Maslow

Maslow is a Kim Possible fanfic by Ninnik Nishukan, centered on the two most prominent villains, Doctor Drakken and Shego. Instead of following one of their evil plans to Take Over the World the way an episode of the show or a more standard fanfic would, it shows them living their lives in between adventures -- sometimes dealing with the aftermath of their latest brush with that annoying cheerleader and her goofy sidekick, sometimes just going about ordinary daily activities.

Over the course of the story (which covers the period from the middle of the first season to the days after the Grand Finale), Drakken and Shego's relationship goes through ups and downs, but gradually develops to the point of the romantic relationship indicated in the final scenes of the series.

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Tropes used in Maslow include:

• Additional Scenes: The author also wrote The Maslow Supplemental, a batch of scenes set between episodes of the first three seasons but left as a separate work because retrofitting it into the original story would be too much trouble and throw off the pacing.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Present in spades.
• Blatant Lies: After Shego vents to Drakken about Motor Ed's unwanted attentions, he proposes this strategy. He offers to tell Eddie: that Shego already has a boyfriend, or that she's married, or that she's a lesbian, or that she's becoming a nun.... Shego doesn't think any of these stories will dissuade Ed even if he believes them, but she is pleased that he's trying to help her out... bringing Drakken's first suggestion one small step closer to becoming an Accidental Truth.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Shego doesn't think much of leaving Drakken in the Cardboard Prison after the Diablo toy flop. Drakken disagrees.
• Can't Stand Them Can't Live Without Them: Why Drakken and Shego always end up back together even after their worst clashes.
• Casanova Wannabe: Motor Ed repeatedly and obnoxiously hits on Shego (who mostly manages to restrain herself from blasting him in front of the assembled relatives) until he stumbles upon Drakken and Shego hugging and declares that a relative's girlfriend is off limts and that he doesn't want to start trouble within the family.
• Comedic Sociopathy/Evil Gloating: Less so than in the series, since the fic doesn't show them actively engaged in evil schemes, but there is one big moment when they laugh their heads off at a news report about the Possibles' house being wrecked by the Lowardian attack.
• Curtain Fic: Many of the scenes are slices of routine life in between evil schemes: conversation, eating dinner, watching TV, assembling new furniture to replace stuff that got trashed during Kim's last visit....
• Deadpan Snarker: Considering the characters in the story, this is a guarantee for both. especially Shego.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When she cools down a bit, Shego realizes that she'd gone too far when she threw Drakken out of the battle robot and left him hanging on for dear life at the end of "Go Team Go", and feels guilty enough to apologize (after he's cooled down enough to listen).
• Easily Forgiven: Averted hard. Drakken and Shego both display real anger and hurt feelings over incidents that were glossed over or Played for Laughs on the show. Most notably, in the aftermath of "Mad Dogs and Aliens" Drakken fires Shego and makes it clear that he wants nothing more to do with her. Of course, they do get back together in each case, but not without difficulties and tension along the way.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Drakken's reaction to Shego leaving him in prison and then ruining his scheme with Warmonga certainly seems to be a combination of this and False Friend.
  • At the beginning of the story, in the scene set after "The Twin Factor", Shego explicitly invokes this trope:

"You know, Dr. D, even bad guys have morals." she snarled. "Even bad guys have standards, guidelines -- you don't put an obedience chip on your so-called 'sidekick' just because she doesn’t behave like a mindless drone!"

