Where's The Beef?

Fandom: Kim Possible

Pairings: Kim/Ron, Kim/Shego (Yes, really)

Summary: Team Possible has saved the day. Or have they? Drakken pulls out a last-ditch effort to salvage his plans, and Kim finds herself radically reconsidering her worldview, among many other things.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Shego,” Kim said calmly despite her compromised position.

“Yeah?” the green lady challenged, hands ablaze. “And why’s that?”

“Because a friend wouldn’t do this to you,” she answered, kicking out with surprising speed and sending one half of the broken bench hurtling in her direction.

Shego dipped to the side to avoid it, which was all the opportunity Kim needed to get back on her feet and start lobbing weights at her.

“Whoa!” she shouted as a forty-five pound circular weight hurtled past her head. She ducked under another, then dodged a third with a quick side flip. Kim eventually got impatient and hefted the entire rack over her head, hurling it toward her.

Any notions that she had the upper hand in this fight left Shego’s head as five hundred pounds of metal smashed into the ground beside her. The suit pushed Kim’s strength up to just a little above her level, but still nowhere near what she’d put up with from Hego. The problem was that Kim was nowhere near as slow as that brute.

On the other hand, now she was out of ammunition.

Shouting her rage, Shego leaped into the air and swiped as she landed, eviscerating a Bowflex. Kim had flipped out of the way at the last second, over to another weight bench. She lifted up a barbell and began to spin it around. Shego spared a glance down at the destroyed bench next to her and hooked her foot under the nearest barbell, kicking it up into her waiting hands. She refocused her glow, channeling it through the metal so that the ends flared green.

Leaping again, she brought the end of the barbell down hard towards Kim, who vaulted out of the way onto the mats, where she would have more room. Shego followed, jumping high in the air while she twirled the barbell from side to side before slamming the end down onto the ground. The result, which she admitted she had not planned, was that some excess energy traveled outward in a shockwave along the floor as soon as the barbell impacted the mat.

Shego was thankful for the limited immunity she had to her own powers, since it not only allowed her to wreath her hands in the glow, but also to keep her footing as the energy spread outward. The same could not be said for Kim, who backpedaled hastily before putting some distance between them with a backflip. She recovered her composure almost immediately.

“Aw, did I make Shego angry?” the cheerleader teased, hurling her own taunt back at her. “I think I did.”

Well, she was right at least. “Shut it, Princess!”

“Make me.”

Growling, the green woman charged at her rather than risk another flying leap, then swung the end of the barbell at her head. Kim blocked the strike with her own weapon, making sure not to contact the glow, which could cut through it easily. Shego hopped back to avoid a boot aimed at her stomach, then raised the barbell to block an overhead strike from Kim. The redhead quickly broke contact and spun the barbell around with surprising speed while turning around herself, then struck her in the gut with a lightning fast thrust.

“Oof!” Shego huffed as she tried to ignore the pain. Truthfully, she had never trained much in the use of polearm-style weapons, or weapons in general for that matter. Those tended to be a secondary concern when she could shoot cosmic energy out of her fists. Kim seemed to be a natural with everything she touched, and there were several Kung Fu styles that taught staff techniques. She was not going to win this way.

She did not have a choice as Kim took the offensive, using the barbell as a lever to vault over her, sweeping it along the ground as she landed. Shego hopped upward to avoid it, then brought the barbell down in an overhead strike, which Kim blocked by raising her own from her crouched position. The glow made contact, splitting the barbell in two and continuing to the floor below.

Kim retaliated by quickly holding part of the barbell that was not currently engulfed in energy down with her foot and firing an uppercut at Shego’s jaw. She jumped back to avoid it, but in doing so sacrificed her grip on the weapon. She flared up her hands again, forcing the cheerleader to be cautious with her next moves.

“You know, Shego, I don’t think you really hate me,” Kim averred as she dodged a furious swipe.

“And how do you…” Shego slashed at her again, only to hit nothing but air. “How do you figure that, Princess?”

“Remind me what happened the first time we met,” the cheerleader replied, ducking under a roundhouse. Shego sent a few more punches her way, none of which connected.

