Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Addiction

1: Addict

“She’s got the same thing, about me, but more about us…” Kanye West, Addiction.

What’s your addiction? She was not addicted to anything. Addiction was for those with weak wills. Addiction was for people of pathetic failings. Addiction was for people that just could not control themselves. She had none of those. She was not addicted to anything. End of discussion.

She just happened to do things that she enjoyed over and over again. That was nowhere near an addiction. She just did what she liked and there was nothing wrong with that. Life was meant to be enjoyed, right? So, she just enjoyed it by doing things that she was thoroughly fond of. It made complete sense to her.

Is it money? Okay, so she had a soft spot for money. She had to like money to stay with the raving blue lunatic. Well, that blue idiot and the money thing did lead to her answer to the next question.

Is it girls? No, it was only one girl. One girl that pretty much stayed on her mind almost all of the time, even in her sleep on certain occasions. One girl that should thoroughly get on her nerves. One girl that she should utterly and completely detest until the day that one of them died. It seemed like she should hate the girl so much that her hatred had evolved into a whole new thing; it just so happened to be that the whole new thing was not a new form of loathing.

The feeling was actually an inexplicable form of pleasurable entertainment that she just could not get enough of, which was why she stayed with that annoying cerulean dolt. It was also why she continued to steal, even though she had enough money to retire off at the young age of twenty-two. She had to keep going at it with that one girl. She had to continue to see that one girl.

But, that did not mean that she was addicted to anything. She just did what she liked, which she knew was something that most people wanted to do, but they were just too frightened to even try it. She did the things that felt good and that she liked doing. Once again, it made perfect sense to her. The other girl, well, she had the same thing.

-8-8-8-8-

What’s your addiction? She would not call it an addiction. Yeah, that word was just way too harsh, so what she had was not an addiction. An addiction was when someone surrendered habitually or compulsively to something; she had looked it up several times to assure herself that she was not addicted to anything. The definition proved that she was not addicted because she would never surrender to anything; she always fought back. She was strong, so she always fought back. So, yeah, she was not addicted.

Is it money? No, she could care less than nothing about money. She could make a mint if she ever got the urge to do such a thing, but it was not on her list of priorities at the moment. Money did not mean anything to her and if she ever did come across large amounts of it, she gave it to charity. Money could not buy happiness and she knew that because she was happy and she was broke.

Is it girls? No, it was a woman. A woman that she should methodically detest for the rest of her life because of the things that the woman did, but instead, she admired that woman for some reason that was way beyond her. She knew that her admiration came from the way that woman moved and how she could tell that sometimes the woman was playing around with her. Other times the woman was taking her dead serious when they engaged each other and that sent tingles down her spine. It spoke to her, even when the woman got the better of her. It spoke even louder when the woman toyed with her. She was aware that she should be unbelievably angry for both, but it only made her strive to get better because she wanted there to be a day when that woman only took her seriously.

She wanted nothing more than to fight that woman one day as an equal, despite the fact that she was not supposed to desire anything at all from that woman. She wanted to be her equal, and then she wanted to be better. It was just so much fun and it touched her in places that she could not explain, making her desire it more and more. But, that did not mean that she was addicted…right?

-8-8-8-8-

Kim could not help smiling as she heard that familiar, rhythmic beeping coming from her side pocket. Most people would wonder what she was smiling about; after all, there was a high chance that she was about to sent to do something extremely dangerous and she could possibly be injured. She did not care about what she had to do, as long as that woman was there. Just thought of her put a delighted smile on the hero’s face.

“What’s the sitch, Wade?” Kim asked after pulling her Kimmunicator from her side pocket.

“Drakken’s attacking a lab at this very moment. If you hurry, you can probably catch him there,” Wade informed her.

“Spanking. I am so there,” the redhead declared, trying her best not to show her joy and excitement.

The hero thought she concealed her enthusiasm rather well, but Wade gave her a strange face before she disconnected their communication. She rushed off, running down the hall without a thought of getting in trouble for it. She snatched up her sidekick, who was more than glad for an excuse to ditch his math class.

“Thank goodness for whatever wacko is causing trouble in the world! I was dying to get out of math! I mean, really, what do I need math for anyway? Seriously? I doubt I’ll ever need to know the square root of B and how it equals the sin or whatever the heck it’s called! I’m never going never math again once I get out of here! I mean, just thinking about it makes me break out in hives! All I need to know is how to add and subtract, maybe a little multiplication and division, but nothing so complicated as trig!” Ron griped.

Kim was not paying Ron much mind while he vented about being subjected to yet another math class. She was just trying to get mentally prepared for what was about to happen. She could not wait to get there, which was causing her to almost smile. She swallowed it down because she did not want Ron to question her mood.

The pair arrived at the lab in record time thanks to catching a ride with military plane. They came in dramatically through a skylight in the roof, dropping down without parachutes. They landed perfectly on balance...okay, Ron stumbled a bit, but he stayed on his feet. They ended up right in front of the villains in the lab, which Ron noted look like every other lab they had ever been in. He wondered if the same guy designed every lab in the world.

“I don’t think that belongs to you,” Kim commented with a cocky smirk, speaking to Doctor Drakken, who was holding what looked like a black, metallic toy ray gun.

“Kim Possible!” Drakken gasped as if he was truly surprised by her presence. It was like he was not expecting her to show up, everyone noted.

“That’s the name that she puts on her test papers,” Ron remarked with confident smile.

“Shego!” the villain bellowed without taking his eyes off of the heroes.

“I’m on it,” Shego smirked. There was a twinkle in her emerald eyes as they locked onto Kim.

The green and black clad female stepped forward and ignited her hands. Kim got down into her fighting stance, fighting off quivers of anticipation. She had been eagerly waiting for the moment at hand and it showed by the spark in her eyes, the confidence in her body, and the smile on her face. She could not and would not have to wait any longer. She could not wait to show off a few new things that she had learned. It was going to be great; she was certain of that.

“You cutting class, Princess?” Shego taunted the cheerleader.

“Nah, I got permission to come here and kick your butt,” Kim quipped, holding her position to see what the plasma-wielder would do.

Shego eyed the younger woman for a moment. She could see the subtle tremble in the hero’s muscles. She knew that it was not fear that caused such a thing; it was desire and excitement. She gathered that the redhead wanted to try something new; the younger woman probably wanted to show her something, Shego figured. It was not the first time. Well, now Shego was anxious for the fight because she was aware that Kim was going to make things much more interesting than they usually were. She wanted that just as badly as Kim. She craved everything that Kim could throw at her and more.

Shego had never come across a creature like Kim Possible in her short life. She had met plenty of people, but none of the measured up to the charged redhead. She adapted and improved at rates that seemed almost inhuman. Sometimes, Shego considered that the hyper young woman was something beyond human, maybe even a supernatural being of some kind.

The older female knew that it was a foolish idea to entertain herself with, to think of Kim as anything but human. That girl bruised and bled like any human would when struck hard enough or repeatedly enough. There seemed to be something uncanny about the hero and her abilities. She would like to call it genetics and be done with the matter, but it went beyond that. The sharpness of her mind and ability to learn could be chalked up to her genes, but that did not explain her drive, her passion, her need to get better. Oh, those were things that made Shego feel so many different emotions at once that all she could do was go at the younger female to stop thinking altogether before she overloaded.

“Let’s see what you got then, Pumpkin!” Shego dared the hero before springing into action.

The evil sidekick leaped at Kim and wanted to see what had the redhead close to all out shaking before. At first, it seemed like their usual dance at their usual tempo. They both fell into motions to the point where their breathing was almost synchronized. Back and forth without giving up ground to the other for no more than a few seconds. Attack, dodge or block, and counter. Their movements were close to the same now, flowing like the tides, showing that they both subconsciously picked up things from each other from all of their time going against each other. It was almost like a person was fighting against her mirror image.

Once the battle went on for more than a couple of minutes, the thief became impatient; a bad habit of hers, she knew. It was just that she had no desire to do the same old thing now that Kim had her believing there would be more to come. She wanted more now and she would get what she wanted, like always.

“You can do better than this, Kimmie. I mean, this is downright boring. I’m about to fall asleep on my feet,” Shego teased, a playful smile on her face like most of the time when she was with the redhead.

Kim did not respond and she continued on fighting as she was. A frown worked its way onto Shego’s face. She slashed at the younger woman with a high plasma charge in her hands. Kim immediately noticed the change and fell back because she had little desire to be burned across her chest and neck. If she had not moved just in time, she would have been in a world of pain. She was now aware that the pale woman was trying to get her to change up by adding some serious danger into their little dance. She landed on her back, which Shego thought was a mistake on Kim’s part. The raven-haired villainess smirked rather arrogantly, seeming to think that she won.

“This is a sad, sad shame. I’ve got you now, Princess,” Shego commented smugly.

“I think you might be jumping the gun,” Kim replied with a smirk of her own.

The adventurous redhead went into a spinning kick on her back. Shego jumped away in surprise and to avoid getting kicked in the stomach. Kim flipped to her feet  while her opponent was getting back into her fighting stance. Kim proceeded to give Shego just what she wanted—a more interesting fight with new moves. The petite hero had added plenty of kick moves to her fighting technique since the last time she and Shego met. She was not usually much of a kicker, but she decided that she needed fresh moves to keep up with Shego and, being a cheerleader, she questioned herself about not having serious kick attacks in her combat style anyway.

“I saw that coming a mile away,” Shego lied, dodging another kick by the skin of her teeth.

“But, did you see this one?” Kim asked, moving into another kick. It grazed Shego’s nose.

The green-skinned martial artist fought the urge to smile proudly when fast feet started coming at her in rapid sequence. Kim’s kicks came in combinations and she kept perfect balance while moving, like she mastered the moves already. She knew better than to come out with those moves if she could not maintain what she was doing or Shego would have taken advantage of her seeming like a novice. So, this is it, Shego thought in regards to the fantastic, well-placed kicks coming her way. It was something, but she would not be beaten so easily.

Once she gathered herself, Shego went at the petite hero with just as much vigor as the teen came at her with. It would have shocked anyone normal to see that they were both smiling as they moved around each other, hitting and ducking each other. What they were doing at the moment was one of their favorite pastimes. It was the number one reason that they got out of bed in the morning. For Shego, it was the number one reason that she worked out at least five hours almost every day. For Kim, it was the number one reason that she spent much of her spare time studying new martial arts.

“I’ll break you, Kimmie,” Shego proclaimed as she started her own attack, putting Kim on the defensive. They then changed up, back and forth, give and get. It was hard not to smile.

