Welcome to another example of me thinking of something weird and then putting far too much thought into it.
/
Brick slammed the door to his locker shut. He may or may not have used his Super speed to get through his locker as fast as possible, but it was for good reason.
"Brick," Blossom said.
Shit, Brick thought. "Yes?" He asked. He made no effort to look at the Powerpuff as he did so, pretending to inspect his physics book.
"Are you avoiding me?"
Brick looked up from the book. Then he steeled himself and turned his head, looking right at her face. It didn't help, but it was much better than being caught checking her out. "What do you mean?"
Blossom cocked her head and walked right into his personal space. "It feels like you and your brothers are avoiding me and my sisters."
Brick forced a wry smile onto his face as he looked down at her. "Aww, you miss us?"
Blossom rolled her eyes. "No, it's just weird." She moved to open her locker. Brick thought it was kind of laughable that the school thought it wouldn't be suspicious to put he and his brothers' lockers next to their counterparts.
"Well, you know, we have our own lives. Sorry if that bothers you."
Blossom gave him the stink eye before opening her locker. That was unfortunate because it meant he couldn't focus on her face, so his eyes drifted down to her body. From her toned arms, down her slim, athletic build to the legs that seemed to go for miles once they left her skir-.
Brick forced himself to avert his eyes. "Anyway, that life is calling. Unless you want to keep tabs on me wherever I go."
"Brick. We share most of our classes. I know you're avoiding me."
Brick's teeth audibly clicked shut.
"Is… is this about the party."
"What party?"
Blossom closed her locker and raised an eyebrow at him. She knew he knew what she was talking about.
"Look," Brick appeased. "It was dumb violence for no reason. The Greens do it all the time. I don't see the issue."
"I refuse to believe you are unaware of the issue. And you didn't even see Buttercup afterwards. You guys just left."
"Really?" Brick asked as he leaned closer. "And what did Wildcat say exactly? That it was a case of sudden-onset murderousness?"
Brick knew he was getting more combative. Using Butch's nickname for his counterpart was a very clear sign of that. But it did distract him as he had to look at Blossom's face, from her shining pink eyes to her full glossy lips.
Blossom hesitated to answer.
"Well, I guess that's that," Brick concluded before turning around to walk away.
"We're gonna have to talk about this," Blossom said.
"No we won't." Brick replied. He wondered if they were talking about the same thing.
/
The weirdness had started when both groups were physically 14. By that point, the Rowdys only came out of the woodwork specifically to fight the girls.
Why? Boredom. And honestly, Brick was pretty sure the feeling was reciprocated. As the six got older and more physically developed, less and less things were proving to be actual threats to them. The fact Brick and Blossom's fight had progressed into them boxing inside one of the lava chambers in the volcano was a testament to that.
Fighting blind was rather complicated. Even with their eyes open, the lava made it impossible to actually see. And yet, neither had activated their X-Ray vision as the flailed blindly at each other. They both instinctively knew it would make them the loser.
A particularly savage kick from Blossom had Brick buckle slightly, but he smiled through the pain and made to grab at where he estimated her neck was, only for a hand to grab his collar and pull his face into her knee.
He hated to admit it, but she was a smarter fighter than him. Must have been all that experience.
He grabbed onto her hands and flew back, launching them both out the side of the volcano.
"Wait!" Blossom shouted.
Brick froze as she twisted her neck and, with a blast of ice breath, froze the lava flow they'd released, resealing the hole.
"Oka-" Before she could finish, he resumed flying backwards and with a flip, kicked her in the chin, sending her flying up.
He charged an energy orb in his hand to blast at her when she recovered. It took her a few more seconds than he expected to do so, but when she did, she began flying right at him.
And then a scream caught their attention.
Both recognized it as Bubbles. And both instinctually realized that as soft as the girl was (most of the time) fighting Boomer should not have made her sound so… scared.
In an instant, they were both floating above the blues, watching an odd scene.
"Let go of me! Let go of me! Let go of me! Let go of me!" Bubbles screamed as she elbowed Boomer over and over in the side, her legs kicking out in panic. She was referring to the fact that the Blue Ruff had his arms wrapped around her waist from behind in an approximation of a bear hug.
Boomer for his part just looked confused. So was Brick, in all honesty. He glanced at Blossom who looked like he felt, with the bonus of her charging up her heat ray.
"She said let go!" Buttercup bellowed as he came rocketing out of nowhere, slamming into Boomer's back, making him let go. With a flip, she delivered an axe kick to his shoulder sending him downwards.
Butch caught their youngest brother before he hit the road.
"What was that?" Brick asked.
Blossom glared at him before floating down to her sisters. Bubbles seemed to be hyper-ventilating.
Brick deactivated his powers, dropping down to his brothers' level before resuming flight. "What was that?" He repeated.
"I don't know," Boomer said, lightly rubbing his side. "She was acting weird."
"She was acting weird?" Buttercup asked. Well, yelled. "You could have just let go!"
"It was a fight," Butch retorted.
"She wasn't even trying to get out of it," Boomer reasoned.
"Yes I was!" Bubbles yelled. "But you were holding on too tight."
That gave everyone pause.
Brick looked at his confused brother, then back at the equally confused girls. Even Bubbles looked confused by what she'd just said.
Brick remembered Blossom's slow recovery from his kick, and an idea occurred to him. "I want to test something," he said, floating up to the girls. They glanced at each other before Blossom floated down to him.
"Give me your hands." He said, holding his out to her. Blossom looked suspicious but did as he asked.
"It's weird," he said as he took hold of her wrists. The fingers they'd grown when they were 10 were still kinda weird. "We're supposed to be enemies."
"We are," Blossom said. "But we don't have to be."
"That'd be so boring," Brick said as he tightened his grip. "Try pulling away."
Blossom blinked. Then she did, pulling lightly.
"Try harder."
"I am."
Blossom's futile pulls got more and more frequent. It wasn't that it was easy to hold her, but if she wanted to be free, she should have been by now.
After a minute of pulls, she mumbled something.
"What?"
"Let go of me," she whispered, her pulls getting more frantic. And worst of all, she was starting to look scared. "Let go of me!"
Brick quickly did so, and she stumbled back in the air, gripping her wrists as she did. Buttercup and Bubbles caught her. Brick realized that their siblings had floated closer while they were in the middle of their test.
"Have you gotten stronger?"
"Have you gotten weaker?"
The Red's simultaneous questions left both groups stunned.
"Okay, this is nonsense." Butch interjected. "There's no way they got weak. Watch." He floated forwards, holding a hand out to Buttercup.
The green Puff floated a step back.
Brick wasn't sure he'd ever seen his brother look so hurt.
"We-we need to go see the professor," Blossom said. She focused her attention on the boys. "Don't go playing in Chemical X."
"Y-yeah," Brick said.
He and his brothers remained floating as they watched the girls fly away.
/
Brick would forever deny that the reason for the three-month wait before the next fight was anything other than a coincidence.
So was the fact that he went out of his way to not physically touch Blossom, even when she punched him in the face.
"Where have you been?" She asked as they slowed down to catch their breaths.
"Around," he said, touching where she'd hit him. It hurt. It had hurt more before.
Blossom fidgeted. "So… about…"
"What are those two idiots doing?"
Blossom turned her attentions to where he was looking. Specifically at their youngest siblings who were… eating ice cream.
Brick flew to his brother. "What are you idiots doing?"
Bubbles giggled. "Boomer got me an apology ice-cream cone. You know, for holding me too tightly."
"From where?" Blossom asked, suspicious.
"I paid for it," Boomer said.
"With what money?" Brick asked.
"Loose change. People lose a lot of change."
Brick sighed. Blossom just looked at the ice-cream cones.
"You know," Bubbles said. "I don't think Brick's apologized for holding your wrists."
The Redhead actually looked at him expectantly.
"I don't have any…" his reflexes kicked in and he caught a bag of coins aimed at his head. He gave his brother a withering look.
A minute later, the Greens joined them on the roof they were sitting on with their own ice-cream. Butch's nose was healing from whatever had happened between the two, but the blood he's already bled was staining his face and shirt. Buttercup looked like she was on the verge of being on the verge of tears but didn't say anything.
It occurred to Brick that he should probably ask some questions, but that just sounded unpleasant.
And somehow, their fights slowly got less violent and more casual. They also got more frequent.
When the Rowdyruffs landed in front of the girls one day, looking as menacing as ever, only to immediately get dragged into an arcade, Brick realized that they weren't even pretending to be enemies anymore. And as he looked down at Blossom's hand, which looked so much smaller than his own as she dragged him in with her, he realized that it didn't bother him as much as it used to.
And somewhere along the line, the girls even talked them into going to school. Brick had lost plenty of fights, but he was pretty sure this was the closest he'd been to defeat. But he may have been wrong. Defeat was supposed to feel bad.
/
"Brick," Blossom said as she walked up next to him. "We really should talk about this."
Brick glanced at the girl next to him. He noticed that he was taller than her. Honestly, she looked… fragile. Like she'd break if he held her too hard. And he really wanted to hold her.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"You don't believe that."
"I very much do."
Blossom stopped walking. Against his better judgement, Brick stopped and looked at her. "You can't ignore us forever."
Brick gave her a sly smirk. "Challenge accepted."
He expected her to roll her eyes at him. He did not expect her to smirk back.
/
You may be confused as to where I'm going with this. Honestly, I kind of am too.
Some of you may have guessed what's going on, but I doubt you'll guess what happens next.
Thanks for reading. Please leave a review and follow me on twitter at WriterImmigrant.