She called me cupcake, Kim reminded herself as she walked through the spa. Shego hadn't used any of her pet names since the Bueno Nacho fight. Had she even been aware she'd said it? Not that see sounded too chummy when she said it, but...

Kim terminated that line of thought. She wasn't jealous if the villainess was fooling around with some guy who had 'the golden touch' and she definitely wasn't trying to get back together. Even if she did miss the feeling of Shego sucking an entire breast into her mouth... among other things... gah, stop it.

The mud bath was more of a wading pool that people lay in, using the edge of the pool as a pillow. There were less than a dozen people in it right now, and Shego was the easiest to spot. People were there alone or in pairs, but they all gave her a little extra space; did they know who and what she was?

Kim quietly set her towel down beside Shego's, folded to use as a pillow like everyone else was doing. As the redhead tied her hair in a high ponytail, she noticed that the women, Shego included, were topless. Kim had never been so nude in public, but managed to discard her bikini top without her face overheating before stepping into the mud.

It took a moment to immerse and settle herself. With her head resting comfortably on her towel, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath as she relaxed and sighed contentedly... a sound Shego should recognise even though she'd ignored her presence thus far.

"God damn it, Possible..."

The teenager glimpsed the villainess from the corner of an eye before closing it again. "Relax, Shego. You're stuck with me for the day, you might as well enjoy it."

The green girl's voice switched from a growl to a groan. "How'd you manage that?"

"Wade."

"What, you didn't save the owner's pet ferret or something?"

"I don't think so... who owns the place?"

Shego only grunted in response, but seemed content not to attack Kim for now.

The redhead took that as an encouraging sign. "Wade was very curious about why I wanted to see you again, actually. He contacted Doctor Director after you stole the sloth and asked if she knew anything."

"...And?"

"Your cell was bugged when we had our, um, conversation. She heard everything." Shego frowned, but didn't say anything, so Kim continued. "She paid me a visit to clarify a few things. Then my mother started flirting with her until she left."

"Heh. Good for her. So... how much did the cyclops tell the geek?"

"Just that our relationship is more complicated than is generally known. But I think it might have given him some disturbingly accurate ideas."

"The boy's a computer nerd. That's practically synonymous with 'pervert'."

"He's not that bad..." Kim wasn't nearly as sure about that as she tried to sound.

"If he wasn't jerking it to you before, you can bet he will to the both of us now."

"...You don't sound angry about that."

"Meh. Boys will be boys."

They fell into companionable silence for a while. Unsure what Shego was thinking about, Kim replayed their latest encounter through her mind. There was something she wanted to say, but it didn't feel like the right time yet.

Instead, she went with, "Did you see the graffiti around the lair?"

"I noticed it on the way out." Shego already knew she rocked, so she didn't have to bother confirming it.

"Did you know you have a fan club?"

"Yeah. Never paid it much attention."

"Wade says they have a list of things they'd like to see you do to me. You may have done half of them already."

"What about your fans?"

"They think I could seduce you back to a heroic lifestyle."

That provoked an involuntary bark of a laugh from the villainess. "At least my fans aren't as deluded as yours."

"I never seriously thought about it, you know." The teenager wasn't even sure a Shego that turned back to good would be the same person she fell in love with. It was something that occasionally concerned her. Had her relationship with Shego given her a thing for bad girls? That would explain the fantasies involving interesting ways to shut Bonnie up once and for all...

Shego interrupted her wayward thought. "What about those arguments we used to have?"

"You just think I'm an idiot for doing what I do for rides instead of money," the redhead reminded her.

"Which you don't need anymore now you've got your flying car," the green girl scoffed.

The prospect of charging for her heroics reminded Kim of a question she had forgotten to ask some time ago. "Were you on vacation when Team Impossible captured Drakken?"

"Yeah. When I busted him out, he ranted about that cheap shot he took at you for a whole hour. 'You think you're all that, but they are! Bwa ha ha haa!'" Shego's parody lacked any of the enthusiasm the mad scientist must have exhibited. "And you scared them into going non-profit. Pathetic, really."

They continued chatting between amiable pauses, and the others in the mud bath relaxed when it became clear that there would be no trouble. Kim didn't notice the confused or curious glances until they were out of the mud and on their way to the showers.

"What's the deal with you and this place, anyway? I know it's super exclusive, but they really don't call the police or anything whenever you make a reservation?"

Shego shrugged. "The management knows exactly who I am, what I can do, and what happens when I suffer annoying interruptions. They even apologized for failing to keep you out, last time."

"But you pay for your visits."

"Of course. I've developed a good reputation in the places I relax. God knows I need my relaxation," the villainess grumbled to herself before continuing, "If I follow the rules, there's no reason for them to risk irritating me."

Kim swallowed before asking, "Isn't, uh, screwing the masseur against the rules?"

"It's called discretion, Kimmie," Shego growled at the teenager for bringing it up in a relatively public place. "But if you want to get technical, we agreed that I rape him and he never files charges. That way he gets to keep his job, which is good news for everyone."

The teen hero was about to object to that, but the door of Shego's shower cubicle slamming shut in her face cut off further conversation for moment.

As the day went on, Kim could understand the attraction of being so pampered every now and then. And Shego was here for a week or more? She did like to relax. Even Wade hadn't managed to swing an appointment with Midas, so the teenager wouldn't get to see what all the fuss was about - concerning hot rocks or massages, not anything else - but Shego wasn't seeing him today either, which suited the redhead just fine.

However, as the pair went from one thing to another, Kim's presence seemed to irritate Shego more and more, which led to the silences getting longer and more uncomfortable. As afternoon turned to evening while they lounged by the swimming pool, Kim decided to bring up the matter that had brought her here in the first place.

"So, I take it Warmonga was the one who busted Drakken out of jail."

"Yep."

"Sorry I harshed on you the last time I was here."

No response. Not encouraging.

Kim ploughed on regardless. "And I also wanted to thank you for blasting her when you did. You saved my life."

"Noone's allowed to take your life but me," Shego stated evenly.

"I could have sworn you said you wouldn't let her destroy your Kimmie..."

The frown on the green girl's face deepened to a scowl. "You'd been knocked out, as I recall. 'Not gonna let someone waltz in and destroy Kimmie... that's my job.' That is what I said."

Kim couldn't keep the dejection out of her voice. "If someone else kills me, you don't get your rematch."

"Damn straight. Out of all the villains you face, I'm the one that makes you work for your victories... and let's face it, most of the time, you only win because Drakken does something stupid. Hell, trying to steal breathable air, again? He really doesn't think these things through."

Kim didn't give a damn about Drakken's schemes, but it didn't come out once she'd drawn the breath to say it. She took another breath, then asked instead, "Do you really think you could kill someone you've loved? With your own hands?"

Shego yanked the sunglasses off to glare at her. "You don't get to play the victim anymore, Possible," she snarled. "If anything, you betrayed me. We were put on this earth to kick each other's asses, and I'm not gonna quit until the world knows I beat you, once and for all."

"Even if it kills me."

"Get used to it." Shego slipped the shades back on and slammed back into the chair so hard it almost collapsed.

The villainess ignored the teenager completely until the ensuing silence was broken by a vehement, "Bullshit."

"Excuse me?" Shego didn't know which surprised her more, that Kim wass calling bullshit on her, or that the word had come out of her mouth.

"You heard me," Kim said as she got to her feet and faced her former lover. "You forget how well I know you, Shego. I hurt you, I get that, but I'm not at fault any more than you are. You may not have forgiven me, but I know you still care about me, and you're trying to hide it by being sarcastic and angry like you always do. Well, I'm not buying it.

"We may not be in love anymore, but I still love you, I always will, and I will never pretend what we had never meant anything."

Shego stared slack-jawed as Kim turned on her heel and walked away.

It took half an hour of internal debate and soul-searching to admit the damnable girl was right. Again. Shego wanted to be angry about it, but she couldn't, which was oddly infuriating in a pleasantly bizarre way. Kim Possible had stood up to her, still cared about her. Still loved her.

There was no way to twist that into a bad thing.

"Little Kimmie's growing up," the villainess muttered, before her usual grin settled across her lips.