=All-Purpose Disclaimer=
Kim Possible is a loose cannon cop on the edge who doesn't take guff from anyone. Cyberwraith Nine is her rookie partner, determined to avenge the death of his pet goldfish. Ron Stoppable is the woman they both fell in love with. Together, they make…NO PROFIT!
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Kim Possible
The Power of Love
by Cyberwraith9
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"Stupid, idiotic, irresponsible…" Will trailed off, his red face puffing as he searched for more words to hurl at his target. "And…and…"
Ron yawned, appearing very bored at the agent's furious rant as they lounged in the cockpit of GJ's hoverjet. The craft currently cruised high above the Pacific, streaking back towards Upperton and home as Will finally divulged his displeasure at Ron's performance on the mission. "You forgot 'bumbling'." he offered helpfully.
"Yes, BUMBLING!" Will threw his hands up in the air, swiveling away from the controls to glare at Ron. The hoverjet's whisper-quiet engines and state of the art autopilot allowed Will to scream at Ron unimpaired. Of course, that didn't mean Ron was particularly impressed…only that he was receiving quality reception.
Sitting to the side, Kim watched silently at the two duked it out verbally. There were several places she wanted to spring in at, but she wasn't really sure which side to jump in on. On the one hand, Ron was her friend, and had only come because he was worried about her. On the other, Will had some very good points; Ron's carelessness 'had' nearly turned them into vacationing atoms.
Will watched with increasing fury as Ron stretched lazily, lacing his fingers behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. Down at his leg, Rufus did the same, sagging against his pocket flap with a wide yawn. "Well?" The agent demanded, "Do you have anything to say?"
He shrugged, letting his eyelids droop as he felt the aches and pains of the fight make their protest known. The one particular ache that was yelling at him was getting very annoying indeed. "I just think you're being too hard on yourself, is all." Ron said smugly, his eyes still closed.
Will froze at this, his own eyes narrowing dangerously. A low groan wafted from the copilot seat as Kim laid her face in her hands. Leaning closer to Ron, Will felt his temper growing to dangerous heights. "I wasn't talking about myself, Stoppable."
One of Ron's eyes cracked open and rolled lazily towards Will. "Oh, sorry." he shrugged again, "I thought you were yelling at the bozo who blew the mission." The comment drew another moan from Kim, though she didn't jump to either boy's rescue yet.
"Remind me again which one of us disabled the nuclear explosion?" Will challenged.
"Uh-huh. And which one of us couldn't even handle Killigan?" Ron kept his monocular look on the irate agent for a moment longer before returning to his 'nap'.
"I…" Will stammered, turning three different shades of purple. He sputtered and fumed, so much so that Kim actually feared he might explode. Finally, he threw himself out of his chair, stomping his boots against the deck as he threw, "I'm going to write my report," into Ron's serene face.
Then he clomped off, disappearing into the rear compartment. The door slid behind him with a silent electronic 'whoosh', which was really too bad; with the mood Will was in, some door-slamming would have done him some good.
A low chuckle rumbled from the back of Ron's throat as soon as Will was gone. "That stick of his…" he laughed softly, shaking his head.
Kim groaned with frustration, rising from her seat. "Forget the stick, Ron." she sighed. "Will's being a jerk, but he's not exactly wrong." She said the last part with a little hesitation.
Now both of Ron's eyes were wide open. Even Rufus looked up, poking his head out of his pocket at Kim's uncharacteristically accusing tone. "What?" He sat back up, staring at her incredulously. "Kim, at least we…I mean, it's not like…uh…"
"Ron," she shot him a look she usually saved for her father's 'Li'l Kimmie-cub' stories. "You nearly rendered a country uninhabitable."
"Well, yeah," he said defensively, also rising. Rufus took the opportunity to jump into his warm seat, curling up with a squeaking yawn. "You aren't looking at the bright side…the big picture, so to speak." Ron insisted.
She cocked a brow. "Which is?"
He began listing reasons, ticking them off on his fingers. "One," he said, "There 'was' no nuclear explosion, to which you, Rufus and I are living proof of."
"Granted." Kim nodded.
"Two," he continued, "I only nearly blew up a country we don't even 'like'. It's not like," he searched, waving his hand in the air as if stirring around a list of options, "It's not like I nearly blew up France!" He paused, blinking as he considered his own words. "Wait, forget I said France."
"And number three?" Kim asked with an air of impatience, trying desperately to keep her deadpanned expression from cracking.
"Simple." His patented 'I'm-Ron-So-Please-Don't-Crucify-Me' smile flashed as he spoke. "If I hadn't been there, Will totally would have wet his jumpsuit." A deathly serious look crossed his face as he leaned in, whispering, "These seats are real leather. Can you imagine the mess?"
Kim's features finally broke with a huge grin. She couldn't help but chuckle as she ruffled Ron's hair. "Okay, okay." she gave in with a laugh. "Just make sure there aren't any international incidents on the next mission, all right?"
His entire face lit up at this. "Next time?" At her nod, he thrust his fist up and spun in his chair, squishing Rufus without even realizing it. "Boo-yah!"
"In the meantime," she added with a sigh, "I'll try to smooth things over with Will." She was still a little ticked at Ron, but seeing as how they hadn't wound up in the middle of an expanding ball of thermonuclear death, things could have been a lot worse.
As she slid back into her seat and turned to the controls, she felt a pair of strong hands envelop her shoulders from behind. A different kind of sigh erupted from her lips as Ron's nimble fingers kneaded her sore muscles. Her head lolled about as she melted contently into his touch, feeling kinks she didn't know she had being worked out.
"No big, KP." he assured her. He gave another smile as she looked up at him, captivating him with her luminous eyes. Not for the first time, he found himself lost in her oceans of emerald beauty. He only hoped she didn't notice. "It'll be better after things calm down." he managed to say without stuttering.
"I hope so," she moaned, patting his hand. Her cheek brushed against his fingers as she closed her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted. "This weekend's been a madhouse."
"You'll see." he reassured her. "Once we get back to school, everything'll be okay."
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-MONDAY-
The dim lighting at Bueno Nacho was more than enough for Rufus to clearly see the look of dejection and worry plastered on his best friend's face. The naked mole rat was waist-deep in a Grande Nacho Platter, enjoying the sensation of warm cheese seeping between his claws as he gnawed on a veritable field of corn chips.
Ron, on the other hand, was not enjoying his food nearly as much as Rufus was. It sat in front of him, still wrapped and stone-cold as he leaned against the booth's table, arms folded and head lowered. His eyes were locked ahead as if he were concentrating on some distant point. As Rufus well knew, the thought wasn't too far off. However, it was a person he was thinking of, and not a place.
Heaving a sigh, Ron checked his watch. It was a quarter to ten o'clock. The sun had set long ago behind the row of campus buildings. Ron had a front-row seat, since he had occupied that very booth for the better part of three hours. And now, the place would be closing in a few minutes. "Where is she?" Kim almost never ran late, and when she did it was usually connected with some world-saving jiggery-pokery.
"Hey!" a high, nasally voice called at him from the counter. Even without looking, he knew the word was directed at him. No one else had entered the store for a half-hour. "We're closing up. Either order something, or get out."
Ron turned with a dull heart. Then he stopped, staring at the familiar face situated behind the counter. "Ned?"
The pimply, greasy scowl behind the man's thick glasses was unmistakable, and Ron doubted that anyone else on the planet would wear such a hideous clip-on tie. Still, the man shook his head. "No," he insisted, pointing to his nametag, "I'm Ted. Though I do have a brother who works over in-"
"Middleton, yeah." Ron finished for him, turning back to his food. The wrappers were still untouched, which was unthinkable for the Prince of Bueno Nacho. He had wanted to wait for Kim, remembering a few times when she had half-jokingly told him it was rude to start without someone. The one time he remembered, and she hadn't even shown up.
"So?" Ted demanded, leaning over the counter. "You gonna eat something, or do I have to toss you out?"
The thought of the skinny, noodle-armed taco jockey getting rough almost made Ron laugh out loud, but not quite. Ron stood obligingly, gathering up his cold food. A gentle hand removed Rufus as he took a napkin from the dispenser, cleaning the giggling rodent's claws before pocketing him. He gathered up the remains of what was going to be their dinner and tossed it away. "Yeah, I'm going."
Seeing that he wasn't going to need to chase this one out, Ted grew a little curious. "What were you doing here, anyway?" he asked, pushing his glasses further up his grease-covered nose. "You've been here all night."
"I was…" Ron paused at the door, looking back at Ted with an unreadable expression. "I was waiting for a girl."
"A girl?" Ted laughed at this, pounding the countertop. "What kind of doofus would wait around that long for a girl? I would have gotten the message hours ago!"
As he pushed through the door (quelling the sudden urge to force-feed Ted his own nametag), part of Ron couldn't help but agree with the clerk. Another part wondered what had happened; Kim had never stood him up without at least calling ahead. 'I'll give her a call tomorrow.' he thought to himself. He had already left several messages on her phone, so maybe she would call him. The thought brought a little cheer back to Ron, but not much.
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Kim laughed, swinging a nasty-looking sidearm at her side as Will walked her back to her door. They both wore GJ jumpsuits equipped with standard holsters, and Kim had to admit that the garment was growing on her. As she caught her blurred reflection in the polished metal of the corridor, even she had to admit that it looked good on her. Will had said as much…
"Are you serious?" she said, red in the face from laughter. Surprisingly, Will was the same. She had never seen him laugh before, but since they had started training together, he had really loosened up. The calm, relaxed Will was definitely a side to him that she liked seeing.
He nodded, holstering his weapon as he grinned at her. "Absolutely. My very first day of weapons training, Doctor Director herself…of course, then she was just Doctor Vice-Director, but all the same…I…" he trailed off, his words dissolving into infectious laughter.
"Oh man," Kim gasped, out of breath.
"I shot her eye patch right off." He zipped his finger right past his skull, mimicking a bullet's whistle. "Broke the strap. She said it was the most amazing shot she had ever seen."
"You didn't!" she insisted.
"It's true! And then I said, 'Well thank you, Doctor," He had to pause to recollect himself, stifling his laughter long enough to finish the story, "But…but I was really aiming for that target there next to you."
"You lie!" Kim laughed, punching him in the shoulder.
He took the blow good-naturedly, pretending to surrender to her superior fighting skill. "It's the truth. I don't think I've ever seen her look so pale."
They continued on, laughing and carousing until they finally reached Kim's door. Will quieted at this, which prompted Kim to do the same as she opened the door. "Listen, Will…" she rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "Thank you."
"No problem." He took the firearm from her, placing it in his other holster so she wouldn't have to worry about it. "Firearms are a little hard to get used to at first, but you seem like a natural."
"No," she insisted with a gentle shake of her head. Her hands raised in a gesture that circled the building as she said, "Thank you for…all of this. I guess that's why I've been so happy. It's amazing."
"No thanks necessary." he countered. "It isn't anything you don't deserve, Kimberly."
"Call me Kim."
The two teens stood quietly for a moment, neither one sure of what to say. Both noticed that the distance between them had somehow shrunk. Finally, he pulled back, giving her a smile. "Good night…Kim."
"Good night, Will." she returned the smile as her door slid shut. As she entered the apartment, her eyes caught sight of the clock over her microwave. She was surprised at how quickly the time had gone during Will's training session. Still, the dull ache in her muscles told her that it had been long enough.
She began fixing herself a warm glass of milk when she noticed a blinking red light on her answering machine. Checking the ID, she wasn't surprised to find that all four messages were from Ron. "Probably wanted to talk about Physics." she smiled to herself, thinking back with a shudder to Wade's horrific science class. Still, as she pressed the button, she couldn't quite shake the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something.
"Hey KP," Ron's voice echoed electronically from the machine. Kim's smile grew wider, until the message continued on. "It's about seven-twenty, and I'm not sure where you are. Just wanted to make sure you were okay. Hope to see you soon."
The digital recording beeped as it moved on to the next message. Kim frowned: Why was Ron checking up on her? "Wait a minute…" She rubbed her temples as that nagging feeling began to coalesce.
"KP, hey," the next message started out. "Ron again. Eight o'clock on the nose. Your tacos are getting cold, but if you want to still pop on by, I bet we could get you a reheat or something."
"Oh man!" Kim finally remembered, leaning back against her fridge with a mug of cold milk in hand. She had completely forgotten about meeting Ron for dinner.
Her hand reached for the phone when the third message began to play. Pausing a second, she listened to the third, and then the fourth voice mail Ron had left for her. The last had come at nine-thirty, saying that the shop was closing soon. Some quick math told her that he had waited for her at least two and a half hours at Bueno Nacho.
Her milk forgotten, Kim picked the phone up and dialed Ron's cell. A moment later, she heard his chipper voice pipe through. "Hey!"
"Ron, I'm-"
"This is Ron." The message continued. "I'm off fighting crime or failing a test, so leave your message at the sound of the naked mole rat. Ciao!" The message ended with Rufus's impression of an answering machine, followed by a pair of muffled chuckles before the real beep came.
Kim left a quick message, apologizing profusely and offering to pick up dinner tomorrow, maybe after a movie or something. Then she collapsed into one of her easy chairs, feeling exhausted and guilty. "Hope he's not mad," she sighed to the empty room.
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-TUESDAY-
"…There's something I have to tell you." he said, lowering his gaze to the floor as if ashamed, not of what he was about to say, but for not saying it sooner.
She reached forward, cupping his chin with her slender fingers as she gazed into his warm, affectionate eyes. "Say it." she whispered. "You don't have to be afraid any more…"
Gathering his courage, he grasped her by the waist and pulled her close. Their noses were almost pressing, their lips trembling with mutual hunger as he murmured, "I love you."
Ron's lips synched in time with the silver-screen starlet's (which were uncannily large thanks to several collagen injections) as she replied, "And I, you." Then he snorted, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his craw as the two stars of the movie, 'Hearts of Crazy Flame', shared a deep, passionate kiss. "No one really talks like this," he complained softly to his friend.
"Muh-oh." Rufus shrugged, scampering up his arm and diving into the bucket of popcorn. His blobby body melted into the cracks between each kernel, and a moment later the level of the popcorn began steadily dropping with a soft slurping sound.
The teen sighed, setting his bucket in the noticeably-empty seat next to him. He wasn't sure why he was stuck in the stupid theater watching the stupid movie anyway, seeing as how Kim had stood him up…again. He had waited for her outside the theater all the way through the previews, and even past the first ten minutes of the movie before giving up and heading in.
'Meet me outside of the theater,' she said. 'Seven on the dot,' she said. 'My treat, and dinner too,' she said. Now it was a quarter to nine, and the movie had reached its gag-worth climax. "Feel-good hit of the year my pasty white butt." he muttered darkly, stealing a few morsels of popcorn from his bucket before Rufus could finish it off.
The movie itself was almost as painful as knowing Kim had blown him off a second consecutive time. The entire theater was filled with couples, watching a movie about two best friends who fell in love with each other when they went to college. Sometimes irony wasn't funny at all, and Ron suspected that if he knew what irony meant exactly, it wouldn't be funny at the moment.
'Where are you, Kim?' he groaned inwardly, praying for the credits to hustle up.
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"Eighteen…nineteen…twenty!"
Kim gasped, allowing Will to help her lift the bar back into its cradle. She had never tried the bench press before, and was pleased that her cheerleading muscles, while not huge, would at least start her out on the road to becoming leaner, meaner, and feistier in a fight.
"Very nice, Kim." Will congratulated her, giving her a hand as she sat up, careful not to bang her head on the bar. He tossed her a water bottle, which she graciously accepted. "Would you like to try the leg press?"
"And humiliate you on it?" With her cheerleading and general leaping and jumping that her previous missions had afforded her, she was willing to lay down money that her vertical was a lot higher than Will's. She shook her head, handing him the empty bottle as she sat up. Her sports bra and spandex pants were soaked with sweat, evidence of the effectiveness of Will's workout regiment. "I should probably get going anyway. Plans tonight."
He shifted uncomfortably as he asked her, "A date?"
"Not really." she grinned, wondering why he was so uncomfortable discussing her personal life. Maybe it was because he didn't have one of his own. Then again, he seemed to be opening up more and more to her as they spent time training together. Perhaps he finally felt he had someone he could talk to about all of the Global Justice things that monopolized his life. "I'm just meeting Ron for a movie."
He checked the wall chronometer, frowning. "A little late to catch a movie on a school night, isn't it?"
Her eyes flashed up at the clock, growing wide. It was already past nine…the movie had not only started, it was probably over with by now. "Oh man!" she cried, thumping herself in the forehead. "I can't believe this…"
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-WEDNESDAY-
"So if acceleration is the derivative of velocity, what is velocity the derivative of?" Ron looked up from his book, casting a puzzled glance at his study partner. More physics. It seemed to go on forever and ever, and none of it was making sense. Maybe he really 'would' use the Kimmunicator to ask Wade for some help. "What do you think?"
Rufus looked up from his bottle of cheese sauce, grinning at Ron with a pink-and-yellow face. "Cheeze!" he squeaked, offering the vial to Ron. The teen politely declined, which prompted Rufus to dive back into his late-night snack.
Ron sighed, sliding his book across his living room rug as he let his face drop into the worn fibers of the carpeting. Physics, he decided, was just too much for one person to understand on his own. Two or more were needed (and it was especially preferable if one of those people had a degree to begin with!).
He had talked briefly with Kim at the lecture, but she was almost as distant then as she had been the entire week. Besides taking notes together in class, they hadn't spent any time together, and it was starting to bug him a lot. She always claimed it was some sort of 'training' or whatnot. And when they had been together, and not buried in some notebook, all she could do was talk about Will. 'Will said this,' or 'Will did that,' or 'Will's so funny, he reminds me a lot of you.' Well, who needed Will to remind her of him when he was right there, for pity's sake!
Naturally, he hadn't breathed a word of his frustration to Kim. She was undoubtedly doing her best, and taking on more than a normal person could possibly handle. Still, that didn't change the fact that he missed his best friend.
Sensing Ron's depression, Rufus scampered off. A moment later, the mole rat returned with the cordless phone, squeaking and shoving as he bonked Ron on the head with the device. Ron lifted his face from the floor, smiling at Rufus' suggestion. "Think I should?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Rufus nodded eagerly, jumping up and down as Ron took the phone.
With a sour face, Ron looked back at the counter, which held Will's ridiculously comprehensive file he had to finish filling out before he could actually visit Kim. 'They can stop me from coming,' he thought mischievously, 'But they can't stop me from calling!'
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The phone beeped incessantly at Kim as she unburied her nose from the thick tome of GJ regulations and procedures Will had given her to study. She would be expected to know them and follow them relatively soon, so it was best to get a jump on things. If Global Justice was trying to contact her for mission-related stuff, they would have used the new Communicator hanging from her belt at the foot of her bed. She was engrossed with the new book of rules, and had already talked to her family earlier that night, so she figured the phone couldn't be too important.
'Who could that be?' she wondered silently as she lay on her bed, using the tiny reading light at her side as her only other companion. Sometimes the big, empty place could feel a little lonely, but she knew that if she got 'really' desperate, she could always visit Will. He 'had' told her she was welcome any time, day or night. 'And there's Ron, of course.' she thought, wishing that he and Rufus could visit her there. She never had time anymore to go to the other side of campus, and desperately missed her best friend.
'I should give him a call tomorrow before lecture,' she thought to herself as she returned to the rulebook. Down below in the living room, she heard the phone's beeping cease, but didn't hear the answering machine pick up in its place. 'Must not have been too important.' she affirmed her earlier thought. 'Now where was I?'
"Regulation Alpha Charlie Three…always respond to a communiqué when able…"
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-THURSDAY-
Ron hung low in his lecture hall seat, barely paying attention to the enormous image of Wade lecturing them on gravitational acceleration. Next to him, his backpack sat in the seat he usually saved for Kim. In this case, she hadn't needed it, seeing as how she hadn't even showed up for the lecture.
Jim and Tim, sitting in their usual spot behind him, leaned forward on either side of his head, murmuring right in his ear so as not to disturb the other students. "Where's Kim?" the fifteen-year-old set asked in unison.
"How would I know?" he snapped back bitterly. Heavy bags hung under his eyes, a sign of the late-night studying he had pulled trying to figure out the day's lesson, as well as a three page essay in his literary analysis class. Likewise, his pocket was devoid of any furry, amorphous pink mole rats; Rufus had decided that Physics disturbed his breakfast digestion, and thus also had left Ron adrift in the sea of useless equations.
"You mean you aren't in the loop?" Jim asked, slightly astonished.
"Dude…" Tim agreed. Ron and Kim were so close, if a stranger were to have to decide between him and the twins as to which of them were actually her siblings, both Jim and Tim would have laid cash that the stranger would pick Ron in a heartbeat.
All of that was forgotten for a moment when Wade's lecture suddenly stopped. The young teen stared at something on his own computer, reflected many times in the multi-screened lecture hall. Suddenly, he looked at the class and said, "People, you'll have to excuse me for a moment. Urgent business." He began typing furiously on his computer, frowning in concentration as the rest of the class buzzed.
Ron was just about to mutter something himself when four musical tones erupted from his backpack. Glancing between the backpack and the hall's enormous main monitor, where Wade was staring patiently at his computer, Ron finally reached in and pulled the Kimmunicator out. He flipped it on, and was hardly surprised to find Wade waiting for him on the tiny screen.
"Ron," Wade said, his voice emerging from the Kimmunicator's miniscule speakers, which were drowned out by the lecture hall's main sound system (also carrying Wade's message to Ron). "We have a hit!"
"Um, Wade…" Ron glanced around, blushing furiously as people began noticing the very public private conversation their professor was having with him. "You might want to…"
"What?" Wade asked. "Is everything okay?"
Ron turned the Kimmunicator's camera towards the main screen, allowing Wade to see himself in 'surround-vision'.
"Oh. Heh. Sorry about that, people. Class dismissed, or whatever." The hall's screens all winked out as the class raised their voices in a cheer. Not needing a second opinion, they began filing out in droves as Ron turned back to the now-mercifully confidential conversation. Jim and Tim leaned over as well, curious as to Wade's sudden interruption.
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
Wade split the screen, pulling up a map of the southern Pacific. Ron was a little familiar with it, having flown over it when he had traveled to Japan (to say nothing of the previous weekend's trip). "GJ's got a hot tip on Drakken's next move. Info's been leaked about a heist at a local technology consortium."
Ron's frown deepened as he considered the facts. "I don't get it," he said at last. "Drakken's working with those Roddigan guys. I thought they had all the tech he needed."
With a shake of his head, Wade withdrew the map. "They wouldn't have anything close to this. Cutting edge stuff…military, too."
"Wonderful." He stood up, packing his things quickly. The twins jumped up and down behind him, straining to get a good look at the screen as Ron and Wade continued to talk. "Got a ride?"
"Us too!" Jim exclaimed.
"Yeah," Tim added, "We wanna help."
"Great. Play back-up." Ron gave them a brief, half-hearted smile.
"All right!" the twins traded high-fives, then looked confused. "Wait…" they said, still speaking in unison, "How do we do that?"
"You can back up and out of the hall, go home, and stay safe."
"Awww, Ron!"
"C'mon Ron!"
He shushed them both, turning back to Wade. "Back to the ride issue…"
Wade seemed a little embarrassed. "Uh…slight problem. But," he added quickly before Ron could ask, "I think I have the solution. Only 'real' problem is, you aren't gonna like it."
"Let's hear it."
So Wade described the problem to Ron, as well as his solution. And it turned out, as with most things, that Wade had been right;
Ron didn't like it.
