Chapter Text
Saturday morning, summer.
Loud music, cold drinks, the pool. The Believe family—after much persistence from Mike, Mitch, Robin, Kim, Harry, and basically half of their son's class—decided to make their beach house available for the weekend for the group of friends to enjoy.
Professor Utonium’s old-fashioned car pulled up in front of the beach house. Buttercup was the first to swing the door open before her father could even start.
"Just as a precaution, I’m going to recap the rules," he said.
Buttercup threw her head back hard against the seat, groaning in frustration. Bubbles was finishing her makeup using the rearview mirror. Blossom was busy texting Robin, letting her know they had arrived.
"Rule number one: no revealing clothes."
Bubbles’ eyes widened. Buttercup scoffed.
"And what exactly counts as 'revealing clothes,' Professor?"
"Bikinis, Butter," Blossom answered, adjusting her sunglasses on her face.
"How are we supposed to get in the pool without bikinis?" Bubbles asked. "Are you telling me I won’t be able to wear that divine string bikini I bought?"
"Ha! I warned you," Buttercup mocked, giving her sister a playful slap on the back.
"No problem. I’ll lend you a one-piece, Bubbs."
Blossom held up her beach bag, filled with supplies, anti-nausea meds, thermal shirts, sunscreen, and extra swimsuits for situations just like this.
"Exactly. One-piece suits are more appropriate," the Professor pointed out. "I don’t want you semi-naked in the middle of a bunch of boys."
"Mike, Mitch, Harry, Elmer, Floyd, Lloyd..." Buttercup listed them off. To her, it wasn't an issue, since they had known them all since preschool, so…
"Brick, Butch, and Boomer."
The three of them huffed in unison.
"Professor, please..." Blossom started.
"Rule number two," he continued, "no drinks. I know you girls don't drink, but your friends do."
"So what? We’re not like them," Buttercup said.
"You are, BC."
Bubbles received a slap on the arm.
"Shut up, you bitch!" Buttercup muttered, a bit too loudly.
"Buttercup!" all three of them reprimanded her.
"My bad," she raised her arms innocently. "The blonde started it."
"Alright, alright. Now, the third rule..."
"Bye, Professor!" the three chimed, already out of the car.
🌊
"GOOD 4 YOU" was blaring from the speakers. Some people were already diving into the pool, while others prepared the barbecue, drinks, and snacks.
"Ah, yay! The divas have arrived!" Robin clapped her hands upon seeing her friends walk in with their beach bags, tanning oils, and sunscreens. In this case, the sunscreen belonged solely to Blossom.
"Robin!" Bubbles was the first to greet her, smiling brightly. "Ah! Did you bring the Doritos with cheddar? I spent the whole week dreaming about them! I even talked about it in therapy. I’m serious."
"I brought them!" Kim called out, heading toward her friends. "Mitch and I did."
Bubbles hugged them both with all her strength, unconsciously knocking the wind out of them.
"You guys are the best!"
Blossom and Buttercup approached right after.
"Mitch texted earlier," Buttercup commented. "He also bought some 'fluorescent jelly that glows in the dark.'"
"It’s themed!" Mitch shouted from afar, sitting on an outdoor sofa with Mike and Harry.
Bubbles let out a happy little squeal.
"Attention, comrades!" she announced, bouncing around. "I brought custom floats! Like Mitch said, this is a themed party, not an underwater funeral..."
A scream interrupted Bubbles' speech. Floyd came sprinting onto the deck.
"Lloyd poked me with a fork! Look, look!" The boy basically rubbed his hand in Robin's face.
"Get away! Get that sweaty hand out of my face, you worm!"
From a distance, Lloyd laughed with a meat skewer in his hand, leaning against the doorframe leading from the deck to the kitchen.
"Don't be rude, little brother. Greet our Powerpuffs."
Floyd stopped screaming as naturally as he had started.
"Oh! Hey, girls."
Buttercup gave a "what's up." Bubbles gave him a wide smile, and Blossom waved politely.
"Hey, Floy! Do you know where Boomie is?"
Bubbles asked, looking over everyone’s heads.
"Oh, the boys?" Mike started, resting his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. "They were in the pool.
"Well, they aren't anymore." Butch’s voice suddenly rang out, his brothers standing beside him, each behind their respective counterpart.
"Boomie!"
"Bubbs!"
"Butch!"
"B-cup!"
Bubbles and Buttercup practically jumped and hung onto their counterparts' necks, not caring about getting wet from the pool water still on them, while Butch and Boomer spun them gently in the air (especially Boomer), as if they were feathers. Blossom and Brick made poorly disguised faces at each other.
"I brought floats!" Boomer placed one on the ground again.
"Did you bring the flamingo?" Butch and Boomer asked.
"Yes, yes! His name is Lil’ Brain!" She pulled the flamingo out of her backpack, which was magically already inflated.
"No way, Butch. I dreamed about him!"
"I saw him first!"
Butch grabbed the flamingo's neck, and Boomer grabbed the body. They pulled in opposite directions.
"Stop it, you brainless idiots!" Brick shouted, a warm can of Sprite in his hand that he was forcing himself to drink. "You’re going to pop that thing!"
"Lil’ Brain is mine!" Boomer shrieked.
"You are a lil’ brain!”
"What kind of insult is that?!"
BOOM! The flamingo exploded. Silence followed for about three seconds.
Bubbles fell to her knees, holding the "corpse" of the inflatable flamingo.
"You killed my son!" she wailed as if she were in the finale of a soap opera. "He was a boy full of dreams... full of... air?..."
Buttercup suppressed a laugh. Robin just muttered:
"This is already providing more drama than my debutante party."
🌊
Hours later, the house was worthy of a reality show.
If observed from afar, it could easily be mistaken for a pigsty—empty soda and beer cans scattered everywhere, disorganized backpacks on sofas and armchairs, dirty drink cups piled in the sink.
Morebucks (who was invited only because of her girlfriend's persistence) and Robin were sitting in beach chairs, applying tanning oil and sunbathing, each with a drink in hand. Harry and Mitch were tormenting the others in the pool with Nerf guns and floats. Floyd and Lloyd were in charge of the snacks and the barbecue. Kim and Bobby had disappeared—probably making out—and Mike and Elmer were talking about something (likely about the two pests they called "boyfriends" in the water. That is, Harry wasn't Elmer's boyfriend, but everyone considered them one).
The Utonium sisters were in a corner, distant from the rest of the group.
Blossom sighed constantly, expressing her frustration with her clothes. Even though her stomach wasn't showing, her legs, obviously, were exposed. The wine-red one-piece with an open back was, indeed, very beautiful, but Blossom was wary of the idea of exposing herself too much. Thank God for long beach cover-ups.
Buttercup hadn't obeyed her father (obviously) and was wearing a black underwire bikini top. To compensate, she was wearing shorts.
Bubbles had been persuaded by the middle sister to disobey and wear her long-dreamed-of turquoise string bikini with gold details. Sitting on a beanbag with a lemonade in hand, she comforted her sister:
"You look beautiful, Bloss. Relax a little."
"Yeah, Blossom," Buttercup added. "You look great, pretty as hell, and that’s what everyone tells you all the time."
"No, it’s not that," Blossom sighed. "I don’t want to look like a tramp, I don't know. I mean, there are a lot of guys here..."
"You don’t look like a tramp, you hear me?" Bubbles placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
"You look great."
On the opposite side, near the grill, three pairs of colored eyes watched them, curious. And, possibly, a little drunk. They looked at each other. They didn't need to say a word.
Today, they were going to end all this hesitation.