Day 41

Shego bustled into the lair with her arms full of shopping bags from her overseas vacation. It had been very relaxing...except for when she had tried to socialize with other vacationers. As soon as the small talk was through, all anyone wanted to talk about was that disease. It had made her think of Drakken more often than she wanted to and soured the trip, so she left much earlier than the two weeks she had planned on staying.

"Yo, Dr. D.? Anybody home?" she called out as she dumped all of her purchases onto the sofa.

That part of the lair was always silent when unoccupied, but for some reason this time it didn't feel right. She strode through the living area and toward the lab. During midday, that was the only place Drakken would be.

When she opened the door and saw the familiar hunch of shoulders beneath a dark blue jacket sitting at the workbench, she sighed in relief. But relieved from what, she wasn't sure.

"Hey Dr. D.? I'm back."

Drakken turned with a whirl, startled. "Shego!" he snapped.

Shego chuckled and raised her hands in defense. "Whoa, wound a little tight there aren't you?"

Drakken's frown slowly turned into a smirk.

"I just got used to the peace and quiet."

Shego frowned as he turned back to his workbench. She looked up at the computer screen where three graphs were displayed and then something that looked like an active anti-malware scanner, but wasn't. She stepped up next to the mad scientist and saw he had papers spread all over the desk covered in his handwriting. There were chemical formulas, equations, and various short-hand notes on all of them. There was also a brand new microscope half-unpacked sitting in its Styrofoam packaging on the floor next to him.

"What's all this? Come up with something new while I was gone?" she said, coughing once into her wrist as she leaned against the desk.

"I've been running projections..." he muttered.

"Of what?"

"Of the potential for spread of the disease."

Shego's smirk fell. "That's what all this is? You're still on that? It's been over a week!"

Drakken scowled at her and looked back to his notes.

"While you've been lounging on a beach somewhere, I've actually been doing something productive."

"Well, I'll give it to you...that would be a first."

Drakken grunted and rose from the chair, crossing over to the computer screen. "This is very serious, Shego. This disease has the potential to be the worst epidemic in all of known history."

Shego crossed her arms and smirked as he began gesturing to the graphs.

"Look at these predictions! At the rate it is spreading, in three months the entire world could be dead! And no one is even talking about it!"

"Yeah, nobody to rule over would be no fun."

Drakken's expression was unreadable as he stared at her. After several seconds had passed she started to feel a bit uncomfortable. She coughed into her shoulder.

Drakken headed back to his workbench and hunched over again, not giving her another glance.

"Well hey, if you get tired of panicking over nothing, I bought something for you while I was gone."

She felt a bit of the discomfort start to pass when he peered at her curiously over his shoulder.

"Oh? What is it?" he asked slowly.

Shego smirked and tossed her hair as she turned to leave. "You'll have to come find out."

Shego looked at the clock. It was almost midnight. With a huff of annoyance she tossed aside the third magazine she had read cover to cover and finger-combed her hair.

He wasn't coming. He was going to stay in the lab and continue obsessing over a stupid nothing all night.

'Serves him right. He'll never know what he missed.'

She sat up and was about to start blowing out the candles when she heard the door slide open. In a flash she had flopped back down on the bed and assumed the pose she wanted him to find her in. She smoothed her hair out just before he poked his head through the door.

"Shego?" he said quietly as he peered inside. "Oh, there you—"

His eyes went wide as he choked on his words. Shego grinned excitedly.

She had set the bedroom up for an evening of pampering for him. She had a tasting platter of wines set up on the right side of the headboard, each one paired with different hand-crafted chocolates that she had purchased at the resort. On the left she had massage oil heated and ready, and lining the entire back of the headboard were rows of candles which she had positioned in such a way to cast just the right shadows on her curves as she lay waiting for him atop the new, blue silk sheets. And of course, there was her purple and gold lingerie.

Drakken took two steps into the room, his jaw working but no sound coming out. Shego refrained from biting her lip, as she had put a dark red lipstick on, and instead beckoned him forward with one finger.

He slowly obliged, his eyes moving over everything she had done in meticulous observation. She slowly sat up, tossing her hair behind her shoulders as she did.

"What do you want first?" she asked. "Massage, or chocolates?"

She had gestured to both the massage oil and the tasting platter as she spoke, and his eyes had followed each of her hands in turn. He swallowed anxiously.

"Shego..." he said softly. She couldn't tell if he was awed or scared.

He was close enough now for her to reach for him, and she pulled him down to sit on the edge of the bed and rested her forearms on his shoulders.

"Time to relax, Doc. Take your clothes off," she said, only mildly surprised at the flutter in her chest at her own words.

