#ABT ALL THE STUFF I HAVENT FINISHED / HAVE PAUSED

[floralscented]

ㅤㅤㅤmasterlist . . . !!

updated : 12/25/24.

i mostly write for jackles & his characters !! any deviations are said so. if you want more for a certain au / have a request, don't hesitate to tell me < 3 req. status: open but selective!! pls send them anyways.

KEY. ☾ is ongoing! ♡ is paused until further notice. that's why there's placeholder titles!! ✿ is discontinued </3 do not fret, though. might return to it based on my interests at the time. they change like the wind. ★ is finished! ⚠ 18+ ! suggestive or sexual content. so mdni pls ! thank yewww.

SUPERNATURAL.

─ ♡ angel ! reader. ㅤㅤㅤ01. innocence is a virtue. ⚠ ㅤㅤㅤ02. take a shot or six. ⚠ ㅤㅤㅤ03. it's okay, it's okay. ㅤㅤㅤ04. kissing lessons. ⚠

─ ♡ mechanic ! dean & bimbo ! reader. ㅤㅤㅤ00. headcanons 1.0. ⚠ ㅤㅤㅤ01. all the times dean was humbled by you. ⚠ ㅤㅤㅤ02. old habits die hard. ⚠

─ ♡ bonnie & clyde ! au. ㅤㅤㅤthe name of the game, baby!

─ ✿ fallen angel ! dean.

─ ★ unhinged ! dean. ㅤㅤㅤ01. addicted to the knife. ㅤㅤㅤ02. the people all scream. ㅤㅤㅤ03. the gun goes off.

─ ♡ hey jude. ㅤㅤㅤ01. hey jude. ㅤㅤㅤ1.5. hey jude alt ending. ㅤㅤㅤ02. hey you. ⚠ ㅤㅤㅤ03. hey blue. ⚠ sam!

─ ★ life unto death. ㅤㅤㅤ01. life unto death. ㅤㅤㅤ02. one with the sea. sam!

─ ✿ shards of me. ㅤㅤㅤ01. the intro. ㅤㅤㅤ02. the collision. ㅤㅤㅤ03. the end.

─ ★ baby comes to life.

─ ࣪☾ number 67.

REAL PEOPLE FICTION.

─ ♡ aftercare. ⚠

─ ♡ pretty young thing. atj! ⚠

─ ★ troubles in paradise. 90s!

THE BOYS.

─ ♡ the reaper. ⚠

DARK ANGEL.

─ ♡ transgenic ! reader. ㅤㅤㅤ01. a million kisses. ⚠

─ ✿ shards of me. ㅤㅤㅤ01. the intro. ㅤㅤㅤ02. the collision. ㅤㅤㅤ03. the end.

[couch-house]

2023 baybeeeee. havent done an art summary in a while since i basically stopped drawing early 2020 and didn't get back on the horse until mid-2022 (i wonder... what could have caused that!) i dont feel like my art has really changed this year, only in the ways that I draw specific sonic characters (looking through my archive is fun bc i can see the progression of the diseases known as Giving Them Big Eyebrows and Drawing The Monoeye) and--more exciting 4 me--my practice with paneling comics! :)

i think the progression is much more noticeably when you line it up with last year's sonic art... i can see all the Milestones.. more talking abt that under the cut

May: couch gets into sonic. June: Yucky Sonic 1.0. this was also the month when i Heard Of fleetway super. July: couch comes back from brazil, having read stc. this is also when i start dong actual short comics. compare may -> june -> july. (also please forgive whatever tf i was doing with skintones. i needed some practice)

august: merger au takes shape. dog invented. also i just really like that speed racer sonic mspaint picture. its fun :) september: deep in the fleet mines. october: i lose a lot of steam and mostly just doodle. another comic comparison for those three months:

november: frontiers comes out. i go crazy mode and make that sonic + knuckles comic with the pretty backgrounds and LOTS OF TINY TEXT. december: winter break AND im tired. january 2023 i come back insane crazy mode and write some fanfiction?? still havent finished that LOL. made some nice cover art :) february: i shift into knuckles mode fora month. make another comic. this one is much better i think :) november -> february

march: i shift into transfem metal sonic mode. also just stick to a lot of doodling. also write more fanfiction. crazy. april: transitory period as i shift back into stc/exit: sonic mode. may: more fanfiction. more comics. i really like how both of these turned out :) while the last two were definitely taking a lot more notes from stc, i think around here i start paying attention to and trying to learn from more creative panelling from artists i admire. like @/superemeralds THOAM and @/starrjoy's pandora au.

june: i play sa2 and it's good. july: i play unleashed and it is both miserable and good. i get in kind of an artistic frustration zone and wiggle my way out. august: idk i think im just chillin. super react dot jpeg happens. it's not even named that, it's named after the other image on the canvas, which was maria holding baby shadow. more comics.

september: i burn out for a bit. get real tired. eventually get back up and make more comics. the goal here and last month has become "try to make more interesting panel shapes. I've noticed other artists don't just use rectangles--try playing with irregular polygons and see where it gets you." well it gets you mixed results as you learn :) also i think after that pause i accept the monoeye into my life. sigh...

october: oc showdown starts and @/neurotypical-sonic asks me to make some halloweeny art :) feels like i dont do much this month bc i focus on those. november: A LOT OF ART?? INSANE. more oc showdown stuff. i play shadow the hedgehog (2005). it's good and i love it. i draw a ton of shit on one canvas for it. Fucking Dember: i have shifted back into stc/EXIT mode. motivation's a little weird bc work's a little weird. doing commissions also makes it weird. well im having fun and being myself :) a final handful of comics from this month:

idk maybe ill do something sicko crazy b4 the end of the year. mayb i'll follow exit sonic's example and #GetWorse. who knows :) well this is fun i love looking at my art and seeing and noticing things. thank u all for your support and I hope we all have a great 2024!

[mythiccheroacademia]

Ok so I was wondering if you can do a headcanon for Tokoyami, Tenya, Bakugo and if anything a character of your choice and how they would react to Minetta being a perv and saying...weird fetishizing shit abt they Black S/O? I had this in mind for a while lmao 😓🤛🏾

A/N: The fetishizing shit towards black people has got to go. It’s not a compliment, it’s gross. It’s 2020 and I’m over it. I say we start eradicating people who thinks it’s cute :) I’m sure the boys would have the same idea <3

Warning: cussing, some uncomfortable/grody comments that teeter on sexual assault so please be careful!

