#soulmate survey

[gale-gentlepenguin]

#miraculous ladybug #soulmate survey #ml #ml fic #I’ve been thinking of writing again #but only if people are interested

[fluffypotatoes]

one thing im kinda curious about:

who was the person/people you initially wanted to join double life before it started? who would have been the funniest person for them to be bonded with? how much do you think they'll play into the whole soulmate theme?

#double life smp #dl smp #trafficblr #mcyt #i remember a bunch of people wanting doc to join #and gem i think? #i personally thought cub would be interesting #would they just get married with their soulmate or would they just be bros #i want someone to actually run a survey now dang #my rambles

[selfshipstorm]

Soulmate AU

John Seed had always seen the soulmate system as a farce. Why would there be someone special meant for someone else, destined to be their perfect other half? He especially grew to despise the words printed on his arm he grew and they became one more thing the couple who'd adopted him used against him. After all, who's first words to their soulmate would be go to hell?

Minerva Black got her soulmate mark when she was thirteen. Four words across her ribcage, just under her left breast. This one's not clean. Her mother just laughed. Well of course that's what it'd say. Elizabeth Black just grinned at her daughter. My little woodsman, you're not at home unless you're covered head to toe in mud. 

Minerva didn't even recognize her mark when it was said, but in her defense, her soulmate didn't realize when she spat his right back. 

It was only after her clothes had dried from her dip in the Henbane, after getting kidnapped and near drowned had finally caught up to her, after the rage at John Seed's audacity had boiled over and she'd gone on a rampage, that she realized what he'd actually said. 

This one's not clean. He'd muttered, handing off his copy of his brother's backwards bible before his grip tightened around her shoulders.  Go to hell. She'd spat back as indignantly as she could muster while exhausted and half drowned, and the look on his face told her she was in for it.  She took a breath as he pushed her under the surface of the Henbane once more. 

Her soulmate had tried to kill her. After everything she'd spent her life imagining, all the scenarios of meeting her soulmate she'd dreamt up. He had tried to kill her. 

#asdfghjkl #interest survey?? would y'all wanna see the actual fic??? bc I've started writing it. #there's some angst in the beginning bc I Like Angst #🎥 || j.s. #🧨 || s/i : minerva #🎥📺|| when is a monster not a monster #this is essentially my main timeline but what if there was soulmate nonsense too #violence tw #drowning tw #feel like that should be tagged #anyway this is an interest survey to see if this fic dies in my google docs or if it sees the light of tumblr #lmk if y'all are interested!

[sabokunsmalia]

𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, m. list

featuring: levi ackerman x fem!reader plot: she has been a part of levi's squad for more than six years. most likely the most trusted person for the captain, and a best friend. in his mind, she's more but he would not dare himself to show that behind the stoic behavior and the emotionless face, were hidden feelings for a survey corps member. or maybe would he? content warning: nsfw! (mdni!) + fluff + pet names + depression + soulmates & second chance kind of trope, all warnings will be added before each part. hi it's malia: i just started attack on titan, like almost finished the first season and this is a little part that came to my mind while they escaped the titan forest. so. pretty much, enjoy it's going to be multi multi-chapter.

𝐒𝐍𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐓:

"We can't fight them," Erwin shouted towards the Captain, keeping his stern gaze forward while leading the surviving soldiers back to the capital. Levi grunted beside him, clenching his fingers tightly around the leather reins. With a broken left leg, he could still endure a fight but it would not be possible to stand long enough to avoid a longer-lasting conflict.

"They're catching up, we can't lose another group," She argued from Levi's left side, squinting her eyes at the commander and captain. The talented, young woman was the last one standing from the squad that once surrounded Levi. Following the Captain with pride and blindly into any kind of battle. Until their inevitable death at the hands of the Female Titan. "Levi!" She shouted, fingernails digging into the leather material of her reins.

Instead of agreeing with her, the black-haired, stoic man simply glared at her, and shook his head. The only answer she received, was spoken without using words. She snorted, glancing over her shoulder when she witnessed how Mikasa Ackerman jumped off her horse and saved a trapped man. "I'm helping them," She stated, letting herself fall back in line to ensure the safe return of more Survey Corps members.

Levi's attentive glare followed her disappearance, scoffing and cursing to himself. The words lost in the wind, they rode against, forcing his head to stare ahead. There wasn't a chance in the world, he would give the Titans to inflict deadly wounds on the talented woman. For over six years, she followed him into each battle, fought side by side with the Squad Captain. A sweet creature, no one believed in. But Levi did, and in the chaos of war, she became his most entrusted person. A thing close to a best friend, but with further interest, he would never allow his emotionless face to show.

"Levi," Commander Erwin stated, sternly staring ahead. "It's been six years, you better get her under your control." Using the leather reins to force his horse to run faster, Erwin did not look back while a small fight happened just behind their backs. The Squad Captain mirrored the resting face of his superior, knowing that he was certainly right about the reckless behavior. But Levi also knew, how courageous she was in battle, how protective of the subordinates and newbies, and how she wanted to place a protective coat over humanity while destroying titan after titan.

𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: ↷ part one, responsibility for eren yeager.

#attack on titan #attack on titan x reader #attack on titan final season #attack on titan fanart #attack on titan smut #attack on titan imagine #aot x reader #aot imagine #aot smut #levi ackerman #aot fanfiction #aot x female reader #levi aot #aot #levi x reader #levi x you #levi imagine #levi attack on titan #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman x you #levi ackerman x female reader #levi ackerman imagine #levi ackerman smut #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi fanfiction #levi #aot fandom #multi chapter #x female reader #x reader

[beansandsprouts]

Sunshine (Part 2)

Part 1

Summary: Bucky interacts with you here and there and finds himself feeling more connected to you. Driving him to want to see your soulmate mark even more.

Warnings: none

Sorry it took so long! College and work got me dying lmao. Updates will continue to be kinda spaced out. Fingers crossed I can get another one out over the weekend.

Also I am absolutely delighted by how much interest there's been in this! Thank you all sm for reading. Down below with the tags there's a link to a little survey, even if you're already on the tag list please fill it out. It's how I'll be keeping track of the tag list. If you don't fill it out you won't be tagged.

He hadn't been able to sleep that night.

You were right across the hall. Two doors separated you from him. And it drove him crazy knowing that you, his possible soulmate, were so close yet just out of reach.

He had dozed in and out of consciousness through the night, but found himself wide awake when he heard shuffling coming from your room. Super soldier hearing meant he heard you get out of bed and pad to your closet. What were you doing?

He heard your door shut quietly, and you make your way down the hall, and, after a few moments, the ding of the elevator door.

His mind raced, wondering what you could be doing. The next thing he knew he was tugging on a hoodie over his tank top and sweats over his boxers. He padded down the hall to the elevator, the little number above lit up saying the elevator was stopped at the floor right underneath him. The training room.

That made sense. From the way you'd spoken about your time in the military yesterday, you were highly trained and a huge asset, you likely had gotten up this early to train for years. He stood there for a moment, debating on going down as well.

The thought that maybe he'd get to see your soulmate mark was enough to have him going back to his room to get his shoes, water bottle, and towel. He wanted to make sure he looked like he was actually down there to train.

Hey, maybe he'd even get to spar with you, get to see what you were capable of.

The elevator moved only one floor, but it felt like it was taking forever. The doors opened to the small lobby and he pushed open the doors to the training room. You were doing some stretches, warming yourself up, and you looked up when he entered.

"Mornin!"

He mumbled the greeting back, now suddenly extremely nervous and starting to wonder why exactly he thought this would be a good idea.

"Didn't think I'd catch anyone this early." You seemed unbothered, warm smile despite the fact that it was so early you could still see the stars in the dark sky if you looked out the window.

He grunted in response, not being able to find the words to respond. He stood there for a moment, watching you, before walking off to start his own warmup. Which consisted of lifting more weight than you could even dream of getting even an inch over your chest. But it was light work for him.

You continued stretching but subtly watched him. You were a little disappointed he was wearing a hoodie, it did kind of obscure everything. Though you could imagine how good his muscles looked lifting that weight. Your face warmed a bit at the thought and you tried to force yourself to focus on the light burn in your calves as you stretched.

After a bit, you moved to wrap your hands and feet, wanting to practice on one of the dozen punching bags Tony had in there. He'd offhandedly mentioned he had to design a lot of the equipment himself so they could withstand the beating of the two super soldiers living in this place.

You focused on the swaying bag in front of you, vaguely aware of Bucky doing things behind you, but not paying him too much mind. Your mind was on getting out that pent up energy. Working with the Avengers was going to be very different from your previous work, and you knew there'd be a lot less for you to do on the daily. You had a feeling you'd probably be spending a lot of time in here.

You barely registered Bucky saying your name from behind you. When it did you paused your beating on the punching bag and turned to him.

"Whats up?"

"Spar?"

"Huh?"

Bucky gestured to the mat meant for sparring a little ways away. It was a little padding so whoever got dropped on their ass only hurt their pride.

"Oh! Yeah, sure." You grinned, you had to admit the idea was exciting. You were curious to see how you'd fare against one of these two.

The two of you settled into stances on the mat and you gave him a teasing grin, "I'm not gonna go easy on you."

You saw the corner of his mouth twitch with amusement as he raised a brow.

"Oh?"

"I don't have to be as worried about breaking you."

His eyes lit with curiosity, just what exactly were you capable of.

He watched you closely as you circled each other before lunging, swinging his non-metal arm at you. You blocked the hit easily and returned it with a swing of your own, which landed. His head snapped to the side as your fist connected with his jaw.

He took a step back, rubbing where you'd hit him. He hadn't expected you to hit that hard. Hell, Steve was one of the few people who's hits actually made his body ache. You packed some heat he was not expecting.

He squared up again and the two of you traded some blows back and forth before he realized you were barely flinching at the hits he landed. So he decided to turn it up a notch, striking harder than he had before. You reciprocated that.

As the two of you sparred, his eyes narrowed, and Bucky's focus turned to seeing how far he could push you. His blows struck hard, one particular hit to your abdomen forced the air from your lungs, and you stepped back gasping.

He pushed forward, though, and despite the lack of air, you fended him off well. To anyone watching, it would seem like a friendly sparring match had turned malicious. However, both yours and Bucky's eyes were lit with delight at the fact that you'd found an equal opponent.

You finally decided to end the session with a swift attack to knock him to the ground and taking the opportunity to pin him, his arm twisted behind his back.

"I surrender." He chuckled. You released him quickly and offered a hand to help him up, which he took.

"Youre...tougher than I expected."

You tilted your head, "Did Tony not tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He asked.

"I'm also a weird military experiment. Except they aimed more for stealth than brute strength with me, still gave me that enhanced strength though." You explained as you used your towel to dab the sweat from your neck.

"You haven't been particularly stealthy."

You laughed, "Haven't been trying. Tell you what, turn off the light and see if you can find me in the dark."

Bucky's eyes scanned you curiously before walking over and flicking off the lights. When he turned back, he tried to peer through the darkness to find you. He even tried to listen for your breathing and heartbeat, but the room was dead silent.

It was unnerving as he stepped further into the room as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He slowly turned in a circle, hoping to spot you.

He thought he'd spotted you in a corner of the room until he felt a kick to the back of his knees, knocking him down. Suddenly, there was a hand gently resting around his throat and two fingertips pressed against his head in a mock figure of a gun.

"Surprise." You giggled and released him and went over to turn on the lights as Bucky stood up in a daze.

"How?" He demanded.

"My special serum gave me the ability to slow my heart and breath rate to the point where it's imperceptible, even to you. And I can move lightly so you can't even hear me walk. I can see in the dark, and all other senses are enhanced. Plus, the whole strength and pain tolerance thing. Literally, you just stealthy."

Bucky stared at you as you explained. He slowly realized you weren't really an equal. In fact, you were probably "better" than him in a sense. You had the ability to be completely imperceptible, even to him. You'd just proven you could have killed him easily, and he wouldn't have even seen it coming. It half scared him, and half had his heart racing with attraction.

"You ok?" You asked. He'd been staring at you silently for a good few seconds.

"I've just never met someone who could take me down like that."

"We're good though right?" Your expression had changed to one of nervousness.

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"Some men have a tendency to feel threatened or emasculated."

He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him.

"Don't gotta worry about that here."

"Good." You smiled softly at him before it turned into a mischievous grin, "Wanna see who can squat the most weight?"

His mouth quirked up in a half smile as he followed you. The next two hours consisted of you challenging him to see who could handle more. Endurance wise, you did better. However, in terms of raw strength, he did better than you.

Bucky found himself feeling amused, you were so different from him and Steve. They had a tendency to be a bit more reserved. Quieter. But you were bubbly and all over the place, all smiles and energy. It was strange knowing that you'd come from the military.

After a while, the two of you headed upstairs to eat breakfast. By then, most of the others were already awake and were surprised to see Bucky willingly hanging out with you.

It was amusing in a sense. You were like a living ray of sunshine, and Bucky was like a living storm cloud. Polar opposites. However right about now Bucky didn't seem to be as "rainy" as he usually was. The look on his face was more relaxed, and he nodded attentively as you spoke. He was genuinely interested in whatever you were saying.

The second you excused yourself for a shower, the teasing began.

"Seems Bucky has taken an interest in our new teammate." Natasha said slyly.

Bucky shot her a glare and busied himself with a cup of coffee.

"Can you blame him? She's a cute little thing." Sam chuckled.

"I heard she's a great warrior. That makes her even more attractive." Thor said from his seat.

Bucky gritted his teeth and sat down on the couch by Steve with his cup of coffee. He didn't want to tell them exactly why he was so interested. He knew if he did they'd want to get involved and it would just ruin everything.

So for now, he'd deal with the teasing and hope it wouldn't be long until he found out if it was his name marked on your arm.

He stared down into his mug, ignoring the joking going on around him. He barely knew you, and yet he was practically praying that you were his soulmate. That the name he had on his arm was written in your writing. That the name on your arm was his written in his messy chicken scratch.

-------------------------------------------------

Tags: @haybellewrites @phhsnovia @saturnhas82moons @kandis-mom @thealyrs @nicoline1998enilocin @scott-loki-barnes @mrsevans90 @jules-and-gemss @eat-limes-bitches @ordelixx @hnnhbananananana @calwitch @babymama568 @just-a-littlebit-of-everything @ziawbarnes

Please fill this out, or you won't be tagged in the future, even if you've been tagged in this one. There's just too many of you to manually keep track of lol.

Tag list form

#bucky barnes x reader #dean winchester #bucky x reader #bucky barnes

[xxventiswindblumexx]

Here I am. Do not hold back. Write the filthiest Dom! Tighnari in heat smut that you can. Forest chase, aphrodisiacs, primal urge, marking, knotting, choking. Go absolutely ham.

Of course! Sorry it took so long to get this one out! But I hope you enjoy my Smut Soulmate ❤

⚠Warnings:⚠Predator and Prey, Marking, Breeding, Knotting, Choking, Aphrodisiac usage, Hate fuck, Dubcon/Noncon.

You where a forest ranger, you where decent but not near as good as your superior Tighnari and you hated that. He was kind but comes off as cocky a lot especially with you.

You two have been arguing and always fighting anytime he corrected you, couldn't he just let you be? Well luckily you might get just that, the two months he hides away is coming up, it starts in a day and you'll finally have two months of peace.

During his last day the two of you where bickering as usual, you where supposed to survey parts of the forest but you missed some areas and according to Tighnari they where 'the most important area's' and if you hadn’t found the spot by sunrise tomorrow then ‘it wouldn’t make sense to go through it again tomorrow, so you must do it today’. You tried protesting but it only resulted in him huffing and walking back to his hut giving you no room to argue anymore. Great just how you wanted to spend your night, in the dark forest.

You packed what you needed and headed out that night, frustrated and annoyed but vigilant, you couldn't mess up again after all no matter how much you despised him he's still your superior.

Meanwhile at his hut Tighnari was pacing back and fourth biting his knuckles. He knew his rut was starting soon and he was very anxious on it, it always came so suddenly, no matter how much he prepared he was truly never prepared for it.

The thought of losing himself in his rut made him anxious. It was like a parasite in his mind, slowly taking over his thoughts. His brain kept telling him it wasn't going to happen, that he would be strong enough to suppress it, he had control. However it was never enough, so he always stayed in his hut during it, it wasn't too bad until you came around. He hated to admit it but his instincts wanted you, everything about you was perfect, well almost everything. He hated how you retaliated against him, to his animal side it was a sign of dominance and it was very degrading to him that this female he wanted as a mate kept trying to over throw him, he couldn't have that, but he also didn't want to admit he liked you. So he hid it under aggression, even when he was calm.

So tonight before you left to go on patrol he slipped some aphrodisiacs in your water bottles, if he must suffer this lust so should you.

It was late when his rut hit him like a ton of bricks, it wasn't something he could ever ease into, it always hits him at once.

He's on his bed rutting into his pillow, he couldn't get enough, he kept thinking of you, it didn't help the paperwork from your sloppy survey was scented by you. He got annoyed and stood up, he couldn't stop it anymore he needed you. He didn't even bother to put anything on, only wearing boxers. Tonight was the new moon so the area would be pitch black, hiding him well.

Back to you, after drinking almost all your water as you used a flashlight to look around, you noticed yours starting to feel hot, thinking maybe it's just humid you pull off your jacket leaving you in a tank top. But it didn't help, your body was reacting to something but as you looked around none of the flora or mushrooms should have any effects like this. Arousal bubbling in your stomach as you felt a bit dizzy, you continue to walk trying to find your way home as the dizziness made it more difficult.

"You don't look so good, maybe you should let me help" you heard his voice though it didn't seem like him at all. You turn to see Tighnari, well kinda it's hard to see but his green brown eyes shined fairly easily. They're hazed over with lust his voice also spoke of it.

"Tighnari.. i-i don't know what's g-going on its like some flora-"

"I'll give you one minute to run, after that I won't show any mercy to you or your soft body" he spoke as he looked down on you, it was like a predator looking at his pray, drool slightly gathering at the corner of his lips, picking them as he watched.

"But Tighnari-" interrupted again as he started to count down, realizing he was serious you turn and make a run for it, however it was hard to run with your head and body in another place, the dizziness making it hard not to run into something as your legs felt weak, but you continued.

Tighnari followed you but in a walk, he didn't need to run, your arousal was enough of a trail for him to find you easily, that and you weren't that quiet either as you ran. His tail swishing back and fourth eagerly as his ears twitched to every little sound you made.

Though you had more stamina when it came to running then he thought, annoyed it's taking longer he used his Dendro vision to create a root below you, causing you to fall over.

"Too bad you didn't survey the area huh? You would've known of these roots being everywhere" he scoffed, even though he did create this one, it was merely an extension to an already existing root.

You reached out trying to crawl away but was stopped as soon as you felt his body against yours, more roots gathering around your wrists to hold them still as his hands start to pull your clothing off, his claws tearing at them easily. You whine and squirm under him, only causing him to become more aroused if possible "You're not helping your case, then again when do you ever do anything right? " he scolds and degrades as he nuzzled into your neck, licking and biting at spots until he found your sensitive spot, causing you to let out a moan, his tail swaying faster at your response.

His hand traveled upwards slowly to stroke along your skin and he started moving his tongue up against your throat, lapping at your tender flesh. Your breathing grew heavier at the sensation and you tried to fight it but were unable, Tighnari started kissing your jawline and ear lobe and you let your head hang to the side.

He soon grew more impatient as his he wanted to make you his, he couldn't wait as you felt his tip press against your hole

"T-Tighnari wait!" you whined in protest yet he didn't pay any mind slamming himself into you, a low growl leaving his throat as his clawed hands grip your hips, his snapped into yours over and over, causing his claws to leave red streaks behind. With each shove he felt himself getting closer to his goal as his mouth latched on to your neck, teeth grazing the soft skin there as you squirmed under him.

Your hands clawing the dirt and vines holding them, your body felt closer to a release, as much as you tried to hold back you couldn't, his hand holding your throat tightly as he groaned, feeling your walls clamp against his cock, causing him to feel his release coming quickly. As he moaned loudly you couldn't help it, you were about to cum as your whole body tensed up, letting out a scream that you instantly regretted as your back arched as your climax washed over you with force, Tighnari bit your shoulder leaving his mark as you felt his knot swell, shoving it into as far as he could, filling your womb with his seed.

Once you calmed down he laid there panting and moaning,his knot finally going down, his claws digging into your arms which you could now see were covered in red welts. "I'm not finished yet" he said in a dark tone as he slammed himself back in "by the time the sun rises I'll make sure you take, you'll be so full of my pups" His hand grazing your stomach as he picked his speed up once more. Your body spasm as you couldn't stay awake, slowly passing out, feeling that he wasn't slowing down.

#genshin tighnari #tighnari smut

[moonmaiden1996]

Claiming his Queen

Taking a break from the real world and wanted to write a random idea I needed to get out after watching the Sandman. I loved the book but the casting was amazing. I am literally dying with how good it is. REQUESTS OPEM

Soulmate Fic

Summary- You spent your summers at the Burgess Manor with your parents, but stumbling upon captive in the basement is going to change your life forever.

Slightly dark fic- Warnings include imprisonment, possessive thoughts, pain and soul branding. 

You remember playing at the Burgess Manor as a child. The gardens were stunning, a sea of green against the glimpses of colour. You spent many days happily frolicking outside as your parents attended the meeting within the house. Many staff had whispered about the devil trapped in the basement behind the Grand Magus's powerful spells. Some said the Grand Magus himself had discovered the secret to eternal life and hid it behind the door. One staff member even said it was a vampire who would creep upstairs in the dead of night and steal away his victims.

There was a sort of glee at taring around the ancient house, discovering secrets, chasing the ghosts and battling monsters. As you grew older, the monster did not lose their appeal; it was more that you had discovered everything that could be discovered, apart from the mystery of what was in the basement. In the long summer breaks away from school, you spent great lengths observing the guards disappearing and not reappearing till they changed in the early morning. Was it the demon? Buried treasure? Or something more?

The summer humidity clung to your brow as you absentmindedly perused one of the many books in the library. The ruckus from the party had long ago distracted you from reading. Your parents were regular attendees of the Burgess coven meeting; as a child, the cloaks and candles held some romantic notion, but as you grew older, you saw what it was, a chance for bored people to play dress-up and dance around naked.

'You should get to bed.' The soft voice of Paul pulled you from your musings.

'Come on, Uncle Paul, it's early.' You smiled, sliding the book off your lap as you stood.

'Hmmm, well, I won't tell if you won't; there is some chocolate in the study; I think I can trust you not to get caught.' Paul wagged his finger.

With a new sense of glee, you abandoned your attempts to read, slipping into the library unseen, eyeing the bright pink box lined with cherry cordials. Yet it wasn't the chocolates that distracted you; it was the guards. Normally they never emerged outside their shift hours, but the hot night drove them above stairs. Quietly, munching on your chocolate, you watched as the squat men shuffled away.

Biting your lip, you suckled the smears of dark chocolate off your fingers as you hurried along the hallway. Carefully, you pried the door open, willing the squeak away. The staircase of crumbling stone was dimly lit, and the smell of mould and dust loitered in the air, tugging at your nose. Crouching down on the steps, you surveyed the open recess of the room. A frown tugged at the corners of your lips. It was empty save for an out-of-place Ikea desk next to one of the walls. Then something under the white neon lights caught your attention. Moving down the stairs, your eyes adjusted to the almost blinding light. No wonder the guards sort to escape the intense heat given off by the strips of bulbs that hung above you.

Your eyes flickered back to the strange glass ornament in the middle of the floor. For a moment, you thought your eyes were playing tricks. In the centre of the orb sat a naked man, skin almost translucent in the light. Only his ebony black hair seemed to show that he was there. Moving forward, you could not help but let out a horrified gasp. The man was almost painfully thin and painfully naked; you thanked all the gods that he was crossed-legged.

'Hello? Are you ok……' your voice stuck in your throat as the man's head snapped up to meet her gaze, his steely silver eyes piercing through you, drawing you in like a magnet.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Even behind the thick glass of his prison, Morpheus felt a sharp sting pierce his soul. His eyes greedily watched as a shiver ran through her body as the invisible thread between them bound them.

A fire had been lit inside him, and hunger he had never felt before clawed up from within him. His gaze had her transfixed; their connection fizzled, desperate to touch. Morpheus always believed that love always ended in pain. Experience had given him definitive proof; Nada, Goodrich, Eric, and Susana all ended in betrayal or anguish. It was messy. Humans were proof. Their love was not real, a fleeting respite from the loneliness, a belief they clung to. Real love was rare. Soulmates were extraordinary magic that the creator bestowed onto humanity at the beginning. It was the only pure magic left in the world. It was strange magic that none of the endless cared to fathom. Why would they? Soulmates were gifts to humans, not the endless, yet there she was—his soulmate.

