A/N OK I'm back, good to be back. Whenever I start writing out this story I'm surprised you folk still like it.
A few details I'm going to throw out.
Revisionist History: Kim and Ron are home for Spring Break, initially it appeared they would be home for a weekend. But a few days needed to pass in Middleton for what will be obvious reasons once your read them.
A few changes in the Cynthia plot-line coming. This will be prominently addressed in the next chapter. But just as a head's up I've changed some things in the first chapter.
This is actually maybe about a half of a larger chapter, but I decided that I might as well fire off what I had available. I am currently working on the next chapter, so that should be posted very soon. It's my next update for sure.
About A Ron is probably pound for pound my most liked story on this site. The thing about that is I snipped numerous plot lines from that story for the sake of getting to the ending quicker. I could easily do that with this story. I've thought about it, but I've decided not to. Of course this will extend the story, but for good reasons. There are a number of issues that need to be worked out. And I think it will be a better story overall. Additionally some of the plot lines from this chapter on, will seem similar to certain plot lines in About A Ron. Outcomes will be different of course.
I haven't forgotten about any of the characters (I.E Ken) they will all have critical roles to play in the future.
Excuse the song-fic-nes in this chapter. It's an obvious plot device XD and since you're reading this story, you probably enjoy cliches.
"You've come to the right place."
Tim cleared his throat dramatically, though it was barely heard over the noise of Jim typing furiously over a keyboard. Jim basked in the glow of the notebook screen as Tim walked by and patted him on the shoulder.
"We've been thinking about starting a P. I. business for awhile now."
Kim eyed Tim skeptically. "Since when?"
"Since we saw 'The Big Sleep' last night with dad."
"Great movie" Jim stated as he continued typing.
"Excellent movie," Tim reiterated. "Inspirational."
Massaging the base of her forehead with her thumb and forefinger Kim inhaled and exhaled loudly. "Never, ever, ever, ask the tweebs for help."
Tim opened his arms out wide. "What? We guarantee success. We'll find Ron's former flame in no time."
"Wait" Kim muttered. "What does this have to do with Ron?"
Tim rolled his eyes. "Come on ma'am. We know this about the blond man; obviously you hired us to find his ex."
"Whoa, whoa, we're broaching upon a misunderstanding. She wasn't his girlfriend, she was his friend" Kim revealed.
"Judging by your hinky play, it's safe to assume he had strong feelings for this dame right?" Tim remarked.
Kim shook her head, "we don't need to be assuming anything."
"Horse-feathers!" Jim blurted out without taking his eyes from the notebook. "It seems to me Big Cheese, that we've got an obvious case of a pushover stuck on some chippy, who took him for a ride."
Kim's eyes went from Jim to Tim, "Big, cheese?"
Tim checked his watch; "I'm the head P. I. for the next fifteen minutes. Then he'll be the Big Cheese. Either way we're the best gumshoes in the business."
"Clearly I have made a tremendous error," Kim sighed.
"Don't worry." Tim said reassuringly. "We've seen this a million times. Your daisy rube of a friend got a bum steer by some flimflam chick. You want revenge, get her behind the eight ball, play her some of that chin music, cool her out and get her counting the lights."
Kim rose off her bed. "Alright, well it's about time I say good night to you both. I'm sure you guys are familiar with the exit."
Tim made a move to stop her, "Wait, wait, wait. We can't possibly stop now."
"Why not?"
"It was your idea!"
"Wrong, it was my mistake," Kim countered.
A mistake yes, but it was an honest one. It wasn't long after Ron had dropped her off at her door that a jittering and buzzing swarm of "Cynthia" had descended upon the once tranquil field of her curiosity. Ron obviously did not want to broach the subject and a true friend would respect that wish. Even though she considered herself a very good friend of his, within the span of two hours after her conversation with Ron, the "Cynthia" grew aggressive; they buzzed and buzzed until Kim had gone mad. Mad enough, irrational enough, to seek the help of her brothers. Worst of all it wasn't as if she couldn't have done the search herself, however she was well aware that the twins could get it done much, much faster than she could.
"We'll stop the hard-boiled talk, I promise." Tim pleaded
"That's the good news guys; you can do your Sam Splade and Tracer Bullet act to your heart's content. In your room."
"First of all sis, its Sam Spade not Sam Splade---"
"Strange, I don't see anyone heading for the door" Kim interjected with her hand gesturing in that direction.
"---Secondly," Tim continued. He pointed to himself and his brother. "We're all interested in the same thing here. How can any of us sleep not knowing the fate of the Daisy Buchanan to Ron's Gatsby."
Wordlessly Kim scrutinized her brother with her eyes.
Tim lowered his gaze. "I uh, was doing an English assignment on the Great Gatsby before this entire situation started."
"Puuuuulease, he loves that book. He's read it like a billion times."
Tim Possible turned quickly towards his brother. "Only for assignments… Jim."
"Only a guilty person would have the nerve to lie to their twin," Jim remarked without averting his gaze from the notebook.
Tim turned his attention back to Kim, "Anyway."
"He also likes Jane Eyre," Jim blurted out said quickly.
Tim once again cleared his throat loudly. "Anyway, before we were rudely interrupted by a big mouth liar, we were about to reach an agreement."
"Actually we were….." Kim paused. It occurred to her that like Ron, the tweebs held puzzle pieces of their own. It was normal for her not to have picked up some of her brother's quirks right? She didn't need to know everything about the tweebs, but did she know enough?
"You like Jane Eyre?" she inquired.
"Like it, he loves it" Jim snorted. "He kept the book under his pillow for like three months."
Kim cooed. "I didn't know you were such a romantic Tim."
Tim's eyes went towards the heavens. "Oh geez, this cannot be happening."
"Y'know Tim if you ever want to talk that about...."
"Whoa," Tim cut her off with the wave his hand. "OK this isn't about me; this is about your boyfriend's EX."
