A/N: A post-Graduation AU flash fic. Drakgo of course! Not much substance in this one, I'm afraid.
This is also in answer to a prompt request. The prompt was: "When One Stops The Kiss To Whisper "I'm Sorry, Are You Sure You-" And They Answer By Kissing Them More."
Shego lay face down on the sofa as she cried, her arms folded above her head. She had barely moved in three days.
The first day, she stared at the TV in anxiety as the news of the alien invasion spread. The second day, she stared in numb shock as the explosion of the ship was broadcast globally. And now on the third day, she mourned.
Drakken had been on that ship.
She had considered going after him. But...she remembered what those aliens could do. They probably would have killed her at their last encounter if it hadn't been for her quick thinking and the extraterrestrial woman's gullibility.
But her fear in the present had cost her her boss. And as she cried every tear she had within her, she was realizing she had lost more.
He wasn't just her boss... And 'friend' didn't seem to describe it either. He was just...Drakken. Her Drakken. Her...everything.
He had been. But now he was dead.
She cried until her body's energy was fully spent, and then continued to lay face down, her chest occasionally heaving with silent sobs. The loss was greater and more painful than anything she had experienced. And what was worse...no one even knew. The TV talked of celebrity losses, and property damage, but no one talked about the little people. The average citizens who couldn't turn the eye of the drama-devouring public, but who were everything to those they knew. Ignored and forgotten.
Shego finally rolled onto her side and turned her bleary eyes toward the TV. Not in any interest, but simply because she needed to breathe. Although...she wasn't sure what she was living for, anymore.
"...And the United Nations will honor Kim Possible and Dr. Drakken for saving the world from the alien invasion..."
Shego sat up with a start. She stared at the TV and the image of the teen waving shyly next to...
It was him!
She stood up and jumped right in front of the TV as she stared at his yellow petal-framed face as he looked just as awkward next to the red-head, and the blond-haired buffoon as well. They boy wore a space suit of all things, and Kim a torn and tattered graduation robe.
Shego ran for the hover car.
Hours later found her parking the hover car at the United Nations building in New York City, running past security officers who shouted at her. But she didn't care. She had to see that he was real.
She followed the very obvious signs that led to a banquet hall, and once she arrived outside the open grand ballroom doors she finally paused. She stood out like a sore thumb, disheveled and disgusting outside the hall where the wealthy were gathered in formal wear.
But then she saw him, a large gold medal gleaming on his chest. She didn't care what she looked like. She ran into the room, security rounding a corner behind her.
He looked up. He saw her coming with her arms outstretched. He stepped away from the suits he was chatting with and reached for her.
"Drak—"
She stopped and drew her arms back. He paused, his brow twisting in confusion as his arms stretched a little farther toward her.
She almost took back a step as she realized what she'd almost done. Her fingers began running through her tangled hair as she stared at him, too many emotions swarming her and preventing all coherent though. She knew they were being stared at.
"Shego?" he asked in that too-familiar voice. And she was so glad to hear it! But she wasn't ready for his concerned eyes, or all of the people staring at them.
"I...uh...saw you on TV," she said, hoping her voice didn't sound as shaky as she felt. "S-saved the world, huh?"
Drakken's arms dropped and he fidgeted awkwardly. "Y-yes, apparently so."
"I, uh..."
Shego's struggle to form thought was interrupted as a gaggle of security officers rushed into the banquet hall.
"There she is!" she heard one cry.
She glanced at the men, and then back to Drakken.
"Don't think I'm welcome here," she said, the hint of a familiar and comfortable smirk coming to her lips.
"Wait!" Drakken cried, and the officers who were mere feet away slowed to a confused stop. "She's with me!"
Shego felt an unnatural flush to her cheeks, and she continued pulling at the knots of her hair.
"Very chivalrous of you Doc, but I'm not dressed for this party."
Drakken reached into his coat pocket and removed a small white key-card. He handed it to her.
"Here. My hotel room key. You can...freshen up."
Most of the concern had faded from Drakken's eyes, but he was still looking at her in perplexity. Shego took the key.
"Thanks," she said, turning on her heel and walking briskly out of the room with her head down.