That was not a hard one to remember, Shego admitted as memories of robot ticks and a brawl in Bueno Nacho came rushing back to her. “We fought,” she answered.

“Do you remember why?”

“Because Drakken was paying me to, duh.” Kim had put on a little more distance now, and Shego fired off a flurry of bolts at her.

“Exactly,” the redhead pointed out as she continued to flip out of the way. “Drakken was doing something stupid, I was trying to stop him, and you were protecting him because it was your job. Not really seeing the hate there.”

“Actually, we came after you because you still had the robot tick on your nose. Which I tried to scratch off, by the way.”

Kim shrugged while avoiding another swipe. “Would you still have gone after me if I hadn’t?”

“Not really.”

“Then that still proves I’m right.”

She had a point. Not that Shego was going to admit it. “Yeah, well we’ve fought plenty of times since then, and you were annoying every time.” She flared up her hands and released a wide-angle blast that Kim had to flip over. “I may not have hated you at first, but it grew pretty fast!” She leaped into the air, angling her fist downward at the suddenly talkative Princess.

“Oh, I know I annoyed you, Shego,” Kim replied, hopping out of the way just as an enraged Shego crashed into the mats. She brought up an arm to block the next strike, and kept this up as the green woman continued her onslaught. Blue energy flared up around her hands, protecting her from the glow. “But we still only clashed because you got in the way of me catching Drakken.”

She ducked under a particularly furious swipe, then continued. “And we made a pretty good team when we fought Aviarius with your brothers. But do you know what happened the other night that changed things?”

Reaching inside Shego’s guard, she batted down her opponent’s right arm while simultaneously striking her temple with the back of her arched wrist, followed by a lightning fast palm strike to the solar plexus and a spin kick to the gut. As Shego stumbled back, momentarily dazed, she finished the thought.

“You made it personal.”

She rushed forward and struck with a vicious uppercut, and Shego felt pain blossom in her jaw as she was hurled across the room. Time seemed to slow, and it occurred to her in those moments that she had narrowly avoided breaking her jawbone. She landed hard on the mats several yards away.

“We both said and did things we didn’t really mean that night, Shego,” Kim continued. “But I’ve let that comment about Erik go. Why can’t you?”

Shego wiped some stray flecks of blood from the corner of her mouth as she slowly rose. “Because I haven’t found a tower to kick you into yet.”

She shrugged, as if she had expected that. “Well, I suppose that’s why we’re here.”

“Then let’s get to it, Princess,” Shego remarked before charging at her again.

---

“You know, you never realize how much you didn’t miss taking the bus until you have to go back to it because your scooter’s broken,” Ron lamented as he and Kim sat in the back seat of a long yellow reminder of life before their parents would let them walk to school.

“Yeah, well, that piece of junk would have taken us even longer than walking, and Felix doesn’t live that close to school,” Kim pointed out. “Although I definitely didn’t miss the freshmen.”

They both stared straight ahead at the ruckus that was taking place further up in the bus, which the driver was pointedly ignoring, likely from experience. The paper footballs and spitwads were considered below the radar, and from what Kim remembered the driver would not threaten to pull the bus over unless an actual fistfight broke out.

“I’m just saying, we could’ve gotten Wade to call us a ride,” he suggested.

“Ron, I’m not wasting a favor to get a ride to a friend’s house.”

“Why not? It’s mission-related! Besides, I think Britina still owes us one.”

“It was one crazed fan!” Kim rebutted, throwing her arms up for a brief moment before letting them fall again. “I told her not to worry about it.”

“Yeah, which is Kim-speak for, ‘You totally owe me,’” he asserted. “Also, the guy had a knife and wanted to ‘wear her like a coat.’ I’m pretty sure she owes you for life.”

“You just want another ride in her private jet,” she accused, jabbing a finger in his direction.

Ron shook his head. “Nah, I hit my private jet quota on the way back from Japan. Also, we always end up skydiving and I hate freefalling.”

“Whatever. It’s still just a fifteen minute ride.”

“Which would be way more awesome in Britina’s stretch limo,” he responded, tapping a finger against his temple. “Think about it, Kim.”

