Chapter 3

The next day, Shen and Kim were standing at Kim's locker talking to Wade. Shen was looking bored and indifferent as usual, as he leaned against the locker next to Kim's. He was actually paying attention to the conversation, but was also checking out any of the passers by. Shego had no problems when it came to sexuality; she was a free spirit who liked to get whatever she wanted. Being turned into a guy just meant the lesbian side of her had more fun. What bothered her though was the attraction she felt towards Kim Possible, but she tried to ignore it for the most part; it would only cause trouble and could probably be blamed on male teenage hormones, right?

"What the hell is going on? Only Dementor and the WEE are causing trouble!" Kim complained, exasperated.

"Is that really something to complain about?" Wade looked at her questioningly, whilst taking a sip of his coke.

"Well, no...I guess not...but I, we, haven't heard from Shego, er Drakken, in a while, so something must be up," Kim stumbled in trying to come up with a decent reason. Shen very nearly choked, but covered it up by smoothing out his smart, black shirt, which had the first three buttons undone. He also winked at Josh Mankey as he walked by, receiving a very confused look as a reply.

"Drakken hasn't shown up at all and maybe Shego is on one of her holidays? Drakken wouldn't act without her after all."

"Maybe, but doesn't she usually max out her credit cards?" Kim said absentmindedly. Shen actually looked over at Kim from that comment, catching her eyes and lifting a delicate eyebrow, clearly asking, why do you know that? Kim just looked away awkwardly and pretended to be paying attention to Wade. She could feel Shen's eyes on her though.

"What if she didn't feel like spending lots this time?" Wade was grabbing at straws now. Why should he know what was up with Shego? Kim didn't look convinced, but they said goodbye and walked off to their lesson, English.

"So, you seem to be overly concerned about this Shego gal. You even know she splashes out when on holiday," Shen casually brought up the topic and was a bit confused when Kim coughed, is she blushing?

"Well, she's a very smart villainess, so I need to know what she's up to. It's not I like I'm constantly checking up on her, but she could take over the world with her intelligence and skills. She always sticks by Drakken though, which I really don't understand."

Kim had given a reasonable explanation, but Shen couldn't quite get over the compliments she stashed in there. It made him smile, which actually freaked him out slightly, stop getting attached! It'll all be back to normal soon and you can't get into a situation you'll regret! ...would I regret it? OF COURSE YOU WOULD! Damn innervoices... Kim's voice broke through Shego's ramblings.

"Maybe their lovers..."

"URGH! Nasty! Dr Drakken and...sick," Shen couldn't control that outburst and had frozen in the corridor. Kim turned and thought the look of disgust on Shen's face was very strange, but definitely amusing. She'd never seen such an emotional reaction from him. Shen finally snapped out of it and carried on walking, ignoring the curious looks from other students, "I mean who would want to be with that blue freak?"

"...yeah," Kim watched Shen out of the corner of her eyes as they closed in on their destination, "Can't say I can see it as a healthy relationship. Drakken is very annoying and Shego has quite the temper."

Shen laughed and smiled as he imagined toasting Dr D with plasma because he got her some shoddy jewellery. They walked to the back of the room and took their seats near Ron and Monique who were already there.

"Good morning class," Mrs Roberts started, "please get out your homework." Everyone in the class did as they were instructed, apart from Shen.

"Wolf, why aren't you getting out your work?" Monique whispered. Shen didn't look at her as he replied.

"Wait for it," Mrs Roberts was making her way around the class collecting the work and, not even glancing at Shen, continued walking past him. She was stopped, however, by Shen coughing pointedly and pulling out a sheet of lined paper, waving it in her direction, smirking, "Forgetting something?"

Mrs Roberts stood there in total shock and the rest of the class had their bottom jaws scraping the ground. Collecting herself together, the teacher took the work and glanced over it, coming to the conclusion that it was indeed a piece of homework from the lazy, arrogant Shen. "Thank you Shen, for once you have done something I've asked. I'll check it right away once the work is set." She smiled and continued round the class until she had everyone's and then went to the board to write instructions for the lesson.

Halfway through the lesson, she stood up and walked over to Shen's desk. He wasn't doing any work as usual, so was reclining as much as possible in his chair. He would put his feet on the desk, but he learned he couldn't get away with that in this lesson. Shen actually backed down to the English teacher, oh the shame.

All of the class pretended to be working as she approached, but really they were intrigued by the miracle of Shen doing homework. Work during class would've been one thing, but actually using his outside-of-school time was incredible.

"Excellent. You certainly have a good understanding of written English. I can see why you are so arrogant in this lesson, but it doesn't give you an excuse for not doing the work set. However, if you keep up doing the homeworks to this standard, I may be able to raise your failing grade." She placed the work on his table and stalked back to her desk. She was pleased to see at least some shock on Shen's face, but it was quickly covered by the usual bored expression. Still, everyone could see that he was clearly happy and proud of his work, which now had a big 'A ' at the top.

Mrs Roberts smiled at Kim and bowed her head slightly in what Kim thought was a 'thank you' gesture, but she didn't understand why she would be thanked. She looked over at Shen's work to see if the answer was there, but he quickly turned it over and glared at her. She could tell it was only half-hearted though and figured he was just shy about his work. Shen was actually very pleased, but he didn't want his 'rep' ruined, so glared at anyone who looked at him.

Suddenly, a piece of folded paper landed on Shen's desk, so he covertly picked it up and read that it was from Kim. She was asking whether she had been mentioned in Shen's work. He looked to his left and smiled mysteriously at her, whilst writing 'yes' on the paper and passing it back. She read it and smiled to herself which in turn, not only made Shen smile at Kim's happiness, but also Mrs Robert's who had seen the whole thing. Obviously, she was unaware of what was written, but by matching up the pieces, like Kim's confusion of her gesture and the timing of the note, along with the smiles and what she knew was written in Shen's homework, it was pretty damn obvious what was going on.