Shego paced the large and lavish hotel room, waiting for Drakken. She had opted not to return to the banquet for several reasons, lack of appropriate attire being one of them. But she also had no real idea what was going on.
She hadn't paid attention to anything after she saw the Lorwardian ship destroyed. She had only cried over his loss and wondered where to go next and came up with nothing. It was apparent of course, that somehow he had escaped and alongside Kim Possible, of all people, helped to save the world—of all things!
She simply didn't have enough information to rejoin the party that was apparently all for Drakken. Not to mention, her suit needed laundering.
With nothing to do for hours, she had availed herself of the shower in his penthouse suite and wore an incredibly fluffy and comfortable robe as she paced the thick carpet of the main room. As time ticked by, she found herself hoping that the party would in fact go on late into the night. Because she had no idea what she would say to him when he returned.
But as chance would have it, a knock sounded on the door that very moment. Shego looked through the peephole and found Drakken standing awkwardly but with a smile in the hallway, staring down at the medal that hung from his neck. She opened the door.
"Oh, there you are," Drakken said. He noted the bathrobe she wore with a slightly anxious expression as he stepped past her into the room. "Why didn't you come back to the banquet?"
"Nothing to wear," she said with a shrug. "Sorry, I should have thought about your room key."
Drakken stopped in the middle of the floor and turned back to her as she locked the door.
"Shego you're looking very pale and...very tired. Are you all right?"
She shrugged again as she hugged herself and walked past him and back toward the bedroom she'd used for her shower. He followed.
"Did you have to fight a lot of the Lorwardian invasion robots?" he asked in concern.
Shego heard his voice stop following her, and she turned around to see he'd paused in the doorway of the bedroom and not followed her in. She took a deep breath.
"What happened after they took you from the island?" she asked lowly.
He was looking even more confused and concerned. But as he began answering the question his brow darkened.
"I was restrained and put in a cell, and then they captured Kim Possible too. We were locked up together until my flower destroyed their security system."
Shego looked up. "Wait. Those marigold petals around your face have a use?"
Drakken shook his head. "Oh, no. It's this."
Shego recoiled as a green vine slithered up from somewhere behind Drakken's head, topped with a pink flower.
"It has superior strength and the ability to resist most destructive forces. It was key in the defeat of the Lorwardians," he said, puffing up slightly with pride.
"How were they defeated?" Shego asked, leaning back on her hands on the bed.
"I used my super hypollinator to surround all of the invading robots and entrap them. Kim Possible helped, and then the buff—...her...boyfriend, has these strange blue monkey powers and he destroyed Warmonga and...there was a larger fellow. Didn't catch his name."
Shego blinked. "That dork has powers now too?"
Drakken frowned slightly. "Apparently."
"He...killed them?" Shego asked in surprise.
"No, he launched them at super-sonic speed into their ship. When it exploded, the robots stopped functioning world wide."
Shego looked down. She'd had that explosion playing in repeat in her mind for nearly two days.
"How did you escape the ship?" she asked.
Drakken's frown deepened as he stepped into the room and moved to sit in the lounge chair near the balcony. The vine that had emerged from somewhere near his neck made a slow retreat until it vanished.
"James Possible, of all people, and the buff—...I...still don't know his name."
"Stoppable."
"Ah, yes. Stoppable. They flew up on one of...James's spaceships and we escaped that way. But Warmonga pursued us, which was how we ended up fighting them...back on Earth."
Shego sat forward again and set her hands in her lap. It didn't explain everything, but it filled in the most important details.
"What about you? What happened when you fought them?" Drakken asked.
Shego hung her head. She began running her fingers through her still-damp hair as she bit down on the bile that was threatening to rise in her throat.
"Shego? Did you hear me?"
She swallowed painfully. She knew she could lie, but...she was in too much pain to make the effort. Because it wouldn't solve the deeper problem of the way her heart had soared when she saw him alive, the rush she felt when she saw him through the crowd in the hall, or the way she had reached forward to...to kiss him.
Yes, she had a much deeper problem that a lie wasn't going to solve.
"Did you get hurt? Is that why you look so...so worn out?"
He was approaching her. Tears were coming hot to her eyes, and she hung her head lower to let her hair fall around her face so he couldn't see them.
"No, I...I didn't fight them, Doc. I stayed at the lair and...just hid from everything."
The confession didn't help, and her chest only tightened in pain at the sound of the horrible words. Drakken had stopped his approach when she spoke and now stood a few feet away from her. She didn't dare look up at his face.
"Oh. That's...what I would have done, had I not been captured," he said lightly.
Shego's eyes narrowed, and she wiped the tears away on the back of her hand before turning her harsh gaze up to him.
"I watched the ship explode on TV! I thought—" she took a steadying breath. "I thought you were dead."
Drakken's expression clouded slightly, but he continued looking at her in concern and confusion.
Shego scowled and stood up to face him, coming so close that he took a step back in surprise.
"Don't you get it? I didn't come after you! I saw them take you and just...let them go. And after the ship exploded I thought..."
Drakken blinked at her as he slowly absorbed her words. She turned away quickly as the tears came again. She didn't want him to see her any worse than she already was.
Behind her, she heard Drakken slowly step back to the chair and sit. She let herself fall heavily to sit on the bed as she wiped her eyes again.
After a long minute, she heard Drakken clear his throat. "If that was...an apology, I accept it. At least it's a little progress..." he muttered.
Shego turned and looked at him in confusion. "What?"
He was looking down at his lap, where he was folding and unfolding his hands.
"Last time, you gloated."
Shego blinked and tried to put together his meaning. And then it hit her.
When Warmonga had nearly destroyed them before, Shego had allied herself with Kim Possible to stop the alien—for her own selfish reasons—and then simply left when the job was done. She hadn't come back for over a week, and after she finally had and found Drakken slowly rebuilding the lair, alone, she had jumped straight into mocking and insulting him. Her reason being that he had gotten her put into prison for months, and he deserved a tongue-lashing over the failed plan.
He had seemed to ignore her at the time, though she knew he had been irritated by his grunts of acknowledgement. But he'd never said a word.
Obviously, the memory had stuck with him.
"I almost died then, too."
Shego started and sat upright. "What?"
"When she threw me through the roof. I almost drowned. If the tide hadn't carried me back..."
Shego thought back to the incident and barely remembered it happening. All she remembered clearly were Drakken's words declaring the alien better than her, and later the alien about to kill Kim Possible.
"So you've had my near-death on your conscience twice now," Drakken said in conclusion. Shego's brow furrowed at the slight smirk on his face.
"You think...this is funny?"
"No," he shook his head. "But you are. You're not as evil as you think you are."
His smirk had grown, and Shego found it infuriating.
"I'm plenty evil Doc, but that's not the point. You could have died and I didn't do anything about it!"
Drakken's smirk faded and she shook his head. "You did exactly what everyone would expect you to do. I don't see the problem."
Shego opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. She had done exactly what everyone would expect of her. Which meant...
He had no idea that her feelings for him ran deeper than evil side-kick. And she was only just realizing it herself.
And it probably also meant...that his feelings for her ran no deeper than those of a boss.
She faced away from him and hung her head again. What had she even been thinking, flying halfway across the country to run across a crowded room, looking like something the cat dragged in, to... To...
Her intent had been to kiss him. Not when her feet had started moving through the banquet hall, but when when she was within a few feet of him and had begun reaching out.
Her feelings were far, far deeper than side-kick.
"Shego?"
She heard him call her name in concern and realized she was sniffling audibly.
"I'm tired Doc, let me get some sleep," she said in excuse.
"This is my room," he said. "Did...you take a shower in here?"
Shego looked up at the open bathroom door, where her suit, boots, and gloves lay on the floor.
"Oh...sorry." She quickly moved and grabbed her things, and when she turned back toward the bedroom's door she found him standing beside it. "Do you want me to...? Sorry, I should leave."
"Shego. What's wrong with you?"
She couldn't meet his eyes. She had flown all that way for nothing.
"I'm just tired, I haven't slept in three days," she said.
"Neither have I," Drakken said. "But I have an excuse."
Shego looked up at him. He seemed a bit frustrated now, but he was still concerned. Maybe...there was slightly something more to their relationship on his end, than just being her boss? Probably friendship. Whatever he felt, she had a feeling her nights would continue in sleeplessness until she knew one way or the other.
