Shego frowned at her big brother, Hego, the Shogun. She was upset with him because he had the nerve to meet with her behind a screen as if she was some daimyo or someone else that would accept being beneath him. She was not looking to take that. She was even angry that he had the nerve to address her as “imouto,” even though she was just that. She just did not have much patience when it came to her older brother.
“Are we going to talk like intelligent people or what?” Shego huffed, letting her anger be known through her tone, although it was evident from the look in her emerald eyes.
“If you could just sit down and be civil, imouto,” Hego answered. He was more than familiar with the look in her eyes. He was pretty sure that the expression was the only one that she ever showed him.
“And stop calling me that. My name is Shego, use it,” the green-skinned female stated firmly.
“Fine, Shego, sit down,” the large male commanded, some anger in his voice now. The way she behaved toward him infuriated him like nothing else on the planet. She needed to show him respect, he thought. He was the shogun now, after all.
Shego continued to frown, but she did do as he said. She sat down in front of him, mere inches from the most powerful man in the country, literally and figuratively. In turn, he did not look too pleased either, although he was grateful that his sister was back considering the fact that she had run away years ago in a rather irresponsible manner.
“It’s good to have you back,” he said in a rather insincere manner. He was all right with her being back; she belonged there, after all. He just wished that she would learn how to behave properly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she replied in a flippant tone. She did not want to be in a room with her older brother. She thought that he was an arrogant ass and that was before he became the Shogun. He had only gotten worse since gaining the position in her opinion, so she really did not like being in the same place as he was.
“I know you had something to do with these most recent plots against me,” he commented, trying to sound calm and collected.
Shego smirked, obviously more amused with anything than ashamed. “I was just doing what the man I was promised to wanted me to,” she replied as if the attempt on her brother’s life was nothing.
“You mean to tell me that there is a man that you’d listen to who isn’t our father?” he asked incredulously. He thought that it would take massive amounts of torture to get his younger sister to do what any man said that was not their father.
“Not particularly, no. The plot obviously wasn’t very serious since you’re still alive,” she pointed out while motioning to him lazily with her right hand.
“Do you really want my birthright so badly that you would try to kill me?” he inquired, letting some emotion slip into his voice.
Shego could tell that her brother was hurt by her actions. She looked away, hating that she felt a ping of guilt over his pain. Sure, he was a jackass and she disliked him, but he was her big brother. He had once saved her life, even though he had not done it very humbly. She did not want the big idiot to feel any kind of pain because of her, maybe annoyance and frustration, but not pain.
“Hego, you know that if I wanted your position or if I wanted you dead, I’d just kill you right now. I’m not the little girl that couldn’t beat you in a fight anymore and we both know that. So, stop acting like a baby,” she replied rather unsympathetically and the agonized look in his eyes vanished like a discovered ghost.
“Then you’re telling me that you were just following Junior-san around because you were supposed to be married to him?” Hego asked incredulously.
“No, not really. I was hanging out with Drakken and he happened to hook up with Senior-sama. Funny, Junior-san wasn’t as horrible as I imagined him to look, but he was dumber than a stone. He thankfully didn’t recognize me,” Shego replied with a small, amused smile.
“Well, you were both really young when you met before. I hardly remembered what Junior-san looked like,” he commented absently.
“You executed them all, didn’t you?” she asked curiously. She needed confirmation on what happened to Drakken more than anything. He was probably going to be on her mind for the rest of her life, she considered. She might be able to get over the whole “I failed him” thing because the man was an idiot and did not take things seriously when the situation called for it, but he was still her idiot and he was gone.
“I had to. You know the law,” he stated simply. She knew what had to be done to traitors, so he did not even see why she was asking him such an obvious question.
“That I do,” she answered. “I just wanted to be sure.”
Shego had to know what happened to Drakken and part of her was sorrowful over losing him. Maybe that part of her would always be there, which she did not mind much. But, she had to move forward in life, especially since she had things to live for now. She had someone that she needed to get back to.
“So, you’ll be staying here now. I’ve got a fine lord that you could marry,” Hego started up being his usual self already, trying to control her life, in her opinion anyway.
“Hold on, chief. You’re getting way ahead of yourself. I’m staying here in the city maybe and I’m not getting married. I’m here to tell you how to get me to stay some place you know where I am for the most part and you’ll never have to worry about me possibly being involved in a plot to take your title,” Shego explained.
