It was instinct that made Kim open her eyes and roll over to face the window. Whether it was survival instinct or something else, she wasn't sure, but the fact remained that Shego was there with her arms crossed, silhouetted by the windows in the darkness.

"You took off," Kim chose to open with.

"I did. I was about to get very angry."

"Why?"

"'Not that evil?'" Shego quoted with increasing vehemence. "'Not evil at all? A lonely, unhappy girl?'" She all but spat those final words.

"Well... you do seem grumpy, a lot of the time..."

Shego's scowl worsened. "Living in the real world does that to you, especially when you do it alone. At the convention... Hench intro'd his doohicky with a 'test your badness level' machine. Drakken hit level two. Playground bully." Her arms uncrossed so her hands could rest on her hips. "Guess how my test went?"

"Higher?"

"As high as it could go. If it'd been a thermometer, it woulda popped. Wanna know what I was thinking about at the time? You and yours featured heavily."

"I guess that explains why you were playing so rough during that fight."

"Wasn't playing," the villainess pointed out as she stalked towards the bed. "You seem to have forgotten who you fell in love with, princess. And after the last couple of days, my 'evil energy' is in overdrive. Right now I'm channeling everything from Elizabeth Báthory to Maria Mandel, so don't-"

"I'm sure I can find a way to soothe the savage b-"

"Try it and I'll fry your face off," the green girl snarled. "Maybe then I'll get over this temporary insanity..."

"You love me, and we both know it. And I love you too, which is why I'm sorry." Kim pulled the duvet off and got out of bed, looking Shego in the eye as she continued, "I'm sorry you had to endure the consequences of that comet. I'm sorry your brothers were too foolish to realize they were driving you away. And I'm sorry I implied you weren't so bad."

"Aw, you said sorry. All better. How about a big wet kiss?"

From the whiny sarcasm it was obvious Shego didn't expect a kiss. What Kim didn't expect was the backhand that almost sent her back across the bed. She put a hand to her stinging cheek as she faced Shego, who dispassionately informed her, "Don't forget which of us is more likely to break our little bedroom truce, and never doubt how low I can go. Breaking your heart's a viable option if it'll get you off my back."

The villainess had made it to the window before Kim asked, "Even if it breaks yours too?"

Shego didn't even pause. "Pain lets us know we're still alive, Kimmie."

"How'd you get here?"

That halted her exit. Shego had expected pleading, waterworks, maybe even that damn pout...

"Do you use one of Drakken's hovercars?" Kim pressed.

"What's it to ya?" the green girl shot back without turning around.

"If talk or sex won't help, we both know what will. Can you pick me up in the back yard?"

It only took Shego a second to see where Kim was going with this."Sure," was all she said before stepping out the window.

Kim waited a moment before going to the top of the stairs. "Mom?" she called softly, assuming her mother had heard Shego's voice and was now snooping below.

Ann revealed her presence at the foot of the stairs. The younger redhead blushed, an automatic response to the sight of her mother since learning she was aware of Shego's... interests. It didn't help that she was dressed only in a négligée.

"Still determined to see us fight?" Kim asked. Ann nodded silently. "Then put something warmer on and meet me in the kitchen."

"Are you sure? She sounded..."

"Trust me," her daughter told her, "It'll help both of you."

The teenager only slipped a pair of sneakers onto her bare feet before going to the kitchen and staring out the window. Her mother joined her a minute later. "I left a note for your father," she whispered, "Just in case."

Kim opened her mouth to argue, but only shrugged instead. She couldn't blame her mother for being cautious, especially if she'd heard enough of tonight's conversation. Mom didn't know Shego like she did.

Shego must have parked a reasonably safe distance away, for it was several more minutes of increasingly uneasy silence before they saw the hovercar drop into the back yard.

"You brought your mother?" Shego asked incredulously as the redheads approached.

"I want to understand how all this started," Ann explained as she eyed the transportation dubiously. Through her daughter's hobby, she'd had enough encounters with mad science to know the bizarre machine worked somehow, but still... perhaps she was intentionally distracting herself. It was proving difficult to look directly at the green girl.

Kim hopped in and took the middle seat. "Mom and I had a long talk and I explained a few things," she paused to pat the last seat and watch her mother climb aboard with a resigned sigh. "I think she'll have a better idea of how we are if she sees us in action." If that was intended as an opening for a sexual innuendo, Shego didn't take it. "Take us west over the woods," Kim suggested, "Let's see if we can find a clearing, a safe distance away."

Shego took off without word or warning. Ann gripped her seat tightly, lamenting the lack of even the simplest seat belts.

They found their clearing a good five minutes in. The villainess landed the craft before hitting the lights, then performed a superhuman leap that landed her on one side of the resulting arc of lit grass. The lack of communication bothered Kim as she jogged to the opposite side. She suspected Shego was going to play... no, fight hard, again. The suspicion proved accurate as her lover ignited her glow straight off the bat.

"No heat, okay?"

"Why not?" the green girl sniped.

The teen hero gestured to their surroundings. "Forest fires."

"But it's so pretty," Shego whined sarcastically before snarling, "And wouldn't it make the perfect backdrop for when I beat you down once and for all?"

Kim's eyes widened at that final statement, springing into evasive action as Shego leapt at her without further warning.

Ann gasped as the violence began, but her fearful mood soon gave way to the slack jaw of amazed surprise. Due to her research into Shego, she was aware of her physical prowess and fighting skill, as well as her superpower and at least some of what she could do with it. She could see the bizarre green energy bite deep into the ground and feared what would happen if one hit its mark.

But they never did. Kim was holding her own. Whenever she passed beyond melee range, she would bob, weave, leap and roll to avoid the ranged blasts until she was back in Shego's face, at which point she would suffer nothing more than the occasional glancing hit between dodges and blocks (forearm against forearm). She occasionally got a solid hit to Shego's torso, but they barely slowed the villainess down. Ann wondered if that was solely due to her mutation, or her combat training, or both.

"Don't try to play the punching bag, princess," Shego yelled during a very brief lull after the teenager somersaulted away, "If you don't gimme all you've got, I might just have to kill you!"

Is Kimmie holding back? Ann wondered. Shego certainly didn't sound like she was joking.

The battle went on for a good fifteen minutes before their defenses began to flag. A backhand to the head had Shego staggering, but she rolled and blasted before Kim could take advantage. It clearly demonstrated, however, that while the redhead's shirt and sweatpants now sported rips and tears, she was now able to get more successful attacks in. They were both slowing down.

Ann surprised herself, this time: instead of continuing to fear for her daughter's life as she had expected, she had become fascinated by how the fight was progressing. She was awed by how their fighting instincts had been drilled into both combatants to such an extent that they could act and react against each other so quickly and precisely. This must be what Kim had been talking about during our conversation, she realized, suspecting there was a subtext to the struggle she was not knowledgable enough to pick up on. The threat of grievious injury aside, this could almost be a dance...

Or foreplay...

Is Shego smiling now?

Kim wasn't smiling, exactly, but from the look on her face... satisfaction. Mission accomplished, then? Had a big fight really improved Shego's mood?

According to her next move, it had. The kiss she landed on Kim's mouth was brutal. Again, Kim matched her ferocity with equal passion. The transition was jarring to Ann's sensibilities, but regardless of her opinion, she believed she did indeed understand the couple better than she had when she'd turned in for the night.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sight of Shego suddenly lifting Kim up and slamming her down onto her back. She quickly straddled the younger girl's waist and wrapped a hand around her neck.

"And that's why the bad guys will always have the advantage, Kimmie," the villainess huffed, "We'll always take it a step beyond where the good guys are prepared to go. If you don't step up, it's only a matter of time before you get yourself killed. Or worse, someone else."

Kim glanced in her mother's direction. "I always find a way," she insisted, "Always."

"You have so far, but you're only putting off the inevitable. Nobody's perfect, princess. Someday you'll make a mistake, and then... it's all over. I could kill you both, out here. Is there any particular reason why I shouldn't?"

To Ann's continued amazement, Kim seemed to think the question over without fear. Then she answered, "You'd only get to do it once."

Shego thought that over, then smirked. "True," she admitted, leaning down to kiss her victim again, then moving her lips to the ear on the far side from Ann. "Just remember," she whispered, "Every time you watch me fist-fuck your momma, it will occurr to me to light up while I'm in there."

The green girl got up off the stunned teenager and sauntered back towards the elder redhead, whose expression was a clash of amazement and horror. "You think we don't know how crazy this is?" Shego asked as she approached. "Trust me, your little girl's just as aware as I am. But we've both decided we want to ride this train, wherever it takes us."

"It can't be healthy," Ann opined.

Shego shrugged. "What're you gonna do about it? Somehow, I doubt parents that let their eldest go off and risk her neck on a regular basis would forbid her from making what's probably a mistake."

"Kimmie can handle that," Ann said resolutely, "I know that now better than ever. But your relationship is putting her mind at risk." Ann found the will to look the villainess in the eye when it mattered. "And her heart," she added softly.

"And her soul, right?" Shego climbed into the hovercar and quickly straddled her. "What if I'm corrupting your little Kimmie? Leading her down my path? Or maybe I'll do something else, like turn her into a depraved slut that gets off on watching her girlfriend molest her mother." The green girl settled onto Ann's lap, one hand snaking around to the small of her back while the other reached up to her face, the thumb crossing her lips.

"Kim would stop you," Ann insisted, though she couldn't keep the nervous quiver out of her voice.

"Assuming she wants to. Are you so sure she does?"

Before Ann could respond, Shego's black lips were on hers.

Ann froze in shock at the contact. The first thought that finally managed to run through her mind was that the lips currently pressing against hers had just been pressed against her daughter's. She began to struggle, but Shego grabbed her hair in both hands and gave a sharp pull. The resulting gasp from the elder redhead allowed Shego's tongue access.

The tongue that had just been in her daughter's mouth.

Where was she?

Habit had led Ann to close her eyes as she was being kissed, but she opened them now to discover Kim standing beside the vehicle, blushing profusely as she chewed on her lower lip. Ann's struggle ceased at the sight of her.

Her expression wasn't exactly disapproving. The deep flush of her cheeks might not even have been entirely due to embarrassment.

Ann raised a hand to Shego's collarbone and gently pushed. Somehow, it suddenly seemed the most likely way to end this, and it worked. The green girl's tongue was the last to leave, but the wicked grin on her face proved she'd had the taste she'd wanted.

"I'm a happily married woman, Shego."

"I know he's a scatterbrain, but he's still a guy. You honestly think he'd mind you getting it on with another girl?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. The subject's never come up."

"Well, now you've got a reason to bring it up."

"You are just loving this, aren't you," Kim supposed as she climbed back into the hovercar's middle seat.

Shego responded by leaning over and kissing the younger redhead the same way she'd just kissed the elder. When it was finished and the villainess twisted across to the driver's seat, Kim couldn't look at her mother. Ann assumed she was having her own issues with where Shego's tongue had been.

The ride back was silent. When they landed in the back yard, Ann noticed the longing look Kim gave Shego, but she didn't dare voice her desire for her to stay. The green girl only winked at her, and took off again as soon as they were clear.

Apparently the teen hero intended to head back to her room without a word, but in the kitchen Ann stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Kimmie..." she began, only to realize she had no idea what to say. So she started with something a little easier. "You were amazing."

Kim turned to face her, surprise evident across her features. "What do you mean?"

"The last time I saw you two, you were just struggling over a thermos of syntho-goo. It wasn't really a fight. Tonight, on the other hand... I had no idea, the extent of your skill..."

"Oh!" Apparently Kim had forgotten the original intent of their late night sojourn in the last ten minutes, but now she grinned bashfully. "Y'know, I used to worry that if you knew just how dangerous the missions could get, you might stop me going. It... meant a lot, what you said. About my being able to handle it."

"I said it because I believe it. And I suppose Shego had a point... if I'm willing to let you continue with your missions, I can't really forbid you to see her outside your professional relationship."

"Do you want to?"

"Honestly, yes. But I understand why it happened. She's... opposite, yet equal. I imagine that's a rare thing for you." Ann paused, considering. "Of course, Ron is always by your side..."

Was that a smirk on mom's lips? "Yeah, but he's Ron," Kim was compelled to point out. They shared a smile before the teenager broached the next thing on her mind. "So... you don't mind me... seeing a girl?"

"Love who you love, Kimmie," Ann assured her, drawing her into a hug. "We'll always love you, no matter what."

"Thanks, mom," Kim breathed in relief. She'd done enough reading on the internet to know the kind of havoc homosexuality could bring to a life, and it was immensly comforting to know at least one member of her family was okay with it.

Which left the other thing; and suddenly she was extremely aware of her mother's breasts pressing against your chest.

It was on Ann's mind as well. "I'm not sure what to think about... the rest," she whispered, "The things she says... is she serious?"

"Every word. She gets a kick out of sticking the knife in with pure honesty."

"So... I'm just going to ask. Did you... enjoy what you saw?"

Kim tried not to panic. Now of all times, her mother deserved a leap of faith. Of course, one good thing about a hug was that they weren't eye to eye. "I know it's ferociously wrong, but... that's kinda why..."

"I can't fault your curiosity," Ann broke in, "And imagination is one thing, but I think it's best to leave some lines uncrossed."

"But that's just it," Kim said, "To cross those lines, just because they're there... and it makes me question why they're there in the first place."

"Questions are also good," Ann murmered, but the sudden turmoil in her mind made it difficult to expand on that. The question that was burning at the center of it all found her voice. "Are you saying that you could... imagine yourself... imagine us..."

"I used to think not, but now I don't know," Kim whispered. "I just don't know."

Ann felt her daughter take a deep breath, lean back... and kiss her.

It was barely anything. A peck that forgot it was supposed to end, for a few seconds. It was... nice. Like kisses generally were.

Kimmie drew back, her blush at full force once again, staring at Ann's lips before meeting her eyes.

"Kimmie..."

"I just wanted to see what it felt like," was all the teenager said before retreating to her bedroom.