#how does bee have time to beta all these i need her secret

[rereadanon]

Hello and welcome to another installment of

✨Ficlet Friday✨

As always, major thanks to our Beta Extraordinaire @gallawitchxx, I am forever grateful!

Mickey Gets a Massage

“You think a session with Sarah could help my shoulder?" Mickey quietly asked his husband in the dark one night, while they lay in bed.

“Probably. A massage would feel good even if it doesn’t make a huge difference in your shoulder,” Ian replied.

“Yeah,” Mickey sighed. 

Ian was a little taken aback, but then smiled widely. He thought about his trash-talking Southside husband and how different things were for them these days. Who would have guessed then that Mickey would even entertain the thought of getting a massage?

They had recently had dinner with Sandy and her girlfriend, Sarah. They had met Sarah casually before at various events, but this was their first time, just the four of them, so they had the opportunity to get to know her a little more.

“How didya get into massage?” Mickey had asked her. 

“I did sports medicine in college and took a course and was hooked. I like making people feel good.”

“Yeah ya do!” Sandy interjected with a classic Milkovich smirk. 

“Bet you get some weirdos, huh?” Mickey said.

“Not really, most of my clients are people I have seen for a while and on a regular basis, people with chronic conditions or old injuries that need upkeep,” Sarah informed him. 

It sparked an idea in Mickey’s mind. His left shoulder had been bothering him for a few weeks. They argued about what was causing it–Ian swore it was his use of the "Oh Shit!" handle on the driver's side of their armored vehicle. Mickey said it was due to carrying money and product bags. 

Friday around noon, Mickey returned from his very first massage. Ian was in the office at the warehouse, triple checking the weekend pickups, making sure they were all covered. Gallagher Milkovich Security had expanded enough that there was weekend staff, which allowed Ian and Mickey to have Saturday and Sunday off. 

“Ay,” Mickey said as he crossed through the office door. His hair was a little messy, but he looked relaxed, Ian able to recognize that look anywhere. 

“Hey, how was it? How do you feel?” Ian asked. 

“Pretty good, man. Weird as fuck to get naked and rubbed down in oil and not come my brains out, but it felt pretty good,” he replied. 

“Gonna shower.”

“Okay,” Ian responded, turning back to the color-coded calendar on the computer screen. 

Mickey left the room only to come back a couple of minutes later.

“You’re not joining?” 

“Didn’t want to undo all of Sarah’s hard work,” Ian said.

“You wouldn’t undo anything, a shower would be icing on the cake, man.”

“I’ll ice you like a cake,” Ian teased. 

“So come on, lover, let's go,” Mickey said with his eyebrow raised.

Ian jumped out of his chair so fast you would have thought it was on fire. 

#ficlet friday #turns out i can access my creativity only when I am fully relaxed #can you spot the FAFFY inspo? #shameless #gallavich #ian x mickey #how does bee have time to beta all these i need her secret

[legaciestold]

@myersbprd moved for beta from x

there’s no pause in her gait or incline of the half-breed’s body back in his direction upon john’s words and yet the smirk of which plays upon her alluring features encompasses the entirety of the space. it radiates from her like a bee’s pheromone, secreting into the space. she knows he has no intentions of indulging her by going into the bedroom with less than boyscout intensions yet there’s some mental triumphant in the fact he’s the one that goes to her bedroom first, that he’ll be in it, that he’ll recall the space. that if he thinks about her at all in the time he’s away from her his mind will dredge up her apartment, herself, and give him an image of her silky sheets to boot. if he was someone else she might use more to drive him toward her, might even play upon his dreams to bring forth a fantasy. she couldn’t be faulted for it really, she was a succubus, it was part of her, it was the call of survival, of need. and yet, she doesn’t use her powers on him, she never does even though she easily could. no. when it came to john she allowed their attraction-- and she was aware, even if he didn’t want to her be, of the fact he too harbored an attraction toward her; there were things she could innately sense by virtue or lack there of what she was, plus he didn’t hide it as well as he thought he did-- to dictate the flow of their meetings. she held no doubt that one day he’d give in and was content with the little game they played in the here and now. except, did she want him to give in or did she want more than that from him? it wasn’t a question she was willing to allow herself to ask or even contemplate. 

ellie steps to the side, allows him into her room first before she’s stepping in behind him and seating herself on the edge of the bed, arms out just behind her as she leans back and watches him. her entire demeanor is unconcerned and ellie finds it somewhat amusing that she knows it irks him because even if he isn’t voicing it, even if he knows what she’s capable of, hell-- what she is, he’s still concerned for her. 

how sweet. 

maybe one day she’d tell him as much without pushing it off as teasing him for it. 

the room is in disarray, perhaps even more so than the rest of the rather large apartment. corporate law had been kind to her. so had her father’s estate once she proved she hadn’t been dead. (she had been for a time, but the humans hadn’t needed to know that.)

head tilts to the side as he questions if anything is missing and ellie doesn’t answer him right away, gaze washing over the book he picks up instead. the pages are torn out and it causes the faintest ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ micro expression to cross her features. her jaw tightens, eyes narrow slightly. she’s verging passed annoyance into something closer to anger because the book in question wasn’t one of the nothing law books or actual first editions that littered the shelves of her living room-- the kinds of books one would expect a money making corporate lawyer to have at home. no, it was a botany book that if one truly took the time to observe closely had her surname on the binding where the author’s name was. it was a book her father had published and while there were many that could replace it, that one had been the first copy printed, her father showing her it proudly when she was a little girl untouched by death or hell.

she lets her hands slide across the bed, dropping her weight into the sheets in a bored kind of huff, eyes on the ceiling as the fan seems to turn on on it’s own and cause a soft wind in the room that stirs the pages on the floor. 

“it’s not the worst thing that’s happened to me by far. it’s just stuff, i can buy more of it. but--” a pause before her head turns toward him and seems to soften slightly. “-- i uh, appreciate you saying that.” it’s an honest response, a shared (brief) moment where one could almost forget she wasn’t human-- not completely, maybe not at all anymore-- and he wasn’t an agent but they were two people, two maybe even friends, dealing with the aftermath of a break in. 

it didn’t last though. 

not when her eyes drift passed him toward the corner of the dresser that’s askew from the wall. suddenly she’s not thinking about her reactions before she makes them, isn’t schooling her features as a look of.. alarm, maybe even fear (or is it distress?) takes over her face and for maybe the first time in a long time makes her seem so very.. human. she bolts upright and pushes off the bed, brushing passed him to kneel on the ground and push the dresser so it moved about a foot forward to reveal a now empty space where a depression in the wall behind it had been. the only indication left to infer anything had been there was a line of ripped fabric or trim that had been snagged on the metal that looked an awful lot like it may have been part of a kid or baby’s blanket because of the torn images on it. 

ellie doesn’t speak, not right away. no, she grows still, frighteningly so. it’s a contrast to the ceiling fan which seems to be moving faster and the flicker of the light in the middle of it casting shadows across the room. and while ellie is still, somehow, it’s the most unfiltered reaction she’s ever had in front of him. the light sparks and then bursts inside the fan’s glass dome followed by the fan coming to a halt with a swing, the only light in the room then coming from the open door.

finally, she rises, the fabric curled into her hand and hidden from any closer inspection from him. “they didn’t take anything that would lead to a reason they were here.” her words are careful even in the sudden haze she finds herself in. her statement is true, there is no reason what was taken would reveal a why for the break in, but the fact did remain, something however likely unrelated, was taken. 

“i think you should--” go. for perhaps the first time in their interactions she wants to tell him to leave because her emotions are spiraling in a way she can’t predict. there’s cracks on the surface she doesn’t want him to see. it’s so unlike her, so far from the confident demon she’d been only minutes before and yet, she can’t actually say the word because she doesn’t want to be alone with the wellspring of chaos that’s surging through her. it’s a contradiction in of itself. she wants him gone, to not see her like this especially when she held no intentions of revealing anything to him in words, she wants him there all the same, and ellie hates herself for even reacting in the first place. 

#myersbprd #muse; ellie hellstrom #v; main

[zillennial97]

My All-Time Favorites | Larry Fanfic Recs

*these works are the closest to my heart and my best recommendations*

Hiding Place by alivingfire | 365k | Explicit

Louis never wanted a soulmate, didn’t really care for the whole Bonding thing at all, really. Enter Harry Styles, who’s wanted to be Bonded for as long as he could remember. With one fateful meeting in an X Factor bathroom, Louis gets a dagger on his arm and the realization that just because Harry is his soulmate doesn’t mean it’s mutual.

From the X Factor house to Madison Square Garden, from the Fountain Studios stage to stadiums across the world, Louis has to learn to love without losing himself completely, because someday his best friend will Bond to someone and replace Louis as the center of his universe. Meanwhile, Harry begins to think that maybe fate doesn’t actually know what it’s doing after all, because his other half has clearly been right in front of him the whole time. All he has to do now is convince Louis to give them a chance.

Or, the canon compliant Harry and Louis love story from the very beginning, where the only difference is that the love between them is literally written on their skin, and there’s only so much they can hide.

And Then a Bit by infinitelymint | 158k | Explicit

“We’d like to give the fans what they want.” Magee states, placing his hand on the table in front of him and leaning forward. “We want to give them Larry Stylinson.”

Or, take a parallel universe where Louis and Harry were never together, mix in a two year hiatus and an impending comeback, pour in a dash of lost fans, two tablespoons of strong friendship and a Modest! employee with a good idea. Add a squeeze of pretending to be a couple, lots of kisses and a tattoo or two. Stir. Serve: the mother of all publicity stunts.

(aka Harry and Louis fake a relationship for publicity. Eventually it becomes a lot less fake and a lot more real.)

Walk That Mile by purpledaisy | 149k | Explicit

Harry stares at him, the line of his jaw standing out scarily. “I wanted to get the most out of this trip so I planned it carefully.” His voice is low and steady and somehow that’s worse than when he was yelling. “So far, you’ve put your sticky fingers on everything I’ve tried to do.”

“Sticky fingers?” Louis repeats, offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault you got stung by a bee? Had you been alone you would have gotten halfway to the Dotty Diner and ran the car off the road because of an allergic reaction, so don’t go blaming me.”

“Polk-A-Dot Drive In,” Harry spits before getting out of the car. He slams the door shut with a deafening reverb and Louis rolls his eyes.- A Route 66 AU where falling in love was never part of the plan.

Unbelievers by isthatyoularry | 136k | Explicit

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

California Sold by isthatyoularry | 123k | Mature

Notoriously closeted boyband member Harry Styles is famous on a global scale, meanwhile Louis, as his best friend, is back home in Manchester, living the typical life of a 24 year old. When Harry needs Louis with him in LA, a publicity stunt gone wrong changes their friendship forever.

A fake-relationship AU between two lifelong best friends.

Fucking Animals by pointerbrother | 116k | Explicit

“Just, off the record,” she says, voice lower, eyes sharper, crook of her mouth quirking up a little, “don’t you ever miss it? A good knot? You must.”

Louis blinks and then swallows, thickly. “No,” he exclaims, offended that she’d even ask, “I love my husband. And anyway, how could I miss something I’ve never had?”

---

Louis is the frontman of an equal rights-movement, author of a book about beta-omega marriage and the struggles of being born and boxed into a personality you don't necessarily feel you fit. The notion that an omega must want to be with an alpha or else he or she's just settling for less, is bullshit.

But, fucking hell.

we're not friends, we could be anything by nooelgallagher, yoursongonmyheart | 115k | Explicit

Louis narrows his eyes at Harry. “What that supposed to be a fucking joke?”

Harry narrows his eyes right back. “It was a good joke.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Jokes require laughter, Curls.” Louis glances down at Harry’s thighs again, Christ. “Your pants must be so tight they’re restricting airflow to your brain.”

Harry wipes a bead of sweat off his forehead. “Pretty sure yoga is supposed to increase airflow, blood flow, and all that,” he responds dryly, finally jumpstarting himself and walking away from Louis towards his own bedroom.

Louis can’t help but stare at his broad back, still sheen with drying sweat, and his perky bum in the tight yoga pants.

Louis swallows. Christ.

...Or, the one where Harry and Louis are unlikely uni flatmates who definitely don't like each other and definitely won't fall in love (even if Liam and Niall think otherwise).

Tired Tired Sea by MediaWhore | 113k | Mature

As a B&B owner on the most remote of all the British Isles, Louis Tomlinson is used to spending the coldest half of the year in complete isolation, with his dog and the sea as sole companions. Until, one day, a mysterious stranger on a quest to rebuild himself rents a room for the winter.

Our Lives, Non-Fiction by indiaalphawhiskey | 113k | Explicit

Heralded as the next Neil Gaiman, Louis Tomlinson does not appreciate being told that his very serious novel is in dire need of a PR boost. Even worse, that it comes in the form of a joint book tour with the UK’s #1 online romance-writing sensation Marcel Styles. Already turbulent at best, their partnership takes a drastic turn when, overly stressed about his looming deadline, Marcel accidentally blurts out a secret: though he’s famed for his scorching hot literary love scenes, he is, actually, a virgin.

Convinced that the only way to rid himself of writer’s block is to gain some experience, Marcel asks Louis, author-to-author, to sleep with him – for Science. And of course Louis agrees because, well, what on Earth could possibly go wrong?

Or, a lesson in romance that proves that sometimes the best love stories aren’t always by the book.

You’ve Got My Devotion (Hate You Sometimes) by lucythegoosey | 95k | Explicit

Harry was in the biggest boy band in the world. He was also one half of the best (or worst, depends on who you ask) kept secret relationship in the music industry.

Now, almost five years on, after One Direction has broken up, and Harry and Louis' relationship has as well, a video threatens to put everything at risk.

One determined Irishman, a massive publicity stunt and two begrudging exes are all it takes to bring One Direction back to life and maybe, just maybe, Harry and Louis' mangled love life too.

Or: Harry and Louis are forced to fake-date after an old video from when they were dating emerges.

This Wicked Game by cherrystreet | 70k | Explicit

An AU in which The Bachelor is gay, Louis is a contestant, Harry is the bachelor, everyone drinks a lot of champagne, the entire world gets to watch them fall in love, and no one plays by the rules.

Christmas-ing With You by dolce_piccante | 65k | Mature

Two writers from Loving Heart Television, the premiere network for holiday romance films, find that, sometimes, love is not only in their works of fiction.

Barefoot in Blue Jeans by indiaalphawhiskey | 24k | Explicit

AU. Louis Tomlinson is trying desperately hard not to fall for his son’s au pair, but he can’t, for the life of him, remember why.

475. The hope that this fear is unfounded.

#larry fanfiction recommendations #larry fanfic rec #larry fic #larry fanfiction #larry stylinson #louis tomlinson #harry styles #one direction fanfiction #one direction fanfic recs #larry fanfiction masterpost

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

@dressrosaa and anyone else unfamiliar with pretty little liars, a postmodern tone poem about girlhood and violence, an experiment in storytelling divorced from linear time about how all cops are bastards and dads are even worse, one of the most bafflingly homophobic pieces of media i have ever seen despite the fact that the showrunner for all seven seasons is literally a lesbian like GIRL are you OKAY blink twice for I NEED THERAPY:

pretty little liars tells the story of four friends: spencer hastings (deranged genius/former and future speed addict, perfect); hanna marin (blonde shoplifter/recovering bulimic, an angel we don’t deserve); emily fields (gay swimmer, has no personality but it’s hard to tell if that’s because pll is homophobic or because shay mitchell CANNOT act but is almost hot enough to make up for it); and aria montgomerry (the fucking goddamn worst i know it’s wrong to hold this much hate in my heart for a sixteen year old who spends the ENTIRE show being sexually preyed upon but in my defense it is fiction and frankly barely even that; truly the relationship between pretty little liars and our normal human understanding of narrative is tenuous at best; the point is if aria were real she would be deserving of infinite compassion but she is not so she just sucks). a year after their queen bee alison disappears, her body is found, at which point they all start getting texts from the mysterious “A,” who knows their secrets with NSA-bugging-a-therapist’s-office precision and seems to have nothing to do in life other than to torture them into constantly endangering themselves or betraying each other or doing other horrible things that will then hang over their heads for 800 years.

PLL is sort of like what if a classic dead blonde whodunit has a nightmare octopus baby with jj abrams “mystery box” storytelling spliced together with a sense of pacing even more deranged than the magicians at its most unhinged; the reason i make so many jokes about its lack of interest in physical spacetime is because it’s technically canon that two and a half entire seasons, during which among other things spencer has a nervous breakdown and an addiction relapse and goes to rehab and then gets out of rehab T W I C E, takes place between the first week of school and thanksgiving break. it is not by any means a “good” show and it’s pretty clear that any “ideas” in it were there by accident, but watching 6 seasons in a month was one of the most enthralling television experiences of my life, and it really does love to remind you that no men on earth are good (*except for hanna’s street rat hacker boyfriend caleb played by tyler blackwell whose face makes me feel extremely safe who is the most perfect dreamboat in the history of televisual dreamboats). part of its unhinged M. O. is of course keeping you constantly guessing about who “A” is, taking you through like 7000 red herring reveals (along with some real reveals later retconned as beta-A’s working for the real A - i’m telling you this shit is fucking nuts) in which we spend a couple episodes thinking (if we have never watched a television show before) that so and so must be A, only to have their nefarious behavior explained away by some other mechanism.

i’m giving this context because i am taking your inquiry about the throwaway reference i made as a chance to explain my favorite of the A fake-outs, which centers on ezra fitz. who is ezra fitz? he is a demon in human disguise. he beats out craig manning on degrassi for worst fictional boyfriend in the history of teen melodrama. he is a dude who macks on a fifteen-year-old aria montgomery at a bar the weekend before school starts and then turns out to be, surprise! HER ENGLISH TEACHER. because the show, despite being incredible and amazing and iconic, is also very bad, their relationship, which goes on and off the entire seven seasons and winds up endgame, is sold as like a torrid and angsty secret affair, and not the creepiest thing that has ever happened. despite the fact that ezra is the closest the show has to a male lead and played by the second hottest dude on it, in season 4 they were running out of A candidates and started giving us shady clues to ezra’s shadiness, discovered and mostly put together by spencer, who simultaneously was coping with the stress of trying to get into an ivy league college while also saving herself and her friends, all of whom take turns sharing one brain cell leaving her to do all the thinking, from the constant assault of a blackmailing emotional terrorist who at this point has also tried to kill them several times. one time aria winds up in a box on a train next to a dead body and also it’s halloween and adam lambert is performing on the train, god when riverdale season 1 was good i thought riverdale was like what if pretty little liars but on purpose but with the benefit of hindsight clearly PLL had what riverdale fucking WISHES it could.

in order to deal, spencer has fallen on her old pill-popping ways (for, just to reiterate, the second time after leaving a mental institution in the span of like 10 weeks), and JUST as she is on the verge of really PROVING that their english teacher is A, she suffers a stimulant-induced psychotic break i.e. gives the show their framing device for doing a Theme Episode around the theme of Film Noir, where everything is in black and white and everyone talks funny. you can watch a clip here to get the flavor. sidebar at this point alison has appeared to every single character i think and it’s like still fully a mystery whether they all individually hallucinated her at times of stress or if she’s secretly alive. once again this show owns.

anyway her friends totally freak on spencer when she tells them her theory, because she is literally the only person in town with a brain, but then we get this amazing episode where aria (a child) is at her english teacher’s cabin for the weekend and he’s acting exactly like a serial killer the entire time and she starts to have doubts and has a very tense ski lift ride with him and THEN! THEN what’s amazing is that ezra is NOT A, but in explaining why he has been acting so shady despite not being A they manage to somehow make him not ONLY worse than an english teacher who was fucking his high school student but ALSO make him POSSIBLY WORSE THAN AN ACTUAL MURDERER IMO, because it turns out that he met alison briefly before she died/fake died and then got obsessed with her death and SO he came to town and got a job at the school AND MADE OUT WITH THIS DEAD TEENAGE GIRL’S EQUALLY TEENAGE FRIEND IN THE BAR THAT DAY AND PURSUED A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HER AS HER ENGLISH TEACHER.............................................. IN ORDER TO DO RESEARCH FOR A TRUE CRIME BOOK. LITERALLY the most incredible thing i have ever witnessed on television. it’s SO incredible and PLL is SO far from being what you could call a “normal” “story” that my love for it is not even diminished by the fact that aria eventually takes him back because this show is evil and she is stupid (again i would NOT say that of an ACTUAL child victimized by an english teacher/pathetic truman capote wannabe, but aria is made up and not around to hear about how bad she sucks and i hate her) (my god she’s so bad guys like you simply cannot watch the show and retain empathy for her it WILL break you). it does help that in between those things ezra gets his dumb ass shot. yeah for “love” or whatever but like he deserved it i’m not gonna complain.

anyway i hope that helps clarify matters. just to stress the important part, this is not in the top 10 most deranged things that happened on this show. one time A snuck into a dentist’s office and knocked hanna out with laughing glass and implanted a tiny strip of paper in her gums which when the liars extracted it later read DEAD GIRLS DON’T SMILE. another time for a fashion show they were getting dressed up and one of them realized she was wearing a corset made of human finger-bones. they all go to jail because they have been framed but then on the way to jail they get kidnapped in an underground bunker styled to look like their childhood bedroom where A makes them milgram experiment each other for three weeks. watching this show will literally change the structures of your brain. i heard it’s finally legal in oregon now.

#pll

[tbehartoo]

Cocoa, Cuddles & Kisses

Word count: around 7400

Rating: General, though there’s lots of kisses and cuddling as per the title.

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Ladybug]/ Chat Noir [Adrien Agreste], Tikki, Plagg

On AO3

For @dappercookiexd for ML Secret Santa 2019 exchange. I hope you like some cuddly MariChat this Christmas time.

Thanks to @platypan for help with shaping and beta’ing this fic. Also thanks to the Bear for her beta help. NGL I lost my beatas on the last third. For some reason they didn’t want to stay up till 2 am with me. Who knew? I really hope you like this. Please, enjoy!

***

Summary:

Marinette and Ladybug have had a talk. Ladybug has agreed that if any of the squad need a place to rest, or to recharge their kwami, then Marinette’s new apartment with its screened-in porch, no one to see a hero come or go, and a mini-fridge stocked with anything that the kwamis may need to recharge is an acceptable safe haven. It’s only to be used in case of emergency, of course, but it is available to any Miraculous holder in need. Amazingly, Chat Noir has a sudden need to see his Princess. 

Meanwhile, Marinette and Tikki have also had a talk about Chat. They’ve talked about secret identities, what a relationship needs to grow, and how Chat might fit into the picture of the future. His visit tonight might end up bringing him more than hot cocoa and sweet snuggles.

***

“What do you think, Tikki?” Marinette asked the little godling snuggled up in her fluffy scarf. “Do you think I have something for everybody?”

Tikki nuzzled Marinette’s cheek before dashing through the cold winter air to check the contents of the mini-fridge. She hurried back and quickly dove between the scarf and Marinette’s neck causing the young woman to shudder.

“Looks like you have something for every kwami that’s been used in the last three months,” Tikki squeaked as she pulled the scarf tighter around her shivering form. “I see you added some water and a few sports drinks for the humans. You even got the Le 5 Frères Camembert that Plagg said he loved last time he visited.” Her tone clearly indicated that she thought Marinette was spoiling her counterpart. “You know you don’t have to win Plagg’s approval to date his chosen, right?”

“Tikki!” Marinette huffed as she closed the fridge. “That’s enough talk like that,” she felt her cheeks warm, so distracted herself by checking that the sun screens she’d hung yesterday were indeed sheltering her small patio from any prying eyes or camera lenses. “I’m not trying to get’s Plagg’s permission to date Chat,” she protested. The small scoff from her kwami was not missed by Marinette. “Plagg is as important to Chat’s ability to do his job as you are to Ladybug’s. I just want him to be as fully powered as he can be to protect Chat from the akumas.” She patted the lump snuggled between her shoulder and her jaw. “I don’t see you protesting the Valrhona chocolate I use in your cookies,” she teased.

“Hmph,” Tikki replied.

Marinette chuckled even as she looked around for anything else she could do to make the space inviting. Everything seemed in order. There was a comfortable lounge chair and a small side table with a basket holding tightly sealed snacks that were clearly labeled with an expiration date. 

She shook her head as she remembered Chat and Carapace daring each other to eat the seemingly innocuous bag of Pasquier pancakes that had been left on a rooftop with a thank you note to the heroes. It wasn’t until each of the boys had already consumed a couple of the cold pancakes that Carapace brought out a moldy specimen that had both her and Queen Bee pulling faces and wanting to get as far away from the bag as possible. Close inspection of the package cleared up the non-mystery. It had expired over five months before they found it and a small tear in the bottom had let the microbes in to feast on their gift. Marinette vowed that all of the snacks left out on the table would never be there for longer than a week. 

She checked off more items on her mental list of things Miraculous holders or their kwami might need. Inside the table’s one drawer was a well stocked first-aid kit along with instructions for some of the basic splinting and bandaging techniques she had found necessary to master during longer akuma battles.  A thick wool blanket hung over the back of the chair along with a small cushion. She’d made sure the fairy lights hung around the ceiling of the space would automatically turn on as soon as it got dark enough to need a light to see. Of course, Chat wouldn’t need the light but some of the others didn’t have his night vision. 

Was she still missing something? She sighed. Maybe a heater? She probably wouldn’t know until after the members of the Miraculous Squad actually used it. She slid the screen door open easily, but had a more difficult time getting the heavy glass door to move.

“I guess I’ll need to look and see what’s making that stick before we leave on patrol tonight,” she muttered as she pushed it closed behind her.

“Are you still planning on inviting them tonight then?” Tikki asked with a yawn. She didn’t immediately leave the warmth of Marinette’s scarf. On cold winter days she preferred to snuggle up with her chosen as much as possible instead of flying around.

“Yeah--it’ll be the best time since everyone will be at the meet up.” Marinette went to her kitchen and filled her electric kettle with water. “And I can always let the temporary holders know where to come when I give them their Miraculous,” she paused in taking down a mug. “Tik?” there was an edge to her voice now.

Tikki hummed to indicate she was listening.

“Do you think it’s time for me to reveal to Chat who I am?” She frowned. “After all, I’ve been the Guardian for seven years now. It’s ridiculous that I know who everyone that’s used a Miraculous is--except for Chat,” she grumbled. “He knows who everyone is, except for me!” She slammed a cupboard door. “Don’t you think it’s been long enough?” At Tikkis’s raised brows she continued, “There’s got to be some sort of statute of limitations on the ‘You can’t know the black cat’s true identity’ prohibition, right?” Tikki still didn’t say anything just looked steadily at her Chosen.  “For kwami’s sake it’s not like I’m a kid any more. And I’ve known Every. Single. Holder.  Everyone since Hawkmoth’s appearance,” she amended. Tikki’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Well,” she thought back, “there were the few times Chat has been the one passing out a kwami, but those were rare.”

Tikki’s giggle surprised her. “Even then you usually knew,” she pointed out, “since Chat came to Marinette for help most of those times.”

Marinette quickly hunched her shoulders as heat started to burn her neck and ears. “Yeah, Chat really trusts Marinette to have his back,” she said quietly.

