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Revelations of Destiny	By : Kellendros Category: Kim Possible > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 63461 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 55
- 56
- 57
Shego groaned as the shrill, stabbing shrieks of her alarm clock drilled into her head, dragging her up most unwillingly from a sound sleep. A moment later she grunted something unintelligible and lethargically squirmed around to reach out from under the covers, clumsily slamming her hand down on top of her nightstand several times until she finally hit the bleating annoyance and shut it off. Collapsing back onto the bed, her arm hanging limply over the side, she was only a hairsbreadth away from falling back to sleep when, with a significant act of will, she opened one eye instead and blearily stared at the red numbers blazing in the darkness.

Five fifty-five. Why in the hell was her alarm going off at five fifty-five? It took a while for her sluggish, sleep-addled mind to come up with the answer, and when it did, she groaned once more and shook her head while squeezing her eyes tightly shut. After a few moments of futile denial, she opened her eyes again and, sloth-like, dragged herself out of bed with considerable effort.

Grumbling and muttering sounds more than words, Shego forced herself to her feet and stumbled off to the bathroom, whereupon she closed the drain to the sink, turned the cold water faucet on full blast until it was well over half full, bunched up her hair with both hands, and then plunged her face into the gelid liquid with only a second’s delay rallying her resolve.

The shock of the frigid immersion brought Shego to full awareness for the thirty seconds or so she held herself there, shaking her head and blinking the gunk out of her eyes before releasing her hair with one hand, brusquely scrubbing the contours of her face with her palm and widespread fingers. After that, the countless icy droplets and freezing trickles cascading down her breasts and stomach as she straightened with a gasp continued to keep her alert—but only for as long as it took to grab a towel and dry off; even as she took note of her exquisitely sleek, well-muscled form in the mirror, Shego could feel her mind congealing once more. Thankfully, it didn’t approach anything near the cold molasses it had been a few minutes ago.

After scrubbing her face with a few more handfuls of frigid water before toweling off again, Shego examined her lips and scowled. The trademark black stain she used was just starting to fade, and she had neither the time nor inclination to touch it up.

Summoning a massive ball of destructive energy, Shego compressed it down to not much bigger than a softball and brought it up to her face. Opening her mouth, she proceeded to, essentially, open-mouth kiss the writhing mass of concentrated cosmic energy, whereupon the black stain on her lips instantly broke down at the molecular level, destroyed before its altering state could do her any harm.

Frenching the ball for a few more seconds to make sure she’d gotten all the stain, Shego then lowered her hands and carefully concentrated, slowly dissipating the potent energy with no further effect. She wasn’t entirely sure whether it was reabsorbed into her or released into her surroundings harmlessly or something else entirely, but she knew it worked, albeit with difficulty, and that’s what counted.

Looking in the mirror again, Shego couldn’t help but smirk after licking her light green lips, taking note of her rock-hard nipples thrusting proudly from her firm, shapely breasts thanks to the cold and toweling stimulation. Raising her arms, Shego raked her glowing hands back through her lustrous mane and held it up while striking a sultry glamour pose, displaying all the many curves of her tight hardbody provocatively.

“Oh yeah, you’ve got it in spades baby.” Shego grinned wickedly before breaking into a silly laugh. Releasing her power along with her hair, Shego shook out her thick tresses a few times and then headed back to her room and into her closet, where it only took her a few minutes to pull on some black sweatpants and a tight green outerwear sports bra, along with some socks and light sneakers.

Grabbing a handful of scrunchies from a bucket on her way out the door, Shego spent the next minute or so standing in the open area of her bedroom while doing up her hair in a multi-sectioned ponytail. After that she slipped on a pair of sweatbands and a headband and took a quick glance in the mirror. Finding everything acceptable, Shego headed for the door to her suite a moment later.

Stopping at the control panel by the door, Shego hit the intercom connection for Kim’s suite and loudly declared; “You’d better be up and getting ready Princess, because if you’re not I’m coming in there after you!” An instant before she was about to release the connection, Shego paused, considering, and then quickly added; “And not the way you like me too either!”

A little less than a minute later Kim’s voice returned; “I’m up, and I’m almost ready too… but if you want to come in go right ahead.”

Shego smirked and gave a little shake of her head, knowing Kim was smiling wryly by the tone of her voice. “That’s ok, I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” She was already opening the door and stepping out into the main hall when Kim’s return “Ok.” came in over the intercom behind her.

Casually tossing herself headfirst over the banister, Shego dropped almost straight down while her body lazily flipped over once, landing in a gentle half-crouch with a light thump as she reached the hardwood floor below. Smiling, Shego straightened and began heading for the kitchen; she was really starting to get the hang of the abilities her new strength gave her.

Several minutes later Shego had gotten a few bottles of water from the pantry, along with a pair of high-end energy bars, and set them on the counter before pouring two big glasses of juice for her and Kim, who walked in wearing her usual workout outfit of a cotton outerwear sports bra and waist-to-upper-thigh shorts just as Shego was closing the door to the fridge.

“Good morning.” Kim said with entirely too much cheer for someone up at such an early hour, but Shego didn’t notice that. Rather her mind was fixed on an entirely different matter.

Despite getting a considerable eyeful—and handful—of Kim during their little soirée at the dance club in Florida, there was a considerable difference between the color-tinted, subdued lighting and strobe effects of a dim nightclub and the clean, warm light of her kitchen, not to mention the lack of distractions as well. Between that and the way Kim’s painted-on attire clung tightly to her, the girl was all but naked before her, every line of her strong, young, athletic frame revealed in all its taut, undulating glory.

As Kim padded silently across the tile in her bare feet, heading for the juice, Shego felt an aching tightness twisting inside her as she watched, somewhere between her heart and the pit of her stomach. The rippling waves of the redhead’s tight stomach beneath her lightly tanned skin, the unbelievably delicious way the side of her tight, perfectly shaped ass indented slightly with every other step, the flexing curves of her strong thighs, the lithely muscular arms and shoulders, and those proud, pert little breasts of hers—Shego felt a whispering ghost of sensation against the fingers and palm of her left hand—it was all so incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably hot that it actually hurt to look at.

She’s just so young and tight and fit and lithe-and-strong-and-smooth-and-sporty-and-hardandleanandathleticandHOT!

The words blurred together in Shego’s head and failed; there was no way to describe the dull ache she felt while watching Kim. The girl was just so incredibly perfect the feeling defied expression, it just was.

A few moments later Shego blinked as she realized Kim was asking her something—for the second time. Racking her brain, she was lucky enough to claw out a peripheral memory of the mostly unregistered query; “This’s for now, right?” Or something like that. She hoped.

Shaking her head sharply, Shego discovered she had to clear her throat a little before finding the voice to bluff; “Sorry, still a little tired there. Yeah, juice and bar for now, water whenever we need it later.”

Kim nodded and took one of the glasses and an energy bar, and it wasn’t until the redhead had eaten half of it along with drinking nearly a third of her juice that Shego realized she was still just standing there, staring at Kim while she ate. Shaking her head again, she furiously thought; Get a grip! Yeah, she’s unbelievably hot; big deal; so are a lot of other people, and you don’t seize up like this when they’re around.

Moving over to her juice, Shego took a long, deep drink, draining nearly half the glass in several continuous swallows. As she tried to get a hold of herself, she found that if she didn’t look directly at Kim (at least from the neck down) it was much easier to think.

Kim, on the other hand, wasn’t having nearly as much trouble as Shego. In fact, though she appreciated the familiarity of Shego’s black-and-green outfit, she was mostly disappointed the older woman was wearing sweatpants instead of something more revealing. She’d really been hoping to get a nice, long look at those big, curvy, powerful legs and perfect ass as they were put through their paces this morning.

