No, I don't want to fall in love/This love is only gonna break your heart
Brick's hands closed around Butch's throat, squeezing it tightly and showing no mercy. Boomer was at his arm, trying to wrench them apart.
Butch let out a laugh as he strained to breath, but all this did was waste his depleting energy. He tried his best not to gasp or yelp, but sooner or later he'd need to or he'd pass out.
"What's the matter bro?" Butch grunted. "Scared I'm right?"
Brick squeezed even harder cutting him off, and Butch gasped for breath involuntarily.
"Brick!" Boomer was yelling, trying to get him off his brother. "Brick come on, you're gunna kill him."
"Who'd miss him?" Brick asked through gritted teeth. "Hmm? Who'd miss him? He burns every bridge he ever makes. Pisses on every bonfire. What's the fucking point?!"
"You'd miss him! And I'd miss him! Brick I know he's a fucker sometimes - but he's our brother!" Boomer implored desperately. "Come on let him go!"
But Brick wasn't hearing any of it. And now Boomer was losing his temper. He let go of Brick's arm, and swung his arm around Brick's neck instead, pulling hard against his windpipe. Being unable to breath suddenly made Brick let go of Butch instantly.
Boomer kept his grip on his redheaded brother so he couldn't grab him once more.
Butch leant on his knee bent over, coughing and spluttering as he caught his breath.
"Let me go!" Brick seethed, struggling against Boomer, but Boomer held on firmly. "I swear to god Boomer you fucking let me go!"
"You're staying right here." Boomer muttered. "Butch - get out of here. Go home."
Butch chuckled, standing upright again. "Why would I leave now? When Brick's just given me a reason to stay."
"Just go home!" Boomer yelled, as Brick thrashed in his arms to get him off of him.
Smoke was beginning to billow from the BBQ, the sausages beginning to burn.
By this time Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup had come outside, hearing all the shouting and wondering what the hell was going on. Upon seeing Boomer restraining a raging Brick, and Butch making his way towards them, an unhinged expression on his face, Buttercup shot into the air and grabbed Butch's arms, pulling them behind his back to stop him moving an inch closer to a rabid Brick.
"What the fuck is going on?" She cried, holding Butch firm as he struggled against her.
"Oh they're just trying to kill each other - the norm." Boomer barked over Brick's shoulder.
"Seriously?! You two are so fucking pathetic." Buttercup grumbled as Butch tried harder to get loose from her.
He very nearly got away, so she swung him around and held him in a headlock instead, beginning to march him away from Brick. "Heel." She commanded firmly, and Butch smirked in her grip.
"Yes mam." He replied smoothly but she ignored him.
Brick and Boomer watched Buttercup removing Butch from the situation, taking him through the side gate towards the front yard.
"Brick, I'll let you go if you promise you'll calm down and not go after him." Boomer said and Brick growled in response. "A growl does not fill me with confidence, Brick."
"Fine, fine I won't, just get the fuck off of me." Brick cried, his voice sounding much less angered. Boomer continued to hold onto him for a couple of seconds, then slowly let go; relieved when Brick didn't go rocketing after their brother.
Blossom and Bubbles could only look on during all this, too pregnant to intervene themselves. Bubbles looked concerned, Blossom looked disappointed.
Brick's fiery red eyes met Blossom's, and he could see how crestfallen she looked.
"He was fucking -" Brick began to attempt to defend himself, but Blossom cut in.
"I don't care what he said or did. He wanted a reaction. And you gave him one. Why did you rise to it?" Blossom asked.
Brick stared at her for a few moments. "You can't fucking expect me to not get annoyed when he -" His rant turned into grumbling under his breath, and he strode off towards the house.
"What is your problem Butch? Why do you have to be such a dick about everything?" Buttercup asked as she let go of Butch when they made it safely to the front yard. "I mean, haven't you had enough fun recently? I thought this was all over?!"
"I can't fucking help it." Butch grunted, and Buttercup cranked a brow at him.
"You can't help being a dick?" She reiterated and he rolled his eyes.
