Snippets of Forever:

So Not... A Break in the Cycle.

-x-

"Look, all's I'm saying is, all this Shakespeare stuff would be so much easier to understand if dude just spoke like a normal dude."

Kim had lost count of how many times she already rolled her eyes that evening. And yet, when she looked up from her bed and over to her desk, she couldn't help but smirk at Ron.

"You do realise he's not the one speaking abnormally, right? That's how everyone spoke in the fifteen-hundreds. If you were to have a conversation with him today, he'd probably find you hard to understand, too."

"'Sha, as if. The Rondo can talk the ear off anyone, I'm the bon-diggiest when it comes to a convo."

Kim snorted under her breath, "Yeah, you're a real linguistic aficionado."

"I'm a what?"

Her reply was immediate. And super sarcastic, "A total dork," she laughed, flicking one of her pens across the room at him.

It was early on a regular, old Tuesday evening. The school day had been a fairly laid back one, only now, the two high school seniors were absolutely drowning in English homework. Well, Kim was originally, but William Shakespeare always had been a reasonably easy foe for her to conquer. But, Ron, on the other hand?

With another silent laugh, Kim glanced away from her study notes that were scattered all around her on the bedspread. Her boyfriend was furiously typing away at her computer, sweating on the fact that he still hadn't completed his essay that was due to be submitted to their teacher during first period the next day.

Kim didn't understand how or why Ron continued to surprise her. Surely there had to be something within the blonde boy by now that warned him against leaving all of his homework assignments to the last minute. But still, Kim supposed there was no harm in feeling just a tiny amount of sympathy for her sidekick.

Climbing over the stacks of paper, Kim came to her feet, flicking her red locks over one shoulder. As she took a first step over towards her desk, she hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans with a flirtatious sway in her stride.

She swore that Ron hadn't even stopped typing to look up at her. And yet, without any word of warning, he suddenly thrust one hand forward, halting Kim in her tracks.

"Ah, nope, that's far enough," Ron spat, "One step closer and you'll be inside my anti-Kim zone."

Taken completely aback, Kim felt her jaw drop open, "Um, one more time?"

"It's the imaginary bubble I've formed around myself for maximum schoolage," he explained, slightly exasperated as he swiveled around in his chair, "This essay isn't going to finish itself, and I can't afford to have any beautilicious distractions."

Her lips were parted for a second longer when a soft pink colour filled Kim's cheeks. For a moment it sounded like the sentence following his original declaration was almost certainly going to be an insult. But of course, in his own obliviously sweet way, Ron somehow managed to turn all that around.

When he swung himself back around to face the computer monitor again, Kim narrowed her green eyes. Challenge accepted.

"So, what exactly would it take to distract you, hm?"

A distinct shiver immediately raced down Ron's spine when he felt Kim brush a dainty hand across his shoulders.

"Kim," he squeaked unconvincingly, "Seriously, if I get another F, it's totally gonna' be on you."

Ron's last words had barely left his mouth when they were quickly replaced with a surprised 'eep' as the gorgeous redhead forced herself into her boyfriend's lap.

"F as in, fudge? Your fave flavour of lip gloss?"

"KP!" he tried to argue, darting away from her attempted kiss and shooting back to his feet. Kim had just managed to catch her own balance when she laughed and gently reached for Ron's hand.

That adorable laugh of her was always his undoing, Ron thought to himself. The teenager was mere seconds away from finally caving, when the young couple suddenly jumped at the sound of a voice booming up the stairs.

"Kimmie-Cub! Your mother says dinner will be ready in ten!"

Now, to the ordinary onlooker, the fact that Ron was upstairs, in Kim's room, alone, may have been a cause for concern. But after all, James Possible was merely a humble father, not a total tyrant. It was still rather early, and besides, his daughter's technical lack of a bedroom door was all the added security the doctor needed.

