"This is a terrible idea." Bubbles announces, making a face at one of the pages in her spell book.
"Please," Butch rolls his eyes. "What's the worst that could happen?"
She hums tapping the end of her wand against her cheek in thought as she gazes down towards a list of spells all crossed out, "We've already tried all of these, and they didn't work either." She snorts, "It's actually a miracle you didn't stay stuck as a chicken from spell number three." She draws a small star next to it and snickers.
It could be useful in the future.
Scoffing, Butch saunters onto the coffee table and sits in front of her. "You totally did that one on purpose."
"I really didn't." she collapses backwards onto the couch, tilting her head to stick her tongue out at him. "But seriously though, none of these spells are going to work Butch."
Butch scowls. His eyes narrow at her, "And why exactly is that? You've been pessimistic about this entire thing." His tail swishes and Bubbles sighs, opting for sitting up instead.
"So here's the thing—the reason I don't think any of these spells are going to work is because there's something preventing them from working."
He stares blankly, before gasping and standing on all fours, his fur sticking up. "So the King is behind this?!"
"Wha—Butch, no." she blinks, "Him stopping Brick and Blossom's issue was because Brick was a demon, he has to follow certain rules—even if he is the prince."
The cat makes a face at that, causing Bubbles to snort and start petting him behind the ears in thought. "The reason we can't change you back to normal is because—uh,"
Butch isn't an idiot.
Looking at the way Bubbles seems to be avoiding meeting his eyes, he's pretty fucking certain she's about to say something that'll make him want to dig his claws into something in frustration.
"What did you do?"
She pouts at the tone before sighing and burying her face into her palms, "You somehow became my familiar."
There's a beat of silence.
"I beg your fucking pardon."
"Yeah, you're sort of bound to me until we figure out how this works." Bubbles said, wincing. "I'm sorry?"
Butch stares at her blankly and Bubbles can't help but inch back in her seat.
Jesus, cat's were horrifying.
"So, you're saying I'm stuck with you?"
"Pretty much."
"Absolutely fucking not. Fix this." He demands and Bubbles feels a weird sense of déjà vu.
"Don't you think I've been trying?!" she groans, "But our situation is stupidly rare—we didn't even form a contract and you weren't even an animal when it happened!"
"So why the hell did it happen!?"
She frowns, flipping through her spell book in thought. "It shouldn't be possible in all honesty." Coming across the section on familiars, Bubbles turns the book around so that Butch is able to have a look.
"You see here?" she points, "Usually, a witch would have to openly seek out a familiar, and the familiar itself would have to answer their call."
"But that wasn't the case with us." He says, tilting his head in confusion before blinking back up at her.
"Yeah, exactly." She nods, "It's supposed to be consensual. Realistically, if I had tried to get you to be my familiar I would've had to say a spell to conjure you to me and you'd have to want to respond to my call."
Butch scrunches his face as he skims through the double page in front of him. "So how do you reverse it?"
She shrugs, "It's the same thing. I recite a spell and on both parts, you have to agree to be let go."
"So why the fuck haven't we just done that before?"
Bubbles makes a face, "I tried it during your second night here. You snore really loud so I thought I'd give it a shot."
Butch just stares at her blankly, "Bubbles, are you fucking kidding me."
"Bitch, I wish. I had to move you to the couch because you were so damn loud and I STILL couldn't sleep."
He smacks her in the face with his tail at that and Bubbles rolls her eyes, "No, but seriously. I think I do know a way to turn you back into a human temporarily?"
He pauses at that, and immediately turns back round to face her. "Then why the hell didn't we just do that instead of all those bullshit spells we've been doing for the past few days!?"
Bubbles makes a face, "Because, I think I need to be in danger or something for it to work." She flips a few pages before stopping and pointing, "This one's about familiar abilities. They usually activate when the conjurer is under threat."
There's an abrupt silence after that, and Bubbles can't help but hold her breath as she watches Butch process this information.
"…If that's true then why wasn't I there when you died?" he asks, green eyes boring holes into the paper. "It says her I should've been transported towards you no matter how bad the distance was—Christ Bubbles, I didn't even fucking know you died till two days ago."
Chewing at her bottom lip, she shrugs before getting to her feet. "You weren't summoned because I didn't feel like I was in any danger when I died." She sighs walking towards her curtains before shutting them. "I have to feel like there's a threat or something for you to be dragged across the universe to help."
She then pauses, "Actually, that's kind of where my theory comes in—ideally, you're no use as protection when you're a cat. I think that when you actually do come to my aid, you'll be back to normal."
Butch doesn't know what to do with this information, "So what you're saying is—You have to be having a near death experience for me to be back to normal?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"That's fucked up."
She laughs, "Yeah, I know." She smiles at him apologetically before opening the door. "It's getting late, we'll figure out a plan tomorrow morning, okay?"
Butch doesn't feel reassured, but hops off of the table anyway and follows. "Are you going to open the café tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I probably should." She covers her mouth to hide a yawn as they head for her living room. "I saw one of my regular's in town earlier today and he's been asking when we'll be open."
"Was it the werewolf?"
"Wha—how'd you know?"
Butch smirks, walking in front of her and flicking his tail, "He has a crush on you."
"Mike? He does not!"
He shrugs, "Sure Bubbly, whatever you say. But he was definitely trying to flirt with you last time we were open."
Bubbles just gapes. "But I've seen his string of fate—it's not even tied to anyone in the underworld!"
"So? He was still ogling your legs the other day." He then turns towards her sharply, "If he's already got a soulmate and is still flirting with you then you better not become a homewrecker Bubbles. I've raised you better than this."
"Okay—I have a ten step Korean skin care routine to get to and you can go to bed!" She suddenly says, cheeks flared in annoyance as she made a beeline for her bathroom.
Butch only watched, snickering before heading towards her bedroom and to his lovely cat bed, (premium quality, of course). He'd had to use his own credit card to order himself a luxury green tartan, pyramid bed. It was ridiculously fluffy inside and his sudden feline instincts were left pleased.
Because If he was going to be stuck as a cat then he was going to be living as one in style, damn it.
She doesn't know how she got here.
The skies are soft with various shades of pinks and she can't help but feel a sense of tranquillity surrounding her being as she gazes at them. She's so enthralled in the colours that It only takes her a brief moment to realise that there are no clouds in the sky.
Tilting her head, Bubbles looks down before a dawning of realisation occurs.
Oh. There's no clouds up in the air above her because she's standing on them.
It all makes perfect sense now.
"Gotta admit Blondie, you do have a taste for vision."
Bubbles blinks, staring down at her hands and then up at him as if only now realising that he's there.
"Did I die?"
"Uh, yeah. Like three chapters ago. Keep up." He snorts, tone light as he swings the large scythe behind him, before making his way over towards her.
Bubbles just looks dazed "Am I on drugs?" She goes back to staring up towards the sky, and she swears she can see the stars now. "Did you drug me?"
"Wha— no!" He gawks before grabbing onto her shoulders "Stop looking away— Christ, this is why I hate going into people's dreams. Talking to the subconscious is a fucking pain."
She laughs at that, her mind half registering his words as she forces herself to look at him and not the pink swirls in the sky behind him.
"We're kind of in trouble, here." He admits.
At this, Bubbles frowns immediately, half-heartedly attempting not to zone out. "We are?"
"Yeah— Your soul wasn't supposed to return to the land of the living or the undead. It's sort of set off this huge imbalance."
Bubbles doesn't look concerned, "that sounds bad."
"It is bad." He deadpans, rolling his eyes. "Oh, by the way—Your zombie friend is on her way over. You should probably do something about that when you wake up."
"Buttercup?" Bubbles tilts her head and Death shrugs "How the hell do you expect me to know her name? I only know she's coming over because she's been causing a damn ruckus downtown."
She zones out at that, opting for gazing up at him in awe making him shuffle in discomfort. "Can you not do that—"
"Wasn't your hair silver before?" she squints in question. And as if to prove her point, she reaches out and runs her hand through it causing him to yelp, pulling away, flustered.
"Ugh—It's because you've freaking had to go and kiss me—"
"So you went and dyed your hair?" She sort of knows where this is going, the only problem was, her subconscious was the one in control, so she was really just blurting out whatever came to mind without a filter.
"No, you're making me turn back into a human!" He snaps and Bubbles falters. "Haven't you noticed you've been able to see freaking souls now? You're using my sight."
Oh. Well that explained the colourful outlines she had been seeing around people.
There's a lot of alarm bells that are ringing at this sudden information that she was processing—but in all honesty she couldn't feel anything other than serenity. "You mean I'm turning into the grim reaper?" she tilts her head.
"Absolutely fucking not, I'd rather throw myself into a damn blender. I'm still going to be a reaper but—I think you sort of fucked us both over since I'm sort of alive now?"
Bubbles hums before going back to her stargazing. "Blond suits you. Silver still looks pretty hot but—I don't know." She looks over at the crescent moon, half registering how bizarre it was to see the moon within a pink sky before turning back to look at him. "You look more comfortable I guess?"
Death huffs, suddenly feeling very warm as he kicks at the ground (was a cloud even considered as the ground?). "Of course it does. It used to be my natural hair colour back when I was alive." His hands find themselves stuffed into his pockets, cobalt eyes turning upwards towards the stars.
She nods, satisfied with this conclusion before pausing.
Wait.
Back when he was alive?!
Thousands of questions go rushing through her head, and she turns towards him, leaning against a rail that appeared at the edge of the cloud she was standing on so she doesn't fall to her doom.
"What's your name?" she almost wants to jump off of the edge entirely because that was honestly the furthest question she had in her mind, but she keeps zoning out and it's like various parts of her brain that she's used to shutting off are suddenly taking over.
Death falters at that, tearing his gaze away from the stars above to stare at her in surprise. "My name?"
"Yeah." She nods, "You have one, don't you?"
"Haven't used it in a while." He says, looking rather bewildered with this development. "Wait, this isn't why I came here—"
Bubbles looks over towards him and the world suddenly becomes a lot cooler around them. "I'll jump off this rail and wake up if you don't tell me it."
Whoa, whoa, whoa—she'll do WHAT?!
Apparently, her brain and mouth were no longer working together as a team but had instead had somehow become rivals, because she has no idea on what the hell is going on.
Evidently, he's just as shocked as she is with this sudden proclamation. "What the hell—are you always this impulsive?!"
This isn't the answer that her autopilot self was looking for, so Bubbles turns away from him to climb up onto the rail. She barely has the time to glance down before gasping as her arm is suddenly being grabbed and she's yanked away from the edge and pulled into his arms.
"I cannot believe how much of a spoiled brat you actually are. You seriously just do whatever you want, don't you?" He says, disbelief evident in his tone before his shoulders slump in defeat.
Bubbles waits patiently, as he gives her one final conceding look and sighs.
"I'm Boomer."
She smiles and the sky around them suddenly turns into a deep blue.
When the witch of joy and laughter wakes up the next morning, she's squinting up at the ceiling for almost an eternity as she tries to block out the sounds of the birds chirping out of her window.
She almost curls back to her side, ready to go back into slumber before everything suddenly comes crashing down.
"Crap." Bubbles sits up with such alarm that all the lights turn on— it even stirs Butch awake.
Popping his head out of the hole in his pyramid bed, he narrows his eyes lazily towards her, "What the hell do you want now?"
"Buttercup's coming."
There's a stunned silence.
"WHAT?!" he shrieks.
Now, suddenly both wide awake, the pair look at each other with wide eyes from across the room before letting out two, loud screeches in terror.
The two quickly scamper out of their respective beds and make a dash for the room that had her crystal ball.
"QUICKLY BUBBLES!" he leaps onto the table and paws at the ball in an attempt to activate it. "When is she getting here?!"
Bubbles sits herself down into her seat with such force that she almost topples over, before regaining her balance. "Oh my fucking God, why wasn't he more specific?!"
"Bubbles, I swear to god—"
"Leering, gazing, bewitching to the mass, I summon the eye to find the lass. The one with the power, and the might, I wish to see the woman worthy of such fright!" the words tumble out of her mouth ridiculously fast and with a tone of panic, and Butch bites at his claws in anticipation as a warm light once again engulfs the blonde.
His tail swishes from side to side as he watches Bubbles's pupils disappear in order to see either the future or find Butters—honestly, if he wasn't so anxious he would've found the act creepy as hell.
It takes a few moments of him trying to hold back the urge to start pacing across the table before Bubbles comes to.
As the light begins to subside, her blonde hair tumbles back down and over her shoulders as the spell wears off. "She's going to pull a Blossom." Bubbles groans and slumps into her seat, already dreading what the encounter will do to her beauty sleep.
"So, she's coming over at some ungodly hour in the morning?"
"I don't think it'll be that far." She massages her temples, "Probably around midnight."
"Oh, how lovely. Even less time on the countdown to my demise."
Bubbles gives him a flat look, "This is all because you didn't want to tell her what happened, you know."
In response, Butch leaps off of the table and makes his way back out of the room. "Of course I don't want to tell her—she'll never let me live it down if I do!"
Glancing at the clock, Bubbles almost cries in joy at seeing that she still had two and a half hours of sleep left and follows her familiar out of the door. "But you'd rather her worry her ass off going to hell and back looking for you instead?"
Butch freezes mid step at that, ears dropping slightly. Its much harder to hide his emotions as a cat than it was as a person and Bubbles eyes the way his tail seemed to be etching closer towards between his legs.
"She's not going to go that far." He mutters, walking back into the bedroom and making his way towards his bed.
"You're right." She says offhandedly, sitting back into her bed before waving at her wand so that all the lamps and candles go out. Bubbles lies down before pulling the duvet over herself. "She'd go further."
Butch doesn't find himself going back to sleep for the rest of the night.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading!
Reviews:
HappygoluckyMegami: We're definitely not in Townsville honey, LMAO. We'll get to Blossom's wish in the upcoming chapters! Until then, stay tuned lovelie! I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thank you so much for your review!
Untouchable hexing witch: One serving of Butch and Buttercup coming up! They'll finally get a chance to reunite in the upcoming chapters, haha. Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm glad you liked chapter four! I had fun writing that scene with Him in his fluffy bathrobe the most, actually! Thanks so much for the kind review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! c:
Leeful: You're such a crackhead LMAO ILY. Omg YEAH, YOU'VE BEEN WORKING TOO MUCH SMH. YOU NEED TO BREATHE FAM, YOU'RE MAKING ME TURN INTO A DAMN MOTHER HEN OVER HERE UGH. We all know that should be Livy's job since she's the oldest but nah, your bitchass had to give that position to ME. Girl—don't even get me started, where the hell is YOUR motivation?! I feel like I gotta come travel across the globe just to motivate your ass to type! UGH BLESS BUTCH MAN. He's our comedy relief king, at his finest. Yeah, I'm not surprised Ry's like Brick seeing your track record smh. Thank fuck Eric ain't like this. ANYWAY GO TYPE! I'M WAITING TO SEE YOUR UPCOMING MASTERPIECES HOE!
Alex-huitzilli: Thank you so much! I'm so glad they seem natural and in character, that honestly takes a load off of my shoulders haha. OMG RIGHT? Butch and Bubbles would make the ultimate comedic duo and no one can change my mind smh. Thanks so much for enjoying my story and for your kind words! Me and my family are doing fine, and I can only wish the same for you!
THANKS SO MUCH YA'LL. PLS REMEMBER TO STAY HOME DURING THIS PANDEMIC!