And You And I

S204 (U1): Where do I go from here?

Author's note:

Ok, so final chapter for this update and Pink Floyd snag the chapter title for the third time. I took the line, where do we go from here? from the song What do you want from me, from the bands 1994 album The Division Bell and simply replaced we with I. In relation to the chapter, it is a question that Kim is still very much trying to figure out an answer to. Anyway, enjoy.

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It was Monday morning and Middleton was still in the throughs of a summer storm. Rain lashed against everything and there was so little sunlight that it could easily have been mistaken for late evening. Up in the penthouse apartment, Kim Possible was sat in an armchair; a plate of toaster tarts resting on her knees. While this would seem like something completely ordinary, for the renowned world hero, it was anything but. It had just gone ten-thirty and everything about this morning had been wrong.

The first deviation had actually occurred the previous night, when she had purposefully not set her alarm clock. This had resulted in her sleeping in, something that until her recent spell of captivity at the Possible residence, would have been completely unheard of for her, at least since she had turned pro-hero. Naturally, this had resulted in her skipping her morning workout for the second day running. Once awake, she'd gone to the kitchen and instead of her normal high energy healthy breakfast, made herself some of the toaster tarts she'd bought at the store the previous day. However, these were only small deviations when compared to the fact that it was ten-thirty on a Monday morning and she had not already left for a mission.

The temptation had been there. Lingering in the back of her mind like a mousetrap bated with the tastiest of morsels. And every few hours the previous day, she'd almost succumbed and chewed down on it. Gone to her PC, accepted a mission and jetted off for an adrenaline hit. Leaving her problems behind in Middleton to be dealt with never. Somehow, Kim had forced herself to stay put, knowing that she needed to sort out her head. Thus, late last night, after binge-watching re-runs of Pals, she'd made the unprecedented decision to take today off. Unfortunately, it had done her no good thus far. Her mind was no less at sea than it had been yesterday.

Kim bit into the hot toaster tart and felt the almost scalding strawberry goodness touch her tongue. It lit up her taste buds in a way that only something crammed full of sugar and fat could; it tasted heavenly. God, I've missed these. A faint smile formed on her face and for the time it took her to eat the first of her two pastries, she was content. Only the feeling did not last. The dark, looming conglomeration of all her problems once again making itself known with the thought, I haven't had a toaster tart since I lived with Ron. And they were not the only goodies her kept in the kitchen cupboards. In fact, if it wasn't something I'd bought myself, anything I picked up was unhealthy and oh so tempting.

Kim let out a long sigh, of all the problems I have, Ron is the one I have the least chance of doing something about. Her gaze then fell on the naked-mole-shark that lay sleeping on her sofa. While not actually Rufus, Ru-Ru was close enough to serve as a living reminder of her former best friend. However, the creature, while sharing a lot of similarities with Ron's naked-mole-rat, had a personality all of his own. Whether it was a result of being spliced with a shark, living with Shego or something else entirely, Ru-Ru had both a sneaky and vicious streak that Rufus lacked. Not to mention a short temper.

When she had finally come home from her trip to Mama Joy's and Smarty Mart yesterday, she'd found the creature awake and in a foul mood because there had been nothing for him to eat. He'd come bounding off the sofa, ripped open one of her shopping bags and tried to make off with a small block of cheese. She'd managed to stop him, promptly confiscated it and told him he would get nothing if he didn't behave. It had been enough to get him to toe the line for a time, however, they had clashed again over use of the TV and at one point, while she had been in the bathroom; he had changed the channel and hidden the remote.