You Can't Stop a Good Thing

by StraniqueGirl0684

What happens when the girl Brick has silently had a crush on shows up at the club he works at? Will he get the courage to speak to her, or will he let the opportunity pass him by? A re-telling of "The Saddle's Waiting; Come and Jump on It" from Brick's perspective. A birthday fic for CarrieDreamer.

Hello all! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, but that's because I was working on this piece! It's a retelling of "The Saddle's Waiting; Come and Jump on It" but from our favorite red-eyed boy's perspective! Hopefully you'll enjoy the differences if you've read both, or enjoy this on its own if you haven't!

It also happens to be a birthday present for one of the sweetest and most talented girls on the Internet, CarrieDreamer! I hope you enjoy this, my dear, and that you've had a wonderful birthday! If you guys know her, be sure to send her lots of love! She deserves it!

As always, I own nothing and am just putting words on the page. Onto the story!

---

Brick Jojo rushed across the street, barely taking the time to look both ways. Fuck. If he showed up late again, Matt would make that disappointed dad look that the redhead abhorred. His boss never liked to yell, settling for making the boys feel like shit with the silent frowns and furrowed brows instead.

But it wasn't Brick's fault! Sure, he'd lost track of time in the library. For the third time that week. But midterms would be here before they knew it, and he had to be prepared. He needed to start off strong if he planned on sticking with his pre-med plan. Slacking off during the second semester of his freshman year would do him no favors.

However, try telling his boss that. As far as Matt was concerned, he'd be happy if Brick stayed at the club to work forever. While the gig paid well, it wasn't enough to sway him. Maybe his brothers, but not him. Brick had things to do with his life.

As he continued to curse the fact that he worked halfway across town and missed hitching a ride with his brothers' in their only vehicle, Brick barely registered a distressed sound. He paused for only a moment before hearing what could only be a woman screaming.

Without a second thought, he ran towards the noise, work be damned.

His feet moved even faster than before, practically allowing him to fly down the sidewalk. Trying to pinpoint the source of the sound, his crimson gaze flicked left and right. He never stopped running.

When he rounded the next corner, Brick stopped short as he saw two blonde girls stumble out of the alley only half a block ahead of him. The taller of the two lost a shoe in her rush and held her dress to her chest in desperation. The smaller blonde ushered her across the street to the bench, immediately assisting her in tying the scraps of fabric, from where the garment was quite obviously ripped, back together.

Brick shook his head and fought back a sneer. He needed to have a word with the asshole who thought he had the right to do whatever the hell he wanted to that poor girl. A fire burning in his veins, he stormed over to the mouth of the alley. What he saw caused him to blink a few times.

Was this even real?

He supposed he should have known the little blonde wouldn't have been able to perform a rescue mission like that on her own without at least some mace, but nothing would ever have prepared him for the sight that greeted him in that alley.

A dark haired girl held a man in a full Nelson with his face pushed up against the brick of one of the buildings. Her green eyes glittered with ill-concealed rage and disgust. The sneer on her face as she swore at the scumbag, threatening every inch of his private parts in grave detail in a hushed whisper.

Brick felt a shiver run up his spin. Somehow the whispering of the violent acts made the girl all the more terrifying. However, he got the feeling the only reason her vocal pitch remained as low as it did due to the other person occupying the alley.

The silky red hair hung longer than any other hair he'd ever seen. She spoke with professionalism into a cell phone to what he could only assume were the authorities, and Brick felt his palms start to sweat. There was no way she was much older than him, but her countenance could not be denied.

And then she turned, and Brick's heart found a new home lodged in his throat.

Her eyes were a bright, striking pink.

Pink.

He looked around again, first at the petite blonde across the street and then the fiery raven haired girl before his eyes settled on her again.

Holy shit, they were real. Believe didn't make them up.

One of the bartenders at the club mentioned going to high school with a trio of girls who had a knack for smalltime heroics. But he'd never considered for a moment that there was any stock in what Believe had to say. The kid got moony eyed whenever he brought them up, so Brick assumed it was a load of bull shit.

Well, as the saying goes, he was an ass. Because apparently the girls were very real and capable of much greater heroics than he'd anticipated.

When the redhead hung up, she turned to the other girl in the alley. "The authorities are on their way. Please try not to rough him up too much."

"Fucker deserves worse than some scrapes on his face."

"That's not up to you to decide, Buttercup." The stern look the redhead adopted only caused the other girl to scowl. "Can I trust you here while I go check on the girls?"

"Of course, Leader Girl. My buddy and I here will be just fine. Isn't that right, pal?" The girl, Buttercup apparently, planted her knee between the guy's legs. "Just in case he tries any funny business."

"Don't leave me alone with her!" the coward squeaked out. "Please, lady, you gotta help me!"

The hardening of those pink eyes made a flinty look that somehow shook the bastard up more than the knee less than a few inches from his gonads. "I will do no such thing. Don't you dare pretend to be the victim here, sir. You were mere moments away from assaulting that poor girl, and you dare to ask for my sympathies?" She sneered. "You disgust me."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked with her head held high across the street to the blondes. She walked only a few feet away from him, but her vision clearly tunneled on her objective, and she never even saw him.

She squatted in front of the two girls. Long gone was the hardened look from only moments prior. Her eyes softened as she offered a small smile. "Is there anything I can get for you, miss?"

The sobbing blonde shook her head as she choked out, "No-no. And my name's E-erica."

"If you change your mind, Erica, just let me know, okay?" The redhead bit her lip. "The authorities are on their way to get him. But…they're probably going to want to speak with you."

As if the poor girl hadn't been through enough. Another sob racked her body.

The other blonde immediately offered a hand which the girl took. "But they're not going to make you! We won't let them, right?"

"N-no! I want to talk to them," Erica insisted, but she looked at the other blonde. "But you'll stay with me, right?"

"Of course! Whatever you need." The petite girl's eyes watered with tear of sympathy.

Brick felt immediately out of place. However, before he could think to continue on to work, where he should be right now, the sound of sirens echoed in the air. Well fuck. Technically, he was also a witness, so it wasn't likely he'd be able to weasel out of this very quickly.

Matt couldn't really argue the importance of this though.

Regardless, Brick thumbed a quick message to his youngest brother, the one more likely to even notice his absence.

Got caught up in something on the way to work. I'll explain when I'm there. Tell Matt I'll be there ASAP.

The cop car pulled up then, and the officer in the passenger's seat immediately rose with cuffs in hand before entering the alley. Exchanging a couple of words with the dark haired girl, the officer patted the guy down and pulled out several pocket knives before cuffing the asshole. He listed off the Miranda rights as he escorted the guy to the back of the cop car.

Then Brick caught sight of another scrap of fabric in the alley. Something undeniably lacey.

…he hoped the fucker got convicted.

The female officer that drove approached the three girls across the street. She listened as Erica recounted the horrors that were barely prevented. Whenever her voice hitched, the petite girl next to her shed a few more tears, gripping her hand like a vice.

The redhead filled in the blanks that Erica seemed unable to get through. Brick couldn't help but stare. She kept her head on straight the whole time, sticking with facts. He saw the fire that burned in her eyes – she wanted the shithead brought to justice as much as the other girls did, but she communicated it much more eloquently than the dark haired girl did when the male officer approached.

"The fucker should be strung up by his balls. Make him squeal like the pig he is."

Once he'd finished with Buttercup, the officer approached Brick. "Sir, would you mind recounting exactly what you saw happen here?"

Brick did as quickly as he could. Truthfully, he'd only witnessed the aftermath, and he told the officer as much.

"Those girls are going to have far more information for you than I do. I just heard a scream, but they were here by the time I got here. Had a pretty good handle on the situation too."

The officer nodded and handed Brick his card. "Well, if there's anything you think of, here's my card."

"Of course. Is that all?"

"You're free to go, sir. Thank you for your help."

Brick laughed humorlessly. "Don't thank me. Thank them." He indicated the three girls across the street. "They're the ones who put a stop to the crime."

He chuckled in return. "Can't say I'm surprised. Those Utonium sisters always have been some of the biggest sources of good in Townsville. They certainly restore some faith that there are brave souls out there, eh?" The officer clapped Brick on the shoulder. "Have a good night, son."

As the man walked away, he heard the officer call out, "Blossom, a word?"

The redhead turned and offered a small smile that had Brick's stomach flipping in weird ways. "Of course, Officer Brody. How can I help you?"

Brick eventually convinced his feet to move towards work, knowing he'd have next to no prep time before his performance that night, but he couldn't bring himself to care. His thoughts were consumed by the pretty redhead who held herself with composure in the light of a horrific situation. Who conversed with police officers with a level of professionalism and comfort unseen in most people, let alone people his age.

He couldn't help but be impressed.

When he arrived, he snuck into the dressing room on autopilot. As he prepared for his act, his brothers made their way over to him.

"Dude, where the hell have you been? Matt's been fretting worse than a mother hen." Leave it to Butch to get directly to the point.

"Yeah, what did you get caught up in? You okay?" Boomer asked.

"I'll explain it later, okay? I'm still not entirely sure I believe what happened myself," Brick muttered.

Similarly to the walk here and his minimal prep time, Brick's mind remained far away during their performance. Luckily, the routine lived in his bones so he managed to hit every step he was supposed to. If he hadn't, Matt's lecture would only get worse.

He barely had the chance to change before they pounced.

"Where the hell were ya, Brick? Ya had me worried sick out there. Are ya all right?" The twang of Matt's speech, frenzied as it was, brought Brick back to earth a bit.

Brick sighed. "Before I tell you, I need you to promise not to freak out."

"Little late for that, Big Bro." Ever-so-helpful, Butch.

Boomer's eyebrows furrowed. "Please just tell us?"

Rubbing his brow, Brick figured the best way to handle this was quick – like ripping off a band-aid. "I sort of heard a girl scream on the way to work, and when I went to check it out I kind of ended up in the aftermath of a crime scene."

Three pairs of eyes stared back at him. Matt's jaw dropped while Boomer's eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair. Butch, the dickhead, just laughed.

"Did you at least get the girl's digits, Prince Charming?" Butch snickered.

Brick glared. "That didn't really seem appropriate after she barely escaped being sexually assaulted, Butch."

The mirth in his brother's eyes quickly dissipated. "What?! Did you stop the fucker?!"

"I didn't have to. Someone else beat me to it. So the girl got away before things got…worse."

Matt whistled lowly. "I didn't know there were that many good Samaritans around. I'm prouda ya for goin' to investigate, as much as ya scared me halfta death."

A pair of navy eyes narrowed at him. "Wait, but if you didn't stop him, why were you there so long?"

"I couldn't exactly leave a crime scene, Boom. I was technically a witness too."

The tension in Butch's shoulders hadn't eased. "But someone helped her you said, right? She's okay?"

"Yeah…about that…" Brick cleared his throat. "I think I knew who helped her. Sort of."

"What?" Boomer cocked his head.

"Just get to the point, Brick!"

He shook his head. "I'd have to ask Believe to be sure, but I'm pretty sure it was those girls. The ones he went to high school with?"

His brothers exchanged a look while Matt smiled. "His heroes, you mean?"

"The girls he probably made up?" Butch added.

"Weren't you the one who didn't think people like them existed?" Boomer questioned.

Brick rolled his eyes. "I know what I said. That's why I'm still kind of having a hard time believing it. But I can't know for sure unless I talk to Believe."

Matt sauntered towards the bar. "I'll send 'im yer way. As long as you're all right, all right, all right, I'm gonna go entertain our lovely guests."

"Thanks, Matt."

He tried to avoid the eyes boring into the back of his head as he waited for Mike. Honestly, he didn't know what he wanted his friend to say. If he didn't imagine the whole thing and those girls were real…

Well, he'd owe Mike one hell of an apology.

The sandy haired boy popped his head through the door and grinned when he met Brick's gaze. "Hey, man. Matt said you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah." Brick scratched the back of his head. "I need you to confirm something for me."

"Okay. Shoot."

"Those girls you went to high school with – what were their names again?"

The way the kid lit up like a damn Christmas tree physically hurt a little bit. He'd heard of hero worship before but jeez. No one was supposed to admire anyone they went to high school with that much.

"You mean the Utonium sisters?" Mike paused. "Why?"

"Just answer the question, Believe," Butch grumbled.

"Okay... Well, their names are a little…unconventional. They're Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom."

Blossom.

That name again. He'd heard the officer say it too, but getting the confirmation didn't put him at ease like he'd hoped. Instead, all the tales of heroism Mike had recounted over the last several months flooded Brick's mind. And, in all of them, the girl who suddenly had a face with her name seemed to stick out more with each memory.

Boomer glanced at him. "Well? Was it them, Brick?"

Mike blinked. "What? Was what them?"

"Some chicks broke up a potential sexual assault. Brick thinks it might be your heroes." Without even looking, Brick sensed Butch's sneer. Big baby hated feeling left out.

"They sound like it. I heard a couple of their names, and the one girl had pink eyes. I don't know if that's incredibly common." Brick shrugged. "So it looks like I owe you…an apology. They really seemed to save that girl."

