Chapter Text
Ages: 15
Boomer had his back against the door of his locker. He was looking over at a locker that was across of him. The door of the locker was bent and heavily damaged. Bright red and blue roses were bursting out at the sides of the door, demanding to be freed. The top slot of the locker was filled with various letters and papers. All of them have various colors of pink, red, and blue. So much has been given to the point where a large pile of letters and bouquets gathered in the front of the locker. Of course, the owner of that locker was none other than Bubbles Utonium. It was no surprise that the Powerpuff Girls, superheroes of Townsville, are the most popular girls at school.
It was not just their status that led them to their rise in popularity. Buttercup’s competitive and athletic nature led her to become notorious for bringing Townsville High’s sports teams from losing to nearby local schools to winning national championships. However, she often had to fight for her place as team captain for multiple teams as the school required her to keep up with her academics. Blossom, in contrast, is number one in her class. She excelled in every school subject from STEM to the humanities. Even as a freshman, she decided to have a full load of AP courses and managed to get the highest score on all of them. In addition, she is part of the student body government and several service clubs on campus. Bubbles, while not inclined for academics or sports, became noticed for her artistic talents. Whether it was drawing, dancing, or photography, she had a natural eye for beauty and can easily captivate an audience by herself.
Today was Valentine’s Day. So, it was no surprise that everyone would send love letters and flowers to the girls. However, in return, they would get turned down but thanked for their gesture. Boomer then turned around and decided to open his locker. Inside was a singular burgundy rose. Boomer took a large deep breath to calm himself. He wanted to give this to Bubbles. He tried to make it as special as he can. Outside of Mojo’s lair, there was a rose bush. Boomer often took care of it by watering it. As nature was in his favor, the flowers beautifully bloomed the week before Valentine’s Day. He carefully cut a rose. However, he suffered trying to pick out the thorns. Then put it inside a cat-shaped, baby blue pot that he made in ceramics class.
After landing at school, he saw her by the entrance with her sisters. He was about to walk up to her until another guy approached her. He held a large bouquet of brightly red roses and gave it to Bubbles. His grip on the flowerpot started to shake. She took the flowers but, with his super hearing, heard that she did not reciprocate his feelings. Boomer released a large amount of breath that he did not know he was holding in. He was certain she would love it. However, after witnessing other guys’ grand gestures to Bubbles, he felt he was lackluster in comparison.
It seemed so weird to him. He was destined to destroy her. That was a simple objective to him when he was younger. Now, harboring strong feelings for the girl known as the joy and the laughter, he could not bring himself to do it. Worrying about how he acts in front of her. If his younger self can see him now, he would actually call himself dumb.
Throughout the years, they fought less and less. Instead, they began talking to one another. He came to the understanding of why they were considered counterparts. Besides being equal in power, they understood each other. It was different from being Brick’s punching bag and the end of Butch’s taunts. He was an equal to her. This led to them hanging out with each other. Of course, this took place during the night as it would be disastrous if a puff and a ruff were seen together having fun.
When it came to high school, both sides agreed to be civil to one another until graduation. However, the girls would have to watch over the boys for that duration. This led for each boy being watched over by their respective counterparts. Boomer was secretly thrilled about the compromise. This was an opportunity to be with Bubbles out in the open and do things together.
From there, that was his first time acknowledging these newfound feelings. He knew the basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger. However, they were skewed when he was younger. Happiness meant stealing candy and giving Bubbles a large punch in the face. Sadness was when the boys lost to the girls and had to face the repercussions from Him. Anger was towards the girls as they killed him and his brothers. Now, he could only associate those feelings with Bubbles. He could not stop thinking about her. He heard his own heartbeat whenever she got close to him. He felt his face becoming warmer around her. He only wanted good things for her. I guess I really lo-
“Boomer!”
Breaking him from his thoughts, he saw Butch walking down the hallways. He closed his locker and leaned on the door with his arms crossed. “What is it? Weren’t you going to try and convince Buttercup to have a date with you?” Butch pumped his fists into the air and a large smile plastered across his face. “AND I DID!” Boomer raised an eyebrow. “How exactly?”
“Okay, get this! I asked her to come with me to the carnival that is opened near the pier, and she said yes!”
“Okay...but did you say that it was a date?” One of Butch’s eyes twitched. He then rubbed the back of his neck while smiling sheepishly. “No... well, not YET!” He puffed his chest out and put his hands on his side.
“I will tell her it's a date during it. She can’t escape it as she would be having the time of her life with me!”
