Cultivated Intrigue
The early morning sun was shining down brightly upon Blossom's face through her window. Her eyes lazily slid open as she held her hand up trying to block the sunlight as she rose in her bed. It didn't take long to blink the sleep from her eyes and noticed three things immediately; first, she was in her room, second, she had a stuffed rabbit underneath her, and lastly she was in the clothes she wore the previous day. "Gross." She said as she stretched out from the bed. She walked out of the room and moved to the bath.
She had taken a quick shower and was brushing her teeth with the same thought on her mind. "How did I get home?" She hadn't stopped wondering since she realized she slept in her clothes. That never happened, she had enough pajamas to sleep through a different pair each night of the week, so sleeping in her clothes was a first for her.
She spit out the toothpaste and tried to recall what happened, she told Brick she wanted him to escort her home, but as he went to get his shoes she heard a weird buzzing noise in her ears, and the next thing she knew she was waking up in her bed. She couldn't remember dreaming or anything the previous night, just blackness and then the sun.
She moved back to her room wrapped in a towel and started picking out her clothes for the day, just jeans and a pink tank top. After getting dressed she brushed her hair and tied her usual ponytail with her bow peaking over her head. Happy with her appearance she left her room and floated down to the kitchen. To her surprise Bubbles and Buttercup were already sitting at the table. Bubbles was glued to her new phone, and Buttercup was staring at the back of her cereal box.
"Morning Blossom." Bubbles said looking up, chipper as usual. Buttercup didn't say anything but looked up from her cereal box and nodded at her.
"Morning you two." Blossom said moving to the fridge and fishing out some juice to start her breakfast. "Good to see you both up early."
"Early?" Buttercup asked, "Early for us maybe usually your up earlier than this."
"Yeah, I must admit waking up after 8 isn't how I like to start my day." Blossom replied getting herself a bowl down for her own cereal.
"What happened?" Buttercup asked.
"With what?" Blossom asked in turn.
"I waited up for you, and after a bit I hear a noise upstairs and find you in bed, in your clothes, shoes and all, still on and your window open. What happened?" Buttercup said staring at her sister intently.
"I couldn't tell you, I was waiting for Brick to get his shoes, and next thing I know I'm waking up in bed." Blossom said sitting down at the table.
"And that doesn't worry you?" Buttercup asked.
"No, it does. But I got home safe, so there isn't much to do about it." Blossom said grabbing the cereal box from her sister and pouring it into her bowl.
"You were up way early yesterday. Maybe you just passed out?" Bubbles said looking up from her phone.
Blossom didn't want to tell them how sudden it would have been or the strange buzzing she heard, so just nodded. "Yeah, that might be it. Although I was hoping one of you knew how I ended up in my bed." She said with a small giggle.
"I bet Brick carried you home." Bubble said returning the giggle. "It's actually a cute image. Him carrying you through the night time sky."
"You say cute I say gross." Buttercup said with her spoon still in her mouth.
"You wouldn't like Butch carrying you?" Bubbles said.
"That's different, Butch ain't gunning to hurt me." Buttercup replied.
"I don't think Brick is exactly out for blood either." Blossom said as she recalled how tenderly he wrapped an arm around her as she rested on his shoulder. It was funny how her skin seemed to light up just at the memory. As if she could feel his arm there now. It sent butterflies through her stomach just as it did the day before and hid her smile through a bite in her cereal.
"If he's so innocent why would he just sneak you into your room instead of using the door like a sane person?" Buttercup asked.
"You, duh." Bubbles said looking up from her phone again. "Brick probably knew a sleeping Blossom in his arms would be hard to explain."
"Since when are you on the trust Brick bandwagon." Buttercup asked.
"Since Boomer asked me to give his brother a fair shot. Treating Brick like a criminal wont do anyone any good." Bubbles said returning to her phone a smile growing on her face.
"Bubbles makes a good point, if I treat Brick like he's doing something illegal all the time, he may just push me back." Blossom said.
Buttercup's left eye twitched for a moment before dropping her spoon in her empty bowl. "I'm just worried. Why aren't you?"
Blossom took a moment to gather her thoughts as she chewed her food. She gave a small shrug and spoke, "I just know what we sent them to. I saw those cells, I know how I would react if I was put into something like that, I just chose to act with empathy, and forgiveness. I want to be Bricks friend to make amends, even if he deserved incarceration, and because we actually have a bit on common. Brick was, and is still dangerous, but if I expect him to be my friend and have to act like a friend."
"But those boys have gotten stronger, what if he attacks you when you're not looking?" Buttercup asked.
"He won't, and before you ask," Blossom said seeing Buttercup ready to interrupt, "I just know he wont. He has gotten less closed off these past few nights, and opened up far more than someone looking to attack me. It'll be fine."
"Yeah, besides Brick might be strong but with you me and his brothers," Bubbles said holding her hands out like a scale, "Well, he can't fight us all off if he tried to do anything anyways." Bubbles said.
"Well, you got me there, and I guess he might have, maybe, could have, made sure you got home safe, but I'm still on edge about it."
"Well you can come to the stakeout with me and him tonight if it worries you so much." Blossom said as she continued her breakfast.
"Oh I wanna join too." Bubbles said with glee. "Me and Boomer should be off tomorrow so I bet he'll be there as well."
"How do you know his work schedule?" Blossom asked.
"We've been texting all morning." Bubbles said waving her phone a little bit as she spoke.
"Well, I bet Butch will be there as well, so why not join us BC we really need the extra eyes." Blossom said.
"I don't know, Butch is cool, but spending the night with Brick? Sounds like a nightmare." Buttercup said. Blossom rolled her eyes and explain how they would be working in pairs watching over the last three jewelry stores which made Buttercup relent. "The sooner we get this job done, the sooner Brick and I's partnership will end." Blossom finished saying.
"Will it though?" Buttercup asked eyeing her leader with scrutiny.
"Maybe, maybe not." Blossom said with a smile. "Only one way to find out. So are you in?"
"I'll be there." Buttercup replied, "Besides haven't fought any crooks or monsters or anything in what feels like years. I could go for giving some criminals a knuckle sandwich."
Bubbles looked at her and shrugged, "I don't know if you'll see any action either, when I went last time we just ended up talking and looking at an empty building."
"Bubbles has a point, but we could use your eyes Buttercup." Blossom said finishing the last of her cereal, "I'll let you know when we're meeting up. I gotta go." She said collecting her dishes and running some water over them in the sink.
"Where are you going?" Bubbles asked.
"Me and Brick meet up in the mornings to discuss anything new in the case and decide our stakeout plans for the night. Shouldn't be a long meeting. I doubt anyone tried to rob any of the stores last night." She said more to herself than her sisters.
"See you later, I got a swim class today anyways, so I should be getting ready." Buttercup said with a yawn.
"Good luck BC." Blossom said as she made her way upstairs. She entered her room and sat at her desk and was about to turn on her computer when foreign hand writing caught her eye.
"Hey you passed out at my place, I carried you home. So I'm borrowing a book as payment. I ain't a free taxi after all." She looked down and saw a small scribble of what resembled a brick wearing a cap in lieu of a signature. She smirked at the joke and looked over at her bookcase, she saw the empty space in her shelf but couldn't remember what book had been there. With a shrug she continued po0wering on her computer, and did a quick search of local crime news. She smiled when it seemed her theory was correct as the news only covered a list of people detained for drunk driving on the holiday. Not a jewelry store or any kind of robbery to be seen on the news.
She grabbed a blouse from her closet and threw it on, and slid into her shoes. With that she opened her window and flew towards the city. The early morning summer air was warm with the softest breeze giving the sights around an almost idyllic look. She landed in front of the police station and walked through the door. Jerome was sitting behind his desk and smiled at her, "Your boyfriend is waiting upstairs." He said after they exchanged morning greetings.