“Of course he does,” Tikki said as she emerged to nuzzle Marinette’s cheek. “He’s been coming to you for a listening ear, a gaming partner, a creative sounding board, and more. He’s come to you as a friend quite a lot, especially lately.” She flew back to look Marinette in the eye. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that your “hanging with my friend who needs a friend” nights have practically turned into one long cuddle sessions as soon as he comes through the door and doesn’t stop until he has to leave. Or that there are more nights in a month when he visits than not.”

“Tikki,” Marinette groaned as her face flamed. “You know that boy is just touch starved. He needs all the--appropriate affection he can get.” She hoped her emphasis on the word would stop the direction of this discussion.

“Doesn’t mean he couldn’t use some inappropriate affection from you,” Tikki said with a grin before shooting off toward her nest on top of Marinette’s bookcase. “I’ve seen how you look at him when he’s not looking at you,” she called over her shoulder.

“Tikki,” Marinette called as she chased after the little godling. “That’s not--” She tried again. “I wasn’t talking about that,” she protested.

“But it’s what you meant to ask about,” Tikki replied from atop the bookcase. Leaning out of her warm tangle of fabrics and peeking over the shelf she continued, “You want to know if you can start a romantic relationship with Chat without telling him the one really big secret that he absolutely needs know if you are to be truly intimate with him.”

That startled Marinette. “You do think I should tell him,” she stated carefully.

“I didn’t say that,” Tikki’s eyes lost some of their twinkle. “I said that he should know your full identity if you are going to have a more personal relationship.” She rested her chin on her hands staring down at Marinette. “A romantic relationship brings added layers and complications to anyone involved,” she warned. “Not disclosing that you are Ladybug will only serve to muddy your communication, which is something that could drive a wedge between you two and is something our enemies will exploit.” 

Marinette looked away from the kwami. She knew this of course, but it was so strange for Tikki to suddenly seem in favor of a reveal when she’d so often stressed the importance of keeping her superhero identity a secret.

“Chat and I communicate just fine,” she said, challenging Tikki’s last comment. “Just last week we were talking about the futures we want to build and we both agreed that a lone dwarf hamster is a sad dwarf hamster and that it would be totally irresponsible to not have two.” She looked back at Tikki. “I think Chat’s future and mine would mesh nicely.”

Tikki nodded before she spoke. “That’s true, but you haven’t been able to be totally honest about a lot of things you’ve discussed. With good reason,” she hurried to add. “I want to give you the benefit of my millennia of existence. Open and honest communication isn’t always easy, it can be painful at times even, but...Marinette. Communication is one of the most important factors in a relationship that grows and thrives, versus one based on lies and half truths that can only shrivel and die.” She gave Marinette a tiny smile. “And I only want the best for my bugs.”

Marinette stared at Tikki as the immortal embodiment of creation waggled her eyebrows and antennae.

“oh.” What else could she say? “Okay then.” She did an about face, and paced off toward the kitchen. “I guess that’s settled.”

“Is it?” Tikki asked as she snuggled back into her nest. 

“Yeah,” Marinette said heading back to make her tea. “If Chat wants to change our relation-” her breath caught, but she pressed on, “--our relationship to something a little more- well more, then I’ll tell him about Ladybug.” She nodded even as she drew a shaky breath. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll stay just Marinette to him. Just his friend. Only a really good friend.” She frowned at the thought. “I don’t want to be just Marinette to him, but if he’s not ready or doesn’t want me I’ll have to be okay with it,” she told her box of tea as she took out the scoop to fill her infuser. Her mind raced along those lines as she waited for the leaves to steep.

“He might not want me, Tikki,” Marinette said as she walked past the book case to get to her workstation. “I mean he might not want me to be more than just a friend. After all,” she set the mug down, “--he’s not been as flirty with Ladybug lately. He’s still polite and charming, but he’s really backed off on the flirting.”

“Gee, Marinette, I wonder why that might be,” Tikki said dryly as she rushed to Marinette’s drink to snuggle up to the warmth. “He’s come a long way from when he was posing mid-fight and insisting you show up for roof top dinners you told him you couldn’t attend.”

Marinette smiled at her tiny friend. “You’re right about that, but that was way back at the beginning.” 

“I think Marinette crying to Chat about the guy that wouldn’t take “no” for an answer might have helped,” Tikki drawled.

Marinette couldn’t stop the giggle. “Yeah, I only had to tell him about it once and that nonsense stopped right away.” She grew pensive. 

“I don’t know Tikki,” she struggled to put her thoughts into any kind of logical order--the harassment and the playing stopped back then, but it still seemed like Chat and Ladybug were friends. They were really good friends, but very professional. Now she saw more of those sweet, real smiles when he visited Marinette than when he worked with Ladybug. True, his appreciation for Ladybug and trust in her had grown deeper. On the other hand, his smiles and hugs were only for Marinette these days. “What if he doen’t like Ladybug anymore? In a romantic way,” she added. “I know he loves Ladybug as his partner, but seven years is a long time to be holding on to a crush.”

Tikki just shook her head and nuzzled Marinette’s cheek. “Only one way to know for sure,” she said. “You’ll have to ask him.” Tikki did an aerial loop-the-loop that brought Marinette’s attention back from the middle distance of worry and over thinking. “Didn’t you want to work on that commission before we have to leave for patrol?” she asked sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, Tikki. Thanks.” She gave her kwami a kiss on her forehead. “Thanks for everything.”

***

Marinette awoke with a start. She looked around the small living room of her new apartment to figure out what had brought her out her cozy doze in front of the tv. Since she had just moved in her brain still had to recognize where she was before it could figure out what had been off enough to alert her. There! As expected, a soft knock of knuckles on glass. She let out a moan as she stretched. 

“My, my, who ever could that be,” she yawned as sarcastically as possible.

She stood, draped the lap blanket around her shoulders to keep in the warmth, and walked to the balcony door. As she unlocked it she looked out to see nothing but glowing green eyes and a bright white smile in the dim glow of her fairy lights. She returned the smile, delighted that her precautions for creating a Rescue Room had made it so that the heroes would be able to safely visit. 

“Good evening, Princess,” Chat said with a low bow as the door opened.

“Get in here, Chat." She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. "It’s too cold for bows," she grumbled as she strained to close the door.

"Well aren't you eager to get one of Paris's premier heroes through the door tonight?" he asked as he righted himself from the pull. He saw her struggling to get the big glass door completely closed and gently nudged her aside. With ease he slid the door into the frame and locked it. Turning to her like a cat that got the cream he wiggled his eye brows at her. “No thanks for saving the day, Princess?”

“I’m more eager to keep the cold air out, than to get you in,” she grumbled.

The young man pouted for a brief moment, but couldn’t hold back his need to smile at the woman in front of him. Marinette instantly grinned back, then schooled her face as she listened to his words.

“Ladybug told the group at our weekly briefing that you’d opened your home to us, should we need a place to detransform and recharge our kwami while on patrol,” he said while grabbing the hand nearest to him. “I wanted to thank you, personally, for such a kind and needed offer.” He brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed the back of her fingers. 

Marinette began to blush, something she hadn’t done in Chat’s presence in years. 

“I believe Ladybug only said that my very well hidden and screened in porch would be an excellent place to use in case of emergency,” she said as she squeezed the hand holding her own. “And that the minifridge and basket I have out there is available to any kwami or holder that actually needs it.” Her raised eyebrows clearly indicating that she knew he wasn’t speaking the whole truth.

He nodded while holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. Marinette mourned the loss of contact, but tried to listen attentively to his words. 

“Yes, those are the words that Ladybug passed on,” he agreed, “But what I heard was more along the lines of the spirit of your words.” He tilted his head and fluttered his eyelashes at her.  “Are you saying that you didn’t invite us over? That we aren’t welcome to visit as long as the porch lights are on? That you’re going to throw this poor stray out into the cold, dark night?”

“Ugh,you can turn the kitty eyes off,” she said with a chuckle as she used her hands to obscure his face. He caught her hands at the wrists and lowered them to his chest. “You know you are always welcome here,” she said with a huff. She wiggled a hand free to point a finger in his grinning face, “But you heroes are really only supposed to use my balcony in case of emergency. Like running out of foods to recharge your kwami, or needing to bandage an arm.” 

He looked guilty at that last remark. Their enemies now had weapons that could pierce the Miraculous armor. Which they’d found out only last month when Hawkmoth’s rapier had slashed his arm wide open.

“This is an emergency,” he said seriously.

Marinette hid her smile in her blanket as she asked, “Really? What emergency brings you to my humble abode?”

“It’s dark and cold outside?” 

She shook her head no.. 

“It’s been more than half a month since I last saw you?” 

Marinette didn’t bother to stop her eye-roll. He tried yet another angle. 

“I’m seriously deficient in both hot cocoa and cuddles?” His grin was almost comical and he waggled his eyebrows at her after this announcement. “You know that we haven’t been able to do preventative emotional support-”

“Treats and a movie with platonic hugging,” she supplied.

“--in over two weeks,” he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “My badness and sadness readings are getting to dangerous levels and my kwami has threatened to put hairballs in all of my shoes if I don’t get some time in with my friends.”

Marinette’s face dropped at that last word, but she quickly rallied. She and Chat had often found rather overly dramatic ways to ask for physical affection. It might be tight hugs after a difficult battle, sitting close while playing video games, or playing silly hand clapping games they found on Youtube, but when there was a necessity for some friendly interaction they found safe and silly ways to ask for what they needed.

“What?!” She made sure to gasp dramatically while clutching at nonexistent pearls, and his face broke into a smile. “Oh no! How could we let this happen?” She grabbed Chat’s hand and pulled him toward her small kitchen area. “We must remedy this situation immediately.”

She threw the blanket around his shoulders and watched with some amusement as he snuggled his face into the velvety fabric. She was switching on her electric kettle and pulling out mugs as large as soup bowls before he had time to blink. She pointed to a drawer and Chat immediately opened it to find a tray of silverware. He pulled out two spoons and handed them over.

Marinette busied herself with opening up packets of cocoa and digging out the containers of toppings, especially the micro-marshmallows, she knew Chat preferred. Chat passed the time looking through her cabinets and shelves, with her nodded permission of course. He even took a moment to peek in the fridge, getting familiar with his friend’s new kitchen layout.

“This is almost ready,” Marinette said as she replaced the kettle on its base while stirring the contents of one cup. “How do you feel about cocoa, cuddles, and Project Runway DVR?”

“First of all, I love me some Dupain-Cheng hot cocoa! Nothing beats the way you doctor up those ready made packets of chocolate. And cuddles? Love ‘em! I just can’t get enough Princess cuddles, ever. But...,” he visibly cringed, “could we do a different show?” He watched her face cloud over. “You get a little too ... enthusiastic over some of the designs and color choices,” he explained sheepishly. “You almost never agree with who wins--and your reasons behind that are all too sound--but I would like to continue hearing from both ears, Marinette. Can’t we watch something a little more--,” he was gesturing with one hand to come up with the right word but found that hand suddenly full of chocolatey goodness topped with whipped cream. He took in the sight of the fluffy cream, tiny white marshmallows, the pink and green sprinkles, along with the drizzle of caramel and smiled. “Cute.”

“You want to watch something cute?” Marinette clarified as she fixed up her own cup. They watched many, different shows together but not a lot of them could be considered cute. When he didn’t respond she looked over at him.

Chat had his nose a handbreadth above his drink and was breathing in huge lungfuls of the sweet scent. 

It reminded her of a scene out of a book she had read with her Papa when she was seven or eight. She remembered her Papa demonstrating poor, starving Charlie Bucket breathing in the chocolate scented air of the candy factory as if it alone could stave off his hunger. She’d felt so sorry for the little kid that wasn’t getting enough to eat! That book alone had been the spark for getting her parent’s bakery, and then others in their arrondissement, to donate their still good leftovers to the local food bank. And then upping their charitable giving during the colder months.

That scene with little Charlie, before he found the Golden Ticket, was probably what made her offer Chat food almost every time she saw him. She always felt a little sense of pride, and a win for Justice, when she could tempt him to a treat. Among the people she knew, only Adrien was possibly in starving Charlie’s hungry shoes as often as Chat.

Chuckling quietly she got behind the entranced hero and nudged him toward her tiny couch. She set her drink down on a side table and started rifling through the stack of movies Alya’s sisters had left on their last visit. They had done a movie marathon and she thought she remembered the book title among the DVDs they mentioned. She lifted it triumphantly from the stack and did her happy dance.

“What did you find?” Chat asked followed by a slurp then a quiet, “Oooh, ow.”

Marinette burst out laughing at the sight. His tongue was sticking out and he was using one hand to fan it.

“You know it’s piping hot when I hand it to you,” she said. “I even make sure to turn down the temperature so that it’s not going to scald you or permanently burn off your taste buds, but it is still hot.” She shook her head. “This happens every time!”

“I knoooooooow,” he wailed. “But it’s always so good and I know it’s going to be the best ever so I have to try it as soon as I think it’s cooled a little.”

She laughed, popping the DVD in the player, and made her way back to him. He’d made himself comfortable, draping the fuzzy pink blanket across his knees, one side pulled back for her. They usually shared a blanket these days. She hurried back and sat next to her cuddle buddy. He gently placed the blanket across her lap then draped his arm behind her shoulders to rest along the back of the cushions. He tentatively sipped at his drink and found the place where the cream had cooled it enough to drink. He took several sips before looking up at her with a mustache made of cream and sprinkles.

“So what are we watching?” he asked as he discreetly licked the mustache from his top lip.

“Something perfect for a hot chocolate loving feline like yourself,” she replied as she grabbed the remote for the DVD player. “You have a little dot of cream on the tip of your nose,” she informed him as she took a sip of her own cocoa before placing it on the coffee table

He put his cup down and made an attempt to wipe it off.

“Did I get it?” he asked as the screen darkened and Marinette rested her head against his shoulder. His free arm curled around her shoulders.

She turned to face him better while pointing at her own nose, “Right about here.”

Chat purposefully pointed to a place opposite to where she was pointing.

“No,” she rolled her eyes as she grabbed his hand, “it’s here.” She extended his index finger and very gently swiped it across the white fluff.

Chat looked at the sweet white mound then popped the finger into his mouth.

“Ew, Chaaaat,” Marinette groaned. “That’s so gross.”

“It’d be a sin to miss out on any of your special cocoa, Mari,” he said as he tried to boop her nose with the finger that had just been in his mouth. She fended it off, but wasn’t as successful in stopping the arm around her shoulders dropping down to tickle her side.

“Chat, stop!” she giggled. “I need to breathe!”

He stopped tickling her, taking the opportunity to finally boop her nose. She sat up from where she’d curled to protect herself. 

“So tell me,” he said as he grabbed his drink and took a much larger swallow of his sweet concoction. “What are we actually watching?”

“The ultimate in cute, candy, and chocolate,” she replied. “And a movie that actually isn’t too bad for an adaption of a book.” She looked up into his face and smiled. “Have you ever read or seen ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’?”

He shook his head as he tried to lick off his mustache, again.

“Then you are in for a treat,” she declared as she wrapped her arms around Chat’s waist nestling her head closer to the center of his chest.

“Is this a holiday movie?” Chat asked somewhat confused even as he shifted to make Marinette more comfortable.

Marinette paused before replying. “It’s got a mysterious and magic man that no one ever sees, lots of candy, naughty children who get what’s coming to them, lots of very little people, and plenty of OSHA violations,” Marinette said thoughtfully. “It could probably qualify.”

Chat laughed and hearing the sound from just under her ear made Marinette unreasonably happy.

“Now, shush,” she said reaching above her head putting a finger to his lips. “You’ll miss the very important introduction.”

“Yes, ma’am. Shushing right now-,” he whispered around the finger barring his speaking. 

Unfortunately, the slick whipped cream along with the awkward angle made Marinette’s finger slip as he spoke. Her fingernail managed not to snag his lip but did jar against his teeth bouncing into his mouth. 

Without thinking she put her finger into her mouth and bit down to ease the pain in the nail.

At that instant both froze with the realization that there was something of an indirect kiss that just happened. They stared at each other for a mere moment. Red was already staining Chat Noir’s cheeks while Marinette’s eyes widened.

Marinette yelped and struggled to sit up, arms flailing to get upright she accidentally hit Chat a couple of times. Not knowing where to look, and feeling the heat rising in her cheeks she reached for her drink on the table. At the same time Chat yelped and pulled his arm close to his side locking it in place with his other hand. 

Neither one dared to look at the other even as the air between them warmed.

The movie started showing the intricate inner workings of a factory.

Chat cleared his throat and Marinette reluctantly looked in his direction. 

“So uh, Princess,” he tried to paste on his best smoulder, “how did I taste?”

Marinette’s hands flew to hide her face as it went red. “Chat!” she screeched.

His face immediately rivaled Tikki’s for color and they both turned their bodies away from each other. Both took sips from their respective mugs while struggling to maintain their distance on the small loveseat. They stared at the screen in silence. Neither one moved except to sip at their drinks.

Chat’s head hung low as he cleared his throat again.

“I’m sorry Marinette,” he began as he set his mug down then folded his hands in his lap. “It’s just that I kind of panicked when you looked at me-- like that. And I didn’t--I didn’t know what to do,” he looked over at her. She barely caught his blush out of the corner of her eye, she was having trouble looking him in the face. “So I did what I always do,” he gave a nervous chuckle, “and tried to make it into a joke.” He chuckled again, but it petered out almost as soon as it began. “But I didn’t really mean it as a joke, joke. I mean-- I did mean it as a joke to break the tension, but I did not mean it as a way of laughing at you or mocking you. Because I love yo-” Her raised eyebrows somehow made him slap a hand across his mouth. There was a whining sound just before he cleared his throat again. “I did kind of wonder if you’d like to try another… I mean not an indirect kiss, but something more purpose--”

This time he stopped talking when the finger was pressed to his lips.

“Chat,” Marinette leaned in toward this man she’d trusted and loved for years.

He looked up. She bit one side of her bottom lip before removing her finger. She used that hand to cradle his cheek as she leaned in close to him.

“I think you missed a little spot right here,” she said as her lips brushed the corner of his mouth.

It was brief, but it took less than a moment for Chat to brighten up. He looked into Marinette’s uncertain face pulling back from him and cupped her face with both hands, pressing his lips to hers.

“Wow,” Chat sighed as he pulled back from the kiss to rest his forehead against Marinette’s. “That was even better than I thought it would be.”

Marinette looked up at him unable to stop smiling. “Yeah, it--you’ve thought about kissing me?” She quirked her head. “Before tonight?”

Chat ducked into a hunch even as his smile grew. He nodded and added, “Yeah, um, for--for a long time, now.

Marinette was so stunned she blurted, “What took you so long?”

“Wait,” Chat looked as if his world had suddenly tipped sideways even as he straightened up. “You wanted me to kiss you?” He grabbed her hands. “Before--before tonight?” It sounded like an accusation but was tinged with wonder.

It was Marinette’s turn to duck in embarrassment. She pulled a hand free and hid her eyes behind it. She was nodding while smiling enough to light all the streets of Paris even as she repeated his earlier words. “Yeah...for a long time now.”

Chat whooped in joy and swept Marinette into his arms. He peppered her cheeks and nose with kisses while she giggled, then stopped abruptly. 

“Marinette,” he gave her lips a quick peck, “would you,” a brief kiss, “my light,” another kiss, “my heart,” a longer kiss, “my love,” the longest kiss so far, “Would you make me the happiest man in the world and be my girlfriend?” Instead of kissing her lips he gave her a tender kiss on her forehead before he gently touched his own forehead to the spot. “Please?’ he breathed the word more than spoke it.

Marinette closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself. Breaking a habit of seven years was harder than she thought it would be. 

“Is that, is that what you want?” she whispered. “What you really want?” Her hands cradled his face.

He nodded against her, not breaking any contact.

“I guess that’s going to depend on how you feel after what I have to say next.”

Chat moved back to be able to look her in the eye.

“I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he said seriously. “Unless you tell me that you are Hawkmoth or one of his minions, there is nothing I can imagine you could tell me to change that.”

Marinette smirked as she wrapped her arms loosely behind his neck. “Well then, if you’re sure?”

He nodded solemnly.

“Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette felt Tikkis’ magic cover her, but instead of the joy she usually felt during a transformation all she felt was dread. Nothing could take back her choice to reveal Ladybug. Marinette looked into Chat’s stunned face. His eyes roamed her face, but he didn’t move a muscle.

“Surprise?” Marinette said timidly. She waited another long moment while he stared. The silence was killing her. “Chat?”

He pulled her into a crushing hug. She heard a small sob.

“Chat!” she pushed back to look at him.

Tears flowed down his smiling face. “And to think,” he said as he ran his hand through her hair then cupped the side of her face, “I didn’t think I could love you any more than I did before you said that, but I was wrong.” He slowly caressed her cheek. “Oh My Lady, how is it possible to love you even more? So much more--more than just a few seconds ago!”

It took longer than she would have liked to admit, but suddenly the meaning of his words sank in. Her worst fears were put to rest. She had to pull him to her and kiss him soundly.

“I don’t know-- I can’t know what you’re feeling, Chaton,” she said as soon they broke their kiss. “But I want you to know that you’ve been in my thoughts constantly for a long time now.” She ran a hand through his hair, expertly maneuvering around the black cat ears. “You’ve fought by my side, seen me at my worst.” She took a deep breath, “You’ve been rejected by Ladybug many times.” 

She couldn’t help the eye roll at his huff. When Chat looked like he’d interrupt she put her finger across his lips only to have him kiss the tip. She smiled, but continued. This was something she’d thought about a lot and wanted to get it all out, while she could. 

“Still, you’ve supported me through everything.” She kissed him again. “Both sides of me,” another kiss. “All sides of me,” she kissed the parts of his face not covered by his mask. She nuzzled into his neck while whispering, “Thank you for loving me.”

Chat seemed to find that some kind of challenge. 

“But My Lady,” he stopped and gave her a look full of tenderness. “Marinette-” he kissed the shell of her ear, “My sweet Bugaboo-” he placed a kiss at her temple, “My dearest Marinette-” he whispered into her mouth.

“I like the sound of my name on your lips,” she confessed as she gazed into his green eyes. 

“I like the taste of you on my lips,” he said as he let his thumb lightly caress her mouth. 

This time Marinette didn’t try to hide her blush at his whispered words. He blushed in return.

“Marinette-” he beamed at her. “My Marinette,” he grabbed her hands to press a kiss along the line of her knuckles. He brought her hands close to his heart. “You’ve loved and supported me even when I’ve been less than-” he took a shuddery breath, “-less than honorable and frankly it makes me feel awful to think about how horrible I’ve been to you.” He slipped from the couch so that he was kneeling in front of her, still holding her hands. “How can you, my Marinette, my kind and selfless Lady, thank me for loving you when I’m the one that’s truly, utterly, deeply in your debt?”

“None of that, Chat.” 

She tried to raise him up from the floor, but he pulled back and hid his face against their clasped hands.

“I’m ashamed of my behavior toward you, dearest.” He turned his face away but still held her hands to his heart. “I’m so sorry, m’lady.”

“But-” Marinette wasn’t sure how to help him through the self-loathing that was clear in his voice, “That was so long ago?” She reached a hand to turn his face back toward her. “You corrected your behavior. You listened to me when I told you what I needed from my partner.” She gently stroked the side of his face. “You have become a better man, a man I can trust fully and love with all my heart.”

“Maybe you won’t be abel to fully trust me once you know who I am under this mask.” He caught her hand and kissed her palm.

 “What do you mean?”

His eyes strayed to the floor, but he took a breath before looking back up at her and admitting, “You know me Marinette, and not just as Chat.”

She startled at his admission, but soon smiled down at him.

She ran both hands through his hair and ended holding his face toward her.“ Do you wanna tell me who you are?” She nuzzled his nose. “Show me which of the blond headed boys-” she kissed the tip of his nose, “--that I know--” she kissed his forehead, “-that could also be my knight-” she kissed one cheek, “-my prince-” she kissed the other cheek, “-my king?” She ended with a gentle brush of her lips to his.

Chat nodded, clearly under the spell of Marinette’s ministrations, but paused long enough to really think about his answer.

“I don’t think that you think very highly of the person under Plagg’s armor,” he said as he shook his head.  

Marinette sat back  a little, still holding Chat’s face between her palms.

“Trust me enough when I say this,” she implored, “I Love you- all of you.” 

There was a twinkle in her eyes and a smirk on her lips when she added, “Unless you’re Hawkmoth.”

Laughter burst out of Chat and soon Marinette was joining in.

“Come on, Chaton--” she said as she pulled him up to the couch beside her, “-let me see the rest of your pretty face.”

Chat’s cheeks started to turn pink. He took a shaky breath in and out before he nodded in agreement.  

“Okay--okay,” he gulped and braced himself. “Plagg, claws in.” 

Marinette watched as the faint green glow of Chat’s magic peeled back to reveal the face that Marinette knew almost as well as her own. There was no way the this was real! Marinette reached her gloved hand out to trace the brows that she’d sketched ever since she was thirteen. She followed the brows down to the contour of his cheeks and gently brushed across his lips. Yes, there could be no doubt about it, she had been fighting along side of and totally making out with Adrien Agreste!

She covered her mouth with both hands to try to hold the laughter spilling out of her. It didn’t work. The laughter grew and her eyes closed as the ridiculousness of her situation fully dawned on her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as her laughter died away.

Adrien tried to get off the couch, but she pulled him tight as she giggled into his ear.

“Kitty we are-” she gasped for a breath, “we are the- the-- most oblivious humans to ever human!” She tucked her face into his shoulder even as she continued to chortle.

“You can say that again!” a sarcastic voice squeaked from somewhere above them.

“Plagg!” Adrien’s voice was scolding. “That’s not nice.”

“I never said it was nice, Brie Brain,” he replied. “But it’s true!”

Marinette looked up into Adrien’s confused face.

“What- what do you mean by oblivious?” he asked.

She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in close.

“Chaton!” she planted a kiss on his mouth. “Adrien-” this kiss was slower, more languid. “We are oblivious idiots because I went from being in love with Adrien Agreste-” she gave him a quick peck, “-to being in love with Chat Noir,” she smiled at him.  “And you-” a buss to his cheek, “-silly kitty-” she  stopped to look him in the eye before planting a sweet kiss on his forehead, “-you fell in love with Ladybug-” he met her halfway for this kiss.

“And fell in love with Marinette?” he finished. She nodded and he gave a brief chuckle before he captured her lips again. “I should have realized that earlier” he said as he traced the bottom of her mask with his thumbs. “Much earlier-” he cradled the back of her head as he nuzzled her nose. “Come out, My Marinette. I need to kiss all of your beautiful face, again,” he begged.

How could she deny such a sweet request? She released Tikki and watched as Adrien’s face reflected his awe at the sight.

“Gummy Bear!” Plagg rushed over to Tikki. “The dolts have finally figured things out!”

“Grumpy Cheese Head,” she hugged her counterpart. “I’m very happy for them.” He scoffed, but she just nuzzled the side of his head. “Let’s leave them alone,” she stage whispered. “This way to the cheese, Garbage Gremlin!”

“Right behind you, Honeycomb!”  Plagg chased Tikki as she zipped away to the kitchen.

