#ron stoppable
Anyone remembers this?
Call me beep me if ya wanna reach me
Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me
Watch “Kim Possible 20th Anniversary Reunion BRAND NEW SCENE” on YouTube
by airauralintensity (aka me, xyzcekaden!)
His name is Norman Midable. “But you can call me Nor.” A subversion of the guy-at-college-vies-for-Kim’s-attentions plot.
fandom: kim possible (cartoon)
characters: kim possible, ron stoppable, OC (technically), wade monique and rufus in supporting roles
ship: kim/ron, kim/oc
genre: romance, angst, friendship
themes: college au, major original character, cheating, one-sided romance, canon endgame, working through relationship problems, kim has a type
word count: 6.9k
chapter: 2/2
rating: T
read it below, on ffnet, or on ao3!
A/N (11.11.2021): Final part, folks! Many thanks to Molly, Joyce, and Dez for their feedback. I didn’t end up incorporating most of it due to my own laziness BUT if I do, I’ll just upload it in a part 3. It will involve some mild retconning, but that never hurt nobody. There are also some deleted scenes I could include as well; I’ll think about it.
Also, do we feel like the story needs time stamps? Nothing major, just a more obvious indication of time passing and what month each scene takes place in. Joyce thought it might be helpful, but I’ll let y'all decide.
Anyway, hope you enjoy!
~~~
Kim walks into WGSS on Monday morning with a forced calmness.
She and Nor haven’t spoken since CNC on Saturday night, and why would they? They didn’t have a project meeting scheduled, so why would they? Nothing of note happened on Saturday, right? So why would they?
That’s been the monologue running through her brain the past two days, and it unfortunately becomes less and less convincing the more she thinks about it. (She thinks about it a lot.)
That is why when Nor comes down to sit next to her, as he always does, she is surprised.
She feels like she should say something, but why would she? Class is about to start.
Except it isn’t. The professor comes in and announces today’s lecture is cancelled; instead they want the students to use the class time to discuss their final projects or ask the professor any questions.
Kim and Nor, however, sit in silence. She doesn’t even boot up her digitised notebook out of unwillingness for what her movement will spark next. Knowing when and where to keep still has saved her life more times than she can count.
“We’re pretty far along on the project, don’t you think so?”
“What?” Kim snaps her head to look at Nor, but he resolutely stares forward.
“Yeah. Thanks to you constantly on the case, I think we have a lot of research already done. Some of these guys don’t even sound like they’ve picked a topic yet, much more got together outside of class to discuss or do work.”
Kim nods, but she couldn’t say. She honestly has not been paying attention to a single conversation happening around her.
Nor nods, too, but more to himself. “Right, well. Do you mind talking to the prof about it? I’m gonna head back to the dorms. I, uh, I think I need some more sleep.”
He grabs his backpack and makes to leave, and Kim almost does something stupid like reaching out for him to stay. She transforms the aborted hand movement into turning on Wade’s notebook.
“No big,” she forces herself to say.
“Text you later,” Nor bids with a wave, and Kim’s eyes follow him up the stairs and out the door.
She stares at the door for a long time.
~~~
There’s only one person she can talk to about this.
“Well, well, well. Look who finally made time to call her B.F.F.L.”
“Monique.” Kim’s throat is thick with the need to cry. She rushed back to her dorm so she could have this conversation, and she is grateful for the privacy.
Monique drops her faux-affronted attitude immediately. “Oh my god, Kim? What’s wrong?” Kim wishes she could see her. She should ask Wade to make a Moniq-ommunicatior.
“Monique, I messed up.”
She unleashes onto her friend about Nor, about how they met and how he’s weird and even how he met Igor. Mixed in there is some stuff about how she’s doing fine at college but still deeply misses home. She carefully avoids mentioning Ron’s name, and then she mentions last Saturday.
“Girl, you did what?!” Monique seethes into the phone.
She deserves this, she does, but she still maintains, “It was an accident! I didn’t mean to do it! It doesn’t mean anything! I don’t even know how it happened; it was such a blur. I got out of there as soon as possible. We haven’t even talked about it. Today in class, Nor, just…”
“Kim?” Monique asked when Kim was silent for too long.
She knows Monique isn’t going to be happy to hear this, but she needs to talk about it anyway. “He was so different. No jokes, no nonsense. We had a one-minute conversation about the final project, and that’s it. He didn’t even look at me.”