"Excuse me?" Kim sputtered. "Didn't we have a conversation earlier about assuming things?"
Pleased that he had managed to get the spotlight off himself, Tim let out a sigh of relief. "The cat's out of the bag sis. We can work alone and deal with the situation as we see fit. Or alternatively dear sister, we can work under your supervision."
"Under my supervision?" Kim repeated.
"Totally."
Kim met her brother's gaze. "Whatever info we find you'll keep it a secret?"
"Who are we going to tell?" Tim asked.
She continued to stare him down.
"How about this, we'll keep anything we find to our selves… Until you tell Ron you went behind his back to search for this girl. Then its public knowledge."
The stare down continued.
"I really shouldn't be doing this" Kim muttered.
However
"How are you going to find her?" She asked.
"Social networks duh, everyone under thirty years old is on the SN grid," Jim answered.
"I knew that, but what if she changed her name, if she had gotten married?"
"That's why we had you sketch from memory what you saw in her picture. We'll scan the sketch into our computer and run it through the facial recognition software we developed."
Kim placed a single hand up in the air. "You have facial recognition software....why?"
"Well we got grounded for a week last year, and we had some free time on our hands yadda yadda. We also created a robotic leg for the pet hamster of a friend of mine."
Kim shook her head, she had almost forgotten how annoyingly brilliant her brothers were. "Listen I appreciate the help...sort of. But I'm starting to have ethical misgivings about this whole thing."
"Who is it going to hurt sis?"
"How about Ron? Just by telling you guys I've betrayed Ron's confidence, searching for her makes it even worse. No, we need to shut this thing down."
"Found her!" Jim shouted.
Km and Tim exchanged glances. The timing of the discovery seemed too good.
"Really?" they said in unison.
Jim gave his brother and sister a "who is the man" grin of satisfaction. "Cynthia McGannon is one of the patrons of the website 'myLife,' her status bar say she's single, her mood is feisty, she's got some pics to share and uh... hmmmm."
Tim and Kim watched on in confusion as Jim's headed slowly but steadily continued to tilt towards the right until it rested at a seemingly uncomfortable forty-five degree tangent from his shoulders.
"Are you sure it's her?" Tim asked.
Jim remained silent. He stared at the computer wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
Tim looked over at Kim and shrugged. "Jim?" he said when he turned back to his brother.
Jim drew in a sharp intake of air; it was eerily similar to a person just breaching the surface of water before running out of oxygen. After a few more clicks of the mouse he looked up at his brother.
"Well I can safely say I am in love," Jim said a moment later. "Or something very close."
"What?" Kim and Tim said in unison.
"Timothy, please join me for a second. This is a Code Orange alert." Jim said his face a mask of seriousness.
"Timothy?" Kim turned to Tim only to see his departing shadow on the wall. She turned back and found Tim hovering over his brother's shoulder.
Jim began to whisper to his brother as he clicked loudly on the mouse. "See this folder is tagged---I thought it was a joke right but---"
Tim gulped loudly in return. "Now she's dressed as Eowyn of Rohan."
Who? Kim thought to herself.
"Click on the next pic!" Tim said impatiently.
She was interrupted when the tweebs gasped at the same time. "Slave Leia!" they said simultaneously.
"Hey you know what I wouldn't mind? Someone cluing me in."
She watched as Tim begrudgingly pulled his face from the light of the screen.
Tim formed a pyramid with his fingers and placed under his chin. He sighed with the professionalism of a doctor about to tell a patient some bad news.
"Uh OK, Eowyn of Rohan is an awesome babe from Lord of the Rings. Slave Leia, well even the tightest square such as yourself knows is obviously from Star Wars."
Right eyebrow arched Kim shrugged. "So.....?"
"First of all we don't know anything decisive yet. If anything, she might have lost a bet or something."
"Here's her favorites list: Book, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Movie, 'Fearless Ferret and Sparrow.'"
Tim's eyes narrowed suspiciously at his brother. "But that movie was an epic failure. It's universally accepted as a natural disaster."
"I was shocked at first, but then I noticed the 'LOL' in addition to the colon, half parenthesis, combination she put right after the title. It was ironic Tim, wonderfully, deliciously ironic."
Tim wiped at a gleam of sweat from the top of his upper lip with his finger before turning to his sister. "OK it's not confirmed but it looks like she might be a 'Nessie'."
"A what?" Kim said with obvious exasperation.
"A 'Nessie' is what those in the 'geekdom' often refer to as a really, really, hot geeky girl. Most guys have never seen one in real life, but there are dozens of blurry pictures of alleged 'Nessies' all over the net. Most of them are fake, but some of us like to believe they actually exist."
Speechlessly Kim stared at her brother for a beat or two. "Oh, as in the Loch Ness Monster, I get it. But um..." she chuckled.
"I know you guys are teenagers and all but let's not get worked up over a few pictures."
Fingers interlocked Tim sighed. "Here's the thing... No offense, but she's way, way, way hotter than you."
Kim crossed her arms over her chest. "Excuse me?"
"As much as it hurts me to say this as your brother, objectively speaking your girl next door, all American traditional beauty and charm have its appeal. But this is...this is a different beast altogether."
Kim nodded to herself. "Yep, this is exactly how I expected my night to go, me standing in my room, irritated and stunned as my little brother comments on my looks. It must be divine retribution of some sort."
"See...uh sis...Plato suggests there is a mathematical basis for beauty...a balanced relation between sections in which heavenly bodies approximate in a greater degree to the sum of all parts."
"The science of love," Jim sighed softly as he stared, mesmerized by the screen.
Kim shook her head. "Oh good grief, you can't be in love, she's just a picture on the screen."
Jim closed his eyes and smiled brightly, "ah first love."
"Oh come on!" Kim exclaimed.
