Where You Hang Your Hat: Part VI
"Ronald, is that any place for a gentleman's hand to be?" The words slipped out of James' mouth before he could stop himself. He was already mentally berating himself for just walking in on them. Even though it was about four thirty in the afternoon there was always the possibility that he could have walked in on something much more embarrassing than seeing Ron with his hand a touch too low on Kim's hip. It had already happened a couple times, but that was in the early morning and late at night.
Ron grinned a little weakly, his hand creeping ever so slowly up from its place on the curve of her backside. He was sitting on the extra chair they had brought up so they could both work at the desk, watching as she perused some apartment ads on the internet. Kim paused the list she had been looking at on her computer and got up, crossing the room and giving her father a big hug.
James momentarily forgot everything he had been planning to say to the two of them since discussing the matter with Anne over the last twenty-eight hours. Instead he was getting the same type of embrace his daughter had always given him. He was expecting a great deal of anxiety and even some anger from her instead of an outpouring of love.
"So, what have the two of you been up to today?" he asked once she let him go.
They glanced at each other, both of them blushing lightly, though he either missed that part or blocked it out. "We've been talking about things, about each other, about you and Mom, about Ronnie's folks." Kim said, turning her desk chair around and sitting down. Ron leaned on the back of his chair, mostly looking at Kim, just as he almost always did. James marveled at the way he seemed to worship her, as if, even after being together over four years he still couldn't believe how lucky he was. He wasn't lucky, he was just right. Right for her, she was right for him. All around just right.
He sighed, his shoulders drooping slightly. One way or another he had to charge ahead. "Look, I'm really sorry about yesterday morning. I was out of line…"
Kim held up her hand, then reached over and took Ron's. "No, Daddy, we're the ones who are sorry. We put you in a position you never thought you were going to be in. It was ferociously uncool for us to just move in together like this without even considering your feelings."
"Kimmie-cub, really, I would much rather see the two of you together like this than not."
She shook her head. "After that mission…" She gripped her fiancé's hand even tighter. "…all we wanted was to be together. I guess there was some notion in the back of our minds that it was so important that we confused it with acting like adults. In the process we ended up doing something that's clearly made you uncomfortable."
"But I'm the one who was uncomfortable, Kimmie. I've thought long and hard about it and that's really my problem. It's just so hard to come to terms with the fact you are really growing up." He sat down on the corner of the bed, facing his 'kids.'
"Daddy, there's a reason you feel that way. What we have been doing, well, I can't say that most people don't, but there are plenty of people like you in the world who don't think it's right and proper. Then there's the fact we're really only twenty. We can't even go into a bar to get a drink yet, not that we'd want to." Kim had a couple of experiences with alcohol, neither of them truly pleasant after the fact. Ron had learned to appreciate wine, though that was more of a professional interest, considering his culinary training.
"Kim." From time to time he remembered that, under the control of a 'Truth Ray' she was forced to admit she hated being called Kimmie-cub. "I know I sometimes see you as just a little girl with freckles and pigtails." He nodded toward a picture on the small table she used as her nightstand. She was around five or six at the time, standing on the beach of Lake Middleton with Ron at her side wearing an inflatable water ring. "At the same time, you have probably been the single most mature young woman I have ever known. You had to be to be able to do what you did. Age is such an arbitrary thing. It's not about how many years you have been on this Earth, it's about how you act."
"That's what I'm trying to say, Daddy. When all this started, it wasn't because it was the right thing to do, it was because we thought we could get away with it. When we got home this morning, we talked about things, and one of the things we agreed to was that, while this was my room, it's really just my room. I wanted to hang on to that while still being able to be with my Ronnie." She gave his hand another squeeze, looking him in the eyes.
"What Kim's saying, Dad P, is that we think it's time we had a place that was ours. Not mine or hers, but ours." Ron returned her look, smiling softly.
Kim looked at the floor, her cheeks flushing once more, deeper this time than they had earlier. "There's also the other thing. We can be…passionate, to put it mildly. Even though we've been together for several months, here at home, the old home, and at Ron's we always feel we have to hold back. You know…"
"Being quiet?" James asked softly, understanding what she was trying to say. Then he chuckled softly. "Actually, Kimmie…Kim, your mother and I have learned to be that way for a long, long time, considering you and your brothers were living here too. That's just part and parcel of living as a couple with other people. I know talking about this is really embarrassing to you, but imagine if you were living in an apartment. The people who hear you there won't be your family."
Amazingly, Kim got even redder. "I hadn't thought of it quite like that."
"Listen, Kim. Your mother and I love you like all the world. We love Ronald too, and we want the two of you to be happy. As I said earlier, I was out of line yesterday morning. This has always been a very close family and I have to accept that you are now an adult and want to do adult things. Your mother has been after me for years to accept that. That' why she talked me into giving you my blessing for that first trip you took together. Now, I've got a general idea what may have gone on then before the trip turned into a mission, and what may have gone on with the trips since. I don't really need or want to know specifics, but we are all family here and that means we take the good and the bad. When it all comes down to it, I'm the only one who has had a problem with this.
"There's also the fact, when I really looked at it, that I was the first one to suggest the two of you actually go out and find your own place. When you step back and look at it, I was literally telling the two of you to 'shack up.' A couple years ago I would have never even considered such a thing. I had this old-fashioned notion the two of you were going to wait until you got married, though I thought that may have come sooner."
Kim looked at Ron again. "That kind of was the plan, but you know, like that poet said, 'best laid plans' and all."
James smiled a bit at that. He always liked Robert Burns, and had even privately composed his own version of "To a Mouse" that involved a certain lab rat he knew back in this own school days. Granted, it involved a tiny, rat sized battle suit with a working plasma blaster, but it still held a warm place in his heart. "Well, that's all water under the bridge. Kim, Ronald, I think it will be just fine to keep things the way they are until you get married next year. Anything else is just going to result in the two of you being miserable, and that is the last thing any of us want."
Kim got up from her chair and sat down beside her father, hugging him again. "Thanks, Daddy. It's just…we're decided that you really were right. It's time we went out and found something." She pointed at the computer, just moments before the screensaver popped up. "Yesterday we looked at a few places. It was starting to look like we were either going to have to settle for something tiny and drab, or we were going to have to board Rufus somewhere."
"That first place we looked was kind of nasty." Ron said, leaning back down on the back of his seat.
"I've been looking at some listings online, though. We still have to do some first-hand looking, but it looks like there should be plenty out there we can afford."
"But Kimmie-cub…"
"Daddy, it's something we want…something we need. It doesn't mean we don't love you and Mom…and the Tweebs. It's just time we finally left the nest. Look at all of our friends, both the ones we grew up with and even the ones we've made at school. Ron and I are the only ones left who haven't moved on already, and it's not like we're moving away like Monique and Felix did. The place Ron is having built is only five minutes away. Then too, we've got friends and sometimes it's really awk-weird for them to come see us here, living like we're still high school kids."
"And we'd really like a queen size or bigger bed." Ron added.
"Ron!" Kim glared at him, blushing slightly again.
"I can always go buy a bigger bed. Kim, is this really what you want? I don't want to lose my Kimmie-cub."
She hugged him again. "You're never losing me. That's final. But it is fair, to us, to you and Mom, even to Jim and Tim. Plus, with Joss coming here in a couple weeks, well, you know how she kinda feels about Ron."
James grimaced slightly. "Honestly, I don't know if you two living together, here or in another place, is going to send the right kind of message to her. Slim is sending her here to grow up a little. Making the best of the situation, I would want her to see how committed the two of you are. I want her to see how important it is for two people to love each other. I really don't think she's actually been 'in love' with her so-called boyfriends."
They all turned when they heard footsteps at the open hatch. Kim's mother came into the room and sat down with her husband.
"Are we all getting past the little incident here yesterday morning?" She asked, looking at each of them in turn.
"We were just talking about that honey. Kimmie-cub and Ronald have decided they are going to look for an apartment."
Anne looked angry for a moment. "I thought we agreed that would not be necessary." She went rigid, moving away from James ever so slightly.
"Mom, it's okay. Daddy said it was okay for us to stay here like we are, but Ron and I decided ourselves that maybe this is the best thing." She leaned over so she could see both her parents. "It's not like it's going to be overnight. We have to find a place first, then we're going to have to worry about furniture, if the place isn't furnished, and then there's moving all of our stuff."
Kim stopped, realizing there was a tear running down her mother's cheek. As much as Anne Possible had been trying to maneuver the two of them together, as much as she had been behind virtually every step of their relationship, Kim realized that she might be experiencing just the same emotions as her father at the prospect of them moving on.
James put a hand on both Kim's leg and Anne's. Listen, maybe right now isn't the time to make any kind of rash decisions. He looked straight at Ron. "The two of you wanted this to be a good last summer for you without having to worry about jobs or school. It's only June and your classes won't start again until the very end of August. I don't see any reason that you should run right out of here.
"Since we're all here, why don't we get a little dressed up and I'll take everyone out to dinner. I think I heard somewhere a certain young lady has a thing for steak."
That got their attention. If there was any particular way to Ron's heart, it was certainly through his stomach. Kim was visibly licking her chops as well. James had no way of knowing that was precisely what she had for dinner the night before, but there were always other choices. She had a filet, but there were strips, and porterhouses, and ribs. None of the Possibles (or Stoppables for that matter) were in any danger of becoming vegetarians any time soon.
"Oh, and Rufus can come too. I'm sure we'll have to get a whole other order of flowered onion for him, but he's family too, you know…uh, I haven't seen him since I got home."
Ron grinned. "Oh, I'm sure he's downstairs. You know him, he can't get out of the room fast enough when…we…" He dragged to a halt when Kim's eyes got as big as dinner plates, shooting daggers at him.
James blushed himself, suddenly realizing that the bed was not as neatly made as it had been that morning. Anne couldn't stand an unmade bed and often got to it long before the kids did. There were even times when they had gotten up early to go to the bathroom and come back into their room to discover it crisply made, forcing them to stay up at that point, even if they had meant to sleep in. Kim could make her bed and often did, but there were subtle differences. If they had been home since just before lunch time and the bed had to be remade…
Anne just rolled her eyes and shook her head. They were young like that once. Heck, they were only in their forties, they weren't that old.
Dinner went fairly well, at least for the most part. The kids really were bent on moving out, though it had pretty much been decided it certainly wouldn't be in the next few weeks. There was still the family vacation to think of, as well as their own private getaway. They wouldn't be gone for three weeks like they had been the summer before, especially considering how much of Ron's income was going to be gobbled up by their prospective new home, but he certainly wasn't going to begrudge them that.
They dropped them off at the movies on their way home. The old cinema near the mall had gone downhill somewhat since it converted to second-run features, but it was easy walking distance for them. James didn't like the thought of his daughter walking home in the dark, even if she was a trained martial artist and capable of taking down international super villains, but she had Ron and Rufus with her, as well as being tied into one of the most reliable communications systems on the planet. Anybody that would take them on was either really stupid or didn't know any better.
"I feel like such a heel." He sat down on the loveseat facing the smaller fireplace in their room.
"Why's that?" Anne asked from inside their private bathroom.
"If I hadn't opened my big mouth the kids wouldn't even be thinking about moving out. All because of my stupid old fashioned ideas."
"Being old fashioned is not stupid, James. Remember when that young actress stayed with us for a while a few years ago? That's what you get when you don't live by any recognizable moral code."
"Oh, she wasn't so bad, at least for show folk."
Anne popped her head out the door, her hair wrapped in a towel. "You didn't hear her yapping on that cell phone of hers constantly, then. I was shocked to learn that girl was actually married, yet she still carried on with that fellow who was staying with the Stoppables."
"Really, I didn't notice."
She ducked back inside and ran the hair dryer for a few minutes. When she came back out she sat down beside him on the small couch. It took him a few moments to realize what she had on. It was sheer, on the verge of being completely transparent and he was reminded again that his wife actually didn't look a day over thirty.
"See, you take a while to notice things. Kimmie isn't anything like those people. Sure, she likes being with Ronald, but that's out of love and commitment. They had those things before they started expressing it in other ways. Those kind of people, they just do what feels good." She leaned over to him, draping one leg over his, kissing his neck.
"Speaking of what feels good." He said as her hands started exploring.
"That's what it feels like when it's done out of love. They've given their hearts and their bodies to each other. The only thing they lack is a piece of paper saying it's official. Now I know you and your side of the family think that little legal stamp is what's required to make it moral, but we didn't wait." She wasn't waiting that evening either. If that particular couch could tell stories…
Much later, they both started awake as they heard the doorway to Kim's room open and close, followed by the faint sound of her hatch closing. James stared at the ceiling for a bit, but their room wasn't located directly above theirs so if anything was actually going on, he wasn't likely to hear it.
Anne followed his eyes for a moment, then nestled back down against his body. "Think it's time to move things to the bed? I do have to be at the Medical Center in the morning."
"I suppose so, though I'm not exactly ready for sleep."
"Mmm. Didn't say anything about sleep myself. You sure you're up to round two, old man?"
"Only if you are. Hey, I just had a thought. When was the last time we got away, just the two of us?"
She walked her fingers up his chin. "I thought that's what those 'spousal encounters' were supposed to be about."
"I'm not talking about that sort of thing, where we talk to a counselor half the day and are supposed to run off to a cabin to be together. I mean just the two of us, with nothing better to do than be just like this, without worrying about who else is in the house. There's that bed and breakfast, just north of Upperton. That would be nice and we wouldn't have to spend half the day in the car."
"I love it. So what brought that on?"
He looked up at the ceiling again. "Oh, something Kimmie and I were talking about."
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