She gave her thanks and walked upstairs, taking it as him teasing Brick since that seemed to be how they interacted. She opened the door to the archives and saw Brick sitting at the table with his nose in a book.
"So that's the book you stole from me." She said pulling her chair out to sit down.
He didn't respond for a few seconds, but placed a piece of paper in the book and closed it. "I didn't steal it, I borrowed it as payment for my services."
"I never agreed to that payment." She said.
"Well I hear friends borrow things from each other all the time, I didn't think you'd mind." He said setting the book down.
She saw the title and her face lit up. "You borrowed my collection of fairy tales?"
He chuckled, "You mean collection of messed up fairy tales."
She in turn shook her head, "What you don't seem to know is that's how fairy tales just used to be. Even the ones made into movies. Cinderella has body dismemberment, Sleeping Beauty has cannibalism and some other seriously messed up subject matter." She said amused by Bricks grimace. "Of course with your knowledge of mythology I didn't expect you to be surprised by this."
"I just figured the more messed up things in any mythology were to keep the populace afraid and loyal to the religious leaders." Brick said with a shrug, "But these are the things you read to kids for bedtime.
"Happy endings make it all okay I guess." She said shrugging in response, "So any favorite stories yet?"
"Well I started with the Little Goose Girl, seeing as that was the story I first saw in this book, but I just finished the Blue Belt. When you walked in I was starting the Princess in the Chest." He said looking at the book.
She nodded, "I like the Blue Belt, but my favorite is the Juniper Tree." she looked at the book in his hands, "Although I haven't read that book in a long time, I've been more into Sci-fi as of late."
"Oh yeah?" He said looking over, "Any particular stories you'd recommend?"
She took a second to think, "Well, it's not a book but I could show you a movie that I have. We could watch it together today." She looked over at him wondering how he'd react.
"You'd have to bring over a DVD player to my house. I don't have anything like that at my apartment." He said.
"I would need to bring over a TV as well, you somehow have an old relic of a television. Why not watch it at my house?" She asked.
"Yeah I don't think I'm comfortable being in the same house with a man who created antidote X, or your sister who looks for fights as a morning greeting." He said avoiding hey eyes.
"One step at a time," She thought to herself before speaking. "Well, the movie I have is something of a secret so I have a portable player I use to watch it anyways."
"Why would you keep a movie a secret?" He asked raising a quizzical brow.
"It's an old movie. Silent film era." She said, "A long time ago me and my sisters were sucked into a silent melodrama movie, we beat the bad guy and got out, but we all dismissed silent films after that." She said.
"So what changed?" He asked.
"Well I told you I got into Sci-fi, starting with classics like Logan's Run, Fahrenheit 451, and Dune. So out of curiosity I looked into the first Sci-fi film, and people kept claiming it was this 1920s silent film from Germany called Metropolis. I found a poor version online, but absolutely fell in love with it. Now I have a small collection of silent films hiding under my bed. Restored amazingly with the original scores recreated." She said with an ever growing smile on her face.
Brick couldn't help but admire how her face lit up talking to him. How her cheeks had the slightest dimple when she smiled, or how her eyes sparkled when talking about this. "You must really enjoy them, why keep them hiding under your bed?"
Her face dropped a bit and she looked a little solemn. "Well besides the fact my sisters wouldn't be interested in a movie you have to read, I don't think I would like what people would think of me." She said running her hand across the table back and forth a bit.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well I'm already the smart one. That usually means the boring one. The one with her nose turned up at anything that isn't college level." She took a breath and sighed, "Then the hipsters, not all of them I'm sure, but the ones who use obscurity to act pretentious and more cultured have added to my fears that if anyone found out I like silent films, I would be cemented into a boring, pretentious or stuck up label."
"That's kinda silly though." Brick said, seeing a small look of hurt dash across her eyes, "Make no mistake, I'm not dismissing your anxiety, just saying, Why care what people think of you? You're a goddamn hero, snatching people out of burning building, I think people would look past your more nerdy past times."
