"Welcome to our humble abode," Kim muttered as she opened the front door and gestured for Shego to go in first.
Shego glared at her before entering. She hadn't spoken during an extremely uncomfortable car ride home.
"I'm sorry I can't stay, honey," Kim's mother said from the driver's seat of the car in the driveway, "but I have appointments to keep. Please be careful - and don't sever the rope connecting you! Otherwise, you may accidentally - "
"I know, Mom," Kim sighed. "Believe me, I know all too well." She waved and went inside after Shego.
Shego was looking around intently. "Homey, for a jail cell."
"It's not a prison," Kim said.
"It feels like one."
"You survived the last time you were here," Kim reminded her, referring to the Team Go incident.
"Thanks for the memories," Shego growled at her. "I almost had ultimate power if it wasn't for you."
"Oh, please," Kim said. "We both know you let me win so you could save face in front of your brothers."
Shego's arm hung limply, but green fire glowed in her fist. "You don't want to go there, Kimmie," Shego snarled. "Dr. Drakken went there once, and I had to correct his thinking."
"Fine," Kim grumbled. "Can we not fight? This is going to suck as it is. Having to share my house with YOU - "
"How about having to share your bedroom?" Shego replied, her face showing just how thrilled she wasn't by that.
Kim sighed. "At least we don't have to worry about the shower. Mom said we can't risk getting these collars wet."
"Which means we're going to look like shit in the morning," Shego pointed out.
"Well, unless you're suggesting we should give each other sponge baths?"
Shego shuddered. "Please, not an image I appreciate."
This was going to be a long night, Kim thought. She'd never be more than a couple feet from someone who lived to needle and provoke her. She couldn't exactly leave the room and slam the door to get away from Shego, not unless she wanted to be unable to move anywhere.
And she didn't even have Ron to keep her company. He had homework and dinner to get to, and anyway, Kim had discouraged him from coming over. Instinctively she knew that Ron's presence would only further fray Shego's nerves, leading inevitably to a confrontation that would only get them both electrocuted.
Shego bringing up hygiene made Kim think of something else. "Are you going to sleep in that?" she asked, pointing at Shego's distinctive green-and-black outfit.
"I wasn't planning - oh," Shego realized, and her frown only deepened.
Kim massaged the bridge of her nose. She could feel the headache coming, and it had nothing to do with the collar. "I can find you something of mine to wear," she said. "We're the same size."
"How the hell would you know that?"
"Remember when Drakken made me wear one of your outfits?" Kim asked, unwilling to go into further detail about that embarrassing incident. "It fit perfectly."
"Oh," Shego said. Clearly she knew what Kim was talking about. "I never did get those clothes back, you know."
"Well, you can keep your sleepwear then, and we'll call it even."
"Like I'd keep something of yours," Shego sneered, and Kim was left seething. "Dr. D," Shego went on, turning her attention to yet another cause of her irritation. "When I see him again, he is SO dead."
"Something we can agree on, anyway," Kim said.
Shego chuckled bitterly. "The only thing, I bet."
Kim shrugged. "Let's go upstairs, anyway. I might as well show you where you'll be sleeping with me."
"Sleeping with you? I hardly think you're my type."
Kim's cheeks turned bright red, and Shego chortled at her discomfort. "Not like that!" Kim squeaked.
"I'm sure. As if a princess like you would ever shock your parents like that," Shego said.
Kim glared at Shego. She wanted to argue with her, but what was she to say? "Actually, I have boys over all the time." Well, actually that was technically true, but the idea of she and Ron even sharing a kiss was crazy. It'd be like kissing her brother.
She blinked. Speaking of which, where WERE the tweebs?
A flash went off, blinding them both. Kim cleared her eyes and looked up the stairs.
"What will the caption read?" Jim asked thoughtfully, lowering the digital camera.
"How about, 'Kim Possible Brings Home New Pet; Parents Furious'?" Tim suggested.
Kim looked at Shego and realized they were comparing the rope tied to their wrists to a makeshift leash. "Tweebs!" she shouted warningly.
Shego didn't speak. She just growled as she raised her free hand, preparing to fling plasma at them.
