Ron simply didn't understand the situation.
He didn't care that Yori had carefully explained it. He didn't care that it was logical. Fine, he understood that Fiske had Mystical Monkey Power, and that his own Mystical Monkey Power ramped up whenever he was around the monkey-man. He understood that Fiske's Mystical Monkey Power made him a very dangerous opponent for even an experienced Yamanouchi ninja. He also understood that Fiske underestimated him. Everyone underestimated him and this had become his staple when being a sidekick; no matter how inept he proved to be, the bad guys always thought he was even more inept than he really was.
So the plan was solid; he and Yori would try to sneak into the abandoned zoo, locate and secure Sensei. Even if Fiske realized they were there, he would most likely underestimate them and try to capture them. This would mean that Ron was back to doing what he did best, be a distraction. It was supposed to be a win-win situation. If they managed to sneak in without Fiske noticing, they would get to Sensei and call in the ninja strike team. If Fiske detected them, the ninja strike team would move in and search the area while Fiske was busy with them. Perfectly logical and a good plan.
But Ron steadfastly refused to understand it.
He didn't care that the plan meant that fewer people were doing the initial infiltration, thus making success more likely. He didn't care that fewer people making the initial infiltration meant that Fiske would be less likely to harm Sensei in response. He didn't care that he and Yori going in first meant Fiske would be forced to confront someone who had Mystical Monkey Power. The important thing was that once again, he was going in to face Fiske with only one person to back him up, when trained and capable fighters would be staying back. That meant that even though he agreed to the plan, he didn't understand it.
It was the principal of the thing. He was putting himself in peril, so he didn't understand why. Instead, he braced himself to go into danger once again, only to get some more bad news as soon as their aircraft landed.
"A Global Justice aircraft paused briefly at the zoo," a masked ninja told the two teens. "We were not able to determine if anyone exited at that time. We must work under the assumption that this organization is either tracking Fiske or is tracking us. The two of you will make the infiltration, but the remainder of us will keep farther back. Yori, turn over your cell phone, if Global Justice winds up with it, Yamanouchi must not be implicated. Use the secondary signal source, you know the limitations."
"Secondary signal source?" Ron asked.
"It would be better if you did not know," Yori told him. "This is an unwelcome development, but one that we can overcome."
Ron hated optimism that volunteered him for more danger. Why was it that when a pretty girl did it, he couldn't say no?
A van dropped them off a couple of blocks away, outside of a retail center. There were plenty of teens and young adults in the area, so Yori went immediately into the 'young couple' mode; she latched onto his arm, put a vapid smile on her face and practically skipped up the sidewalk, drawing him along with her simulated enthusiasm. Two blocks down a street, a left for another block, and they were at a service entrance. A quick look around showed nobody observing them, so they moved fast. Yori pointed at a tree near the fence, and her expression told him that she expected him to go first. Sighing a little dramatically, he jumped, grabbed the trunk and jumped again. The extra height gave him the altitude he needed to clear the fence. A back flip put him on the ground, inside the fence, with only a slight stumble. He was rather proud of that move.
Yori repeated the move with the grace of an Olympic gymnast.
"The most likely place for Fiske and Sensei to be is the monkey house," Yori reminded him of what they had discussed earlier. Ron was grateful; repeating their plans was a nice cover for being upstaged yet again. They had already reviewed the zoo's layout and knew exactly where to go. While the facility was clearly being maintained, it wasn't being cleaned. The late afternoon sun reflected off the dusty windows, revealing very little about what was inside.
Ron was working up his courage to go inside when a shadow form zipped through the unclear view they had of the interior.
"Someone's in there," he hissed to Yori, then felt foolish. Of course there was someone in there; it was why they were going there in the first place.
"Fiske must suspect we are here," Yori whispered back, thankfully not mentioning him stating the obvious. "We must move quickly!"
Rather than action, her statement was followed by an expectant look his way.
