Chapter #1 Madison

On a cold October night…...

A spiky haired ravenette, sporting a thick dark green hoodie, some jeans and leather boots casually roamed through the graffitied streets of Townsville, sipping on a beer without a single care in the world. You see around these parts, you had to be tough to survive, not that anyone could touch him in the first place. Still, the message remains. This was the part of Townsville where the cameras the film, where the dedicated mayor of the city didn't visit nor care to renovate. The slums, the projects, whatever you chose to call it but at the end of the day, it was a home to many tax paying citizens, struggling ones albeit.

Now Butch and his brothers weren't exactly struggling per say, they had a decent furnished apartment, clothes to spare,the bills were maintained, no cable but had a flowing internet connection and a few unnecessary electronic devices. Nothing worth complaining about. HIM had disappeared and the city made Mojo financially support them until of legal age, which they now were. With that in mind, Brick encouraged them to seek out jobs at sixteen for more independence from the brainiac chimpanzee with sticky fingers for money unless they did his evil bidding for him. They may have been his sons but they weren't his robots. Then again, who in their right minds would expect paternal love from a cape wearing monkey? Tsk.

Taking another swig of his beer, Butch bent the route to home, the sounds of screaming and drunken voices within his ultrasonic reach.

"Get away from me!"

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

What the-?!

"C'mon kid, give us your candy."

"Yeah...we know you got some."

Those drunken assholes..

"It's Halloween night, all kids got candy."

"I don't got any! Leave me alone!"

Oh for the love of-! Grr...Just this once!

Downing the last of his beer, Butch tossed the bottle in the alleyway dashing off to the loud sounds of a frightened child, stopping at the corner where five large, leather jacket wearing men huddled around a little brown haired girl in a long battered shirt.

What was she supposed to be for Halloween...a rag doll?

"We said cough up the candy, kid!" One of the big idiots snarled, lifting her into the air by arm, her struggling to break free.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Guess we'll just have to beat it out of-!" Oof!

Butch's fist slammed into the back of his head, making him immediately drop the kid flat on her butt.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Hey, what's the big ide-!" Butch boot kicked him against the wall, knocking the guy out cold. The other three came rushing at him to which Butch boredly kneed one in the stomach and again in the face, rocketed two trash can lids, knocking them both out, finally turning to the one that stopped upon witnessing the demise of his friends, now holding his arms in the air in a form of surrender.

Cracking a smile, Butch delivered a swift backhand to his face, knocking him into the wall near the kid, where he lost consciousness.

Now that that's over with it…

He turned to kid whose big brown eyes stared up at him in awe, some pieces of her short brown hair stuck to her face, her knees were pulled into her chest and now that he paid more attention, her "clothes" were definitely more rugged than they appeared. Still though, it was none of his business.

"Go home, kid. It's getting late," he said to her and left the alleyway, practically hearing the sound of her footsteps following behind him.

He faced her again, watching her pause dramatically like a naughty brat caught red handed. "Kid, did you not hear me? I said go home."

She gave him one of the saddest looks ever, shifting her gaze to her bare little feet. "Um….."

"Yeah?" Butch impatiently spat.

"T-Thank you for saving me," her sweet little voice said to him.

Butch scoffed. "Your welcome, now go home," he shooed her and walked off again, only to hear those same footsteps following behind him.

Butch spun back around in the most menacing way possible. "Kid, go home."

She frowned. "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I don't remember where it is."

"You don't remem-! What do I look like the fucking cops?" he practically snarled at her but she only innocently shrugged her shoulders.

"You saved me."

"So?!"

"You're my hero," she innocently said to him, clutching her hands together in a hopeful manner.

Oh no

No!

No no no no no no no no!

"Listen kid, I'm not a hero, you're just lucky I was in the area and that you scream so goddamn loud," he reassured the brat and whipped out his cellphone. "Do you know your mom's number?"

She frowned. "My mom...my mom...died, I got lost trying to find help," she sadly confessed to him.

Crap.

"Well, what about your dad?"

"We've never met."

Shit.

"So who takes care of you?"

She sadly looked away from him. "No one."

Great. Just great.

With an exasperated sigh, Butch squat down to her level. "How long have you been out on the streets?

