Decided to do a one-shot so I could keep up my muse for this site. I'd also like to thank my Beta yourejustlikeheaven for going over this and helping so my dyslexia doesn't get in the way :D
A 19 year old Blossom Utonium sat over her wooden desk, massaging her temples in frustration. She hadn't been able to come up with a new story line in weeks, and she just couldn't take it anymore. She had been writing romance novels for the past three years, but after the horrible break up with her boyfriend of two years, she had lost the muse. She'd lost her ability to write.
She still held residence in Townsville and, since High School had ended on a writing scholarship, now attended Townsville University. Buttercup still lived there as well, but Bubbles had become an intern and had left for Paris. Almost immediately after leaving, she was bumped up to a Fashion Apprentice. Buttercup had been offered many scholarships for her athletic ability, but she turned them down so she could stay and help with the common attacks on the city.
Blossom had always felt bad about making her sister stay. She often tried to tell her that she could handle everything on her own, but Buttercup wouldn't hear any of it. So, she'd also entered Townsville University on a full scholarship and was now living in a separate dorm room.
Blossom sighed, looking out the window in front of her desk. The sun had begun to set. Different colors shattered throughout the sky as a green light flashed over the sun for a split second.
Letting out another sigh, she pushed the window open and the cool autumn air breezed into her small room.
She sat back on her chair, watching the sun slowly disappear. She felt nothing, nothing in her heart, and no matter how hard she tried...love still felt more like a stab to the chest than a passionate story. She'd written down things about the way she felt, about how she seemed to have given up on love all together. Blossom stood up and walked over to her bed.
No matter how old she got, the color pink seemed to always follow her. Her thick, ginger hair had stayed very similar to how it had been when she was younger, though it now reached down to her back. She refused to part with her signature pink bow. Her unique pink eyes held the same hue throughout the years, never changing. The only thing that had changed was her height, as she now stood comfortably at 5"5'.
Blossom was still her proud and stubborn self, never giving in.
Blossom fell back on her bed and stared intently at the ceiling. After a few minutes of mindless staring, she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face into the sheets.
The ginger crawled under her covers and rolled herself up like a burrito in the warm blankets. She put her pillow over her head and drifted away into the endless blank void that was her mind.
Unbeknownst to her, a pair of red eyes stared through her window from a distance. A boy, so similar to her that anyone would think they where twins... Unless they knew their history, of course.
Blossom opened her eyes and stared up at the pink ceiling. She didn't dream anymore. Her world was just a dark abyss of nothingness. No day seemed different, and life seemed to go on as it always had.
The girl got up, walked to her small bathroom, brushed her teeth, and then quickly ran a brush through her tangled hair. She wondered about the meaning of life for a moment, then about the fact that she was a speck of dust flying freely in the universe. She returned to her room and leaned against the wall, rethinking every life choice she'd ever made. She slowly began to bang her forehead against the wall.
Am I having an existential crisis? She asked herself, then heard a creaking noise coming from her window. A small breeze flew past her, sending a strange scent wafting into her nose.
"Someone stressed out?" A slow and cool voice said, it sounded so familiar but she wasn't quite sure where she'd heard it before. Her head snapped up, pink eyes darting over to her window. The person that was standing there surprised her. She'd forgotten about him entirely after over 14 years of being apart.
"Come on, Pinky. Aren't you gonna say anything?" He asked. His back was facing out the window and his feet were resting on her desk. His elbows were on his thighs, propping him up as he watched her from his odd, slouched position. It was a strange sight to see. His red and black hat was still tilted back, and covered a mess of shaggy red hair that was just a few shades darker than her own. It stopped at the nape of his neck. He wore a red hoodie and black jeans. But the part that stuck out most to her was his blood red eyes. They seemed to have darkened since she'd last seen him.
"But...you're...I mean, I thought...but you... Brick?" She started, but couldn't find words for what she felt. She was confused and surprised, but also a bit intrigued by his sudden arrival.
"The one and only. Good to see you again, Ms. Leader." He said, tilting his head toward her with a smirk evident on his face. Blossom was stunned. She'd expected everything else... But him. Brick's smirk grew slightly wider as he stood up, now on her desk. He took a step down and stood on her chair, then another step and was on the floor a few feet away from her.
Blossom suddenly realized just how tall he'd gotten, and how much bigger he was compared to her. He was somewhere around 6"3', maybe 6"4'. He tucked his hands away into the hoodie pockets and took a few steps forward. She should have stepped back, but was too shocked to do anything.
It was so surreal.
He came closer, their eyes never breaking contact. He was finally standing in front of her, eyes blazing as they stared down at her. She blinked up at him, her face turning red as she realized just how close they where. Brick could almost feel the heat radiating from her body. His smirk had faded from his face, but was now back in an instant. "Scared yet, Pinky?" He asked, reaching out to her face. But she recoiled away from him, taking a step back, then her back was pressed against the wall.
