Shego panicked just a bit when she woke up to the feeling of a body squished up against hers. Opening her eyes slowly, her vision was assaulted by a mass of red hair. Suddenly, everything hit her, and she relaxed slightly. She had Kim Possible. The drive to Er-Mei was a good couple hours away from the village going at the steady speed Cheung was going at. Shego, tired out from the workout and the meeting with the elders late last night, had fallen asleep pretty quickly.
“She fell asleep a half hour after you,” Cheung said in Chinese. “Will you guys really be alright up there?”
“We'll be fine.”
Cheung nodded and they rode in silence for a while.
“So,” Cheung's voice broke through the silence. “How was ah Fong?”
“She's doing fine.” Shego replied carefully. “You don't have to worry.”
Cheung nodded. “You'll be back in two months or so?”
“I'll see you next month. You'll have confirmed a day by then?” Shego shifted a bit. Kim was making her arm numb. Careful not to wake the girl, she pulled her arm out from under Kim and replaced it around the teenage heroine's shoulders.
“The elders are going to pick a good day, don't worry.”
Shego nodded absentmindedly and they quickly fell into silence again. Now awake and alert, Shego recognized the scenery passing by outside. To anybody else, the forest all looked the same. But Shego had been on this path many times before. They were almost there. And that pull was strong. It was still early in the afternoon, so she hoped that she would get to their lodgings by nightfall.
“Mom,” Kim moaned as the jeep hit a particularly huge bump, “Five more minutes.”
Cheung and Shego both chuckled as the redhead snuggled closer to Shego, muttering and smacking her lips sleepily.
“So, she's the one?”
Shego nodded. “There's nobody better than her that I could think of.”
“You know--”
“I know.” Shego cut Cheung off grimly. Shego looked down at the girl, studying her face. Three years without seeing each other. And now she'd have three years to get to know the teen again. The jeep was going up a steep incline right about now, and it would be another five minutes before it wouldn't be able to go up any further.
“Probably should wake her up. We're almost there.”
Shego nodded, then grinned mischeviously as she regarded Kim's peacefully sleeping figure. Without that determined look that Kim usually kept on her face, the redhead looked deceptively fragile.
“Wake-up, Kimmie.” Shego pinched Kim's nose shut and covered her mouth. A few seconds, and Kim was struggling to push the hand away, rudely awaken from a very nice sleep.
“What,” Kim gasped, glaring at the grinning villain, “do you think you're doing?!”
“Waking you up,” Shego said, just as the jeep rolled to a stop. “Do some stretches, your training starts now.”
“Training?” Kim's eyes let up at the words.
Kim craned her head back, looking up the long flight of stairs that twisted and turned up the mountain. She couldn't even see the end of it! The stone steps twisted around huge trees that Kim was sure were thousands of years old. Mist hovered near the top, and Kim could feel her legs weaken at the sight of such a formidable obstacle.
They had parked the jeep an hour's walk back and started out on foot through the ancient forest. After a few minutes of walking, Kim couldn't retrace her steps even if she tried to. Fog frequently caught the three by surprise and made it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead of them. Thankfully, Shego seemed to know the way by heart. And as the unsettling mist cleared, she was at the bottom of a set of stairs. Stone blocks the size of watermelons strung together with cloth lay nearby, as if they had been thrown there by some giant. A stone marker beside the stairs had two Chinese characters written on it. Kim assumed it meant LONG WALK AHEAD or something.
“You,” Kim looked at Shego, eyes pleading. “are joking. TELL ME you're joking.”
“Nope.” Shego started heaping more things onto Kim's load from her own and Cheung's. Kim already had on a huge hiking pack filled with stuff. Shego kept on putting more things on, securing them on Kim. “With you here, we might make it to the top in one trip instead of two.”
“What?” Kim's face paled.
“What?” Shego mocked and laughed at the indignant look on Kim's face. “Please. Aren't you Kim Possible, the girl who can do anything?”
Setting her jaw, Kim tightened the straps on her, refusing to reply to Shego. Shego was baiting her. And she won't take the bait. She kept a tight rein on her temper, even when she could see that Cheung's pack was significantly smaller than her own, with much less trappings on it. And even when she could feel the pack on her back getting increasingly heavier.
“You ready?” Shego smiled sweetly.
The climb up was not as hard as Kim had thought. It was actually harder. Almost torturous. Kim stayed silent as Cheung and Shego talked amongst themselves in Chinese, slowly simmering in her anger. Forty-five minutes or so up the step, a pot fell off her pack and went rolling down the steps. Kim held back tears of frustration as Shego sent her after it. Thankfully, because of the winding nature of the stairs, the pot had rolled to a stop a ways off the steps just twenty down.
Her legs burned as she marched up to catch up with Shego and Cheung, and almost screamed when she saw that they were sitting down on the steps, fanning themselves.
“Go on up, we'll rest a while.” Shego snickered and waved up the steps. “Don't stray off the steps. We'll catch up.”
Step by step, Kim climbed these steps, feeling sweat pour down her brow and make her clothes stick to her. Her clothes… She hadn't changed in like… three days… She must stink to high heavens.
Cheung watched the girl make her way slowly around the bend, then gave Shego a sharp look.
“That was so mean.”
Shego shook her head, drinking some water from a thermos. Capping the metal container, she sat back and heaved a sigh. “If she's exhausted, she'll sleep better tonight.”
Shego handed Cheung the thermos. “Go up and give this to her before she dehydrates. I'm just going to sit here a while longer.”
Cheung nodded, hefting his bag higher on her shoulder, and set off. Catching up to Kim was not that hard for him. First off, even though she had gone quite a bit further, she was going really slow. Second, he only had a small pack to carry.
“Hey,” Cheung called out. “Kim, wait up.”
The heroine turned around, her face showing the obvious strain she was in. Kim managed a smile, though.
“Set your bags down and have some water.” Cheung unscrewed the thermos and handed it over to Kim, who accepted it thankfully.
“How much longer?” Kim asked after taking a long gulp from the thermos. Cheung sat down heavily and shrugged off his pack. “Maybe… another hour or so?”
“Don't think you can do it?” Shego showed up, easily passing the two going two steps at a time.
“Show off,” Cheung shouted at Shego's retreating back.
“Flaunt what you got,” Shego shouted back.
“You know,” Cheung gasped as he lay on the ground. “That if we had like… a car that could go up this mountain… we'd… be here in… half an hour or so?”
Kim was exhausted beyond exhausted. Her legs felt like jelly and she just wanted to go back to sleep. But she couldn't show any weakness in front of Shego. That's why she was still standing. The better part of the day had been spent travelling, and the sun was on its way to setting.
“Well, I'm off.” Cheung sat up with a grin. Taking off his pack, he started for the stairs.
“Hey,” Kim tried to shout, but it came out as a strangled cough. It managed to get Cheung's attention, that was the important thing. “Hey… you're going back right now?”
“Yeah,” Cheung nodded. “Ting Ting would be waiting for me. And the sun will set soon so it's time I head back before I can't see where I'm driving.”
“Seeya.” Shego waved, as Cheung disappeared down the stairs. “You can take your backpack off now, Kimmie.”
Her pride was telling her to keep it on. But her common sense won and she let everything fall to the ground with a groan.
“Shower or food?”
Her stomach growled in response to that question, making Kim blush and Shego laugh.
“Shower.” Kim managed to say in a hoarse whisper.
“Bring the bags inside first.” Shego picked up her things and Cheung's, then headed to the walled dwellings. Which Kim finally looked up at. The sheer magnificance of the place stunned her as she passed the heavy wooden doors. It was a large house surrounded by a beautiful garden. Like something out of a Chinese fairy tale, Kim was sure of it. Walking inside, she almost tripped over the high threshold. Looking up quickly, she was relieved that the black-tressed woman didn't see her stumble. The house was amazing! Shego had already dropped her load in the first room they entered and was busily pushing windows open. White silken curtains came alive in the light breeze that was coming in from outside.
“Follow me.” Kim dropped her bags on the floor and obeyed, still gawking at the splendour of everything. The floors were hardwood, the pleasant staccato of their footsteps almost made Kim smile. Exiting the room, they walked along covered walkways. Now their steps sounded more hollow, but it was still pleasant to her ears. In the center was a courtyard that was meticulously kept and landscaped. Large pockmarked stones lay in a haphazard, yet well thought out place in the twisting courtyard. Stone paved walkways broke off from openings in the wooden paths to meander through the beautiful garden.