"Um….." The girl counted on her fingers. "Five days."

"How old are you?"

"Six."

"What's your name?"

"Madison, what's yours?" she innocently asked him.

"It doesn't matter," Butch shot her down, watching the brat set her hands on her hips.

"No fair, I told you mine!" she protested in her whiny kiddie voice, watching the spiky haired man roll his eyes in annoyance.

Sigh

"Butch."

She gave him a cute smile. "Hi Butch."

He stood up. "Bye kid."

She grabbed onto his leg, wrapping her short ones around it as he walked away. "Hey! You can't just leave me here!"

"I can and I'm very much willing, now let go of my leg." This wasn't his problem, there were homeless shelter about somewhere, some law abiding citizen would take her there eventually.

"No, there's scary people around...its cold...I'm hungry…. and...and...I don't have anyone else!" she screamed loud enough to draw the attention of the entire effing neighborhood.

Growling to himself, Butch ceased his movement, glancing down at the brat gripping his leg. Her eyes were watering up, staring at him desperately to help her. Ugh...wasn't this one of those powder-puffs jobs?!

"Listen Kid...err...Madison, I'm not a hero, I'm a bad person who does bad things, can you understand that?"

"What kind of bad things?" In her eyes, Butch looked nowhere as bad as the men she's had to runaway from before.

"Really, really bad things. Like...like…" he trailed off for an example, "Beating up random people!"

"Like those guys that attacked me?" asked her curious voice.

"Yeah, suckers like them."

Her brows furrowed. "How does that make you a bad person?"

"Because it's wrong to beat people up."

"But you saved me, so you aren't a bad person, you're a good person."

Sigh. "I wasn't trying to save you, ki- Madison."

Madison didn't look too convinced. "Then why did you come?"

"Because I felt like it," Butch answered with a shrug.

She cutely giggled. "See? That's the goodness inside of you!"

"Goodness?" he repeated the filthy word, watching her nodd.

Butch shook his head, trying to think of something to change her perception of him. "Look kid, ….I...I..kill puppies for a living, I'm a terrible, terrible person!"

Her grip tightened on his leg, feeling the weight of her head lay against it. "No you aren't, you saved me….you saved me..."

Jesus Christ..

What was he supposed to do now? The kid was clearly attached to him with no intentions of letting go. He wasn't cold hearted enough to assault an already struggling kid just to get her off his back and he sure as hell didn't fuck with the police, nor those power puffs.

Sigh. He was gonna regret this.

"You said you were hungry right?"

"Yes," was her polite answer.

"Then let's get you some food, kid."

Home

Brick and Boomer stared at the little brown haired girl sitting on their kitchen counter, happily munching on an extra large slice of pepperoni pizza. When Butch explained what happened Brick didn't know whether to be upset or furious. First of all, homeless little girls belonged in shelters, not their apartment, secondly, dropping her off at the police station would have been tons more effective for Madison's well being. How long would they take care of her before becoming suspects to whatever the fuck happened to her mother when the body was discovered?! Then the girl went missing and resided in their fucking apartment! Did Butch have any idea how bad this looked?!

Tsk. Despite how much he may have wanted to yell at his brother, he still helped an innocent kid. They weren't worst in the barrel nor the purest hearted beings but to have nothing but the clothes on your backs out on the streets, he certainly understood. At least Brick had his brothers, Madison had no one or at least, no known family member to take her in as yet.

Boomer, like his brothers, didn't quite know how to approach the situation at hand. He wasn't mad at Butch for bringing her here, but how were three nineteen year old males supposed to raise a little girl? If she was a boy it might have been easier but, even on a social standard, it looked….weird. They would have to get her clothes and other girly stuff and she had to sleep somewhere. Sharing a bed with a random little girl was also…...weird. What if people got the wrong idea? It was bad enough they were living in the slums.

Madison on the other hand, innocently stared back at the three men observing her quietly. She could tell they had no intentions of harming her, Butch said they were his brothers and they welcomed her into their warm home, even giving her pizza and soda. They were really nice people.

"Enjoying the pizza?" the blonde one, Boom...Boomer asked her.

"Yes, I like pepperoni," was her joyous answer.

