Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kim Possible.

Vanilla Swirl

– Coffee –

By: Imyoshi

Kim's day had not started off well.

And it had only gotten worse as it progressed.

She had woken up late since she set her alarm clock to 6:30 p.m. not a.m. the night before. Then the rush of getting out of bed led her to stubbing her toe against her desk when trying to make up for the lost time. And not only did she accidentally hurt herself, but Tim had taken forever in the shower and she didn't even have time to enjoy breakfast when she finally was ready for school.

But what hurt the most was that Ron had not showed up to walk her to school like usual.

And Kim could've really used some of his Ronshine that morning.

Now here she was in front of her locker, mumbling to herself, dangerously low on Ronshine and wondering what happened to Ron as she slammed her books in and squeezed that stress relief ball Monique gave her over and over again. She was slowly starting to get addicted to the little thing.

"Hmph, stupid alarm clock, stupid desk, stupid Tim..." grumble, grumble, grumble.

Passing students couldn't help but overhear the excessive complaining coming from Kim, but kept moving forward anyways. They liked their bones not broken and in the right places thank you very much. An angry Kim Possible was a dangerous Kim Possible.

Shoving the last of her books inside her locker, Kim waited for Ron to show, but seconds soon turned into minutes and she decided to contact Wade to see if he had any leads on their Egyptian heist the other day to pass the time.

"Hey Kim," Wade greeted absently, reading some papers.

"Hey Wade," she greeted back equally as distracted. "Checking to see if you dug up anything on our museum heist yesterday."

"Hold on, give me a second here," Wade uploaded an ancient text to her screen. "I uncovered a little. It turns out the scepter they stole yesterday has something to do with this ancient Egyptian ritual. I'm trying to decipher the ancient text as we speak, but it's going to take me a while. A lot of these hieroglyphs are difficult to translate."

"Do you think the bad guy knows what the text says?" she asks.

Wade glared at the paper, "Probably, but it would have to be someone that has a great knowledge of Egyptian artifacts and culture. But I wouldn't be able to guess who until I get more clues."

"Do you know at least what scepter it was they stole?"

More typing and a new image of the said scepter appeared on the screen. "The museum archives state that it supposedly belonged to the Egyptian God of the Sun, Ra. But there's no definite way of knowing for sure. Sorry Kim."

Sigh, "Thanks anyways, Wade." she smiled weakly, closing the connection. Her mind immediately went into mission mode trying to figure out what the bad guys could want with an old scepter. But so far, nothing came to mind.

...

Stepping into their boss's office, the three henchmen stood across his steel desk where he sat, chair turned away and the stolen scepter in Mac's hand while the others stood nervously between him. Even if no appointed leader existed between the three, it was universally decided that Mac had been selected, asked to or not.

Their employer remained turned away, leaning a bit back on his chair, the light effects of the shadows hiding his upper body. His fingers tapped aimlessly on the arm rest, waiting.

"What happened?"

"We ran into some trouble, boss. But we were able to snag the scepter you wanted." Mac answered.

"Trouble?" he questioned, ignoring the good news. "What kind of trouble?"

Mac gripped the scepter tighter, wondering if his boss would believe him, "A mummy—Now before you start thinking we've gone crazy... just hear us out!"

"No need," he cut off, turning to stare at his employees, face still well hidden. "I've seen crazier things than a mummy before. So don't worry too much about it."

"You have?" he asked, relieved.

"Yes," he eyes wandered between his three henchmen, stopping momentarily back at him. "Weren't there four of you? Where's Carl?"

Upon hearing that name, the three henchmen looked between each other, shrugging at the possible answer they could give their boss. After all, Carl had just left after the heist without even looking back. Still, they needed to give him an answer. Eventually henchmen number three, Curly, walked forward to deliver the news.

"Um, he left boss," he answered, laughing a bit. "He was yelling something about the future and all that. Crazy talk ya know. So it looks like we're a bit short handed... uh!"

Slam!

All three henchmen cringed as their boss's fist slammed against his desk, a small dent on his steel desk visible. "Do you think this is a joke?!"

"N-No sir! I didn't mean it like that! I wasn't laughing about that!"

Fuming slightly, their boss slowed his breathing to better his nerves. Eventually the anger around him withered down to mild annoyance. Without even muttering a word, his hand reached out. Scared, Mac handed him the scepter, his two companions equally as frightened.

"You're dismissed," he yelled, eyeing the scepter with an interest. "Take a few days off. I'll have a new assignment ready for you in a couple of days."

Hearing him discharged them for the day; Mac steeled his nerves and stepped forward. He needed to get something off his chest and thought might as well as get his request over with.

"Boss," he breathed. "The guys and I feel we need to find another guy to replace Carl. Since you know the old saying, threes a crowd, but fours a party... and I feel safer with four." The other two nodded alongside him.

Eyeing them and then back at the scepter that they did manage to steal from the hometown of the notorious Kim Possible, he turned his chair away from them, agreeing.

"Fine then." Waving his hand dismissively, "Go find a replacement. Just make sure you have him before I call you back!"

Nodding and happy at his approval, the three henchmen casually walked out their boss's office, towards their villainous get away van, trying to think of a good replacement for Carl. They only had a few days to figure it out.

"Who are we going to find to replace Carl?" Mac wondered, somewhat sad. "I went to law school with that guy. I'm gonna miss him."

"No idea."

"Hey, Mac, why don't we ask your cousin Larry and see if he wants to join?" Curly added. "The guy looks like he could use some time away from his wife."

"No kidding."

...

"C'mon Ron, it won't be that bad." Monique reassured him, trying to get Ron to enter the school.

"That's what my mom said about Camp Wannaweep!" he argued. "And she was wrong! Way wrong! I still have nightmares of that pollution filled lake and that damn monkey mascot, Monique!"

She stopped trying to get Ron to enter the building upon realizing that he was immobilized by fear. Thinking, Monique tried to recall what Kim once told her on how to get Ron out of his scared state. It took her a second, but she remembered.

Focusing, Monique pushed her arms closer, opened her eyes, and unleashed her pout in full effect at a poor unsuspecting Ron.

Ron stared in horror at her puppy dog pout, his eyes slightly wide. Monique almost grinned when she saw his internal struggle, almost. She needed to keep calm and steady, and maybe even wobble her lip a smidge to get him cave.

And Ron almost did cave.

"N-Nope!" he broke free, stunning the world. "Sorry Monique, but it's not as strong as KP's. You're still not getting me into that school."

Pout defeated, Monique remained stunned and slightly impressed at the boy's strength. Who knows how hard it must be to resist the pout? But impressed or not, she did not wake at five this morning just for Ron to back out now.

Time for the big guns.

Glaring, Monique pointed towards the school doors, "Either you get your butt into that school or I'll spread a rumor around that you collect cuddle buddies." Threats, they were onto threats now.

And just like that, all of Ron's fear melted away, to only be replaced with defiance.

"No one will believe you," challenged a heated Ron.

"Perhaps," she reasoned, shrugging, a devious smirk etching her lips. "I guess we'll have to leave to oh so clear thinking and non-judging minds of the average high student decide, won't we?"

It took a few seconds for what Monique said to seek in and when it did, Ron remained silent, glaring at her.

"That hurts Monique," he claimed. "It hurts right here in my heart." Ron pointed at some part of his body.

"That's your liver, Ron."

"It still hurts!"

Grinning, she pushed a defeated sidekick into the school, his nervousness not her problem. Not in the slightest. She won, he lost. It wasn't anything new—just another day of being the great fashion expert, Monique.

"You know I hate you right?"

"No you don't."

...

Ready for class and standing beside her locker, Kim tapped her foot impatiently, waiting to see any sign of her goofy messy blond headed best friend. Ron was taking longer than usual to show up. If he planned on showing up at all that is.

Squeeze!

"Where is Ron?" Kim wondered, squeezing the life out of the stress ball. "English class is going to start soon and Mr. Barkin is going to flip if he's late again."

Squeeze!

A couple of random students passed by her were engaged in a rather unique conversation that she happened to catch a sentence of.

"Hey did you get a look at Stoppable's new dreads, they looked pretty rad," one of the random teens commented with his buddy on there way to class.

Upon hearing the random guy's conversation, Kim didn't know what was worse. Ron wearing another new outfit or that guy's out of date teen slang. No wait, it was definitely that guy's out of date slang. Ron could always change his outfit, but it was far too late to save that poor guy.

Wait a minute... new outfit?

"Ron has a new outfit?" she questioned before it all came back to her. "That's right! He lost a bet with Monique and has to wear whatever she says."

