Threat Stopped

Most of the Winx are trying and failing to stop the Fire Eaters in the Ballroom, these things have skin thick as a dragon's hide! The Dragon Flame makes it easy to blast them to the ground, but they just keep coming back up for more - like Bloom when she's really mad, except they don't seem to need to heal themselves.

Stella says "Girls, I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Flora says "No kidding! I really wish Bloom was here!"

Like her wish was granted, one of the Fire Eaters suddenly has a sword sticking out of it from behind - and Bloom does a backwards somersault and lands on the ground.

The Winx all cheer, and Musa yells "You got your Bloomix!"

"Yeah, and guess what? Hey, Fire Eaters! Want a snack?" She holds up her hands, cupped together and filled with fire - and sure enough all the giant lion-things run to her. Before they can even get within a foot of her, she lets the magical explosion cupped between her hands go, destroying all of them. The Winx cheer, and then give Bloom five flying tackles and end up spinning around about ten times.

Flora says "Don't ever scare us like that again!"

Musa adds "Especially not when the Trix and Selina try to kill you again!"

Bloom smirks and says "No promises, but I'll try to keep the too-close-to-death-for-comfort situations down to a minimum."

They all start laughing at that, and and then another Fire Eater charges out from another hallway - looks like Diaspro wasn't totally lying when she said the Fire Eaters were all over the palace. They clear a path to the front doors, and the guests run out to safety - on Bloom's insistence.

Finally, when all the Fire Eaters are gone, Stella says "Now we can get on with the party!"

They all change back, except for Bloom. She bites her lip, and says "Actually…I'm good like this."

Stella stares at her for a minute, then practically screeches "Don't tell me you wrecked the dress in less than a day!"

Bloom says "I didn't, blame Diaspro! She's the one that threw me in a hole in the ground with a five-headed dragon inside!"

Stella groans and asks "How bad is the damage?"

Bloom chews on her bottom lip for a minute, then asks "You know how people on Earth say they 'totaled' a car when it's cheaper to get a new one than repair it?"

"No, tell me you didn't-"

"The dress is totaled, compliments of a magical five-headed dragon and the girl who decided it was a good idea to try and kill the Fairy of the Dragon Flame by throwing her in a pit of fire. Oh, speaking of which…" She teleports away, then comes back a minute later with Diaspro struggling in her chains and looking really pissed at Bloom - she's also gagged, she's got a band of fire magic going over her mouth.

Before anyone can react, Stella screams "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO GET BLOOM IN A DRESS?! MUCH LESS THE CHANCES OF IT SURVIVING THE NIGHT INTACT?!"

Bloom sputters a laugh, and says "Stell, if it's really that big of an issue…" she changes to her Harmonix outfit, making Duman snicker and barely hold back a whole fit of laughter, Roxy smirk and whisper "Same old Bloom." and Stella groan and say "Bloom, you really need to learn to like a dress. Or at least not destroy one every time you wear them."

"I don't ruin one every time I wear it, only when I nearly die, my heart gets broken, or other exciting circumstances." She turns to her Enchantix form in the midst of the rest of the Winx's laughter, then disappears in a cloud of orange sparkles.

Sky's phone buzzes a minute later, likely a text from Bloom telling him where she went.

Fifteen minutes later, Duman and Roxy are out on the balcony, and Roxy says "Life is never dull with Bloom around, is it?"

"No, there's that. Her life is never dull, Rox."

She grins, and then looks out at the courtyard - all of the guests ran off to their own planets after they escaped the palace, thanking the Winx and company profusely, but now there are two people out on the courtyard. Duman focuses, and realizes it's Bloom and Sky - apparently, Bloom teleported out here.

Roxy whispers "We should go inside."

"We can't hear them. Besides, I'm really curious as to how much damage that dress of hers actually took. We never saw. Never actually seen Bloom in a dress that wasn't a transformation, so…"

Roxy hits him on the shoulder playfully, and says "Stella says she stopped even tolerating most when she went to Pyros - maybe something to do with the Millennium Party, maybe something about Pyros, maybe a bit of both. Apparently that dress was burned to ashes. And it took two years to get her to wear another."

"Hence my curiosity. Bloom never struck me as the type to even look at a dress, much less wear one."

Roxy says "You have a point there. She also doesn't wear earrings, she only has the holes because of her Enchantix form. Or makeup, or even lip gloss."

Duman dryly says "We noticed that, she had a total lack of the stuff in Gardenia."

