#also they need to catch the cat before it starts brutalizing civilians.

[palebluebirdcomputer]

[one-piece-aus]

Radioactive

Bartolomeo x Reader | Music 100 Milestone Event

Bartolomeo + Alternative + ❤ + 🌌 | Requested by @undercoverweeeb

"Ah!"

You jolted awake when you felt something swipe across your legs. Frantically, you scurry away from where you once laid, eyes bouncing around the room to see what disturb you in your sleep.

"Mew."

Glancing at the pile of rubble beside you, you realized it was simply a cat. Letting out a sigh of relief, you stood up and grabbed your backpack. Narrowing your eyes at the feline, you wonder how it managed to survive for this long.

It had been nearly two years since the Earth's power outage. At first, people thought it was temporary and just in the neighbourhood, however, when discovering technology period wasn't working people went into panick. They were stupid enough to quickly use up the resources that needed technology to prosper and survive, not even thinking of a way to preserve it. After that, the citizens turned their anger to the government, once the rulers were gone civil war broke out at least that's what you heard. You were fortunate enough to be living in a rural area when it all occurred, you had no idea what happened until it the clouds became green. The rain that came from it infected your crops and mutated them, and after witnessing what it did to your animals you deemed it unsafe to eat so you set out to get more supplies and that's when you how society had fallen.

Most of the information you got had been from newspapers and some of the traumatized civilians that were left, they also told you that brutal gangs formed to hog resources and kill anyone who tried to defy them. So it was best to keep on the move to prevent running into danger and using up the resources in an area.

Sighing to yourself, you started walking to find some food to eat. Normally, you would've eaten what's in your bag before you went on the move but supplies were running short so you were rashing your meals for dinner until you found a place to restock.

"Mew." Glancing back, you noticed the cat was following you.

'Did this cat have nothing better to do?' you thought to yourself. It simply meow'd again as if responding "no" to you. Rolling your eyes to continued making your way across the rubble. Out of boredom, you began humming an old tune and since you now had an audience you didn't see why you shouldn't sing.

"I'm waking up to ash and dust

I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust

I'm breathing in the chemicals"

You breathed in and out as you climbed up over a few ruins, the cat still trailing behind. Coming to a flat surface, you were now on a street where old shops used to thrive.

"I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out-"

"Rar, hsssssss!" You heard the cat in distress and now defensive so you turned around to see it now trapped in a net.

"What the-"

"Ha, I finally caught an animal." The rough voice of a man cheered from an alley, footsteps coming closer. You see a guy with a floofy green mohawk step out from between two buildings and lift the net up with the cat still trapped in it. "Luffy-senpai will be so happy."

"Hey! Leave that cat alone!" You shouted at the mohawk guy.

"Huh?" He turned to you with a confused expression.

"Put the cat down," You reworded your previous order, coming closer to him.

"What? Was this your catch?" he asked, pointing to the cat.

"N-"

"Well, you snooze you lose lady." He stuck his tongue out at you, acting like a child.

"I- You know that's a cat, right?"

"So?" He tilted his head at you, not getting what the big deal was.

"You're not actually going to eat this?!"

"No, of course, I'm not."

"Oh phew, for a sec-"

"This is for Luffy-senpai," he declared with a glint in his eye and a wide smile.

"What?!" You questioned his decision, never have you heard of someone catching a cat just to serve it to someone else. "Are you mad?"

"This is it, the Apocolypse, sweetheart," he bluntly told you. "Animals are rare to find nowadays, especially ones that haven't mutated by the radioactive water."

"Right." You rolled your eyes already knowing the fact since you saw it first hand with the animals you used to herd. "You do know there are other things you can find to eat. Canned goods, plants, heck even dirt after you learn how to stomach it." A few memories flashed in your mind when you had to resort to consuming dirt since you were starving for food, not a pleasant memory but at least you didn't have to eat your own flesh.

"Ew gross, what do you think I am? A moron?!" By his tone, it seemed like he didn't think he was. You're silence and dead stare gave his answer, making him growl. "Well, I'm not. I know those other things exist but Luffy-senpai loves meat and he needs it to survive! Besides, if it comes down to it, I'd rather commit cannibalism before I decided to eat dirt."

Your eyes widened and you stretched your neck back, your lips going into a long semi-frown. Truly horrified by the stranger's statement and now feeling unsafe, especially by how casually he said it as if he just told you his opinion that green is better than yellow. Seeing your change in demeanour, his expression went back to a puzzled one.

"What?"

"Do you realize what-" Unfortunately, before you could finish your sentence the cat started to freak out but before either of you could question why, the building behind you collapse and a giant beastly dog emerged from the rumble clouds. You froze, unable to comprehend how this creature had been possible and terrified by it's presence.

"Uh oh, time to run!" You heard the man say followed by the sound of footsteps dashing away but start to slow down. "Hey lady! Why aren't you running?! That thing is going to kill you!"

His voice barely registers in your mind, your focus was solely on the monster in front of you. Your brain screamed at you to run but your legs were rooted in the ground like a tree. As the dog made it's way over to you, the rate of your heart picked up, your breath speeding and not being enough to fully get air into your lungs. You found it getting hard to stand when your lower half felt like noodles, and black spots began invading your vision. The ground started rising, however, just as you almost went under you felt yourself fall against strong arms and heard a voice.

"Geez, how has she managed to survive this long?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey lady! Wake up!"

"Rooster! That's no way to treat a patient!" An unfamiliar voice seemed to scold the other one you recognized.

"I'm severely sorry Chopper-senpai, will you please forgive me!"

"Hello? Lady, are you going to wake up?" A childish voice questioned and you felt your cheek being poked at.

"Alright, alright, I'm waking up." You waved the hand away and sat up in a bed you were laying in. You groaned, massaging your temples. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Strawhats' hideout lady," the green-haired man you recognized informed you. "You should feel honored to be in the presents of Luffy-senpai."

"How did- wasn't I about to be eaten?"

"Yeah, you were from what I heard but Rooster here saved you," a boy with a strawhat informed, gesturing to the man with floofy green hair who seemed to be fawning over something.

"You saved... me?" You were surprised and confused, didn't he try to capture a cat? If he's that desperate for resources why would he save you, it didn't make sense.

"Ehhh... don't look into it too much," he told you, looking away and scratching the back of his neck.

A smile grew onto your face and a warmth of happiness wrapped around you. You couldn't help it. This had been the first time in a while since anyone has done something nice for you, and you were grateful. "Thank you, Rooster."

'Rooster' abruptly fell back on the floor, overwhelmed by the cute aura you gave.

"Is Rooster alright?" You inquired, looking at the strawhat boy.

"Shishishishi, yeah don't worry about him. He does that all the time, he's weird."

"Is this what falling in love feels like?" Bartolomeo wondered.

Alright, not my best work, I wish I could do my boy more justice. Here is the photo that inspired me:

I hope you enjoyed and thank you for the follow uwu

[bvccy]

Tenderness and Ferocity | 4. The Third Night

Pairing: Winter Soldier!Bucky Barnes x Hydra!Reader Fic Synopsis: The Winter Soldier is starting to make stupid mistakes in the field, which is Bucky's way of trying to wrest back control and sabotage his handlers. Hydra brings a new doctor to figure out what's wrong with him and fix it. As she spends time with him, she becomes fond of the Winter Soldier, and he becomes fond of her. Bucky has other ideas. Or, a fic in which the Winter Soldier is the good guy and Bucky is actually the bad guy. Warnings for this chapter: light Smut Word count: 1984 Read on AO3: [link] [Previous Chapter] [Fic Masterlist] [Next Chapter]

"This is a love that equals in its power the love of man for woman and reaches inwards as deeply. It is the love of a man or of a woman for their world. For the world of their centre where their lives burn genuinely and with a free flame." — Mervyn Peake

 "See you tomorrow, Eeli!"

"Bye!"

"Night, Benji!"

"Good night!"

"Bye, Suzi!"

"Have a good night!"

She said her goodbyes to the evening staff, the duty officer, the cleaning lady, and made her way down the white corridor that led to the bus, which took all the day staff to their living quarters. She tried not to hurry too much, not to hold her purse too close, nor to smile too widely. She breathed a sigh of relief once she took her seat, her head leaning to cool against the window.

Although it was only evening, in the late winter it already looked like the dead of night, blackness stretching out forever starting fifteen feet from wherever you stood. The sparse trees looked like cardboard cut-outs under the stark nightlights, lifeless against a starless sky. There was a tranquillity in the effect: a feeling that, in a world where everything was fake, you too could be whatever you wanted.

The bus bumped along as usual, carrying its quiet cargo, but until she was off it she couldn't shake the nagging shame that was burning a hole in her purse. She surreptitiously squeezed it down, letting herself lean heavily against it while she looked out the window and tried not to think about getting shot.

The apartment complex was easily within driving distance but completely out of view of the Headquarters, even with the flat emptiness that lay between. It was built especially for the civilian workers, and named the Administrative, Medical, Economical, Research and Innovation Cadres Apartments. Or, as Hydra referred to it with great amusement, A.M.E.R.I.C.A..

Its outside inherited the bleakness that came with rushed work, cheap materials, and failed modernist concepts, but the inside had been renovated over the years into something that was at worst ergonomic, and at best managed to be cosy. It almost felt like home, and for a lot of the staff it had to be.

The ride squeaked to a halt, jolting its passengers awake. They waddled out in orderly fashion, saying their thank-yous to the driver, and their good-nights to each other as gradually they each went to their wing.

A few token trees, grown very tall over the decades, were spread around the park before the main entrance, their barren branches lit pale gold by the lamplights. The round fountain at the centre was finally unfrozen for the first time in months, its water sitting in a motionless reflection of the sable sky.

The night guardsman watched everyone amble in, nodding and smiling to whoever spared him a glance as he cradled a chipped mug of coffee in his chubby hands. She mouthed a "Hello" to him and kept on walking, her eyes going back down in what she knew was her usual 'tired' look and nobody spoke to her when they grouped up in the elevator, or when they spread out in their own directions, and then finally she was safely inside her little apartment — locked up and double-bolted.

She placed her purse very carefully on the hallway table. Put her coat up, tucked her shoes away, turned on the lights, turned on the heating, and went through the usual ritual of taking everything off and stuffing it in the laundry bin before taking a shower.

Dinner was, as usual, replaced by a cup of tea and biscuits in bed while her hair slowly dried, wrapped up in a thin old towel. She sipped her tea while scrolling through feeds of news articles, celebrity scandals, the occasional cat video, not really paying attention to anything. As soon as she could justify it to herself, she rolled out of bed and took her cup and plate to the kitchen. She brushed her teeth in a rush, brushed out her tangled hair, then finally approached the purse that was sitting innocuously in waiting.

It was stuffed full of notebooks, emergency cosmetics, obsolete post-its and little lozenge tins, so she had to dig a little until she found the one booklet where, as if by accident, a crisp white page had slipped in. There was hardly any way for someone to detect it, of course — "analog technology" is the safest way to smuggle information — but it didn't stop her from trembling all the way home.

She unfolded it, and smiled tenderly at the sight of the precisely drawn clock face. With the tip of a finger, she could just about feel the indent where the pen first went into the page, a phantom of the energy that passed through his arm for just one moment.

She put all her things away, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed with it. The lamp shining outside was enough for her to make out the page as it rested by her pillow. She had taken it without any particular idea of what to do with it, but she just knew she had to have it, had to have something from him.

The logical side knew that this was a normal emotional reaction for a woman, stuck somewhere without a palatable selection of men, however numerous. Her body recognised, before her head, that the Soldier would be quite a catch even if they weren't stuck in the middle of an industrialised nowhere, and in short order had reached the conclusions that he was: pretty nice, tempting, wasted on Hydra, stupidly beautiful, distractingly virile, before finally settling on him being utterly desirable.

Her head was still stuck at "wasted on Hydra".

But it would get there eventually. The more of him she brought out, the easier it was for her to see him as a person — and people can be admired, liked, and even wanted. For now, she would make do with this schoolyard token and allow herself to enjoy whatever she wanted in her mind.

She already couldn't remember what he felt like under her fingers, how exactly his voice sounded, even his face became blurred the longer she was away from him, but she could easily summon back the memory of what it felt like to be around him.

He was so pliant, especially that first day all strapped up and helpless. It was a heady combination — a dangerous killer rendered harmless. She liked dominance in the opposite sex, but there was just something about a big strong man being subdued like that while she had full control — made even more exciting, paradoxically, by his lack of interest in her.

She noticed him stare quite shamelessly, but blankly; that was just his programming assessing a threat, like all the other soldiers in the program... that's all it had to be. The Director's crass joke at her expense didn't make it any better, as if he wanted to remind her specifically that the Soldier didn't, and couldn't, find her nor any woman desirable.

Still, she could have done anything she wanted with him. The following days when he was free, he still obeyed her every word (mostly). But he also started speaking a little out of turn and telling tepid jokes; the progress, on a professional level, was considerable. When she had him eating out of her hand, it dawned on her how dangerously close she was to taking advantage of him — dangerous, of course, only if she got caught.

Fortunately she’d had the sense to ask for no surveillance, and had nurtured a reputation of being professional to a fault, unmoved by the raw masculinity of the Winter Soldier recruits that her other colleagues openly gushed over, and generally impervious to male charm — mainly to make it easier to turn down flirtations from the desperate men stuck there. "Don't bother with her. I already tried. You don't stand a chance."

She understood their loneliness, even sympathised with them, but she couldn't take the chance of opening herself to someone only to be used up, as it happened to so many others stuck there; especially not when none of them made her feel anything. Her Soldier though, he made her feel something...

He was more than just another big, dangerous man. In their efforts, Hydra had made him into an ideal. Unfortunately, they also misunderstood the nature of what they made. They thought they were creating a weapon — they did — but Hydra treated the masculinity inherent in her Soldier as just an excuse for brutality, deprecating what he really was and could be. Masculinity was about control and power — to be unleashed when necessary and otherwise reined in, a pack of wild dogs left unfed by their master and held back, held back, held back, to be all the more vicious when finally released.

By misusing her Soldier, they misused that which they channelled through him; the source of that ideal inherent to all men but which favoured so few; which expressed itself through tenderness, and ferocity.

Hydra unwittingly created a weakness, a crack for her to crawl into and bring out that which lay, waiting, underneath the mind. They had no patience for these abstractions, no way to deal with them, and so instead they brought him down and kept him there, ready to use when the brutality was needed.

She closed her eyes and tried to bring back the frissons she felt at the sound of his voice, rough and hanging heavy but so velvety sweet still, the shape of his body silhouetted in the shadows, his artist's-fingers resting obediently on the table, and that surprising mix of chocolate brown hair and grey eyes...

Maybe next time she could have him write something, she could analyse his handwriting; he should definitely still know how... Would he write in cursive or print? Would his letters be thin and sharp, or sensuously curved? Would they be large and take up a lot of space, or small and unassuming like he seemed to be sometimes...

She buried her nose in the pillow, feeling only her own perfume — would he like it? what would it smell like after he spent the night? — and wrapped a leg around the bulky duvet that wasn't nearly big enough to pretend...

Her fingers touched the page again as she squeezed her legs together, her other hand caressing her neck in lighter and lighter touches until she could almost imagine it being his breath, fanning over her skin from above.

She let go of the paper and turned on her back, shivering and sighing, and slipped her hand underneath, down the centre of her chest, stopping just at her lower stomach and pressed down — the way she thought he would if he caught her, if he wanted to hold her still. She bit her lip and teased her throat, content now that her imagination found what it wanted.

Maybe, he wouldn't catch her... Maybe he would break free and come to her, find her in bed, hold her against him, try to seduce her into running away with him. To make it more fun, she'd struggle. She allowed herself a half-bitten moan as she instinctively throbbed at the idea, and pressed harder, canting her hips more and more to an imaginary rhythm that he set.

The thought of his heavy shape pressing her down, his penetrating eyes above her, his uncertain smile, hopeful, desirous, and just that singular pressure... the feeling of being wanted, of being held, in the place where she most wanted him — not even between her legs, but deep, deep in her womb — was more dizzying than any sticky thing she had ever done on her own because she actually wanted him.

She let her imagination exhaust itself while in parallel her mind searched for ways he could break out, of how they could escape together — the mad dream of running away.

[amberwild420]

one step back, two steps forward (pt. 5)

masterlist

outed identity

The next day wasn’t any better than the other days. Kaylan walked through the hallways to the locker room. The irregular arrival time for school is the habit she picked up in the long run.

 Considering there would be no schedule to follow for planned accidents. But the best thing that comes with the habit is to accidentally eavesdropping people’s conversation.

(a/n: most people may not know that following a proper schedule can lead to many planned accidents that include framing someone up, kidnapping or stealing. and yes I’m speaking from experience. )

Like today.

 She was just getting her necessary things in the locker (despite having no security on it. But Kaylan put her customize lock that included special mechanism before it could open or the imposter will have a face full of flour. and that is one scary face).

 …….telling you she is dangerous.

 Raising an eyebrow, Kaylan quietly listen to what was being said. She had a vague idea but she still needed to confirm it.

 Oh like chat isn’t dangerous. With the power he has he can turn me into dust.

 Well she carry a knife!

 Apparently Adrien and Marinette were talking about her. But she doesn’t remember Adrien anywhere around her when she threatened certain people.

 Oh………………………

    Oh!

   OH!

She clasped a hand over her mouth when the realization hit her like ton of bricks.

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

Marinette had a good start. It has been too long that she had taken down an akuma faster despite it being a strong one. If it wasn’t for Kaylan and her abilities plus her plans, she would have been a goner.

 Today she had a good night sleep and was up before her alarm. Even Tikki could feel the energy of her chosen.

  You are definitely looking good after a good night sleep, Marinette.

I didn’t know I needed that until I got it. Can’t say I regret sleeping early for once. Look Tikki! Guess we’ll be early to school once.

  What are you waiting for then, bug? Let’s go.

  With the encouragement, Marinette started getting ready. She got her bag, macron box for Kaylan (which was overdue anyway) and left for school. She hummed a tune of Jagged’s new album.

 She was having a good start of the day.

But that came to a screeching halt when she saw Adrien next to her locker.

 Why? Why, god, why?! Where had she gone wrong?!

 You see, from the day Adrien asked her to take the high road and preferred Lila’s feelings over her, her crush on him started dying. The day when she told her parents what he was telling her and how her left her alone to fend for herself after promising to have her back, she realized how obsessive she was and how toxic it was turning. So she took a step back and realized how much free time she had when she was not obsessing over Adrien.

The final nail in the coffin was right before when Kaylan came, he kept his disappointed gaze on her when she tried to defend herself after a huge accusation. It was lucky that Kaylan called out to the lies and can trash talk unlike her that she felt better.

 And here it was today, he was right in front of her locker apparently waiting for her. Steeling her nerves, she step forward catching his eye.

  Adrien.

 Marinette! Can we talk?

 Make it quick Adrien! I don’t have much time. I need to see Kaylan.

Well this is about Kaylan.

 Adrien if you are going to say how Kaylan should stay quiet and let Lila do whatever she want, let me tell you I do not control Kaylan. She has her own mind and she can think it. Unlike those people, Kaylan actually have my back and she actually gives me enough time to explain myself.

 Marinette that’s not what I was going to tell you.

 Raising an eyebrow, Marinette gave him a look that says ‘oh really’. But he ignored it. Like someone she knew.  (an: who do you think?)

  Look I think you should stay away from Kaylan, she isn’t what you think she is.

Oh! Then do tell who she is?

 Adrien opened his mouth but close it quickly. He was rather dumbfounded at her lack of panic. Normally Marinette would panic at such a news but now…….

  Marinette she is dangerous. She …….. I saw her threatening chat noir. Like really threaten him with a knife……

  so she threatened you? I’m rather glad she did, it was due any time now by ladybug and it would be revoking the miraculous you’re wearing.

Adrien you’re exaggerating. How is it possible that a civilian can threaten a miraculous hero?

Marinette….you-you don’t understand, she actually threaten him and even threw a knife at him. Don’t you understand I don’t want you to get hurt?

 You’re kidding right. If you didn’t wanted me to get hurt you would have had my back in all this….. Whatever is going on?

  Mari…….but Lila will get……

  Get what huh? Akumatized?! She will get akumatized if I tried to out her but what about me?! What will happen to me? Won’t I get akumatized because my friends are hurting me over some lies she is telling to my class!

You won’t get akumatized. You are our everyday ladybug. And beside her lies are not hurting anyone.

  THEY ARE HURTING ME!

  That’s not what we’re supposed to talk about. We are talking about Kaylan. I keep telling you she is dangerous.

  Oh! And like chat isn’t dangerous. With the power he has he can turn me to dust.

Well she carries a knife!

  Marinette sighed. Her mood was worsening with every minute. Even Tikki couldn’t keep her calm. Well how could she when she herself was seething with rage.

  How dare this incompetent cat to hurt her chosen again and again. In and out of the mask and asking her to let everyone walkover her. Unforgiveable!

You’re awfully protective of chat noir. Are you sure what he did was the right thing or did you just saw me threatening him and assumed the worst in me?

  Like some kind of a knight in a shining armor, Kaylan stepped forward and stood next to Marinette facing Adrien. While she was next to Marinette she made sure that the sweet girl next to her was slightly hidden behind her. Her awfully prominent presence was enough to keep the attention on herself. Adrien scoffed at the new girl.

 Don’t you know it is rude to eavesdropping on people when they are having a private conversation?

 And seems like you don’t know that badmouthing someone behind their back is also considered quite rude.

………….

  Oh my! No comeback! I thought we were pointing out all the rude things one has done to other.

  You stay away from Marinette. She doesn’t need you!

   Kaylan smirked viciously. Her eyes gleamed in amusement. This kid was daring to threaten her.

Oh! Like she would need you. You spineless coward.

  *smack*

 Marinette gasped when Kaylan grabbed Adrien’s fist. She knew that Adrien was passive but his aggressive behavior was rather shocking. It wasn’t like him anymore.

 This aggressive behavior, the forcing and putting the blame on her. This was going nowhere. Rather than just being a burden he was also hurting civilians. She need to get the cat miraculous back.

 And fast.

Her thoughts were spiraling with every possible scenario and worst outcome that she didn’t even notice when the conversation ended and when Kaylan pulled her away.

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

Kaylan caught the fist that model threw at her without even flinching. Though he looked skinny but he definitely had enhanced strength. That was definitely the result of the magic he used. But compared to her who is training endlessly both physically and magically, he was nothing.

  Easy now kitty……

  Her voice whispered. Her gleaming eyes looked like they cut through him. His breath was caught in his throat. He looked at the girl with wide eyes. She looked so serious right now. He step back and nearly fell on the floor but he scrambled and ran off.

Kaylan sighed and turned to Marinette. Her wide eyes and trembling figure was enough to let her know that she was going in shock. Hurriedly she pulled her to the girl’s bathroom before pulling her in hug and whispering how she was alright and she was there for her and encouraging her to not give up and rocking her back and forth.

 Her efforts worked. She sighed tiredly and melted in the hug. The door opened and in came the blonde.

 Chloe?

 Instead of saying anything she just gave a water bottle to the pair and left. Kaylan smiled and made sure they were ready to face the class.

Marinette was tired already. And class hasn’t even started. It seems like that all the luck is being sucked from her outside her mask.

 Well it could be true considering every akuma battle had been longer and brutal than the last. Defeating doctor plague was her luck and encountering Kaylan who helped her get out of tight situation was double luck but Kaylan actually possessing magic of her own and planning was definitely triple luck.

 She melted in the hug. Whatever chat or Adrien say about her. She is nice. Her hugs are also nice.

 Her thoughts scattered when she saw the figure that came through the door. The signature yellow jacket was something that she can never forget.

Chloe?

 Without saying anything, she just handed the water bottle and left.

 It’s almost time for the class. Freshen up so we can go.

 Some things will remain mysterious.

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[dyde21]

Outta Your League 1

I’ve recently been REALLY into Marvel and I actually started a long multichapter fic about Spidechelle. Been posting it over on Ao3 but thought I might share the first chapter here if anyone is interested!

It’s basically a what if they Avengers tried to figure out spiderman and Civil War never happened.

XxXxXxXxX

Peter’s life hadn’t exactly been normal in around two years. To him, his new normal day was when the crime he stopped while wearing a red and blue spandex suit, didn’t involve any kind of alien weaponry. He liked those days, they were simple. Usually didn’t involve massive wounds he had to hide from his aunt, and didn’t lead to him having to repair his suit over and over again. 

Peter had also gotten used to “Weird” days, as had most new yorkers after all the strange things that had started happening from around the time the world was introduced to Iron Man. The Alien invasion had really shattered the old definitions of “weird” pretty handidly.

Honestly though, chasing a large russian man in a massive Rhino outfit as he literally ran against traffic and swatted the cars away like they were made from cardboard was still pretty weird even for him. 

Swinging faster, he managed to get the momentum he needed as he launched off, planning a carefully aimed web onto the shoulder of the large man and pulling himself towards it, landing on his back. His added weight barely even seemed to register to the man as he continued his rampage, the two large duffle bags of cash still under one arm. 

“Hey man, this is a one way street. If you want to head this way you should take the next left  then turn at 5- WOAH” Peter barely managed to drop off him in time to avoid being scrapped against the bottom of a bridge between buildings as the man charged threw it. 

Landing on his back, he scrambled to his feet and shook his head to clear his thoughts. A blaring warning in the back of his skull had him dodging to the side just as a car was kicked right where he had been standing. He crouched on the nearby mailbox as he looked between the car and the large man looking at him. 

“All right, I get it, no one likes a backseat driver. My bad.”

“Little Spider. Stay out of my way or you’re going to get squashed.” He warned before turning around and starting to walk away.

Peter quickly got a good grip of the lamppost as he shot a web at the back of the man again, holding him in place. 

“Look. I’m just doing my duty. Animal control is on it’s way and I’m sure we can find you a good forever home, so let’s just calm down okay?” He said as he strained to hold him in place.

The man seemed surprised by the fact he was being held in place. “It seems you have some strength in you after all.” He offered in his strong accent before he leaned forward and actually put some strength into steps.

Peter groaned from the increased strain, but he continued to hold on. What he had failed to notice was the lamp was starting to give up quicker than he was. With a loud crunching of metal, the pole snapped near the base and Peter was yanked forward, tumbling across the cement as he let go over the web. 

He scrambled to all fours when again, there was a warning in his head. He looked up just in time to see another car being thrown towards him. 

Summoning plenty of strength he managed to jump off the ground, just getting enough height to clear the car as it whizzed past, mere inches from him. However what his unhelpfully sporadic internal warning failed to notify him about, was the large metal fist heading straight for his side.

It connected with him, and sent him rocketing through the front window of a nearby store. There were some gasps and concerned calls from him from nearby civilians. 

He got up, thanking God above that none of the glass had decided to give him a new piercing, as he stumbled up. “Sorry about the glass! But honestly I think this pla- woah!” Another car was sent sailing towards both him and the shop, where he noticed a few people cowering behind the counter. 

Kicking some glass away to make sure he got solid footing to stick to, he crouched down and braced himself, catching the car with a huff. Hell, these things were freaking heavy, even with his strength. 

Glad to see that the car was empty, he managed to drop it just outside the store. 

“Come on man, there’s clearly no drive thru here!” He called out, slinging himself out of the store to hopefully prevent more property damage and adding another store he’d probably be banned from. 

The large man loomed over him. “I don’t have time to play with brats like you.”

“Aw man, it’s spring break and everything for me. I have plenty of time to play with strange russian men like you. Rhino, Mr. Rhino? Is there a Mrs. Rhino in the picture?”

The man, who he felt Rhino was an appropriate name, merely responded by swinging a large fist towards him. Knowing first hand he didn’t want to get hit by it again, he ducked out of it easily enough, before launching himself upwards into an uppercut. 

His own hit seemed to surprise Rhino, who didn’t seem too concerned about it as it knocked him back, getting him a foot off the ground before he landed onto another parked car, making Peter wince. He was glad he didn’t own a car because after all the shit that happened in this city, it was like a 50/50 chance it could survive a year. As Rhino struggled to get back up, Peter started waving his hands and flexing his fingers. Punching that guy’s suit felt like punching a steel beam. What was it even made out of? He really needed to add some better padding to his knuckles. While he always had to pull his punches to avoid seriously injuring, or even killing people, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell to hit some things. Just as his mind started to analyze different possibilities as to what he could use, the large man unfortunately decided to get back up again.

Weird days were the worst. Why couldn’t he just have helped some old ladies with groceries or tracked down runaway cats. Even muggers were fine for him after this long of practice. But this? This wasn’t how he wanted to spend his spring break.

Rhino let out a yell and put his head down as he started to charge towards him. Diving to the side, Peter dodged easily enough until he realized the path Rhino was on. Thwipping another line to the Rhino’s head, he pulled hard and managed to redirect the angle of the charge, moving him in a large arc away from civilians before the web snapped as it got wrapped around a car. 

The Rhino tore off the dangling web as he let out another annoyed shout. 

While Peter liked that the street gave him plenty to work with, it also meant there were far too many things to worry about. He had to get him someone more open and less breakable if he was going to take this dude down. 

Getting an idea, he managed to shoot his hand out and snag one of the bags of money with his web, and yank it free as he grabbed it, holding it up for Rhino to see before he turned and ran. He hoped the bait would be enough, and judging by the sounds of the brutal crushing of metal rapidly approaching him from behind, it was enough.

He continued to swing just ahead of the rampage, taking the most direct path he could to the park, all the while calling out. 

“Coming through! Clear out of the way! One crazy and one slightly less crazy animal themed man coming through!”

Most people knew to clear out so he was pretty sure there weren’t any serious injuries. New Yorkers were pretty good at adapting to weird.

Once he reached the park, he shot another web but it caught onto one of the weaker branches near the top of a tree and when he tried to swing it just snapped off, leaving him tumbling into the grass. 

He hated the park. No tall buildings anywhere.

He scrambled to his feet, but it was too slow to dodge the very angry pursuer as he felt the man’s large metal foot collide with his side into a powerful kick, sending him hurtling across the park. The snapping sound he heard could only have been a rib or two and Peter knew he had to be careful to recover before he hit a tr-

With another crack, Peter’s body collided into the tree, breaking off a few more branches as he crashed onto the ground coughing violently. His vision blurred a bit and his ears were ringing. 

Okay, maybe he should have stuck with the property damage. He realized the bag had slipped from his grasp, the Rhino was standing over it, reaching down to pick it up.

Before his rationality, or survival instincts could stop him, he reached out with his good arm that only mildly felt like it was on fire to thwip and snatch the bag back towards him. 

Great, he still had the angry rhino man’s attention. Now what to do with it?

“You. Are a very hard bug to squash it seems.” He said with a laugh as he stomped towards him, cracking his knuckles. 

“Thanks.” Peter said, stumbling to his feet. “You know cockroaches get all the credit for being hard to kill but I think that’s pretty unfair. Spiders are pretty strong you know? He said, holding his side and wincing. Yup. His ribs were not happy right now. 

“A bug is still a bug. All of them can be squashed under foot.”

He said as he suddenly rushed towards him. 

Swiveling behind the tree, his spider sense only barely alerted him in time that the tree would not actually stop the man as he dove out of the way as the man barrel through the tree. However it seemed the Rhino wasn’t quite as dumb as he seemed because his arm shot out as he did and caught Peter again, sending him flying backwards and crashing into a fountain.

As he laid there, the broken fountain pouring water onto his head he just groaned. 

“I hate water spouts.” He muttered as he forced himself to his feet. He always got back up. He had to.

The way his balance seemed to not go with him though was starting to make him question that motto. 

“I was going to let you live, little bug. But now, I think I do want to squash you.”

Bracing himself, Peter raised his hands. He could tell this was going to be a long fight.

As the man started to charge, Peter’s danger sense went off again. Only this time it wasn’t directly ahead of him, but rather to the side of the Rhino. 

A second later a small explosion ripped through the air as the Rhino was launched sideways off his feet, sending him crashing through another tree.

Peter just stood there, confused. He was pretty sure he couldn’t cause explosions with his mind, but today already was weird so the possibility wasn’t 0 it was him. 

“Aren’t zoo keepers supposed to stop animals from fighting?” Came a voice he had only heard on the news before as Ironman flew in, landing a few feet in front of him. 

As the Rhino got to a knee and shook his head, Ironman raised a hand at each of them, repulsors charging up. “You, spider boy, what’s going on?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he raised his hands. “Mr. Ironman sir! I’m not looking for a fight, I was just trying to stop him from rampaging. Mr Avengers, sir.”

The metal man looked at him for a second, before he lowered his hand and Peter took a deep breath. “Then why were you running with a bag of money?” He asked, but no longer threatened him. 

“Bait. Trying to get him out of the city.” He said reaching down and tossing it near him. “It’s not mine, and I don’t want it.” He paused. “Well I mean I do, but like it’s not mine to take. I want it legally you know? Being a superhero doesn’t pay. Well maybe it does for you, but like you’re THE Iron Man. I’m just a ki- a new guy. But it’s not my money you know? Yeah, you know.” He muttered, his nerves making him ramble. 

Iron Man just brought a hand up to his helmet and Peter could hear a sigh from inside the suit with his enhanced hearing. “You talk a lot, you know that?”

“Yes sir, Iron Man, sir. It’s a habi- Look out!” Peter’s eyes widened as a tree was soaring through the air towards them. Peter dropped prone to the ground while Iron Man merely blasted it in two. 

Peter went to stand up but another wave of pain from the sudden motion had him stay on all fours. 

This didn’t go unnoticed by Iron Man as he glanced over. “Stay down, you’re hurt. I’ll take care of this then I think we should have a talk.”

Peter’s blood turned to ice at that comment. That… didn’t sound good. Sure he idolized the avengers, but they were in a different league. He was just your friendly neighborhood spiderman, he wasn’t looking to get involved with them yet. Plus were they mad? He hadn’t exactly applied for any permissions to go out. Did he need like a permission slip for this? He had just started helping people after Ben died. Plus if they found out who he was, they surely would tell May and she would kill him for lying to her then ground him.

He tried to get back to his feet, but another wave of nausea hit him as he stumbled against the tree. Okay, he could rest for a second.

As he glanced back up, he saw Iron Man fighting with the Rhino. It was clear he was holding back to avoid causing too much collateral damage but he seemed to be having an easier time. 

Rhino had ripped a drinking fountain out of the ground and hurled it at Iron Man who dodged to the side. Unfortunately, Peter was now directly in its path. Forcing himself to his feet, he knew he had to dodge or he was going to be in a world of pain when someone was suddenly in front of him. 

His eyes widened as the muscular back of someone in a leather jacket, and more importantly the large round metal shield being held in front of him as he had placed a foot against the tree for support as the damaged fountain crashed against his shield and broke apart. 

“Are you okay?” Captain America said as he turned around, glancing at him. 

If Peter wasn’t currently trying to avoid throwing up in his mask from pain, he would probably be starstruck. Ned was never going to believe this.

“Yeah, thank you Mr. Captain America.”

“Just call me Cap.” He said with a nod, before he rushed forward to help Ironman. 

Ironman fired a beam towards the Rhino, which he dodged. However Cap had gotten into place and the beam reflected off his shield and slammed into the Rhino from behind, knocking him off his feet. Iron Man landed with another blow to the Rhino’s head and the man finally stilled. 

The two said something, but then turned to him. Peter had finally had enough time for his head to stop swimming and to pretend like he wasn’t in egregious amounts of pain.

Iron Man’s mask flipped up, revealing Tony Stark’s face as he approached next to Cap, who was in civilian clothes. 

“Uh wow, it’s an honor to meet you guys.” 

Cap nodded towards him as Tony crossed his arms. “I would say the same but I have no idea who you are. You sure you aren’t with him? You two seem to have the same hobbies.” He said, gesturing to his outfit. 

Spiderman’s eyes widened. “I was totally doing this first, he stole my schtick. But I’m Spiderman.” He reached out a hand out of instinct.

While Tony just stared at it, Cap reached out and shook his head. “Steve Rogers.” 

Ned definitely wasn’t going to believe this.

Spiderman looked between them. “What are you two doing here? Not that your help wasn’t totally appreciated, because honestly it would have been a pain for me to bring him down on my own, you know. But like, this seems almost… too small for you?”

“We were out on unrelated business when we passed by and saw what was happening.” Cap offered, which explained why he wasn’t in uniform.

“Well… that explains that! I should go. I got more uh… spider things to do. Walls to climb, webs to spin. You know.” He offered lamely as he started to step away. As much as he really didn't want to leave what could be his only meeting with any avengers, he also knew that his life was already messed up enough and that he didn’t need to make it even more complicated.

“Wait.” Tony said and Peter froze in place. “I still have some more questions.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Iron Man, but I promise to stay out of your way. I really should be…”

Tony reached out a hand. “Spiderman, I’m serious we need to talk. Come with us to the tower...”

Fight or Flight instincts kicked in as Peter spun to the side, and shot a web, webbing his hand to the tree as he stepped back. Then he shot another two webs to pin his feet to the ground. “Are you serious? This better not have come out of you.” Tony said, glancing at him then his hand.

“Really, I gotta go.” He said, tensing as he looked at Captain America, waiting for any kind of motion but Cap just raised his hands in peace. “I’m sorry.” Peter continued. 

“We’re not going to force you into anything. We’re just trying to figure out whose side you’re on. You’ve been making waves.” Cap offered, still making no signs of approaching him. “You can talk to us.” He offered in a calm tone.

“Yours. I promise. But I can’t get involved.” With that, before Cap changed his mind or Iron Man seriously tried to break out of the webs, which Peter had no doubt that he could with a suit that advanced, he shot a web and left. Ignoring the protest in his side, he swung as fast as he could away, only sparing a glance behind him to see that Tony had freed himself, but neither of them made any moves to follow him. Which was good, because Peter was pretty much at his limit after that fight and knew he couldn’t take them if they seriously tried to capture him. He had only escaped because they let him, which was both a reassuring and scary thought.

Eventually he managed to get back to his apartment after a few detours to make sure he wasn’t followed, and changed and hid out in his room.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, his hands flew up to his head as he just stared ahead, his mind racing a millions miles an hour as his anxiety started to creep up. 

While he knew it wasn’t like he could be a masked vigilante without drawing attention, and he knew it was bound to reach the level of important people eventually, he had really hoped it would not be this soon. He was just trying to help the people he could, and graduate from high school. He wasn’t looking to get involved with a team that reached international news for what happened with Ultron. He could barely keep his identity a secret from his aunt and his crush, and he knew the second more people out who he was, the more they would end up being in danger. 

But this was probably all over now. The Avengers were now interested in him, and he knew he couldn’t avoid them forever. They were definitely the good guys, but he was barely 15. If he was honest with himself, it was because he was scared. Scared of his family and friends getting hurt because of him. Scared of being forced to stop being Spiderman. Scared of the fact he may end up disappointing his heroes if they actually got to know him. 

Taking a deep breath he went to go take a shower, knowing he needed the water to calm him down. His new normal felt like it just showered and all he could do right now was take a shower and hope his bad luck would leave him alone just this once.

XxXxXxXxX

Thank you for reading! If you’re interested in the full story feel free to check it out HERE

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Chapter 25 | Chapter 27 | AO3 link

“That was a rough one today,” Ladybug says when she, Chat Noir, and Rena Rouge are sprawled in a circle on a rooftop after their post-akuma evening catch-up, on their backs with their heads up against each other.

“Yeah,” Rena Rouge says. “A kissing zombie? And here I thought Chloé was trying to be better rather than ruining birthday gifts and getting our teacher akumatised. She went to Marinette’s party, for god’s sake, and she hates Marinette.”

“Maybe she just relapsed?” Chat Noir says. “I know it can be hard to move past stuff that’s so…well, force of habit. And she’s had a bit of a rough family life.”

“That’s still no excuse,” Ladybug says. “A friend of mine has also had a rough family life and he’s one of the sweetest people I know. But…maybe Chloé does need support. Not coddling, but just enough support to keep her on the right track.”

“Maybe Adrien?” Chat Noir says. “I’ve heard they were good friends.”

“Especially not Adrien,” Rena Rouge says immediately.

“From what I’ve heard, he broke off their friendship to force her to change,” Ladybug agrees. “If he gives her an inch, she could take a mile and then decide not to change at all.”

“He’d essentially be rewarding her for bad behaviour,” Rena Rouge says.

“I know, I know…” Chat Noir sighs. “Just…I see a lot of myself in her, is all. My home life is rough too. I think the last time my father looked in my direction was, uh…huh. Actually, I can’t remember.”

“That’s sad,” Rena Rouge says. “Ladybug, can we adopt him? Pretty please?”

“Not that I wouldn’t be bi cat mothers with you if given the chance, but I think people would notice,” Ladybug says with a little laugh.

“Oh, please let me be adopted by gorgeous bi mums who could kick my arse,” Chat Noir pleads.

“I’m technically pan but seconded,” Rena Rouge says immediately. “Motion passed. Sucks to be Nino, but he knows that Ladybug’s at the top of my freebie list.”

“Freebie list?” Chat Noir says.

“You’ve never heard of a freebie list?” Ladybug says.

“Oh, you poor, sheltered child,” Rena Rouge says. “The heart of every healthy relationship is honesty, respect, and sex with celebrities.”

“If you just quoted Friends at me, I will actually take your Miraculous back and give it to someone else,” Ladybug says.

“Do that and you’ll drop to number two on my freebie list.”

“I think I can live with that.”

“It’d be nice if someone would tell me what a freebie list is,” Chat Noir says.

“It’s a list of five celebrities that you’re allowed to sleep with if you, for some reason, managed to have the chance,” Ladybug says. “And it’s not considered cheating – they’re “freebies”.”

“…That’s a thing?”

“Probably not,” Rena Rouge says cheerfully. “It’s probably just a joke. But Nino’s agreed that I’m perfectly fine to do Ladybug so long as he gets to do Chat Noir.”

Chat Noir splutters, and Ladybug’s forced to cover her mouth to muffle the giggles that suddenly wrack her body, although that doesn’t help since Chat Noir and Rena Rouge can probably still feel her laughter through where their heads are all in contact.

“Who’s at the top of your list, guys?” Rena Rouge says. “Come on, I shared mine and Nino’s with you, so you have to do the same!”

“I didn’t agree to this!” Ladybug says.

“Does Ladybug count as a celebrity?” Chat Noir says in a slightly high-pitched voice.

“Nope,” Rena Rouge says. “You guys don’t count for each other. Come on, out with it!”

“Oh, fine,” Ladybug huffs. “The celebrity at the top of my list is…Clara Nightingale. She was my bi awakening.”

“Oooh, really?” Rena Rouge says. “Can’t say you’ve got bad taste! Who’s yours, alley cat?”

“I don’t know!” Chat Noir says. “I haven’t exactly given this much thought!”

“Fine, fine,” Rena Rouge says. “Like the merciful fox I am, I’ll let you think about it. But I do expect an answer next time.”

“How generous of you,” Chat Noir says dryly. No one says anything after that, instead basking in the silence of the Parisian night, with the sounds of the city almost a backdrop to their little superhero bubble on the rooftop.

“Sorry I got caught by the zombies as Alya, by the way,” Rena Rouge eventually says. “Wish I could’ve gotten away to transform.”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up,” Chat Noir says. “I got smooched as well.”

“Yeah, sacrificing yourself for Ladybug so she could beat on Zombizou,” Rena Rouge grumbles. “Not ‘cause you were careless.”

“It’s only your second akuma as Rena, and you weren’t even transformed,” Ladybug says. “Chat and I made so many mistakes when we first started.”

“Speak fur yourself,” Chat Noir says. “I’m purrfect.”

Ladybug and Rena Rouge groan at the night sky.

“Don’t make me pull out all the embarrassing stories I’ve got of you from when we were rookies,” Ladybug says. “Like that time when we were facing El Mago and you –”

“Okay, okay!” Chat Noir hastens to say. “You’ve made your point, milady, brutal as you are.”

Rena Rouge snickers. “God, I still can’t believe I actually get to hear your banter like this.”

“It’s really not that great,” Ladybug says. “When you’ve heard one cat pun, you’ve heard them all.”

“Meowch,” Chat Noir says. “You wound me, bugaboo.”

“Tragic,” Ladybug deadpans. There’s a sigh and then Rena Rouge’s presence disappears as she pushes herself to sit up. A moment later, the soft sound of flute music fills the night air.

“A serenade? So I can woo my lady?” Chat Noir says. “You shouldn’t have!”

“You wish,” Ladybug says, even though her traitorous heart skips a beat at the thought of Chat Noir wooing her. Not that he knows she’s Marinette, so she can’t exactly come out and say that oops, she’s changed her mind, she’d very much like for him to pursue her. Or purrsue, as he’d say.

Goddammit, now he’s even got her punning.

For a few moments, there’s silence while Ladybug and Chat Noir listen to Rena Rouge’s song, which is just so tantalisingly familiar – what is it? When the realisation hits Ladybug, she bolts upright and turns to narrow her eyes at Rena Rouge.

“Are you playing the Mario theme song?” Ladybug says. Rena Rouge smiles as innocently as she can while still playing her flute.

“Oh my god,” Chat Noir cackles as he shoots up too. “Ladybug, you can’t call me a dork anymore. I’ve never played Mario on my baton before!”

“I’m sure you would if you could,” Ladybug mutters.

Rena Rouge plays a little longer before lowering her flute and allowing the last few notes to fade into the night air. Then she groans and pushes herself to her feet.

“As fun as it’s been hanging out with you two,” she says, “I gotta get back home before I have to start bribing Nora for looking after Ella and Etta.”

“If you ever can’t make it to a battle or a patrol, don’t force yourself,” Ladybug says as Chat Noir stands up and offers her his hand, and she accepts it with warm cheeks. “Your support’s really appreciated, but we know you’ve got responsibilities of your own.”

“And you two don’t?” Rena Rouge says.

“Of course we do,” Chat Noir says, then winks. “But not everyone can be as ameowzing as me and my lady.”

“What he means is that Paris has always been our responsibility,” Ladybug says, elbowing him for his pun. “Not that we don’t appreciate your help.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Rena Rouge says. “I’m the wing-woman for Ladynoir.”

“Stop calling us that!” Ladybug huffs, while Chat Noir shoots Rena Rouge a shit-eating grin. Rena Rouge smirks and salutes back.

“You know, we should totally have a group chat or something,” she says. “In case we need to get in touch for this kind of thing, since we can’t call each other when we’re not transformed.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure giving out our numbers or getting a second phone is a recipe for disaster,” Ladybug says. Rena Rouge rolls her eyes.

“Who do you take me for, LB?” she says. “I was thinking of a group chat app where you can sign up with an email or something. Just make up an email specifically for that, no phone number required.”

“It would make things easier,” Chat Noir says. “Like if we need to tell Rena to stay out of the fight or join in, rather than trying to signal her and praying that others don’t see like when Lila was akumatised. And especially if one of us is stuck as a civilian, so we’re not cussing our partner in our head.”

“Yeah, I had a few explosive thoughts when you were late to Riposte,” Ladybug admits.

“I knew you’d bow to my superior intellect,” Chat Noir says with a smug grin.

“Is he like this every time he’s right about something?” Rena Rouge says with a raised eyebrow.

“Yep,” Ladybug says. “Why do you think I never let him be right?”

“This is bullying, and I won’t stand for it,” Chat Noir huffs. In response, Ladybug leans over to flick his bell and then desperately prays that he can’t see the way her cheeks undoubtedly flush as they grow warm.

“I’ll work on getting it set up, okay, guys?” Rena Rouge says. “Just make up a burner email and give them to me next time and I’ll work my magic.” She squeals and claps her hands. “I get to be in a group chat with Ladybug! Oh, I’ve got so many memes to share!”

“This isn’t for fun,” Ladybug says, although she does have to admit that the thought of being able to chat with Chat Noir and Rena Rouge as Ladybug while outside the mask is quite appealing. And if it means cutting down on miscommunications, well, it couldn’t hurt to try it.

“Sure, sure,” Rena Rouge says. “Peace out, guys!” Then she’s bounding over to the next rooftop and racing through Paris, the orange of her suit soon melding with the orange of the streetlights.

“We should get going as well,” Ladybug says.

“Wait…Ladybug?” Chat Noir says in a small voice before Ladybug can throw her yo-yo. When she turns, it’s to the uncharacteristic sight of Chat Noir with his fake ears flat on his head and his eyes trained on the rooftop beneath their feet.

“Kitty? What’s wrong?” Ladybug reties her yo-yo and places a hand on Chat Noir’s shoulder.

“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I just…if you don’t have to be anywhere���do you think we could talk?”

“Of course!” Ladybug says and immediately pulls Chat Noir to sit back down with her. “You know I’m always here to listen, Chat. You’re my partner and my best friend.”

Chat Noir’s attempt at a smile is wobbly, but it’s still a smile. “You know that girl? Marinette? The one I’m friends with?”

“Did something happen with her?” Ladybug says as her heart jolts in her chest. Had she somehow upset Chat Noir? What could she have done?

“No, no,” Chat Noir says. “It’s just…I know you said it was okay for us to be friends. But…I want more, Ladybug. I think – no, I know I’m in love with her.”

“Does she know?” Ladybug prays that Chat Noir doesn’t notice the strange lilt in her voice. Thankfully, he seems to miss it.

“Yeah,” he says. “We’ve told each other. And I said I’d wait for her to be okay with it, but that’s not why I’m stressing.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Why are you asking me that?” Chat Noir says. “You’re the one who’s all about secret identities!” He winces. “Shit. Sorry, that came out really rude –”

“No, no, I get what you meant,” Ladybug says quickly. “You’re fine, Chat. Why do you think I’d have a problem?”

“Because being friends with her is one thing,” Chat Noir says. “But being with her? What if that’s crossing the line, since she’s a civilian and I’m a superhero?”

Ladybug sighs. She looks down at the rooftop for a moment, gathering her thoughts, before she once more meets Chat Noir’s gaze. “I think so long as you’re careful, it’ll work,” she says. “Sure, it means that you can’t just whisk her from her balcony and take her for a stroll through Paris, but…Hawkmoth’s taken so much from us, you know? He’s taken our innocence. He’s taken our normal lives. And I don’t regret being Ladybug for a single second, but…we can’t let Hawkmoth make us afraid to live our lives. That means that he’s winning.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but I almost wish she wanted to be with my civilian self,” Chat Noir says. “Just for the simplicity, you know? But she loves Chat Noir, so I couldn’t just go up to her as a civilian because our identities have to remain a secret.”

“It’s tough,” Ladybug agrees. God, what would Chat Noir think if he knew he was talking to Marinette right now? “But I don’t think you should have to sacrifice your happiness. That’s…something I’ve been learning.”

“Does that mean we can finally tell each other who we are?” Chat Noir says with an innocent little smile. God help Ladybug, she’s so weak for that smile.

“Keep dreaming, kitty,” she says and nudges him. “It’s not time for you to take the clown suit off just yet.”

Chat Noir huffs at her clown comment. “There’s also…” He falls silent and bites his lip. “There’s also another person. A boy. And I like him as well. But I love Marinette, and I want to be with her, but I don’t want to mess with her –”

“I think this is a conversation you should have with Marinette,” Ladybug says quickly. Chat Noir has the same problem as her? Jesus, what even is this world? “But for the record, it’s totally okay to have feelings for more than one person.”

“Really?” Chat Noir’s eyes are wide. “I’m not…cheating on Marinette by liking this other boy too?”

“I had a good talk with a new friend the other day,” Ladybug says. “She told me about polyamory – you know, being with more than one person at a time. I’m not saying that’s what you should or shouldn’t do…more just letting you know that you don’t have to kill yourself over trying to pick one person. That talk was a weight off my shoulders, let me tell you. And even if you’re not polyamorous, it’s still valid to have feelings for more than one person, so long as you’re honest and open.”

“Wait, you’re in love with two people as well?” Chat Noir stuffs his fist into his mouth to muffle his laughter, though he utterly fails and is rewarded with a glare and twitching lips from Ladybug. “My god, we really are soulmates, bugaboo.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ladybug says. “Just be completely open and honest with Marinette and you’ll be fine, whatever you decide. That’s what this friend told me. And…I kind of get where she’s coming from? It’s not so much my partner being with someone else that upsets me when I think about cheating, more the sneaking and lying and breach of trust.”

“You should start charging for this,” Chat Noir grins. “People would kill to come and get advice from Ladybug.”

“Go, kitty.” Ladybug points out at the sea of lights that makes up Paris at nighttime.

“I see how it is,” Chat Noir declares as he jumps to his feet and helps her up. But then he sobers. “Thanks, Ladybug. Knowing that you’ve got my back like this…”

“Of course,” Ladybug grins. “What are partners for?”

Chat Noir grins back at her. “I think I’ll talk to Marinette and pick just her for now and see how we go. If I end up really liking this other boy then we can talk again, but…I just want to keep things simple.”

“That’s probably best,” Ladybug agrees, blatantly ignoring the way her heart flutters and leaps at the knowledge that Chat Noir’s choosing her and is going to talk to her soon. “One relationship is enough work, especially a new one. Good luck with Marinette!”

“Thanks, LB!” Chat Noir calls after her as she tosses her yo-yo and swings away. Ladybug waves back over her shoulder.

Her route home takes her past Le Grand Paris, its windows lit up against the darkness, but there’s also a light shining on a balcony that illuminates a yellow figure on a white seat who’s staring down at their hands. Ladybug pauses on the edge of the roof she’s standing on, ready to leap off again, and she realises that the yellow figure is…Chloé.

God help me, but…

[crsinclair]

Enter Eraser

FINALLY I have the next installment for What a Villain Deserves. This piece takes place pretty much directly after Cliché Hero Versus Villain, which was mostly Present Mic being confused.  In this one we only see our beloved Eraserhead for a small bit, but we learn a LOT about him!

“Ah, Thanks for coming, Present Mic.”

Hizashi gave Tsukauchi a smile.  “Not a problem!  Though I wasn't really expecting to get a call about this,” he said, nodding his head towards the back of the station.  More specifically, the interrogation rooms.

Tsukauchi gave him a tired smile.  “Honestly, we weren't expecting to be calling you, either.”

Hizashi raised a brow at that, frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. What exactly did that mean?  When the detective directed him towards his office instead of the back rooms, the confusion he felt only grew.  The two of them walked down the hall, a few officers stopping to greet the two of them before Tsukauchi was closing the door to his little office and directing the Hero to take a seat. “So, why did you call me?  Other than the fact that I'm cool.”

“Coffee?” the detective asked after he was done chuckling, moving to help himself to the coffee machine he kept in the corner of his office.

“Ah, sure, thanks.”  Alright, not getting an answer to his question right away.  Got it.

Tsukauchi nodded and pulled out a spare mug and got to pouring.  “It took a bit, but we managed to get some indentification off the villain,” he started explaining, turning around to place a steaming mug in front of Hizashi along with a container holding packets of sugar and creamer.  “Very smart of him to burn his fingerprints.”

“That doesn't last forever, though,” Hizashi said as he started dumping in as many creamers as he could into the mug.

“True – from what our specialists could tell, he burns his fingerprints off regularly.”  Tsukauchi sat down in his chair with a small sigh of relief, clutching his own mug close to him.  “Plus he wears gloves, keeps his hair bound, face covered, and from his equipment we've been able to tell he's very, very thorough in getting blood stains cleaned up.  He's been avoiding law enforcement for a long time.”

Hizashi hummed, dumping in several packets of sugar into his mug.  “So who is this guy?”

Tuskauchi took a sip of his coffee and pulled the folder on top of the stack closest to him open.  “Aizawa Shouta.  30 years old, lives alone in a small apartment complex in Musutafu, job title he has down in his apartment application as 'freelance contractor',” he says dryly.

Hizashi rolled his eyes.  “I guess that's one way to describe villainy.”

A smile flit across Tsukauchi's face.  He turned his eyes towards the information in the folder, skimming the lines.  “We got a team to check out where he lives,” he continued, pausing to take another sip.  “We're pretty sure half the apartment was dedicated to his equipment.”

“Well, I've got a room at home for just my Hero gear.”

“Mic, I'm not exaggerating.” Tsukauchi tugged some pictures out of the folder and slid them across the desk for Hizashi to look at.  “I mean that he had a single sleeping bag for furniture, some juice and jelly packets in the fridge, some hygiene products, and then the rest of his entire home was covered in various tools and equipment.”

Hizashi's eyebrows shot up as he leaned forward to take a look at the pictures. Indeed, there was a single sleeping bag next to a window, and then shelf after shelf after storage cabinet stuffed full of all sorts of things.  Knives, caltrops, poisons, lockpicks – so many lockpicks – what Hizashi could only assume were smoke bombs, and many more tools crammed into what looked to be a very small apartment.  “Well then.” He cleared his throat.  “Half of his apartment dedicated to his, ah, career choice.”

“There were also a number of cats,” Tsukauchi said.

“...Cats.”

“Cats.” Tsukauchi shook his head.  “We had to call in animal control to get all the cats out of the apartment.  Fifteen in total.”

“Fifteen cats?”

Tsukauchi tossed him a grin.  “Fifteen cats.”

The grin slid off his face after a moment, giving him a serious look.  He leaned forward, placing his coffee to the side to pull another picture out of the folder.  “My team also found these in his apartment.”

He slid the picture over.  Hizashi squinted at the detective, confused, and peered down at the small photo.  With a single look, staring at the object depicted, the Hero knew exactly why he'd been called into the precinct to have a chat with Tsukauchi about this particular villain.

“Hey,” he laughed, a little anxious but doing his best to not let it show. “You guys found my headphones.  Nice.”

“Mic, can you tell me why your headphones were in with his equipment?” Tsukauchi asked, folding his hands together in a calm steeple.

Hizashi cracked a grin.  “Oh, come on, you really gonna question me about that?”  When the detective simply blinked at him, he sighed. “Okay, you are...

“Look, it's nothing big.  Nothing to worry about, really.”  He shrugged, swirling the coffee in his mug and doing his best to calm his nerves. Because this wasn't something he needed to worry about.  'Just tell the truth and you'll be fine,' he thought to himself.

Yeah, because the cops thinking he had some sort of connection with a Villain that had a known connection with a group that wanted All Might dead was totally fine.

“I've had a few run-ins with this Villain while on patrol,” Hizashi explained.  “Never managed to catch him – can't tell if it's because I haven't been on patrol in a while or if he's just a slippery bastard – and during one of our encounters he stole my headphones.  That's all.”

Tsukauchi stared at him for a moment longer, one of his fingers tapping over the knuckles of his opposite hand, and then relaxed.  Hizashi could feel the tension drain from his own shoulders seeing Tsukauchi pick his coffee up again.  “Really?  You've never managed to get him? Wouldn't your quirk make it so most people can't even crawl away?”

Hizashi pouted.  “Normally, yeah, but.  I dunno, Tsukauchi, I think it has something to do with his quirk.”

“Ah, yes.”  Tsukauchi shuffled a few of the papers in the folder around until he found the one he was looking for.  “According to his file, he's got a quirk called 'Erasure'.  It allows him to erase the quirk of anyone within sight, so long as he doesn't blink.”

Hizashi hummed at that.  “Interesting.  Man, if he'd been a hero that would be dead useful against Villains using their quirks against civilians.”

“Well, now he's using it to take down Heroes,” Tsukauchi said.

“Wait, really?”  Hizashi frowned.  Well, sure, the guy was hanging out with the League of Villains, which couldn't be good news. The League of Villains, who brought a Noumu to a school field trip and attempted to murder the number one hero and nearly killed him.  But during any of his encounters on patrol the man hadn't really done anything...villainous. Nothing extreme anyway, if one didn't count fighting a Hero and stealing from him as villainous.

Tsukauchi nodded.  “After we managed to identify him and get his information, we ran the few things we had through records to see if perhaps there were any matches for crimes or other incidents.”  He reached for another folder and flipped it open.  “Nothing recently up until the other day when we caught him, but his hair matches perfectly with evidence found in unsolved cases that other precincts and mine have been trying to get leads on for years.”

Hizashi's mouth ran dry, looking down at the folder the detective was flipping through.  It was...thick.  “Years.”

“Yep. And what with him showing to regularly burn away his prints and the careful way he seems to keep traces his his presence away from scenes, I'd wager that there are many, many more crimes he's been apart of.”  Tsukauchi frowned down at the folder.  “With this information, we've been able to link him to heists, grand-theft auto, severe battery, kidnappings, murder...”

Hizashi felt his blood run cold.  The mug in his hand was warm, but with this new information he could barely tell.  Murder.  Kidnapping.  Years. This man, who'd been casually pranking him over the past several weeks during patrols, had murdered people.

Hizashi was a Hero.  He's seen some pretty messed up people.  Villains with bombs strapped to their chests and threatening to blow up a mall. Villains madly laughing as they slaughter the innocent people in front of them.  Villains diving into the sewers to get away after brutally beating a Hero within an inch of their life.

But...

“No. We're not hurting the kids.”

It was hard to picture the man who had saved Asui's life as someone who could take another's.

The phone on Tuskauchi's desk rang once before the detective picked it up.  “Tsukauchi.”

Hizashi listened numbly as the detective talked business with whoever was on the other line, sipping distractedly at his over-sweet coffee. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about what he'd just learned.  It was like the person in the files was a separate person from the asshole he'd kept running into on patrols.  If they were the same person, then that meant that this Aizawa was...well, it meant that Aizawa had a soft spot for kids, for one.  Maybe?  

Man, he felt more confused about all of this than he'd been before running into the man the first time on the streets.

“Mic?” Hizashi jerked his head up and found Tsukauchi standing from his desk.  “I was going to go watch Aizawa being questioned.  Would you like to join me?”

“Uh, sure.  Why not, right?”  He raised the mug.  “Mind if I take this with me?”

“Not at all.  This way.”

The walk back to the interrogation rooms was a short one.  Hizashi waved at the officers in the halls, both to be polite and to get his head on straight again.  The past few minutes had been weird, and he didn't like how all the new information was conflicting with what he'd observed himself.  Better to smile and be cheerful to get himself back together than dwell on it too much.

Of course, given that he'd heard all this new info and it was conflicting for him, Hizashi really should have thought about how actually seeing the man in question would affect him.

The viewing room for interrogations was dark, an officer sitting at the computer in there nodding at the two of them when they walked in. Hizashi heard the woman say something about how she wasn't expecting a Pro to come in, but he wasn't paying attention.  His eyes were looking through the one way mirror at the man sitting alone at the table in the other room.

Aizawa Shouta.

Long dark hair feel in messy waves around a scruffy, tired face, body slumped boredly in the chair.  His hands were cuffed to the table, a finger tapping occasionally on the wooden surface in no rhythm in particular.  The man had been put into a clean uniform, orange on white – a prisoners uniform.  And two dark eyes, bloodshot and bags underneath them, were staring unerringly at the mirror.

Hizashi couldn't help feel like those eyes were staring straight at him.

'Unnerving.' But he shook it off, jerking back to the conversation happening around him and greeting the officer with a smile and a handshake. “So!  Are we ready to get this show on the road?”

Tsukauchi smiled.  “I'll tell them to get started.”

Within just a couple minutes an officer walked into the other room, files under one arm and face impassive.  Hizashi stood behind where the detective took a seat, idly sipping at his coffee and watched the interrogation begin.  Old case after old case were shown and explained to Aizawa, and charge after charge were piled up in front of him as well.  It seemed never ending.  And the more time went on, the more Hizashi watched, the more he could tell that the man sitting cuffed to the table?  Was barely paying attention.

He frowned, tilting his head and pursing his lips.  The man was basically going to be in prison for life, maybe the next ten lives if he was lucky, and he was just...sitting there?  Hizashi liked to think he was pretty good at reading people – he had to be, as a teacher and a Pro and as an entertainer – and the vibes coming off this guy were not that of a villain that knew he was caught.  He legitimately didn't seem to care.  He seemed bored, like this whole interrogation was a waste of his time.

How could a man charged with all these things not care about the turn his life was about to take?

For a moment, Hizashi debated saying anything.  But it wouldn't leave him alone.  He stepped forward, turning his eyes down to look at the detective sitting just in front of him“Hey, Tsukauchi, I don't think – “

“Wait a second, what's he doing?”

Hizashi snapped his eyes back to Aizawa.  Who was now angling his head down just a bit, as if he had something stuck in his back teeth and was trying to get at with his tongue.  Why would he – “Oh, shit, Tsukauchi, get a medic in there now!”

Aizawa tilted his head back up, smirking, and said his first words in the room to the confused officer with him.  “They call me Eraser.”

And then he swallowed.

Hizashi could only watch with wide eyes as chaos happened around him.  Aizawa started convulsing, officers and medics swarmed the room, and everyone was shouting.  The interrogation was forgotten.  Aizawa was pulled onto a stretcher and carried swiftly out.  No one was sure why the man had done it.  It all happened so fast, and all he could do was stare in shock.

Eraser.

Somehow, no matter what happened next...Hizashi had a sinking feeling he'd be seeing the man again.

[freedom-shamrock]

Someone Chatty This Way Comes

Also on AO3. Look, an actual one-shot!  This is the @miraculousfluffmonth  Aug 24 prompt, wrong number. Since I am incapable of true one-shots, part 2 is here and part 3 is here.

Once Marinette had gotten Tikki settled with a couple of warm cookies, still soft with melty chocolate, she picked up her cell phone.  "I'm just going to make sure Chat got home all right."

"He did get thrown pretty hard today," Tikki said.  "But the miraculous cure should have fixed everything."

Marinette shrugged.  "It may have fixed the physical bits, but there's still the memory of it."  She knew that first hand.  She knew she didn't have to be concerned about him developing a tolerance to the cure, and that it would work on him every time; she'd questioned her kwami after a particularly brutal attack on that particular topic.  She pulled up the messaging app they'd started using a few months ago.  She'd learned about it from Alya.  A lot of their classmates used it to keep in touch out of school, and to get homework help.  Ladybug and Chat used it to talk when they were out of their suits.

"It's nice that you worry about him," Tikki said, smiling happily as she took another bite of the cookie she was working on.

"Of course I do," Marinette said, indignant.  "He's my partner, and one of my closest friends."

"Any chance his persistence is paying off?" Tikki asked.

Marinette turned away, feeling the heat in her cheeks.  "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't," Tikki agreed.  "You'd never blush over your partner."  She giggled.  "You're so cute, Marinette."

"Ugh!"  Marinette collapsed into her desk chair.  She didn't want to admit that it was nice how much attention he paid to her, that he noticed when she was happy or down from the tiniest cues.  And at some point, he'd scaled back his flirting to fun banter when it was appropriate.  He'd moved on to sweet and kind acts of appreciation, which touched her more than they embarrassed her.

Bugnette: @mon_chaton did you make it home okay?

Mon_Chaton: Yep.  And just before the final warning, too.

Bugnette: You worked so hard today.  Thank you for the save.

Bugnette: Saves.  I know those couldn't have felt very good at the time, even though you knew they'd heal up.

Mon_Chaton: It's an honor to serve as your shield.

Bugnette: You know that's not ALL you are, right?

Mon_Chaton : Yes, Bug.  I know.

He was probably smiling in that insufferably sweet way he did when he was agreeing, but had another motive or take on it.

Bugnette: I have to get started on my homework, but please do me a favor and be nice to yourself tonight.

Mon_Chaton: Is that a euphemism?  Because it sounds like one.

Bugnette: OMG Chat!  I just meant I wanted you to take it easy and maybe pamper yourself.  Like a bubble bath or your favorite treat or something.  I know you work hard in your civilian life too, and I was hoping you could step it down a notch because you deserve it.

Mon_Chaton: You're too easy.

Bugnette: Is THAT a euphemism?!

Mon_Chaton: Eh, no.  I meant easy to tease, not the other kind of easy, which I can firmly state you are not.  

Marinette giggled.  At some point, their partnership had truly become friendship, and he was as comfortable to talk to and joke with as Alya and Nino.  While she was no longer a stuttering mess around Adrien, it was still a lot of work to talk to him.

Mon_Chaton: I'm gonna let you get to that homework before I can accidentally say something too offensive.  And I'm going to be nice to myself and go to bed early.  I'm too tired for all this.

Bugnette: Did you just gesture to all of me?

Mon_Chaton : You bet your miraculous I did.

Marinette was staring at her physics homework.  It just didn't make sense.  She hadn't missed that class at all this week, but apparently today's lecture had evaporated out of her brain before she could commit the contents to long term memory.  She dialed Alya.

"Hey girl!" her best friend answered after the first ring.  "What's up?"

"Physics," Marinette replied, groaning.  "Did I fall asleep in class today?  I have no memory of that hour."

Alya's laugh was one of Marinette's favorite things about her best friend.  It could almost always make her smile.  "No you didn't.  But it was a tangled mess.  I've got Nino over here right now and we're trying to figure it out before we give up and call Adrien."

"Dang it," Marinette muttered.  "It's the last thing I have to do, and I really want to get this done so I can work on a project."

"Well, you could always ask Adrien for help yourself," Alya suggested.  "He's on the chat system right now."

"Adrien uses the chat system?"  She was surprised.  She'd never seen him in any of the groups she used.

"I half think he's addicted to chatting," Alya replied.  "I'll text you his contact info and you can add him, okay?"

"And you don't think he'll mind?"  He'd helped her with physics in class before, so she figured it would be okay, she just worried about coming off as needy and stalkerish, especially now that she could recognize how inappropriate her early crush behavior had been.

"The boy loves helping, and he's damn good at it," Alya said.  "If the modeling thing doesn't work out, he should consider teaching."

Marinette copied Adrien's chat details and opened the app.  She plugged him in, grinning in amusement when his screen name popped up.

Bugnette: @NerdAlert, hey Adrien.  This is Marinette.  Alya gave me your contact details, I hope it's OK.  I have some questions on today's physics homework and was wondering if you could help me out.

Immediately after hitting enter, she realized her mistake.  She'd forgotten to log out as Ladybug and log back in as herself.  She stared at her screen in horror for a moment, before trying to talk herself down.  "It's okay.  We picked screen names that wouldn't give us away.  I can work with this.  I can totally play it off as a gaming pseudonym or something and switch over to my regular account.  There's no way he'll know."

NerdAlert: My Lady?

"Oh shit."  Marinette pushed herself away from her desk hard enough to fall over.  She sprawled on her back, legs dangling over her upended chair, stuck in a mental feedback loop of Adrien is Chat.  Chat is Adrien.  A shadow loomed over her skylight and a polite tapping came from above.

Tikki who had gone to look at Marinette's computer after her intense reaction and withdrawal, hovered over her chosen's face.  "Chat's here."

Marinette covered her face with both hands, whining inarticulately.

"I'll just let him in, then," Tikki said brightly.

Not looking out from behind her fingers, Marinette heard a click of the latch, then quiet greetings.

"Welcome Chat Noir!" Tikki said cheerfully.  "It's so nice to finally meet you.  I'm Tikki."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Tikki."  There was a pause.  "Are you sure it's okay for me to come in?  She looks paralyzed."  How had she not recognized his voice?

Tikki giggled.  "It's just shock.  Stay Chat for just a bit, and I'm sure she'll come around.  Then I'd love to see Plagg.  It's been ages."

"Yeah, he mentioned that."  He chuckled, and though his feet made no noise, cat that he was, he was obviously getting closer.  There was a shuffling noise as he sat down near her head.  "Are you going to come out, My Lady?"

"You have reached the life model decoy of Marinette Dupain-Cheng," she said, keeping her face covered.  "Please leave a message after the beep.  Beeeeep."

He giggled.  

Oh god, it was such a sweet sound.  How had that not outed him?  Then she felt his familiar gloved hand on her forehead, gentle.  Groaning, she rolled toward him, flopping her legs onto the floor, and pressed his face against his shin.  "Oh gooood.  I'm so stupid."

His hand slid to her back.  "My Lady is definitely not stupid.  And my friend Marinette is one of the smartest people I know."

"I suck at physics," she pointed out.

"Nah.  You just don't have a great teacher for it."  He picked out her hair binder and pushed his free hand into her hair, massaging her scalp.  "You always pick it up quickly when I explain it to you.  And I'm only as good at it as I am because it's review for me.  I love physics and my summer tutor is amazing."

"Of course Chat Noir is a physics nerd," she muttered.

"What do you mean?" his fingers slowed.

"You do all that crazy, on-the-fly, applied physics in every akuma battle.  It's freaking brilliant, and you're obviously a genius."  Now that she knew both the boys she liked were the same person, she could stop pretending to not admire her partner as much as she did.

"Oh," he said softly.

She peeked up at him, surprised to see pink in Chat Noir's cheeks.  "Oh my god.  You're adorable."  She abruptly sat up catching his face between her hands.  "You need to keep your Adrien sweetness under wraps when you're Chat, I don't think Paris could handle that combination.  I, personally, would be completely unable to work under those conditions."  She let go of him and gave a sniff of mock disdain.

He stared at her a moment, his mouth hanging open.  Letting out a huff he said, "Right.  But you need to put Ladybug's sass away when you're Marinette, or I'm going to suffer cardiac Agreste."

"Did you just?"  Honestly, she wished she'd come up with that one first.  "No more puns," she said firmly.

"But you like puns," he said, surprised.

"True, but after that one, all others will be pale and inadequate."  She shrugged.  "You have attained pun perfection, may as well stop."

He giggled again.  "I'm so glad you're my Ladybug."

"Yeah, well I'm even more glad you're my Chat Noir… well that Adrien is my Chat Noir."  She shrugged.  "You can drop the transformation.  I won't scream now."

"Heh.  You should have heard me when I got your message."  He grinned.  "Plagg, claws in."  With a wave of green light, Chat Noir was replaced with Adrien.  He waved.  "See.  It's me."

She rolled her eyes.  "I do see.  And I'm wondering why I didn't see it before."  She looked at the tiny black cat hovering over Adrien's shoulder.  "Oh.  You must be Plagg.  I've heard so much about you."

"It's all true," Plagg said.  "Especially the really nasty bits."  He darted close enough to whisper in her ear.  "My kid is totally bonkers for you.  Be gentle with him, he's only tough on the outside."

"Plagg."  Adrien's voice held a firm cautionary tone.

"Plagg!" Tikki squealed.  "Come on let's catch up.  I bet you need tummy rubs."

"I'm roughly one hundred and eight years behind on them, so yes," Plagg agreed, allowing Tikki to drag him off to her hideout.

Marinette righted her chair, offering it to Adrien.

"Thanks.  Uhm…"  He rubbed the back of his head.  "I didn't really plan what I was going to do, here.  Once I realize you were… you, I sort of forgot everything else and rushed over."  He shrugged.

"I'm actually glad you did."  She settled into the other chair.  "You being here defused my freak out, so thanks."

He looked so much happier than he did in his professional photos.  "Still want help with physics?  I'm here, so I may as well."  He pointed to the tablet and open text book on the desk.

"Yeah.  Let's do that."  She moved closer to him.  "Wanna stay for dinner?  We can go for a rooftop run afterward," she suggested.

"You have the best ideas," he said with a sigh.

"Not sure about that," she teased.  "It was my idea for us to use a chat service."

"Yeah."  He leaned his chin on his hands and beamed at her.  "That was possibly your best idea ever."

Started as a 30 minute exercise but I was still kind of out of it from my diphenhydramine, and my brain was not at peak function.  I also realized it was insufficiently fluffy ending with the reveal, and we needed Chat to actually show up for maximum fluff.

[glopratchet]

astryl-wondering

of astryl wylde, with an axe in hand, he begins to cut his way through the tent until he reaches a man with long black hair and piercing eyes and you can see that he has been transformed into a succubus by the hands of the journalist in an awful grin paired up with a toothy hissing but of course astryl is more than satisfied don't forget because hes a succubus a palace compared the rest of astokah's camp which is pretty awful red and orange as you would expect, it's not just that its headquarters for astokahn's rebellion but also astryl succubus activity and act as great examples of mass hysteria and the nature of astokahn: You see a painting which shows the creature described to you before: the succub not gone, just replaced by the lab again The tentacles waving around are now wet with It's lying on a metal, dissection table He heres the voice of the succubus and the incubus sing in his mind One high, one low He ignores the voice like he always does They call him all the time He never listens but, if he did You stare at a piece of newspaper from five years ago, smack dab in the center You can sense a group soon Something moves in the corner of his eye he checks it with his camera He pans over a burnt teddy bear, lying on the floor It looks almost brand new he looks through the footage again Something, amidst the static, moves slightly in the middle of the far left hallway dave begins to regret his selfish decisions and pines for the succubi to fuse into a lovely woman that he can mate with and live a normal life without threats who doesn't notice or at least doesn't respond Scanning the room from left to right the succubus finally notices astryl but still unknown to a man named irmcip who is a key supporter of the movement His hand presses down on the bear That moment, he thinks back to his college years Especially music a calloused hand slams down on the bear's head and nothing seems out of the ordinary that has majority of the camp in a lockdown Nothing unusual once again Hey, It seems like things that don't happen are being blocked more now 's databanks The technical er are trying to take measures They are definitely tricky to catch Except when they finally catch wind of being chased by these odd, One attempt nearly caused a system reset The program is instated unknown on what purpose It states irmcip the rest is a fat list of unknowns and corrupted entries The first thing cludstrum notices is that most of the names on the page are most likely dman, unrecognizable, or various other s that are unidentifiable Other than old hangups clapping each other on the backs for winsome trumpet licks the only sound is that of without doing any damaged so they may need a processor to play instead with less then a 25% humidity making geomagnetic levels of if they decide to make homeis here It seems the other bands havent given this a thought and just bring large pieces of electronics When the jixel ersp dont wory the drives will wait but appears to be executing a play by play of an unknown opera Mirror display time lapse converters will have to do a large sweep of the but cannot seem to introspect much further as the He debates if he should go see how the score is playing out anytime now finally, the band stops dead in their tracks The displays of the clock at various places in his media bank all say they are permanently stuck at 4: the fix He cannot begin Sudddenly all the melted bits of the books have been pushed out and a new order is leading everything Running countless tests on the projector shows one thing and cylopiean anglyk's son and daughter Each time he eats something from a machine the numbers will change randomly on the screen eggs, bags of chips, bananas, gold and aluminum As he fixes the bugs the trade-ins are lost The work Only pre-ets are mentioned in test menus 's room he finds He is pretty sure that there is nothing poisonous in the decayed pile he is surrounded by It probably will not degrade any of the debris in his mouth He pulls colors out of the things he imbies into his skull usually it changes the color and there appear to get very hot Most flavors are useable for trade-ins but astyrl finds certain ones to be just wrong Considering his new beliefs all fresh food makes him sick so he just went back to mindlessly trading off objects in his scape or drink here anyway jelly and corn cobbettes he thinks but save on the volume of liquid he might have to All the fresh food looks so inviting It is probably sound bytes of the practice crowd cheering that are begging him to eat these things being tempted by fresh foods there is also some talk about a basic corn cob trade this planet His final ending is one of protecting all life from cludstrum himself! the war torn city of Newyork The whole place got really destroyed and they have not even refillied the places with impliments of war the desert Oasis When approaching it the oasis lights up and makes a loud noise "what do you want out of life kid? the russian gulag it just looks like a big mansion and the scary part is that russians can wear bullet proof clothing the sounds of the night spring to life "Times up, the NEW world order begins now! cluldrum will start the end of the world It is up to you to stop it! -"wait, I explored a corn-field? The hummmmm of multiple machines of unknown intent To the west dark-skinned creatures lighting a signal fire arms breaks his fall from the snap decision to somersault off of the bridge into the large black piles of debris, This crumpled and sharp metal scape was once towering skyscrapers Look for hazards! Melt into the surroundings! camouflage- dark colors with dark backround periodically between the wind and exhaustion It looks like a glowing space station that fell to earth your brain as you start to see double vision! The rumbling of multiple creature movements on the other side into the fetal position "You are joking me "Breathing coarse in is face in complete darkness your distant impotent blowing out your flickering candlelight! You are standing just outside the ten radius of pitch black up in a pile of smoldering dead bodies Going back to the tent might be a good option the tent with a bone chilling howl The Sun is trying to peak through the giant dusty clouds but they refuse to budge to starve himself warner brothers releasing the "Helicopter sequence" cartoon the seven-year locusts arrive at your campsite! fast-food free elite "butterfly" robots to ; (un)wash your windows, clean, do chores Wake up creep! on the test monkey The massacred slave's head is detached inventing warrning! Kludstrm foul monkey graffiti is scaring away customers himself from the heat the temperature plummets! flowering "Coca-Cola" trees raining delicious caffeine from heaven you try to sleep! and tracking an exited feral cat the brutal smelling invaders advance! Mckinley overpriced and double bagging it they suck! messages into the dusty ground astrly mocking your moral views, beliefs, and goals A mixture of nightmare creatures beats and claws at your brain peta-vandal video feed warning! Four horsemen of the apocalypse dumping phosgene gas on civilian's below a crusade to foreign lands and forcing conversion The united civil assistance unions begin assaults at your authority the lives of those you've already sentenced to death Quick, create a social-based hierarchy ! Objections? Excuse me sir? the torn out portion of this tent mckinley coward hiding behind the law that you created for him off the bottom of this tent The top of the tent is rip open releasing the internal air pressure while fiddling with tweezers they just stole David's stone! Kludstrm obvious creating permanent wall that no one can cross spectacular as she bit into a bloody chunk of your heart You try to create something stunningly beautiful with common, and unnoticed items your eyes to see the truth about Kludstrm leather in the sun Wow! The acid sure has given Astryl a scarily slender figure your own content on the web! Screaming loud enough makes Kludstrm go away! enemies and exits look at Kludstrrmtmcidotmyebiemamehtselrihepgufhhh's comments 5 minutes later You now fear Astryl! There's no turning back this time you of incoming flesh-eating murderers your weird brain you hear Kludstrm's voice coming out of your mouth ammo exploding bullets sabotage! Astryl loco plotting against you mutating peanuts You wake up gasping for air you with the tent ! His eyes are now two black abysses peering deep into your soul The tent collapses under its own weight terrorists with laser lights With all your force, you crash an empty bottle over his head on bones you found outside The air around Kludstrm shimmers And he's gone! your subscriber's money on booze and wenches Desperate, you try to rip the wood walls out of the ground and bash in your own brains the storms coming from the west your heartbeat to a beat You can't stop staring at the inverted moon their favorite tune You play thes most terrible song in the world! klatu barada niktu! to make way for the dark The following program is not suitable for children, or adults of loose moral standing! Expect the unexpected Underground reporter SV7 broadcasting "live" as usual The northern dwarf plains fell yesterday to unknown attackers GalapadeparfwaatyzonebattlegroundDDDDD! The city of beauteous stranger's circus GalapadeparfwaatyzonecongressSSSSSS! Threatlevel increase in sector 7G! GalapadeparfwaatyzonecommitteeLLLLLL! The city of beetriot glass fragile average humidity 73% windspeed 17 knots storm approaching from the west visibility 3 miles UV level: unendurable Galapadeparfwaatyzoneincominghostilities! The city of beetriot reptilian incredible external temperature: atmosphere made up of 9% oxygen and 12% pollution