Author's note:

Phew, so, after last week's mammoth update, I'm back again to bring you your weekly fix of And You And I. Yes, I know I'm a day late again, I do apologise. However, while I managed to keep this update on track in terms of length and without creating any extra subplots or chapters for myself to write, the third chapter took a slightly different direction than I had been anticipating. And to make sure it was the right direction, I had to write the first two chapters on the next update and go and re-edit it, before releasing it into the wild. Regardless, all three chapters of this update are present and accounted for and I'm happy with the direction in which the plot is headed as I guide the story towards the event I mentioned in my closing note of the last update.

As always, I have to say a huge thank you to everyone and your continued support. And to all of you that have only recently tunned in, welcome. It's great to have you with us as we continue with our little 'one-shot'.

So, let's get down to business. I've got three chapters for you this time, focusing on our girls respective Sunday nights out, the first of which is titled, I can feel the pressure. This is a line taken from the Paramore track Pressure; from their debut album, All we know is falling. And let's just say it quite nicely conveys how Kim is feeling in this particular chapter. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and I'll see you at the start of the next chapter.

##

Chapter Twenty-two: I can feel the pressure

It had not been a fun night for Kim Possible. In fact, it had been one of the most restless she'd had in a long time. Amidst warm sheets and in the humid summer air, her temperature had spiked again and she had woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning dripping in sweat. She'd been forced to get out of bed, strip out of her pyjamas and find a towel with which to dry herself. Given that the room she had been in was no longer her bedroom, she had been forced to return to bed naked. Soon after she'd had to huddle the blankets around herself as she had been freezing, but then woken up sweating again less than an hour later. The fluctuations in her temperature had gone on all night and so by the time her mom had come to wake her for breakfast, she had still been exhausted.

After she had eaten some of her mom's homemade pancakes, the woman had drawn her a bath before subjecting her to another examination. While she had dodged a trip to the hospital, she had not escaped another shot of antibiotics and more painkillers. However, her mom had taken pity on her, fetched her some fresh pyjamas, changed her bedsheets and allowed her to go back to sleep. The jury had still been out when it came to her plans to go out that night. When Kim had finally awoken mid-afternoon, she had felt a lot better. Her temperature had stabilised, her energy level had increased and the painkillers were keeping the pain at bay while not making her all Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. However, it had not been until after an early dinner, that her mom had given her the ok to actually go out, albeit with a few conditions.

The first had been that she was not allowed to drive. Meaning her mom had taken her home in order to get changed, driven her over to Monique's house and then dropped both of them off in town. Number two had been that she could only have a maximum of four alcoholic drinks and none of them in any way shape or form were allowed to be strong. Naturally, she'd told her mom that she didn't drink and received the, "Kimmie, I was your age once too. I don't mind if you're drinking, so long as you do it responsibly," routine. It had come as a slight surprise, but a welcome one. However, she suspected that the only reason underage drinking was remotely acceptable was because it constituted a 'normal' thing for someone her age to do. Number three had been that they go to Heartbeats and stay there, as her mom did not think it a good idea for her to be bouncing from bar to club to bar and so on. This suited Kim just fine. Finally, at the end of the night, she either had to phone her mom for a lift or take a cab back to her parents' house.

Kim reclined back on one of the leather sofas that flanked the table she shared with Monique. Dressed in a pair of red linen trousers, a black and white floaty top, a black boyfriend blazer and short onyx boots, she had managed to pull off stylish yet comfortable. It was perhaps the first time in a long time she had been out with someone other than Shego and not felt self-conscious in any way. The location helped too. Heartbeats was definitely on the upmarket side of town and like Spritzers had a relaxed feel to it, albeit with live jazz permeating the air, which complemented, rather than bombarded the atmosphere. In the centre of the room was a dancefloor, with the small stage across one side and low tables with an assortment of comfy chairs and sofas dotted around the other three. There was also a mezzanine floor around the same three walls with more space for sitting.

"Kim," Monique said excitedly from the sofa opposite her, "two cute boys at six o'clock."

She turned her head around to try and locate them but received a quick slap on the wrist from across the table. "What was that for," Kim hissed, returning her gaze to her best girl.

"Easy, Tiger, they've only just walked through the door. Give them a chance to get a drink, figure out that seating is at a premium, then we move in on them."

"Right…" she agreed, unsure of what else to say. This had never been her strong suit. For some reason, she could jump across the carriages of a speeding train without hesitation or ride an unstable rocket-powered lawnmower across a chasm and not even blink, but approach a boy and not make a fool of herself… no chance. "Any ideas?"

"Watch and learn, Girl," Monique replied with a smile. "Although, how you can do all that crazy stuff you do but still have trouble talking to boys is beyond me."

"I wish I knew the answer to that too." From somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, she thought she could hear a muffled voice reply, but she couldn't make out what it said. Like the owner had been gagged or stuffed inside a chest. She elected to ignore it. This was not the time for internalised soul searching. "I guess it's just always been easier for me to jump out of a plane than to ask a boy out."

She picked up her drink; an apple sours and lemonade and followed Monique's gaze to a pair of boys who had just glanced around the room while on route to the bar. They were both tall, but slender, one with light brown, almost fair hair and the other with darker, chocolate brown. From where she was sat, she could only take her best girl's word on their cuteness level, but from their attire of chinos and fashionable jumpers, she suspected they were probably the more sensible variety of college student; maybe a year or two older than they were.

"Ok, Kim, you ready?" Monique asked when the boys had reached the front of the queue.

"Ready for what?" Kim asked, sensing she was about to get more than she'd bargained for.

Her best girl smiled at her, "to go snag us some company of course."

She had to stifle a look of trepidation. "I thought you said I should watch and learn."

"And watch and learn you shall," Monique said as she stood up and held out a hand for Kim to take, "right by my side."

Kim took a shaky breath as she hesitated. Ok, this is so not what I had in mind. I'm totally going to blow this… Get a grip of yourself, Possible. It's only going up to a bar and introducing yourself to some boys. She took a steady breath as she strengthened her resolve. I can do this. I'm the girl that can do anything. And anything is possible for a Possible. "Ok," she replied, her tone still carrying with it a hint of uncertainty. Reaching out she took the offered hand and rose to her feet. Her ribs gave her a slight stab of pain; a reminder that she was still very much injured.

"Ok, I'll do most of the talking," Monique said as she guided Kim towards the bar. "All you need to do is say hi when I introduce you and that's it. If you don't feel comfortable saying anything else until we've got them safely back to the table then don't. There's no pressure."

While it sounded simple, for Kim it felt anything but. And the no pressure part did not align with the bubbling cauldron of nerves that was cooking up inside her stomach. She did not quite know why, but she felt an urgency about the whole thing. This has to go well… I need this to go well. I need one of these boys to be nice, like me for me and for him to want to kiss me. There was almost a desperation about that last point. I need a nice boy to kiss me. A feeling that she needed to prove something to herself.

She heard the now familiar voice of the Barkin-dragon say, "boys kiss girls."

Boys kiss girls, she repeated to herself, and I like boys.

Kim was drawn out of her internalised monologuing when she realised that they were almost at the bar. She watched as the two boys picked up their drinks and glanced around the room, clearly searching for somewhere to sit. It was at this precise moment that her best girl chose to strike.

"Hi," Monique said, her voice calm, confident and friendly, with just a dash of seduction. The complete opposite of how Kim felt. "You guys looking for somewhere to sit?"

"Yeah," the one with the light brown hair replied. His tone was polite and reciprocated the friendliness shown to him by Monique. Kim also did not fail to notice that he kept his gaze focused on her friend's eyes, not her chest, a good sign.

"It seems pretty full tonight," the chocolate haired one added. He too had an upstanding, gentlemanly air about him. A far cry from all the boys who had hit on her a week past Friday. "I'm actually surprised they let us in."

"Well, if you can't find anywhere else, you're both welcome to sit with me and my friend," Monique replied and Kim noted that she kept the invite light, with no pressure exerted to try and compel the boys to comply. "We've got a table with a pair of sofas and plenty of room over there," her friend pointed towards their table. "I'm Monique, by the way and this is Kim."

She waited with bated breath for a few heartbeats. Waited for one of the two boys to recognise her. To exclaim, "oh my god, your Kim Possible," in a similar vein as to how Drakken always yelled her name whenever she showed up to rumble his plans. But it didn't happen. As the seconds ticked by, she felt Monique nudge her hand and she hastily said, "hi," and gave them an awkward smile. Internally, she kicked herself, way to blow it on the first word, Possible. Now they're going to think you're totally lame.

Much to her surprise and going against most of her high school experience when it came to chasing Josh Manky or Hirotaka, the two boys exchanged glances, before the first one replied. "That sounds cool. I'm Dylan by the way and this is Matt. It's nice to meet you, ladies."

The one called Matt met her gaze and with what sounded like a slight awkwardness, he said directly to her, "hi."

"Hi," Kim repeated, her lexicon having chosen to abandon her. She felt her cheeks redden slightly, but was saved from a complete wipe-out by Monique.

"This way, guys," her best girl said and quickly took Kim by the hand and turned her around. "Ok, Girl, you're doing fine," Monique whispered in her ears. "But try and loosen up a little. These aren't your douchebag jocks from high school. They're not going to laugh at you or call you a loser for saying something stupid."

"Ok," Kim breathed, "loosen up, check."

"And in case you missed it, I can already tell that Matt is interested in you."

She felt her cheeks darken as she hissed, "are you sure?" While she already knew the answer was yes (she wasn't that much of a social dunce yet), she felt the need to have her friend confirm it.

"Earth to Kim. He said hi directly to you. Not to me, not to both of us, to you," Monique replied, before quickly adding, "if you like the look of him, he's all yours. Tonight's about finding you a boyfriend. I'm here to help, not compete with you."

"Thanks, Mo," Kim replied, feeling a slight weight lift off of her. This would be a lot easier if she had just one target to focus her attention on and no need to worry about competition coming from her friend.

They reached their table, but Monique held her back from sitting down. "Have a seat, Guys," her best girl said and indicated for them to sit down on the sofa that she herself had been sat on a few minutes' prior.

Kim quickly realised the logic behind her best girl's tactic as Dylan shuffled over to the far side of the sofa and sat down. Had Monique allowed her to go first, she would have been sitting across from the wrong boy. Very clever, Mo. Only once Matt too was seated, did her friend slide onto the sofa. Taking a steadying breath, Kim followed suit. I can do this. I can do anything.

"So, what do you guys do?" Monique asked once all parties were comfortably seated.

"I am a programming major at M.I.S.T and Matt here is our resident physics geek," Dylan replied.

Matt laughed, "yeah, the guy who thinks there's something sexy about a succinct piece of code calls me the geek."

Kim couldn't help herself and burst out laughing. That's like Wade calling the Tweebs geeks. Much to her surprise, once she had regained some measure of control over herself, she found that instead of receiving weird looks from everyone, that they had all joined in. It made her feel slightly more at ease.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh at the guy who likes computer code," Dylan said indignantly. "You won't be laughing if I decide to write a virus that crashes the internet or something."

It was a far more relaxed laugh that escaped from Kim's mouth this time and she resisted the urge to say, "if you tried, I'd have to bust you."

"So, what about you ladies?" Matt asked, giving his friend a placating pat on the shoulder, "what do you do?"

"I'm a fashion major at Kent State in Ohio and Kim's…"

"I work freelance," Kim cut in, perhaps slightly too abruptly. However, she did not want to risk her best girl bigging her up as Kim Possible, world saviour. Unfortunately, without outright lying, it was difficult to whitewash over what she did for a living without it becoming obvious who she was, especially when the two boys already knew her name was Kim. The flaming red hair didn't help either. "I help people with their problems," she paused for a moment as she wracked her brain for suitable wording, "sort of like a PI."

"Sounds like fun," Dylan said enthusiastically, but she could tell that he had not managed to join the dots. Perhaps he spent a little too long looking at computer code and not enough time with his head in the real world.

Matt, on the other hand, said, "I bet you get around a lot. See some interesting places."

Kim met the boy's gaze, stared into his chocolate coloured eyes and knew that he had figured out exactly who she was. In fact, she suspected that it had only been her new hairdo that had stopped him from recognising her when he first saw her. Great, now I'm going to get the whole, "oh my god, oh my god, it's Kim Possible!" thing.

Yet again, much to her surprise, she was not subjected to the gushing fanboy routine. Instead, Matt simply asked, "do you enjoy it?"

Kim took a moment to reply, her brain not quite able to process how normal the boy was being around her. Eventually, it took a prod under the table from Monique's foot to get her to say, "yeah, I really do." She then felt relaxed enough to add, "and you're right. I do see some interesting places."

"I bet not as interesting as the inside of Matt's wardrobe," Dylan chipped in. "I swear, he asked me to find something in there for him the other day and I ended up in Narnia."

"Like yours is any better!" Matt retorted hotly, shooting his friend a death glare.

Kim couldn't help but laugh. What is it with people and the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe jokes this weekend? She picked up her apple sours and lemonade and took a drink. Ok, so far so good. He's nice-looking, seemingly well-mannered and has enough tact not to yell my name so that everyone in the place knows I'm here… and apparently has a messy wardrobe!

"Do you guys stay on campus?" Monique inquired.

"Not anymore," Dylan replied. "We both tried it in first-year, but neither of us got on with our more 'athletically gifted' roommates. So, we got an apartment together two years ago."

So, they're at least a year older than us, Kim noted. Good to know, but no big.

Monique laughed, "in other words, you got stuck with a pair of jocks and couldn't hack the smell."

"Have you ever tried sharing a room with a jock?" Dylan exclaimed. "That smell is no laughing matter!"

Kim received another prod under the table from Monique, although did not understand why, until her best girl said, "sounds like someone's got odour envy." Her friend then let out an evil chuckle, "demasculinised by a smell, that must have been embarrassing."

It became apparent, when Dylan shot back, "those protein shakes they consume cause them to fart a noxious chemical!" exactly what the girl was trying to do; pull Dylan into a friendly argument so that she would be free to talk to Matt by himself.

Kim focused her attention on the chocolate haired boy. Ok, Possible, you can do this. Just relax and be yourself… except myself is someone who climbs down the inside of active volcanoes for fun. Not exactly something that others can relate to. She took a sip of her drink and asked the first thing that came to her mind, "what are you drinking?" Nice going, dumbass.

Matt laughed, not a mocking laugh or one of derision, no, it was that of someone about to say, "your guess is as good as mine. Every time we're out, Dylan keeps ordering us these random drinks that he's read about online." He slid his glass over to her. "Have a taste if you want. However, be warned, I have no idea what's in it."

Kim hesitated for a moment. Ok, hold on a second, I only asked what it was you were drinking, not what it tasted like. Was it ok for her to taste someone's drink when you had only met them ten minutes ago? She looked at the slightly unsure smile on the boy's face. Is he as nervous about talking to me as I am him? Given how she herself felt at that moment in time, it just did not compute. She gave the drink a sniff and discovered an air of familiarity. I bet Shego would know what it is by just looking at it. The thought crossed her mind before she could stop it, but she quickly shook it from her head. Next time she saw the green-skinned woman, she'd be sending her to jail, not asking her out for a drink. Cautiously, she took a sip and recognised the taste immediately.

"It's a Long Island iced tea," she finally replied as she handed the glass back. She then rattled off the list of ingredients that Shego had told her were in it on Friday. "Vodka, gin, white rum, tequila, triple sec, Gomme syrup, lemon juice and a splash of cola. They're actually quite nice."

Matt laughed, "no drink has a right to contain that much booze." The boy then hesitated before he added, "if you like it… maybe I could buy you one… once you finished that," he pointed to her apple sours and lemonade.

The offer caught her off guard and in her panic, an image of her mom, with a stern expression on her face filled her mind, accompanied by the woman's second condition of the evening; no strong alcohol and so she accidentally blurted out, "no."

Matt's face fell and he quickly said, "oh, ok."

Shit! Realising what she had just done, Kim hastily overcompensated, "no, that's not what I meant. What I meant to say was that I'm not allowed to drink." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she even realised that they were of little help and so she did it again, "wait that's not what I mean. It's these drugs I'm on they…" she managed to stop herself on realising how what she had just blurted out might sound. Her cheeks turned bright red and she threw her head into her hands, nice going, Possible.

A light chuckle from opposite her, that contained no hint of nastiness, reached Kim's ears and she lifted her head to see a warm smile on Matt's face. "Don't worry about it. You're on medication and can't have too much alcohol, I get it."

Kim breathed a sigh of relief; she'd just made a complete and utter idiot out of herself and not found herself a laughing stock. I can't believe how nice Matt is. Unfortunately, history had taught her to be wary of people who were really nice too, given what had happened with Eric. Ok, so the chances of him being a Synthodrone are slim, but let's not count it out just yet. "I hurt my ribs on Friday and so the doctor gave me some painkillers and told me to go easy on the alcohol tonight."

"No sweat," Matt replied and gave her a warm smile. The boy then decided to try his luck again, "maybe I can get you something else once you finish your drink."

"Yes," Kim replied slightly too eagerly. Dammit, get a grip of yourself, Possible. You're swinging from one extreme to the other so quickly you're going to give him whiplash. "I mean, if you want to." Internally she did a facepalm, nice save, idiot.

Matt, still smiling at her, then said, "so, can I ask what you like to do for fun?"