Robin wondered if this is what the Ancient Romans had felt like: observing such horrific and unspeakable horrors in the Colosseum. However, from her, there was no applause, just a stunned silence and she gaped in awe. The fierce wind chilled her through to the bone, as she squatted high up upon Townsvilles skyscraper and watched, through the rain and late night, Buttercup sending flaring fists of steel at a dinosaur-esque abomination. It bellowed and roared in agony, feeling each smack of the girl's fists tear deep into it's god-like formation, shattering bone. She could break this enormous beast in half like a chicken-wing.
As she gazed at the incomprehensible strength, agility and fury of her hero, she recalled earlier that day in Pokey Oaks, as they were being told a story. Miss Keane delighted in telling her precious tykes about fairytales. Stories about princesses, princes, dragons, trolls, knights, elves, goblins, kings and queens. How one could be so invested in a fantasy realm which, she stopped to reckon, wasn't too far from their own world. However, in Townsville, the beasts bow before the advances of the female heroes upon a single strike. They are treated like toys. Punching bags. They are nothing in comparison to the awesome power of the Powerpuff Girls.
In the books, the worlds gleam with hope, love, happiness and dreams. Dreams that come to life. They are a reflection of the dreams of the two dimensional characters sitting upon the pages. The dreams she witnessed now were surely not her own, for they were violent, relentless, unfathomable in the searing amount of hatred that continued to rip and tear through the overwhelming entity, who then proceeded to fall with a deafening collision to the ground. The puff had done her duty and, when all was surely silent and all was left to hear was the rain that etched coldness into their skin, Buttercup darted up to meet with her upon the skyscraper.
The Powerpuff of course probably wouldn't be able to invest herself in such a hopeless and helpless situation in those lame fantasies that only a mortal could appreciate and connect with, as she would imagine taking full charge of the situation. She would be her own hero. There was no need for anyone else.
"Sorry I took so long" huffed and puffed the Powerpuff with a small smile. As she made a step towards the hazel haired maiden, she was halted with a firm gesture.
"I don't wanna go anywhere just yet" Robin said, kicking her feet over the ledge, staring down at the monster. It was a long... long drop.
The tomboy cocked a brow in amusement "You wanna stay here and get all wet and cold?"
"I like the rain"
"You'll get sick out here"
"No, I won't"
Rolling her eyes at her stubborness, the aggressive rebel took a seat beside her and followed her gaze, out into the all consuming darkness that devoured the distance, beyond what she could possibly perceive with her inferior vision.
After a second, the green hued puff sighed with regret. "Maybe it wasn't the brightest idea to bring you with me tonight. My sisters would have killed me if they knew"
Robin turned to look at her. The innocent girl absorbed each detail of her in a brief moment, but it felt like forever: taking in her cute damp raven locks that ruffled and drooped, her big emerald eyes, her sincere look of determination, but also the badges of her previously violent duty: some bruises and minor cuts from the lashing claws of the devilish creature... she looked... handsome. Another small instance of the past had shot into her brain, where the children were coming to the conclusion of their story, where the charming prince would kiss the princess who had been drawn into an eternal slumber, to then awake and, so doing, wake the rest of the kingdom from their imprisonment. A kiss... A harsh blush smacked her cheeks and she tore her eyes from the hero.
"I insisted on coming to see you... Things are pretty different when you're literally there in the action, way different from TV. Things are obviously edited... censored..." she explained, uneasy.
Buttercup knew what she was hinting at and felt her stomach tie in a knot. "Does it scare you...?" she pried shakily.
"...Yeah"
Biting her lip, the puff averted her gaze to the stomach churning drop, down at the monster who proceeded to bleed out. She'd deal with that mess later.
"W-well... monsters can be pretty scary" the raven haired gal said. "I mean their big teeth, their roars... sometimes they have a thousand eyes and-"
"It's not really them surprisingly enough. It's... you"
The confession felt like a bullet. Buttercup's thin shell, her boisterous ego, suffered a severe crack and the dismay was found pretty plainly on her cute face.
"What?" Her utterance was soft, sweet, speckled with sadness. Robin turned to catch her eyes again, some evident fear lingering in her own voice.
"I mean... what you do for everyone is amazing, it's your job. I just didn't think it'd be so brutal. It's my naivety speaking out, but it gave me chills seeing how much you enjoyed doing that, when you're beating them. I even watched you fly right through one, splattering their bones and blood on the city streets. It's not like I feel sorry for them or anything, but it's how relentless and merciless you became it..." she paused, hesitant. "freaks me out"
The indication of shock from the puff, with her widened eyes and bitter quietness, was enough to make her regret having spoken. As if it wasn't bad enough, her heart sunk heavily, seeing Buttercup become overwhelmed with misery from having heard that. She hung her head and broke eye contact, head in hands.
The last thing she'd want to do is scare or hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. Especially if it was Robin.
A crackle and grumble of the night sky echoed and quaked ever so lightly in their drenched bodies.
"I didn't mean to upset you... I just..." started Robin, but found she couldn't find the words to continue. Tongue tied by her own stupidity, she could only bring herself to embrace the girl from behind.
No reciprocation. The puff sighed heavily, deep in thought, not knowing how to respond. She'd always just done things her way. She enjoyed doing as she pleased and, admittedly, did find a sick satisfaction in how far she could take it. She'd no intention to freak everyone out. She just got lost in the thrill of the moment, in the adrenaline and release. However, her inability to respond or give some hint of understanding was met with something she dreaded even more.
"Buttercup..." whimpered Robin, her puny voice cracking.
Buttercup spun round instantly, hearing her friend being just on the brink of sobbing, and embraced her tightly. It took everything the tomboy could muster not to hold her so tight. She could practically BREAK her in a hug.
"I'll take you home" the tomboy suggested quietly, scooping her up.
Returning to the Snyder residence, drifting quietly in through Robin's bedroom window, they were given a heart attack, by the blatantly loud meow of the welcoming Ginger. She purred, stretching on the bed. Sighing with relief, the girls exchanged a nervous, quiet chuckle.
The tomboy landed, feeling a little tense, and Robin went to find some towels for them. They dried themselves off, still shaking a little from the embrace of warmth, feeling the delightful return of pleasant sensations. Just as Buttercup had given back the towel, the blue eyed babe took her hand and led her to sit on the bed.
"You... don't want me to to leave?" pondered Buttercup softly.
"Why would I want that?" peeped her neighbor, noticing how she'd become a little shaky and dropped her head.
"I figured I'd pushed things too far and... maybe you wouldn't wanna see me anymore. Maybe... you wouldn't... wouldn't..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Robin shyly reached to press her lips to the tomboy's forehead, still ice cold from the horrible weather. Lifting her head to see her, she was met with a playful pout and an order half serious.
"You stay here"
A cup of hot chocolate does wonders, that and a fuzzy companion sending vibrations through your lap with each purr generated. Petting the living lap warmer, the girls began to settle from their emotional intensity.
"I could go into therapy... become a thera-puss" the cat mused, leaning into their touch.
The parents were fast asleep, and the house inhabited a comfortable silence. Security. Something so easy to appreciate... so easy to take for granted.
"Don't let what I think get to you or get in the way of what you do. You know what's best. I'm just a curious bystander in the crowd" sighed Robin, once again pin-pointing herself depressingly as one in a million. She couldn't help but do that, but she wasn't wrong, was she?
"Of course I care what you think" replied Buttercup, looking to her, her goofy, raspy voice warm and gentle. "I had no intentions of scaring you"
"I know"
"I was just being kind of a show off and didn't stop to consider just exactly how much you could handle, especially having never seen a fight in person"
The concept of Buttercup flexing her muscles and being more boisterous than usual to impress her girlfriend caused a minor blush to sting the chocolate haired gal's cheeks. "I get that..."
With the implication of Robin's sentence trailing off, the tomboy sighed with a half eye-lidded expression. "But...?"
"But why are you so... aggressive?"
"Because that's how I like to do things. My sisters wanna leave a point, but I wanna leave a MARK. Villains will think twice, not because of something we've said, but because of what we've done to them. If it's fear that leads them into submission, I'm more than happy to oblige to that factor"
Robin's cute face twisted into a sure disapproval of that statement. "You don't care to give some people a chance of redemption?"
"Look, these morons, we've been fighting for years now. If they can't learn the first few times, I've lost any means to be apologetic or peaceful with them. They're people who mean to do grave harm to innocent people, Robin. Run of the mill folk, like you, me and everyone else, just for their own agenda"
With her ear twitching, sensing the impending surge of negative energy, Ginger moved from Robin's lap to Buttercups to try to calm her.
"I fail to believe anyone can be so devoid of a conscious or moral compass" argued Robin, frowning.
Growling quietly, trying to keep her voice down, Buttercup continued on in a harsh, barely suppressed whisper, with frantic arm gestures "Oh, for Pete's sake, Robin! You see this crap happening on the news every single day. How is it hard to believe there can just be seriously crummy people in the world?"
For a hero, she was showing pretty immoral colours.
"Maybe those people are in hard times and facing a difficult situation" proposed the innocent girl, sipping her cocoa.
"You'd be surprised just how many people I put away, if not ALL, are familiar faces. These people DO NOT change, Robin! They're in for the thrills and enjoyment. Every bad guy is"
"So, you'd be more lenient on someone if you knew they were gonna change?"
"Probably..."
Robin scowled in shock "PROBABLY?"
"If they go so far as to hurt people who I love, there's no way I'd be lenient on them. Would you?"
"T-That's not the point" stuttered Robin, becoming anxious, but still keeping a firm front.
"Then what is?"
"That no matter what the case is, it's essentially a no-holds-barred situation"
Ginger nuzzled into the rowdy hero, her tail brushing and tickling her face some. However, Robin plucked the puss from her spot and put her to the side. "Are you surprised? You refuse to believe that?"
Agitated, Robin ruffled her own hair with an adorable growl of frustration, her brain trying to gain a sense of such a crazy mindset.
"There must be limits. I mean, as far as you're concerned, if someone did something minor, like drop litter, would you give them a taste of an uppercut?"
Buttercup chuckled at the idea. "Pfft! No. Probably just give them a warning, make them pick it up and put in the trash"
Some civil boundaries.
"What if someone shop lifted, like I did with Morbucks?"
The tomboy knew where this was going and she folded her arms, rolling her eyes. "Same case if it's a first offense. Fool me twice, your first black eye, buddy"
The sapphire eyed maiden rolled her eyes too, getting a clearer insight into her crush's head "Robbery. Attempted murder. Kidnapping" she listed on her fingers.
"All rewarded with a generous butt-kicking and a one way ticket to jail" the tomboy smirked, cocky. The crimes were more serious, and thus felt more justified in harsh judgement.
Interesting. However, would there be an instance it would go too far? What if it was more personal, as she'd said before if something happened to someone she loved...
She turned to see the puff, her beautiful oakish locks curtaining her face slightly. "What if... someone were to threaten me? Rob me or kidnap me or-"
"I'd KILL them" Buttercup replied, instantly, with too much ease.
The line. Robin retreated slightly from her in shock. Seeing the reaction, watching the girl scoot to the other end of the bed, horror in her eyes, the tomboy regretted her impulsive wording.
"I'm sorry! Oh, geez. Robin... p-please, I didn't mean to-"
But, the words had done their work. Robin knew Buttercup meant it, and she KNEW she would do it. "S-so... there's really no limits?" Her voice escaped her in a frightened shudder. The Powerpuff approached her slowly, crawling over to her, but Robin retreated more, until she hit the bed headboard.
Having given that line in maybe a different mood, it'd be shrugged off as a half-serious, but still somewhat loyal and romantic phrasing, but the atmosphere now was way too serious and Buttercup's heart began to break, seeing her girlfriend's attempts to escape her.
"Please, Robin..."
"I d-dunno how to feel about this... I think... I can't" the girl tried, but was in too much shock to form a sentence.
The green hued puff's voice began to break somewhat. "I just... I just want to protect you!"
In a poor effort to reassure her and settle her, Buttercup grabbed Robin by the shoulders and closed the space between them, kissing her petrified crush. Both blushing furiously, the scared girl however felt her intense colours were not so much from the kiss, but from anger, having recovered from the initial shock. Robin pushed her away with great strength, Ginger pouncing from the bed, observing the commotion from a safe distance.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Her fierce scowl quickly vanished, as her eyes found that the tough-as-nails, brutish, hardcore tomboy had crumbled and several tears fell from her face, despite her face being temporarily frozen in surprise. As she found the tears falling more and more with ease, she proceeded to hide her face with her bruised stumps and moved away from the intimidated girl.
"Buttercup..." called Robin quietly, reaching for the raven haired puff, feeling her puppy soft locks, only to have her flinch and leave the room with a strip of green light. Her heart shattered, just catching a quick second of the sound of Buttercup's crying and she felt the prickly sensation of guilt and remorse in her chest. Ginger worked her magic, jumping back up on the bed, to soothe her owner with meows and purrs.
The next day at Pokey Oaks, it was illuminated with warmth and sunshine, buzzy with chatter and laughter. Bubbles had gone on a valentine spree and not one person was without a card with a personal message and drawing. The Powerpuff sisters facepalmed, hearing the angry yacking of a certain monkey, far off in Townsville, who'd had his lab broken into by the lovey-dovey blonde.
"I JUST FIXED THAT CEILING!" he snapped and grumbled inwardly, as he pocketed the valentine and returned to his work.
Buttercup sighed dimly on the swing set, her chest filled with a nasty fuzziness, unlike when she was with Robin, where it was soft and warm, was now prickly and sore. How could she have been so stupid?
The siblings, Bubbles and Blossom, looked to each other, baffled. Of course, their tomboy sister wasn't as into such a mushy holiday as they were, but they figured with Robin...
"Hey, Buttercup!" greeted a certain chipper, hazel haired babe.
The raven haired puff was puzzled, lifting her head in surprise to see their neighbor approach her so quickly, especially after the uncomfortable discussion last night. "Robin?"
She produced a card, timidly, with a smile. Taking it, cautiously, not even sure why, Buttercup saw that unlike the other cards speeding to and fro that day, that were pleasant hues of reds, pinks and even oranges and yellows, this was pitch black and had bright red pen on the front with her name. Taken aback by the rebellious presentation, she opened the card and her jaw dropped to find a simple piece of card, graphically detailed to represent an actual human heart, unlike the classical cutesy sort. The line work and shading showed she'd put a lot of effort into it and had a reference (if she'd dare show this to Bubbles she'd either scream in horror or demand to know the secret artist who was one upping her in her talents from the shadows). The colouring was done in pen and the efforts made to gel the selected hues from reds to blues to purples and pinks was astonishing. To finish off, Robin had spattered some glitter on the perimeter.
On the other side read a blatant: "Be my bloody valentine"
Uninspired, perhaps, but to the point. She felt beating around the bush with a poem or silly pun wouldn't be to the hardcore puff's taste. Seeing that her crush was rather dumbfounded by the unpredictable artwork, she chewed her lip, hands behind her back. She glanced off to the side, a little nervous. Too much?
"D-Do you like it?" she asked cutely with a blush.
ROAR!
With lightening speed, Buttercup handed the valentine back to Robin to hold and she took off, independently, taking on the monster alone and with ease. Blossom and Bubbles shrugged and returned to their conversation, seeing their sister could handle it. Fleshy punches could be heard, followed by a piercing scream of the creature, before it went abruptly silent. The children pointed up to the returning superhero, claiming her to be holding something gigantic. Some of them felt nauseous.
"Buttercup! What is that?!" yelled Miss Keane.
Landing, Robin was flabbergasted at what her girlfriend had brought as her own romantic gesture. While the creature would most assuredly be dead, the heart which she carried, the size of an elephant, continued to pump and pulse, each beat getting weaker and fainter. A small pool formed around the little girl, holding the muscle of sentiment and she smiled nervously over at Robin who, like everyone else, was glued to the spot in shock. All the while, blood showered on her, quite literally making her dedicated to her girlfriend's request.
"D-Do you like it?" the Powerpuff parroted, rubbing the back of her head.
The repulsion in the chocolate haired gal's expression thankfully subsided and she started to giggle at the absurdity of the offering. Dashing over, Robin cuddled the raven haired tomboy, smiling genuinely at the ridiculous scenario. She wouldn't ever want her hero to change. Not one bit.
"Could somebody explain what the flying frack-a-doodle is going on!?" cried Blossom in bewilderment, while Mitch Mitchelson gushed over how sick and awesome Buttercup's gift was.
END