Something was bothering Kimmie. Shego could see that, even in the few seconds it took the redhead to carry their coffees across the room. It had to be something pretty big for her to pick up on it. The green woman accepted her cup with a nod.
"Thanks, Pumpkin." She sipped at the hot beverage in lieu as she watched the younger woman over the top of her cup. Definitely something off. Not that there was much she could do about it. Heart to heart talks were not her thing. Ms Sensitivity, I am not. The green woman dealt with her own stress by hitting things. Her cottage near Montreal had a heavy bag for exactly that reason.
Maybe that's not such a bad idea.
"Hey Kimmie, wanna go beat each other up after we finish these?" Dark lips smirked at the redhead's startled look. "Sparring, Cupcake. I'm sure this place has a dojo. Why don't we find it and hit the mats?"
Red eyebrows shot upwards.
"We've been fighting half the night, Shego. Haven't you had enough excitement?"
The pale woman shrugged and waved off the suggestion.
"I was promised the chance to knock some heads together, but someone –" she gave Kim a pointed look. "- made me baby-sit her mother instead, and kept all the fun for herself."
"It was my father –" Kim's voice started to rise.
"I'm just busting your chops, Pumpkin." Shego interrupted the angry retort. "It's not usually that easy to get under your skin."
"Sorry." Kim subsided, a little shame-faced. "I should know that ... I'm just tired and cranky, I guess." A flicker of a smile at the edge of her lips. "Besides, I wouldn't have expected you to have any issues with guarding my mother's body."
Shego coughed, trying not to spit coffee all over herself. She gave a mock glower at the younger woman, whose expression, though still a little tense, softened into a half-smile.
"Not nice, Kimmie." The green woman reproved, though she couldn't entirely hide her own half-smile. I've always liked my women feisty. She suppressed a sigh at the thought. Now if only I could stop liking ones that are straight. "So how about it? Are you up for a little sparring, or have all those European chocolates and croissants slowed you down too much?"
Dark green eyes narrowed.
"Oh, that's it. You're going down."
"But Cupcake, I didn't think you swung that way."
Shego felt a moment of satisfaction. Not only had she managed to keep her tone casual and glib, but it felt like a long time since she'd managed to make Kim go anywhere near that red.
"How about we take a nap before we spar?" The younger woman replied at last, evidently feeling a change of topic was in order. "Neither of us got much sleep last night."
"I'm not sure how much sleep either of us will get right after drinking these." Shego gestured with her coffee cup.
"It's decaf."
"... philistine."
"Over-tired Kim plus caffeine is not a good plan. Trust me."
Shego raised an eyebrow at the emphatic statement.
"Sounds like there's a story there."
"Let's just say that whenever I had to pull an all-nighter to finish a college paper on time, my flat-mates ran for the hills." Kim shrugged. "Even Dominique said I got pretty scary."
"Huh." Shego took another sip of her coffee and suppressed a grimace. Somehow it didn't taste as good now she knew there was no caffeine. "So all those aborted plans Drakken had for turning you to the dark side, and all he needed to do was keep you up all night and force feed you coffee?"
"Something like that." Kim laughed, then wrinkled her brow as a thought occurred to her. "Drakken had plans to turn me evil? Other than the thing with the chips? When was that?"
"Drakken had a lot of plans you never heard about. Let me demonstrate what a typical day in the lair was like." Shego put down her coffee cup and lifted her hand up, cupping it into the shape of a mouth. Then, with a dementedly excited expression, she launched into a nasally impression of Doctor Drakken's whinier tones.
"And so, Shego, that's my master plan to conquer the world with killer kumquats! Genius, isn't it?"
The green woman fixed her own hand with a glower.
"I think it's stupid." She told it firmly.
Shego let her face fall in melodramatic woe as her 'mouth hand' drooped sadly..
"Words hurt, Shego."
"Plasma hurts more, Doc. Think of something else." The pale woman flicked a tiny scrap of green fire at her own hand, then gave the now-giggling Kim a long-suffering look. "Repeat ad nauseum, until I either got bored enough to go along with one of his inane plots, or he grew enough of a backbone to insist that he paid my salary, and I had to do as he said."
"I always wondered why you stayed with him." Kim admitted, wiping away tears of laughter.