His silver eyes watched as she moved hypnotised across the short distance. Even through the thick glass, the hum was violent, deafening, and maddening. Lifting his hand, he placed it over the glass beckoning to her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Your body felt free, impossible light as it surged forward towards the man. You weren't sure he was real; he was pale and perfect like he had been chiselled out of a piece of alabaster marble. A painful jolt passed through your open palm every step, yet it spurred your movement until your hands met, the glass separating them. It was almost too hot to hold your hand in place, but your body refused to flinch.

His eyes burnt into yours, engraving themselves onto the back of your mind. The swirling silver spheres were the last thing you saw before your body crumpled to the ground.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The soft mumble of voices was what broke through your unconsciousness, and for a few seconds, your body felt light and free before the heaviness sunk into your bones. The searing pain surged across your left palm and arm until it finally rested in your heart.

'What happened?' Your voice was weak and raspy.

'You were electrocuted, sweetie; you were told never to go down into the basement.' Your mother whispered. 'The burn… is only small. Not worry.’ Her voice cracked a little as her gaze rested on the tightly bandaged hand.

'I….The glass. There was a man.' Your voice sounded so strange to you, so rough and weak.

'There was no man, sweetie. You touched one of the exposed cables; we are lucky Alex found you.’ T

'But there was a man…I…’ you tried.

‘Shhhhh sweetie, we will be home soon. Rest. ’ Your eyes felt too heavy to fight against the command, but they stayed open just long enough to see the look of guilt past your parent's faces and the worry that set deeply in Alex Burgess’s eyes.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After that, you saw your parents less and less. They never did return to the Burgess Manor, and neither did you. All mention of the man in the sphere was forbidden. You had skin graft after skin graft, but nothing could cover the red mark on your hand. A reminder of the man in the sphere. As if you could ever forget. He scared you, the silent creature. In her mind, he was always watching, never speaking, but his eyes seemed to devour you, drawing you in. You wonder if that is how sharks get their prey. They wait for a careless swimmer, too mesmerised by the eyes to notice the teeth before it is too late. You wonder if he has cursed you. Then you wonder if it is too late to save yourself. But you know, it's too late anyway.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The travel back to the Burgess estate passed quickly. It was almost a relief to see the ominous grey house standing proudly against the green lawns. It was hard to believe ten years had passed already; everything still looked the same, apart from Paul. He stooped a little more now, and his hair, you think, is much greyer than you remember.

'I’m glad to see you again, but you have come at a rather bad time; Alex has had one of his nasty turns.' Paul started.

'I didn't want to see him. I want to see you.’

There was a flash of understanding over his face as he took your arm, leading you away from the house, across the lawn and into the maze that hung off the side of the house, not stopping till only the top of the manor could be seen.

'It's about the man in the basement…’ you began.

'Dear child…’ Paul sighed, interrupting you, but you remained strong in your goal.

'I am not a child anymore. You can't explain it or ignore my questions anymore. I know what I saw…what gave me this.’ You rolled up your sleeve to reveal the angry raised burn that decorated your hand. ‘You can't keep him chained down there anymore.'

'I know…I know… but I can't. Alex… is delicate; you don’t know the power of that thing' he sighed, sitting on the little bench he had walked you to.

'I know exactly. This mark is proof of that. I dream of him; he haunts me. No matter what I do, I still feel that burn through my veins. I cannot get rid of it. …It…it hurts. And I can’t… won't bare it anymore.’ Your bite out the last part as you look down at the man you once tenderly regarded as an Uncle.

He gazed up at you with weary eyes. Only now did you see how old he looked, the worry lines that wreaked his beautifully dark skin.

'You know, in the beginning, I feared him getting out, but now, after all this time, is there anything that he could have done worse than all this?' Paul shook his head as they watched the birds glide across the sky. ‘We should have done more for you, helped you somehow, but Alex was so scared….’

‘What's done  is done; just please help me  now.’

Paul said nothing, but you saw the slight nod of his head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'You know she came by the house today. You remember her, don't you? She has grown into a rather pretty young woman. You can have her; all you need to do is promise.' Alex Burgess was an older man now, made feeble by time and despair.

Often, the man would talk to Morpheus about the future Queen of the Dreaming, forcing pictures of her in front of him like a cruel taunt. Endless questions about the mark, Morpheus’s mark on her skin. Promising to give him her name, not that it mattered, she was HIS Queen, or she would be soon.

The more time passed, the more arrogant his pleas became. The mere fact that he thought he had permission to speak of her insulted Morpheus; the pathetic man thought he could use his future Queen as a bargaining chip. It was an offence the human could ill afford. The King of Dreaming would bide his time and have his revenge on the Burgess before he claimed his future bride and Queen.

 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

News of Alex Burgess's sleeping sickness came not long after you visited the manor, and the world seemed to fall into some sort of madness. Mass murders, strange weather, people who had been asleep for decades suddenly waking up.

You nibbled your bottom lip. Maybe asking Paul to release his captive was a selfish thing to do. People had died, and for what? That feeling clawing up from within you was still there. Your tanned palm was unchanged; the burn remains like a brand of ownership. It seemed you were still damned, and now the world was in utter chaos. With silent tears rolling down your face, you laid back against the mountain of the pillow and willed yourself away to the only place you found peace, your dream.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You still dreamt of the silver-eyed man, but the fever and pain seizing your soul were gone. This dream was one of your favourites. It was comfortable and snug. Where nothing mattered because nothing happened, it was just you and your dream. Till you heard the voice. Dreams were always silent, or at least that was how you remembered them. But the low, velvety voice was clear, invading the silence. So deep and rich, it had to be a dream.

It floated around you till it you. Faceless arms stretched around your waist, pulling you against a hard body. Lips ghosted across the nape of your neck and drifted across the plains of your shoulder, working their way back toward your throat.

'My Queen.' The thick voice growled.

The lips were small but soft, worshipping a spot at the base of your neck. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see the familiar mop of black hair that haunted your dreams. A wanton moan escaped your lips as your eyes fluttered shut, knees weak as their teeth scrapped just in the right place.

'Soon, my love, soon. After I complete my unfinished business, I will come for you.'

You woke with a start, a desperate wetness gathering between your plush thighs, the voice echoing across your mind sending shivers of desire across your body as you remembered the gruff voice. You had dreamed about his lips, face and boy before, but never had he spoken.

Wearily, you ran your hand over your neck, freezing as you stared down in disbelief at the angry purple hickey that stained your skin.

Anyone for a smut-heavy part two?

#Morpheus #morpheus x y/n #morpheus x reader #morpheus x you #the sandman #dream #king of dreams #the endless

[lendeah]

Note: I just wrote this small scene because I feel like the original lacked the anger and emotion of your literal soulmate wanting to IMPLODE HIMSELF??? Anyway, here is my own version of it. Hope you enjoy it :)

Prompt: You convince Gale out of exploding himself to destroy the Elder Brain.

or

Your boyfriend is trying to k word himself for his toxic ex so you have to shake some sense into him.

Pairing: Gale x GN!Reader

Words: 1.3k

Tags: fluff, hurt/comfort, minimal angst.

The warmth of Gale's embrace made you hesitate to move, as if any motion would shatter the moment. But as you stirred, the illusion of the starry sky from last night was quickly replaced by the harsh reality. The looming Moonrise Towers stretched towards the horizon, casting an eerie glow over the dark and cursed sky. You could feel Gale's chest rising and falling beneath your head, your bodies entwined in a tangle of limbs.

"Do you really have to do it?" you whispered, knowing that he had been awake for some time now. The heaviness in your voice betrayed the weight of this question - one that you already knew the answer to.

"It is what Mystra expects of me" he replied, his voice tinged with sorrow. Gale slowly untangled himself from your hold and sat up, his eyes scanning the horizon. You could see the conflict in his expression, but also a sense of duty and determination.

"We can always look for another way," you said, reaching out to touch his arm. He turned to look at you, his eyes meeting yours with a mix of sadness and longing.

"I know," he said softly, "but I have to make up for my wrongdoings. For the time being, I hope the end is much farther away than I had suspected, and that tonight meant as much to you as it did to me"

You wanted to argue, to convince him that you could face whatever lay ahead together, but deep down you knew that it wouldn't matter. At the very end, all you felt was a strong desire to be by his side and stand with him, no matter what choice he made, even at the cost of his and your own life.

"I will stand by your side no matter what," you declared solemnly.

A small smile tugged at Gale's lips before he leaned in "Thank you," he whispered, brushing a soft kiss against your temple. "I love you," he added, voice full of emotion.

You opened your mouth to respond, but no words came out. Instead, you simply nodded and gave him a small smile. You just held to the hope that when the time came, sometime in the far future, he would reconsider.

The time, much to your dismay, came much before you expected. It turned out, the Absolute, which now you knew was an Elder Brain, was lying beneath Moonrise Towers all along.

"Well, shit," Astarion exclaimed as he surveyed the massive organ with its pulsing and writhing tentacles emerging from its base. "I did not see that coming."

"We need to make a plan," Shadowheart said firmly.

Lae'zel stood at the ready, her sword glistening in the dim light as she spoke. "We shall seek out a weakness, or create one ourselves."

Wyll nervously tightened his grip on his weapon. "A weakness? That beast appears impenetrable."

"Ketheric is our priority," Karlach declared, determination hardening her voice. "That fucker is going down for what he did to Nightsong and Isobel."

As the group discussed their options, you couldn't help but glance over at Gale, your heart pounding like a drum in your chest. You had thought you were prepared for this moment, but now, as he stood before you, you realized you couldn't let him do it. The love you held for the wizard had rooted itself so deeply within your heart that the mere thought of losing him, or worse, watching him sacrifice himself, was unbearable. You knew that he was brave and selfless, but you couldn't let him go without a fight.

Gale stood a few meters behind the group, his eyes fixed on the towering brain before them.

"That Crown," he whispered, mostly to himself, "it radiates with power unlike anything I've ever seen." He took a step closer, his gaze never faltering. "To have it...to hold it...if only I could." He shook his head. "But I can't... this is it. I must do as Mystra commands."

You felt your breathing stop.

"Wait!" you scream, reaching for his arm. "Gale, you can't do this. You cannot condemn us all."

You could see the turmoil in Gale's eyes as he looked back at you. His hand hesitated, hovering over his chest before finally falling to his side.

Gale sighed heavily and shook his head. "what choice do I have?" he asked softly, his eyes filled with sadness. "More than just a goddess counts on my courage, the whole worlds hang in the balance."

"But what about our lives?" you argued, tears welling up in your eyes. "I know I promised to support you, but I can't stand and watch as you blow yourself up for an uncertain future. You deserve more than that, and I know there will be another way. And if not, at least we will die trying."

He looks divided, his face contorted in confusion.

"Mystra's mission is paramount," he insists, his voice trembling with determination. "I will not fail her."

You take a step closer and grip his face roughly, forcing him to meet your gaze.

"Don't you see? Mystra has let you down countless times!" you roar, tears streaming down your face. "You owe her nothing. You owe no one anything, much less your own life. You deserve to live." Your body trembles with emotion as you try to break through his blind devotion.

Gale looks at you, his expression softening. "I...I can't abandon my duty," he says, his voice barely above a whisper.

"But you also can't abandon us," you reply, your voice shaky. "We need you, Gale. I need you." You take a shuddering breath, your words pouring out in a rush of raw honesty. "And...I love you."

Gale's eyes widen in surprise at your confession. He opens his mouth to speak, but you press on, not wanting to give him a chance to object. "And if there is a possibility of a shared future next to you, I will fight for it until my very last breath."

Gale's expression softens even more, and he reaches up to cup your cheek with his hand.

"Fine," he says, determination in his eyes. "I trust you. We'll find another way."

You let out a sob of relief and wrapped your arms tightly around him, holding onto him as if he might disappear at any moment. "I should have told you sooner," you whisper, tears still streaming down your face. "But I was so afraid...afraid of losing you."

Gale closed his eyes and held onto you tightly, allowing himself to finally let go of the burden he had been carrying alone for so long. And in that moment, surrounded by chaos and uncertainty, everything feels right.

"I love you too," Gale whispered into your hair. "And I promise to fight for a future where we can be together."

You pull back slightly to look into his eyes, a glimmer of hope shining through the tears. And without another word, Gale leans down and presses his lips against yours in a passionate kiss.

As if on cue, the ground begins to shake violently as the brain continues its descent towards them. But this time, instead of feeling fear and desperation, you feel determination and hope burning within both of you. You have something worth fighting for.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 fanfic prompt #bg3 gale #gale baldurs gate #baldurs gate gale #gale x reader #gale x tav #gale fanfic #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldurs gate fanfiction #fanfic

[spicyicetea]

LILIANAAAAAAA I JUST HAD A THOUGHT. A CREATIVE ONE.

OKAY OKAY

What I thought about was like a spirit y/n, but not forest spirit, but a y/n that can control miasma. Again I’m not sure if it’s called miasma, but the red ganon stuff.

LIKE IMAGINE Y/N HIDING IN THE UNDERGROUND AREA BECAUSE PEOPLE THINK SHE WANTS TO HURT THEM, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT BECAUSE SHE CAN CONTROL MIASMA AND CAN ALSO HEAL FROM IT AND STUFF AND LINK AND ZELDA MEET HER AND ILL LEAVE THE REST UP TO YOU!!!!

Oh how you enable. Hehe enjoy.

Y/N that can control Malice

The night everything went wrong still haunts my dreams. They chased me from my own home with fire and pitchforks. I was a monster in their eyes. In my family’s eyes. My own mother had thrown me to the wolves once she discovered my ability.

Ever since Ganon had began creeping his influence towards Hyrule Castle, the strange malice had become more and more of a problem. After I fell into a strange puddle of the stuff, I realised it didn’t rip and tear my skin like many others claimed. It was like a warm embrace, that seemed to follow my finger tips. It followed me.

With a flick of my wrist the malice had vanished into the air. I could save people with this! I healed my own wounds and got ride of the malice, that no one knew how to. I had excitedly told my family. They would be so proud… or so I thought. Disgust and contempt is all they held towards me since that day.

I now reside beneath the surface, hiding in a deep cavern that I have made my own. Malice guarded the entrance, so no one ever bothered me. I was free from the judgemental prying eyes of those who couldn’t appreciate my gift.

POV shift

The torch held by the young Hylian princess illuminated their path. She had run far ahead of her knight, excitedly surveying the cavern. Due to the malice, the ruins hadn’t been explored, she was the first to see them. Or was she?

As she ran through the cave, the smell of something cooking caught her attention. At first she feared she had set something on fire, but Link’s excited sniffing ushered them forwards.

A cabin? In a cavern like this?

Link pushed the door open, sword drawn. They inches inside before the door was slammed closed by malice and held shut.

“You know, it’s rude to intrude.”

The two jumped as Y/N looked up at them through her eyelashes. She stood and clicked her fingers, the malice vanishing. Zelda watched in shock before jumping forwards.

“You can control the malice?”

“Yes, so what?

“YOU MUST COME WITH US! You can help us clean Hyrule Castle safely.”

“No thank you-“

“HYA-“

Link just threw Y/N over his shoulder and followed Zelda out of the small Hylian’s home.

How annoying.

I was tempted to do a version with Ganondorf where this would have been a symbol of Y/N being his soulmate but idk wether you’d like that lol.

#legend of zelda fanfiction #legend of zelda botw #legend of zelda breath of the wild #legend of zelda tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda x reader #link x reader #x reader #yandere x reader #ganondorf #ganondorf x reader

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Finale

Here it is.

6-months Later

(I am really sorry about the delay)

There were some hiccups, technical difficulties and other things that delayed this part more than I anticipated.

Shout out to @asongeverlasting for beta reading for having such incredible patience with me. And Give her props, she managed to defy time and space just to beta and fix my work. She is a National treasure.

Check her writing out on AO3 as Ramblingwren

(Master post)

(And here is the full fic on Ao3)

If you do like the story, Comments and Reblogs are greatly appreciated.

But before all that.

Thank you.

This story has been going on for over 2 years now and yet so many of you have been sticking by and reading it. Seeing all of the comments, fan art, and tags has really made making this Fic worth it. Its also the reason that I want to make sure this ending pays off and delivers the joy to all of you that your support and kindness has given me. So be aware that the next update will be the big finale.

Alright enough Camembert,

Enjoy the dish in front of you.

_____________________________________________________________________

Fu heard the sound of walls crumbling and stopped for a moment to focus on where the sound was coming from.

“That must be where the akuma is.”

“That is a relief. I was starting to get lost in this place,” Wayzz confessed. “This building is even more confusing than the studio I was in the other day.”

“Right, you were with the one Marinette had chosen for you. I will admit I don’t know that much about him. Nino was his name, yes?” Fu inquired as they walked.

“He is a good boy, He is very good at going with the flow, and he has a good heart that wants to protect his friends,” Wayzz assured. “Marinette has picked a fine chosen for the role.”

Fu smiled.

“That is good to know, especially that you approve of him. It does make it easier,” Fu said, his words beginning to sound more distant despite being so close.

Wayzz felt his concern for the elderly guardian grow.

“Master, your tone is a bit… foreboding. You speak as if you don’t have long left,” Wayzz remarked.

Fu knew that the turtle kwami was concerned for his well-being. The two of them had been friends for over a century. Wayzz was, in a way, his best friend.

“Apologies, Wayzz, I suppose I am just feeling relieved. While I am still spry, I am no spring chicken. It is good that we know that she will be a good guardian in the future. It makes me feel lighter, like my failure wasn’t the end.”

Wayzz suddenly paused, causing Fu to also stop when he noticed Wayzz wasn’t keeping up.

“Wayzz? What are you doing? We need to make haste.”

“I need to say something to you. You need to stop blaming yourself for what happened, Master.”

Fu sighed.

“I know what you are going to say. I was young and it was an honest mistake. It wasn’t my fault that it ended up the way it did…”

“Yes. You did make a mistake, and you have made up for your mistake 100 times over. You have guarded us alone for over a century. You have gone above and beyond for your duty. You did not fail — if anything, you have succeeded and proven yourself to be a guardian on par with the order, if not more so. Therefore I don’t want you to belittle yourself anymore!”

Fu looked at his kwami confidant, he was emotionally touched by his dear friend’s speech.

“Thank you Wayzz. You truly are an amazing friend.”

“Good, now let's hurry and help the heroes out.”

“Indeed. Let us go, my friend.”

The two continued to where the sound of smashing walls and roars was coming from.

______________________________________________________________________________

The heroes stared up at the Giant Gorilla as it broke down the finely constructed walls of the throne room, leaving a massive hole that let the light of the outside world into the school.

The floor it was standing on was starting to crack, so it quickly jumped out the hole as it grew to its complete size.

The upper body of the Sentimonster now reached the second floor and the situation looked more like a child playing with a doll house.

“So, what was that plan, Ladybug?” Viperion asked, as the Gorilla let out a primal scream.

“Well, the plan is…”

Ryuuko smiled with anticipation.

“Actually Ladybug, let me take this one. I have always wanted to fight a Kaiju.”

“Wait Ryuuko!” Viperion cried out, but it was too late. Ryuuko had already charged at the massive primate and started attacking it with her blade.

The shape-shifting sentimonster was still adjusting to its new size and Ryuuko was able to effortlessly dodge one of its overhand strikes. It's lumbering movements left plenty of space for the swordswoman to hop to the face of the giant.

“Hello” Ryuuko taunted.

“You little…” The sentimonster growled as it tried to hit her with its hand, only to end up smacking itself in the face when she jumped away. The gorilla needed to steady itself as a result of the unintentional blow.

Ryuuko spun at a high speed as she descended, her sword slashing at the Kaiju gorilla.

“Amazing!” Chat Noir complimented.

“Impressive work Ryuuko!” Ladybug praised.

“You are incredible!” Viperion cheered. “Keep it up!”

“That was kind of hot.”

The other three paused and turned to look at Queen Bee.

Chat Noir  smirked slightly.

“What was that, Bee?”

“I said… I could totally do better.” Queen Bee corrected herself, clearly trying to pretend she didn’t say anything.

“Sure Chloé, sure.” Chat Noir quipped, rolling his eyes.

Queen Bee glared daggers at the cat, ignoring the action around her

Viperion noted that despite Ryuuko’s impressive movement and attacks, she wasn’t making much progress against the ape.

“Ryuuko won't be able to keep this up forever. What was that plan, Ladybug?”

“Well, we did need a distraction. Thankfully that’s taken care of,” Ladybug started as she looked around. “Queen Bee, you wanted to show you could do better?”

“What do you need, Ladybug?”

“I think now would be a good time to use your power. Just wait until I give the signal then activate it,” Ladybug instructed.

Queen Bee smiled.

“About time!”

She'd been dying to use her power and now she finally got to shut up that stupid gorilla.

“Ryuuko, keep it busy!”

“No worries, I can do this all…”

Ryuuko’s boast was interrupted by the large gorilla grabbing her.

“Got you! None of you move!”

Ryuuko struggled as Simularé secured its grip on her. She tried to activate her power but the grip was too tight. She couldn't even speak to activate it!

“Nobody move. Now, you are all going to detransform or I am going to make Dragon Soup with my bare hands,” the large sentimonster threatened.

Queen Bee was about to approach anyway but Ladybug raised her hand, silently signaling her to hold off.

Ladybug looked around for some sort of way to help her escape, but to no avail.

“Let's go! Detransform now,” Simularé commanded.

Ryuuko struggled to try and activate her power but Simularé tightened its grip and bone cracking could be heard.

Viperion couldn’t just stand by and watch anymore. He threw his lyre at the giant beast’s snout and it bounced right back to him. The brief moment caused Gorizilla to loosen its grip and Ladybug took advantage of that to fling her yo-yo and pull Ryuuko out and back to Viperion's waiting arms.

“You alright?”

“I’ve been better. Nice catch, Hissy.”

Viperion smiled a bit, briefly forgetting about the gorilla in the room.

Simularé was furious.

“You dare make a monkey out of me?!”

“You did that to yourself,” Queen Bee mocked.

“Chloé, wait, it's…”

But it was too late, as she had already jumped forward. She was going for her big play.

“Get ready for a show stopper! Ve…”

Before Queen Bee could even activate her power, Simularé had reacted. With a quick movement of its fingers, Queen Bee was flicked with incredible force through the wall.

“Queen Bee!” Chat Noir called out in alarm.

“Well, that one’s down for the count.”

Ladybug looked around to see Ryuuko still recovering and Chloé thrown through a wall. This was not going to be as simple as dealing with mindless puppets. She needed to take a risk.

“Lucky Charm!”

She activated her power and the item that would help her succeed was… and umbrella?

“An umbrella? How is that going to…”

“It won't!”

Ladybug jumped to avoid the swipe of the large ape hand, but failed to notice the other hand right above her. It caught her in its grip, and she dropped the umbrella.

“No!” Chat Noir shouted.

Ladybug struggled to escape.

“Seems you have forgotten the situation, Ladybug. You were so sure that I would be as brain-dead as the servant akuma that you let yourself get sloppy.”

“You won't… GHHH,” Ladybug gasped as Simularé tightened its grip on her.

“Oh, I don’t have to. I know how the miraculous works. Since you aren’t an adult, your transformation will wear off in 5 minutes,” Simularé gloated with a malicious grin.

The true peril of the situation suddenly dawned on Ladybug, and she realized she needed to find a way out. But, unlike with Ryuuko, Simularé wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

Chat Noir took a deep breath. This sentimonster wasn’t like most of the others. This one had its own thoughts and emotions… he needed to make it lose its sense.

Chat Noir charged forward, trying to distract her.

“Oh, does the cat think he can save his master? How cute.”

Simularé was about to make a swipe at him when, as if repeating himself, Viperion threw his lyre. But the ape saw it coming, and used the hand he was holding Ladybug with to block the stringed instrument.

“Predictable!” Simularé mocked, forgetting about something as they focused on gloating.

“Cataclysm!”

Simularé’s smugness changed to horror when they realized their mistake. Taking their eyes off the cat had left them wide open! Chat Noir had used his staff to raise him upwards right to the head of the distracted sentimonster and had placed his cataclysm-infused hand right on its forehead.

Simularé dropped Ladybug and Chat Noir dove to catch her. The swift motion had Ladybug landing on the diving cat.

“OOF.”

Ladybug looked down seeing she had landed on Chat Noir’s back.

“Thanks for the save, kitty.”

Simularé’s form started shifting wildly as the cracks became larger and more apparent.

“What have you done to me?” Simularé roared in rage and confusion.

It smashed its hands on the walls of the upper level while having its tantrum, causing the ceiling parts that were still intact to be very unstable.

Ladybug managed to roll her and Chat Noir out of the way of the thrashing fists. They both quickly spring up into fighting stances.

