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jwillowwolf · 3 years

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Magic and Miracles - Chapter 1

Sanders Sides Big Bang fic, Chapter 1!

< Prologue | Next Chapter | Masterlist

Summary: Roman huffed. “Anyone could have done that.”

“Well, if they knew the spells, then yes,” Logan agreed.

“He’s just jealous of the grand show you made of it,” Remus chuckled.

“I am not jealous.”

“Oh, then why are your eyes so green?”

“They’re naturally this colour, idiot.”

“Ah, but not in such a poisonous shade.”

Warning/s: food mention, fantasy racism.

Characters: Logan, Emile, Remy, OCs, Virgil, Roman, Remus, Patton, Janus.

Read on AO3

1 | A Whole New World

Logan had been figuratively buzzing with anticipation ever since Mr Ainmosni had come to the bakery and offered him the chance of a lifetime. Now, one week later, he was about to be picked up for his first day of school. Everleigh had come around to see him off, and Emile had made them both pancakes with Crofters jam for breakfast.

“Do you think you’ll get to meet the prince?” Everleigh asked during their meal.

Logan shrugged. “Probably not. He’s never shown his face in public since he was a kid, after all.”

“Why though.” Everleigh wondered. “He’s the crown prince after all. Aren’t princes supposed to be big public figures or something?”

“Perhaps he hides his identity for the sake of protection. Again, he is the crown prince.” Logan pointed out.

“I guess you have a point there. Ooh, you are going to get to meet some nobles though.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“You’re the first non-noble to qualify for a magic license, so your classmates must be from the nobility.”

“Hmm, that seems most logical. Though I will meet and study with them, I doubt we’ll become friends.”

“Again with the selling-yourself-short! You’re awesome Lo, anyone, noble or otherwise, would be lucky to befriend you. Just don’t go getting yourself a new best friend, okay?”

“I’d never dream of it. But if I’m going to be spending so much time studying, then I hope you’ll consider finding yourself more friends.”

“I’ve got a library full of books, I don’t need more friends than that.”

“Ev…”

“Okay, I’ll socialise, if you do the same on your end.”

“I still don’t think anything will come of it, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Hey, kiddo, did you make sure to pack enough underwear?”

“Dad!” Logan exclaimed in embarrassment while Everleigh snickered at the question.

“I’m being serious, Logan. You don’t want to run out.”

“I am positive that I’ve packed everything I’m going to need.”

“Even your-”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t finish my sentence.”

“I’ve packed clothes, books, hygiene products, spare clothes, and a spare binder.”

“Okay. Don’t forget to take a break from binding every few hours. If I hear anything about you neglecting to do so, then make no mistakes I’ll march over there myself to see that you do.”

“I know. I can take care of myself dad.”

Everleigh snorted. “If it weren’t for us, you’d have probably worked yourself to death.”

Logan looked at her with a you-are-not-helping expression, then turned back to his dad. “I’ll be fine. Besides, Mr Ainmosni is going to be taking care of us.”

Emile frowned. “I don’t doubt that Remy is a good teacher if he’s been put in charge of this, but I feel that he’s not completely… responsible.”

“He definitely fancies you if the constant flirting was any indication,” Everleigh teased.

Logan snickered. “Yeah, you went red as a tomato.”

“Oh shush,” Emile scolded, blushing at even the memory.

“I’ll be okay though, you really don’t have to worry.”

“You know I will either way, but I am proud of you. It feels like just yesterday you two were tiny tots running around the bakery. Now, look at you! A library apprentice and a wizard in training.”

“We have come a pretty long way, haven’t we,” Logan smiled.

Everleigh laughed. “I don’t think I’m anywhere near as accomplished as you.”

“I wouldn’t be where I am without you. How else could I have studied those library books for countless hours without you making sure to keep tabs on them.”

“It’s not like I had much to worry about when you read at the speed of light.”

“I’m going to miss studying there.”

“Well, you’re always welcome to stop by. It’s not like you’re going to the next town over or anything.”

“I suppose. Though I really won’t be able to spend as much time there as before.”

“Don’t go getting homesick already, Lo. I already miss you, but this isn’t a goodbye.”

“Definitely not. I’ll probably visit this weekend.”

“Then I’ll be here Saturday morning to hear all about what you’ve done.”

Logan nodded. He was glad that they would stay friends, even if they could only see each other on weekends. He’d known Everleigh since they were babies after all. Not having her around would be weird.

The bell above the shop door rang and the trio in the kitchen heard Remy call. “I have arrived!”

They went to the bakery and saw Remy standing there in the same outfit as before, however this time he had a strange flask in his hand.

Emile frowned. “What’s that?”

“Midnight elixir. My own special concoction. It’s a touch bitter but really helps if you need an energy boost. Want a try?”

“Oh, uh, no thank you.”

“Woah, are you guys riding in that?” Everleigh gasped when she saw the carriage parked outside.

It was a standard chestnut brown box carriage with white swirls and spirals decorating it all around, and a pair of beautiful cream coloured horses pulling it.

“Yep. Ready to go, Logan?”

Logan nodded. “I just need to grab my bag from upstairs.”

He quickly went and got his suitcase then paused a moment to look around his room. He wouldn’t see it again for a while. Honestly, he’d never been away from home for longer than an overnight stay at Everleigh’s house. The reality of leaving everything he knew behind was both exciting and frightening. He truly didn’t know what to expect at this magic school apart from that he’d learn magic. This was a huge step to take and he wasn’t entirely sure of his readiness anymore.

But when he got downstairs and saw his dad and Everleigh’s proud expressions, he knew that there was no turning back now. He had a goal after all, and this was going to help him achieve it. He wouldn’t freeze up and disappoint them now.

Farewell wishes and goodbye hugs were quickly exchanged, then Logan and Remy got into the carriage and were off. Logan looked out the back window as they drove away from the bakery, out of town, and to the location of the Srednas Magic School.

“Mr Ainmosni-”

“Just Remy, kid.”

“Remy, where exactly is the school?”

“The school is, for now, the Srednas Manor. The Prince wants to have a proper school built, but this first class is only the test run, so to speak.”

“Test run?”

“The council wants to be sure that a school would be a successful idea before the Prince can order a real one to be made.”

Logan nodded. “I suppose that’s why it’s not publicly known.”

“Yeah, getting ideas through the council is a pain, even for royalty. I’m surprised they let you obtain a learners license without too much fuss. Though you should be cautious about any interactions with Councillor Allen. He was not happy when he heard the Prince invited you to his school,” Remy chuckled.

“He wouldn’t really be able to do anything against me, would he?”

“With how you won the favour of his highness and Lady Silvia, not a chance. But you will need to be careful. Now that you’re practising magic, you will be interacting with nobility, and any mistakes made in their world can mean an end to your reputation and career.”

“I don’t know if I would do much socialising.”

“Kid, you are the first-ever wizard to come from a commonwealth household. Nobles are going to find a way to meet you and they’ll either see you as an opportunity or an opponent.”

“Opportunity?”

“You already caught the notice of the Crown Prince. They’ll want to take advantage of that. And at the same time, they might see that as a problem since you’re getting his attention over them.”

“I’ve never even met him.”

“They won’t care. They may even believe you have anyway.”

Logan frowned. “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

Remy nodded. “Yeah, but if you need anything then you can just ask.”

“Does social standing fall under your teaching duties?”

“Nope. But I don’t mind helping people, and honestly, I think that you have something… special. You’re forging a path for others who may want to learn magic themselves. I think that’s worth investing in.”

“So, this isn’t for anything like points with my dad?”

Remy laughed. “While that seems like a benefit, I truly didn’t think of it before you said something.”

Shortly after that conversation, the carriage came to the silver gates of the Srednas Estate. The driveway was paved with white stones and went all the way up to the large manor house which was built of brilliant dark wood and stone bricks. It looked to Logan like a small castle, with even a tower on the left side that stretched high above even the forest trees.

The carriage stopped just outside of the enormous front door, and Logan found himself staring up in awe as he followed Remy out.

“Well, I believe we are the last to arrive. Follow me to the classroom. The others should be waiting there for us.”

Logan followed Remy down the halls. When they finally arrived at their destination, Logan noted that there were seven small desks set in a sort of semi-circle. They were all facing one large desk with a big chalkboard behind it. As Remy had predicted, the other six students already occupied the room.

Two elves were sitting together by the two desks far left, talking about something animatedly to one another. They looked similar, with broad shoulders, long dark curly hair, and almond tanned skin. Their eyes however set them apart from one another, the one on the left having bright green eyes while the others were deep red.

Sitting on the desk of the red-eyed elf was a water sprite with a kind smile. He had a petit build, bright brown eyes and messy blonde hair with small variously coloured flowers braided in. His skin was a peachy hue apart from the blue-green splotches that identified them as being a sprite.

Standing by one of the large windows in the back of the room were two students. One a demi-wolf, the other a Dragonborn. The Dragonborn stood with an air of confidence and superiority. Paired with the scales that covered the right half of their face, they seemed quite intimidating. Their eyes were mismatched, the left one a normal brown while the right one was bright yellow with a black slitted pupil. Their blonde hair was nearly completely hidden by their ivy cap.

In comparison, their demi-human companion seemed rather timid or perhaps on edge, if their body language was anything to go by. Their tail hung low, slowly swinging side to side, and their wolf ears were focused forward, listening intently to the Dragonborn’s words, while their deep brown eyes glanced routinely around the room and out the window.

On the other side of the room, by a bookshelf full of large tomes, stood the last student. He was slender and pale, with black hair that faded into dark purple and hung slightly in his stormy grey eyes. He was leaning with his back against the shelves, eyes focused on the pages of the book in his hands, at least until Remy and Logan had entered. At that moment, the boy looked up through his fringe and focused his stormy eyes on Logan.

For a moment Logan felt frozen. Those eyes seemed to be reading him like a book. Searching his very soul for… something. But the feeling only lasted a moment as the boy looked back down at his book with a thoughtful frown. How peculiar.

“Okay, everyone, take a seat. Preferably at the provided chairs.” Remy said as he turned to take his own seat behind the large desk facing the semi-circle.

The sprite hopped off the elf’s desk and sat at the desk beside them. The Dragonborn took the next seat, and the demi-wolf sat beside them. The boy at the bookshelf returned his book to its place then sat at the desk on the far right. Leaving a seat for Logan between the boy and the demi-human, which he promptly took.

“Alright, class. I don’t expect you to become best friends or anything, but we are a small group so I hope you will at the very least get along with each other. For that, you’ll probably need to know each other, so we’re going to go around and introduce ourselves. I’ll start. I’m your teacher, Remy Ainmosni, my pronouns are he/him, and don’t worry this is not alcohol,” Remy said as he gestured to his flask. “Who wants to go next?”

“Oh, me!” The sprite said excitedly, jumping up. “Hi, I’m Patton Lilyhart, I use he/him, and I’m excited to get to know you all.”

Remy nodded. “I like the energy. Who wants to continue?”

“I shall.” The green-eyed elf declared, standing up from his seat with a confidant and regal air. “My name is Roman Elvar Goldheart Arthur Leafstone, and my pronouns are he/him. I am the eldest son of Lady Leafstone and heir of the Lyrecrest Ilse.”

“An impressive introduction, Roman, but next time you can just say your name is Roman Leafstone, we don’t need your full given name,” Remy commented, then gestured to the other elf. “Your turn.”

The red-eyed elf stood, though she held herself with a more casual air and wrapped an arm around Roman’s shoulders. “Sup, I’m Remus, he/him or she/her, and this is my less-handsome twin.”

“You’re wrinkling my cape,” Roman complained, only to have Remus stick out her tongue at him.

Remy nodded with an amused smile. “Okay, snake eye, you’re up.”

“I am not a snake,” the not-half-snake hissed. “My name is Janus Embyrn, they/them, and I am a Dragonborn.”

“Good for you, snake eye. What about you, Wolfie?” Remy asked, completely ignoring the fiery rage burning in Janus’s eyes.

“My name is Willow, um, Redrunner.”

“Are you sure?” Remus asked. “Cause you don’t seem so confident about that.”

Willow shuffled nervously in their seat. “I- well… you see- uh-”

“Demi-humans don’t use last names,” Logan declared.

Willow nodded gratefully at him. “Yeah, but if needed then we use the name of our pack. I hail from the Redrunner pack and use she/they pronouns.”

Remy nodded then turned his attention to Logan and the stormy eyed boy. “Okay, which of you two wants to go?”

“I’m Virgil Tempest, he/him,” the boy declared.

They all waited a moment for him to say more, but he simply gestured for Logan to go. Logan made a mental note of that and then cleared his throat.

“My name is Logan Picani and I also use he/him pronouns.”

Patton gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re the star guy! Right?”

“If you are referring to the spells I cast at the license test, then yes that is me.”

Roman huffed. “Anyone could have done that.”

“Well, if they knew the spells, then yes,” Logan agreed.

“He’s just jealous of the grand show you made of it,” Remus chuckled.

“I am not jealous.”

“Oh, then why are your eyes so green?”

“They’re naturally this colour, idiot.”

“Ah, but not in such a poisonous shade.”

“Let’s not fight,” Patton intervened. “You did very well on your presentation Roman.”

“Thank you, Pat, but I am still not and have never been jealous. Especially of a human.”

“Watch your words, elf,” Janus growled. “You wouldn’t want us to think you’re racist.”

Roman glared darkly at them but was interrupted by Remy before he could reply. “Never mind presentations, and races, and titles, none of those things matter here so there’s no need to discuss them. All of you were chosen with equal faith in your abilities as competent mages who could better the kingdom. I hope you can appreciate this opportunity and act civil with each other for the duration of your time here.”

Everyone was silent but Logan could practically see sparks of violent tension between Roman and Janus. They were going to be a problem for each other but with any luck, they wouldn’t pull the rest of the class down with them. Logan doubted he had that much luck, but he hoped anyway.

“Now, the rules are as follows,” Remy continued, ignoring the tense atmosphere. “Firstly, you are to stay on school grounds, unless permitted by myself to leave. Secondly, lessons will take place in the late morning and early afternoon, whatever you do outside of that time is up to you. So long as it doesn’t interfere with classes then I don’t care what you do. You’re old enough to watch yourselves, and I am not a babysitter, so I expect you to keep out of trouble for the most part. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served in the dining hall, food is allowed outside of these hours, but not permitted inside of your rooms. Speaking of your rooms, you may decorate them as you like, but please remember to keep them moderately tidy as the cleaning staff will only come through once a week-”

“Once a week?”

“That’s what I said, Roman.”

“Do you expect our beds to go unmade for that long?”

Remy shrugged. “I would hope you could at least do that for yourselves. You’re not infants after all.”

Roman opened his mouth to protest further but was cut off by Janus. “What food is to be served, exactly?”

“Not sure. You can inquire with the chef for a menu and tell them of any dietary requirements too. If and when you interact with the estate staff, I expect you to be polite and respectful towards them. Any questions?”

“Can we explore the garden?” Patton asked.

Remy smiled. “Yes. The estate is yours to explore, apart from the tower.”

Remus’s eyes shone with curiosity. “What’s in the tower?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. If that’s all, then I think I ought to show you all to your rooms to get yourselves settled in.”

Remy got up and walked to the door, not waiting to see if anyone followed him. Roman rose in a dignified manner and went after him with Remus walking beside him. Patton practically skipped behind them and Janus followed with their own nonchalant air and Willow beside them. Virgil got up too and looked over to Logan for a split second, almost like he wanted to say something, but decided against it.

It was barely the beginning of his first day and Logan already felt that this was going to be a stressful time. He really had no idea how he was going to navigate interacting with all these people. He didn’t have to do that when he was independently studying before. By accepting this chance he was entering a whole new world.

And he was more than ready to conquer it.

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quicksilversquared · 5 years

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The Babysitting Fiasco Bonus Chapter: Mom Squad

Alya and Nino aren’t actually supposed to be pushing off their babysitting duties onto Marinette in favor of going on extra dates, but try telling them that. But after a poorly-timed akuma attack and a chance encounter set off a domino effect…well, they couldn’t get away with it forever.

This was formerly a cut scene from the Babysitting Fiasco, but I made the mistake of mentioning it on FF.net and AO3 and people liked the idea of the Mom Squad, so it’s been expanded a bit, cleaned up a lot, and now here it is!

links in the reblog

Marlena Césaire was on a mission.

No, it wasn't a mission to catch Alya in the middle of slacking off on her responsibilities, like it had been the night before. Her daughter had been caught red-handed and given a very strict talking-to, though exact punishments were still being decided on. After all, Marlena and Otis didn't know exactly how long Alya had been getting away with her skipping (the younger kids were rather vague, though they let on that it had definitely been more than a couple months), and, well, they didn't exactly trust Alya to tell them.

So now, Marlena was headed for the Dupain-Cheng's family bakery in search of a more trustworthy source of information. Marinette would still be at school, of course, but perhaps her parents would be willing to take a message, or maybe they happened to know how long Marinette's babysitting had been going on.

Thankfully, she had timed her break perfectly with the bakery's afternoon lull, and Marinette's mom was sitting at the bakery's counter, reading a book. As Marlena entered, she looked up and smiled, tucking a bookmark between her pages and setting the book aside.

"Hi, Marlena!"

"Hi, Sabine," Marlena replied at once. She glanced around, making sure that there weren't any customers around. "Do you have a minute?"

Sabine nodded, not looking at all puzzled by the request. "I assume that this is about the whole babysitting thing?"

"Of course. I was quite surprised when Marinette mentioned it yesterday. It was pretty obvious that she didn't know that I wasn't aware of it."

Sabine managed a smile. "Yes, she was quite upset at lunch over the whole thing, which is when Tom and I learned about it. I just wished that she had mentioned it before, because she's been so overworked lately. We would have put a stop to it, at least on her end. She wasn't sure if she should admit the mistake to Alya. We told her not to."

"That's a good idea," Marlena agreed. "Alya was clearly really upset that she had been caught. Ridiculously so, considering that she was the one fully in the wrong, but she doesn't seem to see that yet. I would hate to see her blame Marinette for her punishment and have the two of them fall apart over this." She paused. "Am I correct in my assumption that Alya and Nino didn't pay Marinette for her time?"

Sabine sighed, nodding. "Yes, that's what Marinette said when we asked. And they kept springing the requests on her. Marinette hasn't had time to sit down and design like she normally does for ages now."

...well, that was another thing to talk about with Alya. Her daughter needed to recognize how she was affecting others. It was rude and selfish for her to be making requests of her friends that resulted in them not having any free time and Alya- who had plenty of free time to start with!- getting even more.

"If Marinette can come up with an approximate number of times that she's babysat Chris and the twins- or Chris or the twins, I don't know what arrangements they had- and for how long, that would be great," Marlena said instead. Alya's selfishness and apparent tunnel vision when she wanted something needed to be discussed directly with her daughter, not with Mrs. Cheng. "We'll pay Marinette back out of Alya's allowance, and Nino's family will be doing the same. Both of them were getting raised allowances for babysitting, so it's only fair."

Sabine smiled. "That sounds like a good solution."

"Yeah. Alya's not happy about it, but I'm not particularly happy with her at the moment." That was an understatement, honestly, but Marlena wasn't going to linger on it. Alya had gotten that message loud and clear the previous night, when she and Otis had set Alya's grounding for a minimum of a month, potentially extended out for however long Alya and Nino had kept the secret from their presents. That would mean a grounding of several months, far more than they had ever doled out for any punishment before, but if Alya actually showed remorse for what she had done and an understanding of how wrong it was to take advantage of her parents' trust in her and her friend's kindness- well, that could potentially be shortened a bit.

Time would tell. At the moment, Marlena was leaning towards a longer punishment.

"Has Marinette said anything else about it? How long things have been going on, how long she normally babysat per night...?"

"Oh, for months, but she didn't say anything exact. She did mention that Alya said that the idea came from her classmate Lila." There was distaste in the way she said that, Marlena noted, and that was interesting. "Marinette had questioned that, and from what she heard, Alya had been in contact with Lila and had been complaining about wanting more dates with Nino, and Lila was the one to make the suggestion that they give the kids to someone else and use that time for a date."

"The same Lila who I found telling tall tales to the kids when I got home, I assume," Marlena said, mentally thanking Otis for finding the seminars that he had signed Alya up for earlier in the day, focused on healthy relationships both romantic and platonic. At least one of them would be going with her to- well, the romantic one at the very least, to make sure that they were enforcing whatever behaviors the instructor was encouraging (and discouraging whatever the instructor deemed unhealthy, of course), and possibly the friendship one as well to make sure that Alya was actually paying attention. The taking advantage of Marinette... well, that was something they just couldn't not address. "The one cooking up some ridiculous tall tales that she claimed were perfectly true."

"Precisely." Sabine was frowning. "I need to ask Marinette more about that girl. I could tell there was more there that she wasn't telling us, but we didn't have enough time to fully delve in before Tom and I had to get back to the bakery."

Marlena sighed. "Alya thinks that Lila is a fabulous friend, but I've heard more than I ever want to about Lila's tall tales. That and the news that Lila was the one to encourage Alya to shove her babysitting off on Marinette...well, unless Lila's lied more, her mom works at the embassy. I've got a mind to go over there tomorrow during my break and have a word with Mrs. Rossi about what her daughter is up to."

"That sounds like an idea," Sabine agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's being kept in the dark, too. Welcome to Tom and Sabine's!" she added to the customer who had just entered. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"Well, I'll let you go," Marlena said, stepping aside so that Sabine could help her customer. "You have my number, so let me know what Marinette says. And after hearing how stressed Marinette was- let me know how much more Marinette's rates are for emergency babysitting versus her normal rates. She deserves the money, for sure. And she'll be getting whatever Lila would have earned, because that girl certainly doesn't deserve it."

Sabine laughed. "All right. I'll try to have Marinette give me those numbers tonight and then I'll pass them on."

Marlena smiled, thanking Sabine one last time, and then she headed back out the door. She had to get back to work, and if she had any time to spare for a quick Google inquiry...

Well, one Mrs. Rossi would be getting a visit tomorrow afternoon.

At eight o'clock that night, Marlena got a text from Sabine Cheng.

Sabine: I'd like to come along with you tomorrow. That girl threatened my Marinette.

Marlena swung by the bakery the next afternoon to pick up Sabine. When she stuck her head inside, she found Sabine by the door and a rather unhappy-looking Tom behind the corner.

"Tom wanted to come along, too, but someone had to watch the counter," Sabine told her as they left. "He was quite angry about finding out everything that Lila has been doing and how much stress she's causing Marinette. Marinette has been trying to call out the lies but, well, Alya has apparently refused to listen and then Lila threatened her to try to get her to stay quiet."

"I'm not surprised about Alya," Marlena said with a sigh, leading the way over to the bus stop. "I wish I could say that I am, but I'm not. Otis and I talked to Alya more last night, and she accidentally let slip that when either she or Nino had babysitting to do and the other didn't, the one without anything would claim that they were going to another classmate's to study or work on a project and then the two of them would go on a date instead. So that's another deception. And all Alya could say was that it hadn't hurt anyone, so why was it such a big deal?"

"She's still not picking up on how much stress she was putting on Marinette," Sabine filled in, and Marlena nodded.

"That, or how big of a deal the lying is, or how dangerous it could have been to have Lila babysitting, or how making Marinette take care of three very rowdy kids at once could have turned out badly." On top of that, Marlena and Otis had looked through Alya's texts- not something they normally did or advocated doing, but the breach in trust rather warranted it- to see if there was anything else that she was hiding, and the texts that Alya had sent Marinette in response to finding out that Marinette couldn't make it... well, they were rather self-serving, less focused on Marinette's struggles and more on what Marinette could do for Alya. That was going to get addressed.

Sabine only nodded.

The bus came, and they got on. It wasn't a long ride to the Italian embassy, and then they were heading for Mrs. Rossi's office. Marlena had set up an appointment the previous day to ensure that Mrs. Rossi would be free when they came, and considering how busy the embassy was when they stepped in, it had been a good idea. It didn't take long to find the office they were looking for, and then they were waved in to meet a politely puzzled Mrs. Rossi.

"It's nice to meet you," Mrs. Rossi said politely as the door shut behind them. She glanced at a paper on her desk. "Uh, which one of you is Mrs. Marlena Césaire?"

"That's me," Marlena said at once, stepping forward to shake hands. "And this is Sabine Cheng. Our daughters are in the same class as Lila."

"Is- is this really the time to discuss the girls?" Mrs. Rossi asked, clearly more puzzled than ever. "I mean, I am at work right now, surely we could arrange to meet at another ti-"

"Your daughter has been threatening mine."

"And she's been feeding all sorts of lies to her classmates and persuading them to behave poorly," Marlena chimed in, though she wasn't entirely sure that Mrs. Rossi had caught that, she was so busy staring in shock at Sabine.

"Threatening- that doesn't sound like my daughter at all! She told me that people at school were very friendly and that she got along with all of them and-"

Marlena cut across before Sabine could say anything more. "Lila has been telling people that she's met all sorts of famous people and travels all over the world on a regular basis. According to Alya, she has also been claiming all sorts of ailments- arthritis, allergies, tinnitus that she supposedly got from saving Jagged Stone's kitten on an airplane runway-"

Mrs. Rossi had sunk back into her chair, eyes wide as Sabine picked up the list.

"She's gone on the Ladyblog as claiming that she was saved by Ladybug and now they're best friends. My daughter saw Lila deliberately knock over her classmate Adrien's book bag to steal an old book from him, which Lila later threw in the trash. If Marinette had not rescued the book and returned it, that would have resulted in Adrien getting pulled from the school by his father, which would have crushed the poor boy-"

"Adrien? Adrien Agreste?" Mrs. Rossi demanded. She didn't even wait for them to nod before barreling on. "Lila told me that he was her boyfriend! That they started dating- oh, months ago, back before the akuma attacks that shut down the school for so long!"

There was a long pause. Then-

"Uh, what do you mean, shut down the school?"

By the time Sabine and Marlena left, Mrs. Rossi had been brought up to speed on all that Lila had been up to and was on the phone with Mr. Damocles. Ms. Bustier was on her way to the office to join the call, so that they could discuss all of Lila's stories. She seemed quite stressed, but managed to wave to them on their way out.

"Well, I think that was rather successful," Marlena said cheerfully as they headed for the bus stop to ride back to the bakery. "We got apologies for Lila's behavior and from the sound of things, Lila will get rather thoroughly punished."

"And the principal is now aware of Lila's threats," Sabine chimed in. She was looking rather pleased as well. "So Marinette will finally get her justice. I can't believe that she didn't tell Tom and I before. I rather hope that Tom hasn't decided to leave the counter to one of his helpers and storm the school in our absence," she added with a small laugh. "He was ready to head straight over last night when Marinette told us, never mind that it was late and the school was closed! And it took both Marinette and I this morning to convince him not to tag along with her to school so that Lila wouldn't be able to threaten her again."

Marlena laughed. "I can just see him now, wedging himself between Marinette and Alya on their bench at school and acting like he's meant to be there. I'm sure Marinette is happy to know that you two are so firmly on her side, though. Even if Tom's reaction was perhaps a bit impulsive."

"I'm just concerned that she didn't come straight to us in the first place. Like, what did we say to make her think that she had to deal with it on her own? As much as I'd like to think that it's not something that we did but rather just her becoming more independent... well, I kind of doubt that that's the case." Sabine was frowning, concerned. "So Tom and I will be doing some reflection as well, I suspect. We certainly don't want to make Marinette hesitate to come to us with any problems she has."

"It is concerning that she was getting threats and hadn't said anything," Marlena agreed. She sighed. "All this drama. I don't remember my collège years being anywhere near as- as-"

"Dramatic? Stressful? Crazy?" Sabine offered, then gave a little laugh. "And Marinette is doing commissions for famous celebrities on top of everything else, which is- it's crazy. We're so proud of her, of course, but it's still not something we ever would have expected to happen."

Marlena smiled. She had heard about that and- well, it was truly impressive. What was strange about it, though, was how crazy Alya had gone over Lila's stories about hanging out with celebrities when Marinette was designing CD covers and posters and concert outfits for famous people. On top of that, Marlena had heard Jagged Stone referring to Marinette as his honorary niece more than once.

And somehow, Alya was impressed by Lila. At least those lies were going to be coming out today.

"Oh, before I forget," Marlena said suddenly, digging in her purse. She pulled out an envelope and passed it to Sabine, who peeked inside. "Checks from both our family and Nino's, to pay Marinette for her babysitting. We did time and a third because it rather sounded like the babysitting was getting forced on her when Marinette already had more than enough to do."

"They are very generous," Sabine commented, tucking both checks back into the envelope and placing it carefully in her purse. "Wow. We'll take Marinette to the bank to deposit them this weekend."

"Yes, well, I think Marinette rather earned them." Neither Alya nor Nino would getting their allowance for a while to pay for it and neither were thrilled about that, but it sounded as though Nino at least had gotten to acceptance stage by the night before. Alya was more stubborn, though, so it would probably take her longer to accept responsibility for her actions. Marlena sighed at the thought. Dealing with haughty, demanding customers was the worst, but dealing with a stubborn teenage girl was pretty far up there, too. "I'll just be glad when all of this is behind us."

"Me too."

Marlena returned home that evening after the dinner rush to find Alya in what could only be described as a mood as she spluttered out the events of what had apparently been a very interesting afternoon. Lila's mom had ended up going over to the school to meet up with their teachers and principal in person, and it had come out that Lila was lying and manipulating them for her own benefit. Alya was steaming because of the deception, but, well, still not for quite the right reasons.

"I can't believe I posted that bucket of lies on the Ladyblog!" she was fuming, a fierce scowl on her face. "There goes my reporter's credibility! And she- she was the one who told me to have Marinette babysit so that Nino and I could go on dates! This is all her fault!"

Marlena sighed. Clearly the concept of personal responsibility was still eluding Alya.

"She wanted me to like her, and so she made me think that it was a good idea and that it would be fine and- and-"

Nora snorted, glancing over the top of her textbook. "How very unfortunate that you lost the ability to, oh, fact-check things that went on your blog before posting them. And at the same time that you lost your critical thinking skills, too!"

"Why, you-!"

Marlena sighed again, exchanging a look with Otis as he headed over to try to fend off a fight between their two older girls. She had hoped that they would have a peaceful evening, but it was looking like there wasn't much chance of that.

Across town, Sabine smiled as Marinette gushed about her day- Lila had been pulled out of their classroom mid-afternoon and hadn't come back. Rumors had buzzed around the classroom, unhampered by Mr. Haprele, who had stepped in to oversee the classroom while Ms. Bustier was out, and it wasn't until their last class that their teacher had returned and broke the news to them about Lila's lies. The news had been received with no small amount of shock by most of her classmates, and more than a few had apologized to Marinette for not believing her before.

Marinette herself had been called to the principal's office after school let out to give a statement about the threats that Lila had made towards her, and it sounded like the Italian girl wouldn't be returning to their school at all. In fact, it sounded like Mrs. Rossi was planning on sending Lila back to Italy to stay with her grandparents there as soon as possible, probably because Hawkmoth's presence in the city meant that there was an added note of danger to the whole situation- either Lila herself would get akumatized over being found out, or someone upset with her would. Removing her completely from the situation meant that Lila couldn't try to retaliate in any way, either by more lies or by accepting an akuma, and Marinette could finally relax.

Maybe nothing about the situation before had been ideal- Marinette's best friend taking advantage of her kindness and hiding information from her, the bullying, Marinette's absolute burn-out level kind of exhaustion- but Sabine personally thought that it had resolved itself rather nicely. There had been a lot of lessons learned, and now she and Tom would know to be on the lookout and ready to step in to investigate and offer a helping hand if Marinette started to struggle and get overwhelmed again, hopefully intervening before it got to be too much.

And with any luck, nothing like this would ever happen again.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing

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vgckwb · 3 years

Text

ML: Too Much Chapter 5: Sense of Self

Marinette heard a knock on her hatch. Sabine opened it and told her “Marinette. Your friends are here to see you.”

Marinette set down the thing she was making for Cat Noir. “OK mama” Marinette responded. Sabine went back down to the bakery while Alya, Nino, and Adrien entered. “Hey everyone” she said, nervous about how Alya and Nino would react.

“Marinette…” Alya said remorsefully. She clenched her fist. “What were you thinking?!”

“Alya!” Nino said in shock.

“Why didn’t you tell me this was happening?!” Alya continued. “Why did you pretend everything was alright?!” She lost some of her steam. “I would have helped you. I would have done something more.”

Marinette felt guilty. She walked over to Alya and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry” she said gently.

Alya began to tear up. She hugged Marinette tighter. “Don’t scare me like that again,” she told her. Marinette smiled, though Adrien noticed a little hesitation with that smile.

The two girls let go of each other. “So, uh, how have you been?” Nino asked awkwardly.

“Well, to be honest, a little better,” Marinette said. “But…

“But what?” Nino asked.

Marinette stood there before answering. “I dunno. I’ve just been feeling off.”

“Well yeah. Not eating or sleeping enough will do that” Nino responded. Alya smacked him.

Marinette giggled. “It’s not that. Before that. What caused that.” Everyone looked at her confused. “...I was thinking. What if there comes a point where…”

“Where what?” Alya asked.

“...where we drift apart?” Marinette finished.

Alya seemed confused. “What brought this on?” she asked.

I have an inkling Adrien thought to himself. But I’d doubt she’d tell any of us.

“Well…” Marinette began, “whenever I got offered to do that piece for Mr. Agreste, I got to thinking. My fashion design could turn into a real career.”

“Marientte. That’s a good thing!” Alya said

“Yeah, but…” Marinette began. “Fashion design could take me anywhere. Including places far outside of Paris. What if I don’t get to see you guys once school is over? What if I get so caught up in everything that I forget everything important to me now. I just… I just want to get the most out of my time with everyone…”

“Marinette…” Alya said. She gave her another hug. “I’m planning on becoming a journalist. And I KNOW that could take me all over the place.” She turned her embrace into a double hand-hold. “But I promise you I won’t let you go. And neither would anyone else.”

“She’s right, dudette” Nino chimed in. “We live in the age of cellphones and hyper-advanced computers. There’s no WAY we’re losing touch.”

“But, what if I forget to message you?” Marinette asked.

Alya chuckled. “I wouldn’t allow it.”

“Besides, who says fashion has to actually take you anywhere?” Adrien said. “I mean, my dad is one of the biggest names in fashion, and he rarely leaves his home or office, let alone Paris.” Marinette grinned at that statement.

Alya moved to pick Marinette up. “It’s your life Marinette” she reminded her. “You can do with it what you want. If you don’t want to give us up, we’ll allow it.”

Marinette nervously smiled. “Thanks,” she said. Adrien could tell she still had a forlorn look in her eye, but felt that it’s better not to press the issue. At least, not as Adrien.

Alya put Marinette down. “So, what have you been doing today?” she asked.

“Well…” Marinette said, a little embarrassed, “I mostly just watch some TV while working on a little something for Cat Noir.”

Adrien froze. Alya and Nino were confused. “Um, shouldn’t you not be working on stuff?” Nino asked.

“Yeah, what gives?” Alaya asked.

Marinette sighed. “I’m not working on anything too serious,” she explained. “Normally, it would take me like an hour or two, but it’s been a few hours, and I haven’t even gotten halfway done with it.”

“I see…” Alya said. “Well, I think it’ll be a few hours more before that gets done since we’re here now.”

“Yeah, let’s just do something fun. Just the four of us” Nino said. “Right Adrien?”

Adrien heard his name and kind of pieced it together, while still being somewhat distracted by the fact that he was going to get a gift. “Huh? Oh. Yeah” he said.

“So, what do you want to do now that we’re here?” Alya asked.

Marinette thought about it. “Well, there’s this party game I’ve wanted to try” she said.

“Great!” Alya said. “Let’s set it up.” The group spent the afternoon playing different party games with each other and laughing it up. Marinette felt like she was having a really good time. Probably the best in a while, and definitely since she passed out. It felt nice doing something just for the fun of it.

Eventually though, the afternoon turned to evening, and everyone else had to leave because they had school in the morning. Marinette was on her own again, but she felt a little better about it. Tikki flew out of hiding. “See what happens when you just relax?”

“Yeah” Marinette answered. She sighed. “But still…”

“You’re still worried, aren’t you?” Tikki asked.

“Yeah,” Marinette said. “It’s just hard, you know. There are things that every high school kid can relate to, but as far as I know, very few people know just what I’m going through.”

“It’ll be OK Marinette,” Tikki said.

Marinette sighed. “I just kind of wish something would change soon, you know?” She picked up her gift to Cat Noir and started working on it again.

Unbeknownst to her, that something was getting ready to change. But his kwami was being obstinate. “No.”

“Yes” Adrien snapped back.

“Adrien! NO!” Plagg snapped back.

“Plagg, you saw how concerned she was” Adrien said, making a case. “I just want to make sure she’s alright.”

Plagg sighed. “Fine. But we need to talk afterwards!”

“Very well. Plagg! Claws out!” Adrien said. He changed into Cat Noir and high-tailed it out of his room.

Marinette just finished her gift. “There.” She heard a tapping on her window above. She looked up and saw Cat Noir waiving. Tikki hid. Marinette got embarrassed quickly. She set down his gift and went to open her window. “Cat Noir? What are you doing here?”

“I just came to check up on you,” he answered. “I did see you passed out. I just want to make sure you’re doing alright.”

Marinette was confused, but appreciated the gesture. “Do you do this with everyone you rescue?”

“No, but most people I rescue are helped by Ladybug’s cure” Cat Noir answered back. “It’s rare something like this happens.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Marinette relented. “Um, do you want to come in?”

Cat Noir smiled. “I’d thought you’d never ask.” Marinette went back down through the window and Cat Noir followed her in. He looked around. “I know I’ve been in here a few times, but I gotta say, when it’s not being attacked by an akuma, your room is pretty nice.”

“Um, thanks?” Marinette said, embarrassed.

Cat Noir turned to face Marinette. “So, how have you been feeling?”

“Oh, well, um…” Marinette was caught a little off guard by the question, despite the fact that that was Cat Noir’s stated reason for coming here. “I feel a little better,” she finally answered. “My parents took me out of school for a week to help collect myself.”

“I see,” Cat Noir said. “Do you find it helpful so far?”

“A little,” she said. She hesitated a little bit. “Hey, um, not to change the subject, but how are you feeling?”

“Me?” Cat Noir answered with confusion.

“Yeah…” Marinette said. “Do you enjoy being Cat Noir?”

Cat Noir decided to play it cool. Or at least, his definition of cool. “Of course” he answered, grin plastered on his face. “Super powers, saving the city, hanging out with my bugaboo. What’s there not to like?”

Marinette rolled her eyes. She then got determined. “Well, I’m sure Ladybug likes all that stuff too, but are you ever worried?”

“About what?” Cat Noir asked.

“Well…” Marinette muttered. “Do you ever worry about what would happen if you had to be Cat Noir all the time? Like, if you had to give up your life to save the city?”

Cat Noir was shocked. Ah. This is what she was worried about. He smiled. “I’m going to be honest.” He sat down. Marinette followed suit. “When I first got these powers, there was nothing I wanted more than to abandon my life and just become Cat Noir.” Marinette was shocked by that answer. “But, as time went on, I found reasons to keep being my civilian self.”

“Oh. I had no idea” Marinette said.

Cat Noir chuckled. “It’s OK.” He looked wistfully at the ceiling. “Besides, I know it will never get to that point.”

“How can you be so sure?” Marinette asked.

Cat Noir looked back at Marinette. “Because I know Ladybug. She always comes up with the right plan at the right time. I know she won’t let it come to that.”

Marinette felt a weird mixture of pride, comfort, embarrassment, and sorrow with that answer. She whispered to herself “Thanks.” She then looked at Cat Noir. She felt nervous. “But what if she can’t?” she asked.

Cat Noir smiled. “I’m sure she can. And even if she can’t right away, I’ll be there to guide her.”

Marinette’s face turned ruby red as her heart skipped a beat. “I see…” she said.

Cat Noir looked around and saw something on the table. “What’s that?” he asked.

Marinette looked over. “Oh. Um.” She got up and retrieved it. “It’s just a little something I made for you. As a thank you for saving me.” She handed it over. Cat Noir took hold of it. “It’s a Ladybug doll. Like the one I have for when I’m babysitting. I know how much you like her, so I thought you might like this.”

Cat Noir was awed by this. He knew he was going to be getting a gift, but he hadn't imagined it would be this magical. He smiled. “Thanks.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t fall into Puppeteer’s hands” Marinette reminded him.

“Of course. Anything for you” Cat Noir said. “Hey, um, would you mind if I stopped over during this time? Don’t get me wrong, you seem to be doing fine on your own, but I just want to be sure.”

Marinette giggled. “I’d like that,” she said.

Cat Noir smiled. “Very well. As you wish.” She grabbed her hand and kissed. It. Mariette was stunned. “Well, I should get going. Seeya.” He jumped out of her room.

Marinette blushed, grabbing her hand. “How can he do that so effortlessly?”

Cat Noir went back to his room and detransformed. “Can you believe it Plagg? She gave me my very own Ladybug doll. And this one’s soft, so I can cuddle it at night. And she made it just for me. Isn’t it amazing?” He turned and saw that Plagg had a very serious look on his face. “Plagg?”

“Adrien. We need to talk.”

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #Marinette #sabine #alya #nino #adrien #Tikki #plagg

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snowdrcpsa · 3 years

Text

muse connections.

some character relationship meta

elijah & ava

have been sharing an apartment for about a year and a half now. they didn’t know each other too well beforehand, only introduced by mutual friends as they were both looking for a new place to stay after getting tired of staying in the dorms. elijah is usually quick to try and warm up to people and was definitely making an effort to be friends with her, while ava had no interest in anything more than staying where they were. they start to get a little closer though with him usually reaching out for any form of interaction through his usual school related breakdowns, going as far as to have her cut and dye his hair, and they form a reluctant sort of support system. she’s often his voice of reason, not caring if her bluntness might offend him–– just trying to make sure he doesn’t fall into any further wreck, while he likes to coddle and do things for her even when she pushes him away.

elijah & isaiah

cousins on elijah’s paternal side. there’s a fairly big age difference between the two, but they grow up seeing each other often and elijah certainly looks up to isaiah. he often served as a buffer between elijah and his brother, being close with both of them. can almost match elijah’s impulsive behavior, leaning more towards being rather self indulgent, though he’s better at keeping things under wraps than the younger. likely had some influence on that, being the type to encourage similar behavior in others. they don’t see each other as often now due to isaiah’s traveling, but stay in contact and can be found together during family gatherings.

elijah & diana

more cousins !! isaiah’s younger sister, so they all grew up around each other, spent about as much time together as elijah did with isaiah, but definitely not as close. clashed when they were younger because of how similar they were at times, but a lot fussier and could be a handful that definitely didn’t want to deal with the other. diana likely got along better with elijah’s older sister than him, and haven’t kept up too much with each other, though they’d get along so much better now, would love to run around together.

diana & isaiah

not the closest of siblings, but not the most hostile relationship either. there was some resentment as kids over being stuck and left on their own together, but faded out once they were able to get out on their own. they don’t see each other very much, both having moved out the moment they were able to, but they’ll meet up whenever isaiah’s nearby. are definitely coping with some things in the same way, but still don’t quite understand each other. both jump around fairly often ( isaiah’s being a little more consistent that diana’s ), though isaiah’s more motivated by a fear of feeling stuck // settled somewhere, while diana’s trying to find something to stay around for, only to be pushed away or lose interest herself.

isaiah & sunny

they dated for about almost a year, one of the longer relationships either have been in. came together during new beginnings of both of their lives, with sunny finding his footing after moving out and isaiah just starting to work and move around. isaiah liked how supportive sunny was, eager to see him get far despite how new the relationship was, and thrived off of it. sunny was infatuated, seemingly eager to prove something with his first bigger relationship and was willing to give isaiah the benefit of the doubt whenever any issue arose. things got rockier the more long distance heavy they got, each of them taking different tactics to cope with any loneliness. sunny grows more reserved, hurt by isaiah’s lack of communication, while isaiah turns to other people, seeing little offense as it’s still sunny he’s going back to. likely don’t break up in person, which makes sunny all the more upset and resentful, no matter how much he hates holding grudges, while letting isaiah shake if off easier despite being more upset than he lets on.

sunny & yejin

have been working at the same cafe for a while now. yejin thought he was really cool, intimidated by how serious and put together he seemed in comparison to her own anxiety. she probably helped train him, feeling like it should’ve been the opposite, but it worked out. they talked to keep busy during slower times, yejin feeling the need to fill any quiet while sunny is fine with indulging despite not sharing much. he definitely considered them friends way before she did, knowing a lot more about her with her tendency to share just about anything while he offers up little, though would if she asked. start hanging out outside of work eventually, sunny probably offers to walk her train stop since she’s so tiny and they get closer after that, probably bonding over some gay shit evetually. he thinks she’s a total sweetheart and feels fairly protective, almost a sibling like bond.

ava & yejin

yejin went to the same college as ava and they just barely overlapped. ava caught her towards the end of her whole sexuality crisis, with yejin just barely getting comfortable within the lesbian label, while ava’s failry secure in it. they almost date, yejin’s eager to graduate having had at least one girlfriend but ends up cutting things off before they get any more serious, deciding she still has some things to figure out and realizing she and ava aren’t the best match anyway. there’s no hard feelings, they stay friends and get closer through it, often coming to each other for advice even after yejin’s move away.

elijah & theo

basically high school rivals, often clashed because of their similar attitudes yet different outlook on things. both are generally well liked, both used to getting what they want ( elijah charming // worming his way into things vs theo being handed them fairly easily ), but eliajh thrives off causing trouble and desperately wants attention, while theo is slightly more reserved ( still social, just doesn’t want a great deal of attention on himself at once ) and doesn’t want issues with anything. started off mild enough, mostly bickering and calling each other out, but escalates when they show interest in the same classmate, which only fans both of their competitiveness. definitely fought at some point, but theo’s parents were able to save him from any larger punishment ( they like that clean record ) while elijah was suspended for a week, results in awful backlash from his parents, definitely builds up some resentment and probably another fight once he gets back, but gets him some sympathy from said classmate, and they end up together eventually, which tends to keep theo and elijah away from each other for some time being.

ezra & jaehyun

ezra works at jaehyun’s shop !! fairly new to it, but the two work well together. with jaehyun on the reserved side and ezra eager to interact with others, there’s a balance between dynamics. ezra doesn’t really know about the whole witch thing, but picks up some of the jaehyun’s practices, assuming they’re gardening related or whatever, just not with very much success.

there’s other smaller things too !! elijah and ezra have taken a lot of overlapping classes and have study sessions together that usually end up nowhere productive, ava probably joining at some point. sunny and elijah know vaguely of each other, briefly having crossed paths during sunny and isaiah’s relationship. evan, yejin, and sunny run into each other often–– the cafe yejin and sunny work act gets some of their pastries and stuff from evan’s family’s bakery, whicb evan delivers for most of the time.

#ooc.#meta.#bc this should probaby be on here too gbfkdg

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snowdrcps-a · 3 years

Text

muse connections.

some updated character relationship meta

elijah & ava

elijah & isaiah

elijah & diana

diana & isaiah

isaiah & sunny

they dated for about almost a year, one of the longer relationships either have been in. came together during new beginnings of both of their lives, with sunny finding his footing after moving out and isaiah just starting to work and move around. isaiah liked how supportive sunny was, eager to see him get far despite how new the relationship was, and thrived off of it. sunny was infatuated, seemingly eager to prove something with his first bigger relationship and was willing to give isaiah the benefit of the doubt whenever any issue arose. things got rockier the more long distance heavy they got, each of them taking different tactics to cope with any loneliness. sunny grows more reserved, hurt by isaiah’s lack of communication, while isaiah turns to other people, seeing little offense as it's still sunny he’s going back to. likely don’t break up in person, which makes sunny all the more upset and resentful, no matter how much he hates holding grudges, while letting isaiah shake if off easier despite being more upset than he lets on.

sunny & yejin

ava & yejin

elijah & theo

basically high school rivals, often clashed because of their similar attitudes yet different outlook on things. both are generally well liked, both used to getting what they want ( elijah charming // worming his way into things vs theo being handed them fairly easily ), but eliajh thrives off causing trouble and desperately wants attention, while theo is slightly more reserved ( still social, just doesn’t want a great deal of attention on himself at once ) and doesn’t want issues with anything. started off mild enough, mostly bickering and calling each other out, but escalates when they show interest in the same classmate, which only fans both of their competitiveness. definitely fought at some point, but theo’s parents were able to save him from any larger punishment ( they like that Clean Record ) while elijah was suspended for a week, results in awful backlash from his parents, definitely builds up some resentment and probably Another fight once he gets back, but gets him some sympathy from said classmate, and they end up together eventually, which tends to keep theo and elijah away from each other for some time being.

ezra & jaehyun

#( ooc. )#( meta. )#theo and elijah are always 5 sec away from throwing hands again but <3

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wordlessbabbling · 4 years

Text

Gun Metal and Daisies (Thomas Shelby)- Chapter 6

“I never called you Bonny, Bonny.”

Masterlist

So many people have told me I need to open up

But not a single person understands that every time

I pry my apart my ribcage, releasing all of the butterflies

That have been hiding there for years,

People are too busy swatting them away

To realise what I have done for them.

"What do you mean?", she stared back just as curiously.

"Those kids... the food... the child... you. You. Who are you?" It was a rare occasion when the Thomas Shelby found himself in the unknown. He hated the feeling of being uninformed, it made him feel like he was on the outside of an inside joke that he was the punchline to.

Dorothy only smiled, thinking of the children again, "those kids have no home. Every evening on clear out day, I give them the last of the produce for free as they struggle to find food in other places, doing odd jobs for a quick coin."

She frowned at her words, "the baby, Tammy, poor girl was thrown out when she was only a few months old, left in a box. The children found her and try their best to look after her. We always have milk lying about, this being a bakery and all, so I heat it up a bit and feed her the best I can on days they pop in."

Dorothy had zoned out by this point, she was staring out the window looking into the torrential rain pouring down outside.

"Sounds like it might be bad for business." Thomas raised a brow.

Dorothy only shrugged, "those children need help, I don't care if it's bad for business, I'm not going to throw them out to the dogs or factories. I've known then all now for a year and I'd be heartbroken to hear if anything happened to them."

A tear slipped down her cheek, she made no move to wipe it away, seemingly lost in her own world.

"You're a very kind lady, Miss Bonny." Thomas stated.

Dorothy was startled by his comment, for two reasons:

1) he's never said anything remotely nice to her since they first met - well, 'met' might be a strong word. They were still strangers.

2)Bonny was not her first name, nor her last name.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I'm not Bonny."

Thomas chuckled, "I never called you Bonny, Bonny."

"Yes you did! You did it just then. My name's not Bonny." She stood up, hands on her hips.

"Well what is your name then?" Thomas mused.

"What's yours?"

It was in that moment that the conversation came to a holt. Neither saying anything, just staring challengingly at each other.

They seemed to be doing a lot of this recently.

"Bonny it is then."

Dorothy huffed at his words and sat down again, only to spring back up and head behind the counter to what Thomas assumed was the kitchen.

Thomas found himself following her, leaning against the archway to the entrance.

The furnace was blasting heat out, the crackling of the fire allowing a sense of comfort to wash over Thomas.

The quiet room was all of a sudden filled with the static sound of a gramophone in the corner. A beautiful classical piece played as Dorothy came strolling back around the corner. She jumped slightly when she saw Thomas leaning in the archway. Smiling sheepishly she turned towards a larder off to the side.

"Strauss, eh? Bit old school." Thomas called out from the doorway, now wondering into the kitchen.

"Few years off, it's Offenbach." Dorothy corrected.

Thomas' plan of trying to seem knowledgeable in romantic classical music backfired horribly.

"Yes, yes, of course." He tried to sound nonchalant, he was actually kicking himself at the slip up.

After 5 minutes of shuffling in the larder, she had all her ingredients in front of her.

Dorothy took a deep breath and got to work.

——

Dorothy was truly in her element.

Covered in flour, sugar, chocolate and jam, she shovelled sweet treats into the furnace.

Thomas had found a place to sit an hour ago. Just lost in his own head. He wasn't calculating or scheming. He was just thinking.

Thomas felt at peace in the kitchen of the bakery.

The sun had surely set long ago, the sheer heat radiating off the furnaces invading his mind and melting his worries. The aromas surrounding his senses, reminding him of that of his childhood, stepping into the kitchen, the smell of his mothers Chelsea Buns leaving his mouth watering.

But the best and most mind numbing sensation was the hum of Dorothy's voice as she swept around the kitchen occasionally chipping in the words she knew to 'Billy Murray - by the light of the silvery moon'.

The two not speaking to each other, but enjoying each other's company.

They were technically strangers to each other. Really, they had no idea who the other was.

But they were completely relaxed, no words had to be exchanged to feel the pure comfort that came with each other's presence.

Not that they knew that yet.

Dorothy found herself glancing over at the man - the rude man - in the corner of the room every now and again. She liked the atmosphere that came with him. She liked him a lot more than she did an hour ago.

She decided that this was nice. This was good.

Taking out the rest of the baked goods, she set them on a cooling tray, then turning to clean up the rest of the kitchen.

She looked back at the end furnace and realised there was one last batch of 'billion dollar bubs'. They were her personal favourite.

They were made up of syrup drenched oats, coated with dark chocolate, which was hard to come by. This meant they were the most expensive sweet she sold, coming at a price of 2 pence.

Rushing over to the furnace, she took them out, "they aren't burnt, but I can't sell anymore than what I've already baked."

Dorothy sighed as she plucked the tray on the counter.

She rubbed her eyes, "it must be the stress" she thought.

"Everything alright there, Bonny?"

Dorothy was startled by his slightly husky voice, it wasn't unwelcome, it just surprised her.

Nodding her head, "I by accidentally made an extra batch of Billion Dollar Bubs and I can't sell them."

Thomas raised an eyebrow at the peculiar name but didn't say anything. Thomas knew how to run a business but was clueless to the ins and outs of food produce.

"Say, would you like to try some of the Bubs?" She smiled as sweetly as she could, hoping he would accept so she wouldn't have to throw them away.

"I'm not really a sweet person myself. Never had much of a sweet tooth." Thomas shrugged.

"They aren't that sweet! It's dark chocolate, you see! They're really lovely!" She encouraged and prodded again.

"No I couldn't, besides, dark chocolate isn't exactly cheap, don't waste it."

Dorothy thought for a moment, she clapped her hands together; "well, would you say no to a thank you gift, for fixing my camera? It was very kind of you and I have nothing else but these sweets to repay you!" She smiled smugly at him. Only a monster would turn down a gift like these!

Thomas Shelby may have been a monster.

But maybe for just a second, he wasn't.

"Oh go on then..." he continued, "ill only eat a few if you eat some as well." He smirked a smile that would raise hell and trample heaven.

Always business and negotiating with Thomas.

Dorothy had no problem with this at all. She smiled even wider at the thought of eating some of her favourite sweets.

She picked up the tray and scurried over to where he was sitting by a counter. She placed the tray down and sat on the counter just by his knees.

"These are actually my favourite ones!" She gushed.

Thomas looked at the sweets to his left and picked one up, the slightly sticky sweet was warm in his fingers.

Looking back at Dorothy, she seemed more excited than he did that he would try one of her sweets.

"Well go on then! Give it a try!" She encouraged.

He squinted his eyes at her, not one to take orders. But what can he say, he was curious.

Popping the sweet in his mouth, his mind practically exploded.

Thomas all of a sudden knew why they were called 'baked goods' because it was fucking phenomenal.

Thomas has to stop a groan from escaping his lips as he threw his head back, savouring the bitter but sweet taste that invaded his taste buds.

Snapping him out of his euphoria, Dorothy questioned, "whaddya think?" She giggled.

Thomas' head darted back up to look at the girl, only just registering the sound that came out of her mouth. It was a gorgeous sound.

Clearing his throat, "oh yeah, not bad. They're not bad at all." He looked away from her burning gaze.

Dorothy would have been downtrodden by his words if it weren't for the fact she saw his hand creeping for another one. She only smiled, not wanting to discourage the hesitant man.

She reached for one herself and popped it in her mouth. She was less subtle with her reaction, leaning back, a moan leaving her throat, loving the sweet taste.

She was not aware of Thomas' wise eyed stare as the sound left her lips. She did not seem fazed by the effect she could have with those sounds - apparently far too pure for her mind to even think of such thoughts.

"I take it you like your sweets?" Thomas mused, a small smile on his face.

A genuine smile, one that wasn't mocking or fake or even suggestive. Just a smile.

"Bubs." Is all Dorothy said.

Now Thomas was confused again.

"Bubs?"

"Yes Bubs. Your name. Considering you like these ones so much."

Thomas' smile faded and was replaced with a frown, "that's not my name."

"Well what is your name?"

"What's yours?"

Dorothy smirked in victory as she recalled the previous conversation they had, had earlier when he thought it good to call her 'Bonny'.

"Bubs it is then."

Thomas's frown lifted a bit, "I don't like that name, take it back."

A very childish answer for a very ruthless man.

She shrugged and said nothing.

Thomas only now allowed himself to smile. He too, decided he liked this. This was nice.

Dorothy noticed the look on his face and was satisfied. She had done her job. Pleased that she made the rude man smile, and just for a while he was kind.

They returned back to their blissful silence that was just perfect.

Finishing the last of the sweet treats together with only one remaining. They reached forward, pausing midway through the action. Thomas chuckled, "go on then, that one's for you."

Dorothy, had another one of her good ideas, decided she didn't like his suggestion.

There were many ways she could have gone about her plan, she didn't think to consider those ones, instead doing the first thing that came to mind.

She took a bite out of the delicious item and then proceeded to shove the rest of it in front of Thomas' face.

Thomas, startled by the very forward action, decided that he would respond accordingly by doing something very forward himself and biting the rest of the sweet treat off her finger and thumb.

His lips brushing against the tips of her fingers.

Only when he had swallowed the food did he look up at her again, not being able to suppress a smirk as his face burned an attractive shade of red in the small glow of the furnace light.

Thomas decided not to torture the poor girl any further and leant back in his chair.

After a moment of silence Dorothy took a deep breath and got off the counter, her leg brushing against his knee.

"What's the time, Bubs?"

Thomas smiled only a hint of a smile. He took out his Pocket watch, "8:45, you need you be somewhere?" He couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Ah! Fiddlesticks! I need to get back!" Dorothy flailed around. Grabbing her coat and keys off the counter, double checking the furnaces were off.

Shuffling out of the kitchen and into the shop of the bakery, she noted that the man wasn't following her.

Huffing, she turned around. He stood there, just watching her as she got more flustered.

When Thomas did not move an inch, she marched over and grabbed his hand, dragging him out of the establishment, "I need to lock up, Bubs. I can't leave you in here."

What she didn't know was that Thomas was willingly moving with her, a fond smile on his face.

She let go of his hand to lock up, after doing so she tucked the keys under the plant pot next to the entrance and booked it down the street, only turning her head to look at Thomas one last time;

"Goodbye Bubs, I'll see you around!"

And round the corner she went.

——

I WARNED YOU THIS WAS GONNA BE FLUFFY.

Whew! 2000 words, I'm exhausted! I hope you enjoyed the sixth chapter of my book!

Thanks for the love.

Feedback and comments are wanted.

See ya next time!

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thewritewolf · 4 years

Text

Two Cursed Detectives in Paris: Landing

Chasing down their suspect has lead Connor and Eerie, two detectives cursed with animal-like qualities, to France. There they find two kids madly in love with each other, even if they don't realize it yet. But with the help of two American detectives, love might just find a way...

Based on the Chouette! story and artwork that can be found here.

(If you haven't seen Chouette! before, then don't worry - I explain everything that matters for the plot.)

Hello and welcome to this fic that I have been very much looking forward to for the past month! I've been obsessed with Chouette since I first saw it in April of last year, so combining my two favorite obsessions into one gloriously fluffy fic felt only natural. And if I can get you to join me in this fledgling fandom, then I'll be absolutely thrilled!

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

Broadly speaking, she was cursed.

Although not in the sense that most people thought of when they heard the word “Cursed.” ‘Oh, my hair just won’t cooperate! I must be cursed!’ ‘My TV is flickering, it must be cursed!’

No, she really was cursed. If the talon-like nails, the head that swiveled three hundred and sixty degrees, and a host of other little abnormalities were anything to go off of, then probably cursed by the spirit of an owl. Or maybe she was possessed by an owl spirit? Honestly she had never been too clear on how it all worked despite living with it since middle school. It’s not like she’d been given a handbook or introductory pamphlet to help her through those first few rough months. Or the rough years that followed.

The ‘owl horns’ in her hair could be held down by her bow and the talons just looked like well manicured nails, but the red eyes and orange marking around her eyes like a mask were a dead give away. Not to mention the mossy green hair. At twenty two years old, it hadn’t been a long life so far, but it had certainly been full of struggle.

But that was who she was to the people who just saw her curse and decided not to look any further.

More specifically, she was Eerie. Eerie Escamilla, top of her class out of law school, junior detective and intern at the Cursed Special Unit, filled with people with a similar… background to her. A snore drew her attention to her left, toward one such person.

Connor MacThomas was cursed, like her, but with a raccoon rather than an owl. They hadn’t let him bring his favorite pillow with him into their first class seating, but he managed with his soft and bushy tail. She had to bite her lip to keep from aw’ing at the way his little raccoon ears twitched ever so slightly in his sleep. It wouldn’t do to be cooing at someone who was debatably her boss but unquestionably the more experienced detective between them.

Evidently, he could feel her eyes on him since he chose that moment to wake up. He yawned and stretched, his gloved hands grasping at the roof of the airplane. His hands were his greatest strength and his glaring weakness - so sensitive he could read the mood of a person by touch, which also made them so vulnerable he kept them in sturdy leather gloves worn thin by constant use.

His eyes, with their light blue sclera, opened up as he blinked at her, a bleary smile on his lips. Those eyes stood out all the more for the black mask, so similar to her own orange one, surrounding them. Another person might have thought that his crumbled, messy appearance was because he’d just spent the last five hours sleeping curled up on himself. But Eerie knew that was just how he always looked.

He adjusted himself, pulling down his shirt since it had ridden up a little. Her eyes followed the movement and she felt her cheeks heat up. Her heart fluttered and she quickly looked away, towards the window. A bad idea, given her fear of heights and suddenly her heart was fluttering for a different reason entirely. Her eyes widened and her breathing started to come in short bursts.

“Eerie?” Connor seemed to pick up on her panic quickly, if the concern in his voice was any indication. “Eerie. Boss. Look at me.” With a force of effort, she tore her eyes away from the window. “I didn’t pay much attention to the briefing. Why don’t you tell me about this mission?”

That was a blatant lie, but she was too grateful to call him out on it. She took a deep breath and gladly switched into lecture mode.

“We’ve been on this guy’s tail for the last couple months, picking apart his forgery operation back home.”

Connor grinned and stretched his hands. “Most of which was spent convincing rich people to let me get my paws all over their fancy but fake statues and busts.”

“And the rest of it was me doing meticulous art research,” Eerie said, rolling her eyes with a smirk.

“Of course, boss.” Connor didn’t break eye contact as he reached behind him to close the window with one hand. “And then what?”

“Well, I noticed that all the pieces had one thing in common - all the authentic ones are currently housed in the Louvre. And considering a lot of them aren’t even on display for the public-”

“Explaining why the fancy art people didn’t know they were being had.”

“-that means that the guy we’ve been after is in Paris, France and likely works at the Louvre. The local authorities have it up to their necks just trying to handle some crazy stuff happening in the French capital, so when the Chief offered to send the detectives already on the case...”

“...They were more than happy to accept,” Connor finished. “And luckily, we both know French, so this works out à la perfection.”

Eerie made a disapproving sound. “About that last part…”

“Yeah, boss?” A stewardess handed him a package of peanuts which he quickly tore into.

“I learned French because it was the only foreign language they offered in high school and I thought being bilingual would be good for a resume.” Eerie propped her elbow up on their armrest and put her chin on her hand, staring at Connor. “But you never seemed the type to care about stuff like that. Why did you learn French?”

To her surprise, he blushed. “It’s, uh… it’s not important.”

“Really?” Eerie blinked innocently at him. “So you wouldn’t mind telling me then. Right?”

Connor stuck out his tongue at her. “Nosey.”

“Comes with the detective territory, boss. Spill.”

After watching her for a long moment, he slumped his shoulders and groaned. “I did it to impress a girl, alright?”

Eerie’s eyebrows flew up. “Wow, really?”

“It was middle school okay?” Connor crossed his arms as his tail twitched in irritation behind him. “It didn’t work either, obviously. That was, uh, just before the whole curse thing happened. But I stuck with it!” Connor paused. “Well, mostly.”

“What do you mean, ‘mostly’?”

“Well, I’m conversational at least…”

“Connor! You said you were fluent!”

“No,” he replied. “I said I can speak it.”

“That-” Eerie stopped herself and pinched the bridge of her nose. It was a complication, but if anyone could manage to get by without knowing the native language, it was Connor. He was more resourceful than he looked. “Okay, fine.”

Their conversation was cut short as the pilot announced that they would be landing soon. They glanced at each other, Eerie locked eyes with him as he began eating the package the peanuts came in. Both of them reached the same conclusion. With more people waking up around them, it wasn’t as safe to talk about their assignment. It would have to wait until the hotel.

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

Connor's hand hesitated at the door to their shared hotel room. Knowing their mission designer, he’d half expected her to get them a room with only one bed. Jemina was great and all, but sometimes she was even more pushy about his relationship with Eerie than his own mother was. He opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, this room did have two beds. With some big business event happening in Paris at the moment, two rooms was out of the question.

“As much as I appreciate being stuck staring at your fluffy butt, can you get a move on?” Eerie’s voice brought him back into the moment. “This stuff is heavy.”

“Right, sorry.” He stood still for another moment and looked behind him. “...So you like what you see back there, huh?” His tail swished back and forth happily.

She rolled her eyes and pushed him with her foot. Snickering, he stepped forward set to work turning the bed into something almost like home. Before long, he heard her speak up again.

“...How did you manage to pack your giant banana pillow?”

“Very carefully,” Connor said in what he hoped was a cool and mysterious way. “I figured you wouldn’t let me build a nest of pillows and blankets-”

“Accurate. I don’t want to get the house keepers annoyed with us. We’ll be here for the next few weeks after all.”

“-so this is the next best thing. Thankfully for me, Nanners here is a cuddlebug.” To prove his point, Connor laid down on his bed and spooned the person-sized banana. He opened one eye to see Eerie hiding a smile with her hand. His heart melted at how cute she was in this moment.

His eyes widened at the thought. She’s your intern, he mentally chastised himself, get ahold of yourself. He quickly sat up and put his legs over the side of his bed, facing Eerie.

“So now we’re in Paris. You remember the next part?”

“Yup, some of us pay attention to the mission briefing.” Eerie rolled her eyes, but a smirk still played at her lips. “Tomorrow, we’ll be setting up our covers. Chief managed to get us some part time jobs. Apparently I’m going to be doing deliveries for a local bakery.”

Connor frowned. “That sounds delicious. Is it too late to switch?” He asked with a hopeful lilt to his voice.

“Way too late. But hey,” she said, squeezing his shoulder. “You’re going to be an English tutor for some rich kid, I’m sure they’ll keep you well fed.” She pursed her lips. “With actual people food. So no digging around in the garbage.”

Connor feigned a gasp. “Boss, this is Paris! They have the finest, most gourmet trash in the whole world. How can you ask me not to try the local cuisine?”

“It’s not- No! We’re going to actual restaurants, I’m not letting you dumpster dive while we’re here. We’re supposed to be undercover, remember? And that’s exactly the sort of thing that will draw unwanted attention.”

“You’re just using that as an excuse ‘cuz you don’t want me eating garbage.” He waggled his finger right below her nose. She gently pushed it aside, but even with that brief touch he could a vague feeling of her emotions - a mix of exasperation and amusement.

“You’re exactly right. Is it working?”

His tail flicked back and forth irritatedly behind him. “...Maybe,” he grumbled.

“Good,” she said with far too much pep for his liking. “Now, it’s been a long day and we don’t start our new jobs until tomorrow. I’m going to take a nap.”

Connor yawned. “I think I’ll do the same.”

“You slept for most of the trip here!”

“And that was very exhausting!”

Eerie stared at the ceiling for a few long moments before laughing and soon enough he joined her.

“Good night, boss.”

“Night, boss.”

#Chouette Fanfic #Miraculous Ladybug #Connor MacThomas #Eerie Escamilla #ml fanfiction #my writing #Two Cursed Detectives in Paris

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lonestarbabe · 4 years

Text

World’s Best-ish Dad

Part 1 (AO3)

T.K. wasn’t sure why he agreed to his dad throwing him a birthday party. In all his twenty-seven years, his dad had never thrown him a birthday party. Those had always been left to T.K.’s mom, who’d throw big parties filled with kids, a huge cake from a bakery near their apartment, and far too many presents. She had decorations and entertainers and a million other distractions to make the party so busy that T.K. wouldn’t notice that his biggest hero wasn’t there, but of course, he noticed. As an eight-year-old, he’d made party planning decisions that he’d thought would cheer his dad up. He’d wanted pepperoni pizza, for instance, because he’d always give his pepperoni to his dad who’d always pick all the pepperoni off the pizza, driving Gwyneth crazy in the process. Then, when Owen didn’t show up, he was left with pepperoni pizza that he didn’t want and had to eat it himself. The pepperoni pizza was no fun when Owen wasn’t there to enjoy it.

The menu for T.K.’s part was a little refined than it had been when T.K. was a kid. There were having a barbecue with different meats and a bunch of sides, enough that everyone could be satisfied with the meal. T.K. had stayed over at Carlos’ that night because while the party wasn’t a surprise, Owen had wanted the setup to be a surprise and wanted to keep T.K. from trying to influence the part arrangements. He’d been nervous all morning, fidgeting and acting like he was about to be tortured.

“Are you okay?” Carlos finally asked.

“Fine,” T.K. snapped, leaving no room for further conversation.

Carlos didn’t buy it, but with T.K., pushing issues could result in a big blow up. He let T.K. brood for a while before the birthday party.

“I’m sorry,” T.K. said in the car.

“It’s fine,” Carlos replied, his voice tight, but it was T.K.’s birthday, and he didn’t want to ruin the event with a fight, so he was biting his tongue.

“It’s not. I’m the absolute worst.”

“Don’t say that. Everyone has off moments.” Carlos knew how it felt to be short and snappy when other stressful things were happening, so he was irritated, yes, but he knew that T.K. was under a lot of stress about his birthday party for whatever reason.

“Not everyone has off moments all the time.”

Things didn’t get better while they were at the party. T.K. remained on edge. He couldn’t stand this. Any of it. Everyone was smiling and laughing, and T.K. just felt bad. No matter what he did, he couldn’t shake his sour mood. His shoulders feel tense and if Owen makes a joke about T.K. as a kid one more time, he’s going to… “When T.K. was ten, he was Jupiter in a school play about the planets and he—” Owen’s voice cut in, and T.K. couldn’t let that sentence finish because what did Owen know about that?

“I was Neptune,” T.K. yelled, unable to control the surge of resentment that filled him. “You would have known that if you were there,” he wanted to add, but he had enough self-control to keep that to himself.

Everyone went quiet, and T.K. felt hopelessly stupid. He couldn’t even control his own mouth. He looked to Owen for some kind of response. An apology, maybe, for only knowing sloppy second-hand information about T.K.’s childhood. Owen was silent, and T.K. felt angry again. “I should have known this is was a stupid idea. You’ve always been bad at birthday parties,” and he wanted that one to hurt. He wanted his dad to finally understand the gravity of what he had done because you couldn’t have kids and then act like they didn’t exist just because life got hard.

Carlos grabbed T.K.’s arm and said, “We’ll be back,” and T.K. wasn’t sure it mattered because the party had already gone to hell, and it’s because he couldn’t save his grievances for an appropriate time. After all, that’s the kind of screw up he was.

“Oh my god,” T.K. said when Carlos had sat him on the couch. “My dad’s going to hate me for this.”

Carlos handed him some water as if water could cure being crazy. “He would never hate you.”

“He dragged me here to Austin because he feels guilty for causing my issues, which he didn’t cause them, but he still feels that way. But if he didn’t feel responsible, he probably would’ve ditched me long ago. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with me either.”

“I don’t think that’s how he feels at all. I think he wants what’s best for you. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You’re the most important part of his life.”

T.K. scoffed, “He wants me to be that important because he doesn’t want to feel like a bad dad, but the truth is that I’m not that important to him. I’m just an accessory in his neat little life.”

“T.K. that’s not—”

“No, it is. This party is so stupid. I hate birthday parties.”

Carlos looked lost. “What’s really bothering you? Because I think it’s something much bigger than the party.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I don’t need to understand it, but I’m here if you need to talk about it.”

T.K. looked away from Carlos. “My dad wasn’t always the best dad.”

“I’m starting to get that impression,” Carlos said.

“This is the first birthday party of mine he’s at since I was probably seven. He kept not showing up, so I quit having them when I was sixteen.” That’s when everything had started to go wrong. T.K. had been sixteen and fed up with his dad not paying attention.

“It’s dumb. It’s not like he was bad or anything. He just wasn’t the dad I wanted, I guess, which was my own fault for being so damn picky. Some kids didn’t have dads, but I let myself get upset just because my dad didn’t do what I expected him to.”

“It’s not a competition over who has it worse.”

“We don’t talk about it because he went through a lot when I was a kid, so it’s not fair to blame him, but when 9/11 happened, he just kind of left. He missed my birthday that year. I don’t even think he realized it happened until Mom told him, and it was just a birthday, but as a kid, you can’t tell the difference between your dad leaving you because he can’t stand to be around you and your dad leaving you because he was going out and being a hero.”

“Just because someone didn’t mean to hurt you doesn’t mean that they aren’t responsible for doing so.”

“I just wish that he would understand that he hurt me, but he acts like I’m overreacting every time I bring it up, but I can’t stop being that angry, hurt kid until he acknowledges. I’m stuck with all those feelings, and they’re messing up my life.”

Carlos gave him a sympathetic look. “That’s hard.”

“It’s hard when he does stuff like this,” T.K. said after a few moments of quiet. “Because whenever I know he’s here, I know that’s it only a matter of time before he leaves.” The abandoned kid lives on, no matter how much T.K. told himself that he was no longer lost.

#Elise Writes #911 lone star #911 lone star fics #fics #my fics #my writing #tk fics

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imaginingsoftly · 4 years

Text

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Pt. 2 - Morgan Rielly

Type: roommates to lovers, Y/N insert shorts

Requested: No

Warnings: just swearing

(Y/N = Your name, cuts mean a change in POV. It’ll be from Morgan’s perspective to Y/N’s)

Morgan got off of his flight more than a little tired of the tiny plane and the guy sitting next to him, who seemed far too awake for the late hour. While Carolina certainly wasn’t a large hockey market, it was a huge college basketball one, and he was going to scream if he had to hear the guy go on about how much Duke sucked much longer. It didn’t matter that he knew nothing about college basketball; if anything it seemed to excite the guy, Martin-something, and now he was walking with him through the terminal at RDU to luggage claim still talking. Apparently the Duke coach had been fired for some reason, and a bunch of his players followed him to the new school he was at, some mid-major program on the coast, whatever mid-major meant.

“But see, here’s the thing; the last big-time coach UNCW had, he went to State. If coach ends up at State, I’m just gonna stop following basketball. The Basketball Gods’ll have officially abandoned Duke.” Morgan nodded unenthusiastically along with the man’s spiel, leaning to avoid the arm he was waving to further his point. Down the escalator they went until finally they were at the luggage collection, and Morgan was finally able to shake the man off with a handshake and a promise to check out a Duke game while he was in town.

I’m picking up my suitcase, he texted Hamilton. The luggage belt seemed to move slower than usual, or maybe it was the fact that it was 11pm and he just wanted to go to sleep. His black suitcase, battered and covered in luggage tags from years of cross-Canada flights, appeared on the belt underneath a yellow hard-case covered in stickers from places all over the world. An older woman with white hair and a worldly look struggled to lift the case off the belt, huffing when she couldn’t immediately claim her bag.

Morgan jumped forward, picking up the case and putting it next to the woman with a small smile. Old and kind eyes met his with a grateful smile as she put one hand on the bag and the other on his arm. “Thank you, honey.” Her accent, subtle but still noticeably southern, felt as warm and welcoming as the woman and the suitcase in front of him. He nodded, reaching over and grabbing his suitcase before it got too far away. Morgan turned to wait for Hamilton to pick him up, but was stopped by the woman’s hand resting on his arm again. “Welcome to Raleigh. I hope your visit treats you well.” Morgan squeezed the woman’s hand, smiling gratefully. He nodded, thanking her with a wish goodnight.

He stepped outside, and the heat and humidity smacked him in the face immediately. Eleven pm and it was still 80 degrees outside. What the hell. A black BMW SUV pulled up beside him, and the red-haired Hamilton waved an arm at Morgan as a blonde-haired girl winked at him from the passenger seat. The backdoor opened, and a disheveled Svechnikov stepped outside. “Hey man,” he mumbled, the Russian clearly having been asleep until a couple of minutes ago. He grabbed Morgan’s bag, putting it in the trunk before slapping Morgan on the back and climbing back into the car. Morgan raised an eyebrow, looking at the blonde questioningly. She rolled her eyes, gesturing into the car.

Morgan stepped up into the SUV, sinking into the blac leather seats with a sigh. Svechnikov had done the same on the other side of the car, already half asleep again as he extended a hand. “Andrei,” he said through a thick accent, “welcome to Raleigh”. Morgan shook the kid’s hand with a laugh. “Did they drag you out of bed for this?” Andrei sank further into the seat, adjusting the black baseball hat he was wearing with a sigh. “That’s my girlfriend, Kat. She wanted to come, but she wouldn’t come without me. Y/N is her friend. She’s cool.”

Morgan turned to look at the blonde, who was turned around in the front seat to look over him with what was really an alarming amount of concentration. “Y/N is a relaxed person, Mo,” Hamilton said as he looked at his fellow defenseman in the rearview mirror, “you’ll get along fine.” Kat smiled at him, and nodded enthusiastically. “She’s a big sports fan, especially baseball and hockey. There’s pretty much always some kind of game on the TV in her apartment, actually. On weekend mornings, she watches Premier League. Like soccer.” Kat said the last bit incredulously, and Morgan got the impression she was not the sports fan that her friend was.

The ride from the airport to the apartment complex was quick and relatively quiet, as it appeared the lateness was getting to everyone in the car. Hamilton and Kat spoke up occasionally to point out landmarks or places to eat along the way, while it appeared Svechnikov had fallen deeply asleep. Hamilton pulled off a street in the middle of the city and into a parking garage, and they were there. Svechnikov jerked awake when Kat and Hamilton opened their car doors, and Morgan chuckled at the kid as he stepped out of the SUV and into the still stifling heat outside.

“Is it always this humid here?” Morgan asked. Kat chuckled, nodding knowingly. “You get used to it. Supposedly anyway. I don’t think Y/N ever did, and she’s lived in Carolina since she was seven.” That didn’t bode well for him, then. Kat led the way into the building, up seven levels of an elevator and down a long hallway.

She turned to look at Morgan, smirking at him and raising an eyebrow. “One thing before we go inside. Don’t be a jerk, or I’ll kick your ass. She’s an introvert, so opening up her apartment to a complete stranger is a big step for her. You’re lucky that her mom-friend personality takes over the introversion when people need help.” Morgan nodded solemnly, more than a little scared of the short blonde staring up at him. She put her hand on the doorknob, pausing again. “Actually, one more thing. Good luck.”

With that, she opened the door and walked inside, not bothering to wait for the three hockey players behind her. “Good luck with what?”, Morgan asked. Hamilton shrugged, pushing past him to go inside. “Good luck not falling in love with her. Kat has it in her head that you’re gonna end up together.” Svechnikov rolled his eyes as he spoke, also walking inside. Morgan took a deep breath, following his teammates.

The apartment was welcoming, warm feeling and smelling like a bakery and lavender. It was small, and pictures were hung on the walls with obvious love. There were landscapes mostly, clearly taken by Y/N, photos of beaches and athletic fields with some of the most fantastic sunsets he’d ever seen. The kitchen was also clean, minus a small mountain of cookies and what looked like homemade pasta strewn on cooling racks along almost every bit of available counter space.

“That wasn’t a fucking strike, you goddamn moron! It was six inches off the plate! How the fuck do they still let you call games? Jesus christ!” Y/N was standing in front of the television in the living room, yelling at the baseball game she was watching like she thought they could actually hear her. She was short, and curly hair tumbled halfway down her back from underneath a backwards-facing Red Sox hat as she emphatically waved a hand holding a beer bottle. Oh great, a Boston fan. A cat looked up from it’s spot on the back of the couch, all gray and fluffy and looking very tired of the screaming.

“Hey, Y/N,” Kat said as she stepped into the living room, “got your new roomie here.”

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Y/N almost screamed when she heard the voice behind her, only relaxing when she registered it was Kat. “What the fuck, Kat, a little warning would’ve been nice.” She turned and glared at the blonde smirking at her. “I almost threw my beer at you.” Kat laughed, swishing her hair over her shoulder as she turned to the boys. Y/N followed her eyes, smiling at Andrei and Dougie before meeting the eyes of Morgan. He looked exhausted, and the purple under his eyes was more obvious in person than when she saw his trade interview on Twitter a few days before.

She stepped forward and switched her beer bottle from her right hand to her left, holding the former out for a handshake. “Y/N. It’s nice to meet you.” Morgan gave her a small smile, grabbing her right hand with his own firmly. “Morgan. Thanks for offering me a room.” He stepped back a little, and put his hands in his pockets.

“Arighty. So…” Dougie cleared his throat uncomfortably, “We’re gonna go, since it’s so late. You guys get everything figured out, and Morgan, I’ll come pick you up in the morning to get you to the rink.” He turned to Y/N and smiled warmly. “Thanks, Y/N.” She nodded, and gestured at the cookies. “Take some. They’re made with almond flour and coconut sugar and oil, so they’re professional athlete-friendly.” Dougie and Andrei leaped forward to take several, mumbling their thanks around faces quickly stuffed with cookie. She turned to Morgan. “You’re welcome to them as well. I stress-bake, but I don’t like to eat sweets as much as I like to make them. I usually make Andrei take them to the rink with him, because I know they’ll get eaten there.”

Andrei looked up at his name, cookie falling out of his mouth with perfect comedic timing. Y/N smothered a laugh with her hand. Kat rolled her eyes, grabbing her boyfriend with one hand and Dougie with the other. “We’re gonna go now, you guys get to know each other.” She turned as she pulled over the door, trying and failing to wink secretly at Y/N. “Lock the damn door, Y/N!” Dougie yelled as he was pushed out of the apartment far too easily for someone with 4 inches and 75 pounds on Kat. Oops. So that’s how they got in without knocking. Again.

Morgan raised his eyebrows and shook his head bemusedly at the closed door. Y/N bit her lip and sighed. “Sorry about her. Boundaries and knowing when to shut up aren’t really her strong suit.” Morgan laughed. “I’ve known her for maybe an hour and I’ve gotten that, yeah.” He gestured at his bag. “Where should I put this?” Y/N stepped around him and towards a door to his right. “Oh God, I’m so sorry. Yeah, through here.”

She opened the door to show a small room with a full bed covered with what appeared to be a linen duvet, a dresser, and bookshelves stocked with succulents and picture frames of more beach photos. Morgan wheeled his suitcase in, stopping to pick up one of the photos. “Do you visit the beach a lot?” Y/N smiled and stepped closer to see what he was looking at. It was a photo she’d taken in college, when she’d decided to see the sunrise from the beach. “I go when I can. I went to school at the beach, about 2 hours away from here. There’s nothing like sunsets over the ocean, except maybe sunsets over ballparks.” She pointed at the photo next to the one he was holding. “That’s Brooks Field. It’s where my university’s baseball team plays, and I saw some of my favorite sunsets there.” Morgan put the ocean photo down, leaning in to look at the baseball one. “These sunsets are incredible.”

Y/N backed away, suddenly aware of how close they were. “Yeah, they are. Listen, I’ll leave you to get comfortable. If my game is too loud, let me know and I’ll turn it down.” She turned to leave, tripping over the gray area rug on the floor. She started to throw her hands out, ready for the fall, when she felt strong arms grab her around the waist. Morgan pulled her back into him, a quiet “woah” falling out of his mouth as he did.

He let go just as quickly as he’d grabbed her, and Y/N turned around laughing, trying to ignore how hard her heart was beating. “Sorry. I’m a major klutz. I tripped over that damn rug about 5 times when I was in here trying to get the room ready for you earlier. You’d think I’d remember it’s there by now.” Morgan laughed, and Y/N’s heart tugged just a little at the sound and how his eyes crinkled. “Well I’m glad I was there to catch you this time.” Y/N nodded, and put her hand out for a fist bump. “Thanks, bud. Let’s try this again; have a good night.” Morgan bumped his fist on hers and repeated the sentiment. He turned to his suitcase as she exited the room. The last glimpse of him Y/N had as she closed his door was of his back, and the muscles rippling under his shirt as he lifted the case onto his bed.

Y/N put her hands on the back of the couch a took a deep breath, trying to calm her heartbeat. Bogey, her cat, jumped onto the couch and meowed at her questioningly. “Yeah, Boegs. This is gonna be harder than I thought.”

#good idea ml #nhl imagines #nhl imagine #morgan rielly imagine

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time-is-a-pain · 4 years

Text

Bella Is Not Impressed: Part Two

Previous, Next

“And that’s how I ended up saving a litter of stray kittens from a Southern Smooth snake”

Bella rolled her eyes as the latest of Lila’s tall tales reached her ears from where she was sitting surrounded by her faithful listeners.

“That’s bull. Southern Smooth snakes are in southern France. It’s literally in their name.”

“I know I’ve already said it a lot,” Marinette started from her seat across the table, “but I’m so glad there’s someone else here who realizes that Lila is lying.”

Bella shrugged, “Honestly Mari, um, full offence to Alya and the others, but it’s not even that hard to tell she’s lying.”

Marinette sagged a little and Bella instantly felt a pang of guilt. She hadn’t meant to make her only friend in the country sad. But she was right, the things Lila tried to sell as the One and Only Truth were quite frankly ridiculous and Bella couldn’t believe anyone bought it.

“I know,” Marinette grumbled in frustration, “no one will notice the glaring holes in her stories and I can’t even get Alya to fact check any of them.”

Bella was patting Marinette’s arm when Adrien sat down at their table. “Hey, I heard you guys talking about Lila.”

Bella didn’t miss the way Marinette heaved a sigh and scooted away from her crush. Which was weird considering how hyped she’d been at the idea of sitting together in class. Bella also didn’t miss the mumbled “I didn’t tell her.” aimed towards Adrien.

“You mean the Liar?” Bella asked bluntly, noting with interest the way Adrien flinched.

“You haven’t told anyone about her lies, have you?”

Bella shrugged and folded her arms, “I haven’t seen any reason to yet, and quite honestly I have a bet going with my uncle about how long it’ll take before her Faithful Listeners catch on a hole.”

Adrien but his utensils down, frowning slightly. “You shouldn’t tell anyone about her lies.”

Bella raised her eyebrows. “No one, not even if I have a good reason to?”

Adrien shook his head. “If you tell on her there’s a risk she’d be Akumatized, and no one wants that.”

Marinette deflated more and Bella scowled. “No. If I have a good reason to tell on her, be it that her lie is spreading actually harmful information or that her lie is causing someone to feel bad enough to be Akumatized, then I will.”

Adrien started to argue but Bella cut him off. “From what I’ve seen of Paris, everyone is at risk of becoming an Akuma. Even those of us right here at this table. I will not, enable anyone to be a manipulative bully just on the off chance that they’ll be forced to show their true colors.”

Bella glared at Adrien, daring him to argue. He didn’t. But he did huff and leave the table. Marinette lightly kicked Bella’s leg under the table, pointing to the other side of the room when she had Bella’s attention. Apparently the group had heard at least part of what Bella had said and were staring at them. Bella couldn’t quite read Lila’s expression, but everyone else’s was clear. They were all confused as to who the manipulative bully Bella mentioned was.

Bella sighed and turned away. “Just ignore them. If they want to know they’ll have to tear themselves away from their precious darling and ask.”

Marinette and Bella finished their lunch in silence, keenly aware of the rest of the class throwing puzzled looks their way. Marinette kept Bella in the lunchroom for a minute after the bell rang and everyone had filtered back to class.

“Can I talk to you after school?”

Bella agreed, wondering what Marinette wanted to talk about.

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

After school let out Bella waited for Marinette by the gate. She knew that Marinette’s bakery wasn’t that far from school and the two of them had agreed to talk there during a lull in class. Bella still didn’t really know what Marinette wanted to talk about, but the way she twisted her hands and wouldn’t look Bella in the face made her worried.

She greeted Marinette’s parents when they got to the bakery and happily munched on the pastry Mr. Dupain had given her on the way up to Marinette’s room.

Marinette sat in her desk chair, motioning for Bella to sit on the bed. Bella toed her shoes off and sat cross-legged on the bed.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Marinette chewed her lip, obviously finding it hard to start. Bella knew what that was like.

“Does it have to do with what we were talking about at lunch?”

Marinette nodded and Bella rolled her head back, thinking about which part of their conversation could have sparked this.

“What’s the biggest word in your head right now?”

Marinette brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “Butterfly.”

Bella felt a knot start twisting itself into her stomach. That word and Marinette’s body language were Not Good together. She started to ask another question, but it seemed that was all Marinette needed to get started.

“I was almost Akumatized. In the bathroom, Lila’s first day back at school.”

That knot moved up to Bella’s heart and started burning. She had to remind herself to calm down before she got angry enough to attract a butterfly of her own.

“I knew she was lying, and she threatened me. Said she would take away all my friends.”

Bella flexed her hands, biting her lip to keep herself from pointing out that Lila had pretty much already accomplished that.

“Does Adrien know about that part?” Bella struggled to keep her voice even.

Marinette shook her head, “I couldn’t tell him,” she whispered. “Because Lila threatened to take him away from me too. He made me promise not to expose her. Said it wouldn’t be a good example and it was okay as long as we knew and she wasn’t hurting anyone. He said exposing her wouldn’t make her a better person.”

Bella sucked in a breath. “Mari, I hate to say this cause I know how much you care about Adrien, but that is a steaming pile of bs. It isn’t your job to make sure Lila becomes a better person and all you’re doing by not calling her out is telling her that it’s okay to walk all over you.”

Marinette curled up tighter, tears welling up in her eyes. “But what about the chance she’ll get Akumatized?”

Bella leapt off the bed and went to pull her over to the bed where Bella gently gathered Marinette into her arms, rubbing soothing circles on her back. “Just like I said at lunch, allowing and enabling someone to manipulate their way into ruining someone’s life, your life, is in no way excused by the possibility of Lila being Akumatized.”

Marinette nodded, burying her face in Bella’s neck to hide her tears. Bella rocked them back and forth, rubbing Marinette’s back and humming her favorite tune. Some time passed before either of them spoke again, content to simply rock back and forth.

“Mari?” Marinette hummed, tickling Bella’s neck. “Mari have you told your parents?” Marinette stiffened and a long moment passed before she shook her head. Bella rushed to assure that it was okay. They sat again for a long while, Bella managing to get Marinette’s promise that she’d tell her parents about Lila and her threats before the week ended. Bella almost called her parents and tell them she’d be having an impromptu sleepover, but Marinette had turned down the offer.

“Thanks, but I already feel much better. And I have your number if things get bad again.”

So Bella had instead called her parents to pick her up from the bakery, hanging out with Marinette and her parents until they arrived. On the way home Bella talked to her dad about the best way to collect evidence against a bully. That got her some worried looks, but she was quick to assure them the bully wasn’t hers.

When they were home and Bella was up in her room, she texted Ley-Ley. In part to vent and part to see what his demonic take on the situation would be.

Bella: Heyyyyyyyyy are you up?

Ley-Ley: Am now, what’s up?

Bella: I need to yell and also I need your demonic opinion.

Ley-Ley: Wait hang on, let me get angel in on this.

Ley-Ley: Okay, yell away

Bella: Okay SO. You remember sausage girl? Yeah she’s a huge liar. Like, first day at school she claimed to know you before you’d gotten popular and you said you’d never met her, plus you’ve been popular since we were tiny babs.

Bella: So obviously she was lying but I figured, “what the hell, it’s not like that kinda lie would hurt anyone here.” so I left her alone.

Ley-Ley: Uh oh. This is looking bad already

Bella: But then I found out today that my friend Mari has not only been threatened by sausage girl, she was nearly Akumatized because of her.

Bella: And to top it off, Mari’s crush knows that sausage girl is lying, but doesn’t know that she threatened Mari, and made Mari promise not to expose Liela because “doing so wouldn’t make her a better person.”

Ley-Ley: First of all, bullshit. Second of all, that’s not your friend’s job? If sausage girl is a bad person then she is gonna have to be the driving force behind being a better person.

Bella: That’s what I said! And to make matters worse, the teachers at school are all whipped into favoring the bullies. Except Mrs. Mandeliev, but unfortunately we aren’t in her class.

Ley-Ley: WHAT?!? The teachers are supposed to help the kids being bullied, not the other way around!

Bella: I know! What makes this ironic is the teacher told me outright to report if I saw anyone getting bullied. And then she turns around and tells the bullied kid to “be the better person” and keep letting the bully (Chloe) walk all over them.

Ley-Ley: Angel’s saying we should go to Paris and knock some sense into your school.

Bella: XD Please

Bella: In all seriousness though, it would be nice if you were here.

Bella:

They know my uncle is one of the most popular gardening blogs in London, but I never told them you’re my uncle and they all heard the story of how Liela met the famous A.J. Crowley before he became a popular blog so having you show up and then deny ever meeting her would also be a good start in tearing her web apart

Ley-Ley: Bella my sweet niece, I would be happy to help you defend your friend. Aziraphale and I will be in Paris next week.

#miraculous ladybug #good omens #ml fic #mild salt #ari writes #my ocs #bella rose #Lunch Time Conversation #bella is not impressed

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petersquips · 5 years

Text

Stark Contrast [CHAPTER FOUR pt 1]

Masterlist | Introduction | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three || Chapter Four (pt 2)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Word count: 3,473

Warnings: None for this half :)

Chapter Summary: As Y/N returns to school for the first time after her suspension, she finds herself stuck in a tricky web of rumors and gossip.

A/N: This chapter is SOOOOO dense that it was taking forever, and I want to keep it as one chapter for the flow of the content, but I also wanted to update finally, so I’ve split Chapter 4 into two parts. Part two should be posted next Thursday the 23rd.

If you want to be added to the tag list for this fic, Inbox me and I‘ll add your username. Members of the tag list MUST reblog. I look forward to your feedback, friends!

Chapter Four

Y/N was drenched in sweat as she wandered back to her room, the orange morning light flooding in through the plentiful windows and dancing across her glistening skin. She had asked JARVIS to wake her up extra early. 4:45 am was a ridiculous time to be waking up in the morning, but she did it anyway for the sake of running with Cap again. He seemed surprised to see her again when the teen walked out on the front walk and began stretching as though it wasn’t a skill she’d just been taught yesterday, but the man was supportive of it, and pushed her like a coach to run harder, faster, and further. By the time Y/N returned to the comfort of her shower her entire body was acidic with the burn from the morning workout. Her body had not been prepared for this sudden and intense regime. Her muscles ached and she felt the soreness in her joints as she tried to lather the parts of her body that were hard to reach. The water was soothing, but it did nothing for the pain. It made her feel crazy for wanting to continue to run with Steve Rogers and his super-soldier form. He was genetically engineered to run harder, faster, and further than any normal human could, and Y/N knew her joining him was cutting his workout into a mere speed walk for the man. There was a part of her that still thought she may be able to keep up one day if she worked hard enough, but she knew that wasn’t a realistic goal for a teenage girl who’s most impressive quality was her incessant determination. Even knowing that she could never improve enough to complete Cap’s full workout, she appreciated the bond she felt as the two wordlessly raced through the empty upstate streets.

The teen shut off the water in a hurried attempt to be on time. She hadn’t exactly thought about how this new morning ritual would fit into her schedule which of course meant she was running late for school. Normally it probably wouldn’t concern her too much, but Y/N had promised Peter a ride. In part, it was a thank you for taking her to the sister march. She was still running on the high that came from feeling like a part of a movement. It didn’t solve her problems with Amadeus and everything that had happened after, but it made her feel hopeful she could figure those things out and Y/N had Peter to thank for sharing his incessant optimism. He was a kind and caring friend and it made a warmth radiate in the girl's chest as she rushed over to her closet. Pressed for time she flipped through her closet and tore out her classic skinny jeans and stumbled into them, her tired limbs screaming at her for so much as using them. As she balanced on one sore leg, trying to pull the clothing over the other her muscles gave out and she crashed down onto the cold wood floor. The girl winced at the pain but took the opportunity to pull her jeans up around to her knees before pushing herself up with what little bicep she had. Y/N was so far past trying and mindlessly pulled a random t-shirt from the closet. She began jogging toward the bedroom door as she pulled the shirt over her head, not stopping to so much as look at it when she bounded down the steps to the mess hall.

“Good work this morning, kid,” Steve offered as he held up a high five that Y/N casually took, hiding the amount of pain that came with swinging her arm as she sat down on the stool to his right.

Just as usual, Tony and Steve had been chatting over coffee at the breakfast bar, but Pepper had left for Atlanta on an early flight that morning. She had a clean energy conference that she was hosting a panel for as the CEO of Stark Industries. The woman had been stressed out and relentlessly preparing for it all week, but Y/N knew if anyone could command a room it was Pepper Potts. So Y/N joined the men in her life, who had used this excuse to simply throw a box of bakery goods on the island counter and call it breakfast. Y/N eagerly snagged a breakfast doughnut from the box and she had just shoved her mouth full of the sweet treat when Tony humorously asked, “Where’d you get the shirt?”

Y/N glanced down at the graphic on her chest, completely unsure what she had placed on her aching body before carelessly answering, “Some stand outside the airport.” She took another bite of the doughnut, but her mouth was getting dry from trying to consume the bread so quickly, but she was going to do anything to catch up with time and pick up Peter.

Tony nodded with a smile teasing, “Spider-Man, huh?” as he circled around the island. He passed behind Steve and reached up to Y/N’s neck. “Tag’s still on it,” he commented as the man instinctively snapped the plastic piece holding the paper barcode to the fabric and moved to the trash can to throw it away.

The teen carelessly explained, “It’s just tourist crap.” Y/N hated tourist merchandise with crappy graphic designs like ‘I♥︎NY’. It was useless and ugly waste that no one would ever wear once they got home. She’d purchased the shirt when she first arrived in New York a month ago. Y/N had no intention of purchasing any overpriced goods when she’d landed, but something about the comic-y rendering of Spider-Man drew the girl’s attention. Maybe it had been the nerves of having to meet her biological father for the first time in her life, or maybe it was just the change of air. Either way, Y/N had impulsively handed cash over to the kind merchant and left with the shirt she was now wearing. It seemed so long ago already, and even if her life had been turbulent since moving into the Avengers Facility, she had at least gotten used to the fact that it was different. She no longer felt like she was in denial about who her biological father was or the fact that she was living among superheroes. It seemed normal to her as she elaborated, “Superheroes are as big of a staple of New York as the empire state building… or taxis. There were a million others just like it at the airport.”

“What? You didn’t want to get a shirt of your old man?” Tony teased smugly as he leaned onto his elbows on the counter across from his daughter. Y/N rolled her eyes at her obnoxious father and took another large bite of doughnut. The man continued to poke fun as he looked at Steve and dramatically assumed, “They were probably all out of Iron Man shirts."

“Or they were all rusted in the back,” Y/N quipped back over a dry mouth full of bread. Steve gave the teen a disapproving face, but simply shrugged at him and jumped off her stool. Tony paused for a moment, staring at his daughter with his jaw slightly agape and his brows furrowed in a mix of pride and offense as she walked behind him to fill a glass with water. His expression morphed to mischievous smile when he asked, “Aren’t you picking up Peter Parker this morning?”

“Yeah. Why?” Y/N responded carelessly as she sipped the cold water. She wanted to be grateful for the change of subject, but Tony’s humored mannerisms made the girl weary. Instead of saying a word Tony began to turn red in the face. She could see him trying to maintain his composure as he tensed so hard the vein began to pop out in his forehead. Y/N couldn’t so much as ask what was so funny before the man burst, letting out a long wheeze of hilarity. “What?” Y/N inquired impatiently. She was completely in the dark about what he was so clearly amused by. The girl began to feel insecure about the shirt. Clearly, there was something about Spider-Man in New York that she didn’t know, something that meant she shouldn’t be wearing that shirt. Y/N aggressively slammed down her glass and insisted, “You’re impossible!” Her father inhaled and began almost silently laughing hysterically. He moved his hands in an attempt to communicate but was unable to speak between fits of breathless chuckling. Obviously, she didn’t get the joke and she didn’t want to sit around and be the butt of it. She had to leave to get Peter anyway, so Y/N scooped up her backpack from the floor and hurried toward the exit, holding up a rebellious middle finger behind her on her way out.

“Language!” Steve yelled after the teen.

Y/N pulled down her hand and smiled, calling to the Captain over her shoulder, “Didn’t say anything.”

She did love getting the last word, so before anything more could be said Y/N broke into a shaky jog across the glossy floors of the building, hurrying out to the entryway where her Audi was just pulling up. Y/N sighed in relief as she began climbing into the driver’s door. When she attempted to sit her muscles gave way and she more collapsed conveniently into the seat. Without any hesitation, Y/N tossed her backpack into the backseat and slammed the door shut, instantly punching the gas. the sportswear loudly sped down the driveway and Y/N watched the needle on the speedometer as it climbed to rebellious highway speeds.

When she pulled up to the curb outside Peter’s apartment building the boy was already standing by the street with his heavy backpack slung over one shoulder. He carelessly pulled the earbuds from his ears one by one and opened the passenger door, stumbling as he attempted to climb into the low car. Peter fell into the seat and quickly readjusted, shoving his book bag under the dash at his feet. He turned to buckle in but paused as a cheeky grin slipped onto his face. Peter moved to click the seatbelt together as he mentioned, “I like your shirt.”

Y/N felt the embarrassment already setting back in from this morning. She instinctively rolled her eyes and begged, “Not you, too…” She moved the gear shift to drive and pulled away from the curb as she rambled on, “I just spent the whole morning being teased by Tony for it and I wish I hadn’t worn it. I was in a hurry-“

“No, no, no!” Peter trailed urgently over the girl’s maundering. “It’s cool,” he insisted. Smiling wider before trying to maintain a serious composure and wiping the joy from his face in a tough-guise.“Spider-Man… He’s cool,” The boy reiterated.

Y/N was hesitant to let her guard down and suspiciously asked, “You really think so? There’s not some big thing I don’t know about Spider-Man?”

Peter’s eyes grew wide and he smiled at the obvious flaw in Y/N’s phrasing and he pandered, “I mean, his identity, but—”

“You know what I meant!” Y/N aggressively argued. The boy threw his hands up in innocence as he pushed back into the passenger door. It made Y/N grow quiet in embarrassment. She hadn’t intended to be so reactive, and it wasn’t Peter’s fault she was feeling insecure. The girl could feel the blood flow down from her head, calming her to a normal composure as she swallowed her pride and admitted, “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little on edge about coming back from my suspension.” Peter slowly put his hands down and resumed his comfortable posture as he stared at Y/N. He was clearly listening intensely and it made the girl wonder how she ever could have snapped at him after everything he’d done for her in just under a month of knowing each other. Y/N sighed, knowing Peter was waiting for her to go on in her vulnerability, and continued. “I have to go in there and face Amadeus Cho. Now he’s had a week to establish his story in the population, and I’ve not been there to defend myself. At the end of the day, I hit him with the lunch tray because it was his word over mine. I didn’t stop the situation, I just made it worse.”

Peter nodded slowly as he took in what the girl was saying. She wanted to apologize at that moment for continuing to vent about the whole thing around him, but then she thought about how he helped her out of the party, how scared and protective he seemed in all of it, and she thought better of it. It seemed no wonder Peter was so good at having these conversations. He was a part of that experience. He’d seen her in that distress and he didn’t hesitate, but being a hero could take a toll too. They had just braked at a stop light when Peter honestly mentioned, “It’s probably not going to be great.” Y/N glanced at the boy, who looked tense. His brow was furrowed and his jaw was strained as he struggled with the hard honesty. “People have been talking, and they seem pretty set on their story. I don’t want to be right about this, but you’re probably going to be outcast.” The girl struggled with the cold truth as it froze her heart and shot ice through her veins. Though it was difficult to hear, she was thankful for Peter’s honesty. The light turned to green and Y/N faced the road again as she drove on. She was surprised when her friend continued in a new optimistic tone, “But you still have me. Ned and MJ know the real story. You probably have a few others on your side, too. We might not be the cool crowd, but that doesn’t seem to have bothered you yet.”

Y/N felt the warmth of his words calming her rigid fear. When he put it like that, it sounded better than what she had dealt with at Midtown before. The relaxation and twisted joy seemed to complex to put into words, so Y/N simply said, “You’re cool, Parker,” as a half smile met her lips.

Peter smiled and sat up in his seat in satisfaction, changing the subject as he asked, “So Spider-Man, huh?”

The return to the previous conversation made Y/N playfully roll her eyes and shake her head as they drove, catching a glimpse of the sunlight flickering through the trees behind Peter’s head. He held the expression of a middle schooler teasing their friend about a new secret crush, and it was as adorable as it was annoying. “What about him?” Y/N countered as the schoolyard came into view.

“You like him,” Peter stated smugly.

Y/N began to protest, challenging the boy, “Who said I liked him?”

Peter didn’t miss a beat to nonchalantly point out, “You’re wearing a Spider-Man shirt.”

Y/N glanced at the boy in the passenger seat as she braked at a stop sign and adjusted in her seat, grimacing at the soreness in her legs from the run. The girl tiredly shrugged and admitted, “Touché.” Peter looked satisfied with himself, and Y/N wanted to banter but couldn’t find it in herself to do anything more than smile.

They finally pulled into the school parking lot, but instead of traveling down the rows, Y/N threw the gearshift into park directly in front of the main entrance. The girl leaned over her right shoulder and reached into the backseat, struggling to pull her backpack through the small space between her and Peter. It was heavy and her aching muscles struggled to manage it, losing control once it finally broke free and incidentally letting it hit the car horn. Y/N cringed as the eyes of all the students in the parking lot turned toward her Audi. Even worse was the staff member manning the parking lot who began hurrying across the entryway to tell her off for parking in the way. She figured it was now or never to flaunt the joys of being a Stark.

“Get out,” Y/N commanded to Peter, who hurriedly grabbed his backpack. He looked at his friend in frantic confusion as she opened her door, quickly turning to step out as well.

“HEY! YOU CAN’T PARK THERE!” the faculty member yelled as he broke into a run to berate the girl.

Peter spun around to look at his friend over the roof of the short car, wide-eyed and panicked. Y/N smiled mischievously back at the perplexed boy and began walking away from the vehicle. She felt the soreness in her legs but maintained her smug composure. Peter stared after her for a moment before jogging to catch up to her, striding by her side. The high-strung man who’d been yelling at her finally reached the two students, reprimanding, “Young lady, I don’t care how rich you are, you cannot park there—”

“I didn’t,” Y/N commented, not so much as hesitating as she passed by the staff member. The man looked past the girl he was scolding and gaped, causing Peter to spin around quick, walking backwards as he processed the missing sports car. A smirk popped onto his face when he finally spotted the Audi parking itself across the lot, understanding the obnoxious stunt Y/N had just pulled, much to the disdain of the uptight parking monitor. The boy swung around and jogged back to his friend’s side with a sense of mischievous pride for being a part of the stunt they’d just pulled, whether or not he know what was going on at the time.

The two made their way to Peter’s locker, where Ned was waiting as always. He looked up from his phone and grinned kindly when he saw Peter and Y/N walking up, shoving his phone into his pocket as Peter began spinning his combination into the steel wheel. “Hey,” Ned greeted with a beaming smile he always seemed to have. Forever the optimist, Ned balanced out the dynamic of Peter and MJ perfectly. Ned finally noticed Y/N’s shirt and burst out excitedly, “You like Spider-Man?”

Y/N hadn’t realized when she threw it on this morning what a talking point it would be, and it honestly made her regret it just a bit. Still, she smiled shyly at her friend and responded, “Yeah, I guess.” It seemed like no big deal to the girl, but Ned seemed thrilled as he nudged Peter amiably. Y/N couldn’t help but laugh at the interaction and make the assumption that “You two are pretty big Spider-Fans, aren’t you?” She was delighted by the adorable jolt of excitement they both seemed to get regarding the web-slinging hero.

“Well, Peter—“ Ned began as he turned to come face to face with Peter’s wide eyes and pursed lips. Y/N watched as they had yet another one of their silent conversations, in which Peter shook his head vigorously at whatever he suspected Ned was about to say. It made the girl smile at how easily he was embarrassed. Ned suddenly turned back to Y/N and insisted, “We’re big fans,” with a big smile. Y/N couldn’t help but giggle and shake her head at the strange behavior of her friends. She found it enduring that they would get so childishly giddy, at least Ned was. Peter looked like he wanted to bury his head in his locker.

Over Ned’s shoulder, Y/N suddenly noticed the cold air of Amadeus Cho appearing at the end of the hall. She felt her expression shift to concern and she was powerless to stop it. It felt like a weakness to reveal that she was still scared, but she wanted to be anywhere but in that hallway at that moment. “Well, hey,” the girl began quickly before excusing herself, “I’ve got to get to class, but I’ll see you two later, yeah?” The two boys nodded slowly and watched as the girl very suddenly took off down the hall to her AP Lit classroom. She knew it was weird, and she was ashamed she was letting Cho control her like this, but she really didn’t want to even see him. It was too much emotionally, and Y/N just wanted to go back to being a normal student.

Taglist

@ace-ingthroughlife-jk @just4muggles @i-alyssa @bravest-at-heart @bookgirlunicorn @really-lucas @loud-binch @alextheodd @avoirlu @tumbleerrtrash @amazingficsthatididnotwrite @superspideyparker @whatevsmels @royal-sunflower @spiderman-masterlists @goldenrose1099 @fav-fan-ficccs @iamburdened @justalittlecrazybutimok @takenbymyfandoms @elioelioeli0 @potterheadbbc @-thatgirloverthere- @tomshufflepuff @peter-spider-parker-man @maddie-laufeyson @jackiehollanderr @mariah-danielle-winchester @hortonhearsahoeblr @lokimercuri @loxbbg @justanothermarvelfanaccount @darkblueeyedperson @faloncarington @creativedogs @cosmicparkerr @grippleback-galaxy @littledaph @shallowshawn

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ravenclawshavemorefun · 5 years

Text

Monstre Aux Yeux Verts 《a miraculous ladybug fanfiction》 chapter 4

Adrian trudges to his locker feeling defeated, but still determined. Everyone around him is whispering back and forth excitedly. Adrian payed them no mind until he heard Marinette's name. "What are you guys talking about?" Adrian asks the two girls nearby.

"Marinette." One of them answered immediately, as if gossiping is what she lives for. "She just left with an older boy. His name is Luka and he's in a band. My older sister is in his class and she says he's really quiet and mysterious but everyone seems to like him. Luka has been walking her home from school all week so i bet they're dating." The girl didn't even seem to breathe as she whispered this.

"They aren't dating." Adrian told her definitively.

"How do you know?" The other girl asks.

"Because i- i'm- Marinette's friend." Adrian finishes lamely.

"Oh really?!" The first girl prances with the excitement of fresh gossip. "What does she say?"

What did he get himself into? "Well... nothing really. Luka's just been... helping her with... stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" The second girl asks.

"Well studying and... band...stuff... i gotta go." Adrian walks away as fast as he can. He sees Nino and Alya and changes course. "Hey, guys, what's going on? Everyone is talking about Marinette and Luka."

"Haters." Alya scoffs. "Luka offered to help Marinette with putting together her presentation for Jagged Stone."

"Oh. Right, their meeting is tomorrow." Adrian got an idea. "We should see if she needs a few more hands. We could bring snacks... hang out..."

"It HAS been a long time since we all hung out..." Alya thought out loud, "i could ask her if we can come by... but you have to tell me something first."

Adrian has a mini panic attack and he hopes Alya doesn't see right through him. "What?" He asks.

"What is with you lately?"

"What do you mean?" Adrian asks confused.

"You've been acting strange lately, quiet, spacey, you've been finding any reason to not go home..." Adrian feels relieved she didn't know about his spying on Marinette and sighs. Alya mistakes his sigh for something else, "is that it? Is something going on at home?"

Adrian isn't sure what to say, and yet again, Nino swoops in to save the day. "Alya, maybe he doesn't want to talk about it."

"Okay, but you can if you want, we're your friends and we're here for you. No matter what."

Adrian remembers when the only friend he had was Chloe and is touched by the fierce friendship he now has with Alya and Nino, "thanks, Alya." Adrian puts an arm around each of his friends' shoulders, "you guys are the best friends anyone could ever ask for."

Marinette and Luka are at her parent's kitchen table pouring over her designs. "I think it would be most professional to put them all in a portfolio so he can flip through them all and see how much work you put into the job. I hope he's not taking advantage of your age and is paying you decently."

Marinette smiled, "That's a great idea, and don't worry, my parents went over the contract. He's paying me well enough, but i don't do it for the money."

Luka smiled back at her, admiration in his eyes, "i know you don't, i just hate the thought of someone treating you unfairly."

Marinette blushes and her phone rings suddenly, she answers, "hey, Alya. What's up?"

"Hey, Marinette. Is it okay if the guys and i come over? I can't really go into detail, but something is going on with Adrian and he just doesn't want to go home."

"Oh my gosh! Is everything okay?" Luka looked at her with concern.

"I don't know," Alya says quietly, "he won't talk about it. I think it would be nice if we can just all hang out and get his mind off whatever is going on."

"Of course! I'm sure my parents won't mind under the circumstances."

"Great! We'll be there in a little bit, he and Nino are just in the store getting some snacks to bring over."

"Okay, see you in a little bit." Marinette ended the call and Luka waits for her to explain with a worried look on his face. "It was Alya, she said something is going on with Adrian and he doesn't want to go home."

"Oh. Do you want me to leave?" Luka asks gathering his things.

"No, you should stay. I think it's important for us to show him he has all of us here for him." Marinette is worried and hopes he's okay.

"That's a great idea, Mari. See? You're a great friend!"

Marinette blushes, "i should let my parents know what's going on, I'll be right back." Marinette hurries down to the bakery where her parents are cleaning up before the lunch rush. "Mom, dad, is it okay if a few of my friends come by for the afternoon?"

"What do you mean by 'a few'?" Her father asks sweeping the floor with broad strokes.

"Alya, Nino, and Adrian."

"I don't know, dear, that's a lot of people, and we can't really supervise with the lunch rush coming..." her mother checks the ovens and goes to the sink to do the dishes.

"I know, mom, but the thing is Adrian is having some problems at home and we thought we could show him he has friends he can go to and maybe get his mind off whatever is bothering him. And you guys trust me right?"

Marinette's parents give eachother a long look, communicating without speaking, "of course, honey, that's very thoughtful of you." Her mom says hand over her heart.

"I have cookies you can all munch on. Oh! You can try the new macaroon recipe I've been working on!"

"You guys are the best!" Marinette leaves her parents discussing what treats they could prepare.

Marinette rejoins Luka in the kitchen. He is flipping through a binder. "I hope you don't mind, i put your designs in this binder i had. I figured with all your friends coming over you'd feel better knowing this was all ready for tomorrow."

"Wow! That looks great, Luka! Thank you so much!" Marinette flipped though the pages, "this looks like a professional portfolio!"

"I just put them in a binder, the credit is all yours." Luka says modestly. "Are you sure you want me to stay? I don't want to intrude on your time with your friends."

"They're OUR friends, silly. We'd all love for you to stay... if you want to, that is." She adds suddenly realizing he may have things he'd rather do than hang out with kids his little sister's age.

Luka takes Marinette's hand. "I've had the best time hanging out with you, Mari. There's nothing I'd rather do then spend more time with you." He says as if reading her mind.

Marinette looks at him eyes wide and blushing, "really?" She is at a loss of words.

Luka chuckles, "of course! I've really fallen for you." Now it was his turn to blush.

Marinette isn't sure what to say. She had always liked Adrian, and liking another boy felt like cheating on him. "But that's ridiculous!" She thinks to herself, they aren't dating and Adrian was very clear today that they were just friends. Adrian would never see her as more than that, but here's this amazing, dreamy, and thoughtful boy in front of her confessing his affection for her. Although she would always care for Adrian, she didn't think he would want her to wait for something that would most likely never happen between them. He would want her to be happy, wouldn't he? "He's not dead!" She thinks to herself, "just the relationship you thought you'd have with him is." Should she mourn for a relationship that never happened? She feels conflicted, to say the least. "I think you're really great too, Luka." She blushs, "that was really lame." She accidentally says out loud.

Luka laughs, "i didn't think it was lame." Luka gently pulls her closer, placing the hand he was holding over his own heart and wrapping his other arm around her waist. Marinette's eyes are open wide, at first she was thinking too much, now she couldn't think at all. Her mind was blissfully blank just taking in the moment: the feel of his shirt beneath her fingers, the strong but also gentle support of his arm around her waist, the thump her heart made trying to brake through her ribs and the subtle thump of his matching her heart's rhythm. Although she knew her heart was racing, it felt like there was a lifetime between beats. Time had stopped. The embrace was like a really great song; it ended far too soon and left her wanting more.

The door from the bakery opened suddenly and they jumped apart. If time had stopped before, now it seemed to be going in fast forward. Alya pauses in the doorway "hey, guys!" She says cheerily, she pretended she didn't see anything. "Your parents sent us up with all these sweets!" She puts the platter of cookies and macaroons of several different flavors on the table. Nino and Adrian follow her into the kitchen.

Marinette tries very hard to not look guilty and takes one of the cookies. "Hey, guys!"

"Oh! Are these the designs for Jagged Stone? Mind if we take a look?"

"Go ahead." Marinette takes a bite of her cookie and watches the 3 of them look through the binder.

"This one's my favorite." Luka says pointing to the last page, "there's something about it that just seems... timeless." He winks at Marinette, did he feel time stop too?

She couldn't stop the blush from rising on her cheeks. "Thanks!" Uncomfortably, she realizes all 4 of them have their eyes on her and she decides to change the subject. "Who wants to be beaten first in the new video game we just got?"

They all make their way into the living room. Alya turns on some music and Nino takes up the first controller. Marinette sits on the couch and picks up the remote in front of her to set up the game. Leaning back she discovers Luka and Adrian are seated on either side of her. Well, this was going to be a relaxing afternoon!

The afternoon actually passes fairly quickly. Everyone seems to have a lot of fun. It was hours of playing video games, discussing music and eating treats Marinette's parents brought up. Her father had some wild new recipes and most of them were really good, however the wasabi flavored macaroon had everyone fighting over a gallon of milk. Mr. Dupain said it was his best prank yet... well, between fits of laughter. Adrian seemed to forget about whatever was going on at home. Mostly, he did sometimes get very quiet. Whenever that happened Marinette would let go of Luka's hand and challenge Adrian to another match. She was pretty proud that she was always able to snap him out of it.

"I can't believe your old man is letting you stay out this long." Nino says checking his phone. Alya gives him the evil eye and shakes her head.

Adrian takes out his phone and checks it. He's surprised to not see any missed calls or messages. "You're right... that's weird." Adrian admits.

Alya jumps up while Adrian is wondering how he wasn't being dragged home. "Well, Nino and i better go. We're taking our siblings to the park when they get out of school." Alya drags Nino to the door. "Thanks for having us over, Marinette! We had a great time!"

"Bye, guys!" Nino shouts just before the door slams shut.

"Ooookaaaay... that was a little weird." Adrian laughs.

Marinette and Luka laugh too. "You know Alya... always with the dramatic exits." Marinette giggles. Adrian decides that her giggle is his favorite sound he's ever heard.

The door opens and Marinette's mom walks in, "it's too bad Alya and Nino had to leave, we were going to ask you all if you wanted to stay for supper."

"I'd love to, thank you!" Luka says at the same time Adrian says, "that sounds amazing!"

Mrs. Dupain-Chang smiles, "please call your parents to be sure it's okay."

They agree and Adrian walks to the kitchen to make his call.

"Poor Adrian!" Marinette whispers.

"What do you mean? He seems fine to me." Luka whispers back confused.

"His father usually has him on a really tight leash, they must have had a really big fight for him to pretty much ignore his son!"

"Maybe you should just ask him." Luka suggests.

"What would I even say?" Marinette asks.

"Sometimes it's easier for a guy to talk to a close female friend about this kind of stuff because girls always know what to say."

"I'm not sure I'm like a typical girl..." Marinette says uncertainly.

Luka laughs, "well, you're right about that... you're exceptional. You'll know what to say. Trust me." Luka put his hand on hers. "Trust yourself. You can do it. I'll wait in the kitchen for a little bit after i make my call. Take your time."

Adrian walks back into the livingroom and stops suddenly looking at the two of them. Luka gave Marinette one last pat before standing and walking to the kitchen to make his call. Adrian sat at the end of the couch and quietly played with his phone.

"Hey... Adrian. Is uh everything okay... with you?" Marinette starts nervously.

"What do you mean?" Adrian asks confused, and then he realizes he let Alya believe something was wrong and she must've told Marinette.

Marinette scoots closer to him on the couch, "i just want you to know you're welcome here any time and if you ever want to talk I'm there for you." She took his hand.

Adrien wasn't sure what to say. "I've just realized I'm in love with you so I've been doing everything i can to keep you and Luka from being alone together because I'm terrified you'll fall in love with him instead!" Yeah that doesn't sound stalkerish at all! He definitely can't say that! Maybe he can just shut it down gently? "Th-thank you, Marinette. I really appreciate that." He realizes she's still waiting for him to confide in her. Nothing's going on, why didn't he just tell Alya the truth? This is too close to lying. Then he gets an idea; while nothing out of the ordinary is going on by his definition, his home life is still pretty depressing compared to what his friends are used to. "Well, you see, since my mom... disappeared... my dad... i don't know, he just seems to hate me. The only time he spends with me is during meals, and sometimes not even that." That felt pretty good to get off his chest, with that little bit of digging he found more he wanted to share. "Sometimes it feels like I'm just supposed to be this perfect son and when I'm not out making him look good he thinks i should just be locked up in my room. Remember when Sandboy made everyone live their worst nightmare? Mine was being locked up and the cage just kept getting smaller and smaller. That's what my life feels like every day! The pressure is just too much sometimes and i just want a normal life." Adrian turns away, embarrassed that he got so emotional.

"Oh, Adrian, I'm so sorry! I had no idea you were dealing with so much!" She put her other hand on his knee.

"It's not your fault, besides, I'm just complaining. There's a lot of people worse off than i am."

"Well that's true," Adrian looks in her eyes, that's not what he was expecting to hear, "there may be people who have it worse off, but that doesn't make your pain any less. You should tell your dad how you feel-" Adrian scoffs and Marinette smiles before she continues, "even if he doesn't listen, at least you aren't bottling all that up."

"You're right, maybe I'll try that." Adrian hesitates for only a second then pulls her into a hug, "thank you, Marinette."

The embrace is warm and comforting like curling up in a thick fuzzy blanket on a cold night. Adrian wants so badly to kiss her, but he doesn't have the time, Luka walks back into the room and clears his throat. Marinette gives Adrian one last pat on the back and breaks away, "i better help my parents with supper." She goes to the kitchen.

"So... you good?" Luka asks.

"Yeah." Adrian says carefully, "you?"

"Yep." Luka sits in the chair beside the couch. There's an awkward silence. Adrian isn't sure what to think about Luka, he can't hate the guy for falling for Marinette, after all, he did the same thing. But they are rivals and he was ready to do anything to win Marinette's heart.

#lukanette #adrianette #love triangle #miraculous fanfic

32 notes · View notes

dreamgloe · 5 years

Note

22 with seokjinie please? 💗💗

prompt: long distance / 22 (this prompt list here)

words: 2.68K

warnings: fluff, tears, light implied sexual content

notes: lord i literally wrote most of this today and i’m s o f t for one kim seokjin who’s idea of a romantic date is eating his weight in black pork with his girlfriend and being cheesy af. also i tried to edit so excuse any slipped mistakes.

tags: @sjtual (hope you love bebe xoxo)

“I’m so, so sorry, babe,” you heard your boyfriend say through your earbuds. His image on screen was a little grainy with your horrible wi-fi connection and old MacBook Pro.

“It’s fine, Seokjin. You don’t have to keep apologizing. I get it,” you said smiling, trying your best to assure your boyfriend that you are indeed ‘fine.’ It wasn’t his fault schedule changed at the last minute. Of course, you were still sad that you couldn’t spend one of the designated days of the year to be a complete, hopelessly romantic idiot with the man that you loved.

“But seriously, honey, I’m sorry we have to spend Valentine’s Day over skype. We were supposed to head down to Jeju tomorrow… All that black pork…uneaten,” he said, looking away and clutching his heart. You couldn’t help but laugh with your whole body. He always knew how to make you smile.

“Another time,” you said despite the fact that you were really looking forward to spending some time alone with Seokjin. The last thing wanted was for him to feel sad.

“You have the food, right?” he asked. Yes, you had the food….when you texted him that it had arrived. He ordered from your favorite restaurant down the street and had it delivered. You picked up the takeout bag from the ground and put it on the table in front of you so that Seokjin could see.

He picked up his bag, the emblem being that of your absolute favorite restaurant in Seoul, one that you’d often go to together. It made you smile and you really felt that even though the two of you were separated, that the two of you were close. You had made the trip up to Seoul a few weeks ago when he had a small break in his schedule but the two of you spent most of the time either at the dorm or in his apartment. It wasn’t as though he spent a lot of time in the villa he purchased for himself when you weren’t around but he claimed it was nice to have for “alone time.” It was sparsely decorated but homey and great for when you wanted peace and quiet with Seokjin. However, you had always been more than welcome at the dorm, the kids always vying for your attention.

“Noona, did you see that kill?” Jungkook would shout over his shoulder while playing Overwatch. Taehyung and him then argue about who was actually ahead.

You could tell from the background that Jin had made his way over to his own place for privacy because in the dorms he still shared a room with Yoongi.

“It’s like we eating together,” he said earnestly, starting to unbag everything. He had obviously had been hankering for pork, the container you pulled out of your bag…well, you’d have leftovers for a few days. “This is so much pork, Seokjin,” you said, “How am I supposed to eat all of it?”

He looked mildly offended. “No lady of mine backs down from pork. She takes the challenge head on and wins,” he said, with a look of seriousness that you couldn’t help but burst out laughing at. He was always cooking for you and making sure that you were eating enough. It was never usually a problem because you loved to eat. You’d sometimes tease him, saying “Yes, halmeoni, I’ll eat more.” He’d huff a little to continue the joke but you were certain there was a little pride in there too.

“So how is everyone?” you ask, “Staying out of trouble?” You opened the container, grabbed your metal chopsticks and quickly dipped the pork into the soy bean paste before shoving a whole piece into your mouth. You groaned a little. “So good. How’s yours?”

Seokjin was in the middle of digging in as well and his smile beamed brightly the moment he took a bite out of his. “Everyone’s fine but wish you were here to eat it with me,” he said, with his mouthful, “Our favorite.” The two of you fell into your comfortable conversation of his and your work. He asked you about your job at the TV station and you asked him about any down time he had on tour and if he got to have any good food. One of your favorite conversation topics just happened to be food.

“Cheers,” he shouted, holding up his wine class to the screen. You reached over to grab yours to the same. It wouldn’t be dinner with Seokjin without something to drink.

One of the best things about your relationship, you thought, was your ability to talk about practically nothing but still have a good time. The two of you loved to roam around and see sights, even close to home, in addition to eating your way through cities. It was only a matter of time before you felt the food baby form. Leaning back in your chair, you put your hands on your full stomach and sighed heavily.

“Me too,” your boyfriend responded, already knowing without you haven’t to say anything verbally. “Ugh, I wish you were here. I wish I was there,” he said, pouting. Your heart melted at the sight because even through skype, your boyfriend had an irresistible pout.

“I promise I’ll make plans to come up soon,” you say earnestly, “Whenever you want, whenever I can.” Part of you wants to cry. While you were hellbent on acting like everything was fine, you really missed him sometimes. Moving away to Busan had been a hard choice but Seokjin encouraged you, knowing that it would be good for your career. You didn’t plan on staying for too long, using Busan as a way to bolster your goal to be a full-fledged on-air producer.

You felt yourself moving your face even closer to the camera in your laptop, as if that would bring you closer to him. He did the same, leaning in closer to the camera, kissing the air at you and causing you to giggle.

“Don’t worry, honey,” he said, waving it off, “We’ll make your next visit work out no matter what,” he said, “Don’t stress.” He said this while waiting his arounds like he was stressed. You felt a few tears prickle at your eyes, hoping they wouldn’t show up on the poor visual connection of your skype.

“Sorry, you have to deal with my schedules all the time,” he said, pausing before chucking, “Don’t know how you put up with me…it’s just for my looks, isn’t it?” He said, the mock offense all over his face.

You laughed so hard that a few tears ended up falling. “Yeah, I’m only dating you for your looks, Worldwide Handsome,” you said, a hit of a scoff in your voice. He winked at you, his upturned lips opening to show his pearly smile. With the slightest gesture, he could make you feel like an idiot crushing school girl all over again.

Feeling your cheeks heat up a little, you shifted back to the topic at hand, “If I deal with your schedule, I get to put up with you,” you said, the biggest smile on your face and your voice starting to crack, “I consider myself very lucky.” The thought didn’t help the verge of your tears and finally, you had to do something about them. You tried to pull it off as stray eyelashes but your boyfriend knew better. As goofy as he was, he was incredible gentle and often claimed that for you…he was a complete mush.

“Babe,” he cooed through the laptop screen. You put your hand up to stop him, dropping it to cover your face. You hated him seeing you like this. Making him feel bad was the last thing you wanted to do. He couldn’t help his schedule and you never wanted to ask more of himself than he could give at the moment. But he was a wonderful boyfriend. He called, texted, and sent funny jokes, memes, and emojis enough for the two of you. You were just happy to have him in your life and that he loved you too. Maybe you really were a sappy, romantic, Happy Valentine’s Day, gushy-gushy, flowers-and-chocolates, stuffed animals as big as the room kind-of person.

Kim Seokjin could do that to a girl.

“I hate worrying you,” you said, “I’m fine. I just miss you and…I’m glad I have you in my life.” At this point, you stopped trying to stop the tears. They prickled gently at your cheeks and you smiled at him, trying to convey that you missed him but you were indeed fine.

“I love you, honey,” he said heavily, no ounce of of a joke on his lips or in his eyes. The two of you sit in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Jin did what he does best.

He lightens the mood.

“Go get the box from the fridge,” he says, clapping his hands together, an eager smile on his face. He had you pick up a box from your favorite bakery. “Doing a lot of my own Valentine’s Day errands, aren’t I?” you asked, cocking your eyebrow.

“Just go and get the box,” he whined. You sigh with a smile and get up to do as he says. Taking the medium-sized box out, you brought it over to your set up. Placing it down in front so Seokjin could see, you give him a pointed look.

“You got the card I sent you?” you ask and he immediately holds in front of him so you can see…shaking it for the camera. You sent him a card a few days and told him to hold onto it since you knew you weren’t going to get to spend the day together. You promised one another not to get anything too crazy. A cake and a card with a romantic–and maybe slightly sexy–coupon book seemed reasonable.

“1, 2,…open!” your boyfriend exclaimed. On “open,” you opened the lid to what you assumed as a cake. It was and it was the cutest color of baby pink and you knew from the sprinkles that it was your favorite. In hot pink lettering, it said, “Wish I was there. Xoxo Jin.” The classic funfetti flavor from your favorite bakery in Seoul, which just opened a storefront in Busan, not far from your office. You had picked it up one the way home from work, per Seokjin’s request.

“Seokjinie…” you said, your eyes big and your tears threatening to fall again. He opened yours, pulling out the stapled booklet you had made him. Each page was handmade and customized. He held it up too, laughing with his whole face, like he always does.

“Don’t spend it all in one place, honey,” you said, chuckling and wiping away your tears.

“Too late,” he said with a mischievous wink. He flipped through and started to list a few. “Hmmm….one back massage….one spa or hot springs date…one ice cream date…one…..Y/N…you dirty girl….” You felt your face heat up. You never felt particularly risque or sexy by yourself but your boyfriend had a knack for bringing out all your facets.

“I will for sure be splurging,” he said, holding the book to his chest for a moment before gingerly placing it on the table next to him. It was easy just to stare at him through the screen but it was even easier to wish you were looking at the real thing, touching the real thing. You’d give anything to grab his cheeks and kiss him breathless. You also wish that you could talk into the wee hours. However, it was getting close to midnight and according to the schedule he sent you, he had an early start tomorrow.

“I don’t want to cut our date short, sweetheart, but you have a 7:00 AM call time tomorrow…” you said, a frown for sure on your face. His face mirrored yours and he nodded solemnly.

“I love youuuuu,” he whined, leaning the side of his face into his hand.

“I love you too,” you said, “Call me tomorrow when you are on break.” You blow him a kiss and he one ups you with a ‘flying kiss.’ You giggled because your boyfriend was cutest and he knew it.

“Will do,” he said with a small wave. You were the one to disconnect the call because you knew if you didn’t do it then, it would happen. Just sitting there, staring at him is almost enough for you.

The rest of the night was slow moving, but Jin texted you a few times before he fell asleep. And with an emoji depicting a sleeping RJ with hearts, you knew he was done for the night. You texted him a few emojis before crawling into your bed and eventually falling asleep.

It felt like only a few hours that you had been asleep when you heard a knock at your door. You looked at your phone, it was 8:00 AM. Wow, that was some food baby, you thought to yourself. You pulled on some sweatpants because it was cold out and made your way to the front door. You couldn’t see anything through your door camera so when you opened the door to see your boyfriend standing there, huffing and puffing, you were startled.

“Jin…” you trailed off. What? How was he here?

He quickly pulled the coupon book out of his pocket. “I’ve come here to collect,” he said, that big stupid grin on his face.

“First of all, what are you doing here? Second of all, calm down and come inside.” You opened the door to let him in and he didn’t even bother to take his shoes off.

“My…schedule was cancelled early this morning so I hopped…on to the first train to Busan,” he said, doing the best he could catch his breath. You saw two suitcases in his hands.

“What in the hell, Seokjin!!!” you said, not being able to believe him.

“Kiss first, please. Anger later,” he said, still out of breath and a little needy. You sigh with a ‘fine’ and grab him by the collar of his coat, planting a firm kiss to his lips. God, you missed that. You gave him a second, softer one for good measure. After pulling away, your face was back to its previous state.

“You should have called,” you said.

“I wanted it to be a surprise…” he said, “I felt so bad about before—” You stopped him in his words with another kiss. This time, you wrapped your arms around his neck, letting yourself sink into the feeling of being in front of him again.

“You are too sweet for my heart to handle,” you said against his mouth, not bearing the idea of pulling away from him.

“I would love to stay here and keep you here to myself all day but we have a ferry to catch in an hour….I never cancelled our plans.” he said. You groaned and he gingerly hands you one of the suitcases. “For you?” he said slash asked. You took the suitcase and dragged him by his hand to your room. On the way, you gave him a few orders. Five pairs of socks, five bras, five pairs of underwear. While you honestly didn’t trust him doing any of your packing, you’d rather him pack the skimpiest underwear you have instead of anything you’d actually be wearing out in public.

The two of you managed to get a bag packed and were out the door in less than 30 minutes.

“Jin?”

“What?” he said from in front of you.

“Don’t forget this,” you said, grabbing the coupon book he left on the small ledge by your door. You held it out to him and he took it but not before giving you another kiss.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, honey.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

And with that, the two of you were off.

167 notes · View notes

let-me-be-soft · 4 years

Text

Trying- Chapter 14

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Pairing: Alya/Nino

Summary:

After 5 years of a never ending battle with Hawk Moth, the Akumas suddenly come to a stop. For 4 months Paris seems like it’s finally at peace, but it may turn out to be only the calm before the storm. When Alya starts to hear a familiar voice, she realizes very quickly that Hawk Moth is far from gone. Alya must resist the temptation to discover the truth behind Ladybug, but as her life slowly falls apart around her Hawk Moth’s grip only becomes stronger.

AO3 Fanfiction.net

The drive back to Paris was different then the drive to Elle’s house. For one thing Alya wasn’t laughing the whole time, and none of them were in their suits. It was still tense, but it was a different kind of tense. All of them knew what they were going to do now. They knew what needed to happen.

They arrived in front of the old burnt down massage parlor, and the group all stared. Elle placed her hand on her heart.

“Are you ok?” Alya asked softly.

Elle nodded, “It’s just a bit of a shock that’s all…”

They all crawled out of the car and stood slightly away from the crumbled building. Elle dragged her eyes off of the soot covered rubble and looked over at the Boulangerie Patisserie. A short woman exited the bakery and walked towards their group before she suddenly broke out into a run and smile spreading over her face.

“Everyone this is-” Before Elle could finish her introduction the woman knocked the wind out of her with a hug. Other then the shock and the lack of air to her lungs, Elle seemed grateful, and after a second to regain her breath she hugged the shorter woman back.

“Everyone. This is your current guardian.” Elle smiled stepping back to introduce the woman.

“Mom?” Marinette’s eyes went wide as she stared at her mother.

Sabine smiled at her daughter, “Hello honey. I see you’ve met Elle, I’m so glad. It really was a shame you two never got to properly meet before.”

Marinette’s brain stopped producing words as it tried to process this new information. “When- You- since-”

“What?” Alya finished for her. “You’re the new guardian?”

Sabine nodded, “I came to Paris to study with Fu, and I did for a while, but life had other plans for me.” Sabine looked to the bakery and gave Tom a wave.

The four heroes were still standing there in shock as Sabine talked to Elle excitedly.

“I can’t believe you’re finally home.” Sabine was chirping wrapping Elle up in another hug. “We missed you so much, Gabriel missed you so much. Does he know yet? I didn’t tell him, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to.” Sabine rambled slightly.

Elle stepped back awkwardly and tried to respond, “He… Doesn’t know yet.” Elle said turning back towards the others, who were still reeling from the shock.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were the guardian?” Marinette asked exasperated as her mother merely smiled.

“Don’t worry sweetie, your father didn’t know either.”

“What?”

“So,” Alya placed a calming hand on Marinette’s shoulder, “You knew all along who Ladybug and Chat Noir were?”

Sabine laughed a little, “Well, Chat Noir took longer to figure out, but really, once you kids all started spending more time together it wasn’t hard to add two and two...”

Marinette felt like she was going to pass out. “How long have you known about the miraculous Mom?”

“Oh long before you were born.” Sabine said with a gentle wave of her hand before turning back to Elle, “The last place I sent Rekko was Belgium and that was about 2 days ago. When should we let the news you’re back in Paris leak?”

“I think we’re almost ready, there’s a few old friends we still need to talk to. Do you still have Roger’s number?” Elle asked

Sabine nodded, “Come inside.”

Marinette knew her parents shop and house like the back of her hand, but stepping into it now she wondered if there was anything else her mother had been hiding. She felt Adrien bump her shoulder gently with his own and she turned to look at his worried face.

“I’m fine.” She said before he could even ask, “Just a little shocked.”

And Adrien could understand that better than anyone so he smiled and reached down to grab her hand. She turned to see Alya and Nino eyeing the display cabinet as Sabine turned the open sign to closed.

“I’ll just go warn Tom.” Sabine said with a smile disappearing behind the counter.

Marinette watched as Elle stood awkwardly in the middle of the shop taking in the shelves and the display unit.

“Have you been here before?” Marinette asked.

Elle seemed a little startled, like she had been pulled out of some deep thoughts, but offered Marinette a weak smile, “I’ve been here before once, maybe twice. A long time ago and it’s changed a lot since then.”

Marinette nodded, “Business has done well.”

“Yeah.” Elle glanced towards Adrien who was occupied with his staring at his shoes. Elle looked a little sad before turning away again.

Marinette looked between the two of them not really sure what to do or say. Helplessly she glanced over to Alya who had also noticed the tense silence.

“I bet the pastries still taste just as good.” Alya supplied.

“Delicious.” Elle said with a smile at Marinette. “When you aren’t Ladybugging what do you do Marinette? Do you work here as well?”

“Oh- Uh, well sometimes. If it’s really busy I’ll come and help, but I’m actually a fashion student.”

“Fashion?” Elle glanced towards Adrien again. “Is that how?”

“Mari and I met in high school.” Adrien said still looking at a wall awkwardly.

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him, he couldn’t pick something at least convincing to be distracted by? Adrien felt her eyes on him but wasn’t willing to admit that he should have chosen one of the deserts to stare at.

“Oh… Good.” Elle said, trying to cut her way through the tension.

“Good?” Adrien finally glanced over.

“I just meant… I’m glad your father sent you to school. He always wanted you tutored when I was…” Elle trailed off awkwardly.

“Oh.” Was all Adrien could manage.

Marinette and Alya exchanged some cringes and pointed looks, before Alya nudged Nino’s arm and nodded her head to the two silent party members. Nino looked at her wide eyed and shook his head. Alya nodded back and gave him a push towards Adrien.

“H-hey, dude-”

“I found the book.” Sabine walked in carrying a black notebook before looking between the group, “Did I interrupt something?”

“You did not!” Nino said a little too relieved, “What’s in the book?”

“My contacts.” said Elle, who seemed a little less awkward now that Sabine was back. She took the book from the shorter woman and started flipping through the pages. “There he is. Mind if I use your phone Sabine?”

“Go ahead.” Sabine gestured to the one hanging on the wall. She moved back to the shop door and started to pull the blinds down, “Tom’s not coming downstairs for a bit, it’s safe to come out.”

Wayzz was the first to fly out and say hello, but eventually all of the Kwami were out from jacket pockets and such. Fanna immediately fell back into her fox form weaving her way through the racks and legs.

Marinette glanced over at Elle who was smiling while she spoke quietly on the phone. “Who is she talking to mom?”

Sabine glanced over at Elle, “Oh, you remember Sabrina’s dad right?”

“The cop?” Nino asked.

Sabine nodded, “Well he and Elle go a far ways back, I suppose she’s calling in a favor.”

“Thank you!” Elle said a little louder smiling wider, “I can’t thank you enough really. Thank you Roger.”

Elle joined the rest of them again, “He’ll be starting an evacuation of the upper east side. We won’t have to worry about civilians getting injured.”

“How do you know Sabrina’s dad?” Alya asked.

Elle looked confused for a moment, “You all know Sabrina?”

They all nodded.

“Well, when Roger was a young cop starting his career, Sage was his senior officer.”

“What? Did he know that she was Volpina?” Alya asked.

“Well not at first, but they did get quite close.”

Marinette turned to Alya in alarm, “Is everyone we know connected to the miraculous?”

Alya grinned, “I told you all along. Ladybug had our grades history textbook, and Adrien looked a lot like Chat.”

Nino had a private moment of awe, “Holy crap she did have our textbook.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, “Nino of course she did. She’s me.”

Elle watched the young heroes talk and couldn’t help but smile.

“Elle,” Sabine placed a hand on her shoulder, “I think you should see Gabriel, before anything happens.”

Elle nodded and tried to ignore the pit of dread building in her.

The drive to Adrien’s childhood home was not a pleasant one for Adrien or Elle. Adrien hadn’t been there for a month, since his father and his regular family dinner. Elle hadn’t been there in 12 years, since she abandoned him.

Turns out your mother didn’t love you, and the woman who did didn’t care enough to stay.

He ignored that thought.

No really. No wonder you always were so desperate for Ladybug to validate you, the previous Ladybug deserted you.

Marinette and Alya had been talking about something during his depressing inner monologue but now they were quiet. Adrien wished they would keep talking. He wanted someone to say something so his mind wouldn’t be forced to think about Elle, or his father, or his mother or-

Marinette glanced over at him with concern, and wrapped her arm around his, her fingers intertwining with his own. His brain stopped spiraling enough to give her a weak smile. Everything was going to be alright. This ladybug was here for him. This Ladybug wasn’t going to leave and erase his memories. This ladybug was Marinette.

It wasn’t hard to wrap his head around, they were both the same height, both had the same smile, the same eyes. As he got to know Marinette better he saw Ladybug’s strength and sass in her. She was just as kind and good hearted as Ladybug. It made sense that they were the same person, the same wonderful person that Adrien had fallen in love with twice over.

Part of him felt like an idiot. She had told him she fell in love with him in highschool and he had thrown a fit, if only he had realized he had fallen in love with only half of her.

Then again, they might not be here now, arm in arm, surrounded by friends.

And Elle.

And the spiral continued.

Adrien looked out the car window and saw the all too familiar gates that led to his family’s driveway.

“See you when we fight Hawkmoth.” Alya said stepping out of the car so Marinette and Adrien could get out.

Elle was standing on the sidewalk looking up at the big mansion, looking much like Adrien felt.

Alya hopped into the front seat and her and Nino drove away to look for supplies.

Adrien kept looking up at the mansion and back at Elle.

Despite all his questions, and all of his jumbled memories, even though he had spent the last few months, even the last 12 years wondering what happened, wishing for a whole family again, Adrien couldn’t bring himself to take the first step.

It was a stalemate, neither of them wanting to confront the past, but both knowing they had to.

So Marinette took the first step, striding up to the gate in a very Ladybug like manner. She hit the buzzer and introduced their group, grabbing his hand and leading him through the gates as they opened. He stared in awe at her, which wasn’t the first time.

“We’re a team Kitty cat.” She smiled at him, “It’s my turn to be here for you.”

Adrien wanted to tell her she had always been there for him, or wrap her up in a tight hug, or kiss her passionately, but instead he returned her smile, and he knew that she understood.

“I love you too.” She said giving his hand a squeeze.

Nathalie came down the stairs to meet them at the front door. She glanced over their group without a trace of surprise, her eyes narrowing slightly at the sight of Elle. If Adrien wasn’t so caught up in his own mind he might have noticed how quiet and pale Elle looked, how afraid and small she seemed compared to the grand white entrance of his youth. The two of them walked in and were lead to the sitting room to wait for his father. Elle walked a little slower behind the two of them, taking in the picture of Adrien and his father that hung above the staircase. They both looked so lonely. So sad.

It was her fault. She knew it was. She was the one who had left them both, she had abandoned him. She knew his father, she knew he was not a cruel man… but she also knew he was not a good one. She knew that he didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t know how to raise a child. He never knew. Celine didn’t know. She herself only faked it.

Adrien sat on the sofa in the unhomely room. There was a fireplace, and the windows let light into the space, but it still felt dark, and empty. Or maybe that’s how he felt. Marinette seemed affected by it to and still held on to his hand as she sat beside him.

“Where did Elle go?” She asked Nathalie taking in her surroundings.

“Ms. Perron is in the hall. She seemed like she needed a moment.”

“Adrien.” Gabriel entered the room and Adrien immediately stood up. Marinette followed his lead and stayed by his side. “And Ms. Dupain-Cheng?”

“Hello again Mr. Agreste.”

Gabriel walked in and took a seat next to the couch. Adrien relaxed slightly and sat back down with Marinette. “I see you both are still close?”

Adrien looked to Marinette and nodded, “Yeah… We’re actually-uh- dating.”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

Marinette braced herself for impact.

“That’s wonderful.” Gabriel’s tone didn’t really convey wonderful but Adrien smiled and seemed relieved so Marinette took the comment as genuine.

As silence fell among them Marinette noticed Gabriel fidgeting with his sleeve, he looked just as uncomfortable as his son. Both of them kept their gazes down, flickering to the door, waiting for Elle to enter.

“Excuse me for one moment.” Marinette stood up and let go of Adrien’s hand. Adrien immediately stood up with her but she shot him a look that said stay put.

She walked back to the entrance alone and spotted Elle sitting on the staircase with her head in her hands. With a sympathetic smile Marinette made her way to the marble stairs and sat beside the woman.

“You have to go in there.”

“I know.” Elle said, muffled through her arms.

Tikki floated out beside Marinette perching on her chosen’s arm watching as Marinette gently rubbed circles across Elle’s back.

“Tikki is right about me. I don’t know how to fix my problems. I just run away from them. I could have stayed and fought Rekko… But I left. I left Adrien in this cold house alone, and I left Gabriel to grieve by himself, with no one to help him.” Elle shook slightly underneath Marinette’s arm. “My whole life I’ve been running away. How can I face them? It’s my fault Fu-”

“It’s not.”Marinette spoke holding Elle a little closer, “It’s no one’s fault but Rekko’s. You can’t blame yourself. Trust me. I know.”

Elle looked up at the young woman before her, watching the water build in her eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” Elle said placing her hand on Marinette’s. “I should have been there.”

“I should have told you.” Tikki murmured quietly looking up at Marinette. “I kept her from you. You had every right to know and I let… I let my feelings control my actions.” She turned to face Elle, “I’m sorry for everything I said. I was a fool, Rekko-”

“Tricked both of us.” Elle said extending her finger to her kwami who held it in her tiny paws. “He knew from the beginning what he was doing.”

Tikki met Elle’s gaze and held it, “You’re sure this is his doing? You’re certain he’s trying to hurt others?”

“I know… I’m sorry Tikki. I wanted to believe in him too. But from the beginning… He…” Elle trailed off quietly as more thoughts coursed through her head. “I’m ashamed to tell Adrien that I trusted Rekko…” She said finally.

“He already knows you did. You all did.” Marinette said.

Elle shook her head, “No… I was fooled most of all. I should have…”

Tikki shook her head, “He will understand. Gabriel does.”

When Marinette walked back into the room the overwhelming sense of relief she received from not only her partner, but also his father was astounding. No actual words were spoken, but she was sure both the Agreste’s had the thought, “thank god it’s not just the two of us.”

The momentary comfort, if you could call it that, was quickly replaced when Elle appeared in the doorway. Marinette waited for the woman to enter before taking her seat next to Adrien.

Elle opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Gabriel was staring at her so intently, but the emotion on his face was impossible to read. Elle seemed to tremble but didn’t look away. She opened her mouth and managed a very quiet “Hello.”

Gabriel couldn’t do much better than a soft greeting.

Marinette could feel Adrien starting to simmer beside her, she could feel his distorted love for his father trying to leap out and protect the man. She placed her hand gently on top of his arm, and although he didn’t relax, she could feel him settle slightly.

“I’m sorry.” Elle said, “I didn’t mean… I wanted to-”

Gabriel stood up and Elle stopped short. The two of them fell silent and still for a moment before she slowly moved into the room. Gabriel closed the distance and wrapped his arms around her, holding on to her as if maybe she weren’t real, and if he didn’t keep a tight grasp, she could slip away. Elle rested her head on his shoulder and wept, her arms cradling him. Marinette smiled.

“I thought… I was worried you were… That he’d-”

“I’m sorry.” Elle wept in response.

“I was scared that he had already killed you.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You’re alive.” Gabriel had an arm around her and the other supporting her head. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

“I’m sorry- I didn’t want to leave, I couldn’t-”

“I remember.” Gabriel said calmly, “I’m not angry, it’s ok.”

“I missed you.” Elle said through tears, and Marinette saw her smile a little as she held Gabriel close.

Marinette held Adrien’s hand as the young man stirred uncomfortable and agitated. He calmed under her touch and she kept her hand there even as Gabriel pulled away from Elle and the woman looked meekly over to them.

“Did you tell Adrien everything?” Gabriel asked looking at his son.

“She has.” Adrien said coldly and Marinette gave his hand a squeeze.

Gabriel sat down awkwardly, “I’m sorry Adrien.”

“I can’t believe you lied to me my entire life. I can’t believe either of you.” Adrien growled under his breath.

Elle looked at her hands but Gabriel frowned. “What were we supposed to do? He was threatening your life.”

“You could have fought him.” Adrien’s torso leaned forward, aggressively challenging his father. “You could have left me with my memories instead of erasing her.”

“You expect me to believe you wouldn’t have chased after her if you knew she existed?”

“I could have helped!”

“This is not a fencing match Adrien, this is a powerful, angry god.”

“And I’m Chat Noir! Angry god’s are my specialty! Have you ever met Plagg?”

Gabriel frowned a little deeper. “Yes, I’ve met Plagg before.” The atmosphere in the room was heavy, and although their voices had dropped down to a softer volume, every word still felt as harsh. “I knew the past Chat Noir Adrien. I watched him die. I knew the last ladybug, and the last Volpina and the last Jade Turtle and madame Peacock. They’re all dead. You’re mother was dead, and then an evil almighty creature wanted you dead too. We were grieving and weakened, and all I wanted was for you to be safe.”

“You knew I was Chat Noir.” Adrien said looking down at his silver ring.

“I tried not to know. If I knew then Rekko would find out, and he would kill you.” Gabriel looked away, “I kept my distance, I had Nathalie take care of you. I came up with excuses in my mind every time I came close to suspecting.”

Adrien shook his head, “Don’t pretend that was to protect me. You didn’t know how to deal with me. You didn’t know how to take care of a child.”

Gabriel met his son’s gaze, “You’re right. I didn’t. I didn’t know how to… Elle was the one who knew-”

“And you lied about her. You told me she was my mother, you made me think that at some point there was a mother who loved me. Did mom ever play with me? Did she ever babysit Chloe? What’s the truth? Were either of you good parents at anytime?”

“Stop it.” Adrien’s head whipped up to look at Elle who was standing beside him with fire in her eyes, “Your parents loved you more than anything in the world, and your father would give up anything for you.”

“If you both loved me you wouldn’t have left.”

“You’re wrong Adrien.” Marinette said lifting her hand to gently turn his cheek towards her. “She loves you more than life itself. She gave you up in order for you to be safe. She couldn’t stay with you, and she gave you wonderful memories of a happy life, even if it meant you would never remember her again.”

“But none of you wanted me did you.” Adrien said and the anger had left his voice. “I always thought mom had been… That she must have been the reason you had kids, because mom wanted them, because mom was gentle and warm… But she didn’t. She didn’t want to be my mother.”

Elle looked at him and she saw the same scared nine year old who had asked where his mother had gone. “Sometimes we get things in life we didn’t ask for. Sometimes it’s something we wouldn’t have thought we would get. I didn’t want to be Ladybug. I didn’t want to be a bodyguard, or a babysitter. But I have never wanted anything more in my life then to be your mother. I’ve never wanted anything more then for you to be happy, and safe. That is my greatest wish in life. You weren’t something I thought would ever happen to me, I didn’t think I would ever be here today, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you with my entire heart. All of those memories aren’t lies Adrien, they just have a different face then you remember.” Elle stood a little taller then she had before, “And I promise. This is where it all ends. I won’t let Rekko hurt you or anyone else anymore.”

Just as Sabrina’s dad had promised the area was abandoned. The bustle had died down to nothing and the anticipation was driving Nino up the wall. He fidgeted nervously in his costume wishing that there was a loose thread of baggy sleeve to distract him, but instead the thing fit perfectly like it always did and he had to twiddle his thumbs. He wasn’t exactly sure how Eleanor was doing it. She stood in the middle of the road tall and proud, no fidgeting no nervous whispers just strong and true, waiting for Rekko to show up and kill them all.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in his teammates, he really did. And he had been game for the plan they had come up with together, but now that he was here he couldn’t help but feel that they were all just a little crazy. It was like when he became Jade turtle for the first time and fought with LB and Chat Noir. He had thought they were reckless with how fast they were diving off of buildings and jumping into the fray. But they had trained for longer then he had. Maybe it gets less scary the more you do it. He had trained for this plan too. He had been practicing his mother’s magic, and although he felt confident in creating light and heating water, he had to admit they really hadn’t been able to practice the spell as much as he’d have liked. He understood the mechanics of it, and he ran through the sensations in his mind as they waited, but he hadn’t opened the portal to the kwami world, it had been too reckless to just open it without sending Rekko back, they didn’t need another vengeful god running around the world. Not before they dealt with this one at least.

Something sent a shiver down his spine. He looked over at Elle who had begun to scowl at the rooftops.

“It’s been a long time.” Elle called out, eyes still scanning the buildings for the sight of him.

“I heard you were looking for me.”

Silence followed and Nino felt his ears jumping on every rustle, trying to locate every tiny insignificant noise.

“You’re being rude Rekko. If you want to see me, come out where I can see you.” There was still no response. “Fine. I guess I’ll be leaving.”

From the shadow of one of the buildings a figure emerged into the sunlight. The figure was tall and lean, disproportionate to a normal human body. The shadows that fell from the figure split off from its feet in different directions, crawling out across the ground. Nino couldn’t make out much of the figure, other then it’s unnerving shape and size. It got closer to Elle, looming over her.

“Just give me the Bee and the Butterfly and we can end this.” Elle held out her hand.

The figure seemed to grow taller, rearing up like a cobra about to strike. “Why would ever do that? We’ve just started.”

“Rekko. I am warning you. Don’t make me hurt you, just give me the miraculous and leave this world alone.”

“Since when do you play by the rules?” The shadow began to circle around Elle, twisting and weaving like a scarf caught in the wind. “Remember all the fun you and I had? We had so much fun before Fu trapped you, before Philipp stole you.”

Elle didn’t say anything back.

“Well Fu is gone now, and Philipp is gone now. There’s no one stopping you, there’s no one here for you, only me. Even that boy doesn't remember you, and do you really think Gabriel will ever forgive you? No. You should come with me. I’ll protect you. I love you.”

“Don’t you ever say their names again. This is your last chance Rekko, give me the miraculous.”

The shadow suddenly jumped and wrapped a hand around Elle’s throat. Her legs kicked as she was lifted off the ground and Nino could have sworn he heard a dark chuckle from the creature.

“Or what? You have no one here to help you.”

Nino saw a flash of red and watched as Chat Noir stood over top of Rekko his batton already out and at the ready. Ladybug was behind him having caught Elle.

“You two.” Rekko slinked back up to his full height.and glared at the heroes, “Finally after 5 years we meet face to face.”

“Glad to make your acquaintance.” Chat said bringing his staff down against Rekko’s side. The man jumped out of the way.

Ladybug had Elle in her arms and quickly darted out of the way, placing Elle down carefully.

“Everything’s going to plan.” Elle said reassuringly.

“You getting choked was not part of the plan.”

“He’s desperate, which means he’ll slip up easily.” Elle had a hand on her chest as she peeked out from the alley they had hid behind. “Keep going with the plan. We need to save those kwami first.”

Chat hit the ground hard and Rekko gave a dark laugh. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with kitty cat.”

“I know who you are.” Chat jumped back to his feet and charged at the kwami, his staff raised.

Rekko caught the weapon easily before it could come down on his head. “I killed the last of your pitiful chosens Plagg. It was easy. Simple even.”

Chat went flying again. He landed with a groan, listening to the distant sound of a flute. Soon after the noise a flash of orange helped him to his feet.

“Took you long enough.” He muttered as he split his staff in two.

“You weren’t supposed to attack him.” She spat back.

“Two of my favourite kwami all in one place. It’s like a trip down memory lane.” Rekko approached. Suddenly the creature raised his arm and Chat barely managed to deflect the tiny darts that shot out at them. The shadows crawled towards them and Volpina and Chat had to leap out of their way.

“We need to get those miraculous off of him.” Chat growled as the two of them leapt away from shadows, steadily and rapidly chasing them.

“We know where they are, we just need to wait a little longer-”

A flash of red joined them, “We’re ready.”

The three of them quickly jumped over the shadows and charged back at Rekko. More darts went flying, and ladybug spun her yoyo to deflect them. The kwami batted away chat’s staff, but wasn’t fast enough to dodge Volpina’s flute that hit him hard in the ribs. The kwami collapsed slightly before the shadows roared up around him and threw the heroes back.

Rekko’s shadows drew close to him again and the outline of a mask covered his face.

“No! He’s making an akuma!” Volpina yelled.

The shadows surrounded Rekko defensively. And through gritted teeth the creature dodged their blows.

“Get the broach!” Ladybug shouted as she dove past the shadows, at the silver and purple miraculous on his chest. Rekko caught her hand and the shadows converged on her, lifting her by her throat into the air.

“Ladybug!” Chat screamed, extending his pole so he could reach her and pry her from the shadows. Rekko lifted another arm and with great effort, caught Chat in the web of shadows as well. Volpina made a mad dash for the broach, her eyes locking with Rekko’s as she clasped her fingers around it. She felt something hit her in her neck and she collapsed. She weakly lifted her arm to feel the tiny dart caught in her skin.

“I will kill you Ladybug, and then your cat will be next.” Rekko looked down at Volpina with a laugh, “And as for this pitiful reporter-”

Rekko gave out a cry and fell to his knees. The two heros dropped from the sky and in a flash of light Fanna caught them both. Chat held Ladybug up as they turned to see Jade Turtle holding on to the comb.

“One down, one to go.” Fanna said gleefully running back to Rekko and kicking him in the gut. He fell over curled in on himself.

“That was for Alya.” Fanna said grabbing the kwami by the collar and sneering in his face. “And this is for Sage.”

She reached for the brooch when she was knocked to the ground.

A woman dressed in wedding gown, with dark purple gloves and matching mask, lifted Fanna into the air by her collar.

“Let her go!” Chat knocked the woman back with his staff.

“That’s the best thing about Paris, someone somewhere is upset.” Rekko laughed standing to his full height, “Now, bring me their miraculous.”

The woman leapt at Chat who threw her off.

“We have to figure out where the akuma is.” Ladybug said, regaining her footing and helping to block attacks.

“Now I think you have something of mine, turtle boy.” Rekko swept his arm back as he turned to face Jade Turtle. Before the shadows could reach him Jade had his shield up. Rekko roared infuriated.

“Fanna!” Jade called and Fanna dove behind the shield. Another onslaught of shadows struck and Jade pushed back with the shield. “Armour!” A dim green light was glowing around them.

“You figured out how to use your power!” Fanna grinned.

“Not very well and not for long. Take the comb, go save Alya.” Nino held it out to her and Fanna grabbed it quickly.

“I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Fanna shrunk into a fox the comb hidden in her mouth and darted off into an alley.

“This was supposed to be my special day! And then you ruined it!” The angry akuma bride took another swing at Chat.

“How did we ruin it? We’ve been here the whole time!” Chat defended bending backwards to dodge.

“Exactly! You ordered an evacuation!” The woman stomped her feet and she started to grow. “Today was going to be perfect!”

Chat looked up at the giant of a woman who was now towering over him. She lifted her foot and brought it down above him. Before Chat could be squashed, a flash of red swooped in and saved him.

“I think the akuma is in bridezilla’s bouquet. Think we can do this without a lucky charm?” She asked sitting him down carefully.

“I think we can manage, though it will be a shame to destroy those flowers instead of catching them.”

Ladybug flushed a bright red and Chat felt like melting. “Not now Chatton.”

Chat grinned as he extended his staff and got himself closer to the akuma. Unfortunately, the bridezilla spotted him, swatting him away, sending him flying across the rooftops. He regained his footing in time to see Ladybug swinging herself dangerously close to the akuma. The giant bride took the bait and desperately tried to get a hold of the hero. Chat took off across the rooftops and launched himself onto the woman’s shoulders. She gave a yell and tried to smack him off with her hand. Chat moved quickly, leaping away from the hand and running down her arm. She was about to strike again. He was almost at the bouquet.

“Cata-” All the air left Chat’s lungs as the bride squeezed him in her fist.

“Chat!”

“Don’t take another step or I’ll squish him.” The bride said. “Give me your miraculous.”

Jade fell back and went flying across the pavement.

“Give me back the miraculous.” Rekko stalked forward.

Jade held his side and gave a pained grin, “I wouldn’t if I could Hawk-man. It’s already gone though.”

Rekko roared enraged, the shadows swelling and lifting Jade high in the air as the hero gasped for breath. “You miserable human, I’ll kill you just like I killed your master.”

Before he could make good on his word the kwami had the wind knocked out him by a sharp kick to the ribs.

“Stay the fuck away from my boyfriend.” Volpina snarled.

“Alya, you’re ok.” Jade cried happily as she bent over to help him up.

Rekko was back on his feet when he heard Ladybug’s yell. All of them turned to see Chat gasping for air in the hand of the akuma.

The purple mask appeared over Rekko’s eyes again. “Yes Bridezilla, if all the heroes don’t stop and give in, kill the cat.” Rekko extended a hand. “That would include the one you stole from me.”

“You stole them first!” Volpina hissed.

Chat gave out a scream.

“You’re in no position to argue.” Rekko chuckled. “Nooroo is a useless kwami, but he has taught me something important. Everyone is weak to their emotions. And you seem to care for your team mate. If you don’t want him to explode, hand over your miraculous.”

Volpina and Jade met eyes and looked over to Ladybug who was staring up at chat, her hands moving slowly to her earrings.

“Rekko!” All heads turned to Elle, standing on top of one of the buildings.

“No!” Chat called out weakly, struggling against the akuma before she tightened her grip and he cried out again.

“End this Rekko.” Elle called out.

“You know I can’t darling. I’m about to get everything I’ve ever wanted.” Rekko laughed.

“I’ll go with you. Just let him go.”

“Elle, no!” Said Jade.

Rekko looked over to the hero trapped in his akuma’s fist. “I should have known you’d have a soft spot for the cat. You always did.”

“Rekko. I will go with you. I’ll go back to your world with you. Forever, just the two of us. Please. Leave Chat alone.”

“Why do you care so much about this stupid cat? He’s not even Phillipe!” Rekko fumed.

“We need him to open the portal. Rekko, let’s go home.”

Rekko smiled and gave a wave to the akuma. She released Chat and Ladybug instantly caught him and held him close. There was a flash of green light as Ladybug shielded him from view. Rekko turned back to Elle. “You finally see how much I love you. Come-”

Rekko fell to the ground. A woman in black and yellow pinned him to the ground and punched him repeatedly in the face.

“Who’s this?” Jade watched as the woman grabbed the brooch from the kwami’s cloak. She turned and gave them a smile, “Queen Bee at your service.”

“Chloe?” Jade asked.

“No,” Volpina smiled, “Elle.”

“It was a fake. You lied to me.” Rekko was pushing himself up off the ground.

“I will never love you.” Queen Bee spat viciously, “I would rather die than be trapped with you.”

“But you’d rather he didn’t.”

Adrien looked to see a burst of dark shadows shooting towards him and ladybug. Without thinking he shoved her out of the way, lifting his arms to block his face. He felt someone holding on to him, tucking him against their chest and shielding him. Suddenly the body holding him went limp, and Chat opened his eyes in time to catch Elle before she hit the ground.

“Elle?” He looked down at her in his arms. “Elle?! Wake up! Please!”

“You.” Rekko growled pushing back the other heroes with a blast. “You ruined everything!”

“Don’t you dare hurt him.” Ladybug yelled charging at the man. He pushed her back with a wall of shadows.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance!” Rekko swung his fist across Adrien’s face and the young man fell to the ground next to Elle. “You’re the reason she left. You’re the reason she doesn’t love me now. And with you gone-”

Ladybug punched Rekko in the gut and the kwami stumbled back.

“You’re a pest.” Rekko roared.

Volpina ran to Adrien and Elle, putting her fingers on their necks to search for a pulse.

“They’re still alive.” She said to Jade as he ran up beside her.

“What are we going to do?” Jade looked over to Ladybug who was battling Rekko by herself. Wildly throwing punches and kicks.

“Stick to the plan.”

“We need Chat Noir.”

“Let me handle it. You get ready.”

Jade ran off to hide his miraculous. Volpina carefully took off her own. She placed it gently around Adrien’s neck. Fanna popped out again and gave her a worried look.

“Don’t worry about me. Take care of him.” She said, reaching down to pull Adrien’s ring off his finger.

“I’m so proud of you Alya. Please be safe.”

Plagg appeared as soon as the ring slid on her finger. Somehow it fit perfectly.

“Claws out. Ready when you are.”

Alya gave a nod to Fanna, before turning to Plagg, “Claws out.”

#trying #Nino lahiffe #alya cesaire #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous ladybug

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