~Buttercup~
She stared at Butch as he did laps innocently in the pool, finding it difficult to believe that he had no idea what was going on in hiscompany. Last night, Beatrice called a meeting in her house, and the two sisters discovered that she had begun to get her powers back. Bianca, at that moment, felt a little guilty for not revealing that she, too, had begun to get her powers back decided she would keep silent about her revelation. Besides, Belle hadn't said anything either, and Bianca didn't want Belle to feel she was the only one without her powers. So she kept silent.
Today's lesson had been rough—he had trouble getting into the water, and it was almost like starting all over again. She curled her tongue absentmindedly, happy to get her favourite 'power' back.
When the lesson was over, and the both of them got out of the pool, Bianca wrapped a towel around her chest and decided today was the day she would find out the reason for Butch's fear of water.
He had his white towel across his shoulders, and his normally spiked up hair was loose and shaggy.
"Why are you afraid of water?" she agreed it would be best to be simply blunt about it.
He didn't sound annoyed, but he didn't sound pleased, either, "What does it matter? I don't think there's a reason, anyway,"
"It has to stem from somewhere," she raised an eyebrow, "Don't you trust me at this point?" She felt cruel for pulling the trust card when in reality he had no place trusting her, but she desperately needed to know.
He sighed and seemed to contemplate his options, "How much do you know about me?"
"As much as you've told me," she answered simply.
"You've never read a tabloid?"
"Omigosh, yes, that's totally the kind of girl I am!" She said sarcastically, waving her hands up and down.
He rolled his eyes, "A simple no would have sufficed,"
"Quit being a baby and just tell me," Bianca said, crossing her arms.
"When I was little, I didn't know how to swim,"
"That's it?"
"No, let me finish,"
I didn't know how to swim, and water always looked frightening to me. In all honesty I never understood why we had to know how to swim, but it wasn't something I could fight, even though I tried. My brothers already knew how to swim, and my second father came up to me one day to ask why I still swam like a rock.
"Water's freaky," I had said. In all honesty, I was afraid of drowning. Water always held a certain aura of mystery that sparked a dark, heavy fear inside of me.
This brought a slow malicious smile to his face, that I didn't realize at the time, "Come with me, and I'll show you how to get over your fear," Naturally, I followed. I had no reason not to trust him, and Him was my dad, Him was supposed to help me, right?
Wrong. Him led me to his basement office—I was about seven, I think. I had already been there a couple of times, enough to know that each time it looked different. This time there was a small, circular tub in the middle, that seemed fairly shallow. It wasn't. It was about fifteen feet deep.
"Go ahead, jump in. I'll hold you, don't worry," Him told me. Naturally, I shrugged out of my shoes and socks and made my way to the tub, not looking to see how deep it really was. I only managed to stick my feet in, I was too frigid with fear. At that point Him put his arms underneath my shoulders, and began to lower me.
"Don't worry, I have you," So I let my guard down. It was at that point that Him dropped me in. I trashed up, desperately trying to remain above water, but my clothes weighed me down. By the time I figured I could fly out, Him placed both hands—claws, really—on my shoulders and pushed me down under.
I kicked, and screamed, but it was useless underwater.
"It will build your stamina," Him said to me, though his voice was muffled, "Remove all fear of death,"
I then realized Him knew the real reason for my fear, but I wasn't sure how. I stopped struggling—not because I realized it was futile, but because I could no longer hold my own against Him. I felt little black dots in my vision, and my throat felt constricted. It was sort of peaceful underwater, if a watery death is your kind of way to relax. There were times where I would breathe in, though I knew it was pointless, only to choke on what felt like a gallon of water.
After what felt like forever, Him lifted me out, and tossed me to the side carelessly. If I had my strength, I would have gone at Him with all I had. But I knew better.
"So, Butch," Him said, once I finished throwing up, "You've learned two lessons today,"
I dared to ask what they were.
"Never to disobey me, and that fighting against me is futile," Him smiled.
"Ever since then, I never got over my fear of water, or Him. I knew what Him was capable of, and that Him could bring back that kind of pain with the snap of a finger,"
Bianca wasn't entirely sure how to react. She could crack a joke to make the mood lighter, but somehow that didn't feel right. She could apologize for acting so abrasive and rude when she had no idea about his past, but that felt simply out of place.
She sighed, and was about to speak when she noticed a dark criss-cross on his back, something she hadn't noticed before. She recognized these scars. Scars bad enough that Chemical X won't heal them. Without asking, she gently placed her fingers on his scar, ignoring his flinch.
"Are these new?" she asked carefully, certain that she would have noticed them when they went to the beach together, or even when he was shirtless in his bed.
He nodded stiffly.
Her eyes widened as she realized when they might have happened, "I'm not supposed to talk to you,".
"This is my fault?" she asked, making sure not to reveal any kind of emotion.
He shrugged, "It's no big deal,"
She decided not to make a scene about it—that was really more Belle's thing.
"Why don't we go for hot chocolate?" she suggested, taking his hand.
He seemed to like the change of subject, "Is this Bianca asking me on a date?" he teased.
She rolled her eyes and punched him.
"Careful, people might think we're flirting," he said dramatically.
…
Bianca walked into work on Monday morning with a cheery attitude; last night she woke up from a nightmare and found she was floating in the air.
However, once she got to her place of work—Chez—she realized she would be dealing with something much worse today.
Eric had his hands around Katie protectively, as though he was an older brother. She was sobbing heavily. Immediately, Bianca thought the worse. She picked up her pace and ran to the front, fearing Madame DeFranc had been killed.
