Sparkling Fire and Smokey Sighs (READ DISCLAIMER)

14: To a Most Dangerous Sea

Shego had asked Kim out to lunch which Kim had only accepted after several moments of being flustered with the idea. However, being both hungry and tense had made for a quiet meal and left soon after finishing for a quiet - and still tense - walk through one of Beijing's parks.

About 20 people were arranged along a grassy flat area of the part, going through movements of Tai Chi. Kim and Shego passed them, still on the sidewalk, without uttering a word to each other. In fact, they hadn't spoken since leaving Kwong's.

"I'm..." Kim said, "not exactly used to this sort of thing."

Shego frowned and pulled Kim to the side while a couple children sped by on bicycles. "What, the buffoon never took you out?"

Kim rubbed her arm. "Let's not talk about it."

"No arguments here." They walked on. "So... where have you been? I haven't seen you since I dropped you off at that Spanish hospital."

"Portuguese, actually," Kim said, "Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento Algarvio. Stayed just long enough to say it." She huffed. "I recovered a few hours after you left and checked myself out. I've been trying to find all the people I fixed with a mind control chips, but most already had them removed after you rescued me. Along the way, I tried to find every scientist who could have anything to do with the Attitudinator and convinced them them that they should never attempt that research again. It was a small list and easy to get since Bortel was the lead."

Shego gave a low whistle. "That's still a lot of to do in just two months. How did you convince the scientists?"

A wry smile crossed Kim's lips. "I told them the truth: the Attitudinator directly caused me to take over the world. They all dropped and destroyed the related research without question after that. So nice of unethical scientists to not publish their work." Kim chewed her lower lip before speaking again. "Thank you for rescuing me. I don't... I don't want to know what I would have done if you hadn't."

Shego waved dismissively. "You already thanked me plenty of times. ... though if you really want to make it up to me, I might still have some bruises you can kiss and make better."

Kim flushed and decided to deflect. "You really didn't have to take me out."

"If I didn't," Shego said, "I'm not even sure you'd get any food in your stomach; and you really need to get on a better diet, because you taste like ash. What have you been eating out of? Dumpsters?"

Kim flushed an even brighter red and looked down at her moving feet. Then she nodded.

Shego's finger tapped her side. "Look," Shego said, "Kim -"

Kim held up a hand, still looking down at her feet. "Did you just... use my name?" Kim said. For some reason, she still couldn't bring herself to look at Shego.

"What's wrong with that?" Shego said.

"I dunno," Kim said. "Nothing. I just got used to the nicknames, I guess."

"... whatever you say, Cupcake."

Kim finally raised her gaze to Shego and covered her chest defensively. "That one you can drop."

"What's wrong with cupcakes?" Shego said turning towards Kim with open palms. "It's fun to lick icing off the top."

"Can we not do the teasing thing right now?"

Shego held her hands up with a sly smiled... which faded into something more serious. "Look. I'm not... the best at, you know, talking about things, but... I know what it's like to have that Attitudinator -"

"- Reverse Polarizer -"

"- whatever. Just... whatever." Shego didn't seem to want to finish and instead, walked a little ahead of Kim.