Boomer continued staring at Butch with confusion as Butch silently reassured himself that he had a date.
“Well okay man.” Boomer patted Butch on the back.
“Go get her.” Butch’s smile widened.
“Thanks dude! I gotta go to football practice now. Buttercup would hound me if I’m not there on time. Good luck with Bubbs!”
He patted Boomer’s back twice before speeding off. Boomer looked at the direction where Butch sped off to. He then turned back to face his locker door.He took out the flowerpot and could not help but criticize it. The paint was slightly chipping off despite putting adhesive on it. The face of the cat did not look right. He could not even do a simple gradient on the cat. In his mind, he envisioned a smooth transition from baby blue to navy blue. However, for reason, neither color wanted to participate, and it would favor one over the other. So, he ended up using baby blue to match Bubbles. The rose, while beautiful, looked lackluster to the bright, almost shining, red roses that Bubbles was gifted. Burgundy looked so dull. Plus, it was only one rose, not a dozen.
This is stupid. Of course, she wouldn’t like it. She has higher standards than this. She can literally make something better than this. At the end of that thought, he heard a small bell noise. Boomer took out his phone and it was a text from Bubbles.
Bubbles <3: Hey!!! I was wondering if you’re free
Boomer’s mouth formed a small smile upon seeing her message. She’s so cute
Boomer: I am
Bubbles <3: Yay! Do you want to go to our spot?
Boomer: Okay, meet you there
Boomer shut his locker door. As he walked out of the school gates, he looked down at his gift. After much thought, he decided to carefully put it inside his backpack. He then flew off to downtown Townsville and sat on the edge of a tall building. From his view he could see Townsville mall and Mojo’s lair. Wondering how long it would take for Bubbles to arrive, he took out his phone and started looking in his gallery. He had several pictures, taken by Bubbles, of them hanging out together. Being with her gave Boomer the greatest feeling of joy. He hoped she returned his feelings. However, the thought of it made him think twice of wanting to confess. She won’t like it. What am I thinking? Maybe I shouldn’t do this. I don’t want to hurt our friendship. I know! I’ll just give the rose as a sign of friendship. Hopefully, she can buy-
“BOO!” Boomer let out a large yelp and, in his moment of panic, fell off the roof.
He then realized what happened and flew back up. He came back to a snickering Bubbles, barely trying to contain her laughter.
“Okay you gotta stop doing that.” She then burst out laughing and wiped a tear that came out of her eye.
“I’m sorry Boomie. I thought it was funny.” She sat next to him and nudged him.
“Sooo...did you get anything for Valentine’s Day?” He scoffed.
“Nope, I’m not particularly special compared to you, my brothers, or your sisters.”
Bubbles tilted her head and raised her eyebrows in confusion. “Are you sure? Not on your desk or in your locker?”
He shook his head. “I know you got a lot though. Your locker looks like it’s about to explode.” She groaned and covered her face with her hands.
“That was barely first and second period. When lunch rolled around, I had to use Blossom’s and Buttercup’s lockers to stuff it in. Well, I guess the professor is going to enjoy more flowers for his garden.”
Bubbles rested her chin on her hand. From the corner of her eye, she sees a petal poking out of Boomer’s backpack. She grinned and nudged him once more. “You did get a gift!”
Boomer looked wide eyed at Bubbles. “What are you talking about?” He looked at his backpack and found out it was opened slightly ajar for the flower to be visible.
“W-wait! N-no!” As stammered words kept flying out of his mouth in rapid pace, he repeatedly looked at his backpack then at Bubbles.
“No! It’s not a gift! I mean… It is a gift, but not for me! I-it’s…” He sighed. The jig is up. He slowly took out the flowerpot and handed it to Bubbles.
“This is for you. Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m sorry that it’s not good” Bubbles stared in awe at the flower. As she touched the petal of the flower, it felt soft and silky under her fingers. The thorn-free stem curved as she ran her palm down it. She turned to see Boomer’s fingers being covered in bandage wrappings. Finally, she looked at the pot. A sparkle can be seen in her eyes.
She brings the pot closer to her eyes and runs her finger along the rough paint. She stared intently at the cat’s face. No matter how many times Boomer tried to cover it up, she could see the attempted drawings behind the paint. He tried so hard to get the face right. There were paint lines in the middle of the pot, which indicated a darker color compared to the baby blue. He probably forgot that acrylic paint dries fast. She runs her fingers over the areas of chipped paint. I have to fill in the colors. There’s adhesive on this but it’s not suitable for clay. I’ll put an extra coat on it tonight. I don’t want this to ruin the colors.