"No! I can't help but say something because, because it's not fair!" Butch cried, and Buttercup was now even more confused.
"It's not fair? What isn't fair?" She queried.
"None of it's fucking fair! Brick is a fucking asshole! He cheated on Blossom, yet good things still always come his way. No one has fucking shunned him! To the point that he's clawed his way back in! And it makes me so fucking angry!" Butch tried to explain. He felt like he was exploding, finally saying all the things that had bugged him for so long. Buttercup didn't reply so he kept talking. "He gets everything, everything, no matter what a shit he is to people! People still care about him and look out for him, even though he's a fucking cunt! People roll over for him! But nobody gives a fucking shit about me! And what the hell have I done wrong?! I never cheated on anyone - I didn't do anything! But look at me! I have fucking nothing!"
"So this was all done out of jealousy?" Buttercup asked, her brow furrowing as she realised all this ran deeper than she'd originally thought.
Butch scoffed. "I'm not fucking jealous of that piece of shit."
"Well, you sure sound it… How can you say that the world gives him everything, when he lost everything when he cheated on Blossom? He lost her for 4 years - she ended up going to you for fucks sake, his brother - yet he still gets everything? I mean it's not even like you want what he's got." Buttercup said, and Butch sighed heavily.
"Yeah, well that's what everyone assumes isn't it?" He replied in a bored tone, folding his arms across his chest and turning away from her a little. She blinked at him. What did that mean?
Buttercup stared at him, only able to see the profile of his face. She folded her arms across her chest too. You could have had everything yourself, she thought dryly. "What do you mean by that?"
He turned to look at her again. "Well he has everything now doesn't he? He fucked up, but now he's got it all - and what do I have? Nothing. Another fucking notch on the bedpost. Big fucking deal! You guys, all playing fucking happy families, getting married, having babies, being so fucking happy - and then there's me. The annoying one you gotta invite along even though you don't want to - oh and keep an eye on him, cos he might just humiliate, destroy or have sex with something!" He cried angrily, and Buttercup's expression softened a little. "For fuck sake! I'm just so fucking fed up of it all." He muttered under his breath.
"Are you saying that you, you want what he has, what we all have with our partners? Commitment? Stability? Family?" Buttercup was getting into uncharted territory; she didn't count on things going this way when she dragged him away. She figured they'd either end up having an argument themselves or him storming off rather than talking to her. She could never get him to fucking talk to her, to open up. Never. And when he did talk, all she got was heated aggression. But here he was doing just that.
"Who knows what I fucking want? And who cares?! No one fucking asks me, do they - everyone thinks they know exactly what I'm about so they don't even bother actually getting to know what I want, or heaven forbid they fucking ask - but fuck Buttercup, I just know I want SOMETHING!" He cried in despair. But then his face fell a bit and he sighed. "But what's the point? I fuck everything up as it is. So why bother. May as well just carry on until I explode or something."
She looked at him as he looked up at her, his expression stubborn, but ultimately sad. It tugged at her heartstrings a teeny tiny bit. Only a teeny tiny bit, mind.
"I mean, me and you, we were the same. But look at the difference between us now. You turned it around. But I just kept going, fucking up everything I could get my hands on." He muttered sadly.
Buttercup had to admit she kind of pitied him. She also felt something else she didn't understand. Was it… Guilt?
They had been such a reckless couple when they were together. Once puberty hit, something changed between them; and it had been instant infatuation. She was his ideal girl: tough, feisty, opinionated, and a total hottie as an added bonus. Completely untouchable, even girls fancied her. Butch knew he had to make her his. Well, Buttercup didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, and she could throw him pretty far - she knew, she'd done it before.
They were both such passionate people. Too passionate, it was so easy to turn this into fierce arguing. They're arguing was constant. Constant. They were violent, and out of control, forever getting each other into trouble. And as he'd gotten older, it had become apparent that Butch had some serious commitment issues, and some demons he wasn't able to face up to still to this day, that had left him feeling undeserving of love. When they'd ended, it had taken them awhile to get each other out of their systems.
It had taken a good 6 years till Buttercup decided it had to stop. They'd been together solidly from age 16 to 18. Then off and on and off and on till Buttercup realized someone else had loved her from the get go.
Mitchell Mitchelson. The boy she'd known practically all her life, and her most of his. The boy who wanted to look after her and have a committed relationship with her; it was all he had wanted for years. He'd sat back and watched Butch upset her, and fight with her, and break her heart up. He wanted to fix things for her. She deserved better. He could give her everything she had always wanted. Buttercup could see which path was the wisest to take.
But, Butch hadn't taken this well. Not well at all. He'd continued to fly off the rails in his own way. Occasionally trying to drag Buttercup with him. Which had caused arguments between Mitch and Buttercup. At age 22, she'd fallen pregnant. Jay was on the way and Buttercup knew it was time to stop messing around and settle down, for her baby's sake. And she'd been with Mitch properly since.
"It's happening again isn't it?" Buttercup said quietly.
"What is?" Butch asked curiously.
"Me and you. And Mitch. Except with Blossom this time, and Brick." She paused. "Do you like, love her or something?"
Butch looked irritated by her words. "Of course I don't. It's not you, me and Mitch again because I loved you -" He paused, noticing her swallow hard at his words. "I don't love Blossom. It was sex, that was it. And I'm not pissed cos it's over. I don't care. I guess I just miss feeling wanted. Someone relying on me, and wanting me around. Cos none of you guys really do. Boomer only ever wants me around out of guilt. And Brick? Well, I've probably just cut away the tiny strings holding what was left of our relationship together. So yeah. I'll probably leave myself with no one eventually. But, I guess I don't deserve much else."
"You've been in self destruct mode for like the past 10 years, you need to knock it off." She said, trying to make it sound like she didn't care, but failing miserably.
He looked at her now, looking her properly in the eye; forest meeting jade. "If I knew how to I would."
She didn't know what to say. But she knew she just felt sad looking at him. Like she wished there was something she could do. But what could she do?
"I wonder how things would be now if I had figured out how to stop years ago." He mumbled.
Buttercup shrugged, but she had to admit she'd often wondered that herself.
Blossom fidgeted in bed, trying to get comfortable to no avail. She could only sleep on her side now she was this pregnant and sometimes she missed having some variety to getting comfortable in bed.
Brick laid beside her, watching her shifting about. They'd barely spoken to each other since Brick's fight with Butch earlier.
When Blossom got as comfortable as she was going to get, she let out a heartfelt sigh.
Brick lifted his head to look at her better. "What's wrong?"
"This." She replied with a sniff. He now realised she was crying.
"Are you crying?" He asked, double checking.
"Yes I'm crying! Being pregnant makes you super hormonal, if you hadn't noticed." She snapped.
"I had noticed." He replied dryly. "What's actually wrong?"
"This! Everything! It's not going to work, is it?" She said woefully.
"What do you mean?" He said, confusion mixed with worry evident in his face.
"This big house hasn't fixed anything." She hiccuped and he sighed, laying back down.
"Well, it wasn't intended to do that." He muttered, staring at the ceiling.
"Brick, you can't even be around Butch without literally strangling him." Blossom cried.
Brick huffed loudly again. "Maybe it'll get better over time…" It was a poor excuse, but it was the best he could come up with.
"No it won't. It'll likely get worse - especially until the baby arrives anyway. Brick, there's a test we can take, to properly find out." She murmured quietly.
He looked over at her. "Huh?"
"A DNA test. While I'm still pregnant." She answered, and he thought about it for a moment.
"What does that entail? Like, how do they do it?" Brick asked her stiffly.
Well, theres an non invasive test which is just a blood test each, but they don't offer that anywhere here in this state, so we'd have to travel to get it done. Here in Townsville they offer a blood test for you and me, and then an amniocentesis, to collect the baby's DNA. It is more invasive but I think it's more accurate. So, if we did that, that way you would definitely know. And so would Butch." Blossom said looking over at him to gauge his reaction.
"What's an amniocentesis?" He questioned, brow furrowed.
"It's when they insert a needle into your tummy, to collect amniotic fluid from inside your uterus for testing." Blossom explained, but Brick didn't look much assured by the idea of it.
"A needle in your stomach? That doesn't sound safe, won't it hurt the baby?" He said, and she pursed her lips a bit.
"Well, they use ultrasound too, to guide the needle to make sure they don't catch the baby. It does come with it's risks though - there's a small chance of miscarriage that comes along with it, but it's drastically reduced the further along you are -" Blossom was telling him, but he was already shaking his head.
"No. No tests that are gunna put the baby at risk. Or you. And if the blood test alone isn't in town and isn't as accurate then.. No. I don't want to do all that just to find out for definite. You're due in 7 weeks. I can wait. And so can Butch. Whatever happens when you give birth, we'll deal with it." Brick said, and Blossom frowned.
"Are you sure? I mean, I still stand by what I said, I am still completely certain it's your baby. But if it will make things easier for you and Butch, I'll do it." Blossom said sincerely, but he shook his head again.
"No. I don't need you to do that, okay? Things will be all right between Butch and I eventually." Brick assured her, but there was zero conviction in his voice.
"But will they? It just feels like this is Mitch and Butch all over again. They were really close friends at school, best friends even - and look at them now! They never talk to each other, ever! And if they do you can tell it's completely forced and strained. Butch was exactly the same with him at the beginning as well - always making snide remarks about having been with Buttercup, and look what it's done to them! They detest each other now! You're going to be like that with Butch now, your own brother, and it's all my fault!" Blossom sniffed again sadly. "I'm going to feel at fault every time we're around him and it's just not going to work. I'm always going to feel guilty about it. I mean, he's your brother! It shouldn't be like this and it's all my fault."
"Well I'm just going to have to be the bigger person aren't I?" Brick grumbled, turning to her and putting an arm around her vast tummy. "I don't want to lose you, and guess I don't want to lose Butch."
"No, you definitely don't want to lose Butch. I know he's extremely difficult, but he is your brother. And our siblings are more than just siblings because of the unique way we all came to be. You can't lose him over me." Blossom insisted, and Brick nodded rather dully. "You've just got to control your temper if he says something stupid. He just wants a reaction from you, that's all he's after. And anyway," Blossom said, holding onto his hand. "It's always been you I've wanted. You're all I've ever wanted. He was nothing on you and no one ever will be." She told him, her voice getting lower and more suggestive by the word.
"Yeah?" Brick asked, playing with her fingers as she maneuvered herself around to face him slowly.
"Of course. So next time Butch makes some stupid comment, you just remember that." She purred, and he smirked in response.
"I had an inkling this might be the case. Butch may think of himself as some kind of Lothario, but I knew you'd know better." Brick said cockily.
"Yeah," Blossom said, going along with it playfully. "Honestly, he was absolutely nothing on you - and I've got to admit to saying your name a few times when I was with him. And he did not like that. Maybe bring that up next time he says something that grates on you."
Brick laughed loudly. "Ha! Seriously? That has made my day."
He leaned forward to kiss Blossom and she leaned in too. When their lips met he was a little surprised to feel her grabbing at his hips and pulling him closer, playing with the hem of his boxers.
"Hey, are you sure you wanna?" He whispered, looking into her rose eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sure. It's different when someone really loves you, you know?" She said quietly. "The last person to, you know, it was him. I need to be with the man I love."
She pondered if sharing a moment of intimacy with Brick might help with the flashbacks. She could only hide them from everyone for so long…
Brick proceeded to kiss her tenderly, his hands stroking every curve. She pulled away then to ask him a question.
"Are you sure you wanna?" Blossom double checked.
He scoffed in reply. "Why wouldn't I? I've literally not had sex since we last did!"
"Well, I've never had sex being pregnant before, so this might get a little awkward." She said with a chuckle.
"I'm sure we'll get on just fine." He said, kissing her neck and pulling her toward him. She giggled as he pulled her heavy form on top of him.
When the front door to what was now just Butch's apartment flew open, he turned around with an irritated grimace. His frown quickly changed to one of surprise when he realized it was Brick closing the door behind him.
"What do you want?" Butch spat standing up rigidly.
"To clear the air." Brick said firmly. "As much as I enjoy throttling you, it's not really a done thing at family get togethers, so it can't become a regularity. We have got to find a way to be around each other without trying to kill each other."
Butch frowned deeper, folding his arms across his chest. "I think you'll find you were the one doing all of the 'trying to kill each other'."
"Yeah, because you suddenly decided Blossom's baby was yours, and that she would soon be at your door 'begging to get back in your bed', or something along those lines. A strangling was coming to you, I think you'll find." Butch grunted in response. "But this is what's got to stop, Butch. I don't know what your problem is with me, or with me being with Blossom -"
"I don't fucking care if you're with Blossom. You should be with Blossom -" Butch cut in, until Brick spoke over him.
"Well look - I'll do my best to stop brooding over the whole you sleeping with Blossom thing, if you just don't bring it up. And I'll do the same. I'm never gunna understand it, I'm never gunna get why or how it happened - but I'll get over it. I can't fucking do that if you're forever reminding me of it." Brick said, and Butch stared at him, huffing lightly.
"And the same goes for the kid, Butch. I realise nothing is one hundred percent, I really do. I know that we're not going to know for certain until the baby is born. And yeah, maybe we're just clinging on to the bits that make it seem like it is mine, like the timing and the lack of protection used. Blossom is due in like 7 weeks time. And in the meantime me and you can't do shit like what happened at our place the other day. We've gotta find a way to try and get along through this." Brick said, and Butch nodded albeit a little reluctantly.
But Brick knew his brother; he knew that was mostly because he probably didn't want to seem like he was cooperating. Even if he totally agreed with him, he'd never show it.
"So that means no more talk on you and Blossom, and no more going on about 'who's the Daddy', okay? That's it, the end." Brick reiterated, and Butch nodded. "When the baby's born, if it's very clearly your child - we'll deal with it then."
"Yes, fine, I get it." Butch said irritably, and Brick nodded.
"Good." He gave his brother a contemplative look, wondering why he behaved the way he did sometimes; why he stirred the pot as much as he did at times. It was like there was something in him, unable to stop himself from blowing shit up around him.
"Where did this even come from? I was expecting you to kick my ass when I saw it was you - considering the last time you were within 5 feet of me you were trying to kill me." Butch asked, puzzled.
"I want to keep Blossom, that's all. She's more than a few nights of fun for me." Brick explained, and Butch chewed on his bottom lip.
"Right. Well, I'll try really hard not to be a shithead any more." Butch murmured, and Brick smirked at him.
"If you could, that'd be great." Brick replied.
"I'm not gunna say I'm sorry cos, well, I'm not." The smirk fell off of Brick's face at his brothers words. "But, I will say I hope everything goes okay for you and Blossom. And that I won't fuck things up further - unless I accidentally have by putting a baby in her but, well it's looking hopeful that I haven't."
Brick stared at him with wide, irate eyes for a moment, before he cracked a smile, suppressing a laugh. "That was the world's worst sincere comment."
"Well, it came from the heart." Butch replied, and Brick rolled his eyes.
"Hey Butch, serious question here:" Brick said, and a smile began to creep up Butch's face as he looked at his redheaded brother; he could see from his expression that the next question was not going to be a serious one. "What did it feel like to be with a woman who was calling out for your brother?"
Butch grinned. "Same way it felt to have your ex sleep with your brother."
Brick laughed, shaking his head. "Aww, is your biddy little ego hurt? Bet that fucking stung."
"Fuck you okay it didn't happen that often." Butch cried, trying not to laugh as Brick did.
"I think it's got to be the most perfect karma going." Brick said, and Butch tried not to smile.
"Fuck you man!"
r&r (: