This is my first Powerpuff Girls fic, so I'm sorry if everyone seems a bit OOC. This is dedicated to Quillified for writing amazing things. Go check out her PpG drabble fic: One Hundred Shards of Glass. It's amazing, I promise.
She's asleep. She's asleep and she won't wake up at three in the morning no matter how much Butch wants to play video games because she is asleep.
But Butch is trying to talk to her, whispering through her open window, and she rolls over, casting a piercing glare on her counterpart.
"I'm not playing video games right now."
"I know."
She stares at him for a second, absently tugging at the bottom of her t-shirt. She can't really see his face, it's too dark. "So what the fuck are you doing at my house at-" she glances at the clock that Blossom bought for her. "- three-fourteen in the morning?"
He swings into the room, ignoring her glare and moves to sit on the edge of the bed. It groans slightly, and Buttercup holds her breath, hoping nobody heard it. After waiting a few seconds, she exhaled slowly.
He must have been waiting to see what she would do, because he moves back more, lying on the bed now. His head flops down next to hers, his face directed at the ceiling. She lies back too.
"This is weird," she says quietly, peaking at him. He shrugs, not looking at her. Yawning, Buttercup moves so she's lying on her stomach, still facing Butch. His eyebrows are furrowed, which makes him look like he's thinking, but he probably isn't, because Butch doesn't think. He does.
"I'm going back to sleep, so get out," Buttercup murmurs, shutting her eyes and yawning again. Butch moves slightly, the bed dips a bit, and he exhales. His breath puffs out across the bridge of her nose.
"Go away," she whispers, burrowing her face into the soft pillow. His hand traces the outline of her body under the blankets, stopping at her waist. Buttercups eyes snap open, and heat floods her face. "What the fuck?"
She sits up, backing away from him slightly. "If you came here so you could get it in, you can leave. Now."
Butch stares at her. He's sitting up now too. His green eyes seem abnormally bright in the darkness of her room, his hair is flat instead of messy, and there is something dripping from…
She's out of bed in a flash of green light, her light switched on, back against the door, ready to throw it open and call for her sisters. "What happened?"
Again, Butch shrugs and stands, his hand going to the bloody gash on his forehead that the Chemical X hadn't healed yet. There is dried blood around his mouth and nose. "Got into a fight."
Buttercup snorts, "Oh? I had no idea. I meant who did you get into a fight with, you dumbass."
He smirks a bit at the comment, but the smirk slowly disappears as he stares at the raven-haired girl. Sighing, he sits on the edge of the bed again. "Brick."
Buttercup's lip curls at the red Rowdyruff Boy's name. "He did this to you? Why the fuck…?" She moves towards him, stopping momentarily to grab a pink shirt Bubbles had gotten her off the floor. She goes to sit next to Butch, pressing the shirt against his forehead. He grimaces.
"I can do it."
"Just tell me what happened, alright? God, don't be such a girl…" she mutters, not meeting his eyes.
Butch merely shrugs and replies, "Nothing happened. I pissed him off, which probably wasn't a good idea, since he was already pretty mad. At your sister, actually." He scratches his jaw, and Buttercup notices dark shadows there. "Anyway, I said some stupid shit, and he freaked out. Told me to just leave."
"He said that?" Buttercup asked, putting down the shirt. She meets his eyes now. She sees the anger in them. "Yeah, why wouldn't he? He's not like your sister, no matter how much you think they are," he says. "Blossom may be a bitch sometimes, she may be bossy and smart and whatever, so is Brick, but he's evil. All three of us are-"
"Butch-"
He shrugs again and stands up. "Do you ever wish you could run away?"
"Every day," She answers honestly, the words spilling out of her mouth. Her cheeks darken, and she looks at the wall. "I would never do it though. I've gotten train tickets before. Planned on leaving, packed my stuff and when the time came…when I saw the train…I couldn't do it, y'know?"
She's shocked that she's shared this much, because yeah, their friends, but they're not like Bubbles and Boomer. They don't share their feelings all that much.
Neither speaks for a while, Buttercup stares at his dirty shoes, he stares at the wall behind her. It's so quiet, that they can hear Bubbles snoring next door and Blossom is talking to herself a few doors down. Buttercup tries to listen to what her sister's saying, but her hand is suddenly engulfed in Butch's.
Her eyes widen, and she stares up at him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She hisses, but she doesn't pull her hands away. Butch clears his throat, and then says, "Run away with me."
This time, she pulls her hand away, clutching it to her chest. "…what?"
He grimaces and runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up slightly. "You hard of hearing or something?" he asks harshly, eyes narrowing. "I asked if you wanted to get out of here. Like, buy train tickets and leave."
"Is this because of your brother? Butch, he probably didn't mean it- Blossom says the same shit to me all the time!"
Their getting louder now, and if they don't stop talking, her family will wake up. "I just wanna get outta this shithole, okay? I've got nothing here really, my brothers, yeah, but I'll see 'em again, and you obviously, which is why I asked if you wanted to-"
"Me?" She asks incredulously, her eyes wide. "Butch-"
"You're my best friend, loser," he says. "We've done a lot of stupid shit together and well maybe we can do more stupid shit, just in another town, or city." His eyes stare into hers, bright, unwavering. "Don't be a pussy now…"
She waits a beat, searching his face, looking for signs that he's lying. He seems pretty honest. That's the part that scares her most.
She's not used to this Butch. She's used to beat-the-crap-outta-you Butch, or win-at-all-costs Butch. Not lets-share-our-feelings-and-run-away-together Butch.
Why couldn't he just let her sleep?
"I'll go." She decides finally, moving to her dresser. She pulls out her jeans, grimacing at all the holes in them, but really, all her jeans had holes. She then grabbed her shirt and a bra.
"Turn around," she instructed, keeping an eye on his back while she dressed. She then added a few more outfits to a bag. Not bothering to brush her hair, she swept it back in a ponytail, blowing her fringe out of her face.
"I'm just gonna run downstairs and get my boots, okay?" She says to him. He grins at her, and nods.
Floating downstairs, she pulls out a piece of paper, quickly writing down that she's okay, and that she's with Butch, and no, it wasn't a kidnapping. Then she grabs her boots.
"So did you tell your brothers you were leaving?" Buttercup asks, pulling on her hood. If the people at the train station recognized her, they'd call the Professor. Butch nodded. "Yup. Told 'em I was leaving. Boomer looked a bit worried, but Brick just waved at me and told me to "get the fuck out of his face"."
Buttercup glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Asshole."
"You said it," Butch replied. Buttercup yawned, loudly, and Butch said, "Once we get the tickets, you can go to sleep for a bit."
She didn't say anything.
Buttercup leaned against the far wall, out of sight of the ticket lady. Butch was sweet talking her, a lazy grin on his face. The older woman smiled at him, and handed him two tickets, peeking out of her booth for his second companion. When she saw no one, she shrugged and looked away.
Butch walked towards her, tickets clutched in his hand. "We're leaving to Colorado in an hour."
"Why Colorado?" She asked, walking with him to the benches. They chose one farthest away from the door and ticket booth. Butch sat down. "I don't know. Might as well start off somewhere we've never been."
"You're so deep," she deadpanned, sitting down next to him. She yawned again, leaning her head against the wall. He moved slightly, pushing her forward so he could throw an arm around her shoulder.
"Just uh- you can lean on my shoulder." He said carefully, watching her reaction. Nodding, she put her head down. "I'll wake you up when the train gets here, okay?"
She didn't answer.
"You asked the powerpuff to come with you? What the fuck's your problem? Why the fuck would you even leave!"
"Why would she go with you?"
"-maybe they're in love-"
"Tell your sister to shut up Red."
"What? Leave her alone, she's entitled to her own opinion-"
"Oh here we go."
Buttercup blinked, her neck was stiff from leaning on Butch's shoulder. He was tense next to her, and she sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Her hood had fallen off.
Brick, Blossom, Boomer and Bubbles stood in front of her. All eyes went to her as she sat up. She grinned at them. "You guys comin' too?"
Blossom stepped forward, her hand coming up to grab Buttercup by the arm. "Come on, we're going home."
Buttercup shrugged out of her sister's grasp, glaring at the redhead. "I told Butch I'd go with him."
"Well Butch can go by himself. We've been worried sick about you!" Blossom looked like she was about to stamp her foot, and Brick looked like he was about to stomp on Blossom.
"Worried sick? I told you I was leaving-"
"Through a note!"
"C'mon Butch let's go," Brick spat, glaring at the boy. Butch said nothing for a second, but he was even tenser next to Buttercup. Finally, he said, "No."
"No?" Brick asked incredulously. Butch nodded, his jaw tightening. "No. You told me to leave, I'm simply following orders."
Brick's face reddened, and he stepped forward, his fist up. Butch sprang up beside Buttercup, already in a fighting stance. "Little brother," Brick says; his voice is low, menacing, "You can't win this fight. Back down."
Butch grins, but it's not a joking grin, like he gives Buttercup. It's an-I'm-about-ten-seconds-from-fucking-killing-you grin. And that's not good.
Blossom's hand comes down on Brick's arm, hand like a vise, and she's glaring at Buttercup—why the fuck is everyone glaring at Buttercup?—"Brick," Blossom murmurs, breaking away from Buttercup and looking around, noticing all the stares. "Not here, okay?"
Brick lowers his fists, but his glare doesn't decrease. "You've got an hour. We'll come back, and if you're not here, I'll find you and make sure you regret it. Is that clear?"
Butch doesn't say anything, so Brick and Boomer leave. Blossom and Bubbles do too, eventually.
"You're in trouble," Buttercup tells him when the boy sits down. Butch shrugs, crossing his arms. "Whatever wouldn't be the first time."
It's a little while before either speaks again. "Do you still want to leave?" She asks quietly, peaking at him behind her fringe. "I'll still go with you. Might be fun, being hunted by our siblings." She elbows him hard in the stomach.
"You know I want to," he mutters, kicking his legs out in front of him. "But I—it was a stupid idea."
"What!" Buttercup looks at him fully now, eyebrows drawn together. "Stupid idea? You woke me up in the middle of the night—"
"—it was morning—"
"—so that you could bail on me because Brick said it's a stupid idea?" She shakes her head, a glare directed at him now. "You're fucking sad, Butch."
She stands up, pulling her hood back on. "You can wait here, or whatever, for your fucking warden. I'll be on my way."
"Buttercup—" Butch stands too, hand gripping her elbow a little too tight. She shrugs out of his grasp, but looks at him nonetheless. "What?"
She notices then how much taller he is; practically a sky-scraper compared to her. Her green eyes meet his. "What do you want Butch?"
"'m sorry," he murmurs; eyes never leaving hers. "I know how much ya need your beauty sleep."
She grimaces, aims a kick for his shin, and decides maybe running away was a stupid idea.