Yet Another Kigo Fic! – Chapter 14
By Ken-Zero
Disclaimer: Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, and all other characters are copyrights of Disney, except for Kane and Isabel, who are property of StarvingLunatic, who is, in turn, freaking awesome, both as a writer and as a person for letting me borrow them.
Ron Stoppable awoke slowly, nursing something of a headache. He wasn't sure why his head hurt so much, but given the amount of time he'd spent recently training, it wouldn't surprise him to find out that it was a sparring-related injury. He'd had plenty of those in recent months, what with having gone back to Yamanouchi to try and establish finer control over his Mystical Monkey mojo…not to mention establish a bit of a "better rapport" with one damn fine female ninja. He'd managed to succeed at both, somehow, which scared him slightly. After all, he was Ron Stoppable, Sidekick Boy Extraordinaire; the actual work was left to Kim. Or to Yori, since with Kim in school at home in the States, Ron and the female ninja often undertook the missions assigned to the KP website in the red-haired hero's stead, so long as they were in the general Far East neck of the global woods.
Still, there was something about this particular sitch that was…odd. He'd had the strangest dream—he came home to see Kim, find out how she was doing, and so on, only to have Shego, Kim's worst enemy and all-time nemesis, suddenly stalk up from behind. He'd tried to warn Kim, tried to stop the pale-green-skinned woman, and had ended up absolutely…well, owned was the only word he had. Then Shego had said something to Kim that his brain apparently refused to recall, but it had to have been vile and evil (hey, same letters, a part of his brain noted) and sick and wrong and, above all, wrongsick, because it was Shego. And, he guessed, that's as far as his dream went before he lost it to the voice seeking his waking, since that was all he could remember.
An insistent voice ruined his ruminations, though he was instantly comforted when he quickly recognized the voice, and by extension, who it belonged to. The voice was calling for him to hasten his progress to wakefulness. It worked.
Ron's eyes slowly fluttered open, and a groan escaped him as the small amount of light offended his dilated pupils. They adjusted quickly enough, and he caught sight of Kim, who was sitting back and heaving a sigh. "KP?" he uttered weakly. He even tried to lift a hand toward her.
Kim's attention snapped back to her best friend. "Ron," she said, getting up from her seat and coming to his side. "Slow down there," she urged him, grabbing his arm gently and placing it back on the bed with the rest of him.
Ron leaned his head back into what felt like a pillow; from the looks of things, he guessed he was in Kim's dorm, since he recognized the decorations but not the architecture. The fact that a digital clock was nearby clued him in to it being the bedroom.
"How long have I been out?" he asked, after looking at the display on the aforementioned clock. The clock didn't help him, as he realized he had no idea when he'd found Kim outside. That much of his little dream, he was certain had actually happened.
"About thirty-five minutes," Kim answered, watching Ron work his way back to full operation. "When you didn't wake up right away you had me kind of scared. I had to bring you up here to make sure you'd be okay."
"Thanks for that," Ron responded, finally feeling well enough to try and at least sit up. He mostly succeeded.
Kim just watched him move; he really had scared her when he just passed out like that. It was very atypical behavior for Ron; usually he would have run around screaming or been all dumbly curious, which was one of his more endearing qualities—to her, at least. For him to simply collapse on the spot…well, she was scared at first that something much more sinister had happened, and she and Shego had spent the next couple of minutes searching for snipers. When Kim finally checked on him, finding he was whole and still breathing, she felt two things: embarrassed at having over-reacted herself, and concern for Ron.
"I had the weirdest dream, Kim," Ron said. "I think I might still be under that poppy stuff they use sometimes at Yamanouchi."
Kim raised an eyebrow. "What sort of dream did you have?" Inside, she felt like this was going to be one of those cliché situations where he explains his dream was what actually happened but he's so strongly in denial that he figures it's a figment of his imagination or whatnot.
"Well, after I met you, Shego showed up and I tried to fight her and she pinned me and then let me go and you made her behave but then you called her something and she got mad and you whined at her and she got madder and said no sex for a week or something like that." He reminded himself to breathe…and maybe next time throw in some commas.
