A huge thanks to Sjaylol for following this story and Guest for reviewing. Per your request next one-shot will be about Bubbles and Brick.

But for now enjoy some Bubbles and Boomer goodness. I really stepped out of my comfort zone to write this one. (Not to mention that I have been writing it for two years already ^^;) Anyway, enjoy!

5. The cherry on top

Clank!

Boomer sighed and cleaned another empty glass and put it back in its place. He threw the cleaning towel on his left shoulder, like a cliché bartender would do, and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair.

Just like any other day the dinner was swarming with people. It slightly annoyed him that the busiest time was during his shift. It was bad enough that he had to stay behind the bar for eight hours, serving drinks and cleaning shot glasses.

He glanced at the slightly run down booths and gagged at the sickly green color they were painted in. Still the few rays of sunlight that peaked in through the windows gave the small dinner a warm and homey look. He especially liked the few paintings on the creamy walls, and the checkered floor pattern. It all made the place look like it had traveled forward in time from the fifties.

Amid his short day-dream time a few customers had already piled up in front of the counter. Boomer sighed again and knowingly took a bottle of tequila for one of his usual customers. He quickly took orders, served their drinks and took payment, absentmindedly dreaming about his bed back home.

The day kept going like this for hours till it was already late in the evening. Boomer finally had some time to relax.

Though Miranda still had to scurry around the dinner serving drinks and snacks to some of the late customers sitting in booths.

He eyed some of them skeptically, especially the guy with the eyebrow piercing. People here often brought trouble and unconsciously Boomer had been keeping an eye on some of them. Last time a guy with tattoos brought a gun in this place and aimed it at him and a random customer. He didn't really want to experience that situation again.

Boomer was about to sit down and take his break when the little bell chimed, signaling that someone has just entered or exited the small dinner place.

The blue ruff groaned. If it's another drunk asking for a free bottle of vodka he's going to lose it.

What the ruff didn't expect to see, when he looked up, was a blonde girl with two low pigtails and a seemingly helpless expression on her face. Boomer felt his blood go cold.

What is she doing here?

All those years in hiding gone to waste. He made sure not to use his powers anymore in public. He even changed his name and his hair color. True, the dye has already washed out and his natural dirty blonde hair is visible, but it's not like any other person on earth hasn't got the same hair color.

The ruff nearly started panicking. He tried to keep his cool and hide, seeing as the other blonde hadn't noticed him yet. Boomer almost ducked under the bar when the Powerpuff detected him. With a huge beam she ran over to him.

This is the death of me.

But why is she smiling if she's coming to take me in?

"Uh…hey…?" Bubbles called him as soon as she sat down on a stool. Her eyes briefly ran down from his face to his name-tag. "Zack." Abruptly she put a picture on the bar. Boomer flinched. "I was wonderin' if you have seen this girl anywhere around these parts."

"Huh?" Came his, oh so smart, reply.

The puff didn't recognize him. Oh, joy! He managed to avoid prison and Brick's wrath for blowing his disguise just now. All he has to do now is to keep this up and leave the puff in the dark.

Bubbles more urgently pushed the picture forward and pointed at it with her index finger. "This girl. She's been missing for four weeks now. The Mayor specifically assigned us to find her. She's the daughter of an important business partner of his."

Boomer hesitantly leaned forward to glance at the picture. The girl had dark hair, cut in a pixie haircut, big brown eyes and a small nose. He faintly remembered seeing her in the morning news, reported as missing.

He took a step back from the counter and gazed at the pool table in the farthest corner of the dinner. Admittedly he was afraid to speak to her. Five years may have passed since they saw each other face to face, but he could never be too careful when dealing with a Powerpuff. She might suddenly recognize him.

"Uh…first time I see her." With a mumble he tried to focus his attention more on the table and keep his posture calm, and not freak out.

The blonde appeared not to acknowledge his resistance to talk to her or even look at her. She just smiled at him. "'kay, thanks for your help." She took the small picture and jumped up from her seat.

Boomer released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Oh, hey!" The puff abruptly pivoted on her heal to face him again.

The ruff almost fainted from the rapid shock. He was back in the danger zone. Did she finally make out that it was him?

"I don't know anything!" he blurted and Bubbles gave him a puzzled look.

Shit! Shit! I'm such an idiot.

"I-uh-I just remembered that…." He twirled the edge of his cleaning towel to try and calm his nerves.

The puff looked at him expectantly.

It only made him more nervous. He tried to avoid eye contact with the girl and ended up staring at her cleavage instead. Her v-neck shirt really did wonders to her figure and her scent was something of a vanilla strawberry mixture – it made his head reel in pleasure.

"Remembered what?" Bubbles sat back down on the stool, making Boomer practically shriek in surprise.

He couldn't believe that he just leered at her like that, out in the open. And she didn't even say anything in protest. Her demeanor amazed him. She's making him act like a pathetic teenager that's trying to talk to his crush.

"That I saw her on TV. That's all." He looked the other way trying to hide the faint pink color that had crawled up his face. She is making him feel uneasy and that is pissing him off. The contradiction with himself perplexed him. The ruff didn't even know how to act around the girl, to not arouse any suspicion. The fact that not only he has changed over the years, but Bubbles has also physically changed burned in his mind.

The blonde girl blinked at him, not understanding his reason for being edgy. "Oh, okay. Well, I wanted to ask you if we haven't met somewhere before. You seem awfully familiar to me."

It was like a bitch slap to the ruff's face. Did she really remember him?

"I don't think so." He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. He felt more awful by the second within her presence and he couldn't decipher if it was a good kind of awful or a bad kind.

"No, I think we went together to the same high school. Were you the guy from my history class? Ehmm…" Bubbles tapped her fingers against her chin in thought.

Boomer sighed in dejection, running his fingers through his hair. Yep, he's going to prison. It's only a matter of time till she comes to the conclusion that he's a former villain in hiding. Still he has a chance to fight back – flushed or not.

"I honestly, don't remember seeing you before. Maybe we went to the same high school or maybe we didn't, but for me this is the first time meeting you. Well, in person at least. I've seen plenty of your heroics on TV." Boomer mentally gave himself a pat on the back for a well carried out sentence without stammering.

Bubbles though a bit more before replying. "Hmm, okay. I probably just mistook you for someone else." She idled with her pigtail a bit as if waiting for Boomer to say something else. He tried to elude her stare. "Well, thanks for your help. I'll be going now." She gave him a toothy grin and made her way out of the dinner.

The ruff carefully eyed her movements, taking in her jean clad legs and behind, and how much he just wanted to touch her. Once the door bell chimed again Boomer snapped out of his daze.

He wrenched around on his feet and slumped down in his chair in exasperation.

He was ogling her like a perv. Why the heck did he do that? He should be more worried about his safety not ogle over her shapely features, which, by the way, had developed attractively since the last time he saw her in person.

Boomer shook his head and growled in annoyance. His thoughts had suddenly taken a one-eighty turn. Bubbles svelte figure once again flashed in his mind and Boomer hit his head against the counter in frustration.

What is wrong with me?

"Hey, Zack?" Boomer perked up his head when he heard Miranda call him in his fake name. "When you leave lock up, will ya? Paul already left and you're the last one who hasn't cleaned up your work place." The petite brunette waved good-bye to him and with a chime was out of his eyesight.

While growling something incoherent under his breath the ruff leaned under the counter to pick up a rag and start cleaning his workplace.

Where did the time go? It seemed like he would have had to wait hours till the end of his work day, but when Bubbles came in time just flew by.

Something is seriously wrong here.

When the next day came rolling around Boomer still had not gotten over his encounter with the Powerpuff.

Yesterday when he came back home to his shared apartment, he seriously did ponder over about telling Butch about his run in with the blue puff. He decided against seeing as Butch wasn't in his best moods that night and Boomer didn't feel like waking Brick up either, so he just kept this little thing to himself in hopes that it all was just a coincidence.

Still the dread from yesterday didn't want to leave the blonde ruff. He found himself continuously dazing off and thinking over all the 'what ifs' and other unrelated things that set him in a mournful mood.

But what flustered him the most was the fact that he was attracted to the blonde girl. For years he had managed to partially avoid his raging hormones and when he did actually succumb to them he let them all out on random girls. Like that one time one he took advantage of one of Brick's girlfriends (not that she was protesting, on the contrary - she was quite willing). The ruff doesn't like to admit it, but that was mighty vicious of him and he's done that countless times.

The ruff was self-aware, but there were times when he was uncertain about that. He was afraid of relationships, never made it past one night stand. He never knew why. Was he afraid of commitment or was it just the fear of being discovered as a villain? He had no idea.