“Ooo,” Kim looked over the edge of the walkway to see that a small stream had been incorporated to this mini-marvel, and beautiful carp seemed to follow the two women, as much as the confines of the stream would allow. The sound of water was extremely refreshing, and Kim almost forgot about how tired she was.
“They're hungry, aren't they?” Shego, seeing that Kim had stopped to view the fish, had leaned over the wooden railings and watched the fish swirling around underneath the water. “They would eat me out of house and home if they could.”
Shego continued on her way, and Kim followed after the woman. They passed by several doors, before entering one. Inside the dim room, Shego pushed open the windows too, and Kim was greeted by the sight of what looked like a vanity room. There was a large mirror, table and chair with cosmetic products on it, a couch or two, a folding screen to change behind, and decorations to make the room a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
“This leads into the bath room.” Shego pointed to a door they faced when they came in that had steam coming out from the bottom. Pushing it open revealed a tiled room, no less beautiful than everything else she had seen here. A large… pool, was the only word Kim could find to describe the large tiled hole in the floor, was filled with steaming water that Kim could see bubbled out from a side of the pool. Steps lead down to the pool, and there was a lower edge in the pool where you could sit and relax. Like a hottub. Bath products lined one corner of the pool, and barely used candles surrounded the body of water. Coloured silk hung from the ceiling, moving slowly in the warm air.
“This is the bath.” Shego pointed to the pool. “The water comes from a hotspring underground. I'm going to put our stuff away so don't take too long.”
With that said, Shego left, closing the doors to the bath behind her. Waiting until she heard the outer doors closed, she let out a sigh. Finally alone. She needed time alone to gather her thoughts. Slowly stripping out of her clothes, she kicked them to the side and walked into the pool, sighing in contentment. The temperature was just right. Hot, but not so hot that it was unbearable. Her pale skin immediately brightened to a rosy red, and she contemplated just soaking in it for a while.
‘Augh… hygiene…’ Kim grabbed the shampoo from the assortment of bathing products. She was so distracted, she didn't even hear Shego coming in and watching in amusement as Kim lathered herself up. With an appraising eye, Shego took in Kim's backside appreciatively, noting the play of muscle underneath ruddy red skin.
“Ahem,” Shego coughed.
Kim turned around, hands still on her hair. Seeing Shego there, grinning at her, she realized that she was a bit undressed (just a bit), and instantly sat down in the water, her face flushing redder than it already was. “What are you doing?!”
“Um,” Shego shook her head, clearing the image of a fantastically nude Kim Possible. “I brought you a towel and some clothes.”
Kim nodded. She didn't trust herself to form words and felt mortified beyond speech. Shego just grinned and placed the clean clothes down on a little wooden table and picked up Kim's clothes.
“I brought a laundry basket and put it in the outer room, so when you're done with clothes, just put them in there.” Shego picked up Kim's soiled clothes. The movement caused Kim's underwear to fall out from the pile.
“Ooo, Kimmie.” Shego picked up the black boy-cut under-roos. “Aren't YOU the butch one!”
“SHUT UP!” Kim wished she could burn up and die. Here she was, sitting naked in a huge bath with her arch-nemesis twirling her underwear around her finger. “GET OUT!”
Grinning, Shego sauntered out and closed the door. To poke her head back a second later, a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. “Seems like you've gotten bigger since I last saw you. Been eating your vitamins, Kimmie?”
In a move worthy of the matrix, Shego managed to dodge a bar of soap that was thrown at her.
Very different from Lo Po-Po's dining room (more of an eating area) and her own dining room, this house's dining room was more of an audience room. A medium sized room, it had low oblong tables that were placed so there was a square of space in the middle of the room. One table at the head of the room was on a raised dias. A silken screen with a gorgeous motif of a green snake on it sat behind that table.
‘Are those… real?’ Kim wondered silently at the large emerald(?) eyes it had, and the various semi-precious jewels(?) that adorned the picture. The needlework could only have been done by a master, and it was extremely detailed. But the it seemed like it wasn't finished yet, as loose black thread hung out from a barely started stitching. Odd.
Kim tried to imagine Shego doing needlework. And shuddered at the thought. A housewife-y image of Shego. That was really strange.
