#SHE WAS THE HEROINE WHO STOOD HER GROUND AND DIED FOR ANOTHER | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

whump-a-la-mode · 4 years ago

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Would it be possible to get the aftermath of a heroic whumpee who went up against someone incredibly far out of their league? Kind of along the lines of that one time Dazzler went up against the Juggernaut on her own (A heroine with light projection powers vs a villain with the power of unstoppable force) and ended up being beaten to the point where she was too weak to move. The other heroes become her caretakers for a little while. I loved that arc and could really use something similar.

I can hardly describe how much I love this prompt. I absolutely adore it, and I can only hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I think I’m somewhat familiar with Dazzler, though when I looked through the wiki, I couldn’t find anything about this story? The wiki may just be incomplete, though. It reminds me of a story arc of the original ms. marvel, too!

This is absolutely one of my favorite kinds of whump, and I really hope that I did it justice. Thank you so much for the ask!

CW//Medical settings, poison, therapy, paralysis, inability to speak, self-hatred, low self-esteem, hair-pulling

The metal doors at the entrance to the Metropolis General Emergency Room swung upon with the force of a thunder clap. And, just as thunder, they too heralded lightning.

Or, at the very least, light.

A pair of lab-coats pushed forth a gurney on ratta-tatta-tattling caster wheels, footsteps crashing on the floor in even rhythm. Close behind, an entourage of two sprinted in close pursuit: A pair of heroes in civilian clothes.

“Lux!”

To the person laid upon the gurney, the voice felt to be emanating from a thousand miles away. Or more. Maybe a couple thousand, or a million... It was hard to think about numbers when their mind was stuffed with cotton, and their vision was dominated by blurry white ceiling tiles.

“What in the world happened to them?” The doctor that spoke had had all sense of clinical professionalism drained from their tongue.

“We don’t know.” A hero, outfitted in jeans and sweater, replied in a single, slurred sound. “We just found them, and-”

It was too loud. Far, far too loud-- Lux felt as though the full force of the ocean had made the sudden decision to crash into their eardrums. And, beneath at all, the caster wheels refused to stop their clitter-clatter. Spikes piercing their temples, they let out the tiniest of cries.

A tiny sound, and all eyes were on them.

“Lux!”

“Lux, what in the world happened to you?”

“What the hell did you do?”

“Talk to us!”

“Wake up!”

“Wake up.”

“Lux. Lux, what did you do?”

Lux, what did you do?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The support beam shook against the force of the body, hurled at it. Shudders rocked from the base to the top, threatening for the thousandth time the structural stability of the building.

And the structural stability of Lux’s ribs.

With several hoarse coughs, the hero struggled to hands and knees, joints wobbling as though the ground they were braced against were the epicenter of an earthquake.

They could taste it.

They could taste what they had been inflicted with, more than they could feel it. The wound upon their side had long since gone numb-- at the very least, the poison had that benefit to it. Now, the sensation had migrated to Lux’s tongue. A bitter flavor of burnt coffee.

Even if they had the chance, they had no desire at all to examine the gash that had been torn across their side. They’d heard the stories, seen the headlines.

Lux knew what happened to Mercury’s victims.

That was why they were here, after all.

“Had enough yet, kid?”

The voice was booming, sounding from the other side of the half-toppled warehouse. In their weakened state, Lux could barely raise their head high enough to meet the eyes of their foe.

Mercury’s height was unimportant, as was their general stature. After all, it was hard to focus on his body. It was hard to focus on anything but the claws-- terrible, wicked things curling outwards from his knuckles.

A single slash from them, and flesh would begin to curl away, to rot. To necrose.

The wound they had been inflicted with was already a death sentence. But, not an immediate one-- Lux had a bit of time left on death row.

A bit of time to make this right.

Shivering, the hero stood to their feet, facing their opponent from a hundred foot’s distance. It was the most ridiculous of match-ups. A chihuahua against a pit bull. A garden snake against a cobra.

That didn’t mean that Lux couldn’t try.

“Firefly wants another round, then?” The villain’s voice curled, almost as venomous as their blades. “Try me, kid.”

And try they did.

Hands balled to fists at their side, Lux took one, single step forth, stomping onto the warehouse’s concrete floor with a decisive strike.

It was as though a bomb had gone off.

The world was swallowed, all at once, by white. Light engulfed each shadow, each color, until the universe was as blank as unexposed photo paper.

It was merely a distraction, a smokescreen. But they needed time to recover. Time to catch their breath.

Time to remember why they were doing this.

In the world of heroes, Mercury had a particular nickname-- “The Untouchable.” He was the lion in the zoo. No one dared get near him, much less touch him. It was a death sentence, to be slashed by his claws. The heroes were terrified of him, and that gave him a free license to tear the world to shreds.

It was from one of their villainous informants that Lux had heard of the plan initially. The water supply. Mercury had found a way to distill the poison held within their claws, and they intended to release it into the city water supply.

To kill every last citizen of Metropolis.

But the others turned merely a blind eye. No one would touch the villain. They had resigned themselves to dealing with the aftermath.

That would mean deaths. That would mean ‘acceptable causalities.’

To Lux, there was no such thing as an acceptable causality. Only a problem that needed to be solved.

Their teammates had insisted, begged, nearly, that they not be so careless. But, when had Lux even been known as the careful one?

Not once in their life.

“Stop this, Mercury!” The hero snapped into the expanse of white. “Just-”

Lux did not so much as see the fist before it connected. Did not so much as feel the claws, raking their neck.

Not before the world went from black to white.

Lux, what did you do?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“You did it.”

Those were the first words that Lux heard clearly, after escaping from their haze. Consciousness teased them as the world above turned from colors to shapes to vision.

White tiles, spotless and all in a row. Their perfect nature was threatened only by an out-of-place beeping that nearly forced the hero to once more fall to sleep.

But, they managed to cling to consciousness as they turned their head to the side, revealing a figure, interrupting their view of the tiles overhead.

A figure. A person. A-

“You did it, Lux.”

Nora. Nora, their friend, their teammate, their comrade. Not Mercury. Not a villain. If Nora was here, then they were safe. The hero had an almost supernaturally calming way about herself, located somewhere between her wispy tangle of black hair and the way her movements imitated the performance of a dancer.

But, wait- Why wasn’t she in uniform? No, now she bore only the clothes of a civilian.

No. No, of course she wasn’t wearing a uniform. Lux had gone on a mission, yes. But it hadn’t been with their team.

They’d tried to stop Mercury, and-

“The water’s safe.” Nora’s voice was only just as smooth as her movements. “Mercury’s been contained. You did it.”

“And by god, what were you thinking?!”

The shout sent a stabbing agony through the side of Lux’s skull. That was more so the reaction they had expected.

Nickel. The most paranoid superhero on planet Earth.

Lux struggled to open their lips, to bring forth an explanation. To state that they had been doing what was right. That they had been doing what a hero should have done.

And yet...

And yet, their lips refused to so much as twitch. Too, their tongue sat dead in their mouth, numb and useless.

The only muscle in their body that functioned was their heart, which in that moment began to race.

“You could’ve died!” Nickel’s tirade continued, despite the fact that the target was showing not a single reaction. “Or worse! You could’ve died, or worse, or both! That was so stupid.

Don’t give me the silent treatment, dammit. Explain yourself!”

Lux wanted so desperately to do so. Their heartbeat turned, now, to a pounding tattoo within their skull, the pedal of a bass drum, slamming against the inside of their cranium.

They couldn’t move.

A twitch of the head. A blink, maybe. That was all. That was all they had left.

Lux had saved the world.

Their vision began to swirl.

Lux had saved the world, but what had they given up in exchange?

Telling when the hero fell unconscious was nearly impossible. Yet, when their eyes at last drifted closed, it became clear that whatever wakefulness they had had was now extinguished.

That left two heroes, one proud and one paranoid, leaning over a hospital bed. Shivering both in their own rights, Nickel and Nora stood. It was with great care that the room’s entrance was pushed open. The doctor that did so walked backwards-- their hands were quite thoroughly occupied by a clipboard.

Nickel and Nora said not a word, as speechless as their teammate. They both knew that this was the bringing of news.

This doctor was the bearer of their friends fate.

“They’re going to live.”

That was what they started with.

“With medical care, Lux will survive this ordeal. However, they will need to stay under intensive care until their immediate symptoms subside.”

Nora stared blankly for a long moment, before whispering:

“They aren’t moving. They aren’t talking.”

The doctor could manage only the more sympathetic of nods. Again, they repeated themself, but, this time, with an addition:

“Lux is going to live. But, most likely, they will never be the same. The poison has taken its toll on their system. There’s no cure. No antidote.

One day, they may be able to move, or speak. But, they have a very, very long road ahead of them.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Very, very long was an understatement.

No, the doctor would have been better have describing Lux’s journey as a highway from Moscow to Las Vegas.

“The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”

“Da ra’zz spa- ff mm a pla.”

“The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”

“Za ree z’pa fa ma- play.”

“One more try. The rains in Spain-”

“Nnn- oh! No!”

The lab-coated doctor sitting before Lux set down their clipboard with a heavy sigh, sending only another bubble of rage rising in the hero’s chest. They balled their hands into fists, shaking them furiously before placing their open palms upon their temples.

Lux hated this. Lux hated every last minute, every last instant of this. They hated the doctor. They hated the doctor’s office they had to sit in, walls covered from floor to ceiling with charts of vowels and consonants. More than anything, they hated their exercises.

It should have been simple! Eight words. Eight simple words. If they could repeat them properly, then they would never have to go to one of these stupid appointments ever again.

But, they couldn’t. They couldn’t say eight simple words. In fact, they couldn’t even say one.

A month in the hospital, and Lux could not so much as speak. It made them want to tear their hair out! In fact, they would do that, had they had the motor control for it.

But, they didn’t. They didn’t have anything.

The last month had been the longest of the hero’s existence. Hell, those thirty days had felt to be longer than the rest of their entire life, put together! Thirty days and thirty nights of utter hell.

When they had gone off to face Mercury on their own, Lux had been very well prepared to die. They had not been prepared for this.

From the outside, the progress that the hero was making was undeniable. They had begun in a state of complete and utter paralysis, able to move their head, their eyes, and not a thing else. It was only with thrice-a-day physical therapy that they had begun to move. First, it was only moving their head. Then, their arms. Their legs. By the end, they could even sit up, with the help of a helping hand.

Every day, Lux’s teammates visited. And, every day, they congratulated their friend on their progress.

But, as far as Lux was concerned, it had been a month, and they hadn’t made an inch of progress. As hard as they tried, they were still laid up in a hospital. Still broken. Still useless.

They knew that their friends were trying. They knew-- it was evident on their expressions. Those constant, stupid looks of pity. They would never speak about their own lives, about their missions. The villainous plots they’d stopped, the battles they’d won. No. They focused only on the mundane: Where they’d gone for lunch, how they’d spent their evening.

It was out of pity. Lux knew that. It was all pity. But, in all truth, those were the only moments during which they ever felt, truly, like themself. Like Lux.

Like a hero.

So they’d heard, the media had praised them, lauded them for their victory. But they never spoke of the sacrifice it had taken.

Their friends’ visits were the only parts of the day that Lux had to get forward to. The rest of their life was filled with... this.

“Lux.” The doctor coaxed. “You need to do your exercises. You’re already getting so much better! But you won’t make any progress if you don’t try.”

“Don’ thwaa ex- thwaa ta.”

“Don’t want exercises, want talk?”

Lux narrowed their eyes. But, that had been what they were trying to say. The fact that it needed to be repeated, interpreted, however, made them feel sick.

“You need your exercises, Lux. How about we just try one more time? I know you can do it. You’re already doing so well!”

Eight simple words. Eight simple words, and Lux could be a hero again. Eight words, and they could be a person again.

“Okay, Lux. Repeat after me: The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”

“Tha ran-”

Yet, that was all they could make out. Lux’s throat ran dry of words, void of syllables. They couldn’t speak before, and now, they couldn’t so much as make a sound.

They never cried in front of others. Never. Yet, that rule had been broken in the hospital already a dozen times. And, so it seems, this would make thirteen.

Lux’s chest was wracked with heavy sobs as they buried their face in their hands. Soon, tears leaked from beneath their shaking fingers.

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“I’m right here for you, Lux. Lean on me all you need.”

Nora’s voice carried the same cadence as water, meandering through a stream. Too, of course, did her gestures. A gentle, yet firm hand took Lux by the wrist, wrapping their arm around their comrade’s shoulder.

“It’s going to be hard, okay? It’s going to be hard. It’s okay to get tired. And you don’t have to get it on your first try. Or your fifth. Or your hundredth.”

Lux stopped listening on the last part.

This was it. The final gauntlet. Nearly an entire season spent within hospital walls-- now came their test. Everything counted on it. As far as they were concerned, it was a matter of life or death.

If they succeeded, they were home free. They could be brought home by their teammates-- of course, while still attending outpatient physical therapy, but still! They would be home.

And, yet, if they failed? They would be placed back in their hospital room. They would continue to be useless, a burden on both doctor and friend alike.

Everything was riding on this. Lux took a deep breath, and opened their eyes to face their challenge:

A hallway.

They had studied it extensively. Seven feet in width, and perhaps twenty in length. A tiny little thing, used only to get between two particular rooms. It was in the very depths of the hospital; that was why they were using it. There was no chance of distraction, of interruption.

“Are you ready, Lux?”

“Yesthh.”

“Okay.”

Their weight was leaned, nearly entirely, upon Nora. But, that didn’t matter. It wasn’t a test of standing on their own. If that was the test, they’d never get out of this hellish place. All they had to do was make it to the end of the hallway, with help. They could go slowly. They could lean. They could rest.

They only had to make it to the end.

Nora placed one foot forward, waiting for Lux to do the same, which they did, slowly and shakily. It was in this manner that they moved. One foot, one foot, staying always in the slowest of locksteps.

For Nora, it was simple.

For Lux, it was agony. Their knees felt mere milliseconds away from buckling, legs straining under the weight of the rest of them, even as the vast majority of it was leaned onto their friend.

Five feet. Five tiny, minuscule steps. That was how far Lux made it.

And then they were falling.

They did not remember the fall, not really. One moment, their knees had given out. And, the next, they were on their side, on the carpet.

Shaking.

This had been it. This had been their chance. All they had to do was walk down a hallway, that was it! Then, they could have gone home. Then, they could have been with their friends.

Then, they could have finally been a hero again.

And they’d failed. They’d failed the simplest of tasks.

In that moment, a certainty struck Lux like a dagger to the chest: They were never going to get better. Never. It didn’t matter how many exercises they did, how many doctors they saw. This whole thing was pointless! They were going to be worthless until the end of time.

On the floor, Lux screamed. It was a babbling, incoherent thing, as most sounds they made were. Too, they began to thrash, slamming their fists into the floor as they howled in anguish.

Then, they weren’t thrashing anymore. They couldn’t.

Lux had no need to open their eyes to tell what was happening. They knew Nora’s footsteps, knew the sound of her racing over. The feeling of her, hauling them into her arms. Holding them close.

They knew, also, the sounds of doors opening. Of more footsteps, familiar footsteps. Of chattering voices. Their friends’ voices.

Their whole-

Lux’s breath caught in their throat.

In order to avoid distraction, it had only been them and Nora in the room. They had assumed that it was only Nora who had visited that day. And, yet, they knew these voices.

Their whole...

Their whole team. Their whole team had come to watch. They counted every voice, every pair of footsteps. Every last one of their friends had come to watch them succeed.

But, they’d only watched them fail. Lux expected heckling, expected to be berated.

They did not expect the half-dozen pairs of arms, wrapped around them. They didn’t expect to be the center of a group hug.

“You’re doing so well.”

“You got so far!”

“Just a little more practice, and you’ll be back out there fighting crime in no time.”

“You’re almost there!”

“That’s the furthest you’ve been able to walk yet!”

“We’re proud of you.”

Lux’s tears did not stop.

And, yet, they realized something:

They were no longer tears of sorrow.

#hero whumpee #whump #whumper #whumpee #caretaker #whump community #hero x villain whump #hero villain prompt #hero x villain #hero villain scenario #hero villain whump #whumpblr #whump blog #whump scenario

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rivendellsstuff · 4 years ago

Text

𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞.

𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 | ❝Slowly, she was collapsed and sheathed inside his heart — and that was the beginning and the end of everything for Levi Ackerman.❞

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2590;

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: Mentions of canon-typical violence. Inspired by Arwen Undómiel's speech in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring'' and the song ''Can’t help falling in love'' by Elvis.

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: Hi! English is not my native language, so if you spot a misspelled word or anything else, feel free to let me know. I plan to look for someone to help me with proofreading because I feel like I leave a lot behind. I hope I can find help to continue publishing these short stories!

────── ▎Levi Ackerman still remembers the feeling when he realized that he loved her.

He knew, he simply knew, that nothing would ever be the same again. This love came suddenly, without warning, and was born inside him in silence, destroying all the countless walls he had built over the years.

The rational and critical part of his brain is always trying to convince him to drown that feeling because nothing good can result from love in those days. So, for a long time, Levi tried to act as if it didn't hurt — how bad hiding what he felt hurt his mind. The fact was: he always lost the people he loved. The fear of losing another person, of seeing them turn into a memory, never terrified him as much as it did now. He didn't want to lose her too.

So, he wonders what the hell he should do. Over the past few months, Levi has always kept her back and that was the nature of their relationship. Levi's understanding of her had always been instinctive, based on a single fact: they were perfect opposites and, in a way, perfect counterweights. But then, he looked at her in a million different ways and loved her in each of them — as a soldier, as a partner, as a friend, as a lover.

Suddenly, humanity's strongest soldier, the one who had brought down countless titans and people who performed evil deeds beyond human comprehension, was unarmed and vulnerable. Slowly, she was collapsed and sheathed inside his heart — and that was the beginning and the end of everything for Levi Ackerman.

The first time Levi Ackerman realized how much he loved her occurred the night before the operation to retake Wall Maria. It was evening, and it was raining - a fine, murmuring autumnal drizzle. The weather was comfortable. Not so hot and not so cold, but just right. Even so, Levi Ackerman was not feeling well. His body was begging for rest and his mind for comfort, but he could not afford to lie down like everyone else. In the stillness, his thoughts were constantly interrupted by the image of the soldiers and friends he had lost over the years, thrown to the ground and covered in his own blood, and this made Levi feel dizzy and sick.

His shoulders were down, his head hung down, and his body was slightly bent over the documents on his desk. Beside him was a long-empty cup of tea. It was the shadow of the great Levi Ackerman. It was simpler than humanity's strongest soldier, but at the same time it was empty and incomplete. Ironic. He had always boasted of being cool, of not caring about trivialities, and of keeping himself intact as a captain, and now he was nothing but a decaying shadow of the infamous Levi Ackerman.

And so, the first few hours of that night passed. So much was happening all at once. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to clear his mind and stand firm, as he always should.

He sighed. Levi left the pile of documents meticulously organized on the table, picked up the empty cup, and stood up. His eyes grew accustomed easily to the darkness, the only sound was of an old clock at the end of the hall and his footsteps on the old linoleum floor.

「flashback」

Levi liked to think he lived long enough to understand that one can never escape his true nature. Such is Historia's destiny, and she is finally crowned as Queen before a large and enthusiastic crowd. The people remember seeing the Queen protect them from a Titan and admire her for standing up to her father.

A smart move, Levi thought.

Standing next to Erwin and Hange, he thinks of his mother. Of Isabel, who cannot be the heroine she was meant to be. He thinks of Furlan and his resilience. He thinks of all the people he has lost over the years, especially those who failed to become what they were meant to be.

''Hey'', Mikasa's voice was low, but it was enough to get the captain's attention.

Up to that point, Levi had not greeted any of his squadron members, although he knew that many were with unasked questions hanging on their tongues. Political issues occupied most of his time. The words were not spoken, but duly were there, at some point; all praise and words of gratitude for his team.

And Levi looked at her, grave tenderness in his eyes turned to Mikasa, and yet, even if she had not been raised among men of war, she was someone many could not overcome in battle. She approached the girl with hair as black as raven wings and whispered something in her ear, to which Mikasa thanked her with a small smile. In those days, it was rare to see anyone smile.

Her dress, which was a deep green with white flower embroidery and golden arabesques on the sleeves, shimmered in the faint wind that afternoon. Levi thinks that she looks so beautiful with the sunlight in her hair.

He interrupts his thought suddenly, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

And, as if sensing that she is being watched, she raises her eyes from Mikasa to the captain. He thinks that she is going to raise one of her eyebrows or simply keep the conversation with Mikasa. But then she did something that surprised him even more. She smiled. At him.

He feels his cheeks burn.

''You are staring, shorty'', said Hange, amused, following his gaze.

''Tch, shut up.''

It was just a smile, but Levi couldn't forget it for the rest of the ceremony.

He thought that the true beauty of the place belonged to her.

「 flashback's end」

Damn, he thinks. That smile.

The smell of tea berries and wet earth overwhelm him. Outside, the rain was falling hard as he brewed another cup of tea. He sipped the warm, clear liquid, allowing the noise made by his lips as he sucked the drink to ring out loud. He smiled, amazed that she didn't like the drink. This was the first more human demonstration he had had in a long, long time.

It was during a sleepless night like that, months ago, when they could finally be in each other's presence, just them. It was... easy to talk. Maybe it was because of the tea, the sound of her laughter, or none of those two things. Maybe just her and her way of looking beyond him as nothing but.... Levi. Just Levi.

Levi grew up poor and alone in a place where he was taught to hate every bit of it with a burning passion, he understands a thing or two about injustice and hate even before Kenny decides to teach him how to fight. He loved his mother with every fiber of his being. He loved his friends. When they died, Levi felt like he was dying with them; but that feeling? It was a different kind of love. He had never loved anything, or anyone like her.

Get out of my head, woman.

He took a deep breath and decided to put those thoughts aside once again. After finishing the tea, he put the cup away and headed back to his room.

He stopped himself momentarily when he noticed the door ajar on his right.

And there she was, dressed in a silver and blue dress, in a polished wooden chair by the window, whose light westerly wind blew through and made her hair flutter. To him, it seemed that starlight was in her eyes.

Levi was silent for a second and then sighed. There was nothing to be said now that they were there, preparing to reclaim the lost lands and waiting for answers.

But when she let out a deep sigh of pain, he slammed his knuckles against the door. She raised her eyes to him, feeling her throat go dry, and immediately leaned back, pulling her eyebrows together in confusion.

''Captain,'' she said, but signs of weariness and pain could not be hidden in her gently voice.

"Are you hurt?" asked the superior, taking her by surprise.

"Except for a few bruises, I'm fine'', She said, gesturing for him to come in. "Can't sleep?"

Levi studied her from top to bottom, paying attention to her body language and any sign of injury. There were two scars on her hands. She tried to cover them with the sleeve of her dress.

''I rarely get any sleep, so the person who should be asking this question is me,'' he said, and although he was glad to see her, worry ran through his chest.

She smiled.

"Fair enough''

Frustration tightened his voice a bit, but she thought it was incredibly appealing when he said: ''You never respond the way people expect you to.''

Levi approached and stopped beside the window. The beautiful weather and the calm seemed a mere mockery to the men before the most dreadful mission of their lives.

"I'm sorry," she says sincerely. ''Just a stupid accident during training...and I can't sleep,'' she admitted. ''Nightmares. They've been recurring since we faced the female titan. I think my brain is malfunctioning.''

''It's ok you have hard times.''

She took a deep breath and then inhaled slowly. It had been a long time since they had shared moments like that; and she had always loved his company infinitely, even though she had never shown it in words.

The thoughts began to surge like a burst of fireworks, making loud noises, disappearing and reappearing. Instinctively, she pressed one hand against the other, but the twinge of pain almost made her curse. He didn't miss that.

''You should bandage this to prevent an infection'' he says.

She let her hands slide to the sides of her body.

''Yeah, you're probably right.''

"Do you have any medical kits around here?''

Her expression wavers for a while, as if she is thinking about it. Then she turns and opens one of the bags left beside the bed. Levi has approached her as she begins to rummage through the material.

''Here, let me do that,'' he said.

「flashback」

The horses pranced and neighed, startled, when a group of titans was spotted. The maneuvering equipment tinkled as the wires were released. The sight of those creatures was terrifying, but the battlefield had already become a part of their lives, and Survey Corps was willing to fight.

Above, a sunless sky, muffled by heavy clouds. Levi could hear roars and screams all around, the sharp, distinctive thud of the clash of blades against the back of the titans' heads. There were bloodied bodies, some without limbs and with pieces strewn across the surrounding ground.

Then, time seemed to freeze.

The titan's giant hand withdrew and a terrible howl resound across the battlefield.

The titan screamed again, but the fury of the guttural howl was nothing compared to what the captain felt as he investigated the still face of (Y/N). For the hundredth of a second it took his mind to assimilate the events, Levi was struck by horror. He stood motionless; he simply found himself gripping the blades and looking at her. Suddenly, his muscles were contracted by the urgency, the will, the urge to hurt him. This wild need, echoing in his ears like a broken record, obscured his mind.

With an immense bang, several blows struck the titan.

As the creature felt motionless to the ground, Levi ran to it, whose face was as white as a lobelia and as cold as frost.

He didn't know how deeply he was entwined with her until they tried to take her away from him

「 flashback's end」

Levi listened attentively to everything she said, as she was also attentive to the gentle, careful way in which he touched her.

''I hope you won't use this to bribe me, Ackerman.''

He rolls his eyes.

''Maybe I'll take Sasha's food and say it was you.''

''That's the biggest threat I've ever heard in my entire life,'' she says eventually.

A strange flutter in his stomach threatened a smile on his face.

"Maybe it makes you let to be a brat"

She takes a long breath.

"I'll let her kill me and then you'll be sorry"

"Don't be so dramatic", he says. "By the way, I'll never let anyone hurt you as long I live."

She is speechless. Her heart starts to beat faster than she thought it could, and all her body was filled with a so good feel. She couldn't explain exactly what is, but there was anyway.

Levi doesn't look at her face again. And then, the silence was back once again.

It was a difficult operation for the Captain; he touches her skin, heard her voice so close and quietly to him.

"It's done", Levi says.

She follows his eyes and saw her own hands. He still was holding them.

"I appreciate that."

He looks at her.

You're so fucking beautiful.

Levi runs his thumb over her fingers tenderly.

A crow screams at the top of its lungs in the distance, and she almost cringes. Levi ignores him and, longing for her starry eyes again, brings her hand to his lips and places a soft kiss on his skin.

"Are you afraid?" she whispers. Levi could feel the goosebumps that her touch gave him. ''Sometimes, I feel as if we are going to discover something eviler than the titans themselves.''

The wind blows angrily, making her hair fly.

''There are few things that make me afraid. This is not one of them.''

Losing you is, he thinks.

Inside his chest, the sound of his racing heartbeat is loud enough for him to hear. His heart pulses melodiously, pumping blood and sending some to his cheeks.

"Besides, this must be the first time I've heard you say you're afraid," he says, braiding invisible lines on the back of his hands. "Maybe you're sick. Let's examine it before it devours your brain entirely.

"I can't tell if you're joking or not."

He laughs lightly, and she thinks how nice it is when he does that. Levi's face is always so stern, so cold when they are around others. It's like it's a secret that only she knows.

Suddenly, Levi thinks about what it would feel like to kiss her.

"You should try to rest now", he whispers, looking away.

He starts to walk to the door.

It was in this exact moment he wished to have been able to tell her all those things in his mind.

"Wait!"

He turns back to her.

"What is?"

While Levi said, she holds his cheeks with her palms.

"Stay", she whispers. "Just a little longer"

Levi feels his heart beating faster than he thought it could, and all of his body was filled with that desire again.

Their lips touch in a chaste and last kiss for barely a second.

Levi holds her hands close to his heart. His tongue traces her bottom lips, brushes against the edge of her teeth before mingling with hers. It was kind, as it could say all those things on his heart.

When their lips step back, he says: "For as long as you wish"

#aot x reader #attack on titan imagine #attack on titan fanfiction #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi ackerman imagine #levi ackerman fluff

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soulmate-game · 5 years ago

Text

Well that happened.

B!dbwm 2020

Day 6: Meeting the Justice League

Marinette paced in her bedroom in Wayne Manor, running her hands through her hair as Damian laid on her bed and played animal crossing while completely ignoring her freakout.

“Dami, how did I get myself into this mess?!” she asked, frantically pulling at her pigtails. Her brother snorted, rolling his eyes unsympathetically.

“You never use your brain until after you’ve already made important decisions,” he responded ruthlessly. “All of your mental capacity goes towards planning out completely inane things like birthday parties and actually caring about what our even more idiotic class thinks about you, so when you actually need it you don’t have any intelligence left to spare.”

Marinette turned her eyes on him, the blue lightening to an icy color in her panicked annoyance as she glared at him. “Gee, thanks. I can always trust my darling brother to have my back,” she said sarcastically, to which Damian only smirked.

“When it matters? Of course. But in this case, watching the fallout will be entertaining and not at all dangerous to your physical safety.”

Damian and Marinette had been sent to live in Paris a few years back, about a year after Damian had come back to life. Marinette had been far too attached to the twin she had thought she had lost for good, and had nearly driven him crazy with how overprotective she had gotten. Right alongside that, Damian had started to become even more stifled by Bruce’s own protectiveness and distrust of him, so he quit being Robin and they were sent to PAris to try and “recover” from their “trauma” somewhere “safe and peaceful, under the jurisdiction of the JLE.”

Yeah, that was a great idea. Up until they found out the hard way that the JLE had up and abandoned the Paris headquarters and taken up unofficial residence in England somewhere. And then Hawkmoth showed up. And of course, of fucking course, an old chinese man from the pacifistic organization that acted as a direct foil to the League where they grew up somehow decided that they, out of everyone in Paris, were the best people he could find to wield the power of tiny gods to save the city.

Sure, he was right, but Damian chewed him a new asshole as soon they met for trusting complete unvetted strangers with the gods of creation and destruction.

And now Marinette had finally managed to leak to Tim, who then spread the calculated slip of information to Bruce, that Paris had had a supervillain for the past few years and the JLE had been neglecting their jobs. Which turned into Batman setting up a meeting with Ladybug and Chat Noir (Damian had tried to tell everyone his name was Chance Noir, Dark Luck, NOT ‘chat noir,’ since the last thing he needed was to be associated with Selina in any way. Nobody listened, and now he was stuck with being called Chat Noir). They had a lovely discussion about all the shit Hawkmoth did, their lack of resources, and the lack of assistance/straight up refusal to believe their word that came from the JLE.

Which led to Batman inviting Ladybug to meet the Justice League to debrief on the Paris situation. Damian had been invited as Chat Noir, but had taken the smart path and opted out. Now Marinette had to not only go to the Justice League as Ladybug, but also as Batman's daughter Hummingbird, who was being brought in for consultation along with Damian as Robin.

“I’m gonna die again,” Marinette continued her catastrophizing, Tikki and Plagg sharing a glance at once another from their spot on her writing desk. “I’m gonna die of total embarrassment. Don’t bother resurrecting me Dami, I’m just gonna die all over again once Dad finds out who we are and kills me.”

Damian snorted. “Hah. Father killing anything, good one,” he snarked back blandly. “You’ll be fine. Remember, you’re the planner and I’m the one with actual skill. You have the strangest ability when it comes to getting out of situations like these by the skin of your teeth,” Damian grinned at something on the screen of his Switch before continuing. “You’ll be fine. And if you sell me out, I’ll bury you myself.”

Marinette stuck her tongue out at him. Neither of them wanted their dad to find out that they were LAdybug and Chat noir, especially since they had already explained to him the basics of the source of their powers. They were both certain that Bruce would completely ignore how well they had been handling the situation on their own for almost five years and jump straight to the “my murderous children should not be left with the powers of destruction and creation at their fingertips,” line of thought. Bruce had never trusted them alone before, why now?

“At least help me, shaqiq?” Marinette asked, walking over and plopping onto the ground next to her bed, so she could look straight into her twin’s bright green eyes. At first, he refused to even look at her, completely unmoved. Marinette hummed mischievously, a habit that was the source of her Gotham codename. “If I go down, I’m taking you with me.”

Damian finally huffed, scowling. “Fine.”

He knew better than to doubt her. Marinette always got her way when she decided she was wronged and needed to even the score for something. Always.

—* — * — * — * — *

Hummingbird. The smallest Bat, by far, and the fastest when it came to natural speed. Hard to spot, with the sole giveaway that a short playful hum could be heard if she thought she had her prey cornered. She was hardly ever wrong.

She had also been temporarily retired as she and Robin moved to some undisclosed location to get away from the vigilante life for a while. Or so Batman said. And for the most part, aside from the occasional League gathering here or glimpse that they got of the two’s civilian personas if someone visited the manor while they were there, Robin and Hummingbird stayed retired. Heroes who knew them wondered if Robin had finally given up and settled down somehow, if he was even capable of it. And they all speculated that Hummingbird was so scarred from Robin’s death that she wouldn't ever be able to leave his side again, retired or not.

Seeing Hummingbird in her navy blue and black uniform, almost identical to her brother’s but for the thick navy blue scarf that covered her neck and lower face, everyone in the Justice League who knew her thought they were right. She stood there, older and only a little taller, never leaving Robin’s side as they traded secretive glances and hand signals only they understood. They didn’t make any attempt to stray from one another’s side.

But Jon Kent, superboy and Damian’s oldest friend, was of a different mind. He had been by Marinette’s side after Damian died, and by both of theirs when he was brought back. This was not the same terrified dependence he had seen back then. His eyes narrowed.

The twins were scheming, and nobody else would notice until it was too late.

Quicker than they could blink, he was by their side with his trademark smile. “Hey guys! Long time no see!”

They gave the half-kryptonian identical deadpan expressions, sighing in tandem. “You facetimed us last night. And you flew to Paris to visit us last week,” Damian pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “Despite us expressly telling you not to.”

Jon shrugged. “If I listened to everything you two said all the time, we’d never have any fun. So, excited to meet this Ladybug girl? Dad says that your dad won’t tell him anything about her until she shows up.”

Hummingbird and Robin traded looks before Marinette answered. “Not really. We see Ladybug in action in Paris all the time—”

“She even saved Marinette from an Akuma who was obsessed with wanting to date her,” Damian interrupted with an insufferable grin. Marinette elbowed him hard, making her brother wince before chuckling at her red face.

“I could have saved myself just fine! It’s not my fault we have to lay low, or we might get kicked out of Paris for being past vigilantes!” Marinette argued, voice high as she protested how helpless Damian had made her sound. She puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. Damian’s grin widened into a predatory smirk that showed off teeth.

“Oh? What about that one time that Tsurugi got akumatized, and Chat Noir had to save you because she wanted to duel you for the right to date me and you were cornered?”

Marinette growled, throwing up her hands in frustration before smacking Damian’s shoulder angrily. He only laughed at her. “I’m leaving! Come find me when Ladybug finishes explaining the things we already know!” with that, a fuming and embarrassed Hummingbird stormed out of the room.

“Huh,” Flash remarked, leaning against the wall. “She looks a lot better than the last time I saw her. And she actually left your immediate vicinity. Willingly,” he remarked to Robin, who glared at the speedster.

“It’s been almost six years. If you think my sister is weak enough to be that thoroughly encumbered by the past for so long, you are greatly underestimating her,” he looked around to see almost all of the gathered League members staring at him. He grit his teeth and looked over at his father. “When is this woman going to arrive, anyway? You’d think she would actually be on time.”

Just then, a portal opened in the middle of the room and Ladybug walked through. Quickly shedding the brown costume that allowed her to teleport in, she was left in just her black and red-spotted combat suit. Seeing as they finally found out how to alter the costumes the Kwami gave them, Ladybug’s hair now sat in a braided bun on the crown of her head and her costume was made to look more like Nightwing’s with the ladybug symbol on her upper chest and between her shoulder blades on her back, with black gloves that reached up to her elbows and black knee-high boots with red stripes up the sides.

The brightly colored heroine smiled, seeming to light up the room with cheer that nearly put Jon to shame (it took her awhile to perfect that particular smile. She actually based it off Jon himself, and Damian was impressed by how accurate she had been able to make it over time. Not that he would say as much out loud).

That was when Diana started choking on thin air, and Damian and Marinette both realized that they had overlooked something rather major.

Hippolyta had been a Ladybug. Diana had met Tikki. Diana knew how to see past Tikki’s glamour.

At first, Ladybug tried to play it off. Maybe Diana would catch on and help her out. So she walked over, holding her hand out for Wonderwoman to shake and putting on another wide smile for good measure.

“Oh my Kwamii! It is so good to finally meet you, Wonderwoman, Tikki told me so much about you and your mother! Would you like to talk later—”

“Marinette Wayne, how in Zeus’ name did you become the new Ladybug?” Wonderwoman instantly yelled, making Marinette wilt. Damian tried backing away slowly, only for Diana’s eyes to then shoot over to him and narrow dangerously. “And you! I knew I felt something weird, but now I can pinpoint it. You are wielding the Black Cat! One of you explain what is going on. Now.”

Ladybug and Robin instantly looked away, getting ready to make a quick escape right as their father walked up behind Robin, putting a firm hand on his shoulders. As always when Batman smiled, it sent a shiver down everyone’s spine. Marinette gulped a little.

“I agree. Marinette, I forgot to tell you that we changed the locations of the League security cameras last night,” shit they were so busted. Bruce must have suspected them of something from the very beginning, stupid world’s greatest detective instincts— “But now that we have confirmed that my suspicions were correct, we can save that discussion for later. First, let’s debrief on the Paris situation like we agreed. Then, you two will explain why you decided not to tell me while you help each other clean the entire Batcave tonight.”

Damian didn’t open his hand for the entire meeting. He and Marinette made eye contact as soon as everyone sat down for a suddenly very uneasy debrief, silently agreeing that they would not let their father take away their Miraculous. They finally had names and reputations of their own, away from the Batclan and their father’s influence. They had learned more about themselves and what they were capable of in those past years as Miraculous wielders than in all the years of the rest of their lives combined. They wouldn’t give it up, not even for Bruce’s approval.

But when they got back to the Manor and began cleaning up the batcave as they had been ordered, they were surprised when Bruce made no mention of taking their jewelry back at all. And he stayed up with them, silently reviewing things on the Batcomputer as they cleaned. It could almost be considered family bonding.

By the time the twins were done cleaning the sun was about to rise, and finally their father spoke up for the first time since they had begun their punishment chore.

“I watched days worth of your Paris battles before going out to meet Ladybug and Chat Noir in person,” he said without ever turning around from his spot at the computer. “I was impressed. I still am. The teamwork was flawless, and the Parisian heroes never used deadly force. They even did their best to provide emotional support to the victims who were akumatized. I thought for sure at least one of you two would have been victims yourself, with all that you’ve been through. Anything can be a trigger for you, anything can make you vulnerable to Hawkmoth,” Bruce paused to take a sip of coffee. He didn’t have to look at his children’s reflections in the face of the Batcomputer to know they were drinking in every word he said. He did anyway, allowing a small smile that they couldn’t see to form on his lips.

“I scoured through every akuma attack one by one, trying to find the one where one or both of you were the ones possessed. But I only found more reasons to be impressed by the heroes instead. By the time I was done looking through every scrap of video I could find, I had a feeling I knew who you were. Hearing your voices in person cemented it further, but I wanted video proof. So, knowing that Marinette would have forgotten about agreeing to accompany me to a JL meeting, I asked Ladybug to debrief us.”

“You had us from the start,” Marinette sighed, shoulders slumping. But Damian said nothing, eyes wide as he picked up on the nuances of what Bruce was saying that Marinette was too tired to catch on to.

“I’m proud of you two.”

Then, even Marinette froze. The twins had identical expressions of shock on their faces, and Bruce finally turned around to look at them properly. For a long while, the three of them only made silent eye contact as dozens of emotions flew through the air silently, but understood. Then Damian and Marinette straightened up just and silently. Damian nodded to his father, Marinette gave him a vulnerable little smile, and then they both backed out and went to head to sleep.

And once they were gone, Bruce sighed in content. Seems his meet-the-Justice-League plan worked out perfectly. He had finally managed to say something right to his two most troublesome children, for the first time. He leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the dark bat-infested cave ceiling as one more tiny grin played on his face, a little melancholy this time.

Guess they never needed him to help them find their inner hero, after all. They had become even better at the whole hero thing than he was, and all on their own. Bruce closed his eyes, not noticing when Alfred draped a blanket over his body and left the Cave with a soft chuckle.

--*--*--*--*--*

This sucked, but I wanted to give you guys something. So. here you go I guess?

#maribat #b!dbwm2020 #b!dbwm #bio!dad bruce wayne #Platonic daminette #sibling daminette #Damian as Chat Noir #mlb x dc #ml x dc #Miraculous ladybug X DC #idk what happened don't yell at me #another one-hour fic

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kittinoir · 4 years ago

Text

Phantoms Ch. 13

Read on Ao3

“Wake up.”

Chloe ignored the voice. She’d learned a while ago it wasn’t real, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the company. She tried not to dwell on that too much. She’d deal with her trauma responses once she was no longer experiencing the trauma.

But it was persistent today.

“Chloe,” it came again. “Wake up”.

This time, she felt something touch her shoulder. That was new. How many days had it been since she’d eaten now?

“Dammit, Chloe, I’ll carry you out of here if I have to, but I really don’t want to.”

She laughed at that, a choked rasping sound that scraped from her parched throat - another thing she was trying not to think about. “Liar,” she whispered.

“Please,” the voice begged, closer this time. Cool hands touched her wrists, her cheek. “Please, Chloe. Get up.”

That caught her attention. The voice had cajoled her, berated her, taunted her, but it had never begged before.

She cracked an eyelid, squinting against the soft glow of the sun lamps that lit the space. “…Felix?”

A rough laugh, like rocks scraping together. “Yes.”

“You’re here?” Chloe asked, coming more fully awake. She felt like she couldn’t pull the scattered pieces of her mind together long enough to form a thought. “You came?”

“Of course I came,” he said as he helped her slowly sit up. “Why wouldn’t I come?”

“Thought it might be…a waste of your time,” she breathed. She didn’t mean to hurt him; his last words were the only thing she’d managed to hold onto, and the only thing that came easily now. She felt her eyelids slide closed again, but she was too tired to do anything about it.

“That was a lie,” Koira said quietly. He was close enough she could feel the warmth, the realness of him. “A lie that I told myself so I wouldn’t get attached.”

Chloe frowned, dragging her eyes open long enough to seek his face. It was close, closer than he’d ever been. “Attached?”

“I would love to have an at-length conversation in the ways I find you completely captivating,” Koira said as Viperion rounded a corner, “But now is hardly the time. We have to get out of here.”

“I’ve tried,” Chloe said, trying to ignore how much more awake she felt now - and how hard her heart was pounding. “Gabriel didn’t just settle for taking my Miraculous.” She tugged on the reinforced steel chain and manacle around her left wrist.

“Nothing Chat Noir can’t take care of,” Viperion suggested before his transformation wore off and Zazz reappeared. Five minutes already. Hopefully Alya wasn’t having any trouble keeping their illusions lively. “Here you are.” Luka pulled a pack of goldfish crackers from the pocket of his hoodie and opened it for his kwami.

Zazz hadn’t taken more than two bites before a scream tore through the room.

“NO!”

Luka was already running, calling on his transformation as he went, but a dim light went off in Chloe’s head: whatever it was, it was already too late - Viperion’s timer had run out.

“Doesn’t sound good,” she said, willing herself to alertness.

“It never does with this bunch,” Koira muttered. “Either way, time to go.”

He didn’t give her time to brace herself. In a matter of seconds, Koira had raised his hammer over his head and brought it down in a shining arc to where the chain was attached to the wall.

“Huh,” Koira said, examining the nearly unmarked metal. “Gabriel’s talents are wasted on supervillainry.”

“Got a plan B?”

“That was plan B.”

“So now what?”

Koira’s face was grim. “Back to plan A. Chat Noir!”

But it was Ryuuko who took shape out of thin air, brandishing her katana. “We’ve lost him.”

Chloe blinked, unable to make sense of the absurd statement.

“Lost who?” Koira said with a frown.

“Chat Noir,” Ryuuko ground out. “Akuma.”

“You brought him here?” Chloe demanded as Ryuuko’s words finally clicked. “You brought him here?!”

“Do you think that anything short of Gabriel’s magical manacles would have kept him away?” Koira growled. “Is there a better way to find out your father’s a supervillain?”

“There might have been a better setting,” Chloe snapped. “Preferably one where I’m not chained to a wall.”

“I’ll try to make other arrangements next time,” Koira snarled before looking up at Ryuuko. “What are we dealing with then?”

“It’s hard to…he looks the same, but in white.

Chloe’s brow creased. “So he’s…Chat…Blanc?”

“Unlimited cataclysms,” Koira murmured. “Sounds fun.”

“Don’t mock him,” Ryuuko snapped, her fingers tightening on her katana. “He’s in pain.” And then she was gone, darting back into the fight they could still hear carrying on.

“Yeah, well, we’re all going to be in pain if he gets his hands on us,” Koira muttered to no one in particular.

“We need the Bee Miraculous back,” Chloe said, tugging weakly on her chain. “If I can just incapacitate him - ”

“Are you joking?” Koira demanded, rounding on her. “You’re in no condition to fight.”

“I’m not in any hurry to die, either!”

“KOIRA!”

Viperion’s shout was the only warning they got. Koira seized it. Instead of calling his power like he wanted to, he yanked Chloe to his chest and pressed them both up against the wall. He pulled her chain taut and whispered a prayer to whatever god might be listening. For the briefest moment, he felt Chloe curl into him, her body warm and real and whole against his.

Then the explosion sent them both flying in a shower of stone rubble.

He didn’t loosen his grip on Chloe once, not even as he landed on his shoulder hard enough he heard something crack. He grunted in pain as they skidded across the stone floor.

“Felix? Felix!”

Koira shook his head clear and realized Chloe was struggling against the grip he still held her in. He forced himself to relax, his muscles aching with the strain.

“Ok, not as much fun as previously anticipated,” he gasped out as he hauled himself into a sitting position.

“You idiot!” she shouted, grabbing the fur ruff at his neck. The tail of the chain still attached to her rattled against the floor. “What did you think you were doing!”

“Plan A,” Koira managed, “With some modifications.”

“He nearly took my arm off!”

“As if I would let you get hurt,” he said, wrapping his fingers around her free wrist.

You already did. Chloe finally blinked as her left hand drifted back down to her lap, the words waiting on her tongue. She didn’t need to say them; she could see that he knew it, too.

“They need help,” she said instead as another blast rocked the room. “Go. I can take care of myself.”

Koira made a face, his gaze darting pointedly down to the manacle still on her wrist, but didn’t mention it as his fingers slipped from her skin. “Do I need to tell you to get as far away from here as fast as you can?”

“I’m dehydrated, not stupid,” Chloe snapped. Koira just gave one last exasperated shake of his head before he stood and darted into the fray.

No, he did not need to tell her to run. It would have been a waste of time - she wasn’t going anywhere. Miraculous or no, she was still Queen Bee, and she owed Gabriel for his hospitality.

Chloe remained in a crouch as she scuttled forward towards the sounds of the fight. Her joints ached in protest and every beat of her heart begged her to lie down. She ignored them.

She paused when she was close enough she could see shadows dancing just on the other side of the table she was behind. If she remembered correctly, they were battling it out in the atrium where she’d first entered.

Ryuuko was talking. “Koira, if you use Full Counter - ”

“No!” Viperion gasped as he dodged a cataclysm. “He’s too powerful like this. It’ll kill him!”

Chloe shivered. How many times had Viperion reset their timer already? How many of them had died?

“I’m open to other ideas,” Koira said.

“We’re running out of time!” Ladybug shouted over the din. “I need to figure out my Lucky Charm.”

“Go,” she heard Viperion say. “We can keep him busy for a few minutes.”

Before Ladybug could respond, a horrible laugh echoed through the room, quiet at first, then manic. “You’ll keep me busy? I’m going to tear you apart!”

Chloe’s heart thudded in her chest. Adrien. She had never heard him sound like that before. Akumatized or not…something had broken in him. No wonder Hawk Moth had seized this opportunity. No wonder Adrien hadn’t been able to fight back. Perhaps she’d been wrong about the setting. Maybe keeping him contained in this basement cavern was for the best.

Suddenly, Ladybug was there, rolling into a crouch after vaulting over the table.

“Chloe!” Ladybug blurted, her eyes going wide. “What…you’re ok!” She frowned. “You need to get out of here. It isn’t safe.”

Even as she spoke, Chloe didn’t miss the way Ladybug kept fiddling with her Lucky Charm, a pair of bolt cutters, or the wild, haunted look in her eyes. Abruptly, Ladybug zeroed in on the chain coiled at Chloe’s feet.

“You! That’s why I couldn’t figure it out.”

“Me?”

“These must have been to free you from the wall,” Ladybug said. “We need you to win.”

Chloe couldn’t meet Ladybug’s eyes as she said, “Koira and Chat Noir kind of already took care of it, but, Ladybug…Hawk Moth took my Miraculous.”

“It’s still you, Chloe,” Ladybug insisted, leaning in to lay a hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “I don’t know how exactly, but - ”

“Ladybug!” Chloe interrupted. Ladybug’s sudden closeness had given her a view of the heroine’s ears.“Your earrings! You’re going to detransform.”

Ladybug grit her teeth in frustration. “That’s ok. It was time for a new Lucky Charm anyway. Miraculous Ladybug!”

Ladybug sent the Lucky Charm skittering away from them across the floor. It burst into thousands of glowing Ladybug’s that swept the room, repairing the damage done. Chloe heard the surprised gasps of their teammates as their injuries were healed.

No sooner had the ladybugs finished a final sweep of the room then did Ladybug’s transformation itself dissolve. Yards of pale pink fabric spilled out around her, and Chloe was surprised to see she had her hair down for once.

“You dressed up for a rescue mission?” Chloe whispered as Marinette caught an exhausted Tikki in her palm.

“Gabriel’s charity auction,” Marinette said by way of explanation. “Seemed like the best time to sneak in. We were supposed to be ghosts.”

Chloe thought on it. “I’ve been here for four days then.”

“I’m sorry. We only found out this morning. The teacher’s said you were down with some kind of flu - I guess a lie from your father,” Marinette said bitterly. “Koira’s the only reason we knew to look.”

“Koira?”

“I guess he got your message the next time he finally transformed,” Marinette said as she watched Tikki finish her cookie. “He was manic. I’m surprised he even bothered to tell us first.”

Chloe tried to ignore the way her heart stumbled at that. Even after their fight, he’d kept his promise.

And then the table vanished.

Chloe flinched as it exploded against a nearby wall and shrapnel went whipping through the room. She felt some of it bite into her arm and leg. A white-hot line scored her cheek where she was sure another piece had narrowly missed her eye.

“Hiding, my love? That hurts.”

He was the most horrible thing Chloe had ever seen, a twisted replica of her friend. The only bit of colour in the sea of white were ice-chip blue eyes that were devoid of anything but rage. He was Adrien, but not. Adrien never got angry. Adrien was never violent. And Adrien had certainly never looked at Marinette like that - like he would devour her whole.

“Run!”

Marinette had grabbed Chloe by the arm and was sprinting back the way Chloe had come before she could even fully understand what had happened. Her chain clanked noisily on the floor as they ran, seeming to urge them to go fast, faster.

“Go,” Chloe panted, dizzy with the exertion. “I’m just slowing you down. You need to transform, not run.”

“I can do both,” Marinette huffed. “Tikki - !”

An explosion rocked the floor before Marinette could finish, sending both girls flying. Chloe felt the air rush from her lungs as she hit the floor and was left gasping, in too much pain to breathe in again. Her lungs squeezed.

She screwed her eyes shut, focusing on slowly taking a deep breath through the pain, even as her ribs protested. Again. Again. Again.

When Chloe could finally breathe through the worst of it, she pushed herself back up and opened her eyes to what she instantly knew would give her nightmares for weeks to come:

Marinette in her beautiful pink gown, the ribbon trailing from her hair, caught up against Chat Blanc with her back to his chest, his hand cupping her cheek, and no one to help.

#Phantoms #Lucky number 13 #MariBlanc

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sofialsan15 · 4 years ago

Text

Habibi

Hi There!!! I'm new to this fandom and to tumblr (first time I ever published something) and I don't know if I'm permitted to just publish it, so I thought about levaing it here (if there is a procedure I'll just erase it) . It's on AO3 too, if you could go there too it'll be appreciated.

This is a songfic based on a french song named Habibi by Kedjic Girac. It's just screamed to me Daminette (personal opinion).

WARNINGS!!!

English it's not my first language.

Possible character death.

There, when you laugh

He observed as she danced across the garden, like an angel in the Eden. Everything she touched sprouted with more life, as if she was the only thing they needed to live. He observed as she smiled, as she laughed. With his dog circling her like he was inciting her to dace even more. It was as clear as a note. He would do anything to make her laugh, to see her smile. If there was someone up there, only they knew how much she deserved to be happy.

When you cry

He remembered how he had found her. He was in France; it was a simple vacation to go to the festival of art that the city of loved had hosted. His father had encouraged him to participate with one of his paints. He had said a firm ‘No’ but after some alone time to think, he really wanted to do it. He spent months doing paint after paint. Nothing convinced him. So, he set course earlier to find inspiration. He was walking in the night when he heard a commotion, it was a group of people laughing and recording a girl that was crying. A blonde male was looking like he wanted to be everyone but there.

‘You´re not worth my freedom’ He had said.

They parted and he sucked in a breath. She was an angel, as the moon shined in her midnight hair. Tears fell like pearls and her bluebell ayes shone like two precious jewels.

When nothing matters to you

And in that moment, he saw it. How she was in the verge of giving up and abandon her light. In that moment he thought it was just Paris, the way she seemed to light the night like a star. How wrong was him. Even here in Gotham, it was as if she purified the environment. He was about to go to her when a dark butterfly flew passed him directly to her. How ethereal, he thought. Thus, the next thing that happened surprised him. She extended her hand and as softly as it landed, it transformed in a pure white one.

‘Not today petit papillion’ she said softly.

It is life, don't be afraid

He saw as she got up, she inhaled, and it was as if live was precious again. She smiled, a nostalgic one to the moon. His heart started beating loudly, and his cheeks redden. The long ribbons in her hair and the white silky dress were balancing softly, in a rhythm only the wind knew. She was incredible small to his 6’3. She exhaled one more time and looked at him. He remembered the Zing that sounded and the click they too felt. She had taken a step towards him and looked confused. It was when he met Tikki. As he explained what the two were.

Nothing in the world is strongest than us two

And as they fought side to side, he as the new black cat holder, they just inevitably fell in love with each other. Not because they were halves to a sole ying-yang meant that they were going to. But he saw something in him, and it was impossible no to saw something in her too.

She who she was kind.

She who was strong in more ways than one.

She who made him smile.

She who forgive.

She who defended.

She who loved with all her.

Who said flowers only grow close to home?

It was an extenuating battle the one they had, she said that he had died of exhaustion. After all, it had taken a whole month in the open sky of the city. The miracle cure had brought him back, still he only just remembered extenuating pain and tiredness. The city was full of bad memories, even if they did meet there. So, Damian had brought her to his home. That was finally complete with her, in his arms. And she had bloomed even more beautiful. Full of happiness and love, it was as is she was a flower on the wrong soil. Vibrant colors, not one petal rotten and a delightful aroma had spread from the flower since it changed the environment.

There they said that it's better we quit here my love,

It was so difficult for her though, for them. His father had not approved, and it was only because she was not heroine. Fragile and vulnerable, he had call her. The Al- Ghul did not want to share what happened in his journey. No one outside of France new about what happened there. He had tried to reason with him, but even his brothers were on his father´s side because of their own bad experiences. They all had suffered and could not see another fallout for him. It hurt, a lot, that they doubt him. That they didn´t accepted her. Her parents hadn´t approved either, her ex had bad mouth him with them and they just didn´t want to see reason. She cried when the two of them left the bakery, but soon they forgot.

And they will soon forget again, together.

It would be better if we let go but ya habibi,

Already had she shed too many tears for the people she had loved. For unworthy people who were too good for her. Not that he was worthy, but death will be much sweeter than to ever hurt the reason of his existence. They her the press, saying that they were not a match. They heard their families telling them too. They her their most precious friends, who had no right to judge their love.

I still remember when you were telling me

But they fought for their love, they will always. Against everyone, against anyone, against nobody and against somebody. For one thing they were sure, it was that their love was that. Their. Not somebody else´s. If they did not had faith, had trust in each other. No one already had. It was so easy to love each other.

Ya habibi

We said forever, I swore you promised

Ya habibi

They did, they promised each other that forever was too little, and always wasn´t enough. They swore love in the most sacred way it could exist. With the blessing of deities and a plead not even the darkest magic could break. And they made love under the stars, with love driving them both. With love as the only witness they needed. They made love until the sun had risen from the mountain of Tibet, in a hidden temple that had no one.

There, when I cry

When I scream

Somethings were too precious to him not to break under pressure. Even more so when it was his father. He had discovered her healing him with the powers she developed why she was bonded to the miracoulous. As Robin, he was still in his mask and she had rushed to save him. His father had scream and he had scream. Nothing else had frighten him more than when his father had took her and swing her to the WE tower. He was interrogating her as she stood her grpund against the railing. His brothers haces held fear too, having her grown in them. And he remebered her scream as the railing broke and his father tried to reach for her. He remeber his own scream and the cries he had made. The last look she had given him before plumating to the ground. His brothers had restrained him as he tried to go to her.

‘She couldn´t transform !’

I know that you are there

That night his brothers saw him cry and scream at their father. It was too close of a call. He had thought that he had lost them.

I lose myself, in bed, when you are not there.

And she laid in the hospital, because of the use of the miraculous on her condition. He held her hand. Only his sisters had come to accompany him. Alfred the only person he could talk to. He had dreamed many nights in the hospital that he would wake up and she would not be there. By his side, in his arms. That he was alone.

They told me, get used to it, but I think of only you

There, in my heart, it hurts, I do nothing but think of it

So, know, as Damian sees her laugh in the garden of the Wayne manor. With her bulging stomach. That had such a precious cargo, even there his heart hurt when he thinks again what he would do without them.

When my eyes, tear up, when the changes hurt me

But for now, all he had was tears from happiness. As she looks at him and smiles. With the pocket gods dancing like fairies around her.

I still remember when you were telling me

Ya habibi

And she still does. As he does too.

Ya habibi

His love.

We said forever, I swore you promised

Ya habibi

They said forever and more. More than always. And they had it.

Ya habibi

#daminette #maridami #maribat

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prettyyoungandbored · 5 years ago

Text

All I’ve Got [Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee]

Pairing: Nikki Sixx x Sister!Reader, Tommy Lee & Sixx Sister!Reader

Request: hi! i’m the anon who asked about you writing for the dirt, do you think you could write something where the reader is nikki’s sister and dating tommy and she’s with tommy when they see on the tv that nikki is dead??? and they find out later he isn’t dead and the reader begs him to get his shit together cuz he’s the only family she has??? sorry it’s so specific lmao thank you!!💕

Warnings: Mentions of an overdose

Tommy insisted on spending Christmas with his parents, something Y/N was more than happy to do. Up until the boys came along in her life, her and Nikki didn’t really celebrate the holidays. Even when they lived with their grandparents, the holidays were just another day.

She and Tommy begged Nikki to come along, but he refused. Y/N couldn’t understand why, but she had feeling Nikki had plans with someone named heroin. His addiction was growing stronger everyday, besides pleas from Y/N to get help before it was too late.

Angered by her brother’s carelessness and selfishness, she refused to let it effect her time at Tommy’s house.

Tommy’s mom and Y/N decorated the house, talking and laughing the entire time. Tommy’s mom treated her with the warmth and love that Deanna, Y/N and Nikki’s real mom, never gave her. She and Tommy’s father made sure Y/N always felt comfortable, and there weren’t enough words in the English language to describe just how grateful Y/N was for them.

The night before Christmas Eve, Tommy, Y/N, and Tommy’s parents and sister were sitting around, enjoying some hot chocolate when Tommy’s father picked up the remote from the coffee table.

“I think they have ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ playing on Channel 3,” he said, turning it on.

He found the Channel 3 and just as the opening credits began to play, they were cut off by a ‘Breaking News’ graphic.

“What’s going on?” Tommy’s mom inquired, turning to her husband.

The camera fixated on the female anchor.

“Good evening. I’m Robin Carlisle with some breaking news out of Hollywood. We’ve just received unconfirmed reports that Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has died this evening of an apparent drug overdose.”

Y/N dropped her cup of hot chocolate on the floor, her blood running ice cold. Her mouth hung open as the world around her froze. She couldn’t hear Tommy hold her in his arms as he sobbed violently.

She felt like a huge part of her had just been ripped away without warning. Nikki was her only family, her protector from their mother and her creepy boyfriends. He was her best friend and her partner-in-crime.

Now, he was gone and she was sure it was her fault.

She tried multiple times to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t budge. She was all talk and no action, afraid of what her brother would do if she took away his needles and heroin.

But this is what her fear got her.

She crumbled to the ground, Tommy holding her tightly in his arm as she cried on his chest. As devastated as he was that he lost his best friends, a part of hi was furious at Nikki. How could do this, even after his sister begged and pleaded with him multiple times? How could he leave her like this?

He opens his mouth in an attempt to tell her it’s gonna be ok, but he loves her too much to lie.

“Vince called,” Tommy’s father said, coming back from the kitchen. “He says Nikki’s at Cedars-Sinai.”

Tommy nodded. “Thanks Pop.” He turned to Y/N who wiped her eyes. “It’s up to you, babe.”

“I need to go,” she sniffled. “I have to go.”

He wasn’t going to argue with her so he helped her up, grabbed his keys, and the two of them made their way.

Tommy tried to drive as fast as he can while Y/N tried to keep herself together in the passenger seat. She almost reached out to turn on the radio, just to quiet the thoughts in her head but she knew that would be useless considering all of them would just have Christmas songs playing and that was the last thing she needed to hear.

She buried her face in her hands. Tommy glancesd over at her and used one hand to stroke her hair, a silent reassurance that he was here for her.

When they arrived at the hospital, a swarm of paparazzi stood outside. Tommy grabbed Y/N’s hand as she lowered her head. Just as her nightmare couldn’t get any worse, cameras and screams from those behind them, made her jump.

‘Y/N did you know about your brother’s addiction?!’

‘Are you taking over his assets?’

‘What’s gonna happen to Mötley Crüe?’

‘Is it true he had a prostitute in the room when he died?’

“Can you all seriously fuck off?!” Tommy barked at them.

She tightened her grip on Tommy as the paparazzi continued to scream at her. She rushed inside followed by Tommy.

They made their way to the front desk, not caring about the people in the waiting area staring at them. The nurse at the front desk looked at Y/N and Tommy.

“You’re here for Nikki Sixx, I assume?” She asked.

Y/N nodded and the nurse gave her a warm, sympathetic smile. “You’re just in time. The doctor is in there with him right now. He apparently woke up not too long ago?”

Y/N’s head shot up, eyes widening. “He...he what?!”

“He what?” Tommy asked.

“Did Mr. Neil not tell you?” the nurse questioned. “Our EMTs revived him on the way here. He’s been-.”

“What room is he in?” Y/N cut her off.

“Third floor. Room 7.”

Y/N thanked her as she and Tommy rushed into the elevator. Hope and relief radiated through her that when she and Tommy were alone, she found herself clutching onto’s Tommy shirt, crying.

Tommy was relived, to say the very least. It also made him realize his current lifestyle had consequences and that if he ever wanted a real future with Y/N, he had to make some serious changes.

When they got to the third floor, Y/N and Tommy booked it to Room 7, pushing through nurses and other staffers to get to the room.

Upon reaching Room 7, Y/N burst through the door to find her older brother button up his jeans. He looked up and froze when he saw his little sister.

Y/N and Nikki stood there face-to-face. His face softened at the sight of his baby sister’s blood shot eyes.

Nikki’s pale state brought out the dried blood spots on his chest from where the needles were injected as well as his under eye bags.

“Y/N-.”

Y/N stomped toward him and slapped him across the face. He stumbled back, surprised by her actions.

“Ow,” he grumbled.

“I thought I lost you tonight,” she trembled. “I thought I lost my best friend and my brother.”

Nikki swallowed hard, his hands leaving the spot where she slapped him. “Y/N, I’m so sorry.”

She threw her hands up. “Is that all you have to say to me?! You’re sorry?!”

She eyed the telephone on his night side, pointing at it. “You couldn’t even have the decency to call me or Tommy and tell us you were fine?! I gave you his family’s house phone number for a reason!”

She wiped her eyes with her sleeves. “You were going to runaway, weren’t you? You were going to run from the doctor.”

“Y/N-.”

“No, no I don’t wanna hear it, ok? You’re gonna stay in here and I’m gonna stay here until you are formally discharged. After that, I’m staying at the house and you and I and Doc are gonna talk about rehab.”

Nikki rolled his eyes. “You’re overreacting.”

Y/N’s eyes widened as Tommy, realizing what was about to happen, stepped back. She slapped her brother again.

“Jesus Christ, Y/N!” he snapped.

“You’re all I have, Nikki!” she spat. “You’re my only family left. I can’t lose you. Please, I am begging you, please stop this and get clean.”

Nikki lowered his head, realizing his actions had more serious consequences than he believed. Y/N wiped her eyes and nose on the sleeve of her sweater.

“Please don’t leave me,” she whimpered.

Nikki made eye contact with Tommy, who lowered his gaze in solidarity with his girlfriend. Nikki then opened his arms, wrapping them around her as she sobbed.

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” he whispered. “I’m really sorry.”

He knew changes had to be made if not for him, but for the sake of the only family he had left.

#nikki sixx x reader #nikki sixx #tommy lee x reader #tommy lee #nikki sixx oneshot #tommy lee oneshot #mötley crüe

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pl-panda · 5 years ago

Text

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 14

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 14

---------

“Tt. I will cut that stupid harlot into pieces.” Damian scowled. He, Allegra, Claude, Jon, Felix, Marinette, and Chloé sat at one of the prime tables in the cafeteria. His wife just finished telling them what happened after the initiation meeting.

“Maybe we don’t immediately jump to murder?” Claude suggested.

“I agree. We don’t have a place to hide a body yet.” Chloé supplied.

“That’s not what… nevermind.” Allegra sighed.

“Dami! I appreciate the thought, but maybe keep it as plan Z?”

“Plan Z is where I need more than one body bag.” He grumbled but nodded. “But we can postpone it.”

“Okay. Let’s act rationally and focus on prevention. Teachers will be useless.” Felix chose to act as the voice of reason.

“I really hoped it would be different than Paris…” Marinette moaned.

“It is. If they actually catch her, she will be expelled. But you’re not exactly the headmaster’s favorite person while Erica seems to be held high by him. We would need a solid proof and she is cunning.” Claude explained.

“Remember Lucy Hunt?” Allegra asked. “She did something to attract Erica’s wrath and she had to move to Metropolis after she had a mental breakdown. Nothing was ever proven and to the naked eye it would look like a series of coincidences.”

“So she is smarter than Lila?” The shorter Parisian asked, worried about what was to come.

“Nah. She just knows how to talk with the right people.” Claude dismissed.

“First order of business would be to ensure she has nothing real to hurt you with.” Felix started.

Damian and Marinette shared a worried gaze before the boy spoke. “The site is foolproof. Drake made sure to use some of the best technology we have to protect it. Not even a super AI can hack it.” He subtly nodded his head to where Max and Markov ate. Kim and Alix were with them. The skater girl looked really upset. “Same with social media. Short of an alien invasion or if someone physically broke into where we hid the servers, you’re safe on that front.”

It clearly took a lot of weight from her shoulders.

“Okay, now onto blackmail?”

“Tt. That’s not something to discuss where we can be overheard.” Damian quickly shut that topic down.

“Right. Sorry.” Jon rubbed the back of his neck.

“Don’t worry, Kent. I’m covering that front.” Chloé smirked.

“That’s great…” Claude started, but then pointed toward another table, with quite a lot of people. “Is that Erica… and you said that Sausage Hair was Layla Bossi?”

“Lila Rossi,” Chloé corrected him. “But I like Lie-la Bossi better now.”

“They seem… friendly..” Jon commented when the two girls hugged.

“I would actually expect them to be rivals, given that both want Damian,” Allegra noted.

“Are they… crying?” Marinette asked.

“Crocodile tears.” Felix glared at them. “They are up to something. I don’t…” He never got to finish, because a purple butterfly descended from the ceiling and landed on Erica’s ring. The corrupted energy surrounded her momentarily and when it died out, her whole appearance was changed.

She now wore a black one-piece cheerleader uniform, similar to what GA cheerleaders wore, except it was black with red lines and not lilac with a white finish. On her chest, there was, in a jagged script, written ‘Gargoyle’. Her face was now in a light shade of red, with tear stains permanently etched on her cheeks. Her eyes were entirely white. Her blonde hair was turned into a messy mane and two horns stood proudly on her forehead. Her lower legs turned into that of a goat, complete with hooves. She was now holding a whip in one hand and a burning pompon in the other. Small wings were folded on her back.

“A succubus! +10 to charisma and +5 to strength!” A small Asian girl shouted from the nearby table.

“I am Weeping Gargoyle!” The Akuma spoke. “I’ve been used by the one I held dear and now I’m going to get what I was denied. But first,” the creature turned to Marinette and her friends. “You! I’m going to deal with you!”

“Frick frack I lost me…” Claude started some rhymed joke, but a fireball sailing toward them shut him up.

Thinking quickly, Marinette flipped over the table to use it as an impromptu cover. Damian kicked the ground and a sword popped from next to his chair. Nobody had time to question how he hid it there because everyone scattered. There was nowhere to transform in all the havoc.

“What’s going on here?” Headmaster Hammer walked through the front doors to the cafeteria to see a demonic cheerleader tossing flaming pompons that exploded. “Teenagers.” He growled. From under his cloak, he drew a saber and took a battle stance. “Fiend!” He rushed at her. The whip slashed at him, but the headmaster deflected it with an incredible show of swordsmanship. This created an opening for Damian to charge from the other side. He managed to dodge the flaming ball and slice at her hand. At the last moment, the wing shielded the Akuma and his blade bounced off without leaving the slightest cut. The headmaster was met with the same fate.

“Stupid men!” The Akuma shouted. A ring of fire exploded from her, pushing and burning both of the attackers.

“Run.” Headmaster snapped at Damian. “I’ll hold her off.”

“Tt. You’re old. Get to safety.” The boy snapped back.

“You’re so getting detention for this!” Hammer scowled as the two dodged their separate ways.

“Hey! The tryouts are in the gym!” A voice spoke from a hole in the roof. A spotted heroine leaped from the hole while throwing a yo-yo at the Akuma. The cheerleader shielded with her wings before flapping them and lifting from the ground.

“You’re not who I want! I’ll get your miraculous later!” She flew through the same hole the heroine entered through. The whole cafeteria was now on fire. Ladybug met Damian’s gaze for a moment before grabbing the headmaster and jumping outside. He was in bad condition from all the smoke.

She laid him on the ground to make sure he was okay. He coughed several times before the professor was able to speak correctly. “What about the brat!”

“I’m going in now.”

“No need.” Black Cat appeared next to them. “I got him out. We’re lucky the main doors were still working because the rooftop fell apart after I entered.”

“Cat! The Akuma will be on her ring. It was what created all the fire.”

“Tt. Let’s go.” The two jumped away from the headmaster, who hid a small smile.

-----------

Three girls and two boys snuck around the campus. Most of the students were already evacuated, but they managed to stay undetected and remain in the action area.

“I still think we shouldn’t go after a supervillain.” Kyle tried, but Maps made a gesture that told him to stop speaking.

“Sh! I’m telling you, it was Erica. A butterfly landed on her and she suddenly transformed into that monster.”

“I read about it. It was a demon. The Lord of Butterflies sent it to take her over. If we aren’t careful, it will turn all of us into that monster.”

“Olivia? You’ve got the crossbow?”

“Please. Demon? Lord of Butterflies?” Colton criticized. “Are you sure it wasn’t just some manga?”

“Shut up! How else would you explain what happened to Erica?” Pomeline asked. “It’s obviously dark magic.”

“Okay. Assuming it is dark magic, how are we supposed to protect ourselves? I’m pretty sure I don’t have tinfoil hats on me.”

“Fool. The only thing that can protect you from the Lord of Butterflies are positive emotions.” She spoke like it was an obvious fact, yet still making it sound ominous.

Abruptly, the wall they were hiding behind exploded, and a girl dressed in a skintight red and black outfit flew past them. A boy in assassin garb followed. He landed on his feet and started to spin a staff fast enough to create a shield. Several fireballs flew at him, but they all smashed into the shield harmlessly.

He noticed them cowering behind the wall.

“Tt. What are you doing here!? Get away! Now!”

Ladybug jumped up and leaped from behind him, throwing her yoyo. It wrapped over the leg of the villain and pulled the flying Akuma down. Cat charged past his partner and smashed her with his baton like it was a baseball bat, sending her into the wall.

“Lucky Charm!” The heroine tossed the yo-yo above her head and a red-and-black watermelon fell into her arms. With only a moment’s hesitation, she tossed it to Cat, who already knew what to do. Once more playing baseball, he redirected the watermelon over to the akuma. She just managed to get it together when the fruit landed on her horns and got stuck. The change of weight made her fall, which Ladybug used to dash toward her and tie her with her own whip. She then pulled the ring from her finger and crushed it in her hand.

A purple butterfly escaped her grasp, which she caught into her yo-yo.

“Bye Bye little butterfly.” She then grabbed the watermelon and tossed it high in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The item exploded into a swarm of glowing bugs that fixed everything there was to fix. It looked like the supervillain never attacked.

“What… I…” Erica was back to normal and very confused. “There was… I remember…”

“Don’t worry. The paramedics will be with you shortly.” Ladybug calmed her. There was a bit of cold in her voice, but it was probably because she just finished fighting her a moment ago.

“I told you it’s magic.” Pomeline grinned victoriously while she whispered at Colton.

“Ehm.” Suddenly, the group was startled by the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them. “Mind explaining to me why are you here and not evacuated with everyone else?”

“Oh! Um… You see…” Maps started, but Pomeline was too focused on something else. “Where did you learn magic! Can you teach me?! I mean we go to school here and I want to help if Lord of Butterflies and his Demons attack again!”

“Lord of Butterflies?” Ladybug walked to them and asked, again startling the whole group.

“Yes. There was an old book in the library. I managed to decipher part of it and it spoke of the Lord of Butterflies and Demons he sent to possess people. But there is only so far a translator on my phone could take me. I’m not exactly fluent in Mandarin.”

“Can you lead us to it?” The superheroine was showing almost too much interest.

“Will you teach me magic?” Pomeline tried to bargain.

“Tt. You will take us there or we return with the police and you will take us there.” Black Cat was not in the mood. Blackmail was the last thing he wanted right now.

“Fine.” The girl scoffed and led them toward the library.

“How did you summon a watermelon?” The smallest girl asked zooming over to Ladybug. “Are you a summoner? I never played a summoner. They have some nice spells I suppose…”

Ladybug, against herself, giggled at the girl’s antics. She also noted in the corner of her eyes that Damian was also smiling under the hood.

Nobody noticed when Erica slipped away.

-------

The library was large and dusty. It didn’t look like many people came here.

“It’s the old building. When Bruce Wayne funded a new library with new books, they decided to just keep the old one as an archive. Now only people that come here are us and Mr. Scarlet.”

“The new library totally had nothing to do with Damian Wayne getting expelled for the fourth time.” Colton joked and Ladybug giggled when Black Cat muttered a curse under his breath.

“The book was in the back. I didn’t want to move it…”

When they turned the corner, they saw a woman in a blue and purple dress standing over a book with a tablet. She was taking pictures of the pages. Her skin was blue and her hair purple.

The group immediately pressed against the wall, and Pom pulled a handheld mirror to take a look around the corner without risk of being spotted. Meanwhile, Ladybug and Black Cat looked at one another and their faces took a serious expression. There was a kind of silent dialogue going on between them and they both nodded at the same time. In complete silence, Cat used his staff to up and meld with the shadows. Only his green eyes were visible until they too disappeared.

Ladybug opened her Yo-Yo like a phone and took a photo of the feathered villain. She was turned to them, but even something as simple as that could be a major help. Kwami bless magical phones for making perfect pictures without a flash.

With the proof needed, she aimed her yo-yo, spun it twice around before throwing it forward. The projectile sailed true and wrapped around her arm holding the tablet. The villainess was surprised and let go of the tool as Ladybug yanked on the line and made her opponent lose balance. That was the cue for Black Cat, who swooped from the ceiling, snatched the tablet, and leaped back into the shadows.

“Ugh! Stupid peasants!” The Peacock cursed. Instead of freeing her hand, she allowed the fan to slip into her hand and unfolded it. She tried to pull on the yo-yo’s line and make her opponent fly to her. It worked, but Ladybug twisted mid-air and came at the villainess feet first in a kick. The blue woman had to block it, but she still held the line. The heroine used it for her advantage and flipped the line over Peacock’s neck and started to choke her. It also held her in place. Black Cat, who already deposited the tablet in a safe place, swept down and tried to grab the brooch, but he got kicked back by an angry woman, fighting for a breath.

Peacock folded her fan and swiped at the line, cutting it and making Ladybug fall on her back. The Villainess took a deep breath and looked around to analyze her situation. She was outnumbered and the element of surprise was still on her opponents’ side. Even without the yo-yo, Ladybug was a formidable foe and she wasn’t sure who the new Black Cat was. She had a silent suspicion, but nothing solid.

“Until we meet again, fools.” She leaped up and onto the shelves. Cat went in pursuit, but she saw the kids hidden behind one of the shelves and purposefully made it fall when she jumped onto it. The kids didn’t have enough time to scatter. Predictably, Black Cat went to save the kids.

He pushed Maps from under the falling shelf but got stuck there himself. His suit and enhanced body could withstand it, but not his bruised ego.

“Don’t be a grumpy cat. We’ve got her tablet.” Ladybug stood over him and grinned before helping him stand up.

“Tt. We might have our first lead.” He grinned.

“Let’s go check the book itself. The fact she was after it makes me think it has more value than I first suspected.”

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

Masterlist // Next

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zebrabaker · 5 years ago

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Paris Stands Alone; Part 13

Part 12

This chapter’s art is...

As always, HUGE credits to @gajer-1226 , for her amazing art!

Marinette groaned from her spot on the couch. Mullo had come down from relaxing in the sunroom a while ago, and the trio was sprawled out on the couch, cuddling under a blanket and watching a news report on the current Mayoral elections. Monsieur D’Argencourt was running again, despite having lost so many times in a row. His opponents were a strict woman who had been on the city council for years and was very conservative, and a man who was far more liberal but had little experience. She’d need to keep an eye on things politically, things like this always led to stronger Akumas, be they the politicians themselves or angry citizens.

Right as she had begun to debate with herself whether or not she should go back to bed the whole house shook, and she heard screaming in the streets.

“Son of a bitch…let’s go.” She rolled off the couch with a heavy sigh. “What are we betting on this time?” She asked, stretching and rolling her neck gently.

“Oh! Animal!” Mullo squeaked, perking up. She and the Kwamis had invented a game of betting on what the Amoks would be, winner getting to pick what game they would play on the household game night. If there was a tie, they would do a coin toss.

“I imagine after this morning they’ll go for inanimate.” Tikki yawned. “Ready whenever you are, Marinette!”

“Spots on!” She cried, smirking when she saw a portal appear a few feet away from her, put of sight of the windows. Leaping through, she let loose a battle cry as the world sharply shifted.

X0X0X

The Amok was a rampaging, canine beast, with massive fangs and glowing red eyes, and a hissing, spitting cobra for a tail. It looked like a terrifying mix of a pit-bull and a Doberman pinscher. Nightmare had taken to the rooftops, opening a portal that Ladybug leaped through with a mighty cry. She flung her yoyo at a flagpole and yanked it tight, swinging towards the beast feet-first. She slammed it across the snout, making it whine and stumble. A figure dropped from another portal in the sky, this one swirling blue and white, the figure indistinguishable.

“No way!” Teacup squealed, bouncing in place.

“What is that?” Batman asked, drawing a batarang.

“That is someone we don’t see very often.” Cat Sidhe muttered.

“Who?” Wonder Woman asked, fidgeting with her lasso.

“Bunnyx, the wielder of the Rabbit Miraculous. Her Miracle is called Burrow, it allows her to transverse the timestream with ease. She only visits on important occasions, or if she needs to warn us away from something. She’s the one who sent Jade Turtle out on patrol the night he died saving that girl from the disgraced one. Let’s go say ‘hi’, everyone.” Yellow Jacket was smirking as she took off running for the edge of the building. Right as she reached the edge, she grabbed a dagger from her boot and flung it at the beast at the same time as she flung her trompo at the same flagpole Ladybug had swung from. The dagger nailed the beast (presumably an Amok) in the eye, and it howled in agony and rage. It thrashed and stomped it’s feet, which were the size of minivans. It managed to take the corner off a building, making the civilians evacuating along the sidewalks scream.

Snapping Turtle dove into action, drawing their shield in a fluid motion and shouting something lost beneath the sound of the monster’s howls. A green semi-opaque dome made of hexagons appeared, surrounding a small family and the hero in question from the rubble raining from above. The shield didn’t even flicker or waver, merely protecting the small family as Snapping Turtle scooped one of the three small children up and prepping the family to move.

Vixen, standing on the rooftop, drew her reedpipes from her belt, and slowly began to play a haunting tune. Cat Sidhe, picking up on some hidden signal, made a series of gestures with the hand that bore his ring, before uttering a word that made the Americans shudder. It was dark and dank, this feeling, like the paranoia of being out late at night with shadows looming and every sound inducing panic.

From the ring began to emerge a shadowy figure. It morphed itself slowly into a humanoid figure, dressed in all white, with features that seemed to whisper ‘not right, not human, predator!’ in the ears of all who saw it. It was the unnatural smoothness of it’s skin and features, the inverted colors, with white pupils and black irises, hair that started pure white and faded to dull purple. It seemed to be a doll, unmoving, until Cat Sidhe spoke.

“Distract the Amok for me.” He ordered, and the inhuman thing melted into a pool of shadows, before the puddle seemed to dart away towards the Amok.

“What was that?” Nightwing asked uneasily.

“That was his Grace’s secondary ability, Nyx. It creates an inverted clone of pure destruction energy. You don’t want to be around when it self-destructs, that’s for damn sure.” Roi Singe sighed. “I’ll stay back this time; I don’t want to throw you guys off.”

“Alright. I’m off. Vixen, you good?” The fox, who was still playing her pipes, which were emitting a light orange mist, nodded slowly. The mist was descending to the streets below, and Cat Sidhe went running towards the edge of the building, going into a diver’s position as he plummeted towards the street below. Barely twenty feet above the pavement, the cat hero drew his baton and extended it, slamming the end into the ground so hard that it dented the asphalt as he vaulted towards the Amok, which was now biting and snapping as Ladybug and Yellow Jacket darted around it’s head. There was another heroine, this one in blue and white with roller skates on her feet, moving too fast for anyone to properly see her.

The orange mist, which now filled the entire block, suddenly blew towards the Amok, whirling around it as if being held by a tornado. A glance at Vixen proved that her fingers were dancing over her pipes faster than ever, and Batman felt on edge. He’d never been a fan of magic.

The mist rapidly coalesced into a large, feline shape, similar to the Amok in it’s unnatural size. The feline let out a powerful yowl, and swiped with massive claws at the Amok. The Amok (Who Yellow Jacket insisted on calling ‘Fluffy) growled and pounced at the beast, only to be entangled in the wires of Ladybug and Yellow Jacket’s weapons as the illusion dissolved into mist once more. As the wires pulled taught around the Amok, Cat Sidhe’s Nyx reappeared before the beast, darting every which way and holding it’s attention. The beast, desperate in it’s rage to attack the tiny unnatural thing in front of it, thrashed and wriggled, trying to get itself lose, and only succeeded in tightening the wires. Slowly, Cat Sidhe snuck up behind the Amok, right hand raised in front of him as if he was trying to smack a fly. Right as the Amok snapped it’s jaws closed around the clone, Cat Sidhe slammed his hand into a thin red collar around Fido’s neck. The dog let out a startled, pained yelp, and was encased in a squirming mass of dark blue bubbles, which hissed and popped as the Amok shrank. Ladybug stood, waiting, and yanked on her yoyo string, which came zipping back into her palm. It wasn’t until the mass was barely any bigger than an American football that a peacock feather appeared that she acted, gently swinging her yoyo to catch it. When she had the feather secured, she flung her yoyo high into the air, crying out a string of words that felt like pure safety.

It was after the loveliness had faded that the final bubbles faded away, revealing a small, emaciated puppy, who’s bones showed through it’s skin, and it seemed to shiver as it looked up at all the heroes surrounding it. It snarled and snapped, cowering from the heroes around it.

“Wait, that was the eight-story tall monster that just did at least half a million in property damage?” Nightwing asked, walking up behind the Court members.

“This is why Hawkmoth and Mayura are so dangerous, they turn even the most innocuous, innocent little thing into something that can kill hundreds.” Vixen explained, landing behind them lightly, as if she hadn’t just jumped ten stories.

“What will happen to the poor thing?” Wonder Woman asked, watching as the puppy shied away from Ladybug’s hand as if expecting to be hit.

“Well, Fidel already has several dogs. They naturally love her, and Yellow Jacket has been talking about setting up a sanctuary for stray dogs. This one, however, seems to have developed a liking towards her Ladyship.” Roi Singe chuckled, watching as the small dog pressed it’s head into Ladybug’s palm.

“And lord only knows that my Melody could never turn away an animal in need.” Cat Sidhe said, approaching them casually. “Thanks for staying out of the way back there, it could have been bad if someone got hurt.”

“You’re in charge here.” Batman said gruffly.

“Still, we might have an issue. I have some stuff that needs me back home, so I was thinking one of my brothers could come over and help you guys out.”

“We’ll talk about it more tomorrow, for now we all need to split before the press starts getting pushy and Vixen, Bunnyx, and I transform back.” Ladybug said, holding the small dog in her arms. The canine was cuddled up close to her, soaking in her body heat. “Ready, love?” She asked Cat Sidhe, who nodded and sent a glare at a woman with pinkish hair who was coming their way, a camera crew behind her. “Bug out!” Ladybug said, winking to the cameras and flinging her yoyo (which should not be able to go that far) at a flagpole on a nearby building. Cat Sidhe began to extend his baton, before letting it fall, vaulting off down the street.

X0X0X

Nadya watched as Ladybug and Cat Sidhe left the scene, and the various Court members disappeared to the rooftops. This was perfect! And yet, right as she approached, Batman drew a grappling hook from his belt, fired at a gargoyle on a nearby building, and went flying off, and Wonder Woman barely waved to the camera before flying away. At least the remaining hero, a young man dressed in black and blue, took a moment to smile and give a dramatic bow before somehow climbing a brick wall. These heroes were ruining her poor ratings! Well, she still had that Ladyblogger girl’s number…

@krispydefendorpolice @ficsforthestars @multifandomscribette @legendaryneckjudgestudent @ash-amg-blog @bee-wrecker @dawnwave16 @the-supreme-ace-queen @politelyvicious @stonestridernerd @justmdj @stingrowl @damianette-is-life @miraculous786 @mjisntme @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @miraculousdisapointment @lesscooltodoroki @bb-basbusa @isabellemasen @sassydepression @imspectralboiii @spicybelladonna @moonystars14 @frostymoon11 @worlds-tiniest-spookiest-pastry @spartanxhunterx @fandoms-run-my-life @chocolateherringtacofan @imburningneon @fandomsaremylifeline @risingmoonyue @zotinha456

#my writing #psa #lukanette #black cat luka #Court of Miracles #miraculous DC crossover #maribat #ml salt

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tinkonka · 4 years ago

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sirinoel: trapped in the past

setting: after the mishap at the horror storytelling session. words: 2,448. content warning: descriptions of organs/disturbing imagery. characters: sirius gibson, noel levine, claire elford this was originally intended to be platonic, but i don’t mind for it to be romantically interpreted! enjoy :)

It is not unfamiliar to Sirius how ostracized 'witches’ are by the world around him. He wouldn't know if a person before him was a heinous witch, nor would he take out his frustrations on someone in the first place, unlike the many members of the public that did so without hesitation. It was the way of the society before him - witch, bad. Nicholas, mayor of Ribecca, good. Although Sirius knew that execrable man was buried 6 feet under, his distaste for him still sat sour on his tongue.

To him, and him only, he was the villain, and she was his hero. Lady Dorothy, who had taken him in, shown him love. Surely, someone as compassionate as her would be rendered a good person in society - he was doubtful he was the only one with whom Lady Dorothy had shown kindness. And yet like puppets on a string, the public ate up the artificial story like a moth to a flame. She went down in history as an unwelcome demon.

So of course it was reasonable for Sirius to be upset, yes? Though the curses he had spat out whilst bombarding Ashe with feeble kicks and punches may have been unnecessary, the words of disdain that had slipped out the researchers mouth was deemed a perfect excuse to shut him up. It was explainable that the others would defend him, given his reaction, and yet here Sirius sat, gaze fixated on his hands which were quivering in response to the thoughts that seemed to be burning into his mind.

It was the only thing he wanted to look at. He was sure if he glanced up to pay mind to some inanimate object, he would witness the horrific incident 12 years ago for a second time, where Lady Dorothy had so hastily departed from his life. Organs spread along the walls, gouged out eyes scattered as if they were merely childlike toys - as if the room in which multiple people died were a playroom. Blood, blood, so much blood. The smell was suffocating.

And lo and behold, he was alone. Alone in this wretched room. Most days, he would find solace in his own company, but now it felt like his own shadow was taunting him from another world, prompting him to think of 'what if's despite the tragedy having been over for a long time.

She would come back, he told himself. No matter how long he would have to wait, his heroine would come back and he would prove them all wrong.

"Just keep calm... it's over. She will come back." He whispered, willing himself to keep the tears down, to keep the 12 years of trauma secreted. Honestly, the one moment he wished to let out his emotions, and there were people inhabiting the once lonesome mansion. The size of the place made it so he was confident that he wouldn't be heard, but given the circumstances he didn't have much doubt someone would come to say some pointless words.

Consolation, resentment, neither mattered to him. Simple sympathetic platitudes wouldn't cure his unhappiness.

And as he seemed to predict the future, there came a couple of knocks that snapped him out of his stupor. Followed by a few moments of silence, and then they began for a second time, accompanied by calls for him by two familiar sounding voices.

At this hour? Sirius grumbled to himself, forcing himself to look to the clock. Luckily for him, the sudden spikes of dissonance had grounded him back to reality, and Lady Dorothy's bedroom appeared as it was mere minutes ago. No mustached man pointing a revolver at him, no intestines thrown around as if they were party streamers.

He was safe. And he hoped this would remain, as he promptly stood up to answer the door. Hands still trembling ever-so-slightly, he rubbed his face, just in case some tears had fallen astray without his knowledge. With hesitance, he twisted the knob and opened it slowly.

"Sirius!" Ah, it was Noel and Claire. Predictable.

"Siriuuus!!" Claire exclaimed, overjoyed to see his presence for some reason he fails to comprehend. Combined with Noel's excited smile, the two of them being here, and Claire's usual jubilant demeanor despite the dreary circumstances... frankly, Sirius was baffled.

"Ugh, what's wrong with you two? Do you know what time it is?" He grumbled, a scowl set on his face per usual.

"Wah! Sorry!" came Claire's apology.

"We're sorry!" Noel added. Honestly, the two of them are still doing this?

"...What are you here for?" Sirius decided on saying, his expression softening as he gazed over his two childhood friends.

"...We were worried..." Noel replied, rubbing his arm with his left hand meekly. He chuckled weakly with a small smile. "Haha, though I guess you're okay... Hm?"

Unwarranted, Noel took a step closer to Sirius, squinting with concentration as he analyzed the smaller males face. Aforementioned smaller male was definitely not having the best night - and in response to this, took a step back.

"Whatever do you think you're doing? I'm fine, see?" He scowled. Maintaining eye contact, Sirius could see (even with only one side of his face) that Noel had found what he was searching for.

"...Have you been crying?"

...What?

"...Huh?"

"Your eyes are swollen... and you're a little red." Noel continued with a worried expression, gaze still centered on Sirius' face.

"Oh, dear!" Claire exclaimed, moving forward to stand adjacent to her light-haired companion. "Are you sure you're okay? Can we come in? I'm great at cheering people u-"

"I don't want your flimsy condolence!" Sirius waved a hand dismissively, his face heating up. "I'm fine. I don't need to be consoled. You'd do well to just leave me be."

"Whaaat?! That's not true! Everybody wants help when they're upset, right?" Claire argued obliviously, placing her hands on her hips. Seems she had yet to figure out when Sirius was genuine, that at certain times talking back was deemed a personal attack. Her energy then dulled as she fixed her stare on Sirius' face with a smaller smile than before - one that was sympathetic rather than joyful. "We're here for you, okay? You can tell us-"

"What part of 'leave me alone' do you fail to comprehend?! You're as thickheaded as you've always been- everything was just FINE before you decided to come back!" Sirius shot back angrily, his hands balling into a fist as he progressively got frustrated.

"...Come back?"

Ah, shoot. A slip of the tongue - as composed as he usually was, Sirius found himself seething at her words that likely had good intent - and had so senselessly spat out things he had wished to keep to himself.

"What do you mean, 'come back'? I haven't come here-"

"AHHRGG! Just forget it, okay?! It doesn't matter!" He could feel the tears building up, and yet he stupidly preserved. "Just leave as you did all that time ago! See if I give a damn!"

"Sirius, stop." Noel, who had been keeping his silence, placed his hands on Sirius' shoulders, appearing stern - something extremely foreign to Sirius. He was too stunned to take Noels hands off his shoulders - his serious expression wasn't something Sirius had witnessed before. "...Claire, would you mind leaving us alone for a little?" He turned to the shorter girl beside him, who in response, nodded with a meek expression.

"...Let me know if you need anything, alright?" She mumbled, and with that, she walked off with her head hung low.

Now with the usually boisterous girl absent, Sirius' attention immediately turned to the more pivotal objective - not to confront Noel, who undoubtedly had things to say, but to keep the lump in his throat down. It had been years since Sirius had cried, and with company, he didn't want to start now. He couldn't start now.

Head spinning, no words left his mouth as Noel led him into his room, shutting the door behind him as he led Sirius over the desks in which he would spend a long amount of time slumped over, attempting to complete some work. Upon seeing the protective charms he had recently finished, he was once again reminded of his precious violet-haired witch.

And the world turned red.

Suddenly heaving for breath, Sirius slumped over, his hands rushing up to his face in an attempt to hide from the horror that had befallen him. The pungent, estranged smell of blood that he hadn't suffered for years had quickly made its home back in his nostrils. And before he knew it, the anguish he had worked so hard to conceal came pouring out in a single go.

He was too far gone to hear the cries of alarm that undoubtedly came from his childhood friend, too trapped in the past to realize he was now on the ground, curling up instinctively as he sobbed out years of pain.

And as quickly as it started, it halted with a foreign warmth that had enveloped his body, eyes flying open to reveal aforementioned childhood companion holding Sirius in a tight hug.

"Take deep breaths. You're fine, you're safe." He could hear him properly now. Noel's smooth voice never failed to ground him, whether had been an explosive outburst or being too wrapped in a book - Sirius would recognize his voice no matter what the circumstance.

And with no hesitation, Sirius melted into the touch. It was comical how long he had denied needing to be held, how he had voiced his distaste for physical affection - and yet he had so quickly surrendered his boundaries.

"I- I-"

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here." came the comfort that he swore he detested. He clung onto Noel's blazer tightly as he wept and wept - and he wondered if he held on tight enough he would be able to prevent Noel from leaving.

If he kept Noel close, perhaps he wouldn't have to be alone again.

And thankfully enough, Noel showed no signs of departing any time soon. He seemed content to hold Sirius for as long as he needed, making the effort to continue the small circular rubbing motions on Sirius' back, which were accompanying soft shushing noises - both of which were helping tremendously.

"I promise you that Claire means no harm - none of them do." Noel murmured quietly after a few minutes, head dipping into Sirius' hair. "Ashe may have spoken out of line, but that's no reason to resort to violence, okay? His words may have hurt... but there were other things you could've done."

All Sirius could do in response was hiccup softly, having no energy for some verbose remark. He understood that - he was never one to act erratically, and his sudden desire to hurt also left him surprised. But Lady Dorothy? A murderer? It was as if his pain was no longer valid - like his attachment to the witch was inferior.

He'd be damned to let the researcher continue. To let him slander his heroine even more. Despite that, he wished he could've responded more appropriately - a course of action that didn't require physical abuse.

"...I'm sorry..." He managed to croak out, leaning further into Noel's chest. He could hear a small chuckle leave the taller boys mouth - and now pacified, he knew he meant more good than evil.

"Now, now, where's this meekness coming from?" Taking his arms off of Sirius' back (much to Sirius' dismay), Noel placed them on Sirius' cheeks, forcing the lilac haired boy to meet Noel's single cerulean eye. "Where's the headstrong guy that I know and love?"

"...Quit using words like that, you." Sirius, now feeling a little better, got up on his own and gently took Noel's hands away so that he wouldn’t feel the heat on Sirius’ cheeks. "An apology is an apology. I don't need to possess a certain demeanor to feel remorse."

"Haha." giggled Noel, his usual smile returning to his face. "I know. But... I'm not the one you need to apologize to."

"...Yes, I understand." Sirius replied quietly, his gaze shifting downwards. It's not like he didn't feel apologetic - he just felt like he was owed an apology as well. If simple words from a mere stranger were able to bring him to his lowest point, then surely he was guaranteed some words of remorse, right?

"...Well, I'm feeling sleepy, so... you can leave." Sirius muttered, getting back up on his feet. An awkward close to the emotional outburst, yes, but Sirius was in no mood to spare feelings at this moment. Luckily, Noel knew of his hidden sincerity, evident as he stood up along with Sirius.

"Right, okay. Are you... going to be alright?" Although Noel had just spent time consoling him, he was still able to show some additional concern. How he did that effortlessly, Sirius had no clue.

"Yes, I'll be alright." He sighed, bringing a hand to his face to wipe the tearstains. "...Thank you. For... uh." At a loss for words, he gestured to his undoubtedly red face. "Assisting."

"Don't mention it. I'm happy to help." Noel smiled softly in response, and walked past Sirius with a pat on the shoulder. "Goodnight, Sirius."

"Goodnight to you as well." Sirius replied, and with the click of a now shut door, Sirius was alone. However, this time it was okay. He found solace in the silence, rather than before where it seemed to choke him.

With a deep, long sigh, he made his way over to the bathroom, washing his face with cold refreshing water. Taking a look at himself in the mirror, he cringed - it had truly been a long, long time since he had seen himself look this upset, so teary-eyed and, quite frankly, disgusting.

But strangely, he felt relieved. He hadn't realized how much he needed to cry. It was amazing how light his head felt after only a few brief moments of tears. It was... nice, for a change.

Padding over to his bed, he crawled in, and with another sigh, he let his eyelids shut, welcoming the hopefully dreamless sleep that enveloped him quickly with a heavy, comforting mist.

And as he drifted off, he could hear the familiar sweet melodies of the woman he held so dear, sending him off to sleep as she did 12 years ago when he was plagued with nightmares. No longer did the memory of her bring him sadness, but instead, as he slowly fell into his thoughtless slumber, it brought happiness.

And for the first time in years, he fell asleep with a smile.

#witch's heart #sirius gibson #noel levine #claire elford #this took a few days to write whoops

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collecting-stories · 5 years ago

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Enchanted - Gilbert Blythe

Request: Okay great! Can I request a Gilbert blythe x reader when they’re dating but then reader sees Anne and Gilbert having a friendly hug and she misinterprets it as something else and Gilbert tries to apologize. in the end they make up and it’s all fluff?

A/N: Based off Gilbert Blythe from the Netflix adaptation Anne With An E.

\\\

The train ride in from Toronto was both longer and shorter than you wanted it to be. Gilbert sat beside you, fiddling with the cufflinks on his jacket sleeves as the train jostled along toward Avonlea. There had been a ferry ride from Halifax as well. The summer was setting in and Gilbert had asked you to come to Avonlea with him to meet his business partner and housemate Bash and Bash’s daughter Delphine.

“Ever since my father died, they’ve been my family.” Gilbert had explained.

There were other people he had mentioned as well. Friends from school, Moody, Diana, a girl called Ruby who had been obsessed with him in her youth.

“I didn’t know it at the time, obviously, but Moody’s told me in great detail.” A whole anthology of his life had been shared with you since September.

And then there were the Cuthberts. He mentioned Marilla and her brother Matthew, both having been good to him when his father passed. But most of all he spoke of Anne. Close friends and rivals throughout their years together, she seemed to be the antidote to every story he told. The heroine in all his tales of the Island. And while you were excited to meet her, you would have been lying to say that you were also terrified. Who was this Anne and how could you compare to someone as magnanimous as her?

You weren’t sure if the knowledge that you would be staying with the Cuthberts made it worse or better. He had written to Anne to ask if you could board there for the summer while you visited him, a mark of a serious courtship surely, but still you couldn’t find yourself totally calm during the ride.

“Are the Cuthberts meeting us at the station?” You chanced to ask, realizing that you weren’t entirely sure what was going to happen once you arrived in Avonlea.

When Gilbert had asked you to come home with him for the summer you had been surprised and, though you hated to admit it, a tad bit reluctant. You and Gilbert had met through a friend of a friend way back in September at the beginning of the school. Both students from small towns who had excelled. Both formerly betrothed, though you more than he, who had rebelled against the prospect of a richer future in the interest of an educated, self-fulfilling future. A rather progressive woman, in action and speech more than trend, like so many of the women who had been present in his life before.

“I’m not entirely sure how I should go about this,” he had started, already proving himself to be clueless when it came to courting, “I’ve been to tea before and I’m sad to say I’ve forgotten all the rules.” The easy smile made up for his forgetfulness.

You could hardly remember either, getting lost in the romantic nature of his eyes that Ruby and Anne had both experienced in his early school days. “It’s quite alright, surely between the two of us we can navigate.”

And so you did. Navigate. Through the beginnings of a relationship and the beginning of college. It was odd, to find someone who so championed your education and put priority on the finishing of college before anything else. You expected him to treat the relationship casually then, just friends who knew that they liked each other. But he didn’t. He was serious about it and, as such, invited you to visit for the summer.

“I can’t wait for you to see Avonlea.” Gilbert mentioned, eyes fixed on the passing landscape.

“I’m looking forward to it.” And you were. Spending more time with Gilbert, seeing where he was from, meeting the people he considered part of his family. That all sounded spectacular to you.

The train arrived in Avonlea a short time later. Gilbert exited before you in search of the luggage.

“It’s never where they say it will be.”

You stood, waiting for him, on the platform. You’d taken plenty of trains in your lifetime but somehow stepping onto the platform in Avonlea felt different. It was as if you were a child again, riding for the first time, nervous of your surroundings and unsure who to ask for help. It was all very overwhelming and in an instant, the bustling crowd had seemed to swallow Gilbert up, his figure disappearing behind a cloud of smoke. You considered calling out to him. Should you chance him realizing that you were having the most pathetic of panic attacks.

Off to a good start in Avonlea.

Through the smog and the voices for the crowd your ears caught the distinctive sound of an accent, one native to an island, calling Gilbert’s name. You remembered his stories about his business partner and practical brother Bash and decided the Gilbert being called was yours. Heading through the smoke you arrived on the other side to find a small gathering of people, Gilbert at the front of them. You had come through in just enough time to see a young woman with long red hair hug him. A much friendlier hug then you would have expected someone to give, even with small town etiquette not being as reserved as the city.

But you recognized that redhead immediately, regardless of never having seen her before. It was Anne, it had to be. The Anne that Gilbert had talked about from school. The Anne that he corresponded with.

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry I was just coming to get you.” Gilbert’s hand at your wrist and his sincere apology carried you back to the reality of the platform. You were standing there, center of attention now.

“Quite alright.” You smiled, filing the uneasiness away for later. You would be upset when you were alone. Though would you truly be alone? You were to stay with Anne after all.

“Let me introduce you.” And just like that Gilbert was going through the odd, makeshift family that he had assembled. You were hugged by Anne as well, and nearly everyone else. Bash teased that there would be plenty of appraising done that night over dinner though you seemed to win him over quite easily when you offered to hold Delphine during the ride back to Gilbert’s farm.

Try as you might the carriage ride home filled you with dread. Even Delphine couldn’t distract you from the tortuous thoughts in your head. Had you come all this way to Prince Edward Island with Gilbert only to have him tell you he loved another. And what if he never told you, what if he just continued on, in some elaborate rouse where you were his intended (something he had made perfectly clear before proposing the idea of PEI) but he was thinking of someone else. Someone who had leagues more history with him than you could every accumulate.

The first stop, once the carriage had arrived outside of the Blythe family farm, was the tour. While Bash took Delphine inside Gilbert took you along the grounds. Your hand was tucked in the crook of his elbow as he walked you about, pointing out parts of the land and supplying humorous antidotes to accompany the visuals.

“And here Anne,” he began, telling the third story in a row that featured his redheaded best friend.

“You have a lot of stories about Anne.”

“I suppose so.”

“More than anyone else.” You continued on. You were no longer on the train platform or in the carriage. You wouldn’t stay a moment longer to be second fiddle to Anne Shirley-Cuthbert, however charming she had already proven herself to be.

“I...hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, unfortunately,” you took your hand back, here in the orchard grove, “I have. I didn’t come all the way from Toronto to be humiliated Gilbert.”

He looked rightfully confused. Everything until now had felt perfectly normal between the two of you. He’d hadn’t sensed the change in attitude, in fact it had come out of nowhere to hit him in the gut. “I don’t know what you mean?”

“Don’t you? I make a world of excuses for your correspondence with another woman, knowing how much Anne means to you but then we arrive here and it feels as if I've been making those excuses to myself as well. Have I? Am I so delusional to think that it’s only friendship you feel for her?” You confessed, thinking back to the hug at the platform. The way she had thrown her arms around him in excitement.

“Anne and I are just friends. I’ve told you that.” Gilbert replied.

“Why don’t I feel like that?”

“Avonlea is my home and the people here are my family. I love and care for them all deeply. And that’s why I wanted to bring you here. So you could know them too and so you could consider if, maybe, in the future, you could make Avonlea your home too. I love you, and I meant what I said before we came out here. I want a future with you, a family with you, and I want us to make a home. Here, if you could see yourself here.” Gilbert said, concern marring his features. Had he not been clear?

You crossed your arms and turned your head away, looking out passed the rolling fields of the farm. What could you say? You loved him too. The thought of starting a family with him here, on this island, was a wonderful thought and you wanted nothing more than to be part of his life.

“Once, when I was much younger, I admit I felt something toward Anne but we’re only friends. She’s been a big part of my life since she came to Avonlea and helped me become the person I am. A person who loves you. Who would never hurt you. Please, you have to believe me. Anne is my friend but you and I...you’re the person I imagine spending the rest of my life with.” Gilbert continued.

“I love you as well...I guess I’m just nervous to be here. To meet your family and friends and know them.” You admitted, looking back at him. Gilbert looked near heartbreak, his usual bright eyes a sad, drowning, blue.

“They love you already, trust me.”

“I really do like Anne...I think we would be great friends.” You had heard certain parts of her letters read allowed when he found bits funny or was reminded of something you might have said. You had thought that she sounded like she could become a good friend of yours, someone you could rely on here in Avonlea and you had looked forward to meeting. “I think I’m just so nervous I made myself jealous.”

“There is nothing to be jealous of.” Gilbert reassured. “Shall we finish the tour?”

“Please? I want to see everything before dinner.” You replied, taking the arm he offered once more. You looked back around the orchard one more time, “are we alone?”

“Bash is at the house with Delly.”

With that knowledge you leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Alright, show me the rest of this enchanted island.” You said, using Anne’s words from earlier. Enchanted. You imagined this summer would be.

I imagined this being done yesterday but my youngest sister decided to give me a minor panic attack and I spent most of the day freaking out when I meant to be writing.

#Gilbert Blythe x reader #Gilbert Blythe imagine #Gilbert Blythe fanfic #Gilbert Blythe fanfiction #AnnE imagine #AnnE fanfic #AnnE fanfiction #Anne with a e fanfic #Anne with an e fanfiction #Anne with an e imagine #collecting stories imagine

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tomasorban · 6 years ago

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The Myth of Nü Gua (Nüwa) Snake Goddess

Introduction

In the Year of the Water Snake it is appropriate to tell some of the earliest creation myths of ancient China, the legends of the female divinity Nü Gua, a snake goddess. Many of these stories were transmitted orally; the specific details are influenced by the evolution of culture and by the philosophical, religious, and political movements that influence the retelling, reorienting, and transforming of the narratives. These stories are filled with supernatural beings, woven into shamanic rituals, and grounded with the cosmogony of tribes and clans that were later adopted into mainstream dynasties and cultures.

The roots of these myths may well come from pre-history; however, there is evidence of their existence dating to the early Neolithic period in China. There is reference to Nü Gua in the late Neolithic period in China during the age of the Three August Ones. Later myths from the Han Dynasty depict Nü Gua and her companion Fu Xi, one of the Three August Ones, as brother and sister, husband and wife, worshiped as the progenitors and ultimate ancestors of humankind. Fu Xi and Nü Gua are often represented as half-snake, half-human.

Snake worship is attributed to the Xia clan, which dominated the Northern regions of ancient China in the Yellow River area around 2200 BC. These myths are similar to other creation myths from around the world. In China, over time, the snake became the dragon, which is one of the most enduring symbols of Chinese culture and mythology.

The ancient texts identify Nü Gua as the original ancestor of humanity, half-snake, half-human. She is the creator who molded humans from clay. When the pillar supporting the heavens was damaged, she repaired the sky. After the chaos of the flood, Nü Gua restored order to the world, provided stability, and populated it. She was responsible for the restoration of order and brought the five phases back into harmony. Her actions regulated the movement of all celestial bodies, restored the seasons, and recreated the axis mundi. To create harmony on Earth she fashioned musical instruments. The ancient Chinese matriarchal society revered and celebrated Nü Gua as the powerful creator goddess, and the practices continue to this day.

Although Nü Gua originally stood alone, similar to the shifts we find in the West in later texts and iconography, Nü Gua became paired with Fu Xi, who is identified as her brother, a creator god. Fu Xi is credited with the creation of the hexagrams of the I Ching and many other inventions. Nü Gua and Fu Xi are represented as intertwined snakes, the embodiment of yin and yang. They are depicted holding the instruments of creation, the compass and the square, the tools that were used to take the measurements of the Universe at the founding of a new world following the great flood (Nibley, 1992). Although there is disagreement among the texts, there is some evidence supporting the idea that Nü Gua was one of the Three August Ones. These legendary rulers served around 3000 BC to 2200 BC before the Xia dynasty.

Nü Gua is also linked to Yu the Great and the flood stories. In some myths she is his wife, and Yu is depicted as a dragon rather than a bear. In these stories it is Nü Gua who works with Yu to hold back the floods. Yu is awarded similar mythical doctrines and tools consistent with those of Fu Xi. Together Nü Gua and Yu repopulate the world and establish order. It is Yu who establishes dynastic rule and the rights of Kings. This union between Nü Gua and Yu is one example of the shift from the matriarchal culture of the snake goddess to kingship and patriarchal rule.

However, in the earliest creation myths from China, Nü Gua is an independent powerful goddess, the creator of humankind. She is a matchmaker, bestows fertility, invents sound and music, and brings harmony to heaven, earth, and humanity. She is a benefactor to people and all living creatures. However, just as we see in the West, the power of the strong female creator Goddess is diminished first by pairing her with a male God, and finally by attributing all of her creations to a male God who usurps her power. One example would be the legends of P’an Ku, the male Titan who splits heaven and earth and creates the world and humans from his own body.

In the Year of the Snake it is important to remember and honor Nü Gua, who represents an important aspect of the Chinese matriarchy, culture, and cosmology. She is the Great Mother of Humans, a cultural heroine, and one of the most powerful and influential primordial goddesses in ancient Chinese mythology.

The Myths of Nü Gua

Nü Gua is the Great Mother Goddess in matriarchal society since antiquity and belonged to a tribe in Northern China with names and connection to the snail. It is said she was formed like a human; but, instead of legs, she had a serpent’s tail to glide over the Earth. She also had a long head with two fleshy horns, and her body was that of a snail; she was originally worshipped as such. She is most often portrayed as a snake deity much akin to other cross-cultural mythologies linked with the snake and creation, to matriarchal primogenitors. Nü Gua is mostly depicted as half-human, half-snake (later half-dragon) and always as a semi-mythical and supernatural being. The mythical figure of Nü Gua as a creator God predates the male creator stories of P’an Ku in classical mythology by six centuries. She appears early in the tradition referenced in “Question of Heaven” in Chu Chi, Songs of Ch’u and in the Shanhaijing, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, in Fengsu Tonji, Popular Customs and Traditions, and later in records from the Han Dynasty, including many descriptive passages in the Huainanzi, a major repository for Chinese myths, and in the Shou Wen Jia Zi, Talking About Text and Explaining Words.

It is important to mention that while the written Nü Gua myths started appearing during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), they were transmitted orally from a much earlier period. The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) burned a huge number of literary texts and old myths to exert cultural and political control. As with most book burnings, the losses were irreparable, since they contained mythic themes, archetypes, and symbols critical to the survival of its culture. The Han Dynastic scholars revised what was left and reclaimed the Nü Gua myths from non-orthodox history, legends, and folklore, and, of course, added their own twist to these stories.

Nü Gua existed in the beginning of the world before there were any people. Most sources concur that it was her loneliness that provided the impetus for creation. She walked plains and valleys and felt that the world was a very desolate place without animation. She began with making chickens which cluck through creation, then dogs to run through the forests and glades, sheep to graze in the plains, pigs to root through the earth, gentle cows, powerful bulls, then horses to run free. On the seventh day, while walking along a river, she glimpsed her own reflection. She sat beside the flowing waters and ran earth through her fingers, then took water from the river and yellow Earth and molded the clay as little creatures, which began to laugh. She loved the noise and so continued to make more creatures. As the creatures came to life, they called her mother and wandered the Earth to repopulate the world. She is a self-aware, independent, creative, and powerful feminine force.

At some point, Nü Gua was so exhausted that she realized it was not in her best interest to continue to fashion each person individually. So she took a rope (which later became a measuring cord on her compass) or, in some texts, a piece of ivy or a vine from the mountainside, dipped it into the yellow clay, and then tossed the drops and bits of mud to all the directions. Each drop contained the essence of a distinct human. The rich and the noble were those hand crafted from the yellow clay, and the poor and the ordinary were the manifestations of pulling the rope through the mud and flinging it. Later with the establishment of class and privilege, the hand created humans become nobility and the rope drops commoners, so it is not only telling of creation but of social hierarchy. There are detailed descriptions in the Feng Su Tong Yi, Comprehensive Interpretation of Customs, of Nü Gua’s intention of enrichment and beautification of the world through her creation of human beings, not necessarily the creation of social classes.

In other variations of this myth, as Nü Gua listened to the laughter of her creations, she began to contemplate what would happen when they died. She was concerned that she would have to keep making more and more. It is written that she fashioned men and women in halves and taught them how to love one another so that they could repopulate the Earth. With this role she takes on the archetype of the first high matchmaker, the inventor of marriage, and comes to be identified as the goddess of marriage, fertility, and childbirth. Her temples were built near streams often depicted as the place of creation. Thus we see how she came to be identified in the classics of Chinese culture as the Mother Goddess, the Guardian Goddess, and a great matriarch. The snake in world mythology is believed to control the sources of water and is the hierophant of fertility and the creator of humans.

Nü Gua and the Flood, Repairer of Heaven and Great Guardian of Human Life

The most detailed accounts that link Nü Gua with water relate to the story of the taming of the floods that is chronicled in the Huainanzi. During antiquity, the sky and the earth were in total chaos, and humanity was in danger of extinction:

in ancient times the four limits (of the world, si ji,) collapsed and the Nine Provinces split apart. Heaven did not completely cover the world, nor did the Earth support all things. Fires raged without going out and water surged on without ceasing. Fierce beasts devoured the simple people, and the birds of prey carried off old and young alike. Thereupon, Nü Gua smelted the five-colored stones to patch up the azure sky, cut off the turtle’s legs to reestablish the four limits, and killed the Black Dragon to rescue Ji Province (the central of the Nine Provinces, which in this passage stands for the entirety of China). She piled up ashes from the reeds to halt the rampant waters. Thus the azure sky was patched, the four limits corrected, the rampant waters dried up, Ji Province restored to order, and the treacherous creatures died. The simple people lived, walking on the back of the square provinces (Fang Zhou, i.e., Earth) and embracing the round Heaven (lewis, 2006, p. 111).

The accounts in this text are concerned with the ravages of the cataclysmic flood and the tipping of the sky, and with fires that are intense and raging—linking fire and water as parallel catastrophic events. Nü Gua blends colored stones to restore order to time and space and to save the world from the utter chaos of the flood. The five colored stones are linked to the Five Phases, internal and external alchemy, and were used for medical purposes in the Han to cure illness. Much earlier the Zhou Li states: “In all cases of treating sores, use the five poisons, to attack them, use the five energies to nourish them, use the five medicines to treat them, and the five flavors to regulate them” (Lewis, 2006, p. 112).

The five poisons refer to the active ingredients, five minerals of five different colors, and the five medicines are the five stones, assimilated into the standard set of the five minerals that are used to patch up the sky and treat the body. They are also considered an important aspect of alchemical casting of metals for a proper marriage between fire and water. The earliest known inscription for rectifying the body through balancing the circulation of qi is an inscription carved on a piece of jade. Jade is said to be the only stone unused by Nü Gua because of its sacredness and ability to bring protection, healing, and balance by its mere presence.

Nü Gua had many roles—far beyond the restoration of the world to order and harmony. She is also credited with setting the seasons and reestablishing the poles. She became a savior figure and presided over the protection of humanity and reemergence through the granting of new life, namely the permutation of the fetus into life. She also captured and joined the energies of the sun, linked humanity with the heavens, and connected the macrocosmic with the microcosmic, fire and water. She presided over the relations of marriage metaphorically, alchemically, and literally. Later Taoists believed she alone holds the secret of the Way of the True Person and follows the eternal nature of Heaven and Earth.

There is a second and later version of the Flood myth in which Gong, the water dragon, destroyed one of the pillars supporting the sky, which caused cosmic chaos. A black hole in the celestial vault resulted in torrential rains and fires, and floods raged everywhere. Nü Gua melted stones of different colors and patched up the sky. She used a tortoise for support of the world, slayed the Black Dragon, and collected ashes and reeds to stop the flood. She mended the sky and repaired the earth from this disaster. The multihued clouds in the sky are from the colorful stones she used to patch the sky. The reason that western China is mountainous and the east lower is because she used the longer legs of the tortoise to support the west and the shorter ones for the east. In this version of the cataclysm the damage is permanent; the earth’s pillar is damaged and points northwest. There is a cosmic flaw, and this is why Chinese rivers flow towards the east. It also suggests that the cosmic order is disrupted through male violence and restored through female benevolence.

Nü Gua and Music

Nü Gua is credited with the invention of various musical instruments, including the shenhuang, a reed pipe wind instrument, and the xiao, a vertical bamboo flute, as well as many reed and wood instruments fashioned from organic materials. One part of her work for restoring the world was to create harmony between heaven and earth. She achieved this by gathering the ashes of reeds to stop the devastating floodwater. In later accounts of her subsequent death and transformation into a jingwei bird, she carried wood and stone to construct a dike against the raging Eastern Sea. In many sources, Nü Gua is said to have ruled through the mythic powers of wood to balance the element of water, whether in slaying the black dragon, or in using reeds or wood to control the floods. Her work in restoring harmony through music is also a cultural innovation, and many stories say that Nü Gua invented music and musical instruments to entertain the children she created.

Nü Gua and Fu Xi in Modern Mythology

Joining the myths of Nü Gua and Fu Xi marks the beginning of the suppression of female power in China. This change begins around the time of transition from the early Han to the later Han Dynasties. It is a period that is marked by military expansion. Nü Gua begins to be paired with the mythic figure, Fu Xi; and they are represented as a married couple and as patrons of marriage as an institution. Han iconography depicts these two as a primal couple who restored and populated the earth after the flood. They are both linked to snake or dragon spirits and to themes of creation. They are guardians of transformations, gatekeepers between the inner and outer, and protectors of tombs and of the crossing of boundaries from one state to the other.

A different rendering of the origins of humans appears in the Duyizhi, A Treatise on Strange Beings and Things that involves Nü Gua and Fu Xi’s brother-sister tryst. The myth is set at the very beginning of the world. The sole inhabitants are a girl and her older brother who reside on the mythic Kunlun Mountain. Although they wanted to marry to reproduce, they were shamed because of their blood connection. They plead and send prayers and declarations from the top of the mountain. “Oh heaven if thou wouldst send us two forth as man and wife, then make all the misty vapor gather. If not make all the misty vapor disperse” (from Tu, yi chih, Birrell, 1993, p. 35).

Of course, the prevailing winds worked in their favor and gathered and united the vapors—so they were wed. In other accounts the vapors are smoke snakes and rings. Nü Gua is depicted as very shy and ashamed. She gathers reeds and grasses to weave into a fan to cover their faces. So we see both shame and guilt about intercourse, no fig leaf, but incest. The difference here between Adam and Eve is that their union is condoned and receives the stamp of approval. This custom of brides holding fans over their faces during wedding ceremonies persists today.

There are many other accounts of the coupling and creation, including the use of clay to create human figures and the power to animate them, and countless local folktales and myths about the signs for the go ahead to marry and join forces. Remember that childbirth in more primitive times was rather miraculous, not requiring male participation—and children knew only their mothers. As the reproductive process became more obvious, ancient China moved toward a patriarchal structure, and Fu Xi became an icon of the utmost importance.

We can safely say that Nü Gua’s divinity was suppressed—her independence eroded. Her divine pairing with Fu Xi is similar to Zeus and Hera in the Greek pantheon. Edward S. Shafer (1973), a prominent American Sinologist and Tang Dynasty scholar, states: “Her gradual degradation from her ancient eminence was partly due to the contempt of some eminent and educated men for animalian gods, and partly due to increasing domination of masculinity in the elite social doctrine” (p. 29).

The Balance of Yin and Yang, Fu Xi and Nü Gua

Fu Xi invented a writing system by carving small pictures and numbers onto bones and tortoise shells.

Fu Xi is depicted as a major deity and helper to humanity. Although some myths articulate his primal coupling with Nü Gua, he also stands alone as a separate powerful creator deity. But perhaps the greatest legacy of Fu Xi is that he shared mythic attributes with Nü Gua which may well have provided a foundation for the development of the Han yin/yang cosmology, which facilitated our understanding of the interdependence between the male and female.

Fu Xi appeared in the Han as the first in a lineage of sages and, more specifically, sagekings. He is credited with being the creator of the trigrams of the I Ching. His direct connection to and contemplation of the natural world revealed to him the theory for complementarity. This concept of complementary pairs is the very foundation of the Universe, as their dynamic balance and tension lead to change and transformation.

When Fu Xi ruled the world in ancient times, he looked up to examine the images in Heaven, and down to examine the models on Earth. He examined the markings of the birds and the beasts, and their suitability to the terrain. Near at hand he took it for himself, and at a distance, from objects. Therefore he created the eight trigrams in order to communicate with the powers of spirit intelligences, and in order to categorize the natures of myriad objects. He invented knotting cords to keep records and made nets and snares for hunting and fishing. He took this form from the hexagram li (from Treatise of the Yi Jing, lewis, 2006, p. 117).

Fu Xi is the ultimate progenitor of human technology, as evidenced through his invention of the trigrams of the I Ching. He is also credited with the invention of the calendar, writing, and numbers. Ruling jointly with his wife Nü Gua, we are provided with the foundational spirit for yin and yang, sun and moon, birds and beasts, and the distilling of all things into categories. He taught humanity survival skills such as fishing, creating nets, and tool making and was said to have brought the Great Waters of the Universe into order by digging dikes, canals, and irrigation ditches to tame the Yellow River. He, like Nü Gua, is credited with the invention of musical instruments, such as the guqin, a seven-stringed musical instrument, and the pipa, a lute, which he taught people to play to accompany the telling of stories. Fu Xi is a major force in his own right. He received The Yellow River Chart from creatures that rose out of the Yellow River and the Luo Writings, which are the Lou Shu Emergence that provide the knowledge for the organization of time and space. It is said that he discovered the trigrams on the back of a tortoise.

United as the divine creators of the world, Fu Xi and Nü Gua hold back the floods and provide the structural and the functional principles of an ordered world. The best-known image of Fu Xi and Nü Gua appears in the Wu Liang shrine where they are co-creators of the world. Their intertwined serpent bodies rotate around an invisible vertical axis mundi (cf. Santillana and Dechend, 1969). Fu Xi holds the carpenter’s square used to establish divisions and create the trigrams, and Nü Gua has a compass, to restore the circular heaven to its place (Nibley, 1992). These tools are complements, as the square is associated with the feminine principle of earth and the circle with the masculine principle of heaven, and are used for taking the measurements of the world, for keeping order in the world.

The union between Nü Gua and Fu Xi might be viewed as the first sacred marriage, the joining of two equal powers that provides order and structure to the cosmos. Their bond bestows a foundation to understand the connections among Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. As co-creators they give birth to The Three Treasures. They are the guardians of the tombs, gatekeepers of the sacred waters, twin snakes of life and death; they have the power to transform, regenerate, and create. Their paired bodies provide the creation of all origins, the DNA of life, including the trigrams, hexagrams, protein bases, and the fertile water from which all life emerges. Together they are yin and yang; they control the floods, pole shifts, and soul shifts, wind and rain, fires and alchemical gold. This is the mystic marriage of heaven and earth, the creation of an ordered and dependable cosmos, the foundation of the collective identity of all people.

There is a word in modern Chinese, a phrase really, kuci chu; and it signifies “the way things should be, the moral standard.” Literally it means the compass and the square. May we embody both Nü Gua and Fu Xi striving always to restore and maintain the sacred and constant balance among heaven, earth, and humanity.

#china #religion #mythology #cosmology #anthropology #alchemy #hermeticism

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pickalilywrites · 5 years ago

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Heroine

Mikasa Ackerman. EreMika. Canonverse.

5103 words.

Buy me a ko-fi! or Read on AO3!

She’s broken and bruised, but Mikasa still rises like all those times before. She walks among fallen friends and comrades, her feet treading across the dusty, shattered streets that she had once walked as a child. Dust and ash fill her lungs with every ragged breath she takes, but Mikasa chokes it down as she marches on. The only sounds that can be heard across the torn-up city are the distant blazing of burning buildings and the heavy clomp of Mikasa’s boots as she drags herself across the street. This whole scene looks just like a snapshot of her past, except this time she is the one responsible for the destruction and carnage, and this time, instead of running away, she has come to end it once and for all.

She stands like an ant among giants, the Wall Titans towering above her like silent columns as they face their master. Mikasa had seen them earlier walking towards the Founder, their mindless nature making them oblivious to the destruction they created with every step they took. They crushed buildings and innocent civilians underfoot, the dried blood of corpses staining the soles of their feet.

Monsters, Mikasa had thought reflexively even though she knows better than to blame them for their actions. It’s not their fault that they can’t control themselves. A long time ago they must have been just like her, someone with dreams and people to love. They were just dealt a bad hand of fate. In another time or place, Mikasa could have been just like them. It’s a thought she’s had many times and it still makes her shudder. No, if Mikasa wants to blame anyone, she should blame their master.

Unlike the Titans, Mikasa takes small steps, careful not to tread on even a single insect as she makes her way slowly towards the Founder. Mikasa is not sure what the Founder is meant to look like, if it had always manifested itself in the same monstrous form that appears in front of her now or if it has evolved with each Titan of Ymir that it acquired. It looks nothing at all like the Titans that she was familiar with. While the Titans she had seen before have all resembled a human, the Founding Titan is a ghastly skeleton of an ancient creature that stretches for miles and miles, making the Colossal Titan look miniscule in comparison. From this distance, Mikasa has no hope of finding the nape. All she can see is the back of the Titan, spikes protruding from its endless spine and steam erupting from its skeleton.

Mikasa discards her guns, letting them clatter to the ground. Even if they were still filled with bullets, they would stand no chance against the Titan. She reaches for her blades instead, discarding her dull ones for new ones. Wordlessly, she walks past the Wall Titans, not bothering to raise her weapon against them. They pay no attention to her as she passes by, and Mikasa feels no need to create more unnecessary casualties. Like them, her focus is solely on the Founding Titan.

The Founding Titan lifts its head, a skull with an elongated snout like that of a reptile, and lets out a guttural shriek that shatters the sky and shakes the ground. The sound is so powerful that the surviving buildings that had been standing crumble, leaving a pile of rubble where they once stood. The cry seems to wake the Wall Titans from their temporary stupor because they too lift their heads and emit similar cries albeit far quieter and less earth-shattering than their predecessor. Mikasa does not understand the language - she’s unsure if it’s spoken in a tongue at all - but the howls send shivers down her spine all the same.

She fights the urge to shout Eren’s name, desperate to call out to him, the only one who was ever sure of his purpose in this madness. Even if she were to say his name, Mikasa doubts that he would be able to hear her from where he stands, trapped in the prison he’s built himself.

The truth is, she was never supposed to be here. Mikasa has never wanted to be the hero. All she’s ever wanted was to be the bystander who somehow miraculously managed to survive despite the adversity of the world. She would have been happy if she never had to wield a blade in her life or save a life. That wasn’t the life she desired. It’s just the life she ended up following by chance. The truth is, Eren is supposed to be the one standing where she is. He should be the one with the blade in his hand, staring fearlessly up at the Founding Titan that is threatening to destroy the entire world beyond the ocean. He is the one who has always been a hero, sacrificing everything so that others might taste the freedom that he believed was everyone’s right. He wasn’t supposed to be the monster that Mikasa was meant to defeat.

But even now as Mikasa looks up at Eren’s ghastly form, she can’t see him as the villain. He’s still her hero - he’s always her hero - but he’s in a story that Mikasa no longer recognizes. It doesn’t matter that she understands the reasons for his actions or that he’s doing this for her and the Eldians of Paradis so that they no longer have to live as demons but as human beings. No reason can justify the amount of death and destruction that Eren is about to unleash upon the world, and so Mikasa finds herself raising her blade against the only hero she’s ever known.

------

Eren has always been Mikasa’s hero.

That fateful day when Mikasa had lost her parents, she had not expected anyone to come save her. She only had her parents, but they had been taken away from her so cruelly, their lives bleeding out of their fatal wounds while Mikasa could only stare in shock as her parents’ murderers dragged her away. Even if people were to discover her parents’ corpses, it would be too late to save them just as it would be too late to save Mikasa.

She heard them talking about her, their deep, gravelly voices grating against her eardrums. Mikasa closed her eyes and tried to drown out their conversation with the hopeless thought that someone might come to save her, but it was useless. She choked back sobs as they spoke about how much they could sell her for - a half-breed that they might be able to pass off as a full-blooded exotic Asian if the buyer were ignorant enough. They lamented the loss of Mikasa’s mother, although their reason for grief was different from Mikasa’s. It was more that they regretted that their profit would be lower because a corpse was worth nothing no matter how pretty it was. They said that they’ll just have to do with the little girl, and one of the wicked men leaned over to lift up Mikasa’s chin with a dirtied hand.

Mikasa's face was lifted against her will, but she kept her eyes down, not wanting to see the man’s sneer. She trembled at the touch of the man’s callused hands, shuddering violently when she realized that his hands were still stained with blood. Her startled movement amused the man, who threw his head back in raucous laughter, his face still close enough for Mikasa to smell his sour breath.

She didn’t remember the words he spoke to her then, but Mikasa remembered his voice was lower, softer. Timidly, she looked at him, wondering if he was taking pity on her after seeing how frightened she was, but the smile on his face was cruel and she realized then that he was simply playing with her like a cat plays with its food. She stared at him, frozen, and he snapped at her suddenly, snarling like an animal, and she jolted backwards, her head knocking so hard against the cabin wall that her vision went black for a moment.

As the man roared with a laugh that sounded like the barking of a rabid coyote, his companion snapped at him, telling him to leave the young girl alone. His words were not spoken out of pity or kindness. He made it clear that the child would be worth more if she wasn't scared stiff and half-driven mad. If she were to be traumatized, then it would be better to have her turn into a vegetable after they’ve traded her for money.

She was left alone after that, watching as the shadows in the room stretched across the room and migrated from one wall to the other until they blended in with the darkness. The shadows were replaced with new ones later in the night, shadows that flickered against the light of the burning candle that one of Mikasa’s captors lit. Mikasa watched as one of her kidnappers began to nod off while the other sat in a wooden chair across from her, driving his dagger into the table and carving mindless lines into it to cure his boredom.

Mikasa decided then that she would die. It wasn’t as if she had a choice other than to accept her fate. Against these men, she was a powerless child. How her death would come to be was beyond her. Perhaps it would be at the hands of these villains, their hands twisted around her neck as they choked the life out of her, or maybe it would be at the hands of another cruel stranger, somebody she has not met yet. However she died, she would be alone and helpless, that much she was sure of.

Knock, knock. The sudden rap at the door startled Mikasa and she looked immediately at the door, eyes wide. It was too much to hope that it was her saviour waiting behind the door, and yet her lips began to part, ready to cry out for help as soon as the door opened. One of her kidnappers, the one sitting across from her, noticed her half-open mouth and reached for her, grabbing her by her hair and clamping his hand over her mouth before she could even cry out in pain. He kicked the other man awake, nodding at the door as his partner groaned and stumbled to stand.

There was another knock at the door and the man stood up, one hand hovering above the dagger tucked into his belt. He waited for a moment, listening carefully for any sound on the other side. As he did so, Mikasa held her breath, also listening, but there was nothing to be heard. Finally, the man cracked open the door, careful not to open it too far. As his eyes settled on the unexpected visitor, Mikasa could see the man visibly relax.

“You’re a bit young to be out here all on your own,” the man said, his voice pleasant. He leaned down a little bit to talk to the person on the other side. “And it’s so late too. Shouldn’t you be with your parents?”

“I was with them a little while ago, but I must have wandered off too far,” the person responded. Mikasa was so surprised at how young it sounded. It had to be a boy, one that had gotten lost late at night while he was playing in the woods. Mikasa wondered if he could detect the danger in the cabins, if there was a chance the boy would lean a little bit too far and see Mikasa tied up. Would he be able to run away if he saw her? Would he be smart enough to warn somebody and have someone come save her? But he must have not sensed anything because the boy continued to speak to the man easily, saying, “This was the first cabin I came across and I was wondering if you could help me.”

The man paused, unsure of what to do, before replying. “Well, why don’t you just tell me where your home is and I might be able to point you in the right direction.”

“Thanks, sir. I don’t think I have anything to repay you, although my parents might when we get back home,” the boy said. There was the sound of shuffling as if he was trying to search from something in his trouser pockets.

“Oh, no need to thank me,” the man told the boy, although he sounds more irritated than humble. He moved forward, attempting to slip out the door without exposing the inside of the cabin. “I’m just happy to help -”

An eerie silence followed the man’s words, and Mikasa wondered why the man was frozen in such an unnatural way. A few beats passed and the boy finally pulled the dagger from the man’s chest. Blood dripped onto the floor, staining the wooden slabs. The man crumpled onto the floor like a rag doll, and a boy stood there in the doorway, a bloody knife clenched in his fists.

“Fucking hell,” Mikasa’s captor cursed. He threw her to the floor, abandoning his dagger for the axe that sat nearby. The man is gargantuan, a giant compared to the young boy, but the boy didn’t hesitate as he charged at the man. Even as the man swung at the boy, the child managed to avoid the man’s blade and dug the knife into the man’s shoulder. Even after the man fell to the ground, the boy continued to stab at the man, pulling the knife out of the man’s body only to plunge it back into the man’s torso.

Mikasa sat in stunned silence as the boy stood up. He was covered in blood and breathing heavily, but he was otherwise unharmed. He had to be about her age, and yet he seemed to be nothing like the powerless child she was. He walked up to her kneeling down to untie the rope that bound her.

“I’m Eren,” he told her as he loosened the ropes. He untangled the ropes, letting them fall to the floor. “I’m Dr. Jaeger’s son. We were supposed to meet today.”

Mikasa remembered. Grisha Jaeger, the doctor that often met with her mother to discuss Mikasa’s unborn sibling. She vaguely recalled her mother telling her that the doctor had a son around her age. She had almost forgotten that the doctor was supposed to come at all. Did that mean that Dr. Jaeger had come by her house and seen the bodies of her parents? Did he know what had happened to her? Did he know that men had come to capture her and planned on selling her away?

The men, Mikasa realized. There were three. Two had stayed to watch her while one had run off to get supplies.

Panicked, she looked at Eren, grabbing him by the wrist. “There’s another man,” Mikasa said, her voice weak.

“What?” Eren said, confused.

“Another man,” Mikasa gasped. She didn’t know whether to run or wait for help. Tears began to sting her eyes in her panic. “There were three men.”

Eren began to put the pieces together, looking around the cabin to make sure that the missing man wasn’t lurking around in a corner. He nodded and gestured to Mikasa to follow him. “Come on, let’s get out of here while we still can.” He stepped carefully over the body of one of Mikasa’s captors and looked back at her. When he saw that she wasn’t following, he waved his hand again, urging her to come with him. “Come on!”

It was like slow motion seeing the third man emerge from the open door, creeping out of the darkness like the monster he was. He was carrying supplies with him, his pack heavy, but he dropped it with a huge clatter as he lunged for the boy in front of him. Eren didn’t realize what was happening until the man’s hands were around his neck, squeezing him until he could hardly breathe. While Mikasa could only stand and stare in shock, Eren struggled against the man’s grip, kicking and grasping at the hands around his throat.

“Fight!” the boy gasped, looking at Mikasa. His hands clutched at the hands around his neck. “If you want to live, fight!”

It was if those words awakened her, electrifying her and giving her life. All this time, Mikasa had been too afraid to even breathe because she had believed there was no one to save her, but here was this boy who was ready to put down his life for her. He had saved her life once just by appearing at the door, he had saved her life twice by killing her captors, and now he would save her life again by giving her the strength she needed to free herself.

Mikasa grabbed the dagger that Eren had left on the ground and ran towards the last man, the final barricade between her and her freedom, and plunged the blade into the man’s chest right into his heart.

Eren fell to the floor with a heavy thud, curling onto the floor as his hands moved up to rub at his throat. Mikasa, however, stayed where she was, staring at the man that swayed in front of her. Her hands hovered around the knife handle. She looked up at the man who had captured her, had helped to kill her parents, and she watched as his eyes grew dark and glassy. Finally, she pulled the knife from his chest and stepped aside as he fell at her feet.

“You saved me,” Eren gasped, still lying on the floor with his hands massaging his neck. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Mikasa said softly. She walked over to him, offering him a hand to pull him up. You saved me first.

That night, he wrapped a muffler around her neck and led her home. It was then that Mikasa knew he would always be her hero.

Eren was her hero even after she came to know his childish side and she discovered his dislike of chores, how he spent more time daydreaming than helping out in the house, and how he was never as invincible as she thought he was. He fought bullies twice his size even though there was no way he would ever win, but Mikasa admired his fearless righteousness and so she fought his battles with him, lending him her strength because he was the one who gave her strength to begin with. He was the one who stitched her world together right as it was being torn apart and he was the one who kept it together when it began to rip at the seams again.

When Wall Maria fell and everything was taken away from them, Mikasa expected Eren to crumble just like she did when he first found her. She was ready to be the one to take care of him, to put him back together the way he did for her when they met, but he didn’t need her to. He saw their future torn down in front of them and he decided to forge them a new one even if it meant signing his life away the moment he was old enough to enlist in the military.

It wasn’t something that Mikasa could understand, sacrificing herself for the sake of other people. She would never be as righteous and selfless as Eren was, but she followed him anyway because she knew she could never convince him. Even if she pleaded or cried with him, Eren would never budge. He was doing this for the greater good - a purpose bigger than him or her or they could ever be - and she couldn’t hate him for that. Instead, she stayed by his side, enlisting beside him even though it was far from the life she had dreamed for them.

Training was grueling, but it was far more painful for Eren who didn’t exhibit the natural athletic ability that Mikasa did. If she practiced for an hour, Eren practiced twice as much in order to perform half as well and he oftentimes spent his extra time mastering skills instead of socializing with others. She would have told him to relax more, try less, but the fear that only she would enter the top ten and leave him behind forced her into silence and she watched as Eren pushed himself every day to surpass their classmates.

What Eren lacked in physical prowess, he made up with sheer willpower and determination. When others grew tired and began to give up, Eren trained harder, nearly collapsing from exhaustion by the time he retreated for the night. He would have worked himself to death if he didn’t have a mission to complete. After all of his hard work, Eren managed to place within the top ten in their class and Mikasa rejoiced internally only to remember that he would never follow her to the Military Police. She only had to ask him once if he could reconsider his choice, but his dismissive glance at her suggestion told her that he would never budge and so she followed him even though she believed it would be the death of them.

Her worst fears were proven true the night of the graduation. With a clap of lightning, the Walls outside of Trost District collapsed and Mikasa found herself dragged away from Eren, forced to defend the civilians while Eren and the rest of her classmates were ordered to the front lines. Her position offered her more safety than the rest of her classmates. She should have been grateful, but her mind kept wandering to Eren and she found herself struggling not to rush the civilians forward as they tried to make their escape. Even as the numbers of the civilians dwindled, Mikasa felt herself becoming antsy, her grip tightening around the handle of the blade. As soon as the last civilian went through the gate, she fled, ignoring the cries of her team leader to stay put.

She knew what had happened even before she reached Armin, and yet she approached him with the hope that she might be wrong. “What happened?” she asked, but she regretted the words as soon as they slipped out of her mouth.

“D-dead. Th-they’re all d-dead,” Armin whispered, trembling as Connie wrapped an arm around him. “Eren was eaten b-because of m-me. He s-s-sacrificed himself … f-for me...”

Mikasa didn’t know why she felt so shocked when Eren’s death was inevitable from the start. From the beginning, he was a hero and he stayed a hero until the very end. Tears of anger dripped down Mikasa’s chin, burning across her skin, although she didn’t know why. There was nobody to blame, not even Eren for choosing such a reckless path. He knew that this was a possibility, that he might die, and he chose it anyway. He valued the possibility of freedom over his own life. That was just his nature.

She gave up living for the second time then, believing it was no use if Eren wasn’t by her side. Without any thought, she flew through the air, slaying every giant that stood in her way. If she was going down, she would take down as many monsters as she could with her. It was as close to revenge as she could get. Mikasa ignored the cries of her comrades behind her, disregarding their shouts that warned her of her rapidly depleting fuel. She ran out of gas in midair, falling from the sky as if in freefall. She found the reason for her demise as she fell down - a thirteen-meter titan that looked vaguely human but its facial features were far too distorted. Looking up, she expected to be frightened, the fear of death seizing her the way it seized others that had gone before her. As the Titan reached for her, Mikasa began to accept her fate until a bolt of lightning ran through her body and familiar words echoed in her mind.

Fight. They were words spoken to her so long ago she had almost forgotten. If you want to live, fight! They were the same words that Eren had spoken to her all those years ago, words that gave her the strength to live and she had almost forgotten them so carelessly. How could she give her life up so carelessly when Eren had given his life so that others would not just simply survive, but thrive.

Fingers began to close around her, but Mikasa still reached for the blade that was just within her reach. Just when she believed she was done for, another Titan appeared, its hand outstretched as if to claim her as his meal. The new Titan lifted its other hand into a fist, pulling it back as the thirteen-meter stared at it with a slackened jaw. There was something familiar in the way the new Titan moved, how it threw its fist in a punch that sent the other Titan flying and how it turned to face the other Titans that had begun to circle it. Before she could think about it any further, she was whisked away by Connie and Armin. When they later learned that that same Titan was Eren, somehow Mikasa was not surprised. Only Eren would find a way to come back to life and finish the impossible goal he had set for himself.

Eren’s resurrection was a blessing and a curse. For every danger he put himself through, Mikasa cried a hundred tears until she was sure she could fill an ocean with all the tears she shed. She cried the night of their first expedition, she cried the night Eren had been kidnapped during the uprising, and she cried the night the Scouting Legion was decimated by the Beast Titan and its comrades. Eren saw all of those tears and although he comforted her, he did nothing to stop them from falling. Even if he was the reason for her tears, it couldn’t be helped. Eren was destined to be a hero even if it hurt her in the end.

She pulled through it by telling herself it would be over soon. There would be a day where Eren was satisfied with the work he had done and the sacrifices he had made. She hoped, a little too foolishly, that it was the day the Scouts had managed to save Trost District. She thought Eren’s newfound powers would somehow earn him special treatment, but they only encouraged the Scouting Legion to thrust Eren into more danger, and Eren eagerly accepted every challenge they gave him because it meant he would be closer to obtaining the freedom he had always wanted. Even worse, the more dangerous their obstacle, the more Eren seemed to thrive, growing even more determined even though everyone around them only grew more desperate. After the defeat of the Female Titan, Mikasa thought they might have the chance to rest, content that the threats around them had subsided even if only for a little bit, but their next mission called them and Eren leapt forward not even a second after the orders left the Commander’s mouth. They fought through unexplained Titan resurgences within the Walls, an uprising, and a battle that wiped out almost the entire Scouting Legion, and still, Mikasa saw a fire burning in Eren’s eyes that blazed just as fiercely the night she met him.

They reached the ocean when they were nineteen. It was further than she thought any of them would ever get, but if anyone could make it, it was Eren. He had always said he wanted to see the ocean, feel the sand underneath his feet, taste the saltwater on his tongue. And yet even as they looked out into the ocean, Eren looked deeply unsatisfied. While their companions looked at the sea, marveling at the expanse of water before them, Eren looked even further, searching for something. It was then that Mikasa felt her heart drop and she realized that Eren would always be looking for something to fight for even if everyone he loved was safe beside him. It wasn’t because he craved the attention or that he loved the thrill of battle. He just knew that they deserved more than the lives they knew right now. He knew they deserved everything the world had to offer, and he would never be satisfied until he gave it to them or died trying.

Mikasa grasped for Eren’s hand, intertwining her fingers with his and giving it a quick squeeze. It’s fine, she wanted to tell him. We’re here. You can stop now.

Eren’s hand didn’t tighten around hers, but he did turn to Mikasa. He smiled at her, but his eyes were far away and Mikasa knew she would never be able to reach him.

-----

Eren was her hero then, and he’s still her hero now even as the world threatens to collapse underneath his feet. But Eren is a hero in a story with an ending Mikasa doesn’t want to be a part of. She could wait for another to come and end this nightmare, another white knight who could give this tale the happy conclusion that Mikasa had always wistfully dreamed of, but there are no more heroes. Mikasa is the only one left. Ten years ago, being alone in such a situation would have petrified her, but she’s no longer the helpless child she was the night Eren had saved her. She was older now with a blade in her hand and the realization that she was the only one who could save herself.

She reaches the head of the Titan, wanting one last look at Eren before she says goodbye. As she rises into the sky, her blade raised high as Mikasa aimed for the nape of the Titan’s neck, she sees Eren’s eyes - a pitch black abyss. When the green fire in his eyes burned to ash, Mikasa doesn’t know, but it must have been long ago. The Eren she knew is here no longer, and yet she’s still filled with remorse as she slashes the fatal blow across his neck. She doesn’t look back. She already knows what will happen next.

There’s the thud of the Titan’s carcass as it falls to the ground. Mikasa feels the heat against her back as the body begins to evaporate. She closes her eyes, listening to the steam rise, and it almost sounds like a sigh of release.

#eremika #mikasa ackerman #eren jaeger #snk #canonverse #ah my bf has become a better beta #that's good though #!!!

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livingmybestfictionallife · 5 years ago

Text

Live Wire --The Dirt--13

Summary: Wren Ledden, Tommy’s best friend from high school, has had a rough life, and she intends to keep the nitty gritty details of her suffrage to herself until the day she dies. Only Tommy has gotten her to open up about a small portion of her troubles, and it’s only Tommy who she trusts with her life. That is until her life gets turned around sneaking into a concert one night…the same night Motley Crue is born.

Warning! This chapter contains attempted physical abuse. Please be cautious when reading if this triggers you.

A/N: Idk if the slow pace is killing anyone or if you’re liking not having time jumps, so let me know because I’m debating adding a time jump, but I don’t really have to. Please respond with any feedback!

Previous Chapters: Masterlist

Nikki grumbled as he rolled over in bed, the uncomfortably cinched leather pants from last night still clung to his legs, and slowly, last night returned to him. Vince’s dumb ass shooting coke in the bathroom, Wren angrily disposing of the coke he and Tommy were snorting, him yelling at her, her storming off to her room after slamming a man into the ground, and him going to bed shortly after, still fuming.

As he attempted to stand, his brain pounded against his skull and a straining pain pierced through his eyes. A groan escaped his lips as he felt the alcohol and cocaine hangover in his gut and head. The only solace from his pain was the intoxicating aroma of coffee that drifted through the crack under his door. Slowly, Nikki stood and made his way towards the kitchen, silently hoping he wouldn’t encounter a soul. As his sock-clad feet fell along the carpeted hallway, his frustration with Wren grew as his presence in the living room brought back all the anger he felt the previous night. He knew she was already awake. The lingering aroma of coffee had woken him up, and at first it was comforting, a sensuous reminder of her—mint and coffee either together or apart always led to him thinking of Wren—but as the image of her fist colliding against that man’s face flooded his mind, Nikki couldn’t control the boiling in his blood.

He couldn’t put his finger on why it bothered him so much. He knew Wren was hot headed, that she has reacted violently out of anger before, and that her ability stand her ground had even been something that he admired about her. Why was last night different for him? Why did the smell of coffee leave a hardened knot twisting around in his stomach? Why did he not want to see her? As Nikki found his way into the kitchen, he poured himself a bowl of cereal and lingered in the crevices of the apartment where he hoped she wouldn’t see him.

Suddenly, all of Nikki’s other senses began to overpower those of smell, and he was able to push the scent of coffee from his mind. As he scanned the kitchen, guilt fell over him as he realized Wren had cleaned up the mess he, Tommy, and Vince along with their guests had made the night before. His hands shook slightly as he held the bowl, a side effect from the anxiety he felt as well as the craving he had to drink in order to forget his frustration with Wren and hers with him. His ears could hardly pick up the steady patter of water through the wall behind him as well as the high-pitched squeak that follows when someone turns off the shower. Quickly, Nikki placed his bowl on the counter and desperately searched the apartment for any trace of Tommy—maybe it was him and not her in the shower. Maybe she was gone already. Be serious, where would she have to go? Where would you have to go?

Wren shoved a towel along her limbs and sighed in frustration as she realized the towel wasn’t drying her, rather it was pushing all of the residual water from her skin to the floor. Fuck it, she thought as she examined the puddle around her feet and quickly tied her hair up in the towel, one of the other assholes who live here can clean it. She slipped her legs into her shorts and pulled them up to her waist before she shoved her arms into the sleeves of a t-shirt and shimmied it down her body. She stepped out of the bathroom and wrung the ends of her hair out in the towel, paced past her room and through the apartment to hang the towel over the banister outside to dry. Only upon re-entering her home did she realize she was no longer alone.

“Oh, hey,” she said softly upon noticing the flattened mop of raven-dyed hair poking out from the kitchen.

“Hey,” Nikki offered apathetically in return. He didn’t turn to face her, look her in the eye, or even speak her name. Wren held her tongue. Don’t over react. He’s a dumbass who got wasted last night. He’s just hungover, she tried to reason away Nikki’s obviously sour attitude, but on some level, she was even more angry with him now than she was the night before.

“What time were you wanting to work on some new stuff? I have to call the Roxy at some point today, but that’s all I—”

“I’m not feeling it today.” Whether or not he meant for that simple sentence to cut down any semblance of civility Wren was upholding, Nikki succeeded in pressing a button he knew would cause her to self-destruct.

“You’re ‘not feeling it’,” she mimicked with a tinge of venom in her voice. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m not in the mood,” Nikki hissed in return as he threw his plastic bowl in the sink and allowed the spoon to clink and clang around in a fury.

“Probably because your dumbass decided to do coke last night,” Wren hissed under her breath as she lowered herself onto the armrest of the couch and folded her arms across her chest.

“Why is that such a big fucking deal to you?” Nikki gasped as his voice raised in aggravation.

“Why is it such a big deal for you?!” Wren snapped in return as she narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brows at him. Both Wren and Nikki glared at one another with their jaws clenched, eyes narrowed, and noses pointed directly ahead. Tunnel vision enveloped them as they spouted insults across the room, and neither noticed Tommy had emerged from Wren’s room wearing nothing by his underwear and a hesitant expression as he examined the scene before him.

“It’s not,” Nikki grumbled as he defiantly took a step forward.

“Then cut that shit out! The band isn’t nearly successful enough for you to fuck it up for us!” Wren snapped.

“For me to fuck it up? I’m on that stage every night playing, what are you doing?!” Wren pursed her lips and sighed heavily in retaliation of Nikki’s words.

“Hey, come on, man. Knock it off,” Tommy’s voice was barely enough to cut through the bellowing from either of his closest friends.

“I’m getting you gigs! I’m marketing you sorry, coke shooting fucks!” Wren jumped up and shouted in response to Nikki’s jaded comment.

“It’s just coke! It’s not amphetamines or fucking heroine! So get that stick out of your ass and back off!” Nikki shouted his hostile words across the three feet that separated them.

“Dude, leave her alone,” Tommy immediately stated as he stepped between the two.

“Come on, Tommy,” Nikki grumbled at the lanky teen pretending to be a barrier between him and Wren. “Clearly she doesn’t need you, or anyone to fight her battles.”

“Yelling at her doesn’t do anything but make her even more mad! You’re just pissing her off to have her pissed off, Nik!”

“Is that what you’re in a mood about?” Wren scoffed as she poked her head out from behind Tommy.

“You made me look like some weak punk!” Nikki countered with fury in his eyes. “You made me look like I need a girl to fight my damn battles when I was headed over there to help you.” Wren folded her arms tightly across her chest and met Nikki’s eyes once Tommy had fallen back to stand beside her.

“I’m not going to pretend to be weak and defenseless to boost your ego! You were piss drunk and fucking high! You could barely stay standing let alone do any real damage to that asshole,” Wren huffed as she paced towards the front door, grabbed her sneakers, and jammed them onto her feet. “Fuck this. I don’t have to sit here and listen to you bitch at me for dumb shit you can’t even vocalize to me because you’re too high at the time to process your emotions,” she grumbled as she tied her laces tight against her feet and swung the door open before taking off down the steps and through the street in a light jog.

Tommy lowered his eyes and pursed his lips so that he was glaring an Nikki. His long brown hair was stringy with sweat from last night’s performance, he needed a shower, and he was expected to be at a girl’s house in less than two hours, yet there he stood, grimacing at the oldest person who lives in their apartment for being a dumbass.

“Get off my dick, Tommy,” Nikki groaned in irritation at the look on Tommy’s face.

“She’s only pissed because she gives a shit about you, you dumbass,” Tommy stated as he punched Nikki in the arm hard enough to make him realize how much of an ass he was being. “She’s pissed because she gives a shit about all of us, about the band,” his voice trailed off as he continued to explain to Nikki the way Wren’s emotional reactions work. “You were a dick, asking her what she’s doing for us. She’s doing more than either you or I could and you just shit on that! I told you from the beginning, she’s a deal-breaker. You don’t get to treat her like shit when she’s just trying to protect Mötley. Wren is choosing to be here, choosing to help Vince with vocals, to help write with you, to help us fucking make it. She could be finishing her Bachelor’s degree somewhere on a full-ride scholarship, but she’s here. She doesn’t fucking need us. We need her!”

“So, I’m not allowed to have a problem with her every now and then? I’m just supposed to get over it if she does something that pisses me off?” Nikki scoffed.

“Yelling at her only makes things worse for both of you. Just talk to her. You’re twenty-three, Nikki. Do you honestly mean to say that a twenty-year-old girl is more capable of responding like an adult than you are?” Tommy sneered as he retreated to Wren’s room to grab a change of clothes from the dresser.

“Wren’s nineteen, just like you,” Nikki’s voice traveled through the rooms of the apartment and into Tommy’s ears.

“No, she’s twenty. Yesterday was her birthday you asshole! You need to make this right.”

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Wren carefully counted her paces as she ran in order to make sure she was breathing in and out on opposite feet. In school and sports, she hated running, but sometime during her last year of high school, she began to see running as something therapeutic. She cherished her alone time, but often hated to be stuck with her thoughts for longer than a moment. Running seemed like the only solution at the time; not only does she get to be alone and distracted from her thoughts, but she also gets to have the sensation as if she’s running away from her problems. She knew that she would have to go back to the apartment at some point and that like herself, Nikki has no where else in the world to be. It was inevitable that they’d cross paths again in the next ten or twenty minutes, but at least by then she’ll be too tired to fight with him.

After going south on Clark street, cutting behind the Whisky A Go Go, turning south again on Hilldale avenue, and running along the Sunset boulevard until she passed the Roxy, Wren turned around. She still had to call the Roxy, and although she was already at the venue, she didn’t want to represent the band as a sweaty jogger. Still not quite ready to end her run, Wren decided to lengthen her route by continuing north on Hilldale until it intersected with Ozetea Terrace, and then turn right and head south on Clark street.

As she grew closer to the apartment, Wren could make out a vehicle parked along the back side of the apartment building. A black, 1975 GMC pick-up truck was barely visible, and Wren decided to quicken her pace. It wasn’t uncommon to notice strange cars in strange places in Los Angeles, but due to her time living alone on the streets, she was privy to the any danger that could that present itself from that situation. As she approached the stairs leading up to her apartment, Wren noticed the silhouette of a man leaning against the building. He was of relative height and weight, yet everything about him was too familiar. Hazel eyes poked out from strands of long, mousy brown hair that fell over his face, and his hollow cheeks seemed to fill once Wren had finally returned to the building.

“A friend told me where I could find you.” His voice brought back memories of not being able to breathe, of being thrown around, hit, and overpowered. A small, weak, ‘no’ fell from her lips as Wren dashed for the stairs. “You’re not getting away that easy this time!” he growled as Wren hurried to leap up the steps three at a time. She could feel his slender and grubby fingers graze her leg as she took her last two leaps and strides up the stairs and sharply kicked back in defense.

After flinging open the door and closing it shut behind her, Wren cursed her roommates for deciding to take the locks off the door for the party last night. “Tommy!” Wren called out and quickly scanned the room in search of her friend. Quickly, the footsteps outside grew heavier and heavier as Clay came closer to catching her. Heart pounding and tears threatening to spill from her eyes, Wren sprinted through the apartment to the very last room, Nikki’s room. She opened the door and slammed it shut and hastily attempted to turn the lock between her shaking hands. “Nikki I--”

“What do you want? An apology?” he hissed without even looking up from the guitar he held in his hands.

“Please, Nikki,” Wren pleaded as her shaking hands caused the already loose door handle to jiggle uncontrollably.

“I’m not just going to forgive you for--” Nikki’s voice faltered when he finally brought his eyes to the woman before him. Her normally porcelain features were phantom white, her eyes were coated with a heavy veil of tears that she refused to let fall, and he could feel the anxiety and adrenaline that pulsed within her veins as if they were his own. He’d never seen anyone look as terrified as she did in that moment, and her fear put their spat into perspective. She needed him and that was all that mattered. “Wren, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

“He’s here,” she panted through deep breaths.

“Who’s here? In the house?” At his words, the pair could hear a fist begin to pound on Wren’s bedroom door.

“I told you I would find you,” Clay hissed as crashing sounds began to occur around the house. He was moving around, searching for her, invading all privacy of their home.

Nikki noticed Wren had frozen the moment she heard his voice. She stopped trying to lock the door, she stopped shaking, she almost stopped breathing in an attempt to be so quiet she couldn’t be found. Throughout the silence of the room, he could hear the steady rise in the sound of footsteps as the man neared where Wren had run to for safety. In a swift movement, Nikki hurried towards Wren, grabbed her by the arms, and pulled her away from the door. As he pushed her behind him, he could feel her fingers tighten around his and the shakiness of her hands from earlier manifested in her grip. He knew she wasn’t capable of letting go of him in that moment, which would make fighting this asshole fairly difficult, so he was careful to keep his bass within reach. As both Nikki and Wren watched the door knob turn and the door creep open, they each tightened their grasp on one another; one in desperate need of support, and the other assuring he wasn’t going anywhere.

“There you are,” the intruder sighed as he locked his sights onto Wren. “Come on, you know we have some unfinished business to get back to.”

“You need to leave,” Nikki stated firmly as he glared at the man before him. He couldn’t have been older than twenty-one or twenty-two, but the small scars on his face made him appear older.

“And what are you going to do about it?” Clay huffed at Nikki, indifferent to his presence.

“Get the hell off this property and stay the fuck away from her, and in return, I won’t kill you where you stand.”

“Really, Wrenny? You’re going to let this guy speak for you?” Clay scoffed as he peered past Nikki and at the sweaty, broken woman behind him.

“Leave me alone,” Wren stated, and although her voice was firm and unwavering, her hands trembled within Nikki’s. At her words, Clay began to make his way forwards. Step by step, he closed in on Wren, even with Nikki acting as a human shield between the two. Nikki pulled his hand free from Wren’s grasp and threw a solid punch in Clay’s direction. His knuckles cracked when his hand collided with the side of Clay’s face, and Nikki let out a brief shout.

“Run! Go!” Taking heed of his instructions, Wren managed to slip past the two men just as Clay’s fist made contact with Nikki’s face.

“Nikki,” she called out, only to hear him repeatedly yelling for her to run away. Wren tried to take off in a sprint, but not even a second after Clay punched Nikki across the face, he shoved him against the bed and turned to chase Wren. Throwing himself after her in a full-fledged dive, Wren felt her body collide with the ground as another body was pressed against hers. A hand found her breast while another groped along her stomach and ribcage as she writhed beneath the weight of his body and the weight of his torment. As quickly as his body landed on her, it was shoved away. Wren scurried away from where she lay and retreated back into the safety of Nikki’s room to try and keep herself from breaking down. Her breaths were choppy and incomplete, her heart thumped and pounded as if it were that of a racehorse after a derby, and her stomach was emptier than it had ever been, yet it churned with the urge to vomit.

With each passing second, Nikki’s hands began to ache more and more as they took turns striking each side of Clay’s face. Right and then left, right and then left, right, left, right, left; one after the other, Nikki pounded into Clay’s skin until he begged for mercy. Wren saw nothing. She didn’t see Nikki brutally beat Clay for attacking her, she didn’t see him retreat from their home, she couldn’t even hear Nikki’s screams as Clay ran from the apartment and down the stairs to his vehicle. She had her back pressed against the wall and her side pressed against the mattress on the opposite side of the room as the door, attempting to hide from the initial line of sight as she scraped the tears from her eyes and tried her hardest to steady her hands. For a long time, she could feel nothing other than the beat of her own heart and the deep inhales of her own breaths, or at least until Nikki entered the room.

Bloodied, beaten, and bruised, Nikki made his way to where Wren sat. His arms wasted no time in snaking around her back, his head hurried to rest on her shoulder, and his chest ached to be against hers. All he wanted was to reassure her that she was safe. His insecurities from earlier were moot, his anger with her and hers with him had all faded away into dust. Without thinking, Wren crawled closer to Nikki so that she sat on his lap and clung to him as if her life depended on it. A smile crossed his lips and he held her even closer than he had before. Every now and then a hot tear would connect with his skin, but slowly, her tears stopped, her breathing stabilized, and they were simply holding each other. All Nikki wanted was to stay in that moment, and so he held his arms tightly around the woman he never wanted to let go of, and prayed with all his might to anyone who would listen to please not take her away.

Continued Reading: Chapter 14

Tags: @prettyyoungandbored, @hot-young-runningfree, @crue-sixx, @oskea93, @dancergirl5527, @thatonemoviefan, @motley-queen, @american-satanxx, @infernalrats, @gothpanda

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ghostlyhamburger · 5 years ago

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Miraculous: Tales of Captain Turtle and Honeybee : Riposte

Rating: E

Read from beginning

Read current chapter on Ao3

Adrien still kept up with some of the activities his father had scheduled for him. Fencing, for example. He genuinely liked that one, and figured it was good to keep his skills sharp between akumas.

Also, Adrien 2 deserved a break. Master Fu claimed the double didn’t have free will and didn’t mind doing everything Adrien was supposed to do, but that just didn’t sit right with him. Everyone deserved some free time.

He was surprised and delighted when he arrived at fencing practice to see a bunch of new potential students—including Marinette.

“H-hey,” he greeted her with a smile. “I didn’t know you liked fencing.”

She shrugged. “I figured with all the akumas, it might be good to know some sort of fighting. If this doesn’t pan out, I’m going to learn kickboxing.”

“Well, good luck,” he said. “D’Argencourt can be kind of picky about who he lets in, but I’ll try to make you look good.” He gave her a sly wink before pulling down his mask.

But as they prepared to face off, the doors to the courtyard burst open. A figure in red entered, carrying their own epee.

“I demand to be allowed into this fencing academy,” they announced.

Monsieur D’Argencourt scoffed. “Demand? All right—if you can beat my best student. Adrien!”

Adrien had to tear his gaze away from the practicing Marinette to pay attention. He walked over to the teacher’s side.

“Now,” D’Argencourt said. “Pret—allez!”

Adrien focused on his match with the newcomer, dodging their quick attacks and doing his best to find an opening in their tight defenses. The match quickly left the courtyard, the two fighters heading up the stairs as the crowd around them followed.

His opponent landed a touch on him just at the same time he made contact. They turned to their audience—Marinette was the only one who appeared to have seen their final blows.

“Who won?” the stranger demanded.

“I—I don’t know!” she cried. “Um, I think—Adrien?”

“Ah-ha!” D’Argencourt cried, catching up with the fencers. “And that means you, insolent newcomer, are not welcome in this fencing academy!”

The fencer groaned in defeat, and threw her epee and mask to the ground, revealing a rather pretty girl with stark Asian features and a look of annoyance on her face. She stalked out of the courtyard.

Marinette grabbed the items the girl left behind and ran after her. “Wait! You forgot these!”

The girl stopped outside, just before getting into a car. She turned and said, with acid in her voice, “You—”

Her face suddenly softened as the words died on her lips. Marinette couldn’t help but notice that as her eyes widened, they were a really pretty deep brown. And the girl was—so pretty. “Y-your stuff,” she said, holding out the mask and the epee.

“Thank you,” the girl replied, taking them from her hands. “I am—sorry that I was angry.”

“I might have been wrong,” Marinette explained sheepishly. “I’m new to fencing. I’m sure Adrien would give you another match, he’s a nice guy like that.”

The girl’s lips curled up into a smile, but her eyes stayed hard. “I appreciate that. But I don’t get second chances.” She tossed her equipment into the car before abruptly turning and getting in herself.

Marinette sighed. She wished she could help the girl, but she wasn’t sure there was anything she could do. Poor, pretty girl.

She gritted her teeth and reminded herself that she had a boyfriend that she loved very much—and that would be arriving soon, as she saw a black butterfly flitting towards the girl’s car.

Adrien was in the locker room, just finished changing after fencing, when his locker was sliced in half.

He glanced up to see a girl clad in all silver standing on the banks of lockers, her arm turned into a sword that was pointed directly at him. “A rematch!” she cried. “Right now—to the death!”

A purple butterfly glowed over her face, but she just shook her head and scoffed in response to whatever Hawkmoth had said.

Adrien grabbed his epee, immediately shifting into a guarding stance. All he had to do was hold off the akuma long enough to find a place to hide, then he could transform and purify her.

Honeybee’s trompo suddenly whizzed past his face, the string catching the akuma’s sword and drawing her attention. “Come on, fight me instead!” she cried. “Want to prove you’re the best? Ignore him, fight a superhero!”

Adrien grinned, proud of his partner for stepping up, but also—had she ever held a sword before? She picked up a nearby discarded blade and held it upside down, basically answering his question.

He tightened his grip on his epee and ran towards the two, darting in front of Honeybee to block a particularly nasty blow from the akuma. He hissed in pain as his ankle twisted in a very wrong way, but he managed to save his partner.

Next thing he knew, he was in Honeybee’s arms as she swung away from the akuma, a determined look on her face. “I need to find you somewhere to hide,” she muttered. “She’s targeting you.”

She brought him to the roof of a tall building and set him down in the scaffolding beneath a billboard.

“Are you going to be okay?” Adrien asked.

She flashed him a smile. “I’ll be fine. Cap should be here soon.” With that, she jumped away, leaving Adrien alone.

As soon as he could, he transformed into Captain Turtle, but found that his ankle still hurt when he put weight on it. Not as bad, but—he’d have to be careful. He ran with a bit of a limp after Honeybee, heading back to the school to catch up with the akuma.

He found Honeybee and the akuma on the rooftops nearby. The akuma was easily overpowering her, forcing her back to where she’d left him. He threw his shield at her sword, knocking it aside but not breaking it.

She turned her attentions towards him, but with only a sword to block her blows, he was forced to retreat, trying not to limp as he accidentally led her back to “Adrien’s” hiding spot.

The akuma let out a loud cry of frustration and slashed her sword, crumbling the billboard and scaffolding beneath. Captain was wide-eyed, suddenly thankful he wasn’t there anymore, but Honeybee—she let out a strangled gasp, her hands covering her mouth as she looked on, horrified.

“Where’s Adrien?” the akuma cried, leveling her sword back at Honeybee.

Before Captain Turtle could do anything in response, Honeybee shrieked, “He’s dead! You just killed him!” She threw her trompo, not even aiming, just in anger, and added in a sour voice, “Good luck getting your rematch now.”

The akuma stood there, a blank look on her face as the purple butterfly mask appeared on her face again. She suddenly screamed in pain, holding her normal hand to her head as she fell to her knees. Then, suddenly, black bubbles covered her body and transformed her back to the girl from the fencing academy, a black butterfly flapping away.

Captain threw his shield to catch the akuma and purify it before setting everything back to normal. The billboard and scaffolding beneath were rebuilt.

“I’ll go see if Adrien’s okay,” he said quickly. “Can you take care of her?”

She nodded, moving to kneel at the girl’s side.

Captain returned to the billboard before dropping his transformation and walking out in the open on the roof. There was a door that would lead down to the street, so he figured it would be better if Honeybee saw him as Adrien before he left. It would probably make her feel better.

Soon, Honeybee came by, carrying the girl in her arms, holding her close. She gently set down the girl and said, “You two need to talk, and I need to get moving. Adrien, I’m glad you’re okay—where did Cap go?”

“He had to run off,” Adrien said quickly. “His, uh, bracelet was beeping.”

She nodded. “Will you two make it home okay?”

“We should be fine,” the girl said. “Thank you, Honeybee.”

The heroine’s cheeks dusted pink before she nodded and threw her trompo to swing away.

“Adrien,” the girl said. “I apologize. I was…not myself when I hurt you.”

He gave her a smile. “It’s all right. And I’m open to a rematch sometime, if you want. You’re a great fencer.”

“Thank you,” she said, her expression softening, though she didn’t exactly smile. She held out her hand abruptly. “My name is Kagami. I’m new to the city. I’m sorry for not introducing myself earlier.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kagami. So, what do you think of Paris?”

“It’s a beautiful city,” she replied. “Especially the heroes. Do you know much about Honeybee?”

“Um, a little? Not more than anyone else.”

“Is she seeing anyone?”

Adrien couldn’t help but smile at the girl, looking so hopeful. “I don’t think so, but I don’t know if she’s interested. Heroes aren’t really supposed to date civilians, right?” he said, the pot speaking to the kettle.

The girl snorted derisively. “Maybe not in Paris. I hope I can see her around again…”

“You probably will,” he said. “But in the meantime, mind if I walk you home? I know what it’s like to be the new kid, and now that you’re not trying to kill me—want to be friends?”

“I would like that.”

Buy me a coffee?

#ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml au #ghostly writes

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cartoonfangirl1218 · 5 years ago

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CarterxLisa Soul Mate AU

This was written quite a few years again when Legends of Tomorrow first aired, and I came up with this random AU for Lisa Snart Appreciation Week in what if she was Hawkgirl. So here it is. Hope you enjoy!

Three beers, on the rocks please" Lisa ordered the bartender as he blatantly stared down at her breasts. Normally she would have hit the guy in the neck for that kind of thing but tonight she didn't care. She was here to forget her troubles. More specifically him. Carter Hall aka Khfu aka Hawkman aka the most annoying guy on Earth, no matter the timeline.

She had been invited by Rip Hunter to join the Legends along with her brother and Mick. They had agreed because you know, chance to steal the Hope Diamonds, parts of the Statue of Liberty, the Mona Lisa! It was an opportunity not to be missed.

Besides the original Black Canary, there was a friend of the Flash's Ray Palmer aka Atom, Firestorm who was Dr. Stein and Jax, also friends of the Flash, and then Hawkman. The source of all troubles.

Now he was hot, she could give him an 11. Chiseled cheek bones, dark hair, light brown eyes that looked at her so soulfully she felt like the only girl in the room, could earn a living being shirtless with his hard six pack. Not to mention the rippling muscles.

Then he opened his mouth and all different kinds of bullshit came out of it. He wasn't the first one to call her his soul mate. Usually she just went along with it and got a couple of drinks, showered with compliments, a decent one night stand and if he was rich enough, his wallet.

But he didn't compliment her nor did he give her drinks. Instead he starts reciting some nonsense about "I will wait across eternity for my love to come back to me"

Then he explained the whole thing. They were lovers in Egypt, she was a high priestess and he was a warrior. Vandal Savage was obsessed with her and when she refused him he killed them both and cursed them to be reincarnated over and over again and keep getting killed by him which only mad him more powerful and oh yeah, only she was able to kill him.

She laughed in his face.

I wasn't supposed to be mocking, but more of it "What kind of idiot do you think I am"

Her, reincarnated, the big hero. Puh-lease.

But he wouldn't let it go. He insisted that she had powers, that she could magically burst out wings and fly, and remember 208 versions of herself and their past lives together. She couldn't even remember what she had for dinner last night, 208 lifetimes that never happened, forget it.

At first she ignored him, but when he continued annoying her and calling her Chay-yera. She siced Leonard at him.

Which turned out to be useless because after being killed 208 times, being threatened by the robber of ATMs didn't faze him and he said that she was worth the wait so that meant he would never leave! Then the bastard had to be proven right.

She had been fighting one of Savage's mooks in the 20s when BAM she fell off the roof. She waited for the painful but hopefully quick death when suddenly she felt herself being picked up and a breeze flapping from her sides. She glanced to see two wings, and Carter was staring at her from another roof top.

Not only was she thankful that she hadn't died, but she was also very thankful that cell phones or Internet hadn't been invented yet because her reaction would have been Buzzfeed worthy for sure. She didn't not handle the idea of having wings in the middle of a fight very well.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!!! HELP ME HELP ME HOW DO I STOP THIS? WHY AM I FLYING! CARTER HALL WHAT EGYPTIAN MAGIC SHIT ARE YOU DOING DID YOU DO TO ME! WHAT DO I DO!! MAKE IT STOP!"

After she miraculously maneuvered herself to solid ground, the first guy who laid his hands on her got hit in the stomach. She could pinpoint what exactly happened but when Carter threw her a mace, she felt a memory stir. The reincarnation memory thing. And she started to fight on a whole new level. She used her anger to her advantage and the mace felt as easy as when she learned to handle a gun.

Carter was ridiculously pleased by this new twist. So she defiantly had powers, and he was right about one thing. He offered to train her some more.

She reluctantly accepted because if she was going to start bursting out wings more often, she would probably need to know how to use them. He then used these sessions as an excuse to talk to her and their lives together.

It was annoying and frustrating because he remembered everything so easily and she was so out of the loop. Not that she wanted to believe him but he was already right about the Hawk thing...Then when she met her son.

Another memory came back, holding him as a baby, clutching Carter and yes, she felt how much she loved him back then.

She ran back to her designated room on the Waverider as soon as the mission was over. It was getting all too real. She had powers, she was reincarnated. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. If she was reincarnated, did that mean her personality was not because how she was brought up but because she was always that way, and did this whole thing influenced any of her actions so none of what she was doing was her own free will?

Then there was the added plus of some old psycho who was hunting her down to either kill or rape her at any time.

It was even ruining her flirtations with other men at bars, because there was a slight nagging in the back of her mind. "What about your soul mate? What about your soul mate?" In a stupid sing song voice.

Len tried his best to comfort her, but he was just as lost as she was with the whole reincarnation thing. Actually she preferred to be reincarnated with Len, sure he could get annoying at times but at least she liked and trusted him.

That was the problem with Carter. She didn't like him, she didn't know him. He depended on her to regain her memories so that she could fall in love with him.

But she didn't want to. What about the now? What about her current feelings? And interests? He didn't know her. He didn't know what she had gone through in her childhood, the hurt and the pain and the venerability and self-doubt.

He just skipped past that, to some happy year in 1812 or something that was in the past. He was trying to recreate something she couldn't remember and she wanted no part in it.

"Chay-yera, I mean Lisa.. I was looking for you." Came such a familiar voice.

"What?" Lisa growled irritably.

“Can we talk?" Carter asked with those warm, hazelnut eyes. “Stop it Lisa" she told herself, "Those are crazy hazelnut eyes. Not warm at all."

“No, we cannot talk. Because I have no interest in you whatsoever and would like very much to kick you in the balls." Carter hardly seemed to notice the threat, "Can you tell me why? What am I doing wrong?"

Lisa took a gulp of her drink and breathed in, might as well jump into the mess. "Because you don't know me. Yeah, you know 208 versions. But do you know 209th? No. The 209th me went through a lot okay. Things that you probably won't understand. And it affects me a lot today, and a lot of how I think and feel. And you weren't there for it. So yeah, maybe that's why I don't like you. Because you haven't experienced my life in this century and you don't even want to learn about it because you got it stuck in your head that I'm just some beautiful, kick ass wife that you've known for a thousands of years. Well I'm not. I have scars, I curse like a sailor, I've been to jail 4 times, three of them people mistakenly thought I was a prostitute. Okay, that was disguise but still. Did your soul mate do that before? I don't think so, at least I don't remember that, you would know better. Anyway the point is, this soul mate is not like the others and you wouldn't like her."

Carter let a low whistle. "That was something.”

Lisa sighed, "I'm a little drunk"

“You're wrong though. I do think I'll still love you." Carter said.

“Yeah right" Lisa mumbled.

“I would. Here, know what. Tell me all about your childhood, and I'll tell you mine. No talk about past lives or anything. I promise." Lisa stared at him, trying to figure out whether he was truly being sincere or just getting into her good graces and wouldn't listen to a word that came out of her mouth.

He sat on a stool, staring at her and waited patiently for her to begin. Those eyes staring at her again. They really did make her feel special. Just the warmth and love radiating out of them. It was not like anything she expected before.

She took in a deep breath. The only other person she had told about her father was Team Flash and even them she didn't quite into depth. But she spilled her heart out to him that night.

She told him, the fear she felt during the heist she did with her dad, the panic when he was drinking, the absolute pain and years of brainwashing as he convinced her that she was worthless. It affected so much of her love life.

Why she didn't stick around with most guys, she never thought they would stay. The first time someone said he was proud of her was from Lenny after she showed him the first A she got in Math in kindergarten. She stood by him ever since. She told about her high school years, her dad's death, finding out the truth behind her mother's death, her first heists, Leonard's death threats against her dates, her slight crush on Mick when she was a teenager, how she got her gold gun.

Carter was surprisingly thoughtful and offered insightful comments and murmurs of sympathy and didn't pressure her to continue when she felt herself start to get teary.

In return, he told her his childhood in California, his parents, his younger brother, surfing, getting addicted to heroin, rehab, volunteer work with children.

She was pleasantly surprised to find out they had a few things in common in this life time, such as favorite drinks (mimosas), favorite movies (Great Gatsby although for different reasons) and he wanted to be a professional motorcycle racer when he was younger and he had been raised to use a gun since he was 7.

"My dad was a gun shop owner. It was sorta required knowledge on how to load and unload, clean and use a gun. Carted them though out the shop for my job." He stared at her, "What?" "Get it? Carted, Carter.”

"That was so lame" Lisa playfully groaned. But she smiled, she could get use to this guy. ——————————————————————————————————————————Six Months later, the Legends were leaving a small wedding chapel in the hills of Naples, Italy.

Lisa had come up with the brilliant idea after she had gotten her memory of the 208th version of her last night.

She was fully aware of who was, who he had been and what they shared together. So she wanted to get married.It helped that they had gotten along pretty well too.

They had started dating again, shortly after that fateful talk. The made an agreement that they would only discuss past lives, if 1) During mission, 2) They have a flashback or 3) Some training motivation.

Besides that they were completely in the now, and it had worked out well. She had fallen in love with him as Carter Hall, not Khufu or Hannibal. Just him.

She proposed to him shortly after the idea, and he jumped on the chance. Both Rip and Leonard watched over them like anxious hens, constantly asking if they were sure about this.

It took a long time for Leonard to get along with the idea that his baby sister was a reincarnated hawk warrior that wanted to get married.

The rest of the Team were very supportive and Sara had eagerly jumped on the chance to help Carter buy a new anniversary gift knife with a gilded jewel handle with golden in-lining in honor of her current alias.

Carter carried her to their room, in the Waverider and stripped off his shirt. Lisa wolf-whistled appreciatively.

"What do you say? Do I look better shirtless with tux pants or shirtless with board shorts?" Carter asked, posing. “Tux pants. Definitely" Lisa licked her lips and slipped out of her gold wedding gown.

"Mmm, Lisa," Carter wrapped his arms around her "Call me Chay-yera, Khfu" Lisa smiled as Carter stopped to look at her. "Okay, Chay-yera why the change of heart?"

"I'm marrying you because I love you. The current you and past you. I'm ready to embrace it all. Give it my all.”

"You always did put everything into whatever you loved" Carter smiled.

"I love you,” Lisa smiled, "And I expect you to put in your all tonight too...." She gave a seductive grin "I mean you've had centuries of practice so I expect this to be good.”

"The hot springs in Tibet good or the Conquistadors might come day now good?” Carter questioned with a wicked glint entering his eye.

"Hot springs duh." Lisa kissed him.

#lisa snart #carter hall #hawkman #golden glider #crackship #lisa snart appreciation week #soul mate au #my fanfic #legends of tomorrow #my fanfiction

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