The blonde boy ruffled his spiky hair and sat back down on his chair to take a break. Yep, he was probably only attracted to her because of his hormones and nothing else. Besides she's not the first girl he had eyed like that.

So far this day had been equally event-less as the previous one apart from the visit of a certain someone at that certain day.

While on the subject about that someone, Boomer couldn't help but think that the blonde girl had definitely changed. And he's not thinking about the physical change. There was something awfully eerie about her demeanor yesterday. He knew that the puff was a gleeful person, but expressing such emotions during a serious mission appeared highly uncharacteristic for her. Something about her visit yesterday was suspicious. He just didn't know exactly what.

The blonde boy decided to disregard these solemn thoughts and make himself a drink. It was close to closing time anyway, so a shot of rum might not hurt. His powers already gave him a high tolerance of alcohol anyway.

He was about to down the drink when the bell chimed. It had been a couple of hours till someone had come to this place; it was late in a Thursday evening after all.

The ruff received a whip of reality when the late night intruded turned out to be the blue Powerpuff.

Okay, the first time might have been a coincidence. Now the ruff was positive that the blonde girl was up to something. Taking in her clothing and how suggestive the beige blouse was, he was questioning her actual reason for being here.

What was she trying to accomplish?

He saw well enough that she wasn't here to take him in. Her overly cheerful face said it all.

With an unabashed smirk she sat down on a stool near him, giving him an almost knowing, blue-eyed look.

The ruff in response inched away from the eccentric girl. She had caught him off guard and was now scrutinizing him. Her look was making him shiver.

"H-how…may I help you?" The ruff tried to gaze at the pool table. The atmosphere had changed drastically with the girls' arrival. He could probably hang an anchor in the tension that was in the air. Well, from the look the blonde was giving the feeling was one sided.

Bubbles suddenly tipped her head up from looking at his seized hands and mirthfully tittered. "Well, I was thinking…Last night when I came here you reminded me of someone."

Boomer's breath hitched in his throat. Crap.

"So I thought that I'll come here again and try to figure it out." She gave him a delirious look.

It almost made him think that she already knew, but was teasing him for her sole sadistic pleasure. It only proved that the innocent puff of the team had changed once reaching maturity.

The blue ruff promptly closed his eyes and counted to three. He will not blow his cover. He will not fall for her charm. He will not let her dictate the course of this conversation. He opened his eyes and exhaled.

"I thought that we already covered this yesterday that we don't know each other," Boomer persevered.

Bubbles appeared unfazed by his statement. "Yes, I do know you. I just can't exactly pinpoint it down to whom."

If it weren't for the way the girl was leaning on the counter – her hands clasped together, emphasizing her chest, Boomer would have had a freak out moment and fled to the moon. Instead he openly stared at her and drank in her soft features.

Unknowingly to Boomer Bubbles was doing the same.

After a moment with a sheepish half-smile the blue ruff darted his gaze elsewhere. He realized that he had been leering at her again. He really needs to get a reality check. When will he grasp the fact that she's an enemy and he should only feel hostility towards her, not attraction?

"Anyway, what did you want?" Boomer put his cleaning towel under the bar top, taking notice how her dainty hands were fiddling as if she didn't know where to put them. Is she nervous?

"I just…" Bubbles pondered over her questions. "…wanted to know you." Her voice was quiet and would be barely audible if it weren't for his enhanced hearing. She gave him a look he didn't understand.

The blue ruff petrified as awareness dawned upon him – the blonde girl was flirting with him. That would explain her eerie cheerfulness. She really didn't know that it was him – her counterpart, an ex-villain.

"Uhm…well." The ruff with a waver took hold of his trusty towel again, looking for a correct answer in this situation. "I'm not really an interesting person." The blonde boy cautiously waited for the puff's reply, but it never came.

Instead she was looking at him, studying his features while biting on her lower lip.

Yes, he really is going to be a dead man by morning.

Boomer gazed elsewhere. Does she even know what she's doing?

"Hmm…I think that you're pretty interesting." Her silent voice reached a lower octave.

The Rowdyruff's breath hitched again, by now it was a wonder he could breathe properly. He grabbed the side of the counter to try and steady himself – he almost toppled over once hearing her seducing voice.

"Why don't we play pool? I've noticed that you stare at that table a lot."

Does he? Really?

