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flightfoot · 3 years

Text

Let It Be Enough To Reach The Truth That Lies Ch.1

Thanks to my betas, @miabrown007, @khanofallorcs, and Marby!

AO3

-------

Well, so much for THAT test.

He’d found a Holder for the Ladybug Miraculous quickly. That girl from the bakery would do nicely.

The Black Cat was proving trickier.

Apparently, an old man on the ground, straining to reach his cane wasn’t even worth stopping for, much less helping. Granted, he didn’t see any kids around; it was just random adults. Which was weird since he was right outside Collège Françoise Dupont and he was pretty sure Bakery Girl was running here to her class.

Though, she seemed like she was late… maybe he should’ve waited until lunch period to try the test. Most of the students were probably inside by now.

With a sigh, he got up and trudged off. Hopefully whoever held the Butterfly Miraculous now would wait just a little longer before activating it.

He didn’t notice the small box he had left behind.

------

Adrien sighed as he sank into the car seat.

Of course Nathalie and Gorilla caught him. His father probably hadn’t even noticed he was gone, but those two? They actually looked after him. They’d notice — especially Gorilla.

Though he had a feeling Gorilla hadn’t been the one to draw attention to him being gone. His job might be to protect Adrien, but well… even he seemed to realize that the lockdown his father had put him under wasn’t so much ‘protecting’ him as ‘stifling’ him.

At least, that was what he thought from Gorilla’s facial expression, body language, and him very conspicuously going to the bathroom for an extended period of time right about when Adrien would need to leave in order to run to school.

Unfortunately, Nathalie wasn’t so lenient.

He played around with the box he’d scooped up as he ran to school. He’d intended to bring it to the lost and found (assuming a student or faculty member lost it, judging by its location), but it looked like he wouldn’t get the chance.

Maybe she’d return it for him?

“Hey, Nathalie, I know you probably won’t let me head back there but… could you at least make sure this gets to the school? I think someone left it behind and I wouldn’t want them to not get it back because of me.”

She was silent for a minute. He didn’t even think she heard him at first.

Finally, she let out a deep breath and stuck her hand back. “Very well. Give it to me.”

She brought it up in front of her where she could see it.

And choked and spluttered.

“This- how did you- where did you get this?!”

Adrien blinked, surprised. Why would just a small box — albeit a very ornate one — garner such a strong reaction? “I found it on the ground just outside the school.”

She turned halfway around in her seat, her face deadly serious. “Adrien. Do you remember anyone around? Anyone at all?”

“I- I mean, there were some random people, but I don’t-”

“Adrien. This is important. Think.”

He closed his eyes, concentrating hard.

But-

“Sorry, Nathalie. I don’t remember. I wasn’t paying attention to that.”

She stared at him a moment, searching his face, then nodded. “Very well. They may have left already in any case.”

“They who?”

She ignored him.

“Nathalie? What’s up with that box?”

She pulled out her phone. “Mr. Agreste? I’ve got something you need to see.”

----

She refused to acknowledge him for the rest of the car ride.

He stopped trying after the third attempt. Clearly, he wasn’t going to make any headway like this.

It was like talking to his father; once he made a decision nothing Adrien said or did would sway him.

When they entered the house, Nathalie headed straight for his father’s study. He tried to tag along but-

“Adrien. I must speak to your father privately.”

He frowned. “Is this about the box?”

She just turned around, closing the door behind her.

With a sigh he walked to his room, depositing his school bag on the floor before making a flying leap onto his bed, burying his head in his pillow.

What was Nathalie hiding?

Why was that random box so important?

And why couldn’t he go to school?

He’d always had a very… constrained social circle, limited to Chloé, and occasionally Félix, whenever he happened to visit. It could get lonely sometimes and he really wanted to spend time with more kids his own age, but he’d at least always had them, plus his mother.

A deep ache filled his stomach. She’d only been gone a couple months, but it felt both like no time had passed at all, and like an eternity.

And when she passed away, so it seemed had his father.

He’d ordered a full lockdown, not allowing Adrien to see ANYONE but Nathalie, Gorilla, and himself. Not that that meant much. He seemed to live in his study now.

Adrien had been trying to give his father space.

But… while his father had lost his wife... he’d lost his mother.

And he still needed people.

He couldn’t stay locked up in this house forever, slowly going insane with only his spiraling thoughts and memories to keep him company.

*rumble*

What was that?

He ran out the front door, expecting to see… he didn’t know.

But definitely not what was actually there.

A giant stone monster?

What the hell?!

Could this day get any stranger?

The police shot at the monster, which seemed like a pretty ineffectual choice to Adrien. If it was made of stone like it looked, that wouldn’t do much more than annoy him.

It glowed, growing even bigger.

Well.

So much for that.

Rushing back inside, he turned on the TV.

A surge of excitement ran through him as he listened to the newscaster.

A supervillain? Here in Paris?

Maybe it wasn’t a good thing. Wasn’t something to hope for. That supervillain was causing a lot of damage, and judging by the police chief’s broken arm, had already hurt people.

But Adrien’d grown up on tales of superheroes and supervillains, of good versus evil, of epic battles and the triumph of the best of human nature.

He may have practiced some superhero moves a few times. His climbing wall was great for perfecting the landings.

Of course, not all superhero tropes were created equal. While he liked the regular human superheroes showing how even ordinary (well, for certain values of ‘ordinary’) people could fight against the most extraordinary foes, he loved seeing people who had superpowers intrinsically fight for what was right as well, his favorite superheroes weren’t even usually called ’superheroes’.

When he was a couple years younger and flicking through TV channels, he’d stumbled across a show in a style he hadn’t seen before, but had grown quite familiar with since.

A pigtailed teen girl struggling against a supervillain, not knowing what to do, thinking all hope was lost and she’d failed-!

Until a rose embedded itself at her feet.

A mysterious dashing stranger dressed in black giving her the words of encouragement that she couldn’t find for herself.

He continued watching, later discovering that the show was named after the titular heroine Sailor Moon.

Tuxedo Mask — at least, while transformed — remained his favorite element of the show, the sort of hero he secretly wished he could be.

Though with a cooler transformation sequence. Tuxedo Mask’s was pretty boring. The Sailor Scouts were far more interesting to watch.

He may have made up his own transformation sequence for Tuxedo Mask, practicing it a few times.

A few hundred times.

With what had happened in- in the past few months, he’d stopped watching it.

Stopped daydreaming.

But now it all came rushing back.

He jumped up, about to race out again-

And paused.

What exactly could he DO here?

He didn’t have superpowers, and his attempt at karate…

Well. There was a reason he’d dropped the class after a few sessions.

Right now he wished he’d kept at it. Fencing didn’t seem like it’d be that useful here.

Oh who was he kidding, even KARATE wouldn’t do much. The police had already tried firing at the monster and that only made it stronger.

He’d go and follow it, see what might happen — hey maybe he could still help from the sidelines, and who knew? Maybe a superhero would show up to help! — but somehow he doubted Gorilla would let him.

Look the other way so he could go to school? Sure.

Look the other way so he could follow a dangerous, unknown supervillain? Kiiiiinda went against his entire job.

Though, that didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of jealousy when he saw a girl around his age on TV, following the supervillain on her bike. Absurdly dangerous, most definitely, but he’d change places with her in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, all he could do was watch.

A superhero DID show up a short time later. There wasn’t much info on her — the only recording was from that girl on the bike from before, and she didn’t catch the full fight — but he thought she was pretty cool from what he saw. A bit camera shy, though.

He understood that sort of thing. He’d been pretty anxious whenever the press gathered around when he was younger and less experienced.

Not so much anymore, he was used to it now, even enjoyed it at times, but for someone not used to the attention? It helped having someone there with you for reassurance and guidance.

For him, that had been his mom.

But this girl didn’t look like she HAD anyone.

Adrien flicked through the news channels, trying to devour any info on her, the supervillain, all of this, that he could.

And then-!

“A new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into stone monsters”

Well.

That wasn’t good.

Ladybug had managed to take down one supervillain by herself (who was apparently a kid named Ivan who didn’t even remember it?) but that many?

With no backup?

The supervillain had grabbed her during the fight. It’d been part of her plan… but with no backup, she couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and that could easily have gone wrong.

That was a lot of pressure to put anyone under, especially a kid who looked no older than himself.

Maybe staying up until midnight, browsing online forums, speculating about Ladybug, the supervillain, and the rock monster clone army hadn’t been his best plan.

Going to bed early might not have made a difference, though, he was too hyped up.

Still, even exhausted, he was determined to give escaping to school another shot…

...Aaaand was quickly shot down. Turned out Gorilla wasn’t going to let him run out there when people were turning into frozen stone monsters. Who knew?

He contemplated trying to turn his bedsheets into a makeshift rope (he’d seen it in several movies and TV shows, it had to work, right?), but eventually scrapped the idea. He may have been climbing the walls of his room, but he wasn’t THAT desperate. Yet.

The superhero Ladybug returned, but her confidence seemed pretty shaken. She stuttered and fidgeted in front of the camera a lot and seemed to wilt under some particularly harsh statements by the police chief.

Which - seriously dude? She was TRYING!

But even as unsure as she seemed, she persevered. When the giant butterfly head man, Hawkmoth, tried to blame her for causing the damage to the city, she snapped. She was NOT taking that crap.

Adrien may have jumped up and down and cheered a few times during her subsequent speech, grinning like an idiot. She was AWESOME! And that Lucky Charm thing? Inspired! He wished he knew more of how that power worked. Did she make the plan and then summon the object? That would make sense but from her look of confusion after summoning it, that didn’t seem quite right.

Sitting back he sighed. He really, REALLY wished he could be there with her.

A door opened behind him.

He turned his head.

And did a double-take.

His FATHER?! Actually coming to speak to him UNPROMPTED?!

That hadn’t happened since-!

...Actually he couldn’t remember the last time that happened. It only ever seemed to coincide with him wanting something from Adrien or chastising him for something or other.

Oh no.

He- he couldn’t be that mad about him running to school yesterday right?

Or- or maybe this was about the box? There was something unusual about it, maybe he just wanted to know more about it? Or tell him what was so important about it?

Probably not that last one.

A hand rested on his shoulder.

“Adrien, there’s something I need to show you.”

-----

His father had a secret passage by his mother’s portrait.

WHAT.

Seriously, when had he had THAT installed?! Was that just part of the house and he’d altered it to work via pressing part of the painting?!

...Were there more?

He’d scoured the house when he was younger, searching for the cool secret passages that all mansions seemed to have in the movies he watched and books he read. Only to come to the depressing conclusion that that was NOT, in fact, an intrinsic quality of mansions.

Might have to rethink that now.

He fidgeted as they descended in the secret elevator (he was still not over that) into some large, underground chamber.

...Okay, he REALLY thought he would’ve noticed this place being excavated, it had to have already been here.

Superheroes, supervillains, secret passages, hidden chambers… he was beginning to think he was dreaming. Or maybe trapped in a comic book.

The elevator came to a halt.

Lights slowly came on as they walked down a long suspended hallway.

At the end? A nature area with grass and bushes, some sort of pod among them, a giant window looming over everything.

Was… was his father part of a secret underground cult?!

Was Adrien supposed to be indoctrinated in as its newest member against his will?

Or was he led here as a human sacrifice?!

Normally he’d calm himself thinking that this was real life and not like, a comic or movie — but considering everything that’d happened in the last twenty-four hours (heck, in the last twenty-four MINUTES), that wasn’t much of a reassurance.

His father turned around as his own steps slowed. “Keep up, my son. I don’t have all day.”

With a shaky breath he willed his feet to move.

It- it probably wasn’t a secret underground death cult.

There’d be more people around, right? Hooded figures in dark cloaks?

Just his father (and maybe Nathalie?) wouldn’t make for much of a cult.

Yeah! So… so there must be a perfectly normal, reasonable explanation for all of this. He didn’t have the slightest idea what that could be, but he was sure it existed!

They came to a stop in front of the pod.

...it looked entirely too much like a coffin.

He’s not using me as a human sacrifice, he’s not using me as a human sacrifice, HE’S NOT USING ME AS A HUMAN SACRIFICE-

“When I- when I told you that your mother passed away… I may not have been entirely truthful.”

Wh-what?!

But that meant-!

“She’s alive?!”

His father simply moved forwards and pressed a button on the pod.

The cover opened.

Adrien forgot how to breathe.

He hadn’t seen her for two months.

Hadn’t expected to see her ever again outside of portraits, photos, and films.

And yet, here she was.

But she wasn’t moving. No medical equipment was attached to her either.

He tore his gaze away from her. He needed to know. To read his father’s expression and know he wasn’t lying. “She’s ALIVE, right?!”

Father gave a slow nod. “She’s in a magical coma… but she isn’t dead.”

...Magical?

“How…?”

Father stared forwards, lost in thought.

A moment later he sighed. “She used a magical artifact she shouldn’t have, did something she should not have done… and paid the price for it.”

Turning around, his father turned his attention back to Adrien. “You gave me half of the cure. With your help we can acquire the other half and save her.”

Gave him half?

The box!

“Was that why Nathalie was so insistent on taking that box? What was it?”

“It contained a powerful magical artifact known as a ‘Miraculous’.”

Adrien frowned. He’d heard that term before. “That’s the thing the evil butterfly man wants, right?”

Father scowled. “She should’ve just handed it over. That pesky little girl doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Something about that — his tone, his body language, his words — caused Adrien to take a step back.

“Father?” he asked cautiously. “What do you mean? How would that help you? What does Hawkmoth wanting Ladybug’s Miraculous have to do with anything?”

Adrien had a bad feeling about this.

In answer, his father took off his candy cane-striped tie, revealing the purple jewel underneath.

“Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise!”

A purple light flashed over him.

Leaving a man in a silver helmet and purple coat, a butterfly shaped jewel on his chest.

WHAT?!

Wildly, Adrien’s mind cast back through the extraordinary things he’d seen in the last few minutes, the secret passages, the underground chamber, his mom in a coma; all kept secret from the world.

All being recast in light of this new information.

They weren’t signs his father was part of a cult.

The secret passage, the underground chamber — both part of a secret evil lair.

And his mother being in a coma?

The hero refusing to give up an item that could cure her?

He’d seen this sort of thing before.

Sometimes the villain wanted an item, wanted something from the hero for a good cause.

But there was often a good reason the hero would fight tooth and nail to prevent them from acquiring it.

“Ladybug’s Miraculous, when combined with the Black Cat Miraculous, will allow me to save her.”

That was frustratingly vague.

“How? What do you need to do? What are the risks, the consequences?”

His father looked down on him. “I thought you missed her. That you wanted her back. What a poor excuse for a son you are.”

“No! Of course I-!”

“Do you wish for her to remain like this forever?”

“No I just-!”

“That Miraculous is the only thing standing in the way of reviving her. We MUST retrieve it.”

“We…?”

His father took a small box out of his coat.

A very familiar box.

Being held right in front of him.

“Open it.”

It wasn’t a request.

Gingerly he opened the lid.

A small black ring with a green glowing pawprint sat in the middle.

“Put it on.”

Swallowing hard, he did as his father commanded.

A light shot out.

“Wah-!”

It dimmed, revealing a small black catlike creature.

Who shook himself, looked around-

And locked eyes with his father.

“LET ME GO THIS INSTANT, YOU TERRIBLE EXCUSE FOR-!”

“I forbid you from speaking.”

The creature's mouth vanished.

“MMMMM! MMmm- MMMM!”

“Ah… much better.”

Adrien just stared, slack-jawed.

“Father, what did you just- what did you just DO?!”

“I shut up an annoying pest. If he insists on misbehaving and acting out, he no longer gets the privilege of having the ability to do so.”

WHAT.

Adrien opened his mouth to protest… and then shut it.

If he spoke up, ‘acted out’... would his father do the same thing?

He didn’t think his mouth could be sealed off.

But he wasn’t certain of it.

And there were plenty of other things he could do to him.

Suddenly, he was VERY acutely aware of how much bigger, how much taller his father was than him.

How much stronger.

Would Father ever hurt him?

Before today he’d have said ‘no, of course not’.

Now he wasn’t so sure. He certainly paid no mind to hurting others.

The small cat creature gave his father a death glare, making gestures he guessed would be extremely rude if his forearms had actual fingers to gesticulate with.

“That,” his father pointed at the cat, “is a Kwami. They give the owners of their Miraculous powers. Simply say ‘Plagg, transform me’ and he will be sucked into the ring, much like what happened with my own kwami earlier. Each grants special powers unique to their Miraculous on top of the standard super strength, endurance, and agility. The Black Cat Miraculous gives the power of destruction; simply say ‘Cataclysm’ and you’ll be able to destroy anything you touch. But since you are a child, you will detransform five minutes later, same as that accursed Ladybug.”

He could transform?

Gain superpowers like Ladybug?

Become a superhero?!

He glanced at Plagg.

The kwami’d gone still, simply looking at him with lidded, narrow eyes, mouth still missing.

No. Not a superhero. Not while under Father’s control.

A superVILLAIN.

He swallowed hard.

He wanted to have superpowers, to run around the city, to fight and be free.

But if he had to be a supervillain, he’d rather not have powers at all.

Hesitantly he grasped the ring, slowly pulling it off.

Too late, his father spoke up. “I wouldn’t do-”

The ring was off his finger.

Plagg dropped like a rock.

“WHA-!”

Dropping to his hands and knees he cupped his hands around the violently twisting tiny creature.

His eyes bugged out as he spasmed wildly, flailing uncontrollably.

If he’d had a mouth, Adrien was sure he’d be screaming.

“What’s wrong with him?!”

“You activated my failsafe,” Father replied. “I wouldn’t want you just leaving the ring lying around. Best you keep it on at all times, unless I allow you to remove it.”

His father did this? INTENTIONALLY?!

Ok, ok, don’t panic! Prioritize. The failsafe activated because he took the ring off, it was meant to incentivize him keeping it on at all times, so…

Fumbling around, he put the ring back on one of his shaking fingers.

Instantly, Plagg relaxed, sinking into his palm, eyes half-closed.

This… this little creature was at his father’s mercy.

And it didn’t seem like Father had much of that.

“F-father?” he said, looking up at him.

Quickly, he dropped his eyes. Best not to seem like a threat, like he was challenging him.

Maybe Father would assert his dominance by taking it out on him.

Or maybe he'd just take it out on Plagg.

“Please. Please, could you return Plagg’s mouth to him?”

“Hmmph. Perhaps later, provided that he’s well-behaved. Keep him under control or else I’ll do so myself. Right now, I have a task for you.”

That normally would not sound ominous.

Normally, his father would not say that after revealing he was a supervillain and torturing someone.

“Yes, Father.”

His father smiled.

Adrien’s spine stiffened.

“Transform. Let me see what you can do.”

----

Left. Right. Dodge. Jump.

OOPH

He wasn’t used to being caned in the stomach.

It didn’t hurt much — the Miraculous was pretty protective as it turned out — but it was still a pretty harsh impact.

While he was off-balance Father hit him again, sending him flying into a wall.

And again.

Each time before he could even begin to recover.

Father walked over to him as he lay on the ground, struggling to get up.

Adrien braced himself for another hit.

“I expect better from you. As an Agreste, and as my son.”

He turned his back to him. “We will spar every day until you can put up even a paltry fight. I cannot have you putting up such an embarrassing performance.”

Every day?

This was going to be EVERY DAY?!

He understood training. Understood the need to practice to get better. But training was supposed to include guidance, helpful tricks, being shown a few moves. Not just being beaten by a stronger, more experienced opponent.

He grit his teeth. “Yes, Father.”

“You need to be stronger if you are to take Ladybug’s Miraculous. If we are to heal your mother.”

Mom…

He looked over at her, still peacefully sleeping, entirely unaware of everything that had happened.

If she knew, would she be okay with this?

An hour ago, he would’ve choked at the thought and yelled ‘Of course not!’

He knew his parents after all.

But finding out how little he truly knew his father made him doubt.

His father glanced at him. “You may leave for now. Tomorrow, you go out in the field. Do NOT disappoint.”

As he made his way to the elevator, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. “Not while transformed. Say ‘detransform’ to release it.”

“Detransform!”

Plagg spiraled out of the ring.

His mouth was still gone, but he seemed in better shape than he was right after being tortured, at least.

Oh god, Adrien didn’t want to risk accidentally upsetting his father but-

“I- I think Plagg’s learned his lesson. Please Father?”

He rested his gaze on Adrien for a moment. Then-

“Very well. But if there’s one peep out of him...”

“Thank you, Father.”

He snapped his fingers.

Plagg’s mouth came back. He opened and closed it many times as if testing that it’d truly returned.

“Y-”

NOPE.

Quickly snatching Plagg out of the air, Adrien ran for the elevator.

------

If he ever got his paws on that candy-cane son of a bitch…!

Plagg floated wildly around the room.

Well. For certain values of ‘around’. That complete and utter BASTARD had decided that in addition to preventing Plagg from harming him, from interacting with anything or anyone else except for eating food, and forcing him to hide whenever others were around, he was ALSO on a leash.

Five feet.

He couldn’t wander more than five feet away from his Miraculous.

And since that- that torture spell would take effect the minute his ring slipped off of his Holder’s finger, that meant he was, in effect, tied to staying within five feet of Adrien.

Adrien…

He didn’t really know what to make of the boy just yet.

His father? Very clear opinion on him.

But his son didn’t exactly seem thrilled with Candy-butt’s actions.

Just his luck. OF COURSE the ‘dark power’ Wayzz had sensed had stumbled on his Miraculous. Naturally.

He may have been the Kwami of Destruction, but sometimes it felt like he was the Kwami of Bad Luck instead.

Not that assholes getting their hands on him was entirely new, but well, usually they weren’t quite as well-versed in putting up safeguards to stop him from stealing his Miraculous back, or in extreme cases, Cataclysming their asses.

He hadn’t even been activated when the curses were applied. Which hey, on the upside, meant he didn’t have to feel them taking effect! ...On the downside, it meant he didn’t know exactly what the curses were or how many of them there were. Some of them he’d been told about, others he’d figured out for himself, but… there could still be others. He hadn’t known about the “torture if ring is removed” curse until Adrien actually did it.

Not that that would STOP him from looking for loopholes, but well… not right now. He’d been through quite enough pain already without risking stumbling across a curse that would activate the torture again.

He shuddered.

Kwamis by themselves rarely got hurt. But when a Holder transformed, fusing the two of them together, he’d feel the same pain as the Holder.

The only time he’d felt pain that bad, his Holder had had the brilliant idea to extend his staff upwards a few thousand feet into a stormcloud, just to see what would happen.

They’d both been okay afterwards, but being electrocuted hurt.

“So, uh… is there anything you want to do? Or talk about? Or- or not do, whatever you feel like!”

Plagg blinked.

Adrien looked around awkwardly. “I know this isn’t exactly ideal and it sucks and I’m so, so sorry, but is there anything I can do to help?”

“...Camembert.”

“What?”

“Camembert cheese. The stinkier, the better.”

The kid made a face, but nodded.

------

Thirty minutes and a trip down to the kitchen later, Plagg was completely surrounded with the delectable aroma of smelly, smelly cheese.

Adrien looked about ready to gag, but gave an attempt at a smile whenever he looked over at him.

A small part of Plagg got some satisfaction out of the kid’s discomfort. At least, he wasn’t the only one suffering because of the five-foot leash.

“Do you want to watch anything?”

Plagg stifled a laugh. Kid’s nose was still wrinkled up from the cheese’s fumes and his eyes watered slightly, but he was making a valiant effort to pretend he was fine.

As far as TV went… well. He hadn’t left the Miracle Box much and Fu’s taste in shows was pretty dull, so-”

“Whatever you feel like. Unless it has to do with cheese, I don’t care. ...IS there a cheese TV show?”

“...I’ll check the guide.”

#enemies au #ml fanfic #Miraculous ladybug #let it be enough to reach the truth that lies #love square #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

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shadowstepper · 4 years

Note

So do you think Ardyn could beat Ganondorf?

The short answer is, maybe.

The long answer is down below.

If you mean do I think my Ardyn can best @daemoniumganondorf ‘s Ganondorf? I mean maybe but I’m having fun with the thread as it is, regardless of a win or loss.

I’m no mathematician so I can’t really bring out the science to support this. This is really observations, readings, and some speculation. You’ll see the last one clearly.

So let’s talk weaknesses first. Ganondorf has the obvious weakness to holy weapons and holy magics. The Master Sword and Silver Arrows are the obvious candidates there. While he is technically able to be harmed by most other weapons, only holy weapons can specifically capitalize on his weakness.

Ardyn on the other hand is not expressly stated to be weak to holy magics. Lunafreya’s healing touch might have been something he averted simply because it would rid him of the Starscourge and thus his greatest power. When Bahamut tortured him, he did so with a vision of Aera stabbing him with the Trident of the Oracle. Despite being a Royal Arm, it is not explicitly to be holy by any means.

So Ardyn’s weakness to holy means is kind of up in the air. If he is vulnerable to it, then Ganondorf has a way to exploit that. If not, then I suppose he doesn’t.

Now let’s talk arsenal. Ganondorf is a master swordsman and warlock, and his training by the Twinrova Witches has come very much in handy. This is further magnified by being a reincarnation of Demise and having control over the Triforce of Power. His swords can channel his magical power, and even then he’s still a master swordsman after all. He can easily wield two swords at once and fight on horseback with no effort.

Even without the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf has numerous magical abilities. He can summon phantoms to fight alongside him, possess foes, fly, and teleport just to name a few. Plus it is implied (at least I think it is I could be wrong and if so my bad) that he can access powers he’s had across his numerous lifetimes, including his Twilight magic and Malice magic.

The Triforce grants Ganondorf more abilities, including unlimited magical power, superhuman strength, immortality, and near-invulnerability. Along with his transformations and all the power they confer without costing Ganondorf any of his intellect.

Speaking of, Ganondorf is incredibly intelligent, clever, and cunning. He was able to manipulate the rulers of the world and Link into giving him access to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce lay. While the complete relic rejected him, Power stayed with him. He has also controlled the minds of both Zant and Zelda.

Beyond his magic, Ganondorf wields the Swords of Demise, his Dark Trident, and even the Sword of the Sages. If you’ve played Twilight Princess, you know that Ganondorf was impaled with this very sword, only to then break his restrains and kill the Sage who had impaled him. He kept the sword afterward and is able to use it.

Meaning he has his own holy weapon in his arsenal. That’s important.

Now there is more to talk about but let’s cut to Ardyn and cover his arsenal. Like Ganondorf, Ardyn is an expert manipulator and deceiver. He played his way into becoming the Chancellor of Niflheim, despite having no interest in Imperial rule. He did this by helping them create their magitek army, something that was impossible to do without his aid. He also created daemons for them to weaponize, such as the Diamond Weapons.

For weaponry, Ardyn has the Royal Arms and various magical skills at his disposal. The Royal Arms are specific to the Lucis Caelum bloodline and cannot be used by anyone outside of it. In essence, it’s a skill he always has at all times and he cannot be robbed of. Having an armoury of ethereal blades at your call that can’t be taken from you is a pretty nice thing to have.

However, are they holy weapons? There is a bit of a contradiction on this. The Royal Arms Noctis collects during the game are all non-elemental, so the answer is no right? Well they are also extremely effective against daemons, which are supposed to be twisted creatures of darkness. Hence my calling it a contradiction.

For the sake of this scenario, let’s assume the Royal Arms are not holy by any measure and thus cannot exploit Ganondorf’s weakness to holy means.

Next, let’s talk magic. In the world of FF15, to cast magic you need a magic flask to draw magical energy from. Ardyn is an exception to this as he does not need any flasks to cast his magical power. Why this is is unknown, but his power is devastating nonetheless. It’s not clear if he has a finite reserve or not, but given that he doesn’t need flasks at all it could be assumed that he has unlimited magical power.

That’s a stretch I know but that’s why I said some of this is speculation. Ganondorf has multiple games alone over many years so he has the proof to back up many claims and theories about his power. Ardyn only has one game, one episode, and one book by comparison. Just not an equal pool of information to draw from.

Anyway, Ardyn’s main element is darkness but he can also cast energy beams from his palms, summon meteorites from the sky, temporarily turn into miasma, (gaining the ability to teleport and fly while in this form though this is independent of his own warping ability via his bloodline) temporarily halt time, disguise himself as anyone he wishes, (regardless of having daemonized them given how he transformed into Noctis, Prompto, and Gladiolus on separate occasions) and more powers in his repertoire.

Now let’s talk strength and durability. Now I’m not sure of any explicitly physical feats of strength from Ganondorf but given that the Triforce of Power grants him superhuman strength and he can use his dark magics to augment his physical attacks, well those muscles are certainly not for show. He is strong enough to create shockwaves with a punch though so that’s something.

Ardyn likewise is no slouch in physical strength either. Despite two thousand years of captivity, Ardyn was cutting down Kingsguard members in minutes after being released and his strength was so grand that he easily bested Regis and Somnus, shocking them with just how powerful he was. Ardyn was also able to keep up with Noctis while he had the power of Providence, easily countering his blows and even pinning him down at one point.

Since Ardyn is also implied (I think so anyway, don’t quote me on that) to have superhuman strength, I’m not sure who to give this one to. I feel like it would still be Ganondorf though since he can boost his own strength further with his dark magic and Ardyn cannot. At least not according to my research.

Next, durability. Ganondorf has survived some pretty insane things. There was the aforementioned impaling along with surviving being stabbed in the face with the Master Sword, his castle collapsing on top of him and Hyrule Castle exploding on him. That is some serious durability right there. Granted, he is still not wholly invulnerable but he’s far from a pushover.

Plus it specifically takes holy means to kill Ganondorf and even then that’s no guarantee of victory.

Ardyn may be immune to physical pain, or at least extremely resistant to it. Despite being slashed across the face by Gladiolus and then immediately shot in the heart by Prompto, Ardyn just got back up, picked up his hat, and was on his way unharmed. Even assuming he’s only resistant to physical pain, Ardyn’s true durability lies in his immortality.

After being rejected by the Crystal, Ardyn’s soul became trapped in the beyond. Because of this, whenever his body died, he would simply come back as his soul could not die without someone going into the Astral Realm and striking him down there. But since you had to be dead or a god to go there, that wasn’t happening anytime soon.

With this effective immortality, Ardyn has returned from being frozen solid by Shiva and then shattered by Noctis. He was back to normal and taunting Noct all over again literally minutes later. Gladio and Prompto’s attacks should have killed him, yet he just shrugged them off and came right back. His weakness to the supernatural may have just been an act for all we know, and there’s no way to really confirm that he is vulnerable to holy means.

So Ardyn gets the durability advantage. Next, speed.

Ganondorf can keep up with Link, who is capable of dodging Beamos lasers. According to DEATH BATTLE, Link can move and react at at least 11% the speed of light. That’s pretty impressive still and Ganondorf can certainly reach that speed.

Ardyn doesn’t have any speed feats to compare but he has his warping ability that is specific to his bloodline (though Kings of Lucis can share this power with their Kingsguard soldiers if they so choose). Since Nocits frequently uses the Warp-Strike ability to get around and in fights, and Ardyn has shown he can do the same, this could be argued his speed stat.

But since Ganondorf is keeping his speed in movement essentially all the time while Ardyn’s is only specifically available via warping, I’d say Ganondorf has the speed advantage.

Finally, we come to power. And this is a tricky one. As DEATH BATTLE reasoned, the Triforce of Power comes from the goddess Din, who created the world itself. Scaling the Triforce of Power directly to Din’s creation feat means Ganondorf could potentially command planet-level scales of power.

But potentially is the key word.

For Ardyn, he definitely does not have any powers that scale to that level. Though he did succeed in spreading the Starscourge across the world and essentially conquering it, that doesn’t mean he has the power to destroy it. We could scale him to Bahamut however but even that is tricky.

Bahamut is the king of the gods in FF15 and he has an all-powerful attack that would obliterate all life on Eos. How exactly he does this without destroying the planet is unknown but let’s assume it can destroy the planet as well. According to the Dawn of the Future AU book, Bahamut tried to use this attack 2,000 years prior to destroy the Starscourge but the other gods blocked it. It takes Bahamut millennia to recharge this attack so it is definitely something he doesn’t want to use casually.

In the book, he plans to use the darkness-infected Lunafreya to charge up the attack and use it again. While he succeeds, it is still blocked. As Ardyn is responsible for striking down Bahamut in this alternate version of the story, it could be argued that he has greater power than Bahamut and therefore greater than Ganondorf by comparison.

But while Ganondorf’s is logical and even feasible, Ardyn’s is not and requires a lot of speculation and stretching. However it is stated that Ardyn increases in power with each person he absorbs. Theoretically, he could absorb enough to be more powerful than Ganondorf. But there’s no way to tell exactly how many people would be needed for that. So the edge for power goes to Ganondorf as his measures are more clear cut.

Let’s run through the rest quickly. For experience, this is tricky. Ganondorf has, in theory, more formal training than Ardyn thanks to his tutelage under the Twinrova Witches. Ardyn however gains the memories of those he daemonizes and absorbs so with that could come combat skill and new abilities. He specifically learned how to fight hand-to-hand so he wouldn’t have to rely on his Royal Arms and thus expose his true heritage in the process.

Ganondorf’s is clearer but limited, Ardyn’s is theoretical but limitless. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Next, versatility. Ganondorf has more magic than Ardyn, but Ardyn has more weapons. Do they balance out? No I’d say Ganondorf has this one thanks to his greater magical power and variety.

I could keep going but this is long enough. In summary, I’d say Ganondorf would win. But I said maybe at the start cause it’s more of a 60/40 chance here. Ganondorf has more consistency on his side and that affords him some leeway. There’s still so many unknowns about Ardyn and we may never get them answered.

Ardyn still has a good chance. He could take the Sword of the Sages for instance and turn it on Ganondorf. It might work, it might not, but it would exploit his weakness to holy means so that’s a possibility. But still, I’d say Ganondorf has this one more often than not.

#Anonymous #Letters to the Chancellor (Asks)

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grs-the-neighborhood · 5 years

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Name: Verdona Levin

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday (Zodiac): January 16; Capricorn

Species: 50% Human, 25% Osmosian, 25% Anodite

Ethnicity: White / Alien?

Native Language(s): English

Nationality: American

Appearance Info

Height: 5'9"

Skin tone: Light

Eye shape/color: Round; Green

Hair style/color: Long Wavy; Black

Outfit style: Oversized Sweaters and Jeans

Accessories: Charms

Markings (birthmarks, scars, etc): N/A

Alignment Info

Hero/Villian/Civilian: Hero

Rank: Vanguard League (Supernatural Department)

Powers/Abilities:

Natural Powers (By Mother)

-Mana Manipulation

-Mana Absorption

-Mana Detection

-Memory Manipulation

-Clairvoyance

-Teleportation

-Portal Creation

-Telepathy

-Telekinesis

Anodite Powers (By Mother)

-Anodite transformation

-Astral Projection

-Magic

-Flight

-Size Alteration

Matter Absorption (By Father)

Fighting Style:

-Taekwondo (Taught by Mother)

- Jujutsu (Yaught by Mother)

Weapons:

-Spell Book

Personality:

Verdona is very nonchalant, she tends to be very relax and reserve with people. She's kind and can be motherly to some of the other members, making sure they're fine if not then she would offer her healing. She enjoys music, it's something that puts her in a good mood. She's not nesessarily quiet but she's also not very talkative. She's the type that needs to be spoken too, however she has her moments when she gives a remark. She can be somewhat sarcastic but it's something that makes other laugh. She's very helpful and is a good ear, listening to other people's problems and helping them out.

Backstory:

Born in Bellwood her parents had always given her a nice life. Making sure to not let their jobs or plumbing take up too much of their time. She was raised to be skilled in fighting, so when she's older she can help people like they did. Kevin, her father, had taught her how to use her osmosian powers in ways of defense and even offense. He gave her an insight to the good places to brokers. Her mother however taught her the ways of magic and being Anodite, even gave her lessons in some martial arts.

Having these skills made Verdona a nice assest to a team, so she had asked about maybe joining the Vanguard League. Her mother was glad she would be wanting to join heroes, her father didn't seem to care. He was a villain and a hero, very hard to pick a side. But he was happy that she's doing something she wants. She teleported to Townsville and had search but managed to find the Vanguard League, where she met Damian. Son to Danny Fenton and Valerie. She had grown a crush on him. However she kept it professional and asked to join. After showing all of what she had the League had seen her as a valuable member for the team and she was accepted.

She was excited and even transferred to the local school. Of course she teleports to the school and League whenever needed, she just needed a reason to be somewhere new. Plus she got to see Damian more. She was growing a liking to him and even wondered if she had a chance with him.

Relatives:

- Gwendolyn Tennyson Levin (Mother)

- Kevin Ethan Levin (Father)

- Ken Tennyson (Uncle)

- Ben Tennyson (First Cousin Once Removed)

- Max Tennyson (Great Grandfather)

- Verdona (Great Grandmother)

- Frank Tennyson (Maternal Grandfather)

- Natalie Tennyson (Maternal Grandmother)

- Mrs. Levin (Paternal Grandmother)

- Zed (Pet)

Relationships:

Her parents and her get along well. Gwen and Kevin have their moments when they argue about the way one another trained Verdona but in the end they have seen that she's grown to be a wonderful daughter and fighter. She gets along well with her father being daddy's little girl, however she also gets along well with her mother. They are supportive and helpful with Verdona's future.

Damian is the leader of the Supernatural Department she's in. She had grown a liking to him after their first encounter. Something about his scaredy-cat personailty made her smile. She just wanted to be there to help and protect him. In fact in battle she tends to be very protective of him and the team. She stays by his side and listens to his commands, and sometimes at school she can't help but ogle him from her locker.

As for Envie, the two seem to get along well. However they have their moments when they engage in a sarcasm battle that some people in the team wonder if they're fighting or just casually having fun. It's usually the latter.

Vivian is someone Verdona has a hard time getting along with. Mainly due to her being unable to withstand Vivi's obnoxious and loud personality. Verdona tries to avoid her as best as she can but being in the same team it tends to get difficult.

Small Stories w/ Characters:

DAMIAN

As she saw Damian walk by she nervously waved a hand at him, hoping to get his attention without scaring him. He stopped in his track and looked up at her.

"Hey Damian, I don't mean to hold you up long, but... I was just hoping if you'd like to read this in your free time." She smiled and cautiously handed a small black journal to him, his hands took it curiously and opened it, skimming through it's content.

"What is it?" He asks, but quickly realizes that it appears to be a journal filled with poems.

"Just some poetry, I heard that you liked poetry so I wanted to show you some of my stuff. Maaaybe you can let me know if they're any good? I want to go to a poetry slam but I'm just too afraid that my work is ... well childs work."

Damian smiles and gladly takes the book, he looks up at her eyes, "Thanks, I'll give it a read and let you know what I think about them tomorrow." With that he walked off, leaving Verdona to respond to his dissappearing body.

"Awesome! Thank you-" she pauses, "Wait tomorrow morning?!" He was gone and she was nervous, was he planning on reading them all in one night? She creates a portal sending herself home, hoping for tomorrow to come sooner.

Next Morning

She walks around a room in the league where she ran into Damian the day before. She impatiently fiddled with her scarf before seeing him phase through a wall into the room.

"Ah there you are," Damian spoke softly and she responded in the same manner.

"So? What'd ya think?"

He thought for a second and reassured her with a smile, "It's good. I think these would be perfect for a poetry slam."

She blushed, taking her journal back she hugged it in her crossed arms and smiled at him, "You think so?... Hey maybe if you aren't busy, you'd like to join me friday for the slam?"

He smiled, "Sure, Just text me the details and I will meet you there." She nodded, and with that he left again. She excitedly texted the details right away and walked out of the room her book still in her arms as she internally squealed with joy.

VIVIAN

It had been a while and Vivi hadn't stopped talking, she was talking to another member in the group and they didn't seem to mind her constant blabbering. However Verdona was starting to get a bit irritated, and with the potty mouth Vivi has Verdona found herself finally speaking up.

"I know this space is free for members to socialize and relax but do you think you could maybe tone down the profanity?" She dodn't want to come off as a goodie goodie but she just wasn't a fan of profanity, mainly due to her high intelligence she found slang to sometimes be unnessecary.

"Oh shit sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt yer quiet time," she reponded, only to turn back and continue her conversation. Her profanity had lessen but that only lasted less than a minute before she continued to do it again. Not on purpose, just out of habit.

Verdona groaned, she just wanted to be in this room and enjoy some poetry reading with Damian, but he was running late and she was running out of patience.

"We have a language filled with so many words that can replace that vulgar slang street talk of yours," she said slamming her book shut.

"Why are ya bitching so much? I have the right to use any words I want, freedom of speech look it up."

Her hands became fists and she stood up from her seat,"For your information I am fully aware of the Amendments-"

"Well are you fully aware you got a stick up your ass that needs to be taken out?"

Without another word Verdona gave up and grabbed her book and walked out, Damian had just walked in but quickly followed after her.

Vivi sat there, a bit confused,"What's her problem?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welp that's it for my entry oof took forever

But I'm glad with the outcome, I love both of my new children and if neither wins I wont even be mad, I just love them too much xD

Sorry if any character is OOC, if I need to change things just let me know!

Bio Template (C) MintQuetzal

Vivian (C) ppgzmlpfimlover

Verse, Opal, Damian, Vivian, Serena, Kandi (C) PrincessCallyie

Art, Junji, and Verdona (C) @japanda-draws

Any other character belongs to their rightful show and creator

She will be in @ej-cappy-universe 's GRS series: The Neighbors.

#character list #the neighborhood #the neighbors #synonymous

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thekitsune · 6 years

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Marinette’s So Lovable! (Crossover Edition) #1

Well, it has begun! Here is the first oneshot of my Marinette crossover oneshot pairing series! And Raven is first! So, here is Ravenette! (And yes, I wouldn’t mind seeing fanart if you want to make any based on this)

Marinette knew her life was going to be weird when she found out that she was chosen to be a superhero. She just never knew how weird it would become. While her normal life revolved around normal teenage things, whenever a person was akumatized, she had to transform and go defeat them to save Paris. And in the meantime, she was following every lead about Hawkmoth's true identity that she could find. It turns out that this was the right thing to do.

Almost two years after receiving Tikki and becoming the superhero Ladybug, her and her superfriends, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Queen Bee, finally found Hawkmoth and defeated him in the toughest battle of her life. The teenagers were shocked as his transformation ended and left behind Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father. They were further suprised when Chat dropped his own transformation to reveal his identity as Adrien. After a heart breaking confrontation between the two, the superheroes were caught offguard as Gabriel decided to go for one last attempt to defeat them. Using a secret device that he had built, Gabriel was able to make one of his final moths attach itself to Ladybug.

Tikki informed Marinette what was about to happen so Marinette told her friends to take care of the rest and tell her parents that she said good-bye while informing them of who she was. Before they could stop her, she jumped out of the building and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. Climbing to the top, she propelled herself as high as she could right as the moth finally unleashed all of its power in a huge explosion.

Everyone in Paris believed that Ladybug, no Marinette, died that day saving them all. Her parents mourned the loss of their daughter while her friends, both normal and super, all mourned for months.

What they didn't know...was that she didn't die that day. She was sent to a different dimension thanks to Tikki shielding Marinette with the full use of her power. ___ Raven had been sitting outside on top of the tower that night. The others were being far too loud for her liking. She was unable to concentrate on her meditating. As much as she treasured her friendship with the other Titans, they had too much trouble keeping quiet for her taste.

She was lost in her meditation as her body floated above the rooftop. As she sat there reciting her signature chant, her keen senses picked up on a portal opening high in the sky. Immediately alarmed, she looked into the sky and saw a figure shooting out of a portal and heading to the ground at top speed. Raising her eyebrow, she looked closer and was barely able to make out the figure as a girl around her age in a ladybug themed suit.

Raising herself to her feet, she quickly flew into the sky as quickly as possible. Heading in the direction that the girl's unconscious body was falling, Raven realized she wouldn't be able to make it in time if she only flew so she shot out her hand and quickly recited her chant to cover the girl in her signature black energy. Using this brief chance, she flew faster and was barely able to reach the girl before her spell wore off. The girl fell into her arms in a bridal fashion.

Looking down at the girl since she was much closer now, Raven felt her cheeks flare red at the sight of the mysterious girl's cute face. As she brought her hand up to touch the girl's cheek, she was surprised as the costume began to disappear which left behind the girl in normal civilian clothes. Before she could look closer, a small red creature appeared over the girl and looked at Raven who looked back in shock.

"Please...help...Mari...nette," the creature requested of her as it collapsed onto the newly named Marinette's stomach. Raven looked at her one more time before sighing and turning around to head back to the tower. She would take the girl to her room and watch over her there. If something was up with this girl, then she could handle it, and the others would be none the wiser...

Is what Raven had wanted, but when the girl woke up the next morning, Raven quickly found herself enamored with the girl's kind, shy personality. Apparently, she was the lead superhero back in her own dimension where her and other superheroes fought against a villain with the power to turn normal civilians into his superpowered henchmen. After defeating him, she sacrificed herself to save the city from blowing up with her. That was...incredibly selfless of the girl.

It didn't make sense as to why she appeared here though. Maybe it had something to do with the conflicting magic forces, the magic that was part of Marinette's powers, and the magic of the villain's? When Marinette realized that she was trapped in this new dimension and was unable to return to her family and friends, she had broken down crying in Raven's room which had made the half demon girl quite uncomfortable. She was not good with comforting people.

Since the other Titans were unaware of the girl's presence in the Tower though, she was the only one who could help the girl. Raven had walked over to her and sat down by her side, she had hesitantly brought her hand up to the girl's shoulder to rub it in a comforting gesture, but she was caught offguard as Marinette practically collapsed into her lap and clung onto her like she was the only thing keeping her alive. She looked down at the French girl in surprise before awkwardly wrapping her arms around Marinette and hugging her close.

After the first few nights, Raven had helped the girl calm down about everything that happened and gotten to know her better. When the first week ended, she finally brought Marinette out of her bedroom and introduced the girl to the rest of the Titans. Their reactions were quite predictable. Beast Boy was shocked at her presence in the tower, but he quickly tried to show off to her, Cyborg and Robin were both confused as to how Raven kept her a secret for so long and her sudden presence, but still accepted her into the tower, and Starfire proclaimed herself as Marinette's new best friend which the girl was fine with.

Since there wasn't a free room, Raven allowed Marinette to bunk with her (besides Marinette was used to her the most so it had made sense even though Raven did ask Marinette to respect some of her more...unique items). And after Tikki rested completely, Marinette decided to show off her skill as Ladybug to the rest of the team and joined them as a new Titan.

Over the next few months, Marinette bonded with all the Titans and, while she did miss her old life, she began to grow accustomed to her new life with her new family. She considered Starfire, the sister that she never had, Beast Boy, the younger brother she never had (Since he liked acting childish most of the time), Cyborg was the protective older brother, and Robin was the male best friend who looked out for everyone. Raven on the otherhand...

Marinette's cheek turned red at the thought of Raven. She didn't know what it was about Raven, but she couldn't help her attraction to the magic user. While the girl was quiet, she was also very caring and compassionate. She was a little emo-ish at times, but Marinette knew it had something to do with her heritage as well as the fact that she wasn't good with demonstrating her emotions. And the fact that they shared a room and had long talks pretty much every night didn't help Marinette not gain feelings for her.

Raven felt the same as Marinette. Her new team member was so kind and caring, she gave Starfire a run for her money. She was always willing to help everyone out even though she still didn't know them that well. And whenever Raven accidentally let her temper flare around Marinette, the girl was very understanding and never held it against her. Plus, she made her the comfiest set of pajamas that Raven has ever had...And that smile of her's...

Feeling a large blush on her face, Raven buried her face deeper in her book. Marinette was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room. She had been designing a hoodie for Starfire only for Raven to invade her thoughts, not literally. The designing had quickly changed to her drawing a picture of Raven.

Blushing brightly as she realized what she was doing, Marinette peeked over her shoulder at Raven and began to think. Waiting too long and being too shy kept her from being able to confess to Adrien. If she didn't act quickly, she might lose Raven to someone as well. And while Marinette knew she wasn't in love with the magic girl, she did know that she had a huge crush on her.

Looking back at Raven, she nodded her head as she quickly made up her mind. Standing up, she turned around and began walking over to Raven. Raven, who had been reading her book, picked up on Marinette's uncertainty and raging emotions. This caused her to look up at her new friend with concern. Seeing Raven looking at her caused Marinette to pause and look at Raven with a flushed face.

'Maybe...this is a bad idea?...No! This is what happened back when you were trying to confess to Adrien, not this time,' Marinette thought to herself as she lightly slapped her cheeks and kept walking to Raven.

Seeing as Marinette wasn't saying anything, Raven was about to question her only for Marinette to suddenly jump on Raven's lap and kiss her with a red face. Raven's eyes shot open wide as her arms shot up in shock. Looking down at Marinette's face, she saw that the girl's cheeks were burning nearly as red as Star's hair and her eyes were closed. Feeling her emotions again, Raven picked up on...feelings of love or adoration? and fear?

Realization began to overcome the quietest Titan as she looked at Marinette's face one more time. Gently closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around Marinette and returned the kiss which made Marinette hug her tighter.

After another minute of kissing, the two separated and the girls faced away from each other shyly. "...Sorry...I didn't mean to suddenly kiss you..." Marinette shyly told Raven whose face turned redder.

"...It...It's cool," Raven told her which made Marinette giggle slightly by how thrown off Raven sounded.

Glancing back at Raven, Marinette gave her a small smile and nodded her head. "Raven...I...I really like you. I know we've only known each other for a few months now, but I've grown a crush on you within that time...Would you...go out with me?" Marinette asked Raven who looked at her in shock before looking away for a second.

"...I...I've never been in a relationship before...Please don't be offended if I do something wrong..." Raven told Marinette as she brought her hands up to Marinette's waist and pulled her closer. Marinette smiled lightly as she wrapped her arms around Raven's neck and leaned closer to her. Raven smiled back at Marinette before leaning forward and kissing her.

In the background, Tikki sat on a shelf and smiled at the sight of Marinette finally finding love with someone that she didn't have trouble admitting it to. Hopefully, the future of these two girls will be very bright. She wants to be a godmother after all!

#miraculous ladybug #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Raven #Ravenette #Tikki #Crossover #Oneshot #Pairing #The first in the series #Get ready for more!

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starscreamwastaken · 7 years

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To Seek a Seeker

I made a post earlier about how I wanted to write a royalty or barbarian AU in which Starscream is being courted by all my favorite ships with him. So I wrote this first chapter and am posting it here has a test run. Will probably post to Ao3 later. (Also it’s not quite barbarian or royalty. They’re more advanced than barbarians, but there’s no royalty, I don’t know where to put it.) Okay, enjoy.

To say this was on the bottom of Starscream’s to-do list would be an understatement. It wasn’t on the list at all, nor did he ever imagine it would make it on there. The seeker’s mind had wandered off long ago, somewhere in the beginning of his chief's speech on why he must do this and how it’s oh-so’ important to the clan. Why was it important again?

For a moment Starscream phased in to listen, before immediately losing interest and phasing back out. That’s right, Megatron thought it would be a good idea to unite the clans. At least some of them anyways, and everyone could stand to have a few more fliers. It was a dumb notion, one Starscream had scoffed at when originally proposed. Even if he did find a suitable mate, which he wouldn’t, there was no guarantee they’d produce any bitlits. Plus considering only one of the possible intended actually posses flight capabilities there’s no guarantee that, if they did have sparklings, any of them could fly.

Megatron, though, had apparently spoken to Hook, and the healer assured them that Seeker coding was dominant, and often determined the frame of the sparkling.

“Are you even listening?” Megatrons rough voice pulled Starscream from his trance.

Starscream’s attention snapped away from his hand. “What?”

Megatron heaved an exasperated sigh, pinching the rim of his brow. “You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said have you?”

“I have...somewhat. I just don’t understand why this is taking so many words.”

Megatron was visibly trying to keep his composure. “I am going to make this very simple,” he started testily. “You are going to choose one of the courting mechs from the other clans. With him you will produce for us strong, healthy, bitlits, and with the bond we will create a strong healthy clan. Is that simple enough for you?”

“Certainly, chief. I simply don’t understand why you’ve selected me, of everyone.”

“Despite your vanity, Starscream, you are the most desired mech within our territory, for several reasons. You are quite attractive, you are a gifted flyer, you were blessed with wings at all. To mate you within our clan would be a waste, when we can use this opportunity to grow and strengthen ourselves.”

Starscream leaned back slightly so he was leaning on his hands. “Wouldn’t it be better if our chief were to mate? I was always under the impression that the merging of clans was the exception to your celibacy.”

“It is, but I have no desire to choose a mate. I believe one of their chiefs, however, has shown some interest in seeking your hand. You should be honored.”

Starscream had no desire to choose a mate either, but of course he just had to do what their chief said didn’t he? It was interesting, hearing one of the other leaders sought his hand. It almost made it worth it.

Then again Starscream still wasn’t keen on the idea of being heavy with bitlits any time in the near future. And he would be, if his intended had anything to say about it. Megatron had already deemed Starscream a Carrier, so trying to impregnate his soon to be mate would be entirely out of the question.

“You’re lucky, Starscream, I was originally going to make this bonding strictly political, but I thought you would prefer if I let you choose.”

Starscream nearly smirked. “How generous of you, my leader.”

Megatron began to stand, prompting Starscream to follow. “Come. Your suitors will be arriving any moment now.”

Starscream perked with surprise. “They’re coming here? Already?”

“Of course. What did you expect. I would like to get this over with as soon as possible.”

Starscream scurried to catch his leader before he went out the door, grabbing him lightly by the shoulder. “I don’t know how to be courted.” he admitted quickly. “What am I supposed to do?”

Megatron gave him a hard gaze. “Maybe you should have been listening,” his features lightened. “It is quite simple, Starscream, merely accept their gifts and their fawning, spend days with them. If you so desire invite them to join you in your berth, and, when you’ve made your decision, it will be publically announced and the will witness you and your new mate christening a united hut.”

Starscream nearly grimaced. “Oh is that all, “ he grumbled.

“Now come, you can’t be late to your own proposal. They will be arriving soon.”

Starscream emitted a small noise that could only be interpreted as a whine. There were very few things Starscream wasn’t prepared for, but this fell on that short list. In front of everyone he would be proposed to by three mechs, all of higher stature than himself, but probably not nearly as attractive. Starscream took in a deep vent and let it out much too quick. It did nothing to calm his nerves. With only three mechs to choose from he hoped his options were at least decent. They’d be following him around like turbo-foxes at any rate, he hoped they were at least civil.

Starscream stepped from the tent. It seemed to be happening quicker than anticipated. The whole clan was gathered about the community area, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their guests. Every suitor was to arrive with two other mechs, like watchman making sure they kept their eyes on the intended, and not let their gaze wonder, as well as provide the means through which to deliver gifts and allow privacy.

The Chief was first to arrive. Starscream stood beside his chief obediently, waiting to be addressed. The mech in question was called Optimus Prime. First he greeted Megatron and introduced his hand mech’s as Jazz and Prowl, both standing stoic and obedient at their leader’s side. Judging by their frames Starscream deduced that they were a more war and travel based clan, people who moved around a lot and were ready for battle whenever the time may come. Similar to Starscream’s own.

Optimus Prime then greeted the hand he was trying to win, retracting his face mask and kneeling before Starscream to deliver his hand a kiss. “Starscream,” he greeted gently. “Be assured I will do everything in my power to win this hand, if you will have me.”

Starscream smirked slightly. He liked seeing this bot on his knees, another chief, rivaling Megatron in everything from size to leadership, delivering to his hand a kiss and a promise to try his best. This might be more enjoyable than Starscream thought. A second later he was pulled from his thoughts from a little nudge, turning his attention to Megatron. “Accept,” the leader whispered.

“What?” Starscream said absently. “Oh! Right right,” he grumbled, looking back to Optimus. “I accept your proposal.”

Then the large truck stood and took his place in the line up.

Next to arrive were a pair of ground vehicles, soon joined by a very large shuttle framed bot.

Large. Very large. Huge, actually. Surpassing both Megatron and Optimus in pure height and most likely strength as well. Judging by their colors and markings Starscream could assume that they came from a clan of healers and alchemists. It would greatly aid them to join with a clan such as Starscream’s. Healer’s were not known for their tendencies to be prepared for war. It was likely their leader had selected the largest frame as an offering, promising strong, brilliant soldiers.

Starscream did not want to be the one carrying the bitlits for this one. Apparently his name was Skyfire, and he was traveling with Ratchet and Wheeljack. To Megatron he presented a gift, thanking him for the opportunity to court another winged mech and expand their territory throughout the sky. Starscream could tell it was something he’d been trained to say.

The big guy almost seemed nervous, but managed a stoic expression for the most part.

After addressing Megatron he came to stand before Starscream, though seemed unsure of what to do.

A sharp ‘pst’ came from behind him, drawing his attention. It came from the one Starscream believed was named Wheeljack. “Yer supposed to kneel, big guy,” he whispered. Skyfire seemed momentarily confused before perking to attention with an ‘oh’ and taking a knee before the intended. “Uh,” he stuttered, then clearing his intakes. “Starscream, I wish for a chance at your hand, if you will have me,” he said, presenting his hand. It came out smoother than Starscream was expecting.

“I will have you,” Starscream recited, placing his hand in the much larger one. Skyfire delivered to it a kiss before standing and taking his place in line.

Then came the third suitor.

The arrival was certainly...unexpected.

They first arrived as beasts, before transforming into their bipedal modes. Instead of three, though, there were five, all of which possessed a secondary mode of some sort of beast. Starscream nearly smirked thinking about...certain things. Megatron nudged him with his elbow.

They introduced themselves as the Dynobots, the leader, who called himself Grimlock, bluntly greeted Megatron and acknowledged the opportunity to join their clans. Grimlock was also quite large, more on par with Skyfire, possibly even larger. Starscream couldn’t help but let the less than desireable thoughts of carrying bitlits for such a large frame pass his processor.

Grimlock was certainly more brutish than the other two, speaking bluntly and with very few words. It didn’t seem as though he had a great understanding of their language.

Like the others, though, Grimlock took a knee and bowed his head, though in one hand he held a glowing sword, which dug into the ground. “Me, Grimlock, wish to fight for Starscream’s hand,” he said, probably in the most gentle tone he could muster. “If you will have me,” he presented his hand.

“I will have you,” Starscream agreed as if on command, putting his hand in the much larger. Not having a mouth Grimlock did not deliver it a kiss, but bowed it to his head before standing and taking his place in line.

Megatron smiled when everyone was settled. “Suitors,” he addressed. “We thank you for taking our offer. Now we will proceed with a great celebration, marking the beginning of the courting,” he announced in that great booming voice of his. “Please get settled in while the celebration is being prepared. The brothers of your possible intended will show you to your huts.”

Skyward, Thundercracker and Sunstrom emerged from the crowd to guide their guests to where they’d be staying. It was on the complete opposite end of the village from Starscream, though the seeker assumed Megatron had plans to change that.

“Now,” Megatron started as everyone dissipated. “That wasn’t so bad was it?” he smirked.

Starscream scowled up at his leader. “I bet you think you’re funny,”

Megatron looked down at the intended. “Why, of course I do, dear Starscream.”

After a moment Starscream smirked himself, shrugging a shoulder. “Well,” he mumbled. “At least they’re all handsome.”

#maccadam #starscream #megatron #optimus prime #skyfire #grimlock

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whale-shark-queen · 7 years

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You mentioned fucked up weird AUs in your one post? I'm interested. Tell me about your favourite one(s)!!

AAAaaaah thank you so much!!

Uhhhhhhh heck most of them involve N turning into some horrible Thing because he’s the Estranged Outsider with a Connection to the Bad Guys Even If It’s Not Willingly (yknow like how Eren from snk is a titan shifter or Rin from blue exorcist is part demon) and all of them involve vuvuzelashipping (Nxall the Nuvema lot) I don’t really have a single favourite but I’ll summarize the ones I like most (also note that some of them are good dad Ghetsis/Dadsis aus because u gotta balance out the angst somehow plus dadsis aus are Cool)

Under the cut because I literally can’t summarise for shit and I’m sure no one wants to scroll past 3 pages worth of this (mobile users I apologise since the app is SHIT and refuses to even acknowledge these)

Also here’s a bit of an index so u can skip to ones that sound interesting instead of going through them all but first u should ask nationalharmonica about her aus bc I love all of hers and they’re awesome and need more love and she also helped with alot of these aus too!! ESPECIALLY the Dragonflower au which I won’t include here because I think she has it on her blog somewhere already. If ur wondering why I haven’t posted any of these it’s because a) i have neither the skill, time or patience to draw up proper references for all of the characters involved and b) I’m always worried theyll seem too Out There for some people but here we go au masterpost i guess, if anyone reading would like more info feel free to ask!!!

Bacterial Contamination inspired au aka bacterial pestileNce

BotW au

Ib au

PMMM au (the longest one)

Plasma/Aether swapover, N wins+UB monochromeshipping au

Simple fNaf dadsis au

sister locatioN dicksis au (yes I have two for that because I only found out about the secret springtrap cutscene at the end of SL that changes everything the other day)

Nombie (dadsis) au

isolatioN au- Au based on the song Bacterial Contamination. N goes to the snobbiest most pretentious school you can imagine only because his ex mafia boss dad wants the best for him. N hides the fact he’s being relentlessly bullied until a teacher phones Ghetsis up asking why N is in such a state whenever he comes into school (BC bruises and cuts and looking roughed up in general). N goes to therapy and gets meds but surprise they’re an experimental drug and he’s a bug boy now

- BotW au where Touya is Link, Cheren as Revali, Bianca is Mipha and Touko is Zelda. Ghetsis (who is kinda like Demise if he hung around to make sure his curse worked) is the king of a neighboring region who’s a bit of a warmongering asshole but his son N is friends with princess Touko and her…ahem, associates, which is the only reason Touko’s dad stays civil with him at all. He uses this to his advantage and infects N with the Malice and reveals his plan to take over Unova, knowing fine well that N would run away to Touko for help. The truth is he’d set up N to be a ticking time bomb and eventually he becomes the Calamity. After the whole ~100 year coma and releasing the divine beasts~ thing Touya only remembers who N is after killing him but dw there’s a blood moon just as Touko is sealing the Malice away and N’s freed spirit is brought back to become a friendly giant fluffy spider boy just because I said so

- Ib au with N as Mary (obv Ghetsis is Guertena) except instead of going crazy and trying to kill everyone and being burned up and dying himself the toutous make him sit in the frame while they drag it out of the portal to the real world: problem solved. I have all this stuff about the others being able to step into his frame but he can’t leave unless someone else draws him so he can possess the drawing but I won’t go into it here BC this post is gonna be long enough already

-Okay I have two madoka aus because possibilities for N are Ndless but I’ve only really developed the dicksis version whereas I only have a witch design for a possible dadsis version so here’s the dicksis one. The first: Ghetsis is kinda like Walpurgisnacht and N was originally a familiar that represented Ghetsis’ interest being only in things that directly oppose him who was becoming powerful enough to become a witch of his own. Not wanting him to have even a fraction of power himself Ghetsis transformed him into a human shape, gave him sentience and intelligence and as close to a pure heart as possible so he would be easier to manipulate and led him to believe that magical girls/boys hunt down innocent witches for fun and have witches trapped in their soul gems and tasks N with stealing people’s soul gems to ‘free the witch inside’. The problem is that the alteration gave N the mindset of ‘innocents who aren’t involved must be protected at all costs’ rather than Ghetsis’ mindset of ‘don’t give a fuck about anyone unless they’re a problem’. N is also sent to integrate into human society so that he can find magical peepos easier so he ends up coincidentally going to school with the Nuvema kiddos. He ends up becoming friends with them until he finds out Cheren and Bianca are magicas (I’m just gonna call them that for simplicity) but even though the toutous arent magicas they still support them which is all very upsetting and conflicting for N but he tries his best to protect the witches and steal more soul gems until the others eventually call him out on it and prove to him that the shit Ghetsis told him is bull. When he goes to confront him about it it’s too late, Ghetsis has absorbed enough witches to become a Walpurgisnacht-like entity, and finally allows N to become a witch. I’ll link the drawings I’ve done of him but basically his labyrinth would be like a puppet theater and even tho hes the witch he’d have this fuckin giant messed up ghetsis-lookin puppet master familiar who pulls at his strings and coordinates his attacks. There’d be an audience of masked figures that look like all the magicas he’s caused the deaths of, tiny animals with scissors to represent his wish for freedom and also his fear of his ‘father’ since they never actually get to cut the strings holding him up, and figures that look a heck of a lot like the nuvema kiddos watching in a balcony. This is all tied into a theory I came up with that almost all the witches are able to be saved since yknow how Homura had that figure of Madoka locked away and Madoka was able to bring her back, and how Sayaka had the violin guy and Charlotte had that doll that probably represents her dead mother? My guess is that if the people those figures represent are brought to the witch and reach out to them the magical girl inside would be able to be freed. But yeah since N was never really a human the Nuvema kiddos can only really save a fraction of his conscious and he ends up like Bebe. They all beat the shit out of Ghetsis and everyone lives happily ever after with their pocket witch bf

- the au where 1) plasma and aether are sort of swapped around and 2) N beats the toutous in the final battle. This is actually based on nationalharmonica’s courtesaN au which is awesome BTW (but it doesn’t involve actual courtesans or N being a courtesan at all but its Sarah’s au so if you’re interested you should totally ask her about it). Ghetsis keeps Touko and Touya prisoner and just to rub it in their faces blackmails Cheren and Bianca into joining and doing sciency experiment shit which ends up with Touko and Touya becoming UB fusions/hybrids themselves; Touya with Kartana and Touko with Celesteela. Ofc in the later stages they are able to destroy their place of confinement and escape with Cheren and Bianca to find N who becomes understandably fucked off and upset that his friends have been put through all this shit but begs them not to kill Ghetsis so he can ask what’s going on. When he does Ghetsis stabs him with a syringe full of UB fusion shit because he knows fine well hes gonna die he just wanted a final ‘fuck you’ before he is killed by both fire and paper cuts. Surprise! It’s a Guzzlord. N becomes a big squishy boy. I’ve done drawings of N in human Guzzlord fusion/hybrid form but I’ve been afraid of posting it but uh if anyones interested i will

- Simplified fNaf dadsis au - basically N and the Nuvema kiddos are the ones that were killed and stuffed in the animatronics, Ghetsis owns the place but risks going bankrupt pouring money into helping find the culprit and also his son and his friends when they’ve been stuck in the one restaurant he kept open to stay afloat. Nate is the new nightguard and they decide to fuck with him to get rid of some of the boredom of being alone together in the one building for like…30 years or so. In the end they fess up and make Nate pizza as an apology and they’re chill again

- sister locatioN dicksis au - I already summarised a thing i wrote of it in response to an anon but I’ll include here too. Once again Ghetsis owns all the shit with the animatronics. Anthea and Concordia get killed by one of them when they were young so years later Ghetsis sends N down to ‘free’ them (surprise he only wanted to get rid of N) but since their spirits have been fused into one hideous amalgamation of animatronics they’ve gone a bit loopy and want to leave. The whole scooping room thing ensues and they accidentally turn their brother into a zombie

- Nombie au bc Z is a sideways N heheh I ahven’t thought up much of the background for it but it involves Plasma being a pharmaceutical company that is sort of accidentally being the cause of it. N gets separated from his dad who ends up being the leader of a large group of people in a little town sort of thing they were able to reclaim but is Sad bc he thinks his son is dead which ends up being half true bc surprise N is half immune and ends up being a conscious zombie boy who wears a curtain as a cloak so he doesnt immediately frighten people bc he got his eye shot out by hillbilies, his face scratched up, his throat bitten out and his heart impaled on a pole (hes a freak without a human heart geddit) zombie apocalypse stuff happens

- isolatioN au - basically spawned from the thought of ’what if N was kept even more hidden away/locked up/never even left at all’. Plasma is instead secretly in the Pokemon poaching/hunting/selling business but are disguised as…well you already know about Plasma. The nuvema kiddos had varying levels of rough childhood and were desperate for money so they all joined up; the toutous as night guards and the dualrival s as researchers. Hidden deep in the facility is a certain tree haired manchild who has been kept in a cage for pretty much his entire life. Ghetsis does a mother gothel and makes out its to keep him safe and brings him Pokemon to ask about where they live and what other kinds of Pokemon live there so that Ghetsis can release them safely back into the wild go hunt for more Pokemon in the area if there’s anything good there

There’s a few more that I have but I won’t include them because im worried it’d be a waste of time if no one takes interest in any of these but uh thanks for asking and reading if you did!!!

#n harmonia #natural harmonia gropius #ghetsis #trainer bianca #cheren #trainer touko #trainer touya #someone is gonna give me hell for putting this shit in the tags i just know it #honestly im terrified of posting this because i cant write or draw for shit #the only thing im vaguely good at is coming up with ideas for things #but here we go

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austennerdita2533 · 7 years

Text

Summary: The Doctor marvels at Rose's ability to turn his long-ago-burnt-out smiles back into supernovas. (Ten x Rose)

(A03) (FF.net)

A/N: Rose and the Doctor are precious and me writing them was inevitable. That being said, it’s my first time writing DW fic so I’m more than a little nervous. Enjoy! *hides*

xx Ashlee Bree

Twinkle, Twinkle Time Lord Star

It’s addicting, the Doctor thinks, inebriating himself with these Rose Tyler smiles.

But, blimey, how wrong! How incredibly reckless it is to supernova before her in this candid way—a fervid, bombastic, incalculable something curving into his dimples each time their eyes meet or their hands fuse together throughout these companionable years of space-journeying! His cheekbones lift and redden without warning these days. His lips stretch, curling upwards for lightyears. His eyes, shrewd, round, and markedly alien, widen to dilate his pupils until they molt into golden-amber pools…and shine.

All because she’s there. Near. His smiles enlarging as a result of meager moments granulating with her preciousness.

Like how after a, ‘the TARDIS ’n I hear all those numbers clunkin’ about in your head as you shrink inward, Doctor. When you’re…y’know, thinkin’ exponentially’ remark at his expense, her tongue traces the bottom edge of her teeth playfully and he finds his ears blazing with the need to hear more of her unique observations about him, her entire vocabulary of words. Or those times when he feels his eyes memorizing the atoms of her mouth as they reel him in close (dangerously, dangerously close) with their tantalizing electricity. Or the way she spoils him with sugar-propaned bananacakes because she knows they’re his favorite Alphabeta’d 5 treat. Humming with delight, he never fails to lick up every last inch of rocketized frosting before offering her a broad, thankful grin.

(All the while praying the titanium sprinkles haven’t metaled-over his pearly whites.)

Then there are the moments when he plops down on the edge of the bed before dawn, roused there by her whimpering, to chase away Bad Wolf nightmares with his caressing fingertips and to treasure the quiet intimacy of holding her while she snores. For a while, he allows himself to sink into her softness. She’s a duvet made of the finest Egyptian cotton; he’s the Time Lord pillow on which she rests snugly, wholly unaware. And as she sleeps, he inhales the soap mixed with perfume and pheromones wafting off the sheets—her skin—losing himself in her completely. Without a care.

Most mornings, however, he scampers off early to fiddle with wires in different rooms or to recalibrate his ship before she wakes. Anything to distract himself from the sound of her lullaby pulse in his ear plus that tickle of breath which still lingers like a hickey on his neck.

The only problem is he never can make himself forget.

Nope.

Not a damn thing can make him forget the sweetness of surrender: the feel of her arms draped around his middle, hand bunched in his pocket; blonde hair splayed messily across his tie; her right cheek cuddled against the center of his button-down shirt; the peaceful coo of his name as it’s murmured on her lips like a piece of poetry…

And what about the color she paints into his clouded life merely by being? Her lungs still breathing laughter? Her heartbeat thumping wildly—enthusiastically to the ticking cadence of time?

Excitement zips through him at an infectious rate of acceleration and spurs a Δ velocity so terrifyingly fast, he stumbles over his own gangly feet to impress her with something better around the next galactic bend. And then there’s the way his chest heaves peacefully, contentedly, the instant she curls herself into him. His hearts immediately settling into perfect circadian homeostasis because she’s the warmest home he’s ever known…

Why, Rose fills him full of photosynthesized buttercups! More than that, the fundamental truth of him is perceivable in every particle of attachment written across his features in easy-to-solve calculus.

“An abominably simple chemical reactant these days, me,” he wants to tell her, but doesn’t. “I’m an elementary school math problem. Nothing more than a, ‘1 Doctor + 2 hearts = ∞Rose’ equation.”

There’s no “x,” “y,” or “z” devotion variable obscured by scientific notation, you see. There’s no pining diameter too complex to measure in kilometers. There’s no vertex of indifference because his feelings for this one remarkable human slope and parabola outside of him in flares so prominent, they nearly blind.

…And isn’t that fantastically ironic?

After all, hadn’t he sworn to lock them up, these smiles? Hadn’t he promised himself to stifle them behind encephalon-shields where they could blaze privately? Perfectly undetected?

Yes.

Yes, he bloody had.

(Unfortunately, he exposes himself in the .00254 seconds it takes to blink, his resolve disintegrating into asteroid dust because a million photon particles shoot from his face whenever she's around…twinkling, twinkling.)

“This pink and yellow girl has fashioned me into a star again,” he mutters quietly, unable to keep himself from laughing at the blatant and unmistakable reality of it all, marveling at how she bends around darkness to pull his faded light from the inside back out. “She’s transformed the universe in which I live and exist by looking inside of me. Tinkered things about in there, she has. She’s…why, she’s gone and rekindled me!”

He cannot stop beaming now, can he?

(Nah. Nope. Never. Not with his brilliant Rose Tyler around!)

It only takes a moment before a new glow settles comfortably and cheerfully against his mouth, blossoming into something beautiful that yearns to be admitted to her with a kiss. (But isn’t.)

“And, ah, what a wondrous thing, this facial shining!” the Doctor muses as brain cells buzz rosily with endorphins and adrenaline. “What an incredibly lovely human anomaly!”

Something about her pulls radiance out of him, he believes. Slips it across his lips. Fills him full of life-music so delightful, and so pleasant, he reaches for her hand and interlocks their fingers with a claiming squeeze. Damn-well determined to twirl her across the universe for as long as their starlit song-of-forever lasts.

He doesn’t speak of it, however. He never addresses, out loud, the delightful smile-energy Rose draws out of him.

Impossible, he maintains, quite an impossible thing to do.

That being said, the Doctor cannot…he cannot resist showing her with simple somethings how far into him her influence spreads, or how fast it multiplies throughout him and into the armless arms of infinity.

The right words, the ones battling fear on his tongue, refusing to come out when he opens his mouth to speak, become tangled in his embrace. They curl into the trembling hands he wraps around her waist after they defeat another alien threat because he’s so relieved they’re safe, so grateful she’s still with him in body, heart, and mind. But how he manages to pull back from her—to let go, he’ll never know.

They also tuck into the sigh he leaves in her hair when she pilots a portion of the TARDIS from between his two straddled feet. The controls clang and creak as the ship veers left toward Planet Sigma H, clamping them together like two uncoordinated tango dancers until they’re all left feet, tangled limbs, and he’s laughing, “D’yknow what? I quite like these Doctor-Rose kinetics!” he says. “I should let you drive more often, eh? Allons-y!”

They press into the lips that ghost across her forehead in stolen moments just before sunrise as well. In the seconds before a yawn stretches open to clear the loving-dream-that-wasn’t-a-dream from her mind. The right words slide down a string extending from him to her, unfurling like a poetic confession scribbled in telepathic meaning:

You are the warmest and the loveliest, Rose Tyler. You are the bubbliest of never-ending golds. You drunken both of my hearts then fizzle clear through to the spine of my soul, leaving me so wibbly-wobbly, I float toward you with the universe trailing like a hovercraft beneath my trainers.

I want to show it all to you, you see. The world within worlds. And that’s why I whisper, “Come away—come and fly through Time with me.”

Then, to my delight and surprise, you take my hand. Make a promise.

“I’ll go,” you say, “I’ll go and never leave. ‘N if I asked to stay forever, d’you think you’d want to keep me?”

Keep you? Why, I’m already sonic’d through with your name!

“For as long as I can,” I say with a nod, then avert my gaze.

“Oh? And how long is that?”

I shrug. Adjust my spectacles. “According to the Cloudonions,” I answer, looking up up up to count the galaxies still awaiting us, “‘the edges of ‘always’ never fray…’ ”

Please say you know you are the beginning and ending of everything I am?

I burn anew in the sky you re-drew for me: Saved and remade. Bruised but no longer askew. I’m braver now because the style of the cosmos has changed, and ‘forever’ is a feeling that neither a lapse of time nor an increase of space between us can destroy.

Whole and round and colorfully loud, I am a star again—but a star glowing because of one.

You.

Fondness gleams from him like diamonds studded to the daylight when he thinks of his beloved gal; when he looks into her curious, honeyed face; when he reaches out, desperate for the flower-petal touch he doesn’t deserve to feel wrapping around him in hug; when he catches the pop music hum of her stimulated pulse…and it will never burn back to black. The only thing this glimmering sensation can do within him is expand.

(And surely Rose senses this, yes? Surely she sees the intoxicating everything she pours inside of him?)

“Oh, she knows,” he assures himself silently. Pulling her closer, the Doctor tucks her hand over his chest where it clicks into his like a planet that’s found its way home, “She knows I twinkle with life again because of her—that she’s my Big Bang. Surely she knows how much I…”

“Oi, since when are three words enough to clarify emotional immensity, anyway, hmm?”

“Don’t be daft,” Rose breaks in, patting his cheek softly, “they’re not.” Groggy, she rubs at her hooded eyes before nestling more comfortably against his shirt. “ ‘S usually easier to say I love you ’s all. Much less yammerin’ that way, I’d wager.”

“Wha—but I—and you—” the Doctor’s voice cracks; probabilities multiply so fast they rattle his eardrums “—you’re…you’re awake!?”

“Mmm. Have been.”

“For how long?” he blurts.

“A bit.”

“Welllll.” He runs a jittery hand through his hair and clucks, “My Time Lord senses didn’t detect—but ah! Perhaps I need to re-attune some neuron synapses or adjust a few electrostatic brain waves in my microtubules—so let me recalculate for R.E.M cycle here and—”

“Twinkle on, then,” Rose says yawning, “twinkle on.”

“Hmm? What?” She could not have possibly—his mind knots. His two hearts jump. Leap. Fluttering against muscle and bone, they threaten to sprout wings and fly out through his ribcage. “Come again?” he flusters.

“Nothin’.” She bites her bottom lip to repress a smile. “Never mind,” she says.

“Does that mean you were—did you happen to hear—”

She shrugs.

“Y’know, a simple yes or no would suffice here. Deducting at its basic form and all that. ”

“Mmm. ’S too bad I’m so tired,” she trills as she presses a kiss beneath his earlobe and settles back against him with a hum, seemingly more than content to fall back to sleep while cocooned in his arms. “G’night Doctor.”

“But, but Rose…”

(Blimey, how much of that uncensored drivel did he think aloud just now!? And better yet, how come she didn’t seem to mind at all!?)

Thanks for reading!

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#ficandchips #tenrose #ten x rose #doctor x rose #doctor who fanfiction #twinkle twinkle time lord star #otp: fly to the stars with me #otp: always better when we're together #ashlee bree's writing endeavors

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quicksilversquared · 7 years

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Hiccup Havoc

When Adrien gets the hiccups and an akuma hits, Chat Noir has to fight while still hiccuping the whole way, throwing off their sneak attacks on the akuma. Add in one frustrated Ladybug who is set on curing Chat Noir's hiccups no matter what it takes, and they're bound to have an interesting fight.

(AO3) (FF.net)

Adrien hiccuped, winced, and then cringed as the eyes of nearly everyone in the classroom turned on him. Marinette found herself wincing sympathetically as Adrien rubbed his chest. He had just started hiccuping a few minutes before and clearly was uncomfortable with both the feeling that the hiccups were causing and the looks he was getting whenever people heard him.

"Dude, you all right?" Nino hissed as Adrien tried to muffle another hiccup and failed. "Do I need to, like, try to scare you or something?"

"I'm fin-HIC!-fine," Adrien insisted. He cringed again.

"No talking during class," Madam Mendeleiev said without turning around. "Any more talking and I'll start handing out detentions."

Nino ducked his head down to focus on his assignment and Adrien muffled another hiccup. Marinette gave Adrien a comforting look- well, she gave the back of his head a comforting look, Adrien didn't actually even see it- and then went back to her own work. She could see his shoulders occasionally give a little jerk as he smothered hiccups, one after another, for the rest of the class. Only a couple more hiccups actually slipped out at full volume, attracting glances from classmates and glares from Madam Mendeleiev. He ducked his head lower every time, cringing until class ended and they could leave.

Adrien had hiccuped his way almost all the way to their next class- study hall- when Alya gasped, bringing their group to a halt.

"What now?" Nino asked as Alya swiped frantically at her phone. "Oh, let me guess- an akuma?"

"Of course! And Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to be there soon- ugh! And I can't go, the teachers would never let me go out to cover it." She perked up. "Maybe the fight will end up coming near the school!"

"You know, that's generally- HIC!- not a good thing," Adrien added. He cringed a little and rubbed his throat before continuing. "Maybe you should wish for a quick end to the fight so that you aren't missing much."

"That's no fun!" Alya protested, even as Nino tugged her forward down the hall towards their next class. "I don't get any original footage then, and then I have to rely on TV recordings to do my reports and that doesn't do the Ladyblog any good."

"Skipping class doesn't do your grades any good," Nino pointed out. They approached the classroom and Nino gently pushed Alya inside, ignoring her pouting.

"I think I'm gonna run to the bathroom before class starts," Marinette said quickly before she could enter the room. She took a quick step back, then another. "I'll, uh, be right back!"

Before anyone could say anything, Marinette turned and dashed away down the stairs towards the bathrooms. She had to get away and transform before the akuma could cause too much trouble.

Ladybug jumped over the Paris rooftops, heading for the highest point close to her so she could try to figure out where the akuma was. She didn't see anything, so she grabbed her yo-yo and pulled up the TV report that was streaming. Madam Chamack was reporting, of course, and she was standing in the shadow of a building near the Louvre. A colorful akuma was rampaging around in the background, darting in and out of the camera frame. Ladybug didn't wait to listen to whatever Madam Chamack was saying, since she knew from experience that the reporter's information usually wasn't terribly helpful to anyone not trying to avoid whatever strange akuma Hawkmoth had created most recently.

It would be easier to just go over there and watch the akuma for a minute before charging in and taking him down.

Snapping her yo-yo shut, Ladybug took off again. She moved quickly over the rooftops, swinging between buildings and jumping over roads as she made a beeline to the Louvre. After months of akuma fighting, she moved way faster (and way quieter) than she had when she first became Ladybug. It took barely any time to get to the Louvre and land out of sight on a nearby building. Ladybug crept closer to the edge, eyes narrowing as she watched the akuma down below. As far as akumas went, this one didn't seem particularly bad. It was just spray painting anything and everything it could reach. Still, appearances could be deceiving. She and Chat Noir would go all-out, just like they always did, and if the akuma was as easy as it seemed then maybe she could get to class before she was missed too much.

It was always nice when she could pull that off.

As the akuma moved down the street, Ladybug prowled along behind. She was focused on the akuma, watching his every move-

"HIC!"

Ladybug shot nearly a meter into the air as she jumped and spun around, sliding into battle position. Her eyes scanned the rooftop, searching for a threat...

...and found a sheepish Chat Noir instead.

"Sorry," Chat Noir said quietly as he crept down the roof to join her. "I can't seem to- HIC!- get rid of my hiccups today. Normally they don't last this long."

"Ah, poor kitty," Ladybug teased as Chat Noir jumped down the last half-meter and together they jogged forward after the akuma. "The hiccups must be going around today. There was someone in my class who was having the same problem earlier."

"Great! I'm not alone in my- HIC!- misery then," Chat Noir managed to joke. He winced. "It's honestly starting to hurt a bit, I've been- HIC!- hiccuping for so long."

"Well, maybe the akuma will scare the hiccups out of you," Ladybug said, pointing to the supervillain down below. Clearly he had heard Chat Noir, because he was looking up at them now with a particularly devilish look on his face. "It looks like he's just painting things, but be careful. The paint might do something to us if we get hit."

"I'm always careful," Chat Noir claimed with a grin on his face. He pulled his baton off of his back and gave it a twirl. "Ready to kick some akuma ass?"

Thankfully, the paint doesn't hurt them at all when they get hit. Still, that doesn't make it harmless. Pressurized paint plus a superhero transformation equals a spraypaint blast that can both dye them bright colors and knock them nearly two blocks away. Charging at the akuma only led to them being blown off of their feet and stumbling back covered in a fresh layer of paint.

And to top it all off, Chat Noir hadn't stopped hiccuping yet. It was throwing them off of their game. He would flinch or pause whenever he hiccuped, or he would give away his position with a particularly loud hiccup. It had happened a few too many times, and Ladybug was getting fed up.

The hiccups had to stop.

There weren't any 100 percent effective ways to stop hiccups, Ladybug knew that. But she knew of some things that sometimes worked. She could insist that she and Chat Noir slip into a restaurant to grab a glass of water for him to sip from, but the akuma probably wouldn't let them slip away. Her father had once said something about sipping hot sauce or honey, but the same problem applied there. A quick search on her yo-yo between attacks suggested sucking on a lemon or eating peanut butter.

Seriously, didn't they have any suggestions that would work on the go, or in the middle of an akuma attack? And why did the suggestions all involve food of some sort?

The fight tumbled across the city, gradually edging in the general direction of Collège Françoise Dupont. Ladybug ground her teeth as Chat Noir hiccuped again, giving away their position for what seemed like the zillionth time. She ducked away in time to avoid the electric blue burst of paint, but Chat Noir was not so lucky. He tumbled away down the street, letting out muffled yelps the whole way.

"This. Is. Ridiculous," Ladybug growled. She snapped her yo-yo open again, scanning the page of hiccup cures. One person suggested scaring the unfortunate hiccup-er, and another person mentioned that holding their breath for a bit helped rid them of hiccups. Both of them wouldn't be easy to do during an akuma attack, but Ladybug was getting desperate.

So when Chat Noir went tearing after the akuma, Ladybug swung around to the side, just out of Chat Noir's field of view. Landing in the middle of the next street over, she raced up the street. Chat Noir's green pawprint locator blinked away on her yo-yo's screen as she ran, intent on gaining enough ground to pull this off right. After a few seconds, Chat Noir slowed for a moment- either he was wondering where she was or was dodging a spray of paint from the akuma- and then he sped up again. It wasn't much of a pause, but it was enough.

Ladybug took a hard right and somersaulted into position.

"I'll paint the entire city!" the akuma bellowed, coating an entire building in electric green and spraying a more focused shot behind him towards Chat Noir before racing onwards. "They can't remove it all!"

"You can't paint walls without permission!" Chat Noir yelled back. "That's called- HIC!- graffiti!"

The akuma howled. "It's art!"

Ladybug watched as Chat Noir shot back a fast retort, drawing ever closer to her hiding spot. His focus was completely on the akuma, so he was sure to be surprised when she shot out. Her sneak attack might add some time to their fight, but then again, if she could get Chat Noir to stop hiccuping...

Ladybug pounced.

Chat Noir yelped as he and Ladybug tumbled across the road. He gave an almighty twist, dislodging Ladybug easily, and flipped to his feet in the same move. His baton whistled as he spun it defensively in front of himself with a yell. Bright green eyes darted back and forth looking for an enemy. They finally settled on Ladybug, sitting stunned in the street.

The baton spun to a confused stop.

"...what on earth," Chat Noir managed, finally putting his baton away. "...what were you trying- HIC!- trying to do, my lady?"

"I was trying to scare the hiccups out of you," Ladybug admitted, accepting Chat Noir's hand. He pulled her to her feet in one smooth move. "Apparently it didn't work."

Chat Noir hiccuped again, then gave her a rueful smile. "Yeah, apparently not. Maybe it's because I was already in fight mode. Like, even if-HIC!- I could see the akuma up ahead, I was kind of expecting side attacks." He paused and frowned. "That's not quite right. It's more like- it's a fight, right? We never know quite what to expect. It's different each time. During some fights, we do have zombies attacking from the sides. We have sneaky akuma that come out from wherever. As sad as it is- HIC!- I'm kind of used to it."

Ladybug sighed.

By the time they caught up to the akuma again, he was spray-painting Collège Françoise Dupont with a slightly fuzzy, out-of-focus version of Starry Night. The school definitely wasn't the best painting surface- the- bricks around the windows stuck out a little, and then the windows themselves weren't holding the paint quite as well as the rest of the building- but it was still a somewhat decent painting.

"What- HIC!- what do we do now?" Chat Noir asked. "Keep trying to char- HIC!- charge him, or do you want to try something else?"

"Try something else," Ladybug decided. "Let's figure out where he'll move next, and then we'll do an ambush attack. If we catch him by surprise, maybe we can get his spray can before he recovers."

"He's moving towards the bakery," Chat Noir pointed out. "Let's go over there. If we run, we can probably- HIC! -probably get around and into an ambush spot without him noticing."

Ladybug gave a sharp nod. "All right. Let's go."

They ran.

"Behind that grey car," Chat Noir panted as they skidded around the last corner. "And then we can move- HIC!- move forward to end up behind the blue car. That should be close enough for an ambush."

"Sound good," Ladybug panted back, and they dove as one behind the grey car. They both tucked into somersaults and rolled past two more cars to come to a stop behind the blue car Chat Noir had pointed out. There they crouched and waited.

"He's coming this way," Ladybug hissed after a minute. "Ready?"

Chat Noir nodded and tightened his grip on his baton.

The spraypainting akuma had decided on painting something modern and abstract on the side of the school building. Neon green sprayed out in a geometric pattern, outlined in black. Over the next minute, he worked his way down the building towards the superheroes' hiding place. They tensed, waiting nervously for the akuma to draw close enough to pounce.

As they waited, Ladybug kept one eye on the akuma and one on her partner. One hiccup could give away their position. So far, he had managed to keep quiet, but-

Oh no.

As the akuma got closer, still hovering just outside of striking distance, Ladybug could see the obvious signs that Chat Noir was going to hiccup again. So without a pause for thought, she lunged. One hand clapped over his mouth, sealing his lips together, while the other pinched his nose shut. Her yo-yo had said something about stopping hiccups by interrupting normal breathing patterns, so if Chat Noir just didn't breathe for a few seconds, maybe-

Rather predictably, Chat Noir let out a startled squeak- muffled, of course- and twisted away, scrabbling at her hands the whole time. Ladybug held on for a second and could have kept her hold longer, had Chat Noir's protest not alerted the akuma to their sneak attack. He spun around and sprayed fuchsia paint at them, and Ladybug had to let go of Chat Noir's face so they could both dive out of the way of the blast.

"What- HIC!- was that for?" Chat Noir hissed as they scampered out of the way of the cars flying through the air. "Are you trying to smother me now? I thought we were partners!"

"The internet said that holding your breath can stop hiccups!" Ladybug yelled back as they retreated to the school rooftop. Down below, students scattered as they tried to find somewhere to hide. "And it looked like you were about to hiccup again!"

"A warning would have been nice!"

"I would have, but Mr. Spraypaint over there would have heard!"

A burst of midnight blue blasted past them, spattering flecks across Ladybug's already paint-covered suit. She sighed and brushed at the paint almost automatically, smearing it across the lemon-yellow color that had hit her earlier.

"If you stand in that spray, your hair might look normal again!" Chat Noir teased as he bounded across the rooftop. He grinned at Ladybug. "Or, well- HIC!- closer to normal than it is now."

Ladybug grumbled as she swung across the courtyard and landed on the other side. Her hair, stiff with paint and still mostly bright pink, stuck up at all sorts of odd angles. Chat Noir's hair was no better. Green, purple, and orange paint made his already messy hair even messier. Some chunks stuck straight up, while other pieces clung to his face and mask. Splatters of turquoise broke up the orange paint that covered his face. His formerly black suit was a patchwork of colors.

"I thought this one would be a fast fight for sure," Ladybug moaned as the spraypainter jumped down and started coating the inside of the school in electric blue. She and Chat Noir dashed into the locker room to get a little space and regroup.

"I'm sorry, I know this would be already over if I didn't- HIC!- have the hiccups," Chat Noir apologized. He cringed. "Maybe I should hang back and only come in if you're having trouble. I wouldn't give- HIC!- away our position that way."

Ladybug was only listening with one ear. She had been busy surveying the locker room for anything she might be able to use to take the akuma down. There were a few abandoned lunches sitting around- had they really been fighting that long?- and her eyes had caught on an abandoned bottle of hot sauce.

If scaring Chat Noir and making him hold his breath didn't get rid of the hiccups, then it was probably a long shot to think that drinking hot sauce might. But Ladybug wanted to end the fight already- and if she were being perfectly honest, the hiccups were really starting to get on her nerves.

Ladybug snagged the hot sauce and trotted after Chat Noir. Her partner realized that she wasn't after him after a few seconds and turned with a puzzled look on his face. His eyes fell on the hot sauce bottle as Ladybug tugged the top off. Chat Noir's eyes widened and then narrowed as he backed away. "No. Nuh-uh. Nope. Not toda- HIC!- not today. Do I even want to know what you're doing with that?"

"My dad says it stops hiccups," Ladybug insisted, bringing the bottle up near Chat Noir's face. "C'mon, you can at least try it-"

Chat Noir made a face and pressed his lips together, leaning away from Ladybug and shaking his head.

"Oh, come on."

He shook his head even more.

"Just a sip?"

"Mm-mmm!" Chat Noir insisted, keeping his mouth shut and shaking his head. Ladybug guessed from the head-shaking that he was still objecting. "Mmm-mmmm-mmmm-mmmm-HIC!"

"It might get rid of your hiccups!"

Chat Noir sent her the darkest look she had ever seen on him and shook his head firmly.

Ladybug groaned, finally capping the bottle and setting it back down. "Fine. You win. How about I ambush, you distract?"

"Sounds good," Chat Noir agreed. He grimaced and ran a hand through his paint-covered hair. "I'll be a walking paint blob by the end of- HIC!- this, but it sounds like a plan."

Ten minutes and one Lucky Charm later, the akuma and his can of spray paint had been taken down. Ladybug's Miraculous Cure had washed over the city, removing paint from buildings and people alike.

"I'll get this guy back where he's supposed to be," Chat Noir volunteered as Ladybug's earrings beeped. "It'll only take me a- HIC!- a couple minutes and I didn't use my powers."

"Thank you, Chat Noir," Ladybug said, holding out her fist for him to bump. "And, uh, good job."

Chat Noir cringed, bumped her fist with his, and took off with another loud hiccup, carrying the spraypainting artist back to where he had come from. Ladybug waited until her partner had vanished over the rooftops before she made her own exit.

"That took way too long," Marinette groaned once she detransformed, hidden behind bushes near the school. "I missed all of study hall again."

"Maybe you should have switched up your strategy earlier," Tikki suggested, reaching for the cookie Marinette handed her. "I mean, you did keep trying the same thing over and over for a while."

"Because we would get so close and then Chat Noir would hiccup! It would have worked if he hadn't caught the hiccups today."

"Marinette..."

Marinette's shoulders slumped. "...okay, maybe I got a little too focused on the surprise attack and trying to get rid of Chat Noir's hiccups. I'll be better in the future about not trying the same strategy over and over if it's not working."

Tikki looked satisfied.

Marinette jogged up the stairs to the school as she checked the time on her phone. It was still early enough that she could probably run home for a quick sandwich for lunch and still get back in time for her first class after lunch-

"Marinette! There you are!"

Marinette glanced up in time to see Alya and Nino rushing at her. They skidded to a stop right before they ran into her. "We were worried that you had gone missing too!"

"Too?" Marinette asked, frowning. That didn't sound good. "...are there other people missing?"

Alya nodded. "We can't find Adrien anywhere, and we've been searching ever since study hall got out." She sent a look at Marinette. "Study hall, which a certain someone else also missed. I was kind of hoping that we would find the two of you, y'know, together."

Marinette blushed fiercely at Alya's eyebrow wiggle.

"Maybe we should split up and keep looking," Nino suggested. "We can cover more ground that way. I've texted him, like, seven times, so if he's already gone home he'll know that we're looking for him."

"It should be easier to look now that a lot of people have headed home for lunch," Alya said. She glanced around at the stream of students trotting down the steps. "No one wanted to leave while the spraypainter akuma was on the loose."

"I'll stay here and keep an eye out for Adrien," Nino said. He nodded towards the familiar silver car that had just pulled up. "That's the Gorilla, so clearly Adrien isn't at home yet. I bet he heard the akuma getting closer while he was still in the bathroom and he decided to hide until it was gone. Maybe his father told him to get away from attacks and hide or something. I almost never see him anywhere near them."

"That makes sense," Alya said. Then she frowned. "Uh, how about I watch Adrien's car and you keep looking? I can't check the boys' bathroom, and neither can Marinette."

Nino agreed, and then they were splitting up to search for their still-missing friend. Marinette trotted up the stairs to the library, figuring that that would be a good place to start. There were some study rooms in the back that people sometimes used for group projects or for hiding from akuma. They would be empty during classes, which would make them a good hiding spot.

"Adrien?" Marinette called quietly as she entered the library. It was pretty empty, which was only expected at this time this early in the semester. "Adrien, are you in here?"

"Check all of the tables first," Tikki suggested. "He might have just decided to study or read instead of going home for lunch."

Marinette was fairly certain that Adrien would have had the decency to let his driver know that he wouldn't need the car, but she checked the tables anyway. Adrien wasn't there (and neither was anyone else), so she headed back to the study rooms.

"Adrien? Are you in here? Adrien?" Marinette peered in the first two rooms, one at a time, and found them both empty. She turned to head towards the third one and tripped right as she got to the door. "Adrie- eep!" Marinette stumbled forward. A strange light flickered from the open door she was next to, but she ignored it as she fought to regain her balance, grabbing the doorframe to keep herself upright. It only took her a short second to regain her balance (after all, she had a lot of experience with tripping and recovering), and then she was straightening back up and glancing in the room. Much to her relief, Adrien was in the room and was spinning around in response to her call.

And much to her surprise, he was white as a sheet.

Chat Noir had dropped the painter back off near the Louvre and then hightailed it back towards the school, hiccuping the whole way. He headed for the library, knowing that there would be empty study rooms that he could use to detransform. It took only a second to pry a window open on one of the empty rooms, and then he jumped inside. The door was open, but there wasn't going to be anyone nearby. It wouldn't be a problem.

"Plagg, cl- HIC!- claws in," Chat Noir managed around another hiccup. His transformation came undone in a flash, and then he heard the one noise he had never wanted to hear.

"Adrie- eep!"

Adrien froze and spun around to see Marinette standing at the door, looking a little startled. All of the blood drained from his face in seconds and his breath caught in his throat.

She must have seen him detransform. She knew that he was Chat Noir. There was no other explanation.

Crud. Plagg would be annoyed with him for not making sure no one was nearby before he detransformed. Ladybug would probably be even more upset with him, since if his identity was compromised, she was in danger as well. The room started to spin.

"I- I can explain!" Adrien stammered quickly, even as his brain flailed for anything he could say that might be remotely useful. He wasn't coming up with much. "I, uh-"

Marinette frowned, looking confused even as he floundered. "Explain? Explain what? You don't have to explain anything, you know. People hide from akuma attacks all the time! No one's gonna judge you for that."

Adrien froze as his brain ground to a stop. Hide from akuma attacks? What? He was Chat Noir, of course he wasn't hiding, Marinette would know tha-

Oh. Oh.

She hadn't seen him detransform after all. She must have been looking for him since he had been missing for study hall and the start of lunch, and then she must have tripped somehow right outside the door. She had been reacting to that, not to him detransforming.

"Right, right, of course," Adrien managed after a too-long pause. Marinette's confused look had faded away to concern, and of course he didn't want to worry his friend. Adrien took a couple small steps back so he could lean against the table. He didn't exactly want his shaking legs to give out from under him and make Marinette worry even more. "I just, uh-"

"Oh! If you're worried about making your driver wait, he just pulled up out front. I'm sure he'll understand why you weren't waiting at the door," Marinette said before Adrien could even try to come up with an explanation that was halfway decent. She waved her phone at him. "Here, I'll text Alya and she can tell your driver that you're on your way down- unless you were planning on staying here and studying over lunch?"

"No, no, I'm coming," Adrien said hastily. He didn't move at all. If Marinette turned around and started walking first, then she wouldn't see how his adrenaline-weakened legs were still shaking under him. He'd be lucky if he could make it down the stairs without tripping over his own feet and falling down headfirst. Maybe he should wait a few minutes first before trying to move. "...actually, there was a book I wanted to find while I was in the library. I'll be down in a couple minutes, okay?"

"Okay!" Marinette said cheerfully. She gave him one last curious look and then turned and left. Adrien waited until her footsteps had faded away before he let out the breath he hadn't even known he had been holding and slumped into the chair closest to him. Plagg zipped out and eyed his Chosen warily.

"Are you okay?"

"Ugh."

"At least she didn't find out your identity," Plagg pointed out. "That's good. I really thought she saw you detransforming."

"Yeah, that's good," Adrien managed. His heart was still racing a million miles an hour, but at least the world wasn't spinning anymore. He paused, trying to focus for a minute before he grinned. "And you know what else is good?"

"What?"

"My hiccups are finally gone!"

#Miraculous Ladybug #my writing #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrien Agreste #holy hell this is late #but I was sort of busy today soooo......#probably will not be posting writing again for a while since I won't have much internet while I'm in Canada #I will hopefully be able to get some writing done so I should have stuff to post once I get back

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