He blushed and began to oblige. The racing of her heart increased as he finally took in her appearance with the same attention he had everything else. She lay back on the bed again in the sultry pose she had practiced and thrilled in the way his eyes widened. She noticed his clothes were coming off faster.

She had the faint thought that maybe...after that night, she would have a better idea of what they were. And despite still refusing to let the word 'love' enter her mind, she wanted him to say...something...to let her know they were more than just...villain and side-kick who happened to sleep together.

Regardless of what they may be to each other, Drakken was as shy as he always was. So he left his boxers on as he sat on the bed and reached for her with hunger in his eyes.

"Ohhh no. Not yet. Pampering first."

He looked dismayed, but she reached past him and took one of the wine goblets off the card table and handed it to him. She grabbed the two chocolates that were paired with it and handed one to him.

"This is called chocolate silk. Each one is designed to go with a specific wine."

Drakken's brow furrowed. "How much of my money did you spend on this?"

"Does it matter? It's for you."

With a tiny frown Drakken popped the entire confection in his mouth. A second later his eyes widened and he hummed in delight.

"Now try the wine," she said, and he stared at the glass with less skepticism as he swallowed the chocolate. He sipped from the glass and his brow rose in surprise.

"See?" she said.

He looked back at her as she took a slow bite of her own piece of chocolate, running it across her lip and looking at him seductively. The wine glass started to slip from his hand and she grabbed it from him seconds before his hands gripped her arms and his lips found her neck.

Her breath caught...and she fought against a moan as he skillfully worshiped her skin.

"Mm-mm, no," she said after a moment's indulgence, pushing him away. "You're getting a massage first."

"Shego..." he whined. It was somehow cute in the current context.

She set the wine glass and her piece of chocolate down and coughed into her shoulder. That kiss on her neck was seriously making her reconsider...

But, she turned back to him with resolve. "You'll be happy you did. So spread out that towel and lay down," she said, pointing to the folded, heated towel next to the headboard.

Drakken sighed and did as she asked. As he spread the towel she heard him grumble. "If you didn't want me to...to do that, then you shouldn't look at me like that."

"Then this will be a good test of your self-control," she said with a smirk. Once he was face down on the towel she lightly dipped her fingers in the massage oil and began running it over her hands.

"What are these new sheets?" he asked, his voice half-muffled by the pillow.

"Silk," she said. She grinned as she crawled on her knees toward him and then lifted one leg over his. She straddled his thighs and sat down on his legs just below his rear, bringing her knees in close to his waist

"Shego?" he murmured as she started slowly running her oiled hands up his back.

"Mhmm?"

"I feel I should warn you I have no self-control."

She leaned forward and put one of her hands in his line of sight and flared it slightly.

"Don't forget I can make you do whatever I want."

Her smirk grew at the stunned surprise in his eyes and she leaned away, moving her hands down his back slowly. When she sat down again she rolled her hips slowly against his rear end. Her heart fluttered at the moan this act drew out of him—one of the few he had ever given, she realized. She wondered again why he was always so silent whenever they were intimate...and decided that one of her goals for that evening would be to change that.

She leaned forward and slowly kneaded his shoulders.

"Shego. I have no self-control," he stated.

"And I have plasma powers," she said, very lightly flaring her hands against his skin.

"Ow!"

"Just have some wine and relax," she said. "I'm bringing the vacation to you."

With a small grumble he shifted up on his elbows and grabbed the glass he had previously sipped from, downing the rest of the alcohol in a single swallow. She reached behind her and unclasped her bra, and after removing it dropped it on the bed where he could see it. She saw his brow rise before she lowered herself down to lay on his back.

"Let me take care of you..." she whispered into his ear.

She felt him give a shaky sigh as he relaxed back down onto the bed, and she slid her body slowly against his, her hair falling all around them.

Day 42

When Shego woke up the next morning, Drakken was still there. She blinked and stared at him without focus. He was sleeping on his back with his head tilted slightly up toward the ceiling. Shego lay on her stomach a good two feet away in the massive bed, but one of his arms was lain casually across hers.

She realized then another unique aspect of their relationship—'Relationship?'—and that was...no cuddling. In all the times they had woken up together, they were always distant from each other. She wondered if it meant anything.

She rolled onto her side and slowly, nervously started moving closer to him. Why was she nervous? After the night they had had, surely a little cuddling was...normal? She crept closer and gently set her head on his shoulder. As she draped an arm across his chest she realized her heart was pounding.

She frowned at herself. Why on earth should she be worried about cuddling? She had had wild, passionate sex with the man less than seven hours before. She had even gotten him to moan again during her elaborate foreplay...not after, though, she suddenly realized. He'd gone back to giving her the silent treatment.

It made no sense and was beginning to frustrate her. She was always praising his name, his body, his skill...and the most he would give her was a smile.

