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Kim and Ron sat behind the stage at the Kids' conference in itchy medieval costumes. Their only role was to get the kids excited about the activities for the day. After the opening ceremony, Team Possible could leave, but were offered to stay if they wished. The two were sitting on the floor on a concrete stage, behind thick curtains.
"Man, I wish we could stay for the entire event." Ron groaned as he pulled at the edge of his top.
"Sorry, Ron, but we have other responsibilities. We only agreed to it cause we're in the area. After this, we need to get to Tokyo as quickly as possible for an interview."
Ron grumbled and threw his hands in the air.
"Fine, whatever, but if I don't get some food after this,"
"I know, I know." She narrowed her eyes at Ron. Why was he in such a mood today? His hair was messier than usual, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. Why was he upset? He loves these events.
This was one of the few Saturdays they knew it was free. Drakken and Shego were behind bars. For how long? Kim was guessing within 48 hours. Shego will get bored and break out. And their other villains were... well, she didn't know, but they weren't bothering them. They were free.
But she watched him a little closer. Was it cause of the stupid emotion chip that happened a few days ago? Couldn't be. Ron affirmed to her that he was chill after the whole fiasco. And that he totally, 100%, did NOT want to date her. Was Kim hurt by that comment? Sure, a little. She had thought about it, who hasn't? Would he have made a cute boyfriend? Kim-
Her thoughts were interrupted by a theater hand bumping into Ron, knocking him to the side. His body flashed blue as his arm shot out to stabilize himself, so he didn't hit his head. The girl, on the other hand, had dropped her binder, and paper flew from her arms as she tried to stabilize herself from running into Ron.
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" She meagerly squeaked out, as she froze in place, locking eyes with him. Ron got up, and all the grumpiness washed away, as his Ron-ness crawled its way out.
"Hey, it’s ok, are you ok?" The girl looked around herself, her brain short-circuited.
"Uh..." She looked like a deer in headlights as she kept looking at Ron, then back to the floor. She moved her gaze and made eye contact with Kim, who was still sitting on the floor, watching like an eagle. "Y-yeah, just a little, spazzed. Ron... Right?"
"Whoa, you actually know my name? Yes. Do you need help with your papers?" She blinked and nodded her head aggressively. Ron dripped down and started to help her put papers back in the thin binder. Kim felt her eyebrow raise. Why was this girl acting so... Odd? Kim felt her muscles on her face tighten as the two worked together to put her binder back together. Kim felt her gut turn and twist. And just like that, Ron was standing right back up, handing the girl her last paper. Kim stood up and stood next to Ron, maybe she'll get the message.
"EE, didn’t see you, Kim! Can I have your guy’s signature?!"
"Got a pen?" Ron asked, while holding his hand open. The girl spun around in place, patting her body with her free hand, looking for a pen that was hidden deep in her many pockets.
"Ah! Here it is." She pulled out a pen from her front pocket and handed it to Ron. Kim was half tempted to snatch it from Ron, but didn't. She couldn't be so rude in front of a huge fan. Ron's handwriting is very sloppy, but his signature? Beautiful. She's guessing his father taught him how to write his signature. Ron finished and handed it to her. Kim quickly wrote down hers, and the theater hand quickly left. Ron turned around and looked at Kim.
"What? What's with the look?"
"She should have been looking where she was walking." She sneered. Ron raised his eyebrow and wanted to push further, but another person walked up to them.
"Curtains up in 5." And keep walking past.
Kim felt her gut drop. What was she supposed to do again? Games? Throw out merch? She started to pull at her itchy dress. She wasn’t supposed to sing, right? Oh gosh, was she singing? Was that why she had a microphone? Where’s the merch, the toys-
“KP.” Ron’s voice snapped her back from her spiraling thoughts. She turned and looked at him blankly. “Dude, chill.” He stepped up and grabbed her hand. “Deep breath.”
“Ron, I’m fine.”
“Kim. You’re not. Your buggin. We’re just playing like two games and throwing stuff at them.”
“So, no singing?” Ron glared at her.
“When did you get the idea? We haven’t done anything like that since last year, when you bombed that talent show.” He poked her forehead. “You think too much.” Kim scoffed.
“And you don’t think enough.” He just rolled his eyes at the comment. Kim took a deep breath. She was crazy. Ron held a bag full of shirts and small toys to throw at the kids to get ready.
“Two minutes!” Someone behind them shouted.
“How do I look?” Kim asked as she flattened out her dress. Ron bit the inside of his cheek, and his eyes softened.
“Not historically accurate at all.” Kim brushed her hair with her hand. What a non-answer. He wanted to say something else; she just knew it.
“Come on, Ron, honest opinion.”
“What?! It’s true. Here, lemme fix something.” He walked into her space and fixed something around her collarbone. He then moved his gaze to her hair and moved a strand. He made eye contact with her and gently removed mascara that had drifted off her lashes. “There.” He turned around and faced the curtain, blocking their view of the crowd.
What was that?
