author's note: It's the Valentine's Day Chapter! The song rec this time is Take It Home by Alina Baraz!
(And while I'm at it, if you're actually looking up these songs, I highly recommend just listening to Alina Baraz's whole 'It Was Divine' album- it's such a banger if you like R&B and Soul or Lo-Fi style music!)
Sunday, Feb. 14
Valentine's Day.
Though completely and utterly single, Bubbles was in extremely high spirits.
Despite waking up at six in the morning.
On a Sunday.
To her, Valentine's Day was a very special day that was a celebration of all forms of love, not just the romantic kind. Love, in its purest form, in all forms. The love she held for her sisters and her father felt just as important to celebrate, in her mind, or the love she held for her dearest friends, like the Ruffs, Mike and Robin, which also felt just as important to celebrate as any romantic love did. She found that those who focused on romance on this day tended to be the most blinded by their lack of a partner instead of seeing the other love they have in spades around them.
The blonde had her hair up in a tight, high bun, solely there for its function and not appearances. She'd been baking since late, late Friday night, after everyone had finally left her apartment, when she'd learned the hard way that Coffee would, without hesitation, attack her ponytail if she left it down like it was a feather toy. She didn't have much time, so the tightest bun in the universe was what she settled on, hoping her new kit didn't use her as a scratching post to climb and get his 'toy'.
A little meow almost distracted her- but she didn't turn to the kitten.
Coffee was being a little fussybutt, and she was trying to finish her task at a decent time.
He wanted to see Candy and Butch and was whining 'sister' over and over with those soft, pitiful little meows. He'd been doing so since Butch had taken Candy home with him Friday and while Bubbles had managed to keep him mostly placated and happy with her attention instead, he whined the most during moments like these where she couldn't spare him a glance.
The blonde was in the middle of frosting the last few sugar cookies she'd made.
Then, like the little fussybutt he was being, Coffee put both front paws in the green icing on the heart shaped cookie she'd been working on.
She sighed.
"Coffee, baby, if I promise to take you to see them, will you please go lay down?"
The kitten mewled, confusion pinching his tiny face. He still didn't fully grasp human language— go, see, and lay down were the only words Bubbles had managed to teach him thus far. Her omniligual powers helped with that tremendously, but even those powers can only go so far with a kitten so young. Bubbles sighed, retreating to her room to pluck a long, blue-and-white checkered scarf from the top drawer of her dresser. She wrapped it up like a baby sling around her—almost like the sash from a toga in the diagonal direction down her torso—and shoved Coffee in there after carefully cleaning his paws of any excess icing.
He loved it there because that's where and how she bottle fed him.
According to Doctor Iyasu they still had to be bottle fed, but slowly weaned over time—with no mother to nurture and care for them it would be best, he had said, to ease them into solid food sooner rather than later. The first few times Bubbles had been forced to swaddle Coffee because the little kitten had batted, scratched and clawed at the bottle in a feeble attempt at play instead of actually trying to eat. After the fourth time he had grown used to being held while eating, and tended to curl up against the blonde as much as he possibly could.
Right now, he went content and silent (save for his rumbly tiny little purrs) when she put him in.
Her eyes went back to the cookies and chocolates.
She had her usual gang to bake for, and had already finished a good portion of them. She'd purchased matching mugs and plates for everyone save her father—all color coded, because duh. Each of them were primarily a color that she related to them, with the addition of white, polka dotted hearts. She knew her sisters would use the pink and lime ones (even if Buttercup would never admit to it, she absolutely would). Robin would use the purple one, Mike would totally use the silver one, and Boomer the one in dark blue.
Brick, she wasn't too sure on…
Butch she hoped was like Buttercup and just didn't show when he'd use them.
Or, maybe they'd simply collect dust in their cabinets.
Oh well—it was far too late to worry about that at the moment. Blossom's was the first done and had a dozen gingersnap cookies on her plate, with the mug in the center filled with little heart shaped chocolates that had been flavored with a little strawberry flavor and dyed pink. Each plate was similar, each mug filled with appropriately colored (and flavored) chocolates. Instead of one type of cookie across the board, each gift carried the intended's favorite. Buttercup had snickerdoodles, Robin had peanut butter, Mike had oatmeal raisin, Brick had double chocolate chip, Boomer had white chocolate macadamia nut, and Butch had lemon crinkle.
She'd foregone the tableware for her father in favor of baking his favorite cake—double chocolate coffee. He was a simple man and loved spending time with them more than anything else. Well, that and she couldn't find any cute Love You, Dad mugs. That also played a large part in her decision. She did, however, make some white chocolate icing and painstakingly wrote out 'I love you, Dad!' across the top, decorated further with little white icing hearts, but little else.
The last thing she had to do was finish up the icing on these sugar cookies, put them around their respective mugs, and wrap them in her pale blue cling wrap.
Meow.
Bubbles sighed again, her eyes glancing down at the little black cat. Then, she looked back up at his little signature left behind as two paw prints in the green icing on the cookie. It was originally meant to be put on Buttercup's plate… But…
"…I hope Butch doesn't mind."
It only made sense that the cookie signed by her kitten go to the man who gave said kitten to her.
The blonde went back to her hunched over position, her knife dipping back into the green icing to complete the task she'd originally set out on. The only ones she had to do after the greens were Boomer's blue ones. She bit her inner cheek and briefly wondered if anyone had plans- or if they'd, once again, all end up in the same place watching comedy specials and vegging out.
She wondered, if that did end up happening, if it would be at Boomer's again or not.
It ended up taking another half hour for her to finish up her work on the cookies.
Coffee kept meowing every so often, but much less frequently than before he was put in the Timeout Scarf.
Once all of the plates were properly decorated with cookies surrounding the mugs on the plates like daffodils and wrapped up, next to her father's well-decorated cake in its carrier, the blonde took a step back to admire her work.
...And to start trying to map out her plan.
Bubbles knew there was no way she'd feasibly get everyone's taken care of all at once. She had no vehicle and no matter how many abilities she had, warping space and time was not likely to ever become one of them. Blossom and Robin were both easy to take care of at the same time- they lived in the same building on the north side of Townsville. Buttercup and Brick lived in the same building, as well- their building closer to the east side. Her father lived closer to central Townsville, as did Mike, but still along the south side…
Boomer lived on the west side of Townsville, not too far from Butch's shop.
"…Four trips. I can do this. I can get home before dinner and eat at a reasonable hour."
She could.
...Right?
Tired from just how much time she'd spent talking, flying, walking and just expending most of her energy, Bubbles almost didn't want to finish up her job. Brick wasn't home when she swung by- but she knew where his spare key was. So, she'd snuck in and left it on his coffee table, with a little note next to it that simply read Love you, Brother! Happy Valentine's Day! - Bubbles.
Nothing too special.
Boomer kept her for a while, though, and the two attempted to out-talk each other.
The blonde carefully balanced the final gift plate on her open palm like a waitress, dropping down to the ground. With grace she didn't know she had, Bubbles was able to land without the contents of the plate shifting at all. The rocks of the gravel cracked under her feet, the golden glow from the lights within the mechanic's shop casting deep shadows against the almost barren city block. The tattoo parlor next to Butch's shop was already closed for the day, and the bakery next to it had been permanently closed for longer than she could remember.
A soft, tired mewl came from the kitten she carried in her purse, bringing her back to the present. Coffee was fairly content, so long as his head and front paws were out so he could look around- and to occasionally bat at the green collar she'd gotten him. It matched his eyes. He didn't tag along with all of her deliveries- but she had picked him up for this one. He didn't seem to mind the cold air too much right now- but she knew better than to let him just hang out for too long in the cold like this.
"We're going to see them, baby," she cooed and started towards the open garage doors. "Butch? Are you out here?"
"In the office, Sweetcheeks! "
She smiled and entered the mechanic's garage, took a left and entered the room towards the back of a hallway that was lined with wrenches and power drill extensions along the walls. Not a single one looked out of place, and she briefly wondered if this happened to be the one area Butch was anal about. He tended to be lazy and more than a little messy, but this almost looked like something Brick would have done. It would be a question for another day, though. Coffee mewled again.
Only this time, his sister heard.
An echoing, loud and excited meow came from the kitten on the other side of the office door, and Bubbles could barely open it fast enough for them. Coffee climbed up the edge of her purse and lept out with as much force as his tiny legs could muster, and Bubbles quickly caught him with her free hand.
"Alright, you little heathen, no suicide dives," she scolded, placing him gently on the ground.
Candy soon attacked him, the two already racing around the carpeted office like absolute lunatics. Butch stood from his desk and came around to meet her, his hands coming out to accept the gift she held out.
"A dozen lemon crinkle cookies, a cup full of matcha chocolates, and six sugar cookies," she answered the question in his eyes. His lopsided grin grew childlike in his excitement, a rosy hue dancing across his cheeks. Her heart lurched at the sight and she swallowed thickly, breathing in deeply and slowly through her nose. Keep it together, Bubbles, you fucking dork. It's just a smile. Everyone smiles. "…with a cookie signed by Coffee, too."
He looked through the transparent, but light blue tinted wrap and turned the plate slowly until he caught sight of the two little pawprints in the cookie's icing.
It made his smile soften. That gentle curve his cheeks forced his eyes into made her suddenly hyper aware of just how good he looked in that moment. Though still rocking his hair in spikes, it seemed he had grown lazy as of late and hadn't gone in for a haircut. Loose curls, wispy like black smoke, refused to be tamed by his favorite hair gel. They tumbled over, barely managing to brush the sides, which had grown out from his favored close shave and fade.
The dim light from his two floor lamps were the only things lighting the office space, the soft luminance making the higher planes of his features almost glowing gold. His features were strong, his warm skin ethereal in a way that made her want to paint his likeness.
She hadn't picked up a paintbrush in six years.
"This is super awesome, Sweetcheeks. Thank you."
Oh God he was beautiful— stupidly, damnably, painfully so. She bit the inside of her cheek, resisting the urge to run far, far away and never look back— to change her name and history and become a farmer in some cute, quaint little valley by the sea. She inhaled sharply, plastering a smile on her face that she hoped looked real, that it wouldn't betray her and reveal the inner storm of 'oh shit, he's hot' threatening to drown her. "Happy Valentine's Day, Butch."
He sat back down in his seat and motioned for her to sit in one of his guest seats. "Sit. Let the kids play for a bit. You look tired."
"I am," she readily agreed, taking a seat in one of the two chairs he had for guests. There was also a couch along the wall, but with how exhausted she was, she was afraid that she'd fall asleep if she had the ability to lay out. "I baked a hundred and forty-four cookies, made seven batches of fifty heart candies, cooled them, wrapped them, delivered them and after doing all that ended up having to stop and talk to everyone but Brick. I'm… a little tired."
Butch leaned forward, pulling the ribbon off the top so he could gain access to the cookies. Immediately , he shoved one of the lemon crackles in his mouth and practically moaned at the taste. (Damn it Butch! ) Then, he lifted a single finger as he thought of something. She watched him roll backwards in his rolling chair and stop next to his mini-fridge. "I've got some chips, clear onion soup and two California rolls from lunch, hold the crab and add cream cheese and carrot- have you eaten?"
"No, but you don't have to—"
"Here," he insisted as he put the takeout plate in front of her. "I actually got you something this year anyway, too, so you get to sit and eat while I go grab it."
Her cheeks went pink, her eyes wide. "You got me something?"
"You, BC and Bloss Boss, yeah." He pulled out the bowl of soup from the fridge next and popped it into the microwave on top of it. "I'll be right back."
Her cheeks pinkened further when he ran out of the room with a wide smile on his face. From the cracking of rocks and the sudden sonic snap, she knew he had taken off at full speed—probably back to his apartment to grab her gift. The blonde looked down at the maki rolls in front of her and smiled.
There was no way in hell he usually ate these.
It was so oddly specific that he'd either asked one of her sisters for her usual, or he'd overheard her order once upon a time. This wasn't a style of maki roll they usually made—it was one he had to specifically ask for.
He either anticipated her coming by, or he anticipated swinging by her place.
Her hands shook when she grabbed for the chopsticks and she wasn't really sure why- but she'd be blaming it on not having eaten. It, surprisingly, didn't take him too long to return- she'd only managed to get two pieces of the veggie roll down before the gravel cracked outside once again. Bubbles had been fully entertained the entire time just watching the kittens rough house and race around like their tails had been lit on fire. Little batteries full of energy.
Butch came back into the office and plopped into his seat heavily, dropping a light blue giftbag on the table between them. His grin was wide and bright, his forest eyes sparkling. "I don't know what sweets people like the way you do and I sure as shit can't bake that good, so I grabbed something Buttercup and I talked about sometime around the New Year."
Her brows rose.
"Open it, open it!"
She laughed, her cheeks pink when she pulled the bag down. "You're more excited than I am."
"I just really want to see your face when you open it, okay?"
That caused the blonde to be a bit cautious. But, still, she pulled the white tissue paper out and sat it down. She giggled when Candy tore ass across the carpet to get to the tissue paper, which she immediately started playing with. Coffee wasn't too far behind, and she pulled another piece of the tissue out to drop for him to play with.
Then, she focused more on the heavy aqua blue and slightly shiny material at the bottom of the bag. Her brows furrowed and she lifted up the material, unfolding a light blue leather biker jacket. The inside was lined with a soft, white hoodie material, and the tag that stuck out from the neck read as faux leather. It was heavy, felt very real, and honestly stole her breath away. Right over the breast pocket were three small hearts in a row- two black ones on either side of a filled in white one.
Little sunflowers were the button tops along the collar buttons. On the bottoms of the sleeves, across the cuffs, her name was burnished into the faux, sky blue leather.
Her eyes widened and she looked up at him with a wide, bright smile. "Matching leather jackets?"
He grinned even wider and nodded eagerly. "Bloss Boss said she liked the way mine looked, Butterbabe mentioned wanting one, too… And then you said you were thinking about buying a bike… I thought 'why not'?"
She smiled and stood, taking her thicker coat off to replace it with her new jacket. "What do the hearts mean?" she asked, noticing that they were also burnished at the top of the back, right along the base of her neck. There, just beneath each heart was a letter. P P G.
"Your filled in one is the second one," he said as he finally passed the soup off to her now that she got her gift. "Bloss' is the first. Butterbabe's is the third."
"It's the order we were made..."
He shrugged, awkwardly using the back of his finger to scratch at his nose while his cheeks reddened. "Boom was the one who suggested it. I just thought I'd get y'all matching jackets with your names on the cuffs."
"I love it." Her voice was hardly a whisper between them, her smile wide and teary. "Thank you, Butch."
He laughed a bit nervously—though she couldn't really place why. She chalked it up to him not used to giving gifts—or, at least, giving her gifts. "Of course, Sweetcheeks. How about you wind down, we eat and listen to some music for now. Relax after your day, and I'll make sure you and Coffee get home fine."
"Butch, I'm a Powerpuff Girl." She rolled her eyes. "I think I can get home alright."
He snorted, "While you're that tired, with a kitten in one hand and a coat in the other?"
She flushed. "I could."
He shrugged, his smirk devious. "You won't, though. It's not that big of a deal, and I'm sure the kits want more time together, anyway."
She narrowed her eyes playfully. "Using them against me?"
"Oh yeah."
"Devious."
"That's my name, don't wear it out."