The super-powered woman wanted to watch Kim come to her full potential because she knew that it would be glorious. And then, right after that, she wanted to go right through the cheerleader. She did not mean that in a malicious way as many of her unscrupulous associates might think.

No, her desire with Kim went way beyond what those shortsighted, rotten-minded lunatics could ever fathom in her opinion. It was something that she had not felt in a very long time. It was the wish to be the better warrior and that could only be achieved by going through the best at the height of power. Kim was not at her peak yet, so Shego would keep pushing her to get stronger, faster, more powerful, and sharper. Then the hero would hit her apex, which was when Shego would show her that it still was not good enough. She could almost taste that moment and it was so sweet.

Kim had done this to her, woken up a sleeping dragon within her, given her such a drive and desire, and Shego was well aware of that. Before Kim and after she quit her brothers stupid team, her whole life was really about money because money made the world go ‘round. So, her whole life was about how she could get more money than she would ever need and not caring who got in her way. And during that time, her skills as a fighter was always superior to those that she had run-ins with.

Shego had not run into a challenge really since she mastered and redefined her own fighting style. And then the redheaded punk in front of her entered her life and that punk had the nerve to be almost five years younger than she was while having something that she had never seen before. She had never seen such immeasurable potential in a person before Kim and she was certain that she would never see it again. She had never seen someone improve so much from battle to battle either. The warrior part of her that she had been so certain was long dead crawled out of its grave and demanded that the younger female be put in her place. Soon the resurrected warrior merely became Shego. She was that warrior now and she wanted to repay Kim for reawakening that part of her with defeat when the time was right.

“You always talk a good game, Shego, but we both know how this will end. You and Drakken run out of here without whatever you came from,” Kim told the sidekick.

Kim went at Shego while Ron struggled with Drakken. The two females did not even pay their male counterparts any mind. It was a habit of theirs when they got together and got lost in their battle. There was no outside world to the warriors. The two ladies only existed to each other. Their movements were the only things that mattered. To them, engaging in combat was like the meeting of water and wind. It was the flowing motion of their bodies; the freedom that they gained while fighting. The release of all the pressure in the world for there to only be them, going toe-to-toe and trying to get the other to submit.

The two fighters were both aware of the other’s goal, which was why they fought on. They both refused to submit. Each believed that she was stronger and she would be the victor. It felt like pure, untainted bliss when they went against each other just because of their wills. They fed off each other, never getting exhausted as long as the other one kept going. It was as if their souls communicated with each other whenever their bodies moved together.

“You’ve gotten better, Pumpkin,” Shego commented, letting loose a series of kicks directed at Kim’s midsection. Silently, she noted that there was a new crispness to her own movements, undoubtedly because of her constant face-offs with the redhead.

“Maybe you’ve just gotten worse,” Kim teased, dodging the relentless attack from her opponent and waiting for an opportunity to turn the tables.

The pale woman did not take too kindly to that possibility. “Don’t press your luck, Kimmie.”

Shego and Kim eventually moved away from their respective guys, needing the space. It did not matter where they were because they were not paying the fellows any mind anyway. They ended up out in the hallway just outside the lab. Punches and kicks continued flying, grazing objects and flesh. Smiles accompanied all of the movement, even when they accidentally hit the wall instead of each other.

“Shego! It’s time to go!” Drakken hollered, interrupting the warriors’ dance.

The pale sidekick growled. “Damn it,” she huffed, moving as if she was going to turn around and return to the lab.

“I’m not letting you go that easy,” Kim informed her opponent and she stepped up her game, increasing her speed as if she had shifted into another gear.

Shego was a bit surprised at the effort that the redhead was suddenly using against her. She knew that her usual getaway would not be as simple as it frequently was, especially since they had made their way into the hall and her opponent was blocking the way back. There was also the fact that Stoppable was not there to make a mistake and grab Kim’s attention. But, she had to get away for one simple reason, being that Kim would come after her.

The thought of what came after the battle caused Shego to make a very wicked decision to get away as swiftly as possible. Sidestepping an attack, she then yanked her opponent by the shoulders and pinned the younger woman to the nearby wall. Kim was about to yell something, but she did not get the chance to make too much noise after she opened her mouth. Shego assaulted Kim with her mouth, going at her with lips and tongue.

The redhead automatically attacked back in the same manner, returning the kiss, but looking to take control of the situation. Shego thought it was cute when Kim did things like that. Shego merely put more force into the exchange and pressed her body against Kim’s, adding to the sweetness and passion. Her hands rushed over Kim’s torso and hips, caressing the younger woman and setting her on fire. Shego swore that she could feel the heat from Kim, running her hands of Kim’s chest and feeling certain intimate parts respond to her touch. She had to swallow a groan as she continued to practically devour Kim. After almost a whole minute, the slim hero moaned and tried to grind against Shego, needing more contact. It was in that moment that Shego knew that victory was hers.

“Later, Princess,” the raven-haired thief whispered less than a millimeter from Kim’s parted lips before dashing off.

The hero only made a noise as the other female’s form left her. She was dazed for a few seconds, not thinking about anything beyond the kiss. Her inability to form a coherent thought allowed Doctor Drakken and Shego to escape. When Kim realized what happened, she growled and punched the wall behind her with her fist. She was not angry with herself for letting them get away. She was vexed with Shego because the super-powered female cheated.

“Damn it. I can’t believe I fell for that,” Kim muttered in disgust, shaking her head. A snarl tugged at her lips, which still tingled from the feel of Shego’s mouth.

-8-8-8-8-

The redhead’s mood was soured for the rest of the day. Ron assumed it was because the bad guys got away. He patted her on the back as they went back to school.

“Cheer up, K. P. Yeah, they got away, but this is Drakken and Shego. They always get away at first, but we catch ‘em before they do any real damage and always return their stolen goods,” he pointed out with a smile. “You always stop their evil plans before anything serious happens.”

“I know, Ron. I know. Thanks for reminding me,” she replied and forced a smile on her face. Of course, she was not worried about that. There were only two things on her mind. She was bothered by her actions and she was bothered by Shego’s actions during about the last ninety seconds of their battle.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Kim challenges Shego after drawing a conclusion about the nature of their relationship.

Chapter Text

2: Admitting you have a problem… 

“Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good?” Kanye West, Addiction.

Kim was plagued by thoughts of her recent battle with Shego. It only had a little to do with the fact that the thief got away. Of course, she would love to capture and hold onto Shego one of these days, but she accepted that Shego was probably always going to get away. What troubled her was the method that her opponent used to escape that bothered the redhead. A bold, passionate kiss where anyone could have seen when they were supposed to be fighting with each other.

“It was so hot. She tasted so good and felt so good against me, but that’s not the point! She wasn’t supposed to do that!” Kim huffed, hitting her fist against the desk in her bedroom as a deep frown made camp on her face.

The kiss had been wrong on so many levels, mostly because it had been on the clock, so to speak. Worse than that was her reaction to it, or her lack of reaction as it was. She was supposed to keep Shego in check to make sure something like that did not happen since she liked to tell herself that she had more self-control than her green-skinned rival.

“I’m supposed to be the one that makes sure everything goes right because Shego can’t be trusted. She’s not responsible and she doesn’t care one way or another about things,” Kim reminded herself.

Yet for all of her talk about being the “responsible one,” Kim had done nothing during the kiss, except for what she usually did anyway. She kissed Shego back, fought to be in control of the embrace just like she always did when they went at each other. She wanted to be the superior one, just like when they fought. It was another contest. 

“A contest where I wanted to devour her bit by bit, but instead she’s the one that consumed me,” the teen lamented.

She had lost that battle completely and totally. She had given in to the point where if Shego wanted to ravish her right then and there with their respective males only a few yards away, she would have allowed the woman to do just that. She would have become a liquid if Shego desired it to be so as long as those hot, plasma-charged hands would have continued to touch her in a passionate manner. She would have done just about anything to continue, which was very, very bad, she told herself.

“I wish I could say it was my damn hormones. I mean, I’m seventeen, about to be eighteen. Any teenager with a pulse would’ve given into Shego at that moment,” Kim reasoned. After all, being seventeen could affect anyone’s behavior and judgment when such delightful touching was involved, her brain offered as an out. “Too bad that only makes sense if Shego wasn’t the only person that could make me feel like that. My age never explains anything except for whenever Shego’s involved in something in my life, so all that makes being seventeen is an excuse,” she scolded herself.

Her next scapegoat was to blame social perception for what happened. Someone with her looks and at her age was supposed to be having some sort of sexual encounters, her mind pointed out to support that excuse. But, the redheaded hero knew that those things had little, if anything, to do with the fact that she had simply given into Shego. She was not the type to give into social perceptions or anything like that. She had control over herself. Therefore, she did it because she wanted to and Shego had beaten her that time.

“I can’t believe I have into her so easily! It was like she hit a freaking button in me and made me melt! It’s never been like that before. That was something way more than hot.”

A minute of heated kissing and petting, Kim had been ready to tear her clothes off for Shego. That just could not be a good sign and the redhead was going to adhere to the warnings before things got out of control; well, more out of control than they already were. It was bad enough that she had lost all sense of her surroundings when she went hand-to-hand with the super-powered female, but she could not risk losing all sense of her surroundings when kissing Shego out in plain view like that. Okay, she knew just what had to be done.

-8-8-8-8-

“Where the hell is she?” Shego muttered in an angry tone.

She was sitting in her living room, staring at the one bare wall that she had; the other walls had painting on them. She was sitting on the polished, dark hardwood floor, leaning back against her black leather sofa. Her pale skin was on display thanks to the fact that she was wearing some plain black sweat shorts, which barely went to mid-thigh, and green tank-top since she was at home. Only her furniture was bearing witness to the sight of her flesh, but that could change at any moment. She was waiting for someone.

She had been at the lair not too long ago, but she just could not sit around and listen to that water-colored idiot drag about his molecular disintegration ray anymore than the few hours that she had. It was surprising that she had not gone out of her mind in that time as he droned on about his weapon. It was not even really his, considering the fact that he stole the blasted thing from a lab for crying out loud. He probably did not even know what the thing did, she was willing to bet. She waited around there for as long as she could, all for nothing apparently. It was hard to believe that she had endured his annoying voice for nothing to happen. The very thought set a frown on her face.

“Where in the hell is she?” Shego wondered again, growling from being stood up. Emerald eyes scanned the large living room, as if hoping that the person that she was waiting for would suddenly appear. Of course, that did not occur.

The raven-haired woman glanced over at her clock on the wall and then she looked at the time on the cable box on the opposite end of the room and then she checked her wrist watch. She wanted to make sure that the clock on the wall was right and, apparently, it was exactly the hour that the clock read. She was going to smite that damnable vixen the next time they fought. Seriously, where in the hell was she? She wanted to do something after all!

“Damn it, I’m way too over-stimulated now!” she snarled. “I worked myself up way too much in that damn fight with Kimmie. I need something to do! So, where the hell is she? How could she not come? I need to do something!” she repeated, slapping the wooden floor in her frustration.

She probably should just work it off by shadowboxing, she figured. It was becoming obvious that she was spending her night alone. Well, that sucked, she thought as she finally picked herself up off of the floor.

So, Shego shadowboxed, needing to burn off of excessive energy. And then she ran in place. And then she hit her heavy bag. She went through her usual motions to stay sharp with her style. But, it was not enough. She wanted more. She required more.

“I need to...” She swallowed down the end of that sentence, knowing it would end with “see her.” Considering how pissed she was, she doubted that she needed to see anybody. Of course, seeing “her” went beyond her fury. 

Shego tried to convince herself that she did not need anything. It felt like a need, though. The burning desire, the itching, the want, the sheer yearning. It was strong, almost painful to be without. It was pulling at her entire being, her heart, her soul, her consciousness, everything. It was telling her that she should go get what she so deeply craved. There was nothing wrong with what she wanted and, even if there was, she should not care, the desire told her. It was not about right and wrong; it was about pleasure and suffering, it reminded her.

Whoa, Shego halted that thought right there because it seemed just a little too extreme for her liking. “I am not suffering without her. This is nothing more than a very annoying itch I want to scratch.”

She considered that calling it an itch might even that was giving it too much credit. It was practically insignificant because she was in complete control, of both herself and the situation. Everything about her was under her control. Everything that involved her was under her control, Shego reminded herself.

“I am in control. I just need to calm down for a second. My mind is going crazy from being too worked up because of earlier. Just a little temporary insanity. My adrenaline is still pumping and it doesn’t have any real place to go, so I’m just thinking about things too much. That’s all. It’s nothing more than that. Really, nothing more than that,” she tried to assure herself.

For some reason, there was a tremble in her stomach and she could have sworn it called out the word “liar.” She growled in anger, even though she was sure that was just a figment of her imagination. Everything was fine. Everything was fine and then she felt a quiver some place a little lower than her belly.

“Fuck it,” Shego decided as she ripped herself from her resting place.

The super-powered fighter went and took a shower. She could not figure out if she should take a cold shower or a hot one; a cold one would calm the fire raging in her, but a hot shower would relax her tense muscles. She went with both just to do something, but neither helped. At that point, she knew what had to be done.

-8-8-8-8-

Kim was sleeping in her bed peacefully, for the moment anyway. Suddenly, she sprang up on high alert as she felt a presence in the room. Hardly a millisecond after that she felt full, delicious lips on hers. Most people would be alarmed to awake to such a thing, especially if they had been sleeping alone as far as they knew, but she was used to such occurrences and knew who it was immediately. For a couple of seconds, she returned the rather lustful, heated embrace. It was so deliciously sinful. It was something beyond ecstasy. Then her brain reminded her about what happened earlier, so she pushed the offending person away, which was not taken lightly by the other party.

“You’re got nerve, Shego, after what you did today,” Kim huffed, anger dancing in her olive eyes as they locked onto the intruder in her room—Shego.

A deep scowl settled onto a pale face because she had been pushed away. “What did I do?” she asked as innocently as possible for her to pull off. If she could have made a halo appear over her head, she would have. Of course, she knew exactly what was wrong, so she was just looking to be annoying now and the hero knew that.

“You know what you did,” the redhead snarled, pointing an accusing finger at her plasma-wielding rival. 

“Refresh my memory,” the older female requested in an amused tone, having the nerve to smile.

“You mixed our pleasures together. You know that it’s one or the other. We never do both of them at the same time,” the cheerleader pointed out. It was a rule that they had. What’s the point of even having rules if Shego was not going to follow them?! Of course, she half-expected Shego to break the rules in the beginning. This was Shego, after all.

“It was the only way to get away,” the pale woman countered in a nonchalant tone. She even shrugged because she did not see the big deal.

“You should’ve fought harder,” Kim replied. There was a rough grit to her voice, but she made sure not to shout. It was past midnight and she did not want to wake up anyone in her house. The last thing she needed was for her parents to come and find out what she was yelling about.

“I would’ve, but he was ready to go and I didn’t feel like hearing him bitch and moan. You know I wanted to stay and play with you, Princess. Believe me, I wanted to stay because I know it would’ve been fun. But, you’ve got to admit, that finish was fantastic,” the villainess commented with a devilish smile. It left her tingling and anticipating for hours, after all. 

“That finish was against the rules,” Kim countered, her anger still evident in her voice.

Shego rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Rules are made to be broken, Kimmie. You think we would need rules if everybody did what they were supposed to? No. You should know that by now and you should know me better than that,” the thief argued.

“I do know you and you usually don’t mix what we do. It’s agreed that it’s one or the other and you know that. In public, we fight and in private, we… well, you know.”

Shego shook her head and laughed a bit. She really could not believe what a prude her Kimmie could be. It always amazed her because of the things that Kim would not allow to come out of her mouth, but the things that she would do with her mouth. Shego would not complain abotu either, as long as Kim remained hers and hers alone.

“While you’re whining about the way we do things, why the hell didn’t you come after me?” the older female inquired, doing her best to keep a pout off of her face. The whole point of her running away was that the hero was supposed to chase her and they could either pick up where they left off. Or, better still, they could do something entirely different if no one else was around. Kim had not followed that routine today and that had left the green-skinned woman rather frustrated.

“What?” Kim asked as if she did not know what Shego meant.

“You didn’t come after me. I waited in the lair and listened to that scarred moron rant and rave about a weapon that I’m damn near sure he doesn’t know a fucking thing about and the whole reason I waited never showed up. So, I went home and waited again and my damn reason still never showed up. Where the hell were you?” Shego demanded to know, making sure to watch her tone to avoid waking up Kim’s parents because she did not need that kind of headache in her life right now.

The villainess badly desired to know what happened to Kim. She had several ideas as to what might have happened and she did not like any of them. The worse notion that came to mind was that the hero was out with some boy and if that was the case, she was going to do some very disturbing things to that boy.

“Um…hello, I was sleeping,” Kim answered the question of where she was, hitting her pillow for emphasis.

“Well, what the hell were you doing sleeping? We’re supposed to be fighting or fucking. I’ve been ready to do one or the other all day. Now, since I’m here and you’re pretty much undressed…” Shego smirked before going at the hero with her mouth.

The thief went for Kim’s neck instead of her mouth. Kim almost let Shego stay right where she was, kissing on her throat and making her body burn, but she fought that urge. The redhead pushed Shego away a second time, which caused the green-skinned woman to growl in anger.

“What the hell are you doing?” Shego demanded, still watching the volume that she spoke at despite her fury. Her eyes ignited in a way that Kim had never seen, giving her an idea of how frustrated Shego was.

Kim took a deep breath and tried to find the right words to get her point across. “Look, Shego, this isn’t right,” she stated as plainly as she possibly could.

A vicious snarl escaped Shego because of those words and her eyes blazed even more. She should have known that Kim’s goody-two shoes side would try to take control. She was not about to give into that side of Kim because she was aware that was only a small part of the hero; the whole Kim wanted what they had. They both craved what they had; a good round of fighting in the day and a better round of sex at night. It was just the competitor inside of Kim that wanted what they had and that was who the redhead was, Shego was certain of that. Kim yearned for what they had just as badly as she did. She just needed to remind the cheerleader of that.

“Pumpkin, don’t let right and wrong come into this because you know it can’t be marked like that,” Shego argued, putting her hand on Kim’s leg, which was shielded by her bed spread. There was a slight caress and seductive emerald eyes that did not seem to crack Kim’s shield.

The younger woman shook her head. “I don’t mean it that way. I mean, it’s not right what we’re doing to each other. This isn’t healthy,” she said soundly, as if she had put a lot of thought into their circumstances. She also moved her leg to prevent Shego from caressing her any more since they had to stop things like that in her opinion. Shego took offense to the movement and the words.

The thief snorted through her nose like a bull. “What isn’t healthy? We’re not going to kill each other or anything,” she countered, motioning between the two of them with her hand with a vexed expression on her face.

“Shego, we’re addicted to each other,” Kim announced as if it was news.

Shego wanted to slap the teen in the head for saying something so preposterous, but she was not sure what the cheerleader was really getting at. Taking a deep breath, Shego did her best to compose herself. She reminded herself where she was and who she was talking to avoid letting her temper get the better of her for once.

“So? How is that a bad thing?” the evil sidekick inquired. Okay, they wanted each other, they had each other, things seemed fine to her.

Kim balked at Shego’s nonchalance. “Hello, we’re addicted to each other. Being an addict isn’t good. We’re not good for each other,” the redhead stated as if that was a fact.

“Damn that. I’m no addict,” Shego declared, proudly tipping her chin in the air.

“Then why are you here?” Kim asked, thinking that she had the green-skinned female right there.

Shego made a slightly puzzled face. “What do you mean?”

“Why’d you come here if you’re not addicted? You couldn’t stand having that one little meeting. You couldn’t stand that one short fight and that teasing kiss, right?” Kim asked quite seriously.

“I could take it. I was just bored,” Shego answered in a dismissive tone, rolling her eyes and waving the question off. Silently, she was starting to think that Kim might have had a little point. But, she refused to believe that she was an addict of any kind.

“Yeah, sure,” the petite hero scoffed and olive eyes rolled that time.

“Look, I don’t see the damn problem. Who the hell cares about it being an addiction or not? We’re getting a kick out of it and that’s the important thing,” Shego rebutted. She could not even believe that they were having an argument over the matter, especially since she did not think that it was an addiction.

“That’s not the important thing. The important thing is that we’re addicted to each other,” Kim replied.

Shego scoffed. “Whatever.”

“This is serious. We’re not good for each other,” Kim tried to assure the older female.

“So says you. What am I supposed to accept it because Little Miss Perfect says so? I don’t give a damn. This is fun and I like doing fun stuff. So, I’d rather keep doing it than listen to you go on about being addicted. I’m not addicted to you,” Shego argued with vigor, but still watching her volume. She folded her arms across her stomach, like the move somehow proved her point.