“Did you want him to look at you?”
“I don’t know!” Kim flops backfirst onto her bed. “All I know is I don’t know what to do.”
“Did you tell Ron yet?”
She sits up abruptly. “No! No, I can’t. Why should I? There isn’t even anything between Nor and me; it’ll never happen again; I—”
“Kim.” The tone of Monique’s voice is the exact thing Kim was dreading. “Kim, you know I would do anything for you. Heck, I’ve even followed you on your missions because I will always got your back. You’re my girl… But Ron is my boy. I gotta do right by him, too. If there really wasn’t anything between you and this Nor guy, then you wouldn’t have kissed him. Your friendship wouldn’t be so off right now because you’d both know how little it mattered.”
Kim hates how much sense Monique is making, and she says as much.
“You have to tell Ron,” Monique says, firm yet sympathetic.
Kim scrunches her eyes shut. She has to tell Ron.
~~~
“Last Saturday?! As in four days ago? Why did you wait so long to tell me!?” Ron exclaims into the Ronnunicator.
He’s pacing back and forth in his bedroom, yet even then it is oddly too silent. There should be a mission command set up here with red lights and klaxons blaring. Some military man should be shouting frantically at his subordinates, demanding things like How could you have let this happen?! The pure panic in his heart demands nothing less than chaos.
On screen, Kim shrinks in the way people do when they’re chastised for something that was absolutely their fault. “I was thinking! Yeah, you’re my best friend/boyfriend, but why would I tell you something that will hurt you if I know that it’ll never happen again?”
Ron rolls his eyes. “You think you know,” he mutters to himself.
“What was that?” Kim leans forward on screen as if to hear him better, and he waves his hand in the air to dispel the thought.“
"You know what tanks the most?” he says instead. “I totally knew this was gonna happen, too.”
“But Ron, I’m not leaving you,” Kim tries to argue, her tone begging him to understand.
“Yeah, but KP, you did cheat on me. You kissed another guy even after I told you this is something I was worried about.”
“It was an accident! Seriously, Nor is just a friend; I don’t even think about him like that, and—well, it doesn’t matter. The point is: I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Ron. I made a mistake, I broke your trust, and I want to do whatever it takes to make this right again.”
Ron carries his head in the hand that isn’t holding his Ronnunicator. He’s very tired. He’s heartbroken. He’s inclined to say something he can’t take back.
He forces himself to count to ten before responding. “Listen, KP,” he says resignedly. “I would never tell you who you can and can’t be friends with—I respect you too much for that—but this isn’t like my nightmares after prom about you becoming a synthodrone. Nor has become a real, actual threat to our relationship.”
He sighs, struggling to get the next words out. “I love you, Kim, and I want you to be happy. Preferably with me, but I don’t get to make that decision. You let me know what you want, and I’ll respect it.”
Ron watches her struggle to understand something in silence. Then, in the quietest voice he’s ever heard from her, she says, “Are you breaking up with me?”
He tilts his head back for a second, trying to keep the tears her question caused at bay. He looks back down after a moment and can find no comfort in the heartbreak on Kim’s face.
For her benefit, and maybe a little for his own too, he gives a wan half-smile. “That’s up to you.”
~~~
He says they aren’t broken up, but it sure feels like it to Kim. She was up all night, lachrymose and inconsolable and self-condemning. It felt a lot like being tied to a gigantic cactus in Bueno Nachos headquarters after your prom date who just dumped you turned out to be the son of your biggest nemesis and also a synthodrone—but much, much worse.
She skips WGSS the next day.
She doesn’t attend any of her classes that morning, in fact. She wouldn’t have left her room at all if it weren’t for her growling stomach demanding to be satiated.
She should have ignored her stomach.
“Kimothy,” Nor greets with a scandalised tone as he slides into the chair in front of her at the student union cafe. “Since when were you an academic deviant?”
The single statement causes a rush of emotion through her. Relief and guilt are prominent, but most of all it makes her angry. Why is he acting like nothing has changed now? Why couldn’t he have done that Monday morning when she needed him most to do it? In more ways than one, she wouldn’t be in this situation at all if it weren’t for the stupid boy in front of her.
“Not in the mood, Nor,” Kim brushes off with a frown as she hastily packs up her things. She hasn’t finished her meal yet, but that’s what to-go containers are for.
