#Some Polaroids of Chloe & I from the past few days!

[x-noirangel-x]

Pricefield Polaroids!

[themaribatpit]

Jasonette July Day 10: Light

Written by: The Maribat Pit  @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Light Rated: T A/N: This is just a fun silly story.

"Aren't we a little old for this?" Marinette wondered aloud, the three of them decided to move to Gotham city after they finished Lycée.

"We live in a world with superheroes, magic, and literal aliens, but you don't think there's anything spooky about Wayne Manor?" Alya cocked an eyebrow, Marinette shook her head.

"I hate to agree with Marinette," Chloe sighed, "but maybe getting in trouble with the local billionaire is probably not the first thing people do when they move to a new city".

"Hey, you're the one who said there was something off about them." Alya argued.

"I said one of them looked like his son who died a few years ago." Chloe reminded her. "Besides, when I met this person, he seemed bored by the whole thing. Probably counting the number of drinks he could down until it was over." "So you're just mad he didn't want to talk to you?" Alya joked.

"I think the only words he said to me were, 'do you have a light?' and nothing else." Chloe recalled. They both looked up to find that while they were bickering, Marinette was gone.  "See, Marinette thought this whole thing was so stupid that she just walked away and left us here." Chloe scoffed.  She would have been right, had Alya not seen Marinette climbing down the other side of the wall.

"What are you thinking?" Chloe hissed.

"Bring me back a souvenir" Alya called, before Chloe clamped her mouth shut with her hand.  

Marinette looked around the old manor house, as she felt the crunch of gravel beneath her shoes.  It was certainly the kind of place people thought of when they imagined a place that housed a literally bloodthirsty coven of vampires.  As she came to a pair of large double doors, she looked back to see that Chloe and Alya had gone back to arguing. There was no turning back now, as she pushed open one of the heavy doors and let herself in.

She didn’t know how to feel when she found out that the big, grand, old manor house was also dark and empty.    She also thought it was dark, but didn’t want to alert anyone by turning the lights on.  Marinette saw there was a candle on the side table, probably used because it smelled nice more than anything.  She picked up the candle and took a little whiff before lighting it with a small lighter she kept in her handbag.  Gently and quietly, she decided to explore the grand old house.  Maybe find something to prove to Alya and Chloe that she had been inside. Jason preferred to keep to himself in the library, Bruce and the others were away attending an event that he and Alfred were exempt from.  It means that he got to sit by the window and immerse himself in yet another slow burn gothic novel.  Most likely one involving a Byronic hero and the ingenue who is drawn to him like a moth to a flame.  At the very least, it meant an afternoon where he wouldn’t be disturbed by Bruce, Dick, Replacement or Demon Spawn.  His plan was cut short, however, when he heard the creak of the door to the library.  Jason took one look and saw that it wasn’t Alfred. For one thing, this person looked more like a small young woman.  Was she Replacement’s secretary? No.  For one thing she was dressed in casual clothes, and secondly she was carrying a small candle in her hands.  She carefully set it down on the library table, trying to keep it as far away from the other books as possible. Marinette set foot inside what looked like a library inside the house.  She set the candle down on the library table, and was startled to find that there was, in fact, someone in this house.  “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked, Marinette swallowed as she tried to think of an excuse. “I uh, I’m here because,” she stammered, the man staring down at her raised an eyebrow. As if waiting for whatever excuse she came up with and knowing full well it would be a lie. “I spent the night here, and got lost on my way out.” Marinette spluttered, if they were anything like Chloe described, at least one of them would be the type to bring girls back here.  Though if Alya’s vampire theory was true, who’s to say that the girls who entered this house ever left.  Still, she had to give it a try. “Alright then, with who?” he asked, there was a smirk on his face, as if to say “this was going to be good”. Marinette’s mind scrambled for a name that Chloe might have mentioned, “Tim?” she said. “Was that a question or an answer?” the man asked. “Little Timmy the usurper isn't one to bring girls in.” “How would you know?” she asked, “I mean he’s one of the youngest CEOs in Gotham City, never mind the world”. So that’s how she was going to play it.  Jason was slightly disappointed, if she was going to lie about spending the night here she could at least make it sound believable.  She wore a pink bunny rabbit hoodie and a pair of jeans with some pink flats. It was cute but not flashy enough to make her excuse believable.   Besides, nothing and no one made their way in or out of Wayne Manor without Alfred knowing. “Well when you put it that way, why don't you tell me, what were you and Timmy doing last night?” Jason asked, the jig was up, he gave her points for creativity.  If she answered anything besides “watch in horror as Tim drank his 10th espresso” it was game over.  Instead she said nothing, because she didn’t do anything.    “So why did you really come here?” he asked, smirking down at her.  “Who sent you here? And this time, name someone who actually has a chance with a girl.” Jason joked. “No one, well,” Marinette stammered, she really didn’t want to throw Chloe and Alya under the bus. “One of my friends thought she saw you at a party, and thought you looked familiar.  Another friend thought you were a vampire, for some reason, I don’t know and…” Marinette realised how silly this was all starting to sound.  If she had any dignity left, she would run for the front door and consider moving to Metropolis and never show her face in Gotham City ever again. “You had me at ‘vampire’, so what, your friends want you to come back with a hickey?”  Jason asked, the young woman’s face turned beet red. “N-no, not exactly, just proof that one of them is right or wrong, I guess.” Jason found this absolutely hilarious, she wasn’t entirely wrong.  He just didn’t have the fangs or the shapeshifting powers. If someone could keep him in his next coffin by putting a rose stalk on it, that would be nice.  If he was going to be legally dead, he might as well have some fun with it. Chloe and Alya were pacing the outside of the manor, worried that someone walking past would think that they looked suspicious.  Moments later, they saw an elderly man hold the door open while Marinette skipped out the front door.  Alya and Chloe watched in amazement as she waved a little polaroid photo in her hand.  “Where were you?” Alya asked, “were you in the house or the pocket dimension?”. “It took me a while, but I managed to get you this,” she whipped out the photo for the both of them to see.  In her hand was a polaroid of the boy that Chloe had met at the gala, only this time he was standing in front of a mirror with no reflection.  Upon seeing the photo of the man without a reflection, Chloe felt faint, while Alya grabbed the photo for a closer look. “See, see? I was right”! she cheered. Chloe placed a hand on a nearby lamppost “This isn't something to be cheering about! We need to get out of here!” Marinette watched as they argued while keeping her real gift close to her chest, a little card that said “an invitation from a vampire to come back and visit sometime -J”.  Marinette smiled as she pocketed the note, listening to her friends bicker all the way home.

[silverwhiteraven]

Wings of Broken White - Ch. 2

Tag List: @marichatmay

[ Posted on Ao3 ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Chapter 3 ]

[ Summary: It’s Origins all over again, but jsut a little different. ]

Ever since his mother disappeared, Adrien’s favorite movie has been Spirited Away. As the years passed, he related to it more and more.

A young child, who’s parent’s pay her no mind despite her warnings. She gets separated from them, wanting to do nothing more than cry for the unfairness of it all. Then she gets dragged into signing a contract, willing to work under its terms because it would allow her to bid her time and someday regain her family.

All of that he felt in his heart, but it wasn’t all.

A strange and dark looking creature is constantly asking her to let it inside, and each time she has to keep denying it. Letting it in would be, is, a mistake, she had to get him out as soon as possible and keep him far, far away.

It was a little unclear to Adrien why he related to this part of the movie as more of a relevant metaphor than a personal experience. But it was still there. He could never quite grasp why, but whatever his own dark, faceless creature was, he knew he couldn't let it in.

And of course, there was one other part to Spirited Away that he wished to understand.

The girl lost her name, her memories, all of who she was, as part of a contract to get her parents back. Even her spirit friend had lost his name, too, and he had done it to stay alive. Those parts felt raw and real to Adrien, and it always made his cry.

Though he was always a bit confused why he felt lost like they were. Had he forgotten something? He knew his name though, it was Adrien. And he still belongs to himself, after all, his Father lets him set his terms for when he models so he’s never uncomfortable. Had he forgotten something else, then?

From what he could recall, there were very few photos of Adrien from before he was seven. All up-close shots taken from a polaroid in black-and-white film, and all stuffed away in a little photo album in his Father’s personal library. Nothing was out of place, he was certain of it.

So Adrien dismissed it, chalking up his tears to nothing more than build up emotions from the earlier parts of the movie.

Spirited Away wasn’t the only Studio Ghibli movie he enjoyed, though.

He had seen every single one, really, and he loved them all.

But when Chloé had watched Whisper of the Heart with him one time, she used it as a way to egg him into going to public school with her.

“But Chlo, you’re homeschooled too, aren't you?” He was a bit confused.

“Only for now!” She huffed in annoyance. “But being homeschooled by tutors means I can't be in classes with you, Adrien, so as soon as I demand that Daddy enroll me to a school so that I can be with you more often, he will see reason! Just watch!”

And he did. She succeeded, of course, though it took her agreeing to wait until she was eligible for secondary school so they could skip the hassle of enrolling her in primary school first. Unfortunately, she had underestimated just how stubbornly protective Gabriel Agreste would be of his son.

For three years, Chloé went to Collège Françoise Dupont on her own. For three years, Adrien dreamed of getting out of the house and making friends on his own. For three years, Chloe helped build Adrien’s courage to push against his protective bubble and pop it using all his might. And, Lucky for him, three years was all it took.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinette was running late for school, just like she has every day since she started Collège. It wasn’t her fault that mornings didn’t give her very much time to eat, shower, put on her wing-binders carefully and perfectly, get dressed, maybe help out in the Bakery a little bit, and then finally grab her bag and dash off to make it on time for classes. Honestly, who’s idea was it to make the day start so early? Not her’s, that's for sure!

It really didn't help that an elder had been crossing the street while a car with a distracted driver drove toward the intersection too quickly. Marinette had rescued the elder, sure, but her box of goodies had suffered, and so did her wings. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, she had just awkwardly landed on her butt, subsequently squashing some of her primaries and secondaries where they had been concealed under her dress. Oh well, it wasn’t like she flew very often anymore anyways, right? Right!

Her first day of school was…normal, really, as normal as it has been for the past four years, anyways. This year, she had all three of her primary school friends, Nino, Alix, and Kim, in her class, and that made her rather glad. She was even happier to see that the rest of the students she had also met before over the previous three school years. She was surrounded by friends, so she knew this year would at least be better than before. Even Alya, who had transferred to their school the previous year, would be joining her classes again.

There was, of course, that one sore thumb that stuck out.

Chloé Bourgeois, for the fourth time in a row, had made a big deal of sitting in a particular spot so that a student no one knew could sit in front of her. For the fourth time in a row, Chloé watched the door instead of the teacher. And, again, for the fourth time in a row as classes passed then lunch came and ended, Chloé looked rejected and sad coming back into the classroom, before taking her usual spot back in the front row with Sabrina.

For the fourth year in a row, it looked like Chloé’s one friend outside of school wasn't going to be showing up.

Only, it seemed this year would turn out just a little different.

The mystery boy did, in fact, show up this year. He came in late, smiling like he had just escaped from prison for some reason. Chloé had jumped from her seat like a coiled spring and hugged him like he had just come back from a war when she thought he had died. Marinette had no clue why she was comparing these two’s interactions to such horrific things, but it seemed to convey just how high their emotions were running.

After that, their teacher had taken the chance to rearrange the class seating, to better accommodate the students.

Rose Lavillant with her pretty wings of a Roseate Spoonbill, and Juleka Couffaine with the purple and grey wings of a Violet-Backed Starling, were the inseparable couple, now seated in the right hand side’s back row. To their left across the aisle was Nathaniel Kurtzberg, his large red and black Cardinal wings keeping the sky boy hidden. He would have been put in the front due to his shyness, but his wings had a tendency to block other’s views.

In the next row forward, there was Max Kanté, his wings that of a pure white Flamingo. Lê Chiến Kim sat beside him. Kim was one of the wingless students, but that never got him down. Some students would even say that if he did have wings, they would be on his feet like Hermes purely because of how fast on his feet he could be. Ivan Bruel sat at the next desk in front of Nathaniel, also on his own. His Raven wings were hidden under his oversized clothes, making him rather large and intimidating in looks. He wasn’t trying to look scary, really, he was just embarrassed at how shiny his large wings were and hid them.

Third row from the top, right behind the front row, sat Alix Kubdel, dark green and pink iridescent Hummingbird wings tucked smoothly against her back. Kim was staring at the back of her head like he could already picture himself beating her in a race. Mylène Haprèle was at Alix’s side, another wingless student. She didn’t mind, really, if anything, it made her time with Ivan feel all the more special, since they could share their experiences with each other without being embarrassed. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Alya Césaire were at the other desk. Alya had the prettiest Barn Owl wings, the color reminding many of roasted marshmallows. Her wings also made her a person to fear during camping, because as soon as the scary campfire stories were out, she would sneak off, then ambush the group on silent wings at the scariest possible moment. Marinette, on the other hand, still hid her wings under loose shirts and skirts, so she was seated near the front of the room.

And finally, on the right hand side of the very front row of desks, sat Chloé Bourgeois with her regal Swan wings, and Sabrina Raincomprix, Chloé’s wingless desk companion and only friend inside of school. And now, at the other desk opposite the two girls and in front of the classroom’s door, the last two students were seated. Nino Lahiffe, another Hummingbird with blue and green feathers, sat very chill in the front row, his wings tucked away just like Alix’s to keep anyone from behind him from having trouble seeing. And at his side was the new student.

Adrien Agreste was the last of the wingless students in the class. But even without wings, he was eye-catching. His hair was white, more pure in color than even Max’s or Chloé’s wings. It was only accentuated by his light, almost pale skin. And his eyes, blue as could be, looking like ice drifting on an open sea. He wasn’t completely unique, of course, as there were plenty of pale or even albino people in the world. But still, he was different and new to them, and even more curiously, he was friends with Chloé, of all people. She even treated him well, and she didn’t do that for many.

After the excitement of seat changing and a new student, everyone settled down for the rest of their first day of school. Adrien seemed rather excited to be there, even jumping out of his seat when called on, blushing furiously at the giggles but still smiling at his own amusement.

Sadly, the day was interrupted. By magic and supervillains, of all things.

No need to get into the details, but here is what Marinette remembered when she finally got home after an exhausting day.

First, a very large, blue gorilla came crashing into the school, obviously looking for someone.

Second, Marinette found a pair of earrings in her room, a magical creature with them.

Third, she became Ladybug, and, for the first time in a while, flew in the skies on new wings of pitch black.

Fourth, she was really out of practice on flying, especially with the new set of feathers, and ended up falling into another person.

Fifth, that new person was her partner in heroics, apparently, calling himself Chat Blanc.

Sixth, he too, had wings, a brilliant, almost iridescent white, broken by scattering specks of crystal blue. But for some reason, he hadn't been flying when she fell, or any time after that.

But, seventh and most important of all, he had been encouraging to her, helping her when she faltered and felt fear. She was utterly embarrassed over it, but also very, utterly certain that she really, really liked him for it.

Adrien, on the other hand, remembered a few less things, but was just as excited about them.

First, he got to go to school!!! He had to run away from home to do it, yes, but it was worth the cost.

Second, when a monster came attacking his school, looking for someone (later revealed to be Adrien himself when the monster was reverted back into his bodyguard), Adrien had been saved. Marinette, his new classmate, had guided him through and out of the school building to help him escape the chaos happening in the unfamiliar environment. It was so cool.

Third, he had more freedom now than ever before. With the help of a silver ring and a wary little cat creature named Plagg, he could become Chat Blanc. And that freedom came with wings. Those wings made him feel almost whole for some reason. Like one of the missing pieces of himself, that he only thought about when watching Spirited Away, was suddenly back where it belonged.

Fifth of all, after the fighting was over, after his first day in public school was over, he got to see Marinette again. As he waited for his Father’s intimidating Assistant to come and get him, as he waited under the entrance awning as rain poured from the sky, Marinette had come up to his side.

“I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier, but welcome to our class, Adrien,” she had smiled genuinely at him. “I wasn’t sure what to think at first, you being a friend of Chloé, but you seem to make her, well, nicer, I guess. So, I hope I get a chance to be your friend, too.”

Then, she handed him her white dotted pink umbrella and dashed off into the rain before he could say anything back. It reminded him of another Ghibli movie, actually; in My Neighbor Totoro, when the sisters had been waiting in the rain for their bus, they had lent their only umbrella to the strange but friendly Totoro.

Adrien was glad Marinette hadn't seen him blushing as she left, or heard his embarrassing squawk as the umbrella had suddenly snapped down around his head and shoulders.

But after all that, the day was made bright by the fact that his Father was going to let him continue going to school. Everything was really looking up. He couldn't wait for the rest of his life to come.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

Epilogue to Mr. Wonderful.

A/n: was sitting on this idea for a few days and since Uncharted 4 has an Epilogue I decided that this fic needed one too.

Summary: Cassandra find's out about her parents troubled past.

Wrinkling her nose, Cassandra let out a sigh.Her fingers petting her dogs head, playing then losing the game had lost her interest. Though she didn't care, she just wanted to know where her parents were. She knew they couldn't have gone somewhere important since her baby brother was gone but that did not mean she was not worried for them. Biting her lip she slipped off her head then out of her room, glancing around she sighed as her shoulders started to drop. "Mom? Dad? Hellooo?" Peaking into her parents room she got a glance spotting the baby monitor by her mothers bedside table.

"I think they abandoned us." Glancing to her dog, she let out a small bark as she started to wander the halls. The walls were adorn with things her mother must have found from her former job. Stopping for a moment she titled her head to the side as looked at a wall filled with pictures, one was of her mother in her wedding dress. You looked so pretty, so happy.

Aunt Elena was by your side, your maid of honor of course and her daddy. He looked so happy, with a large happy smile on his face though she could have sworn he had tears in the corner of his eyes. The next picture was of her Aunt's wedding to Chloe, the two looked so happy together. She was still a baby when it happened so she couldn't remember much. The whole family was together in his photo, you were standing next to Elena while Nathan stood behind you. She was in your arms of course, while Uncle Sam, Grandpa Sully and a woman she couldn't recognize where all standing next to Aunt Chloe.

She loved her Aunt's and Uncle Sam, they all had funny stories to tell her about her father though they'd always wait when Nathan was away. The next photo was of her, must have been taken after she was born. You looked so tried and her father looked scared but Cassandra could see the love in your eyes, she was so lucky to have parents like you two.