“Prove it,” Kim challenged the thief.

“Prove it?” the pale woman echoed, sounding bemused once again. The redhead was saying all kinds of crazy, weird things that night in her opinion. But, the glint in those olive eyes somewhat spoke to her, almost like when they fighting each other.

“Yeah, prove it,” Kim repeated in a daring tone.

“And how would I go about doing that?” Shego inquired.

“No more fighting or that other thing,” Kim answered.

“No more fighting or fucking?” the raven-haired female echoed in disbelief and it was surprising that her jaw was not on the floor from how incredulously she was. It sounded damn near impossible for her. What were they supposed to do if they were not battling each other, be it hand-to-hand or in bed?

“Right, no more.”

“How in the hell is this supposed to work?” the sidekick asked in a bewildered tone with an expression to match.

“We’re quitting each other cold turkey,” Kim replied.

The response did not clear up Shego’s expression. “Why?”

“How are you missing this? We’re addicted to each other,” the redhead repeated again, motioning between them so that Shego was clear as to whom she meant.

“How are you missing this? I don’t give a damn because I'm not addicted,” the pale woman retorted, huffing and tightening her arms around her chest.

Kim sighed; they were going around in circles. “Fine, how about this one, we hold off on our usual pleasures and the first person to give up actually has to submit to the other one,” she proposed.

“Fine,” Shego accepted because she figured that it would be the easiest deal that she ever won. She was already planning out what she was going to do with her little Kimmie.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: quitting the problem cold turkey. How will they take it? Who’ll break first?

Chapter Text

3: Cold Turkey

“Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would/ Man, I tried to stop. Man, I tried the best I could, but…” Kanye West, Addiction.

Day-1

“This’ll be one of the easiest things I’ve ever won,” Kim declared, referring to her wager with Shego.

Kim thought that she had her bet with Shego in the bag. She had more than enough hobbies to keep herself busy and to prevent her from thinking about a certain raven-haired fighter. Plus, she was not the one sneaking into rooms well after midnight and planting kisses on sleeping bodies. She was definitely going to win, by her estimate anyway. She figured that she should start planning what she was going to do to Shego once she won this thing.

“How did I even get into this mess with Shego, though?” Kim asked herself.

Well, the fighting was easy enough to recall. The fighting was also easy to make sense of because that pretty much came from the day that they had met. Something inside of her had been sparked and she needed to conquer the thief in a way that she never thought about to prove that she was the better martial artist. She would be better than Shego even if it killed her, she always told herself; she could practically hear Ron blaming it all on her “Kim-ness.”

“I can’t help it if I like to be challenged and Shego is the best fighter I have ever come up against. I have to surpass her in fighting. Of course, that doesn’t explain the other things I ended up doing with her,” Kim mumbled.

But, she honestly could not pinpoint when her relationship—if it could be called that—had transformed into something else. Well, maybe it was not even transformed, just something added on. It happened quickly and gradually at the same time. It was recent, but she was sure that they had been building toward it ever since they met. It had started with a kiss, she knew that much, and had rapidly turned into something so much more. And it left them craving each other to the point that it itched and burned. They needed to do something about it.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego decided that she would work on refining her fighting style to take up time while she had the silly little bet going on with Kim. She went through her techniques and discovered any redundancies in her movement while she was at home. She began polishing her moves while hoping that Drakken gave her something to do without having to listen to him rant about it beforehand. Unfortunately, he seemed to be stuck on trying to figure out how his prized little pop gun worked.

“Shego, do you know that this...” Drakken held up the stolen device. “...is what’s going to help us rule the world!” he declared. Of course, he changed his tune about an hour later. “Why won’t this stupid thing work! I keep pulling the trigger and nothing’s happening! This doesn’t make any sense...”

Shego leaned back in her seat and sighed, knowing a rant was coming on. She listened halfheartedly while her employer vented his anger about how the weapon did not work. She really did not have anything better to do aside from what she had been doing before that, which was reading every magazine that she had in the lair. It was a little pathetic, she knew, but it was about all she had now.

“Did you try putting triple A batteries in the thing?” she teased him, a half-smirk on her face as she spoke.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Shego! No device this top secret would require triple A batteries,” he huffed, glaring at her as if she were the idiot.

She mocked him in her head and out loud while he went on and on about things. Most of the time, he was whining in her opinion. It sounded like gibberish to her because she did not care about it. She wished that he would just give her something to do, damn it!

It took him two days to figure out that the blasted gun needed special batteries, which he was willing to bet were back at that lab where they stole the gun from in the first place. The emerald-eyed sidekick was going to gloat about being right about the battery thing, but was so thankful for something to do that she just went to go do it. She had been ready to claw her own eyes out while she was trapped at his lair and hearing his voice. After all, there was only so much torture one could take, even if it did give her a chance to be sarcastic as hell.

Day-3

Kim was sitting in her English class, taking a test. Her right leg was bouncing at a nice speed and she was biting on the cap of her pen, showing the whole class that she was anxious. She was not nervous about the test or anything; in fact, she had already breezed through the essay while everyone else in the class was still writing. She needed to do something and then suddenly she heard that lovely, familiar beeping sound; she wanted to thank any and everything possible for Wade and whatever mission that he had, no matter how trivial it was.

“Sitch me, Wade,” Kim answered the Kimmunicator. It almost sounded like she was begging him for something to do. He decided to ignore her tone and just tell her what was going on.

“Robbery in progress—” the computer genius tried to inform her.

“I’m so there,” the redhead said before he even had a chance to finish. She just needed to do something before she ended up gnawing her own arm off from the anxiety rapidly building in her system.

Wade filled Kim in on the specifics as she handed in her test and left class in a hurry. She almost forgot to explain to the teacher where she was going. She did however forget her sidekick. She just wanted to do something! She arrived at the lab where she had been just at a few days ago in record time yet again. She noticed Shego taking something from a drawer; her back was to Kim. The thief turned around hardly a second after the redhead entered the room though; she could pretty much sense Kim now.

“Hey, Princess,” Shego greeted the hero with a demonic smirk and she crouched down into her fighting stance.

“Are you giving up already?” Kim inquired with a teasing smirk of her own.

“Giving up?” Shego echoed in a puzzled tone. How did it imply that she was giving up if she was clearly ready to throw down?

The redhead chuckled and shook her head, amazed that the bet seemed to slip Shego’s mind already. “If you want to fight, you forfeit our little deal,” she pointed out.

“Are you serious?” the older female asked in an incredulous tone. What was the point in stealing something if they were not going to fight? Better question, how was Kim going to do what she came to do if they did not fight? Shego had to see how the whole thing was going to play out.

“Hey, our two pleasures, fighting is definitely on that list,” the cheerleader reminded her foe, looking a bit smug as she spoke because it was clear that the pale woman had not thought about that.

Shego snorted and rolled her eyes. “Fine, then how in hell do we settle this? A game of checkers perhaps?” she remarked in an impatient voice, waving around a box that was about the size of a toaster. She had taken it out of one of the drawers.

Kim could see the green-skinned woman’s point; how were they supposed to accomplish anything if they could not fight? She had actually not thought that far ahead in things. Ignoring her muscles twitching and urging her to ran at the thief and attack her, she tried to think of some other way for them to solve if the box left the building or not. Her biceps jumped under her skin and her fingers wiggled a bit while her legs wanted nothing more than to crouch down into her fighting stance to take the box by force. She remained in control of herself, but she finally understood why she had been so unnerved for the past few days, she missed Shego.

The redhead missed going against Shego and that made her apprehensive for the past couple of days, which let her know that she was really addicted to the older woman because it was really just the knowledge that they were not going to be doing anything that had been bothering her initially. It felt like she was starving and Shego was her food, her nourishment. The only problem was that Kim believed Shego was more like a rotten meal to her rather than any healthy sustenance. Shego was no good for her, she reminded herself. Craving something so badly just had to be unhealthy. Wanting something all the time and so desperately just was not right, she knew that as a fact.

The evil sidekick had not been that way for the past couple of days because it obviously did not occur to her that they would not fight if she stole something and Kim caught her in the act. Shego had no idea that their idiotic and almost childish wager would count when they were supposed to be working. She could see why Kim would do such a thing, though. They typically fought when they were working anyway; not to mention, the redhead was probably trying to get revenge for her mixing their fun the other day. But, that was not fair and her Kimmie was supposed to be all about being fair!

Shego really wanted to fight. She had not had a good round since the last time that she saw Kim and her body and mind disliked the trend, especially since she was now aware that she was not going to get anything from Kim. It just did not feel right not being able to go against the cheerleader, even if it had only been three days.

She had tried to give Drakken’s henchmen a go, but they were just pathetic. The ones that wanted to fight, they all seemed to be former boxers, or wrestlers, or athletes of some kind. The real trouble there was that there were not many of them. They could not keep up with her either. The rest of Drakken’s henchmen went on some level that was buried deep below worthless. She had beaten a dozen volunteers that morning without really breaking a sweat. She thought that she might get rusty if she did not have a worthwhile fight soon.

“So, Pumpkin, since you’re so full of ideas, how do we settle who wins this one?” Shego inquired, sounding just a bit bothered with the situation.

Kim was silent for a moment, considering what they could do to solve their problem. “Rock, paper, scissors?” she offered weakly with a long shrug. It was the best that she could come up with.

Shego groaned and ducked her head. “Ah, fine. Whatever,” she huffed.

“Rock, paper, scissors says shoot,” they both dismally did the chant and then throw out their hands. Kim laid her hand out flat as paper while Shego held out her two fingers for scissors.

“Damn it,” Kim muttered, pulling her hand into a fist.

“Oh, goody, I win,” Shego deadpanned, her expression was just about as excited as her voice. Talk about a cheap, heartless, and worthless victory. She would gotten more satisfaction with poking Kim in the eye and running while the hero was slightly blind, even if that was just as childish as how they just settled matters. “Are you sure you don't want to just go at it for a bit? We could arm wrestle,” she suggested with a hopeful smile.

“Just go. You won,” Kim replied in a tired, deadbeat tone, waving her rival off. Of course she wanted to really go at it! Every nerve in her body was screaming at her to go and defeat the older woman. She desired nothing more than to throw down with Shego because no other activity compared to that one. No, fighting with Shego was not even an activity; it was an art. It was passion. It was definitely a drug; Shego was a drug.