Oh well, Kim sighed mentally, at least she’s not wearing a baggy shirt too.

While the other woman drank from her glass, Kim took advantage of what she thought was Shego’s early-morning state of tired distraction, openly admiring the play of muscle in everything from her raised arm to the sculpted abs of her impossibly narrow waist, all the curving lines of definition standing out clearly from beneath that sleek, tea-green skin Kim knew was as silky-soft as it looked. Soon enough though, Kim’s gaze was drawn to, not the older woman’s shapely, snugly covered breasts—though it did linger there for a few moments—but rather the undulation of her throat as Shego kept drinking her juice. It drew the eye for some reason, and it was only when Shego lowered the glass and stared back at her that Kim finally realized what it was.

“What?” Shego asked sharply, and Kim immediately replied; “What happened to your mouth?”

“What do you mean?” Shego’s face twisted slightly in confusion, and she leaned her head to the side just a hair, not quite cocked.

“Your lips, they’re green.”

“Ahhh… yeeeeaaah? So?”

“I thought they were black…”

Shego snorted into a chuckling laugh, and after several long moments replied; “N-no, they’re not.” Shego chuckled again. “Green, Kimmie; I’m all green on the outside.”

“But how?” Kim trailed off, her face as confused as Shego’s had been moments before. “I’ve seen you wet—soaked through—fighting, dumped in stuff, even kissed you, and you do not wear lipstick!”

“No, no I don’t,” Shego responded with a wry smile, “for just those very reasons.” After a pause she added; “Well, except for the last one anyway.” Before Kim could repeat her question, Shego finally answered; “I use stain Kimmie; coat after coat of custom, designer stain. It’s practically India ink.”

“Oh, ok.” Kim gave a slightly embarrassed smile over her earlier confusion.

After that, the duo quickly finished up their juice and energy bars, rinsed out their glasses, grabbed a pair of bottled water each, and headed for the gym, with the only stop on the way—such as it was—coming when Kim collected her weighted arm and leg wraps in the main hall, having left them lying atop the end of the banister at the foot of the stairs while on her way to the kitchen earlier.

As they went, Shego still had difficulty keeping herself from getting distracted staring at Kim—especially since she could just slow down a little to get a full view of that tasty ass as it swayed back and forth subtly while Kim walked—but by the time they entered the gym, she’d managed to get herself mostly under control, focusing on treating the coming exercise as a competitive endeavor, allowing her to draw on her professional detachment to supplement her willpower.

That control slipped a little as she and Kim began their stretching routines, but she quickly recovered by forcing herself to ignore the very interesting ways the various parts of Kim bunched and released as she warmed up, channeling how incredibly flexible the girl was into her competitive drive instead. For her part, thanks to being around Corscan so much, Kim had long since learned how to split her attention so that only a part of her took note of anything… distracting, while most of her concentration remained on the task at hand.

After ten minutes or so the pair finished up the last of their preparations, and Shego walked over to the main control panel for the high-tech room. Pausing, she looked back at Kim, who was strapping on her forearm weights, and asked; “Do we need anything special here?”

Kim paused, looking up with a puzzled expression, then quickly figured out what Shego meant by where she was standing.

“Ummm… let’s see…” Kim considered for a few moments, trying to recall everything from a few days ago, then finally answered; “Other than an area with some tumbling mats I think what’s out now should do, since this is our first day. I really need to play with what you’ve got here a little first before I know what to use anyway.”

Shego nodded and turned back to the panel, her fingers undulating as she rapidly punched in several button sequences. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as sections of the floor opened up to deploy a forty-foot square of interlocked mats in the upper right-hand side of the room before closing again. Even after the machinery disappeared, obviously having set up the area perfectly, Shego still found herself looking back, enraptured by the sight of Kim as the redhead bent over to put on her leg weights, the clinging cotton of her lavender shorts revealing not only the rounded curves of her ass, but also the sublime diamond indentation beneath it, nestled at the start of her smooth, firm inner thighs. A soft sound halfway between a wheeze and a drawn-out groan escaped her lips.

Wrenching her gaze back around to the wall the instant she realized what she’d done, Shego shook her head sharply, furiously thinking; get a grip!

Grinding her teeth together, the pale beauty summoned her willpower and crammed the distracting thoughts far into the back of her mind. After a few long moments concentrating, she found her focus and seized it with all the violence of a starving Pit Bull clamping down on a two-inch steak, absolutely refusing to let her concentration slip any more.

Stabbing a few last buttons on the control panel, Shego turned around and walked towards Kim, her determined stride matching the determination she had to keep her focus now. Halfway to the redhead, the music Shego had called up with her final input started playing from concealed speakers throughout the room, and the girl looked up for a disbelieving second as she recognized it, before leveling a slightly amused but mostly skeptical look at Shego, one eyebrow arched wryly.

“The theme from Mortal Kombat? Don’t you think that’s just a bit… much? there Shego?”

Shego blinked for a second before she got it, then shook her head with a quick snort and replied; “First of all, it’s both versions of the theme, one after the other, and second, I always work out to these songs ever since I first started using them. There’s no little pun or challenge here Pumpkin, trust me.”

“Ahhh… you listen to the same thing over and over again while working out? And it’s this? Seriously?” Kim wasn’t exactly reassured.

“Again, trust me. I’ve never found anything else that keeps up a nice, high energy pace all the way through that you can listen to repeatedly without it getting old. Except for this. For some reason no matter how many times I listen to it, it never loses its edge. Why? Don’t know don’t care. All that matters is that it does—and believe me, it does Kimmie.”

Kim shook her head once, briefly, still unconvinced, but decided to give Shego the benefit of the doubt. Turning to the various high-tech exercise machines laid out along the near wall, she said; “Ok, show me how to work these things before we get started.”

Shego nodded and led Kim over to the nearest one, quickly explaining the rather simple controls to the girl, who, after only a couple of questions to clarify a few things, understood them completely.

“Ok then…” Kim said, nodding. “Now, tell me; you got any surprises up your sleeve for this stuff too?”

“Wha’d’ya mean?” Shego was plainly confused.

Kim held up a hand, ticking points off on her fingers. “You not only know how to cook, but you’re really good at it too; you know enough about cars to build your own; and you’re an unlicensed nutritionist with a Bachelors’ Degree. Are weeee, adding ‘personal trainer’ to that list too?”

Shego snorted and shook her head. “No, I know enough to get by—y’know; cardio, throwing around some weights, using fight-training equipment; that kind of thing—but not much more than that.”

“Ha-ha! Then you’re on my court now baby.” Kim grinned slyly, with just a hint of chagrin. “I know way more about this stuff than I ever thought I would. Not professional, but probably pretty close.”

“Big, tall, and stripy taught ‘ya all that I assume?”

Kim smiled. “Well, not exactly, but she did always explain whatever it was we were doing, so I kind of picked it up. Speaking of which…” Kim gave Shego an appraising look before turning her gaze to the exercise machines and racks of free weights, considering. After a minute or so she turned back and said; “Ok, this is how it works; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are light days, where I do high reps with forty and sixty percent of my max lift, alternating each week. The T-days are heavy days, where I do low reps with eighty percent of my max lift. On top of that is a bunch of different cardio exercises that I do one of between each of the weightlifting ones, so it goes back and forth, all mixed in together. Get it?”

“Yeah, I think so. What about the weekends?”

