author's note: As this fic continues on, I want to let everyone know there's a sister piece to this! A one shot posted on Archiveofourown (ao3) called Red Lips, Pink Skies! It's not necessary to read, but if you wanted to check out a cute little Blossick one-shot, it's available now!
That said, the song recommendation this time is Anyone Else by PVRIS!
Thursday, Apr. 01
Sometimes, it was the little things.
A single straw of hay doesn't feel so heavy until it's added to a few hundred thousand more.
As such, Butch's bad day wasn't necessarily caused by any one specific instance that happened that day- but rather by the combination of everything seemingly dogpiling on him all at once. He got news that his first final was much earlier than expected- much earlier than he wanted it to be. Both in the time and the date. It was the very text message that woke him up from his whole four hours of sleep he managed to squeak in.
The electricians that had come out on Tuesday then called and gave him decent news- no need for major rewiring. And then the bad news- that they would have to replace the pole out front because of how old and dilapidated and generally untrustworthy it was. Which meant rewiring the major cables outside of the house. He'd agreed to instead bury the cables (for a much, much higher price tag as the caveat), but that still meant more work he wanted before he got to move into his house.
The pizza he'd ordered for lunch was wrong and he'd had to send it back- twice- and it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it still irked him. While actively dealing with his messed up pizza(s), he was also on hold for over forty minutes trying to get a hold of the proper company so he could finally get the old, used motor oil properly disposed of. He'd also have to do it on one of the day's he'd already told his girlfriend he'd take her to her new grooming class, since it was one of their only days available.
Speaking of his girlfriend- Bubbles was out of town until later that night while she went to enroll for the grooming class in question. She was supposed to start next Wednesday- but now, he'd have to take that day to send off the oil. The enrollment was earlier in the day, but she'd booked a later bus ticket so she had time to spend doing a little light shopping.
The line at the grocery store was way too long for the few small (but necessary) items he had to pick up. There was a screaming child at the front of the line, a chatterbox couple behind him and a woman whose coupons were falling from her arms in front of him. Not only was the line too long, but the wait was too long, too. And the amount of time it took for the woman to get through all of her coupons made him want to rip his own hair out.
Then, his professors (from the only two classes he had on Thursdays) were unnecessarily taking frustrations out on the students for some god forsaken reason. When he was heading to the shop, he noticed his bike's front tire was starting to bald and he needed to order a replacement. So, before heading to work, he called the dealership about a new tire… Only to be put on hold for another half hour and told new stock wouldn't even be available until the middle of the month.
Once at the shop, the first three appointments he'd made for his work day were all in the most foul moods he could imagine, and the third went so far as to snap at him. He was professional about it and just listened to her hollering despite wanting so badly to snap back. And, in the middle of her angry yelling, she told Butch to calm down. As though he were the customer, screaming and ranting and raving in the auto shop and not the stolid, dead faced mechanic sitting there taking the verbal abuse.
It just sucked.
Butch only got halfway through his day before he got far too frustrated to stay open for the rest of the day. Usually, he only booked appointments until four or five and then stayed open for emergencies and for the late crowd to be able to get automotive work done without changing their whole schedule. Some few exceptions happened when someone purposefully asked to be scheduled later in the day. Sometimes he stayed open until ten, sometimes he only stayed open until eight, and sometimes he stayed open extremely late to work on longer projects that just needed more time.
Or to work on something and clear his head.
Today, though… Today, he finished up his last booking at five on the dot and had his entire shop locked and closed up by five thirty.
The universe just kept testing him on the way home, too.
He knew from the name on his ringing phone that came up- and name belonging to his own brother. He sneered at the screen and swiped the green answer button.
"What do you need," Butch answered, his tone short. He was already fed up with the conversation that hadn't even started yet.
The redhead on the other end of the line seemed genuinely taken aback from the tone of voice, if the initial silence said anything. "Just trying to find out where you are and what your plans are tonight? Everything alrigh-"
"My plans are staying inside, sitting with the cats, eating an entire tub of ice cream and possibly committing a murder if nobody let's me relax soon."
"Bad day?"
Butch didn't know if the sound he made was more of a scoff or more of a sardonic laugh. "Is putting it lightly. Bother fuckin' Boom if you need something, jackass, I have absolutely no intention of doing fuck all for the rest of the day."
"Alright alright, fine. Did you already close down the shop?"
"I'm about ten minutes from home. You tell me."
"Sheesh, someone really did piss in your cheerios. Fine, I'll call Boomer. Try not to snap at everyone around you," the leader finished before just hanging up.
Butch glared daggers at the now-blank screen.
He hadn't even truly snapped at Brick. He'd been a good little Ruff the whole fuckin' day and-
The green glow around his hand told him that he needed to calm down before he ended up squeezing and shattering his phone. He gritted his teeth, kept his jaw firmly closed, and kept on walking. His phone was put in his leather jacket pocket, his hands were then shoved into his pants pockets, and his face settled into a scowl that repelled anyone from walking too close to him- not that he cared.
The less people he had to mess with, the better.
Brick calling to find out where he was and what he was doing meant something was going on- or something was planned. Either way, he really didn't care to find out what that was. He'd quickly shut the redhead down for whatever it was he was asking for and couldn't bring himself to feel bad about doing so. Today sucked too much for him to force himself to care. Anything that could have been done by Butch could also get done by Boomer- though it might take the slightly older brother a little more time than he would have taken.
He thought this would leave him in relative silence as he simmered on the way back to his apartment.
But, like the world wanted to see him crack, there was extra road work down his usual way home!
Wonderful.
Butch wanted to scream.
The one day he left Candy and Coffee at his apartment is the one day he needed the comfort those little demons brought with them the most. If he'd been able to take a breather and cuddle his cat for just a few minutes between raging customers, it would have been much easier to get through a full day.
Instead, he'd let them sleep instead of dragging them along to the shop. They'd looked so, so cozy, curled up in a little cuddle pile on the hammock Bubbles set up in his apartment for them. So peaceful and serene and he had woken up horribly and didn't want to make them wake up bad too. Hindsight is always perfect vision- always 20/20.
He should have dragged them to the shop.
To top it off, as he came closer to the door, he heard someone in his apartment before he even opened it. Ire crept up the back of his neck and Butch was damn near ready to physically remove Boomer or Buttercup from his apartment. His brows were twitching while he prepared himself mentally to yell at whichever asshole it was.
When he swung the door open, though, it wasn't either of them that greeted him.
"You're home!"
He blinked in mild confusion to see Bubbles there already, standing over something that smelled suspiciously like chicken adobo on the stove. An untouched pot sat on one of the back burners but its lid kept its contents- and their scents- from him. More importantly was that her bus wasn't supposed to be in Townsville until seven. Upon seeing her, though, almost all of the frustrations left his body- replaced now with confusion. "You're home?"
She hummed, moving and stirring the things in her pan. "BC called and told me you weren't having a good day so I came back as soon as I could," she explained with a smile on her face. "I still finished enrolling for the class! I just hurried home. I might've skipped using the bus on the way back and might have decided to fly instead."
Butch had taken his shoes and jacket off in the doorway and only stopped to pet Candy at his feet before he came to hug and hold the short blonde from behind. "I know I call you Angel but I swear on my life that you are one," he mumbled into her hair.
She was still humming her little tune through her nose- as he expected she would- and only really paused to talk to him. "Only for you."
He could've cried.
Genuinely, truly, he could have cried in that moment. Like an ice pack to a hot, painful wound, she soothed and relaxed his tension by just being there. She didn't shoo off his affection, she didn't complain that he might've been holding her a little tighter than usual... No, instead she cooked as she needed to and let him hold her as tightly as he needed. Her presence stole the frustrations from him and replaced it with confusion- and once that confusion was gone, after she'd answered his question, so too were the frustrations.
She was too good for him.
But fuck he was too selfish to care.
"Menu?" he asked, his voice soft and small.
She sat her left hand comfortingly on his arms where they rested around her waist. Her right still held the spatula she was using to occasionally flip the already cooked chicken thighs in. "This is your chicken adobo- I made some tofu adobo for me and it's in the crock pot to stay warm. There's rice in the rice maker and that," she pointed at a pot on the stove, "has some steamed vegetables. Green beans, squash, carrots, broccoli and some cut up bell peppers."
"You're too good to me."
"Wait until tonight to say that," she laughed. "I got a natural massage oil that I brought over from my apartment and I plan on giving you a full back massage later."
He sighed through his nose, the huff of air mussing her hair up a little. "You don't have to go that far, Angel."
"I want to," she countered simply. "Besides- consider it a little bit of a thank you for supporting me with this grooming class thing."
He chuckled weakly. "I don't know what I did to deserve this but I'm not going to turn it away."
She leaned against him a little more. "Just taking care of me and spoiling me the way you do is more than enough. I told you I'd spoil you right back."
"No April Fool's jokes?"
"None here," she laughed. "I figured a comedy movie would cover that."
He lifted his head to rest his chin against the top of her head. His eyes looked down to the delightful meal she was making for him and felt a deep, deep tiredness creep up. "I'm not even sure I want to watch a movie."
She turned the burner off and moved his arms away from her just enough to turn around in his hold. His arms stayed firmly around her waist, but he did lift his chin off her head so he could look down at her. When she looked up at him with those bright blue eyes that could swallow galaxies, he almost felt like he could take on the universe… If it weren't for the exhaustion settling just in the back of his head, anyway. "…Wanna talk?"
He smiled a tight smile, his brows pinching in worry. "Not really. None of it was that bad, anyway…"
Bubbles frowned and lifted a hand to caress his cheek. He didn't hesitate to lean into her touch. "It must've been, for you to close up so early… And for you to outwardly threaten death on Brick."
With how close to finished with their food that she was, he came to the realization that she'd probably had his brother call him to find out if she needed to bring him dinner or not. His eyes shut and a slow, deep exhale left through his nose. "No, really, none of it was. It was just a lot of smaller annoyances piling on one another."
"Ah." She offered a knowing, understanding smile that made his shoulders sag in relief. "What was the straw that broke my camel's back, then?"
He offered a tired smile to her. "The garage door broke and shut out of nowhere on me."
Her eyes widened in concern. "You aren't hurt anywhere, are you?"
"No, no, I caught it with my shoulders," he laughed weakly. "There's now a bit of a dent I'm gonna have to get fixed…"
A soft sigh left through her nose, her entire face conveying her worry over him. "Babe, go sit and relax, okay? I'll make our plates and meet you in the living room. I also want to check your shoulders- make sure you're not gonna bruise."
"Bedroom," he whispered back, his eyes pleading with hers. "I don't give a damn about a movie, Angel, I just want to hold you right now."
Her cheeks pinkened and she went silent for a minute, but she eventually nodded. "Bedroom it is, then. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Now I am, yeah," he answered softly. "I was just thinking earlier about how I should have forced the kids to come with me today. Might've kept me sane."
She smiled weakly and reached up to kiss his cheek. "They can help keep you sane now, though. Go relax. I'll be right there."
He nodded and pulled his hands- very reluctantly- from around her. Almost the very minute he was turned away from her, Candy had launched herself from the table to his arms. Her purrs were incredibly loud and obnoxious and exactly what he needed.
"You aren't getting any of my dinner, I hope you know."
Prrbt!
"She says we'll see," Bubbles translated for him.