XXXXKPXXXX

Ron, Kim and Monique were all sitting at their table during lunch. Today they managed to get pizza, but Monique did have to fight Bonnie for the last slice and they were currently waiting for Shen to show up as they didn't have their previous lesson together.

They spotted him coming into the cafeteria, as did just about everyone else, as the sound of the doors crashing into the walls, with him storming through, tore all students eyes to the entrance. He was striding up to the table with the most powerful aura anyone had ever seen. Something had clearly pissed him off to the point of almost exploding, but evidently he hadn't exploded yet. As he got to the table he threw his bag with so much force, Ron nearly lost his lunch; he thought better of glaring at Shen though as he could hear an animalistic growling rumbling in Shen's throat.

Ron suddenly had the idea to get that supposedly 'excellent' homework Shen had done. Maybe it would hold some answers about Shen and hopefully something he could use against him to make Kim see sense that he's a bad influence. People were distracted by Shen's attitude and the show he was giving by almost shouting at the cafeteria ladies, because they gave him the grey slop that was apparently meat, so Ron quickly searched Shen's bag. He found it pretty quickly and scanned it as fast as he could.

Okay what have we got here? Kim...Kim...Kim...Kim...Kim again. Hmm he mentions her quite a bit. Apparently she's helped him a lot by becoming 'an originally unwanted friend.' He certainly does sound like a loner. He's not even that nice about her, but the fact that he mentions her at least once a sentence must mean something! Come on there must be something shifty in here... He glanced up to see if he still had time and found that Shen was barely controlling himself and shaped his hands like claws, so carried on reading, determined to find something. A cold guy with a scar? 'cold metaphorically'. I have a question Shen – why are you so damn cryptic?!

Quickly, he stowed it away, back in Shen's bag as he was walking back with his shaking tray of edible food rather than the 'mystery meat', evidently the only person to ever win against the cafeteria ladies. Shen sat down, placing his tray on the table and seemed to calm down until he became his usual self, although a little bit quieter. Meaning he was silent throughout lunch as he hardly said anything anyway. No one dared to ask what was wrong, even when he started filing his nails vigorously when he finished eating.

XXXXKPXXXX

Ron and Shen were leaving their last lesson of the day, when Ron suddenly pulled Shen away into a corner.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Shen asked, still on edge from what happened in the lesson before lunch. He was not in the mood for this.

"Well, Wolfie. Mr Loner. Big-rep-to-keep guy, I have something you should take an interest in," Ron pushed Shen further into the corner talking in a tone that set off alarms in Shen's head. He was not impressed by being manhandled and technically surrounded or the tone Ron was using, but he kept quiet and waited for Ron to get on with it. It's not everyday that Stoppable acts like he has balls, "So, tough guy, how would you feel if everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in the not only the school but also in Middleton, knew that you aren't so much of a loner, you aren't so tough-"

"Get on with it!" Shen spat. He did not like where this was going.

"Aww is someone aggravated?" Ron teased, "anyway, what if everyone knew that you weren't the guy they all thought you were?"

Shen froze and finally filled the silence, how does he know? "what do you want?"

"Oh nothing much, just for you to stay away from Kim. Distance yourself from her. Think about it this way, I know you don't want your rep ruined, but also can you tell what Kim would go through if the pale, gothic, rebellious freak fancied her? Not a pretty picture. So do we have an agreement? I won't say a thing to anyone in exchange for you staying away from Kim."

That was close, I thought he kne- wait a second...he's got a bloody nerve! I could kick his sorry arse into submission...but Kim wouldn't like that, she'd take his side, I bet. I could call his bluff though. I doubt he would tell everyone 'cause it would get to Kim which would risk her coming out and saying she likes me as well and he's obviously doing this because I'm a threat. She might not though and as he said she'd get loads of crap for it, still why would I care about that? It's not my problem...okay fine I do care about what happens to her! So what the hell am I meant to do? -sigh- I don't want this hassle, but I always get what I want and, God save me, but I want Kimmie dammit!

"Well, do you agree to it or am I going to have to spread the news and destroy your rep and let Kim get tormented by others? You know what Bonnie's like" Ron asked as he stepped closer to Shen, their faces almost touching.

Shen wasn't going to take that blatant disrespect of his personal space and the threat held with it. His smile was predatory and made Ron gulp and move back very slightly. That was Shen's cue, so he stepped forward a few times and Ron walked back as well, until his back was against another wall and Shen stood in his face this time.

"Would you really allow your best friend to go through pain that you caused, just because you want her? What would you do? Comfort her in her time of need?" Shen laughed mercilessly and Ron gulped. He didn't think Shen would risk fighting back. Shen was revelling in the fear he could see in Ron's brown eyes and couldn't resist leaning in to whisper in his ear, "however, I'll agree but with a slight edit. I'm allowed to be around Kim and to talk to her, but I'm not allowed to flirt or be close to her for extended periods of time."

"No, we stick to the original agreement" Ron whispered shrinkingly.

Shen stepped closer, so their bodies were pressed together and put his lips right on Ron's ear to say, "what makes you think you're in a position to barter with me?"

"You wouldn't hurt me."

"I could do more than that, friend," Ron was shaking now, much to Shen's amusement, "but...I agree. If Kim wants to be near me and approaches me though, I'm not going to go completely out of my way to get away from her. Still, I will respect this deal, as long as you do as well."

At that, Shen walked away smiling, leaving Ron too shocked and scared to move, thinking, it seems this battle just got even more interesting. I do like a challenge.

- - -

AN: Ron is a bit OOC, but under these circumstances I think he'd get to the angry point and try to get Shen to back off.