Oh, yes - Ann may have been hesitant when they first allowed Kim to move upstairs into the loft once she turned thirteen - but not James. Not for a second. The ever so protective James Timothy Possible had made that particular decision with total and complete foresight.

"Thanks, Dad, we'll be down in a sec!"

When Ron's heart rate finally slowed, he gulped, looking to his girlfriend, "It's like he just knows," he joked lamely, "Is your dad a rocket scientist, or a wizard?"

Kim raised an eyebrow at him, "Those two things are so not related."

"A mind reader?"

"Ron - "

While she was sure the back and forth between them could go on forever, both Kim and Ron were abruptly cut off by a chiming sound pinging out loud from the computer. Rufus popped his head up with some curious tittering from where he had been lying on Kim's desk.

The teen hero frowned skeptically, "Are you sure your impending F will be my fault if you're the one wasting all your time on online message boards?"

"The online school message board."

"Didn't spend enough time blabbing to Felix in class today?"

"Uh, I'll have you know I was only posting to see if anyone had any advice on the Shakespeare essay thingy, thank you very much," he defended himself smugly, clicking open the new message, "See, it's just a response... to - oh."

When he trailed off so sharply, Kim peered over Ron's shoulder, "What is it?"

The flicker of anger crossed her just as quickly as the sudden realisation did.

A new message had certainly been posted to the very public online forum for Kim and Ron's entire senior class. Only, it wasn't even a real message. It was a caption. Attached to one very unflattering photo.

'Is it too soon to start voting for cutest couple in the yearbook? Here's an early nomination! Ha!'

Bonnie, Kim cursed inwardly.

It had been a few days now since the disastrous events of Ron's mutant level Bueno Nacho diet. While the teenage boy was finally knuckling down in health class and trying to put his destructive rampage behind him, it was clear that people like Bonnie were not willing to let the photographic evidence of his former self slide so easily.

Kim's fist curled into a tight ball with all the subtlety she could muster. The picture of Ron at his heaviest with a burger in each hand and his very embarrassed looking girlfriend standing by his side made them both shudder. As she gulped back all her initial frustrations, Kim calmly reached for the mouse and clicked away from the photo.

"Nice to see she doesn't have any better way to spend her evenings," Kim sniped with a roll of her eyes, "She's also clearly forgotten who the head of the yearbook committee is."

Ron had been frozen at first, trying to ignore the number of comments quickly appearing under the photo of him. But when he felt Kim's hand float back down to land on his shoulder, he snapped out of it, smiling up at her.

"Just ignore her. And we so don't have to put any pic in the yearbook you don't want in there."

Rufus offered his own squeaks of support when he patted Ron's hand. He stuck his tiny, pink tongue out at the computer - obviously directed at Bonnie - and eagerly ran along the scrolling wheel of the mouse to roll the web page down. But in that moment, Ron wasn't exactly paying his usual amount of attention to all of Rufus' antics.

Something that Kim had said made Ron skid into a stunned silence. He licked his bottom lip, sort of confused when he raised his voice to speak.

"That I don't want in there?" he asked, "Why the heck would you want that photo in there?"

For the first second or two, Kim's expression matched her boyfriend's, "What do you mean? Those were new jeans at the time, why wouldn't I want to show them off?"

The realisation toppled down on him like a tonne of bricks. Ron pictured the photo again in the back of his mind as he stared harder at his girlfriend - his slim, athletic, breathtakingly gorgeous girlfriend. Kim was all of those things, not to mention so much more. And Ron was just... Ron.

Maybe it had been all the extra weight slowing him down, or maybe he had simply been the victim of his own absent nature again. But something Ron hadn't been able to see just a few short days ago was suddenly all too clear to him. It made his chest sting with a sweet kind of ache when he spoke.

"You didn't leave."

His statement hung in the air for a split second before Kim frowned, "I didn't...?" she started, shaking her head, "Well, duh, of course I didn't leave. You were, like, twenty feet tall and seconds away from eating the entire town, I - "

"No, I mean, you didn't break up with me."