Roxy chuckles and says "Bloom told me that Stella got her twenty pounds of the stuff right before this whole mess with a sentient robot started, something about a party she was not missing. Along with shoes, accessories, and they finally went back to Earth at around dinnertime - and they left right after breakfast."

Now Duman simply has to laugh until his sides hurt, this would be why they never saw Bloom shopping for clothes even once. When he finally manages to stop laughing, he looks down and sees Bloom and Sky dancing - and then they just hug and start swaying together.

"Well, they look like the stereotypical 'perfect couple' down there. Why exactly was Bloom not dating him again?"

Roxy quietly says "She wanted him to be around. I'd think tonight is a good example of why she stopped dating him. Diaspro's just insane by now, I think. She keeps trying to kill Bloom, who knows when she'll decide to go down the 'if I can't have him, nobody can' road?"

"You mean when she gets her powers back and escapes the life sentence she got from Daphne and their parents? Because I seriously doubt Diaspro's going to get out of there any time soon."

"You should hear Bloom's story about what happened in Greenwich, it's the exact same thing but with Diaspro getting the Trix out of Lightrock Monastery. Powers taken away and all. Same with Tritannus and the three witches in Andros's underwater dungeon."

Duman sighs and says "These people really have good luck with getting out of places, don't they?"

Roxy says "Or Bloom has bad luck with her enemies staying in jail."

They suddenly hear the song 'You Belong With Me' playing - either Bloom's doing another illusion or she's got her phone out. They start dancing again, completely oblivious of their audience - or maybe not, as Bloom can sense heat signatures.

Thoren comes out maybe a minute later, looks out at the dancing couple, and mutters "Sky's either really brave or really, really clueless about Bloom."

Roxy and Duman share a look, and Roxy asks "About what?"

"Does she happen to have oh, I don't know, a split personality or something? Because while we were looking for Fire Eaters, she told me she'd feed me to something called the mountain dragon in pieces if I ever hurt Daphne."

Duman chuckles, and says "No, that's not a split personality. That's Bloom being rather attached to her family. I suggest not even arguing with Daphne, because after she was kidnapped by Tritannus Bloom got really twitchy about people hurting her."

Roxy says "Bloom's not as bad as she seems at first, you just have to get to know her outside of a battle."

Duman adds "Don't tick her off too badly, as she knows how to be extremely terrifying when she wants to be. Just saying."

Roxy suddenly asks "By the way, what was going on with you and Sky before?"

Thoren sighs and says "We were in school together on Eraklyon when we were younger. We were looking for animal tracks one day in the forest, and got ambushed. I was terrified, and then one of the bandits nearly took my head off and that was it. I ran in a random direction, got completely lost for six hours straight, and Sky's hated me ever since. 'Til today, when I helped fight off the Fire Eaters and protect Bloom. And I was about eight back then, so you know."

Roxy shrugs and says "Hey, I was just curious is all. Because it seemed like you two really didn't like each other."

They suddenly see a warm glow, and look down at the courtyard to see Bloom glowing bright orange - they're kissing now, big surprise there.

When it becomes apparent they've entirely forgotten the entire rest of the world, Thoren goes back inside talking to himself and Roxy and Duman quietly debate whether or not they should interrupt. Duman says it would probably be really funny, Roxy says Bloom would likely be really ticked off - the threat of an angry Bloom is what keeps him from calling out to the pair and completely ruining their moment.

AN: Yay, another chapter is up! Celebratory posting for my B-Day! And so everyone knows, Diaspro got herself a life sentence with this very public, and very failed, attempt on Bloom's life. All the other times were either on Pyros or not in the Magical Dimension - so, not common knowledge or even provable without raising a lot of questions. Questions such as why Bloom was on Pyros in the first place, which she really didn't want to bring up. Good luck with the Trix trying to get her out, if they even think about her again. She just disappeared in the middle of the fight with Daphne and never came back in the series, so it's not likely that she'd have gotten a warm welcome anyway. Oh, and if anyone is wondering, Bloom's dress is in tatters now. The five-headed dragon wasn't at all pleased to have a rider it was trying to eat, so just think a lot of tears and scorch marks from it's fiery attacks. When she said 'totaled' she really did mean 'totaled' like the car accident. Enjoy, more chapters in production! Can't wait for the next Avengers movie! Infinity War! Wonder just how mad I'm gonna make him that the Aether is gone...