【 ╳ ╳ ʙᴀᴅɪᴄᴀʟ ﹗ 】

☯ + CANON DRABBLES: ALWAYS ACCEPTING

                         “KIM POSSIBLE AND RON STOPPABLE ARE DATING?”

          The CACOPHONOUS sound of Bonnie Rockwaller’s laughter was nothing less than SCATHING as it rang throughout the Middleton High Gymnasium, louder than any screaming crowd at a basketball game. If Kim’s stomach hadn’t already been doing a tumbling routine worthy of nationals, it was now as all eyes of the student body made their way to the door, where she stood hand-in-hand with one RON STOPPABLE. As right and good as it felt, there was a certain weight pushing down on her as Bonnie’s mocking slowly began to die away, met with silence for a few short seconds. 

             And then there was the CHEERING. Everyone was shouting, clapping, whistling, pumping their fist in the air––even the JANITOR had joined in on the CELEBRATION. The overwhelmingly positive reception had Kim taken aback in the most pleasant of ways as the DJ brings the music back into play. She glances toward Ron and as her eyes meet his out of her peripheral vision, she smiles. It’s SHEEPISH and a little EMBARRASSED, though it’s also very genuine. 

             At once, she’s pushed toward him with a little help from an equally little friend, and as Ron offers his hand and a smile, she takes both. That tumbling sensation in her stomach steadies itself as she’s lead out onto the gym floor, moving in a rhythmically-timed circle over the hardwood. She doesn’t notice the glances from other couples as they move in that circle. She doesn’t notice a pair of glaring blue eyes staring her down from the other side of the room. She does notice the curl of his palm against the small of her back and how her instinct isn’t to fight it, but to move into it. As her arms move to wrap around his shoulders and she presses part of her face into the fabric of his dated vintage powder-blue suit, her eyes close and she breathes a sigh of content. 

             They spin and they spin for a few moments more, and as they do she can’t help but feel at peace with the state of things. Though her nerves are on edge (ha!), it’s pleasant. And as his steps around the dance floor slow to a halt, so do hers. Suddenly she’s pulling away to look at him, as he is at her. 

             For a moment, negativity creeps up on her and she wonders if this was a MISTAKE, if she had somehow found a way to make the night WORSE instead of BETTER. Yet all that is obliterated with one crooked smile from the tall, freckly, gangly boy in front of her. How could she have been so BLIND before now? There’s a warmth spreading through her as pieces of a puzzle start connecting, and she smiles back at him. Him, her BEST FRIEND over the last twelve years. Him, her PARTNER-IN-CRIMEFIGHTING over the last three years. For every first day of school, every group project, every mission, every test, every mishap, every high and every low––through EVERYTHING, Ron had always been there. With solutions, with support, with a shoulder to cry on and a trip to Bueno Nacho for comfort, he had ALWAYS been there. He was her ROCK, her CONSTANT, her PERSON. 

              There’s little else she needs for confirmation as she’s drawn closer, closer, closer, until her lips are brushing over his own and everything aligns just perfectly. Because Ron Stoppable is not a LOSER. Ron Stoppable is not USELESS. Ron Stoppable is not COWARDLY. He is not STUPID, he is not LESS THAN.