author's note: A big thank you goes out to everyone who waited on this!
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl came out so I totally forgot to post this on Friday so here we are!
The song recommendation this time is Oceans by Flores!
Monday, Mar. 22
The universe hated them.
It decided that it was going to rain for so much of the second day that Blossom had voiced a small concern of the tide rising as a result. This was a dramatization, of course, and no such thing would have happened from the constant, steady rainfall. It was far too light for that to realistically happen. Butch had made breakfast for the six of them, he and Bubbles having gotten up before even Brick did- and they were on their own for the rest of the day.
The earlier hours were mostly filled with eating, washing up, reading and generally just finding something small to occupy themselves with while everyone woke up properly.
Boomer and Bubbles played music on the stereo system for a large portion of the afternoon, Butch and Buttercup had comandeered the billiards table in the bar room, and Blossom and Brick had broken out the playing cards for some sort of game between the two. After the greens and reds got bored, they meandered into the living room with the blues once more- listening to Boomer's electric-acoustic guitar and Bubbles' acoustic guitar and soft singing.
Sometimes, it felt like all of the creative energy went into the blondes- and that moment didn't do anything to necessarily counter that argument.
Buttercup came to sit behind Bubbles and rested her head against her sister's back while she sang, and used that position to tease her counterpart over being there while he wasn't. Blossom surprised them when she, too, teased the Ruff over 'his spot being taken'. Though targeted, he welcomed the playful teasing. Especially since the last time he was singled out by all three Puffs, he was in middle school and got his ass handed to him by them.
This was a much, much better alternative.
Eventually, Bubbles broke away for lunch and a bath.
Brick had nearly choked Butch when he offered to join her.
They all came back to the living room about two hours later to watch a couple comedy specials before they started to break away for the night. Unfortunately, the rain gave them a lot less to do and a hell of a lot less to choose from, and they'd spent the entire day just lounging and lazing about. Not that it was a bad thing; relaxing and being as lazy as possible was the exact goal of this vacation, anyway… But it didn't stop the day from still being a touch on the boring side. Besides, they'd still managed to have fun for most of the day- and only broke away for the night at ten, and only after Boomer started the trend.
Bubbles dragged Butch to their room with their conjoined hands and, once there, very quietly opened the door to their shared balcony. He raised an interested brow at her- the memory of her taunt to Brick barrelling through his mind.
She held up her finger to her lips and, on a very soft whisper, said "Change into your bathing suit- let's go swimming."
He grinned widely and waggled his brows at her. "You sure you don't wanna skinny dip?"
"You wish." She rolled her eyes. "But seriously, I want to go swimming and it only just now stopped raining. I'm going- are you coming with me or not?"
Butch nodded, his grin still there. "Just give me a sec, Sugar, I'll get changed."
She beamed and nodded. "We should be out of hearing range at the dock," she whispered, her blue eyes sparkling in excitement. The day before when they'd all first shown up, she, Blossom and Butch couldn't hear a word of what the other three were talking about- and they were all talking at normal levels.
He waited for her to sneak off into their bathroom to change and quickly donned his own board shorts while he waited on her to get back out. He had been done and fully changed for a solid three minutes before she came back out. The blue and white striped bikini top and high waisted bathing shorts he expected (not that it stopped them from still being sexy on her), but her long hair being left down wasn't something he expected.
She flushed under his gaze. "Yes?"
"You look beautiful with your hair down," he answered simply, as though it were the most plainly written fact.
Her cheeks got redder. "Oh. ...thank you."
Butch smiled wolfishly and jerked his head towards the open balcony door. "Come on, Sugar, let's go get you nice and wet."
Her blush deepened a bit but she held his gaze nonetheless. "Let's see how long it takes you." She walked past him, throwing a coy grin over her shoulder.
"Ohoho, is that a challenge?"
They took to the skies slowly, almost lazily, and landed at the edge of the dock in the same manner. "Hmmm…. it might be," she winked. Then, without waiting for his response, she dove into the chilly, dark waters. Her trust and love and care for marine life was apparently enough to cover and overwhelm her fear of the dark, as she had no hesitation in diving right in.
Butch exhaled. "…keepin' me on my toes," he parrotted again, jumping in after her.
The water was a lot colder than he'd expected- but not unbearably so, just something he'd need a little time to get used to. When he broke the surface of the water again, shivering a little from the chill, his girlfriend still hadn't come back up. It almost worried him, but she did end up breaching the surface just before any real worry could set in.
The moonlight accenting her skin, reflecting in her sky eyes and illuminating the liquid gold of her hair in the water around her made his heart go full throttle against his ribcage. She swam over to him, fluid and elegant in her movements, and he felt absolutely entranced. This little slip of a woman- this little bombshell- could very well be a siren and he'd be her all too willing victim.
...Would he be a victim if he did so willingly, knowing the end result?
Maybe it was the rose tinted glasses- but when she wrapped her arms around his neck, he felt like he had found his own personal slice of heaven. Once again, she placed a weird amount of trust in him, unbidden. Once again, he found himself wondering how the hell he managed to grow up and exist so close to her but never actually see this. How he managed to completely be ignorant to what made Bubbles Bubbles, he didn't know.
He never wanted to return to those days of being a fool, of being blind.
Their legs kicked lazily in tandem, keeping them afloat with relaxed ease.
It brought a single worry- a single thought to mind. How perfect she was- how beautiful this moment was. The moment was crippled by a single thought- a single memory. Nervousness didn't look good on anyone, and he tried to cover it- but couldn't manage it completely. "You ever thought we'd be here?" he asked.
She giggled. "Not in a million years," she admitted. "But I think I'm okay with this surprise." Her blue eyes seemed hesitant, a little cautious. She knew he was nervous.
He licked his lips, a slight furrow forming on his brow.
Her brows furrowed in response. "…everything okay?"
"Yeah," he whispered- though he didn't even sound convincing to himself.
She moved her right hand from around his neck to caress his jaw, her sky eyes worried as they looked between his forest ones. "…wanna talk?"
He inhaled slowly, his mind casting back to the night he, Boomer and the blonde herself all watched movies in her apartment. More specifically, when they'd caught her in the tub- when he caught that little book of hers and stopped it from falling into her tub water. He'd looked at it, quickly, looking for anything else to look at other than the naked blonde in the cloudy bathwater. And, as she held herself so close to him so willingly, he could only wonder how the hell he'd managed to survive that night.
For multiple reasons.
One of which being that damn book that planted a seed of thought in his head.
"Do you think we have soulmates?"
Understanding dawned in her eyes and she bit her lower lip lightly. "I've thought about that a lot, too, wondering the same question…"
He wrapped his arms around her middle, leaving their legs to do most of the work to keep them afloat now. "I know the chances of one of us finding our soulmate is near nonexistent even if we were normal … But do we even have soulmates? Since we're not exactly human. "
She hummed, her eyes impossibly blue. So bright in the night, filled like the ocean they swam in with nothing but understanding. "I, personally, don't believe we do," she finally whispered, her voice strange. It was probably that admission that stunned him most. Said so plainly, so factually… so detached. "And even if we did, like you said, so few people even find their soulmate that it's… ridiculous to hold your breath for it."
His forehead pressed against hers, and when her eyes slipped closed, his followed soon after. "You sound like there's more you want to say."
"I think if we did have soulmates, they'd be our counterparts, no?" she finally asked in return. He didn't necessarily like the way his chest tightened at that flippant statement. "Our trios were made in perfect balance, whether intentional or not. And from all accounts of soulmates in existence, Boomer and I should have set off the reaction if we were meant for one another already- I think- maybe even years before either of us knew or were ready for it. But we never did… If we do have soulmates, and they're not our counterparts, the chances of us finding them are probably on par with everyone else's, but I just… I'm not holding my breath. I like to entertain the idea, but I kind of lost real hope in it."
"You've thought about it more than I thought you did," he credited.
She shrugged. "It just makes the most sense, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right there," he answered slowly. "But I think I'll choose to believe that our odds are just the same as everyone else's."
She smiled. "I do still think that our own interpersonal relationships are more important than that, though. I like to think that we are a little more important than waiting."
"Oh, I agree completely," he said softly. His eyes softened when he was reassured by that last sentence of hers. "I was… I guess I was worried you'd be disappointed if I wasn't your soulmate."
She reached up and kissed his cheek, his cheeks burning red in response. "I promise I won't be. You're proving yourself to be everything I've wanted in a partner, anyway, so it's not like you have to worry about me holding my breath for someone else to come along either. I happen to like us. A lot."
"Okay, good," he smiled back at her. "That probably sounded ridiculous-"
"It was my book, right?" she asked, a knowing sparkle in her eyes.
He shrugged. "Yeah, little bit."
She laughed lightly. "I don't know if you know this, but I'm a pretty emotional person. I love reading poems because of the feelings and emotions behind most poetry, and the strongest poems are always from people writing about their soulmates," she explained softly. "Plus, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to be comforted by the idea that some people are actually able to find that much happiness."
He smiled at her, shaking his head. "Just when I think one way, you come and flip my brain like a pancake."
She laughed softly, shaking her head. "It's what I do best."
He chuckled and held her a little tighter. "Is this all you wanted to do, Angel?" he asked, his voice so tender that it felt like he caressed her heart directly. "Lounge in the water wrapped up in me?"
"Is that such a bad thing?" she countered.
He smiled lovingly at her. "You really are something special. It's not a bad thing at all."
"You're only just now realizing this?" She raised an eyebrow, and he couldn't stop the joyous laughter spilling from his lips even if he wanted to. "I did have a couple of other things to talk to you about actually," she began, pulling away to actually do a bit of light swimming.
His eyes followed after her just before she chose a direction and started off that way. "What's on that brain of yours, then?" His movements were nowhere near as graceful or elegant as hers were, but it didn't deter him any.
"How would you feel if I asked you to teach me how to use that shield you use so I can ride that way, too?"
His brows raised and he kept up easily with her slow pace in the water. "Pretty good about it. I'm pretty positive you can learn some variation of it at least. You really want to learn?"
She grinned at him. "Absolutely, yeah. That was so fun and free and like… being able to do that without a helmet was so nice."
He chuckled. "Yeah, that's why I don't use them. That's no problem- anytime you want, Angel, just say the word. We'll make time for me to teach ya."
"After vacation," she clarified quickly. "I still have no plans of even training while we actually have time off."
Butch laughed his agreement. "Absolutely fair."
"The other thing," the blonde continued, "was that I… I found a grooming class, two towns over, that's going on for a month. Wednesdays and Thursdays, too, so I wouldn't even have to change up the patrol schedule."
"Oh yeah?" He was intrigued, his full attention on her. "What are you thinking?"
"I think I might do it," she said softly. "But I… I don't want to go alone…?"
He looked over and raised a brow at her, a tender smile lifting to his features. "I could give you rides, if you want."
She cringed. "But what about the shop…?"
"I think I, as the owner, founder and boss, can make my days off Wednesday and Thursday for a month."
"But income-"
"I have enough set back, I promise. I wouldn't offer if I didn't have stable means to offer." He then gave a half-shrug. It was a little hard to fully shrug while swimming. "Besides, I'll still be working the other days of the week, regardless. If something comes up, something comes up- but otherwise, I have no issues getting you there."
She nodded slowly. "Well, alright then... as long as it won't impact you too much."
"You're totally fine, Angel."
She smiled shyly at him. "…now it's Angel, huh?"
"I think you're my Angel." He smirked deviously. "I think that might be my private nickname for ya. Just for us."
She flushed and he hummed at the reaction.
"Maybe Goddess works too…"
That made her roll her eyes a little, but the pink didn't leave her face. "You're ridiculous."
