It’s an amazing thing to be the most interesting person in someone’s life.
Shego could not believe what she was seeing. Her Princess was talking to some guy and smiling brightly all the way through the conversation. It did not help that the guy was leaning down in a particular way that bothered Shego; it was an “I’m interested in this girl” kind of lean. He probably did not even know what Kim was talking about, Shego thought.
“Mom!” Jayden called with a huge, joyful, showing-all-of-her-teeth smile on her face and she dashed over to Kim.
“Mini-monster!” Kim grinned widely as she turned around to see her daughter charging over to her. She opened her arms just in time for the child to jump on her; Jayden had some legs on her, she thought.
Eric, the guy that Kim had been speaking with, was a bit taken back by the child’s sudden appearance. Not to mention the fact that she had called Kim “mom” after he had taken most of his time working at the lab convincing himself that Kim was not old enough to be married. Now, he had to be confronted with the fact that she was old enough to be the mother of a toddler, from what he could tell anyway.
“Whoa, Jade, what happened to your hair?” Kim asked curiously, still smiling. The child had gone from having sandy brown hair to sporting a mane of pure black.
“Mommy did it!” Jayden proclaimed with insane delight while grabbing Kim’s hand and making her rub the top of her newly dyed hair.
“Mommy?” Kim echoed as if she was a bit confused and then she looked in the direction that Jayden ran from to see her spouse standing there. Kim’s face lit up like someone flipped a switch in her.
The redhead was overjoyed because Shego had never come up to her job before. She was about to get up and rush over to Shego, but Jayden called attention back to herself. Kim looked down at the child.
“I look like Mommy now too, don’t I?” Jayden asked in a hopeful tone.
“Yes, you do,” Kim confirmed and she kissed the girl’s forehead as if that made her words even more true.
Jayden grinned, happy for that affirmation. The child did look like Shego now because she was not just sporting Shego’s hair color, but her hair style too and her hair was about the same length as her Mommy’s, proportionately speaking. Kim then turned her attention back to Shego, who was now approaching the scene.
Shego kept her eye on Eric, who was still there for whatever reason; the glint in her emerald orbs was clearly one of intense dislike toward him. He did not look like belonged in a lab in her opinion. He looked more like an athlete than a nerd, but then again, her wife was both, but she was not looking to excuse Eric. After all, it looked very much like he was trying to kick game to her mate. It did not help matters that her spouse seemed to be enjoying his company. She might have to breathe fire on someone in a moment.
“Hey, Princess,” Shego greeted the redhead while leaning down to give her a kiss too.
Kim thought that the public display was a little odd, but she was not about to say anything about it. There was not anyone really around anyway; she had clearly forgotten that Eric was standing right behind her. Besides, most of the lab knew that she was married to a woman anyway, so she doubted that they would be offended if they saw her engaged in a romantic embrace with her spouse.
Eric could not believe his eyes. He was watching a couple of women, one of whom he was attracted to, kiss right in front of him; not just a peck on the lips either, but a full-blown, open mouth kiss. Wait, did that mean that Kim was taken by the pasty green woman in front of him? He could not believe it.
“So, who’s your friend?” Shego asked Kim as she pulled away after almost a minute of kissing.
“Friend?” Kim asked in a dazed tone. She wanted Shego to come to her job more often if it meant that she would be greeted with such luscious, mind-numbing kisses.
Shego nodded in Eric’s direction. Kim turned around and made a face that let everyone present know she actually forgot that he was there. Shego was rather pleased with that fact while Eric was insulted.
“Oh, this is Eric. Eric, this is my wife, Shego and our daughter Jade,” Kim introduced the pair. Jayden was not paying anyone any mind, though; she was too busy looking around at everything that she could see.
“Nice to meet you,” Eric said rather politely while extending his hand.
“I’m sure it is,” Shego replied while turning away from him and not bothering to shake his hand, especially since she could tell that he was faking his politeness. She focused back on her petite spouse and their child, who was going through Kim’s notes and putting them out of order. “So, Jade and I came by to come get you and celebrate her new look by going out.”
“Going out? Where?” Kim asked.
“That little kid arcade thing,” Shego answered in a bored tone. She did not know what the place was called, even though they had taken Jayden there a number of times with all of her friends. Betty had even threatened to shoot the electronic animal band there once; it had been a stressful day and the annoying songs had not been helping.
