"What kind of cereal? Ace asked as his fingers trailed the nutrition labels of the boxes full of sugary flakes.
"Wow, you've managed to make me feel ten years younger." Buttercup frowned and began to push the cart away from her companion.
"Hey, yah seem like a lil' kid to me." He grabbed a box of generic oats and tossed them in the cart.
"That makes you creepy."
"I don't see how."
"Don't make me remind you." Buttercup rolled her eyes when he pretended to gag. When he reacted so negatively to the idea of them sleeping together that night, she felt so unattractive and stupid. For that reason, she tended to avoid the topic.
"I think we're all done here. It's Sunday, what should we do?" The cashier took the card that Ace held out and placed bags into their cart.
"Oh, so we're actually hanging out?" Buttercup asked, genuinely curious. We haven't hung out since my birthday a month ago. It could be fun if he doesn't act like a total dick.
"Yeah. We should get coffee 'cause I'm half asleep right now."
"Sure." She smiled. It was nice to actually be alone with him. Despite their living situation, they barely were alone. He was either out all night or bringing women and friends home.
"So what do yah do when I'm out havin' fun?" He sipped his black coffee and flinched burning his tongue. His awkward, not-so-charming side was something that Buttercup found amusing.
"That's a nice way to put things. Well, stay inside and watch Lifetime movies. It is a pretty luxurious lifestyle." She sighed and drank her water. She never really liked coffee.
"Why don't yah go out there and meet someone? There would be plenty of guys waitin' to date some chick like you." He took off his sunglasses for the first time during their entire outing despite the fact that it was cloudy today.
"I don't feel like it. Why don't you hold down a relationship and stop fucking girls than leaving them?" Prick. She crushed her empty water bottle into the size of a quarter.
"I don't feel like it."
"Can I ask a question?"
"I dunno. Can you?" He is a prick!
"This is kind of out of the blue but it's been on my mind for a while. Why did you freak out before? You know, when I was going to leave." Buttercup turned to look out the window. There was an uncomfortable silence in the restaurant as she asked the question. It had been months since then but it they had never talked about it.
"I feel bad for yah." He responded simply. This lit the girl's short fuse.
"I didn't ask for your shitty sympathy." Prick. Prick. Prick.
"No, yah don't get it."
"Please explain before I get really pissed." Her fingers tapped a little too aggressively on the table they sat at. She could easily break it with one uncontrolled tap. Ace cleared his throat and drank the rest of his bitter coffee before finally facing Buttercup's glare.
"This is going to sound so cheesy. Yah helped me get back on my feet when I was some dumb teen so I'm returnin' the favor. If I just let yah walk out of the door that day, who knows what the hell would've happened. I couldn't do that. I know the stuff you're goin' through is hard so I want to be there to help yah through it."
"You barely even know me."
"But I know the old you. I know you don't deserve all this shit."
Another long silence settled down between the two. Buttercup felt a lump in her throat and began to fiddle with her coat. Why does he have to be so freaking understanding? Why can't he just be an asshole like everyone else? Why did he have to do this dumb shit?
"So, uh, speaking of the old us, what happened to you after you know…" It was time for the attention to be shifted away from the girl who was close to tears.
"After I got arrested? Well I spent some time, got out of juvie, and my parents kicked me outta the house. I lived with my sister for a while 'till I got old enough to go to school. Not an interesting story, really." He didn't seem bothered at all or even the slightest bit ashamed of his past.
"What did you do again?" Anything to get some sort of rise out of him, Buttercup felt envy towards his ability to be so calm and collected when talking about sensitive subjects. Here she was close to tears while he sat across from her eyeing women in shorts from a window.
"Yah know what I did. I stabbed some kid that was startin' shit and I stole his wallet too. He had a picture of his grandma in it. I felt pretty bad once I got caught." He sipped his coffee.
"How was jail? Did you take it up the ass well?" Buttercup smiled and waited for some hint of annoyance to flash across his face. Ace, of course, didn't mind the joke or the questions.