Tokoyami Fumikage: 

so it’s just a regular degular day at school and you’re going about your way through the halls 

you weren’t even doing anything extraordinary, just getting some books out of your locker before class

then mineta pops up, leaning against the locker, and looking you up and down with a weird smirk on his face

“hey hot stuff” he says with a wink. “what’s got you looking so voluptious on a tuesday morning?”

you’re already aware of what type of bs mineta is on, but you didnt wanna be mean so you just tried to excuse yourself from the conversation, but he doesnt give you the chance to exit 

he keeps swining around these weird compliments

“i couldn’t help but notice you across the hallway, my chocolate king/queen”

atp, you’re feeling really uncomfortable and you want out, but you have no idea how to go about it without coming off rude 

so you kinda just stand there with a sick feeling in your stomach as mineta tries to put moves on you 

but that all stops when the hallways turns dark and everyone in the room feels the hair on their arms stand

floating over your head like a demon from the seven pits of hell is dark shadow who looks two seconds away from going ballistic

out from behind you, tokoyami stands there with a glare that says:

you better come correct or you finna come up missing

you don’t notice it, but mineta sure as hell does

you’re taken aback when the grape dude just about scurries off for his life but you instantly forget about it when you notice tokoyami behind you and dark shadow nuzzles against your head

he smiles and greets you as you tell him how happy you are to see him, totally forgetting about the mineta situation

y’all go about your regular day undisturbed 

meanwhile, everyone is fucking scared shitless bc they were two seconds away from witnessing a murder scene 

tokoyami don’t play when it comes to you 

Iida Tenya: 

everyone thinks iida is a goody-two-shoes guy who solves his problems through logic and reasoning

and i mean...he does

but this man can get down right scary when someone he loves is threatened

this nigga was out here contemplating murder at 15 bruh

anyways 

there was a moment in time you were going through a growth spurt and your uniform was a bit to short/tight on you 

it wasn’t anything inappropriate but you had to order a new set of uniforms and they wouldnt come in until next week 

you weren’t pressed over it until mineta had the bright idea to start whispering some weird shit to you during class

“hey sweet stuff. i bet you’d look even better in my clothes”

you shoot him a glare. “shut it, dirt bag” you mutter under your breath

“why the hate? i’m just tryna get a bite of you. bet you taste like a hershey’s bar” he flirts, wiggling his eyebrows

you just roll your eyes and focus on taking notes

mineta tries to say something one more time before the class freezes as iida snaps a pen in half 

aizawa looks at him w a raised brow “is everything okay iida?”

“tenya?” you question

he shakes his head and apologizes for interrupting class before retrieving a new writing utensil

class ends and most of your classmates file out leaving you, you bf, and mineta

mineta tries to say something slick one more time

“so if you ever wanna fulfil any sexual fantasies about being conquered then you can hit me u--”

just as you were about cuss the pervet out of the country, iida gets ups, stares down at mineta with a glare that could kill 

the engines on his calves start to warningly rumble and theirs a dark look on iida’s face you havent seen before 

“i suggest you leave in the next five seconds, otherwise i’ll have to put you through a crash course on how to have manners when addressing my s/o”

it’s a chilling threat and mineta is out of there before he even finishes his sentence 

once he’s gone, the mood sort of lightens up. iida’s still a little pissed, but he’s quelled once you give him a soft kiss on his cheek

Bakugo Katsuki: 

idk what the hell mineta was on 

but RIP him bc bakugo’s s/o is not the one to be messed with 

and he learned that the hard way 

you were doing some extra training to practice a difficult move 

you thought you were alone until mineta showed up on the side looking like a walmart brand pimp c (rip) 

without even a hello, lil dude comes in with some mess 

“wow, so you’re out here sweating but you still look delicious. black don’t crack, huh”

you pause 

...bitch wtf?

you instantly shut that shit down

“step away from me before i mop the floor with your ass, you purple ballsack” you warn

he deadass thinks youre trying to flirt back 

“woah, calm down. no need to get all fiesty lil mama~”

“mineta, i will step on you if you don’t go somwhere ong”

he thinks you’re playing hard to get, so he plays along. he leaves with his chest puffed out like he did something and heads back to the lockers

you let out a sigh and try to forget that little encounter

but little did you know that your bf was up in the stands, watching you train

he meant to leave a small bento for you, but he got caught up (aka he missed you and just wanted to stare at you for a min)

and now he’s glad he stayed bc he’s got a bone to pick 

mineta opens his gym locker before it’s slammed shut by a hard fist

bakugo looks like the literal devil as he takes mineta’s shirt in his fist and leans in with a threatening growl

“listen here you rotten little bastard. that little stunt you pulled out there, disrepectful. you ever speak to my--actually, if you ever even think about my y/n, i’ll blow you up so fucking bad they’ll be washing you off the walls for weeks. got it?”

he doesnt even let him answer before he drops him on the floor and walks off 

you happen to meet him as he’s walking out and throw your arms around him totally oblivous to the fact that he’s semi-steaming from what just occured

you give him a kiss for the food he made you and it makes him smirk just in the slightest

he’s always there to watch over you, even if you don’t see it

“can’t have you fucking up during training, so make sure you eat properly okay?”

[simpinforkirari]

spare me some cuddles, sir

(with tsukki, kenma, and sakusa) 

i have a ton of drafts i havent finished due to school lol. this has been in my drafts for 2 weeks-

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ ✨✨

✎ warnings: none 

✎ word count: 718 words ^0^

✎ also-! g/n reader

tsukishima kei

you two like to walk home together, either to your house or his

anyways when you get to his house you kick off your shoes

and lay them properly, tsukki doing the same

he literally tugs you upstairs before his brother or his mom sees you

you always gravitate towards his dinosaur figurine 

he thinks it’s cute

pulls you into bed with him, a little, just a little harshly

you would’ve tried to complain and pretend you didnt want them

but he knows you too well

“tsukki? i thought we were gonna study?”

“shh, shh. lets just do this for a while, ok?”

“heh, ok then :))”

you very much loves his cuddles and will accept them any day

(PLEASEEE IM SO TOUCH STARVED)

reaches over to his bedside table and hands one of his earphones to you

then puts on the other one

plays a collaborative playlist both of you made

adjusts you on his arm (gotta make sure both of you are comfy )

and one of your arms is splayed across his torso  ʕ ᵔᴥᵔ ʔ

if you were to fall asleep, he’d lay there just admiring you

memorising every feature on your face

every mole, freckle, pimple and pimple scar

he makes sure to lightly peck each of them while you nap

wants to bask in the moment before he has to wake you up again

kozume kenma

“kyanma !!”

he doesn’t really like being called that, but maybe for you he’ll let it slide just this once

bb likes to not be disturbed when he’s gaming 

and you respect that

but sometimes you just want a tiny little bit of attention from him

so maybe just a couple of kisses  (づ￣ ³￣)づ

getting up from the laying position on his bed, you sit beside him on the floor

and just give him a lil peck on the cheek

that’s enough for him to pause his game

kenma spares a glance at the clock hung on your wall

with a hum of recognition to your question, he faces you again

“yes, kitten?”

