AN: I recently found out that the teacher's name is spelled Keane and not Keene xP Sorry for the error.

-Chapter 10: Cat and Mouse-

Later that day, school let out and Buttercup and Bubbles were heading back home with backpacks heavy with homework not just for themselves, for Blossom as well. Buttercup was a little irate at having to carry more stuff than she usually had to. They arrived at their home and were warmly greeted by the Professor.

"Hello, girls. How was school?"

"Fine. Same old, same old." Buttercup yammered. "We have a permission slip for you tho."

The raven haired girl handed the scientist a sheet of paper.

"Hmmm, I see." Utonium said after reading. "Well, I'll sign it a little later and you can turn it into your teacher tomorrow."

Both Buttercup and Bubbles nodded in reply.

"How's Blossom?" Bubbles asked. "Is she feeling better?"

"She might be." the Professor replied. "I gave her some cough medicine a little while ago. I think she's asleep right now."

XXXXXXX

Before the two Powerpuff sisters had even reached their house, Brick, who fallen asleep along with Blossom, had suddenly became aware of their presence. His enhanced super hearing picked up on the girls like a radar. Not wanting to get into a confrontation with them, he quietly got out of their bed and flew towards the window. The red clad boy took one last look at a still sleeping Blossom before taking off. A few minutes later, Buttercup and Bubbles quietly entered and found Blossom in deep slumber.

"Should we wake her?" Bubbles whispered.

"Nah," Buttercup replied quietly. "we'll come back in later."

With a nod from her blonde-haired sister, they left the room silently and leaving Blossom in peace.

XXXXXXX

A few hours later, Blossom slowly awoke from her long nap. The sun outside was just beginning to set. A dazed Blossom looked around. The first thing she noticed was that Brick was absent. The red head girl wondered if he had left or if she dreamt his whole presence. The whole room was very dim from the lack of sunlight.

'How long was I out?' Blossom wondered.

She climbed out of bed and wandered out into the hall. Blossom then found her sisters on the couch watching TV in the living room. They noticed her when she entered.

"Hey, you're up." Buttercup said.

"How are you feeling?" Bubbles asked.

"A little better I guess." Blossom muttered.

In truth, Blossom felt like goo. She joined her sisters on the couch. Buttercup had commented to herself how her pink clad sister looked like a mess. But not a word was said among them. They silently sat and watched their television set. Unaware that they were being watched by Brick.

XXXXXXX

The next day, Blossom was well enough to return to school. Bubbles turned in the sheet that was sent home the day before bearing the Professor's signature as well as other students with their parent's signatures. Everyone took their seat before Ms. Keane began the class.

"Good morning, everyone." Ms. Keane greeted.

"Good morning, Ms. Keane." the class greeted back.

"Now before I begin today's lesson, I want to discuss the permission slips I gave you yesterday. With your parent's okay, I can teach you a very important lesson about bullying and harassment."

The students blinked and leaned forward in their seats.

"You see class," Ms. Keane continued. "bullying and harassment are very bad things. If someone is physically harming or threatening you, it's very important you tell an adult or someone you trust immediately."

While she was discussing this serious topic, Blossom sank into her chair. Everything the teacher said was exactly what was going on between her and Brick. Hearing Ms. Keane talk about the details made Blossom feel sick to her stomach and sink deeper into her chair. It also prompted Buttercup to narrow her lime colored eyes at her. Although what Ms. Keane was saying about telling an adult about being harassed, Blossom simply didn't have the gut nor the will to say a thing. She stared at the table she and her sisters sat at silently. Blossom was a complete war with herself. Torn between doing the right thing and speak up, or keeping silent. But what would happen if she did say something? Would Brick retaliate by hurting someone close to her? Sure Buttercup and Bubbles could take him, but what about the Professor or Ms. Keane? Or the whole town for that matter? Blossom just couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to say anything about her and Brick. Even as her sisters were practically staring at her down and desperately wishing that she say something. Anything.

Later that day, when the Powerpuff Girls were at home, Blossom decided that she needed to get out of the house for some fresh air and to clear her head. When she took off into the air, Buttercup secretly followed her. The lime clad girl wanted to know what her sister was up to, if anything. Blossom wasn't sure where exactly she wanted to go. She flew aimlessly around, unaware that her raven haired sister was tracking her every move. Buttercup saw Blossom move along a bit further until they were both alerted to the cries of another citizen.

"Hey, stop that!"

"Ehh, shuddup!"

It was the Rowdyruff Boys. Or rather two of them. Butch and Boomer were wreaking a vending machine, trying to get soda out of it when a cop came along. Buttercup only turned her back for a brief second when she found that Blossom had vanished without a trace.

'Shoot!' Buttercup cried to herself. 'Where the heck did she get to?'

XXXXXXX

Blossom had flown almost at the speed of light. Even though she should have stopped Butch and Boomer from defacing public property, she did not want to get caught by Brick. She stopped at the docks where there was a most beautiful sunset one had ever seen. Blossom sat on the wharf gasping for breath and completely ashamed of herself for ignoring a cry for help. Now this whole deal with Brick was starting to become a problem and interfering with her superhero work. But she felt helpless without her sisters with her.

'I need to get ahold of myself and not worry so much about Brick.' the pink clad girl thought. 'I'm letting this get to a point where I can't even protect Townsville anymore. And that's something I can't allow.'

Telling herself not to worry was absolutely useless. If Brick were to approach her at this very second, Blossom would freeze up and try to flee from him.

'You can't face him...' said a little voice in Blossom's head. 'You're too scared of him...'

'...but, why?'

Blossom flew away from the wharf and towards the town itself. She suddenly came across the Gangreen Gang trashing an arcade center. Smashing and damaging video and table game sets, and if that wasn't enough, they were also stealing the quarters that came spewing out of the destroyed cabinets.

"Hey!" Blossom shouted. "You're asking for trouble!"

The gang spotted her and instantly froze in horror. But Ace saw that she was by herself and found this to be amusing.

"Well, well, what's this?" he asked in a smooth voice. "Blossom all alone without her sisters?"

Blossom's anger ran high. She was NOT in the mood to be at the butt of Ace's jokes. The red head girl launched herself at him and gave the Gangreen leader one hell of a pummeling. She practically beat the shit out of him. Then she was punched by Grubber and then Lil' Arturo. Soon the whole gang was upon her, beating her to the ground. Blossom tried to overcome them, but they were just too much for her. Suddenly, the whole group was lifted off of her. Confused and a little dazed, the pink clad looked up and was aghast by what she saw. Brick was now beating the hell out of the Gangreen Gang. Only he didn't hold back for anything. In fact, he looked really pissed. When the others were out of the way, the red clad boy went after Ace. He showed the gang leader absolutely no mercy.

"IF-YOU-EVER-TOUCH-HER-!" Brick rasped in between punches.

Blossom was quick to intervene. If Brick continued, Ace could die from the blows.

"Brick...STOP!" she cried, trying to pull the Rowdyruff away.

"BACK OFF, RED!" Brick snapped.

He swatted at her with a wave of an arm. Blossom flew a foot away from her previous position. Before Brick could continue his beating, the gang started to take off for dear life.

"YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!" the red clad boy shouted.

Blossom could not believe what she was seeing. She never witnessed Brick so violent before. He was worse than Butch for heaven's sake. The Powerpuff leader quickly attempted to flee the scene herself before Brick notice. But of course, he did anyway.

"Where do you think you're going, Red?"

Without a word, Blossom flew off, almost at the speed of light. Brick promptly went after her. Within seconds, he snatched her in his arms. But the intensity of their flight had caused Brick to become winded and falter towards the ground. In a split second, the red head boy swerved around and he and Blossom crashed into the ground. A minute later, Blossom emerged from a small crater that was created, coughing from the dust cloud. She saw that Brick landed on his back to spare her from getting hurt in the impact. The pink clad girl also saw that her counterpart was knocked unconscious. It would have been wise to get back home now, but for some reason, she couldn't leave him as he was. Even though she tried to. Letting out a huge sigh, Blossom pulled a stupored Brick out of the crater and put his arm around her shoulders to carry him towards a nearby tree. The red head girl sat against the trunk and gently placed Brick's head on her lap. He was a complete mess. Dirt and soot covered his clothes and his face. Blossom let out another sigh. She had no idea why she was doing this. If Buttercup and Bubbles saw her, they would flip. Especially Buttercup. The worst part would be that Brick would got involved if he awakened and the other girls managed to come across them. About 30 minutes of waiting, Brick finally regained consciousness. He looked around in a blurred daze. Then, he saw Blossom's face looking solemnly down on him.

"Jeez Red, you look like someone took away your powers or something." the Rowdyruff leader quipped.

"I can see you're feeling better." Blossom said in an accusing tone. "Anyway, thanks for the help back there..."

The red clad boy sneered with a smile.

"Really?" he asked in a matter-of-fact tone. "From what I gathered, you weren't all up with that."

Blossom let out a groan. When she opened her eyes she saw Brick staring amorously at her.

"Will you stop looking at me like that?" she cried.

"Why not?" Brick asked in a sly voice.

The pink clad girl let out a huff. She looked down again at her rival. Something in Brick's furious crimson eyes captured her in a spell. Blossom tried to break away but the Rowdyruff's hold was like iron. Then, something happened. He didn't know what compelled him to do it, but Brick slowly raised his arms and gently took ahold of her face. Then he brought it down and kissed her. Blossom gasped but slowly closed her eyes as the embrace became deep. Silence followed for what seemed to be a very long time. Then, suddenly, Blossom regained her senses and smacked Brick away.

"You...YOU JERK!" she cried disgusted.

Brick just smiled smugly at her. Finally, the pink clad girl had enough of him and started to fly away. She was greatly appalled by what just happened. Before she was high in the air, Brick caught and held her by her foot.

"H-hey, let go!" Blossom cried.

"Did I say you could go anywhere?" Brick asked with a raised eyebrow and one hand on his hip.

Blossom tried to fly away again but her rival held her in place. Finally, the Powerpuff leader got away when she zipped away and Brick plopped down on his fanny with Blossom's shoe in his hand. After a second, he grinned deviously.

XXXXXXX

Blossom raced back home as fast as she could. On the way there, she ran into Buttercup. Literally. Blossom at this point was hyperventilating.

"Whoa, Bloss!" the lime clad girl cried. "Calm down!"

The red head Powerpuff took deep breaths to pull herself together.

"S-sorry about that." Blossom rasped.

"Are you okay? I went looking for when you suddenly disappeared...from home." Buttercup said.

"I'm alright."

"What happened to your shoe?"

"...I lost it."

Buttercup gave her sister a confused look, but decided not to go on about it.

"Come on, let's go home." she said.

Blossom, feeling totally relieved, was more than happy to oblige.