A/N: Just a little something else that hit me. Whatever happened with Ron and Zita's relationship in the series? Here's my take on its rather abrupt ending, hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. KP belongs to Disney.
First Kiss
"Wow, Ron, this has been really nice," Zita Flores complimented as they sat in Ron Stoppable's typical choice of eating place, Bueno Nacho. This occasion, however, was a bit different. Slipping Ned an extra tip, Ron had been able to get himself and his young lady friend some special treatment for the evening. Because he and Zita had been dating for almost a month, and tonight was the night he was going to make his move.
"Only the best for the prettiest girl in Middleton," Ron said, snapping his fingers and Ned appeared with a pitcher of soda and refilled their glasses.
"Ron, it's nine," Ned whispered out the corner of his mouth. "My shift's supposed to end now."
"Really?" Ron said, pulling out another bill and waving it in the air. "Mr. Lincoln says you're not quite done yet." Ned scowled and took the bill from Ron, heading back to the front counter.
"Come on, Ron, you know you don't have to do all this for me," Zita said, a blush creeping into her tan face. "I would have been perfectly happy staying at home and creaming you in Level Nine of Fortress."
Ron sighed and stared down into his lap, and after a few moments looked back up into her concerned face. "You're right, Zita. I…I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, it's like when I tried to ask you out all over again. I blew my entire week's allowance buying a ticket to every movie at the theater, and now I blew it all on dinner and music and kept Ned after his shift—" He stopped and waved sheepishly back at Ned, "Sorry, dude."
"Ron, why don't you just talk to me?" Zita said with an encouraging smile.
"Because this is—just so new to me," Ron confessed. He tentatively reached over and took her hand in his. "I've never felt this way about a girl before and I…I just want to make sure I do everything right."
"Well, so far so good," Zita said quietly, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand.
Ron leaned forward in his seat, casually moving the drinks aside to prevent any mishaps. He realized Zita was moving forward as well, their knees rubbing against eachother under the table. Their faces were now inches apart. Reaching up and letting his hand rest in her dark, silky hair, Ron pulled her face towards his—and kissed her. His very first, real kiss, and it was everything he ever hoped it would be…
Zita leaned into Ron's gentle touch as she kissed him back. Not only was he a great gaming partner and movie theater companion…but he was a terrific kisser as well. She sighed as their tender first kiss ended and they slowly pulled back from eachother. Ron's eyes were still closed, as if he wanted to savor every moment that had just passed between them, a goofy smile plastered on his face. She giggled slightly and held his hands in both of hers, the warmest of all emotions filling up inside of her.
"I…I love you, Ron," she whispered, planting a kiss on his hand as he sighed contentedly and finally opened his mouth to speak.
"I love you too, Kim."
The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Ron's eyes flew open and his jaw dropped in shock, as Zita gasped and pulled back away from him, dropping his hands suddenly as if they were burning hot.
"What?!"
"Wh-what?" Ron asked, trying his hardest to pretend he had no idea what happened, and failing dismally.
"You just called me 'Kim'!" Zita cried out, her eyes flashing. Ron looked around quickly; thank goodness no one else was in the place, besides the unfamiliar assistant manager who had come to take Ned's place. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be anywhere nearby.
"Zita, I—I—listen, I'm sorry—I have no idea where that came from!" Ron stammered as Zita grabbed the edges of the table in a death grip. It was true; he really didn't know where that came from.
"You know, the other girls warned me," she said angrily, her arms folded across her chest. "About you and Kim. 'They're inseparable,' they said, 'they always spend time together.' I can't believe I didn't see this coming!"
"Zita, Kim's my best friend," Ron said desperately. "She has been since Pre-K, we—we have something special, but it's not like that. We're just friends…really…"
"You have something special with her, Ron, I understand," Zita said, now less angry and in a more saddened tone. "I guess it's something I'll never be able to share."
"I'm sorry," Ron repeated, holding her hand and squeezing it tightly. "You're a great person, Zita, you really are. You make me feel—stuff I've never felt before. With any girl. Ever."
Zita smiled up at him, but there were tears in her eyes, and Ron never felt so ashamed in his life. "Ron, when we kissed tonight," she began, "maybe…I awakened some feelings in you. Romantic feelings that you didn't know you had, or that I had, for that matter. But…I don't think you feel them for me. And don't try and pretend you do, Ron. That will only make it hurt worse…'cause I really care about you." She stared at their hands clasped together, tears spilling down her cheeks and dripping onto the table. "I think I should go…" Her voice broke.
"Zita, no, don't leave," Ron said as he helplessly watched her fish around inside her purse and pull out her car keys. "I care about you, too. And I…I want to be your friend."
"Maybe someday soon, we can be friends," Zita said, getting up from the table, her face gleaming with fresh tears in the weak light of the now closing eatery. "But now, I—I just need to—"
"Think about this?" Ron suggested, and Zita nodded, sniffling. "Yeah, me too…" Zita made to turn and leave slowly when Ron's voice stopped her.
"Zita!"
"Yeah?" Zita turned back around, wearing a tear-soaked expression that clearly said, "whatever you say is not going to change anything."
"If you see Kim," Ron asked hesitantly, and swallowed hard before finishing, "can you not tell her what I said? Please?"
Zita shook her head, and managed a weak smile, "No Ron, I won't tell her." And with that, she pushed open the front door and walked out, leaving Ron alone at the booth.
Kim Possible flung herself inside the girls' bathroom Monday morning, mumbling in a disgruntled tone under her breath. She didn't think this day could get much worse. First Wade had beeped her at three o' clock in the morning about a jewel raid in Seattle, and she had been gone on that mission up until eight, and then she had to get straight to school. Then, she'd had a killer biology test first period that she was sure she bombed completely, and then Bonnie had confronted her about the "new" routine she had made up that she was "so sure they did last year at Regionals." To top everything else off, Ron seemed to be in a down mood, so she didn't even have his childlike optimism to lift her spirits.
Kim pulled out her powder compact, desperately trying to conceal the dark circles under her eyes. She had just begun to contemplate on how to hide her biology grade from her parents when the door to the girls' room opened again, and Zita came in. She stopped and stared at Kim for a moment, as though surveying her appearance, then moved silently to the sink next to her. Kim watched as she slammed her books down, then roughly turned on the sink to wash her hands.
"Um, hi Zita," Kim said as enthusiastically as she could. "How are things? How was your date with Ron the other night?"
Zita roughly turned off the water and faced Kim. Now Kim could see that her eyes were red rimmed and puffy.
"We decided not to see eachother anymore," she answered quietly, but firmly.
"What? You broke up with him?" Kim asked in shock—and was a bit angry. Ron was a great guy, and any girl would be lucky to go out with him. To hear that some girl would deliberately break his heart made her blood boil.
"No," Zita answered, picking up her books. "He broke up with me."
Okay, I have officially entered the Twilight Zone, Kim thought as another wave of shock came over her. He broke up with her? The idea of Ron, her crazy, "never-be-normal" best friend Ron going around breaking girls' hearts left and right was not something that easily came to her mind.
"Zita, what happened?" Kim asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You can tell me."
Zita hesitated, then looked up at Kim. "He…he likes someone else."
"He does?" Kim asked, her eyebrow raised. This was news to her. "Who?"
"It's…" Zita hesitated, avoiding Kim's eyes. She backed up towards the door and pushed it open. "He—he didn't tell me—who it was. I…gotta get to class, Kim. See you later."
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Ron repeated, banging his head on his locker door.
"I'll say," came a familiar voice, and Ron jumped ten feet and whirled around to find Kim standing there with her arms folded. "I ran into Zita in the girls' room and heard about everything."
"Everything?" Ron squeaked, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
"Everything," Kim repeated.
Oh no, Ron thought. Maybe Zita was so mad at him that she decided not to keep her promise. And even if that were true, and she had told Kim what he said…he shuddered. She sure didn't look happy about it.
"How could you do that to a girl as sweet as Zita Flores?" Kim asked, taking an intimidating step closer to Ron, who took an anxious step backward in turn. "She's says you dumped her 'cause you like someone else. Spill."
Ron almost passed out in relief—Kim didn't know. "KP, look it's…it's majorly complicated. We were at Bueno Nacho having a really nice date, everything was going smoothly. So since we'd been going out a while, I figured it was a good time to…take a step further. So I kissed her, and it was—totally amazing."
Kim raised her eyebrow, unsure of how this was leading to a breakup. "Go on," she prodded.
"Buckle up, Kim, this is where it gets wack," Ron said with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "After we kissed she said, 'I love you, Ron.' And I said 'I love you' back. With a…slight twist."
"Ron, would you just spit it out?" Kim said, observing how uncomfortable Ron had suddenly become.
"I—I didn't exactly say 'I love you, Zita'…I said—I said—somebody else's name."
"Ouch," Kim said sympathetically, pressing her hand against her chest as if she could actually feel the pain Zita must have felt. "You—you really—my gosh, Ron, what were you thinking?!"
"I don't know!" Ron said, leaning slumped against his locker. "I mean, she was the one who said we shouldn't see eachother anymore, and I kinda went with that. Because I knew that liking this other girl would—get in the way of it all. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do," Kim said. She felt sorry for being so hard on him at first, now fully appreciating what a great guy her best friend was. Most guys would have not said a word to their girlfriends, even going so low as to cheat behind their back. But Ron was always different from the other guys, in more ways than one. Granted it was an unfair way to break the truth to Zita, but he had done it all the same. She went over and put an arm around his shoulders, "I know you feel bad about it now…but you really did the right thing, Ron. In time, Zita will be glad that you told her the truth."
