A Hot Mess
XX
A pair of discarded parachutes lay draped across the rocks at the edge of the ocean. Crashing surf broke against the jagged shore around the parachutes, and just in front of them, Kim and Ron began to pick their way closer to the thick walls of the Seniors' island lair. Coming in by parachute was not exactly the most stealthy way to infiltrate an island lair, but in Kim's experience, supervillains were surprisingly bad at actually monitoring the perimeters of their lairs and making sure no one broke in. Maybe they were usually too busy with their latest schemes to notice until Kim popped out of an air vent and tapped them on the shoulder. And in this case, Kim hadn't been able to choose how she got there.
Kim looked up at the top of the wall; there were no guards patrolling, at least not that she could see. "Grab on," she told Ron as she got out her grappling gun and shot a line over the wall.
Ron clasped his arms around her. Normally such a situation would have made Kim feel a little awkward given their past history, but at the moment, she was all business. The two of them zipped up onto the top of the wall and surveyed the scene before them.
"Looks like they have another mega light bulb set up," Ron pointed out. "Although I think it's one of those energy-saving kinds."
"How can you tell?"
"It looks like a giant version of the energy saving kind."
Kim had to give Ron that one. The two of them traveled along the length of the wall in order to scope out the rest of the island, as well as the lair itself. She looked over the interior of the Senior's lair; they had done some upgrading, and the place looked a little different in layout, but in terms of style it generally looked the same as it had always been. Swimming pool, folding chairs, tasteful décor and outdoor plants. Really more of a private villa if it wasn't for the traps and doomsday weapons within.
"I don't see the jet anywhere," said Ron as they got a look at as much of the island as they could.
"Yeah, but it could be they air-dropped the Containment Chamber. Or they knew we were tailing them and kept flying instead of giving it away that they're working for the Seniors."
"I don't see any guards either."
Ron was right, and Kim found the lack of guards on the premises a little stranger than the lack of a jet. Either the guards were all on break, or Señor Senior Senior was not into the hobby of supervillainy as much as he used to be. Or it was a trap. Junior wasn't sunbathing anywhere either, although Kim's assumption that Junior sunbathed 24 hours a day was probably a little unfair.
Traveling onwards, she found a point on the wall that was closest to the Senior's house itself. After grabbing Ron's hand, the two of them jumped across onto the adjacent roof. Kim wanted to look for some kind of air conditioning vent to break into, but there were a number of skylights placed along the roof at various intervals. They would be a lot more convenient – and probably less loud, since Ron was with her – than traveling through air ducts.
Kim crouched over one of the sky lights and looked down into the room below. It was empty. She grabbed a lipstick laser and suction cup out of her mission backpack, adhered the suction cup to the glass, and carefully cut a large circle out before removing it and placing it on the roof beside her. Ron watched for any unwanted visitors in the room below them, or on the roof for that matter, as Kim attached at rappelling line to a nearby roof fixture.
"Ready to go, Ron?"
"It woulda been nice to take a dip in that pool over there, since it's so hot" said Ron as he looked longingly over at the swimming pool in the courtyard beyond the roof. "But I guess that's out of the question."
"Exactly."
The two of them grabbed the line and rappelled down into the empty room. Kim landed quietly on her feet, while Ron fulfilled his usual sidekick obligation of tripping and landing loudly on his rear end. Kim helped him up and took a look around the room; it was large, mostly bereft of furnishings, and had no clear purpose. A raised catwalk lined one of the walls, almost like a viewing platform, and as Kim looked around, the room's look began to jog her memory. A rumbling sound started growing louder, coming from behind another one of the walls. Kim began to realize that she should have chosen which skylight to use for her infiltration more carefully.
"Uh, Ron?"
"What's up, KP?"
"Get ready to start dodging."
Several compartments in the wall opened across from them, and the rumbling sound turned into a deafening roar as a group of Spinning Tops of Doom rushed out into the open room. Kim held her grappling hook at the ready, hoping to latch onto the raised viewing platform along the wall to escape from their path and escape the room as quickly as possible, but the spinning tops were already blocking her shot. Ron backed away as the tops drew closer, sending fragments of floor and wall into the air as they carved a path of destruction in their wake.