Kim slapped her arm down. "Not in the house!" she hissed.
"Try and stop me!" Shego snapped.
Kim brought her own arm up and held her fingers centimeters from the collar around her neck.
Shego sullenly let the flames die.
"Interesting," Tim and Jim agreed quietly. Jim put the digital camera aside so it wouldn't get damaged, and then both brothers slid down the banister.
"You guys are so begging for it," Kim warned them as they reached the bottom and nimbly dodged under Kim's arm.
As she turned to shout after them, Tim's hand darted toward her neck and gave the collar a gentle yank. The twins were blissfully unaware of what would happen, and knew only that whatever the result would be, Shego wouldn't like it.
They were right.
Kim and Shego screamed as a jolt of electricity ran through their bodies, moderate in strength but enough for them to be briefly surrounded by a crackle of white energy. Kim fell to her knees as the electrical surge ended, leaving her brothers staring at her, stunned.
"When I get my hands on you two," Kim croaked, breathing heavily, "you'll wish I let Shego blast you."
Knowing they'd crossed a line, the tweebs bolted out of the room. Kim couldn't even try to follow. The role connecting her to Shego was pulled taught as Shego wearily leaned against the wall, panting.
Kim reached her limit. "If you want to pick a fight with me tonight, go ahead," she whispered. "But I don't have the energy."
Shego rubbed futilely at her neck, unable to massage the most tender part without moving the collar and delivering another shock. "Fine," she said in resignation.
Kim got to her feet and led Shego upstairs. The silence was blessedly good.
"It's all that Kim Possible's fault!" Dr. Drakken shouted into the phone illogically, considering she had absolutely nothing to do with the second collar finding its way around Shego's neck. "I was going to have Shego steal something for me tonight, and now my timetable's all gone to H-E-double hockey sticks!"
"Yes, how very bad for you," Monkey Fist said drolly on the other end. "Now perhaps you'd be so good as to explain how you got this number and why you feel it necessary to bother me?"
"Normally I'd be telling Shego this, but as you may have figured out by now, we're not exactly speaking to one another," Drakken muttered.
"I see. Well, this has all been very interesting, but I really must go. I don't see what the problem is. Even if the collars kill Shego, they'll also kill Kim Possible, and then you won't NEED a bodyguard . . . "
"That's easy for YOU to say," Drakken snapped at him. "You can just send monkeys to steal things for you."
There was a pause. "I'm sorry, you're absolutely right," Monkey Fist said. He sounded different.
"Eh? I am? I mean, yes, of course I am! Finally, someone who agrees with me, instead of making snide comments. 'That will never work, Dr. Drakken. I'm busy this weekend, Dr. Drakken. I don't know where the EZ-Bake oven is, Dr. Drakken.'," Drakken mimicked, shaking a fist.
"Terribly sorry you have to listen to all that," Monkey Fist told him. "I suspect you could do without that kind of backtalk?"
"I'd settle for her looking at me when she talks, actually."
"But she can't now, because of the collars."
"Yes, they - "
"And if Kim Possible and Shego are more than three apart for more than a minute, they'll die."
"Yes, it was going to be a fool - hello? Hello?" Drakken slammed the phone down. "How do you like that? Someone shows signs of actually listening to what you said, and then they hang up on you!"
"It's over, it's over, thank God almighty, it's over," Shego groaned as she collapsed onto Kim's bed.
"It was just family dinner!" Kim said, annoyed. "I realize you're not used to having an actual conversation, as opposed to a series of snide remarks, but it's what my family does."
"Loo-ooser!" Shego said, her voice muffled by a pillow.
Kim's mother had served soup for Kim and Shego, reasoning that the act of swallowing should be as pain-free for them as possible. Shego had bolted her dinner, evidently hoping to get away from the table as soon as possible. She'd forgotten that, attached to Kim as she was, she wouldn't be able to leave until Kim did. And after her miserable day with Shego, Kim had been starving for time with her parents.
At least the tweebs weren't there. Furious over their unintentional triggering of the collars, Mrs. Dr. Possible had sent them to their rooms without supper. Eventually she'd let them return to the dining room to eat, but not until Kim and Shego had left.
