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mc-lukanette · 2 months ago

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Marinette sighed, pulling her hair tie free and shaking her head to let her bun go. It was a terrible, exhausting day, and she lingered around the main area of the building to take a breather while people filed out. There was still a faint scent of macarons in the air from all the ones she'd dropped on the floor and a (probably underpaid) worker was busy cleaning them up.

She'd gotten to sit next to Adrien during the movie, but she didn't actually feel accomplished about it. Her mind was still racing with thoughts of why she even bothered. It was high effort for little actual reward, and it felt embarrassing more than anything else.

Why did she do it anyway? There was always a weird correlation with everything going wrong for her on days when akuma happened, even if the akuma didn't directly cause it. Maybe she had a sixth sense for it and it made her stress out more?

So weird, she thought, idly running her fingers through her hair with one hand and dusting off her maid outfit with the other. In retrospect, that too was a weird choice; more "trying to catch the sight of a guy with certain interests" than "dressing for the occasion."

As she was mulling her own choices over to herself, a flash of white from the corner of her vision caught her attention. She looked over, seeing a large stack of papers near the entrance of the building as well as Thomas Astruc turning on the other side of the door to continue down the sidewalk. With a little urgency, she headed over to pick up the papers in both arms, noting that they appeared to be transcripts for something.

Her eyes zeroed in on the name Thomas Astruc and she hurried out, looking the way he'd gone as she called out to him.

Yet, he was nowhere to be found. Puzzled, Marinette looked back down, shuffling through the transcripts mindlessly.

Adrien probably knows him since he was in the movie, she thought. I can ask him to give them back—

She stopped before she'd finished the plan in her head, caught off-guard by how she'd wondered about Adrien so casually without having some crush-induced freak out in public. The day was just getting weirder by the second, and it became even more so when she took a better look at the transcripts in her hand.

It seemed obvious initially that it would've been the transcripts for the movie, or maybe a potential sequel, yet they were for a TV show called Miraculous Ladybug. She'd never heard of such a thing and found it even stranger that Thomas Astruc was listed as a writer, not a director.

Curiosity gnawed at her as she fidgeted with the pages. A little peek wouldn't hurt, right?

—————

Having dismissed Tikki after getting a scolding of looking into things she wasn't supposed to, Marinette dropped the transcripts onto her table and began to sort through them. It was perhaps petty to look into an unreleased series like this, but considering what happened with the movie and all the mutterings she heard from people who "didn't know Ladybug was afraid of cats," she would prefer to get ahead of whatever nonsense was going to be released in the future.

The transcripts were already in order of episode, so she started at the top, flipping the page to start reading.

It all went downhill from there.

It appeared innocent enough at the start, following akuma who already existed whose civilian selves may have given interviews on being akumatized, but the first double take of many began when Marinette saw her own name in the transcript. That may have been fine on its own, yet this Marinette lived where she lived, in a bakery with her parents Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng.

She swallowed, her hands crinkling the paper from their tight grip. Whoever wrote this knew that she had been Ladybug and somehow got down the events of the written days with precise accuracy. Was she being stalked somehow? How did they know all about her, and was this planned to be released to the public?

Despite her stomach churning at the implications, she continued reading.

—————

It was late into the night, Tikki already sound asleep up on Marinette's bed, when Marinette had decided to stop reading for the day. She pinched the bridge of her nose, exhausted yet wide awake at the same time.

Everything in the transcripts lined up with her memories and filled in gaps where she previously had nothing to work with. Written down when she'd transformed, what she'd done, who her friends were and what they did with her, and beyond that were things she'd either suspected or not known at all.

Adrien was Chat Noir, Gabriel was Hawk Moth, and it all made sense when put into a format like this.

It didn't appear like someone who knew too much had put pen to paper anymore. Rather, it felt like something written before it even happened: fate sitting behind a desk and planning out what was to be. There were even "episodes" of events that hadn't happened yet that Marinette felt could only be a matter of time.

She raked her fingers through her hair, clutching the strands tight as she tried to make sense of it all. Did it mean that she was just part of some show? Was she a character mindlessly following these scripts? How much was her and how far did her relationships with others go past what was written down for them to have?

Her mind spun, the chair underneath her feeling like it could collapse at any moment. Blood going cold, goosebumps formed along her arms as she looked around to see if she was being watched.

Everything added up and put into perspective things she'd never thought about before. All of the little inconsistencies that she hadn't given a single thought to were now staring at her right in the face, like the very fabric of the universe was broken and everyone went on like nothing was wrong.

And it was Chat Noir who caused Theo's akumatization, but he never told her and she was left in the dark. He'd planned in advance to ditch the search for Andre's ice cream to go set up the "date" with Ladybug that he passed off like it wasn't a big deal.

There was also Alya, who knew very well that she'd been willing to let Kagami be with Adrien when she'd agree to third wheel at the ice skating rink, only to then claim that she was jealous of Lila because of Adrien. Adding to that was Chloe, who Marinette herself was told to "be the bigger person for" and broke the identity rule for just to make her bully of multiple years Queen Bee again, which sounded reasonable at the time but crazy actually reading it.

Finally, there were her failures to get Adrien's attention and the inability to confess to him, whether to be rejected or otherwise, while Chat Noir skated by due to conveniently confessing his crush on Ladybug to Ladybug's civilian self. Why?

Because she was the punchline. She was constantly being set up to fail. The insane scenarios she was always roped into were the forces behind these transcripts twisting themselves into knots to ensure that she would be little more than a joke.

Tears formed in the corner of her eyes. Who could she even trust if everything involving them was made up in such convoluted fashion?

Furiously wiping at the tears, she decided on the only thing she could: she would test the transcripts and go from there. She could go off script, do things it didn't expect, and try to prevent what was predetermined. Clutching the papers to her chest, they were wrinkled with resolve rather than fear this time.

If it wasn't fate that put these in her hands, then maybe she could still do something. With these, she had power, she had control. More importantly, she could have an ally; someone she trusted, but often went ignored by the transcripts and thus was the least affected by them.

Setting the transcripts off to the side, she retrieved her phone and scrolled through her contacts. Most of her friends were dismissed almost immediately, having been around since the start of the series, and she couldn't trust Tikki either. After all, if there was any mouthpiece for the forces behind the transcripts - the "writers," she supposed - it was her.

Her thumb stopped skimming when she saw the black and blue hair: Juleka's brother, Luka, who she'd shared numbers with when she invited him out to the ice rink just in case plans changed. It was a reasonable concern at the time because of how often Adrien had to bail, but of course he was able to show up when it was written that she would make a fool out of herself in front of him, the one consistency throughout the entire series.

But Luka, he'd only been around starting in season 2 of the "show" and appeared prominently in a couple episodes at best. It made even more sense when she thought about that day at the ice rink, the akuma having conveniently started to attack while she was trying to sort out her feelings on him.

The show wanted him there, but didn't want her to think about him.

A burst of confidence snaked its way through her anxiety as she opened their messages to each other. Casting a glance at the transcripts, she thought, I don't have to play your game anymore.

Thus, she typed out a quick message to him.

Hey, are you free in a couple weeks for a meet up? Just the two of us? It's really important.

After hitting 'Send,' she brought the phone up to cover her mouth and attempted to take a steady breath through her nose. Two weeks was plenty of time to test the waters of what she'd seen, and anything else could be planned out after she met with him.

She could handle this. She wasn't the failure she was written as; she didn't have to be.

—————

Marinette had heard before about people so close that they could predict what the other would say. Others could be so in sync that they'd say things at the same time, even without trying.

It was an entirely different matter when she already knew what someone was going to say, not because she was close to them but because she'd read it before.

Three episodes - though it was strange to call them that - happened in the weeks leading up to seeing Luka: Bakerix, Backwarder, and Reflekdoll. The former came first and was the most unnerving of them all, being the one that put the transcripts set in the future to the test.

So long as Marinette followed the transcript, every line went exactly as intended. Her parents and grandmother spoke as if they had read it themselves, like actors in a play they weren't aware they were in. Even when Marinette didn't follow the script, she could feel the words trying to come up through her throat like an itching sensation before a cough.

Or, more accurately, bile building just before throwing up.

Almost unintentionally, she took a passive role by not going to see her grandfather, freshly disillusioned by the events and what they could mean for the people she knew and interacted with. He was, however, still akumatized, though without any action on her part. She didn't ask him why, already having the information she wanted most: that the world still tried to follow the transcript even if she fought it. It was proven further when her family saw the news, somehow recognizing the akuma as their relative, and rushed to see him when he was deakumatized.

They worked everything out from there, which on the surface sounded nice, yet Marinette was disturbed by the idea that it might've only happened because he was written into her future, likely for her own humiliation at some point.

At the very least, the world continued turning whenever she went off script as she'd planned. Her worst case scenario had been that everything would break apart or she would be unable to go against what was written.

She had little choice but to take action the day that Marianne was meant to be akumatized; Adrien was going away for a time and Master Fu had no one else to trust in delivering his letter to her.

According to the transcript, she would be humiliated in front of her friends after mixing up the letters, and Marianne would be akumatized when she too was given the wrong letter. With her thoughts dripping with sarcasm, Marinette supposed that was "her own fault" for expecting a magical yoyo to offer what she'd asked for when she reached inside. She could even imagine Thomas Astruc's face along other, faceless writers, hitting their desks laughing as they wrote down Adrien handing her constipation medicine.

Still, the solution was simple: she confirmed that it was Marianne's letter before handing it over. She could've given Adrien her own love letter as well, but had avoided him as much as possible since finding the transcripts. Her nature of spitting out word salad was there when they did see each other, yet became more manageable the more she refused to engage with him.

Him being Chat Noir made it all a bit easier. While she'd been sympathetic of his woes in being told nothing, the knowledge that he'd kept quiet about the grimoire while complaining to her about secrets and threatened to quit while Paris was underwater was, needless to say, quite the turn off.

Even when they weren't set to follow a plot, he was still as flirtatious as ever despite her rejection of his advances. It made sense as, though she may have hoped otherwise, she couldn't say she was a different person even after reading the transcripts; only one more aware of the world around her.

Juleka getting akumatized into Reflekdoll was something Marinette worked hard to prevent. Whether or not their friendship was "written to be," she still cared about people she felt close to and could relate to Juleka's anxiety.

Alya, of course, tried her hardest to fight back against her efforts to exclude Adrien, all with mixed results. Adrien still came along in the end, but Marinette managed to keep the photoshoot about Juleka, even if that meant ditching the group for a while to hide in the bathroom and talk her down from a potential panic attack.

Juleka taking the full spotlight was something she worked hard for, as not only would she not have wanted to ride off of Adrien's image to give her website any attention, but the idea that he would certainly have overshadowed Juleka in the eyes of the public disgusted her. She didn't need him, no matter how the forces "in charge" tried to convince her otherwise.

All in all, it was crisis successfully averted, and now she'd had multiple separate experiences to come to a few conclusions about the nature of her world.

The first was the obvious: that events were preventable, which was a relief given what she'd read about the season 3 finale. Sometimes things such as akumatization could still happen, but her actions as someone with knowledge of "the future" could reign in the worst of it.

Secondly, those around her could not stray from the transcript unless they were forced to by her or the changes she made, almost falling into loops of trying to make something occur unless they couldn't anymore. It was unnerving, seeing the double-edged sword of the power she held, but it was workable.

Thirdly, and perhaps even more important than the first, was that people could still be people. They acted similarly to what she might expect off script, but not always in a way that was bad. Juleka, for example, didn't blame her for anything that went wrong during the photoshoot as she had - rather nonsensically - in the transcript.

Marinette saw nothing less than her friend. She could still care about people without a nagging voice in her head telling her that it wasn't "real" or that she didn't actually mean anything to anyone. In the ideal scenario that came from everything she'd learned so far, there was a light to be found at the end of the tunnel: either the show's plot would end, or she would change it so drastically that no one could follow it any more.

Thinking back on it all, she let herself feel hope at the memory of Juleka's grateful smile, the light shining off the hair clip Luka had given her in just the right way.

It also gave her an idea.

—————

Marinette sat quietly on her chaise lounge as Luka pulled off his guitar case and settled it to the side of her room, so gently that she couldn't hear the sound of the case against the wall. She'd had two full weeks to process the transcripts and what they meant for her life, but it didn't mean that she wasn't still on edge when she thought about it.

It was one thing to have been given the knowledge herself. She was the one who picked up the transcripts, she chose to sit down and read them, and she continued looking into it even while knowing how stressful it would be.

It was an entirely different matter to inflict that on someone else. A few times, she'd debated with herself on excuses she could've made for their meeting in case she felt like backing out, but dismissed all of them in the end. She wondered how she could tell a person something so profoundly life-altering and how that would affect them emotionally, or if they'd even want to be told.

But how would one gauge that? Marinette could only use herself as a reference, knowing that she, at least, would want to know. The unknowns that revealed themselves to her throughout the experience - the things that were intentionally kept from her, Hawk Moth's identity, the future itself - had been nothing but beneficial to her, despite the horrors that came with them.

She wanted to share that; to know that she wasn't alone. She wanted—

"Marinette?"

She looked up, catching Luka's concern at what must've been a heavy expression on her face. She shook the thoughts away, offering him a gentle smile that she hoped conveyed, 'I'm glad you're here.'

"Juleka had so much fun at the photoshoot," she said, evading the topic of the current atmosphere. "It was sweet of you to put that hair clip on her. I bet it made her feel more confident."

His brows were still furrowed in worry, but he let it be for now and smiled back at her. "Thanks." He gestured at the spot next to her in a silent question and she accepted, shuffling to the side just enough to give him a comfortable amount of room to sit down. His weight sank into the cushion as he wondered aloud, "Did Jule tell you? She doesn't talk about me that much."

He stated it casually, clearly unbothered and of the opinion that Juleka wasn't obligated to talk about him in either a positive nor negative way. Marinette didn't say anything on it, but thought that of course Juleka didn't talk about him much, because how odd would it have been for someone's brother to just appear a whole season later and not be mentioned otherwise? Did he even exist before the day they met?

That was one thing she actively tried not to think about, having been too afraid to look up her grandfather's address before his mention in the transcripts. There was only so much she could take without imagining that Luka only came into existence a while ago.

Despite knowing that his question had, in all likelihood, been rhetorical, she answered it anyway, "...No. I didn't hear it from her."

She'd tried to be careful, giving him enough information to mull over but not anything that appeared outright supernatural. Technically, Juleka could've told Rose, who could've then told her at some point, which would've been far more normal compared to the truth.

But Luka, judging from the way he stared at her, eyes narrowed in contemplation, had caught onto the subtle implications in her tone.

Gripping her capris and taking a deep breath to steady her mind, Marinette pushed herself up to walk over to her computer chair. Nudging it aside with her leg, she turned to him and placed a hand atop the stack of transcripts, explaining, "I found these when I was at an event for the Ladybug movie everyone was talking about. There was a guy - Thomas Astruc - who directed it, but these call him a writer and I couldn't find out anything about it."

It all sounded irrelevant to what they were discussing, but Luka stood and came to stand alongside her, eyeing the stack and waiting for whatever she might say next.

In response, she held out three transcripts: Captain Hardrock, Frozer, and Reflekdoll. "You should read these first, but.... you might not like what you'll see."

It's all the warning she could give him without sounding like she was insane; his last way out before plunging under the depths with her. There would be no going back afterwards.

Luka, though puzzled, reached out for the papers, eyeing her face one last time before taking the transcripts in his hands to look at them properly. His eyes widened at what she imagined what the name of his mom's akuma, but he didn't comment on it as he went about reading.

Marinette stayed quiet the whole time, hands clasped tightly together to keep herself from making any movements. There would be time later for all of her discoveries and personal observations, but for now she let him piece it together himself.

Luka didn't say anything either, so she could only infer how he was feeling based on facial expressions and body language: the twitch of his eyebrows, the way his eyes flicked back up to reread something he found particularly unbelievable, and the sudden exhales he made that would ruffle the paper...

She could imagine that he was having a similar experience to her own, but what she couldn't was how it must've felt to realize the role he played.

Without question, he could've been invited to the photoshoot; he should've been invited and they could’ve easily made the time work out for him. After all, what better way to keep Juleka's anxiety at bay than to have the brother who knew it best along for the ride? She had men's clothes too and he could've easily modeled alongside his sister, the only reason Marinette hadn't invited him at the time being that she feared tampering with the plot with additional variables.

But she knew why it wasn't written into the original, at least. He was second place to someone else, so rarely thought about even with his role of being the "main character's" other crush. In the eyes of the plot, his feelings were written to be discarded, and it didn't matter how sweet he was or how compatible they might've been otherwise.

He would fail no matter what, tripping at the word 'go' without a chance of getting back up. She couldn't fathom why anyone would think to do that: to write a character who only served as a stone to be stepped on in order to get the person he liked with someone else.

She shuddered just thinking about it.

Luka's movements were unsteady - unlike himself - as he tore his gaze away from the transcripts in his hands to the ones on the table, his hip awkwardly bumping against the edge. He set the ones she'd given him aside to start reading from the others, leaning against the table with his back turned to it for support.

Marinette bit her bottom lip, sympathetic. The stack contained a majority of the transcripts she'd picked up and, while he may've intended try to pour through all of them, she did keep a choice few tucked away: specifically, the ones from the future that had him in them. It wasn't that she was ashamed of what she was written to do or wanted to keep him in the dark, but she'd wanted to mull things over herself first.

In more direct terms, her feelings for him. She would never deny that their first meeting had been "staged," written in such a way for them to start crushing on each other. She'd spent the full two weeks questioning her own emotions, sorting through them to see which felt real and which felt manufactured. It wasn't easy, and even now it was hard to gauge exactly what she felt that day.

So on some level, she looked forward to this: seeing Luka in front of her after reading something that treated him as someone to set aside. He still felt real, she'd still been aware of his body heat when they'd sat next to each other, and she couldn't help watching how he tilted his head just slightly when his bangs got in the way of reading a line or two.

She brought her clasped hands to her chest, feeling her own heartbeat. Regardless of the past, she knew the quickened thumping wasn't only from nerves, but what she couldn't know were his feelings.

Withholding those few transcripts for just a little longer played into that.

Marinette noticed the papers quiver in Luka's hands, looking down to see a tight grip that was all too familiar to her. Unable to stand aside any longer, she stepped towards him and unclasped her hands. Her fingers were stiff from gripping herself so tight, but she reached out anyway, delicately sliding her hand over his.

Luka's haunted gaze broke as he made eye contact with her, searching for something she couldn't quite place. Before she could say anything, he moved, both arms going around her and pulling her into a tight squeeze. The air left her lungs in a gasp, and her next breath took in his scent, so very close to her.

"Haaa—" He stopped for a moment, wavering, then tried again. "H-have you been dealing with this all by yourself?"

Her vision started to blur, tears coming to her eyes unbidden. He was the heavier of the two of them and she could feel it in his embrace, but the weight coming off her shoulders made it feel like nothing. She hadn't given a thought to what she may have liked to hear herself after what she'd been through, yet his words struck her in the heart in every right way.

It was an unspoken 'You're not alone anymore.' She hugged him back just as tightly, burying her face into his shoulder as she cherished the moment.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, having little else to say after keeping it a secret for what felt like so long. She might not have needed to apologize for it, but it clearly hurt him to know that she had been hurting.

And now he'd be with her through all of this; he'd shown her as much. Whether that involved helping her figure out what to do about Hawk Moth or how to break away fully from the plot, he'd be there.

That meant there was only one more thing to check.

Slowly, Marinette loosened her grip on the back of his jacket, giving him a sign that he could let go. His hands dropped back down to his sides, one hand still clutching the transcripts he'd been reading, but before he could step away from her, she reached up to take his face in her hands. His mouth dropped open without a sound, the hair in front of his ears tickling her fingers as she slid her palms against his cheeks.

His face was paler than usual from everything that'd been revealed to him, but colored at her featherlight touch. She tried to communicate everything with her eyes, giving him every opportunity to pull away from her.

The plots consistently tried to keep the events in place. Her grandfather still got akumatized, she'd put back and pulled out the wrong letter multiple times before giving up and keeping it between her teeth while she reached inside her yoyo, and Adrien still came along to the photoshoot no matter what she did. She could almost feel the world resisting her at every turn.

It wasn't safe to let her guard down when she knew one of the transcripts were taking place. It was already hard enough trying to make changes while the threat of the "destined" outcomes loomed over her, and there were other outcomes that were clearly avoided, such as her and Chat learning each other's identities.

When she first learned - read - that Adrien was Chat, there were a few days where she struggled to remember it. Maybe it was because of so much information being piled onto her at once, or something was fighting knowledge that she wasn't supposed to have.

And now, right there with her, was someone she wasn't supposed to have.

"Luka," she whispered, then closed her eyes and kissed him.

It was purposeful. It was delightful. It was terrifying. If there were only an external force causing his feelings for her, this is where it would all come undone. She kept her eyes shut tight, trying to feel out any sign that he didn't want this.

Instead, she heard the fluttering of papers, the transcripts falling at her feet as Luka held her again. He returned the kiss just as passionately, the stiffness and nerves from before fading away while he let himself drown in the comfort of the contact.

Faintly, she could recall her first kiss - the one demanded of her if she wanted to take out the akuma - but memories associated with anything written before she'd read the transcripts had slowly drifted to the back of her mind. They detached themselves from all else, as if she'd only experienced them in someone else's body.

Kissing Luka, meanwhile, felt vivid, her body shuddering in a mixture of joy and relief. Even when the kiss broke, he didn't step back from her, pressing their foreheads together. His eyes were half-lidded and appeared almost more blue than usual, a color she was quickly associating with hope.

Both at a loss for words, they accepted it and left talk of the future for the future. As for right then and there, they could write their own story just for themselves.

#queuekanette #lukaneventte: No Context November #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette #type: salt #episode: Animaestro #((Nothing like a little psychological horror for Halloween.))

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rosekasa · 10 months ago

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58 for the kiss prompt??

HI ILY THANK U FOR THIS

58. “It’s been years since we’ve seen each other and I didn’t know what happened to you because of secret identities” kiss from this list by @kisspromptsforthelovesquare

The train of her dress catches in the jamb when she slams the door. "Are you fucking kidding me?" she says.

Adrien looks down at his loafers. The floor has been freshly polished. This room is probably booked for another wedding later today. After Marinette finishes taking her vows at hers.

She takes a step forward, fingers clutching so hard at her bouquet that the stems start to split. "Adrien," she says. "What did Tikki mean when she said you're Chat Noir?"

Music floats through the corridor from the other hall. He knows no one's going to wonder where he is, but what about the bride?

He swallows, still looking at his loafers. "...You weren't meant to find out today," he says quietly.

She scoffs. "So after the reception was your idea of good timing?"

Adrien says nothing.

She reaches her hands up, like she wants to scrub them down her face, then thinks better of it. They still haven't even gotten around to the actual ceremony yet -- she can't ruin her makeup.

"God, Adrien, I just--" She sighs. "How could you not have told me before?"

"...There was never a good time," he says.

"Never?" she repeats. "You came back to Paris six months ago!"

He bristles. As if he didn't think about it back then. As if he wouldn't have told her at the airport on the very first day, when she'd outrun Alya and Nino and jumped on him when her engagement ring brushed against his neck.

Does she feel differently about that hug now? Now that she knows he's Chat Noir, her ex-boyfriend, the boy who disappeared as soon as Hawk Moth was arrested?

"I don't know what you want me to say," he says. "It's not like it would've changed anything."

Her eyes cut towards him. "Adrien, do you really think I'd be getting married today if I knew who you were?"

The words hang in the air, reverbing in his ears long after it stopped in the empty room. She can't possibly mean what he thinks she means. She's been with that guy for two years, they have an apartment together, he's pretty sure she's mentioned adopting a cat soon--

"That's not--" He struggles for a moment. "Of-- of course you would, I mean, you love him--"

"Then what stopped you from telling me in the first place?"

He swallows hard.

He knew. He knew full well what would've happened if he'd told her.

Her eyes are moist behind her mascared lashes. "I can't go back out there," she says.

"What?" he says. He steps forward, edging around the skirt of her dress. "Marinette-- no. You have to."

"I can't, I--" Her voice cracks. She turns her eyes up, holding back tears.

"Marinette." He grabs her hands, almost desperately, and squeezes. "Marinette. This is your future. Your life."

"It was my life," she says. "When I thought I wouldn't see you again." Her gaze shifts back to his face. "How can I promise myself to someone that isn't you?"

Her ring feels like a blade against his thumb.

"You kind of already did," he whispers.

She sighs. Her head drops to rest on his chest. Her veil looks like a white tulip petal, spreading across the floor behind her.

Careful not to dislodge her bun, he cups her head. Leaning his face down, he kisses her hair.

"You'll be okay," he says softly. He takes her by the arms and helps her straighten. "You'll be more than okay. I mean, he has much better hair than me anyway."

She laughs wetly, dabbing at her lashes with a finger. "That's impossible and you know it."

He cracks a pained smile.

He wonders when the next flight out of Paris is tonight.

#miraculous ladybug #adrienette #lovesquare #mlb fic #ml fic #♡alizeh writes♡#ask

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starwarsmum · 4 months ago

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A new fic? Me? Must be Wednesday 😅 this is based off a prompt for @apileofashandember about Marinette meeting the batfam through Penny ❤️

The rating on this is Mature because it gets a little spicy further down the line! You have been warned 😘

Chapter 1: A Liar Ruins a Website

Marinette sat alone in her room, hands scrunched in her hair as she muffled her screams into her bed. Her laptop sat innocently on her pillow, new comments popping up every few minutes on her now ruined website.

“Make a website, Jagged said, it'll get your name out there, he said,” she complained to Tikki. The tiny god wisely said nothing, but settled itself into her hair. “How did that liar even find out about it? No, don't answer that,” she added when Tikki took a breath. “If I don't take my website down now, my name will be ruined, and I will never design professionally again.”

One short internet search later, and her heart broke as she changed the code to an out of service message. She would have to email the half a dozen clients that she had secured in the past month or so, and contact Jagged and Penny to let them know. It wasn't fair, she had worked so hard on making her website cute and fun. And now all of that hard work was ruined.

She sighed and opened up her group chat with Jagged and Penny, looking back at the good luck messages she had received from them about the website. It made her miss the early days of her commissions, when Jagged had asked her to make a pair of sunglasses and an album cover.

Nette: hey, just to let you know, I had to take the site down. someone said I stole their work and I got a bunch of hate

Auntie P: what?! who dares? I'm sorry Nette, that's awful

Uncle J: that's not rock n roll! is it that girl you told us about? Leela? Layla?

Nette: probably, not that I can prove it

Marinette sighed, rubbing her eyes. She fired off the emails to her clients, hoping to get ahead for the night. She had finished her homework, but she still had an hour or two before she crashed for the night so she was hoping to get at least one of the designs finalised.

She got lost in the designing process, fresh pages becoming covered in sketches and annotations. She surfaced from her work after Tikki reminded her that she had school the next morning, so she readied herself for bed. When she checked her messages again before she went to sleep, she saw a new one flashing on the group chat.

Aunt P: if you need a hand rebranding, creating a new website, just let us know. we're proud of you for being so mature with this and we'll help you succeed

Nette: thanks both, I may take you up on that. I just need a couple of days to get over this setback and we'll sort it

It was after a fitful night's sleep that Marinette awoke, late as usual, and ran through her morning rituals. She shoved her hair into a bun, dragged on a semi-respectable outfit and grabbed a croissant on her way through the bakery. Now that she was in lycée, she had to travel further in the mornings. Fortunately, with the motorcycle she had finally passed the test to drive, she didn't need to rely on public transport to get there.

“Girl, are you okay?” Alya raced up to her as she pulled into the lycée car park, throwing her arms around Marinette. “Lila told us your website went down last night, right when she was about to submit a request! What happened?”

“Someone started a rumour that I stole my designs and it meant a bunch of people started trashing the site,” Marinette said, trying to keep her voice even. She couldn't help stressing the first word, as she knew who was likely behind it, but she regretted it when Alya sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Not again, Marinette! I know it's been hard for you since you and Adrien didn't work out, and now it looks like he and Lila are going to start dating, but you need to stop with the jealousy! I love you, girl, but you get so into your head about him.”

“Alya, I didn't even say anything!” Marinette protested, weariness settling back onto her like an old, heavy blanket. “Look, whatever, it's not important right now. We're going to be late to class if we don't hustle.”

“I know you, Mari, you always think it was Lila!” Alya sounded exasperated, and it wasn't like Marinette could refute it. They walked along the hallway to their lockers, nodding at their friends as they passed. “And I get it, really, you can't help how you feel, but like I've told you before, you have to look at things objectively to get to the truth!”

Marinette bit her tongue, not wanting to point out that Alya’s blind insistence that Lila would never do such a thing was just as subjective as her believing that she had. She deliberately changed the topic to something else, ignoring the disapproving look her best friend shot her.

When they entered their classroom, Marinette greeted her other friends, sliding easily into her seat. She had chosen to sit at the back of the class so that nobody could say she had to give up her seat to someone else, reducing the upset it caused when Lila started spinning tales. She was fortunate that Lila had been placed in a different class in the previous years, but in her last year of lycée, her luck had finally run out.

“Oh my gosh, Marinette, I heard about your website!” Came the liar's high pitched faux-concerned voice. It grated on her that she would have to play nice with Lila once again, as Lila got her jabs in at Marinette. “It's so scary that someone would start a rumour about your work ethic, with so little evidence! Adrien and I were talking about it last night, he's always saying how you're still such a good friend to him.”

“Yeah, well, actually there's no evidence of me stealing designs because it's one hundred percent untrue,” Marinette said blandly, staring Lila down. She ignored the distressed noises the other girl started to make and waved a hand. “It doesn't matter, I have a few commissions to get through, but then I should take a break from designing to focus on the BAC anyway…”

Everyone around her told her it was such a shame that she wouldn't be able to take on new commissions for a while and she nodded glumly. She had no intention of stopping designing, of course, but this would hopefully give her some breathing room whilst she got herself set up again - anonymously this time.

Which sadly meant that Max was no longer an option for making a new website. As much as she loved her friends, they really didn't look too hard at Lila's fantastic stories, which meant they would blithely tell the witch when Marinette set up again. This way, she would make a name for herself separately, and claim the brand in a few years once it was fully legitimised.

The lessons that day felt like they dragged on forever, Marinette just wanting to go home and make some progress on her commissions. She had learned to keep her sketchbooks at home - she didn't want to lose her work to people like 14-year-old Chloe - so she focused on trying to get a headstart on her homework whenever she had a free minute.

“Marinette! We were just talking about our Christmas plans, girl, weren't you making a bunch of designs for the local nativity play?” Alya beckoned her over and Marinette hid the grimace that threatened to cross her face. “Wow, that's so cool! Did you volunteer or something?”

“Not really, they saw some of my work and offered me a reasonable price for their main costumes for the play,” Marinette answered, wary of where the conversation would go next. She had stopped doing freebies for her friends, which had upset them until she had explained that she wanted to go to university in America and needed to spend all of her time on paid commissions.

“Oh, it's so nice for you that you're comfortable taking pay from such an underfunded space, Marinette!” Lila put in, sounding sweet as per usual, but with all of the underhandedness that Marinette was accustomed to. “I was just telling Rose that I'm planning on volunteering my time at a soup kitchen throughout the Christmas period. My friends, Damian and Tim, their family funds a few different charities both here and abroad. Do you think Adrien will be able to help out too?”

“You should probably check with his aunt,” she replied flatly, refusing to be baited into an argument about whether she should be doing the costumes for free. “I need to go and eat, excuse me.” She pushed away from the table, feeling drained again and resolutely ignoring the conversation that picked up about Lila's ‘friends’. Marinette was sure that whoever Lila was claiming to know this time had no clue who she was and she wasn't going to get stuck in that mess.

She toyed with her phone before deciding that she absolutely needed a new website and that Penny's friend was likely her best bet. So she crafted her message, begging Penny to put her in touch with her computer whiz before slogging through her homework and lunch.

_ _ _

Marinette sat nervously at her desk later that evening, waiting for the video call Penny had promised her. They had decided a three-way call was the best way to introduce them both, but as the other two were in America, it was later than Marinette would have liked for a video call.

Tikki was sitting quietly on her shoulder as she sketched anxiously. She knew that whoever Penny was introducing her to would be nice enough, but she was always unsure of meeting new people. She added a few details to her work, and jumped when the laptop began ringing. She hastily accepted the call, twisting in her chair and tapping her fingers.

“Hi, Nette,” came Penny's bright voice. “And hey Babs, thanks for coming on the call to help. Marinette, this is Barbara, an old student of sorts. I worked with her back when I was an aide at Gotham U, she was studying library science with a minor in computer sciences. Babs, this is Marinette, Jagged's personal designer. She's done a ton of his more recent album artwork and designed all of his stage outfits for the last 2 years. She's also our honorary niece.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Marinette!” The woman was leaning towards her screen, scrutinising the teenager. Marinette eyed her as well, seeing a whole mane of red hair and glasses above a broad smile. “Penny mentioned you needed some help with a website, though she didn't mention you were so accomplished already.”

“Ah, yes, I had some recent trouble with my own website and I don't have enough technical know-how to create something secure. I'm planning to go anonymous, to prevent the same thing happening again, but I have no idea where to start,” Marinette explained, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

“And how do you plan to get clients if you have no base to start from?” Babs was beginning to type furiously, a gleam in her eyes. “Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your work is wonderful, but if you don't have any endorsements, isn't it really hard to break onto the fashion scene?”

“Oh, well I thought I'd have Jagged do the introduction, if that's okay, Pen? Because I'm under 18, I didn't tell anyone except my maman that I was working with Jagged and she promised to keep it to herself. I figured that way I can sort commissions and won't have a problem with getting new clients.”

“Wicked idea, M!” Came Jagged's voice from off screen, making her giggle. “Babs, let us know when you have her site up and running and I'll rep it on my socials. Rock n roll, girls!”

So they worked out the logistics moving forward, Marinette trading contact info with Barbara and promising one evening a week to go over the website details. It was everything Marinette had hoped for when Penny had offered to connect her with a friend. When the call finally ended, it was closer to midnight in Paris and she was relieved that it was a weekend the following day.

“That went well, Marinette,” Tikki squeaked at her, floating around head height as the girl got herself ready for bed. Marinette agreed before collapsing into bed with a groan. It didn't take long for her to pass out, a slight smile on her face.

#ao3 #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #damian x marinette #damianette #maribat #daminette fanfic #daminette #chapter 1 #1st chapter #chapter 1/31 #Introducing: Mousinette!

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eightofpents · 3 months ago

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A collection of rambling thoughts about London under the cut. spoilers, obv.

The idea that the butterfly's champions Never remember is straight up Canonically not true right? First thing the special says and it's straight bullshit.

The Gorilla grabs Bug Noire's hand to stop her from destroying the door. Can we talk about how stupid dangerous that was? If she doesn't react in time you Die. Bro.

Kagami definitely disapproves of the lying plan, but the "go away ladybug" line, doesn't strike me as angry at her (which is a read i've seen). It feels like Kagami giving her an out before she says something stupid and outs herself, to me.

"And you will need it." The fuck was that Tikki? Oh. Oh you little shit.

"There's no such thing as ghosts." Excuse me you have a fairy literally inside you right now but ghosts definitely DO NOT exist, sure.

Both of Lila's akumatizations being boy shaped could easily be a laudable commitment to disguise. Certainly she's known to be good at it. But. Do you think she has Gender? (also, it was ridiculous (utterly ridiculous) when they tried to play off Kagami's gender as a big reveal. but this is worse. it'd be one thing to they/them akuma!Lila just because the audience knows. but 'Bug says he once and Bunnyx corrects her. they Always assume gender! sometimes incorrectly! (see Kagami) and they commit to it. (is this an english only problem??))

We all love Nathalie for waking up from dead and saying "Time to kill Gabriel again." But she knows she's only awake because he made the wish. She goes down there, crossbow in hand, expecting to find Gabriel And Emilie. (i don't think she coulda killed him in front of her.)

"The light is already on. They were always here." There is only one timeline forever. But then what the hell is Bunnyx's job. Timetagger, yes. A villain gets timeywimey powers, gotta stop em, a reasonable use of time police. "Marinette you made a wrong decision for the timeline (what? how?) and now you gotta stop Chat from blowing up." Stupid. The elder buns knew this was coming. But they still fade. This show has a fixed timeline. But parts of it explicitly involve risking the timeline itself and pretending there's a world where they might lose? Astruc get your shit together.

Using papillon to refer to the new unnamed butterfly holder makes sense. Translating that as Hawk Moth does not.

Marinette: Should I lie to Adrien about his dad? Everyone else: Definitely not. But you're Ladybug and his girlfriend so we trust your decision. (what?) Marinette: Got it. Time to lie.

Calling the lucky charm to get untangled is fucking great. (i'm never gonna be over this actually.)

Completely in love with the London fight. A portal fight is always sick. And the fact that it's Bunnyx in control of the portals, not Chronobug? the team work! And I'm, like, distractingly into the song in the back half. The bug's out here sayin' all this cool shit and I can't hear her cause my brain is Locked In on the music. (and i am not known to notice a soundtrack)

Lila has never interested me. I Love Chloé, and Gabriel and Nathalie are the loves of my life, but Lila's villainy just doesn't do anything for me. (Maybe if she were allowed to be a person, I guess.) But. If Lila's willing to get Fucky with it, poke around with the rules of the miraculous. I think I can get behind her. (a villain with more cunning than gabriel will be fun. the butterfly is immensely powerful and he was too dumb to use it well <3)

#miraculous ladybug #ml london #ml london special #ml london spoilers #not art

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xhanisai · 2 years ago

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if you don’t mind I’d love to see plagg and tikki’s human forms

I drew them human designs last year but they looked too "God" like so I gave them a bit of a hairstyle change so that they can sort of fit in as civilians! Snipped off Plagg's long hair and put Tikki's in a bun LMAO!!!

Despite that, they have a very ethereal, perfect beauty to them so the people around them can't help but be entranced by them (until they take a whiff of Plagg's breath after he's eaten a shit ton of cheese).

They go by as Plagg and Tikki (cos I don't want to bother giving them human names) and they guise themselves as a married couple. They sort of are married anyways since they're two halves of a whole BUT ANYWAYS Plagg is very insufferable about it and Tikki has to deal with his shenanigans nonstop.

The reason that they have chosen to stick with human forms this time around is because their wielders are practically toddlers. They will be higher maintenance and will need to be looked after. When adrinette wields the powers, plikki sends them a surge of their energy but still retains their forms (any form they like) so that they can keep a proper eye over the kids and step in if needed.

They're also hired as babysitters for them too and work as teaching assistants in the school adrinette goes to. So they are basically adrinette's second set of parents.

It's easier for them to introduce themselves as Marinette's mother/Adrien's father. I guess they are their literal Godparents...

#my asks #babybug and chaton noir au #my art #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug and chat noir #plikki #adrinette

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miracleandplagueau · 2 years ago

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MIRACLE AND PLAGUE -- ALL LINEUPS + DESIGN NOTES

Good luck to anyone reading this, I spent good 1.5 hour on writing this out instead of studing LMAO

JIAYI DUPAIN-CHENG -- WONDERBUG

- She designed the jacket herself. There's a clover logo on the back with a hidden signature.

- One of the bracelets (the ribbon one) is a matching gift from Alya. She has a similar one.

- The red fade is a side-effect of the Wonder

- In her hero form, her irises or pupils aren't visible

- The symbol on her belt is the chinese symbol of luck

- She has two yoyos in the pockets on her sides - one is a spare one

- Her capette is supposed to resemble Tikki's "wings"

- She has small metal guards on the top of her hands/gloves

- The anthennas are tied into her hair

ADRIEN AGRESTE -- CHAT NOIR

- His hair fade is dark brown. I chose a softer shade because black-black did not look nice

- Adrien is wearing clothes from his father's brand. It's most evident because of the butterfly logo on the front of the sweater

- Cat ears and tail real

- The tail has a little ball on the very end. It's in order to imitate Plagg's tail and It gives some personality to the design.

- He has three sticks attached to his belt

- The whiskers are barely visible but they're there!

GABRIEL AGRESTE -- MONARCH

- He's wearing darker clothes to reflect on his gloomy personality and in order not to stand out as he's trying to avoid attention outside of his home

- The coat was designed himself - similarly to Jiayi's jacket that she designer on her own

- His hair color is light purple and most of the time comes off as silver which is definitely to his advantage

- The hero form has little antennas that usually bend along his hair

- Transformation is definitely more combat-based despite the power being suiter for long-distance

- The back material resemble butterfly wings and allow him to fall slower If needed

- The additional set of eyes serve a purpose of supporting his eyesight as glasses don't appear in his hero form

ALYA CESAIRE -- RENA ROGUE

- The ribbon on her wrist is matching with Jiayi

- She wears a beret sometimes

- The shirt is a reference to a video game character she's a fan of

- The sleeves of the jacket are made out of leather

- The mask resembles a fox with spiky parts under her eyes. It also has a white part running down from her forehead

- The brown shoulder parts are actually short fur. So are the side cuts on the pants, they're also fluffy

- While the tail takes a form very similar to the Wonder itself, it still functions as a regular tail

- Her ears are very pointy and long

- Mismatched socks

CHLOE BOUGREOIS -- QUEEN BEE

- She technically shouldn't be walking around with open shoulders, but she uses her father's influence to avoid following the dress code.

- The scrunchie she's wearing to make her bun has little strings that are meant to look a little like antennas

- All three of her designs have yellow-dark stripes, in hero form's case It's yellow-red.

- In her second design, she's wearing Wonderbug merch

- She has little fluffy cuffs on her wrists that are similar to Pollen's fluff

- Her boots are meant to look very similar to Pollen's legs, even with the weird "extension" at the back

- The "wings" have little hanging jewlers at the endings, making them look more decorative than functional yet It continues to serve a similar purpose to Monarch's wings

- The anthennas are a bit thicker at the end in comparison to Monarch's

NINO

- I don't have much about Nino yet, I still need to design his hero form

- I gave him a little braid on the side with colorful marbles at the very end

- He always gave me the skaterboy vibe so I went along with it and gave him knee guards (mismatched like Alya's socks :p)

- Ripped sleeve from an old fall

- Big headphones replaced with earbuds and a red hat to add more red

SABRINA RAINCOMPLIX

- Her first design is very similar to her original

- She's wearing a semi-formal attire with elements from the school's uniform

- Her second design is very opposite to Chloe's usual style/style that she chose to hold on to while in Chloe's presence

- It's a mix of everything, but motifs like mushrooms, suns, space. There's also a ton of accessories (like bracelets and moon-themed jewlery on the glasses) and things that let her personalize everything a bit more like patches on the pants.

- She's wearing a headband with a blue flower

JULEKA COUFFAINE

- I gave her a slight tweak to the outfit, but nothing very big so I'll pass on design notes

- She's wearing a matching necklace with Rose

LILA ROSSI

- Lila's hair is braided into a long braid with front hair being stylized after fox's tails

- She's seen wearing parts of her school's uniform - most notably the red jacket

- Her eyes are green with yellow tints at the lower part

- Volpina's form might not look that far off, but there's a few very important parts to mention

- As Monarch's power isn't strong enough to actually make a form fully resembling a fox holder, Volpina looks more like a Jackal. Jackals from afar are generally similar to a fox with the exception of longer ears and muted colors. Her flatter tail, ears are supposed to look like that

- The shorts are simliar to the ones from the canon design

LUKA COUFFAINE

- Luka's style was revamped completely, giving him a more individual, indie-rock kind of style.

- The ripped jeans are matching with his sister :D

- He's got snake bites now

- I left the blue jacket from the canon, just making it bigger and worn only for colder weather

- Luka has freckles on his shoulders

NATHANIEL KURTZBERG

- A bunch of changes made but I don't have too much notes about it

- He usually has his hair down whereas it looks very similar to canon, but occassionally the hair is tied up

MARC ANCIEL

- Half-star on the shoes

- Two chains pinned to the shorts: one is a regular chain, second is the thin, longer one

- Colors present on the T-shirt: purple, magenta, pink, yellow-y, muddy green + the star

ALIX KUBDEL -- BUNNIX

- Her hair is a little shorter than in canon

- The hoodie is cropped while the shirt underneath is just plain

- Fingerless gloves that also act as hand guards for rollerblading are often seen

- She has a scar under her right knee

- Unlike the usual fade, Bunnix has a light/blue strike in her hair

- That round, fluffy, cloud-like motif is present along the entire hero form

- The mask has three freckles on each side

NATALIE SANCOEUR

- A Gabriel-brand broch

TIKKI

Dark shade fading from her lower limbs

Four arms

Little wings on the back - she can fly without them anyway

Long "eyelashes"

PLAGG

Much more fluffier

The tail has this off spiky part at the very end

Long long whiskers

NOOROO

Fluff at the chest and the ends of lower limbs

Similar fade as tikki, but a lighter shade instead

Also long "eyelashes"

TRIXX

Fluffy

POLLEN

4 Anthennas

Thin limb endings unlike other insect-like Kwamis

The wings are very thin

Points of bending (limbs) are bend backwards (see lower limbs)

DUUSU

Bird-like legs

Pattern on the tail are actually additional eyes

The chest is made out of colorful, small feathers

WAYZZ

Hard to touch

Shell on the back is brown with green moss-like spots

TUZIN (RABBIT WONDER)

Cloud-like theme present

Extremely soft to touch

Ears are deformed, they are naturally stylized and are supposed to look unrealistic

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yamanehaize01 · 8 months ago

Text

Miracle laid in Serendipity: Unveiling the Voyage of Miraculous Bearers

The Unknowing Tale between Y/n L/n & Adrien Agreste

Chapter 02: Lunar Thorn

Previous & Subsequent Chapters | 01 | 03 | 04 | Loading...

Second — Point of View.

Perspective of Y/n L/n.

Opening the door to your first class, your body language is telling you that you've been quite exhausted these past few days. A week has passed since you became a superheroine, or known as Sekkibug. It slipped out of the tip of your tongue, when you took a moment to examine the color of your main suit and designs. “Sekki” reminded you of the color red, and the spots – Tikki was the first thing that came to your mind. In a sense, Tikki is red and a floating cute tiny bug, that you happily call your companion! A thought that initially led you into an idea, kinda surprising that you come up with something outside the box though..! It was somewhat unusual for you to be early today in your first class, it feels kind of strange. But you want to have a bit of reading time to yourself, especially on your studies.

You got a few notes from your kind classmates that were willing to let you borrow their notes, so you wouldn't get left behind. One of those classmates is Marinette. She's very shy at first, sweet and kind, she was the first person that took a minute of her time to ask if you're holding up. Or if the class is somewhat troubling you, it was a miracle. You still remember the time you're quite stunned for a moment, before letting out an awkward laugh and nodding your head.

She's also a busy student once in a while, since her family owns a popular bakery nearby. You even stopped by that one time to try some of their pastries, and goodness, it was delicious. You have to remind yourself to come back whenever you're in the mood for sugary things.

A small shuffling inside your bookbag caught your attention, you lifted it up and placed it on your lap, opening the middle strap. You were welcome by your Kwami — Tikki, seemingly she's unwrapping the neat plastic of the small bread bun. She stopped what she was doing, looking up at you with a sweet smile. “Let me unwrap it for you, Tikki..” You whisper, gently picking up the bread bun and removing the smooth laces of the plastic keeping it together. You softly unwrap the plastic from the bread bun, before crumpling the wrappings into a little ball.

“Here you go, Tikki.” You say with a soft smile, handing the bread bun to the tiny Kwami. “Thank you, Y/n.” Tikki’s face lit up, grabbing a hold of the soft bread bun with her two tiny hands, hugging it. You let her enjoy her snack, closing your bookbag and for the meantime setting it besides you until Nathaniel shows up. You grab one of your notebook, flipping the pages until it is at the current note from last friday's class.

There will be an upcoming quiz in a few days, and you don't want to score that low of a grade. You hold your pen, the tip of your nail thumb scratching at the base of the pen, creating these scratch marks that happen almost every time with your pens or pencils. You can't help it most of the time, it became a habit for you to do whenever you're trying to focus on something but couldn't exactly decipher the full meaning and reasons.

A familiar bluenette girl entered the classroom with her best friend, Alya. She seems a bit troubled or upset? And her best friend is patting her back to soothe the gloomy girl. “I don't know, Alya.. I-I just..! I can't seem to stay calm when I'm around him..! Now of course, Chloe took advantage of it when she saw the chance.” Marinette hung her head low in defeat, a deep sigh escaping her lips. “I-I.. I can't win… I'm a total mess when it comes to Adrien, what if he thinks I'm weird..?”

Marinette shakes her head, holding back tears from her eyelids. “It's not fair.. W-Why am I like this…” She walks towards her seat, sitting down and crossing her arms on her desk, burying her face in the middle. A few sniffles of soft cries come out of the bluenette, you furrowed your eyebrows at this. You know that you're guilty for listening in on their conversation, but Marinette has been kind and helped you these past few days.

You want to return her kindness in some way, seeing the sweet girl sad instead of her usual smile. It made you feel a bit saddened as well, so standing up from your seat. You make your way towards the bluenette’s desk, seeing how her shoulders are trembling as she cries. This is bad.. After your previous week being having to fight akumanization from Hawkmoth, you learned that negative emotions attract his attention.

And you may not be there all the time to prevent anyone from getting akumatized, but you can try to prevent one person from being victim to it. “Hey uhm.. Marinette.” You start off, you can't admit how sometimes you come off as awkward when trying to be involved in some type of interaction. Blue ocean eyes stare back at you, her sparkling pupils widening, as she fixes her posture and sits up straight. Trying to wipe the tears that continue to fall from her eyelids, she let out a small chuckle as if to say to not worry about it.