Kim’s face flustered and burned. He won’t turn around, so she let herself be red. He hadn’t been that close to her since the chip, and her mind was flooded with that memory. The smell of his weird clone that his mother gave him, the drug store shampoo, and she was betting he was wearing the same cheap lip balm as before. She wanted to taste it again.
She calmed herself down and walked up to stand next to him. The kids were screaming.
“10! 9!...”
Ron turned and smiled at her.
“How do I look?”
“Like Ron.” He rolled his eyes.
"1!"
The curtains flew open.
There were… so many kids and parents.
Kim was ready to get off this blasted stage. Of course, something happened, so they needed to stall for time. Ron was great at that. Kim, not so much. She didn’t know what was running through the dude’s head.
They did a fake sword fight, an embarrassing dance, a rap battle… for some reason. Name it, Ron already did it. Ron was talking to the kids when the girl who ran into Ron popped her head out and waved to get Kim’s attention.
“One more game, and we should be ready!” Kim grumbled. This garment was giving her a rash, and her ill-fitted shoes were giving her blisters.
“One more game, Ron. We can go after this.” Ron nodded and started having the kids bring him random items for a small toy that vaguely looked like Rufus. Kim looked at the small clock right above the tech booth. If they left in about… No… Er… AH! No…. Grrr.
It didn’t matter how she played it out. They were so late for their flight. Wade was gonna need to pull a lot of strings for them to be able to get to Japan in time.
“I want… a green shoe!” Ron shouted out. The kids below them scrambled to find someone with the matching description. A boy about 11 years old ran up to Ron with a Green shoe. Kim rolled her eyes at the shenanigans.
“I want… 46 cents. In pennies!” The parents in the crowd looked pleased for the first time in a while. The kids started fishing in their pockets for loose change.
“Where did you learn this game?” Kim slid over next to Ron’s side.
“Camp. It was the only game I remembered enjoying.” He said in a deadpan voice as he counted the mass of coins he collected at his feet. “46 Pennies have been found! I want blue sunglasses now!” Ron gently pushed the pennies back to the kid who gave them to him, along with the small toy. “Guess camp did do some good to me.”
“Like?” Kim heard all the woes of the camp. She’s never heard the upside to it.
“Learned how to be creative while my life was on the line.” He shrugged as he held up blue sunglasses. “I want… A packet of BBQ sauce!” The kids howled at his request and started to scramble to find such an odd item.
“Huh. Guess I never thought of it like that before. Don’t you think ‘life on the line’ is a bit over the top, though?”
“KP. This is camp we’re talking about.” Kim tried to read his face, but he was too busy gleaning over the chaos of children he created. His life was never on the line. He just misremembers things. She just rolled her eyes and moved on.
“We’re ready!” The girl popped her head back out, getting her attention. Kim nodded.
“You can request one more thing, then we gotta go.”
“Aw man! We just started, though!” A symphony of children screaming in joy erupted as a horde of them started running back to the stage.
“Well, you'd better pick the kid to give you the packet,” Kim snorted at her own lame joke. Ron just rolled his eyes. He plucked the packet out of a kid's hand and tossed a handful of toys to the crowd.
“Alright, kids, we’re gonna wrap things up real soon so the real event can start.” A mix of boos and whining sang from the hoard. “But there is one last thing I want.”
“OOOO”
Ron’s cockiness and stupidity were shining, as a sly smile sprang up.
This can’t be good.
“I want Kim!”
What.
Wait WHAT.
Kids started climbing on top of the stage to get to her.
“You'd better start running.” Ron leaned over. She patted her body for her hair dryer. Of course, she didn’t have it. She looked for an opening in the crowd.
There!
She flipped over the kids and started booking away from the horde of kids chasing after her.
Kim could feel small fingers graze over her arms. Man, were they fast. They were giggling as the ‘great’ Ron wanted her.
Kim diverted her path from a straight line and made a sharp left turn to get them off her tail.
It did nothing. She managed to get just a bit of distance away from them and front-flipped onto the picnic table.
Somehow, they managed to topple over the table.
This was getting dangerous. Despite their laughs, she knew this needed to end.
Someone snagged her arm.
The hoard of kids began to push her back to the stage. Her mind was in a haze, not really processing what was happening.
And suddenly she’s back on stage, looking out at the kids. Ron whispers something in her ear. Someone grabs both of them, and in Kim’s mind— in the blink of an eye —they’re on an airplane, thanks to Wade’s help.
Kim was staring right into the chair in front of her, her mind churning away.
What did he mean by ‘I want Kim’? Surely it was just a part of the game, correct? Yeah, no, of course.
He broke up with her.
He didn’t want her.
She wanted him.
She needed to move on. It was just a kiss that meant nothing.
She was trying to make sense of something that meant nothing.
“KP?” Kim woke up from her daze and looked at the source of the sound. “You good?”
“Just thinking about what to say in the interview, that’s all.” Ron just shrugged and walked off, with a small rodent sleeping on top of his shoulders.