the world.
Several months went by as they slipped back into their comfortable routine. He never did anything more than hold her hand or let her kiss him on occasion, but somehow that felt right.
However, one thought crept into the back of her mind.
What am I doing here? Is this what I really wanted? Is this why I came crawling back to him?
By the time spring wore into the first hesitant days of summer, she made her decision.
I've got what I came for!
She told herself that, over and over, hoping to drive out the feeling she was betraying him all over again. Walking by his room, she caught sight of him sitting at his laptop, typing away at something. Probably a chat room of some kind. She could swear the man had more friends that way than in the real world.
Was she being a friend to him?
Maybe. Maybe this is for the best. I love him, but it's clear he can't love me and I really don't blame him. But he has still been a friend. I can't drag him down with me. Eventually everything will catch up to me, and when it does, I don't want it catching him too.
It still felt wrong. Well, she could be wrong. Her whole adult life had been about being on the wrong side of things. She was evil.
Wasn't she?
She left him to his computer friends and locked herself in the bathroom, wanting to wash away the day's grime. Spending so much more time outdoors was dirty! She started the water and let it heat up as she got undressed. Stepping into the hot water, she let it run all over her body, breathing in the cleansing steam. Feeling good about herself, she tried another trick, a pleasant thing she had discovered about her powers. Her fists flared up first, then the power climbed up her bare arms. She could feel the water droplets explode as they came in contact with the plasma. It sent the sensation of sparks all over her upper torso.
Almost as good as sex. Almost!
She got out of the tub and grabbed a towel, starting to pat down her hair. She flared her power again, fluffing it as the water molecules were broken down. In moments her long mane was mostly dry. Still, it would need some brushing out. Using the towel, she wiped the steam off the mirror…
…and screamed!
Two seconds later the bathroom door exploded open, the latch ripped from the wooden frame. Neil looked down at Shego, who was curled up on the floor, her knees up to her chest. She was quietly weeping.
She looked up at him, a lost expression on her face, but it wasn't the fact she was sitting there nude, not even bothering to cover herself.
It was the fact she was green. All over. Again.
Neil grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her, gently picking her up and carrying her back to her room. As he sat her on the bed she started screaming again.
"It didn't WORK!" She shrieked, glaring at him in fury.
"Shego. SHERRY." He barked.
"Why didn't you tell me this wouldn't be permanent?" She demanded, loudly.
"It was supposed to be." He said as gently as he could. "Were you doing anything? Maybe the hot water?"
"No, I've already taken plenty of other showers since you changed me, it's…" slowly something dawned on her. "…I…I was playing with my power. Had it been that long since she'd flared up?
Concern flashed across his face. He took her still-damp hand in his and willed his power into existence. A few minutes later he let go. Her hand was back to normal.
"Okay, now flare it up." He said.
She fought down her fears, gathering hope from the fact he was able to change it back again. She flipped a mental switch and her hand lit up, wreathed in glowing green energies. She let it die out.
Her hand was once again green.
She sat up on the bed, clutching the towel to her chest. They both knew exactly what that meant.
Using her powers meant bathing her body in mutagenic comet radiation.
Her decision was immediate. She fell back on the bed and ripped the towel away. "Fix me." She said.
"Look, Shego, if it means giving up your gifts just to look normal?"
"I don't care, Neil. I want to be normal. If that means shutting my powers off for good, so be it. Now, change me back, please." The pleading in her eyes almost wrenched out his soul.
He started with her face and hair, gently, slowly changing her. His hands traveled down her arms, his fingers entwining with hers, reaching every space between them.
He knew what was coming and so did she. They couldn't help it, both of them were becoming aroused. They found out on her birthday that to fully complete the change, there was some intimate touching involved. He tried to keep it as brief as he could, being almost clinical about it. But he wasn't a doctor and the woman he was touching was one he had made love to before.
A shudder passed through his body as his hands passed over her breasts, over her erect nipples as they slowly changed from green to pink.
Shego reached for him and pulled him down to her, kissing him hungrily. This time he kissed back, his hands exploring her body, less interested now in changing her skin but of learning its every hollow, every smooth contour. She started pulling off his shirt as his hand went to finish the job. Her back arched as he touched her, their lips never parting. Her fingers found the drawstring of the board shorts he wore around the house and started slipping them off. It was instantly clear to her he was as aroused as she was.
Every bit of green on her body disappeared as they made love.
Realization went off in her mind as she rolled on top of him.
This is why I came back!
Shego knew she was alone the next morning when she woke up, but that didn't stop her from smiling. She dozed off as they lay in the afterglow, holding his large frame against her smaller body. Obviously some time during the night he discovered her tiny bed wasn't built for the two of them and made his way to his own room. She wished she had gone with him, but he clearly hadn't wanted to wake her.
She caught sight of herself in her dresser mirror and smiled. Even with her hair disheveled and no makeup on, she still had it! She was the type of beauty who looked no more than twenty, even though that mark had been left behind some years ago. Noticing something, she rose from the bed, clutching a sheet to her body. She looked closer, trying to decide what was different.
Then she noticed her eyes. They were no longer green. It wasn't like before, when only a few flecks of brown blossomed from the center, no, now they were truly and completely brown, just as they had been when she was a little girl. She danced around the room, letting the sheet drop, not caring about the amount of noise the squeaky floor made.
Neil heard her cavorting in the next room. He lay back on his bed, lost in thought. The events of the previous night played back in his head. He kept trying to convince himself he had done nothing wrong, though it still felt like there had been a loss of control, a loss of discipline. It was almost like some kind of animal instinct had taken over, as if some biological imperative had cancelled out reason.
No, that would have been true the first time. That was almost like an explosion. It had only lasted minutes but they were minutes that were emblazoned on his mind. Spent, they found themselves gripping each other so tight it hurt.
It was much more gentle and loving two more times after that.
Neil stared at the ceiling, not knowing where their relationship, or even if they truly had one, would go from there.