“What are you talking about?” he asked with a slightly puzzled expression gracing his strong features.
“I want you to give me Possible Kim,” the pale woman stated.
“I can’t just give you a girl, especially a girl from a prominent family that’s already engaged to be married to a boy from another prominent family. Besides, Father and Mother told you about this already,” Hego argued.
Hego knew about his sister’s “quirk.” He once caught her with her friend when she was little. He had not really known what to make of it, but he told their father about it and he knew that it got Shego into a lot of trouble. It took him a while to process the information, but he eventually figured it out, especially after overhearing a few conversations between their parents and his sister. It would seem that she was not over that “quirk,” despite all of the reprimands that she had taken from their parents.
“Hego, just do this one thing for me,” Shego requested. She did not order him to do it and she did not use force in her voice. She was actually asking for a favor for him, which he did not seem to recognize.
“I can’t just give you a girl. First of all, what you want is wrong—” he started, but she cut him off.
“Damn it, Hego. This is not a good time to piss me off. I came here, I’m talking to you, and I’m asking you for something that I could just as easily get myself. You might not understand what the hell it means to love someone, to need someone, but I do and I came here actually out of a sign of fucking respect just to do things right and to make sure that nothing happens and now you’re acting like the dick I know you to be,” she declared in a heated tone.
Hego was a bit taken back by that. He was used to his sister being crude with him, even vulgar. He was used to the childish names, but he was not accustomed to hearing her talk about loving anybody and respect toward him. He knew that she loved certain people, even though she never said it and he knew that she respected certain people, even though she never said it, but it was shocking to hear the words from her lips.
“What are you trying to say?” he asked.
“Hego, just let me have Kim. I’m not going to run away with her or anything. I just need to be near her, with her. Okay?” she replied in a calm tone. She reminded herself that she was trying to do things the right way and she needed to be calm about things. The last thing she needed at the moment was to get into an argument with Hego.
“Shego,” he sighed the name. He did not know what else to do or say at the moment.
“Please,” she requested, which only stunned him more. She even bowed her head to him. She just wanted to be able to live her life in peace with Kim and she knew that the best was for that to happen would be if she had the Shogun’s permission.
“Imouto…” he whispered in pure shock. He had expected her to threaten him for what she wanted, not beg.
“Please, oniisan (1),” she repeated, bowing even lower. Her pride ached and she felt her eyes starting to swell with water, whether it was humiliation at her actions or sorrow that she might not get her desires, she did not know or care. She would humble herself before her brother if it meant that he would just leave her be and let her live out her life with Kim and only Kim. She did not want to hear him talk about marrying her off to anyone as their father had done so long ago. She just wanted to be happy like any other person and for that to happen, she knew that she needed to be with a certain crazy little kitsune.
Hego sighed again, bothered by the situation she was trying to get him into. What would it take for his little sister to understand that he could not just give her a girl for whatever reasons that she wanted her? It would bring a scandal the likes of which no shogun had ever seen. Besides, it was morally wrong. Their parents had been very much against her doing what she did with girls, after all.
“Shego, this girl is already engaged to be married,” Hego said, hoping that he could get his sister to be reasonable. He knew of Kim’s betrothal to Will because he had to approve it and the heads of those families were eager for the union.
“But, she loves me…” Shego admitted in a whisper. She had not known that Kim was engaged and she really did not care. She knew how Kim felt about her and how the redhead made her feel, which were the only important matters in her opinion.
“Shego, surely, if you stay here, you will meet someone—” he tried to reason with her.
“I won’t!” she insisted in a thick tone. “I don’t expect you to understand this. I don’t expect you to even condone it. I just expect you to help me do this the right way.”
“There’s nothing right about this. You want a girl when you’re a girl yourself,” he pointed out with some fire in his tone. He was getting a little emotional himself. How dare she come and ask him to do something that could compromise their entire family?
Shego swallowed hard and then raised her head, allowing her brother to see something that he had never seen in her before. Shego appeared ragged and tired. She looked vulnerable. He supposed that he did not understand what she was going through because he could not comprehend what would make her look like that. What could possibly make his sister, who he knew his father would have made Shogun if only she had been born a boy, look ready to burst into tears?
“I came to you to do this as proper as the situation allowed. I came to you in respect—” Shego started but, he cut her off.
“You came to me because I’m in power and I’m your brother,” he pointed out. She came to use him in his opinion.