Still, from the moment Kim's father, dimly remembering his encounter with Shego during the Team Go situation, asked her about how "the circus business" was doing lately, Shego had endured family dinner with increasingly little patience. Kim was finally as glad to get her away from her parents as Shego was.
Now Kim searched her drawers. "Here," she finally said, pulling some articles of clothing out and handing them in Shego's direction. "You should be able to wear this with only a little reluctance."
Shego took them and looked at them dubiously. "It'll do," she said. "Where am I supposed to change?"
"Bathroom," Kim instantly said. She didn't want Shego to undress in front of her. With her pale skin, Kim was afraid she might stare. And she was afraid of what remark Shego would make in response. Undoubtedly something along the lines of what she'd said in response to Kim's "sleeping with me". "I'll close the door and let the rope run underneath."
Shego shrugged. "Whatever."
Kim led her to the bathroom, her own sleepwear in her arms. Shego went inside and closed the door, leaving Kim to sit next to the wall, keeping her wrist by the door so Shego had maximum extension.
A minute later, the door opened, and Kim scrambled onto her feet. "Finally," she began to say, and then she froze.
Shego stood there in a pair of green cotton drawstring pants that belonged to Kim. Above the waist the only thing she had on was a black lace bra. The rest was bare, showing her oddly-hued skin. The rope was partially obscured by hanging folds of fabric, and Kim slapped her forehead, knowing what was wrong before Shego even spoke. "I can't exactly take this off while we're tied together," Shego said ruefully.
Kim untied the rope from her wrist, and Shego did the same, pulling her unitard off. "Why didn't you just untie your end?" Kim asked.
"How would you put your nighties on?"
"Oh. Right." She paused. "Nighties?"
For the first time in hours, Shego grinned. Then she pulled on the oversized black T-shirt Kim had given her. "Satisfactory," she grumbled.
Kim traded places with her and closed the door, being careful to stay close to the door now that the rope wasn't keeping her within bounds. As she undressed, she reflected on one crucial difference between her body and Shego's, besides the skin color - Shego's breasts were definitely bigger. Kim knew it was because Shego was older, and that hers would get larger with age, but for now, she envied the villainess.
"Done," Kim said, knocking on the door.
Shego opened it and gave Kim her end of the rope. Shego had already tied it around her own wrist. Kim put it on and followed her back to the bedroom.
"It's too early to go to bed," Shego sighed. "But I'm exhausted."
"Me too," Kim said.
"Careful there, pumpkin. We agree on too many things, our heads might expl . . ."
Shego's voice trailed off, as she realized how distinctly unfunny the joke was that night. Kim stopped herself from tugging self-consciously at her collar.
"Come on," Kim said. "Mom got blankets out for you to lie on." She unrolled the linens her mother had left, so that Shego could be relatively comfortable on the floor directly adjacent to Kim's bed. "Which direction do you normally sleep in?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I sleep that way," she explained, showing her where the pillow was. "If you slept with your head in the other direction, there's a greater danger that our collars could go off if we moved too much in our sleep."
"Oh," Shego said. "No, that's fine." She took the two pillows Kim's mother had left for her own head and lay down.
Kim lay in her own bed - very carefully. Using two pillows, she kept her head elevated enough so that the collar wouldn't press against the mattress and move while she slept. Even so, they both knew there was a real possibility that their collars would go off in the middle of the night.
That, combined with the unfamiliar collars themselves and the rope rubbing against her skin, was going to make tonight one of the most uncomfortable nights she'd ever slept in her own room. Maybe THE most.
She wished Ron was here to tell her it'd be all right. But all she had was Shego - who was neither inclined to comfort Kim, nor in any position to offer hope. She was in as difficult a situation.
Kim discovered she was scared as she turned off the lamp by her bed.
"Good night, Shego," she said, suddenly desperate for some kind of word from her enemy.
" . . . night, Kimmie."
Shego would never confess to having similar feelings.
Despite Shego's earlier comment, they found one more thing to agree on - sleep came very slowly.
To be continued . . .