Pre-dawn light was just starting to filter into the bedroom as Shego lay beside Ron and studied his profile. On the other side of him she could hear the slight noise that Kim made when she was sleeping, it was too cute to call it snoring properly, more of an almost purring noise. Shego could feel a smile cross her face as she listened to the noise. It was appropriate in a way. Kim in more than a few ways was like a fierce and loyal kitten and a damn sexy one too.
Shego felt a light tremor run through Ron's body as he spoke surprising her, she had thought he too was asleep.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked quietly so as not to wake Kim.
Shego gave a half shrug while lying down. "It's not important. Why aren't you asleep?" She asked already knowing the answer was the same reason she wasn't sleeping. With the strangeness of the mirror in the bathroom incident she was 'standing' guard.
"This house has me on edge. Something is setting off my Mystical Monkey senses." Ron stated.
"You sound like Spiderman." Shego said running a hand up and down his bare chest.
She could more sense than clearly see Ron's grin in the gloom of the room. "Well they do have spider monkeys don't they? Maybe my Mystical Monkey powers have a bit of that in them too?" Shego felt a slight shudder pass through Ron's body.
"You just imagined a spider / monkey creature mix didn't you?" She asked him in a teasing voice.
"You know me so well." Ron replied with a slight chuckle a moment later.
"Not nearly as well as I would like." Shego answered in a serious tone. "Kimmie is so lucky to have known you all your life. I feel like I'm trying to play catchup just learning what she already does."
"I'm an open book. Anything you want to know just ask me."
Ron could feel as Shego shifted slightly beside him to try and stare fully at his face in the darkness.
"If you hadn't have met Kim do you think you and I would have found each other anyway?" She asked him.
Ron frowned. "Probably not. Its not like we traveled in the same circles and I don't think it would have ever entered my mind to try and stop bad guys on my own without Kim there to lead me."
Shego accepted his answer even though the thought of never knowing Ron made her feel an emptiness inside. "Okay. What about this one? If me and Kim were in the ocean drowning and you could only save one of us, which one would you choose?"
Even though Shego couldn't see it in the dark, Ron's eyes grew wide in shock. "Um, ah... What is it with women wanting to ask hypothetical questions in the middle of the night?"
"Just how many women have asked you questions in the middle of the night? And since when did you know what hypothetical meant?" Shego asked with a slight warning note in her voice.
"Oh okay. I've never been asked questions in the middle of the night but I've seen it in enough movies and tv shows to know it happens. And I know big words, I just choose to not use them much." Ron answered.
"Better be just tv and movies." Shego said allowing herself to relax. "The reason is women think more than guys do and we know the best time to ask a guy questions is in the middle of the night when they are so sleepy they can't think of lies and usually tell us the truth. Oh and don't think you succeeded in avoiding the question. It still stands and I'm waiting for an answer."
"I kind of answered that question a long while back." Ron mused. "The answer is I would drown trying to save you both. I couldn't live knowing that I lost either of you and besides, you would be over there rescuing Kim or she would be rescuing you. Neither one of you are the 'damsel in distress' kind of people. More than likely you two would be the ones saving me."
Shego cuddled closer to Ron. "I knew that." She said after a moment.
"Then why did you ask me?"
"A girl likes to be reminded now and then how much they mean to their man." Shego replied. She could feel Ron staring at her. "Okay. I sometimes wonder which of us you love more than the other. I know you say you love me as much as you do Kim but you've known her your whole life and only known me for a short time." She could feel Ron sigh. No matter how many times he told her he knew that Shego could not really accept that he felt so strongly for her.
"Even before I really knew how I felt about Kim I would feel a emptiness when she wasn't by my side. The few times when we had to be separated by classes or vacations, that kind of thing. It wasn't terrible but it was there. After that time when Kim and I rescued you from those things Drakken brought through that dimensional portal..." Ron paused. He knew that Shego didn't like to be reminded of that time when she had been helpless and nearly killed.
"I feel that emptiness when I'm not around you and even though you and Kim seem to find it hard to believe... It hurts just as bad as all those times when me and Kim were separated. I truly love you both equally."
Ron peered at Shego. "What about you? Do you love me as much as you love Kim?" He asked.
"Uh huh. Its not played that way. Women are allowed to ask soul searching questions of guys at night but guys aren't allowed to ask women those type of questions." Shego replied as she settled fully against Ron's side and closed her eyes.
"Awww come on Shego. Tell me." Ron said with just a hint of whining in his voice.
Now it was Shego's turn to sigh. "Okay. I will admit... I've always found Princess to be attractive but it never went beyond that... At first. That night you saved me, I was swept away. Never had a guy risked his life to rescue me when it looked like it was hopeless. I fell in love almost instantly with you that night. And I'll admit at first I was just going to use Kim as a way to get to you, a very pleasant way I will admit but still just as a stepping stone to you." Shego paused for a long moment. "But when I realized that Kim cared about me, that she was attracted to me as well and saw how devoted she was to you..." Shego bit her lip slightly. "I fell in love with her too. Yeah I now love Kim as much as I love you too. Happy?" She asked.