“Woah, woah, woah. What’s going on? Where are you going?” Nor hastily follows her lead, clearly intending on following her, and she picks up the pace. She turns on her heel and accelerates from zero to fifteen in one step, and Nor abandons his food and his stuff in order to catch up to her before she escapes the student union entirely.
“Kimothy, is everything okay?” he demands as he grabs her shoulder, but she shrugs off the touch immediately.
“That’s not my name!”
He holds his hands up, very reminiscent of their first meeting, and the anger in Kim’s heart switches to guilty affection. The need to cry that has waxed and waned throughout the night surfaces with a vengeance, and she steadfastly looks away so Nor can’t see.
“Kim.” He emphasises the single syllable. “Is everything okay?”
Kim shakes her head adamantly. “I just… I made a mistake, is all.”
Nor looks at her uncertainly. “Is that what this is about? Geez, you really had me worried there. Don’t worry, I actually paid attention in class for once. I don’t have a fancy digital notebook made by genius preteens; but if you give me a day, I can make you a copy of my notes. They’re probably no good, but it’s gotta be better than nothing.”
Without her wanting them to, incredulous laughter spills out of Kim, as do her tears.
“Kim?!” Nor exclaims. He frantically looks around, trying to remember where the nearest bathroom is so he can get her some tissues, but he quickly abandons that idea in favour of moving them both to a nearby bench and gathering the desolate girl in his arms.
Kim wants to resist, she really does. Even as she tries in vain to stem the flow of tears, she wriggles in his hold; but Nor doesn’t budge. She hates how much she’s grateful for it.
This is why Ron can’t trust me anymore. I can find comfort when another guy hugs me, she tries to chastise herself, but it doesn’t work. She needs this right now.
After a few minutes like that, she almost feels like she could say something, but Nor beats her to it. “Was this about us?” he asks softly, but not hesitantly. It’s a question, but he sounds like he already knows the answer.
With that, the arms around her transform from a blanket to a cage, and the tears dry up. Kim firmly pushes him away, and it’s only her weakened emotional state that stops the action from completely compacting Nor’s chest.
“There is no ‘us,’ Nor!” she yells. “I have a boyfriend. At least, I’m lucky if I still do! I love him, and he loves me, and he’s waiting for me to pick him already!”
Nor’s sympathetic face glosses over into something cold and impassive, and his voice follows suit. “Reality check, Kim. If you haven’t picked him yet, that probably means there is an 'us.’”
He stalks off, leaving her on a bench and with the sudden realisation that several other students around her bore witness to their argument. She flushes with latent anger and embarrassment, and she finally escapes from the student union.
~~~
It’s been a week since she’s spoken to Nor. He’s taken to sitting in the back of the lecture hall on the other side of the room now, and she hates how much she misses sitting next to him during class.
It’s been even longer since she’s heard from Ron. She leaves for Thanksgiving Break tomorrow, and she doesn’t even know if Ron would want to see her at all when she goes back. As she haphazardly packs for the long weekend, she feels miserable.
A beep on her Kimmunicator is exactly what she needs right now, but she’s thrown off by the knock on her door at the same time.
She answers the Kimmunicator as she gets up to answer the door, ready to ask the person outside to wait a sec, it could be a save-the-world thing. She is surprised when it’s Ron on the line and Nor outside, a Bueno Nacho bag in hand.
Because Kim answered the door second, Ron gets to hear her surprised “Nor!”
“Nor is there?!” Ron exclaims exasperatedly. “That’s it. I’m coming up!” He hangs up before Kim can really register what he said. She tries to redial, but he doesn’t pick up.
Refusing to dwell on why something isn’t working has saved her life more times than she can count; so with her first course of action summarily thwarted, Kim smoothly switches gears to deal with the secondary emergent situation. “What are you doing here?” she asks Nor, both of them still standing on their respective sides of the open door frame.
“I came bearing a peace offering,” he says as he holds up the Bueno Nacho bag, “but I’m getting the sense that this branch doesn’t have nearly enough olives on it for what’s about to go down.”
“Where did you even get that? The nearest Bueno Nacho is two towns over,” Kim says in awe.
“Oh yeah, but can Bueno Nacho from the middle of nowhere compare to Bueno Nacho from your hometown kept warm in a lunchbox specially invented by our genius friend Wade so that the food is just as toasty as when Ned took it out of the fryolator, hand delivered by your boyfriend?” Ron’s voice calls out with an edge, waving said lunchbox invention in the air.
Kim steps out into the hallway then, needing to verify the rapid change of events. “Ron?!”
He doesn’t respond at first, instead taking the opportunity to size Nor up; and Nor does the same. Kim barely restrains an eye-roll at the typical display of machismo. “Ron, how did you get here?” she tries again.
Ron’s derision melts into something tender when he faces her again, and she can’t believe he’s really here. “We hadn’t talked in like a week, KP,” he says as he reaches for her hand. “Fight or no fight, I can’t spend that long without you. I called in a Favour, and I thought I’d surprise you, but it seems like you don’t really need the company,” he sneered, more in Nor’s direction than hers.
Nor raises his hands in defeat. “Hey, I’m on your team here.”
“The only people on Team Possible are Kim, Rufus, Wade, and me!” Ron interrupts jealously. “Uh-huh, uh-huh! Yeah!” Rufus pipes up from Ron’s pants pocket.
Nor stares at Ron blankly. “I came by to tell Kim that I’m not tryna make her life harder than it already is. She already fights freaks every two weeks; she doesn’t need to fight with her friend and boyfriend on top of that. So… here.” He hands Kim the BN to-go bag and asks. “I’ll see you in class?” At Ron’s steely look still directed at him, he adds, “And only in class.”
Without waiting for Kim’s response, Nor brushes past Ron to escape the awkward atmosphere as quickly as he can.
Once he leaves the building, he stuffs his hands into his pockets. He decides to take the long route back to his dorm.
He doesn’t get why Ron is so threatened. What does a nobody have on the guy who’s won American Starmaker, created the Naco™, and—according to the forums—is apparently the master of some sort of monkey-based superpower which he used to save the world?
Kim wouldn’t pick some scrub who is obsessed with conspiracy theories and got into college on a technicality over a guy like that. He was lucky he managed to become her friend and kiss her even once. She didn’t even turn him down, not really. That’s another win.
No net losses here, Midable. Quit while you’re ahead.
Nor smiles self-deprecatingly to himself. Yeah, it’s better this way.
~~~
They stare after Nor’s retreating back in an awkward silence, and only Rufus’ stomach growling brings their attention back to the situation at hand.
“Come in,” Kim offers shyly.
She shuts the door behind him, and Ron can’t help but compare the room he sees to the room he helped set up way back at the end of August. Aside from the open suitcase and haphazardly strewn clothes, her desk looks well-used and her walls are decorated with more school pride memorabilia that she’s collected.
Kim motions to her bed, the room having a lack of suitable seating otherwise, and he hesitates. If it were two weeks ago, he’d just plop on like it were his own bed and let Kim force him to give her as much space as she needs; but it’s now.
Luckily, Kim takes the lead, like she always does. It’s a habit that’s saved his life more times than he can count.
“We should eat before the food gets cold,” she says as she sits at the edge of her bed somewhere near the middle. Ron follows her lead, like he always does.
Before she can get too far in unpacking the BN to-go bag that Nor brought, Ron deftly snatches it out of her grasp and places Wade’s lunchbox invention in her newly freed hands. “Nuh-uh, Kim,” he explains at her questioning look. “You get the special fryolator Middleton Bueno Nacho. I’ll take one for the team and eat this imitation stuff delivered by guys that go around kissing taken girls.”
Kim’s face is stricken with guilt. “I’m the one who kissed him, Ron; not the other way around,” she clarifies gently in defense of Nor.
As if he could ever forget.
He presses his mouth into an impassive line and looks back down at the paper bag. “Eat your nachos, Kim. We’ll talk about that later.”
Ron watches her unlatch the lunchbox, and she gasps. “My favourite,” she comments with gratitude. She was never one for a full-on Naco, and he knows it.
He opens up the bag Nor bought and furrows his brows at what he finds inside. Anyone else would simply find chimichanga-stuffed burritos and several handfuls of free, plain nacho chips, but not Ron. He can recognise them for what they are: enough ingredients for two Nacos.
He frowns at the thought of what would have transpired if he had arrived tomorrow, had arrived just in time to bring Kim back home to Middleton like her parents originally planned. It would be Nor sitting here right now with Kim, sharing her favourite comfort food and on the brink of a heart-to-heart. The thought sits heavy in his stomach, so he passes the bag’s contents to an eager Rufus, his appetite lost.
Kim notices, of course. She sets her food onto her desk and turns to face Ron, one foot tucked under her and the other dangling off the edge of the bed. “What are you thinking right now?” she asks him. She sets her hands in the space between them, close enough to his thigh to mean something but purposefully not touching just in case.
He snatches her hands into his and holds on tightly, and he’s rewarded with a barely perceptible ease of her shoulders.
He doesn’t know where to begin with his emotions, so instead he starts with a fact. “I’m scared of answering the phone.”
Kim raises an eyebrow at the left-field response. “That’s a new one,” she remarks drily, intimately acquainted with the long and sundried list of Ron Stoppable’s fears and phobias.
He just shakes his head, though. “I don’t want to hear you on the other end. If I pick up the phone and you tell me that you’ve given up saving the world so that you have more time for college, or that you’re leaving Middleton for good… or that you’re breaking up with me—” He cuts himself off and swallows.
Kim squeezes his hand when the silence stretches just a little too long, and he raises his head to meet her green, earnest gaze. He squeezes back and forces out, “I’d have to live with the memory of your voice breaking my heart over and over again forever.”
“Ron…” Kim doesn’t know what to say, but Ron isn’t done yet. “Kim, you cheated on me.”
“Ron, I’m sorry.”
“I’ve spent my entire life knowing you’d never let anything or anyone else hurt me, but it was you. You hurt me.”
“It doesn’t mean anything now, but you have to know: If I could take it back, I would. If I could go back and stop myself, I would!”
“How far back would you go?”
Kim is stunned. “What?”
He looks her in the eyes, trying to find some sort of admittance or even understanding. “Do you think the kiss is the only reason I’m upset?”
Ron’s challenging tone offends her. “What else did I do?”
“Not you, but…” He leaves the implication hanging in the air, and Kim is quick on the uptake. “What’s wrong with Nor?” she asks defensively.
Ron rolls his eyes. “What isn’t wrong with Nor? What’s he doing coming all the way here just to eat dinner with you?”
“Ron, he came here to apologise. You were there; he apologised to you, too!”
“I didn’t hear the words 'I’m sorry,’” Ron harrumphs.
Kim picks up the empty Bueno Nacho bag, forcing Rufus to find a new hiding spot while his parents fight, and waves it in the air. “That’s what this is!” she exclaims before frustratedly throwing it in the general direction of her trash bin.
Ron is unfazed by her dramatics. “I could tell there’s been something going on since the two of you first met,” he accuses.
“Why are you making it sound like I’ve been cheating on you behind your back for a whole semester? Nor has nothing to do with this! I am the one who messed up here.”
“If you never met him, you wouldn’t have kissed him! Unless—” Ron looks positively heartbroken at the thought that just struck him. “—Do you like-like him?”
Kim rolls her eyes. “Are we in middle school? No, I do not 'like-like’ Nor.”
“Then why are you always defending him, huh? What’s so great about him that makes him worth arguing about with me?”
“He’s here, Ron!”
Ron looks as surprised at her outburst as she feels for having said it, but she knows it to be true.
She takes Ron’s hands again, trying to make him understand. “You and Monique are just a phone call away, and I know that, but you’re a phone call away. When I hang up with you, I’m still here. Alone. Alone if not for Nor.”
The inconsolable loneliness from the past week crashes back into her. She even feels out of breath, but she forces herself to continue. “After our phone call last week, I got into an argument with Nor, too. I wasn’t talking to either of you, which meant I wasn’t talking to anybody. I don’t have other close friends here. Between saving the world and catching up on coursework, I don’t have the chance to make other close friends. It’s not like in high school where it’s the same people I’ve been going to school with for my whole life, who knew me even before I became Kim Possible. It’s harder here… and Nor felt easy.”
She sniffs away the tears that threaten her composure. “In fact, it felt like being with you. Maybe that’s why…”
She doesn’t finish her sentence, but she doesn’t have to. Ron gets it now. He gets all of it.
He barely has to tug for Kim to fall into his open arms. She may have found comfort in Nor’s hug, but Ron’s embrace means forgiveness. The familiarity and understanding and acceptance it conveys, those are far greater salves to her battered constitution. Its extended absence has caused her to forget how much she needs those.
