Change Happens to the Best of Us
Summary:"How the hell did we go from being some of the most feared people in the world to this?" Butch asked as he guested the sleeping children surrounding him. Boomer sighed. "Dunno, but I wouldn't change a thing." Brick only smiled.
Authors note: In honor of Father's Day, have some Rowdy daddies with the children I've created. The Powerpuff girls do not belong to me and as always, they have human appendages. The kids however – do. Please enjoy.
Three sets of eyes stared out at the scene in front of them. The first pair was fiery red, the second forest green, and the last, a deep cobalt blue.
All three pairs of eyes were trained on the scene in front of them – wondering how the hell they had gotten themselves into this mess.
There – playing in the living room in front of them – were eight children.
Not just any children however – Their children.
The Rowdyruff Boys and the Powerpuff Girl's children.
Two of the children had deep ebony hair much like the middle brother. Three had a mixture of platinum blond and dirty blonde hair, and finally the last three had a combination of light and dark fiery red hair.
The three brothers watched their children with reserved interest as they observed the eight superpowered children tumble around on the floor with each other in front of them.
The eldest of the group at ten was Blaise – Butch and Buttercup's son. He was a carbon copy of his father, but had inherited his mother's lime green eyes and both of his parent's strength, making the kid a small green, ten-year-old tank.
Next in line at the age of eight was Bane, Blossom and Brick's eldest. Brick had to admit that the kid was his crowning achievement – he looked like the spitting image of him – save for Blossom's light ginger hair. Aside from that, every other physical trait - including his main element fire - he had inherited directly from him, though Bane could breathe ice from time to time in uncontrolled bursts like his mother.
Then, at seven years of age was the first-born girl in the family – Blitz – Bubbles and Boomer's daughter. The girl looked like a female version of her father, with the same dirty blonde hair and cobalt blue eyes, and who had single handedly managed to wrap her father around her tiny pinky finger.
After Blitz – two new X children had been born a year later.
Bellatrix was the youngest and only daughter of the normally brutal greens, and looked strikingly like her mother, only with her father's dark green eyes and wicked smile. She, who happened to be born four years after her older brother at the age of six - also had a seven-month advantage on her second blue-eyed cousin Banning.
Banning, on the other hand, was the laid-back middle child, and only son of the blues and looked like an exact replica of his father, much to Boomer's delight.
Behind them at the age of five were the twins – or as Brick tended to refer to them as: the terrors behind Blossom's back. He had only been expecting one baby when his wife had gotten pregnant for the second time, but just his luck – he had wound up with twins – ones that had inherited both their parent's elemental abilities.
Benedict, who was the older twin by four minutes - looked just like his mother with his light red hair and bright pink eyes, complete with his ability of ice breath, and his slightly younger sister – (and Brick's own personal favorite fire child) Briar – who, much like her eldest brother – had Brick's ruby red eyes and deep red hair, not to mention her ability to breath fire like he could. She was basically a female version of the original firebreather, and Brick couldn't have been any more satisfied with the result.
And finally, there was Bell – the youngest of all eight of her cousins at the tender age of three. The tiny girl looked like an identical copy of her mother Bubbles, down to her baby blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, and normally sweet temperament.
And there they were – the second generation of X powered super beings. The perfect mixes of both Puff and Ruff DNA. Superpowered children, who couldn't follow directions worth a damn, and who normally didn't listen to anyone - much less their fathers – who were unfortunately stuck babysitting their spawn.
And yet, there they were – trying and failing to control their children from utterly destroying Brick's living room that they had all holed up in earlier on in the evening.
Admittedly, this was not how they imagined spending their Friday night.
And just how had they gotten roped into babysitting all eight kids?
Simple. It was the annual girl's night out.
Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles had at least one girl's night out every month, but recently they had been too busy to plan out a night. Finally, Buttercup had cracked and had taken matters into her own hands, and planned a date for all three of them on her own. Of course, it went without saying that neither of her sister were allowed to back out once she had made the plans. It simply wasn't allowed.
