Title: Anniversary
Story Summary: My celebration of the 10th anniversary of KP, and what the show means to me.
Disclaimer: The characters of this story are owned by Disney Corporation but the story is not done for profit.
~*~*KP*~*~
As I write these words, it's June 7, 2012. Ten years ago on this day is when the show Kim Possible premiered on Disney Channel. I wasn't interested in or even paying attention to the show back then, nor a year or two later when I saw a friend sporting a Kim Possible T-shirt. No, it wasn't until 2008, when the show had ended for good (for the second time) that I got into it.
However, when I did get into the show, it helped me put a smile on again after a very difficult time in my life. Looking back now a few years after that, I'd like to thank the show for three things, really. One is for the show itself and what I already referenced above. The other is to get back into sharing my non-work writing with people (though a friend also had a lot to do with that, Kim Possible is how it got realized). And finally: I'm a very private person, but writing stories for the show had me make some very dear friends who got through my walls, to whom I dedicate this story.
To Earl Allison and Pinky Jo Curlytail.
~*~*KP*~*~
Anniversary
by Slipgate
Ron Stoppable was a man of many ideas. Some of them proved to be undiluted genius (or at least he liked to think so, and his wife sometimes agreed with him). Others ended up becoming odd remarks on slips of paper, eventually robbed of their context but piling up anyway. This time, though, he knew he had a fantastic idea. And he knew, just knew, that Kim would think so too.
It was the Memorial Day weekend. Ron had plans for it, and Kim, charmed by his intention to spearhead it, had agreed to make sure the weekend was free of missions or other work. She'd taken an exception for schoolwork, of course, because she couldn't fully control what their classes might do. But amazingly, they'd both lucked out for the weekend. She was curious what he had in mind, and truthfully, a little dubious too, but she understood Ron well enough that if he was this clammed up about his idea that it was something pretty heartfelt.
A year of marriage to Ron Stoppable had shown her many ways in which her guy could be amazingly sweet. And that's before you counted the decade plus of counting on him she had before that.
She turned over in bed, only partly waking up when she perceived Ron slip out of bed earlier than usual. Eventually she finally pulled the covers off herself and walked around the bedroom blankly a bit as her mind rebooted. Mechanically, she ran a comb through her hair and stretched her arms above her head. She had a break ahead of her, but she was still definitely in low-power mode from the week she'd had. She padded into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, choosing also to splash cold water on her face.
When she came downstairs, she found Ron setting two plates with eggs, turkey bacon, and cups of black coffee down at their places. He also, her more awake eyes noticed, had an envelope stuffed into his back pants pocket. (She grinned at how quickly she'd noticed something out of the ordinary on the back of his pants.)
She threw her arms around his neck – which, judging by his widening eyes, surprised even him – and then their lips were together. His eyes widened further at what he thought was Kim putting her hands on his bottom, only to suddenly lose the happy lip-lock as she pulled away sporting his envelope in one hand, with a wet smack the reward for the sudden kiss.
"Hey!" he said, "I was going to share that with you over breakfast."
"Well, I just shared something else with you, so I think I earned it." she said, grinning.
His face became so morose that Kim reconsidered and, closing her eyes, held the envelope out to him. "Pull my seat out for me, honey?" she asked.
After a short pause, she felt the envelope taken from her hand and then felt arms on her shoulders guiding her to her chair and pulling it out for her. As she sat down, she opened her eyes and looked right into his. "I didn't mean to hurt your excitement, honey."
"It's okay… I just… wanted to make you breakfast and show you as we were eating."
"I understand. Come here."
"Uh, here?" he said, confused. When she crooked a finger at him and winked, he understood.
A few minutes later she finally used an open breathing moment to ask, "How is it that just crooking a finger at you gets you so excited that you outnumber the kisses I gave you back in our first year in just a few minutes?"
"Do you know how you look doing that?"
"I guess not."
"Trust me. It makes perfect sense."
They began eating the slightly room temperature food at last. While the eggs and the bacon weren't terrible that way, Ron took one sip of his coffee and wordlessly took his own and Kim's cup to reheat them in the microwave.
"That bad, huh?"
"Hey, between the coffee and the kisses, I think I made the right choice on how to spend my time."
"I have to wonder if you'll ever get tired of my kisses."
"I have to wonder if you'll ever get tired of hearing how much they rock."
"Maybe not." they said in unison.
"Jinx!" Ron shouted – first this time. "You owe me a trip to New York!"
~*~*KP*~*~
"Wait, what?" Kim asked.
"A trip to New York." he said, tossing the envelope her way.
She caught it and this time looked at it as he looked on expectantly. The envelope contained two tickets to New York for that day. They had a flight to JFK Airport which would depart in… three hours.
"Wait, is this right? Are we even packed?"
"I took care of that last night."
"Was I that out of it studying?"
"There was one side benefit to you having the school week from hell."
"What about my, um,"… she trailed off.
"Trust me. Everything is packed."
She looked at him. His eyes were gleaming. There was something about New York City that was calling him. It was tickling at the back of her mind but she was having trouble placing it.
"So all I have to do," she ventured, "is shower and get dressed?"
"You got that right, Mrs. Stoppable."
~*~*KP*~*~
Kim was a little lethargic on the plane, so she wasn't able to mentally re-engage with what Ron might have in mind until they touched down at JFK Airport.
"This is ringing a bell, Ron, but maybe I'm just still decompressing. What do we have in mind for New York?"
"Anything you want, KP. I seem to recall a certain lady of mine once mentioning that the New York Club Banana has a big discount section down in the basement. And then there's the fancy Bueno Nacho on 42nd Street that has waiters and silverware that's actually silver."
And then it clicked.
"Ron! You're talking about the trip we almost decided on that time we were on that mission in Connecticut… after the Moodulator weirdness."
"Yes, yes I am. We never got to have that date, and I suddenly realized, what's stopping us from having it now? No uncertainty about how we feel about each other, no hesitations calling it a date, no crazy geneticists or genetic experiments, just you, me, and whatever we want to do."
Ron Stoppable was happy to learn that he was right – Kim did think this was a fantastic idea. He also was suddenly worried whether he might run out of oxygen before this trip got started.
Eh, he decided, I'll die happy.
~*~*KP*~*~
It was getting somewhat late on a Saturday, but it was still light out.
"Ron, open to a suggestion for tonight?"
"I already told you, KP. What my lady wants this weekend, my lady gets."
"It's kind of getting close to evening now, so maybe we should just do one thing tonight and start fresh tomorrow in terms of being tourist-y."
"One thing tonight? I'm guessing you have something in mind, huh?"
"Let's check out the Empire State Building and get up on the Observation Deck while it's still light out."
They got a taxi from the airport and had the driver take them to the Empire State Building. The trip took them westward and onto the island of Manhattan.
They lucked out and got to the Empire State Building while it was still light out, as they had hoped. They looked up at the building, making valiant attempts to capture it all in photos with their necks craned back, then went in. The elevator made poor Ron's stomach lurch a bit as it raced up eighty floors, but it calmed down after. The view was amazing, even without using the little pay telescopes. As they looked at all of Manhattan around them, Ron thought he saw some green to the north.
"Is that Central Park?" he wondered aloud.
A woman nearby heard him and replied, "No dearie. That's just Bryant Park. Central Park is a fair bit larger and farther north. Can you see those trees way further out?"
"Not… not really," Kim had to admit after she and Ron both craned their eyes.
"Try one of the telescopes."
After paying for the use of one the woman quickly oriented it for them and said "That's Central Park, dearies."
Ron was suitably impressed at how much larger the park was. "Is it a safe place?" he wondered, but the woman had already gone on her way.
"Well, we'll be cautious if we ever go there, but somehow I think the typical person and the two of us might have different definitions of danger."
