I do not own the Power Puff Girls or the Rowdy Ruff Boys

Chapter Thirteen: Worry For You

Blossom stood in her old room staring into her closet with a frown on her face. There were a handful of clothes she left after moving into the apartment with Brick, and she could see why she left them. A not of them didn't fit her—or if they did, then not in the same way that they did before her eight-and-a-half-month belly grow to its current mass. All that she saw she could wear was a red maxi dress that normally would've come down to her ankles would now thanks to her belly come to her calves if not higher. As much as she didn't want to wear it, she was left with little to no choice as she didn't have any other clothes besides the ones she wore the day before. At least her jackets would still fit, even if she couldn't button or zip them up.

As she got dressed, she thought back to her brief phone call with Brick the night before. His voice had changed when he got angry with her. Not his tone, but the voice. It didn't even sound like him and suddenness of his voice change tugged painfully at her memories. She'd heard it many times before from another. Once she hoped to never think of again in her life. She hadn't even fully formed the though in her mind when she felt her skin break out in shivers from the perceived danger. It was like ice going up rather than down her back, and that was saying something as she was practically ice itself. Something just wasn't right about, and it made her stomach turn to speculate what it could be.

There was a loud knock at the door, and it drew her attention, just as she was getting her flats on. She listened as the front door was opened and the professor let Brick in. It was through her super hearing that she was able to pick up on their brief conversation.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

There was a pause as Blossom guessed Brick moved through the house and sat on the couch. "You look tired."

"Midterms." The red Ruff answered.

The professor moved so he could sit in the armchair beside the couch. "This looks like more than just midterms."

Brick made a sound that Blossom couldn't distinguish. "I'm about to be a dad in a matter of weeks. How did you feel?"

"Both times I became a father was abrupt. Mojo's—."

"Don't mention the chimp to me." Brick said in a tone that shifted, much like it did the night before.

That sound had Blossom worried as she grabbed her back and prepared to leave the room. Pulling her door open, she came face to face with Buttercup. Her sister was still dressed in her nightclothes, a green nightdress with a black cat on the front. "Hey Buttercup."

"Morning Blossom." She said while moving past her to the stairs.

The elder girl reached out and urged her sister to stop with a hand to her wrist. "Buttercup, no fighting with Brick today."

"I don't—."

"You do and I'm telling you don't." Blossom glanced down the stairs, before bringing her eyes back up to her sister. "Just don't."

Something about Blossom's tone and grave expression made Buttercup hold back the retort that was on her tongue. Something more was bothering Blossom it had more to do than what was obvious to anyone. Buttercup sighed and nodded her head. "Fine."

"Thank you." She then released her sister and started to go down the stairs with her sister close behind her.

Brick turned his head to glance up at the girls and smiled wanly at Blossom. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah. Did you?" She asked, despite noticing the faint circles under his eyes.

Rather than answer, he stood up and went to her. Wrapping his arms around her, he breathed into her hair. "I feel better now." He murmured into her hair. When she pulled back to look up at him, he kissed her to prevent the question from spilling. "Let's get to campus, so we can talk to the dean."

"So I can talk to the dean. I want to handle this myself." Blossom reminded him.

"Right." He whispered.

"All I ask is that I be able to take my midterm before I'm due to give birth. I've discussed this before when the class first started, a second time when we were about a month from it, and once more yesterday. Yesterday, she expressed her reasons for why she would not allow me to midterm sooner. The overall gist was that I was the embodiment of irresponsible and unable to care for my child." Blossom said while feeling the harsh stare Professor Hughes on her. "It was uncalled for, discriminative, and insensitive."

"What was uncalled for was her destruction of my office." Hughes interjected after Blossom was finished.

"I will replace everything that was in her office that I destroyed as well as the plants that were outside the Education building." Blossom promised.

The dean, an older man with salt and pepper hair and a heavy mustache in a slightly ill fitting suit, leaned forward and linked his fingers under his chin. "Ladies, I have to say that both of your behaviors in their own way are unappealing of a Townsville U Falcon. However Professor Hughes, yours are more so. There are certain protocols and regulations that are in place to aid our students to perform to the best of their ability. If Miss Utonium has provided the proper documentation, and she has, I see no reason why she can't have her midterm expedited."

