Blossom stood outside of the movie theater, checking her phone repeatedly for some sign or other from Brick. She had arrived there about five minutes ago, but it felt much longer. She breathed deeply and looked around; people were staring. Of course they were, she was a freaking Powerpuff Girl. Would they notice when Brick got there? Perhaps it was better that she just go back home.

Suddenly two tickets flashed in front of her face, and Brick materialized behind them. There was a smug little smirk on his face as Blossom reached for her ticket.

"Ya know, I'm kinda surprised you showed up. Thought you were ready to be done with me. Guess you just couldn't stay away."

Blossom rolled her eyes and turned to walk into the theater, then paused and looked suspiciously first at the piece of paper in her hand, then at Brick.

"These aren't stolen, are they?"

"Nah, I actually paid for these." She breathed a sigh of relief and continued to walk inside. A moment later, Brick added, "But the money I used was stolen."

Blossom gasped and stopped once more. Brick just laughed and grabbed her wrist, dragging her the rest of the way inside and ignoring her protests.

"Look, just go and grab a seat, alright? I'll be right there."

He gave her a small shove towards the kid taking tickets, and she moved forward to hand the piece of paper to him. She was told to go to theater seven, and walked along the hallway until she found it. Once inside, she walked up the steps and settled herself in a seat right in the center of the room. An entire trailer had passed before Brick showed up in the seat next to her with a large bucket of popcorn.

"Sorry, had to wait a bit to get this." He held the bucket out to her, and she eyed it warily.

"I'm not eating anything that was paid for with stolen money," she told him.

"Oh, c'mon. I didn't pay for this with that money. I swiped it off the counter while someone wasn't looking."

Blossom crossed her arms and looked stubbornly away from the offensive snack, which caused Brick to laugh once more.

"C'mon, just take a bite. It ain't gonna kill you."

"Don't mind if I do," said an annoyingly familiar voice behind them, and a hand moved between their heads and reached into the popcorn bucket. The reds both whipped around to find none other than little boy blue himself stuffing his face with a handful of stolen popcorn.

"Boomer, what the hell are you doing here?"

The boy offered them a smile which showed off all the kernels now stuck between his teeth; Blossom guessed that bad eating habits ran in the family.

"Told ya I'm not as dumb as I look. I followed ya here, and saw ya goin' in with the stupid Puff. Figured you had a plan, so I went to help. Guess ya don't need my help, though, do ya? Seem to be doin' just fine on your own."

He winked at Blossom, and her cheeks flushed scarlet. Brick turned farther around in his seat and grabbed Boomer's shirt to pull him closer.

"Listen, I'll deal with you later. Get the fuck out of here, alright? I'm in the middle of something."

"Don't worry, man. I gotcha covered. Ya won't even know I'm here."

"I don't want you to be here at all, dammit!"

"Nah, it's cool. I won't bother y'all."

"GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE."

Some of the other people around them turned at this and shushed Brick. The couple right next to them even got up and moved away. Boomer continued to smile the whole time.

"Look, bro. It's not my fault you've gone soft as shit now. But I'm cool with it. You wanna screw around with a Puff? Go right ahead. I ain't stoppin' ya."

"I'm not going soft, and this ain't a date or nothin'."

"Suuurre. Bro, you took a shower. With soap. That just ain't done, unless ya got something to do. Or, in this case, someone to do."

Brick put his face in his hands and sank low into his seat. Blossom's face turned - if it was possible - even more red. When it appeared that Brick was no longer going to speak, she herself turned to face Boomer. "Here's the deal," she told him. "It's been a stupid couple of weeks, and the only way to fix it was to deal with each other. Nothing romantic or anything. Heck, we're not really even friends. It's just a necessary evil, and it should be over soon. Then we'll be done."

"Aw, man. You can't end it just when it's started. I finally got somethin' to hold over his head. Don't take this away from me."

Blossom chose to end the conversation there, and turned back around. Her face stayed red as the movie started, and Brick was still huddled low in his seat and hiding his face in his hands. Every few minutes Boomer's arm would snake forward and dart into the popcorn bucket.

Half an hour passed in awkward silence before Boomer took it upon himself to speak once more. Leaning forward, he put his hand against Brick's ear and began to whisper. His voice, however, carried remarkably well, and Blossom could hear everything he said.

"Hey, man. I don't wanna bother ya, but you're bein' hella rude to your date. If you really wanna get some, you gotta butter her up, ya know?" When Brick didn't move, Boomer sent Blossom what he obviously thought was a sympathetic glance. "He's never been good with girls. They scare him, ya see? He ain't got, whatcha call it? Caramel? "

"It's charisma, you dumbass," Brick mumbled from within his hands.

"Yeah, that. Anyways, I can fix this, don't worry." And with that, Boomer grabbed one of Brick's arms and tugged it free. He then dragged it towards Blossom, who stiffened as he set over her shoulders and forced their heads closer together.

"There. That's how it's done. Now that I gotcha all fixed up, Ima go and leave the rest to y'all. Just, if ya bring her home, try to be quiet, alright? If Butch finds out, he'll get all pissy and then you'll fight and then our dads will find out and I'll have nothin' to blackmail ya with. Don't screw this up for me."