“Wait,” Jayden said as if she just had a realization. She held her hands up and looked back and forth between her mothers before continuing. “Mom, this is where all the snakes and stuff are, right?” she asked as if that was the most important question in the world.
“Yes,” Kim answered.
“I wanna see ‘em!” Jayden declared with a bright smile.
“You have to ask Mommy,” Kim said because she knew that the snakes were one of those things that Shego might object to their daughter being around.
“Please, Mommy?” Jayden requested with an adorable pout.
Shego rolled her eyes. “These snakes in cages?” she asked her spouse.
“Of course,” Kim answered. As if they just let dozens of venomous snakes wander the lab at their own leisure.
“Fine, but don’t take any out for her to touch or anything like that,” Shego ordered.
Kim nodded and got up from her seat. She wandered off with Jayden while Shego turned her attention to Eric. She frowned at him and the look in her eyes made him gulp. It was like he had come face to face with the devil.
“Let’s get one thing straight, pal. Kimmie isn’t on the market. Stay the fuck away from her if you know what’s good for you. Is that understood?” Shego snarled.
“You don’t own her,” Eric said in his own defense.
“Wrong answer,” she replied and she cut the small distance between them in the blink of an eye, pushing Kim’s chair off to the other side of the room. She grabbed him by the collar and got his face, scowling like an angry wolf. She pressed her claws into his cheek.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” he inquired. His voice did not waver, but his heart was beating a bit faster. She could practically hear it pounding in his thick chest.
“No, the plasma does that,” she answered and flared her powers up in the hand against his face. She made sure not to burn him, but give off enough heat to make him sweat. “Now, unless you want to be burned beyond recognition, I suggest you stay the fuck away from my wife. Is that clear?” she asked in a low, menacing tone that let him know she meant business.
“Crystal,” he answered because he had never witness such a display of power. The fact that she had come at him in a way that he could tell she could push him through the wall if the urge came over helped him in his response that time. The grip that she was holding him with also assisted in the decision to answer her favorably.
“Good,” she stated with the smirk of a demon.
She shoved him away, forcing him to hit the back wall; he was going to have a large bruise later on from that. She did not even bother to look at him as he crashed to the floor and she walked off. She went to go find her spouse and daughter, which she did easily. Jayden’s amazed gasps were a dead giveaway to their position.
“Mommy, these snakes are fucking awesome!” Jayden declared when she noticed Shego coming. Kim sighed because of the language that the four-year-old used. Shego only laughed because she knew that Kim hated it when Jayden used swear words, but they seemed to be a part of the child’s growing vocabulary and she knew they were not going anywhere.
Shego, Kim, and Jayden were all curled up on the sofa. They had been watching a movie, but the movie was over and Jayden was sleeping anyway, wrapped tightly in pink Care Bear blanket. She was resting on Kim, who was lying on Shego. Shego was busying herself with caressing Kim and looking for something else that they could watch before they went to bed themselves.
“Hey, Pumpkin,” the pale woman said.
“Yeah?” the scientist replied while suppressing a yawn.
“I want you to watch out for that Eric guy at your job.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? He’s got the hots for you, that’s why,” Shego pointed out.
“I thought as much,” Kim commented.
“You thought as much?” Shego asked in a surprised tone. She would have thought that something like that would have gone by her mega-monster, especially with the way Kim was obsessing over her article, which Shego had actually finally talked her into sending off.
“Well, he’s always around me or looking at me or something like that. I didn’t say anything about it because I thought I might be wrong. I mean, he didn’t ask me out or anything like that, so I thought I might be looking at it too deeply,” the redhead explained.
“Okay, well, don’t let him put any moves on you,” Shego said.
“Yes, sir,” Kim replied and she saluted just to be silly.
Shego smiled a bit. “I’m serious. I mean, I know you might not be hard on him if he does do something and then I’m going to have to go up there and break his arms and legs and everyone’s going to swear I’m overreacting.”
“You would be if you did all that,” the hero commented.
“Well, that’s what I’m going to do if he tries to make a move on you,” Shego warned her spouse.
“Okay, I’ll tell him tomorrow not to do anything stupid. You’ve got enough stress in your life after all,” Kim remarked with a smile.
“Well, it’s a good thing I’ve got such a great stress reliever, huh?” Shego quipped while leaning down to kiss her mate on the lips.
Kim returned the show of affection and as things began to heat up, they both had the presence of mind to put Jayden in her bed before going any further. They both made sure that Jayden was properly set up in bed with her covers over her and Cheer Bear plush toy resting on the pillow next to her. They both stared down at their little girl for a few seconds, just enjoying the sight of her.
“What do you think of the baby’s new look?” Shego asked, genuinely curious.
“I think it suits her, especially since she has your mouth anyway. Why not your hair too?” Kim remarked.
Shego laughed a bit. “Don’t let it get you so bent out of shape. At least her first word wasn’t ‘fuck’ or something like that.”
“That was your first word, wasn’t it?” Kim asked in an interested tone.
“According to my mother it was and best of all, she claims I said to my grandmother.”
“It suits you,” the redhead said with a laugh, even though she suspected that Isabel had something to do with Shego having such a foul mouth at a young age. They then proceeded to their room to finish what they started on the couch.
(Next day)
Kim entered the lab and the first thing on her mind was finding Eric. She just wanted to get that out of the way before anything else, especially since she did not have her article to worry about anymore. He was kind of hard to find because she did not really know what he did around the place, but she found him doing her favorite old job. He was feeding the snakes.
“Hey, Eric,” Kim said as she entered the room where they held all of the snakes.
“Oh, hey, Kim,” he replied with a charming smile as he turned to face her.
The redhead laughed to herself a bit; it would be kind of hard for her to miss that he was attracted to her with the way that he behaved. She was bit surprised that he was still acting so obvious after she had introduced him to her wife and daughter just yesterday. She was also surprised that Shego had not tried to scare the snot out of him yesterday since the green-skinned female had noticed that he was attracted to her; apparently, Shego had not informed her about the “little pep talk” that she had with Eric.
“I need to talk to you,” Kim said.
“I was planning on talking to you too,” he commented. He finished up with the one snake that he was feeding and turned his complete attention to her. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to help me with my dissertation,” he said. He thought that it would be a good way to get her to at least go out with him, even if it was not going to be a real date. It seemed like a safe way to be out with her.
“No, I don’t think I can do that. Look, Eric, I’m sure you’re a great guy and everything, but I’m not just married, I’m happily married. I love my wife in a way that you probably can’t even imagine, so I’d appreciate you making an effort in keeping the little relationship that we have a working one,” she stated.
“Well, wouldn’t that mean we have to create a little relationship for me to keep it working?” he asked with a smirk.
Kim let out a dry laugh, not at all amused by him. “That’s not clever and I don’t appreciate it. I’m not interested in you and I expect you to act in a professional manner around me, which includes not pretending to care about my opinion on your dissertation,” she replied.
“Okay, okay, okay,” he said with his hands up in a position as if saying that he gave up.
“I’m very serious about this,” Kim informed him in a tone that no one around her job would have been used to. She was typically friendly and jovial around the lab, but at the moment, she sounded the exact opposite. Her tone itself was a threat to him to not try to act on his attraction to her. She supposed that she was going to have to wait and see if that was enough for him.
Eric nodded to show that he understood and as Kim turned to leave he swallowed down a gulp. She was actually pretty frightening when she was serious like that, he noted. She and her spouse were rather scary individuals and he had to ask himself if he wanted to tempt fate that badly.
He was smart guy, so he decided to weigh his options before proceeding in life. If he continued to show in interest in Kim, she or her wife (he was leaning toward her wife) would probably kill him. Even if he did catch Kim, he did have to work with her and he doubted that working with a girlfriend would be a good thing. Besides, everyone around the lab knew that she was married and if they started going out then the whole lab would know that he was breaking up a marriage, which would not be good. No, pursuing Kim was not in his best interest, he figured.
(New day)
Shego was lying on the sofa in the living room and Kim was resting on top of her. They were taking a well-deserved nap; hey, anybody that would watch Todd, Jayden, Mayah, Bokuden, Raziya, and Aztek for a whole day really deserved whatever they wanted. And right now, the couple just wanted some sleep.
The kids had been the expected whirlwinds in the house, playing all kinds of pretend games while they were all together. The best thing (depending on who was asked) was when they played house because Mayah managed to send Todd running for his life out of the backdoor when she declared that he was playing and he was her husband. Todd had obviously not been for that idea and made a temporary getaway, having the nerve to hop the fence in the backyard to show that he would not be back for a while.
Along with playing “house,” the kids had played “ninja school,” which was game that Bokuden introduced. It stemmed from the fact that he had recently visited his mother’s old school and was impressed to find out that both of his parents were for-real ninjas. They tended to break up into two teams and just have a ninja clan war.
There was also the kids’ version of “cops and robbers,” which was where they mostly mimicked what Betty and Shego went through on their jobs than anything else. Mayah was always a cop. Usually, Raziya or Jayden got dubbed the “bad guy,” who was typically a mad scientist, keeping in line with Betty and Shego hating science. Raziya and Jayden could not understand the hatred of science, but were eager to be “mad scientists,” but having to argue that they did not always have to be bad guys. It was during those games that the house suffered greatly, as it always did, as everyone’s home did when the kids all got together.
While they were altogether, the kids also had to ask how Jayden got her hair to go from brown to black. She explained that her Mommy “made the color come out of a box.” They did not understand that and Shego had to take time out of her life explaining the process, having to deal with plenty of “why” and “how” questions while she was at it, which she had expected and worked her way through until they were satisfied. It was annoying and tiring that they were so logic driven and also wanted to know every procedure if they could. It had been an exhausting day.
Shego had an arm wrapped around Kim to secure her in place, so she did not roll off of the couch. Kim had her head tucked underneath Shego’s chin. They both had their mouths wide open as they slept, appearing completely knocked out. And then a loud “thud” from upstairs took Shego from a wonderful dream.
“Princess,” the pale woman said while shaking Kim slightly to wake her up.
“Hmm?” the tired scientist replied, not bothering to open her eyes.
“The fuck are the kids doing?” Shego inquired, knowing that Todd and Jayden were the ones causing all of the commotion since they were now the only kids home. Everyone else had thankfully left less than a half-hour ago.
“I think Smiley’s looking for old books of mine,” Kim answered.
“What?”
“He wanted some more science books and I told him I had a bunch in the attic,” the redhead explained.
“Why didn’t he get them earlier?” Shego complained. He was making a lot of noise up there, which was making it difficult to sleep.
“I told him wait for everyone to go home because, well, do you want all of them up there going through everything?” Kim commented.
“You make a damn good point. I hope he’s keeping an eye on his sister,” Shego muttered.
“He always does,” the hero replied.
Shego could not argue that and did not try. She closed her eyes and hoped that she would be able to fall back to sleep, despite the racket that Todd and Jayden were creating in the attic. She was out in no time. Kim had fallen back to sleep the second another question had not come her way.
“Our moms sure do collect a lot of junk,” Jayden commented while looking through a box in the attic with her brother. She was about to fall into the box it seemed from how deep she was buried in the thing.
“Well, that’s what happens when you’re into a lot of stuff,” Todd answered. He was now an average looking eleven-year-old. His crimson hair still cut short; he preferred it that way. His skin was still pale despite the fact that he was a very outgoing child, especially when it came to playing sports.
“What the hell’s this?” Jayden asked while pulling out an old plush toy.
“I dunno. Probably something of Kimmie’s,” Todd replied with a shrug as he turned to see what his sister was talking about. He was going some other boxes to her left since the boxes were marked as “Kim’s books.”
“Mom has nasty fucking taste in toys. Care Bears are much better,” Jayden remarked while throwing the toy across the attic.
“Yeah, we’re not all into Care Bears like you, Jade,” Todd quipped with an amused half-smile on his face.
“Well, you should be.”
Todd could not help laughing. He continued his search for the books that his Kimmie promised him were up there. She claimed that she had more science books than she knew what to do with, which he figured had to be enough books to fill a public library. He had just not been able to locate the container that the science books were stored in. He kept digging out math books. He was surprised by how many math books the redheaded hero owned.
Jayden busied herself leaping into the box that she had pulled the plush toy out of. She sat down in the box to continue her search through all of its contents. She was also throwing what she considered to be very crappy plush toys out of the box. The things looked kind of disturbing in her opinion. She could not believe her mother’s poor taste in toys.
“Look at this. What the hell is this thing?” Jayden inquired, holding up what appeared to be panda mixed with a kangaroo. Now really, what kind of sick bastard would think of such a toy?
“Jade, I dunno. You really shouldn’t throw Kimmie’s things around like that, though,” Todd commented as it finally hit his brain that Jayden was just flinging the things out of the box across the attic.
“I guess,” Jayden said, sucking her teeth. She supposed that her Mom would not like her throwing the toys around the attic as if they were worthless. She knew that she would not like someone doing it to her things, so she probably should not do it, she concluded.
Jayden never did think too much that Todd called their Mom “Kimmie” instead of “Mom.” It was the same with their Mommy and he called her “She-she” instead. She just thought that was normal because things had been like that for as long as she could remember. Her friends thought the same.
“Smiley,” Jayden called.
“What?” he asked, not bothering to turn to look at her, which did not bother her. She had his attention and that was good enough for her.
“Did we ever have a dog?” she inquired curiously.
“No.”
“What about a cat?”
“No.”
“Do people put collars on rabbits?”
At that question, Todd decided to turn around and just see what was causing his sister to ask such questions. She was holding a collar in her hand, which he guessed explained why she wanted to know if they had a dog or a cat. He wondered why they did have a collar since as far as he knew, they never had any pets. Sure they had plenty of animals in the house, but none of those would need a collar as they were all reptiles or amphibians and they were not pets.
“Lemme see that,” he requested.
“Okay. It says ‘Pumpkin’ on it,” she informed him. Most people might have thought it odd that a four-year-old could effortlessly read such a big word, but it did not cross his mind because it was normal in their home.
“Hmm,” he said curiously while looking at the item as she passed it to him. He thought that it was a little weird for them to have a collar with a nickname that She-she called Kimmie.
“Oh, another one!” Jayden reported as she pulled out another collar. “Says ‘Princess’ on it.”
Okay, Todd mentally commented, things were really odd now. Why did they two collars with Kimmie’s nicknames on them? And then an image flashed in his mind; he remembered Kim wearing a pink collar years ago.
“Jade, is there one in there that says ‘Kimmie’ on it?” he asked curiously.
“Lemme check,” she answered.
Jayden dived into the box and swam around looking for another collar. She found one almost immediately. She yanked it out and held it up to see that it was a pink collar with a tag reading “Kimmie.” Well, she was officially confused. She looked at her brother.
“Why does Mom have collars?” she asked in a perplexed tone.
“You know what, Jade… I think Kimmie used to be She-she’s pet,” he answered, almost as if he was amazed and stunned by that thought. He was trying to remember exactly what their parents were like when he first met them. It was hard because he knew that as a now eleven-year-old, his memories as an overwhelmed five-year-old were probably not the best. Most of his memories were of him just being happy with them, doing things with them. He could recall their interactions with him, but not with each other.
“Mom used to be Mommy’s pet?” Jayden was not following and that was clear from the look on her face. How could their Mom be their Mommy’s pet? Their Mom was human, after all. Pets were animals, like Rufus or all of Mayah’s dogs.
“Well, I don’t really know. I don’t remember. Let’s see what else is in that box you’re in,” Todd suggested.
Jayden nodded and dived back into the box after making sure to put the two collars in a secure location next to her on top of a closed box. She chucked out a few more weird looking plush toys. She popped back out of the box as she came across a leash. She held it up with wide eyes. Was their Mom really their Mommy’s pet? She tried picturing Shego walking a collared Kim on a leash, which only made her eyes go wider.
“Anything else?” Todd asked because he was just as weirded out as his sister by the leash.
“Hold on,” she replied and put the leash down by the collars. She then went back into the box. “Oh, what’s this?” she wondered out loud as she pulled out a Rubix cube.
“That’s Kimmie’s puzzle thingy.”
“How do you do it?” she asked curiously while inspecting the device.
“Here, gimme. I’ll show you.”
Jayden nodded and handed over the puzzle. Todd explained that it was designed for a person to move the sides and the person had to get all of the colors matched up. Jayden nodded to show that she understood the tutorial and it helped that Todd worked the puzzle box as he explained it. She requested it back once she knew how to do it. She giggled as she began working the cube.