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Kim Possible is a loose cannon cop on the edge who doesn't take guff from anyone. Cyberwraith Nine is her rookie partner, determined to avenge the death of his pet goldfish. Ron Stoppable is the woman they both fell in love with. Together, they make…NO PROFIT!
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Kim Possible
The Power of Love
by Cyberwraith9
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"Stupid, idiotic, irresponsible…" Will trailed off, his red face puffing as he searched for more words to hurl at his target. "And…and…"
Ron yawned, appearing very bored at the agent's furious rant as they lounged in the cockpit of GJ's hoverjet. The craft currently cruised high above the Pacific, streaking back towards Upperton and home as Will finally divulged his displeasure at Ron's performance on the mission. "You forgot 'bumbling'." he offered helpfully.
"Yes, BUMBLING!" Will threw his hands up in the air, swiveling away from the controls to glare at Ron. The hoverjet's whisper-quiet engines and state of the art autopilot allowed Will to scream at Ron unimpaired. Of course, that didn't mean Ron was particularly impressed…only that he was receiving quality reception.
Sitting to the side, Kim watched silently at the two duked it out verbally. There were several places she wanted to spring in at, but she wasn't really sure which side to jump in on. On the one hand, Ron was her friend, and had only come because he was worried about her. On the other, Will had some very good points; Ron's carelessness 'had' nearly turned them into vacationing atoms.
Will watched with increasing fury as Ron stretched lazily, lacing his fingers behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. Down at his leg, Rufus did the same, sagging against his pocket flap with a wide yawn. "Well?" The agent demanded, "Do you have anything to say?"
He shrugged, letting his eyelids droop as he felt the aches and pains of the fight make their protest known. The one particular ache that was yelling at him was getting very annoying indeed. "I just think you're being too hard on yourself, is all." Ron said smugly, his eyes still closed.
Will froze at this, his own eyes narrowing dangerously. A low groan wafted from the copilot seat as Kim laid her face in her hands. Leaning closer to Ron, Will felt his temper growing to dangerous heights. "I wasn't talking about myself, Stoppable."
One of Ron's eyes cracked open and rolled lazily towards Will. "Oh, sorry." he shrugged again, "I thought you were yelling at the bozo who blew the mission." The comment drew another moan from Kim, though she didn't jump to either boy's rescue yet.
"Remind me again which one of us disabled the nuclear explosion?" Will challenged.
"Uh-huh. And which one of us couldn't even handle Killigan?" Ron kept his monocular look on the irate agent for a moment longer before returning to his 'nap'.
"I…" Will stammered, turning three different shades of purple. He sputtered and fumed, so much so that Kim actually feared he might explode. Finally, he threw himself out of his chair, stomping his boots against the deck as he threw, "I'm going to write my report," into Ron's serene face.
Then he clomped off, disappearing into the rear compartment. The door slid behind him with a silent electronic 'whoosh', which was really too bad; with the mood Will was in, some door-slamming would have done him some good.
A low chuckle rumbled from the back of Ron's throat as soon as Will was gone. "That stick of his…" he laughed softly, shaking his head.
Kim groaned with frustration, rising from her seat. "Forget the stick, Ron." she sighed. "Will's being a jerk, but he's not exactly wrong." She said the last part with a little hesitation.
Now both of Ron's eyes were wide open. Even Rufus looked up, poking his head out of his pocket at Kim's uncharacteristically accusing tone. "What?" He sat back up, staring at her incredulously. "Kim, at least we…I mean, it's not like…uh…"
"Ron," she shot him a look she usually saved for her father's 'Li'l Kimmie-cub' stories. "You nearly rendered a country uninhabitable."
"Well, yeah," he said defensively, also rising. Rufus took the opportunity to jump into his warm seat, curling up with a squeaking yawn. "You aren't looking at the bright side…the big picture, so to speak." Ron insisted.
She cocked a brow. "Which is?"
He began listing reasons, ticking them off on his fingers. "One," he said, "There 'was' no nuclear explosion, to which you, Rufus and I are living proof of."
"Granted." Kim nodded.
"Two," he continued, "I only nearly blew up a country we don't even 'like'. It's not like," he searched, waving his hand in the air as if stirring around a list of options, "It's not like I nearly blew up France!" He paused, blinking as he considered his own words. "Wait, forget I said France."
"And number three?" Kim asked with an air of impatience, trying desperately to keep her deadpanned expression from cracking.
"Simple." His patented 'I'm-Ron-So-Please-Don't-Crucify-Me' smile flashed as he spoke. "If I hadn't been there, Will totally would have wet his jumpsuit." A deathly serious look crossed his face as he leaned in, whispering, "These seats are real leather. Can you imagine the mess?"
Kim's features finally broke with a huge grin. She couldn't help but chuckle as she ruffled Ron's hair. "Okay, okay." she gave in with a laugh. "Just make sure there aren't any international incidents on the next mission, all right?"
His entire face lit up at this. "Next time?" At her nod, he thrust his fist up and spun in his chair, squishing Rufus without even realizing it. "Boo-yah!"
"In the meantime," she added with a sigh, "I'll try to smooth things over with Will." She was still a little ticked at Ron, but seeing as how they hadn't wound up in the middle of an expanding ball of thermonuclear death, things could have been a lot worse.
As she slid back into her seat and turned to the controls, she felt a pair of strong hands envelop her shoulders from behind. A different kind of sigh erupted from her lips as Ron's nimble fingers kneaded her sore muscles. Her head lolled about as she melted contently into his touch, feeling kinks she didn't know she had being worked out.
"No big, KP." he assured her. He gave another smile as she looked up at him, captivating him with her luminous eyes. Not for the first time, he found himself lost in her oceans of emerald beauty. He only hoped she didn't notice. "It'll be better after things calm down." he managed to say without stuttering.
"I hope so," she moaned, patting his hand. Her cheek brushed against his fingers as she closed her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted. "This weekend's been a madhouse."
"You'll see." he reassured her. "Once we get back to school, everything'll be okay."