Boomer was about to protest and suggest that she would have to leave soon, but the blonde, out of the blue, grabbed the sleeve of his white, button-up shirt and jerked him over the counter. If Boomer wouldn't have had any powers he would have pummeled into the floor face first. He was just grateful that the blonde girl was too occupied by dragging him to the pool table to notice this little slip up.

"What are you doing?"

Bubbles snickered and gingerly threw a glance at him. "I'm going to play pool with you." She spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The blue ruff still felt like Bubbles knew much more than she was letting on. Her eerie smiles just screamed 'I'm suspicious'.

Boomer tried to wriggle out of her hold without using his powers, but found it to be a useless action – the Powerpuff's strength exceeded his own normal strength. He was going to tell her that she's crazy and should just go when the puff hauled him harder and placed him in front of the pool table.

"Now let's play." She beamed and handed him a cue.

Boomer just stared at it in bewilderment. They aren't really going to play pool, are they?

When Bubbles had set up all of the balls and took her position at the end of the table he knew that they were playing. He just wondered if the puff really knew how to play.

She leaned down on the table trying to take the most comfortable position. She idled around with the cue a bit, changing its placement.

The ruff took his time admiring her pose and the way her breasts were pressed against the table.

Fuck!

He whipped his head the other way, almost getting whiplash. Is she doing this consciously or is it just his perverted mind? To try and hide his slightly flushed face the blonde boy tried to keep his gaze on the flat-screen TV that was one the wall – so what if it was turned off, it still was an amazing piece of technology.

Just when he turned to face the blonde again he heard the balls collide and fly all over the place, one nearly hitting him in the face.

"Oopsie!"

Boomer looked at her in pure shock. He knew that she was strong and all, but he didn't expect her to use her full power on the poor pool table. His previous arousal forgotten, Boomer inched away from the table. Was she trying to kill him? Not that a pool ball would kill him. It was the thought that counted.

Bubbles tenderly put down the cue on the table and giggled in embarrassment. "I think I was a bit too hard on them."

That was a huge understatement.

"You should probably go now." Boomer finally gathered up his courage and said those few words that he was trying to say ever since the puff entered the dinner. It was close to closing time anyway and he didn't want for Miranda to see any mind disturbing sights.

Bubbles, disregarding him, sat on the table as close to Boomer as possible.

It only made him wish that he would have stepped back further from the table. She was giving off the same vibes as before and her perfume was intoxicating.

The puff gingerly touched his arm and ran her fingers up his bicep. The blonde boy shuddered in response, his breathing almost erratic by now, her warm touch making him drop the cue.

"What are you doing?" Boomer was surprised to hear that his own voice had come out lower than expected.

"Testing the waters."

The ruff removed her hand from his arm, taking notice how small her hand actually was compared to his.

Bubbles mistook this as an initiative to continue. She pressed herself against him and hovered inches away from his face, her hands idling around with the folds of his shirt.

That was such a wrong move. Boomer tried hard to not think about her form against his own, her face so close to him. He knew well enough that he won't hold back much longer if she keeps this up – enemy or not. She was asking for this and who he was to refuse her.

Her nemesis maybe.

The blonde girl draped her hands around his waist and brought him closer if possible. Their faces were only few inches apart from each other and if the ruff tried he could easily press his lips against hers.

Did he really want to taste her that bad to risk his cover, to risk getting a dose of Antidote X and lose his powers forever once she finds out that it's him?

Fuck yes!

With hesitation yet lustful eagerness he kissed her. Her soft lips tasted like vanilla, and, God, how he liked vanilla. Though he was surprised to feel that the blonde girl didn't respond to him at all. He was making a fool out of himself. Did he really misread her signs?

Boomer was about to retreat himself from her when she brought her hands up, cupping his face and returning the closed mouth kiss as best as she could.

The ruff stiffened for a moment. Bubbles really wanted this. She wanted him? A stranger to her? He returned her kiss without any more thought to it.

The puff moaned in her pleasure and the ruff's avidity to continue despite her reluctance at first.

The blue ruff wrapped his hands around her waist and positioned himself between her legs. He felt Bubbles sweep her tongue against his bottom lip. She wanted more? He could already feel that he needed air, but her kissing was so frantic that he barely managed to break their lip lock.

Bubbles wanted to protest when the warmth of the blue ruff left her.

Boomer took a few quick gasps of air before continuing ravishing the blonde girl's lips. He let his hands wander under her blouse. Her smooth skin was hot to the touch. Oh, how he just wanted to take her and get his way with her. This time when Bubbles bit on his lip he allowed her to evade his mouth.

