AN: I wasn't planning on putting up any stories or updating anything until the start of July because my exams have already begun. And this story was definitely not in my agenda. Technically, this is a one-shot. A very long one-shot. That's why I'm splitting it up into three chapters. But it's still a one-shot.

I was inspired by a review from one of my stories (When in Venice - so I guess this one-shot could be considered a prequel), so I was writing this during my exams to lighten up my mood a bit. I wasn't planning on putting it out in the public because it's quite different from what I normally write.

But it's been sitting here for weeks on my laptop and I've been debating for a long time. So here it is. This one-shot is in Butch's POV (because I wanted to try something different). It's not just about the whole ButchxKaoru fandom, but there's also BrickxMomoko and BoomerxMiyako in there too.

To be honest, it's not so much romance as it is comedy and drama. This is about Butch's quirky view on his university life, so there's a lot of mention of his brothers. By the way, this is an AU fic, no such things as Powerpuff Girls Z.

Alright, I'm going to stop blabbing and let you read.

.:PART I:.

Damn her. Damn her. I hated her so much. How could she just sit there, acting like nothing was going on when I sat here suffering. Damn her.

"Hey, bro. That's an unusual hiding place you got there."

I jumped and turned around to see my brother standing there, smirking. I frowned, "What the hell are you doing here?"

He rolled his eyes, "Well, this is the campus library. It's not like I'm not allowed here, you know. But seriously, dude. Why are you hiding underneath a table?"

I had to admit that I did feel pretty stupid, but right now someone else had taken up my usual hiding spot near the the computers, so I was left with no other choice than to hide under a table.

"You know, I don't even get why you hide. It's not like she actually notices you."

"Shut up," I snapped, glancing back at her.

"Butch, I'm saying this because I'm your brother and I care about you: man up."

"Fuck you," I said, still not taking my eyes off her.

"Too late. While you were too busy stalking, I'd already gotten myself a girlfriend."

This was news. I turned back to Brick, "You? A girlfriend? Is this some sort of joke?"

He glared at me, "You're just jealous that I'm going out with a hottie and you're still stuck on that chick. I mean, geez! Have you even talked to her before?"

I snorted, "Of course I have."

"When?"

"Just last week. We were both at Starbucks and we bumped into each other. We both apologised to one another."

There was a pause, "Then?" prompted Brick.

"That's it."

"Dude, that's not talking! Wait, please tell me you know her name..."

I frowned, offended, "Of course I know her name!"

"Do you know anything else about her?"

"She's Kaoru Matsubara, studying Botany in Environmental Sciences...and she's hot."

Brick smacked his forehead but quickly straightened up as a girl approached him. She had long red hair that was tied up with a white bow. She was smartly dressed in a white elegant top and black skirt. I saw her smiling at my brother as he grinned back. Who the heck was she?

Brick murmured something in her ear which made her laugh before he turned to me, "Butch, this is my girlfriend, Momoko. Momoko, this is my younger brother, Butch."

"Not the youngest, of course. That would be Boomer," I said. I always hated it when people mixed me up with Boomer and thought I was the youngest, so I made it a habit to clear that out on the first meet-and-greet. It's not always easy being the middle child.

Momoko grinned, "Hey, there, Butch. So you're the 'Reverse-Romeo'?"

I narrowed my eyes at Brick who looked nervous, "Oh, so you gave me a nickname, huh?"

"Well, it's not my fault you can't make a move on the girl!" he cried.

Momoko raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry, what? A girl? Who is she? Maybe I can help?"

I was about to say 'no', but then Brick (being the little bitch that he is) pointed Kaoru out to her.

Momoko's eyes widened, "Kaoru? You mean you like Kaoru?"

Brick scoffed, "You know her?"

"Of course! She's one of my best friends!"

Woah, I wasn't expecting that. I quickly glared at her, "You better not tell her!"

Brick narrowed his eyes at me, "Dude, don't be so rude. She hasn't done anything!"

Momoko rolled her eyes and place her hand gently on his arm, "Brick, it's fine," then she turned to me, "I won't say anything, but I will help you."

"Help me with what?"

"Asking out Kaoru. I mean, honestly! That girl really needs to get out more!"

I shook my head, "Uh, no thank you. I'm doing perfectly fine without your help."

"I never said it was an option," she said, smiling at me, but her tone was dark.

Brick looked nervous, "Babe, how about we go get some coffee?"

"Sure," then Momoko grinned at me, "You're so freaking adorable! It was nice meeting you. See you later."

...bitch.

I frowned at Brick and Momoko as they left the library. Those two were insane. Shaking my head, I diverted my attention back to Kaoru...who was no longer there. Damn. She must've headed back to class while I was talking to my brother.