The 'B' phrase made her heart skip an unexpectedly harsh beat.

Immediately, Kim was speechless. Her face drained to a pale shade of white as she stuttered over the start of her next word.

"What?"

"I mean, like, right before the mutation. Before I was a literal monster. I gained two hundred and seventy five pounds of fat and about a tonne of bad attitude, and..." Ron explained cautiously. He sighed, "And you didn't leave."

The disbelief in Ron's voice was seriously tugging on Kim's heart strings. She tried to dissect exactly what he was implying, but no matter which way she sliced it, Kim could only arrive at the same conclusion. Ron was suddenly surprised that she didn't dump him... because of all the weight he gained?

The teen hero was thankful for a second to breathe as Rufus broke the silence by scurrying off her desk, down the stairs and out of her room. He never did enjoy being present for any serious conversation between his humans... that, and the amazing aromas of Mrs. Dr. P's home made pasta had just begun to waft up the stairs.

Regardless of the reason behind Rufus' hasty disappearance, it made Kim kind of stiffen when she looked across the empty room at Ron. She repeated everything he had just spoken to her in the back of her mind.

And then, Kim blew out a long sigh.

"I wouldn't give me too much credit," she began slowly, taking a seat on the edge of her bed, "I did warn you that what you were doing wasn't healthy for us."

"But would you have left?"

The immediacy of his retort stabbed at Kim in the stomach.

Her brain was racing as she allowed a dozen or so answers to cycle through her conscience. But Kim wasn't naive to Ron's insecurities. And as she swallowed back a nervous lump in her throat, she knew she needed to be honest with him.

"...Yeah?"

When he slouched down in devastation - like she had just pulled the trigger for real, Kim instantly backtracked.

"But not, like, permanently."

Her clumsy argument wasn't exactly going a long way in calming all of Ron's panic. Kim could tell from the soft water colour that had replaced the usual bright, happy, brown of his eyes. She desperately needed to regather her thoughts. And not just for the sake of making Ron feel better, but to prove to him once and for all that he truly had nothing to worry about.

When she patted the spot on the bed next to her to coax him over, Ron had only the slightest hesitation. His footsteps were weighted, but the second he sat down and felt Kim's hand brush over his knee, he sensed the tightness in his chest deflate.

"There is no way I would ever break up with you forever over something as shallow as the way you look," she started with a gentle promise, "But there's a huge difference in being a hottie and being healthy. And what you were doing was ferociously unhealthy, Ron."

Kim paused then, waiting for what she hoped would be her boyfriend's agreement. She had tried to be as honest as possible, without wanting to hurt Ron's feelings, and his silence was only making her heart sink.

But her raw honesty wasn't exactly the part of Kim's sentence that Ron had chosen to latch onto.

...Did she seriously just call me a hottie?

"Ron?"

"Hm?"

The expression in his voice was as blank as the one in his face. It made the worry lines in Kim's forehead settle a little deeper into her skin as she moved her grip from Ron's knee and reached for his hand.

"I just had this totally bogus feeling that you were starting to eat yourself into some seriously permanent damage. So, I started thinking that if I couldn't talk you out of it... maybe telling you I wanted to go on a break would scare you out of it..." she dared to explain, searching for a hasty defense, "Which is know sounds so incredibly flawed, and I'm sorry, I just - "

"It's okay," Ron interjected, finally finding his voice. The renewed energy in his tone made Kim frown suspiciously at him as he took a tighter squeeze of her hand.

"It's okay, I get it," he repeated, "I mean, I find it hard to believe you're into me most normal days, let alone when I'm the size of - ow!"

The pain that shot up his arm from Kim jabbing him with a playful punch made Ron chuckle. The redhead narrowed her eyes at him teasingly, "No dissing the BF," she warned, "Besides, I'm sure you know what it's like. Attraction grows a little more everyday you spend with someone. Like, right before we started dating, I'll bet you didn't really look at me like... that... either..."