“Well, I’m supposed to take those off to rest, but I usually do my cardio and katas if I’ve got the time. Speaking of which, after I go through the exercises, I have various slow and fast katas I do, balance and tumbling training, and then I finish up with sparring or hitting the training bags and dummies.” Kim paused, and then gave a peculiar smile. “If Corscan were here, all of that would be supplemented with whatever the latest crazy-hard things she was teaching me were too.”

Shego raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly, with just a hint of smugness. “Humph. Don’t count that out just because Herculina isn’t around. I’m sure I know a thing or two you don’t yet.”

“Oh really?” Kim responded dryly, her smile challenging. “Well, we’ll just see who teaches who then, now won’t we?” Shego gave a soft snort and grinned back, nodding, but before she could say anything Kim continued. “Now, let’s get started.” Pausing for a second, looking suddenly irritated, she added; “Actually, let’s get me a notepad, because I don’t think I’ll be able to memorize your max lift on all these things…”

“Ehhh, ok…” Shego turned and started to walk off, and Kim shouted; “Run!” Glancing back over her shoulder, Shego gave the redhead a look, and Kim made a fluttering, shooing gesture with her fingers while elaborating; “Run! We’re supposed to be exercising here; get that blood flowing.”

Shego shook her head in disgust, but she broke into a light sprint when she turned around, and it took her more time to actually find a pen and some paper than to get around while doing it.

“Your pen and paper ma’am!” Shego said as she returned to the gym and trotted up to Kim, handing her the aforementioned objects while tossing off a sarcastic ghost of a salute and then breaking into a grin. “Happy now?”

“It’s a start.” Kim responded with a straight face, knowing Shego wasn’t referring to the writing implements, and the pale beauty wasn’t entirely sure if the comment was in jest or not.

Quickly jotting down a series of notes on the machines Shego had, Kim still managed to continue in only a slightly distracted tone; “We’ll figure out what your lifts are first, that way we won’t have any stalls, and it’ll be a good warm up for you too.”

Shego nodded, and over the next twenty minutes or so, the pair tested her limits through a variety of different lifting and pulling motions, all while Kim grew increasingly impressed to a point bordering on amazement.

“Wow… just… wow…” she said as she looked at the final numbers on her sheet.

“What?”

Kim shook her head faintly. “According to this, you’re almost as strong as Corscan, and she told me she’s a lot stronger than most people her size.”

Shego grinned smugly. “M’yeah… and most people her size can’t do this either.”

Shego held up her right hand and immolated it with her power, her fingers curling gently as the lime-green energy wafted up around them. Even so, Kim could tell by the way Shego stood and her smile that she wasn’t nearly as casually dismissive as she was trying to be.

“Well, even so, it’s still impressive.” Kim said as Shego dismissed her power. “I mean, you certainly couldn’t throw one, but I think you just might be able to pick up a small car now. At the very least roll it over pretty easily…”

“Really?” Despite what she’d discovered in the last few weeks, that still came as a surprise.

Kim gave Shego a dry look. “You were doing close to one-and-a-half tons on the leg press and benching over nine hundred; what do you think?”

“Whoa whoa whoa, if I can do stuff like that then how in the hell did you last past the first thirty seconds back when… y’know…” Shego trailed off uncomfortably, but Kim just laughed.

“I said you were close to being as strong as Corscan, Shego, not that you were. I know how to deal with strength now—and, if you remember, the one time I did try a stop-block, you knocked me back nearly a yard even though I stepped into it. If I hadn’t been braced properly, you’d have sent me flying for sure.”

“I guess…” Shego seemed unconvinced.

“C’mon, you know as well as I do that skill can beat power; it’s just a whole lot harder and leaves a lot less room for error is all.” Kim grinned, and Shego finally—if still somewhat reluctantly—accepted her assessment with a nod.

“I guess…”

“Now, let’s get started.” Kim grinned slyly, cutting her eyes to Shego’s sweatpants for a second. “If I can’t admire your ass, I’ll just have to work it off instead.”

Shego snorted and shook her head with an appalled grin, though the teasing statement started her thinking about things she’d almost managed to forget.

As she and Kim began in earnest, it somehow got simultaneously easier and harder to ignore those thoughts. Easier in that she had the work to concentrate on, as well as getting the hang of the new cardio exercises Kim was showing her, and harder in that during the course of learning them, from time to time Kim would have to correct her stance or guide her through the proper motion, moving so very, very close, her soft hands touching Shego’s pale flesh warmly.

The straining, sweating, and heavy breathing didn’t help much either, along with the motions of lifting and pulling, all suggestive of much different physical activities, with every flexing, rippling muscle eventually swelling and hardening from the exertion, triggering an endorphin high that further fed the heady physicality of it all.

And of course, since Kim had to show her what to do as they went, they had to alternate on each machine instead of doing everything in tandem using different ones, the way they would have if Shego knew the routine. That meant Shego had nothing else to do but watch as the girl grunted her way through countless body-straining exercises, the flexing of her well-toned muscles a hypnotic entrancement just waiting to entrap Shego if she let her guard down even for a moment.

Nonetheless, Shego managed to get through it all more or less intact. It helped that by the end of it, she was sweating like a horse in the final stretch—well, for her anyway; she was still dryer than Kim—and parts of her she hadn’t even know existed were screaming at her in protest.

“Wow, damn…” Shego all but panted once they were finished, noticeably breathing just as heavily as Kim, “and here I thought I was doing pretty well on my own… You say you do this every day?”

“Yep.” Kim grinned as she took note of Shego’s state. The other woman might not be sweating as much as she was, but it was plain to see she was just as taxed despite the lack of trickling perspiration. After a second’s pause she amended; “Well, weekdays anyway.”

After looking around for a second, Kim continued; “Ok, I’m going to do my katas now. You should really go pound on some equipment or something to keep your energy levels up while I do, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Shego had to consider for a moment before dismissing the likelihood of innuendo there, rather assuming it was an implication regarding her tired state or wanting to watch Kim’s moves without being on the receiving end of them. Shaking her head, she smiled wryly, surprising Kim as she said; “Oh I’ve got something to do, just not that.”

Shego turned and started heading back to the exercise equipment along the wall, and Kim watched for a second before shaking her head and taking up the starting position for her first kata. She was only a few minutes into it when she had to stop, unable to resist her confusion and curiosity over what Shego was doing—or rather, why Shego was doing what she was doing, since it was obvious what she was doing, namely using each machine that worked the upper body, this time with high weight and low reps.

“Ahhh, Shego?” Kim called out as Shego finished her latest set. “Whaaaat exactly are you doing?”

“What’s it look like?” Shego replied flippantly, then laughed at the look Kim shot her, elaborating; “I’m going through all the upper body stuff again, ok? I’ve need to get a little bigger up top…”

“What? Why?” Kim was slightly shocked, but mostly still confused.

Standing up, Shego shook her head in irritation, turning to Kim and striking a pose with her arms spread wide.

“Ahhh, helloooo? In case you haven’t noticed Princess, the top half of me is about two sizes smaller than the bottom half of me, and since I’ve gotten into shape it’s become a lot more noticeable too. Now, I don’t mind having the proportions of a cartoon character with these broad hips and extra-narrow waist of mine, but I’ll be damned if it’s going to be this obvious when I can actually do something about it. I get a little bigger up top and for the first time in my life, I’ll be really close to having a normal vertical symmetry.”

“Well… I guess that makes sense.” Kim could hardly object to that, since Shego actually had a valid point that had nothing to do with physical capability—and she especially couldn’t object over the fact that she was jealous of the other woman’s ability to bulk up at the drop of a hat.

Which I’m not! The fervent denial shot through Kim’s head a moment before Shego spoke again, an indulgent smile on her soft green lips.

“Don’t worry Kimmie, I don’t plan on leaving you in the dust by getting anywhere near as big as tall, dark, and stripy, I just need to even everything out a little is all.”

Kim’s eyes widened in shock and she flushed a bight crimson as Shego stepped over to the next weight machine and mounted it. How did she do that? Kim thought to herself with furious embarrassment as she quickly turned away, trying to ignore the stare she was sure the other woman was watching her with.

Summoning her willpower and concentration, Kim forced the awkward mix of jealousy threaded shame from her head, returning to her kata and letting the slow, focused movements clear her head. By the time she was done, she’d managed to come to terms with the situation.

Just like Corscan, Shego had advantages that Kim would never have, and she couldn’t let herself become resentful about them, both because that kind of thinking was poisonous, and because her interaction with Corscan had taught her that just because someone else had an advantage you didn’t, it just made them different, it didn’t detract from your own advantages. The healthy way to react was to take the challenge of their abilities and use it as inspiration to push yourself to perfect your own unique talents.

Sighing softly, Kim took a deep, cleansing breath and released it in a long, controlled stream, letting go of the last remaining dregs of negative emotion in her. After that, she launched herself into the blinding movements of her fast kata, the furious pace and absolute concentration required to keep each movement as precise as those of her slow kata allowing no room for extraneous thoughts of any kind. When she finished, a low, impressed whistle from Shego greeted her.

“Not bad, not bad at all.”

“Not bad my ass.” Kim said between hard breaths before challenging; “I’d like to see you move as fast.”

“Humph.” Shego grinned wryly. “You’re not faster than me yet Pumpkin.”

“Oh yeah? Are you ready to prove it?” Kim grinned invitingly.

Shego snorted, then surprisingly shook her head, grinning as she responded; “Not quite yet. Hang on a second…”

With that, Shego walked back to the control panel and turned off the music before returning to the mats, coming to a stop a few yards away from Kim.

“Wouldn’t want it to be a bit… much, now would we?” the pale beauty quipped with a grin, prompting Kim into giving a soft snort of amusement. Shego quickly sobered after that, suddenly assuming a serious air. “However, if you’re really willing to do this, really willing to train with me, then we have to do it right, not half-assed, and that means that when we step out onto these mats to spar, it can’t be as… whatever the hell we are now, or whatever the hell we end up being. It has to be as… well, maybe not enemies, but opponents at the very least. Competitors. No holds barred, no mercy, no holding back, no nothing. I’m not saying we have to kill each other, but it’s a hundred percent to win every time or nothing, got it?”

Kim hadn’t exactly been planning on holding back anyway, but this seemed to go beyond that. Hesitantly she asked; “Why’s that?”

“Because it’s not fair to either other of us if we do. You hold back while you train, you train to hold back. You don’t push your partner as hard as you can, they don’t have to push back as hard as they can. I don’t know about you Kimmie, but I’m not interested in picking up any bad habits like that. We do this, we do it right. Out here, head-to-head, all or nothing.”

Kim slowly relaxed as Shego explained her reasoning. “Ok, I get it now—and yeah, I can do that. There’s just one thing… does this include your powers? Because I don’t really see how we can avoid ‘killing each other’ if you plan on using them.”

“I kind of have to use my powers Kimmie.” Shego stated matter-of-factly before suddenly bending her legs slightly and springing into the air, easily sailing high over Kim, her body tumbling through a single flip to land on the other side of the redhead, an equal distance away and still facing her. As Kim finished spinning around while tracking her, Shego shrugged her shoulders and lifted her hands out to either side of her in a helpless gesture, saying; “I mean, it’s not like I can turn that off or anything…”

Kim gave her head an exasperated shake and dryly returned; “I meant the blasty burny smashy slashy ones thank you very much.”

“Oh… d’oy!” Shego rolled her eyes and gave her head a quick shake as she berated herself for missing the obvious. “No, I won’t be using my powers for two reasons. One, I fell into that rut with you once already, and I’m not going to risk it again, and two, how often do you see people sparring where one guy is using a sword and a hand crossbow while the other guy has nothing?”

“Not… very often.” Kim grinned in amusement over the way Shego put it.

“Well, there you go then. I’ll be beating the tar out of you the old fashion way.”

Kim gave a long, ripping snort in the back of her throat. “There you go again, thinking you’ve got a chance to own my ass when you don’t.”

Shego raised an eyebrow to match her dryly amused expression as Kim stepped back and assumed her ready stance. “Oh really?” Stepping back herself, Shego paused, asking; “So we’re really going to do this then?” At Kim’s nod and the focused, serious air falling over the girl, Shego nodded back and, after a few quick stretches, fell into her own prepared stance.

“Ready?” Kim asked brusquely, her tone and gaze taut with readied concentration.

“Ready.” Shego shot back with nearly the same energy.

An instant later, Kim shot across the floor towards Shego in a series of long, gliding steps, leaning to the left and shifting her balance just as she closed with the pale beauty, only to suddenly twist back to the right and snap her hand through the opening her feint had created in Shego’s sluggish defense, the right jab connecting with the center of her pale forehead with enough force to make her sit up and take notice, but not to do any serious harm. As Shego jerked back a step, her eyes misting from the sudden strike, Kim disengaged and took two steps back herself, falling into her ready stance once more.

“Ow! What the hell was that?” Shego cried out as she brought her right hand up to her head, blinking several times at the smarting pain and slightly addled vision.

“The sound of me kicking your ass?” Kim quipped, still not letting her guard down. “No surprise thrill ride bouncing across an open field this time Shego.” Kim couldn’t help but grin slightly. “I’m all warmed up and at a hundred percent, and you did say we weren’t supposed to hold back, now didn’t you?”

Shego shook her head vigorously, clearing her mind and reassuming her previous fighting stance, growling; “Oh it is so on Possible!”

With that, Shego charged Kim in a controlled rush, sweeping her right leg up and around in an outside crescent kick as soon as she was in range. Kim easily avoided the attack by ducking, only to find that the strike had been a ploy as Shego launched a shallow left hook at the redhead’s lowered position while following through on her kick. Kim caught the hook with her right forearm, knowing there wasn’t much power behind it, but before she could counter, Shego twisted back around, reversing her upward momentum while looping her right elbow up and around before hammering it down on an angle towards Kim, whose only option was to step back in order to avoid the blow.

As soon as she planted her now leading right foot after stepping into her elbow strike, Shego launched a sweeping, angled backfist up at Kim from her bent over position, which the girl blocked by stepping into it and slamming twin blade-hand chops into Shego’s forearm, only to drop her hands immediately afterward to block the left knee Shego was following up with even as Kim stopped her backfist.

Now practically nose-to-nose with the redhead, Shego went into a flurry of quick palm-strikes, backfists, and elbows, with the occasional low kick or knee thrown in to try and throw the girl off her rhythm, all while growing increasingly frustrated as Kim blocked or evaded everything Shego threw at her. It got even worse when Kim finally managed to recover her stance and started throwing her own strikes and counters into the mix, some of the attacks coming in so fast Shego could barely see them—all it would take was for her to blink at the wrong time and she’d be hit for sure. As it was, Shego only managed to avoid that fate for another minute or so before falling into the trap Kim had been setting for her.

Overextended from a right cross, Shego’s eyes widened in surprise as Kim suddenly appeared nowhere in sight. She found the girl an instant later, when her head whipped around to the right in response to Kim hitting her with a barrage of hard, alternating right-left-right punches to her exposed flank. Even as the wind was drummed out of her, Shego snapped her right arm back in an elbow to Kim’s head, intending to follow through with a backfist if the strike failed to connect, hoping to drive the girl away from her if nothing else.