“are you almost done?”

you jump up onto his bed again

kenma crawls on top of you and places a light feverish kiss on your collarbone 

“actually i can finish this tomorrow”

“oh, ok then :D”

he lets you play with his hair, its always fun to twirl around your finger

everytime you’d doze off and stop petting his hair, he gets grumpy

grumbling into your chest, he nudges his head towards your resting hand

you continue to play with his hair, a light airy laugh making it’s way past your lips

he would usually be playing with the drawstrings of your hoodie, sometimes even tying it into a bow

its mutual comfort for the both of you, tbh

sakusa kiyoomi

after training cuddles

i feel like he can tolerate being sweaty but likes it’s better when he isnt

with that said,,,, cuddles come after training

its almost like a little reward

you two enjoy doing homework together at your house, since doing stuff with him just makes you feel better abt anything really

most of the time its just you playing with his curls

very fluffy curls

sakusa leans back on the headboard of your bed while you work on the floor, trying to finish the model you needed for science quickly so you can finally rest

after gluing down a piece to the board, you grumble throwing your head back

“my neck hurts” you say, rolling your neck from right to left

sakusa lifts his head up, sparing a glance at you, his curls bouncing along.

i don’t think he would be very public with affection with around other people but around you, he’s alright with it

kiyoomi beckons you over, you quickly complying. standing up and leaving the mess you made to sit on your bed

he pushes his books aside and extends his arms to you, with you falling right into them

he savors all the moments with you even if it’s just him running his fingers down your back while you rest your eyes

pecking your forehead he gives out a reminder

“take a break, hm?”

“ok” you answered, nodding against his chest

“dont fall asleep yet” he mumbles against your head before leaning down to press a chaste kiss to your hair

[sanchoyo]

ok some Free Range bnha thoughts. I think I left off around 300 when I paused reading it week to week so I started at 290 to Refresh. obviously, spoilers below the cut , but I'm not saying anything that hasnt been said b4 probably. just My Thoughts. turns out I wasn't like, 80 chapters behind but roughly 30-40, which is. A lot less thank GOD. but yes these are my thoughts (mostly typed as I went, borderline liveblogging lol) as I just binged and caught up completely ✌

-afo needs to Not Be a BodySnatching DICKBAG!!!! love spinners lil moment of wtf. youre not who im following </3 same bestie get your boyfriend and run!!! or pick up ur sword and Stab afo. whichever.

-I really have mixed feelings on the whole todoroki situation that im reserving to talk in depth about until the manga finishes because, im not sure if this is true but ive heard its near its end, and I'd like to see how they tie it up and 'resolve' that situation before being too harsh. but for now: rei was brave to go in the hospital room and talk to endeavor. I think bb touya is SUCH a sad situation. I just feel bad for all of them UGH. my kids now.

-the talk w the ofa users in dekus mind had me kinda laughing, it looks like a kingdom hearts cutscene w the THRONES. also deku quitting school, oof. the series is called my hero ACADEMIA NOT MY HERO DROPOUT!!! (i can make this joke as a dropout. deku 🤝me dropping out I guess) Nana asking if he could kill shigaraki HURT I KNOW SHE DOESNT WANT HIM TO EITHER BUT STILL. READING IT HAD ME LIKE NOO!!! NO!!!!! very happy with dekus answer tho. good egg. u better not. trusting u deku. dont

-first ofa user Pretty. they said his name and I immediately forgot it <3

-dekus vigilante look is SOOO SICK THE EYES MAN!!! obsessed. also all might basically acting as support/sidekick is SOOO good. making him eat n stuff. Dad Alert.

-im glad they brought back some of the villains in the jail break!! it was a rly nice way of showing dekus progress, like the muscular fight was so hard for him way way back when and he just basically took him out super fast/easily now..the Progress!!! I love to see it.

-lady nagant top 10 girlbosses. hawks wishes he was her. chad nagant vs virgin hawks etc etc shes what I wanted his character to be (im not...super disappointed w hawks bc I never 100% believed hed go bad fr like some ppl did, but I loved the fanworks that explored it, and shes basically the Defected Ex Hero I wanted...and shes VERY PRETTY and I am very much a lesbian, so I love her. Her colors too!! are cotton candy colors!!!! and shes got the Guns (literally and also Muscles!!!) she looked afo in the face without flinching and was like oh why Should I Help u U Bastard, no fear at all. even if she ended up working for him or whatever for a few chapters. still A Queen <3 a very small screentime queen but. women in shonen mangas. u know.

-class 1A literally Fighting To Get Deku to Come Home and Bathe. is touching and very sad. the power of friendship plots always GET ME. URGH. BAKUGO!!!!!!! APOLOGIZING!!!!!!! ITS FINE THIS IS F I N E "SAVING PEOPLE IS HOW WE WIN" GOD THE CHARACTER DEVOLPMENT!!! BAKUGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;O;

-I know we've seen it before (or partially) but thirteen has an incredibly cute face. it has to be said

-NAME a more iconic duo than uraraka and that bigass megaphone

-ragdoll SPOTTED. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-and the guy from the very first chapter!!! this dude has always been the real mvp. hes stll being nice and supportive. king. give him a spinoff

-im glad they explained why kurogiri(and, bc we havent seen them, im assuming also gigantomachia and compress?? are also there or somewhere thats kept private??) werent in the jailbreak (that they carted them off elsewhere) I was wondering abt that...

-all the callbacks really makes this arc feel FINAL. my god, even the woman all might saved from kamino is back!!! I knew abt stain coming back (tho I didnt know exactly what hed do) but seeing HER got me for some reason. anyway. gay icon stain . also feminist ally stain (slitting the 'woman collector' guys throat) we have no choice but to stan

-tsukauchi stubble???? ok??? its a look I guess. is all might into it

-'shigaraki tomura will be a Complete Vessel in three days time' NO THE FUCK HE WONT!!!! STOP THAT. THATS ILLEGAL

-THE WAY STARS AND STRIPES IS DRAWN MORE LIKE A WESTERN COMIC IS SUCH A NICE TOUCH LMAOOO SHES SO AMERICAN. HER QUIRK IS INSANE ALSO. ALSO SHES FROM THE MOVIE WHAT?? I REMEMBER HER. god they really are bringing every nameless minor character back im EMO

-...has spinner just been stuck in a cave with afo. stuck with him, sassing him. this is hilarious to me for some reason god I would be at my fucking limit. spinner stay strong you amazing wonderful funky guy. wheres the rest of the league. LOOK at spinners face, hes so done with this I cant. this is the Most Important Thing.

-'the one who SPINS this tale' look I know its a line from afo but that RULES and hes right. spinner is SO important. stan spinner or Die

-god, the league members basically being promoted to being cult leaders/borderline WORSHIPPED 'hold them sacred, endow them with divinity' thats SO RAW I'm!!!! losing it like they all came from nothing now theyre SYMBOLS. my god. spinner doesnt even seem happy about it, none of the league members they were showing looked remotely happy. Makes U Think...

-

hot. next question (wait is it weird to simp when hes partially afo. hm.) (also that HAIR GROWTH!!!!!! NEVER CUT IT NEVER NEVER NEVER.) it spontaneously grew after I typed that, so consider ME pleased

-YESSS MR WORLDWIDE COME TAG AMERICA WE LOVE U HERE. ABSOLUTE JOY. sorry about the fact ur fused with afo rn and will possibly have uhh. identity related crisises and traumas from this later but. glad u look like ur havin fun :')

-damn america getting his ass. im so sorry :( (but also, kicking afo ass which is a good thing?? SOO conflicted I dont want tomura to die but afos gotta GO)

-again, hot, which is conflicting bc afo is very much also present, but, cmon, its tomuras body and face....n probably at least 25-50% tomura still...:/

-im...glad?? they delayed the complete fusion?? but owchie. at what cost to my boy :(

-the scene with afo patting shigaraki (who is thrashing around on the floor) parallels the scene of that happening when afo had taken in shigaraki at first and he was on the floor crying and wanting to kill those random alley thugs!!! that has to be intentionally calling that back, right? the imagery is very similar. again, loving the callbacks

-I rly thought they were gonna make invigirl the traitor and i was like ok who Cares abt that tho. then they did a lil switcharoo and made it MY BOY AOYAMA?? MY SWEET SON WHO I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH??? WHAT THE FUCK!!! HOW DID I NOT GET SPOILED ON THIS?? I remember the cheese stuff and being like haha good red herring. FUCK!!! NO!!!! hes such a good boy im WEEPING. HE WAS ORIGINALLY QUIRKLESS TOOOOO NOOOO!!! baby. babyboy. hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever, and omg invisible girls FACEEEE SHES SO CUTE. but god. aoyama. and dekus reaction to his whole story and still reaching out to him I AM. EMO. the drama of it alllllll . hes literally one of my fav student characters in this class and HAS BEEN FOREVER bc I love his whole knightly costume and SPARKLES and this just made him SKYROCKET FURTHER ON MY LIST OF CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME. hes so so so good. I need everyone to take a moment to just. Appreciate him.

now

appreciate

HER

-THIS is what absolute perrfection looks like. look at her!!! her belt is a cat. cat girls always win and save the day.

-toga sucks her own blood as a ?? comfort thing?? thats. should I say cute?? would it be weird to call that cute. would it be weird to say dabi burning her house down was also very cute, and nice, because she said it too, so like. very nice of him. top 10 reasons hes not Totally Lost: hes Nice to His Friends :)

-spinner being the...new symbol/leader in redestros place is SO???? UGH. UGHHH. HES ALWAYS BEEN A FOLLOWER AND NOW HES JUST BLINDLY FOLLOWING ORDERS TO BE MADE A SYMBOL, OR WHATEVER, I GUESS. very sad and I feel like him saying 'it doesnt matter what I think, this cant be stopped' are u implying u want to stop it. u can. u gotta. reach out to him man u HAVE TO BE THE ONE!!! its the bakugo/kiri kamino situation all over again. even if deku has to guide u it HAS TO BE U!!!! STOP FOLLOWING AND THINK FOR URSELF!!! U CAN DO IT!!!!!! 'anyone can become someone elses hero' YEAH HES GONNA. U BET HES GONNA. I BELIEVE IN HIM!!!

-....YOU NAMED YOUR STRONGHOLD TROY???...ALRIGHT. SURE. THATS FINE AND NOT WORRYING. I mean we already KNOW the war is gonna Go Down But. cmon man. CMON.

-togachako REAL

-shouto is too good for this world he wants to go to dinner w his big bro :( DABI COME HOME 2K22

-im sure ppl have figured out theories about this before but, something about the way they phrased it when they were wondering why afo needed tomuras rage (and why he was always smiling, implying smth is Fucking Wrong with Him, besides all the Murder and Crimes) had me like. hm. are we.. actually going to get more afo backstory at all or an in depth explanation for that? I'd kind of like to, even if I think its fine if we don't because we Get The Gist and idk how much the creator wants us to sympathize/understand his character beyond the ~evil demon king~ (and thats not me saying he needs anything beyond that, tbh not every villain needs it and esp not the big bad in a lot of cases) but. this story, esp in this last arc has us AND the main characters sympathizing with the villains a Lot and exploring why theyre like that, and it makes me wonder if theyll extend that to him at all, or just, keep trying to Get His Ass. And we do know togas quirk is the reason shes Like That, so it doesnt feel like a stretch to say afos quirk is why hes Like That also. (NOT ME SAYING HE NEEDS ANYTHING LIKE REDEMPTION DEAR GOD. AFTER WHAT HES PUTTING MY BOY THRU. ARGH. deku would have to be a SAINT. which he is, but...) actually, proof of this is also just. him going after star and stripes quirk KNOWING tomuras body wasnt finished, even saying it was a risk but basically being like. 'well..but... I WANT it. even if i know its dangerous to get it Right Now. But I want it Right Now.' as a reason KJDSHKJASNJ its very likely thats the case. quirks being a very literal nurture vs nature exploration I guess?

-very glad I typed all the above out WHILE reading bc if I wouldve waited, I wouldnt have had a coherent thought. its almost 5 AM but I am...caught up. And about to look at leaks before I sleep >:")

[garbage---rat]

i was tagged by @weedfool aaaa!!!!!!!!!! thank u sm :’)

1. what is the favourite item of clothing you own?

my grey hoodie w eyes on it or my oversized black woolen cardigan w pockets :’) theyre my comfort clothes n they make me feel safe n cozy

2. tell me about the first time you watched your favourite movie?

the first time ive seen pacific rim was like a year ago n it was.....an experience.. i rlly liked it but it got too overwhelming like half way through cos there was a huge fight n lots of loud sounds n i had to pause it n take a break lol

3. what was the last book you finished?

i honestly dont even remember... i havent read a book in at least 2yrs ..i miss it but its rlly hard for me >:((

4. what is the next book you want to read?

i found a book abt keith haring n rlly rlly wanna read it!!!!!!!! but its so long n theres a lot of big blocks of text :/ or smthing  short by stephen king bc i read a short story by him when i was younger n i liked it so i might try that

5. when is your birthday, and what do you want for it this year?

august 10th n i want uuhhhhhhhmm my t*itties cut off

6. if you were given one month and $10,000, where would you travel to?

id go see all my friends n hang out w them n buy them stuff n  have a good time ......yknow..

7. cake or pie?

cake!!!