I checked my watch and realised I didn't have any other classes so I was pretty much free to go home.

I lived in the worst apartment in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo City so the person who lived above me made a lot of racket (because the guy was in a band...or so he said).
Tonight, I heard him hosting some college party, making the worst possible noise ever (not to mention that he invited over seventy people...I lost count after seventy-three).

Sighing and dragging myself out of bed, I went upstairs to complain, but when the door opened, I was met with a seventeen-year-old from the local school, not my neighbour.

He laughed at me in this really high-pitched voice (probably drunk) and then yelled, "Sorry, old man. This party's for us young 'uns!" Then he abruptly closed the door.

I stood there stunned for quite a long time. I had never...ever...ever been called an 'old man' before. Heck! I was only twenty-two! That didn't make me an old man!

...Did it?

Anyways, after a good ten minutes standing there, I knocked on the door again. This time, some blonde chick answered. Trust me, I know what you're thinking. No, she was not hot. In fact, nowhere near it. Actually, she looked like she was going to collapse there and then, so I quickly entered the apartment and found myself drifting in a wave of bodies.

Dancing, drinking, music, lights...gosh, this was way too much at 3am when I had classes in the morning. After shuffling around the apartment awkwardly, I found my neighbour propped up against the bookshelf, busy with a brunette.

He noticed me and recognised me instantly, "Hey, I know you. You're under me, aren't you?" he said, pointing to the floor.

The brunette giggled and a realised why. My neighbour made the last statement seem so dirty... Gosh.

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Yeah, I live downstairs. Look, dude, this is a great party and all-"

"Yeah, I know, right? Hey, wanna beer?" he said, grinning, handing me some.

I shook my head, "Uh...no thanks. I'll pass. Look, I got a long day tomorrow and I really need some shut-eye. You think you could turn down the volume a bit?"

He raised an eyebrow, amused, "You're a funny dude. You know that?"

"I wasn't being funny...I really need you to-"

"Oh, I get it. I get it," he said, getting up and excusing himself from the brunette as he slung an arm over my shoulder and staggered towards the kitchenette, "You're just here 'cause you want some stash but you're too shy to admit it and you're just making excuses."

"Actually, that's not-"

He shook his head, stopping me, "No, dude, it's fine. Really," he grinned and punched my arm playfully, "We're all friends here," then he pulled out a basket of weed from under the sink basin and held it up to me, "Go on, take some. I won't mind. We're all trying to be neighbourly, aren't we?"

After that, I just gave up. Rejecting his offer, I left his apartment and then dragged myself back down to my own apartment, falling into my bed in a depressing manner. I finally decided that I would just have to wish for a miracle to let me sleep through the insane brouhaha upstairs.

"Butch, wake up!"

I shot up and looked around to see Boomer kneeling down beside my bed. I groaned and plopped back onto the mattress again.

"Butch, come on. It's almost time for class," he said as he dragged the covers off of me.

Stupid neighbour. He just had to keep me up half the night, didn't he? "What time is it?" I murmured.

"8:45. Class starts at 9:35. You have less than an hour. Come on."

Damn it. I reluctantly got out of bed and headed off to the bathroom to take a quick shower while Boomer sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels. Boomer came over to my apartment every morning since we both shared the same classes for Human Geography. That, and he was my personal alarm clock.

He lived in the same building as me but his apartment was on the west wing of the building which had a great view of the city. My apartment was on the east wing which had an amazing view of the backstreet alleyway, the dumpsters and the trashy local brothel.

Notice the sarcasm?

And how on earth did Boomer get so lucky? His girlfriend, Miyako, lived in the apartment next to him, so it was easy for them to see each other. The apartment next to mine held a junkie. So did the apartment to my right. And the one upstairs...in fact, my apartment was surrounded by crackpots and junkies.

Shaking my head, I took a quick rinse in the shower and got dressed in a dark green t-shirt and black baggy trousers since it wasn't too cold outside. I dried my hair and then decided that a granola bar would make a fine breakfast since I was in a bit of a hurry. Boomer switched off the TV and we both grabbed our books and left for class.

When we reached the lecture hall, I sat in my usual seat in the fifth row next to Boomer. I got my laptop out and prepared for the lesson as the professor walked in. I only had two lectures for today. The one right now was based on human population.

"Alright class. Quieten down. It's time to begin."

He popped up a PowerPoint slideshow onto the projector at the front and turned off the lights as we sat in silence and began typing out what was written on the slide down in our laptops as he began explaining. At that point, I zoned out, only taking in snippets of the lecture and mechanically taking down notes.

I wondered what Kaoru was doing at this very moment. I knew she had a class right now too, though I wasn't sure what topic the lecture was on. I didn't know what she found so interesting about plants that she wanted to take a degree in Botany, but I wasn't talking when I had an interest in Human Geography.