Silken drapes, hung from the ceiling, giving the room a cozy elegeant look. Each table had a set of utensils on it, all of which looked expensive. A meal had already been laid out for two on two of the low tables. There was enough natural light for the candles not to be lit, they sat cross-legged at their respective tables, which were on opposite sides of the room, facing each other. There was a bowl of rice and various other dishes set out for out for the both of them.
Shego's whole body radiated stress, and Kim knew better than to try to engage her in a conversation when Shego snapped at her a few times for asking questions. When the meal was finished, Shego pointed to a teapot sitting in the middle of the room. Kim hadn't noticed it there before.
“Pour me some tea.” Shego's expression did not allow for any outcome except for what Shego requested. No, not requested. DEMANDED. The teasing, playful and accomodating Shego had gone, replaced with the cold ruthless one that Kim had seen that night when Shego had pinned her against a door and informed the heroine there would be no escape.
Anger clutched at her insides at the helplessness she felt. Kim had almost forgot that she was a prisoner. In a very beautiful prison, but still a prisoner. Green eyes watched her carefully as she poured the hot tea into a delicate looking jade tea cup. The teacup, unlike the weird, bronze lipped cup she had been drink from, had no handle. It was round and smooth with a flat bottom. Kim had one too at her table.
“Pour one for yourself.”
“I don't want tea.”
“Don't be an ass. Pour one for yourself.”
Kim did so, Shego's presence had gotten more menacing by the second. The sun was setting outside…
“Drink.”
Kim sipped at the hot aromatic tea, pleasantly surprised that even though it had the bitter taste of tea leaves, there was a sweet cloying taste to it that was almost addictive.
“Like it?” Shego picked up her own cup and watched Kim drain her cup.
“What is it?” asked Kim.
Shego smiled. But that smile wasn't a pleasant one. “Grandfather Cho's special blend. He's the herbalist in the village. He comes by the mountain often, just around the bottom of Er-Mei to gather herbs. You might have seen him sitting two seats away from me at dinner last night.”
Kim tried to remember who Shego was talking about, but she felt suddenly lethargic and extremely tired. All the work she had done, the travelling, the carrying, ascending the mountain… it was all catching up to her.
“Feeling tired?” Shego's green eyes seemed to burn in the fading light.
“Yeeeah…” Kim slurred. She tried to get up, but instead managed to knock her bronze cup down and spill water on herself.
“You're tired.” Shego's voice sounded echoey and strange. And for some odd reason--Kim turned her head to stare at the snake motif that was on the silken screen--the snake on the screen seemed to be glowing. But then again, that could be related to the fact that she was seeing two of everything…
Kim looked down at the table, and there were six chopsticks floating around. Make that six of everything. “Woah…”
The redhead closed her eyes, hoping her vision would clear by then. She didn't even realize she was being carried until she opened her eyes and saw Shego's chin. Past Shego's head, she could see the sky lit up by a bright full moon and more stars than she could possibly count…
“Shego…” Was what Kim tried to say. What Shego heard was: “Shbbbaa…”
Shego frowned, annoyed. “Shut up.”
Dimly aware that they were inside now, because the stars were replaced by wooden rafters, she was placed down on something soft. The feeling of well-being and a general fuzziness permeated her entire being.
“Bed…” Was what Kim tried to say. Again, it came out wrong.
“Bbbbbb… bbbbb…”
“Shut up!” The villainess Shego's hands were undoing the fastenings on her shirt…
Alarms rang in Kim's head, and her hand shot out to push Shego's face away.
“Gah--!” The pale-skinned woman fell off the bed. But she came back a second later, a dark look on her face. Kim was trying to roll away when she found out that she couldn't find the strength to stand up, but it was slow going as the sheets got in the way. A hand shot out and grabbed her before she could roll off the bed completely, pulled her back to the center of the bed.
“Nnn… nnn…” Kim's eyes widened and she tried to push Shego away again while trying to keep awake. But her strength had been stolen from her, and her strugglings weren't helping at all. Like a fly caught in a spider's web.
“Stop…moving,” Shego straddled Kim's bucking body and caught Kim's flailing hands, pinned her wrists above her head with one hand. With the other hand, she worked on the fastening on Kim's shirt with a grim determination. Kim struggled valiantly, trying to fight off Shego, but failing.
“Go to sleep,” Shego's voice was faraway. And try as she might, Kim couldn't disobey the order. The last thing she felt was the feel of Shego's hands roaming over her body.
endnotes: O_O What's going on, eh?!