Brick took another step closer, then his hand pressed lightly against her face. "Oh, come on, babe... You've haven't gone soft, have you?" He asked, then in one quick movement his fist had made a hole through the wall right next to her head. Her eyes became wide. She threw a punch at his stomach, knocking him back and causing him to hit her bed which quickly broke.
She lifted off the floor, flying out the window.
We need to take this somewhere else... I don't need anyone to get hurt. Blossom told herself, glancing behind her to see Brick gaining speed and almost at her heels. She felt his hand wrap around her ankle, then he flung her body across a street and into the side of a brick building. She got a sudden headache.
"Guess you really have gone soft, haven't you?" He teased, watching her get her barings while he levitated slightly above her. "I didn't think Ms.'Know-it-all' would give up this easily." He told her, his arms crossed.
Blossom's headache faded. As it left, a surge of anger rushed through her veins. She harshly pushed her skinny frame away from the wall and went barreling toward him. It didn't seem to surprise her male counterpart, because he swiftly moved aside with a stoic expression on his face. He almost looked bored.
Her blood boiled, but then something suddenly grazed her shoulder. She whipped her head to look at Brick, who raised a brow at her. There was a loud popping noise and a sharp pain shot through her shoulder. She touched where the pain was coming from and looked at her hand. Blood dripped from her fingertips.
Her body did a 180 so that her back was to Brick. He hadn't done this, but who did? Her eyes shifted around and they fell on all a few all to familiar faces. Five to be specific.
It was Ace, Snake, Big Billy, Grubber and Little Arturo. Ace was holding a handgun, a gun, really? Blossom looked back at the blood on her fingers, then to Ace who was currently reloading the gun. She looked over her shoulder, Brick was levitating in the air as he looked away dismissively.
Blossom ignored the pain, flying towards the group at break neck speed. Ace cocked the gun, but Blossom didn't faulter. He raised the gun, but she assumed that she'd get there before some stupid bullet got to her. But she was wrong.
Very wrong.
The bullet sprang out of the gun, she was just a few inches from arms length and she felt something puncture her lung, making it hard to breathe. "Shit..." She growled, her hand shot to the bullet hole as they jumped out of the way. Her body hit the pavement and it knocked whatever wind was still in her lungs straight out. Her breathing became ragged as she seen the shine of the gun that was positioned in front of her face.
"Really Ace? A gun? I thought you where much more creative than that." Blossom said, smiling up at him then letting out a struggled laugh. A pool of blood began to stain the cement below her. She knew she'd touched a nerve with her words as the gun shook slightly.
"You're laughing now, but you cant laugh if you're dead." He hissed, he began putting pressure on to the trigger where his finger was resting.
Blossom felt herself staring death in they eyes, she didn't have the time to move so she had no clue how to get herself out of this mess. Blossom Utonium being brought down by a gun? That would make an interesting headline.
But her entire mindset was interupted by a flash of red. She looked at Ace's face, which was now on the cracked cement, his features distorted by the foot that was keeping his face there. She furrowed her brow's in confusion as she looked up and seen Brick standing over him. His eyes blazing their naturally red fire.
"Do you guys want any of this?" He asked the other members of the Gangreen Gang as he removed his foot from Ace's face. The group exchanged glances before darting away and Ace stubbled after them shouting something along the lines of 'you aren't supposed to leave your leader behind!' the two weren't really paying much attention to them.
"Why... Why didn't y-you le-t-t them k-kill me?" She asked in a shaky and breathless tone.
"If anyone's going to kill you, it's going to be me. But you cant fight me in the condition you're in, you're more trouble than you're worth Blossy." Brick told her, getting on one knee so he was face-to-face with his counterpart.
"Let's get you fixed up. Then when you're healed we can fight like normal enemies do." He said with a smirk, reaching over to touch the bullet wound. Blossom quickly recoiled at his touch. Brick rolled his eyes at her. He quickly swooped forward and picked her up, Blossom struggled for a minute but finally relaxed in his arms. He shot off the ground and into the air, going back to her collage dorm room. He entered into the room through the still opened window.
"Shouldn't we maybe, I dont know, GO TO A HOSPITAL?!" Blossom shouted the retorical question as he layed her onto the bed. "The blood stains are never coming out of the bedsheets..." She sighed, it hurt to sigh.
"I'm you, remember? I have powers too. I know what I'm doing, do you think I've just been sitting around for the past decade?" Brick asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Then do it..." Blossom said stubbornly, but her world had begun to turn hazy from the bloodloss. Brick took in a deep breath, if he didn't do something soon then she had a high chance of dying. He took in a small breath and breathed out in a thin icy stream of air around the wound and paused for a moment, watching her move in and out of consiousness. He didn't know why it bothered him so much there was a chance that she'd die.
