I've been busy as a bee, but here's the next update as promised! I was gonna wait until the weekend, but the chapter was already ready, so I decided to just do it now! Haha. Happy early Valentine's Day, I guess? (I hate Valentine's Day.)

This chapter further expands on the girls' new modes of living. And for those of you guys that read Hard to Control Myself, there's a special 1 time surprise appearance! Guess who? (You'll either love this special appearance or hate it, depending on your personal feelings for this character. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Some of you guys are probably gonna yell at me. Sorry.)

Also, Blossom POV again for this chapter. Don't worry, next chapter will have different POVs!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, settings, or properties from The Powerpuff Girls, Craig McCracken owns them.

Sorry for any errors!

Chapter Twelve

"Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." – Ralph Ellison

-Blossom's POV-

One by one, all six of us strode into the room of reporters, and the question shouting immediately began.

I looked out at them, controlled impassiveness on my face. They all stood up from their seats, leaning toward us eagerly and staring at us like ravenous wolves. The only thing that protected us from them actually leaping at us was the fact that we were on a stage and security guards were standing between us and them.

It had been years since we'd last done a press conference as a six member team—the last one we'd done was in high school a couple of months after our reconciliation, where we'd officially announced that the Rowdyruff Boys had renounced their villain lives and that they were going to help us protect the city from that point forward. That conference had been quite the controversy at the time. It had made headlines across the world for at least a week. Things had eventually settled down in the subsequent months, though, and everyone had pretty much come to accept our new arrangements as one big super team.

This conference, though, was to put a stop to—or at least calm down—all of the media frenzy and all of the Internet rumors that had run rampant ever since Professor's announcement two days ago. We'd been rehearsing and preparing ourselves for this conference for days, and we were hoping for the best.

Of course, no matter how much we rehearsed, we couldn't have been fully prepared for the chaos.

We sat in our individual chairs at a long, plain table with bottles of water on it, facing the sea of faces, roaring voices and flashing cameras. For a split second, I realized that this might be what it's like for animals in zoos. At that moment, I sure felt like one.

Sara Bellum—the Mayor's assistant, and female role model extraordinaire—was hosting the press conference, donning her signature red dress suit, curly red hair coiffed with not a single lock out of place and still managing to look perfect in her late forties. She looked back at us with a reassuring smile. I smiled back at her, or at least I tried to. I turned a quick glance in both of my sisters' direction, and Bubbles looked just as pallid and uneasy as she had looked before we'd come onstage. In Buttercup's case, she had her impassive warrior's face on, not letting any of the crowd see the terror that I knew she felt. I looked away from them, making sure to keep my public friendly neutral expression intact.

Ms. Bellum had turned back towards the rabid media and she took a breath to speak into the microphone. "All right, all right. Settle down. Hold your questions until the end, please. We'll start with the two leaders of our heroes' joint statement to the public."

That was our cue. With a deep breath, I stood from my seat. Brick stood from his, too. I took another quick glance at my sisters, and they both gave me supportive nods. Boomer and Butch gave Brick their own silent—albeit slightly uneasy—looks of encouragement. I locked eyes with Brick for a moment, and then side by side, we made our way to the front of the stage, where two podiums with microphones were standing.

I waited until Brick was done adjusting his microphone so that it would reach his taller height, and then seeing him nod at me to start, I shook off my invisible nerves, took my microphone and spoke.

"Good evening, members of the press and citizens of Townsville." I said. I kept my tone as professional as possible. "We've organized this press conference tonight to clear up some misunderstandings that have arisen since the publicizing of the recent findings of Chemical X by my father, scientist Professor Utonium. Some media sources have made it sound like because of this recent discovery, my sisters, the Rowdyruff Boys and I will be retiring from crime fighting. That is simply not true." I looked over to Brick, cuing him to start his part next.

Brick spoke into his microphone, looking out at the cameras and press and taking on an air of ease and calm that sometimes even I couldn't manage when I was in leader mode. Whenever I saw him look that way, it made pride bloom inside of me. "These claims of our retirement, and the claims that we are all unwell are untrue. Professor's findings do apply to us in certain ways, however." He paused, looking over at me. 'Are you sure you want to tell them this?' His eyes said. I nodded almost imperceptibly. He drew in a breath, then looked out at the press again. "The Powerpuff Girls are indeed experiencing slight problems with their superpowers at the moment."