“Is that what you think? I don’t give a damn about your power. Had anyone else been in this fucking position I wouldn’t even bother with it. I would’ve taken Kim like she pled with me to do and never looked back. But, we’re family and I thought I could behave a little bit for once and be nice, but fuck nice because what the hell do you know about it? You’re just an arrogant prick that wouldn’t know how to help a person if your fucking life depended on it. I tell you what, I’m going to go and take Kim and I’m going to leave a note at the Possible household telling them if they have a problem with it, they should come and talk to you. We’ll see how long your reign lasts with that clan breathing down your back. I’m sure Kim’s fiancé won’t be too please about things either, so his family will undoubtedly be here too. And maybe on my way out, I’ll remind the twins and Mego that they could do a better job then you at being shogun and they’ll believe it when they see all the trouble you’re in when those clans come knocking at your door,” Shego stated, now looking like her usual smug self. She could ruin her big brother if the urge ever overcame her and he seemed to need to know that.
“Are you threatening me?” he demanded to know. He was the Shogun and he was not about to let his little sister threaten him.
“No, baka, I’m promising you. I can make your life a living hell, whether you’re Shogun or not because I don’t give a fuck and it seems that you only understand shit when it has something to do with you. I made the mistake of thinking that you might care, but since that’s obviously not the case, I don’t see why I should try to be nice to you anymore,” she said in an almost wicked tone with a matching glint her eyes.
Hego stared at his sister, who had that challenging gleam in her eyes that he knew all too well. He had pushed her to being underhanded, she huffed mentally. She was willing to sit there and talk things out as if they were two adults, but he had not accepted that. He still had to act like he knew everything and piss her off.
“I can’t just give you a girl,” he insisted. It just was not right or proper. It was not something that their father would do.
“She wants me. All you have to do is promise to never bother us and I’ll handle the rest. You’ll never have to see me again,” she informed him.
“That’s not what I want, imouto,” he argued. He did not know where she got the idea that he wanted her to go away. He did not want their family to be spilt up. She was about to let him know that it was not always about him and she did not have any idea that he wanted her to go away.
“It’s not about what you want! If you want to be my older brother, it’s too late. You’ve been an asshole for this long and I know from this interaction that it’s not going to change. If you want to control my life for whatever fucking reasons, I’m not going to let you. This is my life and I’ll live it how I want. I’ve found my happiness and I’m not going to let you stand in the way of things because you think you know every damn thing. I try to talk to you like we’re civilized beings and all you can do is talk down to me because you’re the Shogun and you’re my older brother. Did it ever occur to you that if you spoke to my like a person, like you respected me that I might actually listen to whatever the hell you had to say? No, and you know why? Because you’re too fucking stupid to realize that. So, just give me what I want and we can be fucking done with each other. We don’t have to cause each other any more grief than we have,” she pointed out, sounding heated, but speaking in a mostly even tone.
“Shego…” he was not sure what to say, what to argue. Why was it every time that they got together they argued? Why was it that she just could not do what he said like everyone else? She had always listened to their father, so he did not understand why she would not listen to him. It never seemed to reach his brain that he was not her father and she resented that he tried to act like he was.
“It’s boiled down to now a very simple thing, Hego-chan,” she said, mocking him with the “-chan” at the end of his name. She even spoke his name with a goofy grin on her face to further mock him. “You can agree or disagree. Weigh your options carefully.”
“If I agree, not only am I allowing you to do the wrong thing and bring a very righteous girl with you, but I’m interfering with the Du clan, the Director clan, and also the Possible clan.”
“The Director clan?” Shego echoed. “You mean to say that Kim is to be married to Director Betty’s nephew then?” she asked curiously. She knew that Director Betty’s sister had married into the Du clan and bore a son. Could that be Kim’s intended?
“She is,” he confirmed.
“Well now, that does make things even better. I suppose I should have just spoken to Betty about this and not even bothered with coming to see you. At least she’s reasonable,” she remarked. Things were starting to look up, she thought.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just agree, oniisan,” she ordered him, still mocking him. Only she could make fun of him by calling him something that she was supposed to.
“I can’t,” he objected firmly.
“You can. Save yourself the grief. Just say ‘yes’ right now and then you can pretend this whole conversation never even happened. I was never even here,” she said.
“You have a plan,” he realized.
“I have something, but I have no desire to share the details with you. Now, say ‘yes’ and our business will be complete.”
