#and best believe him and Chloe have A LOT of scenes bumping heads

[mrsgaryrennell]

Remember when Gary said he wasn’t the jealous type

Gary later in the game 🤡

[purrincess-chat]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH12

It’s ya boooooy! Malin is here!! Super huge shout out to @salty-french-fry for bringing him to life. I commissioned her to draw all of my OC hero babies, so you can see Malin in all of his anime boy glory here! We stan a trans bicon. And for those who are unaware, Malin is another name for fox in French, but like with the connotation of calling someone sly or tricky. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! I tweaked it quite a bit from the original. ;)

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Chapter 12: WTF Do I Know

“I know our duty is to the city, but I can’t help these feelings stirring my heart. Every time I see her brilliant blue eyes shining in the moonlight, I am overcome with passion and admiration. She truly is Miraculous.” Eliott looked to Marinette sitting cross-legged on the floor for approval. “How was that?”

“Incredible! You really have Chat Noir down,” she said.

Eliott rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, but I still feel like I could do better. Opening night is only a week away, and I’m playing one of the leads. Everything has to be perfect.” He paced the length of the stage, adjusting his black mask.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. You make a wonderfully convincing Chat Noir.” She assured him—and she should know.

“Wonderfully convincing isn’t perfect. This play is a tribute to Ladybug and Chat Noir’s triumph on Heroes’ Day. If I screw up then I’ll be dishonoring them.” He turned and gestured to the impressive backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.

“No, you won’t.” Marinette stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re an amazing actor, and I know you’re gonna kill it.”

“Places in five everyone!” The director swept through the stage.

Stagehands rushed around the set. Costume designers made last-minute alterations, and each prop was meticulously tested and placed for ease of access during scene changes. Marinette never realized how chaotic theater was behind the scenes.

Eliott let a deep breath past his lips, and Marinette offered him a smile. “I’ll be watching in the audience. You’re gonna do great.”

“Thanks, Marinette,” he said. “And thanks for coming to watch our dress rehearsal.”

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“Sorry I’m so crazy about everything, I just want to be the best.” He fiddled with his gloves. “I’ve been studying English since I was little because my dream is to perform on Broadway. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s what I’ve wanted ever since my grandma and I watched a play together when I was a kid.”

“You’ll get there, and I’ll be sitting in the front row with Macy, Martin, and Adrien.”

Eliott smiled at that, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. “I actually owe you, Marinette. You’ve helped me a lot as an actor since we met.”

“Me? How?”

“You taught me to take risks. Before I met you, I was just coasting through life, staying out of the way, playing it safe, but now I can stand up for other people and speak out,” he explained. “You helped me find the courage to step outside my comfort zone.”

Her cheeks burned, but she smiled at the sentiment. All of her new friends gave praise so easily—something Marinette wasn’t used to. Helping others wasn’t about getting rewarded, and in most cases, the attention just made her squirm. She helped her friends because she cared. Although, even if their compliments embarrassed her, it was nice to know she was appreciated.

“Watch where you’re going!” A nasally voice grabbed their attention.

“Sorry!” A tiny stagehand shrank under the icy glare of her aggressor.

Eliott sprang into action to diffuse the situation. “Margot, is there a problem?”

“She bumped into me! Can you imagine if I had fallen and broken my wrist a week before opening night? How can I play Ladybug with a broken wrist?” Margot shouted.

Eliott stepped between her and the stagehand, holding up defensive hands. “I’m sure it was just an accident. No one got hurt, so why don’t you go cool off? We’re almost ready to start.”

“Ugh, whatever. Just stay out of my way!”

As she stalked off, Eliott turned to the small girl. “Are you okay, Lisette?”

“You know my name?” Her eyes widened.

“Of course. You hand me my props before I go on stage,” he said. “Don’t let Margot get to you. She’s just nervous because the show is in a week, and it’s her first time playing a lead.”

“It was my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going,” Lisette said.

Eliott tucked a strand of her blonde hair back into place, brushing her cheek with his thumb. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re all a little high strung right now.”

“You’re not.”

Eliott flashed her a playful grin. “I’m a good actor.”

“I know,” she said, and when Eliott quirked a brow she fumbled to add, “I-I’ve kind of had to watch you for the past several months. You’re really good.”

“Wow, thanks, Lisette. I’m flattered that a pretty girl like you is a fan of mine,” Eliott said.

Her cheeks flushed, and she gave a small nod before scurrying off to her position at the director’s order.

Marinette couldn’t help the smile on her lips as Eliott found his mark and took a few deep breaths to center himself. He’d grown a lot since they met, and if someone had to play Chat Noir, she was glad it was him. She’d been uncertain at first, but Eliott really was worthy of being a hero, even if his costar was the worst. How could they cast such a brat to play Ladybug?

Taking her seat in the audience, Marinette thought back to her encounter with Gabrielle several nights prior. True to her word, Gabrielle hadn’t bothered them since, but what she was doing out on her own like that? And what was up with the apron in her bag? Something fishy was going on with her, but at least she was keeping her word. It was about time Marinette got some peace and quiet.

♪♫♪ I’m Not Calling You a Liar ♪♫♪

When the school bell rang, Alya remained seated, lips pursed. Her other classmates gathered their backpacks, eager to enjoy their weekend plans. Adrien paid her no mind as he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed everyone else out. They hadn’t spoken since their last encounter, and Alya still wasn’t sure what to think. He sounded so sure of himself. After being friends with Marinette, she knew far more about Adrien Agreste than she ever cared to, and truthfully, Alya didn’t think he was capable of being malicious.

Don’t believe everything Lila tells you. Be a journalist. Investigate.

But how? It’s not like Alya could just call up a bunch of celebrities and foreign princes to ask them to corroborate all of Lila’s stories, and even if she could, what would Lila think if they proved Adrien wrong? Or worse, what would Alya think if they proved him right? If they proved Marinette right…

It had been two weeks since she left. Two weeks since they… Alya had been hurt at first, and her heart still ached thinking about it now. In the grand scheme of things, she hadn’t known Marinette that long—only a few months—so it was possible that there were things Alya didn’t know about her. Dark secrets she kept hidden. But if that were possible for Marinette, couldn’t the same be true for Lila? And why was Alya so afraid to go looking?

“Alya? Did you hear me?”

She blinked out of her trance. “Sorry, what?”

“You’ve been awfully spacey lately,” Lila remarked. “I was just saying that I have an important meeting today with my youth ambassadors committee. Clara Nightingale has promised to sponsor our clean water initiative, and today’s the only day we can meet with her. Is there any way you can take care of that thing Mlle. Bustier needed for me?”

Don’t believe her.

“Actually, Lila, I have to go pick up my little sisters because Nora has practice this afternoon, and Mlle. Bustier did ask you to do it,” Alya said.

Lila’s eyebrows raised, but just as quickly, she puckered her lips into a pout. “Is there any way you could have Nino pick up your sisters? This meeting is really important.”

“Nino promised Juleka he’d help Kitty Section with their sound system today so they can practice before their gig this weekend.” Her heart pounded as Lila’s lip twitched.

“I mean, I guess I can put off my meeting. Those kids in India will just have to go a little while longer without clean drinking water…” Lila eyed her.

“Ya know, if you’re too busy to keep up with your class rep stuff, you can always tell Mlle. Bustier to let us elect someone else. I’m sure everyone would understand,” Alya said pointedly.

“And let Chloe become the class rep again? I couldn’t do that to you guys.” Lila shook her head.

“True, but I can’t cover for you all the time. I have my own stuff going on. Maybe I’m not saving third world countries, but sometimes I have a life to live too,” Alya said. “You were elected to do all of this, you know.”

“No, I understand,” Lila sighed. “I’ve been putting too much pressure on you to do my job. It’s just so hard to juggle going to school and saving the world. I’ll figure out a way to do it for all of you because you’re my friends, and my friends are just as important to me as any starving, third-world country.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that you’ll be putting in more effort.” Alya stood up. “Have a good weekend.”

“Oh, I’m sure my weekend will be better than those thirsty children in Iran.”

Alya stopped in the doorway. “Don’t you mean in India?”

“What?”

“Earlier you said the meeting was for children in India. Now you just said Iran,” Alya said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s what I meant,” Lila said. “I have a different thing for Iran next week. It’s hard to keep everything straight when you’re so busy.”

“Right.” Alya’s eyes narrowed. “Well, good luck.”

“Give your sisters a hug for me!”

Alya’s hands shook as she headed up the hall. It was probably nothing, just a simple mix up like she said, but… Given the circumstances, it was a little suspicious. One thing was certain: Alya would be keeping an eye on her.

♪♫♪ Thnks fr th Mmrs ♪♫♪

“Your rehearsal was amazing,” Marinette said afterward over tea. “Well, except for Margot’s prop mishap. I thought she was going to have a meltdown.”

Eliott stirred his drink with a smirk. “She’s a great actress until something goes wrong,” he chuckled. “I just feel bad for Lisette. She looked like she wanted to kill her.”

“Speaking of Lisette…” Marinette gave him a knowing look. “I think she might have a crush on you.”

“Lisette? Nah.” Eliott averted his gaze, taking a sip of his tea. “I’m not anyone important. There’s no way she’d be into me.”

“That’s not true. You’re an amazing actor,” Marinette said. “I mean that, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Thanks, I guess the thought of someone liking me just makes me nervous.” He bit his lip.

“Come on. You flirt with everyone all the time,” Marinette said. “You flirted with me on my first day of school.”

“Flirting is different. Just because I flirt with people doesn’t mean they have to like me back,” he said, then biting his lip, added, “Do you really think she likes me?”

“As someone who struggles to get two coherent sentences out around the boy she likes, I think she likes you more than you know,” Marinette said.

“Speaking of… You and Adrien sure seem to get along.” He sipped his tea with a satisfied smirk as Marinette’s cheeks burned. He didn’t waste any time flipping the script, but it was her fault for opening that door.

“Oh, do we? I mean, of course we do. We’re just friends, I don’t have feelings for him at all,” she said with a nervous titter.

“I never said you did,” Eliott said.

“Oh, um, yeah, well then I- don’t tell Macy.” She hung her head in defeat.

“Your secret’s safe with me.” He shrugged. “But you don’t have to worry about Macy’s crush. It’s superficial. She fixates on some famous guy for a while, then moves on when something new catches her eye.”

Marinette relaxed. “Good. I’ve just liked Adrien for a long time, and ever since I left my old school, he’s been paying more attention to me, so…I don’t want it to come between us.”

“Nah, I’m sure if she knew she’d back off,” Eliott assured her. “She’s extremely loyal to her friends and would never try to take away something you wanted even if she wants it too. One time she and I argued for twenty minutes because she convinced herself I wanted the last cookie on the plate. We ended up breaking it in half.”

“That’s a relief.” Marinette let out a breath.

“Though I do have to wonder which sounds better, Marinette Agreste or Adrien Dupain-Cheng?”

Marinette nearly choked on her tea. “Eliott!”

“I’m kinda partial to Adrien Dupain-Cheng myself.”

“Stop!” She covered her face, cheeks burning, and Eliott threw his head back with a laugh.

A herd of people stampeded up the sidewalk right before a loud crash sounded a few blocks over. Debris fell from the ceiling, and Eliott tackled Marinette to the ground, cradling her head.

“That sounded close, we should run.” He pulled her to her feet. “My yacht isn’t far from here, we can hide there.”

As much as she hated to do it, Marinette needed to get away. Gradually, she let herself slip from his grasp in the crowd. Eliott turned over his shoulder in an attempt to reach her again, but too many people stood between them.

“Marinette!”

“Go! I’ll catch up,” she called.

His eyebrows furrowed worriedly, but he pressed on without question.

Marinette ducked into a nearby alley and opened her purse. “Ready, Tikki? Transform me!”

Ladybug tossed her yoyo across the street, tugging the slack and launching herself into the rooftops. Racing down the row of buildings, she followed the civilian trail to the scene of the attack. Overturned cars and broken windows signaled that she was on the right track, and she arrived at the same time as Chat Noir.

“Well, well we meet again, m’lady.” His flirtatious lilt echoed between the buildings as he staff-coptered down to join her.

“I would hope so since saving the city is our job.” She flicked his bell. “I think it’s about time we clocked in, don’t you?”

“Ladies first.” Chat Noir bowed as Ladybug tossed her yoyo and shot into action. “Don’t mean to interrupt your tirade, but I’m gonna need to see some license and registration for that car,” he said as they landed. “What’s the matter? Rough break up?”

The akuma turned to them with a growl, tossing the car aside, and Ladybug spotted a small blonde girl cowering underneath.

“Civilian alert!”

“On it.” Chat Noir charged forward, brandishing his staff.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir! I am Showstopper, and I’m about to give Paris the performance of a lifetime after I get rid of her.”

The small girl on the ground cowered under Showstopper’s glare, her blonde buns oddly familiar…

Ladybug gasped. “That’s Lisette which means Showstopper must be Margot! She really was upset by that mistake.”

Lisette attempted to run, but Showstopper served a ball of light at her with the tennis racket—the lucky charm prop from the play and likely where the akuma was hiding. The attack froze Lisette in place, but before Showstopper could make her next move, she blocked a blow from Chat Noir’s staff. A few seconds passed, and the magic faded, sending Lisette toppling forward.

“So that’s it,” Ladybug said, then to Chat Noir called, “Don’t let her hit you, or she’ll freeze you for a few seconds!”

“Got it!” He dodged an orb.

Once Showstopper drove him back several paces, she dashed after Lisette, launching a bus to the end of the street to block the exit.

“Going somewhere?”

“No, but you are.” Ladybug hooked her yoyo around Showstopper’s ankle. Showstopper lobbed several orbs at her before she could pull the slack, and Ladybug backflipped out of the way, diving for cover with Chat Noir behind two flipped cars.

“We need a plan to get that girl out of here.” He peeked over the side.  

Ladybug palmed her yoyo. “Lucky Charm!” Her eyebrows raised as a paper lantern landed in her hands.

“Oh great, you can light the way for her to wreck that girl,” Chat Noir said.

Ladybug pursed her lips contemplatively. “I need to go to Master Fu,” she said. “Can you handle things until I get back?”

“Just don’t keep me waiting too long.” Chat Noir nodded before they broke off.

Leaving in the middle of a battle was always risky, but this wasn’t a fight they could win alone. She just hoped that she could find an ally in time.

“Master Fu?” Marinette knocked, peeking her head inside.

“What is it, Marinette?” He glanced up from his book.

“I need to borrow a Miraculous to win this battle.”

Master Fu retrieved the Miracle Box from the phonograph and placed it on the mat in front of her. “Have you found someone you trust to wield it?”

Marinette contemplated her choices carefully, running strategies in her head. After she and Alya split up, she wasn’t sure she’d ever trust someone enough to replace Rena Rouge, but her new friends proved her wrong. Taking a deep breath, she nodded and reached for the fox. “I know exactly who to pick, and I won’t let you down this time.”

Master Fu offered her one of his proud, grandfatherly smiles. “You never have. I have always had faith in you, Marinette.”

Her chest swirled with pride as she stood up. “Transform me.”

Eliott’s yacht was empty when Ladybug touched down on the deck. He told Marinette to hide there, so she’d been certain it was where he’d be. Then again, Eliott wasn’t the same cowardly boy he’d been when they met, and he didn’t turn his back on a friend. She knew where to find him.

“Marinette?” His voice echoed between the buildings of the abandoned street, and he flinched when Ladybug landed behind him. “Ladybug! Thank goodness, have you seen my friend Marinette? We got separated, and I told her to meet at my yacht, but-”

“Don’t worry. She’s safe,” Ladybug said. “Actually, I need your help.”

“My help?” He arched a brow. “I mean, sure, I'll do anything.”

“Eliott Chasse, this is the Miraculous of the fox which grants the power of illusion. You will use it to fight for the greater good.” She extended the box to him.

“Whoa, you're giving me a Miraculous?” he gasped. “But wait, why me? What happened to Rena Rouge?”

“She's...not around.” Ladybug averted her gaze. “Will you help me?”

“I-I dunno. I think my friend Marinette would be way better at this than me.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Eliott…” Ladybug smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You are the right person for this job. Have courage and believe in yourself. That's all you need to be a superhero.”

Eliott pressed his lips together, then accepted the box with a nod. Shielding his eyes from the bright light, he gaped in disbelief as Trixx materialized. “Whoa!”

“My name’s Trixx. I’m a kwami, and if you want to transform all you have to say is ‘Trixx, transform me!’” she explained as Eliott fastened the clasp of the necklace.

“Alright then. Trixx, transform me!” When the orange light faded, Eliott examined his orange and white suit with wide eyes. “Wait, is this really happening?”

“Do you know how your powers work?” Ladybug asked. There was no time to waste.

“Of course. I studied news footage in preparation for my role as Chat Noir in an upcoming play. I wanted to accurately portray the team's dynamic,” he said.

“Good, then follow me.”

Ladybug tossed her yoyo and shot off. Eliott hesitated only briefly, taking a few steps before leaping over the building after her. He touched down lightly beside her before they shot off again.

“I know it's a lot to take in, but we don't have a lot of time,” Ladybug said. She pulled up the news coverage of the akuma. Showstopper had taken the battle all the way to the Eiffel Tower. She skidded to a stop behind a chimney and closed her yoyo. “Hmm…Lucky Charm!”

“A bottle of soap? At least the villain will be squeaky clean?” Eliott shrugged.

Ladybug turned it over in her hands, a plan forming in her mind. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do.”

- - -

Showstopper held a frozen Lisette over the edge, and Chat Noir held up defensive hands as he attempted to negotiate.

“Hand over your Miraculous, or I'll drop her!”

“Maybe we can come to a compromise,” he reasoned, but Showstopper was in no mood.

“You have five seconds. One!”

“There has to be something else you want.”

“Two.”

“After all this is murder we're talking about.”

“Three!”

“I'm sure she didn't mean any harm.”

“Four!”

“Ladybug, hurry up!”

“Five!”

Before Chat could react, Showstopper released her grip, sending Lisette plunging toward her doom. Chat Noir attempted to dive after her, but Showstopper pitched another orb at him. To his relief, Ladybug swung in to deflect it just in time, but there was no time for gratitude.

“Ladybug! The girl!”

“Already taken care of,” she assured him.

- - -

Lisette unfroze midway down, eyes widening in fear as the ground grew closer. Just as a scream reached her throat, Eliott caught her, carrying her safely back to the Eiffel Tower. Her screams echoed across the bars as she clung to him for dear life, but they quieted the moment she looked into his eyes.

“Falling from heaven, angel?” He set her down gently. “Stay hidden. Showstopper can't see you if we want our plan to work.”

She blinked in shock, cheeks flushing. “Wait!” She caught his wrist as he turned to leave. “W-Who are you?”

