gotgreenmagic

"Look, it's just - you doing this - knowing someone gives a damn, it's kind of - sweet, okay? And if you ever wanted to, you know, arrange a time and place where we've got some peace and quiet and no hecklers for reasons other than what's basically an intervention then that - "

She hesitated. Screw it. Since when did she use words when actions spoke louder?

She leaned over and kissed him.

"...that would be okay."

Mozenrath blinked. That was the second kiss in the last couple weeks that he hadn't expected to get -- which, to be fair was more than he ever planned on getting. Thankfully this one was at least pleasantly surprising. Still a little stunned, he shook his head. "I -- well yeah. We could do that." Realizing that sounded awkward, he recovered, speaking a little more confidently. "Whatever you like."

"Great." She smiled and wondered, vaguely, if they had even one successful correctly-executed date between them. Probably not. At least then neither of them would really have a frame of reference if any attempt ended up being a total train wreck.

'Whatever you like' did get him the eyebrow, though. "You...can say no, if you want. I'm a grown-up, I can take it."

"Shego, if you're aware of anything about me, it should be that when I want to say 'no', I'm quite capable."

"Point." She wrapped her arms around herself. "You wanna go find someplace warmer? At least I'm out of things to say that can't be said around witnesses."

He laughed a little. It was a nervous gesture. "Yeah, good idea. These privileges will probably mean more once something resembling spring comes in."

"I'd really like to know where the Admiral gets off on changing the freaking climate in an interdimensional void without any real atmosphere," Shego muttered, heading back towards the door. "And I'm guessing you still don't take the cold all that well."

Mozenrath turned to follow her. "You're right. It's still colder than it ever got back home."

"I was never so much into spending winter in the northern hemisphere. Buuut Dr. D liked his snow-capped mountain lairs and sometimes he couldn't cover heating bills, so I kinda got used to it." She opened the door and slipped through. "It's not like 'ruthless supervillain' is a look that lends itself to fuzzy sweaters, y'know?"

Mozenrath followed her out and pulled the door shut behind him. "This is why I own my own land. No red tape making things more difficult." And this was true. He didn't fully understand the concept of a "heating bill" so well, but had seen enough of what she knew as a modern world to have some idea.

"Your own land. You never told me how that happened, exactly. Did you take the keys off your mentor when you zombie'd him or what?"

"Well, after us, there really was no one else." He shrugged. "It worked out."

She blinked unintelligibly at him. "Wait wait wait. When you say 'no-one else', do you mean no-one else who could or would run the farm or do you mean mean there was literally nobody else left in the entire place?"

"There wasn't anyone else." He shrugged. "There's a city in the Land of the Black Sand but it's been abandoned since before I ever arrived there, and I'm fairly certain Destane never saw people living there either."

Huh. "So it was just you, the eel and the zombies for how long?"

"Oh, not just them. As I said, I collect magic. Creatures included. But I did travel. Various markets to explore. Secrets to study. That sort of thing. It's not like I was shut up there all the time."

"That explains the extensive social skills," she said lightly, her tone and expression making it very clear that she knew the same remark could be levelled at her. "What about your parents?"

She realised that that was sailing passed a horizon clearly labelled 'Overly Personal Questions' and cleared her throat.

"Uh. I retract that."

He was silently grateful she retracted thee question. He didn't remember much about his parents -- his father disappeared, and he himself had been sent away to apprentice with Destane when he was young enough not to be able to sort out just what was going on. Not the easiest thing to explain, really. "Probably for the better. But for referential purposes, I didn't have any family before I came here."

"Ah. Okay." She shrugged. "Mine's intact and obnoxiously huge. You wanna get a coffee or something?"

"Certainly." He smiled a little, surprised at himself. "You know I've never tried it?"

"Never? I kinda thought you'd be wired 24/7 by now." Shego paused, realising she'd have to qualify that. "Coffee's a source of caffeine. Keeps you awake. Can you make you jittery if you drink too much."

He shook his head. "Never felt tempted to." At the bit about keeping him awake, he chuckled a little. "Being disciplined also helps with that." As if he'd never fallen asleep on top of a book before.

"Yeah, I bet." She shoved open the door to the dining room and - well, apart from the fact it might've been a little bit dustier than usual (maybe her imagination) it didn't look like the site of a recent massacre. "I had the discipline not to burn down every building I set foot in and that's pretty much all I ever needed."

"And what about your old employer? Ever in much need of coffee, himself?" Mozenrath had heard enough about what had happened that the appearance of dust in the dining hall wasn't exactly comforting to him, but he chose not to show it.

"Drakken? No, not so much. The fewer chemical stimulants he had access to, the better. I didn't even like him drinking diet soda. The tiny handful of times he ever came up with a half-decent idea, it was totally accidental and I don't think staying up late would've helped to that end."

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