#Juliet rose universe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chuluoyi · 6 months

Text

romeo and juliet

- fushiguro megumi x reader

you were both young when you first saw each other. years later, you and your gentle childhood friend fall in love... but you're betrothed to someone else.

genre/warnings: modern royal(?) au, childhood friends to lovers, soft!megumi, fluff, forbidden love, arranged marriage, mild angst, comfort

notes: i love this request!! but i don’t know if this turned out good🥲 honestly, this is what unholy matrimony would be if done right in another universe *snorts* anyways i hope i did this right! enjoy!

had to repost it 3x bcs it didn't show up in the tags😭 based on this request: “Hey, can I ask a Megumi x Reader with the plot related to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift?” thank you anon!

listen to: love story - taylor swift duh

series masterlist | oneshot masterlist

Your father had always told you that you were promised to the Zen'in.

Ever since you were a child, he had groomed you to be the picture-perfect lady, and he always brought you to their ancestral home, a grand, maze-like estate you would always get lost in.

You were barely six back then, stumbling on your own feet as tears streamed down your face. You sought refuge in the gardens, hoping that someone would come to find you there eventually as you were tired of walking around.

And on that fateful day, the one who finally did was none other than the little Fushiguro Megumi, who looked at you with tilted head and confused eyes.

"Are you... okay?" he asked cautiously, and he was startled when your wide, teary eyes quickly focused on him. The next thing he knew, you immediately clung to his hand.

"I'm lost! Please help me!" you said with trembling voice, and Megumi merely blinked. This unknown girl suddenly latched onto him, well, who wouldn't be taken by surprise?

Yet, even as a child, Megumi knew how to treat someone right. Seeing you in distress, he immediately found a way to console you. "Okay... where are your parents? Let me take you back to them."

"I... don't know..."

He sighed. You were a stone throw away from bursting into tears, and he didn't want that. He had to find another way. "Don't be scared. This place seems scary, but it's not."

You scrunched your face, tears already pooling in your eyes. "How is it not scary? There are so many windows and leaves! This is more like a jungle rather than a house!"

"Well..." Megumi wracked his head and a light bulb went off in his head when he caught the sight of the flowers. He pointed at a pot of roses. "Look, they're actually quite pretty, right?"

At that very moment, your focus was completely captured by the flourishing plant, and your eyes practically shimmered with delight.

Little Megumi thought then, that you were quite lovely.

And your friendship started then, as he took you by the arm to lead you to the main foyer.

Years flew by, and the only thing that made it bearable to pay a visit to the Zen'in was meeting Megumi. You both would explore various hidden corners and knew every nook and cranny of the place. And when you reached your teens, the "playing" was replaced by studying in the library together.

"Hrrrgh, why—can't—I—reach—"

You gritted your teeth in frustration as you attempted to pull the book from the top shelf, only to fail miserably. Your were too short. But you refused to surrender, standing on your tiptoes once more, you stretched your hand as far as it would go.

Suddenly, the scent of fresh roses filled the air, accompanied by a warm presence behind you. Your back made contact with him, and a longer hand effortlessly retrieved the book you desired.

"If you're having a hard time, ask me for help, dummy," Megumi shook his head and handed you the book. "Here."

"Thank you," you pouted. Despite the frequent close proximity between you two, you still found yourself feeling giddy.

Megumi was always like this though. He was curt, but he cares. He would often cheer you up whenever you father smothered you with the talk that he couldn't wait for the day you would be living at the Zen'in estate and became their bride. He would get you flowers, let you put your head on his shoulder, or quietly watch as you cried, offering his silent presence.

You really, really hoped that if you were to be married off to the Zen'in, it would be to Megumi. He was easily the boy you'd pick over Naoya, the son of the main branch of family. You were never close to him, the way he stared at you sure gave you the creeps.

"I can ask for your help anytime, right, Megumi?" you mused, observing his cool profile as he turned the page of the book he was reading.

He regarded you with the straightest face ever. "Of course. I have always helped you since we were kids. Why wouldn't I do that now?"

"Then..." you breathed. "Can you take me somewhere... anywhere, just away from all of this?"

Megumi stilled. He knew about the conflicts in your heart. He knew you hated being played as a pawn in your father's schemes, and he hated that too, because he simply didn't like how sad it made you.

And he hated that there was the looming possibility that you might be out of his reach far sooner than he thought.

"Sure," he answered. "Where do you wanna go?"

And then, you began to do just that. Sneaking out to the gardens, finding secret meeting spots in the town—because you were dead if anyone should know.

Before you knew it, you both had each other's hearts entirely in your hands—before you knew it, his face was mere inches from yours as you both concealed yourselves behind a large cluster of foliage in the Zen'in gardens, your father and the Zen'in clan head engrossed in a conversation just a few feet away.

Your clear, wide eyes blinked up at him, and Megumi gulped. At that moment, he realized once again that you, his childhood friend, were really stunning. And that you trusted him wholeheartedly enough to go with him and be found in this position, with him.

He couldn't deny it any longer. He was in love with you. Have been for a while now.

And so even with the great risk of being found out, he led you deeper into the woods, his arm wrapped around the small of your back, and with a soft tug, he planted the gentlest, sweetest kiss on your lips—your very first kiss. Everything was sealed then.

"So, do you say yes, or not?" he mumbled afterwards, his cheeks burst into the color of peach. Meanwhile you, still breathless, touched your lips in astonishment.

"You..." you couldn't help the grin that was blooming in your face. "You like me?"

He turned away. "Who wouldn't? After making me run after you, lead you to safe places, see you cry—"

"Okay, okay!" you giggled, and the sound was like music to his ears. "Then it's a yes!"

You were the happiest with him. Amidst the intrigues surrounding you and the Zen'in clan, the times you spent with him were your saving grace.

"Am I pretty?" you boldly twirled in front of him, after meeting up at the outskirts of the town in one of your escapades. Megumi watched you from head to toe, taking note of how your flare dress hugged your form so elegantly, and the straw hat that framed your head only made you look even more adorable.

He didn't immediately answer, and when he did, all with red cheeks, you smiled brightly, expecting a compliment.

"Don't do that. People are looking. You're embarrassing yourself."

You pouted. "So I'm not pretty..."

To your surprise, he suddenly plucked your hat and pulled you behind the pillar, and then the round hat was beside your head, hiding your face—

And he stole a kiss.

"Megumi!" you jolted, blood quickly rushed to your beautiful face. "This is public place!"

His soft chuckle only served to make your heart soar even higher.

You were living the dream, with the man of your dreams beside you. This love story no one knew, you were content with it.

"By this point, all there's left to do is run," you heaved between chuckles and his feathery kisses as the two of you hid away to have your thirst in the gardens. "Can't we just run, Megumi?"

"I would, if I could," he gazed at you with a steadfast resolve. "Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess, somehow."

This love is difficult. But it's real.

But so was your father. And his will. In the summer of your coming of age, it was decided that you were going to marry Zen'in Naoya.

Your love story with Megumi... would it end just like that?

"Please, don't go!" you begged. You could hardly believe this situation right now. What did he say? End things here—?

Megumi felt his heart clench. "It's been announced already. You are to marry him. We can... no longer do this."

"But!" you argued. "You s-said... you would find a way out of it somehow..."

Your eyes glazed over, and Megumi had to look away to keep his heart from breaking completely. "I'm sorry."

At the end of the day, he was still a mere son of the branch family and stood no chance against Naoya. If you were to become the bride of his cousin, even he had to respect that.

Your heart shattered into pieces. This day had been looming on the horizon, and you'd been aware of it for some time. Your father didn't exactly conceal his greed with how he insisted on your marriage to Naoya to secure your position as the clan's main wife, instead of Megumi.

Yet it still hurt. You didn’t expect your happiness to he this fleeting, and you were disappointed that Megumi didn’t exactly fight his way through this.

“It’s… for your own good,” he added, and grimaced when he saw how you started sobbing. “I don’t want to compromise your virtue. It'll get ugly fast if people think that we're having… dalliances. You deserve better—”

"Don't patronize me!" you yelled. "Don't t-try... to tell me how to feel!"

Frankly, you never cared about virtues or anything. Most of choices made in your life weren't yours, and if you could finally make a decision through jeopardizing your fickle reputation, then so be it.

"I love you too much to let that happen," Megumi said then, baring his own feelings, that he too, didn't want this any more than you did. "You know I would do anything for you."

"All there's left to do is run," you sniffled. "If you would do anything for me, you would run with me."

Just say yes, your little heart screamed. You stared at him through your wet lashes, desperately willing him to just forget all this nonsense about family, virtue, and just choose love—your love.

But he never did. That day, he decided to leave you. This love was indeed difficult, but you really thought it was real, and now you had never felt so alone.

Days went by longer after that. Now that it had been announced to the public, as per Naoya’s will, you would move into the Zen’in estate until the day of your marriage. You resented and barely knew him, and your gut feeling was proven true when he smirked before you, pulling you into one of the hidden compartments of this godforsaken place.

“Don’t think I didn’t know about what you and he were up to,” he spat viciously. “You should’ve already known that you are always meant to be my wife—and what did you do? You’re putting me to shame as you and that lesser bastard run around.”

“He would always be better than you,” you bitterly scoffed.

“Get it through your head already, you’re to become my wife, and that’s final.”

“You can’t do anything if I don’t want to anyway. Beware of upcoming scandals in the future.”

And with that, came the first day of your misery. Naoya locked you up in that desolate place.

You were missing.

Megumi had noticed it for quite a while. Even if you were no longer his, his heart still longed for yours, and ultimately he wanted to make sure if you were okay. You moving in into his home should increase the chances of him seeing you, and yet, it was as if you had disappeared into the thin air.

It was an understatement to say that he was just worried. He knew Naoya wasn’t exactly the kindest in this household, but he really expected him to at least treat you right.

He still remembered how the tears fell from your beautiful eyes, telling him not to go. Megumi was as heartbroken as you, if not more. He had the choice when you asked him to run, yet he willingly stopped and did what he believed to be the right thing.

Was this still the right thing though?

As the maids hurried past, yelling something that vaguely sounded like your name and the phrase "starving herself!", Megumi felt his blood run cold. Without hesitation, he forcefully grabbed one of them, demanding answers.

“Where is she? What happened to her?”

The maid merely cowered with worry and fear. “Master Naoya… specifically instructed us not to let the miss pass freely…”

Megumi didn’t quite recall what he did, but he couldn't forget the frantic pounding of his heart as he rushed through the gardens to find you in the small room tucked away in the farthest corner of the vast compound, near the servants' dormitory. He practically tore the door off its hinges when he opened it.

You abruptly spun around to face the commotion, thinking that it may be your shitty fiancé, utterly bewildered.

Megumi scrutinized you closely, and gradually, he could feel his anger simmering beneath the surface.

You were pale, your hair was a disheveled mess, but what truly infuriated him was the sight of your broken nails and the dried blood. All he could think of was that you probably tried to claw your way out of this place.

"Megumi?" your voice sounded too hoarse to his liking. You looked at him as if you couldn't believe he was real. His heart shattered.

He shouldn't have left you. He should've run with you. You shouldn't have to be alone and hurt like this.

"Save me," you croaked with small voice, eyes brimming with unshed tears and fear.

That did it. When he heard the approaching rapid footsteps, he made the swiftest, life-changing decision of his life.

He caught a hold of your arm, and pinned you to the wall. And when the entirety of the household arrived in your doorstep, Naoya included, he made it a show as if the two of you were having the most scandalous tryst of the town.

"This ends here," he grunted, casting a glare at his rotten cousin. "I'm marrying her."

"I got tired of waiting, you know," you giggled, peering at your beloved's sullen face. "My faith faded at one point."

Megumi hummed, clasping his hand in yours. "I'm sorry."

You rolled your eyes, staring at the clear waters under the cruise. "I kept waiting, but you never came... and when you did, you caused us to make the headlines."

