KP – One Oh One : Part I – The More Things Change…

In the space of just a little more than a month, the world had changed.

Kim Possible, the girl who could do anything, repeated savior of the world and all-around teen hero still woke up in the same bed most mornings, but the world that greeted her was now ferociously different.

There was a brief pang of loneliness when she awoke, but that was quickly chased away by the certainty that the man she was lonely for would be right by to pick her up, if he wasn't already downstairs chatting with her parents. It still seemed funny that he would have to come get her, or as would probably be the case more often, she would go pick him up. Kim guessed she would have to get used to that.

Ron had spent the summer living with them, partly to make things easier on his father while his mother went through a high-risk late-life pregnancy, partly because the two of them seemed to be a magnet for danger. But only a couple days after returning from a two-week vacation with Kim, Jean Stoppable's doctors said 'enough' and performed a c-section. After eighteen years as an only child, Ron Stoppable had a little sister, Catherine Jean. He instantly moved back to his childhood home to help take care of the house as it fell to his father to do most of the care for the little girl until Jean was back on her feet.

There were other things Kim was going to have to get used to.

As she sat up in bed, blinking back sleep, she caught sight of the old-fashioned megaphone sitting on her hope chest. It was given to her by her Nana way back when she first joined the Middleton Junior High cheerleading squad at twelve. She was so proud of herself that day. Everyone told her she would never get past the queen of the squad, Bonnie Rockwaller, that she was too skinny, that she had braces, that she would be the only girl in the tryouts who didn't yet have to wear that utterly embarrassing piece of clothing; the training bra. Yet she knew she could do anything. She even said so on her babysitting website.

Six years later, Kim was waking up for the first day of school, a first day that did not include cheer practice. For some reason she could not entirely place, she had not even considered trying out for the Middleton College squad. Maybe it was because the school wasn't a sports powerhouse and didn't even have a football team. Maybe it was because she felt she had matured beyond wanting to be a cheerleader. She just plain didn't know the full reason for that.

In the past she would have asked one of her friends. Of course, she would ask Ron, but that kind of deep thinking was not his strong suit. Another change she was going to have to deal with was being without her old circle of friends. Monique had gone to Duke. Felix was attending M.I.T. Hope was at UCLA and Tara was at a small Baptist college in Kentucky. The only one left from the old Senior Year circle was Josh Mankey, who moved back into town a year earlier when he transferred to Upperton University. Only, Kim wasn't about to talk to Josh about stuff like that. He may have been head-over-heels about Tara, but they had enough history to make things awk-weird.

Kim was just going to have to make new friends. That prospect was both exciting and sad at the same time. Exciting, with the expectation of meeting new people and possibly forming relationships that would last for many years to come. Sad, because, in the normal course of things, it was possible, even probable those relationships would supplant what she had forged in her younger years. The same thing would happen to the others and none of them would really know it had happened until years later when they tried to reconnect.

She made a promise to herself to hand-write a letter to Monique that very afternoon when they returned from school. That friendship she was not going to let slip away.

Swinging her feet out of the bed, Kim twisted her ring around her finger a couple times. It was a habit she formed whenever she was thinking about Ron. They had been together ever since the Junior Prom and they had become as close as they could possibly be in that time, to the point that on the night before they left for a two-week road trip together, he gave her that ring. The diamond was small and the ring itself dainty, but that never mattered one bit to her. It was the question that came along with it that mattered, as well as her answer, and since she was wearing it, that answer had been overwhelmingly positive.

Kim Possible's world really had changed. She was getting ready for her first day of college, not as a girlfriend, but as a fiancé. Just before Ron's sister was born, the two of them had a sit-down with her parents and told them of their plans. At first they were going to keep it secret for a while, but that didn't sit well with either of them. It was very nice to wear the ring openly, though. Still it was very cool and very scary to consider she was now committed to something that would last the rest of her life. Sure, other people grew apart, broke up, got divorced. That so couldn't happen to her. She had gone through too much with Ron, not just the year plus they had officially been together, but in the near lifetime they had been by each other's side. They were so meant to be together that her definition of hottie had changed into what Ron was. Ragged dark blonde hair, big ears, chocolate brown eyes and a splattering of freckles punctuated by three darker spots on each cheek, forming twin triangles on his face. Sure, he was taller, more fully built now, but she had fallen in love with him before that had happened. He was her hottie first, then an even hotter hottie later, as if it was a kind of karmic reward for choosing her rightful Soulmate.