"I really wish I hadn't suggested those things to Señor Senior Senior when we first met him."
"You and me both!"
Kim leaped to the side as one of the spinning tops drew closer to her. Flecks of floor tiling and stone bounced off her mission suit as she shielded her eyes. Just before reaching her, the top hit the wall and veered off in another direction.
"Ron, grab on!"
Ron dodged another one of the tops and grabbed hold of Kim as she saw an opening and shot her grappling gun towards the walkway on the far side of the room. She released the gun's lever and let the line reel the two of them in. Two of the tops careened towards each other, with the grappling line passsing right between them, but Kim and Ron zipped through just in time to avoid getting crushed as the tops met.
"Oof!"
Kim hit the railing and scrabbled over it, landing nimbly on the walkway. She gave Ron a helping hand and pulled him over as he dropped to the walkway in a heap. A door was embedded in the wall at the end of the walkway, but she could already tell they weren't going to be getting through. There was no handle; not even a keycard slot or code puncher. The door probably opened only from the other side. And the room Kim had been so eager to enter, the room where they were both now stuck, was obviously a trap. Kim hated to admit it, but she couldn't ignore the fact that she was having a rough time on her first mission in months.
"What now, KP?"
Ron's voice barely traveled over the cacophony of noise coming from the room that their walkway overlooked. Kim considered going for the rappelling line that still hung from the skylight over the room in order to escape the way they came in, but it would be hard to get through all the spinning tops below them. Before she could take action, one of the tops made an erratic spin towards the walkway and hit the support beams raising it up from the floor. Kim braced herself as the walkway collapsed, sending both of them rolling onto the floor.
"Kim, watch out!"
Kim barely got a chance to look up before she saw a flash of blue light and felt herself pulled backwards. A spinning top tore over the ground where she was just laying, sending more debris raining down on them. She looked back at Ron and smiled. He had her back.
The spinning tops bounced off of each other and dug viciously into more walls as Kim and Ron got a moment of breathing room. The room itself was beginning to look like a poorly-made paper-mâché box, lacerated with grooves and cuts from where the tops had dug into it. Kim jumped back as one of the walls began to buckle with an ominous groan, although she was far enough away that it wasn't going in danger of toppling over on her.
Just as it looked like the entire room was going to crumple in on itself, the tops suddenly swerved drunkenly, slowing like helicopter blades being powered down. Their spinning died to a drunken halt as they teetered over and dropped to their sides with a crash. The room was silent, save for a few pieces of plaster and building material that fell to the ground here and there.
As Kim looked around, a loud whooshing noise broke the room's silence. She looked up to see that the second-story door at the end of the collapsed walkway had opened, although there was no longer a walkway for it to open onto.
"Ah, Kim Possible!"
Señor Senior Senior stood above her. He held a remote control device in his hand, which he had used to shut off the spinning tops. Behind him, Kim could see Junior looking down into the room. Behind Junior, she felt a jolt of shock at the sight of a brown head of hair, nearly obscured by Junior's considerable upper body bulk. Although Kim caught a glimpse of a face as well, even the hair was enough to recognize who was standing behind the Seniors: Bonnie Rockwaller.
"And I see you are with your sidekick as well. Tell me, what brings the two of you to my lair?"
Kim looked around the room. It was not in danger of collapsing yet, but she would not have felt comfortable enough to stick around in it for too long.
"You know those spinning tops are really a bad security investment," she pointed out. "I don't understand how they don't just destroy your house every time you let them out."
"You know, I have often thought such a thing myself," said Senior. "The other day we had the skylights open for a little air" - Senior looked up at the circular hole Kim had cut out of the skylight - "and a seagull chose to fly into this room and set off our spinning top release sensors. It took several weeks to rebuild the collapsed walls. And such work is not cheap, let me tell you!"
"Unless you hire non-union," Junior interjected from behind him.