With her head in Ron’s shoulder and his warm hands clutching her body like a promise, she finally lets herself cry. The huge, heaving sobs have been begging for release ever since the stupid kiss; and from what she can feel and hear from Ron, he’s in much the same state.
They lose themselves in their catharsis, and they only hold on to each other tighter as they come back into awareness and as their emotions abate.
Kim breaks the silence with a mumble into his shoulder. “I pick you, Ron.”
“What?”
She lets herself out of their hold far enough to look into his eyes. They’re the same shade of brown they’ve been since kindergarten, but the face around them has changed in ways for which puberty alone can’t account. Everything about him—splotchy skin and drying tear tracks and dribble of snot from his left nostril included—is hers.
“You told me to let you know what I want, and I want you. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you.”
“For a while there, KP, I didn’t think you would,” Ron admits.
It’s the first time he’s called her that since they started talking, and she knows for sure they’re in a good place again. Relief crosses her face even as she confesses, “I’m sorry for making you think that, too.”
Ron gives her a gentle smile, a look that takes her back to prom night. Just like then, it makes her feel like she can stop waiting. He must feel it, too, because they meet in the middle for a kiss with far more assuredness than they did that first time.
The night turns into a different kind of first time.
~~~
Ron stays over for the night (with the RA none-the-wiser), and Kim drives them back to Middleton the next day. Throughout the excitement of spending time with her family again, preparing for Thanksgiving Day, and experiencing her hometown with the fresh eyes of someone who misses it, Ron never leaves her side. They make up for lost time with talking and kissing (and other stuff) and crying and hanging out. It’s almost like they’re back in high school.
By the time she leaves for school again on Sunday night, they feel a lot better and more committed to each other than they did the first time they separated four months ago; and on Monday morning, Nor even sits next to her in WGSS again. It’s like everything is falling back into place.
Unfortunately, that feeling doesn’t last past that first class.
Even with his reinstated place to her side, there’s a noticeable change between them. It’s not awkward, necessarily. Just unsure, hesitant, uncertain. Her opportunity to do something about it arrives in the professor’s reminder about the final project right before they dismiss class.
“How do you feel about wrapping this up well before finals week? We can just submit it as soon as we can, be done with it, and focus the rest of our time on studying for actual exams,” Kim asks as she faux-leisurely packs up her bag.
“Yep, sounds good,” Nor agrees easily, and Kim is so relieved she wonders whether she was making up the weird air between them earlier.
“Great! Wanna grab a study room at the library tomorrow? We could even go to that cafe down the block for dinner afterwards.”
Nor shifts in his seat, and Kim realises she spoke too soon. “Listen, Kim. I made a promise to you, and I made a promise to your boyfriend. I’m not tryna break up a good thing.”
“It’s just dinner,” Kim can’t help but defend.
Nor sighs. “It’s not gonna be just dinner, though. Not for me, not anymore.” He gets up and ready to leave. “But yeah, tomorrow in the lib. The usual time is good.” He walks away.
Like that, Nor routinely dodges all of her attempts at conversation or extracurricular engagement unrelated to their final project, regardless of the relative innocuity of the prompt, and Kim is frustrated to say the least. With a mutual understanding both of the circumstances that lead to Kim’s infidelity and that Kim can never do something like that again, she has Ron’s permission to continue her friendship with Nor—a friendship he seems no longer willing to be a part of.
To add injury to insult, some of the loneliness that afflicted her before Thanksgiving break returns without the option of hanging out with Nor anymore. She’s friendly with a few other people, but she didn’t really invest in their friendships the way she did with Nor’s. She regrets listening to her advisor about postponing participation in extracurriculars until next semester, but at least she remembers she’s not completely alone.
“Ron, don’t get jealous, but I really need a best friend right now, not a boyfriend,” she says into the phone later that week. He listens patiently as she explains Nor’s behaviour and how hurt she is that Nor doesn’t think he can be friends with her anymore because his stupid feelings are in the way, and she has the presence of mind to be grateful he can let himself be here for her through this.
“We’re meeting again tomorrow to work on the project, and just… It sucks that the one person on this campus that I’m close to, I can’t even grab dinner with him after work without feeling like crap! I’m mad at him for putting this distance between us, I’m mad at myself for putting us in this situation to begin with, I'm—ugh!” Kim ends frustratedly.
There is silence on the other end, and she knows for sure it’s because Ron is waiting to make sure she is completely done. “Ron, I miss you” slips out of her mouth without any conscious effort.