He rubbed the ice away after knew that it had caused the area to become numb.
He took in another calm breath and stared at the wound untill small flexable beams came from his red eyes and into the small wound, vaporizing the bullet that had logged itself in her lung. This was beyond dangerous, he needed to be careful. When it was all gone the beams disappeared.
The blood had slowed and had become a drip.
"Sorry Pinky, but this will hurt... A lot." He said, looking at her face, it seemed like she had passed out somewhere during his 'operation'. He didn't really think her being asleep would cause it to hurt any less, not to mention that the ice numbing had probably already worn off.
He decided to be careful, but try to get it done as quickly as possible. He lifted his hands up and they hovered above and small lightening bolts shot from his palms, quickly cauterising the wound, burning it closed.
To help numb the pain, he blew a layer of ice over the now closed bullet hole. He looked at her pained expression, despite her being asleep it was evident that she could feel it.
Brick sighed and stood up, walking to the chair next to her desk and sat in it. Watching her, her face had slowly become calm. He leaned back in the chair, his eyelids became heavy and he closed them for a moment, the moment became an hour. He was jolted awake by a noise, his eyes glowly as he prepared to shoot a laser from his crimson eyes.
He noticed that Blossom was coming to, so he stood up and walked to the side of the bed and watched her.
Blossom slowly opened her eyes, shifting her body but quickly stopped moving after her chest went through hell and back. She looked around the room and jumped when she seen the tall figure standing next to her.
"B-Brick?! What are you... Oh." She said, recalling the memories of the day. Brick grunted in response as he looked away from the redhead. There was a long moment of silence between them, Brick was looking at the wall and Blossom was fiddling with her hands.
The silence was finally broken.
"Why'd you do it?" Blossom asked the simple, yet difficult question.
"I told you, I can't fight you when you're-" He started, still looking away but Blossom quickly cut him off.
"What's the real reason. I'm you, I know when you're lying Brick. Tell me the truth..." Blossom said, sitting up. She felt like the pain would kill her, she found Brick had grabbed her arm with one hand and put his other on her mid back to prevent her from falling.
"I-..." Brick said, but he didn't have an answer. His face had turned a bright red, almost matching his eyes as he let her go.
"I don't know." He admited, before either of them knew what was going on Blossom had stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning into him and pressing her face into his shoulder.
"Thank you Brick... I... I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you." Blossom said, he had put his hands on her lips and pulled her closer, causing the gap between them to disappear.
"Anytime Pinky, anytime..." He told her, his face still red and both of their hearts where beating in a fast rhythm that matched the others. They seemed suspended in time for a moment, almost like it was just them and only them, like they where the only people in the world.
Finally they both pulled away from the other, but the gap was still smaller than it probably should have been. Blossom looked at the ground nervously.
"I-I'm sorry Brick, I just... I guess it was the heat of the moment and I wasn't thinking straight and you never liked me to begin with and that probably made you hate me even more and it's-" She blabbered with a red face before being cut off and having a pair of lips pressed against her own.
It caught her by surprise but she complied and kissed back, it was a soft and hesitant kiss but at the same time filled with passion and eagerness. It was an odd mixture of feelings, they where supposed to hate each other, right? He was created souly to destroy her, to get rid of her once and for all. It was all he was 'good for' he was evil and she was good, it was so wrong... Yet it felt so right.
She ran her fingers through his hair and tangled it in between them, his hat falling off in the process. He mirrored her actions and her bow fell to the floor as her hair fell down her back. She pulled away first, looking at him with a shy smile.
"I could never hate you Blossom, I think I'm actually in lo-l-lov-lo." He choked, she let out a small laugh.
"I love you too Brick... I guess I alway's sort of have... I think I know what I'm going to write about." She smiled, looking at the papers on her desk. She walked over, ignoring the sharp pain in her chest. It was a bit duller but still there. She moved the chair so it was facing the desk, then picked up a pencil from the floor followed by opening a binder full of notebook paper.
"What are you writing?" Brick asked, walking over and standing behind her.
"A story... About a boy who was meant to kill a girl, but while he was trying he accidentally fell in love with her and didn't know it until he saved her from being stabbed. She also fell in love with him and didn't know it until he saved her life... She owes him her life, but all he really wants is her love-" Blossom started to explain.
"-and by the end he gets it." Brick guessed as he picked his hat up from the floor and put it on her head, making her giggle.
"Exactly." She responded.
"What are you going to call it?" He asked, she turned around and looked at him for a moment, then touched the brim of the hat on her head.
"I think I'll call it... The Color Red."