Ron slept, but did not dream, instead sinking into a healing sleep. He had been through a lot that night, and was completely drained.
Conversely, Kim found herself unable to sleep, instead resting her head upon Ron's chest and feeling it rise and fall, listening to his snoring. She smiled. It was comforting, just feeling his breath. She noticed that their hearts were beating in time with each other. Maybe that's what's meant to happen, when you do this, when you're "with" someone she thought, and pressed herself closer to him. His arm was instinctively wrapped around her, and tightened as she moved closer. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, drinking in his scent. She found herself seized with a need, an urge, and raised herself up, leaning over to his scar and stared at it. Slowly, gently she lowered her lips to it, and kissed softly. Ron inhaled sharply and his eyes jerked open.
Ron awoke with a start. Oh Man, he thought. He'd been having a wonderful dream. He and Kim had been together, had slept together, and it had been perfect, and natural and without any of the awkwardness that he had feared. And now he was awake. Awake and…this was not his bedroom. His eyes snapped open more fully, coming more awake. He looked about. No, this was not his bedroom, but it did seem familiar…Kim's bedroom? Could it be? He felt something brush against him, and realised he was not alone. He sat up slightly, and looked down into Kim's face, eyes wide with concern.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you? Did it hurt?"
He smiled "Yeah, but it's ok. I can't think of a better way to be woken up." She smiled then, and blushed a little, and shuffled up the bed so that she lay next to him, face to face. She kissed him on the lips, gently, and lay close to him.
"Thank you for last night, Ronnie. It was…"
"Perfect?"
"Yeah." They kissed again, then Kim rolled over in his arms, and they spooned.
"Wait, What time is it?"
She glanced at the clock by her bed. "About 4.30."
"Oh, I should probably go."
"Um, Why?"
"If your Parents see me here, well, let's just say I've been told it may involve a Black Hole"
"It's OK; they won't be up for at least an hour and a half."
"Oh, cool." He kissed the back of her neck, and squeezed her close, entwining his legs with hers. "I like lying here with you like this. It's so soothing."
"Mmmm"
"I…I meant what I said you know. About loving you. About respecting you in the morning."
"I know. I meant it too."
"Cool. Cool" he kissed her neck again "Very cool."
They lay together for what seemed an age, gaining strength off each other. In such a situation, how easy is it too lose track of time?
"Kim!" came the voice at the trap door, followed by a knock and a repeated call.
"Oh my gosh! That's my mom! What time is it! 8.00! how did it get to be 8.00?"
they both leapt out of bed, and Ron grabbed his clothes from the floor, hopping around the room as he dressed quickly. She grabbed one of his shirts and donned it in record time, then slipped on her discarded panties.
"Just a minute mom! Oh man, what are we going to do? My dad is going to freak if he sees you here!"
"I could hide?"
"where? She'd spot you in a second!"
"I know, I'll climb out the window and down the ladder, and I'll see you later, K?
"I guess, but be careful sweetie."
"Of course"
He opened the window and began to climb down, but as he did so, the ladder fell, and he was left hanging from the ledge.
"Ron!" she rushed to help, but the door opened and, panicking, she shut the curtains and turned to face her mother with a big broad smile on her face.
"Good morning Mom! How are you this morning?"
"Oh, I'm fine Kimmie. You?" she inquired with a quizzical look on her face. She tilted her head back to look under the bed. Hmm, nothing.
"Never better! So,…anything I can help you with, 'cause I sure do need to get dressed?"
"What, can't a mother and daughter have a nice chat once in a while?" she opened the closet, peered inside, then closed it.
"So, what about?"
"Hmm?"
"What would you like to chat about?"
"Oh, well, I was just… Ok, cards on the table. Kim, was Ron here last night?"
"What! Come on mom, you know me better…"
"Kim! I'm not deaf you know!"
She sighed there was obviously no point in lying. "OK, Yes." She tensed for the inevitable response
"I thought as much."
"Wait, you're not mad?"
"No, of course not, I like Ron. I'm happy that it was with someone like him, rather than some swaggering gangsta wannabe who didn't respect you." She sighed. "However, I'm not happy about the sneaking behind my back. That's something I could have done without."
"I know mom, I'm sorry. I just needed to see him last night. I needed to make sure he was ok, and one thing led to another…"
her mom smiled, then frowned "You were safe though weren't you? You did use protection?"
"Yeah, yeah don't worry, we're both smart enough for that at least."