Kim's eyes narrowed a bit at those new stats, slowly recalling the last time Ron did something new. Last time something like this happened he got a new haircut and it came with an inflated ego. And judging about how those few teens sounded, sad as they may be, she figured Ron's outfit rocked.

Then another haunting thought crossed her mind. Ron didn't show up to her house this morning because he was too busy with Monique that morning. That small spec of info did something to Kim. A heat in her chest rose and she suddenly felt a tight constrict bind in her stomach, knotting in the dead center.

She didn't know exactly what it was she was feeling at the moment, but Kim did know that she did not like it—not at all. It almost seemed foreign, but some part of it still seemed oddly familiar. Like it was subtly mocking her for not realizing what it was.

Forgetting it for now, Kim allowed herself to smirk at what probably Monique was dealing with. A hot-headed Ron Stoppable made for a terrible friend and Kim was pretty sure that's exactly what Ron happened to be at the moment. She knew from personal experience that Ron with sudden popularity was not fun to be around.

And Kimberly was glad that she wasn't the one having to deal with it.

Mystery of the missing best friend solved, she walked towards where those two random guys came from, figuring that Ron had to be in that general direction. She couldn't wait to see how Monique handled Ron.

...

One minute.

It only took one damn minute before Ron decided he loved his new outfit after all the positive attention he got from the student body.

And one damn minute for his alter ego to kick in.

"Booyah," Ron grinned at the lovely ladies eyeing him. "I'm liking this."

Monique watched with calm interest as Ron's smile turned fairly seductive, his entire Ronness warming up into a fire of passion. She even noticed the tone in his voice changing and his abrupt more laid back attitude. In all it pointed to one conclusion.

This wasn't good.

Monique recognized this. Kim once told about this Ron. And from the stories she heard, it looked like Ron was falling back into his old funk. To further support her theory, Rufus jumped out of Ron's hoodie and ran up her shoulder, jumping in a hysteric panic for his owner.

"I know, Rufus. I know," Monique acknowledged, rubbing her chin in deep thought. "We got to stop this before it gets out of control."

"Uh-huh!"

Looking at the naked mole rat on her shoulder, Monique got a crazy idea. Never one for doing things complicated, unless of course clothes were involved, she decided to try something that most people tended to avoid until they had no cards left. At least the people she knew did that.

The direct approach.

Walking up towards Ron, she grabbed him by the hood of his hoodie by her one free arm, the other holding her books for class and pulled him away from all the attention he greedily breathed in. Suffice to say, the current Ron was not pleased.

"What gives, Monique?" Ron yelled, freeing himself from her hold and glaring something at her. "What's your damage? Couldn't you see I was a bit busy there?"

Arms crossed, shoulders hunched, and glare equally as strong—Monique didn't falter. She simply hit Ron on the shoulder roughly, hoping the pain stung even a little.

Judging by the way he rubbed his shoulder, it did.

"Ron," her tone was strong and demanding forcing the sidekick to flinch. "You got to stop this before it gets out of hand."

"Stop what?" he asked, shoulder still hurting. "I was just talking to those girls over there."

"No... not just that, Ron," Monique humph. "You got to stop from turning into that other Ron."

"Other Ron? What other Ron? You're not making much sense here, Monique!"

She allows her eyes to sadden, "The one that forgets about his friends... his family... Rufus," she could tell that one stung. "The one Kim told me about," she adds, "Ron with the new haircut... that Ron."

For a moment it seemed Ron had a comeback ready for her, but he stops halfway, his thoughts completely shot. All he could focus on that instant was her last words. The reminder she gave him. The memory—the bad memory. He remembers Ron with a new haircut. He remembers that one well.

And he remembers how he almost lost his essential Ronness. His core. That very core he had that gave him an easy going devil may care attitude that made Ron... an easy going devil may care guy.

Frozen, Monique and Rufus watch as Ron seems to focus and then lose focus as the words hit deep. An unseen fight warred between him and him alone.

"Ron?" Monique worryingly called out, her hand reaching out to grab his shoulder. "Are you okay?" That alone enough seems to shake him out of his daze, allowing him to center on what was important.

Slightly stunned at her worried face, Ron slowly grabbed her wrist, not moving her hand away or any closer. He studied her expression and then looked at Rufus standing on her shoulder for some sort of guidance. The little guy jumped over to his shoulder, rubbing his paw across his face for comfort.

