Chapter 2

Blossom didn't expect to see one of the boys so fast straight after the incident in the canteen. However, she was thankful that it wasn't Brick but rather Boomer.

It took her a bit of effort to get out of her sisters' questioning but was saved by the bell. Since they knew how much Blossom prioritized her studying, they let her off this time. With that, she just ran to her next class, which was the literature class. Despite having the choice to learn Old English, she cannot deny that it was a challenging class for her, considering how much possibilities there was in each of words, the hidden meaning, and the usage of it.

Imagine her surprise when she saw the blue ruff entering her class.

What was more surprising was that the blue ruff to sit beside her, her who he had never talked much too. Thinking back, she never had much interaction with the rest of the ruff except for Brick since each of them had their own hands full of their own counterpart.

Boomer seemed to notice her questioning stare. "I don't like sitting beside someone who talks too much." He stated, explaining himself beforehand as if to prevent any accusation.

She could kind of understand. The boys were new and perfectly good-looking; it was undeniable that they were getting popular in school due to that. Not to mention, the mysterious and dark aura that they had. Truly, they were the bad boys type that most girls would like.

Thinking back, she scanned the blue brother. His blonde locks were let down neatly, with his blue eyes clear for others to see. Over the years, his facial features had sharpened. Brick was slightly different, he had the same features, only that his hair was placed up and with his hat. Butch was similar, he had cut off the old ponytail to have a short haircut. His long fringe was much more shortened though it still occasionally covered his right eye.

Blossom looked at the Boomer, slightly torn between listening to classes or interrogating her seatmate. With much hesitation and reluctant, she picked the latter. She could always catch up with her studies, but there was only this one time that Boomer was willing to sit beside her.

"Look, I am hoping to have a perfectly fine conversation with you, one without argument or fighting." She started before she could convince herself that it was a bad idea. "What do you think?"

Boomer rose an eyebrow. "That isn't hard." He leaned his chin on his palm. "I know you have tons of question. Just spit it out. I will try my best to answer." Boomer, truthfully see no harm in telling her some things, was casual. They were actually planning to be a good citizen this time round while they were in school, so he doesn't see a point of getting secretive.

Blossom was surprised the second time in this period. She was not expecting for him to be so open about it. In their previous encounterz]s, Boomer seemed to be always the one that was preventing his brothers from saying anything or do anything. What could it be that made Boomer so comfortable with sharing now?

Shaking her head to get rid of her thoughts, she focused on Boomer. "You don't have a problem with me?" She whispered, careful about getting caught from the teacher.

"Why do I need to have a problem with you? That's Brick's role." He was adamant about not whispering. With the constant peeking that her petite female professor was looking, Blossom had a feeling that the teacher refuse to call on them from fear of the blue ruff.

"So your role is to have a problem with Bubbles?"

"Thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious." Blossom resisted the urge of punching him. It would be bad for her to go back against her own words.

She thought of her next question carefully. "What is your motive in coming back?" She questioned, getting back to the main topic.

Boomer ruffled his hair. "Why do you girls keep asking this question? Didn't we clarify back in the principal's office?" He knew that Blossom was still suspicious of them. Of course she would be, the brains of the Powerpuff Girls wouldn't let her guard down so easily unless she got an acceptable answer. "We came back to do something."

"Which is?" She pressed further.

Boomer smirked darkly. "To kill whoever did that to us ten years ago."

Blossom froze at the sight of such a Boomer. He was always the nice and innocent one out of the ruffs. For him to be like this, something must have happened. Before she could process anymore, Boomer was back to the normal him as though Boomer noticed her fear. His normal demeanor was back in place.

"I scared you, didn't I?" He laughed. "Don't worry, it was a joke." He shrugged it off casually.

Noticing that Blossom was not replying, still frozen. Boomer continued.

"Well, you see, we just missed Townville and wanted to come back to study here, I guess. I mean we are still young and wanted to do reckless things so here we are, studying here without anything prepared." He explained, looking at the words on the whiteboard.

"What happened to the three of you ten year ago?" Blossom focused on that incident instead. It must be the crucial key that caused the ruffs to be the ruffs they were today and their weird actions. Blossom can't let it go. She had to find out.

Boomer sighed. "Like I said, I just joking around. Don't think so much about it. You can't take a joke, can't you?

However, Blossom had this gut feeling that the former reason was their true motive, instead of them wanting to study here.

"You said that you will do your best to answer me." She accused, looking at Boomer. At this point of time, Blossom no longer cared that she was in a classroom, or that she had to learn something from this class or if there were any upcoming assignments. She needed to find out.

It took a while for Boomer to answer, as though he was weighing his options as to whether he should reply to her truthfully or not.

"You mean when you saw us?" Boomer was casual, to an extent that it was scary he could talk about it so casually.

Blossom didn't reply. She knew that Boomer knew what she was talking about.

"Forgot about that image. That's the last thing Brick want you to remember him by." He shrugged that off.

"Brick?" Why was he brought up in this conversation? Her mind was going in overload, trying to piece up the puzzles. The ruffs were always giving her more pieces but there was never a connection between any of them pieces. Yet. Blossom will make sure of that.

"Yes, Brick, my oldest brother and your counterpart." He answered in an obvious tone that made Blossom really annoyed. She herself knew those facts as well.

Calming herself down, Blossom collected her thoughts. "You didn't answer my question."

"I told you I'll try my best. However, if it is getting too personal, I can't reveal much."

Blossom wanted to argue. She contained herself. The last thing she wanted was to let this chance to slip off.

"What's the deal about Brick then?"

Boomer smirked once again. Only this time, it was more of a playful smirk. "Getting interested in my oldest brother, aren't you?'

Blossom fought the rising heat in her cheeks as she tried to act natural.

"Who is interested in that jerk?" She just wanted to hope to find out more through another direction. That's it, definitely it.

Boomer shrugged his shoulders. "Lots. He was one of the popular guys in the past where we used to live in."

"Where did you guys used to stay?"

"A few hours away from North of Townville, it is not a widely-known place, you wouldn't know even if I told you. We ran away that time and ended up there somehow."

Blossom scoffed. "I guess you are not going to answer my question upfront, huh?" Boomer had been avoiding answering her questions upfront for the past few minutes.

"Guess I got caught." He gave a mischievous smile.

Blossom frowned. It felt as though Boomer had brought her to the entrance of Heaven when he agreed to answer but pulled her down when she realized he was just fooling around with her.

"If only you showed this side of you to Bubbles." She muttered to get back at him. This time, it was Boomer's time to pause.

"Now, this is too personal."

Blossom reflected. If only someone told her that, she might hit that person.

"I apologize for that."

"Forget about it. Just don't ever talk about this again."

With that, Boomer proceed to lay his arm on the table to sleep, stopping the conversation effectively. Blossom, fully aware that it would be hard to get anymore replies from the blue brother, decided to focus in class instead.

"Morning Professor." Bubble greeted cheerfully in the morning as the Utonium household did their regular morning routine. Professor Utonium greeted back Bubbles while Blossom set their breakfast down. Buttercup came down from the steps and greeted Professor.

"So how have your findings of the boys been?" Professor asked as he kept his newspapers to have a good breakfast with the girls.

It had been a few days since the transfer of the boys into their school. The girls had kept their guard towards the guys and watched for any suspicious movement. However, they had come up with nothing. Not to mention, like what the boys they themselves had said—to stay away from the girls—was true as the two groups barely had any interaction other than some similar classes.

The girls shook their head. "They are acting like normal guys. " Buttercup exclaimed as though she was complaining about that. "Like Butch got himself a girlfriend is anything normal.'

"Isn't that good?" Professor was confused. The boys were not making any troubles and being a normal student. What was there for the girls to be complaining about?

Blossom shook her head. "Professor, they are too normal that it is weird. They returned after missing for ten years. Why did they come back? Where have they been during those ten years? It had been really weird." Blossom sighed, there was too many questions left unanswered and too many missing pieces to fill in the puzzles.

Not to mention, Boomer's answer had been worrying Blossom.

"To kill whoever did that to us ten years ago."

Was there really going to be a cold-blood murder here in Townsville?

For days, she thought of sharing it to her sisters. However, with the personality of Buttercup, she will definitely go up to them and start a fight with the boys. The boys might because of that, stop their plans.

Meanwhile, Bubbles would act on her own and approach Boomer to ask if that was true. Blossom knew that there must be something between the two of the blue counterparts from the way the both of them acted, Bubbles distracted by Boomers at times and Boomer avoiding Bubbles. Blossom had planned to figure what was happening secretly. She didn't want the boys to be more secretive than they were now.

Blossom bit her lips. It was only when Professor knocked on the table in front of her then did she snap out of her thoughts. "Blossom, you okay?"

Blossom hurriedly nodded her head. "Of course, just thinking about things."

Professor stared at his oldest daughter, having a vague idea of what she was thinking about. "Blossom, why not relax and stop looking at them with prejudice? Perhaps they really returned back just to attend high school and experience the life here."

The three girls looked at themselves, considering whether if that possibility was even possible, before nodding. Professor hardly goes wrong in his words.

With the girls' acknowledgement, Professor cheerfully turned on the television, treating as though the topic was done.

"Breaking News." A newscaster spoke on his desk. "Today, at 4:57am a young woman's body was found dead in a dark alley. With the fast work of the police, it was identified that she is Taylor Ricard, 18 this year. She was originally claimed to be missing since the 2 weeks ago but her body was only found now. Forensics team claimed that she was only dead for a few hours. Reason of death is same as Michelle Smith, drained of blood due to two thin holes on the side of her neck and another one on her wrist. This marks the third death in a week. Could this show a series of murders in Townville?"

This caught the attention of the girls.

"We should really catch this psycho killer sooner or later. Recently, none of the girls like to go home alone at night." Buttercup commented, taking a bite from her breakfast.

Professor looked at her. "None of you will be chasing down this murderer. Understand me?" He ordered, which made the girls paused for a moment. Professor had never said anything about them fighting crimes and more than often supported them even with all his best.

"Buttercup, I want you to come back home earlier too and be careful when it is dark." Buttercup looked at the Professor as though he had said something weird.

"Professor, I can handle that murderer if anything happens." Buttercup exclaimed. In case Professor had forgotten, his daughters were born with supernatural abilities. "I have abilities for this reason. To protect Townville."

"I didn't mean to create you three with abilities too." Professor stated. Buttercup looked like she was about to protest with that statement.

"I'm sorry, Buttercup but it is just that I get a feeling that this is not normal. I don't want anything to happen to the three of you, you understand me?" Professor pleaded.

"Got it, Professor, we will come back early these days. Don't worry too much about it." Being the natural oldest sister she was, she promised Professor to which Professor relaxed his shoulders.

He turned to look at the green puff. "Buttercup, I am serious. Each and all of you, I want you to be back home before 10pm from now on." He ordered. Buttercup looked reluctant but nevertheless agreed while Bubbles and Blossom nodded. Usually, Professor's intuitions were correct.

"I just don't get why Professor was being that strict." Buttercup complained, "I can easily take out the preparator if I wanted to." To demonstrate that, she punched her hands out.

Blossom nodded her head. "I am pretty sure that Professor just wanted to make sure that we are safe. This time, you have to agree that it was pretty weird. In a week, 3 girls were killed. No one knew what happened to them except that they died from lack of sufficient blood. However, those twin pair of holes in their body were the only visible injury but it was incapable of making them lose blood. So, what just happened? Also, there was no witness, no evidence or whatsoever." Blossom listed.

