Openings

Shortly after the end of their junior year, the girls and Professor Utonium had taken a jet to Africa in search of Mojo Jojo. In ten years he'd drifted past middle age, but was still a threat.

They'd linked various thefts of African artifacts to Mojo and believed that he had ill uses for them in mind. When it turned out that one of the museum pieces was a fake, the road led them on Mojo's heels in search of the real one.

So it was that they found themselves in an Egyptian ruin, seeking to recover the artifact the ancient Egyptians had themselves acquired long ago. In the interest of haste, the four of them split into two pairs at the first opportunity.

Bubbles and Buttercup walked through several passages in near-silence for several minutes before Bubbles tried to start a conversation.

"So how have you been, Buttercup?"

"What do you care?" she asked with her characteristic scowl.

"Well, it's just that we never really see each other much. That and you seem upset lately."

"I'm always upset," Buttercup replied. Bubbles had surely heard the rumors about Mitch by now. Buttercup hoped she would just drop the subject.

"You know what I mean. How about using antidote X in training and splitting your knuckles, huh?"

"I'm just tired of holding back all the time. Is that a problem?"

"Overdoing it is," Bubbles countered.

"Well that's my problem then, isn't it?"

"Not if you don't want it to be. You've got a dad and two sisters who love you very much. We all want to see you happy."

"Then you can start by shutting up."

"All right, then," Bubbles sighed. "If that's how you want it, then I'll stop. I just want to say, though, that if you ever want to talk about something, I'm here for you. I mean, I'm not like dad or Blossom. I'll never try to lecture you or anything."

"You talkin' about Mitch?" Buttercup asked menacingly. If her sister thought any of it was true, she just might never speak to Bubbles again.

"Maybe. Is that what's bothering you?"

"You're damn right it's bothering me! Just tell me you think it's true. C'mon, I dare you!"

"Buttercup, I don't know anything. I'd like to think I know you well enough to say you'd never do those things, but I don't! You never talk to me, you never spend time with your family, and you just brush us off whenever we try to make an effort ourselves."

"So you admit it. You think it's true."

"No, I never said that! If anyone asked me, I'd tell them I think you're better than that, and that you'd never settle for a punk like Mitch. But I'm just saying if any of it were true, Buttercup, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't judge you."

"Just shut up!" Buttercup shouted, frustrations boiling over. She had a brief impulse to punch her sister, or at least the wall, but kept that in check. However, doing nothing was more than Buttercup could ask from herself at that moment, and she did push her sister. Even so, she tried to hold back. So when Bubbles went through the wall behind her, Buttercup's open-mouthed shock was understandable.

"Bubbles! Oh, God--I'm sorry!" Buttercup blurted, though she couldn't bring herself to step forward and help Bubbles up.

"I'm all right," Bubbles said, a little surprised at the collapse herself. Sitting up, she looked at the bricks remaining along the hole in the wall. "Look," she said, pointing all around the hole. "None of them broke."

Bubbles hadn't looked her in the eye yet, for which Buttercup was grateful. Bubbles pushed one of the remaining blocks and found it moved easily.

"This wall was fake," Bubbles declared. She turned around and peered into the darkness beyond with her flashlight. After a short walk began a stairway descent into some unknown place. "You didn't push me that hard. Just surprised me is all."

"Bubbles, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I just didn't."

Bubbles turned around and smiled, though in the dim light Buttercup could still make out tears welling in her sister's eyes. Aside from that, nothing about her appearance or even her voice indicated she was upset. "That's all right, Buttercup. It's got to be hard to be alone. I'm..." Her voice did start to break here. "I'm actually kind of happy. That's the most honest or sincere thing you've done in front of me for years."

Finally breaking, Bubbles turned away before adding, "I guess maybe that's all I'll ever get."

"Geez, Bubbles," Buttercup started. She stepped up behind her sobbing sister and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't say that."

Buttercup felt bad, but she couldn't help but smile. Bubbles still seemed so weak and emotionally fragile to her. Buttercup figured she didn't need anyone's help to get through her problems, but if Bubbles was the one who needed to talk to someone, that she could handle.

Bubbles's crying lessened slightly, but she remained quiet for a time. Buttercup slowly twisted back and forth, gently rocking her sister. Bubbles even felt soft and delicate, but Buttercup knew better. Physically Bubbles was one of the strongest, toughest people in the entire world, not to mention several neighboring solar systems.

Buttercup caught a whiff of something and stopped moving. Pressing her nose against her sister's hair, she inhaled more deeply.

"That smells nice," Buttercup offered.

Bubbles sniffed. "It's lavender."

"Are you feeling better?" Buttercup asked kindly, hoping they could start moving ahead again.

"A little, maybe. But I already knew you can be there for us sometimes. I just want you to let us do the same for you for once."

Buttercup groaned, releasing her sister and turning around. "Can you just drop it already?"

"I will, Buttercup. If you don't want to talk then I can't make you. But I know you better than that. It's bothering you, or else something else is, and you're just making it worse by not saying anything! If you won't let me help you, then there's nothing I can do, no matter how much I love you or how much it hurts to see you so upset."

Buttercup wavered slightly, but not much. "Yeah, well, I don't remember you coming to me when you broke up with Mike!"

Bubbles continued their back-to-back conversation. "I didn't think you cared much for him. I talked to Blossom about it a little. I even asked dad once. I thought about asking you, but you were always annoyed when I tried to talk to you about anything at all, so I never worked up the nerve to ask."

Buttercup tensed when she felt Bubbles's hand on her shoulder. "I never want you to worry with me, all right? I love you too much, and I like to show it differently than you do. You're always wanting to fix problems. Some problems can't be fixed." Bubbles squeezed her sister's shoulder here. "Sometimes you just need someone to help you live with them."

Buttercup was silent for a minute. "Those things they're saying about me... They're all lies. Every last stinking one of them."

Now Bubbles embraced her sister from behind. Buttercup tensed all over. It was one thing when she did it to Bubbles, but this... It just felt uncomfortable.

"That's so awful," Bubbles said.

Buttercup saw where this was going and squirmed a little. They had a job to do, after all. Bubbles tightened her embrace and said, "No. Please. Please trust me."

Buttercup stopped. "Trust you? I never didn't trust you!"

Bubbles laughed silently, but Buttercup felt it. "You dolt, that's not what I mean. I mean you can trust me to always be there for you. I want you to show me you trust me like that."

Buttercup sighed. Wrapping her arms around her sisters, she took a deep breath to steady herself. "All right. Um... Well, you know Mitch, he, well, he asked me out, and I went, and he treated me like... Like shit." Even at this age the girls kept their bad language to a minimum, so the word coming from her mouth was pretty damning. They were role models to so many, after all, including young children. "Then, he... Uh... He..."

"It's okay," Bubbles whispered, giving her sister a comforting squeeze.

Buttercup had noticed her voice start to waver and grabbed Bubbles's arms, forcefully ending the embrace as she turned around.

Putting on a gruff voice again, Buttercup said, "Nothing happened! Not even close. There's nothing more I have to say, so can we get going already?"

"It's 'cause you were gonna cry, isn't it?" Bubbles asked, smiling through her own tears.

Buttercup groaned in frustration and started walking down the once-sealed passageway. Bubbles darted in front of her and near-tackled her. Buttercup was slammed back against the wall, held by her sister, cracking the masonry and dropping bits of stone and dust on their heads in the process. Bubbles hugged her tightly, chin on her sister's shoulder.

"Darn you, Buttercup! Why do you have to be so ashamed of crying?" Bubbles asked, her voice indicating she apparently had no reservation against weeping herself. "You don't get ashamed when you bleed. When you get cut you bleed, but when something hurts you inside it's different. When something hurts inside, we cry. That's all. There's nothing to be ashamed of, especially not with your sisters! If we're not here for each other then who will be?"

Buttercup pressed her hands on Bubbles's shoulders and pushed her away. Bubbles expected Buttercup would be angry with her again and was surprised by the softness in her sister's face. "Look... If I promise to talk when this is all over, can we just get back to searching right now?"

Bubbles smiled and leaned forward again to kiss Buttercup on the cheek, saying "Thank you," before letting go and starting into the darkness.

Buttercup scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Thank me? What did I do?"

Bubbles giggled, "You trusted me, silly!"

Buttercup cocked an eyebrow and watched her sister start down the stairs. In the end she just smiled and shook her head in bewilderment. Her sister was a strange one.