In an instant, the crowd roared with exclamations and questions again. The sheer volume of them was almost scary. For a moment, I felt tempted to walk off the stage. I gripped my microphone stand tightly. I felt grateful for the delicate, vague way he'd worded it. No need to tell everybody that we were basically becoming humans. Who knows how they would've reacted to that.

I allowed them a few moments, pausing and waiting for them to settle down. Then, when the crowd wasn't as loud, I continued from where Brick left off, taking a deep breath so that my voice wouldn't be shaky. "This will not pose as a problem, though. Professor Utonium has invented a solution that will help mine and the girls' powers to work again perfectly. We will still be able to protect and serve Townsville to the best of our abilities. You all have no reason to worry."

Brick continued, raising his voice above the steady stream of noises coming from the reporters, "My brothers and I haven't experienced any issues with our powers, and we'll continue to protect Townsville with the girls to the best of our abilities as well." What he didn't add, though, was that after Professor examined their DNA, he'd guesstimated that their powers would start fading away soon, too. In a month or so, he'd said.

Pushing that thought down, I said my final line in the speech, forcing a big, phony smile onto my face. "We were born to protect this world, and we will continue to serve that purpose. Thank you." As soon as I signaled the end of our short joint speech, the shouting began again, possibly even louder than before. For a brief flash, the rabid sea of press reminded me of the ocean of monsters from a few weeks ago, braying and shrieking. I blinked hard, shoving that image away.

Ms. Bellum's voice rose over the shouts again, speaking into her microphone on the right side of the stage. "Excuse me, excuse me. One question at a time, please. Wait until I call on you. Shouted questions will be ignored." She looked into the crowd, then pointed at a woman standing near the front. "You right there, go ahead."

The woman walked forward to the sole microphone stand provided for the press. "Thanks, Ms. Bellum. Blossom, my question's for you. What solution exactly did Professor Utonium invent for you and your sisters?"

I cleared my throat, answering, "We can't divulge what exactly the solution is to the public just yet. However, we can confirm that they do indeed work, and that they'll be reliable." Well, except for the emergency shots, we hadn't been able to test those yet, they weren't ready. Professor was still in the final stages of developing them. But they didn't need to know that.

After thanking me, the reporter stepped away from the mic. Ms. Bellum looked out into the crowd again. "Okay, you there," she said.

Another woman. "Blossom, why isn't Professor Utonium here? Is he hiding from the public?"

I suppressed a sigh. "No, he's not hiding. He's hard at work in his laboratory perfecting his solutions to our little problem, so he wasn't able to make it here today. That's all." Not to mention he'd been racked with guilt over what was happening to us, even after Buttercup had apologized to him and they had made up. There had still been a certain darkness in his eyes ever since.

Ms. Bellum picked a new reporter. A man stepped up this time, looking directly at me. "Yes, hello. My question is, if we don't know for sure what the solution is, how do we know that it'll work?"

The question and answer sessions during press conferences had always been my least favorite part of them. Once again, I restrained myself from sighing, trying to answer as politely and as convincingly as I could. "Because sir, we've tested them several times already. I assure you, they do work."

"So, what, we're just supposed to take your word for it?" He said into the microphone skeptically. His eyebrows were raised at me, and he was staring at me dryly. The reporters around him chorused in agreement. I guess he would be the first entitled reporter of the evening.

I blinked. "Yes," I said simply. I felt Brick shift next to me. Even without looking over at him, I knew this reporter was pissing him off.

He countered again, "But what if you're lying to us? How are we supposed to just believe you?" The crowd roared again. I grit my teeth. Brick gripped his microphone hard, taking a breath to tell this guy off.

Stepping in before Brick could make a mess of things, Ms. Bellums' voice rose up again, more stern this time. "That's enough, sir. Each person gets one question and taunts are not tolerated. Go sit back down in your seat before we have you escorted out." The entitled reporter scowled, eyeing the menacing security guards that had stepped toward him, and went back to his seat.

I'd placed a hand on Brick's shoulder, gripping it, trying to get him to look at me. Finally, he did. 'It's fine. I'm okay.' I hoped that was what my face was saying, and not distress. Thankfully, the muscles in his shoulders relaxed, his face softened, and he dropped the hand from the microphone. After rubbing his shoulder gently, I dropped my hand.

"Okay, you there. What's your question?" Ms. Bellum called, and a new reporter stepped up to the mic.

The new reporter pushed some round glasses back up her nose bridge. "Hi. Blossom, my question is, do you really think we believe that this supposed solution Professor Utonium is developing is supposed to work flawlessly? Didn't he think Chemical X was a flawless chemical?" Noises of agreement rose again.

My stomach dropped. That question had struck a nerve. But I kept the neutral expression on my face. "Hi, thanks for your question. I know the solution sounds hard to believe, but Professor came up with them after a ton of careful research. I have faith that they'll work, so you should, too." I was glad that my answer had sounded confident.

I had also thought of the emergency shots maybe not working when it came down to it. But I would keep those worries buried. The vitamins worked. So did the shot that Professor used to take away my headache two days ago. The other shots would work too.

They had to.

A new reporter was called up to the microphone. "Brick, my question is for you. Why aren't you and your brothers having issues with your powers?"

My throat tightened. I didn't let it show on my face.

Brick had regained his calm air. He answered easily, "Well, if you recall, me and my brothers weren't created by Professor Utonium. The Chemical X used to make the girls wasn't used for us. So it's possible that we won't have issues with them at all." He had said the last sentence so breezily, I would have believed him too if I hadn't known the truth.

Ms. Bellum dismissed that reporter and then picked a new one. This reporter stormed right up to the microphone. "My question's also for Brick. Have you considered what you and your brothers would do if you started having trouble with your superpowers too?"

"We would start the same treatments that the girls are on," Brick answered immediately, leaving no space for speculation.

The next reporter stepped up to the mic. "Blossom, hi. You know, if you really wanted all of us to believe that the solution for your powers works, why don't you use it in front of all of us here, so the world can see?" The rest of the room echoed in assent. A few people stood up, clapping.

Trying not to let the response get too out of control, I answered immediately as Brick had before. "I understand your point, but using them in an enclosed area with so many people would be far too dangerous. It's for emergencies only."

The another reporter shot out, speaking out of turn, "You don't consider this an emergency?"

Shaking my head, I worked hard to keep my voice from sounding strained. "We don't have them here with us, and even if we did, I wouldn't be willing to possibly put everyone in here in danger. It would be out of the question."

A baritone voice in the back of the room shouted out, "What are you hiding, bitch?"

The effect was immediate.

Several things happened at once: Behind us, Buttercup shouted in rage. Half the security guards at the back of the room went after the shouter at the back of the room, dragging him out through the back doors as he tried to fight them away and he continued to shout, "Don't believe them! It's a conspiracy! It's all a part of their plan!" Ms. Bellum motioned toward the sound guys somewhere backstage to cut off our microphones and the reporter's microphone. And I flung my arms around Brick and clamped onto him tightly just as his feet began to lift off the ground, about to fly after the shouter, any and all feigned calmness completely gone from his face and replaced with red-faced and nearly unhinged fury. As soon as he felt my touch, he froze in his tracks, even knowing that I wasn't strong enough now to stop him. The flashes of cameras, all capturing this very chaotic moment, were almost blinding.

"Forget it," I whispered to him, only low enough for him to hear. "He's not worth the mess. There are cameras documenting our every move. The public would never forget about it for as long as we live." At this, my boyfriend's muscles reluctantly relaxed, and his feet touched back onto the ground. He wrapped his arms around me too in a brief, stiff hug. I looked at him carefully as I let him go. His face was still angry, but he kept silent.

The guards were now escorting shouting reporters out, and arguments had sprouted up throughout the room. Things were getting out of control. Above the riotous noise, Ms. Bellum spoke into her microphone, now the only mic that was left on. "In light of that outburst, the press conference will end early." She turned to us, and I couldn't help but notice the slight glint of sympathy in her eyes. "Heroes, you are dismissed."

I took Brick's hand, needing it to steady myself and for the reassurance as much as he needed to hold my hand, too. We turned away from the unruly, wild crowd and fell into step, going back over to where our respective siblings were now standing up from their seats at the table.

All six of us marched off that stage again, leaving the zoo behind.

Once backstage and hidden from cameras and criticizing stares, Bubbles turned to me and immediately wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly. "Bloss, I am so sorry you had to do that. Are you okay?"

I hugged her back, slightly shrugging my shoulder and letting the stress and weight of responsibility finally crash down on my back. "It's nothing I've never done before," I joked weakly.

Buttercup shook her head, glowering. "No. That was all kinds of messed up. I was about to go jump that guy, if I could've just flown over there…" Her voice trailed off somewhat bitterly. Bubbles released me, and Buttercup immediately wrapped her arms around me next. "Sorry, Pinky. You shouldn't have had to put up with that. There's a special place in hell for these bloodthirsty cockroaches."

"I almost went to kick that guy's ass myself, if Blossom wouldn't have stopped me," Brick said, giving me a good natured dry look. He still looked pissed off, but in a less violent way. He was clearly still cooling off.

I shook my head, returning his dry look. "Forget him, Brick. He was just some overzealous tinhat that got past outdoor security. No one worth creating more of a mess over."

Bubbles went over to him next, giving him a side hug. "Blossom's right. It's probably best that you didn't," she reassured him.

Brick hugged her back and looked down at her with a slight grin, not arguing our point. Butch clapped him on the back sympathetically. Brick finally heaved a heavy sigh, looking as if the stress had finally got to him too. "I'm so glad that's over with."

"If it was me, Blossom wouldn't have been able to stop me," Buttercup remarked, letting go of me and glancing at Brick pointedly.

I looked at her sideways, arching an eyebrow. "That's exactly why I asked you to stay seated with everyone else." Buttercup shrugged, smirking.

Boomer came over to me and gave me a brief hug and a kind smile. "You both did well, though, considering the circumstances. I was proud of you guys. We all were."

"Thanks," I said modestly as I hugged him back, though not quite agreeing with him.

Butch had come over to me too, giving me a supportive pat on the head. "Yeah, you did great. If that was me up there, I would have snapped after just a few questions." He looked between Brick and I. "Good job, leaders."

We smiled at him, albeit a little uneasily.

Surely the news coverage of the conference would focus solely on the outburst from the angry guy that had broken in, and the rushed conclusion of the conference, rather than our carefully thought out answers and composure. But that was the least of our concerns at that point. It could've been much worse. Slipping up and accidentally spilling the truth about what worries we were really dealing with right now would have been catastrophic.

We started to leave, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. Going out of the most discrete back entrance of the building, there were unfortunately still paparazzi there waiting for us, cameras flashing and aggressive questions flying. Walking quickly away and evading them as best as we could, although overwhelmed, part of me was relieved that this whole ordeal was over.

Quickly packing into each of the boys' cars, we all drove away, leaving that hell hole behind.

#

Days later, it was finals week at Warner University.

Despite the outright absurdity mine and my sister's lives had become over the past week, Professor still held our education at a high regard—as did I, of course. So that entire week, we took our finals, like we were every day average students at that school.

We were, really—our powers had pretty much faded almost completely by now.

It was weird. I was used to seeing and hearing everything I wanted to within a hundred feet of myself. Every whisper, every footstep, every flap of a birds' wing. Even hearing through walls and entire floors of buildings had been no problem at all.

Now the noises of everything sounded muffled. I needed to strain myself to hear people even twenty feet away from me. I found myself having to turn my music up louder in mine and Buttercup's dorm room, I felt like I could barely hear it when it was down low, which was my usual volume setting.

Was this how humans heard everything? How did they go through life hearing so little?

And my sight was a different story, too. At least I could see what was in my immediate area just fine, but what about far away? How did humans look for things across town? Maybe that was why binoculars were invented. I mean, I'd already known that, of course. But it finally made sense to me why humans would need such inventions—binoculars, telescopes, helicopters, other things of that nature. They provided them ways to experience life the way we do.

Well. The way we used to.

Currently, I was walking through the snow to my usual café. It was close enough to campus that I didn't really mind walking, it just took some time. It kind of made me wish that my sisters and I had gotten our driver's licenses in high school anyway, Professor's reservations about it be damned.

Walking past an electronics store with TVs sitting in the window, I slowed to a stop as I heard something unfamiliar coming from one of them. I stared at one of the televisions and realized that a foreign television show was playing on it. I concentrated. It sounded like Italian, but I couldn't understand it. Not anymore. Somewhere in my head, there was a small, distant ache, letting me know that I was pushing my luck of not having a migraine for the past couple of days.

So I turned from the television filled window, walking away through the crowd of pedestrians.

My feet were really sore from having to walk everywhere, especially in the snow and ice. A few days ago, I had tested my flying abilities with Bubbles in our backyard. No luck. Our feet had hovered a half foot off the ground, gone numb, and touched back to the ground after a few seconds. Flying was officially off the table until we could test out Professor's emergency shots. I missed it already.

With three hours before my next final, I stepped through the front door of our favorite café. The heat inside was on high, and the warmth was welcome.

I had some more intense studying to do. Since I couldn't rely on my photographic memory, as I usually did before, I had been studying five times as hard as normal for my tests.

After ordering my eggnog latte, then taking it with me as I sat down at a table by myself, I was getting all of my supplies out of my bag when I heard a familiar voice.

"Blossom?"

I looked toward the direction of the voice, then almost dropped my books onto the ground in pure shock. "Oh my God," I said, staring. "Steven?"

My ex-boyfriend from the beginning of my junior year of high school. There he was, standing right in front of me for the first time in three years.

Grey eyes, average height, and platinum blonde hair as short as ever. His stubble had grown into a full trimmed beard now, and I couldn't deny that it changed his whole face. He looked more grown up with it, less boyish and vulnerable. He wasn't even wearing one of his once signature brightly colored sweater vests, he wore a black long sleeved turtleneck instead. And replacing his old rectangle framed glasses, he now had glasses with thick black, square rims.

He seemed to be there by himself. And despite the way things had ended between us, Steven was smiling at me earnestly. Just like old times. Even though I didn't deserve it. "Yeah, it's me," he said. He walked closer to me. Now that he was closer, I noticed a neck tattoo sticking out from the turtleneck collar of his shirt. Steven? With a tattoo? "I know you probably don't recognize me. It's been so long."

We hadn't seen each other since I'd dumped him for another boy in front of the other boy—a.k.a. Brick. On the night of the homecoming dance. Which was weeks before he'd changed his number and transferred high schools just to get away from me. So, yeah. It had been a while. "Of course I recognize you," I said, setting my stuff down and standing up from my chair.

He stopped right in front of me, holding out his hand for a handshake, then looking down at his own hand, realizing how awkward that was. He dropped his hand.

I began to go in for a hug, then I realized that was even more awkward, and my arms dropped back to my sides as he laughed the same nervous laugh that I hadn't heard in ages.

"I guess this is kinda awkward. Sorry," he said, grin still on his face. "I just thought I'd come over here since it's been forever since we've seen each other, and—"

"No!" I said, stopping him. "No, I'm glad you came over here, Steven." I gestured to the other empty chair at my table. "Sit with me?"

"Sure," he said.

I turned to sit down in my chair, and as he sat down across from me as he held his cup of coffee, I kept glancing at him. I couldn't help it, it was weird seeing him again after so long. Especially since he looked so different. He almost looked like a completely different person. I offered him a grin. "It's good to see you again."

Steven looked at me in his genuine Steven way, his grey eyes as warm as the air from the central heating. "It's good to see you too, Blossom." He paused for a moment, probably debating over whether it was okay to say or not. In the end, he said it anyway. "You look good."

That old familiar guilt struck my stomach, the way that it always happened back then whenever he would give me a compliment, and I looked down at my drink, picking it up to distract myself. "Thanks, Steve. So do you." I took a long sip of my hot drink.

"Still with that Rowdyruff Boy?" He asked bluntly.

I choked on my drink a little, the question catching me off guard. He hadn't wasted any time. Guess we were going to do this right away. "Um," I paused, gathering myself and setting my mug back down. "Yeah. I am. We're still going strong." Hesitantly, I looked up at him.

He'd looked away from me, too. His eyes were fixed on the table. The look on his face was unreadable. He fiddled with his fingers for a moment, tapping the tips against the table top, nodded slowly, and then met my gaze again. "Good. I'm happy for you."

I wanted to ask him if he really meant that, but there was no need to push it, I figured. That had probably been hard enough for him to say, considering what I'd put him through. I smiled. "Thanks."

Steven, quite predictably, changed the subject. "So, what are you doing these days?"

"My sisters and I go to Warner University. Finals week," I gestured to my mountain of study gear. 'Also, we're losing more and more of our superpowers by the day, and our entire future is slowly becoming uncertain,' I added in my mind. I didn't say it aloud, though. No need to drag him into my messed up problems. I flipped the question on him. "What about you?"

He took a sip of his iced coffee. I thought it was a little too cold outside to be drinking that, but maybe drinking cold drinks during cold weather didn't bother him. Yet another thing I'd never bothered to get to know about him. "I work part time at an electronics store, and I'm studying for my computer science degree at UofT."

My eyebrows rose. "Oh wow, no way. That's Brick's school." Immediately, I mentally kicked myself for bringing up my boyfriend again. I may as well have been grinding his face into concrete. "Sorry," I said, seeing the look on his face.

"No, it's all right. I already knew that we go to the same school." He toyed with the straw in his drink. "Sometimes I see him and his brothers around on campus. They're really popular, so it's pretty hard to avoid them." He laughed once, a little bitterly.

I swallowed hard, nodding. Ouch. I understood, though. "So, computer science? That's awesome."

"Yeah, I like it." Steven nodded toward my books. "What's your major?"

"Biochemical engineering." I answered, smiling with pride.

He let out a low whistle. "Damn," he said. "Impressive."

I waved a hand, my smile still not going away. "It's nothing," I said. At least it used to be, until I started getting those pesky super migraines that interfered with my photographic memory. It was a good thing I had a bag of Chemical X vitamins in my backpack to prevent them during the test.

Steven nodded, smiling at me. "I'm not surprised. You've always been brilliant." He gestured around the café. "You know, I've never been here before, so it's funny that I'd run into you here today."

"Oh, I come here all the time," I said. "It's kinda the regular hangout place for me, my sisters, and the boys. We like it because it's between our campus and theirs." Realizing I'd just brought up my boyfriend again, cringing inwardly, I finished feebly, "And they have really good drinks."

Brushing off my boyfriend comment, he nodded again, though a little stiffly. "Yeah, this iced coffee is pretty good. I'll probably come here again." My hearing may have been worse now, but I could still tell when someone was lying.

I looked down at my notebooks and books, realizing that I had gotten no studying done so far. Catching up and revisiting a small bit of my past had been great and all, but maybe it was time to leave now. I'd go back to campus and go to the school library to study instead, so I wouldn't bother Steven any further. Reunion time was over, that was clear.

I began to pack up my things, looking back up at him. "Well, I really hate to cut this short, because it's been great, but I have to get going. I have one of my last finals in just a few hours."

"Oh," he said, looking apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hold you up."

"No, you haven't! Don't worry." As I put the last of my books in my backpack, I grinned at him. "I'm so glad I got to see you, Steve."

After a moment of eyeing me, he returned my smile. "I'm glad I got to see you too, Blossom. I really am."

Closing up my backpack, then putting on my pink gloves, scarf, hat and coat, I went to the front counter for a moment to get a to-go cup for my coffee. Then I came back to the table, transferring my drink to the paper cup as Steven watched, then I snapped the lid on top of it, glancing back up at him. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime?" I didn't know why I had asked. I already knew what the answer was.

He smiled stiffly. "Maybe," he said. I wouldn't.

Keeping my smile on, nodding acceptingly, I slid my backpack straps onto my shoulders and turned to leave, saying over my shoulder, "Happy Holidays." I began to walk out of the café. As I pushed the door open to go back out into the cold, the bell above the door dinged.

Steven called to me from the table I'd been sitting at with him. "Hey, Blossom?"

Pausing, I turned, letting the door close again and looking at him. "Yeah?"

He looked at me softly, and for a second, I saw a glimpse of the boy from high school that had talked to me on the phone until dawn, and had come over to my house in the middle of the night just to hug me as I cried the tears of a broken heart. The boy that had loved me honestly and truly. "I really hope that you're happy these days. I hope that you're genuinely happy and that you're healthy, and that you get everything that you deserve in life. That's what I want for you."

I gazed at him, momentarily too touched to speak, my eyes glassy with tears. Then I smiled at him. I could feel the vulnerability all over my face. I replied, the answer not feeling nearly adequate enough, but also genuine. "Thank you, Steven. I want that for you, too. Take care." Even though I had not loved him back the way that he'd wanted, he still had meant a whole lot to me. Maybe in some way he always would.

And with that last exchange, we each got the goodbye we both deserved but never got those years ago. I left through that café's door, trudged away through the snow, and never saw Steven again.

Now, let me reiterate: Steven won't be returning for good. This was just a one scene deal, like a little reunion of sorts! Also, for those of you that had remembered Blossom's major from the first time it was mentioned way back in chapter 1, yep! I changed it. Chemical engineering was cool, but I wanted it to be more specific than that, so I changed it to biochemical engineering. Not a huge difference, but I like it better!

How will the girls continue to adjust to their newly human lives? And what about the boys? Stay tuned!

Thank you for all of your support and interest! I appreciate it more than you guys know.

-MsButterFingers