Bloom

Tecna groaned and dropped her head on the table. We'd been sitting in my living room plotting for hours and we were all starting to get on each other's nerves.

"For the last time, Stella, a flash mob is not a believable distraction."

Stella crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"It's not like anybody else is coming up with anything."

"We just need to distract Timmy, right? Not all of the Specialists?" Musa asked. "I mean, if we're going to get his computer, we just need him to leave it here."

"Well, he carries it with him everywhere, so if we can just get him here and then get him away from his computer, then we're gold," I said, trying to come with a solution.

"That's what I just said," Musa said irately.

I glared and replied, "I was extrapolating, Musa."

"Girls, don't fight."

We both looked at Flora and went quiet.

"What could possibly get Timmy away from his computer?" Tecna asked.

The five of us turned to look at her. Her eyes widened, immediately picking up on the shared idea in the room.

"No. No way," she said, shaking her head. "I am not spending time with that- that-"

"Tecna."

She looked at all of us and sighed.

"I'll do what I have to."

I put a hand on her shoulder and told her, "If you really don't feel comfortable, I'm sure we can come up with another way to distract him."

She shook her head and said with resignation, "No, this is my burden to bear. Just make sure you get that laptop."

"Stella, can you do that since you took off work?" I asked. The blonde girl turned red.

"See... I told you guys that I wasn't feeling well, but actually..." she looked at us, biting her lips, "I'm going on a date with Ismail."

I grinned and Flora cheered, "Stella, that's wonderful. I'll grab the laptop because I'm off work tomorrow."

"Wait, you're off work?" Stella asked. "Oh, no, who will watch the twins?"

"I ca-" Flora began to volunteer, but Musa cut her off.

"No. Flora, it's your day off."

Stella groaned and crossed her arms.

"Well, somebody has to watch my kids."

"Stella, she sent out a notice," Tecna told her, pulling up the e-mail.

Stella pouted and said, "You know that I don't check my e-mail."

I rolled my eyes and moved to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water as the girls squabbled over who would do what. By the time I walked out, nothing had been solved. They say I steal the spotlight, but this team needs a leader so I stepped in.

"Tecna distracts Timmy. I'll take the laptop. Musa gets the Specialists out of the house. Aisha puts protection spells around the house and takes the laptop once I get it. Flora gets the night off with her family." Turning to Stella, who had opened her mouth to complain, I said, "And Stella goes on her date while Noah watches her and Tecna's kids."

"Thanks, girls," Stella said, grinning. She looked down and blushed. "I really like this guy."

Flora smiled and the two of us looked at each other. It had taken ages to get Stella back out there. She deserved some love in her life.

"Okay, so we're going to get the laptop and find out where those portals lead to," I stated, looking each of the girls in the eyes. "Musa, you'll get all the information you can out of the Specialists once they come over and Aisha, you make sure that all portals stop outside the house so that at least they can't teleport directly inside of our apartments. I'll get the laptop and Tecna will distract Timmy. Girls, we're going to take this mission into our own hands."

My speech made them smile and look at each other with an old confidence that I hadn't seen in a long time. Hopefully, that confidence would count for something in our success. Hopefully.

The girls started filing out, stating that it was getting late and they had a big day tomorrow. Flora asked to camp out on my couch, but I insisted that she sleep with the triplets in my bed and I'll take the couch. After a mild-mannered argument over that, I fell asleep on the couch, praying that the Great Dragon would look with favor upon our day. Goodness knows we need it.


Work was hell, as per usual. It was made even worse by the added bonus of Sky and Timmy lurking around the smoothie bar. I felt bad for taking so many breaks and leaving Roxy by herself for so long, but I couldn't handle his small talk. Not when I knew he was lying to me.

"Bloom?"

I dropped my cigarette as quickly as possible and stepped on it, careful not to lift my foot and reveal my secret. None of the girls knew and I couldn't have them finding out. Especially not now as we were becoming the Winx Club.

"Yes?"

Sky looked at me curiously and asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"Taking my break," I replied, arms crossed.

"Were you just smoking?"

"No."

I could tell he didn't believe me, but he didn't push the subject.

"Did you need something, Sky?"

"Yeah. What are you doing after work?" he asked awkwardly, scratching the back of his head in that way that always made me swoon when I was an idiot teenager. Great Dragon, I loved him so much.

"I'm busy, but Musa wants to take you boys to teach you how not to look like idiots on Earth."

He laughed in that princely way of his and said, "There will be no need for that, Bloom. Red Fountain is the number one school in the Magic Dimension for acclimation in an undercover setting."

"Sure thing, Mr. Super Spy," I said sarcastically, "but for a long time, Earth wasn't part of the Magic Dimension and, quite frankly, Brandon's hair looks ridiculous and you're all wearing clothes from the late 60s at the very least."

He picked at his shirt and pulled a face that made me laugh but I quickly stifled it. That didn't stop him from looking proud of himself. Idiot.

"And by the way, nobody still says radical. So tell Riven to stop saying radical."


"Gumdrop, I know you don't like clothes, but it's-"

My reasoning was cut off by the excited screeching of my five-year-old as he ran in naked circles around me. Flora and the triplets, all fully dressed to go out on the town, watched from the couch as I struggled to dress my son. I didn't even know where Isabella was.

"Hey, Bloom, are you... woah," Tecna said as she walked into the apartment with Eddie in tow, also dressed to the nines in a pair of suspenders and a bowtie. Eddie snickered behind his hands and ran to join Alex as he ran laps around me. I dropped the arms holding up the pants with a sigh. Tecna laughed and took a seat on the couch next to Flora. She called Eddie over to her and the boy trudged over to his mother and sat on her lap.

"I'll just be a second," I told my two friends as I chased Alex into the kitchen and eventually scooped him up in my arms. By the time he was finally dressed, I was breathless and sweating. I put him down and he began running circles around me again. "Flora, I have no idea how you do this for a living."

Flora laughed.

"Trust me, sweetie, neither do I."

Bella walked out of the hall, sleepily rubbing her eyes and dragging her blanket behind her after her nap. She shuffled over to the couch and curled up between Tecna and Flora, pulling her blanket her body and falling to sleep. The girls and I laughed and I walked over to her to gently shake her awake, but Alex beat me to it and jumped on his twin, making her cry which in turn made Prim start crying for whatever reason.

"Oh, dear," Flora muttered as she fussed over her youngest. Meanwhile, I berated my son for making his sister cry while Eddie tried to comfort Bella by patting her on the head, only serving to make her cry more.

"Thank you, Eddie," I said as Alex went off to sulk for being scolded. Tecna just kept laughing as I lifted Eddie's hand off Bella's hand, coercing her off the couch while explaining why clothes were absolutely necessary. Of all eleven of them, my twins were the only ones who absolutely abhorred clothes. It was definitely giving me premature grays, but as I watched Bella struggle to put her dress on upside down- "I can do it, Mommy, I promise"- I knew I wouldn't change them for the world. Miss Independent eventually gave up and let me help.

Stella strutted into the room in a miniskirt and a blouse with stilettos longer than my life expectancy. Her hair was done up in a fancy ponytail with a diamond barrette holding back her hair. We 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed as she sashayed to the center of the room and did a spin.

"Wow," I said, walking a circle around her. "You're going to drive him wild."

Stella blushed and smacked my arm but did another spin anyway.

"Thanks," she said, rubbing her arms in a show of uncharacteristic nerves. "I hope he likes it."

"I know he will."

"Who's that?" I heard Toni whisper behind me.

"It's Tía Stella," Vera whispered back. His little mouth made an 'oh' shape in realization and then he smiled.

"You look wonderful, Stella," Tecna reassured her. "Doesn't she look wonderful, darling?"

Eddie nodded, turning red and looking out the window. We laughed and Stella's phone rang.

"Noah? Hey, what's up?... What?... Oh my- is she okay?... No, no, don't... Yeah, I'll tell the others... I appreciate you letting me know... okay, bye."

She turned us, eyes wide.

"Girls, Roxy was mugged."

"What?!" I exclaimed jumping up from my seat and Prim nearly started crying again. "Is she okay?"

"Noah said she was fine, but he was going to cancel to be with her."

"We have to go see her," I said, already rushing to grab my purse. A cold hand around my wrist stopped me.

"Wait, Bloom," Tecna said. I looked back at her teal eyes, stern and reasonable. She leveled me with a serious look and reminded me under her breath, "The plan."

I sighed and said, "Okay. The plan. Okay. We have to just... ask Brandon to watch the kids."

"What?!" Stella screeched.

"Stella-"

"Why him?! Why not Helia or Timmy?"

"Timmy's going to be... occupied tonight, remember?" Flora said with a nervous glance to the kids. "And Helia's... going out with us."

We all turned to her with wide eyes. She blushed.

"He gets along with the kids."

We just stared.

"Oh my Dragon, I get it, okay?" she said with a huff. "It's just... girls, he's still Helia. And I want to spend my day off with him."

"Whatever, Flo," Stella said. "You're an adult who makes her own decisions, but think about the kids."

"Maybe I don't want to," she muttered.

We stared at her in shock.

"That didn't come out right," she said in a soft voice. "It's just- never mind. Forget I said anything. See you later, girls."

Then she walked out of my apartment with the triplets in tow.

"What was that about?" Musa asked as she walked into the room. We stared at her blankly, at a loss for words, so she just shrugged and said, "Whatever. I'm here to takes the kids for their play dates."

Leaning down, she asked Alex, "Are you excited to play with Christopher?"

He didn't answer and instead stuck his finger up his nose.

"Alexander Michael Spears!" I exclaimed. "Stop digging for gold or so help me!"

He pulled his finger out of his nose and giggled, running excited circles around me. Musa laughed.

"Come on, you snot-nosers. Into the van!"

The kids cheered, but Tecna covered Eddie's ears.

"Musa, don't teach them to respond to that!"

Musa only laughed and led Tess, Bay, and my twins down the stairs. A while later, once Musa has returned, Aisha came up to announce that the Specialists had arrived. Tecna took a deep breath.

"Time to shine, girls."


"Because no one crimps their hair anymore, Brandon!"

I sighed. We'd been having this argument for a good few minutes now, but the boys would not take this slight to their pride.

"My studies actually show-"

"Timmy, don't even start. You are wearing cat-eye glasses."

The computer geek fell silent at Stella's retort and the boys finally stopped protesting.

"Okay, if we're finally done with that, I need everybody to get in the van," Musa said with a sigh. Musa went to grab her keys, so Brandon shot his shot in the few minutes she was gone.

"So, Stella, how long will I be watching the twins for?" he asked good-naturedly. I could see from across the room that he was struggling to keep his eyes on her face. Apparently, Ismail wasn't the only one her outfit would drive crazy.

"Uh, a few hours. That's okay, right?" Stella asked, nervously adjusting her earrings. "I'll pay once I get my paycheck in. I promise."

"No way. No payment required," he insisted. "You're my friend, Stella."

That statement made everyone in the room feel weird, so we all collectively stopped eavesdropping. I instead focused my attention on Tecna leading Timmy up the stairs with some promise of a technological problem upstairs. I scanned the room and saw his laptop case sitting on the couch. Through the window, I saw Aisha performing a spell. Everything was going according to plan. Wait.

I rushed to the window and motioned for Aisha to move, but she didn't see me. No matter how high I waved my arms or how silly the dance I did was, she was focused on doing her big magic displays right in front of the window for everyone to see. What to do, what to do...

Running back to the foyer to the Specialists, I did the only thing that came to mind. I screamed.

"Oh my Dragon!"

"What the fuck?!"

"Bloom!"

"Are you okay?!"

"Riven, language!"

I blushed. At least Aisha had heard me and ducked under the window.

"Sorry, guys. I thought I saw a bug. False alarm."

Unfortunately, that was the wrong excuse.

"Bug!" Stella shrieked. "Oh my Dragon, where?!"

She jumped into Brandon's lap and because fate hates me- I'm looking at you, Bartleby- the door opened to reveal Ismail right at that moment.

"Uh, hey, guys. What's going on?"

Stella quickly disentangled herself from a smugly smiling Brandon and wrapped her arms around Ismail.

"Oh, darling, you missed it!" she wailed. "There was almost a bug!"

"Almost a bug? I'm confused."

"Aren't we all?" I laughed awkwardly, which didn't help at all because everyone just stared at me. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when Musa finally came in with her keys.

"Hey, guys. Ready to go. Bloom, are you good?"

I sighed.

"Yes, Musa. Thank you for the concern."

Either the sarcasm went right over her head or she pointedly ignored me, because she just said, "No problem, B. Come on, boys. Load up."

And suddenly it was just me and Brandon.

"So... uh, where are the kids?"

I looked around before saying, "I think they're in their room."

He nodded and made his way upstairs.

"Wait, do you know which room?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered. "I think so."

He started in the right direction so I shrugged and let him figure it out. Creeping over to the couch, I grabbed the laptop case and dashed upstairs, tucking it away in my closet. Aisha came up soon after me.

"The spells are placed."

I nodded and she pulled out the flash drive Tecna had given us to hack Timmy's laptop. Locking the door to my room, we plugged it in and let it do all the work. We got bored, however, because all the work took an unexpectedly long amount of time.

"So..."

"So."

We fell silent and watched the screen.

"Uh, Bloom?" a voice called from outside. Standing up, I walked out to my front door to greet Brandon with one twin in each hand. I quirked an eyebrow so he just explained, "I don't know how to watch children."

I rolled my eyes and invited him in. Eddie trailed behind him.

"What do they mean when they say babbo?" he asked exhaustedly as he collapsed onto the couch. The three kids watch him unamused, as did I.

"I don't know. I don't speak Italian," I shot back, picking Lilly up when she asked me to.

"They speak Italian?" he asked incredulously. He dropped his head back on the couch and groaned, "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Babysitting," I replied sternly. "This is what it takes."

Sitting up, he said, "Well, whatever 'babbo' means, they won't stop asking for it."

"Babbo!" Lilly giggled, pointing at Brandon and making Arty giggle as well.

"Have you tried asking them what it means?" I suggested, switching Lilly to my other hip.

"Asking them?"

"Yes, asking them," I confirmed, rolling my eyes. "They're children, Brandon. Not imbeciles."

Turning to Lilly, he asked, "Lilly, what does babbo mean?"

She just giggled and repeated the word.

"Oh, yeah," I remembered. "Lilly loves keeping secrets and lording it over people. Arty, what does babbo mean?"

Lilly glared at her twin, who shrank under the gaze of the room, and he quietly whispered, "Daddy."

My eyes bulged out of my head so wide that I thought they were going to fall out. Brandon started choking on air.

"I- it's- what?"

Arty blushed and hid behind my leg. I half-heartedly patted his dirty blond hair to comfort him, but my mind was going a mile a minute. He can't find out. He can't find out. He can't find out.

"Eddie needs to pee!" I blurted.

"No I don't," the four-year-old argued, crossing his arms.

"Yes. You do," I insisted, raising my eyebrows at him. Eddie pouted and went up to Brandon, asking if he would take him to the bathroom. In a shell shock, Brandon stood and let the little boy lead him to the bathroom. I sat the twins down on the couch.

"Who told you that Brandon was your babbo?" I asked the two kids, squatting at their level. Lilly shrugged, disinterested in the conversation, and Arty fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Nobody," he said, crossing his legs awkwardly.

Lilly huffed and said, "I wanna go home."

"Brandon can take you back when he's done with Eddie," I explained, sighing and sitting on the floor.

"Eddie's annoying," Lilly complained, and then the conversation deteriorated from there so I stopped listening.

The situation was a catastrophe. If Lilly already put the idea in Brandon's head, he'll be much quicker to piece it together. What are we going to do?

"All done," Brandon announced as he walked in with Eddie holding his hand. Eddie ran to join the twins and I strode over to Brandon.

"Listen, Brandon. About earlier-"

"I get it," he said, looking a little heartbroken.

"You do?" I asked, fear gripping me.

"Yeah," he said with a dejected shrug. "I'm the first man they've been around for a long time. It's an easy mistake to make."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, totally. That's it. Nailed it on the head."

"Anyway, I'm going to get going," he said, beckoning the three kids over. He led them to the door and counted them as they walked out, making me laugh. He looked over his shoulder at me with a halfhearted smile and said, "Thanks, Bloom."

"Anytime."

He went to close the door but stopped himself.

"Bloom?"

"Yes, Brandon?"

"You girls are pretty tough for raising these awesome kids on your own."

He looked fondly out the door where the kids stood and I saw true care in his eyes. It made my stomach anxious, but my heart warm.

"Yeah, we are. No thanks to you guys," I said, in a lame attempt to stop him from winning me over. Brandon was just too charming to be alone around. He could have two nations at war acting like friends in minutes. He could definitely break my resolve.

"You're right. No thanks to us."

My eyes widened in surprise at his admission. He just smirked and winked. I rolled my eyes. Suddenly, he became bashful.

He looked around a bit before looking me in the eye and asking, "Does Stella hate me?"

I sighed.

"I wish."

He nodded and closed the door. When I was sure he was down the hall, I rushed to my bedroom to tell Aisha all about what happened.

"You're kidding?!" she gasped. "What are we going to do?"

"He seems pretty beat up about it."

"Why? He should be elated."

"Because, Aisha, the love of his life's kids just called him Daddy when he knows they aren't his," I explained.

"But they are."

"Well, we know that, but he doesn't. And we have to keep him from figuring it out."

"How are we going to do that?" she thought aloud, sitting on the bed.

"I have no idea."

A beep made us jump and looking over at my bedside table. The laptop was ready.

"Let's hack some portals!" Aisha said with a cheesy grin that made me laugh. Whatever happened, we would be okay.


An hour later, Aisha and I were lying on the floor in a haze, still trying to make sense of the puzzles of portals that Timmy had on his computer.

"I found one!" Aisha announced, jumping up and sending her bun flopping over to the side of her head. "It's not the right one though."

I groaned and sat back down on the floor. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't seem to find the other end of the portal we were looking for.

"Dragon, I wish Tecna was here," I said, crawling over to sit beside Aisha on the bed.

Aisha nodded in agreement and slid a hologram over to me so that I could help her with the portal she was working on. That's when a shriek from down the hall sent us jumping up from the bed.

We ran down the hallway as fast as we could and threw open Stella's door. Down another hallway within the apartment, we found the source of the panic coming from the twins' room. Aisha kicked open the door and we found Brandon standing in front of the window while the kids cowered behind him.

"What's going on?!" I called over the screams of the kids.

"Look!"

We looked out the window and saw a cloaked figure like from before pushing at a pink force field near the window that stretched with every push but didn't let the figure through. They began casting spells on Aisha's shield.

Aisha asked, "What do we do?"

I held up my to fire a spell at the same time lifted a sword to shield the kids hiding behind him. Aisha followed suit.

I summoned the Dragon Flame to my hand and felt it rise up in me. The heat coursed from somewhere in my chest through the muscles in my shoulder all the way down my arm. It was pooling in my palm and sprawling out into my fingertips. The blast sparked out of my hand and fizzled out a few feet away from my face.

"Wh-what happened?"

"You need to practice," Aisha said. "For now, just take the kids and get out of here."

Shaken, I grabbed all three kids and took them to my apartment, where we hid between the couch and the wall.

"Auntie?" Eddie asked. "What's happening?"

"I don't know, buddy," I replied, ruffling his pink hair. "I really don't know."

I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned to Arty, who quietly pointed to my bedroom door. I looked between the door and his face in confusion. Then I noticed the faint blue glow coming from the cracks between the door and its frame.

"Oh, buddy, that's just-"

And then it clicked.

Quietly, I stood up from the couch and when I saw no creepy, cloaked figures floating outside the windows, I crept from the living room to the hallway with the three kids in tow. I slowly made my way to the bedroom, opening just a crack because it creaks when it's opened too wide. One by one the kids slipped in and then I went last.

Inside, the portions of the portal map were holographically floating. One portal was going insane, wiggling this way and that. On a hunch, I assumed that that was our blood portal.

"Kids, find the holograms with the squiggly worms and slide them this way."

Eddie set about the task immediately with the twins following reluctantly afterward. Eventually, I accumulated enough puzzle pieces to configure the map of what we needed.

"This... doesn't make any sense," I said, looking at the full map. "There are... three blood portals?"


So... thoughts? And for the one person begging for Stella and Brandon, I tried my best. There will be more next chapter.