Snippets of Forever:
So Not... Just a Dream.
-x-
When Kim first fluttered her emerald eyes open that morning, the tiniest wrinkle of initial confusion fell into the crease of her brow.
The mattress that lay beneath her didn't feel quite as comfortable as she was used to, and the amount of early morning sunshine she had come to expect from her window seemed to be lacking. But as she eventually came out of her deep sleep and regained complete consciousness, a small slither of a smile slowly crept across Kim's lips.
The familiar scent woven between the threads of the bedspread and the sound of the soft snores echoing from beside her made her chest race as she carefully rolled over from her back to her side. When she spotted Ron peacefully snoozing away on the other side of the bed, Kim's sleepy grin beamed even brighter.
All her memories from the previous evening came flooding back over her like a tidal wave. Everything from she and Ron confessing their deepest feelings, and sharing the deepest of intimacies, and falling into a deep sleep in each others arms sent goosebumps popping up over her skin as the teen hero dared to shuffle closer to her boyfriend.
His signature, red hockey jersey wrapped it's way further around Kim's body as she rolled over in the bed, smirking cheekily at the inverse image of Ron sleeping shirtless beside her. His bottom half was clad with his blue, striped pyjama pants, while the only garment hugging Kim's hips under the oversized shirt was the same pair of lace panties Ron had momentarily slipped off of her the previous evening.
Her thoughts seemed to be cast in a never-ending afterglow as Kim took a gentle hand to Ron's hairline and wisped away a couple of blonde strays. But in the next second, her eyes fell on the Kimmunicator where it was strapped around her left wrist as she abruptly recalled the alarm she had set to wake them that morning. With a quick, quiet press of a button or two, Kim disabled the alarm just before it ticked over to the set time of seven-forty A.M. and focused her attention back on Ron, being careful not to nudge Rufus awake where he was sleeping between them at the foot of the bed.
He looked so peaceful and awfully adorable where he continued to snore away beside her, and while she hated to have to wake him, Kim could also remember the promise she had made her dad about making it home in time for breakfast that morning. And given the leniency James had gracefully shown her and Ron the night before, Kim was not prepared to risk pushing any of her father's buttons quite this soon.
Besides, she was well overdue for a good morning kiss.
"Ron?" she murmured. Her voice turned to a lyrical hum as he started to stir, "Rooon?"
The tiniest grunt reverberated from the back of Ron's throat and his face scrunched up with a frown. Kim tried not to giggle too loudly at all his sweetness as she ran a gentle finger along his freckled cheek and coaxed his eyes open.
"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead."
The genuine bewilderment in his expression was priceless. Ron was used to being woken up by the sounds of his alarm clock blasting in his ear, or his mother shouting up at him from downstairs, or Rufus prodding at him with hungry whines, but never by the softness and love he could sense beside him in that moment.
When his drowsy, brown orbs finally blinked open, Ron was quiet for the first instant. And then, the teenage boy smiled.
"Hey," he spoke simply, "Am I dreaming?"
Kim's cheeks were tinged with pink as she laughed under her breath, "Afraid not."
Ron swallowed, clearing his throat with a shake of his head, "Like I was complaining."
The blush in Kim's cheeks deepened the second Ron dug his arm out from under the blankets and draped it around her shoulders, towing her in towards him. He was so warm and an intense comfort washed over her when she snuggled into his side and rested her head on his bare chest. She wrapped her own arm around his waist and squeezed tightly, blowing out a long breath as she shut her eyes for another second or two and simply revelled in the feeling of being in his arms.
"How'd you sleep?" Ron asked, eventually breaking the comfortable quiet between them.
"The best," Kim replied, still indulging in the distinct smell of his red jersey over her slim frame. She was so going to have to steal another shirt of his to fashion into permanent sleepwear. She glanced up at him then, "You?"
"'Sha, ditto," he answered, pausing to lick his bottom lip, "I mean, eventually. It took a few minutes for me to get any real shut-eye."
"It did? How come?"
Rolling around slightly so he could stare at her, Ron did just that, shooting Kim one very obvious glance, "Ya' know, just thinking about you, and us. And everything that happened last night."
Kim's brow narrowed with a small sense of sudden concern, "Okay... what about it?"
"Well, no, like, nothing bad," Ron backpedalled, instantly reading the tone in Kim's voice, "Mainly whether it all actually happened or if that was just a dream, too."
He laughed at first, but quickly trailed off when Kim cocked an unamused eyebrow.
"But, uh, ya' know - also just, what does it sorta' mean for us now? From here? And for the rest of this year, and when we graduate, and what are we gonna' do if our parents find out, and - "
"Ron," Kim cut him off, finally conceding to a small chuckle, "Come on - I feel like your parents aren't even paying close enough attention to us. And you just let me worry about mine."
"Yeah, but, KP - "
"And besides, if you're seriously asking what this all means for us from here," she began slyly, rotating around in the bed a little to shift her hips towards his, "I would say only good things, right?"
Ron gulped, "Well, yeah. Because, I mean... you're happy about it all, too. Aren't you?"
Kim rolled her eyes. He was such the cutie.
"No duh."
