Wallace laughed. "Hey, sis, didn't know you were bringing a friend over!" He looked at Kim and Shego's clasped hands and winked at his sister.
Kim noticed the exchange and unsubtly let go. She noticed that Shego was blushing. So cute, she thought. She offered her hand to Wallace. "I'm Kim." She paused as they shook hands. "Kim Possible."
"Dr. Possible's daughter?" asked Walter.
"The one and only," Kim replied.
"Fascinating." Wallace grinned as he looked at his sister, who was starting to look like she was going to die of embarrassment... Or she was looking like one ripe tomato.
Walter was smiling as well. "It looks like there's not much to move, but thank you for coming over anyway, Kim." He shook her hand and went off to the kitchen. "Can I get any of you drinks?"
Kim chuckled. "I think you should give your sister water or something. She looks like she's gonna burst or something."
Shego shushed the redhead. "Kim! Stop teasing, will you?" She sighed. "Walter, just give me water. How did you manage to move the boxes in so quickly?"
Walter came back with two glasses and handed one each to Kim and Shego. "Dr. Porter lent us some of her androids to help out... and I guess we sort of forgot to tell you that we didn't really need an extra set of hands."
Wallace chimed in with a "But you guys can stay for dinner!"
"Oh crap." She put down her fork.
They were eating take-out for dinner when she realised there was something she forgot to do. The twins were looking at her curiously and Kim gave her a worried look.
"Betty asked me to talk to Wade about setting up a network... Damn, how did that slip my mind?" Oh wait, Kim was distracting me, she mused happily.
"Wade? I can give you his number." Kim pulled out her cell phone and texted the number to Shego. "You can actually call him right now... He's probably still in the office."
"Why? Are you a slave driver who makes her employees work at 8 o'clock at night?" she asked amusedly.
"Oh no, he sort of lives there..."
"What?"
"He does a lot of freelancing but it's mostly contracts from overseas. We actually have really good hardware in the office and, since I've known him for a very long time, he probably has more access to everything than Bonnie."
"Oh..." Shego looked at her brothers and explained, "Kim owns the Middleton Daily newspaper."
"Cool, so you're going out with one of the wealthiest people in the city? Damn, you're lucky," commented Walter.
She felt her face burn. Again. Only her baby brothers knew how to push her buttons. She must've either turned really red or made a funny face because Kim burst out laughing.
Kim laughed at the bemused expression on Shego's face. "Walter, I think you should stop teasing your sister... She might do something bad to you later. Also, I might own the paper, but that doesn't mean I'm filthy rich."
"How can you not be?" asked Walter.
"It takes money to run the paper, along with all the other legal stuff I have to deal with. I have a fair amount from personal savings, but I also give it away to charities and the like. I don't really care that much about how much I could possibly profit with the paper - I just want to keep it running in the long run." For the Stoppables' sake, she thought.
"Keeping it running still requires money," commented Wallace.
"True, but the revenue made are usually redirected into employee salaries and operating costs... so the profit isn't that much, but we're still breaking even."
Wallace nodded. "That's better than losing money. But you still have a bit of a reputation from what Walter and I noticed. Even though you're Dr. Possible's daughter, we heard..."
"...stories," finished Walter.
Shego tilted her head in curiosity. Everyone had forgotten about the topic of her and Kim's relationship, but even she was curious about Kim's social position in the small town of Middleton.
"Humour me," Kim said. "I've heard a lot about myself in a variety of different outlets. I wonder what else they've said to me that I can add to the list." Her tone wasn't harsh, nor was it amused.
Walter and Wallace looked at each other reluctantly.
"Just stuff about how you're all..."
"Goody-goody for show."
Shego blinked. She supposed it was the twins' way of saying that Kim was a fake.
Kim smiled and replied calmly. "That's all? Seems pretty standard to me."
Shego thought Kim's nonchalance was a mask to hide the redhead's true emotions, but she couldn't really tell, and it was not in her, and her brothers', best interest to prod for more information.
Sensing that things might get super awkward if they continued discussing this topic, Shego finally asked, "So... Why exactly were the two of you walking around in your boxers earlier?"
Author's Notes: This is such an awkward chapter. I might rewrite it later...
Chapter title is from "Deciphering Me" by Brooke Fraser.