Kaoru was the same age as me, black layered hair and the most beautiful green eyes. I met her on the first day of university. Well, 'met' seemed like a far-fetched word...'saw' was more like it. I still remembered how out of place she had looked at campus.

She had been wearing a shirt and a cardigan with loose jeans and dorky glasses. She wasn't like the other barbie-resembling girls in university. Her older brother had been with her, helping her carry a few bags to the dormitory, and I actually thought she looked pretty shy and nervous.

I was about to walk up and introduce myself to her when some guy approached, probably to hit on her as a dare or something. But he never got the chance as her arm shot out and punched him straight in the nose and he fell, looking up at her in surprise. She didn't spare him a glance or barely acknowledge him as she walked towards the dormitory, her brother snickering behind her.

After that episode, I quickly ran away, worried she'd catch me staring and decide to knock me out too.

But I couldn't stop thinking about her, and unintentionally I would look out for her everyday; with fear or interest, I wasn't quite sure, but I'd do it nonetheless. And even to this day I was still hung up on her, but by now I knew it wasn't fear: I really liked her. Too bad I couldn't even look her in the eye without turning into a mess.

Brick was right, she didn't even know I existed.

Boomer suddenly nudged me, "Butch, it's the end of class."

"Huh? Oh, right. Thanks."

Things like this always happened to me. Why? I didn't know. Maybe I was just born with bad luck or something. Was that even possible? I mean, my brothers had far better luck than me, although Boomer always reassured me that it was nothing but a coincidence that bad things happened to me.

Sure.

I wasn't over-exaggerating, this stuff actually happened to me. I mean, there was this one time when my brothers and I were five and our grandma had taken us out for ice-cream at the shopping mall. She forgot there were three of us and only brought two kids back home to my parents. Guess who the two kids were? Brick and Boomer.

Where was I? Still in the food court of the mall, picking on the pieces of people's meals. My parents went ballistic and my mother nearly had a mental breakdown. Luckily, the mall guard who had found me loitering beside a bin knew who my parents were and so safely drove me home.

I think that was the day that my dad broke the news to my grandma that she needed to get her eyes tested.

Then, when my brothers and I were nine, we went on this camping trip. Brick and Boomer got the same tent and were ecstatic that they would have so much fun together. Me? I got stuck with Booger Nose Bob: the guy who kept picking his nose. And as if that hadn't been bad, he even had the cold when we went camping and so he would show me his slithery snot and ask me to name them.

Yuck.

I remembered curling myself into a tight ball and huddled in the corner with my blanket and made sure we both knew our personal spaces in the tent. Still, that didn't help that during the night he kept sneezing and coughing on me. Suffice to say, by the end of the camping trip, everyone had a great time and I was sitting at the back of the bus, sneezing my ass off.

There were even times where we had to stop the bus so I could vomit. Not the best way to get girls, I assure you. And to rub it in my face even more, Booger Nose Bob had gotten better by the end of the trip and so he enjoyed his time laughing and goofing around with his friends while Brick steered clear out of my way, worried I would 'contaminate' him.

I think Boomer was the only civilised nine-year-old on the bus as he sat in the seat in front of me with a box of tissues and made sure I blew my nose every three minutes. I was the reason why he met Miyako. Apparently, she thought my brother was the cutest little thing, taking care of me and all.

Now I got embarrassed everytime I saw her because even though it had been thirteen years, she still remembered me as the sick guy at the back of the bus who just so happened to have a cute brother. Her words, not mine.

Then, when we went to secondary school for the first time, my brothers were quickly accepted as great guys. Brick became part of the swim team and Boomer joined the poetry club whilst I tried to run away from my impending doom as the seniors chased me and searched for a bin to dump me into. Yeah, school? Not one of my best memories.

Then, when we had the school dance for our last year in secondary, my brothers immediately had dates. Boomer obviously had Miyako, they'd been best friends since the age of nine (as you already know) and started dating at the age of thirteen, so it was no surprise that they went to the dance together. And Brick? Hello, swim team? He was a magnet for chicks! He got the hottest girl in school to go with him to the dance.

By that time I was already part of the Earthquake Society, so it was no wonder that I didn't attract any girls. They probably thought I was some kind of geek or something. Even now I still felt embarrassed. But to be honest, Earthquake Society was actually quite fun, and we didn't do just earthquakes, but we also talked about tectonic plates and volcanoes (I could now make amazing volcanoes, people!).

But end story? No girl looked at me once, forget twice. So in the end, I had to go to the dance with Alex. Who was a guy. Turned out that he was part of the Radioactivity Society and was in the same situation as me: no date offers. But on a positive note, he was considerate enough to bring me a rose. That made me feel guilty for not buying the guy chocolates or something.

