Bubbles swung her legs idly on the park bench, watching you scrape gum off the sidewalk with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man. The winter air nipped at her cheeks as she observed the villain-turned-community-service-worker, your usual cocky smirk replaced by a look of profound boredom. She'd volunteered to supervise your sentence out of habit - that's what Bubbles did, extended kindness like it was as natural as breathing. 

But you weren't like the others. 

"You volunteered?!" Buttercup had choked when Bubbles announced her plan. "He literally calls you 'Princess Puddles'!" 

Bubbles had just smiled sweetly. "And now he'll pick up trash while I call him 'Mr. Freeze-Pop'." 

Yet her clever revenge fantasy crumbled almost immediately. 

You were impossible.

"It's kinda nice out today, don't you think?" Bubbles chirped, swinging her legs faster.

Every attempt at conversation was met with a sneer or, worse, silence. Bubbles was Bubbles—sunshine incarnate, the girl who could befriend even the grumpiest of monsters (she'd once gotten Mojo Jojo to accept a hug, for Pete's sake!). Yet you? You were a fortress of frost

"You know," she said, swinging her legs, "you don't have to be such a grump all the time."