Getting her brothers to search for her, no telling her brothers anything...at all, was a monumental error on her part. She sincerely regretted that now, but she couldn't turn back time. The least she could have done was to not gaze upon the pictures of Cynthia and further her indiscretion. At least that is what she had decided before her brother's had gone hormonally insane. Their reactions to the pictures had annoyed her to the point where before she fully realized it herself she was peering at an enlarged, high-resolution photograph of Cynthia as "Slave Leia." She was dressed in a cloth skirt with plastic bikini bottoms on front and back. Her chest was covered (barely) with a bikini top held on with elastic cords. Cynthia peered at the camera giving the viewer a sultry look.
"She's not that much better looking..." Kim bit down hard on her bottom lip. "I mean beauty is a subjective thing anyway."
She glanced at her brothers. They stared back at her in silence. Everyone in the room knew she was shoveling manure. In all honestly Cynthia McGannon might have had the most perfect body Kim had ever seen. 5'9 and tanned, a diamond belly button ring glittered in the center of her perfectly toned stomach, the carved contours of her calves and legs artistically complimented her thighs and seemingly firm buttocks. She topped it all off with high cheekbones and a flawless complexion.
Kim wasn't even going to scrutinize the chest area.
"She's this hot and she's a geek, it's impossible, it's like dividing by zero, the universe should be collapsing in on itself." Tim muttered.
"Are you sure this is the same girl? The picture I saw, she had braces, and glasses and what I'm pretty sure was a pimple on her forehead."
"What are we amateurs? We aged the sketch. This is a 99% percent match" Jim said. "Obviously the ugly duckling must have evolved into a far, far superior being of incredible hotness."
Kim glared back at then notebook. She regretted that things had come to this point, but whatever point it was that they had reached, it was leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. The swarm of "Cynthia" had finished nesting on her field of curiosity and was buzzing down upon her last nerve.
OK reality check. She didn't look like this back when Ron knew her right? And looks aren't everything, there's always something to be said about personality, and charm, fresh breath too…...Let us also not forget she was the one who betrayed his trust... just like I did just now... hmmmmm.
"If Ron sees her again, he's going to fall hard," Jim said.
"Most definitely," Tim agreed.
Kim literally tossed them out on their ear. Having been hurled from Kim's room countless times in the past, the tweebs tucked tumbled and rolled clear from immediate danger like professional stunt men. By the time she had slammed her door shut they were instinctively making their way back to their room leaving giggles and chuckles in their wake.
It is time to prioritize.
Kim knew she would be better off working on her term project than cyber stalking someone she didn't know. Her eyes scanned the miscellaneous trophies and awards lined up around the room. Yes, she had more important things to do. Besides, working or studying always kept her mind off of any unpleasant details that she might find herself dwelling on.
As she considered what part of her project she should tackle, the door to her room opened and her father's head peeked through the door.
"Hello Kimmie cub, we're all going to get together later and watch a movie. It'll be just like old times. Now since I know better than to ask the boys, I was wondering if you have any recommendations."
Kim shook her head. "That sounds sweet dad, but I'm going have to pass on that. I've really got to get to work on something for school."
"Oh, but aren't you on vacation?"
"Yeah, but I'm kind of in the working mood. And I do my best work when I am this focused."
"Well alright, I suppose this will be just like old times," James said as he smiled weakly. "Hey if you change your mind, you know where to find us."
With that said James pulled back behind the door and Kim plopped herself onto her bed. She dragged Panderoo into her arms, and let her mind shift into a more serious mode. A moment or so later she lifted her head and glared at the laptop on the end of her bed.
"What am I, in high school?" She said while giving Panderoo a little squeeze. "Her boobs were probably fake anyway."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
She smiles and her face fills the screen. "I think things went well"
"Went well you say?" Ron's voice comes through now as the camera shakes slightly.
The memory is apparently being shown from a fist person viewpoint. Documentary style with a bit of "shaky cam" tossed in.
"Let's see, my parent's embarrassed me, you betrayed my trust, and I think I broke my leg."
"Well when you say it that way... it sounds horrific"
The camera points downwards towards the floor. "Well it sounds horrific...."
"But?" Kim coaxes
Ron's shuffling feet come into camera view. Suddenly the camera lifts upwards and the focus returns to Kim's face. "But it wasn't as horrific as I thought it would be. All things considered in many ways it could have turned out much worse."
"I had fun too." Kim agrees. "That's not to say I don't feel bad about what happened..."
"Well." The camera moves up and down, establishing a shrug on Ron's part. "Well I am expecting a written apology, Times New Roman, twelve font size, double spaced."
Kim glances over her shoulder at the camera as she climbs up the stairs of her front porch. "I'll be sure to get working on that right away."
The camera stops moving at the bottom step of the porch. Ron apparently goes no further.
"Please see that you do, Miss Possible."
Silence.
"Are you sure you're not upset anymore?"
"No." The camera swivels from the left to the right. "And here's why. In the time it took us to get from your house to mine, I've come to the conclusion that your interest in me and my past is the same interest as when a person discovers a strange new late night television show."
"Uh-huh."
The camera aims downwards and focuses on Ron's hands. "See, hear me out, when you watch a TV show for the first time you don't take it to seriously, your thought process is "let me see where this goes." The first episode is a little weird, you don't quite get it but you know it's not like the other shows. So you decide to watch the next episode, and then the next. Eventually you realize you've invested a lot of time in the show, you're wondering if anyone else is watching. You're on the Internet looking for plot points you may have missed. Why did this happen, why did this character say that? You find yourself at school trying to pieces the puzzles of the show together. It's almost the season finale and you still don't know exactly know where the show headed. Is he eventually going to snap and get hauled off to the nuthouse? Is he going to lock himself in his room and live off his parents and eventually his sister? Will he turn it around by winning the lottery, falling in love, and leaving behind a line of descendants who end up being the key to saving the world from a race of warmongering space pirates from beyond Alpha Centauri? Who knows what will happen? But you have to see how it all plays out, because you're certain when the weirdness does finally come to some kind of conclusion, it'll blow away any 'Twilight Zone' craziness, any 'Outer Limits' strangeness or any 'Lost' mysteriousness out of the water."