Your wedding to Megumi was both the grand event and scandal of the year. The sudden change of groom on such short notice triggered disapproving glances from most of the people you knew in this infuriating town, but frankly, you didn't care.

"I thought you wouldn't fight for me at all,” you mumbled, fiddling with your fingers.

"I've always believed that if it would make you happy in the end, I would be fine with it," Megumi said, gently tucking your hair behind your ear as the wind swept by.

"And then? What made you finally let go of that righteous, self-sacrificing thoughts?"

The softest smile was graced his lips. "I love you, and that's all I really know."

You didn't give a damn about what anyone else had to say because, in this moment—as you sailed on your honeymoon cruise, and throughout this love story, from your childhood and forevermore, he is the prince, and you are his princess.

#fushiguro megumi x reader #jujutsu kaisen #jjk x reader #megumi fushiguro x reader #jjk imagines #jjk fanfic #fushiguro megumi fluff #megumi fushiguro fluff #HSHAHA i don’t know anymore #i legit repost it THREE times so it’ll show up in the tags #this is so cheesy overall aHSHSHS

814 notes · View notes

playasmo · 1 year

Note

IM BRAINROTTING ON THE OBEY ME CAST AS FATHERS,

how would they name their children???😩😩😩

how the obey me brothers would name their children

disclaimer; these are my personal headcanons, feel free to tell which names you liked the most!

edit;;i posted the side characters version too! go check it out if you want <//3

genre; fluff

lucifer;

lucifer would either name the baby with a variation of his name, or homage somebody or something dear to him

if it’s a boy, lucian or lucius. both names means light, if it’s a girl, he would call her lilith. danica is a second option: the name means morning star.

mammon;

he would either name his baby after something expensive. another option is mashing up your names together

if it’s a boy he would go for midas, which means touch of gold, or straight up fortune,

if its a girl, esmeralda which means emerald. or diamond, the name speak for itself.

leviathan;

definitely name his baby to reference something he likes. some people may think he would name his children after an anime character he likes, but that is not the case

if it’s a boy, henry without a doubt, the name means house ruler. he would also like christopher, to simeon’s joy, which means bearing christ. very very ironic.

if its a girl, mira, which means ocean. he also likes umiko, a japanese name that means child of the sea.

satan;

he takes inspiration from human literature and would name his baby after a character or author he particularly likes.

if it’s a boy, william which means protection and desire. he chose it because of william sherlock scott holmes, probably the most famous fictional detective in the history of literature, it’s also a reference to shakespeare. another boy name is dante which means everlasting, after the italian poet dante alighieri, that wrote “the divine comedy”, which is set in heaven, purgatory and then hell.

if it’s a girl he would name her juliet which means youthful, another tribute to shakespearen literature. emma, after jane austen’s book, is also a name he likes, it’s means whole or universal.

asmodeus;

he only choose the name if it’s pretty. often goes for floral and fancy names that sound aesthetically pleasing to him.

if it’s a boy, narciso which means of narcissus, named after the myth.

he briefly considered cupid but he threw away the idea and choose a simple but pretty name like prince, which means royal son.

if it’s a girl, regina which means queen, or bellerose which means beautiful rose.

beelzebub;

he is a family-oriented person, and will try to pass his values to his children.

if it’s a boy, titan which means defender. despite being the name of a fruit, he also likes açaí which means weeping fruit.

if it’s a girl, ohana which means family in hawaiian, another name he consider is belarmina which means beautiful armor, he choose it because it’s starts with ‘bel’, just like his and belphegor’s name.

belphegor;

big fan of space-related names, it’s even easier for him since there are a lot of stars and constellations he can get his inspiration from. like lucifer, he would also try to pay homage to lilith.

if it’s a boy, sirius which means glowing, named after the brightest star in the earth’s night sky. he also likes badar which means full moon.

if it’s a girl, a name variation of lilith, something like lilithe or just lili. he also likes alrisha, one of the brightest star of the pisces constellation, since pisces is his and beelzebub’s zodiacal sign.

561 notes · View notes

klbwriting · 2 months

Text

Not Romeo, Not Juliet

Chapter 13: Sweet (The End)

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Warnings: none

Summary: the Shakespeare competition brings on changes

Notes: Here is the final chapter! There is a sequel coming which who knows, I might post the first chapter today, not sure yet! I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you want to be on the taglist for the next one!

Taglist: @deans-spinster-witch @amberpanda99

YN was dressed in her Lady MacBeth costume, backstage with her school as the competition was going on. It was at Gotham University so they had very nice backstage areas where all the theater groups had their own space, but they could still see the rest as they gathered. YN kept glancing, looking for Jason, at least wanting to wave or smile at him before he went on. Plus, he was in tights, and she was desperate to have that image burned into her memory and she didn’t know if she could sneak out to watch any of his show since they were on right after Bludhaven Prep. She felt someone tap her shoulder and turned, frowning at the sight of Sydney.

“Hi?” she said. She knew Sydney from last year, she was the one who had backed her up when she had told the Shakespeare council about the leading lady controversy.

“Hey, just wanted to come give you this, our director is keeping Jason busy right now, him and the other seniors are working out some issues…” she said, handing over a rose with a note attached to it. “He also said he loves you, you’re going to kill it, and his brother is throwing an after party in the café area of the university so don’t leave right away.” YN laughed, reading the note that just had a heart with his initials on it.

“Thanks,” she said. “I won’t have you playing messenger, but you can let him know that I got his message.” Sydney nodded and headed back to her group. YN knew that Jackson, Matt, and Chelsea had released the video, they had to be the ones who had done it, but she had no proof, so she was prepared to let it go. It sucked, they were terrible people, but she wasn’t one for revenge honestly, and it brought her closer to Jason. He had told her everything after the kidnapping, his past as Robin, she knew who Batman was for fuck’s sake. It was dangerous knowing these kinds of secrets, but she wasn’t a snitch either. She finally caught Jason’s eye as he came out of side room with Jackson, Matt, and Chelsea, all of them looking rather annoyed as they milled around. She caught his eye and held up the rose. He smiled at her, giving a wave and she felt herself fall more in love with him, blushing as she turned back to her team who were glaring at her. She rolled her eyes, not caring at all what they thought. Then her phone rang. She had special permission to have her phone on her at all times just in case her mother had a medical emergency. She stepped away to answer it and the smile fell from her face.

Jason noticed her change in mood when the call came in. She didn’t run off, only hung up and went back to her team, loosely holding his flower now, looking dejected, so he knew it wasn’t some bad news about her mother. Something else had stolen her smile and he felt his desire to punch something grow. It didn’t help that the other seniors were sticking by their bullshit excuses for being dicks to YN. They had pulled him aside early, apologizing to him for how they acted around him. He wasn’t the one they should have been apologizing to, but they wouldn’t budge on that. YN wasn’t even really a person to them now that they knew she was from Crime Alley and her father was a mid-level crime boss. He really hoped that during the spring semester he could just leave them behind. He refocused his mind on the play, wanting to get past this before he talked to YN.

“And our award today for Leading Male goes to Jason Todd from Bludhaven Preparatory for his portrayal of Hamlet,” the president of the Shakespeare council said from the stage. Jason looked around backstage at the others in his class. They looked shocked. During their performance Matt had tripped, falling off the stage midway through act 4 and they all figured that pretty much destroyed their chances of winning anything considering he had to do the rest of the show in a chair since he might have broken his ankle. No one expected Jason to win but here he was, walking out and taking a trophy from the president, saying a quick thank you before standing awkwardly off to the side while they announced the Leading Lady next. “And our Leading Lady this year is YN YLN from Gotham Academy for her portrayal of Lady MacBeth.” YN came out and took the trophy, smiling at Jason who was smiling back at her. They joined hands and held up their trophies before parting to go backstage. The rest of his castmates gave him a half-assed congratulations because they knew the big prize of Best Production was going to…”Gotham Academy for MacBeth.” “Thanks a lot Matt,” grumbled Chelsea as she stalked off to change into her afterparty clothes. Jason just rolled his eyes, heading to change himself. Dick found him as he was washing off the stage makeup in the large bathroom behind the auditorium.

“Look at that, we have a real thespian in the family,” he said, walking over and picking up the trophy. “I’m proud of you.” Jason blushed, not realizing how much he actually wanted Dick to be proud of him. He swallowed hard, making sure to wipe his face off, because the makeup was getting in his eyes, making them water. “YN, is waiting right outside by the way, please come to the after party before you two go sneaking off, I did pay for it.” Jason chuckled and nodded, letting Dick take the trophy with him.

“Well, if it isn’t the leading man,” YN said as he exited the bathroom in his typical combat pants and black tshirt. He walked over to her, pulling her close and kissing her. “Your death scene was incredible.”

“Well, unlike most I have practical experience in that,” he said. “But yours wasn’t so bad either my leading lady.”

“Yes, because it was offstage and no one saw it,” she laughed. Then her smile fell a little. “Can we talk?” O he hated the sound of that. She must have seen the panic in his eyes. “Its not bad, well, its not good either.” She took his hand and led him towards the party, stopping at a bench outside the café to sit down. Despite the cold and the snow Jason felt warm when she slid her arms through his arm to hold it close.

“Just rip the band aid off,” he said softly, not wanting to stall what he could tell was probably going to destroy him.

“Someone has anonymously donated a lot of money so that my mom can get into a clinical study of a new cancer treatment being done in Singapore,” she said. “I’m not 18 so legally I can’t stay here without a guardian, and I don’t want to leave my mom alone in a new country, so I’ve decided to go too.” Jason’s head fell. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask you to wait for me, or to stay being mine when I can’t be here with you. I don’t want to fight and breakup because I’m halfway across the world.”

“I understand,” Jason said softly. He started to feel himself shutting down, wanting to push her away with a flippant comment, but when he looked at her and saw that this was killing the same way it was him, he couldn’t do it. “Your mom needs you, how long is the treatment?”

“It’s supposed to last six months,” she said. “I’ll probably finish school online.” He nodded.

“Do you plan on going to Gotham U still?” he asked. She nodded. “Alright, so I’ll see you at college then?” Not like he was leaving the city and Gotham U was the best college they had, he was obviously going there also. She smiled a little.

“Ya, although I think by then you will have another person you love, and who loves you just as much as I do,” she said. He shook his head.

“One last date tonight?” he asked, nodding towards the party. She nodded. “One last kiss?” She nodded again. He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers, fingers coming up to gently wipe the tears from her face. When they parted, she traced the scar on his cheek again. “Come on, Dick wants to meet you properly and show you he’s not that bad.”

“Ya, let’s go,” she said. Jason stood, taking her hand. His heart was in pieces, but it felt ok, it would be ok somehow. She would come back, and they could try again when they had more choice, more control, when they were just playing characters in a tragedy, not living it.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

-Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2

#jason todd #jasontodd #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #redhood #red hood #red hood x reader #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #notromeo

29 notes · View notes

baublekute · 2 months

Text

My First Public Work/Short-Fic on Ao3

River Ward and V spend Valentine's Day together.

Part of a random collection of fun one-offs as part of my larger WIP "Death Wish" Fic canon universe, an angsty with eventual happy ending romance between River Ward/Valerie "V" Rose Barrère Used as procrastination, writing practice, self-encouragement when the large project seems overwhelming, or based on prompts.

Also available to read under the cut!

Happy Valentine's Day my chooms!

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈୨♡୧┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

V collapsed on the couch in her apartment after dealing with some bizarrely thematic gigs for February 14th. She had enough of “love” for an entire week. First, she saved Pepe’s marriage, then dealt with some coward-ass Tyger Claw who let his gang kill his girlfriend. To top it all off, Padre sent her some classic Romeo & Juliet shit.

Nibbles, the self-proclaimed Matriarch of Megabuilding H10, jumped onto V’s chest, declaring V her current throne. She meowed, demanding immediate strokes from V’s chrome talons. V obliged. “Ok, my Queen of Hearts. Guess cats need love too, else it’s off with my head.” V sat up violently as the door to the apartment slid open. V pointed a pistol directly at the intruder while Nibbles hissed as she fled.

“Woah, V! It’s me!”

“River?!” V lowered the gun, motioning to sprawl herself back on the couch. “Do you have a death wish? I could have shot you!” Staying seated, she eyed him suspiciously. “What are you doing here? Wasn’t expecting you for another two hours.”

“I, uh… I thought you were supposed to be out longer,” he stammered, awkwardly trying to hide something behind his back. Poorly too, despite his large frame. Yet, unsurprising, considering his penchant for honesty.

V arched an eyebrow. “Whaddya got there, Detective?” Her facial expressions only grew at his silence. “You know we’re not celebrating Valentine’s Day, right?”

River attempted to hide a grin, but his brown eye deceived him. “We’re not,” he assured. He set the small unassuming box on the coffee table. She collapsed again in defeat. He gently climbed over her, the narrow couch barely holding them together. She sat motionless, staring up at him with her green eyes, waiting for a suitable response. “We’re celebrating V Day. It’s all about you.”

She groaned absurdly. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” V continued to roll her eyes, an amused smile tugging at her lips. “I should have sworn you off ages ago. You’re sickly sweet, y’know that?”

He brushed kisses all over her neck, each one a silent plea for forgiveness. An abrupt thud startled them. Nibbles approached the box dispatched to the floor, pawing at the new offering. River lifted himself off and pulled an unwilling V up with him. “The Queen insists you set the box free of its material possessions. Oh, and I left Johnny something in my coat pocket. Something to help him ‘plug his ears.’”

Johnny materialized for a moment to chime in. “How sweet. The badge thought of me.”

V ripped the paper off the box and opened it. She froze at the frame sitting in her lap. “River… how?”

“Paid a visit to Mama Welles, who seemed excruciatingly excited to pull out the photo album when I asked her about it. Showed me some photos of when you an’ Jack were getting into trouble at 16. And then… She made me a 6-course meal. ‘Cause Jackie always seemed to have a never-ending stomach, and I think I remind her of him. Made me promise to bring you around more. Though, I’m pretty sure she’s trying to adopt me too, just like you an’ Misty.”

V chuckled through a few tears. She brushed a finger against the image of Jackie, standing next to her when they were both full of life. “Thank you, River.”

Seeking to divert attention from her feelings, V retrieved a sleekly wrapped package from under the couch and handed it to River. “Since we’re apparently giving gifts,” she said with a mock sigh.

“Uh, huh. Not celebrating Valentine’s… Right,” he said, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. He unwrapped it to find a new revolver, its black and blue metallic surface gleaming under the apartment lights.

“Heard you mighta needed a new piece. You’re lucky they were out of pink.”

River’s eyes widened in surprise, a mixture of appreciation and disbelief coloring his features. He weighed the custom revolver in his mechanical hand, feeling its balance. On the side, he discovered a custom etching that read Thunder and beneath it, New Beginnings. He was speechless for a moment. “God dammit, V, I love you. Still can’t believe the lucky bastard I am to have you.”

#cyberpunk 2077 #river ward #female v #street kid v #v x river ward #oc: valerie rose barrere #otp: death wish #ao3 fanfic #valentines day

32 notes · View notes

penwieldingdreamer · 1 year

Text

Because, I’m falling for you

This is a mini part for the I see myself with you universe. Let me know what you think about it.

Summary: Jake wants to take you out for a date, but you don’t make it that easy for him. [(1.2k) cursing]

Previous Part | Masterlist | Next Part

(gif by @halways-happy)

"Where the hell did he get my address? I'm sure I never told Jake where I lived."

Allison sat across from you, biting her lower lip. "Uhm, I, I guess…Javy knows now."

"Javy? Jake's friend from the Navy Javy? How the hell does he know?"

Leaning your elbows on top of the table, you took a deep breath. The bouquet of roses mocking you and the words on the small card burned into your brain.

Let's start over - please? Jake

“We, uh, well I met Javy at the bar on their day off. We talked a bit and you know how I get when I’m tipsy. He told me Jake misses you and I told him his buddy should get his ass into gear and make amends.”

Rolling your eyes, you sent an annoyed look towards her. “Sometimes I wonder why I still keep you around.”

“Because you love me and without me you’d never get with the hot cowboy.” Grinning, Allison held up the card with her pointer and middle finger. You knew she had also seen the way Jake and you had been comfortable with while you had been in Texas. And she knew the way he acted before you left and back at that bar in San Diego had hurt you. “He’s going to come crawling to you if you don’t get back to him soon.”

“Good for me, he needs to work for it.”

“What did she say?” Javy asked a few days later when they sat together at their house on base. They weren’t just friends graduating Top Gun with a one-two before Phoenix, but bunking together back in Lemoore. Jake was still being his usual cocky persona on base and while flying but he tried to reign it in when he was around others.

With a sigh, the blonde let his body drop onto the dining chair in the large kitchen. “She sent the flowers back to base. With the card. Can you believe that?”

“I, well, aren’t women usually all about gifts and roses?”

“Not her, it seems.”

Pulling out the chair next to his friend and fellow aviator, Javy leaned his elbow onto the table, his fingers tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s another way to win her back. Allison said something about a pet rescue organization working with veterans.”

Looking closely at his friend, Jake felt the cocks in his head turning at full speed. He knew that you had been great with animals, of course he had seen you with those on the ranch back in Texas, but he didn't know you had a job with an organization, especially one working with military personnel.

"I'll be calling Ally, she'll know the name." His friend grinned, slapping the tabletop, he jumped up from his seat and rummaged through his jacket.

"You got her number? I thought she hated your guts as well."

Pursing his lips, Javy knew he couldn't lie to his friend. Jake could smell it miles away, so by far the Texan was the better liar - he had the better poker face. "Ah, well, you see. You've been moping even before we graduated and that one night you didn't come to the bar off base, she was there with a few other friends. Told me the same about your Juliet, Romeo. Y/N’s been moping around but doesn’t want to show it.”

"Great, gossiping like old ladies. Anything else I should know? A secret engagement with her?"

Opening his mouth, the pilot regarded his long time friend, trying to come up with a witty comeback, yet he saw the look Jake was sending his way. "No."

"Great, now at least I can try to think about how I'll win her back."

"Well, Valentine's coming up, maybe you could do it then and we can arrange something to do with that organization." He had no idea what they would do, but trying to win back your girl on Valentine's day would already be a perfect setting

Jake had tried three more times to get you to talk to him, but each time you avoided him, sending the presents he got you back to base. In the end he let out a defeated sigh and agreed to Javy's and Allison's plan.

They had talked it through, he would get to the shelter and take a few dogs and cats that were on the euthanasia list. He knew it wasn't easy for the shelters, but growing up on a farm his heart ached for the poor souls. There was no denying that he knew why you did it. Now he stood in front of the organization building outside of San Francisco, his truck loaded with the animals he took from the shelter.

Taking a deep breath Jake waited for you to come out, having flagged down one of your colleagues at the entrance.

"Don't fuck this up." He mumbled under his breath, brushing over the invisible wrinkles on his khakis.

"Y/N, come on. There's this hot military guy with new cases outside!"

You had listened to her gush about him, and with the couple miles to Lemoore it wasn't too outlandish for military personnel to come there, especially with the program they worked with. But you weren't prepared for the sight of the naval aviator you had been keeping away from for months.

"Y/N?" He moved away from his truck, the dogs inside barking and yapping as your coworker came over, giving them all the scratches they deserved. Jake had seen you turn back to the building and swiftly made his way over to you, his hand taking a hold of your arm. "Where are you going?"

Swallowing, you kept your eyes on the building, knowing if you turned to him you'd never say NO and with the way he behaved back in San Diego you really didn't want to be the one getting fooled.

"Why are you avoiding me?" How could you answer a question you weren't really sure you had an answer to. "Y/N, I'm sorry about the bar, hell I'm sorry about the thing back in Texas. Just, just tell me why?"

Taking a deep breath, you steeled yourself for your answer. "Because…Because I think I'm falling in love with you, okay? That's why I'm avoiding you. You've been an idiot and honestly I have no idea why you became such an asshole."

"I know, and if you give me the chance I'll explain it. Just one date and if you still hate me I'll leave you alone."

"One…" You turned around, one finger raised at the naval aviator, a broad grin in his face with his dimples on full display. "If you come acting like Hangman and not Jake, I'll never want to see you again."

"Fuck no, I'll not fuck it up, I swear." He was ready to pull you closer, but one look at your face told him you'd have none of it. Running his hand through his hair, Jake turned back to the truck. First they'd get the animals settled and then he'd think on the date, his last chance to really win you back.

Divider © by @top-hhun

#jake seresin x reader #jake seresin imagine #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin imagine #jake hangman seresin #top gun: maverick #top gun maverick imagine

151 notes · View notes

checkoutmybookshelf · 6 months

Text

The Secret Shangahi Universe

When Stephen Marche said that "Shakespeare is better in English but he's willing to negotiate," he was talking about the English language. Chloe Gong's Secret Shanghai universe takes that Marche quote and extends it to show that Shakespeare might have started in England, but he is just as good if not better in other places. Shakespeare in Shanghai worked beautifully, and Gong's characters are clear, complex, and compelling.

Juliette Cai and Roma Montagova low-key mix the red and white roses of the Yorks and Lancasters with the Capulets and Montagues as the heirs apparent to the Sacrlet Gang and White Flowers, respectively. And as a sidebar...I know that Romeo and Juliet is set up to translate to warring gangs really easily, but I think now everyone has done it? Like Hollywood has done it, Bollywood has done it, and now the book world has done it. That's a lot of gangsters...

Roma and Juliette also get a delightful mini-story in novella form in Last Violent Call, but so do Benedikt and Marshall! One of the things I love about Gong's Shanghai Secrets universe is that while the straight couples in Shakespeare are present, she also includes couples of other sexual orientations and identities--and celebrates them. They get time and space to be themselves, they are accepted, loved, and valued, and they live and thrive at the end of the story. There are no buried gays in the Shanghai Secrets Universe.

We also get some fantastic transgender representation with Celia Lang, and her relationship and romance with Oliver was the STANDOUT romantic subplot in the entire universe for me. They are awkward and adorable, and they SO CLEARLY love each other that honestly it's amazing how long it took for them to get on the same page about it. Although in fairness, being communist spies would make a romantic relationship fairly challenging, especially with siblings who are nationalist spies.

Which brings us to the As You Like It-inspired Foul Lady Fortune and Foul Heart Huntsman. Names and identities in spy stories are complex, and they get even more complex when you're also dealing with shifting identities from parents and shifting national loyalties and influences, so whether you're calling the protagonists by their code names, Chinese names, or anglicized names, Rosalind and Orion are complicated figures who get shuttled together by a fake marriage trope and then just...roll with it. Honestly, Rosalind and Orion are an incredible pair, and reading them was never not fun.

No spoilers here, because overall my recommendation for this series is GO READ IT. Like right now. I'll wait.

#chloe gong #secret shanghai #juliette cai #roma montagov #rosalind lang #orion hong #shakespeare adaptation #romeo and juliet #as you like it #ya romance #ya fantasy #books & libraries #books and reading #books and novels #books #book recommendations

31 notes · View notes

rosie-b · 10 months

Text

Tough Luck, Tender Love

Written for @ladrienjune days 17 & 20, Bad Luck & Passionate Declaration, 5756 words

A bead of sweat rolled down Marinette’s forehead as she stood frozen in front of Adrien, who still hadn’t spoken a word. She raised an arm to wipe it away quickly as her heart stuttered out an unfamiliar rhythm, and a red and black design came into view.

She froze. She’d put on her usual outfit today, but she was very obviously not wearing it now. The black spots on her red sleeve and glove could only mean one thing: Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t confessed her love to Adrien — Ladybug had.

Read the rest on AO3 or just below!

After this, nothing will be the same, Marinette thought as she bit out the last words of her confession and winced as she prepared herself for rejection.

