Color-in-laws part 5
Initially, Boomer and Buttercup's relationship was a one-sided one of envy and hatred, due to Boomer joining No Neck Joe. She felt he stole her place, her band - a large, important part of her life. On the other side, he was more or less entirely unconcerned with her.
As the story moves from the first few chapters, they develop an improved, yet still tenuous relationship. Buttercup kind of moves on with Butch, from her grief over her relationship and the loss of the band, significantly smoothing over her resentment. But after Bubbles' break-up with Will, Boomer cranks up the cheese factor and her second-hand embarassment and irritation start to climb again, and even moreso once they start dating. When he sang "Hot" to Bubbles, when she tried to feed him at lunch, basically any time they share moments of PDA in the group, it's like a mild form of torture. His fondness for Avril doesn't help either.
By the time the later chapters come around, Buttercup and he are pretty similar to actual siblings in their dynamics. Typically Buttercup fills the role as an older sibling. Boomer primarily has a neutral-positive attitude towards her, punctuated by bouts of fear for his physical safety. Buttercup is usually pretty tolerant and neutral about him, but occasionally wants to lightly eviscerate him. The conflict usually arises when he does something that annoys her (usually via sappy gestures/rambles), and either continues or commits an infraction so bad that she goes straight to whoopass mode.
One example includes when he starts to talk about what he and Bubbles do on dates, and thinking it would be TMI, Buttercup warns him to stop. He plows right on through, though, and she throws a set of kitchen knives at him in retaliation. Another, was the morning after the Boys all had their Dreams™️. After Boomer woke up from his dream in the middle of the night, he calls Bubbles, waking all the Girls and invoking Buttercup's wrath. The next morning, at first greeting, she sees him and he immediately knows to run. Somehow remniscent of that scene in Lilo and Stitch after the social worker leaves. Nani turns to glare at Lilo, there's a half-second pause, and Lilo shrieks and bolts out the room cuz she knows.
But they also have the occasional moment of casual kindness (not exactly the word, but it'll do). They're usually quite brief and mundane, but I think they speak to a sort of quiet, subtle fondness. Like in "Hey There Mr Blue", Buttercup and Butch had snow cones and Butch refused to let Boomer even ask to try his, after Buttercup shared hers with Bubbles. A second later, Buttercup spots the coil and casually tosses the rest of her snow cone to Boomer. It wasn't a big deal or a show of deep intimacy or anything, but it was a nice gesture that to me, seemed like a sort of big sister thing to do. She shared with Boomer just as she shared with Bubbles, when normally she's pretty stingy with her share of food.
One thing can be said about his understanding of how Buttercup's mind works tho. At the open mic, where they dragged Buttercup on stage, he knew exactly what to do and how to play to make her put effort into the performance. Perhaps from seeing Butch's over-competitive spirit all these years, or just an intuitive knowing which buttons to push, he plays her like... well, literally any instrument he's ever encountered. They're def not the closest but considering it's Boomer Bubbles-is-my-entire-life JoJo, they're pretty close. Other than his brothers and Bubbles, I think she's the closest person to him in terms of how familiar they act with each other. Hes pretty open with most of the people he hangs out with, but doesn't have the same kind of relationship with them. Aside from the fact that he's superhuman, I doubt any of his other friends have both wanted to share their snack with him and actually beat the shit out of him. Idk about anyone else, but I gotta feel pretty comfortable with someone to do that. I also gotta feel pretty comfortable to both enjoy someone's company and fear their retribution to my antics.