Without sparing another second, Kim hastily leaned over and threw her left leg across Ron's torso as he remained across the mattress flat on his back. His eyes were wide at first, but Ron wasted little time pushing the covers away and taking his hands to his girlfriend's waist as Kim sat up and straddled his hips. His face was flushed at the unexpected contact, but through his surprised blush, Ron was quickly able to mirror the same cheeky grin that Kim was directing towards him.
Her petite frame was swimming below his oversized shirt and as the material began to ride up over her thighs and gather at her naval, Ron temptingly shifted his grasp downwards. His fingers danced across her lower half, caressing the irresistible curves of her backside when she bent down to kiss him.
The action was sweet, and slow, and lazy, and sort of tasted like morning breath, but somehow it was everything that the two of them wanted. Kim cupped one of Ron's freckled cheeks in her hand as she murmured blissfully against his mouth. She adjusted herself slightly on top of him, her eyes closed and not immediately realising when she kicked one foot back and bumped into Rufus.
The sharp impact made their tiny, pink pal grunt out loud as he jumped and his eyes flew open. The sight of his two humans engaged in yet another tummy-turning bout of kissy-face resulted in a gag and a long groan from the back of Rufus' throat as he burrowed himself back under the blankets. But the protest from the naked mole rat wasn't the only thing that suddenly brought Kim and Ron to a halt, and the redhead felt another deep frown fall into her brow as her cell phone started to buzz out loud from where it sat on Ron's nightstand.
Ron's lips left Kim's with a gentle smack and his expression matched her own as he watched her lean over the edge of the bed to grab her phone.
"Who would be calling - "
"I'll give you one guess," Kim interjected sourly, flipping open her phone and holding it to her ear, "Hi, Dad."
"Good morning, Kimmie-Cub," James exclaimed down the phone, sounding suspiciously bright for an early Saturday morning, "I trust you had a good sleep last night?"
Kim adjusted her position on top of Ron again, keeping her legs clamped tightly around his hips. She ran a manicured finger down the middle of his chest, all while maintaining a level of naivety in her response to her father.
"Oh, yeah, I slept like a baby. I was feeling pretty worn out."
The deliberate glimpse in her eye that pierced Ron as she spoke her last two words instantly set his face alight.
Had she meant to say that? Like... that? And on purpose?
Luckily for Ron, whatever subtleties Kim might have been daringly tiptoeing around, James seemed to remain none the wiser.
"Well, I hope you weren't counting on sleeping in, because your mother and I are still expecting you both for -"
"I know, I know," Kim gently cut in, "Family breakfast, we didn't forget. We'll be right over in ten minutes tops, I just need to get changed."
Ron continued to watch on, confused for a second when he could hear some louder rambling from James on the other side of the phone as Kim held it slightly away from her ear with a quiet chuckle.
"Yes, Dad, of course we're getting dressed in separate rooms."
Kim's eyes refused to leave Ron's with every syllable that slyly fell from her lips. And when something a little more sultry graced her glowing expression, Ron sensed his jaw drop open with a noiseless gasp as Kim reached for the hem of his red hockey jersey and she whipped it over her head in one swift movement.
The teenage boy was helpless where his girlfriend kept his hips pinned to the bed by her own. He covered his still parted lips with a timid sort of squeak as Kim's bare chest bounced free from its cotton restraint, looking as perfectly ravishing as she had the night before.
Holy. Crap. Was she trying to get him killed?
Eventually though, Kim simply smirked at him. As her face morphed back from seductive to sweet, she shot Ron a flirtatious wink and finally climbed off from on top of him, coming to her feet. She bent down for her own clothes that were on the floor from much earlier that morning and directed her attention back to the phone call she was yet to properly conclude.
"Yep, we'll be right there... Okay... Yep, see you soon... Bye Dad!"
As she sauntered oh-so-innocently down the stairs from the attic towards his family's second-floor bathroom, Ron shamelessly kept an eye on his girlfriend's half-naked frame, his complexion still as fiery as the auburn colour of her hair. Once she had vanished, though, Ron blinked, snapping himself from the trance Kim had been holding him under.
He took a second to glance sheepishly over at Rufus who was still grumbling to himself before Ron slumped his head back into his pillow with a huffing sigh.
Everything about the last twenty-four hours had been unbelievable. Ron's world had been completely turned upside down, in the best possible way. At some level he had gone from boy to man, from friend to lover, from sidekick to stud.
Okay, he thought to himself, cringing inwardly at that last comparison - maybe he was actually still just as dorky as he had always been, but he knew that didn't matter, to him or his BFGF. All that did matter was that Ron was so in love with Kim. And he felt like the luckiest dude in the world to be with her.
Despite the fact that she was obviously much more willing to push that luck a lot further than he was.
"Oh, she is one hund-o per cent-o gonna' be the death of me..."
It was with an eager hop, skip and a jump that Kim bounced through the back door of her parents' house with Ron closely in tow just ten minutes later. Her mother was busying herself at the stovetop while the tweebs were sitting at the kitchen table, fiddling with some spare mechanical parts that looked an awful lot like the matching remote control cars they had received for their last birthday.