All of the color drained from Mike's face. "And they're all okay? The sisters and…the girl? You didn't happen to catch who she was, did you?"

Brick frowned. He hadn't meant to upset the guy so much. "I think I heard her say her name was Erica or something? Either way, those girls got her out of there. And if the cops hadn't been called I'm pretty sure that dark-haired one was going to wipe the pavement with the guy."

Now Mike managed a grin. "Leave it to Blossom's responsibility to ruin Buttercup's fun."

"Yeah, I got that impression."

"Oh, so she's as much of a killjoy as you then, eh, Brick?" Butch asked with a snicker.

Don't think he didn't see Boomer hiding a grin behind his hand too. His brothers were a real couple of assholes.

"Hardy har. Somebody has to take care of you two." Brick scratched the back of his neck. "She seems to want to take care of the whole world, though. Not just her sisters, if Mike is to be believed."

Uh-oh. What was with that twinkle in those gray eyes? "I mean, that is my name after all." His grin morphed into something more devilish. "I gotta say, I don't think I've ever seen you look so impressed, Brick."

What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Says the guy who worships the ground they walk on?"

"Are you saying you don't?" Mike crossed his arms. "Because your face disagrees with you."

He didn't like what was being implied here. "I respect the shit out of the fact that they were able to save that girl. Anyone who doesn't is an asshole."

"He has a point," Butch agreed. "What are you getting at here, Believe?"

"Can you tell me the whole story? From the beginning?" Ignoring Butch all together, Mike kept his eyes locked on Brick's face.

Brick narrowed his eyes as he told the story once again. Having already heard it, Butch lounged in one of the couches backstage, obviously not wanting to miss whatever the hell Mike was trying to do. Boomer, on the other hand, watched Brick tell the tale again.

The look Mike gave him throughout left him unsettled, so Brick found himself breaking eye contact to look at the navy eyes of his brother instead more than once. So, imagine his surprise when at the end of his story, Mike began chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Boomer asked.

"It's kind of a fucked up thing to laugh at," Butch muttered, eyes hardening.

Mike shook his head. "No, not the situation. Brick."

"What about me?"

"You've got it bad, my friend."

A silence settled over the room for only a moment before Butch roared with laughter. "Patron Saint Brick over there? You think he's got a thing for one of those chicks?"

"Without a doubt. Did you not see the look his face when he said her name?"

Boomer tilted his head. "Huh. I guess you're right. I never thought I'd see the day Brick would have a crush of his own."

"Don't call it that!" Brick snapped. "Respecting a woman's ability to carry herself around authority figures and keeping a cool head in a tense situation is hardly a crush."

Mike and Boomer shared a glance. "Funny…I don't remember specifying which girl. Did you hear me say a name, Boomer?"

"Nope." Okay, was popping the p there really necessary?

Butch stopped laughing and gave Brick a once over before joining the creepy grin committee meeting that Brick found himself in all of a sudden. "Holy shit. You totally have a boner for that flower chick."

Brick felt his face flame for a moment before words began tumbling out of his mouth. "Her name is Blossom."

"It sure is, buddy. It sure is."

Fuck. This was ridiculous! He'd probably never see the girl again anyway, so what did it matter? Let them think what they wanted.

Townsville University was a big enough school, if she even went to it. So the burning image of those pink eyes in his mind's eye would surely dissipate with time.

Or so Brick thought. Until, somehow, she was everywhere. He'd be walking to class and catch a glimpse of long, golden red hair going in the opposite direction. In the library, he'd look up from his book and briefly meet a piercing pink gaze. Boomer would be with him, going to eat the slop this campus called food, and he'd see the same three girls together.

"Dude. Just ask her out already," Butch said one night in their shared apartment. "You're going to drive yourself crazy if you don't."

"But she doesn't even know who I am. How can I justify –"

"You go up to her and say, 'Hey, pretty lady. I saw you save that one girl in the alley a few weeks ago, and it really jimmied my jams' –"

"What does that even mean?" Boomer asked, brows knit.

As if their younger brother hadn't spoken, Butch continued, "So I hoped you'd let me take you out.' See? Nothing to it!"

While saying that exact turn of phrase was out of the question, the idea itself had merit. He'd never know if he didn't try, right?

So, for the next week, he kept an eye out for her. With all the accidental near run-ins, it was bound to happen again. Brick went over what to say in his mind more times than he cared to admit. After all, they'd never had a real conversation before, but the girl carried herself with such dignity that he'd settle for getting to have one.

Thus, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the next time he saw her, she was hand-in-hand with some other guy. A real poindexter type. It appeared time for them to part ways as the guy leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. A band of pink appeared across her cheeks, and a small smile graced her face.

In that moment, Blossom somehow looked even prettier than before. But more than that, she looked happy. Truly so.

And that's why Brick turned on his heel and continued on to his next class without approaching her.

---

"You chickened out, didn't you?"

Brick rolled his eyes as he adjusted his tear away pants at work the following evening. "No."

"Then why aren't you happy?" Butch's eyes widened. "Dude, did she say no? That's rough. But you knew it was a tough sell anyway. No worries! Other fish in the sea and all that sappy shit, right, Boom?"

"Yeah…" Boomer's eyes never left Brick's face, though he felt it more than saw it. "But I don't think that's what happened."

"Well, she obviously didn't say yes, dipshit! That is not the face of a man who is getting dinner or whatever with a chick."

No point in letting this guessing game continue. "I didn't chicken out, but I didn't ask her either."

Butch gaped at him. "I thought you were the smart one? That's exactly what chickening out is!"

"She has a boyfriend, you idiot."

Well, that shut him up quickly enough. Thank God for small miracles.

"Awh, shit, man! I'm sorry!"

"It's fine. I'm not."

His brothers exchanged a look as if he wasn't staring directly at them. Sometimes he wondered how the hell the two of them would ever survive on their own…

"I…don't get it, Brick. I thought you wanted to get to know her better?" Boomer loved to do that creepy thing where he looked like he tried to see Brick's soul. He hated when his baby brother pulled this shit.

"I do – did – I don't know. But she looks happy. And I'm not going to fuck with that." Brick offered his brothers a small smile. "Now, can we get to work?"

Emerald and navy eyes met his, and twin smiles drew across their faces. After all, they'd had only each other for so long – what was a little longer?

"Damn fucking straight! I'm getting the most bills tonight, boys! I can feel it!" Butch bounced up and down a few times, releasing a little extra pent-up energy that he somehow always had. Boomer foolishly called it nerves once and, well…they didn't call it that anymore.

Boomer chuckled. "We'll see about that. You've been pulling up the rear in totals lately. Told you it's all about the lean muscle."

"Hey, I can still dance as well as a twig like you. And some chicks greatly appreciate a bigger man." The smile from earlier became a lecherous grin. "Let the games begin, boys."

What Butch couldn't have planned for was the owner's daughter to be in the crowd that night. Beyond that, none of them could have known the wealthy heiress would decide to fixate on Brick. Which is how he ended up with several hundred dollar bills tucked in the band of his underwear by the time the performance ended.

He swallowed thickly. This was more than he usually made in a week! In one night – from one person! Who the hell had that kind of money to burn? Brick knew he should be grateful; this was one small amount towards what he would need to get his doctorate eventually, but it seemed so gratuitous.

The door opened to reveal Matt escorting the redhead with remarkably beady eyes back into the dressing room. A privilege granted to very few. But given the way the man seemed to be sweating bullets, it became clear that this girl's opinion mattered. Far more than it probably should.

"You there! Boy in the cap!"

Brick cringed. Well, that was him, wasn't it? "Yeah?"

The girl's eyes were a dull hazel with a haughty edge to them. Excellent. Brick's favorite type of person – a full of themselves brat. "You're quite the dancer. I've been told I'm also a great dancer." Ugh. That smile made his stomach turn. "And I'm giving you the privilege to find out. We're going on a date. Tomorrow."

Jeez, did this girl have any manners? She didn't even bother to ask for his name. Was she just going to refer to him as "boy in the cap" forever?

"Uh, ma'am, Brick is actually scheduled to work tomorrow, so –"

"I'm sorry, did I ask for your permission? Do I need to remind you whose Daddy owns this establishment?" She raised an overly thinned brow. "One phone call from me, and the place shuts down. Is that what you want?"

"N-no, ma'am." God, Matt's eyes were huge. The guy clearly knew this threat wasn't empty. Great. Just fucking great. That meant Brick really didn't have a choice, did he?

"Good. Now shut up! I was just telling – what was your name again?"

Matt only just said it. God save him. "Brick."

Her lip curled in a sneer for a moment before smoothing back over. "Right. I was just telling Brick to pick me up tomorrow at 6. He's taking me to dinner at Pierre's and then out dancing. Then maybe I'll let him come home with me if he's lucky."

"I can't really afford a place like Pierre's –"

"Oh, can't you? Didn't you earn quite a bit of money this evening?" The stomach turning smile was back. What a vile witch. She gave him money just for him to spend it on her? What the hell was even the point?

"Right. Silly me," he said dryly.

"Now you're getting it." This girl couldn't be serious? People like this didn't actually exist in real life! "See you tomorrow, Brock! Toodles!"

As she turned on her heel, Brick couldn't help but correct her. "It's Brick."

"Potato, tomato."

That wasn't the phrase…but rather than bother this time, he tried appealing to this girls clear adoration for herself instead. "Can you at least tell me your name?"

With a forced giggle, clearly pitched higher than her natural laugh, the girl turned to look at him over her shoulder. "It's Princess." And then she flounced out of the room.

There was a brief pause before Butch broke it.

"I hate her."

Boomer nodded. "She's certainly not my favorite person."

"What the hell are we supposed to do tomorrow without Brick anyway?" Butch asked, turning to Matt. "We always perform as a trio."

Matt sighed. "I don't like it either fellas. But you'll either have to make a duo work, or I can work in two solos for ya."

His brothers groaned. Brick felt for them, he really did. They'd never really done duo routines, and solo work often involved the crowd getting handsy. However, he had a feeling his brothers would be getting off easier in comparison…

"One of you can always go on this date instead," he suggested. The hopefulness wasn't too painfully obvious in his tone, was it?

Emerald met navy. "So, solos, Boom?"

"Sounds good to me!"

Traitors. The both of them.

---

The date had been as horrific as he'd feared. Princess (seriously, what kind of expectation did her parents think they were going to set with an awful name like that?) treated the wait staff like servants and only prattled on about herself and daddy – not to mention she called him "Brock" at least six more times, the few moments she directly addressed him at all. He swore he'd never again be put in this situation by her –

Which was more or less true. He never ended up going on a tried and true date with her again – work and school made handy excuses when her father backed him up on them. The only person the brat might actually listen to believed in money enough to get her to back off. Mostly.

There were a few times he got dragged to fancy parties with the wretch because her daddy gave Brick the day off – how kind of him. Butch and Boomer were getting better at solos that he ever thought they would have to, but it helped keep them afloat on the weeks where he made considerably less.

On one thing he remained firm – Brick never, ever touched her in a romantic way. No hand holding, no face cupping, and definitely no kissing - or anything beyond it for that matter! She tried – more than once – to seduce him, and it made his stomach turn. He refused every time, but it somehow only made her more determined. Like he was some sort of conquest on her damn bucket list or something.

But no way in hell was he going to let that witch be his first. Brick had standards, dammit.

Now, over two years later, she still hadn't taken the damn hint. In fact, Matt alerted him that she was in the audience tonight. Again. Princess only came on weekends where her daddy didn't have other plans for her, so Brick usually only had to deal with her crazy during the week. But this just wasn't his weekend.

"Fuck, man. Them's the breaks, I guess." Butch scratched the back of his head.

"Which means you have to pick her. Again." Boomer frowned sympathetically.

"You know what happens if I don't."

"…yeah."

Butch scowled. "I don't think that girl ever came back here again."

"Would you in her shoes?"

"I still think she could have taken the bitch."

"Butch, someone in her family was probably employed by Mr. Morebucks. And you know how he listens to his daughter's every whim, practically." Brick rolled his eyes. "Only a little over a year. Then I'll be off to get my PhD, hopefully far away from that insane woman."

"And we're going to give every performance our all until then, whether she's here or not," Boomer said with a grin.

"She's here, so no way in hell am I betting on anyone but Brick to make the most tonight." Butch heaved an overdramatic sigh of relief. "Thank God Matt started telling us when the bitch shows up. Otherwise, I'd be losing rigged bets!"

Brick was more grateful that, after a long list of complaints, the girl's father had forbidden her from going backstage anymore. It was the only thing the man seemed to deny her. The agreement came about because of the girl's constant disruptiveness, and when sales started to take a dive the man finally listened. Thank God for that. It meant backstage Brick could have some peace since the damn woman insisted in occupying just about every minute of his time he was in the club proper.

After he secured his rip-away pants, his gaze drifted to the underbelly of the stage. Despite himself, he couldn't help but grin. As much as there were parts of his job (namely, Princess) that made it less enjoyable, nothing ever quite got his adrenaline going quite like performing. The praise and fawning were okay, but those were more the modus operandi of his brothers than him. Knowing he nailed a routine was what made his heart pound a little prouder in his chest.

"All right, boys. You ready?" Brick asked, sticking his fist out towards his brothers.

"Born that way, baby!" Butch grinned, touching his fist in as well, bouncing to expel some of his extra energy.

Boomer smiled in kind as he added the final fist to their circle. "Let's do it!"

"Can't stop a good thing," the three murmured in unison before moving their fist apart to hit their marks to come through the stage floor.

Brick pulled the brim of his hat low over his face as he exhaled deeply. The platform below him rose, and a smirk crawled across his face.

Show time.

The familiar bass beat settled into his very bones as the three boys began to move as one unit. Brick didn't even have to look anymore to know that his brothers moved in time with him. If someone looked closely, they'd notice the subtle differences between the three of them – Butch tended to hit poses slightly harder, Boomer's hips practically had a mind of their own and tended to double time if he felt particularly nervous, Brick slid deeper into the lunges – but to the untrained eye, it looked fine!

…beyond fine if the roar of the crowd was any indication.

At some point, the removal of the clothes stopped phasing him and became part of the performance. He would barely notice the removal of his hoodie most nights if not for the disgruntled groans that always accompanied it. Surely, they didn't think it would be that easy? What good would stripping be with only removing one item and being half naked?

The audience never stayed mad for long though. Once the boys moved closer, it became a cacophony of wanton screams – rarely a displeased voice among them. (Not never, of course. Sometimes the middle age demographic struggled with watching boys near the ages of their children…not that Brick blamed them.)

Mike asked them once if it felt weird to "hump the floor." And sure, when he put it like that, it would feel strange! But the floor was nothing more than a prop of sorts in the exchange; it wasn't like they enjoyed the few times they thrust forward too hard. That hurt like hell! Butch even threw up immediately after the performance once after one particularly bad jolt. So, yes. Sometimes, what they did felt…less than pleasant.

Now came for the part that Brick tended to dread when Princess arrived – having to actually look at the audience. Most nights it wasn't so bad; Brick liked feeding off their energy and letting them feel included in the little world that was their show. However, Princess tended to rail at him if he didn't make enough eye contact with her throughout the performance. It got to the point where they purposely let Brick cover his line of sight for almost half of the performance to avoid the damn tongue lashing.

So when the removal of his tanktop naturally flipped his hat upward, he made a point to seek her gaze out first. Once he knew she saw him seeing her (God, it sometimes made his head hurt, these idiotic mind games she made him play), he looked through the rest of the audience – passing by her as he went through the middle again, of course. Must appease the banshee.

His eyes drifted to his left and went to come back around when something caught his eye.

To be more accurate, a pair of startling pink eyes did.

Holy shit. It was really her…Blossom.

She was here? What the hell was she doing here?! As far as he knew, she'd never come before. And of course she had to be here on a night Princess was here. Because Brick's life hated him.

And, apparently, so did his brother. Brick moved to grab Princess as his partner without even needing to look at the path to "her" seat anymore. So he managed to spy Boomer selecting Blossom's blonde sister – Bubbles? – to be his partner.

Lucky bastard.

Okay, so Brick just had to make the best of a bad situation! Maybe he could just pretend he was able to pick the partner he wanted. In his mind's eye, he managed warm pink taking place of the cold hazel and silky copper hair taking place of the frizzy auburn mess below him and –

And as the blood began rushing south, Brick quickly aborted that mission. Suffer in silence it was then!

Thankfully, the section ended soon enough – though the wink thrown in his direction did not bode well for later – and the ending fast approached. He'd never struggled so much to focus on the performance before. It took everything in him not to immediately seek Blossom's gaze again after removing the rip-away sweatpants – a crowd favorite.

Though it was probably better for him not to look at her. These underwear, while not as uncomfortable as one would believe, covered very little. And apparently what Mike had deemed as a "crush" a couple of years ago did not entirely fade away, but just temporarily relocated its residence.

Excellent…

As he slid back toward his marker for the ending where they would descend back underneath the stage, Brick allowed himself to look at the pretty redhead one more time. Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink that almost matched her eyes – though from enjoyment or embarrassment it was difficult to tell. Hopefully she'd enjoyed it!

Not that it mattered, he supposed. Though Brick was surprised she abandoned the poindexter for the evening to come to an establishment like this.

Once he changed, he strapped himself for another long evening in the dressing room. Sure, some of the guys went out to mingle with the crowd, but Brick couldn't – no matter how much he wanted to. This place was his only hope of avoiding the burr known as Princess.

He cracked open his physics book to begin the homework due the next week. While not the ideal study environment, Brick long ago learned to make due with his surroundings. He was well on his way to graduating summa, and work certainly wasn't going to stop him.

Only a few problems into it, and the door to the dressing room swung open. Unable to fight the kneejerk reaction, Brick immediately cringed away from it.

"So who's your favorite bar tender?"

Oh thank God. Just Mike.

Brick looked over to the guy who wore the cockiest grin he'd ever seen – and he lived with Butch for God's sake. Speaking of which, said middle brother rose an eyebrow at the unexpected guest.

"What are you doing back here, Believe?"

The grin didn't fade. "Just call me a fairy tale because I'm about to make some dreams come true!"

"…get the fuck out."

"Seriously, Mike, what's up? Is something wrong?" Boomer's brows furrowed as he scanned the brunet for head trauma from what Brick could discern.

Mike sidled up to Boomer. "What if I told you that the pretty blonde you were dancing with wanted to meet you?"

Cobalt eyes widened. "Seriously? Wait – you know her?"

Instead of answering Boomer, Mike glanced at Brick. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

He focused back on his physics notebook. Homework wasn't going to do itself! "It didn't come up."

"Of course it didn't." Mike shook his head. "The girl you were dancing with was Bubbles Utonium. Youngest sister to the famous Blossom Utonium."

Famous seemed like an extreme overstatement. Especially since Brick took special care not to mention her ever since he discovered that she was romantically committed elsewhere.

This didn't stop his brothers from exchanging a look, however. Boomer's eyes somehow widened further while Butch grinned.

"She didn't come alone, did she?" Butch directed the question at Mike.

"Nope!"

"And that chick – Blossom – is out there right now?"

"Yup!"

"No boyfriend present?"

"He, uh…isn't exactly in the picture anymore."

Brick looked over at that. Something in the way he said that unsettled him. "Is she okay with that?"

"It wasn't her choice, from what I understand. But uh…given the circumstances, there is a zero percent chance of them getting back together." At least he had the decency to look uncomfortable. Jeez! He made it sound recent. Did he honestly expect Brick to reduce himself to being a goddamn swooper? No way in hell was he going to try to date her when she was potentially still broken up about the end of her relationship.

She deserved better than that.

"I think we're missing the point here. There are sisters out there who want to meet you idiots – there's no way in hell I'm letting you pass this up." Before Brick could protest, Butch held up a hand. "I'm not saying you have to get on your knees and beg her to go on a date. But this is it! Your chance to get to know her better! Isn't that what you wanted?"

His brother had a point. There was no harm in getting to properly introduce himself to her.

"I'm in!" Boomer's smile threatened to split his face in two. "I think we made a connection."

Mike grimaced. "Ew."

"Not like that, ya pervert!" With a laugh, he explained, "She just seemed really into dancing with me, that's all."

"Well, she seemed eager at the chance to meet you. So maybe you're not too far off."

The wide smile remained. "Great! So when do we go?"

"Why not now?"

Brick cleared his throat. The other three boys turned their attention to him. "Is Princess gone?"

Silence. Ah yes. It appeared they all forgot why the boys hung out back here in the first place.

"Fuck. I forgot she was here." Butch ran a hand through his hair. "Any chance she left?"

Mike gave him a withering look. "You know the answer to that."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that…"

Boomer scowled – the bright smile from a moment ago gone. "She's such a pain in the ass."

This wasn't fair. His brothers shouldn't have to suffer along with him. "Well, you two can go out and just tell me when she leaves?"

"Not fucking happening."

"No way!"

Mike chuckled. "Did you really think that was going to work? You guys have always had your whole 'together in solidarity' thing since this Princess debacle started."

"We'll just wait until the club closes," Boomer said. "As long as they're willing to wait?"

"I'm sure they won't mind, but I'll let you guys know." The bar tender walked back towards the door. "I should probably get back out there though. I left Pablo alone. See you guys soon!"

A moment later, they received a group text that read simply,

The plan is a go.

Thus began the single longest hour of Brick's life so far. He tried to focus on his homework again, but his mind wandered. How should he introduce himself? Was "hello" too formal – should he stick with "hey" instead? Did he pretend not to know who she was?

His palms began to sweat and gripping the pencil to do his work became a nearly impossible task. No matter how many times he wiped his hands off on his jeans, it didn't help.

"Dude, relax." Butch clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine. Don't worry so much about it. What's the worst that could happen?"

And winner of the award for the worst comforter of all time goes to…

"You realize how entirely unhelpful that is, right? There are so many things that could go wrong! Like –"

"But they won't."

"But –"

"But. They. Won't." Butch emphasized. "Have a little faith, Brick. Something has to go right for us sometime."

While that didn't entirely ease his worries, it helped Brick calm down a little bit. Though not enough to focus on his work. So he found himself doing physical things to keep himself busy – pacing, dropping and doing push-ups, jumping jacks – anything to keep his blood pumping and his mind calm.

Finally, the club closed, and it was time. Brick knew there was a high probability that this encounter could never live up to the expectations he'd set in his head. But, after applying an acceptable amount of deodorant to cover up his sheer amount of restlessness, it was finally time.

"All right, boys. Let's do this!" Butch exited the dressing room, probably eager to catch an eyeful of the girls he'd somehow missed in the crowd.

Boomer hung back and offered Brick a reassuring smile. "You ready, Brick?"

"As I'll ever be."

His youngest brother nodded and left to go catch-up to Butch. God help them if they left him alone with those girls for too long; Butch had no qualms about sharing embarrassing stories.

With a deep breath, Brick peeked his head out of the dressing room, trying to make sure the coast was clear of the crazy woman. When he felt reassured, he finally stepped out of the room.

Only to hear his name being called in an all-too-familiar nasal voice moments later.

"Brick!"

Just keep walking, Brick! Maybe she'll buy that you didn't hear her.

"BRICK!"

Brick quickened his pace, trying desperately to get to the bar before she caught up to him, wherever the hell she was. He was about halfway there…

"BRICKY-POO!"

He felt her before he saw her, clinging to his arm. And he's been so close…

"Hello Princess," he forced out.

"Awh, are you tired? That's a shame. I had hoped for you to finish what you started," the girl said in a raspy tone that was meant to be alluring but made the hair on the back of Brick's neck stand on end, especially as she traced lazy circles across his chest as she moved to face him.

"I'm not really in the mood. Sorry." Good! Keep it simple. Not offensive. We don't want another temper tantrum on our hands…

She pouted. Seriously? Was she five? "Well, you certainly seemed in the mood earlier! You know I love it when you dance with me."

Brick nodded, glancing over at the bar where his brothers stood with the Utonium sisters, Mike, and some girl he'd never seen before. What he'd give to be over there instead…

Besides, she had to know by now that he didn't pick her as his partner because he wanted to. Right?

However, as Princess stood fully in front of him and began working at undoing his top buttons, Brick forced himself to take a step back to try to remove himself from the situation. He knew the girl's dad never told her no, but did seriously everyone let her just parade around doing whatever she wanted?

He heard the people at the bar talking, but he couldn't focus on their words; he was too busy attempting to block out the throaty come-ons Princess spouted. It took everything in him not to rip her hands off of him as she continued to paw at his shirt, but his hands were tied. He couldn't risk getting his brothers fired because of one overly aggressive brat.

But then, sick of her perceived game of cat-and-mouse, Brick guessed, Princess ripped open his button-up, causing the buttons to fly across the room. Brick went to remind her that she was making more work for the clean-up crew for no reason, but he couldn't get the words out before she sunk her nails into his chest, trying to cuddle closer.

Ow! Son of a bitch, those things hurt!

In an attempt to free himself, Brick took a step back as he winced, but her nails sunk deeper and began to draw blood.

This was ridiculous! She needed to let go of him, or he'd have to make her let go. And, as tempting as that idea was, he needed to appease the crazy woman if he wanted to keep his job. But was it really worth it if she was going to start going this far?

And then an unfamiliar voice called out, "Oh, Brick, there you are! We've all been waiting for you!"

Brick turned to see Blossom Utonium walking toward them, her long, red hair in a high ponytail swinging behind her. Those pink eyes still managed to make his heart clench in his chest, even after all the time it'd been since he'd seen them last. The determination in them made them shine all the brighter.

"Blossom Utonium?" Princess snarled. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Wait – they knew each other? Princess didn't go to their college , thank the lord. So had they met before that?

Blossom's mouth twisted into a smile that could only be described as downright devilish. The look sent a jolt through Brick for more uncomfortable reasons than he didn't wanted to look at too closely. But the look was nothing compared to the words that came out of her mouth next.

"Why, seeing my boyfriend perform, of course. So, if you could kindly unhand him…?"

Brick stared at her, eyes wide. Uh…what? He didn't even look to see what the expression on Princess's face was because he couldn't stop staring at Blossom in disbelief for a few solid moments.

"You two? Since when do you know each other?" Shit. Princess sounded suspicious.

Get it together, Brick! The girl's putting her neck out on the line to get you out of this stupid situation. Stop gaping at her and help!

"We met in our Physics class in college," he replied when he managed to find his voice, Princess's grip finally slackening enough for him to get out of it. Brick slid an arm around Blossom's shoulders, hoping that he wasn't overstepping his bounds here.

He desperately hoped she couldn't feel his arm shaking from the nerves.

If she did, she didn't show it and slid an arm around his waist in return. As she drew closer to him, he felt his heart speed up in his chest. She couldn't hear that, right?

"And we got to talking, one thing led to another, and here we are." The look from before came back onto her face as her voice changed into something akin to a purr. "Isn't he a wonderful dancer, Princess?"

Here lies Brick. He died because his heart exploded from being complimented by a pretty girl who spoke in a sultry voice while acting as his hero.

Perhaps that was too long to be an epitaph, but it wouldn't be inaccurate. Every part of Brick's body screamed for him to hug this girl in gratitude, but he had to wait until Princess left.

Unfortunately, the stubborn woman stayed rooted where she was and scoffed. "If you're his girlfriend, why didn't he pick you to be his partner?"

Blossom giggled. "Oh, Princess. Why worry about that when I can have the real thing? It seems unfair not to share."

And then she winked, and Brick's heart stopped fully altogether at her implications. Did she just imply that she'd... She had, hadn't she?

"There's no way a prude like you ended up with someone like him," Princess insisted. "Not when he could have someone like me!"

"And if I'm a prude, what exactly does that imply you are?"

Brick choked back a laugh. He couldn't help it! Blossom's snappy comebacks were definitely an unexpected bonus. And he saw her lips turn up in a softer smile, he knew he'd been unsuccessful in stifling his laughter.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Princess noticed; she appeared preoccupied with looking borderline feral. "You- you…YOU -!"

"Yes, Princess?" Blossom asked innocently.

"You can't have him!"

The throaty chuckle from his side took him by surprise. It sounded so distinctly different from her giggle earlier that it was hard to believe that both noises came from the same woman.

"Seems a bit late for that, my dear. I already do."

"I will end you, Utonium!"

"You do that." Blossom took a step forward and away from him, and Brick fought the impulse to clutch her more tightly to him. His entire left side tingled where she'd touched. "Oh, and Princess?"

"What?"

"If I ever see or hear about you trying to manhandle my boyfriend again, it is I who will be ending you. 'Kay?" She grabbed his hand then, and Brick was too dumbfounded to do anything more than hope his palms weren't too sweaty as she began to pull him after her. "Ta, Princess! Have a pleasant evening!"

He stared at the back of her head as she took him over towards the bar, vaguely registering the sputtering of Princess behind them.

"My father will hear about this!" Princess stormed out of the room, a trail of expletives left in her wake.

Silence graced his ears briefly, allowing the crazy woman's tirade to dissipate. But it wasn't built to last as everyone else began talking at once. Brick couldn't figure out what to focus on, but found his eyes drawn to the wide-eyed expressions of his brothers.

Fighting back a grin, he refocused on the girl who captured his hand. They had never seen her in action before. It was quite the sight to behold.

"Mike, can you get me the first aid kit, please?"

Brick felt the tug of her hand that led him to sit on a stool by the bar. He saw Mike smirking as he handed Blossom the first aid kit. She appeared not to notice as she frowned at his chest.

Oh…right. There were a bunch of cuts there, weren't there?

"This might sting a little."

He snorted. This would feel like nothing compared to the nails digging into him earlier in the evening. "I'll be fine."

Ow! Fuck, okay. Maybe he was wrong. It stung more than a little.

Blossom carefully cleaned every cut on his chest, frowning all the while. Brick frowned at her pinched expression. Was she upset with him? Maybe she thought he was a wimp for not standing up for himself? Her pink eyes took in every small detail, and he almost shrank back under her piercing gaze as she bandaged him up.

After placing the final one, she smiled at him – a soft, delicate smile that made his heart thump a little harder in his chest. "There. That should stop the worst of it."

"Thanks, uh…" Oh shit. Should he know her name? Would she think he was weird if he already knew her name?!

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't properly introduce myself." Her smile widened, and his heart rate increased tenfold. She stuck out he hand. "Blossom Utonium. The pleasure's all mine, Brick."

It was adorable how wrong she was. He took her hand and shook it, as he took in every detail of her smiling face up close. How was it possible that she looked even prettier up close? "Right. Thanks, Blossom. You really saved my ass back there."

"Hell yeah, she did!" Brick turned to see Buttercup grinning ear to ear. It put him much more at ease than the dark look he'd seen on her that first time all those years ago. "That was awesome, Bloss! Did you see her face?! I wish I took picture. Oh my God, it was gold!"

"You definitely put that bitch in her place. Thank God someone finally did," Butch muttered. "I just wish I could've done it."

"Tell me about it." Brick sighed. If only he'd done that from the start… "Hopefully it's just one more year. Then we can leave this place."

Bubbles gasped, blue eyes widening almost comically. "But you guys are so good!"

"I'd hardly say their talents are worth the distress, Bubbles," Blossom murmured as she packed up the first aid kid. She spoke it under her breath, so Brick had to wonder if she even expected Bubbles to hear it.

"I know…"

Huh. So she did hear her.

"She just doesn't want to stop seeing Boomer dance!" A brunette at the bar he didn't recognize grinned at the flustered blonde.

"I didn't say that!"

"You didn't have to!"

Blossom shook her head, and her eyes met Brick's again. "But really…are you all right? Do you want us to go to the authorities?"

Brick snorted to avoid outright scoffing. "Good luck finding someone that isn't in the Morebucks family's back pocket."

"You're avoiding the question."

He blinked at her in surprise. Her willingness to go all out for the side of good knew no bounds, did it?

"I'm fine, Blossom." His mouth thinned. "Better than I would have been without you here to save my ass. I owe you one."

Because she hadn't surprised him enough for this evening, Blossom upped the ante by blushing which somehow only brought out the pink in her eyes even more. "No, you don't. That was long overdue. That girl has paraded around acting like she's better than everyone for years. I wasn't about to stand aside and let her completely take advantage of you. I only did what any decent person would do."

"Yes, and this has nothing at all to do with the rivalry the two of you had in high school."

Oh. Well that explained how they knew each other well enough, Brick supposed.

"That's irrelevant."

"OoO, Red and Princess have a history?" Leave it to Butch to stick his nose where it doesn't belong. "That sounds plenty relevant to me."

"Princess is just a big bully." Bubbles's succinct explanation matched up pretty accurately with what Brick had witnessed over time.

Buttercup scowled. "The only person she tried to torment more than Blossom was Believe over there."

Brick glanced over at Blossom to see her waving her hand nonchalantly, as if batting the words away. "It's in the past. I don't hold grudges."

"Certainly seemed like you were holding a grudge with the way you were glaring at her earlier," Buttercup said.

"She was attacking an innocent person! Who in their right mind wouldn't be glaring?"

"That isn't what I'm talking about."

Another blush crawled across Blossom's face, and Brick's brows knit. Huh? What were they talking about? Looking over at Buttercup, he saw the dark hair girl wearing an impish grin that looked…a little too familiar if he were being honest.

He couldn't dwell on it for long before Bubbles changed the topic. "But, really, you guys are great dancers. This club definitely won't be nearly as popular when you guys leave."

His youngest brother smiled at her in return. "You weren't so bad yourself."

The petite blonde giggled. "Having a good partner always helps."

"Oh, gag me." Buttercup rolled her eyes. "I don't think the dry-humping you two were doing constitutes as partner dancing."

"Don't be sore just because you weren't picked, Buttercup." Brick cocked an eyebrow at Blossom's grin. What did she mean by that?

Yikes. Buttercup glared so hard it looked like she was attempting to burn a hole through her sister's forehead.

And, of course, king of the pot stirring himself had to speak up. "Oh, yeah, Spitfire?" Butch elbowed the fiery raven haired girl next to him – albeit lightly by Butch standards. "You jealous I didn't pick you?"

Buttercup scoffed. "No. Whatever. Don't listen to her because she saved your brother's ass. She's full of shit."

His brother snickered in return. "Yeah?" Uh-oh. Shit eating grin alert! "You're a pretty shitty liar."

She rolled her lime eyes. "Think whatever you want, but I wasn't jealous."

"Does that mean you would turn down a chance to dance with me?"

Now her eyes narrowed. "This feels like a trick question."

"Nah. My brothers and I were planning on going to a club across town on Thursday. It would be an opportunity to dance and not embarrass yourself if you can't keep up."

The idiot winked at her. He was going to ruin everything before Brick even got the chance to talk to Blossom beyond thanking her!

"I can keep up just fine!"

"Great. So I'll see you Thursday then."

Buttercup blinked. "Wait. What just happened?"

The brunette at the bar grinned. "Looks like you just asked on a date and said yes. What an unexpected twist!

"But you're the one who was supposed to – it isn't a – oh for the love – " Buttercup groaned, burying her head in her hands. "This is not how this was supposed to go. Way to drop the ball, Believe!"

Mike blushed. "What does that mean?!"

Brick didn't think he'd ever seen more disdainful looks than he had in the last few minutes of spending time with Buttercup. "You know damn well what it means! You've been chatting Robin up all night, her ass hasn't left the stool, and you haven't even asked her on a date yet? What the hell is that?"

"Buttercup! There's no rush! Ignore her, Mike. You can ask Robin out if and when you want to!"

"If? Gee, thanks, Bubbles," the brunette, now presumed to be Robin, muttered.

Somehow the three girls devolved into what seemed like an argument about what Robin deserved and what Mike should do – with said man sputtering like a fool while his asshole younger brother snickered at his predicament.

Blossom's soft voice drew his attention away from the ruckus in front of them. "I'm sorry for bringing all of this crazy into your workplace. Robin insisted."

He shook his head, trying to send her a reassuring smile. "No apologies necessary, Blossom. In comparison, this is a good kind of crazy." His body went on autopilot and leaned in closer to her before he had the chance to second guess it. "And, between you and me, I don't think I've ever seen any of the guys like this before. It's a nice change."

She smiled in return, though her eyes were sad. "I'm afraid I wouldn't really know the difference to confide in you. It's been awhile since I've been out with the girls. But they seem happy, and that's good enough for me."

"Mhm," Brick murmured, eyes scanning the group. Mike looked torn between being ready to crawl under the bar and launching at Butch who roared with laughter, tears welling in his eyes in amusement while Buttercup ripped Mike apart. Bubbles kept ping-ponging her attention between Boomer, Robin, and Mike in a vain attempt to keep the peace. He smirked to himself. There was obviously only one solution to this. "Hey nimrods – why don't we all just go?"

"What?" Boomer, who'd taken a half-step in to defend Butch from Mike's attack, asked.

We were planning to go anyway, before Butch decided to make it a date."

"It's not a date," Buttercup grumbled, attempting to hide her pink cheeks behind her hair and failing.

Brick shook his head before continuing on. "So why don't we all just go together?"

"Like…a group date?" Bubbles questioned, not exactly being subtle in her excitement at the prospect by the way her eyes flitted over to his baby brother.

"You know I can't dance," Mike said, eyes trained on the bar.

True. Brick hadn't really considered that…

Though, it didn't seem to matter as Robin smiled, leaning into his line of sight. "I'll teach you. And if you're really that bad, well…I'm sure we'll find something else to do."

"You dirty bird," Buttercup said with a snicker.

When he brought his gaze back to Blossom to gauge her reaction, he saw her biting her lip. "Are you sure, Brick? We wouldn't want to intrude. You probably don't get a lot of time away from women throwing themselves at you, so we wouldn't want to make it worse for you."

Brick couldn't fight back the grin the spread across his face. Having a female be considerate of his feelings was a new experience; he quite liked it. So much, in fact, that his filter abruptly shut off and he found himself saying, "You planning on throwin' yourself at me, Blossom?"

Luckily, instead of berating him for being a letch, she shook her head as she began to blush. "N-no, of course not! I just meant –"

Brick couldn't help himself; he laughed. She really was much more like he'd pictured her than he could ever have hoped for. "Chill. If I thought you would, I wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Besides," he leaned into her again, despite his subconscious screaming at him to stop being a creep, "wouldn't do me well to not be seen in public with my girlfriend, right?"

Blossom buried her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry. I really don't know where that came from!"

He put a hand on her shoulder, surprised at how slender she was. The amount of authority she carried with her made her presence fill the entire room, so the delicate feel of her was a bit of a shock to the system. "Hey, it worked, and that works for me. And if I was going to have a girlfriend, I could do a lot worse."

Then, heaven help him, he winked. Well, he should just leave while he was behind. Could he have made a bigger understatement?! Brick fought the urge to look to his brothers for help since he heard Boomer speaking to Bubbles in hushed tones, and Butch barely bothered to mask his snickers.

"If you're certain," Blossom assented. "Thursday it is then."

