Nine years, seven months, a few weeks, and a couple days. That was how long Kim had known Drew, formerly Drakken, and his former sidekick Shego. No, wait, that wasn't right. Kim had known Drew that long, but Shego had jumped ship the second she wavered in her faith in what Drakken and her had. It really was a shame.

For Shego.

After all, if she'd stuck with Drakken, he'd still be Drakken. The last time he'd referred to himself as Drakken was the last day that either of them had seen her. The wedding day…

Kim didn't want to think about that. That day was hard on everyone, especially Drew, and she didn't want that to mar their date night. Yes, he had decided to become Drew, but she felt that wasn't really the day that he started to become who he really should have been.

That day would have been the one where he enrolled back into school as Drew T P Lipsky. Unfortunate middle initials aside, it was at that point that Kim really felt that he was going to try and be a better person. She didn't really expect to run into him much after that. Different people, different hobbies, different generations; everything was stacked against the odds since the hero/villain dynamic was gone. And then he and Ron started a gaming group for the tri-city area which drew them together again.

She'd minded at first. She hadn't wanted to hang around with someone that...well...old, whiny, and needy on the few days she was in town visiting. The more she was around Drew, though, the more she realized that she actually didn't know him that well at all. He wasn't usually as whiny and ridiculous as he seemed to her. Oh, he whined on occasion, but not to the extent that was a common experience for her.

He was a lot smarter than she thought, too. She didn't really think about it because he was so insane and goofy; his quick acquisition of a bachelor's, then a master's, and then even a PhD not even 6 months after the master's disabused her of the idea that he was a failure with technology. It had never occurred to her before that, but for most people it is impossible for them to even conceive of the mechanics behind a magmachine or a truth ray. She really should have thought that something was up with the truth ray part when Wade was the only one who actually believed her and recognized what it was. The only issue that seemed the be holding Drew back years before was being ahead of his time. Somehow. It made her wonder about what Dementor could do if he went straight...

Besides the changed perspective on his intelligence, she was also startled at how emotionally stunted he was, especially considering that he was so emotive. Apparently his emotions, while displayed on his sleeve, were shallower than even Bonnie was. That was impressive in a disturbing way.

...she shouldn't think about Bonnie.

Anyway, she had become intrigued by this man who was far, far different from the villain she thought he was. Kim supposed that it was the sudden mystery that made her curious. Stupid, yes, but it was a definite draw.

It also helped that he was similar enough to Ron that he was a kind-of substitute for when Ron became the Grand Ultimate Supreme Whatever for the Lorwardian Empire.

'No, if you were using him as a substitute for Ron, you wouldn't still be friends with him. Besides, that's something Bonnie would do, and you're not Bonnie...'

It wasn't only that stupid fight they had that contributed to their break-up. It would've been the dumbest thing to break up over. Combined with the sudden long distance that came with being the one chance of a peaceful existence between two completely different cultures… Ron couldn't handle it. At least, that was the only way she could figure that he would accept something like the Lorwardian ambassador's offer. The break-up was a mutual decision for them to downgrade the relationship.

'That's what you tell yourself, anyway'

It was okay though. They were still friends. They could still talk (mostly) whenever with those long-distance hologram things. Things were just fine with Ron.

'Things aren't fine with Ron. He hasn't been comfortable around you since you two said all those horrible things to each other.' He was as easy to read as always.

Drew, though… Kim finally understood a bit about why he was so obsessed with wanting to conquer the world. It was easy to get respect when you forced it on people, or so Drew had thought. It wasn't hard to piece together his past, but how that related to how he thought took a few psychology classes and some inferences. He honestly seemed to believe that literally everyone was laughing at him behind his back, that every comment was a veiled insult or slight.

She was now coaching him a little, trying to show him that not everyone thinks he's a joke. It was an uphill battle; now she regretted all those times she trash talked him. Kim hoped that small teasing, the kind that would elicit chuckles from most people, would be the key. No luck though. She would keep trying at least.

'It is absolutely adorable watching him splutter in confusion. There must be some kind of progress since he isn't sneering as much, huh?'

If only her dad had been a better friend. Then again, if he had been a better friend she was pretty sure he would've ended up as a kind of adopted uncle. That would have made their current sitch completely awkward. She could just imagine the kind of snotty remarks she would have gotten if she'd fallen for her adoptive uncle. 'I didn't realize incest ran in the family, K! What's next, you and your brothers getting nasty behind the bleachers?'

Agh! There was Bonnie again. Why wouldn't she stay out of her head?

Maybe because she was obsessing over her being a lame villain.

'Maybe because she's a stupid tra-'

She growled a little as she shut the voice down and decided to focus her thoughts on little miss Queen B and let her body go on automatic with eating, something that would definitely work since they were having a quiet pre-meal dinner anyway. She needed the rant, if only to get it out of her system.

What kind of ridiculous villain name is that? And her 'power' is money to get goons to fight for her? Kim would have laughed at the entire thing...if it hadn't worked. Bonnie had thrown so many henchs at her that by the time she had cleared them all BonBon had gotten away with her prize. The redhead was sure that Senior was so proud. And her banter...

"...don't even get me started on her banter! 'Gee K, I didn't realize that you're such a huge loser that you got dumped by the ultimate high school loser and hooked up with a failure of a supervillain! Guess this is why you lost homecoming, huh?'? Yeah, like that's original," Kim griped as she stirred the vegetables around on her plate. "What kind of villain uses childish taunts like that? How old is she? Twelve?"

"She would probably be within a year of your age, considering you went to school together," Drew interjected into her thoughts as he sat on the couch fiddling with a small doohicky in his hands. His vines held his own meal on a plate, occasionally presenting portions of it to him for consumption.

"That doesn't matter!" she snapped. Her attention was brought to focus as he flinched away from her, his fingers fiddling with themselves nervously over the device as the vines wobbled uncertainly at the outburst. Forcing herself to calm down, she continued, "That doesn't matter. What matters is that she got away. My first solo mission as a junior GJ operative-against a basic high school evil, no less-and I failed!" Kim added bitterly, stabbing a shoot of celery with more force than necessary, "To top it all off, I got a B- on my midterm."

"A B- is still a good grade…" he muttered, looking away while crossing his arms grumpily, the little machine clacking a bit as it was manhandled and the vines resuming their task of feeding their host.

"It's a decent grade, but it's not good enough."

"For what?" he groused between bites. Swallowing the last of his meal, he continued, "You're already going to be the Director of Global Justice. I don't think they're going to care about if you only got a B- on a stupi-"

"I care!"

She didn't mean to yell at him. She wasn't even sure why she was so frustrated either; he was right after all. Dr Director had made it clear that Kim going through the agent program was only for tradition's sake. Frankly, she could probably drop out of college and just dedicate herself full-time to GJ. But there was a niggling little thought in the back of her head that she had to do everything. She needed to be the best, to be capable of doing it all simply because she could do anything.

This contradiction with her whole 'basic average girl' schtick was obviously the reason for her frustrations even if she didn't understand why it bothered her so much. The problem was that she had no solution. …not having a solution didn't give her the right to yell at Drew like that, though. He didn't know or understand her driving need, and if Kim had any say in it he wouldn't have to.

'You know, if you were more willing to open up you wouldn't have to neurotically toss aside oogling time for when Drew's doing his multitasking. Just imagine how much he could do with tho-'

She sighed to herself as she turned her head away to try to at least appear composed. This was supposed to be date night. A night to just lay around and watch movies while enjoying being together. Sure, it was in his old island lair that was now just a really big laboratory/home, but it was somehow slowly becoming their really big laboratory/home.

Kim turned her head to look at, expecting Drew to be overly exaggerating his shock. To her mild confusion, Drew wasn't cowering back. In fact, he looked contemplative. Brow furrowed, eyes unfocused, mouth motoring with unspoken words. A bit odd, but his mind tended to wander like that sometimes.

"So then, what would you like to watch?" she asked, trying to swallow her frustrations with her last bite of food and add some normalcy to the night.

"I…" Drew looked up from his empty plate, eyes suddenly sharp. He said very deliberately, "I want you to pick the movie."

Kim blinked slowly as she wiped her mouth. She put her soiled napkin on the plate before reminding, "It's your turn to pick the movie tonight."

"I know that!" he said, slightly offended. "Of course I know it's my turn! But…" He looked around, uncertain and strangely confused. "I...I just think that you… I, er, want you to pick."

She didn't understand. Drew relished the chance to force science fiction schlock on her. It didn't make sense that he would offer this sort of thing up. Kim could see her dad doing that, or maybe even Ron when they were still together. But Drew… He just...didn't do this sort of thing..

"Are you sur-"

"Just pick the movie already!" he growled frustratedly, jumping off of the couch and stomping off toward the main lab area, their plates suddenly in his vines. She hadn't even noticed them grab her plate from her hands. "I'll be making popcorn or something until you do."

