Don't own the characters, Disney does. Don't own the song Addiction, Kanye does.

5: Quitter

"I see the emotions in your eye that you try not to show… It's never over…" Kanye West, Addiction.

Day-25

A mangled pencil sat in between Kim's molars as she tried to make sense of the paper sitting in front of her. She was not seeing the words really and she could not concentrate on them. The hero had chewed up every writing utensil that she owned, even some that she borrowed, but nothing was soothing her raw nerves. Disgusted, she pushed her notebook away.

"Good thing the damned paper isn't do until the end of the semester," she grumbled with a frown. She had been doing any and all schoolwork that she could to keep her mind off of a certain raven-haired martial artist. Schoolwork was not the only thing that she had been doing.

She had a schedule that would drive a lesser soul completely and utterly mad as it was packed from seven in the morning to eight at night. That did not even include missions or meals, but insanely packed schedule was not helping. Her anxiety levels were rising exponentially everyday. The hero bounced her leg at an amazing speed whenever she sat down, she bit her nails or the skin around her nails, her hands trembled when she was not using them, she bit the skin on her lip, and a dozen other little things that showed she was going out of her mind, she thought anyway. Her parents were probably going to throw the sofa out if they caught her sleeping on it one more time; the TV might have to go too considering how often it was left watching her.

"I'm gonna go crazy. I'm actually going to go crazy," Kim figured as the pencil in her mouth finally snapped in half from being gnawed on.

The redhead thought that things would get easier since she had not seen Shego since Drakken's death ray scheme, but that was certainly not the reality of the situation. Things were getting much more difficult as time pressed on at an agonizingly slow rate. It was not just missing Shego anymore. It was something so much deeper.

"I can't get her out of my mind," she growled in frustration, pulling at her hair.

She thought about the thief so much that it kept her awake at night sometimes, staring at her ceiling as it was a cure to her ailment and trying to tell herself that she just had to let go. When she did manage to fall asleep, she would even dream about the other martial artist. Sometimes, the dreams were dirty, but most of the time they were just regular dreams. Regular and pleasant dreams that let her know that she just longed for Shego.

Day-27

Growling, Shego punched the heavy-bag in her own private gym, tearing the cloth. Sand poured out of the thing and Shego screamed. She kicked the broken equipment from the stand, sending it flying into her wall.

"Damn it, I should be fighting with Princess, not so fucking bag!" she hollered, glaring at the mangled bag. It was the last piece of usable equipment she had in her house. "Damn it!" she shouted again, trying to use it to make her feel better. It did not work.

Shego was sick of waiting for Kim to give in. She was sick of the hero being so stubborn. So what they were addicted to each other? It was not like they were going to kill each other; fuck, it was not even a crime. Besides, she refused to believe that she was addicted to anything about the redhead. She refused to believe anything about Kim except that she was a good fight and even better fuck. That was it and that was all.

"Princess is simply a body that I love feeling against me in any way that I can. I know that has to be it. If I find another body, I should be fine," Shego stated. "I should've thought of this a long time ago before I messed up my whole damn gym."

The plasma-user set out to prove that Kim was expendable to her. She went to go pick a fight in a place where she knew that she could get a good brawl. Unfortunately for her, the fight was not as good as she recalled it. All right, that was only one set back, but she was not deterred. There were plenty of places where she could get a decent battle going and she would try each and every one of them to get what she desired.

Day-30

"Gotta move faster," Kim growled to herself, spinning on her heel and throwing a kick at an imaginary opponent.

She worked on the heavy bag in the school gym, as she was making it a habit to do every day. She was trying to wear herself out. She had actually taken out a couple of heavy-bags since she started training. She had to pay for the damages, which she was happy to do if it got new heavy-bags into the gym sooner.

Most people that walked by thought that she was angry and they stirred clear of her, even Bonnie did not bother her when she was in the gym. The hero was really just frustrated. She had so much energy and no place to direct it. She was just all over the place for close to a month and she was not sure what she was going to do if things persisted.

"Damn, damn, damn," she grunted the chant as she just kicked the crap out of the heavy bag. She felt like she was going out of her mind and no amount of action was tapering that feeling. She even tried adrenaline rushes like parachuting and bungee-jumping, but those just did not affect her like they would other people. She did not know what to do. She felt like clawing her eyes out or peeling her skin off to rid her body of the tension and aggravation.

"I'm running out of options here," she muttered.

There had to be something that she could do, Kim thought desperately; aside from the obvious anyway. The obvious being going out and finding Shego and at least looking at the woman. She was not sure what she would do after locating the thief, but she terribly desired to just be with the other fighter. She hated to think that meant she was still addicted, even after all that time away. She refused to give in to the addiction.