Conspicuous by his absence was James - something that Ron had noticed almost instantly. Ann was the first to glance up at the cheerful sound of her daughter's voice as she closed the door behind she and her boyfriend.
"Good morning!"
A subtle smirk immediately popped up in the corner of Ann's mouth.
"Good morning, Kimmie. Hi, Ron."
Before any other pleasantries could be swapped between them, Jim and Tim were quick to leap in with their own irritating form of interrogation.
"How was your lame, little sleepover, Kim?" Jim jibed at her, looking to Tim to join in.
"Yeah, did you even do any sleeping? Or did you just stay up all night making sick kissy-face at each other?"
Kim rolled her eyes as her brothers spiralled into a series of childish kissing noises, leaving Ron to feign the embarrassed blush from his cheeks. Ann watched the scene unfold for just half a second longer before she cleared her throat, walking over to the breakfast nook where her kids sat.
"Boys, enough. How about your try using your mouths for eating instead of making fun of your sister?"
Once the tall stack of pancakes had been placed between them and their mother was out of earshot again, Jim snorted under his breath, "Makes you wonder what else Kim and Ron have been using their mouths for..."
The accusation, as quiet as it may have been, sliced through Ron's psyche immediately as he whispered in a panic to Kim, "Is this not one of those conversations where we need to spell out a height limit?!"
While Kim had initially been tempted to lunge across the kitchen table and lock her brother in a chokehold, the redhead soon drew in a breath, shaking her head. The twins might have been certifiable geniuses, but at the end of the day, they were still just a pair of immature thirteen year old boys.
"They have no idea what they're even talking about," Kim whispered back, reassuring her boyfriend, "Trust me."
Ron was reluctant, but he tried to force his shoulders to relax into a comfortable slouch when Kim coaxed him down into his seat beside Tim. He kept one suspicious eye on his girlfriend's little brothers as he and Rufus reached for two or three pancakes for themselves and Ron scraped them onto the plate in front of them.
Kim, meanwhile, turned her attention back to her mother, helping Ann load the next round of food onto a second plate with a hearty drizzle of maple syrup. She floated across the tiled floor of the kitchen, her head seemingly lost in the clouds. The joy and serenity of it all was not lost on Ann.
"Well, someone has an extra skip in their step this morning."
Kim skated to a stop in an instant, almost stumbling over her own footing as she glanced back at her mother. The knowing stare behind the sapphire blue of Ann's eyes sent a chill racing up her spine. Maybe she needed to try amping it down just a little bit.
"Oh. Um. Yeah, you know, good sleep last night, and all that."
Convincing, Kim told herself, cringing inwardly.
While the teen hero was busy being silently badgered by her mum, the tweebs were keenly focusing their attention back on Ron. The younger boys would probably never admit it out loud, but deep down, they always really did appreciate having Ron in their lives. He had been glued to Kim's side since before the two of them were even born, so he really was like their older brother in a long list of ways.
It wasn't their fault it just also happened to be way too easy to get under his skin and make him squirm.
"We're just messing with ya', Ron," Tim started, nudging the older boy with his elbow.
"Yeah," Jim agreed, "We know there's no way you'd ever permanently trade in video games and wrestling and Bueno Nacho for some dumb girl."
"Especially if that dumb girl is our sister."
As the boys came together in a synchronised 'eww', Ron shot a subtle smirk down at his plate of food, shaking his head. He remembered all too well what it was like to be an oblivious, pre-pubescent boy, but it was certainly safe to say that his new reality when it came to the relationship with his girlfriend was so much better than all the cheesy, beefy, gooey nacos the world could ever offer.
"Yeeaah, no, I'm gonna' plead the fifth on that one," Ron said, brushing off the twins' comments, "Maybe you two will get it when you're, ya' know, a little bit older."
"Mm, I'm not so sure," Kim chimed back in, suddenly re-joining the boys and their conversation, "They'd both have to find real girls willing to date them first."
"'Real' as opposed to what?" Jim sniped.
"Robots," Kim teased, punctuating her insult with a snort. Before the twins could protest too much, she quickly placed the second plate of pancakes in front of them at the table, watching without a single ounce of surprise as they immediately dived in to snatch up more of the fluffy, buttery goodness.
Within half a second, Ron considered doing the same and scooping up a second serving for himself. But Kim's stomach was finally starting to rumble, too, and she knew the only way to stop her boyfriend from attempting to fill the never-ending pit in his gut was to throw herself directly in between he and his food. And in this case, she meant that in the most literal sense.
Kim hesitated for just a moment longer, but after everything that happened between them in the last twelve or so hours, any public display of affection seemed perfectly innocent in comparison.
With a smirk on her lips and a giggle under her breath, Kim squeezed her way onto Ron's seat and gently planted herself in his lap, grabbing at his fork and taking a sufficient bite of his breakfast for herself. Under any other circumstance, the blonde boy would be quick to slap the food out of the mouth of anyone who attempted to infiltrate one of his meals, but this was suddenly becoming a very special sort of circumstance.
Ron held down a squeak brought on by the abrupt contact from his girlfriend. He didn't quite know where to put his hands, or whether he should say anything out loud, or how Kim even expected him to react. But as she shot him a sweet side-eye with a confident, loving smile, Ron soon felt his heart slow to a normal pace in his chest.
He chuckled right back at her and slinked an arm around her waist, holding her tightly for a second. It was just enough to distract her as he snatched his fork back with a shake of his head. It was all so, sickeningly sweet that the young couple could swear both tweebs were on the verge of totally regurgitating their breakfast all together. But before any more groans of disgust could leave them, Ron suddenly jumped and clutched at Kim's leg, startled at the sound of another voice echoing from across the kitchen.
"Ahem?"
James. Ron's eyes widened, and with all the clumsy subtlety he could muster, he gently bumped Kim out of his lap. The redhead was just as surprised as her boyfriend, but held her nerves as she simply shuffled away from him and squeezed down into the seat of the breakfast nook between Ron and Tim.
Kim cleared her throat just as her father had, smiling at him innocently, "Morning, Dad."
James took a step further into the kitchen, returning the gesture from his daughter as he kept a close eye on both she and her boyfriend, "Good morning, Kimmie-Cub. Ronald."
Ron swallowed back a shaky gulp, "Uh, yeah, morning, Mr. Dr. P. And what a beautiful morning it is, almost as beautiful as this bon-diggity breakfast made by the one and only, amazing - oof!"
Ron grunted, grabbing at his ribs at the sharp sensation of Kim's elbow in his side. His eyes found hers and he could immediately read what she was trying to tell him. He was rambling. He needed to stop rambling.
James resisted a snide chuckle, stepping to the side for a moment to kiss Ann good morning before turning back to the two teenagers, "So nice of you both to join us this morning."
"Of course. Right on time, just like you asked," Kim dared to remind him.
"Mm, that you are," James agreed, his brow still just slightly furrowed as he strolled around to the other side of the table. He was about to take his regular place beside Jim, but the boys were quick to stop him, having somehow managed to already scoff down the last of their pancakes.
"Wait, wait, we're done eating," Tim announced.
"Yeah," Jim echoed him, "Can we go play video games now?"
Normally, the request would have been out of the question. Whenever the boys had a Saturday off from their usual soccer games, James enjoyed using weekend breakfasts as a time to catch up with Ann and all their kids as a family. That meant zero interruptions, only to be excused, of course, by any missions that Kim and Ron happened to be called out on. But this weekend, James was on a mission of his own. And it was one that he preferred to leave his sons out of.
"Sure, boys. Just keep the noise down, understand?" he warned them, stepping aside as the twins agreed and bounded off towards the living room. James only smirked, glancing back to Kim and Ron, "Now then, I would love nothing more than hear all about the evening the two of you shared?"
Kim's heart skipped a beat or two. She watched as her dad eventually took his seat opposite her, biting down on her tongue in hesitation for the first moment while Ann placed a full mug of hot coffee in front of her husband.
She squeezed his shoulder, the tone in her voice carrying a sharp warning, "James..."
"What? I'm just making conversation," he argued, his sarcasm leaking through every defensive word he spoke, "What did you eat for dinner? Did you watch anything interesting on T.V.? What time did you go to bed?"
His list of seemingly innocent questions trailed off for a brief moment as James stared back to Kim, his eyes narrowing in her direction, "Did you find anything else to pass the time?"
Kim remained stoic, desperate to not allow any shock or panic to cross her expression. She knew she had been right to suspect just how coolly her dad had accepted her proposition to stay with Ron the night before. But if James really wanted to dance around the topic at hand and play games, then Kim could play just as hard.
"We ordered a pizza. Nothing super interesting, just lame soap opera re-runs. And we fell asleep sometime between eleven and midnight. On the couch, actually. Sitting up. While the T.V. was still on."
The doctor nodded along with each word from his daughter, cocking a challenging eyebrow, "But nothing else to report?"
The only sound Kim could hear over her brain whirling in her head was Ron's heart racing in his chest where he was sitting beside her. She didn't want her boyfriend to stew in the terror that seemed to be slowly creeping over him. It's not like the two of them had done anything wrong. But Kim wasn't sure if she was quite ready to argue that point to her overprotective father without any proper time to prepare.
With a final moment of hesitation, Kim licked her bottom lip and opened her mouth to speak.
But right as she did, the Kimmunicator chimed out loud and broke the silence in the kitchen.
"Phew," Kim sang, her face breaking out in a sarcastic smile at the familiar four tones ringing from her wrist, "Saved by the Wade."
James' expression dropped as he stuttered over the start of a sentence, "N-Now, just wait one second, young lady - !"
"Sorry, Dad, duty calls," Kim responded, reaching for Ron's arm as she did, "C'mon, Ron."
Ron masked his relief with a sheepish sort of smile in Mr. Dr. P's direction before Kim yanked him out of his seat and dragged him into the living room behind her. James could still be heard muttering from the kitchen, but Kim was quick to tune him out as she answered the call from the Kimmunicator and glanced down at the small screen.
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
"Sorry to crash your weekend already, guys," Wade started, "Big trouble out of cell block D."
Ron frowned, "Well, yeah, isn't that the point of a big building to keep all the bad guys locked up in? That they cause trouble in there with each other instead of out here with us?"
"Normally, yes, until they bust out in the middle of the night," Wade countered.
"Someone busted out of prison?" Kim cut back in between the two of them.
"The Fashionistas," the younger boy exclaimed, "They'd been working in the prison's textiles lab but were making plans for months on how to sneak into the laundry down the hall and escape through the clothing chute."
"So, where are they now?"
"They've fled to the Bahamas, with about ten closets' full of stolen clothes and shoes and jewellery on board their plane. Turns out they still had plenty of people doing their dirty work for them on the outside."
"Did they hit any major labels?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so? Monique knows way more about that than me."
"Monique?"
"Yeah, she's been staying close to this story since it broke overnight," Wade confirmed, "Here, I'll patch her through."
With a quick skim over his keyboard and a press of a button, Wade's image soon shrunk to a quarter of the size in the top corner of the screen as Monique's panicked features materialised on Kim's watch.
"Kim! Girl, it's a disaster! This might just be the most important dang mission of your entire life!"
Kim resisted a scoff at the dramatisation from her best girlfriend, "Sure. And have you forgotten when Drakken was just one kiddie meal away from literally taking over the world six months ago?"
"Like that matters! This is a 9-1-1 fashion emergency!" Monique shot right back, "Seriously! Gucky, Lewis Vittol, Chris Dion - "
"Are those all real words?"
"They are real designers that have had their latest collections nabbed by that posse of wannabe Z-grade celebrities!" Monique corrected the teen hero harshly, "We have to do everything we can to get those designs back, girl!"
Kim's eyes widened in realisation at one of Monique's words, "Wait - we?"
"Did I stutter? Heck, yeah, I mean 'we'! No way I'm not tagging along for this mish when they've made it so personal," Monique announced, her volume almost elevating with each syllable, "Wade's already arranged a flight outta' here, right, Wade?"
"U-Uh, yeah, you guys should meet at the Middleton Airbase in the next fifteen minutes. Twenty tops."
"We'll be there, Wade," Kim confirmed, "And, uh, I guess Monique will be, too?"
"Oh, for sure. Your girl is ready to throw down. Monique, out!"
When Monique's side of the Kimmunicator's split screen turned black, Wade was left with a vacant stare as he offered an awkward chuckle, "Good luck, guys. Let me know if you need anything."
And then within one more second, the tiny screen on Kim's wrist switched completely off. She shook her head to herself, turning back to her boyfriend. She frowned at the grimace on Ron's face.
"Wow," he muttered simply, "I have no idea who's scarier right now. Monique, or your dad."
Kim rolled her green eyes in Ron's direction, "Says the guy who was roped into mentoring his boss' billion dollar brat and lived to tell the tale?" she reminded him, the slight level of sarcasm in her voice masking the genuine nature of her words.
She tilted her head then, looking up at him more sweetly as she squeezed his hand, "Hate to cut breakfast short. Run back home and get changed for mission mode, and I'll meet you and Rufus out front in five?"
With a squeak of agreement from Rufus, Ron echoed his little, pink pal's sentiment with a nod of his head, "You got it, KP."
Their touch seemed to linger for a second longer than usual, despite the fact that they both knew they were literally about to be back together and sitting in the front seats of the Sloth in less than five minutes. The logic of the situation didn't matter as much as it once might have. Any time a part - whether it be days, hours or seconds suddenly seemed like far too much for Kim and Ron.
It was a nice feeling, albeit a little intimidating. But the young couple knew they could handle it all, as easily as they could handle the mission they were about to set out on.
In fact, there was only one person in their immediate vicinity who wasn't sure how much more of the unknown he could bring himself to handle. And James could only hold the same close, suspicious eye on his daughter and her boyfriend where he was still peering at them from his place in the kitchen, his pancakes and coffee long forgotten.
Monique sort of gulped under her breath at the lurching sound that came from the cockpit of the driverless plane. Any previous bravado on her part that might have been fuelled by the despicable crime against all of her favourite fashion designers was quickly starting to wane at the prospect of jumping out of the small aircraft.
But when she felt one hand on her shoulder and another reach out the tighten the parachute harness that was strapping the two of them together, Monique looked back at Kim and sighed in relief.
Through all of her insistence on accompanying Team Possible on their latest mission, Monique hadn't exactly stopped to consider how they would make it to the tropical island destination before the Fashionistas could realise they were being tailed. And now she found herself cruising at just over ten thousand feet in a tandem parachute that was connected securely to her best friend's torso.
The young woman cleared her throat, speaking over the engine of the plane, "Uh, I know this isn't the first time I've ever been legit crazy enough to jump out of a plane with you, girl - but, man, it doesn't exactly get any easier!"
"Don't feel bad," Kim immediately responded, "Trust me. You're not the only one who still struggles from time to time."
Right on cue, both girls flinched at the clumsy sounds of Ron hopping around the aircraft as he tried to secure his own parachute. Monique stifled an amused chuckle as Kim simply rolled her eyes, watching on while Rufus attempted to help Ron untangle the rip cord from the loop of his belt.