"I wondered the same about you and Stoppable."
"It's not the same thing." Kim protested. "Ron's been my best friend since Pre-K. Drakken was just your boss."
Shego shrugged.
"Being a master villain is too much work. You have to worry about coming up with plans, handling payroll for the henchmen, checking that your benefits package is competitive ... and have you seen the insurance premiums on lairs? Nah, I don't need that grief." The green woman smirked at Kim's incredulous expression. "What? Laziness is hardly the worst of my vices, Kimmie. As bosses go, Dr D wasn't bad. He paid me well, let me take lots of vacation time, and only got fresh when he was too drunk to be scared of me ... which as long as I stayed away from karaoke nights, wasn't often."
"Karaoke?"
Shego snorted.
"Figures that out of everything I just said, that's what you'd pick up on. Trust me: it's not my idea of a good way to spend Friday night."
"So what is?" Kim blurted, then blushed. "Sorry. I'm prying. You don't have to answer that."
"It's okay." Shego waved off the apology. "I'm partial to the three effs."
"Three effs?"
"Yeah. Fun, food and f –"
"Shego!"
"Fornication." The green woman smirked. "Why Kimmie, what word did you think I was gonna say?"
"The three effs ... do you ... do you do a lot of that?" Kim stammered her way through the question. Shego was surprised the younger woman had managed it at all, given how red she was turning.
"The first two, yeah. The last one, less often. I don't go to bed with someone unless I'm sure I can trust them."
"Because of STDs?"
"Actually, because they might be a cop. But the STDs thing is a good reason too."
"A cop? Does that really happen?" Kim's eyes went wide.
"Well, not in the sense that they have women haunting lesbian bars in the hopes of bumping into me. At least, not as far as I know. But it's not like either the police or GJ have a 'no lesbians' policy, Kimmie." Shego gave a lascivious wiggle of her eyebrows. "So there have been a couple of occasions where a friendly lady has turned out to have ulterior motives."
"It sucks that you have to worry about that."
"Yeah, I guess." Shego nodded, adding in a bitter tone. "But things were worse when I was a hero." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. Idiot! Why did you say that? The green woman shot a glance at Kim, who merely looked back without saying anything. "You're not going to ask what I mean?"
The younger woman shook her head.
"I think you only let it slip out because you're just as tired as I am." The redhead put aside the last remnants of her coffee and stood, raising her arms and giving a shuddering stretch that molded her clothes to the lean lines of her body. "Let's go to bed. If you decide you want to talk about it later, we can."
"After a display like that, Pumpkin?" Shego managed to force a suggestive smirk onto her lips. "Bed sounds like a great idea. I'm just not sure how much sleeping I'll be doing."
They didn't talk about it when they woke up. Kim hadn't really expected they would, but she didn't regret the decision. We were both punchy from adrenaline and lack of sleep. Shego may have said something and then regretted it now. So might I.
"Lunch?" The teen hero suggested, emerging from the shower with her hair up in a pink towel. "It's twelve thirty, already. We slept longer than I meant to."
"Coffee first." Shego grunted, swinging her long legs out of bed and running her hands through her hair. Kim deliberately looked away from the lean, curvaceous form, clad only in a black sports bra and shorts. She felt a flush of heat in her cheeks and the tips of her ears. Well, this was one time a blush wasn't a bad thing. Let Shego think she was just embarrassed. It was better than the green woman realizing the truth. "And I'm not making decaf."
"I can do that." Kim waved the older woman back. "You get dressed." The redhead had dressed in the bathroom; black cargo pants and her trademark lime green tank-top. And the sooner Shego covers up, the easier it'll be on my nerves.
The redhead sighed as she entered their suite's kitchenette. Despite the fact that they turned her into a babbling moron, she found crushes based on a largely physical attraction – like the one she'd had on Josh Mankey – were a lot easier to deal with than those where an emotional bond formed first. When Josh and I split up, I barely felt sad. When Ron told me he'd met someone new ...
Kim shook her head. That had been her own fault, and she knew it. Trying to be so grown-up by telling Ron they shouldn't make any reckless promises when they were going to be apart for four months. Never really believing that he'd so much as look at another woman.
"And where did that get you?" she muttered to herself. Three weeks of misery that Dominique had helped her get through, leading to a new crush: one Kim had never expected. Looks like it wasn't quite as unique as I told myself at the time. And just like that time, physical attraction was following emotional attachment. Not good.
Resolutely putting those concerns aside, Kim dug in the cupboards, turning up a set of paper cups with a grunt of pleased surprise. There were even plastic sipper lids, which meant they could drink the coffees as they went in search of lunch.
"It's not decaf, right?" Shego asked as she entered the kitchen. The green woman was scratching her stomach, the gray fabric of her t-shirt pushed up to reveal the smooth skin. Kim hastily turned away. Definitely not as unique as I thought.
"No, it's full of caffeine. I put in extra just for you." She spooned sugar into her own cup, then poured milk into both. "It'll be ready in a few minutes. I'm just going to go dry my hair while we wait."
"Don't know why you bothered showering." Shego poked through the room's small refrigerator, selecting a candy bar. "You're just going to need another after I get done kicking your ass in the dojo."
"Right." Kim waved off the claim.
"'S tru." Shego answered through a mouthful of chocolate and peanut butter. She offered the remaining half of the bar to Kim. "Wun sum?"
"Thanks." Kim reached out, but the green woman yanked the chocolate away at the last second, giving the redhead a smug smirk as she did so. The teen hero gave a low growl, hand reaching out once more. Again, Shego pulled the candy out of the way, but this time Kim was expecting it. The redhead's head snapped forward, teeth pulling the sweet chocolate right out from between Shego's fingertips.
Shego blinked, staring at her empty hand, then swallowed her mouthful and gave the grinning redhead a pout.
"Hate you."
"Hut yu tu." Kim agreed amiably.
Ten minutes later, the two women stepped out of an elevator and walked along the short corridor to the main ballroom, where – according to the itinerary they'd been provided – a buffet lunch was being served.
"I need to get Triple S to tell me what brand of coffee he ordered." Shego mused as she sipped from her cup. "For straight-up brewed, this stuff's not bad."
"Espresso snob." Kim teased, draining the last of her own cup. She sighed as they entered the ballroom. "Great. Bonnie and Junior are here, and from the look on Bon-bon's face, I'd say they've had their mission and it went okay."
"Hmm?" Shego glanced at the two contestants in question. Junior was wholly absorbed in the canapés, but Bonnie Rockwaller ... yep, she was definitely watching Kim with a very self-satisfied expression. "You could be right."
The green woman's eyes drifted across the large room. The only other occupant was Falsetto Jones, who was glowering at a corner table.
A prickle ran across the back of Shego's neck. Jones was alone. No sign of his partner. And he looked one part furious, one part miserable. She frowned.
"We're not in Kansas any more, Toto."
"Huh?" Kim glanced at the green woman in confusion, just in time to have her taller companion sweep an arm around her and pull her into a clinch. The younger woman suppressed a yelp, fighting the instinctive urge to defend herself. "Uh, Shego ..."
"Just play along, Kimmie." The green woman whispered, pretending to nuzzle the redhead's neck as her gaze flicked back and forth across the hall. "Falsetto Jones is also here, and he looks like his dog just died. I think maybe he and Leon washed out of the competition too."
"If Junior and Bonnie finished their mission, that'd mean the only people left that can beat them are Sheela and Manx ..."
"Yeah." Shego agreed, as she shifted position to cup Kim's face, leaning her own head forward behind her hand so that from the floor of the room, it looked like they were kissing. She continue to whisper, her words blowing warm air over Kim's lips. "I'm starting to think there's something to your theory about the competition being fixed."
"Finally." Kim grumped. Then frowned. "How does that lead to you suddenly groping me?"
"Doy. Because everyone down there thinks we're a couple, and this way we can plot without them suspecting we're doing anything more than making out." Shego quirked an eyebrow. "Clever, aren't I?"
"Brilliant." Kim snorted. "So what are we plotting?"
The green woman sucked in a breath, thinking quickly.
"I need to talk to Junior alone. You think you can come up with a reason to talk to Rockwaller and maybe distract for a few minutes?"
Now it was the turn of Kim's eyebrows to quirk.
"Are you kidding me? If they have outscored us in this thing, I'll have to beat her off with a stick to not talk to her." Kim bit her lip, then suddenly grinned. "Especially if I do this."
"Wha - ?" Shego started to ask, before the Kim entwined their fingers together, pulling the green woman's hand down, and leant forward to firmly press their lips together.
Woah. Kimmie really knows how to ...
Conscious thought returned as the redhead broke the kiss, giving her a dazzling grin.
"One distraction, coming up."
"Uh, right." Shego stammered, feeling pretty distracted herself as she watched the redhead trot down the staircase. The pale woman shook herself, and followed a few steps behind, suppressing a smile as she saw Bonnie Rockwaller immediately move to intercept her partner. Sidek ... oh hell. Partner.
The green woman was down the stairs and halfway across the ballroom before she realized that at some point during the kiss, she'd dropped her coffee cup.
"Hey Junior. Good buffet?"
"Ah, Mish Shego. It ish not bad. The hors d'oeuvres are quite good, eshpecially the bruschetta, but the wine ish not of the quality of my farzher'sh usual fare."
"Thanks for the tip." Shego muttered. "I'll avoid the wine." She rarely touched alcohol in any case. Being drunk with plasma powers weren't a good combination. The green woman picked up a piece of the tomato-covered bruschetta and gave it a tentative bite. "You're right, this is very good."
Junior nodded agreeably as he daintily piled a white plate with various appetizers. Shego glanced across to make sure Kim still had Bonnie occupied, then casually leaned against the table as she nibbled on her bruschetta.
"So, I guess you heard that Kimmie and I didn't do so well on our mission for the tournament ..."
"Yesh. I told my farzher they should let you try again, but he shaid it was not the evil way. And then we practiced our villainous laughs."
"It was nice of you to try." Shego actually believed what Junior had said. The kid was pretty sweet, underneath all that narcissism. Dumb as a pet rock, but sweet. "Did you guys have any trouble on your run?"
"Oh, it wazh terrible." Junior shook his head. "We had to steal the jewelry of my shweetheart'sh sishters. My poor Bon-bon was sho conflicted."
"Huh." Shego popped another appetizer into her mouth so she had time to think before saying anything else. Stealing from family would certainly represent an issue for most people. Guess the organizers knew better than to try it with me. Still, even with the Rockwallers being rich, it was unlikely the security would present that much of a problem. "So you just broke into the house and took it all?"
"We did that, yesh, but we alsho had to get the jewelry the girlsh were wearing."
That would complicate the mission. Maybe the events were legitimate. Shego slid a glance back toward Kim, and saw Bonnie headed in her direction, a worried scowl on the tanned youngster's face. But if they were, why would Rockwaller be so concerned about me talking to her lover boy?
"Well, it's been great to chat, Junior." The green woman pitched her voice just loud enough for Bonnie to hear, and ran her long fingers down the young man's bicep. "If you're ever in my part of the world, look me up. Pumpkin's fun 'n' all, but sometimes a lady wants a little more ... grunt." With a salacious smirk at the now-fuming Bonnie, the pale woman strutted away. That ought to make her forget all about the tournament.
"Slap me." Shego muttered as she reached Kim. The redhead blinked.
"What?"
"Slap me, and storm out." The green woman flicked a glance in Bonnie's direction. "Your friend thinks I was flirting with her boy. I want to reinforce that opinion. I'll meet you at the dojo. I need to talk to Falsetto before I come after you."
"You're sure ..."
"Slap me, Cupcake."
Crack.
Well, I did ask for it. Shego blinked startled tears of pain out of her eyes, and rubbed her cheek gingerly as Kim gave her a decent impression of a loathing look before storming up the stairs. The green woman took a moment to savor the swing of the redhead's hips as she ran up the stairs.
Like I'd look twice at anyone else if I had that waiting for me at home.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the longer than usual delay between updates. 'Most Wanted' got delayed due to my slacking off, so this chapter was also delayed.
So now Shego and Kim both suspect something rotten in the state of Denmark ... or at least in the competition. Are they right? Can they prove it? Time will tell.
It also looks like both women are coming to terms with the fact that they're attracted to the other. I mean, does anyone believe that kiss from Kim was purely for Bonnie's benefit? Me neither :-)