Considering the recent holiday this is fairly apropos
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
otakuspirit requested Prof U's pov on the relationships between the Girls & the Boys. I hesitated to get too in depth as it is something that gets touched on in a few chapters in TEF proper.Let's call this one The View from the Sidelines.
***
The Boys prove an interesting problem.
Development, Professor Utonium mentally corrects. He’s trying to course correct. Not every punkass kid that comes shuffling to his doorstep to pick up Blossom, Bubbles, or Buttercup is a problem.
Of course, not every punkass kid could level a city block with one well-timed eyebeam blast. Not every punkass kid is a Rowdyruff Boy.
The dating was an adjustment in and of itself, on the whole. Getting used to the idea that his daughters were trading in markers and boxing gloves and books for “hangs” (if that’s what they call it these days; Utonium has trouble keeping up) was stressful enough before those outings took on a more romantic edge.
Though that’s not entirely true. The Girls still have their interests. They’ve just expanded to include relationships. And Utonium is not a key player, not now. He’s support staff. He will continue to be. As bitter a pill as it is to swallow, he recognizes that.
He had always known the time would arrive someday. He just hadn’t expected the full, complicated spectrum of emotions that came prepackaged with it. He knows his Girls are more capable than others—certainly more physically capable, but hopefully mentally so in equal measure. He’s tried to encourage their confidence, every day. They seem okay, maybe even better than most.
Maybe too much so. They are leaving him faster than he expected. But he’s trying to course correct. He’s working at being okay with it.
He’s trying to divorce the knowledge of what shenanigans two teenagers could get up to from the memories he has of tucking his girls in to bed and leaving the hall light on for them at night. They’re older now. He had always known. The time has arrived. Here it is.
But even so.
There’s a sadness there, a general anxiety that he can’t quell no matter how strong he knows they are. Anger, too. The Professor always considered himself fairly perceptive given his line of work, but the pride he feels at watching his girls grow into the young women they’re on their way to becoming is tempered by how furious he feels at every comment, every public appearance, every acknowledgement and declaration by the broader world of how pretty they are, how hot they are, how sexy.
He understands he’s probably biased, being their father. But they’re also teenagers, for Christ’s sake. He supposes it was naive of him to think three superpowered girls would be immune to this treatment. That doesn’t stop him from being angry about it.
The one thing he didn’t worry about—or, well, still worried about, just not as much as the other stuff—was the physical aspect. At least, until now.
He had not expected to worry about the Girls getting involved with former adversaries, made more intimidating since the Boys are now riddled with the same teenage hormones as every other snivelling punkass kid out there. But he knows his girls are good. He knows they’re smart. He trusts their judgment. They’ve never truly given him reason to worry.
The Girls can see and date whomever they want. They deserve that freedom. The Professor is their creator, their father, their permanent support system. He will stand by their decisions. But heaven help those who hurt them.
The Rowdyruff Boys are no exception.
***
Working my way through these, bit by bit! Thanks as always for your patience ♥
:D
Re: :D
no subject