Chapter 11 - Past, Present, and Future
Life has a funny way of throwing temptation at you.
Buttercup refused to talk to me, and she refused to talk to Blossom.
But Butch suddenly decided that I was the key to getting through to my sister.
I spent countless evenings holding Butch's hand, figuratively speaking, as he alternated between hurt, and betrayal, and utter confusion.
Butch is completely adorable when he's confused, and I hated that I spared a moment to notice that while he was so obviously brokenhearted.
At least it was obvious to me. Boomer answered the door the first time I showed up on their doorstep, and looked at me rather oddly as Butch rushed over to greet me, the blur of green sending static charges through the entire house and causing my hair to stick up like I'd suffered an enormous shock. Heh. No pun intended.
Actually, in a way, I had. Butch, who really hadn't spared me a second thought over the past few years, suddenly wanted to be with me.
I'd like to say I was all noble about it, but I often found myself leaning toward him every time his gaze lowered to his hands, which would be clasped in his lap. He'd sit on the edge of his bed, and I'd sit on an overturned milk crate, and we wouldn't say anything for hours. Now and then he'd tell me a story, usually about something Buttercup said, or something the two of them did together.
Once he told me how he'd found out about our embarrassing attempt to be supercool superheroes, when I'd insisted Harmony Bunny was waaaay more impressive than plain ol' Bubbles, and Liberty Bell, née Blossom, jumped in her freedom car while I hopped along on my pogo stick. Buttercup had to wait until sundown to join us, so she was no faster, in the end, either.
I only bring up that particularly humiliating time in our lives because apparently Butch was very eager to see 'Turk' dress up as Mange, just for him. Or at least he had been, until my sister decided to go postal. Butch's words, not mine.
Since I was making the daily trek to the Rowdyruff's home, Blossom decided to accompany me, as she and Brick were working on yet another project together. She really did think about it long and hard, not wanting to leave Buttercup alone, but since our sister refused to speak to either of us, Blossom decided that at least the Professor was there to keep a proverbial eye on her.
So that accounts for five of us, right? One brooding, two working together, and one of us lending a sympathetic ear to the heartbroken one.
As for Boomer...
To be quite honest, he was the furthest thing from my mind.
~~~~~
The doorbell rang exactly two-and-a-half minutes after they'd gotten home from school. Boomer rolled his eyes as he used his X-ray vision to see that Bubbles was on the other side of the door. Blossom was with her, as she usually was. Why was he the one who seemed stuck serving as the doorman lately? What the hell was wrong with Brick's arms and legs? He was the one Blossom came to see, after all.
He wasn't sure how he felt about Butch's sudden neediness. Bubbles was a constant presence in their home as of late, and all Butch had done was go on and on and ON about Buttercup. At least he'd had love before he lost it. And Brick didn't know a good thing when it was right under his nose. Dumb ass.
He snorted to himself. He was beginning to sound like Bubbles, although he hoped to high heaven he never got that bad.
He didn't know what the hell Bubbles was thinking, letting Butch use her as his crying towel. Of the three of them, he'd have thought that Butch would be the least likely to fall apart from a broken heart.
It was also interfering with his own bout of self-pity. It would be nice if they could take turns wallowing in misery, and damn it, he hadn't finished wading in his yet!
He should have been dancing a jig at the idea of Blossom showing up at his house. She seemed to spend a lot more time there than she ever had before, and she made it a point to talk to him, and find excuses to touch him.
That was just it. She was finding excuses to touch him, but with Brick, it was completely natural the way her hand would reach up and remove a stray hair - usually one of hers, since Brick's was so damn short - off his collar. She was a very tactile person around Brick and her sisters, but she'd never been that way with him or with Butch.
It wasn't that any contact from Blossom felt awkward, or forced, so much, but they just couldn't compare with the way she touched his brother.
Of course, it still made him feel a lot better about himself. The fact that she was willing to touch him made him feel less sullied after his involvement with Princess.
He grabbed his journal out of his backpack and flew out of the house, not stopping until he'd gone past the clouds covering the view of Townsville.
He hovered there with his arms crossed, scowling down at the city below, and realized the expression felt unfamiliar on his face. He touched a hand to his lips. Sure enough, they were pursed in an expression of discontent.
What do you know about that. His facial muscles still worked.
He opened up his journal and began to write, his hand a blur as the words made their way across the page.
About an hour later, he noticed something falling toward Townsville, and his curiosity got the better of him. He flew toward it, and caught it in one of his hands. He studied it for a few minutes, then his eyes widened as he realized what it was. Or more specifically, where it had come from.
~~~~~
I recognized the signs that Buttercup was ready to talk about it. She would sometimes cast a fleeting glance my way before she'd leave the room. If I made eye contact, she'd look away quickly, so it took a few tries for it to sink in.
Good golly, but I was slipping. I'd been so wrapped up in my concern for Butch, I hadn't picked up on the way Buttercup had been trying to get me to confront her.
I was immensely grateful for Blossom, because she had been the one talking to Boomer during our visits to the 'Ruff's abode. I didn't think I could juggle his issues on top of Butch's.
I felt a stab of guilt at the thought. Hadn't I been worried about his possibly suicidal tendencies? I'd gone so far as to try to sneak a peek into his journal, for crying out loud.
Which brought a blush to my face as I remembered the outcome of that attempt. Thank the heavens Butch hadn't been part of the eyeful I'd gotten. It was difficult enough tamping down my feelings for him every day without the image of what he did or didn't wear beneath his trousers clamoring for attention as well.
It was time to confront Buttercup.
I tapped on the door to her room, and she didn't answer, but I knew she wouldn't. However, the unspoken invitation had been given, so I opened the door and walked in.
It was pitch black in there, and at first, seeing just the glowing green eyes, I had this ridiculous image of her sitting there, dressed just like Mange. I could still hear Butch's dreamy voice, talking about how 'damn hot' Buttercup would look tricked out in black shadows.
She didn't order me to leave, so I quietly drifted over to her bedside and just hovered there, waiting.
My eyes adjusted to the gloom. She'd been lying on her side, but she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. I sat on the side of the bed, with one leg curled under me and the other dangling off the edge of the mattress.
I thought I'd have to say something to get her to start talking, but apparently the fact that I hadn't come to see her for the past couple of days had her more than eager to start without any prompting.
"Boomer was involved with Princess," she said.
I blinked at her. Yeah, that had been made pretty obvious by the red-haired shrew, but I wasn't sure what that had to do with her breaking up with Butch.
"How could he do such a thing?" she whispered. "Couldn't he see that she is pure evil?"
Perhaps it was a slight exaggeration, but point taken. I waited for the connection between this and the real issue.
"It was like he was so blinded by the attention she gave him, that he was ignorant of all her other faults. He let her take advantage of him, let her lead him around by the nose, hell, by his dick, keeping him distracted so she could cause trouble and yet have an ally on her side."
That didn't sound like Boomer at all! Not once had he sided with her against us, not in a fight like she was thinking of. Sure, he'd not been involved in that altercation, but neither had I, really. And come to think of it, we'd heard little from Princess until that whole Sedusa thing.
I started to suspect she really wasn't talking about Boomer and Princess at all.
"Stupid, so stupid," she said, sniffling slightly. "Think I'd have learned by now."
"Buttercup," I finally said, losing my patience. Oooh, that was not like me. Obviously spending all that time with Butch was having more of an impact than I'd thought.
"They used to be our enemies!" she shouted, pounding a fist into the mattress so hard I bounced right off. I levitated above the floor and crossed my arms.
"That was a long time ago," I told her. "And...and they're not like that anymore."
"You're only saying that because you're in the same boat, helplessly in love and unable to see past a cute face and tight rear end."
I almost swallowed my tongue.
"Excuse me?" I didn't think she knew! Oh, my, how had she figured it out?
"Well, I told you I saw you checking out Boomer's assets that day. Why aren't you more upset?"
"There's nothing between me and Boomer," I said, relieved that she hadn't figured out that I'd seen a bit more courtesy of my X-ray vision.
"I know," she sighed. "It's just that misery loves company, and Blossom is too stupid to realize how she feels. If I really thought you were in love with someone who could possibly find Princess attractive, I'd be worried about you."
Now she was just being ridiculous. Hell, she'd been ridiculous this whole time. I mulled over all she'd told me, and it sounded vaguely familiar, but it was like watching a soap opera, where the characters were the same, but different actors were playing them.
Yes, I admit it. I watch soap operas. Just one, though, and that's only because it used to be on before Mechanimals! At that time just before most school kids came home to their mothers, where television catered to the housebound caregivers until the short-attention-spanned children wandered in and wanted to plop down with their afternoon snack and mindless entertainment...
"Bubbles?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you even listening to me?"
Then it clicked. I don't know why. I mean, there was little about the antics of animal mechanoids or the sinful lives of soap characters that should have been the trigger, but maybe I'd just needed to stop trying to think about it so hard. All the things she said fell into place with an almost audible sound, like Legos snapping together.
I turned my full attention to her again and smiled. "Yes," I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the bed. "And I'm listening to what you're NOT saying, too. And it's well past time for you to face up to how ridiculous you're being."
I flew out the window, with Buttercup in tow, and sped to the place the 'Ruffs called home. She knew I was right, because she didn't fight me.
Boomer had the door open almost before we even got there, but I didn't think twice about it. He'd obviously seen us coming. I knew he often spent time on the roof, although that had been when he was much younger and the two of us were as close to best friends as you can get with the opposite gender at that age.
His hair was getting longer, I noticed, but my attention was on the duo of Blossom and Brick on the couch. They were both sitting half facing each other, half facing the rest of the room. They were passing a paperback book back and forth, pointing at various passages before relinquishing the book. Most likely they were discussing some skit they had to do in their drama class or debating the symbolism of a scene for their literature class. It didn't really matter. The point was, they were both there, because I was going to talk to them, next. On second thought, maybe I'd handle those two first, just to set the mood.
"Where's Bu-" I began, but Boomer, who was floating a few feet away with his arms crossed, tilted his head toward the doorway. Butch was hovering there, looking at Buttercup with a mix of fear and hope in his eyes.
I guided Buttercup into a chair, and Boomer seemed to know what I had planned, because he walked over and shoved his brother into the room roughly until he was standing between the couch and the chair Buttercup was sitting in.
"I've had it with all of you," I began, my voice strong. "YOU," I pointed at Blossom, "and YOU," this time at Brick. "Have been dancing around each other so long it's sickening. You love each other, and it's obvious to everyone. Am I right?" I addressed Buttercup, who nodded mutely.
"See? Even BUTTERCUP has noticed!" I was warming to my subject. "Stop making it so damn complicated! You two are too analytical for your own good! So get your heads out of your proverbial asses," at that, Blossom's mouth dropped open, "and stop driving each other nuts!
"And YOU," I whirled to face Buttercup, who had to be expecting her turn. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the arms of the chair. "Need to stop judging Butch based on your past experiences. Yes, Boomer made a mistake," I shot an apologetic look his way. He shrugged. "But not once did he ever allow us to suffer in a battle because of his lack of good judgement."
My eyes were right back on Buttercup, who seemed to be holding her breath.
"Buttercup," I said, my voice a bit softer. "Butch is not Ace."
She exhaled in a rush of breath, and her head bowed forward. I thought I caught a glimmer of moisture in the corners of her eyes before her bangs hid them from view.
I glanced at Butch to see his reaction.
He looked confused more than anything.
"Someone want to tell me what the hell that means?"
Blossom gave Brick a warm glance, then got up from the couch. "Ace is the leader of the Gang Green Gang, as you know," she said. Butch nodded once, not looking at all pleased.
"Well, once upon a time, Buttercup here had a massive crush on him, and-"
"And he used his 'relationship' with her to create trouble, and make it easy for his gang to wreak havoc, am I right?" Butch interrupted, his brows meeting in the middle of his forehead. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
"Yes," Blossom said. Buttercup would not even meet his eyes, although he was staring at her.
He crouched next to her and put a finger under her chin, lifting her head until she met his gaze.
"And you were afraid you'd made the same mistake," he said softly. She gave a minute nod, and, despite my tendency toward honesty, I had a gnawing suspicion that was the worst thing that she could have done.
He brushed her bangs away from her face and cupped her cheek.
"Did you honestly think that I was only pretending to love you?"
She shook her head no, vehemently, but then she covered her face with her hands. Her voice was muffled. "Only for that split second," she confessed.
He stood up.
"And you couldn't talk to me about it."
She shook her head again.
"And, in fact, you let me think I'd done something horrible. DAMN IT, Buttercup, all sorts of things were running through my head! I thought you'd gotten pregnant and were afraid to tell me. I thought you suspected that I had gotten involved with Princess! I thought you were maybe suffering from some sort of mental disorder, except I was able to rule that out because Bubbles would have let me know if that were the case." I blushed, even though everyone knew that was true.
He ran a hand through his hair.
"Damn you, Buttercup," he said, his voice sounding slightly strangled. "The worst part was the not knowing. It would have hurt no matter what, your breaking up with me. To not have any idea what I did wrong brought it to a whole new level. I had no way of knowing if it was something I could fix, or if you'd even let me try."
His voice became very cold.
"But to find out that you were willing to cut out my heart and smash it to smithereens, because of what someone else did, and to not think about the fact that it was me, not anyone else, but me..."
Butch was pissed. He levitated all the way to the ceiling before he spoke again.
"I don't know if I can forgive that."
And he flew out the door. Without opening it first. Seemed the two of them still had quite a few things in common.
Buttercup buried her head in her arms, her forehead on her knees, and her shoulders shook slightly.
I realized that, at some point during Butch's little speech, Brick had moved to Blossom's side. He had one arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder and he gave her a reassuring squeeze before releasing her so she could comfort Buttercup. Something that was usually my job.
"Well," Boomer said dryly. "That went well, Doctor Love. What do you have planned for a finale, Bubbles?"
~~~~~
Author's Notes:
I am so very very sorry for the excruciatingly long delay in posting this latest update. Unfortunately other things have demanded my time. I had the first two pages written about a while ago, and then everything seemed to happen at once! It felt good to sit down and return to the issues plaguing the 'Puffs and the 'Ruffs, though. Of course, the day I have the chapter ready to go, ff.net is "experiencing heavy traffic" so I hope it gets resolved soon so I can get this posted later today (Valentine's Day).
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WolfBane2 - The best fic you've read in a while? Thank you! Man, it's reviews like this that make me feel ashamed you had to wait so long...but also ones that forced me to set aside some time to devote to the story!
Hairy Gregory - well, now you know the reasons behind Buttercup's actions, as misguided (to put it mildly) as they were. I have done what Bubbles did...just stared at some writing and registered things like paper texture and ink color and the slant of the text...and finally snapped out of it long enough to read the darn thing! Sorry for the longer than usual delay in the update!
Ud, Shemp, et al - yes, that actually was the most apropos thing uttered involving those four words! A new story? Should I be frightened? ;-)
Sora Yagami - oh, a new reader and I left you hanging with everyone else! Hope you haven't given up on me yet, and thanks for the kind words. The muse thanks you, too!
Nie Starwhistler - I hope this chapter helped explain Buttercup's interesting behavior.
nightglider-star - "oh boy" indeed! I was looking forward to showing why Buttercup reacted as she did, but wasn't sure how I'd lead to Bubbles' in-your-face confrontational style of fixing things. It's worked for her in the past, after all!
Cerberus5550 - well, I guess your first question was answered "soon" in terms of number of chapters, but not "soon" in terms of how long you had to wait! Princess' comment...chalk it up to the fact that she's just a classy chick (cough, cough). And of course, you see how Bubbles' problem solving actions went! Again, sorry you had to wait so long!
Numbuh 9gtG - I'm blushing! Wow. I am really feeling very guilty about going nearly three weeks since chapter 10 was posted, but I thank you for your encouragement!
Tiggabear - as you probably have figured, the first thing I'm going to say is I'M SORRY! I really had planned on getting this chapter out last weekend, but something distracted me shortly after I'd started it, and it was very hard to get back into the mindset of the characters. I humbly bow my head in shame and hope I can avoid making everyone wait quite as long for chapter 12. Thanks for your patience, and again, sorry you needed to exercise it!
Jazz - OK, I confess! I was sitting at the computer this morning and it was your review that gave me the final kick in the pants to force myself into the story again. Once I was there, I had no trouble writing, because I knew what I wanted to write, it was just a matter of finding a block of time when I could immerse myself into the story. I had tried not to go too long between chapters, because the longer I am away from it, the harder it is to get back into it, but fortunately, I knew where I wanted to go with it this chapter.
And my thanks to anyone I may have forgotten. I don't write for the reviews, but I do confess that all of yours have really inspired me to sit down and get back to a story I've enjoyed writing but haven't had the time for.