Adrien watched them go. He turned back toward Marinette a sly grin forming on his face. “What’s this I hear about you being in love with me, m’lady?”

Marinette groaned and face planted into Adrien’s chest. He put his arms around her and shifted her on to his lap. She snuggled there for a moment, choosing her words carefully.

“I loved Adrien ever since he gave me a chance to realize that I shouldn’t assume I knew him by the company he kept,” she said quietly.

“Huh? When did I do that?”

“At that time-” she paused then continued, “-he may, or may not, have loaned me an umbrella that I definitely-- definitely do not have safely stashed in my closet--in an acid free box-- with acid-free paper-- to preserve it.”

“You loved Adrien-- uh, you loved me since my first day at Dupont?” She nodded into his shoulder.

“Why didn’t I know about this?”

“Because you are the blindest fool to walk the earth,” was shouted from the kitchen followed by Tikki’s shushing.

Adrien put a finger under Marinette’s chin tilt her face up to his. “Why didn’t you tell me you felt that way?” he asked.

“I tried!” Marinette’s huff of annoyance was quickly followed by her looking away. “You were just too… too... This.” She waved a hand indicating all of Adrien. “You were too kind-- and too nice-” she cut off as familiar red flooded her face. “You were too beautiful body and soul for me to talk to.”

He frowned as he thought back through the years. “But later, you had no problem talking to me,” he pointed out.

She nodded. “By then I realized that I’d been treating you like a thing to be won, not a person to know--” she framed his face with her hands, “- and to cherish.” She smiled at him. “I decided that from that moment on I would be your friend instead of your fangirl.” 

“Oh, my Marinette.” He put his hands over hers then turned to plant a kiss in each palm. He brought her hands down between them while smiling at her. His face suddenly clouded over and he face palmed, hard.

“What-? Why are you doing that, Chaton?’

“Because if I’d been a little smarter a lot sooner we could have been kissing as well as cuddling for all these years.

“Yeah,” Marinette said with a smirk.

“What do you say that we don’t waste any more time?” Adrien asked as he pulled her in for a quick hug. “Marinette Dupain-Ladybug-Cheng, will you be my girlfriend?”

Marinette’s smile could not have been bigger. 

“Yes!” she shouted then quickly covered her mouth. She tried again a little quieter. “Yes, I want to be your girlfriend.” Adrien leaned down to kiss her, but she pushed him back by his nose. “But I’ll only do this if you will be my boyfriend, Adrien -Chat Noir- Agreste.”

Adrien’s Cheshire grin spoke volumes. He thought it best to reply, “I would love nothing more.”

They had barely touched lips when a ruckus broke them apart.

“Not now Marzipan, there’s something I’ve been dying to say to Cheddar Head.” The godling flew so Adrien could see him and shouted, “I TOLD YOU SHE WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND!”

The two looked at Plagg, then each other, and back to Plagg. Neither one knew who started the laughter, but both were laughing hard together in seconds. Once they calmed down, they rearranged themselves so that they could watch the movie, which they’d had to restart, and snuggle together. The cocoa cooled on the coffee table. The oompa-loompas sang their suspiciously specific songs about the naughty kids’ comeuppance. And Marinette cuddled with her Kitty on the couch. 

#@dappercookiexd #mlsecretsanta2k19 #cocoa cuddling & kisses #marinette dupain-cheng x chat noir #marichat #really all sides of the love square are represented #it's sooooo long #sorry

[handlewithkara]

The long and thorny road towards omega!Mon-El and Alpha!Kara in season 2 with clueless Mon-El

Posting Gift of Choice lead to me kind of dumping a lot of random info in the comments, so I figured I might bring some of that here for preservation purposes. 

I think the first time I ever had a vague idea for A/B/O Karamel was season 3? Like how that would be an interesting twist on the Imra situation if either one of Karamel goes into heat and hence they are forced to deal with the situation. But season 3 was like really bad for my motivation, so nothing really came out of it.

One was that Karamel were a happy a/o couple in season 2, happily looking forward to their first heat together and all the grieving Kara was doing after he was gone makes a lot of sense with her being an omega who has lost her alpha. So Mon-El comes back with Imra and him being there again triggers Kara's heat and of course she is mortified and wants to suppress it and it's all superangsty and complicated, but of course Karamel can't stay away from each other etc 

and

The Legion is stuck in season 3, Mon-El goes into heat, Imra is not an alpha and they sort of agree that Karamel need to sleep together to get him through the heat with Imra giving her permission, but Kara is underneath still kind of fuming and angry and possessive of him. The idea there was in that story that there the bond is only completed and made permanent by the alpha biting the omega during the heat and Mon-El tells Kara the only thing he asks of her that she not do that but in the end Kara (who is still deeply angry about the situation) loses control during sex and does it anyway (again those pesky consent issues) and it just devolved into a big ball of angst (because of course Mon-El still loves Kara and not Imra, but he is still hiding secrets about the future etc) and again it just wasn't something I really wanted to get into.   

One factor is that I’m kind of very away of the various consent issues around A/B/O, so a lot of fic ideas I had for were really angsty and would have required a really long plotty story to resolve etc, etc. 

Moving away from that, my thoughts went more towards season 2. Anyway, Another, more concrete idea here featured omega!Kara: 

1.) Alpha/Omega are a thing on Krypton and Daxam, but not on Earth. Alex invents a suppressant for Kara and Kara is like "Uhmm, yes, about that..." because she actually is really curious about sex with Mon-El and kind of wants to "try it out" before taking suppressants. It was just kind of meh.

2.) Alpha/Omega are a thing on Earth, but not on Krypton and Daxam. Kara is deeply opposed to having a Daxamite as her mate, but when she tries to make it through her heat alone and things go bad Alex calls in Mon-El for help. Kara was super angsty in this one.

3.) Alpha/Omega were a thing on Daxam, but not Krypton. Or rather the Kryptonians were all strictly and permanently on suppressants. Nobody has ever given Kara the "Birds and the Bees" talk on this and at first she thinks Mon-El is lying until the Alura hologram confirms it. Mon-El was really snarky and teasing in this one. (I thought I might use this to feel the prompt "knotting" and as part of this story Mon-El presents Kara with a dildo of that type and offers to show her how to use to get through the heat and while Kara initially acts offended it doesn't take long till she wants the real deal) I had some fun imagining this, but I feel like it might just be too whacky for what is already a pretty whacky trope.

The number 2 scenario was definitely the initial one I thought of, but: 

My first attempt to write the story Kara didn't really trust Mon-El yet and she was really afraid of losing control and while Mon-El wasn't necessarily having bad intentions he was also really clueless about the situation and at some point it felt like I couldn't really write Karamel having their first time like that without it feeling kind of sad and superangsty or at the very least superlong (like Mon-El bringing Kara through their first heat while NOT full penetration sleeping with her?) but by that point it would have to be an actual story and doesn't really work as just a smut story anymore (aside from me being bad with long stories like that and having others to finish of first).

So I attempted the story again with Mon-El knowing the alpha/omega stuff and hence being a better alpha who has a better grasp on how to handle the situation. That was more along the lines of Karamel kind of flirting and negotiating to hook up, more to Alex' trauma because in that story humans were the ones not really having experience with this alpha/omega stuff. But I dunno, it didn't really work for me? Like it was kind of lacking tension and I'm not sure it really carried how that trope usually works.

So my last attempt was Mon-El being the more experienced alpha and Kara being the a bit clueless one, but yeah, eventually I figured that omega Mon-El was just kind of easier to write in that way and have fewer pesky consent obstacles since it's more easy to picture Mon-El being more chill and on board with having sex with Kara and not worrying as much about whether hormones are responsible for that attraction. Because hey, she's hot, why wouldn't he want to have sex to her and if he's gonna bond to somebody, why not get bonded to somebody who is hot and sexy an powerful.

Posting this story and writing this comments actually made me also spin some thoughts in regards to what a story would be like if Mon-El was actually a very deliberate and self-confident seductive omega and Kara is a clueless Alpha and Mon-El loves teasing and seducing her. 

(of course one thing about A/B/O is always that is kind of fun to imagine the world like that and what the various characters would be. Like Cat Grant would definitely also be an Alpha. I actually find Alex the most curious because I can kind of see her as everything, an Alpha because she is protective and action-y, an omega because she could seem kind of needy in Sanvers, or even as just a loyal beta) 

Anyway, I’m really grateful for that kinktober challenge I set for myself, to force myself to finish at least one story with the trope and zero in on one that was at least somewhat managable by focusing on the one setup that made getting to the smut in a reasonable time and not with too much angst to dilute it possible. 

#my writing: karamel #my writing: abandoned

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1301

Monday, February 17, 2020

 Happy Family Day. I'm grateful for my extended family of fellow comic book aficionados. Sharing the love of our hobby keeps me young and brightens my life. I miss seeing many of you but you are in my thoughts.

 Catwoman #20 - Joelle Jones (writer) Fernando Blanco (art) FCO Plascencia (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Mrs. Creel poisons her party guests showing us what a nasty woman she is. Catwoman fights through a bunch of zombies to get some Lazarus Water to save a friend. Selina's final obstacle will be Mrs. Creel. I can't wait for this story to end. It's been kind of blasé.

 Thor #3 - Donny Cates (writer) Nic Klein (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Lots of KRAKKABOOMS this issue as Thor fights Beta Ray Bill. Horseface doesn't have a chance with All-Father Thor boosted with Galactus given power cosmic. Don't build a funeral pyre for Bill yet. Someone comes to his rescue and that person is a surprise.

 The Dollhouse Family #4 - M. R. Carey (writer) Peter Gross (layouts) Vince Locke (finishes) Cris Peter (colours) Todd Klein (letters). Alice and her daughter recover from the horrible explosion from last issue but their survival cost them an arm and a leg. When Alice gets back to the dollhouse, she finds there's a new tenant and she's not nice at all. This horror title isn't horrible. You should come visit.

 Hawkeye: Freefall #3 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue explains how Clint can be in two places at one time. It's dumb but I don't mind because this story is kind of dumb. I like it for the guest stars. The Black Widow shows up and the hero on the last page is a favourite of mine. If the new Ant-Man mini had been this much fun I'd still be reading it.

 The Batman's Grave #5 - Warren Ellis (writer) Bryan Hitch (pencils) Kevin Nowlan & Bryan Hitch (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Richard Starkings (letters). I don't know if it's just me, but I find that I lose interest in a Warren Ellis story somewhere and this issue might be it. I've forgotten what the mystery is that put Batman in detective mode even though he's following a lead in Arkham Asylum this issue. I like seeing Batman kick bad guy butt as much as the next fan, but 8 pages of it here seems to be padding the story. Methinks this 12-issue story could've been told in 6.

 Savage Avengers #10 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Patch Zircher (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Conan and the two Doctors, Doom and Strange, battle Kulan Gath. Guess who wins? This issue made me laugh out loud.

 Jessica Jones: Blind Spot #3 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Mattia De Iulis (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Now this is a much more enjoyable murder mystery than Batman's Grave. I know exactly what's happening because Kelly Thompson recaps as the investigation continues. There's even an extended 5-page fight scene where Jessica and Elsa Bloodstone fight creatures from the Black Lagoon but it isn't boring because they're bantering about the case all the while. The rest of this 6-issue mini can't come out fast enough for me.

 Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #6 - Jody Houser (writer) Adriana Melo (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Gabriela Downie (letters). Harley and Ivy's adventure comes to an end with a battle between good and evil Ivy. I liked how they left the fate of Poison Ivy a mystery. Who knows how she'll act the next time she sees Harley?

 X-Force #7 - Benjamin Percy (writer) Oscar Bazaldua (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue features Domino who was rescued from the bad guys recently. The bad guys managed to steal her good luck powers and have transferred them to someone else. This newly empowered individual is an assassin going around killing mutant supporters. Neena's not too happy about that. I wasn't too surprised by the reveal of the assassin's identity on the last page but I'm sure some new fans will be.

 X-Men #6 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) Matteo Buffagni (art) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This issue features Mystique. She's my favourite shape-shifter. She's sent on a mission to infiltrate the space station designed to fight against the mutants. I liked how the flashbacks merged with this story to culminate at the ominous last page.

 The Immortal Hulk #31 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (main story pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo & Cam Smith (main story inks) Paul Mounts (main story colours) Javier Rodriguez (McGowan sequence pencils & colours) Alvaro Lopez (McGowan sequence inks) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We get into the heads of Scientist McGowan and the Hulk this issue. Matters of the mind shouldn't surprise fans what with Xemnu being in this story.

 The Amazing Spider-Man #39 - Nick Spencer (writer) Iban Coello (art) Brian Reber (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue reminded me of the Odd Couple, Oscar and Felix. Spider-Man agrees to be a guest on Jonah's podcast and sparks fly as the two antagonists butt heads. It's all talk radio until the super villain crashes the party. Next issue should be less talk  and more action.

 Superman: Heroes #1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction & Greg Rucka (writers) Kevin Maguire, Mike Perkins, Steve Lieber, Mike Norton & Scott Godlewski (art) Paul Mounts, Gabe Eltaeb, Andy Troy & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Troy Peteri, Clayton Cowles & Simon Bowland (letters). This $5.99 US one-shot is tied-in quite closely with what's been going on in Action Comics & Superman. It looks at the consequences of Superman revealing his secret identity and it's well worth reading.

 Doctor Strange #3 - Mark Waid (writer) Kev Walker (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is a great one issue story if you want to check this new run out. Doctor Strange fights an artistic demon to save lives.

 Gwen Stacy #1 - Christos Gage (writer) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I liked this better than The Amazing Mary Jane maybe because it deals with a younger high school aged Gwen. This story takes place before Gwen and Peter become friends and lovers and involves her father Captain Stacy and his investigation of New York's mob. There are a trio of bad guys that you'll recognise but the big deal super villains don't show up until the last page. If they don't get you to pick up the next issue, nothing will.

 Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P. #1 - James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, Chris Burnham, Marcio Takara, Diogenes Neves, David Lafuente and Sumit Kumar (art) Adriano Lucas, Rex Lokus & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Travis Lanham & Thomas Napolitano (letters). This one-shot tribute to Alfred shows us what a dysfunctional family Bruce has created. I would have preferred a more touching send off to this beloved character like the one Brian Michael Bendis wrote for Ultimate Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Damian, Tim, Jason and Barbara reminisce about the butler and then Ric Grayson chimes in with a story about Nightwing. Who the heck is Ric Grayson? I thought Alfred deserved better than this.

 Nebula #1 - Vita Ayala (writer) Claire Roe (art) Mike Spicer (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I'm ambivalent when it comes to this cyborg killer but I wanted to see if that might change by reading this 5-issue mini. She finds a scientist who has built a device that can predict the future and has him implant it so it's integrated into her cybernetic system. The untested tech winds up screwing with her head. I didn't change my opinion of Nebula with this first issue and I can see where the rest of the story is going so I'll leave the rest on the racks.

 Superman #20 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Oclair Albert (art) Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Skipper (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). There's action: Superman dukes it out with Mongul. There's drama: The Daily Star is trying to discredit Clark, Lois and the Daily Planet. And there's a surprise appearance of an old friend. There's everything a good comic book needs to grab my attention and want to keep reading.

 Marvels X #2 - Alex Ross & Jim Krueger (writers) Well-Bee (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I was fooled by the truck driver who picked up the kid because of the red beard, sunglasses and No Fear baseball cap. I thought it was Matt Murdock in disguise but I was surprised by who it actually was. Daredevil does turn up later in this issue as he and Spider-Man help to keep David safe. The kid's important because he could help find a cure for what's infecting humanity.

[chocolatequeennk]

Forever and Never Apart, 41/43

Summary: After taking a year to recover from the Master, the Doctor and Rose are ready to travel again. But Time keeps pushing them forward, and instead of going back to their old life, they slowly realise that they’re stepping into a new life. Friends new and old are meeting on the TARDIS, and when the stars start going out, the Doctor and Rose face the biggest change of all: the return of Bad Wolf.

Series 4 with Rose, part 7 of Being to Timelessness; sequel to Taking Time (AO3 | FF.NET | TSP)

Betaed by @lastbluetardis, @rudennotgingr, @jabber-who-key, and @pellaaearien. Thank you so much!

AO3 | FF.NET | TSP

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10| Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14 | Ch 15 | Ch 16 | Ch 17 | Ch 18| Ch 19 | Ch 20 | Ch 21 | Ch 22 | Ch 23 | Ch 24 | Ch 25 | Ch 26| Ch 27 | Ch 28 | Ch 29 | Ch 30 | Ch 31 | Ch 32 | Ch 33| Ch 34 | Ch 35 | Ch 36 | Ch 37 | Ch 38 | Ch 39 | Ch 40

Chapter Forty-one: The Importance of One Woman

Donna sighed and leaned back from the kitchen table when dinner was over. “That was nice.”

Her mum sniffed and got up. “It wasn’t anything special, just the chops I got last week. But I suppose we ought to be grateful we’re alive to have dinner at all.”

The critical note in her voice was one Donna was intimately familiar with, and she shared a knowing look with her grandfather. Honestly, she was surprised her mum had held off this long before listing the faults of everyone involved in the events of the day.

Donna rubbed at her neck, still sore from being blasted away from the magnetron on the Crucible. Another reason not to tell her what I do.

“Giant pepper pots rolling down the street,” Sylvia continued as she started the washing up. “Just shooting everyone with lasers. Although if you ask me, whoever designed those robots really should have used something other than egg beaters. Not very intimidating, really.”

Donna barely managed to suppress a snort. Of course Mum would criticise the Daleks’ design. “Well, they seemed to be pretty effective,” she said sardonically, “so I’m not sure they need to worry about any possible design issues.”

Her mum stopped scrubbing a plate and looked back at her over her shoulder. “Oh, you saw them? I thought you would have missed them like you miss everything else.”

The words barely stung. “Yeah, I saw them. They were everywhere, weren’t they?”

Sylvia raised an eyebrow, then went back to doing the dishes. “I suppose so. And that’s another thing! Where was the military? We had an actual alien invasion—you would think that would interest them.”  

Donna rolled her eyes. “How do you know they weren’t involved?” she retorted, thinking of Jack and Martha. “Just because it wasn’t on the telly? It’s not like top-secret government agencies can really advertise what they’re doing.”

Her mum turned slowly and stared at her while leaning against the counter. “And I suppose you would know all about top-secret government agencies.” She snorted. “The only agency you’re familiar with is the temp agency.”

The throbbing in her temples got worse, and Donna pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I ought to be going,” she said as she sent a quick text to Rose, begging for a rescue. “I told my friends I’d meet them at seven, and it’s half six now.” It was only a white lie. She had told Rose her visit wouldn’t last long.

She stood up and slid her phone back into her pocket. “Thanks for dinner, Mum. I’ll ring later, all right?”

Sylvia rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes. It would be nice to know where you are the next time the world is going to end.”

“Hopefully that won’t happen for a while.” Donna winced as soon as the words left her mouth—she’d probably just jinxed them, but oh well. It was too late now.

She smiled at her grandfather. “Here, I’ll walk you up the hill before I go.”

Wilf stood up and pushed his chair in. “Yeah, all right.” The two of them walked to the back door, pausing just for a moment while he grabbed his coat.

A gust of wind blew down the hill as they shut the door behind them. “Brrr!” Donna shivered and rubbed her arms. The afternoon sun had disappeared behind clouds, and it smelled like rain.

“Here, you put this on,” her granddad insisted, draping his coat over her shoulders.

“Thanks, Gramps.” Donna pulled it tight around her and inhaled his familiar, comforting scent.

He nodded, then rested his hand on her back, leading her up the hill to their allotment. “You were there, weren’t you?” he asked as they climbed the dirt path. “Stopping those things from destroying the Earth.”

“Yeah, I was.”

“I was going to call you,” he said. “Stars kept going out, and I thought, ‘I bet Donna could help.’ And then suddenly there were planets in the sky and those pepper pots on the ground.”

Donna laughed. “They’re called Daleks. But they do kind of look like pepper pots, don’t they?”

He nodded. “Your mother might not be impressed by their design, but you’re right. It got the job done.” They reached the top of the hill and sat down on the garden bench. “I tried to shoot one of them with a paint gun—thought if they couldn’t see, they’d be disabled. But it just burned the paint off its eye stalk thing, and said, ‘My vision is not impaired.’”

Donna pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle her gasp. She vividly remembered the way the Daleks had shot Jack. He might have come back to life, but they’d killed him stone dead first. If they’d shot Gramps…

She distracted herself from that train of thought by pulling out her phone to text Rose again. If she wanted them to pick her up, she’d need to tell them where she was.

“Going back out to the stars already?”

Donna didn’t miss the wistful note in her granddad’s voice. She was ready to go home, but she’d missed him while she was travelling. “I’ve got to, Gramps. There’s just so much out there.”

“Well, you tell your friends they’d better do their best to always bring you home.” He gave her a crooked smile. “After all, what would I do without my favourite granddaughter?”

Donna snorted and leaned into his side. “I’m your only granddaughter,” she reminded him.

He nudged her side with his elbow. “Then you have to be my favourite, don’t you?”

“Oh, all right.”

A familiar, companionable silence settled over them. This could have been any one of a hundred nights she’d sat out here with him, watching him tinker with his telescope or potter around the garden. Donna’s throat closed, and she had to blink back the tears that threatened.

“Hey, none of that now,” her granddad chided. “You’ve got your life, and that’s a good thing.”

Donna sniffed. “Well, then what are we going to talk about?”

He leaned back, resting his back against the shed behind them. “Why don’t you tell me how it happened.”

She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I guess I could.” She stared up at the darkening sky, trying to remember the entire story. Exhaustion struck suddenly when she realised she’d been up for at least twenty hours, and her jaw split in a yawn. “But I don’t even know where to start,” she mumbled. “It’s been… an incredibly long day.”

“How did you even know the Earth had moved? Does the Doctor have an alert or something?”

“No, we were actually here when it happened. I mean. In the TARDIS, but parked on Earth.” Donna pursed her lips, then nodded once. “I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.”

Wilf listened intently as she told him about how they’d come back to Earth because of Rose’s dream, and how the disappearance of the planet beneath their feet had rocked the TARDIS.

She cringed internally when she remembered her panic. Rose and the Doctor both had family on Earth, but they’d kept their wits and focused on solving the puzzle instead of falling apart.

The revelation that there were space police in charge of enforcing galactic law impressed him. “Galactic law,” he echoed silently, his lips forming the words.

He laughed when she told him about following the trail left by the bees. “There’s always something those villains miss,” he crowed. “One tiny little thing they’re just too arrogant to think about.”

Donna skipped ahead then, past the introductions to the Doctor and Rose’s friends, straight to the TARDIS being taken to the Crucible.

“And that’s when we found out what the planets had been taken for. The Daleks had turned them into a Reality Bomb.” For a moment, Davros’ voice echoed from her memory, the insane cackle as he declared the destruction of reality itself.

“A what?”

She shook her head, exorcising the memory. “They were trying to erase all of reality,” she explained. “That’s why the stars were going out.”

“So how did you stop them?”

Donna hesitated. She still didn’t understand exactly what Rose had done, or how, and she wasn’t sure how much of it she should share with her granddad anyway.

She finally settled for a simplified version of the truth. “Rose managed to stay on the TARDIS when the Daleks ordered us all out. And she used the ship to dismantle the bomb. And that also got rid of all the Daleks.”

Wilf took his hat off and rubbed the top of his head. “Daleks and Reality Bombs and saving the universe,” he mumbled. “It’s not what I thought you’d be doing when you were a girl, but I’m proud of you, Donna.”

Donna flushed. “Oh, I didn’t save the universe,” she protested. “I was in a holding cell most of the time, or just standing there watching. Rose did most of the work, with the Doctor’s help.”

Her granddad shook his head. “You told me those Shadow people didn’t even know about the other planets until you and Rose brought them up. And you were the one who told the Doctor about the bees disappearing.”

Donna blinked. She hadn’t thought she’d been any help today, not really. But Gramps was right—if she hadn’t been there at the Shadow Proclamation, they might never have found the Earth at all. Rose had been the one to destroy the Daleks, with all that glowy power she had… but Donna had been the one to get them there in the first place.

“Yeah. I guess I was.”

Wilf nodded and rubbed at his jaw. “I’m proud of you, sweetheart. You’ve finally found where you belong in life. If this is what travelling with them aliens has done for you, then I’m for it.”

The wind picked up again, but this time it carried the faint wheezing of the TARDIS engines. Donna shrugged out of his coat, then kissed him on the cheek. “You know what, Gramps? So am I.”

#ficandchips #ten x rose #dwfic #fic by Nancy #cq's fic: forever and never apart #donna noble #go donna!! #one chapter and an epilogue left

[thursdays-fallen-angel]

Peace-Weaver, Part 1

Happy birthday, @saltnhalo! I hope you like this, because it’s the best I have to offer. Congrats on being old, fren. <3

(King!Alpha!Cas, Prince!Omega!Dean; 7.3k)

AO3 Link

"Your majesty?”

Castiel hums, but doesn’t look up from his book. It’s not actually all that engaging, but it’s certainly easy to pretend that it is.

“Your majesty, are you even listening to me?”

The condescending tone that laces those words is what finally gets the king to look up, his eyes immediately locking on those of his advisor with a sharp glare. He had been listening, as a matter of fact—he heard every word of Metatron’s drabble about the tenuousness of his position, the need to marry sooner than later, the swelling rumors of a war being started against him by the kingdom to the north. He heard it all.

He just doesn’t care.

Except, that’s not quite true. Castiel cares about his position, and he cares about the safety of his kingdom, but he doesn’t care for the pitch Metatron is giving that, in essence, is a sly ruse designed to get the king to agree to marry his advisor’s daughter.

Metatron isn’t the first to try such a thing, nor will he be the last. He will also not be the last to fail.

Castiel may be an unmarried alpha king, but no matter how incompetent to rule the people of the land might think him, both in his kingdom and beyond it, he has no intentions of giving into the clever puppeteers trying to tie their strings to him. An alpha he may be, but no matter the reputation that precedes his gender, he is not going to be pliant. He is not going to let his lack of omega intelligence doom his kingdom, and his family’s legacy.

After all, the kingdom did not ask for their true leaders to be killed.

Castiel stands and tosses his now-closed book onto the desk. “You are dismissed, Metatron. I have a prior engagement; if you’ll excuse me.”

He ignores Metatron’s offended stuttering as he leaves the study, striding out of the room without a backwards glance. The guards posted at the door will ensure Metatron exits after him in a timely manner, even if his advisor somehow worked up the gall to make use of the king’s study for personal gain, the guards would prohibit him.

Metatron is a slimy beta who cannot be trusted, but the members of the guard are alpha through and through, and loyal to a fault. He will always be thankful for that.

That being said, it is remarkably easy for Castiel to get away from the guards’ ever-vigilant views and slip off into the woods on his horse, unseen. He left only a word with his stable master to let the message be passed along that he would return in a day or two, but doesn’t bother giving anyone any more than that. He doesn’t want to be followed, and he certainly doesn’t want to be criticized.

Even just the journey out through the woods does wonders to boost Castiel’s spirits, as it always does. The distance from the castle may not truly relieve him of his problems, but having the space to think, to breathe, more than makes it worth his effort.