"Yeah you would think." Blossom said, "But they don't." She said looking out the window, "People see me and my sisters and they create ideas about us. They set us up on these pedestals and if we don't live 100 percent up to those expectations, people get..." She seemed to stop and take a moment as if she was looking for the right word in the dictionary in her mind. "Weird."
"Weird how?" He asked.
"They become angry, disappointed, or act in denial." She said, "I don't want to get into it, but it's just another wall. Like I said, me and my sisters lived in a bubble. We could interact with the world, but we've never felt apart of it. Always just a little separated."
Brick took notice of her solemn mood and felt a burning desire to put the sparkle back into her eyes, "Well, I would love to see this secrete movie collection." he said.
"Oh I know the perfect movie to start you on." She said her face glowing almost instantly, "The first movie with a psychological thriller twist. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."
"Is that your favorite movie?" He asked.
She bit her bottom lip as she thought about her movie collection, "No, but it's a great starting point. Unlike Metropolis it's complete. Some silent movies have some lost footage, but not Caligari."
"Well name the time and place, I'll watch it." He said smirking at her.
The conversation ended with Bricks hot-line phone going off. "Oh this can't be good." Brick said pulling out the phone and seeing Mayor flash across the caller ID. "Yes Mayor?"
"Brick is Blossom with you?" Bellum asked forgoing a greeting.
"Yes, we just got in." He said looking over at his partner.
"Good, I need you both in my office, now." She said and hung up.
Blossom heard the conversation and stood up from her chair, "I wonder what the mayor needs." She said as the duo made their way out of the building and towards the mayor.
They didn't bother going through the door and saw an open window in her office. They floated in and saw her attention locked onto her computer. Blossom cleared her throat and broke the silence. "You needed to see us Mayor Bellum?"
She looked over and sighed, "Yes I do. Which one of you can explain this?" She asked holding out a newspaper. On the front page was a picture of the baking contest they participated in. The picture itself had Brick and Blossom with his arm wrapped around her and was pushing his lips into Blossom cheek. The headline read, Crime fighting and Romance in the Air?
"Lame headline." Brick said observing the paper over Blossoms shoulder.
"The picture is kinda cute though." She said, "The professor isn't going to like seeing that with his morning paper though."
"The professor isn't the only one." Bellum said looking at the pair across her desk.
"I'm sorry did we do something wrong?" Brick said venom growing in his voice.
"I am paying you both to catch the criminals robbing jewelry stores. If people instead think I spent tax payer money to play match maker and pay for you two to date my career is gone." Bellum said with an angry hiss.
Blossom wasn't paying much attention as she read the article. The author was speculating that the late night meetings between her and Brick were more romantic in nature, and nobody knew of their investigation into the string of robberies.
"We aren't dating Bellum, we are doing the jobs you paid us for." Brick said almost ready to yell.
Blossom tensed up hearing the anger in his voice and spoke, "He isn't lying. This," She said pointing to the picture, "was my idea. Me and Brick thought it was weird that when we went to deal with that fire that's when the jewelry store was robbed. So I decided if we gave the illusion we were dating the criminals who may be watching us might think we're too distracted to catch them."
Bellums demeanor relaxed, "Do you have a report for me?" She said, "I need something that tells me you two are indeed doing your jobs."
"Sedusa is our person of interest. Since she taught the Gangrene Gang how to steal we think she's doing the same with a new group of guys." Brick said. "My theory is the stores are training and seed money to steal a valuable diamond coming to the museum on tour."
"Correct," Blossom said, "we've been staking out a few nights, and this dating ruse is to try and make them sloppy, and hopefully be easier to catch in the act."
"Do you have any suspects of her accomplices?" Bellum asked.
"No, just that arsonist." Brick said spitting out the last word with disgust. "That fire seemed to be perfectly timed for the robbery. So I think Sedusa is using more average Joe's to pull off this job."
Bellum in turn sighed, "I guess I should have had more faith in you both." She said looking at the two, "Sorry if my tone was out of line, but people have lost careers for less."
"I understand, we're doing another stakeout tonight with our siblings, so hopefully we'll have a crook behind bars by sunrise." Blossom said as she placed the paper back on her desk.
"So you two are getting along fine?" Bellum asked, she was worried since her last talk was after they fought in the outskirts.
Brick smirked, "Yeah, my partner here can bake an amazing pie." He said placing his arm on her shoulder.
"And he can beat me at chess." She said failing to hide the blush from his compliment. "We've been getting along great."
Looking down she sighed and pulled out two more envelopes from the top of her desk. "Good to hear, while you are here I have this weeks pay please catch these crooks soon." She said handing them to the teens. "That'll be all."
Brick held his envelope in his hand and walked to the window. Blossom Gave her thanks and followed him out. Red and pink lines cut through the blue sky and left Bellum in her office.
Bellum collapsed into her chair and let out a breath. She was happy they were getting along, but she was afraid someone might claim she was misusing town funds with this investigation. She shook her worries out and returned her attention to her work.
Blossom was flying with Brick, "So when did you want to see Caligari?" she asked.
He looked to her, "Whenever I guess. I do have a question though."
"What's that?"
"If you're keeping that movie collection a secrete why show me?" He asked.
She was silent for a moment before she spoke, "You remember how I said people get weird ideas involving me and my sisters?" She looked over to see him nodding. "Well you don't. I feel when you look at me, you see me. Not the Powerpuff girl. Not the hero, or the honor role student, not the student council president, or a walking encyclopedia." She said slowing down her flight speed. "I think when you look at me you see Blossom. Which is weird considering you were created to destroy me, but even with that, I feel like you see me as a human being not a series of labels attached to a cardboard cutout."
"You really think everyone sees you like that?" He asked slowing down next to her.
"Kinda, I know it's weird to think about, but I often worry if people will value me if I stopped being so many things. So I'm constantly doing things that validate me." She stopped in the air as did he and they stayed floating in the sky. "Maybe it sounds silly, but I feel like there isn't an expectation with you. Like I can just be, Blossom."
"That's a little shocking. I thought you loved the citizens, and their attention,"
"I do, don't get me wrong, but I still don't feel like I'm one of them. So having someone around who just sees me, it's like a retreat from everything else for a bit. After yesterday I feel like us being friends is just what I need. Someone who can check my reality and remind me, I'm more than just a super hero leader."
"You've been thinking about this a lot I can see." She said with a chuckle.
"I've finally had time to slow down and think." She said, "It was weird at first, and concerning with what might happen to me, but I realized I can be more than my leadership role, I can be me. I just haven't quite figured out who that is outside of crime fighting yet."
"And this ties into showing me a silent film because?" He asked trying to connect the dots in his head.
"Because I feel I can show you them and your opinion of me wont change." She said. "I know it sounds weird to say, but for some reason I feel like I can only talk to you about these movies and show them to you. That you wont dismiss it as me trying to be anything more than a fan of the movies."
"I still don't get how a few movies mean that to you, but alright." He said shaking his head.
"Well, why do you talk to me about mythology? Celtic mythology wasn't taught in school, and I'd assume you have to follow some curriculum close to mine to graduate like you did." She said with a smirk. "I mean I get why you'd want to learn about it, Mythology from all over is cool, but do you ever talk to your brothers about these stories?"
"Well, no they won't listen as to why I call Hercules, Heracles. Or why that name is nothing but an ironic punishment. Or listen as to why Hades was not a bad guy. They saw one movie, with catchy music and a decent story, and that's their version."
"Right? But you do talk to me about it." She replied.
"Because you get it and won't call me a nerd." He said his voice trailing off at the end of the sentence. "So that's what you mean." He said barely audibly.
She nodded and smiled with her hands behind her back, "So how about I go get my Blu-ray player, and meet you at your house while you go get my book and some popcorn?" She asked.
"Sounds like a plan. See you there." He said turning around and flying off to the station.
She watched him fly off for a second before heading to her home to collect her things. Content she finally got Brick on her side.