Twenty Questions

## Meta

**Timing:** the day of or after "Job"

**Setting:** coffee shop near the Sydney 'Dome

## Text

Bubbles does not bang her head on the café patio table.

/**Another** interview about how /**godawful** Buttercup is: incoming.

Bubbles pokes her coffee mug, sighs.

"Ranger Macrossan?"

Bubbles' head snaps up.

Oh-em-/**fucking**-gee, it's Blossom.

Bubbles makes like a fish.

"Hello, I'm Tang Lan Wei, she-her-hers, from the /*Hong* /*Kong* /*Eye*," greets Blossom, sweetly smiling from under pink bangs. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Bubbles lurches to her feet and eagerly snaps a bow. "'Bubbles', she-her-hers, please, uh, Tang?" she croaks.

Blossom bows, too. "Tang Lan," she amends kindly. "This—" Inclines her head toward a trim person with casually curly hair. "—is Teng Rose, she-her-hers, my assistant—"

Teng Rose bows politely.

"—and this—" Blossom eases a bundle of /**adorable** from Teng Rose's arms, totally glowing. "—is my son, who's 'Button' until we decide on something more formal."

Bubbles squeaks.

Josephine clears her throat.

Bubbles blinks rapidly. "Oh. Right." Thumb over shoulder. "That's Josephine, my publicist, and Mina the bodyguard is back there somewhere."

Blossom bows—

Button purposely tips farther out of Blossom's arms, squeals.

—to Josephine, then Mina. "A pleasure to meet you both." Tucks Button more securely against her chest.

"Likewise, Ms Wei," replies Josephine. "She-her-hers."

Button grumps.

"Uh, have a seat, please." Manners. You have manners. That's /**totally** Blossom, but you have manners.

Teng Rose pulls out a chair for Blossom, says something in Cantonese.

Blossom rolls her eyes, replies.

Teng Rose bobs her head and strolls inside the shop.

Blossom pulls a notepad and pen from her bag and smiles. "I treat interviews as fair exchanges of information." Eyes twinkle. "I'll ask a question and then you can ask one, if you like."

Bubbles beams. "Sounds /**excellent**."

"First, would you like to hold Button?"

"/**YES!**"

Blossoms grins, whispers something in the tyke's ear, settles him in Bubbles' arms.

Button makes happy sounds.

Bubbles nearly melts. "How does a busy, busy journalist get herself a baby?"

"I took a little vacation and unexpected things happened." A wry smile. "How're you recovering from being hurt in Brisbane?"

"Back to full speed /**months** ago! Yoslene and me got out with concussions and some bruises from the fall. Nowhere /**near** as bad as Butter—the Jones brothers."

Teng Rose returns, sets a pastry and a glass of water in front of Blossom, flows into a chair.

"That's great about your health." Blossom sips.

Button makes grabby hands at the food.

Blossom tears off a small piece, hands it over.

Button mostly gets it in his mouth.

Bubbles brushes crumbs from her shirt and Button's chin—

He blows a crumby raspberry—

—laughs, scrapes damp particles off her face. "So who's the other lucky parent?"

Blossom twists her hair around a finger. "It was kinda like a one-night-stand. He's got no idea."

"Oh." Squeezes Button a little tighter. "He's missing out, then." Kisses Button's fluffy hair.

Button coos, wiggles deeper into Bubbles' arms, dissolves into a enormous yawn.

"It's better for all of us this way," murmurs Blossom. Clears her throat. "What will you do now?"

Bubbles cocks her head.

"There've been no Kaiju for months. What's a Ranger do when there aren't monsters?"

"Well, my contract runs through the end of [the] year, so I'll probably be training and ready in case any Kaiju /**do** show up. After that?" Shrugs, then beams. "Maybe I'll start a family of my own. Or just adopt someone else's, starting with—"

Button snores.

Bubbles stares.

Blossom sighs long-sufferingly. "Noisy sleeper."

"That's /**adorable**," squees Bubbles. "My turn! Does he get that from you or his dad?"

"That's all Dad," sighs Blossom, ducking her head, "but I doubt Button'll ever be as pretty as him."

"Pretty as—" Bubbles blinks. "/**Pretty?!**" Blinks more. Mouth collapses into a pout and she totally doesn't stomp her feet, but, "You /**catloaf!**"

Blossom hides a grin behind her glass.

.