"Argh," Ron grumbled, clearly annoyed, "Stupid belt! Why do you have to be so impossible to unlatch?"
"Ahem?"
The unimpressed tone from his girlfriend immediately sliced through all of Ron's ramblings as he whipped his neck around to stare at Kim. His features slumped into an apologetic frown when he realised what he had said.
"Heh, sorry. Not what I meant," he muttered just over the roar of the aeroplane engine, "I love the belt, and I love you for getting it for me, that reinforced titanium can sometimes just get a guy in a real jam."
Almost instantly, Monique's eyes lit up and her jaw fell open.
"Girl...!"
Before she even had the chance to respond properly to her BF, Kim grunted out loud as Monique used all her strength to tug the both of them around on the spot where they were still tethered together. Kim felt her head spin, glancing down at Monique with a raised eyebrow.
"Since when did you get so strong?"
"Are you kidding me right now? The blow-back on that major L-bomb just gave me the strength of ten of the buffest goons you've ever fought!"
Kim was silent for the first moment, but when she figured out exactly what Monique had just picked up on, a faint pink colour immediately stained her cheeks. The redhead peered over her shoulder to find Ron already distracted by his parachute predicament again as she refocused her attention on Monique with a whisper and a shy smile.
"Oh. Caught that one, did ya'?"
"Mhm. Ron said he loves you back? When?"
The blush in Kim's expression deepened as she kept her voice low enough that he couldn't hear their conversation from the other side of the plane, "Last night. After school. And you were totally right, for the record - he was just nervous, he wasn't trying to avoid saying it back on purpose."
"See, what did I tell you? That boy's been crazy about you since the second he laid eyes on you in pre-k," Monique encouraged her proudly, "So, is that all you talked about?"
Kim froze, hesitating.
"Um..."
The teen hero was fairly certain that 'talking' wasn't the way she'd choose to describe the actions between she and Ron that had followed their shared confession. But before she had to scramble to find a more apt explanation, the blonde boy in question called out from the other side of the plane again.
"Ah-ha! Okay, we're good, belt and parachute both officially untangled and ready to go!"
"Woo-hoo!" Rufus chirped in delight.
"Oh, oh-h, okay though, buddy... where did we put our helmets..."
"Aw, man..."
Monique snorted with a laugh as she shot a more devious glance back at Kim, "Hopefully you have a little less trouble with his belt and the rest of his clothes when you two are ready to, ya' know... get down to it."
Something in the pit of Kim's abdomen suddenly ached as Monique's words sent her on a time warp back to the intensely beautiful moment that had played out between the four wooden walls of Ron's treehouse.
That was certainly a much more accurate depiction of the events that had unfolded.
"Uh... yeah. About that..."
The admission from the redhead had been near-silent, but even over the rumbling of the jet engine, Monique could hear her best friend loud and clear. She took just one second longer to properly study Kim's sheepish expression.
And then, Monique's own features widened in surprise.
"Kim!"
"Shhh!"
"You're telling me he immediately followed up the l-word with some d-word?!"
"Shush!"
The second command came from between Kim's teeth with a hiss as she snapped her neck around to ensure Ron still wasn't listening in on them. Monique quickly took the hint - after all, it was probably the safest course of action seeing as she was still currently strapped to Kim's front and the teen hero literally had her life in her hands.
But after a bombshell like that, there was no way Monique was going to allow herself to be forced into total silence.
"You two really did it? Together? All the way?" she asked desperately in more of a hushed whisper.
"Yes, yes, and yes - and to any other way you might want to phrase it."
"Girl, I need details!"
"Any chance we can cover those off later? Ya' know - when my boyfriend is not in earshot and when we're not about to literally jump out of a plane?"
"At least give me the footnotes! Last night? At his house?"
Kim sighed. At ten thousand feet in the air, she didn't really have much of an escape route from her friend's hounding of her.
"Yes, last night. Pretty much right after I met him at his place," she lapsed in her explanation for one quick moment, "Well, I guess, technically... in his tree house..."
Monique had to physically bite down on her tongue to stop from screeching out loud again, "Mm-mm, Kim, you are killing me, you - "
All of Monique's demands were suddenly interrupted by a warning bell ringing throughout the cabin of the automated plane. Team Possible were approaching their drop site and needed to prepare to jump - certainly a welcome distraction for Kim who was quickly regretting making herself more of the centre of attention than usual.
"Hey, uh, KP?" Ron called out to his girlfriend, "Yeah, still kinda' spooked from the whole Hong Kong near-death experience thing - any chance you could give me a countdown on the way out?"
Monique simply shook her head. The blonde sidekick had always been a bit of a dork, but it was all apart of his fun-loving essential Ronness. And Kim adored him for it. He always made her laugh and smile and always treated her like a queen - Monique could understand all that.
What Monique couldn't quite understand (through no fault of her own, obviously) was what was it about the two of them physically that had come together so naturally - especially after so many years of strictly platonic friendship.
As she threw the sliding door on the side of the plane open, Kim braced for the gusts of wind that whipped about the cabin as a result. She looked back over her shoulder in an attempt to respond to Ron, but yet another sharp whisper from Monique quickly cut her off.
