#adrienette endgame

[generalluxun]

Devils and Demons, a snip. Adrinette endgame.

There was a growing silence and Marinette felt like it was her fault. I’m supposed to be helping , she thought again . She pushed out of the fugue she was settling into and back into the harsh light of reality.

“You and Chloé?” she prompted softly.

There was a sharp intake of breath over the line. “It’s… I know it’s why I reached out, but I’m not sure I’m ready, tonight, after everything. Is that okay?”

“If you’re not ready it’s always okay. I’m here for you this time.”

“It shouldn’t be all about me.”

Marinette uncurled and found energy from deep within. “Adrien. I want to help. I want to do this right this time. Growing up, everything I did was about you. This is different. I’m here with you, and for you, wherever it may lead. Please, let me do this.”

Another breath she could hear over the phone, and a long exhale. “Okay.”

Relief, relief so strong she couldn’t help but laugh. “So ummm, aside from She Who Must Not Be Named, what’s happening in your life?”

He laughed in turn, and rattled off with brutal honesty mixed with levity, “Well, I’m on medication to help with my addictions, I joined a gym, and I’ve stopped waking up in strange beds. So those are pluses.”

[hueynomure]

Now updated with a sizeable alternate ending!

Cat Walker's hand hovered above the trapdoor. He needed to be careful not to be too loud in case she was actually sleeping - he knew all too well a superhero treasured all the rest they could get. A superhero, which Marinette MIGHT be. Don't jump to conclusions.

[ebiartics]

"Handsome?" Luka questioned, leaning back slightly. "Why?"

"He was a model. Almost every 14-year-old French girl was fawning over him a decade ago," she explained, her grin widening as she finished entering the name.

"Then who's the hotshot for French girls nowadays?" Luka asked, also grinning.

"Hmm, probably you," Marinette said with a teasing smile, knowing it would fluster him, "being the most famous French singer of all time, and in my opinion, also the most talented."

As she expected, his cheeks went red, and he chuckled nervously, running a hand through his hair. He glanced away briefly before meeting her gaze again with a shy smile.

This was nice.

Snippet & art from the new chapter of Set to Love (Read here on Ao3) coming soon!

[verfound]

FIC: "Love is a Star" (MLB; Lukanette; LBSC Lukanette Month 2024)

@lovebugs-and-snakecharmers is doing a Lukanette Month for September 2024, and we all just kinda tossed some prompts in the disco to compile a list?  We ended up with 71 prompts, so I decided I’d roll some dice to pick a prompt, do a twenty minute (ish, bc we all know sometimes they run away from me) sprint, and try to get some short fics out this month?

Read on Ao3

04 September 2024

Prompt 32: Stars (B)

“Have you ever heard of hanahaki?”

He turned his head, looking away from the expanse of stars stretching out above them.  They’d had to drive nearly two hours out of the city to find this spot, but lying there now, looking up at the night sky stretching out above them, he thought it was worth it.

That might have just been the company, though.

A lot of things felt worth it when Marinette was with him.

“Hanahaki?” he asked, frowning as he considered her question.  “That’s the flower thing, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, tapping her fingers against her stomach.  “Kagami was telling me about it.  It’s like…when you can’t confess your love to someone.  Or if it’s unreturned.  Something like that.  Flowers grow in your lungs and suffocate you.”

“Sounds awful,” he said.  She was still staring at the sky, but he was still watching her.  He had the better view anyway, he couldn’t help but think.  “What brought that up?”

“It was in that new book she’s reading,” she said, shrugging a little.  “You know how I’m always late.  She’s started bringing books while she waits on our juice dates.”

He grinned at that.  They hadn’t been drinking juice during their meetups for a while now.

“I dunno,” she said, shrugging a little.  “It just kinda…stuck with me.  The thought that telling someone you love them could be so paralyzing you just…choke to death.  I’ve just been thinking about it lately, I guess.”

He frowned.

“…you’ve been thinking about suffocating on flowers?” he asked.  She giggled and reached over, blindly swatting at his shoulder.  She missed, hitting his ribs instead, and he moved an arm from behind his head to find her hand.  He smiled once their fingers were linked.  “We have a zillion beautiful stars up there to distract us, and you’re here thinking such morbid thoughts.  If I had wanted to hang out with someone so grim, I would have stayed home or invited Juleka.”