“I’m trying very hard not to,” she answered flatly.

The bus came to a halt a short while later, and they both stayed seated while most of the freshmen in front of them began to swarm the aisle. Once the stampede had cleared, they stood up and exited the bus.

“See?” she said as soon as they stepped onto the sidewalk, gesturing to the house in front of them. “We’re already here.”

“Yeah, well, we could’ve been playing Zombie Mayhem twenty minutes ago if we had Wade send us a ride,” he insisted.

“Ron, we only left school fifteen minutes ago,” she pointed out.

He frowned, then began trudging along the driveway. “Whatever. Time is meaningless where Zombie Mayhem is concerned.”

“Is that why I found you in a sugar coma after thirty-two straight hours of button stomping?”

“It’s button mashing, Kim, and I don’t do that,” he corrected, then raised a finger for emphasis. “There is a method to my madness!”

“Please enlighten me, O Great Master,” she retorted in perfect deadpan.

“Just let me fire up the console with Felix and you can watch this master at work,” he boasted.

“Sorry, no can do,” she replied. “Mission-related trip, remember?” She rang the doorbell before he could respond.

“Coming!” Felix’s voice called from within. The door opened moments later. “Oh hey, guys. Mom’s expecting you, Kim.”

“Thanks,” she said as they walked inside. Felix turned about in his wheelchair and began leading them into the living room. “So Felix,” she began, “I didn’t see you at prom. Did you not find anybody to dance with?”

He raised an eyebrow and looked back at her over his shoulder. “Kim. Me? Dance? Don’t be ridiculous.” By this time they had arrived in the living room and he turned around to face them.

Kim felt heat rush to her face and covered her mouth to avoid making another unfortunate slip. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” She slapped her forehead. “Why does everything I say around you come out insensitive?”

Felix chuckled. “I’m just giving you a hard time, Kim; don’t sweat it.” She relaxed a little at that, and he continued: “Truth is, I was too broke to rent a Tux. Zita and I had a private party back here.”

She blinked. “Wait, Zita? Zita Flores?”

“Oh yeah, we’re dating now,” he informed her. “Didn’t you know?”

“Not really,” she answered, glancing at Ron. “And you’re okay with this?”

“Are you kiddin’ me? The Ron-Man made with the mad hookup!”

“He introduced us at ZombieCon,” Felix explained as Kim and Ron took their seats. “We paired up and scored a sick kill streak of five thousand zombies.” He grinned. “Best first date ever.”

“Better than getting your mind trapped in Everlot,” Ron agreed.

“Wait, there’s more than one gathering for Zombie Mayhem?” Kim interjected, utterly perplexed.

“Well, ZombieCon is about zombies in general,” Felix clarified. “But they hold Zombie Mayhem tournaments every year. Zita and I got a free copy of Zombie Island out of it.”

Ron’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. “Dude, do you have it here?”

“What kinda question is that?” Felix replied, producing the game.

“Put it in! Put it in!” he urged, and Felix obliged him, starting up the game console.

“I’ll leave you guys to it,” said Kim, standing up and heading toward the kitchen. She shook her head. Ron might have been an idiot sometimes, but he was her idiot. And while she definitely didn’t see the appeal of sitting on the couch killing imaginary zombies when she could be out there stopping supervillains in real life, she understood that he was passionate about it and tried to be supportive.

“Haha! Die by the blood-soaked blades of my lawnmower, stupid zombies! Die!”

“Dude, quit ripping off Peter Jackson.”

“Who?”

On the other hand, maybe she needed to get him away from the console more. They were dating now, after all.

---

“What’s the matter, Shego?” Kim taunted as she barely missed her next strike, which the green woman dodged more sluggishly than usual. “Tired?”

After a few moments’ deliberation, she determined that she was, as Kim suggested, bone tired.

No, not just tired. Exhausted. She and Kim had been fighting for what felt like hours, though she knew from experience that time seemed to stretch into infinity during prolonged combat. The constant striking, blocking and dodging had a way of depleting energy faster than almost any other activity, and even someone with her superhuman endurance eventually had to stop and catch her breath.

