Padded soles made no sound against the soft green and black carpet of the bedroom. A figure crouched low to the ground, bending her knees and stalking carefully to her target. Her breathing was calm and measured, inaudible over the faint snores of the other woman. Reaching her destination, the intruder stood to her feet, hovering over her target. She felt her heart pick up speed, racing with excitement. A mischievous grin spread slowly across her face, her teeth glinting in the ambient moonlight that trickled through the small window on the far wall, rippling on the emerald and ebony sheets of the bed.
Gloved hands carefully retrieved the can of shaving cream from the intruder’s leg pouch. Shaking it carefully, she poured it into the open hand that lay outstretched on the bed. Good thing the other woman liked to sleep on her back, or this would have been much trickier. She took great care in pouring a mountain of shaving cream on top of the smooth palm, taking a moment to appreciate the fact that despite all the rough tasks those hands had performed, there were no calluses. Those hands would feel so good later as they caressed every inch of her body, searching for a way to please her. The intruder had to bite back a moan of anticipatory pleasure.
Placing the can carefully back in her leg pouch, those same gloved hands retrieved a feather. It was a translucent white, almost glowing as the moonlight passed gently through the gossamer plume. The hand lowered it gently towards the sleeping woman’s face, and the intruder’s own visage descended as she crouched by the side of the bed, next to the hand piled high with shaving cream. A wicked smirk developed as she gently brushed the feather on the underside of the woman’s nose. She had to stifle a giggle.
It was a classic trick. Tickle the sleeping person with the feather, and they raise their hand up to slap it, splattering shaving cream all over their face. At least, that’s how it was supposed to go. The intruder never expected her victim to be awake.
With a flash, the hand filled with shaving cream flew through the air and found its mark. But instead of hitting where the feather had touched, the shaving cream was now spread all over the face of the intruder. Green eyes snapped open and long pale fingers turned on a bedside lamp as the foiled prankster writhed on the floor, spitting out chunks of the nasty white substance.
“Akpth! What the hell?”
The would-be victim of one of the oldest pranks in the book sat up triumphantly and laughed. “Nice try, Princess.”
Wiping the cream off her face—no easy task given the latex suit she was wearing—Kim gazed up at Shego with the bewildered gaze of someone who never expected to get caught. “How?” she blurted.
“You’re forgetting, Princess, I’m not ticklish,” Shego informed the redhead, who slapped herself on the forehead. “Not to mention I heard you coming from a mile away.”
“But why didn’t you just get up if you knew I was here?”
“Where would the fun in that be?” Shego asked rhetorically. “I like to mess with my Princess.”
Kim giggled. “Your Princess?”
“Seeing as I just owned you at the shaving cream and feather gag, I’d say yeah, you’re mine. But you’d give yourself to me anyway.”
“Oh yeah? Why?”
“Cause I’m dangerous,” Shego replied saucily, making Kim quiver. “That’s why you couldn’t resist helping me escape. You need a little danger in your life.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” Kim retorted. “Though that is why I love you so much.”
“Three days and already we’re in love? You move fast, Princess. What was it two hours after you told me you hated me that you came to set me free?”
“Something like that,” Kim replied with a smile. “It’s all a blur.”
“I’ll say,” Shego agreed, changing positions to lie flat on her side, offering Kim a full view of her front, barely concealed by the loose-fitting nightshirt. She propped herself up on one arm and eyed the redhead with interest. “So was Stoppable just a rebound before you realized your true feelings?” she asked.
Kim dipped her head. “Can we not talk about that right now? It’s kinda late.”
Shego’s face turned serious. “We need to talk about it sometime, Pumpkin. And you’re the one who chose to barge in here in the middle of the night, so it’s your fault I’m up.”
“How ‘bout we just go back to bed?” Kim suggested, clearly wanting to avoid this subject. “We can talk about it in the morning.”
“I’m gonna hold ya to it, Pumpkin,” Shego replied, leveling her finger at the redhead. “We need to discuss this new arrangement.”
Kim nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Good, now go to bed. And no more using what I teach you about stealth to sneak into my room at night. If you wanted company, you could have just asked.”
Kim blushed. “Shego!”
The green woman laughed. “Good night, Pumpkin.”
Kim smiled. “G’night.” She turned and walked out the door, which hissed shut behind her. Shego stared after her for a few moments.
