Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Hey, KP! Kim, wait up!"

Kim Possible smiled to herself and waited for Ron to bound across the football field; lanky, blond and full of an insane amount of energy, Ron Stoppable was not only Kim's partner-in-crime in the war against evil; he was her best friend.

Now, he reached her side clutching his own and panting. "You walk too fast," he gasped; Rufus, his (naked) pet mole rat and, in Kim's opinion, zany sidekick, clutched his own side and mock-fainted for emphasis.

"Sorry," Kim chirped quickly, trying not to appear like -- well, like she was trying to shrug Ron off. "Uh, so like, what's the sitch?"

"You tell me!" Ron exclaimed. "You disappeared into the locker room so fast after cheerleading practice that I thought you'd, like, incurred some sudden debilitating foot fungus or something." Kim smirked, but inside, her heart warmed a bit; Ron's off-the-wall observations were what helped make him so unique. He didn't really have social finesse, but he had a great personality. She wondered sometimes if these were the observations of a best friend or -

"Kim? Hell-ooo, earth to KP!" Ron yelled, waving a hand in front of his friend's face; it succeeded in jolting her out of her reverie.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" she asked, blinking a couple of times.

"Was it that thing Bonnie said?" Ron prompted for what appeared to be the second time.

"That thing Bonnie sa- oh, you mean the crack about the new cheer choreography I made up being inspired by Paula Abdul," she recalled.

"To her benefit, there was a bit of a 'Straight Up'-esque feel to it," Ron responded. "Not that she was justified in the least in calling that to everyone's attention just to ostracize you!" he gasped swiftly as Kim shot him a dirty look. "Anyways, is that what was eating your goat?"

"Not really," Kim shrugged. "I just . . . I've got massive amounts of studying to do, and-"

"Say no more, KP!" Ron cut in once more. "I'll keep you company. Idea! Let's hit Bueno Nacho; I eat, you study, I, uh, pretend to be enlightened. Let's go!" He tugged on her arm, but she waved him off quickly.

"Ron, this is sort of a, um, Kim Possible-minus-witty-co-star kind of thing," she explained lamely, trying to ignore how her friend's crestfallen, confused expression tugged at her heart strings. "It's not you," she continued quickly; "I just . . . I'm not very good company like this."

"Well, what's 'this', exactly?" Ron demanded; when he was frustrated, the faintest red blush seemed to creep up his neck, Kim noticed. It was kind of - stop that, she admonished herself.

"'This' is just stress," she said aloud, firmly. "I'm stressed, and by asking me to explain it, it's just getting worse. I'll call you later tonight, Ron, okay?" she asked, half-pleading for understanding and forgiveness in the same breath.

"Gotcha," Ron replied, obviously disappointed. He pocketed Rufus and smiled thinly. "Take care, KP, okay?" The trudge in his step as he walked away from Kim was noticeable enough for her to flinch, but it still didn't make her retract her decision to be alone. Striding off in the opposite direction, she pondered where to go to get away. Bueno Nacho was out, on account of it being THE post-school hang-out for every kid in Middleton. "Paco's Taco?" she mused. "Nah, still too south-of-the-border." She finally decided on Burger Kween; it was in the opposite neighborhood of Bueno Nacho, which would be kind of out of the way, but also quite a lot less traffic-y. "And besides," she reasoned to herself, "even if there are people around, none of them'll go to my school."

Six blocks and an Uber-Burger Value Meal, complete with thick fries and a large iced-tea later, Kim Possible prepared to (sort of) eat her words. Her original intention was simply to munch away her sorrows, the ambiguous 'this', the feeling of blah-ness that seemed to paint her world gray for the past few weeks. She purposely picked a table far enough away from the front counter and shielded by the layout of the restaurant that nobody would be randomly watching her. So engrossed in this self-medication was she that Kim hardly noticed the slight figure that brushed past her, heels clicking against the restaurant tile. Curious, and again jolted out of the quiet funk she was trying to slip into, Kim looked to her immediate right and gasped at the all-too-familiar shade of green that met her gaze.

"Shego?!"

The newly-identified figure looked down and made her own mental recognition, then smirked. "What was your first clue?"

"You smell like apples," Kim murmured absentmindedly, then clamped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't intended for that to slip out, and wasn't sure why it had been on her mind in the first place. It was true, though, Shego had a unique, and not altogether unpleasant scent; their almost- weekly hand-to-hand duels had made Kim party to and aware of it numerous times.

