Hi, y'all! I don't even know why I'm on here today...after all, it's Christmas! Just wanted to upload one more chapter before I leave on my big trip to New York...fun! Hoping for snow! Lots of fluff in this chapter, but because it's Christmas I just wanted some sweetness between Kim and Shego. Call me a sap.
And by the way, the title of this chapter is the name of a song by Neil Young. (hint hint, look up the lyrics XD) It doesn't fit Shego perfectly, but it reminded me of her. Sort of.
Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers!
I don't own the show or the characters.
"Anything, Wade?" were Kim's first words when the boy's image popped up on her monitor.
Wade let out a mock sigh. "Not even a hello, Kim? Really?"
"Hello. Did you find anything?"
Wade shook his head slowly. "No. It's really weird – almost as weird as GJ's losing track of him. I can't find a single thing on Ed's past. I think it's been wiped."
Kim sighed and banged her head on her locker door. "Great. Just what we need."
"Kim, you okay?" Wade asked. "You seem really stressed."
Kim managed a smile, though she kept her forehead pressed to the cool metal of her locker. "I'm okay, Wade. It's been a really long day, and this isn't helping."
"Oh, sorry. I can get off, if you want."
"No!" Kim practically shouted, attracting the stares of many of her classmates. She continued in a hushed voice, "No, Wade. It's not you, I promise. It's this whole sitch with Motor Ed vanishing…I'm just nervous. He might be planning something."
"Kim, I promise that as soon as I find the faintest trace of something involving the words 'motor' and 'Ed' in the same sentence, you'll be the first one I call." With a small, comforting smile, he terminated the link.
Kim stared at the dark screen for a moment before closing her eyes and growling wordlessly under her breath. This is not happening, she tried to convince herself. He's already in jail. He can't hurt us anymore.
She didn't know how long she stood there, face pressed against her locker door. She heard the dismissal bell ring, but she still didn't move until someone tapped her shoulder.
"Mmm," she mumbled into her locker.
"Kim, are you awake in there?" Another tap on her shoulder. "Kim?"
"Hey, Tara." Kim looked up wearily at her fellow cheerleader. "What's up?"
"Are you okay?" Tara looked worriedly into Kim's eyes. "You seem upset."
Kim shrugged. "No big, I'm fine. Well, it actually is big. History test. Evil."
Tara nodded sympathetically. "Oh, that. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if I failed it."
Kim smiled and closed her locker. "I'm sure you did fine, Tara. You always underestimate yourself in History, and you've got, like, the highest grade in the class."
"Thanks." Suddenly, Tara's eyes widened, and she grabbed Kim's wrist. "Oh, Kim, I almost forgot! There's someone outside waiting for you."
Immediately, alarm bells went off in Kim's head. "Waiting for me? Who?"
The blonde cheerleader shrugged. "I don't know. She had a helmet on."
"'She'?"
"Yeah, she." Tara gestured toward the main door of the school. "She's wearing a tight green jacket and black pants. She's got long hair, too; I could see it coming out from under her helmet. It went down to, like, her waist."
Kim's thin eyebrow rose, and she slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Thanks, Tara. I'll go check it out."
Tara nodded and fell in step beside the redhead. "You know who she is?"
"I've got an idea," Kim said quietly, a tiny smile creeping across her lips.
The pair stepped out of the school, blinking as they were blinded by the sun glinting off the snow.
"She's over there," Tara announced, pointing to a spot on the curb where a small crowd of about twenty students had gathered. Quiet murmurs arose from them; they all seemed to be looking at the same thing. Kim picked her way across the icy sidewalk and elbowed her way through the crowd, occasionally murmuring an "Excuse me" or a "Sorry".
When she reached the front of the crowd, she was greeted with a sight that brought a smile to her face. A tall woman sat on a bright green motorcycle, her arms crossed over her chest. She wore a skintight green blazer and black jeans with boots laced up to her calf. Her long, silky black hair cascaded from under her motorcycle helmet and down her back.
"Hey," Kim said quietly, but loud enough so everyone could hear her. Every single head snapped around to look at her, including that of the woman on the motorcycle.
"Hey," she replied, her voice muffled by the helmet. One gloved hand rose and beckoned Kim forward, and she approached like she had no other choice. "Ready to go?"
Kim tightened the straps on her bag and took Shego's outstretched hand, allowing the woman to pull her onto the motorcycle. She wrapped her arms tightly around the emerald woman's waist and rested her head on her shoulder. Inside her helmet, Shego's black-painted lips curled into a smile at the contact. She turned the key in the ignition, and the motorcycle roared to life. Kim's grip on Shego tightened at the sound, and even more so as she pulled away from the curb and the gawking crowd of people. Unbeknownst to the redhead, Shego wanted nothing more than to turn around and embrace the girl in return. However, given the fact that she was the driver, it would be a jab at suicide. Chuckling to herself at the thought, she reveled in the foreign warmth of Kim's tight embrace as she accelerated, weaving through traffic like she hadn't a care in the world.
It didn't take very long to reach Kim's house. Shego pulled up into the driveway and yanked the key out of the ignition. The engine faded smoothly from a steady roar to a quiet putter, and then silence.
"This is my baby, right here," Shego said fondly, patting the machine's left handlebar. "She'll get you anywhere you want to go faster than that Sloth of yours."
"I happen to like my car," Kim retorted, slightly miffed. "The car which, thanks to you, is still in the school parking lot."
Shego laughed and pulled off her helmet, dangling it off of one of the handlebars. She turned around on the seat of the motorcycle to face Kim. "You're welcome. I guess I'll just have to give you a ride to school tomorrow to get it."
Kim raised an eyebrow. "I could always walk."
"I could always abduct you."
Kim shrugged; she had to give that one up. "Fair. Why did you come to my school? People were looking at us like we were g…girlfriends." She stumbled over the last word, and this did not go unnoticed by Shego.
"You don't like it when I pick you up?" she inquired, her tone absolutely sincere.
"No!" Kim replied quickly, then realized what she had said. "I mean, yes, I do…it just surprised me. I'm not used to it."
"Well, get used to it, Pumpkin," Shego teased, tapping Kim's nose with her index finger.
Pumpkin. For the first time, Kim didn't wince inside when she heard the pet name. Instead, she felt a sensation bubbling in her stomach – something warm that she couldn't place.
"Still," she continued, trying to conceal the fact that something had arisen in her, "do you think you could be a little less…I don't know…showy? I could tell Tara was crushing on you just by listening to her describe you."
"Tara? Blonde girl, about your height, cheerleader?" Kim nodded slowly, suspiciously. "She's cute."
Kim blinked. "Wait…what? You're not…freaked out that a girl likes you?"
Shego's emerald eyes fixed on Kim's. "No. Why would I be?"
Kim furrowed her brow for a moment, thinking. There was a thought (no, a hope) nagging at the back of her mind; it had been for a while. She had just been too afraid to ask about it. But now, hearing what Shego was saying, she was finally compelled to ask.
"Shego, are you…a lesbian?"
"Yes," Shego answered promptly, unfazed. " Why do you ask?"
Kim blinked again at her immediate and apparently truthful answer. "Oh…I don't know." Inside, she was thinking, Okay, that's one more thing off my mind. Now I know I've got more of a chance with her…whoa, whoa, whoa, what am I thinking? I'm doing it again! I can't be with her! She's a villain! I'm…I'm…
"Kim, you okay? You're making weird faces…"
Kim shook her head to clear her mind. "I'm all right, Shego."
Shego, unconvinced, peered at her. "You don't seem all right. Does it bother you that I'm a lesbian?"
"No," Kim replied. "I have no problem with it."
Shego leaned back against the handlebars and folded her arms, looking over Kim thoughtfully. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she said, "Are you?"
Kim, caught off guard by the question, said, "What?"
"Are you a lesbian?" Shego clarified.
"Oh…" Kim's stomach jumped as the words left Shego's mouth. "Um…no. I'm…um…bisexual."
"Does that bother you?" Shego sat up a little straighter and grasped Kim's shoulders. "'Cause let me tell you right now, Princess: if you're not okay with it, you'll go through your life feeling miserable."
Kim squirmed, trying to look anywhere but at Shego. "It doesn't bother me…um, Shego, can we please drop the subject?"
"You're an awful liar, Kimmie. Why does it bother you?"
Kim bit her lip, silently praying for anyone, anyone to come and save her from having to have this conversation. However, Monique and Ron's last-minute save of the previous day was not forthcoming again. She was on her own.
"I…I don't know," Kim said eventually. "I just don't know exactly what I am anymore."
"'Anymore'?" Shego perked up at this. "What do you mean by that?"
Kim swore under her breath. "Um…I didn't mean to-"
"Awful liar," Shego repeated in a sing-song voice. "You totally meant to say that. What did you mean?"
Kim took a deep breath, but she still didn't look at Shego. "I meant…you know I liked guys, right?"
Shego nodded. "Course I did. Remember that night when you almost disappeared?"
Kim winced at the memory. "That was just cruel of you."
"It was funny," Shego protested, chuckling.
"Not for me. Anyways, you knew that. Well, now that you've come along and you're no longer trying to kill me…" She trailed off, wringing her hands.
"Yeah?" Shego prompted softly, leaning forward.
"I…I just don't know exactly what I am anymore," Kim repeated quietly. Suddenly she stood and got off the motorcycle, walking briskly toward her front door. "I…I…I need to go get started on my homework."
Shego merely sat there and watched her go, a small smile touching her lips. She's so cute when she's all flustered like that, she thought. I wonder what she's thinking…how she really feels. How does she feel about me? Does she know how I feel about her?
Like she was afraid that the truth of the statement would vanish if she said nothing, she murmured softly, "I love you, Kim."
Too bad she wasn't there to hear her say it.
By seven thirty, Kim was just about finished with the day's homework. She was proofreading her History paper for the fifth time when she heard footsteps clomping up the stairs toward her room.
"Kimmie? You up here, sweetie?"
"In my room, Mom," Kim hollered in return. "How was work?"
"Oh, it was okay." Anne Possible's head poked up through the hole in Kim's floor that served as her door. "One really big operation on the frontal lobe of a young man's brain. It was nothing major; we got the tumor out in no time. Can I come up?"
"Sure," Kim replied. Only my mother wouldn't classify brain surgery as 'major'. "Any word from Dad?"
"Yes. He definitely won't be home in time for dinner tonight, and he's expecting to have to stay until close to midnight. By the way, Kimmie, why is your arch nemesis asleep in our driveway?"
Kim almost missed the second part, having gone back to her essay. "I'm sorry, what? I must've heard wrong."
"Your arch nemesis is outside," Anne replied, surprisingly calm, "and sleeping on her motorcycle. She looks like a snowman – must've been there a while."
Kim's eyes widened, and she stood up faster than lightning. "She's what? It's snowing out there!"
"Kim, am I missing something?" Anne inquired.
"Um…I'll tell you later," Kim answered quickly, scooting past her mother – who still hadn't actually entered the room – and sprinting down the stairs toward the front door. She flung it open a bit harder than necessary, shivering as a sudden gust of freezing wind slammed into her like a physical blow. Sure enough, Shego was still out there, head resting on the handlebars of her parked motorcycle. Her eyes were closed, and snow was settling on top of her.
"Shego!" Kim called out, her voice echoing throughout the quiet evening air. The woman did not respond. "Shego?"
After five minutes of fruitless summons, Kim slipped on the first pair of shoes she could find – her father's loafers – and trudged out into the snow, hugging her arms tightly around herself in an effort to warm herself. She didn't understand how Shego wasn't a lime-flavored Popsicle by now.
"Shego?" she repeated when she was by the woman's side. "Shego, wake up."
Shego cracked one eye open briefly, shivering, and then closed it again, mumbling something.
"I can't hear you, Shego."
"I'm tired. Go 'way."
"Shego, it's snowing. You can't sleep out here."
"'S I can, 'f I wanna."
Kim blinked, trying to understand what Shego had just said. "Um…no, you can't. You're going to freeze to death out here."
"So what?"
This caught the heroine by surprise. "You don't care if you die?"
"Mmm."
"Was that a yes or a no?"
"Mmm."
Kim shook her head and brushed some of the snow off of Shego. "I'm not letting you freeze. You're coming inside whether you like it or not."
Shego shrugged weakly, head still resting on the handlebars. It was that simple gesture that made Kim remember what had happened to her a few days ago, the incident that had sparked this whole escapade. Shego, the great plasma-wielding woman, was freezing her tail off in the middle of winter and didn't give a damn about it. Kim, however, did. Gently, she scooped the woman up in her arms, ignoring her feeble demands to be put down. She was surprisingly light for an adult, weighing about the same as Kim. The redhead held her close to her chest as she ferried her back to the house, trying to warm the emerald woman's freezing body.
Anne Possible was waiting for her by the door. When she brought Shego in, she gave her daughter an odd look but did not protest, much to Kim's relief. She carried her former nemesis into the living room and set her down gently on the couch, grabbing some blankets from the nearby armchair and covering her with them. Shego wasn't protesting anymore; she didn't have the strength to argue. All she had wanted to do was stay out there – but no, the stupid hero wouldn't even let her do that.
At least she still got to sleep.
Kim stayed by Shego's side most of the night, refusing to be dissuaded by her mother. Even when her father came home, she merely waved at him and went right back to watching the sleeping woman. In her hand she clutched a warm cloth, dabbing Shego's face with it every time she shivered. She had lit a blazing fire in the fireplace; it filled the room with a soft glow and warmed the air.
Around two in the morning, Shego stirred. Kim withdrew her hand and dropped the cloth into a bowl of water, which she placed over on the hearth. She didn't want to wake Shego with the sounds of the microwave. When she returned to the couch, Shego's eyes were open and following her every move.
"Why am I inside?" were her first words.
"Déjà vu, that's why. You fell asleep in the snow. I wasn't about to let you freeze to death."
"Maybe I wanted to."
"Why the hell would you want to do that, Shego?"
Shego turned her head and buried her face in her pillow, mumbling something that Kim couldn't understand.
"Shego." Kim gently cupped Shego's head and forced her to look up. "Now tell me why the hell you would want to freeze to death."
Shego glared at the redhead. "Let me go. Let me go back outside and sleep."
"Maybe I will, after you tell me. Was it something I did?"
Shego glanced at the fire, for a moment imagining that it was her own plasma. The flames flickered and danced in a similar way, occasionally spitting out tiny embers that died in midair. "Kim…you ran away from me."
"Oh." Kim bit her lower lip anxiously. "Well…I was nervous, and…wait, why would that make you want to kill yourself?"
Shego winced. "I didn't want to kill myself."
"But you said-"
"Look, it doesn't matter what I said, all right? I just needed to be alone, and sometimes losing consciousness is the only way to be truly alone."
Kim folded her arms over her chest. "That's the most bull-filled excuse I've ever heard."
"You're not getting another one." Shego sighed heavily. "Kim, I just wanted to be alone."
To emphasize the fact that Shego would not in fact be getting her wish, Kim lifted the woman's torso up from the couch and sat down where it had just been. She gently set Shego's body down in her lap and smirked.
"You're insufferable," Shego grumbled, trying to scoot away from her, but she was too weak to do so. Kim smiled as she remembered the last time those words had been spoken, in a situation much like this one. Oh, how the tables have turned.
"Tell. Me. Why." Kim's voice was firm. "Now."
Shego tried to sit up again, but Kim forced her back down. The emerald woman growled under her breath and finally said, "You ran away from me because you don't, right?"
Kim's eyebrow rose. "I ran away from you because I don't run away from you?"
"That's not what I meant." Shego attempted to sit up a final time, but Kim wouldn't allow her to. "Dammit, Kim, let me up!"
Kim was silent for a moment. "Please, Shego. I won't ask again."
Shego was about to shoot back a snippy comment, but the words died in her throat. Looking into Kim's eyes, she could read the teen's emotions. It may have been the strange, flickering glow of the fire, but she could have sworn that she saw love there. It was that single emotion that gave Shego the courage to speak.
"Kim…" she said eventually, "I thought you ran away because I was scaring you – making you nervous. I know I've been acting odd lately, but that's just because…just because I like you. I really, really like you, Kim."
The redhead's eyes widened, and the burning feeling in the pit of her stomach returned. "Shego…"
"I never wanted you to know," Shego muttered quietly. "I didn't want to get hurt."
Kim shook her head. "Shego, I…that's not why I ran away. Well, it sort of is, but not really."
Shego raised a slender black eyebrow expectantly, somehow managing not to meet Kim's eyes. "I'm listening."
Kim took a breath. "I was scared. I didn't want to read you wrong. I was imagining that I would misinterpret your intentions and react wrong, and then where would I be? Humiliation Nation."
"Well, sorry," Shego snapped. "Didn't mean to humiliate you."
"That's not what I meant! Shego, I…I…" After a few failed attempts at speaking, Kim gave up on words and threw caution to the wind, pulling the pale woman up against her in a tight embrace. Shego, though initially startled by the sudden contact, returned the hug with all the tenderness she could muster from her dark soul.
"This is just waiting to end badly," she murmured in Kim's ear.
"You don't know that," Kim replied softly. "It could be the beginning of something beautiful."
Shego pulled away to meet Kim's gaze, a genuine smile crossing her lips. Somehow, the flickering light of the fire made it seem even warmer and more affectionate.
"I'm scared," she admitted, her smile wavering for a second.
Kim nodded in understanding. After all, they had every right to be scared of a relationship after what had happened to them. "I am too." She noticed Shego biting back laughter. "What?"
"It's just…you're Kim Possible, the girl who can do anything, but you're scared." Shego shrugged. "Seems kinda awkward to me."
"I'm Kim Possible, the girl who can do anything – including being scared," Kim corrected gently, a smile flickering across her face.
"The girl who can do anything – even love an older woman?"
That question seemed to drain all of the happiness out of the room. Kim drew a deep breath and looked at the woman still draped limply across her lap. "What?"
"I know you heard me," Shego replied. "You can still love me even though I'm an adult? Even though I'm green? Even though I'm a wanted criminal?"
Kim blinked. She had never heard Shego speak of herself so…distastefully. She had always been so high and mighty, the psychologically superior of the duo. Now, though, it sounded like she was at war with her own being. She sounded almost vulnerable.
"Shego," she said after a moment, glancing briefly at the fireplace, "I only want to say this once. I don't care if you're green. I don't care if you're a criminal now, as long as you try to stop from here on out. As for being an adult, age is just a number."
"I'm not that much older," Shego put in. "How old did you think I was?"
"I always thought you were in your early thirties."
Shego looked offended. "I am not! I'm twenty-two, thank you very much."
"Twenty-two?" Kim closed her eyes, doing the math in her head. "But you have a degree. It takes longer than four years to get a degree like you have."
"I was a smart kid. I graduated very early."
"Graduated high school or college early?"
"Both. Is there a point to this?"
"Yes." Kim opened her eyes again and looked at Shego tenderly. "Shego, I don't care how old you are. Frankly, that isn't the worst age difference there could be." Her voice softened. "I care about what kind of person you are on the inside. I don't know what you see," she added quickly when Shego opened her mouth, "but I see a beautiful and caring woman who would do anything to help the people she loves. That's why I like you, Shego. No – that's why I love you."
Tears welled up and threatened to spill over Shego's dark lashes. "Kim…I love you."
Kim pulled Shego up into another warm embrace. The emerald woman buried her face in Kim's fiery hair, inhaling her sweet scent and memorizing it. Eventually they found themselves lying down on the couch, not knowing exactly when they had done so. They didn't care, though. For the long, drawn-out moment that they were together, it was like there was nothing else in the world. There was only warm darkness, only the sweet aroma of the other, only the feel of their arms around each other. Nothing more happened, and both of them were perfectly all right with that. They wanted to make the other feel safe.
However, the pair was unaware that they were being watched. Anne Possible, hair ruffled from sleep and clad in a fluffy white robe, leaned against the doorway. She had overheard everything they had said, and it was this that finally convinced her that Shego was no threat to her daughter. She could afford to be left alone. With a small smile on her face, she turned and tiptoed back up to bed, taking care that she was neither seen nor heard.
Kim and Shego, blissfully unaware that they had not been alone, remained in each other's arms for the rest of the night. It was the first peaceful sleep either of them had gotten for a long time.
HAHA! Fluff makes Seriadne happy! Of course, lots of things make me happy...it was torture for me to have to wait on writing the part where they got together. As a result, I probably did it too soon, but oh well. It's out of my system now. ^_^ Next chapter coming soon! Please R&R and I will love you forever! In the spirit of the season, of course.