19
For all that Bubbles was normally the sweet and kind one of the three sisters, it had become a well-established fact in their teenage years that anyone who dared disturb her precious Sunday morning lie-in was in for pain. No matter how good their reasoning may be.
So when Blossom tentatively peeked around her sister's bedroom door, she wondered for possibly the hundredth time what the heck she was doing, and why she was doing it now. But it had seemed important when it had woken her up; important enough to push her out of bed and down the hall to her sister's room. But looking at Bubbles now, sleep-masked and slumbering peacefully, was enough to make her wonder if this was actually a terrible idea and if she should just go back to bed and wait until it was less dangerous.
Unfortunately, she was who she was, and was therefore too stubborn to admit that she had bad ideas.
"Bubbles?" she tried, still staying by the door. Nothing. She tried again, slightly louder. There was movement underneath the duvet and Bubbles made a slight noise of sleepy annoyance.
"Bubbles? Can I talk to you? I have a favour I wanted to-" The end of the sentence was abruptly cut off as Octi suddenly flew across the room and smacked her square in the face, surprisingly hard for a stuffed toy. Without Bubbles actually visibly moving.
"Bubbles, this is really important, otherwise I swear I wouldn't be trying to disturb your lie-in." Octi was followed swiftly by a stuffed rabbit and a pillow. This wasn't working.
"I need you to come shopping with me!" Blossom eventually blurted, after two more attempts were met with other stuffed projectiles and an alarm clock which just barely missed its mark. There was a noise of irritation followed by one of sluggish confusion.
"Shopping?" Bubbles slurred slightly, not actually bothering to raise her head from the pillow. However, her interest had been caught by the magic word.
"Yes. I... well, I need new clothes, but you know me, I always go for such boring stuff and it doesn't really suit me all that well..." The words left a bad taste in Blossom's mouth; she'd always thought that she dressed rather nicely; but she knew that Bubbles would have to be downright ill to turn down the chance for a retail therapy makeover session. And she was right. Bubbles slid her sleep-mask up and pushed herself into a sitting position.
"Does it have to be so early?" she asked, pouting slightly. "I would have helped you later. Still... I do need new clothes for New York..." There was a pause, and then Bubbles grinned brightly, suddenly awake.
"Give me an hour and then we can go!"
xxx
"So what's with the sudden image-change anyway?" Bubbles asked, staring at Blossom with wide blue eyes over her iced latte. Blossom shrugged and hurriedly took a mouthful of her own drink so she didn't have to talk. As she did, her eyes drifted over the small mountain of shopping bags they had acquired. Despite her love of all things designer, Bubbles really knew how to bargain hunt, and as a result, they'd ended up with a lot more clothes than Blossom would have thought possible with the amount of money she had.
That said, the clothes were a lot less substantial than Blossom was used to. Any skirts she had previously possessed had all been at least knee length, but she was now the proud owner of two miniskirts, and a couple of short tunic-style dresses that Bubbles had practically threatened her into. Added to that was the collection of tights, belts, hair accessories and bunch of other clothes that Bubbles had piled into her arms for 'layering purposes,' whatever that was supposed to mean.
To be honest, the whole experience had just left her feeling mildly confused. Yes, all of these clothes were very pretty and everything, but they didn't seem very practical, and until Bubbles had started throwing things at her, she had simply stood in the shops staring blankly at all of these clothes that she just could not see herself in.
"Seriously, why?" Bubbles was apparently not going to be distracted from this, so Blossom took another quick sip, swallowed and decided that she might as well be a little bit honest.
"It's this whole mess with Brick," she said simply, watching Bubbles closely to gauge her reaction. For her part, Bubbles simply frowned a little and tilted her head to the side.
"But, I thought you were trying to put him off. Won't this kind of make things worse?" Blossom shook her head.
"He's relying on me to stay predictable. He thinks that he'll win me over eventually if he keeps pushing all the same buttons enough times. If I make a change, it should throw him off long enough for me to figure out how to put a permanent stop to this." Bubbles' frown became slightly deeper.
"I don't get it." Blossom just shook her head and tried to shrug the whole thing off. It was not one of her better plans. In fact, she should have discounted it straight off the bat when it had come to her at six in the morning when she wasn't exactly awake. It had made her want to disturb Bubbles' sleep, it was that bad of a plan.
Still, here she was with a pile of new clothes and a half-baked idea that was probably very unlikely to work. At least Bubbles seemed happy.
"Bubbles," she said absently after a few minutes, staring across the food court. "Are my plans really that bad?" Bubbles paused in mid-bite of her sandwich.
"Your plans? Not usually. I mean, most of them are really good, and they mean we get stuff sorted out quicker when there's trouble."
"I'm getting a 'but' there." Her sister chewed her lip for a second.
"Promise you won't get mad if I say?" Blossom blinked at the question; was she really so aggressive when questioned?
"I won't, I promise."
"Well, it's just that you sometimes over plan and everything gets too complicated and me and Buttercup aren't really sure what we're meant to be doing, and then there's the fact that you seem to spend every spare minute you've got locked in your room making more plans and we don't see you so much..." Bubbles trailed off and took a tiny bite out of her food, while Blossom processed the information.
"Am I... really like that?" Her sister made a slight flailing movement and tried to mentally backtrack in a way that made Blossom's head spin.
"No, you're not! Well, I mean, you were but you're much better now, like lately. You hang out with us more and you talk more and-"
"It's okay Bubbles, I don't really mind. I was just wondering." Bubbles gave a small squeak and looked down at her food, and Blossom caught a snatch of embarrassed mental mumbling about not being so mean to her sister.
Thinking it best not to comment on the blonde's thoughts, Blossom instead took a mouthful of her pasta salad and chewed thoughtfully. While she did, Bubbles made a quiet 'um' noise, and Blossom looked at her expectantly.
"Umm... I was just thinking. About how I said you've been getting better lately? Well, it's been ever since Brick showed up and started doing... whatever he's doing." Blossom nearly dropped her fork.
"You think he has something to do with it?" Bubbles paled and didn't answer, and Blossom reprimanded herself for her tone. She was still wound up after last night, and the mention of his name was enough to result in that knee-jerk reaction. She apologised quickly and tried to change the subject back to the boots Bubbles had been trying to get her to buy earlier. It wasn't an area she was entirely comfortable in, but it was a heck of a lot more comfortable than the subject of him.
xxx
Okay, she had to admit that there was some merit in the skirts.
After trying on the various different bits of clothing in the various combinations that Bubbles had suggested, she finally settled on an outfit for the next day, changed into her pyjamas and set out the clothes ready to be put on tomorrow.
Collapsing on to her bed, she suddenly realised how tired she was. The two of them hadn't got back to the house until about five, and when they did get back, Buttercup had immediately ordered either one or both of them to go get her some onions so she could get started on dinner.
But at least now she could relax for a little bit. Pulling over the latest in her pile of books, she flipped it open and started reading.
Half an hour and halfway through the book later, she slammed it closed and sat it down. Then she stared at the wall for a little while.
"This is getting ridiculous; will you just stop it?" she muttered to herself. There was a couple more minutes spent staring at the wall until she eventually got up and headed downstairs to make herself a cup of tea.
Buttercup was sat at the kitchen table munching her way through a pile of toast as she grumbled over what looked to be chemistry homework. As Blossom pottered around with teabags and mugs while waiting for the kettle to boil, she heard her sister set her pen down and clear her throat.
"Come on, spill it already, will you? You're making me edgy." Blossom grimaced, having forgotten that of course Buttercup would notice immediately that something was wrong. So much for just grabbing her tea and escaping back to her room.
"It's... nothing. Just something stupid; I shouldn't even really be worrying about it." Buttercup arched an eyebrow and said nothing. She held out until the kettle clicked off and she'd poured water into her mug, but eventually, Blossom buckled.
"Okay, it was this stupid book I was reading; just some silly romance where a girl falls for a guy who is clearly all wrong for her and she doesn't even like him anyway, but they're still going to end up together and it's just... Just..." She realised the teaspoon she was holding was now a twisted strip of metal rather than a utensil and that she had managed to lose control of her temper again. Over something this trivial. Over something this... stupid.
"So... this is about Brick, right?"
"No! I... don't know. Maybe."
"But you don't like him that way, right?"
"I don't like him at all."
"So what's the problem?" Blossom blinked. What was the problem?
Buttercup sighed, finished the last of her toast and stood up, grabbing her homework as she turned to leave.
"Look, either learn to relax or figure out exactly what you wanna do about this, okay? You're just turning into one big ball of stress right now, and it's going to go badly. Take it from someone who knows."
"Buttercup?" Her sister looked back over her shoulder. "Are things... really okay? Because I'm not sure that I know any more."
There was silence for a few moments, and Blossom thought she saw a brief flicker of what almost looked like pain cross her sister's face.
"Don't ask me Bloss. Things have been changing so fast, and after what happened yesterday I don't have a freaking clue what's going on and Butch is-" She stopped, swore quietly under her breath.
"Butch?" Blossom asked. If she'd taken a second to think about it, she wouldn't have asked, but it had spilled out of her mouth immediately.
"It's nothing. I'll deal with it. You worry about Brick." She left quickly after that, not leaving Blossom any time to make a response.
I guess things are getting worse before they get any better...