Chapter Text
“Never really took the library and museum of all places as a place you’d want to have a date, Ron.” Kim shut the car door, quickly walking up the steps to the library.
She turns around at the top of the stairs, leaning casually on the hand rails, “It’s been super fun so far, liking the change of pace.” She waited for Ron to catch up.
“Oh no, no— this is no date, KP,” He shook his head, and had a serious little look on his face, “This is cold, hard research- for the truth.” He waved up a small notebook he had been scribbling on earlier in the car.
“The cold hard truth, huh.” Kim deadpanned. She gave Ron an unamused look when he met her at the top of the stares.
“Oh, right, uh—” He scratched the back of his neck, smiling wide at her, “I guess it still could be! If you want,” He stepped up to meet her, “Like… a research date?”
That sounded a bit nicer.
“Hmm. That works,” She smiled, content, “It’s just that- I really spent a lot of time getting ready, since you said we’d be going to a few places today.” She looked back towards the car, apprehensive. Kim tugged at her sleeve on her sweater, “And, well, the way you phrased it as like, us ‘going out to the library and museum’ today— It kind of made it sound like a date!”
“Ohhh. Oh yeah, okay, yeah- that’s my bad,” He avoided her gaze for a moment, staring down at the small notebook he held.
Ron looked up at her after a moment, giving her his hand, “I just really thought you’d be the best person to do all this research with, Kim. You're really good at noticing stuff, AND you had the same dream too, right? So… I just figured it would be important to you too.”
“Aww,” She squeezed his hand, but then blinked, confused, “…Wait— What dream are we talking about?”
“You know! The one about the big old-timey device that was gonna blow up in 100 years? Our great-great-or whatever many ancestors ago got it out of the hands of some goons who wanted to use it for evil junk? And then we stopped Drakken and Shego from the museum, and then we woke up—!”
He gestured grandly, as if it should have been obvious, “At the museum!”
“Oh! That… Yeah, that was weird,” She adds after a moment, no less confused, “…And several YEARS ago? What has you interested in it now?”
“Right, so I was babysitting Hana, and we go to the museum, see? She wants to stop walking around to take a nap, and I’m like- ‘Yo, this toddler’s got the right idea.’ So we sit down on a bench so she can take a break,” He then shrugs, “So, I uh. I figured I’d take a nap too.”
“Only you,” Kim rolls her eyes with endearment. She asked sarcastically, “And let me guess, you two had a shared dream, too?”
“Exactly!” He said, as if her question was genuine, “I mean, it was kind of hard to confirm it for sure,” He scratched his cheek, “Since Hana’s still figuring out words and everything, but hey, close enough—!"
"I don't know if a 2 year old's testimony holds up, Ron."
"Maybe, but," Ron pushes the door open, but is too caught up explaining to go through the doorway, “That’s still too weird to be just a coincidence—! And the statue of ya boy, Ronnicus, crashing down RIGHT as we’re talking about it?” He had that cute, intense look on his face again, “It’s gotta mean something.”
“Look, Ron, just because this person kind of has a name that sounds like yours,” She holds the door open, gently pushing Ron on the shoulder to encourage him to enter instead of blocking the doorway, “That doesn’t exactly mean you’re related to the guy,” Kim followed Ron, looking for the history section of the library with him, “There’s like, a billion Ronalds out there.”
“I know, I’m just saying— it’s too weird for it JUST to be a coincidence, KP.” He reaches out to a rolling cart, pushing one into one of the aisles, “With that dream, it’s gotta be a sign from the past! For us to look into the…”
He scratched his cheek, picking up a random book, before frowning at it as he returns it to its place on the shelf, “I dunno. More distant past?” Rufus had shimmied out of his pocket, and scampered onto the cart to help pick out any books he thought would be relevant.
“I don't know why we had the exact same dream, that was mega weird, but still—” Kim crosses her arms, and looks at some of the selections they were passing, “Even if we want to find more about this guy, do you even know what books we're looking for?”
He looked over at her, the library cart already full of a random assortment of books, “What d’you mean?”
