It Finally Happened: Part XX (Ron, that's the Roman Numeral Twenty, not X X!)
Kim had never seen an omelet so huge before. She had assumed it was going to be the usual little sliver of folded, fluffy eggs around a little meat and cheese. Instead the waitress set what would be a lot more likely to be called a log in front of her, stuffed to overflowing with every meat on the menu. She was familiar with a "Denver Omelet" considering she had lived her entire life in Colorado, but this variation, the "Colorado Omelet" was entirely more impressive than anything she had ever seen before. Not only that, but a plate of large buttermilk pancakes and a side of crispy hash browns were set out for her as well. There was enough food there to split with both of her parents and still have something left for Rufus to snack on, if the little guy could actually wait until after the humans ate. As if.
Not that any sharing like that was going to happen. Ron ordered the same thing and had already wolfed down his pancakes and was halfway through the main course. It was entirely likely she was going to cut about a third of her plate for herself and hand the rest over to her voracious boyfriend. Without him having to ask she slid the small plate holding her pancakes over to his side. Before Ron could even pick up the syrup a tiny pink form hopped up on the table and helped himself to the one on top, gobbling it up in three bites.
All eight of them were seated at one of the large, round table/booths located in the corners of the busy restaurant. At least Ron was using his best table manners, meaning he was actually using silverware. If they had been with anyone outside of their families she still would have been mortified by the way he stuffed his food. "Ron, how can you even enjoy it when you eat so fast."
"Sorry, KP. If I don't keep pace with the bottomless pit here, he'll eat everything before I can even get a bite." He glanced down at Kim's omelet, of which she had taken all of two bites.
"Go ahead." She said, rolling her eyes as he sliced off half the monster breakfast and transferred it to his plate. Her hash browns had already disappeared, replaced on the plate by a Naked Mole Rat with a bulging stomach.
"James, I never got the chance to thank you for taking Ron on your family vacation last year." Gene said finally, still picking at his eggs.
"No problem, Gene, he was a pleasure to have along."
Kim eyed the two men warily. The subject of family vacations hadn't yet come up in either household. It was something neither she or Ron cared to think about. The week-long trip to Montana last year had been the exception rather than the rule. Normally vacations separated them, at least when Ron's parents went away. Actually, the more she thought about it, she couldn't think of a really big family trip Ron hadn't been on. It was when he went with his parents they were kept apart. The last time had been their trip to Paris. At least her pursuit of Monkey Fist, Killagin and Shego had kept her from pining over her then 'best friend.'
Then the kernel of an idea started forming in her head. The Possibles and the Stoppables had been on friendly terms since the latter had moved to Middleton when Ron was a toddler with everyone on a first-name basis. However, she could not even remember a time outside of Ron's Bar Mitzvah that she had seen all four parents together at once. It was always the two fathers or the two mothers together, and that was fairly rare in its own right. The main connection the two families had was the relationship she had with Ron.
Yet here they all were, with all the adults acting almost sickeningly cheerful and talking about last year's vacation, with talk of this year's trips becoming long overdue.
"You know," Ron's father started, "we normally like to take our vacation early in the summer, right after school lets out. This year Jean and I decided to put it off for a little while, to give you kids a chance to be together. I know how much you and Kim mean to each other."
Kim could sense it coming. As mature as she considered herself to be, she didn't relish the thought of spending a week or more apart from Ron. Not right now. This was their time and she was jealous of anything that would take it away from them.
Her father cut in. "Now that things are getting a little back to normal," he said, alluding perhaps to the resumption of their missions, "we all thought it was time to get away from town for a little while, just to reset the mind."
Here it comes.
"Now, I know the two of you like to spend as much time together as possible. Heaven knows, the two of you were like that even when you didn't think you were a couple, but there will come a time when you will have to do without each other, a time when you have to test your relationship by being apart. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder."
"Dad, if it's all the same, I'd just as soon stay home than go away. Summer vacation is short enough, I want to make the most of it with Ron this year. We've only been dating a couple months."
"From what I've seen, the two of you haven't been more than five feet apart for longer than half an hour in the last twenty four plus. There will come a point when that's not healthy. Why, I remember when your mother and I were dating I'd up and decide to lock myself in my room for a whole week so I could study."
"Dear, that's not a very good example." Her mother cut in. "You lasted half a day before you realized you couldn't concentrate because you were thinking about me. It was so sweet, by dinnertime that evening he was on the phone, begging for me to come over and help him."
"I thought Ron was the one who couldn't focus." Ron's mother said, speaking seemingly for the first time since they got to the restaurant save for ordering. "I see that look of panic in your eyes, Kim. I think your father's trying to work a lecture into what we're all here to announce."
"I know." Kim said dejectedly. "You all think some fam time will do us some good, that we're spending too much time together, neglecting everyone else."
"Uh, no. Sweetheart, if we were going to complain about the two of you spending so much time together we should have done that five or six years ago. I think you're perfectly right to want to spend the time you do with Ron. It's so nice for my little boy to have such a good friend like you. It's…also nice that you two feel the way you do now."
"What we're trying to say," Gene's father took over from that point, "this year we've talked it over with your parents and we've decided we're all going to take our vacations together, all eight of us."
"Wow, that's spankin!" Kim's face lit up with joy, the prospect of having both families together for a week or more a much better idea than spending that time moping, missing Ron.
She reached under the table to give his thigh a good squeeze. That's when she noticed the look of horrified shock on his face. You would have thought two dozen monkey ninjas had suddenly appeared at the adjoining both, ready to swarm all over him.
"Kim…on a vacation…with us? Eh heh…eh heh heh. What's not to love?" He said quietly, trying to reconcile his girlfriend's obvious excitement with his abject terror.
Some of the excitement drained out of her eyes, worried what was upsetting him so. "So, where are we all going?"
"Well, we haven't seen Nana since Christmas and it's been more than a year since we've been down to see her in Florida, so I thought we'd head down that way." Her father said amidst the rest of the grinning adults.
Spankin' denied she started to think. Even though she had come to an understanding with her grandmother over her lifestyle, by the time they picked her up at the airport last winter it seemed just like everything had reverted right back to the way it was before, with the exception of all the little comments she constantly made about Ron. It seemed that even her Grandmother, in the short time she had known him, had picked up on the poorly hidden feelings between the two teens. Still, she was constantly after Kim to 'dress a little more like a young lady' and quit running around in 'boy pants' all the time. At least she had finally stopped nagging about her missions.
If only she would stop laboring under the impression Kim was perpetually an eight year old girl. She constantly tried to get her to wear sundresses, even to the point of sending a home-made dress for her to wear for school pictures. Her mother had nagged (and puppy-dog pouted) her into at least trying the dress on at home – with Ron banished to his home – so they could at least send a picture with it on. Turned out the dress was not only too small, it was so short she would have to wear shorts under it. She was utterly mortified when her mother suggested adding white go-go boots.
"So…when?" She asked with a sheepish smile.
"We'll leave late tomorrow morning. We'll drive halfway tomorrow then the rest of the way Monday." James said.
"Why don't you kids run on while we finish up our plans." Gene said. "I'm sure you'd like to make up for the date you missed out on last night."
Kim probably hadn't eaten but a quarter of her huge omelet but now she found she wasn't quite as hungry as she thought she was. Not that it mattered, while they were talking Rufus had moved in on the remainder, wolfing it down before disappearing back into Ron's pocket to sleep his 'light' meal off.
They were almost to the door when Ron's father called to them. "Ron, stop by the Photo mat for me. I dropped off a roll of film I forgot from our Paris trip last year."
"Sure thing, Dad. See you all later."
"Kimmie-cub, don't forget, we'll need to pack, don't stay out too long."
"'Kay, Dad, bye." She waved with as much enthusiasm as she could.
They walked in silence until they were out of sight of the blue roofed restaurant. "At least we'll be together." Kim muttered, walking with her hands in her pockets.
"That'll be better than the last time we were down there. I hardly saw you the whole time."
"That's because you spent the whole time looking for love in all the wrong places. I still can't understand how you had the nerve to ask that many college girls out. You do know that not a one of those was real, don't you?"
"I didn't notice." He said, smiling wistfully.
"Like heck you didn't. Spring break in Fort Summerdell, Florida was only a few triangles of cloth short of a Girls Gone Wild Video."
"Oh, that's what you're talking about. I thought you meant the girls were fake."
"Ron! Don't play all innocent with me. You hadn't started growing again then and I saw where your eyes were most of the time. So, what do you think? Should I get some work when I turn eighteen?" She arched her back, trying to accentuate her modest chest as much as possible.
"No way, KP. I love you just the way you are. Those girls, well, they want you to look there. Can't help it, it's just the way guys are wired. If you think about it, it's just like staring at a really big nasty mole on somebody's nose. It's so 'out there' you can't help but look."
"So it doesn't matter to you that I'm not 'blessed.'"
Ron stopped and turned to face her. "KP, when I look at you, what do I look at?"
She smiled slightly. "Well, I've caught you looking at my butt, especially lately."
"Besides that?"
"You look at my eyes."
"Right, Kim. You have the most beautiful eyes, the most beautiful face in the whole world and I'd much rather look there than at your chest."
"You don't like looking at my chest?" She said in a mock pout.
A slight smile crossed his face as his eyes shifted lower. He leaned forward, making like he was reaching for her collar with his outstretched finger. She quickly swatted away his hand. "Didn't say that, KP. I like looking at the whole package, if you know what I mean."
She wrapped her arms around him, giving him a nice, long kiss. "Thought so, loverboy. I'm going to make sure we get plenty of time away from the 'rents while we're down there. Monique picked out some really nice bathing suits that I'd really like to model for you."
They started walking again. "Uh, Kim, that's going to be a problem. You've never been on a trip with my parents, so you wouldn't know."
"Know what?"
"That they don't let me out of their sight. Why do you think I spent so much time on the phone with you?"
"I thought you were just checking up on Rufus."
"I was, but my Mom and Dad are the world's worst tourists. Dad mangled what little French he knew so bad it's a wonder they didn't ban us from ever coming back there."
"So speaks the man who was worried about not finding French toast and French fries while he was there."
"Hey, don't diss the culture, Kim. I just wanted to do my part to soak up as much as I possibly could."
"It shouldn't be so bad, Honey." She grinned a little wickedly, taking a little enjoyment at watching him search his surroundings for anyone who might have overheard her. "I mean, they can't stick with you twenty-four seven."
"Like I said, you've never been on a trip with them. I don't know how we're going to work it when we get there, but every time we go somewhere we always get a double room. Kim, it's frightening."
They walked into the Photo store hand in hand. "Hi Ron." The clerk said as the approached the counter.
"Reager? I didn't know you worked here."
"My dad owns the franchise, so he sticks me behind the counter. So, dude, what can we do you for?"
"I'm supposed to pick up some prints for my Dad. Should be under Gene Stoppable."
A few minutes later they were outside, sitting at the curb, flipping through the shots. "Cool, the Arc de Triumph, The Seine. Ron, you're Dad is a pretty good shot with a camera."
"Yeah, he's no slouch. Just wish there were more pictures of us. Oh, here's where we went to the Eiffel Tower, there should be a nice group shot of…"
Just as he expected, there was the shot, taken by a helpful Parisian. It was a really nice shot of the family. Yet instead of the sprawling ancient city in the background there, clear as day, was Duff Killagin wearing a plaid parachute…
…with Kim and Rufus both hanging on for dear life.
He shot her a look that said Kim, you got some 'splainin to do!