Boomer narrowed his eyes to the flowerpot. He bit his bottom lip and rocked his legs back and forth. “Boomie...this is a wonderful gift.” He looked up to her in confusion. She stared lovingly at the pot. Boomer felt heat rising into his face and turned his face away from Bubbles. “I saw that a lot of guys gave you such nice flowers and love letters. I couldn’t do that.”
Bubbles set the pot beside her and hugged Boomer from behind. “Yes, the flowers I got were pretty. However, they were all the same. Some of them were even fake. There was no originality between the gifts I have gotten.”
She palmed Boomer’s cheek and slowly turned his face to meet with hers. “If you minus the cards I had gotten from my friends, most of them are generic. It’s all ‘You’re so pretty. Please be my girlfriend’ yada yada.” She interlocked her fingers with Boomer’s bandaged ones and looked up at him. “I know. You took a lot of care to prepare this. You may not think it's good, but you took time to make it. You’re considerate, thoughtful, caring, and a whole a lot of other words to describe you. In all, I love you for that.”
Boomer’s face began to flush beat red. He covered his face with his hands while hearing Bubbles giggle.
“Y-you can’t say that all willy-nilly.”
“Say what?”
Boomer peeked out of his hands to find Bubbles smiling brightly at him.
“You know what I mean!”
Bubbles then hugged Boomer tighter, pressing her forehead against his chest.
“Well one of us was bound to say it. I figured you would be too scared to say it. I bet you were gonna give me the rose as a sign of friendship.”
Boomer let out a muffled scream into his hands.
“And I thought that I’m the villain.”
Bubbles let out one last laugh, until then, Boomer joined in. He stopped once he realized something.
“Wait, how did you know?”
“How did I know what?”
“How did you know that I like you?”
Bubbles’s smile grew and snorted out a laugh. “I didn’t say that I knew you like me”
Boomer’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion and attempted to think back to the conversation they just had. He heard snickering from the blue puff across from him.
“Stop teasing me Bubbles!” He shook Bubbles’s shoulders back and forth while pouting at her.
“I’m sorry!” She said in between laughter. He stopped and she began to calm herself.
“So I had a feeling but I was never sure. Your brothers were always telling me but I didn’t trust them and thought they were tricking me.”
Boomer rolled his eyes. “Of course they would,” he muttered. “But I remembered when you lost your phone in the beginning of the year.”
“But then you found it in a bush nearby the school.”
“Yeah, but I checked the lock screen and saw all of my call attempts. In which, you had a heart next to my name.” Boomer choked on invisible spit and sputtered. “W-wait. So, that’s why you became more...lovey-dovey?”
“Silly, I’ve always liked you. I guess I was more or less embarrassed to show affection until I saw the proof myself.”
Boomer was not sure what to say. He did realize that Bubbles became more affectionate after that day. That should have been a telltale sign for him. He groaned and fell back on the rooftop.
“Why am I like this? You didn’t even try to hide it from me! Brick is right, I am definitely lacking in the brains department. Did you try to tell me earlier?”
Bubbles lied next to Boomer. “I wanted to tell you on Christmas but you, Butch, and Buttercup had a food eating competition. You ended up having an extreme case of food coma that you ended up passing out after you were done.”
Boomer scoffed. “Don’t remind me. I didn’t wake up until the next day”
“Then there was New Year’s where I wanted to confess at 12 o’clock.”
“But Butch gave me a wedgie and stuck me on the New Year’s ball during countdown.” He groaned, remembering the painful and embarrassing prank Butch pulled.
Bubbles giggled. “Yeah, so I was not sure what the right time was to confess. I left a letter in your locker that was more in detail this morning but I’m guessing you didn’t get it.”
Boomer shook his head. “I didn’t. I would’ve spotted it if I did.” Bubbles pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows. “I was sure that I put it in there. Well whatever. At least…” She intertwined her fingers with Boomer’s. “Both of us are on the same page.” They turned their heads and smiled softly at one another.
For the rest of the day, they stayed together, enjoying one another’s presence.
Boomer opened up his locker to find a slightly crumpled, light blue, envelope lying on the base of his locker. He picked it up and looked at the front. There was dirt over it and he brushed it off. “Boomer” was written in neat cursive handwriting.
“SON OF A-”
The blonde boy has proceeded to hit his forehead on the door of his locker multiple times.