Shego smiled, as if she read the hero’s mind. She had the same thought the day after Kim had gone on about they were addicted to each other. She would not admit to being an addict, ever, but Kim had because she was the one that came up with the whole notion of them being addicts. Shego guessed that meant she was a drug. She actually liked that idea because it gave her power over Kim and that was all either of them really wanted. One wanted to conquer the other and that was it. She thought that Kim looked too deep into the issue and now had shown that Shego had power over her. It was a mistake on Kim’s part in her opinion.

“Later, Princess,” Shego bid Kim farewell in a rather weak voice and then she took off.

Okay, they both silently conceded that their little wager might be a bit harder than either had anticipated. The only thing that prevented them from attacking each other was the thought of losing the bet. Kim would be damned if she was going to lose to Shego over something that seemed so simple. On the other end, Shego figured that hell would freeze over and the devil would make snow angels before she lost to the redhead.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego delivered the battery for the gun to Doctor Drakken, who now had a list of things that he wished for Shego to go and acquire for him. She took a step back as he shoved the list under her nose. Glancing down, and going somewhat cross-eyed, she studied what was being shoved in her face.

“These are things that I need for everything to go according to plan. Make sure you get them in that order!” Drakken ordered.

The super-powered woman did not object, ask any questions, or even say anything snippy because she really needed things to occupy her time or she was sure that she would go out of her freaking mind. She wished that he had a Christmas list of things that he wanted because she would do just about anything now that she knew how deep the bet was. Her employer was just delighted in how cooperative Shego was being.

-8-8-8-8-

Kim returned to school in time for her last class. She had several after-school projects lined up to keep her busy without thinking about a certain female that could plasma-charge her hands. She had cheerleading practice, followed by a tutoring session, and then she helped clean up one of the chemistry labs. She hoped that Wade called with some non-related Shego news soon. She was going to need as many things as possible to keep her mind off of her rival.

Day-5

“I’m going out of my mind,” Kim groaned, contemplating banging her head against her locker to relieve some of the pent up frustration that was steadily—not to mention rapidly—building in her body. She felt like she was going through withdrawal. She wanted to tear her hair out, climb the walls, kick holes in the doors, punch through glass or just anything to get her entire being to stop craving to go against Shego. Wanting something that she knew that she was not going to get was driving her out of her mind already, but she was definitely going to hold on because she refused to be the one to lose.

“K.P,” Ron greeted his best friend as he strolled up to her locker.

“Hey, Ron,” she replied in a low tone. Her expression was downright depressed, especially for someone just greeted by her best friend.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked with concern in his voice and worry in his brown eyes.

He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, hoping that the contact would somehow help lift her spirits. He had never seen his best bud look so down before. She actually appeared stressed out and he could not recall the last time that she looked that way. It was hard to believe, but she actually looked worse at the moment than she did that time the Bebes took Bonnie as queen.

“Nothing,” she answered in a dreary, exhausted voice. It was not like she could just tell Ron that her body was betraying her by desiring her rival.

“You know, I bet you’d feel better if you went home,” he suggested. After all, when he had an excuse to leave school, he took it, especially now that he was a senior. A senior practically translated into a graduate to him.

“I’m all right,” she tried to assure him, brushing his suggestion and his hand away. She just did not sound like her usual self and that was why he persisted.

Even more worry overtook Ron’s face as his hand fell to his side. It was not often that Kim physically pushed him away. He wished that she would open up about what was bothering her, so he would try a little harder.

“You sure? You don’t look all right. You look worn out. You know you always do try to do a lot. Maybe you need to slow down a little bit and get like the required ten hours of sleep that human body needs,” he advised her with a warm smile.

“I don't think the human body needs ten hours,” she commented dryly.

“Yeah? I bet it’s more like twelve. I always thought twelve was better," he muttered thoughtfully, scratching his chin in the process. “Anyway, the point is, you need rest or just to relax. You should goof off or something,” he suggested.

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, K.P. Whatever you say,” he replied with a shrug. There was no getting through to her it seemed and then Wade appeared on the computer screen that was in her locker.

“Hey, guys,” Wade greeted the pair.

“What’s up, Wade?” Kim inquired.

“Another robbery,” he reported.

Kim groaned; she was not about to go after Shego again. She had gone twice yesterday and her body just kept hollering at her to attack the older woman before the opportunity was lost. Instead, they used “rock, paper, scissors” once and then they actually thumb wrestled the other time to see who the victor would be. Shego walked off with an electronic amplifier thanks to the thumb war while Kim prevented her from taking the blue print for some large laser, but the victories did not matter to either female. Kim did not want to go through seeing Shego again, win or lose.

The way that Kim felt at the moment, she was certain that if she saw anyone that she even thought was Shego, she would go to fight the person without even confirming it was the thief. She hoped that she would fight the person anyway. With the way that her nerves were rhythmically twitching, there was always a chance that she might try to do something else. She did not even want to think about the other thing that she might do to someone that she thought looked like Shego.

“Kim, are you all right?” Wade asked because the hero had a look in her eyes that he had never seen before—the look of reluctance.

“Wade…was it Shego?” Kim inquired, sounding like she did not really want to know the answer.

“Well, they described the thief as a highly sarcastic, anger prone pale woman that could throw green fire from her hands. There is a chance that someone else out there is just like Shego. Does Shego have a sister?” he answered, being more sarcastic than anything else.

“There are two Shegos?” Ron yelled incredulously, throwing his hands up while his jaw dropped open. One was bad enough in his opinion.

“No, Ron. Wade, I’ll pass on this one,” the redhead decided.

“You’ll what?” both boys asked simultaneously; they also sounded equally shocked by the announcement. They were almost certain that they had heard wrong, but they were not sure what words fit in the statement to make it something else.

“I’ll pass,” Kim repeated in a dismissive tone and then she walked off without bothering to explain why she would not take the mission.

“She must be sick or something. I mean, she didn’t look so good,” Ron commented because he could not think of another reason why Kim would not take the mission. After all, it was Shego. He knew that she liked going against Shego. He did not know the reason why, but he knew that she liked it. Beyond that, Kim had never turned down a mission before, even if she had an important event in her own life to take care of.

“Maybe…” Wade concurred in an unsure manner. He wondered if there was something going on that he actually did not know about.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego was glad that Kim did not come after her. She was sure that she would not be able to take another unenthused round of “rock, paper, scissors” or another dull thumb war. In fact, if she saw Kim again, she was rather certain that she was going to just tackle the redhead. She had not gone beyond the tackle in her head because she was not sure what she would do if she had the hero pressed against the floor underneath her. She did not even want to think about that.

-8-8-8-8- 

Next time: they keep on trying to quit each other while still trying to do their jobs. Can they do it?

Chapter Text

4: Colder Turkey

“So, I guess that means I'm a drug…” Kanye West, Addiction

Day-10

Kim was lying on the sofa in her house, staring at the television. She was merely looking at the set, not focusing on the program in any way. She had not even been the one that turned the television on. Her brothers had run in some minutes ago, turned on the television, and then ran out without leaving a clue as to what they were doing or why they had bothered turning the television on. Her olive eyes happened to be in the direction of the picture and she was not willing to pick up the remote to turn it off or to turn her head in some other way.

“I should probably get off the couch at some point. How long have I been here? What day is it?” Kim muttered to herself. Her new hobby seemed to be lying on the sofa and she was obviously losing her sense of time because of it.

If asked, the redhead would probably say that she was bored. She really just wanted to lie to herself and say that she was bored, but she knew the truth of the matter. The truth haunted her worse than any ghost ever could.

“Who am I kidding? I miss her and it hurts,” the hero murmured, clutching her chest for a few seconds. “It still hurts...”

She missed Shego and it was not a regular emotion to her. In fact, she was certain that it was not normal, especially considering how heavy she felt it. It was a substantial sense of lose that deepened with each day that went by. She thought that giving something up was supposed to be easier after a while. Unfortunately, it was not getting any easier being without the thief and she did not even mean that in a way that she missed doing their usual two actions. She missed Shego, point blank, end of thought.

“Why would I miss Shego? This doesn’t make any sense...”

Kim was not sure what it meant for her to just miss Shego. Shego was a drug, after all. Of course, as a drug, she would be missed while Kim was attempting to get the pale woman out of her system. It did not feel like she was going to make it cold turkey, though. There were just too many things gnawing at her and they seemed to be multiplying as the days went by. She was not sure what she was going to do when she saw Shego again, and she was sure that she would have to face her soon. She hoped that the meeting would not be counterproductive. 

“Kimmie, what are you doing?” her mother inquired as she entered the living room and she sat down next to the disoriented hero.

The brain surgeon’s question stemmed from Kim’s current state and her behavior for the past few days. Kim just did not seem like herself anymore, like the teen was dragging around the house or lying around the house whenever she made it to the couch. It was like she had a ton of weight on her and she could hardly bear the load. 

“Nothing,” Kim replied in a mumble, eyes staying locked on the TV, but still not taking in what was on it.

“Are you all right?” the neurosurgeon asked with motherly concern in her voice. Her sky blue eyes softened as she reached out and rubbed Kim’s back.

“Yeah. Why do you even ask?”

“You haven’t been yourself lately. School problems?” her mother asked, moving Kim’s head into her lap. Continuing to caress the small of Kim’s back, she hoped to bring her obviously distressed daughter some comfort.

“No,” the girl answered, still grumbling rather than talking in her usual upbeat voice. She did curl into her mother’s form, thinking that the familiar love and warmth would get her out of her funk.

“A villain maybe?”

“No.”

“I heard Wade talking about a series of robberies this morning over breakfast. How come you’re not going out to do something about that?” Ann inquired. Wade had contacted Kim that morning to go about how some tech place was hit by a thief, but Kim was not even paying him any mind because she knew that he was talking about Shego. The way that Kim ignored the mission was the biggest tip-off that something was wrong with the petite hero.

“I know who it is,” Kim replied with a shrug to make everything seem like no big deal.

“So, you’re not going to go?” Doctor Possible asked in a confused tone. That was just plain weird.

“It’s no big. I figure that I’ll just wait for the end of everything and then go kick Drakken’s butt instead of chasing Shego around the globe and wasting a bunch of energy on that,” Kim explained with another slight shrug.

“That’s not like you. Usually, you’d go to stop Shego before giving Drakken the chance to do anything,” her mother pointed out. 

“This is less of a hassle.”

“I’m getting the feeling that there’s more to it than that,” the older redhead commented, keeping her voice gentle. It was much too much of a change in her daughter’s behavior for it to be no big deal. She just could not guess why Kim was acting so unlike herself.

“You’re reading way too much into it, Mom. This is just less bothersome, less bruises too,” Kim remarked, forcing out a smile as if that would distract her mother.

“Well, I do like that last part of it. But, this is so strange. You’re usually glad to go out and stop Shego,” Ann noted. It seemed like it was not secret that Kim liked to rumble with the pale woman. She always got a look of joy whenever she ran out to go face off with Shego.

“I know,” the teenager sighed. She would be glad to go out and tussle with Shego right now if only they did not have that bet in place and she was trying to get over the super-powered sidekick.

“Well, if you’re just going to stop the problem at the end, what are you going to do with your time until you find out what Drakken has planned?”

“I don’t know,” Kim groaned. She had been doing things, but they were not enough. Nothing was enough.

While Shego had been on her thieving spree, Kim had been doing everything possible to stay busy, except for stopping the other martial artist anyway. She had been saving people from natural disasters and other things. She even stopped some crazy plot by Duff Killigan, who planned to take over the whole country of Scotland and turn them all into golfers for whatever reason.

She had also been helping around school and around her community. She was trying to just do things to keep Shego off of her mind, but it was not working. There was a hollow feeling inside of her, reminding her that she missed a certain raven-haired female that she was trying her best not to think about. She knew that things had to be bad if everyone was asking about if she was all right.

Day-12

Shego was pleased in a way that she did not have to see Kim as she ran around and did her thing, shopping for the items that her employer required. She was not sure what she was going to do when she did see Kim and she was well aware that the day was going to come soon. She was more than aware that her little princess was not going to allow Drakken to succeed with his nutty plot to take over the world. Shego was not about to lose the bet, but she was not too sure if she was going to be able to control herself when she did see Kim again.

“I need to make sure I don’t jump her bones the second I see those pretty green eyes...” Shego muttered, throwing herself into an empty chair in the lair. She stayed there to be close to Drakken, in case he needed something else. It would keep her mind off of Kimmie. Well, in theory anyway. “Nothing keeps my mind off of my princess.” 

The super-powered woman hated what was happening, not just the bit of not seeing Kim, but the side-effects of not seeing the hero. It left her thinking, pondering, contemplating what it was that she had with Kim. The catastrophic sense of absence that accompanied not seeing the redhead seemed to suggest that their relationship was something other than what she believed it to be. She had figured that they were rivals when it came to fighting. There must have been mutual lustful attraction for the sex, she gathered.

“Oh, a definite attraction there. Hell, we’re totally compatible in bed, maybe even more so than when we’re fighting each other,” she considered.

Shego had always believed that their sexual involvement evolved from watching each other’s movements as they fought. They each admired the other’s body and the fluid, graceful motions of the other fighter. They liked the feel of each other when they battled, so it was a one-thing-led-to-another type of situation, she concluded.

“Which led to another and another...” A lewd smirk worked its way onto her face as she got lost in memories of their times together. Those were halted as she was hit by the idea that things between them could be more than sex.

As the villainess thought about what she was going through in the past hellish twelve days without the two things that she did with Kim and not seeing Kim, she just could not easily put a label on what they did or what they had. What she was feeling was not for the loss of a rival or even a bed buddy. There was something deeper to it, but she refused to acknowledge it. She told herself that her mind and body were just going through hallucinations from lack of proper stimulation. It had to be that simple, she convinced herself.

Day-15

“What’s the sitch, Wade?” Kim asked as she answered her Kimmunicator.

She was hanging out at Bueno Nacho with Ron. He had managed to tear her off of the couch, with a lot of help from her parents. The blond boy was now busying himself with extremely important research, in his opinion. He was attempting to see if it was humanly feasible to fit the entire naco in his mouth without injuring himself.

“It’s Drakken,” Wade reported.

“I’ve been wondering when he was going to show all of his cards,” the redhead commented, trying to sound normal and she was doing a decent job. On the inside, she was just a little apprehensive about going to stop Drakken since she knew that it meant seeing Shego.

“Yeah, do you remember back when he stole that little ray gun?” the young man inquired.

“It looked like a kid’s toy, yeah,” she answered.

“Turns out that it was a small disintegrating ray,” Wade explained.

“You mean like a Marvin-the-Martian-against-Daffy-Duck disintegrating ray?” Kim asked in a curious tone as her eyebrows curled up, giving her a puzzled expression.

“Pretty much,” he confirmed with a nod.

“O…kay,” she said for lack of a better response.

“Well, he took the whole thing apart to study it. See, it was a prototype and it really could only handle small things. He built one that is powerful enough to disintegrate Washington,” the computer genius informed them.

“That’s not that big,” Ron remarked. After all, Drakken was the man that tried to take over all of Canada, so one little city was not much.

“Washington state,” Wade clarified.

“Wait, Washington has a state now? When did this happen and why was I not informed?” the blond inquired, rather serious about his question.

“Probably because it happened in 1889. Hard to believe he’s going to have a high school diploma in a couple of months,” Kim teased her best friend. “So, Wade, where can I find the good doctor?” she asked with a smile.

“Drakken’s hiding out on a small island right off the Atlantic coast. I’ve got you a ride there,” the boy replied.

“Wade, do I even have to say it?” she commented with a bright smile.

“Well, maybe just one more time,” Wade conceded with a pleasant, little smile of his own.

“You rock,” she informed him.

-8-8-8-8-

“This the one, Shego! This time we’re going to do it with the greatest weapon I have ever created! I’m actually going to take over the world! Well, I’ll either take over the world or destroy the whole thing if the leaders don’t hand over the world to me!” Drakken proclaimed, giving a little villainous laugh at the end.

Shego was reclining in a chair, flipping through a magazine while Drakken raved to her about his beautiful “death ray.” The man had actually used the words “death ray” and he said them way more than necessary. In fact, she figured that the next time he even said the words “death” and “ray” in sequence referring to his weapon or not, she was going to make him eat his beloved pop gun.

“With this wonderful weapon, I get to take over the world! Everyone will bow to me! I’ll have the whole world on its knees and I get everything!” Drakken shouted again, motioning to the gun, which about the size of a pick-up truck. He admired it for a moment.

The sidekick just was not in the mood to listen to him and had not been for a few days now. She thought that Drakken might get the hint that she did not want to hear his voice when she broke the table in half the other day while blatantly screaming at him to just shut the hell up. He merely pointed out that she was more irritable than usual and had the nerve to ask if it was that time of the month. The only thing that kept her from hurting him badly, maybe even permanently, was the shock that went through her because he had the nerve to ask such a thing. He had wisely gone back to his machine while she was so flabbergasted.

“Shego! Are you listening to me?” Drakken demanded to know, apparently upset that he was probably talking to the air.

“You said something about bringing the world to its knees and forcing them to make you ruler of the whole blasted globe,” Shego guessed, twirling her hand in a flippant manner. All rants seemed to run along those lines when it came to megalomaniacs, she noted. 

“Oh, you are listening,” he said in a surprised tone. His black eyes shone with delight that she was paying him some mind for once.

“Not really, you’re just that predictable. What’s this contraption anyway?” she asked as if she cared. She took the time out of her life to look at the weapon; it was a large, complex-looking onyx gun. It did not appear special to her. She guessed that if a person saw one “death ray” she saw them all.

“I’ve only told you a dozen times!” he huffed, going so far as to stomp his foot.

“Yeah, well, twelve of those times I wasn’t listening and, if that’s the case, it won’t hurt you to tell me again,” she pointed out in a cranky tone.

Drakken growled. “It destroys molecular bonds in anything that’s caught in its beam.”

“Meaning?” she asked as if she cared. The look in her eyes screamed that she really did not give a damn.

“It makes the molecules of a structure collapse and that causes the structure to collapse.”

“Now, was that so hard?” she teased him, smirking at him like a demon.

“Don’t push your luck, Shego,” he grumbled, scowling in her general direction.

“Whatever.”

Shego rolled her eyes and let Drakken go back to whatever it was he was doing; she was only physically at the lair at the moment. Her mind was all over the place and she doubted that it was going to get any better as she glanced at her watch. It was about time for Kim to come in. The hero’s arrival was damn near like clockwork. Shego could only wonder how that was going to play out. There was the small possibility that Kim might fight Drakken, but there was a stronger possibility of the “death ray” just not working.

“Either way, I’m going to have to see Kimmie...” she realized.

The thief was taken from her thoughts as Kim and Stoppable burst onto the scene. They came through the automatic doors that led into the lair, which was an underground cave. The teen duo were accompanied by a large number of guards. The henchmen were being taken down by Kim’s typical composed style and Ron helped out in his typical panicked and frenzied way. Shego often wondered if Ron was just faking his scared-to-death-of-everything nature because as stupid as he seemed, he never got seriously injured and he never got Kim seriously injured. But, there was always the chance that she was giving him too much credit and he was really an idiot. 

“Shego!” Drakken called, wanting her to attack the heroes before they ruined his plans.

The raven-haired woman leaped out of her chair and into the fray; well, she leaped out of her chair anyway. She did go into the combat area and she just stood there. Kim and Ron finished off the goons and turned their attention to Shego.

“Um…” Kim said, clearly bemused now.

“I got Drakken!” Ron called, not realizing the awkward tension between the two ladies. He ran off to go deal with the mad scientist, taking the easy job in Kim’s opinion. The two females were left to gawk at each other.

“So…” Kim said, staring at the wall. She was afraid that if she locked eyes with Shego, she would lose the bet.

Both ladies counted it as a good thing that they had not charged each other yet. They did not even know what they would do beyond a charge. They were relieved to see that the other was well and good, but they also noticed how tense things were between them. The air around them felt thick and heavy, like it could crush them if they stood there long enough. They noticed how on edge and tight the other's body was.

“Can’t really thumb war or ‘rock, paper, scissors’ this one, eh, Princess?” Shego remarked, chuckling halfheartedly. She hated that something inside of her actually wanted her to just go to Kim and embrace her. No fighting, no passion, just a simple hug. She just wanted to feel the hero against her, where she belonged. She folded her arms across her chest to keep them from doing anything foolish.

“I guess not,” the redhead conceded. She still could not even make eye contact with Shego, fearing that her self-control would waver, so she looked at her shoes and other spaces on the floor.

“Tell you what, let’s let the fellas decide this one,” Shego proposed.