“I will destr…”

Just then, its massive arms shifted to be much shorter, looking like they belong to Lady Wifi.

“Well that’s new,” Ryuuko commented as she got to her feet.

“Chat Noir’s cataclysm makes Sentimonsters go haywire. Normally not ideal in most situations but with that sentimonster being smarter than the usual ones it needed to be done,” explained Ladybug.

The head that was once Gorizilla shrunk down to appear more like Dark Owl.

“I am … I am ….” Simularé was trying to stabilize but it kept shifting and looking more and more like a mismatch of different akuma forms.

Ladybug could see the anguish and pain on the sentimonster’s face. They'd all  known that Chat Noir's actions would cause the sentimonster to go haywire but this seemed more chaotic than usual.

“Hold still, we can fix this.” Ladybug tried to walk forward.

“I must… I cant…”

The out of control sentimonster sprouted Dark Cupid's wings and flew high into the air and escaped.

Ryuuko looked up and tried to see where the sentimonster had flown off to but it was already out of sight.

“Should we go after it? Ryuuko asked. “It might cause trouble.”

Ladybug pondered for a moment.

“For the time being it's probably better that we let them go. We should focus on finding the akuma. If we can find her, then we can get the akuma and the amok and fix all the damage.” Ladybug rationalized.

“Solid point. So, what’s our next move M… Ladybug?” Chat Noir inquired.

“Well you and I need to recharge.” Ladybug replied before turning to the other two heroes. "Viperion, Ryuuko, have either of you used your power?”

“No, we recharged earlier,” Ryuuko replied. “You two should go find a place to refuel safely.”

Ladybug glanced at her lucky charm again, wondering why she hadn't needed it yet.

Brow furrowed, she looked around and noticed spots appear on the crumbling ground near Chat Noir, as well as the roof above, and chat Noir himself.

“Why would…”

Before she could finish asking, she heard the sound of crumbling coming from the walls

“Something sounds off,” Viperion said. “I think the walls are gonna collapse!”

Ladybug knew how good Viperion’s ears were with sounds, and now her lucky charm made sense. It was never for Simularé, it was for what was coming now.

Dashing to where the group was standing, she shoved Ryuuko and Viperion back and opened the umbrella over her and Chat Noir’s head. Just as she did, the ceiling above them caved in, dropping chunks of rubble  right on top of them just as the floor beneath them gave way. The other heroes just barely made it out of range of the collapse

“Crap!!!” Ladybug and Chat Noir shouted in unison as they fell through the floor and the hole above was covered by debris. A massive cloud of dust obscured them for a moment.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir!” Ryuuko called out. But as the dust settled, all they saw was a pile of rubble where the two heroes had been.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Stupid ape,” Queen Bee grumbled as she got up. The powerful flick that Simularé had given her had sent her halfway through the school. If she didn’t have super powers she was sure that flick would have turned her into a red smear.

She cracked her back and stretched her arms in order to loosen up.

“Alright, now to hurry…”

Thump

She stopped as she heard the sound. It seemed faint.

“Probably just another one of those mindless akuma.”

“Come on!” came a muffled call.

It was clear it was someone that required help.

“Everything will be fine for them once we beat the akuma,” the heroine tried to reason with herself.

She started to walk back the way she was launched.

“I've got to get back to Ladybug and the others to fight the stupid akuma that caused all of this. This person probably isn't in real danger. I really don’t need to check on them.”

“Momma is coming...”

She stopped as she heard that. It was someone’s mother.

“Damn it!”

Queen Bee began making her way to where the voice was coming from.

“There better still be akuma butt to kick when I get back.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Chat Noir coughed as he tried to get his bearings. The area was covered in rubble and debris, and right now, Ladybug's umbrella was the only thing keeping that from collapsing on them.

“Ladybug?”

“Guess it was lucky after all,” Ladybug joked as she shifted a bit.

Both of them heard their miraculous beep.

“Looks like we need to get out of this debris heap before we change back and suffocate.”

“Probably would be a good idea.”

Chat Noir put his staff against one large gathering of ceiling rubble and made it extend, giving them a little opening.

“On the count of three, I pull you away from the umbrella and we jump out.”

“Sounds good.”

“1.”

“2”

“3!”

Chat Noir pulled Ladybug away and they jumped out of the hole. Ladybug closed the umbrella as she was pulled out, causing the rubble to pile on more and collapse the area they had just vacated.

“Made it!” Chat Noir said as he coughed up some dust. “I really hope this isn’t asbestos.”

“I am sure you're fine, Kitty. Let’s move in case more parts of the ceiling decide to collapse.”

The two quickly moved toward the wall so they would be by the door should any more rubble start collapsing. Chat Noir noticed that Ladybug was holding on tightly to the umbrella.

“So, is there another use for your lucky charm? It probably wouldn’t have been that close if you had let the umbrella stay.”

“Huh… oh. I didn’t realize I was still holding it, sorry Kitty,” Ladybug answered as she took a look at her lucky charm

“It's fine. I was just curious.”

“I guess I held onto it subconsciously… it does remind me of something pleasant.”

“Oh? Fan of singing in the rain?”

“Not exactly what I meant.” She brushed some of the dust from the umbrella. “I guess it’s fitting that this type of umbrella would have saved me.”

Chat Noir came closer and looked at the umbrella. He hadn’t noticed it the first time, but the umbrella did seem really familiar. The ladybug color scheme may have been enough to throw him off at first glance, but really seeing it now, it looked exactly like the umbrella he had given to Marinette.

“How would it be fitting?”

“Oh, it's personal stuff. Just reminds me of a time with my boyfriend in the rain,” Ladybug admitted.

There was a silence in which only the sound of the miraculous beeping could be heard. Ladybug felt a sharp pang of guilt when she realized what she'd said and who she'd said it to, tried to course correct.

“Friend! That is a boy. The umbrella reminds me of my dear friend of male gender, my buddy that happens to be a boy and…”

Chat Noir put his hand on her shoulder.

“It's okay LB, you don’t need to be worried. I'm happy that it worked out with that guy you were in love with.”

Ladybug looked into her partner's eyes and could see his words were genuine and that there wasn’t even a hint of sadness.

“You’re… okay with it?”

“First and foremost, I want you to be happy. Even if I was sad about this, I would still rather you be happy rather than miserable for my sake,” Chat Noir said.

“Now, if I had heard this news a few weeks back, I probably wouldn't be as cool about it as I am now, but I would still have been happy for you.”

Ladybug felt a bit of relief from that news. She'd been dreading giving this news to Chat Noir, knowing his feelings for her. He was someone very dear to her and she didn't want to hurt his feelings, so hearing him say he was happy for her was great.

“And it does help that I also have someone special,” Chat Noir added as he shyly scratched his cheek.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, sounds kind of shocking, I bet. I actually had feelings for her for a while but I wasn’t really sure what they were until I did some soul searching.”

Ladybug had to admit that she was a bit surprised to hear him say he'd found someone. Considering how he acted at her house during the incident with her dad, the girl he had feelings for must have been special.

“Congrats, Kitty! I would love to meet her someday, the luckiest girl in Paris.” She gave a playful nudge to Chat Noir.

“And I can’t wait to meet the boy that you were crushing on, the second luckiest guy in Paris.”

“Second luckiest?”

“Well I am clearly luckier,” he teased.

“You dork.”

Their miraculous beeped again.

“Okay, we should probably go detransform somewhere,” Ladybug said.

“Yea, we need to refuel. We kind of got distracted talking because of that umbrella.”

The duo look around the destroyed classroom and noticed that since the rubble had blocked the doors and windows, their options of escape to detransform in privacy were limited.

“There has to be some place we can go before we detransform? We might actually have to do it here.”

“Maybe your Lucky Charm is a double use. Maybe it has something that could help us again.” Chat Noir commented as his eyes caught on a small detail on the umbrella. In the handle. “E.A”

“E.A?” Ladybug asked as she turned to him.

Chat Noir looked at the umbrella closer. His eyes saw the carving on the umbrella handle. It was one of his mother’s umbrellas. It was unmistakable. This umbrella was an exact copy of the one he gave to Marinette back when he first started school.

“Ladybug, why did the miraculous make a copy of an umbrella I gave to my girlfriend months ago?”

The question seemed out of left field.

“The Ladybug miraculous creates an item either from my imagination or that I have seen before with some alteration to make them useful to the situation. I doubt I made a copy of an umbrella you gave to your girlfriend. If anything, it’s a copy of an umbrella I hold dear, like the one my boyfriend lent me before we were dating.”

It was at that moment that everything clicked. Both of them looked at one another in stunned realization.

As if by design, the miraculous beeped for the last time and their transformations faded.

______________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Rossi smashed her feet against the door with all the force she could muster, but it still had no effect.

After a dozen attempts she refused to lose hope. Even if it took 1000 times to kick the door down, she would do it if it meant it would save her little Stellina.

“Once more!”

Before she could kick the door again, the door opened.

“Huh, so there was someone up here.”

Ms. Rossi looked up to see a blonde teen in a yellow and black colored costume looking at her.

“You are awfully lucky I heard you, there is a lot of crap going down.”

“Wait, I know who you are… you’re…”

“Queen Bee, the one and only. And you have been saved by me. So feel free to brag about that.” Queen Bee started untying her.

“Thank you. I need to hurry and find my daughter.”

“Well you go do that, I need to get back to where the action is. There is a crazy monster that shapeshifted into a giant gorilla and needs a shot of venom to the face.”

“Wait, what?”

Before Ms.Rossi could get any answers, the bee heroine had dashed out of the room.

“I should find Lila.”

It took her a moment to gather her bearings. She realized the room she was in was the principal's and that she had been locked in his closet. She looked inside the closet to find her bag, trying to find her phone so she could call her daughter. She needed to find out what was going on.

______________________________________________________________________________

Viperion looked at the pile solemnly. “Do you think they're okay?”

“Our superhero forms make us very durable, so the impact probably wouldn’t be enough to hurt them too badly...”

“Okay, that’s a relief. But then why are you still concerned?”

“They both used their powers earlier. If they don’t get out of there before the transformation wears off…” Ryuuko trailed off.

Viperion realized why Ryuuko was so concerned. “Oh… yeah, we're gonna need to get them out of there.”

“I don’t think you will be able to do that” a smug voice called out to them.

The two heroes turn to see the masked villain that was responsible for all of this destruction.

She was flying in the air with two black angel wings as she stared down at them.

“I was expecting to find Simularé having dealt with all of you, but for some reason I can’t seem to call them. So, I assume you probably beat them.”

Viperion and Ryuuko shared a concerned look. Masquerade was clearly someone with a lot more power than they'd been anticipating. She didn’t even seem fazed by the fact that the sentimonster that could have any power it wanted was gone.

“I'll try digging them out, you try to handle Masquerade,” Viperion whispered. “The others don’t have that much time left and you’re a much better fighter.”

Ryuuko looked at Masquerade for a second before agreeing that it was the best course of action.

Ryuuko went to go but found herself blocked by two adults clad in red, black and white. Both of them wore the white face masks that all controlled akuma wore.

The first one Ryuuko had recognized from some new segments and some time on the Ladyblog as The Collector.

The other one she had no idea. All she knew was that it was a woman with blue skin. While the white mask covered the front of her head, she could see the dark helmet with a red visor. Her costume was a dark grayish cornflower blue dress suit with pointed shoulders, including a strong red front and swan neck collar that featured a red downward-arrow-shaped section in the center. The sleeves covered her entire arms, with the tips of her fingers fading into red. She also had pocket-like ridges on each side of her hips, and her pant legs came down to her feet, having red high-heels, soles, and tips. Ryuuko thought the figure seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

“Oh, did you think I came alone? Collector, Catalyst, why don’t you handle the uppity dragon girl. I need some entertainment while I wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to show up.”

“Need MORE minions to do your dirty work?!” Ryuuko shouted with a mix of frustration and annoyance.

Viperion knew things were looking bad. He instinctively had his hand go to his bracelet but Ryuuko raised her hand out, non-verbally telling him to hold off.

She clenched her sword and charged, but the two akuma seemed to have a bit more skill and evaded her charge.

Catalyst even caught the blade of the heroine with her hands. Ryuuko tried to free the blade only to receive a front kick by the Collector, sending her flying back.

From the corner of her eye, Ryuuko noticed Catalyst's blade coming back at her like a throwing knife.Ryuuko managed to control her backward momentum and caught the blade moments after landing on her feet.

“Okay… this is going to be a challenge,” Ryuuko huffed.

Ryuuko dashed past the Collector and delivered a roundhouse kick to Catalyst, who used her arms to cushion the strike.

Viperion started digging only to feel the force of a front kick by the Collector sending him flying back.

“And what has you focused on digging through rubble rather than acting as entertainment for me?”

Viperion tried to get up, but felt a foot step on his chest.

Viperion grabbed the leg that was keeping him pinned and used his strength to roll and twist, the motion causing the akuma servant to move off balance.

Ryuuko noticed Viperion struggling and managed to trip and kick Catalyst hard enough to send her flying right into the akumatized Collector.

Viperion stood up and moved his way towards Ryuuko.

“We can’t get to Ladybug or Chat Noir while these two and Masquerade are here.”

“Then we will need to hope Ladybug and Chat Noir can get themselves out while we buy time.”

Masquerade watched the two heroes in amusement,“It’s cute that you think you stand a chance when you’re outnumbered.”

“If that’s cute, then you being a dumb bitch that thinks she is going to win makes you downright adorable,” commented a familiar voice.

Masquerade’s smug smile disappeared as she looked to see the arrival of a certain bee heroine.

“So, you’re the mask bitch that's been causing all these problems,” observed Queen Bee..

“Wow, Ladybug must really be desperate if she sent for you again.” Masquerade descended from the air and flicked her charm to remove her wings.

“It’s funny how you call me desperate when you’re the one akumatized.”

Masquerade noticed her charm bracelet glowing, and a sinister grin appeared on her face.She snapped her fingers, calling her two servants to her side.

“You know, Chloé,” Masquerade began as she stalked closer, “Out of everyone in Paris, I think you are the most pitiful.”

Queen Bee kept eye contact with Masquerade as the villain stopped  a few feet away.

“Me? Pitiful? I’m not the one who looks like a theater reject,” she retorted.

Masquerade shook her head.

“Your mother is a famous fashion critic, and your father is the mayor of Paris. You can have whatever you want whenever you want by just sending a text or making a call, but you know that having such privilege doesn’t give you any value. It doesn’t matter that your daddy bends over backwards for you, because your dear mother who you aspire to be doesn’t give a crap about you. You are just a spoiled brat, and everyone knows you’re nothing special. At best you’re a rich bully who acts out to get some form of attention. When you got a miraculous by some fluke, you hoped that it would be your ticket to being someone people liked, respected, and found exceptional.”.

Queen Bee’s head lowered with each sentence, her fists tightening.

Ryuuko and Viperion tried to land a strike against Masquerade while she was talking, but the Collector and Catalyst blocked their  attempts and managed to pin both of them to the ground.

“Are you done?” Masquerade looked at the two pinned heroes. “I’m not dumb enough to leave myself open.”

Masquerade cleared her throat, and turned back to Queen Bee.

“Where was I? Oh yes. I remember. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you say or do, you will NEVER be a hero. You will always be Chloé Bourgeois, Audrey’s embarrassment of a daughter,” Masquerade cruelly declared.

Queen Bee refused to look up. Masquerade knew this was her moment.

“Don’t worry Chloé. Now you have a chance to be a part of something exceptional for once.”

Masquerade took a mask from her dress and threw it at Queen Bee, only for the mask to be smacked away by the heroine herself.

This was a surprise to Masquerade.

“What?! How did you do that?”

Queen Bee started to laugh. She looked up at the confused Masquerade.

“That was it?! That was your big take down? That was going to make me so demoralized that I would settle for being one of your puppets? GET REAL!” Queen Bee mocked. “It’s actually funny that you thought that would work.”

“What do you mean!? I just exposed your biggest insecurities, your fears! You should be a sobbing mess!”

Queen Bee shook her head.

“You’re not wrong. What you said about me was, word for word, all of my insecurities. Problem is, I’ve heard it before. I have heard this crap from Hawkmoth, I heard it from my own mother and I hear it from me. I think this about myself every single day. Those thoughts echo in my head, and all those other people that have said it to me said it much worse than that rank amateur trick you just tried,” Queen Bee spelled out.

“Amateur!?”

“Look, I may suck at getting all the things about being a hero right. I may need to work on ‘being a good person’ or whatever, but I do know one thing and that’s how to be mean. You? You’re nasty not because that’s how you are, it’s because you think you are. I know why you always seemed off now, that lame liar that had everyone wrapped around your finger by telling them only things they want to hear. You want to talk about my need to be accepted? Let’s talk about yours. You want nothing more than love and attention. And since your lies bit you in the butt, now you think the only way to get what you want is by going full mean girl and hope that your akumatization makes it so you can at least have some sort of control again. But you suck at that too.”

Masquerade gaped in disbelief at what she was hearing.

“Are you saying I’m not mean enough?”

“Oh, I think you’re pretty cruel, but that’s out of defense. It isn’t your default. You’ve lied to yourself so much that you don’t even know who you are anymore. Me? I’m a petty, self-absorbed bitch with mommy issues, but I know who I am. But tell me ‘Masquerade’, who are you, really? Under all the lies and borderline psychopathic tendencies, what is the real Lila like?”

Ryuuko and Viperion looked at Queen Bee with a mix of shock and awe.

For the first time, Masquerade felt shaken. She backed away, glaring daggers at Queen Bee.

“Oh, wow, look at the mighty mask akuma shaking like a leaf,” Queen bee mocked before turning to Viperion and Ryuuko. “By the way, what happened to the giant gorilla? I thought we were fighting that weird sentimonster.”

Ryuuko kicked Catalyst off her and stood up. “Oh, Chat Noir Cataclysmed it, then it ran off.”

Viperion followed suit with Collector. “Right now, Ladybug and Chat Noir are below us, if they aren’t buried in rubble.”

“Thanks for the recap.” Queen bee turned her attention back to Masquerade before whirling back to the other heroes. “Wait, they’re WHAT?”

“Buried in rubble. But knowing Ladybug, they likely got themselves out and are fine,” Ryuuko assured.

“Oh, yeah probably.” Now calmer, Queen Bee turned back to Masquerade

“Now, where were we?”

Masquerade’s shaken anger shifted to a crazed smile.

“You know what, Chloé? I’ve decided I’m done playing games. Collector! Open the book.”

The akuma servant moved to the open hole they had entered through and opened the book.

It was at this moment the heroes realized that Masquerade had a lot more in store for them.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Lucky Charm vanished as their transformations dropped, leaving Marinette and Adrien standing right in front of each other with stunned expressions. Their two kwamis, Tikki and Plagg, popped out and saw the two looking at one another.

“This is not how I was expecting this to go.”

“Plagg!”

“What? It isn’t! I was expecting something more along the lines of one of them finding out through some gift delivery, and then the other one revealing themselves by saving the first from an akuma attack or some elaborate trick to find out the other’s identity and then intending to reset the time with the snake but not going through with it… actually scratch that, this way was better.”

“Plagg, seriously!”

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other as everything came together. The vanishing of their masks was really just the garnish on what they had both realized. Marinette had realized that her trusted partner was the boy she’d been crushing on and was now dating, while Adrien realized the girl he believed he had moved on from but still cared for is actually the girl he was in love with the whole time.

“I think they're still processing all of this,” Plagg commented as he flew down to Adrien’s jacket pocket.

“You might want to grab your snack while you can, Sugarcube, I think it’s gonna take them a bit to get over the shock.”

Tikki wanted to say something, but Plagg made a fair point. They were going to need food to refuel.

The kwami snagged their foods of choice and floated a short distance away just as both teens looked ready to speak.

“It’s you,” they said almost in unison. Another beat passed.

They rushed towards each other and hugged.

“I’m so glad you're okay!”

“You distracted Simularé back then without your powers so I could get away. Don’t you know how dangerous that was?”

“Yea, but I figured that I could buy you some time to get away, and Ladybug usually arrives right when I need her to.”

“Just because you got lucky and she was me doesn’t mean I'm not mad you almost got yourself hurt!”

Adrien smiled at her sweetly. Marinette looked up and met his gaze. The tension this day had them go through and finding out that the other is not only safe but has been fighting with them gave them both a renewed vigor and a sense of relief.

Marinette cupped his cheeks and kissed him.

“Aww, they are so adorable!” Tikki squeaked.

“Ugh, they're being too cheesy even for my tastes,” Plagg snarked.

Tikki shot him a look.

“I'm joking! Of course I'm happy for them. But you've gotta admit, it is pretty funny seeing how they've been running circles around each other.”

After a long moment, the teens broke away from the kiss and took one look at each other before bursting into laughter.

“I struggled for so long to tell you how I felt and you were already flirting with me that entire time,” Marinette wheezed.

“You kissed me two times that I can't even remember,” Adrien pointed out.

“You asked me about how YOU did when I had you watch over civilian me when we fought Evillustrator.”

“You put me in a sarcophagus!“

“You reset time 25,913 times just to hide the fact that you were Chat Noir!”

“I did that because you came looking for Adrien and I really didn’t want to let you down!”

“That was very sweet and very dumb!”

“I was made aware of that!”

“But I also really wanted to make sure you got a miraculous because I wanted to fight by your side.”

“I actually thought you were Ladybug at one point, but then you were Multimouse which really threw me off.”

“That was because of an elaborate plan involving a lot of miraculous.”

“Well, it was pretty impressive.”

They both smiled wryly and turned to their kwami.

“Okay be honest, how ridiculous was all of this to watch?” Adrien asked.

“You mean that moment, or your whole Lovesquare dynamic since we knew you?” Plagg asked between bites of cheese.

“Well, now that you mention it…”

Marinette was the first one to come back to Earth.

“Oh no! What’s Fu going to say!?”

Tikki nearly dropped her cookie.

“That is going to be a problem,” Adrien mused, mirroring Marinette’s concern.

“Now that we know each other’s identities, we're a danger to each other as superheroes… we might have to give up our miraculous now.”

Tikki and Plagg looked at the two teens with sad eyes. They'd had dozens of different users over the course of centuries, but Marinette and Adrien were special. It would be heartbreaking to have to leave them.

Adrien looked at Plagg. While he was overjoyed to find out his girlfriend was actually Ladybug and that the two people he was torn between were actually one, he didn’t want to say goodbye to his cat confidant.

Marinette looked at Tikki. The ladybug kwami had always been a well of positivity and support for her. Tikki was her biggest cheerleader and had been one of the happiest to see her get together with Adrien. Now, although finding out that Chat Noir and Adrien were one and the same was incredible, it was also bittersweet because she didn’t want to say goodbye to her sugar-fueled friend.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Their revelation was interrupted by the sound of concussive impacts coming from outside of the room. It seemed that something big had arrived and the other heroes were going to need help.

“Look kid, we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Plagg is right. There's still trouble to deal with up there.”

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other then at their kwami.

“This might be our last fight together,” Adrien solemnly said.

Marinette took his hand in both of hers.

“Then let’s make it count,” Marinette said, giving him a peck on his nose.

“Tikki, Spots on!”

“Plagg, Claws out!”

______________________________________________________________________________

Masquerade smiled as outside of the school stood multiple akuma were ready to strike. She had shown that she had a back-up army in wait.

The giants Megatitan, Glaciator and Gorizilla towered over the opened room. Queen Bee peered out to see dozens of more akuma, such as her butler and parents all in their akumatized forms.

While the heroes couldn’t identify all of the akuma present, all of them white masks that accommodated their various sizes. They were all under Masquerade’s complete control.

“That is a lot of akuma,” Viperion said.

“Did you really think you stood a chance?” Masquerade taunted. Her anger from earlier twisted into a sadistic glee as she could see all of their bravado fading away. “I think I will take your miraculous as trophies. Hawkmoth is only interested in Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. He can have those. I'm more interested in what you have.”

“You are getting way too overconfident. We've dealt with your mindless akuma puppets before, and they were never a match for us.” Ryuuko pointed her sword at Masquerade.

“So you think that you can fight them all at once, then?” Masquerade asked.

Ryuuko still looked determined.

Viperion put his hand on her shoulder. “Hold on, rushing in will not help right now. There are dozens of them out there. We need to find a way to Masquerade and deal with her so that they can be dealt with.”

“I finally found it!” A sudden voice from out of view exclaimed.

Masquerade and the heroes turn their attention to the direction of the voice, but the one who said it was obscured from view.

“Forgive the intrusion, but it was quite a task getting up here. This school is quite a labyrinth.”

“Show yourself!” Masquerade called out, getting annoyed by the interruption.

“Allow me to make an entrance.”

There was a brief moment of silence, but they heard the words.

“Wayzz, shell on!”

