Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kim Possible.
Vanilla Swirl
- Vanilla -
By: Imyoshi
Ice-cream did sound wonderful.
Coming back from a rather awkweird mission, Kim and Ron casually strolled into Mr. Fudgie's Ice-Cream-o-Rama, still dressed in their mission outfit with some tingles of red still brushing the bridge of Kim's nose. Luckily, the atmosphere proved to be both pleasant and refreshing. Especially with hint of s'more flavored ice-cream filling the air, Kim's favorite. And having Ron momentarily distracted didn't hurt either—anything to get him to forget the sitch earlier.
Grinning playfully, Ron ran toward the ice-cream display windows to peer at the many by many of flavors for him to choose from. Kim rolled her eyes at his enthusiasm, smiling not as ecstatic as her best friend. Sometimes she couldn't figure how Ron could hold onto his child like wonder that made him, well, Ron. She envied it at times, and snickered when he wasn't looking.
Not wanting Ron to argue over the cashier on the number of topping one can have on a cone, Kim tried to catch up to him, but was temporarily halted at the familiar silhouette in the booth beside her.
"Monique?"
The fashion diva turned her head, mouth filled with a dangling spoon, staring at Kim wide-eyed. Time seemed to pass slowly before Monique swallowed her frozen treat and grinned at her friend in a somewhat forced fashion.
"Kim?" Monique tried to sound happy to see her and miserably failed.
Kim wasn't dense like a rock—unlike some people—and could quickly tell something was bothering her female best friend. It was straight female intuition; pure instinct, best friend alertness, and also seeing the two empty cartoons of chocolaty ice-cream didn't hurt either.
Looking back at Ron to see if he hadn't jumped into an argument over toppings yet. He had not. The girl slid within the seat across her friend, demanding she spill.
"Monique?" Kim whispered-yelled for Ron not hear. "What's got you majorly bummed out?"
Monique stared at Kim, fidgeting her fingers. "Why would something be bumming me out, Kim?" She simply pointed at the two empty ice-cream containers. They stared for a while and then Monique sighed, her defenses done. "Another one."
Kim already knew what that meant.
"Oh, Mo, not another bad date?" Kim urged, leaning in to hold her shoulder. Monique's eyes drooped for a second before she shook it off, taking another bite of her vanilla flavored ice-cream.
"Another scrub Kim..." she mumbled, finishing the last of her ice-cream. Groaning hard, Monique fell back into her cushioned seat, shoulders hunched and arms crossed. "I'm starting to think I'm a scrub magnetic."
"C'mon, Mo, we both know you are not a scrub magnetic." Kim reaffirmed, pulling away the ice-cream containers from Monique to lessen the desire for more ice-cream goodness. Last thing she needed was to put on any extra pounds and then dish it out to her later.
"Oh? Really Kim?" It sounded more of a matter-of-fact than question. "Every time a guy asks me out, they all just seem to think they could take me out on some low-rate date to either a drive thru or a random gross picnic." Monique then glared a bit. "And then they try to see if they have a shot playing tonsil hockey at me..." she fell deeper into her seat, pouting. "I'm sick of it."
"But—!"
"So yea, I'm totally a scrub magnetic."
Kim smiled at her friend, shaking her head in disbelief. "Don't be sill,y Monique. You just... haven't met the right person yet."
"Yea?" Monique challenged halfheartedly. "And who is the right person?"
Before Kim could even grasp the question, Ron found the two sitting in the booth. He quickly stared and then waved to his other female friend while his other hand held a vanilla swirl cone.
"Hey Monique, what are you doing here?" Ron asked curiously, not yet taking his seat.
Monique smiled weakly at the blond. "Oh, you know Ron, just enjoying some ice-cream." The girl gestured at the cartons beside Kim who was suddenly nervous like never before. Monique barely noticed it before Kim spoke up.
"Oops, I forgot to get my ice-cream!" Kim moved out the booth in a hurry fashion, pointing back at the concession stand even faster. "I'll just go get some, now, from over there—and not here." Neither of the other two teens could even blink before the red-headed girl walked quickly to get her frozen treat.
Monique stared curiously at her, shrugging eventually at her strange attitude. She really didn't feel like breaking down Kim to spill whatever was on her mind. At least not now. She was too depressed to bother. Besides, she could do that later. Kim's not such a tough safe to crack.
Her lack of interest still didn't stop her from asking. "I wonder what that was all about?"
Ron's lost in the shuffle, too busy shrugging at the scene while taking the seat that was previously occupied by Kim. He licked his mixed treat, falling back into the booth with a content sigh.
"Beats me..." he answered absently. "She's been like ever since we returned from our mission to stop Drakken from using the moon to control the planet's tides."
Monique stared at him, confused as much as he normally was. "The moon?" What?
"Don't ask me." Ron blinked. "I still don't get it. And he ranted it to us." The sidekick spilled a bit of his chocolate mix vanilla blend onto his black mission shirt. "Aww man! This is a new mission's shirt! KP's going to kill me!"
Monique couldn't help but smile at his Ron-antics and whining about the little stain. Laughing at her friend's misery or not, it was the first warm smile she had all day. She almost giggled too, almost. She simply grabbed his cone from his hand. Ron gratefully sighed before trying to wipe the stain off his shirt with his sleeve. Nope, that didn't help at all. Only helped create a bigger stain on his already dirtied shirt and his sleeve. The sidekick actually groaned louder this time.
This time Monique couldn't hold back the giggles at his usual antics and without realizing, she licked a smudge of his ice-cream, a tiny bit splashing on her caramel lips.
"So what were you and KP talking about just now?" he suddenly asked, taking the ice-cream back with innocent looking eyes, licking another part of his cone as if nothing had happened.
Monique's giddiness vanished fast and a large thump rested in her throat. The idea of Ron wanting to know what was eating her somehow forced her to shut down. She couldn't tell Ron what happened. He was Ron. A guy. Not Kim. A girl. Friend talk was for them, but girl talk for her and Kim. And her problems most definite flowed on the side of girl talk. And Ron was not a girl.
He could never be able to listen and talk to her. He was a guy. And guys never made good listeners.
"Nothing important, Ron." Monique lied, flipping her hand in the air in order to sell it. "Just some sales going on at Club Banana later and these new jackets me and Kim plan to get later." Okay, that one wasn't a lie. They had been talking about getting jackets later.
Watching the sidekick roll his eyes at the mention of Club Banana both irked and pleased the girl. At least she knew of some ways for Ron to lose interest in conversations.
"Don't remind me!" Ron groaned and threw his head back, handing Monique his ice-cream cone. "That's all KP has been talking about the past couple of days. On how blue is the new black and how a pair of boots would totally go cute with her winter sweater."
Monique blinked and suddenly stared very hard at the clueless boy, almost letting the ice-cream cone fall out her hands. She settled for the contents to however drip down her hand a bit. But the nerves in her body refused to acknowledge the cold substance tingling between her fingers.
"S-She told you that?" Monique asked dumbfounded? Unable to believe that he listened!
"Yup!" he trailed, eyebrow lifted. "Why? What's your point? Kim tells me everything. And I mean everything."
"Nothing. It's just so... so!"
"So what?"
Monique didn't know how to rebuttal his direct question, and luckily for her, she didn't have to. Kim had returned with her s'more flavored ice-cream, scooting in next to her instead of Ron. Monique immediately took close note to this as well, but kept it to herself. Normally, Kim would sit next to Ron, even whenever they went to Bueno Nacho.
Something was majorly up between them.
"KP! You're back!" Ron grinned, forgetting all about his earlier question. Monique breathed a sigh of relief from his sudden change back to his essential Ronness.
Problem avoided.
Kim held up her ice-cream with a tiny smile. "Yea, they had my favorite flavor. And I wondered how much I should get. I settled for just a small cone."
She was about to take her first lick—beep-beep-beep-beep—but the kimmunicator went off, putting a stop to the party. Groaning, the hero girl pulled out the device from her cargo pants and peered onto the message before it. Her frown deepened.
"Darn, I totally forgot..." she sighed, standing up. "I had to work more on the yearbook today. Last week's pages were due earlier today." Grumbling, she stuffed the device back in her pocket before sighing for the unknown time today. Looking at her two friends, Kim pointed her thumb toward the door. "I got to go."
Both Monique and Ron nodded in understanding, knowing full well that Kim was a busy little bee. She smiled at her friends before running out to catch up on her overdue year book pages. Her companions watched in sadness as the girl left, not being able to enjoy some peace after a mission.
"I feel bad for Kim." Monique remarked, watching her run. She felt a bit better knowing that it wasn't her so stuffed with demanding work. "It must be hard to save the world and still have to go work in all those clubs."
Ron grabbed back his cone from Monique's hands, grabbing back her attention. He licked it a few times, falling back easier into the cushioned seat. "Ah, don't worry about Kim, Monique. She can handle a few yearbook pages. She can do anything."
Monique took Ron's praise of his best friend wholeheartedly. It must be nice to have someone who had the utmost confidence in someone else, no matter what life threw at them. She knew Ron was nice and wished maybe he could share some of that positive enthusiasm with her. Then maybe she could look at this scrub magnetic sitch in a whole different light.
"You know, Kim's lucky to have you as a best friend." Monique teased with a knowing grin. Ron stopped his assault on his frozen treat to stare at her innocently, eyes slightly wide. "Someone to always have her back." She grinned sadly. "It must be nice."
Ron lowered his ice-cream. "What do you mean it must be nice? Don't you have a friend like that?"
Monique smiled wider at his concern. "I have friends Ron, you and Kim and some other people. Just not the friendship you and Kim both share. The closest I got to that is Kim. And she is always busy. You know that better than anyone."
The sidekick felt a small bit of guilt build in him. Even he wasn't that dense—busy just meant either she was either working on some school club project, practicing her cheerleading, running around the world to handle some mission, or hanging out with him. The matter of fact was Kim just didn't have much time to hang out without anyone but him. Especially Monique. And that kind of tanked.
If only she could have a friend like him to spend more time with. Then like a cliché miracle, a thought popped into his head! Why couldn't he hang out with Monique more? He wasn't nearly as busy as Kim was. Humph, scratch that! Ron Stoppable was never busy at all. It would be perfect!
"Well then, that changes today, Monique!" Ron settled, handing her his ice-cream. "I'll be that friend for you. We can hang out whenever Kim's too busy and I'm sure Felix won't mind if I cut out some Zombie Mashing time either." The sidekick frowned. "Besides, he cheats."
Monique stared at the ice-cream in her hands and then back at Ron. For one, she knew Felix didn't need to cheat to beat Ron at well, anything. Second, she felt a little giddy and grateful at the way Ron just devoted his time to her without even a second thought. The act was chivalrous to her and she felt content about it. But she couldn't force the poor boy to free up his time just for her.
Monique half-smiled at him. "Ron, that's not really—!"
"Nope!" Ron so stubbornly cut in, moving his hand in a halting motion. "I'm not taking no as answer. This Stoppable Train is on a way stop to Friendship Town with Monique as its one passenger!"
She stopped again to blink at his stubbornness and unbelievably sweet act. For a second the fashion girl actually found that willfulness a little pleasant. It felt nice. Real nice for someone to devote their time to her—not like those scrubs she had been spending time with recently. They only cared about themselves. Ron, well, he was different. She knew that before he even determined to spend more time with her. And it was sweet.
Besides, she doubted Ron would leave her alone now after spilling her feelings like that. It wasn't in him to go back on his word or leave a friend in need, even if they pushed him not to. The boy didn't have a bad bone in his body.
Smiling bigger at him, Monique licked more of his vanilla swirl ice-cream, enjoying the taste of chocolate and vanilla mixed together. They went well together, a perfect blend. She had stolen a few more licks until the thought bluntly bashed at her. This whole time she and Ron had been sharing an ice-cream! His ice-cream!
Realizing that she was the first to notice this, Monique handed him back his ice-cream before he could puzzle it together. A small and lesser blush compared to Kim's etched on her nose. "So I'm not going to be able to get rid of you, am I?"
Ron took the ice-cream without thinking, smiling quite proudly at her surrender. He resumed attacking his treat with equal vigor she had earlier. The ice-cream was more than half way gone and melted.
"Like I said Monique. I'm not taking no as an answer!" And with that his decision was final.
She gave.
There was no way of getting Ron off her back now. And the thought didn't seem so bad. At least she hoped it wouldn't be for the future. Shuffling a bit in her seat, Monique cleared her throat, re-grabbing his attention for clearly Ron Stoppable was lost and what they most have both thought was the perfect blend of ice-cream.
Ahem!
Ron stopped enjoying his food again to stare at the interested girl in front of him. She had her arms crossed and her finger tugging lightly at her lip.
"So Ron..." she started.
"Hn?"
"What exactly do I get for having the oh so amazing Ron Stoppable as my own personal goofy close friend? Momma needs some perks." Monique asked, waiting to see his reaction. The idea did tempt her, but also haunted her. She so did not want to play Zombie Mashers or spend all day playing some computer games.
Shiver!
Ron tossed the cone in the air, catching it between his fingers in a seemingly impressive matter, for him at least. He smiled broadly at her, standing up from the booth, and rubbing one hand off his still ice-cream stained mission tee.
"Well, for starters, you remember that time when me and Kim had to deal with that freaky dude and that amulet thingy that made him all Egyptian like at the GWA?" Monique nodded at this. "Well, after helping them stop that dude, they gave us tickets for life to go watch wrestling matches whenever they had them. And since KP doesn't like wrestling?" He stopped, hoping she got the hint.
She did.
Wrestling sounded off the hook!
"Okay..." Monique fought the urge to excitingly jump up, but the grin on her face refused to go away. "Anything else?"
"We could eat at Bueno Nacho more."
Monique stared at him hard. "How is that any different from what we do now?"
Ron laughed, rubbing his neck. "Well, since I beat you at our last burrito eating contest, I just thought you would like a rematch?" Suddenly he leaned forward, slapping one hand on the table, pure resolve strong in his eyes. "Unless, of course, you admit that I could out-eat you anytime, anywhere, and anyplace."
Oh no! This boy did not just challenge her. Her of all people! She only lost because she had to burp last time! And he knew that! Ron Stoppable knew that like the back of his hand. The twitch of rivalry burned in her eyes, equally as hot. Okay! He was challenging. Fair enough. Monique enjoyed friendly competition as much as the next girl. Not to say Kim wasn't competitive, because she was, but perhaps a little too much for her tastes.
Monique stood up from her seat and smiled at Ron, accepting his challenge—eh—new friendship. Unknowing to her, she swiped the cone in a competitive matter to prove how fast she could eat. And in less than a few bites, entire cone was gone, leaving a slightly nervous Ron.
"Okay, Ron!" Monique grinned mockishly, poking at his chest, "I accept your friendship. Let's see how this works then."
Glad for her to see his way, Ron smirked. And Monique realized something—this was the first time she had ever seen the boy smirk. Grin, smile, even beam, but never smirked. The confidence in his expression showed power and determination. Something Monique was only slightly use to seeing in Ron. A smirking Ron Stoppable proved to put her on the edge, but in a majorly good way.
"So Ron, what do you want to do then?" she asked, waiting to see how this would turn out.
The sidekick began walking toward the door, waving off lazily. "If you want... there is a GWA match today with Steel Toe vs. Pain King." That smirked returned. "And I can't wait to see Steel Toe demolish Pain King."
Oh no he didn't!
Without much warning, Monique roughly pushed Ron out the door, shoving him playfully. "Fine then! Let's go watch my boy take down Steel Woe!" she mocked, edging her voice.
"It's Steel Toe!"
"Sure it is... until Pain King thrashes him!" Monique smirked back, licking her lips with the taste of vanilla and chocolate still pleasantly etched between them. She found she liked the flavor.
It tingled pleasantly on her lips.
Author Notes: Edited - 3/4/2018