Day-32

"I can't believe all of those places were such a waste of my time!" Shego griped.

The pale sidekick was done looking for a great fight. There were several ways that the plan had fallen through. The first way was that a lot of the places that she had searched did not turn out to be as she recalled them. She had gone to some fight clubs and they were weak at best. The second way was that after finding some fighters that might give her a good workout, after they saw the tiniest amount of plasma energy, they got scared. Hell, a couple of them even wet themselves and more than a few had cried. The third and most important piece of information that she gathered on her quest was finding combatants that were better than Kim and she did defeat them, but it was nothing. There was an empty feeling that came with her victory. That was when she realized that it was not about a fight.

"Being with Kim isn't about being a better warrior, even though it started out that way," she concluded. "Well, since it isn't about a fight. It has to be able her being a good lay."

The super-powered woman then figured that it had to be about matters of the flesh since she and Kim only did two things together. Surely indulging in carnal pleasure would sate her growing irritation, she convinced herself. So, the hunt was on to get laid, which was easier than finding a dozen fights.

But, it did not work. Not with females and not with males. People with way more skill than Kim would probably ever have in the area of physical satisfaction did not do anything for her. She still was sparked, frustrated, and lacking in anything to vent. It was not about a fuck.

"Then what the hell is it about?" the emerald-eyed female screamed into the night, wishing for answers. She wondered if Kim knew what it was about, but shook that off. "I need to stop thinking about her if I'm going to win this thing."

Of course, not thinking about Kim was no easy task. Shego's entire being started ordering her to go to Kim, but her entire being was also commanding that she did not lose the wager. She was not built for losing, but she had to do something before she went stark raving mad. And then, she got a brilliant idea.

"I can't believe I've been torturing myself like this when it's all so obvious!"

Day-40

Kim breathed a sigh of relief as she arrived home just in time to make her curfew. She almost had to slide in because her father was very particular; if she came in at 10:01, she would have to face an inquisition and there would be hell to pay. So, she made it just in time with only two seconds to spare. Apparently, she really could do anything, except for stay out past ten until she moved out anyway.

The house was quiet already, everyone else in their rooms and getting ready for bed. The teen hero made her way up to her bedroom and was about to go through her nightly routine, but she noticed that something was amiss. See, she kept a trunk underneath her bed and it was doing something very peculiar, namely poking out from where it belonged. Her mind screamed "tweebs!" immediately as she went to inspect the anomaly. She pulled the chest out and popped it open.

Oh, no! Kim hollered in her head. The trunk was empty.

Okay, calm down, she told herself. It was simple, what needed to be done that was. She would go to her brothers' room and tie them to their beds with some of the power cords lying on their extremely cluttered floor before painfully torturing the irksome pair until they told her where in the hell her entire cuddle buddy collection went! And they had better pray if they sent the toys into orbit or burned them in some way. She was just about to charge off and do unspeakable things to the duo when she noticed a piece of paper on the side of the chest. An elegant eyebrow rose and she yanked the paper from out of the box.

"I've got them. You know where to find me," the note read. The curvy handwriting looked extremely familiar. Kim frowned; when her parents went to sleep, she was going to sneak out and slaughter a certain someone without mercy.

-8-8-8-8-

If she was not so upset, Kim would have thought things were too easy. There should have been more security to keep her off of the house grounds, but there was nothing. Only a single thought was on her mind, though, and it had nothing to do with how easy things were going. The redhead swung into the room through an open window. She landed silently on the wooden floor and looked around. It was completely dark and she could not see a thing. She waited for her eyes to adjust and she could make out a figure sitting down.

"Good evening, Princess," Shego greeted the intruder in a sultry voice. There was a smirk playing on her dark lips as she illuminated the room slightly with a dull flame from one of her hands.

"Give them back!" Kim snarled, like an animal. Her wrath totally apparent in her voice and the twisted, tight expression scrunching up her face.

"Give what back?" the older woman asked with innocence in her emerald eyes. She had the nerve to look like she had no clue what the teen was going on about.

Kim pointed a threatening finger at her rival. "Don't play around! You know what!"

"Do you mean this?" Shego asked as she held Kim's precious pandaroo up and put it close to the plasma coming from her hand.

"Don't!" the redhead gasped as if her life was in danger and held up her hands in surrender.

"Don't what? Burn it?" Shego inquired and she moved the stuffed animal a bit closer to the fire to taunt the hero.

"Shego!" The name was said in a strange plea mixed with a command.

"What would you do to save little pandaroo, Pumpkin?" the raven-haired woman inquired in an amused tone, carelessly rocking the aforementioned toy lightly back and forth by its arm.

"What do you what?" Kim demanded to know.

"For you to give up," the thief answered as if it were so simple.

"Give up?" Kim echoed, mouth curling up like she did not understand what Shego was talking about. She really was more focused on making sure that pandaroo was safe than whatever was coming out of the older female's mouth.

"You are to give up on the bet and I won't fry little pandaroo, not to mention all of his little friends," Shego threatened the younger female. She was smirking all the way through the extortion.

Olive eyes went wide. "You want me to surrender on the bet?" the hero asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"But, this isn't fair!" the cheerleader pointed out, as if the villainess would care.

"I don't give a damn about being fair. Now, give up," Shego commanded.

"You can't force me to give up," the teenager declared.

"No? Then say goodbye to pandaroo. And then after him, who's that next little guy you just utterly adore? Jaguin? Yes, I think it's your little jaguin. I'll burn him right after pandaroo if you don't surrender now," Shego growled, nodding toward the little doll sitting next to her. It looked like a penguin with jaguar markings paws and a cat-like tail.

"Shego, let's not—" Kim tried to argue, but she was halted before she could even start because her opponent was out of patience.

"Surrender now," the pale woman ordered in a rather calm tone.

"Shego, wait. Think about it. I mean, if you make me surrender like this, then you're really the one that lost. I mean, you're obviously at the end of your rope if you're doing something this ridiculous to get me to quit," Kim reasoned, hoping that such logic would get through to the villainess and Shego would let her cuddle buddy go.

"No, you're really the one that lost because you're going to say the words right now."

"Shego—"

"Princess," she snarled and put pandaroo dangerously close to the green plasma. She wondered if Kim really wanted to call her bluff on the matter. It was not like the toy meant anything to the sidekick.

"Shego, please!" Kim implored as her heart hitched in her chest. She feared that Shego was going to destroy her favorite plush toy.

"Give up now."

Kim stared at her childhood toy. She did not know what to think. Was Shego desperate enough to light up her adored keepsake, even though she knew how deeply it would hurt Kim? Part of her tried to assure her that Shego would not do something so unforgivable just for their two passions, but she did not know what to think. Shego did not appear to be tormenting her for kicks; she looked very serious about the issue.

"I give up," Kim mumbled, eyes dropping to the floor.

"Good girl," Shego said. She then gently tossed the stuffed animal to the redhead, who caught the toy with ease.

The cheerleader sank to her knees and stared angrily at the floor; her olive eyes seemed to skimmer from her fury. She could not believe that she missed such an evil, manipulative bitch. She could not believe that she had felt such longing for an inconsiderate, dishonorable cow. She could not believe that she wanted to be with such a wicked degenerate that would use her most beloved material possessions against her. She would get Shego back one day, she silently vowed.

Shego went to turn on the lights in the apartment. With everything visible now, she could see the anguish on Kim's face. She actually felt appalled by her own actions. She felt disgusted, guilty, remorseful, and even regretful for a few more seconds than she liked. Then she reminded herself that it was all done for the greater good. She was about to do the right thing and that was what counted.

The raven-haired woman strolled over to Kim and lifted the smaller female into her arms. Kim was about to fight, but she remembered that she had lost the wager. She was at Shego's disposal. She remained still and quiet as the thief carried her to the master bedroom and sat the redhead down on the king-sized bed. Kim eyed the floor.

"Don't look so down, Princess," Shego gently begged, caressing Kim's cheek. She hoped that Kim could feel how necessary her actions were through the tender touch.

"You cheated again," Kim mumbled, sounding thoroughly offended with what had just happened.

"There weren't any rules this time, written or implied. One of us just had to give up," the evil sidekick pointed out.

"You used…you used…" She could not even get it out because she was so outraged by Shego's tactics.

"It was for the best," the green-skinned fighter tried to assure her guest.

"How so?" Kim asked, her voice quiet because of how much she was hurting internally now. She just could not manage a louder voice than the one that she was forcing out now.

"One of us needed to give up and it damn sure wasn't going to be me," the pale woman declared honestly. The thought of losing just did not sit well with her, especially if she could tease Kimmie a little in the process. She did not think that her actions would get such a harsh reaction, but then again, she did not care about the toys like Kim did.

"So, I gave up. Now what?" the redhead curiously, still sounding dejected.

"Well, you're mine now," She proclaimed with a smile

"Just for now though." Kim wanted that to be perfectly clear because later on it was going to be all out war between them.

"And where do you think you're going now that I have you?" Shego inquired in an almost amused tone. Kim was so adorable when she was attempting to be defiant, the villainess thought.

"When this is over, so are we," the younger woman stated strongly. She was as sure of that as she was that the sun would rise in the morning.

Shego shook her head. "No, we're never over," she informed the hero.

