Again, my muse is rebelling, but I finally got this tapped out. I have plans for the next few chapters; they will be along ASAP, I promise. Until then, please enjoy :)
3
Buttercup appeared to have returned to civil speaking terms, although Blossom was sincerely wishing that she was saying more helpful things, rather then just complaining.
"Why do we have to go to the Mayor's office on a Friday night? The stupid opening isn't 'til next week anyway." Bubbles, curled neatly at one end of the sofa, flipped a page of her magazine and scanned it briefly before answering.
"It was Miss Bellum's idea. She said she wanted out help to work out security before they finish all the planning."
"Like I already told you yesterday morning," Blossom chimed in, managing to keep the annoyance in her voice to a bare minimum. There was no need to set Buttercup off again afterall.
"Urgh, but why do we have to go there? Miss Bellum knows where we live and it's not as if the Mayor's going to be planning anything anyway."
"Buttercup, we have been invited, and we are going."
"Funny, you didn't seem to take that attitude on Wednesday night…"
"What was that?"
It was only when Bubbles looked up sharply and there was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement that Blossom realised just how close she had been to losing her temper. There was another thing that just didn't happen. She glanced at Buttercup, wondering how she was suddenly so able to push her buttons. She concluded that it was this nonsense with Brick, which was going to go away soon enough.
With that thought in mind, she managed to greet the Professor with a largely convincing smile as he emerged, presumably hunting for coffee (big projects turned him into a caffeine fiend). She also noted that he looked extremely bedraggled, but that was nothing new either.
"How's the big experiment going?" Buttercup asked, picking up the magazine that Bubbles had just discarded as she left for the kitchen and flipping idly through it. The Professor ran a hand through his already very ruffled hair, headed into the kitchen after Bubbles and flicked the kettle on.
"Almost there. I think. I'm not actually sure; the whole thing is rather volatile at the moment. Until it stabilises I won't know if it's complete or not."
"What is it this time Professor?" Bubbles asked, bringing a mug over to him from the cupboard and spooning some coffee granules into it.
"I… don't really know yet. I observed some interesting reactions between Chemical X and…" Blossom found herself tuning out as she caught sight of the clock. It was almost seven already; they only had ten minutes until they were due to be at the Mayor's office.
"Girls, grab your jackets, we have to go. Sorry Professor; important meeting, you know how it is."
"Of course. I'll see you later. Maybe."
xxx
"I hate it being dark this early. I want it to be spring already!" Blossom sighed. Bubbles often complained about the lack of sunshine during the winter. Actually, she generally complained about the lack of sunshine whenever it rained during the summer too. Blossom on the other hand, quite liked the rain. It was relaxing to listen to when she was at the library or curled up on her bedroom window seat with a good book or some homework. The lack of light on winter evenings did little to faze her either; it wasn't as though she couldn't see in the dark if she wanted to.
They arrived at the Mayor's office bang on seven, and Miss Bellum was already waiting for them with a clipboard and a pen.
"Now girls, we've made the majority of the arrangements; all we need you to do is look them over and make any necessary adjustments regarding security. Of course, we don't anticipate anything going wrong, but…"
"Of course Miss Bellum. This will only take a few minutes." Blossom took the clipboard and pen from her and started poring over the various sheets of paper detailing the order of proceedings for the fountain opening ceremony. She made a couple of notes in the margins, passed the sheets to Bubbles and Buttercup, waited for their nods of approval and took them back. She then shuffled them back into order and handed them to Miss Bellum, at which point the front of the bank across the street exploded.
xxx
"Alright boys! Let's make this fast, before… ah, scratch that." Brick laughed as Blossom came striding over the wreckage towards him, her eyes glowing (both literally and metaphorically in this case) with a fury more intense than he thought her capable of.
"Evening Bloss. You're looking… well, I suppose angry is really all I'm getting here." He waved back to his brothers, both of whom nodded and split off towards the two other girls who had appeared behind their sister, Butch laughing wildly all the while. Blossom heard him snarl something at Buttercup and saw Bubbles take off with Boomer in hot pursuit. That left her alone with the Red-Capped Annoyance. Wonderful.
"I was having a perfectly good evening," she said, almost in an even tone of voice. "And then some idiot has to come along and ruin it all."
"Aww, come on Bloss. Don't act like you haven't missed me. You got my presents, didn't you?" She fought an overwhelming urge to grind her teeth.
"You still don't think you have any chance of succeeding with this ridiculous plan, do you?"
"Well, I've yet to fail when I've got my heart set on something." He smirked at her, the familiar arrogant glint in his eyes, making her temper flare. She tried to keep it under control; the last thing she needed here was to lose her cool. Unfortunately, Brick did not seem to be of the same opinion.
She wasn't exactly surprised when he suddenly launched himself at her, but what she didn't expect was to have her hair suddenly tumble down around her face as he grabbed her hair ribbon and tugged it out. He paused for a second, dangling it in front of her face, before speeding off over the top of the Mayor's office building. Blossom, naturally, shot after him, chasing him over the business district to the far end of the city. He finally came to a stop over the new nature reserve (Bubbles' idea, of course) on the eastern outskirts, still dangling her ribbon in one hand. She glared at him fiercely, her hair blowing about in front of her face. She swept it aside roughly, which seemed to amuse him.
"What's the matter? You really suit it more when it's down you know. Gives you that wild look; very attractive by the way." She bristled.
"I am not here simply for your enjoyment you idiotic chauvinist."
"Hey, that hurts my feelings." He grinned. "Yes, I do know what chauvinism is, please try to contain your shock."
"Brick, what do you want from me? I am not going to play this game anymore."
"I told you what I want Bloss, nothing more, nothing less. The fact that you're playing hard to get just makes it that much more fun."
"I am not your toy."
"I never said you were, although I wouldn't mind… playing with you, if you know what I mean…" That was the last straw.
Brick yelped as Blossom flew at him and savagely buried an elbow into his stomach, folding him quite neatly in the middle and dropping him several feet out of the air. He hovered, wheezing in pain, his arms wrapped around his midsection and was caught unprepared when Blossom drove her hands down in a double handed chop at the back of his neck. He went down like a stone, hitting the ground with enough force to break human bones. However, being superhuman as he was, all it would do was bruise him.
She landed next to him and delicately bent over to retrieve her ribbon from where it was still clutched in his hand. Keeping one pink eye firmly fixed on him, she held it between her lips and smoothed her hair back from her face and back to its customary ponytail, tying it off with the ribbon, as it should have stayed in the first place. Brick levered himself into a vaguely upright position as she finished, coughing slightly.
"Wow, never figured I'd ever get sucker-punched by you. Always seemed more like Buttercup's thing." Blossom's response was to turn on her heel and walk away. She was done dignifying him with her responses; all it did was encourage him.
"The silent treatment, huh?" She heard him get to his feet. "Oh, but don't forget these." She half turned and, thanks to her fast reactions, was just quick enough to catch the three, rather crumpled, roses that he tossed to her.
"Figured I'd hand deliver them this time. I'm a gentleman like that."
"A gentleman? Don't make me laugh." She dropped them at her feet and kept walking. "A gentleman would respect a lady's decision to decline his advances."
"And a lady wouldn't refuse a gift." She paused and looked back at him. His eyes had taken on a strange look. It wasn't anything she recognised, although the shadow of that familiar arrogance was definitely there. Fighting a sudden urge to shiver, she faced him once more. He looked unsettling in the dark, even with her ability to see him perfectly well.
"This has to stop Brick. I never agreed to your stupid game, now leave me alone, and don't let me catch you making any more trouble or I will make sure you'll never cause any more in this city, do you understand me?"
"I understand Bloss, I understand." He turned around and pushed off the ground, hovering for a second.
"But don't think for one minute that I'm going to listen." And then he was streaking away over the rooftops, out of sight in seconds. Blossom stared after him, her mouth slack. Then it clamped shut as she fought a desperate urge to scream. The roses she had dropped and abandoned suddenly found themselves being stamped on again and again as she found herself wishing sincerely that they were that stupid, pigheaded, sexist idiot's face.
xxx
When she finally made her way back to the bank, Bubbles was already waiting, looking less than ruffled by her encounter with Boomer. Buttercup, on the other hand, was still slugging it out with Butch above them, which came as little surprise to anyone.
"Blossom? What happened? Your face is all red; were you crying?"
"Huh? No, I just… exertion, you know." It was true, in a sense; she had got extremely worked up over those roses.
"I see. Well, Boomer and Brick have both gone, so should we go help Buttercup or…?"
"No, it's alright. I doubt she'd thank us for it anyway. Just leave them to it and they'll tire themselves out eventually." Bubbles stared at her.
"Are you sure? Normally you-"
"Bubbles, please. I'm tired. Can we just go home?" Her sister nodded silently, but Blossom noticed the flicker of worry crossing her features. In truth, she did feel tired, and as much as part of her really did want to go and get Buttercup back on the ground again before she destroyed something, she mostly felt that she just really needed to go home and collapse into bed before anything else could go wrong. Besides, it was late.