Kim looks at him inquisitively.
"Or not?" Ron responds quickly. "Maybe you're just a nosy friend?"
"You are....from a land beyond eccentric....no offense."
"None taken."
"However in response to your two theories, I admit maybe it's a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B." Kim declares.
"So then it would be in my best interest to walk away from this friendship right now?"
She smiles, she shrugs, she says. "That is entirely up to you Mister Stoppable."
OK, let's compromise. Since I still can't figure out how to handle myself around you totally. You deal with my occasional weirdness and I'll deal with your occasional demanding-ness?"
Right eyebrow arches, a curious look. "Demanding-ness?"
Ron's open palms come up from the bottom into the camera shot. "OK maybe Demanding-ness is too harsh.....Your insisting-ness?"
"When have I ever insisted?"
"You just insisted a walk you home on a broken leg---"
"OK for the record, your leg is not broken, but more importantly you are the one who insisted on walking me home. It was unnecessary but it was sweet."
"Hey we can play the blame game, who betrayed who's trust, who broke who's leg or we can compromise to save this friendship."
She rolls her eyes. "You forgot to add annoying, it compliments your weirdness."
"Yet, you're smiling." Ron responds.
"Who said my smile had anything to do with you?"
"Well there's only three options; either you were smiling with me, you were smiling at me, or you're plain crazy, because I'm the only thing out here worth smiling about."
"Ah Ron, is that some of your ego I see peeking through? I could have been smiling about something I remembered. Something that just came to me out of the blue."
"That's very convenient," Ron adds.
The chuckles and giggling subsides into an awkward silence as both parties run the previous conversation in their head. They do so while wondering if it had sounded as surprisingly flirtatious to the other party as it had to them.
"So good, our relationship has evolved." Kim stated. "We've gone from good friends to great friends, with the potential to go further."
The camera zooms in for an extreme close-up of her face. "Pardon?"
Her eyes dart back and forth. "I mean go further as a friendship. Like from great friends to close friends, it has that kind of potential, ahem, which is always good... you know what I'm saying."
The camera pulls back. "Of course... I know what you're saying."
Awkward silence part deux. Someone coughs.
The camera pans away from Kim's face into the street as Ron seemingly averts his gaze. "So I'm going to go. We'll hang tomorrow... If that works for you."
"Yeah tomorrow's good. We're going to hang in the afternoon right?" she says quickly.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan." he responds quickly.
"OK... I'll call you..." she says.
"I'll call you," he says.
"We'll call each other, that's what friends do."
"Makes perfect sense to me. Good night."
"Good night."
The camera begins to shake as Ron starts quickly down the street.
"Oh wait Ron, hold on."
"Huh?" The camera turns back to the Possible residence.
Kim is still on the porch. She opens her mouth to speak. "Are you going to wake up now big bro?"
"Huh?"
"BIG BROOOOOOOOOOO…"
Ron's eyes flickered opened and he was quickly greeted by the teeth, tongue and gums of his less than quiet little sister.
"…OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
He clamped his hand over Hannah's mouth. "So you haven't simply broken your vow of silence, you've shattered it."
Hannah took the opportunity to leap onto her prone brother's body.
"Are you awake now?"
"Obviously."
"Good." Hannah squeaked. "It's almost time for breakfast."
"Now Han, didn't we talk about little sister not messing up big brother's dream time?"
Hannah placed both her hands against her face. "Sorry, I forgot."
Ron reached over and softly pinched her cheek. "Don't worry about it."
She peeked through the cracks between her fingers. "Was it a good dream?"
"Yes it was."
"A kiss dream?"
Placing his knuckles against her head, Ron expertly executed a firm but somehow light noogie upon his sister. "You are way, way... waaaaaaaaay too young to know about kiss dreams."
Squeaking loudly Hannah rolled off of her brother to avoid the noogie's burn.
"Anyway it was a memory not a dream so it never got to that point...."
Puzzled Hannah stared at her brother.
"And it never would have gotten to that point. Because we're friends....in the dream and in real life... So..."
She continued to stare blankly at her brother.
"My point is, even if it had been a dream, it wouldn't have happened because friends don't have kiss dreams about each other. It would be wrong and a betrayal of dream trust... you understand?"
"No," she said simply.
"Fine, that's all good because you shouldn't know anything about kiss dreams anyway. You're too young."
Hannah considered this for a moment. Before puckering her lips and making kissing noises.
This of course prompted another visit of the tickle monster.
XXXXXXXXX
Yawning loudly Ron wearily shuffled into the kitchen.
"Teach me more stuff?"
He glanced down at his right foot where his sister's arms were currently draped around his ankle. Like a boat and its anchor he had been dragging her around for a few minutes now. She made it obvious that she had little to no regard for the cute new star embodied pajamas their mother had recently purchased. Mrs. Stoppable would be sore but Ron had calculated it would take less energy for him to drag her about for a few minutes than to convince her to get off. Besides she was enjoying it.
"Teach? Han with my history of failures, I'm the last person you should ask for a lesson."
"Teach me or I'll poke you."
"Poke me?" Ron asked nonchalantly as he opened the fridge.
"Five finger poke of death right in the big toe" Hannah said forcefully.
Ron tsk-tsked as he snatched a carton of orange juice from the refrigerator. "Han, what did we learn from the Nineteen Seventy Two classic Punch of Fury?"
Hannah held out a fist as Ron dragged her to the kitchen table. "How to punch?"
