A/N-

Welcome! This is my first fanfic ever and I'm really excited to share it. A quick note there are going to be mentions of abuse and scenes regarding abuse. I just wanted to say that as a quick warning for anyone who might get triggered. If it goes the way I planned, it should be fairly long fanfic and this story is very red-centric but I will have some chapters focusing on siblings and side characters too. Hope you enjoy!

P.S This story will be on AO3 as well, my profile name is Namaka_Okahai, you can find me on instagram with the same name! I plan on posting fanart in the future so check that out too!

Chapter 1

~Brick~

Brick was desperate, pleading for Ms. Bellum to let his brothers off with a warning. He had been so stupid, he knew they were idiots but he had only asked for one thing. Would it have been so hard for dumb and dumber to wait patiently while he worked his shift at the auto-repair shop? He should have known things were going a little too well for him today, he should have remembered that Buttercup had track meetings on Friday. Her extreme anger issues are only exemplified by any interaction with her former 'arch-enemy'. They had grown tired of the stupid rivalry long ago, with Brick realizing that he needed to save his brothers from themselves and how they were all raised together. They hadn't truly been enemies with the powerpuff girls since the 5th grade. However, Butch and Buttercup still had the angry tension between a villain and a hero. He knew that she could barely refrain from starting a fight with Butch on the best of days, and he wished that he knew that she was going to lose a race that day. If he had known, he would have dragged Boomer and Butch's asses inside with him, or called out sick.

Now he felt like he was going to be sick as his eyes scanned all the damage the idiots had caused. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he struggled to come up with an excuse or any way to placate the fuming Ms. Bellum who had taken up the mantle of scolding him on behalf of the mayor who was preoccupied with some pickles.

"Mr. Jojo, you know that there are going to have to be serious repercussions for this."

Oh he knew that there were going to be repercussions and he knew that the ones waiting for all three brothers at home would be ones of the physical variety.

"Please." he said quietly, not noticing the brief look of shock on her face. "I mean it this time, i'll keep 'em on a tighter leash… we can help fix the damage."

She sighed rubbing her temples, in an attempt to prevent what he was sure was an oncoming headache.

"I'm sorry, ," She placed an arm on his shoulder, in an attempt to comfort him, it instead only made him feel like a stupid child. She continued, "There are certain protocols for this and this is more damage than usual, not even I could cover it up."

He nodded knowingly, he had been a fool to try but he owed his brothers that at least. He peered outside the large window that overlooked the entrance of City Hall. Boomer sat on the stairs, while Butch paced back and forth. As if they could sense Brick watching them, they both looked up towards the window he stood in front of. He caught his brothers' hopeful eyes and he shook his head feeling like he had been stabbed. Their reactions were very different, but he recognized the stiff aloofness Butch had forced upon himself, Boomer's hyperventilating turned into sobs, each shake of his shoulders wrenched the metaphorical knife further into him.

He turned to Ms. Bellum, "Can I ask you for a favor?"

She lifted an eyebrow encouraging him to continue silently. "When you inform our legal guardians of the events that transpired today, I would like to request that the blame for this particular incident be placed on me. Officially, in the report it can be him but when you inform of this event, I started and was at fault for it."

She seemed to be taken a back whether due to his suddenly very professional voice, a bonafide Brick trademarked defensive mechanism, or his selflessness he didn't know. She looked at him oddly but nevertheless nodded silently. He could feel her gaze on him as he stalked out of the mayor's office meeting with his brothers down below. Each step he took down the stairs was painful, knowing that with each step he was closer and closer to the inevitable.

Butch quickly rushed towards him, "Boss, l wasn't- i didn't- it wasn't supposed to-" He raised a hand silently, giving his brother a harsh but slightly sympathetic look. It never was supposed to, but at this point it was too late.

He glanced over at Boomer whose breathing pattern was still slightly off but the only remnants of his brother's brief breakdown were the red eyes. Brick began to walk towards his car, both brothers wordlessly following behind him.

He drove slow, he was in no rush to get home. Unfortunately, the temporary safe haven in the car would have to end as he pulled into the driveway of their home. He removed the key from the ignition and the car stilled, no one made any attempts to leave.

Brick turned to both his brothers who were putting on brave faces, that might've worked on others but would never on him.

"Listen to me, no matter what happens or what he does, you had nothing to do with it." Both brother's eyes widened and opened their mouths beginning to protest. He gave them a harsh glare which made both their mouths slam shut.

"This is a direct order, got it? If anyone pulls any hero bullshit, no one will be able to recognize you when I'm through with you." No response was given but he saw worry flicker through their eyes.

"Do you understand me?" He said, he didn't need to yell, his tone of voice was enough to get his brothers on the same page.

Both brothers nodded silently, Brick inhaled a shaky breath, the only indication that he was anything but calm.

"Alright," he said exiting the car and slamming the door behind him, "Let's get this shitshow over with."

-O-O-O-O-O-

The whispers of people followed Brick today, there were always remarks or comments and usually he wouldn't give shit but after what he went through this weekend he was a little on edge. He opened his locker, grabbing his necessary textbooks. If he was lucky he could get through some of the homework that he wasn't able to do.

"Jesus… what the hell happened to him?"

He stiffened trying to ignore the fact that these comments and 'whispers', which weren't whispers at all, what were they whispering through a bullhorn?

"Heard he got into a fight that went bad."

"You think he'd lose? The guy is a fucking psycho."

"I heard that this was his initiation into the Gangreen gang."

"Whatever it was, the guy looks like shit."

He knew that the bruises and cuts that were visible looked almost as painful as they were. He hadn't realized he looked that bad though, he hoped that his reputation as a former villain was enough to prevent people from looking into his home life. The last thing he needed was more punishment because some teacher with a hero complex wanted to stick their nose in something they couldn't comprehend. He slammed his locker shut, startling the bumbling idiots with microphones in their vocal chords. He gave them a look that was enough to make them avert their gaze and fiddle with the locks on their own lockers.

Brick didn't have many friends for reasons he considered glaringly obvious, seeing as a majority of the school population were vapid excuses of people but even he had somehow managed to have a best friend. He was supposed to be meeting him now, and he walked briskly to their usual table, Mike was incredibly impatient and he couldn't handle the whining on top of his pounding headache.

Upon entering their dining hall, he saw Mike talking to a group of people, he recognized as some of Mike's fellow members of the student council. Mike had come out his shell in high school and had become one of the most outgoing people in the school. He was a part of nearly every club and was president of their class. He had sort of " adopted" Brick into his life, but even he had gotten Mike to admit that it was more like forcibly getting to know him whether Brick had liked it or not. Brick's lack of friends was clearly shown as he only knew one other person's name in that group besides Mike and he only knew it because he had fought her for a majority of his life. Her pink eyes narrowed in response to something Mike said as she animatedly waved her hands while she talked, her disagreement clear. He gave her a short response, her irritation was obvious as she angrily opened her mouth about to give him a piece of her mind when she happened to look up Brick's eyes met her evenly as she approached. Concern was in her eyes, but he met her gaze challengingly, daring her to say something. Her mouth snapped shut, much to Mike's surprise, he and the rest of the group turned to see what had caught her so off guard.

He wished he had gotten a picture, everyone's face was priceless. He knew that the large bruise along his cheekbone and black eye wasn't pretty and the series of cuts along his face and stretching down to his neck had made even himself grimace in the mirror. Some cuts had been so deep that they hadn't even begun to scab over, they had remained as red and raw as his brother's eyes were as they had been forced to watch. He could see a hint of disgust in their faces as they took his injuries in but he mostly saw fear. They knew what he was like, he took shit from no one and almost never lost a fight, the only losing battles had been thanks to the puffs. He didn't consider himself a violent person, but everyone knew that Brick wasn't the type of person to lie down and take it. He could hear their unasked question, If he looked like that, what happened to the other guy and was he still alive?"

The room cleared rather quickly when he reached Mike's side. He could hear their muttering as they left, avoiding his gaze. He was surprised to see that Blossom hadn't left, but stared at him wordlessly along with a similarly mute Mike.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Brick's attempts at humor failed as the quiet stretched into an awkward silence. Jesus, tough crowd. He placed his backpack on the table providing much needed relief from the straps digging into fresh wounds hidden by his sweater.

Mike broke the silence first with an angry mutter, "Who did this?"

Brick gave him a look that said 'drop it' . Blossom's pink eyes narrowed, and she looked like she wanted to say something but thought better of it. It was quiet again and Brick was extremely thankful for the bell.

Mike leaned over and whispered in his ear, "We'll talk about this at lunch."

