They were eating with a random family, a huge one at that, and chattering away in Chinese to each other. Kim couldn't help glancing at Shego intermediately over the large round table. The green-eyed villain showed no sign of distress. The redhead knew news about Fong and Cheung's impending marriage could not have missed Shego. What was the dark-haired woman thinking?
‘I need to learn Chinese,’ Kim thought dazedly, as a child spoke to her in rapid-fire gibberish. Kim was treated very warmly, as people toasted her in Chinese. Though there was a communications barrier, Kim could well interpret a raised cup. The heroine would return the gesture, and sip at her beer gingerly. When someone had first pressed a cup of beer into her hands, she had refused, trying to tell them that she was still underage.
“Underage in the states,” Shego had said in amusement, “But not here in China.”
So Kim had partaken in her first beer. Ever the good girl, Kim's alcohol consumption had been limited to maybe a mouthful or two of bubbly champagne every new year's celebrations, but that was it. This being the first time she had imbibed freely in alcohol, she took tiny sips. Seeing her trepidition, the whole table was conspiring to get her drunk, guessing correctly Kim had never drank before. The redhead was already nearing the end of her second beer and could feel her mind going fuzzy and felt an all-encompassing sense of well-being. While Kim was currently being encouraged to drain her cup in one draught, Shego, however, refused drink. She instead concentrated on shovelling food into her mouth.
“Kim!” An older man raised his cup of beer at her, a teasing look in his eye.
“Hey!” Kim replied cheerfully, waiting for someone to fill her cup, and draining it quite happily.
The end of the night found Shego leading the way as two young men supported Kim, one on each side, back to Shego's place. Arriving at the empty house, Shego took over the care of Kim, wondering how she got into this predicament.
“I… dun need your help…” Kim slurred, trying to tug away. But Shego just ignored Kim's drnken ramblings and helped the girl into the room she had stayed in her first night in the village.
“Hey, Shego.” Kim lay in bed, watching Shego air out the sheets and tuck her in.
“Yeah?” By the time Shego answered, Kim had already fallen asleep. Shego shook her head and poked the younger woman maliciously. “What, no stupid questions?”
Kim rolled over, frowning and muttering, deep in her beer-induced sleep. Shego shook her head and sat down at the edge of the bed, looking at Kim.
“You shouldn't trust me this much, you know.” Shego said breezily, safe in the knowledge that Kim wouldn't hear a thing she said to her right now. “Haven't I taught you anything?”
Shego reached over and fingered the long red hair that the children in the village stared gleefully at. Twisting a strand around her fingers, she gave an experimental tug. Kim's mumbled groan and continual sleeping told Shego that Kim was slumbering deeply. Shego sighed and got onto the bed, sitting beside Kim's prone body, she sat back against the headboard and thought about the day's event. Fong's slap hadn't hurt that much, but the hurt Fong felt because of Shego… well, that put Shego in hell. It was so hard to do the right thing, to not grab Fong and just run for it. But she was stuck with her options, there were no other choices.
The whole thing was her fault. If Fong had gone to Er-Mei instead of Kim, they would be together. There would be no wedding. The wedding served the purpose of fulfilling the duty that every one of the villagers had. And that duty was closely connected to Er-Mei. If Fong had gone with her, the sabbatical to Er-Mei would have trumped any arranged marriage, but Shego had known there was no way in hell she would've let Fong win.
Shego looked at Kim's sleeping form, and asked the woman a question. “If you had two choices, and one was bad… but the other was considerably worse… which would you choose? If it was… between the life of someone you loved and someone you fought with everytime you saw them… who would you choose?”
Getting no reply from Kim, Shego sighed and got out of bed, going to the window. Throwing the window open, she leaned out and looked up at the moon. It was hard to miss. Just a fraction more, and the moon would be full. She could feel it in her blood. Tomorrow. Shego glanced over her shoulder, studying the lump in the bed. Her eyes narrowed.
Kim woke up to unfamiliar surroundings and felt a panic attack set on before she calmed herself down. She wasn't in her room in her parents’ house because she was in China. She wasn't at Er-Mei, the second most familiar place to her, because she was in the village. There was a knock on the door.
“Hey, yeah, come in.” Kim tried to run her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair, groggily taking in another beautiful day outside. She felt like something had died in her mouth.
The door burst open and Ting Ting came squealing into the room, followed closely by Fong who was bearing a pitcher of water. The asian woman smiled at Kim's startled look. “Hey, wasn't expecting us?”
“No,” Kim smiled as the child jumped into her bed and immediately burrowed into the warm covers with Kim. The young woman laughed at Ting Ting's wild hair, usually tamed by two pigtails. The young girl's hair was yet to be brushed and stuck out at odd angles coupled with plenty of cowlicks, which did not take away from how adorable she was. Kim wondered if she should ask Fong where Shego was as she watched Fong place the pitcher on the table with the basin. The asian woman turned around just in time to catch Kim looking at her.
“Shego went back to Er-Mei early.” Fong seemed to read Kim's mind. “She had some things to do there, so you'll be here for two more days.”
Kim was slightly happy for the extended break from training. But the extra few days loomed in front of her. She had never realized until now that she depended on Shego so much for companionship, so much that the thought of spending time with other people felt overwhelming. How she felt must have relayed to Fong, who smiled comfortingly.
“She has that effect on me, too.” Fong sat down at the edge of the bed, watching Ting Ting's fingers twine in Kim's hair, her devotion and love easily bought by Kim's other-worldliness, her exotic appeal. While Kim might have seen this world beyond her western sphere as strange, she never stopped to think that these people might view her in the same way. Her red hair was different, her pale skin was strange. She smelled of places that were not here, she breathed in air and transformed it to something foreign with her words that meant nothing to them. In their world, where outsiders rarely penetrated, Kim was the other, the outsider, the stranger.
“What effect?” Kim blurted out, blushing, and Fong laughed out loud, a joyful sound that Kim hadn't heard before.
“Not the kind you're thinking.” Fong laughed, her voice mischevious. “Or maybe it is. Is there something you need to tell me?”
“No!” Kim's voice came out high-pitched and squeaky. Ting Ting giggled. Though people thought children didn't know about the relationship Shego and Fong had had together, children probably knew more about it than most people. Ting-Ting was one of those inquisitive children, set off to play alone in the safety of this village where next door neighbors were family, and everybody was a familiar face. Children had their own rumour mill, and at one time, it had spun with gossip about the new girl with flaming green eyes who had stolen a kiss from the kitchen-goddess, Fong. Fong, who made the most delicious desserts, Fong who was like stone, crumbled as Shego took a taste of the woman nobody else seemed to be able to get close to. Ting Ting had been young, very young. Too young to remember, some might say. But she was a strange child, and she remembered things amazingly well.
Clapping two small hands over her mouth, she suppressed a giggle when Fong looked at her and raised an eyebrow as if asking her what was so funny. In reply, Ting Ting lowered her hands and puckered her lips, making kiss-y noises.
“Ni ai Shego!” Ting Ting made her kissy-faces while saying that.
Fong nodded sadly, the sparkle leaving her eyes. “Wo ai Shego. Shego bu ai wo.”
“Fong?” The sad note in Fong's voice pulled at Kim. It was the voice of someone who had given up, who had resigned. “Shego told me… you and her…”
“Were an item.” Fong nodded. She needed to pour out her grief, somewhere where nobody close to her would know about but most of all, somewhere where she could hide the heavy burden of loving someone who disappointed you in the worse way. Kim was that somewhere. “Want to hear a story?” Fong continued, not even waiting for Kim's answer. “Three years ago, Shego followed me into the village, which was incredibly weird. She had seen me beat up a guy who thought I was just some helpless girl he could have fun with. Shego was looking for a fight. Unfortunately, she had picked a bad time to travel into the village. We were… having words with some monks.”
“Monks?” Kim processed Fong's carefully thought out sentence. Fong nodded, and Kim had the vague idea that Fong wasn't giving her the whole picture.
“Anyways, Shego was found out in the mess, and she and I got into a bit of a tussle, while everybody else was dealing with the monks.” Fong remembered the day so well. Shego had followed her, to her amazement, and confronted her in the confusion of fighting monks and villagers.
“How did you get in here?!’ Fong had asked angrily.
Shego had thrown off the cloak she had been wearing, revealing her striking green-and-black catsuit. “I followed you. You weren't exactly careful. And I wouldn't have expected a village to be in the middle of nowhere.”
“Damn gwi-los!” Fong snarled, and had launched herself at a smirking Shego, who had been raring to go. As they fought, a monk had spotted them, and thinking that the strange woman with the glowing green fists was fighting a villager, joined in. Assuming someone was a friend just because you and that someone had a common enemy was not a good idea. The monk's interference had irritated Shego to no end, who blasted the monk into a building.
“Find your own fight!”
Fong had to admit that she was impressed, and even amused by this foreigner. Shego's blasting of the monk had sent all the other monks after Shego, deeming her to be the most dangerous person there. Shego didn't like being targetted, and fought back with a ferocity that Fong respected. When Shego was finally overwhelmed by numbers, Fong had jumped in. Shego didn't question the help, nor did she thank Fong for the intervention either. But she didn't refuse it like she did when that first monk had gotten between them.
“Cheung and I are getting married.” The asian woman shook her head ruefully, clearing her mind of images of a battle-enraged Shego. “If you haven't heard already. Cheung and I… Vince and I, we're childhood friends. Really good ones, from what I remember. He had promised to marry me when he was older, you know, the things that children say when they're young. But our parents took it seriously, and we had a matchmaker arrange our marriage. We were compatible. When we were old enough, it was decided for us that we would tie the knot.”
Ting Ting crawled into Fong's lap. In her mind, what the women were saying was not interesting to her. Though Kim's arms were warm and friendly, and her red hair was fun to play with, she craved change in scenery.
“He went off and got some girl pregnant, and here's Ting Ting out of that mess.” Fong kissed the top of the young girl's head. “A year after I met Shego and we had… started seeing each other, Cheung came back with a child and news of the child's dead mother, meaning he was a bachlor again. His only remaining family member, his father, had returned to the village to live out his life, and he died before Shego came. It took Cheung a while to get back, because the post office couldn't track him down for a really long time. Took him a year or so to get his father's death notice. Once he was back though, the elders told him his father's dying wish was that he continue with the arranged marriage with me and raise a family here.”
“You didn't want to?” Kim asked cautiously.
Fong shook her head. “No. I had Shego. Why would I want anything else?”
Personally, Kim thought Fong was crazy. Shego was angry, volatile, violent, vengeful, hateful, and all those other wonderful things. But Kim wasn't going to tell Fong that.
“Cheung respected my decision. Even though it was his father's dying wish, he refused to force me to continue on with something that I clearly didn't want. But it was duty, and I was bound to it.” Fong grinned at Kim. “If I start sounding like Mulan, stop me.”
Kim grinned at the mention of the historical Chinese heroine who had gone to war for her family in the guise of a man.
“Anyways, I thank god that that year he came back was so unlucky. There wasn't a day in it that I could get married in that was satisfactory,” Fong was frowning at this point. “I prayed every day that I could find a valid excuse to cancel this marriage. I got my wish. One day, Shego had come back from one of her excursions to Er-Mei and announced that she would go off and look for someone to join her. So everybody wanted to be chosen and if Shego chose me, I wouldn't have to wed. I would be up there with Shego for forever if I wanted to, and never come down--”
“Sorry,” Kim interrupted. “But… what's this duty? It must be something important if it could stop a marriage.”
Fong paused and looked over at Kim, before replying mysteriously, “That's for Shego to tell you.”
Kim pursed her lips in displeasure. If she had to wait for Shego to tell her something, she could wait forever!
“So when you came,” Fong continued the story, “I was surprised.”
Fong looked at Kim expectantly. The redhead blinked once, twice, then her mouth went dry.
“I'm so sorry.”
Fong shrugged, but there was no way she could hide the hurt on her face. When it came to Shego, her emotions were wild and unchecked. She planned to put a stop to that. “It wasn't your fault. Shego brought you in because she knew you would win. She planned the fact that I wouldn't be able to go with her, she had already been hesitant to choose me. So I assume that she didn't…” Fong trailed off and took a deep breath. “…that she didn't want to be with me anymore. And this is a drastic way out of it. At least that's what I say to myself. I mean, if you could stop the person you love from marrying someone else by choosing to just be with them, wouldn't you?”
“Well, maybe you should try to work it out?”
Fong sighed. “Getting out of the village to go study… you know, it introduces you to new ideas, a whole new world. But this is the world that I came back to. And when I came back, I had readily accepted what was planned for me. I knew who I was going to marry and I had no problems with that. When Shego dropped into my world, I forgot all about what was important.” As Fong talked, she tried her best to smooth down Ting-Ting's cowlicks, but they stayed up stubbornly. “The difference between before and now was Shego. If she wasn't a factor… I would marry Vince.”
“Maybe you should talk to Cheung about it…” Kim offered hesitantly, being uncomfortable in the role of confidante. “He's an involved party, and I think it would be unfair to him if you just went and married him and you don't love him.”
Fong smiled wryly and shook her head. “Marriage isn't about love, Kim. At least not here.” Fong paused, but continued quickly when she saw that Kim looked about to protest. “And we have talked about it, don't get me wrong. Cheung isn't going to force me, like I said. He asked me if I would consider it. I sound conceited when I say this… but Cheung's always loved me.”
Ting Ting perked up at the mention of her father. “Ba-Ba!”
Fong nodded. “Ni ger ba-ba.” And switched back to English. “The marriage is convenient. This is something he wants. Even if his father hadn't suddenly died, he would have come back one day to find me. But because of Shego… all he wants is for me to be happy… He's a great guy. Shego was a bit jealous at first when he came back and she found out about the arranged marriage thing. But she got over it when Cheung bowed out. Shego and Cheung are good friends now. Still are, and its… hard for me. For Shego to be happy for me.”
Kim nodded sympathetically; she could imagine herself in Fong's shoes. If she liked Shego and Shego did nothing to fight for her in this predicament, she would have been really mad. It sounded very unlike Shego, not to fight for something she wanted. Or maybe it was something she didn't want anymore, Kim didn't know. The heroine was struck by how little she knew of her arch-nemesis’ personal life.
“When we fought, Shego struck a deal with you. And she struck one iwth me too.” Fong pursed her lips together thoughtfully. “She had wanted to bring you, but I begged to differ. So she made a deal with me: if I could beat you, you would be sent home and I would go up to Er-Mei with her. If I lost, I would marry Cheung.”
Fong grinned at Kim, who was floundering in the barrage of information that was given to her. “I'm not telling you this to blame you, because that would be wrong of me. I… just needed someone to listen to me. And… I needed to ask you a favour.”
“Well, I'm not in any position to give out favours,” Kim said jokingly. What did she have that she could give the girl anyways?
“I just want you to… look out for Shego.” Fong gave Kim a sad, lop-sided smile and fidgeted awkwardly. “Even if she might be invincible… but I still want someone to look out for her out there. Don't tell her I told you all this, okay?
“That's a given.” Kim smiled impishly. “Well, since we're doing favours for each other, could you do one for me?”
“What is it?” Fong's relief was easy to see. Asking favours wasn't something that she did often, and she was uncomfortable being in someone's debt.
“Teach me Chinese.”
Fong smiled at the request. “I hold lessons everyday for the pre-schoolers. If you want to, you'll have a seat right next to Ting Ting.”
Cheung and Kim walked through the forest, Kim, barely managing to pick out the way. Shego's passage through the undergrowth was fading fast. The forest didn't see many visitors, and grew quickly to fill in the path of destroyed fauna Shego had left behind on her way back to the mountain. Good thing Cheung knew the way by heart.
“What you need to do is remember that that tree is there, and that cluster of bushes over there. Because those things hardly change. Nobody comes up around here besides us and Grandpa Cho.” Cheung pushed away a hanging vine. “So you'll be back for the wedding?”
“Yeah,” Kim drawled. The wedding… she had mixed feelings about. She didn't know if she should be happy for Cheung and Fong. The idea of two people who didn't love each other marrying was so weird to her.
“What?” Cheung asked, hearing the tone in Kim's voice.
“Nothing.”
Cheung turned to glance at Kim, before continuing on. “When you were away, people told me that you and ah Fong had become close friends. I assume you two talked about it? About me and Fong, right? Or, to be more exact; me, Fong and Shego. Am I right?”
Kim didn't answer, but instead, concentrated on her path. She liked Fong. She liked Cheung. Shego was a different matter altogether. But she still wanted all three to be happy. But if one person was happy, there would be at least one person who would be unhappy.
“I know Fong and Shego were an item.” Cheung shrugged. “I don't care. I'm going to marry Michelle.”
“Why?” Kim couldn't help blurting out. This situation baffled her.
“Why? Like, why would I marry someone who's in love with someone else?” Cheung pushed aside a branch, accidentally snapping it. “It seems weird to you, because you're still young, Kim.” Cheung added quickly, “I'm not that old, but ya know, I've been around. My view of the world is different from your view of the world, and you'd probably grow up less jaded than me about relationships… but I love Michelle. I don't mind that she's in love with someone else. It sounds bad, but she's going to be married to me, and she'll have to put up with me 24/7. I belong to her and she belongs to me.”
Cheung laughed lightly. “I'll have forever to show her I love her, and that's all I really want, even if most people don't believe it. I started loving her when we were children, and after all this time, I haven't stopped loving her. Cheesy, ain't it?”