The boys on the other hand, being the ever loving and gracious partners that they were – had offered to watch the kids while they were out enjoying themselves – as opposed to getting the Professor or Mojo (or sometimes even HIM) to watch them like they usually did.
Boomer had come up with the genius idea to get together, and watch all of the kids at once. How hard could it be? He had asked the girls with a pleased smile.
At first, the girls had been a little hesitant to leave, because superpowered beings or not – eight kids were a lot to handle. Especially when their fathers had a history of being pretty big kids themselves.
But the boys had won them over in the end, promising them that they could handle it, and that it would give them a good opportunity to catch up with each other – after all, having full-time careers, fighting monsters and raising their children, didn't allow the former Rowdies a lot of time to spend together, aside from the occasional family dinners with Professor each month – but even then chaos normally ensued – leaving them little to no time to actually talk to one another, before having to go clean up an explosion of some kind.
Currently, all three boys were sprawled out across the massive leather couch in Brick's living room – a cooler filled with beer parked beside them – watching as their children played together on the floor in front of them.
"Hey, hey! Calm down Blaise, not so rough – you know that your powers are more developed than the rest of your cousins!" Butch rumbled, as he noticed his son manage to trap Bane in a particularly rough-looking armlock.
Said boy turned his lime green eyes towards his father and uncles with a sheepish smile plastered on his face as he immediately released his grip on Bane's arm, allowing the smaller, red-eyed boy to wriggle free and rub at his slightly bruised arm.
"Sorry dad." Blaise muttered as he nudged Bane. "Sorry Bane, you okay man?"
Bane nodded with a little grin. "I'm fine, don't worry about it." Brick sighed as he guested for his eldest to come over to where he was setting. It was probably just a bruise and nothing more, but Blossom would skin him alive if he didn't at least check.
Sure enough, there was a small bruise on his son's upper arm, but with the Chemical X flowing through his child's bloodstream it would be gone in less than a minute. Brick snorted to himself as he continued to inspect Bane's arm.
He didn't understand why Blossom was so uptight about minor injuries like that sometimes. Hell, when they were his son's age, they were doing far worse things to each other than giving the other small bruises.
God knows his brothers and he would give each other worse scrapes if they got into a fight.
In his mind, bruises were a part of life. They were bound to happen at some point anyways – might as well wear them with pride.
And he knew he wasn't the only one who felt like that. Butch and Boomer still carried that mentality as well, but settling down and having kids had softened them – Brick cringed – a lot.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who thought that. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Butch set down his tall boy and look around the room with an almost dazed look on his face.
Brick watched as his brother took in the sight of their children running/floating about the room, before taking in the massive room itself – only a part of the obscenely large house that he shared with Blossom, Bane and their twins – almost as if he wasn't sure how he had gotten there in the first place.
"How the hell did this happen?" Butch muttered, shaking his head as he looked out at the gaggle of screeching children. "Don't know what you're talking about." Brick sighed as he pushed Bane back over to where Blaise and his younger sister were waiting for him, before nodding at something by his ink haired brother's feet. "Can you get that? The twins are starting to get a little too handsy."
Butch glanced down only to see that his older brother's twins, Benedict and Briar starting to quarrel with each other. Benedict's rose orbs were glowing as small icicles began to form in the air around him, as Briar's own crimson orbs began to glow sinisterly as tiny flames began to spew from her mouth.
"Seriously though," Butch huffed as he separated the quarreling twins with his foot. "How the hell did this happen to us? We used to be cool ya know."
"Well I'd say it all started when you and BC had Blaise." Boomer stated as he downed his beer. Butch flushed slightly. "He was an accident. We didn't mean to have him that early – I'll admit, neither of us were ready for kids at twenty-six. We were going to wait for a few years after we finally tied the knot and see if we actually wanted kids."
"Is that why you had Bellatrix four years later?" Boomer asked as he rose a brow. Butch shook his head with a laugh. "Fuck no man, both my kids were accidents, you know that."
"Dude watch it." Boomer hissed as he nodded to a tiny blonde child with sky blue eyes that put the brightest blue to shame. "Bell's still in the parrot stage – if she hears you then she's going to be repeating that for the rest of the night, and then Bubs will really let me have it."
"She's three, she doesn't know what it means, she'll be fine."
"Do you want Bubblevicious to make an appearance?"
Butch cringed slightly at the thoughts of the hardcore blonde puff danced across his vision. "Nope." The brute responded, popping the 'p' loudly. He glanced over at Brick only to notice that his older brother had been oddly silent. "What's up bro?"
"Do you regret having them?" Brick asked, nodding at Butch as he lowered his voice. Butch narrowed his brows. "The hell are you talking about Brick?" he growled as he matched his brothers soft tone.
"Your kids, do you regret having them?" the red eyed man clarified. Butch suddenly looked furious. "The fuck kind of question is that-" he snapped before cutting himself off. The titan of a man closed his eyes and leaned back into the couch, not saying a word. He opened his forest green eyes after a moment and looked up at the ceiling before responding.
"No. Not at all. Blaise is my best friend. Bellatrix is my world. They mean everything to me."
"Do you wish that you had them later though?" Brick clarified calmly. Boomer focused his attention on his middle brother – who still wasn't looking at either of them, and was now looking directly at both of his dark-haired children, who were busy wrestling with Bane. Butch rarely talked about the fact the both of his children were accidental, and the questions Brick was asking were valid – besides, he wanted to know the answer too.
Butch was quiet for a moment as he pondered Brick's question over in head, before he sighed. "I guess. Trix was fine, it was Blaise we were worried about." He admitted after a moment. "We still had so much that we wanted to do at that age before we even started talking about having kids. Butters had just worked her way up to becoming the next in line for the position of the Director of Intelligence, and I was still being posted overseas a lot then, so there would be times I would be gone for months at a time."
He frowned slightly, not taking his eyes off of his kids. "It kinda put a stunt on both of our careers – not so much for me – I was able to get a draft change, so I worked from home during that time, but I know that it threw BC off."
He cringed lightly. "She wasn't happy about getting pregnant, and I know that it was a rough pregnancy for her. She wanted to do a lot of things before we settled down and raised a family, but you know how shit happens."
He allowed a small smile to grace his lips as he watched Blaise wrestle Bane into a headlock. "But I think that everything turned out alright – we love him more than anything, and I think that he's the best thing to ever happen to either of us, aside from his sister." He grinned. "Bellatrix was still unplanned, but… I dunno… More so then Blaise was?" he snorted in amusement.
"Suffice to say, we're were in a much better mindset to raise kids by the time she came around. But yeah, end of the day, both my kids were fucking accidents."
"Dude watch your fucking language." Brick groaned as he put his head in his hands, only for his younger brothers to laugh loudly at his contradicting statement. "Man, you're turning into Blossom." Boomer teased as he nudged his red eyed brother only for Brick to groan louder at his assessment.
He peered at Butch from the cracks in-between his fingers. "Oh god you're right Butch, we used to be cool. What's happened to us."
Butch raised his glass and downed half of it. "I'm telling you bro, we gotta do something wild soon or people are going to think we've gone soft."
"I think it's too late for that." Boomer muttered around the ring of his mug. "Have either of you seen the news lately? We're on it, but it's just the stupid reporters crooning over 'how cute we look with the mini-Ruffs'." He air-quoted.
"Aw shit." Butch groaned. "Do they know who they're even talking about? I think they're forgetting that we can wipe this city off the face of the earth with a snap of our fingers."
"Daddy are you talking about mass genocide again?" Bellatrix chirped from across the room, causing her uncle's jaws to drop.
"No sweet-pea, daddy's just reliving the good days. Go back to playing with Bane and your brother." Butch smiled warmly at his daughter, as he watched the tiny titan fling herself at the two older boys.
Butch looked back over only to see his brothers wearing identical shocked expressions on their faces. "What?"
"Mind telling us how a six-year-old knows what those words mean?" Boomer asked. Butch grinned. "She's got her mama's brain, she picks up on things."
"How many times are you using the word genocide around your daughter?" Brick muttered as he shot a concerned glance over at the wild-haired girl, causing Butch to snort and pat him on the shoulder. "You worry too much man, she knows what daddy does for a living. She's cool."
