I do not own the Powerpuff Girls.

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Chapter one

Being a superhero was hard.

Being a teenage superhero was hell.

And this, Blossom Utonium knew for a fact.

Alone and covered in monster drool, she felt for the first time the entire weight of the city on her shoulders.

Her sisters had disappeared for the weekend for reasons that Blossom had once defined questionable, leaving her alone to protect the weak and the oppressed and carrying out other superhero duties, like opening the mayor pickles jars.

It wasn't that Blossom couldn't handle it, there were very few things that she couldn't do.

Besides, since the new invention of the Professor had been set up - a barrier that kept most of the monsters out of Townsville - monsters' attacks had became less and less frequent. The bad guys, that once harshly fought against the Powerpuffs, were now in jail or, in Bubbles' opinion, retired. The blonde firmly believed that there was a sort of retirement home for old super-villains and, her idea, even if a little foolish, had never been proved wrong.

The monster-barrier kept the majority of the monsters out of town and those that, for a series of unfortunate events, were able to cross it, were punished by the girls.

Here is where we go back to an angry, drool-covered Blossom.

It was a small monster, a big eye in the center, hundreds of small and pointy teeth and, apparently, the power of hyper-salivation with an incredible aim in shooting spit.

An easy job, ordinary administration.

…

If it would have been an ordinary day.

Blossom was already drenched in pickle juice, her skin was black and covered in soot, and now she could add to the list disgusting monster's saliva.

Her bad mood was, at her eyes, fully justified.

Her anger exploded, and half a second later the monster was lying dead at her feet. Blossom gave one last tentative kick to be sure he was out cold, before heading back home.

She was stinky and dirty but, above all, she was angry.

The dress she had worn to the inauguration of the fountain was destroyed. When the major had spilled on it half of his jar, she had hoped in her heart the dressed could be saved, but it would have been almost impossible to wash away all that drool. Not to speak about the ash, her whole face was black. The explosions of the professor were becoming too frequent for her taste, she had been able to stop the fire just in time before leaving to fight the spitting monster.

That stupid monster that had decided to show up, as if she hadn't had enough problems to deal with.

It was useful, if not necessary, to point out that if Buttercup and Bubbles would have been present, if the professor wouldn't have tried to burn the house down, if the major would have been able to open a simple pickle jar, and if the monster-barrier would not have decided to stop working that day, well, Blossom would probably, if not certainly, not have been in that horrible mood.

When she entered her house, she couldn't be more different from when she had left it in the morning: The events of the day had left a mark on her, literally. She had fought a monster, inaugurated a fountain, helped the major and stopped a fire. However, the worst part of it all was that the day was not over yet.

Robin's birthday was about to start and between fighting crime and participating to social events, Blossom preferred the former, even though it came with spitting and pickle juice.

Blossom Utonium hated being late, but that day she discovered she hated many things and one more didn't make much of a difference. She took more time than expected to clean herself up and once she opened her closet she realized that not only she was late, but she had no idea of what to wear. There was an alternative. A fast, but painful alternative.

Bubbles had chosen for her what she had called the perfect outfit for Robin's party. Robin was a childhood friend of the girls and when Bubbles had discovered she wouldn't have been in town for the celebration, she had made sure everything could be perfect even in her absence.

On Blossom's pink blanket were resting a black circle skirt and a simple tank top of the same colors of the sheets.

Usually Blossom didn't take fashion advice from any of her sisters, but that was an emergency - and that is how she found out she hated being late more than wearing Bubbles' outfits.

She dressed up as fast as possible, she twisted her wet hair in a messy chignon and in flash of pink she was standing on the "Welcome" mat outside the house, but, right before leaving, she remembered one last thing. She ran in the laboratory, gave a quick kiss to a busy professor, and took taking off in the skies of Townsville.

Or better streets.

"Bubbles is going to pay for this" she muttered to keep herself company.

The skirt ended up being a traitor. Paparazzi were always ready to take the most embarrassing photos, and at the moment she didn't need any unflattering picture of her butt on some cheap magazine.

She was soon in front of the building where the party was taking place. She dragged her feet to the line of people gathered at the entrance, and sighed waiting patiently for her turn.

A stupid, noisy club. She loved Robin, but they were dramatically different. She had tried to persuade her from having her birthday in such a crowded place, but the brunette hadn't listened to a single word.

"Blossom? Blossom Utonium? What are you doing here?" Blossom immediately turned her head to meet the surprised look of a boy about her age.

