It was 10pm on a Friday night and Buttercup was already crawling underneath her covers. From their respective beds across the room, her sisters exchanged glances.

"You're turning in early," Blossom said.

"It's ten? That's not early."

"Early for you," Bubbles pointed out, floating over to feel Buttercup's forehead. "It doesn't feel like you have a fever."

Buttercup swatted her hand away. "Blossom, you harp on me all weekend for staying up so late, and now that I'm going to bed at the same time as you two, it's a problem?"

"Not a problem, just suspicious. You didn't want to go out and celebrate with your team tonight, either."

" Suspicious ? God-"

" Nevermind ," Bubbles said loudly. "I bet you're just tired after your big game. You kicked the other team's butt!"

"Exactly. Thank you, Bubbles."

Blossom huffed as Bubbles floated back to her own bed. "You did play very well, though I would have enjoyed the game more if Butch hadn't behaved like such a pig the entire time. The things he said about you-!"

"Sometimes I can't believe he's related to Boomer," Bubbles agreed.

Buttercup snorted. "I've learned to tune him out while I play, but I can imagine he had some colorful things to say."

"Colorful is one word for it," Blossom murmured. "He's lucky the Professor had to work late."

Buttercup imagined the Professor strangling Butch with his own two hands and cracked a smile. "Yeah. Lucky him."

Goodnights were exchanged after that, but silence fell after Bubbles flipped the light switch darkness engulfed their bedroom. Moonlight streamed through their windows, illuminating her sisters. Buttercup glanced at her phone's lock screen: 10:09 .

She rolled over, her back towards the windows and her sisters. Unlike Bubbles, she had always thought there was something comforting about the dark, the way it hid her from the rest of the world; even from her own family, sometimes. She liked that she could lower her guard and think about stupid teenage girl things and no one would be any wiser.

She peeked at her lock screen again: 10:11 .

Buttercup sighed quietly, laid her phone face down, and closed her eyes.

The next time she glanced at her lock screen, it was 11:30. Buttercup stared at the numbers for a minute, chewing the inside of her cheek. She looked over her shoulder at her sisters, sound asleep. She could hear the Professor snoring softly in his own bedroom. None the wiser.

She rolled out of bed slowly so that her mattress wouldn't creek, snatched her hoodie off the back of a chair and pulled it over her head, and floated towards the windows. Two of them were sealed shut, but one of them - the closest to her bed - was open just a smidge. She lifted it slowly, squeezed through, and lowered it again.

Now she was floating right outside of her bedroom and she could still see her sisters in their beds. Blossom's back was towards her, but Bubbles clutched Octie close to her chest. Buttercup peered at her own bed, her green blankie and her alligator friend waiting patiently for her to return to them. She felt sorta guilty for leaving them behind, then felt silly for the thought, and then was grateful for the darkness again.

I won't be long, she told herself.

She turned around and took to the sky.

As much as Buttercup loved shooting across the night sky like a comet, she tried to stay low. It wasn't unusual to see three colorful streaks careening across the stars, but a lone green streak might raise some questions. Now that puberty had done its job perhaps a little too well and graduation loomed on the horizon, gossip mags were becoming more and more persistent.

Bubbles had had several boyfriends and Blossom had been photographed with a boy once or twice, and although it was regular teenage girl junk, unfortunately, they weren't regular teenage girls. Buttercup had little sympathy for her sisters, and in turn Bubbles whined that she would face the same treatment once she actually liked a guy. Privately, Buttercup thought she could give her sisters a few tricks to get past the paparazzi and their cameras.

She touched ground on the beach. Sand immediately got in between her toes and reminded her that she'd forgotten to lace on a pair of sneakers, but there wasn't time to go back for them now.

Or maybe there is, Buttercup thought, as she scanned deserted the shore. And he told me not to be late! Now she had half a mind to fly home and pretend like she hadn't spent hours thinking about him; if she was going to sneak out of her home and meet up with him on some dirty beach in the dead of night; risking her reputation and her family's disappointment and-

Too caught up in her own indignation, Buttercup yelped when her legs were swept from beneath her and she was sent falling on her back towards the sand.

Butch wrapped his arms around her waist at the last second, smirking triumphantly. " Dude . You should be so embarrassed right now, I can't believe that worked!"

Buttercup tried to push him away. "Dickweed, you're late."

"Got here before you, actually. Damn, I had a line, hold on!" Butch schooled his expression, then smiled and said, "Hey. Come here often?"

She couldn't help but laugh. " That's your line? You should be embarrassed!"

"Well, I do have a follow-up."

Butch pulled her closer to his chest until their lips were only an inch apart, and then he kissed her. Every fiber in Buttercup's being screamed at her to shove him away, so she kissed him back harder.

Bubbles and Blossom can figure out how to hide from the paparazzi themselves. She had more pressing matters to take care of.

"Congrats, by the way. You crushed your own three-point record tonight."

"Did I? I hadn't noticed."

Buttercup nuzzled Butch's neck as he continued to lace his fingers through her hair. He was probably threading sand into her scalp, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Really? Because I saw Mitch push through the crowd to congratulate you."

"Who's Mitch?"

She felt Butch smirk against her forehead. "That's my girl."

He's so weird. Buttercup wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean but his fingers pulled at a strand of her hair and she closed her eyes, the question slipping from her mind.

"You sure you're okay with not jetting off to Fiji? The waves are probably killer."

Butch seemed content to just lay on their backs in the sand, so Buttercup said, "Nah, I'm fine. This is nice, too."

"Yeah. I guess it is."

Buttercup shifted to lay her head on his chest. His heart - the one she thought was rotten up until a few months ago - thumped along. She closed her eyes and allowed a small smile. This is nice, too.

The blissful moment came to an abrupt end when Butch pried her arms off of him and dumped her in the salty ocean. She emerged a moment later, sputtering, Butch hovering overhead and cackling.

" Race ya to Fiji !" He called, then blasted off, leaving behind his signature streak and his fuming girlfriend.

Buttercup jumped out of the water and immediately launched herself after him, determined to win the race and then strangle him with his own intestines. Despite his head start she caught up to him, and threw a punch to his gut. Butch dodged her punch and cackled again.

She ducked underneath him, sped up, and glazed his jaw. Butch veered to the left and hollered, "Gotta do better than that!"

Despite her ebbing anger, a grin snaked across Buttercup's face. Such a dick, she thought, veering to follow him, leaving a neon green trail behind her. Flying over the ocean, the salty breeze was cool but she spread her arms anyway. She drifted lower to the ocean and skimmed the surface with her fingers.

And then she shot up, up, up to the stars. Here, blazing across the Pacific, she had to laugh, caught up in the sensation of unbridled freedom. Nobody would see her shooting acoss the midnight sky like a comet or see her with Butch. For a second, she almost wished they could.

She won the race, of course. Her sisters couldn't beat her, and neither could a Rowdyruff.

Butch touched down a minute after her. "Dyke, you cheated!"

Buttercup's mouth dropped open. " Me ? You yeeted me into the ocean!"

"You kept nuzzling my chest, I thought you were thirsty!"

Buttercup punched him in the gut. This time it collided. Butch keeled over and wheezed, torn between pain and sadistic amusement. "'Kay, I probably deserved that one."

"You think?" Buttercup straightened and took in their surroundings for the first time. They were on another beach, but Townsville Beach was a far cry from the islands of Fiji. Even with the moon as their only source of light, the water was clearer, bluer. The shore was free of discarded garbage.

She looked to the sky, and wow, even the stars were something special.

Butch walked up behind her and placed a hand tentatively on her waist, before going in for the kill and snaking his arms around her middle. Buttercup leaned against his chest, strong and solid. Encouraged, he ducked his head to kiss her neck, and wow, he was something special.

"Pretty," Butch murmured against her skin.

"There's less garbage clouding the sky here than in Townsville."

"I wasn't talking about the stars."

She knew what he meant, of course, but hearing it out loud pulled a smile from her. She never imagined that Butch had a romantic bone in his body, but as they stargazed together in Fiji, his lips on her collarbone, she admitted that he was full of surprises.

And then, just like when Butch yeeted her into the Townsville ocean, he pulled her down into the white sand, but this time the magic wasn't broken. She fell on top of him in a pile of limbs and laughter. He called her some name and licked her hand, she gagged and shoved him, they pushed and pulled and wrestled in the sand, and this was more Buttercup's style than stargazing anyway.

Then Butch took her face in his hands and he kissed her, really kissed her, telling her how he felt in the only way he knew how to. Buttercup felt like she was flying across the Pacific again; pure, unbridled. A shudder shot down her spine as heat pooled in her stomach.

Buttercup stifled a moan when he pulled away from her, only to press their foreheads together a second later. Green eyes so dark that they rivaled the oceans at midnight bore into her own. "You ever had sex on the beach?" Butch asked.

Buttercup snorted. "Not twenty-one yet, am I?"

"I wasn't talking about alcohol."

A few different witty remarks came to mind but Butch picked up persuading where he'd left off, and not for the first time, Buttercup had to wonder if his superpower was also in his tongue.

No, she'd never had sex on the beach before, but as Butch slipped a hand past the waistband of her shorts, she had a feeling that was about to change.

Buttercup gasped, " Butch ." And then her eyes shot open and she was back in her darkened room, moonlight streaming through the windows.

For a moment Buttercup could only stare at nothing in particular, as the gears in her brain short wired. I was- when did I fly home? Is Butch still at the beach?

And then, a horrifying thought occurred to Buttercup: she despised Butch.

She kicked her blankets onto the floor and stared at her feet; no sand in between her toes. She ran her fingers through her hair and that was smooth too. Just like how she crawled beneath her sheets.

But now her body was on fire, despite the fact that the Professor kept the house cold. She could almost feel his lips still ghosting across her jawline, her collarbone, further and lower -

Buttercup slapped a hand over her mouth as acid bubbled threateningly in her stomach, churning as realization hit her like a mac truck.

It was a dream. Just a dream.

Just a hot, wet dream about the boy she hated more than anyone else, her childhood arch-rival, and wow, the way his body moved against hers like they were literally made for each other-

Oh, fu-

lol please don't hate me.

SBJ finally updated More Than Human (on Ao3), which means the Greens live rent-free in my head 24/7 again. The title comes directly from the song, I'm Not Alright by Bryce Vine, which inspired this ol' thing.

This was intended to be a one-shot but, if the interest was there, I could possibly turn it into a short-fic or a two-shot? I also have plans for a color-coded Beach AU that may or may not see the light of day, depending on writers' block. But regardless of any of that, I hope you enjoyed this!