Shego looked more amused than anything at the reply. "It's my shampoo - and green apple, actually. So, Kimmie," she continued brazenly; "what's the sitch?"

"Don't play games with me, Shego," Kim responded heatedly, pushing away her meal unhappily and trying to mentally psyche herself up for an impromptu battle; she'd tried to get away from her friends and ended up running smack into an enemy. 'Fate is obviously laughing at me as we speak,' she thought glumly. Aloud, she continued; "I should be asking you the same question, though. What are you doing here? Don't tell me that Drakken's trying to sway a bunch of minimum-wage hamburger grease monkeys to abandon their low-paying positions and join him in an even lower one," she quipped dryly.

Shego looked vaguely impressed by the suggested scenario. "I'll run it by him sometime. Don't worry your pretty little head, though, Kimmie," she laughed; her chuckle was surprisingly devoid of its usual malice. "Drakken's not around."

"That doesn't tell me why you are," Kim pressed.

"Awww, don't you trust me, Possible?" she sniggered, unable to keep a straight face at Kim's eternally disbelieving expression. "Okay, maybe not; but seriously, can't a girl come in and grab some complexion-altering fast food once in a while?" She nodded at the blank space on the other side of Kim's table and held out her own tray suddenly. "Expecting company?"

Kim wasn't sure what was weirder: the fact that her arch-nemesis' petite sidekick wasn't prowling around with Drakken in her spare time, or the notion that she was asking to sit with her. "No catch?" she asked, biting a glossed lower lip.

"It's my day off, Kimmie," Shego said, exasperated. "I promise, the only ulterior motive I have this afternoon is to kick the salad diet to the curb for a meal." Kim balked but she sat down. "The question on my mind," she continued, unwrapping her own sandwich with long, carefully manicured and green-polished nails, "is why Little Miss Popularity is at some second- rate burger joint by herself."

'Trust one of my worst enemies to hit the nail right on the head,' Kim groaned inwardly. "I just wanted to be alone for a while," she explained, eyes trained on her fries. She realized how hungry she was, suddenly, and began cramming bites of Uber-Burger into her mouth in earnest.

"And you couldn't have done that in the comfort of your home?" Shego responded; whether she was genuinely interested or trying to make small- talk, Kim wasn't sure. And oddly enough, she didn't really care; Shego's presence, albeit surprising, did not bother her much at all.

"Not with my little brothers around," she lamented. "They're the dweeby twin terrors, I swear; I call 'em 'tweebs'," she revealed, and Shego smirked appreciatively.

"I know the feeling; I've got a brother out there," she noted ruefully.

"Really?" Kim asked in surprise; somehow, she had trouble picturing the cohort of a super-villain as having, well, family.

"His name's Hego," she replied, rolling her eyes. "He's an insufferable goody-goody."

"Doesn't run in the family, I'm guessing?" Kim smirked, secretly glad to be the one taking hold of a good pun when the moment arose for once.

Shego grinned. "Villainy is far more stylish, and definitely more exciting. Face it Kimmie," she offered; "you'd have it all-too-cushy if we didn't spice up your life a little from time-to-time."

"Point taken," Kim conceded. "I have to ask, though, Shego: what's the appeal? Why not take up something dangerous, yet still on the sunny side of legality?"

"To be honest, I used to be a movie stunt double," Shego admitted, taking a long swig of her drink. "That's how I met Dr. Drakken originally."

"He was a movie producer or something?"

"He had an interest in that sort of thing, but in case you didn't notice, he doesn't like taking orders or really working with a team." Kim snorted. "His parents were pretty well-off, though, so even after he dropped out of college and abandoned any and all film aspirations, he had a hefty enough trust fund to embark on the path to evil-yet-underappreciated genius-hood."

"The obvious third option," Kim agreed sardonically.

"You know, Possible, sarcasm suits you," Shego complimented. "I wouldn't have expected it, really."

"How come?" Kim asked, cautiously; she tried to ignore the blush creeping into her cheeks, or the fact that the same warmth she'd felt with Ron seemed to be in place with Shego, as well.

"Oh, you know, you're the stereotypical bubbly-headed cheerleader; you've got tons of friends, well-to-do parents, and a prestigious pseudo- secret identity. It's not like you need to have any sort of personality along with all that." Shego dipped a fry into the puddle of ketchup on her now-empty burger wrapper and slipped it into her mouth between breaths.

"Popularity isn't exactly the pathway to success," Kim said defensively. "I mean, it's nice that people think it's effortless, but it's really not that easy. Sometimes I realize that nothing I'm doing this year is going to matter in a decade or so, and it's depressing. It's like, why am I wasting my time trying to squeeze in as many extracurricular activities as I can to make myself a well-rounded adult in a job that's so far removed from cheerleading and crime-fighting that it's almost laughable!" She realized with a start that she'd worked herself into such a frenzy that she was shaking; Shego, apparently, did too, and put her hand lightly on Kim's arm. It, like the entire present situation, was strange, but not altogether unpleasant.

"Ah, teen angst, I remember it well," Shego smiled. "And I didn't mean what you're doing isn't important; I just said I was impressed by your, like you said, "well-roundedness." It is important because it means you have ambition at this stage of your life; some parts of it won't mean diddly-squat in ten years, you're right, but as long as you're living life to the fullest, does it matter how much time elapses?"

"I guess not," Kim murmured; she wondered if her face was as red as the ketchup on hers and Shego's burger wrappers, now. Moreover, she wondered if the fact that her arch-nemesis' hand creeping down to rest lightly atop hers had brightened the shade. Pushing the distracting thought aside, she changed the subject, embarrassed about losing control of her emotions like that. "How come you're so well-spoken on the subject?" she demanded. "I mean, you seem like you're so adapted and over high school; you can't be that much older than me."

"I'm twenty-five," Shego breezed. "Young enough to occasionally think, "what am I doing with my life?" and old enough to be able to look at my teenage years in retrospect and laugh."

"That must be nice," Kim mused.

"Sometimes," Shego shrugged.

"Really, though," Kim continued. "If you could do it over to some degree, would you have chosen to join forces with Dr. Drakken, knowing that it meant a life on the run and getting your butt kicked?"

Shego raised an eyebrow and (finally) retracted her hand, fingertips raking absently over her leftover fries. "There's that Kim Possible attitude I know and love," she responded sardonically.

"I have an 'attitude'?" Kim responded playfully.

"You have a major hero complex, girlfriend," Shego responded, her tone suddenly retreating a few paces to a near-iciness that made Kim stop smiling. "You constantly have to be the epitome of everyone's world. People have to stop and marvel and think, 'that's Kim Possible, the coolest, most successful, prettiest, luckiest, smartest girl around'. You can't stand to have someone best you in anything; it infuriates you, makes you strive harder to succeed, push yourself to higher and higher standards so long as someone else is inching closer to usurping you of one of your many positions of power. So yes, Kimmie, you definitely have an 'attitude'."

Kim was stunned; introspection wasn't completely foreign to her, but she'd never had anybody sum her up so harshly. Really, though, it wasn't entirely - or really, at all - untrue, the more she replayed the words in her head. She did get awfully peeved when somebody had to come to her rescue; she was even, admittedly, sour whenever Ron showed the faintest traces of possibly besting her - and he was her best friend! Still, the broken pieces of her ego persisted in making a comeback; "how do you know?" she responded with as much heatedness as she could muster.

"Because," Shego said softly, "I'm the same way."

"How do you mean?" Kim breathed, a lot huskier than she'd intended. Dammit, now she was sure her face was ketchup-red. If Shego noticed, however, she didn't pause to tease her.

"Well, I was never a cheerleader or anything," she continued, "but I know how it is to feel . . . lost. Like, I have no direction in my life, and that there's really no point in giving a damn since whatever I do, whether it's cleaning toilets or aiding a criminal mastermind in his latest dastardly scheme, is going to amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Also," she noted, eyelashes sweeping down over pale-yet-well-defined cheekbones, "I know how it is to hold myself to such high standards that I alienate everyone around me."

"Shego," Kim murmured simply in reply; this time, it was her hand that made the connection across the table. Shego did not pull away; instead, she laced her fingers with the other girl's then looked up, meeting Kim's wide blue-green eyes with her own. "Have you ever kissed a girl before?" she asked softly.

"I - what?" Kim squeaked, blushing furiously. She pulled her hand away and clasped them chastely in front of her. "W-why would you ask that?"