"I haven't seen you in a while...Adam!" she commented taking an entire second to come up with his name. Adam was a boy going to her same high school, she vaguely remembered him from history, or maybe it was french. He had dirty blonde hair and every time he smiled two dimples formed at the sides of his mouth. He was a good friend of Bubbles, but she rarely saw him, last time they met was probably before summer break started. Not that she didn't like him, he had always been very kind to her.

"I know! I always see Buttercup and Bubbles at the beach but you are never there."

"Oh, you know I am- I do- I have many things to do" she mumbled getting weirdly agitated.

The two took a step forward as the line started to move.

"Of course you do." Blossom didn't like at all his tone or his knowing smile, "I am actually very surprised to see you here."

She arched an eyebrow allowing her annoyance to show. She had other people in her life reminding her what she should or not do, she didn't need any more.

"Excuse me?" she tried to remain calm and composed, but the tone of her voice betrayed her.

"Well, this is not really your place, isn't it?" she saw him struggling to find the right words, her impatience now clearly palpable.

"I dance-" she started to stop immediately when she realized she was justifying her presence there, something she wasn't used to do. She rarely felt unease and it was all those feelings were new and scary. Why was she feeling out of place?

"I am here as you are. There is nothing strange in it" she regained all the firmness in her voice, but to avoid any eye contact that could betray that newly found and still fragile confidence, she started smoothing down the wrinkles of her skirt.

After a few seconds, Adam broke the silence.

"I wasn't implying anything bad, you know" he said smiling softly and keeping his voice low.

"I am… tired. And sorry. Yes, tired and sorry" she mentally face-palmed herself for her brilliant eloquence and let out a big breath before meeting his gaze.

"I had a really bad day" she concluded lamely as some sort of an apology. The crow behind them pushed forward and she realized they were next in line. She show the bodyguard her ID, but before entering she turned around and gave Adam a half-smile.

"I hope you have fun. Maybe I'll see you inside."

"I'll look for you" he winked at her and Blossom suddenly felt a little less guilty.

That peace of mind was soon destroyed as she was met by loud music, flashing lights and a sticky pavement.

First goal of the night: find Robin.

She looked around and immediately spotted her friend, who was waving at her with an exaggerate movement of her arm, before losing balance and falling on a leather couch.

Second and most important goal of the night: remain sane.

She was Blossom Utonium, she could do it... right?

"Blossom this is so sweet!"

Blossom smiled at Robin who was looking through the album of photos crafted for the occasion.

"Don't thank me, Bubbles did most of the work. Buttercup instead wants you to have this" she handed the birthday girl the CD with the logo of Buttercup's band "They are both very sad they couldn't make it".

Robin took the present and hugged it to her chest.

"You guys are amazing! I was so worried none of you would come! Especially you Blossom, you are always super busy."

"I am here, right? This is what matters" Blossom tried to hide her annoyance behind a new smile. Apparently, the pink leader of the Powerpuff Girls and a club were not seen to fit together.

"Yes, and I am very glad you are" Robin kissed her best friend's cheek before standing up. Blossom had to do the same to avoid the girl an embarrassing fall.

"You look amazing! We should find ourselves some knights or this" the brunette pointed at her dress and her incredibly high heels "is going to be a waste."

"Your judgement is too impaired for me to believe your compliment, but thank you anyway" Blossom said supporting her friend by the forearm and ignoring the last part of her sentence. Robin giggled taking another sip from her drink before grabbing Blossom's hand in her own.

"Let's go dancing! All the other guests are already on the dance floor"

Unfortunately, human strength could do little against a superhuman and Blossom didn't move an inch.

"Robin, you should go. I'll wait for you here".

"W-what? But why?"

"You are whining" she stated seriously.

"I am not! I was waiting for you! Come on, Blossom! It will be fun, you love dancing!" the pink puff threw a look at the dance floor. It was messy and full of people that were certainly not dancing.

"Blossom, look at me" she had little say in that decision, as Robin grabbed both side of her head and turned it towards her, "I want to spend a fun night with my best friend. It's only you and me, you are not a superhero here, you are my friend. What is holding you back?"

Blossom sighed, Robin big eyes attentively watching her as if they could read her mind.

Why didn't she want to dance? Because she had to make sure nothing bad would happen. It sounded ridiculous even in her mind and she didn't dare saying it out loud.

"I have to take care of-"

"Me?" Robin laughed and and Blossom couldn't help but smile a bit too. She knew she hadn't come to babysit Robin. She was there to celebrate that important occasion with her dear friend, she just had to let go for once and accept the fact that allowing herself a break did not mean the end of the world.