Ron's knowing smirk was growing more and more which each word Kim spoke, until the smugness in his features caused her to trail off. He raised his brow, glancing at her with a look of disbelief in his eye.

"Yeah... I totally get that argument, KP, but it definitely doesn't apply in this example."

The intense blush that filled Kim's cheeks was immediate.

She wondered if there was any merit in the pinch of guilt she could feel eating away at her. Ron had very clearly developed feelings for his best friend long before Kim had ever found the bravery to glance at him in this irresistible new light. But things were so different now. True, Ron could still be an absolute goofball at times, but there was no denying he had found some level of growth and maturity over the last few months.

And that all went hand in hand with Kim's very next point.

When she placed her palm over Ron's heart, she felt the goosebumps explode across his chest.

"But what does apply in this particular example is that attraction starts in here," she emphasised softly, "Seeing how amazing your best friend is on the inside goes a really long way in realising just how cute they are on the outside, too, ya' know."

Her tone was still playful, but her words had never sounded more genuine to Ron. He blew out a long breath that transitioned into a small, blissful smile. And then as he reached his hand up to join with Kim's, he leaned in and kissed her sweetly.

Kim wasn't wrong. Ron really did love the taste of fudge. He could sense the glossy sensation on her lips as they parted for a deeper exchange with a grin as wide as his. She shifted her hand from his chest to his jawline then, tracing the edge with one caressing thumb and almost plucking at his bottom lip between her teeth when she slowly pulled away.

Already, Ron was staring at her. Intensely, and oh-so-adoringly. He might have still wondered from time to time how and why Kim liked him so much, but there was certainly no doubt that she just did - it was as simple as that. And when his mouth quivered happily and he parted his lips to speak, Ron only hesitated for a second.

Until (naturally) the two of them were abruptly interrupted.

"Kids! Dinner's ready!"

The sound of Ann's calls drifting up the stairs snapped Ron out of his trance. His heart skipped a shallow beat of realisation as he watched Kim grimace just slightly at the notion of them being disturbed. He swallowed back his near-words then, flinching with a small smirk when Kim affectionately touched her finger to the end of his nose.

"C'mon, then. Let's go eat, and then straight after dinner, I'll help you finish your essay."

Ron's chest swelled as his face dropped into a thankful pout. She really was too good for him sometimes.

In reality, the thought left him with a sarcastic chuckle under his breath. Kim was truly the girl of his dreams. There was no denying or doubting or questioning that. But with each new day that they spent together, the more Ron was finally starting to believe that maybe he was something similar to Kim, too.

She liked him for exactly who he was. And Ron was never going to take that for granted again.

"So, we're good?" Kim asked quickly, swaying into him with a flirtatious nudge when they came to their feet.

Ron could only smile. Kim had no idea just how good.

"Your mom made some vegetables to go with dinner, right?"

The single, surprised laugh that sprung from the back of her throat made Ron echo all the same emotion as Kim shook her head at him. She reached back for his hand, taking it in hers and leading him down the stairs behind her.

She squeezed devotedly.

"You can even have two servings, Mr. Health-Conscious."

hello hello, it's me, with your semi-regular dose of cuteness! :)

This was a scene I was actually looking forward to exploring for a while. I always found it super sweet that Kim never seemed to look at Ron any differently when he chose to experiment with his diet so severely... until he made all those snarky comments in Bueno Nacho at poor Joshhhh! haha.

Also! Side note I was keen for opinions on - I know I flagged waaay at the very start that I'm not much of an action writer. But I'm feeling like I may not be doing the show justice if I don't pop in a little butt kicking here and there? Unless you're all genuinely just here for the mushy, romantic, (smutty ;)) stuff?

I'm happy either way. Just wanting to keep the people entertained.. :)

Any other thoughts and reviews are greatly appreciated as always!

Hope everyone is keeping safe. Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyy x