Kim walked around in a circle on top of her bedcovers before lying down and resting her head on her paws.
It had been an… interesting few days, to say the least. They'd been black and white, for a start.
It had started roughly two weeks ago. Kim had been fighting Shego in order to get past her and stop Dr. Drakken's latest nefarious scheme. More or less, in any case. Once the fighting actually started, she was fighting Shego because she was fighting Shego. She couldn't quite remember the specifics of the fight, just that most of the world had mentally faded away, except for the bit with Shego which had merely slowed down. It had only come back once the words “Kim, watch out!” had reached her ears, but by then it had been too late.
A few seconds later, Ron had run up with good news and bad news. The good news was that he'd managed to destroy Dr. Drakken's latest world-enslavement weapon. The bad news was that during the struggle the weapon had fired and turned Kim into a red-and-white border collie.
The door to the bedroom opened and a doberman casually walked inside. To Kim, the dog was black and white, but Ron had assured her that she was, in fact, green and black. Kim hadn't been the only one who got hit when the weapon fired.
“Hey,” said Kim.
Shego gave her a look that quickly went from hostile through non-commital to almost gentle. “Hey yourself, Lassie.”
Shego jumped up onto the bed, walked around in a circle a few times, and lay down.
“I hate going walkies,” Shego muttered.
Kim blinked. “I thought you liked getting out into the open air.”
“Well, yes,” said Shego. “But not when your dad tags along and pretends like he owns me. I have my canine pride you know.”
“Not for long,” said Kim.
“Hmm. You really think your pal can turn us back?”
“Probably,” said Kim.
“Great.”
The tone of her voice made Kim look up. “What, you like being a dog?”
“Well, at least I can't get brought up for attempted murder charges like this.”
Kim nodded. After Shego had come to grips with what had happened to her a few seconds after the weapon had fired, she'd gone and have a little talk with Drakken. It had taken four police officers to drag her off of him.
“On the other hand, every single stray in Middleton would like to tear your throat out,” said Kim.
Shego grinned. “Bunch of mutts thought they could take advantage of the new bitch in town.”
“They almost did,” Kim said quietly.
Shego looked away. “Whatever. It was only because I wasn't really used to fighting with paws yet.”
Kim closed her eyes. It was still easy to remember the smell of Shego's blood suddenly lancing through the night. It had flipped every panic switch Kim had. She'd barked the whole house awake. She'd taken the time to think about that reaction a few days later, when the panic had started to quiet down after the veterinarian had assured everyone Shego was going to be alright, and had drawn a few conclusions, none of which particularly appealed to her. The conclusion that Kim worried about Shego because she was the only one in the whole world she could relate to was probably the most comforting one. After all, it implied that everything would be going back to normal after they were both human again.
The door was carefully pushed open and Mrs. Dr. Possible stepped inside.
“Ah, Kim, Wade just called. He said he'd finished the device. Would you like to go right now? Just bark once fo-”
“Bark,” said Kim.
Mrs. Dr. Possible smiled weakly. “Yes, I guess that was a bit of a stupid question. I'll just go get the car ready. Meet me downstairs in five minutes.”
“OK, mom,” said Kim.
“I'll just take that to mean you'll be downstairs soon,” said Mrs. Dr. Possible.
Mrs. Dr. Possible quietly left the room again, closing the door behind her.
“I'll be so happy when people can understand me again,” said Kim.
“Hmm.”
Shego got up and nuzzled Kim's neck for a moment.
“What was that for?”
“Nothing,” said Shego, jumping off the bed. “Let's get going, Lassie.”
Kim jumped down the bed and walked next to Shego until they reached the door.
“Typical,” said Shego, looking up. “What is it with your family and closing every door they come across?”
“I don't know,” said Kim. “It's probably one of those things, you know.”
“Well, tell them to cut it out.”
“Once I can, it won't exactly matter any more,” said Kim.
“Tell ‘em anyway.”
Shego got up on her hind legs, wrestled with the door handle for a a while, then dropped back on all fours when the door opened slightly.
“Whoever invented doors should be shot,” Shego murmured, using her muzzle to open the door far enough to let them both through.
“Shooting is going a bit far,” said Kim, walking along with a wagging tail. “Maybe just given a stern talking to and a warning not to do it again.”
Kim and Shego looked around the room. Its walls were covered in complicated machinery and many lights that blinked in exciting grey colours.
“It's all quite interesting, really,” said Wade, who'd deigned to leave his room for this special occasion. “As it turns out, dogs are simpler than humans, so to go from human to dog doesn't require all that much energy, relatively speaking. But to go from dog to human is a lot more complicated, which results in me having to use up an entire room and fill it with machinery.”
“How very interesting,” Shego said dryly. “Just turn us back already.”
“You see, to put it simply, what the device does is sort of unravel your entire shape all the way down to some base level and then kind of build it up again to the new shape. Now, when you unravel the human shape, there's apparently a great deal of down to metaphorically build up momentum so that the journey upward has a lot of energy behind it. Not so with dogs, however.”
“Alright,” Shego snapped. “We get it. Just flip the switch already.”
“So to get all the needed energy, I built a few very ingenious solar collectors even though I say so myself, to…”
“Kimmie, talk to him before I maul him,” said Shego.
“What can I do?” said Kim. “Roll over at him?”
“Well, do something before he permanently gets to play dead.”
“And so, without further ado…” said Wade and flipped the switch.
Eight seconds later, he was outside the room, leaning heavily against the door, looking faintly pale.
Ron and the Possible parents looked up from where they were sitting.
“Is everything alright?” Mrs. Dr. Possible said.
“Yeah, sure, no prob,” said Wade. “Uhm… just one question.”
“What?” said Ron.
“When Kim and Shego were hit… they were wearing clothes, right?”
Kim looked up at the ceiling. It was still mostly grey, but the little lights were now red, blue, green and yellow. Shego looked at a wall and saw roughly the same.
“Interesting,” said Shego.
“What?” said Kim.
“Well, technically we've been naked around each other for about two weeks.”
Kim blushed. “I guess.”
“So we really shouldn't be embarrassed about this,” said Shego.
“I suppose,” said Kim. “Say, do you miss your tail?”
“Never really had one,” said Shego. “But opposable thumbs will take some getting used to, I think.”
“I kind of feel like wagging right now, except I can't. It's weird.”
“Yeah, you did wag a lot, didn't you?”
“Only when I was…” Kim stopped when she realised where that sentence was going to end up. “I guess I was just a naturally happy dog.”
“Sure you were, Princess.”
The door opened just far enough to allow a hand to throw a bundle of clothes into the room. Then it shut hurriedly again. Shego sauntered over to the pile and regarded it critically.
“You know, I suddenly feel like there's a lot that can be said for fur.”
“What do you mean?” said Kim.
“Just look at ‘em, will you?” said Shego.
“Not while you're standing right next to them I'm not,” said Kim.
“Prude.”
“Just get dressed quickly, will you?”
Two minutes later, they were both dressed, but feeling no less awkward.
“So…” said Kim.
“So…” said Shego.
“I really should drag you to the police station right now,” said Kim.
“I really should try to kill you right now,” said Shego.
“Yeah,” said Kim. “So what's say we just… you know…”
“You just take an interest in that little blinking light back there and I accidentally fall out of the window?”
“Something like that,” said Kim.
Shego cleared her throat noisily. “You know, uhm, I never did thank you for going to look for me.”
Kim blinked. “You knew about that? You were unconscious when I found you.”
“Yeah, but I could still smell you coming before I blacked out,” said Shego. “Fear's an incredibly potent smell, you know.”
“Oh,” said Kim.
“Look, I'm just saying this so that next time we meet there'll be no emotional baggage left over, alright? Everything can go back to normal now you hear?”
“No, it can't,” said Kim.
Shego gave her a look, then turned away. “Whatever. I'm going now.”
“Bye,” said Kim. “I guess I'll see you around.”
“Sure,” said Shego, opening the window. “Oh, and Princess?”
“What?”
“You were a cute little bitch,” she said.
And with that, she dropped out the window and was gone.