Disclaimer: Though I'd worked for the Mouse Ears Channel at one time in my life, I own nothing of the series Kim Possible except a few videos that I've bought over the years. I even sold off the stocks that I'd earned while working there. I was stupid enough to cash them in when I left so I receive nothing from Disney, for this or any of my stories. (Well, I will get a few bucks when I retirement in about 15 years since I'd gained tenure before I left.)

Author Notes: This story takes place during the end of StD, but Eric turns out to really exist. It begins as a takeoff of Shakespeare's story Romeo and Juliet, if you haven't guessed by the title, with major deletions and additions to the plot line. (I can't very well have the Possible and Stoppable clans at war with each other and I wouldn't have Kim and Ron commit suicide in the end now would I?) Well actually there's only one element from R & J here in this first chapter but I won't spoil it by telling you what that is. (And even that plot point is manipulated so much this is actually nothing like Romeo and Juliet at all. I think the idea just led to a great, unique title.) If you want a better "real Eric" story read MrDrP's tale simply called Eric.

Xxxxxx

Kimmieo and Ronniette

"It's not over!" Dr. Drakken howled in utter dismay as he sat in the back of the police paddy wagon. His diabolical plot to take over the world using Diablo-bots almost succeeded before that buffoon Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible rallied and foiled the plot. (And after the roof confrontation he will never be able to forget that accursed boy's name ever again, even if he used one of his own diabolical devices to make himself forget! Hmm, there's an idea. A Memory Forgetting Machine. Make one or both of those goody-goody teens forget who they are. Drakken made a mental note to look into that but knew he'd probably forget the dastardly device since his memory wasn't as good as it used to be.) Shego, her hair a frizzy mess from being booted into the transmission tower and having taken a few million volts in the process, was woefully sitting next to him along with a few of the henchmen. Luckily for her, it's not the volts that kill, it's the amps. "It can't be over!"

"It's so over dude," Ron Stoppable chuckled as he slammed the back door closed. He rapped twice with his hand on the side of the van to let the driver know that the door was shut and he could drive off.

"Ron, we need to get going," Kim Possible said in a sultry voice as she stepped up to the lad.

"Going?" Ron questioned. "Going where?"

"You'll see," Kim cryptically answered as she took Ron's hand in hers and started to lead him away from the Bueno Nacho Headquarters building. She fully intended to return to the prom with her new boyfriend. Kim planned to reward Ron for bringing her out of the depths of self pity in the bowels of the building when he uttered four little words:

"Out there… In here."

Kim thought she was through with dating or ever finding a boyfriend worthy of her before she heard those four little words; Those four single, but highly significant, syllables. (Yes, Ron actually spoke six words: "Out there, in here. Someone like…" before he was interrupted by Rufus, but the first four words conveyed volumes and were all Kim was interested in.) She'd been played, big time by Drakken and that syntho-hottie Eric, and Kim had been electrically and emotionally devastated by the deception before Ron told her how he felt.

On the surface, Synthodrone 901 appeared to be the ideal guy for her before the shocking realization of what he actually was became known. He was handsome, intelligent and he drove a motorcycle which lent an air of ruggedness and adventure that she so desired in a possible boyfriend. Of course there was the fact that syntho-Eric also dug that she went on dangerous missions. None of the other guys she'd deemed worthy of her cottoned to the idea that their girlfriend could round-house kick a goon through a window. That was too masculine, too un-ladylike for them. They couldn't fathom going out with a girl that was tougher than they were.

Well, every guy except for Ron.

That was why she was going to make Ron her boyfriend. He wasn't in awe of her martial arts prowess or her sometimes masculine ways. They had been friends since Pre-K and he was accustomed to that side of her personality. Ron knew all of her strengths and faults and he loved her all the same. Of course Ron could never be considered a hottie, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the whole Food Chain thing was bogus just like Monique had told her. Wasn't it?

It wasn't in Kim's mind any more, until…

"Excuse me Miss Possible," One of the GJ officer assisting in the arrest and cleanup operation said as he walked up to the two teen heroes, "but we found this gentleman locked in a executive's office."

