Why can you read me like no one else?
I hide behind these words
But I'm coming out
I wish I kept them behind my tongue
I hide behind these words
But I'm coming out
Put your hand between
An aching head and an aching world
We'll make them so jealous
We'll make them hate us
An aching head and an aching world
We'll make them so jealous
We'll make them so jealous
All the ways you make my stomach turn
And all the long drives
With my friends blur
And I wish I kept them inside my mind
I hide behind these words
And think of all the places
Where you've been lost
And then found…out
In between my sheets
In between the rights and the wrongs
Put your hand between
An aching head and an aching world
We'll make them so jealous
We'll make them hate us
Aching head and an aching world
Think of all the places
Where you've been lost and found…out
“Where ya been, KP?”
Kim almost choked on her milk as Ron carelessly asked his question. The soreness of certain muscles attested to her earlier activities.
“Uh, I went for a walk.”
“Rufus and I missed you at Bueno Nacho. There were some fiercely good looking women up in there.” Ron grinned at her.
Kim snorted. “So falling for one woman means I'm an expert on the female form now?”
“Now that you've developed taste? Of course.”
Kim rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“I figured we could go catch that new Teen Canyon flick that's starting tomorrow. It's supposed to be the best thing out this year!”
“God, Ron, another teen movie? Do I have to?”
“You promised! After that zombie monkey, you owe me!”
“So not the drama, Ron. It was one little monkey.”
“One twenty foot tall monkey! With parts falling off!”
Kim shook her head. “Alright, fine, I'll go see Teen Canyon. But I'm picking the next movie.”
Ron high-fived Rufus. “Boo-yah!”
Kim shook her head, smiling slightly.
The movie was rather enjoyable, for a romantic comedy. The plotline was as insipid and predictable as she'd come to expect, but the comedic relief was stellar. She'd never look at chili cheese fries the same way again.
It wasn't until they were halfway to Bueno Nacho for an after-movie snack that they proceeded to plant a foot squarely in a steaming pile.
A large electronics emporium was opening tomorrow, and everything had been prepared for it's grand unveiling, including a brand new prototype of a hovercraft, designed for stealth and maneuverability.
An unguarded brand new prototype of a hovercraft, that is.
When they'd passed by, Kim had barely glanced over, initially. Then her eye had been caught by the sudden flaring of an extremely familiar green. Kim turned, fear and certainty making her stomach roil.
Smirking, Shego stood tall and proud as Drakken laughed behind her, at the controls of the hovercraft.
“Shego!”
She waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, Dr. D. You just worry about your toy and leave the do-gooders to me.”
Shego leapt from her perch, landing directly in Kim's path. Her smirk remained in place as they took their stances. Ron had dissapeared in Drakken's direction, on some vague hope to distract him or somehow disable the hovercraft.
Without a word, they launched at each other, their blows blocked and parried with the same ease and rhythm as always. Ron and Drakken shifted out of their line of sight, blocked by the large pieces of the yet to be assembled stage.
Shego and Kim stared at each other for a long moment, their locked gazes speaking a million words they didn't dare say where the others could hear.
The barest whisper, for her ears only -
“I miss you.”
“I love you.”
“I don't know how much longer I can do this.”
“Kiss me.”
Furious at their situation, desperate for contact, they embraced, their kisses fiery. They knew the futility of thier efforts, and neither could muster the impetus to care. Not now.
Not here.
They needed each other too badly.
“Curse you, you buffoon!” Drakken's echoed shout sounded through the air, as though from a great distance, but they knew it to be far closer. Fervently, they kissed one final time, allowing their pain to show for an all too brief moment.
When Ron re-emerged, he was greeted with the same familiar sight, Kim and Shego fighting tooth and nail.
“KP! I got the keys!” Ron scrambled back down to Kim's side, landing awkwardly on his side. “Oof!” He missed the last exchange of looks between the two women.
“Shego! It's time to go!” Drakken's petulant whine grated on Kim's ears. Did the man not have any other way of speaking?
Kim remained where Shego had left her, watching the villains take off in their hovercraft. Shego looked down at her, her pale face inscrutable behind the shield of her hair.
“Kim?” Ron's voice was quiet, seeking not to break the rapt attention she was paying to her nemesis. “Everything ok?” Drakken and Shego disappeared behind an office building, the sound of their engine dying slowly in the night air.
Kim continued staring at the empty sky, her eyes fixated on the moon. “I think I love her.”
Ron inhaled sharply. “Da-amn.”
“I think she loves me.”
“Whoa! Where'd THAT come from?” Ron looked at Rufus, peeking out of his pocket, seeking some remnant of grounding.
“She told me. Yesterday. When I went to visit her at her house.”
“Shego has a house? What about Drakken's lair? I always thought she just had a room in there someplace.”
“I think she does. The house is probably someplace she keeps so her stuff doesn't keep getting exploded. Drakken's annoyingly old fashioned that way.”
Ron chuckled. “True dat.”
Kim shot him a stern glance. “Never say that again.”
“It's just the Ron man, keeping it real, fo’ shizzle!” Ron grinned widely as Kim swatted at his head playfully. “Come on, Kim. It can't be that bad.”
“We can't be together, Ron. She works for Drakken. I work to stop Drakken. This would be so much easier if she wasn't working for him.”
“Well, yeah, but then she wouldn't be her.”
Kim smirked. “I guess so. I just wish it could be different.”
Ron shrugged. “She could always give up crime.”
Kim laughed. “She could. I doubt she will, but she could.”
“Oh, like what we do is legal?”
Kim blinked. “I never thought about it. We're working for a governmental agency. Kind of. Wait.” Kim rubbed her forehead. “I think I'm getting a headache.”
Ron threw an arm around Kim's shoulders, drawing her away from the partially assembled stage. “C'mon, KP. Let's get Wade to contact whoever owns that almost stolen thingie and get us some vittles. I've got me a vicious hunger.”
The walls were considerably blacker than they had been a half hour previous. As soon as they'd returned to Drakken's lair, Shego had let loose with a silent barrage of green fury, her fists impacting the walls, ceiling and floor indiscriminately. Drakken had quickly retreated, probably hiding in one of his labs.
The few remnants that remained of the desk that had been here were in a corner, their broken shards a mute testament to the strength with which Shego had flung it twenty minutes previous.
Melted puddles of plastic and glass were all that remained of the microscope Drakken had left behind. He was probably going to pout about that.
Not that she really cared.
There was one thing in this world that Shego wanted, that she craved with every fiber of her being, and because of her gods be damned sense of morals, she had to see her contract through and not have it.
She couldn't breach her contract. Not when she was so close.
Maybe when she was done, she could contract out with Kim. Payments to be made frequently, in large doses of Kim's tender touch.
Shego growled and punched the wall hard enough to crack the cement filled cinder block.
Those ideas could be consigned to hell. She needed to think about the now and how she was going to get through this next few months without going completely mad.
For as long as she was contracted to Drakken, she couldn't do crap against him without being in breach of her contract. Despite it's lack of legality, she couldn't do that. Her personal ethics would never allow it.
They'd allow her to steal the crown from Queen Elizabeth II, but never to go against her word.
She'd promised, after all.
Kim stared up at the ceiling of her room, the long shadows of night creeping over her posters and knickknacks that had accumulated over the course of her life as a hero. A set of matryoshka from President Putin, a lucky cat from Prime Minister Koizumi, it all sat neat and orderly with her Cuddle Buddies.
The only exception being Pandaroo, who still retained his place of honor in her bed.
Kim rolled onto her side, looking at Pandaroo. Despair edged at her emotions, demanding free rein, to be let loose in the form of her tears. She stifled them, unwilling to give into them again.
A scratching at her window startled her.
What the hell?
Rising, Kim was all at once shocked and not by the pale face that was framed in her window.
Fumbling fingers opened the window, pulling the night visitor into the sanctity of her room.
They stared at each other for a long moment, wishing they dared to say the words that tasted like lead on their tongues.
“My contract is up in three weeks.”
Her quiet words impacted Kim with the force of a physical blow. “Contract?”
“Yearly. It's up for renewal in three weeks. I'm not taking his offer.”
Kim forced the words over dry lips, a whisper in the still night. “What will you be doing?”
“I don't know yet.”
Kim nodded, trusting to her very soul that Shego spoke naught but the truth to her, here.
“I…if you need anything, I'll be at my house after I'm free.” Shego looked away, her eyes dancing over everything in the room except Kim. She wished she dared to drink in Kim's welcome visage.
“Ok.” Kim let her eyes rove over Shego's body in desperate need, praying to anyone listening that Drakken didn't come up with some asinine scheme between this day and the impending day that would herald Shego's freedom.
Shego stared blankly at the tightly rolled carpet that leaned against Kim's dresser. No doubt a present from some modern self-styled sultan.
Her palms fairly itched to touch Kim, but she didn't dare.
She didn't trust her tenuous control.
“I should go.” Shego's voice was rough, harsh in the dim moonlight. Kim winced at the painful sound.
“I…ok.” Kim looked away, no longer willing to watch Shego. She'd rather retain the image of Shego's hungry, vulnerable gaze than one edged in tears.
“I'll see you later…Princess.”
When Kim looked up again, her curtains moved slightly in the night breeze. The only sign of Shego's passage remained on the windowsill: an origami rose.