“Never better,” she lied, even though her muscles burned as she swiped at her again, too slowly to have a chance of hitting her.

“You sure? We can pick this up later if you want.”

“I said I’m FINE, Princess!” she exclaimed furiously, clawing at her stomach even though she knew she did not have a chance of connecting.

Kim frowned before moving faster than she had any right to after battling for so long, sidestepping the attack and grabbing Shego by the forearm. She wrenched the arm upward and twisted, causing the green woman to flip over and land hard on her back.

Shego sighed in annoyance. The adrenaline flowing through her was the only reason she was still moving, and if she had been a little closer to full strength she might have been able to land on her feet. All she could do now was roll to the side and stand again, panting heavily.

“You sure about that?” the redhead challenged, crossing her arms and looking smug. She did not seem tired at all.

“Okay, so I’m…” She paused, taking several deep breaths. “I’m a little tired. Aren’t you?”

“Nah, I’ve always been naturally energetic,” Kim replied. “The suit helps with my endurance level too.”

Of course it did. “You know, it… occurs to me that we usually have some sort of… some sort of interruption before we ever get to this point,” she admitted, still huffing and puffing. “I think this is the longest we’ve ever fought.”

Kim nodded. “Yeah, two hours seems a lot longer when you’re punching and kicking the whole time.”

“Only two…? I feel like I’ve been fighting you for days!” Especially now that the adrenaline was flowing out of her and she tasted copper in her mouth. Her lungs burned with every breath, to say nothing of how the rest of her body was on fire. She had bruises and contusions all over, the sweat under her catsuit was suffocating her skin, and she had to take a monster of a piss.

She wanted nothing more than to take a nice, long, warm shower right now. She considered taking Kim up on her offer to pick this up later, but quashed it immediately. She either beat her now, or not at all. And she had never been one to give up easily.

“We’re not done yet, Princess. I’m not stopping until I do to you what you did to me.”

The cheerleader rolled her eyes. “You’ll die of exhaustion before you beat me,” she replied, sighing. “If you still wanna come at me that’s fine, but I will make you rest before I let you get too hurt.”

“I’d love to see you try, Pumpkin,” she growled before lighting up her fists and rushing her one more time.

It happened so fast that Shego did not realize what happened until she was lying flat on her back again. Kim had reacted with that same impossible speed, ducking down and rolling the green woman over her shoulders, then lashed out with a kick that landed square in the middle of her back, sending her flying.

“Stay down, Shego,” she practically ordered. “Drakken needs us both in top shape for his operation and I don’t recall this being a duel to the death.”

Shego was beyond listening to her at this point and mindlessly charged at her again. The redhead sighed and grabbed Shego’s left arm just as it was preparing to punch her, then spun inside her reach and elbowed her in the gut before flinging the green woman over her head. She tumbled along the mats, landing in a heap several yards away.

Letting out one final battle cry, she used what was left of her power to make yet another mad dash at the teenager, not knowing what she would do when she reached her. Kim frowned and set her brow, then reached out her arm and caught Shego’s glowing fist, the suit’s energy interceding and protecting her from harm. She twisted her wrist so that her hand was upside down then stepped to the side and allowed the green woman to continue her forward motion, landing a palm strike on her upper back with her left hand before spinning around and kicking her in the back of the knee.

Before Shego could collapse completely, Kim was upon her, hooking her arms beneath her armpits and pressing hard against the back of her head. She felt an enormous pressure on her neck, and groaned in pain.

“Do you know what this hold is called, Shego?” Kim began very sternly. “It’s called the Full Nelson. It’s banned from professional wrestling because I could break your neck from this position if I wanted to. Now, will you stop fighting when I let you go?”

Shego tried to shake her head, but found that she could barely move her neck with all the pressure Kim was putting on it. “Not… finished. Make you… suffer.”

“Not gonna happen, Shego. Drakken told us we need to work out the issues between us so that we can work more effectively as a team. I need you to promise me that you can do that.”

“Let me… hurt you… and we’ll be fine,” she grunted.

“Can’t do that. Like I said, if you want to get revenge, you have to earn it yourself. Now promise me.”

Part of Shego wanted to submit, but the other part reminded her that if she did that, she would never have the upper hand in this relationship. She could still fight. She could still win.

But not like this.

“Fine, fine I surrender!” she shouted, hating herself for it. “Uncle!”

Kim released her, and she stopped herself from falling with her hands before clenching them into fists. As Kim started to stand, she gathered the last of her strength and made one last attempt to do serious damage to the Princess with a rising uppercut.

The cheerleader leaned back, then grabbed both of her arms before headbutting her. A rising knee slammed into her gut, and Shego doubled over, only to fall to the ground as Kim elbowed her in the back of the neck.

She was spent. She tried to get back up, but a boot came to rest upon her upper back, pinning her down. Black started to close along the edges of her vision, and before she lost consciousness the last thing she heard was Kim clicking her tongue in disapproval.

---

“Hey, Dr. Renton,” Kim greeted as she entered the kitchen.

Dr. Cindy Renton smiled as she looked over her shoulder from the stew she was preparing. “Oh hi, Kim. Give me just a second here.” She handed the wooden spoon she was using off to one of the many robotic appendages that populated the kitchen, then sat down at the table while it continued stirring. “Can I offer you some tea?”

“Sure, thanks.” Another of the cyber-robotic arms reached into the cupboard and produced a mug, then poured some hot water from the stove into it and deposited a tea bag before gently placing the steaming beverage directly in front of where Kim took her seat. “Did my Dad let you know why I’m here?”

“He told me you have the security clearance, at least,” she replied. “He said you’d explain the situation yourself.”

She nodded, then blew over the top of her mug before taking a tentative sip. “I need to know about Project Warwolf.”

Dr. Renton quirked an eyebrow, but answered all the same. “Oh, that? It’s just a project we’ve been developing as a possible Rogue Asteroid defense.”

“A what?”

She chuckled before taking a sip of her own tea. “I’m sure your father must have told you about those by now. Rogue Asteroids are those giant asteroids you hear about on the news that are on a collision course with Earth. We’re actually being bombarded constantly by meteors smaller than your thumb, but thankfully Earth’s atmosphere is enough to burn most of them up.”

“And you were working on something to deal with the bigger ones,” Kim surmised.

She nodded. “Exactly.”

“How does it work?”

“Well, we never actually built any prototypes, but the theoretical models we constructed were designed to generate powerful sound waves that would crush any asteroids too large to be burned up naturally into gravel.”

She wrinkled her brow. “But I thought sound didn’t travel in space.”

“It doesn’t, which is why it was being developed as a last line of defense in case the lasers and nukes fail and an asteroid actually makes its way into our atmosphere. The device would shatter it into small enough chunks that would then burn up naturally. Of course, we had to be really careful in our calculations or it could end up splitting the asteroid up into slightly larger chunks that would tear into Earth like a shotgun blast from God.”

Kim blinked at the unusually vivid simile. “And what would happen if a supervillain got their hands on this technology?”

“Which supervillain?” she asked, suddenly looking a lot more concerned.

“Dr. Drakken,” she answered. “Old arch-foe. Helped Motor Ed steal the tech off of Felix’s wheelchair a few months ago.”

“Which means he already has experience using cyber-robotic technology,” Dr. Renton concluded.

“And cybertronic. He got his hands on Dad’s Hephaestus project and used it to try and take over the world just last week.” She frowned. “These soundwaves… what do they do to humans?”

“Well, they were designed to vibrate at the resonant frequency of iron-rich rock, but it could be tuned to target people as well. It would take a genius, though.”

“Much as I hate to admit it, Drakken tends to be pretty good at co-opting the tech he steals,” Kim admitted, taking another sip of her tea. “But blowing people up isn’t really his style.”

“I still wouldn’t underestimate him, Kim,” she warned. “That technology was designed to work against asteroids capable of causing an Extinction Level Event. It could turn Mount Everest into a pile of dust. Not to mention what it would do to a city.”

“Guess we’d better stop him, then,” she declared, standing up. “Thanks for the tea, Dr. Renton. And the information.”