He only wishes that he had something to think about other than his troubles, when he takes these sorts of breaks.

However, given the fact that everything Castiel ever knew came crumbling down when his parents died, he supposes a bit of stress over his fate is one of the better things he could have asked for.

Considering his parents’ importance, it was never much of a surprise that his world crumbled as completely as it did. Any time a kingdom loses its queen and king, there are bound to be repercussions, just as there have been every day of the year that has passed since that wretched shipwreck. There will always be desperate bids for power, in situations such as this one, will always be crimes against the crown even while that crown is shrouded in a mourning veil. And most importantly of all, there will always be attempts to exploit the heirs to the throne.

Or in Castiel’s case, heir. Singular.

He always knew his position was tenuous—as the lone, unwed child of Naomi and Cain Novak, his chances of exploitation were always particularly high. The kingdom of Eden may not be the largest, but it has a long history of wealth and strength, situated on land rich with resources and very nearly impenetrable, thanks to its mountainous border. The long, unbroken line of strong, omega rulers who have sat on the throne for more consecutive generations than any other royal family in the land has also attributed to Eden’s reputation, giving it an edge that has done a great deal to prevent people from taking advantage of the Novaks’ power.

Even before the shipwreck, it was widely considered to be a tragedy that the renowned Naomi Novak left only an alpha son as her heir.

The day Castiel had presented alpha had been one of the worst of his life. There had been complications with his birth which had left his mother unable to conceive more children after him, eliminating the possibility of younger siblings to help carry on the Novak line. Both of his parents had hoped he would present omega, had been sure that it would happen—he was so very similar to his mother, after all—but shortly before his fifteenth birthday, it became clear that he wasn’t similar enough to her. His genetics favored brawn over brain, as evidenced by the rut he fell into, and he had never seen his mother more disappointed in all his life. His lessons of regality and leadership fell to the wayside, and a sword was shoved into his hands the minute he was back on his feet.

That was the first time his world had crumbled.

Now, looking back, he isn’t sure which instance is worse. Naomi’s disappointment in him was always a sore point, and their relationship never quite recovered, but at least she was there. She and his father both.

Castiel constantly spends his time wishing that things were different. He’d been too shell-shocked for the first week or so after the news reached him that his parents’ ship never reached its destination across the sea to properly react, but when the day came for his coronation—a rushed, harried affair, put together only once the reality of Naomi and Cain’s death became unavoidable and unease over a lack of proper ruler began to fester—it hit him in full. When the head priest lowered Cain’s former crown onto Castiel’s head at the end of the ceremony, he was overwhelmed with dread, instead of the pride that his mother always spoke of.

He wished he could have been the omega his mother wanted. He wished she hadn’t died while still dissatisfied with him. He wished that her last living thought couldn’t have possibly been regret over the inevitable end of her family’s legacy.

Castiel may be of age, a man grown, but without an omega at his side, without someone to wear Eden’s real crown, he doesn’t stand a chance. He was trained to be a fighter and made to expect to rear children while his future mate ran the kingdom; it was never expected that he would rule on his own, and his lack of education on the subject reflects that. What little teaching his parents drip-fed him before he presented covered the basics of the kingdom’s workings, but while that can keep him afloat, it won’t do so indefinitely.  

From the moment Castiel knelt in the church and rose as a king, the members of his newly-inherited court were ogling the dull silver of his alpha crown. For that very reason, he hardly wears the thing. It sits too heavily on his brow, draws all the wrong kind of eyes. It makes him look more like the stand-in that he is, instead of the ruler he should be.

It’s all so draining to think about.

And that, of course, is why he comes here—a hunting cabin commissioned by Cain when he first came to Eden, and one of the man’s best-kept secrets. It’s near the border, almost dangerously so, but it’s quiet, private, and utterly devoid of people who need to be impressed. When Castiel finally rides into the clearing, the site of the small house alone is enough to begin easing the tension that perpetually resides at his core.

Out here, there are no withering glares resentful of his crown, or greedy advisors angling to steal it for themselves. There is no need for him to hide parts of himself to fit the role he is expected to play because of his alpha designation.

He can be himself. And gods, does he love even that small freedom.

Castiel dismounts from his horse as soon as he has broken through the tree line, leaving the animal to wander for the time being, and makes his way up to the door of the familiar, stone cabin. Back at the castle, everything reminds him of his mother, but here? Everything about this place is Cain, from the overgrown garden situated between the cabin and the lake beyond, to the buzz of the bees the older alpha once regularly cared for, to the simplistic layout of the living space that awaits Castiel when he finally gets the cabin’s door open. He never spent much time here prior to his parents’ deaths, mostly only visiting when he was young and Naomi was too busy with her queenly duties for Castiel to even be near, but even still, the place feels like home in a way the empty castle never quite can.

He takes a few steps into the cabin and starts to disrobe—there’s no need for him to be wearing finery here at the cabin, as the silk of his tunic certainly is—but before he can even get his tunic halfway off, he hears a quick scuffle like that of footsteps, and the unmistakable sound of a closing door.

Castiel goes absolutely still. Even his breaths are silent as he listens, all of his senses straining as he attempts to pick out the cause of the sound or any indication of a repeat. When he hears nothing, he inhales deeply through his nose, then swears under his breath.

He hadn’t taken enough stock of the small cabin when he first entered, but doing so now, he cannot believe how much he failed to notice.

Someone else is already there.

There isn’t much to learn of the intruder from their residual scent alone, but it does provide just enough of a trail for Castiel to be able to find the person’s hiding place with ease. The bedroom door is closed; Castiel waits outside of it for only a moment before gently pushing it open. He’s still on high alert as he steps into the room. The intruder’s scent is more concentrated in here, though whether that’s because the source is nearby or because it’s woven into the sleep-rumpled bed, Castiel cannot yet determine.

He takes another cautious step into the room, and gets a dagger pressed to the underside of his jaw for his efforts.

“Make one wrong move and you’re dead,” a voice growls in his ear. “I don’t know what you were thinking, coming in here, but there’s nothing for you to gain, here.”

Castiel narrows his eyes, but despite the threat being levelled against him, he holds as still as he can. He isn’t in a mood to be murdered, even if he has a feeling he could put his training to use and overcome his attacker if need be. He isn’t so stupid as to underestimate a complete stranger.

He takes a breath, and his eyes go wide.

The man behind him is an omega.

Castiel tilts his chin up and slowly raises his hands in a show of innocence. “I bear you no ill-will. You are in my home; I didn’t know that you were here.”

“Your home?” the man repeats. “Fuck.” The dagger drops away from Castiel’s throat. “Fuck. Figures that you come back now, then. Just my luck.”

When the man withdraws, Castiel finally has the opportunity to turn and look at him. His breath nearly catches when he does; even for an omega, the stranger in his cabin is a beautiful one, with golden skin and bright, entrancing eyes. That isn’t, though, what truly gets the alpha’s attention.

“You’re hurt,” he says, rather dumbly. The omega is wearing a white undershirt bearing no coloring or affiliation to any house, but the plain white of the fabric makes the blood stain across his hip that much more obvious. Castiel raises his eyes back to the omega’s, and when he sees how guarded the man is, he doesn’t even have to think before offering, “There should be bandages here, if you will allow me to help you. A change of clothes, as well.”

The omega’s hand moves to hover over his wound, but even just from the way he doesn’t actually touch it, Castiel can tell that it’s serious. Without the defensive posture, too—though the omega is still clutching his dagger like a lifeline, and Castiel can’t quite blame him for that—it becomes obvious that he’s favoring his right leg over his left, and his weapon hand trembles.

“I’m in your home without permission, and yet you’d help me?” the omega asks. When Castiel nods, his eyes narrow and he asks, “Are you a noble?”

Castiel wets his lips. “Near enough. You may call me Cas.”

No one save his father has ever called him by the nickname, and he feels it’s appropriate to the location. Furthermore, though, it will help him to keep his identity to himself.

This strange omega does not need to know that the alpha whose home he invaded is the king of Eden. If he does not know on his own, then Castiel is not obligated to tell him, and would definitely prefer not to.

A few beats of silence pass between them before the omega nods. “Cas,” he repeats, testing the name on his tongue, “alright. I would appreciate your help. You can call me Dean.”

“Dean.” It’s a simple name, not quite befitting of a man who is clearly anything but plain himself, but thankfully Castiel manages to stop himself from saying just that. He inclines his head in the direction from which he just came, toward the cabin’s main living space. “If you’d like to sit at the table, I’ll go get water from the lake, and find the bandages when I return. I’m not a healer by any means, but I’m sure I’ll be able to help in some way, at least.”

Although he still seems hesitant, Dean nods again. “Thank you.”

Castiel answers him with a small smile. He might not know this omega or even have any specific reason to need to help him, but he’s in Castiel’s land and needs help, and that is justification enough in the alpha’s mind. He leaves the bedroom, trusting Dean to follow him out to the aforementioned table. “Sit, and take your shirt off so that I can get a proper look at your wound. I’ll be back in a moment.”

He does not delay in fetching the water that he promised to get, but once he’s outside, Castiel certainly does not hurry, either. He carries a container from the house out to the lake and lets it fill with crisp, clear water, then slowly makes his way back up to the cabin. Only once he’s sure Dean has had the opportunity to leave if he so desires does Castiel go back inside.

Much to his surprise, Dean is sitting at the table with his shirt off.

It’s only when his shock at that fact has him stilling in place that Castiel realizes just how convinced he was that Dean was going to leave. He would have been sure of it.

Not that he’s complaining.

With his shirt removed, it’s easy to see just how hurt Dean is, and subsequently imagine how it must have happened. The cut in his side is deep and jagged—clearly the work of close-quarters situation with a sloppy opponent. Taken into consideration with the few other bruises littering Dean’s torso, and Castiel has no doubt that the omega was in a fight he wasn’t prepared for.

Castiel gets the rest of the materials he needs and then settles onto the stool next to the one Dean has already claimed, the bucket of water ready and waiting beside his foot. Dean holds himself stiffly, but aside from a minor, seemingly involuntary flinch when Castiel firsts touches a water-soaked strip of cloth to the torn flesh just below his ribs, he doesn’t object to the care he is being given. He simply grits his teeth and bears his way through it.

Castiel can’t help but be endeared by the silent show of strength.

He gets midway through bandaging the wound by the time Dean speaks.

“You always this nice to strangers, Cas?”

Castiel pauses and glances up at him. “Do you mean to harm me?”

Dean blinks. A crease forms at the center of his brow. “No.”

“And you came into this house because you needed a place to recover, did you not?”

“I did.”

Castiel smiles. “Then I don’t see why I shouldn’t be nice to you. You have done nothing wrong on my account. I came out here to escape the stress of my everyday life, and as far as I can see, this is distracting me just as well as gardening would.”

Dean doesn’t seem much less confused by that. “And… That’s your alpha scent I can smell, right?”

“Are you asking me if I am an alpha?” Castiel sits up straighter, an eyebrow arching as he considers that. He’s never had his secondary gender questioned. He’s never been around anyone who didn’t know, and who didn’t know what was intrinsically expected of him because of that. “Why do you not believe that I am?”

Dean stares at him for a moment longer, but ultimately shakes his head. “Nothing. Just—you mind finishing this up? I twisted my ankle up pretty good, so I think I’m gonna need your help with that next.”  

Castiel’s interest over the question of his gender has not subsided, but he has the good grace to let the subject pass. He nods as he returns to his task of wrapping the bandage around Dean’s middle, and finds another way to fill the air between them.

“What happened to you?” he asks, then for clarification when Dean merely blinks at him, “To lead you here, I mean. In this state. Considering the help I’m providing you, I believe a story is the least you can give me in return.”

“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” The words are flat, but when Castiel glances up to make sure he hasn’t actually offended his houseguest by asking such a question, he finds the ghost of a smile curling the omega’s lips. It highlights his natural beauty. “I guess it is the least I can do, isn’t it. You drive a hard bargain, Cas.”

Castiel shrugs. He’s actually hoping in large part to learn who Dean is, where he came from, and he assumes that that will be easiest to glean by retracing the omega’s steps. He finishes with the main bandage and seals it off, then slides down onto the floor so that he can examine Dean’s ankle.

Dean makes an odd sound in the back of his throat, then pointedly clears it. Castiel’s gaze raises in time for him to see the omega wet his lips.

“I was, uh—on a trip. Long story short, I was fighting with my mom, and came to Eden a bit… hotheaded.”

Castiel runs his tongue along the front of his teeth. “Where are you from, if not Eden?”

From the way Dean hesitates, Castiel suspects he hadn’t meant to reveal his foreignness. He assesses the alpha knelt before him for a long moment, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, then seemingly comes to the conclusion that the truth is acceptable to share. Castiel can see the resolution of it in his eyes before he finally pulls Dean’s pant leg up to examine his (very swollen) ankle, an excuse for the king to keep his own reactions from being just as easily read.

“I’m from Campbell,” Dean confesses. Castiel forces himself to nod; he cannot be sure whether it is a good or bad thing that Dean is only from just across the border. The omega continues while Castiel prods at his ankle, “My point, though, was that I was hot-headed when I left, so I wasn’t on my guard. I was jumped by a group of bandits just as I got to Eden’s border. I held my own for a bit, took a few out, but in the end, I was too outnumbered. I wasn’t going to beat them all. I ran, lost them in the woods, and was just about to pass out from blood loss or exhaustion or both when I found your house. Walls, a roof, and a clean bed are probably the only reasons I survived.” Dean clears his throat, the sweet, vanilla undertone of his scent momentarily spiking in what Castiel thinks is embarrassment before he tacks on, “Thank you for that, by the way.”

For the span of a few heartbeats, Castiel is struck silent. There is so much information in that for him to process, and the density of it keeps him from finding his tongue right away. Dean being from Campbell doesn’t tell him much. He hasn’t had any contact with the ruling family since his coronation, and knows little about them besides. He has been too busy with local affairs since his parents’ deaths to have time for such extraneous knowledge.

It is, however, interesting to know that Dean was able to fight off even some of his attackers when he was ambushed. While it explains the wounds Dean took on, omegas don’t tend to be fighters.

Now Castiel really wants to know where Dean came from.

“You’re welcome,” he eventually says back to the other man. Then, before the opportunity to ask can escape him, “Why were you coming to Eden?”

“I was…” Dean pauses, his previous hesitation returning. Castiel is too occupied with applying a tight wrap to the omega’s swollen ankle to look up and assess him this time—and he’s too silently pleased by the lack of pain he seems to be causing to disrupt the flow they’ve fallen into—but a few seconds of patience pay off, and Dean answers him without prompting. “There’s rumor that King Lucifer asked Queen Mary for assistance in warring for control of Eden. I know someone in Eden who I think deserves to have warning of that, if it’s really going to happen.”

A war for Eden.

Castiel may not know Queen Mary, but he knows plenty about King Lucifer, and as such, he doesn’t doubt the truth of Dean’s statement for a second. It leaves his ears ringing, and his tongue feels like cotton in his mouth.

If Lucifer attacks on his own, Eden might stand a chance. Castiel may not be the omega ruler his people need, but one of the few things he was taught was an understanding of the ways of war. He is not a brilliant tactician by any means, but Eden’s army is strong and skilled, comprised of the fiercest of warriors. With the help of his few omega generals, Castiel could possibly manage to save his kingdom from being obliterated.

But if Campbell’s army joins forces with Lucifer’s, Eden’s fate will already be sealed. Even if Naomi and Cain were still alive, two full-strength armies marching against their borders would be a terrible omen.

Dean may not know it, but he’s just warned Castiel of his own imminent death.

“…Cas? Cas, are you okay?”

The king looks up. His thoughts feel jumbled, yet simultaneously hollowed. He can hardly get them in order, and he certainly has no idea how many attempts Dean has made to get his attention. He suspects this isn’t the first.

“What cause would Queen Mary have to unite with King Lucifer?” Castiel asks, circumventing Dean’s concern all together. Maybe the omega will have an answer for him, maybe he will not, but regardless, it’s something Castiel needs to figure out for the sake of his own survival. If he has merely offended Mary, or can offer her some type of payment in exchange for an allegiance between them—

“She and Lucifer are convinced that Eden’s king isn’t fit to rule,” Dean says, cutting the head off of Castiel’s budding hope with a single, swift blow. “You know how alphas are supposed to be, with their tempers and stubbornness. Everyone knows that Queen Naomi was pretty desperate to find him an omega to give him some credibility, but once she died, even a letter already sitting on M—” He stumbles briefly, cheeks dusting pink. “Queen Mary’s desk wasn’t enough to make anything happen.”

Another jolt runs through Castiel at that. He’s sure his mother wouldn’t have called his potential marriage a bid for ‘credibility’, but he absolutely believes that she would have been making efforts to find a successor worthy of her. He wishes she had discussed such a thing with him. He wonders where the omega prince of Campbell might have fallen on her list of candidates.

Dean continues, oblivious to just how thoroughly he is turning Castiel’s world on its head.

“But anyways. Especially without anyone lined up to mate with, the king of Eden is easy picking, as far as King Lucifer seems concerned. He’s pretty confident that he can win.”

“No one has ever taken Eden,” Castiel counters. Gods, he feels lightheaded. “The Novak family has held the throne for thousands of years—”

Dean shakes his head. He’s thought about this a lot, it seems. “The Novak family doesn’t have anyone wearing the omega crown for the first time in all those thousands of years. Now there’s two other omegas who want a piece, and who’ve sat at Eden’s border and watched the Novaks thrive for generations. This is as good a chance as they’re going to get.”

He’s right. Of course Dean is right. Not only does he have far more insight into the situation than Castiel can hope for in his own right, but he also doesn’t have anything at stake; it’s easy for him to be level-headed. It’s one of the things omegas are best at.

Castiel takes a deep breath to steady himself. He pointedly doesn’t think about the fact that the pleasantness of Dean’s scent makes it easier to manage; true as it may be, acknowledging it gets him nowhere, and he doesn’t have time to waste on the matter. Not with all that Dean has told him.

There’s one detail in particular which pricks at him, tugs at his focus until he’s brought fully back to attention. Dean’s ankle is long since wrapped by this point, so Castiel lets go of it and returns to the stool so that the two of them can be on an equal level as the king presses for more details.

“Your intention was to come to Eden to warn someone.” It’s a statement, not a question. Castiel leans forward, watching Dean intently. “Are you not fully in support of a sacking of Eden? What are the chances that there are others of your same mindset, and that Mary could be persuaded from joining Lucifer?”

Dean’s eyes slide away, which is far from encouraging. “I have… personal reasons for being against a war with Eden. Unfortunately, I think more people in Campbell would be for it than against it.”

“Personal reasons?”

“Uh, well.” Dean rubs awkwardly at the back of his neck. “Long story short, my mom was an omega who mated with a beta, and people always gave them shit for it. They thought she should have been with an alpha, didn’t think he was good enough, all that. Guess you could say it made me sympathetic to the underdogs of the world.”

“And who is the underdog in this situation?” Castiel asks. The fact about Dean’s parentage is interesting, but he’s not positive on how it relates.

Until, that is, Dean explains, “Eden’s alpha king. The problem is that everyone is assuming he’s not good enough because he’s an alpha, and I can’t be convinced that that’s fair. Not after seeing all the shit my dad went through, especially.”

Oh.

Castiel curls his fingers into his palms to stop the slight tremor he can feel in his hands. Dean doesn’t know him, not really, and yet here he is, in Castiel’s cabin, expressing more faith in him than anyone ever has before. He has no idea how to cope with that.

He decides to ignore it. Best not to let Dean know that he is affected, as he excuses it to himself. His identity is best left concealed.

It would feel deceitful, to tell Dean now.

“Queen Mary may be willing to support Lucifer, then,” he says, getting their conversation back on-track. “Will all of Campbell back such a movement simply because Mary Campbell has something to gain from it?”

“Winchester,” Dean interjects, then explains when Castiel frowns, “Her name is Mary Winchester. She took her mate’s name. Her parents weren’t pleased, but she did.”

“Oh.” Castiel presses his lips together, feeling like a fool. How did his parents neglect to tell him that? It doesn’t bode well for his relationship with Queen Mary. “I suppose I’m not as well-versed in foreign policy as I could be. I had just assumed…”

Dean waves a hand. “Don’t worry about it. The queen is stubborn, and has a tendency to do whatever the hell she wants. Plenty of people probably didn’t pay attention to what she did when she was young.”

“I suppose.”

“To answer your question, though, yeah.” The omega makes a vague gesture, hands spreading out helplessly. “If the queen announces that she’s going to join forces with Lucifer to sack Eden, her people aren’t going to object. People like me might be against it, but I’m not calling the shots.”

“Damnit.” Castiel pushes up to his feet, frustration quickly rising to dangerous levels. He begins pacing the length of the room as he things, the motion helping him to balance as he tries to think.

A war coming from the kingdom to the south, a likely allegiance between that kingdom and the one to the west; who is there left for Castiel to call for help? Eden dominates the westernmost coast of the continent. There is a small section of border to the northeast that he shares with another kingdom, but even knowing admittedly little about Queen Anna, he knows that she doesn’t have the resources to support Eden in a war. Middleton has the smallest army in the land, only equipped for the needs of the equally small kingdom. Calling for Anna would not provide Castiel with any aid.

His parents used to have a good relationship with King Crowley and Queen Meg, but he is on the opposite border, too far to call on a moment’s notice. Coming up from behind the Campbell—Winchester—army might be an advantage, but it might also be a curse. Crossing Campbell’s lands to reach that point wouldn’t be an easy start, Mary would likely be infuriated, and the army Crowley would lead would end up having to fight just to be able to reach the fight. The odds of it working out are slim to none.

The kingdom across the sea is more foreign to him than any other. Whoever may be in charge there may possibly be in a position to help, located geographically as they are, but what are the odds that someone so removed from this continent would put their resources on the line to help someone they hardly know? Even the Novak family name is not worth that much.

Which means that Castiel is alone in this. Eden has no allies.

If he weren’t an alpha, this wouldn’t have happened.

His pacing comes to an abrupt halt, and he digs his fingers into his hair. “I have to go. I need to get to the capitol, I need to tell—”

“Whoa whoa, hey!”

Dean is on his feet and placing his hands on Castiel’s shoulders in an instant, cutting the king off before he can finish his sentence. I need to tell my council. Dean grabs his attention, though, and his touch helps to calm the racing of Castiel’s heart. Omega steadiness, ever-reliable.

“You’re not going anywhere tonight,” Dean tells him, tone leaving no room for argument. “Night is falling, it’s too dark for you to get anywhere safely. And you need to calm down and think about this, okay? I know the thought of war coming to your kingdom is terrifying, but you need to be realistic right now.”

Now that it has been pointed out, Castiel notices that the light of the sun has faded significantly. Dean is right, unsurprisingly. It seems to be a talent of his. Castiel may be stressed, but pushing himself and his horse into a moonlit race back to the castle would be dangerous and stupid. Nothing will be changed if he waits until morning. He sighs, scrubs his palms across his face, then reluctantly nods. Where did the day go? How did it end like this?

He tries not to think about it any more. Problems for tomorrow.

“Yes. Yes, we can discuss this more in the morning. You need rest to heal. You can sleep in the bed.”

Dean shifts back a step, careful not to put too much weight on his twisted ankle, and frowns at Castiel. “Where will you sleep, then?”

The king answers him with a tight smile. “You’re injured, and my guest here. You can sleep in the bed. I will sleep elsewhere.”

Dean shakes his head. “I’m not your guest, I’m an intruder. You’ve already been better to me than you needed to be. And you said yourself that you came out here for a chance to relax. Now you’re telling me you’re going to sleep on the ground, too? Not gonna happen.”

There’s a hint of trademark omega steel in Dean’s eyes as he speaks, and it utterly captivates Castiel, to the degree that forming even a partial objection proves difficult. The king wets his lips. “I will not allow you to sleep on the ground, either.”

“Alright, fine.” Dean shrugs, then turns on his good foot and starts toward the bedroom. “Guess we’ll just have to share.”

That single sentence wipes Castiel’s mind clean. He doesn’t quite know what he expected to come from quarreling over their sleeping arrangements, but this certainly wasn’t it. He stands rooted in place until Dean reaches the bedroom door and turns back to him, an eyebrow raised. Thanks to the dimming light, not even the bandages around his middle could stop Dean from looking like a god made flesh.

“You coming?” Dean asks, and that’s all it takes for Castiel to overcome his trepidations and follow the omega into the bedroom.

For as strange as it should be, though, the actual process of climbing into bed with a man he doesn’t know is surprisingly easy. Dean maintains his existing state of partial undress, but while Castiel chooses to remove his outer tunic, he leaves his undershirt in place to ensure there is no indecency between them.

He is, after all, a gentleman.

They settle in without issue, quietly intimate despite having no intentions to be just that. Lying together in the dark simply has that power of influence.

It almost feels too intimate, though. On the other half of the bed, Dean seems tense, coiled like he’s ready to eject himself from the situation if it somehow advances in a way he doesn’t approve of. It won’t, of course—Castiel would never so much as think of trying something—but they are still strangers to one another, so Castiel cannot say he blames the omega.

Castiel is still a bit tense in his own right from his near freakout over the fate of his kingdom. As such, plucking a subject out of thin air to reset the mood and distract them both from the messes in their heads strikes him as the best course of action available to him. He lets the first thing in his mind fall from his lips, words spoken softly into the dark of the bedroom.

“What was it you were fighting with your mother about when you left home yesterday?”

He can’t see the omega’s reaction, but Castiel certainly hears the click of his throat when he swallows. “I didn’t think you caught that,” he comments.

Castiel lifts a shoulder in a shrug, the sheets rustling along with the movement. “I’m a good listener.”

“Yeah, good listener,” Dean shoots back, “I’m sure that’s it.” He pauses for another moment, then sighs, and turns sober. “We were having a disagreement. She wants something that I don’t want, and she refuses to even listen to me about it. She expects me to obey her like everyone else does, and I won’t. Not when it goes against everything I believe in. I don’t care how pissed off she might be about it, either. I don’t have to listen to her.”

There’s more venom laced into Dean’s words than Castiel would have expected, given how amicable everything exchanged between them—greeting notwithstanding—has been thus far. Castiel understands being passionate about certain subjects, as well, but considering specifically what it is that has Dean upset, whether he understands or not, the king has to frown.

“Is this something that is worth fighting with your mother over?”

The bed shakes as Dean rolls to face him. Castiel glances sideways at him, and holds still in the face of Dean’s glare. “It is, actually, yes. She’s being a selfish, controlling, bitch.”

Castiel winces at the harshness of that word. “You don’t think it could be worth hearing her out?” he tries. “This is something that is worth having a soured relationship? Would you feel the same if it became permanent?”

Dean is quiet for a long moment. “You… Think I should do what she wants?”

“I think not reconciling with your mother can be a terrible thing.”

There’s another length of silence, then the unmistakable shuffling of Dean rolling back onto his back. His previous tension does not return, so even if there is now something else weighing on Dean’s mind, Castiel cannot bring himself to regret it. His advice was genuine; he wouldn’t wish his own pains on anyone, let alone someone who seems as genuine and kind as Dean does.

Castiel settles himself in, readying himself to actually get to sleep. His thoughts are still churning, but that is not enough to stop himself from trying to relax.

