Chapter Text
Build It Up
1: Bright Ideas
Shego growled as she punched the heavy bag with all of her might. The smack of her fist echoed through the place, busting the bag wide open. Gym personnel crowded around her as sand gushed onto the floor, hissing at Shego in a way they could not, but she ignored them and the busted bag. Damn it. She knew what would happen now. Pushing her sweat soaked hair from her forehead, Shego scanned the area for Tatsu. She did not see Tatsu and groaned. Why the hell does she keep going back to the corny ass treadmill? Boredom was a hell of a thing.
“Hey, guys, bill me for the bag,” Shego said as she walked away from the scene, wiping sweat from her bare midriff with a towel. She tossed the towel behind, not caring where it landed.
“We will and you don’t come back here. We’re sick of you breaking things.” She imagined a few employees shaking their fists at her, but she did not bother to turn to see.
Shego shrugged. It made no difference to her. She did not care about the gym. She just needed something to do with her life. This filled the gap for a while. Now, it was time to find something else. You act like that’s easy. How long did it take your dumb ass to think to go to a gym?
Marching to the front of the gym, she spotted Tatsu on a treadmill, jogging with her headphones on, blocking out the world. Shego shook her head as she saw a couple of women standing by the treadmill and gawking at Tatsu. If Tatsu was anyone else, she would assume Tatsu did this for the attention, as she never failed to gain a small audience on the treadmill. She tended to run for hours, leaving those around her in awe.
“Maybe she ‘s training for a marathon,” One of the women said to the other. Their eyes never left Tatsu, one checking out the cuts of her arms, which were on full display thanks to her wearing a tight tank top, while the other’s gaze was locked on Tatsu’s ass, not as easy to see in her baggy, grey sweatpants. Shego made a face like she was about to vomit, but no one noticed.
Shego moved, standing where Tatsu could see her. Tatsu raised an eyebrow as sweat dripped down her flushed face. Shego shrugged and Tatsu removed her earphones.
“Broke something?” Tatsu asked, panting in time with her feet hitting the treadmill.
“Yeah. You got an audience.” Shego pointed to the ladies behind Tatsu.
Tatsu did not bother to turn around, used to it by now. She was not there for admiration. They were there to kill time. Their girlfriends were at school and they had nothing better to do.
“Ready to go?” Tatsu asked.
Shego threw her hands up. “Might as well. They kicked me out.”
Tatsu hopped off the treadmill as she pocketed her earbuds. And just like that, the gym was done with. They did not even bother to change their clothes there. Tatsu had to put on her coat, but that was about all. They walked to their building. Tatsu did not say a word, even though Shego assumed she had to be cold. It was “see your breath” weather, but Tatsu’s coat seemed to keep her warm enough. Shego’s powers made sure she stayed warm all the time.
“What’s with you and the treadmill at the gym?” Shego asked, needing something to fill the cold air.
Tatsu shrugged. “Block out the world. Music, stare ahead, and pretend no one else exists.”
Shego chuckled. “That’s why I like the heavy bag. Well, and I get to hit something. Always good to get that frustration out.”
Tatsu sighed. “Life is frustrating.”
That sucked all the conversation out of Shego. It was too true at the moment. They returned to their homes to shower and then met back up on the living room couch in Trin’s apartment, wearing almost the same gear they had when they were at the gym. Shego flopped down on the couch, damp hair from the shower slapping against the cool leather. Tatsu curled up in an armchair and reach for a magazine on the coffee table. Shego turned on the television while Tatsu flipped through an auto magazine. It was boring. Shego let loose a loud groan.
“I’m so sick of this!” Shego smacked the sofa cushion.
Tatsu arched an eyebrow. “Sick of what?”
“This! Us.” Shego motioned between the two of them with one hand. “We don’t have lives outside of our girlfriends. You haven’t even looked for a new job in two weeks!” They were beyond in a rut. It was pathetic.
Tatsu ran her hand through her hair. “I’m rethinking my approach. I keep getting fired, so I gotta do something different.”
“Well, I gotta do something point blank. I can’t take years of this while Kimmie goes to school. This is just boring.” Shego let loose a moan that sounded like a noise a dying moose would make. She would slit her throat if they had live this way for a few more weeks. She definitely would not make it years.