That's all the help he needed.

Smiling warmly, Ron laughs lightly at the sitch, "You're right, Monique. I don't want to turn into that Ron again."

Upon hearing his answer, Monique sighs in relief, grinning, "You better not or I'm going to have smack you hard across the face. And believe me, you don't want that."

"Hehe, I guess not," Ron admits, still feeling the pain his shoulder. "I guess I almost turned back into bigheaded Ron, huh?"

"Yea," she smiles, "But don't worry, I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen." Rufus chirps in protest, "Oh and Rufus too. We're both here to keep that head of yours sealed on tight."

"Thanks," he mutters.

"Don't mention it, naco boy," Monique teased, only now noticing he still held her wrist. She pulled away, feeling warmer than before and about ready to head to class. "C'mon, Mr. Barkin will flip out if you're late again. And I don't want detention either. I got better things to do after school that being locked up in a room."

"Like what?"

"Like not being locked up in a room. Seriously Ron, it's no wonder your pants keep falling."

"Hey!" he cried. "It's not my fault! The universe it out to get me!"

"The universe?" she deadpanned.

"Yes the universe!" Monique's expression did not change and Ron grew a little flustered. "Whatever! Let's just go to class already."

Grinning, Monique expected Ron to sulk the entire way to English class. She expected too of course follow and tease him without a shred of mercy on the way there. What she didn't expect was for Ron to grab her books out of under her arm and then begin walking to class.

"Uh, Ron?" Monique called. "What are you doing?"

He stopped to stare at her, "Walking to class, Monique. What does it look like?"

"No, not that, Ron," she huffed before pointing at her books in his hands. "I meant my books. Why'd you take them?"

Ron could only give her an innocent stare, eventually deciding to shrug indifferent. "I thought it be nice to hold them for you... a way of saying thanks, since, you know," he trails absently. "But I mean if you want to hold your own—"

"No!" she cuts in, pushing him towards the class. "Momma is all good here. You can just carry those for me. All day in fact. It's no big, right Ron?"

He grins in response, "Right."

...

Kim stood in silence as she watched Ron and Monique head to class. Her face was twisted up in annoyance, her nose scrunching in a mad but adorable way, and her arms remained stiffly at her sides, fist curled. She had walked on between Ron and Monique just in time to see Ron not acting like she expected and even worse, he was holding Monique's books for her. Kim can't even recall if Ron ever did that for her.

Yet there he was—holding Monique's books—not acting like his jerky self when he gained popularity.

This was so ferociously unfair.

For the past week, Kim only had personal time with Ron during the mission while Monique had all the rest. She knew she couldn't blame her though, it wouldn't be fair. After all, always being busy did attribute to some of the problem. And it wasn't like Monique planned to take Ron away from her. But before, Ron would have always stood beside her, helping her finish her the demanding workload, taking an immense pressure off her shoulders.

But now Monique seemed to be taking of all of Ron's personal time.

All of it.

Leaving Kim to burden her responsibilities alone.

Not even realizing what she was doing, Kim had already grabbed the stress ball Monique gave her, giving the poor device a powerful squeeze.

Squeeze!

"What makes Monique so special?" Kim didn't even realize she was talking out loud. "First they're hanging out, then the movies, Bueno Nacho, having what is suppose to be our morning walks, and now he's holding her books for her!"

Squeeze!

Not actually imagining she'll get a response from the empty hallway, Kim kept her eyes solely focused on her retreating friends, hearing them laugh at some joke along the way. When they finally escaped from her stare, she sighed heavily, giving a last squeeze to the ball. She was getting too stressed these past few days and needed to cool down, but she couldn't. Relief didn't seem to want to her a break.

If anything, Kim realized that she felt relief when Ron was around her. Telling her jokes, calming her down when she worked herself to hard, or even smiling those warm lovable smiles her way.

The thought of it all... hurt.

Rubbing her forehead at what clearly were the signs of a headache coming along, she furrowed her brows in thought before finally deciding on her next course of action.

In order to feel better and stop herself from turning into a Kimmie-storm, she has all but one option left.

It was time to get her best friend back!

Storming off to class determined, Kim didn't notice a certain brunette behind her, having heard what she had said moments ago. Apparently the hallway wasn't as empty as she first thought.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun."

Author Notes: Sorry for the wait.