Yet Another Kigo Fic! – Chapter 8

By Ken-Zero

Disclaimer: About the only original thing I own here is my life. KP and the gang are Disney's, Isabel and Kane are StarvingLunatic's, and so on and so forth.
Kim Possible fell off the bed.

There was exactly nothing going through her mind at that instant; she was simply far too shocked to even process what had happened, and her usually-favorable reflexes had kicked in over the top; she'd rolled backwards and ran out of mattress real estate.

Shego, who'd been pleasantly asleep until a few seconds ago—or at least, who'd been putting up the appearance of being pleasantly asleep until a few seconds ago—pulled herself to the edge of the bed and looked down. "You okay, Princess?" she asked; she still sounded mildly groggy.

Finally Kim fought off the mind-numbing paralysis of shock and shook her head vigorously. "You scared me to death!" she complained, color rising in her cheeks.

Shego snorted a laugh as she watched Kim on the ground. "You're cute when you blush," she said, causing Kim to turn even redder, which in turn made Shego actually chuckle.

"You're an evil, evil person," Kim declared, picking herself up off the ground and plopping back into the chair she'd abandoned a few minutes ago.

"Just so we're clear on that," Shego agreed, rolling back onto her back. She stretched mightily, and Kim heard several joints popping like they hadn't been used in hours. Shego relaxed again. "Much better," she said, breathing deeply and letting it out as a sigh.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, concerned, and once again Shego marveled at how the women in her life could switch moods at the drop of…well, in this case, a cheerleader.

"Fine, Pumpkin," she replied. "Though I think I'll stay here for a while. It's comfy." It was comfier five seconds ago…

"I'm glad," Kim said, relieved almost entirely. "You had me kinda scared earlier; I've never seen you…flame out, I guess, like that before."

"Yeah, well, the energy's not bottomless," Shego commented. "In about fifteen minutes I'll be starving to death. After I get over that I'll be back to my normal bitchy self, and you can stop worrying."

"Okay," Kim answered. Shego chuckled again at how Kim didn't protest the mild cuss. Companionable silence blanketed the room yet again until Kim piped up with, "Hey, those rats—did anything seem…I don't know, kinda familiar about them?"

One eyebrow raised, Shego regarded Kim. "Uh, no? They were sixty-foot-tall giant mutant killer cyborg lab rats." She stopped, and a pained expression crossed her face before she smacked it with her palm. "I can't believe I just said that with a straight face."

Kim giggled. "It happens to the best of us," she said, giving Shego a knowing glance. Then she sobered. "I meant…first, unless someone was new on the scene, I recognized part of those cyborg parts."

Shego frowned at the implication. "So someone you know's behind this."

"A bunch of someones, I think," Kim agreed. "I don't have my Kimmunicator to call Wade, but I have some guesses."

"Care to share?"

"Only if you're going to help me stop them," Kim countered. "It's not that I don't trust you," she went on hurriedly, seeing Shego's expression drop toward anger, "it's just that I'd rather not have you worry about it if you're not going to do something about it."

"You don't need to protect me, Princess," Shego argued. "I'm a big girl now, see? And today notwithstanding, I can take care of myself." She harrumphed, crossing her arms under her breasts. "Besides, whoever did that—and I've got ideas, too—set it up while I was there, which means instant bad news for them."

"Don't do that," Kim said, and when Shego looked she noted Kim's eyes were glazed a little bit. She was also staring, quite pointedly, at Shego's shirt.

Shego smirked. "Do what, Princess?" she asked, drawing her knees up and crossing one leg over another, even though she was still on her back.

Kim shook herself back to her senses before her brain overloaded. "Um," she restarted lamely, "what I meant was, don't do anything you'd regret later. To whoever's behind this."

"Right, right," Shego nodded, smirk still in place. She was not going to let Kim get out of this one, at least not without making her dizzy from blushing. That much blood to the head couldn't be healthy, she decided. Still, it was fun enough to tease her to that point. To that end she tightened her arms slightly, pushing her chest up just a little more. The material of her shirt was stretched to begin with; this made it strain harder.