"An excellent point, my son."
"You didn't answer his question," Bonnie told Kim as she shoved the two Seniors aside, almost knocking them out of the doorway and sending them falling into the wrecked room. "What are you two doing here at casa de Seniors?"
"Nice to see you again too, Bonnie."
Ron stepped forward and pointed accusingly at Senior, since his experience on past missions with Kim told him that Junior probably had no idea what was going on in terms of evil schemes. "You stole Drakken's cupcakes!" he screamed. "We want them back!"
Ron's voice echoed through the empty room. He found himself being stared at by four pairs of eyes.
"That is one of the more interesting accusations I have heard," said Senior. "But I am afraid I do not know of what you speak."
Kim would have preferred to make up something else on the spot, and hopefully buy some time to get a better look at the interior of the Senior's lair while they tried to escape, but she wasn't sure what she would have said on such short notice. And either way, Ron had just let the cat out of the bag.
"We're tracking down a shipment of cupcakes that got stolen from a new bakery that Drakken's running," she said. "We know it was taken here, to your island. The jig is up, Senior!"
"A bakery? So that is what Dr. Drakken has been doing in these last few months. I was wondering why I had not heard from him in the usual villain circles lately."
Ron nodded. "Yeah, we were totally surprised too."
"Nevertheless, I must insist that I do not have these cupcakes you speak of. And I do not appreciate my teen foes breaking through skylights in my home and setting off my traps when I have no evil plans under way, and thus cannot speak triumphantly of some successful scheme when I capture you. This is not the way these things are done. You should know better, Kim Possible!"
Kim found herself holding back an urge to apologize for intruding. Senior could be disarmingly charming for a supervillain, and if he was telling the truth, then she supposed they really were intruding. Not that Senior's denial came close to convincing her that he was telling the truth.
"Still," said Senior as he looked down at his unexpected guests, "while you are here, I suppose you may as well stay for a while and enjoy my hospitality. Perhaps we can catch up on the old times."
"That sounds fantastic, father!" exclaimed Junior as he clapped his hands together enthusiastically.
Kim and Bonnie groaned.
XX
Mall shopping: a time honored tradition, and a welcome escape from having to think about things.
The mall in Upperton was the largest Monique had ever seen. It dwarfed Middleton Mall, and although that came with the slight drawback of bigger crowds, Monique was happy enough to deal with the occasional obese man in khakis and a Hawaiian shirt bumping against her when it meant more shopping opportunities. Going to the mall was all about variety. It was about going from shop to shop, knowing you had the choice to buy anything there, even if you weren't necessarily going to buy anything. It one of Monique's most reliable pick-me-ups.
But today, it was not picking her up.
Monique was visiting the mall accompanied by her mantourage, as she liked to call them. They were coworkers, but they had also become good friends, and fortunately they enjoyed shopping almost as much as she did. Steve Toeller and Paul King – or Steel Toe and Pain King, as they were known in the wrestling ring – were dressed in their everyday clothing, which was enough to prevent most of their fans from recognizing them. Pain King's bionic eye was fictional, but Steel Toe really did have a steel foot thanks to a freak industrial accident. Fans occasionally recognized him by the clanking sound his abnormally large right shoe made on hard floors. But even the presence of her friends was not enough to pick up Monique's spirits.
"Turn that frown upside down," said Steve Toeller as he glanced down at his fashionable female friend.
Paul King slapped Monique on the back, and grabbed her shoulder almost immediately afterwards to prevent her from flying into a nearby mall fountain. "Whoops, sorry," he said. "But listen to Steve – you're at the mall! What in the world is giving you that big black cloud over your head?"
They had a point. Monique knew something was wrong when she was in a bad mood at the mall of all places. And she knew exactly what the problem was.
She looked up at the mall's vaulted glass ceiling, at the people milling around on the second floor level, at the colorful signs hanging here and there, and remembered when she first saw the Upperton Mall. Ron had been there, actually. Monique and Kim had both started college, but Kim was still with Ron, and the three of them were visiting for the first time. She smiled when she remembered how excited Ron had been to discover that the mall's food court did, in fact, have a Bueno Nacho. After that discovery, Ron had enthusiastically said he would be hanging out with them at the mall every weekend until Kim and Monique graduated.
