Snippets of Forever:
So Not... A Second Fiddle.
-x-
There was no denying that Shego's plasma was strong enough to cut through steel. Hell, the villainess had more than enough power without the use of her flames, let alone when her hands were bright and glowing and green. Kim knew that. Kim had always known that. But in the heat of the moment, the teen hero chose not to hesitate when she held the sheet of metal up to protect herself from her nemesis' fiery strikes.
Naturally, she was proven very wrong. Very quickly.
"Whoa," Kim exclaimed, quickly backflipping away when Shego cut through the steel like a pair of scissors to paper.
Kim wasn't left with much time to recover, and she soon locked up with Shego all over again as the taller woman lunged at her. Kim struggled in the battle of strength with her rival for the shortest second, but Shego grunted in pain when Kim suddenly monkey flipped her over her head and she went crashing to the ground.
The sweet sound of giggles from across the warehouse made Kim turn her head while Hana clapped her hands together, clearly very delighted. The infant was strapped securely into the swaddle that hung around her brother's shoulder as Ron was holding his own against a couple of Drakken's goons.
Hana had certainly seen her fair share of villainy during her short time as a Stoppable. After the whole incident with Monkey Fist, the teen heroes were sure that they were going to limit the baby girl's presence on such dangerous missions. But when Wade had beeped during Ron and Kim's babysitting hour that evening with word of Drakken and Shego looting the Middleton steelworks factory, the two hadn't exactly been left with much of a choice.
"Ngh," Drakken grumbled loudly from his perch high on the factory's scaffolding, "Shego! Too much joyous laughter, not enough defeated crying!"
Shego growled from between her teeth as she kipped up and swung a roundhouse kick at Kim, narrowly missing her head, "Oh, I'll be the only one laughing in a sec!"
"At what? Your ability in combat?"
The sarcastic swipe from her teen foe only made Shego angrier as her hands glowed a deeper shade of green and she threw an agitated punch. Ron was busy still trying to dodge his own demise, and he found himself hastily darting to the side as the largest of the four goons came barreling right towards him, Rufus and Hana.
The sidekick braced himself, almost waiting for impact, but instead, Ron only jumped in surprise at the loud crash and clatter that followed. The lumbering oaf had smashed into a stack of steel piping, all of which was suddenly tumbling from the top down high above Ron's head.
"Ah! Not good!"
With some quick thinking, and one hand protectively wrapped over Hana's head, Ron dived down flat at the base of the toppling mountain. He watched with a smug grin as the piping cleared him and rolled aggressively towards each of Drakken's goons, knocking them off their feet. His smile only grew when he spotted Kim dance and pivot and tightrope her way along each steel cylinder that crossed her own path.
Hana was babbling just as happily when Ron jumped back to his feet and met Kim in the middle of the warehouse.
"Nice balance!"
"Nice ducking," Kim returned with a smirk.
"Heh, thanks - reaction time's getting better!" he laughed proudly, "Yori was helping me a lot on those totally whack monkey missions last week."
Almost instantly, Kim bristled.
Her tongue was coiled, but any words she might have spoken were suddenly replaced with a sharp gasp as another red-clad henchman appeared behind Ron and seized him around his waist.
Kim just managed to arch backwards as the goon reached for her, as well, bending her body out of the way and into another backflip. But all her momentum was abruptly brought to a halt by a kick in the back from Shego.
The dark haired villain was wearing a sly smirk as she took back her fighting stance, "Ooh, who's Yori?"
Kim balled her hands into fists. Ron may have been caught up in too much of his own peril to realise the conversation forming across the room, but Kim heard Shego loud and clear as she prodded at her again.
"Trouble in the freakishly weird paradise, Princess?"
Kim growled under her breath as her blood started to boil. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to reach forward and slap the devious expression right off Shego's face, but in the next second, the crime fighter was distracted all over again.
Kim's neck stretched upwards, her eyes widening in surprise. Floating in the air right above her were two massive diggers, each with a tall adjustable crane attached. And much to Kim's dismay, they were both being hoisted up by Drakken's hovercraft and out through the caved-in roof of the factory.
Kim grimaced. The doctor had already managed to secure a few tonnes of steel framework prior to she and her sidekick bursting onto the scene that evening, and the redhead sure as hell wasn't going to let him get away with any thing more.
Ignoring any sarcasm and pot shots for now, Kim instead flipped forward and used Shego's shoulders as a launching pad. The villain was briefly startled as she watched the teenager fly through the air and land safely in the scooping arm of one of the diggers.
As the tall piece of machinery was slowly lifted upwards, Kim spied Drakken still in his place on the scaffold, narrowing her green eyes at him.
"Going somewhere?" she challenged.
"Nngghh," Drakken grumbled again, "One Kim Possible free caper - is that really too much to ask? And this isn't even the real caper! This is only the pre-caper!"
"What?" Kim snorted, "Stealing materials for a new lair for you to eventually blow up?"
"Shego!"
"On it!" Shego thundered back to her boss. With as much precision as Kim had used, the former member of Team Go sprung into action, leaping from the ground to a steel platform, and then onto the second mid-air crane. But Shego didn't stop there. Rather than landing in the opposite scoop, the wily villain had the wicked sense to shimmy her way into the digger's cabin and power up the heavy machinery.
Kim sensed her cocky expression falter, "Uh oh."
Ron, meanwhile, was still struggling with the brutish goon who had a tight hold around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides. The teenager was floundering, doing all his could to escape the tight trap. Finally, and with some level of dumb luck, Ron managed to free one of his arms.
"Ugh, come on, dude, you've got, like, two-hundred pounds on me - so not fair!"
From where she was still comfortably sitting in her swaddle, Hana giggled at all her brother's fumbling. She began to wriggle around, pulling her blankie out from around her tiny frame and waving it back and forth. When she laughed even louder and tossed the woolen blanket up in the air, it landed on Ron's head, completely covering his eyes. And then, in one swift movement, Hana reached back and snatched the goon's thick neck, hoisting him up in a front flip over her brother and sending him crashing to the ground with a thud.
And, oh, it was all very amusing.
Rufus was dumbstruck as he squeaked in surprise and rubbed his eyes. He must have been seeing things, the tiny rodent thought to himself. Despite all the confusion, Hana was ecstatic and clapped her hands together again when Ron finally untangled himself from her blankie. The blonde paused, looking down to the man in a heap in front of him with a tilt of his head. And then, Ron chuckled in triumph.
"Ha! See, now that's what happens when you mess with the Stoppable-san!"
The celebrations were cut all too short when Ron suddenly jumped at the loud sound of gears grinding from above him. He looked skyward, his brown eyes wide and panicked as he spotted the swinging arm of the digger being controlled by Shego making a beeline for the matching vehicle. And when the two collided with an almighty smash, Kim was helpless to keep her balance.
"Kim!"
For the first moment, the intense fear was the only emotion he could sense. Ron couldn't help that the way he felt about her overshadowed how much he really knew Kim better than that. With a quick adjustment in mid-air, the cheerleader was able to tuck her neck and come down on her left shoulder in a forward roll. Her landing may not have been injury-inducing, but it certainly wasn't totally graceful, either.
"You think you're all that, Kim Possible! But you're not!"
Drakken's cackling was infuriating as Kim growled, rubbing the sudden sore spot on the point of her shoulder. Shego was just as smug as she scooped Drakken up on the end of the digger and dropped him into the seat of his hovercraft. And with that, the evil duo finally vanished through the damaged roof of the warehouse, along with all they had stolen.
The teen hero was still seething and almost didn't notice when her boyfriend appeared by her side. Ron crouched down, careful to hold Hana in place with one hand when he took the other to Kim's waist.
"You okay?"
Was she okay? Not entirely - Kim was pretty darn annoyed that her two worst enemies had managed to escape. Not to mention she was still dwelling on the pinch of ugly jealousy Ron had inadvertently sprinkled on her brain with his mention of Yori. And seeing as Drakken was no longer there for her to take her frustrations out on...
"Fine, thanks."
The grumbling response from Kim sort of stunned Ron when his girlfriend shrugged out of his grip and shot to her feet. He whipped his head around, staring at her with a deep frown before swapping a glance with both Rufus and Hana. The sweet little bundle of black hair was gawking back at him just as curiously. He smiled down at her for a reassuring second, but refocused his attention on Kim when he stood back up and dared to open his mouth. That was until she pulled out the Kimmunicator, completely cutting him off.
"Wade? They got away."
Wade's response was instant when he patched through, "Sorry, Kim," he spoke, matching Kim's disappointment, "Still no clue what he's planning to construct?"
"Was hoping you'd have news for me on that front?"
"Nothing concrete just yet," the young genius sighed, apologising again, "Sorry. Debrief?"
"Meet you in the car?"
Right on cue, the roaring sound of the Sloth being controlled remotely by Wade filled the warehouse as it tore through the entrance and came to a sharp stop.
Kim still hadn't looked back up at Ron. It was quickly starting to leave a lump of uncertainty forming in his stomach. The two didn't utter a single word between them as Ron carefully placed Hana in her car seat. When he warily took his own place in the passenger side of the car beside her, there was still nothing but silence from Kim.
The redhead was quick to flick on the screen in the centre of the dashboard and resume her conversation with Wade. Ron simply watched on, his mouth dropping into more and more of a pout as he began to wonder if he had done something wrong.
They were close to home by the time his two team mates began to wrap up their call. Wade typed one last note on his computer, looking back to Kim, "I'll get back in touch with the owners of the warehouse and confirm everything that was stolen."
"Please and thank you," Kim sang half heartedly.
"I'll let you guys know if I hear anything more."
And then as the screen turned black, Wade's image disappeared with a blink. The intense quiet that continued to fill the purple paneling on the car was sort of overwhelming.
Ron almost wanted to clear his throat, but he stopped short at the dreaded thought of bringing any attention upon himself. He tugged a little bit on the collar of his black shirt. He was sort of relieved that they had already arrived back to the familiar suburban streets of Middleton. Though, of course, it also meant he was that much closer to having to ask Kim why she suddenly seemed so agitated.
With a quick glance back over his shoulder at Hana, and an encouraging pat on the shoulder from Rufus, Ron finally drew in a breath.
"You're tweaked."
Kim hesitated before raising an eyebrow, impressed, "You're learning."
"What's the matter?"
Kim sensed one, stubborn butterfly perform a reluctant flip in her stomach. How dare he go and make his concern sound so sweetly genuine.
If she was being honest, Kim wasn't as mad at Ron as she was making out to be. Not really. She knew that she and Yori had a reassuring talk about their feelings and 'destiny' and all other things beautifully intimidating - and she knew that Ron would never mention the other girl as a means of purposely upsetting her. But something about Shego inserting her sarcasm into the equation was just plain irking.
And besides, just because she wasn't all that angry, it didn't mean that there weren't any lingering questions from the last week that Kim was wanting to clear up with her BFBF.
As she rounded the corner onto their street and turned the Sloth into Ron's driveway, Kim sighed. She reached down to put the car into park and pull up the hand brake. And just as she thought about reaching over to place her palm in Ron's, the front door to his house suddenly flew open.
"Ronnie! Oh, good, you're back!"
The sound of Mrs. Stoppable's voice grew louder as she quickly sauntered from the house to the back door of Kim's car. She peered through the window at her dozing baby, a small smile of subtle relief forming on her face.
"Hana didn't give you any trouble now, did she?" Mrs. S. asked her son when he climbed out of the car.
"Heh, not as much trouble as Drakken did, that's for sure," Ron joked, cringing with a jump as Kim slammed the driver's door behind her in response.
Ron gulped. It probably wasn't the best idea for him to prod at such a sore spot. Especially when he wasn't even sure how much trouble he was already in for... whatever else he had done.
"Oh, Kim, dear, I was just about to start dinner. Will you be joining us?"
With a breath held in, Ron kind of hung his head for a second. Given how flatly Kim's mood had fallen seemingly out of nowhere, Ron didn't suppose he would have been surprised if his girlfriend found some kind of excuse to politely decline and go home instead.
But when she circled around the Sloth and her shoes appeared in his line of sight, Ron glanced back up to find Kim staring at him. She shifted her vision slightly, smiling at his mother.
"Of course, Mrs. S., that sounds perfect."
A feeling of relief washed over him and made his heart thud happily. With Hana securely in their mum's embrace, Ron opened the front door to the house, gesturing for her to enter first. He kept the door open, glancing back at Kim and offering her the same chivalry.
She might have still been rather quiet, but the tiny grin in the corner of her lips was unmistakable.
"How about we get you all fed and bathed first, sweetheart?" Mrs. Stoppable continued to coo at Hana when they entered the living room, "Are you kids okay for the moment?"
"Totally okay," Kim echoed without a second thought, "We'll just be upstairs."
She had already ascended the first ledge of the staircase when Kim looked back at Ron expectantly. There was some slim hesitation in his movements, but soon enough, Ron took one obedient step forward as he followed Kim passed his old bedroom and up to the attic.
All certainly seemed safe enough when he climbed the final step and crossed the wooden floor of his new room behind her. Ron watched closely as Kim fiddled with the fraying hem on her black crop top for a second before slipping off her gloves. Immediately, the teenage boy offered to take them from her, placing them on his desk and watching as Rufus comfortably curled up inside one.
The same small, grateful smile radiated from Kim's cheeks and into Ron's core. And so, finally deciding that she hadn't cornered him in some kind of twisted trap, Ron took a second, deep breath.
"Is everything okay?"
He turned back around to find that his girlfriend had taken a seat right on the end of his teal coloured futon, her lips pursed. At long last, Kim sighed.
"How come you didn't want to tell Yori that we were dating?"
Instantly, Ron was taken completely aback.
There was a beat of silence. Not because Ron didn't know how to answer Kim's question - but because her words had left him so surprised.
"Wha - ?" he stuttered, "I didn't wanna' not tell her."
"I mean, you seemed to have plenty of excuses not to," Kim argued, watching as Ron's confusion only grew, "When I said that maybe you should tell her the 'big news'?"
"Okay, no, the first time I thought you actually were taking about the intru- I mean, Hana."
"And the second time?"
Ron fell back to a sharp quiet. Curse that damn flour assignment.
His stomach was starting to turn a little uncomfortably. This was not a familiar aspect of their relationship that Ron was used to dealing with - at all. Sure, Kim had never been shy about showing her spouts of jealousy whenever another girl got too close her man, but the conversation they were having now was sounding less like a jealin' sitch and more like... an insecurity sitch.
The whole lack of self-confidence thing was normally Ron's jam - never Kim's. He hated to think he had made her feel that way, no matter how inadvertent his throwaway comment back at the steel warehouse may have been.
As these thoughts continued to cycle through his mind, Ron took a seat in the chair at his desk, opposite Kim. She was still waiting for him to respond, the worry lines in her forehead beginning to crease that little bit more. Slowly and carefully, Ron opened his mouth to speak.
"Okay, so, like... you know Yori was the first girl who ever liked me," he explained, cutting Kim off as she scoffed, "Who ever really liked me."
Kim bit her tongue then, slouching back in her place with her arms crossed over her chest.
Ron pressed on, twiddling his thumbs in his lap, "And, like, last week I had zero clue if she still liked me or not. It just made me sorta' nervous to tell her about us. Because... if she did still like me, then..."
Kim's heart rate slowed as her jaw dropped open and she stared hard at her boyfriend. The most subtle, sickly feeling was just starting to bubble in the back of her throat before Ron finally finished his thought.
"Then, I was worried about what that would mean for us helping her out, and helping Sensei out, and helping to protect Yamanouchi if I had to tell her I couldn't see her anymore."
Her chest skipped a beat then. Okay, Kim told herself - one point to Ron.
With a rather unwilling sense of disappointment in herself, Kim felt the tense muscles in her shoulder relax, "I didn't mean to harsh on you," she admitted softly, "I get it, like, I totally know where everyone stands. Yori and me actually had a really good talk about it when we stuck you with babysitting duty."
Ron was surprised again, raising his brow as Kim snickered at him.
"It's a complicated girl thing," she confirmed.
"So, the less I know the better?"
"Something like that," Kim laughed. She paused then, trailing off again as she hummed in hesitation, "Just as long as I know that, like... you don't have feelings for her anymore?"
Ron was almost dumbfounded as he sighed, "Kim..."
"Just because I know that you liked her back, too!" she spat, quickly defending herself, "At some stage? As recently as when she came to Middleton back in, like, April, right?"
Ron sort of cringed at the not-too-distant memory. He certainly didn't want to land himself into any more trouble with his girlfriend... but he didn't want to lie to her, either. He hung his head before responding to Kim with a subtle nod.
"But not in the same way that I - "
His words almost blurted out from the depths of his chest before Ron had the chance to stop himself. With a quick beat and a small breath, the blonde boy cleared his throat, "Like... I've never liked Yori anywhere near as much as I like you. I've never liked any girl as much as I like you, for the record."
Kim beamed. Two points to Ron.
"I didn't mean to make you think that."
As she melted at his sweetness that was an apology and a promise wrapped all into one, Kim finally swayed to one side as she shifted over and patted the spot next to her on Ron's bed.
"And I didn't mean to totally freak you out," she conceded with a guilty giggle.
Ron's chest visibly deflated when he sprung up from his seat and found his place next to Kim, laughing just the same, "Yeah, you really gotta' warn a guy when you're gonna' go all cold shoulder on him like that."
"Just don't go thinking I'm going to go that easy on you forever. I've gotta' keep you on your toes sometimes, you know."
Man, she was beautiful.
Ron hoped he was conscious enough to have registered what she just spoke to him, but he just couldn't help but let his mind wander through all his completely enamoured thoughts of her. Even when she was steaming mad, Ron was powerless to ignore how beautiful and kind and smart she was - and how unbelievably lucky he was to be hers.
Her cheeks were glowing with a pale blush as she looked at him. It was totally captivating. But in that moment, it wasn't just the gorgeous features of Kim's face that was keeping Ron distracted.
When he realised he hadn't properly answered her last question, Ron caught Kim's eyesight, staring all too sincerely in her pools of deep green.
"I don't have any feelings for Yori. You're the only girl for me."
And with a third and final point scored against his name, Kim bit down on her bottom lip, scooting closer to her boyfriend.
"Care to prove it, Monkey Man?"
The way she batted her eyelashes at him made him weak - but it all made Rufus kind of sick as he covered his eyes and burrowed deeper inside Kim's comfy, black glove. Ignoring their tiny, pink pal, Kim's expression was all too inviting as it hypnotised every thought in Ron's brain. And when he leaned in towards her, Ron cupped one side of Kim's face, gently combing his fingers through the hair behind her ear.
The spark of electricity when he kissed her was instant.
Their exchange started out slow at first, Kim mimicking each of Ron's movements as they traced the familiar contours of each other's lips. The taste made them both melt. Ron's tender caresses were sending goosebumps across Kim's skin as her hands finally joined his in their exploration.
Her kiss lapped at his again and again and her lips parted when she shifted her hand from its tight grip on the bedspread to rest at the top of his thigh. Ron was quick to respond, his other hand shooting up to softly catch the opposite side of her face as he deepened the kiss and their tongues began to twirl in an intricate dance.
The happiness that filled Kim was dizzying. Her cheeks were still red - a mixture of the intense heat from the make out session with her BF, and just the slimmest lingering embarrassment from getting so upset with him. She giggled quietly to herself at all her insecure thoughts. The moment was not lost on Ron, though, and Kim felt his smile grow against hers before he pulled back just slightly and moved his kiss to her jawline.
The sensation was overwhelming. Kim's soft laughter trailed off with a longing sigh at the sweetness of Ron's touch and the tingling across her body when his kisses peppered their way down her neck. Her hands simply had a mind of their own as she reached down to untuck his shirt and grab at the belt loops of his gray cargo pants.
And then, the two fell back onto Ron's bed.
Only to be startled by an exploding cloud of thick, white dust.
Springing forward in their place, both Kim and Ron struggled through an excessively bewildered cough when they turned back to discover exactly who the unexpected culprit had been.
A sudden distress filled Ron's features as Rufus rolled around on his human's desk with a million tiny chuckles, "Ah! No! Not Sacky M-C-M-X-X-X-V!"
Kim rolled her eyes, but at the sight of she and her boyfriend covered from head to toe in a coat of white, she couldn't help but take her hand to her mouth with another laugh, "I thought you accidentally submitted a bag of sugar and totally flunked the assignment? You had another bag of flour hiding in your bed the entire time?"
"If this is flour and not sugar, I am going to be so in a funk!"
"Hate to break to to you, but sugar wouldn't have puffed up in a cloud of powder like that," Kim teased, standing up from the bed to brush herself off.
"Well, as long as I don't taste it, I'll never find out for sure."
With a smug grin, Ron closed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest. He could be such a dork sometimes. But he was Kim's dork, and that was exactly how she liked him.
When she crouched forward and suddenly kissed him again, Ron almost jumped out of his skin in surprise. There was a bold hunger in her actions, and Ron shivered at the distinct way she inhaled each of his flavours with one simple kiss.
He almost whimpered when she pulled away, watching as Kim hummed with a faux sense of indecision.
"Yep. It's definitely flour."
She winked at him then, shooting her boyfriend a smitten smile. She seemed to rock on her heels back towards him for a moment, but after a second or two, Kim innocently shuffled backwards, heading towards the stairs out of his room.
Ron frowned as he called after her, "Where are you going?"
"Home, to have a quick shower and de-flour before dinner," she responded sweetly, descending the stairs, "I'll be fifteen tops. I'll ask your mom to leave my plate in the microwave!"
When he heard the last of her footsteps trail off down the hall, the pitter-patter of his heart softened just as gently. He resisted the urge to pinch himself - an action he had grown used to since he was lucky enough to first kiss her four months ago at junior prom.
With a contented sigh, Ron collapsed onto his mattress again, his feet firm on the floor as he lay out flat on his back. The flour-filled air danced around his head with the renewed impact, but Ron didn't care. He tucked his hands to rest behind his head, his elbows out at right angles while he simply stared up at the ceiling of his room.
A part of him almost couldn't help but wonder what might have just happened if their lip locking hadn't been interrupted by his failed health assignment, but Ron only shook off the thought. He had more than enough patience to wait for the next instance where he and Kim were lucky enough, and happily willing to find that kind of time together.
For the meantime, the silence of his room was actually rather welcoming. The thousand and one thoughts that had raced laps between his ears that evening had completely vanished. Now, there was just one that remained.
And that was how certain he was that he could never, ever like another girl as much as he cared for and adored Kim Possible.
hey hey lovely peeps!
To save anyone de-coding the subtleties in my story telling, this bite-sized piece of action (which I'm actually kinda' proud of!) takes place in S4 between 'Big Brother' and 'Clothes Minded' - Drakken and Shego are looting the steelworks factory and stealing material to build their university. See what I did? :)
Aside from that, I've treated us all to some of the usual adorable, and slightly lust-filled, Kim/Ron sweetness. Isn't it what we all need right now with everything going on in the world?
I hope everyone is healthy and keeping well! All reviews and favourites are super duper appreciated :)
Till next time guys,
Reneyyyyyyyy x