"I tell you what I need: I need my best friend to remember she is young and to fucking act like it" Blossom gasped at the swearing, but Robin didn't give her time to complain. "Blossom, it will be fun, I promise. See it as a birthday present, pretty please" Robin knew her a bit too well for Blossom's liking. She scrolled her head, a full smile appearing on her lips.

"Only because it's your birthday" Robin excited scream immediately made questioned her choice.

"Sure! I know you are dying to teach these folks how to dance" Robin led the way towards the dance floor, this time encountering no opposition.

She felt so good.

They were jumping around without following what years of dance classes had taught them, and it had never felt so right.

They had been dancing together for hours now. Her hair had escaped her bun and it was freely following her every move. She could feel it stick with sweat to her neck and her bare shoulders and she was sure she looked like a mess.

"You look fine, don't worry!" Robin apparently had the ability to read her mind. She was so lucky to have her as a friend. "It's me and you" Robin had told at the beginning, when Blossom had been looking around all stiff and worried. Those words couldn't have been more true. In the dark, she was just another sweaty teenager.

Nobody was expecting anything from her. She was allowed to be whoever she wanted. She was free, light and young.

Every time her body started moving to the music, she became what she never allowed herself to be. Dancing was her escape from reality, that one thing that made all her worries secondary. When she was dancing, she felt her body, every part of it. She was always so caught up by her studies and her responsibilities, that dancing had become her favorite way to escape all of that.

Even though what she and Robin were doing couldn't really be called dancing, she was having fun. Fun! She had forgotten the last time she had felt so careless. For the first time in months, she didn't have a care in the world

She had been laughing so hard that her stomach hurt. She felt tipsy and incredibly happy, without any real reason to be.

She was just following the music. She always felt so rigid and so controlled that it was refreshing for once to let everything go and just enjoy the moment. It was as if each of her movements had been under the scrutiny of a thousand critics, and she was now finally free.

She had been laughing at a clumsy attempt of her friend to jump on a small table that had found its way to dance floor, when she felt two strong arms encircle her waist.

Her laugh immediately died and when she looked up she met Robin's thumbs up. Her friend winked at her and Blossom failed to hide a smile.

She quickly turned to face him, too curious to see who had been so bold to approach her. She immediately understood her friend's reaction, her mouth almost felt open at the surprise. In front of her there was this handsome boy she had never seen before. The details of his face came and went as the lights flashed in the room and she stared for a moment too long trying to take in everything she could see.

The mysterious guy must had taken her lack of reaction as a yes, because he started to move following the rhythm of the new song.

Maybe it was the tiredness or maybe it was the adrenaline that was running in her veins, but she didn't feel the need to deny him a dance. It was just a dance, it wasn't like he could harm her or anything, she was the one with superpowers. The guy smiled and Blossom felt her knees grew weaker. The fact that he was incredibly cute was also a bonus.

Plus, that night Blossom not only felt young and free, she felt sexy.

As soon as he closed the gap between their bodies and pushed their chests together, a shiver ran down her spine. He smiled again, but this time it was more of a smirk. He was finding that situation amusing, well, Blossom could play that game too. Unlike him, she was real dancer.

She took his hands in her own and placed them on her hips before starting moving very slowly. She heard him hiss under her touch, but she didn't have time to celebrate because, before she could realize what was happening, his hips started to move with her own.

Not a bad dancing partner, she had to admit, not bad at all.

They were moving together, as close to each other as possible and she was liking that proximity. It was a pleasant feeling and every time their bodies moved apart she couldn't help but wait anxiously for the moment they would collide again.

Involuntarily her head went to rest on his shoulder, and she raised her left hand to softly caress his face. His skin was covered with sweat, as was his hair. He smelled of tobacco and something else, something bittersweet she couldn't exactly pinpoint in the frenzy of things. She only knew it was intoxicating and obscuring her last bit of sanity.

She closed her eyes and all she could feel were his hands travelling down her body.

The dance was erotic in its simplicity and what surprised Blossom the most was that she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty or uncomfortable about it.

She felt his lips on her neck and she reacted by scooting even closer to him. She should have pushed him away, but she couldn't. There was only one thought in her head: Why not?

His mouth traveled along her neck to reach her jaw.

She could always stop him later, once those wonderful kisses stopped being so alluring.

After a few wet kisses, she felt his hot breath on her ear. She shivered and, for a moment, she feared her knees would buckle.