"It's just relationship drama," said Monique. "Kim is off on her first mission with Ron in a long time, and I've been getting myself all insecure about it. The two of them knew each other since Pre-K, you know? It's like they have this bond together that I can never really have with Kim. Maybe I shouldn't have broken it."
"Now wait a minute," said Steve, "How did you break it? I remember you telling us that Kim and Ron broke up a while before you and Kim started going out. Don't blame yourself for things that aren't your fault."
"Okay, true. But how do you know that me bein' with Kim isn't what's keeping them apart? I mean, I just don't know how I can compete with a lifetime of two people being best friends."
Paul's eyes darkened as a thought occurred to him. "Why, you think they're up to something on this mission? If Kim's treating you wrong, she's gonna get a double suplex she'll never forget!"
Monique laughed. "Thanks for the vote of support, Paul, but Kim would have you down for the count in about ten seconds. No offense."
Paul and Steve looked at each other and smiled ruefully, knowing their friend was right.
"But no, I don't know if anything is going on between them on this mission. I really don't think so, anyway. I haven't gotten the chance to talk to Kim very much since she left – she even forgot to call me before going. But I don't wanna be the clingy, insecure girlfriend, you know what I mean?"
"You never really struck me that way," said Paul. "You usually come off as very easygoing. Very comfortable with yourself."
Monique knew he was right, but she also knew that appearances could be deceiving. Not to mention that this particular situation with Kim and Ron seemed to have a dimension which bothered Monique in a way that other situations wouldn't. If Kim started spending time with some random guy or girl, no problem. But now that Kim was spending time – for the first time, in a long time – with Ron, Monique felt worried when she should have been excited. Which in turn caused guilt. Which, added to her already boiling cauldron of inner angst, just made a big hot mess of everything.
"I guess I just feel weird sometimes when I think about how things ended between Kim and Ron. I wonder if I was taking advantage of Kim when she needed somebody to turn to after they broke up."
"You said she broke up with Ron though, didn't you? And you waited quite a while before telling her how you felt."
Monique nodded on both counts. She was amazed that Paul and Steve actually listened to, and remembered, the details of her personal life on the occasions that she rambled on about it. They were incredibly attentive for guys. But she supposed that was why they made a good shopping mantourage. Gossip and chats about romance were some of the best things to pair with shopping, after all.
Steve tapped Paul's shoulder and pointed in the direction of the Blueberry Boutique, a recently opened venture owned by the same company that ran Club Banana, but with a wider variety of choices for men and children as well as women. Steve was hoping that Monique could find a nice outfit to cheer her up, but he also needed to get something for his wife. He had spilled a cranberry smoothie all over her dress the last time they went to that craft fair together, and she had been a little frosty around him ever since.
"So when did you first realize you liked Kim?" asked Paul as two of them subtly led Monique towards the store. Normally she needed no direction, but she was definitely in a funk today. "I don't remember if you ever told us about that."
"Oh, I knew I liked her before I even met her," said Monique. "I sorta knew about her whole world saving deal before I moved to Middleton for high school, so when I first met her it was a bit of a celebrity crush kinda deal. And boy, when we got to be friends, it was like – I'm hanging out with the Kim Possible, you know?"
"Why didn't you tell her you liked her, then?"
Monique pondered the question as Steve and Paul began to flip through outfits hung up on the racks. The cashier clerk at the front of the store did a double take at seeing two men who were almost too big to enter the shop holding up women's clothing and silently querying each other for approval.
"It's kind of complicated," said Monique. "I figured out how close she was to Ron pretty quickly after I met her, and I knew they weren't going out, but it was a little intimidating, you know? I felt nervous about trying to get between them. I felt bad about not even sharing the whole 'me being gay' thing with her, but I was a little insecure about that too. My parents aren't exactly cool about that. I mean, I'm not saying they'd disown me or anything, but some of the things I heard them say when I was growing up... I guess I kind of kept it to myself while I was still under their roof."
