The expression 'slow day' was rarely found in Kim Possible's daily dictionary. If she wasn't jetting off to some new location around the globe to save it, then she was always keeping busy. Working on school, practicing to keep in shape, helping her community, whatever she could think of, she was always on the move. Kim definitely did not like to sit still.
Today, however, had been different. She had sat inside her room almost all day, waiting patiently for Wade to contact her with some news of this 'Slade' she had fought with the night before. Any news of him in any government bureaus, world law enforcement agencies, mention in the tabloids, anything! But for the past seven hours since Kim had spoken with him, Wade had managed to turn up nothing. Certainly a new record for the boy genius, one that Kim would have preferred not seen set.
Kim had tried, and failed miserably, to occupy her mind and time since by working on her gymnastic routines, hoping perhaps to come up with a few new cheers for the upcoming school year. Yet neither her mind nor her body was in the mood. She had fallen flat on her face more than once over the course of the afternoon's workout, and if Bonnie or anyone else on the planet for that matter had seen her, they'd have never even believed she was qualified to be a cheerleader in the first place. However, for now, she was cutting off all contact from the outside world, thus eliminating all chances of such a social nightmare, which included Ron.
It hadn't been easy. Ron had called the house time and time again asking about her, and Kim had been forced to plead with her mother to lie for her to Ronald. When Kim's mother had blatantly refused the job, along with her father, she delegated the task to her brothers, who even they seemed rather disheartened about the task.
"I'm not pushing him away." She insisted to herself, even as she looked up within her room, over to her nightstand to see a picture of the two, taken years ago, after Ron's horrific experience at Camp Wannaweep. "I'm just…..I just need to get my head in the game. I just need to think."
Unfortunately, this was entirely the problem. All she could think of, all that she had thought of all day was him. Slade. What was it about him anyway? That he was a good fighter? That he only had one eye? What was it? Why did he reach in so deep where no one else had, and find a scared little girl instead of a strong young heroine?
Kim came out of her troubled brooding just long enough to realize that her room had suddenly gotten very dark. As she looked out her windows, she could see that the sun had apparently long since set. How long had she been sitting there like this? Had she really been there, unmoving, all day? She somehow felt she'd rather not know. Yet, as it occurred to her to turn on some lights, she decided against it. She just continued to sit in the dark.
Kim's mind suddenly focused on a distant sound in the house; a familiar knocking coming from the front door. Kim didn't need to wait for the faint greeting from her mother, or the cheerful response of the visitor to know who it was. Frankly, Kim was amazed he hadn't been over sooner, even though she'd been glad of it.
Without moving an inch, Kim tracked the footsteps through the house, leading right up to her door. A tapping came from the other side, and when she gave no response, the door knob turned of its own accord, affording entrance to a blonde haired young man sporting a familiar, goofy grin.
"You know, Thomas Edison did not play in the rain with his house key and a kite just so that you could sit around in the dark, young lady." Ron announced cheerfully, turning on some lights within the room, which caused Kim to momentarily wince at the bright needles stabbing fiercely into her eyes as penance for wasting an entire day away from him, sitting on her bed, being all moody.
"Didn't my brothers tell you that I'm not home?" Kim asked with only a feint of her usual humor.
"Kim, you're brothers may know how to reroute the Middleton power grid every year for Christmas, but they are still very bad at lying. Feeling down?" Ron responded.
"Only a few thousand feet below sea level." Kim sighed, leaning back into her pillows.
"Well don't worry, because the Ron man has just the remedy for the blues." Ron added triumphantly. For the first time, Kim noticed that he had one of his hands concealed behind his back, even as he walked over to her bed. "Now I know that since you have a brain surgeon for a mother, you've probably heard the expression that an apple a day, keeps the doctor away…"
"Only about seven hundred and thirty times a year since I was three." Kim did the quick tally aloud.
"… But in the Stoppable household, there is only one cure for the blues. Fresh baked cookies!" Ron exclaimed as he produced a tray filled with home baked goodies. Chocolate chip even, her favorite.
Even Kim could not restrain her surprise at this. If there was one talent of her boyfriend's that was undisputable in the entire world, it was his prowess in the kitchen. Kim's nose took in the tantalizing aroma as it rose from the plate, lifting Kim's mood along with it.
"Those smell amazing!" Kim could scarcely restrain herself from devouring the entire contents of the plate all at once, until she noticed a certain naked mole rat leap out of his resting place within Ron's pants pocket and dive straight for the mountain of baked goods.
"Mmhhmm, cookies! Oh boy." Rufus was cut off as Ron's hand darted in front of the pink blur, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Rufus, no! Those are for Kim. I already baked you three dozen to keep you from chowing down on these!" Ron's voice was stone cold and unbreakable.
"More. Ooooh, please." Rufus pleaded, but to no avail. Ron did not flinch.
"You're way too hard on the little guy you know." Kim bemused, her gloomy mood had completely vanished in the presence of the slight comedy unfolding before her. "It's not like anyone in their right mind could resist these anyway." She teased, picking up one of the treats for herself.
"Well I don't like to brag KP, but I definitely added my own special ingredient of NACHO CHEESE!" Ron suddenly exclaimed.
"Nacho cheese?" Kim added, looking at the cookie almost hesitantly. But before she had time to question his sudden outburst, Ron had raced from her bedside to her desk, frantically searching for a pencil and paper. Kim took the opportunity to toss Rufus the cookie that she had in hand. The naked mole rat consumed the baked delight in one swallow, taking no bother to chew, before falling over to his side, moaning 'oooh boy, one too many' in a slow agony. Ron had still taken no notice of any of this, and instead was writing something out on a spare note of paper with a passion that Kim had certainly never seen of him when they did their homework.
"Uh Ron, what are you working on?"
"Nacho cheese, KP. Don't you see? That's it. That's what my Super Taco Split has been so vitally missing! Oh, and the answer was so simple, how could I have not seen it? This masterpiece will single-handedly save Beuno Nacho once and for all!" Ron exclaimed with pride.
Kim could only help but smile at her boyfriend's determination. For weeks now, Ron had been desperate to cook up some sort of fantastic, miracle recipe to re-boost Beuno Nacho and keep the company from bankruptcy. It seemed that having a deranged mad scientist plunder the company's stock value to mass produce countless tiny, cybertronic killing machines with no plans of any sort of return revenue or profit was not the brightest corporate strategy the world had ever seen. Ever since the Diablo Disaster, the company had been announcing massive cuts in all areas, closing down different locations, laying off thousands of employees and many had feared that the company was a bad day away from declaring chapter eleven. Ron and Kim had only been grateful that the local branch had managed to stay open, but they had feared the worst. Ron had been hard at work designing another Mexican miracle for the company, one that might actually bring some value back to the company's stock, and keep it afloat.
Kim sighed, smiling widely as she watched her boyfriend furiously taking down notes, as if the very thoughts in his mind held the key to the future of the human race, and looking away from his paper now would only cause them to be lost to all of time.
How did he do it? How did he, just by virtue of being him, by virtue of being there, make it all go away? All her worries, her fears, gone. And all because he wore that stupid smile on his face twenty four hours a day, and was always there for her when she needed him most.
Finally, Ron looked up from his notes to see Kim, staring at him almost dreamily.
"Uhh, KP, are you ok? I usually only get that look after someone's had my cooking, not before."
"How did you get to be such a perfect boyfriend?" Kim asked without missing a beat.
Ron was not expecting the question, and it showed by looking at him. Never the less, that didn't stop him from giving the only response that came to him. "Well KP, when you got the perfect girlfriend, you gotta be sure to keep up things on your end. It's only fair after all."
Kim gave him a smile that she reserved for only one person on the planet, then turned down to see the plate of unprotected, and relatively untouched cookies. Kim's mouth watered at the sight, silently berating her for leaving such a fine platter undisturbed. Grabbing the one at the top of the pile, Kim brought it to her and bit down.
Her response was immediate.
Without even bothering to finish the mouthful of cookie she had been so eager to devour, Kim dashed right across the room, pouncing right on top of Ron's unexpecting lap. Without warning, and against his as yet unvoiced protests, she pressed her crumb laden lips directly to his, wrapping her arms tightly around the back of his head, as the two shared what was left of Kim's first bite of cookie.
For a minute, neither of them moved… much. It was finally, slowly, over the approval of a certain naked mole rat watching the whole thing, that Kim pulled herself away from Ron, however reluctantly, wiping a spare crumb from the side of her face.
"Wow." At first, this was all that Ron could mutter, even as the two locked eyes for another half a minute before he was able to weakly muster the question "What was that for?"
"That was for the cookies." Kim replied with a devious grin on her face.
"Oh man, wait 'till you try my cupcakes."
Kim could only respond through a laughter that was soon shared by the both of them. Eventually, they regained composure over themselves, only to lean in and share yet another kiss.
By the time that Kim pulled herself away a second time, she had to be sure to take in a deep breath. As she did, a disturbing outline in the shadows outside caught her attention through her window.
"No." Came the faint whisper from Kim.
Ron looked at her in puzzlement, but before she could explain she was gone. With even greater speed than she had displayed to pounce him, Kim took off, bolting out her door and down the stairs for the back door.
Kim recognized the shadow outline all too well. She had only seen it one other time, but her instincts immediately knew its form.
It was him. He was here.