"Bzzzzz wrong young one. Remember how Sensei Suzaki of the Snake Clan wanted the secret scrolls of the Eagle clan. Now instead of asking Master Yujaing of the Eagle Clan Suzaki politely to learn the secrets, Suzaki decided to 'poke' Yujaing with the powerful 'Snake Fist' technique until the secrets were revealed. And as we both know, Yujiang decided to die honorably instead of betraying his school and his ancestors."
Hannah bowed her head slightly. "A noble warrior."
"Han, you should never hurt someone to get them to do what you want, that makes you a bad guy. You'll have to wear black clothes all the time, stroke your beard constantly and you'll never be able to laugh normally without having to throw your head back towards the ceiling. No one will like you either, oh they might fear you, but you'll be the last person they invite to Christmas parties. Oh and another thing is, if you go around poking people, someone might poke you back. Remember Chen Wei the best student of the Eagle clan school? To avenge his master and his school, Chen Wei poked all the greedy bad guys in the Snake School. Then he faced off against the last boss Suzaki, in Snake Fist Vs Eagle Claw. At first they were evenly matched but Wei eventually defeated the evil Suzaki and you know why?"
Hannah shook her head but continued giving attention that would be best described as rapt.
"It wasn't because of the speed and strength of the poke, but the heart behind the poke. The techniques of the Eagle clan are powered by the heart. Only those of pure heart could master the 'Eagle Claw'. Suzaki was cold, greedy and evil and thus his techniques were defeated. Remember the last words of Master Yujiang 'a cold heart backing a hard fist makes for a weak soul. A strong soul is a hard fist backed by a pure and warm heart.'"
Hannah appeared to reflect on this for a moment before looking up expectantly at her brother. "Teach me the Eagle Claw please?"
Ron poured himself a cup of orange juice. "Why do you think I know that move?"
"Pure heart, strong soul... Eagle Claw?"
Ron paused briefly, before reaching down and hugging the top half of his sister. "Thank you lil' sis but you may be overestimating your brother's uh--everything. My soul isn't any stronger than the next gu…"
He pulled back from the hug and saw Hannah staring at him with a bright smile upon her face.
"Well yeah, you do need a warm heart to master the Eagle Claw, but you also need lots and lots of training to learn how to do it. Remember Chen Wei had to train in the mountains since he was a little boy. I never had the right training."
"Oh."
Ron ran his hand through Hannah's hair. "You know little grasshopper, sometimes I wonder if my influences on your are too influential."
"What?" Hannah said with childish befuddlement.
Wordlessly Ron pulled her into another embrace, and Hannah gave him an extra hard squeeze.
"Always breaking down my walls....I guess you two girls have something very annoying in common."
"Awwwww, Kodak moment!" Mrs. Stoppable cooed. A grocery bag in each hand she strolled proudly in the room and embraced both her children. "It's so great watching my two cuties getting along so well. I should my camera with me at all times."
"Mom, I haven't been cute since I was seventeen."
Mrs. Stoppable placed her grocery bags on their kitchen table and grinned broadly at Ron. "You'll never guess who I met at the grocery store."
"Yo Dude!"
A pleasantly surprised Ron looked on as Felix entered the kitchen. "Felix! Wow that egghead school of yours actually lets the students have vacations?"
Felix grinned. "M. I. Tech does offer vacations, if you ask very, very nicely."
"I ran into Felix at the store," Mrs. Stoppable announced.
"Got home last night and surprised me my mom. I mean really surprised her; she had to go to bed extra early and get up for an important meeting. This unfortunately meant no breakfast in the morning. So I went out for groceries and bumped into your mom."
"I told Felix you were home and invited him over for breakfast."
Ron walked over to Felix and patted him on the back. "Dude If I had known you would actually venture beyond the safety of your campus I would have made plans."
"Don't worry about, it wasn't really a planned thing. But I am here now, we can still hang."
"Yeah," Ron said as he nodded to himself.
This was indeed a pleasant surprise. It had been a long time since he had spoken to Felix face to face. Of course there had been the occasional more modern form of communication involving emails, texts and messenger services between them. Still there was something quaint about the antiquated notion of talking in person with an old friend.
"So Ron-man, amigo, how have you been?"
"That's totally a loaded question Felix," Ron said with a smirk. "But I can honestly say for the first time in awhile I feel 'OK' ...Literally I feel no more or less than 'OK' in the purest definition of the word.
He paused.
"Now that I have realized this, all the wheels of this wagon should be coming off real soon."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Text flashed by at ninety words per minute along the screen of Kim's laptop. Specialized words, Quotidian words, Latin words and various other forms of legalese poured from her fingertips onto the digital page. Part of Kim's attention centered on the report she was working on, the remaining portion of her attention was tuned to the open webcam window that took up the bottom right corner of the screen. Monique's face featured prominently on the screen.
"And this witch had the nerve to spill soda on my design plans and pretend it was an accident. The plans I had been working all week on!"
"Well she's acting that way because she hates you."
"Oh really? I guess the next thing you're going to tell me is that fresh air is breathable. I know she's hates me Kim, but that's no excuse to act like such a conniving witch."
"You bring out strong passions in people Monique. Clearly she is envious of your immense talent in fashion designing. And as if that's not enough, she's has to compete with your winning attitude, your superior wit, you're indefatigable charm, and your undeniable sex appeal. Obviously she hates you for right reasons."
Monique's grin glowed from the screen. "Kim I know some of what you just said might not be true. But I love that you said it. You should teach a course in cheering people up."
With a quick wink at the screen Kim said, "no big."
"Now with my minor issues out the way let's get to your major one. This email I got last night with the subject header "Oh my God I think this is Ron's ex girlfriend and she might have broken his heart" had a very interesting paragraph "slash" rant and link attached to it."
Kim immediately ceased typing.
"Oh I know this game Kim. You were hoping if you didn't bring it up, it wouldn't get discussed. But this---"
"OK... you have to understand I really, really, shouldn't be talking about this" Kim interrupted. "I already betrayed Ron's trust twi... three times now... I wasn't in the right emotional state last night... So I was a little impulsive with decision making.