"How is the base anyways General?" Boomer piped up, keeping one eye on Banning, who was now spouting a sinister grin on his face as he looked at his older cousins. "I knida envy you, you still get to blow stuff up, only this time you can get away with it."
"I can't complain. The hierarchy system that Special Defense uses is something I'm used to, so it keeps me focused. That and I get to wreck monsters without getting penalized when I'm in a mood, so that's always a perk." Butch responded nonchalantly. "I kinda miss going overseas, but I also wanna be there to help my kids train for when they're old enough to take on monsters too, you know? Fuck, I took Blaise out with me last week when that fishy looking fucker stepped out of the bay. He loved it." the dark-haired man chuckled as he looked at his son proudly.
"BC was okay with that?" Boomer asked curiously only for his eyes to widen a second later as he noticed what looked like a spider on the back of Blaise's shirt – his son's twisted grin suddenly making sense.
"Eh, she said that she and her sisters started doing it when they were five anyways. 'Sides I was with him. I wasn't about to let him get grabbed or anything." He shot a sideways look at his brothers. "If you're bored then you should come out and fight sometime. Defense won't care – if anything they'd love to see us fight as a team again."
"And have the esteemed Senator strike fear into the people who voted him in willingly, without the use of any intimidation techniques? I don't think so." Boomer chuckled. "I'd kill to go all out for once, but it took me a damn long time to get where I am in the office, and I don't need to give the people a reminded about what it is I can do."
"I can't believe you got a job as a politician you dirty traitor." Butch grumbled as he reached into the cooler beside him and pulled out two beers before passing one to Boomer, who opened it gratefully. "A Rowdyruff going into politics. The irony of that is almost laughable."
"Oh this coming from the one who does all of the government's secret dirty work that they don't want anyone else to know about." Boomer shot back with a snort as he opened the tall boy. "-and yes I do know about what happened off the coast of Monster Isle last month – who do you think covered that up for you?"
Butch stared.
"Holy shit, that was you?"
Boomer grinned. "Someone has to keep an eye on you to make sure all that power doesn't go to your head, why else do you think I got a job that parallels your own?"
Butch was stone-faced for a moment before a devious grin spread across his face. "You sly dog, you're more clever then I gave you credit for. I'm proud of you."
"Someone has to make sure that we stay on top somehow." Boomer grinned as he sipped at the cold drink. "We just have to be smart about it. Unfortunately, that means I won't be able to really let loose for a while. Gotta keep a clean record for the image you know?" he asked as he shifted his blue orbs ever so slightly back to the spider that was slowly crawling up the back of his nephew's shirt.
"Yeah, yeah I got it." Butch chuckled as he nudged his crimson eyed brother. "What about you Brick? Getting tired of that glorified office job yet? Wanna come bash some monsters with me?"
"I'd like too, but things at the company are… busy right now." Brick muttered as he followed Boomer's gaze to the spider on the back of Blaise's shirt. "Trust me, I'd rather fight monsters. It's better than having to deal with some of the idiots I work with."
"That's what you get for wanting to become a CEO." Butch pointed out – only for a look of pure fear to enter his eyes as he followed his brother's gazes, directed at the back of his son's shirt. "You have to deal with people like that all the time now." He finished as he suddenly jetted off the couch in a flash of dark green and ripped the spider off of Blaise's shirt before the boy could notice – before bolting back to the couch – chucking the spider out one of the living room's open windows before shooting Banning an unamused look.
"I swear to god, I don't know where he gets it." Brick muttered as the smaller copy of Boomer flashed his uncles a smirk, before moving towards his sisters, who had also moved to play with their older cousins. "He certainly doesn't get it from Bubbles, and you weren't nearly as bad as him when we were his age. I expect those kind of stunts from Blaise or even Bane, but not him."
"I don't know where he gets it from either." Boomer admitted. "I don't tell him to do that – I know how much Blaise hates spiders… he's… devious."
Butch snorted. "Yeah, he gets that from his mom. If he had saw that he would have shit himself-"
"Owch daddy!"