Kim turned around and saw, "Eric?" She was flabbergasted. In front of her was an identical copy of the synthodrone she'd fallen for one week earlier. He was dressed in a nice pair of black slacks and a fashionable, long sleeved, light brown shirt that was open at the collar.

"He said he'd been held captive for over a week, only being fed twice a day with food from the vending machines," the GJ officer noted to Kim. "Do you think he's the real thing and not another synthodrone like the ones we found in Drakken's lair?" The GJ officer had been one of the men who'd shown up at Drakken's lair after Kim and Ron, well mostly Kim, had rescued her father from an irate, mutant octopus and a dozen synthodrones. The officer had seen the remains of those synthodrones there and had also seen what was left of Synthodrone 901 at this crime scene.

A half dozen scenarios swiftly played through Kim's razor-sharp mind in a split second. Could this be a spare fake Eric or could this be the real deal? If he was real would he be anything like his syntho-copy? There had to have been an original for Drakken to work from, hadn't there? There was only one way to find out.

"Let's see for ourselves," Kim said as she let out a bit of the grappling line from the wrist of her battle suit. She walked over to 'Eric' and gently took his hand as she said, "I'm sorry to do this and it might hurt a bit but it's the only way to test if you're really human or not."

"I think I understand," 'Eric' said when he saw the sharp point of the grapple and he held his hand out, palm up. "While I was locked up in that office I heard some of the major plot points from the people who were guarding my room. Go ahead."

Eric's' hand felt real to Kim. But then again, syntho-Eric's hand had felt natural enough to fool her for almost an entire week. She took one of the barbs of the grapple and pricked the tip of his middle finger.

A bead of red blood oozed from the pinprick in Eric's finger. "Halleluiah! Now if his personality is exactly like syntho-Eric," Kim thought to herself.

"He's human," Kim exhaled in relief as she swiftly decided on how she would find out if his personality was anything like the fake. That was easy. She would simply talk to him on the one hundred mile ride back to Middleton. Kim looked to the GJ officer and said, "We should escort Eric back to the hospital in Middleton to check him over and make sure he hasn't suffered any long term effects from his captivity."

"I'm glad I'm real," Eric chuckled and suavely sucked on his finger to get the bleeding to stop. "And I'm also glad that you're the one who rescued me. You're Kim Possible, right? I wanted to meet you in person but I was kidnapped just before I transferred to your school."

"You wanted to meet me?" Kim giggled and blushed like a school girl as her head ducked to the side to hide her reddening face. "Why?"

"I've followed your career in the news," Eric said as he and Kim were led over to a GJ ground vehicle, "and when I found out my family would be moving to Middleton, well, I just knew I had to meet you."

"Helloooo, KP," Ron called and ran over to the car where Eric, Kim and the officer were standing, "I thought we were going someplace?"

"You go ahead, Ron," Kim nonchalantly waved him off, not taking her star-filled eyes off of the non-syntho hottie. She was completely smitten again, totally forgetting her thoughts of hooking up with Ron. After all, this Eric knew of her martial arts prowess and wanted to meet her. This Eric was appearing more and more to be not only the physical, but the personality template of syntho-Eric. "I need to make sure this young man hasn't suffered any while being detain by Drakken and Shego. I can also assist with any paperwork that needs to get filled out while we ride back to Middleton."

Ron was devastated as he watched Kim and Eric get into the back seat of the car while the GJ officer got behind the wheel and drove away. He'd seen Kim perk up after he hinted to her, in that BN storage room, that he'd be interested in taking their friendship to a new level. Ron thought she was interested in him and reasoned that she wanted to go home and talk about it further.

But then Eric, the real Eric, had to show up. Kim got one look at him and she was off in her fantasy dreamland again. Ron knew he was no match for a hottie. He knew all too well that Kim, while not totally adhering to the Food Chain, was a victim to the whims of their high school's social structure. As much as Kim would deny it out loud, she'd occasionally cave in to Queen Bonnie's convoluted views about the world and dating to try and fit in.

Ron turned and warily trudged back over to his scooter. Without thinking, it hurt too much to think right now, he fired up the rocket motors and zoomed back to Middleton, passing a certain GJ car along the way. He didn't even notice when he passed them, doing at least twice their speed. He was fully operating on autopilot at the moment and the other sparse traffic on the road didn't register in his mind either. Only one question surfaced in Ron's vacant mind on the return trip. "How come the plastic cowling wasn't melting around the hot, J200 fueled engine?"

