This one is a little different... Enjoy

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.


-Blossom's POV-

The song was over. Silence was the only thing playing now.

Eerie… I thought.

It felt like something was missing.

The moment Buttercup was gone I had this feeling in my gut… I don't know what it was but I felt it like a sharp blow now.

She was in some kind of agony.

I have always had this deep connection with my sisters. Whenever they were hurt or something was bothering them, it was as if those feelings would channel to me as well somehow. I can't explain it but I wonder if either of my sisters could feel it as well when either of us was troubled.

But one thing was for sure, something was wrong with Buttercup and she needed help.

I looked at Bubbles and she seemed just as worried. The telepathy thing seemed to work again because I nodded once and she seemed to understand that it meant for us to split up and look for our green-eyed sister. She had to be somewhere.

I turned to Brick.

And for a slight second I'd forgotten what I was thinking.

The only thing that crossed my mind was that he was beautiful.

He still held his guitar around his neck and he took turns looking at the crowd and then searching the sky as if looking for something. He had some sweat on his face that made it shine along with the halo contrast of the stage lights and the dim of the night. His red eyes flaming even more added to the power of his image. He was truly a work of art I thought.

It was then that the same pain I had felt emanating from Buttercup hit me again. This time it was stronger and it seemed like it was radiating from my own chest. And as I looked on, I felt that it radiated from somewhere else...

It came from the image of Brick in front of me.

A desperate kind of pain it was. Something I do not wish for anyone to experience.

Confusing as well because I wondered then with the sanity left in me… how could something so beautiful cause so much pain?

Thing are never what they seem though, I reminded myself.

He is beautiful now that he has changed. He wasn't when he and his brothers caused so much destruction in the past. I kept a little note to myself in the back of my head that just said 'nothing is ever what it seems…'

'And change,' I added mentally, 'doesn't come as often or seldom as we want it to…'

It does seem to be true however that pain and beauty go hand in hand quite well. I can't explain more on that… I could only offer the funny sting I felt in my stomach, now that I'm looking at him, as proof.

So beautiful…and so surreal, I kept thinking

That's where the pain came from. From the dreamlike part… which really meant the reality of something that wasn't truly there.

Brick is here and alive, but not actually there. Not the way I see him at least. It's only an image. He can't be what I want him to be. He can't be my dream.

Impossible … I settled for my conclusion.

"Where do you think they went?" a rough melodic voice interrupted my train of thoughts.

The music in it was too charming for me to not answer back even if it was one sentence.

"I don't know."

Looking at him now while having this strange conflicting cringe in my stomach it made me wonder...

When did I truly ever know anything?

This bothered me…

I looked at his face and his eyebrows burrowed in concern.

"Let's get out of here" he finally added and I couldn't agree more with him.

I nodded and we set our guitars down and took off into the sky leaving the stage, the crowd, and eventually reality behind.

Every sound was slowly beginning to be muffled as we flew further and further away into the dark.

We flew side by side and the only noise I could hear was the swish of air as a reaction to us intercepting it.

I took a side glance at his face and it was expressionless.

We flew in silence for few moments but then wondering- and perhaps wishing- to know what he was thinking off, I asked a little awkwardly:

"Do you see them anywhere?"

He simply moved his head from side to side. He had not.

I sighed and stopped to get a better look around.

The moon was big tonight. It looked a little closer than usual-

"Pretty scary isn't it?" that same rough voice interrupted my thoughts again.

"What is?" I replied hastily. I looked at him now and he had that all-too-familiar smirk on his face with his arms crossed upon his chest.

The moonlight shone across his face revealing most but not all of it. It added a very dramatic effect to the situation if I might add.

"Fate…" he simply replied. His smirk grew a little wry though. It was more like a smile but, it looked like it belonged on a different face… and for a split second there, he looked a little older.

"What part of it?" I simply countered. I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about.

"This part… The part where we are merely two feet apart without having the consuming need to tear each other into pieces…" his smirk returned at the end of that sentence.

So did mine. I had a different idea when he first said 'rip each other into pieces' but then it sank in and I smiled a little to myself while I side tracked that little thought for later developing.

"I find it rather humorous actually" I said as I looked away from him and back to the moon to hide my amused expression.

I heard a slight "hmph" and then more silence.

"And what's so funny about that, Pinky?" he replied. Rather bemused now I suppose because, calling me pinky was like calling for a challenge.

And he knew that.

"I might tell you someday but that is not going to happen now"

His smirk turned into a pout. It was kinda cute but really weird on Brick's face.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he added curiously and rather strongly.

"Which way do you think they went? I think I saw Buttercup speed towards the east so she is probably not hovering over the ocean." I replied slickly.

His features changed and he said:

"Yeah. I would say that she went towards the woods then but, I answered your question before you answered mine so don't think I'll let it drop so easily there Red"

"So which is it?"

"What?!"

"Red or Pinky? You can't claim me as two colors. That's messed up"

"What's messed up is you keep avoiding to tell me what you found funny about Fate. But if you want a nickname I can give you one"

This is where his smirk etched up the tip of his mouth again. And he was probably thinking something evil by the looks of it.

What was weird is that when he did that, I felt something pulling me towards him.

My smile was gone now and I frowned in concentration. What are these strange feelings…?

"Hey relax, it wasn't like I was gonna call you booger or something!"

When he said that, I forgot all about my concern and just flat out laughed my lungs off to the image of him calling me "booger". I laughed so hard that my sides started to hurt.

He stopped and his worried expression faded away and he started laughing as well. He was probably just laughing at me because I did not stop before a whole 2 minutes passed.

We almost keeled over and fell.

"'Booger'?! Was that the best you could think of?"

"I have some other ideas but I don't think those will make you laugh though"

This only made me laugh a little bit more.

"Oh yeah? How about I call you fluffy then? How would you like that?"

"If you do that, then 'Booger' would be the kindest word I say to you!"

"Haha, I will think about it. Maybe you prefer fuzzy. Of course that would imply some awkward things about you… Ooh! How about FLUZZY! There you go that's perfect!"

"What the…? You're not going to pet me now are you? You sound like you're pretty obsessed with furry creatures! And what awkward things are you talking about?! If I didn't know you, I would have said that you had a dirty mind!"

"You think you know me Brick?"

He paused and looked down in thought for a long moment and then looked up.

"I THOUGHT that I did. But that was ten years ago. Not so much right now, is it?"

"No" I said simply with a smile on my face.

"But then again, you don't know me either, do you?"

Interestingly enough, that was true. I did not know him.

"No I don't"

He smiled.

"Maybe we can change that…" he said afterwards.

I looked at him and his expression was inviting but a little worried.

"Sure thing Fluzzy…" I said to lighten up the mood.

His smirk returned to his face and he was Brick again.

Before he could come up with a smart-ass comeback, I spoke:

"We should really be looking for Buttercup and Butch. I don't think that we will get far unless we split up and look for them separately."

"I think we should be fine if we look for them together. I have a feeling that they would be in the same place."

"Oh? And how do you know that?"

"I've got a feeling" he said and smiled his sexy smile again.

I couldn't help but agree. Somehow it made sense.

"So what kind of feeling is it?" I said as we started to fly towards land and where I could see some trees in the distance.

"It's more like an idea really. I have never seen Butch like that before. Your sister must have quite the influence on him. He has never tried to be "friends" with a girl. He has had history of being a big player."

"So you think that he followed her after she got off stage?"

"Yes"

"But why didn't he fly after her then?"

"Would you have? I mean she took off like lightning so suddenly. Even I was confused"

"You're right… I would have wanted things to calm down first"

He only smiled without sparing a glance in my direction. I could tell that he loved being right. More so he loved someone telling him that he was right.

"So when did you start being this deep?"

"Deep?"

"Yeah. You look like you understand this situation"

"I uh… I don't really know. My brothers are all I have so, I think we've developed this kind of… dependability on each other to a point where we can tell if someone has changed or something is changing him"

"And you think Butch is changing" he smiled and looked down.

"Again, I have never seen him like this. That's all I can say right now."

"Ok. All I'm saying is that your brother had better not have the idea of Buttercup being another one of his toys."

"Oh don't worry about it. I don't think he does. He's probably too scared of her to pull that one over her"

I laughed. He was probably right again.

He laughed too and we flew in silence for a bit.

"Are you in high school?"

"yeah. Townsville High. Why?"

"I think we are going to go there this year"

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Mom has this idea of stopping home schooling because she believes that it is cutting down on our social life."

"I thought you said that Butch was a player… how would he have social problems then? And Boomer looked pretty ok with everyone"

"Yeah…"He said and then rubbed the back of his neck while he had a worried expression on his face. He finally sighed and spoke again

"I am the one with the problem."

I had nothing to say. He had the knack of being right tonight on many things but I wasn't sure if I agreed with him on this one.

"Up until I was 12 years old, I was ok. Then… something happened… and I ended up developing this habit of locking myself up in my room and reading with my music on. That's all I did…Read and listened to music. I ended up writing a little bit too. I have a few songs here and there in my room but that's not the point. The point is that my mom thinks that I am going through this depression which really I'm not. I just didn't want to hang out with people as much as I did anymore."

There was a pause there for things to sink in.

"I don't think you're depressed…" I said.

That was the only thing I could think of to say.

"But what happened that made you want to lock yourself up like that? And wait a minute… You have a MOM?! Who is she?"

He frowned at the distance and then took a deep breath and spoke again

"A few years ago Mojo decided that we weren't fit to destroy you and so he didn't want anything to do with us. He left us out on the street with nothing to claim ours, not even food."

I looked at his face and it was serious.

"One day, after a month or so after we were kicked out, we were walking in the park with nothing to do like always. We noticed that there was a lady sitting on the bench reading. She was pretty and she was alone. It was getting dark out and so I think she decided to pack up and leave. Just after she got up, some guy followed her and then grabbed her from behind and held a knife to her throat. He started to whisper something to her and then she gave him her purse. He swung it around his arms and then proceeded to unbutton her shirt."

He cringed a little at the memory of his so-called "mother'" almost being mugged and raped but then he seemed to shake it off and continued.

"My brothers and I were hidden behind a tree so they couldn't see us but we could see them. We were just watching this before I suddenly had the urge to go knock this guys teeth out and so I did. Boomer and Butch followed gladly at the chance to beat someone up."

He spared me a glance and he looked smug.

"After rendering him unconscious, we had almost forgotten that this lady was still there. She stood there gawking at us. We didn't know what to do so we just prepared to leave. When we were around two feet in the air she screamed for us to stop and come back. That was awkward. No one has said anything to us besides "please don't hurt me" or "take the money just spare my life" for the past two or three months. We stopped and turned around to face her again."

"She asked our names first and we told her who we were. She did not even flinch when we said we were 'the rowdy ruff boys', it didn't matter to her. Instead, she thanked us and offered us a place for the night after we told her that really we had no place to go. We agreed and then after that overnight stay we never left. She took us in gladly."

"Turns out she was an English Professor in UOT (a/n: University of Townsville) here. She was once married and had twins; a boy and a girl. One night, her husband and children were killed in a car crash. They were hit by a drunk driver. I believe she took us in to compensate for that but really it doesn't matter. She was kind enough to do that and treat us like we were her sons and through the years we grew to be a family"

I couldn't say anything. Just the fact that they stood up for their "mother" back then was surprising. Let alone that they have moved in with this woman and she has technically raised them from scratch. I wondered how good of a job she did. Brick seems completely transformed.

"Wow. That was a complete shock. You guys have changed so much."

"I guess you can say that"

"But you still didn't tell me why you kept yourself locked up like you said"

"It's a long story…"

"I've got time" I simply said.

He looked over and he seemed to be thinking over something.

"No"

"Excuse me?"

"I am not going to answer your question before you answer mine!"

We stopped flying and faced each other. Brick wore an amused face.

"Which one?!"

What was he talking about?

"The one about why you laughed when I said 'Fate'"

"Oh… he he…"

Oops.

"Well?"

"I didn't really laugh about that bit… I thought it was rather profound actually."

"Then what was so darn funny?"

"When you said… rip each other apart…"

"Yeah?"

"Ah… I really don't know how to say this"

I was afraid that this was going to happen but I'm sure it. I saw it coming… I blushed as red as my hair. Even worse, as red as Bricks' eyes which were burning through me for an answer now.

He seemed to notice this.

"Are you blushing?"

"No. I just… It's hot out tonight"

"Answer the question Blossom for Pete's sake! Why would a phrase like "rip each other into pieces" be funny? Unl-"

He stopped, gazed emptily at nothing for a bit and the blurted out

"Oh…"

He made the connections.

I therefore blushed as red as a tomato and looked away.

"You do have a dirty mind! Ha ha, I am SHOCKED!"

He held the back of his hand to his forehead and he faked a trauma. He enjoyed a nice laugh after wards.

"I really have a lot to learn about you Blossom. I'm not the only one who has changed it looks like"

"Ah… yeah"

I should remember to keep sexually explicit thoughts, and the giggles that result from them, to myself from now on.

"So it's your turn… What's YOUR story?"


R&R please

sorry about the small cliffie but I thought that this chapter explained some things and explored some other corners as well.