A/N: It is rainy, gloomy, and cold. They say write what you know... For split-n-splice.

Breaking Through the Chill

"Dr. D.? Yo, Dr. D.?"

Drakken ignored Shego's seeking calls and pulled the blankets further around him, only his eyes and a tuft of hair visible from within the nest he'd built on the sofa in the den.

"Whoa," Shego's surprised voice sounded immediately behind him, and he knew he'd been found. "Dr. D., you under there?"

The blankets from his bed blended in well with the red sofa, but unfortunately he could only make himself so small. He listened to Shego's soft footfalls as she rounded the sofa and he kept his glare fixed straight ahead until her waist took over his vision. His side-kick was silent, and against his better judgment he elevated his gaze from within his fortress of warmth until he found her amused and curious expression.

"What?" he asked with more bite than he'd intended.

"Your hair looks like a black bird nest on top of a red mountain," Shego said, reaching out to ruffle his unruly locks.

Drakken grumbled and drew his blankets tighter around him, disliking that it was harder to breathe from within his warm haven, but not about to open his face to the chill any more than was necessary.

"Come on Dr. D., what gives?" Shego asked, shifting her weight and setting a hand on her hip.

Drakken loosened the blankets ever so slightly then and swallowed nervously, shifting his gaze off of the invasive view of her curves that had caused heat to rise under his collar.

"It's cold."

Shego was silent as she blinked at him several times in succession, and then laughed.

"Is that it? Come on Doc, evil doesn't wait."

"It's too cold for evil," Drakken protested, glancing up at Shego's still-amused expression as he pouted. Before he looked away he caught a hint of annoyance enter her eyes.

"Why didn't you light a fire?" Shego asked, shifting her weight again. Drakken rolled his eyes, wishing to himself she wouldn't stand so close, and nodded toward the fireplace.

"The wood is wet."

Shego didn't reply, and Drakken huddled deeper into his blanket nest with the sound of the pouring rain outside filling the silence between them. He could feel her penetrating gaze and words spilled from his lips in further justification.

"Not even any thunder or lightning... What good is rain without the storm," he muttered.

He heard Shego's very soft ironic hum of acknowledgment just before the sound of departing footsteps. Drakken turned suddenly, the cold air hitting his face hard as he watched the sway of her hair as she retreated.

Shego must have heard his shift because she paused and half-turned, raising a critical eyebrow.

"What?" she asked.

At a loss for words or explanation, Drakken merely pulled the blankets back around his face and looked at the fireplace, huddling even deeper within his cocoon for warmth.

"Whatever..."

The echo of Shego's steps remained in his head long after she had departed along with her words. And against his nature, he found himself questioning his motives.

Was it really so cold and dreary that he couldn't pull off at least some plotting? And Shego had seemed eager and positive about getting to work that day... Who knew when that would happen again, and he'd blown it.

It wasn't long before he had added feeling sorry for himself to the list of reasons he'd chosen to avoid the lab and simply bundle up on the sofa that day, listening to the entirely inadequate rainstorm. So focused was he on his dark musings that he didn't hear Shego return until a loud thunk startled him into awareness.

"Gah! Wha...? Shego!"

She had dropped an armload of firewood into the hearth, and in the next moment green fire was coursing from her hands until the wood had been set ablaze, the orange flames rising high in the over-sized fireplace. He felt its heat instantly, and despite his stubbornness he let the blankets fall from around his head and shoulders.

He blinked dumbly at Shego as she came and sat next to him on the couch, setting her heels on the coffee table and crossing her legs at the ankles. Then she took her gloves off and tossed them onto the cushion beside her before flipping her hair over her shoulder and leaning back, slumping into a position of comfort.

Drakken wasn't quite sure what to make of his side-kick's behavior, and when the minutes of silence became unbearable he found words falling from his lips.

"What are you doing?"

Shego glanced at him briefly before staring back into the roar of the fire.

"Well, if we're not doing anything... And you're right, this storm isn't evil enough."

Drakken looked at her lazy and almost bored posture, mentally kicking himself a moment later for letting his gaze linger on her curves for too long before his brow twisted in confusion.

"So you're just going to...sit here?"

"That's all you're doing, lunkhead."

Drakken scowled at the insult, but then registered her tired tone of voice. It was very little time before he began to feel guilty. All she'd wanted was a little evil, after all... And then she'd gone further than he had and taken away the cold.

He pursed his lips.

"...Would you like to hear about my new plan to destroy Possible?"

Shego quirked an eyebrow at him. "You usually go for that as a bonus to world domination."

"Yes, well. I don't think there will be much dominating as long as she's around," he grumbled.

"There could be..." Shego said under her breath.

"Hn, what was that?"

"Nothing. You said you had a plan?"

Drakken grinned, his excitement when he'd first dreamed up the idea returning to him.

"We destroy Middleton with a world record-breaking tsunami!"

Shego shifted to lean on her side, blinking at him skeptically even as she drew her knee up to rest on the sofa in a very attractive manner.

"How are you gonna get a tsunami to a land-locked city?" Shego asked.

"Well—" Drakken cut himself off as he realized...she'd asked about the plan. She'd not mocked, dismissed, or even ridiculed. She'd simply asked, and a look of interest was still in her eyes.

He pushed the blankets down to his waist and grinned.

"I will revive my intercontinental-electro-magneticizer..." He paused to wait for the mocking or eye-rolling to begin, but it didn't. He licked his lips and continued. "...And rather than try to move all of the continents, I will cause mass destruction in calculated, critical locations to set off a super-volcanic apocalypse! This will cause massive reservoirs from beneath the Earth's crust to flood to the surface, thus burying Kim Possible's hometown in one-hundred feet of water!"

"Not to mention the new ice age it'll cause!" Shego said gleefully, sitting up on her knees suddenly.

Drakken did a double-take. "Huh?"

"Dr. D., that's not just a plan to destroy Kim Possible, it's a plan to destroy and take over the world!"

Drakken blinked again as he took in her excitement and ran over it in his mind again. He had only intended to destroy Possible, to get her out of the way to think of better plans. But this plan...

"You're right!" he gasped in surprise.

"Am I ever wrong?" Shego said with a smirk.

Before Drakken could think of a witty reply, a massive crack of thunder split the air, the lightning so near it shone down the chimney and brighter than the fire, bathing the room in white. He threw his arms around Shego as the thunder rattled his chest, rushing in suddenly and so deafening that he closed his eyes in fright. The air was charged with static and he felt his hair standing up taller upon his head for several seconds as the very foundation of the lair seemed to shake.

When the powerful noise subsided he realized Shego's arms were around him, too. They blinked at each other, and then inexplicably, despite the clear danger they'd been in, their lips began to widen in matching smiles.

"Heheh..." Drakken chuckled, adrenaline coursing through him.

Shego snickered in return, her voice dark with some amusement that was contagious. Before long they were both cackling with abandon, whether in fear, mirth, or simply for the sake of a good evil laugh Drakken didn't know. What he did know was that they had a plan, and that Shego's arms were still around him, looped around his neck as she leaned back into his firm grip on her shoulders.

And his blankets, at last, had fallen.