Kim managed a weak chuckle. Cheesy, but terribly romantic in that hopeless kind of way.
“Here we are,” Breaking through the foliage, the stairs loomed in front of them. Cheung handed Kim the backpack of rations he had been hauling, and Kim slipped it on in front after she had done her stretches. The challenge the stairs held called to her, and she could feel the adrenaline rushing through her in anticipation to a very good workout. “Shego'll be at the top waiting for you most likely.”
“She's a slavedriver.” Kim nodded. She paused for a moment, studying Cheung. Then she gave him a genuine smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Congratulations, Cheung. I really mean it.”
Cheung grinned, pulling her into a hug despite the pack between them. “Thanks, Kim. I'll see you next month for the wedding.”
Kim nodded. Trotting over to the stairs, she paused to pick up two of the stone weights, and started up on the stairs, taking two at a time. Her thoughts flew away from her as her mind focused on the in-and-out of her breathing, her steps, her muscles straining to perform to the best of their abilities. Kim felt herself bemoaning the long period of rest she got, and caught herself.
‘Only you would complain about getting a holiday,’ Kim thought to herself. A workaholic through and through, she was one of those people who relaxed from work by working some more. That was the only stray thought she allowed in, before her body demanded that her mind keep its attention on its coordination. Topping the steps, she could see the old-fashioned house with its beautifully curved rooftops peeking out from behind the white-washed walls that surrounded the sprawling household.
Putting the weights down, she hurried to the house, a but unsettled at the thought that had surfaced in her mind when she looked at the building. Home.
Pushing open the doors, she closed them behind her and quickly went through the audience area, pushing open the windows.
‘Odd. On such a nice day, Shego would keep these windows open to air out the place…’
Arriving at the inner sanctum, Kim froze.
The doors to Shego's room were open. They were never open, and almost always kept firmly shut. Not knowing why she felt worried, Kim abandoned her packs on the floor and ran the remaining steps to Shego's room. Stopping for just one second, she stepped over the threshold and into the room.
It was dark. The windows were closed tight, and unlike the rest of the rooms in the house, there were bamboo blinds set over each window, and each one was pulled down. The room was a mess. Pillows and sheets lay on the ground, furniture was overturned, the general orderliness that was common within this house was not in this room. Kim went to the windows and pulled the blinds up, pushing open windows, blinded momentarily by the sunlight flooding into the room.
“Augh…” A groan came from the bed. Kim was at the bedside in an instance, tugging away sheets, feeling panicked when she saw dark patches in the sheets, like--
“Blood.” Kim felt her insides grow cold.
“Xaio Qing…” Shego whispered feverishly, her brow drenched with sweat. Working fast, Kim ripped open Shego's t-shirt in an effort to find out where the blood was coming from. It was everywhere, on the clothes, crusting sheets together… Kim had never seen this much blood before. Seeing no marks on Shego's upper body, Kim looked around the room, quickly spotting a pair of scissors tossed into a corner. Kim grabbed those, and frantically cut up Shego's loose jeans from the bottom up. There on her right leg, Kim spied two long gashes, black and sticky with coagulated blood. Kim breathed out a sigh of relief. Shego wouldn't be bleeding to death any time soon.
“Shego,” Kim leaned over the woman, could hear the short shallow breaths. “Shego, wake up. Wake up.”
A bleary, blood-shot eye opened to look at Kim lazily. “K… Kimmie…”
“Yeah, that's right. Stay awake for me, Shego.” Kim felt that pressure that she didn't even know had settled around her insides relax. Shego was alright. She was responding.
“What…” Shego looked around, disoriented. “Where… Kimmie, Xaio Qing… what… what day is it?”
Kim wished that she could progress past the pre-school texts Fong had assigned her. What was Xaio Qing? “Its been two days since you left me at the village. Remember? Shego, wake up!”
Shego's eyes blinked open and she frowned. “Two days? Its been… no…” The villainess tried to get up, but fell back onto the bed, groaning in pain.
“You wait here, okay? Just stay here and don't move, I'll be right back.” Kim, noting that Shego had fallen back into unconsciousness, raced out of the room to the kitchen. Shego always boiled a kettle of water everyday. She was hoping, despite the mess Shego was in--
“Yes!” Kim grabbed the kettle, ecstatic that it was full of water. Running back to Shego, she was just in time to see the woman roll off the bed and hit the floor. Her muffled cry jarred Kim into motion.
“I've got you,” Kim hefted Shego up. “I've got you.”
endnote: Woohoo!