Hey, it's me again!
I want to know what you guys think of the story so far.
Enjoy my new chapter (especially those romancelovers out there ;D)!
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"The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are.
Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be- and when they're not, we cry."
-Unknown-
Chapter eleven:
Buttercup throws another blow at the automatically controlled robotic warriors sent in by the training program. Immediately after the lemon green power wave hits them, their short time of existence ends and they crash to the floor.
She oversees the room full of slain robots, her fists still glowing and she smirks lightly at her work.
Yep, I still got it.
Suddenly, the door opens and a voice pops up out of nowhere.
"Woo-hoo," Butch smirks, "Someone's gone a little into overdrive, ey?"
Buttercup instantly grimaces, "Ugh, just when I thought I could have some peace and quiet."
She turns around and crosses her arms, "What do you want, Butch? I'm kind of busy, as you can see."
"Chillax," the boy says, raising his hands in front of him, "I just wanted to beat up something as well. Care to join me?"
She huffs, "As if you would be able to put up with me."
Butch cracks a malicious smirk, "Is that a challenge I hear?"
She gladly returns his smirk, "It sure is. Unless, if you're too chicken!"
With that, she starts making chicken noises, which in turn makes Butch fume with anger, "I ain't chicken! I'll show you just how much better I am than you, Butterbutt!"
She scowls at the nickname he cares to use whenever he wants to enrage her. It works each time.
"Oh yeah, Bitch? Well, what about I beat you into pulp?"
He glares, "Whenever you're ready, Butterbabe!"
Blushing from anger, she starts the highest fighting level and from the moment the robots appear again, the two teens immediately dash forward, certain to beat the other in numbers of slain enemies.
After an hour or two, they're both spread out on the floor, unable to deliver another blow.
All around them are pieces of robot, bent swords and sliced metal bodies, all neatly pushed aside to form different piles of rubbish.
The two raven-heads lay panting on the ground, trying to catch their breaths.
The billboard shows the score in bright red numbers: 217 against 217.
"A draw," Buttercup mutters.
Butch groans and gets up on his shaky legs, muttering, "Not if I'm around," but before he can deliver a hit, he crashes down again, panting heavily.
Buttercup smirks, "I guess we really are each other's equal."
He glances over at her and lets out a hoarse chuckle, "It looks like it," then he smirks, "But I'm still better than you."
Buttercup jolts up angrily, "What the hell? No you aren't! I'm way better than you!"
"Keep on dreaming, babe," Butch smirks, crossing his legs while sitting down on the ground.
"Don't call me babe," Buttercup hisses through gritted teeth.
"Aw, you know you like it," he grins while raising an eyebrow in amusement.
She instantly flushes, "Sh-shut up!"
"Aaaaw, little Buttercup's blushing!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
With each word said, they have gotten closer to each other, until they got the point where their faces were only inches away.
They both turn pink when they suddenly notice the small amount of space between them. They stare into each other's eyes until they both look away, blushing madly.
"S-so," Butch suddenly says after having cleared his throat, "What do you think about the whole Blossom-thing?"
"W-well," Buttercup says trying to hide her blush, "she's improved a lot, so I guess that's good."
"Y-yeah, she's improved indeed."
A silence falls upon the two.
Suddenly, Buttercup lets out a muffled giggle.
Butch turns towards her, an eyebrow cocked, "What's so funny?"
"Nothing," she grins at him, "I just can't believe she sent you flying through a wall."
Butch scowls, "Hey, I didn't see that one coming. How was I supposed to know?"
"Still, it was hilarious," she laughs, clutching her stomach.
"Shut up!"
"You were even covered in dust! Haha, got to say, you looked like a clown with your white hair!"
Her laughter fills the entire room now.
"Oh, ha-ha," Butch scowls at her while standing up, "Very funny. Looks like you are having fun, so I'll just let you enjoy yourself!"
He stuffs his hands deep inside his pockets and starts stomping towards the door, glaring daggers at it, as if to force it to open.
Buttercup gets up alarmed and sprints after him, "Butch! Wait! You're not mad, are you?"