“Got any ideas or you just planning to whine about it?”
Shego thought on it for a moment. “Maybe we could start a gym. I mean, that’s what I do in my spare time and you come with me a lot.” When Tatsu was not busy on her way to get fired from a job, she spent most of her time with Shego. Shego did not even have the luxury of working for a little bit. All she had was time on her hands.
“Yeah, until you break stuff and get us banned.” Tatsu brushed something off of her sweatpants.
Shego curled her lip. “It’s not my fault craftsmanship isn’t a thing anymore. Maybe that could be our gimmick. Our equipment never breaks.” It could work. It would give her something to do. She did not need idle hands.
Tatsu looked skeptical, pursing her lips for a long moment. “Yeah, but you’re the only person worried about breaking gym equipment. The rest of us do just fine.”
Shego frowned. Tatsu had a point. Still, she needed something to do to pass the time or she would go mad. Or worse, she would go bad. Kim would not be happy to find her breaking the law because she needed something to do. Temptation was great.
“Tats, you gotta help me figure out something to do. The last time I was this bored, I sold myself as a mercenary!” In hindsight, it worked out, but she could not see it working that well a second time.
Tatsu looked at her as if she was insane and maybe she was, but so was the company she kept. “Is it that serious?”
“Yes!” Shego was ready to claw her own eyes out.
Tatsu sighed and scratched her forehead. “Fine. You want to start a business?”
Shego shrugged. “It’s something to do and stay out of trouble.”
“So, think about what you’re into and you make your business about that, like when I had my garage. I like working on machines.”
Shego groaned and rubbed her face with both hands as she tried to think of something. She could not think of anything she wanted to do in a business. But, she needed something to do with her time and then she looked at Tatsu.
“Hey! What if we went into business together?” Shego snapped her fingers. It was the perfect solution for both of them.
Tatsu arched an eyebrow. “A business doing what? Who’s giving us money to open a business?”
Shego scoffed and waved the question off. “Money’s not a problem and we can open your garage!” She thought it was so obvious, but from the way Tatsu had not moved, she was not so sure. Scowling, she leaned in Tatsu’s direction. “Okay, silent wonder, my psychic abilities with you are fairly limited. You don’t like the idea?”
Tatsu rubbed her chin. “No, I’d love to be able to do it, but having a business isn’t real easy, especially when you’re just starting out.”
“Tell me about it. Tell me about what it’s like to have a business.” Shego felt like they would make the business thing work and save themselves so much grief. She turned the television off and focused on Tatsu, who closed her magazine.
Tatsu took a breath and rubbed her palms together. It took her a moment to get started. “Well, first thing, there’s a lot of car shops around here. We’d have a lot of competition.”
“Which I remember from my forced economics class is actually a good thing.”
“Yeah, for people buying stuff. Not so great if you’re trying to make a living selling junk. So, like, if we started a garage, why would people come to us over the dozens of other places offering the same stuff? Especially since those places would have more experience than us.”
Shego nodded. That made a lot of sense. “Why the hell don’t you talk more often? You’re damn insightful. Tell me more. I mean, your garage was successful, right?”
Tatsu ran a hand through her hair and twisted her mouth up for a long second. “I didn’t really set out to have the garage. When I got to high school, I used to help fix cars in the parking lot if someone had a problem. Kids just started bringing me their cars. I wasn’t really hung up on cars until them.”
Shego did not know that. “What did you like before cars?”
Tatsu shrugged. “I just liked messing with stuff. Take ‘em apart, build ‘em back, and sometimes add features to improve them or turn them into something else. The car thing got me when I realize I could make money off of them. First time a kid handed me money for changing his damn taillight, I realized I didn’t have to stay at home anymore and listen to my dad complain or go to school and be bored.”
“Dropped out?” She knew Tatsu never finished high school. She just did not know how long it took.
There was a nod. “Tenth grade. But, probably barely had enough credits to be considered a second semester freshman. Found an abandoned garage-like thing and went to work.”
Shego leaned forward, wanting to hear more. Tatsu never opened up like this. She was probably more interested in the business idea than she even thought. If not that, then the real Tatsu got abducted by aliens. Both seemed plausible.
“And the garage took off?” Shego asked.