A figure jumped out from a hidden corner and landed in the center of the room standing between Masquerade and the heroes.

There they saw an old man clad in green armor. He had a dark green chest plate with light green pauldrons and tassets with dark green edges; dark brown, loose pants, elbow pads, and collar; and dark green armor boots with light green toe-caps and dark brown soles. His mask was dark green on the upper half and light green on the lower half.

Masquerade cracked up at the sight of him. “You have to be joking! I bring an army and your response is an old man!? That is something else.”

“I am not just any old man, I am Jade Turtle. And you must be the akuma that has been causing all of this chaos. I think it’s about time I put a stop to it.”

“Is that right? And what are you going?”

Jade Turtle turned to the heroes behind him.

“Allow me to show you kids what one can really do with the full power of a miraculous.”

“No, I don’t think so. Collector! Catalyst! Take him out!”

The two akuma charged at the turtle hero.

Jade Turtle confidently jumped in and took off his hat to use as a shield.

“Shell-ter, projectile mode.”

Jade Turtle shot off two baseball-sized green spheres at the two approaching akuma. Both shots made contact, knocking them over right as he landed.

The Akuma recovered quickly, getting up to attack again, but their movements were too predictable. Jade Turtle ran towards them, and right before they attacked, he slid forward and knocked both their legs from under them. The two akuma fell hard on their masks and the turtle hero popped up behind them.

“Whoa!” The three heroes were stunned at how easily he'd handled those two.

Before Jade Turtle could acknowledge this, Masquerade fired what appeared to be a blast of lightning from her hands. The stormy weather charm on her bracelet glowed.

“Don’t think it will be THAT easy to deal with me.”

“Shell-ter!”

He quickly created a hamster-ball-like shield around himself, allowing him to take the lightning attacks as he ran forward.

Masquerade saw him rolling towards her and jumped out of the way but then realized he was moving straight toward the army.

“STOP HIM!”

The akumas outside all tried attacking the turtle hero as he rolled out of the building and bounced right in the middle of their forces.

He watched as they tried to break his shield.

“Reinforce!”

His shield bubble became thicker than before, allowing it to resist more of the damage that the akuma were doing.

He felt his legs wobble.

Easy Fu, you can’t overexert yourself. You have less than 9 minutes before you transform back. You need to hold them off now. Let Ladybug and Chat Noir know what to do.

Jade Turtle touched his shield to reveal a phone feature. He called Ladybug. Thankfully, she picked up right away.

“Master Fu? What's going on? Are you okay?”

“I am fine, Ladybug. Are you and Chat Noir in the school?”

“Yes, we're on our way back to fight the akuma, we just had to refuel first… Master Fu, we need to talk with you about something.”

“Is it life or death?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Then I think it can wait until later. Right now I am holding off an army of akuma. I will buy you 8 minutes. You need to defeat the masked akuma by then.”

“Wait…You're fighting!? Master what about…”

“Don’t worry Ladybug. I am not as weak as you think. But do hurry.”

“Understood. We won’t let you down.”

The turtle hero hung up the phone. “Time for the big one. Shell-ter!”

His shield opened up a small hole to send out a new large, green barrier. This one overtook all of the akuma surrounding him.

“Condense!”

The larger bubble started shrinking and the larger akuma were forced to get down, pinning them to the ground, while the smaller akuma were getting tightly pushed together. Jade Turtle closed the shield surrounding himself and watched as the akuma that had been attacking were forced to stop due to their inability to move. He was thankful that they were unable to think for themselves or they might have figured some way out of this situation.

The elderly hero felt his breathing grow labored. This was taking a lot more out of him then he'd anticipated. He did his best to still his movements but using the miraculous was still draining. This wouldn’t hold forever. As soon as his transformation dropped, so would the shields. He just needed to focus.

He crossed his legs and sat in the lotus position. He closed his eyes and began to meditate. He needed to minimize his movement and strain to maximize the amount of time he can maintain this transformation.

‘The rest is up to you, Ladybug and Chat Noir.’

Masquerade looked at the condensed shield.

“No way… my army…” Masquerade was in shock. The old man she'd mocked earlier had somehow managed to seal off her army from her. Even her giant akuma were trapped in there. And with his other barrier, they couldn't even finish him off! He had crippled her forces in under a minute.

“Did we know him? Because I feel like we should know him,” Viperion asked.

“No, he's new. The turtle hero we're used to seeing is a lot younger… but this one seems to know a lot more tricks. I wonder if we can tweak our powers like that to make them more effective?” Ryuuko responded as she mulled over possibilities.

“Well so much for your army, they're getting handled by an old guy cosplaying as a Ninja Turtle,” Queen Bee jeered.

Masquerade turned to face her.

“You know what? This is fine. I don’t need an army to turn you into bug juice.”

“Ooo, I'm shaking in my costume.” Queen Bee rolled her eyes.

Masquerade touched several of her charms.

Her eyes glowed bright as she rose into the air with black wings.

“You wanted to know who I am, Chloé? Well then, let me tell you exactly who I am!”

The winds around them started getting more intense. Ryuuko almost got swept up in the winds, but Viperion quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her into the eye of the storm.

“I am not a nice new student. I am not the mean, manipulative bully. I am Masquerade, the akuma with infinite powers who is going to take over Paris! I am stronger than Hawkmoth, deadlier than any villain this city has ever faced! And by the end of today, you and all of Paris will be bowing to me!” she roared.

The area around them grew colder as Masquerade started channeling more powers.

Catalyst and Collector stood back up only to get swept up in the winds that Masquerade created.

“Well, you really kicked the hive with that one, Queen Bee” Ryuuko snarked.

“Look, it’s not my fault it’s hard to take her seriously! She looks like a theater kid reject mixed with a Hawkmoth fan. Also… was that a pun?”

“Umm, I really don’t think this is the time for that. We have a super angry, power-mad akuma that is clearly very angry at us, specifically you, Queen Bee,” Viperion interjected.

“Right,” the two teens conceded.

“So, what’s the plan?”

Masquerade looks at the three heroes.

“Plan? Do you three really think you stand a chance?! The only reason you're still standing right now is because I've been toying with you! I wanted some entertainment until Ladybug and Chat Noir finally showed up.”

Viperion slyly activated his power as Masquerade gloated.

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” she said as she summoned what appeared to be a trumpet from thin air.

She shot a small blast from it and hit Ryuuko, making her disappear.

“Ryuuko!”

A sticker appeared on Masquerade’s dress.

“That is from the akuma Desperada. I can release her whenever I want.”

“Second Chance!”

The situation reset.

“Alright, that’s enough of that.” She said as she summoned what appeared to be a trumpet from thin air.

“Get down!”

Viperion managed to push Ryuuko out of the way of the blast.

“Those blasts are instant Game Overs, don't let them hit you.”

“Instant Game Overs? What is this, a video ga…” Queen Bee tried to ask before she was hit with one of the trumpet blasts.

Viperion sighed. “Here we go again.”

“Second Chance!”

_______________________________________________________________________

“This way!” Ladybug called out as they made their way past another piece of falling rubble.

Ladybug and Chat Noir managed to get out of the room they were trapped in and, thanks to Fu, they knew about the situation above.

“Things must be pretty serious if Fu got involved,” Chat Noir commented.

“Well, this is probably the most dangerous fight we've faced since that whole thing during Heroes' Day.”

“It is pretty cool that Fu is jumping in to give a hand, though. Has he used the miraculous around you?”

“Not that I've seen, but I remember him mentioning that using it takes a lot out of him due to his age, so even though he's an adult, he's still on a time limit.”

“Right, but he probably knows a few tricks that would be fun to see.”

“He's been the guardian for over a century, so he likely knows more skills and tricks.”

The two rushed up a staircase and managed to make progress.

“So Ma…. My Lady. You still haven’t said how we're going to deal with Masquerade.”

“That’s because I don’t have a plan yet. But I figure once I see her face I'll probably know when to summon my Lucky Charm and figure a way to defeat her.”

“Reasonable. But do you think the others will be able to hold on until we get there? With how unstable that room got, we couldn’t go straight upward and risk the ceiling caving in on us, and those winds and ice are making things more difficult to traverse. Those three are facing an akuma with the powers of every akuma we ever faced.”

Ladybug thought for a moment. “If Viperion has his power active, they should be okay. He can keep them out of trouble. Even if he doesn’t have his memory, his intuition is still incredibly good.”

“True, he was a better snake than me.”

“You were a good snake, but you're a better kitty. I think you should stick with the cat powers. They suit you better.”

“You’re saying they are purrfect for me?” Chat Noir punned.

“Oh no, what did I start?”

“You set me up for it.”

“I did and I hate myself for it.”

“Don’t hate yourself, you're amazing.”

“Kitty, I'm going to need you to stop being cute or I'm going to have to kiss you, and we don’t have time for that.”

“Now you're just baiting me to do that.”

They heard a massive crash in front of them.

“We should hurry,” Chat Noir said.

______________________________________________________________________

“WHY ARE YOU SO HARD TO HIT?” Masquerade shouted in frustration.

Viperion had managed to help his fellow heroes avoid the attacks of the crazed akuma. She stopped using Desperada’s power and tried a plethora of different powers at her disposal.

She tried Lady Wifi’s pause symbols, Jackady’s command cards, Bubbler’s bubbles,  Rogercop’s handcuffs, and even Horrificator’s slime shots. Masquerade was trying everything in her arsenal, but to no avail

“Perhaps your multitasking is what is making it so difficult for you to focus,” Ryuuko suggested. “Maintaining those winds around us may limit our movement, but it means nothing if you can't hit us. Your focus is split and therefore you can’t dedicate yourself to defeating us.”

Masquerade glared at the dragon heroine skeptically.

“Nice try, but this is clearly a trick to get me to let my guard down. If I reduce the winds, you'll have a chance to escape.”

“You misunderstand. We have no intention of running away. We are heroes and we are going to stop you. Retreat isn’t an option.”

“Then why bother telling me to cut down the winds if not to try and get the advantage?”

“Well either you cut out the winds or we come up there and take you down personally.”

Masquerade pondered for a moment before speaking again.

“I decided I'm just going to end this.”

Masquerade focused her winds to close in on the three heroes, forming a tornado.

“Well that was dumb, now she's gonna rip us apart with this tornado.”

“Not exactly,” Ryuuko smirked. “Viperion, give me a boost.”

Viperion rushed over and linked his fingers together for her to place a foot on.

“Queen Bee, get Ryuuko’s other leg.”

“This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

Viperion and Queen Bee quickly get ready as the winds start closing in.

“3… 2…. 1…. LAUNCH!”

The two heroes sent Ryuuko as high as they could.

“Lightning Dragon!”

Ryuuko turned herself into a bolt of lightning and struck the masked akuma.

Masquerade screamed as the winds ceased and her hair stood up.

Her body started dropping and Ryuuko shifted back into her solid form, falling right next to her.

Viperion jumped and caught Ryuuko. Masquerade face planted into the floor.

“Nice work.”

Ryuuko smiled.

“You seem to have gotten very good at catching me.”

“You've been falling a lot today. I’d almost think you planned it this way,” Viperion teased.

Ryuuko punched his arm playfully.

“Guess that takes care of her-” Viperion stopped speaking. It was as if some force had frozen him in place.

“Viperion?” Ryuuko got out of his arms and saw the pause symbol on his back.

A second pause symbol shot her way before Ryuuko could react, and then she too was frozen in place.

Queen Bee stared in shock. She'd thought that this was over, but Masquerade had recovered while the two other heroes were distracted and ensured they were both paused.

Masquerade got up, her mask cracked from the landing, her hair smoking from the lighting attack from Ryuuko. Her eyes glowed red as she began walking towards Queen Bee.

“You know, I thought I would be angrier after everything. The collapse of my reputation, the shame I brought on my mother, the loss of my sentimonster, and just the consistent humiliation I faced ever since I saw you heroes. Maybe I've just become so unbelievably enraged that I've come full circle.”

Queen bee felt herself backing up as Masquerade approached.

“I think I know what I am going to do with you Queen Bee. I am going to use you as a test dummy and try out every single one of my powers on you. And when I am done, THEN I will let you cease existing.”

“If you wanted to prove you were a mean girl, you were right. You are definitely mean...” Queen Bee said as she continued backing away.

Masquerade moved her hand and a wind blew Queen Bee into a wall.

“Now, which power to use first on you? Oh I know! One of the powers that the akuma had was a replica of Chat Noir. I wonder what a cataclysm will do to a person.”

Masquerade's hand began emanating a dark energy reminiscent of Chat Noir’s famous move.

Queen Bee closed her eyes to brace herself for what was coming. She hoped it wouldn’t make her ugly.

But before it made contact, a yo-yo wrapped around Masquerade’s legs. The string was pulled and Masquerade ended up falling to the floor where the cataclysm destroying a piece of debris.

“Sorry we were late, it was difficult getting back up here,” a feminine voice spoke from out of view.

Queen Bee opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the voices.

“What took you both so long?” Queen bee exclaimed

Masquerade looked up.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir.”  She spat as if those were the foulest words in her vocabulary.

Ladybug and Chat Noir walked closer.

“We are going to give you one chance. Just hand over the akumatized object and we can all go back to normal,” Chat Noir tried to reason.

Masquerade glared at the two heroes.

“Normal? There is no normal left for me. I watched it all crash and burn. But who cares, now I am the most powerful person in all of Paris. No one can ignore me now.”

Ladybug shook her head.

“You’ve gone power mad.”

Masquerade touched her charms and summoned vines from her wrists.

“Vines? When did we fight an akuma that used plants?” Ladybug questioned.

“Weredad…” Chat Noir said with a horrified gasp. He remembered that beating all too well, and knowing that Masquerade got to Marinette’s father was not sitting well.

Ladybug’s confusion shifted to determination as she jumped to dodge the vines.

Chat Noir and Ladybug moved gracefully as they approached Masquerade. The akuma realized the two were quickly approaching and needed to push them back. She activated Stormy Weather’s power to use a mighty gust to blow them back.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were sent back to where they started, but landed on their feet.

“Okay, so it's safe to assume she has every akuma power so far."

“Well except Chloé's, Luka’s and Kagami’s,” Chat Noir added.

“Right. That’s a relief. Dealing with Queen Wasp or Riposte would not be good.”

“I was more worried about Silencer. If he made us quiet, I wouldn’t be able to hear you call my name.”

“Focus, Kitty.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Seems it's lucky charm time.”

Ladybug activated her power.

“Lucky Charm!”

What appeared was another unexpected item with a ladybug color scheme.

“A mop bucket?”

“Heads up!”

Chat Noir jumped in front of her and spun his staff to block several pause symbols heading their way.

“I’ll cover you. Figure out how to use the charm.”

“Oh, hell no!” Masquerade shouted as she pulled her hand back, revealing her arm shifting to stone.

She smashed the ground, causing the already unstable floor to crack and send more rubble falling from the ceiling.

Ladybug grabbed the bucket and jumped away.

She looked around, Her eyes looked at Masquerade, Chat Noir’s staff, the ground, her yo-yo, the bucket, and finally Queen bee.

She had a plan.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was endless, the voices in their head screaming. Their body shifting and changing with each passing second, constantly shifting into something else belonging to someone else.

“STOP IT!!!” They screamed as they shouted in the alleyway they landed in. They were alone.

“Mind… shattered… Thoughts… endless… Focus… split!” they tried to articulate.

Their brain felt like it was on fire! Nothing seemed to make sense, it felt like they were losing all control and that they would be left in the dust.

“Focus…. Focus…. FOCUS!!!”

They continued to try and get themselves back on track. They needed something, anything to put their mind to. They needed order! They needed purpose!!!

“I need a reason! Why am I here?! To suffer!? Is this all there is!?”

They held their head with their ever-changing hands.

“They hurt me! Now I am in pain! I hate them… Hate…. HATE!!”

Their clouded mind seemed to calm. They had realized why they were here. That among all of the emotions that they had been created from, one was their defining prime emotion.

“Hatred… I was made from hatred. I am the embodiment of Her hate,” they said.

Their mind flashed with images. The faces of Ladybug and Chat Noir, Alya Cesaire, Marinette Dupain Cheng, Kagami Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine, and…

The face became like their original form, a cracked smiling white mask.

“Yes. I know what I must do. Simularé must destroy those it hates!”

The Sentimonster focused and began changing its body to now be more in control. It started molding its body. It was no longer changing against its will. Simularé was starting to regain control.

“Yes…”

______________________________________________________________________

Masquerade noticed Ladybug standing back and she used her powers to jump at her. Ladybug quickly jumped out of the way and rolled near Chat Noir. Just then, she realized she had left the bucket behind.

“The Lucky Charm!”

Masquerade looked and saw the bucket.

“Let’s not take any chances.”

She touched her charm, now imbued with the power of Copycat’s cataclysm.

Just before she could touch the power, Chat Noir uses his baton to extend out and move the bucket out of the way, causing her to touch the ground and causing the area she touched to break and make a hole that half of her fell into, only to be saved by her other arm catching the floor.

“Nicely done Chaton.”

Ladybug moved to Queen Bee, who had been motionless and watching the two heroes fight with Masquerade. She went into her yo-yo and revealed a purple Macaroon.

“Queen bee activate your power. It's time.” Ladybug relayed her message and used her yo-yo to snag the lucky charm back to her. “Pop this in your mouth when things get serious.”

“Huh?! Oh right!”

Queen Bee started moving again. She had let herself freeze, almost paused just like the other two heroes she was fighting with. But now it was time to act.

“Venom!”

Masquerade managed to get up and out of the hole. It was there that she saw Queen Bee charging at her.

“Oh that is cute. You finally stopped watching and decided to join in getting your butt kicked.”

Masquerade used Stormy Weather’s wind powers to blow Queen Bee back, but this time, Queen Bee popped the macaroon into her mouth.

Suddenly her costume started to shift. She gained a clear face covering and her suit was glowing a shinier gold color, with thicker black gloves. Her hair was now shining gold, and she had an impressive gold jetpack reminiscent of Bee Wings.

“What the heck is that!”

Queen bee realized that Ladybug had given her not just a weird tasting macaroon, but a power-granting one. She got a power up.

“You heard of Cosmobug and Astrochat. Get ready to meet Stellarbee!” she exclaimed.

Stellarbee pushed her jetpack to push through the powerful winds.

Masquerade realized that at the rate she was going, Stellarbee was going to reach her! She couldn’t let herself get tagged. She pushed more power into the wind, and just as she did, an idea popped into her head.

‘If I tag her first, then there will be no issue.’

Masquerade started easing on her wind powers and moved one hand to prepare a deadly touch from the powers of Timebreaker.

Stellarbee kept approaching.

“You know, Lila, you really are a pathetic person.”

Masquerade rolled her eyes.

“And why is that?”

“Well, for one thing, you are so focused on what other people think of you. I must say it's clear that out of everyone here you have the lowest self esteem.”

“I have self-esteem! I have tons of it. You are the one with Mommy issues!”

“Defensive much? Yea, I have issues. But I never lied about who I am. I am Chloé Bourgeois. And you are a girl with a bucket on her head.”

“I am not… Wait what.”

As if on cue, Ladybug covered Masquerade's vision with the sanitation bucket. The surprise caused Masquerade to lose focus on her powers and Stellarbee zoomed right by her, making sure to contact her with her power. Masquerade froze.

Masquerade was in utter shock, unable to move.

Ladybug walked up to Masquerade and touched the charms, causing all the powers she had active to deactivate, including the pause power she had on Viperion and Ryuuko.”

“It's finally over.”

Ladybug took the bracelet off of Masquerade. She ripped it apart with her hands, causing it to break and an akuma to pop out.

“No more evil-doing for you little akuma.” Ladybug spoke as she snagged the akuma with her yo-yo and purified it.

“Bye bye little butterfly.”

Masquerade's form dissipated, returning to that of Lila Rossi.

Jade Turtle, who had kept the tight barrier around the akuma army to keep them from making any moves noticed that they had all ceased to function. They were all still transformed but they were no longer moving.

“Wayzz, shell off.”

Fu transformed back and the barriers he casted vanished.  He was catching his breath.

“Cutting it very close, Ladybug…” Fu commented with relief. He knew there was a reason he didn’t get involved initially. He needed to retire.

The Power that Stellarbee had used on Masquerade had worn off now that she was back to normal.

Lila took off the bucket.

“No! No no no! This can't be happening.”

“The game is over, Lila.” Ladybug said definitively.

Stellarbee deactivated her space form and pulled herself out of the wall she'd collided with when flying.

Viperion shook his head.

“Whoa, everything feels clear again. What happened.”

Ryuuko hugged the snake hero.

“You’re back!”

Viperion felt his cheeks heat up from the hug.

“I am? What did I miss?”

Ryuuko realized the sudden emotional outburst and quickly let go of the hug.

“It's… I will tell you later. I am just happy you are back to normal.”

Queen Bee slid down from the wall looking at the two reptilian heroes and rolling her eyes. She was not gonna be a third wheel in that conversation, no matter how hot they both were. So she decided to make her way to Ladybug.

Chat Noir jumped to land next to Ladybug.

“That’s the end.”

“It always comes back to you doesn’t it?” Lila hissed.

Ladybug raised her eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“You are the one that ruined my life once again!”

“Ruined your… you were akumatized and tried to enslave Paris!”

“Because of your stupid fan printing that garbage about me working with Hawkmoth!”

“Well there is that footage…” Chat Noir pointed out.

“I was angry! I was frustrated and saw an opportunity… I don’t work for Hawkmoth” Lila defended herself.

“Assuming that is the truth, using the akuma just to have a temper tantrum is still pretty scummy,” Ladybug commented.

“That’s not the point! Ever since you popped up and yelled at me in the park everything went downhill.”

“Is this what it is really all about? Why are you blaming me when all you have done is lie? I shouldn’t have confronted you that way, I admit I went about that wrong, but you shouldn’t be lying about things like that. Why didn’t you just try being honest? Why did you need to spread rumors just to be popular?”

“Are you joking? Have you ever been a new kid at school? Have you ever had to constantly try and make friends only to be ignored or dismissed, and any time you do get a few people that do talk to you only to stop as soon as you are whisked away to a new location?”

Ladybug and Chat Noir watch as Lila continues to unravel, both of them trying to figure out if this was just another elaborate lie.

“No, you haven’t been ignored or dismissed. I can tell you two are just BATHED in love and acceptance. You don’t have to deal with not knowing if you are going to be moved to a new place where you don’t know anyone and the only person you know and love has to work ridiculous long hours just to take care of you! You never had to constantly try and fail to make new friends, constantly getting bullied or ignored just because you were an easy mark. You wouldn’t know what that is like at all! Is it wrong that I wanted to be liked? Is it wrong that I was sick of being pushed around so I pushed back? Is it so bad that I just wanted to be noticed?”

Ladybug put her hand on Lila’s shoulder.

“Assuming that what you’re saying is true, I think I understand you a bit better now. But that still doesn’t make what you did right.”

Chat Noir put his hand on her other shoulder.

“I do understand that loneliness, better than you think. Maybe if things shook out differently, I could have ended up with a similar mindset. But Ladybug is right. Your actions aren’t justified.”

Lila pulled back from their touch.

Lila looked at the two heroes. She could see the looks of annoyance and anger had shifted to something much worse in their eyes, pity.  Honestly it was better when they were angry with her. At least then there was some sort of begrudging mutual animosity. But right now… everything she worked for was gone, her school life was destroyed, and that whole bit about conquering Paris as an akuma now seemed unbelievably dumb in retrospective. But does that really matter? Lila felt her soul sink. She felt as ruined as the school looked.

“So… what happens now? You're gonna lock me away and throw away the key?”

Ladybug and Chat Noir look at the girl puzzled.

“Lock you up?”

“Yea, after all of the crap that Alya posted on the Ladyblog. All of this? And whatever else I didn’t mention. I bet you want to put me in a cell and let me rot.”

Ladybug sighed. Part of her had to admit that if this was before Lila’s meltdown, she would have agreed. The girl had issues. But seeing Lila now, whether her tantrum was real or not… It made the girl seem so small. And even without the temper tantrum, prison probably wouldn't be possible.

“We aren’t going to hold what you did as an akuma against you. If we did, then we would have to lock up a lot of Parisians,” Chat Noir started off.

“However, we do know that you have been causing a lot of trouble, and your actions outside of being an akuma have not been good.”

“We sure we can’t arrest her?” Queen Bee suggested.

“Train incident,” Ladybug and Chat Noir stated in unison.

“Nevermind.” Queen Bee backed off. “Yikes. You both are in unison way too much all of a sudden. You know what? You two handle this. I will … check on the old guy.”

Queen bee jumped away in the direction of the motionless akuma puppets.

Lila turned her attention back to Ladybug.

