182 Cabin part 3


The smell of the cooling hot cocoa was no longer soothing Drakken's nerves as Ed told yet another story of their childhood... which was a shared situation that Ed made himself the center of. There was no point to argue as Shego seemed less interested in the story and Cleopatra seemed to be the main audience of the tale.

"You know it was my design to turn the bike into a one person helicopter," grumbled Drakken to Shego.

"I already knew that," sighed Shego next to him. She gave him a slight smirk, "Especially after it took out the towns power supply crashing into a converter."

Drakken rolled his eyes.

"I was fourteen," he argued, "My inventions had flaws."

"So what was the excuse all the other years," grinned Shego.

"What was the excuse all the other-," he mocked her, "You could have contributed more than a sassy lip the last few years?"

"What would have been the fun in that?" asked Shego in mock shock, "Not to mention rob you of your glory."

Drakken glared at her and drank his hot cocoa. Her mocking expression become a casual smirk as she leaned closer to him. He thought about it and moved farther away, earning a kick to the foot and a glare from Shego. It made his spirits a little better at her affronted look.

"Since you two aren't game friendly-" Cleopatra began.

"We participated," scoffed Shego, "Drakken just wanted cocoa moo, and I just wanted to enjoy my drink."

Drakken choked on his cocoa and looked at Shego and the bottle. He knew alcohol burned off quickly with Shego, and he hadn't thought she'd consumed that much... but he suddenly wondered if the old bottle she had was far stronger than normal from sitting over the years. Either that or she had called it 'Cocoa Moo' accidentally and not noticed.

"We should go through boxes!" grinned Ed, "I wonder if the pocket canon is in them?"

Drakken snorted at a faint childhood memory of what had supposed to been a simple potato canon creation, turned fireball launcher.

"Didn't you do normal things like... make a volcano," snorted Shego.

Drakken shrugged.

"We did," he stated, "At first."

"Seriously, I bet we can improve it now," grinned Ed as he sprung from his chair, "I'm sure there's a box of spare parts even. You know that she'd seriously never throw any of our stuff away."

Drakken's mind raced with finding old projects and creations, mingled with the desire to locate some of his grandmother's old designs...

"Why not," grinned Drakken.

"Alright, seriously! Let's hit memory lane, Cuz," cheered Ed as he made a guitar move.

"I was suggesting calling it a night..." sighed Cleopatra.

"That was never going to happen," replied Shego as they all made their way to the storage room.


What had been intended a simple opening of boxes and digging around had in fact... hit a wall. Drakken and Ed's prior attempt that had resulted in arguments, had made a mess of the room. Meaning they had to essentially rearrange the boxes to simply have space to continue a more united organizing process. Now stood a literal wall of boxes to make a decent enough space for sorting and moving around, which had shrunk slightly. The one part of the wall was only held in place by an old trunk filled with quilts and pure hope. That particular corner had been taken over by Cleopatra and Shego, mainly due to Shego's constant monitoring of the box wall, and it being the only cleared space.

"Man, this is going to take forever, seriously," sighed Ed as he opened another box, "I found more books-"

"Seriously, Eddie are we going to start arguing right away," sighed Drakken as he opened his own box.

"We're going to have to figure it out eventually," glared Ed, "Seriously, what's the big-"

"It's cold in here," sighed Cleopatra loudly.

"There's a trunk of blankets, right there babe," stated Ed as he indicated to Shego.

"There's probably dust-mite nests in here," added Shego, "Is the throw on the couch clean. Drakken?"

"Yes," said Drakken as he yanked the box from Ed's hands.

"Seriously Drew," glared Ed as Drakken shoved the box aside, "We need to figure-"

"They claim to be genius' yet can't take a hint," said Shego loudly.

"We could both freeze to death in place and they'd still argue about books," Cleopatra continued.

Drakken raised a brow and looked at the two. Ed gestured his arm towards the door.

"Seriously, you know where the blankets are," said Ed. Drakken was about to state the same when Shego crossed her arms and smirked smugly at Cleopatra.

Drakken took the moment to one up Ed.

"Eddie, really... Grandmother would be ashamed," stated Drakken as he backed out the door, "I'll go get the blanket, Shego"

He watched his cousin's eyes widen and then glare at him. A short while later the blanket had been retrieved and both well aware on they way back to the room, they had been played to stop arguing. It had resulted in them putting the books aside once more. They had made it through three more boxes before the next incident had occurred when finding a box of photo-albums that were not the most flattering.

