Hey everyone. Yes, I know it's been forever, and no, I'm not dead. I've just been so crazy busy, which I know I say with every update, but my wedding is in just under 3 weeks time, and I've got to fit moving house somewhere in between that! I've also had really rubbish writers block for ages but, I sat down at my laptop tonight and managed to get some stuff down. Thanks again to those who have been patiently waiting, here's chapter 21!

Buttercup

"Urgh. YAWN. This is boring. Let's go look at the lingerie, I bet I could pick you out something spicy now I know what you look like neked' and all." Butch said, turning me by my shoulders and steering me towards the women's underwear department.

I dug my heels into the ground, halting the pram at the same time. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! You can't insist on coming shopping with me then decide what it is I shop for! And if you mention the towel incident one more time, I am going to castrate you." I said, my teeth grit together as I glared at him.

He smirked. "Is that a promise? Come on, let's look anyway."

"No! I came here for some new pants not new underpants. Why the hell would I go undie shopping with you anyway? It's far too, intimate. And would you just forget the towel thing already?! It was ages ago." I said, turning the pram and heading back where I had been looking. Sage watched me cautiously from his pushchair and I couldn't help but smile at him. God, he already had the ability to make me melt just a little bit, no matter how bad my mood was.

"I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forget that. Come on. I'm your roommate. Your sexy bachelor roommate who knows what undies men like, I can give you some advice." Butch suggested, looking like he was doing me some huge favour.

I scoffed. "You are so twisted it's unreal."

"I'm sure roommates do this kind of thing all the time!"

"You're not just my roommate Butch!" I spluttered.

"No?" He paused, then his eyes went down to Sage and back up to me. "Okay, I'm your roommate who happens to also be the father of your child. But that's okay! Buttercup, pleaseeeee. I haven't had any female contact in months now. That's a big deal for me. Just humour me, this will satisfy my need! Let's go look at the undiesssss."

I arched a brow at him, not being able to hide the smirk on my face at his pleading green eyes. Huh. That was true. He hadn't been with any other women, and I know for myself that he had plenty of lady followers from when I stayed with Blossom and the boys the few months before Sage was born.

Why wasn't he seeing anyone? I suppose he's assuming I wouldn't want some skank near my son. That's true, I wouldn't want some skank near my son. Or in my apartment. That's got to be why; he knows I wouldn't allow it. Even so, he was giving up a lot for Sage.

Butch must have figured I was deliberating, because his eyes looked pretty hopeful, but there wasn't a chance in hell I'd go lingerie shopping with Butch Jojo. And what was the point anyway? I was breastfeeding. Sexy underwear was out anyway.

"No." I said firmly, turning the handles to the pram sharply around him, back to the jeans I had been looking at.

"You are killing me here. You know that? We've been living together almost 2 months now. You make me watch you get your tits out to feed Sage about 10 times a day, prancing around in your little night time shorts, dropping your towel… And I've got no outlet! It sucks!" He moaned, flicking through a rack of clothes, forlorn and pouting.

"Oh boo-fucking-hoo. I'm not making you do any of this, you are. If you wanna be around Sage then this is the breaks right now. Because your whacky devil of a Dad has some plan up his sleeve and Sage needs constant vigilance. If blowing your beans up some desperate skank means more to you then you know where the door is. And by the way? I don't 'get my tits' out, I feed my son. Our son. And I wear shorts to bed. Live with it." I said, picking up a pair of black skinny jeans and deciding they would do. I was getting bored of this; I wanted to get home now, mostly to see if Butch would follow. Even though he really seemed to want to be around Sage, a big part of me would not be surprised if he called it quits this early on.

He sighed dramatically, following on behind me. "I will." He moaned, but his voice seemed kind of lighter than it had been.

"You will what?" I asked, tossing my head back to eye him up.

"Live with it. All of it." He shrugged.

I smiled slightly. "I'm just going to pay."

"Okay. Come on Sage. Let's race." Butch said, taking the handles of the pram and jetting off around the shop.

"Be careful!" I yelled after him.

I sighed blissfully as Sage finally settled down to sleep. My ears were ringing from the racket he'd been making, interrupting the silence oddly, but I'd rather that then the incessant sound of him bawling. He sure had an impressive set of lungs on him.

I heard the sound of the bathroom door opening behind me and I turned sharply to face Butch.