Kim's mind was threatening to check out again, but with a Herculean effort she forced it to behave—for now. She focused on her semi-partner's face. "…Where was I? Right, the bad guys. So I'm thinking there's a bunch of them working together," she finished.

"Yeah. You said that already," Shego said. While she was mildly disappointed that Kim had apparently stopped being flustered, she was still acting scatterbrained, which was also highly amusing.

"I did?" Kim blinked, mildly confused. She pursed her lips. "I blame you for distracting me."

Shego merely shrugged, causing some interesting bouncing.

Again Kim had to force her eyes upward. "I think it was three, specifically: DNAmy, Drakken, and Dementor."

"Big Blue Bucketheads, Incorporated," Shego offered instantly.

Kim lost the fight not to laugh. "I'll bet Dementor's first name is Helmut," she said, deliberately mispronouncing the German, mangling it to American English standards.

It was Shego's turn to laugh, not her usual short, sharp, sarcastic "Ha!", but a full-on giggle. She sobered quickly enough, though, to ask, "Mr. Bucket I can see, but why Amy and Dr. D?"

"I'd have thought DNAmy would be obvious," Kim answered, still smiling. "Normal white rats aren't quite that…fireproof. Or durable."

"Touché," Shego replied, one eyebrow raised. She hadn't thought of that one…yet.

"And Drakken because, well, they were sixty feet tall, as you said," Kim answered. "Plus you said they came out of nowhere. Things that big can't just come out of nowhere. They'd either lead a path of destruction if they walked in, a crater if they dropped in, or a new subway tunnel if they dug in. All that makes me think they got rayed."

"Rayed?"

"Rayed. As in, the big blue meanie designed some sort of growth gun that he zapped them with. That's the only way they could have snuck up on you, is if they weren't that big to begin with."

"So you've got the Three Stooges with the gun from Honey, I Blew Up the Rats. We've got the who and the what. Next is…why?"

Kim shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine—probably better. You didwork for Drakken, after all."

"Don't remind me," Shego grumped. She was going to be extremely glad—probably eternally glad—that she'd finally told the blue idiot off a couple of weeks ago. Through some semi-subconscious prodding from Kim, who probably hadn't even realized she'd done it, Shego had decided that no amount of pay was worth the damage to her dignity that he inflicted on a daily basis. Plus his schemes were stupid enough…and seriously, he tried to take a guy'swheelchair away. That's more evil than even I like.

Kim waited a moment. "So?"

"So what?"

"Any guesses?"

Shego snorted. "I'm not a miracle thinker, Princess. Besides, you're probably just as good on the input side. They are, after all, yourenemies."

It was Kim's turn to say, "Touché." She thought. After a few seconds, she put her chin in a hand, holding that elbow with her other hand.

All she needs to do is bite her lip and I think I'd die from the cuteness overload, Shego thought. She sat up and sighed. "Look, Kimmie, they've all got one thing—well, at least three things in common: stupid plots, jail cell numbers, and you."

"What do you mean, me?" Kim asked.

"You stop them all," Shego explained patiently. For someone allegedly as smart as Kim was, she was sure dense, sometimes. "Take Dr. D, for example. Sure, I poke holes in his plans all the time, and they're mostly fruity to begin with, but if you didn't show up to stop him, he'd probably actually succeed more than half the time. That's the same thing with both the Beluga and Buckethead."

"So you're saying they're working together…"

"To try and get you out of the picture, by any means possible. Sorry, bad joke, I guess."

Kim shivered a bit. It was one thing to know she was a teenaged nemesis of several supervillains; it was quite another to find out they were actively trying to off her now. She could feel the oppressive weight of her own mortality all of a sudden, the reminder that, in spite of her can-do claims, she was still only human. It was actually mildly depressing, and would have been more so if only for her usual optimism.

Shego watched Kim work through the mild funk. It pained her to do so and not provide any assistance, but she knew Kim was a strong person. It was one of her more attractive qualities.

Kim wondered what it was about her that made her so irksome that they'd actively try to kill her. After all, sure, she foiled their plans, but they always escaped, broke out of jail if necessary, and tried again. It wasn't like she injured them or put them away for good or anything, even though they were such a source of never-ending frustration that she wished quite often that they would just stay captured. The fact, though, that they were frustrated with herenough to try something really drastic…well, she couldn't see it from this plan—it was hare-brained enough to be almost normal, and besides, they'd teamed up before and failed, right? Still, she thought, better to be safe than sorry. And moving to Go City meant she'd be somewhat hidden at first.

Except…

"Shego, do you think this was a test run? Or were they actually trying today?" she asked.

"Dunno, Pumpkin," Shego answered honestly. "The fact that we didn't see any of them at the scene—you didn't hear the usual 'But you're not' speech, did you?—probably means this was a test run."

"So they don't know I'm moving here…" she mused aloud.

Shego frowned. "No, because neither did I," she said, "and it'd be hard for them to know something and not me."

Kim blinked at her. "I thought I mentioned that I start at Go U in like two days."

"Nope," Shego replied. Her frown briefly reversed direction. "That's my alma mater, though. Go Mascots!" she gave the little cheer.

"You went there?" Kim asked, surprised.

"Remember, Princess, I do have a degree in child development. My little teaching stint should be fresh memory matter, right?" Shego grimaced at that; though she'd been able to bond with Kim, she had been effectively mind-controlled; needless to say she hated mind control, in all its forms.

"Now that you mention it, yes," the redhead confirmed. She shifted in her seat a tad. "And…Mascots?"

"Hey, when the university decided to update its image, someone went a little more tongue-in-cheek than usual," Shego replied. At Kim's look she raised her arms. "And it wasn't me, either," she said seriously. "They did that before I even thought of going there. That's also why there're no real school colors, either."

"Uhhuh," Kim replied. It was clear she was skeptical, but she didn't say any more about it.

Their brief conversation concluded, Shego returned to lying on the bed, and Kim to studying her from the chair. They didn't say anything to each other for quite some time, each just relishing the other's presence. Finally Kim just started to smile.

Shego felt the stare, looked, and saw the smile. "What are you smiling for?"

"I don't know," Kim replied, still smiling. "I just felt like it."

"It's kinda creeping me out."

"Sorry." Still, she didn't stop. In fact, the smile only grew wider.

"You're getting worse," Shego warned. Her emerald eyes looked worriedly into Kim's leafy-green ones. "Stop it."

"I'm just…I don't know," Kim gushed. "I guess…I'm excited? Thrilled? Ecstatic?"

"…Why?" Now Shego was plain confused.

"Because!" Kim practically exploded out of the chair. This was the most animated Shego had seen her since…well, really, since the last time the two of them had really fought, or since they had taken out those aliens a few months ago. "I just realized, really. But we fought together out there."

"Yeah," Shego drawled slowly. Where is she going with this?

"That's it, though! We fought together. Not against each other—together. And you know what? I think we did a pretty good job out there, too."

Shego blinked. "Well, yeah," she replied evenly. "Come on, Princess. If nobody can stand up to us separately except each other, then by process of elimination it means if we're working together then we'd just roll over everyone and everything."

"I know!" Kim was getting really excited now; Shego could see it. "Wasn't it awesome? Didn't you feel excited?"

After a moment's thought, Shego said, "Actually, yeah. I did. And it was." She sounded like she didn't quite believe it herself.

"See? We can agree on things," Kim said triumphantly. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Looks that way," Shego said. She smiled slyly. "That still doesn't mean I'm going to do your hero thing, though," she added.

"And why not?" Kim asked, her energy still running high. "For all you say that today was in self-preservation, you still saved the city from any further problems, as well as all those people that could flee the scene thanks to you keeping those rats busy. That sounds pretty heroic to me."

"Hey, they almost stepped on me. Besides, I couldn't have cared less if other people got stomped instead."

"I don't believe that for a second," Kim argued. "The way you kept on even after I showed up, then completely exhausted yourself making sure they didn't fall onto any other buildings—that's not a very callous thing to do."

"I--" Shego began, but stopped. Damn, but Kim had a point there. Why didshe stick around? Oh, right. "I couldn't let you have all the fun there, Pumpkin," she continued. "So what if it means I did a good thing? It was for purely selfish reasons."