"Thanks, Kim," Ron said, gazing into her eyes—her beautiful emerald green eyes that shone with a fierce light of confidence, determination, strength, everything that made Kim Possible who she was. It was one of the many things that he loved about her…Love, he thought. It was such a strong word, and to associate it with the girl he had always known as his best friend was totally awk-weird.
"Oh hey, look at my wrist," Ron said, glancing down at his bare wrist and scooping up a bunch of books from his locker. "I gotta be at the place for the thing like now—"
"Hold it right there, Mr. Honesty," Kim said, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against her own locker. "You still haven't answered the million dollar question."
'What's that?" Ron asked, doing an about-face.
"Who's the fresh crush?"
"Oh, her! Uh well, it's—it's—uh…guess!" Bad idea, Ron-man…bad idea…
"Okay," Kim said, playing along. "Do I know her?"
"Oh, you definitely know her," Ron said, backing up slowly away from the locker.
"Monique?"
"No." The boys' bathroom was right behind him. If he could just slip in there…
"Okay, what does she look like?" Kim pressed.
"She's got…this smooth skin..." Ron said, backing up even further away from her. "And…this beautiful smile…and…" His hand was on the knob to the restroom. "…this hair that shines in the sunlight."
"Oh wow, that narrows it down," Kim said sarcastically. But before she could get another word out, Ron had wrenched the door open in a flash, bolted into the boys' room and slammed it behind him. Kim stood there staring at the door for a few moments. What was that? She sighed, Whatever…he'll tell me when he's ready.
The bell rang for lunch and Kim stiffened as she saw Josh Mankey come her way. Hastily, she whipped out her compact and checked her face. Whew! Not a zit in sight. She thanked her lucky stars that she was blessed with such a smooth complexion.
Smooth skin… Kim's heart skipped a beat. No way, there are plenty of girls in this school with great skin…you're just imagining things.
"Hi, Josh!" Kim called enthusiastically to her long time crush. He smiled and waved back at her before disappearing into the art classroom. She walked down the hall, past the gymnasium where there was a large framed picture from the cheerleading state championship. There she stood at the top of the pyramid of girls, beaming brightly. It had been a terrific competition and the photo was taken after they had won narrowly over Lowerton. Kim sighed; she looked so happy. Her mother always said she had a beautiful smile…
Beautiful smile…oh geez, get a hold of yourself, Possible! Kim whirled away from the picture and headed for the door. It's a nice day. Go eat lunch outside and clear your head. Ron is not crushing on you. I repeat, Ron is not crushing on you—and you are not crushing on him back!
"Hey, Kim! Over here, girlfriend!" called a familiar voice, and Kim saw Monique sitting on the benches by the football field. She waved back and went to join her.
"What's up? You look upset."
"Nothing," Kim said, sitting down beside her. "Well…did you here about Ron and Zita?"
"Yeah, too bad," Monique said shaking her head sadly. "Did he tell you why?"
"He likes someone else, and he wouldn't tell me who it was," Kim explained. "I don't get it—I mean, I'm his best friend. He knows he can tell me anything, but he ran into the boys' bathroom and hid when I asked him about it."
"Really? He didn't want to tell you?" Monique said. She thought about this for a moment…then looked away from Kim as she failed to suppress a smile.
"Yeah…I'm stumped."
"I have a theory," Monique blurted out, and Kim snapped her head around. "You do? Tell me."
"No, it's just a guess," Monique dismissed with her hand. "I don't want to start spreading rumors…"
"Monique, who is it?!" Kim cried. "He told you, didn't he?!"
"He didn't tell me anything," Monique said, still smiling. "We'll just see what happens…"
"Monique, what are you talking ab—ugh, this wind," Kim complained as a strong breeze whipped her hair around her head. She pulled out her mirror to straighten her hair. Long, red and silky, its golden highlights shining in the sunlight…
Kim froze, snapping the mirror shut. No…it can't be. Am I…? Does Ron…? Are we…? Monique was still smiling broadly, and now Kim knew exactly why she was.
"Monique, uh…I…I th-think I'm gonna…I just—I gotta go," Kim stammered, clumsily gathering her books and lunch together and racing back towards the school building. Monique stared after her and sighed.
"Yep," she said to herself. "We will see what happens."
A/N: Okay, once again, I did base part of this on a Boy Meets World episode, where Cory is on a date with a girl, kisses her, but ends up saying "I love you, Topanga" instead of the girl's name. If I borrow stuff from this show again, you all have permission to throw stuff at me--I know I do it a lot :D
Please read and review!