In the Bedroom

"Blossom?"

Blossom started when she heard her name. She'd been asleep when the small, soft voice called out.

"Blossom? Are you awake?"

Blossom peered through squinted eyes. Even though her bedroom was still dark, especially with the blinds drawn, her eyes felt painfully dry. "Now I am." In the faint light shed by her alarm clock on her nightstand she saw Bubbles. Blossom's twin bed and book-laden headboard was tucked into one corner of her room, the foot facing the door.

"I'm sorry," Bubbles said. She was slightly hunched over, playing with the hem of her nightgown. "After this afternoon, I had trouble sleeping." Still not looking her sister in the face, she dropped to her knees at her bedside. "Sleeping most of the afternoon before I came home didn't help, either, but I really have a hard time thinking of you being upset with me."

Blossom loosed a combined sigh and groan. "Bubbles, I love you and all, but waking me up at," she reached for her clock, "two in the morning isn't going to make me any less upset with you."

"I know, but I can't bear sitting on this overnight and through school tomorrow. And who knows if we'll even have a chance to talk after school anyway?"

"Happy as it would make me, I guess you're not here to apologize and admit you're wrong, so just say what you want to say and go to bed."

Bubbles shook her head. "Scooch over."

"What?" Blossom asked, laughing giddily. "Are you crazy? After today you think I'm letting you into my bed?"

"Oh, don't be silly. Now move."

"No," Blossom half-said, half-giggled. But as Bubbles lifted the covers and started coming in anyway, Blossom slid back against her wall as far as she could. Twin-sized beds, despite the name, are not intended to be shared by siblings.

Bubbles shivered, seeming to notice the cold she'd just left only when embraced by the warmth of the bed covers.

"All right," Blossom started to say, "any other day this would be uncomfortable, but now... What's this supposed to prove, anyway?"

"Nothing. Remember I used to come to you like this sometimes? You'd wrap your arms around me, tell me why everything was going to be all right, and somehow always make me feel better?"

"Yeah, years ago. Then all of a sudden you started acting like you understood everything. And you obviously don't want to hear what I have to say about this."

"Because if all you want to say is what you were trying to say this earlier, I already do understand those things. I can guess what you think. You can guess how I feel. What I want is to hear what you feel and tell you what I think."

Blossom yawned hard, causing her to tear up. Although Bubbles's words hadn't quite stuck, she replied anyway, "All right, maybe I've calmed down a little, but still..."

"Please, Bloss... At least tell me how you feel about us. About this. You still love us, right?"

"Bubbles, really... After doing something so reckless, stupid, and wrong, would we be talking right now if I didn't still love you? I just wish that for once you'd listen to reason instead of intuition." Blossom started to cry. She continued despite the painful tighness in her throat. "I mean, do you ever think about how many relationships fail? Or that the person you're going to be five years from now may be very different than you are today? I mean, everything else aside, even if this was just between the family..."

Blossom laughed, then sniffled. "No pun intended. But most of the time, when a relationship goes bad you have the luxury of walking way. No matter what happens, you can't ever take this back."

Bubbles's eyes were watery, too, but she was still smiling. "I know, Blossom." She hesitated, then reached out to wipe away one of her sister's stray tears. "I did think about that. I'm still scared about a lot of things. But I'm a lot less worried about Buttercup and I getting along, even if we don't stay together. I'm completely clueless about how we're going to deal with Princess, but even that doesn't worry me so much. I'm not sure what I've gained with Buttercup is worth losing you and daddy, though."

"Oh, Bubbles," Blossom cooed. "Don't even think that." She started to reach out but pulled back. "You sure you're not...you know..."

Bubbles shook her head and smirked. "Naw. You're not my type, I think."

Blossom smiled and put her hand gently on the back of Bubbles's head. She pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "Now don't worry about dad and I. I admit, the only reason I'm not tearing into you right now is I'm too tired to think straight and you're so pathetically adorable when you get like this. But you have to admit you're pushing things a little far. We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we just patted you two on the back and said 'good for you,' right?"

"Good point... See? You always make things seem better somehow."

There were two quick taps on the bedroom door. The door swung before anyone acknowledged them. Buttercup was standing there, head down and arms at her sides. She clenched her fists and spoke, looking up as she did. "I'm sorry. I--"

Buttercup stopped short when she saw her sisters squeezed into the little bed. Blossom's hand was still around Bubbles's neck.

Blossom rolled her eyes on seeing Buttercup's wide-eyed shock. "Oh, don't even think about that!" She gently pushed Bubbles away, and she slid out of bed without a fight. "Some people in this household still understand the boundaries of sisterhood."

Buttercup shook her head to regain her focus, easily dismissing the interruption. "Yeah. Sure. Um... I just wanted to say 'I'm sorry.' I deserve the blame for all of this." Buttercup's gaze returned to the carpet. "I was stupid every step of the way, and I don't just mean yesterday--the day before--whatever. Both. The whole time before that."

"Buttercup..." Bubbles started. Buttercup didn't look up.

"I'm sorry Bubbles. I had plenty of time, but it all came so fast for you."

"No, it didn't! It just took me this long to realize--"

"No, you're wrong. Would you have ever... Would you..." Buttercup paused to regain composure. She still didn't dare look. She knew she couldn't hold out against those eyes. "C'mon, Bubbles, like any amount of time would have made you 'realize' anything. This is all my damned fault. I've been thinking... This is just like with Mike, isn't it?"

"Buttercup...what about Mike? What do you mean? Please, look at me! Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love me! If you can."

Buttercup did her best to ignore her sister. "I remember you told me Mike is the one who confessed his feelings to you. And you also said that you hadn't given it much thought before he said anything."

Buttercup finally looked up. Her anger, though directed inward, was projected clearly on her face. "And you know what else? You told me you thought that took a lot of guts, and that because of that you couldn't just say 'no.'"

She had to turn away again, though. The desperate longing in Bubbles's eyes... Brought on by sheer love; not from romance, but from selfless affection. "I'm sorry, Bubbles, but today shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have let it. You have so much love to give, and I don't deserve an ounce of it. Don't feel like you owe me anything. I'm...sorry."

Bubbles ran to her sister, though there were mere feet between them. Buttercup braced herself but still threw up her arms stumbled back a few steps when her sister collided. Bubbles wrapped Buttercup in an embrace that would have sheared a car in half.

"Don't say that! Don't say that!" Bubbles pleaded, her voice muffled, her face buried in her sister's shoulder. "Don't you dare try to tell me how I feel about you!"

"Wha--but... But that's not what--"

"Buttercup, I loved Mike. I thought he loved me. Maybe he does, but he loved me like some piece of art. Like something too good to... To touch. To hold. Too good to spoil."

Blossom, essentially forgotten at this point, watched now from her doorway as Bubbles lifted her head and looked at Buttercup almost nose-to-nose.

"I was Mike's perfect woman. Not because I was perfect for him, but because I was perfect to him. No one knows better than we do how wrong that is. How real...how human we are." Bubbles hugged her sister tight again, this time resting her chin on her shoulder instead of burying her face in it.

"We weren't even grown in lab. 'Boom!' We came out of an explosion in a lab. But dad's looked at our DNA. We're one hundred percent human. We can have kids, if we wanted. Well, not with each other, but you know what I mean. We age. We bleed. We'll grow old and, someday, we'll die. Just like everyone else. Sure, we were good kids. We were too naive to be too dangerous.

"But we grew up. Just like everyone else, we grew up in a world full of greedy, selfish, spiteful, hateful bastards, and just because we help them anyway they think we're better than them. Or at least they think we think we're better.

"Maybe I could have more friends, but I don't, and I don't want to. I don't keep other people away because I think I have enough. I sure don't do it because I think I'm better than they are. I do it because I can't freaking stand them, sometimes! Damn it, Buttercup, I hate some of those people as much as you do!

"You keep them away by being pissy. I smile and joke and laugh and most of the time I mean it but sometimes I just want to give them what they want so they shut the hell up and leave me alone."

Bubbles stopped briefly to kiss Buttercup's lips. "But I didn't give you what you wanted to get rid of you. Or even to keep you around. I gave you what you wanted because it's what I want, too."

Listening unnoticed from the hall upstairs, a thoughtful Professor Utonium decided not to intrude. As he returned to his bedroom, the last thing he heard from downstairs was Bubbles saying, "And don't you dare say different ever again, all right?"