"I won't tell you the ends justify the means," Kim countered, "but I don't believe that, either. Admit it—you were worried! You didn't want those things to rampage around your home and possibly get to people you actually care about."

Shego sighed. "You're not going to stop unless you think I've changed my mind, are you?" Kim shook her head. "I know you want me to be all good, but nobody can change that quickly."

"I don't want you to be anybody but yourself," Kim replied. "I'd be super excited if you decided to do that, but I'll be happy so long as you keep out of the bad guys' camp. I like you too much to have to fight you all the time again."

That earned her a raised eyebrow. "Really now? You'd be okay if I just sat all this out?"

Kim nodded firmly.

"And you'd be excited if I joined your Team Possible," she continued.

Another nod.

"And you think I could actually enjoy being a Good Guy."

She nodded again.

"And you really want to kiss me right now, don't you?"

Kim got halfway through another nod before freezing, her face still pointed down from stopping her head motion. She cast a quick glance up at Shego, who was sitting simply, her legs folded, and a triumphant smirk on her face. She could feel her own face heating up quickly, which probably meant she was turning all sorts of red right now.

Shego really had to work to suppress a giggle; as much fun as it was teasing Kimmie, this was probably the worst she'd ever gotten her. The reaction was classic—a Kodak moment waiting to happen, except Shego didn't have a camera. But wait… She checked her pockets, breaking her gaze from Kim's for a second, and discovered that, indeed, she had her cell phone with her…with its built-in camera. She quickly dug it out, flipped it open, and aimed the lens at Kim's face.

"Hey! What're you doing?" Kim protested.

"Snapping something to cheer me up when I'm all alone on long, dark, cold nights," Shego replied, and Kim heard the fake camera shutter noise. Her blush failed to recede at all.

"Don't do that!" she nearly shrieked, and made a grab for Shego's phone.

"Aww, Kimmie, you're camera-shy?" Shego asked, pulling her hand out of Kim's arms' reach.

"I am if it's that picture!" she replied while trying again to grab the offending device.

They kept it up for another couple of minutes, Shego eventually posting her hand on Kim's forehead and, thanks to her slightly longer arms, keeping Kim entirely out of reach while the redhead flailed her own arms at the ex-villainess. The whole scene was quite comical to Shego, and Kim eventually felt her blush go away, which meant that Kim could be less desperate and more calculating. She popped Shego's hand off her head with an elbow, marveling once it was gone at the heat it put out, and lunged, tackling Shego around the waist and knocking them both over onto the bed.

Shego yelped as Kim moved suddenly, and her phone slipped from her grasp—it was either do that or grip it tightly enough to crush it, she knew, and she picked the better option. They rolled around on the bed, each trying to pin the other, turning the camera fight into a good-natured wrestling match which Kim won, barely. Shego's legs were off the bed, which meant the smaller girl had more leverage and body weight with which to pin.

Kim was momentarily distracted as she finally noticed how Shego's hands were empty. "Hey, where's your phone?" she asked, confused.

"Dunno," Shego replied, using Kim's momentary distraction to remove her arm from Kim's shoulder and bend the adventurer's elbow out. Kim, lacking the rigidity necessary to keep Shego pinned, tried to recoil back, but she was too late; Shego heaved to the side and they rolled again, this time with Shego holding Kim's arms above her head with one hand and the other poised at Kim's waist. "And I win," she smirked.

Kim's eyes were huge with the fear of being tickled; she didn't know if Shego knew she was ticklish, but it looked like the green-skinned woman wouldn't mind finding out.

It never even occurred to her, or Shego, either, how genuinely playful they were acting at the moment—rather like young children, or perhaps more like…lovers.

Kim didn't even try to resist, since she had a very, very Bad Feeling that doing so would entail having her stomach tickled mercilessly. Instead she relaxed as much as she dared. Shego accepted the accession of victory and flopped down to Kim's side, releasing her arms. She propped her head up on one hand as she laid on her side. "That was certainly entertaining," she remarked. "When was the last time that we actually grappled like that?"