She holds onto his arm, but he groans, "No!" and pulls it back and stuffs it back into its respective jeans pocket.
"Please wait," she shouts, "I was only joking!"
He turns around scowling.
"Oh, I didn't know that," he says sarcastically, "Next time, I'll make sure to laugh along. See?"
His face turns into a false grin, and then back into a glare.
"Please don't be like that," Buttercup says, starting to get angry herself, "I was just joking, okay? What are you, a baby? Can't even take a joke, or what?"
He growls, but keeps eye contact nonetheless.
"What is it ya want? Do ya want me to laugh? Cause that," his eyes soften a little, "really hurt."
Buttercup's taken aback by this sudden change in attitude and all she can do is stare.
"Never mind," he mutters and turns around again, but Buttercup gets in front of him.
"What do you mean, that hurt? You're Butch! You never get hurt by a stupid comment!"
"You don't get it, do ya?" he grits his teeth, "It wasn't any comment!"
She looks at him perplex, awaiting his further explanation. He gulps before mumbling quietly, "It was yours."
Buttercup stares at him wide-eyed.
"Mine?" she breathes out, "What the heck are you talking about? Of course it was mine! What's so wrong about ME commenting YOU?"
Butch taps his feet and then shouts, "OH, FORGET ABOUT THE STUPID HINTS!"
Suddenly, before Buttercup can interrogate him any further, he pulls her towards him and crashes his lips against hers. Buttercup has her eyes wide-open while his are closed, but she soon stops struggling and melts into the kiss. She puts her arms hesitantly around his neck and kisses back.
Suddenly, as fast as they had begun their tender moment, they break apart and Butch stares into her eyes.
Buttercup realizes her cheeks are flushed bright red by now and stutters, "B-Butch, why did you-"
"Because I love you, duh!" he grins.
She flushes even more and can only stutter further, "B-Butch, I.. don't know what to say!"
"That you love me too, of course," he chuckles.
She glares at him, but chuckles nonetheless, "I guess so."
"So it's a yes?" he asks hopefully.
Instead of answering, she stands up on her tiptoes and goes for another kiss, which happens to start as a tender one, but soon turns more and more greedily. That's how they stand in the training room for quite the time.
"Good, Blossom, keep your breathing steady."
Bubbles' kind voice sounds more excited than normal.
Before her sits a girl that starts looking more and more like a person again and not a wreck. And that makes her smile heartedly, because she hates seeing her friends in pain, and certainly her sisters.
Flashes of old memories occur to her while she keeps holding a smile.
Blossom notices her spacing out and asks, "Um, Bubbles? Is it time for a break?"
The other girl blinks and then giggles a little embarrassed, "Oh my, I spaced out again. We'll take a break for now, okay?"
"Sure," she replies getting up, together with the blonde.
Bubbles shifts a little, and then says with a slight blush, "Umm, well, I'm gonna check out what Boomer's doing. See you in fifteen minutes!"
With that, she runs off, giggling slightly.
Blossom smiles at her retrieving form and steps outside the door.
Not really certain where to head next, she walks through the aisles.
While doing so, she passes the training room. She glances inside and immediately regrets it while ducking, her face heating up and looking as red as a tomato.
She covers her mouth while peeking inside again at the kissing couple of raven-haired teens.
Recomposing herself, she runs off to quieter places, still a little freaked out of her mind with spying on them.
Yet she can't contain a chuckle while she pets her cheeks in a way to cool them off again.
How embarrassing, she thinks to herself, catching my own sister kissing!
This makes her halt.
Sister? Am I already starting to think like Blossom as well?
She bites her lip until she hears a familiar voice say, "Hey! Never thought I'd see you here."
She turns around and turns scarlet once again when seeing an awfully familiar, SHIRT-LESS redhead with crimson red eyes.
She turns around, blushing madly thinking of how she never once saw him before with only a pants and his cap on.
"Hello? What's the matter?" he edges closer towards her.
"N-nothing," she says, slowly turning back to him.
He smirks widely when he sees her red cheeks, "Oh my, can it be that Blossom, brave leader of the Powerpuff Girls, is embarrassed with seeing my bare chest?"
"O-of course not!" she shouts, flushing more and more, and earning a smirk from him, "But I wouldn't mind you putting on a shirt, like decent people do!"
"Ho now," he says raising his hands, "YOU're in front of the men's changing room."
This makes her blink at the door with the little plate indicating that this was indeed the men's changing room, and she instantly feels like an idiot.
"R-right," she mumbles, "Well, I'll be off then. See ya!"
She turns around quickly and stalks off, not wanting to look at him, when she hears him shout, "Wait up!"
He catches up with her rather quickly, "What are you doing here? I thought you had meditation with Bubbles?"
"Yeah," she says, noting he has indeed put on a shirt and instantly feeling more comfortable, "but she gave me a break. Though I think of it more being an excuse to go off and see Boomer."
She turns a little pink again, imagining Bubbles doing the same with Boomer as the greens were doing.
"I see, so you have a moment free then?" he pulls her out of her thoughts, "Care to go to the library with me?"
Blossom's face brightens at the mention of the word library.
"We have a library?"
"Of course," he smirks, "It comes with the professor's love for books."
"Really?" she asks in a rather high voice, her eyes twinkling with excitement, "Where?"
Brick chuckles slightly when seeing her enthusiasm and takes her hand, "Follow me."
Blossom's too dumbfounded to say something, so she just tries to ignore the feeling of Brick's hand holding hers, though she cannot keep herself from blushing, once again.
Outside, the sun has disappeared and the moon shines its heavenly light upon the Earth's inhabitants.
"Well, I think I should go off and find Blossom," Bubbles says with a sigh.
"Uh-huh," Boomer says absentmindedly, not taking his eyes off of the flat-screen.
Bubbles sighs again.
To be honest, she had expected more from her little alone-time with Boomer than playing videogames nonstop.
She had found him in the large TV-room Butch had insisted on installing when they first had occupied the old house. The professor had found it fair enough as a condition to him joining the team.
So when Bubbles had come in, after having asked the professor and then Miss Kean, and after she had skipped over to him, she had received not much as a glance from the teenage boy. She had tried talking to him, but his answers were random and of not much interest.
After a while, she simply gave up trying and stared at his avatar on the screen as it beat up various monstrous creatures.
She gets up lazily and tries a "See you later", but only gets the regular answer: "Uh-huh".
She stomps off and slams with the door, growling while making her way through the aisle.
I surely may hope Blossom's break was at least a tad more interesting than mine, she thinks bitterly to herself.
She slows down when another thought occurs to her, Where to find her?
Blossom stares in awe at the billions of books that are stalled in front of her on equal shelves, covering the walls from her sight.
This library is gigantic!, she exclaims inwardly while taking in the atmosphere and scanning the immense amount of literature, eager to run her fingers across the labels.
"Well?" she suddenly hears Brick's voice from behind her, "Go on. Pick one."
"Can I?" she asks, almost squeaks from pleasure.
"Of course," he chuckles, "They're books. They're meant to be read, right?"
Blossom smiles broadly and walks up to a stack of books that has caught her attention.
She quickly scans the titles and smiles while pulling out a book, seemingly randomly, but which she recognizes from her English class. A book her aunt used to read to her and she has enjoyed reading herself from a certain age until now.
She blows some of the dust off and smiles when seeing it's familiar cover.
Suddenly, she feels a hot breath against her ear.
"The animal farm?" Brick reads aloud.
She nods, "By George Orwell."
"What's it about?" he asks, taking the book from her.
She takes it back with one graceful move and starts telling enthusiastically what the story's about.
"So basically, it's about talking animals running a farm?" he asks after her explanation has ended.
"Basically, yes," she nods, "But it holds a deeper meaning. It's about power and how, when one possesses power, it is hard to contain."
He nods unconvinced, a bored frown on his face, "Uh-huh."
She doesn't even notice his lack of interest and simply goes on rambling while caressing the cover with her index finger.