He slipped his backpack on, quietly hissing as he did so, something Blossom clearly noticed as she frowned. He walked a couple steps towards the door and against his better judgment, paused, turned to look at her and said "C'mon, we only have 5 miutes to get there."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Relax, we have the same class anyway," his comment shook her out of her confusion as she picked up her stuff and hesitantly walked by his side to class.

The day droned on until finally there was only one class left until lunch.

This english class was incredibly boring as the teacher monotonously went on and on. He longed for his math class where there was always a clear answer and none of this objectivity bullshit. He allowed himself a quick glance at his neighbor, who uncharacteristically took the closest seat to him as possible. Blossom seemed to be lost in thought, her cerise eyes slightly glazed over as she tapped her pen absentmindedly against her desk. He turned away, and tried to think about why the hell she was acting so weird. He decided to make better use of his time, he sketched two Koi fish forming an almost 'yin-yang' symbol on a loose sheet of paper he had. A client at the auto repair shop has offered a pretty penny for a custom hood ornament. His ability to 'sculpt' with metal because of his fire resistant hands made customers very interested in things he could make. He thought about the specifics of what it looked like, when he was interrupted by the bell ringing. He scowled but didn't want to lose the train of thought, so he continued to jot down specifics of it. The man wanted it to be made out of two different types of metal. He growled in frustration, realizing the challenge metals with two different melting points would pose. Maybe he would make a suggestion for another metal that was more similar. He felt something brush past his ear and nearly flung himself back when he turned and found Blossom's face an inch away from his face.

"Do you-," he cleared his throat, "-need something?" His face turned slightly red from the close proximity.

She seemingly snapped out of whatever trance she was in, as her face turned bright red and she stepped back very quickly stumbling into a desk behind her and promptly knocked it over. This only made her turn more red as she fumbled around and tried to fix the desk she knocked over.

A snort escaped him as he watched her frenzied antics, and she turned to look at him over her shoulder and glared at him. The glare was uneffective seeing as her face matched her eyes. He held up his hands in mock surrender,which seemingly placated her as she continued straightening the desk. He rose from his desk after putting all of his materials away and was going to make a beeline from the door but paused, she clearly wanted to talk to sat back down and for the second time today, he waited for her.

Seemingly satisfied with her work she stepped back and observed the desk, her hand on her hip. She turned to him, a triumphant look on her face. He couldn't help the small laugh that escaped his lips leaving him with a smile on his face, she looked so cute. He froze, punching himself mentally, cute? Oh hell no. Definitely not, he barely tolerated her, someone so frustrating could never be cute. Brick wrestled with his inner thoughts but was interrupted by her voice.

"You should do that more often."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Laugh," she said and then in a lower voice somewhat sheepishly, "you have a nice smile."

His face tinged pink as he awkwardly mumbled a thanks. God, this was so awkward. Brick had to get out of here before he embarrassed himself. She walked towards him and bent down to his chair level, before he could say anything, her soft cool hands cupped his face. His face matched the levels of red she reached earlier and he couldn't help but notice, the tint of pink still on her cheeks among her freckles.

"Oh, my firefly…" She said his nickname softly. His heart jolted. It has been a long time since she had called him that. She continued her voice low, concerned and something else he couldn't distinguish in her voice, "Who did this to you?"

He stiffened and averted his gaze. They remained silent as her thumb began caressing his face, moving across his face, and somehow her touch was more gentle as she passed a large bruise on her cheekbone. He placed his hand over hers, the stark contrast in temperature evident as her cold hand was 'sandwiched' between his face and calloused hand. He held her hand there and closed his eyes.

He felt her cool forehead press against his as she whispered , "I'm sorry you can't tell me."

"I'm sorry too, my snowflake," His voice low. He opened his eyes briefly but saw her eyes were closed, a single tear down her face.

Saying her nickname reminded him of a time when they were young and close. He thought they could be friends. They spent hours coming up with nicknames, and these had stuck. He wondered what they would be like if he stayed as innocent and naive as he was then. When he and the boys were punished for the first time, he shut everyone out, Brick didn't think she ever forgave him for that. Brick was the only one at fault for the bad blood between them.

His other hand went up to her face, and wiped the tear with the pad of his thumb before closing his own eyes and leaving his hand there. She leaned into his warm hand and they both stayed like that until the end of lunch, both ignoring texts from siblings and friends. When the bell rang they separated before anyone could see them, but Brick couldn't help the pang of sadness when her hand left his face.