Unfortunately for Shego, instead of falling back, the redhead twisted and threw herself down to the floor, landing on her outstretched arms and drawing her right leg up to her chest before lashing out and back at an upward angle, her hard foot catching Shego in her side, just below the short ribs. As Shego stumbled away from her, all but lifted off her feet from the blow, Kim snapped her leg back down and twisted around and upright, maintaining her grounded stance as she pursued Shego.

Knowing full well her disadvantage, Shego threw herself into a long, diving front roll, buying herself enough time through distance to come up to her feet and recover her stance before Kim could reach her.

Ok, three to zero against, not good. She’s fast as hell and not having to worry about your powers frees up enough of her concentration that she can use it to full advantage. Great, just great… The thoughts raced through Shego’s head like lightning. So, what do you have in return? Strength’s out if you can’t hit her with anything… but, you can do other things with it…

With that glimmer of an idea surging into her head, Shego met Kim’s advance with a rush of her own before the redhead could get to her. As Kim downshifted to meet Shego’s charge, the pale beauty pulled up short and twisted to her left, launching a fast right side kick at Kim, which the girl easily avoided. Unfortunately for Kim, Shego didn’t recover her kick so much as draw her leg back before launching a second thrusting blade-foot at her, this one slightly lower, and then another and then another, until the girl had no choice but to step out and away from Shego’s darting lightning kicks completely.

The instant Shego saw Kim start to step back, she dropped her attacking leg, following it down to the floor in a low, reaping sweep to Kim’s retreating legs with her left leg. Kim bounced back out of range in a little hop instead of leaping over it as she once would have, and, as soon as her left foot came around enough that she could plant it, Shego followed up by leaping into the air and lashing out with her right leg in a flying kick that Kim avoided by crouching low and to her right.

As soon as she hit the floor, Shego spun up and around in a leaping roundhouse using her left leg, forcing Kim back again. Then, as she landed from that, Shego lifted her right leg, launching into another series of flash kicks, further keeping Kim at bay.

All of a sudden, Shego dropped her leg and threw herself forward, unleashing an increasingly fast succession of jabs that came in randomly at Kim’s head and chest, and as soon as the girl adapted and recovered her balance, Shego threw herself into a series of sweeping, spinning kicks, following Kim like a spinning top of doom as the redhead quickly retreated in the face of Shego’s long, powerful legs, knowing full well the danger they represented.

Even so, and even with the inordinate amount of speed, control, and recovery Shego’s abnormal strength provided her, after several more kicks, Kim suddenly reversed her direction and, to Shego’s great surprise, stepped into her latest attack and slammed a hard right dead center into Shego’s stomach. A split second later the collision of Shego’s thigh against Kim’s shoulder sent them both stumbling back off balance, but Shego was definitely the one that came out worse for wear during the exchange.

The pair recovered their equilibriums around the same time, and Kim immediately came in after Shego, closing the distance while the other woman was still at a disadvantage from the hit she’d taken. Now it was Shego’s turn to play on the defense as Kim attacked her full on. Not a position she was used to, nor enjoyed, but certainly one she could perform admirably, fending off Kim with strong stop-blocks more often than not, the real challenge coming from trying to keep up with the girl’s speed.

Eventually Shego recovered her stance and timing and slowly went on the offense again, until things came full circle and they were right back to where the whole thing had started, arms darting in and out over and over again in blurring exchanges, while every now and then a series of kicks would be launched whenever one or the other thought they could use them to their advantage.

As the exchange dragged on, the worst part of it for Shego was that she seemed to be only just a step behind Kim. She could almost see it. It was right there, just beyond her reach, but every time she thought she had it, the girl slipped away from her somehow, like smoke or water, and she was left playing frantic catch-up to keep herself from taking another hit.

The frenetic exchange continued for a considerable amount of time with neither opponent succeeding in a clean hit, their sweating, straining bodies locked in combat so intense the casual observer would have thought it life-or-death, Shego far more than Kim being the one who suffered close calls as they fought. Eventually though, through the haze of exertion and absolute concentration required to keep up with Kim, the pale beauty thought she detected just the slightest reduction in the girl’s output. She seemed to be just a hair slower, her movements just a touch less precise.

It might have been a trap—Shego wouldn’t put it past Kim to try and sucker her in like that. Still, the pale woman couldn’t resist; her aggressive instincts were too strong. Even so, she wasn’t foolish enough to go in headfirst, instead tempering her risk with a hefty dose of caution, prepared to switch to full defense if it was a trick.

Changing up her tactics suddenly, Shego launched a high, curving left knee at Kim, forcing her back. The moment she recovered, Shego immediately twisted into a low, long sweep with her right leg, which Kim easily avoided simply by lifting her leading leg from her position of retreat. From her crouched position on the floor, Shego hopped up into a springing snap kick, which Kim sidestepped—just as Shego expected her to. Landing with her leg still raised from the jumping kick, Shego twisted and brought her heel down in an ax kick before Kim could close, all fully controlled thanks to the advantages her enhanced strength gave her.

Kim’s eyes widened in surprise, and she had no choice but to throw up her arms and catch Shego’s descending calf on her crossed forearms; there was no other option she could have used to avoid the blow given her current position and footing.

Although Kim caught the strike fairly high, before it really got going, Shego’s disproportionately large legs were both the heaviest and strongest parts of her body, and the impact hammered Kim down to one knee. Even as she hit the floor, Kim was already starting to counter, but Shego had other ideas. Bouncing her leg up using the impact on Kim’s forearms, she swept it around and down like a pendulum, not trying to hit Kim, but rather using the momentum to help her twist into a bending thrust punch that speared in at Kim’s head like a piston.

Once more reacting on trained instinct, Kim threw herself back from the blow and, for the first time since they started, her movements approached something clumsy as she hit the mat behind her in a controlled fall, quickly pushing off the floor with her feet and rolling back over her left shoulder and into a coiled crouch.

Fortunately for Kim, Shego’s unorthodox attack pattern generated a lot of excess momentum that took some doing to recover from, even with her exceptional strength, so she wasn’t able to pursue the disadvantaged redhead before Kim had gotten her feet under her again. That didn’t bother Shego much however, because as far as she was concerned, what really mattered about the exchange was that she’d come within a half-inch or so of nailing the frantically retreating girl with her strike; Kim wasn’t feigning the signs of weakness Shego had detected.

Gotcha… Shego purred in her head, advancing on Kim once more, engaging her in another barrage of fast and furious attacks, never letting up once in the full-out assault, and only feeling the slightest strain from the frenetic exertion. The moment Kim would go on the offensive, Shego would drop into a full defense, but the instant the girl let up, she’d be right back in full frontal assault mode, always pushing, pushing, pushing, keeping the girl in constant motion one way or the other. And it paid off.

At first it was simply a blow here or there that got in a little closer than before, but soon, there was a second close call, and then, later, a third and a fourth, until, finally, Shego felt her knuckles graze the side of Kim’s face in the barest whisper of contact—but it was contact. Recovering from the backfist, Shego couldn’t resist grinning openly in satisfaction.

“Got you now Pumpkin.” Shego declared confidently as Kim disengaged from her, advancing on the redhead while taking note of her heavy breathing and the sweat running down her. At this rate, it would only take another five or ten minutes tops before she’d worn the girl down to the point where she had the advantage and Kim was the one taking hits from her. Hardly fair, but at this point, Shego didn’t really care; she’d take what she could get.

Unfortunately for Shego, Kim knew exactly what the pale woman was doing and what she intended, both because it was obvious, and because she’d undergone the exact same trials of endurance with Corscan time and time again during her training. Equally unfortunate for Shego was the fact that she was only a couple of inches taller than Kim and nowhere near as heavy as Corscan, which meant Kim had options open to her that stood a far greater chance of success against the pale beauty than they did against her massive teacher—especially since she’d learned them by employing the techniques on that selfsame teacher at a considerable disadvantage.

Shego wasn’t sure why Kim’s eyes narrowed in concentration, nor did she like the determined look that fell over her features, but that was nothing compared to the shock that hit her as Kim suddenly dropped her guard along with her shoulder, rushing Shego and spearing it into her stomach while reaching down and grabbing at her knees, scooping up her legs and slamming her back down to the floor in a double leg takedown.

Even as the wind was knocked out of her, Shego felt Kim crawling up over her in a confusing, grabbing, squirming rush, until, despite Shego’s best efforts to grab back or throw her off, Kim wrapped herself around Shego’s torso and right arm, pulling it back and to the side in an immobilizing arm-bar. Even with her exceptional strength, Shego couldn’t compete against Kim’s entire body with just one arm, and the only hits she could make would be mostly ineffectual ones to the girl’s legs where they were wrapped around her upper and lower torso—not that she had time to think of hitting her as she desperately tried to break free of the increasingly excruciating hold. Eventually, through the haze of exertion and desperate struggle, Kim’s harsh, panting, growling yells penetrated to Shego.

“Tap out Shego! I’m not letting you go until you tap out!”

Growling herself, though not from exertion, Shego frantically tried to bicycle her legs across the floor and up to Kim, but after several attempts failed to achieve more than a minimal contact with her foot, she gave up. The one attempt she made to lift Kim up ended only a moment later, when she discovered that she was doing the girl’s work for her trying that. At the end of her rope, Shego had no other choice but to reach up and tap on Kim’s leg several times with a last, frustrated growl.

Kim let go of Shego’s arm a moment later, lifting her legs up and out to either side as the pale woman rolled out from under them and away from her. Shego lifted herself off the floor with her arms and looked up at Kim, who had already gotten her feet under her in a crouched squat.

“You know that would have never worked if I was using my powers, right?” Shego growled in annoyance.

“But you’re not.” Kim grinned smugly. “And you know I could have mounted you and pounded the hell out of you with punches and knees, right?”

Shego scowled and gave her head an irritated shake, pulling her legs up under her and then standing. Kim rose to her feet a moment later, asking; “So are we still going then?”

“Oh yeah.” Shego shot back brusquely, stepping back and assuming her stance. Kim smirked and nodded, stepping back and falling into her own ready position before the two rushed each other simultaneously.

Shego once again pressed her advantage, focusing on not letting up even a hair in her furious assault, and Kim fell back before her until, only a few minutes later, Shego got a second shock as Kim suddenly reversed direction, stepping right into one of her side kicks as she launched it, until they were belly-to-belly. As Kim moved forward, she wrapped her arms around Shego at an angle, her left curling between Shego’s legs to catch her groin in the crook of her elbow, while her right cinched tight between Shego’s neck and shoulder. An instant later Kim grunted and heaved, pulling them both off their feet and then twisting in midair, slamming Shego down onto the mat in a mixed martial arts takedown that hammered all the air out of her.

This time Shego was, through force of sheer, desperate panic, able to scramble and twist away from Kim enough to prevent the girl from tying her up like the first time, but this instead resulted in a long, drawn-out struggle, their lean, sweat-slick muscular bodies rippling and writhing and flexing as they strained and squirmed against one other, panting and grunting until, at last, inexplicable to Shego, Kim ended up on top and, a few moments later, mostly in control of the situation, despite her pale opponent’s greater size, strength, and tenacious struggling.

Looking down at Shego, Kim couldn’t help smiling at the other woman’s obvious frustration, apparent in the sharp depths of her dark green eyes. Through bouts of struggling and her heavy, near panting breathing, the redhead stated more than asked; “You… really don’t know… squat… about grappling… do you?”

After one last, furious attempt to free herself from Kim, Shego gave a long growl and dropped back to the floor, relaxing as she shook her head in annoyance and reluctantly grumbled; “No, I don’t. How the fuck… are you doing this to me? I should be able to… throw you across the room damnit!”

Kim gave a soft, amused huff and, relaxing as well—though not giving up her position or hold—answered; “It’s not just… about strength. Strength helps… but not as much as… understanding positioning and leverage. Your opponent can be… well, as strong as you, but… if you get them in… a position where they have no leverage… that strength doesn’t mean nearly as much.”

Shego gave a gentle exhalation that was nearly an irritated sigh and grumbled; “I guess…”

A moment later, now that she wasn’t frantically struggling for her life (so to speak), the position she and Kim were in finally dawned on Shego, with the girl lying on top of her and still sort of holding her down, both of them sweating and radiating a fierce heat from the previous struggle, while their deep breathing pressed their breasts together rhythmically, their exertion-stiffened nipples impossible to overlook now without the distraction of that struggle.

A wave of entirely different excitement and physical awareness shivered through Shego as she looked up at Kim’s face, the girl’s bright fern-green eyes shimmering and her features flushed with exertion, damp strands of dark red hair plastered to her slick flesh. Images and impressions of their writhing struggle returned in a wholly new light, and Shego couldn’t help licking her lips nervously as they did. A moment later, still gazing up into the brilliant depths of those radiant fern-green eyes, Shego realized that Kim was slowly, but ever so surely, leaning in closer and closer to her, until she could feel the girl’s hot breath wafting over her pale, damp skin.

With an act of monumental willpower and a growling mental cry of denial, Shego easily tossed the now unwary Kim off her like a rag doll and rolled up into a sitting position.

Glaring at Kim with a scowl that came as much from her self-imposed denial as it did from irritation over the girl’s likely intent, Shego growled in a more vocal way as she forcefully snapped; “Oooooh no! If we’re not going to be ‘friends’ out here then we’re sure as hell not going to be doing that either!”

Kim looked over to Shego while picking herself up from the floor a short distance away, rueful chagrin on her young features as she nodded contritely at the admonishment, murmuring; “Sorry, my bad…”

Shaking her head while trying to cram her once more stirring desires and feelings back in their box, Shego got up and stalked back to the center of the mats, there to await Kim before the pair took up the fight once more.

Alas for Shego, it seemed the brief interlude had soured the whole experience for her. Despite Kim staving her off with continued applications of grappling and the addition of throws and locks as well, eventually, as the battle dragged on, Shego began coming closer and closer to successfully returning hits on the girl until, finally, she got through with a solid kick to Kim’s midsection, but the accomplishment brought her no satisfaction, and, a few minutes later, when she nearly hit Kim again because the girl fumbled her timing, Shego backed off and threw up her hands in disgust.

“All right, that’s it! We’re done…”

Kim’s brow furrowed in surprise and confusion. “Hunh? What’s wrong? You were just starting to get through to me…”

“No, I wasn’t.” Shego scowled. “My fucking powers were starting to get through to you, not me.” Shego shook her head. “I can’t… I’m not… it’s not me; you’re better than me damnit. If it wasn’t for my powers…” Shego’s voiced dropped to a bitter mutter, “you’re better than me.”

Kim’s expression softened at the sudden understanding.

“Shego, I’m not really better than you.” At the irritated look the pale woman shot her, over what Shego assumed was patronization, Kim quickly elaborated; “No, really, you’re as good as I am. You can adapt to new situations on the fly, changing your tactics however you need to, you have great instincts and you know how to take advantage of your strengths and minimize your weaknesses almost instinctually, just like I do. The only difference is… well, your technique sucks.” Kim held up her hands, palms facing Shego. “Sorry, but it’s true. Even with you fighting like you are now, using your full ability and the most effective integrated techniques of all the styles you know, you still use way too many flawed moves from those flawed styles.”

Kim sighed and shook her head with a consoling smile. “You’re one of the best fighters in the world because of all the different things you’ve integrated into your full style Shego, but to me, it’s like you were taught how to fight by a retarded monkey—a really, really good retarded monkey, but a retarded monkey all the same. And you can’t help that either; it’s no failing on your part. I was in the exact same place before I met Corscan. It took me over three months of intense training just to unlearn all the flawed techniques I was using, and to learn how to properly integrate what I had left, and even though that was just to get me ready to start learning [The Way], it’s still advanced training you haven’t had.”

Kim grinned, trying to raise Shego’s spirits. “I mean hey, if you buy a gun and only take it out every few weeks to shoot by yourself, and a guy who’s taken ten shooting courses and spends six hours a day on the range beats you in a competition, is he really better than you? Or just better trained?”

Shego was quiet for several moments, measuring and digesting Kim’s words before, finally, she grudgingly conceded; “I suppose you’ve got a point there.” After another long pause she surprised Kim with the hesitancy in her voice as she asked; “You really think I’m still as good as you though? Aside from that I mean? You’re not just saying it?”

Kim raised an eyebrow and dryly returned; “Do you really think I’d say something like that if it wasn’t true?”

“Well, no, I guess not…” Shego’s soft green lips twisted in a faint smirk, “maybe sugarcoat the hell out of it trying to make it all kittens and rainbows, but not outright mislead…” Kim’s eyebrow crept even higher and this time her look was as dry as the Sahara, prompting Shego to snort into a little laugh. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah…” the dry rejoinder was only partial mock-annoyance. A few moments later Kim changed the subject; “Anyway, if we’re done here can we please get something to eat now? I’m starving…”

“Hmmm, what? Oh, yeah, sure. Now that you mention it I’m pretty hungry too.” Shego turned and stared heading for the exit, only to pause momentarily as a shiver swept over her from the breeze caressing her still sweaty yet rapidly cooling flesh. “Fuck!”

“What?” Kim queried curiously at the sudden, annoyed expletive from Shego.

Shaking her head in irritation, Shego changed direction, heading for the left hallway now. “Oh, I forgot to bring some towels.”

“Oh, yeah.” Kim responded as a swath of goose bumps rose up across her arms and shoulders while she followed along behind.

Shego opened the side door in the connecting hallway and disappeared into the storeroom for a few moments, getting some towels from the reserve supply of linens inside while Kim waited at the door. Handing Kim one of two big, fluffy towels as she came out, Shego closed the door and then resumed heading to the kitchen with Kim in tow, both women quickly drying the sweat from their exposed skin as they went.

In the process of toweling off one shoulder as she was about to enter the passageway leading to the kitchen, Kim caught a movement out of the corner of her left eye, coming from the upstairs balcony, and she turned her head just in time to see the door to Shego’s suite swing shut. Turning around, Kim hurried to catch up to Shego before saying; “Ahhh, Shego? I think I just saw someone upstairs…”

Shego glanced at Kim, raising an eyebrow at the girl’s urgent undertone, and responded; “Yeah, so? It’s Monday, remember? My staff has probably been here for an hour or two now.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Kim blushed ever so faintly in embarrassment.

Entering the kitchen, Shego looked around for a second before turning to Kim and asking; “You remember where everything is?” At Kim’s nod she continued; “Ok, get the table set while I start breakfast then.” After a pause she added; “I’ll have an apple and some carrot juice this morning… oh, and can you take this with you too?”

Shego held out her towel and Kim nodded again, adding it to her own and then draping them both on the nearest chair in the dining room, joining Shego at the sink to wash her hands afterwards. After that she went about getting everything ready while Shego began cooking up some oatmeal—once again jump-starting the process by using her powers to near-instantly bring the water in the pot to a boil.

As soon as she finished setting the table and fetching a pair of apples from the greenhouse, Kim got Shego’s juice along with a glass of fruit punch for herself. Once that was done, she found that thanks to knowing where everything was this time around, she’d completed her tasks before her pale companion had finished preparing their breakfast, so she was left with nothing else to do but watch Shego cook. Or at least, she was until she felt a furry head thump into the side of her calf and then a silky flank slide along her shin.

Looking down at Princess Kimmiekins, Kim couldn’t help but smile as the white and reddish-orange cat looked up with bright golden-green eyes and released a long, imploring meow at her. Squatting down, Kim scratched between the cat’s ears and along its neck while it purred and butted and rubbed its head against her hand repeatedly.

“Hello there happy kitty… so what is it you want, hunh?”

All Kim got from the cat was another insistent meow, but, after glancing over her shoulder and smiling, Shego answered; “Food. She gets fed on Mondays and Thursdays. Speaking of which…” Shego gave the pot a long stir before turning around and sternly instructing, “never, ever give that cat real food, and never feed it before you’ve eaten yourself, got it?”

Kim looked up at Shego with a mixture of surprise and curious confusion on her face, continuing to scratch the attentive feline as she asked; “Ummm, ok. Why?”

“Because,” Shego replied while turning back to the oatmeal, “that’s not your typical housecat, remember? She’s half-wild, which means if you feed her before you eat, she thinks she outranks you, and if you feed her real food, she thinks she’s allowed to eat anything she wants, just like you. Add those two together and you end up with a dead cat.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I swear to god I will blow that cat into itty-bitty cat chunks if I ever find her up on my counters or tables eating food off my plates or anything else like that.”

Shego’s tone was so deadly serious Kim was honestly unsure whether she was joking or not. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help smiling at the dire threat, and after giving the cat a final pat on the head, she stood up and responded; “Well, we wouldn’t want that for the poor little kitty, so I’ll be sure to ahhh…” Kim grinned wryly, “assert my dominance then.”

“You just do that.” Shego responded, her tone one of dry seriousness.

A few moments later Shego declared the oatmeal done, and Kim took the pot out into the dining room to fill their bowls while the other woman prepared the apples. Only a double handful of minutes later both of the now-not-quite-so-hungry women were almost done eating, and Kim knew for a certainty that Shego’s cooking skills were consistently far above par—after all, she’d managed to make oatmeal halfway tasty. An instant later a small wave of guilt rippled through the redhead as she realized the baseline she was using for comparison was her mother’s cooking, and it wasn’t until after they’d finished eating and cleaning up afterward that she finally managed to put that out of her head.

“So, what now?” Kim asked as she closed up the dishwasher after putting the last plate in.

“Well, unless you want to get cleaned up first, I’ll introduce you to my staff. Of course, even if you do, there’s always the risk you’ll run into one or more of them before you do anyway…”

Kim was truly torn over the options, and it took her several long, drawn-out moments before she let out a deep, irked sigh as she finally, grudgingly decided; “I guess I’ll do it now… I mean, eventually they’re going to see me on a bad day anyway, right? Might as well get it over with…”

Shego nodded and walked over to the central control panel by the door, switching on the intercom and setting it for the entire house before saying; “[Italian: I want everyone to gather in the main hall please. Again, I need everyone to come to the main hall for a minute.]”

Turning back to Kim, Shego said; “After the introductions are done I’ve got a bunch of stuff I have to go over with everyone, so you’re on your own from there. You still plan on helping me go through my stuff?”

“Sure.” Kim nodded with a smile.

“Well, in that case…” Shego trailed off, looking at the clock. “I can’t see it taking me more than a half-hour to run down everything with them, tops, though it’s going to take me way more than that to get cleaned up…” Shego paused again, her face twisting faintly with indecision before she finally hazarded; “How ‘bout we say you come by around eleven? We can go at it for a few hours, then have a late lunch before going back in for the rest of the afternoon. Hopefully we’ll get through it all before supper. That work for you?”