While her heart still pounded as she leaned against him, she found herself getting mad. She deserved some sort of verbal acknowledgement from him. Especially after all she'd done to make the night before special.

She was about to hit him in the chest and demand he wake up, but then she considered...if she started talking about their 'relationship' it might lead to some place she didn't like. She moved closer to him as she decided...she was okay with the way things were. While she didn't know what they were exactly...whatever they were, she was content with it.

She didn't want to lose it.

She snuggled even closer to him and closed her eyes, planning to go back to sleep, when she felt him shift.

Her heart raced again and she had a sudden desire to move away from him, to put back the two feet that were safe, and comfortable... But she didn't get the chance as he suddenly stiffened, realizing she was there.

'Move... Move now!'

She didn't move. He stretched...cleared his throat... And then cautiously set a hand on her arm.

Maybe...he wanted to have the conversation. Maybe he was having all the same confused thoughts she was. She opened her mouth to announce she was awake, but a dry cough came out instead, startling them both.

"Oh, y-you're awake," he said, moving away from her rapidly. Her head hit the sheets when his shoulder moved and she frowned.

"Hey!"

He wasn't out of the bed yet, just had put space between them and was looking oddly nervous. She wondered again if he had the same uncertainties she did, but that thought was pushed aside in favor of annoyance.

"You don't just move when someone is using you as a pillow," she lectured.

"Oh...s-sorry," he said, still looking anxious.

'Now's your chance...' she thought. She could say something... Ask him about what they were to each other.

Instead, she leapt atop him and pinned his hands above his head.

"I didn't say you could leave yet," she said with a smirk.

"Oh...are we still playing that game?" he asked. She noticed the anxiety in his eyes starting to fade.

"Maybe. If you keep doing things to make me mad. And you know what happens when I get mad."

He grinned deviously. "Yes. I do."

Her own smirk grew. A fight was what had started all of it to begin with.

It was an argument about something he was working on. The type where usually one or the other of them would get annoyed and leave, except neither of them had. The argument had just gotten louder and angrier and closer to each other's faces, until...she kissed him. She still had no idea why she had done it. But she had. And it was very soon after that they had ended up in his bed in a wild battle for dominance of a totally different kind.

She lay down against him and nuzzled his lips into a kiss. Her skin tingled with delight as he hummed into the touch, meeting her passion, wrapping his arms around her...and then...

"Shego..."

Her heart raced. That's what she wanted. It was the first time he had said her name. The first indication he had given that his pleasure was because it was her he was with...

She gripped his shoulders tightly and kissed him again...but was interrupted by a cough that came on her so suddenly, that she sat up in surprise. She set her hands on either side of his shoulders as her body spasmed so intensely that she couldn't stay upright. She let herself fall on the mattress next to him.

"Shego? Are you okay?"

"Um...yeah," she fumbled for an excuse. "Just...forgot to breathe for a second." She suddenly felt very tired.

When she looked back at him the light and hint of something more in his eyes was gone, replaced with the same intense darkness that had driven her to take a spontaneous vacation over a week prior.

"I need to get back to work..." he muttered.

Shego frowned and crossed her arms.

"What are you doing anyway, other than panicking over a little flu that's hundreds of thousands of miles away from here?"

Drakken sat up, forcing her back, and looked at her with wide-eyed astonishment. She covered herself with her hair, suddenly uneasy under his stare.

"You haven't been paying attention, have you," he said disapprovingly. "Wasn't anyone talking about it...wherever you were?"

"Ugh, it was all anyone would talk about it. It's why I came back so soon."

A brief flicker of sadness passed through his eyes then that Shego wanted to ask about, but knew she never would. He had already moved on anyway.

"It's spread to over two-dozen countries, including this one."

Shego found herself suddenly thinking less cavalierly. It had moved that fast?

"And," he continued, "because we get diagnoses on average at a two-week delay it's probably already much worse than we think it is. This could destroy the world, Shego."

He rolled out of the bed and grabbed his robe from his vanity, shrugging into it with a frown. Shego gathered the blue, silk bed-sheets around her as she stood up to challenge him.

"Isn't that something you want?"

He glared at her. "As you pointed out before, with no people in it there won't be a world left to rule."

Day 43

Shego walked into the kitchen wearing her robe and pajamas. She didn't want to eat anything, nauseous as she was, but she knew she had to.

After Drakken had gone back to 'work' the day before, whatever that meant, Shego had cleaned up all her preparations from their special night and spent most of the rest of the day sorting through her other vacation purchases and being angry.

She wasn't so upset now that he was focused on the epidemic... Because even she could see, it was a thing now. The news had started talking about it, though they just talked in circles on every network about the best way to handle the situation. She had rolled her eyes and turned the TV off.

No, her problem with Drakken was...that he seemed to want to do something about it. Which would technically be saving the world, not taking it over. Which was definitely not in a villain's modus operandi.

But she hadn't taken the time to argue with him about it, since later that same day she'd started feeling sick. The cough that wouldn't die was the main issue, but she had also had a slight fever and was starting to get very nauseous.

She had decided that hiding out in her room was the best choice. The last thing she needed was him freaking out that she'd brought the disease home with her from her vacation or something. But if it moved as slow as he claimed it did, then if she had it then she'd had it since before she left for vacation.

"Rrgh..." she growled in frustration as she microwaved water for tea. Being sick was annoying enough without now having to worry if she had some sort of world-ending virus.

Her body didn't ache too badly, which she knew meant the fever was low. She had purposely avoided taking painkillers so she could get a more accurate sense of how she was doing. It was really just the cough and the nausea.

Despite that, she hated being cooped up in her room, and she felt up to maybe some people-watching with Junior at the beach. As her tea steeped, she pressed the speed dial on her phone that had his number.

The phone rang out and went to voicemail, to her surprise. She hung up and tried again. This time he answered on the third ring.

"Shego?"

"Hey Junior," she said before covering the receiver to cough. "What do you say we—"

"Oh Shego! It is horrible!" he interrupted her.

"Huh? What is?"

"My father has contracted that horrible disease! And so have I!"

Shego suddenly found her heart racing.

"What?"

She heard Junior cough away from the receiver and thought about her own cough. But before she could give presence to the thought, he spoke again.

"Oh Shego it is dreadful! Whatever will I do without my beloved father?"

"Wait, slow down," she said, gesturing even though he couldn't see. "You think he's...that he's actually going to die?"

She could hear him sniffling through the phone. "The doctors say he is at the highest risk, because of his heart condition."

"Heart condition?"

"Yes. The doctors have had him sedated for the last three days just to stop the—" he broke off to cough, "—the coughing. Oh, Shego!"

Shego pulled the receiver away slightly as he wailed, but then her eyes narrowed as she coughed herself.

"You have it too? What are the symptoms?"

Junior sniffled again. "Fever, the horrible coughing, tiredness... Difficulty breathing."

She took a deep breath and considered her own symptoms. "...What did the doctors say about you?"

"Oh, I shall recover because I am young and healthy," he said almost nonchalantly. He broke off coughing again.

Shego coughed at the same time and found herself suddenly worried. How long had Drakken said it took for symptoms to show up? And she was also nauseous, which Junior hadn't mentioned...

"Hey listen, uh... Is there a treatment for this thing?" she asked.

"No," Junior replied. She could tell he was shaking his head.

"Well...just...um. If you need me to kidnap some rich doctor for you, I will."

"Oh Shego...you are the dearest friend! Now...what were you calling about?"

"Oh, uh...to see if you wanted to go to the beach. But you've got more important things to do."

"Yes...I am afraid so."

"Okay, well...I'll call you later to see how your dad is doing."

"Thank you Shego!"

After she had hung up, Shego grabbed her tea and hurried away to her room before she could chance to bump into Drakken. If she did have the disease...he would absolutely freak out. And if the young and healthy weren't as susceptible to it, then...she would just stay in her room until she was better. Then he would never know.

Day 45

There was a knock at Shego's bedroom door, and it opened a crack. Shego muted the TV and glared at the blue face poking through the doorway. She willed herself not to cough as she hurriedly sat up in her bed.

"Um...Shego?"

"What?" she groaned, crossing her arms.

Drakken recoiled slightly at her tone, but didn't leave. He set a hand on the door-frame and began picking at the metal bolts.

"I...I haven't seen you in a few days," he said.

"Since when do you notice when I disappear?" she retorted.

"Well, I...I just... I haven't seen you since...um. And I was wondering, if you wanted...to come sleep in my room tonight?"

Shego glanced at the clock and saw it was almost 11:00 PM. She glared at him as a cough welled up in her chest, but she kept her lips firmly together. He couldn't know.

"So you don't care that I'm gone until you want sex?" she said once the urge to cough had subsided.

His face reddened and he began waving his hands in innocence.

"No—!"

"Well, forget it," she interrupted him, laying back down. A cough finally escaped her lips. She peripherally saw his brow rise.

"Are you sick?"

"Stomachache," she said quickly. It was true enough. The nausea had only gotten worse.

"Oh... Do you need—?"

"No! Now go away you horny blue dolt!"

Shego hid her face, holding utterly still as another urge to cough came. As soon as she heard the door close she let it out, coughing until she felt her side spasm. The effort left her feeling even more nauseous than before.

Or maybe it was because of the words she'd used to get rid of Drakken.