"I completely understand. I will say this, the girl from the link you sent me, she is--"
Kim leaned forward in anticipation.
".....Drop dead gorgeous."
"I knooow," Kim whined. "I've never been more annoyed in my life."
"So you're jealous?"
Kim was taken aback. "J-jealous no, why would I be jealous? I'd say I'm more angry than anything."
"You realize that anger can be a form of jealously. Plus you described yourself as being emotional last night. Jealously is also an emotion."
"OK there is a painful skeleton in Ron's closet, that's not a tremendous surprise." Kim said seemingly ignoring Monique's last remark. "This girl may be the source of some apparent pain. And if that is the case, to see that she's turned out so very... UGH... where's the justice y'know?"
"Fundamental tenant of karma girl, it's nowhere near instantaneous."
"Still..." Kim muttered.
"Besides do you even know the full story? Are you even sure they were boyfriend/girlfriend?"
"I assume."
"How long did the relationship last? How old were they exactly?"
"I dunno the exact specifics.......they were preteens I think."
"How did they break up? Why did they break up? Could it have been Ron's fault?"
Kim reflected on the situation for a moment. "No, my gut tells me it wasn't."
"Because?"
Kim shook her head vigorously and resumed typing. "Sorry lost my train of thought. Let's talk about something else,"
"As you wish, how about we talk about me coming down to Middleton? And its potential ramifications upon your life."
"You're coming down? I thought you were going to spend the week looking for a better apartment?"
"I thought so too, then I looked at my bank statements" Monique sighed. "That being said, I am depressed, so I'm coming home. And I am looking forward to painting the old neighborhood red with my very best girl friend tonight."
"As much as I like the sound of that," Kim said. "I've sort of made plans with Ron tonight."
"Then take me with you guys! I need an infusion of fun so, so badly" Monique declared. "Unless of course the third wheel rule in effect" Monique said a beat later with a hint of mischief in her voice.
Kim reached into her pocket and fished out her cell phone. "For the record your implication has been noted and ignored. That said, I don't think Ron would have problem with you tagging along."
"Sounds good, we will be a triple threat. And if things go well, there's a chance I might get you some definite answers about whether 'The Girl' is a problem for Ron or not. I have excellent 'damaged goods' radar."
"No, no, no, any discussion about 'The Girl' is strictly prohibited."
"I also have great 'only wants to be friends'-dar 'Gay'-dar, 'broke'-dar, 'alcoholic'-dar, 'secretly a serial killer'-dar, 'love em and leave em' –dar, 'sugar-holic'-dar, illegal..."
Kim placed her cellphone against her ear. "OK, I get it Monique, you have an impressive array of social radar. However there will be no discussions tonight about 'The Girl.'"
"But what if it comes up in conversation."
"Why would it come up?" Kim exclaimed.
"It might."
"I doubt it."
"We'll see," Monique grinned.
"Don't push it Monique. It's enough that I've filled up a year's worth of my usual quota of guilt in just the last few hours."
"Guilt, jealously---"
"Anger," Kim interrupted. "Not jealously, anger."
"Right anger... directed at another woman... from his past... mixed in with a number of other heavy emotions---"
"You imply?" Kim asked sharply.
"I infer...that you've built quite the interesting relationship with the boy."
Pulling the phone away from her ear far, Kim stared at her computer screen with a look of annoyance upon her face. "To be honest I'm starting to have second thoughts."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ron plopped himself down on his living room couch. "You see Felix I've had a lot of 'me' time. And by 'me' I mean me, Rufus, a bottle of Pepsi and Nickelodeon's TV land programming. In these, well I call them moments of clarity. I've identified many of the problems weighing me down. Heck, even the problems weighing the earth down, the other day I figured out the cause and cure to depression."
"Oh really?" Felix said speculatively. "Been a while since I've heard a new theory. Lay it on me."
Ron placed one finger in the air. "First of all, 'the cause'... Decisions, decisions and decision making are the sources of depression in this world."
"Please elaborate, professor," Felix said.
"See buddy, every decision we make alters our lives. It changes our story. Who you date, who you marry, what school you go to, what you study, who your friends are, who are not your friends. You may do the pros and cons and try and make better decision, but you'll never be able to escape the 'what if' scenario, no matter how good you do or how good your life turns out. Be it good or bad there's always alternative to your story. The possibility of an alternative story is a reminder that the life we are leading is only one of many possible lives and it is the fact that we can't live them all, we can't experience it all, that feeling that we're constantly missing out on something, is what plunges us into sadness."
Felix stared at his friend in stunned silence.
"So what we need to do is clone ourselves and then through some kind of weird but cool psychic link be able to control these clones so that we could share all their experiences. That would be the end of depression. The downside of course would be the total over population of the earth, which would suck."
Felix sighed. "Ron I've long since theorized if you had some form of serious focus you'd be closer to brilliant than you could imagine."
Ron eyes flickered up to Felix. "Sorry, I zoned out did you say something."
"Yeah....I was just saying how interesting your theory was."
"Yeah Kim said the same thing, a few minutes later though she said I was 'endearingly insane' and I reckon that is a compliment."
"Kim huh?" Felix muttered curiously.
Though they communicated infrequently the topic of "Kim" had come up once or twice. Descriptions of the friendship were brief and concise and therefore blatantly obvious that Ron was once again keeping things to himself.
"So you tell her.....stuff....your stuff?"
Ron yawned indifferently. "I tell you my stuff."
"Sometimes…" Felix conceded. "But she's a girl."
"Who is a friend." Ron stopped and appeared to be working things out in his mind. "And because of the platonic nature of the relationship I guess don't have to be ideal..."
"Ideal?"
"Nothing, just thinking out loud," Ron muttered.
It was just about then that Ron felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He plucked it out and gazed down at his caller I.D.