"Your hiding while Sage screamed bloody murder didn't go unnoticed, by the way." I hissed at him, turning back to face Sage as I realized he was in nothing but a towel.

"I was in the shower! What did you expect me to do, come running out the moment he started making noise?" Butch asked from behind me. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, no, but you could have at least hurried!"

"What's the rush? You had everything under control."

I shook my head, still not turning to face him. "Well, whatever. At least he's asleep and I can hear myself think again."

"Yeah. You know what?" Butch said, wondering into the kitchen and grabbing himself a glass down from the cupboard.

"What?" I bit out irritably, trying not to look at him too much half naked.

"I hope my towel doesn't just fall to the floor right now. I mean damn, how awkward would that be?" He said, voice oozing sarcasm as he grinned over at me and poured orange juice.

I rolled my eyes again. "Butch, can you cut that out now? It's getting pretty boring. No, really boring." I said, looking over at him now with a pissed off grimace. He still had little beads of water on his chest, and I could see droplets falling from his wet black hair as he chugged his juice.

His chest, it was, it was pretty chiseled, pretty hard looking. As I looked at him I couldn't help but wonder what it might feel like to have that defined chest pressed against mine. I bit down softly on my lower lip as I stared, and began to think about what it would be like to bite down on his bottom lip. It was like my body wasn't listening to me anymore as I stood there ogling him like I complained about him doing to me everyday.

"Hey BC," Butch spoke, wiping the orange juice from his mouth. Him speaking awoke me from my pervy stupor; I shook my head and plastered a glare onto my face. "I could get a picture taken for you, if you want. You know, so you can keep staring."

I tsk-ed loudly, my glare deepening. "That's rich, coming from you."

He chuckled, shaking his head and drinking more juice.

"Hey, I just had a thought." I said, my glare disappearing, a cheeky smile replacing it, clearly confusing Butch instantly.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking almost a little afraid.

"You should whip that towel off." I told him, my voice a tiny bit flirty.

"Why?" He questioned, still a tone of fear in his voice.

"So we can end all of this. You know, tit for tat. Let's see your tat." I grinned, taking a couple of steps closer.

"Excuse me!" He cried. "But calling him 'tat' is soiling his good name."

I shrugged casually. "I'll only believe that if I see it. Come on, drop the towel."

Butch's eyes bugged when he saw I wasn't joking. "Hey! No! Wow, I had no idea I was living with a sexual predator."

I laughed, stopping a few paces in front of him. "Join the club! I live with a sexual predator too. If you won't drop the towel then I'm getting you some clothes." I turned on my heels, heading towards the pile of his clothes in Sage's bedroom.

As I rummaged through the basket of clothes he came up behind me, complaining about me invading his personal space, or something, I wasn't really listening, when I felt a strange tickle on my hand that made me stop dead and look at my wrist.

Sitting there, like he fucking owned the place, was a large, fat and hairy spider. I screamed. I screamed so loudly, and jumped into the air.

Actually, I didn't jump into the air, I jumped into Butch, who had jumped too and caught me confusedly.

"What the fuck's the matter?!" He cried, looking at me with wide eyes. I was shaking my hands and patting at my body.

"Spider! There was a fucking spider amongst your clothes. It was on my wrist! Ergh, ergh, I feel like it's on me! Is it on me?!" I squealed, shivering with disgust.

"A spider?" Butch asked, surprised. He spluttered as I narrowed my eyes at him, then started laughing loudly.

I shoved him hard on one of his arms that was holding me. "Stop fucking laughing!"

"Seriously? Spiders? The great Buttercup Utonium is afraid of spiders?"

"Just get that thing outta here!" I cried, nudging him. I was practically perched on his shoulder. His hands were under my thighs holding me up, luckily the towel he had on was still in place.

He laughed to himself as he picked through the clothes. I squealed frantically as he found the hairy fucker amongst some of his socks.

Picking it up by one leg, I recoiled further into him as he held it at arms length.

"Why have I never known you're scared of spiders? I thought Bubbles was the one scared of spiders and bugs and stuff." Butch cried incredulously as he tossed the spider out of the window, amidst my wailing to get it away from me.

"Bubbles is scared of everything. I'm not scared of anything. Besides, spiders." I mumbled and he laughed again.

I sighed, reassuring myself mentally that the spider was gone. Then I suddenly realized that I was in Butch's arms still. That Butch was holding onto me. I was pressed up against that chiseled chest…

"Get off of me!" I yelped, elbowing him in the head for good measure and shooting out of the room to check on Sage.

I hoped Butch hadn't noticed the blush I could feel on my cheeks. He complained under his breath about me having jumped in his arms. I hissed at him to be quiet, as Sage was miraculously still asleep.

As I watched over Sage, and Butch retreated to his room to put some clothes on, a tiny voice in my head whined about not having gotten to be pressed up against that chest for very long…

Bubbles

"Why can't I stop thinking about you?"

I jumped at the voice that spoke through the darkness. I was stood at the door to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten locking it up. Sandy had left at lunch and I'd taught a class in the afternoon then stayed behind to tidy up and mark some work before heading home.

I knew from the voice it wasn't Zac. I took a couple of steps toward him, knowing in seconds it was Boomer sat perched on the 'Pokey Oaks' Sign by the sidewalk. I think I knew it was Boomer from the get go.

"What?" I asked, stopping as I approached his side.

"Why can't I stop thinking about you? All this that is going on at the moment with Him; my brothers and I are potentially in a lot of trouble, so could my niece and nephew be, and any children I possibly have in the future, if this longs out. It's been two months since he done anything last and, and he's gone quiet, which can't be good; even Brick is worrying about it, which is never a good sign, yet all I find myself thinking about is you." He ranted, his expression one of confusion and almost annoyance.

I smiled weakly, sitting on the concrete sign beside him. "I've kind of been the same. I mean, I'm going through divorce procedures, I should be worrying about that, plus everything you described, but, I just keep thinking about you."

There was a pause as I looked up at the deep royal blue sky, and Boomer watched me, looking taken back by what I'd said.

"I'm not sure this is all a good idea though." I said, Boomer's eyes growing wider.

"What do you mean?"

"Us. On the basis of just being able to be parents. There needs to be, more. There needs to be something else. There needs to be love there. I deserve real love. Real, all consuming, can't live without each other love. And so do you." I said, and my voice cut through the air like a knife.

Boomer blinked at me in the silence that ensued.

"I do?" He asked, sounding about 20 years younger than he was.

"Of course you do!" I said, slightly chuckling. "But, that can't happen over night, we can't make it happen over night. We might not even be able to make it happen at all. We're not even friends –" I said, a negative tone to my voice, but Boomer cut me off with a question.

"Come see a movie with me."

I blinked, now I was confused. "What?"

"Tonight. Come and hang out with me. I mean, you may as well. I'm only going to go home and think about you more." He said, fitting a charming smile onto his face, replacing the 'I've just put myself out there' look he'd been sporting previously.

I found myself smiling widely, feeling like a teenager once again as I found myself nodding. "Okay. Okay then, let's, hang out."

He stood, holding his arm out for me. But rather than holding onto it, I linked my arm through his, and side by side we wandered through Pokey Oaks.

Blossom

"Hey girls, sorry I'm late!" Bubbles gasped as she took her seat beside Buttercup and me at the table. We'd met up for lunch to catch up, it'd been a small while since we'd all been together last.

"Too busy with Boomer, were we?" Buttercup asked her, eyebrow raised.

"No…" Bubbles said, giving her a look that shut down any suspicion. " I actually over slept."

"Because you were out with Boomer last night?" I asked, giving her a cheeky smile.

She tutted. "Well, maybe. Dammit I forgot you live with him. Look before you say anything, nothing happened. We just, hung out, as friends. It was actually really fun. When did he get so funny?"

"Boomer's always been funny." I said with a smile, going back to browsing through the menu.

"Yeah, funny looking." Buttercup added, to which Bubbles rolled her eyes at her and I chuckled.

"So how on earth did that end up happening?" I asked, trying to start serious conversation.

"He just, turned up at my work. We had a, talk, and then he offered to hang out, and I said yes. We're getting to know each other, and I think it's a really good idea. You have no idea how awkward it is to find out the only way you can be truly happy, and settled, and a Mommy, is with someone you hardly know, who hey, also tried to kill you for years!" Bubbles cried, thanking the waiter who had placed a glass of soda we had ordered for her down in front of her.