8. name 3 things you think you’re really good at.

i get along w cats rlly well, hmm handpoke tats n eating spaghetti heh

9. name 3 things you’d like to be better at.

playing the guitar, makeup n showering every day xD

10. name 3 far-fetched dreams you’d like to do someday.

have 27 cats, straight up live in a swamp eating mud n running around naked, suck jimmy urines d*i*/ck (idk why it just seems like a fun time)

11. if you had to dye your hair, what colour would you dye it?

not to be predictable but uuuhh green

i tag @fbrboys @throughthenotchesinyourspine @surfindead @70sgoth @spiitkid @myteenangstbullshithasabodycount @g0th-bf

dont feel like u have to do it

[miracufic]

Have Your Cake (And Eat it Too): Chapter 16

A collab fic with @loosescrewslefty, now found on AO3!

Inspired by @larvesta‘s post here.

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In Which Two Steps Forward Are Taken

Alya glares at her homework with enough vicious intensity that the paper seems to shrink away out of sheer terror.  Through the wall she can hear the low arguing of her parents, which occasionally rises to a furious screech before her mother brings her voice back down. Probably to avoid disturbing her sisters.

How considerate of her.

Her phone, charging off on the side of her desk, buzzes.  Alya reaches over and unlocks it, glancing at the screen.

A message from Nino.  She taps the notification and opens it.

“Hey babe,” she reads.  “ur mom looked pretty angry earlier when she came by to pick u up”

She considers giving his commentary the degree of attention it deserves—which, considering that even blind-as-a-bat Nino sans glasses could’ve noticed the expression of barely-controlled rage on her mother’s face from twenty paces, probably merited only a flatly sarcastic “Really.” or “Wow, you think so?”—but refrains.  Nino wasn’t doing anything wrong, and it wasn’t fair of her to vent her spleen at him.

“Yeah, she decided to chew me out over what happened in school today,” she texts back.

“Ovr everyone going after chloe”

“Yeah.”

“U all right”

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks.  I mean, aside from being grounded for a month.  And suspended.”

“Uh”

After a second, Nino follows up his message with a concisely eloquent “What.”

“Yeah, it turns out that fucking spineless tit Damocles doesn’t like being called a corrupt pig chained to the petty whims of a vain teenaged brat of a girl.”

A few more seconds pass before Nino replies, “You what”.

“I may have lost my temper at him.  Slightly.”

“After the rest of us left huh”

“Yeah.”

“Babe i love u”

“I sense a but coming.”

“But you really really need to cool it with the whole provoking chloe thing”

Alya quashes the shrieking, rising tide of rage and goes intead with a measured, “Nino, I would choose your next words.  Very.  Carefully.”

“Oh for crying out loud just wait a sec”

She waits a second.  Then a minute.

“Well?”

“Look we all get it,” Nino writes.  “We all love mari and we all hate that chloe likes to pick on her and letting that stuff slide makes none of us happy.  But ur the only one of us whose mom actually works for her.  Do u think that shes not going to be petty enough to go after ur fam?”

The entire apartment goes still.  A quiet, high-pitched ringing fills her ears.

“Babe?

Uh babe

Babe u havent said anything

Its been like a minute

Oh fuck

Did ur mom lose her job”

“No,” Alya types in quickly, “no, we’re fine, Nino.”

“Oh good”

“I had not thought of that, damn.”  Alya stops and chews on her upper lip.  “But look, I don’t”

“Look I know u dont want to not do the right thing,” Nino texts before she can finish.  “Uh if you get my point”

“I do, thank you Nino.”

“But u need to take care of urself too

Mari wouldnt want u to ruin ur life for her”

“Look, even /she/ can’t get Mom fired that easily, there are too many ways they’d get screwed over legally.”

“U think she cares abt laws?  Or knows abt them?”

“No, but her father does.”

A pause.  Then, “Point but I still think u should back off a bit.  U dont need to keep going after chloe all the time, we can do tht. Just focus on helping mari.”

Alya stares at the message for a few seconds before tapping in, “Look, can you take a call right now?”

“Sure”

A second later, her phone rings.  She accepts the call and turns on the speakerphone.

“Hey babe,” Nino says.

“Nino, I can’t do that,” Alya says.  “No, let me finish.  Marinette needs someone who’ll always be there to stand up for her, and—I’m trying not to be too judgmental here, but you guys have dropped the ball consistently there.”

“Okay,” Nino says after a moment.  “Harsh, but yeah, I get what you’re saying.”

“So I—can’t, Nino,” Alya says, “I can’t just do that to her.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Nino says with a sigh.  “How long are you going to be out of class?”

“Eight days starting tomorrow,” Alya says.  “So I’ll be back, uh, next next Tuesday, I think.  Yeah, Tuesday.”

“All right,” Nino says.  “I’ll talk to Adrien, see if the four of us can’t hang out at your place sometime this weekend.”

“That is probably not going to work,” Alya says, sticking her tongue out in the direction of the living room.  “Grounded, remember?  I sincerely doubt Mom’d let me have friends over.”

“Yeesh,” Nino says.  “Think that telling her that we’re bringing class notes would work?  We have that test in math the Friday you get back.”

“I think the automatic response to that would be ‘why don’t you just email them to her?’” Alya says, making a face.  “You’re welcome to give it a shot, though.”

“Sometimes I forget how harsh your mom is,” Nino says.  Someone says something in the background, the words indistinct.  Nino responds, “Yeah, give me a sec.”

“You need to go?”

“Chores,” Nino says.

“Wow,” Alya says.  “Bummer.”

“Your mockery is noted and unappreciated,” Nino says with a haughty sniff. “Love you, babe.  Talk to you later.”

“Love you, Nino.”

Alya sets her phone down on her desk with a quiet click as Nino hangs up and slumps back into her chair, letting the noises of her apartment fill her room.

It’s just that the noises are about ninety percent her parents arguing.

“What’s going to happen the next time she decides to do that to an authority figure?” her mother shouts, the words punching easily through the intervening walls.  “She could get arrested!  Or shot!”

“And what kind of message do you think we’re sending to her,” her father replies, his basso voice a heated rumble, “to her sisters?  That if someone powerful and influential does something wrong they should just shuffle along and pretend that nothing wrong is going on?”

“There is a time and a place for these things, and neither of them is right in front of the Headmaster, to the Headmaster’s face!”

“Then where?  Then when? When is a good time to point out the obvious injustice of her situation?”

“She goes to the rector, or someone else up the ladder from the Headmaster,” her mother says.  “She uses some common sense and good judgment instead of rash bullheadedness!”

Alya sighs, heads to her bed, and stuffs her head beneath her pillow, muffling her father’s reply.

At some point, she falls asleep.

“Morning, Nino,” Marinette says the next morning as he walks in with Adrien at his heels; Adrien slides his torn bag across to Marinette with a wink that makes something flush hotly in her chest.  “M-Morning, Adrien.  Hey,” Marinette says, “did either of you see Alya on your way in?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Nino says, his brows popping up for a moment.  “She decided to yell at Damocles for basically just doing whatever Chloe wants him to do instead of his job.  She got suspended.”

“Uh,” Adrien says.

“She what?” Marinette says.

“She, uh, basically called Damocles a sock puppet with Chloe’s Dad’s hand up his ass,” Nino says.