"Fine! Fine, I'll go first!" He grabbed the door, thinking to himself that listening to pretty girls was going to get him killed.
The door proved to be unlocked and didn't squeak when he opened it. He only had a moment to consider what that meant before the shadowy figure was coming at him. Having just stepped into the dark building from the sunlight, he couldn't see very well. Still, he managed to perform a tuck and roll to one side, avoiding the strike. Whomever it was; and he could see that it was bigger than one of Fiske's monkeys but smaller than the monkey-man himself, was very quick. He had no sooner regained his feet than he had to dodge a series of kicks. It was hard seeing the strikes in the dim light but still, there was something familiar about the silhouette that was attacking him.
He finally got his feet set under him, which prompted his assailant to move in with punches, as well. He got tagged a couple of times in the gut, but managed to grab a fist and execute a throw. The attacker, sent flying, managed a very familiar front handspring, then launched herself off of a wall and back towards him.
"Hey!" He yelled at her. "Stop! It's..."
Kim...and now he knew it was her... wasn't about to back off. He blocked her attacks but left himself open to a tackle. The next thing he knew, he was on his belly and she had his arms locked behind him. Then the lights came on.
"...me." He managed to finish.
"Ron!" Kim snapped, releasing him to scramble back to his feet.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
"Rescuing you!" She huffed. She spun to face Yori, who had turned the lights on. "Your 'friend', is working for Monkeyfist."
Ron never thought he'd see Yori taken aback to the point that she couldn't even speak, but it happened.
"No!" He quickly stepped in. "She's not working for Fiske, we're trying to track him down!"
"Why?" Kim demanded.
"Because...well...he..." it suddenly occurred to Ron that the cover story only got him and Yori out of school. It didn't take Kim tracking him down into account.
"You may as well tell her," Yori sighed. "She and your young computer genius will find out anyway, and this way they won't leap to conclusions...as she just demonstrated."
That last remark was delivered with a surprisingly Bonnie-like tone.
"Are you sure?" He asked his ninja friend.
"She's sure," Kim interrupted him. "Spill!"
"Well..." he couldn't help but give a nervous look between the two. "I'm not going to tell everything, since, some of these things aren't my secrets to tell..."
Kim growled at him.
"Okay, it turns out that Yamanouchi isn't exactly a normal school," he quickly stated.
"Which explains the sword and the warrior monk," Kim noted, still not happy with the slow rate of explanation.
"Yeah, I should have known that you and Wade would figure things out," he sighed, then noted that she wasn't falling for the compliment. "Anyway, there's some bad blood between this school and Monkeyfist and...well...I kind of got caught up in it when I went there last year."
"And you didn't mention any of this when you got back," Kim snarled at him.
"They asked me not to," he pointed out, and noted that she wasn't looking any happier. "Anyway, it looks like Fiske kidnapped the school's head, mystical master guy and they asked me to help track him down. This is where the trail has led us."
"Just the two of you?" Kim's eye quirked up. "You have some sort of special school that fights Fiske, and the school sends two teens after an international criminal?"
"You are but one teen," Yori pointed out. "Yet you set out to confront Fiske."
"I can handle myself!" She Kim snapped.
"As can we," Yori calmly informed her. "I am not unskilled and Stoppable-san is a great warrior who has proven his ability and courage."
"Ron?" Kim gave her long time friend a skeptical look.
"Isn't it cool?" Ron couldn't keep the huge grin off his face. "In Middleton, I'm just the sidekick but when I need to me, I'm the warrior hero!"
"Okay, I'm in," Kim told them, scowling skeptically at Ron's statement. "So the mission is we find this master guy..."
"Master Sensei," Yori informed her.
"We find and rescue Sensei," Kim corrected herself.
"It's not that rough," Ron told her. "There's a ninja strike team waiting to move in once we find him."