“Well, if you’re trying to find out more about this Ronnicus guy, you’re kind of doing this whole thing backwards.”
“Backwards?” He shook his head, “Nope. We’re not in the manga section, Kim,” He picked up another book, flipping through a few pages before plopping it onto the cart, “These are forwards books.”
Kim sighed from her nose, “Nope. Not what I’m talking about, Ron,”
She stepped in front of the rolling cart, stopping it in its tracks, “Hear me out, wouldn’t it make more sense to go to the museum FIRST?”
“Well the library’s a lot closer, so I thought it’d be easier to come here, get it outta the way.”
“I get that, but if we went to get info at the museum first, we can figure out what time period he’s from- where he lived, and what he’s most known for that way,” She adds, “It would make researching him way easier when you have something to hone in on.”
“Oh.” Ron quit pushing the cart, pausing for a moment, “Yeah… Yeah, that probably would be way easier!”
He stared down at all the barely connected books on Spartan, Greek, and Roman history, before he smiled sheepishly back up at her,
“Sooo... Wanna help me put ‘em all back and head out to the museum?” He hooked his thumb behind him.
“Sure, no big.” Kim grabbed the library cart to help return all the books to their proper spots on the shelves. She’s not sure whether to laugh or cringe that her weird library punishment in high school trained her well for this oddly specific task. Whatever.
The Tri-City Museum wasn’t too packed for a Friday afternoon.
Kim and Ron peeked over the small crowd of bored people that they had joined for a tour. Their tour guide looked a lot more enthusiastic himself.
“Now, it was at this time that Sparta was integrated into the Roman empire after its rapid decline. It became a free city, which means it was rather self governed, and found itself as a hotspot for its unique history and exotic customs.”
He had pointed at a map in a display case with some armor stands further inside, before moving on, “Briefly before this point, Sparta’s final ruler before it was integrated into the Achaean League was the- frankly- EVIL Drakkus Maximus, who was vastly unpopular after his attempt to take over the entirety of Peloponnese, Greece: beginning with Sparta, even though he was already ruling it. It was only when-"
Ron whispers over, “Why are we tagging along with the tour? It’s kind of—” He stifled a yawn.
“-What historic witnesses could describe the evil ruler as ‘being completely and utterly humiliated’ in gladiatorial combat against the young gladiator Ronnicus, which-”
Kim looked over, “-Boring? Ugh. Trust me,” She sighed deeply, “I know,” Kim turns her attention back to the guide, “But it’s the best way we’re going to find out more about your guy.”
“-Had him so furious, he promptly sent messengers, to summon armies from surrounding cities out of haste and desperation, to possibly-“
Ron whined, shuffling where he stood, “-Couldn’t we have just, like, paid for the audio books or something? It'd be less total agony than—” He dramatically drug his down his face, “All *this!*”
“-Prove he was, to quote,” Their guide air quotes, “’Capable of conquering *All that*- and more…’ Of course, the army that had gathered to meet Drakkus Maximus had turned against him, having grown tired of the constant wars of Sparta waging for their independence, so-“
Kim shushed him, “You *literally* fall asleep whenever you use an audio book, Ron; you’d miss the entire thing.”
“-He was promptly assassinated while drilling his troops. They had then chosen the same young Ronnicus to spread the news to the city of Sparta,-"
Ron crossed his arms, “KP, it’s nowhere *near* my fault those guys on the tapes have such soothing voices that lull me to sleep, okay?” He smiled.
Kim tried not to giggle too loudly at him, so they could both hear the tour guide.
“-That their city of Sparta would become a part of the Achaean League, one day becoming part of the Roman empire.”
The guide concludes, looking out unto the crowd with a faint smile, “Any questions?”
“OOH—” Ron throws his arm high up in the air.
“Yes! You, young man?”
“Yeah, so like,” Ron glanced up at the massive stone statue of the young gladiator, sizing him up, “Did this guy go off to do anything awesome besides the whole… kicking Drakkus-maxxus’s butt thing? You had to be someone cool to get a whole statue like THAT, right?” He threw his arms out to gesture at the statue.
He cheekily added at the end of his barrage of questions, “…The guy didn’t happen to have any descendants, either, did he?”
The guide laughed, pleasantly surprised to see that someone wasn’t falling asleep for once.
“Eager to learn, aren’t we? Well, it’s certainly true that Ronnicus is most well-known for his victory against Drakkus Maximus,”
He turns, looking up at the statue, “But the young gladiator was also a talented scribe, and well respected scholar, who was the author of countless books after he was finished with his time as a warrior.”
“…Finished, huh.” Ron seemed confused; he leaned over to whisper to Kim, “If you’re that good at kicking butt to get a whole statue, why not do it full time?”
Kim chuckled, nudging him, “Not everyone has the time or energy to save the world and kick butt full-time like *we* do, Ron.” She follows the rest of the tour group as they reach the end of the displays, statues, and glass cases.
The guide scratches his chin, unsure, “And, well, as for why that statue in particular is so large, we aren’t certain. I’m honestly surprised we didn’t demolish it to bits when we mistakenly dropped—” He coughs loudly, interrupting his previous line of thought, “But, ah, yes! It is unknown if Ronnicus had any direct descendants. Keeping a family tree is quite the task!”
He seems to try and usher everyone to the end of exhibit in a bit of a hurry, “And that, is the end of our Ancient Roman exhibit tour!”
Their guide turned to face the small crowd, “You might like to visit our tri-city museum giftshop after learning so much today. As they say, when in Rome, shop til you drop!—”
“What?” Kim scoffs, “They do NOT say that.”
“They could!” The guide laughs, mostly to himself.
With the tour over, Kim was browsing around the tacky, colorful museum gift shop- one of the many in this building. There was a crap ton of Roman-style memorabilia, various pins, buttons, t-shirts, and miniature versions of some of the exhibits.
A lot of the knick-knacks didn’t really interest Kim, but there WERE some leather sandals that looked cute.
“Hey, what do you think of these?” She lifts up a pair from a hook, holding them up over her shoulder, “Or do you think it’s a little… too many millenniums ago?”
After a moment of silence, she tries his name when she didn’t get an answer, “Ron?” All she was met with was another lack of a reply.
Kim hummed, and looked back towards the bench where Ron said he would sit for a bit; he said wanted to take notes on what their tour guide said while she shopped around.
Ron, somehow, within minutes of them entering the gift shop, had slumped his cheek and shoulders up against a wooden display shelf beside to the bench. With closed eyes and slow breathing… he had completely fallen asleep with the notebook held loosely in his grasp. Rufus had cutely curled up in his lap, wrapping his little paws around the pencil.
She walked up to him, almost amazed at Ron’s ability to nap basically anywhere if he was bored or tired enough. He looked kind of cute when he was peacefully dozing off like that, but Kim worried that the staff would kick them both out for loitering.
“I don’t think the tour wasn’t *THAT* boring,” She reached out, lightly shaking his shoulder, “Come on, Ron. We can head back to the library now.”
Her attempts at jostling him awake were fruitless. He always was a heavy sleeper. She huffed with slight annoyance.
Kim was about to try again with a little more force, when she wondered:
The last time Ron had napped at the museum was with his little sis’, Hana, and they both (allegedly) had a shared dream.
And, the last time he and Kim had accidentally fallen asleep was on that one field trip…
“It’s all just— coincidence, right?” She mumbled to herself.
It had to be.
It’s too weird for it to be anything but a coincidence.
But, there was still one way to make sure. She placed down the leather sandals by the bench so she could buy them later.
She mumbles, “This is so stupid,” Sitting down by Ron and Rufus, Kim decided if she can’t beat them- join them.
She wrapped her arms around Ron’s waist, and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder as a pillow, heaving a tired sigh. She tried closing her eyes.
Kim would have commented on how weird it was- to have suddenly felt so tired so quickly. Usually it takes her a while with how fast her mind is racing and going over what she did that day- or wanted to do the next, even at the end of a long day.
But Kim didn’t have the time to comment on how weird it was; she was already asleep.