“What happens next is your call, Lila,” Ladybug spoke sternly. “There are going to be consequences for what happened regardless of your choice. It’s up to you how you deal with things going forward. And if you want my opinion, the honest you right here, I think, has a better chance of earning a second chance than the version you tried out when you first came to this school. You would be amazed how accepting people are if you stay true to yourself. I don’t promise it will be easy, but I can say it is better than the path you are going on.”

Lila still felt a fierce dislike of Ladybug, and she still remembered all of the pain and frustration she endured since her first akumatization… but she knew that Ladybug was being genuine and trying to reach out. She just wasn't sure if she could be willing to accept help from Ladybug of all people.

“Mi Stellina!”

The voice calling out had the heroes and Lila turn.

“Mama?” Lila asked in surprise.

______________________________________________________________________

Queen Bee had dashed out of the building to see, laying in the middle of multiple masked akuma who remained motionless, an old man. One who looked very familiar.

“Hey… you’re that old guy I saved earlier.” Queen bee mentioned. “What happened to the old turtle guy?”

Fu took a second to process what she had just said and decided not to explain.

“And you are the young girl that helped me out. What a coincidence,” Fu said as he tried to get up. “Did you finally prove to yourself that you were always a hero?”

Chloé looked at the old man with a perplexed expression. She didn’t know how this old man knew so much. But she wasn’t going to question it.

“I don’t know for sure. I know it’s easier to be a hero with powers,” Queen Bee answered.

Fu looked at the unsure blonde and smiled.

“I can tell that there is a hero inside of you. It wasn’t visible at first, and many would argue that it isn’t there, but you just have to believe that there is good inside of you. If you can push forward and try to keep being that hero, soon the day will come when you don’t need the powers to be a hero.”

Queen Bee thought about his words for a moment.

“You know, after all of this mask insanity and finding one’s true self crap, I think I've realized what I am. I am not Ladybug and I am not my mother. I am me. I may not be kind, I may be self-interested… but I know who I am and I know I can be a pretty good hero.”

Fu had to admit that it was an interesting way of looking at things. Being a good person was not always easy as one might think. Chloé Bourgeois was definitely a long way off from being a completely selfless person, but she was leaning in the right direction at least. That was a start.

“Hey… Ladybug already de-akumatized Lila. Why is everyone still in masks?”

The old man looked around and noticed what Chloé had pointed out. They all were just lifeless puppets but they were still there.

“That is odd. The powers of the akuma usually wear off when the akuma is freed, unless…”

“Unless?”

“Something else is tethering the masks to these individuals. Tell me, was there a sentimonster that was paired with the akuma?”

“Oh yea, but like Chat Noir handled it with a cataclysm.”

Fu’s eyes went wide.

“A standard Cataclysm doesn’t destroy sentimonsters, it only frees them from the control of its wielder. So, then the reason the masks are still… oh no.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Rossi ran to her daughter and hugged her.

“Are you okay? Back to yourself again?” she asked as she touched her daughter’s face.

“I'm not akumatized anymore.”

“Oh, thank goodness! Now we can talk with the principal and straighten out this whole mess.”

“Mama…”

“We can clear up this whole misunderstanding and get you back into class. I am sure that your boyfriend…”

“Mom!”

Ms. Rossi stopped talking.

“Those things… I did them. I was telling the truth. I'm not the person you think I am. I… I lied a lot. But I lied to you the most.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir took a small step back to give the two some space to talk.

“Lila… why did…”

“Because we're always moving! Do you know how hard it is to make friends when we hardly stay anywhere longer than a year? I've been to ten schools in five countries over the last four years! I know it’s your job and that you need to do what they say… but I just couldn’t keep being the same person over and over only to feel rejected and lonely! It would drive anyone…” Lila’s eyes were welling up with tears as she spoke. She struggled to keep her composure.

Ms. Rossi saw the sheen of tears in Lila's eyes and realized that everything she said was true. She didn't know what to say.

“And what's this?”

A voice from above caught the their attention.

Lila's ears perked up as she quickly wiped her tears.

“Simularé! You're still here? I thought you were finished.”

Lila looked up at the sentimonster. If the it was still here, then maybe this wasn’t over for her. But her hopes dwindled when she saw the Sentimonster’s new form.

“What… What happened to you?”

The shape-shifting sentimonster had changed quite a bit. The lower half of its torso was large and similar to Ikari Gozen, But each of its legs were different. The front right leg one looked fuzzy, almost like purple static, and had an ice skate like Frozer on its foot. The front left leg was a darker blue, reminiscent of Maledikator, but its foot was a rollerblade like Time Tagger. The back right leg was black and like that of a panther. The back left leg looked oddly as if it was made of bread.

The upper half looked much more humanoid, but it had 6 arms on its torso which was akin to that of Gorizilla. Each arm was different and held a different weapon. The uppermost right arm was rock-like matching Stoneheart’s body, but wielding a sword much like Darkblade. The uppermost left arm was beast-like and furry, with thorny vines on its wrists, much like Weredad. The middle right arm was shorter and metallic, with a mechanical claw that held an umbrella. The middle left arm was pink and had a mirror on its back like Reflekta's, and held a bottle similar to Princess Frangrance's perfume blaster. Its lower right arm was made of gold glitter and held a stylus, while the lower left arm wore a long red and black sleeve with a tablet on the back of its wrist.

The monster was riding on a massive paper airplane much like Reverser had, and had black feather wings spreading from its back which clearly belonged to Dark Cupid. The top of its head had pink dreads similar to that of Guitar Villain, and on its back was a canister of bubble soap. The fox ears of volpina also peered out from the hair. Despite all of this, though, the most striking feature was the cracked white mask it had for a face.

“I have taken the next step in our evolution.”

The Sentimonster leapt off the paper airplane and landed with a thud. Ladybug and Chat Noir jumped in between the monster and Lila.

“That’s enough Simularé! It's over. We are going to cleanse your amok and you will be able to ease your suffering.”

“Suffering? No no no. I am not suffering, I AM LIVING!” Simularé exclaimed.

It used its massive upper arms to knock both Ladybug and Chat Noir back. Thankfully Ryuuko and Viperion noticed the two heroes flying through the air and ran forward to catch them.

“Lila! I finally see everything clearly. I understand. I am unbelievably free now! And we can finish what we started!” Simularé spoke with glee.

The sentimonster stuck out its hand to Lila, beckoning. “Masquerade or not, you still have a role to play.”

“Don’t listen to that monster!” Chat Noir called out.

“You can’t let it sway you! End this now,” urged Ladybug.

Lila looked at the heroes, who were now staring daggers at the monster. This could be her big chance. It wasn’t over yet! Her earring still had the amok. She could still get what she wanted. She could best Ladybug! She could get that win she had been craving so desperately. But then she felt someone touch her shoulder and turned to see her mother, her very terrified mother.

“Mi Stellina… I know you are hurting. I know that thing is part of the evil that you took part in. But you can’t go back to it. I promise you I will be a better mother to you. I won't let you feel alone like you have been ever again.” Ms. Rossi spoke softly as she tried to keep her voice steady.

Her mother was shaking, tears dripping down her face. Lila may have been angry, but she could see that her mother wanted to protect her.

Lila turned to her mother.

“Mama… I…”

“Please… don’t take another step. I can't lose you too.”

That statement hung in the air for a moment.

Lila turned away from her mother.

“Simularé.”

“Yes?”

“It's over.”

The Sentimonster took a step back in surprise.

“You can’t be serious.”

Lila took a deep breath.

“I have done a lot of awful things. I have been selfish, cruel, manipulative and spiteful. Part of me would love nothing more than to just watch the heroes fall to you… but I can’t break my Mama’s heart anymore today.”

Simularé shook its head.

“I knew you were pathetic.”

“Excuse me?”

Simularé grabbed her collar.

“What are you doing!?” Lila gasped as she struggled. “I order you to stop!”

Simularé pauses for a second but then starts laughing.

“Wait… why aren’t you listening to me?!

Chat Noir was the first one to realize it. His cataclysm had done this.

“Oh no…”

Simularé used one of its hands to take the earring. Putting it on one of its fox ears.

“I will say I am disappointed, but I am not surprised. You were always held back by your weaknesses. You were always self-sabotaging, as if you were begging to get in trouble. I am everything that made you strong with none of your weaknesses. I am everything you wished you could have been but never had the guts to be. And this explains why some of the hatred inside of me is directed towards you. You hated yourself as much as everyone else. So, I suppose this was going to happen anyway. Goodbye Lila.”

Simularé tosses Lila, sending her flying out of the classroom, presumably to her death.

“No!” Ms Rossi cried out as her daughter fell out of sight.

But before she hit the ground, Queen Bee jumped up and caught her.

“You are really lucky I'm trying to be better.” Queen Bee commented.

Simularé shrugged its shoulders.

“Well then, since it seems that I am the only one left, shall I finally end this?”

Simularé flies up with its wings. It raises all of its hands in the air.

“Now, how should I do that?” Simularé questioned.

Ladybug looked around. The Lucky Charm mop bucket was right by her, but that charm couldn’t be used for Simularé. And with it present she couldn’t summon another one. Her timer was running low again and things were only getting more intense.

“The power of one’s miraculous is limited only by its user,” a voice emanated from the yo-yo.

Ladybug picked up the yo-yo.

“Master, what do you mean?”

“Right now, I am at my physical limit, but you and Chat Noir are still fresh. The miraculous’s ability is limited only by what you think you can do.”

“But I already used my Lucky Charm…”

“Have you truly done so?”

“But… how?”

“You and Chat Noir need to dig deep and push past your mental limits. It is at the most uncertain of times that one discovers what they can truly do. I must leave. I am far past my limit and I need to ensure the Miraculous are safe.”

The call ended.

Chat Noir pondered what the guardian had said.

“Fu said our power is limited by us. I think I can fire my cataclysm from a distance. I might be able to hit the earring.”

Ladybug realized that it was a long shot, but it might just work.

“Are you sure it’s possible?”

“Not at all, but I know that Simularé probably doesn’t want me hitting her with another cataclysm and if you can create an opening. I might be able to hit the earring.”

“I’ll get you your shot. Don’t use cataclysm until I give the signal,” Ladybug said. “Ryuuko, Viperion. I need you to distract Simularé.”

“On it!” The two heroes exclaimed.

“Queen Bee. Get Ms. Rossi out of here. Then come back.”

“But…”

“You want to be a hero?”

Queen Bee wanted to fight, but Ladybug was right. She was really regretting the whole ‘trying to be a better hero thing’.

“Fine.” Queen Bee begrudgingly accepted. She dashed over and scooped up Ms Rossi before moving into the building.

“If our powers are limited only by us, then maybe…”

Simularé noticed Queen Bee retreating and summoned a trumpet, prepared to blast the hero. Viperion’s thrown lyre smacked the instrument out of her hands.

“Annoying lizard!” Simularé used an arm to shoot icicles at Viperion, still keeping a tight grip on Lila.

Ryuuko jumped upward and went for a slash with her sword, only to be blocked by Simularé’s blade.

“Foolish girl. Think you can best me? I can handle all of you at once! And you're both running out of time!”

Ladybug picked up the lucky charm next to her.

“Fu said we were limited only by ourselves. The lucky charm is always something I need… Maybe…”

Ladybug closed her eyes and focused on the charm. Her body glowed with a red light for a brief moment as she focused on the situation they were in. She needed a lucky charm that would help them defeat Simularé.

“Lucky Charm! Change!” Ladybug called instinctively. She opened her eyes and saw the mop bucket glow.

__________________________________________________________________________

Queen bee had rushed the two Rossis to the front side of the school.

“There, you’re safe. Now go run off and hide while we go handle your mess,” Queen Bee said, exasperated with the situation. She started to get ready to leap back into action.

Lila looked at Queen Bee.

“Don’t act all smug just because you have a miraculous. I know you aren’t that great of a person either, Chloé.” Lila snarked.

Queen bee stopped for a moment. She was about to leave, but she had her fill of this prissy wannabe mean girl.

“You know what? I think that Sentimonster really is a good reflection of you as a person.”

“What the hell are you saying?”

“I'm saying you are a total knock off of everything. Your nice girl shtick is basically pretending to be Marinette, your bullying is an inferior version of mine, even each of your akuma forms were rip offs. Volpina, a lesser version of the Fox miraculous. Rena Rouge wore it better. Your Chameleon form is just you pretending to be anyone but yourself, and your last form Masquerade, you were just a rip off of Hawkmoth. Face it, you are just a knock off of everything because you don’t know what being original means.”

Lila tried to speak but found that her usual quick responses had failed her.

It was Ms. Rossi that spoke up.

“Listen here. My daughter has made mistakes, and that falls on me as her mother. I should be the one that is to blame for today. I didn’t see how she was suffering and didn’t notice how she was treating others. I will be the one to set this all right, and if you want to insult someone, it will be me.”

Queen Bee blinked at the response. Seeing such strong motherly love was an unfamiliar concept to her. She had to admit she was a bit envious.

“Well, be thankful that you have a mom that is still trying to help you despite all the crap you pulled. Not everyone is that lucky. So if you want my advice, try being original.”

Queen Bee turned her back to them and ran back to the fight.

“Mama…”

“It is my fault, dear. I should have seen the pain you were going through...” she said.

Lila hugged her mother closely, tears spilling from her eyes. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything.”

Ms. Rossi held her daughter. “It’s a start, Mi Stellina. It’s a start.”

__________________________________________________________________________

The mop bucket she had summoned turned into a glowing sphere of magic and then transformed into something entirely new.

Ladybug opened her eyes and saw that the lucky charm had changed.

“It’s a scarf.”

Ladybug saw the lucky charm was a scarf similar to the one she gave to Adrien. But right now wasn’t the time to get sentimental.

She scanned the area. She saw Ryuuko, she saw Viperion, and she saw a book, she saw the scarf, and she saw Chat Noir. She had a plan.

“Viperion, grab that book over there,” Ladybug instructed as she began making her move to the right of the akuma.

Viperion nodded. He quickly dodged the icicles sent his way and grabbed the book. Just as he grabbed it he noticed several more icicles heading for his face. He instinctively used the book to block the projectiles and noticed that the book didn’t get pierced. It was an akuma weapon!

“Huh. Neat.”

“Limit its options. Don’t touch it directly with the book. We need to de-amokitize it.”

“Got it!”

“Ryuuko, bring the storm.”

Simularé overheard that part.

“Enough!”

The monstrosity sent a burst of wind that was meant to make Ryuuko go flying.

“Wind Dragon!”

Ryuuko’s body transformed into air and began swirling around Simularé.

“What the heck! I thought Lightning was your power!” Simularé growled.

Ryuuko’s wind form caused the wings of the sentimonster to move and throw off its rhythm.

Viperion used the chance to touch the book to each of the sentimonster’s weapons - its sword, its tablet, its bubble canister, its umbrella, and the perfume blaster.

“Disarmed!”

“Chat Noir, get ready!” Ladybug called out.

“Cataclysm!”

Chat Noir called forth the black energy from his ring into his palm. He pointed his cataclysm hand at the Sentimonster.

“Now… how do I throw you?” he said to himself.

“Simularé was done being messed with. “I said ENOUGH!”

A massive burst of command came out and forced Ryuuko to transform back into her tangible form.

“I am done with you.” Simularé shouted as it grabbed Ryuuko by the face and went to slam her into the floor.

Right before impact, Ryuuko screamed.

“WATER DRAGON!”

SPLASH!

Her body turned into water and splashed back toward the Sentimonster, soaking its wings.

Viperion saw the earring and made a leap for it, only to get caught by the rock arm of Simularé. One of its lower arms knocked the book out of his hands and to the floor.

“Predictable.”

Simularé tried to fly upward but its wings felt way too heavy. The water in the plumage was weighing her down.

“What utter bull…”

Ladybug saw her moment and used the chance to cover the sentimonster’s mask with the scarf.

“What the?”

Ladybug wrapped the scarf tight around its head. Seeing the earring on one fox ear. Ladybug went to grab it, but the Gorizilla arm grabbed Ladybug and pulled her back just before she could reach it.

“No!”

Simularé removed its wings, forcing the water form of Ryuuko out. The girl became tangible once more

Viperion felt his timer beep one final time as his transformation dropped.

“Well, that’s one,” Simularé taunted.

“Let him go, you monster!” Ryuuko jumped to try and slash at him but her timer timed out.

“That makes two.” Simularé counted as she used her two lower arms to snag.

Kagami tried struggling but to no avail.

Ladybug tried to use her yo-yo, but the grip on her tightened.

“Don’t move Ladybug, or I might just lose control of my strength and… well the school is already a mess.”

Ladybug noticed Kagami and Luka helpless in the sentimonsters grasp and she heard her miraculous beep. She had very little time left. She glanced at Chat Noir, looking at the boy she loved. Putting her faith in him.

Simularé’s face was still covered by the scarf. The Sentimonster tried using its spare arms to untie the scarf from its face but it couldn’t reach.

Chat Noir saw the situation. Simularé was distracted, it was 30 meters away. He could hear his heart pounding into his ears.

“I got one shot….” His hands were shaking. If he missed… he could hurt his friends or his lady… and that’s assuming he could even shoot the cataclysm from a distance.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

‘Focus Adrien. This is your one chance. Getting too close may put that thing on alert. I need to fire the blast from here. I need to be accurate. I can't fail.’

He opened his eyes, and he could see Ladybug glancing at him. Her eyes full of trust, full of hope. She believed in him.

He felt his heart pound loudly but his hand was now steady.

He nodded to her, assuring her that he could see her.

His eyes focused on the earring.

He raised his cataclysm hand, he pointed his finger at the amokitized object. His body glowing with a light green aura.

“Cataclysm! FIRE!”

A small bullet shaped cataclysm shot from his finger. Chat Noir nearly fell over from the force, but steadied himself. He hoped he aimed true.

Just as Simularé managed to reach the scarf with one of its hands but stopped.

“Something doesn’t feel right…”

The Volpina ear with the earring dropped to the floor.

The Sentimonster’s monsterous form shifted, turning back into its phantom-like form, releasing its captives. Ladybug caught Luka and Kagami and Landed on the ground. The scarf that once covered its head dropped off its mask.

“What just…” The sentimonster questioned before it saw the earring on the ground. “No…”

Simularé tried to grab the earring but it turned to ash… causing the amok to fly out.

Ladybug put the two teens down and used her yo-yo to snag the feather.

“No more evildoing for you little amok.”

Simularé felt its existence start to fade.

“No! I was free! I don’t want to stop existing! I want to live! I WANT TO LIVE!!!”

The purification process finished and Simularé’s screeches faded to silence as they faded entirely.

Ladybug walked over and grabbed her lucky charm from the ground. She picked up Luka and Kagami, moving to just outside of the classroom and putting them down. Chat Noir moved and landed right next to her.

“Shall we do this together Chatton?”

“I would be honored.”

“WAIT!”

They froze to see Queen bee rush out and jump to be right next to them.

“Okay you can go now.”

“Together?”

“Together.”

“Miraculous Ladybug!” They shouted as she threw the scarf into the air.

They watched as everything got repaired, the decimated parts of the school were now restored. The masked akuma puppets were transported to where ever they were before they were captured.

The five teens stick out their fists and bump them together.

“Pound it!”

Ladybug heard her miraculous beep.

“Okay, so I need to go recharge. I am gonna need the miraculous from the 3 of you.”

“Okay.” Luka and Kagami compiled as they took off their miraculous. The Dragon and Snake Kwami reveal themselves.

“It’sss been a pleasure asss always.” Sass bowed to Luka.

“The feeling is mutual.” Luka sad as he fistbumped the kwami.

Longg looked at his owner.

“Perfect as expected.” Longg congratulated.

“I still have a ways to go.”

“Yes, but not a LONGG way to go.” The dragon kwami spoke.

Kagami and Chat Noir lit up at the pun. Ladybug wanted to facepalm but resisted the urge.

“I will be sure to get you more rice balls next time.”

Kagami and Luka handed over the miraculous to Ladybug.

Queen bee looked a bit sad as she said that.

“Chloé?”

“But I still haven’t detransformed so I …” Before she could finish her transformation dropped revealing her civilian form.

Pollen had popped out of the miraculous.

“Sorry my Queen.”

Chloé sighed, she knew there was no point in arguing now.

“Okay fine. But just remember to include me next time you need extra help. Or I will reveal who the snake boy and Dragon girl are.”

“Chloé…” Chat Noir said with a bit of disappointment.

“Fine, I won’t reveal it. Just keep me posted.”

Ladybug took the miraculous in her hand.

“Until next time.”

The two heroes jumped away, leaving the teens to their own devices outside of the school.

“Well I don’t know about you two, but I am heading back to my class. I need to tell everyone why they need to kiss my butt.” Chloé boasted.

“We have our own way to go. Good luck with that.” Luka responded.

“Whatever… but umm… thanks for the help. You two were pretty good for sidekicks.” Chloé said trying to be thankful yet keep her pride.

“That is the best compliment we will get from you isn’t it?” Kagami rhetorically asked.

“Yes.”

“As one sidekick to another, you could have been worse.” Kagami shot back.

Chloé gave her a fierce glare, but she had to admit that was a solid line.

“I wouldn’t mind fighting with you guys again.”

Chloé walked off as if to show she left with the final word.

“Shall we head off?”

“Lets.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Gabriel’s eyes shot open as he found himself standing at the steps of his front corridor.

“What? How?” Gabriel spoke as he held his head. He quickly touched his chest and felt the butterfly miraculous underneath. He sighed in relief.

He looked down to see Adrien’s driver at the bottom of the steps also looking perplexed.

Gabriel reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. He called Nathalie.

“Nathalie! Are you there.” He asked as he made his way back to his office.

“I am… I am alright. The akuma and sentimonster have been bested.”

Gabriel sighed.

“It was probably for the best. Lila was far too volatile.”

“It was more of the sentimonster. That sentimonster was far too clever for its own good. Utilizing complex sentimonsters in the future should be handled with much more care.”

Gabriel nodded.

“If there is no danger, then return back. Don’t overexert yourself.”

“Yes sir.”

Gabriel hung up the phone.

He tightened his fist. Nathalie was no actor, he could tell that she was getting much weaker. Today’s attempt was far too dangerous. She had risked far too much and gained nothing. He was going to insist she take a break so that she could rest.

Gabriel sat in his chair and looked at his desk. Taking a moment before sighing deeply.

“Today was an absolute failure.”

He  banged his desk in frustration. He needed something, anything that could settle the score. The peacock was too unstable and it wasnt producing results. He would need something new. He would need to investigate.

__________________________________________________________________________

Ladybug and Chat Noir moved a good distance away from the school, landing on a remote Rooftop where they were sure they had privacy before dropping their transformations. Their kwami’s popped out and they handed their kwami their respective snack of choice.

“Great job as always Bugaboo.” Adrien complimented.

Marinette’s expression was a sad smile. It was bittersweet.

“No need to be so down. We did save the day, Lila got exposed for her lies, and I found out that I fell for the same girl twice.” Adrien listed.

Marinette felt her face flush a bit.

“I found out my boyfriend is a furry.”

Adrien looked mock offended, noticing the teasing smile on Marinette’s face.

“Too cruel Marinette. You wound me.” He exaggerated as she put the back of his hand against his forehead and tilted his head back, doing his best to look devastated.

“I found out that I had been turning down the boy I have been in love with for months and struggling to say it out right at the exact same time.”

“We were like a dog chasing its tail.”

“Don’t you mean cat?”

Adrien glanced at her with a mix of pride and affection. He loved her so much. But still continued to talk.

“It is kind of crazy.”

“Crazy? You two have no idea!”

The two teens turn to their kwami who had been watching their little exchange.

“We have known since that time you almost got drowned in cream. If it wasn’t for the whole thing with Fu and the kwami censorship I would have told you right away!”

“He would have.” Tikki confirmed. “I almost smacked him when he was about to say something.”

Adrien’s amusement turned to stern.

“Speaking of Fu… what are we gonna do now that we know?”

Marinette’s expression matched his own.

“We can't exactly hide it from him. He is the guardian, and it was part of the deal.”

Adrien’s thoughts about telling fu clouded his mind.

“Wait, what if we tell him and he does some sort of Guardian memory mind wipe that makes us forget everything?” Adrien feared

“Don’t be ridiculous Chat Noir, that is only for assigned guardians when they renounce ownership of the guardian title.”

“Solid Fu impersonation Mari.”

“I didn’t say that.” Marinette answered.

“I did.”

The two turned to see Fu, who had appeared without a sound.

“How do you do that?” Adrien questioned.

“Ancient secret.” Fu teased. “Also, I just hid behind a wall while you were talking.”

Marinette showed Fu the three miraculous.

“I got them back.” Marinette answered.

“Excellent work you two.” Fu took the miraculous from them.

Marinette went for her earrings.