"Aw," smirked Shego as she held up a formal picture of him, "Was this for the cotillion thing?"

"Yes," sighed Drakken as he looked at a cracked vase and put it in the discard pile.

"Eddie, you went to a cotillion?" asked Cleopatra.

Drakken smirked.

"Drew was sick that- seriously, I thought we got rid of all that evidence," grumbled Ed.

"And deprive the world of-" Shego stopped talking as she flipped the page, "What am I looking at?"

Cleopatra, who had slid a box of records towards her to sort what was broken and not, stared at the photo with the same confusion as Shego. Ed walked over and leaned over them before frantically trying to grab the album.

"Give me that, Green, seriously," Ed's attempt was fumbled by a threatening green glow, "Come on... Drew, control your women. Babe, avert your eyes."

Drakken looked at Ed's horrified face and the devilish smirk spreading across Shego's lips.

"What are they looking at?" asked Drakken. Ed glared, "What?"

"Why are you two dressed as angels?" asked Shego as she held up the book and avoided Ed's hand again.

Drakken looked at the very photo that Ed seemed horrified by. There stood he and Ed dressed in stereotypical angel garb of pure white with wings and tinsel laden halo. It was by far the least embarrassing photo he knew Shego had viewed, and the story was a faint memory. He recalled their cousin's Stephan and Stefanie becoming ill for their school holiday play and their mothers had volunteered their older cousins, he and Ed, to help out. It had been to appease their younger cousin's upset at letting their class down. It took a moment to register why Ed might be upset with the photo... because while their angelic look was uniform, the cut of his angel attire and the white ribbons in his longer blonde hair... he'd been accidentally listed as the girl angel in the program... and while it was an easy mistake... kid's were not that forgiving.

"Ah, that ladies, is the picture for Eddie's future therapists," smirked Drakken. He rolled his eyes at Ed's glare.

"You look so cute," smirked Cleopatra, "You should wear ribbons in your-"

"No one is putting ribbons in the mane, seriously," glared Ed, "Don't even joke, babe."

Drakken ignored his cousin's grumbles as they moved more items around, the snickers and commentary of Cleopatra and Shego shifting as the moved onto more images and record sorting. They moved further down the towers now that the boxes near Shego seemed to have settled back enough not tow worry about collapsing.

"You could have had my back there, Cuz," said Ed as he held up an old box of seasonal curtains, "We're both in there."

"Shego has seen far more embarrassing images of me," sighed Drakken, "I think Mother has taken to e-mailing Shego things over the years."

"Yeah, well... My babe doesn't know that about me," hissed Ed, "She's going to think I was some lame dork."

"Has she ever talked to you about the inner working of an engine?" asked Drakken. Ed nodded, "Did you show her the popup motor book you made?"

"Hell yeah," grinned Ed, "I'm proud of that book."

"As someone who has heard you talk about that a multitude of time... have read said book... there is no image she will see in those books that will rival any conclusion she had based on that book," smirked Drakken.

Ed narrowed his eyes.

"Fine, but when Green finds the baby books grandmother made of us, seriously, you're on your own," stated Ed as he looked for another box.

"I doubt Shego will care, most of them my mother has already harassed people with," countered Drakken.

Ed snorted and tilted his head to the far corner.

"Seriously, I think she's taken a personal collection," said Ed as he turned away from Drakken.

Drakken followed Ed's indicated direction as his cousin grabbed another box fro them to go through. Cleopatra sat on the ground, clearly dozing off as she leaned against wall next the trunk, the records forgotten as she did so. That wasn't what interested Drakken, it was Shego. Perched firmly on top of the old trunk and draped in the plaid throw that lingered partially on Cleopatra, still. Her eyes heavy as she looked at the stack of old photo-albums she had clearly claimed. She wasn't flipping through them to kill time, but seemed to be actually viewing them with interest. He could see her eyes scanning the photos that were out of his sight, he even glanced a few twitches of a smile as she roamed from image to image. There was a strange knot it his throat at seeing Shego so content to indulge in something he'd thought she'd find boring.

He didn't know how long he watched her, still holding the books with no regard for their weight. When she looked up, he had a split second where he was about to look away, but didn't. The tired smile finally formed on her face that had twitched prior.