The stern professor's head dropped in aggravation. She did not want to yield to this young girl that had no right to make such demands. However, she liked her job and the benefits that came with it, so she bit her tongue. After it was finalized by the dean that Blossom's midterm would be made available for her to take next week, he dismissed the two of them. Professor Hughes waited for Blossom to exit, before following her. "You think this means anything, just because you get to take your midterm when you want?"

Blossom turned to look at the judgmental professor and clamped her hands over the strap of her satchel. "It's a small victory, but I was not without my own causalities. I have to replace the school's foliage and your office."

"We'll see how smug you are after you have your child and see how difficult raising it—."

"Him. My baby is a boy. If you can't respect me, at least respect the fact that I'm growing a person who will a better person than you." Blossom said as she turned on her heel and left the administration building. As she was leaving, she saw Brick leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and his head tilted back. As she got closer, she noticed his lips were moving as if he were talking to someone or himself. "Brick?"

Startled he opened eyes and turned to Blossom. "How'd it go?"

"I get to take my midterm next week with the others and I pay for my damages." She said while looking at him worriedly. "Everything's all good."

"Good." He said while reaching out to take her hand. "Let's go eat."

Blossom pulled him to a stop with force and stared up at him with probing pink diamond eyes. He stared back unflinchingly, idly wondering what she was looking for.

"What?"

Whatever she'd been looking for, she didn't see it and shook her head. "Nothing. Can I get Molten Fire Fries today? Your son really wants them today."

Brick laughed and rolled his eyes. "Your son is just going to have to do without, least he arrive in the middle of the night."

The two shared a laugh while walking toward the cafeteria. The weather was getting cooler and it felt amazing to the temperature orientated super humans. It was still warm enough for the girls to wear their skirts and guys their shorts, but cool enough to break out the various jackets and sweatshirts. Brick didn't tell Blossom earlier, but he liked the red dress she was wearing. Not just because it was in his favorite color, but because it highlighted her belly. He chose not to voice this aloud as he knew she wouldn't appreciated the same way he did, but seeing her belly reminded him that he made something rather than destroyed. He was taking classes and was going to learn to be an architect, so he could continue to make things. He'd be doing the exact opposite of what he was made to do. It gave him peace and an anchor to hold onto.

While Brick didn't say so, but last night unnerved him. When Butch returned to the apparent in need of a shower from his battle, he found a sink full of broken mirror and his brother holding his head in his hands. Thankfully rather than rib him for bailing on a fight, Butch snapped his brother out of his funk and tried to make sense of what the hell was the matter with him. Even now, he wasn't sure of he what he saw the night before. It could've been a hallucination brought on by stress for all he knew, or a nightmare spilling into his daydreams. He refused to believe without a doubt that the demon was back. However, he wouldn't be so arrogant as to think it wasn't a possibility. He'd bring it up with his brothers when he had the time.

"All right, everyone. Just a reminder that in a few weeks' time, you'll be taking your midterm. The review will be posted on the class page by the end of next week. On it will be terms you will be required to know along with anatomy, procedures, and class of animals you as a veterinarian will be helping."

The professor was talking, but his words were a hollow, almost muted out sound that barely made it to Bubbles' ears. A few desks away from her sat Jamie, who had for the past month been ignoring her. Whenever she tried to talk to him, he'd make some excuse to leave. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why he'd suddenly decide to not be her friend. At least, that was until Brick screamed at her the day before saying she was too stupid to see that Jamie liked her. Surely that wasn't true, but what if it was?

She now more than ever had to talk to Jamie to get to the bottom of this. The shuffling of the other students as they packed away their things, signaled to Bubbles that the class was over. Looking up, Jamie's curly head was quickly leaving thus was her chance to speak with him. It was only through the use of her super speed that she managed to gather her things and catch up with Jamie. It was through the use of her super strength combined with her speed that she was able to pick up Jamie and carry him off without anyone being able to stop her. It was only when Bubbles reached the typically empty tunnel that led to the amphitheater on campus, did she set a bewildered Jamie down.

"Wha—how—Bubbles?!" her friend panted as he gathered his wits about him. Bubbles stood with a frown on her face and her arms folded defensively across her chest. "What the hell?"