“Uh… Call me Malin.” He winked, giving a two-finger salute before leaping up to the rafters.

Malin summoned his Mirage on the way up, cheeks still hot. Now wasn’t the time to worry about what Lisette thought of him. First, he needed to save her.

“You're too late!” Showstopper proclaimed, and Malin cleared his throat.

“Are we?” He clocked a brow.

Showstopper spun around where Malin held his fake damsel. “No!” she growled.

“New friend?” Chat Noir sized him up.

“I'll tell you later,” Ladybug said.

Malin set his illusion free with instructions to run, and as expected, Showstopper gave chase. Ladybug really was a wizard at coming up with plans. When Chat Noir moved to follow, Malin stepped in front of him with a wink.

“Who are you?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Name's Malin, and you are one foxy feline in person, Chat Noir.” He looked him up and down.

“Less flirting, more running. Phase two,” Ladybug ordered. “Kitty, follow me and get ready to use your Cataclysm. Malin, you know what to do.”

“On it.” Malin nodded, leaping back over the edge with a whoop.

Showstopper pursued the fake Lisette to the second-floor restaurants, falling right into their trap. She skidded against the soapy floor as Malin's illusion faded before her eyes. A broom perched between two chairs clotheslined her, sending her tennis racket flying from her grasp right into Chat Noir's waiting Cataclysm.

Malin helped Margot up as Ladybug captured the akuma and returned everything to normal. “Seriously, losing your cool over a prop malfunction is so lame.” He chided. “You're playing Ladybug, so my suggestion is: take a lesson from the real thing and let go of that bad energy.”

Lisette peeked up from the stairs timidly, pacing over to join them. “I'm sorry your yoyo string was tangled. I should have checked it,” she said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Margot rolled her eyes. “Sorry I tried to throw you off the Eiffel Tower.”

“Technically, you did throw her off the Eiffel Tower,” Chat Noir said pointedly.

“You were awesome, Malin.” Ladybug nudged him with her elbow.

“It was your plan, all I did was help.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

Ladybug shook her head. “You saved this girl, and we couldn't have done it without you. Be proud. You're a true superhero.”

Malin bit back a smile, surveying his suit and squaring his shoulders with a new sense of purpose. Ladybug was right. He had his doubts when she asked him because he still had a long way to go before he would consider himself an actual hero. If anyone deserved the title without a Miraculous, it was Marinette, and he owed this opportunity to her. He never would have had the courage to accept Ladybug’s offer without her. It was a shame she’d never know how much she truly changed his life. Maybe one day he could tell her this secret, but for now, he’d wear his secret identity like an invisible badge of honor.

“Pound it!” The three heroes said in unison.

Malin turned to Lisette and bowed formally. “Perhaps I will save you again someday,” he said.

Lisette bit her lip before stretching up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Ladybug took his wrist and toted him off as a dopey grin spread across his lips. They retreated to a private corner at the base of the tower, and Malin returned the necklace to Ladybug. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Eliott shifted his gaze to his shoes with a sigh.

“What's wrong?” Ladybug asked.

“Nothing, just… Lisette kissed Malin, not Eliott.” He kicked at the ground.

“You really like her, don't you?” Ladybug asked.

Eliott flinched, rubbing the back of his neck. That morning the thought of falling in love with someone terrified him, but now… Maybe he hadn’t come down from his heroic high, but with Lisette’s kiss still burning on his cheek, he smiled.

“Yeah, I do,” he said.

“Well, Malin is very charming, but I think she might need someone to walk her home. Think Eliott can handle that?” Ladybug pointed to where Lisette was stepping off the elevator.

Have courage and believe in yourself.

On any other day, the fear of rejection would have convinced him to walk away, and maybe tomorrow it would. But today, today he wasn’t afraid.

“Lisette! Wait up.”

[idk-mlb-is-reals-cute44]

A Miraculously Wonderful Wedding Day

Requested by @crazyfanatic97 (Dress design also by @crazyfanatic97 )

Summary: When Marinette's wedding day is interrupted by an akuma attack, she thinks her luck couldn't be worse. Little does she know, this unfortunate turn of events is about to lead to what might be the most miraculous revelation she's ever had. (AO3) 

*****

Marinette usually considered herself a pretty relaxed person. After coming into her own in the fashion world, finally asking Adrien out, and successfully upholding her responsibilities as Ladybug for almost ten years and counting, she had faced enough “this is gonna be the end of the world” to figure out how to keep her cool in stressful situations. On particularly bad days, she might get a little “loud, angry fashion designer.” On a rare, worse day, she might feel like she was fourteen years old again. 

Today she was at full out teenage-Chloe-levels of stressed. 

For one, it was her wedding day. The week had already been busy. But starting at seven a.m., it had been an endless parade of “how do you want your makeup” and “let me mess with your hair” and “are these flowers ok?” and Marinette wanted to scream. 

But on top of all of that, the fussing and worrying and getting ready, there was an akuma. 

An akuma. On her wedding day. 

To say Marinette was pissed was an understatement. Marinette was experiencing full-on “let’s murder Hawkmoth” levels of rage. 

The ceremony was starting in two hours. There were a million tiny, but also somehow unimaginably important, tasks to complete and details to check. The caterer was late. There was no time left over to deal with a battle. 

But Marinette had been Ladybug for long enough that she didn’t hesitate to clear out the room, citing “wanting some alone time on this special day,” and other such excuses that rolled off the tongue. (She was practiced at this--she knew what she was doing.) 

“This is so unfair,” Marinette complained to Tikki. 

“I know! It sucks!” said Tikki, in companionable indignance. She trusted her chosen not to need any convincing to do her job. 

Marinette gave herself a minute to push down the worries and anger and stress. Paris needed their hero, their Ladybug, right now. Not a stressed out bridezilla. 

(Marinette, in usual fashion, was not giving herself enough credit. To deal with all this, she was a saint.) 

“Tikki, spots on!” 

*****

Ladybug arrived on the scene, to find Chat Noir already there. She smiled at him. Even though the timing was just so inconvenient it had to be cosmically planned, she always loved to see her kitty. 

“Hello, Bugaboo!” Chat called out as she landed on the roof side beside him. 

“Hello, kitty,” Ladybug returned, “It’s always a pleasure to see you, as you know, but I’m hoping we can make this quick? I have a big day.” 

“Same,” he nodded, “I’m short on time as well.” Here he let a big grin loose, and said, as if he couldn’t contain himself in his joy, “I’m getting married.” 

Ladybug gasped. 

“You’re kidding!”

He shook his head. 

“That’s insane. I am too!” she continued, bumping him lightly with her hip. 

Chat snickered. 

“I’m the ying to your yang, right? We’re on the same wavelength!” 

Ladybug laughed. 

An explosion boomed from the north of them. 

“Let’s get to it, hmm?” said Ladybug, slinging her yoyo in the direction of whatever today’s brand of catastrophe would be. 

“Right behind you,” Chat said, taking a running leap. 

****** 

Hawkmoth was apparently bringing out all the stops today. Who knows how much time had passed as Ladybug and Chat Noir faced off against the overpowered, claustrophobia-themed akuma he’d sent out. 

It didn’t help that the longer the two spent struggling, the more their banter and confident energy drained. The time constraint only served to raise the stakes, which didn’t exactly translate to “the superheroes at their best.”

Angoisse, who wore the grossest (bright yellow and somber grey) bodysuit Ladybug had ever seen, had the power to trap people in tiny opaque boxes. Pretty standard akuma. The formula tended to be “something bad happens = does that bad thing to other people.” Hawkmoth was getting bored, it seemed, after all these years. He rarely got too creative. 

Still, the infamous super villain had managed to create a serious challenge this time around, formula or not. 

So, one thing led to another. 

That is to say… Ladybug and Chat Noir got trapped in a teeny, tiny box together. No way out, and hardly any wiggle room. 

Both their timers were running out, so they stood with their eyes closed, waiting for the telltale sparkly, ultra-shiny glow of detransformation. 

What they hadn’t expected was Marinette’s wedding dress. With the poofiest bell shaped skirt to ever exist (or, as close to that as Marinette could reasonably achieve), it was about four or so feet in diameter. It suddenly sprang into existence, and shoved Chat back towards the opposite wall. 

A few things happened, in quick succession. 

Both Marinette and Chat’s eyes involuntarily opened in momentary shock. 

Before Marinette could squeeze her eyes shut, Chat lost his skin tight super suit, in favor of a tuxedo (designed by none other than Marinette). 

A few moments pause, for shock. Here we find lots of rapid blinking, and loss of words. 

“Holy sh-” Adrien started. 

“You’re not supposed to see the dress!” Marinette suddenly squealed, lunging for Adrien. 

She covered his eyes, and he burst out laughing. 

“It’s you!” he almost yelled, his smile so supernova it was probably visible from Mars and rivaled the sun. 

She let out some panicked giggles, which soon became full out cackling. Uncovering his eyes, she grabbed his arms and tucked her face into his neck, shaking with mirth. 

“It’s you…” she returned, then let out one last snort. “I think we might miss our wedding, dear.” 

He enveloped her in a hug. 

“Ehh,” he shrugged, “We’ll elope.” 

Marinette let out a mock shriek. 

“Not on your life, Adrien Agreste!” she pulled back to give him her best imitation of her mother’s sternest face. “What will the families say?!” 

He slowly shook his head, staring at her in earnest wonder. 

“I can’t believe you’re Ladybug,” he said, “The love of my life and my best friend are the same person.” 

“I can’t believe you’re Chat Noir,” Marinette cried, “You’re like, my two favorite people! In one!” 

The two stared at each other, dumbstruck, for a few moments. 

“This is so surreal,” Marinette finally said, “...But also it somehow makes sense? Of course you’re Chat Noir. No one else makes puns as bad as you two-I mean, as you do.” 

“I feel kind of dumb for not realizing sooner,” he said, “We’re total idiots, right?” 

“Total idiots,” she agreed, “Total idiots who are in loooove!” 

“We’re getting married!” Adrien exclaimed. 

“Today! And we’re all dressed up!” Marinette said, “I can’t believe I’m marrying Chat Noir. You! Adrien! Adrien Noir! Chat Agreste!” 

“I’m marrying Ladybug,” Adrien smirked, making the resemblances to his alter ego even more striking, “Fourteen year old me would be over the moon. And you’re Marinette! I’ve got to be the luckiest guy in the world.” 

Marinette leapt forward, kissing him. He let out a surprised gasp, before returning it.  

 “I hope we don’t miss the cake,” she breathed, pulling back. 

“At our own wedding?” Adrien chuckled, a little breathless himself. “I think they’ll wait for us before they get into the cake, sweetie.” 

“You might miss the cake if we don’t bust out of here!” Plagg suddenly interrupted. “I’ve given you like… five minutes for your disgusting love fest. Now you’ve gotta bust us out!” 

“Plagg’s right,” Tikki sighed, sounded disappointed, “Can this be postponed?”

Marinette nodded, digging macarons out of the pockets she’d been very adamant about sewing into her dress. 

“I hope this is alright,” she said to Plagg, “I don't know what you normally eat.” 

Within seconds the dynamic duo was back in costume. 

“Ready, dear wife?” Chat asked, pressing a quick kiss to his lady’s mouth. 

“Not your wife yet, kitty,” Ladybug winked. “I’m ready. Let’s do this!” 

Chat destroyed the box with his signature Cataclysm! 

Spirits were definitely lifted, and the second part of the fight went much quicker than the first. Within ten, twenty minutes Ladybug had purified the akuma and restored the city to its previous, un-rampaged, glory. 

“We’re so late,” Ladybug said, fistbumping her partner. 

“We are!” Chat said. “I’m kind of too happy right now to care.” 

“Me too!” 

They beamed at each other for a moment. 

“Race you,” Ladybug finally said, wiggling her eyebrows. 

“You’re on!” 

***** 

Alya and Sabine were understandably a little mad at Marinette, who had turned up only ten minutes before the ceremony was set to begin. 

Still, she had Supreme Bride Privilege, so all was quickly forgiven. They touched up her Miraculously unruined hair and makeup, and sent her to wait with Tom as the bridal chorus quietly began. 

Marinette’s dress, the instigator of the happy revelation earlier that evening, had delicate off-the-shoulder sleeves. The dress was white, but cut short to reveal the blue underskirt that matched her eyes. Gold trim lined the bodice and waistline, and sparkly star-shaped details peppered the whole affair. Designing her own wedding dress had been possibly the most challenging, and most rewarding, creative process of Marinette’s life. 

Usually, when wearing a design she was proud of, Marinette was hyper aware of everyone’s reaction. Today, as her voluminous skirt swished along the aisle, her hand tucked into her father’s arm, she had eyes only for Adrien. 

They had already seen each other that day, but it had been in the excitement of battle, and the shock of discovering each other’s identities had superseded any other observations. Now, as Marinette milked the walk for all it was worth, moving at almost a snail’s pace, she really took a moment to take in her groom. 

His golden hair was tousled, almost sparkling in the bright mid-afternoon light streaming through the windows. His black tuxedo (with gold and blue accents, to match her own dress) fit him perfectly, and the almost imperceivable dusting of blush and mascara Chloe had insisted upon meant he looked almost too handsome for words. 

But, in all honesty, Marinette couldn't care less about any of that. 

She stared into his bright green eyes, crinkled from his dopey smile, and Marinette felt like she was coming home. She knew he felt the same way. Just like she knew she and her partner would always be an unstoppable team, just like she knew the sun would rise and the moon would set. Adrien was Chat Noir, her kitty, her best friend, the love of her life and her ultimate inspiration. She had hardly known so for even thirty minutes, but she had never known something so fully and completely as she did now. 

As she finally stepped up to the dais, she shot him a quick wink, before turning to the priest. 

Vows were exchanged. They both said their “I do”s. They gave their first kiss as a married couple. 

Later, as they sat, feet near-blistered from dancing and eyes sparkling with happiness, sharing a piece of cake, they had their second kiss. And their third. And their forth. 

“My kitty.” Marinette giggled. 

“Today was perfect, wasn’t it my lady?” 

And despite the stress, and the battle, and almost being late to her own special day, Marinette was completely sincere when she said, “Yes. Yes it was.” 

[miraculouscontent]

*rubs hands together*

I will say this before I start: there are a lot of good shots and musical cues in this episode. I mean, that doesn’t make it a good episode, but I do recall being on edge when Hawk Moth started enacting his plan with Catalyst.

...Granted, all of that completely died when one of the akuma touched Marinette’s purse, but ehhhhhhh, we’ll get there.

Duusu is also really adorable (even if the “romantic” line was rather forced and painful) and I’m glad we FINALLY have confirmation on the whole Emilie thing even if we could’ve already guessed it.

[Dire Liar]

First things first, I don’t know why Bustier felt the need to call Marinette forward in front of the whole class? And I mean that in a character sense.

Back in “Zombizou,” Bustier escorted Marinette outside to talk to her about setting a good example for Chloe. It’s even set up in a way that makes Marinette feel like she’s the one in trouble (especially since Bustier doesn’t talk to Chloe about it).

Now, the reason why it’s different here is obvious: Lila had to be there so Marinette could call her out and they could both be sent to the principal’s office together, and also because the class wouldn’t be able to defend Marinette had Bustier talked to Marinette about it in private.

The problem is that it makes Bustier look like a terrible teacher for not dealing with this properly. Had she just escorted Marinette out of the class, Marinette still might’ve accused Lila, but it wouldn’t have been so bad and also not involved BUSTIER LITERALLY CALLING OUT LILA’S BAD GRADES IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS.

(which is honestly stupid regardless; if Marinette is right and Lila framed her, Bustier literally points out the reason why it would be Lila as if that proves the contrary, since Lila got the worst grade on her test which is absolutely what someone trying to frame someone else would do to try and keep themselves from getting caught??)

Speaking of which, I’m glad this confirms that Marinette is smart enough to ace her tests (since Alya points out that Marinette always scores highly on tests), but my question then becomes how Lila knew that Marinette would. It’s not as if Marinette comes off as the type of person who’d ace every test, and while Lila recognizes that Marinette is smart enough to know that she’s a liar, that doesn’t mean that she’s better at doing tests than, say, Max.

I’d also like to point out that, if Marinette did cheat on the test (as Bustier seems to believe), there’d be no reason for Marinette to keep the answer sheet afterward, so it doesn’t make sense for her to keep it in her backpack. If Lila had managed to find the answer sheet before the test started, give Bustier the anonymous note, and then Bustier asks to see Marinette’s backpack (in private) right before the test began, that’d be different. It would also be different if Lila had made sure that Marinette had ace’d the test perfectly, but we don’t see that.

(willing to excuse the injury since I imagine that Lila kept insisting that she was in pain regardless of the nurse not finding anything wrong)

In addition, let me just say that it’s bizarre to see Bustier tell Marinette that she can’t accuse Lila without proof, only to then send them both to the principal’s office. It’s not quite on the level of not talking to Chloe in “Zombizou,” but it’s still pretty bad. If the note hadn’t been anonymous, then Lila could’ve just gone with Marinette because she’s “the one who saw it happen" even if Bustier wouldn’t explicitly say that. Lila is trying to cover her tracks, but at the same time, she couldn’t have guaranteed that she would be sent to the principal’s office to enact the next part of her plan, which is my issue.

There’s also the fact that this episode continuously goes out of its way to not involve Lila’s mother, especially in the scene where Lila talks about her “disease,” because the writers know that everything’s going to unravel if Lila’s mother is told about any of those lies.

And it’s not as if Lila’s the only factor here.

[Over the Head]

The other thing about this episode is that it’s trying to follow up on the character’s actions in “Chameleon” without actually following up. It features Lila, flashes back to “Chameleon,” and has Lila going through on her threat to turn Marinette’s friends against her.

But it doesn’t feel like a proper follow-up because it doesn’t properly follow up since nothing happens. No one else is given concern about Lila, Adrien continues “supporting Marinette” only in the background (basically “Oni-Chan” Part 2, except it’s Marinette instead of Nathalie, Gorilla, and Ladybug), Alya still believes that Lila is a good person, and Marinette’s expulsion is forgotten about so I guess the class (presumably) just goes right back to trusting her. It’s as if the episode was trying to compensate for all the salt that happened in “Chameleon” but simultaneously couldn’t let things resolve in any way.

It’s a case of “too little, too late,” essentially.

I mean, just for starters is Alya herself. While it’s totally great that she wants to do detective work and that she believes Marinette’s innocence, it doesn’t absolve her from the fact that she can’t have Marinette and Lila’s side at the same time. Like, she literally can’t.

The fact is that Lila is the one who accused Marinette of both pushing her down the stairs and stealing her pendant, yet Alya is convinced that someone who is not Lila is the one who framed Marinette. The pendant is one thing because all Alya knows is that the pendant was in Marinette’s locker--she didn’t know the details of Lila’s accusations--but Lila accused Marinette of pushing her down the stairs. If Alya is supposedly such a great reporter, as she claims to be, then she should know who the one that accused Marinette of doing these things is because that’s the first thing she should go after.

This isn’t even mentioning the fact that Alya later got interviews during her investigation and Lila was one of the people she interviewed.

And let’s be real about this, because I’m sure we can all agree that Lila would not be soft about whether Marinette did these things or not. When Lila goes in on something, she goes all in, and if Alya tried to absolve Marinette of blame for the stair incident by asking (for example) if there was anyone else around at the time, Lila wouldn’t hesitate to confirm that there was no one else. If Lila’s plan is to get everyone to turn on Marinette, then Alya is a prime target, so Lila would put up the vulnerable act and say, “I know that it’s so unlike her, but I’m sure she was the one who did it! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to say anything, because I know you two were close, but it’s the truth.”

Point being, even if Alya didn’t know that it was Lila making those accusations at the time, she would later on, and at that point, she can’t continue being on Lila’s side if she wants to prove Marinette’s innocence.

Alya doesn’t even have any other leads for who might’ve done it, which is ridiculous because CHLOE EXISTS. If Alya is trying to figure out suspects, then Chloe would be the one to target because Chloe has a long-standing history of hating Marinette, yet Alya doesn’t even have a list of potential people who have a grudge against Marinette (which could’ve been hilarious, by the way; Alya trying her absolute hardest to keep Lila out of her suspects, so she starts suspecting people for dumb things like, “Marinette gently bumped into them in the hall once”; WASTED POTENTIAL).

It’s just... dumb that Alya tries to say that Marinette has a motive without thinking about the motives that other people might have for framing Marinette. It felt like they only had her mention motives to rub salt in the wound of anyone who remembers Alya’s jealousy comments from “Chameleon” and “Catalyst.”

AND ANOTHER THING...

Tikki states after the scarlet akuma attack that Alya didn’t get akumatized and that it somehow means that Alya still trusts Marinette.

I...

I have questions.

Like, first of all, Tikki’s comments only make sense when taken into context with Hawk Moth’s plan to use the classmates feeling betrayed by Marinette to akumatize them, which is something that Tikki obviously wouldn’t be aware of.

Secondly, Alya not getting akumatized doesn’t mean anything about how Alya felt during the matter because--I mean--wouldn’t Alya knowing that Marinette is innocent make her more likely to be akumatized? I understand that getting akumatized for the sake of someone else is a rare occurrence in the show, but Alya’s best friend just got expelled and Alya truly believes that she’d been framed, yet she doesn’t get akumatized over it?

Yeah, no. I don’t buy that.

Then, there’s Adrien. Just like with Alya, yes, it’s great that he’s actually doing something for Marinette, but it ultimately means little in the grand scheme of things. While I appreciate that he did try to intervene before Mr. Damocles cut him off and that he tried to put his foot down on Lila’s behavior, here are the facts:

Fact number one is that Marinette had to prompt Adrien before Adrien intervened. Yes, he defended her in class, but when he sees the pendant fall from Marinette’s locker, Marinette has to call out to him directly before Adrien tries to say anything. I honestly can’t blame Mr. Damocles for cutting Adrien off in that moment, because Adrien not stepping forward before Marinette’s prompting would just make Mr. Damocles think that Adrien is only sticking up for Marinette because she’s begging him to.

Fact number two is that Adrien rewarded Lila for her behavior in the end. Regardless of how he spoke to her or how upset he was, Lila is still “friends” with him “officially” and even gets a bonus in that she’s now known to the world as “Gabriel’s muse.”

To some degree, I get what Adrien is doing, but it’s not obvious enough, and this happened all the way back in “Chameleon” too.

Back then, people speculated that Adrien told Marinette not to out Lila because he knew that Lila would just lie her way around it. However, Adrien didn’t say that and thus made it look more like he was just trying to protect Lila’s feelings.

If Adrien was using that logic here, then it seems like he’s using his friendship/status as a bargaining chip, believing that he has no evidence against her (which isn’t true; he knows that Lila isn’t friends with Ladybug and another voice against Lila is more powerful than just Marinette by herself since she “has a motive”) and thus resorting to threatening her with their friendship to get her to do what he wants.

Yet, by standing by Lila’s side and refusing to do anything, Adrien caused a lot of akumatizations, almost causing Marinette’s in particular (twice). Lila was the one who started it, but Adrien is the one refusing to stop her for good.

So yeah. I gave Adrien slack in “Desperada,” but I will not give him any slack here. This is an entirely different game he’s playing and I’m not a fan.

And here’s the thing: I would like to see the conflict on both Adrien and Alya’s ends. It’d be interesting to see Adrien be hurt by Marinette’s situation, but being afraid of speaking out because he doesn’t know what kind of power Lila has to ruin his reputation (which his father would not be happy about). It’d be interesting to see Alya continuously see Lila as a suspect, but trying so hard not to believe it because she’s constantly accused Marinette of just being jealous and doesn’t know how to handle the fact that Marinette has been right all along and Alya favored Lila over her best friend.

But without those pieces there, those conflicts can only be speculated on; not confirmed.

One more note about Adrien since Chat does a thing here as well: this is like the second time that Chat has been fooled by a Ladybug copy (”The Puppeteer 2″ being the first), and what gets me is that it’s never the behavior that throws him off; it’s always something else (like him smelling the wax or the real Ladybug showing up to intervene). He also has to be told again by Ladybug that she loves someone else (when he tries to kiss her) even though she already stated as much when she broke apart Chat and Sentibug.

And BY THE WAY, “I’m in love with someone else,” is not a reason for Chat not to kiss her. Whether Ladybug loves someone else or not is beside the point and implies that it’d be fine if she didn’t love someone else. No, the point is that Chat shouldn’t kiss her because she’s not in love with him and has already said so multiple times.

I dunno, the fact that Ladybug being in love with someone else was brought up three times in this episode makes me wonder if they’re planning something for the finale. It’s just a lot of mentions for one episode.

I would also just like to point out how depressing it is to know that neither Tom and Sabine knew anything about Lila. Marinette apparently never confided in them about her and, even if her parents do believe that Lila’s disease is at fault for what happened, they apparently hold no animosity towards her whatsoever for getting their daughter expelled (they can still feel at least a twinge of anger about Lila even if they believe she’s genuine; it’s called being human).

I mean, granted, I’m not surprised. Tom goes on to talk about how much he knew his daughter was innocent, but I simply do not believe that. They wouldn’t have had their daughter working in their bakery after the shock of getting expelled from a school where she had so many friends if they didn’t believe she did it. Her life was just thrown for a loop and they’re trying to keep her busy with stuff that she clearly doesn’t want to do, so no, I don’t believe for a second that they thought she was innocent. Even with Hawk Moth’s line about revealing the truth when he was akumatizing Sabine, that was directed at Marinette as well, so he naturally would’ve had to swing it as something deeper going on or Marinette wouldn’t have been on board.

OH AND SPEAKING OF MARINETTE--

[why]

I was willing to set aside the lack of focus on Marinette’s conflict in “Queen Wasp” because I both knew it wasn’t going anywhere and knew that it was at least not something affecting Marinette in a severely negative way...

but I will not let up here because oh my god.

Marinette got expelled in this episode, and it’s brushed off at the end like it’s not even a big deal. Everything is just reset to square one, and there are no apologies to Marinette, no “sorry for getting akumatized because I thought you betrayed us,” and Marinette had to call Alya to have someone check up on her because no one checked up on her after all that.

Also, regardless of how negative Marinette must’ve felt after being expelled, it is such a massive disservice to have her not even fight back against the akuma when Chloe rejected her akuma in “Miraculer.” “Chameleon” was a shining moment when Marinette repelled the akuma all by herself, but once it actually touches her and gets inside her head, she doesn’t even resist?

And it’s just a matter of raising the episode’s stakes and showing that Marinette would immediately remove her earrings if she were akumatized in civilian form. Her expulsion isn’t for her character; it’s for the plot.

Heck, and if that’s the case (just needed Marinette to be expelled to turn the class against her), than Mayura’s sentimonster could’ve just been Sentinette instead if Sentibug, with Sentinette going and doing actually bad things or Mayura literally just appearing in front of Lila and putting a Marinette sentimonster under Lila’s control (Lila already accepted an akuma so why not?), then Nathalie keeping Marinette occupied with doing other tasks and claiming that she’s “already told the school” about it (since we’ve seen from “Simon Says” that Gabriel doesn’t need to be Hawk Moth to keep his champions active, so we can presume that it’s the same for sentimonsters) while Sentinette wreaks havoc. Hawk Moth can still just akumatize Nathalie afterward and the results would be the same except Marinette doesn’t have to be involved since the plot isn’t going to touch on her pain anyway. I mean, if Lila ends up having Sentinette as her sentimonster anyway, then that could even give Nathalie the idea of Sentibug later on.

Regardless of how much I care about Gabriel and Nathalie’s plot (which is a mixed bag; cool to see Nathalie doing things on her own but I still don’t know how/why she got feelings for Gabriel), that doesn’t mean that Marinette’s plot has to be sacrificed for it. All of the realistic feelings that Marinette should have are just brushed aside because things are happening and there’s no time for it.

And that’s not even taking into account all the other things that happen in the episode. Not only is Marinette expelled (which Tkki doesn’t comfort her on and just focuses on how she almost gave up the earrings; I’m not saying it’s not important to discuss that part but UGH), but Alya discouraged her from claiming that Lila did anything when Marinette knows it was Lila (again, going back to this “being human” thing; even if Marinette knows that Alya doesn’t have all the information, she has a right to feel hurt), her parents kept her busy with baking instead of letting her breathe or even giving her a day to allow the situation to sink in, and she had to just watch in shock while her own superhero partner believed a sentimonster over herself.

(By the way, unrelated, but while I’m not denying that it was sad to see Sentibug “die,” there is virtually no evidence about Sentibug being a “pure” as Chat claims until Ladybug gives Sentibug the object; like, Chat is literally talking about how there’s nothing evil about her while Sentibug is standing alongside Mayura and glaring at him. There’s simply no time to get to know Sentibug before she inevitably falls.)

There’s also the fact that Marinette, y’know, had to deal with all these terrible emotions on a day where she also had to fight Hawk Moth, so that was great for her, I’m sure.

Not helped by the self-deprecating comment she makes about not being anywhere near as perfect as Sentibug, which tore my heart out in case you’re curious.

I don’t know. This show has a weird habit of involving Marinette with the plot while simultaneously having no idea what to do with her. They have her around to react so that things can happen, but they don’t want to go into the details of how that interaction will affect her on a deep, personal level. It would make sense if that was how Marinette perceived things--that she wasn’t allowed to feel or else risk being akumatized--but the show treats it as if that’s how it should actually work, and then wrap it all up by having Marinette see Lila being called Gabriel’s muse on TV after Marinette herself did literally nothing wrong and everything wrong was being done to her instead.

Thus, it’s just... sad.

[niyes-lahiffe]

Soapy Decks and Flying Underwear

IT’S BAAAACK!!

Ao3

1 | 2

Chapter 3: Markets Hate Pirates

Ok, Nino knew he had just claimed to his entire crew that he would immediately sail to the destination the map led them to, but he realized the longer he looked at it, the less sense it made. Of course he was still beaming as bright as the sun itself, but he went downstairs to see if he could have any better luck in a slightly different environment.

He had been down there for quite a while when he started hearing thumps on the wooden floor above, followed by muffled cheering. His crewmates were certainly having the time of their lives with their excessive celebrating, and their happiness only rekindled the giddy feeling the captain had in his chest. His smile turned into a grin when the trapdoor opened and his best friend came down the steps.

“You should come up and celebrate with us, Nino!” Adrien offered as he took his place before the captain. “Can’t you look away from that map for one second, man?”

“But-“

“No buts, sir, a break will definitely be good for you.” Adrien winked at him, pulling out his sword and using the tip of it to gently lower the map from the captain’s hands. “Kim and Luka are wrestling right now and it’s quite hilarious.”

Nino snickered. “And Luka isn’t a pile of pulp yet?”

“Nope! He’s handling it surprisingly well.” The co-captain leaned against a barrel and his smile turned into a perplexed frown when he looked inside it. “Yo, Cap?”

“What is it, dude?”

“We’re out of oranges.”

Nino stood up abruptly, half-exaggerated, and hissed, “We’re what?”

“Truly unfortunate,” Adrien played along while scratching his chin. “Looks like we’re gonna have to restock.”

Nino placed his fingers to his chin in thought. “Actually, it really has been a while.” He laughed slightly. “We’ve been so caught up in everything that we’ve failed to realize we’re nearly out of everything.”

“It’ll be a good break for you, too,” his best friend agreed. “Wanna give the decks a good clean as I steer us to the market?”

“Ooooh you know I do!”

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

“Wow, nice parry!” Alya complimented her crewmate as she deftly dodged another one of the attacks from his wooden blunted sword.

“Thanks!” Nathaniel responded happily, proud to be complimented by his captain.

His succession threw him off, however, and he was distracted enough that he was unable to defend himself in time when Alya suddenly dropped to a squat and kicked at his legs, knocking him off balance. He grunted when he fell to the floor and frowned when the tip of Alya’s fake sword pointed at his throat.

“Don’t forget to be prepared for anything, though,” she smirked. Nathaniel huffed but graciously accepted her extended hand to help him back up.

“One day I’ll be as good as you,” he said, patting himself to rid of the dust.

“Maybe,” she teased. Alya glanced around at the rest of her crewmates to observe their fighting tactics, pleased with what she saw. Kagami and Max were definitely her best fighters, and seeing them duel was something else. Everyone else of course battled to the best of their ability, and she was indeed impressed, but it was almost entrancing to watch her two most skilled battlers duel.

“Yo, Captain!” A voice sounded from above, knocking her from her trance. Alya looked up to see Alix poking her head out from her post. When she noticed she had the captain’s attention, she called, “We’re about to pass a local market; wanna stop for a little bit to restock and check out their wares?”

Alya walked to the edge of her ship and looked out to see land up ahead. She nodded and turned back to her lookout. “Sure! Probably is a good idea before we head out to find the Jade Turtle.”

“You got it, Cap!”

Marinette appeared beside Alya and gave the captain her wooden sword. “I can steer us there real quick, if you’d like!”

“Sounds good to me, girl.” Alya smiled as Marinette saluted playfully and went on her way to the steering wheel.  

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

The moment the boat was parked at a nearby dock, Kim nearly bolted off before Nino was able to get a firm grip of his shoulder. His crewmate looked back at him, perplexed if not a tad miffed.

Nino smirked at him. "I get that you're excited, Kim, but I need you on boat duty, remember?"

"WHAT?!"

"I can't have anyone stealing this boat or anything inside while we're at the market," the captain explained as he folded his arms. He winked and continued before Kim could open his mouth to protest. "You should consider yourself lucky, since I can only rely on someone I know will truly take good care of this ship."

Kim was obviously flustered by the compliment but was still ornery as he folded his arms and turned away.

"Dooon't worry, Kim, you won't be here all day," Nino snickered, and Kim visibly perked. "I'll have Luka take your place after half the day has passed."

Next to him, Luka froze and said, "Wait, what?"

Nino nodded.

"Why can't Luka and I switch spots so I can go now?" Kim objected.

"Kim, you're great but I don't trust you to remember to come back when you should." Adrien and Luka both had a small coughing fit as they laughed while Kim merely smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Eh, you're right," the lookout finally gave in. "You can count on me, Cap."

"Knew I could," Nino grinned, punching the other pirate playfully in the shoulder before he and the rest of his crew marched off the deck and into the already bustling streets of the marketplace.

As much as Nino loved sailing the seas on his beloved vessel, he always forgot how much he loved exploring bits of the land, too. The welcoming sights and smells drew him in and soon he was lost in the crowd. Adrien still tagged along with him, as he usually did, but Nino quickly lost the rest of his crew, though had full confidence that they would return to his boat by the end of the day.

Now, he had time to enjoy this.

Merchants left and right were yelling encouragingly about their wares to the wandering potential customers, the smell of freshly cooked bread and meat filled the air, children were playing game after game, and the streets bustled with energy as everyone moved back and forth between booths.

Nino and Adrien wandered between booths themselves, gawking at the beautiful jewelry that was far too expensive, and laughing at ones that were in odd shapes. A nearby commotion grabbed both of their attentions, and they both knew one of the ornery voices well.

"HEY! How dare you; I had my eye on that comb!" Chloe suddenly barked at the beautiful young woman standing next to her, who seemed to have just purchased an item: a golden, bee-shaped comb, and Chloe apparently wanted it desperately. The other girl may have been pretty, but despite her adorable freckles, bright blue eyes and bobbed haircut, her glare was nearly sharp enough to slice Chloe to pieces, not to mention the sword on her back undoubtedly would do that if the conversation got any more heated.

"Really? Well, I believe I just bought it first. Good luck next time, and good day." Before the other pirate could wander away, Chloe protested loudly and cut into her path, not allowing her to leave. Adrien leaped forward and grabbed Chloe as her sudden rival finally reached for the sword on her back, and Nino noticed a dark-skinned pirate do the same to the other woman with a, "Whoa whoa whoa, Kagami."

"Chloe, please," Adrien begged, pulling his snarling friend closer to him. "I'm sure we can negotiate. Nicely."

Chloe groaned, "Ugh...fine." She took a deep breath. "Can I have the comb." Adrien poked her harshly in the side and she grunted in pain and annoyance. "Please."

Kagami gave her a long, hard look, before finally replying, "What's in it for me?"

"Alright, I've got money." Chloe reached into her satchel and pulled out a wad of cash, leaning forward to give it to the other pirate. "Here."

"Wait." Kagami ignored the money and reached for Chloe's hand, staring intently at the jewelry on her fingers. "I'll give you the comb for this ring."

"Wait, seriously? I'll have you know this ring is very impor-OW!" She growled at Adrien, who had poked her once again. "Fine, FINE. Take the stupid ring!" The blonde pirate pulled the ring off her finger and Kagami gladly gave her the comb for it. Then, they both turned without saying a word and walked off.

Adrien and Nino nodded at each other, satisfied with the exchange as well. Chloe was definitely a lot of work, but Nino was extremely grateful she had a soft spot for Adrien.

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

"Oh WOW!"

Alya and Marinette stared in surprise at the tiny pirate with short, blond hair and the brightest blue eyes either had ever seen that had approached them.

“Your necklace is so pretty!” she continued, and she blushed when she looked up and noticed their confused yet amused expressions. “OH my bad; I should probably introduce myself.” She giggled. “My name’s Rose!”