‘What the hell am I gonna do with you, Princess? You need to start taking this seriously. Hopefully I won’t have to do what I think I’m gonna have to. If I do end up having to knock some sense into you, I hope you understand it’s for your own good. You say you love me, but I get the feeling you don’t know what that really means. I’m not sure if I do either.’ With that, the green woman clicked off the light and collapsed on her bed. She pulled the covers over herself and soon succumbed to sleep.
Drew Lipsky was not a very happy man. Teased as a child, he was far from an impressive physical specimen. The first thing people noticed about him was his blue skin, presumed to be the result of a lab accident, though nobody but him knew for sure. The second remarkable feature was the scar under his eye. Like his unique skin tone, it was shrouded in mystery. Some theorized that he did it to himself just to look tougher.
Of course, all traces of toughness were lost when you heard his voice. “Whiny” was an understatement. It mirrored the fact that he never really grew up, just got older. He was still a toddler at heart. Whenever he failed at something, he would throw a tantrum and do an angry dance that had a certain green-skinned woman pointing and laughing. He was the single most non-threatening villain in history.
But for all his shortcomings as an evil mastermind, the two things Drew Lipsky, also known as Dr. Drakken, had going for him were persistence and a disproportionate sense of revenge. He claimed to have become a villain just to get back at some kids who teased him in gym class, but the truth was that he dropped out of college after being ridiculed by his own friends. Rather than take it all in good humor, Drakken chose to respond like a child and make the world bow down to his genius. He had yet to accomplish this. But he never once let a failure get him down for more than a few minutes, working tirelessly to achieve his ludicrous goal of conquering the world.
And it was this sense of dedication to his task that kept Drakken focused, even in prison. But it was his other quality, seeking revenge against those who he believed had betrayed him, that kept him up at night plotting his escape. “Shego thinks she can just run away and leave me here to rot. Well, she’s got another thing coming!” He slammed his tiny hand into the stone wall, yelping in pain and cursing as he realized that he did not possess the strength to break out of jail with his bare hands. That was Shego’s department.
“Dude, seriously, keep it down. You’re harshing my prison mellow, seriously.” As if going to prison without Shego there to break him out weren’t bad enough, Drakken had been roomed with his cousin, Motor Ed. He had half a mind to file a lawsuit against the prison for violating the Fifth Amendment prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Gnn,” Drakken growled at the figure in the bed opposite his. “Sorry, Eddie, but some of us would rather be free to take our revenge on a sidekick who betrayed us!”
“Dude, are you still obsessing on that green lady? So she finally got smart and left you. Get a grip, seriously.”
“What do you mean, ‘got smart?’” Drakken demanded.
“Seriously cuz’, you’re the reason she kept getting caught. I’m surprised she didn’t ditch your blue ass a long time ago.”
“Are you saying she left me, her employer, because she got tired of breaking me out?” Drakken ranted. “It’s in her contract!”
“Babes like that don’t care about contracts, cuz’,” Motor Ed insisted. “She’s in it for the money. Apparently what you were paying her wasn’t enough.”
“Wasn’t enough?” Drakken bellowed, standing to his feet. “I made her richer than Solomon! And what do I get in return? A sidekick who takes the money and runs!”
“Dude, you must have done something to piss her off,” Ed suggested. “I mean, why else would she stay with you all those times and then just jet?”
Drakken pondered this for a moment. “Well, I didn’t clue her in on the plan till the last second, but I figured it wouldn’t matter since there was no way I could fail. But I failed to count on… er, what’s his name again? The buffoon! I had Kim Possible defeated, and then he had to go and cheer her up! Then she kicked Shego into that tower and… well let’s just say Shego wasn’t happy.”
“See, cuz’? She ran off cause you almost got her killed. Seriously, you can be so thick at times.”
“I’m thick?” Drakken shouted. “What about you? You don’t even check to see if your audience is listening! You just go on and on about things that nobody even cares about! If anyone’s thickheaded, it’s you!”
“No, dude, you’re the one who needs to go dip his head in a bucket full of motor oil, seriously. Maybe that’ll stop you from squeaking.” Ed said all of this while laying supine on the bed, one leg crossed over the other, hands behind his head, a position he hadn’t moved from in over half an hour. It was the fact that he was able to keep his composure that angered Drakken the most.
“Squeaking?” The mad scientist balked. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I mean your voice, dude,” Motor Ed answered, still maintaining his relaxed position. “Seriously, have they even dropped?”
“Have what even—Hey!” Drakken shouted as he realized exactly what his cousin had just said. “You’re asking for a smack down, buddy-boy!”
“‘Buddy boy?’” Ed repeated, still not moving. “Try it dude, seriously. Without green lady to protect you you’re just my cousin Drew-with-the-tiny-hands.”
“Tiny—” Drakken brought his palms up to his face in the hopes of proving his cousin wrong. His plans were squashed, however, when he remembered that he was no fighter. Shego had always been there to fight his battles for him. “Why you little… You think you’re all that, but you’re not!”
This caused Motor Ed to open his eyes and look at Drakken. “Dude, do I look like Red? Seriously.” He shook his head and shut his eyes once more, resuming his relaxed pose.
Drakken clenched his miniscule hands into fists, his cheeks turning a bright purple. His teeth ground so tightly they threatened to crack, and if one looked very closely, they could almost see steam coming out of his ears. Rather than go into smack-down mode, however, he simply stomped on the floor like a toddler and collapsed back on his bed, where he proceeded to strangle his pillow. He hated being wrong. But he was no fool. He would just have to wait to get back at Ed. And maybe, he could get back at Shego in the process. A wicked grin spread across his face.
“MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The evil laugh echoed across the prison courtyard, soon followed by another voice.
“Dude, keep it down, seriously!”
“Oh, shut up, Eddie.”
Kim woke up to a peculiar sensation. It was a sensation she hadn’t felt since she was about eight. Her half-awake eyes peeled open so narrowly that her eyelashes were still intertwined. Her hands trailed gently down the soft fabric of her pajamas to the wet spot in the center of her pelvis. Upon touching said wet spot, her eyes shot open and the redhead sat up rapidly, fully awake. “What the hell?” she screamed, only to hear laughter coming from her left.
Whipping her head around so fast she thought she would snap her neck, Kim saw a pale woman with raven black hair cupping her hand over her mouth and giggling. In her hand was a bowl of warm water.
“What did you—Oh my God!” Kim shrieked, leaping out of bed and pouncing on the green woman, causing the water to spill all over her backside in the process. She and the green woman rolled around the floor, Shego laughing the whole time while Kim shouted enraged curses.
Shego couldn’t stop laughing. The most she could do was keep Kim at bay while her stomach threatened to explode. The redhead was like a cat whose tail has just been stepped on, not caring who committed the act but intent on punishing them nonetheless. But Kim was not an animal. And laughter, as they say, is contagious.
“That wasn’t funny!” the redhead screeched as she held Shego by the wrists, splaying her arms out and making both herself and the older woman vulnerable. She didn’t even take the time to register the fact that her knee was between Shego’s legs. All that mattered was getting her back for what she did.
Shego, on the other hand, didn’t care. Loose spit sprayed in Kim’s face as the green woman unleashed belly-laugh after belly-laugh. Kim found it increasingly difficult to stay angry with the woman who had just made her piss herself.
“Why?” she demanded.
Shego stopped laughing long enough to flip Kim over so that she was pinned underneath her and answered the inquiry. “Payback’s a bitch, Pumpkin.”
“So are you!” Kim retorted as she curled her legs and drove her feet into Shego’s midsection, sending the green woman sailing across the room. “That was so not even the same!” She flexed her back and sprung to her feet. “And besides, you got me that time! What the hell was the point of this?”
“I wanted to see the look on your face,” Shego replied simply as she stood slowly to her feet. “And I got what I came for.” She started to giggle. “You should have seen your face when you realized you just pissed yourself! Man, I wish I’d thought to bring a camera. Oh, that was priceless!”
“You’re lucky you didn’t bring a camera,” Kim growled as she prepared to pounce. “Cause if you did…” Using the thick carpet for traction, the redhead launched herself into a flying tackle. “I’d shove it up your ass!” She collided with Shego at full speed, and the two women rolled across the floor, fighting for dominance. Within seconds, Kim had Shego pinned.
“Ooh, is that an offer, Princess?” Shego teased as she grinned devilishly. Kim blushed just enough to loosen her grip to the point where Shego could plant her feet on Kim’s midsection and, using her back as a fulcrum, flip her halfway across the room, allowing herself to stand up in a somersault at the same time.
Kim lay prone for a brief second before pushing down with her arms and swinging her legs under her midsection so that when her feet touched the floor, she was able to stand up. Turning around, she glared furiously at the amused Shego. “Oh sure, fight dirty, why don’tcha?”
“I am a villain, Princess,” Shego returned, performing a front handspring and launching herself into the air with her arms, a maneuver she’d pulled three nights ago when they were fighting for real. Landing behind Kim, she grabbed the redhead by the shoulders instead of slashing like she had the last time, forcing her to the ground where she pressed the full length of her body against Kim’s, laying her forearm across the young woman’s upper chest. “And so are you, in case you didn’t remember.”
Kim struggled to break free. She could feel Shego’s entire frame pressed against hers, full breasts digging in to her mosquito bites. ‘Damn she’s heavy! Must be all that muscle. Geez, she weighs a ton!’ “Rrgh, get off me!”
“No can do, Princess,” Shego replied sultrily as she buried her face in the younger woman’s auburn hair, taking in a deep breath. “I like you like this. Trapped, helpless, at my mercy.” She felt the redhead tremble beneath her. “Seems you like it too.”
“You bet your ass I do,” Kim grunted as she lifted her head up to kiss Shego on the lips.
It was a quick peck, no more than half a second long, but it had a profound effect on the battle. They hadn’t stopped fighting; the objectives had just changed. It was their first kiss. And it felt good.
The second was even better. Shego initiated it this time, parting the younger woman’s lips with her sharp cherry tongue. Kim gave into the kiss willingly, her body turning to liquid under Shego’s embrace. The green woman used this opportunity to slide her curvaceous body so that she was now straddling the redhead. Soft hands explored her back, causing waves of pleasure to radiate through her as her nerve centers—extra sensitive due to her powers—were gently stimulated. They broke the kiss out of mutual need for air.
Breathing heavily, both women stared at each other with identical green eyes. There were no words spoken, but they communicated everything to each other in those brief moments before diving right back in.
Almost without thinking, Kim crooked her fingers under the green woman’s pajama top and pulled, which didn’t produce the result she’d expected. Instead of easily sliding the shirt off, she found her hands restrained by two powerful vises and the lips that had just been pressed against her own now formed a frown as the green woman scowled above her.
“Why’d you stop?” Kim demanded, confused. “I thought this is what you wanted.”
Shego remained firm. “Because you were about to do something that I don’t think you’re ready for, no matter how hard you try and convince yourself otherwise. All I wanted was to have a little fun. But this goes way beyond what I had in mind.”
Kim stared at the older woman, bewildered. “But, we’re in love. Isn’t this what people in love do?”
“Dammit Kimmie, no!” Shego yelled, her libido having gone into hibernation. “You don’t even know what love means if that’s how you think about it! Sex isn’t the same thing as love! It changes everything. You need to be absolutely sure that you’re not doing something you’re gonna regret for the rest of your life! And as much as I want you right now, it’s too soon to be sleeping together! You’re moving way too fast!”
“Who are you, my mother?” Kim shouted as she squirmed underneath the much stronger woman. “What gives you the right to tell me what I am and am not ready for?”
“The fact that you left your mother when you sprung me! You ran away from home because you didn’t want to deal with the mess you made. Well being a criminal comes with a price. Don’t you get it, Pumpkin? You can’t go home again!”
Kim struggled under Shego’s grip, but sheer determination is not enough to free oneself from a much stronger, super-powered opponent.
“You’ve been living in a little fantasy world, Princess,” Shego continued, pressing down harder. “You may think you have it all figured out, but you don’t. Being a criminal isn’t all about doing whatever the fuck you want. It takes work, Kimmie, just like everything else! The grass is the same shade of green on both sides of the goddamn fence! You’re so damn impulsive! Do you really love me, Princess, or did you just rebound twice in the same night?”
That last remark caused a guttural scream to rip itself from Kim’s throat. “I hate you! I wanna go home!”