Boomer sighed. "Yes Blitz?" he asked gently as he turned slightly on his spot on the couch to face his eldest daughter.
"Banning zapped me!"
"No I didn't!"
"Yes you did!"
"Snitch!"
"Jerk!"
All three brothers watched with amusement as Blitz and Banning began to wrestle with each other, as the rest of their cousins stopped with they were doing to form a circle around the blonde siblings as they begin to shoot small, controlled lightning bolts at each other, as a chorus of "fight, fight, fight!" erupted from the onlooking children.
The brothers shot each other tired looks.
"My kids always get along with each other. They're great, they never argue." Brick mimicked Boomer as the latter flushed. "I swear they're not usually like this. It must be because everyone is here. Blitz loves an audience."
"I'm sure you and Bubbles must have been so thrilled when you found out that all three of your kids can create lightning bolts." Butch commented snidely as the smell of burning hair filled their noses. Boomer winced. "We were – not so when they use them when they get into fights with each other though."
The three males ducked in sync as a stray bolt of lightning shot over their heads and into the hallway behind them – the sound of something breaking following afterwards. Butch sighed as he looked at Brick. "I hope that wasn't expensive."
"It probably was." Brick grumbled as he turned to look at the hoard of screaming children. "Oi! What have your mothers told you? No powers in the house!" only to get promptly ignored by all of the children.
"Unbelievable. My own kids don't even listen to me."
"Jesus Brick, you're losing your touch."
"Shut the hell up Butch."
"Uh we should probably intervene." Boomer muttered as he set his drink down in the couch cup holder to stick a foot out and tap the fighting blondes with his foot, only to get ignored as well.
The blonde looked pleadingly at his brothers. "Can you two help me break this up?"
"Are you kidding me? They're your kids, do something." Brick shot back.
"I don't want to get in the middle of this. When they fight, they fight."
"Are you scared of your own kids?" Butch asked with a snort, only for Boomer to roll his eyes.
"No, I just don't have the energy to deal with them right now." Just then Bell started to cry. Boomer sighed. "Now I really don't have the energy."
"Welcome to parenthood."
"I will pay you two to help me break this up."
"Dude we used to fight way worse when we were their age – just step in-between them – better do it soon, looks like Blaise is about to jump in there, and he actually plays rough." Butch nodded towards his son who had started to twitch excitedly as he watched his younger cousins fight in the middle of the makeshift circle.
"I don't want to step in the middle of eight kids with superpowers, are you kidding me? Especially not when it's my own kids who're in the middle of it. 'Sides we need to break this up before it gets out of control."
"It's already out of control. At this point you might as well just let them finish it. They'll get tired eventually and as long as nothing else breaks, it'll be fine-"
"Bell's crying."
"I can hear that genius, she's three, what about it?" Brick sighed as the sobbing toddlers wailing gradually became louder.
"She inherited Bubbles sonic screams."
Both Brick and Butch froze. "I thought all of your kids were screamers." Butch muttered as he fought back a flinch, as the tiny girls cries increased in volume. "They are, but Bell's are the strongest, so unless you want every window and breakable object in this house to shatter, you might wanna help me calm this down." Boomer informed them.
The red and green eyed brothers glanced at each other before looking up at Boomer with a sigh. "I'll grab mine if you grab yours." Butch relented after a moment. "Done." Boomer replied as he stood from the couch and moved into the circle of screaming children, Butch following close behind him.
"Hey, both of you stop it. Hey! No! Don't touch your sister! Hands off your brother! What is gotten into you today?! You're never like this?! OW CRAP!"
Brick watched as his younger brother was yanked down by his oldest as he desperately tried to separate the blue-eyed children. Meanwhile Butch wasn't having much success with his own.
"Look dad! Uncle Boomer's joining in! DOGPILE!"
"Blaise buddy that's not a dogpile- aw shit."
Butch didn't even bother to look ashamed as his son all but flung himself on top of his uncle, followed closely by his sister with a gleeful shriek of her own. Bane – not wanting to be left out – followed with a whoop, dragging his twin sibling in with him – both laughing all the while.
Brick only watched the calamity unfold from his spot on the couch – half of him wondering how it had come to this – the other half of him wondering when he and his brothers had become such pushovers. To their own children nonetheless.
Sometimes – If he could be completely and totally honest with himself – he missed his old life. It was so much simpler than this… and yet…
Brick sighed. Someone had to restore order before his wife came home and discovered their living room in shambles.
He stood up and disappeared into the kitchen, only to return a large box. He shook it loudly, causing the chaotic room to instantly fall silent – the crying and screaming abruptly cut off as eight sets of eyes trained in on him.
Brick looked out at the sea of children. "Now that I have your attention-" he addressed them dryly, "-which one of you little terrors wants Fruit Gushers?"
As quickly as the fight at started, it ended. As quick as lightening, the eight superpowered children filled off their uncle and father and lined up in front of him with a chorus of "me, me, me's!"
Brick sighed as he emptied the box. "Right then, we're not going to fight anymore are we? And we're definitely not going to mention to your mothers that this happened, are we?" the eight children shook their heads quickly, staring up at their uncle with wide blue, green and red eyes. Brick nodded pleased with his work. Leave it to artificially flavored children's gummies to bring order to the mob of children. Worked every time.
"Now go take a seat. We're going to have a Disney marathon until your mom's come back, and if I see any more hitting or pushing, so help me your dad's and I are going to let your moms know what you kids have been up to, and then you'll all get grounded for a month."
The collective gasp from the kids almost made him break character and laugh, but he managed to hold it in long enough so that all eight could quickly disperse into the living room, and sit in front of the massive flat screen that was propped up on the wall with their sugary treats without any farther complains.
Butch and Boomer stared at their older brother dumbfounded, as he grinned triumphantly.
"Oh my god man, you work magic. Tell me your secrets." Boomer almost begged, only for Brick to shake his head with a teasing smirk. "Not on your life. It comes with experience. You'll figure it out."
"Or you can just do why I do with mine and pill them." Butch snickered as Brick and Boomer shot him horrified looks. "You pill your damn kids?"
"Ever wonder why Restoril and Xanax don't work on them anymore?"
"No, why would we wonder that-?"
"Because sometimes mommy and daddy want some alone time and we can't get out of the house so…"
"You're twisted." Brick shook his head. "Has anyone told you that?"
"Hey, it worked for a while, and it was Butters idea not mine." The muscular man almost roared with laughter at the blank looks on his brother's faces before slapping them both on the back. "Come one, I feel in the mood for some Mulan tonight."
"Can we watch The Lion King afterwards dad?"
"Oh, oh no! Beauty and the Beast!"
"You're whacked. Aladdin is where it's at!"
The kids began to argue amongst themselves, only for a stern look from Brick to silence them again. he glanced at Boomer, only for him to sigh.
"I'll start taking requests now kids..."
Three hours and three and a half Disney movies later, there was silence.
There were no screaming children running amuck, or the sound of things shattering in his home, and even his brothers were quiet for once.
All and all Brick was pretty sure this was the closest he had ever come to bliss.
He glanced around at the living room and suppressed a snort of amazement. All eight of the kids had finally passed out during the beginning of the final Disney movie, and were spread out along the sofas along with his brothers. Or more like the kids were on him and his brothers.
Butch had moved off of the couch earlier and had Blaise and Bellatrix tucked under each of his arms as he leaned back against the foot rest. Boomer was on the opposite end of the couch and was buried under his own children – Blitz and Bell both miraculously managing to fit into Boomer's lap, while Banning was leaning heavily into his right side – snoring lightly.
Brick glanced down at himself and sighed. He wasn't in a better position. He had put himself into a reclining position during the second movie, only for Benedict and Briar to clamber up onto the foot rest a moment later and pass out on his legs. Twenty minutes later, Bane had decided to join them, and had settled for crawling into his lap and passing out a moment later – leaving him trapped in place. Brick let out a low sigh.
He hadn't moved in close to an hour. His legs were cramping up something fierce, but hell if he was going to move and risk waking up his now sleeping children.