“H-Hi, Y/n..! S-Sorry, I'm just feeling a bit under the weather..” She lied, stuttering a bit. You gave her a small look of empathy, placing your hand onto the edges of the desk. “No, I'm sorry.. because I overheard your conversation. I know it's not my concern, but.. I want to help.” You offered, making Marinette a bit shocked by that. She slowly shakes her head, she doesn't want to involve you too, she’ll only waste your time. “Y-You don't have to.. It's just stupid.. I-I don't want to make you—” You softly cut her off, giving her a close-eyed smile.

“I insist, you are a sweet and kind girl, Marinette. If you want to be friends with Adri-en..? Then I'm sure you can! I'm positive!” It took a full minute for the bluenette girl to reply, as she blinked and averted her gaze with a blush. Ah.. you misunderstood it clearly– what is she thinking..? It works fine in her favor, she’ll feel bad if you get caught up with her awful advances towards Adrien.. but hey, you’ll still help her get close to him, so it's not all that bad.. right? Didn't know how to reply, instead she simply nodded her head shyly.

You felt a soft nudge against your arm, and you turned towards Marinette’s friend, Alya. “Oh girl- you are gonna be in for a long drive.” She chuckles, both her and Marinette sending looks from each other, merely Marinette as she lightly shakes her head with a small smile, indicating for Alya to go along with it. And before you could give Alya a giggle of your own, another student entered the room. Marinette shrinks in her seat, seeing the love of her life closing the door behind him with Nino already upfront and walking towards Alya. Her blue eyes scanned the blonde’s movement, the way he held the doorknob and his fingers slipped off of it when he knew the door was closed. And the way his hand returns back to the long strap of his crossbody bag.

She could already feel herself melting when she looks up and he stares back down at her with a gentle smile. Her heart is already exploding, The Adrien! Send her a smile first! She can't believe it..! Then she notices how his perfectly green emerald eyes switch to someone else, she slightly furrows her eyebrows before turning her gaze lightly towards where Adrien is looking at.

Oh.. you approach him? Wait- why so sudden—

“Hello, you're Adrien right?” You asked the blonde, and he looks at you a bit, slightly confused but he nods his head with an awkward chuckle. “Yeah, that's me.” Okay, Marinette wanna be friends with this guy, but wait- what were you going to ask him again? Oh- right, you came up with an idea. “Uh, Marinette kinda needs your opinion on something— uhm.” You look back towards Marinette, who went stiff and her face completely red. You look towards Alya, you were kind of indirectly asking for help to finish your sentence. You have no idea what Marinette even needs help with, Oh! Maybe subjects? You quite notice that he is good with smart stuff, you don't know. You just heard Ms Bustier call him at times and he seems to answer her questions like it was no problem.

Thank goodness, Alya notices the kind of needing help look that you were sending, and she finishes the sentence for you. “She wants your opinion on her sketches, since it's about fashion designs. We think you might be able to give her a good opinion about it.” Alya says, and you drew a sigh of relief. Adrien gazes back to Marinette, who somehow tried to avoid eye contact with him at the moment.

“No problem, I could try and have a look at it after class.” Adrien replies with a small smile, Alya nudges her friend, making her let out a yelp and try to respond to her crush. “Y-Yea— Y-Yeah..! T-That's.. P-Perfect..! I-I mean! G-Great..! Haha..” Marinette stuttered horribly, but Adrien only let out a light chuckle at that. Your stare went back and forth towards the two of them, yep– now you get why Alya always pushes the Bluenette girl towards Adrien infront of the school in an attempt for them to talk to one another.

The bell suddenly rang, attracting multiple attention from the students, signaling it's about time for them to get to class. You eventually went back to your seats like the others did, and grabbed your bookbag from Nathaniel’s spot, and put it down under the table. You’ll try your best this time to listen to the lesson, it's about time you improve at it.

🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱 🂱

A long sigh left your lips, as you exited the classroom. You hold your notebook with two hands, seeing the very few notes that you're able to scribble down from the lesson. It is progress, but you can't help but think it's too slow, you're not in grade one anymore. You should be better at taking down notes or making sense of the lesson at your age right now. You can't help but feel ashamed, but what's crying a river going to do?

You felt a tap on your shoulder, and you quickly turned around to see who it was. To your obvious bewilderment, it was Adrien. You look around to see if Marinette is nearby, isn't he supposed to be with Marinette right now? That’s strange.. You look once more, even walking away a few steps to make sure. But then you realized your actions, and how it's probably quite rude to walk away from a person who wanted to interact with you.

“Um.. sorry, I'm just confused. Isn't Marinette supposed to be with you..?” You tilt your head a bit to the side, and the innocent look in your eyes made his expression softened even more. “Alya said Marinette forgot her sketchbook at home.” Adrien explained simply, you replied with a small “Ohh..” You avert your eyes for a moment in deep thought, but then why is he approaching you out of nowhere?

You returned your gaze back at him and was about to ask — when you saw him looking down on your almost if not– empty notes. You immediately hide it behind your back, embarrassment coating your face. You gave him an awkward laugh as if wishing he hadn't caught sight of your terrible notes. “Haha— uhm! I gotta go, I just remembered I forgot–” You turn around to leave, but Adrien’s hand wrapped around your arm.

“Wait..! I didn't mean to look at your — but if you're having difficulty with Ms Bustier’s lesson.. I-I have..” He trails off, gulping down his nerves before continuing. “Some spare time to go to the library.. will you come with me..?” He asked with an apologetic look, is he serious..? You lightly fidget at the handle of your bookbag, it doesn't sound so bad.. sigh.. maybe just one last time. Y/n.. you are so helpless when it comes to your studies.. it's giving you a major headache.

“Sure.. I appreciate it…” You replied and Adrien brushed it off lightly saying it's alright. You let him lead the way while you follow up behind him, and as you both arrive at your destination. Adrien opened the door for you, letting you enter first, it feels.. well, awkward but you know he's probably just a gentleman in general.

You took a seat at one of the library table chairs, while the blonde took a seat next to you and started unpacking some of his stuff. You do too as well, getting your textbook and being careful not to accidentally hit Tikki in your bookbag. The silence was nice but quite unbearable, maybe because you weren't used to things like this. Sitting with another person in a very empty room, you were internally wishing someone would walk into the library as well. That will make you feel at ease, weirdly enough.

The small tutoring of Adrien was not so bad, his teachings were direct and not so subtly hinting at anything like your previous classmates did back in your hometown. It made you understand it better, and there are at times where the blonde had to wave his pen infront of your face to stop your impending trance.

You always feel bad when it happens, apologizing back to him. “I-I.. uhm. I'm really sorry, it's just.. I can't keep my mind intact, I'll focus now..!” He is quite merciful when it happens though, which you are thankful for, he's nice just like Marinette is to you. In the middle of his tutoring, you lightly asked if you could grab your lunch from your bookbag as you're getting kind of hungry.

That's when you both remembered that the two of you are wasting the lunch hour inside of the library. And unfortunately he doesn't have food already prepared in his bag, so he often has to go get lunch in the cafeteria. It makes you feel guilty, and he clearly doesn't have extra time to get food and consume it before the bell rings for the next class.

“It's nothing, I’ll just go and grab a quick snack later on after class.” He says, smiling gently at your worried face. You set your bookbag on your lap, opening it, and seeing if you have any extra of the lunch you bought. You notice two of the same neatly plastic wrapped bread bun inside your bag. You had taken the mental note to save an extra one for Tikki, just in case she got hungry again. Seems like you don't have any other choice.. you’ll just have to eat later when you arrive home.

“Here, take this. It's not much but I hope it could help soothe your stomach for the meantime.” You hand him the neatly wrapped bread bun, he was about to refuse since he feels guilty for taking your lunch, but you lift up another one before he could do so. “I have one too, so suit yourself.. It's the least I could do, you took the time to help me with this after all.” You softly smile, turning your head back to your notebook on the table. You’ll keep the bread bun aside, thinking that Tikki needs it more than you do.

“Thank you, Y/n..” Is all that he could reply with a small blush forming on his face. He silently undo the neat strings, as he soon unwraps the plastic from the bread bun. Looking at it, he wonders if this is all you bring to school as your supposed lunch. Because he's certain that not even one person could be full for eating just this.. He took a slight peak in your direction, as you were pressing the top of your pen next to your cheek.

He lowers his gaze, seeing the other bread bun is put aside next to your pencil. Didn't you.. say you were hungry..? You slightly open your lips and start to turn towards him to ask a question, causing him to get a bit startled and fix his posture. Clearing his throat and taking a bite of the bread bun on his hand, you almost caught him staring, and heavens he felt his heart race.

Although, seeing Adrien taking a bite of the food you offered, you think of waiting for him to finish chewing or eating before you could start with your question. “Hm..? Y/n, you need something?” He still notices your hesitation though, leading up to you replying back with a small shake of your head. “No, nevermind..” You say, focusing back towards your notebook. His expression slightly faltered and was about to point out the topic that your pupils had drawn onto since the last two minutes.

However he didn't get to, when suddenly the entire lights shut out. Turning the room completely dark, and the daylights from outside somehow changed into that of night skies. “Y/n—” He carefully lifts his hand up and moves it forward to feel if you're still there, and you feel his touch landing on top of your shoulder, making you jolt a bit not expecting it. “I'm.. here.” Adrien mumbled an apology under his breath, removing his hand from your shoulder.

“I think there is—” A loud noise immediately made both of you cover your ears. The lights flickering and flashing red across the room, and the noise– it was making your ears bleed by how loud it was, sounding like an emergency alert system. “A-Adrien..!” You squeeze your eyes shut, wanting it to stop. And despite the painful sound, Adrien looks over towards your trembling form. Taking the initiative to remove his hands from his ears. Pulling you towards him, putting one of his arms behind your head and his other wrapping across your back.

He gritted his teeth, still hearing the blood curdling sound emerging from the walls. And it felt like forever when it finally died down, replaced with that of a voice. “Greetings, Citizens of Paris! I have come to alert you today with spectacular news!” There was a hint of excitement from the loudspeaker, more of that than a sadistic laughter.

You gripped onto the fabric of Adrien’s clothing, still keeping your eyes closed. Both of you were still recovering from the painful noise, but connecting the dots.. that could only mean one thing. You try to control your uneven breathing, eyes fluttering open, as you attempt to pull yourself up. But your classmate’s tight grip on you didn't budge.

“Are you.. hah.. are you alright?” You hear his voice say, as he is too — is gasping for a bit of air. You didn't get a second to respond, as the voice from the loudspeaker continued his speech. “I am Lunar Thorn, and here I announce to you that we're going to be playing a simple game.” The lights continue to flash red, causing a bit of dizziness from you.

The suspense didn't take long as the one speaking declared his chosen game. “It's called — Spare beyond Tears! It's very simple, Ladies and Gentlemen! You see, life is a valuable thing..” Your eyes widened upon hearing that, Adrien slowly let go of you, holding both of your upper arms as he saw the raw fear in your eyes.

“Y/n, don't be afra–” His attempt at reassurance soon got cut short, as you quickly got yourself off of his hold, standing up from the seat. “Stay here, I'm going to see if I can ask for help..!” You say, grabbing your bookbag, not caring if you left some of your stuff behind. You just need to get into a hiding place where you could transform.. the way the akumatized victim is talking about.. the delicates of a life.

You could already feel your skin crawl, you're not letting him hurt or take an innocent life. The hint says it all, that villain is not to be taken lightly. You and your teammates need to stop that villain, and stop him fast. You speed up your pace, and you hear your classmate's voice call out behind you, reminding you how it's dangerous. And it may not be enough, or a stupid way to comfort him. But you said it nonetheless. “I’ll be careful, I won't take long..!” With that, you ran out of the library, leaving Adrien behind. You have to swallow the note to come back for him once you finally transform, and hide him where it's safe.

—

The urge to follow after you and lead you back was almost impossible to resist. Don't you understand how risky it is..? You're putting yourself in danger on your own.. What if something happened to you? Understanding you was more difficult than what he initially thought, and it is possible since it's the first time he actually interacted with you.

And at first he thought you were terrified with the way you stared into his eyes. And maybe you are.. but just for a different reason. Still, your safety is on the line, and if he as Adrien aren't able to ensure your well-being. Then likely Chat Noir can.. he will make sure of it. The good side of this situation was the library was empty, and looking at the counter, the librarian seemed to have left as well. Giving him a chance to transform.

His Kwami flew out of the inside of his jacket, floating infront of him. “I'm not sure if I should be surprised by that girl’s courage or should be concerned.” Plagg comments, crossing his tiny arms. “Not much time to think, we need to find her and bring her somewhere safe.” Adrien replied, taking a breath. “Plagg, claws out!”

☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎ ☕︎

Using your yoyo, you swung yourself into one of the house rooftops. Having a proper lookout at a higher spot, the repeatedly flashing of red lights wouldn't stop. And the city feels like it is currently in a huge outbreak, and there may be a slight truth to that. You need to find where that akumatized victim’s location is before you could come up with anything. But right now, you need to contact your teammates on the run. You’ll come and meet up with them soon enough, but you still have one thing to worry about.

You gave two of your teammates a call, putting the screen of your yoyo to your ear, waiting for them to pick up. And once they did, you let out a sigh of relief. “Multimouse, Chat Noir! I need your help, can one of you find out where Lunar Thorn’s location is?” You say, swinging by and dropping down the building, eyes scanning in hopes if you could catch a glimpse of the villain on the way. “I’ll be on it, Sekkibug..!” Multimouse replied, but the other feline on the line didn't respond for a second, before he finally did.

“I might be late, Cuddlebug! A boy said that a girl named Y/n ran out to call for help, he needs me to make sure she's alright!” Chat Noir replied, running out of the school building, making sure not to bump into any panicking students along the way. You almost choke on your own saliva when you heard his reason, gulping down your nerves. Wait- so Adrien must've met Chat Noir nearby, hopefully the feline already hid your classmate somewhere safe in the course of their meet-up.

“Cuddlebug, you there?” You broke out of your small trance, replying with a nervous tone. “Yeah.. I'm still here..! Scratch that– I already kept the girl somewhere safe, she's the one who asked me for help!” The masked feline only gave you a confused remark. “Wait so she's safe, right?” Chat Noir questions, seemingly needing concrete confirmation. You nod your head, although feeling a bit dumb since he can't really see that, so you quickly replied. “Mhm..! She asked me to go and check if—” You didn't get enough time to finish what you were saying, when you suddenly bump into someone.

You were close to dropping your yoyo in the process when a knowing sharp claws made contact with your skin suit, as the person’s hand wrapped around your forearm to keep you from falling. You lift your face up to see — “Chat Noir..!” Well what a coincidence, you didn't expect to bump into your feline teammate. His lips form into that of a smirk upon realizing it's his one and only Cuddlebug.

“Did you miss being in my arms, Cuddlebug?” He pulls out a teasing line, which earns a raise of your eyebrow, here he goes again with his flirtatious acts. You still wonder if he's just like that at heart, and you are indeed convinced. So you never really paid too much attention when he pulls out a pick-up line or two. “Is the boy named Adrien safe? I suppose you already got to him before I did.” You pointed out, backing a few steps to create some proper distance between the both of you.

Squinting your eyes, trying to ignore the looming repeat of the flashing red lights. “O-Oh..! Yeah- he's completely safe.” He says, scratching the back of his head. “Sekkibug! Who’s causing all of this, have you found out yet?” A female voice yelled once she caught sight of you from a few steps ahead. You turn around, seeing a brunette girl with glasses, her phone up and recording despite the difficulty of actually catching a visible view.

Alya..? What is she doing risking her safety again? You are pretty impressed by her determination when it comes to her blog, but sometimes you're just a tad bit worried that something bad might happen to her one of those times. “Alya, we're not sure yet.. but rest assured that we’ll do our best to stop Lunar Thorn immediately.” The brunette girl almost couldn't contempt her giddiness when you said her name.

You put a hand over her shoulder with a soft but worried look. “Please get somewhere safe in the meantime, don't injure yourself now.” You throw in a warm smile, before letting go of her shoulder and walking past her with your yoyo in hand. Spinning it in circle for a second then shooting it up until it clung around something. “Don't forget about me, Cuddlebug!” With that, you pull the string of your yoyo, swinging you up high to your pointed destination, as the masked feline follows along. Pressing the middle of his staff, gripping onto it as the height let him traverse around much faster.

You continue running and jumping from rooftops to rooftops, momentarily looking at the screen of your yoyo. Fortunately, Multimouse figured out where Lunar Thorn’s location is, now all you need to do is get to where she is and hope the akuma isn't that harder to find. With your other teammate tailing up behind you, the sight that became visible now that you are in line of vision of it, made you halt at the edge of the house rooftop.

Is that what you think it is?

The clear crying of people now reaches your hearing, sounding as if they are mourning on command.. or in this case, by force. And the main center of it all, is a male with dark inkling markings under his neck, connecting to the middle of his heart. He wears a hat with a suspicious looking envelope sticking at the side of it, supported by the thin fabric that's wrapped around the hat.

You could see his hand move to the pocket of his suit, pulling out an odd looking card. It was getting hard to see, but he walked by a number of people, stopping by a trembling young girl. She has her head hanging low, afraid to look up from the ground, gripping onto the soft plushie in her hands. Lunar Thorn sent the young girl a sharp glare, about to lift up the card between his fingers and offer it to the trembling girl.

When a voice made him stop his movements for a second. “Your ceremony ends now, Lunar Thorn!” You yelled, dropping down from your spot, and standing your ground against the villain himself. “Ah.. Sekkibug and her puny kitty cat have arrived at my wonderful ceremony.” He smiles darkly, staring at your feline teammate from behind you. Chat Noir sent him a glare, slightly gritting his teeth at his comment, but it quickly disappeared as soon as it appeared.

“Where’s that little mouse? Isn't that feline supposed to get rid of such pests, what kind of cat doesn't know its own job?” He let out a laugh, he's slowly getting on the blonde’s nerves. You turn slightly to look at your teammate, opening your lips to say something but he already beat you to it. “Ehh, too simple and bland! Is that why your ceremony became a past-tense me(ow)mory?” He remarked with that knowing grin building up his lips.

Lunar Thorn furrowed his eyebrows immediately, glaring into those sharp green eyes. Grabbing a hold of the young girl’s hair, it instantly activates your instincts — throwing your yoyo in his direction but he quickly dodges it with ease, only making the little girl scream out in pain. “Let go of her!” You demanded, not wasting anymore time and dashing towards him.

You so wanted to get rid of the evil grin on Lunar Thorn’s lips, he lifted the little girl’s hair even more, just enough so he could present the card in his other hand infront of the girl’s eyesight. Whispering, “Read your invitation number.” As his words reach her ears, she suddenly feels that she’s unable to control her actions. There was an attempt to refuse his command but it was futile by how her trembling eyes started shedding delicate tears nonstop, her voice being forced to read the numbers on the card. Letting go of her plushie and holding the card with her two hands.

Aware of your impending attack, Lunar Thorn swiftly pulls out another card from his suit pocket. Facing it towards your direction, but the timing was just right when you threw your yoyo at him again and it landed right at the card, his attempt failing. He didn't dare move from his position, as if tempting you more to come close and attack him. And since it was in the heat of the moment, you did.

Multiple voices fill your head, nearby people who were still crying uncontrollably held out their hands at you. Holding your shoulders, your arm, even some in a desperate way to obey the villain’s command drop down to the ground to catch a hold of your ankle. And all the words that came out of their mouths were full of despair, chanting your name, begging you to release them.. save them.

“Sekkibug..! I-I please help us..!”

“Please! F-Fix this..! I-I can't.. think.”

“Save us.. Free us..!”

You struggled to break free, thankfully the yoyo from your other hand is still free, throwing it towards a nearby street light before pulling yourself off of the people tightening grip, it came out more successful than you thought, when you notice that Chat Noir was trying his hardest to fend off some of the hypnotized people from you. Granting you that escape.

Releasing your yoyo from the street light, you scan around to see if Multimouse is anywhere to be found. And fortunately enough, you caught a glimpse of that familiar gray and black suit. You were about to call out for her, when she suddenly put a finger against her lips. You kept your mouth shut, averting your eyes from her direction just in case. You don't know what she was planning but it ended up short-lived when one of the weeping people yelled out the mouse heroine’s name alerting Lunar Thorn’s attention.

She immediately ready her weapon at hand, locking eyes with the villain himself. Both of your teammates are completely occupied, surely it's enough time to let you activate your – “Lucky charm..!” You threw your yoyo upwards, as it created an item. A UV flashlight..? You turned it on, revealing the purple light. Now, in this case, you and many others are probably tired of lights. Especially the majority of it earlier on, and even as of now the flashing red lights makes you feel sick to your stomach.

You look around for hints, although as you look back towards the UV flashlight on your hand and look back around. You can't seem to find any clues, until you hear a maniacal laughter and Lunar Thorn heading towards your direction, demanding your miraculous. You point the UV light at him on impulse, as a result of him trying to cover his face but it was already too late.

“H-How dare you, damned pesky bug!” Your eyes widened when he returned to look at you, his other pupils now painted with a dark substance, dripping from his eyelid down to his chin. All of a sudden, the flashing red light around the city comes to a halt. Only the dark skies remain. With new information, you start to place the puzzles into the correct spot.

This whole scenario is living up to his experience, his own delusions! It's like reliving the situation he went through, but he could control what happens in this given time. And some parts of his suit, accessories could potentially be the main source of certain things! It may not be noticeable to the naked eye, but the UV Light can definitely reveal it.

You spin your yoyo, preventing any of his attack, you take off running towards the blonde feline. You're gonna be needing his help for this last second plan that you came up with inside your head. “Chat..!” You called out, making him spare a quick turn of his gaze towards the direction of your voice. “You called, Cuddlebug! I need a bit of help over here..!” Right– he has been trying to defend against the swarming people without causing that much damage to the poor innocent civilians.

You swung your yoyo around a couple of them, trapping them, making it a struggle for them to move around, pulling on your string to get them away from your teammate. “Thanks, Cuddlebug!” You gave him a nod, signaling him to follow you, along with Multimouse who's having a bit of trouble getting away from the scene. “Let's go, Multimouse needs our help!” You say, undoing your yoyo and sprinting towards the direction of the bluenette, with Chat Noir trailing up behind.

It took a bit of time, but you, Multimouse and Chat Noir got into a more peaceful place with no one trying to chase after you all. “Okay, so I'll explain it quickly.” Looking at both of them, before lightly throwing the red and black dots covered UV Flashlight upwards and to the direction of the bluenette heroine. And she catches it with ease but with a bit of confusion on her face. “What is this for..?” She asked, turning the UV flashlight and pointing it on her palm.

“Is Cuddlebug planning to throw another flashing light party?” The feline hero jokes, crossing both of his arms with a chuckle leaving his lips. “Oh I think we had plenty of that already, this is for a different reason.” You say, before continuing the discussion. “The UV light affects the villain's accessories or per se’ his source of power. If we make the original range of the UV light much larger, then I think when we shine it against Lunar Thorn. We’ll have a better chance of hitting a specific source, maybe even the main one! Which is where the akuma is hiding!”

Progressing to the right direction is all that you could ever ask for at this point and time, even if you try hard to set your mind straight and not towards the.. loud sobbing of the innocent people just right around the corner. Just.. the thought of shedding tears continuously, they could be hurting for all you know…

“Sekkibug?”

“Cuddlebug..?”

Both of your partners say in unison, and you blink a couple of times at them. “Huh..?” You muttered, and suddenly the masked bluenette giggled awkwardly at the coincidence, although the feline only looked at you with slightly bothered emerald eyes. He's not very keen with you suddenly spacing out, and he did hint on it once the previous week. It's not like he hates it, but it made him feel uneasy. Every time you do that, he comes around the thought that you may pass out one of those times. And even if it seems very unlikely, it makes him feel worried nonetheless.

Maybe you're pushing yourself too hard.. his slit pupils took a moment to observe your figure, when you come to your senses you seem fine.. the way you form a small presenting smile, apologizing and coming back to the importance at hand. Perhaps he's just overthinking it, and there isn't anything wrong going on with you at all. Still.. What if you space out in dangerous times? What then..?

When you call out his name, he tries to wash away the filling thoughts inside his mind and gently grab your hand and kiss the back of it. He will never get tired of that innocent face you made whenever he acts quite unpredictable at a serious matter. Besides the building bewilderment on your face, he gives you a close-eyed smile, acting clueless at what he did, and tilting his head to the side before asking.. “Milady, could you purlease repeat what you said~? I think I got hypnotized too, my poor heart is suddenly accusing you!” He dramatically says, putting a hand over his chest where his heart laid.

You let out a soft sigh at the masked feline’s quite questionable statement. Giving him the benefit of the doubt and again going to attempt to explain his part on the mission. “Alright, I'm going to explain it again, no more getting distracted.” Well.. is his Cuddlebug being ironic right now? If you hadn't kept continuing to make his heart race whenever you lost yourself in a trance, maybe he could take up on that advice. But for the meantime.. he sent you a genuine smile, nodding his head.

“My eyes are only set for you, Cuddlebug.”

For some reason.. you're starting to feel a bit uneasy under his watchful gaze.

☘︎ ☘︎ ☘︎ ☘︎ ☘︎ ☘︎ ☘︎

“Multimouse, now!” You shouted, the masked bluenette nodded her head as she turned on the UV light and flashed it against Lunar Thorn. Luckily, one of the individuals that you came across along the way had a spare handkerchief that you were able to use for the range of the UV light to become larger. So all you needed to do was wrap it around the main source of the UV light and once you turn it on, it has a much wider range. Just like how you plan it to be like in your head.

“What have you done! You ruined everything..!” Lunar Thorn snapped, his expression falling as he saw the surrounding that he created slowly disappeared. “You’ll regret thi—” His statement was cut short when a certain feline intervened. “I’ll be taking this, thank you!” The angered villain gasped, seeing his hat taken swiftly by Chat Noir and with all due time, switched it up to his other hand where his Cataclysm is currently activated, turning the hat into dust in seconds, followed by the distinctively placed envelope at the side of it.

Soon enough, a familiar dark and purple butterfly emerges from the damaged envelope, granting you a small sigh of relief now that it's finally out. “We had seen through your tricky disguise, evil Akuma.” You glide your finger on the middle of your yoyo, causing it to unlock evenly, latching the strings onto both of your pointer fingers before undoing it and spinning the yoyo in a circular motion. A bright smile coloring on your confident face. “Don't fret now, and face Justice..!” With that, you precisely target the escaping butterfly, landing a quick capture of the Akuma.

“Trapped ya’!” You took a heave of breath, looking down on your yoyo then pressing on it to release the newly white butterfly, letting it float out of the dimension. “Fly high, purified butterfly.” You gesture your palm under it softly moving your palm up with the butterfly, staring up at how it continues to fly up into the sky. “Here, Sekkibug!” You turn towards the feminine voice, as the bluenette heroine proceeds to throw you the red and black dots covered UV Flashlight. You held your hand up, catching it as your fingers wrapped around it. You bring down your hand, staring up into the blue sky before throwing the item up into the air. Firmly shouting —

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

The bits of destruction that Lunar Thorn himself had made have been turned back to normal, multiple tiny ladybugs flew – cleaning up the mess around the city. And most importantly, turning the many people that become victims to the akumatized person back to their original state. Eventually the villain has been back to his normal appearance, opening his eyes and looking around his surroundings with evident confusion.

“Pound it—!” Both Multimouse and Chat Noir fist bumped, thinking you would also join in undoubtedly but the two of them blinked. Seeing you walking towards the bewildered victim on the ground pavement. “Milady..?” Chat mumbles under his breath, eyeing your gentle placement of your hand over the male’s shoulder. “You okay sir? Here, let me help you up.” Your lips curl into a soft smile, lending your hand towards the man.

He nods and replies with a small appreciative thank you, taking your hand, as you pull him up from the ground. “Thank you, Sekkibug..” Said the brown haired male, as he used his other hand to dust himself a bit. “It's my pleasure sir.” A beeping sound coming from your earring alerts your attention, as you place one of your fingers on top of it, hearing it beep again. “It appears I may need to go, time calls.” You gesture a small wave at the man, before turning around.

However a yelp fell from your lips not expecting to bump into someone from behind you. Gazing upwards you raise one of your eyebrows – “Chat? Didn't see you there..” You laugh lightly, he gives you a somewhat smug smile. “Seems like Milady needs to work on more of her surroundings~” He pointed out, stealing a quick soft pat on top of your head. “Silly Kitty, this doesn't count..!” You chuckled, smoothly passing by him, readying your yoyo in hand. As you throw it far out forward until it wrapped around something.

“I’ll be heading out now, you and Multimouse should too. Your paw charges are running out.” You say, pointing down and indicating the beeping bars on his ring. The blonde follows your gaze, lifting his hand up where his ring is. “You got me there, Cuddlebug.” He smirked, as you lightly shook your head at his smug expression. “Be careful now, Luck out!” With that, you pull on the string, as you let your yoyo propel you forward, and further into the city.

Multimouse sends a wave at your distancing form, as she spares a glance at the masked feline. She was thinking of saying a swift goodbye before heading out on her own way. But she immediately second guessed that thought when she saw how ogle drawn her male teammate is – staring helplessly at the direction their bug partner traveled towards. She gave him a sort of questioning look, as she sighs and lightly facepalms herself. She’ll just leave him be inside his dream state, none of her concern now.

—

You turn your head to each side of the small alleyway, making sure the coast is clear. After a few seconds, you close your eyes for a moment, faintly saying – “Spots off..” There was a swift moment as you changed back into your civilian form. Your Kwami flies out of the earring, and you lay your palms slightly forward for Tikki to rest upon. “Nnh — Y/n.. hungry…” The red Kwami mumbles, and you urgently pat your pockets and waist for any food. But sadly there isn't any, you feel foolish remembering you left the library in a hurry. And leaving the only extra bread bun that you saved up for Tikki..

“T-Tikki.. I'm so sorry, I forgot–” You cut off your own words, sighing in guilt as you pull out your handkerchief, covering it around your tired Kwami. Avoiding wasting anymore time, as you bolt out of the Alleyway and into the path to your school. You look both ways on the road before crossing the pedestrian lane, you desperately need to get to where you left your bookbag. There's some extra cash that your mother has lent you for when you need to buy some things along your way to school. You could use that to buy Tikki something affordable at the moment. Or you could stop by the convenience store that you made a habit of returning to.

“Wait- oh Y/n..! Over here!” A familiar voice calls out, waving her hand up towards your hurried figure. “Alya..?” You slow down your pace, scratching the side of your cheek lightly as you give her a nervous laugh. “Girl, you also missed what happened! It was kind of terrifying, but hey- Sekkibug, Chat Noir and Multimouse showed up to save the day!” She shoves the screen of her cell phone closely infront of your face, letting you view the video that she took in the middle of the chaos.

“T-That's awesome.. haha. I- just.. uhm- ended up hiding.” You lied, scratching the back of your head. “You should muster up the courage next time! I'm telling you- make it a once in a lifetime opportunity!” She advised with an energetic smile, unable to refuse – you just nodded your head as your reply. Gently pressing your worn out Kwami to your chest, in a way to hide her from the view of the dark reddish brown haired girl. You don't have the capabilities to come up with a perfect lie when it comes to that. It’ll surely be a hassle to explain.

“Um.. Alya, I gotta go.. I forgot something in school.” You really need to go now and retrieve your bookbag, maybe even return to the library to see if some of your stuff is still there. Especially the snack you saved up for Tikki, you’ll just have to make it up to Tikki and maybe stop by the nearby bakery to buy her some sweets. Sounds like a fair plan, you owe it to your little Kwami. “Okay girl, see ya!” She sent you a wave, and you returned the gesture – waving back at her.

Turning around and speeding up your pace once more. You take a small peak at Tikki, anxiously scrunching your eyebrows at her current state. “Hang on, Tikki.. we're almost there.” You murmured under your breath, trying to reassure the tiny Kwami. Maybe you're saying it more to yourself than it is to Tikki.. because you can feel your heart quickening in impending panic at the idea of not being thoughtful enough towards the needs of your Kwami. Heaven knows you need that comfort even if you're only saying it to yourself.

“Wh—ah!” Turning the corner, you didn't expect to stumble into someone. The person drops the thing they were holding, making it collide with the floor creating a thud. You instinctively reach out for the person’s clothing when you are trying to prevent yourself from the possibility of falling backwards and meeting the ground. While still trying to gently secure Tikki in your other hand. You felt the person’s hand snake under your back, supporting you from falling. Some of the students nearby came into a halt at the accident, some started whispering after a few seconds.

“Y/n..?” Out of all the people that you could've unluckily bump into.. it has to be him? You already cause him enough trouble, and you're stacking it up even more.. What is wrong with you today..? After the realization strikes into your system, you hastily get back on your footing and step back. Out of shame, you bow your head even if it's embarrassing enough to do so with many eyes lingering around the both of you.

“Ah.. you don't have to do tha–” He tries to reason, but it doesn't make you budge and stays completely still. “It's my fault, it's only right…” You replied, catching a glimpse of Tikki’s sleeping figure in your handkerchief. You slowly lift yourself up from bowing, presenting the blonde an apologetic smile, before excusing yourself from the scene. “Wait a second..!” You suddenly felt a hand snatch your wrist, causing you to turn back and face Adrien.

“I.. came across this. I think this is yours..?” Your gaze slides down to the bookbag that he picked up from the ground earlier after the collision you both had. How have you not noticed..?! You were too lost in your own headspace to be sparing any of your surroundings and rethink, maybe your feline partner was right after all…

“Y-Yeah.. uhm. You're too kind.” You retrieve your bookbag, every word you say or every move you do.. you can't deny the fact how you probably look like you're always all over the place. And you won't blame them if they do start to think so. You motion another quick bow, and turn around before he could say anything back. All that matters now is your tiny companion in your hand, nothing else. You position your bookbag under your armpit in order to open it without much struggle. And once you succeed, you carefully put Tikki inside – gently so as not to let any slightly sharp items that will come in contact with the Kwami. Worriedly drawing your pupils at her, before finally having it in yourself to close your bookbag shut.

A shaking breath ghost out from your lips..

You can't do anything right…

Previous & Subsequent Chapters | 01 | 03 | 04 | Loading...

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starguardianniom · 2 years ago

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Adrien's revelation about his feelings for Marinette and before that, their "friendship"

I got big mood about it, for the moment he realise when he noticed his feelings changed for her.

That moment? The "statue kiss" in The Puppeteer 2, aka one of the most embarassing and cringe moment of the show, period.

Especially since it was one of those moments that Adrien witnessed Marinette in one of her creepiest and weirdest moment ever toward him that he's aware of and saw and somehow didn't have a problem with in the end because of her excuse and her being more upset about his joke than her behavior being beyond unacceptable toward what she thought was a statue of him, as he consider her a good friend and good friends don't creepily sniff your statue, don't pull out some of its hair to keep and don't kiss them on the lips.

But that kiss apparently made him change his feelings toward her subtely until he could pinpoint it in season 5.

Like, what? The Fuck?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Adrien, my sweet cinnamon bun, please have more self-respect for yourself.

You do not catch feelings for a girl who acts so gross toward what she thinks is a statue of yourself, please.

Heck, he was weirded out as hell when she was sniffing him, pulling his hair (his eye twitched), and of course when she kissed him he immediatly pulled away, to his defense he had no idea she would do that, because why the hell would she try to kiss a statue of him when she can barely stay in the same space alone with him in the first place? As the beginning of the episode showed, she freaked out when they were left alone and yelled (begged) to not be left alone with him, to his sadness before she corrected herself.

But him saying the moment he started to see her as more of a friend was that moment when she kissed him as a statue takes the cake.

Not to mention that already from the start their "friendship" is not really the greatest, because well, 95% of the time they get moments because Marinette or one of their friends made sure they would spend time together in some ways, or just make sure Marinette would be around or get opportunities to confess her love for him more than anything else, like actually hanging out for real as friends and not it just being a plot for a confession on Marinette's part.

Especially since Marinette has his entire schedule for the next 3 years, broke into his locker, his house (multiple times, mind you), stole his stuff, manipulated people to get into trouble so she could get a chance at maybe getting a date with him, when she's not outright trying to get rid of the competition, stalks him to another country, make sure he doesn't hang with other girls that she hates, abuse her powers to get a chance, and so on.

Let's be real here, their friendship was more genuine on Adrien side than Marinette, who said herself once in Riposte that she didn't want him to like her like that but to like her as in a romantic view instead of platonic.

Half the time the show shove Marinette down Adrien's throat because she wants to be his girlfriend, except she has a whole network to try to make it work, her friends, her family, hell, she even use her powers to try to make a move. Took 5 seasons of unhealthy behavior and 2 erased end of the universe to make it happen. Yeah!

Because I remember people being salty about how Adrien regarded knowing Ladybug's identity in Chat Blanc being wrong because he knew who she was and she wasn't aware of it, until she almost got akumatized, but the whole thing started because Marinette decided to use her powers to break into Adrien's room knowing he wasn't home to give him a gift, something that Tikki had opposed to, and of course Marinette being Marinette, didn't listen, and well, it led to that.

Not to mention that she wasn't any better when Ephemeral came, as she decided that Viperion and Su-Han would learn Chat Noir's identity behind his back and they wouldn't tell him after she learned it and later forget about it, and the whole thing fell apart because once she realised he was her precious Adrien, she decided to see how it would go. And then still proceeded with her plan. So Adrien literally had 2 other people knowing who he was and wasn't made aware of and probably wouldn't have before a long time, not sure if he would still have dated Marinette if he had found out about it.

Sure, Adrien knew in Chat Blanc, but it wasn't planned at all on his part unlike her, he sure as hell didn't tell anyone else behind her back with the promise of her never finding out like it was her original plan in Ephemeral, when he transformed to save her, well, it was either throwing his secret away, or well, they were screwed above and beyond. He didn't know Nathalie was watching and ratted him to his father, whom he doesn't know he's Hawk Moth until later in the episode when he gets traumatized by him and akumatized. Especially since Adrien finding out Marinette was Ladybug was completely on Marinette's fault for not sticking to her golden rule of never taking risks with their identities that was also shoved down his throat and ours for 3 seasons straight, but she threw that through the window (literally) by going into his room and acting like a total obsessive maniac, sniffing his pillow while laying down his bed, why, just why?

And why does Adrien just rolls with her being weird around him all the time? At one point he could get fed up and just tell her off, because well, she only acts like this toward him, and if she can't act normally around him, that won't stand, he wants to be like other kids and fit in, Marinette's behavior toward him compared to how she acts around the rest of their friends should drive a wedge between them because he wants to be part of the group, and if the girl who's the most liked by their friends can't act normal around him, what are his chances with others? Because Marinette is really the only weird one around him. Kagami, Chloé and Lila are clingy sure, but they also can function without problem around him, Marinette, barely managed at times. That went for 4 seasons. I think Adrien telling Marinette off about her behavior, especially since months passed in the show, could have been a good way to make Marinette realise that she puts him so high on a pedestrial that not only she was making it difficult for herself to endear herself to him, but maybe backpedal on her behavior that wasn't fair to him much as she has so huge expectations and pressure feeling for him that Gabriel's expectations and pressure of him can almost look good next to her views of him. That would have been a good character development for her I believe.

Instead in season 5 they joke about how she used to be and he just let it slide and doesn't concern how she learned his habits without his knowing.

Because let's face it, Marinette didn't so much got to know everything about him that there was to know as she was more studying him, like a project you're working on and need to know every little details so it won't blow up in your face or fall apart. Don't tell me she learned stuff from him by asking him directly and hanging out with him normally back in season 1, she could barely talk to him at all, or stay too long before running away or trying to. She puts him so high on a pedestrial she can't see him past the clouds. That's not a healthy way of friendship or romance mindsetfor her to be in. Even more because her worship of him is entirely on her, he doesn't want anyone to treat him like a god, he just wants to be treated normally, and she can barely manage that.

Also, Marinette monopolize so much of his time that the rest of the class sans Nino (and possibly Chloé) barely knows him, they are so quick to throw him on Marinette, or the other way, that they don't really interact at all, again he wanted to have friends, he barely interacts with anyone not named Marinette, Nino, Chloé or Lila. I think Luka got more lines with him than most of the class did. And I'm not talking about them talking about Adrien, but them talking to Adrien as in in a conversation with him and them talking together. We saw in Felix that only Nino, Marinette and Lila thought Adrien wouldn't be that mean, meanwhile Alya, Rose and Juleka get akumatized over "Adrien" being mean toward them, since they barely know him, being too busy shipping him with Marinette instead of trying to be friends with him like he would probably want to. Leave Marinette alone with him, Nino, get with Alya and leave the lovebirds alone. I swear Nino gets shoved away in favor of Marinette and it pisses me off, given how little freedom Adrien has when he can hang out with him it would be nice if he actually could and not just have Alya glaring at him for wanting to spend some alone time with him and not her, or for her to immediatly ask if she and Marinette could tag along.

Let's not forget the huge mistakes Marinette made because of her being unable to cool her heart and head when it came to him, as seen in Heart Hunter and Strike Back. Fu losing his memories and her being the guardian, later Hawk Moth getting most of the miraculouses, leaving her with only her original partner once again.

All of the unhealthy behavior she exhibit in the show because she got traumatized confessing to Kim the year prior courtesy of Chloé. Note that it's the act of confessing itself that seems to have scarred Marinette completely, not Kim or Chloé, Kim probably because she knows he was manipulated into it and is probably more unaware of how much hurt she ended up feelings as they probably have known each other for years maybe (who knows), and well Chloé had been her bully for some years by that point so nothing new here, just another new way of being tormented by her. It was the act of pourring her heart and feelings out in the open to someone she loved only to then being brutally having it turned into a sick joke that left an horrible trauma on her, to the point that she swears that she'll know everything about the next guy she'll fall in love with and make sure they're not friends with Chloé. But that second part went away with Adrien who is friends with Chloé so. Yeah.

So again, why the heck should I approve of Adrienette? Why should I like it? Why should I like that Adrien finally got with Marinette after realising he started to grow romantically interested in her after one of her worst moment ever toward him? Why would they even be good friends? For all the things I said above, I'll say that's why I'll never approve, like it or ship it, or think they could be good friends, unless Marinette just stopped feeling romantic toward him.

For all the fluff that happens when it is all romantic and soft and stuff, I remember all the terrible moments, thoughts and actions that led to them, preventing me from liking it.

Even their "friendship" moments, that were also most of the time Marinette being hurled toward him, either by herself or with the help of her friends.

Because I'm sure that Marinette would probably be able to do worse than what Chat Blanc would have done if something happened to Adrien and she couldn't save him.

She could and probably would be worse than Gabriel ever was.

The only one time I actually liked Adrienette was in Oblivio, when they had no idea who they were, and as such didn't have their trauma and insecurities with them which made it the healthiest they've ever been.

Marinette doesn't need a boyfriend, she needs a therapist to overcome her freaking trauma before actually heading in a romance. She deserves this much. She needs the help, badly. Her friends can only do so much and they are amazing, but they are also kids who aren't equiped to deal with her trauma. They all have their own traumas and worries to work on too.

Seriously where are the therapists in this city for real?

Adrien and Luka deserved better.

Adrien also needs therapy because Gabriel sucks for life.

And the kids need to reign their shipping tendencies, nice of them to help, but sometimes, please don't get involved, because either it won't work or Marinette will take it apart by herself even without meaning to.

So those are my feelings on the Adrinette ship and the Adrinette friendship.

#ml s5 spoilers #ml season 5 leaks #ml s5 leaks #adrien agreste #marinette salt #adrinette salt #never have i ever loathed a ship this hard #or a friendship for that matter #dumb kids but good kids the class is #adrien deserves better #i love alya #but she needs to tone down the shipping

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desiblr-tales · 1 year ago

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dahi papdi chaat is a famous Delhi street food. it is a crispy sweet, spicy, and tangy chaat that packs a whole lot of flavor.

bhutte ki khees is a well-liked and delightful street food of central India prepared using corn and spices.

misal pav consists of misal, a spicy curry usually made from moth beans and pav.

vada pav, the dish consists of a deep fried potato dumpling placed inside a bread bun (pav) sliced almost in half through the middle.

samosa pav is similar to vada pav, it just has samosa instead of vada between the bread.

pav bhaji is a fast food dish from Mumbai (Bombay), India, consisting of a vegetable curry (bhaji) cooked in tomato gravy and served with a soft bread roll.

matar kulche is a very famous dish of delhi. matar refers to the spiced and tangy curry made with dried peas and since it is served with the soft and fluffy kulcha.

bread pakoda are simply bread slices dipped in spiced gram flour batter & fried. These are popular as a North Indian street.

puchka is golgappa/panipuri.

fafda jalebi are traditional pairing of gujarat. fafda is made of besan and is crispy whereas jalebi is deep fried and sweet.

chaat is a term signifying a huge variety of Indian street foods, snacks, or small meals which usually combine salty, spicy, sweet, and sour flavors. there are a various amounts of chaat available like aaloo chaat or tikki chaat.

#desiblr #mod love #mod seph #mod rep #mod gab #food discourse

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doodlegirl12345 · 1 year ago

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Among The Stars {One Shot}

For a special day like this it only makes sense to treat myself. If not today then when? Hello, everyone, it’s Doodle back with another story. In celebration of my birthday this week, I decided to do a story with one of my favorite ships. So without further ado here’s one of my newest stories Among The Stars.

Also available on Wattpad

Among The Stars

Misfortune.

In life there are going to be days when misfortune strikes. Sadly, it’s not a once in a lifetime occurrence as there will be several points in life where misfortune will shine onto you and others. There will be days where it seems nothing has gone right. That no matter how hard you try, suddenly you are back right where you started. It’s a natural desire to retreat and not put yourself out there in the fear of getting hurt again. Or shut your away to remain in a comfortable state of misery. However suffering through a bad day should not shape the rest of your life. It should not stop you from living, as there are bound to be brighter days ahead if you push through. Although it does help when there are people who are willing to spread kindness and support as that goes a long way.

Sunlight immersed the sky in orange and golden light as the city of Paris had reached another sunset. Daylight was fleeting as Ladybug crossed the rooftops. A typical sight for the average citizen, so many who saw did not observe the bug’s movements. Each step was gradual and was driven with the utmost caution. Hesitation led the way as if she had been granted the fear of falling. A justified concern after the day that she had.

Once close to home, after hurdling over several chimneys, reassurance was within reach. Ladybug tossed her yoyo wrapping it around the chimney of her bedroom’s balcony for a landing spot. But the moment her feet hit the wooden boards of the balcony. She stumbled forward catching herself with the metal railing in front of her. The bug winced after regaining her balance.

“Tikki, spots off,” the heroine requested.

A ring of red light circled around Ladybug pulling away her costume and reverting her back into civilian clothes. However, instead of her usual clothes the designer wore a pale pink peplum blouse with a square neckline, exaggerated ruffled short sleeves and a shirred back. Underneath the blouse was a black tank top. It was paired with faded wash denim capris and white ankle strap flats. Even her hair strayed away from typical convention today by not being in her usual pigtails.

Rather, her dark hair was pulled back into a low bun. On her shoulder was a pink tote bag with a tiny white polka dot pattern. In the center was Marinette’s trademark flower design logo that has been placed throughout the majority of her work.

A warm breeze fluttered through this approaching Saturday night. Even though the city was far removed from the heels of summer and deep into autumn, today was unseasonably warm. The designer slid off her tote bag placing it onto the ground after pulling out her sketchbook. She opened it, flipping through to the most recent pages that had been worked on.

The state of her sketches, which were ill fitting at best and viciously starched out at worst, saddened her. A sigh was let out lamenting that now she was back right where she started.

Her kwami landed on her shoulder. “Are you going to be okay? I know today haven’t been the best but-“

“I’m fine,” she flashed a bright yet strained smile. “It’s better to look at the bright side, right?”

“That’s the spirit.”

“I mean there’s so much worse that could’ve happened, like on my way home. I could’ve fallen off the roof, got hit by a flying pigeon, lost my yoyo or got struck by lightning. It would match today’s tone…but maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate like this.”

“Maybe it’s not too late. You technically don’t have to be home until a little bit before eleven. Since that’s when your parents come back from their date night. We can still go back to the Trocadèro for some inspiration.”

She could do that. Although after everything that happened today. Little things that felt significant especially compounded together, it gave weight. The type that she didn’t want to drag around the city unless absolutely necessary. At this moment it felt like Marinette did not have that in her, not without a stronger motivation.

“I don’t know about that. After everything that happened today I don’t feel like doing much at the moment,” Marinette admitted. “It might be best if I stayed home. Unless Shadow Moth sends out someone else.”

“That’s fine,” Tikki hugged her cheek. “You did have a rough day. Some downtime is probably the best for you before getting back to work. How about dinner? You haven’t had anything to eat in hours.”

“That sounds good. I think there should be some leftovers from last night’s dinner that I can heat up. I should check on the others and-“

Suddenly a gentle buzz came humming from her tote bag causing the designer to reach inside it after picking up off the ground. She pulled out her phone and looked at the screen for caller id. Her face couldn’t help brighten after seeing the name. It was Luka. The smile now made sense. It was hard for her not to when thinking about her amazing boyfriend.

“It’s Luka,” the designer put the sketchbook on the balcony’s table. “Huh, I wonder why he’s calling?”

Tikki’s eyes widened almost if a thought had just occurred to her. “Wait, didn’t you promise yesterday that you were going to send pictures of your sketches for potential Kitty Section merchandise. Since the band is planning to sell them at their upcoming concert in two weeks.”

“Ugh that’s right,” her smile vanished. “Completely forgot about that part. I only promised that because I thought there would be something to present by now. Since I usually work well under pressure. But I don’t have anything good based on everything that happened today. What should I tell him?”

“There’s always the truth. That’s a good place to start.”

“And what, disappoint him? After everything that happened today or even these past couple of months? I’m not sure if I can handle that,” the designer felt her phone stop buzzing before putting it onto the table. “Not that it matters now he got sent to voicemail. Problem solved. Let’s get something to eat!”