"Shouldn't you be watching what you're doing?" asked Shego as she closed the album softly.

"I think he is," snickered Ed as he held a large box.

Drakken's face contorted into a glare as he felt a tingle down his spine. A glow light halted the feeling as it hit Ed, causing said box to fall on Ed's foot.

"Yeow!" yelped Ed before glaring at Shego as he rubbed his foot, "Seriously, it was a joke. You two need a sense of humor."

"What happened?" asked Cleopatra as the sound clearly startled her.

"Your idiot boyfriend opened his mouth," snarled Shego as she got off the trunk, "That's what happened."

"Oh," yawned Cleopatra as she got up, "If that's all... I'm off to bed."

"Babe? Seriously, your not going to defend me?" glared Ed as Cleopatra began to weave the boxes towards the exit.

"Remind me in the morning," she waved over her shoulder, "I'm sure it was amusing and witty."

Drakken didn't care to register what Ed's response was as Shego had walked towards him, photo-albums under her arm as she stopped in front of him.

"I'm going to bed," said Shego. Drakken nodded as he noted her heavy eyes, "Going to be long?"

Drakken looked at where Ed was opening another box, Cleopatra had already left. It was clear that his cousin was aiming to get at least a few boxes more done. The idea of leaving Ed alone with everything, given the fight over the books alone... made his nerves twitch. Shego's hand touching his pulled his focus back to her, where she'd moved closer, a small smirk on her lips.

"Shouldn't be long," replied Drakken. Mentally figuring a way to hurry his cousin up.

"Okay," Shego smiled and walked around him. Her hand lingered on his until the reach ended.

He felt inclined to want to follow her and not let his hand leave hers, but his desire to keep his cousin from taking things... was greater.

"You going to bed, Cuz?" asked Ed as he flopped on the ground and began digging in the box.

Drakken bit his lip in agitation before finally putting down the books and grabbing another box.

"If you're still woke enough-"

"Is it awake or woke?" cut in Ed. Drakken glared, "Seriously?"

"Doesn't matter," grumbled Drakken, "If you're up, I might as well keep you company."

"You mean prevent me from finding things you might want?" smirked Ed. Drakken shrugged, "Seriously, same."

There was a small span of silence between the cousins before Ed finally spoke as he put down a box.

"I found it!" he grinned, "Seriously, cuz, I knew she kept these."

Drakken glared as the pile of knickknacks he had been trying to separate, were knocked into a pile by the force of the box dropped in front of him.

"I'd say I forgot how irksome you could be... but that would be lying," glared Drakken. Ed rolled his eyes and began opening up the found box, "What is it?"

"One of what's seriously going to be like a dozen of these things- the mother-load?" grinned Ed as he tilted the box proudly.

Drakken raised a brow about to question Ed, but he didn't need too. It appeared that his cousin had stumbled across various creations they had made in childhood. From a broken miniature flying saucers, several poorly crafted robots, and what he was sure was Ed's attempt at making an instant hot-wiring box covering others smaller things. Any annoyance that had previously plagued Drakken, vanished and he hastily lunged towards the box.

"Hey! Chill out, man! I found it first," glared Ed as he pulled the box away.

"I made most of that first!" countered Drakken as he yanked the box.

"So what?" snapped Ed.

The door to Drakken and Shego's room opened Shego's face appeared in the doorway.

"It's been less than fifteen minutes," she glared.

"Tell Drew to grow up," snapped Ed as he tugged on the box.

"I was going to share!" snapped Drakken as he yanked it back.

"Seriously?" glared Ed. Drakken frowned.

"Fine, but let me look first!" whined Drakken.

Drakken didn't care how childish he sounded in the moment. He knew his cousin would fight over who designed and made what same as him... and they both knew several items in these boxes belonged to both... which he was gearing up to argue over as he tugged the box again.

"If you two don't play nice," stated Shego, "I'm going to wake up Cleopatra and we're going to lock you out of this room till morning."

Shego seemed almost hopeful at her statement before forcing a stern expression on her face.

"Pfft, good luck," snorted Ed, "If she don't sleep like the dead, she'll try and make you join 'em... seriously. I haven't checked all the tombs yet, but seriously... sometimes I wonder."

Drakken watched Shego purse her lips before grumbling and turning back to the room.

"If I get woken up by you two... I will expedite your tomb checking myself," said Shego as she moved back to their room.

"She's talking to you," snickered Drakken as he yanked the box away smugly.

"I didn't specify!" yelled Shego. Drakken nearly dropped the box as he heard the bedroom door close.

"Haha," snickered Ed as he yanked the box back.

Drakken opened his mouth the whine when the box was shoved back at him.

"I'll grab another box," snorted Ed.

"Was all that necessary if there was other boxes," snapped Drakken.

"Absolutely," snickered Ed as he plopped another box down.

Grumbling under his breath, Drakken began digging through the box. While most were tedious and typical childhood creations... there were more than a few gems. He held up his cousin's broken wired box, a preteen creation aimed to hot-wire Uncle Bart's motorcycle.

"Want this?" asked Drakken. It was snatched before Drakken could finish his sentence.

"You know this baby almost worked," grinned Ed, "In Pop's hadn't dismantled it... seriously, just some minor adjustments... perfect."

"He dismantled it because it turned the still locked motorcycle into a massive electrical conductor," smirked Drakken, "Grandmother told you not to use the large gauge wires. Smaller is far more controlled-"

"Yeah, yeah, seriously I don't need a recap of the lecture on conductors," stated Ed, "I've seen your work, seriously Cuz, listen to your own advice."

Drakken glared.

"There is nothing wrong with my wire conduction..." Drakken trailed off.

His mind fell back to his current creation back in Greece. Suddenly, an idea of streamlining the current might make less radius but further coat the ozone areas. It would take more time and could wear down sooner.

"You want your rocket skates?" asked Ed as he held up burnt roller blades.

Drakken took them and examined the melted plastic.

"Where are yours?" asked Drakken.

"Embedded in a bridge outside of our home town... presumably," shrugged Ed. He smirked, "Those things got serious air... I know you were thinking rocket, but man if those weren't some seriously mad dangerous versions of your ride... I don't know what it was."

"They ran on electric and gas components, the hover-vehicles I create work on polar magnetization," stated Drakken proudly.

"Didn't you once try to take over the world with an earthquake thing?" asked Ed. Drakken rolled his eyes and nodded, "That would have seriously effected the plates and polar magnetization of the earth's surface."

Ed casually sorted his box, but Drakken could see smugness in his cousin's eyes.

"Yes," hissed Drakken.

"So you would have rendered your shtick of hover rides... useless," Ed's smirk slowly spread, "That would have been one seriously embarrassing take over."

"Oh, zip it," glared Drakken as he tossed an old shirt from his box at his cousin.

It only aided in Ed laughing.

"I would have fixed it," snapped Drakken, "I would have applied temporary drone technology while I re-balanced their original designs."

"Would they be as stable?" asked Ed, casually playing with a robot wind up trinket.

"I would have made them as stable- Give me that," snapped Drakken as he grabbed the robot.

"Hey Cuz, why was it always robots and mind control with you?" asked Ed as he held up a metal looking headband, "Seriously, remember when you tried to mind-control Gram to take us to the carnival?"

Drakken rolled his eyes as he took the metal band and tossed it into a discard pile they had made.

"If you hadn't had pretended it worked I wouldn't have even tried it," said Drakken, "Do you know how embarassing that was?"

"All I remember was how seriously hilarious it was when you tried ordering her around," snickered Ed, "Psychology would suggest you had control issues... or a serious fear of lacking control over the foreseeable future."

Drakken raised a brow at his cousin.

"Sometimes I get bored when Cleopatra's on her cursed item fawning," shrugged Ed, "Seriously, I need to get a workshop built near her place soon or convince her to build a replica tomb in the states. That reminds me-"

"I do not have control or lack of control issues," cut in Drakken. He paused, "There is nothing wrong with wanting to be aware of outcomes, clearly."

"Uh huh," Ed smirked, "Not judging, but do you have Green under mind-control- Gah!"

Drakken watched as the boxes fell on his cousin from where he'd pushed them.

"No," hissed Drakken. He expected Ed to be angry, but laughter came from under the toppled boxes.

"I was just kidding, calm down, Drew," snorted Ed as he knocked what turned out to be empty boxes off him, "I'd think you'd seriously mellow her out if you had."