Tatsu scowled. “Hell, no! I starved for months. I didn’t have a concept of money, didn’t know what I was supposed to charge, and it took me way too long to figure out I could get pieces from the junkyard. To this day, I don’t know how I didn’t die before things got better.”
“So, how’d you’d end up working on street racers?”
“Once I got into cars, I kinda liked ‘em and thought I needed to learn more. First stop was the junkyard to take apart as many cars as they’d let me. Once I felt like I knew enough, I hit the races with a guy I was dating, who loved the damn things. I didn’t get the hype, but whatever and one night a dude was having a breakdown because his engine basically blew up. I knew the guy, so he let me check it out. I fixed it. Not in time to get him in the race, but enough for him to decide he wanted me working on his car rather than the person he had before.”
Shego was a little surprised to hear Tatsu dated a guy at some point in her life, but that was not the important thing in the story. She had gotten a chance to show off her skills. “And then everybody wanted you?”
Tatsu shook her head. “No. Not at first. Most of them had a guy they trusted with their car or whatever.”
This did not make any sense to Shego. “Then what the hell? You clearly didn’t starve to death.” At some point in time, Tatsu had to be a success, but she did not sound like it. Her business had to take off, but maybe she was being modest, as Tatsu could sometimes be.
“It happened little by little. First guy’s car started running better with me and then he won. Other people started coming to me after that. But, it wasn’t a lot and since I was a girl and they were mostly dudes and they had a lot of doubt, even as I fixed stuff. They always had crazy requests and at the start they’d drop me for the smallest things.”
“But, you kept at it?”
Tatsu blew out a breath. “Didn’t have a choice. Trying to avoid that whole starving situation. Eventually, I just got really good at it and the few guys who stuck with me started winning more, so more racers came to me. In the end, I just offered something other mechanics didn’t and I think it came from me experimenting on busted cars, so I could come up with different stuff.”
Shego rubbed her chin in thought. “So, you offered something no other mechanic offered?” There was an angle there they might be able to exploit if Tatsu was as good as Shego thought she was.
Tatsu shrugged. “I guess.”
“Be right back!” Shego took off for her apartment. She had the perfect idea for her and Tatsu to open a business. They could beat her boredom and Tatsu could finally have a job for longer than three weeks. It was brilliant!
She tore through the bookshelf, hoping Kim had not thrown the damn binder out. Her fingers grazed the cover and she let a victory whoop. But, then it occurred to her to check and make sure it was the right book. She pumped her fist in the air.
“We are in business.” She headed back down the hall to Tatsu. She dumped the binder on the coffee table.
Tatsu arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“Our business. You just like building stuff, right? Like the Possible twins?” Shego asked.
“Yeah. Didn’t I say that?”
“Think you could build this?” Shego pushed the binder in Tatsu’s direction.
Tatsu leaned over to see the page. “The hell is this? A hover board?”
“Yeah, it’s our product. No one else is making or selling actual hover boards.” They would be able to make a ton of money, if Tatsu could actually pull off making the damn thing. It would give them something to do and keep Shego from losing her entire mind.
Tatsu studied the pages for a long moment. “Where’d you get blueprints for a hover board?”
Shego snorted. Where else would she get such blueprints? “Drakken. I took a bunch of his plan books to make sure he didn’t get them if he ever got out. I figured it would take him a while to do any real evil if he had to stop and think of devices for his schemes. Anyway, the important thing is, we’ve got it. Think you could make it?”
Tatsu ran her finger along the blueprint. “I dunno. I don’t think he finished this.”
“What makes you say that?”
“See here?” Tatsu pointed down to a rough circle sketch in the corner. “He didn’t write an explanation on how it would hover. He just wrote ‘anti-gravity thingy’ and a bunch of question marks.”
Shego groaned. “Damn it, Doctor D. Still screwing me over from jail.” She should not be surprised he half-assed his plan books like he did everything else.
“Maybe it can’t be done.”
Shego’s face fell into a deadpan. “Keep your defeatist attitude to yourself. We have a million dollar idea here if you can get it to work. I’ve got the capital. We can do this. It gives us something to do and you can start to earn money again. I know you wanna buy a ring for blondie.”
Tatsu narrowed her gaze on Shego and then sighed. Her shoulders dipped. “It’s been almost five years. I gotta make a move eventually. She makes all the moves.”
“Well, this is our move. You study the blueprints and figure the board out. I’ll pay for whatever parts you need to build a prototype and scout a location to sell ‘em.”
For all her seeming reluctance, Tatsu looked Shego in the eye. “Get a spot that’s big enough for people to practice on the boards.”
“Huh?” Shego’s brow wrinkled.
“People like to try new stuff out. Every time I put something new on a car or improved it, guys always wanted to try stuff out immediately. I never had the space.”
Shego made a mental note of that. “I think I need to pick your brain about this.” For the first time in a long time, energy pumped through Shego without Kim being involved. Time to do something new, something exciting.
-8-8-8-8-
Tatsu was curled up in the armchair with the binder Shego brought out. Tatsu studied the hover board semantics, feeling like her brain might explode, trying to figure out how Drakken thought the whole mess was going to work. His design hurt her head. She tried to read his writing in the margins, but it looked like scribbled lines and nothing more. She was not sure it was even English. He might have been playing around with the whole project.
“Baby, are you going to join us at the table or what? “Trin asked, taking Tatsu out of her thoughts.
Tatsu’s stomach growled. “Coming!” She popped up from the chair and plucked the binder up to go with her. She sat at her usual spot at the table to find dinner, lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, already waiting. Her stomach cried out once more.
“Hey!” Shin huffed as the back of the binder came close to his plate. “What the hell is that thing, anyway? You taking courses we don’t know about?”
Tatsu only grunted. She did not have time for Shin or his need for attention. Resting her chin in her hand, she stared at the picture and broke off some lasagna with her other hand. She did not even notice Trin was next to her until her girlfriend leaned in close enough to block the opposite page.
“Is that a hover board?” Trin asked with a curious wrinkle between her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” Tatsu answered.
“Why are you stuck on looking at a hover board?” Kim asked.
Shego chimed in. “Me and Tats are gonna go into business selling them, if Tats can figure out Drakken’s crazy design, so she can build it.”
Kim’s chair scratched the hardwood floor as she pushed away from the table and jumped to her feet. “Drakken? Are you crazy trying to do anything with his stuff?”
“Calm down, Princess. It’s a hover board, not a death ray.” Shego waved the whole thing off.
“Everything is death ray of some kind when it comes to Darken,” Kim huffed, giving Shego a hard look. Shego did not seem moved and Tatsu ignored Kim. Kim was Shego’s problem.
“Might have better luck with a death ray.” Tatsu turned the binder on the side. She looked at Trin. “Does it make sense to you?”
Trin shrugged. “Sorry, baby. None of my sciences fall under engineering.” She kissed Tatsu’s cheek, which made her feel nice, but did not help with the blueprint.
“Lemme see.” Shin grabbed the binder before Tatsu could stop him. He squinted as he studied the book and then squinted some more as he flipped it upside down. “Is this even English?”
Tatsu was desperate enough for help that she did not even bother to take the book back. Maybe Shin could make some sense of things. From the way his face grimaced, she doubted he could piece it together either.
“If the biochemist and computer programmer could return the book to a proper engineer,” Trin said, staring Shin down hard.
Shin sucked his teeth. “Whatever.” He shoved the book back at Tatsu, who resisted the urge to throw a piece of bread at him. Why was he so damn rude? Oh, because he needed attention all the time, no matter what kind. When is he gonna grow the hell up?
“Let me see, please.” Kim held out her hand. She was back in her seat.
Tatsu was not sure if Kim wanted to see it to help or to make sure it was not dangerous, but it did not matter. She shifted the binder to safely pass it to Kim. Kim was smart and into math, close enough to engineering in a way. Kim’s eyebrows knitted in close together as she stared at the figures.
“His math is way off. No way would he be able to lift a human with these figures,” Kim said.
“Only Doctor D would be thwarted by not carrying the one.” Shego shook her head.
“It’s more than that. There’s a reason he didn’t get around to making this. It doesn’t look dangerous because he probably couldn’t make it to that part before he could figure out how to make it work. He didn’t figure that out. You guys sure you want to base a business on this?” Kim inquired.
Shego nodded. “This is a good product. People have wanted real hover boards since Back to the Future.”
“Nah, you guys should do the surfboard design from the Thundercats instead of the skateboard design from Back to the Future,” Shin said.