"Okay, okay, last thing for now - "
Yeah, Kim thought to herself. As if.
" - Just help kill a girl's curiosity... was he, like, good? Give me a rating here!"
Kim was surprised as her mouth dropped open with flustered sort of gasp, "In comparison to what? I don't exactly have any other experience to go off."
The alarm ringing from inside the plane was getting louder, and it continued to muddy all of Kim's thoughts as she shook her head and tried to concentrate.
"I mean, it's not like it seems in T.V. or movies," she went on, subtly keeping one eye on her oblivious boyfriend, "First times aren't exactly text book."
"Yeah, yeah, practice makes perfect, I get all that," Monique dismissed her, "Just give me something?"
Kim huffed out a sigh, slightly aggravated and ready to quite frankly dive head-first out of the small plane without saying another word. But as she felt Ron finally approach from behind her, something inside of her instantly settled with a wave of calm.
Even when he didn't realise it, Ron's mere presence was always enough to stop Kim from spiralling. Everyone knew her for being more level-headed than most, but Kim was well aware that she wouldn't be able to manage even half as well if not for Ron. Even when he was distracted, and panicked, and even the tiniest bit irking, he was still the perfect balance of crazy to her calm.
He was there, and they were together, just like they had been the night before. And as Kim hummed a little longer over Monique's last question, she realised quite quickly that nothing else between them and the walls of the treehouse had truly mattered.
Had they taken enough time?
Had they moved together in all the right ways?
Was it maybe supposed to feel a little better?
None of that was important. Only that it had all been with him. And that was the highest rating Kim could ever give.
As she leaned over towards the open doorway and prepared to jump, the redhead sighed again.
"What's the scale?"
"One to ten?"
Kim smirked.
"Fifty."
The force of the wind on their sudden, plummeting descent smacked Monique in the face almost as harshly as Kim's answer had.
"Whattttt?! Kiiiiiim! - "
In the next second, the two girls were gone, leaving Ron and Rufus to follow after them. Rufus squeaked out loud with a curious tilt of his head. Ron was equally bewildered, thinking back over the last few words he had finally managed to overhear from Kim and Monique as he yelled after his girlfriend.
"...You want me to count down from fifty?!"
By the time they finally arrived back in Middleton much later that night, Kim could barely keep her eyes open.
One whirlwind mission to the Bahamas and back had quickly led to yet another downfall for the Fashionistas. Kim's execution of their latest mission had been flawless, Ron and Rufus had acted as the usual, clumsy distraction, and Monique's expertise in properly identifying every stolen article of clothing was unmatched. But after all the excitement and butt-kicking action, the fearless teen hero was more than ready to hit the hay and turn in for the night.
If only she had the option of going back to sleep in the same bed she had woken up in that morning.
As Kim and Ron each climbed out of the Sloth and closed their doors behind them, the sidekick was quick to circle around the car and meet his girlfriend on the driver's side, smiling sweetly at her. Kim beamed right back just as brightly, leaning up against the glass of the window rather than leading them both up the driveway towards her front door. Ron seemed none the wiser, though, and simply stretched his arms over his head with a yawn as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Man, kinda' can't wait for someone to be smart enough to invent, like, a supersonic plane that can take us cross-continent fast enough so that we don't lose an entire day on these bad dudes," Ron grumbled, petting Rufus' little, pink head as their tiniest team mate snuggled down into his human's pocket, "Or even to the other side of the world and back! Any chance we can get Wade or the tweebs on that?"
Kim smirked at him with a small shake of her head. He was adorable. And she was so not looking forward to sleeping through the night without him.
"Don't get me wrong, it's always so worth to see the bad guys get put away," Kim started, trailing off with the smallest sigh, "I just wish we could've made it back even an hour or two earlier."
"Well, I mean, we still spent the whole day together."
"I know," Kim instantly agreed, stopping to hesitate for a second, "I was sorta' just hoping with your parents still away until tomorrow, we could've found some more... ya' know, alone time."
Ron's face flushed a pale shade of white when all his girlfriend's hinting finally clicked in the back of his mind.
The thought still sent tingles shooting up Ron's spine. And while he totally agreed with Kim - like, really, totally agreed with her - he honestly wasn't sure if he could properly handle the same level of alone time again this soon without faltering at the start line.
But still, that didn't mean he wasn't going to miss having her beside him that night, either.
"Oh. Heh, yeah. But there'll still be other times for that, right?"
Kim teasingly licked her bottom lip, but before she was able to offer any kind of sultry reply, the two teens both jumped at the sound of the Kimmunicator pinging out loud. The sound was different from Wade's usual call, though it was one that Ron still easily recognised. It was an instant message - in fact, it was probably the twentieth instant message Kim had received since Team Possible had dropped their unofficial fifth member back at her house just moments earlier. It made Ron raise a suspicious eyebrow.
"Is that Monique? Again?"
Kim clicked her tongue, not quite willing to offer a real answer, "Mhm."
"Why is she blowing you up so much?"
"No reason."
