“I am very sorry, my dear ladies,” Senior informed Kim and Shego as he blocked the door to the cavernous training facilities, “but I need this space today. You will have to make yourselves scarce.”
“What's going on?” Kim asked.
“I have invited a great number of men to my island,” he replied. “Men who are good at hitting things and rappelling down walls. Some of them will be here the remainder of your stay, until the day your plans are put into motion. The others will not be here after today. If they see you here, they may try to sell that information to the Acceptables.”
Kim and Shego looked at each other. “So what the hell are we supposed to do for the whole day?” Shego asked, irritated.
“You are on an island,” he reminded her. “Try relaxing.” Then he slipped through the door behind him and closed it, locking it from within.
“We could break in,” Shego suggested, “and practice by taking on fifty men. And winning.”
“Senior's right,” Kim sighed. “We need a force of enough men to make lots of noise banging on the Acceptables’ front door. And if some of them don't cut it, they could tell anybody we're here. I guess we'll have to make do without taking out our mutual antagonism on each other for one day.”
Shego smiled. “You know, once upon a time, when I wasn't kicking your ass - “
“You never were kicking my ass!”
“Are you sure it's only been five years? Because I think you're going senile from your old age, Kimmie. Anyway, when I wasn't working you over, I did know how to relax. And it involved islands.”
Kim nodded after a moment. Shego had regaled her more than once with tales of the tropical paradises Kim only wished she'd been to. Still, it seemed unreal to follow up weeks of intense physical training by sunbathing.
She was about to mention this to Shego when she discovered the other woman had simply left without her. “Hey!”
Kim walked stiffly out to the pool in Senior's courtyard. Shego had beaten her outside by several minutes, and not only because she'd gotten to her rooms first. “You know…” she began to say as Shego entered her view, but she stopped.
Shego was lying on her stomach on a horizontal beach chair. She faced away from Kim, her head resting on her folder arms. She wore a two-piece bathing suit, one of two that Senior had provided each woman for those times they practiced swimming and underwater fighting. But Shego was only wearing the black piece that covered her rear. Her green top was untied and hanging loosely to either side, exposing her entire backside to the sun.
“Why do you even bother?” Kim finally asked instead. “You don't get tan lines.”
Shego turned her head leisurely to look at Kim. Kim was sure a wicked look lurked behind her shades. “What's that supposed to mean?” she asked in response. The curve of her left breast peeked out.
“Hello? Your skin? You don't get tan lines because you don't tan.”
“I tan,” Shego said in the tones of someone who was tired of explaining it for the fiftieth time. “You just don't see it.”
“You know,” Kim added, returning to her original thought, “I couldn't find either of my bathing suits. I'm sure they were both clean. Yours were, after all.”
The smile returned to Shego's face as she slowly inspected the green and black one-piece Kim was wearing, having had no other choice. Kim's cheeks burned. “I guess the maids made a mistake,” she finally said. “I like your taste, but those aren't your colors.”
“Or maybe someone hid them,” Kim retorted. “I couldn't help but notice that your other suit was laid out on your bed, like you didn't want someone to go through your drawers.” She stopped. “You couldn't have been in my room for more than half a minute before I got there. How could you know where to look? Have you been snooping?!” Kim asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Shego snorted, but she also looked away. “Like I'd be caught dead in one of your outfits,” she muttered.
“You couldn't have been dead that day when you kicked John Acceptable in the crotch in my boots,” Kim shot back.
Shego only muttered something.
Kim looked at her, frustrated. She realized that Shego was always the “bad girl” and that she had always been the “good girl”, but did Shego have to respond with an insult or a sneer every time Kim offered her a hand? Giving up, she lay down on the beach chair next to Shego's and put her wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses on.
“Kim?”
Kim raised her head. They'd said nothing for several minutes, and Kim had wondered if they would bathe in silence the whole day. “Yes?”
“Say we win,” Shego said. She turned and rested her head on one elbow. Her breasts were in full view now, and Kim uncomfortably looked down.
“For God's sake,” Shego muttered, picking her top up and connecting the strap in back. “You are such a prude.”
That hadn't been why Kim looked away. The scene was no different from the things she'd seen in locker rooms in her other life, but the way Shego's nipples were the same alien skin tone as the rest of her body made her look almost freakish. It shamed Kim to be affected so by another person's looks, but the stark quality had startled her. “So we win,” Kim said, looking back now.
“Right. On the off chance,” Shego replied. “What are you going to do then?”
“With what?”
“With yourself. Are you going back to school?”
Kim frowned. She'd thought about this more than once, but at this point, she didn't feel like answering without more information. “What about you?” she asked. “You've been behind locked doors for years, Shego. Where do you go after you've picked your life back up?”
Shego shrugged. “Beats me.”
“Maybe becoming a criminal's sidekick again? Like Drakken's?”
The pale brunette surprised Kim again by laughing. “No,” she said, wiping an eye. “I don't think so.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, I spent four years taking orders from the Acceptables and hating every minute of it,” Shego explained. “And since then I've been taking orders from you, which isn't much of an improvement. So I think I'd like to assert my independence for a while.”
Kim cocked her head. “But you were a sidekick. It was your job to follow Drakken's orders. Shouldn't you be used to it?”
Shego smiled sardonically. “Who do you think was in charge all those years ago, Kimmie? Him?”
“Well…”
“He paid me to do things I would have done for myself,” Shego said. “Breaking and entering, stealing, fighting. And I didn't fight you because I was trying to save his sorry blue hide. I fought you because after the first couple of times, it became my ambition at that time to defeat you once and for all. You were my competition.” She gestured dismissively. “I picked Drakken for two reasons - one, he let me run his life, not the other way around. And two, his plans were so grandiose that I knew you'd always come running. Thereby giving me another shot at winning.”
“Really,” Kim replied. “For a while I wondered if maybe something was going on between you two.”
Shego looked revolted. “Oh, gross! I think I'm going to be sick! Look, he was a nice enough guy, I guess. He needed me, and I didn't have to remind him of that very much. But trust me, he was never my type.” Then she smiled slyly. “Sometimes I wondered if you were had a secret thing with Stoppable.”
Kim blinked. “With Ron?” She leaned back in her chair. Part of her wanted to burst out laughing, but only a small part. “Ron has been my best friend my whole life,” Kim admitted. “I think a lot of girls would be lucky to have him for a boyfriend. But I think our friendship got in the way. Maybe if I'd considered it, I would have given us a chance. But we'd been friends for so long, I don't think either of us even thought of it. Then the Acceptables came along, and we were no longer Team Possible, and we didn't see each other quite as much as before…”
Taking off her sunglasses, she looked at Shego. “You asked me earlier what I would do if we defeated the Acceptables. I'll tell you if you tell me why you asked.”
Shego sighed and stretched out again on the chair. “I want to live my life again when this is over,” she said. “I want to be strong like I was before I was captured. So I'm going to go back to what I do best.”
“Being a criminal?” Kim asked, dismayed.
“Yep,” Shego said.
“And you wanted to know if I was going back to being a hero,” Kim realized.
Shego nodded.
“You don't have to break the law to be strong, Shego,” Kim told her. “I think you're a very strong person.”
“What you think isn't enough for me, Possible,” Shego snapped. “I need the kick, the rush, the thrill. And I'm not cut out for the hero business.”
“And I'm not a criminal!” Kim shouted at her.
Shego looked at her. “No one's asking you to,” she said slowly.
“Oh?” Kim asked. “So if you stole something, and I came to take it back from you, it wouldn't feel weird fighting me?”
“We've been fighting each other every day for the past - “
“We're not trying to kill each other,” Kim interrupted, “no matter how much we tell ourselves that. But,” she continued calmly, “if the only way you could win was to kill me or let me die, would you feel any differently than you would have five years ago?”
“No,” Shego replied instantly.
Kim was surprised at how much that remark hurt her. “Then you should have no problem being who you used to be,” she finally said. “You already are.”
She put her glasses back on and turned over, ready to give her own back a turn under the sun.
“I…”
Kim turned her head. “What?!” she asked viciously.
Shego looked oddly hesitant. “I - I wouldn't feel any differently because I don't think I ever wanted you to die in the first place,” she admitted softly.
Kim gaped at her. “You're kidding! There must have been twenty different times when I could have died so easily!”
“But you didn't,” Shego said. “I think you underestimate just how easy it was for you. I knew you'd live. I just wanted to see how you do it.” She looked angry as she said what she probably had never imagined she would tell Kim, but there was also open sincerity in her eyes. “I told you that you were my life's ambition. I wanted so much to beat you because I hated you, but I also admired and respected your talent so much.”
Kim was utterly dumbfounded. “I never would have guessed,” she said honestly.
Shego looked downcast. “So you're going back to being a hero?”
She nodded. “If we win and the Acceptables are gone, this world will need someone to fill the void, and… you know, when the Acceptables arrived on the scene, on some level I was glad they showed up. I wanted to give it up.”
“Now you're the one who's kidding,” Shego accused her.
“No, really,” Kim said. “I was still a teenager, and I had all those silly, selfish desires that teenage girls have, and I felt like I was missing out on so much. Certainly one girl reminded me of that constantly. I never planned to be what I was. I planned for college and a career and love. And no matter how easy you thought it was, I was afraid every time I skirted the edge of death because you can't do that forever. And the first time you fail, you don't get another chance.” She stopped. “My mother knew that too,” she added quietly. “She's never said so, but I know she was glad I stopped.”
“But now you're going back,” Shego reminded her.
“Hey, you pulled me back in,” Kim replied, trying to laugh. “I think… it's what I was meant to do in life. Even after five years, my instincts didn't change. I knew you were in real trouble that night. I knew I believed you, not the Acceptable kids who've been fighting crime all that time. I can't waste that on a normal life.”
“So what, you think we're doomed to die before we see our thirtieth birthdays?” Shego scoffed.
“I'm the good guy, so I'm the introspective one, remember?”
Shego laughed. “Yeah, I'm the devil-may-care girl. I don't worry about the future. I believe I'll live forever. You should too. Stop talking and lie back down, Possible. You're depressing me.”
“Are you saying I'm gloomy?” Kim asked.
“You were gloomy in high school. Look at your outfit, black and olive. Nothing says ‘drab’ like black and olive.”
Kim smiled for real this time. “Mind if I share a secret too?”
“Oh, sure. As long as you don't trust me to keep it.”
“I would never have admitted this to Monique or Ron,” Kim went on, undeterred, “but remember that day in our rooms you told me your outfit was an expression of how you viewed yourself?”
Shego nodded, not saying anything. She also remembered how she'd felt after she tried her old gear on.
“I always liked your outfit too,” Kim told her. “It was so brash and bold and rebellious. Unlike me, you never dressed for camouflage.”
“Really?” Shego asked, startled.
Kim nodded. “It challenged the eye the way you challenged everything else.”
Shego tapped her fingertips on her knee. “You know,” she finally said, “I figured that would fit you.” She gestured to the bathing suit Kim had borrowed. “You and I were always the same size.”
“Yeah, I guess… so,” Kim replied before noticing the glint in Shego's eye. “What?”
“Why am I just sitting here, waiting on you?” Kim called out, perched on her bed and still wearing Shego's suit.
“Because,” Shego said as she finally arrived, “it's mine, so I get first crack at it.” She leaned on the doorframe. “Well?” she asked saucily.
Kim smiled. “I was wondering what took you so long,” she replied.
Shego went over to Kim's mirror and checked her backside out with a trace of anxiety. “That first time was so mortifying,” she said. “I guess I was afraid I would try it on and see the same thing.”
“Those Acceptables really did a number on you,” Kim said quietly. As Shego had noted before, they had similar figures, so Kim couldn't help but admire her lithe physique and the way the tight green and black bodysuit accentuated her athletic body.
Shego scowled darkly. “Yeah, they did,” she said. “Okay, now you.”
“What?”
Before Kim could even comprehend what Shego meant, the brunette was stripping out of her suit. “You said you liked it, didn't you?” Shego asked. “Here's your one chance to try it out for yourself.”
“I really don't think…” Kim said nervously.
“Oh, come on, Kim. I make the clothes, they don't make me,” Shego said, rolling her eyes as she efficiently stripped down to her bikini bottom. Once again she'd shed her top, leaving her almost completely nude. Her ease at being topless couldn't surprise Kim, though - she was always too daring by half. “See what it's like wearing something other than fatigues to a fight for once.”
Kim reluctantly took the clothes being offered her. With a firm shake of her head, she decided she was being way too modest. If Shego wasn't afraid of showing some skin, certainly Kim Possible wouldn't be either. She slipped out of the bathing suit. Now she wore nothing at all, and she looked at Shego triumphantly. The other woman had averted her eyes, however, and Kim briefly appreciated Shego's respect for her privacy.
She had trouble with the outfit, however. It was all one piece, and it was very stretchy and clingy. She got her legs into it without too much difficulty, but it seemed to have gotten tangled above the waist, and finally Shego had to come over and help her put it on.
Fixing the clasp near the neck, Shego stepped back a little. “Not bad at all,” she murmured.
Kim turned and checked herself out in the full-length mirror. “Wow,” she said, moving her palms against the fabric and enjoying the way it felt against her skin. It was almost surreal seeing her head on top of what now could easily pass for Shego's body.
Shego came up behind her and rested her hands on Kim's shoulders. “You know what you're feeling right now?” she asked softly.
“What?” Kim asked, not moving.
“Freedom,” she whispered. “You speak out. You don't do what other people tell you to do. You're alive. You feel. You're unpredictable. You can do what you want.” Shego stopped. “Are you sure you're not a criminal?” she added carefully, reminding Kim of what she'd said by the pool. “You look like you belong in that suit. And you and I, we could be unbeatable together.”
Kim caught her breath as Shego's words filtered through her whole body. Well, she'd wanted Shego to open up to her, and now she'd gotten what she'd asked for. She felt warm too. It was probably the tight suit, although Shego's close proximity, the way her arms and bosom were pressed against her back, wasn't helping.
Shego's version of freedom, she admitted to herself, felt really good, and mentally Kim saved this image of herself in her memory. Slipping into what was truly Shego's skin made her feel closer than ever to her reluctant ally.
Then she stepped forward and out of Shego's grip. “You were right,” she said regretfully. “They're not my colors.”
Shego turned her head away, but Kim saw the look of rejection in her eyes. “Then take it off,” Shego said bitterly.
Kim didn't bother to respond. Carefully she tugged it off and handed it back to Shego, who kept her face to the wall. “Thank you, Shego,” she said.
The other woman had no reply, of course. She left Kim's room, slammed the adjoining door, and didn't come out the rest of the day.
To be continued…