Thankfully, she was not. Instead, she was looking at her boarded up restaurant solemnly, and Bianca saw big red letters spelling out "EVICTED". A letter was in Madame's hands, but Bianca didn't need to read it to know who it was from.
Her initial reaction was shock—she simply could not believe that he betrayed her like this. Her next reaction was anger—Of course he betrayed me like this!—and she saw red. In fact, she literally saw red.
She took a few breaths to calm herself, but they didn't do much. She needed to leave the scene, immediately, lest she risks being seen.
The alley around the corner was dark and smelled like cold rain, but it was enough to calm her down slightly, enough so that she no longer saw red.
I can't believe he would do this…The ass!
To her dismay, her hands began to glow green once more, and she couldn't do much to control it.
"No—stop!"
"Buttercup," Bianca froze. The voice was familiar, and didn't in the least sound vengeful. But she couldn't believe her suspicions.
A simple 180 degree turn proved her correct—it was Madame DeFranc.
"It's not what this looks like!" Bianca said, grateful that at her words, her hands stopped glowing green.
Madame DeFranc smiled softly, coming beside Bianca and sitting down, gesturing to Bianca to join her. She did so reluctantly.
"Isn't it though? Don't worry—I 'ave known for a while,"
"How long is a while?" Bianca asked, carefully.
Madame DeFranc paused for a moment, and Bianca realized just how much of a mother Madame has always been to her.
Her hair was a warm, honey brown, and her eyes were a soft moss green. They even had the same face shape—she could easily be mistaken for Bianca's mother, if Madame had had her young. Madame couldn't be any more than thirty five.
"Always, I suppose,"
Bianca noticed something was off about the way she was speaking—, "You're not even French, are you?"
She shrugged lightly, "British, actually. A Londoner to be specific,"
"Is Madame DeFranc your real name?" She had to ask.
"Yes, and no. It is not my given name. I was born Beth Jones, but my husband was a part of the DeFranc family,"
"Where is Monsieur DeFranc, anyways?"
This seemed to upset Madame—or, Beth, "We married three days before the greatest fall in history," She was referring to the death of the PowerPuff Girls, "he was everything I ever wanted in a man—charming, funny, treated me right. He even became a leader of the Rebellion in England," her eyes had a dreamy look to them, and she pulled her shoulder length hair back into a small bun, as if getting ready to cook.
"But he was no superhero. They eliminated him in seconds. I couldn't stay—they were coming for me next, I knew it. They had no idea what I looked like, merely my name. In retrospect, choosing TownsVille as my hideout was probably not wise—but as I'm sure you know, they hardly stayed in TownsVille,"
Bianca knew—the RowdyRuffs came back here just about three years ago.
"I lead the TownsVille Rebellion, and when I first saw you, I knew it was you. I felt resentment towards you, at first. I thought, 'If she's alive, why isn't she doing something?' It took me awhile to put together you no longer had your powers," she paused again, "It took me even longer to realize you had separated yourself from your sisters. When I saw Bubbles—or is she going by Belle, now?" she shook her head as though to signify it didn't matter, "I had to do my best to bring you to her,"
Bianca, at that moment, realized just how much of a mother Beth had been to her, and just how little she knew about her, even after work for her for nearly eight years.
"I'm going to die, soon, Buttercup,"
Her eyes widened. She would not have another parenting figure die on her, "Why do you say that?"
"I couldn't hide forever," she said it matter-of-factly, "I trust that you and your sisters will free our world,"
"Maybe you're putting a little too much trust,"
"Do you know why you are called Buttercup?"
She rolled her eyes at the memory, "Because it also starts with a 'B',"
Beth laughed, "Maybe at first. Buttercups are poisonous flowers. Eating them causes blistering in the mouth, yet they are a gorgeous yellow,"
She wasn't exactly sure what Beth meant by that.
"You'll know what I mean when the time comes. Until then, I'll continue to watch over you, and I'll continue to keep your secret. Simply because I know that when the time comes, you won't fail to save the day,"
Author's Note: WHY BUTCH IS AFRAID OF WATER! I thought the title of this chapter was appropriate.
Golly gee :3! I hoped you guys liked it. It was pretty long and if you find any errors and anything that doesn't make sense, I apologize in advance. I'm gonna upload a lot this week because I'm going away on August 12th. Thoughts on this chapter? Thoughts in general? I'm glad you liked my Q&A, I will definitely continue writing and then pop in a different Q&A, so long as you guys ask dem Q's. Put them in reviews or PM me :)! You're all so kind, by the way, telling me I could be an author! I hope that's genuine :P! I love writing but I usually have the middle, the problem, the characters, the setting planned but not the beginning (sometimes I have it) and not the end, or the solution.
Dramamamapwnsall- I'm so glad you posted that! I won't correct you or the opposite of that (approve? Okay?) but I loved hearing your opinion! That was exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to hear :)!
heemer- You're totally right! I can't believe I forgot about her tongue curling! It's in this chappie though :)
Powerpuffloverchick- I hope this one is slightly long enough :). Yeah, I know I could do that, but it makes it feel busy. PLUS I LOVE CLIFFHANGERS :D Gah I know, I think I'll be pretty upset when I finish this.
A Fan- Well I'm certainly 'A Fan' of your review! Long and juicyy :) I know. It might be because I thought of this after watching the back-up plan, but she does have a point. He's really doing nothing to stop Him. And about the fan art, it's still happening, just a few technical difficulties :). And about the pairings-my thoughts exactly! Sometimes the romance is a bit rushed. I love hearing what you like and I would totally reply to every thought you had, but that would be a really long reply, wouldn't it? I hope you keep reviewing your long reviews! (Does that make sense?)