Blossom didn't even know that she had been holding her breath.

"I see you have missed me, Pinky".

Her heart missed a beat and her eyes shot open.

She immediately stopped moving, his hold on her hips suddenly strengthened.

It couldn't be him. He had left. Many years ago.

"Cat got your tongue, baby?"

"Butch?" she whispered barely moving her lips, her head now straight and her body rigid as steel.

"I see you remember my name" he joked caressing her forearm.

Blossom tried to move, but his grip tightened trapping her against his body.

"If I were you, I wouldn't move. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt your friend."

The blood in her veins froze, and she was suddenly very well aware of where they were. Robin was right behind her, and the club was filled with innocent people completely unaware of the danger they were in.

"Don't do anything stupid, Butch."

"Stupid like what you were going to do with me?"

A light blush spread on her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from anger. She was an idiot and she was never going to forgive herself. Her distraction had put her and all those people in a vulnerable position. She didn't know how dangerous he had become, but something was telling her to expect the worst.

"I have to say I quite enjoy it, and I know you did too" Blossom felt the impulse to gag when his lips softly kissed her bare shoulder.

"If you want to fight this is not the place. Let's take it outside".

Blossom hands started to sweat as few seconds passed without a response. The loud music was ringing in her hear, and felt bile coming up her throat. Fortunately enough, her distress seemed to pass unnoticed, as all around her, people kept dancing.

"Eager, aren't we?" he grabbed her hand ,squeezing it a little too strongly.

Before letting him lead the way, she threw a look in the crowd. Robin was dancing with a group of friend, she was safe.

She breathed a sigh of relief and followed Butch, trying to regain some of her confidence.

That boy didn't know who he was messing with. He was going to realize that she was no joke.

If Butch was there, this meant one thing and one thing only: the boys were back.

Blossom thought about the last time they had met. How many years had passed? She was barely eleven the last time she and her sisters had to save the city from those villains.

With no doubt they had chosen the perfect day for their comeback, and there she thought that that day couldn't had gotten any worse, how naive of her.

Butch lead her towards a secondary entrance to the back of the building. As soon as they were out, Blossom felt the fresh air crushing on her warm skin. Her long hair was stuck to her body and her tank top was soaked. She was a mess, but at the moment that was the last of her problems.

His hand was still holding hers.

Blossom was silently gathering all her strength to break free, when he did the last thing she would have ever expected: he let go of her.

Shocked, she stared at him for long seconds, before finally taking a step back.

The alley was dark, illuminated only by the lampposts, but this didn't prevent her from finally see his face. He hadn't change much, his lips were still curled in his signature grin while his bright, green eyes, that reminded her so much of her sister, were looking at her with pure amusement.

His dark hair were longer than she remembered and, if possible, even messier. He was much taller now, she barely reached his shoulders and, she dared say, much bigger.

He was no longer the clumsy kid of her memories.

He had grown up, but she had too and she was not scared.

"What are you doing here?" she asked holding her gaze with firm voice.

"A man can't say hi to some old friends?" he joked raising his hands in the air in sign of surrender.

"We are not friends Butch. We have never been."

"You are hurting me like that, babe" he was already getting on her nerves, he had always had this power. With a few sentences he was able to infuriate her like nobody else. "Were is Brick?" she asked knowing she would not get an easy answer.

Butch rolled his eyes before punching his own palm.

"This conversation is getting boring. It's time for some action."

Before she could open her mouth to reply, he attacked her. She jumped in the air avoiding his punch.

"Wrong day to wear a skirt."

Blossom took no notice of his remark, she just rolled her eyes at his stupidity before dodging another hit. She anticipated one of his kick, grabbed his ankle and threw him against a dumpster. She so didn't want to fight, but this didn't mean she was going to make things easy for him.

Butch was up in less than a second, the impact had barely bruised him, the old dumpster instead was destroyed.

"Butch, please stop" she knew it was pointless. Butch was one of those people who never listened, especially not during a fight. Even as a kid, she had always preferred interacting with Brick, his leader.

A raspy laugh escaped his lips. He threw himself at her, but this time Blossom was barely able to avoid the punch that was directed at her face.

Her hair betrayed her and before she could move away, he grabbed a lock pulling her towards him. She screamed in anger and kicked him right in the chest. What a cheap shot taking her by the hair!

He seemed not to even register the kick. His hand was still tightly holding her hair and felt her whole body being thrown like an tiny doll against against a building, right next to a window with pink flowers. Blossom was hoping with all her heart nobody decided to water them in that precise moment. She didn't need any civilian involved.

Butch pushed his body against hers completely invading her personal space. His lips spread in the biggest smile she had yet seen on him.

"And here I thought you could put up some kind of a fight."

True, she was trapped between him and the building, and true, her reflexes weren't the best, but she was exhausted and grabbing her by her hair had been a hit below the belt. Figuratively speaking, of course.

"Buttercup would have been so much better than you."

Blossom froze. There were very few things you could tell her that made her that angry, and Butch seemed to know them all.

"Next time go ruin Buttercup's night then, not mine" If he wanted to play dirty, she could play dirty too. She raised her knees with all the strength she had left hitting right between his legs.

As predicted, he immediately left her hair to bring his hands where they were the most needed at the moment.

Blossom didn't wait any longer. She punched him right in the stomach and when his body hit the ground, she was fast in sealing his hands and feet to the concrete with her ice breath.

"What the hell?" he screamed frenetically moving his eyes from the ice covering his limbs to Blossom, and vice versa.

"A new power" she said with nonchalance, while she was looking for something in the her clutch, and when she found it, Blossom knelt right next to him.

Butch, who had frenetically been trying to break free, immediately froze at the sight of what was in her hands.

"What are you doing with that?"

"What a baby, you are not going to feel anything!" she offered her fakest smile, before stabbing him in the shoulder with the small syringe she had been holding. Butch screamed more out of fear than real pain, but Blossom paid him no attention.

She stood up, put back the syringe in her bag and finally melted the ice with her laser beams.

Butch immediately tried to stand up, but Blossom blocked him forcefully pushing him to the ground with her foot on his chest. Her heel sinking painfully in his shirt.

"What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Stop moving. You can't use your powers. It makes no sense wasting more energy" her face was impassive, almost bored.

"Fucking bitch, what did you do?" he was angry, and Blossom had to admit she wouldn't have felt very safe if he still had his powers.

"Watch your mouth!" she pressed her foot and Butch hissed in pain, "I guess you have the right to know what I injected in you. It's a new invention of the Professor, Buttercup uses it when she plays in the school team so that her powers do not affect her performance. We always have one with us in case we meet someone like you. Your powers will be back in a few hours".

Blossom watched the young man going through his internal struggle. He finally relaxed, sign that he believed her.

"Again, wrong day to weak a skirt" Butch anger had disappeared, he was back being his obnoxious self.

Blossom immediately removed her foot from his chest. This time she couldn't help her cheeks from flaring up.

"Leave and don't come back. I don't want any more troubles" without waiting any longer, Blossom started heading towards the back door of the club.

"This is how you leave your mortal enemy?"

The girl stopped, slowly turning to face him.

"I wouldn't say mortal" she finally said after a few seconds.

"You don't want to see me dead?" for the first time Blossom couldn't tell if he was teasing her or if he was serious.

A heavy silent fell between them, she was trying to decipher his expression and he was probably doing the same, Blossom was the one to break it.

"No, I don't."

She was ready to turn around and forget forever about their encounter when he spoke again.

"Why don't you bring me to jail?" he asked sounding genuinely curious.

"You didn't do anything wrong, but if you keep wasting my time like this, I could change my mind and beat you up" she wanted to sound menacing, but all she obtained was an amused smile.

"You would never beat a defenseless man" he snickered, but strangely it didn't annoy her.

"You have been away a long time, people change" she said hiding her own smile behind her serious tone.

"But you didn't."

"Weren't you way more stupid last time we met or am I wrong?"

Butch smiled, but this time it was different. It was a real, genuine, smile. No mockery nor arrogance and Blossom couldn't help but rewarding him with one of her own.

Unfortunately, before she could savored the moment, the silence was abruptly interrupted by the a beeping sound.

"What now?" she screamed in frustration reaching for the phone in her bag.

"Yes…Yes… Michigan Avenue you said? I am on my way!" she hang up and was about to leave when she remembered that their conversation wasn't over yet.

"I want you and your brothers out of MY town. I won't let you go next time"

"Promise?"

Blossom didn't appreciate the joke.

"I am serious, Butch"

"Me too, Pinky"

Blossom didn't answer, she threw him one last look before disappearing in a flash of pink light.

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it!

English is not my first language so please be kind.

Blossom is a dancer thanks to the most beautiful fanfic I have ever read ;P More than human here on fanfiction . net, if you haven't yet (very unlikely) go read it! :)