Author's Notes: Not gonna lie guys, I teared up quite a bit writing this section and had a bit of "Gary Come Home" and "Josh is Done" on my mind while writing it, which is even more explicit when Buttercup directly quotes some of Drake's lines as she's apologizing to Bubbles.
Chapter 4
Making Up
Bubbles was already fast asleep by the time Buttercup had made it up to their shared bedroom, her head turned to the side so that she couldn't get a good look at her face. She sounded like she was snoring softly. Buttercup made a sigh while Blossom gently pulled the cover up over her in a motherly fashion, careful not to disturb her rest. All three of the girls were dressed appropriately in their pajamas and had completed their nightly bedtime routine, brushing their teeth and washing their faces clean for the night.
The only thing to do now was hit the hay and hope for a better day.
But by this point, Buttercup was getting more than a little fed up as well as burnt out with her attempts at reconciling with Bubbles. After a while, she decided she would probably be just as content if she simply stopped trying.
Aw, who needs her? Buttercup thought bitterly, staring down at the slumbering blonde puff. If she wants to stay a sad sack for the rest of her life, so be it.
She harrumphed and crossed her arms, plopping down into her green section of the bed and punching her pillow aggressively before shutting her eyes for sleep. Who needs stupid Bubbles? She thought. I can get by all by myself!
But that wasn't what her memories were telling her. She turned her head to the side to face her dresser, and saw a couple of pictures standing on top of it. Framed pictures. These were the photos taken during the girls' birthday bash, the day all those villains tried to give the girls birthday "presents" that they hoped would destroy the trio for good. In the first one, Bubbles and Buttercup were happily eating cake together, both of them having their arms around each other while they smiled in each others' faces. The second one had the two of them similarly enjoying themselves, this time happily eating all of the candy that had broken out of Him's specially enchanted bull piñata.
Bitter tears stung Buttercup's eyes as she gazed into the almost mockingly joyful photos of better times. All of the things she had thrown away simply because she couldn't stop being a jerk. She didn't know when she would ever get the chance to make memories as happy or as joyful between her and her sister again.
The thought of this had Buttercup quietly shaking with barely repressed sobs, trying to bite down on her lip hard and hold her breath to stop herself from crying out loud. The toughest fighter didn't cry. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to think of other things, let herself escape to the place of dreams, but not even her subconscious would allow her to do so.
The beat of a drum kit came into her head. Her own previous, lifeless hands beginning to play a few opening notes on her bass guitar. Her body on a stage, once black-and-white, now bleeding out with color. Another guitar joining in with the drums and the bass. A wonderful spectrum of colors, making Townsville the bright, vibrant, joyful city it always had been once again.
The cheerful voice of the group's joy and laughter singing the first notes of "Love Makes the World Go Round".
Bubbles: Open your eyes and take in everything that you see,
Look at all the colors, red, yellow, blue, & green,
We can take an airplane and fly across the globe,
Look down upon the colors, everyone come on, let's go!
Because!
Buttercup: Love,
Blossom: Love,
Bubbles: Love,
Girls: La La Love, La La Love makes the world go round! (2x)
A crowd of people quickly gathered round the stage, screaming with delight. Mr. Mime peeked his head out around the corner, infuriated at this turn of events. He tried to rush the stage to stop this return of sound and color from happening, but while she was in the middle of her sick guitar solo, Blossom fired an energy beam from her guitar out at the clown, returning him back to his joyful, happy self as Rainbow the Clown.
The girls finished their song to the roar of the crowd and their deafening applause. Rainbow the Clown gave them his gratitude. The girls had a party with the now innocent and cheerful clown, accepting animal balloons, silly string, and water flowers.
(Let's pretend the canon ending to the episode didn't happen okay? It kinda ruins the mood.)
Buttercup felt like a fool. All that time she had spent making fun of Bubbles and looking down at her for how she viewed the world... and yet she had been the one to save them all in the end. Because she knew the secret about the world all along: Only love made the whole thing go round.
Another memory played across her subconscious. Buttercup in an alligator costume fighting with her sister Blossom about when she should be attacking the city as a monster.
"Well I'm running Townsville, so you wait!" Blossom argued.
"No! I'm running Townsville!" Buttercup insisted.
"I'm running Townsville!"
"No!" A rather chipper, squeaky voice spoke up.
The sisters turned around to see Bubbles putting Octi's top hat on her head, with her blonde pigtails tied in front of her face to resemble the Mayor's mustache. She also had one eye screwed shut just like him.
"I'm running Townsville!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Mayor sir!" The two sisters echoed in unison, both of them wearing delighted smiles over their faces.
"Here's your chair, sir!" Blossom said, pushing a stool behind her sister to sit on.
"Thank you!"
"And your desk, sir!" Buttercup said, pushing a toybox in front of her sister for her to put all her stuff on.
"Thank you!"
Dang it, why did she have to remember the stupid rainy day again? A day filled with nothing but fun, games, and pretend? Where the girls didn't have to worry about the stress of answering the hotline, fighting bad guys or stopping crime. All they had to worry about was playing with each other, letting their imaginations roam free and wild. They tended to take such things for granted...
"Bubbles!" Buttercup and Bubbles yelled up at their dad who was currently dressed as the blue Powerpuff Girl from the carpet. "Help us!"
"You have got to be kidding me!" The Professor complained from above them. "I don't have time for this!"
"You have to help us!" Buttercup insisted.
"And the faster you help us, the faster you can get back to work!" Bubbles said persuasively.
"You promise?" The Professor whined.
"Yes!" The two of them cried. "Now help us!"
"Fine." The Professor relented, holding out his arms as he pretended to fly like a Powerpuff Girl. "Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly," he stopped for a moment to 'shoot lasers' at Blossom, who was playing as the monster, with those same hands. "Pow! Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye!"
"And the day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!"
More tears dampened Buttercup's pillow, even in her sleep. When would the two of them ever play like that again in the future? Bubbles hadn't even wanted to play video games with her tonight. Buttercup had messed things up forever between her and Bubbles. Those memories were all she would ever have left of having fun with her sister.
It was all over.
Little did she know that just across from her, Bubbles was tossing and turning in her sleep, having these same bittersweet memories of her time spent with Buttercup.
"Oh my gosh!" Blossom had exclaimed at the red-tinted, disco-night scene. "Townsville's been turned into a nightmare nightclub!"
"Right on!" Buttercup had cheered, giving Bubbles a nudge. "Right Bubbles?"
And Bubbles, previously afraid of the night had said, "Well, it's got a good beat, and I can dance to it!"
The two of them proceeded to bump hips and get down with each other, enjoying the party quite wholesomely until a cat creature with long claws and leopard-skin tights jumped out and snarled at the two girls!
They both screamed in fright and held onto each other for dear life, with Bubbles holding her sister up bridal style in her arms and smugly pointing out, "Hey! You got scared!"
"Yeah, little girl!" The cat creature mocked. "I thought you liked to party!"
Buttercup had stopped to smile at both of them and then said with a thirst for action, "Let's get down!"
Even though Buttercup had been teasing her for her fear of the dark earlier that night, as well as her fear of the Boogeyman, she had also been the one to lighten Bubbles up a little when the late night scene became a reality, as well as having her back when the real Boogeyman came out and tried to destroy her with the lasers of his ship.
"You're good to go, kid."
"Now blow up that disco ball so we can go back to bed."
And she did. In fact, when she thought about it, Buttercup had her back a lot. She had her back on the day that flaming meteorite came hurtling towards Bubbles on a hot summer's day and she screamed with fright, truly believing it was the end for her.
"It's too hot!"
At the last second though, Buttercup had grabbed her hand and pulled her away just in the nick of time.
"Thanks Buttercup."
She hadn't even told Bubbles that she owed her anything or tried to hold it over her head. It was just something that she did. When Sedusa stuck her to the wall with her special hair gel, Buttercup was the first to try to get her out.
"I gotcha Bubbles!"
"Buttercup, look out!"
With her back turned to the villainess, Buttercup had gotten captured too, but she wasn't concerned about that. She was only concerned about the fact that she didn't end up rescuing Bubbles.
"Sorry Bubbles."
Bubbles was also the main reason Buttercup and Blossom had stopped fighting, setting aside their differences to rescue their sister from Him's evil clutches.
"WHAT?! Blossom and Buttercup?! But you're supposed to be fighting each other!"
"Some things are just more important." Blossom had replied matter-of-factly, looking at Bubbles with love as he had one arm around her. "Right Buttercup?"
Buttercup was similarly smiling from the other side, having the other arm of her beloved sister. "Right!" she replied immediately.
Back at home, Buttercup had apologized to Blossom for fighting with her and Blossom had done the same, telling her, "You know, we're lucky to have a sister like Bubbles who was only trying to remind us that we're a team."
"Yeah! And that any personal differences we've got shouldn't stop us from saving the day and stuff."
Bubbles tended to forget that she could often act as the main glue that held the whole group together. She was the team's heart and soul. Their main source of morale.
And even though Buttercup could often express disdain and disparagement for Bubbles' character, that didn't mean that she could never respect her. She had earned Buttercup's respect every now and then.
"She took the laser all the way to eleven!" Buttercup commented in awe, the three of them currently inside Mojo's lair.
"Whoa!" Blossom exclaimed.
They flew up to their still scowling, cross-armed sister. "Wow Bubbles, we really underestimated you. And you know what?"
"What?!"
"You're hardcore!" The two of them had responded.
"Really? Aw, shucks."
Earning Buttercup's respect had felt so good. She always did secretly want to impress her often meaner and more critical sister. She couldn't help but see Buttercup as so cool at times. Fearless, brave, always willing to get in right on the action, and her punches and kicks weren't half bad either.
Even Buttercup's more violent actions had sometimes proved helpful in the end. It was Buttercup's laser vision that ended up correcting Bubbles' eyes back when she had to wear glasses. It was Buttercup accidentally knocking out her teeth that made Bubbles discover the tooth fairy.
But then the bad memories came back for both of them. The memory of the inciting incident that started it all.
Buttercup could see herself casting a menacing shadow over her sister as Bubbles sat innocently over the ground on the blacktop, having picked up the dodgeball that rolled her way in her hands.
"What are you doing with my ball?!" She heard herself ask aggressively. Buttercup scowled at her previous self for being so rude. She winced when she saw herself snatching the ball away.
"Give it! We got a game goin' on!" She stopped to express disdain for what she saw all over the ball. "Aw man, you got chalk all over it! You know Bubbles, this is a PLAYGROUND, not a DRAWING ground!"
"Says who?" Buttercup now muttered bitterly, angry at her past self for being so unfair.
"Alright Mitchie, give it your best shot! If you miss, you gotta play with Bubbles and her chalk!"
She watched Bubbles' head snap up with annoyance.
"Hey! You erased my drawings!"
"Uh, sorry?" Mitch nervously apologized.
"What are you apologizing for? She shouldn't draw her stupid pictures over the blacktop if she doesn't want 'em played on!"
"I have every right that you do to be here!"
Of course she did. Bubbles had only been trying to defend herself. Buttercup was being selfish and trying to hog the whole playground for herself...
"Well SHE started it!"
"SHE was the one drawing all over the place!"
"SHUT UP!" Blossom had shouted over the chaos. "Bubbles, you first!"
"Buttercup has to share the blacktop just like everyone else!"
"No way! I ain't sharin' nothin'! This is a playground! There's plenty of paper in the classroom! She doesn't have to mess up the blacktop with her scribbles! You know what I think of Bubbles and her drawings? You know what I think?!"
No, you idiot! Present Buttercup shouted at her past self. Don't do it!
SMASH!
Bubbles' chalk was destroyed. She had to look at the shocked and disbelieving expression over her sister's face all over again. She had to endure her own unapologetic boasting: "That's what I think."
She had to watch Bubbles drop to her knees for the second time, her head hanging low with a sad and hopeless expression of loss and grief. Then she watched the anger contort that face. The gritted teeth. The heavy breaths. The panting, screeching, sweating.
Buttercup saw her own smug smile. Bubbles shaking as she couldn't bring herself to do anything harmful to her sister. Her pain overpowering her anger. And the tears as well as the vomit that followed.
Bubbles crying more heavily and heartbreakingly than she ever had before. Buttercup looking at her with shock, appalment, and horror.
"I'm sorry, Bubbles." Present Buttercup said, walking over to her past crying form. "I'm so sorry."
Her past self said it too, more timidly, unsure. "I'm s-sorry, Bubbles."
And then the scene jumped ahead to Bubbles attacking her.
Bubbles' jaw sank at her savage, near animalistic actions. How hard she had attacked Buttercup, dragging her through a trench into the ground as she tackled her harder than she'd ever tackled her before.
She was having the exact same memory play beneath her eyelids as Buttercup.
She saw the tears streaming from her eyes, the anguish over her face, and the way she was violently slamming Buttercup into the ground over and over again as she sat on top of her, making the back of her head bounce repeatedly off of the blacktop.
"Stop it!" Bubbles shouted at her previous self. "Just stop it! It's not that serious!"
But she didn't stop. She just kept going. Her hands tightened around Buttercup's neck. She didn't even know she was strangling her, but Buttercup was quickly losing air.
"STOP IT!" Bubbles was screaming, sobbing softly at the sight of this. Forced to be a witness to it from the outside. "You're gonna kill her! You're gonna kill her..."
Her eyes widened when she realized that Buttercup couldn't breathe and she immediately relinquished her grip, letting her sister breathe precious oxygen again. But she didn't apologize. She simply said, "I hate you, Buttercup." for the umpteenth time, and flew away.
Buttercup could never forgive her for that. Bubbles could never forgive herself. What kind of sister tried to kill their other sister? What kind of sister was that?
Blossom woke up to the sound of both of her sisters softly crying from the sections of their bed, trying to silence their sobs as their little bodies shook beneath the covers. Blossom looked at this with sorrow, and then she closed her eyes with a large, single tear rolling down one of her own cheeks as well.
The next morning...
Blossom was the first to wake up again when the sun's bright rays shone through their large, oval windows. She had promised Buttercup that tomorrow would make everything better between her and Bubbles, but now she really wasn't so sure.
She sat up in bed, seeing that Buttercup was gone from her section of the bed, but Bubbles was still there. She turned around to her side and gently shook her blonde sister awake.
"Bubbles? Are you awake?" Blossom asked.
Bubbles murmured tiredly before blinking her eyes and turning to her sister, confirming to her that she was. "Yeah. I'm awake."
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah. I guess so."
Blossom paused, looking at the empty space across their bed where Buttercup had previously taken residence.
"She really is sorry, Bubbles." She decided to say now, unable to keep up her silence throughout this whole conflict anymore. Not when it was so clearly killing the two of them.
"I know." Bubbles acknowledged softly. "I know she is, Blossom. I'm not mad at her. Honest."
"Then what's wrong?"
"I think... Buttercup hates me. And if she doesn't, she probably should hate me. And it would be better if she wasn't around me anymore."
Blossom was shocked. Her jaw sank. Her sister couldn't have been more wrong if she tried to be. She adamantly shook her head, placing a fingerless hand on her sister's shoulder.
"No Bubbles, you don't understand. She misses you."
"Misses me?" Bubbles asked in bewilderment. It seemed like this had genuinely not occurred to her.
"Of course she does! It's killing her not to be able to spend time with you. She really does love hanging out with you."
"Really?" Bubbles asked in a small voice, still with a touch of incredulity.
"Of course! You guys are like two peas in a pod when you wanna be, especially when you're up against me."
"What do you mean?" Bubbles asked innocently.
"Well, there was the time you guys gave me a bad haircut and then you had a good laugh about it for the majority of the day." Even though Bubbles now had the maturity and foresight to feel bad about that, blushing with a decent amount of shame, Blossom was quick to reassure her, ruffling her hair.
"No no, Bubbles, it isn't like that. I'm not mad - anymore, that is. I got you both back for that so it's whatever. But you two really were having a good time with each other. Even when it was at my expense... I kinda missed that. It was the same when you both left me hiding in a cupboard for two and a half hours so you could ditch me to play video games. Pretty insensitive, but also kind of funny when you think about it, especially when I enacted my evil plan and unplugged your game!"
"Yeah," Bubbles chuckled. "That was pretty funny. We had such a good time playing games in the rain..."
"And that's all Buttercup wants to do with you now. She wants to make more good memories with you."
Clarity suddenly hit Bubbles. Realization struck her like a lightning bolt.
"Oh my gosh, how could I be so stupid? I've been pushing Buttercup away this whole time when I should've been bringing her close!"
Blossom smiled. She was so glad this whole thing was finally over. "Well, it's not too late, Bubbles. I'm sure she's probably waiting for you in the kitchen. Go in there and tell her how much you care."
"I will!" The Puff promised, and zipped off as fast she could past the stairs.
It didn't take long for her to find Buttercup lonely in the kitchen, depressingly eating her oatmeal, not really seeming to take joy in the activity at all.
"Buttercup!" Bubbles called, stopping in the doorway of the kitchen, still in her pajamas.
Buttercup looked at her with surprise at first, before her eyelids fell once again. "I was just..." she said sadly, picking up her bowl of oatmeal. "Leaving."
"No!" Bubbles shouted. "Buttercup, you don't have to go!"
"Why not?" The girl asked dejectedly. "All I do is cause pain. All I do is hurt people. All I do is hurt you, Bubbles, and I don't want to hurt you anymore."
"No, wait!"
"Before I go, I just want to say one thing. I'm sorry, Bubbles."
"But-"
"No, let me finish, alright?" Buttercup interrupted, not wanting to ruin this one opportunity. "I want you to know that I was wrong. I was wrong about everything. I need you more than you need me, Bubbles. I need you way more than you need me. You don't need me at all."
Her eyes started to tear up. "Even if I miss you so freaking much and I miss hanging out with you. Even if I miss all the cool stuff that we did. All the pranks and the trouble that we got up to together. I know I messed it all up. I know you hate me for everything that I did."
"You know, and I'm sorry for all those times I made you cry. I'm sorry for all those times I mocked you, hurt you, bullied you, and made you feel like crud. I'm sorry I'm probably the worst sister in the world and you know, you're way better off without me-"
Bubbles was shocked. She stared at her sister with wide, pained, uncomprehending eyes.
"I just need you to understand that... I just..." She couldn't finish and began to walk out, turning away from Bubbles with tears standing in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Bubbles. I'm sorry."
"No! Buttercup, wait!" Bubbles cried, zipping towards her sister in a blue flash and grabbing her tightly from behind in a hug. "I love you! I'm sorry I made you so upset! I didn't mean to!"
Buttercup reacted to this with confusion. "What are you doing, Bubbles? I thought you hated me."
"No!" The girl quickly replied, adamantly shaking her head. "I thought YOU hated ME! I thought after what you did on the playground and how you said that that was how you really felt, that you didn't wanna be around me anymore!"
You know what I think of Bubbles and her chalk? You know what I think?!
"I thought after what I did-"
Bubbles, she can't breathe! Please stop!
"-that you!"
Buttercup hugged her back immediately, squeezing her hard. "No. Never. Are you kidding? I deserved it. I was never mad at all. After everything that I did it was only a matter of time before you snapped. It was my fault for never seeing you as as person before then, Bubbles. A person with feelings that I took advantage of."
Bubbles sniffled, returning the hug strongly. "It's not your fault I'm such a baby."
"At least you aren't afraid to show your true feelings, even if they are soft most of the time. I suck at that. I'm always trying to be tough, even when at times I just wanna cry out my eyes out or hide underneath my covers. That was why I never told you guys how I really felt about my blanket. How I loved it almost as much as you love Octi. I thought it was lame and that you guys would make fun of me for it."
Bubbles wiped her eyes. "Buttercup, that's just plain silly! We would never do that. If you had just told us from the beginning, we would've understood."
"I know, it's just hard. To be... open like that. Most of the time. I don't know how you do it so easily."
"I guess it's just because I'm sensitive. I can never hide my feelings, no matter how hard I try. I guess that's just a part of who I am. But I never hated you for being who you are, Buttercup. I never could. You're my sister. I love you."
"Yeah, right back at you, kid." Buttercup returned, wiping her own eyes. "I'm not gonna take advantage of that anymore. It really sucked being on my own."
"I know it did. I'm sorry for pushing you away, Buttercup."
"And I'm sorry for doing the same."
The two finished their hug, not even caring that they'd had a big overly sentimental cry-fest in each other's arms, and then Buttercup thought to add, "Oh and Bubbles?"
"Yeah?"
No longer showing any hint of the former emotion, she flatly replied, "You made me drop my oatmeal on the floor, you big baby."
Both Buttercup and Bubbles looked at the mess on the floor... and then they both threw their heads back in laughter, the sound pure and joyful. Another good memory to fall back on.
"Tee hee hee! Sorry about that. Why don't we both try to make breakfast together?" Bubbles offered, slinging an arm around her sister's shoulders.
"You know, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, sis." Buttercup replied, mimicking Bubbles' actions.
"Only this time, I'll make sure you don't make the oatmeal too hot."
"Hey! That was only because you guys were buggin' me to hurry it up! It wasn't my fault you two losers would rather have it done fast than have it done right."
Just around the corner, Blossom put on a happy smile at her sisters finally being able to get along again, and right beside her, the Professor wasn't too far behind. Never again would the three girls be separated.
And once again, the day is saved! Thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!
Chalk that up to sisterly love!