And You And I

S224: ...but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need

Author's note:

Hey, everyone, welcome back.

After the bombshell on which the last chapter ended, I've endeavoured to bring this next update to you as soon as possible, so here it is. Since you all probably want to find out what our hopeless hero and villain are going to do next, I'll simply say thank you to everyone for all the usual reasons and get straight on with it.

Like last time out, the chapter title this time is also from the Rolling Stones song, You can't always get what you want, which is true, but if you try sometimes, well you just might find, you get what you need.

Enjoy.

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Shego heard the bite in her own words and knew that, like the last time they had been in this situation, they would have cut Kimmie deep. And as she listened to the girl's downbeat apology and watched her rise, she heard the voice of Miss Go say to her, "you knew there would be a cost and you said you were willing to pay it. Are you really going to let her walk away a second time?"

As Kimmie turned her back and made to head towards the exit, her mind descended into civil war. The part of her brain that marched under the banner of her Shego persona firing off rounds that amounted to this being for the best and that letting the hero leave was the right thing to do, as that would allow her to move on from the nonsense that had started two months ago, thus things would return to normal. However, they were met by the forces of Miss Go, who returned fire with thoughts about how board she'd been prior to that chance social encounter with Kimmie and everything positive that had happened over the past two months.

In the end, Shego yelled, SHUT UP! so loudly inside her head, she was surprised the words had not escaped from her mouth. Her gaze found Kimmie's flaming-red hair as it moved dejectedly through the crowd. I came here to help her but also because she lit a fire inside me back in that volcano lair and she is not getting out of here without a fight. Sliding out of the booth, Shego raised her voice so it would travel through the crowd, "Kim, wait!"

It was not the fact that Shego had called after her that shocked Kim. Indeed, she would have been more surprised if she had not received some sort of barbed parting shot. Rather it had been the content of her rival's words that caught her unawares. However, of the two words, it was not, "wait!" that grabbed her attention and compelled her to turn around. She just called me Kim... she only ever does that when she is being both sincere and serious... what the hell?

Kim's eyes passed over the crowd, a few of whom had turned their heads to see what the commotion was. Not even Spritzers customers could ignore a spectacle happening directly in their midst. Eventually, her gaze fell upon Shego and despite what had just happened, she could not deny how stunning the woman looked. Nevertheless, she kept her tone level and neutral when she replied, "what?"

As Shego had hoped, her words had been enough to re-engage with Kimmie. Ok, I've got her attention. I just need to be careful here and get her back to the table. At least she doesn't sound like she's preparing to fight me... yet. To indicate that she had no intention of starting a bar brawl, she raised her open hands in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry I snapped at you," she said with an unfamiliar sincerity. "Will you come back so we can talk about this?"

While Kim could hear how earnest her rival now sounded, the memory of her biting remark, not to mention the nastiness of her response after she had posed the friendship question the first time, were still burned into her memory. "What, so you can come up with a different way to tell me to fuck off?" she fired back, now firmly in defence mode. I might have wanted to be her friend, but she's already made it clear that's not happening. "Sorry, but I've been burned by you once before," she added, the memory of the pain she'd felt when the green-skinned woman's claws had torn through her back adding to the others.