Kim grimaced. Can I call 'em or what? Before she could respond, though, and let him know reality was far crueler than it let on, Shego stepped into the room, dressed in regular clothing instead of her catsuit. She carried a tray with three steaming mugs on it and had pinned about half her hair up, held in place with a trusty blue headband.
"Thanks, Miss Go," Ron said as he accepted a proffered cup. Shego continued over to Kim, who also took one of the mugs. The aroma of a strong tea tickled her nose for a moment before she took a sip, and found it to be bitter and sweet at the same time, almost perfectly balancing itself. The greenish woman herself leaned against the wall, the tray tucked under one arm while she held her own mug with both hands. She was, coincidentally, located right next to Kim, a fact which was apparently lost on Ron.
Kim waited for the inevitable outburst, the realization of just who was in there with her and Ron, the finger-pointing, the freaking out, the…the…the apparent amount of nothing that was going to happen. Ron just sipped away, happily not minding the presence of his best friend and a substitute teacher from high school who'd actually been pretty cool. Cooler than Mr. Barkin, at least.
Shego, for her part, could barely hold in her mirth. While she'd been respectful of Kim's worries when Ron first passed out, she found it mostly amusing, herself. Then she'd gotten this genius idea while the two of them hauled the snoring sidekick up to Kim's room; she was extremely glad she'd had her duffel bag, with its changes of clothes that weren't her usual uniform. The tea had been her idea, too, a concession to being nice for a change. Hey, amusement didn't have to come from being evil. It was just easier that way.
The three sat in silence for a few more minutes, during which Kim gradually became more and more awkward. Should I tell him? I want to, but that might ruin him or make him faint again…but he deserves to know…but I don't want to do anything to hurt him…this is so the drama, and it's all Shego's fault.
Kim believed, had Shego not said that one line outside, she wouldn't be feeling so bad right now. Then again, she also didn't exactly want to keep everyone in the dark forever about her current relationship. On the other hand, she wasn't quite ready to announce to the world that she wasn't entirely straight anymore, that she was no longer the cut-and-dry, white-bread, plain-vanilla—as much as any of those could be applied to her in the first place, that is—teenage-girl hero who saved that same world on a regular basis. And yet they deserved to know…just not now…but they had to…
Shego broke the silence at last; her enjoyment of the awkwardness could only go so far before the silence got irritating, after all. "So, Mr. Stoppable," she said, her voice oozing saccharine goodness, "what brings you to Kimmie's neck of the woods?"
"Oh, nothing much," Ron said, waving a hand dismissively. "I just dropped by to say hi to Kim here before going off to cooking school."
"Oh, my, you got accepted to a culinary institute? How wonderful!" Shego gushed. Inside, she was practically rotting from the sweetness she was exuding, but it would be worth it in the end.
"Yeah, I kinda wish I could go here with KP and all, but my true calling lies with the chow and snackage."
"Hey, Ron, that's your thing. I couldn't be happier for you," Kim answered, and she was totally serious about it, too. "You've totally got me beat in the cooking department…much as I hate to admit it."
Ron reached over and plopped an amiable hand on her shoulder. "Not everything's for everyone, KP," he said sagely. "You save the world, I make fantabulous lunches for when you come back. It's how the world works."
"You do save it sometimes," she insisted. Then a small, mischievous smile appeared on her face. "…Or is it Yori that does the saving?" she teased, and was rewarded with something of a blush coming over Ron's cheeks.
Finally, it's not me turning red! Kim exulted in her mind.
"Mr. Stoppable, are you seeing someone?" Shego asked, still in her "Miss Go" persona. This news was interesting, whether or not she got any distance out of it.
"Well, I can see you and Kim, but nobody else, and—oh. Oh. That's what you meant. Um…yeah?" Suddenly he was very shy and apprehensive.
Kim sighed, though she wore a smile. "Come on, Ron, you don't have to be nervous. Remember, our decision was mutual. I'm not going to be a vengeful ex or anything like that." She shrugged. "I don't know if I can."
It was Ron's turn to raise one of his eyebrows. "I thought you could do anything."
"I seem to be finding more and more nuances of that saying these days," Kim muttered, her own cheeks turning dark red as she stared at the floor.
Shego couldn't take it anymore. She doubled over laughing, leaving her mug of tea on a convenient windowsill.
Ron blinked, while Kim only blushed harder. "Miss Go? You okay over there?"
"How many meanings in that one, Princess?" Shego asked between guffaws. "Double? Tripe entendre?"
"Princess?" Ron echoed, confused.
Shego reached up and pulled her headband off, still belly-laughing. The weight of her hair pulled it free of the pins holding it up and it tumbled loose, hanging at its customary mid-thigh length. She finally straightened up, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.
It was the hair that did it—though the nickname helped—and recognition, and a memory, flashed through Ron's mind as Shego finally got herself under control. I can't believe I forgot that Miss Go is Shego! Ron wailed internally as he began to scramble backwards along the bed. His lungs were too frozen to do anything more than take quick, panting breaths as the deadliest person he'd ever known stared at him from a handful of feet away, a smirk twisting her darkened lips. Ron finally hit the wall, and, realizing he'd backed himself into a corner, shifted his weight so he wasn't on his back, but instead crouching, feet under him and ready to spring away like a mon—grasshopper, he corrected himself hastily.
Then he noticed how Kim wasn't even reacting. No realization that Shego was right there, no attempting to boot the villainess through the nearest window, no action of any sort. In fact, Kim was still fairly red and staring at the floor. She almost looked defeated, her spirit beaten down and submissive.
And finally he noticed that Shego was still leaning against the wall, smirking, but making no move to light her hands or beat him up or wrangle with Kim or steal anything. She was just…standing there.
The weirdness of it all finally penetrated Ron's panic, and he stepped down—hardly relaxing, just feeling not as ready to fight-or-fly.
Silence reigned, its mantle settling heavily over the small room's three occupants. Finally Ron shrugged it off. "Someone want to tell me what's going on here?" he asked in a tone he rarely used, for it was very serious, lacking most of its usual goofiness.
Finally Kim sighed; she had her blush back under control. "First, Ron, it's…well, it's not really the drama." She sighed. "Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It's so the drama. See…you weren't dreaming."
"Oh." Then, a second later, the meaning really sunk in. "Oh."
"Yeah," Kim agreed, wringing her hands together. "We were walking together, you did fight Shego, I did tell her to behave, and she did retaliate by saying no sex for a week. Then you passed out."
Shego maintained her smirk, but she could tell Kim was having a hard time with this, especially with Ron so wound up from the green woman's presence, so in a rare twist for her she decided to make herself scarce and let Kim save some face.
Kim sighed again as Shego left the room. The lack of any input from Ron was killing her on the inside; intellectually she knew that this was a necessary hurdle, that it was something she needed to get out in the open and out of the way; as is so often the case, though, intellectual knowledge paled in comparison to emotional turmoil.
Ron watched Kim with a sort of detached feeling, like he was watching himself watch her. He could tell she was upset about something, but what she had just told him—that his dream wasn't a dream, after all—didn't seem like it was that earth-shattering. Sure, Shego'd implied some stuff with that, but that was probably just her being her, even if she was acting nicer and not being a thief and not beating up Kim and teasing instead of fighting. Ron wouldn't put it past Shego to say something like that even though he was absolutely sure that she was the farthest thing from liking girls.
And Kim? Whoo boy. Kim had crushed so hard on so many boys in high school that Ron would personally swear, in a court of law, that that one astronomer guy—Hubby? Bubble? Ah, whatever—was wrong and that the universe would instantly implode before Kim would ever think about liking girls. She'd even dated Ron himself for several months, and as much as he regretted them breaking up, he knew it was necessary before one or both of them went crazy.
Kim's continued silence started to worry him, though. Slowly, ever so slowly, he began to realize that maybe he wasn't so certain anymore about her…preferences.
Kim's gaze remained on the floor. She was having a hard time keeping her composure under the circumstances, especially since Ron was her best friend in the universe. She wasn't worried about telling him; she was worrying over his reaction, and that maybe he would change the verb tense of their best-friendship to past. That thought, the fear of driving him away, was threatening to tear her apart on the inside.
Ron could see her hands wrenching themselves harder than ever. The indecision and silence was getting to him, as well, and he finally found the breath to speak. "Kim," he began, and he plowed on even though he had a hard time continuing. Kim was right; this was so the drama. "Do you…like…Shego?" His tone was breathless, shocked; he didn't want it to be true, but reality could be cruel.
The emphasis on the penultimate word was almost enough to etch it into wood just from speaking it; certainly that's how it felt to Kim. Her hands clenched tighter than ever, and a tear rolled down her cheek as the moment of truth arrived. She nodded slightly, sniffling as she attempted to pull herself together, into some semblance of her normal self.
The sniff cut Ron like a dagger even as her admission stunned him into numbness; a fundamental truth in his universe had just turned out to be untrue, and the changes were far-reaching and intense, but another universal truth held fast in the midst of such a maelstrom. While he now knew Kim was a…a…was that way, she was still his best friend; as such, he had a duty to administer, and it was one he was glad to both have, and to do.
He shifted forward on the bed until he was sitting on its edge, directly in front of Kim. He gazed at the top of her head for a moment, the mass of her fiery red hair falling like a curtain around her head as she continued to fight for her self-control.
Kim heard him move, was mentally preparing herself for the worst. This would be when Ron would stand up and leave, turning at the door only to tell her he wanted no more of her in his life. This would be the beginning of the end that she had been afraid of when she and Shego first admitted they liked each other. This would be when…
…when Ron's arms slid around her shoulders and pulled her face into his chest.
The physical contact broke her last reserves, and she bawled, finally releasing her hands from their death-grip on each other, only to lock them into a similar hold in Ron's shirt. Her tears came fast and hot, soaking into his black tunic as he simply held her and let her let it all out.
When her sobs died away, though he could tell she was still weeping, he pushed her away so she faced him, a handful of tears trickling down her cheeks. "It's okay, Kim," he said gently. "I'm not going anywhere."
The teen hero sniffed again and nodded, wiping away her eyes with the heel of her palm. "You have no idea how much that means to me," she said, her voice watery with emotion.
"I think I have some idea," he remarked, smiling slightly at her disheveled appearance.
Kim attempted a small smile. She was mostly successful. "Sorry for going all emo on you," she apologized. "I just…I didn't know how to say it, and I wanted to let it out, but I was scared…"
"You don't have to be scared," Ron countered. A sudden thought hit him. "I didn't break you, did I?" he asked, and the paranoia in his voice was only partially feigned.
Kim loosed a small giggle. "No, Ron, you didn't." She wiped her eyes again. "I might…I might be bi," she confessed. "Really. I still think you're cute."
Making a big show of breathing a sigh of relief, he wiped a hand across his forehead. "I'm so glad!" he exclaimed. Then he allowed a bit of a smirk. "Hey, if I hang around you, I don't have to worry about cooties since we both like girls now."
Kim giggled again, following it with another sigh, this one shuddering a bit in the aftermath of her little emotional episode. "Actually, I was kind of conflicted for a while…see, the weirdest part of all this is, I only have eyes for Shego."
"Huh," Ron commented. That part still creeped out a bit. Okay, it was a lot, but given how Shego'd been acting since he'd first seen the two of them earlier, he was inclined to think that maybe she returned Kim's feelings…which meant she wasn't nearly as nastily evil as he'd previously assumed.
"Hey, speaking of Shego—did she get Attitudinatedoreded again?"
Having smiled at Ron's stumbling over the word, she shook her head. "Not this time, Ron. It's all genuine." She wondered for a moment at him—after all, this had to be a huge shock to his system, but he seemed to be taking it in stride. And he had pretty much figured it out himself, though she gave him a heck of a hint. She marveled at how he was slowly but steadily improving his mental skills; soon enough they would rival Kim's own.
"Good," he said seriously again, which shocked Kim yet again. It must have showed on her face, she thought, because he took one look at her and continued. "Hey, I'm not gonna let anyone play around with you," he informed her. "Even if they can't help it."
"What are you, my big brother now?" Kim asked playfully. "Even though I'm two months older than you?"
"You got that right," Ron said. "Hey, KP, you're my best friend. I'm allowed to be overprotective."
She smiled. "Thanks, Ron." She leaned forward to give him a bear hug, one that left him slightly breathless from being practically squashed. "So…you're okay with me?" She wasn't sure how often she'd asked that already, but it never hurt to ask again—or, at least, it wouldn't hurt until it got annoying.
"Of course," Ron answered, and he was partially surprised by the fact that he really was okay with her. It was a big change, especially given the company she would be keeping, but if there was one thing he'd learned since graduating from Middleton high, it was that change was the only constant in life. "C'mon, KP, give The Ron Man some credit. If you're happy, I'm happy." He narrowed his eyes slightly. "She…does make you happy, right? Not beat you up or anything?"
"Yes, Ron, she does," Kim answered in an exasperated tone to his first question, though she softened the tone with a smile. Aside from still-slightly-red eyes, she was over her tears and back to normal. Inside, though, she was practically singing and dancing, so great was her relief that Ron hadn't left.
"Okay," he said, leaning back and clapping his hands on his knees. "I have to admit…the thought's still a bit…awkweird…"
"No one knows that more than us, Ron," Kim said. "Believe me. I don't think either Shego or I was expecting anything like this…even though, and this is the weirdest thing, it feels like it was a long time coming."
"When'd you start? Noticing, I mean."
Kim sighed again. She seemed to be doing a lot of that, she noted. "I don't know if I can really say, but I think it was a month or so ago that the thought first entered my head that I might like her…that way." She fell silent for a moment, struggling to put thoughts into words. "Remember when she was Miss Go?"
"Well yeah. In spite of her flirting with Mr. Barkin she was pretty cool."
"I think that's when I first felt anything. I thought she was so awesome, like…like a big sister then. Except, when I look back on it now, I think it was more than that. And then, remember when we first fought them again after the whole sitch with graduation? I was so mad that she and Drakken were up to their old tricks—irrationally mad, I think—that I had to talk to her about it…then one thing led to another, we got stuck in the wilds together after the last lair of Drakken's we took out, and finally I found her here while dealing with those stupid rats. She wore herself out completely fighting off the first batch, and I helped her home…and I think it was then that things really started to get obvious for me."
She paused, and Ron nodded. "Well," he said, "you don't need to elaborate any more. It's like I said: if you're happy with her, then I'm happy for you."
"Thanks, Ron," Kim said, pulling him in for another, less-crushing hug. They stayed that way for several seconds, Kim taking a lot of comfort from her still-best-friend.
"Hey, I thought you two broke up," a familiar voice called from the doorway.
Ron twitched, but Kim held the hug for another second or two before pulling away. "It's just a hug, Shego," Kim retorted, giving her girlfriend—the word gave her a little thrill—a level look. "You should try it some time."
Shego appeared thoughtful for a moment before shrugging and lifting herself away from the doorway. She ambled across the room and flung her arms open wide. Her expression was a mix of apathy and curiosity as she bore down on her target.
Eyes widening suddenly, Ron scrambled back on the bed as Shego approached him. Kim might be okay with her, and he might be okay with Kim being okay with her…but Ron was still a mite terrified of the plasma-wielding woman.
Shego stopped as she saw Ron trying to run away through the bedroom wall. "What's the matter, Stoppable? Don't want to try a hug?"
"I—um…it's, well, you…uh…I—huh?"
Shego smirked again as Kim giggled; Ron, of course, felt like the village idiot. Again.
"It's okay, Ron," Kim said after controlling herself. "She won't bite."
"Hard," Shego amended. She giggled herself after Ron's eyes went wide again.
Kim smacked her on the arm. "You're not helping him much."
Shego's grin remained, but she stuck her arm out to Ron. "Fresh start?" she asked. "Former sidekick to former sidekick?"
Ron blinked at the proffered hand; the last time he'd had it that close to him it had been glowing and green and scary and doom-bearing and…now it was none of those things. What really shocked him, as he looked into her face, was that she was being completely open. Maybe not serious, as she still wore that grin, but at least honest. The only other time he'd ever seen her wearing anything like that look was before Drakken's last lair collapsed around them all, and Shego said that Kim was fine, not knocked silly or anything. Even then, it had been brief enough that he wasn't sure if he remembered it accurately.
Now, though, he knew…and as he extended his own hand out to take hers and shake it, he was only slightly, instead of wholly, surprised that she didn't try to crush it or burn it off. "Fresh start it is," Ron answered her.
"Good."
As one, they turned to Kim, which kind of creeped her out a little. The dynamic duo stared at her, like they were waiting for her to make a decision, or to say something, or…or something. And as her discomfort increased, they continued to say nothing, simply looking at her expectantly.
"What?" she asked finally, but received no answer in reply. She really had no idea what was going on. "Um…good for you two?" she ventured.
They nodded, again at the same time, before the moment was lost and they broke their synchronicity. Ron broke into a smile, while Shego simply went back to smirking. It was like that was one of her two default expressions, Kim thought.
The odd moment was further broken by Ron, who had just caught sight of the clock again. His eyes went wide. "Uh oh…sorry KP, Sh-Shego," he began, not able to help himself with the stutter (he still wasn't quite used to Shego being anywhere near approachable), "but I gotta run. If I don't make it back in the next fifteen minutes…well, you might not hear of me ever again."
Kim blinked. "Yori's got you on that short a leash?"
Shego quirked an eyebrow at that, but Ron didn't answer—at least, he didn't answer that question. He merely went on about how "You know how it goes—world needs saving, have a time limit, partner's waiting, and so on and so forth…"
Shrugging, Kim escorted him to the front door, where he said his hasty goodbyes and took off in the opposite direction from the one the two ladies had come from earlier.
Back in Kim's room, Shego shut the door again before going to her princess and taking her up in a big hug from behind. "Are you okay?" she asked, concern tingeing her voice.
Kim sighed heavily, leaning back into the embrace and putting her hands atop Shego's. "Yeah," she answered. "I'll be fine."
"Good." She knew that had been hard for Kim earlier—she'd vacated the bedroom for exactly that reason, and also because she didn't want to make it any harder or more awkward—but it seemed like everything was on the up-and-up. Shego was relieved to see that; she didn't want her Kimmie to have anything weighing her down like that. It wasn't fun.
Kim relished the contact for a few more seconds before stepping forward out of it. She turned to face Shego. "So…hungry?"
Shego nodded. "Oh yeah. And I can only imagine that you're starving." At Kim's nod, she said, "How 'bout we just go out for a while."
"I'd like that," Kim answered. Shego could still see a trace of redness in Kim's eyes, but the hero was otherwise in fairly good cheer, and the red would fade in a few more minutes anyway. Shego'd suggested going out because she knew that would certainly cheer the redhead further.
"Okay. Well, go wash your face off and we'll get gone when you're ready."
"What about you?"
Shego gave Kim a seductive grin. "Kimmie, I'm always ready."
Kim went to wash her face, but the red in her cheeks didn't quite go away.
As on their first "date," things went very smoothly. Shego found them a relatively inexpensive Italian restaurant, and even offered to pay this time, a notion that Kim readily accepted. They walked back home—they had walked to the restaurant in the first place—and said little on the way, save occasional comments on how nice the weather was in spite of it being fall.
The entire way back, Kim remained latched onto Shego's arm, both of hers wrapped around the green-skinned woman's one. She took an inordinate amount of comfort from the limb; her mind, playing some strange trick on her, had halfway-convinced her Shego wasn't going to be there all of a sudden, so she was making sure that wasn't going to happen.
Shego, of course, was just happy to have the object of her affection clinging to her like that. It made her feel like she was providing something to Kim, that she wasn't useless aside from being good in bed.
Finally making it back to Kim's dorm, the teen hero opened the main door and allowed Shego to precede her inside before marching them back up to her room. Just as she was about to put her key in the door, though, Shego laid a hand on her arm. Kim turned a questioning look to the slightly-older woman—she was smart enough to realize that by acting instead of speaking, Shego wanted quiet.
Then Kim caught the sound—it sounded like light scrabbling across the other side of her dorm-room door. For a brief second she looked back at the door, wondering if Ron had managed to leave Rufus behind somehow, and that his naked mole rat companion was frantically trying for a way out. She squashed that, though, when she remembered Rufus was almost as intelligent as some humans, and would have been able to let himself out some way or another. She looked back at Shego, eyebrow raised; Shego nodded, and Kim slid her key into the door and turned it. The sound skittered across the door, sounding frantic, and finally ceased making any noise, suggesting either it had reached carpeting or it had stopped moving.
The two opened the door fully, allowing it to swing wide before taking any steps inside; her darkened dorm looked just as they'd left it a couple of hours previous. No out-of-the-ordinary sights or sounds presented themselves as she stepped inside. She avoided turning on the lights for now; whatever was in there, she was probably better off dealing with it in the dark and only turning on the lights after it was dismissed or subdued.
Shego was on full alert, concentrating on her sight and hearing, straining to detect that which created the bizarre sounds of only seconds ago. In her opinion, it sounded too…too…clicky to be an animal of sorts; she was guessing insect-like. And since not many insects were large enough to make noise through a door, she had her suspicions on top of it all. In fact, if she were a betting woman—and under the right circumstances she could be quite a gambler—she would put money on its being unnatural in origin, quite probably a construct. And that meant she had a very good idea where their visitor had come from.
As soon as Shego slipped inside, Kim shut the door, quickly and quietly. Before she could turn back around to continue the search, though, something moderately heavy and very, very cold fell on her, landing square between her shoulder blades. She gasped as it landed, more from the chill than the shock, and felt several simultaneous tugs as the something tried to climb her shirt.
Shego heard the thump and gasp and spun quickly to face the source of the noise; in the dark she could barely make out Kim, and something about the size of both of her clenched fists was wriggling on her back. By pure adrenaline her hands ignited, and in the green glow she could see a shiny black carapace, rounded on top and flat underneath, with eight silver, segmented legs scrabbling for purchase on Kim's clothing.
The hero gasped again when Shego's hands lit up, which clued her in to the fact that whatever was on her was definitely not friendly and decidedly not natural.
Then she felt a prick on her back, and she let out a little cry, one borne not of pain but of shock.
Shego heard that, too, and in a flash she reached a hand out and, two fingers locked into pincers, pierced the thing's shell like it was made of cardstock. She plucked it off of Kim's back, and the legs flailed in the air. Strangely, it even made small mechanical screeing noises as she held it upside-down.
Kim rubbed the back of her neck, feeling for what might have been left, or cut, or taken, but nothing made itself apparent. She reached her other hand out and turned on the lights, allowing them to finally get a good look at their arrested artificial assailant.
Apparently its photoreceptors were overly-sensitive, for between Shego's plasma-induced glow and the normal dorm lighting, every one of its legs curled inwards like the squashed spider it now resembled. Shego shut her hands off but kept her fingers inside, lifting it high and bringing her arm down before Kim rushed forward and caught it, preventing the green woman from smashing the thing to kingdom come.
"Don't break it," Kim warned, gently allowing Shego to regain control of her arm.
Shego harrumphed. "Wade?" she guessed.
"Wade," Kim confirmed.
With a grudging nod Shego relaxed completely, though she maintained her hold on the little spider's innards. Kim guided her to a seat, taking the chair next to hers, and leaned over to examine their find more closely.
It looked much the same in normal light as it had in Shego's plasma glare, save for the fact that it was solidly black instead of greenish. The main body was a simple, shiny-black hemisphere, though they could see on its underside a pair of ports that could slide open and closed as need be. The eight legs were placed equidistant around the bottom's circumference, and each leg was segmented three times. They were tipped in small-but-wicked claws that, while not capable of doing much damage to a human, probably enabled it to hang on to damn near anything. The topside, though sporting two new holes that Shego's fingers were in, was almost entirely featureless, save for a single glowing mechanical "eye" that currently was completely shuttered.
"Shego, what's my neck look like?" Kim asked, pulling her hair to one side.
Shego raised an eyebrow. "Weeell," she drawled, "it's a bit red, but it looks otherwise normal to me."
"Are you sure? It felt like…I don't know, like I got stung or something."
"Oh, so that's what that noise was about," the ex-villainess said. "I thought you were just freaking out because you had a big scary bug on you."
"No, I wasn't, thank you very much," Kim replied heatedly, though the effect was somewhat lost as she wasn't facing her significant other. "It…poked, bit, stung, whatever. Felt like it was on my neck."
Shego shrugged and allowed Kim to sit upright again. "Didn't see anything on your neck. Want me to check elsewhere?"
"Please and thank you," Kim replied. "I don't feel anything yet, so it may not be poison or whatever, but I want to make sure."
Shego nodded when Kim faced her again. She got up and went to the mini-kitchenette, finding a large mixing bowl and dropping the wrecked arachno-mech on the counter before putting the bowl on top of it. She returned to Kim and pushed the redhead's hair aside again before pulling back on Kim's collar. "Can't see anything still," she reported, "but I didn't get much farther. I'll need your shirt off."
At least my back's to her, Kim thought as she blushed. "You just want the excuse," she teased, but obliged by lifting her arms.
"I'll take any damn excuse I can get," Shego replied frankly. She pulled Kim's shirt off and tossed it on the back of the hero's chair. Leaning in close, she gave Kim an honest and thorough examination of her back, including running her fingers along Kim's spine to check for any bumps or scabs or anything. "Nothing," she finally reported.
"Really?" Shego could hear the incredulity in her girlfriend's voice.
"Really."
"But…I swear it did something."
Shego shrugged. "I believe you, Princess. I just don't see anything. Well, aside from you in just a lacy bra, but that's nothing to complain about."
Kim giggled in spite of the moment. "Thanks, Shego." She reached for her shirt, but Shego grabbed her arm this time.
"No need to put that back on." She leaned forward and planted a kiss on each of Kim's shoulder blades.
Kim practically melted backward into Shego. "How do you do that?" she asked lazily.
"Do what?" Shego asked, repeating her actions.
"That," Kim practically purred. "Barely doing anything and you've got me totally relaxed."
Moving up to the tops of Kim's shoulders, Shego rested her chin there for a second. "It's a gift," she whispered, sliding her hands across Kim's sides to rest them on her stomach, "but I can try and teach you, if you want."
"Maybe later," Kim said before reaching her hand up and pulling Shego forward. She tilted her own face up and to the side and they met in a searing kiss.
Kim made a little noise when Shego's fingers began to gently tease the undersides of her cloth-covered breasts. Her partner was only encouraged by the noise, adding her tongue to their already-blazing-hot kiss. For whatever reason—maybe it was the kiss, maybe it was the care already shown her, maybe it was just because—Kim was in a rare state of mind, and her more carnal desires were making themselves known, and loudly. She really wanted the girl now sucking deliciously on her neck…well, in a few minutes…when she's done with that…ooooh, it feels nice…
Turning in her chair to face Shego fully, Kim drew her face in for another kiss before allowing her hands to wander down and lift the hem of Shego's shirt. She wanted, needed, to feel skin; she was very thankful that, thanks to their dinner plans, Shego was out of that catsuit and in normal clothing. It made things just that much easier for her to get what she wanted.
Shego was getting terribly excited, too. A distant portion of her mind realized it was strange, given what had transpired with their arrival back home only minutes ago, but mostly she didn't care. She wanted Kim, and wanted her now, and apparently the little redhead felt the same way.
Proof of that supposition came when Kim yanked Shego's shirt up; the other girl barely got her arms up in time to avoid tangling them in the offending garment. After tossing it aside, Kim got up from her seat and sat back down in Shego's lap, pressing herself against her lover while beginning another kiss. Tongues collided, hands roamed, hips ground against each other, until finally Shego stood from her seat, collecting Kim in her arms in the process—the redhead's legs locked around Shego's waist so they could maintain the kiss at eye level—and marched off to the bedroom.
An outside observer would notice two pairs of pants joining the shirts on the floor in the main room, then the door quickly shutting. Only a very nosy, very careful listener, then, would be able to hear the sounds of feminine pleasure that lasted through the night.
Much later, out in the kitchen, the mechanical spider monster finally awoke, its remote controller finally overriding the flash-fried visual circuitry and re-enabling its movement motors…only to find out that every one of the eight legs was broken in some way, either snapped clean in two or fused into a lump of utterly useless metal. In frustration he banged his head against the control panel several times, only sheer luck ensuring he smacked the self-destruct button. His visual went dead.
Back in the kitchen, the spider shut down for the final time.
A/N: I'm sorry this took so long! I have an excuse, really! I blame: studying up for my A certification test today and Double XP weekend on City of Heroes last week. Okay, okay, I could have had it up earlier, but I really only got inspired recently. I slogged through the first scene over like four days, then scrapped it and re-wrote it from scratch.
Also, thank you thank you thank you to M-The-Reviewer, because that's the kind of thing that actually helps me write. Really. Compliments are great, but comments and criticism are what help with improving things to make them even more enjoyable.