“To his face,” Marinette says.

“A-yup.”

Marinette swears under her breath as Adrien asks, “How long is she suspended for?”

“Two weeks,” Nino says.

“Wait, what?” Alix says.  She reaches up and pops out an earbud.  The sound of someone screeching loudly in Russian while an electric guitar howls in the background rings tinnily from it before she reaches down and pauses her music. “Chloe got Alya suspended?”

“This is going to get repetitive,” Nino mutters under his breath. “All right, so Alya got in a shouting match with Damocles, said some things she shouldn’t have, Damocles gave her a two-week suspension.  I don’t know if Chloe actually, y’know, told him to punish her or if she egged her on, but that’s all I know.”

“Aw, jeez,” Alix says, rolling her eyes and slumping back into her chair. “Your girlfriend is an idiot, Nino.”

“Sometimes,” Nino says.

They hear a haughty sniff from the door way and a rapid clat-clatter of heels on the floor.  Half a dozen heads—Adrien’s, Alix’s, Marinette’s, Nino’s, Kim’s, and Lila’s—turn towards Chloe as she struts to her seat, followed closely by Sabrina.

“Only a shame she couldn’t get expelled,” she says as she sits.  “But I’m sure she’ll slip up at some point.”

“We can only hope,” Alix says, attempting to make Chloe spontaneously combust with sheer force of will.

“Why, thank you—“

“I don’t think she was talking about you, Chloe,” Lila says.

“No,” Alix confirms, “I wasn’t.  Thank you for the clarification.  Some people needed it, apparently.”  She waves to Mylene and Ivan as they shuffle into class as well and puts her feet up on the desk and her hands behind her head.

“Excuse me?” Chloe says, bristling.

Alix takes a deep, satisfied breath.  “For the benefit of the idiot in the room,” she says, “I’ll repeat myself. One of these days, you’re going to let your gigantic ego get the better of you, and you’re going to do something so monumentally stupid even by your standards that even dear old daddy isn’t going to be able to cover for you, and all of us are going to be rid of your burden.”

Nino sighs and turns on his music, bringing up the volume until the sounds of Alix, Mylene, and Chloe screaming at each other are mostly drowned out.  Adrien slouches beside him and looks miserable. Marinette takes out her sketchbook and starts to scribble as the others file in.

“Uh, excuse me,” Rose asks Nino as she and Juleka come in a few minutes later. Nino pries his headphones loose and cocks an ear towards her.  “Where’s Al—“

“Later,” Nino groans, “please.”

Juleka approaches him later as everyone is queuing up to leave for lunch.

“Alya’s been suspended because she mouthed off to Damocles,” Nino says, “she’ll be back in a couple weeks.”

Juleka blinks at him.  “Uh,” she says.  “Yeah. I know.  Rose told me.”

“Oh thank god,” Nino says.  “You would not believe how many times I’ve needed to repeat myself today.”

“Fourteen times,” Juleka says.  “Max’s been keeping score.  Kim has a small betting pool going as to when you’ll crack.”

“He what?”

“He’s set up a betting pool as to how many times people will need to ask you where Alya is before you snap,” Juleka says.

“How much is in the pot?” Nino asks.

“Around twenty euros,” Juleka says.

“Who’s winning right now?”

“Rose and I,” Juleka says.  “We’ve put five euros in on you snapping at seventeen asks.”

Nino blinks at her, then lets his head sink into his hands.  “You guys suck,” he says, voice muffled.

“Love you too.  Anyways, what I was going to ask was whether you knew what was going on with Adrien and Marinette.”

Nino looks up, bemused.  “What do you mean ‘what’s going on’?”

“Rose says that they’ve been a lot touchier than usual,” Juleka says. “They seem a lot closer than they were yesterday,” she translates after a look at Nino’s expression.

Nino thinks it over, his intuition throwing sparks onto tinder at the back of his mind.

“Maybe something’s happened,” he says with a shrug.  “Tell you the truth, I hadn’t noticed anything really different.”

“Too worried about Alya?”

“Too worried about Chloe deciding to do something involving Alya,” Nino says.  “She’s not exactly a kind, wonderful, forgiving, charitable sort of person.”

Juleka makes a face.  “Don’t need to tell me twice,” she says.  She glances up at Rose, waiting patiently for her at the sidewalk.  “Look, I gotta go.  See you later?”

“Later.”

Nino watches the two of them go, absorbed in thought until Adrien’s hand lands lightly on his shoulder.

“Huh?  Oh, hey,” Nino says.

“Heading home for lunch?” Adrien asks, sitting next to him on the school’s front steps.

“Duh,” Nino says.

“Want a ride?  The Gorilla should be here in a few.”

“Sure,” Nino says.

His mind flits back to what Juleka had said.  Adrien had been closer to Marinette, had he?  Well, he had offered her his help in snagging him way back when, and it wasn’t like it’d hurt to give him just a little nudge. And they didn’t have anything else to do.

“Hey, is everything all right with Mari?” Nino asks, giving Adrien a sidelong glance.  “She seemed really shaken up the other day.”

“Hm?  Oh, yeah,” Adrien says.  “She looked a lot better when I left.  You and Alya went to visit after school, right?”

“Yeah,” Nino says.  “Seemed a little tense, but at least she wasn’t actually freaking out.”

“That’s good,” Adrien says.

Nino leans back onto his elbows.  “Hey,” he says, “do you know why she had all those band-aids on her fingers?”

“Oh, burned herself on a hot pan,” Adrien says, then hastily adds, “that’s my best guess at any rate.  She does a lot of baking, doesn’t she?”

“Probably,” Nino says.  “Someone’ll need to help her with stuff.”

“Probably,” Adrien echoes.  “Real question is, will she let herself be helped.”

“Pride goeth,” Nino says.

“Hey, at least one of us will be there to catch her if she trips, right?” Adrien says.  He shoots Nino a sunny, wolfish smile.  “What are friends for, anyways?”

Nino mirrors his smile and offers up his fist.  Adrien taps his knuckles to his as a car pulls up to the curb.  “Come on,” Adrien says.  “Let’s go.”

“Hey, is your hand doing better?” Adrien asks Marinette.  “Your blisters are healing well?”

“Yes, they are,” Marinette says with a patient sigh and a small smile.  “Please stop fussing, I’m not an invalid, Adrien.”

Rose coos at them while Chloe glowers, fuming so ferociously that for a second Nino is forcibly reminded of Mt. Etna, looming over the innocent and unaware citizens of Catania, ready to obliterate them and their little lives in a moment’s notice.

Nino lets his attention drift to more important matters once he’s satisfied that Chloe isn’t going to explode and try to claw someone’s eyes out.  At least in the immediate future.

Marinette and Adrien had been, well, the only word that really fit was odd, over the past week.