The next few photo's where of her when she was growing up but the last one she noticed brought a large smile to her face. It was when her little brother was born, she was sitting next to you in your hospital bed while she held Victor. It was her favorite picture, she loved her little brother and she could not wait until her got older.Shaking her head she walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the fridge she glanced around the empty home.

"Maybe they're outside." They always could have came home and stayed outside letting Victor dip his toes into the water. Opening the door she watched as her dog sprinted outside. "Off she goes." Closing the door behind her she walked down the steps, feet hitting the sand she glanced around again seeing out nice it was outside. "Perfect day! Now I just need the rest of the boat crew." Running down the beach, she then quickly made her way down the dock's noticing everything was all waiting by the boat. "Well everything is all here."

Shaking her head she then turned her attention to the boat house, biting her lip she wondered if they could be in their. Well it was worth a shot to check, giving one last pet to her dogs head she quickly rushed over. Slowly walking up the small steps she took a peak inside seeing that the door was open though she let out a lower groan. "Not here either." Though what she did notice was a magazine with her picture resting on a desk. "So goofy." Smiling she shook her head placing it back down as she took another peak around the room. She spotted more pictures of you, one looked old or rather it was of you when you were much younger. You were on a dig site not looking at the camera too focused on whatever item you were cleaning.

Placing the picture back down she grasped her fathers keys, if they were here then that meant they couldn't have gotten far. Glancing towards the large red bureau she looked down at the keys in her hands before she walked to it. "There is no way...just no." Trying each key. "no way." Turning the last key then hearing the click she could not believe how lucky she was. Giving a glance around she slowly opened the doors curious to see what her parents would keep hidden.

"Woah....I knew it!." Grinning she let her eyes scan over everything. Glancing at a cross, she quickly grabbed it as she looked it over. "What is this?"Shaking her head she placed it back down spotting a golden coin. "A Spanish Doubloon....but from where?" Placing the coin back she then reached up grabbing a silver skull. "Aha creepy but kinda cool." Looking around the wardrobe she nibbled her lip, she wanted to look at everything but it was a white journal that caught her eye. "Hello"

Giving another glance over her shoulder she placed the journal down. Tracing over the writing she started to turn the pages getting more and more engrossed in them. "Whoa...Henry Avery....the Gunsway heist."Pausing for a moment her fingers heisted to turn the next page.

"Wait...did you try looking for Avery's treasure."

Turning each page she only stopped once she noticed a Polaroid picture. Turning it over she noticed how old it must have been and who it must be off. "No way...is that dad?" Placing the picture down she wondered if her little brother would look like him when he did when he was older or be more like you ?

Carefully turning the next page she smiled shaking her head. Tipping her head to the side she grabbed a photo with writing on the back of it.

'Found this on my old camera-thought you and Y/n would like to have it' -Elena.

Flipping it over she looked over the image, it was of you, Aunt Elena, Grandpa Sully and her dad. Her father was standing next to a treasure chest while you and her Aunt where sitting on top of a bunch of crates while a small chest as behind grandpa Sully. She then went back to her father, he had a gun leaning against his shoulders though the man's gaze wasn't focused on the camera like everyone else was, not he was looking at you.

"What the hell." Hearing voices she tensed as she rushed to the bureau, quickly closing it she glanced down at the picture in her hands. "Crap." Quickly making her way back to the journal she placed the picture inside then stood in front of it just as you both walked in.

Nathan carrying his son, it's been a few months since his first birthday and he was eager to teach his little boy on how to walk. "There you are...we’ve been looking for you. What are you doing in here?" Wincing, Nathan felt his son grab a stand of his hair tugging it.

"Uh looking for you guys."

Smiling you quickly took Victor from Nathans arms as the little boy quickly snuggled into the crook of your neck. "C'mon, the boats all loaded up." Nodding to your daughter you started to walk out the door.

"Um uh, ya I'll be with you guys in a sec."

Though hearing her made you stop in your tracks. "Why?"

"Uh...I just need to um." Trying to think of an excuse she watched as you both walked towards her. "Get."

"What's up Cassie?" Nathan frowned looked over at his daughter.

"Okay...don't be mad." Pushing her back away from the table she gave a small gesture to the white journal. Spotting the white journal, Nathan quickly opened the bureau's doors.

"Hey I said don't be mad." Holding back a laugh, she was more like Nathan than you'd like to admit.

"Keys." Stepping to his daughter he held out his hand. "So what did you see?" he asked tucking the keys away as he grabbed his mother's journal.

"Nothing really" Cassie shrugged her shoulders. "Well that photo of you two, Aunt Elena and Sully....with a bunch of Spanish looking treasure....and a shotgun."

Sighing you took the picture from Nathan, Victor all ready asleep against your shoulder. "Ya..." You glanced over at your husband as he locked the bureau's door. "This was bound to happen sometime...maybe we should just tell her."

"She's not ready for it." Nathan shot back.

"Ready for what?! All that crazy shit in there!" Cassie frowned, she wasn't a baby anymore.

"Hey language."

"Sorry...but you guy's are literally keeping skeleton's in your closet." Stepping close to her parents, she wanted to know what they were hiding. "Or at least a silver skull of some time."

Nathan frowned, he placed his hand against his son's head. "You know, I don't think you're ready for this."

"Really?" Cassie crossed her arms over her chest, she didn't think it was very fair.

"Nate." Your turned to face him fully, he still wasn't looking at you. "It's time to have the talk."

Smiling she glanced over at you. "Ya! it's totally time!...wait..which talk are we walking about here?" She did not want that talk, especially with her baby brother in the room.

Nathan frowned dropping his hand. "She's just a kid."

"She is older than you and Sam when you started all of this." You shot back trying to reason with him.

"That's- That is different than you know it."

Glancing between you both you, she sighed closing her eyes as she tried to let you both know that she was ready. " But I think I am old enough to know about it. Right?

"Old enough?" Nathan chuckled. "How old are you again?"

Rolling her eyes she fixed her glasses. "Ahaha....funny..mom?"

Holding back a groan, Nathan sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. "Where do we begin?", Smiling you glanced over at Nathan shaking her head. Your eyes glancing down at the picture.

"For me it started when this guy called up my sister with this scoop on a 'massive historical find.' well Elena not wanting to go alone she call me up and I'm not going to say no to that..though to me he sounded like a fraud."

"Yea.A handsome Fraud."

Nathan gave you a smile though you let out a small laugh. "No..I haven't met him yet."

"Oh she knew."

"So this fraud tells your Aunt Elena. 'If you fund this trip....then I'll give you the coffin of Sir Frances Drake.'

Walking over to your husband who was leaning against the table you returned his smile. "And for the rerecord I totally delivered."

"Yea...you delivered us into the hands of Indonesian pirates." Leaning against his shoulder, Nathan let his son grab on his finger as the little boy slowly fell back asleep.

"Hey. You know that I had nothing to do with that?" Both of you let out a small laugh.Cassandra shook her head as she moved closer to you two.

"Whoa...okay guy's time out! You're saying that you guy's were attacked by pirates after you found the coffin of Sir Frances Drake. Is that right."

"Pretty much ya." Nathan scratched his cheek.

Once you agreed to his claims, Cassie quickly shook her head. "Bullshit."

"Language." Both you of shout.

"Crap."

"Better" - "Nathan!"

"All right! so keep going!" She wanted to hear more. Shaking his head, Nathan smiled. While he was nervous the man was eager to tell more about you and his own adventures though the may have to leave out the part of your near death. He did not like think about almost losing you. "Alright...the boat is ready and it's a beautiful day out so if we're going to talk then lets do it on the water."

Following her parents out, Cassie started to bounce form excitement. "Wait! what did Sir France's Drake look like?! was it gross!"

Staying by her fathers side she looked up at him beaming. "Well he actually wasn't there..Just his journal, with a map to El Dorado.

"The city of gold?" she asked in excitement.

"Actually that was just a rumor, it was a statue! a cursed statue."

"NO way seriously?"

"Yea seriously but I'll go back to that later. Now the map lead us to the middle of the Amazon jungle-"

Watching the two of them brought a smile to your face, shaking your head you glanced down at the sleeping child. "Don't worry Victor, when you are old enough I'll make sure you get to hear the story about how much of a hero your daddy was."

[ghost-in-the-hella]

anything pricefield with 17. “We should go somewhere. Just the two of us. How does that sound?” :)

Once again, I seem to have misplaced the “short” in my short story. Enjoy me absolutely eviscerating Max’s parents, though. Unbeta’d and unrevised, so please take it with a grain of salt.

---

Dinner with the Caulfields hasn’t gotten any less awkward in the three months since the storm. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

Chloe’s been trying. She really, really has. She always walks around the corner from the house when she needs a cigarette no matter how hard it’s raining, and she’s down to three smokes a day at this point anyway. She hasn’t smoked pot at all, apart from a couple times when they were hanging out with Max’s friends and they offered. She made very, very sure to cover the scent on both herself and Max before they got back, but somehow she suspects Max’s parents still knew. She grew out the last remnants of blue in her hair because Vanessa wouldn’t stop making snide comments about it. Of course, as soon as she cut off everything but the three or four inches of remaining blonde Vanessa just started snarking about her hair being too short. She never complains about being compelled to sleep on the couch even though Max said she’d be happy to share her room. Even though there’s a fucking guest room right next to Max’s room, but “oh what if Maxine’s grandparents want to come for a visit; we can’t have the sheets smelling like cigarettes” - never mind that nobody’s come to visit at all since they’ve been here. Even though her nightmares since they left Arcadia Bay have been The Worst and it’d be really nice to have a living person nearby when she wakes up from them in the dead of night.

She’s even been looking for a job so she can start paying rent like the Caulfields keep unsubtly hinting they want her to. Funny thing, though: turns out high school dropouts with no work experience, a criminal record, severe PTSD symptoms, and highly visible tattoos aren’t exactly in high demand in the workforce. Go figure.

Earlier that day she even had her first interview in over a month: an underpaid barista gig at a local coffee shop. She’d showered and brushed her teeth and made sure she was wearing clean, unstained, untorn clothes and everything. She’d even shaved her legs, which was probably stupid because it’s January and there was no way in hell the interviewer would see her legs, but she was just so desperate to make a good impression she wasn’t thinking clearly.

So of course she fucked it all up. Honestly, it was fucked before she even went in. They probably only even called her in to meet a quota or some shit. The person interviewing her liked her tattoos, which seemed promising, but he liked her criminal record and total lack of experience a lot less. Classic Chloe Price: fucking up every opportunity before she even enters the room. 

So when the Caulfields start laying into her over “family” dinner, she’s even less in the mood for it than usual. It starts with a couple of none-too-subtle digs about the smell of cigarettes, and what an unpleasant smell that is for a non-smoker to endure when they’re trying to eat, and Maxine, dear, can you even imagine marrying a smoker and how awful that would be; why, they’ve all got one foot in the grave already. Chloe put on cologne and brushed her teeth again after the cigarette she stress-smoked after her interview, but Vanessa’s got the nose of a bloodhound. 

This is followed by a series of apparently-casual-but-actually-very-rehearsed comments to Max about colleges in the area, and what a great idea it would be for her to apply to one of them when she finishes her GED so she can further her education and still live at home with her parents; certainly she won’t want to stray far from home again, not with, well, everything that happened at Blackwell (not that the Caulfields ever actually talk about what happened at Blackwell). Nobody asks Chloe how her GED is going (surprisingly well, actually) or what her plans for college might be (waste of time and money, probably), and Max just quietly pushes her peas around on her plate and tries to answer without answering. 

Once this line of questioning (pressuring) is exhausted, Ryan turns his attention to Chloe - the first time anybody but Max has addressed her directly since she returned this afternoon. “So, Chloe. Maxine tells us you had a job interview today.”

Max almost chokes on her peas, flicking frantic blue eyes toward Chloe to silently scream that ohfuckshedidnotmeanforthistobedinnerconversationpleasepleasepleaseforgive. 

Chloe swallows the impulse to put a calming hand on Max’s knee to reassure her; no way that would escape Vanessa’s eagle eyes. Instead, she clears her throat and focuses on the crumbs in Ryan’s beard. “Uh, yeah. Coffee shop.”

“That’s great!” Ryan’s enthusiasm catches Chloe utterly off-guard.

“It… is?” She glances at Max to nonverbally inquire whether Max’s dad has perhaps been replaced by a pod person in the past five minutes. Max shrugs silently, looking as baffled as Chloe feels.

“It is!” Ryan affirms. “I have to say, it’s good to see you showing some initiative. Of course, it’s been, ahh, a real... trip down memory lane, having you with us. But, well, one cannot live on nostalgia alone - however much Max may disagree, with her polaroid and her vinyl collection.” Ryan chuckles, shaking his head as he gazes fondly at his increasingly confused daughter. “And, of course, one cannot live on charity alone.” His gaze settles on Chloe once more, every trace of fondness now abruptly vanished.

“...Dad?”

“Now, now, Maxine; I know it’ll be an adjustment, but--”

“Are you kicking me out??” Somehow, Chloe manages to squeeze the words out even though her lungs feel like they’ve been punched out of her chest.

Ryan and Vanessa exchange a look, and holy shit they totally fucking are.

“Dad? Mom?” Max’s voice is trembling. She sounds like she’s about to cry. It’s hard to confirm, since all Chloe can see is red. “Are you?”

“‘Kicking out’ is a bit harsh,” Ryan objects without denying it. “But it’s been three months, Maxine, and we all agreed that this arrangement would only be temporary. It simply seems--”

Max stands abruptly, her silverware rattling on the table. “She-- She didn’t even get the job, Dad! It’s just an interview; she might not even--”

“Maxine, really!” Vanessa exclaims, mortified.

“Now, Maxine; we’re not going to just throw her out on the street. But--”

Chloe can’t listen to another word of this. She’s fucked. She’s completely and utterly fucked. She already lost her parents, her hometown, everything she owned, Rachel, everyone and everything but what she’s managed to scrape together here in Seattle… And now she’s going to lose that, too. She’s not going to get the job. She won’t have anywhere to live. Max’s parents won’t let her visit. She’ll probably never see Max again. And honestly, Max will be better off for it.

Chloe’s not sure how she got to Max’s room or how long she’s been there, but the next thing she knows she’s being spooned by a puffy-eyed Max on the too-small bed Max slept in the five years they were apart. Max is saying something to her, and it takes a few minutes before Chloe can make out anything more detailed than the sweet softness of her voice, the slight, familiar rasp to it like she’s always just woken up.

“I’m sorry,” she’s whispering over and over, “I’m sorry.”

“S’okay,” Chloe murmurs when she can persuade her vocal cords to engage. “S’not your fault your parents are dicks.”

Max freezes for a moment then squeezes Chloe tightly. “I’ll talk to them,” she promises. 

“Nah.” Chloe shakes her head. Her eyes hurt. “No reason you should tank your relationship with your folks just because I’m a fuckup. I’ll figure something out.”

“You’re not a fuckup!” Max objects, pulling away so she can look Chloe in the eye. “You’re not,” she insists when Chloe gives her a skeptical look. “My parents are just…” She lets out a burdened sigh.

“Dicks?” Chloe suggests.

“Yeah.” She strokes Chloe’s hair in silence, and Chloe lets her. She relaxes into the quiet of the moment. It’s going to be okay. Somehow, it’s going to be okay. She has no idea how, but Max will make it happen. Eventually, Max’s hand stills and Chloe can feel her chest tense as words attempt to form in her mouth. She waits patiently for whatever Max is trying to figure out how to say. “We should go somewhere. Just the two of us. How does that sound?”

Chloe lifts her head from Max’s shoulder to look her in the eye. Max looks slightly nervous, but mostly she looks determined. “You’re serious?”

Max nods. “Completely. Anywhere you want.” She scratches the back of her neck and gives Chloe a sheepish smile. “Well. Anywhere you want that we can realistically get to, anyway.”

“Hmm, good point. We probably can’t drive to Paris.”

Max laughs. “So you want to? No nagging, no job interviews, no--”

“No separate beds?” Chloe cuts in.

Max makes a face at her then giggles. “No separate beds,” she agrees. “Just Max and Chloe and the open road.”

“Uhhh, no shit I want to! But your parents--”

“They’ll get over it.” Max shrugs. “Or they won’t. But if it’s a choice between staying here without you or leaving with you, then I’m with you to the end of the road.”

There are a million things that Chloe should say. Admonishments, expressions of gratitude, admissions of fear, declarations of love. Chloe swallows them all when Max leans in for her kiss.

[rachelstwomoms]

Chloe Flips (Childhood Friends AU): Part 1/?

It’s no secret that Rachel Amber’s got a huge crush on Justin the skater boy. Word spreads quickly in a small town like Arcadia Bay, especially among gossipy middle schoolers. By now most (if not all) of Arcadia Bay Junior High knows all about it. Ever since the sixth grade homeroom teacher shuffled everybody’s desks around after spring break and placed Rachel right next to him, Justin is all that she’s been talking about.

Or at least that’s how it seems to Chloe Price. She may or may not resent her teacher for that.

Sometimes Chloe wishes that Rachel wasn’t so good at everything. In the words of the principal and all of her teachers, Rachel’s a “well-rounded, exemplary student that Arcadia Bay Junior High School is lucky to have.” To Chloe, that’s just fancy, grown-up speak for “overachieving goody-two-shoes.” Perfect Rachel Amber is a member of pretty much every school club and team, and she’s part of a bunch of other stuff outside of school on top of that. Rachel, soccer team MVP. Rachel, model girl scout. Rachel, student council member. 

What about Rachel, BFF to Chloe and Maxine? Chloe wishes that she got to see her more often.

With how busy Rachel is juggling her million extracurriculars and commitments, only rarely does she have the afternoon free to hang out with her friends.

By some miracle, today is one of Rachel’s free days.

After the dismissal bell rings, Chloe’s at her locker deciding which textbooks she needs to bring home for homework and which she can leave at school. The tween is blissfully and willfully ignorant of the fact that she’s a bit of an overachiever herself. Rachel meets her there, all packed up and ready to go, with her hoodie tied around her waist and a pair of roller skates slung over her shoulder. It’s still a mystery to Chloe how Rachel always manages to finish getting ready to leave before her. Every day. Without fail.

“Oh, good. You brought your board.”

Chloe looks at the skateboard at the bottom of her locker. “Rachel Amber, observant as ever.”

“Is it okay if I come over to your house today?”

“But it’s Thursday,” Chloe says, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you have your drama queen lessons today?”

“Drama club,” Rachel emphasizes, “got canceled because our teacher’s at a creative arts workshop in Portland. So, can I hang with you and Maxine until my dad’s done with work?”

It’s not like Chloe’s going to say no. In all honesty, she’s excited to be getting an extra afternoon to hang out with Rachel. She’s not going to let Rachel know that, though. So Chloe shrugs like it’s no big deal, and once she’s done in her locker she and Rachel head down the block to wait for Maxine. Arcadia Bay Junior High School gets out fifteen minutes before the elementary school does, so Chloe and Rachel stretch out in the grass patch in front of the building.

“Chloe.”

“What?”

“Do you wanna stop at the skate park for a little bit before we go home?”

There’s a small skate park with a few ramps and rails near Chloe’s house. William used to take her and Maxine there on the weekends when Chloe was first learning how to skateboard. Now that she’s in middle school, her parents allow her to spend a few minutes there after school, but only if her friends are there too, and only if she calls ahead of time and gets permission first.

“Sure,” answers Chloe, smiling. Rachel’s joined her and Maxine on their afternoon skate park trips a few times before, and it’s been cool to have someone else to skate around with. Maxine doesn’t skate. The younger girl prefers to sit under one of the nearby trees and take photos with her instant camera instead. There used to be a time when Maxine would ride around with her on Chloe’s old kick scooter, but ever since that one day when Chloe convinced her to go down one of the ramps and she ended up falling and scraping up both of her knees, she’s stuck to just safely watching from afar. But with Rachel, Chloe now has someone who can keep up with her on wheels, even if it’s with roller skates and not a skateboard like her. “But I need to ask my mom first.”

Rachel’s already sliding her flip phone over to Chloe. Chloe doesn’t have her own cell phone yet. She’s tried asking her parents for one before, but they won’t let her have one until she’s in high school.

Chloe opens the phone and it beeps in protest. The battery symbol in the upper right corner is completely red. “Rach, when was the last time you charged this thing?” Unsure how much time she has before Rachel’s phone dies, Chloe quickly punches in her mom’s number. Joyce is in the middle of her shift at the Two Whales Diner and won’t be home until later, but luckily she picks up. Chloe lets her know that she’s going to hang out at the skate park with Rachel and Maxine on the way home today.

“Can you tell Daddy that Rachel’s coming over?” Chloe adds. There’s a pause while Joyce says something to her daughter on the other end of the call. “Yeah, her dad’s gonna pick her up after work.” Another pause. “Yeah, we’ll be careful. Thanks, Mom. Bye.”

Right as Chloe’s thumb is about to hit the “end call” button, Rachel’s phone gives one last desperate beep before the screen goes black. Chloe mashes the “home” button a few times, but the device is completely dead. She gives it back to Rachel, who zips it up in the front pocket of her backpack.

The school bell rings and, after a minute, the first kids start to make their way out of the building. As usual, Maxine is one of the last to come out. Wearing her Polaroid camera around her neck, Maxine slows to a stop once she gets outside and slowly scans the schoolyard. As soon as she spots Chloe and Rachel, she breaks into a big smile and comes running over.

“Rachel, I didn’t know you were gonna be here today!” Maxine’s happy to see both of her friends and gets an urge to snap a photo. Her hands make their way around her camera.

Rachel loves being in front of the camera just as much as Maxine loves to be behind it. She grabs Chloe by the sleeve, pulling her closer to her, and poses for the little photographer. “Take one of us!”

At the last second before Maxine takes the shot, Chloe smirks and holds up two fingers behind Rachel’s head to give her friend bunny ears. The shutter clicks. The camera whirrs for a second before ejecting a blank white square, which Maxine hurries to stick inside her backpack out of the sunlight.

“Maxine, me and Rachel are gonna skate around for a bit before we go home. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, I just got some more film for my camera so I can take pictures.”

The walk to Chloe’s neighborhood isn’t long. It takes less than fifteen minutes to get from the Price house to school, and even less to get to the skate park because it’s right in between. For younger kids and tweens like Chloe, Rachel and Maxine, right after school is the best time to hang out there. They have free reign of the park for thirty minutes to an hour before the high school kids come and take over.

The trio dump their belongings under their usual tree, but only Maxine starts to make herself comfortable. She takes a seat next to her backpack and fiddles with her camera. Chloe takes off running with her board and stands by the line where grass meets concrete, waiting for her friend to finish putting on her skates. “Hey, Rach, I’ll race you to the far fence! No shortcuts and we have to go through the bowl.”

A competitive grin creeps onto Rachel’s face. “Around the rails?”

“Over.”

“You’re on!” Finished with the last knot in her laces, Rachel hurries over to Chloe and they take their marks at the edge of the concrete. “Alright, Price. You ready?”

Chloe places one foot on the deck of her board, the other out and ready to kick off. “Ready… set…”

“Go!” Both girls shout together.

Chloe kicks hard, propelling herself forward and zipping across the stretch of grey.

Whenever Chloe challenges Rachel to a race, Rachel usually beats her. They’ve raced along this same path and the same sequence of obstacles many times in the past. Chloe’s been able to beat Rachel when they decide to go around the rail, but every time they go over it, she loses every single time. After making it through the bowl and back up the ramp, Chloe has to ollie over the railing before reaching the fence. So far, she’s never landed quite right. Her board tends to get away from her and she loses a few seconds catching up to it and hopping back on. Even if she had been ahead up until that moment, this is usually when Rachel gains on her and slides into first place at the very last second.

This whole week, while Rachel’s been busy with clubs and sports, Chloe’s been practicing. She and Maxine have been at the skate park every day so Chloe could work on landing that ollie at full, racing speed. She’s only done it successfully once.

But today she’s feeling kind of confident that she can do it again.

Approaching the edge of the bowl, Chloe brings both feet onto her board, skillfully shifting her weight at just the right moment in order to drop in smoothly. Years of practice with her dad and Maxine by her side and cheering her on allow her to glide back up the opposite end easily and effortlessly. She comes to one of the ramps and propels herself forward as hard as her legs can, the fact that Rachel still hasn’t passed her fueling her confidence and desire to win. Chloe is tempted to look behind her to see how much of a lead she has, but decides it’s not worth the risk of possibly losing her balance or speed.

Up ahead is Chloe’s final obstacle. The boss fight.

The grind rail.

Chloe keeps her speed as she zips forward and, at just the right moment, she pops the back of her board up and soars beautifully over the top of the rail. Her wheels touch back down, hitting the concrete with a satisfying smack! The skateboard wobbles dangerously under her feet. Gritting her teeth, Chloe resists the instinct to jump off to safety and, instead, bends her legs, keeping her weight low and close to the ground. After a moment, her board steadies.

She did it!

Chloe breaks into a huge grin and lets out an exhilarated laugh, only slowing down once she reaches the fence. Her fists pump into the air victoriously and she spins around, ready to rub it in Rachel’s face. “Oh man! Did you see that? Yeah, I’m awesome!”

But Chloe doesn’t get an answer. Rachel’s nowhere to be found.

“Rachel?” Chloe first looks back along their “race track” to make sure her friend’s not lying on the ground injured or something. Squinting her eyes and carefully looking around, she finally spots Rachel in one of the corners of the park with a small group of boys. Chloe recognizes them as boys from her class, one of them being Justin. “Oh, come on.”

Suddenly Chloe doesn’t feel so much like a winner.

Chloe gets back on her board and skates over to where Rachel and the boys are huddled. They’re crowded around one of Justin’s buddies, Chloe thinks his name is Todd or Tatum or something, watching him play a handheld video game. “Uh, Rachel, what gives?”

“Oh, Chloe! Sorry, I was just saying ‘hey’ to everyone,” says Rachel. She kind of smiles at Justin and it makes Chloe want to gag. “Trevor was just showing us his new game.”

Trevor. That’s right. “You totally bailed in the middle of our race.”

“I guess that makes you the winner today!” Rachel’s tone is lighthearted with absolutely no traces of ill-intent.

It gets under Chloe’s skin anyway. “Yeah, it’s not exactly winning if you’re racing against yourself,” she mutters, arms folded across her chest.  

Rachel either doesn’t hear her or pretends not to. “We’re gonna hang over here for a bit. You and Maxine can join us too, if you want.”

Chloe has never heard such an unappealing offer before in her life. “No thanks.”

“Well, all right,” Rachel says, turning back to Trevor’s screen. “Come and get me when it’s time to leave ‘kay?”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Grumbling in annoyance, Chloe starts to ride away. Who comes to a skate park to play video games, anyway? She calls out to the group over her shoulder even though she knows they’re probably not listening. “I’ll be over here. Skating. Because, you know, this is a skate park!”

Chloe returns to the grind rail, wanting more than ever to perfect her ollie so that she never loses to Rachel again. Next time they race, whenever that is, Chloe will show her…

But Chloe’s movements are agitated and clumsy. Her feet seem to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. She can no longer get her skateboard to do what she wants. Chloe jumps over the rail again and again, but for some reason she’s unable to stick the landing. She tries over and over, until there’s sweat beading on her forehead and she’s completely out of breath. On her final attempt, she doesn’t even make it over. The truck of her board catches on the edge of the rail, tripping her, and she nearly faceplants. Yelling out in frustration, Chloe kicks her skateboard out of the way and gives up trying.

Out of curiosity, Chloe looks over to the corner of the skate park where Rachel and the skater boys were earlier and immediately wishes she hadn’t. Rachel and Justin have broken off from their group and are hanging out a little ways away, just the two of them. Chloe’s too far away to hear what they’re saying, but Rachel skates around Justin in slow circles as they talk. Both of them are laughing and smiling and look like they’re having a grand old time.  

Chloe’s seen enough. Stomping on the tail of her board to make it pop into the air, Chloe grabs it and trudges back over to the tree. At least Maxine isn’t into gross boys yet. With a grumpy huff, Chloe flops into the grass next to her younger friend.

“Can you believe her, Maxine?”

Maxine looks up from the photo album of Polaroids in her lap. “What happened?”

“Rachel blew off our race to go hang out with some dumb boys,” Chloe complains. She gestures in their general direction with a thumb. “She’s over there being all lovey-dovey with Justin now.”

“Oh.” Maxine looks across the skate park and watches them for a moment. “Does Justin like Rachel back?”

“Probably,” Chloe scoffs. “She’s smart, popular and she can skate. Why wouldn’t he?”

Maxine hums, absentmindedly fingering the edge of one of her photos. “Is he nice?”

Chloe doesn’t answer right away. When she does, she first heaves out a sigh. “I mean, yeah, he’s not that bad, I guess…” She rolls onto her stomach and starts to pluck out blades of grass. “He’s not, like, a jerk or anything.”

“That’s good, right?”

Chloe’s voice rises in exasperation. “No, Maxine, it’s not good!”

“Chloe.” With concern in her voice, Maxine scoots close to her friend and leans over, trying to look her in the face. Chloe averts her gaze. “What’s wrong?”

Honestly, Chloe doesn’t know how to reply. She doesn’t know why the thought of Rachel and Justin together bothers her so much. Rachel likes Justin. Justin likes Rachel. It’s only been a few months since Rachel moved to Arcadia Bay, but she’s already one of Chloe’s best friends. And as Rachel’s friend, Chloe should be happy for her.

Right?

“I don’t know, Maxine…” sighs Chloe, rolling onto her back again and closing her eyes. “Maybe I’m just tired. My skating’s all funky right now too.”

There’s a familiar click! followed by the mechanical buzzing of gears. Chloe cracks open one eye to find Maxine with her camera pointed at her. Maxine grabs the photo and stows it away in her backpack. “Sorry, it was a really good angle and I thought you looked nice.”

Chloe can’t help but smile a little. “You’re lucky I make a great subject, Caulfield. Even your camera can’t resist my awesomeness.”

Having Maxine around always makes Chloe feel better. For the next few minutes, the two girls spend a moment of calm together as they look through Maxine’s photo album, Maxine showing Chloe all the new photos she added to it this week. The aspiring photographer usually feels a little uncomfortable letting people see her photos, but not when it comes to her best friend. Chloe’s always been supportive of her dream and always has nice things to say about them. It boosts Maxine’s confidence and makes her really happy.

As Maxine’s explaining the funny story behind one of the photos that Chloe pointed out, Rachel comes back to the tree. She skates over and falls gracefully into the grass next to her friends, wearing a sort of giddy, spaced out smile that Chloe and Maxine have never seen before. Rachel waits until both pairs of eyes are on her before she speaks.  

“Guess what!” Rachel practically squeals with excitement. “Justin’s my boyfriend now!”

Maxine’s mouth falls open in surprise. “Wowser, really?”

“He asked me if I wanted to go out with him and I said yes,” Rachel happily retells her story for her friends. Leaning in closer, her voice becomes softer her cheeks turn extra rosy. “We kissed.”

At the mere mention of the kiss, Maxine’s own face becomes strangely warm and she feels kind of embarrassed. At the same time, part of her is in awe at how Rachel’s already experiencing something that seems so grown up. Before Maxine can formulate a response to the announcement, there’s a thump as Chloe kicks at her skateboard, causing it to flop over in the grass. Thump. Chloe uses the toe of her shoe to kick at it again. She keeps her eyes down, staring hard at the chipped design on the bottom of her board, but she can tell that both of her friends have turned to look at her.

“Justin, really?” There’s an edge to Chloe’s voice. “You locked lips with him?”

“What’s wrong with Justin?” Rachel crosses her arms and her tone instantly changes to match Chloe’s. Sensing an oncoming fight, Maxine shrinks and backs away slightly, putting a safer distance between herself and her friends.

“Duh. He’s gross.”

“And just how is he gross, then?”

Chloe dodges the question. She doesn’t have an answer. “You’re not even allowed to have a boyfriend!”

Rachel narrows her eyes and stares defiantly into Chloe’s. “I can have one if I want to, Chloe Price.”

“Oh yeah? What if I tell your dad?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me!”

Rachel turns her back to Chloe and scoots closer to Maxine, flipping her hair over her shoulder and turning her nose up in the air. “Me and Justin are dating and we kissed and that’s that. You need to get over it.”

Chloe’s jaw clenches and her face burns a hot crimson. She doesn’t want to be anywhere near Rachel right now. Standing abruptly, she grabs her skateboard and starts to stalk away. “Whatever, Rachel! You’re the one with… with disgusting boy cooties!”

“Seriously? Cooties?” Rachel rolls her eyes. “If you haven’t noticed, Chloe, we’re not in kindergarten anymore.”

Chloe’s done talking to Rachel and pretends like she’s not there. “I’m gonna drop into the bowl. Are you coming, Maxine?”

Maxine stands, ready to go after Chloe. Before she leaves, she sighs and looks apologetically at Rachel, who’s now fuming in heated silence. “I’ll talk to her, okay?” Maxine half-walks, half-runs to the center of the skate park to the bowl, where Chloe’s already going in and out. Carefully as not to slip and fall, she takes a seat on the edge, letting her legs dangle down. “Chloe, what’s going on? Are you mad at Rachel for kissing Justin?”

“No!” comes the short, angry reply.

“You’re obviously mad at someone.”

Chloe frowns and lets her board come to a stop in the middle of the bottom of the bowl. “I’m not… I’m not mad at her.”

“It sure seems like it,” Maxine tells her. “I mean, you blew up at her right after she told us about it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re taking her side.” Chloe rests one arm on her hip. “You’re supposed to be my best friend, remember?”

“I am your friend!” Maxine says indignantly. “But I’m Rachel’s too, and so are you.”

Chloe growls and kicks off, circling the bottom of the bowl until she gains enough momentum to come up the side and join Maxine at the top. She plops herself down next to her friend and sits there in silence, skateboard lying upside down in her lap. There’s a troubled expression on her face and it looks as though she has something else to say. Maxine waits quietly, just in case.

A couple of minutes pass and neither girl has said a word. Maxine is the first to break the silence. “Chloe?” Her friend gives a halfhearted grunt in response. “Do you want to just go home then?”

“She doesn’t have time for stupid boys!” Chloe suddenly blurts out. Maxine is momentarily confused, but then she realizes that Chloe’s gone back to talking about Rachel. “You know how busy she already is! Add a dumb boyfriend on top of that and she won’t have any time left for us.”

Maxine doesn’t know what to say. She hadn’t considered that possibility until Chloe brought it up. It’s true that she doesn’t get to see Rachel that often because they go to different schools, except some days after school and on weekends sometimes. Maxine would be sad if she never got to spend time with her anymore. “So what do we do?”

“Let’s just get out of here.”

[silver-greedling]

Morning

Richard Goranski x Reader

It had been a long, stressful week of school. Although the appropriately titled "Squip Incident" was almost six months in the past, the effects still lingered on all those present.

More specifically, they lingered in the one boy who considered himself the root of everything that had happened. He brought the stupid computer to the school, didn't he? He convinced Jeremy to get it, didn't he?

God, it was all his fucking fault.

Almost daily, his sweetest girlfriend, (YN), did all that she could to convince him otherwise, usually to no avail. In her eyes, he had been a victim of something that he should never have come into contact with.

She'd been dating him since the middle of sophomore year, not long before he'd gotten the Squip. Of course, he didn't tell her he was getting it. Instead, he showed up to school one day, after being M.I.A. for the entirety of Spring Break, with a tank top on and a red streak in his hair, lisp somehow completely missing.

They worked really hard together to make it work, even though it seemed rough at times. Still, with the computer out of his brain and the past behind them, they were more than happy to try and move on.

Cut to senior year, where classes are suddenly ten times as dull and school seems to make less sense every day. During classes, (YN) would usually goof off with Brooke or send stupid notes with awful pick-up lines to Rich, who would send a worse one in response.

Life felt okay, for the most part. Senioritis hit every school, and theirs was no exception.

Still, Rich didn't think he was very normal. No, he felt priviliged to walk home everyday beside his amazing girlfriend, hearing her chatter excitedly about whatever it was that Chloe had told her about some famous guy they liked to drool over.

"Wanna spend the night tomorrow?" Rich asked her before they split ways. "We haven't hung out much outside of school in a while."

Jesus, her heart melted at the sound of that adorable lisp. "If my parents let me, I will." With a quick kiss on his lips, she began to step off toward her house, which wasn't but a couple houses down from his own.

Rich smilled to himself as he treaded into his own home, completely unsurprised that his parents weren't there. They were almost never there, so why would today be any different?

Still, whille he was usually a little saddened by his parent's absence, he couldn't help but smile for today. Damn, he was still thinking about her. He was always thinking about her.

The thought of her rarely ever faded away, and, even then, she was ever-present in the corners of his mind. How could one girl mean so much to him? How in the world did she make him feel this way?

Not that he was complaining. Definitely not.

In fact, he was stoked to walk home from school with her and to hold her hand as they padded up to his front door. He had grabbed her extra bag full of clothes somewhere on the walk, insisting on carrying it for her, and it sort of squished between the two of them.

She just laughed, watching him struggle with turning the key. "Let me do it," she offered, gently pushing his hand off of the door and unlocking it for them. "After you." She pushed the door open, ushering Rich inside.

He smiled and entered, pulling the keys from the door on his way in. He heard (YN) close the door behind them and felt the bag get torn from his hands.

"I'll put my stuff up in your room, start a movie or a game while I'm gone!" she called, heading upstairs to Rich's bedroom, a familiar, slightly dull place.

The whole house was dull. Rich's parents hadn't been real parents in years, and not a single framed picture of the family sat along the hallways. There weren't any pictures from when he was young and drew his family in pre-school. There wasn't an award from any spelling bee's or atheltic competitions. The house was practically bare.

Except for Rich's bedroom. While it was lacking in color and all-together style, the walls were covered in pictures of the two of them. What felt like a million Polaroids and printed pictures of themselves covered his room and never failed to make both of them smile at the memories.

(YN) laid down her backpack and clothes bag at the foot of Rich's bed, then stepped up to the pictures, smiling as each event replayed in her mind. The first time she ever went to the beach. A kiss on the top of the ferris wheel, right before it broke when they were a quarter of the way down and they spent the entire ride cracking height jokes. A Christmas they had spent together, jokingly staying up all night to 'wait for Santa', but truthfully wanting every waking moment with each other as possible.

She squealed when hands grabbed her waist, a face nuzzling into her neck. "Ah, you scared the Hell outta me," she whined, but laughed at herself. She turned in his arms, making the embrace into a sweet hug.

Rich looked over her shoulder at the same pictures she'd been staring at. "You were taking forever, so I wanted to make sure nothing happened," he informed her, fingers drawing shapes on her back without a reason. "I'm glad I have these pictures."

They turned so that both of them could look at the pictures, but they couldn't keep themselves from laughing at a few silly ones.

"I remember that!" (YN) announced. "That was when Jake dared me to eat all those lava cakes! That hurt a lot, but it was worth fifty bucks."

Rolling his eyes, Rich glanced at another one. "That was the first time you ever made a cake," he remembered. "That was really good."

"It didn't look good," (YN) admitted. "I was a noob, back then. I can bake better cakes, now."

Rich tightened his grip on her, just a touch, but noticeably. "I'm sure you can," he chuckled.

After ten or so minutes of reliving their favorite moments, they silently agreed it was time to go back downstairs, where Rich had grabbed a collection of snacks from his kitchen and piled them onto a small coffee table in fron of the couch. Behind the table was a TV, which had the movie title Tombstone on it. It was (YN)'s favorite, she loved Wild West movies!

With a broad grin, she hopped over the couch and into her spot. Less daringly, Rich stepped around the couch to sit next to her, both of them cuddling up before he hit play. (YN) held a bag of chips close to her, and they both ate them absent-mindedly as they watched.

"I got two guns, one for each of ya'," she quoted Doc, smiling at herself. She'd probably memorized the entire movie at this point.

Somewhere around Doc leaving his wife and Wyatt watching the train go, she had fallen asleep, and Rich was quick to follow. Of course, he'd turned everything off and put the snacks on the table once he'd realized she was out. With that done, he held close to her and managed to drift off before too long.

Falling asleep with her was amazing, because Rich knew that it meant he got to wake up with her, as well. The first thing he got to see the next day was her tiredly gazing up at him, as if waiting for him to wake up.

"Morning," she said softly, kissing his cheek.

Rich pulled her close, and she let herself bury her face in his chest sleepily. "Too early to be up," Rich whined, and he heard an agreeing sound from the girl with him. "Wanna go sleep in my bed all day?" Another agreeing sound, then the two were lazily but hurriedly skittering up to Rich's room, closing the door, shutting the curtains, flipping the light off, then plopping onto the bed in almost pure dark, despite the time being around seven in the morning.

They curled into each other without hesitation, unwilling to let the other too far out of their grasp. Rich thought it was adorable how she mumbled to herself about him being 'so warm 'n' soft' before dozing back off. He followed suit quickly, and the two just basked in each other's presence. Being with the other was more than enough to make each of them smile, and, until they maybe got a little older, it was all they needed. Maybe Rich had been thinking about a life with (YN), and maybe she'd done the same, but they were content with just holding each other. For now.

[breeeliss]

[Miraculous Ladybug]: feed your focus

a little birthday present to myself :) apologies in advance since this one might be a bit of a rough ride ^^;

--

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4]

Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]

--

Title: feed your focus

Summary: “It took a little over a week for Mayor Bourgeois to finally agree to an interview, but what he failed to do was confirm the identity of the other woman his daughter was pressing against the wall and kissing to within an inch of her life.”

Marinette befriends Chloe after a particularly shocking scandal that Chloe would much rather forget. Besides, the past is in the past, and there are much more fun methods to be used to distract each other.

Part 5

“Can I pick your brain for a second?”

Marinette looked up from the beat up moleskin she was writing in and saw Chloe staring out the bathroom window with her cheek pressed up against the lip of the clawfoot tub. “Sure. What’s wrong?”

Chloe shook her head, scooping up a handful of bathwater filled with salts, oils, and bubbles and pouring it over her bare knees. “Nothing. I’ve just been thinking about some things, and I thought you might add some perspective.”

“I mean, no promises, but I’ll do what I can.” She reached over to place her sketchbook on the windowsill and turned on the taps to the tub to add more hot water. “Want more bubbles?”

“Nah, I’m good. This oil you put in here is great though. And the bath salts.”

Marinette shrugged and nudged Chloe’s foot with her own under the water. “You looked miserable when you came over. Thought they might help. Besides, Sunday morning baths are a ritual in my house.”

“You seem like the overly romantic type to love reading and sketching while soaking in a bath on a sunny day. Talk about an Instagram aesthetic.”

Marinette splashed Chloe’s knees with a wave of soapy water and smirked. “You wanted to ask me something?”

Chloe nodded and stared down at the water for a few moments while she chewed on her words. She reached over to shut off the hot water and asked, “What happened when you came out to your parents?”

Marinette blinked and leaned back against the porcelain. “What do you mean what happened?”

“I mean, how did they react? When you told them. What happened right after?“

“I don’t know if you’d want all the details.”

“I’m asking, aren’t I?” she replied. “I’m curious.”

Marinette sighed as she leaned her elbows on her knees and scratched at the bun piled on the top of her head. “I don’t know where to start…”

“Was it the kind of thing where you sat them down in the living room, paced for dramatic effect, and dropped the bomb on them?”

Marinette laughed. “No, nothing like that. I was twenty and I guess one of the neighbors saw me making out against the door to my apartment with this girl I was seeing on and off. He asked my parents about my new girlfriend and needless to say they were very shocked and confused. When I came back from classes that day they confronted me and asked me what was happening. So….I told them.”

“Shit,” Chloe breathed out.

“Yeah. I mean, I was going to tell them soon. I wanted them to know, I just wasn’t sure how to start the conversation. But it’d been started for me, I guess, so I sort of just had to roll with it.”

Chloe was leaning closer now, mirroring Marinette’s position and reaching in between them to link pinkies with her. “How’d it go?”

Marinette gently swung their hands back and forth and kept her gaze towards the window. “Papa took it just fine. His sister has a wife, and he’s the type of person that doesn’t think he has a right to pass judgement on how people live their lives so long as they’re happy. He kissed the top of my head, gave me a hug, and didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to, I knew that he was alright with it.”

“And your mother?”

Marinette bit the inside of her cheek and squeezed Chloe’s finger. “She was quiet for a long time. She looked at me like she couldn’t hear me and asked me to say it again. So I did. And….then she looked at me like she couldn’t see me.”

Chloe’s other hand immediately came out of the water and rubbed Marinette’s calf. “Fuck, Marinette….”

“Something shifted is what I mean,” Marinette explained. “Like suddenly I was a stranger to her, because I had been hiding this huge secret from her all these years and now she was seeing me in a whole new light. When it finally hit her, she just started crying and couldn’t look at me.”

“Why?”

“She kept saying it wasn’t what she wanted for me. She was worried about what people would say and about how people would treat me. Don’t misunderstand, Maman has never had an issue with it where it concerned other people. But the moment it was me, she was terrified of how her side of the family would take things. What they’d say about me behind our backs and how they’d treat me at reunions, things like that. She was afraid of the judgement. For all of us, but mostly for me.”

Chloe nodded. “Family talks.”

“Exactly,” Marinette said. “It was more than that, too. She was afraid I was going to get spit on in the street for holding hands with a woman, or that I’d walk into a gay bar and never come out or something like that. And I get that. I really do think she just wanted something easier and simpler for me and this complicated things. But Papa was there next to me having my back, and the three of us talked for hours after that. And once the tears were shed and the air was cleared, Maman hugged me and said that I was her daughter and that she loved me with her entire soul. There was nothing that I could say that could ever make that untrue.”

Chloe smiled softly and brushed Marinette’s cheek with her knuckle so that she could turn to face her. “You’ve got great parents. They’ve always adored you, even I could tell.”

“Your father adores you too,” Marinette told her. “And he loves you, even if he has a funny way of showing it lately. You should never forget that.”

“I know,” Chloe mutters. “But sometimes it feels like there’s a conditional there somewhere. Like it only took one thing for that to all come toppling down. Like I had the power to completely break his heart. Now he’s treating me like a criminal, and I don’t feel like I even deserve to say anything to him.”

Marinette frowned. “You know that’s not true.”

“I can’t have him angry at me, Marinette,” Chloe whispered, her voice sounding thick at the end. “He’s the only family I have.”

“His head just needs time to catch up with his heart. And then you two can talk, really talk. And things will start to fix themselves.”

Chloe laughed. “Your optimism is really annoying.”

Marinette smiled and pressed a kiss to the back of Chloe’s hand. “You’ll be okay. And if you need anything, I’m right here.”

Chloe ran her thumb over Marinette’s knuckles. “I know. I don’t forget it.”

Marinette hadn’t really bothered to go through the trouble of truly getting to know someone for quite a long time. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that she had never wanted to go through the trouble until very recently. Either way, being out of practice had made her forget what a sluggish process it could be and how much frustration had the potential to build in up in response to such a steep learning curve.

Learning Chloe was like learning a new language from scratch. Marinette had a decent collection of words and phrases that she could recall with ease. Chloe drank her coffee black in the mornings and with a splash of cream in the afternoons. She liked sleeping in her underwear and in the oversized t-shirts she stole from Marinette’s drawers. She often wore rings on most if not all of her fingers. She didn’t give off much body heat and always woke up with cold toes and fingers that she always warmed up against Marinette’s skin. She preferred candles and fairy lights to lamps and overhead lights. She was a beautiful singer who hummed songs in the shower every day.

The problem came when Marinette was forced to consider Chloe in larger contexts, and that’s when comprehension consistently failed her. Marinette knew that Chloe had folded up polaroid photos in her wallet that she smiled fondly at whenever she pulled them out, but Marinette didn’t know why she only did it when Marinette was sleeping or when she thought Marinette wasn’t looking. Marinette could easily tell when Chloe was in a mood where she didn’t want to be bothered and didn’t like to be touched, but she couldn’t tell if it was because she was angry, depressed, distracted, or distraught.

Marinette knew that Chloe had disappeared and didn’t want to be contacted while she was gone. But she didn’t know why, didn’t know where she could’ve gone, didn’t know if this was normal behavior for her, and didn’t know if this was the time for her to leave Chloe be or somehow intervene.

Something about the suddenness felt off and re-reading her succinct text did nothing but fill Marinette with more unease. But Marinette didn’t know Chloe well enough to know what she was meant to do — what the best thing to do was. So she cut her losses early and turned to Adrien.

Adrien tended to shut his personal phone off while he was handling Gabriel related business, which meant that Marinette wasn’t able to grab him on the phone until about five days after Chloe had said she’d be gone. The moment Marinette mentioned Chloe’s three week trip, Adrien seemed genuinely confused. Apparently he’d been on his way to meet her for a lunch date they’d planned close to two weeks ago. It wasn’t until he looked through the mountains of unread texts that he hadn’t yet gotten around to checking since he came back from dealing with his business that he realized Chloe had sent Adrien the same text she’d sent Marinette. Back in three weeks. Don’t call.

It seemed she was right to worry, because Adrien wasted no time jumping on the train and making his way over to Marinette’s boutique, bringing lunch from the restaurant he and Chloe were supposed to eat at and insisting that they needed to talk. Marinette offered up no resistance as she put on a pot of coffee in her office while Adrien sat at her desk and started frantically swiping through his phone.

“This is so bizarre,” Adrien said under his breath a few minutes later as he scrolled through Chloe’s Instagram, letting his food go cold next to him. “All of her social media’s been dead since she texted us. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, everything. She even turned all her locations off.”

Marinette sat on top of her desk and stared at Adrien’s phone from above. “Has she ever done that before?”

“No. She doesn’t unplug. Ever,” Adrien emphasized. “Whenever she goes on vacations or trips by herself, she always brags about it and posts constantly about it. I’ve never seen her go off the grid like this. The only time she’s ever come close was when that tabloid piece dropped.”

Marinette shook her head. “I already thought of that. I’ve been googling her for the past couple of days and all the big celebrity news sites and tabloids haven’t said anything about her. If there was something juicy she was running away from, they would’ve ran it already.”

Adrien laced his hands on the back of his neck and hung his head. “For fuck’s sake,” he mumbled. “Never a dull moment with her, I swear.”

“It must have been a last minute decision,” Marinette guessed. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have forgotten to cancel her plans with you before she left. Maybe that means something happened just before she texted us.”

“I’ve been so busy dealing with father’s finances that I haven’t really been checking up on her for the past couple of weeks,” Adrien said. “She seemed fine the last time I saw her. If anything, she seemed in a better mood than she had been for the past few months.” He peeked up at Marinette through his bangs. “Did she say anything to you recently?”

“Why would she tell me anything?”

“Don’t be modest. She spends just as much time with you as she does with me. She told me so herself. It’s not a stretch to think she’d confide in you about something that was bothering her.”

Marinette set her jaw. “Well, in this case it is. I don’t know anything.”

“Was she acting differently?”

“I mean, maybe there were some days where she had a lot on her mind and she was more quiet than usual. But like you said, she’s been in a really good mood for the most part. I thought things were getting better after all the drama with her and her father. So for her to just drop off the face of the Earth like this makes me think something’s seriously wrong. That’s why I called you.”

Adrien spread out his hands as if they were physically devoid of answers. “I don’t know what happened to her if that’s what you’re asking. But if you want a seasoned opinion, I’d say it was so bad she just needed to check out.”

“What do you mean check out?”

“She does that sometimes,” Adrien explained. “Chloe isn't easily bothered. But when she is, she doesn't react well. We got into a huge fight our last year of lycée, and she was absent from school for five days until she got up the nerve to apologize. Then when that scandal happened, she holed herself up in the hotel for close to two weeks and would only talk to me over the phone. I think the worst was when we were nine though.”

“What happened?”

Adrien sighed and hesitated for a few moments as he leaned back in his seat. “You have to promise you won’t talk to her about this until she decides to tell you herself. It’s a really sore topic and she hates when I bring it up.”

“That bad?”

He started fiddling with one of Marinette’s pens. “You know Chloe’s parents are divorced, right?”

Marinette shrugged. “I sort of assumed something like that. She never talked about her mother, not even when we were kids.”

“That’s because she really didn’t take the divorce well,” Adrien continued. “Her mother had been having a lot of affairs here and there before her father finally put his foot down. I’m not really sure what the reason was, but Chloe’s mother decided she just….didn’t want to be bothered with taking care of Chloe anymore. So her father kept full custody and her mother sort of just left. Promised she’d send gifts and visit her on the holidays, but that was about it. I don’t think Chloe goes out of her way much to call or visit her anymore. She’s become so indifferent she doesn’t see the point.”

“But I imagine she wasn’t indifferent when it happened,” Marinette said.

Adrien winced. “Definitely not. She was fine for a couple of days, but then I guess she couldn’t hold it in anymore because she wound up running away.”

“Like actually running away from home?”

“I don’t think she was gone for more than a day. But yeah. She left the hotel one day and didn’t tell her butler or her driver where she was going. She left a note in her room saying she was okay, but that she wanted to be left alone for a while. Once her father found it, he realized that one of her suitcases was gone along with a bunch of her clothes. The only reason I knew about all this at the time was because Chloe’s father had called my mother in a panic and she had to sit me down and ask me a bunch of questions. We were best friends, they thought I might’ve known something.”

“Where did she go for a whole day if she was only nine years old?”

“Well, that’s why she was only gone for a day,” Adrien explained. “They found her outside a bus depot crying because they wouldn’t sell her a ticket to leave the city. She’d just been wandering around at first — sitting in parks, looking through museums, that kind of thing. But I guess she had every intentions of leaving the city if only she was old enough to buy the tickets.”

Marinette swallowed. “Was she going to see her mother?”

Adrien shrugged. “I don’t know what she was thinking. Chloe never told me where she was planning on going that day. All she told me was that she missed her mother, and that she was just too sad to see anyone anymore. She was going to come back once she finally stopped crying whenever she didn’t wake up to see her mother making coffee in the kitchen.”

“So that’s what you think this is? A reaction to some hypothetically fucked up situation that neither of us knows anything about?”

“That’s all I’ve got,” Adrien replied helplessly.

Marinette snorted. “Yeah? Well I’ll put money on this having something to do with her father.”

“You don’t know that….”

“Don’t I?” she countered. “Did you know she’s been coming to see me at my place these past few weeks?”

Adrien’s eyes widened in interest. “You mean at your house?”

“On the weekends, she’s there almost constantly,” Marinette explained. “When she has time during the week, she comes over right after I close up shop and stays for as late as she can before going back home. She tells me that when she’s not with me, she’s with you.”

“Well, yeah,” Adrien answered. “Before I got busy with work I guess she was coming over more often. And we’ve been going out a lot more, too. What’s your point?”

“She’s barely home, Adrien. That’s probably why she’s been in such a good mood, because she’s been avoiding him. There wouldn’t be a need to spend so much time away from him if things between them weren’t two seconds away from exploding. Whatever happened to her to make her bolt like this, it had to do with her father. I’m positive.”

“Look, even if you’re right, what are you going to do with that information?” Adrien asked. “Confront him? Ask him what happened? You and I both know that’s not going to end well. It doesn’t matter why she ran off. We just have to keep an eye on our phones and the Internet to see if any news pops up. If she reaches out or we find out she’s not safe, then we can figure out what to do from there.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Wait a minute….so we’re not going to try and look for her?”

“Did you think we were?”

“ Aren’t we?”

“No,” Adrien said shortly. “She doesn’t want us contacting her, which means she probably doesn’t want us looking for her. That’s a clear enough message to me.”

“This doesn’t sound like a cry for help to you?”

“It doesn’t matter if it is or if it isn’t. She’s not nine years old, Marinette.”

“I’m not infantilizing her,” Marinette glared. “I’m just worried. Three weeks is a pretty long time to spend clearing your head alone. A lot can happen and a lot can go through your head in that time without someone to pull you out of it.”

Adrien scowled and turned his chair to properly face her. “Maybe she doesn’t want anyone to pull her out of anything. I get you’re concerned, but if Chloe needs space, then she deserves to have it. This has nothing to do with us, so it makes no sense for us to start meddling.”

Marinette gripped the edges of the desk and glared into her lap. “It involves us….” she muttered.

“Just because she’s been confiding in us doesn’t mean we have permission to go poking our noses into her business if she doesn’t want us to.”

“You don’t get it!” Marinette insisted. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“Then uncomplicate it for me! Is there something I don’t know?”

Marinette snorted weakly at the irony and swallowed back all the secrets that Chloe had only given to Marinette, right along with the sordid details of a relationship that Marinette hadn’t ever tried to put into words. The weight of it all settled thick and heavy in her stomach, and she hoped the worry it was etching onto her face wasn’t obvious enough for Adrien to think she really was hiding something. She rubbed one of her eyes and quickly jumped onto a separate train of thought. “All I’m saying is that you know better than anyone else how terrified she is of disappointing him. He’s the center of her world, and he’s always given her everything she asked for because he adores her. How else is she going to react when he pulls all that out from underneath her and tells her that he suddenly doesn’t give a shit about her feelings?”

Adrien softened his gaze and bit the inside of his cheek as he reached out to lay a hand on Marinette’s knee. He waited until she was looking at him before he spoke again. “I’m not denying that, okay? Trust me, I know exactly what kind of nonsense he’s been feeding her ever since he found out about that woman she was with. I’m not trying to trivialize what she’s going through.”

“I know you’re not,” Marinette said. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, smirking at the absurdity of it all. “She hurts , Adrien. I’ve gotten so used to her that whenever she lets things fester or starts to shut down, it makes me feel sick. Like I have to do something about it for her sanity and for mine. I feel like I got tricked into this, but now it’s too late because whenever I think about her having to wade through her father’s bullshit after she did nothing wrong….I don’t know, it pisses me off. She’s spent enough time alone.”

There was an inside joke that Marinette had with herself about Chloe — the only times where Chloe managed to be pleasant and approachable were the times when her father was around. He came to all of her concerts to record her acapella solos, he sat in the audience and held up decorated signs with Chloe’s name on it when she had a ten second speaking role in a play, and some days he’d surprise her outside of school by pulling up in his own car and coming to pick her up instead. The days where she jumped into his arms and hugged him — telling him how she loved him and laughing sweetly when he told her how much he loved her back — managed to soften how Marinette saw her for a few moments before Chloe slipped right back to her antagonism. Her love for her father was one of the more beautiful things about Chloe, and seeing it have to come face-to-face with his intolerance was like watching her slowly suffocate while her father looked on, thinking her growing silence meant compliance.

“It’s not just you,” Adrien promised her. “It makes me angry too. But sometimes Chloe doesn’t tell you things and doesn’t involve you in things even though you think she should. That’s just how she is. I’ve never really seen the point in stepping on her toes about it. That’s why I think we shouldn’t intrude.”

Marinette gave him a small smile. That certainly sounded like Adrien. He was very careful with his friends and wasn’t the type to pry or go against someone’s wishes even if he felt that it could be helpful. Unfortunately, Marinette wasn’t that passive. “Then who does she tell everything to?”

“No one,” Adrien chuckled. “Chloe doesn’t give all of herself to anyone.”

It was annoying how much the silence of Marinette’s apartment bothered her now. Before it had simply been an unfortunate side effect of living where she did, which Marinette gracefully accepted for the sake of taking advantage of the practical location and the beautiful view. Now it just felt uncomfortable, like the aftermath of a raucous celebration that left the space cluttered with an uncanny stillness after all the noise and excitement had been robbed by the late hour. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she’d become to sketching and going through bills in the kitchen while Chloe watched television in the living room, her running commentary turning into a calming hum in the background. It was hard not to laugh at Chloe when she got particularly shrill, and it actually put her in a better mood as she plowed through all the work she was forced to take home with her.

Now she couldn’t even pick up a pen without being distracted by the ringing in her ears and the echoes that pounded through the living room every time she so much as set down her coffee mug. It was less that she missed her and more that she’d become Marinette’s new normal, and having her so violently ripped out of her weekly routine made everything feel tilted. It made her spend more hours in her office and pile herself on with more work just so that she could push herself just enough to keep her mind from focusing on anything else but her job.

However, the ironic part about that strategy was that the more time she spent in her boutique, the more her discomfort about Chloe came barreling straight into her every time she saw the occasional customer loitering around in her store and pretending to examine her stock before skulking out the store with no purchases to speak of.

It wasn’t difficult to tell they were sent by Mayor Bourgeois. Every time she made eye contact with one of these customers or offered to help them look for something to buy, they took pains to get out of the store as quickly as possible as if they were afraid they’d been caught. They were often followed by strangers who’d come inside looking for their friends, cousins, or girlfriends while rattling off descriptions that perfectly matched Chloe’s to other customers before Marinette intercepted and gently pushed them out the store. And as if that wasn’t aggravating enough, every time Marinette’s phone rang, she wasn’t sure if she was speaking to a potential customer or gearing up for an interrogation about which local celebrities frequented her shop.

Marinette suspected that the excessive detail was because Mayor Bourgeois was also feeling anxious over the whereabouts of his daughter. Adrien had already told her that he’d been calling him regularly and asking for any information or insight as to where his daughter could have disappeared. Perhaps checking all of the places Chloe loved spending time in and speaking to the people who knew her the best was the most effective and logical strategy for finding information about Chloe, and Marinette really wanted to believe that this was the reason for all of her unwanted guests. But the surveillance made her feel like she was a suspect, and Marinette did not forget how much Mayor Bourgeois seemed to think Chloe was gambling away the rest of her reputation by playing frivolous games with another woman in an attempt to embarrass or spite him. She did not forget the night when Chloe told her that her father seemed to think Marinette was someone to worry about.

Every stare one of the mayor’s spies sent from the corner of their eyes felt piercing. Like they knew how close Chloe and Marinette had gotten. Like Chloe’s father knew. Like maybe this wasn’t just him indulging his paranoia, and maybe this was just a way of confirming for himself what he already knew for sure.

It bothered her so much during her walk back to her apartment at the end of the day that Marinette drew all of her blinds and checked the locks on her doors three times as if she were afraid that someone from the outside was peering into her space with malicious intentions. The fear had always been there since the morning after their first night together — what if Chloe’s driver wasn’t as discreet as she hoped he was, what if Chloe wasn’t careful enough, what if Chloe’s father was just a bit too nosy? A bit too perceptive?

After all, news that his daughter was amusing himself with another woman would be enough to infuriate him, and that anger directed at Chloe seemed like exactly the sort of thing that would make her react the way she did.

It didn’t matter that it was just a theory built on little proof. Marinette’s mind was already morphing the idea into a slew of negative aftermaths that were enough to make her feel like she was physically buckling under the pressure of the past few days. A week and a half with no updates. Adrien was just as clueless as she was. She was dreading doing to work tomorrow to face more of Mayor Bourgeois’s nonsense. She had so much work she needed to do and so much sleep that she needed to catch up on. And her apartment was still so fucking quiet that she couldn’t calm herself down long enough to think .

It wasn’t until she’d chased down one too many painkillers for her migraine and curled up on the couch with the warmest robe she could find that her cellphone, sitting innocently on the coffee table, began to look tempting. Marinette dismissed all of her work notifications and scrolled through her recent calls until she found Chloe’s number. She could already hear Adrien scolding her for the slip up, but she just needed to know. She needed to know what Chloe was thinking, what Chloe needed, and what Marinette was supposed to be doing. Perhaps Adrien thought that all this wasn’t his business and that he had no reason to get himself involved, but Marinette felt differently.

The dial tone rang five times while a dull ache began to press against the back of her throat. When the other line finally picked up, there was a long silence on the other end. Only the white noise of the air around the receiver and the dull sounds of what might have been traffic in the background were audible. Marinette could hear the phone shifting, but she didn’t dare break the silence first. Instead the two of them sat together and listened to the muted sounds of their breathing before Chloe spoke through her hoarseness. “ Is that you, Marinette? ”

Chloe didn’t sound angry. She sounded tired and quiet, and Marinette could tell her lips were close to the mouthpiece, as if she were cupping the phone close while she spoke. Marinette cleared her throat. “Yeah. It’s me.” She bit her lip and tried to smile. “Hi, I guess.”

Chloe snorted weakly. “ Hi .”

“I, uh….” Marinette began. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want me to call. I wasn’t going to, so I’m not sure why I did.”

“ To be fair, I knew the minute I sent that text you weren’t going to fucking listen to it. You never listen to me. I’m surprised you lasted this long.”

Marinette laughed, grateful that her tone didn’t sound harsh. “I think I did pretty good.”

“ By your standards, I guess.”

“An accomplishment all the same, though, right?”

“ I’ll mark it as a win for you in my diary later .”

The familiar banter was like a wash of relief and Marinette clung to it if only to convince herself that Chloe wasn’t as worse off as she knew she was. But Chloe’s soft laughter was short lived, ending with a long sigh that trembled at the end and made Chloe sound impossibly small. Marinette swallowed and figured she shouldn’t waste the phone call with things that weren’t important. “I just wanted to check on you. See how you are.”

“ I’m alright,” Chloe said. “ Just trying to get some fresh air. ”

“You’re outside?”

“ Sitting on the sill. Windows open. ”

“Where are you?”

“ Living room.”

“No I mean where are you?”

Chloe immediately clamped down. “ Somewhere. Don’t worry about it. ”

Marinette withered. “I can’t help but worry about it.”

“ Well I’m telling you not to ,” she replied, her voice developing a slight edge.

“Okay,” Marinette quickly amended. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

Chloe hesitated. “I just….needed to get some air. Clean air. That wasn’t….touched by anything, you know? Everything was clogging up around me and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. That’s all.”

“‘That’s all’?” Marinette echoed. “You make it sound like that’s normal.”

“ Yeah, well ,” Chloe muttered. “ Welcome to a day in the life.”

Marinette hung her head. “Chloe, you can’t just say things like that.”

“ Who says I can’t?”

“I….I just mean that when you say things like that you make me worry even more. And then I wonder if you’re really alright.”

“ I told you I am .”

“Oh, stop it,” Marinette frowned. “You sound miserable.”

“ I’m tired, Marinette. It’s late. It’s been a long day, and I’m just trying to rest.”

“I know you better than that. You know I know you better than that.”

“ I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Marinette,” Chloe said.

Marinette took a few seconds to carefully order the words in her head so that Chloe wouldn’t react too sharply. “I want you….I only want to know what’s wrong. I know you say you’re okay but I know something’s wrong. Or that something happened. And I just want to know what it is so that I can help you.”

The line stayed silent, and then Marinette heard the sound of the window closing. “ I’m going to bed, Marinette.”

Marinette covered her face with one hand. “Chloe, please, don’t hang up. Please don’t hang up, I’m not trying to pry, I just want to understand.”

“No, but that’s the thing, you are trying to pry,” Chloe explained. “You didn’t call because you wanted to comfort me, you called because you hate being left in the dark. You wanna talk about how well you know me? Well I know you. And I know it kills you when you can’t be useful in a situation. That’s all this is.”

“I’m not trying to fish for information to soothe my own curiosity, and if you really think that’s why I would do this, then you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Marinette said. “I’m not stupid. You’re hurting, I know something happened to make you feel like you had to run away from it and hole yourself up in a place where no one could find you. I just want to — ”

“ Help, I know,” Chloe interrupted. “ That’s all you want to do. Trust me, I’m very familiar with your M.O. Marinette the helper, right? Always have to involve yourself in everything because you’re so fucking sympathetic to everything. You’re so confident that you’ll understand everything. You’re so positive people are just going to open up to you and dump their worries onto you so you can swoop in and just fix everything. ” She laughed bitterly. “ You can’t fix shit just because you want you. Wanting isn’t enough. If it was, we wouldn’t have so many miserable people in the world.”

Marinette swallowed and set her jaw. “This coming from the person who had to bribe me to help her when things started to look sour, huh?”

“Fuck you.” Chloe snarled. “ I didn’t ask you to call me to check on me. I certainly didn’t ask for your help.”

“So why did you answer?” Marinette asked. “If you didn’t ask me to call and you didn’t want me to check on you, why did you answer?”

Chloe had nothing to say to that. She cursed loudly and Marinette could her her stomping around the room she was standing in, probably pacing or going for a walk like she tended to do when she was heated up. Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to bring the conversation back before it was lost.

“I’m not trying to force myself into anything,” Marinette defended.

“ Good, because you shouldn’t. This isn’t any of your business, have you ever thought of that?”

Marinette blinked. “...I think it’s partially my business, Chloe.”

“ Enlighten me. ”

Marinette scoffed. “Do you want a list? A discretion policy that you almost bribed me into, protection detail from the press that you didn’t want to face, making me lie to your father’s overpaid interns and assistants who are fucking crawling all over my place of business trying to catch you in something, thank you very much. And coming to my place to take cover from your father because you’re bored or you need a fuck or you’re too scared to talk to him. Trust me, I’m plenty involved in whatever bullshit you have going on in your life because you forced me into it. So excuse the fuck out of me if I feel like maybe I deserve an explanation when you decide to pick up and leave while I deal with the mess you handed to me.”

“ Oh, don’t pretend like you didn’t happily agree to it,” Chloe snapped. “ You didn’t have to say yes to any of that. You didn’t have to do anything. Everything you’ve got yourself wrapped up in, you wanted to do. Why do I suddenly have to wear my heart on my sleeve for your sake just because you decided to turn me into a charity project? Not everything about me concerns you .”

“No, it does concern me!” Marinette insisted. “It concerns me because you’ve put me in a position where it can’t possibly not concern me. We’ve spent months concerned with each other. You promised me you’d tell me things that were important because we both had stakes in this. You promised me you’d come to me if something happened. You were taking cover from your father in my house and you were sitting in my house , when you promised me that you’d tell me when he slipped something stupid into your head again. God forbid I care enough about what’s happening to you to believe in those promises.”

Chloe didn’t respond right away, and for a moment Marinette thought she’d finally volleyed her an argument she couldn’t return. But she always underestimated Chloe’s inability to sit with the possibility that she was wrong or that her feelings were the ones that were misdirected. It left her vulnerable to a type of scrutiny that Chloe had historically fought like hell to avoid, so she took Marinette’s words, sharpened them, and thrust them back with the intention of causing her harm. “ You make that sound awfully romantic. Is that what you think? We had sex a few times so now we have to tell each other everything because we care so much?”

“Screw you,” Marinette muttered. “That’s not what I meant.”

“ I think that’s exactly what you meant.” Chloe laughed. “ I don’t love you, Marinette. None of what I did was because I loved you. Me telling you what I’ve told you and confiding to you what I have wasn’t love. Don’t make the mistake and fit romance into this.”

“You’re the one bringing up romance, not me.”

“ You’re the one who told me you’re constantly pining for something consistent. Your exact words, right? I have no doubt you’re adding sentimentality where it doesn’t belong. You need to stop reading into things. You wanna know why I ask you for help and why I tell you things? The real reason? No bullshit and no sparing your feelings?” She paused for effect and enunciated carefully into the phone. “ I know you can’t say no to me.”

Marinette felt her eyes narrowing. “You’re awfully conceited.”

“ It’s not conceit,” Chloe clarified. “ You wanna know what happened after that tabloid piece dropped? I left my house to go for a walk to clear my head and figure out what I was supposed to be doing and I happened to pass your shop. And I hadn’t thought about you in years, but then suddenly you were appearing to me right when everything felt like it was going to shit. And then I remembered how you were in school. That despite how fucking infuriating you were, you thought yourself a goddamn superhero. If someone needed your help, it didn’t matter what kind of a person they were and it didn’t matter if they deserved it. You cut yourself open and bled dry for people because you enjoyed it. So I walked in. And I made you bleed dry for me.

“I knew I could get you to feel sorry for me,” she continued. “ I knew I could get you to do anything for me. I liked the fact that if I told you something, you’d pour your heart out for me, and if I asked you to do something, you’d do it no questions asked because you only wanted to help. That’s why I need you. So don’t mistake this for some half-baked love story where I suddenly owe you things because otherwise you’d be severely deluded. It’s a convenience arrangement. Is that clear enough for you?”

Marinette let her words hang and marvelled at how strange it was to be able to feel the volume of Chloe’s words, but not feel their impact or their heat. It made her feel numb to what she knew would have shaken her had Chloe been here in person, nose two inches away from her own, eyes betraying no hesitance or affection, and no way to force a chasm between them and use miscommunications as a crutch for avoiding the truth. Chloe’s voice was mechanical — something that faded when Marinette pulled the phone away from her ear, and that made everything roll off her skin so that she was left feeling nothing. But then Marinette imagined what it must have been like to yell into a cellphone while standing in an empty room, in an empty house, absconded in what was probably some far off location not worth disclosing for fear of someone trying to come find her. Everything would be echoing against walls and bouncing right back, and there would be nowhere for that pain and hurt to go other than straight back into her. Perhaps that was why Chloe’s voice sounded broken when she finished — like had she been weaker, she might have accidentally let herself cry.

Adrien was right. She shouldn’t have called.

But now it was too late because Marinette had trained herself to absorb Chloe’s cruelty and fire it back. It was mostly for self-protection, but Marinette couldn’t deny the sick satisfaction of being able to control the same sort of detachment and disregard for another person’s feelings and use it to tear Chloe down to Marinette’s level. That’s all they’d ever done — take turns yanking each other down by the hair until they were both ragged, bloody, beaten, and equal. In hindsight she knew that such childishness had no place here, but Marinette’s compulsions were strong ones, and she was already pulling out awful half-truths that she knew would sting.

“It’s funny. It’s always easier for you to paint me as the one who can’t read a situation or always feels too much. I’m starting to think it makes you feel superior to know what you’re the one who feels less and has the least to lose. And hey, maybe I get that seeing as how you had a rude introduction to what it was like to care about someone more than they cared about you. But if it makes you feel better, let me assure you right here and now that the two of us feel exactly the same way. Because I don’t love you either. We’re not married. We’re not dating. Like you said: no sentimentality.”

She gripped the phone tight enough to hear the plastic casing creak. “I’m not calling you because I’m some simpering little girl who can’t wait for you to come home. I’m calling because I’m worried about you like a normal human being should be, and I’m calling you because you don’t get to pull me right into the middle of your swirling shit storm and not tell me what’s going on.” Marinette tipped her head back towards the ceiling. “And you know what? Since you brought up the topic? You want to know the real reason I helped you specifically? Because how I treated everyone else when I was a teenager never applied to you. You bullied the shit out of me for seven years, so maybe when the opportunity presented itself, I fell in love with the fact that you needed me for once. I was your only hope, and I thrived off that.”

Chloe’s laughter sounded forced and hollow. “ God….you’re such a bitch. ”

“I’m being honest,” Marinette said. “You don’t know how satisfying it is to know that you are what a person needs . You’re central. Inextricable. Important. I became important to you, and not only was it such a perfect dose of irony after all these years, but it made me feel powerful. And maybe that sounds selfish, and maybe it is, but you sought me out specifically because you knew I’d let you push my kindness as far as it would go, and you’d get to benefit from it. That’s selfish. We’re both selfish. Is that what you want to hear?”

Chloe didn’t answer, and Marinette didn’t expect her to. She wasn’t sure how the conversation got away from them so quickly, but instead of answers and closure all either of them had to show for were handfuls of rot. Marinette felt like an addict constantly on the brink of relapse because it seemed like, when you took away all the excess and reduced the two of them down to their common denominators, they were always going to come back to this. In the context of each other, they were incapable of being selfless. It was always about gratification, and it was always about maintaining the upper hand. The reality was so depressing that now Marinette was feeling herself sink right into the cushions of the couch while the pressure behind her eyes grew. This was them. Chloe and Marinette. Butting heads. Never seeing eye to eye. And it felt fucking awful.

Chloe inhaled through her nose. “ You know before you called? I had gotten off the phone with Daddy. Suffice it to say it didn’t go well, because it never fucking goes well. So I broke a few wine glasses and screamed everything out until I was just sitting in the middle of my living room dry heaving and feeling like I was losing control of everything.” Marinette could practically hear the smirk in her voice. “ And then you called. And, you know, maybe that’s my fault for picking up and thinking that it was a sign or that it was going to make me feel better. I told myself not to answer but I did it anyway because….I’m used to you. You’re familiar and you don’t bite back. But hey. Next time I’ll know better. We’re both selfish, and normal people don’t fuck around with selfish people. Lucky us.”

It felt like the world had gone still. Nothing was moving, everything felt dead, and Marinette suddenly realized how much worse she had just made everything. She shouldn’t have called. “Chloe, wait a minute — ”

“ Don’t call me again Marinette ,” Chloe instructed. “ And this time I mean it.”

The line hung up before Marinette could get another word in.

[onespoongirl]

Let Sleeping Wolves Lie | Chapter 1

Pairing: Stiles/oc/Lydia (polyamory)

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Read on ff.net or AO3

Summary: Beth has just moved across the Atlantic to be closer to her father, who lives in Beacon Hills, but she arrives just in time for a dead body in the woods and something monstrous prowling the school hallways. American teen sitcoms really didn't prepare her for this.

Word count: 6740

Chapter Index

Chapter 1: From Wales With Love

On the other side of the room, the alarm clock went off sounding like a meltdown at a nuclear factory, and Beth's eyes shot open. She lurched across the room to turn off the infernal device before it woke the entire neighbourhood. Her sleep heavy and cumbersome fingers fumbled with the buttons before she finally found the right one. The silence that followed was heavy. She sank down on the desk chair, resting her head on the cold surface of the table, willing her eyes not to fall shut again because if they did she would fall asleep again regardless of her uncomfortable position.

With a groan, she staggered to her feet and turned on the light, which made her squint her eyes. She had only lived in Beacon Hills for three weeks but already her room showed a distinct Beth-ness; the cream walls were decorated with countless photographs, which hung from strings with pegs. Some of them were Polaroids and some were printed from the computer. Up against one of the walls was a shelf system with camera equipment of varying degrees of age and functionality. In the corner lay an old Nikon F2, that Beth had bought intending to repair until it was clear that her talents lied in photography and not repairing cameras.

The door to her room cracked open and she looked blearily at the head that peeked through the crack.

"Dad sent me to check on you to see if you're up. He also told me to throw your alarm clock out of the window, although he used some more expletives."

Chloe opened the door wider when it was apparent she didn't have to use it as a shield. Her rumpled appearance made it clear that she had also just gotten out of bed; her normally straight and shiny hair was mussed and tangled and her eyes were still crusted with sleep.

"That alarm clock is the only reason I'm still not a drooling mess." Beth stifled a yawn behind her.

"Who says you're still not a drooling mess?" Chloe asked playfully and swiped at Beth's face.

Beth dodged and gestured rudely at Chloe with one hand while wiping her mouth with the other. She could hear someone making breakfast downstairs, and a delicious smell of bacon drifted up from below. In the kitchen she was met with the sight of her father standing before the stove, juggling what looked to be three different pans all at once. He already looked ready for the day, even though it was abnormally early in the morning, or abnormally early for a teenager who'd just enjoyed a long summer holiday. His hair, just as curly as Beth's, laid perfectly coiffed on his head and did not resemble the rats nest currently sported by Beth.

"'Morning dad," Beth said as she stepped over and peered into the pans. "Are you making a full English breakfast?"

Jaime only spared her a glance before he diverted his full attention back to the cooking. "Good morning, Beth. We wanted to give you a good start on your first day of school." The baked beans had begun to smoke a bit and he quickly removed the pan from the heat.

Chloe had walked in after Beth and gotten two mugs from the cabinet, which she was filling, with coffee. "I Googled Welsh breakfast but that's with fish or something, so I vetoed that."

Beth accepted the mug proffered by Chloe. "It's shellfish, actually. But this is great, it is. It smells just like home."

Jaime sent her a small smile as he tipped the fried eggs over on a plate. He hadn't said anything, which wasn't unusual as he wasn't very talkative in general, but he seemed anxious to make sure Beth was happy living with him. She didn't intend on giving him any reason to think otherwise.

"I trust you slept well?" Jaime asked in his measured voice.

Beth jumped up on the kitchen counter and watched Jaime cook. When she was younger, she had never understood his somewhat formal way of speaking, not just to her but to everyone. Other fathers called their daughters pet names and other terms of endearment, but Jaime had always been very reserved. It wasn't until she got older that she understood it was just one of his many peculiarities. "Like a rock. You'd really think I would've been too nervous to sleep last night, starting a new school and all."

In that moment, Louie sauntered through the doors. If Jaime looked ready to take on the day, Louie looked like he was ready to take over the world. He hurried over to the kitchen table and started to gather some stray papers. "Good morning girls. I'm sorry but I can't stay for breakfast, but I just got a call from Berger that I need to come in right away. The police found something in the woods last night and they want me to cover it."

"The woods? What did they find?" Beth asked while kicking her legs out, almost kicking Louie as he went past.

"If I told you it'd spoil the surprise," Came the muffled answer. Louie was trying to wrestle his day planner into his bag while simultaneously showing a piece of toast into his mouth.

"It'll take us like five minute to hear in school anyway. I swear this city is the worst at keeping secrets." Chloe got up and helped Jaime carry the food to the kitchen table.

Louie went over to Jaime and gave him a quick kiss. "I don't know if I will be home for dinner. It sounded pretty serious so I'm probably going to pull some overtime if I want the story ready for the morning newspaper." Louie turned towards Beth and Chloe. "Now girls, I know you've just had a long summer break but now playtime is over. Beth, you've never gone to an American school so this is literally the most important advice I can give you: cafeteria food sucks. The dough is made with sawdust and the macaroni used to be some poor kid's art project. Stay away from the meatloaf."

Beth snorted. "The food at my old school wasn't exactly four stars either."

"Well, then you won't have problems digesting whatever is in the mac n' cheese. Oh, and also, Chloe, please don't bite anyone, okay?"

Chloe threw a dishrag at him. "Aren't you in a hurry? Please?"

"Indeed I am. Have a great first day!" Louie ducked out of the kitchen and a few seconds later, they heard the front door close.

When all the food was ready, they sat down to eat. The beans were a tad runny but otherwise it tasted pretty much like an English breakfast.

"Are you homesick yet?" Chloe asked and nudged Beth in the leg. Jaime sent her a look over the rim of his coffee cup.

"Well, not really. As you said this is an English breakfast. If it had been a Welsh, I'd be absolutely inconsolable." Beth nudged her back. "But I am mostly excited, really. I've never actually gone to a new school - I mean a school with all new people."

"You already know a bunch of people, so it's not like you'd have to eat your lunch in the bathroom. Lydia seemed very excited that you were moving here." That was true. Three days after Beth had moved to Beacon Hills, Lydia had shown up at the front door and whisked her off to meet her friends, with varying success. Beth had liked most of the people she met, with the exception of Lydia's boyfriend, who was probably the one it was most important that she liked, but Jackson made it exceedingly easy to dislike him.

When they finished breakfast, Jaime started to clear the table. "You better get ready now or you're going to be late for school."

"Dad, I do believe you are right." Beth got up from the table and stretched her arms over her head.

"I call dibs on the shower," Chloe yelled and skipped towards the door.

"No! You'll use up all the hot water again!" Beth hurried after her but nearly lost a finger in the bathroom door. "I can't believe there's only one bathroom in this gigantic house!" She yelled through the bathroom door. The Sandoval house was big, though there were only two toilets and one shower, which normally wouldn't have bothered Beth, as the house she lived in Wales had been a lot smaller. The main difference was that she'd lived alone with her mother, and now she had to share a bathroom with someone who kept using all the hot water.

On the other side, Chloe laughed. "It wasn't a problem before you moved here, honey. I'll be quick I promise."

After Beth's shower, she had barely had time to get dressed after the shower before there was a knock at the door. "Are you decent?" Chloe yelled from behind the door.

"Not particularly, really," Beth yelled back.

Tentatively the door opened. Chloe peeked inside before she opened it completely. "Oh, good. I wasn't sure if you were talking about not being dressed or just you in general. But get a move on I want to get to school early to catch up. Also, that is cute. I approve." She nodded towards the dress Beth was wearing; an off-white, pinstriped dress that was a gift from her mum before she moved.

"Oh thank god, I was afraid I would have to change," Beth said while rolling her eyes.

Chloe walked forward and brushed invisible dust off Beth's shoulders. "They grow up so fast," she said with a thick voice. Beth only just stopped herself from burying her elbow in Chloe's gut. "But for real, though, we gots to go."

"Oh, wait a moment!" With a flourish, Beth grabbed her camera bag from where it was lying on the shelf. It was a Polaroid camera she’d gotten from Jaime and it was her most precious possession.

"Say cheese!" Beth said, holding it out in front of them. The flash went off and with a whirring noise and the camera spat out a picture. She grabbed it and put it in a small pocket on the camera bag.

"Okay grandma, can we go now? If you're not down by the front door in 5 minutes, I'm leaving without you." Chloe spun around and disappeared out the door.

It took Beth exactly eight minutes to gather all her stuff and get down by the front door; she knew because Chloe had yelled increasingly annoyed updates on exactly how long it took Beth to get ready.

"I need to go to the office first, actually. If you'd kindly show me the way that would be fantastic." They walked towards the school, which was just across the road from their home.

Chloe sighed loudly. "Urgh, fine. I'll show you the way but I can't be late. You have an excuse because you are new, you can just say you got lost, but I refuse to have the record for fastest detention in a new school year. Honestly, Beth, it's the first day and you're already dragging me down. I should just push you in front of a car."

"Your dad told you not to bite anyone, I'm pretty sure pushing someone into oncoming traffic is off limits too."

"Urgh, he says that all the time. I don't know who told him he was funny but they lied to his face."

They arrived at school early enough that many students hadn't yet arrived. Beth really hadn't been particularly nervous about starting in a new school, but standing in the car park she worried at the sleeves of her black leather jacket until Chloe’s stilled her hands.

"Look, Beth, it's not like you don't know anyone here, right. You've been to Beacon Hills once a year since forever and you've met a tonne of my friends and-and you know Chloe freaking Sandoval and if that doesn't give you an in with basically everybody then I don't know what will." Chloe sent Beth a warm smile until something distracted her over Beth's shoulder. "Actually, there’s Lydia. Already a friendly face." She turned Beth around and practically shoved her over towards Lydia who was standing by a silver beetle. "Ask her to show you where the office is," she said as she was already on her way to a group of people standing beside the school entrance.

"You're a rotten sister!" Beth yelled after her but kept walking towards Lydia.

She’d didn’t remember a time she didn’t know Lydia. Their parents were friends and it made sense that their children would get stuck together while the adult did their adult thing. They didn’t become friends proper before Beth found the joy of photography and they developed a sort of mutually beneficial relationship: Lydia loved having her picture taken, and Beth loved taking pictures. It helped that Lydia didn’t seem to have a bad angle.

In place of a greeting, Lydia looked disapprovingly down at Beth's feet. "Sneakers, Beth. Really?" She herself wore a formfitting, expensive looking coat and the sunshine made her hair look glossy.

"Yes, sneakers. They're very comfortable," said Beth and wriggled her toes. Lydia scowled at her and Beth answered with a blinding smile.

"They look like they've been prescribed by a podiatrist."

"Those shoes are bitchin' so I will take that as a compliment. Oh, what do you think of my dress?" Beth swirled around with her arms outstretched.

Lydia looked at her outfit with a calculating look. "It's acceptable, I guess. Not a fan of that jacket though, it makes you look like you just got out of an Iron Maiden concert."

"I'll take it," Beth said jovially and gestured towards the entrance, "shall we?"

Lydia smiled an almost predatory-like smile. She spun around until she faced the school, and started walking as if she was on a runway in Milan and not outside a high school in California. Even the wind seemed to favour her, as it provided a gentle breeze that made it look she was in the middle of a Kanye West music video.

Beth followed a step behind her, not wanting to interrupt Lydia as she asserted her dominance over the school populace. Besides, she could never hope to match Lydia's powerwalk.

Two guys were standing in front of the entrance to the school, right in the way of Lydia's march. One of them sported a mop of dark hair and the other an unfortunate buzz cut and a novelty t-shirt.

"Hey Lydia!" the shorthaired one said after Lydia's retreating form. She made no move to show she had even heard the boy.

When they got inside the school, Beth skipped up to walk beside Lydia. "Uh, I need to go to the office first. I need my schedule and stuff like that."

Lydia turned so her red hair whirled around her. She sighed as if showing Beth to the office was a heavy burden. "Fine. It's down that hall and to the left. There's a big sign in front that says Administration, so even you wouldn't be able to miss it."

"Wow Lydia, that cuts really deep. It's almost like you're trying to hurt me." Beth walked backwards down the hallway Lydia indicated, a playful smile on her lips. "You know I don't think you can sit with me a lunch anymore."

Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed as if she was dealing with a problem child. "Go to the office, Beth."

Beth saluted and turned around so she wouldn't fall over her own feet, and as she walked, she took the time to look at the school. It looked just as rundown as her old one, which was somewhat comforting. The students looked the same and she could hear the same type of "how was your summer" questions albeit with an American accent.

She opened the door to the office and was immediately met with a sour-looking secretary who didn't so much as look up from the screen as Beth stepped up to the counter. "Take a seat, please." She droned, sounding bored out of her mind. Beth raised her eyebrows over the secretary's attitude but nodded once and turned around to look for a place to sit. Behind her were some chairs pushed up against the wall, one of them already occupied by a dark haired girl who looked like she was about to burst from nervous energy. Beth threw herself into the seat beside her.

"Phew, I am so relieved that I am not the only new student here. It's bad enough starting in a new school but in a completely different country too is just a bit nerve-wracking."

The girl startled at the sound of Beth's voice. "Is it that obvious?" The girl combed her hair with her fingers and smiled nervously at Beth.

"A little bit. You're sitting in the administration office on the first day of school, looking just a tad … green. You're either new or you've already gotten in trouble and no offence but you don't look like a dastardly troublemaker."

"Oh, uh, well I'm not. A troublemaker I mean." the girl's smile became a little more genuine and Beth mentally pumped a fist in the air in triumph. "So, uh, what are you in for?"

Beth grinned. "Got five to eight for releasing the frogs from the biology classroom. That's something you Americans do, right?"

The girl laughed, which made the secretary shoot them an angry look over her monitor.

"I'm Beth, by the way."

"I'm Allison. Where are you from?" It looked like some of Allison's nerves had left her and she had turned so she faced Beth.

"Wales, though my dad has lived in Beacon Hills for years so I've visited about every summer and my sister goes to the school too."

"I imagine it's less intimidating starting here when you actually know somebody in this town," said Allison and looked around the room with a pained expression. Some of that aforementioned green colour returned to her cheeks.

"Maybe. Or maybe I'm just really good at hiding how utterly terrified I am," Beth said and sent her a reassuring smile, "fake it until you make it, right?"

Allison nodded and took a calming breath. Somewhere in the school, the bell rang and she frowned. "Um, an administrator was in here just before you, but he had to take care of something."

"I think that not having our schedules and not having a clue where to go is a good enough excuse being late." Beth leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and chatted with Allison until the door opened and a man entered.

"Miss Argent and Miss Vinther, I see you've become acquainted. I'm sorry for the delay but there were matters I had to attend to." He grabbed two folders from behind the counter. "This is your schedule and a map of the school where your lockers are marked. My name is Moris Cooper and I'm the school's administrator. If you have any problems, you can come to me. Follow me, please." He gestured towards the door and both girls got up.

"Miss Argent, you said before that San Francisco isn't the place you grew up." Mr Cooper looked at Allison while they walked.

"No, but we lived there for more than a year which is unusual with my family," Allison said, looking just as nervous as she had when Beth had first entered the office.

"Well, hopefully, Beacon Hills will be your last stop for a while. And for you too, Miss Vinther. You may not remember me but I met you a couple of years ago when there was an unveiling of the sculpture your father made for the school."

Beth tried to think back but it had been four years ago and she'd been introduced to a lot of people that day and none of them really stood out.

"Your dad's a sculptor?" Allison asked looking at Beth with curious eyes.

"Yeah, but he paints more than he sculptures, I guess." As Beth talked she tried to take note of the way to the classroom, but after the first few turns, she was totally lost.

"Ah, here's your classroom," Mr Cooper said and gestured towards a closed door. Through the glass pane, Beth saw a mousy teacher standing by a blackboard. When Mr Cooper opened the door and interrupted the teacher, he did not look enthused.

"Class, this is our new students Allison Argent and Bethan Vinther. Please do your best to make them feel welcome." With that, he headed out the door. Fortunately, there were two empty seats and Beth grabbed the first one that was in front of the dark haired guy she had seen earlier. She tried to smile at him but by the looks of it, he only had eyes for Allison.

Beth sat down and got her notebook and pencil case. She fiddled with the worn spine of the book Chloe had loaned her. She could hear her teacher drone on in the background in a voice one could only describe as uninspiring, so she sat back and let the over-analysis of the Metamorphosis wash over her.

Beth walked with Allison towards their lockers, which were almost right next to each other.

"Sweet, I've never had one of these," Beth said as she peered into her locker, "this day is just full of new experiences. What should I put in it?"

Allison looked at her from two lockers over with a bemused smile. "Whatever you want I guess, but I think the intended purpose is school books."

"Urgh, that's boring." Beth closed the locker and leaned her shoulder against it. She saw something that made her eyes glint with glee. "Hey Allison, don't look now but I think someone is looking at you."

Allison straightened up and peeked stealthily through her long hair at the dark-haired boy from their English class. The downright bashful smile she sported was pretty telling what she thought of him. "He borrowed me a pen." She said while biting her lips to hide the smile.

"Ooh, you know that means you're married!" Beth said with a cheeky grin.

"Beth!" Allison admonished but she still laughed, even when red appeared on her cheeks. "Honestly."

"What did she do now?" Like a creature out of a Dracula adaption, Lydia appeared as if she stepped out of the mist. "Never mind. That jacket is absolutely killer. See Beth, not everyone has to dress like they have a leather fetish."

"It's one jacket, Lydia, it's not like I've come to school in assless chaps."

Lydia pointedly ignored Beth. "So, where'd you get it?"

Allison looked between Beth and Lydia, a slightly confused smile playing in the corners of her mouth. "My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco."

"And you are my new best friend," Lydia said with easy confidence that came from never having anyone really oppose her.

"No!" Beth croaked and clutched her heart. "Does this mean I'm not even a contender anymore? Shit Lydia, you're breaking my heart."

Lydia sent her a derisive smile. "You were never even a consideration, sweetie."

Beth's mock-horrified look was wiped away when a cloud of man-perfume announced the presence of Jackson who descended on Lydia's face like a leech. "Oh, hi," she said in a flat tone. Because of her friendship with Lydia, she couldn't be openly antagonistic towards Jackson, but by God, the boy made it difficult to remain civil.

"Hello," said Allison a little unsure which was understandable enough, since one of her conversational partners was just unceremoniously snogged in a school hallway.

Lydia detached herself from Jackson. "Oh, this is Jackson." She sent her boyfriend a playful look. "I didn't catch your name, actually."

"I'm Allison," Allison said and gave a small wave. She was holding her messenger bag in front of her kind of like it was a shield.

"We're in English together," Beth added, wanting to be a part of the conversation somehow.

Jackson spared her a look that clearly said that he didn't care, and turned back to Lydia. Beth had to fight the urge to stick out her tongue at him.

Lydia also pointedly ignored Beth. "So, this weekend there's a party."

"A party?" Allison asked, looking like she wasn't quite sure what to say to that.

"Yeah," Jackson said, "Friday night. You should come."

"Beth is the photographer," Lydia said with confidence. "She has all those cameras and now they can finally come to good use."

"I am? When exactly was this decided?" Beth leaned forward and shot Lydia a questioning look. "Because I don't remember agreeing to be your personal photographer."

"It was decided when you can't go two minutes without taking photos of whatever mundane thing is happening. Honestly, it's kinda sad how you use your camera as a security blanket. You know as well as I that you would spend the entire party behind a camera anyway, and now you're just in my employ."

"Great, does that mean you'll pay me?"

"No," Lydia snapped and turned towards Allison, "so what do you say?"

"Uh, I can't. It's family night this Friday. Thanks for asking."

Beth felt a pang of disappointment as she liked Allison and the party would be infinitely better if she were there to block out the Lydia/Jackson snogging session that would surely commence.

Apparently, Jackson was disappointed too. "You sure? I mean, everyone's going after the scrimmage."

"You mean like football?" Allison asked innocently. Beth wanted to shake her head vigorously. Jackson felt very fondly of his lacrosse and there was a high possibility of an angry rant if he heard any perceived slight against it.

"Football's a joke in Beacon," Jackson spat. "The sport here is lacrosse. We've won the state championship in the last three years." He sounded so smug that Beth almost gagged.

"Because of a certain team captain," Lydia said, never turning down a chance to brag. She adjusted Jackson's hair while practically letting him carry her entire weight.

"Well, we have practice in a few minutes. That is if you don't have anywhere else to go." Jackson turned towards Beth. "I know that it might seem confusing for your but in America, sport is sort of a big deal and we have to practice-"

"Piss off water-boy; I know what bloody practice is." Even though he only tried to get a rise out of her, she still raised her hackles at his condescending tone.

Lydia clicked her tongue in disapproval at the two. "And Jackson-" she shot him an acidic look- "is going to be late. So come on. Allison?" She waited for the girl to nod before she turned on her heel and marched down the hallway somehow making even the click of her heels sound angry.

When they arrived out at the field, the players were already running around on the field, swinging their sticks.

"Jackson wasn't kidding when he said lacrosse is the sport at Beacon," Allison said, as they sat on the bleachers. They were surrounded by students who, like them, had shown up to watch people play lacrosse.

"Yeah, I thought showing up and watching people practice sports was only something I did." Beth sat behind Allison and Lydia but was leaned forward so she could hear them over the loud whistles and yells from the players.

"You really like sports that much?" Allison asked with a smile.

"There was a local rugby team and I swear I was their biggest fan. Actually, I reckon I was their only fan because they really sucked."

Lydia flipped her hair over her shoulder and almost hit Beth in the face. "Well, this team is not some backwater soccer team. Winning actually matters here." She sounded so smug that you'd think she'd herself singlehandedly won the championship.

Beth was in the middle of a heated explanation on the differences between real football and rugby when Allison interrupted them. "Who is that?" She nodded towards the goal, where number 11 was standing looking back and forth with a somewhat lost look.

"Him? I'm not sure who he is," Lydia said, "why?"

"I thought you were the queen bee of this school, aren't they supposed to know all their little bee-lings?" Beth asked with a cheeky smile, and Lydia responded with an unimpressed look.

"He's in our English class," Allison said with a small, shy smile.

"He loaned her a pen!" Beth said excitedly, this time earning an annoyed look from Lydia.

"How wonderful," she deadpanned and turned her attention back on the lacrosse pitch.

Down on the field, it looked like number 11 was having some issues. "Um, he doesn't look too good." She leaned forward again as if she could get a better look at the guy who had grabbed his head as if he was in pain. "Shouldn't we-" she didn't finish her sentence before a lacrosse ball nailed him in the face. The only reason he didn't wind up with a broken nose was due to the helmet. There was scattered laughter around them.

After a couple of seconds, he got up again and stood ready at the goal. Beth winced as the next guy swung his stick but amazingly, enough Allison's pen-dealer caught the ball. Even buried under layers of protective gear she could see the other player's confusion. On the bench in front of the field buzz cut guy gave a surprised yell of encouragement.

The next player threw the ball closer to the ground but as before, the dude caught it neatly. He repeated that feat a couple of more times until the small crowd were cheering for him.

"It seems like he's really good," Allison said with a slightly dreamy expression.

"Yeah, really good," Lydia said, looking more surprise than amazed.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't knowing all the best lacrosse players your thing, Lyds?" Beth asked from behind them.

“Don’t call me that,” she said absentmindedly. "That must have happened over the summer, there is no way that I didn't notice him last year."

"Someone must have eaten all their Brussels sprouts," Beth mumbled but she, like Lydia and Allison, wasn't paying attention to what came out of her mouth as Jackson had just stepped forward, looking like a scorned king ready to challenge a usurper. It was a tad overdramatic for high school lacrosse.

Beth held her breath as the ball soared towards the goal. Not surprisingly, the ball got stopped before it met its destination and around her people started cheering. Even Lydia stood up to cheer, but Beth was only confused for a second and a half before she saw the challenging look she shot in Jackson's direction. "That's healthy, that is," Beth mumbled, but it was drowned out in the ruckus. On the bench, the dude who she could only describe as strangely elastic looked to be having a celebratory seizure.

"I'm going to talk with his friend," Beth said and got up.

Allison's hand shot out and grabbed Beth's wrist. "Why?" She asked and looked at Beth with alarmed eyes.

"To find out who he is and, according to Lydia, which creature of the night he sold his soul to, to be this good at lacrosse." Beth gently pried Allison's fingers away from her wrist. "And besides, I am nothing if not aggressively friendly." When Allison's hand was gone, Beth turned around and climbed down from the bleachers. After a little difficulty getting past people without knocking them down, she plopped down on the bench beside buzz cut.

"That's your mate there, isn't it?" she asked and leaned forward, adopting the same stance as him.

The boy yelped louder than should have been necessary, which made Beth rear back with a confused look. He opened his mouth but it looked like his brain still hadn't caught up completely.

"Y-yes he's my ma-I mean friend." He looked at her like he wasn't quite sure she was sitting there.

Beth waited for him to elaborate a bit while she stretched out her legs in front of her. When he just continued to gawk she realised she had to prompt him a little more. "And his name is?"

"Scott!" Buzzcut almost shouted. Across the field, Scott's head snapped up as if someone had called his name. "Yeah, his name is Scott and you-you're Bethan right? We have English and Chemistry together." He still sounded utterly confused but now he at least seemed to have rediscovered the use of words without having to be prompted.

"Everyone calls me Beth, except my grandmother who thinks it's disrespecting Welsh culture. I'm fairly certain she has written me out of her will." She smiled at him but he just nodded thoughtfully, like they were discussing global politics and Beth hadn't just made a terrible joke.

They looked at each other for couple of long, awkward moments before Beth asked, "so what's your name-"

"I'm Stiles." They said at the same time.

They both stopped abruptly and Beth pursed her lips while they silently observed the players. She wasn't lying when she said she was aggressively friendly, she could talk with pretty much anyone, but for some reason the awkwardness of trying to talk with Stiles made her forget every conversational topic she had stored in her brain.

Stiles' was tapping a confusing beat on the bench. It seemed like he had to have some body part moving, lest the nervous energy would build up and he would rocket off to the moon. She crossed and uncrossed her ankles, desperately trying to find something to talk about. If there was anything Beth didn't do well, it was long uncomfortable silences.

"I don't even know the rules for Lacrosse," she said as she leaned her head back to enjoy the sun with her eyes closed.

"Wha-?"

She cracked open an eye and looked at Stiles. Instead of tapping on the bench, he was turning a lacrosse helmet repeatedly between his hands.

"The rules for lacrosse. I don't know them. I don't think I've ever watched a game of lacrosse even though I do watch a lot of sports. And we're not just talking the regular football and basketball, we are talking obscure shit." She stole a look at Stiles again and he looked at her with narrowed eyes. "A bunch of my mates and I once took the bus to Gloucester- that's in England -to a cheese rolling competition."

There was an unbelieving snort from Stiles, and she opened her eyes and levelled him with an even stare. He was leaning back on the bench and by the looks of it, only an exceptional equilibrium kept him from toppling down. "On top of a hill the cheese is released-" She stopped to truly admire the circumstances that led to her saying that sentence. "-and people leg it down trying to catch it."

"Is that true?" He asked, his voice somewhere between laughter and scepticism.

"No, I've never been. The rest of it is true, though. It's my life's dream to catch that darn cheese."

A smile spread across Stiles' face. "No ending world hunger or-or be ridiculously famous? You want to catch a runaway cheese." He snickered into his fist.

"Hey, don't you dare criticise my one true dream. I can get there with patience and hard work."

Stiles looked a little unsure about what he should say. "I-uh … at least it's doable I guess."

Beth nodded eagerly. "With low goals, there's less chance of disappointment," she said cheerfully.

"So, has Scott always been a bloody ninja at Lacrosse?" Beth asked when they'd been quiet for a time.

Stiles furrowed his brows as he watched his friend dance around obstacles like a ballerina. "No, definitely not. He has asthma but he hasn't used his inhaler today at all." He was leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and tapping a finger on his chin.

"You can grow out of that, can't you?" Beth leaned forward too, to try and make eye contact with Stiles.

The coach blew the whistle and the players gathered in a huddle. Evidently, the practice was over because the audience started to get up and move towards the school.

Beth got up from the bench. "Well, that's my cue I guess. Nice chatting with you, Stiles," She said with a smile and a little wave.

Stiles waved back absentmindedly but it was like the mention of his friend had snapped him out of any form of thought not concerned with Scott, who was standing in the middle of the field shaking his head like his ears were full of water.

When it became apparent that Stiles wouldn't answer, she threw up her hands and started towards Lydia and Allison, who were waiting for her by the bleachers.

"Did you find out his name?" It seemed that Allison herself realised how eager she sounded because she immediately tried to backtrack. "I mean-"

"His name is Scott and he used to have asthma but that it's maybe gone, apparently." Beth shrugged, throwing an arm over Allison's shoulder as they walked back to the school.

Allison wasn't fast enough to hide the infatuated smile that spread on her face at the mention of his name. It was incredible how fast she had gotten smitten, and by the looks of it, Scott had caught the love bug too.

"Did you talk about anything else? You were down there some time." Allison's hopeful voice made Beth smile.

Beth's smile turned into a grin. "Cheese, mostly." Allison snorted loudly and shot her a confused look. "Seriously, instead of asking me, who, by the way, has all of this information from a second-hand source, you could just go and talk to him." She gave Allison's shoulder a little squeeze.

"Oh no, I'm not going to do any dating. I am going to finish high school without distractions, that's the plan."

"I just want to say, for the record, that you were the one who brought up dating. It's 2012 Allison, people are allowed to have a friend of a different gender without the need of a chaperone."

Allison snorted and bit her lips. "You don't know my parents at all. I'm pretty sure my dad would prefer if I only have friends of the female persuasion."

"Oh, it's so much easier when you're bi and both your parents know. They can't very well ban people in general from your room, so I've never really had that problem. Besides, I seriously can't imagine my dad or Louie setting any sort of restriction on who can come to my room and not."

"Louie is …?"

"My dad's husband and my sister's father. My family situation can seem a bit complicated for the uninitiated."

"I am initiated and I still find it confusing," Lydia said. Her eyes were glued to her phone but apparently, she had been listening to the conversation.

Allison pursed her lips. "Okay, so your mom-" she paused to shoot Beth a questioning look.

"I actually have nine fathers."

"No you do not," Allison laughed and gave Beth a little push.

"You don't know that! I could be like that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie."

Allison laughed and waved her hand in the air as if she was trying to wipe out their current conversation. "Okay, we are getting off track. So your mom is Welsh."

"She is indeed. They met each other in London when my mom was working part-time in a gallery my dad's painting was showing in. When that didn't work out, he moved to California and met Louie. Actually, my maternal grandfather is Danish, so my roots are spread out over four countries."

"Four?"

"My dad's Mexican. You know where your family is from? As in before they were American."

Lydia had apparently found the conversation too boring because she had diverted her full attention back to her phone. "My family is from France. Argent means silver, actually."

"That's pretty cool. Do you know much about them?" They had reached the school and were walking through the halls.

"Not really. My parents never really talk much about them, only that it's a very old and influential family."

"Maybe you're actually royalty and your family escaped the reign of terror." Beth who up until now still had her arm slung over Allison's shoulder had to let her go so they could navigate the crowded hall.

"Lots of noble families escaped so that wouldn't be that special." Allison dodged two guys who were carrying some kind of paper-mâché monster. It seemed a little early to be doing projects for art class.

"Damn, I thought we had a French princess in our midst."

"Sorry to disappoint," Allison said with a cheeky smile before they all split up towards the different classes.

Next chapter

[thegratitudeblog]

Gratitude #1

Hi! 

My name is Kelly and I will be writing 10 blog posts of what I am grateful for. The purpose of these posts is to help me realize what I am grateful for on days that feel blue. I often have deep thoughts of myself on whether I’m going on the right path in life, questioning myself if what I’m doing is right, and/or having thoughts that what I’m doing isn’t enough. 

I feel at my age its common to have these thoughts. I’m still growing and it’s a bit of a nerve wrecking feeling knowing that I’m no longer a teenager. I know many of my friends feel this way sometimes too, which is why I know its common at this age. Which is why sometimes I need a reminder that life is great, and I need to stop and enjoy the present. 

So today’s gratitude entry is:

Family (polaroids I have taken over the past few years)

My two nieces (Sienna & Chloe)

My niece and little sister on Christmas (Sienna & Julie)

Family Picture! (including my closest cousins) 

Family is always the first thought I have when I think of gratitude. They raised me, nurtured me, and was always there for me. I grew up in a household with 2 older sisters, my mom and my dad. We’ve been through a lot. My mom’s childhood was very depressing. She no longer talks to her family because of what she’s been through, and because of that we never grew up with our aunties, uncles and grandma. Even though a lot of people tell me it sounds sad, it really isn’t. Of course it is for my mom, but I believe since the only family we have is each other, that made us more closer as family because we depend on each other instead of our relatives. My dad was partially closer to his family than my mom was, but there was always a feud between my mom and his side of the family, which also, made us not very close to my dad side of the family. I did have cousins who I was close with but we drifted off as we got older. 

We moved A LOT as a family. My parents both migrated to Toronto when they fled Vietnam. Therefore, me and my sisters were all born in Toronto. We grew up in Regent Park for most of my younger part of childhood. My parents decided to move to Vancouver (don’t entirely remember why, I think it was because of work?), and we lived there for most of my childhood (between the age of 6-10). We moved a lot during the time we lived there and I met a lot of new people from all the new schools I went to. When I was about 8 years-old, my little sister was born! She had many health problems as a baby because she was premature baby. She is healthy now though so that’s good! We eventually moved back to Toronto when I was 11. My parents had a huge argument which was why we moved back here. We moved a lot when we came back to Toronto too. Somehow, some way, we moved back to Regent Park. It was ironic because I ended up attending the same school my older sisters went to. I remember when I went to the school office with my mom to register myself and younger sister as a new student, many of the staff there actually remember who my mom was and asked how my sisters were doing, she was very shocked on how they still remember who she was. I met a lot of friends who I use to know when I was younger and many mutual friends too. I was always a shy kid so being able to feel welcome with open arms in a community felt very warming. A year later the entire Regent Park community was given a notice that there was going to be a community renovation (still happening til today but most of the community doesn’t look the same as it use to), because of this, we were able to move to the most recent, and newly built, apartment! (I moved out on my own, but my family still lives their, broke the family record of moving homes)

A lot of things happened in the last 8 years. My mom always had health conditions. She has had diabetes for as long as I was born, but, in 2015 she had this really bad lung disease that was affecting her day-to-day life. It was a really hard time for everyone in the family. Eventually after all the medicine and doctor appointments, she was able to have a cure for it. Thank God, because the doctor told us that if she didn’t have it cured, it would have led to cancer. Another moment in our family lives that brought us closer together. During that tough time, I missed a lot of school helping at home and helping baby sit my two nieces (because my sister was the one helping with family income). I became very very close with my nieces and now have a very strong bond with them. Even though it had a huge impact on my education, but I couldn’t trade family for anything else. 

A year ago my parents finally separated. Even though many children feel very sad about their parents separating, which it was for a bit of time, but my parents always argued. Every weekend was just another argument and honestly, caused a lot of mental problems for the both of them. I’m happy that they did split though, because they are a lot happier now. Also, it causes less stress for everyone in the family. 

This is a very long post, but I wanted to really explain in depth that although I grew up surrounded by a lot of negativity from parents constant arguments, family relative stress, and financial issues, we were still a happy family who was there for each other. Me and all my sisters, and even nieces, are all very close with each other. We do get into our arguments because no family relationship is perfect, but we sort our problems to make sure that we come to an understanding. 

I am grateful for my family.   

[diannaphantomfiction]

Cerulean Wing

Chapter 1 of ?

Fandom(s): Miraculous Ladybug 

Rating: K+

Summary: AU: Marinette might not have been chosen to be Ladybug, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have the potential to be a great holder. Gabriel Agreste sees this potential and decides that perhaps it is time to pass the Peacock Miraculous onto a new Holder. With Ladybug and Chat Noir behind her, Marinette becomes Paris's newest superhero, Cerulean Wing.

Date Uploaded: April 1st, 2017

On Ao3: Here

On FanFiction: Here

Previous (This is Chapter 1)

Next 

Notes: I got the idea of making Marinette the Peacock from imthepunchlord's series "Always a Hero, No Matter the Miraculous." Since I couldn't get the idea out of my head, I decided to put my own spin on it. This story will include quite a few minor OCs, many of my personal Headcanons about the Kwamis and the Miraculous, past Miraculous Holders. This first Chapter is a bit of a prologue/set up chapter, but I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you enjoy!

Marinette wasn’t watching the newscast on her computer as she carefully embroidered the band on the derby hat she was working on. Mr. Pigeon was a strange Akuma for sure, but he didn’t seem to be truly dangerous. He was providing Marinette with plenty of time to finish her hat. She’d actually be early this time!

Besides, Ladybug and Chat Noir had this rather strange attack under control, even if it looked like Chat was sneezing every few minutes. Marinette trusted them (allergies aside). When Nino had been akumatized they’d been there to save the day and Ladybug had taken the time to help Marinette calm Manon down when they’d been trapped in the ice covered carousel. Ivan even said Chat Noir came by the night after he’d been akumatized to make sure he was doing ok. Surely heroes like them could handle a Man-Pigeon.

About an hour before the hat was due, just and Marinette was sewing the feathers onto the hat, Ladybug was giving one of her short post battle interviews. Chat Noir never appeared during these, Marinette wasn’t sure why but she got the impression that he was camera shy.

Marinette set the hat aside for a second and leaned in closer to the screen. Ladybug was tiny, hovering around five feet and was almost always dwarfed by Chat’s near six-foot height. She looked almost like a fairy with wide blue eyes, angelically gold short hair, and two translucent ladybug wings sporting from her shoulder blades. If Ladybug could fly with those wings she didn’t often, preferring her magic yoyo.

Marinette wasn’t interested in the superhero herself or even what she was saying (it was just the usual post-akuma update). No, it was Ladybug’s outfit that always interested Marinette. It looked almost like a cheerleading uniform, consisting of a red and black spotted mask, a black faux turtleneck, a ladybug printed pleated skirt, red and black “Wonder Woman” boots, and matching red and black gloves. At first glance, Ladybug appeared to be wearing some type of spandex, but Marinette wasn’t convinced. Chat Noir wore some type of hyper-durable leather, so why would Ladybug wear something as flimsy and easily breakable (relatively speaking) as simple spandex.

Marinette grumbled under her breath as she returned to her hat. She wanted to get her hands on Ladybug’s suit and examine the fabric. Marinette was sure if she could get her hands on it she could figure it out.

Marinette smiled in satisfaction as she tied off the embroidery thread. Done! And with thirty minutes to spare! Marinette quickly packed the hat in a hatbox and made her way to the school. It would only take her a few minutes, but she wanted to be early.

Alya actually looked surprised to see Marinette actually early, setting her hat on the display pillar in the entrance-slash-gym of the school.

“Look who’s actually on time.” Alya placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at her friend. “This must be really important to you. You were even late for our first Maths test.”

“This could be extremely important towards my career!” Marinette carefully leaned over and smoothed one of the faux feathers.

“You’re fifteen.”

“So are you, but you still run after Akuma and take dangerous videos of Ladybug and Chat Noir,” Marinette said matter-of-factly.

“Touché…” Alya said, elbowing Marinette lightly in the ribs, “You sure this isn’t just because Adrien will be modeling the winning hat?”

Marinette flushed, turning a rather bright shade of red. “Alya!”

Alya’s face darkened as she looked over at one of the other pedestals. “Uh, don’t look now girl, but…”

Marinette looked over where Alya was pointed and gasped. Sitting on Chloe’s pedestal was the exact hat Marinette had spent hours slaving over! Shock quickly morphed into anger. How dare she? Did Chloe even realize what she was doing?

“She… she… She stole my design!” Marinette growled and tried to stop her fists from shaking.

“Well?” Alya asked, “Aren’t you going to confront her?”

Marinette closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath before shaking her head. She looked as calm as she was going to get. “No, confronting her now isn’t going to do any good. I’m going to do this like a designer.”

Marinette took another deep breath and stood up straight, squaring her shoulders. She used the couple minutes of free time to look at Juleka’s and Max’s hats. Juleka’s was more art than wearable fashion, but it was more Juleka than a wearable hat would ever be.

Marinette took a deep breath as Mr. Damocles, Adrien, and Mr. Agreste’s assistant (she was pretty sure she’d heard Adrien call her Natalie) walked over.

It only took Mr. Agreste (who was judging from over a video conference) a split second to realize something was wrong. “Hm, turn the tablet back to Ms. Bourgeois' hat.” Marinette took another deep breath. “Is this a joke?”

Chloe’s drama queen “I’m getting what I want no matter what” attitude took over within a second. “No fair! Marinette copied my design! It's scandalous, how could you do that?” Chloe dissolved into crocodile tears.

Marinette ignored her rival/bully and cleared her throat. “I apologize for the situation Mr. Agreste, but I can prove that this derby hat is my original design.”

“Go ahead,” Mr. Agreste allowed, nodding just a little.

“Well, everything on my derby hat is hand-made. From the embroidery, to the weaving of the band, to the stitching of the brim. All done by myself. And last there's a special design element that only the true designer knows about.” Marinette flipped the hat over, revealing her name carefully stitched in gold embroidery thread along the band. “I signed mine.”

Marinette couldn’t help but feel a little smug as Chloe gasped, knocking over her pedestal and hat. Chloe let out a loud cry before running off. Good, Marinette thought, Any designer worth her silk would know you never steal another’s design.

Mr. Agreste actually look impressed, “Very exquisite creation. You definitely have the laboring hands of a hat maker, miss...”

“Marinette!” Adrien spoke up before Marinette could.

“Congratulations on your demonstration, Miss Marinette. You're the winner.”

Marinette gasped. She won? She actually won? “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Adrien will wear your derby on our next advertising campaign.”

Adrien reached forward accidently touching Marinette’s hands as he reached for the hat. Marinette froze, a small startled gasp escaping her as blush creeped across her cheeks.

Adrien, ever so clueless, didn’t even seem to notice. “Awesome job, Marinette.”

Marinette chose not to respond, instead putting on a sheepish smile to hide her embarrassment. Adrien had touched her! Adrien had touched her and she couldn’t even find it in her to speak like a normal person! Adrien gently took the hat and started to place it on his head, only to stop and yet out a violent sneeze.

“Sorry…” Adrien rubbed his nose, looking like his sinuses were suddenly clogged, “I’m allergic to feathers…”

Adrien sneezed again. And again. If Marinette had been looking at the other students, she would have seen Rose tugging on Juleka’s arm frantically. Adrien sneezed again.

Marinette just smiled at Adrien. It was very professional of him to still take the hat when the feather seemed to be making it impossible for him not to sneeze. “Gesundheit!”

Gabriel Agreste sighed, running a hand down his face. He knew this would happen one day, but he’d hoped that Ladybug and Chat Noir would be able to handle this one their own. He should have known that Duusu would want to help Noroo; they were partners after all.

Gabriel opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a small Polaroid photograph. It was a typical 80’s Polaroid, with dull color and the image of two teens squeezed into the frame. It had been taken after a particularly difficult battle with the Order of the Grand Circle. Felicia (who had went by Flutter at the time) had screamed “partner photo,” grabbed Le Peon around the shoulders, and snapped the photograph before Gabriel could form full protests. They were covered in sweat and grime, his lip was split, she had a blue bruise on the side of her face, and Le Peon looked generally ruffled.

Gabriel had retired years ago, when Adrien had been born. He’d asked Master Fu for permission to follow the oldest tradition of passage, the one the Circles currently in the US, India, and Japan currently used. At one time, their circle had as well but their centers weren’t the Lion and the Crocodile or the Seahorse and the Wolf or the Hedgehog and the Scorpion. Their Centers were the Ladybug and the Black Cat. Uncontrolled creation and controlled destruction.

So it wasn’t unheard of when Gabriel had asked if he could find his own successor, just unusual. He knew that today would come one day and after Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared and Felicia’s butterflies were being used for evil it would only be a matter of time. But, a girl in his son’s class? One who showed all the pride, cunning, and creativity of a peacock?

Of course it was Adrien’s school. Gabriel was pretty sure Ladybug, at least, went to his school. This just made Gabriel want to pull Adrien out of school more. If he did that, though, Adrien would surely be akumatized. Hell, the only reason he’d let Adrien go to school was so that he wouldn’t be akumatized. Of course, if an Order member found Hawk Moth and told him Le Peon and Flutter’s son was out and about in the world, Adrien would be lucky to be akumatized.

Gabriel sighed and opened a videoconference. He hesitated for a second, hovering over a name. Did he honestly want to make this call? Gabriel clicked on the name. Who else was he supposed to talk about this with?

“Oh my god, you found them!” The African-French woman popped up on the screen within three seconds. She was a little to close to the screen, but Gabriel could tell she was outside somewhere.

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, “Bianca. I have no desire to examine your pores.”

Bianca adjusted the phone so she was better placed on the screen. “Tell me everything about the new larva.”

“You assume that’s why I’m calling you.”

“Gabe…”

“Please don’t call me Gabe.”

Bianca ignored him, continuing her sentence, “You’ve never been the type to make causal calls. You got upset at Felicia once because she used her cane to contact you on patrol to try to find out where you were.”

Gabriel glared at her, but wasn’t able to think up a real argument.

Bianca smirked, “So… the larva?”

“She’s not a Bee, Bianca. Stop calling her a larva.”

“Fine. So… you didn’t call me to tell me about her. What’s up?”

“She’s in attendance at Adrien’s school.”

“You let Adrien go to school?”

“It’s a new development.”

Bianca hummed, thinking for a second. “Duusu is a good kwami. He’ll make sure your… chick….” (she sounded out the word chick like it was Ancient Greek) “Doesn’t do anything rash or stupid. This isn’t Plagg or Vixx we’re talking about. Adrien will be as safe as anyone else at that school is.”

“Nobody is safe in Paris anymore, Bianca.”

“Yeah. I heard about Nooroo. But Ladybug and Chat Noir are doing a good job. Loosen up a little, Gabe. Just this once. Let Duusu have a new chick to look after and teach. This isn’t just about Adrien.”

Gabriel smiled just a little, “Have you always been this rational?”

Bianca laughed, “Hives thrive on logic and order, so yes.”

“Very well, I’ll take your advice. This time.”

[maxjensen33]

I Can’t Let You Go Again - Chapter 1: Max Caulfield

"I can't let you go again. I've been through hell and back to get you back and I...I can't watch you close your eyes again. I love you, Justin. I can't do this without you."

"You have to, Clay. I love you too, and it breaks my fucking heart that you have to do this again, but this is how things were meant to be. You have Jess, and Alex, and Zach, and Tony. You're strong, so fucking strong, Jensen, and I know you can do this. You have to go back and make everything the way it was before. You have to fix things. I love you so fucking much, don't you ever forget that, all right? You will always be my brother, Clay Jensen. Always."

THREE MONTHS EARLIER

It had been a year after I lost Justin. It's hard, but he - well, ghost Justin - told me to survive, to keep going. I wish he could be by my side right now. I miss his smile and his dorky jokes. Hell, I even miss those puppy dog eyes he used on me when he asked me to go somewhere and hang out with him when I was busy reading or doing homework. But things are getting better, slowly.

It hurt like hell when I said goodbye to Hannah, but I had to. I don't think I'll ever be able to let go of Justin, though. I admit, I was a little jealous of him when he lived with us. I mean, I did save him from the streets, for Jessica and to testify, but I eventually learned to love him, and he loved me. Who would've thought that he went from threatening to kill me, to jumping to my protection every time I was in trouble?

"Yo, you okay man?" Zach's voice startled me out of my thoughts.

It was the first summer after going to college and I got an unexpected call from Zach, asking me to go on a road trip with him to San Francisco. It was kind of sudden, but I haven't seen him since we graduated and it would be nice to hang out again. We're at an art exhibit, surprisingly. Zach Dempsey into photography? Tyler is going to be so jealous.

"What? Yeah, no, I'm fine, just thinking about stuff." I reply.

"Justy again?" I nod. "I know, I miss him too. But he'd want us to be happy. He wouldn't want us to be moping about all the time."

It takes me a minute to think of what to say, but before I can respond, Zach hugs me. He doesn't know it, but it makes me feel much better. Maybe he did know, or maybe he just needed one too. I hug him back and we hold it for a few moments.

"Thank you, Zachy. For everything. This trip was a surprise, but I'm glad you chose me to be your partner on the road."

"Eh, Alex was my first choice, but he's too busy smooching it up with Charlie in Cali."

"Wow, they're really good together. I did not see that coming with Alex. That kiss must've been something."

"Heh, yeah, I'm just glad he's happy. He...we've all been through a lot."

We're interrupted as someone bumps into us.

"I'm sorry, excuse me" a brunette girl says as she and a taller girl with green hair, tattooes and punk rock clothes squeeze past us. She reminds me of Skye.

"It's no problem. This place is a little crowded. Hey, do I know you?" I say to the shorter girl.

Before she can answer, the punk girl speaks up. "It would be hella surprising if you didn't. She's Max fucking Caulfield!"

"Chloe! Be nice!" the brunette scolded her.

I laugh. "Max Caulfield! Yes, you won the Everyday Heroes contest in 2013. My friend Tyler is a photographer and he won last year. Oh, I'm Clay, and this is my buddy, Zach."

"Sup." Zach says, which makes me roll my eyes.

"Hi, Zach!" Max says as she waves at him. "Would it be okay to look at your friend's work?" She says to me.

"Nosy, nosy Max". Chloe says, making me, Max and Zach laugh.

"Shut up, Chloe." Max says as she playfully punches the punk in the arm.

"Yeah, sure." I reply back. I take out my phone and go to Tyler's Instagram, swiping through his photos as Max watches. "He always had his camera out. Be it a normal day or something crazy was happening, he'd be...taking...pictures."

"Are you all right? Who's that?" Max asks, pointing at the picture on my phone.

I came across a photo of me and Justin that Tyler took. We're smiling. Happy.

"Wow, that was a good photo, you guys!" Tyler said, showing us the Polaroid photo.

"Thanks, man. But Justin, Tyler didn't tell us to make a stupid face" I teased.

"Oh fuck you, Jensen." Justin rolls his eyes and pinches me in the arm.

"Hey, Clay. Clay." I'm brought back to the present when I hear Max calling my name.

"Yeah? Oh, sorry. Uh, Justin. He was my brother. Well, enemy to acquaintance to best friend to adoptive brother. He um, had a difficult life growing up, and just when things were getting better for him, he...he got sick, and it was too late to save him. He died holding my hand."

"I'm so sorry, Clay. Chloe and I, we've dealt with loss too. We know how you feel, so if you ever need to talk to someone..."

"I don't need to talk, okay? I tried that, it doesn't help. I need some air." I lashed out at Max and start to walk away. I didn't mean to, but when I think of Justin, I think of how I could've saved him, and I get angry. I hope they know that I didn't mean it.

I found an empty room and sat down. I jumped as a I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." It was Chloe. "Look, you don't have to talk right now, or fucking ever if you don't want to, we totally get that. But we are here for you. Max and I, we've seen some fucked up shit. Shit we can't even explain, but it brought us closer together. You're not alone in this, man."

"I loved him. So much." I felt tears start to roll down my face. "We hated each other in the beginning. Hell, he wanted to murder me." I look over and Chloe looks freaked out. "Long story. Anyway, he ended up being the person who I went to when I felt like my world was ending. He was my hero, and then the world took him away from me, and I can never get him back." I lose it and fall into Chloe.

"Hey, it'll be okay, man. I promise. He loved you, don't you ever forget that."

"Never" I said between tears.