To be honest, Alex and I didn't stay at the dance for too long. By the time it got to the slow dance part, we both gave each other a salute and parted our own ways.

Ah, Alex. What a great guy. I hadn't seen him since that night. Perhaps, I should've called him to see how he was getting along.

But the truth was I had been hoping university would offer me the chance in a lifetime to have some good luck. And other than my apartment being situated in the worst possible position, university life wasn't so bad. Until she popped into my life. Now I was hiding behind bookshelves in the library, watching her. If there was a level of desperation, I would be at an all time low.

"You're drooling."

I jumped up and spun around to find Momoko raising an eyebrow at me, an amused smirk on her lips. I frowned, embarrassed at being caught watching her best friend, "What do you want?" I asked as I wiped away the drool from the corner of my mouth.

She sighed, "Butch, I know you need help."

"I don't need your help."

"I know you need my help but you don't want it. So I'm going to help you anyway, no matter what Brick says about you."

"Look, I don't- Wait. What did Brick say about me?"

"You're queer."

"Am not!"

She smirked, "And that you also haven't ever been with a girl before. How adorable."

"My brother has a big mouth," I muttered.

She shrugged, "But I'm still right. You need my help," she paused and then said, "Look, I've known Kaoru since I was ten. And if it makes you feel any better, she's never been with a guy before. So you're both on even ground."

Woah, that was news. Kaoru had never been with a guy before? That was surprising. She was pretty. Really pretty. I had always assumed... I looked back at Momoko's smug smile.

Shit, the girl really did know what she was talking about.

"I know a lot of other things about her. If you let me help you-"

"What's in it for you?"

She seemed genuinely surprised when she said, "What?"

I sighed, "I mean, why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?"

She seemed to think about it for a while before responding, "I don't know really. I mean, you're my boyfriend's little brother-"

"Not the youngest," I reminded her once again.

She smiled and then continued, "And when I saw you looking at Kaoru, you looked like you were in your own little world. Aw, no, don't be embarrassed about it," she said as my face heated up and I looked away, "It's really cute that you like her. And I totally understand why you would be hiding away from her. I mean, you've never been with a girl, and suddenly you like her... You're just afraid of rejection."

Her words were true and they made me feel uncomfortable, but I tried to cover it up with a scoff, "Please. As if I'm afraid of rejection. That's the last thing on my mind." Who was I kidding? Of course I was afraid! I mean, Kaoru didn't even know I existed and here I was, like some kind of pervert, watching her.

Momoko raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Is that so? Well, then. I guess you don't have anything to worry about now. Go ahead and ask her out."

Shit. Wait. What? "Um, what? Now?"

She nodded, smirking, challenging me, "Of course now. If you're not afraid, go ahead and ask her out. Unless, of course, Brick was right and you really are scared."

The mention of my brother flared some kind of envy in me. I wanted to be as smooth as him, get whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted without having to worry about the consequences. I wanted to prove him wrong. I wanted to prove everyone wrong. I was brave. I was confident. I was a grown man; an adult! Why was I so afraid?

With that mentality, I stood up straight and walked over to where Kaoru was busy skimming through a book at a shelf. Momoko hadn't been expecting this reaction from me as her jaw dropped, and I was glad I surprised her. She probably thought I was some kind of coward. Well, not anymore.

Watch out, world! Butch Jojo is coming through, all new and improved!

I was so charged and pumped up that by the time I reached her, I realised I didn't even know what to say to her. And suddenly all my confidence broke down and I wanted to run away. But it was too late as she turned around and jumped, startled to see me.

"Oh, hi. Sorry, I didn't see you there." Wow, even her voice was beautiful. It was like a soothing melody to my ears. ...Damn, was I whipped.

"Oh, uh. No problem. I was just, uh..." I glanced at the book in her hand, "I was going to get a book."

She raised an eyebrow, "Really? I never would've guessed," she said sarcastically, "This is a library after all."

I was an idiot. "Oh, yeah, well...I wanted a specific kind of book."

She chuckled, "Well, I guess I'll leave you to it..."

"Butch. My name's Butch."

"Hm, interesting," she looked at me with calculating eyes, analysing me as if I were some kind of interesting specimen. It was probably a habit for her since she did Botany. She nodded, "Alright, I'll see you later, Butch."

And with that, she walked away, oblivious to the train wreck she'd left behind. That train wreck was me.

AN: This is just the first part. I will hopefully update the second part within two weeks. And if you want a sneak peek of the second part earlier, be sure to check out my website in the next week. The link is up on my profile.

By the way, since I haven't had a lot of time to spare, there could be serious mistakes in this. Let me know!

And last, but not least, review! :D