"Why do you say that? I told you, we're no good for each other and look at what you just did. That was downright mean."

"It was just a means to an end, Kimmie. We're never going to be done, though. You'll see."

"We're no good for each other, Shego," Kim insisted.

Shego just wanted to slap the younger female, but since there would be plenty of time for spanking the hero later, she kissed her. She leaned down and kissed Kim with a passion that the redhead had been craving since the day that they started the bet. It was long, it was sweet, and unless Kim was losing her mind (and she was fairly sure that she was) it was loving.

The cheerleader turned her eyes up to Shego when the embrace was done and for the first time, she saw emotions in Shego's emerald eyes that went beyond annoyance and amusement. They were emotions that Shego had been hiding for a long time and Kim was probably the only person that would ever seem them.

"Who says we're no good for each other?" Shego inquired in a breathless tone.

"Shego," Kim whispered.

"I've never been more certain that you're perfect for me. I've never said this to anyone before and I don't plan on saying it to anyone else, but I love you," Shego proclaimed with hesitation of any kind.

"You what?" the redhead asked in shock. She was certain that she had not heard right because she did not think that there was any way in Hell that her Shego would say such things.

"It's not an addiction, Kimmie. It's love. I'm in love with you. I'm deeply, madly, insanely in love with you."

"It's love?" Kim echoed in a puzzled tone. Was it love that she felt for Shego rather than some crazy addiction? That would explain why she just missed Shego so much, why she longed for Shego, and why Shego affect her in such powerful way. It was not about the fighting or the sex. There was so much more to it than that, but she never considered that she was in love.

"Yes, it's love. Why the hell else would we put up with each other?" Shego remarked, reaching out and putting her hand on Kim's slim thigh.

Kim nodded because she realized that it was highly probable that she was in love with Shego. She just had never taken the time to ponder such a thing. She had just believed that their feelings and activities had to be something bad because they felt so fantastic, which was why she thought that it was an addiction. There was so much more to it than that and she only just figured that it could be love.

"I never thought... I mean, I've never felt like this..." Kim mumbled.

"I know what you mean, Pumpkin. I've never felt like this either. It's incredible, isn't it?" Shego asked.

"Beyond that..."

Shego smiled a bit, realizing that she had sort of blown Kim's mind with that revelation. In order to help Kim...or possible confuse her more, Shego leaned down and kissed Kim again with as much passion as she could muster while the redhead was trying to wrap her mind around being in love. Shego was surprisingly tender with that show of affection despite the fervor behind it. She wanted Kim to understand and accept that they were more than rivals, more than fuck buddies. They were lovers, in the classical sense as well as the modern sense.

-8-8-8-8-

"Wow..." Kim muttered, wiping her sweat-soaked bangs from her forehead.

"Second," Shego remarked, fairly certain that they had never been that intense before. She was not sure force came from her declaration of love or just the fact that it had been nearly two months since they last touched each other.

Shego and Kim lay in Shego's bed, both sated and worn out from hours of breathtaking coupling. Shego had her arm wrapped around Kim's slick shoulder while the hero was pressed against her nude form. Every few second Kim kissed Shego's bare collar bone while Shego realized one of the things that she missed most about Kim was the way the redhead cuddled up next to her at night. Eventually, they settled down, just taking in the other's presence.

"Shego, can this work?" Kim asked quietly.

"Anything's possible, right?" Shego remarked with a half smile.

The redhead laughed a bit. "But, are you going to keep working with Drakken and stealing things and stuff like that? I doubt it can work if you keep that up."

"Work for Drakken? Easily stopped, don't like him much anyway anymore. Stealing things? Not so easily stopped."

"Why?"

"It's an addiction," Shego quipped with a light laugh.

"Very funny," Kim said dryly, pinching her lover's side as a punishment. The green-skinned female wiggled a bit, letting Kim know that pinching was a suitable reprimand. "Seriously, though, you have to stop stealing things. We can't work if we're on opposite sides of the law and I won't be waiting for you while you're in prison," Kim stated.

Shego sighed. "Fine, just for my princess, I'll stop stealing things. Well, most things anyway."

The response caused Kim's forehead to furrow. "What are you still going to steal?" she asked curiously.

"This." Shego leaned down and kissed Kim.

"I'll give those away," the redhead remarked when the kiss was done.

"Only to me."

"Well, yeah, I thought that was understood."

Shego smiled and then watched as Kim fell asleep. Kim was spent because it had been a long, emotional night/morning. Shego stared at her lover for a while. Addiction, her mind scoffed. Addiction was only for people with weak will and neither of them were weak.

-8-8-8-8-

Yeah, that's the end. Sorry for the sappy ending, but it seemed like the logical conclusion to me after torturing them for three chapters.