"Speak of the devil."
Felix watched on as Ron placed the phone against his ear.
"Hey," her voice crackled through barely audible. Ron stuck a finger in his ear.
"KP?" he shouted.
"Yeah."
"Hey how are you doing?!"
"Why are you shouting?"
"Because I can't hear you!"
"Well then wouldn't it make more sense if I was the one shouting?"
"Errrr, I guess you're right," Ron sighed and placed his palm against his face.
"Hold on a moment." There was movement on the other line as Kim moved about.
"How's this?"
"Better, thanks."
"Hey, there's been a new development that I want to run by you. Monique's been feeling a little down lately and I'd really like to get her spirits back up. Since you and I were supposed to hang out today I was wondering if you wouldn't mind her joining us?"
"I wouldn't mind, but see the thing is I have an old friend over at my place now..."
"Oh, you can bring your friend along too. It's only fair."
"Right...fair."
Felix was trying his best not to eavesdrop. But it seemed as if Ron had forgotten he was in the room the second he had answered the phone. It was very amusing though it made it hard for him to remain polite. He couldn't help but catch the general gist of the conversation, especially when Ron started casting furtive glances in his direction.
"I hear you, but I don't know if he'd...'
"I love to go!"
Ron stared at Felix. "Yea... yeah that was him. Seems like he's fine with it... OK, we'll meet up at your place."
He hung up, but he continued to stare at Felix.
"What? You think I'm going to embarrass you?" Felix responded.
"Nah," Ron said as he continued to stare. "I have enough time worrying about embarrassing myself."
"So what's with the mean mugging bro?"
"I don't know. I'm conflicted." Ron's eyes narrowed. "You're a smart Felix, maybe too smart, your ambitious, you've got life goals, and with the eye of a heterosexual male, I can safely say you're fairly attractive."
"I'm flattered, but now you can also say I'm fairly uncomfortable."
"You're a good man Felix, may be too good."
Felix threw his hands up in the air. "So what now, you're jealous?"
"No, no, no" Ron said slowly. "I'm not jealous; some other irrational emotion has taken hold of me. I haven't figured out exactly what it is yet."
"Ron, listen to me. We're old friends; I'd take a bullet for you."
"Out of the gun that I'm shooting at you?"
"OK, Ron I'm going to be honest. This sounds a lot like jealously."
"It's not."
"Why not?"
"Because it can't be. Why would I be jealous?" Ron ran his hand beneath his chin. "No I think it's a whatyoucall uh, premonition.... strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune."
"Well it's good to see you've gotten less paranoid since we last spoke face to face."
"Paranoid? No, it's more likely your smarty brain has forgotten the fifth law of thermodynamics, a little thing called Murphy's Law."
"First of all, I can't begin to tell you what was wrong with statement."
Ron suddenly shrugged. "OK, I'm over it."
"Huh?"
"Yeah I don't care if you go out with her. I've got no say in the matter."
Felix's face scrunched up in confusion. "I'm doing what now, with who?"
Ron slammed his fist into his open palm excitedly. "Alright moving on, high school anecdotes! We're high school chums so they're bound to come up. But as they say most of what happens in high school, stays in high school."
"Who says that?"
"Here's what we won't talk about for instance. The dodge-ball incident."
"Which one?"
"Junior year"
Felix winced. "Oh right."
"Next on the banned list, the chess club scandal."
Felix opened his mouth to speak.
"Senior year," Ron said quickly.
Felix nodded in acknowledgment and made a zipping motion over his mouth.
"Oh, and no mention of what happened when I tried out for the team."
"Which team?" Felix sighed.
After a moment's contemplation Ron came to a conclusion.
"All of them."
"KP, when Monique suggested dinner and karaoke...well I was being ironic when I voted for it," Ron whispered.
"Well obviously that message did not come through. Your irony in addition to Monique and Felix's approval equaled an overwhelming majority." Kim whispered back.
Ron ran his hand down the back of his neck. "But come on, karaoke? Monique is cool, she can't possibly think this is that the best Middleton has to offer."
"Actually this is the best Middleton has to offer. There's not really much of a nightlife here compared to Upperton or Go City."
"Well I wouldn't know, if it wasn't for my last GF, most of my night life would have consisted of...um... of um... oh man I'm so anxious I can't even properly self deprecate. I feel my right hand shaking; my right hand is shaking isn't it?"
She looked him up and down. "Actually your left foot is tapping."
"Terrific, now my central nervous system is out of whack." Ron massaged his forehead, "last time I was on stage, I was in high school and I... Kim I'm sorry, but I'm not getting on that stage."
"Ron we're already on the stage."
Ron's head swiveled from left to right as he took in the sight of the audience before him, the stage below him and mini lights above him. It was decent sized room, with a decent sized crowd.
"Oh that explains a lot. How did this happen again?"
"Monique hinted that it would be cute if we did a duet."
"And we accepted because?"
"Because she can be a very persuasive person."
"Well I suppose worst things have happened to me. So how much time do we have left?"
Kim glanced to the side of the stage. "The teleprompter over there says forty five seconds."
"Ugh, that's a life time away. Let's talk about something else in the meantime, it'll get my mind of this recent mistake."
"Are you serious?"
"Rarely am I this serious," Ron replied.
"OK, let's talk about what happened between us last night."
"... You know it might be nice if we mediated in silence."
"I mean there was some awkward silences there."
"...............I wouldn't have called them awkward silences."
"What would you have called them inelegant lulls?"
Ron chuckled as he rolled his eyes. "You reached far for that one KP, but I still dug it."
"Thank you," she said with a smile. "Anyway I believe it can reasonably be said that we probably have reached the point in our relationship where we're feelings things out and testing the boundaries of our friendship."
"Is that what happened?"
"Haven't you ever had a 'feeling out' period in a relationship?"
