#But seriously if they won’t even show her on my screen I refuse to believe she and Eli are still dating

[rooolt]

and he’s more concerned about going to college with his boy best friend than he is about going to college with his literal girlfriend,,,,,,,,,,,, which could mean nothing

[miraculouscontent]

It’s heeeeere! Another summasalt, this time with nearly twice the length of the first one!

(Turns out that not having caffeine doesn’t help me talk any slower.)

Script below:

Anonymous asked:

Thoughts on Rocketear?

Can you Rocketear the newest episode apart with your salt, my beloved Salt Queen?

Penny for your thoughts on Rocketear?

Aw, anon! You can have that for free! I'm a generous goddess.

"Rocketear" begins with Chat Noir and Carapace - just Carapace, really - holding back a pack of what I presume to be the physical manifestation of the writing staff's age, or at least a representation of how behind the times the writing seems.

Just as the dinosaurs break through Shellter. Ladybug shows up with the scientist who revived the dinosaurs in the first place and said scientist uses a whistle to calm the dinosaurs down. There's also a line from Bob Roth about putting the dinosaurs in a theme park to make money and I know what it's referencing but it's so incredibly random that it doesn't really come off as a proper joke.

Carapace was notably sad right after battle, but insisted that he was fine when Ladybug asked. Rena, sporting a... - I would like to say "new design" but it's a recolor in every sense of the word - is hiding behind part of a building and smiles after the heroes before walking off. Ladybug takes Nino's miraculous back but sees that he's still upset and asks him again what's wrong. Nino asks where Alya was and Ladybug claims that she only needed Carapace for the job, which cheers him up but only until Ladybug is already gone.

Mm, I guess Nino and Adrien relate in heroism not being enough for them unless they have their respective love interest to flirt with.

Also, I know this is an obvious set-up, but the show can't tell me that Ladybug just always brought Nino and Alya whenever she needed one of them. Season 3 required her to go to Master Fu to get the miraculouses, and unless she already knew that Nino and Alya would be in the same location - which, okay, the show does basically shove the two of them together whenever Nino is onscreen, fair, if two characters are in a relationship in this show then it's weird for them to NOT be with that person - but it just seems like a gamble, not to mention proof to Shadow Moth that the two are close if Ladybug constantly brings both of them.

Anyway, Ladybug goes into the sewer and asks Rena if she's seen any sign of Shadow Moth or his traps. Rena didn't see anything and they de-transform. Marinette is about to leave when she thinks of something, but Alya assumes it's about her new look, which was apparently not voluntary on her part and the suit automatically adapted to Alya's new role as Rena Furtive, which she has now named it as.

Marinette reminds her that this is supposed to be a secret and that they agreed that the fox has no owner. When Alya is evasive about whether she told Nino that she won't be Rena anymore, Marinette stresses that everyone needs to believe that Alya won't be using a miraculous anymore so that she can remain an undercover spy.

What's the point in changing the look if you're not going to show yourself anyway? I mean, insurance, I guess, but still.

Alya, exasperated, parrots what Marinette has apparently told her before: that she helps Ladybug with Mirage in case Shadow Moth tries to follow her so Rena can follow him instead. Marinette stresses the situation again and Alya tries to get Marinette to agree on her telling Nino that she's Rena Furtive, but Marinette refuses.

At Marinette's house, Alya talks further and explains that she doesn't know if she can lie to Nino since they don't keep any secrets--Alya, babe, you kept Rena Rouge from him and didn't tell him that you knew he was Carapace until Ladybug was forced to give you your miraculouses at the same time. I don't wanna hear it.

Marinette states that it's too late for that and also not technically a lie, but Alya gets upset and says that Nino will never trust her again if he finds out that she kept something from him. Marinette brings up how she had to keep secrets from Alya too, but they're interrupted by Tom appearing and wanting to play games with them. Marinette makes an excuse about homework that she's repeated many times, as Tom comments that the teachers give her too much. After Tom is kicked out - hang on, lemme just... - Marinette uses the moment to show Alya that she's lied to her family a lot and hasn't played games with her father in months. She states that there's no other option as they have to protect their identities, and Alya agrees to talk to Nino.

In Alya's room - I just presume at this point that Nino's house doesn't exist and Chris is an illusion - Alya tells Nino that they need to talk, but stammers and states that it's hard to talk about. Nino thinks that she wants to break up with him, but Alya assures that she loves him. She finally gets to the cover story that Rena herself made up in "Sentibubbler" and Nino understands, sad that she won't be around anymore but agreeing if it's what Ladybug thinks is best.

Is it weird that Nino respects Ladybug's wishes more than Alya does?

Nino hugs her and is confused by why Alya was nervous to tell him, as she can tell him anything and nothing will change their relationship. Alya feels guilty and hugs back, murmuring about how they don't have any secrets; that's not what Nino said, but sure, push this plot to its already predictable conclusion. I mean, I thought it was vaguely sweet that Nino switched to seriousness immediately when Alya said that she wanted to talk, but how am I supposed to be invested in this couple when their dynamic boils down to "STRONG, INDEPENDANT WOMAN who wears the pants in the relationship because her boyfriend is portrayed as a wimpy coward"? Like, the show constantly dragged Nino down to make Alya look "powerful" by comparison, and then when it comes to characters like Marinette, we get a girl who works very well outside of her relationship with her endgame love interest.

It's the fakest form of "girl power," dragging guys down to raise girls up or actually making a strong girl character but having her love interest be a weakness that creates flaws in her that weren't there originally and having that love interest be who she's "destined for."

I'm rambling, sorry.

In class, Marinette assures Alya that she did the right thing and Alya agrees. As they're leaving school, Marinette talks about how their "night walks" start soon, and Alya non-subtly talks about how Rena Furtive will be on the lookout while Ladybug and Chat Noir patrol. She stops, however, as gets excited about some pictures she took of herself as Rena Furtive, which has a lot of details that Marinette hasn't seen. I don't know whether to groan at what I just heard or remind everyone that Rena Furtive is literally just a recolor and therefore this is the writers patting themselves on the back for this design, so let's just move on.

Alya then shows Marinette her phone--AUGH, MY EYES--and suggests making a poll on her Ladyblog so people can vote for their favorite Rena design. Marinette has to stress again that Rena Furtive is supposed to be a spy and thus invisible, which Alya admits that she forgot about.

Okay, I've been holding off on talking about this, but now seems like the best time to bring it up. Alya has been a trash friend as well as a trash confidant, and her role as Rena Rouge boiled down to, "it was convenient for her to be the fox at the time it was needed." She's not particularly stealthy like one would expect of a fox, and she was easily one of the worst candidates to be told Marinette's big secret. I'll get more into this later, but I have to stress that Alya has treated Marinette no differently since learning of Marinette's identity and has already gone against Marinette's orders once before at the time of this episode airing. Episodes are constantly torn between validating their decision to have Marinette tell Alya, having Marinette be worried about the decision while the show considers her to be ridiculous for it, and then having Alya either consider or make choices that clearly don't gel well with what's good for her role. Much like Marinette, she lacks a sense of self-control and--wow, a female character who's impulsive, never seen that stereotype before.

Point being, "Sentibubbler" stressed over and over that Alya was the right choice and deserved to be both the permanent fox and the understudy for guardian, but then we have "Rocketear" here where Alya is making basic emotionally-driven errors that I'm not even remotely sympathetic to when Marinette has gone through so much worse over the course of three+ seasons.

*sigh*

Alya laments that it's hard to find new content for the Ladyblog - ah, yes, tell me more about your struggles, Alya - but figures that at least she can post stuff about Chat Noir instead of--I don't know--making fake Ladybug theories to lead people off Marinette's trail. Marinette says that it's a great idea, though Alya still doesn't look too happy. The scene then rewinds to a little bit to show a different point of view, this time with Adrien and Nino. Wait, this feels familiar, wasn't there another episode that did something like--ohhhh no, this is going to hurt.

After saying good-bye to Adrien - something I wish I could do every time he's mentioned or on-screen - Nino catches the bit of conversation where Alya talks about the Ladyblog. Nino talks as if Marinette isn't there and asks Alya out to the movies because Marinette is chopped liver and this is about Alya and how sad she is, guys.

Wow, she's turning into Adrien faster and faster.

Alya hesitates, but Marinette assures her that there's still time. Alya excitedly runs off with Nino and they watch what I presume are previews given the narrator, featuring recycled footage from the Ladybug PV. Nino is upset because Rena is mentioned but not Carapace, and the preview features Rena telling Chat Noir to forget Ladybug because it's Chat and Rena herself who are trulu made for each other.

I don't know what's funnier; the complete lack of self-awareness or the suggestion that a biracial couple would exist in this show outside of a special that gives them maybe a minute of screentime and acts more like suggestive canon anyway. I think I might've been too generous with that line about dinosaurs.

Nino is offended by the preview and Alya brushes off his comments, stating that it's just a cartoon and it's made to entertain people, though Nino himself is certainly not entertained. Can't say I entirely blame him considering that Alya doesn't really try to say anything substantial or even agree with him. No cuddling or reassuring kisses, she just gets slightly sad and turns to her phone for a bit.

After the movie, Nino is cheered back up again until he catches Alya on her phone once more. He offers to take her home, but she's distracted, and he comments that what she showed to Marinette looked pretty nice; I don't know because they didn't show it. Nino asks what it was and Alya evades the question, stating that her battery is running out. Nino is suspicious, but spots Andre's ice cream cart and the two head over there. Andre calls them his favorite couple and asks what they want, but Alya sees Ladybug gesturing for her and has to run off, giving Nino a cheek kiss as she goes which feels like too little too late at this point.

Nino catches some conveniently-placed kids arguing over who Chat Noir loves, but they settle on the fact that girls in general love Chat Noir. Nino is then seen at the Seine watching the Ladyblog's latest video, where Alya is talking up how amazing Chat Noir is. I hate to stop every five seconds to complain - okay, actually I don't - but I presume this video must've been made after the movie since Nino seems like the type who would actively follow his girlfriend's blog, yet not only is this video perfectly set up to echo the kids and the movie preview, but Alya - despite apparently caring about her boyfriend soooo much that she kept trying to convince Marinette to bend the rules - didn't even try to warn Nino or text him so he doesn't take it too seriously. It's like "Sentibubbler" with the conflicting messages about identity rules; Alya cares about her boyfriend but both isn't thinking about how he'll take the things she says and apparently doesn't know him well enough to realize that he wouldn't be mad over her keeping a secret that she was told to keep. I already talked about how they play up Nino to be the emotionally weaker one of the relationship, but then they don't have Alya try to cover or make up for that. She's been acting very much not like Alya - you know, the one who in "Sapotis" practically bragged about how great she'd be at covering for Ladybug - with her stutters and weak excuses, so I can't completely blame Nino for being upset after everything that's happened when he sees the writers projecting onto Alya as she talks about how Chat Noir is brave and funny and cute and showing all these images of him as well. I don't agree with all of his actions, but--oh yeah, speaking of which--

Nino calls Adrien and is talking to him about how Alya must be in love with someone else. Adrien dismisses the idea, as Alya and Nino are together basically all the time, and asks who she could possibly be in love with. When Nino suggests that it's Chat Noir, Adrien laughs and jokes about it being Fang instead. Nino points out the video but Adrien did see it but is overall unphased and convinced that it means nothing. Nino says that he'll find proof and hangs up, but Adrien is certain he'll find nothing. Plagg comments that Nino will find someone because Plagg's charisma has definitely contaminated Adrien.

Ugh.

Adrien expresses concern that he put on the cat's charm too much and accidentally made Alya fall for him, and decides to visit Alya as Chat Noir to be sure.

Meanwhile, we get a reference to film noirs as Nino narrates. That's the second blatant reference this episode and now I feel like they wrote this script while doing a movie marathon.

Chat Noir arrives at Alya's house and Trixx hides before Alya opens the curtains to reveal her surprise guest. Nino is nearby watching the scene with his phone as Alya wonders aloud if something's wrong. Chat assures that everything's fine, but brings up the video she posted. He insists that it made him happy, but points out that she's been following him and Ladybug since the beginning and that they know each other much better due to everything that's happened. He has some conveniently-worded dialog as he starts to say that he hopes something's just an illusion and Alya gets worried that he's about to bring up Rena. Chat continues and clarifies that he wonders if she started to feel something for him, though adds that he understands because just look at him.

UGGGGH.

Chat clarifies by making a heart with his hands, which Nino sees. Alya laughs at this gesture and states that she has a boyfriend, doing the same heart gesture and suggesting that her love for Nino is even more than that. Chat Noir apologizes - hm, I didn't know he had the capacity to do that - and hugs Alya, saying that he was just confused.

An absolutely unnecessary hug for two people who, at least in terms of their current selves, have had very little screentime together, but this is also the show where making eye contact basically means your friends and it's all just to push the plot along so Nino inteprets that Alya is in love with Chat Noir, so whatever I guess.

Alya states that Nino is far more irresistable than Chat, then adds that she doesn't even know his secret identity, and she'd never fall in love with someone she doesn't know. Nino then runs away upset and the scene cuts away to the next day where--

Wait, wait, wait, hang on a second. Two things right off the bat there.

First off, we're just gonna sidle past that "wouldn't fall in love with someone you don't know the identity of" while ignoring the existence of the love square? Not even Chat thinking about how he doesn't know Ladybug's identity and trying to excuse that he doesn't have to? This guy is that certain of their relationship?

Secondly, Nino is practically sobbing and Shadow Moth doesn't take this as his opportunity? Same guy who akumatized Mr. Pigeon 72 times and has akumatized Gigantitan more than once? What is this pacing???

But--alright, so Adrien comes into school and sees Nino, still dressed up in his detective gear, which gets ignored completely as Adrien goes to tell him about Chat Noir and Alya. Because the show doesn't know how Adrien would convey this within reason, Nino interrupts him, taking him down into the lower part of the school where he has a desk and chairs set up. Adrien goes to ask when Nino had time to do this, but Nino slams his hand on the desk to cut him off. Nino presents the evidence he took and they go back and forth, likewise with Adrien turning off the background music while Nino turns it back on. Adrien insists that it's a misunderstanding, but pleads innocent when Nino asks how he knows. Adrien states that Alya is just a superhero fan and that she and Chat Noir have nothing in common.

Again, the complete lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

Adrien repeats what Alya said about secret identities and how she wouldn't fall for someone she doesn't know - they're really ignoring this, aren't they? - and continues hitting Nino's soft spots about how unlikely it is until Nino decides to tell Adrien something he's not supposed to.

He tells Adrien, not only that Alya is Rena Rouge, but that he's Carapace. Adrien goes through a range of emotions beyond sAD for once, shocked at the fact that they know each other's identities. Nino states that they don't keep secrets from each other, except now Alya is with Chat Noir. Adrien still doesn't understand and brings up how secret identities have to be protected, or else Nino wouldn't have told him because Ladybug wouldn't agree to it.

Oh, here we go. So that's why they waited.

Nino states that it was Ladybug herself who gave them their miraculouses at the same time; not giving the reason why, of course, nor pointing out that they're temporary heroes so there's understandably some leeway. Adrien is having a moment, but manages to bring the subject back to Alya and Chat Noir, who he still doesn't think are a thing. Nino argues that it's because Adrien doesn't know Chat Noir, but he does because he's Carapace and knows how Chat Noir acts. He says that it's all flowers and confessions when Ladybug appears, but he gets rejected because Ladybug thinks that he's annoying, and she's right. He adds that Chat flirts with Rena Rouge and that's all that needs to happen, with Chat stepping in on the first mission Carapace lost in. Nino laments the loss of the love of his life and wishes to shut Chat Noir up forever; we all do, Nino, we all do. Shadow Moth finally steps in with - oh, less than eight minutes left in the episode, yikes - and Nino is akumatized into Rocketear.

Rocketear rejects Adrien's pleas to stop, insisting that Chat Noir is who he's after, not Adrien, and Adrien transforms in sad fashion despite Plagg's reminder of who Rocketear is after. Alya, meanwhile, is in the art club with Marinette - wait, since when was Alya in the art club - telling Marinette about how Chat Noir thought she was into him due to the video, which Marinette groans at. There's an earthquake and they peek outside to see Rocketear firing his tears at Chat Noir, shouting that he stole Alya from him. Chat Noir tries to tell him otherwise, but Rocketear won't listen.

Alya groans at Nino doing this, then she and Marinette set off to find a place to transform. They conveniently go to the same place Adrien and Nino were, so they see the desk that Nino had set up.

Genuine question, how seriously does this episode want me to take itself, because now when I recount all the unnecessary love square drama in my head - because you know that's where this is going - I'm going to have to think, "Nino, dressed in a detective outfit, ripped off his fake mustache and told Adrien both his and Rena's identities, and also that Ladybug was totally cool with it and thinks that Chat Noir is annoying."

Gettin' two completely different vibes here. The episode clearly wants to be important but it doesn't take itself seriously either, which it totally could while including enough jokes to keep things light. Instead, I'm just left scratching my head and wondering what tone they're going for.

Marinette finds Nino's phone on the desk - I'm calling continuity error on that one because he at no point put it on the desk, at least not on-screen - and she questions Alya on the video she sees. Alya insists that nothing happened, apparently completely unphased by her boyfriend having spied on her, and says that he wouldn't have misunderstood if he'd heard the actual conversation.

The two transform and Ladybug immediately uses Lucky Charm, receiving a projector. Ladybug is clueless and Rena Furtive suggests creating an imaginary movie like Nino. Ladybug gets an idea, remembering Alya's earlier comments, and Rena confirms that she remembers every word of it.

Aaaaand, just like that, all of the tension has been completely sucked away. You know, "Backwarder" was a trash episode, but at least when Ladybug was showing every step of her plan, she didn't tell us what it was.

Meanwhile, Rocketear and Chat Noir are still arguing--I started zoning out at hearing the same thing over and over again at this point, so I just presume they were fighting over who does stuff behind their love interest's backs better; I don't think they came to an agreement but they're both losers anyway.

Chat Noir says that he'll prove his innocence, tossing his baton aside to show him giving up, but Rocketear points out that it proves nothing and strikes Chat Noir with his tears.

Our endgame love interest, everyone. Straight As yet about as smart as a sack of bricks, and that at least won't flirt with anyone non-consensually.

Chat Noir makes a point that he doesn't want to hurt Rocketear, and Shadow Moth tells Rocketear to take his miraculous before finishing him. Chat Noir can only weakly tell him not to before Ladybug snags Rocketear's wrist and diverts the shot. Ladybug explains to Rocketear about the projector and how it'll let him hear the audio of the recording he took. She adds that she doesn't know what Chat said, but she trusts him.

Marinette, I'm sorry, I feel so bad for you.

Ladybug turns on the projector and Rocketear relaxes at actually hearing what was going on. Rena then de-transforms and hurries out to meet with Rocketear, hugging him as Rocketear apologizes for doubting her. Alya also kinda sorta apologizes in a way I don't understand and Rocketear then breaks his akumatization, very casually, all on his own.

Yeah, just--casually, in a matter of seconds in fact. You know, it's really sad when people resisting akumatizations are more tense and emotionally compelling than them breaking them. This is twice in one season now and has zero impact considering that Nino's reason for being akumatized was already taken care of so he had no reason to stay akumatized anyway. Him breaking his own object to release the akuma would've at least been different, but instead it's just a repeat of what Alya went through with even less tension considering that Alya's wasn't even that good in the first place, relying on her relationship to Ladybug rather than who she knew to be her best friend.

Moving on, Ladybug captures the akuma and uses Miraculous Ladybug to bring everything back to normal. Shadow Moth monologues about how love and secrets don't go well together and he's sure that she has a lot and I'll talk about this later.

Ladybug hands over the magical charm, which Nino takes but insists that he won't need it, as he'll never let Shadow Moth use his love to manipulate him again. Plenty of other things to get akumatized over, but they gave the supposedly ace character a robot to help him stick out and also gave the supposedly aro character a miraculous back in season one to give her more importance. If characters aren't in love then they need something to ceompensate for it.

Nino apologizes to Chat Noir for being wrong and Chat Noir assures him that everyone has doubts, even him. He gets sad and Ladybug asks him what's wrong, but he insists that he's fine - officially throwing away his right to be upset at her later as far as I'm concerned - and they do their usual fist buuuuu--

...Really?

Everyone then splits up and Chat Noir sulks by himself instead of--you know, talking to Ladybug, or asking her anything, or making any sort of excuse for her because that would mean he actually has faith in her and understands that their partnership is different from temporary heroes, even if the excuse was as basic as her wanting to protect him more than the others because he would be that egotistical if they didn't want to stretch out this unnecessary drama.

Later on, Adrien is staring at a picture on the Ladyblog that might be a metaphor for the show considering how "in the foreground" Chat Noir and Rena are.

Adrien vents about Ladybug giving miraculouses to Alya and Nino, but Plagg states that she's the guardian. Adrien clarifies that he's referring to Alya and Nino knowing each other's identities, but Plagg doesn't see the issue. Adrien gets huffy and asks why the rule exists for LadyNoir but not Ninya, but Plagg again points out that she's the guardian, so she makes the rules, though obviously he uses cheese metaphors to convey it.

Okay, Plagg is only, like--half-right because he doesn't have all the information. If you don't mind me rambling for a bit, I'm on the fence here because, on one hand--yes, I agree that Marinette should be allowed to make her own rules, and I often do that in my writing because I think she should be permitted leeway in order to let herself be happy, but on the other hand, it's not technically her rule, as she had to let Alya and Nino in on their identities back in the Season 2 finale, so Fu was still around for a season. She wasn't even guardian yet!

Now, presumably so the fandom could blame Marinette if anything happened, Marinette never discussed this with Fu on-screen, so I can't say whether or not Fu knew, but I feel like he must've since Marinette had to have told him the heroes' identities off-screen, given "Party Crasher," and thus I imagine that Marinette would tell Fu everything that happened, which is consistent with what she does on-screen even if she'd keep things from him for a little while.

"Furious Fu" had also established that not even Master Fu followed rules completely, meaning that Marinette is in this awkward spot of mostly following what Fu taught her, which aren't all guardian rules anyway, and having to break the rules on occasion for various purposes. I can't say what Fu approved of and what he didn't, because episodes spend so much time on the love square that they forget about Marinette as a person and how she interacts with everyone else. From an emotional standpoint, I can't blame Marinette for not revoking the miraculouses of people whose identities get discovered because of her, as I imagine she feels guilty and it probably doesn't seem fair to force them into another miraculous or have them be entirely without one because of a mistake that she made, meaning that someone needs to be throwing a lot of red flags for Marinette to be through with them.

Though obviously, from the show's standpoint, it's just an excuse to not make new models, but I complained about that enough in "Sentibubbler" and this episode even went out of its way to design a detective model for Nino while spraypainting Alya's bodysuit in the same breath, so this is the world we live in.

Anyway, Marinette is essentially in this position where she still has Fu's rules hovering over her, but she's also trying to step out on her own and make her own decisions to varying degrees of success or failure depending on your point of view. Tikki--wait, no, bad idea--Su-Han then, could easily give input on these things, perhaps with Marinette discussing a modern day set of rules for someone her age and going back and forth with Su-Han on what the right choices to make are, finding something that's comfortable but within a realm of predictable control. Su-Han was okay with some rules being broken after seeing how Ladybug handled them and they could've easily made this episode about that instead, but instead, we get rules being set and then being broken on a writer's whim.

Which now brings us to the end of the episode, where Marinette is on the phone with Alya and apologizes for causing trouble between her and Nino. Alya tells her not to worry and she'll fix things - you know, those things that, to Marinette's knowledge, have already been fixed - and asks if Marinette trusts her. Marinette does, and Alya hangs up in order to face Nino.

Yeah, that feeling of dread in your stomach? That means you know how predictable the writing is and what's about to happen, good for you.

Alya explains that she has to tell Nino something and he's worried, this time trying to sheepishly break the tension. She explains that she's still Rena Rouge, much to Nino's shock, and adds that she's in hiding, which is why Ladybug didn't want her to tell anyone. Nino asks why she's telling him if she's not supposed to tell anyone - proving my point from a while back that he wouldn't have been upset had she kept it a secret - then asks if Ladybug agreed with it.

I want to give him a pat on the back for considering Ladybug, but he didn't even tell her when he had the chance that Adrien knows his identity now, so I'm just beaten down at this point.

Instead of answering the question directly, Alya says that she can't hide her identity from him because she loves him and they don't have secrets.

You know, like Nino telling Adrien about Rena's identity, or Alya saying specifically that she's a permanent holder, which I'm sure both of them will confess to since they said that they don't have--aaaaand the episode ends on happy triumphant music, okay.

I mean, I guess Alya at least didn't tell him that Marinette was Ladybug, but that is such a low bar and not even remotely worthy of congratulations when Alya told Nino the specific thing that Marinette told Alya not to tell; the thing that they had agreed on.

Nino wasn't upset anymore. He won't be getting akumatized either. Alya endured the supposed hardship of being a permanent fox holder for four episodes before breaking down and telling her boyfriend. Even her excuse doesn't hold any water because, again, they're both still technically keeping a secret, particularly Alya who knows Marinette's identity as Ladybug. The episode also apparently forgets that Alya and Marinette's friendship must not be as strong by her logic of telling Nino specifically everything, as Alya kept Rena Rouge a secret from Marinette for all of Season 3, but tells Nino about continuing to be Rena Rouge in Season 4. Boyfriends before BFFs without explicitly saying it, or to be more specific, whatever screws Marinette over the most, because that's what this comes down to, made worse by "Optigami" where Marinette told Alya that she'd tell her everything and I guess that doesn't go both ways.

"Sentibubbler" had Alya stress that no one would ever know. She promised Marinette and told Marinette to trust her, and the episode spent its entire running time talking her up and assuring Marinette that she was the right choice, even considering Marinette ridiculous for worrying when Alya had done something without Marinette's permission the episode right before it. Then, three episodes after "Sentibubbler," when Marinette is finally comfortable and trusts Alya completely, Alya betrays that trust. Nino betrayed that trust, knowing he wasn't supposed to do so but telling Adrien his and Rena's identity anyway, because he was losing an argument and needed to PROVE something.

Marinette gives them an inch and they take a mile. Marinette bent the rules so that they could continue to have the miraculous they'd started with and they disrespected her because it was hard for like a day.

And if this bites them back, it won't reflect poorly on them, it'll reflect poorly on Marinette.

It's not like Alya just overrode Marinette. She didn't go, "Hey, I'm telling Nino, I'm sorry," or tried her hardest to go back and forth with Marinette until they both agreed. No, she did what she told Marinette she wouldn't do without saying a word to her, because LOVE and SEEEECRETS.

And this only applies to her, of course, because don't think I didn't notice the parallels between this episode and "Truth," because WOW.

Episode begins with Marinette hoping for something and it blows up in her face? A date at the cinema that ends on a sour note? Plot-centric couple trying to get Andre's ice cream and the female with a secret needing to leave in a hurry? Boyfriend character getting akumatized over their girlfriend's secret? Boyfriend assumes/suggests that the girlfriend's secret involves Aaaaaadrien - or his alter-ego in "Rocketear"'s case - and the episode hints as much to him even though he's completely wrong? Akuma's colors are blue and black? THE BRIDGE?

But, ahhh, little difference, here and there, y'know, like how Marinette was forced to break up with her boyfriend while Alya got to keep hers, and Nino got to have long talks with Alya while Luka got little to nothing with Marinette.

Because do note that Alya, while trying to convince Marinette and talk to Nino about not keeping secrets, at no point suggests that Marinette deserves to be happy and deserves to have a boyfriend and that Marinette should be allowed to tell Luka her secret so they can get back together, so you have Alya here selfishly prioritizing her relationship with Nino while making no comment about Marinette's relationship, essentially asking Marinette to allow her what Marinette herself didn't have the luxury of, and Alya knows this because Marinette told her. It is both incredibly insensitive of Alya and incredibly insulting of the show to make so many parallels between this episode and "Truth" just to have everything crash down for Marinette because she's Marinette while everything goes well for Alya and Nino because they're not Marinette.

We've talked before about the formulas that are literally baked into the show, and one of those is how Marinette makes a mistake in every episode and has to learn from it. What that mistake is in this episode, I don't know, but considering that she apologizes for Alya and Nino's problems, I guess the show blames her for what they themselves had taught her.