"That...might not be the case anymore," Yori informed him. "We spotted a Global Justice aircraft before entering the zoo, so our strike team has backed away. My secondary communication method doesn't seem to be working here. Perhaps Fiske has set up interference of some sort."
"Then I really should help out," Kim told them. "The Global Justice aircraft brought me here. Since I mixed up your plans, it's only right that I help you now."
"Most honorable," Yori bowed. "But we must hurry. Our confrontation was both noisy and time consuming. If Fiske noticed our arrival, or yours, he may conclude that he must do harm to Master Sensei before being overwhelmed."
The three of them...four, once Rufus hopped out of Ron's pocket and helped...split up slightly to cover more ground. It wasn't exactly easy looking for something when you didn't know what it was, or looking for something out of place in a place you had never been. Ron noted that the floor was clear of dust, which killed his idea of looking for tracks. Instead, he just looked, hoping something would be obvious. However, dark thoughts, and not about the mission, started to seep into his mind. Fortunately, Rufus gave a squeak before he could really follow these thoughts.
"What is it, buddy?" He asked, sprinting around a corner to find Rufus and see...
"Monkeyfist!" He snarled. The villain was in a small alcove and apparently meditating when Ron's shout disturbed him.
"Stoppable?" Fiske unfolded his legs and climbed to his feet. "What are you doing here?"
"We're here to rescue Sensei!" Ron told him. "Where is he?"
"Isn't he in Yamanouchi?" Fiske looked honestly confused. "Why would I care what becomes of that relic?"
"If you do not have him, who does?" Yori demanded, arriving on scene with Kim.
"I have no idea!" The Englishman snapped back, walking up to confront Ron, toe to toe. "Were you followed?"
"Followed?" Ron was just as confused.
"Fools!" Fiske rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "I am here in hiding! You dolts have blown my cover!"
"Hiding?" Ron asked. "Hiding from what?"
Before Fiske could answer, the building's wall cracked from a powerful blow. A second blow caved in a section, allowing a pair of gorillas, wearing samurai armor, to burst into the room. The two great apes appeared to be larger than a gorilla should be...but Ron had to admit that right now, if he was seeing a bunny it would probably look to be about the size of a rhinoceros.
"That!" Fiske answered his previous question. Ron had a moment to marvel at the fact that Fiske, usually confident to the point of arrogance, was hiding behind him. Then, a smaller, but still large ape appeared between the first two. This one wore an ornate helmet with mask and gestured towards the other two.
They were trapped in Fiske's alcove; they couldn't move or dodge and their best strikes did nothing to the apes. Within moments, the gorillas had caught them. Strangely, the beasts made no effort to inflict pain or harm, they just tucked everyone under their arms and ambled off, deeper into the building.
In his years of being a sidekick, Ron had seen some of the more eccentric sides of lair decorating. Drakken had the habit of cramming as much high tech in his lairs as possible, with the living space added as an afterthought. Fiske was always on the other extreme; maintaining an aristocratic abode and fitting in the villainous paraphernalia around it. When it came to pure, bad-guy style, there was no beating the Senors. However, the place they wound up wasn't half bad.
"Nice place," he told Fiske. The two of them had wound up "sharing" a gorilla, with him tucked under the beast's left arm and Fiske under its right. "Chained skeletons on the walls...very dark motif."
He was interrupted when the gorillas threw the four of them into the room.
"Idiot!" Fiske snapped at him, struggling to his feet. "This isn't my doing!"
"But, you own this zoo," Ron protested.
"It isn't my doing and it wasn't like this when I purchased the property," Fiske snarled. "I can only guess that our current hosts have decorated it in this manner...although the reason eludes me."
"I believe I am the reason," a very deep, dignified voice announced from deeper in the room. A shadow stepped into the dim light, revealing itself as...
"Sensei!" Yori shouted, a massive smile appearing on her face. She rushed up to the old man and appeared ready to throw her arms around him, restraining herself at the last moment.
"It is good to see that you are well," the old man noted. "Although I would prefer that you were not here, in danger. I tried to warn Stoppable-san to stay away, but his presence here tells me that I failed.
"Yeah, about that," Ron answered him. "Using mystery meat gravy to write messages was...inventive...but there were squeeze bottles of ketchup and mustard right there, wouldn't that have been easier?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Fiske interrupted. "Nor do I care! We are here now! I freely admit that I wish to have nothing to do with any of you dolts, but perhaps we can work together and escape."
"Why do you always have to be so negative?" Ron asked him. "Why all the hate?"
"Because I am trapped with fools!" Fiske snapped at him.
"Hey, you were stuck in a closet when we got here!" Ron reminded him. "That wasn't exactly being on top of things!"
"How dare you?" Fiske snarled. He was as quick as he had ever been suddenly lunging at the teen. However, Ron was also as quick as he had ever been and a great deal stronger than he was the last time he ran into the monkey man. Instead of just dodging the attack, Ron sidestepped and parried the kick past him. Fiske followed with a back-fist, which Ron blocked and responded with his own kick. Fiske swatted it away but before he could retaliate again, Kim and Yori got in between them.
"This is no time to be fighting," Kim announced. "We have to figure a way out of here before those gorillas come back."
"I agree with Possible-san," Yori added. "Now is the time to escape our captors; we can deal out and respond to insults later."
"Nobody's going anywhere," a deep voice announced. The group spun to see the two gorillas that had brought them to...wherever they were...enter, followed by the smaller ape.
"I insist on knowing what you want," Fiske demanded. "With him." He punctuated his request by pointing at Ron.
"Me!" Ron glared at him. "Nuh-uh! This is your house, and I've had about enough of your monkey-tude."
"You dare?!" Fiske snarled at him. The nobleman snapped thorough a quick series of martial arts stretches, leaving him in an aggressive, fighting stance. Ron quickly matched him and when the older man made his move, slid forward with his own attack.
"Enough!" The smaller ape roared, leaping forward and landing between the two. The shock-wave sent both combatants sprawling backwards and Ron only had a moment to remind himself that although this particular ape was smaller than the other two, it was still bigger than him and Fiske, combined.
"It was all part of my plan," the ape explained, in a voice that was curiously both deep and high-pitched. "Monty escaped me at his rain forest hideout, but I knew he had bought this zoo. I tracked him here but couldn't find him, so I kidnapped Sensei and framed Fiske, knowing that Yamanouchi would contact Monty's arch rival to help find him."
"Wow, I'm an arch rival..." Ron mused. The statement made him feel warm inside.
"You're no rival!" Fiske snapped at him. "You're a clumsy bungler!"
Suddenly, the warm feeling went cold.
"But, Stoppable-san has defeated you," Yori pointed out, standing behind him and resting her hands on his shoulders.
"On several separate occasions," Ron added, now remembering that he generally got the better of the monkey man.
"Silence!" The ape demanded. "This room was originally built to house monkeys and allow visitors to observe them, so it was already good for holding Sensei. However, I knew that he had some way of communicating with others, even though science said it was impossible."
"Science?" Kim asked, giving the ape a curious look.
"I knew that he had to concentrate in order to do so," the ape continued, as if Kim hadn't spoken. "So I made this room as disturbing as I could, making it look like a dungeon that nobody could escape from, but it wasn't enough."
"Had the skeletons not been made of plastic, it would have been much more effective," Sensei suggested.
"So I had my gorillas check on him regularly," the ape told them. "They made sure that he was unable to concentrate enough to warn off Stoppable."
"Man, this ape knows my name," Ron noted. "That makes three bad guys who actually remember me."
"Ron!" Kim chided her friend. "Focus!"
"And it worked," the ape concluded. "I knew that there was something beyond science that linked Fiske with his greatest nemesis, and that link allowed that nemesis to root him out."
"It was pure luck!" Fiske protested.
"It was mad skill," Ron insisted.
