Before we even respond, we run towards Bubbles, who smiles and opens her arms. The smell of her has changed, her stance has changed, and her hair is no longer in pigtails. It feels great to have my arms around her essence once more.
I smile as she does too, but the smile quickly slips away from my face when I realise how thin she's become… slimmer than me, slimmer than Blossom, as if she hadn't eaten anything. I ignore this, and focus on the warmth of the hug, how amazing it is.
It's even better when she whispers sweet-nothings into our ears, and the sound of her voice soothes my ears.
Butch looks at me, and automatically walks up to me, carrying Boomer by the ear. I barely look up from our hug, seeing Boomer struggling under his weight, and detach myself.
"Hug over." I announce, and Bubbles and Blossom stop instantly, all turned to face Bubbles and Boomer, who both step to the centre.
"Alright, Bubbles, Boomer. Why d'you need our help?"
"I… well… Cody's funeral is today, and… hissuicidenoteisinthereanditmakesmelooklikehiskiller." She babbles.
"What?"
"His suicide note's in the coffin and it makes me look like I killed him."
"What?!" Me and Blossom call out.
Boomer scuffs his feet, looking at the floor.
"Y-Yeah. We have to find…"
"We missed his funeral."
"Shit." Boomer says into the silence that follows. Bubbles waddles up to the TV, hobbling under her… lack of weight, as she switches the TV on.
The news is on, of course, and the breaking news?
Oil spill in Villetown's biggest ocean: Villeanian Ocean.
Oh, and Cody's supposed murder.
"Oh… um… you should… you should turn it up." Bubbles says, clearly interested by the headline.
"The note found in Cody Smith's coffin is too vague to point to a certain killer, however, the public still continues to search for Boomer Jojo and Bubbles Utonium, who were thought to have close relationships with Cody." We all hear from the TV.
"Ah…" Boomer says.
xxx
Boomer's POV
After the TV is switched off, we all turn to look at Blossom and Brick, who are muttering to each other… or nagging each other.
"Your ideas stink." Brick says to Blossom. She rolls her eyes, and I have a feeling her ideas are actually good.
"Like yours are any better." She snaps back, and this time Brick rolls his eyes at her.
"What were your ideas?" I suddenly say aloud.
Blossom blinks at me, but sticks her chin out, "Brick says it's rubbish, so you don't have to hear it," I don't know how this affects her – Brick isn't even that relevant.
"So? Since when was Brick… Head of all Ideas Ever Conjured?" I ask, making up the title as I go along.
"Uh…"
Buttercup and Butch turn to look at me. I've spoken a lot more than I had for the past weeks, because Bubbles didn't really let me talk.
Bubbles nods, waiting for Blossom to speak.
"I forgot my idea." She mutters, and we all roll our eyes, obviously disappointed by this news. Blossom always had good ideas, only to forget them.
Apparently the disappearance of both me and Bubbles had actually hurt them mentally.
Bubbles told me it wouldn't, that her sisters didn't need her anyway to fight to save the day. Now that I think about it… she was right, as much as I hated to think it, I knew that she had a point. Bubbles felt and… well… was worthless.
"How could we… fix this?" Blossom asks, "We need to brainstorm."
"How would Princess sort this out?" I say, trying to make a joke in the tense and unfamiliar atmosphere. I hadn't realised how hard returning would be.
I throw a quick look at the window, that's still open to the point where I can climb through it and fly out of it, faster than a bullet until I was gone. I wanted to leave, but Bubbles said she couldn't work by herself.
Brick coughs and walks to the window, shutting the window.
There's a pause, and obviously, everyone's unsure if I was joking or I was serious. Buttercup slaps a hand onto her face and then finally I choose to speak.
"Um… money?" I suggest.
I look at the floor awkwardly, then turn towards Buttercup, whose hands are detached from her face, and instead rest on her chest, folded. "We're not bribing them."
"It was a joke." I mumble.
Her eyebrows raise to the point where they may as well drop off her forehead, and the disapproval in her eyes burns my skin each time I try to meet her gaze.
My gaze grows foggy, and my eyes begin to cloud over and become milky. She obviously was taking a dislike to me.
"Jokes aren't fucking relevant right now. We're talking a shitload of-"
"I've got it!" Bubbles cries out, excitedly. We all cock our heads, turning in her direction.
"You said that HIM can do magic, didn't you, Boomer?"
I grow hot, blushing furiously as my brothers turn to look at me, clearly glaring – I had no reason to tell her.
I look away from my brothers' gazes and turn to Bubbles. "Uh… yeah. I-I did tell you that."
The looks they're giving me are worse, piercing into my very soul.
"Well then, we can just get him to revive Cody, can't we?"
Blossom looks up, slowly nodding in approval, only to shake her head once more. "No, Bubbles, HIM is our enemy."
Bubbles smirks, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "That's why the boys'll do it for us." She says, the tone of maliciousness quickly disappearing to a cuter, and more innocent way of speaking.
Brick coughs loudly, implying that he's not in for it, whilst I scuff my shoes on the bedroom floor, and Butch shakes his head in a similar way that Blossom did.
"Yeah… no."
Bubbles widens her bug-like eyes, until she's staring into our souls, and blinking, tears beginning to wet her eyes. Her eyelashes became spikier, and water was dripping off one of them.
That was amazing – could she make herself cry on command?
"Brick… we… we could."
"No." He says, folding his arms, face like thunder, "we could, but we aren't."
Butch looks up, finally sighing, as Buttercup has joined the guilt trip train – now all three girls are staring at us, their eyes practically bulging out of their heads, tears slowly leaking down their cheeks.
"Fine." Brick says grudgingly, huffing as they fall out of position and start crowding around us, hugging, smiling – the room seems to light up as Bubbles wraps her arms around me.
I try not to think of what HIM could do to Cody and render his spell evil. Instead, I think about what lies ahead for us – if Cody never died, then that would open up news reporters everywhere, assuming he faked his death.
Bubbles has me in a tighter grip, hugging me and squeezing my muscles until they turn to water.
But then the air is being sucked out, as if she's trying to choke me – her eyes glint briefly, the blue sparkling under the light, until Blossom breaks the death grip she has on me – we're both wordlessly staring at each other.
For a few seconds, I see regret flash in her eyes, eyebrows tucked in and pointing downwards, her eyes small and sad. There's a feeling that seems wrong… off in my chest – but I smile at her, mouthing 'no worries' at her.
She says nothing, but a small smile flickers onto her face. Compared to her other smiles, it was a grisly parody of itself – a ghost of a smile.
A/N: Yeah, that wraps up chapter five. Sorry for not updating – and there literally won't be any other pairings until maybe the next two or three chapters – I'll try my best to get some Blossom x Brick into Chapter 6.