Smiling, Alya nodded at her, saying, “Nice to meet you, Rose, I’m-“

“Totally rocking that necklace!!” Rose threw her arms toward her chest giddily as she admired the piece of jewelry. She nearly squealed when she noticed Trixx sitting next to Alya, and she leaned towards the fox excitedly. “Oh my goodness, you have a pet fox, too?! That’s amazing!” Rose reached her arm forward to give Trixx a pat.

Alya lifted a finger quickly. “OH, uh, better be careful, he tends to bite those he doesn’t-“

Trixx accepted Rose’s hand happily and even nuzzled into her arm.

“-know…” Alya lowered her finger as Marinette stared at the smaller pirate in surprise.

Alix suddenly appeared by her crewmates, laughing at the scene before her.

“Oh, Alix, good to see you!” Alya exclaimed. “I’m putting you on fox duty.”

Alix’s smile vanished and her eyes turned incredulous. “WHAT? No way, first boat duty, now this? I’d rather lick a toad!”

As if on command, Trixx, after Rose had said a sweet goodbye, wandered up to Alix and happily wagged his tail at her.

Alya bumped Alix’s shoulder with her own, wiggling her eyebrows. “C’mon, girl, I know you love it.”

“Fine, whatever…” Alix grumbled, though her small smile did not go unnoticed. “Come on, Trixx.” She took off, no doubt intending to cause some more mischief, and the fox followed suit.

“Yo, Rose!” A timid voice from behind sounded. Alya and Marinette turned to see a tall pirate with purple highlights holding up some sort of pink jewel. The girl she called for perked. “Come look at this.”

“Ooooh, coming!” Rose turned back to her new acquaintances and in one breath she said, “It was wonderful to meet you and your fox and I hope you have a good rest of your day, bye!” With that, she took off, leaving a smiling Marinette and Alya to shake their heads fondly.

“That has got to be the most adorable pirate I’ve ever met,” Marinette quipped.

“Speaking of adorable…” Alya felt a smirk steadily growing, peering at her best friend mischievously. “Maybe coming here if the perfect chance to find a cute man for you!”

Marinette’s cheeks turned bright red and she stiffened. “WHAT?”

“Girl, you’re always complaining about being single! Now’s your chance!” as Marinette became a blubbering mess, Alya took a second to look around. “Look, there’s a cute one right there!” she pointed towards a tall, good-looking man with long, blonde hair a few yards away, happily  chatting with a darker-skinned friend of his.

The only response Marinette was able to make was a mortified garble, and Alya turned to find her friend’s face buried in her hands.

The captain took Marinette’s hands and lowered them, and when she looked up with uncertainty, Alya winked cheekily. “You’ll thank me later.” Without any further warning, She grabbed Marinette’s arm and threw her at the boy.

Much to Alya’s delight, Marinette stumbled right into him. Clearly surprised, he placed his hands on her elbows for support and gave the girl a peculiar look.

“I’M-You’re- PRETTY! I-I mean uh! I’m pretty sorry! I’m just...super clumsy…ha…” Marinette managed to stutter out.

The boy blinked a few times before he smiled like the sun. “Oh, it’s no worries at all, m’lady!” He bowed and kissed her hand, giving her a wink when he looked back up.

Marinette looked like she was about to explode.

Alya stood next to the other boy this flirt was talking with before and said, “Wow, I almost regret doing that.”

“Dude…Adrien’s a hopeless sap but I’ve never seen him that romantic before.” The pirate beside her shook his head while laughing softly. “Boy’s suddenly got it bad.”

“So does Marinette.” Though her face was still redder than a cherry, Marinette was clearly very happy with Adrien’s actions and she was giggling up a storm. “I feel SICK.”

“Maybe we should leave them to themselves for a bit,” the other boy suggested. She nodded and together they turned and pushed themselves through crowds a ways away. When they decided to stop in a fairly secluded area, accompanied by a few chairs and booths that weren’t as popular as the others, he turned to Alya and looked her up and down with a small smile. “Name’s Nino, by the way.” He held out his hand.

“Alya,” she replied, giving him a smirk of her own and her hand to shake firmly. She glanced at his back at said, “Is that a mandolin I see, pretty boy?”

“It is indeed.” Nino pulled the instrument off his back and gave it a few playful plucks. “Why are you interested in this?”

“I just want to see how good you are with music,” Alya said. She pulled her own lute from her pouch pocket and twirled it between her fingers, giving her new companion a wink.

His golden eyes grew challenging. “I’ll only show you my… incredible skills if you show me yours.”

She threw him a look just as determined. “But of course!”

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

To say Kim was ecstatic to finally be off boat duty was an understatement. The moment Luka arrived to swap places, Kim nearly created smoke behind with how quickly he dashed off, but it made his crewmate laugh hysterically nonetheless.

Nino and Alya both watched as Kim ran up to a booth selling bread. The look-out grabbed an entire loaf and nearly shoved the whole thing into his mouth, but Chloe snatched it from his hands before he could do so and whacked it upon the top of his head.

"Kim, you brute!" she scolded. "You know you need to pay for that!"

Nino was nearly beaming with sudden pride.

"But I'm a pirate!" The captain nearly laughed at Kim's sudden puppy dog pout.

"That is no excuse. You have money in that wallet and I know it."

A short, pink-haired spunky-looking pirate walked by Kim and waved his beloved wallet in the air. "Yeah, there's tons of money in this. Better keep a close eye on it so no one, say... snatches it." Her smug smile and Kim's dumbfounded face and intense patting of his rear to make sure his wallet was actually gone made Nino snort. Beside him Alya snickered, as well.

"Wh-HEY! You get back here, you punk!" And just like that, they both were gone in a flash.

Nino thought he might've seen something orange chase after them, as well, but the moment he blinked his eyes and squinted to make sure, it was gone.

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

As the sky began to turn a brilliant shade of pink and orange, Alya playfully bumped shoulders with her companion as she put her instrument away, and he soon followed suit.

"Thanks for the fun time," he chided. "We were so good that that one couple gave us a tip!"

She rolled her eyes playfully. "Ivan and Mylene give tips to just about anyone." She looked back at him. "But still, I clearly was better than you."

He faked a pout. There was just something about this woman that really brought out his competitive side. "I'd beg to differ."

Alya scoffed at him. "If you keep talking, you'll be begging, alright."  As Nino blinked a few times at her, she began to walk away, clearly putting a significant sway in her hips as she went. "My companions and I have an important journey to prepare for."

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head with a small smile. "Hopefully, our paths will cross again."

Nino nodded in agreement and made sure to add a quick wink before she looked away. She simply laughed at him as she continued her jaunt away, and Nino caught himself smiling brightly.

Wait.

Was that a fox that just leaped onto her shoulders?

Nino quickly rubbed his eyes and leaned forward to get a better look, but Alya was long lost in the sudden crowd.

What was he doing? He couldn't keep his mind occupied on that. His crew had a mission to fulfill. Nino headed back to his boat, the excitement about what was to come already invigorating his entire spirit. This was finally something the Coral Crew couldn't butt their nosy lives into. This was finally something only he and his crew would enjoy.

[salty-donut-collecter]

Why Not?

Part 12    

Part 11    Masterlist

Trigger Warnings: Anxiousness is mentioned, as well as meds, there’s swearing, a lot of tears, a lot of tension, injuries, and swearing.

*Also, I’m planning on having this story as a slow burn, so please be prepared. ;)

Please tell me if I need to tag anything else :)

Prompts: “Do I look like I give a fuck?”, “I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I’m feeling a lot of  it.”, and “Not to dictate your life, but drop your shitty friends.” 

A/N: Okay guys... shit’s about to hit the fan. I don’t know what else to say about it, really. This is going to be an... interesting couple of chapters coming up. I hope you guys like it, though! You get to see a... different side of the characters. ;P Happy reading! 

Also, if you’d like to be added to the tags list, please let me know! :D

   School, while boring and unnecessary due to the fact that you've already graduated, was one of the best parts of your day. 

   You got to basically do anything you wanted, within reason. The only reason you were there was because all your college courses were online, and being in the school library kept you close to everyone. You could walk with them to and from school, and focus on all your lectures while in the school's library. 

   However, as you guys walked to school, everything was silent. You could practically hear Micheal's jaw grinding, and you actually could hear Scarllet picking at her nails. 

   With a silent sigh, you slip your hand into hers as you two walked together in sync. She needs to stop picking at her fingers until they bleed if she wants to use them to type more scientific theses. And she knew that too. 

   "Try not to get too anxious today. Everything's gonna be alright," you muttered, watching Scarllet nod along in your peripheral vision, "Did you take your meds today?" you ask, now actually turning to look at her.

   She looked... too anxious to have taken her meds.

   "I sort of... forgot.," she mumbled, trying to pick at her thumb. Your hand got in the way, and she gave you a slightly panicked look. 

   A sigh escapes your lips before you can hold it back, but you nod in understanding. "Just remember to take them when we get home, please?" You gave her a hopeful smile.

   Scarllet nodded eagerly, "Yeah, but could you remind me? I'll probably forget by lunch with my muddled brain." she shrugged, a nervous chuckle escaping her throat. 

   You nodded, offering a small smile as you got to the doors of Chloe and Katie's school.

   "Okay you two," you smiled at Katie and Chloe, "Have a good day at school! And if anyone bugs you, don't be afraid to tell 'em off." You winked, hoping they didn't actually know any swear words.  

   Well, Chloe probably does, but that's beside the point.

   It's eight-thirty and everyone is in their class by now, so you've retreated to the library to watch your trig lecture. You wanted to just sit and sleep here; because Trig was your hardest subject. Not because the actual math is hard, but because you can never seem to focus on it. You always ended up zoning out, which meant you had to watch it over again. 

   Hours passed by, and you only left the library once to use the restroom, which surprised the librarian after she saw you chug down four coffees. 

   Then again, was that really surprising for you?

   The last bell of the day rang and you left the library, actually a little nervous about what would happen when you asked about this morning. 

   But it was too late to be nervous because, by the time you got home, things were too tense to be realistically okay. 

   Peter, seemed fine, as always. He asked if you could be his subject for his science project. You accepted, and he looked like he was going to pass out, then cry in his sleep or something.

   Unfortunately, everyone else looked fucked. 

   Micheal had yet another busted lip (you've always wondered how he's managed to keep his snake bites in tacked since he's gotten them), a bruise on his jaw that looked close to bleeding, and the starting of a black eye. But the scariest thing? The scariest thing was how... frazzled he looked. You honestly thought he was going to cry when Maverik stumbled on the sidewalk. 

   Speaking of Maverik, he was acting strangely as well. It looked like he was trying to hide a limp and pain by his ribs. His hood was up the entire walk home, despite the fact that he had a hat (which ended up being held in his pocket), and he didn't talk or smile. Instead, he chose to glare at everyone who passed. He also tried avoiding your gaze, walking ahead of you and keeping his face down. And even though he tried to hide it, you could still hear the way he groaned every time someone bumped into him.

   And that wasn't the worst of it. 

   Katie was on the verge of tears the entire way home, refusing to talk about how her day went. Actually, she refused to talk at all. She kept her head down too, playing with the rim of her shirt. She walked silently without purpose or care, which lead to her tripping multiple times. She also walked into a pole (which Chloe laughed at), and fell on her face without a normal reaction. 

   Chloe was acting as she usually does, somehow ignoring the angry glares Scarllet shot at her every time she sighed. It was like Scarllet wanted her to stop breathing or something.

   The most surprising thing, however, was the fact that Malissa, who always oozed confidence with every breath and fiber of her being, seemed about as anxious as Scarllet is when she forgets to take her meds. 

   You don't know what's been going on, because you've been gone all weekend for a mission, but you know what happened had to have been bad. 

   And just when you thought things wouldn't get any worse, fate decided to prove you wrong.

   When everyone got back to the tower, the real shit went down.

   It all honestly reminded you of a scene from a movie as you watched it play out. Like it was too dramatic and horrible to be true.

   Katie sulked in the living room as she slowly pulled out her homework and a bag full of animal crackers. As soon as she set it down, she hesitated, tears gathering in her eyes as she shook her head and put the bag back in her backpack. 

   Scott, a nearby observer, ave her a  concerned look. 

   "Katie, is everything okay?" he got up from his seat on a nearby couch and moved to sit by Katie, who was trying her god damned hardest to keep herself from crying. "What's wrong?" 

   Katie sniffed, tried to shake her head, she tried to tell him to go away, but when she opened her mouth all she could manage was a choked back sob. She was trying so hard not to cry, she hated crying because it made other people sad, and yet here she was. 

   "Hey hey hey, what's wrong Kit-kat?" Scott asked, looking both pained and concerned by her tears. "What happened?" 

   Katie could hold back anymore, she bawled as she threw herself into Scott's opened arms.

   "Chloe said she'd rather die than eat with me at lunch today!" Katie sobbed, her tears soaking her cheeks as well as Scott's tee shirt. 

   Scott looked surprised, to say the least. He knew Chloe could be a bit harsh, but he didn't think she'd go that far... There had to more to the story, right?

   "What do you mean?" Scott asked, his eyes frantically searching for some sort of lie. He believed her, absolutely, he just hoped... he hoped Chloe wasn't that cruel.

   Katie couldn't breathe, she was trying, she really was, but she couldn't. She was choking on her tears, her nose was too stuffed, and she couldn't focus. She was too distressed.

   Then, as if fate wanted this to get worse, Steve and Bucky entered the living space after just having finished their midday training/workout and showering.

Taglist: @introvertedsin and @galacticalstarcat (Hey, why are you suing Marvel? I’ve been wanting to know for forever, lol. I’m glad I get to finally ask XD)

Also, if anyone has thoughts on how I can improve my writing, where I should go with the story, or similar things, feel free to chat with me! I’d be happy to hear what you guys have to say! :D

[lolainblue]

Phoenix -- Chapter 3

   Shannon was seething as I steered him toward the car, but he wasn't the only one. I was stinging from his newly discovered betrayal. “I can't fucking believe you did that to me. What the hell, Shannon? When did you get so underhanded?”

   “Oh yeah, I was the sneaky one. You stabbed me in the back first,” he shot back at me.

   “You started it? Really? That's your defense? We're not seven anymore and no one stabbed you in the back. If anyone sabotaged you it was you.”

   “Yeah, everyone wants to point out my mistakes but no one is actually willing to hear my side of things or talk it out with me. Jane made mistakes and everyone was all “Oh, it's okay Janey, stop crying, we forgive you.” I fuck up and before we can talk about it at all you're balls deep in my girlfriend!”

   “You're what?” Chloe demanded as she stalked across the lawn. Perfect. Just what this night needed.  Another scene.

   “Not tonight,” I grumbled.

   “Yeah, I think we are going to talk about this tonight,” Chloe said, completely misunderstanding me. “Is this why that redhead came up to me and asked who I was and then told me I needed to go collect my boyfriend?”

   “I meant this happened four years ago...”

   “I told her I didn't have a boyfriend, by the way. Just some asshole who promises me bullshit so I'll suck his dick.”

   I groaned. “Chloe, goddammit tell me you did not fucking say that to her!” Chloe rolled her eyes and handed me my phone.  “You know what, fine. This isn't worth it. Get in the goddamn car and I'll take you back to my place so you can gather your shit and go find someone who'll treat you in the manner you so clearly think you're entitled to.”

   She spluttered but got in the car, glaring at me the entire time. I turned to Shannon, who still stood on the opposite side of the vehicle, refusing to get inside. “As for you, were you holding that “Jane fucked up card” the entire time thinking it was going to get you out of whatever trouble you got into? Did you seriously think you were going to get away with sleeping around on her? Does she seem like the type to you that would go for that? What you and she did weren't even remotely on the same level. You made a conscious decision over and over again. She made an impulsive bad choice when she was drunk, and she owned it immediately. You need to take responsibility for your fucking mistakes for once, Shannon.”

   “Why am I the only one being held to that fucking standard!” Shannon shouted at the top of his lungs. I glanced around nervously and noted some people looking our way. I turned back to try again to get Shannon into the car but he was stalking off.

   “Shannon!” I called after him but he just flipped me off and kept walking. I got in the car and drove after him.

   “I'll call a cab. Fuck off,” he growled before flipping me off again and then walking away in the opposite direction. I looked over at Chloe who was sitting in the passenger seat, arms folded, looking at me like I was asshole of the year. I was done with both of them. I headed for home.

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

   I called Roger the next day but after two rings it went straight to voicemail. I received a text a few minutes later – Now is not a good time – and I tossed the phone down in frustration. I wondered if either of them had any intentions of talking to me. Maybe they were just trying once again to let this all go, but I thought we had proven pretty conclusively last night that simply wasn't going to happen. I didn't know what chatting about it was going to improve but ignoring things hadn't made them go away, they had only festered. I didn't like having this hanging over me, and I hated that Shannon's manipulations had made me look like such a jackass. I wondered what they had thought about me all these years. No wonder Roger had stopped speaking to me.

   Shannon didn't come back home the next day or the day after that either. This was nothing new, he had been disappearing for days and even weeks since he was a teenager, but I had never stopped worrying about him when he did. Even when I was furious with him I still worried. He finally turned up three days later, still in the clothes he'd been wearing at the party, smelling like a nightclub bathroom. There had been a lot of shouting, all by me, and I had demanded to know what the hell happened to him but he had shut me out entirely, refusing to say a word or even look me in the eye. He simply retreated to his room and I heard his shower going a few minutes later. When I checked in again he was asleep.

   Of course, as predicted, Chloe had cleared out the minute we had returned from the party, hurling expletives at me as she waited for her cab. I should have felt worse about that than I did, but I had never made her any promises, regardless of what she might have wishfully imagined. I had been relieved when she left, I wasn't in the mood to deal with her anymore, or anyone else either, and I had sent everyone away. Now that Shannon was home and I was no longer worrying about him I was becoming acutely aware of my solitude. I puttered around the house for a little bit before ultimately grabbing my keys, thinking maybe I would go for a drive.

   I was stuck in traffic, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel when my phone lit up with a text message. Seeing as how I wasn't moving anywhere I didn't see the harm and so I picked up the phone only to find the text was from Jane.  It was simple – Could you maybe come by? I'd like to talk.-- but it was the opening I had been hoping for.

   I'm not doing anything right now, just out for a drive. How's now?  I texted back. There was no immediate response and the traffic started to move again so I tossed the phone back onto the seat beside me and looked for somewhere good to pull over. I eventually found myself sitting in the parking lot of a gym, tapping the phone screen and waiting. I guess Jane hadn't expected so quick a response. I wondered again what the hell I was even doing here. Why did it matter to me what Jane or Roger thought at this point? Years had gone by. It shouldn't still matter this much. I wasn't sure why it did.

   Okay, now would be okay. Sending the address.

   Jane and Roger's place (well I assumed they were still living together, even with the spat they'd had I couldn't picture either one of them without the other) wasn't that from my place. I'd have been closer if I'd just stayed at home. It took me about forty minutes from where I was, but since I was kind of taking Jane by surprise it was probably for the best. I ran through so many things in my head that I wanted to say to her. I wondered if I'd have the nerve to tell her any of it though. For as much as I seemed to like the sound of my own voice, I had a bad habit of not really saying much.  At least not anything important.

   Jane answered the door in blue jeans and a tank top, and I wondered if she had been tanning recently because her freckles stood out in staunch relief on her fair skin. My brain supplied an image of them, a spray of pigmentation down her right side just under her breast, and felt an all too familiar tug in my stomach. “Hi, Jane,” I greeted her.

   “Hey Jared, come on in,” she beckoned as she stepped aside.

   The house was completely different than their apartment in New York had been, and I wondered if I was seeing the contrast in decorating styles between Jane and Roger. It was light and airy, full of plants and whitewashed wood. “Nice place,” I complimented her as she led me back to a small sunroom in the rear of the house.

   “Thanks. We only moved in a few months ago but I really like it.”

   “Yeah, the light is amazing. So you and Roger are living together still?

   “Yeah, of course we are,” Jane said with a sly grin. “Did you really think we wouldn't be?”

   “Well you know the last time I spoke to either one of you, you weren't speaking to each other so who knows.”

   Jane nodded gravely, acknowledging the last time we had been together “Yeah, things were pretty bad then for all of us.” She gestured toward the seating, oversized rattan pieces with thick cushions and tastefully patterned throw pillows. “Can I get you a drink or anything?”

   I shook my head before sitting down. I hadn't known what to expect when I got here but Jane certainly seemed to be calm. Hopefully, she'd had time to think things over since the bombshell that Shannon had dropped. “So, how are you really? Are you glad to be back in Los Angeles?”

   Jane shrugged. “I don't know. I'd gotten pretty attached to New York and they are so different. There are definitely things that I miss. It does feel a little like coming home though, being out here.”

   I noticed she hadn't answered my first question. I was the king of verbal Olympics event of talking without committing to anything. She wasn't going to get one over on me that easily.”But you're okay though? You're doing well?”

   Jane gave me that sly smile again. “I'm fine. Things are going pretty well. My latest book came out two weeks ago and it's getting great reviews. Completely broke the initial sales projections and they're already talking second printing.”

   “Wow,” I said, truly impressed. “How many does that make for you now?”

   “This is four. It's the start of a new series.” She picked up a pillow from beside her and sat it on her lap, picking at the fringe. “You guys have done pretty well for yourselves too.”

   “It's been an amazing journey,” I replied. The small talk was agonizing but  I knew we had to start somewhere. “Did you like the last album?”

   Jane shrugged uncomfortably. “I haven't listened to it. I've heard songs on the radio but...”

   I don't know why I expected that she had, why I thought she'd keep up with us at all. It wasn't like I had read her books. “Sorry. I guess that makes sense.”

   We sat there in silence until the air grew thick with it. So many memories swirled through my head, the innocent way everything had started over french fries at a diner, to the sorry state of affairs we had let our lives come to the last time we had all bumped into each other. I hoped things were better for Jane and Roger now. They were certainly better for me. “How's Roger?” I finally ventured. “Is he excited about this series?”

   Jane brightened a bit. “He is so thrilled. You have no idea. I read all the books when he was getting ready for the audition and they are so good. His part is so interesting. Are you familiar with it?”

   “No. It's not really my thing. But I'm happy he's happy with it. He is, right? You're both happy, aren't you? I mean the last time we talked...”

   “Yes, Jared. We were a mess, I know. Things are much better now. How about you? You were going through some stuff yourself.”

   “Things are pretty good with me right now,” I assured her. She nodded and then went back to examining the pillow. I wondered if she wanted to ask about Shannon. “Look, about the other night...”

   “It was just a fluke. We probably won't be running into each other again. I don't go to those things with Roger very often but he was nervous because there were a few people he was trying to impress and so I made an exception,” she said without looking up.

   “I wouldn't mind running into you again,” I offered. “I really liked hanging out with you back then. Roger too. It would be nice if we could be friends somehow.”

   Jane shrugged and her face shifted. She had never had a poker face of any sort, you could read her expressions like an open book. This one was sad, and something like regret and her voice was small when she spoke. “I'm sorry.”

   “No, I'm sorry,” I conceded. “I shouldn't have brought it up. There's just too much history I guess...”

   “No. That's not what I meant,” Jane sighed. “I'm sorry. You may have been rude and an ass but I didn't give you a chance to explain or bother to find out what was going on at all. I just reacted, and badly.”

    I guess we were going revisit the past after all. “Look, I get it. I was the last in a long string of disappointments. You didn't have anything left to give me. Shannon timed his little trick well.”

   “Fucking Shannon...” Jane mumbled under her breath and I could swear I saw her eyes start to tear.

   “I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn't have shown up here to rub salt into old wounds. And I should have asked you about that email instead of reacting like a childish brat.”

   Jane nodded and let out a shaky breath. “Don't get me wrong. I mostly never think about that summer anymore. I've gone on with my life. Seeing you guys like that though, out of the blue...”

   “It just stirred up the ghosts,” I agreed. I knew what she was saying. I felt it too, something almost forgotten pulled from the back of the closet, like suddenly no time had passed at all. “So, this going on with your life, what does that look like for you?”

   “Writing. A lot of writing. I have another publicity tour that I leave for next week.”

   “Are you seeing anyone?” I blurted out far less casually than I would have liked.

   Jane chuckled. “No. I don't really have room for that in my life these days. I write, I travel. I did some volunteer work for a few years, teaching English in Tanzania and Nepal, among other things. Took up some new hobbies. I stay busy enough. I'm happy,” she reassured me with a smile.

   “I'm glad. You look amazing, by the way. That hair color suits you.”

   “Yeah, it's the freckles I think. Lets me pull the redhead thing off convincingly.”

   “What else has Roger been up to?”

   “His career is pretty much taking everything right now. He really busted his ass working for it, and he took every reasonable part he could get, just to learn and get better. I think he was planning on staying in theater but this Seven Kings series was too incredible of an opportunity to pass up. I don't know where he'll go from there but wherever it is, I'll follow him. He did enough of that for me. It's my turn now.” She set the pillow aside and smoothed her hands against her jeans. “So are you seeing that Chloe girl?”

   I shook my head. “No. That was … “ I couldn't figure out how to explain Chloe without making myself look like a complete jackass so I just opted not to explain at all. “She's gone anyway. How about Roger? Anyone in his life?”

   Jane giggled. “I think he has a girlfriend.”

   “You think? You don't know? How is that possible?”

   “It's not like that. There's this bakery down the road that makes really great coffee. We've been stopping there since we moved in. The lady that owns it, Gretchen... well Roger keeps finding more and more excuses to stop by there lately. They flirt a lot and he's been going down there, ordering coffee and staying for hours. She's incredibly nice. Like, really warm and funny, and I like her a lot. So I'm hoping.”

   “That's good,” I said. I sincerely meant it. “He deserves to find someone who gets him and makes him happy.”

   “We all do,” Jane agreed.

   We began to relax a little more after that, and Jane told me about some of the humanitarian volunteer work she had been doing, most recently in Nepal. She had apparently also taken up mountaineering,  and although she had done some summiting overseas she was currently concentrating on the continental US, having just come back from scaling Mr. Whitney. I was impressed, she had never seemed the type to go in for a physical adventure like that and she must have stepped far outside her usual comfort zone for all of these things. There were a lot of dimensions to Jane and I realized I had only ever scratched the surface. I wasn't sure what I wanted from this relationship now, to be honest, I was a little conflicted, but I hoped that it least would include getting to know all these aspects of her a little better.

   We made plans to meet up again later in the week, and I suggested trying to get Roger and Gretchen to join us. I wanted to connect with Roger again as much as Jane, and it seemed like a good excuse to meet the woman that seemed to have captured his attention and perhaps encourage that along. We lingered over our parting hug perhaps a little longer than normal and then I was in my car, heading home.

   Other than the reference to his email, we hadn't mentioned Shannon at all.

@thepromiseofanend@msroxyblog@nikkitasevoli@llfd1977@mustlove6277@fyeahproudglambert @little-poptart@snewsome756@guccilowell @monicasanoli @lady-grinning-soul-k

[yourknightingale]

Bechloe is Real, Bechloe is Endgame (THIS IS THE WHOLE MOVIE SO DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED)

Obviously this will contain spoilers. Bear with me. This is all by memory and as chronological as I can so this is super lengthy.

I can’t stop thinking about this. Here in Tumblr, I’ve seen a lot of other people’s theories, some Bechloe details they’ve spotted in the movie, and even the subcontexts. (Hurrah, you guys!) But please, allow me to do another take. Or maybe just a combination of all the ideas in most shippers’ heads.

PP2 Chloe, first of all, was so afraid to leave the Bellas that she had to fail classes, right? Yet, when they graduated, she stayed with Beca and Fat Amy. I mean, Fat Amy and Beca were already roommates in PP2 so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they just continue that. But Chloe? That’s actually pretty interesting. It makes me wonder why.

So now, the three of them are living together— in a 2-bedroom small-spaced apartment. Fat Amy, I agree, would need her own bed to herself. So our Bechloe may have been “forced” to share a bed, like share a bed by default. We all know where this is going because grumpy cat Beca sleeps with bouncy happy Chloe. There will be no personal boundaries regardless of how much one would’ve complained at first. Eventually, Chloe wears Beca down.

3 years of that, and you tell me Bechloe won’t fall into a mutual kind of understanding about each other’s feelings. Fat Amy is basically just blocking actual sexual tendencies between the other two. In my scenario, Beca and Chloe are much much much closer than Chloe was to Aubrey and Beca was to Fat Amy. To the point actually that everything that happens in their lives, the first thing they do is let the other one know. So this is where PP3 opens.

Remember in the apartment scene, Chloe asked, “What happened?”. Fat Amy then replied that Beca was fired. And Chloe’s face there was just like I knew that already but I have to pretend it shocked me so you won’t question how I know and you don’t.

Next scene, they went to the “reunion” with the New Bellas. And everything Bechloe in those scenes were in other people’s post already (ie the cup, the songs mentioned). There was also a moment there where Chloe said, “They all definitely have boyfriends”. There’s a gif going around on what kind of face Beca pulls in response to this. In my head, I translated it to “We share a bed. We sleep together. You cuddle with me. I text you a lot. We eat together. We do a lot of things together when Fat Amy ditches us to party or date because she doesn’t have a legit job she needs to wake up early to. We’re definitely more than best friends now, Chloe. Why the heck do you sound so envious of these young girls having boyfriends? What am I, chopped liver?” Well, I may have overthought that brief second expression but whatever.

Drunk Chloe making a toast is not new to Beca. She’s probably seen and dealt with something worse. So Bechloe was just interacting with other Bellas so nobody will be suspicious (because they obviously know that the other Bellas are aware of Bhloe). Basically, that’s the only reason why they’re being lowkey. They just don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves. Because even though they have a mutual understanding, no one really confessed anything. Which leads us to

Spain, Bellas! Chicago enters the scene and Beca immediately notices smitten Chloe. Oh boy! We all know Chloe is down for anything. So I also agree that lust is what she has for this guy in uniform. (So in the Riff-off, I just want to encourage all of you to watch Background Beca.) The Bellas got off the van and some details here about Chicago offering her hand to Chloe and to Beca, too, but she just didn’t take it. When they get to their rooms, the Bellas’ heads peaked out of their doors one by one. Of all rooms, Bechloe chose to be next to each other’s. They have separate door numbers but their rooms are certainly side by side. And they’re both on the bed, too, with the “picking chocolates” scene. They may not talk directly to each other but their closeness manifested, for sure.

Theo comes in and talks to Beca but she just isn’t down for dudes. She said he looks like a turtle. Uhm what? He’s nice to her but she blows him with that? Somebody’s still probably thinking about a pining lady over uniform guy and isn’t just in the mood to entertain. “That was so much eye contact”, she said with a kind of tone that suggests she finds it weird and disturbing. And don’t we remember the shower scene with Chloe’s “hypnotizing eyes”?

Bellas perform Cheap Thrills. (I just scream when bechloe are in the same frame, that’s all.)

The ladies are in a room discussing using instruments and such and Bechloe are on the bed (again!). This is the scene where Emily storms in and tells them to dress up. So they went to the Casino, and when Aubrey tells them to pair up, Bechloe walked off together. Now, this is mentioned already so many times. But I just want to say that I actually would’ve expected Aubrey and Chloe to pair up and Fat Amy and Beca to pair up. It makes sense, doesn’t it? But I get why they have to make Fat Amy all by herself. So one pair got a 3rd person. Anyway, this is where the infamous boob grab scene happens. Chloe actually felt Beca up a bit and so the lady had to ask, “Dude, what is this about?” It’s like, we’re so distracted and busy with the USO Tour and now is the time that you think is the best to start doing this? It’s a good thing Aubrey intervened. Or is it NOT a good thing? I mean, by the looks of Chloe, she seems to be wanting to do that for a while, maybe thinking “I’ve seen these but I don’t actually know how they feel in my hands. Unlike Prince’s butt. Let me push them a little bit. It’s different when she’s awake or I pretend to accidentally brush my hands over them.”

Remember in the suite when Theo asked to borrow Beca? Chloe was about to go with them, right? That’s why Turtle boy had to say just for a second. I mean, even that guy realized they’re a pair that actually needs permission when separated. I mean, Flo was there, too. And some Bellas. But Bechloe, well...

Beca and Chloe don’t have to talk for us to realize there’s something going on there.

Now they’re in Italy, I think. Remember when the Bellas were in the pool talking about Evermoist? This is when Beca bumps into Theo, with her arms up, covering her chest. She doesn’t even want any physical contact with this dude. Seriously! Also, the other Bellas went out for a drink and Chloe made a toast again. She’s been drinking through this movie. I wonder if it’s because of a certain small DJ and a handsome stranger surnamed Walp. Like, she’s undeniably trying to sort out her feelings for Beca and her lust for Chicago. That dude is charming so it still makes sense. She gets distracted again, of course, because of the whole hostage crisis situation.

Beca, of all safe places to sit, decides to hide behind Chloe. Surprise, girl friend! I’m here to save you. And the snaps we see of Bechloe during Toxic, with the eye contact? You tell me that isn’t a mix of I’m glad you’re here, we’re gonna survive this and if we’re gonna die tonight, I’m gonna regret not making out with you. This performance is key to Bechloe.

A lot of things are revealed in the confessions scene. Beale was probably gonna surprise Beca beforehand by telling her first that she passed her vet test but they were really in a complex situation so she had to say that in front of everyone. Beca still looks proud of her though. So there’s that.

“She loves hugs,” Chloe speaks. Of course, she says that. She knows. She mainly played a major part in that. She probably just didn’t know Beca meant HER hugs. Beca loves HER hugs. But it was still a heartwarming moment for the Bellas.

And now, we’re in the end. Freedom may have been Beca’s coming out song. I know a lot of people said that already and I don’t see why not. Chloe looks really proud of her. She was just sitting with Chicago but she’s probably glad Beca invited all the Bellas up. That way she leaves cute guy behind.

Bechloe hug after the song. Beca probably whispers, “This is more like the hug that I learned to love.” And this is where it became so obvious to everyone that Beca and Chloe really are endgame.

They probably talk about this in private afterwards, where you can imagine the confession happened, or maybe not yet. Still this is when they knew they should end up together.

Chloe still has that kiss scene with Chicago, though, right? So what was that about? How does that make Bechloe real? Well, this scene was fixed by a drabble I read that actually made sense to me. In that said fic, Chloe only kissed Chicago to let that “guy in uniform is so hot” out of her system. That’s it. It doesn’t mean anything. That’s possible. Without doubt, she told Beca about that and the other gal is probably like, “I don’t really mind. Especially now I know you’re really into me.” I kinda picture Beca as someone who is not easily jealous without reason.

So there you go. I explained it. Bechloe is real. Bechloe is endgame. I can finally sleep because I can believe now that this is what happened in the movie.

[i-own-your-wifi]

I Like Me Better When I’m With You

Three fics in one day guys, that’s it I’m done for now

I stole the egg magic trick from a tumblr post that i can’t find right now

[AO3]

[ff.net]

Benji knew a lot of things. Benji knew magic was his calling the first time he saw a magic show when he was 5 years old. He knew he was going to be a Treblemaker when he first saw them perform. He knew that he and Jesse would be friends and that he and Bumper would never be. He knew as soon as he laid eyes on Emily Junk that she would be an important person in his life.

 Their first meeting was awkward and their second was worse, but Emily laughed and her eyes lit up and Benji knew he needed to know this girl. He loitered outside Bellas rehearsal waiting for Emily to come out so he could walk her to the Bella house and show her a magic trick and make her laugh. Sometimes Beca would glare at him until he left and sometimes Amy would put him in a headlock and yell about dingo wrestling but it was worth it to see Emily rush over to him.

 He knew Emily was close with her mom. He heard stories about the old Bellas traditions and Katherine Junk’s college experience. The one thing he didn’t know about Emily’s mom was what she looked like.

 He waited outside of Bellas rehearsal wearing his Treblemaker’s jacket. The Trebles were having rehearsal with their performance outfits on today and he didn’t have time to go to the Treble house and change before rehearsal. There was a woman waiting as well. Benji didn’t think about it, he was busy trying to explain to Jesse why he was going to be a few minutes late. She was giving him weird looks but he ignored her. It wasn’t until Emily came out that he realized who she was.

 “Benji!” Emily ran up and hugged him. “What’s with the outfit?”

 “Oh, Treble’s rehearsal. Our first performance is coming up.” Benji said.

 “Well, it looks nice.” Emily smiled.

 “Emily?” Benji and Emily looked at the woman who was standing a few feet away.

 “Mom? What are you doing here?” Emily walked over and hugged her mom. Benji fidgeted with his jacket. “You didn’t tell me you were coming to visit.”

 “I wanted it to be a surprise dear, I didn’t realize you had plans.” Katherine nodded toward Benji. Benji saw the glare she sent when Emily looked away.

 “Oh,” Emily looked at Benji, “Well, I mean, Benji is… we could…”

 “It’s fine, I have rehearsal anyway Em, I just came to say hi.” Benji cleared his throat. “It was nice meeting you Mrs. Junk.”

 Benji rushed out of the building. He didn’t know why Katherine Junk wouldn’t like him, but he suspected it had to do with the Bellas rule against “Treble-boning”.  Beca took out that rule when she became captain but some of the old Bellas still believed it should be followed.

 Emily called him after her mom left. She apologized for him meeting her mom like that and making him leave. He assured that it was fine, he didn’t want to keep Emily from spending time with her mom and he wasn’t lying, he did have rehearsal. Emily apologized still and invited him over to make up for it. They just listened to music in Emily’s room while Benji’s dove flew around the room after he used it in a trick.

  He invited her over to watch Star Wars with him. She hadn’t seen any of the movies and he wanted to be with her when she saw A New Hope for the first time. Jesse complained that he wasn’t invited too because “Star Wars has the best soundtrack ever”. Benji promised to watch it with him the next day but that didn’t stop Jesse from asking Benji if he was sure he couldn’t come.

 Jesse stopped Benji after Treble’s rehearsal. “Look, Benji, Emily’s great but she’s new to the franchise and we’re both fans, and you know she’ll be focused on the movie anyway, and I’ll invite Beca and it’ll be the four of us.” Jesse said.

 “Jesse,” Benji said, “You’re my best friend, and I always like watching movies with you, but… I was hoping… well… I want it to just be me and Emily, alright? Do you… do you understand?” Benji looked hopefully at Jesse.

 Jesse looked confused for a moment before he understood. “Oh! I get you. Don’t worry about it, I’ll be out of your hair. I’ll get the guys to do something that night so you’ll have the house to yourself.” The look Jesse was giving him made Benji feel sick but he smiled anyway and thanked him.

 Benji was nervous the whole week before. He didn’t know of Emily thought it was a date or if she was thinking the same thing Jesse was. He didn’t want to ask her in case she did think it was a date and would cancel if he said it wasn’t. But he also didn’t want her to think it wasn’t a date either. He was stuck assuming the worst but hoping for the best.

 He didn’t know what to wear. He didn’t want to dress too casual in case Emily dressed fancy, but he didn’t want to dress too fancy in case Emily was casual. He stared at his closet for an hour before asking Jesse for help and considering calling his mom. In the end he decided to dress in the middle. Casual enough to be watching a movie but fancy enough to look like he cared about looking nice.

 He walked to the Bella house to “pick up” Emily. It wasn’t really picking up if he was just walking them around the lake to the Treble house. He knocked on the door and waited. Chloe opened it and ushered him in.

 “You look nice Benji. I like your shirt, where’d you get it?” Chloe asked.

 Benji looked down at his shirt. “Thanks, its Jesse’s actually.”

 Chloe smiled at him. “That’s nice. Emily will be down in a minute, she’s almost ready.”

 Benji nodded. They stood silently for a few moments until Beca walked into the front room from the kitchen. She glared at Benji.

 “Benji.” She said.

 “Hey Beca.” Benji cleared his throat. “How’s uh, how’s rehearsals going?”

 “Fine.” Beca stepped closer to him. “What movie are you watching?”

 “A New Hope.” Benji said. “Star Wars.”

 Beca nodded. “And the other Trebles? Where will they be?”

 Benji swallowed loudly. “Um… I think Jesse is taking them to a party on campus.”

 “I see.” Beca took another step toward him but Chloe grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

 Chloe started whispering to Beca. Benji couldn’t hear what Chloe said but he could hear Beca’s response.

 “I’m just looking for out for her Chloe! I know what this is! I dated Jesse and watching a movie alone was never just watching a movie! He’s… they’re… she’s too young for that Chlo!” Beca said sharply.

 Benji looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. He knew what Jesse meant when he asked him to leave their room so he and Beca could watch a movie. And he knew Beca never stayed the night because it was late. He felt sick at the thought of that happening with Emily but he couldn’t tell Beca and have her understand.

 “Benji!”

 Benji looked up and saw Emily coming down the stairs. He beamed at her. It seemed that she had the same thought as he did. He felt relieved that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what to wear.

 “Ready to go?” Emily asked. Benji nodded.

 “Have fun you two!” Chloe said.

 “Thanks!” Emily quickly put her shoes on. Benji held the door open for her.

 “Now wait a second!” Beca called after them. Benji could hear Chloe trying to stop her. “I just want to ask Benji a few questions.”

 Emily sighed. “Beca, chill. I can take care of myself okay? Stop being a dick about this.”

 Beca looked at Chloe then rolled her eyes. “Have her back by ten.” Beca pointed at Benji. “I will be waiting.” She stormed up the stairs.

 “I’m sorry about Beca.” Emily said as they walked. She fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. “She means well, but she can get, you know.” Emily waved her hand.

 “It’s okay.” Benji said. “She was looking out for you. I’m glad she cares.”

 Emily smiled and bumped shoulders with him. “You’re really great Benji, I’m really glad we’re friends.”

 Benji coughed. “Yeah, me too.”

 Emily blushed and began rambling about her classes.

 They finished the movie at midnight. They spent a while deciding on snacks and Emily kept pausing it to ask questions or tell stories the scenes reminded her of. Benji didn’t mind, he would watch all movies like that if Emily wanted.

 Benji looked at Emily when the credits rolled. “So… What did you think?”

 “It was good.” Emily said, “I mean, the effects weren’t like, super good and the acting was okay but I liked it.”

 “Yeah,” Benji laughed, “The newer ones have better effects, but this was prime special effects at the time it was made.” Benji looked at the clock. “It’s late, I’ll walk you back.”

 Emily shook her head. “No, its fine, it’s not that far.”

 “I want to make sure you get home safe. It’s not a problem.” Benji insisted.

 Emily pouted. “But then you’ll walk home by yourself.”

 “One of us will have to and I’d rather it be me than you.”

 Emily paused. “I could just stay here tonight and walk back in the morning? If that’s alright.”

 Benji blinked. He was tempted to say no. Emily bit her lip and looked away and he realized Emily was as anxious as he was. “Yeah, okay.” He said. “You can stay in my room and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

 “No!” Emily said. “It’s your house, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

 “Trust me, it’s safer for you in my room. I mean, at least I know what’s happened on that couch.” Benji laughed.

 “Why don’t we both just stay in your room?” Emily asked hesitantly.

 Benji paled. He could feel his anxiety rising. “Oh, um, I… well… uh, I mean…”

 Emily put her hand over Benji’s. “I’ll just sleep on one side and you’ll sleep on the other, is that okay? We can make a pillow divider if that makes you more comfortable.”

 Benji smiled. “Okay,” Benji picked up the snack bowl and their cups. “I’ll put these away and you can change in my room. You can borrow one of my shirts if you want.”

 “Thanks.” Emily skipped upstairs.

 Benji took the dishes to the kitchen and tried to process what was happening. He had a girl sleeping in his room. With him. He never had people stay over before. He didn’t know what to do. Should he offer her something? Or should he wait until she asks? He didn’t know.

 He waited outside his room before he knocked to make sure Emily was ready before he came in. He knocked and waited for Emily to let him in. Emily was wearing one of his Captain America shirts and his gym shorts. He grabbed his pyjamas and headed to the bathroom to change.

 “Hey, you can change in here, I have to use the bathroom anyway.” Emily said.

 Benji quickly changed while Emily was in the bathroom and sat on his bed. He felt his nerves coming back. What if Emily thought this was a different kind of sleepover? He shook his head. Emily wasn’t like that.

 Emily came back and settled on her side of the bed. Benji laid awkwardly on his side, trying not to take up too much space. His bed wasn’t big enough for this. Emily turned to face him.

 “Goodnight Benji.” Emily whispered.

 “Goodnight Emily.”

 They woke up to ten missed calls from Beca and one from Chloe. They shifted in their sleep so Emily’s head was tucked into his neck. Benji didn’t know if he should move or wake Emily, luckily for him Emily’s phone rang and woke her up. Emily answered it and Benji didn’t need to guess to know it was Beca.

 Benji sat up and waited while Emily reassured Beca that she was fine, she was still with Benji, and that she was only sleeping there because it was late. Benji scoffed at that. Beca wouldn’t believe that. Emily was on the phone for ten minutes. She hung up and looked sheepishly at Benji.

 “I’ll make you breakfast and I’ll walk you back.” Benji said. “What would you like milady?”

 Emily hummed. “Can you make me pancakes?”

 “Of course I can. Would you like pancakes?” Benji asked.

 “Yes!” Emily squealed. She jumped up and hugged Benji. “You’re the best!”

 Benji got out the ingredients for pancakes. He thought of an idea. He picked up and egg when Emily wasn’t looking. He turned and looked at Emily and waited for her to look up. When she did she gave him a questioning look.

 “Wanna see a magic trick?” Benji asked.

 “Yes! What are you going to do?” Emily asked excitedly.

 “Well, we need eggs to make pancakes right?” Benji asked. Emily nodded. “Eggs come from chickens but we don’t have a chicken here.”

 “Oh my god, are you going to pull out a chicken?” Emily asked.

 “I don’t have a chicken, but I have the next best thing: the ability to make and egg appear out of nowhere.” Benji opened his mouth and spat out an egg. Emily started laughing.

 “What?” Benji asked, “Did you not like it?”

 “No, no it was good, just… seriously? You just spat out an egg! I wasn’t expecting that. That was wild.” Emily said.

 Benji waved his fingers in front of his face. “Good, I like being unexpected.”

 Benji made the pancakes while Emily told him about the Bellas. He was glad Emily was starting to fit in with them. He knew Emily felt like an outsider before and he was glad that she doesn’t feel like that anymore.

 They ate and Benji walked Emily home. They walked at a leisurely pace and Emily told him that she would tell the Bellas about his egg trick because she thinks they’ll like it. Benji ended up being late to his morning class but it was worth it.

  Benji was working on his homework when someone knocked on his door. He looked up confused. Jesse would normally just walk in, and the other Trebles wouldn’t knock, they would just yell until he answered. His next thought went to Emily, but she normally texts before she comes over. Benji walked over and opened his door. His eyes widened when he saw Beca standing on the other side.

 “Jesse should be in his room, if you’re looking for him.” Benji said.

 “I’m not here for Jesse, I’m here to talk to you.” Beca said. She crossed her arms. “Can I come in?”

 Benji stepped aside and let her in. “What’s up?”

 Beca glanced around his room. Her gaze lingered on the photo of Benji and Emily on his desk. Benji swallowed hard.

 “What are you doing with Emily?” Beca asked.

 “What am I doing?” Benji asked. Beca nodded. “I don’t think I understand.”

 “What are you doing with Emily? It’s not a hard question Benji.” Beca said.

 “We’re hanging out. We’re friends.” Benji said.

 “Just friends?” Beca said skeptically.

 “Yeah, just friends.”

 Beca squinted at him. “I don’t know if I believe you, so I’ll say what I came here to say. Emily is young, okay? She’s barely 18 and she doesn’t understand dating and sex and stuff. And, I know that the trebleboning rule isn’t a thing anymore but I will reinstate it if you so much as think of hurting her.” Beca paused. “And you’ll have to get a lock for your door. Chloe might not agree to hurting you but I will.”

 Benji gulped. “I’m not… I don’t, um… I wouldn’t hurt her. Not on purpose. And I don’t want to have sex with her.”

 “Don’t lie to me Benji.” Beca snapped. “You’re a guy and she’s a pretty girl, you’ll sleep with her if she gave you a chance.”

 “I don’t…” Benji huffed in annoyance. “I don’t want to sleep with her. I don’t want to sleep with anyone. I feel sick just thinking about it, I don’t want to have sex ever and I don’t need you to tell me how I feel!” Benji said loudly. Beca took a step back. “I’m sorry.” Benji said quieter. “I shouldn’t have yelled.” Benji sat on his bed.

 “No, I…” Beca joined Benji on the bed. “Do you really feel like that Benji?”

 “Yeah,” Benji pulled at his blankets. “I know you probably don’t get it and think I’m weird but… I can’t hide it anymore. So you don’t need to give me the speech on consent and respecting Emily because that isn’t something I ever want to do.”

 “I never said I didn’t get it.” Beca shifted uncomfortably. “I never felt like… sex was something I wanted until I met Jesse. And that was why I stayed with him for so long even when our relationship was going downhill. I thought… I thought if he made me feel like that then I have to stay with him because no one else will. I didn’t think anyone would make me feel like I wasn’t a freak.” Beca blushed. “Does Emily know?”

 Benji shook his head. “I don’t know if she… thinks about me like that. And I don’t want to assume that she does if she doesn’t.”

 Beca nodded. “Well, now that that’s over, I’m going to leave.” Beca stood up. Benji stood up too. Beca stopped before she left. She looked Benji in the eyes. “And by the way, this conversation never happened, okay? No one knows I came here and Chloe will yell at me if she finds out.”

 Benji nodded. “I never saw you.”

 Beca smiled. “Well, see you later.”

  Jesse was flying to Denmark to watch the World’s Competition. Benji was glad Jesse and Beca were still friends and that Jesse still supported her. After what Beca told him, Benji knew Jesse was an important person in her life. Jesse surprised Benji with a ticket for himself, explaining that he didn’t want to be in a different country alone while the Bellas rehearsed and performed. He wanted a friend there and Benji admitted that it would be nice to surprise Emily.

 The Bellas were busy with World’s preparation so they didn’t have time to go out sightseeing with Jesse and Benji when they got there. Beca told Jesse that the Bellas went out a little before and that there was time after Worlds was over. They didn’t mind. They knew this competition was important and that Beca and Chloe believed that the Bellas full concentration was the best way to win. They didn’t know that Beca was so stressed about Worlds that she forgot to tell the other Bellas that Jesse and Benji were coming.

 Beca had given Jesse and Benji backstage passes so they could see the Bellas before they performed. Jesse had left Benji as soon as they got backstage to go see the other groups and Benji went to find Emily.

 He found her standing by herself and fixing her hair. He walked over to her.

 “You look nice.” Benji said.

 Emily jumped and turned around. “Benji! You’re here! I can’t believe it!” Emily hugged Benji tightly. Benji could tell she was nervous and tried to reassure her.

 “You’ll do great Em, I know it.” Benji said.

 Emily pulled back from the hug. She looked at Benji silently for a moment before grabbing his face and kissing him. Benji made a noise of surprise and pulled back.

 “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Emily said.

 Benji shook his head, he started pulling out a cloth from his mouth. Emily laughed a little at that.

 “I’m sorry,” Benji said when he was done. “I expected that to take a different direction.”

 “Well, I liked it.” Emily joked.

 “Me too.” Benji said.

 “Emily,” Beca called from behind them, “We’re almost ready to go on.” She looked at Benji, “Benji.” She smiled slightly at him.

 “Good luck.” Benji said. “Hey Emily?” Emily stopped.

 “What’s up?” She said.

 “Would you like to go on a date when we get back?” Benji asked.

 “Um, yes!” Emily smiled brightly. “This competition doesn’t matter right now, I’m already a winner tonight!”

 Emily took a deep breath and hurried over to where the other Bellas were waiting. Benji started walking back to the front so he could watch but Beca stopped him. She handed him a bag. He looked in it and saw it was full of flashlights.

 “Can you do me a favour?” Beca asked. Benji nodded. “You know, Emily’s song Flashlight? Well, we’re using it in our performance and I don’t have time to do this but could you pass these out to people in the audience?”

 Benji nodded enthusiastically. “Of course, definitely. I’d be glad to.”

 Beca sighed in relief. “Good, it was Chloe’s idea. I was against it but it is pretty cool, um you’ll know when to like take one out right? Like I can’t tell you but you’re not going to do something stupid like just take it out unnecessarily right?”

 “Yeah, don’t worry.” Benji said.

 “Good,” Beca said, “Okay, I gotta go.”

 “Good luck.”

 Beca walked over to the other Bellas. Benji walked to the front of the stage. He looked around for Jesse but couldn’t see him. Jesse said he would be wearing an American flag so Benji knew what to look for. Benji started handing out flashlights to people he passed. He didn’t know if any of them were keeping them but he promised Beca he would hand them out. He found Jesse just before the Bellas performed. He handed out the last of the flashlights and waited for the performance to start.

 The Bellas walked onto the stage. Jesse was yelling “Becaw” at Beca and Benji was cheering with him. The flashlight idea worked. Almost everyone in the crowd had one and it made the performance better. Benji cheered as loud as he could when they finished. He was sure he wouldn’t be able to talk tomorrow but he didn’t care. The Bellas won, all their hard work had paid off and Benji couldn’t be prouder.

 They spent the rest of the trip traveling around Denmark and hanging out with the other teams. Benji spent most of it with Emily. When they traveled with the group they walked behind the rest talking and holding hands, or leaving the hotel parties early to sit on the roof.

  The flight back to Barden was early and Emily slept the whole time. Amy was almost kicked off the plane twice and Lily went to the bathroom and never came back but they made it back in one piece. The Bellas went back to their house to bring their trophy home and to initiate Emily. Benji and Jesse went back to the Treble house to get it ready for the new captains.

 Benji and Emily agreed to go out a few days after they got back. It was a busy few days with everyone packing and preparing to leave Barden and embark on the next chapter of their lives. Benji walked to the Bella house for their date. He was taking Emily to a new restaurant off campus.

 Benji fiddled with his tie as he waited for Emily. He was wearing a white dress shirt, a tie, and dress pants. Beca didn’t hate him anymore but that didn’t mean Chloe strayed too far when Beca was talking to him. Emily came down wearing a knee length blue dress. Benji smiled shyly at her. She kissed his cheek.

 Dinner was good. They ate overpriced food and laughed at the other couples there. They went on a walk after dinner, their hands loosely joined between them. Emily pointed out every constellation Stacie taught her and Benji pulled a quarter from behind Emily’s ear and she kissed him when he gave it to her. They decided to hang out at the Treble house after because no one should be home. They sat on the couch and turned on a random movie. Neither one was paying attention though. They kissed some more before Emily put a hand on Benji’s chest and pushed him back.

 He looked worryingly at her. “Are you okay? Is this… Are you uncomfortable?”

 “No, no, it’s not that,” Emily said, “It’s just… I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I like you Benji, I really do, it’s just that, this isn’t going to go any further than this.”

 Benji sat up anxiously. “What do you mean?”

 Emily put a reassuring hand on Benji’s hand. “I still want to go out with you but I don’t want to… sleep with you. Like ever. It’s just not something I want to do, like ever. I like kissing you but that’s as far as I want to go. I get it if you don’t want to go out with me anymore. I just wanted to tell you before this goes any farther.”

 Benji smiled. “That’s totally okay. That’s great, honestly. I don’t want to do that either. I would be perfectly happy if we didn’t go any farther. I feel the same way. I was nervous that you wouldn’t feel the same but I guess I had nothing to worry about.”

 “Really?” Emily asked.

 “Yes, really.” Benji said, “I’ve been doing some research, and I found the word asexual. I never really thought that it would be something like that, I thought I was the only one but… I talked to Beca about it and I got to thinking that maybe it wasn’t something wrong with me, you know?”

 Emily nodded enthusiastically. “It seemed like some weird thing with me and like no one would ever get it or feel the same so I tried to find a way to fix it but instead I found a community online telling me I wasn’t broken or alone.” Emily paused, “Wait, did you say you talked to Beca about it?”

 Benji blushed. “She came to see me a while ago. She was telling me that you were too young for sex and if that’s what we were doing then she was going to hurt me if I hurt you. I got a little upset because she didn’t believe me that we weren’t doing that and I told her that I never wanted to have sex ever and she told me she understood because she… well, I shouldn’t tell you what she said, you’ll have to ask her. But you can talk to her about this stuff, she’s pretty understanding.”

 Emily laughed. “She came by to give you the ‘you hurt her I hurt you speech’ and you end up closer to her and finding out something she hasn’t told anyone, good for you Benji.”

 Benji laughed. They laughed about it for a minute before cuddling and trying to catch up on the movie. They never did catch up on the movie. Benji was too focused on Emily’s hand drawing patterns on his and Emily was focusing on staying awake. She was still a little jetlagged. Benji noticed her yawning and offered to walk her home. She was too tired to argue and let him. They kissed goodbye at the door and Emily watched Benji walked down the path until he was out of sight.

 The Bellas were waiting up with questions and Emily waved them off. She told them that they had fun and that was all they needed to know. Emily did make a note to herself to talk to Beca later about what Benji told her.

 Emily woke up late the next day. She didn’t realize how tired she was until then. She went down to the kitchen. Stacie, Chloe, and Beca were in the kitchen already. Emily waved at them and made herself a peanut butter sandwich. When she looked at the other girls Stacie was looking at her expectantly.

 “What?” She asked.

 “You went on a date last night Em, and,” Stacie smirked, “New things happened and it’s okay to have questions, and who better to ask then me or Chloe? The resident house sex experts.”

 Emily choked on her sandwich. “What? That’s… we didn’t… it’s none of your business Stacie!” Emily sputtered.

 Stacie chuckled. “Emily, sweet, sweet Emily, you know you can talk to us about things. New feelings, new experiences, we’re more than happy to guide you through this confusing period in your life.”

 Emily shook her head. “That’s unnecessary Stace, but thanks, I think? Um, but actually I was wondering if I could talk to Beca actually.”

 The three girls looked at Emily, shocked. Chloe glanced between Beca and Emily trying to figure out what was going on. Stacie stood slack jawed at Emily’s request and Beca froze, her spoonful of cereal halfway to her mouth.

 “You want to talk to Beca? About… Benji?” Chloe asked.

 ��Yeah, if that’s okay with Beca, obviously. ’Cause I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, Beca, I just have some questions and Benji told me that you’re good at… this stuff.” Emily rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. Emily saw the look of realization in Beca’s eyes.

 “Oh.” Beca said. “I see. Um, let me finish my cereal first and then we can talk?”

 Emily nodded. “Yeah, definitely, of course. Thank you so much Beca, you’re like the best captain ever. Although Chloe’s good too, like I’m not saying she isn’t, just you’re both good, obviously.”

 Stacie felt Emily’s forehead. “Nope.” She said. “No fever. The only other possibility is Benji brainwashed her into thinking that Beca can talk about stuff.”

 “Shut up Stacie.” Beca said. “Leave her alone, Jesus dude.”

 Stacie raised her hands in surrender. “Sorry Cap.”

 “Meet me in the loft Emily. Amy’s with Bumper right now so it’s empty.” Beca said.

 “Okay dokay.” Emily said. She walked to the loft and sat on Beca’s bed. Beca came up a few minutes later and sat with Emily. She didn’t say anything at first. Finally Beca cleared her throat.

 “So, uh, I’m assuming Benji told you?” Beca said.

 “Oh, no he didn’t tell me what you told him, just that he talked you about like… the sex thing and that you understood and were… good at understanding.” Emily said.

 Beca nodded. “Do you, ah, do you feel the same way as Benji?”

 “Yeah, pretty much.”

 “Good. He’s a nice kid, I’m sorry I acted weird around him before. I was just… trying to protect you.” Beca blushed.

 “Do you… mind telling me what you told Benji?” Emily asked hesitantly. “It’s okay if you don’t want to, I won’t pry.”

 Beca paused. “I guess.” She took a deep breath, “When I was in high school, everyone was talking about what boy or girl they liked or what celebrities were hot and I never felt that, like I never had crushes on people and in health class the teacher said we’d feel… urges and I never did. I thought there was something wrong with me, so I had sex with people anyway just to try and fix it and feel normal. It didn’t work. It made me feel worse, like I was more broken.” Beca began tearing up, “I told myself that I didn’t need a relationship if I didn’t feel anything physical toward anybody. And then I met Jesse, and everything clicked. I wanted to be with him. Not at first, but after a while I started to feel like I wanted to do that with him. But, only with him. And I did and it was great. I finally felt normal. I didn’t want to break up with him because I didn’t think I could feel like that with anyone else.” Beca wiped her eyes. “I had to realize I wasn’t weird or broken just because of how I felt. Things with Jesse were good because they were safe, and I realized that I loved him but we weren’t going to last. I need to find someone else who I can feel like that with and I want to be with them because I want to, not because I feel like I don’t have another choice.”

 Emily put her hand on Beca’s shoulder. “I felt like that too,” Emily said, “I mean, I never had sex with anybody but I felt like I was supposed to. And my parents kept telling me about boys and girls and how it was okay to… experiment in college and I never wanted to do that but they never understood when I told them. No one’s ever understood until Benji. And now you.”

 Beca nodded. “I’m like, here for you dude, if you wanna like, talk about stuff. I know you have Benji but I wanna give you the option.”

 “Thanks Beca, that means a lot.” Emily said.

 “Right,” Beca coughed, “Now get your cute butt outta here and go do something. Stacie is dying to hear about your date, like literally dying.”

 Emily giggled. “I’ll go talk to her. But I don’t think she’s literally dying.”

 Beca rolled her eyes. “Whatever dude, just leave.”

  The summer was hard. Benji went home to California and Emily stayed in Atlanta. They called and skyped as often as they could but it wasn’t enough. Benji hated not being there with Emily. He wished he could hold her and kiss her and tell her how much he loved her. He wished he could see her all the time. He knew he couldn’t do that when he was away. He knew what he needed to do.

 After buying a used car and saying a tearful goodbye to his parents he was off. It took him a week of driving, a few days to find an apartment, and a few days to move in. He looked at his new home and smiled. It was small but it was his, and it was closer to Emily. He skyped her as soon as he was settled.

 “Hey Benji!” Emily smiled at him through the screen.

 “Hey Em. What are you doing right now?” He asked.

 “Right now?” Emily asked. Benji nodded. “Not much, my parents are at work so I’m just hanging out until they get back.”

 Benji grinned, “Well, how about you come over?”

 Emily laughed. She shook her head. “Benji, you do realize that I’m in Atlanta and you’re in California right?”

 “Well,” Benji smirked, “What if I wasn’t in California and I’m actually in Atlanta in my brand new apartment?”

 “What?” Emily squealed. “You’re here?”

 Benji laughed. “I’m here. I hated being away from you so I decided to fix that.”

 “Oh my stars! I can’t believe this!” Emily covered her face. “I’m coming over right now!”

 “That’s what I was hoping.” Benji said. “I’ll text you the address.”

 Benji waited anxiously while Emily headed over. He knew the move was a spontaneous decision and he wasn’t sure how Emily would react. He knew he should have talked to Emily about it but it was too late now. He didn’t know if Emily would want to move in with him. He knew she had the Bella house but she would be the only one living there this year. Freshmen lived in the dorms and everyone else had already made living arrangements by the time auditions were over.

 Benji jumped when there was a knock on the door. He quickly opened the door and Emily flung her arms around him. He hugged her back and squeezed her tight.

 “Hey baby,” Benji said, “I missed you.”

 “I missed you too!” Emily pulled back. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”

 Benji leaned in and kissed her. “I’m really here. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

 Emily liked the apartment. She agreed with Benji that it was small but she could see them living there. She told Benji that she wanted to live with him but needed to be at the Bella house with the new Bellas. Benji told her it was fine, he understood. He just wanted to be closer to her. They ordered a pizza for dinner and ate it on the couch while watching stuff on Netflix. Emily yawned and leaned her head on Benji’s shoulder.

 “I love you.” Emily mumbled. Benji kissed her head.

 “I love you too.” Benji whispered.

 Benji knew a lot of things. He knew he made the right choice moving to Atlanta. He knew the Bellas would be great this year. He knew he wasn’t weird or broken and that he was the happiest he had ever been. But most importantly, he knew Emily Junk was the most important person in his life.

[blogdreamerofimprobabledrea-blog]

New Challenges & New Beginnings

In 1989, Matthew and Evelyn Powell give birth to a healthy baby girl called Chloè. She was everything they ever wished for. She was the light of their light and much more. It made life so much better especially with they both did for a living. Matthew Powell comes from a military family and continued the tradition by joining the Royal Marines when he was 17. He quickly rose up the ranks and he became the youngest ever to achieve the rank of Admiral. Evelyn Powell other words known as Evelyn Reed met who husband when he was stationed in Iraq. Evelyn worked for an anti-terrorism unit within the British Army. Their relationship quickly grew bigger and bigger and they knew what they had was something special. Evelyn’s duty ended when she was offered a promotion back home and she knew it was a too big of an opportunity to miss. She said her goodbyes and went back to London continue her work. Matthew knew that this was important to her and he supported her no matter what. He knew he loved this women. When his tour ended, him and his troops were order back to the UK. When they both reunited, their love continued to burn and a few years later they decided to tie the knot in a secret ceremony in bonny Scotland in a place called Gretna Green. Evelyn was an expect in her field and was highly recommended when it came to covert military missions. Sensitive information passed Evelyn’s eyes every day and with the knowledge she knew could bring down governments in a single day. Her area of expertise was to catch and analyse terrorists and their behaviour. September 25th 1991 was the day that changed the Powells life forever especially for young Chloè.

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Chloe was doing what she did best, catch bad guys. The adrenaline she received from chasing down an unsub or questioning a perp give her this incredible feeling that she couldn't get anywhere else. From a small age Chloe wanted to do something good with her life and she always admired those who help those who cant. It was late October and the leaves started to fall, Chloe looked out her apartment window overlooking Manhattan. She loved the view. It was other like living in the UK. The height of the buildings and the sounds that this city produced give Chloe that sense of adventure. A sense of a new beginning. As she stepped of the train she was in search for a good cup of coffee. You could say that Chloe was addicted to coffee. While listening to the lady on her phone, she was following her instructions on how to find her new place of work. She moved from London last month in order to start her new life and to embark on her new career as a Detective for Manhattans Special Victims Unit. Her nerves were building up to a point where she couldn't think straight, questioning herself was this a good idea? Finally, google maps came through and she was walking through the doors of her new job. She hoped to God that she can start to find a life in this city and continue working in a job she knew she would love.

As the elevator pinged, she stepped in with a coffee in her hand and her satchel in the other. As the elevator doors open to the floor where SVU operated from, she took a deep breath and moved forward. Olivia Benson was her Lieutenant who finalised the transfer that made all this possible. Chloe stumbled across the room looking for her bosses office. She bumped into an officer who was kind enough to direct her in the right direction.

“This is it”. Chloe anxiously said.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Come in” said a lady with short brown hair as she pulled her glasses off to see who was at the door. Chloe entered the room with this false confidence hoping to impress her new boss. “Hello, Im Chloe Powell” she said while shaking Olivia’s hand. “Yes,lovely to finally meet you Chloe. Im lieutenant Olivia Benson. Sorry I wasn't expecting you for another half hour or so” the lieutenant said with a puzzled face. Chloe knew she was early as she hates being late, it tips her over the edge and she wanted to show the lieutenant that she means business. Olivia gestured her to take and sit. “So how was the moving?”. “It was very stressful to be totally honest” chloe said with a flustered look, not knowing what else to say. “Who knew I had brought so much with me from across the pond”. As the both laughed, Olivia seemed really interested and impressed with her new detective. “Ok, i only have one question before we move onto official business. Im impressed with your resume and find it hard to believe with someone with your qualifications you have, why request for SVU?” Her new boss asked with a puzzled look. “Umm that is the million dollar question and at this moment in time i do not have an answer. All i do know is, i have this desire within me to help those who cant help themselves. To give those who don't have a voice, a voice. All i wanted to do is to make this world a better place. I know it sounds cheesy but i don't just have the desire to do this job but i have the skill set as well. I know if i was a victim, i would want the people who has the skill set to help me”. Olivia looked at her and saw a young, passionate and dedicated detective and admired her for honestly. Chloe reminded Olivia of a younger self.

Olivia showed Chloe to her desk and give a brief tour around the building. Olivia left Chloe to be as she settled and got comfortable to her new surroundings. It was 9.30am and the building started to flood in with current employees and Chloe wondered with curiosity who she would be working closely with. Will she have a partner? Will she work within a group or solo? Many questions pondered through her head. Once she came out of that daze she notice a young blond looking at her. The blonde started making her way over to Chloe and introduced herself. “Hi, Im Amanda, Amanda Rollins, you must be Chloe.” Chloe stood up and greeted what must be her colleague with a firm handshake. While the two were talking another guy walks in straight into Olivia’s office with a bunch of papers. A few minutes later they both come out of the lieutenants office. “Chloe this is Sgt Mike Dodds and I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut the intros short, we have a rape at central park. Rollins take Chloe with you and head to the crime scene. Myself and Dodds will head to the hospital to talk to the victim”.

“So Chloe, how long have you worked in the police?” Amanda asked while on their way to central park. “Umm i have worked in for law enforcement since i was 18 and even though back home we weren't detailed as detectives but i did similar work”. While the two made small chat, they reached central park. Two officers escorted them and give them a detail account of what has been discovered. Chloe started to ponder off while amanda was being briefed by CSI. While chloe was going through her notebook and writing down what she saw. She started to walk through the crime scene to try to see and feel what the victim went through. To try and understand the unsub in a more personal level in order to build a psychological profile that could help narrow down potential perps.

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Back at the station Olivia and Dodds started to try and pull in the pieces about this attack. Sonny and Finn walked in with detailed information about the victim. As part of their job hey had to go and vet her to make sure there is no surprises throughout the investigation. Also its a good way to understand the victim and see if there were any problems/reports with other people who could be potential unsubs. Also it helps if and when we go trial and makes the A.D.As job a lot easier.

Chloe and Amanda finally joined the rest of the team and went into the auction room where they started to discuss the case. Olivia quickly introduced Chloe to Sonny and Finn and while those three were being acquainted, Dodds went to put a pot of coffee on to make the briefing a bit more productive. When Chloe finished she went to her desk to get her laptop and notes for the briefing. She really hoped she could help and that her teammates will respect her. All she wanted to do was to be accepted, so she thought it would be good to look super eager. As she left the room, Sonny watched her every move and smiled. Finn noticed smirk and give sonny a punch in the arm. “HEY! what was that for?!” Sonny screeched while finn and amanda laughed. “Carisi close your mouth before she comes back in” his lieutenant instructed. He started to blush when he realised that others noticed his daring glares.

“So what have we got?” Olivia instructed. Finn nodded to sonny giving him the ok to present their information that they discovered. “OK, myself and finn vetted the victim. Her name is Celia Black, 34 from New Jersey, History Teacher at Dalton Academy and has had no prior bad acts, never been involved with police. She was married but her husband was killed in a bombing in Iraq 5 years ago ad hasn't really dated since according to her friends and family. We are still waiting on a few of her friends to reply back to us in order to build a better background”. Carisi explained with a puzzled look. Finn interrupts, “ she has never been in trouble with the law, she pays her taxes, her friends say she’s not the type of person to start or create a problem with someone, in fact she's always the one to try and defuse the situation, the mediator. Basically she's an upstanding citizen”. Amanda intervened and asked what did Celia say about the attack? “The doctors had to sedate her as she started to get out of control and screaming when anyone tried to touch her, so they said they would contact us once she's awake and lucid” Dodds said deflated tone. Chloe was listening intensively while fiddling about with her necklace. She only fiddles with her necklace when she's nervous or agitated. Her mind was racing with 100s of different scenarios on how things have went. Questions such as why this vicim and why at this location were going over and over in her head. “Chloe??” Olivia interrupted the young detectives thoughts. “hummmm” as chloe looked up to her colleagues, confused at why everyone was looking at her. “what do you think?” Dodds asked. “It just seems quite reckless”. Everyone looked at her engaged at what the newbie was going to suggest. “The attack happened right smack in the middle of the day. I know I'm new to the city but there is better places to attack someone which tells me that this conducted by someone who is confident and knew what he was doing. To pull this off, he needs to be quite intelligent, charming and charismatic because I have a feeling that the victim seemed comfortable around her attacker. People nowadays are wary of strangers but if someone who is confident and good looking approaches you, the alarm bells don't got off in your heard. You let your guard down at this appoint and thats how people like our unsub lure their victims. Another thing that questions me is that The park is full of people and nobody saw or heard a thing. Either people aren't saying anything or he knows the area well”. Chloe took a deep breath in before she regained eye contact with the others. They all looked shocked as they didn't expect to hear the knowledge come from her mouth. “Whats an ‘unsub’?” Finn asks. “Un known subject, other words the perp” chloe replies. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, Chloe is confused at what that sound was, the rest of the team look at their phones and Olivia informs her colleagues that Celia is awake and herself and Amanda went to take her statement. Chloe walked back to her desk hoping that she was able to help and provide some form of help. In Chloe’s eyes, these guys were legends and were some of the best detectives in the city.

Throughout the rest of the week the team worked effortlessly to find and prosecute Celia’s attacker. Chloe was just thrown into the thick of it and this didn't bother her in the slightest. Chloe enjoyed the chase and giving closure to people like Celia. She was motivated to say the least. Over the past week leads came hot and cold and Chloe started to settle and feel accepted. The victim Celia, was more than helpful. As days went past, the shock Celia experienced started to disappear and she started having visions about her attack and was able to give a deposit sketch of her attacker and give personal visual details about her attacker. One very special detail, being that the victim had a curved scar on his left hand. The attacker left semen inside and all other victim. This showed confidence that the system wont pick him up.