Hego thought about it. Shego was going to do what she wanted to do anyway, that was how she operated. At the moment, he had the option of saving face and forgetting that things ever happened or having to deal with a mess she would undoubtedly unleash upon him judging by how upset she was. He gulped and gave her a very small, almost unnoticeable nod. She smiled at him like an evil cat and then she exited the room, leaving him to his duties and his illusions that the conversation they had just had never happened.
Shego left the castle altogether and then went in search of Director Betty. If her memory served her correctly, she knew how to get to the woman’s home, only to find out that Betty was not there. She considered that the one-eyed female could be working, as she had a horrible habit of doing all the time or she could be at her favorite torture chamber. Shego banked on the torture chamber and was correct. It would seem that Vivian had finally gotten hold of Betty to have tea with her.
“Isn’t this place a little lowbrow for a Director?” Shego commented with an amused smile as she entered the room, startling the other two ladies.
“Shego-sama,” Betty gasped while Vivian could not even find her voice once Betty said the name. Vivian had heard a lot about Shego from Betty over the years, including that she was the daughter of the previous shogun and sister of the current shogun.
“Come on, Betty, I’d like to think we’ve made it past all this ‘sama’ crap. I mean, with the history we have and everything,” Shego replied with an amused, slightly demonic smirk.
“I suppose so,” Betty chuckled and the blonde in the room was now lost.
“What history is that?” Vivian gently prodded, staring some rather pointed daggers in Betty’s direction.
“Nothing, just childhood memories. We used to really good friends when we were younger,” Betty answered before Shego could open her mouth. “So, Shego, why don’t you join us?” she offered while motioning to the small table between her and Vivian.
“All right,” the green-skinned woman agreed and she sat down. Vivian served her a cup of tea and they sat silently for a moment.
“What brings you around here? I thought you were going back home,” Betty said to Shego.
“I just went to see my brother. He was useless to me as usual,” Shego replied while rolling her eyes. She was irked just thinking about that big idiot.
“He might be more open to suggestions if you stop putting yourself in plots to overthrow him,” the one-eyed female pointed out, sounding both serious and kidding at the same time.
“I doubt it,” Shego replied with a scoff. He was never open to suggestions after all.
“I know,” Betty agreed. The current shogun certainly did not match up to the former. She supposed that there was time and room for him to grow into the man that his father was. He did seem to try, but he was just living in the shadow of a great man, a great dead man.
“Excuse me, Shego-san, have I seen you before?” Vivian asked curiously. There was something about the raven-haired female that seemed very familiar to her.
“I doubt that,” Shego replied.
Betty smiled knowingly. She gathered that Shego was probably the silent bodyguard that used to frequent the teahouse with the now deceased traitors, the Seniors and Drakken. It seemed ironic to her that they would come to Vivian’s place of all locations, although Vivian did run a top notch establishment. She did know that it was lucky for her that they ended up at Vivian’s place because she was able to find out about their plot, which could have been rather serious if they had not been caught before they were able to start fighting with those weapons that they had.
“So, like I said, what brings you by?” Betty asked with an arched eyebrow. She was a bit surprised that the green-skinned woman even remembered where the teahouse was that she tended to spend her free time at. Shego had never gone with her to the teahouse to know that she was usually there, which was probably one of the reasons that Shego had not objected when the plotters that she was with went there.
“I’ll tell you in a moment. So, whatever happened to your fat husband?” Shego asked curiously. Sure, she had not seen Betty in a number of years, but she still recalled things about her friend.
“The fat bastard died years ago thankfully,” the one-eyed woman answered. Vivian looked away, mostly to hide the fact that she was smiling over that statement.
Shego laughed a bit. “You always did have good luck. You fulfilled your family obligation and still managed to get out of it. So, now you get to live your life the way you want.”
“Is someone green with envy?” Betty teased.
“Something like that,” the pale woman admitted with a friendly smile. “Definitely something like that. So, I hear your nephew is engaged to the person that tracked me down.”
“Oh, yeah,” Betty replied and nodded. The look on her face was an odd one, though, in Shego’s opinion anyway. The chocolate-haired female looked ready to burst into a fit of laughter over her nephew’s engagement.
“So, what’s the little couple like?”
The one-eyed woman did laugh now; she could not help it. “They were supposed to get married two years ago, but we’re all still trying to figure out how it’ll be possible for them to be left alone in a small place for an extended period of time. We’re pretty sure they’d fight to the death before consummating the marriage.”
“Match made in Hell, huh?” Shego remarked. She was very glad to hear that. It was good to know that her princess really was hers and not inclined to even be with the man that she was promised to.
“This would be the problem with pairing young people up before they’re old enough to talk because had we just waited until they could talk, they would’ve let us know things weren’t going to end well. Although their first meeting and how they got into a fist fight at the age of two should’ve tipped us off,” Betty remarked.
Shego laughed. “That does sound like a clue.”
“She’s called him ‘big head’ through out her life and he’s referred to her as ‘busybody’ for just as long. Those kids…they’re never going to be happy together,” Betty stated soundly with a disappointed sigh. She knew that and she wished that their families would just leave them be. They had had a lot of time to consider leaving the pair be by waiting for a long time before looking for the Shogun’s permission to let the two get married, but even with all of that time, they still seemed to make the wrong decision for the teens. Everyone knew that they would never be anything but antagonistic toward each other, but no one would say it, but that was why no one was in hurry for them to get married. Still, she knew that one day, the heads of their families were going to force those two to get married.
“Has anyone thought to sit down and talk with them to find out how they might be happy and still fulfill family obligations?” Shego asked curiously.
“No, it makes too much sense,” the one-eyed woman remarked.
“What if we did that?” the raven-haired female proposed.
“We?” Betty echoed.
“And this would be the reason I’m here. I’ll explain it to you if we can all get together and talk about it at your place,” Shego said.
“If I leave right now, Vivian-san is going to slit my throat the next time she sees me, with my own katana,” Betty replied while glancing at Vivian, who nodded to confirm that the brown-haired woman spoke the truth.
Shego smirked a bit. “She’s got on a tight line, huh? Someone needs to control you before you work yourself to death. If you’re going to be doing what you love, it should at least be a person.”
Vivian blushed at the remark, which Shego thought was amusing. It seemed like everyone was trying to make her believe that she was the only vulgar person on the planet. Betty merely swallowed her tea rather hard and then began to cough as it went down the wrong way.
“Okay, you know what, Vivian-san, I’ll see you later. Let me get her out of here before she says something worse,” Betty said as she put her tea cup down.
Vivian pouted, making sure to overdo it in order to get to the one-eyed warrior. “But, you never come back when you say that.”
“I promise I will come back. Let me just find out what she wants and I’ll come right back,” Betty vowed while climbing to her feet and pulling Shego out of the room. As they were exiting down the hall Betty could be heard screaming, “WHAT!”
Shego and Betty were sitting in a room in Betty’s home, waiting for Kim and Will to show up. Betty’s whole jaw was tense, along with the rest of her body actually. She could not believe the things that Shego had the nerve to tell her. That had to be the weirdest conversation that they had ever had since they met and there were a lot of conversations to beat to hold that title. She could not believe the position that she was in now thanks to her so-called friend.
“You do know I hate you now, right?” Betty grumbled, speaking out of the side of her mouth for some reason while not bothering to look at the pale woman in her company.
“It took you this long? You must’ve liked me a lot then,” Shego remarked with a smart-ass smirk on her face.
“Thank kami-sama (2) these two didn’t like each other in the slightest or I might really be pissed at you,” the one-eyed woman stated, sounding pissed anyway. She would have killed Shego if her nephew had actually had feelings for Kim, but they did not have to worry about that.
“Oh, so it’s my fault she’s a kick ass kitsune? Sounds like something you should blame on her parents,” Shego quipped, still looking like quite the smart-ass.
“I don’t believe this. I can only pray that Will-kun takes this well or I’m going to have to kill myself,” Betty said with a groan.
“Why do you always swear that every time something might go wrong you’ll probably have to kill yourself? The world is not interested in seeing you spill your guts, so calm down. I don’t see you freaking out about how you’ll have to commit suicide if someone finds you hanging out with Vivian-san,” Shego pointed out.
“Just shut up,” Betty grumbled. When it came to Vivian, the consequences of her actions be damned.
“And you still can’t beat me in an argument,” the pale woman boasted.
Betty just glared at Shego, thoroughly hating the green-skinned warrior at the moment. They did not have a chance to continue the conversation as the guests of honor arrived. Will and Kim managed to enter the room without shoving to go in first, which surprised Betty; little did she know, but they had gotten that out of the way at the front gate with Kim practically throwing Will to the ground, so she could go in ahead of him. He was still rather upset about it and that could be seen on his face.
“Shego?” Kim said in surprised when she noticed the pale woman. She wanted to go throw herself on the emerald-eyed female to make sure she was real, but she refrained from such a spectacle. She was just happy to see her beloved alive.
“Hey, kitsune,” Shego replied with a smirk. She wiggled her eyebrows at the redhead.
“Come on in and sit down, you two. We need to talk,” Betty said while gesturing for the teens to enter and sit, which they did after making sure the door was closed.
Kim sat next to Shego, which caught Betty’s attention and Shego grinned at her as if saying “I told you so.” Betty rolled her eye because of Shego’s smug expression. Will sat down next to his aunt, which was expected. The teens then looked at the two older females, waiting for explanations as to why they were summoned.
“Okay, first of all, what is said in this room is to stay in this room. Understood?” Betty said to the teenage warriors and they quickly agreed.
“So, what’s going on?” Kim asked, speaking mostly to Shego because she was curious as to why the pale woman was there.
“Where to begin?” Betty sighed.
“Let me handle it, Betty,” Shego volunteered and then she turned her attention to Will. “Here’s the extremely short version, Will-san. I’m in love with your fiancée and I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her, whether you like it or not and there’s no way for you to stop me.”
“Excuse me?” Will said and he turned to his aunt, hoping for a better explanation. One that did not seem so out of the blue to him.
“Spend the rest of your life with me?” Kim echoed while looking at Shego. She hoped that was the truth.
“That’s right,” Shego assured the redhead while putting her arm around Kim’s slender waist. She was not letting her little kitsune get away from her. She definitely was not going to allow someone else to have Kim.
“Obasan (3)?” Will was totally confused and just waiting for Betty to jump in and explain everything.
“Well, basically, Shego is in love with Kim-dono and as I’ve come to understand it the feeling is mutual,” Betty started and Kim cut in.
“It is,” the redhead said in an assuring manner. She hoped that her word was enough for Will to back off and not hold any stock in their engagement, so that she could be with her tenshi.
“Okay, as you can hear, it is returned. Shego has no intention of coming in between the family obligation that you both have to get married. As you know, our clan leaders won’t have it any other way, but she wants you to give her as much time with Kim as she wants, which includes sharing her bed,” Betty explained.
“Then how would we complete the family obligation?” Will inquired in a puzzled tone. Of course being married was only the beginning. They were expected to produce children too, not that he was looking forward to doing that with Kim either. He doubted that anyone would ever understand just how deep his hatred for the olive-eyed samurai ran and he would never touch her in a way that could produce children. Kim probably would not let him touch her if he wanted to since she seemed to return his hatred full-force.
“Once a week Kim will share your bed,” Shego said to the young man.
“I will?” Kim jumped in. She did not recall agreeing to that and she damn sure had no intention of going through with it. She would cut his head off before allowing him to touch her in any kind of way that did not involve fighting and even when they were fighting, she was often trying to cut his head off. He just had a solid defense, which allowed him to keep his head.
“You are going to have to sleep with him sometime, kitsune. You have to have children by the guy,” Shego pointed out. She was not very much in favor of the idea either, but they had family obligations to uphold and she knew that Betty would not side with her if she tried to get them to go against their families’ wishes.
Kim frowned; she did not like the idea much, but she supposed Shego was right. Well, it was better once a week than every night as it would have been if they were just married with no compromise occurring. She figured that she would be able to endure that if it meant she could be with Shego for the rest of her life, although when she glanced at Will, she had a feeling that she would not even have to endure the once a week part of the deal. It would seem that he wanted to touch her just as much as she wanted to touch him, which was good. They might be able to live through the marriage after all.
“And what do I get out of all of this?” Will asked. It seemed to him that he was getting screwed in the deal.
“Oh, I forget that you Directors are very practical about things. You’ll bend the rules, but only when you get something in return,” Shego commented.
Will nodded. It was a Director trait to be willing to do something wrong, as long as they were getting something out of it. He was not willing to just negotiate a wedding that he did not even want to take place without getting something in return. He would much rather continue to be at odds with that redheaded busybody until his grandfather realized that he would rather freeze to death than mate with Kim, although he noticed that their grandparents were not accepting the fact that they would rather slay each other than have sex together.
“You can have the same deal,” Kim said, which throw off Will’s thoughts.
“Excuse me?” the male replied, as if he did not know what she meant.
“You can have the same. Look, Du-san, I’ve…well, okay, I’ve see you with Josh-kun,” Kim commented and what she was implying made Betty’s jaw drop. Too much information, Betty’s mind was screaming.
“You’ve seen me with who?” Will asked, his voice trembling ever so slightly. He was managing to look as if he had no clue what she meant, though.
“I’ve seen you with Josh-kun. You know that he is good friends with me and Ron-kun. Sometimes, when we used to go to pick him up to do little nonsense things, we’d see you with him. You could be with him and I can be with Shego,” Kim stated.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Will objected, holding his head up as if he was offended by the very suggestion.
“Du-san,” Kim said in a stern tone.
“I don’t,” he insisted.
“You don’t have to be ashamed just because Josh-kun is an artist and his status is beneath you,” the redhead argued.
“I’m not,” Will huffed. “And stop trying to talk like you know about it.” He could not believe that she would just bring up Josh and his status while his aunt was sitting right there, even though they were keeping what was said in the room in the room.
“Okay, kiddies, you’re time is up,” Shego commented because she could tell that things were just going to go downhill from there. She also suspected that she was going to have to keep talking since it looked like Betty had just learned more about her nephew than she needed to know. “Look, Will, this is the compromise, take it or leave it. You can have Josh and I can have Kim and everybody goes home happy at the end of the day,” Shego said.
Will thought on it for a long moment. “None of this leaves this room, right?” he asked and the ladies nodded. “Fine. We’ll get married in the spring then,” he agreed, sounding rather huffy about it.
“So soon?” Kim muttered and shivered in disgust.
“Might as well get it out of the way. But, I’m not sleeping with you that first night,” Will stated with an attitude. He doubted that he was going to sleep with her at all. He was pretty sure all it would lead to would be him vomiting for the rest of the week.
“Fine by me,” Kim replied with just as much attitude. She was not going to let him touch her anyway and probably never would, even though they had just agreed to fulfill their obligations. She just could not bring herself to it. She so thoroughly detested Will that she would sooner kill herself than be touched by him.
“Then it’s settled. See you then,” Will said as if that was an insult and then he got up and left. He hated being in a room with that girl.
“You didn’t know about Josh, huh?” Shego said to Betty.
“I still don’t know about Josh. The last thing I need to know is about my father’s only grandson is having an affair with an artist. Is it a long term thing?” Betty asked Kim curiously, although she could guess with the way her nephew had agreed to things.
“Well, I’ve known about it for about a year and a half now,” Kim replied and Betty looked like she was ready to have a heart attack. Well, it did explain something beyond the major problem that he had with Kim as to why he was in no rush to get married.
“That’s not an affair. That’s a relationship,” Shego remarked.
“I wasn’t here for any of that. In fact, I wasn’t even here while you all had this discussion,” the one-eyed woman commented.
“You were with Vivian-san, huh?” the green-skinned woman asked with a devilish smirk.
“Yeah, keep that up and I’m not going to let you stay here,” Betty commented.
“Stay here?” Kim echoed in a curious tone.
“Well, I’ve got to stay somewhere, unless you think your parents are ready to meet your kick-ass, green-as-hell, drop-dead-gorgeous female lover,” Shego pointed out with a bit of a laugh. Betty had agreed to let her stay at her home for the time being. They had not discussed how long that was going to be.
“I can see your point,” the redhead replied with a smile.
“All right, see the point and you two can show yourselves out. I’ve got some place to be if I don’t want to lose my good eye,” Betty quipped as she stood up and exited the room, going back to Vivian.
As soon as Betty was gone, Kim flung herself onto Shego and embraced her tightly. The redhead sighed in great relief. Shego was solid, real, and very much not dead. Shego smiled and returned the hug.
“I’m so happy you came back, tenshi,” Kim said, speaking into Shego’s kimono as she pressed herself into the older female. There were no words to express how good it felt to her to be with the pale woman and for her to be alive.
“Of course I was coming back. I can’t just leave my kitsune alone in some gilded cage, right?” Shego replied with a warm smile.
The redhead did not respond to that. She leaned up and placed a passionate kiss on Shego’s tempting mouth. The raven-haired woman wasted no time returning the show of affection, causing it to blaze brilliantly with endless love. The kiss declared things that words never could, as their feelings just could not be expressed verbally. It also proclaimed that they would never be apart if it could be helped. They were going to be together forever now. They were free.
1: Oniisan: elder brother.
2: Kami-sama: God.
3: Obasan: aunt.
The end. An epilogue is on the way.