"But - "
Rather than giving him the opportunity to finish his next question, Kim took one hasty step closer to her boyfriend to press a silencing finger to his lips.
"It's not big. Really. See you tomorrow?"
Ron frowned. He knew that Kim knew exactly what she was doing. She always was the perfect distraction, whether that was on purpose or otherwise, and Ron was the first to admit how powerless he was to her.
But, seriously... who was he to argue when she was standing so close to him?
The little smirk on his face grew wider when she moved her finger away from his lips and replaced them with her own. The kiss was slow, and chaste, and tender, and it made the fine hairs on Kim's arms stand on end when she pulled back and glanced up at him.
"I love you."
Ron's stomach flipped. He was never going to get sick of hearing that. Or saying it, for that matter.
"Love you, too. G'night."
"'Night, Ron."
The distance between them when Ron about-faced to return to his empty house was instantly chilling, but Kim shook off the feeling as she reluctantly headed towards her own front door.
It really was incredible - to finally realise how much she loved him, and to know that he loved her back just as much. They really had spoiled themselves with every second of the evening they had been able to share together the night before. Kim certainly didn't want to have to admit that falling asleep in each others arms every night was not going to be their reality for some time to come, but she supposed she could live with any other exciting encounters they could afford themselves in the meantime.
Of course, that was if her parents were willing to let her and Ron get away with more than they already had.
As Kim closed the front door behind her and started to make her way into the kitchen, she could hear the hushed tones of some rather heated discussion between her parents. The lamp in the living room was dimmed and the tweebs were long in bed. James and Ann were standing under the kitchen light at the counter and they both froze for a moment as they looked up at Kim upon her entry.
"Hey. Sorry - even in one of those pocket-sized jets the flight home was still way too long," she explained, "Everything okay?"
James' brow seemed to be rather deeply furrowed as he uncomfortably folded his arms over his chest. Ann took a beat of silence and licked her bottom lip, but soon looked back to Kim with a gentle smile.
"Everything's fine, honey," she answered, "Why don't you run upstairs and get ready for bed? I'll be up shortly, you can tell me all about the Bahamas and the mission."
Kim wavered in the doorway of the kitchen. Something seemed a little off. She was sure her parents would never be so brash as to brag or lie about having a perfect relationship, but it was true that James and Ann hardly ever did argue. Not that the current atmosphere surrounding them necessarily felt like an argument, but it didn't exactly feel... normal, either.
But, still, after another few seconds, Kim decided not to prod at the situation any further. She slowly backed up towards the staircase with a nod of her head.
"Okay. Good night."
James found his voice then, "'Night, Kimmie-Cub."
"I'll be upstairs soon, sweetie," Ann repeated, watching her daughter vanish into the darkness of the next room.
Once she was sure Kim was gone, the older woman cleared her throat, turning back to her husband with a sigh. Her voice became firm again when she spoke.
"You can't be angry with her, dear. You allowed this to happen, remember?"
James squinted, confused, "Her missions?"
"Her staying with Ron last night."
Oh, right. That.
The reminder rubbed James up in all the wrong ways as he almost continued to pout in his wife's direction. He stumbled over the start of a sentence, but Ann was quick to cut him off.
"She might be getting older, but she'll always be the same girl. She'll always be our girl."
James was suddenly quiet again, mulling over Ann's words. He knew she was right (because when was she not?) - but he had already been struggling with accepting how serious Kim and Ron's relationship seemed before their little sleepover. If he knew the next morning was only going to leave him with more questions and concerns than he already had, he never would've let Kim stay with Ron in the first place.
But still, Ann was right.
"I know."
Ann's eyes grew softer and more sympathetic as she glanced at her husband and waltzed away from her place by the sink to meet him by the kitchen table.
James couldn't be blamed for how he was feeling. Ann knew how much he loved their daughter, and how much he wanted to keep her safe. He might have just needed a fraction more time to understand that being with Ron was the safest place Kim could truly ever be.
"Just try to remember that we should trust her, okay? She'll appreciate you for it," Ann punctuated her last words with a kiss on James' cheek as she reached for his hand, "We have nothing to worry about."
The warmth for his wife's touch was immeasurable. Ann was a million and one amazing things - she was smart, and logical, and caring, and far more rational than James could ever dream to be.
Neither of them really knew for certain just how much the construct of Kim's relationship may have actually changed in the last twenty-four hours. But if Ann had told him not to worry, then that was all James could really force himself to hold onto. At least, for now.
Well, hiiii there :) I'm back!
Hopefully a fresh, new update sitting at a cool ~8k words can make amends for the long absence I've taken since my last chapter. I've been busy, and distracted, and working, and travelling, but it feels so, so good to finally be back with something new for this story. Which I still love, and is still far from over, by the way :)
I really wanted to send out a massive thank you for all the continued love and support I'm receiving on this story, even during my downtime when I'm not posting as much. It means so, so much to me and I really, truly appreciate you all!
This was obviously a little more of another filler chapter (which can be a bit more labour-intensive to write and finish; another reason for being gone so long!) but I'm expecting in my next instalment, we will be returning to a little more action... ;)
Thank you again so, so much for reading!
Till next time,
Reneyyyyyy x