"Good, good, I'm glad to hear it. So…was it …?"
"Oh, uh…yeah it was…nice"
"Nice. Good."
"Mom, do you remember me coming home last night?"
"Uh…sort of. Now that you mention it, I don't really remember you coming home, but I remember thinking that you were home"
Kim shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Uh, Mom, can I ask another question?
"Sure Kimmie, what?
"You know when you're with someone? Is it…normal for your hearts to beat in time?"
"I…what?"
"Doesn't matter."
She looked around the room, and snorted. "Uh, Kim, one last thing?"
"Sure, what?"
"Where is Ron hiding, I can't think where else he could be."
"Oh he's…" her eyes widened in realisation "Oh god, he's hanging of the window ledge! Ron!"
She turned and ran to the window, throwing it open. Ron was nowhere to be seen.
Ron hung in as long as he could, but the scar on his chest was staring to hurt like hell.
"well, I see only a couple of options here. 1: hang here till my arms fall of and I fall; 2: drop and hope for a safe landing" he looked down. This was a mistake. He gulped and looked back up. "Not going to happen! Ok, 3: try to kick of hard enough to reach the tree, and climb down." He exhaled sharply. "Good, so trying the impossible it is then. Well, that's more Kim's thing, but I gotta do it. Boy I could sure use here grappling hook hairdryer now." He took a deep breath and kicked off from the wall towards the tree. To his surprise, he reached it easily, and grasped a large branch with both hands, wrapping his legs around it.
"Wow, either spending so much time with Kim has rubbed off her skills on me, or that was some serious monkey power!" he began to climb down. A hand waved in the darkness, and the branch began to snap and crumble. It fell, with Ron following soon after. Flailing wildly, he grabbed another branch, swung from it to another, ricocheted of that, and landed safely on the ground.
"Woah, Ok, I'm dizzy now." In the darkness, a chuckle, and, perhaps, applause.
"Kim, Ronald's here! And he looks dishevelled!" shouted her dad from the door.
Kim and her Mom exchanged a surprised look and raced downstairs.
"Ron? Are you…Ok?"
"Sure, sure I just fell on my way here. Into a bush. Not out of a tree at all. Yep, just arriving here. Now"
"Uh-huh"
"Yep"
Kim's father left the room, muttering something about how there was no confusing bushes and trees in his day, and that kids obviously had too many concerns these days, leaving Kim, her mother and Ron alone in the room.
"Ron, my mom knows. About last night. She heard us."
"Oh, um, so, I guess I'm pretty much doomed to a black hole trip then, huh?"
"No, no, she's actually Ok with it, and I don't think dad knows yet. Right?" She turned to her mother.
"No, but he will need to know, and it's not fair to keep these things secret from him. Or me. I think you should tell him, Kim. And I also don't want any more of this sneaking around behind my back, Ok? You're both adults, you can be together if you want, but I don't want you sneaking him into the house, that is not Ok. Ok?"
"Ok, mom, your right, and ordinarily it wouldn't have happened, but last night was, well, it was different. I can't explain it now, it's complicated."
"Ok, Kimmie, I trust you, but just, don't give me a reason not to, OK?"
"Ok". They hugged, then Kim broke away, and moved to Ron's side, plucking a twig from his hair, and kissed him on the cheek. "As for you; what happened?"
"Uh, well, my arm was starting to hurt, because of, well, you know, and I tried to push off from the wall to the tree, and I managed it, but it broke and I had to bounce my way down, in short."
"Aw, poor baby." She kissed his cheek, and giggled, stroking his nose with one finger. "Wait, you managed to reach the tree from our house? Have you been training in secret?"
"No! It's weird, I didn't think I had a chance, but here we are."
"Huh, weird."
"Mmm."
Kim ran upstairs to get dressed. Ron went to follow, but Mrs Possible raised an eyebrow, and, embarrassed, he froze.
Finally, she was ready, rushing down the stairs with a still bleary eyed Rufus in hand. They left.
"So, what shall we do today?"
"Uh, well, we could catch a film, or just hang at the mall, or whatever. It's all good."
"We do have to find out about last night you know."
"I know."
"But, I'm not touching that until we know what were up against a bit more."
"Good. Safe is good. Um, when he…kissed you, is it me or did he say he was a god?"
"Something like that." She frowned. "Yeah. I just took it to be your usual supervillain ego thing."
"I hope so. He seemed super powerful didn't he though?"