"What guy wouldn't be? I have two gorgeous women I'm in love with and they are in love with me. What more can any man ask for?" Ron said as he hugged both women next to him. "Face it Shego, we are stuck with each other and will be forever."
"And don't you ever forget that fact Ron Stoppable." Kim's voice called out from his other side.
Shego raised up on one arm to peer across Ron at Kim while Ron raised his head to glance at Kim. "How long have you been awake?" Shego asked somewhat nervously.
"Long enough." Kim replied. "And just for the 'record' I was insanely jealous at first when I knew you were after Ron." She said to Shego. "But then I realized you had never had a guy care for you like Ron was doing. Then I felt sorry for you." Kim quickly hastened to add before Shego could become annoyed. "And then I started to... Well, desire you. When I saw that you were willing to do anything it took to protect Ron or me, that was when it turned into love. And yes, I love you now as much as I do Ron." Kim added.
Shego propped her head on Ron's chest as she stared across at Kim. There was just enough light in the room for Kim to make out a hungry look in Shego's eyes. "You know, its not quite morning yet...And with all this talk of love..."
"You are getting horny again?" Kim asked.
"You know me so well Kimmie." Shego replied with a purr.
"Um guys? No. Yori is right down the hall she'll hear us." Ron stated.
"We can be quiet?" Kim said as she started to rise to lean over Ron's body and kiss Shego.
"Yeah. Right. Not the way you growl and yell." Ron said.
Kim pulled away from the almost kiss with Shego to glare down at him. "I do not growl or yell!"
"Um yeah you do Princess." Shego confirmed.
Kim blinked at both of them. "Do I really?" She finally asked in a meek voice.
Shego nodded but then reaching out she pulled Kim on top of Ron. "And you know what? That turns me on the most."
"Guys! Yori down the hall. We can't."
"Screw the ninja bitch. She won't hear us." Shego growled herself as she latched on to Kim with a hungry kiss.
Outside the bedroom Ron, Shego and Kim were sharing the shadows were at their thickest. After a few moments of giggles and moans coming from the room a particularly dark shadow detached itself and started silently making its way back down the hallway towards Yori's room. Reaching the mid point of the hallway the shadow reached up and pulled a black hood/face mask off revealing Yori's face. Silent tears dripped down her face as she grasped the sliding door of her room and silently slid it back and entered.
Making her way to her futon mattress she pulled herself into a cross legged position and silently hugged herself.
In the gloom of her room a few pictures could be seen stuck to the walls of the room. American styled newspaper clippings showing mostly Kim Possible with Ron's face in the background. Here and there were a few with Ron prominently in the picture but most was with him in the background.
Yori stared at the photos and clippings. "She holds you back Ron-san. Why can't you see that? You are meant for such great things and Possible keeps you in the back and denies you the greatness you can be." She quietly said to the empty room.
On one wall could barely be seen a picture of Shego. It was one of the new ones that the newspapers ran when they proclaimed the 'miraculous' change from criminal to hero status that Shego had recently went through. Stuck through the picture were several wicked looking throwing stars. Obviously Yori had taken to using the picture as a 'dart' board.
"And you." Yori quietly hissed at the picture. "A criminal? Why Ron-san? If you desired another to share your bed why choose a criminal? She is unworthy of you. Both of them are!"
In the darkness behind Yori near a back wall the figure of a Japanese girl dripping wet appeared and slowly and with jerky movements started to move towards Yori's back. The figure dripped stagnant smelling water as she neared ever closer to Yori's back.
Yori for all her ninja instincts sensed nothing and continued to silently cry.
The wet figured finally reached the kneeling ninja and opening her arms she wrapped them around her and lowered her head next to Yori's ear.
Even though Yori was enclosed in the embrace of a wet smelly dead thing she appeared to not notice and continued to stare at the pictures on the wall. As the creature whispered into her ear, Yori tilted her head as if listening. "Yes, of course... If one of them were to meet with an accident Ron-san would grieve but find strength in the other and would still leave... But if both were to tragically die... He would stay with me... Stay with me forever."
As dawn's light finally broke and the room brightened with the clean light of the sun coming through the windows, the wet figure faded away, leaving no one in the room but the kneeling ninja woman. A smiling determined Yori wearing a wet ninja costume that smelled of moldy water.
Elsewhere as the sun broke over the sprawling Japanese city, a small naked figure was weakly struggling to wake. Finally managing to open his heavy eyelids Rufus peered at his surroundings, memories of the previous evening fought through his drugged consciousness and with a groan Rufus struggled from his prone position to a sitting one inside the cage he was locked in. Closing his eyes once again someone might be fooled into thinking the drug had knocked him out once again, that is if there had been anyone in the warehouse to witness the mole rat's struggles in the first place. A few moments later Rufus opened his eyes again but this time they were glowing softly with a blue light in them. With a small but determined shout he broke through the bindings on him as if they were mere threads instead of strong string and the glow in his eyes faded.