“I miss you, too, KP. I wish there were some way I could help.” His earnestly regretful tone is a soothing balm to her grievances, and she feels better already.
“Trust me, the fact that you’re not jealin’ right now way helps. Being in a fight with both of you at the same time was so the drama,” she says with levity, purposefully trying to change the mood.
Ron easily picks up what she was putting down. “I thought you were the girl that can do anything?” he teases.
“Ron, haven’t you heard? I can only do it all when I have you by my side,” she reminds in the same tone.
“Ah-booyah.” Kim can easily imagine the self-satisfied shrug of his shoulders, and she smiles.
“Hey, tell me about anything fun that happened in Smarty Mart today,” she prompts. A story about a customer getting caught using a deodorant stick and putting it back on the shelf is exactly the kind of distraction she needs right now.
~~~
Their paper is honestly basically done, but Kim is still dragging her feet on it. She’s sitting in front of the computer, trying to find any paragraph that could use an extra citation, or a better way to organize the flow of their argument, or literally anything.
It’s not that she wants to work necessarily; but after this she’s just going to go back to her dorm alone, and she doesn’t want that either. (She refuses to feel pathetic about this.)
Finally, Nor breaks the silence. “Is it just me, or are we… done?” he asks with hesitant excitement.
“It definitely looks like it,” Kim gripes.
“Don’t be like that, Kimothy. We did some good work today! You should be proud.”
His nickname for her? All of a sudden? What’s going on? “I’m proud,” she refutes. “Are you?”
“For sure,” he says, pronouncing the words so that they rhyme. “I know I joined this class for the wrong reasons, but I’m not mad about it. Actually, this stuff would be kinda cool if we weren’t being graded on it.”
This is unmistakably non-work related small talk. She hops on it immediately. “Yeah! Isn’t it so flawed how much the school setting pressure sucks the fun out of learning new points of view? The world is full of so many interesting people and things, but a classroom is often the only way people get to experience them—but since it’s a classroom, they wouldn’t want to.”
“Big Academia, Kimothy. I’m telling ya.” And he has, more than once. Kim giggles a little, both at the reminder and at the distinct feeling of their stalled friendship reigniting.
Nor continues, “I’m actually kinda famished… I could really go for a potager right about now.”
She wishes she could join him, but she’s not going to push her luck. “You should get one!” Not all of the cheer in her voice is fabricated; between that and the progress she made today, they are more than enough for her.
Nor rolls his eyes. “Kim, do you want to come with me?” he drones with a smile.
.
(That morning, Nor got a call from an unknown number.)
.
Kim’s smile is slow and disbelieving. “Seriously?” she asks with hesitant excitement. Nor nods, and she shouts an eager “Yes!” before he could change his mind.
The page on duty sends a shhh in their direction. They smirk at each other, both immediately reminded of that one incident with Professor Barkin, and pack up their stuff eagerly.
.
(To his surprise, it’s a familiar face. To his double surprise, he could only say that because said face was taking up the small screen of his phone.
“Stoppable?” Nor questioned while bringing the device closer, double-checking what he was seeing. “How did you get into my phone?”)
.
“Anyway, like I was saying: yes, I will totally join you,” Kim repeats as they head out of the library.
“Neat-o,” he replies with a grin.
.
(“WWW: World Wired Wade, but nevermind that,” Ron hastily explained. “We need to talk about Kim.”
Nor groaned. “Nothing else happened between us, and nothing else is gonna happen between us. Like I told you guys, I’m not tryna get in between nothing.”)
.
They push open the doors and are greeted by the barren field that is the quad. On a normal day, there would still be a lively level of activity from gathered students, but the winter chill is discouraging. Though the sun is still out, they can tell not for long.
“I, um, I didn’t think I’d have plans after our work session. I need to run back to my dorm to drop some stuff off. It’ll only be a minute. Can I just meet you there?” she proposes.
.
(Ron rolled his eyes, and Nor still can’t get over the fact he can see the guy roll his eyes.
“Trust me, dude. If that were the problem, we’d be having this convo face to face. But that’s not the point here. You need to stop ignoring Kim,” Ron demands.)
.
Nor looks up at the orange sky. “Will you be okay getting to CNC by yourself?”
Kim smirks. “Check my name.”
.
(“Uh, status check: I’m not ignoring her. We still have that project for WGSS. In fact, we’re working on it later today.”