Kim looked like she was going to answer right away, but something stopped her, and she thought. Her eyes roamed the ceiling before looking back to Shego. "It was a long time ago," she answered, "but that's about all I remember. Way before graduation and all that."

Shego nodded. "That's what I was thinking. We need to tussle like that more," she said, catching Kim's gaze. "Especially if I'm giving up the Bad Guy stuff. I don't want to lose my edge."

Kim blinked. "You're…you're really going to do that?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Doy. Why do you think I've been at my parents' place this whole time?"

"Because here, no one would know where you were," Kim guessed.

"Eh, close enough," Shego replied. She wasn't about to give the civic secret of Go City away just yet. Instead, she continued to look at Kim. God damn, she's cute, she thought, and Kim blushed, which made Shego wonder if she'd spoken aloud accidentally like Kim had earlier.

Kim gave no indication of it, though. "What?" she asked, almost defensively.

"What what?"

"You're staring at me…"

"Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"Y—…N—…Can I not answer?" Kim asked, her face only turning redder.

Shego grinned evilly. Then, without warning, she lowered her head and kissed Kim.

Kim's brain nearly exploded as she felt Shego's lips against her own, but she managed, somehow, to maintain the structural integrity of her skull. After a few seconds passed she simply closed her eyes and melted into the embrace, returning the kiss with the same amount of passion Shego was putting into it.

Shego was too busy feeling Kim to even feel victorious. She noted how soft Kim's lips were; she'd expected it, to some extent, but the reality blew away any sort of expectation she may have carried into this. Her free hand stroked Kim's torso, and Kim could feel the heat of her touch through the thin material of her shirt; Shego slid that hand under the shirt's hem and Kim moaned gently into the kiss as Shego touched bare skin. The combination of gentleness and warming heat was heavenly.

Kim's mind finally woke out of its stupor, but instead of being surprised or disgusted, she was excited. Shego was far from rough; her kiss was gentle and tender, and her lips felt to Kim like they barely existed, they were so soft. She put her arms around Shego's neck to keep her close, caressing Shego's lustrous black hair.

The two continued the kiss eagerly; at one point one of the two surprised the other by licking at her lips. Shego accepted the invitation eagerly, opening her mouth slightly to let Kim's tongue inside. She almost couldn't believe Kim was being that forward, but then she remembered the "Kim Thing": When Kim was going to do something, it was going to get done, come hell or high water. Their tongues tangled, and this time each female moaned as the delicious contact only riled them up even further.

Shego shifted herself more on top of Kim so she could use both hands, and lifed the redhead's shirt high enough to be able to touch all of Kim's ribcage. She probed every inch of Kim's skin that she could, feeling the taut musculature that she'd encountered so many times in the past, the frame that, while lithe, hid some serious strength of its own. Kim had never truly defeated her; of course, she had never truly defeated Kim, either. None of that mattered at the moment, though. Right now, Kim was all hers, willingly so, and Shego was going to demonstrate to Kim just how much she appreciated that.

Kim was feeling adventurous; if it weren't for the fact that she was kissing someone, it would almost feel like the budding excitement of a mission. But she was kissing someone, Shego in fact, and it was…thrilling. Still, it was Shego, and—

Bah. Stop with the thinking and keep going with the kissing, Kim ordered herself. She slid her hands around Shego's back and ran them under the other woman's shirt in turn, getting a good feel of the wonderful skin awaiting her touch. She yanked the fabric higher, which Shego obeyed by lifting herself slightly so the article of clothing could make it past her breasts.

They eventually had to break the kiss out of a need for air; things were getting hot and heavy enough that they were panting by the time they separated. Kim's lips were tingling as she stared straight up into Shego's emerald eyes. "Wow," she breathed.

Shego grinned again. "Told you you wanted to kiss me," she said smugly.

"Yeah…" Kim concurred, her voice almost dreamy. "Yeah, I guess I did."

They were silent for a few more minutes, though they did continue to do some minor exploration of skin—something of a comical sight, as both women had their shirts up to about the level of their collarbones. They were lost in each others' gazes, as corny as it might have sounded to either of them ten minutes ago, and yet thoroughly enjoying that state of being. Their touches weren't erotic anymore; curious, perhaps, but there was no diving into cleavage, nor were there attempts at exploring down pants. Both Kim and Shego were simply getting to know the texture of each other, discovering how each reacted to various areas of skin and different pressures of touch.

It was a very good thing, Kim decided lazily, that she was so attracted to Shego. Otherwise her current situation might be considered by some to be quite awk-weird. After all, here she was, practically sucking the face off of the one woman she used to consider her biggest rival. Granted, Shego'd just said she was retiring from the criminal life. Still, for the practically-overnight switch from fisticuffs to fancying, it was a bit…sudden.

A small part of Kim's mind denied that last idea, insisting that it had known for quite some time this was going to happen. After all, it said, remember Miss Go? You totally liked her—liked her liked her. Besides, we knew even before that. Remember getting stuck in that vent with her ages ago? You really wanted to kiss her then, too. You just didn't think of it at the time, but I knew.

Shego was watching Kim start to space out. She figured Kim was grappling with the implications of the last five or so minutes. After all, Miss Priss probably considered herself straighter than an arrow, and yet here she was snogging another chick. She considered leaving Kim to her thoughts, but decided against it—hey, she wasn't quite reformed yet. She still had some mischief to wreak.

Shego danced her fingers up along Kim's side, causing the redhead to shiver as the feather-light touches came to the very threshold of tickling but didn't quite cross over. Shego leaned in for another kiss, this one markedly less chaste, as their tongues sought each other from the outset. Shego watched as Kim's eyes fluttered closed before she made her move, sliding her hand across Kim's firm stomach and up and under her bra. She made it around the handful of flesh and Kim moaned deeply into her mouth, but then her eyes flew open and she pulled away from the kiss.

"Shego!" she hissed as the other woman's hand withdrew from her clothing.

"Hmm?" Shego replied lazily.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kim's voice was a harsh whisper, almost as if she were afraid Isabel was going to wander in at precisely the wrong moment.

"Copping a feel," she replied, somewhat brazenly. "Oh, and having the greatest sex of my life."

"What?" Kim asked, shocked. Her blush was back and in full force.

"You asked what I thought I was doing, not what I was really doing," Shego teased. "You can't tell me you never fantasize."

She laughed while Kim sputtered; short-circuiting the younger girl's brain was going to be one of her new favorite pastimes. In the back of Shego's mind, though, she knew the inevitable Kim-angst was going to come sooner or later, which did kind of put a damper on the mood.

Kim finally settled on a glare, which she leveled at Shego as she returned to her lying position on the bed. She didn't make any move to get away, though, which Shego took as something of a good sign.

The part-time adventurer heaved a heartfelt sigh as she regarded the ceiling. Inside, she was torn; if the last few minutes were any indication, she was ready, willing, and able to just fling both clothes and caution to the wind and have a romp with Shego in the bed. That, however, wasn't what was worrying her; nor was it the possibility of Isabel interrupting their time together. What bothered her was, well, reality. Here she was, practically-world-famous teen hero and role model extraordinaire, ready to have hot lesbian sex with her…former?…arch-nemesis. What would that do to her image? Would people ever trust her again? Would she still be called on to save the world? Would she even be called on to pull cats out of trees, or babysit children? Would she still have her life the way she wanted it, the way she liked it? Or would all of that go down in flames when people decided she was such an abomination that they would have nothing to do with her?

Kim realized, in her inner turmoil, that she hadn't once thought of not being with Shego. The revelation stunned her slightly, since she hadn't thought they were even involved. She guessed, now, that that was one reality that wasn't going to change, which struck her as slightly strange. After all, it had taken Kim how many years to even consider going out with Ron? And he'd been her best friend since they were four years old. That, undoubtedly, had been what triggered the demise of their more intimate relationship, she figured; just as she'd explained to Shego, she thought of Ron more as a brother than as lover material. And she'd had crushes aplenty throughout high school, Eric the Syntho-drone among them.

She thought back on that incident. She'd been extremely upset, such that she'd actually told Shego she hated her. She'd kicked the then-thief into a tower, nearly frying her; she recalled Shego looking like she came out of an electrical socket when they loaded her into the jail truck. Kim herself had been morose for days afterward; she had thought at the time that it was because she'd given into her violent emotions and nearly killed her, but now she realized it was more because of the declaration of hate than anything else. She'd been unquestionably relieved the next time they'd had to stop Drakken, and there was Shego, looking good as new and apparently not so bothered by their last meeting.

Discontent bubbled up in Kim now. She turned her view to see Shego watching her with interest in her jade-green gaze.

Kim made up her mind. She had to ask, if only to get it out of the way. "Shego," she began seriously, "do you resent me?"

Shego blinked. "The fuck kind of question is that?"

"For like two years ago, with the tower and all that."

Shego rolled her eyes; it was looking like Kim was indeed having pangs of conscience over the two of them. "No. Why would I?" She figured Kim would have used a "yes" answer as an excuse to jump away—not that she was being dishonest with her answer anyway.

"Because I told you then that I hated you," Kim replied.

Shego snorted. "Kim, you've met my mother."

"Uh…yeah," Kim said, a bit confused as to the non sequitur.

"Did you feel like she understood your life story while you stood on the porch earlier?"

"Yeah…kinda."

A corner of Shego's mouth turned up. "My mother, damn her soul, is an expert at reading people. You can't lie to her, except maybe over the phone or something else impersonal, because she can read body language and all that. Now, who do you think taught me how to fight?"

Recognition slowly dawned in Kim's eyes. "So you mean—"

"I mean I know you were all charged up that night," Shego answered with a nod. "And since I had to keep an eye on you afterward, I know that you felt bad about it, too, which is why I never held it against you. Everyone slips."

"Thanks, I—wait. You spied on me?"

"Doy," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Dr. D sent me over a lot to see if I could find out your secret."

"My secret?" Kim echoed.

"Yeah, he thought you had your own base or lair or something stupid like that," she said, flipping a hand. "Anyway, I won't say it wasn't a big deal—that hurt like a bitch—but I forgave you for it a long time ago."

"You did?" Kim was shocked. She didn't even think Shego was capable of being the bigger person back then.

"Yes, Princess," Shego replied, sounding exasperated. "Look, Kimmie, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition—"

"Nobody expects it!" Kim giggled, and Shego half-smiled in response; apparently Kim wasn't as sheltered as she had thought. For her part, Kim was relishing her current experience so much that she was tempted to just say fuck it in regards to what other people thought. She liked being with Shego, counted the pale woman as a good friend—maybe more, that same small part of her mind added in—and she hoped that she could be as much of an influence on her as she was on Kim; her own little bout of apathy had surprised her slightly, but a growing part of her was asking for one time to think of herself first, one thing to make Kim happy instead of everyone else in the universe.

"Anyway," Shego continued, "I hope you're through your little crisis of conscience or whatever it is that made you all quiet for the last few minutes, 'cause there's something I want to tell you."

"Like what?" the smaller girl asked.

Shego beckoned with a finger, and Kim leaned closer. Shego put her lips right next to her ear. Kim felt her pulse quicken as she felt the other woman's breath on the side of her face.

A low rumbling sound accompanied Shego's whispered words: "I'mreally fucking hungry."

Kim dissolved into the worst giggle fit she'd had in months.

After some quick rearranging of clothing, the two meandered to the kitchen. They made sandwiches; Kim had yet to eat anything, either, as she'd practically forsaken breakfast in favor of packing. The early morning seemed like it was days ago, what with all that had happened in the last eight hours.

That thought jogged something in Kim's brain. "Hey, Shego," she asked in between bites, "you and Drakken never tried to hit up like an Air Force base or anything, right?"

Shego paused right before she was about to bite down, snapping her mouth closed so she wouldn't look like an idiot while she thought. She put the sandwich down. "I don't think so," she said, shaking her head. "I know we tried to hit up a couple Army bases—remember Dr. D's pathetic poodle?" She grinned. "Anyway, I don't think we ever had a need; he always had his own hovercraft and all that stuff."

"Okay…" The answer, of course, did nothing to ease Kim's curiosity.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because of the ride I got coming here," she answered. "A vee-tol jet landed in my backyard, but it was all secret-project looking. And I don't remember ever doing a mission for the Air Force, either."

"What's veetle?"

"Vertical take off and landing, I think," Kim answered. "Like that whatsit the British have…the Harrier, I think?"

"Hmm." Shego pondered for a second. Then she remembered something. "Wait. Mommy said she put in the request for you, didn't she?"

"Yeah…why?"

Shego's face darkened as she angered. "You're not the only one people owe favors, Kimmie," she said, somewhat cryptically.

Kim frowned. "I don't—wait. You mean your mother called that fighter in?"

"That's exactly what I mean. Dammit! Why doesn't she believe I can handle myself?"

"I don't doubt you can," added a new voice from a doorway. Isabel walked into the kitchen, smiling softly at her daughter. Kim was once again struck by just how closely Shego resembled her mother. After all, Isabel had a similar facial structure, the same long, lustrous black hair, an eerily similar figure; she even walked the same as Shego. Or maybe it's that Shego walked just like her…? Kim thought. About the only real differences were the lack of green skin and the fact that Isabel's face was slightly lined with age.

Isabel stopped across the table from them. "I know you can take care of yourself, firefly," she said, and Kim saw Shego wince at the nickname. "But I also knew that even you would have a hard time taking out things like those. I'd have a hard time taking down things like those, and I don't have your advantages."

"Mrs. Go," Kim began, "that ride that I had here earlier—was that something you did?"

"Absolutely, dear," she said. "It was the quickest way to get you to where you needed to be."

"But then, how did Wade do it?" she asked, confused. She wasn't even ready to approach how Isabel knew anyone that highly-placed in the military.

"He didn't," Isabel answered. "When I contacted your service, I directed the jet to your home—and made sure to have him broadcast as friendly for your computer friend. I did, after all, tell him the ride would be forthcoming so he wouldn't have to worry about finding one."

"Amazing," Kim said simply, and Shego frowned again.

"Don't encourage her," she said.

Isabel smiled. "I'm in no need of encouragement." She turned back to Shego. "Believe it or not, I have some faith in you," she said. "I just decided to make your job a little easier out there. You still wore yourself out; imagine what it would have been like without Miss Possible."

"Call me Kim."

"Don't do that," Shego teased. "Call her Princess, or Kimmie, or Pumpkin or Cupcake or 'Hey, you!'"

"Shego!" Kim protested while the older woman grinned. She delivered a weak shove to Shego's shoulder.

"Now, firefly," Isabel tsked.

"Dammit, Mommy, don't call me that!"

Kim giggled, and Shego shot her a glare. "You're just lucky I don't remember what your mom called you," she growled.

That shut Kim up. Her old nickname was…embarrassing. Wait, scratch that; it was crawl-under-a-rock-and-die mortifying.

Isabel raised an eyebrow. "You've met her mother?"

Shego nodded. "Yeah, once, a long time ago, while I was still working for Dr. D. It was…oh, right! It was Mother's Day, and 'Drewbie's' mom came along for the ride during one of his stupider schemes." She laughed loudly. "I still remember hearing him going on about 'another lippy Possible!' because she wouldn't let him finish his godawful puns."

Kim nodded as she recalled the incident. It had been fun, she admitted.

"Well," Isabel said as she imagined the scene, "that sounds amusing enough. But I must be going; I'm glad you're awake again, my dear; and Kimmie," she grinned when the hero blushed, "make sure you take care of my daughter." That being said, she left.

"Old bat," Shego muttered when her mother was safely out of earshot. "What the hell does she think she's saying, have you take care of me?"

Kim recovered enough to shrug. "I don't know. But I wouldn't think too much on it; it's a mom thing."

"You don't know my mother yet," Shego said tiredly. "If she says that, she means it. I literally don't know what the hell she's talking about, though."

Kim picked up the last bit of her sandwich. "Food now, thinking later," she decided simply. Shego concurred, and they finished lunch in silence.

A/N: Okay, seems like an awkward ending, but as stated before, this was long enough and any more would only make a chapter break in another awkward spot, or nonexistent as this chapter would continue for pages and pages and pages. Can't keep everyone waiting that long, though.