Ron remembered Mr. Dr. P expounding, during the many annual Rocket Booster Club open houses, about how hot the rocket engines got during a launch so shouldn't his scooter's engine reach those same temperatures?

Brain overload! Imminent shutdown! Brain reboot! Don't think, just enjoy the feeling of a man and his machine on the open road with the wind in his face.

Luckily, the extremely volatile J200 rocket fuel didn't explode or melt any of the bike and held out until Ron was only a few blocks from his house. He was able to coast into the driveway and garage before his momentum petered out and he came to a stop in the back of the garage.

Ron looked at the door leading to the kitchen as he pulled the bike up on its kickstand and remembered no one was home. His parents were off at an Actuary's Convention somewhere for the entire weekend so Ron had the whole house to himself. They wouldn't be home until early Monday morning.

Ron really didn't want to face the emptiness of the house but he knew Rufus was probably hungry after their snackage had been interrupted earlier in the evening by the initial Diablo-bot attack and the ensuing mission at Bueno Nacho Headquarters. The naked mole rat had been instrumental in the win tonight. Rufus had caught the electo-whatchamacallit gun before it fell off the roof and administered the 'Coupe d' Grapes' to ugh, Syntho-not-so-hot 901, ending the scheme. And so, like always, the little fella earned a big reward. "Hey Rufus, we're home buddy," Ron called out. The naked mole rat popped up out of his cargo pants pocket home, yawned and looked around. Ron suggested, "Why don't you go on ahead and get something to eat. There's a block of aged cheddar on the lowest shelf in the fridge. I'll be there in a minute."

"Cheese!" Rufus cheered as he leapt from the pocket and scampered through the cat door to the kitchen. Why the house had a cat door in the kitchen and front door was beyond Ron. His father was allergic to all forms of pet fur so they would never get a cat, or a dog, or a hamster or a mink or a… he was getting distracted and thinking too much again.

Ron solemnly followed his little friend into the house but didn't stop in the kitchen to join Rufus for a bite to eat, as was the norm. He knew what he had to do. Ron had started a journal on his computer last year, after the Moodulator incident, writing about the missions and also putting down all of his hopes and dreams about becoming Kim's actual boyfriend. No man should have to talk about their emotions but he had to vent somewhere and right now he just had to vent. Ron's computer journal was just the place to do something like that so he went straight up to his bedroom.

Ron sat down, booted up his computer and went to work. He wrote down the entire mission, from the time Synthoclone 901 showed up at school until Kim kicked Shego into the tower, then added his feelings about how he thought he and Kim were growing closer after their tied-up discussion in the storage room. He described the elation he felt when he thought Kim wanted to discuss a possible future relationship after the mission was over, then wrote about his total crash and burn when the real Eric came into the picture.

Ron was in such a funk he wrote a few things he probably shouldn't have. He knew no one, not even his parents, would ever snoop in the diary so he got into the deep despair and anguish he was feeling at the time and how he wished it would just be over with. Ron noted that the wording made it seem as if he wanted to end his life but he was too tired to correct the grammar. He'd go back and correct it in the morning. He knew he would have plenty of time since Kim would be with her hot new boyfriend in the foreseeable future and he would again be relegated to third wheel status.

Ron was totally spent after writing in his journal, laying it all out there on the page. The physical and emotion drain from the mission and writing had figuratively beaten him to a pulp and he was exhausted.

He downed two aspirin for the little aches he'd received during the mission, the last two of the bottle, and placed the empty container on the nightstand next to the other empty medicine containers he had started collecting.

Ron didn't know why he was collecting the small plastic pill containers, he just wanted to collect them for a while. He already had four other bottles. One was for a powerful anxiety medication his uncle took. Uncle Rob Stoppable had a stressful job and needed the medication to keep calm during a hard day plus he had to contend with his evil son, Shawn. Ron figured Cousin Shawn could give anyone heart palpitations.

One of the kids at school took pills that were meant to control his high blood pressure and Ron had snatched the empty bottle out of the trash after the kid threw the bottle away.

The other two he'd found, also empty, at the hospital when he was there getting patched up by Mrs. Dr. P. after receiving a minor cut on his leg during a mission. Dr. Possible insisted on patching him and Kim up after every mission, even the smallest of boo-boos, and she was in her office working on some paperwork when they'd arrived back in Middleton. (He had every intention of seeing the good doctor tomorrow for the standard, post Diablo mission checkup, even though he knew that Kim would be off with her new boyfriend doing something date-ishy.) Anyway, those two bottles obtained at the hospital were for powerful drugs which he had no idea what they did. He was going to look up their names on the computer sometime to find out, but not tonight. The aspirin were already kicking in and Ron was dead tired. He stripped down to his boxers and laid down on his bed.

Normally, before he went to sleep, Ron would sit down on the floor in the Lotus position and meditate for a half hour before heading off to bed but he knew if he did that tonight he would fall asleep and end curled up on the floor. He needed to do something a bit more powerful than the standard meditation. Ron didn't want to wake up in the morning with a major kink in his neck from sleeping on the floor so he laid down on his bed and began to Monkey-Meditate. Ron emptied his mind and slowed his breathing and heart rate down to a point where it appeared he was dead. It was an extremely deep, healing meditation that Sensei taught him to get in touch with his Mystical Monkey Powers so he would be able to control them better. This kind of meditation took a lot longer to get into and come out of than the normal style of meditation, but he didn't care.

Tonight, Ron didn't care if he could finally get in touch with his MMP. He just wanted to totally veg-out and forget about everything.

Xxxxxx

Kim growled in frustration as she walked up the street toward Ron's house. Her wonderful, alive and totally real Eric had turned out to be a real jerk.

At first he didn't seem so bad. Eric played all three big-time sports, football, basketball and baseball, and excelled at all three at his last school. Kim had giggled out loud at the pissed-off hissy-fit she imagined Bonnie would throw when she found out Kim was dating a letter man in three different sports as opposed to Brick who only lettered in football.

Then the spam hit the fan.

While Eric wasn't turned off by her missions or martial arts abilities he was more interested in his motorcycle and becoming popular at school. All he asked about on the ride back to Middleton was who was dating whom in the school he was about to enroll in, what his hair looked like after the ordeal, when he would get his motorcycle back and what clothes were in fashion at Middleton High. He was pompous, shallow and so much like Bonnie Rockwaller it wasn't funny.

Eric, it turned out, was a true Food Chain connoisseur.

When she came to that realization it was a major case of dé-jà vu all over again. Kim immediately bolted for the hospital exit doors leaving Eric and the GJ officer in the emergency room and quickly ran for her life. She had to get back to her sanity, her lifeline, her anchor. Kim had to talk to the only person who grounded her and brought order in her life.

She had to get to Her Ron.

In an instant it had all suddenly became so clear to Kim. Ron was the only guy for her. He was the salt to her pepper, the bread to her butter, the Yin to her Yang. Ron may sometimes be buffoonish and act idiotic but she needed that essential Ronness to offset her natural Kimness. She was driven, he was laid back. Her mind would race along at ninety miles an hour while he would putter along, like his scooter without rockets, at two mile per hour. He held her back, but he would do so, just enough, so she didn't rush headlong into any sitch without thinking it through. Ron could make her laugh when she got too serious but let her run roughshod and charge headlong into battle when the situation called for her Kimness to lead the way.

But as much as Ron held her back, he also supported and pushed her along. Without knowing it he would nudge her in the right direction. Ron had started them both off in their crime-fighting careers when he'd insisted she take that first case for Mr. Paisley. She would always be grateful to him for that. Kim had grown up to be a people-helping person at heart and their missions were just the outlet she needed.

Kim knew Ron was home since she could see his scooter in the garage, looking like it was about ready to become the newest resident of the local scrapyard, but the lights were out in the house so she thought he was probably already asleep.

Wait a minute, all the lights were not turned off. There was a faint glow coming from his second floor room.

She just had to see him tonight so she let herself in. Being friends for thirteen years, both Kim and Ron were allowed to enter the other's house without an invitation. Well, it was normally allowed when the parents were home and Kim knew Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable were out of town for the weekend. She was pushing the free invitation a little bit to enter but she just had to see Ron tonight. Kim had all but pushed him aside, again, when she thought the real Eric would become her instant ideal boyfriend. She had to make sure Ron knew how she really felt about him.

Kim casually entered the house and walked up the flight of stairs to his bedroom.

As Kim poked her head into his room she could see the light that was on came from his computer and that he was lying on his bed. Kim went over to his desk to turn off the monitor but stopped when she saw what was on the screen.

It was some kind of diary; Ron's personal journal.

Kim was reluctant to read his personal private diary. She never wanted anyone to read hers so logically, it was taboo to read someone else's. Tit for tat and all that.

Kim was about to turn off the screen when a line on it caught her eye. It was four little words written just this night professing his undying love for her.

'Out there… in here.'

"Oh Ron," Kim softly cooed as she glanced over to the unmoving form on the bed. "How long have you felt that way toward me?" She'd guess how he felt for her from those four words in the storage room but she didn't totally known for sure how he actually felt. For her, that one line spoke volumes.

But her voiced question still begged to be answered and she was reticent to wake him to find out. Ron had been knocked down a few times and roughed up during the tough fight so he was probably exhausted after the mission. Kim didn't want to wake her friend… No, make that boyfriend, …but there was another way to find out how long he'd felt that way for her.

Kim knew he was probably meditating before bedtime and gazed upon her Ron for a moment as she ran a few numbers in her head. She calculated how long it probably took for him to get home, feed Rufus and come up here to write in his journal. Kim knew how long it would've taken for Ron to hunt and peck out tonight's entry, even on a good typing night, and came up with the answer. She had at least twenty minutes before he'd be done meditating. Kim knew what she was about to do was wrong but she just had to know how long Ron had had those feeling for her.

Kim sat down at the computer and paged back up to the beginning of the diary. She read about his growing feelings for her during the Moodulator incident and how he was almost emotionally torn apart when he realized she wasn't acting like herself and was probably under the influences of some diabolical scheme.

Ron had sensed that Kim was under the influence of the Moodulator and acted like a gentleman. How sweet. How caring. How… Ronnish.

She continued reading about how Ron's heart went out to her when she was bonded to Bonnie and then how he utterly regretted his treatment of her after he'd rid himself of his Zorpox persona. Ron related how overjoyed he was that he was allowed to accompany her and her brothers to the Crooked D Ranch and how he missed her so much when they got separated in the TV signals by the Pan Dimensional Vortex Inducer. (Although he'd thoroughly enjoyed himself when he played talk show host and interviewed Drakken.)

Then Kim came to the part about that night's mission.

She read his version of the mission with a bit of a smile; How his hopes soared when he voiced those four little words and noticed her reaction. He'd played up her part of the mission and totally ignored his perfect pass of the electromagnetic scrambler gun to her while he was literally under 'Syntho-Yuck's' foot. Kim lightly chuckled at his picturesque description of the fake Eric and knew she'd be using that true-to-life name for Synthodrone 901 in the future.

Kim's heart sank when she read how Ron emotionally collapsed when she rode off with the real Eric. Ron was crushed. Devastated. He wrote how he wanted his feeling for Kim to totally disappear; That he didn't want to feel like he did if he couldn't be by her side for the rest of their lives. Ron had been pushed out of her life during the previous week with syntho-Eric and it was happening all over again now that the real Eric had shown up.

Finally, he wrote how he wanted it all to simply end; That nonexistence would be better than a life without Kim.

"Oh Ron," Kim groaned in sympathy as she got up and went over to stand by the bed. "You poor, poor man. What have I put you through?"

She lovingly gazed down at him, his serene countenance was peaceful. He looked so calm and placid that it appeared he wasn't even breathing.

Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. There were five medical vials sitting on his nightstand beside the bed. She acknowledged the aspirin bottle before she picked up the smallest bottle and saw it was for high blood pressure. She recognized the medication's name from when she was a Sunshine Spreader and from helping out at the hospital on occasion. Kim glanced at the other bottles and saw they were all, except the aspirin, for very potent drugs.

And the containers were all empty.

Why would Ron have these drug containers in his room? Where did he get them? A thousand questions flew through Kim's mind before she remembered two things.

The bottles were all empty and Ron wanted the feelings of rejection to simply end! Her mind put two and two together and came up with…

"Darn!" (Kim wouldn't, couldn't swear so that was the worst she could come up with.)

Kim panicked when she looked over to Ron and didn't see his chest rise and fall. She panicked more when she swiftly felt his wrist for a pulse and couldn't find one. She really started to panic when she made the connection between the empty medicine vials and Ron's last diary entry.

She had killed Ron.

She had murdered the one person in her life that she now knew meant all the world to her. She had ripped out his heart and stomped on it earlier that night just as assuredly as he had emptied those medicine bottles down his throat!

No, she had shoved those drugs down his throat.

Panic suddenly turned to despair. Kim had just realized her love for her friend… no, her partner, and now he was gone forever. What had she done? She had cast aside the love and devotion of the most wonderfully zany, goofy, loving, caring, infuriating, overt, obtuse, tender… There were just too many contradicting yet apt adjectives to describe the guy. Her friend. Her best friend. Her best friend for life!

Kim's despair deepened when she realized Ron wouldn't be around anymore.

Thirteen years.

For thirteen wonder, exasperating, laughing, crying on his shoulders, letting him cry on her shoulder, goofing off, going on dangerous missions, doing homework, staying up late into the wee hours of the morning simply talking, happy years they were virtually inseparable.

Now they would be separated… for the rest of her life.

Kim didn't know if she could handle that. She didn't know if she wanted to handle that separation, that loneliness, that, that…

"Oh Ron!" Kim cried out in desperation as she flung herself on top of him and started to weep. She suddenly wanted to join him in Heaven.

Wait. She'd been told, a long time ago when she used to attend church with her parents, that suicide was a sin and the person didn't get into Heaven despite however many good deeds he or she accomplished in their life. She hardly attended services nowadays because a mission or something would always pop up. Did that rule still apply? Could a suicide get into Heaven?

But then again, Ron was of the Jewish persuasion. Were religious rules different for him? Was there even a Heaven and Hell in his religious way of thinking? Kim wasn't sure. She could easily look it up on his computer but she was too distraught to even try and Google any of it. Kim thought about the sitch for a second but discovered she really didn't care. Ron was gone and she just wanted to join him in his Deep Eternal Sleep.

Her eyes still overflowing with tears, Kim leaned in and gently kissed Ron's lips and it was wonderful. It was better than the one with Walter Nelson when they'd locked braces and it was definitely better than the one with Josh after their second date where she almost disappeared from embarrassment. And Ron wasn't even alive to participate or reciprocate in this kiss. His lips were still warm and moist as if he hadn't been gone for more than a minute or two.

CPR training suddenly flooded Kim's mind. Heck! (She still couldn't swear.) Why didn't she think about performing Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation sooner? It had only taken a few minutes to read through his diary. How long had it been since Ron took the drugs and his heart had stopped? How long had he been de….

No, she wouldn't consider the possible fact that Ron had passed away. His body was still warm, therefore he could be brought back to her. She would bring him back to life then purge his stomach to get rid of those vile pills.

Kim immediately got up off of her blond friend and positioned herself to start CPR.

Kim had been so overwrought with despair while lying on top of Ron to have noticed the very slow rise and fall of Ron's chest that took all of ten seconds to complete and only happened once every thirty or forty seconds. She hadn't felt the slight thump of a heartbeat in Ron's chest that only occurred four times a minute. His meditation had been so deep and her despair so overwhelming that Kim failed to pick up those faint vital signs of life.

But Ron was brought out of his meditation when Kim had thrown herself on top of him. It was a long, slow process bringing his vital signs back up to normal. Luckily, he was now at the point were his breathing would return to normal just before Kim tried to blow a lungful of air into his mouth. Ron's chest dramatically rose and fell as he took his first breath.

That startled Kim. Stunned from the sudden movement, she quickly rocked back away from him and promptly fell onto the floor on her butt.

Ron took another breath and sat up. He looked around his room and saw a wide-eyed Kim staring back at him from the floor next to his bed. "Oh hey KP, why are you here?" He casually asked. "Do we have another mission so soon?"

"R-R-Ron?" Kim stuttered in shock. One minute he appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be dead and the next he was sitting up in his bed, asking if he was needed for another mission. It took only a split second for Kim's quick mind to shift gears.

Ron was alive!

"Ron!" the redhead squealed in glee as she glomped onto him in a fierce bear hug, knocking them both back onto the bed.

"Hey KP, a little air here," Ron gasped from the frightfully tight embrace. The last time he remembered seeing Kim, she was driving off with Eric to make sure the dude was alright. Kim slackened her hug a bit and Ron knew he had to do the right thing for his friend. She'd probably hooked up with the real Eric so, "How's Eric? Is he okay?"

"Him," Kim angrily spat as she sat up on the bed and took off the battle suit's gloves and boots. "I don't want to even think about that… that…"

Ron could definitely tell that Kim was beyond tweaked. What could've happened? Why was Kim so upset from the mere mention of Eric's name? Had he done something to her? Had Eric tried to make a move on Kim on the ride back to Middleton? In the back of his mind Ron knew that any boy who tried to take advantage of Kim when she didn't want to participate would get his butt royally kicked, but the front of his mind shifted into protection mode.

"Did he try to do something you didn't want to do?" Ron seethed as he started to get out of bed. "Why I'll…"

"No Ron," Kim quickly denied and pulled him back onto the bed as she calmed down, "it's nothing like that. I just found out that he's Food Chain Evil through and through. He's Bonnie in a guy's body."

"So, he didn't?" Ron tentatively asked as his anger swiftly abated. "Then, what's the sitch? Why were you so angry just now?"

"I was angry at myself," Kim muttered just loud enough for Ron to hear as she started to unzip the top of the battle suit, stopping the zipper between her breasts. "I was stupid and fell into the same trap I did with Synthodrone 901."

"Aaaaaw, I'm sorry KP," Ron cooed as he draped an arm loosely around her shoulders. "I know you must feel really hurt right now but as I said in the storage room, there's a guy out there, somewhere, for you. Eric, both of them, might've be bad road but you'll just have ta look a little harder for the right guy. That's all."

"No Ron," Kim giggled at his lame attempt at a joke, something he would always do to lift her spirits, as she snaked her arms around his waist, "you said that there was someone out there, or in here. You were trying to tell me about your feelings for me."

"Me? Noooo!" Ron loudly denied. His arm swiftly left Kim's shoulders as he broke from her embrace, looked away and rubbing his nose with a finger. "Have feelings for you? Noooo!" He panted out a few quick breaths, almost hyperventilating in the process of the lie.

"Yes, you," Kim stated as she pointed over to the lit computer screen. "I read what you wrote in your diary. You've had deep feelings for me for a long time now. Why didn't you tell me?"

The jig was up. Kim had discovered out his little secret and Ron was trapped. He was willing to talk about his feelings earlier that night, and almost had to with the 'out there in here' comment, but now? He wanted to deny the journal, tell her that it was a writing exercise for English Composition class or something but he knew Kim wouldn't buy that. Well, they say the truth will set you free, so…

"It's true but I didn't want you to find out," Ron slumped and looked away. "If you knew then it woulda become awkweird between us and I didn't want that. Besides, you hooked up with Eric. He's what you really want in a boyfriend so I kept my feelings bottled up and only let them out in my journal."

"But Syntho-Yuck wasn't real and the real one is not what I want," Kim softly said. She didn't want to hear or speak that vile name ever again. The ick-factor that came from that name, twice in one night, was more than she could handle. Kim hoped Ron would pick up on her revulsion from the way she'd avoided that name. Ron would pick up on those little cues sometimes. Not often, but sometimes.

"Oh," Ron simply said. He'd caught Kim's sidestepping of that certain name and that had to mean something. Normally he wouldn't catch something that subtle but he had just Monkey-Meditated for a while and his mind was razor sharp and focused right now. Ron realized Kim had been burned by an 'Eric' twice in one night. That must mean she didn't want to hear that name any time soon, but that also didn't mean she would go for him. Kim had virtually shut him out of her life last week and rejected him again earlier that very evening when she went off to make sure the real Eric was okay. Add the fact that Kim was now officially on the rebound and…

"Well," Ron said as he sat up straight with as much bravado in his voice as he could muster, "I'm sure there's someone out there who's right for you, but I don't think you should be looking too hard until you recover from the effects of him. I mean both hims."

"You're right," Kim agreed as she stood and moved over to sit on his lap, "and you're wrong. There is someone who's right for me but he isn't out there and I don't need to wait before I'm over either of them." She draped an arm around his neck and lovingly touched her forehead to his.

"KP," Ron warily said, his hormones getting the better of him. He cautiously wrapped an arm around her waist but he knew he was getting a little turned on and tried to hide the rise in his boxers. "Ah, don't you think you're moving a little too fast here? I mean you're officially on the rebound."

"No, I don't think I'm moving too fast," Kim cooed as her free hand unzipped the suit further, bringing the zipper down to her belly button, "or on the rebound. I think the rebound ish gets thrown out the window when you've been dumped by a synthodrone and I never dated the other one. I've read how you feel about me, let me tell you about my feelings for you."

And she did just that.

She slowly, lovingly told Ron all about the roller coaster ride of emotions she'd been on that whole week leading up to that evening, leaving out nothing except the forbidden name. She even told him that she'd completely forgotten about the Kimmunicator and that she should have immediately called for an ambulance when she thought he was dead. She was just that distraught over the incident. But now, Kim reasoned, they had practically been dating since Pre-K, but without all the baggage that's usually associated with the concept. After ten minutes of outpouring, Kim finally concluded, "I thought I had lost you tonight and the only thing I could think of is how I couldn't live without you. I was about to try CPR on you but if that didn't work, well, I was also thinking about how I would end my life so I could be with you for all eternity."

"No KP!" Ron yelped in dismay. "You can't ever think like that!"

"I know it's wrong to think those thoughts," Kim sincerely said as she doodled a finger on his bare chest to try to help him calm down, "but I was totally out of my mind thinking you wouldn't be with me anymore. I can't live without you, Ron. But now that we'll be together, those thoughts are totally alien to me."

"Well, okay," Ron sighed as his anxiety over the thought of Kim committing suicide over his death ebbed away before his insecurity took over again. "But do you really want to be with me? I mean as boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"I want more than that, Sweetie," Kim giggled as she shucked her shoulders out of the battle suit and pulled her arms out of the sleeves, baring her petite pointy breasts. "I'm thinking long term commitment." She pushed him back onto the bed and laid on top of him. "I'm thinking of maybe sixty or seventy years worth of togetherness." Kim leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't a small peck, but a big, long, wet kiss that contained all of her pent up passion that had build up over the years that she'd been dating and not finding the right guy.

And it was… more than wonderful. It was wonderful times ten; Times one hundred!

Ron's insecurities fled his body almost instantly and he reciprocated Kim's passion in kind as he wrapped his arms around her nude upper body and joined the buss. After all, Kim didn't undress for just any guy and here she was topless and showing him how she felt about him.

They didn't go very far that night. Kim still had a curfew and they were only seventeen. They both knew they weren't legal adults just yet so it wouldn't be right going all the way.

That could wait for later. After all, they had a lifetime together ahead of them.

Xxxxxx

A/N: This was only supposed to be a one-shot! Well, ideas kept coming and the 4,000 word story took flight. The first chapter is now over 7,000 words and two additional chapters have been added. For some unknown reason, that's the way it happens with me now. I start with a simple idea and it blows up into a full-fledged story.

I haven't given up on my other story line, The Closet Eye-Eye-Eye, just yet. I'm working on chapter 19 and there's no end in sight yet. Unfortunately, I've had computer problems and had to buy a new one. Fortunately, I didn't lose any of the story. Unfortunately, my new computer has Solitaire on it and I'm quite addicted to the game. I'll sit down and start playing then look at the clock and see that I've been playing for three or four hours instead of writing.

Anywhooooo, I'm getting this story out there for you and I'll get The Closet part 3 posted when I find an ending. Until then,

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