Adrien had been fairly normal, aside from the aggressively keen interest he’d started showing in Marinette—Nino lets himself preen a little at that, go him.  Just one week and Adrien was already well on the way to asking her out, Alya was going to freak.  But their every interaction had been tempered with a sense of coiled restraint on Adrien’s part, like he’d desperately wanted to do something or to say something but had felt that the time or the place or the company wasn’t quite right.  Although Chloe’s constant, hovering presence all three were more or less the case.

And, well, Marinette.  She should’ve been over the moon with Adrien’s constant, focused attention, Nino was sure.  He knew that he wasn’t exactly a master at reading people but Marinette could be counted on to be as ecstatic as Chloe was incensed whenever Adrien paid her the least bit of attention.

Or, she had been, at least.  Now she was distant and distracted half the time; but why?  It probably wasn’t anything Chloe had done, every other time this week she’d made an attempt to crack Marinette’s composure they’d put a stop to it before things could get, ahem, messy.  Maybe the aftereffects of Chloe’s dumb trick with the honey?  But she’d seemed practically normal just a couple days after that.  Maybe she was just worried for Alya?  That felt a lot more likely, but his gut was still telling him that there was something off about that guess.

Nino grumbles under his breath.  He needs Alya for this.  Well, a couple more days and she’ll be back, and then maybe they’d be able to figure this mess out.

But first, of course, he needs to pass this dumb exam, or his parents would have his head.  He turns his thoughts away from his friends’ relationship drama and back towards the mass of incomprehensible squiggles on the board.

“I—“

Thunk.

“—hate—“

Thunk.

“—this.”

Thunk.

“I’m pretty sure that concussing yourself isn’t going to help, Nino,” Adrien says from where he lounges on Marinette’s floor.  Marinette lobs a croissant at his head; Adrien catches it, shoots a wink back her way, and bites off one of the horns.

“Not all of us have fancy math tutors to help us, Mr. ‘I’m already learning calculus’,” Nino mutters darkly.  He catches the pain au chocolat that Marinette throws to him and starts chewing steadily through it, not bothering to brush away the crumbs that fall into the spine of his open math textbook.  “Seriously, this is all Greek to me.”

“You did pretty well on the homework for this section, didn’t you?” Marinette says.  She takes the last pastry, a cheese danish, from the plate on her desk, folds it in half, and takes a bite.

“I thought I did,” Nino says.  “But since I don’t get a single thing this book is saying, I’m having second thoughts about that.”

“In fairness, this isn’t the best resource in the first place,” Adrien says, “according to my tutor anyways.  Frankly I think he just has a personal vendetta against the author or the publisher or something.”

“Well, it is an American publishing house,” Marinette says, flipping through page after page of arcane scrawl with a glazed, disinterested air. “Think that has something to do with it?”

“Maybe,” Adrien says.

“Oh, yeah, do you mind if I drop by and use your scanner later, Adrien?” Nino says.

“Mm?  Yeah, sure, why?”

“Alya’s still under house arrest, remember?” Nino says.  “She’s going to need our notes.”

Adrien pauses in the middle of copying out an equation, shakes his head with a slight frown, and continues.  “Shoot, can’t believe I forgot that.  Think her mom will let her Skype in?”

“Probably,” Nino says.

“I’ll text her and see if she’s open,” Marinette says, pulling out her phone and tapping a quick message.

“I’ll pop down and return the plate,” Adrien says.

Nino groans and rolls onto his back as Adrien hauls open the trapdoor and trots downstairs, sitting up and stretching out his back and neck with a succession of loud pops.

“Seriously, how the heck does Adrien remember all this stuff?” Marinette grumbles, opening a drawer and taking out a sheet of lined paper.  “I’ve been staring at this for half an hour and I still can’t remember all the identities.”

“Fancy expensive math tutor, remember?” Nino says.

“Ah.  Right.”

Nino stares at her back as Marinette starts scribbling, slowly and carefully, her gaze darting back and forth between the text and her notes.

“On the subject of Adrien,” he says carefully.  “Is it just me, or has he been paying a lot more attention to you recently?”

Marinette pauses for a second, then erases a line from her notes. “That’s possible,” she says.

“You’re taking this calmly.”

“You were expecting something else?”

“Yes,” Nino says.  “More flailing, freaking out, panicking, that sort of thing.”

Marinette turns around in her chair and raises an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?”

“Just saying,” Nino says, “you have, in general, tended to freak whenever Adrien was involved.”

“I have not,” Marinette says, with a coloring of mild indignation to her words.

“Marinette, even Adrien was picking up on how weird you were acting around him,” Nino says.

Marinette frowns slightly.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, before all this stupid crap with Chloe and stuff, back when you first met him,” Nino says.  “The flailing, the random squealing, the whole ‘hiding behind the nearest solid object or Alya whenever he’s around’ thing.”

Marinette blinks, a slow blush burning down from her ears into her cheeks and upwards from her shoulders.  After a minute, she looks down and mumbles, “Well, things have changed.”

“Dude,” Nino says.  “You’ve had him fawning over you for an entire week and you’ve kept your cool the entire time?  I’d say ‘things have changed’ is the understatement of the year.”

“No kidding,” Marinette says with a little laugh.

“Hey,” Adrien says, popping his head up through the trapdoor, making them both jump.  “Hey, Nino, you free for dinner?  Marinette’s parents want to know.”

“Uh, probably not,” Nino says.

“All right.”  Adrien shuts the trapdoor behind him and tromps down the stairs.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this while Adrien’s around,” Marinette says.

“Yeah,” Nino says.

Marinette stands and stretches, wincing at the sharp-dull, sharp-dull aching pulse in her back, and brushes a sweat-damp lock of her hair back behind an ear.

She really ought to thank her dad after this.  She’d almost forgotten how much ass cleaning out the ovens sucked.

But hey, on the bright side making sure that the ovens were sparkling now meant less labor for the rest of the month.  Theoretically.

She just wishes that it felt like a plus, instead of like a herniated disc.

Well, punishment wasn’t supposed to be an all-expenses paid vacation, and it wasn’t as though she didn’t kinda sorta deserve it for going behind her parents’ back like that.

She was going to be grounded for so long when they found out about the Ladybug thing.

Her thoughts inexorably shift to Tikki, currently sulking nearby atop one of the counters.

A week had not changed the little spirit’s mind on the whole “tell my boyfriend, who is Chat Noir, that I am Ladybug, who also happens to have been the girl he has pined after for literally his entire career, which granted is only a few months at this point but will definitely help clear up any issues in the future and make our dating life much less awkward in the long run”, or made them more talkative on the subject.  Not a peep, not a word, not a single damn hint as to why they were so reluctant to let her tell him.

Frustrating in the extreme.

And what makes it worse, she reflects as she starts scrubbing the next oven, is that the kwami wouldn’t be so insistent if they didn’t have a very, very good reason.

She crawls inside the oven, wriggling flat on her back to fit, and bangs her head on something when she hears a sudden sharp rapping on the bakery’s front door.

“Ow,” she growls as she shimmies her way back out, rubbing the spot—that was going to leave a bruise.  Who the hell would come by at this hour?  Well, burglars, maybe, but they’d just try to smash in one of the windows, they wouldn’t knock.

Rap rap rap rap.

“All right, all right, I’m coming, what the hell do you—“

Adrien—Chat Noir, she corrects herself mentally—is standing on her front step.

She goggles at him for a moment as he waves cheerily.

“What the hell are you doing here this late,” Marinette hisses at him as she unlocks the door.  “Keep it down, we’re dead meat if Mama and Papa hear us.”

“Well, I had some time before my evening patrol,” Chat purrs as Marinette unlocks the security gate and pulls it open as quietly as she can.  “And I figured that I’d stop by to see my favorite—“

“Knock it off, Adrien,” Marinette says, “I’m serious, you’re not even supposed to be here unless it’s to help me study!  At least for another few weeks.”

Chat reaches behind him and pulls out a folded sheet of paper from his belt.  “I figured you might need this,” he says innocently.  “You know, for the test.”

Marinette stares blankly at it, then at his all-too-innocently-sunny expression.

Oh, fuck it.  She’d missed this.

“Come in,” she says resignedly, taking the paper from him and stuffing it into a pocket.  She pulls the security gate across and locks it again as Chat skips in, humming a little tune under his breath.

He engulfs her in a hug from behind, gently resting his chin on her shoulder.  Marinette jumps in surprise, nearly headbutting him as she instinctively jerks backwards, her heel twitching upwards in an entirely reflexive movement. Then she relaxes and sinks into the embrace.  Her hands move to rest languidly over his arms.

“I missed you,” he says.

Marinette snorts.  “You were here like, two hours ago.  And we’ll see each other tomorrow anyways.”

“I still missed you,” he says.  “And I missed this.  Being able to just be alone with you.”

“You are so needy,” she says, reaching up to scratch him behind an ear; he purrs and leans into her touch.  “And don’t pout at me like that.”

“You can’t even see my face,” he says.

“I can see your reflection in the glass, kitty,” Marinette says.  She pushes at his arms around her waist until he releases her, with many whines of protest.  “And don’t bother with the kitty eyes either.”

Chat turns the kitty eyes up to eleven as Marinette turns to face him with a small smile flitting about the edges of her composure, then up to twelve as she shows no sign of budging.

“I give,” he says after a minute.

“Hah!”  Marinette raises both fists in the air, walking a mock victory lap around Chat as he claps.  “Do I win anything, oh boyfriend-of-mine?”

The expression on his face drains, to be replaced nervous wariness.

“Uh, Chat?  What’s wrong?”

“Uh,” he says after a moment.  “That’s actually what I came here about, we never really got a chance to make it official, remember?”

“What?  Oh.”

Marinette, despite herself, flushes and looks down at her feet.

“You, uh,” Chat says, “um, ever done this before?”

“No,” Marinette says quickly, glancing up.  “No, you’d be my first.  I mean, if you want to be.”

“Oh, good,” he says.

The two stand a little bit apart from each other, staring at each other’s shoes, neither daring to make the first move.  Marinette almost laughs; they must’ve looked ridiculous, the two of them, standing there all bashful and coy and whatever.

And then, with that thought, her nervousness vanishes.

He was as nervous as she was.  Him. Perfect boy, whom she’d pined after for so long, was nervous, and she, little plain ol’ her, was the cause.  The sudden tide of light-headed relief almost makes her laugh.  She was standing here all sweaty and dirty and in her rumpled, baggy work clothes and Mr. Swoony Teenage Supermodel was the one looking for escape routes.

“You are such a dork,” Marinette says.

And then she stretches up on tiptoe and kisses him, lightly and chastely, on the lips.

Chat freezes as she leans into him, her hands on his shoulders, her eyes sliding shut, the corners of her mouth turning up in a small smile as she feels the warmth and the life and the trembling, breath-stealing fear in him as it drains away, to be replaced with the absolute reality of the moment and the unquestionable, unassailable truth of them, here and now, together.

He leans into the kiss, slowly, without passion, but with a growing and absolute surety in two unspoken things.

She’s his.

He’s hers.

After a timeless, breathless little eternity, Marinette pulls away and settles back onto her heels.  Her small smile grows wider as she sees the look on his face.

“Chat got your tongue?” she says.

Chat blinks and refocuses.  “I’m supposed to be the one with the terrible lines,” he says, reaching out to cup her cheek in one hand.  His ears twitch as Marinette leans into his touch, and he could swear that he hears the rapid thudding beat of her—or was it his?—heart as they hold each other’s gaze.

“So, uh,” Chat says after a long while.  He drops his hands to his sides.  “Do you need help with those?”

“Huh?”  Marinette blinks at him as she shifts mental gears.

“The ovens,” he says.

“Oh,” she says.  “Nah, I’m good.  I should be done in another ten, fifteen minutes.”

“It’d go faster if I helped.”

“It’s not big enough to fit both of us at the same time,” Marinette says, prodding him gently towards the front door.  “Besides, Mama and Papa would freak out if they saw you here.”

“I’m not entirely sure your parents are capable of that,” Chat says as she unlocks the gate.  “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow,” Marinette says.  She stretches up on tiptoe again and pecks him on the nose.  “Night.”

Chat takes her hand and presses a kiss to the back.  “Good evening, Princess,” he says.

Then he vanishes into the night.

Marinette locks up the bakery again and finishes cleaning the oven, then traipses upstairs, humming happily.

“Finished, dear?” Sabine asks as Marinette starts up the stairs to her room.

“Yes, Mama.”

“Good,” Sabine says.  “Don’t stay up too late, dear.”

“Or be entertaining any boys,” she calls as an afterthought.

“I promise, Mama,” Marinette says.

Marinette goes to her room, shuts the trapdoor, and is halfway through pulling her sleep clothes from her closet when she notices the phone on her rug.

“Huh.”

She glances over to where her own phone is charging on her desk, then back at the phone on her rug, then walks over and picks it up, turning it over in her hands.

Nino’s.  He must’ve dropped it during their study session.

She turns on the screen: four missed calls from a number labeled as “Home”. The calls must’ve come in when she was downstairs in the bakery.

Marinette shrugs and places the phone next to hers.  She can just give to him tomorrow, no big deal.

Marinette leaves and takes her shower, then, still floating along on cloud nine, curls up in her bed under her blankets, and falls asleep smiling.

Nino sprints down the sidewalk, legs churning, his every breath a knife in his chest.

Forget his phone, forget getting it back, forget all of that, there were more important things to worry about at the moment.  He needs to get back home, he needs to get to his computer, he needs to message Alya pronto, he needs to tell someone.

Holy.

Fuck.

Adrien was going to flip.