• Everyone Can See It: In the post-"Graduation" portion of the story, Mama Lipsky tries to pair up Drakken and Shego with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, Frugal Lucre casually asks about their plans to get married, and they overhear Kim and Ron talking about them as being clearly a couple even if they are in denial about it.
• Fag Hag: Shego is accused of being one to Drakken when a Camp Gay trio drives up in the desert and offers Drakken a ride for the right price.
• False Friend: Drakken sees Shego as this after her failure to rescue him from prison after "So the Drama". It takes time for the trust to come back.
• Fix Fic: The various "down time between evil plans" scenes show Drakken and Shego gradually developing a level of mutual comfort and friendship (while remaining their familiar ranty and snarky selves). In that context, the Grand Finale Last-Minute Hookup appears more natural and less totally out of left field than it did in the series.
  • The section set after "Mad Dogs And Aliens" starts with them being (quite understandably, given the on-screen events of the Post Script Season up to that point) thoroughly alienated from each other, and goes on to show how they got back to the point of working together as usual. Onscreen, it looks like an extreme case of Easily Forgiven.
• Foot Focus: One chapter has a partial focus on Drakken giving Shego a proper foot massage.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Drakken is obviously jealous of anyone that even comes close to Shego. Shego has moments of these as well.
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Shego got a bit... enthusiastic in her revenge teasing of Drakken not reacting to having a gorgeous woman laying on him.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each section title is an item (or list of items) from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
• Lap Pillow: More like arm pillow, but still applies. Shego finds Drakken to be strangely comfy a couple of times.
• Last-Minute Hookup: This story is presented as a supplement to canon to justify the sudden shipping that occurs between Drakken and Shego.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Really has that feel to the two main characters. Somehow even more than canon.
• Love Epiphany: Both eventually have one at different times. Then cue the angst.
• Married to the Job: Why Drakken doesn't date. He sometimes contemplates it in the story while Shego mercilessly teases him about it.
• May-December Romance: Both have a bit of angst over the age difference, Drakken moreso.
• My Beloved Smother: Mama Lipsky drags Drakken and Shego away from the official dinner being held in their honor and invites herself, Motor Ed, and Team Go (with Frugal Lucre tagging along for good measure) to Drakken's lair for a "family celebration". Hilarity Ensues.
• Not a Date: Well, not a typical date, anyway. In the final scene, following their first real kiss, they decide that going out on a standard dinner-and-movie type "date" would be lame and anticlimatic. Instead, they decide to amuse themselves by embarrassing Kim (like "Blush", but without the "make her disappear forever" part).
• Not Me This Time: In the post-"Emotion Sickness" scene, Drakken's first act after getting the moodulator chip off Shego is to insist that it wasn't his doing, obviously worried that she'll think he's treating her like an experimental subject again (as he did in "The Twin Factor" and attempted to do in "Kimitation Nation"). Fortunately, she believes him.
• The Not-Secret: When Drakken tries to explain away the contents of his lair as "radio equipment", Mama Lipsky tells him not to bother -- she's known the truth ever since the events of "So The Drama".
• Oblivious to Love: Drakken suffers from this more than Shego. He just doesn't think that he's all that attractive or much of a catch.
• Official Couple: Helps to set them up better than the show. Makes things a LOT more natural and less subtexty.
• Opposites Attract: The loner Mad Scientist and the snarky sidekick? Not a surprise to some.
• Paparazzi: A recurring nuisance in the post-"Graduation" chapters. First, the press finds them at Drakken's lair. Then, Frugal Lucre leaks the lair's phone number, and requests for interviews and talk show appearances start rolling in. When Drakken and Shego finally get away from their relatives, they run into a gaggle of photographers, and then barely dodge another group of reporters who turn out to be trailing Kim and Ron.
• Prodigal Family: Both Drakken and Shego suffer their families even more than they did in the show.
• Relationship Upgrade
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Drakken goes so far as to go home to Mama Lipsky for a few days after the Disproportionate Retribution incident mentioned above.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Uttered insistently by both to anyone that will listen toward the end. No one believes them.
• Show Some Leg: Drakken tries to convince Shego to do this when they get stranded out in the middle of the desert after the fiasco with the television. Strangely, it's Drakken that manages to get the first car to stop when the flamboyant outfit he's wearing gets him Mistaken for Gay.
• Status Quo Is God: The first two-thirds of the story is set during the timeline of the series, which requires the character development to be fairly subtle in order to remain consistent with their onscreen appearances. The author has a bit more maneuvering room in the post-"Graduation" section, and makes use of it without drastically shifting tone.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Drakken does this when he has a nightmare of Shego coming on to him and then rejecting him. Shego hears some of it and misinterprets what he says. It does serve as a My God, What Have I Done? moment for her as it makes her wonder if she's been too abusive to Drakken over the years to serve as a possible nightmare for him.
• Villain Episode: The story is all about Drakken and Shego; Kim and Ron appear only briefly.
• Will They or Won't They?: Gets to these levels near the end when they're both angsting over if the other might like like them or not.