“Stop playing dumb with me because you think I’m gonna hurt you or something. I only hurt you if you hurt Kim. With the way you’re treating her, you’re already halfway there, so stop it.”)
.
He chuckles. “How could I forget?” he asks with a sarcastic smile. “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll save us a seat.”
They make their way down the front steps.
“Great! Get us a booth this time. Those window seats are way too close together.”
.
(“Listen, man—”
“—No you listen, 'man.’ I know you’re in love with her. Don’t even bother trying to deny it,” Ron cuts off as Nor prepares to object. “Don’t you want to see her happy?”)
.
Kim freezes where she stands, and he looks over to see a complicated flutter of emotions cross her face. She said it without thinking, and now both of them are so obviously remembering the same thing.
Nor fights to keep his face impassive. If it weren’t for the way the setting sun is casting unpredictable shadows and a wistful orange hue onto the world, he’s sure a blush would be visible as well.
.
(He considered lying, but he’s had enough of that lately: lying to himself that he didn’t want to hang out with Kim Possible anyway, that this was for the better. The truth can’t hurt any worse.
“Yeah, I do,” he eventually conceded with a sigh. On the surface he’s replying to Ron’s question, but underneath he’s affirming Ron’s assessment. He figured the other could tell.)
.
Regardless of what it did to them, he can’t fully regret what happened that night. He doesn’t think he ever will, but that isn’t the case for Kim. If he has to recognise remorse on her face one more time, it might be enough to break the truce he set with himself just to give them the chance at friendship again.
He forces a smirk onto his face. “A booth it is,” he eventually concedes. “Any other requests?”
.
(“First rule to loving Kim Possible, dude: we don’t get to decide what makes her happy. If I did, she would have cut your friendship off long before all this, but I don’t. You make her happy, and I’m man enough to admit it. But I promise you, the second you hurt her, I’ll be the last thing you ever see.”
Nor peered curiously at the screen. “What’s with you? You know I love her, you probably hate me, and yet you threaten me to hang out with her anyway?”)
.
There is a brief moment when she is stunned, processing that her blunder didn’t completely undo their minimal progress. Then, relief melts the stress from her shoulders and a smile stretches her face. It’s not the brightest he’s seen from her, but it’s genuine and directed at him. “Just get me a soda.”
He sucks in through closed teeth. “Actually, I was just kidding. The girl who can do anything can surely order her own food. No soda for you.”
.
(Ron shook his head with a condescending yet self-deprecating smile. “Rule two to loving Kim Possible: Know she deserves anything she wants and that she usually gets it. What she can’t get for herself, you give.
"You give her your heart, you give her your life, and you give her everything left after that, too. Me? I give her someone she can count on in college since I’m not there, even at the cost of my jealousness and insecurities, because Kim works best knowing someone’s in her corner.”)
.
She punches him in the shoulder, and he’s sure it’ll bruise. “And to think I was considering buying your meal.”
“Wait, there was free food on the table?” he gawks.
“Not anymore,” she quips. “See you in a bit!” She turns to walk down the path towards residential campus with a noticeable pep in her step.
Cheerleaders.
.
(“And you? You give her up without a fight. You give up on your personal feelings and give her the peace of mind of never feeling like she has to choose.”)
.
He hears the tell-tale doot doot do-doot. He watches her lift her wrist Kimmunicator up to her face and her shadow trail long behind her. He can’t tell what she’s saying; but based on the crinkle in her eyes and the excited hand movements as she talks, he can guess who’s on the other end.
“Yeah, see you.”
.
(Nor doesn’t understand why Ron is telling him all this, but the injustice of the situation wins over his confusion. “So that’s it, then? I get a taste of what it’s like to be in love with the most amazing girl on Planet Earth, then watch her be with another guy? That isn’t such a raw deal,” Nor remarked sarcastically.
Ron’s steely look carried well over the screen. “Choose your own adventure, Cow 'n’ Chow. Keep her as your friend, or take the gamble on Kim’s love.”)
.
As Nor stands there, the last of Ron’s impromptu phone call that morning running through his head, he knows exactly what he chooses.
Kim finally walks out of his field of vision, and the scarlet sky starts turning blue.
the only ship ever. relationship goals.
Childhood crush! another Valentine’s day illustration. Posting a little bit late as usual. Hope you guys like it!