"Just imagine how it would be if animals really could talk. Would they start a revolution, just as in the story?" she turns to him, "Isn't that fascinating?"
He turns his attention back from the ceiling to her and gives her a bored look, "Yeah, sure, whatever."
Her smile drops and she places her hands on her hips, still holding the book in her right hand.
"Okay then," she says with a teasing smug, "What book would you recommend then?"
His face brightens and he stalks past her, towards the opposite wall while she follows him with her gaze, turning around.
He quickly climbs up a tall ladder and reaches out to a shelf, taking out an old-looking book and sliding down the wooden structure again.
He walks up to her and shows her the piece of literature, showing off a small smug.
Blossom takes the book in her soft hands and wipes away a layer of dust, until the title can be read.
"The way of all flesh," she mumbles aloud, "by Samuel Butler."
Brick watches her turn the book around, read the summary and turn it back around to open it on the first page.
After a minute of reading, he asks, "And?"
She looks up at him, smirking, "Oh my, I never knew you were the drama type."
"That's beside the point," he growls, "What do you think of it?"
"I like it and I'll read it," she says, closing the book and hugging it to her chest.
But then they are being shaken by a not-so-far-away irruption, accompanied by the sound of something exploding and rumbling of the building.
The redheads maintain their composure while the entire library shakes, along with the rest of the base. One of the book planks shakes so heavily, that a huge amount of books tumbles down, right where the two are standing.
Brick notices the danger, and pulls Blossom towards him, to see the books miss her by a hair.
Blossom, not really knowing what's going on, blushes fiercely when noting the sudden closeness.
They both look at each other simultaneously, staring for only a second or two, neither of them able to bring out a word and simply blushing as red as a pair of overripe tomatoes.
They are being interrupted almost immediately however, before they can move away from one another, by the door opening with a squeaky sound.
"Oh my, am I interrupting something?" Bubbles raises an eyebrow, trying to prevent herself from giggling.
Both teens snap their heads up at her and instantly take a step back.
"I-It's nothing like that!" the female redhead shouts, blushing from embarrassment, "We were just surprised by the explosion a-and got into a close position because he saved me, which reminds me, I should thank him for that."
Brick blushes and looks away, adjusting his cap and ignoring Bubbles' high-pitched giggling.
"Oh, you don't need to explain anything, Bloss. I think you two look cute together!" the bubbly girl exclaims, giving them a broad smile.
Brick and Blossom glance at each other and blush even redder at hearing this.
Deciding to change the subject, Brick clears his throat and asks, "What was that anyway? The explosion, I mean."
"Oh, nothing too serious," Bubbles stops laughing to look at him, "It's just the professor. He said he had repaired the jet and he wanted to try and start it. Guess he'll have to work on it further."
Blossom cocks an eyebrow, "Isn't he supposed to be a scientist? And I mean a good one, without explosions?"
"He is," Bubbles gives her a weak smile, "But sometimes, his inventions go, well… not as planned."
This makes the other girl frown.
"Yes, anyways," Brick puts his hands in his pockets, "Don't you two have a session to finish?"
Blossom and Bubbles' eyes grow big when being remembered of their duty.
"You're right," Bubbles says, walking to the door, being followed by the two other teens, "We should head back."
Then she turns around, her hand resting on the doorknob, to shoot a smirk at the redheads, "But don't think you two are off the hook. You still owe me an explanation for what you were doing when I got here."
The blushes return.
"Nothing happened!" they shout simultaneously.
The blonde chuckles and opens the door, just in time to see Boomer flash by, soon followed by a loudly cursing Butch and Buttercup who are chasing him, both red from either madness or embarrassment. Maybe the two.
Boomer's laughs echo through the aisle while Butch's screams resound above them, "BOOMER! You're a dead man!"
The three teens in the doorway to the library blink several times in confusion and stare after them.
"What was that all about?" Brick asks aloud.
Blossom smirks when realizing she might not have been the only one passing the training room, a little earlier.
"Private matters" she chuckles.
Oh my gosh, I had so much fun writing this! ^^
I hope you liked!