“See what I mean?” Shego replied without missing a beat. “You can change the way you feel about a person in an instant! You’re afraid to commit! Whenever something becomes to boring for you or you realize you’re in way over your head, you want to go back to the way things were. Well I got news for ya, Cupcake. You can’t take it back this time. You made a choice, and you’re damn well gonna stick with that choice otherwise I’ll dump you out on the fucking street! Ya got that?”
“I wanna go home,” Kim sniffled, no longer angry. She sounded just like a small child who can’t find her mother in the grocery store because she rushed off too far ahead. Shego’s expression softened.
“I know ya do, Kimmie, but it’s not as simple as that. You committed a major felony by freeing me, and you chose to go down the path of a criminal. You blew your chance at college, at getting a job working for Global Justice, at dating the sidekick who would never leave your side. It’s too late to change that. Nothing’s gonna make this go away. You have to decide for yourself whether you want to stay with me or not. But you have to understand that you can’t put things back the way they were.”
Kim just sobbed in response. “So I can’t go back?”
Shego shook her head. “No matter how much you want to, Kimmie, you can’t. The world isn’t just gonna forget that you committed a major felony. This’ll go on your permanent record, and you could face several years in jail. The law doesn’t do special favors, Pumpkin.”
“Is that why you’ve never gone good?” Kim challenged. “Because you’re afraid your rep is trashed as a hero?”
Shego sighed. “It’s not that simple, Pumpkin. Being a hero… you can’t let them see your flaws. Things that a normal person could get away with, when you’re a hero people will spit on you for it. There are no little mistakes in a hero’s line of work. Everything gets blown out of proportion because the public needs a scapegoat. And if you try and go back to being a hero, you’ll find you won’t be able to because nobody will take you for real anymore.”
Kim’s eyes shimmered with tears. Her lower lip began to pout. “Is that why you left?”
Shego nodded. “Yeah, Princess, that’s why I left. I got tired of being under the magnifying glass.”
“But it’s different if you’re a villain?” Kim asked hopefully.
“Yeah, Pumpkin, it’s different,” Shego affirmed. “But it also comes at the cost of being hated no matter what you do. The only difference is you don’t care because you want them to hate you. It’s because they’re jealous of you. They wish they could do whatever the hell they wanted to. But only people like us are willing to take that step and pay the price of never being trusted by anyone ever again. It’s a big sacrifice, but it’s really not all that different from bein’ a hero. And it’s way more fun.”
Kim sniffled and Shego lifted a finger up to wipe a tear from the redhead’s eye. “I think I’m good now,” the Kim whispered, and Shego relented, sliding off the younger woman and standing to her feet. Kim quickly followed suit.
“So whaddya say, Pumpkin?” Shego said, wrapping her arm around Kim’s shoulder and leading her out of the room. “You ready to start taking this seriously?”
Kim nodded, wiping the last remnants of a tear from her eyes. “What’s for breakfast?” she inquired. “I hope it’s not pancakes. Do you have any idea what syrup does to vomit?” Any other person would have been disgusted by the remark. Shego just grinned.
“Aw, and I just made a whole batch of buttermilk pancakes for nothing,” she pretended to whine, getting the reaction she expected when Kim clutched her stomach and made mock gagging sounds. “Just kidding, Pumpkin, I made you and omelet. Just try not to pig out this time. I don’t wanna make you have to go on a diet too.”
“Shego!”
Laughing, the green woman drew Kim closer to herself as the redhead reciprocated by placing her arm around Shego’s waist. They laughed all the way to the kitchen, where Kim had the best breakfast she’d had in a long time.
And so ends the necessary setup. This actually took me longer in terms of word count than The Silence, but then these chapters are only a third of what I’m capable of producing in that story at this point. The chapters will be longer from this point on, between 5,000 and 6,000 words at the least. I’ve introduced nearly all the main story arcs, and the story will be purely action from this point forward. Next up: Kim’s first heist. In case you were wondering how Kim’s parents took the news, take a wild guess as to where the heist is going to take place. Kim needs Pandaroo, after all. There’s even the chance of a potential reunion with Ron, who is under the impression that Kim’s less-than-human. What will be Drakken’s revenge? Will Motor Ed help him out? Now that Kim’s willing to take things seriously, how far will her relationship with Shego progress? Find out all this and more in the next installment of Hate is Such a Strong Word. Please read and review. No flames, please.
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