"Juvie was shitty. Takin' it up the ass, I imagine, is also shitty. I have never experienced it so I'm just inferrin' here." They both began laughing loudly. "You've asked a lot of questions. I should get a few in." The laughter ceased almost immediately. Buttercup didn't want to answer any questions. He should have realized that by now.
"It depends on what those questions are about." Buttercup grabbed a sugar packet lying on the table and kneaded it between her fingers. We were having such a good time…
"How are they?"
"How are who?" She knew exactly who he was referring to- her sisters whom she hadn't seen since she ran away from Townsville. As if I'd know.
"Blossom and Bubbles. Are they okay since the whole thing?" His voice was soft, he knew it was a taboo subject and he didn't want to set the girl off again.
"I don't know." And he wonders why I wanted to leave his stupid house. Why can't he ever take a hint and leave me the fuck alone?
"Really? Yah don't even Google them to see what's up? They've gotta be famous on account of you all being the first team of super sisters the world had ever seen. I'm sure they're on the news every week and you're tellin' me you don't know how they are?" All the caution in his voice had disappeared and now he was, like always, frustrated with Buttercup's lack of communication.
"Where the fuck are you going with this whole conversation?"
"I just find it hard to believe you don't know anything about them right now."
"They don't talk to the press much. Townsville started up a new security system for the town and it doesn't involve any naive superheroes. They live normal lives now" Even though she watched was staring at the menu of the coffee shop intensely, she could almost feel the smirk form on Ace's face.
"I knew you couldn't ignore them for the rest of your life." He leaned back in his chair. "Why don't talk to them?"
"Why the fuck do you think? They blame me for everything that happened and are completely fine with ignoring my sorry ass for the rest of eternity. That's why you stupid shit!" Buttercup calmed down only to realize that the few people in the coffee shop were now staring at her. She had been yelling and her eyes no doubt glowing a bright green from anger.
"You always cause some sort of scene, don't you?" Ace laughed, stood up, and began to walk towards the door, motioning her to follow. The people's eyes followed them all the way until they finally stepped outside.
"Let's go home." Buttercup wanted to get away from this stupid conversation and all the people who might be suspicious of her now.
"Let's talk about what just happened." Ace smiled at the girl who was beginning to be aggravated all over again.
"No. Let's go to the fucking car and go home." Ace blocked her path, knowing she wouldn't shove him out of the way because of her fear of using her superpowers.
"Yah mean my home. As much as I enjoy your company in my house, you can't keep sittin' like a couch potato and doin' nothing to fix your situation." Buttercup fell silent. He never expressed any kind of resentment towards her for living in his house.
"Yah need to talk to your sisters. I know what happened is really fucked up but you just can't keep shovin' this shit to the back of your mind. Look at yah, kid! You're afraid to even punch me in the face because yah don't want anyone to know you're yourself." I gotta get through to this girl. She just doesn't understand what she's doin' to herself.
"They hate me."
"You don't know that. I'm not sure what exactly went on that night and I ain't expectin' you to tell me but I know it couldn't have been your fault. You didn't kill Professor. They know that and so does everyone else."
"That's bullshit. Everyone in Townsville thought…" I stabbed him or I cheered those guys on as they it was happening. They think I wanted this all to happen.
"Fine, but they're dumbasses. Your sisters ain't. Nothing is gonna get better if you ignore their existence and what happened. They probably haven't talked to you 'cause they have no idea where you're hiding out."
It was if the rest of the world didn't exist at that moment, all the people passing were invisible to the two. The honking of cars was unheard by them and, to them, everyone and everything was waiting in anticipation for some sort of response from Buttercup.
"No."
I'm busy quite often and I also rewrote a lot of the story that was to be posted because it was icky. Those will be the new excuses for not updating. I'm sorry (I end up saying this way too often but when duty calls I must obey and don't have much time to write.)
On a more random note: There are so many red squiggles under every sentence that Ace speaks. He has poor grammar and doesn't pronounce things properly.
Also, in case you haven't noticed, this is not a story of fluff and romance. Yes, there is romance involved in it but it is not the main focus. I don't want to disappoint anyone here so I'm telling you now (ten chapters in aha).