Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the Kim Possible series are all owned by Disney. Any and all registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.

Is Life a Boon?

A 'leave of absence' thread on Captain Constellation carried a note from Princess Aura warning she'd be out of town for a few days and unable to post. Kim quickly dialed Middleton, "Mom, looks like I won't make it home for Thanksgiving."

"We were counting on you being here."

"I'm trying to graduate this spring. I'm taking extra classes."

"I know. You've been neglecting us the last couple years."

"I'm sorry. But this is important."

"It doesn't have anything to do with Shego being here, does it? I thought the two of you made peace."

"Shego's going to be there?"

"Yes. It was a rather odd call. Very fast. But I said she was welcome."

"I guess I could bring my work home with me."

"If you're uncomfortable with Shego being here I can keep her busy in the kitchen with me."

"No, that's okay. I mean, we did make peace last Spring. If I stayed out here she'd think I hated her or something."

"So there is no problem with her being here?"

"None at all, Mom. You're wonderful. No problem with Shego being there." "Unless she catches us in bed together," her subconscious mind reminded her. "No sex," her conscious mind warned her sternly, "too much chance of getting caught. It's wrong to do it at home." "SEX! YES!" her id screamed.

"Someone is in a happy mood," Tony commented as Kim ate dinner at his apartment the evening before her flight to Middleton.

"It's my artichoke dip," his boyfriend told him.

"I love you, Dear. I love your artichoke dip. But even your artichoke dip couldn't make her smile like that." He turned to Kim, "You're going to get laid over break, aren't you?"

Kim blushed and mumbled, "Maybe."

"Someone new or the guy who makes your eyes light up? The one with the cute brothers you never introduced me to?"

"If you're trying to make me jealous, it's working," Tony's new boyfriend sniffed.

"What makes your artichoke dip so good?" Kim asked to change the subject.

The flight to Middleton was routine. It was wonderful to see her family again. Kim and Shego felt like they had been very discrete during dinner – a couple times patting each other on the leg under the table, but nothing that anyone else could have seen.

"James, please take Jim and Tim out for ice cream," Anne told her husband at the end of the meal.

"Mom!" Tim protested.

"The pie will still be here when you get home."

"Upperton, again?" James sighed.

"Upperton again, and drive extra slowly."

"Neither of you two even think of moving," Anne warned Kim and Shego as the men left.

Kim felt a sense of vague Lovecraftian fear and glanced at Shego with a look of, "Did you say anything?"

Shego correctly interpreted the look, and shook her head, "No."

Anne let the two sit nervously as she waited to hear the car leave the driveway. "I didn't realize how well the two of you made peace last spring," she said dryly.

"What do you mean, Mom?"

"You didn't leave any bruises, but that's your lipstick on Shego's throat."

"What?" Kim looked to Shego, but the pale woman had already put her hand to her throat.

"It's, uh, my lipstick," Shego explained, "I must have, ah, slipped and got some on my fingers or… Wait, I remember, I put on too much. I must have gotten some on my fingers when I wiped the excess—"

"It is Kim's color, not yours."

"She must have washed her face and left some on the washcloth when she got in. I washed before dinner and—"

Anne closed her eyes and a pained expression crossed her face. "While I would appreciate either of your lies being true I would prefer you not mistake me for an idiot and tell me the truth."

"Maybe I was just very happy to see her?" Kim suggested timidly.

"Very happy," Anne agreed. "Very, very, happy it would seem. Very, very, very happy. Judging by the guilty expressions on both your faces I'm going to guess very, very, very, very happy."

"We, uh, haven't had time to get that happy yet," Shego admitted. "Should I leave under my own power or would you prefer to throw me out into the street?"

"I would prefer to know the truth."

Anne sighed as they finished the story. "Shego, I don't understand why you came here."

"Yeah, I don't understand that either," Kim seconded.

"My assignment is out East. There's a chance I might have been seen with you. I figured—"

"You're close to me? Why haven't you come to see me?"

"Because it's dangerous, remember?"

"More dangerous than sleeping with her under my roof," Anne asked.

"You could just stay in my apartment," Kim whispered.

"In addition to not being an idiot," her mother reminded Kim, "I also hear perfectly well."

"Do you want me to leave now?" Shego asked again.

"Your leaving now would raise more questions from the twins than I want to answer. Kim is an adult. Who she sleeps with is her business. I am uncomfortable with her sleeping with you here. Shego you will remain in the guest bedroom. I don't believe it would do me any good to ask you two to not have sex while you're here. But your brothers are not adults and the two of you will kindly be so discrete that you don't raise any suspicions in their minds. Think you can manage that?"

"Yes," Shego promised.

"Kim?"

"Yes, Mom."

"I also suggest you not wear lipstick while you're home. You either, Shego."

They both nodded.

"And Kim?"

"Yes, Mom?"

"As a further incentive for the two of you to be careful, I don't want your father to suffer a heart attack. I have grown very fond of him over the years."

Kim might have preferred sleeping with her arms around Shego, but there was something exciting about the pale woman pouncing on her at one in the morning and their mutual frantic efforts to make no noise.

Anne insisted they go out for lunch with her the day before Shego left. "I've had a few days to think about the two of you," Anne began.

Anne fell silent. Shego waited a minute before asking, "And?"

"And I've got no idea what to think or say. I don't know whether I should tell your father or simply let this run its course and forget it ever happened. What are your feelings towards each other?"

The two younger women glanced nervously at each other and said nothing.

"Ah, young lust," Anne sighed. "Raging hormones meet raging hormones in a sex-induced haze that doesn't allow the brain to function."

"Yeah, pretty much," Shego agreed.

"I was being sarcastic."

"Sorry."

"Shego… I'm still upset with both of you for not being honest with me. I won't invite you for Christmas… Would you get time off from whatever mission you're on?"

"I don't think so."

"That makes things easier. If you're still seeing each other in the Spring… Please, give me some warning. Like I said, Kim is an adult. I can't tell her who she can sleep with. I would prefer the two of you not be having sex. But I won't make Kim chose between family and you." She turned to Kim, "Let me know and I'll figure out some way of breaking it to your father. Maybe you can stay in the same room. That might be easier on my nerves that listening to you at one in the morning."

"I thought we were pretty quiet," Kim muttered.

"If I'd been asleep I doubt you would have awakened me, but I didn't sleep very well the last few nights."

"Sorry Anne." "Sorry Mom."

The next morning Anne made sure Shego was not wearing lipstick before letting Kim drive her to the airport for her flight.

On a cold January evening Kim arrived back at her apartment after classes to find a pair of boots just inside her door. A few feet further a black sweater lay on the floor. Beyond the sweater, where the hall turned toward the bedroom, lay a pair of green stretch pants. Kim followed the trail to find Shego in her bed, naked except for the rose between her teeth and a stick-on bow on her stomach.

"Why the bow?"

Shego took the rose out from between her teeth, "You complained I didn't bring you anything last time I came."

Kim sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

"I think you have a pretty good idea," Shego smirked. "The question is, why are you still in your clothes?"

Kim started to take off her blouse, and Shego pulled her into the bed to help undress her.

As Shego began to run her hands and lips on Kim's body the redhead reached for her jeans and dug her cell phone out of a pocket.

"What are you doing?"

"Canceling dinner," Kim explained as she hit speed dial.

"Hello?"

"Tony, darling, I can't make dinner."

"You're passing on linguini with white clam sauce?"

"Sorry, I- Ooohhh," Kim moaned as Shego's tongue found an especially sensitive spot.

"You sound like you're having a good time."

"Oh yeah," Kim panted. "Something came up."

"Between his legs, I'll bet. The one who makes your eyes light up?"

"Oh yeah… Oh yeah… Oh yeah…"

"Am I ever going to get a name for your boytoy?"

"Vegas…" Kim moaned, "Vegas."

"I'm not sure if that's his name or where you met him. So, since you aren't doing anything important at the moment, want to discuss your views of Cartesian dualism?"

Kim hung up.

An hour later, after the exchange of gifts, Kim asked, "Can we get dressed and I'll take you out for dinner?"

"No. I'm taking you up on your offer to let me stay here out of sight. We need to order delivery."

"Can you tell me anything that won't violate security?"

Shego shrugged, "I'll tell you what you've probably already guessed while we wait for food to arrive."

"Working with Drakken gave me quite a reputation," Shego told Kim as they sat on the couch and the redhead flipped through the channels looking for background noise while they waited on pizza. "I never came up at the trial and never testified or anything. People figure I escaped.
"And since no one knows I ended up at Global Justice either it wasn't that hard to get a job with a group Global Justice wanted inside information on."

"But it would look bad if you were seen with former hero Kim Possible."

"You're still a hero," Shego told her. "You just let yourself get out—"

Kim kissed Shego before she could say, 'out of shape'.

Eight days later Shego was back in Kim's apartment and bed for the night. "They're starting to trust me, give me a little more freedom," the green woman explained. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not a bit," Kim purred as she cuddled in Shego's arms. "I'm ready to tell Monique and Bonnie we're sleeping together now."

"Remember, you need to wait until this assignment is over."

"They won't tell anyone. I want to tell them."

"Working up to telling your dad? You've already told your gay friend?"

"Uh, actually Tony thinks you're a guy."

"What? You told him I was a guy?"

"He assumed you were a guy. I met him while I was in a 'I need a studly man' phase and he just assumed you were my studly man."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm serious. He was the one who jumped to conclusions. I didn't say anything."

"And you didn't say anything to correct him either."

"Tony seems to like thinking about studly men."

"You're impossible."

"No. Apparently I'm bi. It's kind of neat. I can like both men and women."

"I'm going to have 'property of Shego' tattooed on your ass."

"You want to brand me so I don't stray? You want to keep me?"

Shego said nothing, but her arms tightened slightly around the younger woman, "God. I wish I could keep you."

It was a little more than a week until Shego's next visit, and less than a week until another.

They lay in bed together. Kim propped herself up on her left arm and slowly traced the forefinger of her right hand around Shego's lips. "You are so beautiful," she breathed softly.

"So are you."

"I told Ron I was sleeping with you. I had to. And I told him to keep it secret - you know he will."

"I trust him. How'd he take it?"

"I'm not sure he believed me… I told you he was sleeping with the other you, didn't I?"

"Yeah. Neither of us had any trouble believing that."

"He's really serious."

"I can believe he's serious. I can't believe she… Maybe I'm wrong. This shared memory thing is weird. The guys I remember were just interested in one thing—"

"Unlike you, who has no interest in sex at all."

"Quiet, Possible," Shego growled. "I think a guy like Ron is just what she needs."

"He seems happy."

"When you have a guy by the balls the heart will follow."

"I think we're wasting a lot of time talking about the two of them," Kim announced, and leaned over to kiss Shego.

Kim was awakened by a persistent knocking on her door a few nights later. Half-asleep she stumbled to the door. Shego had a key… But Kim had put the chain on the door. She opened the door the length of the chain, "Who is it?"

The heavy-set man hit the door hard with his shoulder, pulling the chain from the frame and knocking Kim to the floor. The two men behind him, with drawn guns, wanted to do their job quickly – in case the noise had awakened anyone else in the apartment building. "Come with us," they ordered.

Kim realized arguing would have been a poor choice.

At the end of an hour's drive in the trunk of a car she recognized the man with the brown hair and the eye patch who confronted her.

"Gemini," she said coldly. "I figured you were in prison."

"Global Justice still believes that double is the real me?"

"Global Justice? What are you talking about?"

"You pretend you aren't working for Global Justice?"

"I'm in college. I haven't done any hero work in a couple years."

He shrugged, "A pity, if true. Still, you deserve elimination for the problems you caused the Worldwide Evil Empire years ago." He turned to a man at the side of the room, "Zeta, summon Delta."

Kim's heart beat faster when Delta arrived. The WEE uniform clearly covered the body of a woman.

"You recognize Kim Possible, of course."

"Of course," Shego replied. "She and I have been enemies for years."

"Enemies you say?"

"Certainly. We hate each other."

"You were followed to her apartment building."

"She lives in Tony's apartment building?"

"You didn't know?"

"Certainly not. I'd have beat the crap out of her for old times sake… No. I wouldn't have. I wouldn't want to draw attention to WEE. I am a loyal soldier for the cause."

"Very commendable," Gemini murmured. "Apparently we kidnapped her by mistake. She must be eliminated."

"She could be kept as a hostage," Shego suggested.

"She claims to not be working for Global Justice. That means she has no value as a hostage."

"She could be lying."

"Whether she is lying or not, Kim Possible is a danger who must be killed."

"If she is lying she might have information of value for WEE. It is our duty to interrogate her."

"She is a woman with a resolve almost as firm as my sister's. She will tell us nothing."

"But—"

"My mind is made up." Gemini told Shego, and tossed her a pistol. "Since you hate her I will give you a rare present. Shoot Kim Possible."