Blossoming Bond 3 (Patreon)

Blossoming Bond 3 - or ‘A Nice Gift Changes Everything’ (PPG Doujinshi, OC!Brother to Mandy)

I know that hitting the beach was meant to be fun, but I don’t need to explain that going in there with no friends was even worse than being bored at home.

Because, after all, you have all your things at your own home, and then you can just go to your room and ‘stop existing’ until it’s lunchtime and dinnertime. With Mandy ordering Grim to ‘keep an eye on Billy’ as the moron went through a quick dental check-up, it was me, my sister and-

“Who are you, actually?”

Black-hair combed with a burgundy bow, black unforgiving eyes and a petite frame worthy of someone that Mandy had previously mentioned being a ballerina.

The girl turned, her gaze holding a window into her unyielding anger in regard to her dead brother. I don’t remember her name, but I am sure she was Mandark’s sister or cousin.

“Olga Astronomonov,” She introduced herself, turning to Mandy. “Is this your boyfriend?”

I frowned at the cumbersome last name and the wrong guess, and I saw Mandy, currently wearing her ‘Death is my Beach!’ shirt over her swimsuit, delight her with a scowl.

“That’s my brother Artie, idiot.”

“Artie?” Olga hummed and then shrugged, stopping at that.

I didn’t find it offensive. I left after making sure Mandy was aware if she needed some emergency snack to call me. She dismissed me after just a second into telling her that, and I just departed to find my own place to spend some time.

I really didn’t have many friends at the new school and… none was there at the beach today. It was mostly Mandy’s classroom, so that was going to be a pain in the butt. I found a nice chair where I set down my bag and started to remove my shirt and sunglasses.

Before getting a bit of a tan, I decided to go for a nice swim. So, sunscreen came first and then a proper look into who and what was in the ocean. Last thing I needed was for me to swim near a nearby sea monster and… become its breakfast.

Considering it happened before, it was less of a silly worry and more of a genuine unease I bear in mind all the time I go to swim. I had ｢Second Chance｣ with me, the Bunny Stand happily resting on the donut floatie that I got for him.

Once we got into the water, I started to swim around and go for a quick dive for any unseen surprises happening around. Nothing. I felt relief washing over me as I tested my new power some more.

While at first I thought it was just random energy channeled and then propelled like a projectile, the ‘Spinning Air’ ability relied on creating a vacuum that proceeded to compress anything nearby into the ‘bullet’.

Normally it is made of pure compressed air, but it could also be used with water and other liquids to create a more ‘sturdier’ bullet. ｢Second Chance｣ mentioned solid objects that could be ‘crumbled’ and then ‘reassembled’ by the Spinning Air could also be used as projectiles.

It was an interesting addition to this still-limited ability, and I decided to test it some more while I was on my own. It was… relaxing somehow. Once I was done ‘playing around’, I just dragged the donut back to the beach and walked up to my chair. I found out that someone had decided to sit on the one beside mine.

Olga looked annoyed. She gave me a look that told me ‘I do not want to talk’ and I decided to merely nod at her and take a towel out of my bag to dry myself up. Mostly the hair, because the sun was already doing the rest. I sat down by my chair and… got some comics out.

Considering how unlucky I was early on with my expectations these days, I decided to come prepared for this visit to the beach. I noticed Olga staring at the thin books, recognizing them but saying nothing at first.

Then the staring continued, and it kind of reminded me on how Mandy ‘acted’ when she wanted something from me without saying. I picked one of the ones I already read and offered it to Olga.

A perplexed look appeared on her face, yet my flat unflinching gaze seemed to ultimately lead her resilience to crumble. She wanted to read it, but without saying a single word. For now.

Silence wasn’t meant to last when Olga, possibly coaxed out of her irritation due to the relative peace, decided to ask me a question.

“Do you care for your sister?”

That caught me off-guard just a bit. It was a question I was asked a few times in the past, but it’s been years since someone brought it up again. I leaned back on the chair, took my bookmark to cross the page I was reading up to this point and… I nodded.

“Yeah, I do care for Mandy.”

“Then why do you two feel like you don’t want to be in each other’s proximity?”

Quite the blunt question.

“Mandy doesn’t like spending time with people in particular, especially when she wants to relax,” I reasoned. “So, we just keep away from each other because we would be a bother to the other. If needed, we just would call each other and do stuff.”

“It’s… so odd.”

“We are odd,” I admitted without any shame. “So, what’s on your mind?”

“...What?” Olga asked ‘weakly’.

“I mean, you don’t exactly ask that kind of stuff unless you want something else to be brought up. Which is?”

…

“Everyone thinks I am wrong in saying Dexter killed my brother,” Olga finally pointed out, devolving her words into a question. “What do you think of it as a big brother?”

…Curious circumstance.

And one I don’t like being put through. Like yeah, I am Mandy’s brother but that didn’t mean I was a master at knowing all possible chances to it. Still I offered a reasonable response on what I knew on the topic.

“Someone is definitely at fault, but I don’t think Dexter is your target.”

Olga’s gaze shifted away from the comic’s pages and onto my face.

“And why shouldn’t I? He was my brother’s enemy.”

“From my understanding, Dexter kind of went quiet with his tech stuff after what happened to his sister,” I explained calmly, thinking back what Mandy was able to hear on the topic and what rumors were circling about the boy-genius. “And while he was dealing with that, your brother was approached by others that coaxed him to ‘look for revenge’.”

“My brother is- was not an idiot.”

“You are right,” I agreed while nodding at her rebuttal. “But your brother is still a human being and, like us mortals that don’t get ‘how science works’, he felt lost after what he had done. I think what happened to him was what happened to many snatched by cultists. He was told he was right, that he was misunderstood, that his actions were not wrong, that Dexter was the cause of it all and that the only way was to join them and help them. But in truth, they just made him feel valued more as an asset and less as an independent being.”

…

I glanced on the side and saw Olga staring forward without anything in particular catching her full attention. She was deep in her thoughts as I had given her one of the most intense rants I could have produced but… I could tell she deserved a few more lines.

“Still, I think she still cared for you,” I pointed out, her deflated look aimed now at me.

“He didn’t tell me. I don’t even know who to look for,” Olga muttered quietly. “I-If he cared, then why didn’t he tell me? Why did he keep this from me?”

I blinked, unable to answer on the spot due to how difficult it was for me. Yes, I am a big brother, but not a single time I found that thought in my head- I never thought of being ‘one step over Mandy’ to protect her in that regard as my sister was a tough nut nowadays.

…

“It’s because he knew you would be like this.”

That flat response had her full attention… and quite a lot of anger.

“What?”

“I think you’re underestimating how much your brother cared for you. I mean, if he was aware he was in a dangerous spot, would he put you in harm’s way?”

She opened her mouth. Logically-speaking, it was fair to think he would, but as I saw her words failing her, I knew she was understanding my point. It wasn’t a rational case. It was a matter of understanding some stuff was best to not bring up.

Mandark was already unwilling to pull his family into his business, keeping them out of trouble, and when he killed Deedee… Well, I can see why he had gotten even more sheltered about his plots, even with his little sister.

“He would not,” Olga hummed quietly. “...Thank you for being honest.”

The conversation died at this point, but it wasn’t fully buried as I could tell more thoughts were stirring within the girl’s mind. After a few minutes of pure quiet, she stood up and offered a quizzical look.

“Can I keep this?” She said while holding the comic and… I shrugged.

“Sure.”

I think I saw her smile before she turned and left. She said ‘bye’, but that was- I guess that was a good way to end it all for good. I took the sunglasses I had in my bag, put them on and… laid down on the chair as I decided to enjoy a few minutes of a silent and calm peace before leaving the beach.

I was toasted, and I didn’t want to get burned up. But while I was basking under the sun a bit more, I failed to notice that someone had been spying on us for a while.

Blinking from a corner, Blossom narrowed her eyes in determination as she knew she had to do this properly rather than stumble on me ‘out of nowhere’.

Tomorrow, she thought as she decided against approaching me for the duration of the day at the beach.

—-------d-d-d-d—-----

AN

Prepare for some awkwardness, Mandy noticing Blossom being a bit too invested in her brother, and… a potential combat/‘love’ rival to Artie?!