Adrien stared silently at her, his mouth hanging open, as whispers swirled around them like the first winds of a storm.

Marinette bit her lip. She always knew that asking Adrien out at school was a mistake, but it wasn’t supposed to cause such an uproar! Everyone at François-Dupont seemed to know about her crush on Adrien except for the boy himself, so why did it seem as though everyone had just received the shock of their lives?

Within seconds, people started nudging each other and exchanging money. They were probably trying to be discreet, but that was impossible when nearly everyone had a bet to settle. Some people were pumping their arms in victory; most were shaking their heads in disappointment; even Ms. Bustier had a discontent frown on her face.

--*--*--*--*--

To be fair, Marinette hadn’t had much — or any — luck in confessing to Adrien so far, which was something that Rose had repeated multiple times during the intervention she was holding in the park near their school.

But maybe it was just fate! Maybe she and Adrien were destined to be star-crosses lovers, like Romeo and Juliet, or the cowherd and the weaver girl. She could love Adrien, but only from afar, as the universe confined her to saving Paris as Ladybug and sacrificing her only chance at love until Hawk Moth was finally defeated.

I can’t tell them that, though, or I’d lose my secret identity, Marinette realized. She nervously chewed on her lip as the girls continued urging her to either take up their new, foolproof plan and confess to Adrien or give up on him once and for all.

“—And the best part is, all you have to do is sign this card! We’ll put it on Adrien’s desk for you, and that way no one else can claim to have written it themselves or steal it before he has the chance to see it. Foolproof! Right, Juleka?”

Rose nudged her girlfriend, who nodded her head and muttered something that sounded like a yes.

“We all agree! Don’t you see, Marinette? This is your best chance yet. If this doesn’t work, then nothing will.” Mylene folded her arms and set her face determinedly.

Alya sighed and pushed up her glasses.

“I know why you don’t feel like doing this, girl,” she said softly, her gaze darting to the purse Tikki was hiding in and returning to Marinette’s shimmering eyes. “But I do think this might work. There’s no reason for Adrien to turn you down now that he and Kagami aren’t dating anymore, and he’s started smiling at you more often. That’s a great sign, girl!”

“Alya, I can’t date anyone while I’m you-know-who,” Marinette whispered. “It would be too dangerous. Besides, I barely have time for my school responsibilities! How would I have enough time to date Adrien on top of everything else?”

“Are you really still hesitating?” Rose cried in exasperation. She had had enough of Marinette’s indecision, and since she was certain that Adrien returned her emotions, she was determined to put an end to her friend’s struggles once and for all. “Just give us your answer, Marinette!”

Straightening, Marinette turned away from Alya to look at her gathered friends, who were sitting on the park benches and grass, looking at her in confusion and impatience. Alix checked her watch and popped her bubblegum as she looked at Marinette.

She sighed.

“It isn’t that I don’t appreciate your plan, girls,” she said slowly. “I just don’t think dating Adrien is a good idea anymore. It isn’t that I don’t love him, because I do! But...” She rubbed her arm and puffed out a sigh. “I don’t think I’m the best person for him. He deserves someone who can be there for him all the time, and you know that girl is not me. I’m flaky, remember?”

Mylene sighed. “That’s true, but that doesn’t mean he can’t love you, or that you don’t love him! Your emotions speak louder than you think they do, Marinette. Trust yourself!”

“Yeah!” Alix said, holding back a knowing smirk.

Rose headbanged her way through an agreeing nod. “You’ve done so much to help us, Marinette. Now, it’s finally your turn to let us help you!”

Juleka mumbled in agreement, even brushing her bangs back to give Marinette an encouraging smile.

“You can do it, girl,” Alya said, putting her hand on Marinette’s shoulder and turning her around so that she had to look at her. “You don’t have to, but I want you to know that you can . Put us out of our misery, huh? I want to go on a date without worrying that you’ll never go on one with your ‘Buttercup.’”

“Please don’t remind me of that name,” Marinette muttered through a strained smile as a blush covered her cheeks. She dropped her head down and pulled Alya’s arms off her shoulders.

The group watched her expectantly as she turned to face them all.

“Fine,” she said in a confident voice. “How about a compromise? I promise to try to confess to Adrien on my own before the end of the school day tomorrow. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll take your plan. And if that doesn’t work—”

“It will work!” Rose declared ecstatically. “I’m so happy for you, Marinette!”

She hopped up from the bench and threw her arms around Marinette. The other girls quickly followed suit, forming a giant group hug around a beet-faced Marinette.

“Thanks, girls,” she said in an embarrassed voice. She awkwardly patted their arms as they continued to hug her. “I’ll handle it from here.”

__*__*__*__*__

It was bad luck. That was the only explanation for what happened next.

Marinette had been planning to confess to Adrien with a fresh bag of chouquettes, drizzled with a chocolate heart design by Tom, after lunch ended. She would catch up to Adrien just as he was walking back into school, and that way she wouldn’t have any time to chicken out of her confession.

Of course, an akuma had to strike just as Marinette finished scarfing down her grated carrots and was getting ready to dash over to the bakery to pick up the chouquettes. There was a new sentimonster to defeat, and so the akuma took twice as long as it should have. By the time it was over, it was time for Ms. Mendeleiev’s class to finish. Marinette would have to hurry if she wanted to catch Adrien before he walked back over to Ms. Bustier’s class.

And hurry, she did. Focused on nothing but speed, she didn’t notice that her yo-yo never vanished as she replaced it at her hip. Usually, she’d be detransformed by now, but she’d had to quickly recharge and help the former akuma victim after purifying the akuma. Chat Noir had had to rush back to school, muttering an excuse about attendance and his crappy father’s punishment system.

So, Ladybug had stayed behind to help the former akuma victim, who’d had some bad luck of his own. He had suffered a broken leg before his akumatization and had no one to help him to the hospital, into the ambulance she’d called and then headed back to the school.

She found Adrien just in time, skidding into the hallway as he stepped out of Ms. Mendeleiev’s room beside Nino.

“Adrien! I have to talk to you!”

Marinette knew she probably looked like a madwoman, her hair frizzy and falling out of her pigtails. She licked her lips and quickly tightened her ribbons. That should help her appearance at least a little.

Adrien’s mouth fell open as he watched Ladybug shift nervously on her feet, clasping her hands tight and breathing deeply to shake off her nerves.

“Wha...?” He couldn’t manage to finish his question.

Nino, who looked similarly confused, gently closed Adrien’s mouth and back away, whispering a quick assurance as he left.

“A-Adrien, I...”

Ladybug closed her eyes. No! She would not give in to fear this time. If Chat Noir was brave enough to take her rejection, she could be brave enough to take Adrien’s. At least then she would know his answer.

She opened her eyes and looked into Adrien’s green ones with a determined huff. A camera flash went off to the side, but she ignored it.

“When I first met you, I misjudged you,” she began.

Adrien’s jaw dropped down even lower this time.

“I thought you were conceited and superficial. But then, I got to know you. I saw who you really were deep down—someone sweet, sincere, and generous. Since then, there's something I've been wanting to tell you. But every time I try, it's like my brain suddenly freezes. But now, I think I'm ready.”

One of the younger students hollered across the hall. Ladybug ignored whatever he said and kept her gaze steady as she finished her declaration.

“Adrien.” The boy’s eyes widened as she said his name again, and he stared at her like he was hanging on to every word from her lips. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the painful ending to this surreal moment.

“I love you.”

Immediately, the whispers and camera flashes that Marinette had been blocking out rushed into her ears. She caught sight of people laughing, exchanging money, gawking at her as they spoke with their friends. Down the hall, Ms. Bustier waited for her last students with a frown.

Adrien still hadn’t spoken.

Marinette reached up to wipe the sweat off her brow, and that’s when the depth of her bad luck hit her.

Really, what superhero would be reckless enough to publicly confess their love to a civilian, especially a famous one?

There was no way this would end well.

“Sorry!” Marinette rushed to salvage the burning ruins of her confession. “I don’t—I’m sorry—I—”

“I love you, too,” Adrien said, his eyes full of wonder.

Ladybug licked her lips. “What?”

“When you see Marinette again,” Adrien continued, keeping his eyes fixed on Ladybug’s, “Tell her that I love her, too. You were delivering her message for her, weren’t you?”

Icy shock mixed with guilty relief flooded Marinette.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, the confession was from Marinette. Because she loves you, but I don’t love you! That would be ridiculous!”

“Utterly,” Chloe muttered from behind Adrien. Ms. Bustier directed her back into the classroom. She rolled her eyes as she left.

“So, you’ll tell her, then,” Adrien was saying, and Marinette snapped her gaze back to his.

“Yes! Absolutely! She’ll be thrilled,” she said with an awkward laugh. Then she shot finger guns at him. Another camera flash went off, and she cringed.

“Perfect,” Adrien said, holding the ‘r’ just a second too long. “And tell her I’m sorry that she had to go home sick. I’ll visit her after school, and we can talk about it more then, okay?”

Ladybug nodded, unsure whether to swallow down the hope she felt or let it grow. “Okay,” she whispered.

But her eyes narrowed as she continued gazing up at Adrien. He seemed like he’d figured out more from her speech than she’d thought. How did he know it was Marinette’s confession? Had someone told him?

It had to be Chat Noir. But why would he tell Adrien?

And who else had he told?

Ladybug felt a stab of betrayal.

“No,” she told Adrien, clenching her fist and ignoring the wild pounding of her heart. “I’ll come visit you after school. I mean, if Marinette is sick—”

That was another thing. Adrien had provided her with the perfect cover for her tardiness, but how had he known to do that?

If he knew, then Ladybug might as well personally deliver her Miraculous to Hawk Moth.

“—If she’s sick, then you’d better not visit her, or you might catch whatever she has. I’ll deliver your message to her and keep being your go-between for the day. Is— is that okay?” she finished nervously.

Her excuse didn’t make sense. If Adrien didn’t know who she was, he would just suggest he and Marinette talk over the phone, something way more normal and far less complicated than communicating through Paris’ busiest hero.

But Adrien only nodded, stars in his eyes, and Ladybug’s heart sank.

“I’ll be waiting by the window for you, m— Ladybug.”

Yeah, he knew. But he looked so excited to see her again that Ladybug almost didn’t care. It was hard to remember that her world was crumbling when the boy of her dreams was gazing at her like she’d granted his every wish by just existing.

“All right, if you’re done delivering Marinette’s message, you can leave now, Miss Ladybug,” Ms. Mendeleiev’s nasal voice called out.

The superhero jumped and whirled around. “Oh! Sorry! Yes, good students don’t hold up class time. Er, good heroes! Heroes like me,” she said, giggling nervously as she walked into the wall.

Adrien caught her as she fell. She practically leapt out of his arms.

“Byedrien! Bye, Adrien! And Ms. Mendeleiev! And the other students who I definitely do not know! ” Ladybug pushed the nearest door open and scurried through it.

It led to the bathroom, but that was okay. She was very experienced in escaping from bathroom windows.

And there were definitely no pictures of Ladybug entering the men’s room being posted right now. Nope! Those thoughts could wait for another time. Marinette had finally confessed to Adrien!

And it had only cost her secret identity.

Was it bad luck, she pondered, or had its opposite led to her passionate confession?

__*__*__*__*__

After she managed to convince her mother that she really was sick (of school, at least), Marinette sat in her room, watching the video of her confession play in a loop on the news. Apparently, superheroes confessing to supermodels on behalf of other, normal girls was headline material in Paris.

It was amazing that Marinette hadn’t noticed what she was doing, that she hadn’t felt her suit on her fingers and known before she opened her mouth. It was also amazing that Adrien, although he had figured out her secret identity, had protected it instead of sharing it with anyone.

It gave her hope when she shouldn’t be able to feel any.

Well, she had to feel some hope now that she knew Adrien loved her, too! It was the best outcome of a love confession she’d dared to dream of (almost, after the one where they got married and moved to the beach with their cute, fuzzy hamsters).

