LOCATION: DOWNTOWN TOWNSVILLE

TIME: 6:30 PM

Blossom's POV

Dexter sat opposite me in the booth of the little restaurant we sat in. I hated this restaurant, and Dexter knew that, but he liked it so we often found ourselves here. I had stopped trying to put up a fight with him about where we went on dates; I mean what was the point when I always lost?

"So, hey about that concert you and Jojo were talking about-"

"Brick." I corrected him, annoyed that he couldn't just call the Rowdyruff by his first name. It was hypocritical sort of, because I knew it wouldn't bother me to hear Brick call Dexter by his last name, but for some reason I didn't like when Dexter did it. I almost felt bad. Almost.

"Whatever," it was one of the few times I'd actually ever seen Dexter angry, "I, uh, I think it would be really scandalous for you to go with another man when you're in a relationship already."

Did he just insinuate that I was a whore? No, Blossom, don't put words in his mouth.

"I mean we wouldn't want people to think that you're something you're not, you know?"

Oh my fucking god, I think he really is insinuating it, what the fu-

My phone vibrated on the table next to me. The screen lit up, reading off a number that wasn't in my contacts. I answered, something I normally wouldn't do but I was desperate to spend as little time with Dexter as possible. All I wanted was to break up with him tonight and move on with my life. I hadn't been able to bring it up for the last hour that we'd been sitting there.

"Hello?"

"You look bored out of your mind right now," a raspy voice replied over the phone. I'd barely been around him since he'd been back in town and yet I instantly knew that voice. Before I could look around for him he spoke again, "don't look around. Pretend I'm your dad and excuse yourself from the table."

I can't tell you why I did it, but I did. Putting my hand over the bottom of my phone, I told Dexter that it was my dad and to give me just a minute, just like I was told.

Putting my phone back to my ear, I heard him talking again, "I'll meet you outside," and then he hung up.

Shit sure enough, there he was as I stepped outside the doors of the restaurant. "Brick, what are you doing here?"

"Well I was picking up food, but then I saw how shitty the menu was and was about to dip when I saw you looking like you wanted to rip your hair out over at that table. Are you guys on a date or something?" He was chuckling at my expense.

"Or something…" I mumbled. I swear his face lit up a little bit.

"Well look, I was gonna stop and eat somewhere where they cooked decent food and then maybe hit up a couple stores for shit that we need back at the new house. If you feel like having an actual good time, because it looks like you really aren't, then you're free to join me."

How terrible of a girlfriend would I have to be to ditch my boyfriend for another guy?

"No pressure, but I promise I'm a hell of a lot more fun," he winked.

Technically I was here to break up with Dexter anyways.

"What- what would I even tell Dexter?" I stuttered out.

Brick smirked, "that's why I said to tell him it was your dad. Say you had a family thing and you have to go home. Have you eaten anything yet?"

"I just had a side salad," I shrugged, "this place isn't that good."

"Why are you here then?"

How do I answer that without seeming pathetic? Dexter really likes it and doesn't care about my likes or dislikes apparently. Yeah that sounds great. So instead of answering, I shrug again.

"If you're looking for an out, I'm happy to give you one." There was that mischievous smile he was constantly giving me, the same one he gave me when he offered me his sandwich and when he asked to go to the Florence concert with me. That smile had a way of swaying my opinion right in his favor.

"Give me five minutes, I'll meet you by the fountain right over there." I just have to get rid of Dexter and make him think I'm flying home. I didn't say that last part aloud.

It was actually easy enough to lie to Dexter this time around. He told me to text him tomorrow and paid for his meal while I paid for mine. That didn't bother me at all. Ok it did, but not because I expected it or anything, it was just because Dexter had a habit of never wanting to pay for anything that we did. There were times when I would even pay for the both of us, and while he had paid for our first date, he never paid for anything afterwards, despite me having done so on multiple occasions. It was more annoying than anything, and kind of inconsiderate. But right now, I had more important things to do, like find a certain redhead that got me out of this horrific night in the first place.

He wasn't hard to spot, his red hat gave him right away. When he saw me running towards him, he raised both palms up, waiting for me to high five him. I did, and he let our hands fall but didn't let go. I can't say that I tried to pull them away either.

"Alright then Red, let's get some food, I'm fucking starving." God, he really did have the worst mouth. I found myself liking that though. You know those weird random things you find in guys that you like? It was terrible to say, but...I really really liked when he cursed, I liked it a little too much for someone who was not single.

He eventually did pull our hands apart, but still kept his body close to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. I know I should've pushed it away, but I figured I would be breaking up with Dexter soon anyways. What was the harm in being semi-affectionate toward someone? Blossom, you idiot, just because you will be single doesn't mean you are right now, my head screamed. Oh, fuck off, my heart yelled back.

"You pick somewhere, I don't know this area very well."

"What kind of food are you feeling?"

"Nothing specific. Is there anywhere you really like down here?"

There was actually. I hadn't been there in years because it's a little further from the house and Professor doesn't like to drive too far when we go out to eat, and like I said before Dexter liked to pick where we ate. Safe to say he never picked this specific place because he didn't believe in eating unhealthy, whereas my body could handle the extra calories. And lucky for me, Brick's could as well.

"Blossom, I don't mean to come off too strong here but please marry me."

I couldn't help laughing as I dragged him into the burger joint I'd led us to. We ordered and took a seat at one of the booths in the corner while we waited for them to call our number.

"You didn't have to pay," I told him again.

"I'm the one who asked you to come with me, I have no problem paying. Mojo is trying to buy us off anyways so keeps throwing money at us, probably thinks it'll make us love him." The red Rowdyruff put up a good front but I didn't miss the little glint of anger in his eyes when he spoke about Mojo.

"You're not on good terms with Mojo?"

"Is anyone?"

"Point taken." I smiled sadly. "But he's your dad, I thought you'd be closer."

Brick sighed, obviously put off by the topic. I was going to tell him not to worry about it, that if he didn't feel like talking about Mojo then he didn't need to, but he started talking before I could utter a word. "Boomer's close with him but Butch and I don't really care much I guess. Him took us to Citiesville and that was that. Mojo just hasn't exactly been a huge part of our lives. I mean I'm only back here because Boomer and Him thought it'd be a good idea to be around him, I don't know, some bullshit about Mojo wanting to spend more time with us or something."

It was a sensitive subject, and I didn't want to say something that would offend him because I definitely didn't know the whole story. Brick obviously held some sort of resentment toward Mojo, something he didn't hold toward Him, and there was a reason for that.

"The Professor told me about his heart attack, and I know you say you don't care, but it still affects you in some way, what with you living with him now. So, if you ever wanna talk or just need a place to crash if it gets to be too much the Professor wouldn't mind. He kind of has a habit of taking are of superpowered kids so…"

Right on time, our number was called at the counter. Brick squeezed my hand, that I hadn't even realized he'd been holding, and got up to get our food.

Blossom, you are way too deep girl.

LOCATION: DOWNTOWN TOWNSVILLE

TIME: 8:00 PM

Brick's POV

Growing up was weird for my brothers and I. We didn't have a normal childhood since both of our parents were supervillains hell bent on destroying a single city and one was a monkey and the other a crossdressing demon. We got made fun of a lot, and when we went to Citiesville it wasn't any easier. Fear was kind of the only way we could deal with all of it, and I don't mean feeling fear, I mean instilling fear into anyone that tried to talk shit. Him had laid down the law after a particularly bad fight between me and another kid at our school, telling us that we needed to keep our anger in check and that he'd ship us back to Townsville to live with Mojo if we got into one more fight. By that time, everyone at school had learned not to mess with us - putting someone in the hospital with a concussion and three broken bones and a dislocated jaw will do that I guess.

Bottom line, we weren't normal kids, we had super powers and abnormal parents, and we were the only other people who knew what it was like to grow up that way. I could only ever relate to my brothers, and they were great but we weren't a very affectionate family, no one wanted to talk about their feelings much at my house - well except maybe Boomer. But Blossom, I found, was ridiculously easy to talk to.

"And everyone asks about my ice breath thing, and they always wanna see me do it. It was cool when I first started using it, and I liked the attention, but now I feel like that's all they really care about, you know, seeing my powers." What can I say, the girl gets me.

"That's always the first thing they ask about right? Your powers and everything. And then you go to move the topic along-"

"And they bring it right back around." We said simultaneously.

"God I hate that."

I don't know if Blossom had realized how long we'd been holding hands for, but I decided after about two minutes that I wasn't going to say anything and I would just see how this would play out. My plan for tonight hadn't actually been to hang out with the other red head, it kind of just happened. Sure, I had told Dexter earlier that I was gonna steal his girlfriend - you said fuck Brick, you said you would fuck his girlfriend - ok yeah, but that moreover was supposed to mean I was gonna steal his girlfriend and in turn we would be fucking, man I really hope this is making sense. Bottom line, yes I wanted Blossom for myself, but I also wanted her to want me back in a way that I couldn't explain. As far as I was concerned, Poindexter was just collateral damage that I would happily sacrifice in my mission to win over the pink powerpuff.

"You're not wearing your hat." Despite the fact that she pointed out the obvious, I was actually surprised that she had even noticed. Then again, I did wear it 90% of the time I was in public.

"Oh, yeah, I wasn't planning on being out for so long, so I kind of just left it back at the house."

"I hope I'm not keeping you or anything." She's truly adorable.

I couldn't control the scoff that left my lips, "trust me, I'd much rather be here than back at Mojo's. Before I left Boomer and Butch were getting into it about switching rooms, something about Boomer's being bigger, I don't really know. But that led into a whole fight about Mojo favoring Boomer and I dipped before they could drag me into it. Moral of story: you got me for as long as you want."

"Sounds about as fun as my night before you showed up." Not knowing whether it was actually happening or just my brain playing tricks on me, I thought that I felt Blossom lean just a little bit closer. It could've also been because of the fact that it was getting a little chilly outside now that the sun had completely set.

But her comment threw me off, which caused me to move my focus from wondering if she was moving closer to wondering what exactly was going on with her relationship. "Are you and Poindexter like dating dating or are you guys just like friends and he thinks you're dating? Because I've tried to understand the dynamic, and I'm not saying this is a harsh way but you and him just don't seem like you're on the same page."

For a good couple of minutes Blossom didn't say anything. Afraid that I might have offended her in some way I slowed down our pace and tried to bring her gaze onto my own. To my relief, she didn't look offended but more contemplative. I pulled on her hand, bad idea because it definitely made her realize we'd been holding hands for a good portion of the time we'd spent walking. She pulled her hand away after that and I'm sure she could tell how I felt about that, it's not like I tried to hide my emotions.

My dumbass self couldn't stand the silence and decided it would be a good idea to fill it with a bunch of sentences that I didn't let filter through my brain before slipping out of my mouth. "I'm not judging your relationship or anything," I totally am, "I'm just saying you were pretty eager to get away from him tonight. And I'm not an expert on dating, trust me, but from what little I know, usually couples enjoy spending time with each other. It's none of my business-"

"No, it's not." Blossom cut me off. Not gonna lie, the tone in her voice was enough to make me feel just a tad bit embarrassed. Maybe I had been reading all of the signals way wrong and they were just in a fight or something and it turns out Blossom really did like him; god that would be the most embarrassing shit ever, I was never gonna be able to live down that 'I'm gonna fuck your girl' comment now.

I began to apologize but was stopped once again. "I'm sorry, Brick, I didn't mean to come out in that way. The truth is, I've never really talked about it with anyone except for my sisters and even they don't know the whole story." I kept my mouth shut this time, waiting to see if she would continue. She did. "Does it make me a terrible person to actually despise the person I'm dating," fucking score, we are back in business ladies and gentlemen, "Dexter's not a bad person, he's just not...great, relationship-wise that is. It's like why even be in a relationship if you're not completely happy, you know? And I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then he just says things that make me feel stupid," should've beat the crap outta the kid when I had the chance, "and I know he does it on purpose to other people and it gets me thinking...what if he's doing it on purpose to me too? I've even tried breaking up with him before, and it never works because he talks his way out of it and things are good for a couple of days and then it's back to the same things over and over again. And I feel bad, I mean this last time he cried for like twenty minutes and begged me to give him another chance and I just felt so bad that I couldn't go through with it, so I told him what he wanted to hear."

How the hell did I respond to that without seeming completely biased? Of course he begged Blossom, you're a literal goddess and there's absolutely no way in hell that he could do any better; you're his peak, he'll never be able to get someone like you to like him ever again. If I were him I would've been on my knees pleading for forgiveness and promising anything and everything you could ever want; I wanna be right now and we're not even together and you're not even threatening to leave me. Of course you should dump him, you could have so much better, I would be so much better. How are you even with this kid?

"Oh my god, I totally unloaded all of that on you and now you're probably so freaked out," Blossom's voice broke me out of my inner pathetic monologue, "I'm so, so, so sorry."

"Don't apologize," I stopped her, "you have nothing to be sorry for. Look I can't tell you what to do so I'm not gonna give you advice, but I can tell you what I see from the very limited experience that I have from witnessing the dynamic between you two." When she didn't say anything I took that as a sign to continue. "He looks like he's living on top of the world trying to boss you around and tell you what's good for you, and you just look lonely...and lost...and really fucking sad. No one should have to feel that way in their relationship."

Blossom didn't say anything else on the matter, but I think that may have been because the topic was just upsetting her too much. Instead, she hugged me, and I hugged her back until she felt better. The night ended shortly after. I drove her home, even though she could've easily flown, and once again I held her hand the entire way there. This time, however, I was sure that she noticed, because I refused to believe she wasn't aware of her fingers playing with mine and her thumb running across the top of my hand. I'd spent most of my life feeling so angry, and I'd never realized that until that moment in the car with Blossom where neither of us spoke and music played through the bluetooth at a volume that was maybe just a bit too loud and the wind caused an absolute mess of both of our hair as it whipped through the open windows and every so often one of us would squeeze the other's hand. I'd spent most of my life feeling so angry, and I'd never noticed until that moment in the car with Blossom where for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I was completely at peace.