"You know little buddy, all things considered. I'm not mad at Kim for putting me in the closet. Again. I'm pissed she didn't realize her mistake and come looking for me by now though." Ron said

Rufus just nodded solemnly while petting his master and friend's hand.

They had been in the closet two and a half days give or take. Ron wasn't completely sure at this point due to his delirium. He was judging based on cuckoo clock in a teacher's classroom down the hall. He gave all the snacks he had in his pocket to Rufus. Along with some veggies. It wouldn't be enough to sate him and the main thing he needed was water. Rufus might lose a few pounds but he's a desert animal at a base level. He has the best chance of getting out. This whole thing tanked even harder since it was a three day weekend.

He had to relieve himself in a bucket. Ron considered himself "lucky" to be locked in one of the janitor's closets. If he had to do it on the floor….ugh. He had grown incredibly weak. He could move but it was a waste of effort. There was nothing to pick the lock with and for some ungodly reason it was a thick wooden door. Even with his martial arts skills the best he could do was chip it. Possibly a few dents but he didn't have the energy to keep that up for very long.

"Rufus, I don't have much energy to talk so can you just listen?"

"Yes." he said with a sad face

"I'm dating Shego."

Rufus was about to burst into an animated speech but remembered his friend said to listen, so he waited.

"I know it's a surprise, but I'm going to need you to move past that. Kim clearly isn't coming so I might not be able to tell Shego myself, but tell her she deserves to be loved, and that she meant a lot to me. You could probably stay with her. She's not bad like you think. She won't hurt you." Ron said

"How to find her?" Rufus said with a shrug and a raised eyebrow. Or where he should have had one anyway.

"She lives in the woods on the outskirts of the west side of town. I know you can do it little buddy. I love you Rufus." Ron then held out his fist towards Rufus. Rufus pounded it and Ron smiled before blacking out.

Shego

"Where in the hell is he? He hasn't even called." Shego was growing impatient. What kind of man spends a load of money on jewelry then doesn't even try to cash in on those brownie points? He should be wanting to spend every day with his "beautiful and perfect" girlfriend. Maybe he realized what a repulsive freak she was.

"No, Ron wouldn't do that to me." Shego had a lot of self doubt, but she had no doubt in her mind about how he felt about her. He would not just desert her. Even aside from what he said last time he was here, she had confirmation of how he felt when he literally couldn't lie. He was the only person she trusted in years.

She usually didn't resort to this since it was creepy even by villain standards, but she was growing concerned about his well being. She hacked into the schools security camera system. He was easy enough to spot with his cute gigantic ears. The school didn't have cameras on every single hall but it was pretty well covered. Sheila fast forwarded to the end of the day since nothing major happened so he wasn't kidnapped or anything.

After rewinding and looking for a few minutes she noticed something odd "That's weird, it doesn't show him ever leaving. He didn't even leave with the after school crowd." She then had a thought "Wait….It can't be." There was only one logical explanation.

He never left.

Shego hurried to the school on her hovercraft as quickly as possible. If she was right he might be seriously hurt, or worse.

After picking the lock she started lightly jogging through the halls. The school was massive but she would not be discouraged. She had to find him. She started remembering the layout a bit from the cameras and the last few halls she saw Ron. She jumped into a fighting stance when she heard a stupid bird clock in the background. She rolled her eyes and continued on.

Shego started slowing down, he had to be in one of these halls. She started hearing some breathing and….squeaking? Ron. She wanted to blast through the door with every fiber of her being but didn't want the door to hit him in the face. Shego decided to melt the doorknob like it was butter.

Rufus started to smell the metal melt and was squeaking and celebrating. He though his friend would die in here. When the door flew open he almost had a little heart attack. Then he remembered Ron's words and slowly approached her leg, hugging it. Kim hadn't come to save them, Shego did.

"Thank you Shego." Rufus said

Shego barely understood what the molerat said but it sounded like a thanks. She smirked at him causing him to flinch. "You're welcome little sidekick. How long have you been in here?"

"Three days." Rufus said while holding up three fingers to make sure she understood.

Shego's pale green skin grew even paler before she asked "How much has he eaten?"

Rufus was too distraught to say anything and just kneaded his paws together.

Shego judged by the little guy's reaction he hadn't eaten at all. "Stay on my shoulder and hang onto my hair." She commanded

Rufus didn't understand why but did what she said. She threw Ron over her shoulder and started sprinting to the hovercraft. Every second mattered. He didn't weigh much at all to her given her powers. Rufus hung on for dear life.

"Is he going to be ok?" Shego asked the doctor, nearly in tears.

She had decided against carrying him in as herself, she used a holo disguise and put him in a wheelchair. It would look very strange for a five feet nine inch woman to lift a muscular guy as large as Ron like nothing.

"He's going to be fine miss," The doctor flicked through the notes on his clipboard "Goh. He's lucky you got to him when you did. I don't think he would have lasted another day."

Shego was happy Ron was alive. She smiled gently while brushing his cheek. She heard the doctor but wasn't fully listening. Once she got him into some light she could she how gaunt he looked. She never wanted to see him in this state again. She was going to kill whoever put him in there.

The doctor let her have a moment then continued "We're going to monitor him tonight while pumping him with liquids. His blood pressure is a little low and he has a fever as well." He then left the room. He knew better than to try to separate a partner from bedside.

Shego pulled up a chair and held his hand.

Rufus crawled off her shoulder onto the bed and tried to think of a way to cheer Shego up. She had saved them, especially Ron. He thought she might like some of the words Ron said. "Ron said you deserve love."

Shego couldn't make out exactly what he said beyond something about Ron, love, and her. That couldn't be right, could it? She gave Rufus a pat and gripped Ron's hand tighter.

Ron began to stir. Then he opened his eyes. He looked at the window and saw it was morning. Wait, the closet doesn't have a window. He turned and saw a woman sitting next to him. "Who is this woman?" He thought he might have slipped into the hallucination stage of dehydration but when he looked around he began to notice it was a hospital. He didn't feel completely like the living dead anymore so that confirms it.

"Who are….." Ron was going to ask who she was until she saw her eyes and how relieved she was he was awake. He was weak, but he had just enough strength to pull her into a deep hug. "Thank you Sheila."

She smirked as she hugged him. She wanted to mess with him when he woke up but her eyes betrayed her. "Guess my figure isn't the only thing he noticed." She really didn't care if he only recognized her by her figure. She was just glad he was awake.

"Can you talk?" Shego said, pulling away with a happy tear coming down her cheek. She held his hand gently

"Yes." Ron said, smiling back as much as he could muster.

"Who did this to you?" She said, her face curling into a frown. Ron was right, she was not a murderer. Now seemed like an excellent time to start though.

Ron looked away from her to the foot of the bed. Rufus was curled up sleeping. "Don't bother Shego."

"Who?" Shego said. Her tone was a lot more dangerous. She needed to do this. It was becoming harder to control her powers due to how angry she was. She would never burn Ron though.

"It was Kim. She locked me in by accident." Ron's face was blank

"How…..Why?" Shego's anger was temporarily put aside for confusion

"I think she didn't want me to embarrass her in front of her boyfriend and didn't know the door would lock." Ron's voice became increasingly monotone as he spoke. He had three days in an almost pitch black room to think about the entire situation.

"I'm sorry. That's one hell of a mistake." Shego was angry, but knew he wouldn't like it if he just went and broke his best friend's jaw. She could do nothing. It was an accident. She just looked down. One hand clenching into a fist while the other remained firmly on his.

"This actually happened before." Ron said, gritting his teeth.

"What happened?" Shego got the feeling he needed to vent.

"I convinced her to ask a guy out. She was hiding in a closet like a scared kid. Kim possible can do anything, except flirt." He paused for a second to let Shego laugh "When I tried asking for a ride to the dance she slammed the closet door in my face. I was stuck in there for hours. I was lucky a janitor heard me after the dance and let me out."

Shego felt his grip grow tighter on her hand. "I never noticed any bad blood between you two though."

"I forgave her. I thought that was just an accident, maybe she just reacted in the moment. Maybe she thought there wasn't a lock." Ron said, feeling like his blood was going to boil.

"And now?" Shego said, actually curious as to where he was going with this. They were best friends, they worked through everything from the little she saw and overheard on their missions.

"I think she considers me an embarrassment. Maybe it's subconscious. I don't know and I don't care."

"You don't care even if it really was an accident?" Shego thought being locked in the closet was bad, fucked up even, and he could have died. At the end of the day though it just seemed like a terrible mistake on Kim's part.

Ron chuckled a bit "Even if it was a mistake she had three days to think about it. She didn't even think to look for me."

"That's….true." She was surprised Kimmie hadn't come running within twenty four hours. How close could you be to someone if you don't think about them for three days?

"Do you understand how many things had to go wrong for me to be stuck in there for three days? Even something little like Kim and Wade giving me a communicator could have kept me from almost dying." Ron was almost shaking in rage. They said he couldn't be trusted with one. "I'm just the sidekick, the buffoon, the comic relief she carries around. I'm not important enough to get my own stuff,"

"Are you joking? Even the last time you all beat Drakken and I wouldn't have gone as well without you there. You kept me busy so your molerat could hit the button." Shego placed her hand on his cheek and stroked it with her thumb until he leaned into her hand.

"When even her nemesis can see it but she can't that's a problem." He said

"She would have to be a real buffoon to not realize how useful you are." She made sure to look him dead in the eyes. He needed to know that someone valued him. That someone cared about him. That someone…."Oh god it's only been a few days and I'm in love with him."

Not sure how much overlap there is with my other stories but I did want to apologize for the slow updates. I had a family member die within the last month then my guinea pig died in my hands last week. Not really in a great creative space in my head most of the time. I will try to post the next hidden affections chapter in a few days though.