“Any time, Kim,” Dr. Renton replied, rising as well. “Are you going to stay for dinner?”

“Maybe,” the teen answered. “It depends on how long Ron wants to stay.”

“Oh, he and Felix look pretty engrossed in that game,” she observed. “I’ll set out two extra bowls tonight, just in case.”

“Thanks again, Dr. Renton.”

“You’re welcome, Kim.”

Kim exited the kitchen and went back to the living room, sitting down beside Ron. “Who’s winning?”

“Both of us,” Ron informed her.

“Yeah, this is co-op, not versus,” added Felix. “Right now we’re on a quest to get this guy to one of the safe rooms. He’s gonna be zombified at this rate, though.”

“Sounds fascinating,” she replied, trying to sound supportive. “Ron, Dr. Renton invited us to stay for dinner. That cool with you?”

“You know it, KP!” he said enthusiastically. “That stew is calling to me.”

“Just leave some for the rest of us, big guy,” Felix interjected.

“I can make no promises,” he replied. “And neither can Rufus. Right, little buddy?”

“Mmm, stew!” the naked mole rat answered from his perch on Ron’s shoulder, rubbing his belly.

“Also, I was thinking about tomorrow,” Kim continued. “What do you say we go on a real date for once?”

That got Ron to look away from the game, if only for a moment. “Wait, you’re asking me out?”

“Duh, this is the twenty-first century,” she retorted. “Is that a ‘no’?”

“Uh… no!” he answered hastily. “I mean yes! I mean… which one is the right answer?”

His character’s death scream punctuated the momentary silence between them as Kim shook her head in amusement.

“Dude, thanks a lot! I have no revival pills left!”

“Sorry, KP distracted me!”

“My bad,” she apologized, holding her hands up in surrender. “But what do you say? Pick you up at seven?”

“She’s picking you up, too?” Felix ribbed. “Tsk, tsk, bro.”

“Hey, I already had my ‘walk down the stairs’ moment,” Kim rebutted. “It’s not all that great in retrospect.”

“Uh, that sounds great, KP,” Ron answered a little less hurriedly than before. “Looking forward to it.”

She smiled. “It’s a date, then.”

---

The first thing Shego became aware of when she awoke was that she reeked worse than a recently irrigated cornfield. Though the sweat had dried, her catsuit was still stuck to her body, and she was about to peel it off when she finally took stock of her surroundings.

“How did I end up back in my bed?” she wondered aloud, though nobody was around to answer her. The circumstances leading up to her blacking out began to come back to her, and she surmised that Kim must have carried her back here.

Embarrassing.

It was not until her bladder started screaming at her that she realized she still needed to pee. She tried to move, but her arm felt like it was filled with rocks and her muscles were locked up tighter than Granny Crocket’s secret cookie recipe. She felt more exhausted than she had been in years. But she had learned to deal with fatigue long ago, when she would train for hours on end and wake up feeling like death warmed over. Forcing herself up, she stood and shuffled over to the bathroom, slowly shedding her catsuit along the way. By the time the door hissed open and shut, she was completely bare.

She did her business quickly, straining again when she stood up from the toilet and flushed it before making her way to the shower. She turned on the left nozzle, thankful that she had separate pipes for the shower and the toilet so she did not have to wait for it to finish flushing. She felt her muscles start to loosen as the hot water cascaded over her, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Once she no longer felt completely sore, Shego allowed her mind to focus on what Kim had told her during their battle. That they did not hate each other, and their rivalry had been strictly professional until she made that comment about Erik. Shego knew she was right, and truthfully she had already admitted it to herself when Kim was first brought here. That was not the problem.

The problem, she reflected as she began lathering soap, was that she still had not gotten the opportunity to deliver proper retribution to the cheerleader, and fighting her only brought about more frustration. Whether or not it was personal before, it was now, and she needed to get revenge before she would feel any better.

But was that really the answer? The other thing she had realized a while ago was that Kim being under Drakken’s control was already more than enough punishment for her. Or it would be, if Kim actually acted like it was a punishment. Instead, she approached evil with almost the same zeal that she had for heroism, and she did not seem to suffer for it at all. That, more than anything, was what made Shego furious.

