Phew, this chapter was hard work. Sorry it took so long to update. IRL drama happened and then I just couldn't seem to get the ending to this chapter right. I hope it's turned out okay ^_^;
26
"I heard that the school could be ready for re-opening next week." Blossom nodded and handed the Professor his coffee.
"The damage could have been much worse; quite a lot of it was just smoke damage more than anything else. It looked worse than it was." The Professor smiled absently and went back to his newspaper and Blossom finished fixing herself a cup of tea. Brick had told her yesterday that he would drop by around lunch time to help her with practice, so she had the whole morning to relax.
Wandering through to the living room with her cup, she folded herself onto the sofa next to her sisters. Buttercup was playing another of her vast collection of video games, while Bubbles was idly scrolling through webpages on her laptop.
"Hey, Bubbles, shouldn't you be sorting things out for New York? I mean, that's soon, right?"
"Oh, yeah, it's next month, but it's fine. I finished organising all of that already, so now I can concentrate on helping you with Tuesday." Blossom smiled. It was amazing how ruthlessly organised Bubbles could be when she felt like it. Blossom almost looked like an amateur next to her sometimes.
"Thanks for all of this Bubbles. I don't know what I'd have done without you."
"Turned into a big pile of panic?" Buttercup asked, in what was probably supposed to be a helpful sounding tone, but was coloured by her usual dry sense of humour. Blossom simply smiled sweetly at her and sipped her tea. She was in a good mood today, even if she wasn't entirely sure why.
"What are you doing today anyway, Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, her eyes never leaving the page she had open on her screen.
"Uh, I dunno. Staying here I guess. Not got much else to do."
"Oh good, you can come and help me pick out the last of the jewellery for Tuesday then. You're tricky to buy for; I want to see what'll look good on you." Buttercup's face did a variety of things, phasing through puzzlement, panic and finally settling on defiance.
"No thanks, I'm good." Bubbles made a small noise somewhere in her throat. Buttercup was not daunted.
"I hate shopping for stuff like that. Call one of your girly friends or something. Besides, what if-" She stopped short, and then realised that was a serious mistake. Bubbles frowned, her expression thoughtful.
"What if...?" Blossom froze, tea cup half way to her mouth. She had suddenly caught a very dangerous thought drifting into Bubbles' mind.
"Bubbles, don't!" It was too late. Before she'd even got the second word out, Bubbles had shifted her appearance already, and Buttercup looked she was caught somewhere between having a seizure and murdering her sister. The whole thing took place in less than a second.
"Is this what you're afraid of Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, her voice sounding... wrong coming out of that body. Buttercup didn't say anything. It looked like she wasn't able to, her eyes staying locked onto Bubbles' newly green ones. Blossom, after a second's deliberation, proceeded to empty the rest of her tea onto Bubbles' head, causing her to abruptly shift back to her own form.
"This isn't helping Bubbles. What on earth did you think you were doing? Apologise." Bubbles blinked tea out of her eyes, looked at Buttercup, and the immense stupidity of what she'd done seemed to hit her as she saw the murderous intent staring back at her.
"Oh, oh no Buttercup, I'm so sorry. I didn't think, I just... I'm so used to you never being scared and you haven't said anything about him, so I thought that maybe..."
"I'm not scared of him!" Buttercup spat viciously, and the sofa rocked backwards as she flung herself onto her feet. Her game controller was reduced to a handful of plastic and circuitry in her hand, and after staring at it for a second, she hurled it to the ground in frustration and stormed out, thundering up the stairs. Blossom stared blankly at the pieces for a second. She could see blood on some of the bigger shards of plastic.
"Oh god. Why did I do that?" Bubbles moaned, shoving her laptop off her and proceeding to wrap her arms around her legs and gently thump her forehead off her knees. Tea was still dripping from her hair, causing damp patches to appear on her jeans.
"Well, it's done now, you'll just have to make it up to her later. At least that proved that there is something going on though. I'll ask Brick about it later; maybe he'll know something."
xxx
"Is it really that bad?" Blossom nodded. The two of them were sitting on a bench in the park, having both decided that they needed some fresh air.
"It was a stupid thing for Bubbles for do, but neither of us could have predicted how she'd react."
"She hit her?"
"No, it was like... I don't know. She looked like she really didn't know what to do. I think she wanted to hit her, but she was stopping herself. I just want to know what's going on. He's your brother; don't you know anything?" Brick was silent for a moment or two. Blossom watched his face. He seemed strangely serious; he was really considering whatever he was thinking about.
"What is it?" she asked, when the suspense got too much for her. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, frowning, before he spoke.
"Butch... Look, the last few years, he's been unstable. Like, he always used to challenge me on stuff, but a while back, he just stopped listening to me altogether. If he's around, he just does whatever he wants, but most of the time he just disappears for days at a time, sometimes weeks." He sighed, pulled his hat off and ran a hand through his hair, looking exasperated.
"Basically, most of the time I have no idea where he is, and even when he is around, I have no idea what's running through his head. All I do know is that lately he's been even more obsessed with fighting Buttercup than usual. That's why he attacked the park that night at the fountain thing, and the school."
Blossom turned all this over in her head for a moment or two. She was disappointed in a way. For some reason, she'd just assumed that Brick would have all the answers, some magical solution that would just fix all of this. But of course, that was silly of her. He was in the same situation as she was; she had no real way of knowing of Buttercup was thinking, even if she could read her mind. There was no reason to think that Brick would be any different with Butch.
"There's something else I've been wondering about." He gave her a questioning look.
"That night at the park... Boomer attacked us too, but now it's like that never happened. It... I just find it strange." Brick gave out a short laugh.
"No offense to the guy, but Boomer pretty much just does what anyone suggests to him at the time. He was probably bored and just tagged along with Butch 'cus he had nothing better to do than sit around and get stoned. He's only listening to Bubbles now because, let's face it, she's pretty scary when she's organising stuff like this." Blossom nodded fervently. It was true. For someone as passive as she was, Bubbles did have her moments.
"Well, I suppose he's keeping out of trouble now, more or less." They lapsed into an easy silence for a little while, and Blossom realised that she was feeling quite relaxed about the concert now. That said, it may only have been because she was back to worrying about Buttercup, but at least Bubbles was with her on that one. A few more minutes passed before Brick suddenly broke the silence. She hadn't noticed the slowly deepening frown that had reappeared on his features until he stood up and turned to her.
"Come with me."
xxx
"Is this really a good idea?"
"You're worried about your sister, aren't you? This'll probably get us nowhere, but we might as well try." Blossom chewed her lip and tried to resist her urge to launch into an entire tactical tirade about why this was a terrible idea. She hadn't exactly been number one in the good plan department this month anyway; she couldn't really talk.
Brick had brought her to a small apartment complex on the south side of town, in a relatively run-down residential area. Along the way, he'd explained that the boys had moved in there a few years ago, under mostly legal circumstances. Not that they paid rent or bills or anything, but he glossed that part over, mentioning that Mojo took care of those expenses. Without his knowledge, naturally, but at least someone was paying. Blossom tried very hard to ignore all of this. Why did she keep forgetting that, for all that she seemed to spend most of her time with him, this boy was still a criminal?
And now they were going to talk to his criminally insane brother. This just kept getting better. She swallowed hard, and tried not to think about it too much.
Butch was stretched out on one of two rather worse-for-wear sofas in the surprisingly large living room of the apartment. Looking up as they entered, he cracked a sardonic grin and ripped open the pack of cigarettes in his hands.
"Want one?" he said, offering the pack. "Stole 'em from Boomer's stash."
"Big challenge there, bro. That the best you got these days?" Butch's lip curled at his brother's tone.
"I ain't the ones with the brain for all the plans, but since all you seem to care about these days is chasin' tail, I'm not the only one. Can't believe you actually brought a Puff here." He shoved one of the cigarettes in his mouth and lit it from the tip of his thumb, lying back and closing his eyes.
Blossom was at a loss. Any prior contact with Butch had always involved violence; now that she thought about it, she'd never actually spoken to him, nor had she ever wanted to. Still, that shouldn't stop her now.
"Butch, whatever's been going on with my sister, I want it to stop." Her voice wavered a tiny bit, and when Brick threw her a look, she realised how useless this approach really was. Butch opened one eye, fixing it on her.
"What? She too scared to come find me herself? Has to send her big sister along for her? Please. Just stay out of it Red."She felt her face flush, and heard Brick make a small noise of irritation.
"Butch-"
"An' you can shut the hell up and all. What do you even care what I do? Not like you even have any time for me 'n' Boomer these days. Too busy hanging out with your stupid girlfriend over there." He pulled himself up to look at them, fixing a very feral looking smile on Blossom. She tried not to shudder.
"I'm just havin' a little fun with BC, that's all. She knows it. Hell, I think she's enjoyin' it as much as I am, even if she won't admit it." He broke into a laugh that was a shade too close to manic for Blossom's liking. "Say, she goin' to that little concert thing? Maybe I'll stop by." Blossom felt her hands curling into fists.
"You monster, you-"
"Blossom, stop. It's not worth it." Brick motioned for her to step back. "Listen, if I catch you anywhere near the concert on Tuesday, you are going to regret it. You understand me?"
"I'm hearing you bro, but I reckon you've gone soft. Still think you can take me in a fight? Wouldn't want your little girlfriend to get herself hurt, would you?"
"She can take care of herself, and I am more than capable of taking care of you." Butch got to his feet, all pretence of smiling dropped. His cigarette hit the floor and he stamped it out without looking at it, grinding it into the carpet. Without a word, Brick shifted Blossom behind him, putting himself squarely between her and his brother.
"She can take care of herself, huh?" Butch said, one of his hands twitching erratically, clenching and unclenching constantly. Brick said nothing, but his eyes narrowed. Blossom felt the static building up in her head, and coupled with the disjointed mess of Butch's thoughts, she started to feel dizzy.
"Brick, stop. Let's just go. I... It's not worth it, please." Brick glanced back over his shoulder at her, frowning at the waver in her voice. Then, he nodded and turned back to his brother briefly.
"I meant what I said. If you come anywhere near the concert, you will regret it. You got me?" Butch licked his lips, the motion so quick it was barely perceptible.
"See you Tuesday."