Chapter 14: Paris Pictures

"Hey Kim," Ron shouted as he walked up the stairway to her room.

"Hey Ron, what's the sitch?"

"Just got back the pictures from when me and the fam toured France. You wanna take a look?"

"Sure!" Kim replied excitedly as she turned the chair from the desk to face him.

Ron plopped down into the beanbag chair and opened up the envelope containing the pictures. He spread them out on the floor in her room, so they could both see.

Looking at some of the first few pictures, Kim said, "You actually took pictures of the places that served French Toast and French Fries?"

"I told you Kim, they were surprisingly in short supply."

"Did you take any pictures of places France is famous for?"

"Well Mom got another tourist to take a picture of the three of us when we were at the Eiffel Tower. I think that's the picturrr…" Ron trailed off as he eyes found the picture on the floor.

Kim's eyes went to the picture as she noticed Ron trailing off. Aww man she thought as she realized the picture had captured her and Killigan battling as they parachuted down.

Before Kim could say anything, Ron looked at her and asked, "So I take it Rufus was good back-up for that mission."

"Well…actually, you remember that chip we got from that sunken ship right before you left for France?"

"Sunken ship? Oh, that was the one when I was going over my care of Rufus guide," replied as his face lit up in recognition at remembering that mission.

"Yes, I believe you were on item 432 of the care of Rufus guide. Anyways Rufus swallowed the chip, so I was keeping him away from Monkey Fist, Duff Killigan, and Shego," explained Kim. "It was no big. You know same old, same old."

"Ah yes, item 432, singing. I knew I would be able to count on you. You had the whole guide down pat."

Kim quickly blinked and then asked, "I thought you wouldn't like that I hadn't informed you about that?"

Kim nervously stared at Ron as he seemed to be in thought. Rufus was a bit freaked, but the little guy is afraid of heights. He tends to cling to me in those sitches. Of course you know that, so saying he was just missing me makes sense. When I talked to you and Rufus later; the dude agreed everything was 'same old, same old'. KP, you focused on keeping him safe. It's not like you just let Killigan take Rufus and not do anything about it.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, you said it was no big. I guess you didn't need my Essential Ronness present this time. I'm just glad Rufus wasn't giving you any trouble. Although that does explain the quick phone call before we entered the tower."

Worry free and smiling now, Kim replied, "Yeah, sorry about cutting you off so quick that time. Your care of Rufus guide helped enough. Speaking of Rufus, where is the little guy?"

A WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH sound echoed through the room as a rocket was being launched outside, interrupting their conversation. A couple of seconds later the rocket broke through the window of her room, and headed straight towards Kim's prized Pandaroo. As Kim's heart jumped into her throat, the rocket's engines shut off and it veered off to the left, and thus avoided impaling the cuddle buddy. It instead crashed into Ron. As he fell backwards onto the bed, Ron's arm knocked the side of the rocket causing it to crash to the floor. After it rolled to a stop, a hatch popped open on the rocket and a dizzy Rufus crawled out. Ron groaned as he sat back up and saw his buddy coming out of the rocket. Recomposing himself a little, he commented, "Well, I guess Rufus was piloting the latest rocket that your brothers made."

Kim's eyes fixated on the now unharmed Pandaroo as she tried to process what had just happened. When Ron made his comment about Rufus piloting, Kim blinked to recollect herself. Having now recovered from the quick scare of her Pandaroo in danger of being destroyed, Kim rushed to the window and yelled "TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBS!"

Looking up from the yard, the twins said in unison, "Uhhh, gotta go," before they made their wooshing exit.

From behind her Ron said, "Well I guess the manual piloting system worked out. Nice save there buddy."

Rufus just gave a thumbs-up for a reply. Kim gave Rufus a thankful look and thought, yeah, good thing for the Tweebs. They'd be so dead if Rufus hadn't avoided Pandaroo. Before she could get much deeper in thought Ron's voice broke through, "So KP, I take it the little man ate well."

After giving a quick huff, she replied, "I'll say. He ate through three months of my allowance during your trip. How can you afford to spend that much on food with him?"

"Savings from shopping at Smartymart."

Go figure Kim thought to herself. Then Ron pulled out some money from his wallet and handed it to Kim asking, "This about cover it?"

"Ron you don't have to..."

"KP you took care of him for me. The least I can do is pay for the food."

Taking the money, Kim realized it wasn't all she had spent, but it was pretty close. "Thanks Ron, I appreciate it. How about Bueno Nacho? It would be my treat for you."

Rufus's head perked up and he gave Kim a questioning look. Kim smiled, "And Rufus. You did stop the rocket from going into Pandaroo." Rufus then looked at Ron with his beggar face saying, "Please, Please."

"I'm game," said Ron. As they were heading out the bedroom door, Ron said, "Wait a sec KP, I almost forgot to give you the souvenirs from France."

"What souvenirs?"

"Ron pulled three French styled hats out of his backpack and said, "These." The berets themselves were matching, one normal sized, and the other two much smaller.

"So I take it the two smaller ones are for Rufus?" Kim asked in confusion since each of the smaller hats was a different size.

"He already got his. The smaller ones are for Pandaroo," Ron said as he started to walk again." He briefly turned around to see Kim standing in the doorway that divided the stairwell leading up to her bedroom and asked, "You coming KP?"

"I need to do one more thing first. I'll meet you and Rufus outside," she replied as she turned to head back up the stairs.

As the boys headed down the stairs, Kim rushed back into her room. As she got over to the shelf that only ever had Pandaroo on it, Kim gently and meticulously placed the mini-berets on the cuddle buddy. One was put on the mother's head and the slightly smaller one on the baby that was inside the pouch. They fit beautifully. A perfect match, sorta like a naked mole rat and a guy I…

"AH! TREE SPIDER! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!" Ron was shouting from outside as he was running in circles.

Kim exhaled as she smiled. She knew without looking what had probably just occurred outside near the bushes. Quickly making her way downstairs, she went outside, grabbed Ron, and flicked the tree spider off his shoulder.

"Thanks KP," Ron said as he panted a little.

"No big. Now let's hurry up and get going," Kim replied as she grabbed his arm and started to drag him along. After they got going, she dropped his arm and they walked side by side to Bueno Nacho. Ron had his usual goofy smile on his face and Kim was ecstatically beaming with a beret on her head.