She started to rub soap along her skin, massaging her sore muscles at the same time. When that was done, she poured a large amount of shampoo into her hands and began the long process of mixing it in with her hair. She really only needed to concern herself with the first foot or so, since her hair was long enough that sweat did not really seep that far. Still, it took a good ten minutes before she was finished.

Once that was done, she gave herself one more scrub-down before turning off the water and stepping out of the shower. Grabbing a towel, she wiped the steam off the mirror and took stock of her reflection. What she saw made her wince.

Though Kim had not made contact with her much until the end of the fight, the damage she had inflicted included several ugly bruises, thankfully all on places that were normally covered anyway. She pressed a hand to her ribs to make certain none of them were cracked, and the bruise on her stomach from where Kim’s knee had struck her did not seem dark enough to indicate internal bleeding. The energy that fueled her powers also allowed her to heal faster than normal, so she should be fine within a day or two. She just needed to avoid getting into any more fights with Kim.

Once the very long process of drying off her hair was complete, she wrapped a towel around her body and stepped out of the bathroom. She began making her way over to the bed, intent on sleeping this off. Before she reached it, however, the door to her chamber hissed open and there was a sudden shriek, though whether it was from her or the intruder she could not tell.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Kim yelled, shielding her eyes and running back out of the room, which was completely at odds with her earlier behavior. Shego snorted and dropped the towel, then reached back inside the bathroom to grab a robe.

“You can come in now, Princess,” she called out after she was decent. “Didn’t even see me naked,” she muttered, shaking her head in amusement.

“Sorry again,” the teen said sheepishly as she entered. She looked so innocent and embarrassed that it was hard to imagine she had been beating the crap out of her earlier. “I thought you were still asleep.”

“Yeah, well, knock first next time,” she replied, slightly annoyed but still trying very hard not to laugh. “Now what can I do for you, Princess?”

Kim seemed confused by her change in demeanor, as if she had expected her to still be trying to take her head off. “You’re not still mad about earlier?”

“Look,” she sighed, letting her shoulders fall a little bit. “Right now I feel like I got run over by a semi truck and I really want to rest before I go another round with you. Besides, I do kinda feel better after I let all that out on you, so thanks for that.”

“You’re wel—”

“But,” she interrupted, raising a finger. “I am still mad at you for kicking me into Drakken’s signal tower. You had already beaten us and even though I made it personal first, that was still out of line. Also, you haven’t given me an opportunity to get you back for that.”

“Oh, I gave you the opportunity,” Kim remarked, crossing her arms. “I never said I’d make it easy.”

“Wouldn’t feel as satisfying if you did,” she responded, then sighed again. “But I’m willing to put all that aside if you do one thing for me.”

“And that is?”

“Apologize.”

Kim stared at her blankly for several moments. “Huh?”

“You heard me,” she answered, crossing her arms. “Just because I’m evil doesn’t mean I can’t forgive people. And we’ve already established that I can’t beat you senseless, so this is the only way we can move past this.”

She appeared to consider that, framing her chin with her index finger and thumb. “You first.”

“Eh?”

“You made the crack about Erik first, you apologize first.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’m sorry I said I was going to kill you and steal your boyfriend. It was… wrong.”

She smiled. “I forgive you, Shego.” The smile dropped. “And I’m sorry I kicked you into the tower. And that I said I hated you. There were better ways to let out my anger at you.”

“I forgive you, Princess.” As soon as she said it, she felt a lot less tired.

“So what do we do now?”

“Well first, I’m going to sleep for a very long time,” she answered. “Tomorrow, we’re getting out of here and doing something together. Get to know each other better.”

“What did you have in mind?” Kim asked.

Honestly, she had no idea. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

“Okay,” the teen replied as she began walking out of the room. “Goodnight, Shego.”

“G’night, Princess.”

As soon as Kim left, Shego opened the robe and shrugged, letting it hit the floor. “Lock,” she commanded the door, and the loud click she heard told her that she was safe from any further intrusions. She climbed under the covers, and reveled in the comfortable fabric. “Off,” she told the lights, and then darkness enveloped her.