“It’d probably be more like a snowboard if I can figure out how he planned to do it. Balance would be easier and it would probably get some good lift,” Tatsu replied. She could somewhat picture it in her mind, but she was not sure how close it would be to what Drakken was trying to do. She also was not sure how she could realistically make her plan work.
Shego grinned. “See, you’re already thinking on how to get it to work. You got this, Tats.” She pointed at Tatsu with both fingers.
Tatsu’s shoulders straightened from the vote of confidence. She needed to figure this out. Her future and Shego’s sanity could depend on it. For now, she would eat. Food might help her brain work things out. She ran over ideas in her mind while she ate, though. There had to be a way to get the hover board off the ground, so to speak.
Tatsu ended up taking the binder to bed. Trin plucked it from her grip before she even settled down. Tatsu made a noise to complain.
“Love, I’m happy you and Shego have this plan, but I know from experience never giving it a rest won’t help.” Trin put the binder on the nightstand and then settled on top of Tatsu.
Tatsu smiled as the familiar weight and warmth pressed down on her. “Maybe I should try to build it. I tend to work better with hands on learning.” Her hands massaged Trin’s thighs.
Trin stretched and kissed her chin. “Yes, and you can figure out what you can keep and change. You’ve got this. You’re brilliant at putting things together.”
Tatsu cupped Trin’s ass and gave it a squeeze as she adjusted Trin more on her. Trin kissed her again and she kissed back. The kisses were relaxed in a way Tatsu forgot they could be. She realized how tense she had been throughout her life lately, even when she was with her blond bombshell. She needed this hover board thing. Getting on her feet would help her with their relationship.
“I’m going to do this,” Tatsu said in between kisses.
“I don’t doubt you.”
Tatsu moved her shoulders to settle deeper in her pillow. “You’re so amazing.” She could not believe how much Trin just supported her. Building a hover board should sound like a fantasy, but Trin was just right there pushing her, believing in her, even though she had failed so much these past few months.
Trin smiled a little. “You’re amazing. And, remember, if you get stuck, you’ve got my dad and brothers to help.”
That was true enough. “I gotta try to build it first.” She would do it her way and tweak what she needed to as she went, like she did when she first started working on cars.
“Of course. You’ll be fine in business with Shego?”
“Yeah. She’s not out to get on my nerves like she is with you.” Tatsu felt like she and Shego got along great, especially compared to how Shego got along with Trin.
“You are quite right about that. Good luck, baby.”
“Thanks.” Tatsu kissed the top of Trin’s head. She would make this work somehow. She needed to be able to give back to Trin, beyond emotionally anyway.
-8-8-8-8-
“Are you sure about starting a business with Tatsu?” Kim asked Shego as they both eased into their king-sized bed. Kim sighed as she cuddled into Shego’s side. Shego wasted no time putting her arms around the slender body of her girlfriend. Kim hooked her leg around Shego’s thighs, having skin on skin contact thanks to their skimpy pajama shorts.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Why do you ask?” Shego ran her fingertips along Kim’s bare bicep. It was not like Kim to show any doubt in Tatsu. She knew it had to do with Kim having the utmost faith in Trin, so she trusted all of Trin’s decisions, including the people she let into her life.
Kim shrugged. “You’ve never shown any interest in business, unless it involved taking over the world anyway.”
That was definitely true. “I know, but I’ve got a good feeling about this. Plus, I need something to do.”
“So, you go into business with Tatsu? Are you sure you aren’t doing this because Tatsu can’t hold a job?”
Shego arched an eyebrow as she regarded Kim. “What, you think I’d do that? That’s a lot of money just to keep Tatsu’s self-esteem up. I need something to do as much as she does.”
Kim moved, pushing herself up to stare down at Shego. “You haven’t talked to me about it.”
Shego twisted up her mouth. “I don’t want to bother you with this stuff.” She did not want to trouble Kim. She did not want Kim to think there was a chance Shego could end up going back to a life of doing the wrong thing. She did not want to disappoint Kim. Beyond that, she did not think Kim would understand this feeling of uselessness weighing Shego down. Tatsu understood all too well.
Kim pouted a little. “Well, I want to be bothered when you’re upset. I want to be bothered with everything about you.”