Point being, there's a clear karma system in place, but it only applies to Marinette, and forcing her to mess up in every episode means that she is literally not allowed to be with Luka because had she been able to clear things up between them, he would've eagerly accepted her and they could've been happy. It'd be too difficult for her to mess up when Luka doesn't put mountains of pressure and expectations on her like everyone else. Factor that in with how she can be herself around him and it leads to situation that are too difficult for her to screw up in because her mistakes - more often than not - center around Adrien or her role as guardian.

And because another rule in the show is to bring up Adrien so they don't "lose him for too long," she can't avoid bringing him up either. If he's not in the plot, he has to be mentioned, leaving Marinette in a lose-lose situation that she'll never be free from.

So, let me just get this straight then:

The guy who spied on his girlfriend instead of talking to her about his assumptions gets to keep his girlfriend, not because he realized it was wrong regardless of whether he was correct or not, but because the situation had been cleared up for him, yet the guy who actively resisted his akumatization, saddened by his girlfriend's secrets but wanting her to share them when she was ready, gets broken up with and tossed to the wayside because he's not a rich blond boy who got a miraculous because he happened to be within the twenty meters of space where Fu was searching for new holders?

Meanwhile, the girlfriend who has gone against the wishes and insistence of her best friend - guardian of the miraculouses, by the way, so she calls the shots, something that Alya herself said in "Optigami" BEFORE GOING ON TO DO HER OWN THING IN THE SAME EPISODE AND BEING REWARDED FOR IT - is allowed to go against the wishes and insistence of her best friend again for the sake of "all love, no secrets" with her boyfriend and so she can have the happy ending she wants, yet the girl who was chosen for a miraculous without her consent, forced to screw up and talk about a random boy who doesn't even go out of his way to spend time with her, treated like absolute trash by writers who find humor in her misery, and is the only one to receive overly harsh and long-lasting consequences for her actions while also covering up and forgiving the actions of others within the episode where they do it...

doesn't get her happy ending, and won't ever get her happy ending. That thing Shadow Moth said about love and secrets not going well together? Yeah, only goes as far as the writers want it to, because both Nino and Alya still have secrets, and some of the ones they did tell each other were forced by someone else and kept until that very moment. This idea that people in love have to tell each other everything and that it makes a relationship stronger makes me immensely uncomfortable, and that lesson is also in "Guiltrip."

People should be allowed their secrets, and obviously there are exceptions for things that are being hidden with malicious intent, but being essentially forced to share everything or risk not having a "full and complete" relationship is stifling and sounds like it'd only cause stress.

This episode sucks. It furthers and confirms everything I've already thought about the show, Nino's screentime continues to be dependent on Adrien, Alya, or both, there are pointless references that completely take me out of the experience, and the utter betrayal from Alya and supposed message of the episode just reminds me that Marinette is inevitably going to be stuck with a guy who didn't even DO anything in this episode and is going to let himself stew instead of asking for any sort of clarifications from someone he apparently trusts so much.

So the takeaway is that Marinette's life is awful, she'll be forced to apologize for rules that she didn't even come up with herself, her best friend will walk all over her for the sake of her relationship with a guy - not even for the sake, really, they were going to be fine, it was more for HER personal comfort if anything - and the guy who actually makes Marinette happy and could've known her identity instead BECAUSE HE AT LEAST DIDN'T HAVE A TRACK RECORD OF SPILLING HER SECRETS gets treated in the exact same way that she does; like nothing, just something to abuse unfairly.

What a waste of an episode.

[emiewritesthings]

doctor, doctor - jay halstead

jay halstead x fem!reader

summary: in which y/n takes it into her own hands to look after a sick jay 

a/n: i’m not gonna lie i think this is one of my fav things i’ve ever written, i would really appreciate some feedback and p.s the beginning of it is based on that scene from brooklyn 99 :)

masterlist

“okay, it’s 10 o’clock, meaning halstead is officially an hour late to work,” y/n announced as she appeared from the break room with a mug of poorly made coffee. looking around, she had immediately distracted everyone in the room with her playful smile. “okay let’s do this, theories!” she encouraged, taking a sip with excitement, but immediately regretting it as s he spat it back in the mug and abandoned it on adam’s desk as she leant against it.

“uh, he forgot to set his alarm?” antonio suggested, willing to play along with the little game that y/n had created. however clearly his answer didn’t suffice as y/n scrunched up her nose and shook her head in disappointment.

“you are a detective in a unit that just last week rescued 5 people kidnapped and used as chess pieces in a human sized version of the game and the best you could come up with is he forgot to set his alarm? pfft, disappointing, dawson. who’s willing to take this seriously?” she scoffed, brushing his idea off with a simple roll of the eyes as the group laughed at her ridiculousness. 

“maybe he has been murdered by a gang looking for revenge.” adam piped up, earning a sudden and rather forceful slap on the back as y/n cheered. her eyes looking over at antonio as she gestured towards the less experienced detective.

“yes, that’s what i’m talking about. bit dark, ruzek, but better than dawson’s,” y/n hummed, adam clearly pleased with the praise he had received by the pretty detective. “any one else wanna shot?” she offered it out into the room, suddenly the sound of rolling wheels on the chair had everyone turn to face al who was munching on a ham sandwich.

“he walked into the middle of a drug ring, slept with the kingpins daughter and is now having limbs removed, one by the hour.” suddenly an eery silence fell in the bullpen as al suddenly disappeared back to his desk and everyone was left with an image that she was sure was burned on the inside of everyones mind.

“uh, okay, someone might want to arrange a psych check for olinsky asap,” y/n mumbled, pointing in the direction where he had once been and looking around as if checking that she hadn’t been the only one to hear al’s suggestion. “anyways, all of you are wrong. clearly he has joined a motorbike gang and now makes his money on the road striking off names on the government’s hit list.” 

just as the room erupted into discussion about how idiotic this conversation was, as well as their ideas, the sound of footsteps caught y/n’s attention as she arrived at her desk. however as he reached the floor, the reason for his absence was clear.

“woah, you look like death.” adam chuckled, it immediately being silenced as jay sent a deadly glare his way. with his skin paler than normal with undertones of green, a layer of sweat draped over his forehead. jay flashed as smile at y/n as he passed, reaching his desk and collapsing on his chair with a wince. 

as everyone went back to what they were doing, y/n found herself straying her eyes away from her computer screen for longer and longer periods of time until she found herself by his side with a sickly sweet grin, pun intended. 

“i don’t wanna hear it, y/l/n.” jay mumbled, massaging his temples with his fingers hoping it would somehow sooth his pounding skull. whilst usually he had every minute of his day just to hear the woman chat away about whatever crossed her mind, he had found himself in quite the state since last night, leaving him restless and irritable.

“believe it or not, i just wanted to make sure you were alright,” y/n’s entire demeanour crumbled as she melted at the soft features of his face that came with being so vulnerable. but from the look in jay’s eyes, it was clear he didn’t 100% believe her excuse. “and to ask what the hell you think you are doing here? you are sick jay, you need to rest.” 

it was very rare that jay found himself ill. in the years that y/n had been working by the man’s side, she could count on one hand the times she had seen him with so much as a cough. in fact she had called him captain immune system for a period of time when she realised he was pretty much indestructible. y/n couldn’t deny the concern bubbling in her gut seeing him so weak.

“i’m fine,” with her eyes slitted in a look that practically shouted ‘bullshit’, jay continued. “i promise, it’s just a little cold. nothing serious, i think i’ll survive.” he joked dryly, finding it incredibly hard to look away from y/n for her eyes were filled with a warmth that he knew was an expression usually saved for those she cared deeply about. 

“yeah well, you need to take care of yourself, jay, i’m being serious. chicago can cope if you just have one day off, get your energy back.” 

y/n was reminded of the times she had the exact same words spoken to her by the exact person that didn’t seem to want to take them onboard. every time she had so much as a sniffle he would be straight over with some soup that his mother used to swear by and the name of a box set that he would put on for the two of them to watch as he sat stroking her hair in order to try and convince her body to rest. neither of them had anyone else to take care of them, so had taken it upon themselves to be that person for the other. 

“now, i’m gonna go tell voight that i’m taking you home before you infect this whole office.” before he could object, she had already ran (not literally but jay was impressed by her speed walking) to her boss’ office. knocking on the door, with a sweet smile and a sea of words running off her tongue so quickly that voight had to agree just to shut her up, y/n returned by his side. “come on, germ face, your carriage awaits.” 

“you know i love it when you talk dirty to me, y/l/n.” winking at her, y/n giggled as she supported him back down the stairs and out of the station. the two chatted away, y/n explaining how she thought al was secretly a sociopath and jay filing her in on the newest instalment of his apartment block drama until they pulled up in front of jay’s apartment building. 

as they walked through the door, jay’s arm resting around y/n’s shoulders as he struggled to find strength, they managed to reach the sofa before y/n’s body gave up. both of them letting out large breathes before looking at each other and falling into laughter. 

“you hungry, i could try making your mom’s soup?” y/n asked, as she pushed herself up to look down at the man. her hair falling down around her face and tickling jay’s skin. “i’m sure it won’t be as good as her’s but i’m willing to give it a try.” 

the way she was sat with the large window gleaming light behind her, y/n almost looked like an angel. her eyes and smile were wide, with her beauty wrapping its hands around jay’s neck squeezing until his head felt light and he nearly reached up to touch her porcelain skin. but jay had noticed the sensation way before he was blocked up with a cold.

“yeah, uh, that sounds nice.” jay agreed with a minimal amount of sass, but y/n didn’t seem to notice as she moved off the cushions and towards the kitchen. she had pretty much memorised the recipe when jay had finally given it to her on her birthday after offering to pay for it multiple times. whizzing around the kitchen, she was too busy to notice the tired eyes admiring her from afar. 

jay wished his mom was alive to see the woman that she would have loved. all the times he had brought girls back to his family when he was younger didn’t add up to an ounce of the beauty and power that y/n held in her middle finger. the way she bit back at his wit, but also had the ability to spot when he was upset from the other side of the city. she was everything her mother wanted in a daughter in law, everything she wanted for her little boy. 

“okay, give me your honest opinion. i can take it i promise.” y/n sudden appeared with a tray that held a large bowl of the semi-thick orange liquid, a glass of water and a couple pills. approaching jay, she carefully helped him up from where he laid and placed it onto his lap. “actually that was a complete lie, do not tell me the truth. i may just cry.” 

“why thank you, nurse y/l/n.” he teased.

“it’s doctor actually.” she quipped back.

jay chuckled lowly, as he grabbed the spoon and took a large spoonful to his mouth. feeling the slight sting of his tongue at the heat, it was only when the flavours hit that he was suddenly transported to an earlier time in his life. a simpler time. only this time there was y/n by his side. 

“the verdict?” she prompted, taking a seat besides him, pulling her knees up to her chest. 

“not sure whether i want to tell you, don’t think you’ll fit in this room if your ego grows any bigger.” y/n grinned as she leaned over to press a kiss against his shoulder. jay closed his eyes at the contact, feeling the ache in his body freeze for a moment as it registered the tingling sensation. “all jokes aside, it really is good.” 

“i’m glad, your mother was a smart woman.” she nodded, leaning forward to turn tv on. jay continued to spoon the soup into his mouth, as y/n chose a show that they both had started together and had refused to watch another minute without the other. y/n leaned back making herself comfortable, having already texted voight telling him that she would most likely need the entire day off, and getting the go ahead, she had no plans other than being by jay’s side for the next however many hours. 

it was sometime in the early evening and the tv continued to emit light, but neither jay nor y/n was paying any attention to the drama. jay, with his head on y/n lap, was leaning into her touch as her short, thin fingers ran through the dark strands that sprouted from his scalp. his body wrapped in a blanket that y/n had grabbed from his room, he felt completely at peace. 

“you know what, i think you are more bearable when you are at death’s door.” y/n joked quietly, as the forest green eyes were exposed back to her own. jay groaned in annoyance, realising that there was no sweet y/n without the sharped tongue y/n. a trait he adored, but at his own expense. 

“and to think i was starting to think you had gone soft on me, y/l/n.” he hummed, wishing he could forever have her giggle on repeat wherever he went, for the sound made goosebumps run down his neck and down his arms, like some kind of magic that only y/n possessed. 

“as much as i love you, i can’t risk my bad ass reputation for you.” 

although jay was sure it was just part of her banter, the moment the ‘i love you’ fell off her tongue, he found himself wide awake, unable to push past the feeling in his gut as it looped over again and again in his mind. y/n could see the conflict in his face, as he glanced up at her with something she had never noticed before. 

“you mean it?” he asked. 

“mean what?” confused, her fingers fell from his hair, making jay regret ever opening his mouth.

“do you really, you know, love me?” he knew he had committed too far to try and retreat. maybe he could blame it on the fact he couldn’t think straight, although she was like a lie detector that wouldn’t let such a bogus excuse pass. y/n blinked down at him, watching as he sat up to look at her with a hunger that needed to be addressed. swallowing the lump in her throat, y/n nodded.

“of course, you are one of my best friends, jay.” it was true, but it wasn’t the full truth, both of them knew that.

“i didn’t realise we had started lying to one another,” jay’s eyes were soft, as he reached to place his hand against her cheek, smiling as she slowly leaned into it. closing her eyes, she tried to find what direction she was looking for, but didn’t dare take the first step. without even thinking, jay jutted forward and captured her lips before they could form a single syllable. 

gently, but passionately, jay and y/n moved their lips against the others. the feeling was ever-growing as the kiss deepened and deepened until they had no choice to pull back, deprived of their ability to breath. as jay’s eyes came back into view, y/n, for the first time in her life, had lost the ability to form a sentence. 

“we just...” she began but it ran off quickly. jay chuckled.

“we did.”

the two sat in silence, examining the other one’s face until y/n found herself moving forward until she was sat in his lap, legs wrapped around his waist as she pressed her lips against his. just like before their bodies and minds were set ablaze with desire and what had remained unspoken for what felt like forever. jay had nearly completely forgotten about the illness that had put him in the care of the woman that he craved more than anything else the world had to offer. 

as their lips parted ways, suddenly the air had thinned and everything felt... normal. jay’s lips were unable to break out of the large grin mould that y/n had put them in, which was soon mirrored by the young woman. a small giggle escaping her lips.

“if i get whatever it is you have, i expect the exact same treatment.” 

“only for you, doctor y/l/n.”

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I’m sorry, but can I just go on a little rant about the Louis, clouis, and the Clem comic...? 

I didn’t really talk about Louis in my overall review of the comic because I wanted that to be more contained to the content shown on the pages, Clementine’s relationship with AJ, and her as a character.... but the more I think about these comics and Louis, the more frustrated I become thinking about what Clementine abandoning everyone would do to him. 

[... okay it’s not little anymore since I guess I can never just do anything simple when it comes to Louis, sorry my bad]

So, no surprise, we all know the comic’s bullshit by now. Clementine leaving everything and everyone behind because she’s not happy is dumb, AJ just letting her go is dumb, and Clem going to the mountains on crutches and a peg leg to find this so-called happiness is dumb. 

Now that we’ve established it’s dumb, I wanna talk about Louis because I got a lot of built up feelings about how bullshit this storyline is with how Clementine would not only abandon AJ, but also abandon Louis. 

Because let me tell you..... his heart would be broken beyond repair and I need to talk about why.

Sigh.... so.... muh boy. 

Before he met Clementine, Louis was this laidback, irresponsible, but caring and musical person who kept his head down to avoid conflict and never looked at the future. He was the kind of person who took things one day at a time, saw survival as a day-to-day task, and said that the future doesn’t exist, there’s only today. You get the point, he was never too concerned with things because they always seemed to work out, and if they didn’t, then that sucks and that’s why we should appreciate every day while we have it. 

Louis is shown to be charismatic and friendly, he spends his free time playing piano and card games, but no one really takes him seriously. Not even Marlon, his best friend for 8+ years. While he doesn’t seem to be on bad terms with anyone [including Aasim, they just act like people who disagree with the other’s point of view and have had the same argument many times, but that doesn’t mean they hate each other, y’know?] he also doesn’t appear super close with anyone outside of Marlon and possibly Violet, but even then. 

Marlon’s shown to have little faith in him with the way he talks about if Louis will even show up to hunt. He has a controlling grip on Louis that’s prominent during the confrontation scene when he uses intimidation to try to convince Louis to not interfere. Oh, and there’s the fact that Marlon’s been lying to Louis for the past year about the twins and then continued to lie to his face about what really happened to Brody... which isn’t great when you consider how Louis was the only one who had blind faith in him as a leader and, according to Marlon, was the only one who couldn’t see how pathetic he always was. 

Violet, while having a few more nicer moments with him than Marlon, still invalidates him and his feelings several times throughout the first half of the game which makes me wonder how close they ever were, or at least if Violet ever considered him a close friend to begin with. And no, a small monologue in the dorms doesn’t make everything better or confirm they were brotp the whole time... especially when once they’re on the boat, Louis might as well not exist because Violet can’t be bothered to acknowledge what happened to him or inquire about how he’s doing. I guess she just didn’t have time react while standing in her cell for several unbothered minutes-- no wait, it’s she already reacted off screen. Right. Good writing is good.

What I’m getting at here is that even though Louis is surrounded by people who he genuinely cares about, there is an argument to be made that he’s a lonely person. Hell, he’s aware of his loneliness when he says that no one hears past his music and jokes. I mean, how many nights do you think he spent by himself playing the piano because no one wanted to hear it? Are they like Violet and crack jokes about how he doesn’t have actual talent? Probably, given that someone literally carved “you suck at playing” onto the side of the damn piano. 

Oh, and let’s touch on that backstory of his. Louis grew up wealthy with two parents who loved him and each other, and they gave him anything he wanted except singing lessons. Louis says he wanted to be a real musician. But I guess his father didn’t like that idea and told him no, with the [as Louis puts it] dumb dad lesson of, “You get to be happy, or you get to be rich, can’t be both.” ...which is interesting given that Louis and his family were stupid rich but also.... were they not happy? well, that doesn’t make sense because little Louis knew that if he broke up their marriage, they would be hurt. 

So yeah, Louis was so upset that his father continually refused to let him take singing lessons that he broke into the man’s credit cards and faked an affair, which led to his parents divorcing... and then he spit his father’s words back in his face. 

Then they dumped him at Ericson. And the walkers came. 

There’s so much to unpack from the story he tells that it could be it’s own analysis, but basically.... Louis is aware of why what he did was fucked up, and he carries it with him every day. 

He regrets what he did, chews himself out for being such a “vindictive fuckhead” [and the amount of force used in that line tells you a lot, like how it’s not the first time he’s chastised himself like this] and he admits that he doesn’t even know the person he’s talking about. Yet, he still sees himself as bad, saying that they [I assume the staff] told him and the other kids they’re bad people. I don’t doubt that Louis internalized that which played a huge role in the confidence and self-esteem issues he has during tfs. 

Anyway, I’ll come back to this later, but when you take that amount of guilt and regret, and mix it with the fact that they dropped him off at this school that was supposed to make him better.... then the walkers came and those teachers, staff, and headmaster? Gone. Left a bunch of kids to fend for themselves, with the exception of Ms. Martin [but given how she looks when we find her I doubt she lasted that long] and I cannot imagine how horrifying that was for all of them. The dead are up eating people, and if you die you become one of them... and the people you thought you could rely on just fucking left you to die at this school. 

Every kid in that school has trauma and abandonment issues from before and after the world went to shit, every last one, and Louis isn’t the exception here. Over the years, a lot of kids died and they’ve all seen horrible shit. They all knew they were never going to see their families again, and as far as we know, no one came to get their kids at the beginning. They had to find ways of coping while trying to survive, and all they had left was each other. 

Louis copes with music and games and jokes. He’s built up this persona where it seems like he’s unaffected by the comments the others make, that the death and suffering he’s gone through is in the past, that he is confident and open to those around him.

But then Clementine and AJ show up, and Louis grows close with both of them. They had immediate chemistry upon first meeting, he was the one who looked after AJ since it seems like everyone else saw him as a little terror, and he went out of his way to be kind and make them comfortable. 

When they go hunting with him, Louis and Clementine have a moment after taking care of the walker where they lower their guards a bit-- Louis gives her more in-depth reasons for his views of survival, and going off her expression, it gets to her and makes her think.... but they’ve know each other a day and he’s not quick to infodump his life story or let her in, so he cuts the conversation short.

Then we have the Marlon confrontation scene that I have gone over so many times in the past. I won’t dillydally with it too long but..... Clementine appeals to Louis, who curls in on himself because of the control Marlon has on him. He wants to help, and hell, he knows this is wrong but he’s so used to not getting involved that he gets defensive.... plus, he’s known Clementine for two days, and he’s known Marlon for 8+ years.... he wants to believe Marlon but you can tell he doesn’t want this, either. It takes Clementine talking to him to give him courage to stand between her and Marlon’s gun and it’s a lot.

AJ shoots Marlon and everything goes to shit, and Louis is a goddamn mess. His best friend was murderer right in front of him, so add that to the trauma list, and he’s overwhelmed with all these feelings that again.... they keep getting invalidated by Violet because “Marlon was a liar and murderer, therefore you shouldn’t feel bad about his death. Get over yourself, Louis, you can be such a shithead sometimes.” 

Oh yeah Vi, I guess he should care more about two people he’s known for a total of two days rather than for the safety of the people [including you] he’s grown up with and cared about for 8+ years.... makes sense. 

So yeah, little to no support during this time. Alone again. 

And just because I have to make this clear so no one gets a hair up their ass-- both Louis and Violet are wrong here. Kicking them out isn’t the solution, but neither is acting like AJ was right to commit murder just because it was Marlon.

 But plots gotta plot, so they get voted out and you can see that Louis is conflicted about the whole thing. He wants them gone, but at the same time, he knows what kicking them out means. You can see it on his face that he’s not okay with kicking them out. He’s hurting when he’s there in the dorms telling them how the vote went... he literally doesn’t know what else to do. He just knows that everything hurts, Clem and AJ caused it, and he wants the pain to stop. He even tries to justify it to himself by figuring that they’ve done this before so they’ll be fine. Not a great thing to say, Lou. 

Anyway, we know the story, Clem and AJ come back and Louis once again sees the consequences of acting out of pain.... AJ is shot because Louis was hurt and he made a bad decision that he’s gotta live with.... something that he’s done before, and this affirms to him that he’s bad. He wishes he could take it back, and goes as far as to admit that to Clementine during the archery scene. 

By the way, credit to him for his apology to her. It’s rare in these games that Clem gets a genuine apology from someone who hurt her and doesn’t turn around to repeat the hurtful behavior, y’know? Plus, I can think of plenty of characters who owed Clem an apology in the past or if they did apologize, it was half-assed. 

You can feel how conflicted he is with this whole thing-- learning who Marlon really was and what he did, feeling something for Clementine before everything went down and not knowing how to handle those feelings afterward, caring about AJ and understanding why he thought shooting was the best choice but still hurting that his friend is dead.... 

And the thing is.... Louis forgives her for so much, as she does him, and through all of that bullshit, they manage to develop that strong connection that turns romantic. Louis lets himself be fully vulnerable with her and is honest about his feelings, how she listened when no one else did and seeing him for more than just the persona he put on. 

This works on Clementine’s side, too. Clementine has been through her own fair share of bullshit-- trauma, abandonment, loss, injury, you name it. She’s made mistakes, done terrible things, and has been in enough groups to know that romance usually ends in heartbreak.... and yet, she’s willing to open herself up to Louis and admit she feels a lot for him. 

Is it a little rushed? Yep. Could it have been handled better? Of course, most things this season could’ve, but what we got was pretty good. 

So Clementine and Louis are romantically involved now, the raiders attack, and she saves him... and boy does Louis feel guilty about that one, too. He feels bad enough that he questions why she would pick him because he can’t fathom his life being worth saving over another’s. He doesn’t see himself as useful, and even though Clementine is literally his girlfriend at this point, his self-esteem is so all over the place that he can’t understand why she would have him at her side. 

And when Clementine tells him that he’s too important to her, he’s too baffled to even give a response. He looks at her in disbelief like he wasn’t expecting her to say that.  But this shows that at the beginning of their relationship, he still doubts himself, and through her working with him, he begins to build up that strength in himself. 

He becomes brave enough to share what got him sent to the school with her, and he plays Don’t Be Afraid for everyone at the party and like.... for once, everyone is listening to him. Really listening to him. They’re not talking shit about his musical skills, they’re not ignoring him or the feelings he’s putting into the song, they’re sitting there with him and I just..... if you watch him, you can see that his eyes get pretty glossy throughout the song. The moment meant something to everyone. 

There’s also the fact that Clementine asked him to come with her and AJ onto the boat, and to be the one in charge of the bomb... that’s a huge responsibly and he feels the pressure of that. He starts to panic a bit about if he can do it, because what if he fucks up? What if he gets them caught and makes everything worse? What if something happens to Clementine and he can’t do anything about it? 

She’s there to reassure him that she believes in him, and that he can do this. They’re going to get everyone back, and he needs to focus... then he asks her to slap him which why would you? that’s dumb, so Clementine smooches him instead and like.... he physically relaxes into her because he’s comfortable and trusts her in this situation. 

Also, he loves her and cares about this mission enough to cover himself and his fancy jacket in walker guts.... sure, he complains while doing so but how else is he gonna cope with rubbing rotten guts on himself to blend in with a herd of walkers? 

Skipping ahead so that we’re not here all day, I wanna talk about the walk back to the school because it’s one of the most important clouis moments in the game and a huge reason that solidifies why the comic is bullshit.

Louis went off on his own to go out and find them. He didn’t know where they would be, he just knew that he had to go out and find them after making sure everyone was okay back at the school because he couldn’t bare the thought that he had lost them. And the way the AJ gets so excited to see him? and the group hug??

At this point, Louis has grown so much as a character. With Clementine by his side to support him, he’s grown stronger and more reliable. Remember how he never thought about the future? Well, now he is because his relationship with Clementine has given him a reason to long for a future. He talks about building this imaginary house with her, one he knows they can’t physically build... but it’s his way of saying we can build a home together, that he wants a future with her and AJ and everyone else. It’s such a personal conversation that flows so easy between them. Louis is more comfortable talking to her about things from his past, which is something he didn’t want to do back in ep1. 

He confides in her how he’s feeling after he shot and killed Dorian, he tells her that having a home means protecting it and I just.... it’s so good, okay? And from Clementine’s side, you can feel how at ease she is with him, too. Just the way she smiles at him as they’re walking? like he’s the cutest thing and she’s so happy to have him with her? 

But then we gotta deal with Minerva’s crazy ass on the bridge and well, AJ shoots Tenn and Louis is having flashbacks to Marlon and it’s not great. That’s a whole thing, and he ends up separated from them while escaping.

We don’t get to see Louis’ reaction to Clementine getting bit and losing her leg since I guess that puts a damper on the overly happy ending. But, going off of what we know about him and what I’ve explained [which isn’t even all of it, this isn’t a full Louis character analysis. if it was, it would be much longer and in multiple parts... believe it or not, I’m trying to not make this too long and only sorta failing...] we can get an idea of how he would react. 

Um, to say he was upset is an understatement.

Because remember, he had no time to think and climbed over the fence, thinking he could get them to climb over and they could get away, but it didn’t work. He ended up leaving them in order to save himself since walkers were closing in on him.

But you know that he’d blame himself for the bite. A lot of, “if I had just stayed” and “I should’ve climbed back over, I should’ve stayed with you.” I’m sure there were points where it looked like Clem wouldn’t make it and I can’t imagine how much hurt he went through watching her suffer and heal from losing a leg like that. 

Not only that, but knowing that AJ was the one to do it? And him thinking about what Clem’s death would do to AJ after all this? There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Louis would take care of AJ if she died. He cares about AJ, and he loves Clementine, so he be there for both of them, even if he’s still hurting from Tenn’s death. 

However, Clementine didn’t die. She survived the bite and amputation, and when we flashforward, she and Louis are still happily together. Louis is right there next to her at dinner, and he’s the one to help her with her crutches. He’s there to go over future plans to meet the traveling caravan, and Clementine wants him to be the one to go. 

