Hey, you guys! It's been a while since my last story, so I thought I'd go ahead and try my hand at this whole fanfiction thing, again. As with most of my stories, this one is centered around Bubbles, and the characters are exactly as they were at the end of the last season of the series. This story only involves the family, though; there won't be any appearances by villains or anything of that sort (sorry if that disappoints you). Still, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer - I only own the story, not the characters within.

Calming The Storm, Ch. 1

"Shut up, Buttercup!" screamed Blossom's voice from downstairs. Bubbles sighed and shook her head.

The Utonium household had once again become a warzone. Downstairs, Blossom and Buttercup were screaming their lungs out trying to make a point long forgotten to one another. It seemed that nowadays, whenever the Powerpuff Girls weren't fighting a monster or an evil supervillain, they were fighting each other...or rather, two of them were fighting each other. These little skirmishes between Blossom and Buttercup had become more frequent than in the past, and a bit more intense. And they all seem to ignite with the smallest provocation, usually no more than Buttercup making a joke about Blossom that she takes too seriously, or Blossom reprimanding Buttercup for some small thing she did earlier that day.

Of course, there were three Powerpuff Girls...so where was Bubbles during all of these feuds? It used to be that she'd be off in a corner, huddled in the fetal position just hoping that they'd stop soon. Then there was a period that you might find her in the midst of the action herself. Lately, however, she'd taken to retreating to the girls' exceedingly large bedroom; she'd simply close the door, turn up some music, and take advantage of the time she had alone to do something productive.

Such was the case now: while her sisters were engaged in mortal combat in the living room, Bubbles was upstairs on the bed with her favorite companion Octi, listening to music with the volume up to "11" and drawing a picture. Did it bother her that at that very moment her sisters might cause irreparable damage to their relationship? Not at all.

Nope, not one bit.

Well...maybe a little.

Or a lot.

Of course she was worried! But Bubbles had mastered the art of feigning apathy when it came to her siblings' petty squabbles. She just had to concentrate on whatever it was she was doing, that's all.

Her attention was currently focused on the picture she was drawing of a place in the forest she had only been to once before—a magical place, where animals had given her chalk of every imaginable color. Actually, she wasn't sure if the place was real or just part of Him's ploy to destroy the girls that time, but that didn't matter to Bubbles—that place was special. She'd never been able to find the place afterwards though, so she wanted to have something to remember it by.

It took all of her concentration to remember what it looked like. All the animals, all the flowers and all the colors were hard to keep separate, but with solitude granted her by her sisters, Bubbles was really making progress. She was especially proud of her work this time, because she wasn't using her preferred medium (crayons); instead, she decided that a picture this special and meaningful deserved to be distinguished from her earlier works, and so she was using the Watercolor Set that the Professor had bought her only a week ago.

Of course, using paint instead of crayons or colored pencils meant that there was very little room for error. And whenever there's very little room for error, Murphy's Law loves to come into play. This case was no different.

Bubbles was about 2/3rd the way done with her picture when it happened. The fight downstairs had taken a turn for the worst. The house shook; there was a cry of fury, and then a cacophonous "CRASH!" split the eardrums of all those unlucky enough to hear it...including Bubbles. A reflex was all it took to cause her hand to streak across the paper with paintbrush in-tow. It might not have been so bad if she hadn't chosen that precise moment to paint with a bright red color...but alas, she had, and Bubbles certainly didn't remember a big red slash across the stump she sat on that day. Effectively, her picture was ruined.

Bubbles stared in shock at her picture. There were a few seconds where she wasn't quite sure what had just happened. This was followed by a second or two when her mind shuffled through about five similar-yet-distinct emotions: sadness, grief, anger and disappointment among them, each with an accompanying course of action (cry, scream, bash her sisters over the head with some heavy blunt object, etc.). However, one single thought prevailed above the rest: 'this has to end now'; with this motivating her into action, Bubbles set aside her art supplies and quickly rushed downstairs.

The scene awaiting her from downstairs was not surprising in the least: Blossom and Buttercup were standing in the living room staring at the far wall with expressions similar to a child who has just broken their parents' favorite vase. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what had transpired: in the midst of their scuffle, the two sisters had knocked down the vase's pedestal with such force that it flung the vase into the wall across the room, where it instantly shattered upon impact; there was a large muddy smudge on the wall where it had hit, and on the floor lay a mix of dirt, flowers and broken glass. About the time Bubbles made it downstairs, her sisters were regaining their fervor and preparing for the inevitable aftermath of the accident: the Blame Game.

"Look what you did, Buttercup! That was one of the Professor's favorite vases!" Blossom cried out.

"What I did!? I didn't do that, it's your fault!" the brunette retorted.

"My fault? How is it my fault, it's not like I pushed myself into the stand!"

"Well, I wouldn't have pushed you if you hadn't pushed me first!"

"Well I wouldn't have pushed you first if you hadn't tried to tackle me!"

"I only did that because you..."

And so the squabble went on, right back up to the intensity it was at to begin with. Bubbles watched them throw accusations back and forth, the broken vase already all but forgotten about as the two sisters tried to gain the upper hand in the disagreement. Watching them argue as they were brought back the same mix of emotions as before: sadness, disappointment, anger, even a bit of disgust. How were they ever going to stay a team and be role-models for the city if they were going to let some petty differences come between them?

The short answer: they couldn't. That's why this had to end now.

A course of action was needed...but which one? Anything too subtle would be ignored; anything too harsh would only serve to bring Bubbles herself into the conflict, which would only do more harm than good. No, she had to do something with enough sternness that it would be taken seriously, yet gentle enough to ward off any further disagreements...but what?