"No," Buttercup said, her voice already drenched in sarcasm. "No idea. Hey, is it as awkward as having a baby with someone who used to try to kill you for years?"

Bubbles thought about it for a moment and nodded, sipping at her drink. "Probably." She agreed, and Buttercup rolled her eyes, leaning over to check on Sage, who sat watching us all in his pram.

"Anyway, he is worrying about all this going on you know." Bubbles said, lazily stirring her drink, bubbles rushing to the top and foaming.

"Butch certainly hasn't been." Buttercup said, her expression souring at the mention of her counterpart. "He's been far too busy skating on thin ice with me."

"He's still winding you up?" I questioned, and Buttercup nodded.

"Of course he is, he's Butch." She said dryly.

"Gotta hand it to him though. I honestly thought he'd have moved back in with Blossom and his brothers within a week." Bubbles said, making Buttercup cock her head to the side and nod.

"Me too, kind of. It's strange really. You know, we had this really weird moment a few weeks back." Buttercup said, looking like she regretted saying anything as soon as she finished speaking.

"What happened?" Bubbles asked, both her and me leaning forward interestedly.

"It was nothing, really. Just him goofing around." She paused, rolling her eyes when she realized neither of us were budging till she told us what happened. Sighing, she continued. "Well, you know the whole, 'towel incident'?" We nodded in reply. "We were talking about that, and he said he was going to remember it always, and was bullshitting about photographic memory. I said something about him being sad and it was the most he was ever going to get to see, and he, well he came up really close to me and asked if it was a challenge."

"What did you say?" Bubbles asked curiously.

"I said it was a challenge he'd never complete. And he said is that so. And then, that was it. It was really intense and, sorta strange." Buttercup said, leaning back on her chair.

"No wonder he's been bugging you constantly." I said, examining Buttercup as she looked up at me curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"You've just made this the ultimate chase for him. Butch is not used to women saying no to him. So good luck shaking him off your leg anytime soon." I said, and she suddenly looked mortified. Maybe she realized I was right.

She shook her head. "Hey, I have a say in this too! Do you really think I would go for Butch?"

I shrugged my shoulders, picking up my glass. "I think you should."

"What?!"

"He is Sage's Dad, after all. And your counterpart. From having lived with you, and having lived with Butch too, I can say you're pretty alike."

"No we are not!" Buttercup cried, offended.

"You are." Bubbles added.

"Oh you can shut up Bubbles! Just because you're going off with Boomer, predictably! That doesn't mean I have to go off with Butch!" Buttercup snapped.

"It's not about being predictable Buttercup! It's about going with what you want." I said, giving her an irritated look for biting Bubbles' head off. Luckily she looked unperturbed.

"Well," Buttercup said, seemingly calmer. "I don't want a relationship from Butch. I wouldn't mind taking a look at that pert behind of his but that's about it."

We chuckled at her faraway look as she presumably thought about Butch's bottom. "I just wanna bite it." She muttered, eyes still in the distance.

I laughed as Buttercup smirked at us both. "It won't be long until you two are going at it. Butch knows what he's doing. And I think he quite likes you. Why else would he voluntarily move in with you?" I asked. Buttercup had came back to earth again and was giving me a aggravated look. "I mean think about it, he HATED us before they came back. HATED us. All of us. He's certainly changed his tune now."

"It's for Sage, not for me!" Buttercup cried.

"You wanna know what I think?" I said, to which Buttercup bluntly replied no, but I told her anyway. "I think he lived with you for a little while before you had Sage and he got to know you more and now he knows Sage is his son and he thinks you're all hot and stuff and he's learning to quite like you. I think he see's you as a kindred spirit. One of his own, weren't they his words?"

"This is why I don't tell you guys nothing." Buttercup mumbled, and we giggled at her.

"I saw Brick as a kindred spirit. It was one of the things that most attracted me to him, because although he wound me up all the time and got right on my nerves, we were so alike. But now? We're just fighting all the time. It sucks." I said, sitting back on my chair now and resting my hands on my large bump.

"You two really need to sit down and talk." Bubbles said, placing a hand over mine and my bump. "You're going to have another baby in like, 2 months. You can't be all, arguing then can you."

"No, you're right." I said, furrowing my brow as I thought of Brick. We really did need to straighten things out. He'd been off with me ever since Tim showed up at the door…

r&r :)