Oh, and Louis once again forgives AJ for shooting Tenn, claiming that he understands that AJ saw something that he couldn’t. Like with Marlon, he’s not happy Tenn’s dead but he can see why AJ did it to save his life. 

I just..... happy ending. Clementine and Louis are together and she’s truly happy to have found a home for her and AJ with him at Ericson. 

....But then the comic thought it would be fun to say “nah.” 

The comic isn’t canon, I’m still insulted that it would ever consider itself as such, but even so I can’t help but feel so frustrated about how this would destroy Louis. 

He finally found someone he would consider his best friend, not just his girlfriend. She saw past that funny man persona and he trusted her enough to let her past this wall he built around himself. He let himself become vulnerable around her, he named his song after her. Their initials are carved into his piano with a heart surrounding them. He loved her. 

Clementine left him feeling loved, something he probably hasn’t truly felt since he was a little boy with his parents before their divorce. She loved him even after hearing his past because she knew that wasn’t him anymore, and she helped him build the confidence he needed to step up. Because of Clementine, Louis wants to enjoy every day while also looking at the future. He isn’t lonely anymore, he has her and AJ. He’s truly happy.

So to tell me that Louis would wake up one morning only to have AJ tell him that Clementine’s gone, she’ been planning an escape without telling anyone because she wasn’t happy...? I’m sorry, but if you think that wouldn’t leave Louis absolutely devastated, then you know nothing about him as a character. 

This idea is just.... look, Louis is perceptive. That’s a big part of his character, he’s perceptive of those around him. If Clementine was showing signs of being unhappy or depression, he would see it. He would notice a change. He would be able to tell if something was off, and he would ask her about it. Louis is the type of person to ask you what you need. What can he do to help? What do you need to feel better? And if you don’t know, it’s okay, he’ll help you figure it out in any way possible. 

Plus, the comic suggests that there are times where she went off on her own but came back [probably doing her escape prep ugh] and you expect me to believe that Louis wouldn’t notice that or wonder what she’s doing? Wouldn’t sense that something’s going on? 

After she’s gone, he’s going to blame himself for not being enough. He couldn’t make her happy and he was a fool to think he ever could. AJ lost the only family he’s known since he was born because Louis couldn’t help her, couldn’t do anything to stop her from leaving. 

And for him to realize that she didn’t love him? Clementine, the girl he thought the world of because of how strong and confident and in-charge she was, because she saw him for who he was..... she left him, abandoned him... and she couldn’t even be bothered with a goodbye.... that says that she didn’t care all that much about him in the end.

You KNOW that he would think he had this coming, too. How could the universe allow him to fall in love and be happy with someone who loved him back after what he did to his parents? He would feel so heartbroken that he would see this as some sort of karma for breaking up his parents happy marriage as a kid years before he ever met Clementine and before the apocalypse.

I fucking can’t.... I don’t have the words to fully explain how much I hate this. Louis wouldn’t be okay afterward, and I doubt he’d ever fully recover. I wasn’t joking when I mentioned before that Louis would stop playing piano. How could he sit there and play when I he can see is their initials and remember the night she confessed to him? When he named his song after her? Clementine left and took the music with her because Louis wouldn’t have it in him... something that he used to cope would be ruined and that’s just.... it’s fucking awful. 

Not only that, but now he has AJ who I assume is hurting just as much [though the comics inaccurately assume he would just let Clem go sooo... yeah] and he would be the only one Louis would really talk to about it, but then again.... what if AJ doesn’t wanna talk about it? What if AJ starts to act out and things just become terrible and Louis is just too overwhelmed? 

I just.... UGH. That’s how I feel. UGH. 

Clementine from the comic? Not her. She would never fucking do this to Louis, AJ, or anyone else at Ericson, and you would know that if you played the tfs. 

Sigh.... sorry, I just needed to get this all out. I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Clem leaving would affect Louis and I’ve gotten some asks/come across some posts about Louis that have left me incredibly annoyed.... well, I was annoyed before because of the comics, so my annoyances with those things were only heightened. So yeah... I wanted to talk about Louis’ character in hopes of explaining why he would be so hurt if this comic was canon. 

Which it’s not. So it’s fine. 

How are we all feelin’ at this point, by the way? I know I’m not the only one still annoyed with the comic, so I hope y’all are doin’ okay. Hope you’re stayin’ chill and thinking about your faves to help cope with this mess hahaha

[after-witch]

Title: You Would Cry Too (If It Happened to You) [Yandere Shigaraki x Reader]

Title: You Would Cry Too (If It Happened to You) [Yandere Shigaraki x Reader] [It’s My Party Part 2]

Synopsis: Shigaraki won’t let you go to the bathroom. 

For request for a Part 2 of ‘It’s My Party (I’ll Cry If I Want To’)

Word Count: 2100-ish

Notes: yandere, kidnapped, graphic descriptions of eating disorder thoughts & eating disorder behavior 

Shigaraki has planted himself firmly in front of the bathroom door, legs crossed, Nintendo Switch in his hand. His back is hunched over and the screen illuminates his face with an artificial glow in the dimly lit bedroom you’d been trapped in for weeks.

You stand awkwardly in front of him, but if he notices your presence, he doesn’t say anything. Finally, you clear your throat and speak up.

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

He doesn’t look up at you when he answers, bluntly.

“No.”

You clench your fingers and your toes in an effort to create and release tension, to avoid lashing out. You learned, very quickly, that lashing out only made him lash out, and his man tantrums were something you didn’t want to deal with. At least not right now. Not with your stomach feeling distended and bloated. Not with all the food you’d just shoveled into your mouth. Not with the steady hum of primal thoughts ringing in your head, wanting it out--needing it out, needing it out now.

He’d just left for a while, an hour maybe--he normally refused to leave around meal time (for reasons he shared in explicit detail, to your utter discomfort) but after receiving a dozen missed calls from one of his conspirators, he’d finally answered it and begrudgingly agreed to leave. He said he’d be right back.

You don’t know why you did it. You hadn’t binged and purged since you were kidnapped. The anxiety and fear of what he might to do to you overrode everything else in your system, overrode the need to be full and then empty, rinse, repeat. But it’s been weeks. Maybe more? No heroes are going to save you, that’s what he says, and you believe it. Who would want to look for someone like you, anyway?

And so after he left, the thought crept in. Why not eat? And eat--and eat? You held off for a while, hugging your knees and keeping yourself firmly planted on the mattress; staring right at the mini fridge he’d shoved in the corner of the bedroom.

It was like a switch, when you decided. A switch you are all too familiar with pressing. You calmly got up, opened the fridge, and pulled out all the leftovers (including, you admit, some takeout that was teetering on the edge of still-edible) stuffed inside. Plus a few cans of soda, for good measure. You ate almost all the leftovers, mechanically; it was like riding a bike after avoiding it for the summer, really, old habits hard-wired into your brain from years of use. 

You finished just in time to push the trash into the stray garbage bag you’d convinced him to keep in his room. He showed up before you could get rid of anything in your stomach, took a long, slow look at you, then planted himself in front of the bathroom. Did he know? Or was he just being weird again?

And so, your current predicament: Shigaraki, planted between you and the toilet that you desperately needed.

“Why can’t I go to the bathroom?” You keep your voice neutral, low, slightly annoyed. Nonchalant. You want him to feel like he’s ridiculous for denying you access to the toilet. 

Again, he keeps his eyes glued to the screen.

“You know why. I’m not stupid.”

“I have to pee,” you argue, whining, shifting on one leg as if you’re trying to keep it in.

He shrugs one shoulder up and down. “Piss in a cup. I won’t look.”

You sigh, then. “Fine. I have to… you know…”

He raises an eyebrow without glancing up.

You pretend to be exasperated, you pretend to be embarrassed. “You know. The other thing. Poop,” you whisper, dragging the word out as if he’s dragged it out of you like a terrible secret.

He scratches at his lip with his thumb and you fight back a wince. When he gets too upset, he scratches. He was bleeding like hell the night he’d kidnapped you. It was from, as he told you later while petting your hair--all the while ignoring your trembling--getting upset from watching you throw up in the bathroom.

But what you did in the bathroom sure as hell wasn’t anyone’s business but your own, though you’d been too frightened then (and now) to say so.

He sets the Switch down and you think for a moment that you’ve won. He stands up, and your stomach flips at the thought of victory; you wonder if you’ll even have to try very hard to get everything back up. But instead of moving, he leans back against the door and props his foot on it. His chapped lips are set in a grim line, and he folds his arms across his chest. A mockery of a casual pose.

“You’ll try to puke,” he says, practically spitting out the last word.

You feel your cheeks growing hot. You hate how blunt he is about it.

“Seriously? I just have to go to the bathroom.” The food in your stomach feels impossibly heavy. How much longer will it sit there, undigested, before it makes its way out of your stomach and out of your reach.

“I know you just…” He murmurs, and waves his hand haphazardly towards the garbage, then brings his fingers up and scratches, again, this time a hard line on his neck that is sure to bleed if he digs in one more time. “The bag wasn’t full before.”

You can feel humiliation, tight and fluttering, blooming across your entire body. No one is supposed to know, no one is supposed to see what you do. But what choice did you have, trapped in some villain’s dirty bedroom? But the fact that he knows just how much you ate makes you feel even more disgusting.

“Let me go to the bathroom.” You cross your arms.

“You’re not fat,” he says quickly, awkwardly. He’s staring off to the side, refusing to meet your eyes, and you wonder if he’s embarrassed. “You’re really… pretty.” He murmurs, low, almost reverential--and you swear you can see pink on his cheeks. You wouldn’t know how to process “a highly dangerous villain calling you pretty” if you wanted to, so you don’t bother.

“It’s not about weight,” you instantly whisper, throat tight with embarrassment. It is--but it isn’t. Not really. Not deep down. But you don’t want to explain that to anyone, and certainly not to some villain who kidnapped you and is currently standing in between you and a rush of vomit-based endorphins.

He thunks his back on the bathroom door. Petulant, slightly pissed now. “Whatever. I’m not letting you puke in the bathroom.”

The thought of keeping everything you just inhaled inside, the thought of it staying with you, growing on you, thick and sticky and heavy, is too much to handle. It reminds you of how helpless you are. And you are helpless, here, in this bedroom, with a villain who could kill you--if he’s merciful, kill you--with a firm touch of his fingers. You’ll never get out of this, not on your own. And no hero is coming to rescue a literal nobody civilian with no friends or family who cares about her, no one to miss her. You can’t even get into the bathroom to vomit, much less find a way to escape.

He’s staring at you, eyes widened, and you realize you’re feeling hot. You’re breathing heavy, erratic. Are you having a panic attack? A heart attack? Years of strain and stress finally coming to bitter end? You dig your nails into your palm and it hurts, and that’s good, maybe you’ll bleed now, but suddenly the wind is knocked out of you and you’re flat on your back, body bouncing slightly from its weight on the mattress.

He pushed you--he pushed you down. His hands, finger up, are pinning yours firmly against the mattress, your palms flat and stinging from where your nails went in hard; your breathing is gradually returning to normal and you stare up at him, face itching from his hair dangling above you while he stares down with an unreadable expression.

“Stop it,” he hisses. “Just… stop hurting yourself. You’re being stupid.”

Your eyes drift towards his neck, towards the scars and thin line that threatens to bleed red with another good scratch.

The words leave your mouth before you can even think them. “And you’re being a hypocrite.”

He scoffs, and you cringe at a bit of spittle that flies onto your cheek. “That’s different.”

It’s your turn to scoff, and the ludicrousness of the situation combined with the uncomfortable fullness in your stomach has brought back your ability to snark, apparently. “No, it’s really not. I puke, you scratch. Wow, we’re really perfect for each other, huh? No wonder you couldn’t resist kidnapping me!”

“Stop being so damn difficult,” he huffs. “I’m helping you and you’re being a brat.”

Your voice is harsh, snapping, as you spit back, “If you want to help me, then let me go to the bathroom and stick my fingers down my throat until I puke my guts out.” 

His eyes widen and you stare at each other in uncomfortable silence. You feel nervous sweat dampening your back. You feel terrible. You’ve felt terrible for a long time, even before you were kidnapped. You just want to feel.. okay... for a few minutes, just a few minutes at least. 

“I really want to throw up,” you whisper, all snark replaced with softness. Pleading. “It makes me feel better, okay? I just want to feel better for a little while.” You feel tears beginning to prick at your eyes but you can’t wipe them away.

He lifts one of the hands pinning your wrists and brings it up to your cheek. Your heartbeat quickens in fear--despite mantra thoughts of he won’t, he won’t, he said he wouldn’t hurt you like that--as he gently strokes your cheek, then moves up to pet your hair. It would feel nice... if you weren’t kidnapped.

“I’ll make you feel better, you don’t have to do that.”

He continues to stroke your hair, soft and soothing in its intention, until the storm seems to pass.

Finally, he speaks up: “If I get off you, will you try to get to the bathroom?”

“Yes,” you admit, blunt and open. “If the food’s still in my stomach, I’m going to try to puke it out.” You look away, aware of the strangeness of talking about it as a matter-of-fact. “If you didn’t jump on me, I’d probably just have puked it into the garbage bag.”

“How long does that take to get out of your stomach?”

You’re half-tempted to him to Google it, but you bite back your response, not wanting his calmer mood to go away anytime soon. “Um… I think like… 2 hours?”

He sighs, and slumps down on you, his weight heavy and warm and keeping you in place. He reaches for the PS4 controller he’d left on the floor and, as afterthought, grabs the second one before dropping it into your now freed palm.

“Hope you don’t suck at fighting games.”

[smallblip]

You asked, I deliver! Part II of Accidental baby acquisition💖 I lost one of the asks 😩 but anon who asked about baby Udo, I named the baby in your honour! Saddle up cowboys! I’m not good with sequels but here we are-

Babygate:

the scandal that implies that a certain boy band member cheated on his partner (another band member) and had a kid even when the mom was never pregnant.

- urban dictionary

—

Reiner thinks things are alright. Life is definitely picking up. Pieck still sends him excerpts of her dirty fanfiction to proofread, Bertholdt is still doing all he can to “retire at 30”, Annie might have eloped with said boyfriend. But he’s seeing Porco on the regular now, he’s really cute, he’s got a nice ass. Reiner can’t complain.

He’s also recently donated his Levi Ackerman standee. Only because it’s getting increasingly hard to reconcile the fact that he has a life sized cutout of his colleague’s boyfriend in his room.

What he can complain about is said colleague (and friend) dropping bombs on him. He’s one of the moderators of one of the bigger No Name servers. Sometimes he wonders if that’s a conflict of interest because, well, he knows the guy on a first name basis. But today he has other concerns. He sees his notifications blowing up and decides to go on the No Name server. And lo and behold. There’s a paparazzi shot of Levi and Hanji with a stroller taking a walk in a new channel called “MYSTERY FAMILY?”.

He cancels his plans with Porco. “Don’t text me for the next few hours, got a fire to fight.” He clicks send, and feels kinda bad, so he sends Porco really dank meme to appease him. (That doesn’t stop Porco from doing exactly what Reiner told him not to do and demanding an explanation every five minutes).

He forces himself to take a deep breath before texting Hanji-

“Hanji… I don’t mean to be rude but…

WHAT THE FUCK?”

—

So here begins babygate. A conspiracy theory that took the Internet by storm.

“Levi Ackerman had a secret marriage! He was keeping this from us from the start!”

“It’s a publicity stunt to keep No Name relevant during their hiatus!”

“It’s an elaborate scheme by the company to punish Levi for announcing the hiatus without their knowledge!”

“Levi’s mystery partner was sent by the lizard people to take control of his mind and produce half-lizard, half-human hybrid babies to take over the world! What a bitch!” (This is Hanji’s favourite).

And the internet’s favourite- this is all an elaborate scheme to cover up the scandalous love affair between Levi and Eren- the band’s guitarist.

“What the fuck?” Levi had said during dinner once, to which Reiner had to swallow his food and pretend he never read or actively looked up ereri content. Yes. Reiner knows the name of their ship.

Levi hadn’t been too worried before, but when pictures of them shopping for baby stuff leaked online, something snaps. Something snaps and Erwin tells him he needs more time to figure out the biggest PR crisis in No Name history.

It’s Levi. Levi is the PR crisis.

So in the meantime, no shock reveals, no more social media, (if possible) no more leaving the house with pregnant girlfriend in tow. “Don’t do ANYTHING.” Erwin had said, “especially not you!” Erwin had directed that at Eren, who suggested he makes an announcement. Erwin shudders. He remembers all the past scandals they got themselves into just because Eren, bless him, didn’t know when to shut up.

“I’m sorry…” Levi says to Hanji when they’re cuddled up on the couch watching a documentary on whale migration.

“Huh?” Hanji says, voice muffled through her incessant sniffling because “whales are delivered tail first, Levi! They wear their mothers like hats!”

He apologises for putting her through the mess that is him and his job. And Hanji smiles at him. He wonders if their kid will look like her. He’s hoping they would.

“Levi…” Hanji sighs, taking his face in her hands, “that night at the bar I thought to myself ‘this man has a face I would risk it all for’… I think this counts within the realms of ‘all’”

Levi scoffs, but a smile is threatening the corners of his lips. Erwin’s nagging over the phone fades a little and he sinks a little lower into the couch. He sighs one more time for good measure before saying-

“So… you wanna know which my favourite babygate theory is?”

—

“And you’re really not bothered by all this?” Reiner asks, in an emergency meeting that he had scheduled into her calendar. He hates that he’s packing things into her already busy schedule when she’s about to pop but, he figures it’s better now than when the baby’s actually out. He had booked a meeting room and everything, figuring if he projected some of the crazy shit they’re saying on the fan boards up on screen, Hanji would start taking this seriously. Because if Reiner knows anything, it’s that the fans will do anything to keep their ship afloat.

He scrolls past another post on the lizard people and Hanji gets him to pause.

“I mean… A little?” Hanji pinches her fingers together.

“Hanji…” Reiner sighs, “you and Levi discuss and rate babygate conspiracy theories you find online I don’t think you’re taking this seriously at all…”

Hanji looks at Reiner- an absolute state of panic. And she considers panicking for a moment. She’s read articles dissecting babygate and although they’re absolutely batshit, Hanji appreciates how well-researched they are. Which is a little scary. To be fair to Levi, he’s been trying to get her to worry. “I can’t keep you safe all the time, you have to be careful” like he’s going off to war somewhere. But it’s not in Hanji nature to worry about things like this. She’s a researcher at a lab who lived an ordinary life up until the point the universe hit her with a-

Sike! Levi Ackerman is your baby daddy! What are you gonna do about it?

And now she knows what headcanons and lemons are, and she really doesn’t know what to do with that knowledge. So Hanji decides, she’ll do nothing. She’ll go on indulgently long walks Levi in tow, she’ll talk his ear off about work. And like a good girlfriend, she’ll listen to his demos (and enjoy them) and tell him “are you sure anger rhymes with danger?”.

“I don’t really know how to worry about anything beyond our samples getting contaminated…” Hanji says, sheepish. Reiner sighs. He doesn’t want to be a wet blanket on Hanji’s life. He wants to be fun Reiner. Cool as a cucumber. Reiner who manages to make it through dinner at Hanji’s without having to excuse himself to hyperventilate in her bathroom because Levi is right there. And he’s so afraid that he might just be able to read his mind and find out he had looked up Levi Ackerman x y/n fanfiction once in his foolish youth (youth being approximately four months back)

Reiner shudders.

“Yeah okay… That’s um… That’s cool… Right?” He says.

Hanji shrugs.

—

So Levi Ackerman is your baby daddy. Now what?

You go into labour of course, with a matter of fact- “oh. Look Levi. The water broke.” All while refusing to leave the house until you demolish that amazing sandwich he made for you. You go into labour and you yell and grunt like a beast as you squeeze the life out of your baby daddy because he kinda deserves it. You both kinda deserve this pain. Take it as heavenly punishment for being horny and stupid if you will.

And in the middle of it Hanji thinks huh, this feels like a mix of a reality TV show from MTV and a badly written fanfiction. Except Hanji isn’t a teen mom and she’s too old for self-insert fiction that involves a lead singer of a popular band.

But Levi is here, and he doesn’t complain one bit even though he looks like he’s about to pass out. So as far as drunken one night stands go- this is pretty damn aspirational.

The baby enters the world with a huge cry.

“Kid’s got a huge set of lungs…” Levi says, but his own voice is quivering.

“Just like her dad…” Hanji smiles.

As he watches Hanji fall asleep with their baby on her chest, Levi thinks fuck it. Fuck keeping this under wraps. Fuck the fans and them enjoying how Eren gets on his nerves. Fuck Erwin and his “Levi. You’re giving me a headache. You are the cause of this headache.” Because the baby has Hanji’s nose and his eyes and he loves them more than anything in the world.

He snaps a picture of them and tags bigdaddyzoë-

“Welcome to the world, my love.”

—

Reiner can’t help the tears that well in his eyes after seeing the picture Hanji had sent him of the baby-

“He says hi to his favourite uncle!” Was the caption, and Reiner could only reply with a crying cat meme and an incoherent text that Hanji favourites.

He’s on the bus on the way to the hospital when his phone buzzes incessantly. It’s Porco.

“REINER WHAT THE FUCK.”

“LEVI ACKERMAN IS HANJI ZOË’S BABY DADDY?”

“HANJI ZOË MY PHD SUPERVISOR?”

“LEVI ACKERMAN OF NO NAME?”

“REINER WHAT THE FUCK?”

He sends a reply at the entrance of the hospital-

“Welcome to my world”

—

Reiner thinks things are alright. He’s one of the moderator of one of the bigger No Name servers, so he can block and remove people at his discretion. Some days he lets it get to his head. It makes him feel like a king. But today, he’s putting out fires.

Erwin decided their PR strategy was absolutely no strategy, because “they’re zooming in on the pixels Levi. Once they doubt the pixels, they won’t believe anything we’re saying”. With that. Babygate has officially taken on a life of its own. Eren still sends Levi babygate articles to annoy him, and to Hanji because she asked very nicely. Hanji thinks Erwin’s strategy makes sense, Levi thinks it’s just lazy. But Erwin framed a certificate that says “survived a PR crisis (sort of)” that Hanji had insisted be hung up on their wall, so that closes one chapter. Besides, Eren has been spotted going out on dates with a mystery girl. Which has the double effect of diverting attention away from Levi and exacerbating babygate because “see? Told you the company’s doing all they can to prove they’re not together!”

“Can’t you keep it in your pants?” Levi had thrown at Eren, to which he had responded cleverly with a-

“Could’ve said the same for you!”

Touché…

“See? That can’t be Levi! Look at how he’s smiling!”

“That can’t be a baby! Looks like an animatronic to me!”

“Do they even make animatronics that realistic?”

Reiner pins his “no slander” rule- one day they’ll get it. Or at least he would’ve gotten rid of all the people that don’t.

“Who’s this bigdaddyzoë anyway?”

“Maybe she isn’t real? Company probably invented her…”

“Heard she’s a crazy groupie who got knocked up…”

“Heard she’s hot…”

… several people are typing

—

“So… I heard from Reiner you were defending my honour in the server?” Hanji quirks an eyebrow.

Levi shrugs. Whatever goes down in the server stays between Leviackerman173810 (leviackerman and all 173809 permutations of said username had already been taken) and the hundreds of people who haven’t quite figured out he’s the real deal. Besides, Erwin has issued him three warnings so it’s best to lay low for now.

“My hero…” Hanji chuckles, pressing a kiss on Levi’s head. Below them, baby Udo wriggles and yawns against the fabric of Levi’s shirt. Cute.

So Levi Ackerman is your baby daddy. Now what? You look at your son and know he’s going to break hearts like his father of course. And if you’re Levi, you pray to god he never asks about babygate because Hanji has read up enough about it to be considered a connoisseur.

One day the internet will break when they find out the identity of bigdaddyzöe. But for now baby Udo has his parents wrapped around his tiny fingers and he doesn’t quite understand the concept of him being the spawn of every typical band member x y/n fanfiction. Or the centre of a very popular, very absurd, yet strangely believable internet conspiracy theory. Or the canon plot that has sunk one of the biggest No Name ships. And that’s okay.

[hauntedbythefanficsofmypast]

Goodbye Paris

Marinette is 17 and the other 18 in this Au.

Marinette's parents fall under Lila's spell as well. She starts filling them with lies about Marinette and soon they start believing her. 

Lila accuses Marinette of sneaking out and hanging out with the wrong people. Sabine and Tom start believing her, especially when they notice she wasn't there one night. She was out patrolling as Ladybug.

Soon Marinette is on lock down barely able to leave her house. She struggles to even get out as Ladybug.

Her parents become more and more distant, soon not even talking to Marinette. No goodbyes, hellos, I missed you, or I love you, just silence. Marinette tries to combat the lies but her parents won't listen. She slowly gives up focusing on Hawkmoth, school, and designing. 

Halfway through the year she opts to graduate early forfeiting walking at graduation. She doesn't even mention it to her parents, just focuses on getting money together for her own place while applying to colleges overseas. After she stops attending Chloe reaches out to her apologizing for everything she had done and asking for a second chance. Chloe moved to America with her mother, their junior year unable to handle akuma anymore. Marinette tells her their relationship will be rockey and first but she agrees to a new start.

It's right before the end of the school year when Ladybug and Chat Noir defeat Hawkmoth and get the two missing Miraculouses back. Chat gets mad when Ladybug refuses to reveal her identity and attempts to make her. She stops him and takes his Miraculous back as well revealing Adrien. 

"This is goodbye Chaton. If you had taken this more seriously. Perhaps you could know it, but you never did."

She leaves him there returning home and safely putting the peacock and butterfly miraculouses away. After his defeat she stops patrolling as Ladybug and instead plans her move, not wishing to be with her parents any longer.

Once she stops patrolling petty crime begins to pick up again. The city starts crying out for Ladybug to return but Marinette wont. She can't be there for everything, it's time the police start doing their job again. After a month the city is outraged that Ladybug is nowhere to be seen. They take to Adrien who admits to being Chat Noir, he apologizes to Paris saying that Ladybug took his Miraculous. He tells them that he wants to help but she won't help him any longer. After his display Paris begins a smear campaign against Ladybug. Tired of this Marinette transforms and heads to the Eiffel Tower broadcasting to all of Paris her goodbye.

Marinette- I have heard the out cry at my disappearance, and I find it deplorable. I have been fighting since I was thirteen. Did any of you think of that? You have had a child fighting your battles for you with another child that never took it seriously! Now, now you smear my character, saying I am a villain after I have taken down Hawkmoth. All because I stopped patrolling and taking down petty criminals. Instead of looking at me you should be looking at your police force. I am done, I thought of coming back after college but after all this, no. This is goodbye Paris, for good.

After her speech Chloe video calls her asking her if she is okay. Marinette plays everything off saying she is fine until Chloe tells her that she knows she is Ladybug. Marinette hesitates trying to think of a cover but just sighs asking how Chloe knew. Chloe smiles and tells her that she grew up with the girl only and the imbecile would not be able to tell that their 'Everyday Ladybug' was their actual Ladybug. Soon after the girls get a request for Luka to join. Once he is on the call he offers his own word of comfort causing Marinette to groan and Chloe to laugh. Luka simply tells her that her song is the same beautiful piece in and outside of the mask. Marinette grumbles teasingly about Metas being annoying, causing Luka to chuckle smiling at her. She tells them that she is leaving Paris for good now that Hawkmoth is gone. Chloe encourages her to move to America and go to Juliard while Luka simply hums strumming his guitar. When he opens his eyes he tells her to follow the path that calls to her, causing Chloe to groan. Snapping at him Half heartedly he simply smiles at the two girls before saying he needs to get to bed, the girls smile saying goodnight and wishing him good luck with his show the next day before they hang up.

She is really thankful that she changed her designer name shortly after Lila came to her school. Now known as MDC she has a thriving online website and even has a few designers that follow her designs down to every single stitch. While she also helps them get their own lines started. She even begins to employ models, Chloe begging her most popular. Her clientele extended even more and she had a lot of famous musicians commissioning her. She was even commissioned by Megan Markle before she and Prince Harry got married, and was even invited to the wedding she attended with Kaalki's help.