"I could ask you the same thing Jamie." Bubbles started out. "I mean, what happened?"

Jamie looked anywhere but at Bubbles for a second and then sighed. "It's nothing you did really, but I can't…be around you."

If that wasn't a dagger to Bubbles' tender heart, no one would know what was. Her throat got tight as the feeling of rejection flooded through her. "Why?" she choked out as she blinked wildly to prevent tears from falling.

"Does it matter?" He asked, not wanting to be the reason she cries. It was tearing him up inside and she wasn't even cully crying yet.

"Yeah, it does. Especially when you just out of no where start ignoring me and don't give me a reason why." She said, catching the few stray tears that fell from her eyes.

Jamie took a step towards her, placing his hand on her arm before thinking better of it. He then pulled back when she recoiled slightly from his touch. "Bubbles, you—you didn't make it easy for me to be around you."

"How?" She asked. "I didn't do anything."

"You were…Bubbles." He started out. "You were giggly. You were nice. You were funny. You were so…cute." His face was burning red with his confession and he rubbed the back on his neck anxiously, while his heart pounded in his chest. "But…you have a boyfriend. I mean, how can I-I-I can't. I mean, what is there for me to do or say about this?"

A guy you're too stupid to see likes you! The words rang through Bubbles' mind. When she first heard the words, she was in shock and hurt by being called stupid. Thinking about them now, she couldn't help but think that Brick was right. Jamie did like her.

"And the worst part of it was you friend zoned me without me even getting the chance to tell you that I liked you." Jamie said while looking away from her.

"When did I—?"

"When we were with Brick and Blossom and you told them, Boomer was a jealous dummy. Right after that you said we were just friends." Jamie told her as his own eyes dropped to the floor, so he wasn't looking at her anymore.

Bubbles' lips was quivering as the tears fell down her face. She was losing a friend, all because he liked her and it hurt too much for him to be around her. She hardly found that fair, but it also wasn't fair to him to keep spending time with her when he clearly didn't have a chance. "We can't be friends at all?"

"Hey, you can't be more upset than I am about this." He told her, unable to fight the urge to comfort her. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Your heart's not the one that's broken."

Bubbles looked up at her former friend and released a shuddering breath. "Right." she said while reaching for his hand on her shoulder and maneuvering it so their hands were still connected between them.

Jamie glanced down at their still joined hands and locked to memory the sight of the only time Bubbles would hold his hand like this. When she sniffled, the sound echoing in the tunnel, he made the impulsive decision to lean forward and press his lips to hers. It was so quick and sudden, that she didn't react aside from freezing into place. When he pulled back, he let her hand go and risked facing her ire for stealing a kiss by waiting for her reaction. That reaction turned out to be a blush that stained her entire face red with embarrassment rather than the anger he'd been expecting.

"You kissed me."

"Yeah." He said lamely. "Umm, it's okay if you tell Boomer that I did."

"Why?" she whispered as if afraid, which she sort of was, as she knew Boomer would react very badly to knowing someone besides him kissed her.

At that Jamie shrugged. "I don't know. You don't have to, but if you do it's okay." He then chuckled humorlessly. "I just hope he doesn't break my jaw for it."

"Yeah." She couldn't saw anything more intelligent at the moment.

The awkwardness of the moment dragged out, before Jamie shuffled away rubbing the back of his neck like he does when he's nervous. Bubbles was left staring at an empty space with a hand going to her mouth. She wasn't sure how to feel about having been kissed by another boy. All she could think about was Boomer. If he found out, he'd no doubt confront Jamie and hurt him. However, it would be worst if he found out from someone else. Bubbles had to tell him herself, but when?

As if the world were conspired against her, her phone rang and Boomer's ringtone sounded in the empty tunnel. She shouldn't have been surprised as he usually did call her around lunch time. Sniffling, she reached for her phone and stared at it, before taking a deep breath and answering. "Hey Boom." She winced at the sound of her voice. It was clogged with tears and pitched high with stress.

"Are you okay? Did Brick—."