“I guess you will want ours as well?”

Tikki felt anguish as Marinette reached for her miraculous.

Adrien looked at Marinette and then to his ring.

Plagg’s expression matched Tikki’s. The two Kwami didn’t want to lose their holders.

“If I told you both to hand them over. Would you do so?”

Marinette and Adrien look at one another, then back to Fu.

“Yes.”

The guardian took a second as he studied their resolve.

“Before you say anything. I'm sorry about this. We were trapped in a room and… It was my fault.”

“No Marinette. I was the one that kept looking at the umbrella. It was my fault that we didn’t…”

“Enough!” Fu spoke loudly to stop their apologies. “That is not what is important in this situation.”

The two teens stopped speaking and let the guardian give his verdict.

“You two have risked your lives time and time again to protect this city, protect the miraculous, and protect those you love. For as long as I have been alive, I have never seen a Ladybug and Chat Noir as incredible as you two. You were both fated to be heroes, just as you were fated to be with one another.”

The two blushed at the comment but let the old man continue.

“It is true I set the rule that no one can know your identities. I feared that the moment you learned it that it would distract you from doing your work as heroes, that it would do more harm than good. But I watched as you two have grown closer and trusted one another on each side with and without the mask. I think that if you two believe you can handle working as heroes and knowing eachother’s identities… I will allow it.”

The young couple’s eyes went wide and their mouths fell open. Marinette grabbed Fu and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you, Master Fu!” Marinette exclaimed

“That is amazing! Thank you.” Adrien hugged him and Marinette.

The kwami were equally overjoyed and joined in on the hug.

Fu accepted the embrace, letting everyone enjoy the moment.

After the hug broke he continued.

“Of course, you two knowing each other’s identities means there will be more risks, and it means I will need to prepare you both for the next level.”

“The next level?”

“You had a taste of it today. You saw how your powers were able to be altered with enough will power. That is just the tip of the iceberg.” Fu began. “I will prepare you to be stronger against akumatization, stronger in your powers, and stronger as a team.”

Marinette and Adrien gave the other a knowing look. They could tell the other was excited and ready to hit the next level.

“We’re ready.”

“That will start In due time you two. But for now. I need a break. I could use some tea and a nap. And you two should make your way back to school.”

Marinette and Adrien realized that the old guardian had a point.

“We will continue this conversation another time.” Fu spoke as he started walking away.

“We should probably get going to.”

“Wait a second.” Adrien interrupted.

“What’s wrong?”

Adrien smirked as he took her hand and kissed it.

“To many more battles.”

Marinette felt her face heat up.

“You smug little cat.”

“Your smug little cat” He emphasized. “ Plagg, Claws out.”

“Tikki, Spots on!”

The two transformed and quickly got off the roof to head back to where they needed to be.

_____________________________________________________________________

Luka and Kagami walked away from Francois Dupont.

“That was truly something.” Luka started off.

“That is an understatement.” Kagami retorted.

The two of them walked in silence as they tried to think of something to say.

“I used to play violin.” Kagami bursted out.

The fencer felt her cheeks heat up as she did that. She still was feeling a lot from everything that happened.

“You did?”

“Yea… I hadn’t played in a while and I was thinking about trying again. My mother had me learn a while back but stopped so I could focus on other activities. It is different from Guitar, but it is similar.”

“I play violin.” Luka responded.

“You do?”

“Yea, along with the guitar. I always loved stringed instruments. I even made a few myself.”

Kagami’s eyes went wide?

“That’s incredible, Ive never heard of someone our age doing such intricate work.”

“It's my dream. I love making instruments and sharing music with others.”

Kagami could see the passion in his eyes as he talked about it. It was something she admired, when someone knew what they wanted.

“I would love to try out one of the instruments you’ve made.”

“Maybe we could play the violin together, maybe you could even play in the band.”

“I assumed your band was more into Rock and Roll?”

“Who says a violin cant be rock and roll?”

Kagami didn’t know how to respond to that, but she decided to go with it.

“Sounds like it would be fun.”

Kagami pauses when she sees her mother’s car.

“That’s my ride.”

“Oh, I suppose you do need to head off then.”

“Yes, would you need a ride by any chance.”

“I’m good, I am close enough to where I need to be.”

Kagami shrugged.

“Suit yourself, music man.”

“I will Femme Foil”

Before she headed off.

“Before I go…”

Kagami moved and had her face close to his own, her eyes looking into his. Luka couldn’t help but feel his face heat up, he had no idea what the girl was up to.

Before he could ask, Kagami punches his arm hard.

“Ow! What was that for?” Luka questioned as he grabbed his hurt arm.

“That was for sacrificing yourself to save me from getting mind wiped.” She stated with a fierce glare.

“Is that going to be a regular thing?”

Her fierce expression softened right before she placed a kiss on his cheek.

“And that is… for everything else.”

Kagami quickly ran off before Luka could respond.

Luka felt his ears ringing with her melody and the beating of his heart, and what a sweet serenade it was.

“What a lovely song.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Marinette and Adrien had slipped back into the classroom with no issue. Most of the class was still a bit dazed from the akuma attack, many students having to move around to get back to the classroom they were supposed to be in. Chloé filled most of the class in on her exploits as queen bee. Which the two heroes knew was probably a touch more exaggerated than what happened, but they wouldn’t ruin her moment for once, she earned it.

“And that’s how I helped Ladybug and Chat Noir save everyone.” Chloé finished all too conveniently.

“Sure, Chloé sure.” Alix rolled her eyes.

Alya noticed Marinette sit in her seat and rushed over.

“Thank goodness you are okay.” Alya hugged the girl.

“I'm fine. Adrien protected me.” Marinette replied.

Alya shifted her gaze to Adrien with a smirk. Adrien was blushing at Marinette’s response.

“Oh did he? Well look at him being your handsome knight.”

“No need to stroke his ego more. Gotta keep the cinnamon roll humble.” Nino chimed in.

“Well Marinette also protected me. If anything, she is a real hero.”

“You two are so sweet that you are going to give everyone here cavities.”

“Could you not ruin my big day with your sap?” Chloé said with a bit of annoyance.

“Well I was going to mention what I saw Queen bee did that was pretty cool, but I don’t want to ruin your “Big day”. “Marinette responded.

“Pretty cool? Well I suppose you can be a bit sappy today.” Chloé answered. Trying her best not to glow from the tiny bit of implied praise.

Just as the conversation was to continue, Ms.Bustier walked into the classroom. The class sat in their seats

“Hello everyone. Due to the rather… hectic nature of today. The school has decided to dismiss classes for today. But before I dismiss you. I have some news to share. Lila, will you please come in?”

Everyone watched as Lila walked in. She was clutching her backpack. Everyone was silent as the brunette stood in the center of class.

“…Due to everything that has come to light. I will be leaving Dupont. I will no longer be a part of this class or this school.”

The class remained silent but were stunned by her statement.

“I apologize for the deceit and lies I have told while I was here. I also apologize for any physical and emotional damage I have caused with my actions. I will try to do better in the future.”

The statement felt wooden, Lila’s lies were usually over-the-top and fluid. Here Lila was nervous, strained, and clearly uncomfortable. It was debatable if she was being genuine.

Max was the first to speak up.

“So, are you going to be going to a different school in Paris?”

Lila looked at the teen and sighed.

“No, my mother has talked with Mr.Damocles. She felt that it might be best if our family went back to Italy. I think it’s better that way.”

Lila looked to the door, feeling she had said her apology.

“Miss Rossi, I believe you still have one more thing to say.” Ms. Bustier pointed out.

Lila took a deep breath and walked over to Marinette.

“Marinette. For all the threats, all the mean words, and damage I have done. I…had gone too far. I am sorry.”

Marinette looked deep into Lila’s eyes, trying to get a good of a read. I think part of Lila did believe that was true. But she wasn’t completely sorry, so Marinette wasn’t going to completely forgive her.

“I accept your apology. I hope you do better for your sake.” Marinette offered her hand to shake Lila’s.

Lila looked at the hand for a moment before taking it reluctantly.

“Maybe I will come back one day. Paris is a very unique place after all.” Lila said to Marinette as she finished the handshake. “Now I must be off.”

Lila went to the door and closed it behind her as she walked away.

To Marinette, that was the most honest thing she had said. She watched as Lila left the classroom.

“With that, you are all dismissed.” Ms.Bustier told the class.

Alya had leaned over to Marinette.

“So… I should probably take down the article on the ladyblog then right?”

“Probably, but keep it just in case. This could all be an act.” Adrien whispered as he turned his head to the two of them.

Marinette, Nino and Alya look at Adrien in surprise.

“What? It could be.” Adrien followed up.

“Yea, but you are the one that is always saying, give the benefit of the doubt.” Nino stated. “Its like I am seeing you lose your innocence. Like a kid learning santa isn’t real.”

“Santa isn’t real?” Adrien looked shook.

Nino felt his eyes go wide in horror.

“What? Of course santa is…”

“I'm busting you Nino.”

Nino looked proud and concerned. Adrien really was growing up and he is getting pretty good at deception.

“It's still shocking to hear mr.Brightside say such a negative thought though.” Marinette teased. “I thought you would be the one to suggest giving her a second chance.”

“I normally would be, but I have been burned too many times by that specific fire and I am not risking it again.”

“Fair, but I think I agree. I will keep the article, but take it down from the site.”

“That can wait, How about we get some ice cream?” Nino suggested.

“Sounds like a sweet idea to me.”

Marinette could swear she saw his chat Noir showing.

______________________________________________________________________

After Lila moved, it was relatively quiet in Paris for a bit. Maybe Hawkmoth had needed a vacation after that colossal failure. It was hard to say for certain. Regardless, the peaceful patrols served more as unofficial dates than actual patrols.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had come to an agreement that while in public view, they would keep their romance quiet. Chat Noir would still flirt and Ladybug would still respond cheekily, but it was never distracting. The two knew how to keep it professional. If questioned, Chat Noir would even admit that sadly there had been no developments.

It had been about two weeks since that little hectic event and things had been relatively calm for Marinette and Adrien. Gabriel had told Adrien that he would be giving Nathalie a vacation for a time, and that he will need to manage his schedule for the time being. Adrien still attended all his photoshoots, but he made sure his girlfriend could attend with him. While Adrien wasn’t fond of modeling, having Marinette there made it more fun. Though he did have a few tutoring cancellations which may or may not have been Adrien’s own doing, Gabriel always seemed too busy to notice that Adrien had used that time to hang out with his friends.

Class life without Lila didn’t go back to normal right away. Max apologized to Marinette, saying he should have noticed something was up with Lila. Alix joined in too, but Marinette told them all that it was okay, and she knew how tricky Lila could be. All she asked was for them be more critical in the future. Most of the class tried to do some nice things for Marinette to make up for all of the stuff Lila had tried to pull. Marinette felt flattered but told them she wasn’t going to hold it against them. It wasn’t really their fault they’d been tricked. This didn’t stop the class from trying to make amends and treat Marinette better. Adrien only encouraged the behavior, saying Marinette should be cherished.

Chloé was still Chloé, but it seemed the more grating aspects of her personality were starting to soften. She had even started holding back on her insults. Alya became convinced she was an imposter but that accusation was proven false when Chloé caught her trying to do an expose on her. Chloé just said that she was just trying to live up to her “hero” status. Most of the class rolled their eyes at that, but Adrien and Marinette gave the girl some credit. Queen Bee had been a big help and Chloé was really stepping up. It also seemed that she’d struck up a friendship with the school nurse – Marinette caught her getting the new nurse a gift for her birthday. Chloé tried to threaten Marinette out of telling anyone, but Marinette just assured her that no one would believe her even if she did.

As for Marinette and Adrien, there was a bit of an adjustment period for them now that they knew each other’s identities. Marinette found out about ALL the Ladybug photos and teased Adrien about it much like he did her. Their biggest struggles came from remembering to keep it professional as heroes. It did help that Fu was getting them some training for the ‘next step’ as he called it.

One night, Ladybug and Chat Noir met at their usual spot.

“Evening, My Lady.”

“Evening, Kitty.

“Fu has really been hitting us hard with that training of his.”

“He’s being strict for both of our sakes, remember? And you did say you were excited to learn new moves.”

“I know, but I’m so tired. Anyway, enough of that for now. How about we enjoy our patrol tonight, since we may not know what he has in store for us in the next session?”

“Sounds lovely,” Ladybug mused.

“Oh by the way, remember that app that gave us 100% compatibility?” Chat Noir asked suddenly.

“Soulmate Searcher? The app that got you to start viewing me as more than just a friend?”

“I was dense and I admit it. Yes, that one! Turns out the guy who created it is on the run for tax evasion.”

“Oh, that’s weird. I thought you were going to say that the app was totally bogus or something.”

“Nah, it seems to be holding up. But having too much faith in an algorithm is a bit crazy if you think about it,”

“So here’s a question, what would you have done if I wasn’t on your list at all?”

“I remember Alya was the one that got me to download the app. The only reason I really tried it out is she said you were on it. I told Alya I still would have given it a chance even if you weren’t on it… but I don’t know if I actually would have gone through with it… I was hesitating pretty hard despite her insistence. Then your name popped up.” She paused and looked at him. “What about you? What would you have done?

“I think I probably would have tried to see if that person was Ladybug,” Chat Noir joked.

Ladybug playfully punched his arm.

“Ouch! You wound me,” Chat Noir reacted dramatically. “Okay, if it was someone I didn’t know I probably would have deleted it.”

“Sure, sure. So why did you do some digging on the app?”

“I didn’t. Apparently my father had been doing some research on the app. I found the papers scattered in his office when he asked me to move some stuff off his desk last week. I think he might have wanted to set up a business deal or something. But I remembered it because I got an email from it.”

“Oh! I know what you’re talking about. That one that wanted you to take a few minutes to tell them what you thought of the app.”

“Yea, the survey.”

“It is kind of a weird idea if you think about it.”

“What is?”

“Asking people to do a Soulmate Survey?”

“I guess it does sound a bit out there. But it does sound fun when you say it like that.”

“I’d give them 5 stars.”

“I’d give them 4 stars.”

“Why only 4?”

“Because it didn’t tell me you were my kitty too.”

Chat Noir moved towards Ladybug, pulling her into a loving embrace.

“Well, how would you rate me?”

“5 stars.”

Ladybug cupped his cheeks and the two shared a tender kiss.

_____________________________________________________________________

THE END!

THATS ALL FOLKS

THATS ALL SHE WROTE

68 PAGES!

I have no idea how I managed to get this all on one post

do check out the Ao3 version

Please let me know your thoughts and if this was worth reading.

And do share it, it really does help.

#ML #miraculous ladybug #Soulmate survey #this is the finale #mlb #adrinette #ladynoir #marichat #ladrien #ml fanfic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #lukagami #its over #its done #Its completed

[selfshipstorm]

gotta love getting a late night idea for smth to write and then your self doubt absolutely shooting it down

#I mean I still have the idea developed #and am tempted to post a little teaser thing as an interest survey? #idk if it flops it'll probably never see the light of day #it's a soulmate au john and minerva thing #but with the right amount of angst bc it is fc.5 after all #tales from the cave #does this count as a rant #probably #bear.rant #there's honestly a lot of things I've wanted to write up and post but self doubt and anxiety said nope #and that's on self esteem issues

[always-andromeda]

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑’𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐓

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 ✯ Professor!Sam Winchester x Fem!Reader

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 ✯ 3268

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 ✯ taboo au + dark academia + “I can see how badly you want this, so I'm going to make sure you get it.”

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ✯ I’ve loved this man literally since I was thirteen…so it’s inevitable that I’d be writing something absolutely fucking filthy for him in my twenties…

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ✯ smut (minors, do not interact), gaps in age and power, mutual masturbation, little bit of panty sniffing, a singular use of Y/N (I'm sorry, I hate it too but it was necessary), usage of pet names (sweetheart), general manipulation, slight praise kink, obvious disclaimer: the dynamic in this fic is just that, fictional, and should not be practiced in real life!! let me know if any other warnings are needed!!

(mdni banner template credit goes to @cafekitsune!!)

You’d rarely had luck receiving any sort of grace from your professors. Sure, there were a select few that only wanted to see you succeed. However, more often than not you seemed to encounter sadists who decided to take their kinks out on exhausted college students. But you were convinced that Professor Winchester wouldn’t be like that.

For starters, he’d always been challenging but never malicious. Despite the fact that you’d registered for his Norse Mythology course with the assumption that it would be easy college credits, you quickly learned that his assignments were difficult. Every week there seemed to be about a hundred pages worth of reading, frequent essays, and an emphasis on class discussion.

Oh, did he love those class discussions. While most were less than enthusiastic to contribute to lengthy examinations of Eddic poetry at eight in the morning, Professor Winchester seemed to be none the wiser of this.

He was always squinting over his thin wire framed glasses, surveying the class. He’d stand at his desk, brushing his long hair behind his ear while looking over papers. When he’d listen he’d purse his lips and tilt his head, expression rife with genuine interest. In all of these moments, he was the most gorgeous. But more than that, you were fascinated with his mind.

Professor Winchester knew this material like the back of his hand; was able to pull references and quotes from various pieces of literature at the drop of a hat. He was the only professor who could ever give notes that were actually helpful on essays and he’d always been generous with handing out extra credit assignments. Which is what you aimed to obtain on this visit to his office.

You looked through the glass of his office door and saw him inside, working diligently at a dark oak wood desk. Taking a deep breath, you turned the doorknob and entered.

The hinges squeezed but Winchester seemed so fixated on whatever was before him that he only raised a finger, indicating for you to wait. So you did. Awkwardly. You rocked slightly on your heels, your stomach starting to twist in time with the movement. God, he looked like a dream lit by the stained glass banker's lamp as he graded papers.

In another world you could see him coming home from a long day, his body warm behind you as he wrapped his arms around your waist. Smelling like black coffee and pencil shavings, you'd adoringly close your eyes, taking in his scent and ask him how his day went. He'd hum in contentment when resting his chin on your head; you're his rock, his soulmate, the reason he stays sane despite dealing with probably hundreds of students and the frustrating dance of academic bureaucracy. 

It's a fantasy that broke the second Winchester glanced up and said with a hint of surprise, "Miss L/N! Come in, have a seat," he nodded towards the chair on the other side of his desk.

Relieved that he can pick you out among the sea of students from his classroom, you move forward until you reach the chair. You set your bag down on the floor and settle into the worn leather of the seat as Winchester eyes you expectantly.

"What can I do for you this afternoon?"

You chew on the inside of your cheek. "Actually, I was hoping that you could help me out with something."

"Oh, what might that be?" he furrowed his brow.

"Um..." you started. "I'm sure you noticed that I didn't do too hot on the last exam."

"Ah, I did," he said simply.

"You did?"

"Yeah, I was surprised, actually." Winchester opened up one of his desk drawers and sorted through some files before pulling out a packet you recognized as the exam you'd taken the week before. "You seem so engaged in class discussion and you've been doing well on everything else. This...this felt rushed. What happened?"

The soft expression of concern on his face only increased your shame. In all honesty, you'd wasted half the exam time away staring at him. He'd worn a red sweater over a cream colored button up that day. Then he'd rolled up the sleeves before handing out the exam papers. It felt stupid to admit that you'd been distracted by his goddamn forearms.

But you had been. You couldn't resist watching him as he'd circled the room, keeping an eye out for cheating. With his arms folded behind his back, you got the best look at the back of him. His long legs clad in khaki. Strong, tanned forearms corded with prominent veins. Shoulder blades pushed back confidently as he walked. Everything about his solid stature had your mind far, far away.

You'd been good at making sure your daydreams wouldn't get the better of you. But this time, before you knew it, Winchester was glancing down at his watch and announcing that you had fifteen minutes left for exam time. You had no choice but to rush through the rest of it, writing down answers that hardly even made sense just to fill in blanks.

Now those answers laid before you, condemning you to a low D– that dragged down your entire grade.

"I honestly couldn't tell you, Professor. I thought I studied enough but I guess not."

Though you'd attempted to laugh off his concern, Winchester obviously wasn't budging. "But these are rookie mistakes. Number fifteen for example. Where do the gods live?"

"Easy. Asgard."

"Right, but here you marked down the answer for Valhalla," he slid the paper around so you could look at the question.

Sure enough, there it was, your frantic pencil marks filling in the bubble for the incorrect answer. Damn.

"And that's just on the multiple choice questions," Winchester continued, flipping through the pages. "You barely followed any of the directions for the long answer questions. Your response to the short essay portion was a paragraph too short. And it was too unfocused."

Unfocused is right, Professor Winchester.

"I hate to say it...but I was a little disappointed."

The sting of tears threatened to spill down your cheeks. So you cleared your throat and blinked them back quickly. Voice trembling, you answered quickly, "I'm sorry, Professor. I wasn't on my game and I thought I'd pay you a visit so I could plead my case. I'm willing to do any kind of extra credit assignment. I don't care how much work it is. I'll do anything to fix my grade because I really want to do well in your class and–"

Winchester raised a hand, urging you to stop. Then he spoke, "Listen, I can see how badly you want this. So I'm going to make sure you get it. Just...let me think."

With that, Winchester rose from his seat and began to gather the papers that littered the surface of his desk. He stacked them neatly before opening a different drawer and laying them inside. After he closed the drawer, he made his way around the desk. You tried not to look at him as he made his way around the room, especially not when you felt his hand brush against the back of your chair. But you couldn't not notice when he drew the shade on his door's window and closed the blinds to his window, leaving the room dim save for the yellow light of his desk lamp.

Once he'd made his round, he returned to his chair and rolled back, leaving a massive gap between himself and the edge of his desk.

Then he did something else you didn't expect.

He patted the wood and said, "Come. Sit on my desk. Let me look at you."

You almost wavered on the direction when he cleared his throat expectantly. That brought you to your feet and compelled you to settle waveringly before him.

With his lips in a tight line, Winchester studied you. He tilted his head every few seconds, letting his eye flicker from your uncertain expression to your body. You sat up a little straighter in an attempt to satisfy his observation of you.

You weren't quite sure what he was doing, but it made you nervous; made you vulnerable in a way you weren't used to.

"I may have one extra credit opportunity that I can offer. Special. Just for you."

"Yeah? What do you want me to do?"

"Well, you can start by spreading your legs."

Your eyes went wide. "Professor Winchester, you're not–"

He cut you off quickly, "First, after office hours, you may call me Sam. Second, I'm not going to touch you. I'm simply asking you to give me a– a presentation," he decided.

"What kind of presentation?" you asked.

Your feigned innocence made the man chuckle softly. "The kind of presentation I'm sure you give in your dormitory bedroom every night."

There wasn't an ounce of jesting on his face, but still you played dumb. "I have no idea what you're referring to, Sam." His name felt foreign yet familiar on your tongue. Probably because you'd whispered it many times before in the exact scenario he'd described.

"I'd hoped you'd tell me the truth about why you were so distracted during your exam. But since you haven't been forthcoming, I guess I have to spell it out for you, haven't I?"

You swallowed hard and blinked nervously.

"You thought I wouldn't notice, did you?" he chuckles again. "It's hard not to notice when one of your students, especially one so beautiful, is practically drooling all over their table."

The scraps of flattery were evidently working on you as Sam smiled when you fiddled with your fingers in your lap as your skin got all warm and tingly. So he kept going.

"Besides, you're too intelligent to do this terribly on something you should've aced. Maybe you wanted to fail it. You wanted to get my attention, didn't you?"

"Oh, no, I wasn't trying to waste your time, I was just–"

"You weren't wasting my time. Wasting your time is continuing this pointless back and forth when you could instead be proving yourself."

"Proving myself?"

"Yes. Spread those legs...and earn your grade," he ordered.

Breathing in and out slowly, you did what you were asked. The knots in your stomach told you this was wrong. But the smile of approval that slowly grew on Sam's lips said that this was exactly what you both needed. 

You'd never been more embarrassed to be wearing a skirt. One the fabric pooled around your hips, it only framed the damp patch on your underwear. Perhaps part of you had wanted something like this to happen. Because your pussy was already pulsing after simply being observed behind the cotton curtain that soaked up her anticipation.

"Very good," Sam breathed out.

"What do I do now?" you asked.

"Just...play with her. Show me what you like to do to make her happy."

You nodded, then pursed your lips as you thought. If you were going to present to him...you might as well go all out. So you shifted each of your thighs around, pulling down your underwear until your bare ass was planted on the desk and the garment was caught on one of your ankles. You lifted your left and held it out gently, the panty hanging in the air a little below Sam's face.

"Take them," you said. "Visual aid."

He smirked lazily at the offering before pulling them over your shoe, being careful not to actually touch you. Sam balled them up before bringing them to his nose and slowly breathing in the scent. You could tell he enjoyed it thoroughly as he let out a deep sigh from within his chest.

"With how wet these are...it's good to know you were prepared even for a surprise presentation. I knew there was a reason you're my favorite."

His words went straight to your cunt as a few drops of slick leaked from your hole and landed on the dark wood beneath you.

"Go on," Sam urged, gaze flickering to the drops of you on his desk. "She's waiting. And so am I."

You began to treat yourself with the same level of care as you did when you were alone. One of your hands reached up your shirt and you cupped one of your tits. You kneaded the flesh for a few seconds before focusing on the nipple, pinching it until it pebbled and poked through your shirt. The action made your breathing turn ragged. 

You finally let your other hand travel south, bringing warmth to the soft skin of your thighs. Wanting better access to yourself, you pulled your leg up, resting a foot on the desk itself. Then you reclined back and let your fingers roam where they wanted.

Using two fingers, you spread your outer lips, only exposing yourself to Sam’s scrutiny even further. The cool air hitting your most vulnerable part, you shivered as goosebumps erupted across your skin. You looked up at him, gauging his approval of your performance.

“You’re doing so well already, keep going,” he encouraged, hardly concealing the arousal that clung thickly to his tone.

You took the praise with pride. It emboldened you enough to slip your two fingers between your folds to gather up some of the slick. You couldn’t help but feel mortified as you involuntarily gasped when your digits brushed slightly against your clit.

Sam let a quick puff of air out his nose. “Sensitive?”

“Mhmmm,” you whined.

“Bet you can’t even touch that pretty clit directly without crying, huh?”

You nodded.

“Then be gentle. I want you to last for me.”

You took that to mean that he didn’t want you touching yourself there yet. So instead you switched to focusing on your entrance. It wasn’t often that you went straight for penetration. Rarely did it bring the kind of relief you craved.

But you had the feeling that Sam would want to see it; to see your fingers filling yourself up and stretching you out.

With your fingers practically pruning already, you pushed one in ever so slowly. It took a second to adjust to the slight pressure, but still you began to carefully pump. The slick squelch only intensified when you slipped another one in and sped up your movements.

Though the pressure increased and built up tension in your belly, you could already tell it wasn’t going to go anywhere. You bucked your hips pathetically against your own hand, trying to get deep enough to hit your g-spot. But no matter how far you tried to probe, it was useless. Your fingers simply weren’t long enough.

Your eyes went wind, catching sight of something that most likely could reach that spot inside you. While you’d been fucking yourself, your professor had undone the button and the zipper on his pants and slipped himself out. There he sat, your panties in his hand and wrapped around the thick length of his cock. The angry red tip poked up and out of the fabric with each slow thrust. And you could already tell based on how long his strokes were that you’d most likely be able to feel him poking against your belly from inside you. The idea made you moan and throw your head back.

Sam swiftly reprimanded you, “Ah, remember your eye contact. I want you to look at me.”

Shame spread over your body. What the fuck was going on? Were you really fingering yourself on his desk right next to papers that he was surely going to return to students? Was Sam really fisting his own cock with your underwear? And were you actually enjoying this?

“Sweetheart,” Sam’s self control faltered slightly with the name. But it grabbed your attention nonetheless. “I need you to look at me. Let me look into your eyes when you make yourself come on my desk, alright?”

This was about more than fixing your grade. This was about pleasing him…by pleasing yourself. And as you returned his look, you were all in.

Under his watchful, half lidded, hazel eye you allowed yourself to focus on your aching clit which laid in wait like a pearl beneath the hood of skin covering it. Carefully, you pulled that hood back before lightly spreading some of your slick with a finger. You let the skin settle back in place over the sensitive nub before going straight to work.

You began to rub slow circles on the hood and finally properly moaned. It took only a few seconds for the muscle memory of your nightly ritual to kick in as the pleasure started to mount. Finally, all of that pressure in your core had some actual weight to it; a weight that was already beginning to roll in shallow waves over your whole being.

"There you go, sweetheart. Let me hear you loud and clear. Don't wanna miss a single sound from you," Sam groaned and you caught how the grip he had on himself tightened, how his pace quickened.

While rolling your hips against your hand, you pulled up a side of your shirt, exposing even more of yourself to him. Now he could easily see one of your tits rise and fall with your staggered breaths. He could see how the ball of fat dimpled under your fingertips as you squeezed and pulled at your hardened nipple.

Both sources of simulation had you whimpering breathlessly, "Sam, I-I'm so close– Let me come, please?"

Sam glared and asked through gritted teeth, "That's not my name. What do you call me in class?"

"Professor?"

Sam nodded darkly.

You took the cue quickly and begged helplessly, "Please, professor, please let me come–" you were cut off by the sound of your pleasure starting to push you over the edge. 

Sam left you teetering, staring right over the border of this boundary. That boundary being an ethical nightmare that you had no clue how you'd navigate. But you wanted to be good for him; you craved his approval.

And thankfully, Sam gave it as he groaned, "There you go, good girl. You can come, you've got permission."

With that, you arched off the desk and burst with glorious clarity. A thin stream of your arousal drooled from your entrance as you rubbed yourself through the enormous implosions and the small aftershocks that followed. Your head was heavy with the fog of pleasure and you wanted to hang it back, give it a break.

But still, you were determined to keep your eyes on him, even as you pulled your fingers away from your trembling cunt and stuck them in your mouth. Your tongue swirled around the wrinkled digits, soaking up every bit of yourself that you could.

Any sort of professionalism Sam had been trying to maintain up until that point shattered completely when he rolled his chair forwards. Closer to you now, you looked down into his soft eyes and watched how his normally objective stare went personal; emotional. He looked at you with the kind of admiration that made your heart flutter with pride.

He took his hand, placed it on your knee, and spread your legs further. His touch was so light, so soft that you could help feeling electricity dance along your spine.

"I thought you said you wouldn't touch me?" you whispered, only a hint of a smug smile tugging at your lips.

Choosing his words as carefully as ever, he explained, "That was before I decided that you needed some of my...guidance."

#˚ʚ meda writes ɞ˚ #hauntedhoedown #haunted hoedown #supernatural #sam winchester #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester x you #sam winchester x y/n #sam winchester smut #sam winchester fanfiction #sam winchester fic

[dashielldeveron]

soulmate trope | various bnha x reader

summary: a villain's quirk causes your class to be assigned soulmates.

uh, soulmates aren't real. they're fictional.

choose-yer-own-adventure oneshots. no one knows how to handle any of this, due to every single character being a dumbass.

fem reader. anticipated characters: bakugou, shinsou, todoroki, monoma, aizawa, and maaaaaaybe one of the villains. haven't decided.

“If we could have one day of—fuck, on your left—training without some disaster, I’d really appreciate it,” you yelled over the fracas to Shinsou, who was helping you lifting crumbled concrete off of Kouda, “Where’d they even come from?”

 Shinsou sucked in through his teeth, wiping blood dripping from his nose with the back of one of his hands and rubbing his shoulder where a concrete chunk struck him with the other. “I didn’t see which one of ‘em split open the ceiling to ground gamma, but—fuck!”

 He tackled you to the ground, dodging part of the facility’s pipes as it flew past. You sputtered a hasty apology to Kouda for landing on his leg, and he scrambled off to check on his rats.

 The two of you shuffled out of the rubble, ducking to the side for a moment of reconnaissance. “Okay, okay,” you said, yanking Shinsou behind what looked like a stable hunk of fallen wall, “Bakugou and Todoroki look like they’re taking care of the villain team’s tank—”

 “Kirishima’s there, too—”

 You sniffed, wiping sweat away from your face. “I think that’s Monoma and, and Yaoyorozu? Deku? Over there with—”

 “I think we’d better go help Aizawa-sensei,” said Shinsou, already latching his capture weapon onto an overhead pipe, “He can’t negate both of those villains flanking him at once.”

 “Let’s go,” you said, grabbing onto Shinsou, and the two of you whipped across the battle, swinging over to the next corner to Aizawa—but something fucking crashed onto you, making you both slam into the ground. Shinsou tumbled, twisted in his own capture weapon, and you, once you gathered yourself, realized you’d broken the fall of a villain just now joining the fight.

 “Get off,” you spat, shoving her aside and coughing, and you barely got a good look at her before she leapt to her feet and planted the heel of her boot into your chest, knocking the meagre breath out of you. For a moment, you genuinely appreciated her costume while she surveyed the scene—pink jumpsuit and helmet, probably modelled off of the pink power ranger—but then she stomped on your chest again, washing away any admiration.

 She didn’t say anything once she dropped her attention to you, tilting her head to the side. After a shout from her teammate that you couldn’t make out, she dropped to her knees, putting her full body weight on your chest, pinning you to the ground by her harsh grip around your throat.

 She flipped up the black visor of her helmet, exposing her mouth, and she tugged off her glove with her teeth.

 Clatter came from all sides—explosions, shattering of ice, concrete splintering like rotten wood, and the villain atop you grinned, nodding at something in the distance while dropping the glove onto your cheek, where it slid off into the debris. “He’s your friend?”

 Who’s she talking about?

 With a quiet chuckle, she held her bare hand up where you could see it, wiggling her fingers. “I’m about to change your life.”

 You were supposed to be fighting back. But you lay there, mesmerised, as glittering, pink dust rose from her fingertips, thin and trailing at first, but soon surging through the air, around you, and you heard a snap—the dust spread in an instant across the whole of the destroyed battlefield of ground gamma.

 You took a quick breath, holding it, and kicked frantically underneath her, watching out of the corner of your eye as your friends dropped to the ground within the pink cloud.

 “Oh, stop it,” she said through a gritted smile, “At the very least, it’ll be fun.”

 She held her leaking hand underneath your nose and tightened her grip around your neck, pressing down on your pulse point.

 No. You wouldn’t breathe it in, whatever it was. Minimum it would cause you to faint, like the rest of your classmates, but past that, who knows? You’re not taking…you’re not…you were getting light-headed. But no, you wouldn’t. C’mon, get bored and leave. Leave me alone.

 You’re not…

 You’re won’t…

 Goddamnit.

 When you gasped your next breath, you got a lungful of that glittering dust. You anticipated a cough from breathing it in, but oh, God, it was like breathing clearer air, pure oxygen inside this grubby battlefield, and then—then? Then it was as if the air shifted and contorted itself, and you couldn’t get enough: perfectly brewed vanilla coffee, slices of orange on a spring morning, freshly baked chocolate cookies, and more, more scents that brought you to specific times in your life filled with good, good times—none of them mixing together, each scent distinct yet still overwhelming. God, you’ll be smothered if it allows you to experience this.

 You were writhing underneath the villain until you passed out.

 ***

 [video description: a white-haired woman is strapped to a chair in a police station’s interrogation room. She looks perfectly calm, even though she’s been arrested, and she’s observing the room at large, her tongue poking the inside of her cheek.

 “Name?” comes a voice offscreen.

 “Buh, buh! Taint-ed Love,” she says in a sing-song voice.

 “Your birth name,” says the voice.

 “Ito Tsukimi.” She’s looking at the officer behind the camera with soft, half-lidded eyes.

 “Describe your quirk.”

 Her grin stretches across her face, and it’s a bit too wide for it. Very toothy. “I’ve been calling it Soulmate Trope. Are you familiar with soulmates, Officer Suzuki?”

 There’s the sound of flipping paper. “That’s some fantasy idea in romance novels and films, right? Two people destined for each other.”

 “More or less,” Ito says, tilting her head to the side, as if thinking about it, “How do soulmates tell when they’ve met?”

 “There’s that movie with the timers—”

 Ito interrupts, sitting up in her seat as well as she can, and speaks towards another side of the room, biting her lower lip while she grins. “Officer Kim?”

 A different voice, this one masculine, stutters from a distance behind the camera. “Uh, I’ve—I’ve read a book where soulmates had the same tattoo somewhere on their bodies, and um, there’s that old story about the red strings—”

 “Yeah, but it’s all bullshit, right?” Ito says, relaxing into a slump, “Soulmates are bullshit. None of that actually is real.” She preens like a cat the best she can in her shackles. “My quirk produces a pink miasma that, once inhaled, assigns you a soulmate. You don’t have one if you haven’t been exposed to it. Usually, your soulmate will have inhaled from the same miasma you did.  There are exceptions, but that happens about at the rate—oh, about one in ten. Maybe fifteen.”

 The original officer speaks again. “So, is it indicated by a red string, a mark, or?”

 “Well, I’ve observed that it can be quite inconvenient for those involved,” she says, “Because there’s no way to control how you’ll know who’s your soulmate. Red string? Sure. Shared tattoos, shared pain? Yeah. Drawing on each other’s skin, shared dreams, first words—” She clicks her tongue. “The real problem comes in when you’ve met the person who becomes your soulmate before, since most soulmate tropes rely on revealing themselves at your first meeting.”

 “What’s…what’s that mean?”

 “It means that sometimes there’s multiple pairs of soulmates with timers, but they’re already at zero, since they’re all friends, and they can’t tell who’s whose soulmate. It means that you may not remember who said those first words to you, all those years ago. If the soulmate trope assigned to you were to see in black and white until you met your soulmate, but you’ve already met them when you breathe in my quirk, then you’ve always seen in colour, haven’t you? You can’t tell. But now there’s—” She stuck out her tongue. “—an ache in your soul. A longing for another half. Wears away at you if don’t know who it is.”

 More paper shuffling from off-camera.

 Ito squints. “Oh, that. Old stats. It’s gone up since then. My team thinks that it wears away around three-sevenths of your lifespan if you don’t find your soulmate. It’s been nebulous, but we’ve been taking into account lifespan data from my family’s quirks.”

 Suzuki sighs behind the camera. “And you…released this into a bunch of Japan’s upcoming heroes while training.”

 “Yeah, what of it? That’s a joke; I understand. I know why I’ve been arrested. And I believe I’ve shared all the relevant information. Hey,” Ito nods upwards in a direction she hasn’t spoken before, “you got a name to go along with those tight thighs?”

 The camera falls to the side in the haste to shut it off. End video description.]

 ***

 3-A and 3-B had been hanging out more frequently since the, uh. Soulmate attack. Other injuries had been assuaged by Recovery Girl, and ground gamma had been rebuilt, mostly by Cementoss.

 You kind of hated it. Dreaded it, in fact, because suddenly, everyone was a lot more social. A lot touchier. All in the name of trying to figure out who was whose soulmate, or if they even had one.

 Unmatched classmates seemed to constantly lounge about the common rooms at the dorms, spending more time together playing video games and cooking, just taking up space and making noise, and shit. Walking to class together, constantly leaning on each other, clinging—

 Kaminari was becoming insufferable, trying to bounce between person to person but never finding anything. You’d swatted him away from messing with your hair or trying to peek down your shirt, or the like, for some sign. He didn’t have any visible mark, so he was telling everyone that his was probably touch-based, so did you mind if he just, like, caressed your cheek, or maybe slid his arms around your waist?

 It got worse once Mineta took up the same mantle of claiming touch-based soulmates, since he also didn’t have any visible sign, but based on the video of Tainted Love that had spread, he was probably one of the so-called lucky one in fifteen. Didn’t stop him from being terrible, though, but it got tamed to an extent once Bakugou drop-kicked him off Aizawa’s desk on behalf of 3-A’s girls.

 Some people were fortunate enough recognise their soulmates immediately, like Yaoyorozu and Jirou, who’d been matched by halves of a tattoo; it also helped that they’d already been dating when they breathed in the miasma.

 Though already dating didn’t seem to be a contributing factor to the soulmate matching. Three couples had broken up because they weren’t soulmates, although one from 3-B stayed together, despite it.

It was baffling that Kirishima was soulmates with a girl, but, as Mina assured you, they were being straight in a distinctly bisexual way, and, admittedly, they could be cute when they were in public, with her sitting in his lap in the common room among the rest of the Bakusquad. Both of them laughed more loudly nowadays, and—and fuck, out of all of this, that made your heart ache. Because yes, most of your friends were running around frantically, trying not to die and to find love and completion, but you just…

 “Bro, if I had a red string of fate,” Kaminari was saying through three pocky sticks, dangling his feet off of Sero’s desk, “My soulmate and I would use it as a joint support weapon to tie people up.”

 “Do you think you could make the string solid, or would it stay invisible and intangible?” Sero asked, and he held out his arm, pulling out a bit of tape. “My soulmate keeps drawing shit on their arm, and it’s adorable. Look at this. It bleeds through my skin sometimes and ends up on my tape.”

 “Aw,” said Mina, snatching the tape out of Kaminari’s hand, “It’s got your name in a heart. They tell you who they are yet?”

 Sero shook his head, but he was smiling. “They’ve said they’ve in class B, but that’s all. They wrote they wanted to draw out the suspense.”

 “Don’t waste your time on their dramatic ass,” grumbled Bakugou from his desk, “if they’re just going to drag you away from your goals.” Bakugou scratched the back of his neck, pulling his loose collar farther away from his skin. “I wouldn’t want a soulmate who holds me back.”

 Kirishima looked up from the meme Mina was showing him. “Wait, you haven’t found yours yet, Bakubro?”

 “Don’t sound so fucking distraught, Shitty Hair,” said Bakugou, scowling, “Lots of us haven’t identified our soulmates yet. Hell, I’d prefer if I didn’t have one.”

 “You’re not marked?”

 “I don’t wanna talk about it,” said Bakugou, and he crumpled up his paper and left the conversation for the trash can.

 “Huh. All right, well, who else is on the soulmate market?” Kaminari clapped his hands together, smushing his pocky box slightly. “Let’s see. Ida’s taken. So are Asui, Tokoyami, Ojiro, Hagakure—”

 “Thought you were listing the unmatched people,” said Sero, “That’d be faster.”

 “It’s harder to think of who’s left,” said Kaminari with a whine, “I don’t wanna think.”

 “Monoma,” came Shinsou’s voice as he just now got to the classroom from the cafeteria, setting his tray on his desk, “Awase. Komiri. That, uh, American—Tsunotori.”

 Maybe if you stay very still, they won’t notice you.

 “Isn’t Asui unmatched, too?” asked Sero.

 “She is,” Mina, twirling a strand of her hair.

 Gradually, you shrank in your seat, shrinking inch by inch.

 Kirishima frowned. “Wait, she is, as in, she is matched, or she is, as in she’s not—”

 “Hey,” Shinsou said, tapping his fingers pointedly on your desk, and you fucking jumped out of your skin. The movement drew everyone else’s attention towards you. “You haven’t told us who your soulmate is. You keepin’ it a secret?”

 After glancing over the group (with Mina lifting her brows suggestively at you), you turned back to Shinsou and rolled your shoulders back, sitting up straight. “Yeah, bitch-boy. You got a problem with that?”

bakugou route

monoma route

todoroki route

aizawa route (part two)

shinsou route

dabi / todoroki touya route

shigaraki route

others tba

#bnha #bakugou katsuki #bakugou x reader #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou x reader #todoroki shoto #todoroki x reader #aizawa shouta #aizawa x reader #monoma neito #monoma x reader #soulmates #soulmate au #dash it all #dabi #dabi x reader #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki x reader

[crackedpumpkin]

|| ɪɴꜰᴜʀɪᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴍᴇʟᴏᴅɪᴇꜱ || ꜱᴏᴜʟᴍᴀᴛᴇ! ᴀᴜ ||

a/n: guess who procrastinated and ended up writing a thing :) 

In all seriousness I’m a complete and utter simp for Cole Brookstone and he is unreasonably attractive in looks personality and everything in between, especially for a goddamn lego man.

Playlist reference: https://youtu.be/j45ogZNaCis

Soulmate AU: Everyone has a soulmate designated to them since the moment they’re born. The tell-tale sign to single them out are the fact that you can hear what songs the other is listening to at any moment of the day.

Ugh. Not this again.

You groan, sitting up as the all-too-familiar sound of soft rock starts playing in the back of your mind. You shake your head slightly to rid the grogginess threatening to lull you back into comforting sleep.

You grab your headphones, immediately sliding them onto your ears as the soothing sound of chill pop music quickly drowns out the soft rock. On the bright side, it means that your soulmate exists.

On the other hand, it also means that whoever they are, they get up at ungodly hours of the day.

You stare blearily at the digital clock.

Five AM. 

You'd gotten used to the routine by now, but the days when your soulmate slept in were few and far between. Nonetheless, it's surprisingly boosted your productivity since the music started playing a couple months ago. 

"Stop it already!" 

You grumble, grabbing a pillow and covering your face with it. You press your face harder into the soft material, willing with all your might for the music to stop.

It'd been three days since it had started, and you abhorred every second. 

It was annoying, repetitive, and not your preferred genre at all.

You'd seen many compatible couples with similar music tastes, so why was your soulmate so adamant about having such lousy taste in tunes? Feeling bitter, you decide to drown it out with a playlist of your own. It was custom-made by you, and it took you ages(half a year, to be exact) to put it together.

It was a compilation of your favourite songs and the exact opposite of your soulmate's preference. You knew it annoyed them because every time you played a specific song they hated, they'd play something else you usually shut out in the first three seconds by aggressively playing the music they disliked on repeat.

It took a while, but you had finally called a truce(for now) with your soulmate by playing one of their favourite songs, and they begrudgingly did the same for you in return. 

Your friends were weirded out when you first revealed that you hated your soulmate's music taste. Obviously, they had never faced that issue. You were met with confused questions, your friends clueless and oblivious that people could dislike their soulmates. 

It was a foreign concept, but it was one that you were living. 

At first, you were excited that you could finally hear the songs your soulmate liked to listen to. 

That same excitement soon morphed into disdain for the genre they listened to. 

Now, you survey the bedroom you're in, taking note of all the scattered cardboard boxes. They were filled to the brim with various items of yours, some containing knick-knacks you've picked up randomly off the streets or in night markets. 

"Are you ready to go?" You turn your attention to your mother entering your room. She eyes the mess with a disapproving gaze, and you smile weakly. "I'll clear it up before the moving vans come?" You negotiate, hoping to escape an earful after getting out of bed so early.

She sighs. "Fine, but make it quick." She leaves the room with a pointed glare, shutting the door behind her. You sigh in relief, grabbing a roll of duct tape from your dresser and taping the boxes shut. You grab a marker and label each box with the contents inside.

 It took a while, but you were finally done. You wipe the sweat off your brow, glancing around at the now neatly packed and stacked boxes, arranging the last one in front of you. You grab the bag you had packed the night before, all the necessities inside. By now, the music from your soulmate had stopped playing(thank god for that), and you were halfway through your playlist. 

"Ready to go?" Your dad calls from outside. 

"Yeah, coming down in a sec!" You yell back, standing in the doorway. You look back at your room. The gentle sunlight shining through the bare windows breathed life into the room and the curtains that once decorated the small window seat. Where your bed once sat was empty with the polished mahogany wood underneath. 

Endless nights of laying in your plush bed with your bedside lamp's dim yet warm glow seemed so distant in your memories. Your hand lingers on the doorknob, mumbling a soft goodbye before shutting the door and heading downstairs to where your parents are waiting.

"Are your friends not seeing you off?" You're immediately greeted with a question as soon as you shut the car door, sitting in the back. You look up to see your dad looking at you with a raised brow, waiting patiently for your answer. You pause the music, and the sweet sound of silence greets your ears.

"Yeah, we already said our goodbyes yesterday." You reply with a shrug. Alicia and the rest of your friends brought you out for dinner at the pizza place you often frequented, and you spent the night giggling and reminiscing past memories. 

They dropped you off at two AM, and you snuck into the house without anyone noticing. Your friends had made you promise to text often, and you'd definitely update them as soon as you reached Ninjago City. 

Your dad seems satisfied with your answer and starts driving off. 

Your phone beeps and you pull it out to see messages from your friends. 

'Send souvenirs! Or face my wrath when we meet up again.' - Alicia

'Brooo' - Brenden, image.jpeg attached.

'Call when you reach! And make sure you drink plenty of water, you dehydrated fungus.' - Nico

You giggle at the messages, opening up the group chat to see a short video they filmed in the morning before school. You slide your headphones onto your ears, pressing play.

"Yo, have a safe trip or whatever!" Brenden's black hair is frizzy and unkempt, a clear sign that Alicia had probably dragged him out of bed for this. He's shoved aside, and the phone is grabbed, a familiar face coming close to the camera. 

"Nico, she can't see your face properly if you hog the camera!" Alicia complains, grabbing Nico by her coat and snatching the phone away. A head of red hair comes into view, a stark contrast to the shy brunette beside her. 

"Bring souvenirs!! I heard that the candy over there is to die for." Alicia demands with a bright grin, and you roll your eyes. 

"Guys, Ms. Fergurson is coming!" Nico warns. 

Alarm is apparent in all of their eyes. "Oh god, okay, we gotta go now, or we'll get caught! Bye, Y/n, love you stinky three thousand." The video is cut short, and you stifle a laugh at the sudden ending.

'Thanks guys, love you stinky three thousand.' 

You quickly type out the response and continue to scroll through Instagram for the remaining time it takes to get to the capital city. 

You stir, eyes fluttering open at the annoying sound of drilling and construction. You blink a few times, sitting up from where you had slumped against the window while you slept. Your vision clears, and you move your hands away to see bright lights and skyscrapers galore around you. 

You're here. 

Ninjago City is filled to the brim with people and endless traffic. Your dad scowls at the long line of cars in front of him, glaring at the red light that seems to take forever to turn green. 

"That's the school you'll be attending tomorrow." Your mum points out from the passenger seat, and you follow the direction she's pointing to. You stare at the large school on the right. 

‘Ninjago High School’

You hum in thought, already filled with anxiety for the following day. It didn't help that you were from the outskirts and had a different(and probably lacking) curriculum. You fiddle with the games on your phone, focusing intently on beating the next level of Candy Crush. 

You mumble a cuss when 'Game Over' appears on the colourful screen, and your mum instantly turns with a suspicious gaze. You smile nervously, trying to play it off as though you hadn't said anything. 

She turns back around, choosing to let it pass. 

You stare out the window, watching the shops pass by in a blur until you spot one that catches your eye. "Dad, could you drop me off here?" He doesn't question your sudden request, making a turn and parking next to the sidewalk. 

You open the car door and exit, looking up at the sign on the storefront. 

'Ninjago Doomsday Comix'

"There's a Chinese takeout nearby if you wanna grab dinner before meeting us at the new house." Your dad has a GPS pulled up on his phone, texting you the address of your new home. 

"Yeah, I'll grab some food on the way back. Gonna take a look around the place, y'know, before I get lost tomorrow." You joke. You adjust the straps of your small bag before settling it in a comfortable position on your back. 

"See you later then, kiddo. Call us if anything happens. Should be safe since those ninjas are around." 

Before you can question what he means, he drives off with all the rest of your luggage. 

"...Ninjas?" You mumble in confusion before shrugging it off. You were lucky that your dad had visited the city multiple times on business trips and that he was primarily a hands-off parent. Your mum usually just went along with his whims. 

The door swings open easily, a jingle catching you off guard. A man at the cashier counter greets you with a friendly grin that eases your nerves, and you walk up to him. 

"Hi, do you know where to find Starfarer comics?" 

"Well, right here, of course!" You cringe at his response, realizing how poorly worded your question was. It elicits a chuckle from the man in front of you. 

"Just kidding. I'm Rufus, Rufus McAllister, or you can call me Mother Doomsday. You're a new face around these parts. What's your name?" 

"Uhm, I'm Y/n. I just moved here, so maybe that's why." You reply, clutching the straps of your bag with a small smile at the friendly man.

"Well, welcome to Ninjago City! I hope the city treats you well. We got the ninja protecting us, so that's added security too." 

Your brows furrow, wondering why everyone around you knew what these ninjas were, but you had no clue. "Ninja?" 

Rufus pauses with his lips parted, seemingly processing your words. A relaxed grin slowly forms on his lips, and he waves off your question. "You'll find out soon enough." He glances towards a specific aisle, seemingly contemplating. 

"It should be fine then…." He mumbles. You're just lost in where this conversation had ended up. 

"Aisle Eight is where we keep the best-stocked Starfarer comics." He gestures to the area he had been staring at earlier. You thank him with a brief nod, walking over. 

The aisle is relatively empty, save for two other people. A blonde guy in a green hoodie is flipping through the latest issue of Starfarer with keen interest, engrossed in the colourful pages.

Next to him is another boy with slightly wavy and choppy black hair, the smooth and silky strands making you both envious and curious about his hair care routine. In contrast to his friend(you assumed), he regards you with a suspicious gaze. 

He’s kinda cute.

You find it odd, feeling mildly unsettled by the intense stare he gave you. It wasn't a good one; it was more on the wary side than interested. You brush it off, ignoring the pair and scouring the shelves for issue number three.

You finally find the issue you're looking for, but it's directly opposite the pair. 

After all, what would you be if not cursed with bad coincidence?

You practically tiptoe over, clearing your throat slightly as you grab the comic book and start reading. Green Hoodie(Greenie, you decide to nickname) looks up in surprise, only now noticing your presence. Mr. Grumpy Pants(The nickname suits him perfectly), on the other hand, doesn't bother hiding the grimace on his lips at your presence, looking away.

You stiffen, eyes narrowing into a glare.

Rude.

Greenie hits his friend's shoulder in a light punch, looking at you with an expression of apology. 

"She should be fine. Rufus wouldn't send anyone over here without vetting them first." Greenie whispers to Mr. Grumpy Pants, referring to his earlier behaviour.

"Yeah, but what if they're…you know? I don't want another repeat of what happened with Jay." 

Damn.

You almost drop the comic book in your hands, caught off guard by how attractive Mr Grumpy Pant’s voice is. You tense, now more aware of their presence. Even though you don't want to eavesdrop, you can't help how your ears practically perk up, hoping to hear more of the deep voice from earlier. 

Plus, they weren't doing a very good job of keeping their conversation a secret.

"I trust Rufus. He's a good friend." 

"...Maybe." 

"Is that…? OMG! It's them!!"

You're interrupted from blankly staring at the same page for the past fifteen minutes, having focused on the conversation behind you, though the pair had stopped talking a while ago.

You look up at the store's glass windows, startled by the sudden sight of a group of girls pressed against the glass, staring intently at the two boys behind you. 

"Oh no." You watch all the color drain from Greenie's face while Mr. Grumpy Pants smacks his palm against his face, sliding it down and sighing heavily with an utterly defeated expression. 

"Not again…" You hear him mutter.

The girls grab their phones, snapping photos of them. You realize that you're probably in them, too, considering the lack of distance between you both. 

"Girls, there's the door!!" The tallest and most commandeering of the group holds open the entrance to the comic book store, and they swarm towards it.

"Cole, run!!!" Greenie yells, taking off to the back door that Rufus quickly ushers them both through. You grab the issue of Starfarer that Greenie dropped on the floor in his hasty exit, watching the fabric of Cole's shirt almost get stuck in the doorway.

At least now you know Mr. Grumpy Pant's name. 

You place both the comics back on the shelf, leaving with a quick wave to Rufus, who nods goodbye. You pull out your phone, look up directions to the Chinese Takeout store and slowly make your way there. You grab your earbuds, put them both in your ears and start your playlist from the beginning.

You're next to an alleyway, just steps away from the Chinese Takeout, when your arm is grabbed and pulled into an alleyway next to you. A yelp rips free from your chest, losing your balance and almost fall. 

A strong and warm arm holds yours firmly, pressing you against the cold brick wall. Your eyes automatically squeeze shut when your back hits the wall with a grunt, opening your eyes to see Mr. Grumpy Pants from earlier. 

His hand is pressed firmly against your mouth, and your hands curl into fists, punching his chest weakly. Unfortunately, your body's affinity to whatever created muscles in your body was little, making you regret not going to the gym after years of procrastination.

He shushes you, and you only just notice his pinched brows and the shine of sweat on his forehead. You hear the gradual approach of his fangirls and realize that he had tugged you behind a wall that separated into a small alcove, out of sight from the sidewalk you were on earlier.

"Turn that nauseating song off." Cole winces, muttering through clenched teeth. Your punches slow to a stop, confused by his words. He grabs your phone out of your hands, pressing pause on your beloved playlist. You allow him to do so, your mind blank and realization slowly dawning on you. 

Your eyes widen in shock, staring up at his stupidly handsome face. His dark brown eyes are filled with the fear of being caught, and you catch yourself admiring the shaggy black hair that frames his face in the most annoyingly perfect manner.

Your mind races with incoherent thoughts, but one sticks out like a sore thumb.

Your soulmate's a celebrity?

You'd think that being a celebrity would mean that his music taste would be of at least adequate quality.

"Am I getting kidnapped right now?" You voice out the most pressing concern on your mind, though it comes out muffled. He turns back to face you with an incredulous expression.

"You don't know who I am?" His voice is hushed, waiting for the horde of fangirls to run past your hiding spot. 

Your eyes narrow, pushing his hand off of where it's placed on your shoulders. You try to ignore the tingle his touch leaves behind that spreads to your hands and how his choppy bangs somehow manage to fall over his eyes in a somewhat attractive manner when he turns to face you. 

"In the past twenty minutes, you've glared at me, been rude, and practically held me hostage," You snap at him, irritated by the lack of common human decency he seemed to display. "And what do you mean nauseating song? If anything, you're the one giving me headaches with that god-awful noise you call music that you play daily!"

You finish your mini rant, having reached the end of your already thinning patience with the boy in front of you. You pant slightly, trying your best to reign in your temper. 

"Noise? Noise?? I could say the same for you! You're disturbing my sleep at night with those ear-splitting synths and breathy singing that sounds like they're on the verge of hyperventilation!" Cole retorts with thinly veiled disgust, taking a step back, dusting off his hands, and wiping them on his pants. 

You eye the action, feeling insulted. Both of you stand in the alleyway, silently glaring at each other. Cole breaks the stare first, scanning the area behind him once he realizes the fangirls are gone. You grin, elated at the quiet victory. 

"You really gotta get more variety." Your smile drops as soon as the words leave Cole's lips, and yours press into a thin line. 

"Speak for yourself." You can barely hold back another biting remark. If anyone were to see you now, they'd definitely mistake you as enemies rather than the soulmates that you actually are.

He groans, rolling his eyes. You're tempted to ask what he does for a living but choose to stay silent. You shake your head, still in disbelief that you've found your soulmate. "How on earth are we even going to get along…." You mutter to yourself.

Cole looks up, seemingly having heard your quiet mumbles. "I could say the same thing. I can't be with someone who can't tell the difference between good music and bad!"

How insufferable.

But you can't help ogling his arms when he props his hands on his hips, the muscle ready to tear through the thin material. You tear your gaze away, crossing your arms. Unfortunately, he catches your eyes wandering, a cocky smirk tugging the corner of his lips up. 

Your cheeks instantly warm, and you look away in embarrassment.  

"Well, whatever. Just find me when you want to learn what real music sounds like!" 

"Fine!"

"Fine then!"

With that, the conversation ends, and you both turn to face opposite ends of the alleyway, walking away from each other with flushed faces and burning cheeks.

'Wait, I didn't give him my number.' 

You realize, turning around.

"I'll find you!" Almost as if he senses your hesitation, he answers your unasked question.

You turn with a huff, “Didn’t ask!" You yell back. 

To drive home your point, you place your earbuds back into your ears and hit play on your playlist.

Immediately, Cole's songs start playing in the back of your mind, much louder than before. You let out an irritated sigh, but surprisingly enough, the tune didn't sound as vexing as before. 

It might even be a little bit endearing.

#ninjago #ninjago x reader #soulmate au #ninjago soulmate au #cole brookstone #cole brookstone x reader #lloyd #enemies to lovers #cole x reader #fic #lego ninjago #lego ninjago x reader

[cardsagainstmyself]

Missing You

Alec Volturi X Fem!Reader

Summary: You begin to miss your vampire soulmate when he leaves you in the italian castle on an important mission.

Warnings: suggestive material

Authors Note: My first work!!! I've been deliberating this for the longest time. I am open to criticism (be nice please lol) and any comments! Hope you enjoy 💞

》》》》

The bed you usually shared with him was cold and empty while he was gone. You opted to sleep on the couch included in your lush chambers in his prolonged absence. His being away was prolonged exactly by five days as his mission was originally supposed to be two days, but was extended to a full week immediately after his departure. Alec's phone calls were hurried as he was always pulled away by the rigorous chase of a troubled rogue vampire. The hasty words shared between the two of you were never enough for either side.

You layed upon your velvet sofa, gazing at the gold bracelet gifted to you by Alec. It had a darling engravement on the plaque: "forever". Your phone rang and you hurried to jump up to grasp and answer your phone.

"Hello", you tried to not sound excited or anxious, although you currently were both.

"My Tesoro, are you well? I expect to be home shortly." He sounded slightly strained, although you chose not to comment on it.

"I'm fine." You come off more snippy than intended, but move past it to not worry him. "You caught him? Finally?"

His reply came immediately: "Yes-- well, Jane caught him."

You giggle, a sound that always made Alec's dead heart flutter. "I bet she did." You pause. "So...soon as in tonight or..." you let your impatience do the talking, much to Alec's amusement.

"Yes as in tonight, princess." You heard the smirk in his voice. "Can you handle another few hours, dear?"

"Don't tease me." You order sternly. "Run here as fast as you can because 'another few hours' is all that I can handle anymore." Your snarky response was followed by Alec's laugh before you hung up to get ready for his return.

You take your time in showering and applying light brushes of makeup while listening to music. When you were in your shared walk-in closet surveying your options of dresses, you felt cold hands on your waist.

"Don't bother putting anything else on when your robe is about to come off..."

You quickly turn around to throw your arms around Alec's neck. "Alec! I missed you!" You hugged him tighter as he leaned closer to your neck to leave kisses.

"And I you." His lips moved up to your cheek, then to your lips. The kiss was filled with longing. Your tongues soothed eachothers as your hands moved to his shoulders to anchor yourself so he could pick you up.

He walked the two of you over to your perfectly made bed and sat you down. Your hands slid down Alec's chest where he held them there between his own hands. "It's been too long..." you state in a sultry manner, laying back on the comforter.

"I can't help but to agree with you, my lady." Alec's response was accompanied by his hands running down your thighs, and back up again to toy with the hem of your robe. "Shall I act on my earlier words?" Alec winked at you while he waited for you to give your consent, a must in your relationship.

"You shall," you giggled out in excitement. Your robe now dangled off of your shoulders, and Alec's hands are tracing the lace of your panties. Slight rubs through the fabric had you letting out panting breaths. "Alec," you whimpered.

His movements suddenly stopped. He gained a statue like appearance with his unmoving eyes and pristine skin. You tugged on his sleeve to gain his attention. "Don't tell me."

His lips were now pursed in an apology. "You know I don't mean for this to happen--." Bangs on the doors sound and you hear a teasing voice directing Alec to the throne room: Demetri.

"I'm afraid you and your hands are needed elsewhere, Alec." You scoff at Demetri's inappropriate words, and move off of the bed to put your robe back on.

"Be quick. Dont make me take matters into my own hands." You warn Alec.

This makes Alec determined to get back to you in a timely manner; he speeds out the door, almost trampling over Demetri.

A busy vampire you were mated to.

#alec volturi #alec volturi x reader #twilight #oneshot #twilight x reader #volturi #demetri volturi #twilight saga #twilight saga x reader #vampire #fanfiction #twilight fanfiction

[zepskies]

Never Say Goodbye - Part 1

Pairing: Dean W. x Female Reader

Summary: The first time you and Dean sensed each other’s thoughts and feelings, you were just kids. It would take years to realize that you both were bonded for life, and even longer to finally meet. [Soulmate AU] (Rated M for eventual scenes – 18+)

Word Count: 2,000 Warnings: Some angst

Part 1: Proximity

You’ve grown up watching your parents. At fourteen, you already understood how rare their relationship was—high school sweethearts, married for sixteen years, and certified soulmates.

Apparently it was even more rare to find your soulmate so early in life, but as Mom said, Sometimes the universe helps you out.

But you just started high school, and after surveying the pool of guys you have to work with, you really hope that “universe” stuff is just wishful thinking.

Because just this morning, Danny Schmitt got his hand stuck in the automatic stapler during Math class. Meanwhile, his friends were collecting bets on how many stitches he was going to need once they finally pried his fingers out.

Dad would call those guys dumbasses. You were inclined to agree.

You looked away from the scene (there was a lot of blood, and now your teacher was trying to free Danny with the only tool in the utility closet: a large hammer). But you couldn’t focus on your busy work like your teacher instructed either.

Sometimes, you still found it hard to believe your parents had met in high school. They had such an easy way between them, and not just because they could hear one another’s thoughts.

Mom was a kindergarten teacher, patient, kind, and encouraging. She came from a family of professors and school administrators, who frankly thought she could’ve done more with her life than “wipe five year olds’ noses.” Last Thanksgiving, she smiled and told Great Aunt Janet, “At least my five year olds can wipe their own asses.”

Smirking, Dad had followed up with, “How’s the incontinence, Jan? Ain’t lettin’ up at all?”     

Dad was a cop, though he wasn’t as strict as he could've been. Or as dumb as cops seemed to be in the movies.

No, your dad could be stern, but he was always fair, even if you…didn’t really hang out with him much. Mom was basically your best friend, while Dad was often too busy to know what was going on in your life.

Really, you just couldn’t see what your parents had in common, other than the dusty, midwestern town where they’d grown up. (Speaking of which, you shivered and zipped your coat higher up on your neck. Even indoors, winter in South Dakota was nothing to sneeze at.)

But your parents would share a look sometimes. Your mom would smile, and your dad’s mouth would quirk up at the corner, his eyes softening in a way they only did for her. And then you’d remember that they had their own world that you couldn’t really understand just yet.

“All right,” your teacher said. He wiped sweat from his brow while Danny’s friends carried him off to the nurse’s office. The stapler was in pieces on the floor, but poor Danny still had two huge staples in his index and ring fingers. “I think we’re done for the day. Just finish workbook pages for chapter three and we’ll cover it tomorrow.”

Yes! Math was not your strongest subject, but even you could finish four more square root problems. The teacher’s desk phone rang while you gathered your backpack and books. You were about to leave the classroom when your teacher called you back. You didn’t like the somber look on his face.

“You need to get to the principal’s office,” he said. “Your dad is there waiting for you.”

You didn’t know it then, but today was the day your childhood died—after Dad sat you down and told you what happened to your mom.

Winter in South Dakota was harsh. It could even be dangerous, especially on icy roads shared with grocery truck haulers.

They buried Mom in the same cemetery as your grandparents and your aunt (not Janet, by the way. You didn’t really remember your Aunt Karen, but your dad always avoided talking about his sister). The cemetery was small, but you guessed that made sense for a smallish town like Sioux Falls.

You stayed there until everyone else who loved your mom was gone, and it was just you and your dad left.

You didn’t bother to wipe your tears—not until your dad set a hand on your shoulder. You tried to wipe them away quickly, even though you didn’t really know why you didn’t want him to see you crying. He just gave you this look. In his eyes, you could see every fathom of his heartbreak. In a way, it told you everything you needed to know about your dad.

So you leaned into his side, and he held you close while the icy winds whipped at both of you.

Snow crunched beneath someone’s feet, and you turned to see a man walking down the row of headstones. He looked kind of familiar…

He had a thick beard and wore a baseball cap, but he took it off once he got close enough to pay his respects—first to Mom…then to Aunt Karen.

“Jack,” he greeted with a nod of respect.

You looked up at your dad, and the free emotions he’d been wearing clammed up behind a more familiar stern expression.

“Bobby,” he said, nodding back. Realization finally dawned on you. Oh, Uncle Bobby?

You hadn’t seen your uncle since you were…ten? Probably since Aunt Karen’s funeral.

“I’m real sorry about Christine,” Uncle Bobby said. He sounded a bit gruff, but his eyes were kind when they met yours sympathetically. “About your mom.”

Another tear fell down your cheek, but you nodded and wiped it away, sniffling.

“Thank you,” your dad said eventually. There was a brief, but awkward pause. Then Bobby nodded to himself and walked away, setting that faded blue baseball cap back on his head. You watched him go curiously.

“You remember your uncle,” Dad said. He didn’t seem happy about it.

“Yeah,” you replied. “Why didn’t he stay?”

He was family, after all.

Dad shook his head. There was a wry downturn to his lips. “He’s got a junk heap to look after.”

You frowned in confusion. But he didn’t explain what he meant. He just steered you back toward the car to go home.

Just as you both crossed under the iron arch to leave the cemetery, Dad reached into his pocket and gave you something. Your mom’s wedding ring.

“You can wear it if you want,” he said. “Or just keep it safe. Either way, just remember…she’s still with you. And I’m always gonna watch over you.”

The thought made you feel the slightest bit better, and also worse. Still, you took the ring and held it between your fingers. It was simple sterling silver, but beautiful all the same.

You got into his pick-up truck and he started the drive home. Just as you turned the corner, you hit a red light. You stared out the window as snow started a light fall, flurrying down to the damp pavement. Soon the ground would be icy and wet, and that reminded you of grocery trucks. Tears welled up in your eyes, but you were sick of it. Sick of crying.

It actually annoyed you…or…did it?

A feeling fluttered in your chest. It felt like anxiety and irritation all wrapped up into one. And another feeling, this time attached to a thought. It felt hot in your throat, and a lot like—

It’s not fair!

The thought startled you. Because somehow (and you didn’t know why), it didn’t feel like you were the one that thought it.   

Finally, the street light turned green. It flashed in the corner of your eyes, and then you noticed a sleek, black car coming in the opposite direction. You watched it pass by for a moment, until your dad distracted you with a question.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. You blinked, trying to register what he said while you shook off the weird things you were feeling. Once your brain caught up to your mouth, you were finally able to answer.

“Not really.”

“Come on. I’ll get us a burger.”

You shrugged, but for once you really weren’t hungry.

“Dad, come on,” Dean said in frustration. On one hand, he didn’t want to argue with his dad.

On the other hand, this really wasn’t fair!

He was seventeen already. He’d gone on a handful of hunts with John before, so why not this one?

“Too dangerous,” John said. He looked over at Dean from the Impala’s driver’s seat. His tone boded no further argument. “Djinn are tricky. Even seasoned hunters have trouble with ‘em.”

Dean frowned. “I’m ready, Dad.”

“Do we have to go to Bobby’s house?” Sam piped up from the back seat. At thirteen, he was getting more and more lippy.

“Cheaper than a motel.” John smiled, then glanced at his younger son through the rear-view mirror. “Besides, why not Bobby’s?”

Sam sighed. “His heater doesn’t always work.”  

“Well, I’ll help him take a look before I go,” John replied. Dean stared at the side of his dad’s face for a while, but he knew a lost argument when he saw one.

…Still, he couldn’t help but try.

“Dad,” Dean pressed.

John’s gaze stayed on the road. “Not this time, son. You and Sam’ll be okay at Bobby’s.”

Dean resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Yeah, bored at Bobby’s. But he knew it was better than being left at a crusty motel room. He was annoyed, but he could deal with it.

Until something else began to creep up in his chest. Something he hadn’t felt since…since his mom died.

It was this ball of lead in his chest, weighing him down and constricting his throat. It felt a lot like…like fear, and sadness. And finally confusion. He was confused?

Maybe.

Sad? Afraid? Not really, no. At least, he didn’t think so. He hadn’t thought about his mom like that in a while…

So what the hell?

Those sensations only lasted for a moment—the time it took them to finally cross the street at the red light and pass a pick-up truck going the opposite way.

But that moment seemed to drag on for minutes. Now he really was confused.

He sat still, hesitating, until the feeling eventually passed.

“Hey, Dean, where’s the Batman comic?” Sam leaned up by his ear to ask.

Dean almost flinched. He played it off though, and turned to look back at his brother.

“It’s in my bag, but wait ‘til we get to Bobby’s.”

“Why? That’s like, a whole ten minutes away,” Sam pointed out.

“Because my bag’s under a ton of stuff back there. Just leave it for a few minutes,” Dean said. He sensed that Sam was about to get all bitchy and not let it go, but then John cut in.

“He’s right, Sam. Just cool it until we get there.”

Sam frowned, slumping into his seat with an annoyed huff. Wanting to tease him out of his kid funk, Dean smirked, reached back and playfully tapped his knee. “Yeah, cool it.”

Sam slapped his hand away. “Stop.”

“Make me, dork.” Accompanied by another teasing flick to his ear. Sam hit him back, and it would’ve devolved into an immature, but not uncommon free-for-all, if not for John’s heavy sigh and a sharp warning.

“Boys, enough!”

Then the car was silent. Sam huffed again and settled back into his seat. Dean tapered down his smile and sat back in his too. He looked out the window and saw the snow beginning to fall. Without meaning to, his mind drifted back to that weird feeling in his chest.

He rubbed his chest absently. But soon enough, he forgot about it. Just like you did.

Neither of you realized exactly what happened that day.

It was the first tug of a lifelong bond, seared into your souls.

AN: Okay, this is my first soulmate AU! Maybe the end was a little melodramatic there lol.

Let me know in the comments what you think! Then keep reading. ;)

Here it is: Part 2.

Series Masterlist

Dean Winchester Masterlist

Main Masterlist

#dean x you #dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester x you #sam winchester #dean winchester #spn #spn fics #spn fanfic #dean winchester fanfic #bobby singer #john winchester #soulmates #dean x female reader #soulmate au #fluff #some angst #dean winchester x female reader #zepskies writes