The door was another of the large, vertically-opening steel kind they'd encountered earlier. Unlike those, however, this one stood partly open, with a space of about six or eight inches between the bottom of the door and the floor beneath it.

Kim crouched down and looked through the gap. Then she shook her head.

"Pitch black in there. I can't see a thing."

"I'll slide under and check it out." Shego offered.

The redhead shot her a cautious look. "Maybe I should go."

"I have a built-in light source." The green woman pointed out, giving a brief flare of low-powered plasma.

"There could be flammable gases in there." Kim folded her arms, an obstinate tilt to her jaw. "I can use the laser lipstick for light, and it wouldn't set them off." She tried not to think about why she was worried for the safety of a woman she now knew to be her enemy.

"There could be other dangers in there."

"I can take care of myself."

Shego growled in frustration, then sighed. "Look ... Kim ... I'm sure you can. But you're some big shot world hero. I'm just a thief no-one's even seen for a year. If there is something dangerous in there, no-one's going to know or care if it gets me."

"So you're saying my life is worth more than yours?" The redhead felt a flair of annoyance at the idea.

Shego shrugged. "I think most people would agree with me."

"That's -" Kim's reply cut off as Shego suddenly flared her plasma with intense light. Dazzled, the redhead instinctively threw up an arm and ducked, fending off an attack that never came.

Instead, the green-skinned woman dropped to the floor and slid smoothly under the door.

Kim stamped her foot. "Damn it, Shego!"

"Sorry, Princess." Shego's voice floated through the gap. She didn't even bother to sound contrite. "Okay, I'm going to turn my powers on as low as I can, but something might go wrong. Step away from the door."

"So not happening." Kim dropped flat and slid through the gap.

"Oh great." Kim knew Shego was rolling her eyes. The gesture was invisible in the darkness, but still immediately apparent from the green woman's tone. "So now if there is something dangerous, we'll both die."

"No." Kim folded her arms. "If there's something dangerous, we'll both face it."

Shego gave up the argument. "Fine. I'm turning my plasma on, now."

Green light blossomed slowly, revealing a large, warehouse-like space. Large, block-like structures filled the room, creating long corridors between them and reinforcing the idea of a warehouse.

"What are they?" Kim asked.

"Look like refrigeration units of some kind." Shego pointed to the rear of one of the blocks. "And there's a sign there. 'Warning: Contents under pressure'."

"There are also burn marks." Kim padded over to one of the refrigerators and inspected it more closely. "I guess you were fighting in here?"

Shego adopted a tone of martyrdom. "Oh sure. There are burn marks, so you automatically blame the human zippo."

Kim could not help but give a flicker of a smile. "If the shoe fits ..."

"Looks like I damaged this one pretty badly." Shego had moved onto another refrigerator. "Melted the side open."

"Wow. You're hot stuff." Kim froze, tongue-tied, as she realized the implication of her words, then babbled. "Capable of generating some hot stuff, I mean."

"Both statements are true." Shego smirked. "Of course, it does mean that whatever was in this thing, I ruptured both the pressure seal and the cooling circuits." She snuffed out her plasma. "Crap. Could be gas in here, after all."

"We haven't blown up or choked to death, so if there was, it's either dispersed or isn't harmful." Kim's voice came from closer than she expected. The green woman was grateful the darkness covered her startled reaction. "Oh, sorry ... did I scare you?"

"You can see?"

"Nope. But you squeaked."

"I did not."

"So did." It felt right to banter with the green woman; how could they be enemies?

Shego turned her plasma back on and growled in mock-irritation. "You're impossible."

"That's the name." Kim replied lightly, dancing aside when the green woman made a half-hearted swipe at her. As she did so, the redhead spotted something lying amidst the debris of the damaged fridge. "Hey, what's this?"

'This' was a small metal and plastic device, with a touchpad and a screen.

"Whatever it is, it's yours." Shego observed.

"How do you know?" Kim asked, looking at the device curiously. It did feel familiar.

Wordlessly, Shego twisted the device in the redhead's hand, showing her the 'KP' symbol emblazoned on the back.

"The Kimmunicator." The name popped into her head.

A black eyebrow rose. "Seriously, Pumpkin?"

The redhead's eyes narrowed. "I thought you weren't going to call me that unless you wanted to irritate me?"

"Turn about is fair play." Shego declared piously. "Can you make it work?"

"Worth a try. It looks simple enough to operate." Kim bit her lip and looked around. "But we're under ground somewhere. A signal might not get through." She shrugged and pressed the button.

"Kim!" the exclamation startled them both. It came from the small device; or more accurately, from the plump, dark-skinned boy who had appeared on the device's screen. "Where have you been? I've been trying to raise you for hours."

"Um ... hi." Kim gave the screen a cautious wave. "I guess we, uh, know each other?"

The boy frowned. "It's Wade, Kim. You know ... boy genius? Webmaster of your site? Designer of the Kimmunicator?"

"We lost our memories." Shego supplied helpfully. Onscreen, Wade's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Shego is there?"

"Apparently." Kim frowned. Clearly this Wade knew who they were.

Wade's perplexed look was still firmly in place. "... and the two of you aren't trying to beat each other senseless?"

Well, that was a downer.

"So we are enemies?" Kim asked, her heart sinking.

"Of course." Wade answered immediately. Then he paused. "Well ... were enemies. Mostly. You teamed up to fight the Lorwardian invasion. And there'd been a couple of times before that you worked together. Mostly things to do with Shego's brothers."

The green woman looked up, her interest clearly sparked. "I have brothers? How many?"

"Uh ... four, most of the time." Wade was clearly nonplussed by Shego's interest. Which probably explained the oddness of his answer. Most of the time? "And Kim has two."

I have brothers! "Spankin'!"

"Okay ... you guys really have lost your memories."

"Okay, Wade. What's the sitch?" A few minutes later, Kim and Shego sat on the edge of one of the undamaged refrigerators, the Kimmunicator between them. The initial attempt to get information out of the young man had devolved into chaotic shouting and threats of violence. Both women had now promised to be on their best behavior.

"Kim." Wade started with the redhead. "You finished high school last year, and you're currently taking a year-long break before going into college. You've spent most of that year helping Global Justice ... they're this international police force type deal ... decommission old bases that belonged to Doctor Drakken. He was this mad scientist type -"

"Wait." Shego interrupted. "They had a high school kid doing this?"

"I've finished high school." Kim pointed out, primly. On the screen, however, Wade was nodding.

"Kim's basically been doing the world-saving gig for about five years now."

Kim looked surprised. "With these Global Justice people?"

"Mostly freelance." Wade explained. "I'm your tech support."

"So it was just you and me doing this?"

"... well, no. Ron used to tag along on a lot of your missions."

"Ron?" Kim tested out the name. "Blonde guy? Weird pet?"

"Yes." Wade nodded. "You remember him?"

"We found a picture." Shego wasn't interested in hearing more about the blonde buffoon. "Get to the point, nerdlinger." She stopped, and frowned. Where did 'nerdlinger' come from?

"Drakken was one of your most frequent adversaries." If Wade objected to the name he'd been given, he didn't show it. "Along with his henchwoman ... that would be you, Shego."

"Henchwoman? Me? That's ridiculous!" Shego snapped. "I should be the master-criminal. Coming up with the plans, organizing the minions ..." she trailed off. God, that sounds like a lot of work. "Henchwoman. Check."

Wade smothered a grin. "Anyway, about a year ago, there was an alien invasion -" He stopped as he saw the two women's matching looks of skepticism and shrugged. "Honest guys, I know it sounds like something out of a cartoon, but that's what happened."

Kim was impatient to get to the end of the story. "Okay. Alien invasion. Then what?"

"Well, the four of you ... that's you and Ron, Kim, and Shego and Drakken ... all worked together to stop the Lorwardians. You all got medals, and Drakken and Shego got full global pardons."

Shego interrupted. "So we're not wanted criminals any more?"

"Um, I guess not." Wade rubbed his chin. "Drakken definitely isn't. He's joined GJ and is helping them shut down all his old labs. You're actually in the last of them, now."

"What about me?" Shego didn't care about this Drakken idiot.

"There are no current warrants for your arrest, but you've basically disappeared for the last twelve months. No-one knew where you were." Wade shrugged. "I guess you were hiding in this base the whole time."

"I was here to decommission the place, right?" Kim mused. "So what was stored here? Anything dangerous?"

Wade shook his head. "Nothing life-threatening. That's why we left it until last. There were just ..." his fingers flew on the keyboard. "... some experimental gases. Various effects, but all temporary and mild. They'd been put under pressure to liquefy them, and then refrigerated. Cleaning the place up was supposed to be 'no big'."

"So ..." Kim did her best to look like she was just offering a hypothetical. "... say I came here and ran into Shego unexpectedly. Would we probably end up fighting?"

"Almost certainly." Wade's answer was emphatic. "Fighting ... it's what you two did."

Shego took up the 'hypothetical'. "If we did fight, and one of the refrigerators got damaged, some kind of gas might have escaped. Would any of them cause our amnesia?"

Wade punched some queries into his computer, then nodded. "Compound 5446. According to Drakken's notes, it was supposed to be the first step in a brainwashing process. The compound would block the victim's access to their own identity and beliefs, allowing Drakken to replace them with those he had prepared."

"This was considered 'no big'?" Kim was incredulous.

"Only because it never worked properly." Wade explained. "It blocked some of the subject's memories, but a lot of their most central beliefs and identity went unaltered."

Shego nodded. "So you could make Kim forget her name, but not her basic do-gooder nature?"

"That's pretty much it, yes." Wade agreed. "Even worse, from Drakken's point of view ... better from ours ... is that the effects were temporary. Original memories began returning after a few hours, and were completely restored within a week. So you're both going to be fine."

The dark-skinned boy sat back with a smile, obviously content that there was nothing more to worry about.

Kim and Shego, on the other hand, exchanged a look. A week might give them their memories back, but they both knew it would not answer the questions that this day's events had raised.

"Doctor Director says you're not leaving."

Shego glanced up from the Global Justice slop she was trying to force herself to eat, and shrugged. "Free food and lodging? Why wouldn't I stay?"

"You call this food?" Uninvited, the redhead slid into the chair opposite the green woman. Picking up a fork, she stared with distaste at her own meal. After spending a week at GJ HQ, waiting their memories to return, both women were heartily sick of the canteen cuisine. "I thought my mystery meat days were over once I left high school. They should hire Ron. Staff morale would soar."

"Have you spoken to the buffoon?"

Kim merely stared at her plate, chewing slowly. She hoped the green woman would let the question drop.

"Fine. Have you spoken to Ron?" Evidently Shego had misunderstood the reason for her silence.

"Yes, earlier today." Betty Director had recommended that neither woman contact their friends and relatives until their memories were mostly restored. Apart from a message to tell them she was safe, Kim had followed the suggestion. Shego hadn't called anyone at all, as far as she knew.

"How is he?"

"Good." Kim kept her answer short. Please drop it.

"Looking forward to seeing you?"

Obviously she wasn't going to be that lucky. "I guess. I'm not sure when I'm going to get out to Japan, though."

The green woman paused, fork halfway raised to her mouth. A gelid lump of ... something ... slid off and dropped back to the plate with a splat. "What's he doing there?"

"Monkey business." Kim didn't raise her eyes from her plate. "Monkey Kung Fu, I mean."

"Oh. That must make a relationship hard."

"... we broke up."

Shego put her fork down. "What? When?"

"Two months ago." With considerable vigor, the redhead speared what was probably a bit of potato. "The old 'I love you, and I always will, but I'm not in lovewith you' thing."

"Ah. How'd he take it?"

Kim gave a bitter chuckle. "... he was the one who said it."

Shego blinked. "Ron left you?"

"Yeah. Apparently I wasn't dealing with it very well, which is why I still had his picture in my wallet."

"From the way you just harpooned that carrot, I'm not sure you're dealing with it all that well, now." Shego's comment lacked the usual snark that Kim ... the old Kim, before the whole amnesia sitch ... had always associated with her.

Kim sighed, trying to get her thoughts and feelings in order. "I'm not in love with him, any more. But I'm re-experiencing the whole relationship, squashed into the space of one week. It's ... hard, not to be angry."

"I get it." Shego nodded.

"I guess you're the only who could." Kim agreed. Having all her memories come flooding back must have been as difficult experience for the green woman as it was for her. Which reminded her of her original reason for joining her former rival. "So why are you really staying? Because telling me it's for 'free food and lodging' is as big a pile of crap as this meal is."

Dark brows shot upward. "The things these teen heroes say today."

"You're avoiding the question."

"You are correct."

"Please don't." The redhead's quiet request was evidently not the response Shego had expected, from the stunned expression on her emerald features. "I can tell something's up with you, and I'm not going to stop hassling you until you tell me what it is."

"I can be very stubborn." Shego smirked.

"So can I." I'm not letting this go, Shego. You haven't been yourself this last week, and I want to know why.

"Ain't that the truth." Dark lips briefly curled in a half-smirk once more, but the expression quickly faded.

They sat in silence for several seconds. Eventually, Shego sighed. "I wasn't staying in Drakken's old lair because I liked the décor, Princess. I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"What about Go Tower?"

"And spend all day with Mego's narcissism and Hego's heroic bombast? Pass."

Kim gave a nod. "Okay, I guess it would be kinda rough. So why not get your own place?"

Shego snorted. "This may come as a surprise, Pumpkin, but landlords aren't like parents: they expect to be paid."

"You don't have any money?" Kim looked surprised.

"Global pardons don't come without some strings attached. All my assets were seized. Something about paying back the victims of my crimes." Shego still resented that. Saving the world wasn't enough recompense for these people? "I was a sucker to take the deal. But I did, and I have to live with the fallout. Which is that I have no cash and no way to get any: the only jobs I'm qualified for are henching and teaching, and for some reason, most schools aren't keen on employing a known supervillain, reformed or not."

"So why aren't you henching?"

The green woman blinked. "What?"

Kim shrugged and pushed her plate away. "Well, if it's the only other thing you're any good at, then what else can you do?"

"Why in the hell would you want me to go back to a life of crime?"

"I don't." The redhead answered mildly. "But anything is better than watching you sit there whining about how hard your life is, now. Shego the henchwoman was a feisty, take no crap smart-ass who came close to kicking my butt –"

"What do you mean, 'came close'?" Shego's temper flared.

"- and she sure as hell wouldn't give up and hide in some crappy old lair just because things got a little tough. In fact, I think she'd tell anyone who did that to pull their head out of their ass."

"Oh she would, would she?" Shego seethed as she rose to her feet, leaning forward to glare at the redhead.

"Yeah. I think she would." Kim stood as well, thrusting her face right into the green woman's. "Are you gonna tell me I'm wrong?"

For a moment, the older woman said nothing, merely gritting her teeth at the insolent challenge on the teen hero's face. She ought to smash it off the redhead. And I would, if she wasn't damn well right. Shego gave a harsh bark of laughter. "You have a weird-ass idea of a pep talk, Pumpkin."

Kim smiled. "Good to see it had the desired effect."

A dark eyebrow rose. "What makes you so sure it did?"

"You just called me Pumpkin. A reliable source informs me you only do that when you want to piss me off." Kim paused, then added softly. "It was good to see the fire back in you. I've missed it, this past week."

"Me too." Shego admitted. "And for a lot longer than a week. Huh. I guess this means I owe you one."

"I guess you do."

"Then here's a down-payment." Shego grasped the younger woman's chin and kissed her firmly on the mouth. Kim gasped at the unexpected content, and the green woman couldn't resist the urge to run her tongue along the inside of the redhead's upper lip.

Pulling back, the dark-haired beauty gave a smoldering smirk at the teen hero's stunned expression.

"Play with fire, Pumpkin, and you're gonna get burned. Catch ya later. I'm outta this crap-heap."

Shego somersaulted over the silent, darkened aisle, landing with cat-like stealth on the high shelves. Twenty feet below, oblivious to the intrusion, a security droid trundled slowly on its patrol.

360 degree arc of detection. The green woman gave a silent snort. Provided you're stupid enough to stay at floor level.

A soft whirr was her only warning. A second droid, this one suspended on electromagnetic repulsion fields, swooped out of the darkness. It gave a soft beep as its visual receptors attempted to record her appearance. Shego smirked behind her mask. They were going to have to work a little harder to identify her than that.

The droid lunged forward. The same electromagnetic field that suspended it would also make an effective taser.

Of course, that only worked if it hit her, which it wouldn't. The green woman twisted easily out of the way, her left hand whipping out as she did so. No plasma flared from the lightning fast strike. After all, there weren't going to be any other burglars who could pull that trick.

The industrial strength magnet in her hand struck the droid's metallic shell with a faint clunk. It bound instantly, with a force of over one hundred pounds per square inch. The delicate equilibrium of the droid's electromagnetic flight was catastrophically compromised. It lurched sideways, then spun off into the darkness with a soft whine of malfunction.

Of course, the droid would have triggered the alarm before it engaged her. She had three minutes until the place was swarming with guards. More than enough time. Two more leaps, as silent as the first, and the plasma-powered woman dropped into the center of the world's largest commercial Christmas display. At its heart, a one-of-a-kind, mint condition, still-in-box Snowman Hank. The most valuable toy on the planet. She tucked it jauntily under one arm.

"Excuse me, ma'am." A soft contralto interrupted her. "Store hours are 7am to 9pm, seven days a week."

"Kimmie." The green-skinned woman turned, watching as the lithe redhead leapt down from a nearby display of Lorwardian Invasion video games. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Really?" The redhead folded her arms and did a passable attempt at a single raised eyebrow. "Because it looks like you're performing an audit of Smarty Mart's security before the Christmas displays are deployed to the whole chain."

Shego paused, then shrugged and pulled off her mask. "Okay, so it is what it looks like. I always figured that nerdlinger would track me down eventually. Kinda surprised it took a month, actually."

"It didn't." Kim admitted. Strolling over, she held out her hand. Shego passed her the Snowman Hank, and the redhead put it back in its place. "Martin Smarty called me when you applied for the consultancy job, to see if I thought you were setting him up."

Shego leaned back against a counter and raised her eyebrows. "And what did you say?"

"That if you wanted to rob him, you would." Kim grinned, wandering around the peering at the various details of the display. "And that you wouldn't waste time making a false job application to do it."

"You got that right." The green woman admitted. She waited silently for a moment, to see what Kim would say next, but the redhead simply continued to stroll around, not looking in the green woman's direction. "Okay, Pumpkin. I doubt you interrupted me here just to tell me you gave me a good reference. What, as you would say, is the 'sitch'?"

Kim shrugged, still not meeting Shego's eyes. "I wanted to see you."

"Yeah, I got that. What about?"

"The last time we saw each other, I was kind of rude." Kim tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah you were." Shego grinned at the memory. "But you gave me the kick up the ass I needed."

"So you're enjoying your new life?"

" ... yeah. The job's kinda fun, and the benefits package is great." The green woman straightened up, unfolding her arms, and instead dropped her hands to her hips. "What's this about, Kimmie?"

The redhead shrugged, finally turning toward the taller woman and raising her head. Shego was surprised by the intensity of the redhead's expression. This was definitely not just a casual chat.

"I ... I've been thinking about how you said you owed me for what I did. I wondered if you still felt that way?"

"Um." Shego was not often short of a quip, but this was one of those rare occasions. "Since you got me to stop sulking in a dank hole in the ground and get on with my life ... yeah, I guess I do."

"Okay. Good." The redhead seemed to be talking more to herself than to her companion. She shifted, stepping closer to the green woman, her eyes dropping again. "Do you remember what you did after that?"

A brief smirk played over dark lips. Oh boy do I ever. There were few days that went by where she didn't think about that stolen kiss. But where the hell is Kimmie going with this? "Uh ... something about a down payment, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Kim nodded. "I've been thinking about that ... quite a lot."

"Oh." Shego tensed up. Probably should have expected Princess would want an apology for that, sooner or later. Not that she was just going to volunteer one. "... and?"

"I was wondering ..." Kim stepped forward, tilting her head up, so that her olive green eyes were only inches from Shego's emerald ones. "When do I get to collect the balance?"

"Uh ..." There's no way I heard that right.

"Speechless, you?" Kim gave a soft laugh, reaching up to cup Shego's cheek with one hand.

"Uh." The green woman croaked again, then swallowed and tried for a third time. "... pretty much, yeah."

"Well if you're not going to talk, maybe you can find another use for those lips of yours?"

As it turned out, Shego could.

Author's Note: Kim's referring to kissing, for the record. Geez :)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little bubblegum piece of fiction. It was a nice change of pace for me to write.