author's note: This time, the song recommendation is Lost Tonight by Saje!

This is one of the uncomfortable growth chapters, so here we go!


Monday, Mar. 15

"What's going on?" Boomer asked as he stepped into the mechanic's office. Right behind him were the redheaded leaders of their color coded gangs. "You go deadass silent for over a week and suddenly text me to bring these two in?"

"I had a bit of a conversation with Sweetcheeks a couple of nights ago," he started, not moving from his spot behind his desk. It wasn't often that he was caught having to do paperwork, but Butch specifically needed to have a more adult conversation with them. He figured he could take the day to balance the books and finish up his loose ends. He also figured that by opening the conversation with the more businessy side of his work, it would set the tone early. "I feel the need to make good on something I told her I'd do."

That caught the blue Ruff's attention immediately.

Especially considering what their argument- and fight- actually was about.

"Take a seat, let me finish this week's figures really quick," he mumbled.

Blossom sat down on the edge of the nearest seat. He didn't have to look at her to see just how she was trying to mask her intrigue. "What did you two talk about?"

"Give me a sec, Bloss Boss, we'll get there," he mumbled.

Brick and Boomer both got comfortable on the couch along the wall while they waited. It didn't take long, but it did take enough time for a weird tension to make itself known. Not only did he need to finish getting his current thoughts down and finish up his actual work, but he needed to collect himself. He needed to remind himself that this was, in fact, the right choice to make. Yet, anytime he felt the doubts creep up, all he could be made to remember was the distraught look in sky eyes.

Butch always loathed how all three girls would forever grit their teeth and say 'I've got this' , even with tears in their eyes and the weight of the world bearing down so heavily on their shoulders that they could visibly see the cracks forming beneath the pressure. He hated the way it seemed to hollow out everything within Blossom when she did it. He hated how it ate away at Buttercup's spirit from time to time and he thought for years that would be the extent of it. He never expected to care for the blonde, and never anticipated caring as deeply as he did. But he did; Butch cared. A lot.

So seeing Bubbles do it was infinitely worse.

Whether because the situation genuinely didn't call for such a dramatic reaction to cause such distress, or because he was slowly coming to terms with just how much he cared for her… The reasoning didn't matter. What mattered, to him, was just how much he actually wanted to do anything to get that look out of her eyes. He didn't want to save her, didn't want to protect her from the woes of the world, but he wanted to do everything to get that fucking look gone. She didn't deserve anything that might cause that kind of look.

And that, alone, was enough for him to have the courage to push forward.

Especially when it was Blossom he was dealing with here.

Nice as she was roughly ninety percent of the time, she was terrifying when pushed.

"Okay- so, first, Sugar mentioned- Boss," his eyes landed on his elder brother while he scrambled to find his words, "you had a lead on these flesh-lumps things?"

He nodded slowly. The freckled man didn't miss the return to using the blonde's old nickname, but kept his mouth shut about it for now. "It's nothing concrete, but a few ears said there were acid burns along some protected, private hiking trails. I tried to get the Mayor to let us in, but we're not supposed to meet with him until tomorrow about that."

"Couple of my clients have been talking about how dangerous the mountains are getting," he reported easily. Brick's red eyes widened and he leaned forward, his elbows coming to rest on his knees. "Property value dropping because of the animal wails in the night. It sounded sketch enough and enough like what Boom said they sounded like, so it could be something."

He reached up and pulled his hat off just long enough to scratch the top of his head and push his red hair out of his face. Once the hat was back on- backwards, of course- he inhaled deeply. "You have locations?"

"I've got the billing addresses," he nodded. "It could help the search."

"We should take a look into that tonight," Blossom offered, her pink eyes darting back to her counterpart. "Especially if the animal wails happen at night. We might be able to catch it."

The Ruff nodded. "Yeah. Write down the general location, Butch?"

He nodded, ripping a piece of paper out of a notebook to scribble down the road that two of his clients lived on. "I'm just writing the block and the road of two of them- it's in the area because they're all clustered within like five miles of here. I don't feel right handing out someone's real address for any reason- so burn this shit after you get it memorized."

"Got it. We'll check it out tonight and check the paths tomorrow." Brick leaned back against the couch after taking the slip of paper from him.

Butch didn't really move, though.

"I guess that isn't everything," the redhead concluded.

"Nope." He pinned his gaze to the only Puff in the room, his heart in his throat. How he was supposed to go about it, he wasn't sure, but he was going to make damn good on his word. "Why are you still upset about a tattoo?"

The redhead bristled, sitting notably straighter. "No offense, but I don't think family matters should-"

"How is anything she does to her own body any of your business? How is her body family business?" he countered, raising a brow at her.

Blossom's mouth snapped shut.

The two were locked in a stony stare down for several tense minutes- long enough to put the other two Ruffs on edge and ready to break it up if it got physical. Or, rather, keep Blossom from completely obliterating Butch where he sat. Everyone in the room knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that she could kick his ass- but they also know she was level headed enough to avoid conflict… Unless she was pushed too far.

And they knew Butch would if he thought he needed to.

It was just long enough to cause their shoulders to tense and their butts to scoot to the edges of the cushions.

Butch continued after a moment. "I don't put myself in anyone else's business- ever. I stay out of everything because, usually, y'all get your shit figured out before it gets too bad. Before I ever have to even think about jumping in. But I think she's been made upset enough when she calls me of all fuckin' people at three in the morning, over a week later, still upset that her sister won't even fucking talk to her."

His words cut like steel, his tone had a confrontational edge and his eyes were intense.

She broke, her pink eyes casting off to the side.

"You told your dad behind her damn back. Don't you think she wanted to be the one to tell him?"

She still wouldn't answer.

Butch just shook his head, not willing to back down now that he'd gotten started. "I don't know how to tell you this, Bloss Boss, but she's your sister before she's anything else. You're trying to hold her to impossible standards, trying to force her to be this spitting image of perfection, and she's not. You're not."

Her fists clenched a bit.

His eyes narrowed. Through clenched teeth, he continued. "You're allowed to be normal sometimes. When Bubbles tells me that she understands why some heroes wear masks, who do you think pushed her to feel that way? The people she saved who are just grateful to live another day, or the sister who won't let her be normal for more than two seconds at a time? Who won't let her be herself in her downtime?"

"You don't know-"

"We've all seen you hold Buttercup and Bubbles to impossible standards since Middle School," he snapped, cutting her retort off.

"Why are you bringing this up?" she countered, her eyes cold as ice as they narrowed on him. The redhead had been cornered with several questions and she was not happy about it. Being someone usually in control, once pushed too far she usually ended up snapping back. Being confronted on a topic she wasn't ready to break on and being verbally shoved into confronting that put her on the defensive, even if she knew it really shouldn't be.

Old habits die hard.

Butch could feel the temperature of the room drop, and he knew he had to keep steady.

He was either about to piss her off and push her too far, getting his ass absolutely handed to him… or he was about to make his point. So he took a deep, steadying breath and answered her as levelly as he could.

"Just like I said. I shut everyone out and she was still upset enough to call me despite knowing I wasn't talking to people. I told her that I'd tell you that the human woman named Bubbles Utonium wasn't a woman that anyone could be disappointed in," he said steadily, confidently, even though his heart was trying to lodge itself in his throat. "Because she's convinced that you can't see the difference between Bubbles the person and Bubbles the hero."

Blossom's shoulders fell just a bit at that. "…I'll go see her when we're done here."

"To do what?" he pressed, his eyes narrowed. "Because she told me not to tell you so she didn't have to deal with another fight." The puff had the decency to look mildly ashamed, though he hoped it was for her past actions and not her current intentions. "I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened where I went ghost for barely a week and a half and everything seemed to turn to shit. Why'd she call me," he paused, turning his eyes to the blue Ruff, "and not you , for instance."

He held his hands up, palms out in immediate surrender. "We also had an argument," Boomer answered honestly. "Talked to her about it yesterday morning. We're fine now, but we were fighting when she told you."

"Why are you coming to her defense all of a sudden anyway?" Blossom asked again, her eyes narrowed just a little.

She was trying to find any sort of footing.

Trying to gain any sort of control back.

Butch sighed as he leaned forward, his expression fully exasperated. "…do any of you dumbasses have even half a fuckin' brain? 'Cause I'm starting to doubt it. Both of her sisters were pissed off. You wouldn't even talk to her, Buttercup kept antagonizing her every time they talked, you made her dad pissed at her, Brick didn't even try to listen to her, I was ignoring everyone so that didn't help, and her counterpart was ignoring her specifically all at once, and you're trying to look at me and pin this on me like I'm trying to white knight all of her problems," he scoffed.

They were silent, so he continued. "Maybe if you guys got your heads out of your asses long enough to remember we're all twenty-fucking-four , I wouldn't have to. And maybe you shouldn't be acting like it's still high school. You were all ignoring her. Who else would be defending her right now? We both know she wouldn't- she hates conflict too much to stand up if there's no immediate need to. It sure as shit ain't any of you, if you're all ignoring her."

They were still quiet after that.

Butch scoffed. "Trying to make it seem like the only person who wasn't actively being a dick to her is defending her for other reasons is bullshit, Blossom. Last I checked, I'm not that much of a dick, and I sure as hell don't deserve that."

"Sorry," she offered, her voice small.

She wasn't used to being in this position. While he understood her position and understood she was just trying to get control again out of habit, it didn't make the insinuation okay . "Maybe if everyone didn't turn their backs on her all at once, it wouldn't have been me having this conversation. It was just a fucking tattoo, anyway."

"Yeah, well, it was a bit of a shocker," the red Ruff interjected, his voice surprisingly soft.

Butch had no idea if he genuinely thought that, if he was trying to help Blossom, or if he was trying to loosen some of the tension in the room. No matter, it was enough for him to give his eldest brother a shocked look. "To you ," he stressed. "Boom and I sure as hell weren't that shocked. We didn't get so surprised that we shut her out."

The blond shrugged in nonchalant agreement when the redheads cast both of their accusing glares at him. "Sorry not sorry? She's mentioned it to me a lot since high school. It's part of the reason I was trusted to go with her, I guess. She told me she wanted one back as far as junior year."

"And you still didn't even stand up for her, huh," Butch deadpanned.

Boomer looked away.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyway- I thought about this long enough that it really started to piss me off. Butterbabe and I already had our talk before I started work today. Thought if I was gonna die for bringing it up anyway, I'd go ahead and talk to all of you at once. Buttercup already took off to talk to the Professor because somebody couldn't be an actual adult for half a second and see past herself."

Blossom's upset at his word was obvious and she was about to defend herself- but he jumped in.

"And I know it's mostly you being hurt about not being told. You feel like she violated your trust to some extent." Again, her mouth snapped shut. She and Buttercup weren't that different- at least in that respect. That much, he could understand. Her reaction, he couldn't. "Maybe tell her that instead of making her feel like she can't live up to who you want her to be. Or are you really going to let a stupid tattoo tear your relationship apart?"

Blossom cringed again, the final question finally driving his point completely through her mind. "I really messed this up…"

"You did," he agreed simply. "Instead of talking to her, you made her feel like shit, helped shut her out of her entire friend and family group, and then when cornered, tried to make me seem like the bad guy. It's a tattoo , it's not like she reposted your nudes to the internet or something. Even I'm more of an adult than that."

It was silent for another long, drawn out moment. His forest eyes raked over his guests even though not a damn one of them had the guts to look him in the eye at that moment. Blossom kept her pink eyes trained on her hands in her lap, Boomer's cobalt eyes were glued to a rubber tree in the back of the room and Brick kept his red eyes on the desk. Not a damn one of them spoke, not a damn one of them could look at him- and he didn't like it.

At least if they looked at him, he'd be able to tell how well he was getting through.

The green Ruff sighed. "Listen, Bloss Boss… I fucked up in my own way, but I at least had the decency to talk to her and apologize about my part in making her feel the way she did. Boom did, too. It's not too late to fix things. She's still Bubbles. You know all you have to do is actually talk to her and everything will be fine."

She nodded slightly.

Brick shook his head. "We need to call HIM and make sure hell didn't freeze over," he offered a weak smirk to his brother. "Never thought I'd see the day you had to be the adult in the room."

"It's the last time it'll happen, 'cause if this does happen again, you just get to deal with these hands instead." Butch leaned back in his seat, an annoyed look on his face. "I don't want to be the responsible one, you assholes. That's your job, not mine."

"Fair," came the leader's response.

"Are we done?" Blossom asked, her voice just a whisper. "I'd like to go have an actual talk with her, not… not a fight."

"Go ahead," Butch agreed. "But think about that, Bloss Boss. You ain't gotta be a hero in the privacy of your own home. You need downtime just as much as anyone else, and so do your sisters."

She nodded and stood up to leave, but she paused. She finally met his eyes, her cherry blossom eyes holding a certain level of respect he didn't think he'd ever seen there before. Strange. It made him a little confused, but honestly, he felt more than a little proud of himself for having earned it.

"Thank you, Butch… You're a better person than you get credit for," she whispered softly. It was her own apology, in a way, for having questioned him and his intentions earlier. He nodded, accepting the apology and compliment with a lopsided grin. The Puff then turned and left his office without another word, though the Ruffs all waited for the sound of her taking off out of the shop before they started talking again.

And it was Boomer who spoke first- unsurprisingly. "What about you? Are you done holing yourself away?"

Butch inhaled deeply and nodded, meeting his brother's gaze sternly. "Yeah… Just know I'll talk when I'm damn well ready- and not a second sooner. I ain't rushing shit, regardless of what you think."

Boomer smiled and nodded. "Gotcha. Sorry for pushing ya, man."

"Better be."

"Still love you," Boomer chuckled out.

Butch offered him a warm smile in return, but before he could respond Brick scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You two are way too sappy, ugh," he groaned. They could see the smile threatening to break out on his face, completely betraying how much happier the redhead was than he wanted to show.

Butch batted his eyelashes at his leader, his smile widening. "Should… should we all cry about our feelings and make up over some ice cream?"

"Go choke on it."

Boomer laughed brightly, finally pulling that smile onto the eldest brother's features, softening the rough edges of his face.

"Really, though, do you think Bloss will be up to checking out the mountains tonight?" Butch asked. "After today, I'm not so sure if she's gonna be in the right headspace."

He seemed to hesitate to answer.

Boomer nudged his elder brother with his shoulders. "I'll tag along. If she's not up to it, I'll be there. Plus, I've had the most hands-on experience with those things- of us three anyway, so that should count for something ."

"Yeah… Butch, what are you doing tonight?"

"Taking Butterbabe and Sugar out to eat," he answered honestly. "I promised Butts earlier that I'd treat her and Bubs to some karaoke and barbecue. It's part of me helping her make it up to Sugar."

He nodded. "Alright then. Stay on standby in case we need backup, then. If Blossom isn't up to it-"

"I'll drag her ass along with us," Butch laughed out. "She may not be too happy to see me at first, but I'll just force her to have a sister night while I play designated driver. It's been long enough, I should probably run old blue sometime soon anyway. They can ride in the truck bed."

"She might actually prefer that," Brick hummed thoughtfully. "But we'll let her choose. I don't think she really wants anyone making decisions for her right now."

"I'll clear my schedule anyway," Boomer snorted.