Kim and Ron stayed on the observation deck for a little while because even though it was still light out they were kind of both on the wavelength of hoping to watch the sunset from up here. A few minutes after 8:00, they watched from their high vantage point as it dipped and the oranges finally started to darken away. As Kim looked out at the beautiful colors slowly becoming muted, she felt a gentle but insistent hand turn her face and found her lips joined by those of her husband. In the deepening orange glow, they shared a slow kiss, ignoring the people milling around them. Kim liked to flabbergast Ron every now and then, but she had to admit right now she was probably the one all out of sorts. When they finally released each other's lips Kim held tightly to Ron, her eyes remaining closed, as the twilight descended around them.
~*~*KP*~*~
Ron picked up some maps of the city on their way down and out of the Empire State Building, and after a glance at the map in the vicinity of where they were, he immediately spotted a 'Hotel Giraffe' just a little south of them.
It turned out to be a very deluxe hotel. Kim and Ron both had to grimace at the price, but they hadn't really researched things and anticipated that staying elsewhere in Manhattan sight unseen would possibly cost nearly as much. Ron forked over the credit card to pay for two nights for two adults to the tune of close to a thousand dollars.
"Are you sure, Ron?"
"I know you and I are a bit more budget conscious than this, KP, but I'd feel pretty lame if I was starting to have cold feet about spending money on this trip considering it's our anniversary."
They resolved to make full use of the amenities to feel a little better about the money spent. They learned they'd just missed a complimentary wine and cheese reception that ended at 8 and wouldn't be back again until Monday night by the time they were gone, but one look at Ron's adoring face told Kim the tradeoff had been worth it. They ordered one bottle of wine and some dinner for their room and then went up to find just how luxurious their room was.
It was a much happier Kim Stoppable, who had started to put her week behind her, who retired into an ultra-luxurious bed after enjoying a wonderful dinner and a calming bottle of wine with her husband.
~*~*KP*~*~
Kim and Ron woke feeling less stressed. They knew their hotel was expensive and that they might not get to use a lot of its amenities, but they decided – they'd been talking over the wine and dinner – that they were going to go about this calmly. There was no way they were going to see everything in two or even two and a half days, and if they did want to travel around they weren't going to get to use a lot of their hotel's nice services, but they were not going to let themselves get out of sorts or start taking it out on each other because they didn't get to go to one particular place or because they missed a complimentary breakfast or anything like that. They dealt with enough in their lives – this was their time to decompress together.
Kim had also been thinking about the mission that had first inspired Ron to surprise her with this New York trip, and remembered just how often they'd done more than their share for king and country on a school night or weekend, and promised herself that she was going to take a page from the Stoppable book on marination.
That said, they were in time for the complimentary breakfast, and made sure to have lots of wonderful dark roast coffee.
After breakfast, they started walking north on Park Avenue just to get a bit of a feel for walking through the city. After a mile, they hit 42nd Street and the sight of it reminded Kim of the Bueno Nacho. She immediately suggested it.
"You sure, KP? I mean, what about Club Banana? Or look, there's Grand Central Station right there."
"Well, we'll get pictures of Grand Central while we're here, but don't worry about Club Banana. We have time to go there after."
As it turned out, they had to hoof it a bit along 42nd to find the Bueno Nacho, but it was good since that meant they were ready for lunch.
"This is a little surreal," Ron admitted after being provided fine silverware with his chimerito.
Kim's salad was in a gleaming bowl. "I'd have to agree. I have to imagine that if they employ dishwashers here they've learned to hate Diablo Sauce."
A grin suddenly quirked on Ron's lips.
"What's the deal, Ron? Spill."
"I just remembered the time I had my arm on the small of your back while you were in your cheerleading outfit, and here I am trying to dab your nose with Diablo Sauce…"
"We really had some interesting body language going on back then, didn't we? In retrospect, I want to plant my face in my hands when I think about why all those people were cheering for us at Prom."
"In fairness, that was a month and change after most of the town was trying to figure out if we had or hadn't hooked up for real."
Kim looked up at him.
"You know, I was never really comfortable with the Moodulator sitch. While we got ourselves straightened out, and I have to admit it forced us to evaluate what we really were to each other, in general I could have done without the loss of control."
Ron put his hands on Kim's. "Don't worry about it any more. We're straight. For the rest, of course you don't literally want to not be in control of your actions. But for the most part I think back then you needed to feel like you were in control of every situation a lot more than you feel these days."
"I suppose."
"I know."
~*~*KP*~*~
After lunch, they took a taxi and had it take them through Manhattan. They eventually hit FDR Drive and requested the cab driver just follow it south.
A while later Ron, who was looking out the window, shouted, "Whoa, is that what I think it is?"
"What is it?" Kim asked, concerned.
"That street sign said Wall Street! Pull over, sir!"
"You want to check it out?" Kim guessed.
After they paid the cabbie, they walked back the way they came. There was a pier to their right and then there was Wall Street to their left.
"Just like that." Ron said, surprised. "I mean, I sort of knew it was a literal street, but this is 'the' Wall Street?" He squinted and looked down the road at the tall buildings.
Kim was studying the map and said, "A while down that way is Broadway. Shall we go?"
"You want to catch a Broadway show?"
"Maybe. Let's go to the street and see what we see."
Soon they had done just that, walking along Broadway looking for a playhouse. They'd eventually stopped another cab and asked him to guide them to one since they hadn't seen one yet. The cabbie suggested the Broadway Theatre and took them up north for it.
They lucked out that they were just in time to purchase tickets and sit down for a 3 pm showing, just barely.
~*~*KP*~*~
After the play, Ron made good on his promise to take Kim to the Club Banana. The Stoppables had a lighter wallet but a very happy wife by the time they walked out of the store.
They were trying to think of what to do next, and realizing how much they'd already been on their feet that day. They got a cab up to Central Park and walked through the park for a bit. The greenery was a huge change of pace from New York so far, so they appreciated it.
They talked as they walked through Central Park.
"It's kind of too bad that we can't see more – especially since it's mostly Manhattan stuff we've seen – but it's already Sunday and we need to fly back tomorrow, don't we?" Kim asked.
"You're not disappointed, are you, KP?"
"No. Not at all. I mean, we talked. We knew we wouldn't be able to do everything in New York City in a day or two. And we've been on our feet so much today that I bet yours are killing you. I know mine are killing me."
"Kim Stoppable admitted to vulnerability?"
"Quiet you." she said, but she was grinning.
"No, I know we can't do everything – but do you feel pretty good about what we did?"
"Considering we had an awesome sleep, hit up both of the things we talked about four years ago, had that amazing sunset and kiss yesterday, and managed to squeeze in a few other things besides? I'd say so. If I tried to run around more than that this would be killing me instead of recharging me. I'm actually really excited about how comfortable and peaceful the sleep tonight will be."
"I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the trip, but I feel kind of bad that it feels like it's already wrapping up."
"Don't worry about it. This was great, really. But, for the sake of argument, what else could we do?"
"Maybe this," Ron said, suddenly spotting a tree and getting an idea.
"Ron?" Kim asked, as he went over to it.
He looked around carefully to see if anyone was observing them.
"This may be against rules, KP, but…" he began, then quieted down and pulled out his small utility knife. He started carving in the tree and although at first Kim's hands flew to her mouth and she wanted to reprimand him, she instead looked around red-faced hoping nobody caught this.
Curiosity demanded she look at what Ron was carving. In the straight strokes that were necessary for knife work, he had carved out:
KP + RS
10+
Then he attempted to make a crude heart shape around it.
"Ron?" Kim asked. "I think I get the KP + RS – remind me to suck your lungs dry when we're no longer at the scene of the crime – but, uh, what does the rest mean?"
"More than ten years we've known each other now, Kim… or rather, more than ten years of friendship before we got together. I'm kind of hoping the heart can stand in for the year of marriage…"
Kim quickly hustled Ron away from the tree – that is, after a kiss.
That night Ron and Kim Stoppable relaxed with a fine dinner, another bottle of wine, and a little something else as they toasted their anniversary.
fin
~*~*KP*~*~
The New York inspiration came from author Michael Howard.