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-MONDAY-
The dim lighting at Bueno Nacho was more than enough for Rufus to clearly see the look of dejection and worry plastered on his best friend's face. The naked mole rat was waist-deep in a Grande Nacho Platter, enjoying the sensation of warm cheese seeping between his claws as he gnawed on a veritable field of corn chips.
Ron, on the other hand, was not enjoying his food nearly as much as Rufus was. It sat in front of him, still wrapped and stone-cold as he leaned against the booth's table, arms folded and head lowered. His eyes were locked ahead as if he were concentrating on some distant point. As Rufus well knew, the thought wasn't too far off. However, it was a person he was thinking of, and not a place.
Heaving a sigh, Ron checked his watch. It was a quarter to ten o'clock. The sun had set long ago behind the row of campus buildings. Ron had a front-row seat, since he had occupied that very booth for the better part of three hours. And now, the place would be closing in a few minutes. "Where is she?" Kim almost never ran late, and when she did it was usually connected with some world-saving jiggery-pokery.
"Hey!" a high, nasally voice called at him from the counter. Even without looking, he knew the word was directed at him. No one else had entered the store for a half-hour. "We're closing up. Either order something, or get out."
Ron turned with a dull heart. Then he stopped, staring at the familiar face situated behind the counter. "Ned?"
The pimply, greasy scowl behind the man's thick glasses was unmistakable, and Ron doubted that anyone else on the planet would wear such a hideous clip-on tie. Still, the man shook his head. "No," he insisted, pointing to his nametag, "I'm Ted. Though I do have a brother who works over in-"
"Middleton, yeah." Ron finished for him, turning back to his food. The wrappers were still untouched, which was unthinkable for the Prince of Bueno Nacho. He had wanted to wait for Kim, remembering a few times when she had half-jokingly told him it was rude to start without someone. The one time he remembered, and she hadn't even shown up.
"So?" Ted demanded, leaning over the counter. "You gonna eat something, or do I have to toss you out?"
The thought of the skinny, noodle-armed taco jockey getting rough almost made Ron laugh out loud, but not quite. Ron stood obligingly, gathering up his cold food. A gentle hand removed Rufus as he took a napkin from the dispenser, cleaning the giggling rodent's claws before pocketing him. He gathered up the remains of what was going to be their dinner and tossed it away. "Yeah, I'm going."
Seeing that he wasn't going to need to chase this one out, Ted grew a little curious. "What were you doing here, anyway?" he asked, pushing his glasses further up his grease-covered nose. "You've been here all night."
"I was…" Ron paused at the door, looking back at Ted with an unreadable expression. "I was waiting for a girl."
"A girl?" Ted laughed at this, pounding the countertop. "What kind of doofus would wait around that long for a girl? I would have gotten the message hours ago!"
As he pushed through the door (quelling the sudden urge to force-feed Ted his own nametag), part of Ron couldn't help but agree with the clerk. Another part wondered what had happened; Kim had never stood him up without at least calling ahead. 'I'll give her a call tomorrow.' he thought to himself. He had already left several messages on her phone, so maybe she would call him. The thought brought a little cheer back to Ron, but not much.
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Kim laughed, swinging a nasty-looking sidearm at her side as Will walked her back to her door. They both wore GJ jumpsuits equipped with standard holsters, and Kim had to admit that the garment was growing on her. As she caught her blurred reflection in the polished metal of the corridor, even she had to admit that it looked good on her. Will had said as much…
"Are you serious?" she said, red in the face from laughter. Surprisingly, Will was the same. She had never seen him laugh before, but since they had started training together, he had really loosened up. The calm, relaxed Will was definitely a side to him that she liked seeing.
He nodded, holstering his weapon as he grinned at her. "Absolutely. My very first day of weapons training, Doctor Director herself…of course, then she was just Doctor Vice-Director, but all the same…I…" he trailed off, his words dissolving into infectious laughter.
"Oh man," Kim gasped, out of breath.
"I shot her eye patch right off." He zipped his finger right past his skull, mimicking a bullet's whistle. "Broke the strap. She said it was the most amazing shot she had ever seen."
"You didn't!" she insisted.
"It's true! And then I said, 'Well thank you, Doctor," He had to pause to recollect himself, stifling his laughter long enough to finish the story, "But…but I was really aiming for that target there next to you."
"You lie!" Kim laughed, punching him in the shoulder.
He took the blow good-naturedly, pretending to surrender to her superior fighting skill. "It's the truth. I don't think I've ever seen her look so pale."
They continued on, laughing and carousing until they finally reached Kim's door. Will quieted at this, which prompted Kim to do the same as she opened the door. "Listen, Will…" she rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "Thank you."
"No problem." He took the firearm from her, placing it in his other holster so she wouldn't have to worry about it. "Firearms are a little hard to get used to at first, but you seem like a natural."
"No," she insisted with a gentle shake of her head. Her hands raised in a gesture that circled the building as she said, "Thank you for…all of this. I guess that's why I've been so happy. It's amazing."
"No thanks necessary." he countered. "It isn't anything you don't deserve, Kimberly."
"Call me Kim."
The two teens stood quietly for a moment, neither one sure of what to say. Both noticed that the distance between them had somehow shrunk. Finally, he pulled back, giving her a smile. "Good night…Kim."
"Good night, Will." she returned the smile as her door slid shut. As she entered the apartment, her eyes caught sight of the clock over her microwave. She was surprised at how quickly the time had gone during Will's training session. Still, the dull ache in her muscles told her that it had been long enough.
She began fixing herself a warm glass of milk when she noticed a blinking red light on her answering machine. Checking the ID, she wasn't surprised to find that all four messages were from Ron. "Probably wanted to talk about Physics." she smiled to herself, thinking back with a shudder to Wade's horrific science class. Still, as she pressed the button, she couldn't quite shake the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something.
"Hey KP," Ron's voice echoed electronically from the machine. Kim's smile grew wider, until the message continued on. "It's about seven-twenty, and I'm not sure where you are. Just wanted to make sure you were okay. Hope to see you soon."
The digital recording beeped as it moved on to the next message. Kim frowned: Why was Ron checking up on her? "Wait a minute…" She rubbed her temples as that nagging feeling began to coalesce.
"KP, hey," the next message started out. "Ron again. Eight o'clock on the nose. Your tacos are getting cold, but if you want to still pop on by, I bet we could get you a reheat or something."
"Oh man!" Kim finally remembered, leaning back against her fridge with a mug of cold milk in hand. She had completely forgotten about meeting Ron for dinner.
Her hand reached for the phone when the third message began to play. Pausing a second, she listened to the third, and then the fourth voice mail Ron had left for her. The last had come at nine-thirty, saying that the shop was closing soon. Some quick math told her that he had waited for her at least two and a half hours at Bueno Nacho.
Her milk forgotten, Kim picked the phone up and dialed Ron's cell. A moment later, she heard his chipper voice pipe through. "Hey!"
"Ron, I'm-"
"This is Ron." The message continued. "I'm off fighting crime or failing a test, so leave your message at the sound of the naked mole rat. Ciao!" The message ended with Rufus's impression of an answering machine, followed by a pair of muffled chuckles before the real beep came.
Kim left a quick message, apologizing profusely and offering to pick up dinner tomorrow, maybe after a movie or something. Then she collapsed into one of her easy chairs, feeling exhausted and guilty. "Hope he's not mad," she sighed to the empty room.
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-TUESDAY-
"…There's something I have to tell you." he said, lowering his gaze to the floor as if ashamed, not of what he was about to say, but for not saying it sooner.
She reached forward, cupping his chin with her slender fingers as she gazed into his warm, affectionate eyes. "Say it." she whispered. "You don't have to be afraid any more…"
Gathering his courage, he grasped her by the waist and pulled her close. Their noses were almost pressing, their lips trembling with mutual hunger as he murmured, "I love you."
Ron's lips synched in time with the silver-screen starlet's (which were uncannily large thanks to several collagen injections) as she replied, "And I, you." Then he snorted, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his craw as the two stars of the movie, 'Hearts of Crazy Flame', shared a deep, passionate kiss. "No one really talks like this," he complained softly to his friend.
"Muh-oh." Rufus shrugged, scampering up his arm and diving into the bucket of popcorn. His blobby body melted into the cracks between each kernel, and a moment later the level of the popcorn began steadily dropping with a soft slurping sound.
The teen sighed, setting his bucket in the noticeably-empty seat next to him. He wasn't sure why he was stuck in the stupid theater watching the stupid movie anyway, seeing as how Kim had stood him up…again. He had waited for her outside the theater all the way through the previews, and even past the first ten minutes of the movie before giving up and heading in.
'Meet me outside of the theater,' she said. 'Seven on the dot,' she said. 'My treat, and dinner too,' she said. Now it was a quarter to nine, and the movie had reached its gag-worth climax. "Feel-good hit of the year my pasty white butt." he muttered darkly, stealing a few morsels of popcorn from his bucket before Rufus could finish it off.
The movie itself was almost as painful as knowing Kim had blown him off a second consecutive time. The entire theater was filled with couples, watching a movie about two best friends who fell in love with each other when they went to college. Sometimes irony wasn't funny at all, and Ron suspected that if he knew what irony meant exactly, it wouldn't be funny at the moment.
'Where are you, Kim?' he groaned inwardly, praying for the credits to hustle up.
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"Eighteen…nineteen…twenty!"
Kim gasped, allowing Will to help her lift the bar back into its cradle. She had never tried the bench press before, and was pleased that her cheerleading muscles, while not huge, would at least start her out on the road to becoming leaner, meaner, and feistier in a fight.
"Very nice, Kim." Will congratulated her, giving her a hand as she sat up, careful not to bang her head on the bar. He tossed her a water bottle, which she graciously accepted. "Would you like to try the leg press?"
"And humiliate you on it?" With her cheerleading and general leaping and jumping that her previous missions had afforded her, she was willing to lay down money that her vertical was a lot higher than Will's. She shook her head, handing him the empty bottle as she sat up. Her sports bra and spandex pants were soaked with sweat, evidence of the effectiveness of Will's workout regiment. "I should probably get going anyway. Plans tonight."
He shifted uncomfortably as he asked her, "A date?"
"Not really." she grinned, wondering why he was so uncomfortable discussing her personal life. Maybe it was because he didn't have one of his own. Then again, he seemed to be opening up more and more to her as they spent time training together. Perhaps he finally felt he had someone he could talk to about all of the Global Justice things that monopolized his life. "I'm just meeting Ron for a movie."
He checked the wall chronometer, frowning. "A little late to catch a movie on a school night, isn't it?"
Her eyes flashed up at the clock, growing wide. It was already past nine…the movie had not only started, it was probably over with by now. "Oh man!" she cried, thumping herself in the forehead. "I can't believe this…"
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-WEDNESDAY-
"So if acceleration is the derivative of velocity, what is velocity the derivative of?" Ron looked up from his book, casting a puzzled glance at his study partner. More physics. It seemed to go on forever and ever, and none of it was making sense. Maybe he really 'would' use the Kimmunicator to ask Wade for some help. "What do you think?"
Rufus looked up from his bottle of cheese sauce, grinning at Ron with a pink-and-yellow face. "Cheeze!" he squeaked, offering the vial to Ron. The teen politely declined, which prompted Rufus to dive back into his late-night snack.
Ron sighed, sliding his book across his living room rug as he let his face drop into the worn fibers of the carpeting. Physics, he decided, was just too much for one person to understand on his own. Two or more were needed (and it was especially preferable if one of those people had a degree to begin with!).
He had talked briefly with Kim at the lecture, but she was almost as distant then as she had been the entire week. Besides taking notes together in class, they hadn't spent any time together, and it was starting to bug him a lot. She always claimed it was some sort of 'training' or whatnot. And when they had been together, and not buried in some notebook, all she could do was talk about Will. 'Will said this,' or 'Will did that,' or 'Will's so funny, he reminds me a lot of you.' Well, who needed Will to remind her of him when he was right there, for pity's sake!
Naturally, he hadn't breathed a word of his frustration to Kim. She was undoubtedly doing her best, and taking on more than a normal person could possibly handle. Still, that didn't change the fact that he missed his best friend.
Sensing Ron's depression, Rufus scampered off. A moment later, the mole rat returned with the cordless phone, squeaking and shoving as he bonked Ron on the head with the device. Ron lifted his face from the floor, smiling at Rufus' suggestion. "Think I should?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Rufus nodded eagerly, jumping up and down as Ron took the phone.
With a sour face, Ron looked back at the counter, which held Will's ridiculously comprehensive file he had to finish filling out before he could actually visit Kim. 'They can stop me from coming,' he thought mischievously, 'But they can't stop me from calling!'
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The phone beeped incessantly at Kim as she unburied her nose from the thick tome of GJ regulations and procedures Will had given her to study. She would be expected to know them and follow them relatively soon, so it was best to get a jump on things. If Global Justice was trying to contact her for mission-related stuff, they would have used the new Communicator hanging from her belt at the foot of her bed. She was engrossed with the new book of rules, and had already talked to her family earlier that night, so she figured the phone couldn't be too important.
'Who could that be?' she wondered silently as she lay on her bed, using the tiny reading light at her side as her only other companion. Sometimes the big, empty place could feel a little lonely, but she knew that if she got 'really' desperate, she could always visit Will. He 'had' told her she was welcome any time, day or night. 'And there's Ron, of course.' she thought, wishing that he and Rufus could visit her there. She never had time anymore to go to the other side of campus, and desperately missed her best friend.
'I should give him a call tomorrow before lecture,' she thought to herself as she returned to the rulebook. Down below in the living room, she heard the phone's beeping cease, but didn't hear the answering machine pick up in its place. 'Must not have been too important.' she affirmed her earlier thought. 'Now where was I?'
"Regulation Alpha Charlie Three…always respond to a communiqué when able…"
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-THURSDAY-
Ron hung low in his lecture hall seat, barely paying attention to the enormous image of Wade lecturing them on gravitational acceleration. Next to him, his backpack sat in the seat he usually saved for Kim. In this case, she hadn't needed it, seeing as how she hadn't even showed up for the lecture.
Jim and Tim, sitting in their usual spot behind him, leaned forward on either side of his head, murmuring right in his ear so as not to disturb the other students. "Where's Kim?" the fifteen-year-old set asked in unison.
"How would I know?" he snapped back bitterly. Heavy bags hung under his eyes, a sign of the late-night studying he had pulled trying to figure out the day's lesson, as well as a three page essay in his literary analysis class. Likewise, his pocket was devoid of any furry, amorphous pink mole rats; Rufus had decided that Physics disturbed his breakfast digestion, and thus also had left Ron adrift in the sea of useless equations.
"You mean you aren't in the loop?" Jim asked, slightly astonished.
"Dude…" Tim agreed. Ron and Kim were so close, if a stranger were to have to decide between him and the twins as to which of them were actually her siblings, both Jim and Tim would have laid cash that the stranger would pick Ron in a heartbeat.
All of that was forgotten for a moment when Wade's lecture suddenly stopped. The young teen stared at something on his own computer, reflected many times in the multi-screened lecture hall. Suddenly, he looked at the class and said, "People, you'll have to excuse me for a moment. Urgent business." He began typing furiously on his computer, frowning in concentration as the rest of the class buzzed.
Ron was just about to mutter something himself when four musical tones erupted from his backpack. Glancing between the backpack and the hall's enormous main monitor, where Wade was staring patiently at his computer, Ron finally reached in and pulled the Kimmunicator out. He flipped it on, and was hardly surprised to find Wade waiting for him on the tiny screen.
"Ron," Wade said, his voice emerging from the Kimmunicator's miniscule speakers, which were drowned out by the lecture hall's main sound system (also carrying Wade's message to Ron). "We have a hit!"
"Um, Wade…" Ron glanced around, blushing furiously as people began noticing the very public private conversation their professor was having with him. "You might want to…"
"What?" Wade asked. "Is everything okay?"
Ron turned the Kimmunicator's camera towards the main screen, allowing Wade to see himself in 'surround-vision'.
"Oh. Heh. Sorry about that, people. Class dismissed, or whatever." The hall's screens all winked out as the class raised their voices in a cheer. Not needing a second opinion, they began filing out in droves as Ron turned back to the now-mercifully confidential conversation. Jim and Tim leaned over as well, curious as to Wade's sudden interruption.
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
Wade split the screen, pulling up a map of the southern Pacific. Ron was a little familiar with it, having flown over it when he had traveled to Japan (to say nothing of the previous weekend's trip). "GJ's got a hot tip on Drakken's next move. Info's been leaked about a heist at a local technology consortium."
Ron's frown deepened as he considered the facts. "I don't get it," he said at last. "Drakken's working with those Roddigan guys. I thought they had all the tech he needed."
With a shake of his head, Wade withdrew the map. "They wouldn't have anything close to this. Cutting edge stuff…military, too."
"Wonderful." He stood up, packing his things quickly. The twins jumped up and down behind him, straining to get a good look at the screen as Ron and Wade continued to talk. "Got a ride?"
"Us too!" Jim exclaimed.
"Yeah," Tim added, "We wanna help."
"Great. Play back-up." Ron gave them a brief, half-hearted smile.
"All right!" the twins traded high-fives, then looked confused. "Wait…" they said, still speaking in unison, "How do we do that?"
"You can back up and out of the hall, go home, and stay safe."
"Awww, Ron!"
"C'mon Ron!"
He shushed them both, turning back to Wade. "Back to the ride issue…"
Wade seemed a little embarrassed. "Uh…slight problem. But," he added quickly before Ron could ask, "I think I have the solution. Only 'real' problem is, you aren't gonna like it."
"Let's hear it."
So Wade described the problem to Ron, as well as his solution. And it turned out, as with most things, that Wade had been right;
Ron didn't like it.
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