"That's too bad."
"And I didn't know how Kim felt about it either. I was into being friends with her, and I didn't really wanna mess that up or make her see me differently. Not to mention that I was little miss popular when I was in high school, which wasn't exactly how stuff went for me before I moved to Middleton. I had all this popularity all of a sudden, and I didn't want to put my social position in danger, and I guarantee you Bonnie woulda loved to hear about my preference, so I kept certain feelings quiet."
"Bonnie Rockwaller, right? Kim's arch nemesis."
Monique nodded at Steve. "Man, you guys are good. Bonnie was all about the food chain. Kim hated her, and she bugged me too. I even gave her a hard time by pretending I had a thing for Brick," she laughed. "Boy did that rub her the wrong way! But as heinous as that girl was, she knew how kids worked in high school. It was hard to ignore the food chain. I know Kim fell for the food chain thing too. I think she sorta did the same thing I did in terms of hiding her feelings with Ron, actually, when she dated that Eric guy who turned out to be a synthowhatsit."
Steve and Paul shot each other another look. They had been out of high school for much longer than Monique, but they didn't remember their own high school experiences being so drama-filled. And syntho – whatever Monique had called it? Definitely none of those while they were still in school.
"So it just ended up turning into this B.F.S."
Paul looked down from a dress he and Steve were holding between them. "B.F.S?" he asked.
"Uh, Big - a big secret. It was a big secret."
"Gotcha."
"Especially when it started getting obvious that Kim and Ron were gonna be together, I just felt like I had no chance. There were even a couple times when I tried to change, when I tried to go after guys instead – like this exchange student we had from Japan, Hirotaka. He was pretty fine, don't get me wrong, and I think I was kinda goin' with the flow when all the other girls were into him too. Then Kim was crushing on him too, and it was this whole big thing. Ugh."
"Boys!" exclaimed Steve, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, that's right. But I couldn't change, and I realized it was stupid to try. For the most part I just totally put the whole relationship thing off until college. Once I got into college, I actually told Kim I was into girls. I felt more open about that, you know? Getting some space away from my parents really changed things. Not that I don't love them, it's just – well, it's not like what Kim's got with her folks."
"You want me to be honest?"
Monique raised an eyebrow at Paul's interjection.
"Maybe it depends on how honest. But go ahead."
"It sounds to me like you have some emotional insecurities coming from your life situation and the relationships that you and Kim and Ron all have with each other. Which is perfectly fine, but those are your insecurities, not Kim's. You're letting your own feelings tell you how Kim feels. But I haven't heard any reason to think you should be worrying about Kim and Ron."
"And if you are worrying," added Steve, "you should share your feelings with her. After all, finally 'fessing up about how you felt was how you got her in the first place, right? Relationships are all about open communication."
"Yeah, try communication when she's on a mission," said Monique, adding a faint hmph! to the end of her statement and folding her arms together for emphasis. "I'd have to kidnap Wade if I wanted her full attention."
"Who's Wade again?"
"Forget about it."
Steve returned his attention to the outfits on the racks. He had already seen a few dresses that would look great on his wife, but he supposed that right now, he and Paul needed to cheer up Monique. Even though that was probably a lost cause. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Monique so flustered about something, and while he knew she had a complicated history with Kim and Ron, he hadn't quite realized how insecure she was about it.
He was getting the impression that she wasn't really listening to their advice so much as venting. But then, sometimes you just needed to vent. Steve was lucky enough to have wrestling as a venting outlet with Paul. It did wonders for his easygoing personality outside the ring.
"How about this one?" Paul asked Monique as he fished a saucy green number out of a clearance rack towards the back of the store where they had drifted in their conversation.
Monique gave the dress a cursory glance and snapped her fingers dismissively. "That's a fashion don't."
"You're the expert."
Steve turned and knocked over a rack of clothing on the sales floor, his considerable girth making it difficult to turn in the small shop without hitting something accidentally. He was in the process of leaning over and righting it again when a shadow fell over him.
"Hey mister!"
Steve looked up to see a boy standing in front of him.
"You're Steel Toe, right? I know 'cause of that huge shoe!"
Steve laughed. "Yes, that's right, I'm Steel Toe. Nice to meet you."
"And that's Pain King?"
Paul nodded and gave the boy a friendly handshake, which the boy had not expected. Judging by the look on the boy's face, Monique hoped that was not his writing hand that Paul was shaking.
"What are the two of you doing together?" the boy asked.
"Well, Paul and I are friends with Monique here, and both of us have a bit of a soft spot for accessorizing, so we thought we'd take a-" Steve looked at the boy's confused expression and realized his horrible mistake. "I mean, uh, Pain King? What the – it's Pain King, right next to me, in disguise! I didn't even know he was nearby!"
Steve pointed at Paul as the veins popped from his neck.
"YOU! I'm gonna DESTROY you in the ring next week! I hope you're ready to get a STEEL TOE to the FACE, punk!"
With that, Steve ran wildly from the shop. He knocked over several clothing racks as he left, to the obvious consternation of the cashier clerk at the front of the store, who watched the new work that had just been created for her. Monique and Paul stared at Steve as he disappeared into the mall's crowds of shoppers. The boy shrugged and walked off to continue his shopping.
"Man, you two are really dedicated," said Monique.
Paul nodded. "Have to stay in character and please the fans," he said. "It's why I always let the match get thrown in Steel Toe's favor. You think he'd ever beat me if we were in a wrestling match that wasn't choreographed?"
"Keep tellin' yourself that, buddy."
Paul chuckled. They would have to look for Steve in the mall later – it usually took him a few minutes to realize the fan who recognized him was gone and he didn't need to keep running. But for now, it was back to looking for good outfits in a feeble attempt to cheer up his angst-filled friend. It was the least Paul could do in return for that great luchador mask she made for his next match.
XX
"So what about you?" asked Ron. "Still trying to get your name in lights?"
Junior found Ron's question puzzling.
"What are these lights you speak of?"
"No, I mean, are you still trying to get famous. With the singing and acting and all that."
"Oh yes. Well, I was trying to begin my singing career for some time, but fame is a fickle mistress, Ron Stoppable. The small people, they just cannot understand my great talent. Or maybe they are jealous," Junior added thoughtfully. "Yes, perhaps both of those things."
Ron nodded as he soaked in the sunlight. The two of them were sitting out on blankets and sunbathing in the courtyard of the Seniors' island lair. Kim was inside with Señor Senior Senior and Bonnie, probably talking about something mission-related, but Ron had insisted on trying out the pool. It was very kind of the Seniors to extend such hospitality to their guests, but then, they were always pleasant supervillains to visit. At least when they weren't strapping Ron to a conveyor belt below a corn dog freezing laser. But hey, everybody made mistakes sometimes.
"You know, I coulda been a rapper if I wanted to," said Ron as he thought about Junior's aspirations. "I was on American Starmaker once."
"I remember," said Junior.
He had in fact seen Ron on the show when it first aired, and his reaction to seeing his teen foe's performance had been a mix of jealousy and grudging admiration. Of course, Ron Stoppable's rapping was no match for his own silky pop stylings, but not everyone could hope to match Junior in creative talent. Some people were just born with it, after all.
"I even wrote a couple songs for Kim. She won a talent show at school with one of them!"
"I was surprised to hear that you and Kim are no longer together."
Ron tipped his sunglasses and looked over at Junior. "How did you hear that? I didn't think we mentioned it since we got here."
"Everyone has heard about that," said Junior dismissively. "It is common knowledge in the villain circles."
"Really?"
"Oh yes. The two of you are famous among supervillains. At least, Kim Possible is famous, and it was surprising to hear that she would go out with a dorky sidekick in the first. No offense," he added quickly when he noticed Ron's frown. "And so the news that the two of you had broken up was passed around as well."
"Hmm. How much do you supervillains types know about our personal lives?"
"You would be surprised. There are magazines devoted to teen heroes such as yourselves around the world. And other vigilantes, people who save the world, anyone of that type. It is a popular topic of interest with the villains."
"Why?"
Junior thought about it. He was not as heavily involved in villainy as his father, but he had seen enough to get an impression of the culture. "It is somewhat like when a normal person is interested in famous criminals, yes? Well, you see, the criminals are interested in reading about the good guys, too. My father, do you know, he attends role playing getaways with some of his supervillain acquaintances?"
"Uh – role playing?"
The term carried a certain vibe that made Ron wonder if he was going to regret asking for more information, but he couldn't resist. "What do they do when they're role playing?"
"They fight each other as they pretend to be good guys. Some of them are just themselves, and some of them will pretend to be the good guys. It is like cops and robbers, you see. Global Justice maybe, some other heroes. I have also seen some of my father's villain acquaintances pretend to be Team Go sometimes. But often you and Kim Possible are popular choices. My father particularly likes to role play as Kim. He has several mission outfits much like hers in his closet. I tell him, father, your stomach is showing, that top clearly does not fit you, but what can I say? He does not listen!"
Ron felt his stomach shudder as the food that the Seniors had given their guests earlier began to churn in protest. He was glad the pool was nearby. Curiosity really did kill the cat.
"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear anything you just said."
Junior shrugged indifferently as he propped himself up on his blanket, reaching for some more suntan lotion to apply to his already glistening muscles. The afternoon was wearing on, and the sun was beginning to go down, but the day still had a little light left to enjoy.
"What about you and Bonnie?" asked Ron. "I guess I totally forgot about you two being together at the end of high school. Seems like that's working out pretty well, huh?"
"I do not know. We are engaged, but we have been for a long time. It is true that I love her, and she seems to be taking more of my father's attention when it comes to the business of the supervillainy. He wants her to follow in his footsteps, which is good, since I do not personally care about the villainy so much. I am an artiste, you see?
"But she is a very bossy woman," he added. Junior looked around before continuing, as if making sure that no one was spying on them. "And sometimes, Ron Stoppable, do not tell her this, but sometimes I am very frightened when we are in bed and I only want to read a magazine or go to sleep, but Bonnie does not listen! She says Junior, I am entitled to-"
"Oh boy!" shouted Ron. "Will you look at the time I guess we should be going in now Kim and I have to finish our mission and look for those cupcakes bye!"
Ron shot up from his towel like it had just turned to lava. He grabbed his personal bottle of suntan lotion and removed his sunglasses, about to head towards the house's patio, when the front door opened and Señor Senior Senior came out with Kim and Bonnie in tow.
"Ron Stoppable," he said. "I have invited you and Kim Possible to stay the night at our humble home. Although you have utterly destroyed my trap room and falsely accused me of thievery, I am still delighted to have the company of my worthy foes after so long an absence."
Ron looked over at Kim questioningly, and she nodded her head to confirm that she wanted them to stay for the night. Ron wasn't sure if she had discovered anything yet, but his best guess was that she wanted a little more time to snoop around the Senior's island. Otherwise, he couldn't imagine why she would want to spend more time than necessary around Bonnie.
"Alright, sure thing dude. Thanks for the invite!"
Senior nodded as he motioned for Ron and his son to accompany him back into the house. Ron folded up his towel and followed everyone inside. While he was watching Senior, he had an image of cargo pants and a midriff-baring mission suit that almost made him retch again. After what Junior had told him, Ron was hoping that if the night had any unpleasant surprises, they would be of the typical supervillain ambush variety.
Please oh please, he thought. No role playing!
XX
Notes - I actually totally forgot about Monique's little competition with Kim over Hirotaka when I was first writing this story. I could have just made her bisexual to some degree and pretty much ignored it, but I thought it might be more interesting to play with Monique's past (canon and non-canon) a little more and give the Hirotaka thing a little spin. Maybe it was believable, maybe not. But I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and thanks to those who are reviewing.