Nothing At All

A/N: This is not my work. This is the work of IAmShego. I have recieved permission from IAmShego to repost this wonderful work of fiction. I am posting this story out of respect for the quality of the story and the skill of the author and mean no disrespect. Happy reading!

Enjoy!

P.S. If anyone wants to continue this, let me know. I might try to do a follow up or something, but I don't know if I can do the story and the pairing justice.

"If I remember correctly, Mego, I'm not the only one who's 'cranky.'" Shego snapped. Ron had asked Hego and Mego, "Has she always been this cranky?" when Shego had irritably called Wade a nerdlinger. Her brothers had responded, "Oh yeah," much to Shego's distaste.

"Even when we were little, you screamed if you weren't the center of attention." Shego continued.

"Sis..." Hego began.

"Just because you're older than I am doesn't mean you can push me around, Hego." Shego interrupted. Kim took a tentative step away from Shego, but Ron stayed next to her, with his arm resting against her shoulder. "Don't you know by now that I am the most 'cranky' when you try to push me around?" Annoyed, Shego stalked away from Ron and leaned against a wall, arms crossed defiantly. Her eyes sparked, and her wry scowl clearly said: "Leave me alone or I'll claw you to shreds."

"We should get out of here until she simmers down." Hego whispered conspiratorily to Mego, Kim and Ron. Mego nodded in agreement, and Kim and Shego's two brothers slunk out the kitchen door. Ron remained in the room, watching Shego.

Her hair is so amazing, Ron found himself thinking. It's so thick and long. And that sleek little jumpsuit she always wears leaves very little to the imagination. His train of thought halted. Wait--Ron's mind scrambled for words--I can't like Shego! There is no way I can have a crush on my best friend's archenemy. I've been friends with KP since preschool...even thinking about Shego as anything but an enemy is...well, disloyal to Kim.

Ron suddenly became aware that the dark-haired villainess' shoulders were trembling slightly. Her breath caught once, and Ron saw a single tear start in the corner of one of Shego's eyes.
She was crying. Ron hadn't even known Shego could cry. Her mood had never been anything but hostile. And what did she have to cry about? She couldn't be worried about her twin brothers, captured by Aviarius; the only reason she was helping her brothers was the fact that Kim had blackmailed her.

Ron was tempted to walk over to Shego and ask her what was the matter, but she would probably turn angrily on him, and the last thing he would see would be Shego's blazing claws coming at his face. He should just leave. But something made his feet move in Shego's direction, instead of the opposite way.

"Shego, are you okay?" Ron queried as gently as possible, touching her arm lightly.

"What do you care, Stoppable?" Shego growled in return. Her voice quavered in the middle of her sentence. But she didn't slash him.

"I've never seen you cry."

"Leave me alone." From the way she said that, Ron couldn't tell whether it was a plea or an order.

"Shego..." As usual, words abandoned Ron in the presence of a pretty girl.

Shego turned to face him. Her tears had not fallen yet, but were still welling against her poison-green irises. Thinking for one insane second that she might want someone to try and comfort her, Ron took a step closer to Shego and draped his arm reassuringly around her neck. His fingers brushed the skin of her face as he did so, and he thought to himself, You idiot, Shego is going to rip you apart!

To his surprise, this was not Shego's reaction. Turning to face him, she bent forward slightly and laid her cheek on Ron's chest. Ron was startled to find that he was just a hair taller than she was.

Thinking Shego was seeking only a temporary safe harbor, that she would only stay in that position for only a few seconds (not that Ron would mind if it turned out to be longer than that), Ron simply stood still. But when Shego did not turn away, and when Ron could feel her shaking, he wrapped his other arm tightly around her waist, his hand fitting perfectly into the small of her back. Her sobs were inaudible, but she was crying nonetheless.

"Yeah, there's something wrong." Ron whispered quietly, stroking Shego's cascade of hair. "I mean, I've never even seen you cry."

"This sucks," was her reply. Ron waited for her to elaborate, and she did. "I thought I was finished with my brothers when I left Hego's stupid team. But no, my past comes back to haunt me, and I'm being blackmailed into helping people I never wanted to see again! I don't have a choice, which is the single thing I hate most in the universe. Not having a choice." Her words were drenched in bitterness.
"Do you hate your brothers that much?" Ron asked in surprise. Even Kim wouldn't be that aversed to working alongside the tweebs.

"Yes." This time, eloquence deserted Shego and she didn't say more. So Ron changed the subject.

"How come you're...uh...letting me do this?" Ron was still embracing Shego protectively. He could feel her heart beating against his, and could smell a vaguely floral fragrance in her hair.

"It feels good, I guess. Aside from people trying to hurt me, nobody's really touched me in about fifteen years."

It sounded terrible to Ron, and he was surprised at Shego's casual tone.

"Isn't that kind of...lonely?"

"Are you kidding? No. I always wanted to be alone anyway."

"No one touched you? Not your parents?"

"My parents. Hah!" Again, her voice was sour. "Don't make me laugh, Stoppable. They were too busy dealing with Mego's narcissism, Hego's naivete, and telling the twins apart to pay attention to me." Ron didn't know what "narcissism" or "naivete" meant, but he got the gist of what Shego was saying. "Let's just say that when I was testing for my black belt in Tae Kwon Do, my parents chose to go to the twins' baseball practice instead. It wasn't even a game, just a practice." Her voice cracked just slightly over the last word.

"You were getting your black belt and they wouldn't come to see you?" Ron repeated.

"No. They got our neighbors to take pictures. Part of my black belt test was board breaking. I just pictured my mom's or my dad's head where the board was."

Her voice cut off there.

"I have a feeling missing your black belt test isn't the only thing they did to you."

"Since when are you so observant? Look, Ronnie, I don't want to get into the details. I'll just say that my family only paid attention to me if I was helping my brothers fight crime. My brothers are nothing now, without my fighting abilities; Hego has superstrength but no technique."

"Did your parents hurt you?"

Shego gave an exasperated sigh, but she didn't move. "They just ignored me. Once I failed an algebra test to see if that got my parents' attention, but as I usually got A's the teacher figured out I flunked on purpose and made me retake the test."

"Man, I flunk algebra without trying." Ron remarked.

Shego laughed quietly, and pressed herself tighter against Ron, who buried his face in her hair. Her warmth and close proximity were tantalizing.

"You like me, don't you, Stoppable?" Shego's tone seemed amused.

The question took Ron by surprise. "Uh...what made you think that?"

"If it wasn't true, you would have let go of me by now."

"You want me to leave you alone?" Ron knew that Shego would get violent if she wanted him to get away from her and he refused.

"I don't mind," she said mildly, cocking one eyebrow and barely smiling, as if she hadn't expected Ron's nervous reply.

"Okay, I admit it, I think you're cute."

"I thought so." Shego smiled.

Ron couldn't help himself; he brushed aside some of the heavy black hair falling over Shego's forehead, and suddenly found his lips against the exposed pale-green skin.

"I rest my case." Shego noted.

"Dang, Shego, you are pretty." Ron moaned, resting his hand on the back of her neck. The texture of her skin reminded him of silk, and he thought he might be starting to drool.

Obviously, Shego noticed. "Hey, no salivating in the hair, or I'll pulverize you."

Ron gently tipped Shego's chin up. "I won't drool in your pretty hair." Her eyes were clear; she was no longer crying. Ron leaned towards Shego a little, running his fingertips up her back. She tilted her face up as well, her emerald-colored eyes locked with Ron's brown ones. Ron could feel the lightest flutter of Shego's warm breath on his lips.

"Ron!" Kim's concerned voice cut through the silence. "Are you okay?"

Afraid of what Kim would see if she saw him like this, Ron abruptly let go of Shego. "I'd better go see what KP wants." Ron explained, hoping Shego would figure out that Ron hadn't actually wanted to get away from her.

Shego raised and lowered one shoulder and said nothing. Apparently she was back to her old I-don't-give-a-damn self.

Forcing himself not to glance over his shoulder, Ron left the kitchen. Kim was standing in the hallway.
"Ron, I heard you and Shego talking but I couldn't tell what you were saying. Then your voices stopped, and I was worried she might have hurt you." Kim's eyes flickered almost angrily. "So I looked inside. I saw you and Shego." Her words flew at Ron like arrows of accusation.
Ron felt a blush creeping up his neck. Even during the numberless times that his pants had fallen down, he hadn't blushed. So why was he embarrassed now? "KP, it wasn't anything...I mean, Shego was kind of crying, and I wanted to see what was wrong, so..." Ron's tongue stumbled over the words.

Kim sighed. "Ron, you could at least come up with a better lie."

"KP..."

"What were you thinking? Shego's evil!"

"I'm not lying, KP, she was upset. I just wanted to make sure she was okay."

"I highly doubt that Shego has cried once in her life, Ron. What is going on between you two? I'm serious. Why wasn't she trying to kill you?"

"She was just mad that you're blackmailing her into helping her brothers."

"I so did not blackmail her! Anyway... you and Shego? Ron, that is so wrong. I'm not even sure that she's human!"

"She's human!" Ron protested. Right?

"Ron, evil people lose touch with what makes them human. And her skin is green. Doesn't that freak you out?" Kim made touching Shego sound as disgusting as eating a dead jellyfish raw.

"Kim, there's nothing wrong with her skin. It's really soft, actually."

"Oh Ron! That is so gross!" Kim shuddered.

"Sorry KP."

"I just want to know: what is going on between you and Shego? Honestly, Ron. I want the truth. I'm your best friend, you can spill to me."

"Nothing." Ron answered quickly, trying to imitate Kim's attitude towards Shego.

"Good." Kim huffed out a breath of relief. "She'd just hurt you, you know. She'd use you. I don't want my best friend getting hurt by some freak."

Ron nodded, wishing Kim hadn't said "freak."

"Has my sister calmed down yet?" Hego's voice floated down the hall.

"I think she's okay." Ron replied, thinking, We treat Shego like a wild animal; we're only willing to be around her when she's tame, but when she's dangerous, we either just leave her alone or try to whip her into shape. No wonder Shego left Team Go; I'm starting to see why she split. Who wants to be treated like that by your own brothers?

Tentatively, Hego and Mego stepped into the kitchen. "Sis?" Mego asked nervously.

Ron heard Shego's reply: "What do you want, Mego?" Her disdainful, perpetually sardonic voice had returned.

"We should proceed to The Nest." Hego informed his sister.

"Whatever. Thanks for dragging me into this, by the way," came Shego's response.

Ron saw Hego and Mego flinch away as Shego stormed into the hall. Her nimbus of black hair wafted out behind her as she walked, and she was staring murderously into thin air.

"Let's get this over with," she growled with the air of someone being coerced into doing something that they would rather not do. Which, of course, was exactly the situation Shego was finding herself in.

Tossing her hair in a way that seemed to insult everybody, Shego proceeded down the hall in the direction of the side door, which led to where the Go plane was parked. Kim, Ron, Hego, and Mego followed at a safe distance.

When they reached the door, Kim paced ahead to open the door for everyone else. Making sure Kim wasn't looking, Ron took a step forward and gently rested his hand on Shego's shoulder. He felt the muscles in her back relax slightly.

Ron followed Kim and Shego out to the Go plane. He strapped himself into one of the back seats, watching Shego shake her head to push a few strands of her hair behind her back as she fastened the seatbelt of the pilot's seat over her torso.

Ron was thinking, Kim said that if anything happened between Shego and I, Shego would just use it to hurt me. Kim's probably right. Shego's evil. And there was nothing at all going on between us, anyway. On any other day, she would have slashed me to pieces if I had come within ten feet of her. She only let me touch her because she was a little upset about being forced to help her brothers. And I only went over to her because she was crying, and I wondered why, because I'd never seen her cry before. I was just curious. And when I tipped her face up, I just wanted to make sure that she wasn't crying anymore, that's all. I'll have to forget the press of her body against me, the light scent of lilacs in her long hair, the way her skin felt under my hand, her lips an inch away from mine. Shego was just trying to get a hold of herself, and I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That's all it was.
It was nothing.

That's all it can ever be.