“Well,” Kim grinned wickedly, raising one eyebrow ever so slightly, “it’d work more for me if you meant something else by ‘we can go at it for a few hours’, but other than that, yeah, seems like a plan.”

Shego was silent for a moment as a mixture of faint surprise, amusement, and a little shiver of exhilaration shot through her—she felt an ever so slight flush wash over her as she realized she hadn’t been the only one who’d had… problems, this morning—before she snorted faintly and shook her head with a wry smirk, turning and heading out the door.

“C’mon Innuendo-Girl, let’s not keep them waiting.”

Kim giggled and followed along behind Shego, once more regretting the view was impeded by the other woman’s loose sweatpants instead of being enhanced by something more… flattering. Even so, the smooth curves and lines of Shego’s mostly exposed back were an interesting lesser diversion—a sinuous tapestry of well-formed athletic musculature in tea-green silk and satin.

Despite Shego’s departing declaration, it was the duo that ended up waiting on a last few stragglers instead, as there were only two people already in the main hall when Kim and Shego arrived, with a third coming down the stairs a moment later. Or at least they would have, if Shego were one to stand around waiting on her employees. As she was not, the pale woman immediately started in with the introductions, not even waiting for the woman coming down the stairs to reach them.

“This is Nereza,” Shego indicated a very pretty girl with dusky skin, full, curly, lustrous raven’s wing hair, and big dark eyes, who seemed to be only a little older than Kim. As Shego spoke to the girl in Italian, Kim assumed she was being introduced in turn, given Shego said her name, and she smiled and nodded at the girl, who gave a timid smile and nod back before looking away shyly.

Shego turned to a woman who looked to be around her own age, with long brown hair and a soft, sweet face framing bright brown eyes, who’s features somehow bore a faint similarity to Nereza’s, despite their gentle lines. “This is Marietta.”

Again Kim nodded and smiled as Shego introduced her, and this time she got a warm, hospitable smile and nod in return. As Shego finished up the introduction, the third woman finally reached them, and Shego immediately and smoothly continued on with her as she arrived.

“This is Allegra, Marietta and Nereza’s mother.”

Kim smiled and nodded at the older woman, who had dull brown eyes and short black hair that was going silver in streaks, finally understanding why all three bore a resemblance to one another. Allegra gave Kim a deep, respectful nod in return, her smile very proper and polite as she did.

After Shego made the introduction, she asked Allegra something in Italian and then nodded a moment later, when the woman gave her a concise answer while gesturing towards the doors to the dining hall and Shego’s office. Shego looked like she was about to say something to Kim, but before she could, Allegra spoke to her daughters while simultaneously, a somewhat good-looking man came out from the dining hall, heading for them with a quick step and apologetic smile when he saw Shego and Kim standing there.

As he approached, Allegra’s daughters answered her in unison, and Kim was nearly certain that answer was “Yes mother.” despite not knowing Italian. Whether Kim was right or not, the answer seemed to satisfy the woman, who gave a pleased nod and then turned to the man approaching, giving him a quick, indulgent smile before it vanished under her previous air of propriety.

When he arrived, the man gave a quick bob of a nod to Shego, doffing his short-billed cloth cap as he did, revealing a head of curly, close-cropped mouse-brown hair. Shego smiled and gave a ghost of a nod back before saying; “Kim, this is Fabrizio, my groundskeeper and maintenance man, and Marietta’s husband.” Shego turned to Fabrizio. “Fabrizio, this is my ahhh… friend, Kim.”

Fabrizio smiled and, in heavily accented but not broken English, said; “Si, si, very pleased to meet you.”

Kim smiled back for several reasons, not the least of which was Shego stumbling over what to call her, and shook Fabrizio’s hand while responding; “Thanks, it’s nice to meet you as well.”

“Fabrizio has a Master’s in electrical and mechanical engineering.” Shego said. “Working a few days a week here for me lets him keep up the family farm and run a machine shop on the side.”

“Oh that’s nice.” Kim said, referring to Fabrizio’s dedication to familial duty, while at the same time he nodded emphatically and said; “Si, the generosity of patronessa Shego has allowed us to pursue many things we would not have otherwise.”

Kim smiled again, this time because of the way “patronessa Shego” actually looked a little embarrassed by the enthusiastically genuine gratitude, looking off to the side for a moment for no particular reason and rubbing the back of her neck briefly.

“So, what, you hired the entire family?” Kim asked with a faintly teasing undertone when Shego turned back to face her.

Shego opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the loud, jovial, enthusiastic voice of an older woman echoed through the hall from behind them, prompting Shego to shift to a chagrinned, indulgently amused mutter as she turned to face the newcomer.

“You don’t know the half of it…”

Kim turned around a moment after Shego did, just in time to see a short, round, butterball of an old woman bearing down on them with her arms spread wide and a broad, delighted grin on her cherubic features. Despite the fact that every single strand of hair she wore in a tight, round bun atop her head was snow white, her lively eyes and energetic manner belied the years she obviously held.

As she arrived, the woman took up both of Shego’s hands in her own and gushed at her happily in a rapid-fire stream of Italian that Kim had absolutely no chance of following the gist of, and even gave Shego a run for her money keeping up with it. Eventually, after Shego got a few sentences in edgewise, the old woman seemed to run out of steam, and she released Shego’s hands and stepped back, beaming up at her with a broad smile.

After taking a moment or two to recover, Shego turned to Kim with an awkward smile, saying; “And this would be Mamma Mafalda, matriarch of the clan; Allegra’s mother and Marietta and Nereza’s grandmother.”

Kim was starting to get just a bit inundated by all the names, but nevertheless she smiled and nodded as Shego introduced her, only to find one of her hands swept up like Shego’s had been, with Mamma Mafalda patting and squeezing it as she rattled off another long, energetic wall of Italian at the increasingly self-conscious Kim.

Kim gave Shego an imploring, not-quite-desperate look as the plump woman released her, and Shego smirked before saying; “Basically, she’s pleased to meet you.”

Kim nodded and turned back to Mamma Mafalda, smiling at her while asking Shego to tell her thank you and that she was pleased to meet her as well. Once Shego translated, Mamma Mafalda stepped back, nodding and smiling, and looked over the two young women with a long, appraising gaze before launching into another spiel seemingly directed at the both of them.

Once more Kim turned helplessly to Shego, only to find the pale woman looking slightly embarrassed and flustered, but mostly amused, as she replied to Mamma Mafalda. Kim waited somewhat impatiently until the two had finished, and then asked; “Well? What’d she say?”

“Oh, not much.” Shego grinned slightly. “Just that she’s happy to see someone else here besides little old me, living all alone in this great big house. It’s nice that I have a friend to keep me company and all…” Shego paused for effect, then continued; “She then goes on to comment about how thin we both seem to be, and suggests in a veeeery roundabout way that we’re probably not eating right, and that we really should put on some more weight, because most young men like a girl with some meat on her bones and it would help us to catch their eye.”

Kim was conflicted in her reaction for a split-second, then settled on amusement, snorting faintly and smiling. “Well then, be sure to tell her we’ll get right on that.”

Shego grinned back, murmuring; “Already taken care of Princess.” A moment later she sobered and, in a louder voice, said; “Well, that’s everyone then. I’ll finish up here and see you later, all right?”

“Ok.” Kim looked around at everyone and smiled and nodded, saying; “Nice to meet you all.” before heading upstairs, leaving Shego to run herd on her staff.
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Revelations of Destiny