"When was the last time you ate?" the one with the long, pretty hair, Brick, asked her.

"This morning, people hand me things sometimes."

"Oh, I see," he mostly said to himself as she finished up her large pizza slice.

"Would you like to take a bath?" Boomer offered, holing out a hand to safely get her off the counter.

"Yes, please," Madison said, holding Boomer's hand to get down. They were a really strong family.

"Alright, let's go get you cleaned up," Boomer's voice trailed off, leading the girl to the shower.

Brick turned to Butch again, who cracked open a can of beer.

"What?" he said, all nonchalant.

"Two things: She needs clothes to change into and a place to sleep tonight and for however long she stays for," Brick explained to his brother.

Butch took a sip of his beer."She could take my bed, I have that old blow up mattress in my closet, no big deal."

Brick folded his arms in thought. "Alright, well...I have some old shirts that I don't use, I can make some adjustments to the size but we're gonna have to visit a homeless shelter or wherever for stuff, or else that's a lot of expense on our end."

"Noted, in the meanwhile, I'm gonna blow up my bed," Butch announced, walking off to his room, leaving Brick alone in the kitchen. There was an awkward feeling in the apartment for sure but hey, it could be worse.

He walked past Boomer casually standing outside of the shower door, patiently waiting on Madison to finish. Boomer was sure to point her to the soap and the hair products, lowered the shower hose and put a towel folded within arms reach for the girl. Hoping that she knew how to wash herself properly at least. Geez, this was so weird and while his brother's might have too much pride to seek their help, the powerpuffs would be the better ones suited to care for Madison. They were females after all and owned plenty of female related things. Maybe, in a non-suspicious way he could get them to donate somehow.

Blossom was the rational one, albeit judgmental, would still hear him out at least since they haven't done anything criminal worthy for some years now. She had no legal reason to be out for their blood and if he couldn't get her to listen to him then hopefully Bubbles would, knowing Buttercup to be the aggressive sister. Boomer didn't have much hopes to even utter a word to her in the first place without a fight starting. If all fails, he could ask Robin, they had a pretty good friendship and although she didn't trust his brothers, she'd help for his sake.

"Here," Brick's voice snapped Boomer out of his thoughts. He held a small red shirt out to him, a shortened pair of socks and what looked like a cut up piece of leggings to imitate a pair shorts .

"Have Madison where these when she's done, Butch is blowing up his bed," the rowdyruff leader informed and walked off.

"Boomer, I'm done!" Madison called out to him.

"Did you wrap yourself with the towel?!"

"Yes, I did!"

Nervously exhaling, Boomer opened the door and turned off the shower before addressing the towel secured Madison, handing the clothes to her.

"Do you know how to put on your clothes?"

"Of course, I do."

"Right, right…" Boomer nervously replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head and left the bathroom to give her privacy. Maybe he should watch a Youtube video on taking care of a little girl. Youtube had instructions for everything...right?

The door clicked, revealing Madison in her new clothes "I'm done." That shirt Brick trimmed went all the way down to her knees and the socks surpassed that length. At least she was well covered, finding her decent clothes to take outside was another issue for in the morning.

Oh well, they'd find a way. Taking Madison's hand, Boomer led the girl to Butch's room opening the door to lead her inside. The girl's eyes brightened at the site before her, rushing off to hop excitedly on the bed, giggling and whatnot.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Butch scolded the still bouncing little girl, "Beds are for sleeping not bouncing, I don't want to hear any crying if you end up hurting yourself!"

Smiling brightly at the man she considered a hero, Madison plopped herself down on the bed, snuggling her face into the pillow.

"I really missed beds…. Mmmm." And just like that, Madison was asleep, her stomach heaving high and low in a calm manner.

Shaking his head, Butch spread the blanket to keep her body warm as she slept before kicking Boomer out and turned off the lights. He left the door open to let a creak of light in the room so the boogeyman, or whatever the hell kids these days were afraid of during the course of the night, wouldn't interfere with his sleep. Grumbling at the thought, Butch threw over his covers, quickly falling asleep himself.

AN- With Christmas coming up, I thought I would try my hand at a heartfelt story on the gift of giving, caring and sharing. Enjoy!