"I'm looking forward to it," he said, forcing a grin to hide his relief that he hadn't completely scared her off.

After sending him a small smile in return, she turned away and walked towards her friends. "All right, girls. It's getting late. I think it's best that we let the gentlemen rest, don't you?"

Bubbles pouted. "I guess…"

"I'll see you Thursday," Boomer reminded her with a smile. "I'll be counting down the days."

It really sucked to see his youngest brother being far smoother than he could ever hope to be. Though Bubbles seemed happy about it if her giggle was any indication. "Me too."

"You two are disgusting." Buttercup slid off her stool without even bothering to look in Butch's direction. Brick smirked at Butch's scowl at the slight. "I thought Robin and Mikey over here were bad, but you two are putting them to shame."

Not happy with being ignored, Butch said, "See you Thursday, Spitfire."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there."

Satisfied, Butch chuckled. "Can't wait."

Not looking like she wanted to leave in the slightest, Robin smiled at Mike. "I'll see you soon then."

Mike nodded, and he wore the goofiest smile Brick had ever seen. This girl had wrapped his best friend around her finger rather quickly, hadn't she? "Sounds great."

Brick's eyes widened in surprise as Robin grasped Mike's tie and yanked him in for a kiss. Despite it being brief, Mike, the big klutz, almost tripped when she pulled away. He looked about ready to melt into a pile of goo after that.

"Text me, Mikey!"

Yeah, no worries there. Brick was pretty sure the girl would be lucky to make it home without one. But Mike only managed to nod as the girls exited the club with a wave.

For a moment, the four of them stood in silence. Then Butch broke it.

"Boom, there's no way these two are going to last on their own on Thursday."

"Not a chance."

"Hey!" Mike pouted. "I did just fine!"

"Believe, the girl sat there for four hours, and you didn't even ask her on a date?"

"I didn't want to move too fast!"

Butch rolled his eyes. "Well, you're welcome for giving you all the dates you wanted. I accept cash and Fireball."

"Yes, thank you, Butch. Because you get nothing out of this at all," Brick mumbled with his own eye roll.

His brother grinned. "She's somethin' else, man. It'll be interesting to see what happens on Thursday."

"Well, for most of us."

They all turned their attention to the blond before Brick asked, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you have a class with Blossom on Tuesday?"

Oh shit. Right. He'd see her in Physics.

Well, hopefully he didn't embarrass himself as much as he had tonight! …otherwise, there was still plenty of time for her to cancel on Thursday.

Fuck.

---

After several days of pep talks from his brothers – also known as Butch shouting, "Don't be a pansy ass!" over and over every time Brick tried to think of a way to avoid approaching Blossom before Thursday – Brick finally thought he might be ready to face her.

And then he walked into his Physics class and spotted her sitting in the same spot as always, where she used to sit with her boyfriend. Did that mean they'd made up? They hadn't exchanged numbers, so what if she just didn't show up on Thursday, and he was left as a…seventh?...wheel?

Somehow he forced his feet one in front of the other and stood next to her. "Hey. This seat taken?"

Her pink eyes blew open wide. Apparently she hadn't noticed him approach. After staring at him for moment, she quickly said, "Not at all. Please, sit."

Well that was a good sign. He slid into the seat next to her and tried to keep himself relaxed. To help with that, the gentle smell of strawberries pervaded the air the closer he got to her, and he couldn't believe that to be a coincidence.

"So this is why you picked Physics class as the place that we met?" Blossom asked, sending him a knowing smile.

He couldn't help but grin back at her. "It may have had something to do with it, yes."

"How did I not know you were in this class with me?"

Brick bit his tongue. Bringing up the ex here would be a bad move. So, instead, he said, "You're not the most observant person around, sweetheart. I've been four seats down the entire semester."

Blossom's cheeks turned a pretty pink. He was starting to like that color more all the time. "Well, I did recognize you where you were…performing. Though I wasn't sure from where."

She did? Well, that was good, right? It meant she had noticed him at some point before! He shrugged. "No big deal. You usually seemed pretty invested in whatever the half-pint with you always had to say."

Shit. Well, so much for not bringing up the ex.

"Yes, well," Blossom huffed, "Turns out that was a waste of my attention."

"No surprise there. Guess you should have looked four seats down sooner, huh?" Okay, Brick – enough with the winking! Who was he turning into – Butch?

"I guess so." As she leaned a little closer, the smell of strawberries grew stronger, only confirming his earlier musings. "Better late than never, as the saying goes, right?"

He felt his grin grow, and he leaned in closer to her. Their noses brushed, and he saw her cheeks turn a darker shade pink. "That's true. Your face matches your sweater, you know."

She pulled away, clearing her throat but didn't break eye contact. "That's just the way my face looks."

"Sure, whatever you say." He sat back in his chair, not wanting to awkwardly lean in her space. "It suits you though…" Here went nothing… "Pinky."

Blossom wrinkled her nose. "Pinky?"

He nodded, hoping he hadn't been given shitty advice on this. "You seem to like the color, and the color definitely likes your face. It seems like as good a nickname as any."

"Do I need a nickname? Is my regular name not sufficient?"

"Blossom is kind of a mouthful if you think about it."

"It has the exact same number of syllables as Pinky! In what way is it a mouthful?!"

Buttercup had definitely been right. While this hadn't been the exact reaction he'd been expecting, there was something endearing about how flustered it made her. He shook his head and said, "Your sister was right. Teasing you really is way too easy."

Her eyes narrowed immediately. "What else did Buttercup say?"

"I don't believe I said which sister."

She ignored him. "When did you talk to Buttercup?"

No point in denying it, he supposed. "I ran into her yesterday on my way to my Anatomy class. Turns out we have it together."

"But you never noticed? What happened to looking four seats away?"

Was she really teasing him back? Brick blushed and looked away, lest he make a bigger fool of himself by saying something he'd surely regret. "You got me there. In my defense, your sister hides in the back of the classroom usually, or so she says."

Blossom sighed at that. Oops. Was he not supposed to tell her that? "Because she hopes not to get noticed when she's late, right?"

"More or less, yeah."

"I always told her if she would just leave on time instead of spending all her spare time on the internet scrounging for car parts that she wouldn't have that problem!"

Buttercup had failed to mention why she'd been late all the time. Interesting…he knew a guy who could help her with car things… Maybe it would get Butch to stop lording the fact that he'd gotten the ball rolling on their "group outing" on Thursday over him. "She lookin' to build something?"

"Not exactly. She want to replace parts of the car she already has. Soup it up, or something like that."

"Butch could probably help her with that." You're welcome, Butch!

Blossom raised a brow. "Help her with her car? Possibly. But somehow I don't imagine your brother would do much to help my sister to class on time."

It was like she knew him or something! "I can't deny that. Too bad they can't be good like us and just get to class on time."

"It is a shame, isn't it? Where did we go wrong with those two?"

What the hell had he been so nervous for? Talking to her was easier than he'd anticipated – especially when he didn't have his nosy ass brothers watching. However, before Brick could respond, a box was dropped on the table in front of her, and the person holding it drew the attention of both of them.

"Hello, Blossom."

"Hello, Dexter." Brick glanced at her, the change in tone pretty drastic. The playfulness fully disappeared, and it was strictly business now.

"I have a box of your personal effects that I gathered from around my apartment." The pretentious douche put another box on the table next to it, only this one was empty. The condescending look in his eyes made Brick want to give the guy a good punch in the jaw. "I knew you would not have the same foresight, so I brought a box for you to fill with the items I may have left in your apartment as well. You can return them on Thursday prior to class starting, and then we can amicably part ways.

Amicably? Not according to the pinched looked on Blossom's face as she looked between the two boxes and sighed. "Sure. Thanks for my stuff back."

"It seemed the least I could do." He pushed his glasses back up his nose. Seriously, did he not get fitted properly or something? "Besides, it is probably best for you to have no reason to drop by unexpectedly. Olga moved in this weekend, and it would be best for the two of you to never meet."

How long had the guy been planning this? How long ago had they even broken up? Based on the way Blossom's entire body stiffened at the revelation, it couldn't have been long.

This douche had about three seconds to vacate before Brick intervened. Hadn't he done enough to upset the poor girl?

"Understood. I will bring your things for you on Thursday."

"You're being very mature about this, Blossom. I'm very proud of you. It always was of my favorite qualities of yours." He barely deigned to nod his head at this girl he supposedly once card about. Brick grit his teeth together. Maybe he should have at least approached her sooner, if it would have helped her see what a total cretin this guy was. "Now I can move to the front row where I have always longed to sit. Good day."

Brick heard Blossom doing deep breathing exercises and used them to calm himself down too. After all, he wasn't the one who should be upset here. Now would be a good time to say something comforting and prove to be a good friend – nothing more, if she didn't want. Okay…what to say…

"Wow. You seriously dated that douche?"

Guess he hadn't calmed down quite as much as he thought.

To his surprise, her teeth were grit as she snarled, "Not one of my finer life choices, I am well aware."

Brick raised his hands on instinct to show he hadn't meant to attack her. "Sorry. I guess I just don't see the appeal."

Blossom frowned and barely managed to whisper, "I'm not all bad, you know."

"What?" Why would she say that? Of course she wasn't! She was good, and…oh shit. "That is not what I meant!"

"It's fine, Brick. I get it." She started digging through the box Dexter had put in front of her, but it didn't look like she was really focusing on anything. "Dexter has made it perfectly clear that I'm not exactly a catch. You agreeing is perfectly understandable, but could you do me a favor and talk about it with your brothers later when I'm not around rather than rub it in my face?"

Brick groaned. That really hadn't been what he meant at all! "Pinky –"

"Don't call me that."

Damn. He'd fucked up worse than he thought. "Blossom then. That's not what I meant." Brick rubbed his forehead as he tried to find the words to repair his earlier blunder. "I don't see what the appeal was for you to date him."

Blossom slowed in her digging and shrugged. "He's a brilliant scientist."

He paused, waiting for the list to continue, but it didn't seem like there was anything more. "Okay. And?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you seriously only date him because he was good at science?"

"That was how it started, yes."

"Then what? He proved to be really romantic? Really funny? A good lay?" Great addition there, Brick. Yes, manage to both piss her off more and make yourself look inadequate all in three words. Just brilliant.

She gaped at him. "I don't see how any of that is your business!"

Damage control time. "It's not. But I'm really hoping for you to tell me that he has some other redeemable quality than a big brain for science. Because, if not, I cannot understand how someone as ridiculously out of his league as you put up with him for so long."

Blossom waved his comment away. "I don't believe myself to be out of anyone's league."

"Then you really sell yourself short, Pinky."

Her voice got soft again. "You barely know me."

Brick shrugged. "I know enough to know you don't deserve to be talked to like he talked to you."

"Well, that's very kind of you, but it's fine. I'm used to it."

Brick frowned as he watched her rummage through the box. "You're used to it? What the hell does that mean?"

"He always talks like that."

"Wow. He's an even bigger douche than I thought."

"Yes, well. Hindsight." Then she pulled something out of the box with a horrified look on her face.

Brick's eyebrows rose as his throat ran dry, and his face burned. She held a dark blue bra made of some sort of see-through material, and he did everything he could not to picture her in it. "Well that's uh…quite the bra you've got there, Pinky."

"It's not mine." Her teeth clenched so hard that Brick feared she might break them.

"Oh. Well, shit." More brilliant, comforting responses! Thank every God listening Brick wasn't studying psychology; he was quite clearly shit at listening to people's problems.

"He knows it isn't mine."

"Are you sure? Maybe you have something similar?" The look on her face told him he was way off base, but he wanted to believe that the guy wasn't so much of an asshole as to purposely plant another chick's bra in her belongings.

"Trust me. I don't." Blossom began to tremble, but her eyes were bone dry. "And this is about three sizes too big for me."

She held it up to her chest then, and Brick's brain short circuited. Did she want him to look? Should he stick to looking at her face to be respectful? "I – you – uh –" Equal parts blessing and curse, she moved the bra away from her chest which at least allowed him to articulate a proper sentence. "So what are you going to do with it?"

"Why return it, of course. Wouldn't want Olga to be missing one of her favorites, right?" Blossom hissed. She slid over the table top smoothly before storming up to the asshole in question. Brick watched, unsure if he should follow.

Blossom tapped him on the shoulder, and Dexter turned to her, brow furrowed. "May I help you with something, Blossom?"

"This isn't mine."

"Of course it's yours. Olga said it wasn't hers, so therefore it must be yours." A brief pause. "Unless it's Mariah's…"

Uh, yup. Going to be a yes on the needing to follow as he saw the rage flash across her face. She began pelting Dexter with the bra to add emphasis on each of her words. "You. Are. Such. An. ASSHOLE!"

"Ouch! Control yourself! This behavior is absolutely barbaric!"

"I'll show you barbaric, you cheating bastard!" Blossom began wailing on the guy – which he definitely deserved. However, Brick knew she'd regret it if she got in trouble with the professor over someone as unimportant as Dexter.

He wrapped his arms around her waist securely and began to drag her away – out of the room, in fact. "Okay, Pinky. Come on. You're taking a mental health day before Dr. Pratt gets here."

