Drakken walked Shego through the lair, showing her every room. He started with the bottom floor where all the henchmen resided, and moved up to the main floor where his lab, his office, and his experiments were held. At the top of the floor was his living space. There was a kitchen, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms. She looked around in awe, amazed that the top floor could look so much like a home while the bottom two floors looked far too much like a lair. He cleared his throat. "The henchmen are going to clean out one of those rooms, so you can have your own space."
She whipped around to face him so fast that she nearly knocked herself off her own feet. "You expect me to live here? With you?"
Drakken paused for a moment, feeling his cheeks blush. "I just assumed?" He shrugged, trying to play it off. "It's much more convenient, and you'll have your own space. I'm not up here much. I usually sleep in the lab, and-" he was rambling, which made him blush more.
Shego placed her hands on her hips and began tapping her foot, not taking her eyes away from Drakken's. "All my previous assistants have stayed here, and I can assure you, they were all very comfortable."
"Partner. I'm your partner. Not your assistant, remember?" Shego kept tapping her foot in annoyance.
"Right. Partner. My other partners have stayed here." Drakken gently tapped his fingers together, afraid of her. He was glad she was intimidating. That is, afterall, an important part of evil. However, he didn't expect to be intimidated by his own assistant. Sorry, partner.
Her eyes told him he was only making the situation worse, so he zipped his lips. She placed her thumb and a finger under her chin, as if she was thinking about it before she gave him a response. "Absolutely not."
He glared at her, but when realization of who he was looking at took over him, he wanted to smack himself. Of course the thought of living here would freak her out. Although she was a massive criminal, she was still a girl. A girl who would value her privacy and not desire to move in with some man she just met. He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Okay. I'll have that room to the right cleared out just in case you change your mind."
"I won't," she said as she turned around and went back to familiarizing herself with her surroundings.
…..
Two weeks into working for Drakken, she refused to admit he was right, but the truth was, she had deeply considered sleeping on the couch in the lair (because she refused to move in) more often than not. The late night tasks are frequent, and going home sounded silly when it was 3 am.
Nevertheless, she always went home anyway. Partly for comfort, but mainly because she thought it would be dangerous to let Drakken know he could be right about something. These two weeks have been incredibly formal, and he really only had her steal a few things. She mostly stayed in his lab, watching him work. He was preparing some nano robot tick that would help him take over the world although she didn't quite understand how. (He has told her 100 times, but she either couldn't grasp his scientific words or she stopped listening to him altogether).
While she didn't quite know what he was building, Shego still helped in any way she could. Fetching tools, getting ready for an intruder (Drakken went on and on about Kim Possible, who he was sure would show up and spoil his plans), and stealing a robot tick from some creepy biologist.
At this point, she was getting really tired of not doing much when an alarm went off. "Intruder alert!" Shego screamed.
Draken had a laser to the robot tick, and without even so much as giving her a glance, he shouted back. "I can't hear you! The intruder alert is too loud!"
Shego rolled her eyes. How could someone so brilliant be so stupid? She ran toward him and yanked him by the arm, pulling him to the screen, where the camera showed Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable swimming toward the lair. "Drakken." She started off calmly. "If the intruder alert is going off, that means THERE'S A FREAKING INTRUDER!"
He gaped at the screen when his brain put Shego's words together, but then he grinned devilishly. "Finally, we will meet Kim Possible."
…..
"Okay, so she blew up your lair." Shego stated in an attempt at making light of the situation. "At least it wasn't the lair you live in."
"Arg, Shego! I will not be outsmarted by a teenager."
Shego snorted. "Hate to break it to you, Doc, but you just kind of were."
Drakken's frustrations came out in an irritated shrill. "Shego!"
….
The robert tick was long gone in the explosion. Shego's ears were still ringing from Drakken's non-stop complaints and irritation about it as she drove home. She had been frustrated by the teen's win herself, but dear lord, that man never shut up. As Shego pulled into her driveway, her phone buzzed. She glanced at the caller ID and took a deep breath in and let it out slowly before she answered. "Yes Dr. Drakken?"
"It has a tracker." His voice sounded groggy, like he had either been up too long or he had just woken up. Shego would bet money it was the first one.
She placed a hand on her forehead and rubbed for a second before letting her hand slip down her own cheek. "What has a tracker?"
"The tick, Shego. It has a tracker."
"Okay, so track it."
"I can't."
"Why not?" The more he talked, the more irritable she became.
"The tracker exploded with the lair."
She dropped her head against the steering wheel and gritted through her teeth. "You're calling me to tell me the very thing you need to track the tick has exploded?"
"Yes." He sounded so sure of himself- like the words coming out of his mouth weren't crazy. However, she didn't want to lose her temper on him so early on in their contract. Despite his, for lack of a better word, quirks, he was quite good to work for. He paid her well, treated her with respect, didn't look at her like an object, and his need for approval made him easy to manipulate.
"I'm going to bed, Dr. Drakken," she finally said. "Goodnight."
She was about to hang up when he spoke again. "No, Shego, you don't understand. I can build another tracker."
She knew where this was headed. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He stayed silent, and less than a minute of his silence did the trick for her. "UGH! Fine. I'll be right there."
"Thanks, Shego!" He said, giddy. She rolled her eyes and hung up the phone. What had she gotten herself into?
…
They both were up all night. Drakken took a power nap while Shego stole the required parts he needed to build his tracker, but the second Shego got back, he was all about work. It was 5 am, and her eyes were fighting her to stay open as Drakken was building his tracker. "You can take a nap on the couch if you'd like," he said, finally looking up from his project and acknowledging her existence.
"I'm fine," she mumbled. It took so much energy from her to even speak, but she refused to let him win. She had one hand holding her chin up while the other was placed on the desk, keeping her body from falling over in her chair. She was fine .
He shrugged. "Suit yourself."
She jumped every time he made a noise or spoke. She sighed. "I'm going to get some coffee. Do you want some?"
He nodded but didn't even look in her direction. This was going to be a long night.
Before she knew it, it was 8am, and she hadn't slept. Even Drakken had taken his 15 minute power naps. Correction, 18 minutes. He gave himself 3 minutes to fall asleep. She rolled her eyes at the thought.
"I know where the tick is." It was the first time he had spoken in hours.
"Hmmm?"
"It's on Kim Possible."
…..
"Shego! How could you lose? You never fail!" Drakken had not shut up about Possible defeating her since she got in the hovercar, and she had had enough.
"Gee, I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with BEING AWAKE ALL NIGHT!" She shoved his shoulder, causing the hovercar to turn too far to the left, and making Drakken jump in his seat.
"Shego! I'm trying to drive here." He puffed out some air, but took a glance at her. The bags under her eyes were massive, and the fight with Kim had made them even bigger. She needed sleep, and he was suddenly very aware of how late he had kept her most nights. He had been used to an assistant- partner- living in close proximity, but Shego didn't. Every hour he kept her was an hour of lost sleep. He was about to apologize, but she spoke first, and her words made him freeze.
"Fine, you win. I'll move into your stupid lair." She crossed her arms and slouched, feeling defeated for the second time that day.