"You just seem awfully schoolgirl crush-y," Shego grinned. "Flushed cheeks" - shit! Kim thought, she HAD noticed - "and, well, this may incriminate me a little, but you have the poutiest lips I've seen in a long time. Other than me, of course," she joked, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"I, I - I've never even kissed a guy before," Kim blurted out. "I mean, I'm a virgin, and I haven't had a boyfriend or anything, and even if I did weird you out about the whole hair-smelling thing, I didn't mean anything by it."

"Whoa, Kimmie," Shego laughed. "I wasn't trying to get you to commit to anything; it was just a question. Although to be honest, I'm surprised you've never had a boyfriend. You're, what, sixteen now?" Kim nodded. "So what's the hold up? I mean, your parents obviously came from the better part of the gene pool, and again with the well-roundedness."

"I don't know," Kim swallowed. "I mean, I've liked guys before, but . . . dating on a long-term basis scares me. It's like, I don't even know if I'm going to be at school the next day, or if I'll be in the country when everyone else is at the latest party. I kind of pull away before I can become involved."

Shego nodded. "What about your sidekick?" she queried. "I mean, Stoppable knows about your non-school-y activities and even partakes in them."

Kim blushed again. "Ron and I are just friends." She didn't sound particularly certain of this, however, and Shego noticed.

"Rule of thumb, Possible," she smirked. "Nothing is ever that simple, especially between a guy and a girl." Their eyes met at that moment and before they knew it, the savvy teen hero and her emerald-bedecked foe were laughing heartily, shrieking like they'd just shared the best joke in the world. Moments later, they were both clutching their stomachs and grinning weakly. "Damn fast food," Shego wheezed, and Kim smiled.

"So," she said once the giggle-fit had subsided. "What about things between a girl and another girl? Is that . . . complicated?" she asked with what she hoped was at least a bit of coyness.

Shego caught on and smiled softly. "There's layers in every relationship, Kimmie; the important thing is not to get too caught up in the throes of one so you can enjoy them all equally."

"So like, are we 'enjoying' our . . . relationship 'equally'?" Kim continued, twirling a strand of long red hair around her finger nervously.

"Oh, I think there are some layers we could dig more deeply into. Stand up," Shego coaxed, and Kim did; Shego followed suit. She walked closer to the other girl, only a hare shorter than she, and put her hands lightly on Kim's waist. "Just relax," she whispered as the cheerleader's petite frame trembled. "Now, close your eyes," she murmured; again, Kim complied. Placing one hand lightly on the back of her younger foe's head, fingers tangled in the thick mane of hair, Shego brought her face in closer to Kim's, closed her own eyes, and leaned into the inevitable kiss.

It was softer than they both expected; Kim was too chaste to fully give herself to the moment, but Shego's tongue, easily the more experienced of the pair, probed the opening of Kim's still (surprisingly, considering she'd been eating and everything) glossed lips until they parted. Their tongues danced around one another for a few seconds, the two females' mouths pressed together for a long moment; Kim made a small noise and Shego reluctantly broke the connection, their faces still close in the immediate aftermath. "That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" the elder of the two queried with a smile.

"No, it wasn't," Kim murmured, "and neither are you."

"Yeah, well, don't tell that to Drakken," Shego joked, pulling away and returning to her side of the table to pick up her tray; she moved to dump it in one of the restaurant's garbage cans, and Kim followed suit.

"You never answered my question, Shego," Kim replied a moment later.

"What was it again?"

"I asked if you'd ever give all of this - your current life, and all the people and places in it - up, if you had the chance."

Shego looked thoughtful. "No, she replied after a long moment. "I wouldn't."

"Me, neither," Kim smiled. There was another lengthy pause; silently, both women realized the dangers of fraternizing anywhere even remotely more public than their surprise meet-up in a practically isolated restaurant, and made to leave out separate doors. "Will it always be like this, do you think?"

"'This' as in, stressed?" Shego clarified.

"Yeah."

"Maybe." The ambiguous reply was really no better than the warring attitudes and opinions that Kim had wanted to be alone to deal with in the first place. For some reason, however, she felt strangely enlightened; turning to leave, she stopped when Shego added, "hey, Possible?"

"Er, yes?" Kim half expected to turn around and see Shego's hands lighting up with electric green power, to see Drakken jump out from behind the now-visible counter and brandish his latest weapon of mass destruction with a toothy grin. All she saw, however, was Shego, unarmed save for the most genuine smile Kim would ever find on her face.

"I'll see you around."