Because finally – finally – all eight kids were asleep, and now he could enjoy some down time with his brothers until their respective spouses got home.
And it had only taken them until 11:30 to calm them down.
An admiral feat if Brick did say so himself.
He reached out for the T.V. remote lying next to him slowly – trying to shift as little as possible in fear of shaking one of his now sleeping children awake and starting a chain reaction.
Muting the T.V. he whispered, "Butch, Boomer, you two still awake?"
"Yeah man, it's not even 12 yet. I can go for like three day without sleep. What do think I am? A pussy?" The quiet, sarcastic snort from Butch answered his question, only for Boomer to whack him in the back of his head with one of his feet a second later.
"Ow, fuck fine- a pushover." Butch growled as he shot Boomer a venomous look. "Dude what is your damage?"
"The kids are finally asleep." Boomer replied quietly as he nodded to his kids. "and they have super hearing. Don't wake them up you asshat." Butch bit back a laugh as his younger brother finally dropped the façade and let a swear out.
"Dude just whisper, they'll be fine." Butch rumbled back. "They can take a little noise. It's not the end of the world." But quickly checked on both of his sleeping kids to make sure they hadn't woken up regardless. Boomer snorted. "Who's a pushover now? Pop's?"
Butch shot him a glare, but it lacked any real malice as Bellatrix wrapped her tiny arms around her father's broad waist as she snuggled deeper into his side. Both Brick and Boomer saw Butch's normally laughing eyes turn soft for a moment as regarded his sleeping daughter with a tenderness neither of them were aware that he possessed.
The brutal male glanced over his shoulder at his brothers who were effectively buried under their respective children, and shook his head with a hint of a grin on his face.
"How the hell did we go from being some of the most feared people in the world to this?" Butch asked as he guested the sleeping children surrounding them, being careful not to jostle his son and daughter who were propped up on either side of him.
Boomer sighed as he reached over to stroke his daughter's soft blonde hair. "Dunno, but I wouldn't change a thing." Brick only smiled.
It was true – he missed his old, freestyle life more than he cared to admit at times, but in all honesty – as chaotic as his current life would be. He wouldn't change it for anything.
He looked around the massive house that he and Blossom shared, and nodded quietly to himself, as gently shifted Bane in his lap.
He wasn't a kid anymore. As fun as his old lifestyle had been when he was younger – he had grown up, he had matured, and ultimately, he and his brothers had become their own persons. They just weren't cut out for that lifestyle anymore.
Besides – robbing banks and stealing cars had lost its thrill factor back when he was a teenager. He hadn't gotten a rush from that in a long time.
No. He had moved on to bigger and better things now…
"Dad?" the quiet sleepy voice of Bane interrupted his thoughts, causing him to look down at his lap and see that Bane had cracked open one blood red orb… the same colour as his own…
"Yeah Bane? What is it?" Brick asked gently as he lowered his head down.
"I love you dad." The miniature copy of him yawned tiredly, before curling up closer to him and falling back asleep.
Brick felt his heart swell, and he sat back, wondering how the hell he had gotten as lucky as he did. It was in that moment knew that whatever he had done that had gotten him here – he had made the right choice.
He wouldn't trade the life that he had now for anything.
.
XxX
An hour later when the girls got back home, they were greeted to the sight of their husbands and children splayed out across the Red's living room – all snoring away.
They shot each other a look and smiled.
No matter what people thought or said about the former Ruff's, there was one undisputable fact about them that no one could argue:
They really were some of the most amazing dads on the face of the earth. And nothing would ever change that.
Authors note: Blaise absolutely hates spiders just like his mom. If he had seen it, he would have had a meltdown.
Also, Banning seems like the most chill out of all of his cousins on the surface – but he's actually the most demonic.
P.S I may or may not have been inspired to name Bane after, you guessed it – Bane from Dinosaurs R Dead's truly amazing story Wild Eyes. (I was sobbing uncontrollably on that last chapter my dear – cheers for making me experience feelings I didn't know I had. XD)
P.P.S. The boys are still scheming assholes, but they're literally the best dad's ever. They love their little terrors to death and they need a trophy.
Happy Father's Day.