The blue puff took full control of their make-out session, letting her hands travel up his body to his neck.

The ruff felt tingles all over his body. She was doing such amazing things with her tongue. He changed their position by turning his head to the left, this time taking charge of the situation.

He heard the blonde sigh in satisfaction. She let her hands wander through his hair, pulling at some strands.

He never would have imagined that one day he might share a heated kiss between himself and his counterpart. He spent most of his childhood hating her, fighting her, until one day Brick announced that they will hide and discard their identities and take up new ones. He never actually found out what made his brother change his mind and take such an action. It was so unlike him that at first it had scared the blue ruff.

Five years had passed without the girls ever finding out that they had hidden right here in Townsville. Boomer had thought that five more might pass just like that, but how wrong he was.

Yet here he was in a dingy bar making out with his enemy on a pool table.

She broke their lip lock to untie his bow tie and remove his vest with feverish hands.

And he let her. He still couldn't believe that this was actually happening and that she was in control. How low could he fall?

The ruff audibly sighed when the puff had finally gotten her way through all his clothing layers and was now dragging her hands down his firm chest.

He took this as his chance to get control over this situation. He tenderly laid her down on the table, pushing away any ball that might be in the way, and kissed her exposed neck.

The blue puff mewled in response to his butterfly kisses and gripped the sleeves of his button up shirt.

He let his hands wonder over her lithe figure, halting when he reached her breasts. He cupped her soft mounds and reveled at the feeling, he could almost feel her nipples through her bra.

Boomer was about to tear open her blouse when he heard a voice call for him from the kitchen.

"Zack, could you, please, come here and help me? Lucy and Paul just left and I can't reach the top shelf myself."

Both Blues froze in their actions. The footsteps of the petite girl were coming closer. She was talking about a teapot that Paul had forgotten to put back in it's place and how it was bothering her, and how she was too short to put it back into it's rightful place - the top shelf.

The ruff eyed the blonde girl with evident fear in his eyes and surprisingly enough her expression mimicked his. He felt the bundle of panic resurface in him.

"I'm sorry." Bubbles sat up and pushed him away. She rapidly fixed her hair and blouse.

Boomer could do nothing else but stare at her in bewilderment. He was shocked beyond reason. What had just happened?

"I'm really sorry. This shouldn't have happened." The blue puff quickly gave him an apologetic look and zipped away in a blue flash before Miranda entered the room and saw her.

"Hey, Zack, are you in here?" Miranda quite loudly bursted open the door to the kitchen. She stopped in her tracks once he saw him standing there, disheveled and with a far off look. "What are you doing?"

That snapped him out of his stupor. "Ah! Uh..nothing." With trembling fingers he buttoned up his shirt. "I was just hot. Needed to cool off a bit." He tried to tie back together his bow tie, but his hands were shaking too much to do it.

Miranda eyed him suspiciously, placing her hands on her hips. She decided to disregard his odd behavior and lame excuse. "Oh. Okay. Well, I need your help if you didn't hear me."

"Sure, sure. Just gimmie a minute." He fumbled around with the bow tie a little bit more before he decided to just leave it.

"Okay, but hurry." With that the brunette left him with his thoughts.

The ruff ran a hand through his messy hair. He was so confused. Did he seriously almost have sex with the blue puff on a pool table? It might just been the best thing ever while the worst at the same time. He didn't know if he should thank his co-worker or cuss her out for the intrusion.

Boomer shook his head and decided to quickly clean up the mess they made before leaving to help Miranda. Actually he was so painfully aroused that Miranda might just have to wait some while before he goes to her. He hoped to anything holy that she didn't see his arousal. This was as embarrassing as it is.

The ruff sighed and put the cues back in their place. There was no way that the blue puff didn't know that it was him. Did she? But if she knew that it was him why would she willingly sleep with him? Boomer didn't really peg Bubbles as a girl who would have a one night stand with a stranger either.

What did really happen there?

"Argh! That fucking Powderpuff!" The ruff threw a pool ball at the opposite wall in frustration. The ball made a loud bam and fell on the floor, leaving a dent in the wall.

She just simply came in here and messed everything up. And worst of all he couldn't tell if she did recognize him or not.

The question is, did Bubbles know or did she not? I'll leave that up to you to figure out ;)