Warmer
by Gregory Cooper
Chapter Two: A Sister's Desire
"Bubbles, can I talk to you?"
"Of course you can Mike, you're talking to me right now", Bubbles chirpily replied to the boy standing in front of her, one of her best childhood friends. Mike blushed and chuckled nervously, then looked at Buttercup and Blossom, sitting on either side of Bubbles at the lunch table.
"In private...please?" Mike asked, his voice cracking half with what he wanted to say, and half purely because of his age, and his impending teenage-hood.
"Sure," Bubbles said, nodding her head and making her long ponytails swing from side to side slightly in a way that distracted Blossom momentarily. When she blinked her vision clear, Blossom noticed that Bubbles was gone, and got on with eating her lunch.
"Bloss, you okay?" Buttercup asked, noticing the change in Blossom's demeanour. She may not spend much time around her sisters outside of school, but that didn't mean that she was incapable of picking up on their moods when it became necessary.
"'Course I am Buttercup, why do you...ask?" Blossom snapped back at her between bites of a sandwich, giving an involuntary shiver. "Why should anything be amiss? I'm just a little chilly, that's all", she added, wrapping her cardigan tighter around her shoulders.
"Chilly?" Buttercup muttered to herself. Okay, so it was only 2 degrees above zero outside, but the school had very graciously put the heating on even though it was still early September, so the inside of the school buildings were a toasty warm 20 degrees; certainly far from being "chilly"...Buttercup shrugged the remark off as Blossom just being weird ol' Blossom, and returned to her own lunch.
"We've been friends for a long time, haven't we Bubbles?" Mike asked shyly, once they found an empty classroom to sit down in. Bubbles nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, pract'ly since we were created", Bubbles said, sitting cross-legged, Indian style on the floor. Mike sat down opposite her.
"Well Bubbles, you're a girl, and I'm a boy, and uh..."
"Mike, you're babbling," Bubbles said in a gentle voice to show nothing bad was meant by it, "which is kinda cute, I admit." She smiled kindly at him. "Please, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Umm, y'see Bubbles...what I w-w-wanted to know was..." Mike said, a shy stutter creeping into his speech that hadn't been there for many, many years, "whether you could like me as, maybe, if you're interested, as maybe more than just a friend?"
Bubbles blushed and chewed her bottom lip, also going very self-conscious all of a sudden. "M-m-mike...?" she asked, unsure she'd heard what she thought - hoped, even - she had heard. She'd dreamt of this day more than once, always happening in a different way; Mike was asking her to be his girlfriend!
"So?" Mike asked, gaining a little in courage now that he'd asked the important question. "Whaddya say Bubbles?"
"I, erm...yes!" Bubbles exclaimed, to excited and caught up in the moment to say anything more. "Yes, yes, yes!"
"HAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAA!"
Bubbles heard the twisted laugh coming from behind her, and turned around to find Mitch Mitchellson and Harry Pitt jumping out from behind the teacher's desk - how had she not seen them there before that moment?
"Nice one dude - she fell for it hook, line and sinker!" Mitch crowed, and slapped Mike on the back a little roughly, knocking him from his sitting position to lying face down on the floor. Bubbles just stared, sitting motionless on the floor, her lower lip wobbling a little.
"What...what's g-going on?" she asked, softly. She couldn't believe this could be what it seemed to be, but Mitch was definitely a jerk, that much she already knew from years of being at school with him. "Mike...please, tell me...?"
"It was a set-up Bubbles, Mike just passed his initiation test into my gang", Mitch said in a careless tone, and Harry muttered "our gang" from behind him, prompting a smack across the head and lots of cowering.
"Is this...this is true? Mike?" Bubbles asked the boy again, still lying face down on the ground. He couldn't bear to lift his head, to see Bubbles' shattered expression right now, but Mitch grabbed his hair and yanked him back and up, and he saw her face then - big blue eyes, bigger and bluer than usual with sadness, the first tears spilling down her cheeks, which were bright red with the shame.
"Well done mate, you're one of us now," Mitch said, and he and Harry hoisted Mike from the ground and strolled casually out of the room, leaving Bubbles sitting in the middle of the empty classroom floor, crying her broken little heart out.
"Waaaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaah! I c...ca...can't b'lieve he'd...sob... do that to meeeeeeee! Waaaahaaaaahaaaaah!" Bubbles wailed, lying down on the floor and burying her face in the carpet.
Blossom and Buttercup were just finishing up their own respective lunches when they felt it - a massive pang of sadness that hit them full on, stopping them in their tracks. Blossom wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye.
"Bubbles?" she said quietly. Buttercup looked confused, not understanding what exactly it was that Blossom was reacting to. "C'mon Buttercup, something's happened!"
"Hey, no need to pull my arm off!" Buttercup exclaimed, as she was roughly yanked out of the school cafeteria as fast as school regulations permitted them to travel. When they arrived at the classroom where Bubbles was moments later, they saw three boys wandering off down the other end of the long corridor, but thought nothing of it whatsoever.
"O my God..." Blossom muttered, shooting over to sit next to where Bubbles lay, and taking the blonde girl into her lap. "Bubbles...oh Bubbles", she said, fighting really hard to keep herself from crying too, "whatever happened to you?"
"I...waaaaaaah...I can't...he said...he wan'ned t'be more'n...I trusted him! Waaaah!" Bubbles sat, crying into Blossom's lap. Blossom just sat there, stroking the top of Bubbles' head in a soothing motion, and making soft shushing noises to try to help calm Bubbles down a little.
"You mean...", Buttercup said, slowly and evenly, "that Mike led you on?"
"Bubbles, please stop crying..." Blossom said, sniffling a little too, "he's gone now." She lifted Bubbles up and hugged her tightly yet gently; Buttercup still stood by the door, her face gradually clouding over with anger. "Please...sniff... you know I hate to see you crying Bubbles sniffle it hurts to sob see you in pain like...sniffle...like...l-l-like t-t-thiiiii...waaah!" Blossom couldn't hold back her own tears any longer, and rested her head on Bubbles' shoulder, whilst Bubbles' head rested on Blossom's shoulder too.
"Right," said Buttercup, cracking her knuckles one by one, "Mike's gonna pay for doing this to ya Bubbles, I promise."
"No Buttercup...waaa...'snot Mike's faul...sob, sob ...Mitch 'n Harry put'em uppa...ubba...ubaaa...wail..."
"That does it, I'm heading after them", Buttercup stated simply.
"NO!"
Buttercup had already started off down the corridor when Blossom's voice stopped her dead in her tracks. Not the words, she typically ignored what Blossom said purely on principle, but the force behind that simplest of commands was impossible for her to go against. She whirled around to see Blossom standing at the doorway to the room, with Bubbles standing beside her and leaning her head on the redhead's shoulder.
"What? Blossom, you can't mean to let them get away with treating Bubbles..." she said, trailing off at the look of murderous anger on Blossom's face.
"No. One. Hurts. Bubbles." Blossom spoke slowly and evenly, shaking where she stood with repressed anger, and blinking back the tears that still threatened to spill down. "Buttercup, you look after Bubbles, I've gotta be somewhere right now." Buttercup didn't argue, she took Bubbles and led her sobbing sister off to the school nurse's office.
Nobody knew why Mike, Mitch and Harry turned up to their afternoon lessons all covered in scrapes and bruises and sporting six freshly blackened eyes between them; nobody asked either. When they saw them, Buttercup looked at the cold expression on Blossom's face, with a horror that slowly transformed as she put two and two together.
"Bloss, I never knew ya had it in ya", she said to her sister, and then no more was said of it.
"How old is your dad today anyway?" asked Robyn, as she entered the Utonium family kitchen along with Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. Bubbles started counting on her fingers.
"He said that he's forty this year," Blossom said. "And we promised when we were little that he'd never have to cook his own birthday meal.
"Yeah," Buttercup added with a smirk, "it's just a pity that you're such a terrible cook, Bloss!" Blossom just glared at her, though it was clear there was no real malice behind the look.
"It's true Blossy," Bubbles said, resting her head on Blossom's shoulder affectionately. "'Member that time you set the stove on fire?" Robyn's eyes went wide.
"What were you cookin', Blossom?" she asked, wondering how the talented and powerful Blossom had managed to start a fire in the kitchen.
Blossom's face went as red as her dress and she shyly tried to cover her face with her hair, but there wasn't quite enough of it for the job. "Umm...water", she said quietly, and everyone, including Blossom herself, collapsed into fits of giggles.
Once the laughter died down, the four girls started cooking. Blossom and Bubbles worked on making authentic Spaghetti Bolognese - their father's favourite meal - from scratch, whilst Buttercup and Robyn whipped up a chocolate fudge topped sponge birthday cake.
"Hey Bobbi", Buttercup said, staring at Robyn's face very intently with an odd smile wavering on her face as they were putting the finishing touches to the cake, icing "Happy Birthday Dad" on the top of it.
"Hey yourself BC", Robyn said as she was very focused on getting the icing on the cake correctly.
"Ya got frosting on your face, Bobbi", Buttercup said, as Bubbles and Blossom stopped to watch them messing about a little. Blossom didn't notice, she was so wrapped up in the scene and the warm, content feeling she was getting from being with her three favourite people in the whole wide world, that she was holding the edge of the saucepan within which the spaghetti sauce had been poured.
"Where?"
"Right..." said Buttercup, reaching out to Robyn's left cheek where there was a small blob of white cake icing. "There", she said, brushing Robyn's cheek with the flat of her palm very gently, wiping the icing away.
"Blossom! You've got your hand in the spaghetti sauce!" Bubbles exclaimed, trying and failing to keep a straight face at the sight of Blossom pulling her tomato puree-covered fingers out and reaching for the kitchen towel. "No, don't waste it," Bubbles said, spaghetti was one of her most favourite dishes too. To everyone's surprise, she took Blossom's arm and held her hand up, then took all four of Blossom's fingers into her mouth and began to lick and suck at them. Buttercup and Robyn turned to each other and whispered something childish and giggled.
"Bub...Bubbly, what are you doing?" Blossom said, breathing heavily, her eyesight blurring as she felt her face flushing bright red. She brought her other free hand up to wipe the perspiration from her forehead, feeling incredibly hot and stifled all of a sudden. Bubbles kept going, working on getting every last drop of the spaghetti sauce from Blossom's fingers.
"Pleeeese...don't..." Blossom whispered, her willpower crumbling as she lost strength in her legs and fell back against the kitchen countertop, dazed and confused. "Please...ssssssstop...don't..."
Bubbles did stop then, but only because she'd licked Blossom's fingers completely clean by that point.
"Bubbles!" Robyn was the first to exclaim, while Blossom was still trying to catch her breath. "Wow, Bubbles, what has gotten into you?" she asked in astonishment, rather hot under the collar herself after that little display.
"What? It tasted really good", Bubbles said, having the decency to blush, now that she realised what she'd just done. "Are we gonna finish making dinner or what?" Blossom was still struggling to stand up again on her shaking legs and fanning herself.
"What you still doing up now, Bloss? We should'a been in bed an hour ago", Buttercup said, as she entered the dimly lit lounge with a glass of milk at nearly one in the morning. Blossom was sitting curled up on the couch, nursing a mug of warm cocoa in both hands, wearing her hot pink pyjamas and fuzzy pink indoor flip-flops. She looked up at Buttercup's remark, startled out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" Blossom said, "Oh, I'm waiting for Bubbles, she's gone out on a date."
"I know, I was there when the guy turned up at the door this evening, remember?" Buttercup said in a teasing tone.
"Oh yeah."
"So, what? You're waiting to bawl Bubbles out for being late home?" Blossom shook her head, red hair flying everywhere around her. She didn't even bother trying to tidy her hair up, she was too tired. "So then?"
"Just..." Blossom sniffed, she sounded like she had a slight cold, "make sure she's alright, I got a weird feeling when Jake..."
"Jerry. Jake was last week, keep up Blossom," Buttercup smirked, moving to sit down beside Blossom on the couch and taking a sip of her milk.
"Right, Jerry", Blossom said rather flatly. Frankly, she couldn't care less what the guy's name was. "When he showed up, I had this odd sensation, like someone walking over my grave."
"How d'ya mean?" Buttercup asked, taking another sip.
"It wasn't anything in particular about him," Blossom began slowly, trying to find the right words, "just something felt...wrong. Brr..." she shivered, and took a swig of her warm cocoa, "dunno why, but I've felt chilly all night long", she said, putting her mug down and wrapping her arms around her middle. Buttercup just gave her a questioning look.
"Didn't you say the exact same thing when it was Jake last week?" she asked.
Blossom mumbled a "maybe" in reply. "What's that gotta do with it?"
"Don't you think maybe, just maybe," Buttercup said, shifting closer on the couch and draping a blanket over Blossom's shoulders, to a look of gratefulness, "you've got your expectations of Bubbles' boyfriends set way too high?"
"Buttercup, look at the facts. Every time Bubbles has gone on a date with some guy, she's come home crying; I'm the one who has to keep picking up the pieces afterwards, not you, so thanks for your suggestions, but please butt out." Buttercup started in surprise.
"Whoa...touchy much? I was jus' saying - "
"Well don't okay?" Blossom said, quietly, and took another drink of her cocoa. Buttercup just sat there deep in thought.
"I'm worried Blossom," she finally stated, "you seem to be unhealthily obsessed with Bub's love life, if ya ask me."
"Well I didn't," Blossom replied sharply, and they lapsed into silence again.
"Look, I l...care for Bubbles deeply, I just want her to not be hurt, is that too much to ask?" Blossom said, breaking the impasse.
"Like when you got the boys for their prank? Blossom, I seriously think you're getting into this way too much, just back off and let Bubbles worry about who she gives her heart to."
"I can't just back off Buttercup! Bubbles is too important...to me" she said, fading off into a whisper on the last part, as her throat closed up of its own accord. What was she saying? Buttercup was right, she was getting seriously obsessed here, wasn't she...?
"AAAaaaaaaah! Waaaa waaaa haaaaaaa..." Bubbles distinguishable wailing sounded from outside, followed by the door swinging wide and a human-sized blue blur whizzing through the lounge and barrelling straight into Blossom's stomach.
"OOF! Bubbles, what is it?" Blossom said, her previous train of thought forgotten in an instant as she took in Bubbles bedraggled appearance. Her dress was hanging askew on her, her make-up smudged and running from her tears, and her usual ponytails hanging a bit loose and very uneven. "Bubbles?" Blossom asked again, quietly, rubbing the poor girl's back soothingly.
Bubbles lifted her head up to look at Blossom, and gave another big heart-wrenching sob. "It was Jerry", she managed to get out, "we were...in his brother's car...he put the radio on for some music...then he grabbed me and stuck his hand between my legs..."
Both Buttercup and Blossom's eyes went wide in shock, and Blossom barely refrained from saying something that Jerry would regret later on. "Bubbles, what...o my god...what did you do?" Blossom asked, feeling the bile rising in her throat at the thought of some regular teenage boy attacking such a pure and innocent girl like her Bubbles. "Buttercup, get her some hot, sweet cocoa", she said, and turned back to Bubbles once Buttercup had gone into the kitchen.
"I hit him...tried to, least..." Bubbles said, sticking her thumb in her mouth as shock set in fully and she curled up so that she was lying entirely on Blossom's lap in a foetal-like position. "My powers...failed..." she said, before her speech was overcome by a combination of sobbing and hyperventilation.
"Did he do something to you, to take away your powers?" Blossom said, rocking back and forth gently to try to lull Bubbles into a calmer state of mind. Bubbles just shook her head, shaking and twitching at the recent and disturbing memories.
"N-n-no...too scared...couldn'...anyfing...couldn' move..." Bubbles stuttered out around her thumb.
"Here's the cocoa," Buttercup said, handing the fresh mug of hot cocoa to Blossom, who held it with one hand and tried to coax Bubbles to remove her thumb from her mouth.
"Here Bubbly, drink this; it's good for shock", she said softly, and Bubbles finally took her hand away from her mouth and began swallowing the sweet drink greedily, and more than a little messily. Buttercup stared at the scene and gulped.
"Thumb-sucking?" Buttercup said in a quiet, nervous, questioning tone of voice. Blossom just shot a death glare at her.
"Don't you dare say a word, Buttercup, she's petrified enough as it is", Blossom growled low at her, her own eyes watering up. Buttercup sat down quickly, keeping her mouth deliberately shut from that point on and watching the scene play out before her, powerless to help. Blossom didn't even notice the hot liquid dripping down Bubbles' chin and scalding her legs. Bubbles lost her grip on the wet mug and dropped it in Blossom's lap, spilling the rest of the scalding hot drink all over the redhead, and Blossom winced with discomfort.
"Sowee Bwossy," Bubbles said, shaking with fear that Blossom was going to punish her for making such a mess. Blossom just stroked Bubbles' forehead and smoothed her hair back in a reassuring manner.
"Shh, shh shh shhhh baby, it's okay, it's just a little spill, nothing to worry about."
"Blossom, your legs..." Buttercup whispered, watching the steam rising from Blossom's pyjamas. Blossom just sent another look at her, and she clammed up again.
"C'mon baby, let's get you into a nice comfy bed, eh? Wipe all that icky make-up offa ya, put you in some nice fresh nightclothes and tuck you up, snug as a bug. How does all that sound?" she said, floating towards the stairs in a sitting position, Bubbles still curled up in her lap.
"Dat sownd goo', Bwossy", Bubbles replied, wrapping her arms around Blossom's waist as they went up the stairs together. Buttercup at once turned to the phone on the little side-table next to her and dialled Robyn's private line next door.
"Hey Bobbi"
"Hey BC, I saw Bubbles comin' home. Date went badly?" Robyn replied in a whisper, not wanting to wake her parents.
"That'd be an understatement", Buttercup replied dryly. "Poor Bubs has gone into shock, the guy tried to feel up under her skirt." A gasp of disgust was heard from Robyn's end of the phone line. "And Blossom's gone into super-protective mode again, it can't be healthy; she barely even noticed when Bubbles spilt boiling cocoa on her, there's something seriously not right in leader-girl's head right now."
"How do you mean?" Robyn asked curiously.
"Well..." Buttercup twirled the phone cord around her fingers while she thought on how to answer. "She vets all of Bubbles' dates, and says she gets odd feelings whenever they come to pick Bubbles up, but has never been on a date of her own. She's always watching who Bubbles talks to at school 'n stuff, and always waits up for Bubbles to get home, like she knows it's gonna end badly somehow."
"Hmm...Ya know, Buttercup, it sounds like Blossom's jealous", Robyn said, slowly and thoughtfully.
"Jealous?!" Buttercup exclaimed, quietly, so as not to be heard from upstairs. "She could have the pick of the girls at school; the guys still want to go out with her too, even though she came out years ago."
"I don't think she's jealous of Bubbles, BC," Robyn said slowly, trying to explain, "I think she's jealous of the boys."
"You mean...?" A pause. "No, surely not, Bobbi; I mean, they're close but they're not that close..." Buttercup said, then thought about that. How often did they still share a bed? "Anyhow, Bloss is more of a mother to Bubbles than anything, even more like her mom than her sister, if ya know what I mean."
"I'm not so sure BC..." But that was all that Robyn would say on the matter. When Buttercup floated up the stairs, it was to find Bubbles asleep in Blossom's bed, sucking on her thumb again; Blossom was sitting on the side of the bed, Bubbles free hand draped loosely around her waist, slowly and carefully cutting her pyjama bottoms off her legs.
"Heya Bloss, how's the burn?"
"Oh, it's...it's nothing Buttercup, it's not important", Blossom said distractedly, waving it off as though it was nothing. As she peeled back the last of the wet material though, it was clear that it had hurt quite a lot, both of Blossom's thighs were bright pink and already beginning to scar.
"Oh Blossom..." Buttercup sighed, and moved towards her. "Maybe Dad can fix it?" Blossom held out a hand to stop Buttercup, and shook her head.
"No Buttercup, it's scarred already. It doesn't matter anyway, Bubbles' happiness is far more important to me," she said, swallowing back the tears. Gingerly, she lay down on her side and pulled the blankets over her, wincing occasionally as the scar tissue brushed lightly against the woven material. "G'night Buttercup", she said, rolling over to face Bubbles and kissing her blonde sister on the cheek, then wrapping her arms around Bubbles' waist under the blankets.
"Good night Bloss," Buttercup said softly, turning out the light and closing the door on the way to her own room, to find her journal. In the dark, Blossom kissed Bubbles again, this time on the lips, and Bubbles sighed contentedly and wrapped her arms around Blossom's waist too.
"I love you Bubbles," Blossom whispered, "I'll make sure you end up happy, someday; somehow..."
"What's going on here?" Blossom said, as she touched down in the middle of the playground. Looking around, she was surrounded by the other junior high school students, a massive ring of some several dozen of them; Bubbles was also standing in the ring, looking small and ashamed, and all the other kids were pointing and jeering at her. When Blossom landed, her skirt flounced out and several people backed up a couple of steps in revulsion when they saw the massive web of scarring on her upper legs.
Bubbles ran across to her sister and cried into Blossom's shoulder. "They're...they're teasing me, Blossy! Callin' me names!" she said, weeping softly. She started sucking on her thumb again, and several of the bolder students sniggered at the fifteen-year-old girl acting like such a big baby. They stopped when Blossom glared at them and struck the ground with her eyebeams though.
"Alright, who started this Bubbly?" Blossom asked, loudly enough for everyone to hear, though not to startle Bubbles unnecessarily.
"I did", said one of the larger boys - Blossom didn't know his name, he was new, bussed in from Citysville, where he'd been apparently kicked out for bullying already. "She's a dyke."
Blossom flinched at the hateful term, swallowing pure bile and counting slowly up to ten before daring to open her mouth. "What...did...you...say?" she asked, slowly and menacingly.
"She's a dyke - ask her for yerself if ya don't believe me," the boy carelessly said, as everyone shrank back a couple of paces more. Blossom had that look in her eyes, and they all knew to keep quiet. This boy, being new to the school, had no idea; sure, he knew the girls were superheroines, and that was precisely why he thought he was safe. Surely a goody-goody like Blossom would never attack him, so he was perfectly safe...
"Bubbles, what did you say?" Blossom whispered so that only Bubbles could hear her. Bubbles just sniffled and lifted her head to look at Blossom ashamedly in the eyes.
"I told him boys weren't my type..." she whispered back, "'n that I'm goin' out with Betty at the moment..." Blossom looked around, and spotted Betty, otherwise formerly known as the Hamster Girl, waving to Bubbles nervously from one of the upstairs classrooms.
"See?" The boy said triumphantly. "Told ya she's a dyke." Blossom flinched again. "S'not natural, that's what it is," he continued in a preaching tone, turning to face the assembled crowd. "If people were meant to be gay, God would'a created Adam and Steve, or Ada and Eve, not Adam and Eve. It's an abomination."
"In case you didn't realise, PRICK", Blossom suddenly yelled out, blasting an ice-cold wind over the playground, and freezing the monkey bars solid in one breath, "I'm homosexual too." She cracked her knuckles very loudly.
"You wouldn't hit an innocent kid, would ya Bloss?" the boy asked, getting a little nervous. He'd heard stories of the righteous leader of the Powerpuff Girls going nuts before, but hadn't believed them at the time. Now though, he was being forced to rapidly reassess the veracity of those statements from the three boys concerned.
"You may be a kid," Blossom said, advancing on him quickly, and suddenly appearing in front of him when he turned to run away, "but you're far from innocent." She launched a single punch into the boy's stomach, which sent him sprawling back and crashing into a tree, unconscious, but otherwise surprisingly unhurt.
"Blossom! NOOOOO!" Bubbles screamed out. Too late, a teacher was already running across the playground towards Blossom.
"Blossom, I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to leave now", said the teacher, putting a hand gently on Blossom's shoulder. "You're suspended for use of your superpowers in school, and bullying. A letter will be sent to your father immediately, and we'll contact him by phone too."
"I understand Miss", Blossom said, floating slowly up and out of sight, head hung in despair.
"Goodnight Blossom," Bubbles said, and then got into her bed. Blossom replied as she got into her own bed too.
It had seemed to be the easiest, and most obvious, solution in the end; Buttercup was the one who actually suggested it, which surprised everyone in the house. The Professor knocked down the wall adjoining Bubbles and Blossom's rooms, so that they shared a room. Bubbles spent so many nights sleeping in Blossom's room, they might as well share a room twice the size. She'd managed though, through a lot of hard work, to convince Bubbles to keep separate beds, determined to slowly wean Bubbles off of sharing a bed, even if they still shared a room. After all, they were high school students now - what if they went off to different colleges after next year?
"Strange - where's Buttercup?" Blossom asked, looking around the usual lakeside dreamscape for a sign of her other sister. She stopped looking when Bubbles spoke up, very softly.
"I asked her let us have a private dream tonight," Bubbles said, and Blossom turned around to face her, and then stopped. Instead of her nightdress, or her regular day dress, Bubbles was wearing what appeared to be a powder blue ball gown.
"Bubbles? What's this all about?" Blossom asked, too stunned to do anything else. She rubbed her eyes - nope, not imagining it. "What's with the ball gown?
"Blossom..." Bubbles started, then licked her lips, suddenly dry as they were from nervousness. "There's something I need to tell you..." she took a step towards the redhead with her arms in front of her, then seemed to think better of it and stopped, dropping her arms down again.
"Bubbles, what is it? You're starting to scare me..." Blossom said, searching her sister's face for some sort of a clue. Bubbles suddenly gasped as a shiver went through her.
"Are you cold?" Blossom asked, and Bubbles nodded, her teeth chattering slightly. "Hang on, I'll get you another duvet", she said, and started to fade back to the waking world.
"No", Bubbles said, shaking her head, "just come here." Blossom flew over to Bubbles, feeling the dream grass wafting beneath her bare feet, and looked down. Instead of typical day dress, shoes and all, she was standing there in nothing but a vest and panties. She looked down at her disfigured legs, and tried to cover them. "Don't Blossy, I want to see all of you; you're beautiful", Bubbles said, a small but happy smile on her face. Blossom stopped pathetically covering herself and stood there, next to Bubbles, then took the other girl's proffered hand and smiled back at her.
Then she felt the chill that was running through Bubbles.
"My god, Bubbles, you're so cold..." Blossom said.
"I told you already Blossom, just come over here," Bubbles said back, just as softly as ever. Blossom gave her a small confused look and Bubbles elaborated, "The bed's colder with just one in it." A light went on over Blossom's head, and in the real world, she sleep-flew out of her bed and over to Bubbles, climbing in next to her sister and the two of them cuddling up to each other.
At once, back in the dream world, Blossom was knocked clean off of her feet, swaying about as though drunk, her eyes crossed. "Whoaaaaaa..." she said, and slowly tipped over, bumping softly down onto the grassy floor. She hugged herself tightly, drinking in the sensation of almost stifling warmth rushing through her, making her brain extremely sluggish. "What was that?"
"That was you", Bubbles said, laying down on her side, facing Blossom. "Everything feels cold, but I'm warmer when I got you near me." Blossom just lay there, not able to think clearly, she couldn't understand what Bubbles was trying to tell her. "Blossy, I love you."
"I love you too Bubbly," Blossom said dreamily, rolling onto her opposite side to face her sister. Bubbles leant forward and kissed Blossom hard, mashing their mouths hard together with the passion of the moment.
"MMmmm...mmmph! Bubbles, what are you doing?!" Blossom exclaimed, once her senses returned. Both of them lay there, speechless.
"You... you said, you said you love me..."
"I didn't mean like that Bubbles!" Blossom exclaimed, standing up and pacing quickly back and forth over the grass. "I meant I love you as a sister, as my very best friend! I...I can't...I...can't love you...not like that!" she finished, breathing heavily. Then she looked down at Bubbles sitting on the grass, facial expression rapidly falling.
"But...bu-bu-bu-bu-...I love you, Blossy, please...love me too?" Bubbles said, a tear falling down her cheek. Blossom shook her head sadly.
"I'm sorry Bubbles, but that isn't right, not between sisters...I wish I could, but we can't..." she trailed off, when she noticed Bubbles was no longer there. She could feel Bubbles' sadness though, coming through loud and clear from the waking world. "Bubbles?" she asked, the intense warmth draining away instantly.
She blinked, and found herself back in their room, lying next to Bubbles in bed. Blossom rolled over to face her sister...and found the other part of the mattress empty.
"Bubbles?"