“Wanna ask Kimmie and She-she about the collars an’ stuff?” Todd asked.
“Hell yeah!” Jayden answered in an enthused tone with a grin. She wanted answers to the mystery as soon as possible.
He chuckled and gathered up the collars and leash. Jayden decided to take the puzzle cube and the panda-kangaroo thing; she was curious as to why her mother would keep such a weird thing. They descended the stairs that led to the attic and went down to the living room where their parents were still sleeping.
Now, Jayden understood that if her parents were sleeping, she should leave them to their rest, but she had an odd philosophy about that. She always figured that if she whispered to them and they kept their eyes closed as they responded to her then she was not really disturbing them. So, she gently tugged at her Mom’s arm.
“Yes, Jade?” Kim asked, knowing just from the manner that she was being taken from her sleep that it was her daughter waking her. Todd would have poked her once in the arm and started talking before she acknowledged him.
“Mom, did you used’a be Mommy’s pet?” Jayden asked rather bluntly.
“What?” Kim asked, considering that she might be dreaming because of what she thought the baby just asked her.
“Kimmie, you used to be She-she’s pet, right?” Todd inquired.
“What? What are you two asking?” Kim asked, opening her eyes to pay them proper attention.
“You used to be She-she’s pet, right?” the redheaded boy repeated.
Kim was not sure how she should answer that question. She shook Shego a bit, hoping to rouse her wife for some help in the rather awkward situation that she found herself in. The pale woman groaned and swatted at Kim to get her to stop.
“Quit it, Kimmie,” Shego grumbled.
“Wake up. Boogie and the mini-monster have questions,” the petite scientist informed her spouse.
“What questions? You can handle questions, being a genius and all,” the green-skinned woman pointed out.
“Not this question,” Kim replied.
“Mommy,” Jayden said since Shego appeared to be awake for the most part. “Did Mom used’a be your pet?” she inquired.
“What the hell?” Shego muttered. She had not been expecting that question. She opened her eyes and turned her attention to the siblings.
“I don’t really remember, but Kimmie used to be your pet, right, She-she?” Todd asked.
“Okay…” Shego muttered and she sat up, being careful of Kim. She held Kim to her until they were all the way up and then Kim just leaned against her mate.
“Isn’t that true?” Todd inquired. He figured that he might have things wrong since he was not getting any answers, only strange reactions. Usually, their parents answered their questions without hesitating, but that was not happening at the moment.
“What makes you two ask that?” Shego decided to ask. It seemed like a very safe question.
“These.” Todd held up the collars and leash.
“Where’d you get those?” Kim inquired in a shocked tone. She was close to being embarrassed as their son held up the items. It was almost like he was holding up her underwear or something even worse.
“They were in a box that Jade was playing in,” he explained.
“With these!” Jayden grinned as she held up the puzzle cube and the plush toy.
“My rubix cube!” Kim grinned too and then she noticed the toy. “And my panda-roo!”
“Panda-roo?” Jayden echoed. “That’s what it is?” she wondered aloud while looking at the stuffed animal. She guessed that it was an appropriate name for the thing, but it was still kind of weird looking.
“Yeah,” Kim answered.
“Can I have it?” Jayden requested out of the blue. She still thought it was a weird looking thing, but she would like to have something that was once her Mom’s and that obviously brightened her mother’s day just looking at it.
“Of course you can have it. He needs a good home,” Kim replied with a smile on her face. She was happy to give her daughter something that was so close to her heart.
“Can I have this too?” the child asked, holding up the puzzle cube.
“Of course,” Kim answered easily. “I hope you have as much fun with it as I used to,” she added, which caused her daughter to smile widely again.
“Okay, but did you used to be She-she’s pet?” Todd asked once more. He was very curious about that because he wondered if it was just a memory that he created or not.
Kim and Shego looked at each other, wondering what they should say. Shego opened her mouth first and began telling the kids just how she met Kim; a semi-clean version of it anyway. Todd and Jayden took seats on the floor as the tale continued. Shego even had Kim’s attention as she told the story.
The pale woman relayed the tale in a manner that Kim had not even thought about when she was living it because Shego pointed out her mistakes and errors while going through how she really felt at the time, but tried to convince herself otherwise. Now, Kim had known that Shego had underlying feelings for her that went beyond keeping her as a pet, but she did not know the full extent. Plus, hearing Shego talk about it was just fascinating since before most of it was just speculation on Kim’s part; sure, it was bang-on speculation, but it was still just assumptions. Now, there were confirmations.