Kim shrugged as acceptance. She was more than confident that Ron could take Drakken, especially if he got help from Rufus. She turned her attention to her best friend, who was chasing Drakken. They watched as Drakken ran to a control panel and started laughing; the heroes knew that was not a good sign.

“As soon as I hit this button, lasers will come from the ceiling and key right to you,” Drakken boasted, speaking to Ron, and then he hit the button.

“Ah!” Ron yelled as he ducked a laser that singed his hair.

The blond proceeded to run around yelling at the top of his lungs like he was scared for his life while dodging the lasers. Drakken continued to laugh manically at the boy. And then, Ron suddenly slipped.

“Ron!” Kim gasped in fear and concern, thinking that a laser would surely hit him. She moved, ready to go to her best friend’s aid if he needed her to.

The brown-eyed sidekick caught himself from falling to the floor by grabbing the nearest thing to him, an onyx machine that happened to be the death ray. He accidentally spun the machine length side while trying to regain his balance and many of the lasers that would have cut him, sliced into the weapon. Drakken gasped in disbelief; his mouth would have hit the floor if it was not attached to his face because of his shock.

“My death ray!” the cerulean-skinned doctor shouted as the gun fell apart into many pieces. There went his latest scheme and it had taken so long to build. He felt ready to burst into tears. “But, I was gonna use it to rule the world!” he wailed.

“Boo-yah?” Ron said in a puzzled tone with an arched eyebrow because he was pretty sure that he had foiled the evil plot, but he was not sure what he did.

“He is the very definition of dumb luck,” Shego remarked, rolling her eyes.

“No, no. It’s dumb skill,” Kim corrected her rival.

“So, rock, paper, scissors for the getaway?”

“I don’t think we have time for that,” Kim commented as the death ray, or what was left of it, began exploding.

“Leave it to him to make a self-destructive death ray,” Shego sighed, shaking her head. “Later, Princess.” 

Shego grabbed Doctor Drakken while Kim grabbed Ron. They all made their escape while the lair not only went up in flames, but also caved in on itself. The good guys went one way and the bad guys went another once they were above ground. All Kim and Shego could think about was how much they wanted to just touch each other, a simple touch, while Ron was hyped from saving the day all by himself. Kim decided to treat him to anything that he wanted from Bueno Nacho since he did save the whole world.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: One of the ladies gives up. Which one? Check the final chapter to see who wins.

Chapter Text

5: Quitter 

“I see the emotions in your eye that you try not to show… It’s never over…” Kanye West, Addiction.

Day-25

A mangled pencil sat in between Kim’s molars as she tried to make sense of the paper sitting in front of her. She was not seeing the words really and she could not concentrate on them. The hero had chewed up every writing utensil that she owned, even some that she borrowed, but nothing was soothing her raw nerves. Disgusted, she pushed her notebook away.

“Good thing the damned paper isn’t do until the end of the semester,” she grumbled with a frown. She had been doing any and all schoolwork that she could to keep her mind off of a certain raven-haired martial artist. Schoolwork was not the only thing that she had been doing.

She had a schedule that would drive a lesser soul completely and utterly mad as it was packed from seven in the morning to eight at night. That did not even include missions or meals, but insanely packed schedule was not helping. Her anxiety levels were rising exponentially everyday. The hero bounced her leg at an amazing speed whenever she sat down, she bit her nails or the skin around her nails, her hands trembled when she was not using them, she bit the skin on her lip, and a dozen other little things that showed she was going out of her mind, she thought anyway. Her parents were probably going to throw the sofa out if they caught her sleeping on it one more time; the TV might have to go too considering how often it was left watching her.

“I’m gonna go crazy. I’m actually going to go crazy,” Kim figured as the pencil in her mouth finally snapped in half from being gnawed on.

The redhead thought that things would get easier since she had not seen Shego since Drakken’s death ray scheme, but that was certainly not the reality of the situation. Things were getting much more difficult as time pressed on at an agonizingly slow rate. It was not just missing Shego anymore. It was something so much deeper.

“I can’t get her out of my mind,” she growled in frustration, pulling at her hair.

She thought about the thief so much that it kept her awake at night sometimes, staring at her ceiling as it was a cure to her ailment and trying to tell herself that she just had to let go. When she did manage to fall asleep, she would even dream about the other martial artist. Sometimes, the dreams were dirty, but most of the time they were just regular dreams. Regular and pleasant dreams that let her know that she just longed for Shego.

Day-27

Growling, Shego punched the heavy-bag in her own private gym, tearing the cloth. Sand poured out of the thing and Shego screamed. She kicked the broken equipment from the stand, sending it flying into her wall.

“Damn it, I should be fighting with Princess, not so fucking bag!” she hollered, glaring at the mangled bag. It was the last piece of usable equipment she had in her house. “Damn it!” she shouted again, trying to use it to make her feel better. It did not work.

Shego was sick of waiting for Kim to give in. She was sick of the hero being so stubborn. So what they were addicted to each other? It was not like they were going to kill each other; fuck, it was not even a crime. Besides, she refused to believe that she was addicted to anything about the redhead. She refused to believe anything about Kim except that she was a good fight and even better fuck. That was it and that was all.

“Princess is simply a body that I love feeling against me in any way that I can. I know that has to be it. If I find another body, I should be fine,” Shego stated. “I should’ve thought of this a long time ago before I messed up my whole damn gym.”

The plasma-user set out to prove that Kim was expendable to her. She went to go pick a fight in a place where she knew that she could get a good brawl. Unfortunately for her, the fight was not as good as she recalled it. All right, that was only one set back, but she was not deterred. There were plenty of places where she could get a decent battle going and she would try each and every one of them to get what she desired.

Day-30

“Gotta move faster,” Kim growled to herself, spinning on her heel and throwing a kick at an imaginary opponent.

She worked on the heavy bag in the school gym, as she was making it a habit to do every day. She was trying to wear herself out. She had actually taken out a couple of heavy-bags since she started training. She had to pay for the damages, which she was happy to do if it got new heavy-bags into the gym sooner.

Most people that walked by thought that she was angry and they stirred clear of her, even Bonnie did not bother her when she was in the gym. The hero was really just frustrated. She had so much energy and no place to direct it. She was just all over the place for close to a month and she was not sure what she was going to do if things persisted.

“Damn, damn, damn,” she grunted the chant as she just kicked the crap out of the heavy bag. She felt like she was going out of her mind and no amount of action was tapering that feeling. She even tried adrenaline rushes like parachuting and bungee-jumping, but those just did not affect her like they would other people. She did not know what to do. She felt like clawing her eyes out or peeling her skin off to rid her body of the tension and aggravation.

“I’m running out of options here,” she muttered.

There had to be something that she could do, Kim thought desperately; aside from the obvious anyway. The obvious being going out and finding Shego and at least looking at the woman. She was not sure what she would do after locating the thief, but she terribly desired to just be with the other fighter. She hated to think that meant she was still addicted, even after all that time away. She refused to give in to the addiction.

Day-32

“I can’t believe all of those places were such a waste of my time!” Shego griped.

The pale sidekick was done looking for a great fight. There were several ways that the plan had fallen through. The first way was that a lot of the places that she had searched did not turn out to be as she recalled them. She had gone to some fight clubs and they were weak at best. The second way was that after finding some fighters that might give her a good workout, after they saw the tiniest amount of plasma energy, they got scared. Hell, a couple of them even wet themselves and more than a few had cried. The third and most important piece of information that she gathered on her quest was finding combatants that were better than Kim and she did defeat them, but it was nothing. There was an empty feeling that came with her victory. That was when she realized that it was not about a fight. 

“Being with Kim isn’t about being a better warrior, even though it started out that way,” she concluded. “Well, since it isn’t about a fight. It has to be able her being a good lay.”

The super-powered woman then figured that it had to be about matters of the flesh since she and Kim only did two things together. Surely indulging in carnal pleasure would sate her growing irritation, she convinced herself. So, the hunt was on to get laid, which was easier than finding a dozen fights.

But, it did not work. Not with females and not with males. People with way more skill than Kim would probably ever have in the area of physical satisfaction did not do anything for her. She still was sparked, frustrated, and lacking in anything to vent. It was not about a fuck.

“Then what the hell is it about?” the emerald-eyed female screamed into the night, wishing for answers. She wondered if Kim knew what it was about, but shook that off. “I need to stop thinking about her if I’m going to win this thing.”

Of course, not thinking about Kim was no easy task. Shego’s entire being started ordering her to go to Kim, but her entire being was also commanding that she did not lose the wager. She was not built for losing, but she had to do something before she went stark raving mad. And then, she got a brilliant idea.

“I can’t believe I’ve been torturing myself like this when it’s all so obvious!”

Day-40

Kim breathed a sigh of relief as she arrived home just in time to make her curfew. She almost had to slide in because her father was very particular; if she came in at 10:01, she would have to face an inquisition and there would be hell to pay. So, she made it just in time with only two seconds to spare. Apparently, she really could do anything, except for stay out past ten until she moved out anyway.

The house was quiet already, everyone else in their rooms and getting ready for bed. The teen hero made her way up to her bedroom and was about to go through her nightly routine, but she noticed that something was amiss. See, she kept a trunk underneath her bed and it was doing something very peculiar, namely poking out from where it belonged. Her mind screamed “tweebs!” immediately as she went to inspect the anomaly. She pulled the chest out and popped it open.

Oh, no! Kim hollered in her head. The trunk was empty.

Okay, calm down, she told herself. It was simple, what needed to be done that was. She would go to her brothers’ room and tie them to their beds with some of the power cords lying on their extremely cluttered floor before painfully torturing the irksome pair until they told her where in the hell her entire cuddle buddy collection went! And they had better pray if they sent the toys into orbit or burned them in some way. She was just about to charge off and do unspeakable things to the duo when she noticed a piece of paper on the side of the chest. An elegant eyebrow rose and she yanked the paper from out of the box.

“I’ve got them. You know where to find me,” the note read. The curvy handwriting looked extremely familiar. Kim frowned; when her parents went to sleep, she was going to sneak out and slaughter a certain someone without mercy.

-8-8-8-8-

If she was not so upset, Kim would have thought things were too easy. There should have been more security to keep her off of the house grounds, but there was nothing. Only a single thought was on her mind, though, and it had nothing to do with how easy things were going. The redhead swung into the room through an open window. She landed silently on the wooden floor and looked around. It was completely dark and she could not see a thing. She waited for her eyes to adjust and she could make out a figure sitting down. 

“Good evening, Princess,” Shego greeted the intruder in a sultry voice. There was a smirk playing on her dark lips as she illuminated the room slightly with a dull flame from one of her hands.