"No, no. Brick didn't—I haven't even seen him today yet." She started while walking out of the tunnel. "It's midterms. I have a lot to study for in my classes and-and Jamie and I haven't had the chance to do our study sessions like we originally p-planned." Her heart started to speed up as she though she were lying. She wasn't necessarily, but she wasn't telling him the whole truth either. It made her stomach turn.

"Oh." Boomer said plainly, and Bubbles was sure he was trying not to reveal how much their separation made him feel. "You have been studying right?"

"Yeah, it's just a lot on my own." Bubbles sniffled.

"You sound like you could use a break." Boomer told her over the phone. "Would you want to go away this weekend? I work the early shift on Friday, and we can go to the lake in Little Tokyo for the weekend." He suggested.

"Sure. Yeah. That sounds great." Her trying to be excited wasn't in the least bit convincing. "I ever tell you you're a really great guy Boomer? You may have started off as a pain, but I really love you, Boomie."

"I love you too, Angel." Boomer told her, before talking to someone on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, Alice? All right, I'm coming. I got to go, but I'll call you tonight."

"Okay." She said, before he told her he loved her again and hung up. Bubbles leaned against the tunnel walls. She brought her hands over her face and let out a groan. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and started to make her way away from the amphitheater. Glancing at the time, she knew that Blossom and Brick would be in the cafeteria. She didn't have any messages from her sisters, so she knew that weren't concerned about her not being there. Still, she sent them a text saying she was going to her dorm saying she didn't feel well because honestly, she didn't.

"Here's your burger with the works and fries." Joey said as he sat Butch's plate in front of him. He then turned to Buttercup and sat her plate down. "And your burger with no onions and extra pickles and a milkshake."

"Thanks Joey." Butch said looking up at his friend.

The owner of The Joint just smiled and tilted his head in a nod toward Blossom before heading back to his chicken. The young married couple were silent as they began to dig into their food. Buttercup had reached for the ketchup and mustard and rather than putting them directly onto her burger, squirted ample amounts of both on her plate and dipped her burger in each sauce before taking a bite. Butch laughed at her quirky habit, as he chewed his own bite of burger.

"I don't get why you do that rather than just putting it on the burger." He told her. "You just get more sauce on your face than in your mouth.

As she was wiping said extra sauce from her face with her finger and then sucking on it, she rose a brow at him. "You insist that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich must be eaten with the peanut butter side on top."

"It should." He laughed, before taking a moment to get to get serious. "I wanted to talk to you about—."

"No." Buttercup cut him off, knowing exactly what he wanted to talk about. He'd been wanting to for a few weeks now, but she couldn't bring herself to. "Not here."

"Buttercup, why do you think we're here? No one really knows us or would care that we're married." He picked up some fries and stuffed them into his mouth. "Listen, we've got to get over sex thing."

"We are getting over it." Buttercup told him as she reached for a fry from his plate to dip into his milkshake. "Not as fast as you'd probably like, but we are."

Leaning back in his seat, Butch leveled Buttercup with a hard glare. "Cupcake." He dared to say.

Like he expected, Buttercup froze and looked anywhere but at him. She then pulled her milkshake to herself and leaned away from Butch. As she tucked into her milkshake, she spun the straw around sullenly. "I don't want you calling me that. I already told you not to."

"It's the nickname I gave you." Butch said. "A little joke between us about your name, Toots. I'm not going to stop calling you that just because of some asshole."

Looking up from her milkshake, she sighed and set the tall glass on the table. "Right. The same asshole that asked while we fucked if I liked to be iced. He wondered if you would ice his wife."

Butch's eyes shot up to Buttercup's face with wide eyes. "That fuckwad said that to you?"

"Yeah, so can you please drop the Cupcake issue?" she snapped.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her.

The jade glare she leveled him with was paired with a disgusted scoff. "Yeah, right. You want to hear how another guy fucked me?"

"I'll tell you how I fucked that girl, if it'll make you feel better." Butch threw out at her.

"Don't be an asshole, Butch." The green Power Puff snapped, her voice raising just a bit. She lowered it when a few of the diners got quiet and turned their way.

"I'm not. I'm just trying to do whatever it'll take for me to get you back." His own nerves were steadily getting shot with this emotional distance between him and Buttercup. Their relationship started with their being emotionally distant from each other. It was just sex that Butch felt he could just walk away from at any time. As they fought and kept having sex, their feelings grew. The thought of her pulling herself away from him in anyway, hurt more than he would be willing to admit.

His appetite was gone, and he signaled for Joey to bring him a to go box. Buttercup saw this and sat up to lean toward him. "Butch."

"Don't." He told her with a hard, green stare. "Just don't." He said while reaching for his wallet for the "allowance". Butch would think his older brother was being funny, but he knew Brick did have some sympathy for him—despite making him an indentured servant through housework and promised diaper changes.

Thinking of his brother reminded him of the sight he came home to. Brick was on the floor and the mirror was broken. Before he left to meet up with Buttercup, he spoke with Brick's landlord and coordinated a time for when a maintenance man could come to fix the wall and replace the mirror. He wasn't sure what happened, but the last time Brick broke a mirror it had something to do with H.I.M. He hoped—and dare he say it—prayed that H.I.M had nothing to do with this. He just hoped it was first time daddy jitters, school—hell, even something to do with Mojo would be better than dealing with their deceased mother. He'd check on him when he got to his temporary home.

"What do you mean don't?" Buttercup asked him, not catching onto his lost in thoughts look. "I haven't done anything."

Those words drew her husband's gaze back to her, and his frustration spilled out toward her. "You're doing the same thing you always do when you're upset, Buttercup. You wallow and get in your own head."

"I don't—."

"You do. Rarely and this is one of those times where you let someone else get in your head, and I hate it. Especially since it's that jackass who wasn't even considerate enough to give you an orgasm!" Butch bit out just as Joey came by with a to go box.

"Whoa, what did I walk in on?" The jovial cook said he looked between one third of the Rowdy Ruff and Power Puff trio. When the two of them didn't say anything and just looked angrily at one another, Joey, set his hands on his waist and waited. "Something wrong?"

"No." They both said at the same time. Buttercup's face was pinched as she ran a hand through her hair. Butch released a sharp, exasperated breath as he began packing his partially eaten meal.

"Bullshit. What's going on?" The question left no room for argument.

The two remained silent as Butch finished packing his food and threw money onto the table. "Well, we got married. Had a wedding night with swingers. We're now separated, but only until I get a job. Only then will father in law let me live with my wife, so for now I stay with Brick because the monkey kicked me out. However, I don't know if living with my wife will solve whatever other fucking problems we have, because she won't sleep with me. That one right there is just a fucking mental block she developed from the swingers."

"Everything is everyone else's fault Butch, but never your own!" Buttercup spat at him, now pissed off to high heaven. "It was your idea to stop in Vegas. You had the fucking fake IDs! You suggested we go to the fucking casino where we met those people! You had just as equal a part in all this shit as me!" She stood up and was now screaming. She knocked Joey's hands from her when he reached for her.

Butch just sat there with a tight jaw and a challenging glint in his eyes. He remained quiet as she finally put all her frustrations out there. It was always piece by painful piece before she released the tempest. He hated having to push her to such extremes, but he hated it even more when she held back for whatever reason and didn't honestly tell him why. Now he knew, and he couldn't say he was surprised that she was angry at him. The events leading up to their current situation was Butch's fault, but he only did the action. Buttercup's reaction wasn't helping things either. "Was it really so hard to tell me you were pissed with me?"

"Butch!" Joey turned to look at his protégé.

The dark haired teen didn't have a chance to say anything before he was met in the face with chocolate milkshake. Carefully opening his eyes, he watched as Buttercup shattered the glass and stormed out of the diner. The sound of her take off was the last thing he heard before Joey groaned. "Why do you three always bring your problems into my place?"

Looking up at Joey though the milkshake, Butch rose a brow.

For the second day in a row, Butch returned to Brick's apartment in great need of a shower. He saw both Blossom and Brick's cars in the parking lot, so he knew they were home. He'd made sure to clean up a majority of the mess while at the dinner, so as not to make a mess in his own car and in Blossom's house. Still he was sticky and was starting to smell.

Walking into the apartment, he was surprised to Blossom sitting in the middle of the floor with the parts of a swing organized piece by piece beside her. The instructions were held in her hand and being scrutinized with more intensity than Butch thought was needed.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he closed the door.

"About to build a swing." Blossom said without looking at him. "Can you get me the crisscross screwdriver?" she asked.

"You mean a Philips?" Butch said while going to the kitchen where he knew Brick kept the tools.

"Yeah, the crisscross screwdriver." She said while finally turning to look up at him. "What happened to you."

"Your sister seems to love throwing chocolate milkshakes at me." Butch answered. "Why isn't Brick putting that together?"

"I asked if I could put it together, and he's taking a nap." Her face darkened for a moment as her brow furrowed. "Do you mind checking up on him?"

"I was going to do it anyway." The screwdriver was in his hand and he was moving to hand it over to her. "He's acting weird."

"You noticed too?" she asked while taking the screwdriver.

Butch scoffed as he reached to run a hand through his hair, only to remember the sticky mess that he was. "You saw the mirror, right?"

Blossom's pink eyes widened in shock. "The mirror? What mirror?"

"He broke the mirror in the guest bathroom. I've known him to do that only once before." Seeing the worry and her about to get up, he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Hey, you worry about Red Ruff Junior. I'll worry about and take care of Ruff Red Senior."

The mother to be gave in with a deep exhale and turned back to the building instructions. "Okay."

Butch turned and made his way down the hall toward the bedrooms. Passing the nursery, he went to the master and didn't bother knocking as he entered the room. Sure enough, Brick was asleep with his body sprawled out on the bed his hat nearly lost under the pillows. He was snoring softly, obviously in a deep sleep. The green Ruff was about to leave him as he was, when he heard mumbling coming from Brick. Glancing back, he saw Brick turning his head against the blankets. His brow was furrowed and his hands twitched as if he were reaching for something.

"Brick?" Butch called. He wasn't answered by his brother and found himself walking towards the bed and leaning toward him.

"No. No. Go away. You—you can't. He's my son. My son." Brick's nightmare was manifesting itself in the waking world by his skin heating. The longer he dreamed, the hotter his body became. He exhaled a hot breath that was full of smoke and a few sparks.

The sheets caught fire and Butch reacted quicker than he could think. He shoved Brick off the bed, making a loud thud. The red-haired teen quickly popped up from the other side of the bed and rested a red glare on his brother. "BUTCH!" His fists clenched on the sheets.

Butch was using his hands to snuff out the small flames when he was suddenly punched in the face. "What the hell?"

"What the hell are you doing knocking me out of bed?" He yelled at him with eyes still bleary with drowsiness. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands.

Butch rubbed his jaw and stood up. "I hope Blossom doesn't mind that YOU BURNED HOLES INTO HER BEDSHEETS!" he yelled making sure that Blossom heard him.

"What?! Brick!"

Brick turned to scowl at his younger brother and huffed a cloud of smoke. "Why'd you wake me up for anyway?"

Butch sent a glare at his red eyed brother and softened his look. He took a deep breath and dropped his hand from his face. "Are you all right?"

"What are you talking about?" Brick stretched his arms over his head and yawned.

"Dude, you broke the mirror in the other bathroom." Butch told him with a careful eye. "Is it H.I.M?"

His answer came too quickly for it to be the truth. "No."

"Brick, don't lie to me about this." Butch said. "We went to actual hell to deal with our mother to protect all that we have here. I'm not going to let that get fucked up." He remembered his current situation and shrugged. "At least not fucked outside my own actions."

Brick was about to answer when Blossom came into the room and spotted the scorched marks on their bed. "Oh, damn it Brick. I liked these sheets."

He grabbed the sheets off the bed, and as he was making his way out grabbed his brother by the arm. Once out in the hall, he began whispering to his brother lowly and in the only other language the three of the boys knew collective. "I'm not sure if he's back."

"What do you mean not sure." He said in Latin.

Brick held the bunched up sheets in his hands and rubbed his eyes. "I have had two dreams now about something happening to my son. The first one I didn't see H.I.M, but it felt like he was there. This one, I definitely saw him there."

"Were you dreaming yesterday?"

Brick shook his head in the negative. "I'd just woken up and I thought I saw him."

"Did you?"

This time Brick shrugged. "Not sure. Have you had any weird dreams as of late?"