"Totally. I hope Wade's found out something on that symbol. I'll just check." She pulled out the kimmunicator and flipped the switch. Wade's face appeared on the screen.
"Guys! boy, am I glad to see you. I tried to contact you last night, but the Kimmunicator wouldn't respond at all. I couldn't even track the signal."
"Yeah, it refused to work, we thought it was just too deep underground or something"
"Could be it, I guess."
"Anyway, any news on that symbol?"
"Oh, yeah. I did a search on all the police files. Nothing. I tried Interpol, the FBI, CIA, everything, still nothing. Eventually, I found a thing in a KGB file from 1968 about a Cult in the former USSR."
"A Cult?"
"Yeah, they claimed to worship the old gods, but when they were raided, it was like an…orgy of blood and indulgence, before an altar shaped like a serpent, coiled around the world. All the members refused to talk, but what could be gathered from notebooks and religious tracts at the scene, they worshiped the snake, and believed it to be king of this world, and that, in time, he would devour it"
"Lovely"
"It gets better. I did another search, this time for more religious groups, and I found mention of an organisation calling itself "The Sanctuary of the Angel Wormwood" in England, in 1457"
"1457? Your kidding?"
"No, I'm not. They too claimed to worship something archaic, in this case an obscure angel mentioned in biblical apocrypha, again known as the 'Prince of this World' or, possible, "Prince of the Air", and, just like the other one, when they were raided, it was revealed to be a front for a heretical group. They were all executed for their practices, burned at the stake. Apparently, not one of them screamed as the flames consumed them. And that's not all. Africa, Japan, right here in the US, there's evidence of these groups everywhere, some going as far back as 1300."
"OK, that's pretty weird. And all of them refer to the 'Prince of this World'?"
"Yep"
"OK, well, thanks for the info, and if you find out anything else, let me know"
"Can do."
"See ya"
She signed off, and grabbed Ron's arm, wrapping it around her shoulder, pulling him closer.
"Did you follow all that, sweetie?"
"Yeah, not thrilled about it. Maybe he is a god?"
"I'm not buying it. He's already shown himself to be willing to lie, why should we believe him now?"
"I know, but, the cults, and the weird symbol?"
"Proves nothing, all it means is he did some research, same as we did. I know we should still be careful, I'm just saying that I don't think he's as powerful as he'd like us to believe."
"If you say so, you're the brains. And the brawn. And the stealth come to think of it."
"Come on sweetie, you know that's not true."
"No, no, it's fine. I know I don't contribute much. At least nothing really, you know, tangible, but hey, I'm a pretty good distraction, and, you know, I think I'm getting better at the whole acrobatics stuff. I managed to hit the tree from your window, so that's something."
"Ron…you do contribute something you know?"
"Yeah, what?"
"You. That's more than enough"
his hand left her shoulder, sliding down her body to her bare midriff, where it rested. She shivered at his touch, and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. She kissed him, repeatedly, nibbling as she did so. He responded in kind, his other hand finding her waist, and began to suck on the side of her neck. Fumblingly, he reached into his pocket, took out the key and opened the door. He stepped in, bringing Kim with him. She looked up, and noticed where they were.
"Uh, Ron, what are we doing in your house?" she said, a small smile on her lips.
"Oh, well, I just thought I should have a shower and change, you know, freshen up."
"Oh." Her face fell a little, and she went to sit down on the couch in the living room.
"I won't be long." She heard him race up the stairs, then stop. "Uh, K.P? Do you…want to join me?"
She leapt up, racing past him and grabbing him by his collar, pulling him after her, into the bathroom. She shut the door after her.
They lay together, afterwards, on Ron's bed as he ran his fingers through her hair, and cradled her in his arms. Suddenly, the kimmunicator went off. Kim sat up, grabbing her top and pulling it on as she did so. She picked up the kimmunicator, and flipped the switch.
"Go Wade…oh, hi Minique."
"Hey. So where are you, we were supposed to meet at Bueno Nacho a half hour ago."
"Oops! My bad, had a bit of a hectic night, and I guess time just got ahead of me."
Ron kissed the base of her spine. She blushed a little and bit her lip, hoping that Monique wouldn't notice.
"Uh-huh."
We'll be there ASAP, promise."
She signed off, and turned to Ron
"Well, someone's in a mischievous mood!"
"Mm-hmm! So, what're you going to do about it?"
"I'll think of something!" She collapsed against him and giggled, kissing him on the lips. Then, she sighed.