Shego took a breath...and then frowned. She wasn't a talker, like him. She had always been a person of action.
She dropped her collected clothing and then stepped up in front of him, and before he could react she put her arms around his neck and kissed him. His hands flew to her shoulders and gripped them tightly and began pushing her away. She held on tight to his neck and made the kiss last more than the split second he was after before letting him push her away.
"Shego!" he cried. His expression was unreadable as he looked at her. She set her hands on his biceps, which was as far as she could reach after he'd pushed her.
"I thought you were dead. I thought...I'd lost you."
Drakken's eyes had darkened in a mix of annoyance and fear in the seconds before she spoke. But they lightened and slowly morphed into awe and confusion as he absorbed her words.
"You're not just feeling guilty," he said slowly. "You...care about me?"
She slowly nodded. "...Yes."
He lightly pursed his lips. "Interesting way of showing it all these years."
Shego rolled her eyes. "I didn't know I... I just... Ugh!"
She released him and stepped away, throwing her hands up as she grunted in annoyance—not with him, but with herself. It wasn't at all fair, her kissing him like that. But at least...now she knew.
He hadn't been at all interested when she'd been the subject of behavior modification two years prior and had thrown herself at him for a full day, and he wasn't interested now while she was fully herself. Even if she hadn't slept in three days and was admittedly more impulsive.
She started picking up her clothes from the floor again. "I'll just...go. You go on and...be that hero they've turned you into," she said, gesturing at the medal that still hung heavily over his chest.
Her clothes in her arms, she turned toward the door again. When she felt brave enough to look up at his face, he was staring down at the medal and holding it in one palm.
"'Scuse me, Dr. D."
She tried to move past him. He let go of the medal and grabbed her shoulders. The awed look in his eyes had grown and had mixed with hope.
"Wait! When you say 'care about me' you mean...you... What...what do you mean?"
Shego felt very trapped with his hands boxing her in while her arms were full of dirty clothes. She shrugged in response.
"Let me go," she said quietly, glancing away.
He let go. She looked up at him again as she stepped past him toward the open door...and then stopped. She turned back as she realized his gaze had become wholly familiar—uncertain, waiting for her instruction, but still ready to make a choice if she failed to give him one.
"What about you?" she asked with a sigh. "Why don't you... Why don't you care about me?"
His brow shot upward. "I do!"
"So you show it by ignoring me unless you need something," she said, raising an eyebrow.
He pursed his lips. He started toward her with purpose and she dropped her clothes, her arms opening to him. But he stopped when he was inches from her, searching her eyes. His confidence had faded instantly and left only the wide-eyed uncertainty she was accustomed to on him whenever their talk went further than his flavor-of-the-week schemes.
With far less nerve than before, Shego put her arms around his neck and drew close to him. He swallowed nervously, but didn't stop her. His hands fell comfortably on her waist as he took a breath.
"When you say...you care about me, do you only mean that...you're glad I'm not dead so I can write your next paycheck? Or that you're glad because you...you actually...think I have value as a human being? Or..."
Shego rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her forehead to his.
"Quiet," she said, and then she kissed him.
He kissed her back. All of the stress and pain she'd been carrying began melting off of her as he met her touch with seeming hunger. His arms went around her back and pulled her flush against him as his lips caressed hers, and she relaxed so deeply into the embrace that she sagged against him.
Breathless, she pulled away and dropped her face onto his shoulder. His fingers alternated squeezing and rubbing her back as she caught her breath, and then she was startled when she felt him take a step back without releasing her. She was forced to move with him or fall, and as he took a second and third step back she opened her eyes and saw he was drawing her back into the bedroom.
She met his lips almost carelessly as she reveled simply in the new joy of being in his arms. But for all of his usual talk, he obviously had been holding back from saying a lot as his kiss grew more passionate, and for the second time in mere minutes she felt weak at the knees.
He continued pulling her toward the bedroom, and she tugged on the fabric at his shoulders for additional support as she followed and nibbled at his lower lip. He suddenly pulled away and looked at her worriedly.
"I'm sorry," his voice sounded in a breathless whisper. "Are you sure you—"
She didn't let him finish as her lips attacked his fiercely, and she pushed him the last two steps into the room and slammed the door shut behind them.