"It was the Mystical Monkey Power," Sensei stated.
"It doesn't matter," the ape roared, silencing everyone. "What matters is that I have what I want!"
The creature gestured towards Fiske, which prompted the two gorillas to lumber forward. "Lumber" was perhaps a poor choice of words, since despite their size, they were actually quite agile. Yori, Kim and Ron were too dumbfounded to offer resistance as the apes brushed them aside and seized Fiske.
"Unhand me, you brutes!" The nobleman shrieked as he was easily overpowered and hauled out of the room.
"I wanted Monty," the smaller ape informed the four remaining captives. "Now that I have what I want, I have no further use for the rest of you. Goodbye!"
The creature pressed a stone on the wall, which caused the floor beneath its prisoners to fall away. Ron couldn't tell if they were all shrieking when they fell; he recognized his own and Kim's yelps of terror. It sounded like they had an accompaniment but he couldn't tell for sure before they plunged into water.
Okay, that wasn't too bad; the water wasn't ice cold and it was deep enough that he didn't hit the bottom. Come to think of it, this was a much better landing than his usual fall produced. There was even light to see, and the water was flowing towards an opening of some sort. This was more like it! They weren't being threatened with death, they were merely being shown the door via moving water. Despite his issues with monkeys, hairy creatures and angry things bigger than him, he found himself thinking fondly of the ape.
Then, he saw the waterfall they were about to be swept over.
Any fondness for the primate was washed away while he, and his companions, fell over the edge. Rufus flew out of his pocket and he struggled to catch the rodent even while he gawked at just how high up he was. He had a moment to wonder if he was more concerned about how much the landing was going to hurt, or if it wasn't going to hurt at all, before Kim swung by him. Again, she was thinking and managed to grapple something with her dryer. She caught Rufus while Yori, holding a chain, caught him around the waist. He quickly grabbed the chain himself and the two were soon looking across the waterfall, where Kim was holding Rufus.
"Where's Sensei?" The redhead asked.
Ron and Yori both looked down, into the mists and rocks below them.
"Gone," he concluded, only to see the old man floating upward, in a bubble of pure force.
After stating that he was glad that all were safe, he tumbled about.
Ron had a great deal of respect for the old man, but he couldn't stand showboating.
Promptly, he was back to not understanding the situation again. It seemed cut and dry to him; they had found Sensei and gotten him away from the bad guy...thing...ape...whatever. At this time, they were supposed to get to a place they could call in the Yamanouchi strike team, return Sensei to his school and call it a day. Instead, he found himself running up a long flight of stairs to rescue Fiske!
"Okay, let's go over this again," he asked. Sure, some might call it whining but he wanted everyone to know that he wasn't happy with the situation. "Our mission was to rescue Sensei, we've done it so why are we going back?"
"It is honor," Sensei told him, from further back on the stairs. "While Fiske is undoubtedly an evil man, he is the victim here. We are all of us capable heroes, so it is our duty to combat such evil as we encounter."
"So, why don't we just get out of this zoo, find some signal for the strike team, and come back with more horsepower?" He asked.
"This might sound like a sensible suggestion," Sensei admitted. "But much as why the two of you came in on your own, my captors may be setting a watch for large groups entering the zoo grounds. We were dropped over a waterfall and did not exit the zoo, so we have a chance to catch them by surprise."
"Also, we do not know what they have planned for Fiske," Kim pointed out. "We might not have time to get help. If we did that and came back to find that we were too late to save him..."
Ron really didn't know if that was all that bad of a development. Okay, he was a hero (technically a sidekick, but he was still supposed to have the same morals), so he hated the idea of harm coming to anyone. He had a solid memory, however, and he remembered Fiske trying to kill him at his mansion, Fiske trying to kill him in space, Fiske threatening pain to Kim when that amulet got on her neck and he wanted to recover it.
Maybe a little bad would do Fiske some good.
"Besides, Fiske's captor deliberately dropped us into the river, knowing that we faced great danger from the waterfall," Yori added. "Perhaps retribution is in order, and thwarting its plans seems a good method of doing so."
"Revenge while taking the moral high ground," Ron mused. "Yori, you really should think about joining a debate team somewhere."
It didn't take them long to find the room where they had been held. After that, they followed Rufus' nose along some corridors. It was clear that there had been some extensive, yet hasty, modifications made to the original, zoo structure. Ron didn't really know what to expect when they caught up to Fiske and his captors. Would it be a classic, dungeon style place, similar to where they had been held, but with torture devices? Would it be an ultra-modern holding cell, well lit so that the captive could see everything intended to inflict pain upon him? Maybe it would be an overstated prison, with massive shackles and thick doors, made to make the captive feel that escape was hopeless.
He most certainly didn't expect to see an ornate, if overly large, version of an Asian-themed grand hall. Ron had a few moments to appreciate the decor's mixing of homey and wealthy before a familiar voice, from near a comfortable fire, brought him back to the here and now.
"What do you want from me?" Fiske shrieked, and Ron honestly couldn't say if the terror in the man's voice made him happy or sad. The nobleman was cornered, with the smaller of the apes directly in front of him and the two gorillas backing it up.
"I...want..." the ape began.
"Let. Him. Go." Kim demanded, causing all three apes to turn away from Fiske.
Ron had a moment to mentally face-palm, wondering why Kim couldn't have waited just a moment to both let them catch the apes by surprise and find out what the leader wanted with Monty. It's not that he particularly wanted to know what it wanted with the nobleman, but it would be nice to hear why someone...or something...else had a beef with the monkey-man.
Then there wasn't time to think. The two gorillas charged forward and it was back to the somewhat familiar act of fighting the bad guys. Somewhat familiar, since he and Kim weren't used to fighting something as large, strong and agile as the gorillas. His best shots just bounced off of his opponent, but at least he was able to dodge its attempts to strike and grab him. Still, they were in serious trouble; Yori and Kim were also dodging and tumbling, keeping their opponent moving, but eventually, one of them was going to get caught.
Sensei came through; the small, old man was somehow strong enough to swat away his attacker's best strikes and then stomp on a foot, leaving it hopping awkwardly. Years of improvising had given Ron situational awareness, so he spotted the chandelier above the stumbling beast. Rufus noticed it as well, so a quick toss of the rat, a snap of his jaws on a supporting rope and the light fixture fell, pinning the beast's arms to its sides.
There wasn't time to gloat, he sprinted towards the other beast, getting between it and Yori and Kim. The ape went after him, as he intended, giving the girls a chance to come up with an idea. He shrieked and yelled for help, playing his part and keeping the creature's attention on him. He did a back handspring, a bound off of a wall that took him over its head, then a tuck and roll between its legs before looking up and seeing that the girls were pulling down a banner. He assumed he knew what Kim was up to and ran in their direction. Sure enough, the two were holding up the banner like a barrier, so he slid under it. The gorilla ran right into it, and the two girls went into a frenzy of springs and tumbles, bundling the great ape like a burrito.
That reminded him, he was getting hungry.
With the two gorillas restrained...at least for the moment, the party turned its attention to Fiske and his captor, only for the ape to pull off its mask and helmet to reveal...
"DNAmy?" Kim gasped, struggling to believe what was happening.
Ron was having trouble with grasping the reality, himself. He listened in stunned disbelief as the geneticist explained how she had modified herself to match Fiske...just for him. He knew that he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to realizing that a girl was into you, but even he could see how infatuated the geneticist was with the nobleman.
He wasn't hungry any more. The only thing that his stunned brain could come up with when Fiske broke free and tried to hide behind him and Kim was, "Dude, I think you're on a date."
Fiske denied it, Amy denied the denial and took off in pursuit of the Englishman when he took off, fleeing through a door at the far end of the hall. The five of them; Kim, himself, Rufus, Yori and even Sensei could only stare towards where the two had disappeared, looks of disbelief on their faces. A quick glance showed that the two gorillas had the same expression.
"So, all of this," Yori finally asked the room in general. "Kidnapping Master Sensei, the modifications to this monkey house, all of it was so that Dr. Hall could, as you Americans say, 'score' a date?"
"That's what it looks like," Ron answered, then, he addressed the gorillas. "We've had about enough of the fighting thing, how about you guys?"
The gorillas nodded, so the five freed them. The apes didn't attack, they merely lumbered off somewhere deeper into the monkey house, shaking their heads as they went. Ron and his companions sought an exit, shaking their heads as they went. Soon, they were outside of the monkey house and well above the pool that they had come close to falling into. From this vantage point, Yori's communication device was able to contact the Yamanouchi strike team and inform them that there was no longer any danger.
"My thanks for coming to my rescue," Sensei told the two Americans. "I will give you the few minutes before my followers arrive to say your own farewells."
Ron and Kim bowed as the old man walked away. Kim immediately turned to Yori.
"Sorry I was so harsh," she apologized to the Japanese girl. "Just what's the sitch between you and Ron here?"
"A bond of honor," Yori informed her. "Stoppable-san, until the time that we meet again."
She leaned in and gave Ron a peck on the cheek, something that took his breath away.
"That's Japanese for goodbye," he declared, after a giggle.
"Stoppable-san," she gently chided him. "Your misunderstandings are most humorous."
Anything else was drowned out by the sound of an approaching helicopter.
"Now it is time for us to go," Sensei declared. On cue, a rope ladder rolled out of the vehicle and Sensei, belying his age, climbed it with the grace of a young monkey. Yori gave Ron one last look, a glance that made him both nervous and excited, before following her master.
"You really don't understand girls, do you?" Kim asked him.
"What?" He demanded, before he understood what she was implying. "Oh, that! No, Yori was acting the part so nobody would wonder why we were traveling together. It was all an act."
They had been friends for a long time, so he could see that she was skeptical about the claim, but Fiske, pursued by Amy, came fleeing out of the monkey house. The nobleman hid behind the teens for a moment before the altered geneticist forced her way right through them. Fiske fled again, Amy pursued again, and Ron found himself standing with Kim, neither knowing what to do or say.
"Let's...go home," Kim suggested.
"Right," Ron agreed. "Where's pick-up?"
"Outside of the zoo," she smiled at him. "That means..."
"Yeah," he interrupted. "It means it will be my honor to walk."
He fell in step beside her, but had only traveled a few strides before he caught her smirking at him.
"What?" He demanded.
"You really think Yori was play-acting the entire time?" She chuckled.
"Why do you think it was anything more than that?" He asked, starting to blush.
"Because once the two of you reached this zoo, there would have been no need to maintain the act," Kim pointed out. "But she was very friendly towards you the entire time...as in more friendly than is typical between friends."
"You think that Yori really likes me...likes me?" He asked.
She only nodded, and Ron could feel himself blushing brighter.
"Is it that hard to believe?" She demanded.
"I...well...kinda," he admitted.
"Don't you think she's cute?" Kim continued the interrogation.
"Well, yeah," he made his second admission.
"So why didn't you do anything about it?" She asked. "Was it because I was here?"
"No, it's just..." he couldn't continue.
"What?" She demanded.
"Well," he stalled again, then realized it might feel good to finally get this off of his chest. "The night of the Middleton Days Festival, when we found out about the moodulator on you, I had a really...intense dream about her."
Kim's eyes flew open for a moment, but then her smirk came back.
"What?" He demanded. "That dream really makes me awkward when I'm around her."
Kim broke out laughing at that one.
"What?" He demanded again.
"Don't you think she's had a few of the same dreams about you?"
A/N: As always, fond thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading.