It Finally Happened: Part XXIX
Unlike the randomly shaped pool outside, the indoor pool was a four lane Olympic sized pool meant for swimming laps instead of splash and play for children. Fortunately Kim had been right about the number of people using it. There was one person there, unwisely swimming alone but pulling laps. By the time they got their sandals and t-shirts off they were left with the pool to themselves. On their way there they had seen the main pool, with just about every lounge chair filled, dozens of children claiming the shallow end. So not the recipe for a soothing cool-down.
There was also a hot tub nearby but considering they already looked like fresh boiled lobsters the thought of stepping into swirling hot water was the furthest thing from their minds. Now if it was filled with cool water and nobody else came along wanting to use the jets, it would be fantastic. Ron even went so far as to stick a toe in it, declaring it too much to handle by their sun broiled skin.
Kim was wearing a tank top/boy cut style bikini, not so much because it managed to cover all her tell-tale tan lines but because it didn't have any strings or narrow straps do dig into her inflamed flesh. Ron was wearing one of his ubiquitous pairs of almost knee length board shorts. He had been spared being crisped on his heiny, as Kim was. She was now finding it uncomfortable to even sit.
"Bet you've got some interesting tan lines now." He said as he climbed the ladder into the pool, not wanting to risk a belly-flop.
Rufus, on the other hand, had no such compunctions. With a squeak of "Banzai!" he landed belly first, soaking both teens before they could get completely into the cold water. He grinned at them sheepishly, slowly backstroking out of their reach.
"Oh, man, this does feel better." Ron said, floating on his back.
Old habits kicked in as Kim got in the water. She immediately kicked of, starting an in-the-water warm-up routine she had used when she was on the Middleton High School swim team her sophomore year. She regretted leaving it, but it just conflicted too much with other important activities. After spending three days being able to do almost nothing after Wade figured out a way to remove the Valkyrie 1000 shoes because her body had to drop out of hyper speed gradually, her mother literally sat her down and read her the riot act. She was as wrong taking on so many activities as Ron was taking on almost none. Given the choice of Cheer Squad or Swim Team her junior year she had taken the former, partly because it was her favorite of the two and partly because it meant keeping Bonnie from taking over in her absence.
Thinking about her rival made her increase her pace slightly, switching from the breast stoke to the American crawl. She had to force herself to back off. Her muscles were cold and out of tone. That frightened her a little. If they were called on a really serious mission they might be in trouble. All the time off they had taken to be together was really starting to tell on them. Late-nights out snuggling, sneaking kisses and getting dangerously close to taking a step that both now admitted was too far really had gone overboard.
She didn't get too down on herself. This was a new thing that both of them found they liked. Only it was too much of a good thing now. There needed to be some discipline. They needed to back off, partly to make their special time together even more, well, special, but mostly to allow them time to concentrate on things that were really important. There wasn't just their physical condition to worry about, there was school work. Kim maintained top caliber grades, but she had to work for every one of them. She knew some of Ron was starting to rub off on her, just as her drive to succeed was rubbing off on him. A middle ground was probably the healthiest thing, but only if that middle ground leaned heavily in her direction.
Just as she did so much of the time, she started making plans. As soon as they got back to Middleton, she was going to take a much firmer hand in Ron's health. He was going to eat better, exercise more, even start some serious training. If he could pick up as much as he did in one week at a super-secret Ninja school, imagine what he would be like with regular, structured training.
She wondered for a moment as she made the turn on her third lap if the Yamanuchi School would call him away again. It had been some time since he had gone there, but if his connection to the Lotus Blade and his Mystical Monkey Power were indeed true, then it was only a matter of time before all that entered her life.
Unfortunately that made her think of someone else and for the second time that very day, a name she had not even considered since officially pairing up with Ron. Unconsciously she picked up the pace once more, to the point she was almost at competition speed. She started backing down as unused muscles started painfully tightening up.
Ron looked at her making her way back to his end of the pool. He shook his head woefully and slowly paddled his way right into her path, knowing that trying to tap her shoulder or grabbing her as she went by would likely mean broken bones…for him.
Kim saw him in time, popping up with a little bit of anger flaring in her eyes. "Hey, that's a good way to get a busted nose there." To keep him from thinking she was too angry with him she splashed him.
"Kim, Kim, Kim…we can train all we want to when we get home, but this is vacation."
"Ron, if you say we're supposed to be marinating, so help me…"
"But that's just it, KP. You have to learn to chill. This is the time to rest up. We've got a bon-diggity party to go to tonight, so we've got to be ready for all the dancing."
"Ron, I was just thinking about something. Remember the last mission we were on?"
"Yeah, we kicked some bad guy biscuit and turned them over to that red haired guy on the Miami-Dade police force. You know, the one with the sunglasses who talked like he learned to speak at the Commander Kane school of delivery?"
"I'm not talking about that one, I man the last really serious mission, the one we went on before this trip? That one should have been a walk in the park."
"Hey, the first time we think Monkey Fist is a walk in the park we need to seriously look at ourselves. That dude has some serious monkey 'tude."
"What I'm saying, Ron, is we came home beat down like we lost. We're out of shape and it's getting worse. I think we're seriously starting to lose focus here."
"Like I've ever been able to focus." He kicked away from her, drifting toward the edge of the pool. Then a though occurred to him. He pulled himself up the side, sitting with his feet in the water as Kim swam back up to him.
"I think I see where you're going with this." He said, sullenly. "I guess all this has been too good to be true after all."
"Ron, it's not like we're going to change."
"That's just it, Kim. We have changed and now I see it. It's just like I thought it would be, us being together, I mean really together is going to ruin what we had. I guess it really was a mistake."
Kim almost shot out of the water, grabbing his lower arms where she knew he wasn't burnt as badly. "Ron, listen to me, do not even think for an instant that I'm talking about our relationship. I love you and that's not going to change. I love you as my best friend and as my boyfriend and I still want you to ask me something when we turn eighteen. Look at me…Ronnie…"
He did, the lost, hurt expression in his eyes ripping out her heart. "I am not talking about breaking up. I am not talking about any of this being a mistake. I would trade all of our world saving in an instant if I had to chose between that and you. All I'm saying is that if we're going to keep doing that and keep being a couple, we're going to have to work harder than we ever have before to do that. That means fewer nights spent making out, fewer nights sitting in a Bueno Nacho booth for hours on end. It means more nights studying…"
"Studying hard?" a little of his grin came back as he raised one eyebrow.
She smiled and leaned over to kiss him, the quick peck lingering for a few seconds. "Only if the situation merits it." She put a hand on his leg, careful to stay on his upper leg where the sun hadn't wreaked its terrible wrath on him.
"Ron, Mom was right this morning when she reminded me that we've been going overboard with all this couple's stuff. Look at this trip. I think our parents thought this was going to be the very last big family vacation before we grow up and start going out on our own. Next summer we're very likely to go some place on our own as soon as we're both eighteen. In fact I plan on it. This trip, though, we've spent, let's see, one day apiece with our fams, half a day with Nana. The rest of the time it's been just like right here and now. Just the two of us. The ride down here, what did we do? Instead of spending the ride chatting with everyone, playing Mom and Dad's road games, we practically hid in the back of the van cuddling and making out when Jim and Tim weren't looking.
"Honey, I can count on one hand the number of times I've kissed somebody outside of my family before the prom. I broke that record the first hour afterwards and we've kissed so much now that if I had a nickel for every one, I'd beat out your Naco royalties."
"Are you saying kissing's a bad thing."
"When it gets in the way of everything else. I had no idea I like kissing this much until we started doing it. Ron, you are a spankin, badical kisser and I still want to know where you learned it, but we've gone overboard with it. I mean WAY overboard. You said yourself you thought we were on fire and in danger of burning out. You're right. I've gotten this idea in my head that I have to constantly prove that I love you by kissing and touching you, to the point I can't even think straight when we're apart. That's not right and it's not healthy.
"Ron, I couldn't save the world without you, but we can't be together every single minute of our lives."
"Are you saying we need to spend some time apart so we can see if we can do it?"
"Uh, no. I don't want to deliberately torture ourselves either. I'm just saying when the time comes, we're just going to have to buck up and do what we have to. Like, if by some reason you can't get into the same school next year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder."
"And true love would span the universe." Another voice said above them.
An elderly lady had walked in, waving her cane in front of her. In an instant Kim realized she was blind. She got up from beside Ron to speak to her. "Would you like some help, Ma'am?"
"Would you be so kind to show an old woman to the hot tub?" She said.
Kim held out her arm as she had been taught to, letting the woman take it on her own. She guided her to the tub at the far end of the pool building, telling her when to step down into the water. She told her were the controls were and set them to her comfort.
"You're so kind. You and you're young man share something special, don't you?"
"We sure do, but it took us long enough to figure it out."
"Oh, but you did, you did and that's what's important. Now, why don't you go back to him and I'll have be a nice soak. Just set the timer for fifteen minutes so I'm not in here too long."
Kim wandered back to Ron afterwards. "Listen, Honey. About all this stuff we've talked about. It's really important, but it can wait until school starts."
"Booyah." He said softly, getting to his feet slowly. He leaned over and kissed her gently, lingering as she had before. "Wow, suddenly I'm really tired." He said. "Maybe we are out of shape."
"That, and our bodies are using a whole lot of energy healing our skin. Come on, grab your towel. We'll go up to the room and have a little nap, then we'll find the rest of the Fam and try to join in with what they're doing. This is their last full day of vacation too.
Half an hour later James and Anne returned to the suite to pick up their picnic supplies. Jim, Tim, Gene and Jean were still down at the pool, staking out their claim on one of the tables down there.
As his wife gathered the supplies he noticed the door to Kim's room was closed. That struck him as a little odd, since he knew they left all of them open when they went down to the pool after breakfast. Quietly he made his way across the room. So far it had looked like his trust in Ron had been well founded, but images of what he had been like at sixteen and seventeen still entered his mind. Images of the two of them in bed, images he tried to push aside but just would not go away.
He could feel his heart pounding as he gripped the doorknob. The door swung silently open and he looked into the darkened room. The blinds had been drawn, cutting out all but a thin sliver of sunlight. There was plenty of light to see by, but the room was still darker than the rest of the suite.
The kids were in fact in bed together, though the sight of them put his mind at ease. They were side by side, their hands clasped in the middle. Kim was laying on her back, snoring softly, a precursor to her louder snoring as she slipped deeper into sleep. Ron was beside, her, but lying face down, his nose buried deep in the pillows. His back looked shiny and slick, a fresh coating of aloe gel glistening on the angry red of his sunburn.
A hand touched his shoulder. Anne gently pulled him out of the room. "I knew this was coming." She whispered to him. "Let them rest for a little while, then I'll come back and get them so we can all have lunch together."
James smiled at her, feeling warm in his heart that his good little girl had found such a wonderful boy to share her heart with.
This had turned out to be a great vacation this year.
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