And then, in a single moment in which she looked back upon a private moment she had had with the Professor, a solution presented itself. When it did, she was surprised she hadn't thought of it sooner. It was the perfect opportunity to put a plan into action that had been stewing for a while now.

That entire thought train lasted about three seconds in real time; in that time, it seemed that Blossom and Buttercup were about to resort once again to fisticuffs. Bubbles had to act fast. The only question now was how to get their attention? She thought back up to her painting (the one with the gigantic red paint streak in the middle of it), and quickly decided to allow herself this moment to express her frustration.

Just as Buttercup looked to be rearing back to attack, Bubbles opened her mouth.

"ENOUGH!"

It got the job done. In shock (and still reeling from the shout), the two feuding girls stared at the sister they never even noticed was there. She was standing at the base of the stares with her hands on her hips, wearing an expression of anger and impatience on her face.

Needless to say, Bubbles had their undivided attention.

"This has gone on long enough!" she continued. "I tried to ignore for as long as I could, but I can't take it anymore!" Her voice then turned chillingly quiet.

"So, here's what's going to happen. First, you guys are going clean up the mess that you made. Then, you'll meet me upstairs in five minutes, and we are going to get to the bottom of this if it takes us all day!" And with that, Bubbles turned around and stormed up the stairs again.

Blossom and Buttercup were still in a semi-shocked state even after Bubbles took her leave. They stared at one another...then Buttercup spoke.

"Should we?"

"Well, I don't know about you," Blossom replied, "but I rather like my eardrums in one piece, so I'm going to go see what she has planned. Besides," she said with a hint of shame creeping in to her voice, "I think we owe her that much."

Buttercup nodded...then remembered that she was at odds with her sister. She let out a humph, then answered "Do whatever you want; I'll decide for myself whether or not I owe anybody anything."

Blossom stared in frustration at her sibling, let out her own "Hmph!," then proceeded towards the kitchen to grab a broom and dustpan. Buttercup went towards the bathroom to grab a wet cloth for wiping the wall with.

Meanwhile, in the upstairs bedroom, Bubbles was getting ready for what she had planned. While setting things up, she thought back once again to the memory of her and Professor about a month ago; she was still surprised it had taken her so long to think of it...

FLASHBACK

Professor Utonium was eating a sandwich at the table kitchen, taking a lunch break from his lab work. Blossom was at the library researching some curious little tidbit she had come across; Buttercup was at 

the park presumably playing sports with Mitch and their group of friends. Bubbles, however, was in there kitchen with him, though the Professor hadn't noticed her yet.

She walked up behind him with a lot on her mind, and then took a seat at the table, finally catching his attention.

"Bubbles!" he smiled. "I'm just taking a lunch break from my work...would you like me to fix you a sandwich?"

Bubbles smiled back. "No thanks, Professor. I'm not really that hungry"

"Are you sure?" Bubbles nodded. "All right," the Professor replied. Then, noticing that she seemed to want to talk to him about something, he asked, "What's on your mind, bunny?" using the pet name he mostly used only when they were speaking in private.

Bubbles sighed. "Well...I was just worried about Blossom and Buttercup." The Professor nodded. He seemed to be breaking up more and more fights between the two lately.

"You mean worried about how they seem to be constantly arguing lately?"

Bubbles nodded. "I'm just worried that they'll do something drastic and never speak to each other again. And I'm worried because..."she looked down at her hands, "…well, I don't know what I can do. I want to talk to them and help them make up, but I don't know how, or even what I'd say." She looked back up at the Professor with hopeful eyes. "Do you have any ideas on what I could do, Professor?"

The Professor rubbed his chin. Bubbles had said she didn't know how to go about talking to them...and yet, he figured there might be no other person to help quell the fighting than she. It would probably be up to Bubbles to show them what they were doing to each other; she just needed to know where to start. Professor looked at her.

"Hmmm...actually sweetie, I think deep down you already have the skill to help your sisters out. You just have figure out how to go about getting them to listen. Perhaps you can start by figuring out just why they seem to argue so much, and then practice a bit of Psychology on them."

"Psychology?" Bubbles inquired. "That's like counseling and therapy and stuff, right?"

"That's right, but there's a bit more to it than that," answered Professor. "Not only is it helping people to open up about their problems, but it's also about figuring out why their problems exist in the first place; what factors in their lives influence the choices they make, how the people close to them act, how they express emotions, etc. All you have to do is get them to open up to you, and you can probably find the root of the problem."

Bubbles thought about it. Get her sisters to open up and find the root of the problem? That seemed like a course of action she might be able to undertake. She already began wondering how she might get Buttercup to open up; she always liked to keep her problems to herself. Still, Bubbles had something to go on now, and she could build from there. She looked up at the professor again.

"Psychology…get them to open up…find the root of the problem. That sounds like a great idea! I can already think of questions to ask. But..." Then she looked at him with inquiring eyes. "Professor? Do you think I can actually do this? I mean, get my sisters to start being nice to each other again?"

With a smile and without hesitation, the Professor answered "Bubbles, I could think of no better person for the job."

Bubbles beamed at him and gave him a great hug. "Thanks, Professor!"

Professor hugged her back. "You're welcome, bunny. Are you sure you don't want me to make you something for lunch?"

Bubbles let go of the Professor and flew towards the door. "No, I'm fine, thanks...I've got some things to think about!" And with that, she raced upstairs.

END FLASHBACK

Bubbles hoped she was ready to do this...but there was no time for doubt, as there was soon a knock upon the door.

"Bubbles? It's Blossom...can I come in?"

"Yeah, come in."

The door opened, and though slightly put-off by the fact that only Blossom was standing behind it, she couldn't help but be amused at watching her red-haired sister's jaw drop open….

That's it for the first chapter! Let me know what you think about it, eh? Thanks for reading!