...except now he apparently did.

Kim considered not picking a movie and just waiting for him to come back. There was no way that he actually wanted to watch one of her movies. He was always complaining about how they were whiny and overly sappy. Like Drew had a foot to stand on what with his love of soap operas.

Then again, he sounded like he was going to be stubborn about it. The last time she pushed on an issue he insisted on in a similar manner to this he ended up cooking a 26 course meal that neither of them could manage to even eat a quarter of. It did turn out pretty well for their extended families, though, as they all got to get together to eat the smorgasbord.

'Well' she thought, walking over to the wall, 'if I have to pick which option would be better for right now…' She poked a generic-looking rock in the wall, the hidden button instantly causing the rock face to pull back to reveal their movie collection in a recess inside the wall.

The Pond Hut sounded good.


When Drew finally came back-sans popcorn or his little device, she noticed-he flopped down on the couch with a huff. By that point she'd already set up the big screen and the video player; all that was left was to push play.

Things were set up as they normally would. Kim still felt a little put out by his building strangeness, though.

'It's a good strangeness; isn't it like what you wanted?'

"I picked a movie," she said awkwardly with a light chuckle, unsure of what to do.

"Good!" He flopped down on the couch with a harrumph. After a few seconds, he tilted an eyebrow at her. "Well? What are you waiting for? You might as well start it."

"Right." Kim felt strangely stupid as she pushed play and walked back over to the couch. But who wouldn't be put out when a well-oiled, functioning cog suddenly decided to turn in the opposite direction? In a more sane direction? In the direction that actually meant progress?

'You're thinking too much. You should just relax and enjoy tonight. Laying on Drew's lap.'

She was just overthinking this. She...she should relax. Laying her head in Drew's lap sounded good. At least he wasn't squirmish about physical contact with those he felt close to.

Kim let herself fall onto the couch next to him as the movie started playing. Before she could lay down on him, his arm snaked around her shoulders and pulled her close, giving her a solid spot on the prime territory of his upper chest. And he was...stroking her arm…? He was acting so weird, almost...protective. It made her think of when Ron had saved her from Warmonga and Warhok.

She managed to hold back a snigger at the thought of Drew blasting Bonnie in the face with a deathray.

That was probably just her head, thinking that just because he was being courteous it meant that he was finally relaxing around her, realizing that she really did care about and admire him for being him. She doubted that he even realized he was doing these things. It was all automatic.

'Like his movie choice?'

Ignoring the little voice that kept niggling at all the little thoughts she preferred to think on when she was alone, Kim tried to relax. It wasn't all that hard. Drew provided a very comfortable spot to lay on. His thigh was nice and firm under her arm. And his chest made for a nice, supportive pillow for her head. It felt...really good…

Kim was jolted from her fuzzy enjoyment of her position by her partner suddenly tensing up. To her surprise, she found that she had actually started dozing before his distress woke her. Just as quickly as it had started, though, he began to relax. She suspected it was forced for her sake which was part of why she turned her head to look up at him. He answered her curiosity with a grunt.

"Not enjoying the movie?" she asked, hoping that that was the cause of his distress. It wasn't fair for her to keep it going; she wasn't actually watching the movie like he thought she was. It would have been perfectly fine and reasonable for him to want the movie changed.

"I'm...er...just thinking. Hard. About stuff." Ah. Not a movie change. For some reason, that irritated her.

"Would you like to share with the rest of the class?" She straightened up more, giving him an interrogative stare.

"Nnnnngh… I-it-it's personal." Even as she thought about how it was his own personal thing, that he wasn't planning to actually build a deathray and blast Bonnie in the face, she felt her eyebrow raise up, ushering him to continue explaining. To her shame, she realized that her irritation stemmed from the fact that he wasn't being selfish, that he was actually apparently trying to be make her feel better with a movie. That he was finally changing his behavior to be less defensive... "I'm not comfortable talking about it. It's…er…"

Her face must have betrayed her thoughts as he suddenly began speaking loudly, then shouting, "I don't have it all the way figured out. I, I just...nnnngh… I-I DON'T UNDERSTAND MYSELF SOMETIMES!" The arm-waving and hair-tearing was certainly a good accent to show off his mounting frustrations.

Secretly breathing a sigh of relief, she shook her head while outwardly smiling. He was probably trying to figure out one of his physics things for a project.

'He said 'himself', not 'my thing'.'

Kim ignored the voice and advised, her mind pulling on advice her mother had given her, "Drew, I'm sure that whatever it is you're thinking of will be easier to figure out the less you think about it." He raised his own eyebrow at that. "Have you ever had a puzzle that you just couldn't figure out no matter how hard you tried or thought about it?" Drew nodded tentatively at that. "How did you solve it?"

"I, uh, stopped trying so hard?" he answered lamely, clearly not believing it. A quick nod of approval, though, clearly changed his mind.

Suddenly Kim sensed a looming multilayered wall of logical fallacy approaching when his finger raised into the air and did the only thing she could think to try and dodge it: she looked up at the screen showing the forgotten movie, feigning surprise, and dove into Drew's lap.

"My favorite part's coming up," she said to cut off any more discussion. In truth, her favorite part had actually happened a quarter of the movie earlier when the first letter arrived, but he didn't need to know that. She could hear him grumble and felt him shift in annoyance.

"You know, for a twenty-something know-it-all, you certainly seem to act like...well...you know it all," he said with a pout. Drew added more flatly, "What I mean is that you sound like a wised old mother or something."

"Good! My mother is the wisest person I know, and the more I sound like her the more I must be maturing," Kim replied with some humor. Not that he would probably catch it.

She then forced herself to focus solely on the movie. Drew was dealing with a personal issue, or a physics issue. Just some kind of issue that he could figure out on his own. And she very much did not pay any more attention to his nicely solid thighs or the light touches he was giving her back.

'Liar.'

The end of the movie came sooner than Kim would have liked. It was finally starting to feel cozy again, to feel not-awkward. She didn't feel ready to go.

But the movie was over. That was a clear indicator that it was getting late. With her failing grades, it was important that she get back to campus to start studying as soon as she could. Kim got up and pulled the movie out of the playing device, putting it in its case and slipping it back on the shelf. Amused at Drew's silence at the ending, she asked with a chuckle, "Did you sleep through the end of the movie or something? You haven't complained even on-" That was when she noticed that he had apparently fallen asleep.

Stepping closer, she realized that he hadn't fallen asleep. Instead, it seemed that he'd managed to overheat his mind again. He was staring off into space unblinkingly, drool threatening to escape his gawking mouth. How she failed to notice his mental BSoD was beyond her.

"Drew?" she queried quietly.

No reaction.

She waved a hand in front of his face and asked again, "Drew…?"

He looked at her with wide, confused eyes. "Are you okay? You just.. You froze up. I was trying to ask you if you even caught the end of the movie." She bit her lip for a second before asking in a sterner tone, "You aren't trying to mentally map out a 5th dimensional object again, are you? I don't think I need to remind you about what happened last time…"

"I'm fine," he said, his voice conveying that he clearly was not fine. He then suddenly smack himself across the face, making Kim jump back in surprise. He cried out in pain before answering more strongly, "I'm fine!"

Kim tilted her head and tentatively asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm fine! And I'm not mapping out any fifth dimensional objects! I'm just, erm, having very...heavy thoughts, dog."

"Dog? Trying to string together another rap?" she teased. He looked strangely thoughtful at that. Probably trying to pick apart what about it was insulting.

She was about to change topic and make note of the time when he replied, "No! The bu-uddy beat me last time." He paused to chuckle before continuing. "Why even try to compete with something that was so superior to my own work? What was the tune…? Na na na nanana na nanana?"

Kim's face fell into a slack-jawed stare of shock. Did he just…? Was that…? Did he just...try to tease her back…?

'YES!' she thought as she smiled brightly at Drew. Finally! After the months of work trying to loosen him up, to get him to realize that she wasn't making fun of him, he finally, finally got it! She couldn't let this go. She couldn't!

"Something like that," Kim answered, a quick plan forming in her head. "Ron certainly did something with that. Not sure I would call it 'superior'." Another movie. She walked over to the wall where the movie collection sat in the recess. They could watch another movie of his choice, relax more and just enjoy each other's company for longer.

'Why not watch it in bed?' The thought from that weird little voice was a strange and completely random one, and to her chagrin she imagined what it would be like. She'd managed to get a few glimpses of it from the times when Drew had, of course, forgotten something like shoes or a tie for more formal events. The moat was weird, but that headboard was pretty cool. Not sure she would've wanted such a big tv hanging over her like that. And that bed… Well, it was garish, but it was also big enough for four or five people. 'Lots of room for a newbie couple to get used to something like cuddling in.'

"Next?" he squeaked in confusion. Oh, good. She'd said something. Kim had been worried for a moment that she was just standing there like a loon staring at the various movies they had available to watch. "Kimberly, need I remind you of the time?"

