Disclaimer: Disney owns, I don't. The copyright laws are clearly against me claiming otherwise since I didn't create or purchase the right to the show. I just have fun manipulating the character and making them jump through hoops. Dance my little marionettes, Dance!

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Goth

Chapter 5

More Than Friends

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Kim hadn't been able to get Ron alone all day to make her move on the blond boy and she never got a chance to ask Monique for advice either. Her BGF wasn't to be found in school (out sick?) that day and between classes, other students would pester Kim in the hallway with questions about the dance committee, tutoring middle-schoolers, the font for the yearbook or other mundane yet highly important high school topics so she just couldn't find the time to talk to Ron alone. Kim had hoped that a mission would come up so that the two of them would have some alone time during the trip to and the ride home from the lair de semaine (lair of the week) but nothing came up.

After classes were over, Kim and Ron entered the gymnasium for cheer practice and split off to the girl's and boy's locker rooms respectively to dress. When Kim emerged, she saw something that almost made her heart stop. Ron was in the middle of seven girls, the other ladies of the cheer squad, and they were all laughing and joking around with him. What was worse was that Bonnie was holding the mascot headpiece and was in the process of passionately kissing the mask!

Before Kim could ask the main question on her mind, Hope voiced it for her. "What are you doing Bonnie? You've always been totally against anything that had to do with the Mad Dog Mascot?"

Bonnie replied with a sly, blushing smile, "That was before I decided to change my outlook on life over the holidays. The Food Chain and being popular don't really matters to me any more. The only thing that I'm concerned with right now is graduating next year; that, and the pride I have in our school and its sports teams. The Mad Dog is part of all that so I've changed my mind about him..." she sent a smoldering look at Ron, "...and the man behind the mask."

"And that's why Bonnie is a lot friendlier to both Kim and Ron now," Tara jumped in, defending her best friend's position and hoping to divert Bonnie's attention away from the blond boy. She still had a small crush on Ron but she thought that Kim and Ron would eventually see the light and start dating. It was inevitable.

"But why all of the changes, Bonnie?" Jessica, the other freckle-faced blond beside Ron, asked. "What happened over the holidays that made you suddenly change your outlook about the Food Chain and being popular? You never told us yesterday before practice."

"This I'd like to hear," Kim said as she joined the group. "I believe you truly did change your ways Bonnie, but you never really told me or Ron about the final straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak."

"That's because it was all very traumatic," Bonnie barely whispered to the group and turned to Kim. "You know how my sisters treated me when we were at my house during that Dementor, bonding incident."

Kim merely nodded to affirm she knew what Bonnie was talking about. Kim had only seen Connie and Lonnie for a minute when she and the brunette were bonded together, but she could tell that Bonnie's sisters were, as Ron would put it, a few hundred miles of very bad road.

"Well," Bonnie's voice anxiously hitched in her throat, "they were in fine form over the three weeks that school was out. They were constantly picking on me. I tried to spend as much time away from them at the mall or over at Tara's house, but mom would always call after only an hour and tell me to come home; that the holidays were suppose to be family time." Tears were brimming in Bonnie's heavily mascaraed eyes despite her best attempts not to cry in front of the other girls. She finally couldn't hold back the waterworks as she bawled out, "After the third or fourth time she totally forbade me to leave the house! I spent the rest of the holidays in my room taking to Tara on the phone!"

Ron put his arm around her shoulders in a sign of support as he said, "Hey hey there, everything's gonna be okay. Nobody's supposed to get along with their brothers and sisters. At least that's the impression I get from watching Kim and her brothers." He let out a nervous laugh and then said, "But I can't really say for sure since I don't have any brothers or sisters of my own."

"Oh, Ron!" Bonnie threw her arms around the blond boy's neck and buried her tear stained face in his shoulder. Kim let out with a fairly loud growl at the spectacle but the other six girls didn't seem to hear it because they were all stunned to see Bonnie breaking down and seeking comfort in arms of, of all people, Ron Stoppable.

After twenty-one point seven six seconds, Bonnie wiped her eyes on Ron's purple with the big 'M', Mad Dog sweater and start to giggle as she leaned back in the blond's embrace. "It's just like you to use self-deprecating humor to make someone else feel better."

"Self depre-what?" Ron asked in mock confusion. "Isn't that a school word?" The rest of the squad giggled at Ron's faux cluelessness while Kim just rolled her eyes. She was used to it and knew Ron was just being his normal goofy self to cheer Bonnie up.

"Self-deprecation," Bonnie defined with a sniffle, regaining a modicum of her composure because of the distraction, "to belittle oneself. Don't you know that word?"

"No, I don't," Ron sheepishly chuckled as he anxiously rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. (He was still holding on to the brunette in a one-armed embrace with the other.) "But I guess it's okay to learn a new school word since we're in school right now, even though it's only the gym." He was pleased that Bonnie was coming out of her funk. He didn't like to see any girl cry but he was still nervous about how close the brunette was getting to him.

"Stoppable! What's going on?" Mr. Steve Barkin bellowed as he burst through the doors from the hallway and caught Ron and Bonnie in flagrante delicto. "You know the policy about PDA on school grounds! Explanation! Now!"

"It's not what you think, Mr. B.!" Ron defensively screeched. He tried to step back from the brunettel but Bonnie continued to cling tightly around his neck. Ron quickly lied, "Aaaaah... Bonnie fell during practice and I was helping her up when she collapsed again and fell into my arms!"

"A likely story," Barkin said in a low, disbelieving voice.

"It's true, Mr. Barkin," Bonnie said in a fake weak voice as she fainted further into Ron's arms, nuzzling her head on his shoulder. "Ron was helping me over to the bleachers to sit down. My legs gave out and, well, that's when you saw us. I skipped lunch today so I'm feeling a little light-headed. That's probably why I fell." Ron assisted Bonnie over to the bleachers where they both sat down and she began to fake-massage one of her knees.

"If that's the case..." Mr. Barkin muttered to himself, still a little bit leery. Getting back to business, he turned to the blond boy and tersely ordered, "Stoppable, assist Miss Rockwaller to the nurse's office." Barkin then turned to Kim and the other girls and said, "I just came in to inform you that the basketball game scheduled for this Friday night against Lowerton has been canceled. There's been a major outbreak of Asiatic Flu at the school and their coach wisely decided to forfeit the game instead of possibly spreading the infection to our school."

"So the squad isn't needed until next week's game against Upperton," Kim concluded with a nod, knowing full well what the schedule was as she turned to the rest of the cheerleaders. "If that's the case, and with Bonnie not up to par right now, I think we'd better cancel practice for today and try again tomorrow. Just think of it as an extension of the holiday break."

"Carry on," Barkin barked, performed a precise military about-face and marched out of the gym, but not until after he had given Ron the hairy eyeball for a few seconds while the six other cheerleaders took the opportunity to scamper into the locker room to changed into their street clothes and leave.

"Thank you Ron Ron," Bonnie cooed and kissed him on the cheek after the door shut behind Mr. Barkin. "That's the second time in two days that you've come to my rescue."

"T'weren't nothing," Ron blushed and nonchalantly waved off the praise. "I told you yesterday that KP and I got your back whenever you need us. That's what friends are for."

"You'd better head to the nurse's office to cover your lie," Kim harshed to Bonnie before she turned to talk to the blond boy sitting too close, in her opinion, to the lying, boyfriend stealing, brunette. (Even though it'd been Ron who started the fib and he wasn't either of their boyfriend just yet.) "Ron, you know my shift at Club Banana starts in a little over an hour so I won't be able to help you with your homework tonight."

"I know, KP," Ron said as he faked helping Bonnie up from the bleachers and headed for the hallway. (You never knew if Mr. B might walk back in to the gym or if they'd see him in the hallway so they knew they would have to keep up the charade.)

"Don't worry, K." Bonnie said over her shoulder with the other arm draped around Ron's neck. "I'll help my new study buddy Ron Ron with his homework tonight. You just enjoy your shift."

"But I need to talk to Ron in private," Kim said as she followed the two teens out into the hallway.

"Well, I guess we can do that right now. We can talk while Bon Bon gets checked over by the nurse," Ron replied.

"That's true," Kim said as she swiftly grabbed Bonnie's free hand which had been on (or maybe even groping?) Ron's chest and slung it over her shoulders. "So I'll just help you take Bonnie to the nurse's office. Then we can talk."

Bonnie fake-hobbled through the door while the two other teens stayed outside in the hallway. Kim looked around and, seeing a few other students were still in the halls, grabbed Ron's hand and dragged him into an empty classroom. When the door closed behind them, Kim turned to Ron and smiled. "Now that we're alone there's something I want to talk about."

"Sure, KP. You can tell me anything."

"Do you remember our conversation from this morning at our lockers?" Kim queried with a slight pink tinge to her cheeks, "just before geometry class began?" Her nervousness was rising by leaps and bounds causing the rush of blood to her cheeks.

"Do you mean when we were talking about me and Zita?" Ron questioned, unsure what Kim was getting at. After all, they had established that he and Zita hadn't really been dating. Hadn't they?

"No, before that," Kim sighed. She knew Ron usually took things too literally so she probably should have been more specific and asked if he remembered their conversation after his slip-and-fall.

"Oh," Ron perked up in realization. "You mean when you said I might have other girlfriend options beside Bonnie."

"Right!" Kim enthused. He did get it. "I said I was interested in taking out relationship to the next level and start dating."

"And I said," Ron countered, "that doing so might ruin what we already have."

"And then you started going on about your non-relationship with Zita," Kim countered his counter, getting more than a little frustrated from the day she'd had and the long delay before having this conversation. She quickly added in frustration, "But you didn't let me tell you the reason why us dating wouldn't sink our friendship."

"Okay, KP," Ron defensively said as he took a step back from the now seemly tweaked Kim. "If you say us dating won't mess up our friendship, then it won't happen."

"Ron!" Kim growled, before she caught herself and took a deep breath to calm down. She knew she would have to allow for Ron's insecurities and slowness on the uptake. She took another deep breath and let it out before she continued. "First of all, I'm not angry with you. I've wanted to have this talk with you in private all day and it's been one interruption after another, so it's been frustrating to say the least. Secondly, Bonnie's little breakdown and her groping you like she did in the gym set me off further."

"Okay, KP," Ron said in relief as he sat down at one of the desks. "So you're upset with the day and not me. So why wouldn't us dating be a bad idea?"

"It's because close friends who start dating normally have a better, more stable marriage," Kim said with a beaming smile, happy that she could finally have this conversation. She didn't want to bring up the idea of marriage just yet but she'd paraphrased her mother without thinking about it.

"Whoa!" Ron yelp in horror, having caught the mistake. "Are you asking me to marry you already? I mean we haven't even started dating yet!"

Kim realized what she'd said and furiously blushed and stuttered, "I-I-I.."

"But I think I get what you mean," Ron quickly recovered from the shock of what she'd said and threw her a lifeline. "Because we've been friends for so long already, we wouldn't have that awkweird phase of getting to know the other's little faults and quirks. And because we already know each other's faults and quirks and are used to them, dating wouldn't be so awkweird."

"Yeah," Kim lightly laughed in both relief and amazement that Ron could be so insightful at times. "That's exactly what I meant. But, how did you come up with that?"

"I don't know, KP. It just suddenly hit me that we know each other better than anyone else does."

"That is so true," Kim nodded in agreement. "But there's also the fact that we're still young enough that any falling out between us while dating would be chalked up to a learning experience and we could still remain friends. Sooo, what do you think? Should we become boyfriend and girlfriend and start dating?"

Ron's head bobbed back and forth a few times like he was weighing the pros and cons in his mind before his smile grew. "I think we've been going steady since Pre-K and didn't known it. I mean we've always done everything together like play in the sandbox and on the swings when were were little kids and now we go out to BN and the movies together, go up to Lake Middleton during the summer and I go on vacations with your family each year. That's like heavy duty dating in most people's book."

"That's right," Kim perked as if she'd just realized it. "Not to mention the fact that we both already know what the other looks like naked."

"Do you mean the time when we switched bodies for a day?" Ron questioned as he nervously rubbed his nose and looked at anything except Kim. It had been mutually decided upon that what had happened during the incident with Drakken's stolen brain switch machine was a taboo subject, not to be discussed. Ever! Why Kim brought that up now really confused Ron.

"Yes, the time we switched bodies," Kim smugly said with arms crossed under her perky breasts. "I know you took my... lower feminine smile, out for at least one test drive. You almost rubbed it raw."

"And I suppose you didn't take my... snake in the grass, out for a walk... or five?" Ron countered with equal smugness. Two could play at this game.

"Only two or three times that night," Kim meekly confessed, loosing her aloofness. "And then again in the morning after I woke up and it was... standing up, begging for attention. That's why I said we should never talked about it. It squirted all over the place like a fire hydrant and I became totally embarrassed trying to clean it up before your mother found out." Kim had stayed at Ron's house because there was no way they could've explained the sitch to his parents.

"Yeah," Ron shyly chuckled, "it does that every once in a while. Anyway, I knew you did it with my thing a few times but I couldn't really call you out on it since I violated your privacy too."

"I only brought it up now to prove that we can survive any sexual tension that may arise between us after we start dating," Kim said in relief that that particular bit of conflict was behind them. "We've already done a few things that most new couples don't get to do until much further on in their relationship."

An awkward silence grew between them for nine point nine seconds before Kim slipped onto Ron's lap, snaked her arms around his neck and smiled. "So now that we've both confessed that we know what the other looks and feels like when we're naked and aroused, I guess we're officially going steady."

"I guess so," Ron laughed in relief that that particular conversation was finally out of the way as he wrapped his arms around Kim's waist. Suddenly his countenance grew somber as he asked, "But what about Bon Bon? She still wants to be my girlfriend and she's going to be helping me with my homework again tonight. The subject is bound to come up when she tries to kiss me or cop another feel."

"You're just going to have to stop her advances and tell her no," Kim said with conviction before she smiled with a great idea. "I know what you should tell Bonnie. Tell her that you already have a steady girlfriend and you want to solidify your new-found friendship with her before anything else develops."

"Yeah, that'll work," Ron warmed to the idea. "Bonnie and I are just becoming friends right now so we shouldn't jeopardize that for something that might not work out."

"I really should head home now and get some of my homework done before I head into work," Kim said before giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Ummm! Kissing you is something I could really get used to." She leaned back in, gave him a longer buss and then reluctantly left.

"I could get used to that too," Ron muttered in a slight goofy daze before he shook his head to clear out the osculatory induced cobwebs. He exited the classroom and walked toward the nurse's office thinking that Bonnie would want to get her homework done right away too. Just as he arrived, the door opened and the brunette cheerleader fake-limped out. "How did the exam go, Bon Bon?"

"I told the nurse that I banged my knee up during a fall," Bonnie said with a devious smile as she rubbed her bandage wrapped appendage, "so she checked it over and said she couldn't find anything wrong. She told me to keep off it tonight and go to the hospital for x-rays if it's still bothering me in the morning." Bonnie glanced around the hallway to see if any teachers were around, linked arms with Ron and fake-limp/walked back to the locker room with him so they could changed out of their cheer uniforms. "Where's K.?"

"Kim had to leave to get ready for work," Ron answered as they arrived at the gym and headed straight for the locker rooms to change.

"I'll meet you out here in five minutes," Bonnie said as she stopped at the door to the girls locker room. "We can go to your house to work on our homework."

"Only if we can stop at Bueno Nacho for a few minutes for some snackage," Ron happily said as he paused in the other doorway. "Rufus would never forgive me if we didn't get a plate of Nachos for him."

"Why would your little ra... er, friend care?" Bonnie questioned, almost descending back into her Queen Bonnie mindset and calling Rufus a rat.

"He's still suffering from his cold and you know what they said," Ron chirped with his goofy grin starting to shine. "Feed a cold and feed a fever." He dashed through the door before Bonnie could correct him. But then again, why should she correct him. Ron probably though food could solve all sorts of problems besides colds and fevers. He probably though that food could even have stopped all of the wars throughout history!

Bonnie shrugged her shoulders and went in to change clothes. She was feeling a bit peckish herself and Ron had told her yesterday that he was receiving an adequate allowance to pay for their afternoon snack. And besides all that, she now had Ron all to herself for the rest of the evening until Kim got off work at nine o'clock.