This kind of method was unfamiliar to the girls. In Townville, most of the criminals were open and would never do such complex method of killing. Furthermore, as the years went pass, some criminals had retired except for occasion reoccurrence with new weapons that the girls would take care of easily. Just who would do such a thing to disturb the peace in Townville?

"It is really a mysterious case. Who will do such a horrible thing?" Bubbles looked down in sorrow. The victims were similar age with the girls and attend this high school too. In fact, any girls in this school were potential victims for the next crime.

Buttercup clenched her fist. "Whoever it is, I will definitely catch him or her and make her pay for the innocent lives that was taken." She punched the air forward only to have it caught.

With a tug on her wrist, she stumbled forward to lean on a muscular chest which had her flushed.

"If I knew you wanted me that much, I would have offered myself to you gladly." The guy chuckled. Buttercup recognized the voice immediately and pushed away the guy.

"Like heck I will." She growled.

Standing in front of the three of the girls, were their counterpart. Brick was casually looking at his phone, Boomer was focused on the back of Butch and Butch was smirking. Blossom was busy analyzing the boys, Bubbles was focused on Boomer and while the presence of her counterpart annoyed Buttercup.

In the first week, the boys were considered as well-behaved. Except for occasional classes of misbehavior such as truancy and bad attitude, they had attended their classes and was acting like actual students.

Also, the girls were meeting their counterparts with increasing frequency. However, it had been nothing more but the usual.

Brick and Blossom was still engaging in a debate and see whether would get infuriated more by the end of their conversation. By far, it had been Brick that was winning most of their arguments and leaving Blossom so mad that her sisters had to suffer her ranting about her red-eyed counterpart. That victorious smirk that he always used whenever he won the debate was hunting Blossom.

Bubbles and Boomer were still the same. Boomer was doing the best that he could at avoiding the blonde girl that had been trying to make conversations with him. It didn't help that they shared the same interests which meant that he would meet her more in the common subjects that they had which was quite a fair bit.

Butch was still annoying Buttercup with his way of speaking and the only one that actually look forward to meeting the puff. Though he seemed to adopt playful personality when he was around Buttercup, Buttercup knew that he was different from the previous Butch but that didn't stop her from getting angry at his flirty ways and provoking him to a fight.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Buttercup glared at the green ruff in front of her.

Butch raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, you are the one who knocked into me. Shouldn't you say sorry for that?" He teased.

"You were the one who tugged me first." She protested indignantly.

"After nearly getting hit by your punch. It was an act of self-defense." He refuted.

"As if you need to protect yourself, you heal faster than normal humans." She pointed out. The Chemical X in their body was fully capable of that. Although they did heal faster, it was just slightly faster than humans.

"That does mean it does not hurt." Butch narrowed his eyes.

Buttercup crossed her arms. "I wasn't even using my strength in that punch." She noticed the fact that Butch had really grew a lot, since she was now one head shorter or even more than Butch. "What's about you then? You suddenly came out of nowhere with your brother then start pulling random girl's wrist?"

"How was I supposed to—"

"Butch, let's go to class." Brick ordered, not even looking up from his phone as he was reading something intently. This caught Blossom's attention, what could distract Brick that much?

Looking back at the three of them, Blossom noticed that the boys looked tired, as though they had not gotten any sleep for the past few days. It was clearly shown in their dark eye circles. What were they doing at night?

Butch nodded to his older brother's words. "Let's continue this conversation later Butters." He winked as he turned back with his brothers to go somewhere else. Buttercup looked offended by that nickname.

"Don't you think it is rude to leave in a middle of a conversation and even more rude to interrupt a conversation?" Blossom couldn't stop herself from saying.

They looked back. "If Buttercup isn't even saying anything, why are you cutting in then? Isn't that even more impolite to impose your opinion on others?" Brick retorted.

Blossom opened her mouth to rebut but no words came out.

Brick smirked, making Blossom to want to punch him.

"Did you hear what were they talking about just now?" Brick asked. He looked perfectly calm but his voice held a tint of anxiousness.

Butch and Boomer nodded "Yeah, the murder cases." Boomer replied.

"Argh, I knew that the girls won't ignore this. First time was an accident but now that there are three victims now, the girls will definitely investigate it." Brick growled, as he glared at the newspaper article that he just saw. He had no idea what the third victim had happened until the girls were talking about it. "Them and their stupid superhero acts." Frustrated, he hit the table, leaving an apparent dent mark which made his brothers widen their eyes.

Brick usually had full control of him, including his strength. Today was an exception, he was more irritated and no control.

The other two brothers looked at each other, recognition appearing in their eyes. "Brick, when was the last time you fed yourself?" Butch asked, recognizing the symptoms easily. Irritation was a common symptom when they had a lack of blood. Also, they had been lacking in sleep these days trying to get information.

Brick looked at his green brother as though he had grown another head. "Is that the problem now? The girls are going start investigating the cases and when I last fed is all you care about?" He growled.

"Just answer me." Butch replied back, not even bother taking offense from Brick's harshness.

Brick shook his head in resignation. "I don't know. Before we come to Townville?"

"Crap, Brick that is a lot of days." The blue ruff protested as he took out a packet of Apple juice and threw it to Brick who easily caught it.

"Drink this." He gestured to the packet.

Butch looked at his younger brother in astonishment.

"Seriously?"

"What?" Boomer looked at the green ruff.

"I meant he was thirsty for blood, not juice!" Butch raised an eyebrow at his brother's stupidity sometimes.

Boomer stared at his brother, even more amazed now. "What do you expect, Brick to walk around with a blood bag on his hands? Everyone will freak out!"

"But apple juice can't solve shit."

"It's blood." Brick commented as he was sucking on the straw innocently.

Butch paused at that before looking around furiously. "You put blood in that? What if someone took it and drink it?" He whispered.

Boomer shrugged his shoulders. "It will always be in my bag. You know I hate it whenever people touches my things without permission."

"But still-" He wanted to protest but paused when he couldn't find a good excuse. Boomer hated people touching his things without his permission to an extent that he might attack that person so Butch dropped the debate.

"Back to the topic, shouldn't we worry about the case right now?" Brick diverted the conversation. He was getting anxious about solving the case. "We had been patrolling every night but there was no sighting of people getting attacked."

Butch sighed. "We can't do anything about that. After all, Townville is still considered as big. We never know when or where are those people going to commit crime."

"If only we had some patterns." Brick bit his lips.

Boomer suggested. "At least we know whoever he or she is, attacks girls that are runaways or at least won't be that publicized when missing."

"But that is not enough." Brick complained, ruffling his head in frustration.

"There is nothing else for us to do but to just continue patrolling." Butch pointed out.

The other two nodded. The bell rang.

"Let's go to class for now. At least it is the weekends tonight so we can spend more time researching tonight." Brick stated.

Butch groaned. "Again?"

"Shut up."

"Alright class, I know this is the last period for you guys so I am expecting a full cooperation with you guys. I do not expect anyone to slack off or get injured." The gym teacher called out. This was the period where all the six supernatural students were in.

"We will be doing dodgeball today. Since this class have an equal number of guys and girls, so split yourself up." He shouted as the class quickly split themselves out.

"Mr. Winters, guys and girls have different strength. How can we possibly win against them?" A brunette in the class, Amelia if Blossom didn't remember wrongly, voiced out.

"Well Ms. Jackson, considering how the ball just have to touch them, it will be fine." The teacher dismissed the students' concern.

No one dared to voice out the fact that there were six students with unfair disadvantages in fear of getting targeted during the game. It was a known fact that the girls would not use their powers when playing games in gym but they weren't sure about the boys. This made the whole class nervous.

"Who's going to be the captain of each team?" He asked. The boys and the girls team each respectively chose their own leader after a discussion. It was Buttercup for the girls and Mitch for the guys.

"Oh, BC you are so going to get your butt kicked." Mitch boasted. Being the quarterback of the school soccer team, Mitch had become much fitter than he used to be. The both of them remained as best friends and occasionally joke around with each other.

"Shut up Mitch, say the one who always lose to me." Buttercup retorted, gaining some cheers from the girls.

"I wanted the captain position." Butch grumbled, which was heard by his brothers that was standing around him.

Brick rolled his eyes at that. "It is just a position. We are supposed to be lay low here and not attract attention remember?" Boomer nodded to that.

That offended Butch. "You don't know how important the position is to athletics."

"The problem is, you are not even an athletic." Boomer stated which earn him a punch on the arm.

"Shut up. What do you know?" The green ruff growled.

The blue brother rolled his eyes. "Enough to know that your skills are mainly due to your powers."

Butch was ready to tackle him till they heard the teacher clapping to get their attention.

"Enough chattering! Start!" The teacher blew on his whistle.

The girls got to attack first. They started throwing the ball at the guys' side before getting an attack back. Despite saying that there might be an unequal strength between the two teams, both teams were holding out quite well. When one side ousted a person, the other side would soon follow. Occasionally, screams could be heard from girls who broke their nails or fell by accident. Other than that, the game was rather intensive.

Although Mitch had boasted about winning Buttercup before, he was soon ousted in the first few rounds as all the girls were aiming at him. In fifteen minutes, each of the courts left around six members. Both Power Puff and Rowdy Ruff was still in the court.

None of the team was letting each other win. Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles were doing their own part in the job. Everyone was focused, waiting for the outcome of the match.

"Focus on Buttercup, she has the most offense in the team." Brick shouted, looking at the green girl in front of him. She lived up to her name of being good in sports, though everyone was panting and sweaty, it was apparent that she had good stamina.

"Girls, aim at Butch." Buttercup yelled. Butch was the same state as his counterpart, both unyielding to the other.

Butch got the ball. He was throwing towards Buttercup who jumped up to catch the ball, along with her red headed sister. They collided with each other and the ball bounced out of the court.

Blossom took most of the fall as Buttercup fell on her. "Crap, Bloss you okay?"

This caught the attention of the whole court. A familiar smell caught the boys' notice.

Blood.

The three of them stared at each other, with warning sign in their eyes. Brick turned to look at Blossom who was standing up before falling again. The teacher came forward to check on Blossom.

"Ms. Utonium, it seemed like you have a really bad sprain." Blossom hissed as the teacher grabbed her ankles. "Along with some scratches I see." Mr. Winter looked at her elbows which helped to break her fall against the rough surface of the floor.

"We need to bring you to the nurse's office. Now who can bring Ms. Utonium to the office?" The teacher looked around. Buttercup, who was feeling bad about the injury, was about to offer her help.

However, before Buttercup could even open her mouth to offer, she felt a breeze besides her and Blossom, was already the arms of someone else.

"I'll take her." Brick's low voice made Blossom shiver. He sounded angry which made Blossom wonder why.

The teacher looked surprised, as though he had never seen someone with supernatural abilities. Or perhaps, it was the fact that Brick looked so angry right now that made the teacher's face turn pale.

Realizing that she was being carried bridal-styled by Brick Jojo, her counterpart, Blossom's face was flushed red. Whether if it was embarrassed or humiliation, she had no idea. She could feel his warmth that was from his body due to the close proximity.

"B-Brick, I can walk by myself." She tried to stop herself from stumbling over words but failed. Not wanting to trouble anyone, she struggled to get down but it seemed to made Brick even more angry as his grip on her tightened.

"I said that I will take you." He growled, as though as he was being threatened. The fact that she was getting stares from her classmates, made her really embarrassed. Blossom hid her face in his neck.

"You don't have a problem with that right?" He asked the teacher who quickly shook his head nervously.

"Brick, put my sister—" Buttercup called out to be stopped by the green brother.

"Butters, don't make it worse." Butch warned.

Buttercup paused at that statement. "Why did Brick take Blossom?"

"Because he offered." Boomer replied, looking serious. "Leave it. He won't hurt her."

"How do you know that?" Bubbles asked slightly timid. Though she was still soft-spoken as always, she was worried about her oldest sister.

"I don't." He shrugged his shoulders. "But I trust Brick."

"Brick, what's wrong with you?" Blossom squeaked as she tried to hide herself away from the stares that she was gaining on the way to the infirmary. This wasn't like her, when was she ever afraid of Brick Jojo? However, she knew it herself that she was slightly intimidated.

Brick was different. He had anger written all over his face but Blossom could somehow sense that the anger was not directed at her. When he sat her down on the bed that the infirmary provided, he was annoyed to find that no teacher was around.

"The infirmary teacher went on maternity leave last week." Blossom informed him. "They can't find a replacement teacher yet so there is no teacher on duty." She knew this because they tried asking her father but got rejected since Professor Utonium was a researcher, not a doctor.

Sighing, he took a box of first-aid that was left on the table. Sitting on the side of the bed, he focused on her ankle as he took out some oils to rub it. Taking out the sneakers that she was wearing for the gym class, he gently took a hold on her injured ankle, earning a wince from her.

"There is no need. Chemical X will heal us quickly." She protested when she realized what was he going to do, retracting her ankle.

Brick raised an eyebrow at her statement, grabbing her calf to stop her from moving. "Did you see how swollen it is? It will take weeks for a normal person to heal. Even with Chemical X, it will still take a few days or a week to finish healing.

Blossom was pretty sure that her face was red. This was the first time she had been so close with a guy and Brick was actually an attractive jerk, no matter how infuriating he was usually.

She let out a surprised sound when the cooling pad was placed on her ankle which made Brick looked back up at her.

"Brick, are you angry?" She asked in a soft voice, remembering how he was like.

"No." Brick replied shortly, as he wrapped her ankle and the cooling pad with a towel. "I need to deal with the wound on your elbow first." He sat closer to reach for her right hand to look at the wound.

Brick grumbled at the sight of this. "Why can't you talk better care of yourself?" Blossom looked away, preparing herself for the stinging pain of the anti-septic whip. However, she noticed that he was staring at the bleeding wound for quite a while.

"Brick?" She tried to get his attention.

Brick could hear Blossom calling out to him but he could not tear his eyes away from the red substance that was coming from her. It seemed to be teasing him and at the same time, daring him to drink it.

Though he had drunk some blood given up Boomer, he had not drunk in a few days. That amount was only merely enough to hold his thirst of at bay. However, Blossom's blood, it was calling out to him.

He wasn't strong enough to resist it. Something that he cursed himself for when his mouth was on it. He sucked on that broken skin and the blood made him felt like he was in heaven. This was the best blood that he had ever tasted. Just like how the rumors had described it, it was their mates' blood that vampires themselves craved the most.

Of course, it was his Blossom's blood.

His Blossom?

He must be going mad.

"B-Brick?"

This had him snapped out of his trance, pushing back the elbow away from him.

He turned to look at his counterpart to find her flushed red, looking at him intently. Once she realized that she had eye contact with him, she turned away to look at the wall.

Brick prayed that his eyes weren't glowing, a natural reaction that happened whenever he drank blood or when he had way too close interaction with his mate.

Attempting to gather himself well, he took the alcohol swipe and let it stick on the wound which got him a whine. "Sorry."

Blossom refused to look at him. "It's fine. I can take this degree of pain to the very least." She was acting strong. It didn't take him long to finish it. Making sure that the plaster was on, he shifted his attention back to the ankle.

Taking out the cooling pad and the towel, he spread medical oil and rubbed the heavily bruised ankle.

"Brick, what was that just now?" He could hear the hesitant and confusion in her voice

He tried to play it cool. "I was hoping that I can use Chemical X to see if I can make it heal faster."

"With your mouth?" She asked.

"With saliva. It is part of our body fluid so I was hoping that it will allow it to heal fast." He was casual, as though just now that kiss was nothing for him.

Blossom nodded absentmindedly, she couldn't straighten her thoughts, not after what Brick did. She was so distracted that she failed to realize that he had already helped her bandaged her bruised ankle.

"Alright, done. Remember not to walk too much, float if you have to." He ordered and kept all the items back into the first aid kit and placed it back to the original position.

"Floating attracts too many attention." She protested weakly. The girls wanted to have a normal school life such that they did their best to not use their superpowers when in school.

Brick looked at her. "So? Everyone knows that you guys had that abilities since young so what was the point?"

Blossom looked away. "That doesn't mean that they won't be prejudiced against us." She unconsciously hugged herself.

The red ruff sensed that there was something weird with the atmosphere and decided to stop it. "Well, since we are done here, I will get going first." He stood up to head back to the class.

"Wait!" Blossom exclaimed as she tugged on his shirt. Brick paused and looked back at Blossom who blushed. "Can't you stay here for a while?" She asked, "Or if you help me back to gym class, that's fine too." She suggested.

"What are you going to do if you went back?" He questioned. With that ankle of hers, it was impossible for her to continue playing that game.

"I don't know. Help out with keeping back the equipment?" She suggested, getting an exasperated look from Brick as he just sat back down on the bed.

"Forget about it. I will wait here with you till your sisters come and get you." He stated.

It was a silence after that. Brick was busy reflecting in his actions just now while Blossom was wondering how to start a conversation.

"Why did you help me?" She asked.

Brick just brushed it off. "Cause I wanted to. Why? Was I wrong in helping?"

"No, I was just curious. Thank you for helping me."

He just nodded in response.

Then the silence again. Blossom had a suspicion; was Brick ending the conversation intentionally? Was he avoiding her? But he had helped her.

"Why did you come back to Townville?" She mumbled softly, letting out what her mind was thinking. Noticing that, she immediately covered her mouth, hoping that he won't hear it.

Brick stared at her. "What do you think we came back for then?" He challenged.

"I don't know." She admitted. No matter how much she thought of, nothing made sense to her. Even the incident ten years ago, she can't link anything towards the current present. She had tons of theory but none of them made sense to her.

Due to that, Blossom felt that Brick became a mystery to her, perhaps even a stranger now. He was much colder than before, much stronger and even more intelligent if possible. If they were to really fight, she had a premonition that she would be losing.

"Boomer told me that he gave you an idea on it." Brick spoke up, in which she nodded back at.

Brick nodded. "So don't worry, it was an impulsive decision but we will still study well." He drawled on.

"Ten years ago," Blossom started as Brick stiffened. She didn't believe Boomer's words then.

"We came here to study." He growled, trying to stop her train of thoughts.

Blossom snapped up at that. "Lies! As if that will ever happen!"

Brick narrowed his eyes. "So you think you know us well enough to know that it is a lie?" He demanded.

"I just wanted to know what happened to you! Ten years ago, you left without a word after that then now you are back. I have been thinking of possible reasons but nothing made sense!" She raised her voice unconsciously.

"Don't ask. Don't even bother to attempt." Brick warned, making the competitive spirit in Blossom flare up. When did she had to listen to what Brick had said? "Blossy, stop it. It will do you no good at all."

Again with the nickname, it seemed like whenever Brick used the nickname on her, she found herself unable to protest at all.

However, since she had already started this conversation, might as well end it.

"I know what I saw ten year ago. That scene! The blood!" Blossom was stopped when Brick held her wrist tightly.

"Don't do it Bloss. Stop trying to rile up me and my brothers." He growled. The hold on her wrist hurt but Blossom refused to show any weakness.

Blossom bit her lip. "It was a mistake to run away then." She looked at him in the eyes, trying to be strong.

"No, it was the best thing you have done."