Only one step forward was needed before her kwami zipped ahead of her, blocking the path ahead.

“You could call him back,” she suggested.

“That’s the amazing thing about these phones. It works both ways. Once you tell him everything he will understand.”

“The last thing I want to do is dump all my problems on him,” she told her.

“But that won’t be what you would be doing. Instead you are going to be honest with him. I thought Luka was one of the few people you could talk to about everything in your life including your heroics. Or have I been misreading your entire relationship up to this point?”

“No, you haven’t,” Marinette admittedly sighed. “And Luka is a creative person too. So he would understand better than anyone about the sudden creator’s block that I have been going through.”

“Exactly, besides if you can’t be honest with him about the small things. What’s going to happen if you know some life changing information that he should know. Would you be willing to hide that from him too?”

“Of course not.”

“Good, knowing your track record of leaving things unresolved hasn’t worked out in your favor. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but the last thing I want is for things to get worse for you.”

Her track record, the long list of events that had blown up in her face on both sides of her life. There were enough stones that were thrown at her, including the ones from today that could build a small city. That was the last thing she ever wanted with Luka. She had enough battles in life to be allowed to have some things remain feeling like a dream.

The designer picked up her phone. “You’re right, you know you can be very convincing.”

She tapped the missed call notification letting the phone redial. After a few seconds the phone connected to the other line leading Marinette to press it to her ear.

“Marinette?” the musician answered.

“Hi Luka,” she sheepishly grinned before leaning over the railing. “Sorry I couldn’t pick up earlier.”

“It’s alright, I was about to send you a text. But I’m glad to hear from you instead.”

“Likewise, so is everything okay?”

“Yeah, better than usual actually. What about you?”

“It’s a long story. But consider the only highlight of my day is you calling and it’s already sunset so that should give you a hint. It hasn’t been the greatest.”

“Well, if you want you can come over to Liberty and tell me all about it.”

“A change of scenery doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Neither does spending time with you.”

“The weather has been pretty great today and I think it’s going to carry over into the night. We could stay above deck and do some star gazing.”

“So is this a date?”

“Only if you say yes. I know it’s kinda last minute but a few things just happened to fall into place. I couldn’t really plan it out ahead of time.”

“You’re starting to sound a little cryptic. Is there something that I should know or be surprised about?” the designer mischievously grinned.

There was a beat of silence on the other end. Luka has had a history of doing romantic surprises in the past. She could easily pick up the signs to the point the question wasn’t if there’s a surprise but instead what it was.

“There’s only one way to find out,” the musician answered. “So, will I be seeing you soon? If it’s truly short notice then I’ll understand.”

“It’s no problem, actually I have been feeling off lately. So the idea of coming over to see you is already making me feel better. So I can come over to Liberty.”

“Great, you haven’t had dinner yet, right?”

“No not yet. Wait…should that be taken as a hint?”

“You just have to wait and see. I’ll see you soon.”

“Alright, can’t wait.”

The moment the phone call ended her features blossomed with pure bliss. Completely enchanted, she giddily whirled around meeting face to face with her kwami.

Marinette spoke completely enamored. “You were right, it was a good thing that I returned Luka’s call. He wants me to come over to Liberty and there seems to be some kind of surprise. Maybe dinner? My luck is finally changing.”

However she noticed that Tikki was not matching her enthusiasm. Her arms were crossed and a disappointed glare was visible.

“What?” she asked.

“You didn’t tell him about the sketches,” the kwami told her.

“Right, the sketches…well I figured that I didn’t needed to-“

“But you said you were.”

“Over the phone. I figured since I’m going to see him soon I can do it there. I promise.”

“Alright.”

The designer could already sense the doubtfulness in Tikki’s voice causing her to pick up the sketchbook off the table. “I will. Remember I have been more of a visual person anyway when it comes to this stuff. So let’s go downstairs as I want to check on the others and get something from the bakery before we go.”

The night overtook Paris like a stage curtain, slowly and with grace. By the time that Marinette arrived at The Seine River the sky was bejeweled with stars. All of them glittering like diamonds. On her shoulder was the tote bag that held her sketchbook. A large white plastic bag was hanging off her wrist. The docks appeared to be vacant with people giving a peaceful feeling. Only a couple steps left of a route that had been taken many times before. Although if there was the off chance the designer had gotten lost she could’ve let the gentle sounding guitar music she heard lead the way. Once at the end of the dock that’s when she saw him on Liberty.

Luka.

He was sitting above deck in an orange folding chair. Laid across his lap was the acoustic guitar that he had just finished playing on. The moment that he looked up the designer started clapping.

“Amazing!” she continued to applaud. “Encore! Encore!”

The musician looked up and smiled. “I wasn’t expecting to have an audience so soon.”

Marinette grinned while Luka stood up and put his guitar on the beach chair. “Well what can I say, someone special gave me some motivation to come out tonight. So what were you playing? It sounds great.”

“You like it?” he approached the side of the boat with the walkway offering her a hand to help her on.

“Definitely,” she took his hand. “It’s really sweet sounding, is it a love song?”

“Maybe,” Luka replied while guiding her onto the boat. “Nothing is set in stone yet. It’s the instrumental for a Kitty Section song that I’ve been working on. Rose is supposed to come over tomorrow to work on the lyrics with me.”

“Well from what I heard you have a good start.”

“I’m happy to hear, if things are done in time we might be able to play it at the concert in two weeks.”

A pang of guilt had struck, leading her to attempt to subside that feeling. “So is there a reason why you invited me here? Like I don’t know, a possible surprise?”

The musician laughed. “You know it’s really hard to hide something from someone as astute as you.”

As she got off the walkway Marinette looked around. The stage is what caught her eye. All the usual instruments and sound equipment were gone. In its place was a blue blanket spread across the stage. The perimeter of the stage was lined with lit battery operated star shaped LED lights giving an heavenly glow.

“Is that for us?” she pointed forward.

“It is,” he replied. “I figured we could have dinner here so we can look at the stars.”

“So there is dinner. What brought this on, it’s not just the warm weather right?”

“Actually something happened at work. The pizza shop had a large order for pick up but whoever ordered it never came. My boss, Mr. Salvador, wasn’t sure if it was a prank or what. But he didn’t want it all to go to waste so he gave it all to me when my shift ended. The food is still good, it just wasn’t at the restaurant’s hot and ready standards as time passed. But I reheated it all in Liberty’s oven so it should be fine. I figured with this good luck, it would be best to share it with someone.”

“So you called me?”

“You were the first person that I thought of.”

The designer couldn’t help herself from blushing and to think that she had considered missing this.

“Well I’m grateful that I was the one you called,” she told him.

“Was there any doubt?” he reassured her before noticing the bag hanging off her wrist. “But it seems that I’m not the only one with a surprise.”

“Correct, I decided to take that hint about dinner seriously and brought some dessert from the bakery,” Marinette walked towards the nearby spool table. She placed the bag down revealing a white bakery box. The musician trailed behind her. “Even if I was wrong my parents always stressed that if you were invited over for something special it’s best not to come empty handed. Unless the host never said otherwise and you never did.”

“What did you bring? Those strawberry shortcake macarons you brought a few weeks back me, my mom and Juleka couldn’t get enough of. Between the three of us that box was finished in less than two days.”

“This time I brought something a little more decadent,” she lifted up the box’s lid.

It revealed eight tartlets with a velvety rich chocolate filling topped with glossy strawberry slices and a chocolate drizzle on each tart.

“And if I remembered correctly it’s one of your favorite desserts,” the designer continued.

“You did,” Luka wrapped his arms around her. “This perfect as the only thing that wasn’t on the order was desert. But like usual you had just what I needed.”

“The same can be said about you. Remember, I was in the worst mood when you called. By the way, I meant to ask, are you the only one onboard?”

“Yep, Jules is on a movie date with Rose and is planning to get ice cream afterwards. She won’t be back for a while. And my mom is meeting up with some of her old band mates from lycée so she won’t be back until late.”

“So it’s just us?”

“It’s just going to be us. But thanks for bringing those tarts. It’s a step up from the box of chocolates I planned to bring up from the kitchen.”

There was a sudden rustling from Marinette’s tote bag leading Tikki to poke her head asking the couple. “Did someone say chocolates?”

The designer’s eyes widened while the musician let out a chuckle. “It’s nice to see you again, Tikki.”

“It’s good to see you too, Luka,” she gave him the sweetest of smiles. “Essentially since your girlfriend has so much to tell you.”

“You do?” he turned back to Marinette.

“Oh it’s just a few things,” the designer reassured him before narrowing her eyes at Tikki. “But I’ll tell you. I promise.”

The heroine and her kwami glared at each other for a few seconds. The musician must’ve sensed the escalating tension as the next thing he suggested.

“How about we go below deck? Since that is where all the food is, there’s a lot of it.”

The glares seem to break after sharing a look of agreement appearing to be on the same wavelength once again.

The three of them went below deck with Luka bringing down his guitar. While Marinette put her tote bag on the stage. It turned out that he wasn’t lying about the amount of food. On the kitchen’s counters were a large aluminum tray of baked chicken Alfredo, a box of cheese breadsticks, a black plastic bowl of green salad, a small tray of barbecue chicken wings and two large pepperoni pizzas. Along with a plastic pitcher of homemade lemonade and lemon slices. All of it looked delicious as Marinette felt ravenous not realizing how hungry she was until seeing the options. The musician pulled out a bag of paper plates so they could fix a plate for themselves. The designer put together a plate with chicken Alfredo, the green salad and two cheese breadsticks. It seemed less likely to leave a stain. Since she was still on the edge of caution.

Meanwhile Luka picked two slices of pizza and two cheese breadsticks. He even offered his tablet to Tikki to watch a movie on one of the household streaming accounts. Along with receiving the aforementioned box of chocolates and picking a nostalgic romcom the kwami seemed content.

It was decided that it was best for her stay below deck. To keep her from getting caught by Luka’s family. It would also give the couple privacy but wouldn’t be too far away if Shadow Moth had the audacity to start up something. Both Marinette and Luka went back upstairs carrying their plates. The musician carried the pitcher of lemonade while the designer brought up a plastic bag packed with disposable cups, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a pack of paper utensils to use. After putting down everything including her tote bag at the edge of the stage. Marinette brought over the box of tarts to the stage. Once sitting down she couldn’t help but peek at the stars.

The glittering jewels of the sky, suddenly it gave her the feeling of tranquility. When she looked back down Luka’s hand was stretched out offering a cup of lemonade.

“Thanks,” she took the cup before taking a sip.

“You’re welcome,” he told her. “So there was something you needed to tell me?”

“Just a few things,” the designer put down her cup. “Don’t tell me what Tikki said has been on your mind.”

“Well, I would be lying to say that my empathy bells haven’t been clanging since she had said that,” he admitted before taking a bite from one of his breadsticks.

“But you did say on the phone that today was a long story. Usually that doesn’t mean things went well.”

“You’re right, but I didn’t want to immediately dampen the mood here,” she scooped up a forkful of her pasta before taking a bite, it was rich with mozzarella and parmesan.

“That’s pretty hard for you to do since you brighten up Liberty every time with your presence,” Luka reassured her.

Her cheeks couldn’t help but turn a light shade of rosy red. “Come on, be serious.”

“I stand by it,” the musician finished his breadstick. “You know there’s not much that you could do or say would ever change the way I think of you.”

The look in his eyes made her question the hesitancy in her mind. He was one of few people she could be completely open with. It being one of the million reasons why she loved him.

“Alright,” she said. “But I don’t want us to talk about only me here. We could…do a trade off.”

“A trade off?” he asked back.

“We can go back and forth recounting our days. Depending on what you say it could undercut my series of unfortunate events.”

“That just sounds more like a conversation. But if you insist, you can go first.”

“What? Why do I have to go first?”

“It’s because I asked you first,” the musician explained before biting into one of his slices of pizza.

“But I asked you second,” Marinette insisted before realizing how silly that sounded. “Fine, I guess it’s best to start at the beginning which technically was late last night before going to bed after finishing babysitting Manon. During the last hour I let her play games on my phone. She drained what was left of the battery. When I tried to charge it apparently the cord didn’t get stuck all the way in so it died, making me miss my alarm.”

“I hate when that happens,” Luka sympathized.

“Don’t we all? It’s your turn.”

“It’s not much. I was able to wake up early and finished the instrumental that you heard. Your turn.”

“Well, today wasn’t the best day for me to sleep in as I had a shift at the bakery this morning and had plans to do some design work. I was woken up by my mom calling me from the living room. She wasn’t happy to see me come down in my pajamas.”

“What did she say?”

“She wasn’t happy but was a little more understanding after telling her about the alarm. I was told to hop in the shower, brush my teeth, get dressed and have a quick breakfast asap. Since I was supposed to be behind the register. But that was awful in itself. What about you?”

“After finishing my music since it was still early I hopped on my bike and went to the post office to check the family’s P.O Box. Technically it was Jules’ turn but she was still asleep and I had been waiting for something anyway. So I didn’t mind. But what happened at the register? Did it malfunction?”

“I wished,” the designer sighed after taking another bite of her pasta. “That would be way less frustrating. A man tried to argue with me because he didn’t want full price for what he was getting.”

“Why?” the musician finished the crust of his pizza.

“He said that they’re another bakery a few blocks away that sold macarons at a cheaper price and we should’ve matched that.”

“Well if those macarons were a better deal then why didn’t he go there?”

“Exactly, I wanted to say that but I still needed to be in customer service mode. So, I told him that our prices for same day desserts were set. The man started to yell at me. I think he was trying to intimidate me because he said that I shouldn’t talk to adults that way. He says he’s an adult but I had seen Manon act better hearing no and she was still in the single digits.”

“I know how that feels dealing with awful customers. Did I ever tell you about my first day delivering pizza?”

“No, you haven’t.”

“It was my first day working at the pizza place. I was pumped because this way I could get some extra cash to work on my instruments besides doing chores. Mr. Salvador is actually a friend of my mom’s, that’s how I got the job. I delivered my first pizza to this older lady in an apartment building. She seemed friendly, greeting me at the door and making small talk. But there’s a reason why first impressions aren’t always everything.”

“What happened?”

“I handed her the pizza and she said that she needed to grab her purse. The next thing I knew the door was slammed in my face and the locks were clicking.”

“Oh no.”

“Yep, I was dealing with a scammer on my first day, some luck huh? I tried knocking on the door asking for the money. Mainly because I didn’t believe that someone would do that. But she said back “Come on Kiddo, you have to be smarter than that.” That’s when I realized it was happening. I still had two other orders in the same building. And didn’t want their food to get cold because of her so I had to leave but came back. When I knocked again she yelled if it was the pizza boy she was calling the police for harassment. That freaked me out since I didn’t want to get police involved on my first day. So I ended up leaving empty handed.”

“I’m so sorry that happened, Luka. I hope that awful lady got blacklisted for the restaurant.”

“She did, after I told Mr. Salvador what happened. He decided to cut me slack since it was my first day. But if it happened again the order would come out of any future paychecks. I was told not to hand over the food until the money is in hand if they’re paying with cash. If they refuse then leave with the food as either they didn’t plan to pay in the first place or their stubbornness is more than the food they ordered. Since some people are just determined to get something for nothing.”

“My parents often say the same thing. But I guess don’t stay in business this long if you let people take advantage of you. But here’s the kicker: guess what the guy was buying six boxes of?”

“Umm…the strawberry shortcake macarons?”

“Close, it was strawberry flavored. It was the Ladybug and Chat Noir themed macarons we started to sell months ago.”

“Really?” Luka shook his head. “It’s so ironic it’s kinda funny.”

“I know right. After the yelling my dad came from the back and I told him what happened,” Marinette started nibbling on her breadstick. “He gave the man an ultimatum to either pay full price or leave empty handed. The man got defensive saying that the cookies were for his niece’s birthday party and were the only bakery who sell Ladybug and Chat Noir macarons in the area. But my dad remained firm. Begrudgingly, the man pulled out his wallet and paid.”

“At least things didn’t escalate.”

“I know, I half expected him to return as an akuma. But luckily that didn’t happen. So you said that you were looking forward to something in the mail?”

“Yeah, it was a DIY violin kit that I ordered a month ago. It finally came after calling the manufacturer’s helpline a couple times since the package kept getting delayed for delivery.”

“Wait, did something happen to your violin?”

“Mine is fine, I just missed working on one. I found this kit online that I wanted to try. I’m actually considering donating it to Melodies Music Shop when I’m done.”

“Really? I figured that a music shop would have enough violins.”

“They do, for sale. But the music shop also does music lessons and they have a select number of violins for rent each year. Based on what my friend Aaron says who works there. Since it’s a small local business it’s on a first come first serve basis. This means only a limited number of students can attend if they can’t afford their own violin. If they can’t and the other ones are already rented someone misses out. If this kit is good, I could donate the violin to the music shop. It probably won’t change the static quo but at least there’s another chance added for someone who wants to learn.”

“You’re amazing wanting to help out like that,” she intertwined her fingers with his. “That’s probably one of the sweetest things ever heard.”

“It’s only an idea at this point. I still got to see if this kit is worth anything,” he said. “I figured it would be best to pay it forward as music helped me through some dark times. It only made sense to help give that opportunity to someone else myself.”

“That’s still one of the sweetest things that I had heard. I stand by what I said.”

This time Luka blushed. “Well it’s your turn. Or was that rude customer the worst of it?”

“Oh no, we’re just getting started,” the designer rested her head on his shoulder. “I said this was a series of unfortunate events, remember?”

They continued to trade off swapping stories about the rest of their days while finishing up their dinner. The designer had listed more less than stellar events which included mistakenly spilling a tray of cream puffs for the display window after avoiding two kids who had run into the bakery. Accidentally burning the replacement cream puffs and knocking over the filling she was working on. This led to her parents suggesting ending her shift early to ease her stress. A pen ended up leaking on her clothes forcing her to change into the outfit she is currently wearing.

After those events it led her to Trocadèro to do some sketching. Although, after switching from her usual purse to her tote bag to protect her sketchbook. She forgot to bring her wallet, meaning there was no money for lunch like planned. Marinette ended up snacking on two of Tikki’s chocolate chip cookies. Meanwhile Luka talked about his delivery route which included running into a former classmate named Anthony who invited him to an upcoming party he was hosting in a couple weeks. He was granted a plus one which the role would be filled by Marinette.

Admittedly, the designer couldn’t help but cringe through some of the recounts. It still felt nice venting. Once their stories started to wind down, the couple sat on the blanket looking at the stars. Overall it felt warm and comforting with his arms around her. Her head rested against his chest hearing his heartbeat. It almost felt like her troubles had finally vanished.

Almost.

“So you went to the Trocadèro, were you able to do some sketching?” Luka asked.

“Just for a little bit. I had a few ideas but the next thing I knew my phone went off because there was an akuma attack,” she answered.

“I did see some ladybugs flying around.”

“Yep, I mostly had to fight alone because it was hard to leave and get any of the other heroes. It seemed any moment I tried a civilian was suddenly pulled into danger. Not only that, Chat Noir took a long time to arrive. He apologized later saying it took a while to find a moment to sneak out and transform. I can’t blame him because I’ve been in that situation before. But I had a hard time holding my own today. By the time Chat came around Durand Avenue half the signs and buildings were slashed.”

“Wait, Durand Avenue? When was this exactly?”

“I don’t know, after maybe around three thirty. Why?”

“I think I was around there on my delivery route. If only I knew I would’ve helped you. But I’m surprised, I didn’t hear anything since those fights aren’t usually quiet. Remember when we fought Bass Master last week.”

“How could I forget? I had a massive headache and my ears were ringing before using the cure. It probably would’ve been worse if you didn’t suggest getting Carapace.”

“It mainly was because he kept turning up the volume on his speakers, shattering the windows of the building surrounding you and Chat Noir even after using second chance several times. It made sense to bring in someone who could trap in the vibrations and I knew I couldn’t do it myself.”

“It was a great idea, but don’t beat yourself up about today. You wouldn’t have noticed him unless he was right in your face. It was The Mime.”

“Mylène’s dad?”

“Good to know that the villains database that I made is being put into good use. It was him. He had an argument with one of his costars in a recent show he’s in. That aggression apparently had to go somewhere like the fire hydrant on Durand Avenue, the stop sign and the superhero trying to stop him from breaking the shoe store window. You get the idea.”

“Sadly, I do but that’s why I wished I could’ve helped. Depending on how far I was some orders might’ve needed to be put on the back burner. But you will always be more important than a few complaints for a part time job-“

Before the musician could finish that sentence she gave him a peck on the cheek.

He turned back to her smiling. “What was that for?”

“It was really sweet what you said, risking all that for me,” the designer started before her face looked more solemn. “But at the same time I’m glad that you didn’t. With the kind of luck that I was having today, if I had lost you. I don’t know how I would live with myself. Especially since I was the one who brought you into all this.”

Luka hugged her tighter. “Hey, it didn’t happen so you don’t have to worry about that. Besides, if anything did happen I would never blame you. I made the decision to be a hero before I knew who you were. I trust you to pull through to make things right.”

“I would but that doesn’t mean that I want to see it either.”

“I could say the same thing about you. But it’s something I have pushed past by helping out as much as I can. Besides, I think your luck is changing.”

“Really? You think so?”

“Nothing bad has happened since you have been here. Isn’t it a good sign?”

Marinette guiltily looked sideways as her eyes fell onto her tote bag. It seems to be the case. But maybe it is because she hasn’t pulled the trigger. On a window of time that appears to get smaller and smaller by the second.

She pulled away from their embrace. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“Huh?” he questioned as the designer stood up grabbing her tote bag and pulled out her sketchbook.

“I have been meaning to tell you,” she returned, sitting beside him. The designer flipped open her sketchbook to the half finished and scribbled out sketches before hanging her head. “I couldn’t finish the sketches today like I promised. With everything that happened today and along with the sudden development of creator’s block there is nothing good to show you. I’m so sorry.”

She assumed his facial expression to change from his friendly loving demeanor, and stray away from it. But to her surprise it instead remained exactly the same.

“Oh you just need more time? You actually had me worried for a second,” he let out a sigh of relief. “That’s fine, can you hand me the tarts, please?”

“Uh…” the designer blinked a few times, almost as if she was processing his response. Before reaching over and handing him the box. “Sure, so you’re not mad?”

“No, why would I? Now if this was the day of the concert that would be a different story,” he opened the box pulling out a tartlet before taking a bite. “By then the band and I would’ve asked you about it multiple times. But two weeks before there’s no reason to get mad especially when you told me the truth. Is that the only thing you wanted to tell me?”

“Yeah, it was. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“Hey, if you need more time, take it. I didn’t ask you to do the merch to add stress. You did an amazing job with our costumes and seemed to enjoy it. What did you expect to happen when you told me? That I would throw you overboard or something?”

“Well…no but-“

“Okay was that supposed to be a joke,” he put the box down after finishing the tart. “Now I’m more concerned that you were hesitant about being honest with me. Did you want me to get mad at you?”

“Of course not, it’s just…I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t want to disappoint you. Especially after all that happened today. Neither did it seem right to keep it from you either.”

“I can get that from what you told me the spotlight really shined on you today.”

“The what?”

“The spotlight of misfortune. It’s something that my mom would say if Jules or I were having a bad day. When there’s a constant stream of bad luck that seems to only single you out like a spotlight and it stays on you for a while.”

“If that’s the case it seems that the spotlight has been a recurring thing on me these past couple months. Maybe that’s why I was so worried about this. I always have these expectations so I can’t slip up or fail. If I do, bad things happen and people get hurt. Remember what I told you about my first day as Ladybug with Stone Heart.”

“I remember.”

“I didn’t do the purification and Paris was under the threat of an army,” she recounted while pulling her knees to her chest. “I let my emotions get the best of me the day Heart Hunter attacked and that had me lead Shadow Moth to Master Fu. It feels like I can’t fail, if I do other people pay the price for it or I lose someone important.”

“If it’s too much I can talk to the others about dropping the merchandise idea or pushing it back to another show.”

“You don’t have to do that. It’s just I guess…this is the first time in our relationship that I haven’t been able to follow through somehow. Along with all the other bad things that happened today. I just… was afraid history would somehow repeat itself.”

The musician’s eyes widened at the revelation that had just hit him. “You know they’re another part of that saying my mom has.”

“What was that?”

“It was that the spotlight doesn’t shine on you for long. And even if it does that, the best thing to do is to push through with life. One time she told me that it’s okay to be sad. Life didn’t go your way today. But if you lock yourself on this boat like a prisoner. You’ll miss out on all the best things of life which include the risks that come along with it. There won’t be rainbows without some rain and sometimes laughter comes after a little pain.”

“That rhymes.”

“We are a family of musicians. She also told me not to mope for longer than a week or Liberty would come alive and have to teach me a lesson since she doesn’t like sad kids.”

“Wait, no way your mom said that,” Marinette giggled.

“Yep, that’s how she justifies the creeks we hear at night. Also after Captain Hardrock my mom told us it gives what she’s been saying merit,” he wrapped his arm around her. “But between you and me I think she just took that from the story books she read us as kids to have a break from the sea shanties.”

“Sea shanties?”

“Yeah I know a couple of the classics like the back of my hand. But getting back on topic you shouldn’t worry about telling me the truth about stuff like this. I’m not with you because of what you can do for me. I’m with you because of the amazing person that you are. And if I ever made you feel that way-“

“Actually, you’re one of the few people that haven’t,” she rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I put all my baggage from these couple months ago on you. You don’t deserve that.”

“But I can understand it, there is so much that is expected of you as Ladybug. Just to keep this city afloat you often put your life on hold. I know how hard it is to be a hero and I don’t have to do it everyday like you. So I can understand being stressed since I’ve been in some of the battles. I had been amazed that we had come out alive in some situations. You’re a lot stronger than most people would be in your shoes. But that doesn’t mean you are not allowed to have a moment of doubt.”

“I really think I really needed to hear that. There’s been days that I’ve been wondering if it’s all worth it being Ladybug. And days like this don’t help. But it’s nice to hear that once in a while.”

“It is worth it but it’s okay to feel the way you do. But you always have kept going no matter what’s been through. That’s pretty admirable, you made it this far, why stop now?”

“You’re right,” she looked at the sketchbook at her feet. “But I just wished I could get over this creator’s block.”

“If you want I could try to help you.”

“Really, are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll admit I don’t have the same knowledge about fashion as you. But since I’m technically one of your customers. It wouldn’t be weird for me to have a say. Also I know what it’s like to create something out of nothing.”

“True at the bakery when someone makes a cake order my parents usually talk to the customers and contribute their input on the favor and design. Besides I had hit a wall so I’m willing to take any help.”

The designer picked up her sketchbook and opened to the most recent pages. She also pulled a pencil from her bag.

“So what do you have so far?” Luka questioned.

“I’ve been playing around mostly with headwear going back to my roots with the bowler hat competition I did last year,” she explained. “Usually my ideas often appear as a finished product. But none of them give me that feeling. You know when you seem to fall in love with your creation.”

“I know what you’re talking about. Usually after you get stuck with some inspiration.”

“Exactly, but none I put together is giving that,” Marinette showed him the half finished sketches that consisted of baseball caps with cat ears, masks redesigns of the band costumes and push kitten dolls. “I really tried to lean into the cat theme but also wanted to make something trendy to help the band’s name spread. But most of the ideas I came up with would be too time consuming to make in two weeks or too expensive to make more than one. Maybe I’m overthinking this? What do you think?”

“Usually what I do when I’m struck is write down possible ideas and pick my favorite ideas from the bunch. How about you do that?”

“I do like the cat theme since there’s so much you can do with that. Also the colors and designs from the masks.”

“So circle that.”

The designer did what he said, circling the cat ears from the hat, plush kittens and the designs for the masks.

“After that I often refer to my previous work to help build up something. My dad does this too. A lot of his songs share the same exact guitar riffs.”

“They do?”

“Definitely, I didn’t notice it at first when listening to his music but once I did it’s hard not to. One time I asked him about it and he said it helped build a signature sound. He’s been doing that for years. It’s in his recent album Rock Giant mainly in the songs Aftershock and Sunlight City. It’s probably better to explain if I show you.”

He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and went to his music library playing the beginning of one song that she knew the rock song Aftershock that had a schism guitar riff. Before playing the last couple seconds the song Sunlight City had the exact same guitar riff.

“I never realized that and I have listened to that album about thirty times,” she sounded amazed.

“Yeah, after learning stuff about the creative side of the music industry you start to see methods used. So how about you try it? Is there anything from your previous work you think that you would work?”

“Umm…” Marinette started to flip through the pages of her sketches before stopping at a certain page which caused her eyes to light up. “This is it!”

She showed him a page that had a finished sketch of a spotted headband with long bug antennas.

“A bug headband?” the musician asked.

“No, well I mean yes but also no,” Marinette explained. “I worked on this a couple months ago as a gift for Manon’s birthday but scrapped it after she told me she wanted a ladybug costume instead. So you may see a bug headband while I see…”

She started to sketch on the empty space on the page after two minutes she flipped the book back handing it to him. “The base for the band’s trademark merch.”

On the page was a cat ear headband. The ears each had double lighting bolts symbols and star designs similar to Luka’s costume.

“It’s more of a concept sketch but what do you think?”

“I like it, there were a few girls in my class who wore them because the pop star Fallon Bernard was seen wearing them during one of her livestreams.”

“Exactly, they have always been pretty trendy and if anyone who should use them is the band that has kitty in their name.”

“What are the lighting bolts and stars for?”

“It’s from your costume. I figured one way we could sell them in support of the band members. For example if someone really likes Rose they can come over and buy a headband with her mask design. It would also help them stand out from the other headbands out there.”

“You know we could have some personal ones for the band. It could be something we wear the day before the concert at school. Just like how sport teams wear their jerseys on game day in some places. It would be free advertising when people ask why we’re wearing them.”

Marinette squealed with excitement. “I love that idea. I’m already picturing something with Rose, lots of pink of course but maybe a flower crown headband…”

That was it. All that was needed to put the creative thought train back into motion. The couple continued to chat back and forth on the cat ear headband designs which included mask decals, gems, fun patterns and so much more. Luka consistently gave suggestions based on what he knew the other band members would like. Within an hour in multiple cat ears designs spread across the pages of the sketchbook.

“Alright,” the designer put the pencil down and slid her sketchbook back into her tote bag for safe keeping. “We got about twenty different designs. I think that would be enough to show the others. Thanks for helping out.”

“You’re welcome, but it’s not a big deal,” he told her. “I’m always going to help you if I can.”

She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a warm embrace. “It is for me. You were able to come up with those ideas pretty quickly. Are you sure that there’s not some designer gene you’ve been hiding?”

“Nope, just a creative one. But it was pretty fun helping you come up with stuff.”

“Usually I do this by myself but it was fun having someone to bounce ideas off of. We do work well together.”

“Can’t deny that or we wouldn’t have made it this far.”

“Exactly, that was the reason I was afraid of history repeating itself.”

“That’s one thing that you don’t have to worry about Marinette. I love you too much to let you go over something so trivial. While I can’t speak for everyone else I will always be in your corner.”

“I love you too. My world will always be better with you in. I don’t know how it could not be to have someone kind and compassionate in my life. There’s so much more to say about you but I do have a curfew so we don’t have six hours to spare.”

“I feel the same way as I love how brave and passionate you are. I was never miserable before I met you. But I would be lying if I haven’t been happier since meeting you. Especially being loved by you-“

Before he could finish she pulled him into a kiss, their lips touched. For a moment it felt like the world was disappearing around them. That is until raindrops landed between them breaking them apart. Marinette looked up to see several raindrops making their descent.

“Rain?” Luka questioned. “The weather report said it wasn’t going to rain until midnight. I checked right before I called you. I can’t believe this.”

“I can,” the designer expressed. “For me it seems pretty on brand for the rest of the day.”

“It appears to be a light drizzle so there’s no need to evacuate. But what did you want to do?”

The designer thought for a second as earlier tonight she had plans of fleeing from any possible sense of misfortune. But now didn’t mind as everything she wanted was here.

“Based on what you said before,” she told him. “We made it this far, so should we stop now?”

The musician smiled while cupping her cheek. “It’s nice to see that you’re willing to take my advice.”

The couple looked lovingly into each other’s eyes, pulling themselves into a tender but passionate kiss. Like classic movie characters, they stayed in the rain for just a little bit longer. As no matter what happens around them, here they will always be together.

Since there always will be good and bad among the stars.

The End.

Thanks for reading. 😊

While all this is going on Tikki is downstairs watching her movie and finishing the box of chocolates thinking this is the good life. I hope everyone enjoyed this story. I must admit. I do enjoy writing about Marinette and Luka as a couple. I’m always the type to look into wasted or untapped potential in characters and concepts. Those have always been one of my favorite things when writing. Plus it’s always good to keep certain writing skills sharp either character driven or romantic plot driven.

In addition, I wanted to acknowledge how much Marinette had been through the wringer due to…certain writing choices. It seems believable that certain fears or insecurities pop up when there’s so much on your shoulders.

The song this week is “All Of The Stars” by Ed Sheeran.

youtube

If you made it this far, I would really appreciate it.

See you next time. 👋

This story is also available on Wattpad.

#miraculous ladybug #lukanette endgame #pro lukamari #lukanette #endgame lukanette #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine #miraculous au #my writing #Youtube

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