Blossom flung the bra at Dexter and snatched her box of belongings as well as her backpack and stormed out the door. Brick followed hot on her heels, but he didn't want to invade her space either, so he hung back. However, when they arrived at her apartment, she promptly shut the door and locked it, leaving him standing awkwardly outside of it. He wanted to help her. But how?

"Blossom, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Brick."

He tried again. "He was an asshole. He deserved more than you gave him, you know."

"That's very kind of you to say."

"Pinky – "

"Brick, thank you for getting me out of there before I made an even bigger fool of myself, but please…just leave." Hearing her breath catch on that last word nearly broke his heart.

He stood there for a moment more before deciding to obey her request. "I'll see you Thursday, okay, Pinky?"

After she gave no further response, he walked out of the apartment complex and back toward his own. Physics would have been his last class of the day, and no way was he going back to that today. Brick would rip Dexter a new asshole if he went back now.

Brick hoped against all hope that she would still show up on Thursday – let him treat her to a night of relaxing fun. It was the least she deserved after all that asshole had put her through. And if Brick couldn't comfort her now, perhaps she'd let him try again then.

He could only hope.

---

Brick never wanted to kill someone quite as much as he wanted to kill Mike tonight. Already on edge due to Blossom skipping Physics today, which he really hoped wasn't because of him, his patience was worn thin.

But to have Mike make them leave twenty minutes later than intended because of his attempt to hide a cowlick that didn't exist had him at his wit's end.

"Dude, if she's not going to fuck you because of your hair, I think you have bigger problems," Butch said, taking up the rear to make sure Mike kept moving forward.

"That's not what I'm worried about!"

"I mean, going on a date with you amounts to much the same sentiment," Boomer pointed out.

"You guys are not helping!"

Brick tried to hang back with them, but he felt himself making his strides longer to close the distance faster. He still didn't fully believe Blossom would show up, and he wanted to shake off the feeling – by confirming or denying it either way. As much as it would hurt to lose out before he really got the chance to try to get to know her better, everything happened for a reason.

"Jesus, between you and Brick I don't know which one is wound tighter," Butch chuckled.

"I'm fine!" Sure, the quickness of his words might be unconvincing, but what his brothers didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Boomer slid an arm around his shoulders and kept pace with him. "Brick, just remember – you can't stop a good thing. And this seems like a good thing. Right?"

Offering a wry smile, Brick nodded. "Yeah. You're right."

"Besides, you both can get your panties out of a twist. We're here."

It was true. The music poured out the club doors, and Brick's heart picked up speed in his chest. This was it. Do or die.

Butch sauntered past him, tossing a grin over his shoulder. "Come on, boys. Pretty ladies are waiting for us."

Mike sent a text message to Robin, apparently the signal to let the girls knows they'd arrive – though how they hoped to hear the sound of a text tone inside the club, Brick wasn't sure. However, it worked if the fact that the girls made their way over to them within moments of them entering the building was any indication.

His heart lodged in his throat when he saw her. The deep pink of her shirt made her eyes stand out vibrantly even in the dark club, and he sincerely hoped she wore this color often. He bit his tongue to keep from saying something embarrassing out loud about how lovely she looked; the comment would likely be unwelcome in this atmosphere.

"Hey ladies," Butch decided to break the ice. "You getting' the party started without us?"

"One drink better not be your idea of a party, or I'm bailing," Buttercup quipped in response.

Blossom's eyes widened into a horrified expression, but Brick smiled. Butch and Buttercup wore matching grins, and it helped ease the tension in the group a bit.

Endlessly amused by Buttercup, his brother laughed. "Sounds like a challenge. You ready for me to drink you under the table?"

"You wish, stripper boy. First one to pass out or puke loses."

"Ew, BC. That's disgusting." Bubbles wrinkled her nose while turning a little green.

"Yeah, no one wants to clean up that mess," Robin agreed. However, a slow smile crept over her face a moment later. "Besides, who's going to carry Butch home later?"

"Don't encourage her," Blossom murmured.

"I'm already halfway to the bar, Butchie Boy. You comin' or what?"

"Wouldn't miss it, Butterbabe."

The two disappeared from sight in moments. Blossom moved to follow them, and Brick put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, trying desperately to ignore the sparks spreading like wildfire across his skin as he did. There was no stopping them, so it wasn't worth her effort.

When she turned her eyes with furrowed brows to him, he shook his head. "They'll get bored and move on to something else before they get too sloppy."

"How can you be so sure? Have you ever seen her drink? She's like a fish!" Bubbles exclaimed.

He shrugged. "Butch still has a good hundred pounds on her. And I think your sister would rather change the game than lose, yeah?"

It was a long shot, but the gapes that greeted him gave him the hope he wasn't too far off base. Robin managed to find her voice first.

"It's like you know her."

Brick laughed, grateful that he hadn't completely misread the situation. "She's not very subtle about it."

"Though she does have the right idea," Boomer mused. "I could go for a drink. What about you guys?"

"Surprise me." Well, that hadn't been what Brick meant to say, but here they were. Guess he was staying here since his autopilot kicked in.

Mike didn't respond quite as quickly. He squinted at the bar.

"Come on, Believe. Don't be a bar snob. At least give the tender a chance before you make that face." Boomer smiled, but sent a conspiratorial roll of his eyes towards Bubbles who giggled in response.

"All right…" The other two boys began walking towards the bar. "Don't worry, Brick. We'll bring back your favorite!"

Boomer snickered. "We're doing this to the poor guy already?"

Dickheads. The both of them. Brick had a feeling he knew what they'd be bringing him back, but part of him hoped he was wrong.

"Typical boys, leaving their dates to get drinks." Robin sighed before sipping her drink. "Looks like you got the nice one, Blossom."

Brick felt his own growing blush get stronger as Blossom's cheeks turned pink at Robin's comment. "It's not polite to insinuate that just because you are on a date that we all assume we're on dates."

Oh. Of course. She wouldn't want to think of this as a date yet. Brick felt like a jackass for assuming it was one. However, his brain decided that humor was the way to handle the situation. "Really? Shame on me then. Here I thought I got all dressed up for a date. But alas – what is that saying about assuming?"

Blossom's mouth fell open, and she quickly shook her head. "No, you're not - ! I mean, I didn't want – you know, we only just met so why would I think that – but you thought that – so, uhm – I'm sorry?"

"I'll translate. Blossom would love to call this a date, but she needed to know what you thought first!"

"Bubbles!"

"What? Did I get it wrong?" The innocent smile on Bubbles face seemed to rile Blossom up further.

Brick found himself laughing. "It's no big deal. Seeing you turn your favorite color is good enough for me, Pink." Fuck his life, did he seriously just wink again? He'd winked more at this poor girl than he'd ever winked before in his life. Was winking even attractive?

"And I got shit for Mikey, eh, Pinky?"

"I think they're both cute nicknames!" The petit blonde seemed so happy just to be there.

Robin didn't react to that, but instead flicked a narrowed gaze between Blossom and Brick. "What I'm curious about is when he started calling her that since she didn't even look a little surprised."

"Brick and I share a physics class. The nickname was Buttercup's suggestion. That's all." Blossom rushed through the explanation, perhaps in an attempt to change the subject?

"Is that really all?" Robin directed this to him instead.

"More or less."

"Buttercup's usually a little more creative with her nicknames."

"Only when it's someone she doesn't like, Robbie. I don't think she'd call Blossom…uhm…what was it? Chowder something?"

The brunette's eyes widened before sparkling with mirth. "Chode, sweetie Chodey McChoderson."

Brick choked on his own spit. "What the fuck kind of nickname is that?"

"The kind of nickname you give a total asshat."

"Yeah! Dexter deserves it! …even if it is gross to think about."

Brick looked over at Blossom who kept her gaze locked on the floor. Was there any truth in the nickname? …did it matter? "He's definitely an asshat, I'll give you that. Though I can't say I want know if the nickname is accurate or not."

"Me either!" Bubbles agreed heartily.

Boomer and Mike returned with drinks in hand then, so they didn't have to continue down this line of thought; Brick truly had no desire to think about Dexter's junk anymore than he'd just had to.

Unfortunately, his relief was short lived as he saw Boomer holding out his drink for him. "For you, Brick."

Brick snatched the mojito out of Boomer's hand and sipped it, ignoring the reddening of his cheeks. "Whatever. It's delicious."

"Did you guys see Buttercup and Butch at the bar?" Bubbles inquired. "They're both still standing, right?"

Boomer grinned. "Yeah, for now."

"They bought an entire tray of shots and are going shot for shot." Mike shook his head, disapproval radiating off him. "How anyone can drink that much straight tequila is beyond me."

Oh, for the love…was Butch trying to kill the poor girl? Competitive or no, tequila knocked people twice her size on their ass for days afterwards.

"Tequila is only good if it's in a margarita." Robin sipped her Mai Tai. "But don't tell BC I said that."

Bubbles giggled. "Because then we'll all get roped into doing shots with them."

Wait a minute. Did that mean Buttercup had chosen the tequila? Perhaps Brick underestimated her after all.

Mike looked around the area. "Do you think it's even possible to find a free table in this place?"

"It doesn't hurt to try," Boomer said. Then he smiled and held out an arm to Bubbles. "Shall we?"

She returned his smile tenfold, linking her arm in his. "Of course!"

Brick watched as the two blondes took off, looking like they'd known each other forever. He'd never seen Boomer try so hard to sweep a girl off her feet before, and it was clear Bubbles ate it up.

"He's laying it on pretty thick, huh?"

Blossom glanced his way after he spoke before turning her attention back to the brother in question. "I wouldn't really know, I suppose."

He snorted. "Trust me. He's peacocking. A lot."

"I'll take your word for it." They both watched the blondes whispering and laughing together. The pair looked so happy, Brick found himself smiling softly. He hadn't seen Boomer laugh like that in a long time. Blossom, mind reader that she seemed to be, continued by voicing his thoughts. "But perhaps that's not such a bad thing?"

Before he could agree, he spotted Bubbles waving them over to a big booth that, somehow, remained open. Blossom sat on his left, and his entire side tingled at the proximity. Their thighs only inches apart, he felt some inexplicable drive to touch her leg with his own.

"Blossy, you're empty already?" Brick looked at the girl's glass and noticed that her sister was correct; Blossom's drink was empty. "Darn it! This place doesn't have those nifty little ordery things. I think you'll have to go all the way back over to the bar to get another one."

The space could get him some time to get himself together and get a handle on his desire to be closer to her, so he said, "I can go get you one." However, she spoke at the same time with an, "I'm fine."

Blossom looked at him, eyebrow raised. "Really, you don't have to do that. I'll go back over in a little bit. Besides, you just got your own drink, so I'd hate –"

Because Brick had no brain in his head, he dumped the minty drink down his throat in one go and sent her a grin that he hoped was reassuring. "Well it looks like I need another one now, doesn't it? I'll be right back. Strawberry daiquiri, right?"

She nodded, and he immediately bolted toward the bar. The girl had a thing for strawberries, it seemed. Who knew?

Weaving his way to the bar took some time, and it took even longer for there to be a free bar tender. The poor servers were running around like mad trying to serve everyone at once.

Across the bar, he spotted Butch and Buttercup, over a dozen empty shot glasses in front of them. They'd drawn in quite the crowd if the people grouped around them whooping and cheering was any indication.

Eventually, he got their drinks – and made sure to leave a generous tip for the poor server – and made his way back to the table. As he approached, he saw Blossom sitting alone and frowned. They really all left her there?

Something on the dance floor lit her face up with amusement though, so he followed her line of sight to see Mike making an absolute mess of the art of dance. How his limbs all managed to move at different tempos both intrigued Brick and made him want to burn the image from his brain all at once.

When he reached the table, he remarked on the spectacle. "Wow. He either wasn't kidding, or he's an evil genius."

Brick felt her gaze on him for a moment before she sipped her drink. "Evil genius?"

"Maybe he just wants her to help teach him so that he has an excuse to get close to her." It wouldn't be the first time one of the guys used the tactic. Though, it would be the first time it wasn't Butch. But that usually backfired because Butch could only pretend for so long before he started showing off, giving his entire game away.

They watched the brunettes in silence until Blossom let out a giggle. "Well, if that's the case, he should be a theatre major, not music education."

He laughed in return. "Yeah, I don't know that anyone could fake being that bad."

"Robin seems to find it pretty endearing."

"He's lucky then. Most women seem to have some keener interest in a guy who can dance." Brick looked at her and found her eyes, causing a smile to spread across his face. "What about you, Pinky? What's your preference?"

It was too dark to tell, but he thought she blushed as she took a sip of her drink. Her gaze locked back on his as she replied, "Dancing is a plus, I suppose, but certainly not a deal breaker."

Brick's smile only widened. "Good to know."

Blossom took another sip of her drink, which was rapidly disappearing. Was he making her uncomfortable? Maybe he should go sit on the other side of the table?

"So, Brick, what are you studying in school?"

Okay…so not too uncomfortable? He shifted slightly away from her and answered her. "Pre-med for now. Eventually looking to become an oncologist."

"What makes you want to pursue that study of medicine?" Her surprise was ill-concealed, but Brick was used to that. Many people's eyes widened at the choice.

He felt himself frown a little bit for a moment. "Recompense, I guess." He took a sip of his drink and thought of what exactly to say next. Honesty might backfire, but he'd try it anyway. "The doc who looked after my old man was a pretty great guy. There's an art to breaking that kind of news, good or bad, you know?"

She nodded, brows furrowed and mouth parted in a look of something more akin to sympathy than pity.

"I want to be that for people," Brick explained. "He took our reactions in stride and did everything in his power to make it easier for us. It was hard to appreciate at the time, but he was a great doctor. If I could be half the support he was for even one family going through something like that…I can't think of anything that would be more fulfilling to do."

As the silence stretched on to the point of becoming awkward, Brick sent her a small smile. "Sorry. So what are you going to school for?"

"No apologies necessary. I think that's an admirable reason to go into that line of work. Your father would be proud of you, I'm sure." His heart clenched at the thought, but her smile eased the feeling into something more pleasant. "I'm pre-law."

Of course she was. Brick never witnessed another person fight for justice in the same way this girl did on a daily basis. It only fit that she'd pursue a career where she could do that for other people. "Yeah? Why is that?"

"I've seen too many guilty people go without punishment. I want to help put a stop to that. I'd eventually like to become a Supreme Court Justice. Help make a real difference, you know?"

Yes, he knew exactly. For a moment, he just looked at her – this pure source of good in the world, and she'd achieve all of her dreams. Brick was sure of it. "I think that's pretty admirable too."

Brick could tell the blush on her cheeks this time. "So when did you start dancing?"

Not big on compliments? Or, given the way Dexter talked to her, maybe she just wasn't used to getting them? Brick had no qualms about fixing that. But, for now, he'd let her lead the way. "About ten years ago? Give or take. It feels like it's been forever now."

"What made you guys decide to start?"

"Well, Boomer was the one who thought taking hip-hop would be a good idea, but he didn't want to take it alone, so…here we are."

"You should probably thank him. After all, weren't you the one who said women prefer a man who could dance?"

That challenging smile made his heart slam dangerously against his ribcage. "Touché, Pinky." A flash of movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he spotted Boomer and Bubbles on the dance floor, having the time of their lives. "But I mean, look over there. Am I totally off-base?"

Blossom looked over, and her eyes widened briefly when she saw the pair dancing together. She looked around the floor and wore a self-satisfied smile. "I suppose not as our less dancing inclined friend appears to have vanished from the dance floor all together."

Brick met her gaze with a raised eyebrow before looking out onto the dance floor. It only confirmed her words. "Told you – evil genius."

"Oh, I doubt very highly that it was his suggestion."

With a snort, Brick said, "Fair. Though his protesting to the opportunity of kissing that friend of yours was likely minimal at best. He's done nothing but talk about her all week."

"Glad to know we weren't the only ones hearing about it."

"Not in the least. We were late because he remained convinced that his cowlick was sticking up."

"He has a cowlick?"

"Exactly."

She chuckled. "Isn't it amazing the lengths we go to in order to impress other people?"

"You're not kidding."

"But I suppose as long as it's genuine that it's a sweet gesture."

"What do you mean?"

Pausing then, she bit her lip. He really wished she'd stop doing that the second she started; it did very little to slow the speed of the blood in his veins. "I mean there is a difference between wanting to look good to impress someone on a first date and embellishing your entire life when talking about it. Only one of those has pure intentions."

"I guess that depends on your definition of the word pure." Excellent, Brick. Dirty jokes now? What was he, thirteen? One lip bite sent his mind into the gutter apparently.

Blossom swatted at his shoulder then covered her eyes. "Please don't put that mental image in my head!"

"I didn't say anything."

"You implied it!"

At least he wasn't the only one with a dirty mind at the table. "Says you. Maybe you just have a dirty mind, Pinky."

Rather than answer him, she reached for her drink again only to realize it was empty. She looked so despondent in that moment that Brick asked, "Should we just move over to the bar?"

She met his gaze. "Would you mind?"

Why would he? She would know her own limits better than he would, but Brick couldn't deny his surprise at her response. "Not at all."

So the two of them made their way to the bar, taking great effort to stay close to each other without actually touching one another. Mercifully, there were two stools available at the bar. Blossom got another drink, and the two continued their conversation, each moment coming more easily than the last. He couldn't believe all the little things they had in common – including, but not limited to, a love of Faulkner and utter detestation for blue grass.

He learned more about her with each passing exchange, and Brick could hardly believe that he somehow liked her even more than he'd anticipated. The girl had a sparkling wit and a great sense of humor, on top of being the single most stunning human being he'd ever seen.

And that wasn't just the drinks talking. Not by a long shot.

There was one moment where the conversation went off the rails because Brick caught the bartender looking dumbfounded at something behind him. He couldn't help but turn and immediately wished he hadn't.

With a sigh, he said, "Is everything going to be a competition with those two?"

Blossom turned to look and replied with a groan. "I swear I don't know her…"

"I mean, she's keeping up with that idiot, so more power to her."

His dark haired brother decided to commandeer the dance floor in a way only someone of his stature could. However, Buttercup took it in stride, and the two danced at each other more than together. Even though they weren't touching, there was something connecting them and keeping their attention on only each other. Their mutual understanding ran deeper than Brick thought he'd ever be able to comprehend.

"I certainly hope she had some water after those shots. Otherwise, this is only the beginning." Blossom turned her back to the display and sipped her drink.

The song changed as Brick went to take a sip of his own, and he choked on it. Who the hell knew Buttercup could move like that?

The redhead next to him smiled wryly. "Starting to wish you'd asked a different Utonium sister to be your date?"

Brick brought his gaze to hers immediately. Not even a little bit! "Uh, no. Absolutely not. No offense, but your sister is more than a little terrifying." He couldn't decide if the first time he'd seen her in the alley or this utter display of dance floor dominance scared him more.

"Your poor brother doesn't stand a chance."

"No…not likely." Butch already looked about ready to have an aneurism.

Blossom chuckled. "You'd think in your line of work he'd be immune to something like this."

"Doing and seeing are not the same," he murmured, turning away from the spectacle himself now. "You sure she doesn't do this professionally?"

"You better not let her hear you say that. She'll think her secret's out."

His eyes widened, and he met her gaze only for her to wink at him.

If he looked half as appealing to her when he did that then consider him officially reassured that winking was indeed attractive to look at.

She giggled at his likely baffled expression. "I'm just teasing."

"More than you know," he muttered before smiling. "You got me, Pinky. I would have believed you."

She offered him a devilish smile that sent blood rushing south at a rapid fire pace. "What can I say? It's the lawyer in me."

It was his turn to take a big swig of his drink. Did she even realize how sexy she was? He wasn't really a fan of that word, but her sultry tone and dewy look could be described no other way.

And then her hand was on his knee with her leaning toward him, revealing far more of her chest than Brick knew she'd intended to. His grip on his cup almost slipped, and then he realized that she'd asked him a question given the expectant look on her face. He forced his voice past the frog in his throat to say, "I'm sorry, what?"

She removed her hand and this time he heard her ask, "I asked where you're applying for your Masters? Or are you going straight PhD?"

As they continued to converse and the drinks continued to be poured, he felt himself getting pretty close to capacity. He'd soon be adventuring into the territory of sloppy drunk if he didn't slow down. Though, hearing Blossom's philosophy on only having sex with people she dated and then proceeding to explain how much the sex with Dexter had been lackluster left him feeling like reaching for another drink.

He needed to move. Should he have gotten a water? Probably. But, instead, he asked her to dance.

Blossom blushed and leaned closer asking him to repeat himself. Apparently Brick wasn't the only one feeling the drinks.

"Wanna dance?"

She drained her drink and slid off the stool, smirking back at him. "I thought you'd never ask."

He trailed behind her and watched as she began to move her hips. Brick allowed himself to get lost in the beat of the music as he took her in. Blossom moved with a freedom he hadn't expected at the beginning of the night, but she rode the rhythm of the music as if she'd been doing it her whole life.

Despite that, his eyes kept going back to her face, unable to look away from it for too long. She'd tried a few times to, unsuccessfully, tuck her hair behind her ears, so Brick reached to help her.

Only when he felt the weight of her chest pressing against his did he realize how close he'd come in his effort to help her keep her hair from blocking her beautiful face. Then their eyes met, and they were no longer dancing separately anymore. Brick's hands found her hips, enjoying the feeling of the gentle curves under his fingers almost as much as he enjoyed the little gasp that escaped her when she placed her hands on his chest. He practically puffed up with pride at her rather open admiration in the moment of his body.

At least he hoped the attraction was mutual…

And then she confirmed it in a way that almost sent him to his knees; Blossom pressed her lips to his neck. Unwittingly, his body jolted from the contact, his nerves going haywire. She continued to leave open mouthed kisses all over his skin, and he couldn't stop himself from saying her name.

He had no time to worry about whether or not it was appropriate before she began nibbling the flesh on his neck. Brick froze, his hands solidly on her hips. God did he just want to bring her closer, but he didn't want to move too fast…nor was he entirely convinced he could hide his full appreciation for her attention much longer if he drew her any closer.

Blossom left him no option as she slid along his torso to be fully pressed against him, trailing kisses up his neck until she sucked his earlobe into her mouth, and he stumbled. "Fuck."

Why had neither of his brother ever warned him that earlobes were an erogenous zone?! Because holy fuck did he like when she did that.

Liked it too much, in fact. He forced himself to move his hands from her hips to her shoulders – being careful not to touch any of the areas in between – and pushed them apart with a grimace. God, if this wasn't one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do…

"What's wrong?" she slurred out. "Did I hurt you?"

And therein lay the problem. They were both far too drunk to be doing this. He had to try to do the right thing now because if she kept coming on to him, he didn't know if he'd have the strength to say no again. "No, but I think I should probably take you home."

She pouted, and his heart clenched. "You didn't like it?"

This girl was going to be the death of him. He shook his head and forced out a laugh. "No, that's not it. I liked it more than I should, and I'm sure you don't want to do this here."

Her cheeks flushed, and her lids were hooded as she nodded. "Okay. Yeah, please take me home."

Had she meant for that to sound like an offer? He felt himself turning red as she pulled out her phone – presumably to text someone to let them know where she was going. It did reassure him a little that she was in her right enough mind to do that.

But then she slid her hand in his, and his nerve endings practically stood on end once again.

They wove through the crowd and out onto the street. Any reassurance he'd had earlier left once again when they both stumbled most of the way to her apartment. He kept glancing at her to make sure she remained upright, and the smile she wore no longer read as sultry but instead beamed brighter than the sun.

Damn, he had it bad. Just get her home. That's all he had to do.

When they reached her door, she slipped in the keys and opened it, stumbling slightly since most of her weight had been pressed into the doorknob. Brick remained in the doorway, and Blossom frowned at him once she noticed this.

"Aren't you going to come in?"

Brick shook his head, his body screaming in protest.

"Why not?"

"Because you're drunk."

"So are you."

No arguments here. "I know. That's why I'm not coming in."

Her brow furrowed, and it damn near broke his heart. "I don't understand. Don't you want to come in?"

He grimaced now because she was making this so hard. Brick wanted to be the good guy here! But he also desperately wanted to feel her hands on his skin. "Of course I do."

"So why don't you?"

Best just go for broke at this point. "Because I really like you, Blossom."

That sunny smile crossed her face again as she giggled. "I really like you too, silly. That's why I want you to come in."

"Are you sure?"

Blossom reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him into her apartment. He felt his resistance waning. Yeah. I had fun with you tonight! I want to keep having fun with you."

Then she yanked him toward her, crashing his lips to hers, and his resistance snapped. He engulfed her in his arms, and she barely managed to get them to the couch before she slid her hands under his shirt. Brick shivered at the cool touch of her delicate hands, and he wanted more of that feeling. Pulling away only long enough to remove his shirt, he dove to kiss her again. His entire body felt like it was on fire – the blood in his veins molten lava in his pure desire and adoration for the girl beneath him.

When she extricated herself from his arms, he felt her absence like a hole in his gut. But she moved toward another door, and he wasn't sure whether or not she wanted him to follow.

Then Blossom removed her own shirt and sent him a sultry grin over her shoulder.

It took his brain a moment to fully register the smooth expanse of her back he was seeing. With nothing else covering it. Meaning she had only been wearing the shirt this entire night. Brick's mouth gaped open when she moved her hair over her shoulder allowing him to fully bask in the view of her milky skin.

Brick followed her into the room, and she laid on her back – the arch in it like something out of a painting. She crooked a finger at him, and he practically flew across the room to join her again now allowing himself to kiss over every expanse of her skin. Somewhere in the worship of her body, his recollection began to cut in and out, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this girl had managed to ensnare him even further into his fascination of her by the night's end.

---

The next morning, Brick woke to the smell of coffee and strawberries – quite a delectable combination. He inhaled deeply only to wince at his oncoming headache. Apparently, he'd had more to drink that he'd even realized.

Then the smell registered, and he sat upright in a distinctly feminine room. His red eyes wild, he took in the scene around him. Oh God…he hadn't…

Had he?

The night before came back to him in flashes, and he distinctly recalled seeing a shirtless Blossom splayed below him on this very bed. Brick blushed as he buried his face in his hands. How had he royally fucked this up so badly?

Well, he couldn't stay in here all day. He needed to face the music and apologize to her.

Brick managed to bring himself to the doorway of her bedroom and froze when he saw her standing in the kitchen, her long red hair somehow looking perfect even now. She truly was a remarkable woman, and he felt like the scum of the earth for doing this to her.

"Good morning," he murmured, unable to force his voice any louder.

"Good morning, Brick," she replied smoothly. He flinched. The diplomatic sound of her tone could only mean trouble. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Coffee sounds…great." He shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Are we not going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?"

Brick buzzed his lips. "About what happened last night."

"Is there something to talk about? We both know what happened. What more is there to discuss?"

He let out a humorless laugh. Wow. Maybe he messed up even more than he thought. "I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting to be the one more interested in talking about this."

"Well, I would rather hear what you think."

"Do you remember much from after we left the bar?" Best to get the worst case scenario out of the way.

"Not really."

Brick's heart dropped. Sure, he didn't remember everything, but he remember coming back to her apartment and a few minutes of being there at the very least. "Well, that kind of makes me an asshole. Jeez. I'm sorry, Blossom."

To his surprise, she shook her head as she handed him a mug on her way to her table. "Absolutely not. You were drunk too, right?"

"Well, yeah, but –"

"So neither of us were in a clear state of mind. Decisions were made on both of our parts. I don't blame you for this."

"That's good." He supposed? Was it really? Brick wasn't sure how to feel about how this conversation was going. "But where do we go from here?"

"What do you mean?"

His face heated. "I mean is that it? A onetime thing?" It felt so inappropriate to ask, but he had to know if he should leave now or if this…whatever it was had any chance of being salvaged.

"Isn't that what you want?" she asked.

Not in the least. If he had his way, he'd take her on date after date until she tired of him. But instead he said, "I'm not so sure that it is."

She blinked at him. "What?"

Immediately, Brick rose his hands in surrender. Shit. He'd overstepped again. Way to go, Jojo. Just batting a thousand over there. "I know you might not be ready to date yet, so I don't want to make the conversation more awkward by bringing up the possibility that I might be interested in pursuing…that. With you."

"Dating?" Blossom blushed. "Why on earth would you want to date me?"

Brick almost fell over. Of all the responses she could have given him, that hadn't been what he expected. Where did he even start? He cocked his head, eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Please tell me you're joking. You have to be joking, right? That was you I was with last night, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was! But…sex and dating are not always mutually exclusive."

"They are for you."

"Why would you assume that?" she asked.

Apparently the moments in her apartment were not all she might not remember. "I'm not assuming anything." He walked over and sat down at the table across from her. "You told me that yourself when we were talking at the bar last night."

She groaned. "Oh God. That's embarrassing." She finally looked him in the eye, even though it looked like it pained her. "And you still believe me, despite last night proving to be quite different?"

A lot of things about last night were an anomaly. "Yeah. I do."

"That's an awful lot of faith to give someone you hardly know."

Brick shrugged and couldn't help but smile. He wouldn't say he hardly knew her. Not after all he'd learned from talking with her the night before. Sure, there was a lot more still to learn, but he knew better that he had before which was definitely a start. "Call it a gut instinct. So…does that mean it's on the table?"

"I…I still don't understand. You saw…a horrific part of the aftermath of dating me. Why would you still want to after that catastrophe?"

"Blossom, I need you to hear me when I say this." He grasped her hand and squeezed it, immensely relieved when she didn't yank her hand away. "Your ex being a son of a bitch was not your fault."

"No, but my reaction –"

"Was completely justified."

Briefly meeting his gaze once more, she bit her lip before looking away again. "How could you call that justified? I assaulted a man."

"He didn't press charges or some shit, right?"

"No, but it doesn't change the truth."

"The bastard deserved it!" If the little asshole even thought about pressing charges, Brick would blow a gasket.

"Nobody deserves to be treated that way, Brick."

"It was way better than the way he treated you," he argued, fighting to keep the venom out of his voice.

"You're being far too nice about this."

Brick removed his hand from hers to run both of his hands through his hair before sighing. "I'm not being too anything. Is it so hard to believe that somebody might actually like you enough to want to treat you with respect?"

Blossom floundered for a response for a moment before saying, once again, "You barely know me."

"I know you enough!"

"Brick, you've barely known me for a week. And one of the limited interactions you've had with me led to me being violent. How am I supposed to believe that?"

He began bouncing his heel as he debated if he should just come clean with her. He averted his gaze. "You'll think it's ridiculous."

"Please help me understand. I feel like I haven't been myself at all this past week, and I don't know how anyone could just take all this in stride."

He sighed again. Maybe he could lead into this to make it sound less like the childish crush she'd surely think it was. "You know how Believe was picked on a lot in high school?"

"Yes, the poor guy. Those kids were awful to him."

"Well, he told us a lot about a group of girls who stuck up to the bullies. Not just for him, exactly, but in general."

Blossom swallowed thickly but remained silent, so Brick pressed on.

"The way he talked about you and your sisters made you seem…I don't know. Like something more. Like real life angels of justice. Or, you know…superheroes." God, could he sound any cheesier if he tried?

She snorted with a shake of her head. "It wasn't anything as impressive as all of that. Michael gave us far too much credit. We didn't do anything decent people wouldn't do. …except Buttercup. Sometimes she would do some unsavory things that most good Samaritans probably wouldn't do."

Blossom sold herself far too short, but, somehow, it made him like her all the more. "That. That right there is the reason I know you're worth liking so much." He leaned toward her, taking in the sweet scent of strawberries, and met her gaze. Their noses were practically touching, but he forced himself to focus on his words and not the electricity jumping through his nerve endings. "You're not one to boast about things like this. Other people would play up the whole bit, waxing poetic about how they 'practically saved his life,' but you barely make it seem noteworthy. That makes you a way better person than anyone I've ever know."

Blushing again, she leaned away from him. "That's very kind of you to say."

Now he was getting frustrated. Couldn't she see he meant every word? "You don't have any idea how much what you girls did meant to him, do you?"

"It didn't stop them." Her voice shook, and her hands balled into fists. Brick blinked at the aggressive reaction. "It didn't stop those cruel people from picking on him. Nothing we did mattered."

"That's where you're wrong. Showing that not all people were like them? That mattered." He began bouncing his heel again. "Let me ask you something. How many people watched?"

Her browed furrowed. "Watched?"

"Yeah. Watched. How many kids in your school simply treated bullying like a spectator sport?"

Pursing her lips, Blossom said, "Point taken."

"So don't tell me nothing you did mattered. Believe acted like you girls hung the moon. And, I'll be honest, I thought he was full of shit." It sort of felt good to tell her this, in a way. "Nobody does that shit in real life. Nobody, especially in high school, is truly that brave."

"What changed your mind?" She wouldn't look at him, but that made it easier for him to spill his guts. Her expressive eyes could completely shut him down if she balked at what he told her.

"I could lie and tell you that it was in the club the other night. The way you put Princess in her place was…well, anything less than awe-inspiring hardly seems to do it justice." Unable to help himself, he grasped her hand again, and her gaze met his. Her pink eyes seemed so curious that he forced himself to barrel forward. "But it happened freshman year. On my way to work, I heard a girl scream. Without thinking about it, I ran toward the sound. By the time I got there, I saw a small blonde girl rushing a sobbing taller blonde out of an alley. I don't think either of them saw me. When I looked where they came from, I saw a girl with dark hair holding some scumbag in a full Nelson while a redhead called the authorities." He grinned sheepishly. "Your eyes kind of give you away, you know. I went to help you, but I heard the sirens coming. I waited to make sure nothing got out of hand, but I couldn't bring myself to interrupt."

Blossom's pink eyes were wider than he'd ever seen them. "You were there?"

"I know I should have stepped in to help. I almost did, but by the time I got myself to move the cops pushed past me to cuff the bastard." Brick cleared his throat. "And I got to see the infamous Utonium sisters in action firsthand. I realized then that Believe couldn't make you girls up if he tried."

She pursed her lips again. "But we were all there. There's no reason you should like me anymore than you like my sisters."

He laughed. Damn, she didn't let up, did she? She'd make a damn good lawyer when her schooling was done. "You really don't make it easy on a guy, do you?"

"I'm simply curious."

Brick searched for the right word and came up short but not empty. "Well, if you want the truth, you were the dynamic one."

Blossom blinked in confusion. "What on earth does that mean?"

"Buttercup never stopped being angry. She wanted to rip that guy's esophagus out. Bubbles's heart was on her sleeve the entire time. Her eyes teared up, and she was the shoulder to cry on. But you managed to do both of those things while keeping it professional with the cops. The way you carried yourself kind of blew me away. I'd never seen a girl like you before." His palms were sweating. Why the hell were his palms sweating? He wiped his hands off on his pants. "When I told Believe what I saw, he started busting my balls about having a crush on you or some shit. Joke's on me, I guess, since the dickhead wasn't entirely wrong."

He was getting far too good at these understatements.

"You…but…me?" Her voice was small, but she kept eye contact this time.

"You're starting to scare me here, Pinky. It was you I was with last night, right? Not some figment of my imagination or something?"

"No, it was me. But you…you seemed so at ease yesterday at the bar. I know I've never been very good about relaxing around people I…well, you know."

If she thought he'd been at ease, he must have faked it better than he thought! However, her implication brought an impish smile to his face. "Is that why you're so worked up? Got a crush on me now, Pinky?"

She waved him away. "Stop changing the subject! I suppose I thought that last night was a product of mutual attraction."

"Admitting you're attracted to me isn't a bad start," he teased with a wink. It was starting to feel natural to do. And with how flustered it made her, he might have to make winking part of his regular repertoire with her.

W-well, by that logic, you're attracted to me too!"

"Yeah, I am." Very much. Too much, probably. "Thank you for joining our conversation. Good to know I've been talking to myself for the past ten minutes."

After a moment of silence where Brick saw a peek of the sunny smile from last night fighting to make its way onto her face, he asked the remaining question. "So what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do I get to see you again? You never really answered me before."

The next few seconds were the longest of Brick's life. He braced himself for rejection. Or at the very least a request to wait. It'd already been a couple of years, what was a couple more?

"I would like that very much. If you'd be interested, of course."

He saw the blush on her cheeks and pieced it together with the words coming out of her mouth, and his eyes widened. He couldn't fight the smile on his face. "Wait – seriously?"

Now Blossom laughed, a warm, rich sound. "Yes, seriously. Why would I say it if I didn't mean it?"

"I just, you know…you seemed really hesitant, so I thought you were going to try to let me down easy."

"No, I…I'd really enjoy going out with you again."

"A date to a place where I can fully hear you would probably be a good place to start. So when works for you, Pinky?" Maybe he should have waited a little longer, but his excitement wouldn't let him resist answering the question.

"Well evenings are usually out for you because of work, right?"

"Typically, yeah."

"And the Morebucks aren't likely to give you the night off just because you request it."

Ugh. He really didn't want to think about them right now, but she made a good point. "Probably not."

"So how about lunch? Tomorrow?" He went to answer, but then she added, "If that works for you! Or you know, next week is fine too. Or…whenever."

He chuckled, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. "Tomorrow sounds great, Pinky." He walked over to the sink and washed out his mug before placing it in the well of the sink. "But I really should head out and try to catch a few more hours of sleep before work tonight."

She nodded. "Right, of course."

Brick walked back into her room, pumping his fist in victory. He was finally going to get a real and true date with the girl he'd had a crush on for years. He couldn't be happier if he tried.

Quickly scribbling his number on a piece of paper, he left it next to her phone on her bedside table before slipping on his shoes and walking back into the kitchen where she stood at the sink. "I had a good time last night, Blossom."

"Me too."

"So, lunch tomorrow?"

"That sounds perfect."

He leaned in and kissed her cheek before walking across the room to the door. "Tomorrow then."

"Yes. Tomorrow."

Brick walked out the door and paused outside for a moment to send Mike a text.

You were right. She really is perfect.

As he began to walk home, his phone dinged, and he saw an unfamiliar number flash across the screen.

Brick! We didn't pick a place! D:

He chuckled before replying with, I know a place. Meet me at JB's. Noon?

When his phone dinged again, he opened the message quickly.

Sounds perfect! …is it bad that I'm already really excited?

Brick smiled widely. He was excited too, but there was really only one appropriate response.

Me too. But I think that makes sense. Hasn't anyone ever told you? You can't stop a good thing, babe.

Babe…he liked it. He might have to keep that.

And as Brick continued his walk home, he truly believed that Blossom was a very good thing in his life that he wouldn't let be stopped. Not if he had anything to say about it.

---

And that is that, my darlings! It was quite an interesting adventure to write this piece from another perspective.

If you have the time, please let me know what you thought. I'd love to hear from you!

Love and Rockets,

Stranique