"I know what time it is," she replied confidently. She'd actually forgotten momentarily, but once he reminded her the answers to that and the upcoming questions were obvious. What kind of movie would Drew want to watch? Probably one of the good Space Passage ones, or a Professor What-Now? finale. Best to just stick with Space Passage.

"Then you know that there isn't time-"

"I want to stay the night."

The awkward silence that followed was not comforting.

"You…?" he trailed off, apparently confused.

"Surprised?" Kim grabbed the first even-numbered Space Passage film and walked back over, hoping that Drew didn't notice her smile was now fake, a small gnaw of worry that had begun to tear at the confidence she had at her spur-of-the-moment idea.

'Calm down. He's probably just not sure how to respond.'

"You-you-you didn't even-how can I-I don't have anything ready!" Drew practically yelled, his volume increasing with his panic. "The bathroom still had my pajamas all over the floor! The fridge is mostly empty; how could you have a late-night snack with nothing in there?! The guest room sheets haven't been washed for at least a week, and I bet that it's horribly dusty in there!"

"Guest room?" Kim eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Drew, why do you think I would stay in the guest room…? Unless…" A giant lump suddenly formed in the pit of her stomach as she realized what, exactly, she had been expecting from him and everything that she had been inferring. Swallowing her dismay, she managed to croak, "Yeah, I guess I did spring this on you. I can understand not wanting to move that fast." She turned back to the shelf with the movie, sighing to herself in disappointment, "Sleeping in the same bed is a big step…"

She had just started slipping the movie back onto the shelf when she found her hands abruptly empty, a flash of green alerting her to the culprit. Kim turned to look at Drew, watching as his vine deposited the movie she had into his waiting hands.

"Space Passage II: The Fury of Jaan?" He looked at her, clearly surprised. "You have actual good taste in Space Passage movies!"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't really my choice. Know everything about the show; hate everything about it, too." She ignored the unintentional jab, wondering if he would ask about it. To her slight annoyance, he tilted his eyebrow at her curiously.

"My dad...it's a long story," she said, shaking her head and hoping to shove away any further annoyance at her dad's abuse of her memory problem. "Anyway…" She turned her head away, afraid that he was having her on, and asked, "You… You want to watch that?"

"Well duh!" Drew said with some force. After an unintentional glare from her, he nervously continued, "Er, I mean, well, you, erm, clearly have more experience than I do. With people. And relationsh-nnnnngh, together stuff. If…" He looked away, abashed! Since when was Drew ever embarrassed to this extent? "If you think we can… Do something like sleeping together to sleep…"

The little voice in her head tittered not only at his words, but the way he said them as well. 'See? He actually want this! He's starting to really trust you. Do you think he would have acted like this, be this emotional, with Shego? Don't worry about how he's feeling anymore, if he's opening up; it's clear that all that chipping away is working. Now all you have to do is enjoy it… Go on and give him the best kiss you've got!'

This time she listened to it.

After a blinding, head-fogging kiss which, to her surprise, he gave as good as he got, she rested her dizzy head against his. "I would love to spend the night here with you," she answered breathily, surprised that she'd never noticed before that he was so good at kissing, felt so good to lay on, was so nice to touch…

'You should touch him more.'

She chuckled a bit and gave him a peck on the cheek, the warmth giving her tingles, before she went to put the movie into the player. Kim would definitely touch him more. She wasn't really sure why the little voice in her head was so intent on her being close to him. Frankly, she didn't care. She did care about how much she enjoyed it and how much he was starting to clearly care about her own feelings.

Maybe she would get what that little voice's deal was eventually. For now, she would just enjoy the rest of the night with her boyfriend...and figure out where she would fit some studying in.


Author's Notes

Kim's got some issues, man. Poor girl. Hopefully she'll figure out what her strange feeling and that weird little voice in her head are...

There may or may not be a one-shot companion to this two-shotter on what in the world happened with Ron and with Shego. I bet all you two people who read this are just absolutely confused as to what's going on with those two. If I can keep from making them sound like two characters who are back caricatures of Ron and Shego, then I might post it.

Hers was different than his in some spots because different places stuck out for the both of them. You should consider this set a bit of a character study. The same scenes (mostly) from two different viewpoints. Hope you found it enjoyable, or at the very least interesting!

This is now complete, in case you're wondering. One of what, two multi-chapters I've finished? Better look out for the horsemen!

Thanks to kgs-wy for helping me out with some spots!