“I’m not upset.” Shego caressed Kim’s cheek. “I’m just bored. You’ve got classes and being a hero to keep you busy.”
Kim nodded. “I thought you were getting bored. Gym didn’t help, huh?”
“It was a good suggestion, but I can’t spend seven hours at the gym. Besides, I keep breaking equipment. They banned me.” It had been Kim’s idea that she join a gym. It worked for a little while, but it was never going to cut it. She had not made any friends there and had not been very interested in any classes. It would not have kept her busy for much longer.
Kim frowned. “They banned you?” Her voice was heated and she sounded like she was ready to go get justice for Shego. It was cute.
Shego chuckled and stroked Kim’s side. “Calm down, Princess. I don’t care about the ban. I just need something to occupy my time and I think this would do that pretty well.” It would give her a way to keep a steady income as well. She could not assume her money would last the rest of her life. She needed a plan.
Kim’s shoulders relaxed. “You sure you want to hang your hat on something Drakken came up with?”
“I think Tats is good enough to finish Drakken’s stuff.” She meant that. Tatsu was smart. She might not realize it, but Shego knew Tatsu could do great things and she wanted to be there. Hell, maybe she needed to be there. She needed something to do and Tatsu looked like she was drowning at this point as far as earning money went. “Are you really worried about it being Drakken’s idea? Or are you worried Tatsu can’t do it?”
“It’s no big on the second thing. I’ve seen her with the tweebs.”
Shego was missing something. She searched Kim’s eyes for the piece she could not pin down. “What’s up, Princess? What are you worried about?” She caressed Kim’s side again, hoping the touch was comforting enough for Kim to unburden herself.
Those slender shoulders dropped again. “How long before you get bored forever?”
Shego shifted and cupped the back of Kim’s head. She pulled Kim in for a kiss. It was soft, cautious, loving. She wanted that to be her response to Kim. When they pulled away, Kim was smiling, but her eyes still seemed sad. There was a glisten to her olive green eyes.
“Kimmie, I love you. I’m not going to get bored with you.” Shego knew that with all of her heart. First off, it was impossible to get bored with Kim. Kim was the opposite of boredom. Second, she would never be able to live without Kim and she knew that for a fact.
Kim sniffled a little. “You don’t know that. And maybe not bored with me, but with this life.”
Running her fingers through long, red hair, Shego smiled, more to herself than at Kim. Yeah, this life was a little boring, but even now she would take this over her old life with Drakken. Beyond that, she would never forget the feeling that coursed through her when she thought Kim was dead. She realized she loved Kim then, but she also realized she did not want to live without Kim. She would never put herself through that if she could help it.
Shego gave Kim a soft, peck on the lips. “Pumpkin, you don’t have to be scared of me ever being that bored. I’ll find stuff to do, but I’m not leaving you. As far as I’m concerned, you’re stuck with me forever.”
“You mean that?”
“You’re damn right I mean that. You and I are forever, Pumpkin. That’s just the way things are, so you need to get used to it. I’m gonna be here for a good, long time.” It was more than a promise.
Kim beamed. “I’m not complaining and I’m holding you to that.”
Shego smiled back and Kim settled against her again. Shego breathed easy as Kim peppered her chin with light kisses. She squeezed Kim around the shoulders. Feeling Kim relax against her, about to drift off would never get old. Yes, she might get bored, but she was never leaving this behind.
For a long while, Shego watched Kim in her sleep. She wanted to do so right by Kim. So, she needed to get herself together. Kim deserved that and more. So, make this work.
In the morning, Shego and Tatsu got started after their significant others and Shin went off to school. Shego wanted to read up on starting a business while Tatsu was more concerned with finding parts. Apparently, she was going to actually build the hover board to figure out what Drakken was trying to do. It was better than nothing.
“If we’re going to do this and I’m gonna finance this, I should open us a business account. We both get a card and you could buy whatever pieces you need for the prototype on the card,” Shego said. She would do that immediately.
Tatsu glanced at her. “Businesses do that, right?”
“Legal businesses, yeah. And we want this to be legal, so we gotta pay taxes.”
“And not steal stuff.” It was funny that they both needed that to be said.
“Agreed.” So, now they were in business.
-8-8-8-8-
Next time: all work and no play make Shego and Tatsu forget about an important day.