"No. Have you talked to Boomer?"

Brick let out a mirthless laugh as he went to throw the ruined blankets in the hamper in the laundry room. "What do you think?" he asked in English. "When I see him, I'll let him get a few hits in. That should make him feel better. I'd be surprised if he didn't try to take a swing at me."

Butch snorted and stopped himself from leaning against the wall, remembering he needed a shower. He turned to head to the bathroom with those intentions in mind. He had a few interviews tomorrow, so he'd focus his attention there and worry about Buttercup the day after. Giving her time to cool off would be best.

A knock at the door was more or less expected at the Utonium home in the early evening. The professor has seen Buttercup storm into the house after having met with Butch. She didn't spare him a look or a word as she went up to her room and slammed the door, hard enough to rattle the frame of the house. The middle aged, soon to be grandfather wasn't sure how to react at this point. Their relationship was such a roller coaster, and the only ones who knew how to navigate the twists and turns—no matter how recklessly or smoothly—were the two involved. There was only so much he could say and do without becoming invasive. He found this particularly hard to do, as Buttercup was his daughter and he had yet a real conversation about all this with her husband. There was yelling when Butch thought he would just stay in his house. He hasn't seen him since and couldn't help being disrespected by that. Speaking man to man would've been much appreciated.

When he opened the door and was met with a different black and green person, he rose a brow. "Well, I can't say I was expecting you to be here."

Mojo just pushed his way inside and looked around. "Is Butch here?"

"No. I'm under the impression that he's been staying with Brick." The professor said after Mojo walked over to the fireplace where their family photos were. Mixed in with the many pictures of the girls and the professor were the doctors that first adopted him.

Mojo smiled wanly as he remembered their kindness to him. There were even pictures of him as a baby and the young professor. Happy memories, he recalled them to be. One picture stood out to Mojo and he reached for it unthinkingly. In it was the professor holding a young Mojo who had been frightened of the flash of the camera. He had his arms wrapped tightly around the neck of the professor and was trying to scamper away.

"That was always my favorite picture." The professor said while coming to look over Mojo's shoulder. "I don't think you've ever seen a flash before then."

"No." Mojo agreed as he set the picture back on the shelf.

"You know you were the only baby I ever the chance to hold?" The professor mused aloud. "I wonder if I'll remember in time to hold our grandson."

"Don't refer to that…spawn as our grandson. I want nothing to do with it." Mojo said tensely. "If Butch isn't here, then I best be going."

"Boomer isn't home?"

"He has the late shift at his delivery job." Mojo said as he was making his way toward the door.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something." The professor said quickly.

Mojo turned toward him with an eye roll. "Is it another lecture about how I raise my boys?"

"No." The professor said while quickly trying to come up with an answer. "Just…look at it this way. This child will be a fresh start for everyone."

A skeptical look on Mojo's face settled in and he folded his arms. "A fresh start? Does that mean you all plan on lying to this child about what its legacy is? Let him think the parents have never hated each other? That his mother didn't kill his father? That every battle that happened between me and those girls never happened?"

This was not the way the professor wanted this conversation to go. "Look, let's just have a seat in the and try to calmly talk this over. Have a bite to eat while you're here."

Mojo was about to decline when his stomach growled. Ignoring the smile on the professor's face, he made his way to the nook and helped himself to a banana from the fruit bowl. When he glanced up at the ceiling, he rose a brow at the freshly spackled surface. "What happened there?"

The professor glanced up at the ceiling and sighed. Blossom had told him that Bubbles tripped, but by the way Blossom avoided eye contact, he was sure it was something no father should know about his daughter. "You have superpowered teens for children."

"Had. The only one still living at home is Boomer and he's there for only a fraction of the time." He shook his head as he took an annoyed bite of banana. "Can you believe he's a delivery boy? All his capability as a mechanic or engineer, and he's going around the sitting delivering vegetables and meat to subpar restaurants."

"Apparently Butch is looking for an apprenticeship at a few garages. Or so I've been told." The professor said as he went to spoon some of the pasta he made a bit earlier in the day onto a plate.