Drakken went back to sorting his box, choosing to ignore his cousin who resumed the same. The silence lasted three yawns, and Drakken attempting to create an equal taunt to Ed. His attempts at trying to come up with a witty retort ended as he instead focused on the wiring of his invention back home. Which escilated into a new undrseen problem. The device would work as they had tested... but how to get it near enough if his magnetization might falter due to possible instability temporarily caused by the force.

A hand waved in front of his face. He blinked and looked at Ed.

"Seriously, I thought you suddenly started sleeping with your eyes open," said Ed, "You thinking about Green under mind control or something, because she'll kill you-"

"Yes, I know that... no... I'm thinking about the reverse polarization of my hovercars," Drakken the first part off and continued, "I need an alternative that wont be effected by ozone increase or depletion."

Ed stared.

"I am actually asking for ideas," glared Drakken. Ed suddenly looked more than a little pleased, "But if you make it a big deal-"

"Seriously? Me?" scoffed Ed, "I already am a big deal, I don't need to make one."

There was a pause.

"I mean, I'll do that after you agree ith any suggestion I make, seriously, that's when one gloats," smirked Ed, "So, explain."

Drakken rolled his eyes at his cousin's words. It would have been easy to blow it off and go to bed, but since the topic was there and the input of his cousin's mechanical genius... he would deal with the gloating his cousin would bring in the morning if he in fact aided him in a successful brainstorm.

Either deal with it or annoy him back.


Opening the door as softly as he could. Drakken crept into he and Shego's room, the slight flicker of the fading fire, making him detour to snuff it out. The room was cast into darkness, save for single stream of light coming from the moon reflecting from the snow outside. It gave him just enough to locate where Shego slept on the bed, the albums scattered around where she lay atop the covers. Drakken made his way to the bed, moving the photo-albums off the bed, his eyes becoming heavier by the second. He managed to weave the blankets from under Shego and finally climbed under the covers. He had barely pulled the blankets around him when Shego's voice groggily cut the silence of the room.

"Took you long enough," was a barely audible statement.

"Eddie insisted on a trip down memory..." Drakken trailed off as he heard Shego's breathing soften, "Shego?"

He finished settling in, her silence and breathing signaling she'd gone back to sleep. Closing his eyes only did so much, as the comfort of the bed and darkness only made his mind race. Ed's words about using his hovercar application to create a permanent ozone sensor... was something that made his whole body itch with an urge to be in his lab. He knew he could work on the math simple enough, and double check it with older designs of his hover-vehicles in general.

His thoughts paused as Shego nudged his leg with her foot, which had apparently been shaking as his mind raced. Drakken froze his leg and turned towards Shego.

"Shego?" he asked again. There was a groan.

"What?" her reply was muffled and agitated.

"If I could duplicate my ozone repair into smaller monitors-" he was cut off.

"Don't," she said firmly.

"But," he heard the whine.

"If you change it instead of working on a separate device" she sighed. Her eyes slightly opened to look at him, "You're just going to miss something vital and have to start all over."

Drakken stared at her. He wanted to argue that he wouldn't, but as a flash of all his failed invention swam through his mind... he let out a grumble of annoyance. It was silent again and he closed his eyes once again and tried to find sleep.

It didn't come.

"Do you think I've missed something with the device," sighed Drakken, "Apart from a more stable-"

A hand covered his mouth.

He glared as Shego moved to hover over him and give him an annoyed and tired glare herself.

"Sleep," it wasn't a request. He narrowed his eyes, "I will make chloroform with the cleaning products in the closet."

Drakken removed her hand and smirked.

"Try it. I barely got that closet closed," he threatened.

Shego glared for a second and then gave an amused snort.

"You act like that's a challenge for me," she teased as she laid back down.

She'd moved to practically be on his pillow with him as she did so.

"Do you mind?" asked Drakken as moved even closer.

"Nope," she smirked. He watched her eyes close, "Go to bed."

"Shego-"

She sat up and moved the covers.

"I'm getting the chloroform-"

Drakken sat up and grabbed her around the waist.

"I'm going to bed, calm down," said Drakken, "I don't need to wake up tomorrow night with a migraine."

He heard Shego huff as he pulled her closer to him as he laid back down. Waiting for her to make a snarky remark that he could let her go, that she wasn't going to get the chemicals. Instead she nestled back closer to him and let out a long sigh and snuggled closer still, clearly content in the sleeping position he had placed them in. It wasn't much long after that sleep finally overtook Drakken's still spinning thoughts.


I SWEAR I will work on getting these out faster.