He’d really said that he loved her! She hadn’t dreamed it up, Marinette marveled as she watched the video for the fifteenth time. As soon as it ended, she went to hit the replay button again, but Tikki landed on the mouse and blocked her from clicking it.

“Marinette, don’t you think this is a bit excessive? School has been over for almost half an hour now. Shouldn’t you go visit Adrien like you said you would?”

Tikki had seemed very excited by the prospect of her visit, though Marinette could not fathom the reason why. After all, she’d just lost her secret identity to the same person who’d found it out before in a doomed timeline that led to her poor kitty being akumatized.

Oh, right, Marinette remembered. That was the real reason she was watching these videos. She needed something to distract herself from the sense of impending doom she’d been feeling.

“Well, the Gorilla could be late to pick Adrien up,” she said to Tikki, offering her weak excuse with a wide grin that was probably less reassuring than she’d hoped. “I don’t want to be caught by M. Agreste if he’s the only one at the mansion now.”

Tikki quirked her brow.

“You need to talk to him, Marinette! How else will you know if he figured out your secret identity or not?”

Marinette sighed. “I already know he did! He even knew I’d panic about it and made up an excuse for me to go home instead of staying at school!”

“He was also the first to suggest that you talk more after school! Which means that he’s probably in his room now, waiting by the window for the girl he loves to come say hello! But instead of doing that, you’re watching a scratchy recording taken on a phone for the umpteenth time! Marinette, when I picked you to be my holder, I thought you’d be much braver than this.”

Oh, Tikki could play dirty when she wanted to. The other kwamis snickered to themselves as they watched their Guardian splutter her excuse as she evaded the only true course of action.

“I can be brave! But right now I’m being cautious, which is another heroic quality I should have! After all, the whole ‘leap before you look’ is Chat’s thing, not mine!”

Tikki giggled. “Well, leaping before you look sounds an awful lot like what you did earlier today, Marinette. The two of you are more alike than you might think! Now,” she said, moving off the mouse and clicking the power button on the computer, “Get off that chair and go visit Adrien! If you still haven’t transformed in one minute, then I might murder you before Alya gets the chance to.”

Tikki’s eyes glittered playfully as Marinette glanced at her discarded phone, which was still blowing up with ignored notifications from her reporter friend and what seemed to be half of Paris.

Marinette swallowed. “I guess anything’s better than that. Tikki, spots on!”

Throwing open the trap door, Ladybug flung her yo-yo around a distant building and took off towards Adrien’s house, swallowing the butterflies in her stomach back down.

Why, oh why had she confessed to Adrien as Ladybug? Why hadn’t she just taken the girls’ idea and signed a card as Marinette, or would her awful luck have ruined that plan, too?

Would she have signed the card as Ladybug? Or worse, would she have asked for more constipation medicine instead of drawing a heart by her name?

Why do some people think ladybugs are lucky? Marinette wondered as she deftly avoided crashing into Adrien’s window. If I was lucky, I would have never fallen in love!

Ladybug straightened up on the windowsill and looked into Adrien’s room. He probably wasn’t home yet, because Tikki had been exaggerating about the time and oh no he was looking right at her!!!

Ladybug did a panicked dance that looked a bit like she was Vogue-ing and fell off the windowsill.

She landed in a tree.

“Ow,” she commented blankly while internally slapping herself. The fall had been so short that it hadn’t hurt!

But Adrien didn’t know that. Clapping his hands to his cheeks, he gaped at Ladybug in horror.

There’s the reaction I was expecting earlier, Ladybug thought drearily as Adrien threw open the window and started climbing down the wall to help her out of the tree.

“Ladybug! Are you okay? I am so sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you like that! I thought I told you I’d be by the window earlier!”

He reached out for the branch that Ladybug had landed on, but just barely couldn’t reach it without coming in danger of losing his grip on the wall.

Ladybug’s eyes widened.

“Adrien, be careful! You’re going to fall!”

Adrien shook her worries off. “It’ll be fine, my lady, I’ve done this a million ti—!”

He grabbed onto the end of the branch and let go of the wall as he started speaking, but the branch was not as strong as he’d given it credit for. Unable to support his full weight, it cracked off from the rest of the branch and fell, dragging the model down with it.

“Adrien!” Two voices cried out in harmonized horror.

Ladybug jumped up and tossed her yo-yo to catch Adrien as a black blur zoomed out of his window and dropped down after him.

The yo-yo string wrapped around Adrien’s waist while Ladybug’s brain short-circuited as she registered both the reason the black blur’s voice was familiar and the nickname Adrien had just used for her. Unable to handle the surprise of finding out her partner’s identity, she fell off her perch for the second time that day.

Plagg moved out of the way as she tumbled past him, and milliseconds later, she wound up tangled upside down in the yo-yo string with Adrien about a meter and a half above the ground. Luckily, Plagg hurriedly wrapped the end of the string around a thicker branch, which brought their progress to an abrupt and jarring halt before they could come to a crash landing.

“Ugh,” Adrien groaned, and Ladybug nearly shivered out of her skin.

“I am not a cat!” she snapped, and Adrien twisted around to look at her. The yo-yo string spun around accordingly, intensifying the queasy feeling in Marinette’s stomach.

“I beg your pardon?”

Why had Ladybug ever opened up her mouth? She should have known only gibberish would come out! Still panicking, she did it again without thinking.

“It’s pawdon! And you’re not getting any until we get out of this tree!”

Adrien blinked. It probably would have been adorable if Ladybug hadn’t been looking at them upside down while she got spun in dizzying circles by her own weapon.

“My lady, I really am sorry about the reveal, but I was so scared when you got hurt! And I can’t think straight when the girl that I love is in danger!”

He pulled out his best pout while Plagg sat on top of the yo-yo string tied around the branch and stared wide-eyed at him.

“Transform, you rollot-headed cheese curd! Transform and destroy the string!” he cried impatiently.

“But then we’ll fall,” Adrien pointed out, and Ladybug craned her neck upwards in the direction Plagg’s voice had come from.

“Why don’t you just untie the string, Plagg? That would be a lot easier!”

“Yeah, I thought you hated transforming!” Adrien called.

Plagg flew down and landed on the string tying Ladybug and Adrien together.

“You’d still fall if I untied the string, you solid slices of Swiss! Only Adrien wouldn’t be protected from it, because he wouldn’t be wearing a suit!”

“But it’s only a meter drop,” Adrien protested. “I’ll be fine!”

Ladybug jerked, swinging the string in a sideways motion. “Do you want to get hurt? Take Plagg’s advice!” If you really are Chat Noir, she added silently.

Adrien stared up at Ladybug for a moment. “Whatever the lady wishes. Plagg, claws out!”

Good, we’re at this part of the dream. Shouldn’t I wake up now? Ladybug asked herself.

But that must not always be the way dreams worked, because there was that one time after Oblivio when she’d dreamed that Adrien turned into Chat Noir and then he’d kissed her and she—

As she was still thinking, the string disintegrated around Ladybug and she and Chat Noir fell to the ground in a tangled heap.

“Your foot is covering my eye,” Ladybug complained. Chat Noir moved it immediately.

“Sorry,” he apologized as he moved Ladybug’s heels off his chest and stood up. Offering Ladybug a hand, he pulled her to her feet. She nearly fell over again, and he steadied her with a hand.

“I really am sorry,” he repeated as Ladybug carefully stretched out her arms, which had been pinned to her sides by the string.

“It was my fault, I should have remembered you’d be at the window,” she said sheepishly. “And, as for the identity reveal? I wouldn’t have figured it out if it weren’t for Plagg.”

Adrien detransformed and frowned at his kwami.

“I’m entirely innocent,” Plagg said, crossing his arms. “I am also starving. I need cheese!” He looked pleadingly at Adrien.

“I don’t think now is a good time for cheese, Plagg, but if you need some, you know where it is.”

With a cheeky wink at Ladybug, Plagg zoomed off to Adrien’s room before she could say a word.

“All this because of a poorly executed confession,” she grumbled, scuffing the dirt under the tree.

Adrien tilted his head. “Poorly executed? My lady, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven because I was so happy! Your delivery was perfect. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were Ladybug at the time, it would have been purrfect!”

Ladybug pursed her lips. “You made that joke before,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “I can’t believe I didn’t get it! I can’t believe I didn’t notice you were Chat Noir,” she groaned, covering her face in embarrassment.

Adrien laughed and delicately peeled her fingers apart so he could peer into her eyes.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice you were Marinette,” he said in a voice so sweet it made her heart skip a beat. “But I guess that’s the way the Miraculous work, isn’t it? Or else we would have figured it out on the first day.”

Ladybug giggled as she lowered her hands from her face. “We really should have,” she said. “But I guess I was too busy falling under your spell, instead.”

Adrien blushed. “You— really?” he squeaked.

Ladybug smiled as she reached up to ruffle his hair. He leaned into her touch the way he always did.

“Yes, really,” she said softly. “Weren’t you listening to my confession? It’s always been you, Adrien,” she said, tapping his cheek with one finger. “I fell for you the moment you gave me your umbrella and showed me who you truly are.”

Adrien grabbed her hand and held it to his cheek, gazing into her eyes with a look so tender it made her want to melt.

“I fell for you on the first day, too,” he breathed. “You were so scared, but so courageous! You stood up to Hawk Moth and gave hope to all of Paris. I’ve never met anyone so brave.”

Turning his face, he pressed a kiss to the inside of her palm, and Ladybug gasped as a blush took over her face.

“I said to myself back then that I’d love whoever you were under that mask. And I was right,” he said, tracing its edges with a smile.

Marinette looked at him in wonder. “You do? Even though I’m the worst Guardian ever? A-and even when I can’t talk right to you most of the time?”

“Even then,” Adrien assured, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose and smiling when her blush got even darker. “For the record, I think you’re a wonderful Guardian. And I think your stuttering is quite adorable.”

Surrendering her face as a total loss to the flames licking at it, Marinette dropped her head onto Adrien’s shoulder.

“You’re abhorrable,” she said into his shirt. Holding up a finger, she took a breath and tried again. “Adorable! I think you’re adorable, too. And now that we’re finally out of that tree, I think I know how you can earn my pardon.”

Wrapping his arms around her, Adrien hummed quietly. “What is it?”

“Take me on a date. Next Saturday, in the park, after your piano recital. I’ll bring the pastries,” Marinette said as she returned his hug.

“I’ll bring the flowers,” Adrien said happily.

Marinette felt her heart swell as he kissed her hair and held her closer to him.

“I’m so happy it’s you,” he whispered into her ear.

“Me, too,” she confided. “I’m so happy. I don’t think Chat Noir could be anyone else.”

A camera flash went off in her eyes as she lifted her head.

Ladybug pushed herself away from Adrien and spun him around so he could see the problem.

“Alya!” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t returning any of my calls, girl,” she said, putting a hand on her hip. “All you did was send one text panicking about how Adrien knows who you are now. Listen, all of Paris knows that you were planning to visit Adrien after school. You guys are lucky it’s just me who showed up. I was expecting there to be at least a dozen camera crews here already.”

“Hold on a minute,” Adrien said, scrunching his eyebrows. “Do you know?”

Alya hesitated, her gaze wandering from Adrien back to Ladybug.

“She does,” Ladybug said, wrapping her arms around herself. “Alya knows. I’m so sorry, but I had to tell someone!”

“Ma—Ladybug was basically having a panic attack when she told me,” Alya said, defending her friend to Adrien. “It only happened because she needed the support, and she couldn’t see another way. She hadn’t been planning to reveal her identity to me, or you for that matter.”

“Trust me, I know she wasn’t,” Adrien said. “I only figured out who she was because of a weird coincidence, actually.”

“Oh? And here I thought it was obvious,” Alya commented. “We’re lucky you covered for our girl, or all of Paris would have figured it out from that confession. Which you had better have accepted, by the way, or I will have Chat Noir cataclysm you for me.”

“Oh-h, you will?” Adrien asked in a strangled voice.

Ladybug laughed nervously. “Well, we won’t be needing that, Alya! He said yes.”

“Good,” Alya said, folding her arms with a smile. “I’m so proud of you, girl! You finally faced your fears and confessed to Adrien. And see where it got you!”

Ladybug grinned at her friend, but as Plagg reappeared behind Alya’s head and zipped back into Adrien’s pocket while she wasn’t looking, she remembered something important.

“Actually, Alya... there’s another reason that threatening Adrien with Chat Noir wouldn’t work. Right, Adrien?” She looked up at him imploringly, hoping that he got the message. You don’t have to tell her, but we need to think of something to say!

Adrien cleared his throat. “Oh, yeah! Are you sure it’s okay for her to know that, though?”

Marinette shrugged. Telling Alya would be simpler than trying not to act like she was in love with Chat Noir or coming up with some explanation of her sudden turn to polyromanticism. It also carried a large danger with it, but she’d proved herself to be capable of handling it before.

Alya was frowning as she looked between Adrien and Ladybug.

“What’s going on, Marinette?” she asked quietly.

Adrien twisted the silver ring on his finger. “I’m Chat Noir,” he said, watching Alya’s reaction closely.

She blinked twice, then adjusted her glasses as she peered at him. Plagg peeked out from Adrien’s shirt pocket, and her jaw fell open.

“Oh, wow,” she breathed. “You really are him! I totally called it!”

“What?”

Ladybug flushed. “You put a filter on a photo of him one time as a joke, Alya. That does not count as calling it.”

Alya grinned. “Was it a joke? Or was it my awesome reporter skills coming in handy? Because I seem to remember you being the one who thought it was a joke.”

Adrien smirked at Alya. “But you didn’t guess who Ladybug was, right? I did,” he bragged. “Back during Kwamibuster. Of course, my lady was clever enough to cover her tracks, but I knew there was a reason Multimouse looked so cute!”

Ladybug let out a squeak, which made Alya smile.

“You didn’t tell me about using the Mouse! I bet you looked adorable,” Alya said, and Adrien nodded his agreement.

“You should have been there! It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.”

“It wasn’t that impressive,” Ladybug said, wishing the fire in her cheeks would cool down. “I just did what I had to do.”

“She’s so humble, too,” Adrien said, looking at her with a smile. “My heart never stood a chance.”

Ladybug spluttered and hid her face in her hands as Alya laughed good-naturedly.

“Well, since you’re safe from the paparazzi, I think I’ll leave you two alone now so you can keep talking. You should probably keep an eye open, though. Oh, and if you ever want to formally announce your relationship as Ladybug and Chat Noir? You know where to find me,” she said with a wink.

“Thank you, Alya,” Adrien said politely. “We’ll think about it later, once we figure all the details out.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else. All right, then, Alya out!”

With a cheeky salute, she turned and walked toward the wall around the mansion, which she scaled with an ease that would have sparked the opposite feeling in M. Agreste had he been there to see it.

“Alya was right about the press, you know,” Adrien said casually as Ladybug watched the spot Alya had disappeared from. “If you want, we could go somewhere else to talk. There’d be less of a chance of causing a scandal.”

“I think you mean causing another scandal,” Ladybug sighed. “You’re both right, of course, a press intrusion is the last thing we need right now. Still, it could always be worse! I might have messed up my confession, but I was lucky enough to have— well, you. You’ve always got my back, kitty.”

“You and me against the world,” Adrien said in agreement. “I think I got lucky, too. Until recently, dating you seemed like an unattainable dream. And yet, here we are,” he said, lifting her hand for a kiss. “I finally get to be with the love of my life.”

Ladybug couldn’t stop a smile from blooming on her face as she gazed back at Adrien warmly.

“And I, mine,” she said, her breath tangling with his as she moved closer. “I love you, Adrien Agreste.”

He didn’t need to say anything back as he leaned closer and wrapped her in his arms.

The kiss said more than enough.

#ladrienjune2023 #ml fanfic #ladrien #rosie-b writing #identity reveal #miraculous ladybug #takes place after in season 4 after gang of secrets and glaciator 2 #the ending tried sooo hard to turn into marichat but i managed to keep it ladrien

54 notes · View notes

imaplatypus-art · 1 month

Text

Rain Day

Third entry for @glowweek Featuring my connverse kid, Julie and her pet duck, Mayo. Hope no one is bummed Steven and Connie aren't actually present 😅 I wanted to draw her again and I only drew her for one other day(take a wild guess 😜).

You can see my art before everyone and get a platypus sticker by supporting me on patreon: www.patreon.com/Imaplatypus 👉👈🥺

42 notes · View notes

froppy-butterflyfan2000 · 16 days

Text

This comic take place before @svtfoe4ever’s comic about Juliet being invite to Mewni Academy. Rose (16 years old), a student of The Multiverse School (The Multiverse School is also a Multiverse AU) hoping to graduate since her friends/Interdimensional sisters (Skylar, Diana, Lamia, and Aria) graduated (because they are geniuses) is invited to the Mewni Academy as a special staff member/volunteer where her job is to design the school uniforms and clothes for necessary essentials for Mewni Academy and to protect the school from corrupted monsters (creatures made from dead magic) in case of another Mother Death is born. The Mother Universe is the one who told her instead of the headmistress because the Headmistress of The Multiverse School is on vacation (Another reason is because I don’t know the official design of the Headmistress, the voice of The Mother Universe.).

Mother Universe and The Multiverse School belong to @pigeons-svtfoe-au

Mewni Academy (mentioned) belongs to @svtfoe4ever

Diana Butterfly Wong (mentioned) and Skylar Butterfly Thomas (mentioned) belong to i_drawrandom_things (Instagram), formerly calls dreamy_artz.

#Rose B.L.#Mewni Academy #svtfoe metaverse #rose lucitor #rose butterfly #rose butterfly-lucitor #svtfoe next gen

10 notes · View notes

davidtennantgenderenvy · 1 year

Text

HERE IS A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF PROBABLY MOST OF THE STUFF I LIKE! Feel free to ask me about any of it

PERSONALITY TYPING: INFP 4w3 (471)

BOOKS: Grishaverse, Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Song of Achilles, The Prince of Tides, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Harry Potter (unfortunately), Gone With the Wind, His Dark Materials, A Far Wilder Magic, The Hate U Give, The Outsiders, The Devil and the Dark Water, They Both Die At The End, Riordanverse, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Warriors

MOVIES: Titanic, Dead Poets Society, It’s A Wonderful Life, Little Women 2019, NOPE, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Sixth Sense, Terminator (especially 2), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Addams Family (1991) The Shawshank Redemption, Parasite, Knives Out/Glass Onion, Tar, Harriet, Romeo and Juliet (1968), Interstellar, Forrest Gump, Schindler’s List, The Princess Bride, Get Out, Lady Bird, Silence of the Lambs, The Truman Show, The Wall, 12 Angry Men, Recovery, so so many animated movies (especially WALL-E, The Prince of Egypt, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Howl’s Moving Castle!), SOME Marvel movies (mostly guardians and spidey)

TV SHOWS (live action): LOST, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Person of Interest, Good Omens, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Downton Abbey, Ted Lasso, My So Called Life, Stranger Things, Broadchurch, Alias, Sherlock, Maid, The Last of Us, Dark, Happy Valley, Takin’ Over The Asylum, The Sandman, Heartstopper, Jessica Jones, Andi Mack, The Queen’s Gambit, Derry Girls, The Office, A Series of Unfortunate Events, 1899, Mare of Easttown, Around the World in 80 Days

ANIME AND CARTOONS: Fullmetal Alchemist (both versions), Avatar, Steven Universe, Phineas and Ferb, Death Note, Assassination Classroom, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Monster, Spy X Family, Ouran High School Host Club, My Hero Academia, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Toradora, Gravity Falls, The Owl House, Cowboy Bebop, Erased, Mob Psycho 100, Kotaro Lives Alone, Ducktales

MUSIC: Queen, Taylor Swift, My Chemical Romance, Adele, Jeff Buckley, Will Wood, Olivia Rodrigo, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Hozier, The Proclaimers, Mitski, Fiona Apple, Brandi Carlile, Janelle Monáe, Alanis Morrissette, Sinead O'Connor, Nina Simone, David Bowie, BTS, Stray Kids, Day-6, Kelly Clarkson; Guns N Roses, Muse, Beyonce, Lana Del Rey, Pink Floyd, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, George Michael, Heart, Radiohead…

MUSICALS: Les Miserables, Great Comet, Ragtime, Phantom of the Opera, Hadestown, Hamilton, Wicked, Come From Away, Matilda, Falsettos, Jesus Christ Superstar, Anastasia, Evita, The Last Five Years, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Ride the Cyclone, Sweeney Todd, Parade, Little Shop of Horrors, Cats, In The Heights, Into the Woods, She Loves Me, Sunday in the Park with George, Lizzie, Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde, The Secret Garden, The Wild Party, Cabaret, Putnam County Spelling Bee…(I also love Shakespeare!)

VIDEO GAMES: basically just Super Mario Bros and Undertale but boy do I love Super Mario Bros and Undertale

YOUTUBERS: Schaffrillas Productions, Cinema Therapy, The Authentic Observer, Matt Rose, PMSeymour, Katherine Steele, The Swiftologist, FilmCooper, Sideways, Anthony Fantano and too many others to mention

FAVE ROLES I’VE PLAYED: Elsa in Frozen, Morticia in The Addams Family, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Iolanthe in Iolanthe, Juror #8 in 12 Angry Jurors

#not bothering with tags this is just literally for my followers/anyone who visits my page #also I didn’t want to duplicate titles by medium #Like putting LOTR in both the books and movies section #for space ya know #so if there’s a good adaptation of something on this list assume it’s on here too in spirit #LOTR are literally my favorite movies of all time but there’s more space in the book section #Same with PnP Harry Potter etc

50 notes · View notes

homomenhommes · 20 days

Text

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 7

529 Constantinople : Emperor Justinian I re-wrote Roman Law, making it distinctly Christian and stating that all same-sex acts are contrary to nature and punishable by death.

1786 – On this date William Rufus King, the U.S. Representative from North Carolina, Senator from Alabama, and the thirteenth Vice President of the United States was born (d.1853). Historians have argued about the extremely close relationship that King had with President James Buchanan.

King was close friends with James Buchanan, and the two shared a house in Washington, D.C. for fifteen years prior to Buchanan's presidency. Buchanan and King's close relationship prompted Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy", while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife". Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship.

Buchanan and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but surviving letters illustrate the affection of a special friendship, and Buchanan wrote of his communion with his housemate. Buchanan wrote in 1844, after King left for France,

"I am now solitary and alone, having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection."

While the circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King have led authors such as Paul Boller to speculate that Buchanan was "America's first homosexual president", there is no direct evidence that he and King had a sexual relationship

Wood Self-portrait

1901 – John Christopher Wood (d.1930), often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.

Christopher Wood was born son of Doctor Lucius Wood. He briefly flirted with medicine and architecture at Liverpool University before pursuing an artistic career.At Liverpool University, Wood met Augustus John, who encouraged him to be a painter. The French collector Alphonse Kahn invited him to Paris in 1920. From 1921 he trained as a painter at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he met Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric and Diaghilev. He travelled around Europe and north Africa between 1922 and 1924. He also collaborated with and became the lover of painter Francis Rose.

In 1926 Wood created designs for Romeo and Juliet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, although they were never used. The same year he became a member of both the London Group and the Seven and Five Society plus meeting and befriending Ben Nicholson and Winifred Nicholson.

Wood was bisexual. In the early summer of 1921, Wood met Antonio de Gandarillas, a Chilean diplomat. Gandarillas, a married homosexual fourteen years older than Wood, lived a glamorous life partly financed by gambling. Their relationship lasted through Wood's life, surviving his affair with Jeanne Bourgoint. In 1927 his plans to elope and marry heiress Meraud Guinness were frustrated by her parents whereupon he required emotional support from Winifred Nicholson. Wood also had a liaison with a Russian émigrée, Frosca Munster, whom he met in 1928.

By 1930, addicted to opium and painting frenetically in preparation for his Wertheim exhibition in London, he suffered paranoia and began carrying a revolver. On August 21 he travelled to meet his mother and sister for lunch at 'The County Hotel' in Salisbury and to show them a selection of his latest paintings. After saying goodbye he jumped under a train at Salisbury railway station, although in deference to his mother's wishes it was reported as an accident.

1907 – Violette Leduc, French author, born (d.1972); Leduc was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness. She developed tender friendships with her grandmother Fideline and her maternal aunt Laure. Her formal education, begun in 1913, was interrupted by World War I. After the war, she went to a boarding school, the Collège de Douai, where she experienced Lesbian affairs with a classmate and a music instructor who was fired over the incident.

In 1926, Leduc moved to Paris and enrolled in the Lycée Racine. That same year, she failed her baccalaureate exam and began working as a telephone operator and secretary at Plon publishers.

In 1932 she met Maurice Sachs and Simone de Beauvoir, who encouraged her to write. Her first novel L'Asphyxie (In the Prison of Her Skin) was published by Albert Camus for Éditions Gallimard and earned her praise from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet.

In 1955, Leduc was forced to remove part of her novel Ravages because of sexually explicit passages describing lesbianism. The censored part was eventually published as a separate novella, Thérèse and Isabelle in 1966. Another novel, Le Taxi caused controversy because of its depiction of incest between a brother and sister.

Leduc's best-known book, the memoir La Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It quickly became a bestseller. She went on to write eight more books, including La Folie en tête (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.

In 1968 Radley Metzger made a film of Leduc's novel Thérèse and Isabelle. The film was a commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love, starring Essy Persson and Anna Gael.

Leduc developed breast cancer and died aged 65 after two operations.

Young Harry Hay - Activist

1912 – Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society and the Radical Faeries, was born on this date (d.2002).

Although Harry Hay claimed 'never to have even heard' of the earlier Gay liberation struggle in Germany - by the people around Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld and Leontine Sagan - he is known to have talked about it with European emigres in America including Mattachine co-founder Rudi Gernreich. (However, Gernreich arrived in America at age 14, and Hay had already written his Gay manifesto when they met).

Hay, along with Roger Barlow and LeRoy Robbins directed a short film Even As You and I (1937) featuring Hay, Barlow, and filmmaker Hy Hirsh. A married man (beard/wife Anita Platky) and a member of the Communist Party USA, Hay composed the first manifesto of the American Gay rights movement in 1948, writing:

"We, the Androgynes of the world, have formed this responsible corporate body to demonstrate by our efforts that our physiological and psychological handicaps need be no deterrent in integrating ten percent of the world's population towards the constructive social progress of mankind."

Hay soon dispensed with the apologetic language and ideas. Though it may seem very dated today, the group was very radical compared to the rest of society at the time. It and Hay were among the first to advance the argument that Gay people represented a "cultural minority" as well as being just individuals, and even called for public marches of homosexuals, predicting later Gay pride parades.

Hay's concept of the "cultural minority" came directly from his Marxist studies, and the rhetoric he and his colleague Charles Rowland employed often reflected the militancy of Communist tradition. As the Mattachine Society grew with chapters around the country, the organization saw the Communist ties of its founders, including Hay, as a threat during that McCarthy-ite witch-hunt era, and expelled them from leadership. The organization took a more cautious tack so that by the time of the Stonewall riots the Mattachine Society came to be seen by many as stodgy and assimilationist.

The Communist Party did not allow Gays to be members, claiming that homosexuality was a 'deviation'; perhaps more important was the fear that a member's (usually secret) homosexuality would leave them open to blackmail and was a security risk in an era of red-baiting. Concerned to save the party difficulties, as he put more energy into the Mattachine Society, Hay himself had approached the CP's leaders and recommended his own expulsion. However, after much soul-searching, the CP, clearly reeling at the loss of a respected member and theoretician of 18 years standing, refused to expel Hay, instead dropping him as a 'security risk' but ostentatiously announcing him to be a 'Lifelong Friend of the People'.

Hay in later years

Hay later became an outspoken critic of Gay assimilationism and went on to help found both Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and the Gay men's group the Radical Faeries, as well as being active in the Native American movements.

Hay once explained,

"We pulled an ugly green frog skin of heterosexual conformity over us, and that's how we got through school with a full set of teeth. We know how to live through their eyes. We can always play their games, but are we denying ourselves by doing this? If you're going to carry the skin of conformity over you, you are going to suppress the beautiful prince or princess within you."

Harry Hay and the Radical Faeries

In 1963, at age 51, he met an inventor named John Burnside, who became his life partner. They lived first in Los Angeles, and later in a Pueblo Indian reserve in New Mexico. After returning to Los Angeles to help organize the first Radical Faerie gathering, the couple moved to San Francisco, where Hay died of lung cancer at age 90. Hay was the subject of the 2002 documentary by Eric Slade, "Hope along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay" (2002).

1912 – Academy Award nominated songwriter Jack Lawrence was born on this date (d.2009). He wrote about his being Gay in his 2004 autobiography, They All Sang My Songs. He was a gay man during a time when it was astronomically difficult to be one.

In addition to fun stories about divas ranging from Tallulah Bankhead to Cher, his book They All Sang My Songs covered his discreet queer life (he was closeted until sometime in his thirties), during which he attended gay "rent parties" in Harlem, and cruised Central Park for sex.

In 1945, met the love of his life, Walter Myden, who remained with Lawrence until he died 30 years later. Then Lawrence and Richard Debnam—who actually became Richard Lawrence when Jack adopted him in 1979—shared their love, with Richard more like the son he never had, Jack explained. "I think I would've been a good parent," the songwriter said, adding that not having children may have been his one regret. His songs, though, will live on longer than any child would have.

You probably know his songs through recordings like the Ink Spots' "If I Didn't Care", Rosemary Clooney's "Tenderly" and Frank Sinatra's "All Or Nothing At All" which was Sinatra's first solo hit.

Hearing his music now one can hear the sentiment of one who had to shield his life, or fight for its full acceptance, especially in "All Or Nothing At All" which has been recorded by Sinatra, Jimmy Scott, John Coltrane, Chet Baker and Diana Krall, to name just a few of its interpreters. Reading those lyrics it's easy to take it as an anthem of living and loving openly.

Lawrence died on March 16, 2009 at age 96 after a fall in his home in Redding, Connecticut. He was survived by Richard Debnam-Lawrence.

1915 – Gay diva and Jazz legend Billie Holiday was born today (d.1959). Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," "Fine and Mellow," and "Lady Sings the Blues." She also became famous for singing "Easy Living," "Good Morning Heartache," and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording.

Billie lived it up with a vengeance, and had a huge appetite for drink, drugs, men and women. She had an affair with actor and director Orson Welles, and also had a number of lesbian affairs - including one with Tallulah Bankhead. According to one of the later and better biographies she would call herself 'William' when she was sexually interested in a particular women.

STRANGE FRUIT Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, And the sudden smell of burning flesh! Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.

As Billie Holiday later told the story, a single gesture by a patron at New York's Café Society, in Greenwich Village, changed the history of American music in early 1939, the night when she first sang "Strange Fruit." Café Society was New York's only truly integrated nightclub outside Harlem, a place catering to progressive types with open minds. But Holiday was to recall that even there she was afraid to sing this new song, and regretted it, at least momentarily, when she first did. "There wasn't even a patter of applause when I finished," she later said. "Then a lone person began to clap nervously. Then suddenly everyone was clapping."

The applause grew louder and less tentative as "Strange Fruit" became a nightly ritual for Holiday, then one of her signature songs, at least where it could be safely performed. And audiences have continued to applaud this disturbing ballad, unique in Holiday's oeuvre and in the American popular- song repertoire, as it has left its mark on generations of writers, musicians, and listeners, both black and white. The late jazz writer Leonard Feather once called "Strange Fruit" "the first significant protest in words and music, the first unmuted cry against racism." Jazz musicians still speak of it with a mixture of awe and fear - "When Holiday recorded it, it was more than revolutionary," said the drummer Max Roach – and perform it almost gingerly. "It's like rubbing people's noses in their own shit," said Mal Waldron, the pianist who accompanied Holiday in her final years. A few years back a British music publication, Q Magazine, named "Strange Fruit" one of 10 songs that actually changed the world.

1919 – Theophilus Brown (d.2012) was an American artist. He became prominent as a member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

A descendant of early-American intellectuals, Brown was born in Moline, Illinois. His great-grandfather was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Brown's father was an inventor and chief designer, at the John Deere Company in Moline, Illinois.

While attending Yale University in the late-1930s, Brown met composer Paul Hindemith and poet May Sarton, with whom he would share lifetime friendships.

After graduating in 1941, Brown was drafted in World War II. Following his discharge, he began to study painting, moving between New York City and Paris, meeting an impressive range of artists that included Pablo Picasso, Braque, Giacometti, Balthus, and de Kooning, among others. Brown, who studied piano at Yale, was also close to a number of composers, including John Cage, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, and Igor Stravinsky.

In 1952 Brown enrolled in the graduate studio program at the University of California, Berkeley, joining a group of artists—including Richard Diebenkorn David Park, Elmer Bischoff, James Weeks, and Nathan Oliveira —that would later be known as the Bay Area Figurative Movement. While attending Berkeley, Brown also met and fell in love with his long-time partner and fellow-painter, Paul Wonner.

In the early 1960s, Brown and Wonner moved to Santa Monica, where they developed a close friendship with fellow gay couple, novelist Christopher Isherwood, and portrait artist Don Bachardy. Over the years, Brown and Wonner also fostered friendships with playwright William Inge, composer and conductor Andre Previn, actress Eva Marie Saint and her husband, director Jeffery Hayden, and New Zealand novelist Janet Frame.

Figurative 1964

In his later years, Brown still managed to paint daily. Theophilus Brown resided in San Francisco, California at the time of his death. Four months before his death, Brown gave an interview in which he fact-checked his Wikipedia entry. He found the entry accurate, on the whole, but termed his classification as an abstract expressionist "horseshit." He died in San Francisco, aged 92.

1966 – The first Gay Community Center in the United States opens. It is located in San Francisco, led by The Society for Individual Rights.

1991 – Travis Flores is an American activist, philanthropist, motivational speaker, actor and children's book author. He has been featured in works such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, Readers Digest: Selections, Charlie's Cancer Rescue and The Lemonade Stand. Flores has cystic fibrosis and has spoken very openly about it, having served as a spokesperson for various cystic fibrosis related fundraisers. He is best known for his charitable work with both the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and has donated a majority of his book's proceeds to the two organizations. To date, he has helped to raise over half a million dollars for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Flores also established his own organization in 2005, which provides laptops to chronically ill youth in hospitals.

When Flores was twelve years old, he began work with illustrator Michelle Ciappa to prepare his children's book, "The Spider Who Never Gave Up", for publishing. In 2004, after the book was published when Flores was thirteen, he began a motivational speaking and book tour. In the same year, June 18 was proclaimed by Mayor Michael Mullen as "Travis Flores Day" in Marietta, Ohio; a city near his hometown of Newport, Ohio. A year later, Flores partnered with Disney to print an edition of his book for a Make-A-Wish Foundation event, in which two million dollars was donated to the charity. The media attention and success of the event enabled Flores to extend his tour another two years.

Flores started college when he was sixteen years old and received his bachelor's degree in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College by the age of twenty. In 2010, during his work as an undergraduate student, he had the opportunity to work with Susan Batson on the Broadway workshops of the Tennessee Williams play, In Masks Outrageous and Austere. In 2012, the play opened at Culture Project theater in New York City, but Flores was no longer affiliated with the project. While working in New York City, he attended New York University and graduated in Spring of 2013 with a master's degree in Fundraising.

On March 3, 2015, Flores successfully received a double-lung transplant at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Following the operation, he continued his work in entertainment, and later underwent a second double-lung transplant October 3, 2017 at the same medical facility.

In May 2019, Flores came out as gay on the CW series MyLastDays, making him the first person to ever come out on the network. Flores currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his male partner. He continues to pursue his philanthropic outreaches, acting, and writing.

12 notes · View notes

tehriel · 8 months

Text

Moth and Flame (not Ghoul enough)

Behold, I have finished this fanfic, I am editing chapters as they come out.

Sodo/Dew x Reader primarily. Little Rain and Phantom x Reader too. Reader do just get around.

Mature, more plot over porn.

Tags: banter, attempts at humour, little violence, gore, really don't take this one seriously

Classic enemies to lovers romcom vibes. Not reinventing the wheel should be an easy read. The reader is a too-happy, sparkly ghoul who has been given the position of cardinal. Sodo is the bane of their entire existence; they are forced to work together. Gaffs ensue.

Deals with themes of being a people pleaser.

Below you can find the first chapter~

will probably repost when I have made a pretty cover for this one~

You hummed softly, swaying in the lazy light of early spring. You spun barefoot around your well-trodden paths of the greenhouse, which hid in the great shadow of the cathedral. Your waltz caused your tail to sweep the dirt floor and the skirts of your white cassock to flutter.

You stopped dead in your tracks. “Just look at you~” you chirped, pausing to admire one of your black roses. “Friend, you’re early; the ritual dance isn’t for another three weeks,” you tapped the early bloomer on the head. “Maybe I’ll dry you out so people can still enjoy all the work you’ve put into being pretty, hmm?” You pondered for a while before pouring some water from your watering can. The water ran red. The rose could not be happier.

“Cardinal _______,” came a soft call.

A smile slowly peeled over your face; your teeth were sharp, but your demeanour wasn’t threatening. “Sister Maria~” you sparkled and peered down from the balcony, “I’m in the roses—from memory, you liked my roses, hum?”

“O—o.. yes, Cardinal.” You were her Juliet on your balcony, and the small slight of a girl turned bright beet red.

You cocked your brow and gave her an unassuming grin. “Whatever has you so flustered, Sister?”

“N-nothing, uh, Papa Emeritus has sent for you, Cardinal.”

“And here I was thinking you’d come to see me, Sister,” you teased and picked up your snips from your tool table. “I’ll be down in a moment.” Your voice turned to whisper, “You want to go with her, huh? That’s why you were early, very sly of you.” You took the rose low on the stem and replaced your snips on the bench before walking down the spiral steps, flower in tow. “You look lovely today, Sister~” you twittered.

“Oh, t-thank you…” The scarlet of her cheeks contrasted her black habit.

You expertly dethorned the rose with quick claws. “Here you are,” you gave a short bow and offered the plant.

“T-thank you, Cardinal,” she stammered and looked away as she twirled the stem between her fingers.

“Anytime, Sister~ You know I appreciate your company~” You twinkled and danced around her, tail moving like a streamer in your wake. “Will you walk with me to see Papa~?”

“No-no, I’m needed in the kitchens today.”

You clicked your tongue, “Ah, too bad—and still, I think I can tell when you are helping out in the kitchens, the meals taste a little extra… mhhm.” You made the universal hand sign for ‘fucking delicious’.

“Oh, I just chop…”

“It’s not what goes in… it’s the way you smell,” you slowly flashed her your teeth.

She swallowed.

“Anyway~ I’ll see you later, Sister; enjoy your rose~” you beamed and near-skipped away to Papa Copia’s offices.

***

“Meet in Aeth’s room after practice?” Rain the water ghoul prompted the group of dark-clad ghouls in his soft-spoken voice.

“Yeah, you can all try my new brew,” Swiss’s grin was too big, it always was.

“Eugh, you didn’t make this one in your toilet again, right?” Aether wrinkled his nose.

“Noooo….” Swiss waved off in a way that everyone with ears could tell he was full of shit.

“Oh, you so did, fucking minging, man,” Aether was loud. His voice echoed up the polished marble hallway.

“Naw, come on, it adds to the-the… experience. It’s fucking powerful stuff—I’ve been bothering Papa for a distiller.”

“I don’t care about the minutia and the abience of your fucking toilet, man!” Aeth’s nose wrinkled.

“I cleaned it before I..”

“Brewed more fucking shit in it?” Aeth’s brows rose in a ‘are you kidding?’ manner.

“Well, I’m in,” Phantom shrugged, “pretty sure I’ve put worse things in my mouth.

“Pretty sure I’ve watched you put worse things in your mouth,” Aether slapped his shorter brother’s shoulder affectionately.

“Uh, hey guys, what are we talking about~?” You twinkled, stepping up to the group. Your white hooded cassock shone colours in the stained glass sunlight, a blinding contrast to their inky black formal ghoul’s uniforms.

“Oh…” is all Swiss said.

They all went dead quiet.

You felt the weight of it.

You watched them look at each other.

Even Phantom couldn’t look at you.

You nodded to yourself, “Uh, I was going to hang out in the forest later this week if anyone wanted to come?” You prompted, still smiling.

“Ah, busy week,” Aether stretched.

“Busy,” Swiss nodded. “Yeah, you know all this ritual prep,” Swiss waved.

“Phantom?” You smiled hopefully.

“Ah, nah, gonna have to take the L on this one, Cardinal… busy, uh, with them.” He pointed to the rest of the group.

“All uh, week?” You frowned.

“Yeah, yes.” Swiss nodded. “Alllll week, that Copia is a real slave driver.”

You nodded in a big way. “Ah, yeah… I get it, no, uh… probably more fun alone, right…? uh, trees and… yeah. Really absorb the… ambience,” You refused to let your smile die or show any disappointment.

“Anyway, we got a thing with Sodo, like right now, so…” Swiss thumbed.

“That’s right,” Phantom touched his forehead. “Almost forgot that.”

“Oh, cool, yeah, you guys have an awesome day, huh?” You nodded, still beaming as brightly as you could.

“Yes, will do!” Phantom gave a thumbs up but was already walking away.

There was a chorus of ‘bye’s, and they hurriedly walked away. Rain was last to move. “Sorry, Cardinal ______…” he murmured, turning away.

“You know you don’t have to call me that?” You called softly, knowing his grey, pointed ears would still hear you. “Just ______ is fine.”

“______,” he muttered but left anyway.

Your grin shakily gave out, and you sighed softly, watching the leaves dance and mar the light of the windows. You were alone.

***

“Ah, my beautiful Cardi _,” Copia brimmed and stood from his paper-littered desk. He might as well have swum up to you from the depths of ink and paperwork. Poor guy.

“Does not seem fair that I can no longer call you Cardi C, Papa,” you chuckled. “How are you today, Papa E~?”

He was in his comfy red sweats and simple dark eye makeup for a hard day in the office. “Ah yes, good-good. Come sit, my ghoul. You want a biscuit or perhaps a juice box?” He offered you the cookie jar on his desk as he always did.

You sat, your tail ending up politely in your lap as you waved off the biscuit; for some reason, you had no appetite. It definitely had nothing to do with what just happened in the hallway on your way here. “What can I help you with today, Papa~?” You twinkled.

“Naw, can’t I ask you into my office just to catch up?” His grin skewed the black of his painted upper lip.

“I know you wish you could, Papa,” you huffed a small sigh, missing when you were both cardinals and he had actual time on his hands. But humans grew up—and you just wouldn’t.

“I’m taking some holiday time soon, perhaps then, huh?”

“That is the best news I’ve heard all day~” you grinned. “Ooo ooooo, I gotta start planning!”

“Yes, I will book you in for a weekend, but until then, I want you to do something for me.”

“Hmm~? I’m listening.”

“I, uh, need the basement cleaned out and reorganised. I went down looking for what we need for the springtime ritual dance, and I really couldn’t find shit down there.”

“Not even a little turd?” You frowned.

“Very funny,” he said in a way that meant, ‘you’re not funny at all’.

You stood and stretched yourself out. “Last I checked, it’s a fucking hellscape down there; I think I’d know because, uh,” you pointed to the horns that popped out the top of your hood. “But I’ve got this~ Anything else, Papa?” You were already getting ready to leave, though. He just didn’t have time for you anymore, but if this made things easier for him, you were all too happy to help.

“Eh, yes, actually,” he looked away, and his leather-clad finger fiddled with a pen on his desk.

“You’re usually a little more forward about these things,” you chuckled and piqued a brow.

“What? Uh, nah.. it’s…” he cleared his throat. “Sodo will be helping you clear the basement.”

“Eh-what?” You felt your usually springy, chipper mood slipping.

“Sodo is going to be helping you out,” he repeated, but you had definitely heard him correctly the first time. You were praying for a bee to have maybe buzzed passed, and it sounded like people just saying stupid shit for some reason.

“Papa…” you eased. “Papa, this is where you say uh, ‘sike’, and we both laugh because he is an awful shit, and you would never trap me in a basement with him for weeks on end.”

“I am sorry, ______, I am aware of how you feel about him.”

“I am starting to think that may not be the case. Papa, Lucifer created him to be the size of a football for a reason.” You studied his mismatched eyes, trying to detect some kind of joke you were missing.

“A reason, Caro?”

“So that Baggio might one day kick him into the sun.”

Copia laughed before he could stop himself. “Ah, I love Baggio~”

“Come on, Papa, there has to be something more useful he could be doing, like uh, being a hamburger. I have a very good recipe if you ever consider….”

“______,” he shook his head and chuckled, “I’m sorry, it’s out of my hands; Sister caught him trying to set a fire in the abbey again…”

“Of course, he was,” you rolled your eyes. “He keeps saying there are cherubs in there…”

“He’ll be helping you out as punishment.”

“Punish himmmm! Not me! I can do this all so easily by myself.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love you both dearly,”

“I have no idea why…” you muttered under your breath.

“But I worry what would happen if he was in there alone and unsupervised with all our ritual decorations…”

“And the weapons locker,” you huffed, and your lip dropped. “He only has two brain cells, violence and dumb.”

“Naw, come now, Cardinal ______. I am still not wholly sure why you hate him so much.”

“He’s short, angry and mean,” you answered without thought.

“Mean?”

“Oh, you know, ‘______, if you love plants so much why don’t you marry one,’ orrr ‘______, maybe you should sew yourself a body bag next’ orrr ‘______, I get to make love to Swiss, and you don’t so… go eat worms.’ You know, things like this.”

Copia steepled his hands in thought. “I see. Maybe you could, uh, take time and ‘bond’ over this… at least hate each other a little less…”

“Bond? Bond?! Papa! I rather eat glass. I would rather strap on wings and ascend to whatever heaven the Trump supporters go to.”

“At the very least, you will have some more uh, comedic material, huh?”

You blew out your cheeks. “They say trauma makes a person very funny. Eugh, but I’ve already seen hell; why must I survive it here too?!”

“Ah, always so dramatic, my pretty ghoul.”

You gave him a face of utter disapproval.

“I’m afraid it’s my final say on the matter, ______. I believe the two of you can work out the basement without too much damage.”

You closed your eyes for a long time and sighed, “I understand this next ritual takes a lot of time and planning, so I will do this for you, Papa Copia—not for him. For you.”

“Thank you, my sweet ghoul. Perhaps I will take time to plan out our weekend, huh? As a reward for all this?”

“When did you ever get so charming?” You gave him a tight smile.

“Oh, uh, always~” he grinned.

“Right, let’s fucking get this done…”

“Hope you have a lovely day, Cardinal~”

“You too, Papa,” you sagged, opening the door. Your tail followed you limply out. Fucking shitty, fuck. Hell.

Thank you for reading friend! I hope you enjoyed it!!

#ghost bc #ghost #ghost fanfiction #the band ghost #reader x dewdrop #dew x reader #dew drop ghoul #sodo x reader #sodo fanfic #rain x reader #phantom x reader #rain ghost #phantom ghoul #phantom ghost #rain ghoul #sodo ghoul #tehriel writes

43 notes · View notes