“Jerk,” she laughed, squeezing his hand.  “No, it’s just…I don’t know.  It’s not necessarily the choking on flowers part, but…huh.  I wonder if it’s always flowers?”

He frowned, waiting for her to continue.  She sighed and shrugged, a little awkwardly since they were still lying down.

“Like…I don’t know.  What if you choked on stars?  What if your love turned into a light, so warm and bright inside you you just…couldn’t contain it?  And then it just had to get out, but you’re a hopeless disaster that could never tell the boy you liked you were so nuts about him?” she asked.  She finally turned away from the stars.  Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him.  “I wonder what would hurt more: thorns scratching as they came out or stars burning?  I mean, you’d be dead either way, but I wonder which is worse.”

There was a haunted, distracted look to her face – one that reminded him of days long past filled with plots and schemes and too many tears.  It didn’t sit right with him – it never really had.

“…thank God it’s not real and the answer is neither,” he said, his voice soft.  She rolled her eyes and looked back at the sky.

“Seriously,” she said, huffing out a little laugh.  “I bet I’d have it, if it was.  I’d be dead by sunrise”

“No, you wouldn’t,” he said, his voice firmer.  “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?  It’s true,” she said.  She sighed and closed her eyes, her smile turning bittersweet.  “You remember Adrien.”

Of course he did.

“…yeah,” he sighed.  It was hard to forget, some days.  She’d been in love with Adrien for most of the time he’d known her.  He finally looked back at the stars, unable to look at her any longer.  “No offense, Mari, but…I kind of hated him, in the end.”

She frowned, and he knew she had misunderstood.

“He had nothing to do with –” she started, but he shook his head and squeezed her hand again.

“I didn’t care about the Hawkmoth stuff,” he said.  “I know how hard that was on him.  I meant because of you.  I never understood how someone could be so…calloused with another person’s heart.  You deserved better, Marinette.”

“It was all for the best, in the end,” she said.  “Kagami saw him not so long ago.  He’s happy in London.  And it’s been a long time since I would’ve choked on anything for him.”

She closed her eyes, sighing, and he wondered at the little inflection of her voice.  The emphasis she had put on the ‘him’.  He wondered who she would choke for, if not Adrien Agreste.

“No, it’s just…I don’t know.  I just wonder sometimes…” she said, shrugging again.  “Am I just doomed to never be able to tell the people I care about how much I love them, and isn’t that the root of hanahaki?  I’d choke to death in under a week, all because I’m a coward.”

Bullshit, he couldn’t help but think.  She was anything but.  He pushed himself up on his elbows and leaned towards her, his brow pinched.

“…you’d tell me,” he said, his voice firm.  She opened her eyes and looked at him, and they widened just the slightest when she saw him leaning over her.  “You would tell me if you loved me, right?  You wouldn’t put yourself at risk like that.  Especially since you know that’s all I’ve ever wanted to tell you.”

“…I…” she started, but then his hand was on her cheek and his thumb brushed beneath her eye.

“Marinette, promise me,” he said.  “Because there’s no way in hell I wouldn’t return it.  And there’s no way in hell I’d just sit back and watch you die because…God, Marinette.  You wouldn’t do that to me.  Right?”

“…I thought hanahaki wasn’t real,” she said, her voice quiet.  “So why would it matter?”

“It matters,” he said.  “Your feelings always matter.”

She swallowed.  The stars suddenly didn’t seem as interesting anymore, which was kind of a shame.  Luka had put so much work into this trip for her, wanting to get her out of the city so she could finally relax.  You couldn’t see stars like this in Paris, and she was so busy staring at his stupid face she was missing the whole thing.

…she didn’t really mind.  She was pretty sure she had the better view, anyway.

“…of course I’d tell you,” she said softly.  “I’d try, at least.”

“There’s no try, Marinette,” he said.  Her lips twitched with a smile.

“Only do or do not?” she asked, and he rolled his eyes as he chuckled.

“You’d tell me,” he said, ignoring her joke.  “Promise me, Marinette.  Promise me you’d tell me.”

“I’d tell you,” she said.  He sighed, his body seeming to sag with relief, and he nodded.  She swallowed, a pleasant thrumming running through her as she studied his profile in the darkness.  “…hey, Luka?”

“Yeah?” he asked, opening his eyes, and something about the way they glittered in the starlight was making her dizzy.  She reached for his hand again, then seemed to think better of it and reached up to tuck some of his hair behind his ear.  He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, his smile growing.

“I love you,” she said.  Her breath caught as he turned his head and kissed her palm.  She lost it entirely when he opened his eyes to smile down at her.

“…I love you, too, Marinette.”

[helluva-hazbin-nia]

One of the musical meetings Marinette will have.

[justhereforkeefe]

Such a clever AU, love the parallels and the character arcs.

Felonies and Other Love Languages - Masterpost

Adrien Agreste: rich, lonely, freshly aware of the fact that he's expected to take over not a fashion, but a drug empire. Marinette Dupain-Cheng: broke, angry, freshly aware of the fact that bringing down drug empires is a blast. But where would she be without her team, Alya and Nino, and her very good friend, Luka? Not to mention the team’s newest addition, the kind, the funny, the ultra charming Chat Noir. If Marinette likes him, that’s alright, though. It isn’t like she’s dating Adrien Agreste for real. It’s all part of her ten-step plan to make the Agrestes meet their demise.

read on AO3 | art tag

Illustrated by: @art-the-f-up

Betad by: @ladyofthenoodle & @khanofallorcs

For shitpost-free updates follow: @miaraculousbrown

Stories set in the same universe:

Kidnapping Your Best Friend and Other Legal Oopsie-Daisies

Playlists:

bangers to terminate Gabriel Agreste to

Adrien | Alya | Luka | Chloé | Félix | Marinette

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you have any thoughts about the Love square Ship? I just realized that a huge reason why they are happening is because they are 'fated to be together' just cuz they're ladybug and chat noir. Aren't the writers shooting themselves on their feet? 'Cause it just means that Adrienette only love each other because they're LadyNoir.

The love square has fallen into a trope I like to call the Sk8er Boi trap. This is a reference to the opening question of Avril Lavigne's famous song:

He was a boy She was a girl Can I make it any more obvious?

Yes. Yes you can make it more obvious! I'm not going to ship these two based on gender alone! Give them depth! Give them substance! Make me care.

To be fair, Miraculous didn't start this way. The first two seasons of the show did a decent job setting up the crushes. It wasn't amazing, but it was enough to see the potential, especially when you paired it with the fun of identity shenanigans. Those early seasons also felt like a promise that more depth would come with time as is typical in a slow burn.

Instead, as time went on, the crushes became ever more superficial because the show has committed to maintaining a status quo that doesn't allow for a deep, meaningful romance. Without that depth to really sell the ship, Miraculous is relying on the audience shipping the love square because Adrien and Marinette are the endgame couple and that's about it. The quality of the relationship doesn't matter. All that matters is that the show says that they're meant to be. It's disappointing, but annoyingly common.

For reasons beyond my understanding, there is a decent subset of the population who are happy to play this game. If the writing says, "these two are meant to be," then this audience is happy accept that no matter how little substance the couple has. Heck, they'll ship couples that are straight up toxic!

The audience in question seems to be here for the drama and the passion, not the love and depth. Give them twists that come out of no where! Give them ridiculous miscommunication! Give them poor characterization! They'll take it all so long as it's shocking and dramatic. I don't get it, but it's not a fringe preference. It's straight up popular right now. Couples like this dominate mainstream romance, YA, NA, and romantasy. They're all obsessed with drama over depth, but that's the opposite of what I want. I will take depth over drama every day.

My ideal romance is a cute boring couple made interesting by the extraordinary circumstances they're dealing with. I thought that's what the love square was going to be, but I have given up on that hope. It started to really die in season four and season five straight up killed it.

You'd think that a show aimed at kids would be free of unhealthy romances since there are a lot of topics a Y-7 show can't touch, but apparently not! Season five's love square feels like it's an awkward, kiddified version of the kind of trends that have made me avoid mainstream Romance, YA, New Adult, and Romantasy for the past few years. Every book I've tried made me rage (insert reductive "are the allos okay" joke here). So, to answer your question:

Aren't the writers shooting themselves in their feet?

Not really. They're not writing a deep nuanced romance, but they are writing the type of frustrating, drama-laden romance that some people adore. As long as a subset of those people are willing to watch Miraculous, the show will be successful. I don't get it, but Goodreads has shown me that people love this shit, so I'm stuck waiting for the current trends to die off or for a new genre to pop up that leans towards what I like. Such is life. It's not like there's nothing good out there. It's just harder to find since it's not on trend right now. Plus there's always fanfic! That's my main source of romance. I look for other things in original fiction.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Honestly the canon Feligami caught me off guard cause like early on people were shipping Lukagami and i felt like that could have been better but like. Felix is literally Adrien's asshole copycat.

YEAH NO LIKE IT-

I will admit that while I like Lukagami I do think they're a little 'pair the spares' in that they're only as popular as they are because we know Adrienette is endgame so Lukanette and Adrigami have to break up so they should find comfort in mutual rejection.

BUT FELIGAMI JUST

So off the bat.

Kagami has /just/ had a very emotional moment where she admits she's still in love with Adrien and cares very much about Marinette as well so she doesn't want to hurt them but also doesn't want to lose them entirely via her unchecked feelings.

And then Felix shows up and attempts to kill everyone she knows and loves besides Adiren. And then he kidnaps her. And he gives two lines of /possibly/ something they can connect on but comes across as more manipulative tbh and she's suddenly listening to him and enamored and in love.

Ya know. Right after he takes her Amok.

And even if the Amok isn't a factor, Kagami says that Felix is 'like a perfect combination of Adrien and Marinette and that's why she likes him'. which is. Also unhealthy as fuck.

[flightfoot]

What I don't get is this- how are they going to justify Adrienette endgame at this point? Like, gaslighthing someone about their abusive parent isn't just an oopsie. It's "take the kids and run" level stuff. It doesn't matter if she agrees to be better, you can't erase that. The only reason Adrien forgives at this point is "Gabriel's emotional abuse prepared Adrien to excuse Marinette". Romanic.

I think it's gonna be explained as Marinette having good intentions, but that she went about those good intentions in a terrible way, since she didn't think through what she was telling Adrien, how he'd take it. Some things she DID have a point about, like that Nathalie shouldn't go to prison because Adrien needs a mother, and that she can't fill that role. That part made sense to me, but she could've accomplished that without lying about Gabriel, either to Adrien or to the world. There's also the possibility of lying to the world about Gabriel's death if she didn't want to risk any blow-back towards Adrien for being his son, but still telling Adrien the truth.

Anyway, Marinette's still just 14 and WAY out of her depth. Doesn't make her decision here right, but it does mean that I'm not gonna judge her by the same standard as an adult. I think her learning not to make decisions for others, to let them come to their own conclusions, even if she might not like them, is enough here.

Marinette would need to actually demonstrate that she's learned her lesson on this front though, I'd hoped she'd learned from all her secret-keeping in season 4, but clearly she didn't. So she'll need to be put in a situation like this again, where she's tempted to lie or conceal something from someone she cares about "for their own good", and then to affirm that even if she thinks they'll make the "wrong" choice, that they have the right to MAKE that choice.

[helluva-hazbin-nia]

As sweet as Adrien and C(h)at Noir are to Marinette, Luka is an easy choice for me.

[quickspinner]

Do you have any hidden gem fics or lesser known authors you would recommend for Lukanette?

I'm not going to lie, it's way easier to call to mind friends' fics so the same names tend to pop up when I'm trying to think of recommendations, so this is a great question. I don't really want to claim these are 'hidden gems' or 'lesser known authors' just because they're not in the circle of authors I hear from and talk to frequently, so let's put it this way: here's some works I love that haven't come up in the recs I've been asked for recently.

(full disclosure some of them are still written by friends 😂 but may be older or don't get as much love as I think they deserve)

I don't know tumblr names for most of these authors so I can't tag them but if you recognize your fic here and would like to be tagged, shoot me a message or leave a reply and I'll edit the post to add it.

A Discordant Song by Bounemr (this one is not heavy on the lukanette but I still love it)

Standing Here All Alone by Thistle_and_Thorns

Cherry Blossoms at Midnight by FrivolousFlare

The Feel of Music by Renigan

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe by @goldenlaurelleaveswrites

Drunk Talks (and Sober Confessions) by @chrwrites

Saltinette by @freedom-shamrock

if you know, you know by RenderedReversed 

i'm in a world apart (a world where roses bloom) by nonbinarynino (STILL one of my absolute favorite ever stories)

In Vino Veritas by Marie_Chambers

The Hope of it All by Marie_Chambers

Crowned by @semi-slaughtomatic

Five-Minute Time Machine by L3245

Wingwoman by @mintaka14

So, You Met Tchaikovsky? by @mamanabeille

The Swan Song of One Marinette Dupain-Cheng by Wolfsbaene

the reason you stay by @eat0crow

Ewww... Not even dead by @bloody-writes

Acmé by @astronavigatrix

Or I could Just Kiss You... by @livrever

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (Lukanette Week 2019) by @semi-slaughtomatic

Brave New World: Lukanette Week 2019 by seasonofthegeek

Chai Tea and Fresh Starts by @freedom-shamrock (I still looooove this one)

Awards and Appreciation by whatarubberchicken

music to knit a broken heart by Nanimok 

In Between the Metro by damagectrl

Okay, disclaimer on this one: It is adrienette endgame, but I enjoy the Lukanette part of it so much that I'm listing it anyway. When I reread, I just stop before they breakup. I don't know that this kind of recommendation would actually be appreciated, so apologies to the author. 😂 More of What Was Once Mine by RavenclawPianist 

Oooh and I haven't read this one myself yet but friends are gushing about it so I'm reccing it based on that: Hunted by the Night Light by hislittlelady (NSFW)

Have fun! and be sure to leave the authors a comment, I'm sure they'd love it.

[totally-lyrical]

okay an au has been brewing in my mind for a good while now....

roleswap miraculous!!!!

Marinette and Adrien swap places, so Marinette is the daughter of Sabine Cheng and her late husband, Tom Dupain, owners of one of the largest food chains in the world, the Tom&Sabine bakery chain. Marinette herself is a famous figure skater, and due to her father's untimely death, her mother was exceedingly nervous about sending her to school, thus she was homeschooled for most of her life. Marinette receives the cat miraculous and goes by the name Chatonette

Adrien, meanwhile, is the son of Emilie and Gabriel Agreste, owners of Agreste custom apparel, a small business that makes custom clothing and clothes alterations. Adrien is in canon Marinette's place, receiving the ladybug miraculous and going by the name Ladybird

adrienette is probably gonna be the endgame pairing, but i haven't made the final decision yet.

Chloé and Marinette are childhood friends in this AU, and Chloé lowkey has a crush on Marinette. Chloé WILL get a redemption arc in this au as well.

I want Félix to play a role in this au, and not as a bad guy. idk how i'm gonna bring him in but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i'll figure it out

i don't think i'll swap anyone else, but that might change.

other changes for this au:

i'm putting them in high school. not for any IMPORTANT reason, just because. middle schoolers would not make good heroes ok? but they still need to be in school for the drama so they're in hs now

most adults arent dumb as rocks!!! like good GOD man

as for format, I'm thinking I'll just write a fic, since i can't draw, or i'll try storyboarding?

[verfound]

Six Sentence Sunday: 07.07.2024

It was only a moment.

The briefest of moments, and it was gone before Luka could be sure he’d even seen it.

But there, in Adrien’s weary green eyes, behind the frustration and annoyance and outright anger…there had been a moment of fear.  Painfully suppressed panic he could not afford to let show, not when…

“…I fear she’ll hurt herself when she gets like this.”

Adrien’s words from earlier echoed in Luka’s mind, his quiet confession from that day in his office.  Luka’s grip tightened on Marinette, and she cooed softly as she nuzzled against his coat.  Adrien swallowed, and then the look was gone.

[helluva-hazbin-nia]

To my Miraculous readers,

I need some help. I know I have a lot of Miraculous fanfics that need to be finished before I make new ones.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

the reason Gabriel got redeemed and not Chloe is because he accepted that Adrienette is endgame in the end and became a love square shipper