Marinette applies to a few different colleges all in America knowing that staying in Paris was no longer an option. She is accepted at Juilliard, Harvard, and Gotham University, she wants to go to Juliard but something calls her to Gotham. She can't stop going back to Gotham's acceptance letter and ends up researching Githam and talking it over with Chloe and Luka. She doesn't make a decision until Luka tells her once again to follow the call. So she confirms attendance, not telling her parents as she leases an apartment in a safer part of Gotham. She gets in contact with one of her employed designers, Taylor in America and requests her help. 

Taylor is the in-between for Marinette and interior designers in Gotham. Helping both sides design the and decorate the penthouse so its move in ready.

Soon after the penthouse is finished Marinette packs everything in her room slowly shipping out boxes to Taylor. A couple nights later when Marinette has everything except necessities shipped her parents request she moves out saying they don't even know her anymore.

"Don't worry I already have an apartment and everything set up near my college. I leave in three days. And you don't know me huh? Well I guess that's because you two haven't really been parents in a while. Now if you'll excuse me."

Tom and Sabine are shocked especially since Lila told them Marinette had decided not to go to college at all. They confront Marinette telling her not to lie about it. She simply sighs sadly and pulls out all three acceptance letters, telling them she isn't telling them which one she decided to go with because they'll no longer be a part of her life.

The day she is set to leave Jagged and Penny are outside in a limo waiting for her. Marinette walks out of the bakery smiling brightly as Jagged gets out hugging her tightly. She thanks him for coming to America with her till she gets settled in. The driver takes her suitcase, putting it in the trunk before opening the door once again letting Jagged and Marinette in. Before getting in and driving to the airport to take Jagged's private jet to America.

They meet Chloe and Audrey at the Gotham airport, both women wanting to welcome Marinette to America. They follow the three to Marinette's penthouse. Chloe is in love with the place and practically begs Marinette to let her live with her. Marinette smiles laughing and tells her she was going to offer her a room after a month or two. Audrey agrees, telling Chloe to just make sure and call her, so she knows they're both safe.

Marinette's penthouse is big! It has two guest rooms, specially for Jagged, Penny, and her designers, when they come to visit. However now one has become Chloe's room. A kitchen her great uncle would be jealous of. A personal gym. A living room with a ping pong table and flat screen tv. 3 bathrooms. Marinette's own designing room, and the Master suite. The Master suite had a loft bed with stairs leading up to it, not a ladder. A large area set up for gaming consoles and a flat screen tv. Underneath the loft was Marinette's desk and desktop. One wall was a complete window showing Gotham from above, and against the other wall was a large luxury dollhouse decked out with hand made furniture. Something Marinette had requested was special for the Kwami to not have to remain in the box twenty four seven.

Marinette has the entire summer to herself and she doesn't have to deal with her birth parents ignoring her. She and Chloe can't wait to explore Gotham, and although Mari wishes she could patrol like she used to. She knows that this is Batman's city, and she doesn't want to get on his bad side. Instead she'll explore on the ground, and fly in her gym, which she had specially fitted with the ceiling covered in bars and ropes.

She even agrees to teach Chloe how to use the rope nest, with a net underneath them of course.

That next day Marinette, Chloe Jagged, and Penny ended up in the Gotham Gazette. Everyone wanted to know why Jagged was in Gotham and who Marinette was. Penny ended up scheduling a video meeting between Jagged and Gotham's main news station. 

Jagged- I am not moving here, nor am I here for a show. You see my honorary niece. I have to say honorary because we arent actually related which is stupid! Anyway! She is my personal designer MDC, I only wear her clothing. She just graduated high school and got accepted at Gotham University. So she moved here, and Penny, Fang, and I wanted to spend the beginning of the summer with her! Mari! Come say hello!

Marinette- Uncle I swear if you want dinner you need to stop distracting me. Hello Madame, Monsieur, I'm Marinette more popularly known as MDC. Pleasure to meet you. I'm actually in college for my business degree!

Chloe- Don't forget me! Honestly you two can be ridiculous together utterly-

Jagged and Mari smiling mischievously at her- Ridiculous!

Chloe huffs before turning to the newscaster- Chloe Bourgeois, I am Marinette's main model and top female model. I moved here with Marinette as well, though I won't be going to college, you will see me around the city doing photoshoots.

Penny takes over after Marinette and Chlke give quick interviews. Once the food is done both say goodbye and get excited to eat. However before Jagged hangs up everyone watches Marinette picks up Fang like he is nothing and cuddles him to her chest. Jagged burst into laughter and the interviewer's shocked face.

For the next couple weeks Marinette eagerly explores the city with Chloe, meeting people and unknowingly creating a name for herself. Orphans know that they can come to her for food or clothes and never have to worry about her turning them in.

A few weeks into living there they get an invitation to Bruce Wayne's upcoming charity ball. Marinette quickly gets to work making their outfits in time for the ball. While making sure the Kwami can handle Fang and that Fang knows not to eat them.

The three make waves when they arrive. Penny and Jagged wear matching outfits however they are drawn back and more muted than usual, still capturing their rock n roll vibes. Jaggeds favorite part is the music notes hand stitched on the arms of his jacket and the train of Penny's dress. Meanwhile Marinette's outfit is made to resemble the night sky and when she moves in the light her dress twinkles in the light. Chloe's is made to resemble the sun. It's a layer with yellow and orange tulle.

Jagged and Penny talk to the people conversing while Marinette talks to a few people before being able to edge herself away. While Chloe immerses herself with the other model at the gala. Marinette makes a sizable donation, the money a combination of her own and her designers making sure their names are also on the donation before making her way to the food table and snagging a few cookies eating them slowly while observing the people around her. 

Damian stumbles upon her when he finally finds an excuse to slip away. He doesn't speak to her at first just standing there sipping his champagne. They are both silent before Marinette snorts, placing her arm on his shoulder gently and leaning closer to whisper.

Marinette-look to our right the man in the terbile green suit is about to get slapped by his wife

Damian glances over and watches as Mr. Tennor gets slapped hard by his wife causing everyone to go silent as she berates him for thinking he could get away with bringing his Mistress to a charity event. Only for his Mistress to turn on him slapping him as well. Saying that he told her they were finishing their divorce. The Mistress huffs, turning to Mrs. Tennor and apologizes before storming out.

Damian turns away from the facing Marinette as he struggles not to laugh while the room is still silent. Once the talking picks back up Damian introduces himself and Marinette does the same. A little amused by the stars in Damian's eyes when he confirms she's MDC. He admits that her album covers are his favorites of Jagged's and that he has even attempted commissioning her but was unable to get in. Marinette apologizes telling him that recently she's been keeping the same clientele since she was planning on moving. She then pulls out her phone unlocking it and giving it to him. 

Marinette-Put your number in and I'll contact you tomorrow about what you want to commission.

The two spend the rest of the night talking and pointing out things about those around them. Marinette's hand remains on his shoulder and soon she is leaning against him, her head resting on his shoulder and his arm around her waist as they whisper back and forth. Pointing out different things to each other and hiding the laughter as best they can.

At one point Damian notices his father starting to walk over and quickly asks her to dance. Marinette is surprised at first but she notices Mr. Wayne makes his way towards them and smirks before nodding. Damian takes her hand leading her to the dance floor. Marinette smiles at him and starts teasing him asking if he didn't want his father to see her with him. Damian quickly tells her that's not it before realizing that she was joking. He rolls his eyes huffing at her saying that his father would make a scene. This causes Marinette to snort before agreeing to help each other hide from him for the night, and they do so successfully. The only one to catch the two is Chloe who gives Damian a quick one over before deeming him good enough for her Marinette. At the end of the night Jagged and Penny find Marinette and return to her penthouse. Marinette says goodbye to Damian kissing his cheek softly before leaving with them.

When Bruce finally catches up to his youngest he huffs wrapping an arm around his shoulder declaring that they were going to have a long talk on the ride home.

The rest of the night his entire family won't stop teasing him about actually dancing with a girl and not getting her number. They keep bringing it up until he smirks holding up his phone.

Damian- That's because she got mine instead. 

He leaves the room leaving his brother in slight shock while Alfred holds up a camera and asks if they want to see pictures of the two together.

A week later Marinette meets Robin for the first time when Marinette is cornered in an alley. When Robin drops down startling them Marinette jumps into action stomping on one guy's foot getting him to release her before flipping him over her shoulder. Then she attacks at the two closest to her she flips over one's shoulder dropping behind him and kicking his legs out from under him. Punching him hard in the face. After knocking him out she jumps back as the other guy attempts to hit her. She dodges and blocks his punch before flipping back and crouching launching herself forward and punching him in the gut hard. She steps back breathing hard as she watches Robin take out the last guys. Robin turns to her and looks her over making sure she isn't hurt. Marinette thanks him softly leaning against the wall trying to catch her breath. Once she is calmed down Robin escorts her home.

The next day Damian messages her asking her on a date. Marinette teasingly asks if he's just doing this to convince her to give him a discount and he just groans. Marinette laughs telling him to pick her up at 6.

Marinette and Damian spend the summer getting to know each other and going on dates. Meeting Damian's family was an adventure for her, she loved getting to know the boys, Stephanie, Barbara, and Cass. (Dick and Barbara are definitely married in this one.) She also found it extremely easy to figure out her Damian was Robin, who she always caught stopping by on the roof across from her building.

Chloe bonds phenomenally with Stephanie; the two girls are practically glued at the hip. They spend almost all their time together, and while they don't voice it, the majority of the family had a feeling they were dating.

Soon after Chloe discovers their secret as well. They both decided not to tell them they knew because both girls knew how important secret identities were. The only people that knew Marinette was a hero was Cass and Alfred, and that was because Cass had noticed Tikki and Alfred was Duusuu's holder a long time ago.

The three bond phenomenally well, so much so that Damian is worried Cass may steal his Marinette. 

Soon the end of summer is on them and Damian finally asks Marinette to be his girlfriend and she agrees. They are now Gotham's power couple. Pictures and videos of them are everywhere on the news and Twitter.

There are even Tiktoks of them while they're out in public. Marinette's favorite is them dancing in the rain one day both laughing and smiling brightly as some kids join them.

Marinette is named Gotham's new Princess and is praised by Damian's old classmates for breaking through and making the 'Ice Prince' smile and laugh.

Soon after Chloe and Stephanie announce that they are dating as well. Both couples are all over the news and papers.

Halfway through their first year of college Lex Luthor is named President of the United States. This causes the heros to panic however they make no moves instead they begin building a case against him. This comes to a halt when the entire Batfamily is cut off from them. An earthquake wreaks Gotham killing millions and destroying the city and the bridges giving them access to the rest of the states. President Luthor locks down Gotham essentially giving up on the city and allowing no outside contact or help.

It's during this period of time that Marinette and Chloe reveal they know their identities by crashing a meeting in the Batcave.

Marinette- Yes, yes, we know and will explain later, but right now I have a plan on how to get Gotham back on its feet.

Marinette's plan relies heavily on her and Bruce's businesses. The Wayne family and Marinette are going to rebuild Gotham from the bottom up. She tells Bruce that publicly Batman is going to hand over the only way of communication outside of Gotham over to Bruce Wayne during a press conference. Then Bruce will announce their plans of using this resource to continue to bring money into the city through him and Marinette. The family is going to be hiring clean up crews, medical workers, and construction workers to rebuild their city. Marinette and Bruce focus mainly on bringing in money. Jason's focus is on helping orphans, street kids, and newly made orphans. Setting up better Orphanages with better staff and making sure no kid is a meal ticket. Dick's focus is on getting the police force back up with Gordon's help and weeding out as many corrupt cops. Tim focuses on hiring construction workers and clean up crews getting Gotham cleaned up and starting reconstruction. Cass is the one helping find more medical personnel and working with getting hospitals up and going. Damian personally spoke with Gothams bigger villains in Arkham explaining what happened and what Luthor is trying to do. Thanks to him Arkham is pretty much guaranteed no breakouts. In fact many were surprised to see henchmen from different villains joining in on the clean up. Kate also helps out working hard to get electricity back up and running with electricians  while making sure no down wires are active. Stephanie and Chloe are praised for getting out and helping the clean up crews as well as the police with finding bodys of missing citizens.

It takes over a year but the Wayne family, Marinette, and Chloe get Gotham back on its feet better than ever. And they use Luthor's abandonment of Gotham to get him impeached. After they've finally reopened Gotham to the rest of the states, Bruce throws a city wide party. He even sends special catering to Arkham asylum as thanks to the villains for not just remaining there but sending their henchmen out to help. 

Bruce gives a big thanks to everyone for all their help with rebuilding their beautiful city.

It's shortly after his speech Damian and Marinette are enjoying the small fair that Bruce paid for. They are walking through the game area sharing cotton candy when Damian gets lost in the moment and asks her to marry him. Marinette laughs pulling him into a deep kiss causing citizens around them to start cheering. She waits until they've quieted down before pulling back.

Marinette-Yes Damian, I'll marry you!

This causes citizens to burst into cheers again. All of them giving their cities power couple their congratulations. While Damian is embarrassed saying that he doesn't have a ring for her. Marinette just smiles and kisses him softly telling him not having a ring isn't a big deal because she would have said yes either way.

A few minutes later a soft spoken Hispanic woman exits her jewelry booth giving them two small rings.

The woman-This is for until he finally gets you one Miss. Free of charge, consider it a thanks for helping my city and a congratulations present. 

She squeezes both their hands smiling softly at the two and congratulates them before leaving them.

After the city party, they finally address Marinette and Chloe knowing their identities. It happens at Marinette's rebuilt penthouse. Marinette smiles telling them that it was the Kwami that really pointed it out to her. While Chloe tells them she caught Stephanie in her outfit one night and just pretended she had been asleep the entire time. Everyone but Alfred is confused about the Kwami until Marinette asks them to come out. The Kwami fly in spreading around the room, Duusuu sits calmly on Alfred's shoulder, Pollen resting herself in Chloe's hair, while Tikki and Plagg float by Marinette's shoulders.

Marinette-Let me introduce you to Kwami. Gods and Goddesses that grant their chosens their powers. Tikki and Plagg are the two most powerful Destruction and Bad Luck, Creation and Good Luck. I'm Tikki's chosen, I am-

Tim-Ladybug...you're Paris's missing heros.

Marinette sighs softly nodding thinking about her last day as Ladybug

Chloe- I was Honeywell for a short while until I moved to america. Pollen and I were a great team.

Pollen petting her hair gently-We were the best my Queen.

Marinette-Paris started relying on me for everything. The police stopped doing their jobs and when I finally defeated the villain that was plaguing them, it wasn't enough. I loved being a hero but they expected me to do everything. You all know that it isn't possible to do everything.

Bruce asks why she never went out as Ladybug. Marinette smiles and tells him that while she misses it she knew that this was Batman's city and that metas weren't allowed.

Marinette-I know technically I'm not one, but Tikki gives me powers.

After that Marinette begins to train with Bruce so that she can hit the streets with them, without the Miraculous. Chloe while learning how to fight with Stephanie declines becoming a vigilante with them. Marinette loves every second of it, she loves actually having a mentor to teach her. And it felt nice to have a father figure in her life once again. Six months later she is joining the family for her first night of patrol as BlackBird.

Blackbird spends most of her time with Batwomem, on patrol and missions. Her first big villain was Riddler, however before he could even utter a riddle Blackbird tore into him for his terrible outfit. To the point that Riddler practically threw himself at Batman in tears crying and telling him his new protégé was mean.

Blackbird is a rising hero in Gotham and the hero community. Soon she begins attending Justice League meetings with the others considering joining. It is there she meets Wonder Women, and asks how her mother is doing. Diana realizes quickly that she is speaking with a Guardian and finds out later that Blackbird is the current Ladybug as well.

The family also begins planning Damian and Marinette's public wedding and their private wedding. Stephanie is the one that asks her if she wants to have the private wedding in Paris, everyone only a little surprised she straight out refuses.

Marinette-I said goodbye all that time ago, and I don't think I wish to return.

That night she asks Bruce to walk her down the aisle along with her grandfather. When asked about her own parents Marinette smiles sadly telling them that they no longer consider her their daughter, so they were not invited. Bruce smiles softly brushing Marinette's hair down gently with his hand before agreeing to walk her. She asks Chloe to be her Maid of Honor and Kate, Cass, and Stephanie to be her Bridesmaid

Three weeks later they are sending out invites to people for their private wedding in 6 months and the public one in a year.

Marinette asks Jagged and Luka to be the entertainment for both nights and they agree. Sabine and Tom are not invited; they find out when Gina shows up excited asking why they never told her Marinette had met someone in America. They are even more surprised to find out Rolland is closing up shop and going to the wedding as well. Gina is upset to find out they kicked Marinette out and tears into them. At this point Lila comes into the bakery and tries to sway Gina onto her side. Gina just scoffs and shakes her head, telling her she'd never believe another girl over her granddaughter.

Gina storms out of the bakery refusing to talk to her son or daughter-in-law. After she leaves they google their daughter trying to find out who she is engaged to, they find out everything about Marinette helping rebuild Gotham out of her own pocket with the help of Bruce Wayne, and her engagement to Damian Wayne.

They try every attempt to contact her even going through old friends only to find she changed her number. They don't hear anything more of her until a year later when their wedding is broadcast from Gotham. Tom cries when Marinette is escorted down the aisle by her Grandfather and Bruce Wayne. She stops hugging them both tightly before taking Damian's hands, their eyes unable to leave each other, as they say their vows.

Marinette- Before I even had colleges lined up one of my best friends told me to follow the call. A few weeks later three colleges accepted me, but only one kept calling me back, Gotham University. I couldn't stop researching the city, I couldn't get it out of my head. It was like something was waiting for me here, so I decided to accept Gotham University. I moved here with one of my friends expecting an adventure. I didn't think my adventure would lead me to the love of my life, but it did. I love you Damian, with all my heart. My next adventure is standing by your side till the end of time.

Damian- Marinette Wayne, no I did not mess up. Marinette, you have been a part of my family since the moment you placed your hand on my shoulder and pointed out Mr. Tennor was about to be slapped. Our entire first night together felt magical as cheesy as it sounds. Every day after was amazing, I couldn't believe I met someone as amazing as you. When the earthquake happened and you stepped up helping my family rebuild the city, I knew I wanted you by my side for the rest of my life. So much so that I proposed to you spur of the moment in the middle of the fair, I will forever be grateful that you agreed to marry me. My heart, body, and soul belong to you and solely you Marinette till the end of time.

 When the priest pronounces them husband and wife and announces the kiss Marinette grabs his face gently pulling him down into a deep kiss.

The reception is also broadcast to the public with many famous people offering their congratulations to the happy couple to the camera before heading into the party. Marinette and Damian are the last to arrive and while they don't talk to the camera they stop posing together for the camera. Both unwilling to even leave the other side. Throughout the reception all the speeches are broadcasted. The final speech is from the newly married couple. Both of them thanking everyone that came to the wedding. Telling them that they wouldn't be where they were without their friends and family in the room. They share a sweet kiss in front of the crowd at the end of their speech.

Chloe moves into an apartment with Stephanie, while Damian moves into Marinette's penthouse. They are hardly seen separate from each other, pictures of them together are all over the internet and news.

Damian also leaves the title of Robin behind becoming Redbird becoming partners with Blackbird. The two partners are soon dubbed the new Dynamic Duo of Gotham.

They both graduate college together, Damian going into Wayne Enterprises taking over as Ceo with Tim when Bruce steps down. While Marinette built her own fashion empire soon rivaling Audrey's. Her fashion is known around the world, but out of all the cities the most of her sales come from Gotham. Gothamites still not forgetting the young adult that spent billions to help them rebuild.

Soon Marinette and Damian discover that Marinette is pregnant. The two are ecstatic to be parents, Marinette begs Bruce to hold a big family dinner with everyone, and he agrees. Halfway through dinner Bruce finally asks why Marinette called all of them together. Marinette smiles softly before announcing that she is pregnant.

The family burst into cheers, everyone extremely excited and talking with each other about what the baby's name would be.

A few months later they find out its twins. One boy and one girl. They agree on the names Thomas John Wayne and Mary Martha Wayne. This causes both Bruce and Dick to tear up when told.

When the twins are born they are all Gothamites can talk about. The new Wayne twins, everyone can't wait to watch them grow up.

In Paris their grandparents hold on to pictures they find online, knowing they'll never get to know them. That they'll never get to see their daughter again either.

[alpacaparkaseok]

Book of Soulmates

Pairing: Jimin x reader

Premise: Everyone is given a barcode that’s tattooed onto their wrists. Their soulmate has a matching barcode. It is common for most public areas to have a barcode scanner for those entering. The scanner will alert you if your soulmate has also entered the area.

“I can’t believe they only have one scanner,” my friend laments as she shifts from one foot to the other. “This is going to take forever.”

Looking at the line ahead of us, I can’t help but agree with her. If I had known that there would only be one scanner at the entrance of the concert, I would have found some way to sneak in. Now it’s much too late for that.

BTS doesn’t mess around when it comes to security.

“Do you think they make the boys scan in?” I wonder aloud, watching as an official looking person appears with what I hope is another barcode scanner in tow. 

“I don’t know...do you think they even want them to find their soulmate right now? That would probably put a damper on their career, don’t you think?” She gets up on her tippy toes, mimicking the vast majority of the crowd as they wait to see if it is indeed another scanner. 

When the man at the front begins to divide people into two separate lines to utilize both scanners, a round of cheers erupt in the crowd. 

“Finally!”

“I was scared they were going to start the concert without us.”

“How would they even start the concert? All the fans would be outside waiting to get scanned.”

“Yeah, there’d only be like six people in the venue.”

“Oh to be those six people.”

I chuckle at the conversations I overhear, rolling my eyes. “Oooh, look! We’re moving!”

My friend and I leap forward, suddenly feeling like the line is moving much quicker now. “You’ve got your ticket, right?”

I nod. “Right here.”

To add to our joy, a third scanner is set up. Soon the lines are flowing as they should be, people hardly glancing at the scanner as they slide their wrist below it, eager to get inside. 

I hop on my toes as my friend goes ahead, getting the ok from the staff member with hawk-like eyes. They wave me forward, and I grin at my friend as I swipe my wrist under. 

“Thank y-” I chirp, but a hand on my arm stops me mid sentence. 

“Wait here, please.”

I blink at them, my heart stopping. “What?”

“Your barcode jammed the system,” the staff member explains, unplugging the scanner and a round of groans going through the crowd. “Come with me, I’ll get your barcode properly scanned and lead you to your seat.”

“Can my friend come with me?” I ask in a small voice. The staff member gives me a long look, a flicker of stress behind their eyes. 

“I’ll lead you to your seat as soon as I finish, please tell your friend to go ahead without you.”

It’s the look of stress that stops me from pressing the matter, and I wave at my friend who gives me a wave back, looking confused. I shrug, following the staff member. 

What I assumed would be a quick walk to find another scanner turns out to be a jaunt through the entire stadium, weaving in and out of hallways that are bustling with staff members and makeup artists.

The worker that stole me away is currently speaking quietly into a walkie-talkie, using strange phrases and words that make no sense to me. My heart pounds as I wonder if I’m somehow in trouble, and I begin to wrack my brain for what I did wrong. 

“Wait right here, please.” The staff member doesn’t even wait to see if I’ll obey before heading off into a closed room.

Leaning against the wall and keeping my eyes down as I feel the stares of all the other workers, I pray that this will be over quickly. I’m sure my friend is worried about me and the concert is supposed to be starting soon.

I swear, if I miss even one song I’m going to lose my mind. 

The minutes tick by, the halls growing more and more frantic. I’ve started keeping count of all the times people pass me, and I’m nearly to 75 when I feel a light tap on my shoulder.

I turn, expecting to see the same worker as before but gasp as I see Sejin instead.

“Sorry to startle you,” he says. “Would you mind coming inside for a moment?”

Unable to say a word, I simply nod and follow him to the room where the worker disappeared. As I enter, I find that I’m unable to continue moving. Frozen in the doorway, I stare at Sejin as though he’s my only hope.

“I...I don’t think I should be in here.”

“On the contrary,” laughs Taehyung from where he’s lounging on the couch. “This is exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

All seven members of BTS are looking at me from where they’re sitting in various positions around the room. It looks like they were in a last minute run-through of the concert, they’re completely decked out and ready to perform. 

So why...?

“Come in, please,” Sejin says, shooting Taehyung a sharp look. “This won’t take long.”

It’s like swimming through concrete trying to walk inside the room, but when I remember that they have a concert to put on in like fifteen minutes I pick up the pace. Sejin closes the door behind me, offering me a seat just outside the circle. 

“Am I in trouble?” I ask, sitting down and keeping my eyes on Sejin. I feel like I might pass out if I look anywhere else. 

Sejin gives me a soft smile, understanding my worry. “No, absolutely not. Are you feeling alright? Do you need anything? Water...snacks?”

I frown. “...no. No, I’m fine. What’s going on?”

Everyone chuckles at my question, making my cheeks burn. I look down at my shoes, praying that I’ll wake up from this strange dream soon. 

“Jiminie, you said that you wanted to explain.” Namjoon is quick to get everyone back on track, a hush falling over the room. 

Jimin, who’s sitting three people down from me, sits on the edge of the couch. I peek up at him, another blush taking over my features. 

His cheeks are rosy as well as he purses his lips, looking completely unsure of himself. “Right.” He looks around the room as though searching for a prop or something before his eyes land on my exposed wrist. 

His fingers are shaking as he struggles to unbutton his cuffs, j-hope helping him when he can’t quite get it. 

“I have this barcode...” he mumbles, rolling his sleeve up until it’s hugging his elbow. Twisting, he extends his wrist out, showing me his barcode. “Look familiar?”

I blink, staring at his barcode for a long moment. Most barcodes look similar, some only varying in thickness or number by a small amount. But as I see Jimin’s barcode, deep down I know.

I’ve been looking at the same barcode on my own wrist my entire life. 

My mouth grows dry the longer I look at his barcode, refusing to look him in the eyes. “Is it...?”

A quick glance at his face shows me that Jimin has wide, hopeful eyes. It’s enough to make me sit up straighter, that look going through me like a bolt of lightning. 

“Yes.”

My mouth is ajar as I go back and forth from his barcode to my own, not quite believing my eyes. “Are you sure? They could just look really similar...the staff said I jammed the system,” I offer a little helplessly. “So we shouldn’t just jump to conclusions here.”

The boys share an impressed look, Jimin scratching the back of his neck before getting up off the couch. “Where’s that scanner?” He asks, Sejin appearing with a scanner in hand.

“You’ve got five minutes,” Sejin says. “Everyone else go gather up.”

I watch in horror as the other members get up and begin to file out of the room, bidding me farewell.

“We’ll see you later,” Namjoon says. “Jimin, five minutes.”

“I know.”

Jungkook gives me a sheepish wave. “It was nice meeting you. Enjoy the concert.”

Right. There’s still a concert.

When the room is empty of everyone except for the two of us, Jimin clutches the scanner in hand and walks over to me. 

“I...” He pauses, looking like he’s the one that just got thrown into a room with his idol. “May I?”

He gestures to my hand, and it takes me a moment to understand what he wants. For some reason my brain keep short-circuiting every time I look at him and his soft gaze.

“Oh, yeah,” I mumble, holding out my hand and flipping it so he can scan the barcode.

“Look,” he says, sitting beside me and showing me the screen. Scanning my barcode, I gasp as I see what it says.

Match: Park Jimin (red alert)

The words blink up at me, daring me to believe them. Jimin sits quietly beside me, waiting for me to say something.

Watching the blinking screen, a giggle escapes me. Jimin freezes, unsure of what to do. 

“What’s so funny?” He asks, sounding a little offended. I shake my head, pointing at the screen. 

“This. I mean, what?” I look at Jimin, grinning. “I literally thought I was in major trouble because earlier I said that I should have just found a way to sneak in without having to wait to get scanned. I seriously thought that I was going to get fined or something!”

Jimin’s concerned expression morphs into a smiling one, and he joins in on the laughter.

“Well, surprise!” He waves the scanner in the air. 

I can’t stop shaking my head, still in disbelief. Sighing, I look at the clock on the wall.

“Don’t you have a concert or something?”

At that exact moment someone knocks on the door, and Jimin jumps up. Extending his hand to me, I stand as well, marveling at the feel of his hand in mine. 

“I’ll see you after?”

I grin. “I’ll think about it.”

masterlist

@dreamcatcherjiah​

[navalcriminalimagines]

Backup

Request by @wow-life-love4 ❤️ : So I was hoping to request a Barba x reader; Where the reader sees Barbra back when she goes visits Carisi and she has those feeling again what she had years ago when he left!And he finally accepts the fact that she was the one as well!!!!!(Throw some angst in there I’m dying for it with fluffy ending)

Words: 3,530

Tags: @crying-river

Sorry for the typos. Enjoy. ❤️

Based on 22x04 Sightless in a Savage Land. (Of course)

(Gif isn’t mine)

*Carisi’s office*

Since Sonny got his new office, you found a comfy place on the floor, against his furniture. That’s where you were even though your former partner wasn’t there yet. There was this new case that came up in the night before, he had a few meetings while you were working on your laptop, coffee right next you and Sonny’s on his desk.

He came in a few minutes later, smiled when he saw you. He threw the box he was holding on his cabinet and sat on his desk chair. When he spotted his coffee, his smile grew wider. “You’re the best,” he said, taking a big sip.

“I know,” you smiled. “How’s the case going?”

“I’m going for murder 2, and we’ll see,” he shrugged.

One thing you love about your friendship with Sonny Carisi is that silence is comfortable. There is no awkward silence. While he worked on his paperwork, you were on your laptop. Shopping online, actually. You rescued a car a year ago and the little ball of fur has been scratching on your couch ever since. It was completely destroyed now and you needed a new one.

“Dom,” you called your best friend. “What do you think about this one?” you turned your laptop so Sonny could see it. It was a nice three places blue couch, Scandinavian style.

Sonny wheeled closer to you and bent down to look at it. “I won’t fit in that one,” he said. He’s been crashing a lot at your place for the past two years.

“Stupid long legs,” you teased him. “Although, in 4 years, you’ll be sleeping in my bed, so—“ you turned the screen back at you and kept scrolling.

Sonny laughed at that. “Only if neither of us is married,” he reminded you.

“Doesn’t look good, Dominick. I’m telling you,” you exclaimed. “You seriously need to prepare yourself to spend the rest of your life with me,”

“Wouldn’t have agreed if I wasn’t. Although, that’s not the story I wanna tell our kids,” still laying in his chair, Sonny was facing you, his legs spread as always.

“Why not?” You exclaimed. “It’s cute! Two best friends that made a deal to get together to avoid forever loneliness!” You paused and realized what he said. “Wait—kidS?” you asked, making sure the ‘s’ was heard.

“At least, four, Y/N. You know I want a big family,” Sonny told. This conversation seemed like completely normal between although it wasn’t.

“Then pry I’ll give birth to quadruplets. Cause I’m not getting pregnant four times,”

“Don’t underestimate the Carisi’s power,”

You and Sonny stopped talking for a moment, just staring at each other, until you both started to laugh. “This conversation is nonsense,” you said.

“I agree,” you heard from the doorway. You and Sonny turned like one man, to look at the man standing there. You didn’t have to look at him though. You recognized his voice from the first sound.

“Barba,” Sonny was the first to greet him. He stood up and offered his hand. Both men shook hands and Rafael’s eyes stopped on you, still sitting on the floor. You looked up to him and tried to keep a poker face. But god, he looked more handsome as ever. The beard. You asked him multiple times to keep the beard, when you and Rafael were seeing each other.

“Detective,” he greeted you.

“Counselor,” you quickly said and got your attention back on your laptop. You can’t let him see you still have feelings. And that you’re mad. Hurt, even. Rafael never made a promise to you, you two weren’t actually dating per say, but you wished he gave you a goodbye. Not just—leaving.

“What can I help you with?” Sonny rescued you.

“Mickey Davis. Can we talk about it?” He said.

You felt both men’s gaze on you and looked up, “Oh you want me gone?” You said and Sonny nodded. You stood up, put your laptop in your bag, and walked to the door. “Chinese. My place?” You asked Sonny, completely avoiding Rafael. Your best friend agreed and you would be lying if you said you didn’t hope it would make Rafael jealous.

*****

Sonny showed up at your apartment around 8. He was welcomed by Mania’s purrs, he crouched down and pet your ginger cat for a moment. You were sitting in your - destroyed - couch, with a glass a white wine. Carisi knew that seeing Barba after all those years messed with your head.

“How many?” He simply asked.

“Not enough!” You said, but you were obviously tipsy already.

He’d been there many times. He knew that trying to fight to make you stop drinking was useless. So instead, he grabbed a glass and joined you on the couch. Mania jumped on your lap. “Wanna talk about it?”

“I’m just going to say the same things I’ve been telling you for the past three years,” you said, focusing on your cat.

“But now, he’s back. And I don’t think he liked what he heard,”

You looked at Sonny, puzzled, waiting for him to continue. “He was—cold. Unfriendly. And he left saying ‘Enjoy the chinese—and the company’”

“It doesn’t mean anything, Dom. Three years went by. He probably has someone,” you were on the urge of crying but you were fighting yourself. You cried enough for Rafael.

“His lost,” Sonny put his arms around your shoulders and kissed your temple. He gave a pat to Mania, and extended his legs on the coffee table. You rested your head on his shoulder and a few tears escaped.

“Why am I not over him? Why does it still hurt?” You asked. Sonny hummed in response and you continued. “I wish we were married already. I would be committed to you, and he wouldn’t live rent free in my head,”

Sonny giggled, “You sure ‘bout that?” He asked. “Know that cheating is a deal breaker for me. Thinking of someone else while you’re with me is cheating, somehow. So technically, you’re already cheating on me,”

“I’d make up to you, but we’re not there yet. You refused to seal the deal,”

It took Sonny a few seconds to understand what you meant. “And think about Barba while I’m making love to you? Noooo, thank you,”

You grabbed the wine bottle and poured yourself another glass. Mania wasn’t pleased about you moving around so he jumped onto Sonny’s lap instead. “I need a good dick,” you sighed, laying back on the couch.

Sonny wasn’t expecting you to say that. Or at least, not like that. He was taking a sip and choked on wine. He coughed a few times, which made you laugh. “Need me to remind you what happened last year?”

“Noooo, thank you,” you mimicked him. The last year was a mess. You got drunk at Forlini’s and left with a stranger. It was okay at first, the man was good looking and very cautious with you. The sex wasn’t great. He came really fast, you didn’t have time to get pleasure. When you tried to leave, he offered you to stay with puppy eyes, and you caved. The next morning, you tried to sneak out but he heard you and he didn’t want to let you go. So you texted Sonny, asking him to call you and pretend an emergency. Thank god he did. But a few weeks later, you met the guy again at Forlini’s. It lead to a few weeks of stalking from his behalf, until you went all cop on him.

After eating chinese, you went back to drinking as Sonny stopped. You two watched some terrible show on tv until you fell asleep on his shoulders. Used to that, he moved you to your bed and crashed on your couch, with Mania cuddling to him.

*****

You showed up many times at work with hangovers. You were used to pretend you were okay and your coworkers pretended to believe you. The morning went slow, until he showed up.

“Barba!” Fin was the first to see him. “Liv isn’t here,” he continued.

“I came to see all of you—in private?” Fin, Amanda, Kat and yourself looked to one another. “I don’t have all day, detectives.”

They stood up and followed him next to interrogation rooms. But you stayed put. “Y/N,” Rafael softly said.

“Three detectives is enough,” you said, without looking at you. If you looked at him, you’d caved. And you can’t do that. He doesn’t deserve it. Not so easily. Not just because he is his handsome self.

“I hope chinese with your future husband was good,” he answered, bitterly and joined the others, closing the doors behind him. You sarcastically laughed at that. Was it jealousy? You hoped so.

A few minutes later, Liv came in with Garland. He gently greeted you and asked where were the others. You told them without thinking further. And in a minute, Barba was in Liv’s office with her and Garland. Your coworkers went back to their desks but no one talked. “Fill me in?” You asked.

“In so many words, Barba needs our help,” Amanda told you.

“He’s defending the man that Carisi is prosecuting. That’s not fair to Sonny,” you told, anger started to show up.

“Carisi can handle it,” Fin said.

“Damn right he can. But you’re making it harder for him! Our ADA is Carisi now, not Barba! He left me—us,”

You knew it was too late. Your anger toward Rafael just surfaced and the entire team now knows something had happened. Mostly angry at yourself from letting your emotions get the best of you, you grabbed your jacket and left the squadroom.

You drove to Sonny’s office and stormed in it without knocking. He immediately saw your red eyes, and furry in them. “Barba asked the squad for help! And I think they are in!” You were pacing in the small place, making Sonny’s head spin. “They are going behind your back for him! They are helping him, knowing it will make it harder for you! He just—snapped his fingers,” you did snap your fingers, “and they are all in! I can’t believe it,” you were breathing hard, fighting your tears and your anger. Sonny stood, grabbed your shoulders and brought you to his chest. He held you tight as you cried in his chest. He could feel your body shaking. You stood there for a long moment until you calmed down. Sonny let you go and grabbed you a tissue. You dried your eyes and blown your nose. “I’m sorry, you must be tired of me. I’m a fucking mess,”

Sonny was leaning on his desk, arms crossed and legs spread. “Nah, you’re not, Y/N. You’re my best friend and you’re there for me as much,” he softly grabbed your hand and rubbed your knuckles, “Now tell what you’re really mad about,”

“Him. He comes back and tries to act as if—nothing happened. Like we were nothing. Ever,” you took a deep breath, “it just hurts me all over again,”

“Now that he’s here, maybe you should ask for the explanations you’ve been waiting for? You need closure, honey. You deserve it. And yeah, it may not be what you want to hear but at least, you’ll know and you can finally move on,”

“With you when I turn 40?” You tried to joke.

“Or that guy from last year,” he grinned.

“Shut up, Carisi,” Sonny pulled on your arm to bring you to him. As he was leaning on the desk, you were the same height. You put your arms around his shoulders, and his hands were in your back. “What would I do without you?” You whispered in his ear.

“You’d be stuck in a relationship with a weirdo, and probably pregnant by now,” you laughed at his words.

“That would terrible. I’d be so frustrated,”

“Uh, I’d help you with that,”

“Dominick Carisi Jr, isn’t that a sin? May I remind you, you refused to seal our deal,”

“Because if it went bad, I didn’t want you to ask Fin to be your backup,”

“Wouldn’t have worked anyway, he found Phoebe,”

Really, what would you do without Sonny Carisi in your life?

*****

His words didn’t leave your brain. “You need closure, you deserve it”. And maybe he’s right. You do deserve closure, even if he tells you everything you don’t want to hear. So when the trial was over, and Barba invited everyone for a drink, you joined in. You sat between Sonny and Kat, Rafael was across from you. You could feel his gaze every now and then but you tried to avoid meeting his eyes.

“Cheers,” Rafael said, holding his scotch.

“To what? Jury deliberated for 6 hours to find Davis guilty on murder 2 and we’re back to the start,” Sonny answered.

“To irony, then,” Rafael offered instead.

Everyone got interested in Rafael’s past three years. He explained that he traveled for a while, catch up with foreign family in Cuba. He mentioned meeting a woman there but when you heard the word “girlfriend”, you stood up and went to order another glass.

“Y/N!” You heard from your left. You turned to see the man that stalked you the year prior. “Good to see you,” before you could react, Kyle was hugged you. “Been a while,” he smiled.

Not enough. You thought. “Indeed,” you gently returned the smile.

“May I offer you a drink?”

“Thanks, but I’m with my friends,” you pointed towards the squad. Sonny saw the man from behind and he saw in your eyes you were in trouble. But instead of helping you, he was just—laughing. Bastard.

“Maybe later then? Or another day?”

“Kyle. Last year, I threated you to put you in jail for harassment. That threat still stands if you start again,” you looked at him, seriously.

“Actually, I want to apologize about that. I was in a very bad place and I don’t know why I acted the way I did. Can we put that in the past and start all over again?”

Listening to his excuses, you didn’t see Rafael circling around. It’s only when you smell his intoxicating smell, that you knew he was behind you. You sighed and tried to stay focus on Kyle. “Okay look, if you’re still here when my friends leave, maybe—“ you were stopped by Rafael’s arm, as he slided it around your chest.

“Leave her alone, man. You’re not up to her standards,”

“Y/N, who is that” Kyle asked.

You were so confused about what was happening - and a little tipsy - you didn’t react. “The man that has way more chance to take her home than you’ll never have,”

“Well, man, you’re too late. I already took her home,”

You felt Rafael’s fist clenching. “Kyle—I’ll see around okay?”

“I’m not sure I want to leave you with that guy, Y/N,” he answered.

“But you are,” Rafael growled. “Now and forever,”

Rafael made you spin around so you were facing him instead of that Kyle. He instantly grabbed your face in his hands and kissed you right under Kyle’s nose. He was acting like an asshole but there’s no way you could pull him away. You melted into his kiss, granting access to his tongue. You grabbed onto his shirt, pulling him as close as you could. You felt his hands traveling your back, until you were grabbing your ass. For a moment, you forgot you two were in the middle of Forlini’s. You moaned in his month and he felt his cock twitching.

You pulled away only when Amanda made herself heard as she was leaving. “Get a room, people.”

Rafael smiled. “I agree with her. Come home with me?”

“Where’s home for you?” You asked. A kiss can’t make everything go away.

“Home is you, Y/N. You’re my home,” he looked so damn sincere and it would be so easy to just let it go and hang on to those words. But you still need explanations. Apologizes, perhaps?

Again, you fought against your tears. “That’s so easy, Rafael,”

“Come with me and we can talk. Just that if you want,”

*****

During the ride, you told Rafael you preferred to go to your place; Mania was waiting. If Barba should have a pet, he thought he would adopt a dog. But since you have a cat, he can get use to it. Only if you cut its claws.

As always, Mania was waiting behind the door when you got in. He didn’t move at first, just studying Rafael. “He’s already judging me,” Rafael said.

“He only met two humans. Me and Sonny. Before that, he was beaten, famished and threw with the trash. He doesn’t trust humans,”

“That’s something we can bound on,” Rafael kept his distance with your furry child. And Mania did the same. You pet him a moment, gave him his food and joined Rafael on the couch, with a bottle of Sauternes. It was silent at first. None knew where to start.

“Is—is there something between you and Carisi?” He asked.

“Straight to the point,” you smiled in your glass. You liked the hint of jealousy in it. “For now, no. But in 4 years, maybe,”

“I’m gonna need further explanations,”

“I’m the one that needs explanations, don’t you think?” You challenged him. “Actually, I deserve them,” you’ll have to think Sonny later for that strength.

“Indeed, you do,” Rafael agreed. “It was easier that way,”

“Easier for who? For you? Cause it wasn’t easy for me, at all,”

“I was selfish and I’m sorry,” he softly grabbed your hand. “I knew that—if I came to see you, to tell you I was leaving, I would have back down. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you goodbye. All I ever wanted to see in your eyes, when you look at me, was love. And I was afraid to see—disappointment in them. Pity, hate, even. Cause there was hate whenever I looked in the mirror,” you heard tears in his voice. You knew he was just being honest with you.

“You ruined our relationship—or whatever we had— on assumptions, Rafael. I didn’t hate you before you left. I wasn’t disappointed. Only things you’d have seen were empathy and love,”

“I couldn’t take the risk, Y/N,”

“Let’s pretend I get that. Why didn’t you call, then? Text? Left a letter or a note? Hell, even an email would have made it easier,” you stood up, pacing around. Rafael has been around you enough to know that’s what you do when you’re angry and trying to calm yourself.

“I could have. I should have—I’m so sorry,” he was looking at you with pleading eyes but you were still pacing around your living room. “I never forgot about you, Y/N. I still love you,”

“Uh-huh,” you shook your head, “You can’t tell me you still love me when you never said you loved me in the first place!” You exclaimed.

“Fine,” he stood up and grabbed your shoulders to keep you still. “I love you, Y/N. Wanna know when I knew?” He paused, for what you assumed what a dramatic effect like he does in court, “When Yelina came in my office, telling my ‘crazy coworker’ slapped her. And you didn’t slap her because you were jealous. You did so because she hurt me and talked shit about me for going after Alex. When she left, I smiled so hard, I found the courage to ask you out,”

You felt your cheeks turning pink. “I didn’t know you knew,” you looked down but Rafael grabbed your chin and made you lift your head.

“From that moment, I knew you had my back. I didn’t have yours,” you saw a tear finally escaping his eye. “And if you found the strength to forgive me, I’ll always have your back. I won’t let you down. I promise,”

Seeing Rafael cried made you cry too. You swoop his tears with your thumb. “It won’t be easy, Rafael. It’s going to take time for me to—trust you again. To trust that you won’t leave again,”

“I won’t,” he grabbed your face and kissed. It was needy. Rafael wanted you to feel how much he loves you in that kiss. He wanted you to know you could trust him. Not only your tongue mixed but your tears did too. “I promise. I love you,” he rested his forehead against yours.

“I love you, too,” you kissed again, but it was more passionate. One of his arms were wrapped around your shoulders and his other hand was holding your cheek. Your left hand rested on his firm ass and your right one was in his hair.

He smiled against your mouth when he felt your hand grabbing his ass cheek. “That’s my move,”

“What can I say? I missed your ass,”

He chuckled and made you jump in his arms. Your legs wrapped around his waist and his hands were resting on your ass. “Not as much as I missed yours,” Rafael kissed you again and walked to the bedroom, closing it to Mania’s face.

[yhwhsdaughter]

Feelings for you

pairing: levi x fem reader

warnings: angst w/ happy ending, filming without consent, blackmail, unwanted advances, mentions of physical violence

part 1 , part 2 , part 4 , part 5

“I don’t feel anything for Leviathan. He’s just another number in my body count.”

Hearing those words shattered Levi’s poor, brittle heart—especially in when they came from the person he loved most.

It was like (Name) had taken a knife and plunged it into his chest, twisting till he couldn’t breath. The pain Levi felt at that moment was unbearable.

Tears rolled down his cheeks.

Even when the three of them turned to look at him, (Name)’s cold expression never left her face. Levi expected her to laugh and reveal it was a prank.

He would’ve believed her.

Just a few days ago, they’d slept together. Levi even heard (Name) say she loved him. She thought he was asleep, but he heard it. Her precious confession.

“You’re.. joking right ?”

Desperate, Levi offered her another way out but (Name) crushed that too. “No. Why would I want to be with a gross otaku like you?” She couldn’t even look at him when she said that.

Levi shook his head vehemently, denying those hurtful statements. “No no no. No!” He couldn’t accept this. It didn’t make sense. Why would (Name) suddenly say something like this? There had to be a reason for it.

Grabbing her shoulders, he begged. “Stop lying! I know you—”

(Name) pulled away from him harshly, “Leave me alone, freak!”

A whimper escaped him.

The two guys beside her were having a field day. Astaroth and Mephisto snickered, catching the attention of Levi.

His bullies.

What was she doing with them? (Name) had once defended him against them, so why was she with them? Was her relationship with him truly an act?

Doubt seeped into his heart.

Levi’s world was falling apart. He couldn’t think straight—the tears made his vision blurry as he ran away from the scene. Laughter followed him until it eventually faded the further he got.

The bluenette had to leave. He could not stand there any longer, listening how his darling delivered blow after blow with those awful words. Coming from anyone else, Levi would’ve ignored them but this wasn’t just anyone. (Name) was Levi’s most precious person, which made the pain worse.

Levi slid down the nearest wall, knees pressing against his chest as he let out all his anguish in the middle of an empty hall. Part of him wished (Name) would follow after him, explanation in hand but no such thing happened.

—

“Oi Levi you should eat something!”

Mammon banged on his younger brother’s door; the rest of the brothers looked on solemnly when Levi threw a pillow against the door.

“Go away!”

None of them knew exactly what happened. Levi came home, eyes clearly red from crying and when he was questioned by Lucifer, the bluenette ran to his room and shut himself in.

“I suggest we give him some space.”

The next morning, Levi had stopped his isolation but he looked miserable. It was like a cloud of grey surrounded him.

Nearly dragging himself to class, Levi turned when the crowd parted, people whispering as (Name) walked by, sporting a black eye and a busted lip. Students ogled, wondering how she’d gotten those injuries.

(Name) seemed to pay them no mind, that is, until she made eye contact with Levi. He stood near the lockers, clutching his books close to his chest.

Turning away, she walked faster.

Levi’s legs moved on their own, following after her.

Although (Name) had hurt him deeply, he still loved her. Levi honestly thought it was impossible to hate the young woman.

He wasn’t the most athletic but Levi ran all over the academy looking for his beloved (Name). He finally stopped to catch his breath, heaving as sweat dripped from his forehead to the floor.

Straightening from his hunched position, Levi’s gaze settled on two nearby figures. They sat on a bench in one of the gardens, chatting casually.

“Seriously (Name), why would I believe that a cat attacked you? I’m not that stupid.”

The latter’s roommate rubbed some ointment on her wounds while (Name) placed an ice pack on her bruised eye. “If the shoe fits.”

That response earned the injured female a gentle wack to the head. It kinda hurt but she brushed it off, making smooches at her friend to mask the pain. Both laughed, causing (Name)’s swollen lip to split open.

Blood trickled down her chin. Immediately, her roommate stood up, handing (Name) a napkin to hold onto. Red bloomed across the whiteness of the paper. “OH!! I’ll get the nurse! Stay here, I’ll be right back!”

Nodding, (Name) watched her friend go before glancing in Levi’s direction. She’d spotted him earlier. Said male flinched at being caught, as he had been hiding behind a pillar.

While Levi pondered if to approach, (Name) had already directed her gaze elsewhere. She had put the ice pack down awhile ago. There was a certain sadness in the way her lip twitched, brow furrowing slightly.

Slowly, Levi joined her at the bench, fiddling with his fingers. “Are—are you okay?” Hesitation laced his voice. The previous connection they had was severed. Things were awkward now.

“Yeah..”

“That’s good.”

It was silent for a moment. (Name) still refused to look at him. Levi considered leaving, feeling unwanted. Still, he needed to address something that had been bothering him since yesterday.

Both of them spoke at the same time.

“Do you hate me?”

(Name)’s and Levi’s eyes widened. He was the first to answer, “I don’t... hate you..”

It was a small, but (Name)’s face softened. “I’m glad.”

Pursing his lips, Levi blurted “What about you? Do you, hate me?” before he could help himself. He was desperate to know.

The female shook her head lightly.

“Then, why won’t you look at me?”

She went silent.

When she faced him, Levi could see the tears threatening to leave her eyes. “Because—I don’t deserve to look at you..” grabbing his hand, (Name) continued, “Yesterday I said a lot awful things. Although they weren’t true, I still hurt you and I’m sorry for that. I don’t expect you to forgive me.. but I wanted you to know.”

Levi felt something wet hit his hand, it took him a second to realize that it was (Name)’s tears. She brought his hand to her forehead, “You mean so much to me...” she whispered, almost to herself.

The small confession was the straw that broke the camels back. After that, (Name) couldn’t stop crying. The tears kept on coming, it was suffocating. Her head began to throb.

“A-ah.. don’t cry..”

Levi hated seeing her like this. Perhaps he was weak when it came to her. Only (Name) could hurt him as much and still hold his love.

“I can’t— hiccup— stop..!” She truly couldn’t, it was like a curse. Levi placed his lips on her, gentle. Still, she winced slightly.

The action was so sudden that (Name)’s eyes resembled saucers; well, as much as they could when one of them was nearly closed and black. It worked. The tear works stopped. “If.. if you really like me then why did you say all those things?”

He couldn’t forget about that. He desperately wanted to know what pushed her to insult him that badly. He couldn’t forgive her till he knew.

Wiping her eye, (Name) opened her mouth to explain. “Remember our first encounter?” Pink tinted Levi’s cheeks as he nodded. How could he not? It was the first time he’d been able to confess his love, to kiss her and have her touch him. It was forever engraved in his mind.

Digging around in her bag, (Name) brought out a device. Making sure that no one was around, she pressed play.

The screen showed Levi in the restroom, dick out as he jerked off, moaning her name. He still had her panties on him.

Embarrassment burned on Levi’s face, grabbing the thing from her and erasing the evidence. He remembered now. After he’d left her room, he became hard at (Name)’s last words to him.

It would’ve been shameful to walk back to his dorm with a hard on, so Levi headed towards the nearest restroom to take care of his problem. He thought it was empty, unable to hold back his whines.

“Why would they—?”

It was obvious. They hated him. “I rejected Astaroth around the time we began to you know. He always took things personally. This was his revenge.”

(Name) didn’t have to elaborate why it was a bad idea if that video circulated throughout RAD.

Not only would Levi would be humiliated, but also expelled for behaving indecently in an educational institution. Him and his brothers were part of the student council, meaning they represented the school.

This would’ve brought shame to his entire family.

“I had to do it. I couldn’t allow them to ruin you.” Her head hung low. “They wanted me to reject you, just like I’d rejected them.”

(Name) immediately got payback, jumping them after school. “They won’t be coming to RAD anytime soon. Although...” she touched her swollen eye, hissing. “They did get in a few hits.”

Levi was silent, processing everything he’d been told.

(Name) sneaked a glance at him. His lip had some of the blood that was on hers, probably due to the kiss. “Do you feel bad for them?”

“Not really... they hurt you..”

“That’s what they get for threatening the person whom I hold dear to my heart.”

Suddenly embarrassed by her words, (Name) sighed and leaned her head on the crook of Levi’s shoulder. “I think I have a concussion.”

“L-let’s take you to the infirmary then!”

“No, i want to stay here for a while.”

Levi held her close; his hand rested on (Name)’s back moving slowly to ease her. They remained in silence for a couple of minutes till he broke it—the ultimate question popping into his mind.

“(Name)... what are we?”

They never got the chance to put a label on it. For all he knew, they were merely friends with benefits.

“I’ll be whatever you want as long as you’re mine.”

His heart skipped a beat. She really had no idea how much her words affected him.

“And you’re mine too right?”

“Always.”

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (July 20th-August 2nd)

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki's stance on the prospect of The Reveal is abruptly reversed and/or retconned so that she's completely in favor of Marinette telling Chat Noir her secret identity.  Bonus if she doesn't tell her this until AFTER some Drama Bomb has dropped, with Mari getting lectured for not reading her damned mind/'taking initiative'/figuring out before now that everything is always her fault, always and forever, because she's not P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

omg

I’m reminded of “Lady Wifi” with Tikki asking Marinette if she’s sure about not telling Chat her identity, and also “Sentibubbler” where Tikki was perfectly fine with Alya knowing.

Like?????

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Something that comes as a devastating blow for Marinette mildly inconveniences Adrien.  Naturally, HIS reaction to whatever it is gets played in all seriousness while HERS is glossed over/mined for humor/she's shamed for the grievous sin of having an EMOTIONAL REACTION instead of being Tikki's perfect little flawless automation.

Well, obviously his issues are worse! Look how sad he is!!

Look how SAD!!

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki lectures Marinette for putting Too Much Responsibility on Chat Noir's shoulders.  This is possibly passed off as how she should KNOW that PLAGG is Unreliable, as opposed to *Chat Noir* being Unreliable.  Bonus: this is coupled with how she should TRUST Chat Noir more... just not, you know, with actual RESPONSIBILITIES or anything.

I’m like, laughing but also seething, because just the double standard of “YOU SHOULD TRUST HIM... but don’t put more on his shoulders, he’s going through so much!!”

“Bonus��� if it’s a “Marinette, it’s all your fault!! You don’t know what Chat goes through!!!” despite how she literally can’t.

emikogale asked:

I don't need a burrow to know that the season 4 finale is probably going to have some forced drama and cheap shock value.

is it time to pull Reverse Love Square

is it

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: It's explicitly stated that Plagg is meant to be 'teaching Adrien' how to be more selfish (or 'independent'), because cats are stereotypically selfish/independent creatures, and Adrien obviously NEEDS to know that it's okay for HIM to be selfish.

Deep breaths, Clarity.

Deep breaths.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette's trauma from Chat Blanc will be treated as a *good thing*, as she is told that she SHOULD feel guilty and that this should motivate her to be more honest with her partner, despite all evidence to the contrary.  If she took 'the wrong lesson' from this, then it's her own fault, clearly!

What’s the phrase? “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”?

Naturally though, Adrien will be exempt from this and will be told that he deserves better and shouldn’t take this.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to burrow: Luka/Kagami will never get a magical charm or have a scene where they break their akumazations. If we do get that scene, for Luka he will most likely break it off for his family or to another love interest like Zoé. (I can see the show frame it as a lesson to Marinette like "You see Marinette, Luka can break it off if you told him the truth in the first place. But no, he prefers Zoé since she's more honest than you". For Kagami, it'll be mostly be off screen and ignored.

Zoeka: *exists*

all of us: oh god

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Once Alya inevitably screws up in a way that Tikki can't gloss over, Tikki will berate Marinette for going against THE RULES and make everything out to be All Her Fault, while acting as though she NEVER supported the idea of Alya knowing.

It’s times like these where I wish we could double up on Didn’t Need Burrows, but then we’d have like, a card’s worth of doubling up, lol.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir actively sabotages one of Ladybug/Rena/the other heroes' plans in order to prove that 'they still need him'.  Marinette/Ladybug takes all the blame for the fallout.

Of course she does.

Marinette, you need to TAKE CHARGE!!

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Chat Blanc Sentimonster

It won’t happen, but I just got an awful thought of Chat Blanc and Sentibug returning at the same time.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: We will have even more Akumatized Villain/Sentimonster pairs which are rehash of Reflekta/Reflekdoll situation.

“Bonus” if the sentimonster barely matches the akuma’s original role. Like Reflekdoll VS Guiltrip.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir will start secretly destroying the Anti-Akuma Charms so that people can keep getting victimized, providing more chances for him to see Ladybug.  Marinette will blame herself, thinking she made them improperly/incorrectly somehow.

And even once it comes out, Marinette will forgive him and insists that it’s her fault for not “considering his feelings” and how she “should’ve made the charms stronger.”

Anonymous asked:

Theory that could be DNB I guess: The REAL Adrien is in a coma/dead and OUR Adrien is a senti that his mother created to be the “perfect” replacement goldfish son. Real Adrien is in some treatment facility in Tibet (if alive) and Gabriel and Emilie found their miraculous shortly thereafter.

FDKJGKFDGf

Okay, this ask wins for “Didn’t Need Burrow that made me laugh most.”

“Perfect replacement goldfish son,” oh my gosh, it’s beautiful.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: When Maribug gets akumatised, Renalya and Adrichat have the "knights in shining armor" to save the "damsel in distress". Maribug is eventually blamed for getting akumatised in the first place while Renalya and Adrichat get off scot-free :)

:)

Real talk, one of the only akuma I can think of who were “blamed” for the akumatizations was Markov (since Max debated turning him back on even though he himself has gotten akumatized before). Does that put Marinette on the same level as a robot, expected to follow orders to a tee?

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Marinette gets Yet More Lessons about how she shouldn't be selfish and must always put others ahead of herself, no matter how much she suffers as a result.  Adrien, meanwhile, is 'taught' to put himself first.  Bonus: one episode combines the lessons, AND we're shown how Adrien already KNOWS how to be selfish and is OPENLY SO as Chat Noir, yet his misbehavior is presented as Good while Maribug is punished for being imperfect, as always.

Thanks, I hate it, take it away.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: In a Shocking Twist on the Senti!Adrien theory, Gabriel MAKES a Senti!Adrien to replace his own son.  The REAL Adrien winds up locked up and/or running away, and much Angstrese is had.  Bonus if this leads to Reversed LSBS: Senti!Adrien shows polite interest in Marinette because Gabriel still wants to akumatize her, damnit, while Ladybug notices that Chat Noir seems stressed and reaches out to him, only to be rebuked because he's still a selfish little creep who hates her having secrets.

The fact that Gabriel has never taken advantage of Marinette’s crush despite knowing that she’s crushing on Adrien (”Chat Blanc” doesn’t count) is weird to me. If he was after her in “Ladybug” then why not take advantage of it?

...Wait, is SentiAdrien going to cause reverse love square because “Adrien would never make Marinette fall out of love for him because he’s perfect so it has to be a misunderstanding”?

oh no

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Shadowmoth makes a Senti!Adrien for some stupid reason or another.  Like Sentibug before him, Marinette tries to save him upon realizing the truth, and is hit hard by the inevitable loss.  Fandumb naturally SLAUGHTERS her for it, insisting that she would have gladly replaced the REAL Adrien with the fake, much like how Adrien/Chat Noir preferred Sentibug to Ladybug.  Bonus if Alya/Tikki/others reinforce that mentality by accusing Marinette of the same thing themselves.

I don’t know which of these two SentiAdriens DNBs are worse.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: The difficulty of using multiple Miraculi at once is retconned so that the REAL issue is how well the kwami get along.  Marinette learns this the hard way when Tikki gets into a jealous snit-fit with one of the other kwami, and they refuse to work with each other in a joint transformation.  Naturally, it falls upon Marinette to help them reconcile, as she's blamed for whatever sparked off the argument in the first place.  Because of course she is.

*sigh*

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Marinette has a full-fledged breakdown over all her responsibilities piling up on top of the guilt complex she's naturally developed from being blamed for everything that goes wrong.  At best, she gets a pithy line or two about others 'completely supporting' and 'believing' in her before she's forced to get back up, still staggering under the weight; at worst, she's guilt-tripped for having the breakdown, because HOW DARE she be HUMAN, am I right?!

Just the idea of it being said already that teens aren’t meant to be guardian/hold miraculouses and then Marinette being chided for “not doing a good job” is just--

ugh.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien outright admits that he hates Ladybug having other allies, complaining that things were so much better when it was just him and 'his lady' against the world, without even the Guardian's support.  His whining is treated as sympathetic, even if he outright states that he wishes she was completely dependent upon him and didn't have anyone else to turn to.

tbh this is the only reason we don’t have permanent heroes; because Chat wouldn’t have his private time with Ladybug to flirt.

I can’t be convinced otherwise.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir's jealousy of Rena spurs an outburst from him that forcibly reminds Ladybug of Chat Blanc.  The trauma response this triggers is naturally used *against* her, played as Marinette's Latest Mistake.  Since her trauma is CLEARLY her own fault, and she's GOT to learn how to cOnTrOl HeR eMoTiOnS while Adrien can throw Cataclysmic hissy fits to his heart's content.

Honestly, even if they didn’t do this specifically, I could also see Marinette being blamed for “being afraid of Chat Noir/Blanc” when she “doesn’t even know what happened.”

Basically, her “““blaming”““ Chat or “““reacting to him”““ for something he “““didn’t even do.”““

Anonymous asked:

DNB: 'Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought them back.'  Much like the old nursery rhyme, Adrien's insistence that he DESERVES to know everything he wants to stick his nose into 'kills' any pretense of Chat Noir being heroic as he turns on/abandons Team Miraculous.  Marinette/Ladybug is forced to cater to his whims in order to 'satisfy' him enough that he comes back.

Seems fair. :|

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien/Chat Noir inflicts physical damage on somebody/something that is NOT magically wiped away/restored by his partner's Cure.  This inconsistency exists purely to blame Ladybug for the consequences of HIS actions.  Possibly with a side of Angstrien (provided they have him actually act like he *gives a damn* about what he's done).

I think that’s a pretty common trope in fics too; Ladybug being worried that Miraculous Ladybug won’t bring something back.

So yet another thing taken from the fandom.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: When Marinette finds out about Alya betraying her faith in her yet again, Alya bleats that she didn't explicitly SAY that she couldn't tell Nino, only that she trusted her, which she took to mean that she 'trusts her judgment'.  In other words, Alya blames her *deliberately ignoring Marinette's wishes* on her 'bestie'.  Bonus if Marinette subsequently TRIES spelling things out more only for Alya to complain about her being too 'pushy'/'controlling'/not leaving her that wiggle room.

“Girl, I told you to trust me, because I know that there won’t be any consequences to this!”

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Alya discovers Adrien's secret identity.  Rather than telling/warning Marinette, however, she either spills the beans to him or schemes to get them together/force a reveal, believing that this will 'magically solve everything'.  The show acts as though she's entirely justified in jerking Marinette around, pretending it's *hilarious* for her to add to her BFF's misery with her plotting behind her back.

Obviously this is all for Marinette’s sake so it’s fine.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien will FINALLY learn/figure out that Marinette made his scarf... and be heartbroken that SHE lied to him about it.

Marinette, how could you possibly let Adrien believe that his father did something nice for him to make him happy! You let him live a lie!!

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Mister Rat Sentimonster

I will only accept this if Xavier Ramier saves the day somehow.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir will confront Ladybug directly about 'replacing him with Rena', whining about how HE'S her partner, not HER.  No matter how much she tries reassuring him/strokes his ego to calm him down, Adrien remains pissy about it.  Bonus if this blow-up happens during an akuma attack/other crisis, and Marinette is presented as unreasonable for wanting to focus on the bigger problem at hand.  Screw the civilians, what about Chat's pOoR fEeLiNgS~?

What about THE DYNAMIC, Marinette?????

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Gabriel's grousing about how Ladybug 'never makes mistakes' foreshadows an inevitable moment where, after gaining a major advantage thanks to somebody else's screw-up, he gloats that Ladybug has finally made a major tactical error.

...They would.

They absolutely would.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Gabriel will exploit his son's gross sense of entitlement towards 'his lady' by convincing Adrien that Ladybug has neglected him more than HE has, what with the whole 'wanting to have a say in her own love life/rejected his unwanted advances/begging him to take things seriously rather than treating superheroics as a game'.  Adrien laps this tripe up like cream to soothe his ever so precious ego.

Which makes Shadow Moth out to be a decent manipulator but continues to make the love square look bad.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien will be responsible for exposing the fact that Alya still has the Fox Miraculous to Gabriel.  This could be by telling him directly during a face-heel turn, or simply because he's careless with that information (such as confronting Ladybug about Rena during an akuma attack/while Hawk/Shadowmoth is in a position to overhear).

I presume Ladybug is to blame for this for ever giving Alya and Nino a miraculous at the same time (when her hand was forced) in the first place.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Chat Noir straight-up *assaults* Alya out of jealousy over Ladybug trusting her more/'replacing him' with Rena.  This may involve Cataclysm, and she may or *may not* be transformed at the time.  Bonus if this happens *BEFORE* or *WITHOUT* him switching sides to join Hawk/Shadowmoth, and is purely about him *getting her out of the way*, possibly with the paper-thin excuse of wanting to 'prove himself' without her being around to 'screw him up' or 'steal his glory'.

I’d like to say that this isn’t likely, but he’s already been driven to property destruction soooooo--

Anonymous asked:

DNB: After investing so much time and effort into building Alya up as this incredible individual who absolutely deserves Marinette's trust despite doing nothing to earn it or her preternatural skill with Guardian-related tasks, she will abruptly lose all competence in order to 'prove' that Adrien is naturally better than her and that HE is Ladybug's 'only TRUE partner'.

Or Alya telling Nino comes out and in comes Chat with “I would never keep things from you, m’lady!!!”

Meanwhile, fandom having “Chat Blanc” flashbacks.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: The series ends with Adrien selling the in-universe version of Astruc the rights to tell their story, with the clear implication that everything we just watched is the end result.  Meaning that Marinette gets to be humiliated by her adventures being 'recreated' in precisely the form we've seen, every episode cheerfully depicting her as a constant screw-up who got blamed for EVERYTHING that went wrong.  Because why should she get to have any kind of positive self-image, right?  GIRL POWER!

Oh my gosh, they would.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: In Crocodues, Luka will fully be over Marinette and act like a friend while Marinette might still have feelings and is super awkward around him, highlighting how Marinette (or girls in general) has poor control over her emotions unlike Luka (er boys in gerenal).

Still waiting for reverse love square where Marinette is over Adrien but Luka is no longer an option so guess she has to go for Chat.

...Does that make Chat a rebound?

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: One or more of the kwami outright admit that yeah, no, they simply don't respect Marinette at all.  Due to her youth, inexperience, lack of training, or maybe just because they can get away with treating her like shit and acting like a spoiled brat.  Naturally, this is treated as entirely HER fault.  Bonus if she TRIES to lay down the law with them and is promptly villainized for it.  Maybe even compared to Hawk/Shadowmoth.

Completely understandable, of course. They’re just so used to people who are older and wiser and professional--

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Mass of episodes fleshing out Luka, since Lukanette is out of picture now. (Bonus points if Anti Lukanette people will make posts saying that fleshing out Luka would be impossible without breaking Lukanette first)

“Wishmaker” will probably do this. I can’t see them giving Luka anymore screentime than the three episodes he should be “grateful” for. (”Truth,” “Crocoduel,” and “Wishmaker”)

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need to Burrow (Wishmaker)

The episode will be a mixture of Hearthunter and Frozer. There will be a Luka/Mari/Adri moments throughout the episode. And as the episode ends, Marinette will look at Adrien and Luka will be sad and say you should go to him to which she does. Thus making...the Lukanette ship...sighs...dead.

I’m blown away by this idea of the person who is arguably most “deserving” of a warm and loving relationship not getting one (or getting a “second choice” with Zoe for example) while characters who clearly aren’t ready to be in a relationship get all the attention.

Anyone wanna take a guess on which “nice guy” writer lost a girlfriend to an actually nice guy and is still salty about it to this day?

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow Wishmaker

Luka will play a song on his violin that represents the love square, it will be be so beautiful that Mari and Adrien will be in awe together when in reality its just the Spongebob sad violin music.

I can also see violin scratching for it as well.

I choked on my drink.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow (Wishmaker)

This episode will either be the Lukanette vs Adrienette feud or it will show us all these crazy shipping scenarios from LS to Lukanette to LukaAdri. It will give the fans what they wanted but ended the ships in a nightmare.

Psst....you can tell by the icecream symbolism

Ugh, I’m dreading the idea of it being an episode about these repeated scenarios and then having to go back or whatever. Viperion’s there so maybe him witnessing them and then having to go back.

tc-leo asked:

Don't need to Burrow

Luka will basically lead Adrien and Marinette down the Love Square endgame path through his violin playing.

This would be the second time they forced Luka to play for the love square.

I swear to several lords--

tc-leo asked:

Don't Need to Burrow to know that in Wishmaker, the scene of Adrien in the middle while a closeup of Luka and Mari holding hands represents the end of Lukanette.

“““plot twist,”““ the writers say, while we sip our tea going, “you really think you can still bait us?”

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: Wishmaker will be the Heart Hunter of Lukanette. As in Luka and Marinette have Adrien third wheel them and it's actually cute and stuff. Optimistic I know but that's what it looked like in the trailer.

Your optimism is adorable and I appreciate it even if I’ve been burned too many times to be lured in by it.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Juleka reveals a deep-rooted resentment towards Marinette for 'breaking her brother's heart'. This bottled-up anger fuels a call out where she rants about how she never deserved Luka, tossing out accusations that Mari can only weakly deny, since Everything Is Always Her Fault and She Deserves To Suffer.  Juleka going off is presented as a positive thing since she's sharing her true feelings; meanwhile, Marinette has to bottle HERS up even more and absorb the abuse, apologizing to her/Luka.

show: *continuously pressures and pushes Marinette towards Adrien*

also show: *blames Marinette for being into Adrien*

Anonymous asked:

DNB: That teaser picture Gloob released that had Marinette looking at Luka wasn’t actually a Lukanette scene! It was actually taken right after Luka told Marinette about how he’s dating Zoe and is happy now. Marinette is smiling to show her support and totally not because the writers took away her ability to feel love for any character other than Adrien! 🙃 (Also Luka had the obligatory “You two are made for each other” line, because the show is going to forget how much he loved her and force him to move on with a character who was only in three other episodes 🤦)

Even if Zoeka doesn’t happen in 4 and 5, it probably will in 6 and 7 considering that it’s “post-series” or whatever and they wouldn’t know what else to do with him.

Anonymous asked:

Dnb: In Crocoduel, Luka figures out Marinette's secret identity but doesn't tell her (so the writers can justify he is a crappy bf). In Wishmaker, he finds out about Adrien's secret identity, has tge realization that they are into each other and goes "Marinette I live you but you and Adrien are meant to be so bye"

The lack of self-awareness in ignoring that Adrien also didn’t tell Marinette.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow

We will find out that Wishmaker will show Adrien's wish which is to confess his identity/love to LB which results in Luka/Viperion finding out and keep using Second Chance/self sacrifice himself. If it was Marinette's case, Luka (whether or not he knows her secret identity) will find out her wish is to confess her identity/love to Adrien and he would use Second Chance/sacrifice to prevent that. He'll also find out that part of Mari's wish is she might not want to have a future with him and consider him as a second option. Realizing both of their identities as LB/CN and how dangerous their wishes are, Luka will do everything in his power to prevent that from happening.

Once the day is saved, Luka will pretty much tell Mari its best not to continue and stay friends. He'll either be sad that Mari don't like him that way anymore or scared of Mari finding out that he knows both of their identities.

Oh and the morality of the episode for Marinette is it's okay if you don't know what to do if life. It's best to not know and just live with it.

wow thanks i hate all of it

Anonymous asked:

Dnb: lukanette angst in crocoduel doesn’t make sense to happen now so it only shows up now to provide trouble for Marinette, akuma, or extra drama juleka for no reason

So the usual.

May I just point out that Juleka has now run away anxiously two episodes in a row now since “Guiltrip” is the episode before this in procode?

[sapiowoman28]

Try (Chapter 6): Madam's Party

Pairing: Mark x Y/N x Johnny

Genre: smut, fluff, undercover au with cranky undercover agents

Warnings: mentions of Mark's mental health issues, brief mention of bathroom sex, drug use, Jaehyun is miserable, Doyoung is back, Taeyong saves the day, mentions of a fight. Oh, and Ten doesn't like women hitting on him.

Note: the next few chapters after this one and the next will focus more on the relationship between Johnny and Y/N as well as the dynamic between Doyoung and Y/N.

Mark watched the screen as his online payment went through. He had just booked his tickets for his trip to London. This time he planned to stay 2 weeks.

He had learned his lesson. That one time a year or two ago he stayed there for a month, and it was a total disaster. He came back with his head all messed up, panicking about life in general.

Then both Taeyong and Y/N convinced him to do some online therapy thing and things got better. He was in a better head space now. He was no longer a nervous wreck, overthinking his life and his future. But he kept his trips short. The London weather just didn't agree with him, and he didn't really enjoy the vibe there.

His phone beeped. He picked it up to see who had texted.

"Hey." it was Y/N. He missed his best friend terribly. But he wasn't sure if he was ready to talk.

"Hi." he replied after 2 minutes of staring at the message.

"You going for the party?"

"Yeah. With Kun and Lucas."

"I'm going too."

"With Doyoung?" he smiled to himself. "I heard he's going."

"Mark Lee! You never change do you?" he could imagine her looking exasperated. He giggled to himself.

Silence. He put his phone back down.

It dinged again a minute later. It was her.

"I should have used the safe word when you did what you did. Instead i just continued and got resentful. And made you leave after that."

"I should have been gentle.... I'm sorry Y/N."

"Maybe we need to talk about no go areas. Johnny thinks three of us should have dinner next week and talk. We're all new to this you know."

"I'm going to London next week. For two weeks."

"Can I go too? I really want to meet that weird uncle of yours who believes in aliens."

They ended up talking on the phone, catching up about life the past 2 weeks. Neither of them mentioned the incident again. The discomfort was still a little too fresh in their minds. But they were glad they were talking again.

The party was in full swing when Y/N arrived at half past 11. Yuta had indeed booked the entire VIP section and just about everyone was there. A small group of people had formed around Doyoung, fussing over him and his crutches and he was enjoying every bit of attention he was given. She rolled her eyes.

She wasnt sure if she was ready to face him yet. Their relationship had been terse since that incident where she punched him in the face during a heated argument. in the middle of an operation. in fact when Doyoung got into an accident during the next operation she was a little relieved he would be out for a while to recover. Now he was a little more mobile, it sure looked like he would be back sooner rather than later.

But having to deal with Taeyoung was worse. At least Doyoung recognised she was the best person to get advice on technology matters, and respected her recommendations. So maybe Doyoung being back would be a good thing. She decided to walk over. Doyoung had spotted her, and there was no escape now anyway.

"DDDDDDD!!!!!!" she shrieked excitedly hoping she was at least a little convincing.

"Oh my! Y/N! You are looking good! Must be the glow of love?" Doyoung winked as they hugged.

Stupid Taeyong. He couldn't ever stop talking about Johnny to everyone.

"I see Taeyong's told you."

"Yes, of course, he really really approves." Doyoung whispered. "I just hope you're behaving?"

Y/N sighed. The legacy of her and Mark was always going to be there. No escape. She wished they'd get over it for once. It only happened the first 6 months of her joining the unit. They had already declared each other as best friends a year ago. But everyone still insisted they had a thing for each other.

Some other person faked shrieked at Doyoung and she left as soon as she could, taking a seat at the bar to people watch, ordering a drink. She scanned the room, cursing silently as she saw Ten approaching.

She wasn't in the mood to talk about work now. He wasn't pleased with the first draft of her report, and wanted to make changes she didn't approve of. The guy had something stuck up his ass. It always had to be done his way, but it just wasn't always the best way to go about things.

"Hi my dear!" Ten gave her a kiss on both her cheeks. "Looking good! Heard from Taeyong you have a boyfriend now."

She was going to kill Taeyong.

"You look hot, Ten. I love your shirt! Are the girls throwing themselves at you again?" she grinned.

Ten grimaced. "I seriously don't want to talk about it."

"You're so handsome, I don't blame them you know." she pinched his cheek. He laughed.

"About the report you emailed me." he started.

"I saw your email. But i don't wanna talk about work tonight, Ten. Can we just have fun?" she pouted.

"Fine. I'll call you on Monday. Anyway i just came over to say hi and tell you how good you're looking. I've to go back to the guys. I've been tasked to keep an eye on Jaehyun tonight. He's being a little heavy with the drinking."

"I'm sorry, is this seat taken?" they turned to look. Mark.

"Hello stranger." Y/N grinned. Mark looked adoringly at her.

"I promise I won't tell anyone." said Ten, slipping away. "Your boyfriend won't ever find out!"

"What's wrong with him?" mark asked.

"He's been tasked with babysitting Jae."

"Oh man. Dude must be in a totally angsty mood now."

"Yeah this party isn't helping, you know. It's like Yuta rubbing in his face, 'I got a promotion, Jaehyun! I got a promotion! Yay!!!'"

"And you're drinking?" he tasted her gin and tonic. "You can't even handle the alcoholic content of Kombucha."

"Mark Lee! I swear to god! I was not tipsy on Kombucha that time. You need to stop telling that story to everyone. I can hold my liquor!" Y/N faked strangled him as he giggled.

Their eyes met. And the laughing stopped.

"I missed you." he said.

"You were the one who refused to talk to me. For two fucking weeks, Mark Lee! Two weeks!" she chided.

"You didn't talk to me either."

"I wanted to give you space."

"Thanks. I needed time to think."

"Are you done thinking?"

"Yeah.

"What's the conclusion."

"I agree with you guys that we need to discuss no-go areas. We can do that when I'm back."

"Ok. As long as your mind is not fucked up like that time... "

"It was just one time, Y/N! Just one time!"

"I'm just teasing you baby. Im glad therapy has helped you feel more grounded." She smiled. "I'm proud of your progress you know."

"I miss you calling me baby." he grabbed her hand.

"Mark, people are watching. I bet Kun's watching us now." she scanned the room, catching Kun's eye at the other side of the bar where he was with Lucas and Doyoung. Kun, realising he had been caught watching, looked away after shaking his head.

"Idiot." she cursed. "Maybe we should put on a show to irritate him."

Mark giggled.

"I can't believe Lucas and Doyoung are hanging out." Y/N nudged Mark, whose eyes grew huge upon realising that they were indeed siting together.

"Lucas fucking hates him, yo!"

"Well Doyoung doesn't like Lucas much either. Which makes this funny."

"Half the people here don't like the other half. They're all pretending."

"So are you pretending to like me too Mark Lee?"

"What do you think, Y/N?"

"You love me." she grinned.

"Well you love me too." he winked then stiffened. This conversation was getting odd. Y/N looked away.

They spent the evening in a comfortable silence, watching the party get rowdier and rowdier as more people joined. Some people started to bring out the magical stuff and it was downhill from there.

Y/N knew she was done for the night when she needed the rest room, only to enter it and find Yuta with his lady bent over the sink, him screwing her. She froze, they stopped to look at her, eyes dilated from whatever drug they had taken.

"Er. Hi guys!" she chirped awkwardly.

"Y/N!!!" Yuta exclaimed excitedly as Madam giggled. "Hi Y/N!"

"Bye!" she grinned.

she turned around stomping off. She needed to pee. Badly. There was only one person who could help her.

"Taeyong!" She yelled as she stomped towards him. He was talking to Mark and Taeil. All three of them looked at her.

"Hmm. Someone looks crossed." Taeyong teased. She wasn't in the mood for teasing.

"I need to pee urgently, but your two best friends are in there screwing. You're the only person who can sort this out, Tae! Please, put your tyrant nature to good use?"

Mark laughed hysterically as Taeil shook his head and smiled.

"Your wish is my command, Miss Y/N" Taeyong laughed before strding to the female restroom to scare them out.

"And you thought your unit was dysfunctional." Taeil said to Y/N who burst out laughing.

Taeyong came back after completing his task, and Y/N raced to the washroom, glad to finally be able to pee. She washed her hands, and was touching up her lipstick when she heard Mark's voice.

"Er. Y/N?" He stood at the door awkwardly.

"Mark, what the heck?"

"I think we should leave. A fight broke out."

"what happened?"

"I think Jaehyun challenged Yuta to a fist fight."

Y/N sighed. Maybe Taeil was right about his unit. And yes, it was time to call it a night. But she was hungry.

"Supper?" she asked Mark. His eyes lit up as he nodded his head.

[winter-turtle]

House Of Wolves - Chapter 4 - Winterturtle - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

Chapter 4: Letting Go Of What I Once Believed

There were only a few constants in Peter’s life – dingy rooms where he slept, the shoves that he’d learned were tad too strong to be considered playful, the compliments that weren’t really compliments…

Oddly enough, he’d come to accept the bracelets as another constant in his life. The bracelets that weren’t there anymore. He couldn’t claim that they provided comforting weight since they barely weighted anything, but he felt strangely naked without them.

The next morning, Peter counted exactly two plates on the table when he entered the kitchen. Right. No breakfast waiting for him anymore.

With his professional cooking skills, he made himself a bowl of bland cereal before seating himself at the table. Aside from the crunching of the cereals and the occasional words his parents exchanged when they showed each other something on their tablets, the room was quiet.

They paid their son no mind.

“So… you came for me,” Peter began awkwardly, not really knowing where to begin. He wasn’t in a talking mood after he woke up. Thankfully, he’d been ignored for the rest of the ride and then he used the aftereffects of the sedatives as a reason to retreat into his new room.

The weight of what he’d done kept crashing into him full force.

“Of course we came for you,” Mary said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Do you really think we would’ve left you there to rot? You are out little Spider!”

“Well, you left me there and then didn’t show up for five weeks,” Peter replied in a tone that he hoped sounded nonchalant and kept his face carefully blank, not wanting to appear that he was talking back.

Richard shrugged. “That was all part of the plan.”

“Plan?” Peter repeated.

“Oh, Peter,” Mary laughed “for such a smart boy, you sure can be stupid. Come on, I thought we raised you better than that.”

Peter pressed his lips in thin line, willing himself not to react to the jab. That could end badly for him very quickly.

“We’re not suicidal,” Richard continued, “we know that fighting the whole team of those heroes wouldn’t end well for us. That’s where you came in play.”

“You saved yourselves by leaving me there?”

“Don’t interrupt,” Mary scolded. “We have a client that offered a very nice sum for the plans of the compound. And what’s the best way to get those than to get them from the inside?”

So this was all just a stupid plan to get the blueprints and some inside info? For some reason, the thought of being used without his knowledge as some disposable pawn made the something nasty stir in Peter’s chest. “And you haven’t thought of, I don’t know, letting me in on the plan so I would’ve known what I was getting into and what was expecting of me?”

Dangerous waters. He was entering dangerous waters by talking like this, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“Your behavior had to be authentic,” Richard said.

“I could’ve pretended.” Danger. Stupid. Shut up. “And besides, how could you possibly know that they would let me roam the building? They could’ve left me locked in a cell or had me shipped off to Shield.”

“Watch your tone,” Mary shot Peter a warning look, which made Peter grind his teeth in response. “Firstly, you’re not as good actor as you think. Your skills might work on random passerby or security guards, but not on a group that has several spies. And secondly, we knew because, well, look at yourself,” she gestured to Peter’s face. “You don’t exactly look dangerous with that baby face. That’s one of the reasons you wear that mask. All innocent and redeemable.” She gagged. “If you won’t grow out of it soon, we’ll have to do something about it. Maybe a nice scar or something. Maybe on the cheek or over the eye…”

Peter didn’t like that idea at all. If his mother wanted a scar that would stay visible, it would have to be deep and held open until it healed. The thought of the pain made his eye twitch.

“A scar like that will remove our advantage. He’ll look suspicious.”

“We could use make-up.”

“Will you dedicate the time to it? Because I seriously doubt that he’ll be able to cover it properly.”

Mary dragged her hand down her face, letting out weary sigh. “I guess you’re right.”

“They have feelings. They care,” Richard smiled as if they just weren’t discussing the pros and cons of mutilating Peter’s face, “and that’s their weakness. I bet that after they failed to get information on us from you, they thought they could “reeducate” you or change you or some other sappy shit and make you turn on us.”

Peter’s silence was the answer on its own.

“Wait, they really told you all that crap?”

“They did,” Peter admitted. “I knew they wanted something from me when they changed their behavior.” Peter put on displeased scowl. “Do you really think that if I’d believed them, I would be here right now? I played along to get nice things, that was all.”

Liar.

Richard nodded. “Good. And see how nicely it worked out? After we saw you on that roof, we gave it a few more days before coming to pick you up.”

Peter’s heart skipped a beat. Nobody was supposed to know about what happened on the roof except him and Mr. Stark. “You were watching the whole time?”

“We did,” Mary said. “I have to say, it was amusing to watch the Merchant of Death himself give you his hoodie. You had him eating from your hand!” she giggled. “He’s gone soft for some random kid. That’s hilarious.”

“So, where all have you been?” Richard asked.

“The cells, obviously, I almost made it to the exit while I tried to run away, then the living quarters I believe, the communal area, the gym, the roof and Mr. Star- I-I mean Stark’s workshop.”

“Mr. Stark now, huh?”

Shit. Peter didn’t like the glint in his father’s eyes. He shrugged, not letting the desperation to cover up the slip-up show. “Force of habit. Being polite gave me nice things too.”

“Well, you better unlearn that,” he spat back. “It looks like their manipulation tactics was at least somewhat successful if you got used to it.”

“What? That’s not- I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Well, to me it seems like you fell for their sweet words!”

“I didn’t!”

“I bet you believed them when they said that you can be better!”

Yes.

“I didn’t! I swear!”

Liar, liar.

“You are one ungrateful brat, you know?”

“What could they give you anyway?” Mary joined in. “You would be nothing without us. We made you strong.”

I didn’t ask for it.

“Where you would be without us? What you would be without us? Huh? Tell me. You might remember that much.”

Normal.

Peter remembered. It was hard to forget when it was drilled into your head since you could remember. “Nothing,” he said softly. “I would be nothing without you.”

“All that training we put you through—”

“Kid, that’s called abuse.”

“—it was all to make something out of you!”

Peter was tired. He didn’t wan to listen to any of this anymore. He needed some alone time.

There was only one way how to get it.

“You’re right,” he said, his head bowed, “but I wouldn’t be here if I believed them,” he repeated. “I’ll do better. I promise.”

All was quiet for a moment.

Richard sighed harshly and sliding a laptop towards him. “Go make yourself useful and make those plans. You better not become more trouble than you’re worth,” he grumbled, then gave Peter’s chair a kick. “Get out of my sight. And don’t expect any food until those plans are complete, nice and detailed.”

Peter wordlessly stood up and with the laptop under his arm, he headed out of the kitchen.

“Oh, and Peter?” Mary called out after him, making Peter stop in his tracks. “One more question – back on that roof… you had a perfect chance to kill Stark. That would be nice for your first time. Imagine that, killing Iron Man,” she said with a dreamy smile, “way to make a name for yourself. Killing one of the Avengers would get us so much recognition and power, more that we already have. So,” Mary looked at him intently, her happy demeanor gone “why didn’t you go for it?”

Now this was the time where Peter was incredibly glad that nobody could see his every thought on a display like in that book he’d read. “He didn’t have his suit on,” he said, his voice even. “He is just a regular man without it. It would be too easy. I want a challenge.”

Liar, liar, liar.

Mary contemplated the answer before humming, seemingly satisfied with what she heard. “Nobody would have to know that he didn’t have his suit on, but okay. I see your reasoning.”

Peter let out soundless exhale.

“You’ll get your chance soon.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Now scatter,” she waved him off as if he was some annoying bug.

Peter clutched the laptop a little harder. Grateful to be released, he headed to the roof.

Tony had no idea how many times he’s watched the footage. He was pretty sure he’s learned everything there was to know first five times he played it, but what else he could do?

Absolute hopelessness – that’s what he felt. Some part of his mind still refused to believe what had happened.

Where had he gone wrong?

“Tones,” Rhodey softly said.

Tony didn’t turn around. His eyes remained glued to the screen. “Look,” he said as he paused the footage Friday had so diligently searched for since that night on the roof. Tony zoomed on the figure in the middle of the road. “He’s way younger here, but there’s no denying it. It’s him.”

Even if the hood was hiding most of the kid’s head, there was just a split-second frame where a part of the face could be seen.

Rhodey walked closer, leaning over Tony’s shoulder. “There is… a resemblance.”

“That’s not all,” Tony said and let the rest of the footage play out. He did his best to push back the memories that got brough up by the sight of the alien army. “See?” he asked. “The kid could’ve left that couple behind, but he went out of his way to save them.”

“Tony—”

“He said he didn’t save anyone and yet this proves otherwise. He could’ve stayed where he was, he could’ve run, he made himself that opening, but he didn’t!”

“Tones—”

“He had to have a reason for running, right? He couldn’t just up and leave because he felt like it, there has to be something—”

“Tones—"

“I just don’t understand what I did wrong! I though I have—”

“Tony!” Rhodey said, forcefully cutting Tony off. Immediately after that, his face took on a look of sobriety and pity. “Fury is here.”

And with just those three words, Tony deflated. He knew what was coming next.

“Hey.”

Peter glanced up at Richard, then returned his attention back to the screen in front of him. “Hey.”

Richard casually leaned on the wall near Peter, far enough so he couldn’t see the screen. “What a view, huh? I bet you missed it back in that jungle.”

Peter watched the horizon and nodded, because as much as he wanted to deny it, he did miss the city.

“How are the plans going?”

“Good.”

Another long stretch of silence.

“About earlier… I’m sorry if you took it the wrong way. We were just worried. You know we care about you, right?”

Were you? Do you?

“Yeah.”

“Full sentences.”

“I know you were worried,” Peter sighed. Time to use the magic words. “I’m sorry.”

“Great,” Richard said and went to the door. He turned around before he passed the doorway. “Peter?”

Peter wordlessly looked up, locking his gaze with Richard’s.

“You did alright out there. Here,” he said and threw small bar at him. Peter caught it with no real effort. “For you,” Richard finished.

“Thanks.”

When Peter couldn’t hear his father’s footsteps any longer, he opened his hand. A tiny chocolate bar sat innocently on his palm. For a long moment, Peter didn’t do anything. He just stared.

To be fair, he didn’t expect his parents to come to him only an hour later. Usually they took way longer. Every time he got yelled at, one of his parents would show up, say some sweet words, Peter would apologize and the circle was complete.

The routine was back.

But this time, he knew better. He’d learned.

Or did he?

Were they really that bad? They took care of him his whole life. It was thanks to them that he had his powers. But he didn’t want them in the first place. He got hurt more times than he could count with them. The Avengers didn’t hurt him. Well, at least not intentionally.

“Kid, that’s called abuse.”

Was it abuse?

No.

Yes.

They said it was for his own good.

Was it?

Yes.

No.

Maybe?

They said sorry for yelling.

They always said sorry and then did it again.

Peter set the chocolate aside and reached into his sock for the small disc he’d snatched from the workshop. He began to absentmindedly flip it, repeating the action of tossing, watching it spin in the air and catching it.

He glanced at the screen, seeing that the only thing he’d done was a very detailed plan of the roof… pretty much useless unless someone wanted to be a dick and steal every third pole from the railing.

The screen went dark. Peter returned to the tossing and when he looked at the horizon next time, the sun was setting.

Peter let the disc rest on his palm. Why did he take it in the first place? He could’ve snatched anything else – a gun, a bomb, plan to some secret weapon… so why the tracker?

“I don’t know,” he whispered under his breath as he looked at the tracker between his thumb and index finger. “I don’t know.”

Peter slowly increased the pressure. The tracker began to blink.

“Oops,” he said despite the fact that the action was fully intentional.

He didn’t know.

He went back to the flipping.

“All I’m saying is that all of this could have been avoided if you had let us handle the situation from the beginning,” Fury said as he paced the common room where all of the Avengers were gathered, sitting on a sofa with heads down, taking the scolding like a bunch of little kids.

Frankly, Tony was getting tired of it. “Fury—”

“Don’t Fury me,” the director snapped. “You tried to domesticate a villain—”

“He was just a kid that didn’t know any better—”

“—and look how it ended up. You loosened his leash, left him roam the compound and left him in your lab unsupervised where, mind I remind you, is technology that can do much wrong if it fell into wrong hands. Who knows how many information he’d gathered? Or what he stole? Seriously, you didn’t think of checking if something went missing?”

“Friday is looking through the inventory. If something physical is missing, she will notice.”

“Oh, because that will do so much good with him gone,” Fury’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “And need I remind you that he apparently confessed to murder from what I heard?”

“I don’t think he really killed someone,” Sam intervened.

Fury opened his mouth, but before he could let out a single sound, Natasha spoke up. “He didn’t.”

Those two words were said with so much confidence, Tony took them as a fact.

Fury’s head cocked to the side. “Oh? And how would you know that?”

“While we were in the gym, I gave him plenty opportunities to strike. I exposed my back to him since he warned us about that, placed myself in vulnerable position… yet he didn’t attack. Just empty words. Then I made a show of my arms buckling and he caught the bar so it wouldn’t crush my throat. You didn’t see the look in his eyes. He was scared. Plus,” she said, looking off into distance, “he doesn’t have the eyes of a killer.”

All was quiet as the team digested the information. Not even Tony knew the whole story.

“That was pretty reckless,” Clint said, breaking the silence.

Natasha snorted. “Please, do you think that I would place myself into a dangerous situation if I wasn’t sure I could handle it?”

“But he still ran away at the first sight of his parents,” Bucky said lowly, his head bowed. “It was going so well, but if I know something, it’s that two weeks isn’t enough time to get rid of lifetime of conditioning if exposed to...”

“To the abuser,” Steve finished.

Fury sat down, letting out long, tired sigh. “And now all three of them are God knows where.”

“Boss,” Friday spoke up, “I have completed the check.”

“Well?”

“One item missing.”

Tony tensed. “What is it?”

“An emergency tracker, prototype three.”

Tony’s eyebrows knitted together. Prototype three was the kind of tracker that could be activated without an outside power source. On the other hand, it was untraceable unless the person possessing it activated it.

Why would the kid steal that particular thing?

“What would he do with a tracker?” Steve voiced Tony’s inner thought.

“Maybe he didn’t know what it was?” Sam tried.

Tony thought back to their lab sessions. Had he told the kid about the tracker? He didn’t remember. But if he did, then why-

“Tracker activated,” Friday said, making Tony’s heart race.

Tony brought up a holo-screen where a red dot was steadily blinking in abandoned block in Queens. A grin slowly spread across his face, his soul leaping with hope. “I believe it’s time to suit up.”

Peter kept flipping the small disc until the sky turned black. Not a star was in sight.

A shiver run down his spine, but Peter sure as hell wouldn’t go inside to get a jacket or a hoodie. His parents would ask about his progress on the blueprints and he really didn’t need that right now.

His parents…

The hours alone allowed Peter to do something he’d never thought of before in the presence of the two adults. He allowed himself to feel. Memory by memory, Peter carefully catalogued every single emotion that came with it. Bitterness, fear, frustration, worthlessness, anger… those prevailed. The lack of positive feelings only fueled the flames of anger.

Thankfully, he could always fall on the calming repetitive action of flipping the disc before he could get overwhelmed.

The hairs on his arms stood up, but not because of the cold. Peter stood up as well. There was no one coming from the inside, so that meant-

They were here.

That was good, right?

With tiny smile on his face, Peter returned to his previous spot. All he could do was to sit and wait for the shitshow to unfold.

Boom.

Or not.

Against his better judgement, Peter abandoned everything on the roof and followed the source of the small explosion to the lower levels. More crashes and pops that suspiciously sounded like guns going off could be heart, but Peter was persistent and pushed forward.

Peter’s spidey sense flared up, warning him about the bullet approaching his head. He jumped behind the wall in the last second.

“Wait, stop, that was Peter!”

Mr. Barnes. And by the sound of it, there were also-

“Peter, are you—”

Whatever he was about to say next was cut off by an explosion that shook the whole floor. Cracks began to appear under Peter at the same time as he heard the floor under the Avengers fall. Peter didn’t have enough time to get to his feet and run to where the floor was stable. A chunk of concrete under his feet disappeared, and if it wasn’t for Peter’s stickiness, he would’ve fallen.

The concrete kept crumbling, not allowing him to get proper grip to crawl up, to get to safety. He caught a glimpse of what was underneath him and doubled his endeavors. This floor wasn’t the only one that was falling apart. At least four other floors were completely gone as well.

He finally got to stable part of the floor and pulled himself up. Doubled over his knees, he took in his arms that were both covered in deep gashes and superficial scratches.

“Don’t just stand there. Come on!”

Peter didn’t need more prompting. He stood up straight and ran after his mother. “What was that?”

“The defense system,” she said. “What, did you think we left the buildings where we stayed in unprotected?”

“This was everywhere?!”

“God, can you stop asking stupid questions already?” Mary snapped. “Yes!”

No, Peter couldn’t stop asking stupid questions because he didn’t believe this was stupid question! Every single place they were staying at was riddled with bombs and they hadn’t bothered to tell him? What if he’d accidentally set one of them off? He could’ve been blown to bits!

Peter kept glancing over his shoulder, half-expecting to see someone to run after them, but saw no one.

An electric discharge went off somewhere ahead, followed by a loud clang of a suit. No, Peter thought as he rounded the corner. If his lungs haven’t required the extra oxygen, he would’ve let out a sigh of sick relief. That wasn’t Iron Man’s suit lying on the floor, but War Machine’s.

Richard was at their side in an instant, giving Mary a quick peck on the lips. “Don’t dawdle!” he barked at Peter as he turned around and ran.

“Won’t you finish him off?” Mary asked.

“No time. We have to hurry; the whole damn place is surrounded by Shield. Stark’s suit is disabled, Barton is trapped in one room, but Wilson is still circling somewhere outside.”

“Three of them fell through the floor.”

“And what happened to him?”

“He almost fell through the floor too.”

“Idiot.”

They entered a vast room where the weird helicopter thingy was. Peter, silently putting the lid on his bubbling anger, almost didn’t notice when his parents stopped dead in their tracks.

“Looks like this is the end.” Mr. Stark, albeit a bit roughed up and bloody and with  a single gauntlet, standing in front of their escape vehicle. “You might want to stop running. I disabled the thing and now we just have to wait for other to get here.” His eyes met Peter’s. “Hey, kid.”

“Hey,” Peter replied quietly.

“Well, looks like your chance came earlier than we thought,” Richard said and gave Peter a slight shove forward. Almost like he was hiding behind him. “One gauntlet will have to make do for you. There is no such thing as honorable fight when it comes to the likes of him. So, go, Spider. Kill him.”

After a brief hesitation, Peter began to advance. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t go against direct orders when his parents were present. But he already went against those. He took a step forward, then another. Mr. Stark wasn’t moving. Instead, he kept looking at him with so much sincerity and softness, it sent Peter’s emotions into overdrive.

Peter stopped within leaping distance. “Please, fight back,” he whispered.

“No,” Mr. Stark replied.

“Please.” He felt his face crumbling.

Mr. Stark’s eyes softened even more. “I won’t fight you, Pete. You deserve better. You are better.”

Was he better? Could Mr. Stark claim that after knowing him so short?

“I don’t know,” he said almost inaudibly.

“This is taking too long,” Richard grumbled. Peter heard a safety going off and he didn’t have to turn around to see the gun aimed right at Mr. Stark’s chest.

Before Peter knew what he was doing, he was moving.

Bang!

The shot echoed in the room and the next thing Peter knew, he was lying on top of Mr. Stark. He heard something rolling on the ground. The tracker. Not feeling any pain, Peter pushed himself up but still stayed in front of Mr. Stark, his eyes searching for the blinking tracker that came to a stop at his mother’s feet.

Deafening silence followed.

Explaining why he saved Mr. Stark was one thing, but he had no idea how he’ll explain this one.

“You,” Mary said lowly before realization her face contorted with fury. “You called them here.”

Another shot went off before Peter had a chance to open his mouth. He cried out as the bullet hit his arm, sending droplets of blood flying.

“Peter!” Mr. Stark was on his knees, the charging gauntlet raised. Richard threw another short-circuiting device to them and the gauntlet shut down. Peter heard Mr. Stark mutter a curse under his breath as Mary advanced.

“You betray us like this? after everything we’ve done for you?”

This was it, wasn’t it? He was hurt and Mr. Stark was out of his suit. They had weapons. But-

Peter was a weapon as well.

And his parents were only humans… unlike him. Peter wanted to laugh. All this time spent in fear of them, only to realize that all this time, he could’ve easily fought back.

“This is your last fuck-up.”

Peter leaped into action. The shock on his mother’s face as he kicked the gun out of her hand was so satisfying, it almost made the pain in his arm disappear. Peter didn’t waste a second. He spun around and kicked Mary right in the chest, sending her flying into the wall. She slumped down, unconscious.

His spidey sense tingled, warning Peter about another oncoming shots. He closed his eyes and let his sense guide him towards his father who was trying and failing to land a single bullet on him.

When he heard the click of empty magazine, he lunged forward. Richard’s arm went back. Peter knew him well enough to know that he was getting ready to punch him. Well, too bad for him. Peter roughly gripped Richard’s wrist with his injured arm, his other hand closing around his throat and pinning him to the wall.

“No more,” he hissed as years of something that was buried deep inside of him came to the surface. He squeezed harder. “No more.”

Richard weakly gripped the hand around her throat, fruitlessly trying to pry it off. Peter’s eyes narrowed. Seriously? He felt respect… no… no respect. Fear. He felt fear for him? It would be so easy to snap his neck right now. Based on the fear in his father’s eyes, he realized it too. Good, Peter thought.

A hand landed lightly on his shoulder. “Peter.”

Peter didn’t turn around.

“Kid, don’t do this.”

He deserved it.

“Pete,” Mr. Stark said softly, “I know you’re not a killer. I know you’re angry for what they did, but if you do this… there will be no coming back for you.”

Peter squeezed his eyes shut, then released his father and took a step back. His hands were shaking.

“Good, good. You did the right thing.”

Peter couldn’t tear his eyes from Richards’s coughing form. There were footsteps approaching. Too many. Too loud. The arms returned – one on his shoulder, one on his back.

“Let’s get you out of here.”

Peter gladly let himself be steered away.

The place was a mess. The Shield agents were running around coordinating the search, marking the damaged parts and tending to the wounded.

Tony himself had his hands full with a certain spider kid. “You’re okay. You’re okay,” he reassured.

“But are you okay?” Peter asked.

Tony chuckled. “Come on, give me some credit. I can handle myself outside of the suit too.” For good measure, he gave the kid a slight shove.

Peter winced. Ah, that was right. There was still a bullet lodged in his bicep as a courtesy of his mother. “We better take care of that.” Before Tony could get attention of some medic, the kid reached into a nearby first aid kid, pulled out a pair of tweezers, set his jaw, took a deep breath and shoved it into the wound. Small grunts were escaping his throat as he pulled the bullet out.

“What are you doing?!” Tony called out at the same time as the bullet clinked on the ground and new wave of blood rushed down Peter’s arm.

“Had to take the bullet out,” the kid forced out. “More pain if it healed.”

Tony helped to ease him into sitting position before he could fall. He sprayed the wound to numb the area and stop the bleeding. The relief showing on Peter’s face was instant. “You’re so reckless. I swear you’re trying to get me into early grave when you act like this. And nobody would know a thing because it was natural—”

“I’m sorry.”

Tony cut off the lecture, taken aback by the sudden shift in Peter’s mood. Peter gaze was pointed down, not meeting Tony’s eyes. Gently, Tony placed two fingers under Peter’s chin and made tipped his head up. “Hey, I’m just joking. I’m not accusing you of anything. And besides, worse things have tried to put me to grave. They all failed, so I think I can handle one reckless teenager.”

“You’re not mad?

“Nope.”

“I ran away.”

“But you called us.”

“I didn’t have to.”

Tony reached into the kit and pulled out a bandage. “But you did and that’s what matters. Now sit still.” He was aware of the kid’s eyes on him as he worked. When he was done, he gave Peter another onceover. “Nothing else hurts? No other injuries?” Peter made a move to test his arm. “Nope,” Tony said and lowered the injured arm back. “Let that rest. So?”

“No. Nothing else. Just this.”

Sighing in relief, Tony stood up and offered Peter a hand. Peter accepted.

Fury walked over to them, Hill right behind him with a familiar pair of bracelets in her hands.

“What?” was all Tony managed to say. He watched as realization and acceptance flashed across Peter’s face. “Hold on, is this necessary? He helped us catch his parents!”

Peter brushed his uninjured shoulder against him as he approached the two. “I still ran.” He turned his back to Hill and extended his hands behind him, allowing her to place the bracelets on him.

Tony turned to Fury. “He’s not dangerous. He didn’t kill anyone.”

Yet again, Peter didn’t give Fury the chance to respond. “Even if I didn’t kill anyone, I still did a lot of bad things. One good deed won’t erase those, Mr. Stark.” The kid snorted, self-depreciating smile on his face. “God, I either did the best thing in my life or the worst mistake.”

“Kid…”

“It’s okay!” Peter said. The cuffs clicked together, the pull on his arm making him grimace. “I deserve it.”

“You little rat!” came a woman’s screech. Several agents were escorting – or more like dragging – Richard and Mary from the building towards the waiting cars. “You should have died in that experiment!”

“Just you wait!” Richard yelled. “Not even where you’ll end up being locked up won’t protect you from us,” he said once he noticed Peter’s cuffed hands.

“Don’t listen to them,” Tony said softly.

Peter shrugged. “A lot is going on in my head, so I’m kind of numb to everything right now. But… a small advice,” he turned to Fury, “I would keep them separate. It will make planning their escape harder. Plus, if the escape turned out to be impossible, they won’t be able to take the easy way out.”

“Easy way out?” Fury echoed.

“They’ve got something like a kill switch somewhere in their bodies. Theirs are interconnected, so they have to be together to activate it.”

Fury nodded. “Hey!” he shouted at the agents. “Separate them.”

More indistinguishable screaming and cursing and promises of revenge followed. Peter was seemingly unbothered by them.

“Hold on,” Tony said warily, “you said that theirs are interconnected. Does that mean you have one in your body too?” Please don’t say yes. The thought of the kid having a ticking time bomb in his body this whole time, and maybe his whole life, was unsettling. Please don’t say yes…

Peter nodded.

“Where?” Tony choked out.

“In my right ankle. It can be only activated by a set of moves and… well, when you get captured, it’s your hands that get bound. Not many people think about legs.”

“So all this time you could’ve taken the easy way out?” Fury asked. Peter nodded again. “Then why didn’t you?”

Peter contemplated the answer for a moment. “It’s only for situations where death is the only acceptable solution. They said they would come for me. They kept their word and…” he paused, something akin to a resignation setting on his face, “I don’t want to die.”

Maria placed her hand on peter’s shoulder. “We’ll get that out of you as soon as we can.”

Peter nodded for the third time, but this time, Tony caught something like a gratitude in his eyes. No wonder. Tony would have been grateful too if he was in the kid’s situation. He was yet again reminded of how much Peter’s been through in his short life. Just a kid, raised to kill and to kill himself if needed.

Maria began to lead the kid away, but Tony had to do one more thing before that could happen. “Wait.” He wrapped his arm around the kid, giving him gentle squeeze. Just as during their first hug, the kid stiffened under his touch. Tony was about to pull away when he felt something he hasn’t dared to hope for.

Peter melted into the hug.

The kid’s shoulders fell, his forehead resting on Tony’s collarbone. Tony ran one of his hands up and down Peter’s back. “You’ll be okay,” he whispered. “I promise.”

“Okay,” Peter whispered back.

Tony let go and watched as the kid willingly went with Hill to one of the waiting cars.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Fury shook his head in amusement. “You really domesticated him.”

Tony smirked. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

As it turned out, the Shield’s cells weren’t as nice as the Avengers’. They were smaller and the clothes weren’t as soft, but Peter did his best not to complain. He’s lived in worse conditions before.

Two loud knocks made him look up. The slate in the door opened and a tray was shoved inside. “Food.”

Peter jumped off the bed and went to retrieve his lunch. Prison food wasn’t anything extra, but at least he was getting enough.

“Hm?”

There was something on the tray that didn’t belong there. Peter reached for the package and carefully peeled off the brown paper, revealing a book. The Ask and The Answer. A delighted grin spread across his face. He never got to read the other two books in the trilogy since the whole situation went down.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who sent him the package.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” he whispered, opened the book and dug into the food.

The interrogations happened every other day. Peter answered every question he could, but he still felt bad that he couldn’t answer all of them. His parents – who were in the facility somewhere too, though he never saw them – kept more things from him than he’d originally thought. The names of their clients, sure, he never knew those, but as it turned out, there were about five other computers and twenty passwords he didn’t know about.

He'd contemplated asking them to let him try to get into those, but in the end decided against it. He could imagine how that would look on him.

And as promised, his kill switch was taken out. Peter let himself truly relax since he didn’t have to worry about the thing randomly malfunctioning anymore.

He wasn’t allowed to see Mr. Stark or any other Avenger. Still, every once in a while, he heard the familiar erratic heartbeat behind the one-way glass in the interrogation room.

The third book arrived the day after he finished the second one, along with the first one to keep the collection complete. With nothing better to do, Peter began to read the whole thing from the beginning.

If Peter counted correctly, today was exactly the month since he got here. More books kept coming, but the room was starting to get to him. He felt like he was going crazy. The interrogations also got more sporadic, so he didn’t get to go out that much.

Oh well. He’ll have to get used to it since this would be his life now.

The door opened.

“Wow, you look like you drank sour milk.”

Peter was on his feet impossibly fast. “Mr. Stark!” He stopped himself before he got too close. He didn’t need to get tackled because he seemed like he was about to attack.

Mr. Stark opened his arms. “The one and only. Now don’t let me wait.”

That was all the invitation Peter needed. He launched himself into the man’s arms, burrowing his face into his chest.

“Missed me?” Mr. Stark asked, amused.

Peter soaked in the warmth. “Eh, just a bit.”

“Lies. Everybody misses me a lot when I’m not around. But fear not, that’s about to change. Let’s go.”

“Where to?” Peter asked, dissatisfied that the disappearance of the hug. He trailed after Mr. Stark, hesitant at first, then jogged to catch up and glued himself to the man’s side.

“To the compound of course!”

Peter’s head tilted to the side. “The compound? But I—”

“Got moved into the brand new rehabilitation program for underage villains. It took quite a lot of paperwork and arrangements to get it done, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Your cooperation and good behavior helped too. Those,” he pointed to Peter’s bracelets, “will have to stay on though. No tampering with them, but we can get you a ladder to your hammock.”

“And my…”

“Lifetime in jail for them.” Mr. Stark ruffled his hair. “You don’t have to worry about them anymore. They won’t be able to touch you from where they’re going.” He wrapped his arm around Peter’s shoulder. “So, what do you say. Ready to go home?”

Home. Peter liked the sound of that. He smiled, all of the tension leaving his body.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

[fanfalc-616]

The Rights Of A Nindroid

Chapter Thirty-Two: How The Game Is Played

(Previous Chapter Here)

Yesterday I realized that posting two chapters over Memorial Day weekend was not my best idea, so I waited until today to post the next one I had prepared dhjsgdh

Cole looks at the computer again, blinking a couple times. “You can’t be serious,” he mutters, more to himself than anything.

He flashes the device a glare before turning back towards the main room. “Guys?” He calls. “We’ve got a problem.”

In any other circumstance, it might’ve been funny how quickly Kai bolted in- but as of now, with Zane being gone for over a year, it’s hard to find humor in much of anything.

The others follow soon after, of course, but by that time Kai’s already next to him, a thousand different stressed expressions flashing over his face.

“What’s wrong now?!” He demands, practically vibrating with his intensity.

Cole holds his hands up in a way that’ll hopefully be calming. “Okay, okay, take a deep breath. It’s not that big of an issue, we can figure this out.”

Jay peers over his shoulder, looking at the computer. “Uh. Actually. That looks like a really big issue.” He chuckles nervously, and Cole can already see the freak out that’s coming.

“What is it?” Lloyd prompts, but before Cole can answer, Kai’s already talking.

“Oh hell no!” He protests, concern flashing over to rage. “Is that-“

“A smear campaign.” Cole finishes, looking back over at the site. “Against Lloyd.”

With that, Lloyd comes over. The surprise on his face seems to wither into a more hurt and guilty expression. “I-“

“Alright, I get that we haven’t met in person, but I hate Harumi.” Kai suddenly declares. “So what if Lloyd opened the serpentine tombs?! The Great Devourer was Pythor’s fault! And that was years ago, too! Counting the tea, he was what, eight?! How is that fair?!”

Nya grimaces. “As much as I hate to admit it, she has a point. And with all the chaos we’ve gone through-“

“It’ll be easy to find things to blame on him.” Cole finishes, the realization sinking in.

Jay makes grabby hands at the computer, and Cole rolls his chair back to let him reach it. Glancing over at Lloyd, he fights back a wince at his expression.

“… okay, the serpentine thing is valid. A low blow, but technically valid. But accusing him of purposefully summoning Morro and the Preeminent just to see his dad again? Come on!” The ginger crosses his arms with a scowl, and Cole can see Kai preparing to say- or more likely, shout- something else.

Before he gets the chance, Cole stands up from his seat, intentionally getting everyone’s attention. Forcing confidence that he doesn’t feel into his voice, he tries to redirect the conversation. “Alright, this isn’t ideal,” he admits, “but we need to keep going. There’s gotta be records for times people have won things with a smear campaign against them, right? We can research them and figure out how to counter this.”

Kai opens his mouth, but Nya talks over him. “That’s a good idea,” she agrees. “I don’t think there’s ever been one in an election this big before, but we can definitely get some ideas from that.”

Looking back to Lloyd for confirmation, he sighs internally at the way the blond is still intently staring at the screen, clearly dozens of thoughts flashing through his head.

Putting a hand on Kai’s shoulder, Cole leans down enough to softly whisper in his ear. “Go take Lloyd somewhere he feels calm,” he suggests. “You’ll both be able to do more when he’s doing better.”

For a moment, Kai looks like he wants to argue. But after a glance at his honorary brother, he hesitates, and then gives a small nod.

“C’mon, Green Bean, let’s go take a break.” He starts guiding Lloyd away, and even though the blond looks conflicted, he lets himself be led out of the room.

With that, Cole turns back to Jay and Nya. “How about you guys do that research?” He offers. “I can do some digging on Harumi while you do.”

“Sounds good.” Nya gives a nod and looks over at Jay. When the ginger keeps staring at the computer, she sighs, glancing back at Cole.

Tapping Jay on the shoulder, Cole waits for him to look back. “Huh?” The other frowns, clearly not having been paying attention.

“With me, Sparky. I’ll give you the rundown.” Nya grabs his arm, and Jay gives a guilty smile.

“Let’s go, then,” he nods his agreement as she leads him out.

Once the two have left, Cole turns back to the computer, giving the campaign- or more accurately, slander- another glare. But he quickly changes gears, opening a new webpage.

“Alright, Harumi…” he mutters, beginning to type out her name.

“Let’s find out just why you’re so desperate to win.”

{ { { { { { { { { { ~ } } } } } } } } } }

Sentry narrows his eyes at his internal screen, trying again to get answers.

It’s obvious at this point that the direct approach isn’t working. It’s been thirteen months since Zane was taken- meaning Cryptor has been there for over two and a half years.

So they’re still working on this election plan, unable to do anything that might have a more immediate effect. It’s not ideal, but at least he’s begun to make some progress.

Actually… hang on. He might have something here. Another thing on the candidate running, Rune Duncan. He’s seen enough about Harumi to know that she’ll be the competition no matter what, but if he plays his cards right, he might be able to work with Rune enough to-

Perfect. According to this security camera, Rune was last seen entering a shady part of town- a place that usually only gangs meet up.

Hmm. If Sentry can’t get him to help, then maybe he can at least get some blackmail on him.

As he heads out, he sends a message to Dad letting him know that he’ll be out for a while- he knows that he’s been working on rescuing Cryptor, so he probably won’t need a rundown on what exactly he’s doing.

It takes him only about fifteen minutes to reach where Rune was last seen- Borg Tower isn’t exactly close, but with this, Sentry is nothing if not determined.

Quietly, he makes his way down the alley where the candidate was last seen. This place is insanely suspicious, so he-

“And what are you doing here?” A voice behind him prompts.

Flinching, Sentry spins around. How did this guy sneak up on him?! With all the sensors he has, it-

Wait. Looking over the guy’s dark ginger hair and tanned skin, he suddenly recognizes him.

“Looking for you, actually.” Sentry forces a smile he doesn’t feel as he studies Rune. “My name’s Sentry. I’m the general of Borg’s security forces.”

Rune arches an eyebrow, but all Sentry can think of is how out of place he looks in this back alley with a three-piece suit. There’s definitely something going on here.

“Huh. Well, you found me. Is there something you need?” He sounds unimpressed and maybe even a little annoyed. But there’s no way Sentry’s going to back out now.

“Yeah, actually. I wanted to ask you a couple questions.” Sentry keeps his forced smile, but he knows the other can see past it- he’s not exactly trying to hide his malice, anyway. “Maybe a bit about your past, if you don’t mind.”

Rune tenses for a moment, but then relaxes. But even then, the discomfort is still visible on his face- even though he seems to be trying to hide it. “And if I decline?”

Letting his smile turn cold, Sentry looks him dead in the eyes. “Y’know, I wonder what the public would think if they heard about a finalist in the Emperor Election poking around in a place like this. I don’t think that would look too good for them, now would it?”

There’s a tense moment, both of them staring each other down. Sentry doesn’t break eye contact- instead, he lets them glow an even brighter red in an unspoken threat.

Actually, it’s longer than a moment. Time seems to stretch on as the two of them glare into each other’s eyes. He’d check his internal clock to see how long it’s been, but that would involve glancing away, and he refuses to be the one who flinches first.

After what feels like an eternity, Rune looks off to the side with a growl, crossing his arms.

“Ask away.”

The tenseness coming off of him clearly shows that he’s got something to hide. And one way or another, Sentry’s going to find out what.

“Alright.” He pauses a beat before choosing to lead with a statement instead of a question- though it’ll hopefully get him more answers then outright asking.

“Whoever made you this fake identity did a horrible job.” Rune’s eyes widen the smallest amount, but Sentry keeps talking. “I dug everything up in a matter of weeks. The family tree, the missing records, the faulty information… honestly, I’m surprised that I’m the first person to realize.”

The ginger clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Seriously? That’s got to be one of the most transparent bluffs he’s ever seen.

“I think you do, actually. I’d just like to know why you can’t run with your real one. You got something to hide, Rune?” He puts a little too much emphasis on the name, making sure the other gets the point.

There’s the beginning of another stare down, and this time instead of indulging him, Sentry tries something else.

Not breaking eye contact, he runs a scan on the other- maybe he can compare it to the ones in the criminal database and…

His thoughts clatter to a halt as he looks at the results.

“Oh,” he gets out. “That’s why.”

The other starts to say something, but Sentry speaks before he can as he finally fully processes the information.

“You’re a nindroid, too.” He breathes.

And he is. The scan shows it, he- Sentry’s never seen such a believable hologram as a disguise, but there’s no other explanation! That-

‘Rune’ narrows his eyes, and Sentry notices him starting to draw a blade from behind his back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeats, this time with more force.

Taking a step back, Sentry lets the possible scenarios flash through his head, struggling to figure out what the hell is going on. The design doesn’t match Cryptor or Zane’s, and it most certainly doesn’t match the ones Dad did, so-

“Who built you? Why are you doing this? Do you- do you not know what’s at stake here?! Who even are you-?!”

He’s cut off when he’s tackled, the move so abrupt that he can’t counter. He struggles underneath him, but in less than a heartbeat, there’s a blade pressed between his scope and skin- a spot that underneath connects almost directly between his CPU and motor functions.

The cloak drops, and he stares at the other’s metallic skin, worn and scratched from who knows how many battles.

Red eyes boring into his own, Sentry feels himself almost shiver at the dark, smug expression the other nindroid has.

“You want to know my real name? Fine.” The voice suddenly has a more distorted, robotic lit to it, his vocal box not hiding his true nature with the cloak dropped. “I doubt you’ll get the chance to use it…”

“But I’m known as Mr. E.”

[babi-correia]

You’re My Sunshine

From Anon:

Hey girl! Would you mind doing another Jay Halstead pr maybe Jesse Lee Soffer imagine/one shot*? Maybe being the hidden girlfriend? Thanks hun!

Words: 2147 Warnings: Kidnapping, torture, canonical violence Pairing: Jay Halstead x Officer!Reader A/N: This ask has two viable one shots, actually. I did this one now, but I’ll probably pick up the JLS sometime in the future. Hope you like it, hun!

Deep down, both of you knew this day would come. The day when Voight barked out to bring a uniform up for an undercover stint, and the Intelligence member brought you up. 

Jay tries to interfere and go with Adam as he goes to get one of the officers down at the lobby, but Voight quickly shuts him down, remembering him that Adam knew the suspect's type better than Jay. His jaw clenches and his hands close into fists as Adam goes down the stairs, already knowing you are going to be the one he brings up. 

The two of you have been dating for a few months, and Jay liked having you to himself. By hiding your relationship, not only are the two of you not in the public eye for dating each other - the last thing you need is someone calling you a badge bunny and saying you're sleeping with Jay to climb the hierarchy - but you are also out of the line of immediate danger that comes with dating a law enforcement agent, inevitably becoming a target.

At first, Jay wasn't very keen on the idea of you: a new cop with shiny eyes and hope in the world; he knew you would be shattered by the job, and he didn't want to watch it. But then he started warming up to you. He couldn't pin down what you had done exactly, if it was how you refused to drop your kindness with Platt, or how you could offer an input that he hadn't seen, or how you would charge in, gun in hand with unwavering intent when someone's life was at risk... it was probably how you didn't try to take pity in him or treat him like a baby when you saw him having a particularly nasty flashback that made him freeze in the middle of the locker room. You had just grabbed his hands in yours and gently coaxed him out, giving him the visual help of the "Chicago Police Department" badge on your vest - you would never know how much it meant to him. 

He had seen your determination falter over the time, but he always tried to make you get back up on the positivity horse; secretly, it kept him going too, the idea that someone could see so much good in the world and still believe in the best possible outcome. It was something rare and precious, in your line of work. 

So, when Adam comes back to the bullpen with you in tow, Jay feels like punching him. He feels like going out on a solo manhunt and face the consequences of it, if it means that you won't be brought into this case. But he watches you walk into Voight's office and nod after the Sergeant explains what he called you up for. He knows that you would never refuse the opportunity to help other people - that's why you had become an officer in the first place.

He sits in his chair, resigned, as he watches you and Voight leave the office. 

"So, officer (Y/L/N) will go undercover as an immigrant that needs help getting the rest of her family inside, no matter the cost." Voight says, pointing at the board. The pictures of 7 women are pinned in, their faces stuck in an eery, eternal smile, unknowing of the atrocities that committed against them. All they wanted was to give their families a better life.

Jay meets you in the locker room after he makes sure that no one saw the two of you entering, and crosses his arms. 

"There's no chance I'm talking you out of this, is there?" He asks, his voice small and defeated. You turn back, already wearing your civilian clothes, and give him a reassuring smile as you lay your hands atop his forearms. 

"I'm a good cop, and this will be over quickly." You say, lightly rubbing his arms. "It has to be done, they can't keep killing these women."

"What if something happens?" He asks, his brows furrowed - you don't quite grasp the seriousness and danger of this, and it worries him deeply. "It's more dangerous than you think."

"Jay... I've been a cop in Chicago for a while. A beat cop. I'm cussed at and thrown things at for existing. There, I'm going to be a girl that they're going to underestimate. The only way this can go wrong is if they figure out I'm a cop, and that's a risk every undercover takes, and that you have also taken several times." You grab his face. "It's going to be ok."

-

Unintentionally, you had jinxed yourself in your conversation with Jay. Not in a thousand years would you have thought that the measly drug dealer you arrested a couple weeks ago would be involved with a human trafficking ring, and when he saw you, you knew it was over. He shouted to everyone how you were a "pig", how you were there to arrest them all. You had stood your ground, unwavering, claiming you had never seen him before in your life and had no idea what he was blabbering about, but no one bought it. They ganged up on you and you knew that resistance was futile and would only hurt you further.

And now, 3 days later, here you are. Bruised, bloody, sweaty, laying on the cement floor of an abandoned warehouse somewhere by the river, in between torture sessions. The big boss doesn't know who you work for - all he knows is that you're with law enforcement. He's too paranoid and knows that CPD isn't the only one after him, and even though he knows you're CPD, he has no idea if you're working directly for them or if you've been "scouted" by a bigger agency. 

Your mind rarely leaves your memories of Jay, trying to isolate and disassociate yourself from the prodding metal and angry fists connecting with the several different parts of your body. A small part of you hangs on to hope that Jay and the rest of Intelligence are coming for you, but the bigger part tells you that they either won't make it in time, or that they think you're already dead. 

The footsteps in the hallway drag you out of your thoughts and you raise bloodshot eyes to glare at the grunt in front of you. He hastily pulls you up by one arm and drags you into another room, different from the one you had been beaten in. There's a hook hanging from the ceiling, but there's also a chair and some blades arranged neatly by the chair. The thing that jumps at you is the camera standing in the corner of the room, hooked to a computer, and aimed at the hook and chair. The grunt stands with you by the door as the boss walks into the room, walking with his usual swagger towards the camera.

"Since I don't know who my little toy is working for, here's what is going on: to whom it may concern, this bitch is at my mercy, and either her employer comes forward, or I'm going to kill her." He says darkly as the grunt drags you into further inside, near the hook. 

You put on your best brave face as he hangs you in the hook by the bindings on your wrists. Your shoulders scream at you but you refuse to show pain. The boss sits on the chair next to you and the grunt leaves, making it just the two of you in the room. He grabs a small, yet sharp blade from the assortment and turns to you, smirking darkly. 

"So, I'll ask you again. Who are you working for?" 

"Your mom." You spit at him, biting your tongue to not cry out when the blade cuts across the skin in your stomach.

-

The mug in Jay's hand hits the floor the second he sees the screen of his computer taken over by a video of a dark, grimy room, with you hanging from a hook and a slimy-looking guy in a suit passing around you with a large blade in hand. 

He knew to fear something bad when they stopped getting the daily debriefs from you, but part of him had been influenced by you into thinking it was the best-case scenario: maybe you had gone deep to the point of not being able to contact them, but were about to resurface with enough evidence to nail every single interferent in the trafficking ring. He feels his heart sink to his stomach and his legs threaten to give out as his gaze fixates on the screen. Your face is bloody and bruised, along with the rest of your body, but your expression is one of stubbornness; whatever the guy is asking of you, you're not complying. 

"This would all be over much quicker if you told me who you're working for." The guy snarks, and your expression remains unchanging.

"We both know you're going to kill me either way, just get it over with. Besides, I already told you I'm working for your mom." His fist connects with your ribs and you give out a pained chuckle. Jay's fists close up as anger begins to boil and cloud his head. "Or maybe for Brutus over there. Maybe you're his Ceasar, and he's waiting for the right chance to stab you in the back thirty times. Now seems like a good time, Brutus."

Voight bolts out of his office, vest on one hand, and a post-it note on the other. 

"A contact of mine got me an address. Let's role." He barks out sternly. Jay bolts out behind him and the whole team gets in the armory, putting on their vests and grabbing their choice of weapon before getting into the cars and driving towards the address Voight's contact had given him. 

Jay checks his three guns yet again: one Glock 19 in his hip holster, one Glock 17 in his thigh holster, and an AK-47 in his hand. He knows every moment from breach is going to count, and the longer they take to get to you, the worse the outcome can be. 

The car comes to a stop and he turns off the security in the AK, rolling his shoulders as he steps out of the car and stealths towards one of the entrances. He peeks through a window, seeing two grunts. He gestures what he saw towards the rest of the team and prepares for breach, kicking in the door when Voight says so. 

He feels the adrenaline coursing through his veins and doesn't stop until he's passed the guarded area. The hallways are silent and he strains his ears, trying to pick up something, anything that will guide him to you. 

In the room, you're still dangling from the ceiling when the loud noises snap the guy from yet another monologue about how it would be easier for you to just give up and blah blah blah. Honestly, you had started to tune out the moment he opened his mouth, already knowing some variation of what was about to leave his lips.

"Go check out whatever that was!" He barks at the grunt, making you focus on the door as the other man exits through it. Before you realize what's happening, a shot rings out and the grunt falls back into the room, making the boss jump in fright. You see Jay slowly stepping over the body, AK steadily trained on the suited guy standing by your legs. 

"If you move another inch, I'm blowing your brains out." Jay growls out as the other man tries to reach for the gun on the chair. "My finger is feeling very, very trigger-happy, and I just need you to give me a reason to give it what it wants."

You feel tears prickling at your eyes, both of joy and of pent up frustration and fear, flinching when you see the man moving towards his gun and Jay delivering a clean shot to his chest, dropping him to the floor instantly. 

The AK hits the floor with a clatter before Jay rushes to you, unhooking you and lowering you to the floor before wrapping you in a bear hug. You feel yourself starting to sob as you hide your face on his neck, relishing in the feeling of being wrapped by Jay and his scent surrounding you. 

"I would die happy if I died like this." You mutter into his neck, feeling him chuckle as he pulls away.

"You're not dying anytime soon, I'll waltz in and save you every time." Jay says, retrieving his AK and slinging it over his chest before he picks you up. "Let's get you home, yeah?"

"Sounds good to me."

[cloud9in]

Food and Games

Summary: Bea and Veronica are paired together to bake a cake. Neither of them know how to bake, and neither of them want to address the elephant in the room.

Pairing: MC (Bea) x Veronica

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings: Uh none..well a little frisky behavior 

Tags: @samanthadalton @satrinadia @kamilahsayeet2063

I also don’t know how to bake a cake so I apologize in advance if I fucked that up lol. 

“Do you seriously have to film us baking this V?”

 Bea stood behind the kitchen island, a frown plastered on her face as she stared at the girl with her phone out. Thanks to Poppy, they were both in charge of baking a cake and extra goodies for the annual Zeta Banquet. Bea had first refused to do it, mainly because Poppy had asked her, and good things never happened when the blonde came looking for a favor. Well, “looking” is an understatement, she practically barged into Bea’s dorm and demanded the girl to show up the next day without question. The brunette wanted to give Poppy a mouthful on what “knocking” was, but the mention of Veronica had caused her to perk up in curiosity. Bea had only spoken to the vlogger a total of two times and it was never enough to get Veronica to actually look at her. Or so she had assumed. But Bea had always caught herself staring at the girl for too long, her eyes wandering down her toned figure. And when they locked eyes, maybe it lingered for too long, but it was never enough. 

 Bea couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing that she was now alone with her crush. Emphasis on crush because Bea was falling hard for Veronica. She didn’t know if it was because of her looks, or the way she bites her lip in concentration while trying to get the perfect angle, or the captivating smile that revealed small hints of dimples whenever she would laugh. Whatever it was, Bea knew that she was in trouble because there was no way she could resist herself around the hazel-eyed girl.

 “It is completely necessary for me to film this. Are you not aware of what I do for a living newbie?” Veronica rolled her eyes dramatically, adjusting her hold on the selfie stick. “Rule number one of hanging around Veronica: you will be filmed.”

Bea raises an eyebrow, a subtle smile plastered on her face. She leans against the island, placing a finger under her chin in thought, “oh so you make the rules huh?”

The brunette had figured if she was going to be here for quite a while, why not make it fun? Judging by the playful smirk that Veronica gives her, she was on the right track. Maybe they would get closer after this task, Bea could only hope. 

She watched as Veronica lowered the stick and slowly inched around the counter until they were face to face. The close proximity brought scorching heat, but when Veronica cupped Bea’s chin and tilted her head forward, it was enough to knock the air out of her lungs. The brunette tensed in anticipation, her hand just barely grazing the skin of her waist that was exposed by her crop top. 

 Veronica smiled sweetly, watching how easily Bea became flustered. She decided that two could play this game. 

 “I do in fact make the rules...and I also like to be in control.”

 The Zeta girl nearly choked with laughter as she witnessed about seven different emotions dance across Bea’s face. She leaned more heavily against the brunette until her lips were only a whisper away from her ear. “You know what?”

 Bea could feel a jolt of electricity run across her whole body but it was quickly subdued by the hot breath of the girl against her. Is this actually happening? 

 “...What?”

Veronica gently stepped back and turned her head in the direction of the grocery bags on the counter 

“...I think I’m going to get the ingredients out, why don't you preheat the oven for me?” With a sly smirk she started unpacking the bags, leaving Bea standing there in shock. Another minute passes before the brunette finally gets her heartbeat to steady, turning towards the stove. “Okay...this should be simple. Just click some buttons Bea.”

 Veronica quirks an eyebrow after noticing her visible struggle, she sighs quickly losing patience. “Just press the arrows until it says 374°F, and preheat it for at least 20 minutes.” Bea gave her a sheepish (but thankful) smile before getting back to the task. The two girls had made some progress with preparing the batter, and Bea was given the job of lining the pan with parchment paper and butter. Simple enough right? Nope. It was clear that neither of them had any experience with baking a cake, and Veronica wasn’t pleased at all. “You seriously don’t know what else to add in this mixture? You didn’t learn to bake at the farm? I mean you tended chickens for a reason right…?”

 Bea huffs with frustration before wiping her palms against her forehead. “Excuse me?! That makes zero sense V....”. The brunette wanted to yell at the girl but that wouldn’t help the predicament they were in. They were running out of time and had to bake a total of eight Bundt cakes for the banquet. Bea had been so wrapped in her thoughts that she almost missed a giggle erupting from the other side of the kitchen. She shot a glare over at the Zeta. “What’s so funny?”

 Veronica held on to the cabinet knob for support as her giggles turned to full blown laughter. She pointed to Bea’s face before her eyes widened with mischief, without another blink she grabbed her phone and started filming her partner. Bea was completely oblivious to what was happening until catching a glimpse of her face in the mirror across the room. The brunette stared in horror as pure white flour was smudged generously on her forehead. She whipped her head back to the flash of the camera and sprinted forward, “don’t you even dare...” Veronica screamed with excitement as she hit the “live” button on Pictagram.

 “Here we have a wild Bea in her natural habitat!”

 A goose chase had begun in the kitchen. Bea tailed Veronica around the island while everyone on the other side of her screen watched the pursuit. If the brunette hadn’t been the one subjected to humiliation, she would find this whole scene funny as hell. But the simple fact that this video would make its way onto the T, and into Poppy’s hold, made her groan internally. Bea felt her calves start to burn as she kept running around in a circle. This was silly, what the hell were they doing? She started to laugh carelessly, a bright smile on her lips as Veronica continued her commentary. “She won’t stop chasing after me! Someone call animal control-”

 *CRASH!*

 A loud noise causes the Zeta girl to stop in her tracks and look behind. The bowl of chocolate batter was splattered all over the ground as Bea held her ankle tightly, her face scrunched up in pain. Veronica set her phone down and immediately rushed to her side, “Oh my god Bea, are you okay?!” She began to panic, reaching out to caress her bruised skin. The scene before her was so touching that Bea was almost guilty for what she was about to do, but revenge was inevitable. As soon as Veronica looked the other way, the brunette grabbed a goop of batter and dabbed it across her cheeks. Normally, Bea would fear for her life, but the look on the Zeta”s face was worth every bit of the potential lecture she would hear later. It wasn’t like Veronica would actually beat her up for it, I mean what's a little chocolate gonna do to her perfect face? The normal coolness in Veronica’s hazel eyes were now a challenging glare, and Bea knew she was done for.

 “Oh you are so dead for that...”

 The brunette had braced herself for a real impact this time, but the only thing she felt was a warm, sticky layer of chocolate coat her nose, neck, and cheeks. Bea gasped loudly, looking up to see a very smug Veronica trying to scoop up more dough. “Oh it's on!”

 The two girls dodged and lunged at each other with fistfuls of cake residue. Veronica barks out a laugh, “I can’t believe I’m allowing this to happen right now..” Bea only smiles before grabbing a hold of the girl’s waist and pushing her roughly against the counter. She pins her arms in place and leans in with a smirk, “and to think you caught none of it on video..” Bea bites her lip to hold in a laugh as she watches Veronica eyes widen in realization. “My phone! The viewers are still probably on-”

Bea grabs her waist tighter with one hand, the other reaching behind her neck.

 “They can wait, first I want to do this.”

If you asked Bea to describe the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word “heaven”, she would tell you about this exact moment. Every touch, every taste, every sound made her feel like she was on cloud nine. Her lips had crashed against Veronica’s as they fought for dominance. A sharp squeeze to Bea’s backside caused her to falter and let the other girl’s tongue slip into her mouth. She pushed Veronica until her back was almost painfully digging into the table top as their tongues tangled. A desperate moan escaped from the Zeta as Bea captured her bottom lip, sucking off the rest of chocolate batter and releasing her lip with a pop. She pulled back to look into her hazel eyes, glazed and teary with want. Veronica grabbed Bea by the neck and slowly licked her tongue up the trail of the sweet mix, earning a gasp of approval by the brunette. 

 “You like that don’t you?”

 It took all of Bea’s self respect to not submit to her right then and there. She grinned, looking towards the stairs and back at Veronica. Before she could respond, a ringtone fills the air of the kitchen, pulling them both out of their lust filled trance. Veronica rushed to her phone and saw Poppy displayed on the caller id.

 “Shit...”

 She let the call ring out and noticed that her live ended randomly. Well maybe they couldn’t hear what went on in the room. Maybe. If so, Veronica would never hear the end of it. 

 She sighed, floating back to reality.  “Crap, Poppy is going to be pissed that we haven’t made any progress...”

 “Well...you were too much of a distraction..” Bea glanced over at her with a brazen look. She didn’t know how much Veronica’s viewers had heard, but it was the last thing on her mind. Her lips throbbed with need as she felt the lingering kisses that Veronica had previously assaulted her with. It seemed as if the Zeta could read her mind, eyeing her with a knowing look and blush.

 “...Well we could always order the Bundt cakes, Poppy’s too dumb to know the difference...and we’ll have more time to kill...” 

 Veronica had stepped closer once more, and so did Bea. The brunette didn’t know how she ended up in this position, but she didn’t mind it one bit. Not when Veronica is giving her a look that only a predator would give its prey. With one last survey of the messy kitchen, she turns to Veronica with fire in her eyes.

“I like the sound of that…”