There were other things, thing she considered ferociously weird to consider. People who had long been her enemies now seemed like they could become hesitant friends. She found herself honestly worried about Shego…or Sherry as she was now trying to teach herself to think of the woman as. The slightly older woman was expecting a baby and had just lost the father, leaving only Kim's other great enemy to care for her. It still drove her nuts that the last time she had laid eyes on Doctor Drakken was to extract a promise from him that he would care for the young woman, and to realize the reason he readily agreed was because he was in love with her. That was something Kim had never considered in the years she had known the two, but there it was plain as day. Then the two of them simply vanished.

Moments after she got out of the bed, her radio started blaring. At least her good habits were still in place, though her being up ten minutes before the alarm went off had more to do with nerves than it did her internal body clock. She sometimes teased Ron about his predilection lying in bed all morning unless somebody chased him out of it. In fact, that very thing had led to some strife between them on occasion, but in reality, she had been slipping a bit herself. With nothing but her own sense that they were burning daylight to rouse her from her bed in the mornings, she had been getting up later and later as the summer wore on, especially on those rare, wonderful occasions when she was not alone in her bed.

It was actually more amusing than disappointing that her father was no more happy for Ron to spend the night with her now that they were adults and engaged than when they were minors and dating. He had given them his blessing to take their trip together, but somehow, under this roof, she was still his little girl whose virtue had to be protected.

Well, she had protected her own virtue, thank you very much. That didn't mean she missed holding Ron through the night. She loved him on a very deep, spiritual level, but she still craved physical contact with him. The fact both were there satisfied her soul deeply.

After a quick shower she slipped into the clothes they had picked out together. For this first day, they weren't going to simply rely on her small engagement ring to announce to the world that Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible were as one, and therefore 'off the market.' Anyone who saw them together that day was going to know instantly who went with who. It may have technically been summer, but Ron had a sort of tradition to uphold. For the last four years, he had worn the exact same outfit on the first day of school and it didn't matter that it was a tad warm to be wearing two layers.

Okay, Kim was cheating just a little bit. Instead of a navy blue turtleneck, she slipped the top part of her Mark II mission wear on. It was a black mock turtleneck, but the fabric it was made of would regulate her temperature better than the poly-cotton blend of the other. Over that she slipped one of Ron's remaining red and cream jerseys. He mother had taken it up a little bit, so it didn't hang on her like a tent, though it was long enough on her to wear like a dress. Only a short while ago she had been wearing another of the shirts as a nightgown.

Finally she slipped on a pair of 'artfully ratty' tan cargos. Ron teased her when she bought them at the mall, but she still just couldn't quite bring herself to wear a pair from Smarty Mart like he did. They may have cost almost ten times what they would have at the bargain retailer, but there really was a difference. Maybe it was the quality, maybe it was the cut, maybe it was just knowing she paid sixty dollars for them instead of six, but no matter the why, she was going to be comfortable in her own pants.

"Well, if folks were calling me Mrs. Stoppable before, they sure will be now." She said to herself, checking her look in the mirror. She smiled broadly as her twin appeared at her side.

"I like the sound of that, KP." Ron wrapped his arms around his fiancé's waist from behind and kissed her cheek. Turning in his arms, she gave him a more proper good-morning kiss. "Mrs. Stoppable…sounds a bit like Mom, but it looks good on you. Unless you want to keep your name."

"No way, Ronnie. In a few years I'm going to be Kim Stoppable." She leaned back and gave him a fake hairy eyeball. "As long as you're not going to start calling me KS."

"Nah, you'll always be my KP." He rubbed the small of her back, his fingers kneading slightly. They drifted slightly lower, just enough to imply where he'd like to be kneading, prompting a very happy smile from her.

Kim's eyes narrowed slightly. She put her nose closer to Ron's shirt and took a whiff. Moments later the smile returned. Years of babysitting told her exactly what that smell was.

"Somebody's been on diaper duty." She said finally, heading to her dresser to put on her jewelry and makeup.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, yeah. At least when we get started, you'll be well trained." She laughed, putting her earrings on.

"I can't wait for Mom to get back on her feet, so I can move back over here with you."

Kim frowned just a little bit. "Do you think that's a very good idea? Especially now?"

"What, your father's not going to let me or something?"

She shook her head. "No, Daddy was kind of upset when you moved back out himself, I'm sure he'd be glad to have you, but when you moved over here the first time, it was to help your parents out. Now they need you to help there and if you move out again, it's going to be because you want to be with me."

"I'm not sure I'm following you, Kim. Of course I want to be with you."

She smiled softly as she turned around. "Here, help me with this." She held the thing gold chain at arm's length. Ron may have had big hands, but he had a very deft, gentle touch with it came to her. Moments later she turned back to the mirror to put on some eyeliner and her lipstick. The final result was a very feminine version of Ron's usual look.

"Ron, I think your moving out over summer kind of hurt your mother. I'm sure she understood the logical reason for you doing it, but think what you mean to them. Even your Dad. He won't come out and say it, but he's got just as many letting go issues as my Dad." She got up and wrapped her arms around his chest, holding him close. "Give 'em a couple years, at least until Catherine is walking and talking, then maybe it'll be time for both of us to find a place of our own."

"Now that is something I'm looking forward to, though you know we're probably doomed to babysitting CJ every time we plan a date together."

"CJ? Your sister's a week old and you're already giving her a nickname?"

Ron shrugged. "Well, Dad's already calling her Cathy and Mom wants to call her Jean, so she's going to be confused as it is."

"CJ's kind of cute." Kim walked her fingers up the middle of Ron's chest. "I'm willing to bet you're going to call our son EJ, aren't you."

His eyes got wide. "Whoa, getting ahead of things, aren't you?"

She pouted slightly. "Why, you don't want kids?"

"Of course I do…it's just, I wanted it to be just you and me for a while once we get married."

That sounded familiar to her, being precisely her own feelings on the matter. One day they were going to really have to sit down and hammer out exactly what their feelings were on the matter, but for the moment, that would wait. It was comforting, though, that he was of a like mind with her.

Kim grabbed her backpack from the chair at her computer desk. For the moment it was empty save for the mission gear she always kept close at hand (especially after a couple instances when she was caught with nothing!) Soon enough, as in after a trip to the campus book store, it was going to be filled, and this time there wouldn't be a locker to put the stuff in. That also meant there wouldn't be a computer hook up handy to talk to Wade on, unless they relied on the terminal he installed in her car. The old computer at the high school had been moved into Jim and Tim's locker. She wondered how Mister Barkin and Principal Director were going to deal with yet another set of mission-ready Possibles.

"Ready, Baby?"

"Guess so, KP. Just, you know, when we walk out that door, summer's officially over."

Kim wrapped her arms around him again. "Can't be helped. I'm so not going to be late on my first day of classes. Besides, it's not like we're constantly in class all day."

"Yeah, 'cept we don't have any together any more and just about all day while you're out, I'll be in one."

She pulled him tighter against him. "Can't be helped, but that'll make this afternoon all that much sweeter when we're done. Tell you what, you can hold hands with me while we're in line at the book store."

"Badical."

"So, Ronnie, we've got a few minutes before we have to go."

"Kim, you just put on your makeup and all." He protested, a bit weakly.

"So, it's just lip gloss and I've got plenty in my backpack."

"Just don't get mixed up with Wade's knockout gas." He whispered, just as their lips met.

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