It’s odd, sleeping in a bed with another person. Not bad, by any means, as the warmth from another body warms him to his core and the sound of Dean’s every breath is like a lullaby in the quiet of the room, but Castiel has not shared a bed with anyone since he was a boy, likely whenever he last shared this very bed with his father on one of their trips—and that, of course, was very different.

After a few minutes, long enough that Castiel had been certain that Dean had dropped off to sleep beside him, the omega sucks a breath in through his teeth, then speaks out into the silence.

“You really think I should make up with my mom, Cas?”

It’s not hard to understand why that subject has apparently stuck in Dean’s mind. Castiel lets the depth of the question sink in for a moment.

“I believe,” he begins slowly, carefully choosing his words, “that that depends on your relationship with her, and the relationship you want to have going forward. It is hard to say for sure without knowing what you are fighting about, but…” He shifts, adjusting the blanket that’s stretched over them both before confessing, “I lost my mother, and there were many issues between us that I regret never having the chance to resolve because of that. She was disappointed that I am an alpha, and I never even had the chance to take a mate to earn back some of her favor. Not that that would have fixed all of our problems, but it would have been something. As it is, there’s nothing I can do about the regrets I have, and that haunts me most of all. So my advice would be… Don’t let yourself be set up for any similar regrets. Nothing is worth that.”

Dean doesn’t respond to that right away. As the silence stretches on, Castiel begins to suspect he won’t get a reply at all, but just as the king is resigning himself to that fate, Dean lets out a quiet sigh.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he says. “I’ll talk to her when I get home. I’d rather not fight with her.” A beat passes, and he adds softly, “I’m sorry about your mom, Cas.”

The air leaves Castiel’s lungs all at once. “Thank you, Dean.”

Dean hums, but when he curls in on himself to make himself more comfortable, Castiel knows that’s truly the end of the conversation. He listens to the steady rhythm of the omega’s, monitoring it as he drops off to sleep. Just before Castiel drops off to sleep, he swears he hears Dean say, “Night, Cas.”

He’s too far gone to respond in kind, but it warms him nonetheless.

When he wakes in the morning, Dean’s scent is wrapped around him, but the bedsheets beside him are long since cold. He doesn’t need to investigate any more than that to know that the omega is truly gone. He’s surprised that Dean stayed for as long as he did, after all, and logically, Castiel knows that his departure is probably for the best. As much as he might already enjoy Dean’s company, even just after a few hours, he doesn’t have the privilege of time to further appreciate it any further.

Wherever Dean is from, wherever he is returning to, he will be better off there. If war is to come to Eden. Dean is best to stay away, and to stay safe. Being involved with Castiel to any degree would only jeopardize that safety.

And that is something that Castiel does not need more time with Dean to recognize that he refuses to do.

He lies in bed for longer than he should, breathing in Dean’s lingering scent until it begins to fade. It provides him time to avoid thinking about his fate. Time to fantasize about what other courses his life could have taken.

He makes a pledge to himself, then and there.

If he wins the war, the first thing he will do is locate Dean. He’ll search all of Campbell if he has to, but no matter what, he won’t let Dean slip away from him completely.

Once his resolve has been made, Castiel sends a silent prayer up to the gods. If he is going to win—to survive—he is going to need the support of the entire pantheon.

He has a feeling that Dean will be worth the effort.

#destiel #destiel fanfic #king!castiel #alpha!castiel #prince!dean #omega!dean #medieval au #saltnhalo #makenna's writing

[project-ml]

Project: Valentine’s Day 2018 — Le Petit Rob Noir

Le Petit Rob Noir

Author: @heartfiliadaydream | (Ao3)

Betas: @pateatsaburger | (Ao3)

Word Count: 3364

Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day, and Chloe and Alya want to give the people they like gifts to show that they care. It’s too bad that Chloe thinks they hate her, and Alya doesn’t think she’s got a chance in hell to woo her superhero partner.

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Tags: Chloe Bourgeois, Alya Cesaire, ChloexAlya, valentine’s day, secret crush, secondary love square

Pollen watched in exasperation as Chloe attempted to break into one of her classmate’s locker. After about the fifth murmured string of expletives, the kwami decided to take pity on her poor master.

“You know I could just phase in and open the locker for you, right?”

Chloe jerked up and glared at the kwami. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“I mentioned it a few weeks ago when you locked yourself out of your room and were too embarrassed to talk to the front desk, remember?”

“Fine, whatever, just open the locker for me, alright?”

Pollen rolled her eyes and popped into the locker, the door swinging open a moment afterwards. With a little bow, she moved out of the way so Chloe could place the gift she had gotten in the locker.

“I still think you should leave a note,” Pollen commented.

Chloe shook her head. “No way. It’s bad enough I’ve got a crush on her in the first place, I don’t need her ridiculing me for it.”

“Aww, but you could have added some flowers and chocolates and made it a grand gesture of your affection! It is Valentine’s Day afterall!”

“No, this… this is enough for now.”

“If you say so.”

The following morning at school, Alya opened her locker to find something in it that had not been there the last night. She stood there staring at it until Marinette poked her head around the open door to see what was up.

“Ohh, looks like someone’s got a secret admirer!”

“Shh! Keep it down! I don’t even know if that’s what this is.”

“Well then, open it up! See who it’s from and what it is!”

Alya sighed and picked up the package. There was a small note attached to the ribbon that read simply “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Hesitantly, she pulled on the ribbon and tore off the wrapping paper. Inside was a nondescript plain cardboard box, which she also popped open to reveal what was inside. She gasped. It was a lense attachment for her phone’s camera, making the quality of the picture comparable to that of a real photographer’s camera.

Someone let out an impressed whistle from behind them and they turned to see it was Adrien. “That’s quite the piece of tech right there. Who got it for you?”

Alya shrugged. “I’m not sure. There’s no name.”

“Well, whoever got that for you must really like you, I can tell you that those don’t come cheap.”

Alya knew that. She’d been longingly staring at it in the electronics store for months. She knew that the only people who actually knew that fact would have been Nino and Marinette. Then again, she supposed that anyone who knew anything about her could have guessed that was something she had her eye on.

“I know you’re all worried about who gave that to you and stuff, but let’s be honest, I know you’re dying to try it out, so why don’t we not look a gift horse in the mouth and take some pictures,” Marinette suggested.

Alya nodded. “You’re right, time to see what this puppy can really do!”

Unfortunately, the bell for class rang immediately after that, so the pair settled on a quick selfie just to test out the quality. Alya could have cried the photo quality was so much nicer than it had been on her phone before. She had about eight million new photo session ideas, including finding some way to get all of Paris’ superheroes into one amazing quality shot. She was sure she could convince Marinette to help her set that one up.

That one wouldn’t make the Ladyblog though. That one would be just for her.

At lunch, Marinette and Alya headed over to Marinette’s to eat and further discuss the gift.

“Aren’t you even a little curious as to who sent it?” Marinette asked, stealing a grape from the bowl in front of Alya.

Shooting her a look and pulling the bowl closer to her, Alya replied, “Of course I am! But what I’m not excited about is trying to tell whoever it is that they don’t have a chance because I’m actually in love with my superhero partner who doesn’t seem to feel the same way!”

Marinette sighed and put her hands on Alya’s shoulders. “You don’t know that though. For all you know, Queen Bee could feel the same way about you, but you won’t know until you tell her.”

“Just like you’ve told Adrien? And should I remind you about how torn up Chat was when you told him you didn’t have romantic feelings for him?”

“Those are two completely different situations. We both know that you’re far more confident than I am, and Chat wasn’t that torn up… was he?”

“Girl, you weren’t there for the aftermath.”

“Shit, okay, well I didn’t know that, so that one doesn’t count. Plus, I’m definitely getting vibes that she might like you too.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better and to do it.”

Marinette shrugged, so Alya threw a grape at her.

Later that night, Queen Bee was sitting at the top city hall, lost in thought. Alya had seemed really excited about the gift, though a little wary over the anonymous nature of it. Either way, she was really happy that she could have made her smile like that, even if it was next to Marinette instead of her.

A soft pad of feet behind her broke her from her thoughts.

“Well fancy that, I’ve found the Queen,” she heard a familiar voice say from behind her.

“What do you want, tomcat?” she replied.

Chat Noir came and sat down beside her. “I needed to get out. Things at home are rough.”

Queen Bee made a noise of understanding. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“How do you deal with knowing Ladybug doesn’t like you the way you like her?”

Chat was taken aback for a moment, but sighed and replied, “It’s difficult, I won’t lie. But we’re best friends and just being friends and being around her is good enough for me.”

“That was unsurprisingly unhelpful.”

“It’s the truth though,” he admitted. Looking at the scowl on Bee’s face, Chat asked, “Why did you want to know?”

She thought about telling him to mind his own business, but she’d only been able to talk to Pollen about this, so having a friend to confide in wouldn’t hurt. She explained her situation without being too specific, stating it was a girl at school whom she had been less than kind to before she’d grown up and matured a little, but she still saw her as the mean girl. Then she mentioned the anonymous gift she’d left.

“Well, there’s not much you can do about the fact you used to be mean to her, but I think if you’ve grown up a little, she might think differently of you. The only thing you can do now is tell her and hope she feels the same way.”

“Oh, because that worked out well for you and Ladybug?”

“How’d you know about that?”

“Rena and I had a chat a while back about it. You know how close her and Ladybug have become.”

“Fair enough. That also has to do with the fact we’re both superheroes though, not only because she likes someone else. As for the gift part, I know you didn’t write your name, but don’t be surprised if she finds out who you are. I once had something gifted to me, but found out later on that it wasn’t from the person who’d given it to me.”

“I just hope she doesn’t laugh at me.”

“If she does, let me know and I’ll have a few words with her.”

“Thanks Chat. I’ll make sure to plan you a grand funeral afterwards.”

Chat chuckled and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, hesitating for just a moment before following through and said, “Anytime.”

Another sound of feet hitting the roof behind them caused both of them to turn around and see Rena Rouge walking towards them.

“Is this a bad time?” she asked, eyes darting between the two of them.

“Not at all,” Chat replied. “We were just chatting.”

“Oh, okay. Is it alright if I borrow Queen Bee here for a few minutes?”

Chat looked from Rena to Bee and back again, before shrugging and getting to his feet. He shot them both finger guns, then backflipped off the roof, vaulting away.

“Show off,” Rena muttered, rolling her eyes.

Bee turned to Rena and asked, “What did you want to borrow me for?”

Rena shifted a little uncomfortably, but noticed that Bee didn’t look like her usual self.

“Are you alright? You look a little upset. Do I need to beat that stupid cat’s head in?”

Bee giggled quietly, replying, “No, it wasn’t him. It’s nothing.”

“Bee, we’ve become pretty close, you don’t need to hide anything.”

“I just gave someone a gift today without telling them it was from me because I’m worried about what they’ll think knowing it was.”

Rena raised an eyebrow. “What’s there to worry about?”

“I wasn’t exactly… nice to her in the past. I was kind of a jerk actually.”

“Oh. I see why you’re worried then. Speaking from personal experience, sometimes you’d be surprised what people think if you’ve changed. There was someone who used to be a jerk to me as well, but in the last year or so, she’s changed a lot and while we’re by no means friends, I would at least say thank you without being a jerk to them about it.”

Bee thought about it and supposed while Alya might not like her, she probably wouldn’t patronize her for it. While she thought, she realized Rena was holding something.

“What’ve you got there?”

“Um, it’s actually for you,” Rena said, handing her a gift wrapped box. “I saw it the other day and thought it was really suited to you.”

Bee took the box.

“Can I open it?” Rena nodded and Bee pulled of the wrapping paper, unveiling the box for a Guerlain perfume. It was one she had yet to add to her collection, and she was surprised that Rena would spend so much on her. “Wow, thank you, but I don’t know if I can accept it. This isn’t a cheap gift and I feel bad I didn’t get you anything.”

Rena shook her head and Bee could see the hint of a blush staining the cheeks below her mask. “Don’t sweat it. It’s Valentine’s Day and I just wanted to get you something nice. I’ve got to go now though, see you later!”

Before Bee could process and respond, Rena was already jumping over the nearest rooftop and out of sight.

Rena ran as fast as she could before she crashed onto Marinette’s bed from the rooftop entrance, detransforming with a noise of defeat.

“Went that badly?” Marinette asked, handing Trixx a snack to eat with Tikki while they talked.

“Not exactly. I was all ‘I just wanted to get you something nice, bye!’ and then ran off. I don’t even know what she thought about it.”

Marinette stifled a giggle. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure things will be fine. And if they’re not, I’ll tell her they have to be for the good of the team.”

“Gee thanks, as long as it doesn’t mess with the team dynamic, then everything is fine and dandy!”

“I’m sorry, you know what I mean. It is technically the most important thing in this scenario from Ladybug’s point of view. But as Marinette, I truly hope things go well. I know things were rocky when she first joined the team, but she’s really become a good friend and I want both of you to be happy.”

“Thanks, girl, I really appreciate it.”

When Chloe got home, she flopped down on her bed, groaning and staring at the box of perfume that had landed next to her. She felt awful that she couldn’t say anything back to Rena before she ran away, but then again, she didn’t even know what that would be.

Sure, they were good friends, but she liked someone else. Though, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about Rena that way. In a lot of ways she reminded Chloe of Alya. They were both witty, smart, took no shit, and gorgeous to top it all off. She wasn’t sure how she managed to keep her act together around either of them.

She could see herself falling completely for Rena Rouge, since she was pretty sure Alya would never feel the same way about her after their history in collège, even after what Rena had said about the gift. It was one thing to forgive, but a whole other matter to be more than even just classmates.

Opening the bottle, she smelled the perfume and sighed in delight. She loved any and all scents from this line and was super excited to wear it tomorrow at school.

Sitting in first period, Alya could tell something was different. Chloe was sitting in her usual spot right in front of her and had a soft smile on her lips, unlike anything Alya had seen on her before. Walking by, she smelled a sweet scent that was very familiar.

“Is that a new perfume, Chloe?”

Surprised by her name coming from so close next to her, Chloe jumped in her seat and reeled back when she saw Alya was inches away from her face.

“Y-yes, it is, what’s it to you- I mean- why do you ask?”

“What scent is it?”

The soft smile returned to Chloe’s face. “It’s the new one from Guerlain. It was a gift from a close friend.”

Alya hummed in reply and took her seat, staring intently at the back of Chloe’s head. That typical ponytail she wore reminded her a lot of the one Queen Bee always wore as well, and they had a very similar hair colour. Though she supposed blonde wasn’t a very uncommon colour, and fairly easy to recreate from a box. She had never noticed the black and yellow pin in her hair before today however. It looked like she was trying to hide it in her ponytail.

The biggest problem was, the more she thought about it, the more the similarities showed up between them. Especially the way Queen Bee acted when she first showed up. She was smug and a little rude, but the difference was she corrected her actions very swiftly afterwards, apologizing…

Oh dear lord, Chloe was totally Queen Bee.

There was only one way for Alya to find out.

After school, she asked Trixx if she could send a message like they could when they were transformed without actually being transformed.

“Sure, whichever one you decide to contact, their Kwami will just let them know that you’re trying to get into contact with them.”

“Perfect, let’s see if Queen Bee is available to have a chat.”

Chloe was surprised when Pollen said Rena Rouge wanted to see her, but she transformed and met her once again on top of City Hall, despite being anxious about finally talking to her after the last night.

When she landed, Rena was pacing across the roof.

“Hey, what did you want to meet about?” she asked, trying to keep it casual and light.

“I have a really random question. Yesterday you mentioned that you gave someone a gift without saying it was you. How did you do that?”

Bee was taken aback. That really was a random question. “I left it in their locker?”

Rena sucked in a breath of air, and thought Oh my God it’s Chloe.

“What?” Queen Bee said. “What did you just say?”

“Oh shit, I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“Why would you think that’s my name? That’s such a ridiculous thing to ask and then say, you’re absolutely out of your mind, clearly you were dropped on your head as a child Rena,” Bee said all too quickly.

“Oh my god, you really are Chloe, aren’t you? I cannot believe this. Actually, I can, I can totally see how this a thing. Shit, I’m going to have to tell Marinette or none of this is going to make sense tomorrow.”

“We’re going to come back to that comment later, but I’d really like to know how you figured out who I was,” Bee responded, then detransformed back into Chloe.

Rena didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Well, fun little tidbit about my day yesterday, someone at school left a gift in my locker with no name and a note that said ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ in it, which seems oddly coincidental given you did exactly that yesterday. Then you wore the perfume I gave you to school today.”

“Oh my lord, you’re Alya.”

Alya dropped her transformation as well, holding up her phone with the gift Chloe had given her on it. “You’d be right on that assumption, Queenie.”

Chloe stared at Alya for a moment before letting out a giggle, which then turned into a laugh, which turned into her laughing hysterically, and before she knew it, they’d turned into laughing sobs.

She tried to turn to hide the tears going down her face, but Alya had seen them.

“Why are you crying? I don’t know how to deal with a crying Chloe.”

“I don’t know, honestly,” Chloe replied between sobs. “This whole thing is just… so, so messed up. Here I am, hoping I can just fly by with a secret crush on you, and now I find out you’re one of my closest friends who hates my civilian form? How am I supposed to react?”

“I don’t hate you.”

Chloe turned around to see a pink faced Alya.

“What?”

Looking directly at her, Alya replied, “I don’t hate you. I used to, back when you were a grade A bitch, but… I don’t hate you anymore. Since we started lycée, you’ve just been an overall less unpleasant person. It was almost difficult to tell that you and Queen Bee were one in the same because of the personality difference though.”

“I tried really hard to be a better person as Queen Bee. I know I was awful when we were younger, but it was too late to completely flip my personality at school. So when I got the miraculous, I decided to reinvent myself. Make myself the person I’d actually become versus the person I couldn’t change to be in real life.”

“So if you could, you’d be like Queen Bee all the time?”

“In a heartbeat.”

Alya walked over and wiped the tears off Chloe’s face. “To tell you the truth, that gift I gave you last night wasn’t just some gift. It was meant as a Valentine’s gift between more than just friends.”

“Well if I’m being honest, even though I gave you that gift at school yesterday as more than just classmates, I’d almost given up on ever actually telling you how I felt. I kind of started to fall for you as Rena Rouge as well.”

Alya’s face deepened in colour. “O-Oh, really?”

“Will you be my belated Valentine?” Chloe asked.

“On one condition,” Alya replied. Chloe nodded and she continued, “Only if you start to actually be the person you are as Queen Bee at school.”

“Deal. As long as you’re there to help me if I slip up. Like when Rose wears too much of that awful perfume, or when Nino refuses to turn down his stupid music, or-”

“Chloe,” Alya warned.

“Sorry, old habits die hard.”

“Of course. Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?”

“I’d love to,” Chloe replied, taking Alya’s hand. As an afterthought she asked, “What did you mean you’re going to have to tell Marinette about this?”

“Oh girl, you’re going to go crazy when you find out, but I’ll let her tell you that one,” Alya replied with a wink, then transformed and leapt off the roof.

“Hey! Wait for me!”

#miraculous ladybug #chloexalya #chloe bourgeois #alya cesaire #valentines day #project: valentine's day 2018 #themlgroup

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 60: Keeping It Together

“It’s not our fault!”

Does Steven Universe have a more ominous setting than the Prime Kindergarten? Rose’s Room comes close (and I maintain that Rose’s Room is the scariest episode of the series), but episodes featuring it always pay off the unsettling setting with an actual scare. Whereas the muted colors and cacophonous clangs of Kindergarten maintain a constant thrumming dread, promising something horrible and imminent, and lets that tone linger uninterrupted. Amethyst’s fight with Pearl in On the Run is intense, and the Crystal Gems confronting Peridot in Marble Madness ramps up the suspense, but we haven’t seen any true horror from Kindergarten until now. 

And yeah, holy shit.

As I mentioned in Reformed and Sworn to the Sword, Keeping It Together establishes Garnet’s next big arc. But hers is much different from her fellow Gems’, both in structure (it’s the shortest by far and resolves with its Peridot Episode instead of its Steven Episode) and in tone. Garnet is the emotionally healthiest Gem on the planet right now, so she needs a bigger push than Amethyst or Pearl if she’s going to lose her cool. This isn’t to belittle the other two Gems, but there’s a reason the prompts for their episodes are day-to-day issues (for them) like renewing their physical forms or training a student, while Garnet needs dramatic scenarios like the Cluster Gems or a friend’s betrayal to reach the same level of crisis.

In short, external motivation is everything to Garnet’s arc because she lacks the internal baggage of her peers. There’s nothing unhealthy about being queer a fusion, so her problems stem from societal oppression that targets her for being who she is. We’ve seen her face fusionphobia with grace against Jasper, and we’ll see that bookended with Peridot when the season ends, but an attack on her identity as abhorrent as the Cluster Gems is certainly grounds for an extreme reaction.

We’ll get there, but first I have to point out how well-structured this whole episode is. The opening revels in switcheroos, first with Garnet’s serious conversation turning out to be part of a chore session, then with two red herrings in quick succession: the hint that we might see Ruby and Sapphire, and an extended callback to On the Run suggesting a focus on Amethyst. 

From there, the episode looks like it’s going to be about Steven settling into his own new status quo as a more respected member of the Crystal Gems. And in a way, it is! We spend a lot of time with him, and he summons his shield without any fanfare when the going gets tough. But it makes sense to focus on him more here than in Reformed and Sworn to the Sword, because Garnet’s status as a fusion is still novel to him and has changed their relationship in a way that warrants examination. And in an episode about Garnet encountering forces that don’t understand fusion to a horrific degree, it’s a soothing contrast to see Steven’s own misunderstanding come in the form of genuine curiosity.

Steven is also where we get a lot the goofiness that often accompanies the show’s horror episodes, but don’t let the clip of his spectacular shrug fool you, the comedy crown here goes to Peridot. This is the episode that tips the scales on Peridot as a villain: she began as a coldhearted alien, and her bureaucratic fussiness emerged in Warp Tour and Jailbreak, but now she fully transitions from a menacing opponent to a panicky thorn in the Crystal Gems’ side. All it takes is one look at Steven to make her lose her worker bee cool, and the action scene that follows plays her increasingly absurd bag of tricks for laughs as she outmaneuvers our heroes.

Peridot’s newfound jitters make sense on a character level, as she lost her power and is stuck on a world she knows is doomed. But the silliness that ensues also works wonders for Keeping It Together’s structure: by making her such a loud source of comedy, her exit marks a concrete tonal shift from goofy to grave. And by making her someone to be pursued, we get rid of Amethyst and Pearl in the process. And by revving up to a breakneck pace to follow her zany action, we reach the third act around the episode’s halfway mark to let it sink in that much deeper. Thanks, Peridot!

After focusing on Garnet in the episode’s onset, we’re right back to hanging out with her again. She’s even more confident than usual here, accepting Steven’s effusive praise with a simple “thank you” and acknowledging out loud that she’s great, to show us how big of a deal her panic attack is. We’ve seen her handle monster after monster without breaking a sweat, and she even defeats Jasper with a smile hours after getting destabilized. But the Cluster Gems hit her where it hurts, and seeing Garnet get rattled like this is far scarier than the monsters themselves. 

Not to take away from Aivi and Surasshu’s awful Cluster Gem theme (great, but awful), but the true sound heroes of this scene are whoever designed the ungodly noises these things make. Considering nobody is credited as “Monster Scream Maker” I’ll go ahead and shout out the whole sound design team for this one: Timothy J. Borquez, Susy Campos, Tony Orozco, Daisuke Sawa, Robert Serda, and Tom Syslo. I have no idea how their jobs work, but I’m so glad they’re so great at what they do.

And then of course there the visuals, and dear lord are they upsetting. The drizzle of mismatched body parts starts small, with a hand and foot that happen to match Ruby and Sapphire’s colors taking the Gem Shard concept we’ve seen in Frybo and Secret Team to a whole new level of creepy. But the limbs get bigger and bigger until the excruciating reveal of five screaming Gem ghosts transforming into a monstrous “arm” reinforces Garnet’s pained explanation of what these Cluster Gems actually are: the remains of her long-dead friends forced together.

But even then, even as Garnet is literally falling apart, she manages to push through the horror and save the day with Steven’s help, leading to Estelle’s showstopping argument with herself. Where A.J. Michalka’s frequent use of separate voices for Steven and Connie shows Stevonnie’s youthful uncertainty, Estelle’s normally steady performance makes her frantic and distinct portrayals of Ruby and Sapphire a shocking swerve. It both subverts and fulfills our expectation of seeing Garnet’s two halves after Stephen brought them up during laundry, and brings home the idea that splitting up isn’t a fun party trick no matter how much Stephen (and fans) want to see more of them.

The little details here are amazing. I love that it’s Ruby’s eye that tears up during the fight, but by the aftermath she’s moved to rage while Sapphire is still reeling; one lives moment to moment, and the other thinks in the long term. I love that gaps in the conversation are filled by them clearly sharing the same thoughts, namely that Rose might have known about these experiments and kept them secret; the notion that this is even possible foreshadows how dark Rose’s secrecy is going to get in the coming episodes. And even though it’s tragic, I love that the header quote can first be read as Garnet’s guilt over being part of the rebellion that caused her friends to suffer, but can be reread after The Answer as guilt over prompting the Diamonds’ interest in fusion. It’s not her fault, but it certainly would feel like it was.

But therein lies the difference between Garnet and Amethyst/Pearl: guilt this intense would shut the latter two down, but by the end of the episode Garnet has kept it together. She’s still upset, and she should be, but she’s not letting herself drown in her sadness and anger. 

The Week of Sardonyx is about to test Garnet again, and Pearl’s betrayal can hit even harder now that we’ve explicitly been told about the importance of consent in fusion. And as I hinted at earlier, fusion’s multipurpose metaphor extends to a specifically queer reading that’s vital to Garnet’s arc. I honestly wouldn’t mind being hammered over the head with the message that homophobia is bad, because yeah, homophobia is bad and kids should know that and children’s media doesn’t bring it up very often. But like everything to do with fusion, the Steven Universe team handles the allegory factor with incredible finesse. There’s no one-to-one analogy between fusion and queerness beyond Ruby and Sapphire both presenting as female; indeed, the mistreatment of queer people in the real world rarely includes forcing them into long-term relationships with each other a la the Cluster Gems, and Homeworld society only finds fusion acceptable in same-Gem relationships, so it’s actually heterophobic if we want to get stupid and pedantic.

This show doesn’t need an episode about conversion therapy or corrective rape to display the horror of an outside force perverting what you are and oppressing who you are, and Garnet’s journey through Season 2 shows that Steven Universe isn’t content with presenting two women in a relationship and patting itself on the back for being progressive. The fact that the show addresses homophobia with sensitivity but without pulling punches is something entirely new, but the fact that it’s doing so while enhancing a character and advancing the main plot is even more outstanding.

Future Vision!

The headline here may be kicking off Garnet’s arc, but it also revs up the Cluster Arc: these shard fusions are bad, but who could’ve guessed they were apocalyptically bad?

Peridot’s surprising resilience to large objects and gravity is as true in the Beta Kindergarten as it is in the Prime, if Kindergarten Kid is anything to go by.

The question of whether Rose could’ve known details about Diamond tactics reframes Sapphire’s rage in Now We’re Only Falling Apart.

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

As great as Steven is here, would he really be that surprised that he’s coming along? I get that they’re showing that the status quo of getting some respect is still new to him, but yeah, after saving everyone in Jailbreak I think he’s pretty official. Enh, just a gripe, it’s implemented well enough.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

I think just above On the Run sounds right for Keeping It Together. It’s a terrific Garnet episode with a welcome side of Peridot, and manages to set the stage for a new arc while culminating Kindergarten’s foreboding tone with a bang. 

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

Keeping It Together

On the Run

Warp Tour

Maximum Capacity

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test 

Future Vision

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

No Thanks!

     4. Horror Club      3. Fusion Cuisine      2. House Guest      1. Island Adventure

(No official title card for this one, likely due to Keeping It Together being part of a Steven Bomb, but luckily this piece from Vondell Swain will do.)

#keeping it together #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

[roxy-davenport]

Hard Habit to Break

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 1,522

Beta: Huge thanks to @seenashwrite

A/N: This was written for @mrs-squirrel-chester’s Album Challenge. I choose the album, “Ash & Ice” by the Kills which is a hella angsty album. Whoops. I love angsty indie rock. This was written for the third song on the album, “Hard Habit to Break.” This is a bit deep which I’m blaming on the album. :) This is told from Dean’s POV.

Also on A03 

You're really getting close to me

So far so close to me

So point me to a yes no yes no yes

Don't tell me maybe

 I knew that I could never have a normal life. Intellectually, I knew that. It was too dangerous. I mean look what happened to Dad, Mom and then Sam’s girlfriend, Jess. So how could I willingly choose to put the woman I love through that? What kind of monster would that make me? Mom and Jess both died in agony, burning on frickin’ ceilings. Come on. Yeah, we ganked the bastard who did it, but so what? There will always be some other black eyed scum around to take away the love of my life.

 Demons have it out for Winchesters. I understand the hatred toward my family. Hell, how many demons have Sam and I taken out just this year? Of course they’d hold a grudge, and that’s why I shouldn’t get entangled with anyone.

 When I get the itch, I sleep with women at bars. I let them know upfront that it’s one night. They’re okay with it; I’m okay with it. There are no strings, no drama. I move on, and I don’t think about the girl. She’s safer that way. No real connections. At least, that’s what I’d always tell myself, but then… But then, why? Why can’t I leave her?

 I mean, I go through the same motions every time. I come into town every few months. I tell her goodbye and I actually believe it every time. I believe that this will be the time I’ll be strong enough to truly leave. Then I can’t. I can never really leave her. She’s all I think about, all I want. I try and sleep her away with other girls but it never works. I call out her name when I orgasm more often than not.

 When it’s over, when I’m done with the girls on the side, I close my eyes and I see her face, that sly smile she gives me when she’s half-awake. The way she stretches like a cat, arching her back and presenting her perfect breasts to my lustful gaze. How she turns to me and says my name. The way she says it half-sleepy, half-reverently, almost like a prayer. The sound that not only makes me instantly hard but make me fall in love with her more. I hold her tight for a long time, letting my mind go blank. I am reassured in her touch. I feel whole in her arms. And all the while, I know I’m putting her at risk, just by being close to her. If any monsters found out how much I cared, her head would be on the chopping block; maybe literally. But I can’t give her up. She’s in my blood, in my mind. As selfish as this may sound, we belong together.

 The months when I will myself to stay away are hell on me. I break down. I cry, I scream, I get angry. I’m really not okay without her. Nothing else matters when I’m like this.

I don’t have my heart in the hunt. Sometimes, I’m even reckless. The alcohol tastes horrible, the women don’t feel the same, and I don’t feel the same. I feel guilt-ridden and horrible every time I flirt with anyone else; much less touch another woman.

I’m gruffer with Sammy and shit, he doesn’t deserve that. I just get so angry with him. I want to apologize but I mean, how would that go? I can’t let him know why I’m acting this way. So what lie would explain all this? The less people that know about her; the safer she is. Or am I keeping her quiet because I want to keep her a secret? Because I want her all to myself? Why is love so confusing? And for the record? I didn’t want to fall in love with her, it just happened.

 You think you're there to hold my hair

To come and drag me home

You think you're gonna dress me up

From head to toe and then I'll go?

 Well I'm a hard hard habit to break

I'm a hard hard habit to break

 Your mind's playing tricks on me

You got me where you want me

I'm going left right left right left right

Through the city

 Every time I leave, I see the heartbreak in her eyes. Every time, she wants to ask me to stay. I know she wants to know why I always have to leave but I can’t tell her, and somehow she never asks. She just looks at me pointedly as I leave. I want to be happy. I want the white picket fence life, I do, and that’s why I keep coming back. She’s the one habit I can’t break. I will always keep coming back.

 It may not be fair to either of us, but she hasn’t kicked me out. She hasn’t moved on or changed the locks. She simply opens the door with a big smile, grabbing me and drawing me into her arms. She gives me the most passionate kiss and the sex is dynamic, wild, uninhibited, a true show of our passion for each other. Maybe one day, I’ll have the balls to either marry her or finally leave her.

 And I can't get enough of the heat

And I can't shake it off in a beat

You gotta fix me up or let me go

And I'll quit it

 It's a hard hard habit to break

It's a hard hard habit to break

A hard hard habit to break

It's a hard hard habit to break

 It's a hard hard habit to break

It's a hard hard habit to break

A hard hard habit to break

It's a hard hard habit to break

 But right now, for tonight and tomorrow, all I need is her. She is my drug and I can’t get enough. She is the air I breathe. I know it’s reckless and stupid to come to her when I’m broken and wounded. Even Sammy wonders where I’m going. He’s calling me, but I don’t care. This was a rough hunt and I need her. I need her to heal me, body and soul. I need her hands on my body, reassuring me that I deserve to be loved by her.

 I stand on her doorstep bleeding onto her mat, tears in my eyes, worried that she’ll reject me, but what does she do? She ushers me inside. Her soft hands get to work on my wounds. Never once does she ask questions. She just looks at me, silently begging me to stop doing whatever has left me in this state. And in this moment, I wish I could say yes. I want to say yes. That look of fear and worry on her face, that look destroys me.

 I send a quick message to Sam, so he knows I’m still alive and well. I promise to explain. What I’ll say, how much I’ll divulge to him, I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t quit her, ever.

 She fixes my wounds and the worry is replaced by a smile as we cuddle silently. There’s no need for any words to be said. She’s mine and I’m hers. For whatever happens next.

 Always talking about change

What change, what change?

Maybe when the lights fade

Maybe it's my mistake

 Always talking about change

What change, what change?

Maybe it's your mistake

Always talking about change

What change, what change?

Maybe it's our mistake

 What change? What change?

 Tagging

 Forevers: @purgatoan, @killerofthesouth, @charliebradbury1104, @chaos-and-the-calm67, @chelsea072498, @everday-supernatural-af, @kalliravennee, @toogardenenthusiast, @winchesterprincessbride, @one-shots-supernatural, @take-me-tonirvana, @hellsmother, @ellen-reincarnated1967, @faegal04, @deals-with-demons, @mamaredd123, @atc74, @hamartiamacguffin

Dean Folks from my list: @buckymetallicstump, @faith-in-dean, @bennyyh, @ruprecht0420 @supernatural-jackles, @jesspfly, @webcricket

@aprofoundbondwithdean, @thing-you-do-with-that-thing, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @dr-dean, @nichelle-my-belle, @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid, @thegreatficmaster, @salvachester, @blushingsamgirl, @bkwrm523, @whispersandwhiskerburn, @lipstickandwhiskey, @impala-dreamer, @samsgoddess, @frenchybell, @scorpiongirl1, @for-the-love-of-dean, @cici0507, @fiveleaf, @deansleather, @curliesallovertheplace, @whywhydoyouwantmetosaymyname, @waywardjoy, @imadeangirl-butimsamcurious, @kayteonline, @supernatural-jackles, @idreamofhazel, @wevegotworktodo, @ilovedean-spn2 , @quiddy-writes, @wi-deangirl77, @deantbh, @mysaintsasinner, @chelsea-winchester, @sinceriouslyamellpadalecki, @fandommaniacx, @teamfreewillimagines, @deanwinchesterforpromqueen, @castieltrash1, @supernaturallyobsessed, @memariana91, @writingbeautifulmen, @captain-princess-rose, @plaidstiel-wormstache, @idreamofhazel, @revwinchester, @supermoonpanda, @ageekchiclife, @i-dont-know-how-to-write, @vintagevalentinexx, @ohwritever, @ruinedbydestiel, @winchester-writes, @mysupernaturalfics, @thinkwritexpress, @sammit-janet @bowtiesandapplepie, @itsemmyb, @ezauraemmaline, @matteson-crazed, @castielspahdehrah, @charliesbackbitches, @crzcorgi, @gryffindorable713, @deerlululucy, @walkingencyclopediaoffandom, @MrsJohnSmith, @manawhaat, @growleytria, @thegleegeneration, @samtomydeanwinchester, @sinceriouslyamellpadalecki, @i-never-said-a-pilot, @thewinchestielboys, @supermoonpanda, @sis-tafics, @amaranthinecastiel, @kittenofdoomage, @samanddeanwinchester67, @prettyxwickedxthings, @ferferelli @lilyoflothlorien, @myfand0msandm0re, @olitzisbae, @iridianuniverse, @the-morning-star-falls,  @shortandlongstories, @strange-inhumanity, @ackleslaugh @noisilyyoungpuppy, @fangirling-instead-of-working, @eyes-of-a-disney-princess, @chrisatplay, @kayteonline, @spnsimpleman, @faith-in-dean, @gimmethepieandnoonegetshurt, @for-the-love-of-dean, @mamaimpala, @winchesterfiesta, @zanthiasplace, @sleep-silent-angel, @pada-ackles-reads, @thing-you-do-with-that-thing, @gadreelsforbiddenfruit, @trenchcoats-and-bees, @curliesallovertheplace, @jencharlan, @not-so-natural-spn, @skybinx-blog, @thebunkerismyhome, @feelmyroarrrr, @beachy2014, @fandom-book-nerd, @tia58, @@sams-little-toy, @sunriserose1023, @saving-things-hunting-family, @winchesterswoonathon, @jotink78, @lucifer-in-leather,  @babypieandwhiskey, @howmanytuesdaysdidyouhave, @supernatural-jackles, @avasmommy224, @angelwingsandsupernaturalthings, @mysaintsasinner, @chelsea-winchester, @spn-fan-girl-173, @besslincoln-bruh, @wheresthekillswitch, @shelovesallthethings @maraisabellegrey, @notnaturalanahi

#dean x reader #dean x reader fanfic #dean x reader fanfiction #dean x reader angst #dean #dean winchester #dean angst #supernatural #spn #supernatural fanfic #supernatural fanfiction #spn fanfic #spn fanfiction #dean winchester fanfic #dean winchester fanfiction #dean fanfic #dean fanfiction #dean x reader angst fanfiction #dean x reader angst fanfic #dean winchester angst #supernatural angst #spn angst #supernatural oneshot #spn oneshot #dean & reader #dean & reader fanfic #dean & reader fanfiction #supernatural reader insert #spn reader insert

[gingermcl]

Language....what is it?

I have known many people who argue that oral communication means that humans are the most advanced species. No it doesn’t. My findings are that oral communication is actually the lowest form of communication here. Most all other living creatures are telepathic!! Animals, plants, trees, and even water are conscious and communicate....without language. For example, trees use their root system to communicate with one another. If trees don’t think how is it that trees don’t get tangled? Take notice next time you are in a forest....trees always allow space for the trees beside it. This strongly indicates that trees are sentient and conscious beings. They’re actually tribal and planting a tree alone causes a certain droop in the tree. It’s depressed. If you would like to learn more about the telepathic nature of plants I suggest the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. Fascinating stuff.

Oral communication is what our telepathic ability was replaced with. The AI running this world (the demiurge) didn’t like not being able to know what we were thinking and our overall power. Homo sapiens are extremely inferior to original Man. Humans used to have 12 strands of DNA, not just 2. The “junk DNA” that scientists term junk is nonsense. It’s not junk....far from it. It is disconnected. Most other creatures here are telepathic and man used to be way more advanced. Language does not prove that we are more advanced today, it is actually the opposite. Humans are devolving. On top of all this English is a spell casting language. We go around casting spells all day and many never realize it.

Words are not just elements of speech or writing; words can be used to strengthen the effects of magic. When spoken out loud, words become frequencies. Frequency can be used to direct and control energy. Most people will laugh at the idea of magic being real, but if only they knew what magic really is and how it is being used to control them, they would not be laughing. Magic runs this world. Until one comprehends exactly how magic is used to control him, he will never truly know how the world actually works.

The Controllers are well aware of how magic works, which is why they are sometimes referred to as the Dark Magicians. These “elites” use magic for power and nefarious purposes.

This entire world is energy. If you examine physical matter on the molecular level you’ll discover that even it is all energy fields. Physical matter doesn’t exist. If you learn how to control and direct energy, you can become extremely powerful. Why do you think the Controllers (the Dark Magicians) are so obsessed with magic and energy? The reason that religious programs are full of magic ritual, procedure, and spells yet the book preaches against the use of magic. This is because the controllers wrote these religious programs and do NOT want us learning how to use the art of magic against them.

Sound is able to direct energy for the reason that it carries certain frequency patterns that attract energy to flow in a controllable manner. Furthermore, sound is one of the natural forces used by Nature to create crystalline structures and sacred geometries, which are some of the building blocks of matter.

Since words can be used to direct energy and produce magic effects, words can be even more powerful than swords. When you move the letter "s" in the term words to the front of the "w," you get the term sword. This is not an accident. When you speak words, you are putting your thoughts into Earth's aether. If you are unaware and say certain words together, you are spellcasting without ever knowing.

Many words in the English language are carefully designed and put together in a way that produces magic effects, allowing the Dark Magicians to use these words to trick you to play their "con game" designed to exploit humanity. Is this all hard for you to believe? Keep watching.

If all you do is look at the common definitions of a word, you will never know the deeper meanings of language. To find the deeper meanings of a word, one needs to look beyond its common definitions, dissect said word, and look at it from various angles. One should use an etymology dictionary to find the origins of the word. Once you find the origin of a word the true meanings (and intent) of the word often become noticeable. If you investigate a word, do not only look at it at it’s definition but also its origins, prefix, and suffix, and other words that sound similar to it.

When one goes to school the first thing he is taught is the alphabet, whose letters are designed based on sacred geometry. Keep in mind that all sigils are created based on sacred geometry. The word sigil is defined as "a sign, word, or device said to have occult power in astrology or magic.” This is why the forming of words from letters is called spelling. Did you notice that the word spelling has the word spell in it? To spell words is to play with sigils which are magic symbols. After learning the alphabet, you are taught how to "spell" using the alphabet. The hidden intent of spelling is to cast magic spells.

Most people do not understand how magic works, so they have no idea what they are actually doing when they yell harsh words at another using "curse" words. They are not called curse words for no reason. Cursive writing is another thing one is taught in school. There have been rumors for years that cursive writing is no longer taught in American schools but that is a lie. My son was taught it. He does say that his school has removed all analog clocks for children no longer know how to read them. So instead of teaching them how to read an analog clock we just get lazy and go to digital? That’s another topic....

The letters of the alphabet are some of the most powerful sigils in this world. Letters are used in magic rituals by nearly all practitioners of magic. Magic spells can be used for good or evil purposes. Letters are sigils and therefore magic symbols.

The word alphabet is derived from the Greek letters A(alpha) and B (beta). These two Greek letters are derived from the Hebrew letters א (aleph)and ב (beth). Aleph means "strength" or "man", and beth means "house" and is a "metaphor for the womb". The letter aleph is strongly associated with the words father, man, and male; and the letter beth is strongly associated with the words mother, woman, and female. In other words, the alphabet (alpha-beta) is a system of sacred symbols (letters/sigils) that is used for forming masculine (positive/good) and feminine (negative/evil) words/spells to manifest in this realm.

The main reason the controllers want us to learn how to spell words correctly is to make sure that each letter or geometry is arranged the same way every time. This helps strengthen the magic effects of certain words. Magic involves ritual and proper procedure.

To make sure that children can spell words properly there are spelling programs and contests, such as spelling bees. These spelling programs and contests are used to train children to be good spellers or spellcasters, so the magic power of letters and words can be used to transfer or cast their thoughts into the external world, manifesting their thoughts into reality. Now, imagine this happening on a global scale. This is how words and spells are used to create the world. In many ways, we are all magicians because we use words to cast magic spells to manifest our thoughts, desires, and visions. Hence the sayings, "our thoughts create our reality" and “speak things into existence.”

How Words Are Used to Deceive You

When you go to "court" for a trial, whether in the United States or another country, you are going to a "game arena" where they are planning to con you using "legal words" and trickery. Where do you go to when you want to play a game like basketball or tennis? You go to a basketball "court" or tennis "court." A "court" is where people go to when they want to play a game. The place where one goes to trial it’s not called a quart room by accident.

A court is a game arena to play legal word games. This is why a judge is occasionally called an administrator. The judge is there to administer (or manage) the rules of the game in the court(game) arena. This is why a meeting between the plaintiff, the defendant, and the judge is called a trial. The word trial is tryout. The plaintiff and the defendant are at a trial/tryout to see which player is better at using words to convince the judge to pick him as the winner of the game. The good news is that if you know how court games really work, you can take control of a the game.

Most men and women do not know how court games work, so it is not hard for the judge to trick them to agree to be a legal person. This trick is often done by tricking the defendant to agree to be his or her legal name.

The legal name is found on your driver's license, social security card, birth certificate, etc. For example, if your name is JANE SMITH and you answer yes to being JANE SMITH, you agree to be a legal person, which is a corporation (artificial person). This puts you under the jurisdiction of the legal system. You may not know about the legal name game but ignorance is no excuse, according to their law.

If you were to not answer yes to being JANE SMITH and instead told the judge that you are not a legal name/legal person but a living man or woman, then it would have been a whole different ball game. Like any game, you better know the rules before you agree to play. Otherwise you have very little chance of winning. Court games are serious games because real people do go to jail. I will discuss this more in a video about strawman corporations. The birth certificate creates a strawman corporation. The birth certificate operates as a warehouse receipt and declares you to be a legally dead dead slave. This is why all court documents will always come in all uppercase letters. The strawman is uppercase wow you’re living name is upper and lower case. One can dissolve the strawman corporation but it is a lengthy process and it involves revoking your US citizenship and becoming a sovereign citizen.

If you are too scared to play the game in court by yourself and hire an attorney, do not have too much faith in that for a huge percentage of attorneys and judges are members of the con game. Attorneys are not really there to help you because they are officers of the court. Their allegiance is to the court and their job is to create revenue for the court. BAR means British Accredited Regency. Bar attorneys are foreign agents; they are agents of the Crown Temple which is controlled by the Vatican. All licensed bar attorneys in the United States owe their allegiance and give their solemn oath in pledge to the Crown Temple. This is a requirement to be a member of the BAR association.

Nearly all the courts in these countries are operating under Admiralty Law and Maritime Law, not Constitutional Law. This is why judges do not want to hear your arguments about constitutional rights in court. American court system works on maritime law or the law of the sea. The law of the land and the constitution have very little power in the court con game.

Here is a list of interesting words I’ve compiled recently:

Weekdays = weak daze, you’re in a weak daze

Weekend = Weak end, you’re weakened

Human = Hue-man = has to do with us being non physical energy, with hues of light in our aura, I don’t have the proper wording here....

Forest = For Rest = If we truly want to relax we need to get close to nature

Good morning = Mourning

Soldier = soul-die-r = Go to war and kill your soul = and another meaning we will discuss it in a minute

Television = tel-lie-vision = Tell lies visually

Parents = pair rents = Rent your kids from the government you sold them to with the birth certificate

Cells = prison cells = human body is a prison so also made of cells

PHARMacy, pHARMaceutical comes from the Greek word Pharmakeia which means 1. Sorcery and 2. Poisoning

Pills = pILLs = make one ill

Good vs evil = god and devil = The human ego program is what creates the need/desire for a religion = religion created by Draconians = Religion has a fear and guilt control program that uses trauma-based mind control and brainwashing to achieve compliance. Christianity specifically is based on son worship, Black Magic, Blood Magic, Sex Magic, and ritual sacrifice.Christianity is the only Abraham at red ledge and that I have studied in depth. And the only one that I’ve ever actually followed myself for a period of 20 years.

Bible = Buy bull = like buy BS lol....actually it is bi-bull....as in two bulls.

I found a really great post I’m going to read part of and will link the full article in the description.

[“Bull = Taurus = Baal or El the ancient sun god of the Phoenician Canaanites.

And Bull = Taurus also denotes the horns of the crescent moon. Therefore the bull is both the sun and the moon and is thus a powerful, mind expanding sym-bull and aspect of astro-theology and language itself. This is the two bulls code.

Ēl is called again and again Tôru ‘Ēl (“Bull Ēl” or “the bull god”). He is bātnyu binwāti(“Creator of creatures”), ’abū banī ’ili (“father of the gods”), and ‘abū ‘adami (“father of man”). He is qāniyunu ‘ôlam (“creator eternal”), the epithet ‘ôlam appearing in Hebrew form in the Hebrew name of God ’ēl ‘ôlam “God Eternal” in Genesis 21.33. He is ḥātikuka (“your patriarch”). Ēl is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku (“King”)”

Hence if he is the grey bearded one he is also Chronos, Saturn, Old man Time. And you know this is true by comparing the symbol of Saturn with the Hebrew letter “Lamed” which makes the ‘L’ sound. El.

If you haven’t seen my earlier post on this topic, it’s no mistake that the word “torus” sounds the same as “Taurus.” You can see the horned animal head in the torus field if you look hard enough. Santos Bonacci talks about how the torus field creates EL-ectricity, the only true force or energy this universe uses.

So your EL-ite are worshipping Satan, who is really Saturn-EL, Old man Chronos, who is also Baal, or El, whose symbol is the Bull. He is the reason they ring the Liberty BELL. The bell is also shaped like a torus.

And we saw the two bulls worship on 9/11. Two bulls = two Taurus’s = the twin TOWERS that were destroyed on 9/II or EL EL. On 9 EL-even (evil).

The response from 9/11 was to go to war by sending out “soldiers” or sun-diers, who ritualisticaly die for the sun god Baal. That is why they have to be adorned with these symbols. And notice how they like to start wars in spring-time, Aries, which is the birth of the sun in the Zodiac, and the time that the ancient cultures would make blood sacrifices to the earth to appease the fertility gods for a good harvest year. Often a bull or goat was sacrificed.

Truthiracy frequently points out that the Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. That’s why you find the bull in BUY and S(EL)L. At the US Capit(EL). Which is in the shape of an OWL or OW(EL).

Owls are always connected with clocks because they both represent Saturn, Old man Time, the grim reaper. And its from the Phoenicians that we get the legends of the evil god Moloch or Molech, and the word “Molest.”

Now Owls or Els or Elohim are always worshipped in a temp-EL, like the temple of SoloMON (Sun and Moon). And the ancient Hebrews prayed to Yahweh, and “Yah” is Egyptian for “moon.” And when the Babylonians built the tower of Bab-EL, it was a “sin” which was another name for their moon-god.

Now the Ob-EL-isk is phallic but it’s not a human phallus. It is shaped like a bull penis. Because the EL-ites are worshipping Ba’al, or EL or Saturn El the Phoenician Canaanite Bull God. This is of course where we get the exoteric myth of Satan designed to scare the sheep-EL and why he is always depicted with horns of a bull or ram.

So the obelisk is the bull penis in the center or bulls-eye of the Vatican courtyard. It’s in the middLE (EL), or the vagina, scoring, getting laid.

All being used for MINd control, Mind is Min, moon.

When a coup-EL wants to have sex, they get “horny” like the horns of the bull god Taurus. Or they might get “randy” like a goat. Sex is sometimes considered a sin, because the word sin comes from the moon, and the moon is synced up with the female ovulation cycle. The moon is intricately connected to fertility.

And now you know why its called a cli-TORUS.

Look at the word Circ-EL, which has a middle or Mid-EL, the middle is also the CEN-TER, or moon-torus, where “cen” or “sin” = Moon, and “ter” = Taurus, or the Torus (donut shape), which is where we get words like Cen-taur, and Min-o-taur which are part-human part-beast (El). The ancient Egyptain fertility moon God was called “Min.” Minotaur.

It’s all Moon-Tauruses. Why is this the root of so many words? Well in Astrology the moon exalts in Taurus, and Venus is the ruler. Notice both planetary bodies are feminine. But Ba’al or El the Bull God is definitely male. So you can see the sharp duality here, the two bulls contrasted on a knives edge of red and blue, male and female, sun and moon, good and bad.

When the moon is in its arch, or its crescent, its shaped like two curved horns of a bull:

 

Apis, the Egyptian Bull God is always depicted like this:

The Bull is Taurus, symbolizing the horny fertility of the moon, and the solar disc above his head is the sun, so together Apis represents sun-and-moon, Sol-o-mon.

Know your words, know your etymology and you will de-occult the EL-ite. Because the words don’t lie, you can’t debunk it if its built into our very language. Santos Bonacci calls it “Atom-ology,” all is ATUM, as the Egyptians used to say.

According to Truthiracy, in the Sumerian, Babylonian and Akkadian cultures, the cow/sky god was An, or Anu, where we get words like Annunaki, ON/OFF, and a plethora of other words.

“An” is the same as the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Combining An and El we get Angel or an Ang of El. And each house or 30 degree angle in the zodiac wheel is an Ang of El, a ray of God.

From ‘ang’ we get the word Angus beef. And in the Last Airbender TV franchise the main hero’s name is Aang (he is the one who can bend all four elements).

Notice how all the archangels have El in their name:

* Gabri-EL

* Micha-EL

* Uri-EL

* Rapha-EL

These are the etymological keys to unlocking the wisdom of the occult: all the customs and traditions that have been seeped in mystery all this time. This knowledge is what the elites are guarding from us, to give them a preferential advantage over the sheep. They get to be the ram and us the sheep because they have the playbook, the ancient knowledge that was perfected in Egypt.”] END QUOTED TEXT

Are light bulbs flashing on like crazy in your head now? If not, you still have a lot to learn because you do not even realize that you have been tricked to agree to be a slave. Maybe this quote from the movie The Matrix can wake you up.

“Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell, or taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.”

It is no coincidence that prisoners are put in cells in the human body is made of cells. These meat soup bodies are prisons for our consciousness/spirit (our true being.)

One of the most effective ways to protect yourself from magic spells is to become aware of them and how they are being used to control and manipulate you. Once you have become aware of a magicians tricks, they do not deceive you anymore. Once you realize that magic is real and become aware of how Dark Magicians use magic spells to control you, their magic spells cannot affect your mind as much.

Awareness is one of the most significant spiritual powers that we have. To learn how to use the power of awareness wisely, one needs to learn the right knowledge. With the right knowledge, one will increase and strengthen his awareness, making it much harder for the Dark Magicians and their agents to control an individual.

Because you now know how magic affects you, the next time you make a wish using words or yell at someone using "curse" words, you may want to think twice before saying those words. Like they say, "be careful what you wish for."

DESCRIPTION

Quoted article is this link https://truthscrambler.com/2018/09/21/the-two-bulls-code/

Additional links on this topic:

Word magic. How words are used as magic spells. https://esotericknowledge.me/word-magic-how-words-are-used-as-magic-spells/

https://truthscrambler.com/2018/09/07/aries-the-lamb-of-god/

Talk about power of words. https://youtu.be/tNPH-Q1RVfM

Language is a weapon. https://youtu.be/BHaT1svvz_U

The many faces of Janus- The god of duality https://youtu.be/tFsVnA0HgL8

[itawonka-creates]

Seabourne Burnouts: Part 11 - Scuttlebutt

A Maribat! On Deck AU

Thank you @particularlygeeky for beta reading and for the chapter name idea!

Start [Here] [Part 10] [Part 12]

“I’m telling you, this is where he’s been this whole time.” Adrien looked back at Max and Markov and sent them a shrug. Alya just rolled her eyes as she peered around the corner. She relaxed and waved her hand, “Come on, coast clear.”

Max quietly followed his two friends and asked, “Alya, where exactly are we going?”

“Alya thinks Bruce Wayne is Batman and is trying to figure out why he was gone for such a long time.” Adrien looked back, a rare serious expression on his face, “I don’t think she’s wrong either. Something’s up with them.”

Markov flew up to Adrien and examined him, “Aren’t you friends? According to my data over the last 12 days, you all seemed close.”

Adrien smiled, “Oh, they’re the best. Dick, Jason, and Tim are awesome to hang out with and Damian is treating Marinette really well!”

Max blinked, surprised, “Are they together?”

“If they aren’t by the end of this trip, I’m going to have Ladybug lock them up together like she did with me and Nino.” Alya sent back a coy smirk before peering around the next corner and pointing, “That room should be the one.”

“And how do we know Bruce isn’t in there right now?”

Alya held up her phone, “I got Nino sending me updates while he hangs with the bros.”

Adrien grinned, “Hanging with ‘the bros’? Alya, we’re finally rubbing off on you.”

Alya blinked a few times before glaring at the model. Max and Markov just laughed quietly as they made their way to the door. Alya jiggled it a few times, “Locked.”

“Now what, oh great detective?”

“May I?” Alya motioned for Markov to proceed with whatever plan he has cooked up in his digital brain and Max was just surprised to see his little friend take the lead. Markov brought out something similar to a Swiss Army knife, different tools all on display as he analyzed the lock. He put all but two tools away and began working on the lock. Alya looked back at Max and smiled, “So he can pick locks now?”

Max shrugged, “He likes learning new things. Comes in handy when I forget my house keys.” Adrien chuckled and shook his head as he watched the little robot work. Suddenly there was a click and the door cracked open. Markov pulled back and looked pleased with himself.

Adrien held out a fist, “Nice job!” The little robot was happy to bump fists as the four walked inside the room. Alya closed the door behind them and turned on the light. “Oh, this isn’t suspicious.” Adrien looked around the room and noted a few things, there were some office chairs and a large circular table. All pretty standard until you took into account the large supercomputer taking up the farthest wall away from the door.

Max immediately ran over to the computer and whistled, “This is incredible. How do you even get this on a boat?”

“More importantly, why does he need this on a boat?” Alya took a few pictures before pressing the space key. The monitor lit up and everyone stared at the line requiring a password. Alya scowled, “Markov, Max, you think you could help?”

Max and Markov looked at each other before Markov plugged himself into the computer and Max pulled up a chair. “Give us a few minutes.” Alya smiled and gave them both a quick hug and pecks on the cheek and display monitor, surprising the two for a second before they returned to work.

“You guys are the best.”

“Hey, Alya?” Alya turned back to Adrien who held up a stuffed folder from a nearby drawer. Alya walked over and Adrien opened the file. The two looked through the photos of Paris’s resident heroes as well as very detailed reports of different Akuma attacks.

“Hey, that’s Rena Rouge. Carapace and Queen Bee too.” Adrien set the file on the table and Alya began looking through the photos. “Queen Bee and-“ her breath hitched and Adrien peered over her shoulder to look at the photo. He was shocked to see the photo of the core five fighting against Hawkmoth on the Eifel Tower.

“This is from Heroes Day.”

“Look there.” Alya point behind Hawkmoth, “Isn’t that the first Amok?”

“Yeah, it is.” Adrien looked through the reports and found details such as first sightings, hair color, eye color, appeared race and ethnicity, appeared age range, and much more. He found details on their powers and fighting styles. On almost all of them, he found the same line of text. “Appears to be a novice in both fighting styles and control of power. May be children.” 

Adrien looked over his and Ladybug’s reports, “Two most seasoned out of the heroes. Always active. Patrol frequently. Appear to be close, but no romantic relationship noted besides light banter from Cat Noir. Most likely in early adolescence when beginning hero work. Do not appear to know each other’s identities.” He bit his lip at the different photos of him and his teammates.

Alya furrowed her eyebrows, “How did they get these? Some of these aren’t even on the Ladyblog.” Adrien licked his lips and ran his fingers through his hair. The two felt their anxiety spike the more information they uncovered in the documents. “Who are they?”

Adrien turned his attention to some pictures of Pegasus, Viperion, and King Monkey along with a few other rare heroes. “These are heroes Ladybug rarely uses. I mean, they have to be if you don’t recognize them.” Alya took some photos of the files on her phone and Adrien felt his heart racing, “How did-“

“We’re in.” The two quickly turned to Max and Markov and watched the monitor blew up in different windows, all displaying different videos and reports. “What is all of this?”

Adrien gathered all the files together and held them under his arm as he walked over to the computer. He looked at all the windows before pointing at one of them, “Expand that one.” Max clicked on the window and it showed the image of a hallway, “Press play.”

They were shocked to watch footage of the raid, men storming the halls and causing mayhem. Alya paused it and minimized the window before clicking on a different one. She pressed the play button and watched as Damian and Marinette narrowly escaped some of the raiders passing through a hallway. Adrien gulped audibly, not realizing how close of a call it was for his two friends. Alya minimized the window and clicked on one more window. She found herself looking at her own blog.

Adrien shook his head and licked his lips, “Alya-“

“This is it.” Alya let out a nervous laugh, “This is it. This is the evidence I’ve been looking for.”

Markov shook his head, “We’ll need something more substantial than this if you are going to accuse a man of being a famous vigilante.”

Adrien grabbed the mouse, “What’s this one?” He expanded the window and they all found themselves looking at an image of the raiders in cells. He hesitantly pushed play and they watched as the raiders disappeared in a black and purple haze, leaving behind two boys. One was injured in his leg and police suddenly stormed the cell.

“Adrien, that’s-”

“What’s going on here?” The four all turned to the doorway and found a very stern looking Bruce standing in the doorway, arms crossed. While he didn’t yell, nor did he make a move towards them, the four flinched.

Alya looked at her phone, realizing it was on ‘Do Not Disturb’ and completely missing all of Nino’s messages. She gulped and stepped up first, “Why didn’t you tell us the raiders were Akumas?”

Bruce blinked and uncrossed his arms, “What?”

“The raiders.” Alya turned back to the computer to rewind the video and played back the moment they disappeared. She paused it when the black and purple haze covered the screen and then brought back up her Ladyblog. She pulled up a video of a former Akuma and forwarded the video to the part where Ladybug captured the Akuma. The monster was covered in a purple and black haze before being turned back to normal. She pulled up the two videos side by side and pressed play on both windows. The room fell silent as they realized the haze was the exact same in both videos. Bruce walked up to the monitor and replayed both clips a few times as if to make sure what he was seeing was real.

Bruce turned to the kids, “One, you are all in big trouble. You are not allowed in this area and you clearly broke in as this door is always locked.” The kids all looked at each other nervously before turning their attention back to Bruce. He sighed, “Two, you are all going to help me in my investigation.”

The group blinked before Adrien shook his head, “What?”

“I thought this was a computer glitch, but clearly this is out of my depth of knowledge. I don’t know much about what’s going on in Paris, but you three clearly do.” He pointed at Alya, “Especially you.”

Alya gulped and nodded. She bit her lip before finally asking meekly, “So it’s true?” Bruce didn’t say anything, instead turning his attention back to the monitor. Alya smiled and laughed quietly, “Oh, Tim owes me so much.”

Bruce sighed, “Yes. Yes, he does.” He turned to the four and then locked his attention to Alya, “No one can know. I know you are a reporter and this is asking to go against everything you stand for, but no one can know.”

Alya held up her hands in surrender and shook her head, “No way. Gotham is crazy dangerous. This evidence is to prove to Tim and to myself that I am a good reporter and investigator. None of this information is leaving this ship.” She smiled and giggled, “Besides, when Marinette and Damian get married, I don’t want to have you glaring at me from across the room during the wedding.”

Bruce cracked a smile before he returned to a stoic expression, “That goes for you two boys as well.”

Adrien placed a hand on Max’s shoulder and gave it a small squeeze, “Bruce, we would never.” He sighed and his expression was grim, “Over the past few years, we’ve all accumulated secrets. One’s we’ll take to the grave.”

Bruce blinked, this boy has done nothing but smile and look at the bright side of things whenever they’ve interacted. To see him so serious and so tired made him feel an even greater sense of urgency to figure out what was going on in Paris. Bruce moved to log off of the computer before Alya grabbed his arm, “Wait!” She moved one of the windows up to the center of the screen and they realized it was a live feed of one of the security cameras. She narrowed her eyes, “Is that-”

Bruce watched in disbelief along with the other kids in the room as his youngest and the girl of honor walked together down the halls, unusually close and attention solely on each other. “You know when Dick told me they were close, I didn’t think they were that close.”

“They’re close, but something’s different.” She hesitated turning on the sound, but ultimately rose the volume.

“-e’s not picking up.” Marinette groaned, “I just want to get this over with.”

“Considering we can’t find my brothers either, they’re probably all hanging out together.” He rubbed his neck and flinched.

Marinette looked him over and frowned, “I’m sorry, we should’ve-”

“Don’t apologize.” Damian rolled his head and smiled at her, “It was nice.” She returned the smile and the two leaned into each other.

A quick kiss between the two and Alya screeched, “SHE DIDN’T TELL ME!”

All the males in the room flinched and Markov just flittered around happily, “How sweet!”

Bruce turned to Adrien who just shrugged and stepped slowly away from the panting reporter, “Alya, she just said she was looking for us. She’s probably looking for us to tell us.”

Alya snarled, “NO! We have a code! If she were to ever get a boyfriend she needs to text me ‘Code Pink’ and I was supposed to march over and interrogate the guy. That’s been our plan since she was still crushing on you!”

Max pointed at her phone, “Did you check your messages?”

“Of course I-” She stopped and then frantically looked through her phone. Sure enough, a message from Marinette reading ‘Code Pink. Please don’t freak out too bad!’ She took a deep breath and nodded, “Okay. Okay, I missed the message. I won’t kill them.” She turned to Bruce and wagged her finger in his face, “Me and you are discussing this later, Bats. Right now, I’ve got to have a few words with your son.” She ran out of the room and the remaining three uttered apologizes before chasing after her.

He paused before he felt his phone vibrate and he answered the call, “Yes.”

Dick chuckled, “Nino was following you because of Alya. Jason and Tim are distracting him with some rhythm games in the arcade now. What was Alya doing?”

Bruce sighed, “Tell Tim he owes her an apology and some praise.”

Dick went silent for a few moments before scoffing, “You’re kidding.”

“I wish. First Tim figures me out and now a bunch of French teenagers? This is getting ridiculous.”

“Not your fault she’s just as stubborn as Tim.” Dick sighed, “So what now?”

“Right now, you’ll want to go look for Damian. He was last seen on the floor above you roaming through the halls.”

Dick sounded confused, “Why?”

“Alya may kill him.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“Let’s just say we saw something very interesting on the camera feed.” Dick didn’t respond and Bruce rolled his eyes, “Trust me, you’ll want to see this.”

Dick groaned and nodded, “Okay. Okay. Sure. We’ll talk later.” Dick turned back to his brothers and Nino playing a few games. He walked over and motioned for them to come follow him, “Come on, we got to go save Damian.”

Tim’s eyebrows furrowed, “What? Why?”

“Apparently Alya’s going to kill him.”

Nino blinked and pulled away from the game, “Why?”

“Don’t know, but Bruce said we wouldn’t want to miss this.” Jason shrugged and the three followed Dick as he led them upstairs. As they walked through the halls they could hear Alya yelling.

Nino made a face before running in front of the group, following her voice until he found Adrien and Max standing in between Alya, Damian, and Marinette. Nino could tell she wasn’t really angry, but she was feeling something intense. “Alya?”

Alya turned to the four and then made a grand gesture to Damian and Marinette, “Can you believe these two? Unbelievable! You are so lucky Chloe wasn’t with me otherwise we’d kick your-”

“As much as I love seeing Damian being yelled at, what is going on?” Jason’s voice cut through the commotion and the two teens in question flinched. The three brothers were slightly unnerved, Damian rarely flinched. Marinette poked her head out from behind Damian and waved nervously, “Marinette?”

“Um, well-” She looked to Damian for help and then suddenly pushed him forward, “You tell them. They’re your brothers.”

Damian glared at her before turning to his brothers and rubbing the back of his neck. “It would seem that our relationship has evolved.” His cheeks seemed to get the slightest hint of pink and Tim was the first to break the silence.

“No way, you actually did it? You actually got yourself a girlfriend?” The three brothers looked at each other before grinning and lunging at their brother.

Jason got Damian in a headlock and started messing with his hair, “We’re so proud of you! Seriously, who knew you had a heart!”

Damian growled and pulled out the headlock only to be jumped by Dick, “You’re growing up! You finally found love!”

Before Damian could say anything back Tim grabbed his shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes, “You are Damian, right? Not some weird clone Talia made?”

“IF YOU DON’T LET GO I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!” Damian thrashed around in their grips and got nowhere as they continued to tease him until Dick felt a tap on his shoulder.

Dick turned to a very concerned looking Marinette, “I would prefer he’s in one piece, please.”

She lit up bright red when Dick picked her up with almost no effort, “You’re magic you know that!”

She sent Damian a look of uncertainty and laughed nervously, “Um, I also met Kory. She’s really nice!” The three brothers froze and Damian took the chance to get out of their grips. He walked over and helped Marinette down from Dick’s hold and pulled her closer to him. She gulped, “Did I say something wrong?”

Tim narrowed his eyes at Damian, “Who else did she meet?”

“She met the team.”

“So-”

“She knows.”

Before either Jason or Tim could say anything Dick spoke up, “Apparently she’s not the only one who knows.” Dick motioned to Alya and she stood, hands on her hips, proud and smirking at Tim.

Tim’s eyes widened, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Nino looked between the groups and smiled at Alya, “Dude! You were right!”

Marinette and Damian snapped their heads to Alya, “Right about Bruce?”

Alya nodded and high fived Nino as he ran over, “Heck yeah!” She nudged Max and Adrien, “These two helped me.”

“Max?” Marinette looked apologetic, “Oh, Max I’m sorry you got roped into this.”

“Honestly, this is going to be the highlight of this whole vacation. I mean, I’m helping the great big bat with an Akuma investigation!”

Damian narrowed his eyes at the boy, “What investigation?”

Alya and Adrien looked between each other before Adrien stepped up, “Marinette, the raiders that night were Akumas. We saw the police footage, they disappear exactly the same way Akumas do after Ladybug releases the butterfly.” He could tell gears were beginning to turn in her head, “Marinette-”

Marinette shook her head, “No. No way.” She began pacing, “No, no, no, no.” Damian knew the reason why but everyone else seemed concerned for the girl. She suddenly turned to Tim, “Hey, did you send the list of all French passengers on the ship?”

Tim blinked and looked at his phone, “I thought Damian asked me for that.”

“We both did. Did you do it or not, Drake?” Damian walked over and looked Marinette in the eyes, a conversation passing between them as she bit her thumb’s nail. He sighed and turned back to his brothers, “Drake?”

“Sent.” A notification went off on both of their phones and they began walking off. “Hey-”

“Tell Father, we’re doing a bit of our own investigation. For now, the rest of you inform Chloe and start looking through all the files.”

Adrien ran up and grabbed Marinette arm, “Marinette, later we’ll have to talk.”

“Adrien-”

His voice got low and he whispered, “Princess, we have to talk.”

Marinette froze for a second before finally nodding, “I’ll text you later tonight.” She turned back to Damian and the two continued walking down the hallway, leaving behind a very concerned and confused friend group.

Damian looked over at Marinette’s stern expression and sighed, “This doesn’t prove anything.”

“Damian, you and I both know we were out in the water when that happened. There’s no way that’s a rouge Akuma. He’s on the ship.” Damian’s lips pressed into a hard line as Marinette walked to the nearest dining area. She sat herself down at the nearly empty bar and began looking through the files.

Damian sat next to her, looked around the room for anyone who could possibly be listening in, then looked through his phone. “That doesn’t mean he knows.”

“Why else would he-”

“A very rich man and his sons are on a ship worth hundreds of millions of dollars. An attack here could prove valuable to anyone with the right motive.”

“But he’s has never wanted money. He’s looking for me, he has to be!”

“Will you two quiet down?” The two turned their attention to the redhead at the bar sitting on the other end. The redhead looked up at the couple and glared, “Have you no mercy for those suffering hangovers?”

“It’s Thursday. Why the hell were you drinking so much on a Wednesday?”

She frowned and turned to the two, heavy Irish accent dripping with every word, “Because I’m pretty sure my boyfriend is cheating on me!” She let her head drop back down onto the bar’s counter as she groaned. Marinette and Damian looked at each other and, despite Damian shaking his head and aggressively mouthing the word ‘No’, Marinette walked over and rubbed the woman’s back.

“I’m sorry. That must hurt so much.”

The lady sniffed and turned her head to face Marinette. She paused before raising her head, “I know you.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, “I know. I’m the one that wrote the essay.”

“No, no. I know you.” The woman stared Marinette down as Marinette stepped back a few steps and Damian stood next to her. “I was the one who moved you into your room.”

Marinette blinked and tilted her head in confusion, “But I don’t remember your-”

“My accent? Yeah, the manager doesn’t like it. Told me to speak like a true American or I would be demoted.” She shook her head and scoffed, “Such an ass.”

Damian frowned, “Oh really, what manager is that?”

She snorted, “Manager of residential life. He looks over everything involving passengers who are staying on the boat for extended periods of time.” She shook her head, “He doesn’t even do his job either. I did most of the work for you and your class.”

Marinette frowned and gave her shoulder a small squeeze, “If it makes you feel better, I prefer this accent. Sounds real and it’s a lot more memorable.”

The woman smiled at Marinette and held out her hand, “Name’s Tess. From Limerick.”

Marinette shook her hand eagerly, “Marinette, from Paris.”

Damian sent a few texts and held out his hand, “Damian, Gotham.”

The lady shook it and laughed, “You know you look like Bruce’s runt.”

Damian glared at Tess and sternly said, “I’m not a runt.”

Tess waved her hand as she looked at the empty glass in her hand, “Yeah. Yeah. Do you know how to make drinks kid?” Marinette covered her mouth to keep from laughing while Damian begrudgingly took the glass and made his way behind the bar. Tess smiled, “Now that’s a good man!” She turned to Marinette wiggled her eyebrows, “Lucky lass, aren’t you?”

Marinette blushed and nodded, “I guess I am.” The two laughed and Damian set down the new drink in front of Tess.

Tess held up the glass and glared, “This is water.”

“I’m fifteen, lady. What did you expect?” He smirked, “Besides you need to sober up.”

Tess glared at the boy before reluctantly sipping her water, “Smart kid.” She turned back to Marinette, “So what were you two talking about? You got a stalker or something?”

Marinette sighed, “In a way.”

Tess held a look of pity, “Oh sweetheart, I’m sorry.” She turned to Damian and waved her hand, “And what the hell are you still doing here? Shouldn’t you be fighting for her honor or something?”

Damian rolled his eyes, “We don’t even know if he’s on the boat.”

“He has to be!” Marinette stared at her lap as she played with the hem of her shirt, “I mean-”

Tess held her shoulders and turned Marinette to look her in the eye, “Women have great intuition when it comes to these things. If you feel unsafe, you probably are.” Tess smiled sadly at the girl in front of her and gave her cheek a few pats, “Oh you’re so pretty. That must be hard.”

Marinette smiled, “Not really! I mean, I’ve only ever been attacked a few times-”

Both Tess and Damian snapped their heads to look at her and asked, “Wait, what? By who?”

Marinette pursed her lips together in a line, “A few people. All because of-“ She gulped as she worded her next line carefully, “- all because of the guy. He wants something from me, but I won’t give it to him. I never will.”

Tess bit her lip and looked at her glass, “I’m sorry you’re going through this.” She stared at her glass for a moment before chugging it down and slamming the glass onto the counter, catching the attention of everyone in the room when it shattered. She just blinked a few times and then looked at her bleeding hand, “Aw, crap.”

Marinette jumped off her chair, her words coming out incoherent and panicked, and left to grab a cloth napkin while Damian took her hand. He looked for any large shards that may be making the bleeding worse. He cursed under his breath and scolded her, “What were thinking? I know you’re hungover, but are you really that far gone that you forgot glass breaks?” He shook his head, “There aren’t any big pieces or anything, but you cut yourself bad. Go to the nurse or something.” Marinette came running back with a clean cloth and started carefully wrapping Tess’s hand.

Marinette shook her head, “What on earth was going through your head? This is glass! You could’ve seriously hurt yourself!”

Tess looked between the two before beginning to laugh. Marinette finished wrapping her hand and looked over to Damian for answers. He shrugged and they waited for her to calm down. She waved her hand between the two of them, “You two!” She wiped a tear from her eyes, “Did you guys rehearse that?” She sniffed and sighed, “Oh, Lord, I haven’t laughed like that for weeks.”

The two teens frowned at that statement and Marinette placed a hand on Tess’s shoulder, “Anything we can do?”

“Hey, don’t worry about me. I’m worried about you.” She smiled, “If he’s on this ship, I’ll know. I’ve taken care of all the European passengers on this ship. If you have anyone you want to look into, call me.”

Damian looked surprised before leaning over the counter, careful to avoid the shattered glass, “Do you know if any older male passengers boarded the ship when Marinette and her class did?”

Tess thought for a second and snapped her fingers, “Yes, but he’s American. He was on a business trip.” Damian frowned and started to clean off the counter before Tess hummed, “Does it have to be right when you boarded?”

Marinette shook her head, “No, I guess not.”

“There was a couple who got onto the ship a few days before you did when we were at a different port.” She paused for a moment to think, “He looked very professional and I couldn’t tell if the woman was his lover or his secretary. Probably both.” She looked at Marinette concerned, “Wait, your stalker is an older fella? What kind of pedophile-“

“Marinette?” Damian watched as she pondered over the new information and her eyes darted around along with the thoughts in her head.

Marinette’s eyes widened and she mumbled, “Mayura.”

“Hm?”

Marinette shook her head, “Nothing. Where are they now?”

Tess thought before groaning, “I need my clipboard to tell you that.”

Damian looked at Tess, “You know you could get into serious trouble for this. This is a breach of privacy.”

Tess glared at Damian, “Are you really going to tell me you’re going to tell my manager for helping your girlfriend?”

Damian smirked, “No. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing.” Damian looked at his phone and looked back up at Tess, “As far as I’m concerned you are in need of a promotion and a raise for helping us out.”

Tess rolled her eyes, “Oh yeah, like that’s going to happen.” She looked at her wrapped hand and frowned, “I need to go to the nurse first.”

Marinette smiled, “You want us to come along?”

“No, Marinette, you stay with your man. I’ll come find you later tonight. You’ll be in your room around 6, right?”

“We can be.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Damian spoke up, “Can you tell us the names of the couple?”

Tess turned back to the boy and hummed, “I think the last name started with an A. I’ll have to check.”

Damian shook his head, “No need. We’ll see you tonight.” Tess nodded and headed out of the room, leaving the two teens at the bar. Damian scrolled through the list Tim sent him, “The only A names are Aaron, Azreth, and Agreste. Unless Adrien is Hawkmoth, I say we check out the other two.”

Marinette shook her head, “No, I know for a fact he isn’t.” She sat back down and let her head fall onto the counter, a small smack could be her from where her head made contact. Damian poked her and she turned her head, “What?”

“You okay there?”

“No.”

“At least you’re honest.” Damian handed Marinette a glass of water and she smiled. He leaned against the counter and scowled, “When you talked about Hawkmoth with Tess just now, the way you worded your situation-“

“What about it? I couldn’t exactly tell her I’m being chased by a supervillain.”

Damian shook his head, “No, it just didn’t sit well with me. Even worse than the actual situation sits with me. You make it sound like a creepy old man is trying to force you to sleep with him.”

She shuttered, “Oh god, no. If that ever happens, my mom would murder the man.”

“I’ll help her. I’m trained to do so anyway.” She glared at Damian, but he kept a serious expression. “I’m serious. He’s forcing people to do things they don’t want to do. They don’t remember any of what happened. And all of it is because he’s trying to take care of his own needs.”

Marinette scrunched up her nose and scowled, “When you put it that way, yes he sounds like a monster.”

“He is a monster.”

“But even worse.” She sighed and looked around the room, “You know when I got on this boat I took comfort in the fact that Hawkmoth’s Akumas wouldn’t get to me. Now I don’t even have that anymore.”

Damian grabbed Marinette’s hand and rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. He leaned in close and whispered, “We’ll figure this out. You got Robin on your side, which means Batman and the rest are soon to follow.”

She smiled and poked him, “Ah yes, the son of the dark knight. How could I forget?” She giggled, “So I’m assuming your brothers are also-“

“Yes.”

“Of course.” She shook her head and giggled, “That makes total sense.”

“What about your friends? Are any of them miraculous holders? I know Chloe’s Queen Bee but-“

“I actually can’t answer that. At least not right now. Me telling you about Ladybug is one thing, but if anyone else on this boat is a miraculous holder I can’t say.”

“You know about my family.”

“Yeah, but I doubt you would’ve told me. Alya found you guys out.” Damian didn’t say anything to argue with the statement, only proving Marinette’s point. Marinette took a few sips of her water, “We should investigate tonight.”

“Okay. Tess at 6, leave by 6:30. We’ll have to research their routines first though to see if they leave their rooms at all. We can use the main computer downstairs to look at the security footage.”

“We should split up. It’s easier to sneak around on your own than it is with two people.”

Damian shook his head, “No way. I’m going with you.”

“No, we need to figure this out as soon as possible. It’d be easier to just look through both rooms tonight separately than searching through the rooms together over the course of two days.” Damian still looked hesitant and she smiled at him, “I’ll be-“

“DUPAIN-CHENG!” The two turned to see Chloe fuming at the entranceway and the couple tensed. She stomped over and wagged her finger in Marinette’s face, “How many times do I have to tell you, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TELL ME IN PERSON IF ANYTHING BIG HAPPENS!” She pointed at Damian behind the bar, “So why on earth do I have to hear from Alya that you started DATING DAMIAN WAYNE?” Marinette seemed to shrink the louder Chloe got and she smiled shamefully. Chloe looked between the two and groaned, fixing her ponytail and taking a few breaths. “I’m very happy for you, but I feel left out.”

Marinette sighed and hugged Chloe, “Sorry, we just had something urgent to take care of.”

Chloe lowered her voice and pointed at Damian, “You mean regarding the fact that your boyfriend’s dad dresses like nocturnal furry?”

Damian choked and glared at the blonde, “One, will you keep it down? I know there are only like four people in here but you catch people’s attention. Two, he does not!” Marinette giggled, earning a glare before he turned back to Chloe. “Alya told us the raid was caused by an Akuma.”

Chloe paused for a moment before biting her lip, “Well, that’s not good.” She thought for a moment and looked between the two, “So he may be on the ship?”

“It’s a theory.”

“If you need me for anything, I’ll do what I can. I’ll keep track of the gossip on the ship and see if any stories seem suspicious. I’ve gotten close with a few of the crew members since we got on the ship.”

Damian blinked, “You and the servants? Who knew?”

Chloe glared, “Just because you’re a Wayne doesn’t make you untouchable, Damian.” Damian rolled his eyes at the hollow threat and she turned back to Marinette, “Stay away from Lila.”

“Lila?”

“She gets under your skin. I don’t want to have to face you as an Akuma.” Marinette nodded and Chloe pulled away from the two, “I’ll let you know if I hear anything.” She waved and left the room, leaving the couple in silence as they imagined how bad an akumatized Marinette could be.

Damian shuttered, “You’d kick ass as an Akuma, but I’d rather not fight you.”

Marinette smiled and shook her head, “I almost was akumatized a few times. The closest call I had was when I was about to take off my earrings. I snapped out of it right before that happened. After that, I started to just push down everything. If what I felt could lead to loosing Ladybug, then I’d rather not feel at all.”

Damian left the bar and walked over to Marinette’s side, “You know that isn’t healthy.”

“Doesn’t matter, I can’t afford to lose.” He grabbed her hand and she looked up at him with a soft smile on her face, “We should go and look over the security footage. We need to prepare for tonight.” He nodded and started leading her through the hallways and stairwells to a room where Bruce stood over a large computer. Marinette knocked on the doorframe and Bruce turned to look at the couple. He smiled at the two and straightened himself out.

“Well, well, look at the two love-”

“Don’t.” Damian walked over to the computer, pushing past Bruce and clicking on various windows on the monitor.

Marinette shook her head and walked over to Bruce, “How are you? We haven’t seen you in a while.”

Bruce smiled, “I’m fine. Tired. I’ve been looking over the footage for over a week and Alya figured it out after watching it once.” He rubbed his eyes, “I’m losing my touch.”

“It would seem so, Father. Time to retire?” Bruce glared at Damian, who just smirked to himself as he pulled up a few pieces of footage and the Ladyblog. Marinette hit his shoulder lightly, trying not to laugh for Bruce’s sake, and turned her attention to the screen. “This seems to be the right video.”

He expanded the window and played back the footage of the raiders disappeared and Marinette pointed at the screen. “Wait, rewind it a few seconds and pause.” Damian did as instructed and Marinette pointed at one of the boys. “That one. That’s the one Captain Staller shot, isn’t it?”

Damian nodded, “Looks like it. It’s even his left leg too.”

Marinette looked around the boys’ cell, “Where’s the akumatized object?”

“The what?”

“The akumatized object.” She grabbed the mouse away from Damian and pulled up the Ladyblog. She pulled up some videos of previous Akuma’s and forwarded the fight videos to when they would capture the Akumas. “See? All Akumas need a catalyst. They usually enter an object of interest on the person to possess the person. Ladybug and Cat Noir have to figure out what it is to release and capture the Akuma.” She pulled back up the previous window and played back the kids returning to normal, “Now look. There’s no akumatized object on either of them. Nothing broke.”

“Do the akumatized objects have to break for the Akuma to leave?”

“Not always, but we should’ve been able to see an Akuma flying away from the boys. They aren’t that fast.”

“Meaning the object wasn’t on the kids.” Damian hummed, “What were the police able to confiscate?”

Bruce looked through some of his files and pulled out a picture of a plastic bag. “They wouldn’t give me the evidence, but they allowed me to take a photo.”

Marinette looked at the photo and shuttered. She examined the photo of the odd gun and licked her lips, “I didn’t notice this before.”

“Didn’t notice what?”

She pointed at the gun’s barrel, “Look, there are three different types of ‘bullets’. Red, green, and white.” She thought for a moment and gulped, “We know green had the laughing gas.”

Bruce went to go grab some more photos from the raid and pulled out ones documenting the rooms where there were explosions. He pointed at one of the photos, “So this red residue must be from the red chamber.”

“Then what does white do?” Damian looked up at Bruce and asked, “Do we have any photos of the boys after they turned back?”

Bruce thought for a second before pulling out two photos. Marinette didn’t like the idea of two boys taking mug shots, especially when one was injured, but it was evidence. She looked at the one with the injured leg and studied him carefully until she found a picture of him from behind, “There. White residue.” She pointed at a small dot of white on the back of the boy’s shirt and hummed, “Okay, so let’s say white turns people into raiders. Where did the others come from then?”

Bruce frowned, “More importantly, where are they now? If the boys are back to normal, then shouldn’t there be more people in that cell?”

Damian looked over the footage and zoomed in on the floor surrounding the boys. The footage was grainy, but there were clearly things surrounding them once they transformed back. “What if it’s not just people? What if the white bullets just make henchmen in general?”

Bruce pulled out his phone and walked over to the other side of the room, “Excuse me, I need to make some calls.”

Marinette started to get frustrated and mumbled to herself, “Where are you now?”

“Where’s who now?” She looked up and found herself looking up at Adrien, Alya, and the others. “Figured something out?”

Damian scoffed, “Yes, we did. What took you guys so long?”

“Alya and Tim were arguing about what her prize would be.”

Tim growled, “I’m not giving her a prize because I still can prove Marinette is Ladybug!”

“Give it a rest already!” Alya walked over to Marinette’s side, “I love my girl here, but she’s not Ladybug. I would know.” Damian bit his lip to keep from laughing and turned away from the group. Marinette just rolled her eyes and hugged Alya. Alya happily accepted, “Not to say you wouldn’t make a good Ladybug, though. You would totally rock at superhero business.”

Adrien looked over to Nino and pouted, “Why can’t we be like that?”

Nino rolled his eyes and pulled Adrien into a hug, “You’re so needy.” The two boys snickered as they pulled away and joined the girls as they gathered around the table.

Dick turned to his brothers, “Now, why can’t we be-”

A collective “No” resonated in the room, making Dick grumble as they listened to Marinette’s explanation on how they think the gun works. Jason hummed, “Given the weird style of the thing I’d say the akumatized object was some kind of dart gun. Look, the chambers are stupid wide and there’s a pump when this is supposed to be a pistol.”

Bruce walked back over and nodded, “Jason’s right. After the boys turned back the gun in the bag turned out to be a toy.”

“And the stuff on the floor?”

“Action figures.”

Alya hummed, “So kind of like a mix between Befena and Puppeteer. Interesting.”

“How so?”

Alya motioned for Tim and the others to gather around the computer as she pulled up more footage, “If you look at previous Akumas, they’ve all had one kind of power set. At least most of them have. Befena is one of the few that could do two different things, turn people to coal or transform them into her army of angels. Puppeteer, on the other hand, had the ability to control any sort of toy, statue, etc. It’s interesting that this Akuma is a bit of a mix with more complex powers.”

Chloe crossed her arms, “Okay, but that doesn’t really give us much to work on. So what if this one had one extra power? The other ones have been normal. Probably just a fluke.”

“Or his powers are evolving.” The group turned to Adrien as he thought, “No seriously, he’s been at this for years. Who’s to say he’s not getting stronger?”

Nino shuttered and shook his head, “Don’t even say that, dude. I don’t want to put that out there.”

Damian turned to Adrien, “Besides, Chloe’s right the others have been relatively normal. I agree it could’ve been a fluke.”

“What if it isn’t, though?” Marinette eyes darted between everyone in the group, fearful and tense, “Guys, when this Akuma attacked we were out on open waters.”

“So?”

Tim’s eyes widened, “That’s why you asked for the list. You think he’s on the ship.”

Marinette’s expression only hardened and she gripped onto the chair in front of her. Adrien looked her over and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, “Marinette-”

She stepped away and started pacing, “What if he is getting stronger? What if he’s the reason everyone on this ship is acting so weird?”

“What do you mean?”

Damian looked at the group and spoke as if this was common knowledge, “You guys haven’t noticed? Everyone’s on edge. Tim lashed out at us. People have been fighting with their good friends. Hell, even the captain says his depression’s getting worse.” He stared at the photo of Hawkmoth on top of the Eifel Tower and resisted the urge to crumple it up. “It would make sense he’s on this ship. Most of the cities we’ve gone to have been attacked, as well as the ship itself, while Paris has had a quiet streak.”

Jason shook his head, “Why the hell is he on the ship, though?” Adrien and Marinette locked eyes for a brief moment, panic passing between the two as they debated saying anything at all.

Adrien gulped, “Probably because-”

“It’s me.” Everyone turned to Marinette and she tensed up, clearly going off of impulse instead of logic. “It’s me, guys.” Damian narrowed his eyes at her as everyone waited with baited breath. She reached into her purse and made eye contact with Tikki. Tikki was about to fly out when she gently pushed her out of the way and pulled out a familiar red and black box. She opened it and a bright light flashed in the room before everyone came to notice a small horse-like creature flying around the room. “Kaalki-”

She floated around the room before landing on Damian’s head. Her British accent was present in every word, “Now these are holders I approve of. Clearly noble blood. Which one am I working with?”

Marinette shook her head and motioned for Kaalki to return to her. Kaalki rolled her eyes before floating back over to the girl and sitting on her shoulder. Marinette turned back to the group and figured she should’ve expected these reactions. Her friends were not necessarily impressed, rather they were simply taking in the appearance of the kwami. However, most of the Wayne family wore various expressions of shock on their faces. Damian didn’t outwardly react, but she could tell he still was intrigued by Kaalki’s appearance. “Ladybug gave me the horse miraculous because she knew our class has been an epicenter for Akumas since Hawkmoth first appeared. If she ever needed to come over for whatever reason, I was supposed to hide, transform, and make a portal for her and Cat Noir.”

“So every time you disappeared during an Akuma attack you-” Marinette nodded and Tim groaned, “Damn it!”

Alya ran over and bounced on the balls of her feet, “You’re a hero. You’re a hero! You’re a hero!” She squealed and spun Marinette around, nearly making her trip. “Yes! I knew it was only a matter of time!”

Marinette snorted as she rebalanced herself and Nino patted her back. Nino beamed, “Dude! You’ve been doing great!”

Chloe and Adrien shared a look before smiling softly at the girl. Adrien looked visibly relieved at her explanation and sent a thumbs up. However, the other men in the room looked disapprovingly at her. She pulled away from Alya and took back a serious demeanor. She coughed, “Um-”

“I mean I get it. Still, why the hell would she choose a kid?”

“I’m with Jason on this one. That’s not fair to put that on you while you’re on vacation. Precaution or not they should’ve given it to a teacher.” Dick’s expression was unusually grim, making Marinette shrink under his gaze.

Damian pushed forward and glared back at the oldest. It wasn’t unusual for Damian to challenge the others, but they were surprised that he wasn’t mad on Marinette’s behalf with them. Damian's voice was stern and unwavering, “Well, for whatever reason she has one of these things. If this Hawkmoth even had the slightest suspicion there was a miraculous on the boat, of course he would board.”

Bruce nodded, “That’s true. Your class winning the competition made headlines, so he would definitely know about you all being on the ship.”

“But does he know you have it specifically?” Jason stared between Kaalki and Marinette, “Does he know Marinette Dupain-Cheng has the horse miraculous?”

“I don’t know.”

Tim shook his head, “I doubt it. I mean, he may know it’s on the ship but I doubt he knows who has it. Otherwise he would’ve been targeting you from the beginning.”

Chloe waved her hand and scoffed, “You say that as if he’s going by his normal pattern. He hasn’t been talking to any of his Akumas lately. He’s clearly trying to smoke out Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

Bruce turned to the blonde and frowned, “Chloe has a point. He’s trying to make them run out of time outside of Paris. Get them away from their usual playing field, make them disoriented in a different country and use it against them.”

Chloe nodded and turned back to the computer screen. “So if that’s what he’s getting at, then he’s probably going to send out another Akuma tomorrow when we dock. It’s obvious what we should do.”

Nino raised an eyebrow, almost not believing he’s hearing this all from the mayor’s daughter, “And what do we do, Queenie?”

She turned to the Wayne family and pointed at them, “We send them out first. That’ll confuse the heck out of Hawkmoth. If we do what we did last time where some of us kept watch for possible akumatized objects while Alya films for Ladybug we won’t have to worry about them possibly running out of time. They can just swoop in and get the Akuma while they act as a distraction and buy time.”

“We can’t ask them to do that!” The room turned to Marinette and she shook her head, “You forget, they don’t have magic to keep them safe. You know how dangerous Akumas can be! They could get hurt!”

Dick’s face deadpanned and his voice was monotone, “You realize we’ve been at this since before you guys were born, right?”

Jason walked over to Marinette and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “Yeah! You don’t have to worry about us, we’ve faced threats way worse than some of these guys!”

Marinette’s eyes widened and Tim was quick to reassure, “What he means is that we’re seasoned heroes. Yes, we’ve fought a lot of bad guys, but we’re still here! We know what we’re doing!”

“Unlike you.” The group turned to Bruce who still looked disgruntled, “It frustrates me that you were just given this responsibility. You’re a child.”

Dick rolled his eyes, “Look who’s calling the kettle black.”

The three boys snickered and Bruce glared, “I gave you all choices and trained you. I gave you this opportunity because it was the best path to take for all of you to grow and heal from your pasts.” He then pointed at the third Robin, “Except Tim, Tim found me and asked for this.” Tim nodded smugly and Bruce motioned to Marinette, “What does she gain from this? She doesn’t have training, she doesn’t have trauma to heal from, and she doesn’t need this.” He turned to the kids and sighed, “None of you do. This mess should’ve been taken care of by people who were qualified. Not a bunch of kids!”

Adrien stepped up and raised his voice, “With all due respect, for what they’ve been handed they’ve been doing the best they can. All of the heroes have been doing the best they can. Paris is still standing, the world hasn’t seen disaster from Hawkmoth’s influence, and we’re still here too!”

Alya nodded, “Adrien’s right. Ladybug and Cat Noir may not have Batman to handpick and train them, but they stepped up! They are doing what you did, without all the assets or support! They’re great heroes and I refuse to stand here and let you bash them like that!”

“Besides, Marinette is the best choice out of all of us to be handed that miraculous, anyway.” Chloe flipped back her ponytail and crossed her arms, “She’s the only one who hasn’t been akumatized. Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, she’s just as clever and resourceful as Ladybug. She made the right call!”

Marinette froze in the middle of a staredown between the Gotham heroes and the Paris ones. She backed away and looked between the two, feeling the tension rise, and she suddenly needed air. She felt someone grab her arm and pull her away towards the door. She looked up at Damian, wearing an unreadable expression on his face, and slammed the door behind him. As he turned a corner they bumped into someone and as soon as he recognized the person he scowled. “What do you want?”

Lila rubbed her nose, “Ow. If you must know, Ms. Bustier has been looking for Bruce to talk about the arrangements for tomorrow. Markov said I might find him down here, but I got lost in this maze of a floor!” She huffed and crossed her arms, “Seriously, not very hospitable.” She blinked, noticing the figure behind him, and leaned to the side to get a better look, “Marinette?”

Marinette tensed and started to walk past her, keeping her eyes trained on the ground in front of her. She didn’t look back when she heard Damian slap his hand around Lila’s wrist and warn her against following them. Marinette practically ran up the steps and ran to the middle of the main deck. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and mumbled to herself, “Four counts in, four counts hold, four counts out.”

She took a few more breaths before opening her eyes and taking in the scenery around them. She realized she was standing near the main lounging area and noticed a bunch of her other classmates playing around and swimming in the pool. Damian walked up next to her, but before he could say anything she thought out loud, “We’re never going to be like that are we?”

Damian looked around, “Like what?”

“Normal.” She grabbed his arm and leaned onto him, “They’re here just on normal vacation. Not sitting downstairs in a dark room arguing about heroes and villains and responsibilities.”

Damian shook his head, “No, we’re-”

“Heads up!” Suddenly they were wet. Soaking wet. The two turned around, startled and confused, only to be faced with Kim holding an empty bucket surrounded by Alix, Max, Markov, Ivan, and Mylène. Kim wore a smug look on his face while the others laughed.

It took a few moments before Marinette finally snapped, “Kim, what did you-”

“Max and Markov told us you guys finally decided to go out! We didn’t have any rice or anything so we improvised!”

Damian glared, “That’s for weddings, imbecile!”

Kim looked back and laughed, “You’re right, he does use big words.”

“I told you!” Alix stepped up, jumped, and wrapped her arms around the couple’s shoulders. “Seriously though, congratulations! We were wondering who our dear class president would finally end up with. We just didn’t think it’d be you!”

Mylène just rolled her eyes and patted Marinette’s shoulder, “We’re just excited for you.” Ivan nodded and then glared at Damian, “Oh, also we’re here to intimidate him. You know how these things go.”

Marinette stepped in between the group and Damian and spread out her arms, “No! No more interrogations! Alya practically yelled our ears off this morning!”

“Oh, that’s why she was yelling. We just thought she found out a new thing about Ladybug or something.” Alix snickered, “Good for her, but we’re not done yet.”

Marinette growled, “Nuh-uh. Nope. Not happening! I just got a boyfriend and I am NOT letting you all scare him off!”

Damian blinked, taken aback by her words, before smirking and putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine. Not like any of them are intimidating to me.”

Alix glared, “You take that back, Wayne!”

“No, but this is seriously so rud-” The sudden stop made Damian turn to Marinette, only to find her staring at him like he grew two heads. He raised an eyebrow at her, confused, and tried to move away slowly. He thought it may have been something behind him, but her eyes followed him wherever he moved.

“Marinette?”

She blinked, snapping out of whatever trance she was in, and a wave of red washed over her face and neck. She growled and started pointing at him, “THAT’S WHAT YOUR HAIR LOOKS LIKE WITHOUT HAIR GEL?” She snarled, “OH COME ON!”

Damian frowned, incredibly confused, “What did I do?”

“You- YOU-“ She lunged at him, “YOU CAN’T KEEP GETTING BETTER LOOKING! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Damian dodged out of the way and then grabbed her arms when she reached for his hair. She huffed and glared at him, “What else are you hiding? You have cute glasses too, huh? I need to be mentally prepared for these things!” She got more and more red, if possible, the longer she yelled, “If this keeps happening and you keep getting better looking, I’m going to be a mess! It’ll be a complete DISASTER!”

Damian finally took note of the hair falling around his face. He was told it look similar to Dick’s hair when he was younger in the way it framed his face. Definitely takes away the professional appearance Damian was keen on keeping, but if he could get her this flustered by letting it be every once in a while might not be a bad thing. He turned back to the girl, “Marine-”

Marinette twisted her herself out of his grip and jumped on his back, “Let me mess with your hair!”

Damian stumbled around, “Marinette, get off!”

She ran her fingers through his hair in an attempt to turn it back to what she was familiar with. “Not until you get back to a tolerable level of attractiveness!”

He struggled to keep balance and looked over at her friend group, who were practically crying in laughter at the whole thing. Her movements made him take one step too many to the right and the two lost complete balance and found themselves falling into the pool. Damian came up first, soon followed by Marinette who swam immediately to the edge and jumped out. He watched her, afraid she was going to try something else, but noticed that she was hugging herself and was shaking. He got out, grabbed a towel from the nearest towel rack, and wrapped it around her. “Marinette, you okay?”

She turned to him, fear clear in her eyes, and she flinched away from his touch before recognizing him. She gulped and shook her head, “I’m fine. Just,” She paused and took a shaky breath, “Brought up bad memories.” Suddenly taking an unexpected dive into the water brought her back to the night of the raid. The spot on her cheek that the raider kissed felt on fire and her heart raced as the next moments flashed before her eyes.

Damian sighed and moved hair away from her face, “Let’s get changed, otherwise we’re going to get sick.”

Mylène and Alix walked up, the group long since stopped laughing when they saw Marinette scramble to get out of the water, and looked over the girl. Mylène smiled at Damian, “We’ll take her back to her room and get her cleaned up. We’ll see you at dinner.”

Damian nodded and placed a small kiss on the top of her head, “Okay. See you around 4?”

She blinked, pink coming back to her cheeks, and nodded as she was led away by two of her friends. Damian watched as they walked past Lila, finally coming back after finding the others and talking to his father, and she smirked as soon as she knew they couldn’t see her. When she turned back, the two locked eyes and Damian felt his anger rising just looking at the girl. He was about to step towards her before Ivan put a hand on his arm. Kim grinned, “Woah! We still gotta talk!”

Damian sighed, “About?”

Ivan smiled, “Sorry about the mean look. The girls are adamant about us talking to you and playing bad cops.”

Max adjusted his glasses, “Which is odd because they’d more likely be bad cops in this situation.”

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose and suddenly felt exhausted. “Who else do I have to worry about? So far, Alya, Chloe, Alix, and Mylène have all yelled at me. Who else?”

Max shrugged, “I mean I doubt Rose or Juleka would yell at you, they’ll be super happy for you guys. Kagami though is a different story.”

“The fencer?”

“Oh yeah, but you don’t have to worry about her until you arrive in Paris.” Kim snickered, “Oh man and that’s not even counting her family! Her grandmother is great, but I’d hate to see her mad.”

Ivan nodded, “That’s not even counting Jagged Stone, Fang, or Penny.”

Damian groaned, “At least her parents like me.”

“WOAH!” Kim grabbed Damian’s shoulders, “You met the parents? Dude!”

Damian shrugged his hands off and stepped back, “I met them back when we first explored Spain and we’ve only talked a few times since.”

“So what’d they do when you told them you guys were dating? You know they’ve been just as eager to see her date someone as her friends, right?” Max watched as Damian paled slightly, “You haven’t told them yet.”

Damian glared and got defensive, “This happened last night, we haven’t exactly had the time!”

Ivan laughed and patted Damian’s back with more force than he was expecting. He made Damian lurch forward with every pat, “Don’t worry. They’re really nice.”

Markov fluttered around the boy, “You know Damian, you’ve become much more sociable since this trip started. When we first met you, you didn’t really talk to anyone outside of Marinette and her close friends.”

“Yeah, and you kept calling us by our last names for some reason.” Kim wore a stern demeanor and pointed at Damian, “Wayne.” He immediately broke character and laughed. “Seriously though, you’re like one of us now!”

Damian blinked at the statement, “What?”

“Yeah, Damian. We need to hang out more before the trip is over.” Ivan chuckled, “If you can get away from Marinette.”

Damian gulped, not really knowing how to feel about all of this. A part of him, deep down, was actually happy. This class just welcomed him and he felt a normalcy he couldn’t even get from Jon when they were in school together. Jon knew he was a hero and went with him to go crime-fighting. While Jon gave him a friend for life, it wasn’t a normal relationship due to their abilities and duties. These kids only knew him as Damian and couldn’t care less about who his family was. The name Wayne meant nothing to them, they just cared about Damian and it was both refreshing and thought-provoking for him. He spent his whole life looking down on these types of people. Those who didn’t have to worry like he did, fight like he did, or survive like he did. They just lived and he finally got a taste of what it meant to simply be 15 with other kids his age.

However, he felt like an imposter. There was a reason he didn’t get close to normal people, he wasn’t one of them. He could never be one of them. His breeding, his training, his past, his future, all of it ruled against anything normal. He couldn’t have this, but admitting that meant he couldn’t have Marinette either. Despite being Ladybug, this was her world. One she grew up in, one she helped shape and improve, and one he couldn’t ever corrupt.

Damian forced himself to give the boys a polite smile, “We’ll see. But for now, I have to go change. See you later.” They waved their goodbyes and went back to having their fun as Damian’s mind raced. While she walked the line between hero life and normal life, she would forever be tethered by that promise of things going back to the way they were before Hawkmoth and before Ladybug. He could never have that. He was forever bound by his demons and his bloodline. Bound to be a vigilante for as long as he could stay alive or until his darkness took over, something he didn’t ever wish for but knew was a possibility.

Marinette’s words rang in his head, “How is this going to work?”

He didn’t know and it made him sick.

*******************************************************************************************

So we begin Act 2 of Seabourne Burnouts! Congratulations on making it this far! We’re in for an interesting ride!

ALSO: There is a new thing about tags for this ship and Maribat au in general! Please read this [post]! I have added the new tags suggested here and will continue to not use the names of the characters and the shows/franchises! Please REBLOG and Thank You! 

To those who want more Seabourne Burnouts content, @itawonka-creates is specifically dedicated to my writing (which is just this story rn) so you can just follow the blog and set it up to be notified just in case the tags do not work!

Tag List (Bitch I have a tag list whAT!?!?!):

@maribat-archive @ozmav @thornangelic727@imfreakingmagical@constancetruggle @chloe-bourgeois-is-big-gay@someone-ev   @zazzlejazzle @tinybrie @mewwitch @rhub4rb@saphiraazure2708 @never-neverland @unholykrow @slytherinhquinn @literallytryingmybestbutok @redscarlet95 @grimmhallow31 @fandomkitten9653 @myriad-of-passionate-pettiness @fanboy7794 @mystifiedgal @shizukiryuu @ vixen-uchiha @resignedcatservant @mystery-5-5 @miraculousl4dybug @blackcanary13 @origamieater @moonlitarchangels @mochinek0 @imfreakingmagical @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @derpingrainbow @unabashedbookworm @skyel0ve @northernbluetongue @cadencehood @sizzling-fairy-oil @crazylittlemunchkin @saphiraazure2708 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @ginamarie1512 @kae690 @ivette0712 @zalladane @ellerahs @auradonfairy @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @scribblinggraveyard @nyctamaximoff @snow-swordswoman @maude-zarella @thebookwormfairy @melicmusicmagic @zalladane @ivette0712 @ginamarie1512  @bookreader20003 @silvergold-swirl @celestiacq @themcclan @amethyst-starr5 @tamoni112 @lunar-wolf-warrior @alexzandria-747 @nataladriana9 @moonlitarchangels @iglowinggemma28 @hunter-shyreen @mermaidofthelost @jessigurl-design @vgirl-10123 @lunar-wolf-warrior @casual-darkness @xxmadamjinxx @normal-piece-of-shit @tinyterror333 @romanoff-queen @schrodingers25 @alessialeone6997 @mindfulmagics @slytherin-heartthrob @da-tasuky @asianfrustration13 @eliza-bich @kuhakuanon @my-name-is-michell @theatreandcomicfreak @interobanginyourmom @starry-bi-sky

Let me know if I missed anyone and message me! I’ll be sure to see it then!

#maribat #idea: maribat! on deck #Seabourne Burnouts #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #maridami #damien x marinette #fanfiction #au #damianette #daminette #miraculous x dc #dc x mlb