At that, Boomer stood and stumbled his way down the row and out of the theater. As soon as he was gone, Brick pulled his arm back and folded it with the other firmly across his chest. Blossom stared straight ahead at the screen, though by this point she had no idea what she was even watching. Every other moment, she darted her eyes to look at Brick, and occasionally found him looking back at her. Those moments set her face aflame once more.

The rest of the movie was spent in silence, much to the relief of those sitting nearby. Before the pair knew it, the lights had been turned on and most people had exited the theater. Blossom stood up and stretched. Her eyes met Brick's for a moment, and she looked down at the floor. Why was she so embarrassed all of a sudden? It wasn't as though his opinion of her mattered. She was pretty sure he hated her, so why should she care what he was thinking about?

Determined not to be bothered by what had happened any longer, she turned to face him fully with what she considered to be confident smile. To her surprise, she found Brick to be just as red-faced as herself and still staring at the ground in front of him.

"Um, we should probably go. I think they need to clean up in here," she told him.

He nodded and followed her down the steps towards the exit. In a daze, they both made it back to the sidewalk outside, and Blossom turned to face Brick once more.

"Don't worry about what happened in there. My sisters can get pretty annoying sometimes, too. I know this wasn't a date or anything, and I don't expect us to become friends or...yeah..."

Brick mumbled something to his chest so quietly that even with her super-hearing Blossom was unable to make it out.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you."

"I asked why we can't be friends."

Blossom blinked in surprise. "I just assumed things would go back to the way they were. We've never exactly gotten along, have we? We hate each other. Why should that change?"

Brick finally looked her in the eyes, and his expression was serious, the most serious she had ever seen it. "I hated you because I was told that's what I was supposed to do. But then I find out that you aren't all that bad half the time, and now I don't know what the hell to think. I can't go back to beating your ass every few days if I don't really have a problem with you, now can I?"

"But we're enemies. We always have been. I'm not about to be friends with a criminal, and I know you're not going to change, at least not anytime soon. Besides, people will find out, and I can't imagine that anybody will be happy about it. Well, at least nobody other than Boomer will, anyways. So what do you want me to do?"

Brick was silent for a moment before he asked, "What if we just ignored all that?"

Blossom sighed, unsure of how to answer. The silence spread between them for a few long moments before she spoke again. "Look, if we did that, sooner or later it will all just blow up in our faces, and we'll end up hating each other more than we ever have before."

The self-assured grin finally returned to Brick's face. "That's a chance I'm willing to take."

"So, what? We're suddenly friends now?"

"Damn right we are. Like I always say, you can't stop a good thing babe."

A small laugh escaped her, and his smirk grew. They began to meander down the sidewalk, ignoring the shocked glances that were sent their way by people who recognized them. The silence this time was far more comfortable than before. One might even say it was almost pleasant.

They reached an intersection at a busy street and stopped once more. When Blossom turned to face Brick she found him staring down at her with a look on his face she couldn't quite decipher. His mouth opened as though he meant to say something, but he hesitated before any sound came out. Instead, a moment later he said, "Well, guess I gotta go now. See ya later little red."

He took off, and Blossom floated up into the air slowly. She set her course for home more out of instinct than anything else, and her mind whirled the whole way there.

She realized that she had lost control of the situation, and she hated that fact. She had been thrown into a situation she couldn't even pretend she could handle, and it had led to an outcome no amount of planning could have foreseen. So she was friends with Brick now, was she? It had seemed sudden during her conversation with him, but in hindsight she supposed it had been coming on for the past couple of days.

Could she ignore the years of torment she had received from him? Though he did have a point; as children they had been told to hate each other and accepted it without a thought. Had circumstances been different, it may have been possible that they would have ended up as friends.

What about her family and friends? They wouldn't exactly be happy if they found out. Neither would any of Townsville's villains.

Then again, why did they have to know? Even if they did find out about it, why should it matter? It wasn't like they were dating or anything. And being friends didn't mean she was condoning anything he did. It simply meant that they were being civil to each other. There was nothing wrong with treating each other amicably, she supposed. She just had to remind herself not to think too highly of him. He was still evil, after all.

Blossom completely ignored the front door of her house when she arrived there, and instead floated up to he window and opened it. Soon she was settled on her bed and staring at her phone, half-hoping for it to deliver some sort of message for her. No such message came, and the phone remained silent.

Buttercup wandered into the room not long after Blossom arrived, and set herself down on the end of the ginger's bed.

"Hey, I didn't realize you were home. How was the movie?"

"Not that great, really."

"Oh. What'd you see?"

Blossom paused and blinked in confusion. She still had no idea what had actually been playing, nor could she really recall anything that had happened in the film. Her thoughts had been otherwise engaged for most of it. "Honestly," she told her sister. "I have no idea."

"That's...kinda weird. How do you see a movie and not know what it is?"

"I wasn't really paying attention."

"Ohhhhh, yeah. Bubbles told me you were meeting some dude. What's his name?"

"Gosh darn it, why does everyone assume I was on a date! I was just hanging out with a...a friend."

"Uh huh, sure. Who?"

"Nobody important."

"Okay, so that means it's someone I know, but you don't want to tell me who it is. What the hell, Blossom? What happened to not keeping secrets from each other?"

"I'm not keeping secrets. I'm withholding information. There's a difference."

"Whatever. You do realize I'll find out eventually, right?"

"There's nothing to find out."

"Suuurrrre. Look, if you feel like actually telling me something, you know where to find me."

Buttercup stood up to walk away, but Blossom reached out to stop her. "Wait," she said. "Do you remember when you had a thing for Ace, and you didn't want us to know about it?"

The green-eyed girl sat back down and looked weirdly at her sister. "...Are you saying that it's Ace?"

"No! Ew. I'm just saying, you didn't let me and Bubbles know what was going on then. Even after, you waited a long time before actually telling us what had happened."

"It didn't exactly work out, you know. Both of you got trapped."

"I'm not saying it's exactly like that, and it wasn't even a date or anything. All I'm saying is you really shouldn't be questioning me right now. Just respect that I know what I'm doing, okay?"

Buttercup let out an agitated sigh and said, "Fine." She got up once more and moved to her own bed, and Blossom turned her attention to her phone once more. Still no messages. Something about that disappointed her. A moment later, she opened her phone and looked at the messages she had previously received from Brick. She was surprised to find herself getting nervous as she opened up the keyboard and stared at the small set of letters. Was it weird to try to talk to him? She shook her head and laughed internally at her own stupidity. Apparently they were friends now, and friends had no problems texting each other. Without any further hesitation, she typed a simple hey and pressed send.

Brick was sitting in Mojo's living room playing video games on a brand new 50 inch flatscreen tv Butch had stolen while he was out when he heard his phone chime. He ignored it until the end of the virtual fight, but when he finally looked down at it, his cheeks tinged slightly pink. Damn it, that was happening to him way too much lately.

He sent back a brief response and turned back to the game. Butch held the other controller and was waiting to start the next match. Boomer was sitting wrapped up in Brick's blanket farther down on the couch, and kept sending Brick smug looks whenever their green-eyed brother wasn't looking. Brick tried to ignore it for the most part, but it was slowly getting on his nerves.

A door slammed behind them, and footsteps marked the arrival of someone else.

"I, Mooojooo Jojo, your father, have returned with the groceries. Now to make our dinner!"

The Ruffs ignored him, and he moved on towards the kitchen. Boomer got up to follow after the food, and Brick and Butch continued to play. The ginger won the match, as usual, and looked down to check his phone again only to find that he had misplaced it. He looked around on the couch and the floor in front of him and still found no sign of the device.

Something blue flashed at the edge of his vision, and her turned his head to see Boomer oh so casually leaning against a doorway and typing on a phone - Brick's phone. He shot up at his blue-eyed brother, who moved at the last moment to hold the device just out of his reach.

"What the fuck! Give it back," Brick yelled.

"Hold on, just let me send this," Boomer replied as he flew into the air before his brother could grab him. Brick followed after him, grabbed onto his shirt, and slammed him back down onto the ground. Butch stood up and threw his controller onto the ground. He began to shake with excitement. "Awesome, are we gonna actually fight now? Ima destroy both of you little girls."

Next thing they knew, all three brothers were a writhing mass on the ground, and Mojo had run back into the room screaming for them to stop.

"Nooo! You should not fight, because when you fight you destroy my things, and if my things are destroyed then I don't have anything to destroy the Powerpuff Girls with, because my own things are destroyed because of your fighting!"

Soon the brawl settled down, leaving Brick clutching his now cracked phone and glaring at Boomer, who was lying on the ground and laughing. Butch was sitting off to the side, still shaking and cackling at the destruction they had caused. Mojo was shouting "Curses!" as he looked around at the recently destroyed inventions.

Brick opened the messages on his phone, and looked for what Boomer had sent.

Can't wait to go out again babe ;)

Well, it could have been worse, but it pissed Brick off all the same. With a string of the most profane insults he could come up with, he launched himself at his brother once more. Butch joined back in with a holler of delight, and Mojo started scream curses once more.

On the other side of Townsville, Blossom stared down at her phone. Her cheeks had flushed a deep red color as soon as she saw the message. Perhaps she just misunderstood, but it seemed as though Brick had...no. She refused to think it. It was just a misunderstanding. She was putting too much meaning into a simple text. The screen of her phone went dark, but she continued to stare at it. Should she reply? She supposed that she should, but what to say?

Slowly, she unlocked her phone once more and opened up the keyboard. Her reply was sent before she could even talk herself out of it.

Haha, sure. Maybe soon

She threw her phone down to the end of her bed and leaned back, putting her hands over her face. Everything really was starting to spiral out of her control, and it seemed like all she was doing was encouraging it.

I actually crossed the 3,000 word threshold for the first time with this chapter, and for some reason that makes me really happy. I'm still having a lot of fun writing this, so I'll probably update again soon. As always, please let me know if you see anything that could be fixed. Thanks you so much for all the feedback and support so far!

-ICantThinkofanOriginalName-