"Last I checked I was a guy 'up' maybe 'out' not."
"Well it's something that happens, in relationsh-uh-friendships."
"Hmmm, fair enough. I'm glad we worked that out. Now if we could talk our way out of singing or through my fear of public speaking, I'd be solid."
"I thought you said you were good singer?"
"I said I was an adequate singer. Adequate is closer to terrible than excellent."
"It'll be fine... I think."
"Wait you 'think?' How can you reassure me, when you're not sure yourself."
"Well while I am reassuring you, I'm kind of reassuring myself. So you know it's like pumping up a team. It's a duet right? It's a team effort."
Ron turned to face the crowd. "Uh-huh, so is it working?"
Kim did the same. "We're about to find out."
Music began to drift from the side of the stage. It started off low but quickly filled the air around them. A simple melody weaved from the strum of a guitar and rhythmic drumming.
Ron sighed, "I need to work on my usage of irony"
Kim mouthed out the count down from the teleprompter. "3,2,1"
Ron swiftly brought the microphone up to his lips. "Baby let's cruise..."
"-----away from heeeere," Kim sang in turn.
A bit of applause came from the front row. Ron glanced at Kim and she shrugged sheepishly.
"Don't be confused...."
Ron gestured to Kim and she jumped in "---the way is cleaaaaaarrr."
Tentatively they sang in unison. "And if you want it, you got it forever."
A loud whoop came from Felix and Monique in the back of the room. The calculated whoop had the desired effect of a drawing a bit more out of Kim and Ron. Though they weren't consciously aware of it, they stood a little straighter and sang a little louder.
"This is not a one night stand, baby. Sooooo let the music take your mind. Just release and you will find. You're gonna fly away, glad you're goin' my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together. Music is played for love. Cruisin' is made for love, I love it when we're cruisin' together."
There came a steady applause from more of the room. It had different effects on the two singers. Using the applause as fuel, Kim's spirits were enlivened. Ron perturbed that the crowd was actually paying attention, turned to face Kim. Mistaking this act of anxiety as one of showmanship, Kim turned to face Ron.
"Baby tonight....." Ron began.
"---Belongs to us," Kim concluded.
Ron's eyes had continuously transited from a side-glance at the audience, to a hard stare at the top of his microphone until his eyes locked with Kim's. There was a pointed pause as they gazed thoughtfully at each other for a second or two.
"Everything's right......"
"----Do what you must."
"And inch by inch we get closer & closer."
Though neither had initiated the action, the short distance between them began to shorten. Swaying slightly Ron stepped forward as Kim matched his pace.
"To every little part of each other. Oh baby....Sooooooo."
"Let the music take your mind. Just release & you will find. You're gonna fly away, glad you're going my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together. The music is played for love, cruisin' is made for love. I love it when we're cruisin' together."
Kim laughed softly and Ron gave a throaty chuckle in response. He found that the shimmering green light of her steady gaze had an overall calming effect on him. His half smile fueled Kim as much as the applause from the crowd, any lingering doubts that they wouldn't make it through the performance was quickly fading.
"Let the music take your mind. Just release and you will find. You're gonna fly away, glad you're going my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together. The music is played for love, cruisin' is made for love. I love it when we're cruisin' together."
"Cruise with me baby.....Cruuuuuuuuuuuu-ooooooooooooooo-ise."
Kim bit down softly on her bottom lip and (so far so good), Ron licked his lips and nodded discreetly (yeah, let's bring it home) in response.
"Baby let's cruise......"
"--Let's flow, let's glide."
"Ooooh let's open up....."
"---And go insiiiiiiiiiiiiiide."
"If you want it you got it forever. I can just stay there inside you, and love you baby."
"Let the music…."
"---take your miiiiiind."
"Just release…"
"-----And you will fiiiiiiiind."
Moving in tandem they rocked slowly on their feet as the rest of the world seemed to fade away. Shoulders rocking, head swaying they brought into the music.
"You're gonna fly. Yeah, I'm glad you're going my way. I love it, when we're cruisin together. The music is played for love. Cruisin' is made for. I love it, I love it, I love it. You're gonna fly away, yeah, glad you're going my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together."
The music faded as the applause rolled in. Still facing each other Kim and Ron drew in ecstatic breaths as the modest applause washed over them.
Kim grinned as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. "See, we did it. A team effort."
Ron shrugged happily. "Hey it was just singing....in hindsight. It's not like we saved the world or anything. Besides you probably would have done just as fine without me."
She shook her head. "I don't think it would have gone nearly as well if you weren't here."
Ron scoffed. "You have no way of knowing that."
"Well I can't know for certain, but I have a gut feeling about this."
"Your gut doesn't really know...." Ron found that he didn't have the urge to fight. "Well thanks; I uh, hey since your gut believes in me, let it know I have your back if you need me."
Kim pushed a strand of hair from her eyes and smiled brightly at him. "My gut already knows that."
"I uh huh, well." Cutting himself off, Ron simply smirked before letting his gaze drop down to the floor. Through his peripheral he watched as she waved to Monique and Felix, stepped of the stage, and walked back towards their table. Slowly as if recovering haze Ron bowed slightly to the audience and stepped off the stage.
"Girl, you know, during that performance, my 'sexual-chemistry' radar was going off like a smoke alarm at a barbecue---"
Monique's purposefully booming whisper reached his ears when he arrived at their table. Moments later Felix tugged at his sleeve.
"You OK, man?"
"Uh yeah," Ron glanced back at the stage. "I just had a deja vu moment. I shook it off, so it's fine."
"So you're OK?"
"I would hope so," Ron replied a beat or so later. "At least I should be."
A/N Hopefully you enjoyed it. It was part of a larger chapter so it might not feel "whole." This is more of a transitional chapter, things will make more sense with the next chapter which I'm going back to writing right now. The Cynthia issue comes into play and more KimRon goodness. Read and review.