"You know, we really do have to go."
"Sure."
"Anyway, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling kinda hungry."
"I could eat"
"they dressed, and left, entwined, to meet their friend.
"Hey, Monique"
"Hey, girl. So what's up? You said last night was a little hectic. Ron Night get a little outa hand?"
"…"
"Hello, Earth-to- Kim?" She followed her gaze to Ron, standing in line for the cash register, then back to Kim's face. Her eyes were half closed and a smile spread across her face. Monique waved a hand in front of her face, and she shook herself back to the real world.
"Sorry, what were we talking about?"
"Ok, girl, you're acting weird. What happened last night? I mean, My God, your acting like you two…"
Kim blushed
"You didn't! Girl, tell me everything!"
"It's not like that! Well, ok, it is, but there's other stuff too." She began to explain what had happened the night before, in detail, showing the black mark behind her ear, and explaining what they had found out about the Prince since then.
"Woah!"
"I know!"
"So what are you going to do?"
"What can we do? Go back there, better prepared, and take him down! If we don't he'll not only have won, he'd be able to strike us down when we least expect it!"
"Ok girl, calm down.."
"Sorry, sorry, I've been feeling a little amped up since… you know, I'm fine now. Really." She was clearly anything but.
"anyway, changing the subject how was…it?"
"Wonderful, thank you for asking." She blushed. "He was very gentle, and attentive, and it was everything I could have hoped for." She glanced over at Ron. "Is it me, or is Ron looking really, really good today?" she bit her bottom lip.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, he seems more confident, and collected, and, well, I hope you don't mind me saying it, kinda hot."
"You really think so?"
"Totally! Oh, it looks like I'm not the only one!" Monique gestured to Ron, where a girl, was brazenly trying to flirt with him. He held up his hands in front of his body, and backed away, then pointed to Kim. She looked over, with a sneer on her face that soon dissipated as her eyes widened in fear. She backed away, and ran out of the restaurant. Ron shrugged, and continued to wait for his order. Monique looked over at Kim. Her hand was clenched into a fist, and she was practically shaking with rage. She slammed her clenched fist into the table, causing it to buckle under the force. Fortunately, Ron's order had by then been filled, and he sauntered back with an over-laden tray of Nacos, Chimmeritos and sodas.
"Hey, I know that you didn't want anything, but I got plenty, so dig in…what's wrong?"
"Kim saw you chatting to that other girl, and now she's staring to freak."
"Kim, come on , don't be silly, calm down" He hugged her and stroked her ear, his finger brushing the black mark, her breath catching in her throat as he did so. She exhaled deeply and seemed to return to her senses.
"Freaky! That's what it is! Just freaky! You shouldn't be able to just calm her down with a touch!"
"Not the time Monique! Kim, are you OK now?"
"I guess. It's just that, when I saw that girl trying to get with you, I just saw red."
"Get with me? Really?"
"Yeah, wasn't it obvious? You actually don't have a clue do you?"
"Nope, never have never will. I'm serious. If someone doesn't tell me, I won't know if a girl is into me."
"That is true. I remember the whole Yori incident."
"Oh yeah…"
"So, Ronnie, sweetie, if you had picked up on her vibes, would you have been tempted?"
"Of course not. What could she offer that you couldn't? Nothing, less than nothing. As you, of course, know by now, it's you I love, and no other. Now, snackage?" he kissed her forehead and sat down and began to stuff his face methodically. Kim sat next to him, grabbed a soda and began to slurp happily, as if the last five minutes hadn't happened. Monique shook her head, sat down, grabbed a nacho, and ate.
In the darkness, words are whispered. In the darkness, something waits, and thinks and schemes. In the darkness, a signal goes out. In the darkness…
The kimmunicator started ringing. Kim answered
"Go, Wade!"
"Kim, Ron! I don't know what's happening! I was doing some more research on that symbol, and the computer just went nuts! It started flashing the symbol everywhere, then logged on to this website." A page flashed up on the screen, a black page with red writing.
"Ugh, what does it say?"
"I have no idea! It isn't in any language I recognize!"
"Ok, this is getting weirder by the second. Ron, I think we need to go and deal with this. Now!"
"Ok, I guess we should. See ya Monique, eat as much as you want! Actually, I think I'll take this for the road!" he grabbed a Naco and a couple of soda's and headed for the door, where Kim was waiting impatiently. She wrapped her arm around him, and they left.
"Just weird" she said again to herself, and shook her head.