Shego also told the story in a way to make sure that the kids understood that she did not see Kim as an animal or anything like that. The children found it funny that the plan to get rid of Kim had backfired, but for the most part, they really did not understand the relationship. They were not expected to and were told as much. It was an odd thing, both Kim and Shego admitted, and they did not expect anyone to understand, especially people that were not there. They also made it clear that they did not want or encourage the kids to go out trying to make people their pets or to allow themselves to be anyone’s pet.
The kids understood that for the most part, not wanting to have a pet or to be anyone’s pet anyway. To help themselves understand why Kim would do such a thing, they figured that it was just some kind of game that their mothers played because that made the most sense to them. Other than that, they could not explain the relationship to themselves, but since they were told that no one really understood the relationship, they did not feel too bad about it. Still, being who they were, Todd and Jayden tried their best to comprehend why Kim had been Shego’s pet. They just did not come up with anything outside of it being a game and they just settled on that one.
Jayden put “panda-roo” on her bed, in the corner next to her Good Luck Bear plush toy. She looked at the still decidedly strange toy, but finally concluded that she liked it. She would take care of it like her Mom had done before locking it away in a box. Sure, Care Bears were better, but the panda-roo could hang out with her Care Bears.
She put the puzzle cube on her nightstand and planned on solving it as soon as she could; she had been trying to get a side all day by herself, but was only able to do so after seeking help from her brother. She was going to do it by herself, though, especially since her Mom told her that she had solved the puzzle plenty of times and now Jayden wanted to do the same.
Lastly, Jayden went underneath her bed and pulled out a shoebox that she kept. It held things like lost puzzle pieces; she did not know what puzzles they went to. There were crayons and color pencils in there too. There was a charm bracelet in there from a time that she, Mayah, and Raziya all won at a game at their favorite arcade; she did not wear it because it was not Care Bears on the charms. She deposited a pink collar and a green collar in to the box.
Yes, she had taken two of Kim’s old collars. She was not sure why, especially since she had no plans to be a pet. Maybe it was just nice to have something that her Mommy had give her Mom before she had shown up in their lives and before they even knew what the future held for them. Whatever the reason, the four-year-old made sure the collars were secure in her box and she was going to keep them as best she could.
Todd lay in bed that night. He was holding the black collar in his hand and staring at it. He planned to keep that one; he had given the other two to his sister. He had no plans of being a pet or getting a pet, but he did want the collar and he considered that he wanted it for the same reason that Jayden did. It felt precious to have something that Shego had given Kim, even if it was a collar.
He thought of how much trust Kim must have had in Shego to agree to something crazy like being her pet. It just made him believe that they loved each other deeply, even if he could not understand the relationship of master and pet in their regard. He hoped that one day he could trust someone not in his family the way that Kim had trusted Shego and then he hoped that he would be able to take care of someone like Shego had done with Kim.
“Do you think we just started something bad?” Kim wondered aloud, speaking to Shego. They were curled up in bed.
“Nah. They wouldn’t think about going out and being a pet or getting a pet,” Shego answered. “Well, not until they gradate college or turn eighteen anyway,” she added.
“I guess if they do it, then it’ll be karma for us,” Kim remarked.
Shego only laughed a bit. She hated to think how she would react if Todd or Jayden popped in and announced that they were someone’s pet. She supposed that she would finally totally understand Kim’s parents on the subject. She shook her head, amused with her own thoughts. She was a hypocrite and she knew that, but she really did not care.
As much as Kim hated to think it, if the kids did come home and announced that they were someone’s pet, she doubted that she would approve of it. Well, she would let them explain the situation and then she would have to meet the “master.” Maybe it would be like the relationship she had and she would understand. Or, so she hoped anyway.
“I am happy you told them the truth,” Kim said to Shego.
“I am too,” the older woman concurred. She liked being honest with their kids because they were so curious and open-minded. They were always looking to learn, especially about their parents and it was kind of flattering to her, which was why she enjoyed telling them the truth.
Next time: Jayden and Raziya start school. Pray for their teacher.