one shot i just cranked out. un-betaed, so forgive any mistakes. hope you like. the song these lyrics come from is called Brave by Nicole Nordeman.
Welcome to the middle ground. It's safe and sound and, until now, it's where I've been.
Four year old Ron Stoppable peeked through his fingers in confused. He was about to receive the beat-down of his short life, and he'd reflexively curled into himself and shielded his face with his hands. There was a tiny little thing with bright fiery pigtail, screaming at the top of her lungs at the pair that were going to put a hurting on him. She chucked the red rubber ball at the first one's face, and he immediately started to cry. She glared at the other one. "Don't ever hit anybody ever again! I'm telling on you!"
Part of him was amazed, and part of him was amused, and part of him was afraid to cross the red-haired preschooler.
Now, ten years later, he watches the same redhead smirk at the backs of two very terrified looking losers as they make their way back down the hall of Middleton High School. "Oh, while I was in your body, I sorta went back to D-Hall," she says with a mischievous wink.
He just shakes his head. There's a reason why this girl is his best friend. No matter how weird she thinks he is, she would defend him from the day she met him until her dying breath.
Cuz it's been fear that ties me down to everything, but it's been love, your love, that cuts the strings.
When he was nine years old, his lip quivered as he said goodbye to his best friend. She let go of his hands, eyes glistening as she whispered a goodbye.
He was going to summer camp for the first time in his life. Six weeks, and KP wasn't going to come. She and her family were going on some vacation.
Those six weeks were the worst six weeks of his life. When he got back, he stumbled out of the bus and into her arms. She squeezed him hard. "Welcome back, Ronnie," she all but squealed, and in that instant, all the weeks of funky water, teasing, bullies, poison ivy, rabid nut-throwing squirrels, and mayhem dissolved.
He was a bit mentally scarred from the summer camp experience. Afraid of everything from insects to monkeys to swimming, and everything in between. Kim simply rolled her eyes when things got to be ridiculous, but she always was patient with him while he overcame several of those phobias. There were some that would take many more years to overcome, but she had sat him down one day after he freaked out about a squirrel that ran past him, and told him that she was never going to let anything happen to him, and that she would never stop being his best friend even though he jumped out of his skin if something moved the wrong way.
"But KP... don't you want a best friend that's like... normal?"
She'd grinned in response. "No. I want a best friend that's like Ron."
That day, Ron Stoppable vowed to never be normal.
So long, status quo, I think I just let go...
"KP, are you sure about this?!"
"They said they needed help, and they are going to get it! Quick, find something to wear that's comfortable," she said, running into her closet and emerging less than two minutes later in a black shirt and her favorite dark green cargo pants.
He hung up the phone and dove into his closet too. The only thing he found to wear were a pair of navy blue sweat pants and a black tee shirt.
When she met him, she looked him over and shrugged. "That's fine. Now lets go."
They were dropped off near the site and she motioned him to be quiet. They slunk along walls and through security doors, and finally made it into the laboratory where some guy in a white lab coat was laughing maniacally.
"Do you see that?" she hissed at her friend. When he nodded, she continued. "You've got to find where that wire ends. It will ruin his plan. I'm going to rescue Dr. Briggs and Dr. Chambers."
"KP what if you get caught?"
She looked at him, noting his trembling. "If I get caught... run. Get help as fast as you can."
He gulped and nodded, unable to do anything else.
She did get caught, and was dragged to the center of the room, kicking and grunting at her captor. Her hands were bound painfully behind her back. Ron watched In horror as she glared at the man balefully while he questioned her. "Who are you? Where did you come from? Answer my question, insolent Child! What are you doing here?!"
"I'm not telling you anything," she growled again and again.
Ron grabbed the wire and yanked as hard as he could as the man advanced on her, ready to hurt her.
The room went dark. He knew he could escape if he wanted to. It was dark enough. But Kim was down there, and no matter how pissed at him she would be, he was not leaving this building without her. So instead of running toward the door, he stifled his trembling. She needed his help.
You make me wanna be brave.
They made it out of there somehow, towing two bewildered, amazed, and slightly mortified laboratory scientists. The police arrived, and Ron collapsed onto the edge of the sidewalk, head in his hands, unable to keep from trembling anymore.
He felt his best friend's gentle hands on his back. "KP... if you ever scare me like that again I'm going to take your Pandaroo and dip him in bleach!" he said, jabbing a trembling finger in her direction.
She gasped, mortified. "You wouldn't!"
"I would, and then I'd get your parents to ground you! You... he was gunna hurt you!"
"I think we'd better get used to this sort of sitch."
"Sitch?"
"Sitch. Situation."
"I'm not getting used to anything," he growled at her.
She shook her head. "We can get better at this. Look, we saved those people!" Her eyes were glowing. "We did it, Ronnie, and we can do it again. I promise I'll be more careful."
He sighed. "Okay."
Now he is watching her sleep against the window. They are in a GJ hoverjet, on the way home. Since that mission, she'd taken up kung fu, kick boxing, and mixed martial arts. She already has a bunch of black belts in that kung fu stuff, and she's the state champion in kickboxing. And most girls in school wish they had her body. In her sleep, she rubs her wrist, making him frown. They'd had her shackled to some wall for a while until he got there. Unfortunately, he ended up shackled next to her. Now she has bruises forming on both wrists. Rufus pressed the button that released them, and she saved his behind once again as the building made of cheese that he'd just destroyed came down around them.
He sighs, rubbing his own wrists. Things had to change, starting with him. He needs to... well, as he heard someone crudely say last week in school, he needs to grow some. He can't let her get hurt.
The way it always was, it's no longer good enough... you make me wanna be brave.
She's giggling at him again as he calls jynx after they say something at the same time. Ron glares in their direction, muttering about how she's owed him soda since along time before she met... him. That pretty boy, Eric. She didn't even know his last name, and she was all over him. God, what does she see in this guy?! And why is she letting him get between them?! She is completely ignoring him now, and he can't get a word in unless she remembers to include him... once in a while.
I am small, and I speak when I'm spoken to.
He hates that asshole! He's not going to sit here and watch his friendship go down the tubes... not while he has his other best friend, Bueno Nacho. He storms out of the Possible house and stomps through the streets in the dark until he reaches the fast food restaurant.
Rufus stomps on his hand urgently, chittering to get his attention. When he has it, he grabs his pager.
"Kim, 911," it reads. He's out the door and running down the streets before he's even done reading the page. He vaguely hears Ned's sarcastic grumble about putting his meal on his tab.
The door opens before he can knock, and Kim's fear-filled eyes meet his. "Drakken has my dad," she says. His eyes harden. He swore he wouldn't let her get hurt. And this is hurting her. He's going to end it if it kills him.
Say your name, just your name, and I'm ready to jump...even ready to fall.
They're in some warehouse. Bueno Nacho Headquarters? What happened? Oh, right. Her boyfriend turned on her, just like Ron knew he would. He was a robot... eww, she made out with a robot! She's still coming around. The fucker tazed her. He's so going to personally beat the syntho-goo out of him.
"KP! Man, I thought you were down for the count," he says in relief. Then he frowns. In this sitch, she's normally already assessing the situation, her eyes darting around as she's looking for a way to escape. "So what's the plan?" he asks, confused.
"I—I got nothing." Her head hangs dejectedly as she mumbles about how Drakken won and she should have stuck to babysitting. It makes him inexplicably angry.
"That's my line," he growls, "and what's worse, that's quitter talk! Drakken has not won. He played you. Now it's payback time." He sighs. He should have told her. He should have gone to prom and told her to dump her pretty boy before she got hurt, instead of hiding out a the BN like a coward. He swore he wouldn't let her get hurt, and he let her date that syntho-loser. But now is better than never, and something is better than nothing.
"You know... there are other guys out there that are better for you... guys that are real for one thing."
"Really?" he sees hope rise in here eyes. "You think there's someone out there for me?"
Just say it, he told himself. Don't be a coward anymore. "Out there... in here..." What the fuck are you saying? he asks himself. Is that really the best pick-up line you had? Just say it! "Guys like—Rufus?!"
She frowns. "Rufus?" she echoes. "Rufus! You can save us!"
He heaves a sigh. He missed his chance. Again.
Why did I try to keep it all inside?
Tomorrow is the first day of school. He's sitting with her curled up against him, watching a movie. Occasionally she reaches up and kisses him, and it's heaven. His best friend in the world is also officially his girlfriend. Her eyes shine with contentment. This is what she wanted, what she was looking for in him.
He still has nightmares about that... She tries to have patience, but after the thirteenth time he called her, she told him that she wouldn't kiss him again if he kept calling in the middle of the night.
He shakes his head. Last night had been a weird one. But now he has to get ready for school. He's officially a Senior! She's a Senior cheerleader. And cheer captain. And he's her official boyfriend. That ought to keep people from teasing him right?
Wrong. "For once I think I actually agree with Bonnie... gunna have to trade up..." the words ran circles in his mind... she was going to leave him for some jock because Bonnie in her own bitchy way, reminded Kim that she was the queen of this school, and that she could do better than Ron Stoppable. He had to stop it. So he swiped her battlesuit and tried out for the football team, even though he was terrified of those dudes.
You make me wanna be brave...
Well that went well, he thinks to himself as her eyes widen. "You... took my battleuit!" Then her face is ashen and horrified. "You were in my closet!"
He tries to explain himself, but he's too busy trying to keep himself from hurting her with this blasted suit. Come to find out, she wasn't even talking about him. She was talking about Monique's crappy cell phone.
"So you weren't going to-?"
"—trade up my BF?" she finishes for him with a smirk as she sends him flying and crouches defensively. She shakes her head, her pretty red hair falling into her face. She tells him the thing he wants to hear the most: She wants him for him, and she'll never trade him up... as long as he's honest.
The next night is his first game without her battlesuit, and he's nervous. But she cheers him on, and he does his best to man up. he doesn't need her suit, he has her. And she's cheering for him.
The way it always was is no longer good enough... you make me wanna be brave
She's leaning into him, wrapped in his arms, kissing along his jaw before pressing her lips to his in a sweet peck. "You do me proud, Ron Stoppable," she murmurs, "just by being you."
if you believe in me, it changes everything...
He saw the fear and apology in her eyes as she let go of his hand. "Ron..."
The way she said his name had been echoing in his mind for hours. The giant thing had simply lifted her into the air, swallowed her whole, and disappeared. Alien attack. Holy shit, his girlfriend was kidnapped by aliens!
He needed her. She would know what to do. The giant metal things were tearing through Middleton, the body count rising by the hour as homes and businesses were torn apart by their rampage. She could stop them. She could do anything.
She's up there somewhere, he thinks now, watching the clouds dissipate. The power outside is gone, and without the light pollution, the stars look like someone spilled glitter in the sky. His heart sinks. There are hundreds of millions of stars up there... how can he know which one they took her to?
You're headed for the stars, and I'm stuck here on earth. He'd said those words to her in regards to their future, he hadn't meant them literally! Now she's. Gone...
He remembers the look in her eyes. Besides fear, besides the apology in her eyes for letting him go, he saw something else... trust. And that is what makes up his mind. "If Kim's lost in the stars, I'm going to find her."
For the first time since he was four years old, he's brave.
So long, I'm gone...
It's dawn when she gets her diploma. Her heels are broken, and she's barefoot. Her black toga is torn and dirty, her hair is messy, and the yellow sash they gave her, along with the chord she got for graduating with highest honors is tied around her waist. But she looks beautiful and happy and... alive. Because of him.
He, on the other hand, ditched the toga ages ago, and is still wearing his space suit, the one with the jet pack. Barkin calls him a non-conformist punk.
He grins at him. "I gotta stay true to my essential Ronness," he says in response. And he does. His essential Ronness is what saved this planet, and most importantly, saved her. His essential Ronness was new and improved... it included bravery.
Saluting Barkin with his diploma, he shoots into the air victoriously.
So long, status quo, I think I just let go
you make me wanna be brave.
The way it always was is no longer good enough
you make me wanna be brave...