“Give them back!” Kim snarled, like an animal. Her wrath totally apparent in her voice and the twisted, tight expression scrunching up her face.

“Give what back?” the older woman asked with innocence in her emerald eyes. She had the nerve to look like she had no clue what the teen was going on about.

Kim pointed a threatening finger at her rival. “Don’t play around! You know what!” 

“Do you mean this?” Shego asked as she held Kim’s precious pandaroo up and put it close to the plasma coming from her hand.

“Don't!” the redhead gasped as if her life was in danger and held up her hands in surrender.

“Don’t what? Burn it?” Shego inquired and she moved the stuffed animal a bit closer to the fire to taunt the hero.

“Shego!” The name was said in a strange plea mixed with a command.

“What would you do to save little pandaroo, Pumpkin?” the raven-haired woman inquired in an amused tone, carelessly rocking the aforementioned toy lightly back and forth by its arm.

“What do you what?” Kim demanded to know. 

“For you to give up,” the thief answered as if it were so simple.

“Give up?” Kim echoed, mouth curling up like she did not understand what Shego was talking about. She really was more focused on making sure that pandaroo was safe than whatever was coming out of the older female’s mouth.

“You are to give up on the bet and I won’t fry little pandaroo, not to mention all of his little friends,” Shego threatened the younger female. She was smirking all the way through the extortion.

Olive eyes went wide. “You want me to surrender on the bet?” the hero asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

“But, this isn’t fair!” the cheerleader pointed out, as if the villainess would care. 

“I don’t give a damn about being fair. Now, give up,” Shego commanded.

“You can’t force me to give up,” the teenager declared.

“No? Then say goodbye to pandaroo. And then after him, who’s that next little guy you just utterly adore? Jaguin? Yes, I think it’s your little jaguin. I’ll burn him right after pandaroo if you don't surrender now,” Shego growled, nodding toward the little doll sitting next to her. It looked like a penguin with jaguar markings paws and a cat-like tail.

“Shego, let’s not—” Kim tried to argue, but she was halted before she could even start because her opponent was out of patience.

“Surrender now,” the pale woman ordered in a rather calm tone.

“Shego, wait. Think about it. I mean, if you make me surrender like this, then you’re really the one that lost. I mean, you’re obviously at the end of your rope if you’re doing something this ridiculous to get me to quit,” Kim reasoned, hoping that such logic would get through to the villainess and Shego would let her cuddle buddy go. 

“No, you’re really the one that lost because you’re going to say the words right now.”

“Shego—”

“Princess,” she snarled and put pandaroo dangerously close to the green plasma. She wondered if Kim really wanted to call her bluff on the matter. It was not like the toy meant anything to the sidekick.

“Shego, please!” Kim implored as her heart hitched in her chest. She feared that Shego was going to destroy her favorite plush toy.

“Give up now.”

Kim stared at her childhood toy. She did not know what to think. Was Shego desperate enough to light up her adored keepsake, even though she knew how deeply it would hurt Kim? Part of her tried to assure her that Shego would not do something so unforgivable just for their two passions, but she did not know what to think. Shego did not appear to be tormenting her for kicks; she looked very serious about the issue.

“I give up,” Kim mumbled, eyes dropping to the floor.

“Good girl,” Shego said. She then gently tossed the stuffed animal to the redhead, who caught the toy with ease.

The cheerleader sank to her knees and stared angrily at the floor; her olive eyes seemed to skimmer from her fury. She could not believe that she missed such an evil, manipulative bitch. She could not believe that she had felt such longing for an inconsiderate, dishonorable cow. She could not believe that she wanted to be with such a wicked degenerate that would use her most beloved material possessions against her. She would get Shego back one day, she silently vowed.

Shego went to turn on the lights in the apartment. With everything visible now, she could see the anguish on Kim’s face. She actually felt appalled by her own actions. She felt disgusted, guilty, remorseful, and even regretful for a few more seconds than she liked. Then she reminded herself that it was all done for the greater good. She was about to do the right thing and that was what counted.

The raven-haired woman strolled over to Kim and lifted the smaller female into her arms. Kim was about to fight, but she remembered that she had lost the wager. She was at Shego’s disposal. She remained still and quiet as the thief carried her to the master bedroom and sat the redhead down on the king-sized bed. Kim eyed the floor.

“Don’t look so down, Princess,” Shego gently begged, caressing Kim’s cheek. She hoped that Kim could feel how necessary her actions were through the tender touch.

“You cheated again,” Kim mumbled, sounding thoroughly offended with what had just happened.

“There weren’t any rules this time, written or implied. One of us just had to give up,” the evil sidekick pointed out.

“You used…you used…” She could not even get it out because she was so outraged by Shego’s tactics.

“It was for the best,” the green-skinned fighter tried to assure her guest.

“How so?” Kim asked, her voice quiet because of how much she was hurting internally now. She just could not manage a louder voice than the one that she was forcing out now.

“One of us needed to give up and it damn sure wasn’t going to be me,” the pale woman declared honestly. The thought of losing just did not sit well with her, especially if she could tease Kimmie a little in the process. She did not think that her actions would get such a harsh reaction, but then again, she did not care about the toys like Kim did.

“So, I gave up. Now what?” the redhead curiously, still sounding dejected.

“Well, you’re mine now,” She proclaimed with a smile

“Just for now though.” Kim wanted that to be perfectly clear because later on it was going to be all out war between them.

“And where do you think you’re going now that I have you?” Shego inquired in an almost amused tone. Kim was so adorable when she was attempting to be defiant, the villainess thought.

“When this is over, so are we,” the younger woman stated strongly. She was as sure of that as she was that the sun would rise in the morning.

Shego shook her head. “No, we’re never over,” she informed the hero.

“Why do you say that? I told you, we’re no good for each other and look at what you just did. That was downright mean.”

“It was just a means to an end, Kimmie. We’re never going to be done, though. You’ll see.” 

“We’re no good for each other, Shego,” Kim insisted.

Shego just wanted to slap the younger female, but since there would be plenty of time for spanking the hero later, she kissed her. She leaned down and kissed Kim with a passion that the redhead had been craving since the day that they started the bet. It was long, it was sweet, and unless Kim was losing her mind (and she was fairly sure that she was) it was loving.

The cheerleader turned her eyes up to Shego when the embrace was done and for the first time, she saw emotions in Shego’s emerald eyes that went beyond annoyance and amusement. They were emotions that Shego had been hiding for a long time and Kim was probably the only person that would ever seem them.

“Who says we’re no good for each other?” Shego inquired in a breathless tone.

“Shego,” Kim whispered.

“I’ve never been more certain that you’re perfect for me. I’ve never said this to anyone before and I don’t plan on saying it to anyone else, but I love you,” Shego proclaimed with hesitation of any kind. 

“You what?” the redhead asked in shock. She was certain that she had not heard right because she did not think that there was any way in Hell that her Shego would say such things.

“It’s not an addiction, Kimmie. It’s love. I’m in love with you. I’m deeply, madly, insanely in love with you.”

“It’s love?” Kim echoed in a puzzled tone. Was it love that she felt for Shego rather than some crazy addiction? That would explain why she just missed Shego so much, why she longed for Shego, and why Shego affect her in such powerful way. It was not about the fighting or the sex. There was so much more to it than that, but she never considered that she was in love.

“Yes, it’s love. Why the hell else would we put up with each other?” Shego remarked, reaching out and putting her hand on Kim’s slim thigh.

Kim nodded because she realized that it was highly probable that she was in love with Shego. She just had never taken the time to ponder such a thing. She had just believed that their feelings and activities had to be something bad because they felt so fantastic, which was why she thought that it was an addiction. There was so much more to it than that and she only just figured that it could be love.

“I never thought... I mean, I’ve never felt like this...” Kim mumbled.

“I know what you mean, Pumpkin. I’ve never felt like this either. It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Shego asked. 

“Beyond that...”

Shego smiled a bit, realizing that she had sort of blown Kim’s mind with that revelation. In order to help Kim...or possible confuse her more, Shego leaned down and kissed Kim again with as much passion as she could muster while the redhead was trying to wrap her mind around being in love. Shego was surprisingly tender with that show of affection despite the fervor behind it. She wanted Kim to understand and accept that they were more than rivals, more than fuck buddies. They were lovers, in the classical sense as well as the modern sense.

-8-8-8-8-

“Wow...” Kim muttered, wiping her sweat-soaked bangs from her forehead.

“Second,” Shego remarked, fairly certain that they had never been that intense before. She was not sure force came from her declaration of love or just the fact that it had been nearly two months since they last touched each other.

Shego and Kim lay in Shego’s bed, both sated and worn out from hours of breathtaking coupling. Shego had her arm wrapped around Kim’s slick shoulder while the hero was pressed against her nude form. Every few second Kim kissed Shego’s bare collar bone while Shego realized one of the things that she missed most about Kim was the way the redhead cuddled up next to her at night. Eventually, they settled down, just taking in the other’s presence.

“Shego, can this work?” Kim asked quietly.

“Anything’s possible, right?” Shego remarked with a half smile.

The redhead laughed a bit. “But, are you going to keep working with Drakken and stealing things and stuff like that? I doubt it can work if you keep that up.” 

“Work for Drakken? Easily stopped, don’t like him much anyway anymore. Stealing things? Not so easily stopped.”

“Why?”

“It’s an addiction,” Shego quipped with a light laugh.

“Very funny,” Kim said dryly, pinching her lover’s side as a punishment. The green-skinned female wiggled a bit, letting Kim know that pinching was a suitable reprimand. “Seriously, though, you have to stop stealing things. We can’t work if we’re on opposite sides of the law and I won’t be waiting for you while you’re in prison,” Kim stated.

Shego sighed. “Fine, just for my princess, I’ll stop stealing things. Well, most things anyway.”

The response caused Kim’s forehead to furrow. “What are you still going to steal?” she asked curiously. 

“This.” Shego leaned down and kissed Kim.

“I’ll give those away,” the redhead remarked when the kiss was done.

“Only to me.”

"Well, yeah, I thought that was understood."

Shego smiled and then watched as Kim fell asleep. Kim was spent because it had been a long, emotional night/morning. Shego stared at her lover for a while. Addiction, her mind scoffed. Addiction was only for people with weak will and neither of them were weak.

-8-8-8-8-

Yeah, that’s the end. Sorry for the sappy ending, but it seemed like the logical conclusion to me after torturing them for three chapters.