After plating a second helping, did he go to the table. He sat the pasta in front of Mojo and waited a moment or two before he dug in. Mojo hesitated before picking up his own fork and began eating. The silence was only broken by the slurping of pasta noodles and clinking of the silverware against the ceramic plates.

"What did you want to speak with Butch about? That is if you don't mind me asking." The professor asked when he could no longer bear the silence.

Mojo glanced his way and sighed. "I wanted to see how he was adjusting to married life. I still can't believe that this happened. That he spent ten thousand dollars of my money on a damn trinket of a ring."

"I'd hardly call the ring Butch got Buttercup a trinket." The professor said while twirling his fork in his pasta. "I did tell them they were going to have to pay the money back. Have some responsibility for their actions."

"I gave them that money as a means of starting right in the world, and what to they do? Brick is pouring all his money into raising that…child with Blossom. Butch threw his away on a whim. At this point, I'm just waiting for Boomer to tell me he's buying a zoo or some other nonsense."

The memory of when Bubbles released all the animals from the zoo and his own lab being flooded and housing a whale made him shudder. "Whatever you do, don't put that idea into his head."

Mojo snorted and looked up in time to see Buttercup coming into the kitchen. The two stared at each other for a moment, before Buttercup huffed and walked to the cupboard. The silence was tenser than it was before as the green Power Puff fixed herself a plate of food and retreated back upstairs.

Mojo's fur slowly relaxed from standing on end. "Those two need to divorce."

"Whatever those two need only those two can figure it out. Their relationship is something I'm still trying to make sense of." He admitted. "Bubbles and Boomer make sense. Brick and Blossom, apart from the pregnancy, even makes sense."

"You did allow for this happen without much of a fight." Mojo reminded him. "Encouraged it even."

"We've had this argument before, Mojo. I already told you how I feel about this. I wish Blossom hadn't gotten pregnant the way she did. I most definitely wish Buttercup hadn't gotten married the way she did."

Mojo's face reflected a level of surprise that indicated to the professor that Butch hadn't told him the events leading up to their being married as Buttercup did for him. He wasn't sure if he was surprised or not, considering hearing it from Buttercup made him want to murder Butch. If Mojo knew the truth, then his heart surely would've stopped. If Butch didn't tell him, then he certainly wasn't—no matter how probing his look was.

"Our children have been through things and they are making choices that they believe will suit them best." The professor said. "They're adults now."

"Barely." Mojo cut in. "March and June were when the six of them had their birthdays into this adulthood according to this society. They're barely eighteen—thirteen if you really want to be technical."

"Mojo, you're a chimpanzee. You reached maturity at age ten. The only reason you were still in a diaper, was because you ruined the carpets more times than I cared to have then cleaned or replaced." The professor reminded him.

Mojo's cheeks darkened with a blush as he looked away from the professor. "Well, our children are not chimpanzees."

The professor couldn't disagree with that. "They're still free to make their own choices, just like we're still free to worry about them."

"I'm not worried." Mojo bit out. "I just…don't like the idea that I'm not part of their lives."

There it was. The real reason Mojo had come over. He was lonely. Two of three of his sons lived away from home; one by choice the other by eviction. The one that still lived with him was now working, so who really knew when or if Mojo saw him. The former simian supervillain was an empty nester and for the first time found himself missing his sons, so much that he ventured to the last place he would ever want to be. The professor had recognized it from the moment he saw Mojo on his doorstep and emphasized with him. Two of his own daughters were living away from him. The one daughter that stayed often spent her time in her room if not out of the house. They may not be on the best of terms, but at the very least, they could provide each other with a bit of companionship.

Hello my lovelies. I hope you like this chapter and it got you guys thinking of what will happen next. Will Bubbles tell Boomer about the kiss? Is H.I.M truly back? Will Blossom EVER have the baby? Yes. I don't know. Yes. I hope you guys are prepared for next chapter as things will get a bit...awkward, exciting, and may pull at a few heartstrings. Also, I have to point out that this is the fastest I've ever turned a chapter around in a long while. Thank you quarantine.

That being said, I hope everyone is safe, healthy, and still finding time to enjoy the little things in life. It doesn't have to my story, but if it is, I'm glad. A little bit of happiness somewhere from something can go a long way. At least that's my opinion.

Until Next Time