Taking a step towards the cage's bars Rufus stumbled and had to bend forward as he panted a bit.
Closing his eyes he concentrated for a moment once again. Opening his eyes the blue glow was seen once again as it fought to flush the knockout potion that Yori had injected him with. Finally with a shake of his head the glow faded and Rufus bounded over the cage door and examined it.
It had a simple lock on it and was mere child's play for a resourceful rodent that had foiled many a villain's lair with his nimble hands and teeth.
Climbing up the rope that held the cage aloft, Rufus quickly scampered down it till he reached the floor of the warehouse.
He had noticed the tied up ninjas in the net but he knew of no way to wake them. While Rufus was able to use his mystical monkey powers to fight the chemical in his body, he knew of no way to pass that ability on to someone else. In any case Rufus decided that the ninjas probably wouldn't understand him anyway.
Rushing to the doors of the warehouse, Rufus pushed with all his strength and managed to get them to part just enough for him to slip out.
"So far so good." Rufus thought to himself but now what? He had no idea which direction the van had traveled to reach here or how far away the house his owner was in.
Even though it was still very early in the morning the streets were already whizzing with speeding cars and even the sidewalks were starting to fill with people rushing about.
Rufus gave a squeak as a young girl wearing a school uniform with long blond hair in pigtails nearly ran over him as she sped off to school. Draped around the girl's neck a black cat eyed the naked mole rat as they ran past.
Rufus ran back to the doors to the garage and quickly slipped back inside before he could be crushed or end up as some cat's early morning breakfast.
Pacing back and forth Rufus wracked his brain for an answer to his problem. Finally he paused with what could only be described as a 'doh' look on his face and lowered himself to the floor into a meditation pose. Closing his eyes he carefully evened out his breathing and began to meditate.
Sensei tiredly stretched and heard a bone pop in his back. With an effort he controlled the urge to yawn loudly. While there was no one in the scroll room with him at the moment he had to project a calm never changing image to his students and when dealing with ninja students one had to be careful at all times. "It would not do for them to realize their teacher is as human as any of them are."Sensei thought with a grin.
Sensei had been keeping a close watch on the scroll waiting for more to fill in on the prophecy. After all it ended somewhat ominously stating that the Chosen one would return to the land of the rising sun and have to face... Something. The scroll ended in mid sentence and Sensei not for the first time wondered if the scroll of prophecy loved to play mind games with those that read it.
Feeling a light prickling of his mind, almost as if a breeze blew through it, he paused and without a second thought lowered himself into a meditation pose.
Even though it did not have Yori's 'feel' to it perhaps this was his prize student using the astral plane to finally check in and let him know where she was?
Opening his eyes in the Meditation Realm, Sensei saw the clean beautiful mountains of Yamanouchi stretching off in the distance. No where could the school be seen but that was because Sensei liked to edit out of his meditation views. While the school was important and close to his heart nothing beat the pure views of nature when one wanted to meditate.
A small pink bubble floated into view and as Sensei 'watched' the bubble popped revealing Rufus to his eyes. The naked mole rat gently floated to the 'ground' of the mental vision and he opened his eyes to stare at Sensei.
"Thank the Gods of Cheese I've found you great teacher..." A deep baritone voice in perfect speech came out of Rufus's mouth startling him.
Sensei resisted the urge to smile. "This is the first time you've used astral projection isn't it Rufus-san? As you have just noticed, the limits of the real world are not brought over when you cross. While your natural vocal chords are not totally suited to speaking in human language in the 'real' world, here there is no such limitations."
Rufus took his tiny paws away from his throat and nodded. "While this is deeply fascinating and I regret that Kim nor Shego know how to use meditation so I could so easily converse with them I have something of dire importance to convey to you learned teacher."
Sensei sensing the seriousness of the small naked mole rat nodded his head. "Then let us converse."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Author's notes:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Poor Yori, allowing her desire, jealousy and longing cloud her judgment so much that a mere dead child can influence her so easily. How the mighty can stumble when they become so focused on their inner world they fail to be aware of what is going on around them.
Shego and Kim. I know it seems I spend too much time with their inner dynamics between themselves and Ron but I promise it is important for this story. That and the course of true love never runs too smoothly so how much more bumpy can it be when there are three in love?
Rufus: Yay! Rufus is back in the action. I hope no one thought I was just going to dump the mole rat in a warehouse and leave him there for the entire story?
The school girl with the cat that nearly steps on Rufus: Yeah some of you may have guessed. It was meant to be Usagi from Sailor Moon. I love cameos and Tokyo is a BIG place. Why not? (pouts) Its my story I can have cameos if I want them! Oh and I do not own the characters of Sailor Moon and am borrowing their likeness for this impromptu cameo.
Sensei: Now he knows something is going on. Problem is, Rufus doesn't know where the house is located and for all the power that the Sensei has... Neither does he. He can't hunt for Yori on the astral plane if she is hiding from him and the house may be able to shield them from his view as well?