One morning Chloe came into work to get a head start as she felt this immense pressure that she needed to help Celia. She was going over victimology and going through the ME reports and basically any detail the case had discovered. Trying to see if she had missed something. As the lieutenant wasn't in yet, Chloe thought it was a good idea to type up her profile. Something she did a lot when she worked in England. She studied and was trained in analysing psychological and behaviour traits. She stuck on her beats and put on a playlist. Sometimes Chloe did her best work with music in the background. All of a sudden an older gentlemen in a 3 piece suit was hoovering around in front of her and waved his hand over her face. Chloe jumped out of her seat and accidentally knocked the cup of coffee from the mans hand which spilt all over his suit. “Oh my goodness, I'm terribly sorry” Chloe explained while grabbing the towel out of her gym bag. The man huffed and took the blanket from the young blondes hand. “I am too sorry, it really was an accident and i had my head phones and i was in a different place and didnt notice you come up to me and it scared the hell out of me” as the young detective said with an apologetic tone. Chloe friend to help by grabbing the handheld towel from her bag and wipe down this man who looked like he was going to blow. “ITS FINE” was all he said while stepping aside looking for the mens room. Amanda walked in, “ Hey Barba” and Barba give her a short acknowledgement while racing past her. “What was that about” Amanda asked Chloe. “I sort of spilled his coffee” Chloe said while putting her hands over face looking embarrassed. She later asked, “ Do you know him? Who is he?”. Amanda had this smirk on her face and Chloe sat on her desk, “ That is our Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba, he prosecutes the majority of our cases”.  Chloe mouth dropped to the ground and all amanda could do was laugh. “whats so funny?” chloe asked. “He’s a strange character our Barba and not so good at meeting new people, he is straight forward and clashes with most people due to his personality but other than that he's a swell guy” Amanda had explained to Chloe. Chloe walked backed to her desk gobsmacked that she basically assaulted their ADA. “Good one chloe, way to make a good impression” Chloe says while amanda laughs it off. The man known as Barba walked back into the squad room and straight into Olivia’s office, not evening acknowledging the new girl and shuts the door. Olivia just sat down and give Barba a ‘whats wrong‘ look and he motioned to his outfit and then explained, “The new girl”.

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Over the next few days Chloe couldn't stop thinking about Mr Barba. She had many emotions about him. She thought about how clumsy she was for knocking his coffee all over what seemed to be an expensive suit. She thought about how rude and ignorant he was after the accident, but she also thought about how handsome this man was and how he carried himself. He carried this confidence and sassy attitude which seemed to intrigue Chloe more and more. Mr Barba had been back in the squad room a few times since the ‘accident’ but no chat was exchange between him and Chloe.

———————————————————————————————————————————

It was 2 weeks since Celia was attacked. The team were working their hardest to try and find the perp who did this horrific crime. Chloe sent out a psych profile to the local precinct. Carisi and Rollins went back to the scene of the crime to see if anything was left out. Finn and Dodds re-interviewed all of Celia’s friends and family. All they needed was a tiny break. The tiniest of detail could help nail this S.O.B. Out of the blue Olivia comes out of her office with Barba and called everyone to the meeting room. She seemed very eager to hurry everyone on, like she had just received important/crucial news. After the attack, we were able to pull DNA of the victim and we were able to pull a partial finger print from the victims celia’s necklace. We ran the print through our database and put it into the system to see if he has been convicted before. We came up empty. Which finalised the profile by dictating that he hasn't been caught by police which shows a higher intelligence comparing to other criminals. This guy was meticulous. The rest of the team seemed to think he could be a first time offender but Chloe argued that he's the opposite. How could he have not done this before? He purposely left his DNA inside the victim. This shows a cocky attitude  that he doesn't think he's going to get caught. Beside everyones views, Chloe didn't give up, she had this feeling in her gut. So she put in a call to an old friend who worked for interpol. Interpol was an international police force. Olivia stated, “Guys we have a break, one of Chloe’s contact came through. We put the perps DNA and print into their system and it turns out, Celia was not his first time”. The rest of the team including Barba looked at Chloe with a shocked expression. They didn't expect the newbie to be as right as she was. Olivia continued, “The offender is Michael Richards. Born in England and joined the British Army and was discharged in 2009 for his behaviour while on tour”. “What did he do?” curiously asked by Dodds. “They would tell me as it was classified information. All they could tell me was that he was on tour outside of the UK and was part of a special task force and his specialty was his interrogation techniques. And it was because of his interrogation techniques that got him discharged”. Everyone started to wonder what he could have done. Olivia had an address for Michael and Dodds, Carisi and Finn went to make an arrest. Olivia and Amanda wen to inform Celia and bring her in to make an ID. Meanwhile, Chloe started to have flashbacks from when she was on her first and last tour. Imagines of being beaten and tortured for information flooded the young detectives mind. She didn't even notice everyone leaving the room. A hand lands on her shoulder. “Are you ok Chloe?” Barba asked like he was worried. He then sits down beside her waiting for her answer. “Yeah, sorry” Chloe replied. Chloe hoping he didn't question further to what she was really thinking about. “You seemed distracted, like in a day dream”. Chloe just stared and wondered why did he want to have a conversation with her. Then he breaks the sudden silence that filled the room. “So……about the other day, I'm sorry that i overreacted about the coffee. I just had a rough few days with work and i thought it was better to say nothing incase i sounded more like a jerk than i already was”. He seemed really genuine, Chloe put her hand under her chin and really engaged in his conversation. “Its ok Barba, I'm the one who should be saying their sorry as i was the one to spill the coffee”. Chloe offered her sincere apology. Barba give Chloe his trademark smirk. They both stood up to continue their work before the perp was brought into interrogation. On his way out Barba offered his hand and said, “Rafael”, Chloe looked confused. He smiled and said, “My name is rafael and its nice to meet you Detective, I look forward to working with you in the future and just to warn you I can get very moody and as Sonny says Sassy”. At that moment Chloe felt very flustered and felt this strange feeling towards her A.D.A. She bit her bottom lip and watched him walk out of the room. “You are full of surprises Rafael” she mutter to herself.

[miraculouscontent]

Talk about me, Lady WiFi! If you re-do my episode, how would it begin to end?

Firstly, well… I’d have Adrien not be in class at the start of the episode. Both Ladybug and Chat are in the footage that comes up on Alya’s phone (presumably live since Marinette is still away) and Nino even side-mentions that Adrien does the same thing as Marinette, so it works for what the episode is implying.

I’d also put more character into Alya instead of her just being “generic obsessive journalist who wants to out Ladybug.”

When Alya first sees Chloe with the Ladybug costume and yoyo, she’s shocked. She runs out and watches Chloe leave in her limo; it’s just a reminder of how much of an upstart Chloe is.

Alya grips her phone in her hand, her world thrown for a loop.

Chloe? Being Ladybug? How could that be?

Nino is standing nearby. He doesn’t understand what Alya’s issue is, but he sees that she’s tense. When she runs out to the bench (just like in the original episode), Nino follows her out of concern.

Alya’s mind is racing. She has to figure this out. She looks on her phone when it beeps at her, seeing the interview with Ladybug. She gets a close look at the yoyo, which looks very much like the one Chloe has. She groans, lamenting out loud about how she can’t believe Chloe might be Ladybug.

Nino is confused, but tries to calm Alya down. This will cement a closer relationship between them and make it less jarring when they get together in “Animan.”

Nino tries to assure her that there’s no way that Chloe can be Ladybug, but Alya is still frantic. She can’t stand the thought that the superheroine she idolized could be such a brat in civilian form, but she has to know! She’s always wanted to know Ladybug’s identity, so even if it’s Chloe, now’s her chance!

Nino agrees to help, if only to calm Alya down, but he’s still positive that it can’t be Chloe.

(When Marinette rushes to school due to being late, Sabine gives her cookies to put in her purse to give her a small sugar boost; this will be important later.)

Cut to the attempt at snapping a picture of Chloe’s locker (though, when Nino’s talking to Alya, he’s more worried about her and Alya is much less aggressive).

When Sabrina catches Alya taking a picture of Chloe’s locker, Alya is smart as she hides her phone behind her back. She will not let this go off with any missteps if she can help it.

She presses the power button. Kim still snatches up the phone, but now Chloe has no proof that Alya did anything because she doesn’t know the pattern to log into Alya’s phone.

They go to the principal’s office anyway, will Chloe demanding that Alya be punished because it’s so shady that she shut off her phone. Mr. Damocles has nothing on Alya and, just as in the episode, even if Alya did take a picture, there’s no policy on invasion of privacy.

Same steps, but now Lady Wifi wants to unmask Ladybug as Chloe to out Chloe and force her to improve if she wants to keep up her superhero facade, because no one will trust her when they know that she’s actually a huge brat.

Marinette would also be hurt rather than shocked when Nino tells her that Alya thinks Chloe is Ladybug. Like, her best friend, thinking that Ladybug is… that girl?

(This also means that Marinette wouldn’t be sent to the principal’s office; she’d run there on her own partway through Lady Wifi’s video so she can transform.)

The episode continues as usual (I’ll let Adrien/Chat thinking she’s Chloe despite “Origins” slide because he can be really dense sometimes) until Chat and Ladybug show up to stop Lady Wifi.

Lady Wifi is still going to try to unmask Ladybug anyway, so upset over Chloe’s treatment towards her that she has to make sure that Ladybug isn’t a terrible person underneath her mask.

In the scene where Lady Wifi traps Ladybug in the kitchen, I’d make some changes. To cover the plothole of “why doesn’t Lady Wifi just take the earrings,” I would’ve had Ladybug use her Lucky Charm in advance (still getting the same Lucky Charm that she got in the episode).

Lady Wifi still locks the kitchen door on Chat, but she isn’t able to get Ladybug locked to the wall. Still, Lady Wifi puts the camera up, confident that Ladybug will de-transform eventually and be exposed to the world.

The chasing continues, Ladybug fearing for her identity being revealed (and not able to get a word in; Lady Wifi doesn’t care about the importance of secret identities, after all), until Chat swoops in and distracts Lady Wifi long enough for Ladybug to use her Lucky Charm to free herself from the kitchen. Knowing that Lady Wifi will undoubtedly chase her, Ladybug calls for Chat to go destroy the antennae; Lady Wifi can’t chase both of them at the same time.

Lady Wifi shoves Chat away and runs to chase Ladybug, but Ladybug already hid somewhere. Lady Wifi turns, but Chat has already sent himself up the service elevator. Frustrated, Lady Wifi goes to chase after him instead.

Ladybug was hiding under a tablecloth and de-transforms there. Luckily, Sabine’s cookies in her purse are perfect for the job.

Cut to Ladybug coming in to get Lady Wifi’s phone. Chat and Ladybug fist-bump, then Ladybug goes over to Alya, who’s still a bit confused as to why she’s on top of the hotel.

Because Lady Wifi was recording, the footage is still on Alya’s phone, so Alya get to re-witness everything she did on video. Alya is horrified; she almost took Ladybug’s miraculous just to reveal her identity!

But Ladybug comforts her. “I understand. You weren’t yourself. It’s natural not to trust someone when you don’t know everything about them, but my secret identity is important, Alya. If it was revealed to the world, me and everyone I love would be in real danger.”

Alya stares down at her phone, the videos still replaying. Then, she looks up, regretful. “I’m so sorry, Ladybug. I didn’t think–I just…”

“It’s okay.” Ladybug stands up confidently, helping Alya up. “It’s great that you do a lot of investigative work to show our heroics, but–” She winks. “–maybe don’t investigate too much, okay?”

Alya nods, disappointed but accepting Ladybug’s reasoning. “You got it, Ladybug.”

Ladybug and Chat leave together, Ladybug finding a small room for Chat to hide in so he can de-transform.

One paw pad left.

Before Ladybug can leave, Chat grabs her arm and pulls her inside, asking if her knowing his identity would be okay if it was just her. Ladybug smiles sadly at him, giving him the same line she gives in the original.

She tries to leave, but Chat hesitates, gripping Ladybug’s wrist. He wants her to know so badly.

“Chat,” Ladybug stresses, not scolding him but having a sense of urgency. She’s still looking away from him.

Chat hesitates. His last paw pad blinks away. He de-transforms.

For a second–a split second–there’s only Adrien and Ladybug.

Adrien stares down at his hand around Ladybug’s wrist. He can feel her heartbeat, and it’s pounding in his head.

He lets go. Ladybug leaves.

Plagg flies out, asking Adrien what he was thinking just like in the original; he was one tug away from Ladybug seeing who he was!

Adrien stares down at his hand, the pump of Ladybug’s heartbeat still feeling as if it was still there. He places his hand against his chest, as if to mingle the two beats.

“That’s just it, Plagg. I think… she wanted me to know too, but… she’s right. We’re not supposed to know.” He smiles. “So I’m okay with waiting until it’s time.”

Cutting to the next scene, where Alya shows up on Marinette’s balcony, Alya is still excited about her new phone. Marinette is reminded of her own phone, apologizing for the missed calls and about to make an excuse about where she was, but Alya cuts her off like, “Don’t worry, girl. I get it. Some secrets are really important. I know you’d tell me if you could.”

Marinette smiles fondly. Alya, now reminded of her own “secrets,” laments that she’ll have to delete some of the photos from her old phone, since they were all identity-related.

Marinette sees that some of them are from Adrien and the ending of the episode proceeds as normal.

[lolainblue]

Phoenix -- Chapter One

Jared’s POV:

   “Come on, Jared. I don't want to be stuck hanging around this house all weekend.”

   As I watched, Chloe folded her arms over her almost concave abdomen and threw her lips into a ridiculous pout. I sighed. “Jesus, I didn't know you were going to be here all weekend. You going to whine like that the entire time?”

   “You're a real asshole, Jared,” she shot back at me before picking up the magazine she had discarded earlier and flouncing off with a toss of her wavy hair. I heard Shannon chuckling behind me.

   “Where won't you take her now?” he asked.

   I shrugged. “Some goddamn party in the valley at some producer's house I've never heard of. It sounds fucking insufferable.”

   Shannon laughed. “You knew what she was like. You've got no one to blame for this but yourself.”

   Shannon had a point there. I'd gotten involved with the young model more out of convenience than anything. She had been showing up almost everywhere I was for the last year, which, considering the year I had been having, was pretty ridiculously coincidental. No, I knew she was ambitious and saw me as a way to unlock some doors she was having trouble getting through herself. But like I said, it had been a rough year and a little company and distraction seemed like a good idea at the time. Now that we actually had a break in touring I was getting to see a lot more of Chloe than I had ever intended to, but it was either appease her and have some company in my bed until the tour resumed or break it off and hit the market again to fill that empty spot. That would mean a lot of nights of lame pickup lines and small talk, and at this point, frankly, I was too damn tired for that much effort.

   Shannon must have seen my shoulders slump in defeat because before I even turned to go after her he was laughing. “Yeah, that's what I thought,” he chortled out, plopping down on the sofa and propping his feet on the coffee table.

   “Where the hell is this thing again?” I called out as I made my way to the kitchen where Chloe was currently having her little tantrum. I heard her squeal in delight before I even saw her.

   “Thank you, thank you!” she shouted, throwing her arms around my neck. “I knew you'd come around. It's at Garrett Wycoff's place. He's the one that's producing that new drama for HBO everyone's talking about and a lot of people involved in the production are going to be there.”

   I may not have heard of Wycoff but this HBO series was getting a lot of buzz. It was some overblown costume drama based off of a ridiculously successful book series, which was pretty typical for pay cable these days I guess, but this one had quite the following already and still was in pre-production. I knew why she wanted to go. I could have told Chloe that a barely literate model/actress with an acting resume that encompassed a total of about ten spoken words wasn't exactly costume drama material but there was no point. It could have been Beach Party Bimbos and she still wouldn't be getting a role, no matter how many parties she went to or who she tried to ingratiate herself with. She couldn't act her way out of a traffic ticket. But crushers of dreams seldom got laid and she would figure it out on her own soon enough. “All right, I guess we can go. Do you want to grab dinner first?”

   “Uhm... no!” she shot back sarcastically as she raced out of my arms and back to the bedroom to presumably start deciding what to wear. “I have to look good. I can't be all bloated.”

   “It's a party, not a swimsuit shoot,” I called after her but she had already disappeared. Shannon started laughing again. “Yeah?” I asked. “Fine, Chucklehead. Go get changed. We're going out.”

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

   I had to hand it to Chloe, she had a lot of bravado. She swept into that party like it was being thrown in her honor, flitting about and looking fabulous while she worked every face in that room. Mercifully she was too busy networking to pay me much attention at all, only appearing at my elbow momentarily when she needed to shore up her own social standing, then off again in search of some other casting director or agent to schmooze. I recognized a few people and managed to occupy myself with small talk, fielding questions about our upcoming video shoot while I watched Shannon strike out with some British actress I vaguely recognized. There was nothing particularly notable about it, it was like a dozen other get-togethers I'd been to over the years. I think the ordinariness of the situation was why everything caught me so off guard.

   I was talking to Wycoff himself, who was asking a lot of questions about my filming schedule that summer, when he suddenly stopped mid-sentence. “Oh hey, there he is, our Prince Josua. Brought him out from New York where he was doing theater. He's perfect,” he told me as he waved at someone in the crowd. “Harrington! Come over here, I want you to meet someone!”

   I don't believe in fate or destiny. I don't think I'm actually capable of admitting that life might be that far beyond my control. I believe things only happen if you make them happen. But I had no explanation for why, out of the more than six billion people on this planet, I kept bumping into the same ones over and over.

   There was no mistaking the man that turned and headed towards us – tall and lean but broad-shouldered, with steel blue eyes and mop of curls that romance novel writers would probably have described as 'rakish', I'd have recognized Roger anywhere. If anything he looked even better than he had the last time I had seen him, almost four years ago. I smiled and waved optimistically but I saw the way his expression faltered before he pasted his own smile back into place.

   “Hey, Garrett what can I do for you?” he asked, putting his arm around the shorter man's shoulder. Wycoff spluttered a little bit – I think maybe he had a little crush on his new ingenue – before introducing me.

   “We've met, actually,” I supplied, holding out my arms as if to hug him. Roger looked at them and then looked at me before taking my hand and giving it a perfunctory shake.

   “Have we? You'll have to refresh my memory,” he said coolly.

   Wycoff gave a nervous titter before stepping between us, arms around both our waists. “That's fantastic. I'll leave the two of you to catch up in just a moment,” he said, focusing his attention on me. “I just wanted to say that I was amazed at your transformation in Chapter 27, and if you're interested, I think our production schedule will dovetail nicely with your upcoming shooting schedule. I see some amazing things ahead for this series. I can send some things over to your agent if you like.”  He turned to Roger. “Make sure you fill him in,” he instructed before disappearing off into the crowd.

   Roger and I were left staring awkwardly at each other while the party goers circled around us. I swear I could hear a clock ticking in my ears as the uncomfortable silence wore on. Unable to stomach the continued tension I glanced around quickly to make sure we weren't being listened in on. “So, this refreshing your memory.... should we talk about the time I helped nurse you through a breakup, or when we almost all ended up in jail together, or should I just shove you against a wall and stick my tongue down your throat?”

   Roger reddened a bit. “Or we could talk about the time you tricked my best friend into thinking  you gave a shit about her and then just told her to go fuck herself.”

   “What? That's not what happened. I did care about Jane...”

   “Oh, whatever. Look, you're not happy to see me, I'm not happy to see you, you're not going to get involved with this project, so can we just quit this charade?”

   I scratched my head in confusion. I actually was happy to see Roger again. I had been unhappy when he had stopped taking my phone calls but with both of us on opposite side of the war in the great Shannon and Jane debacle I had figured it was just inevitable. I didn't think he'd harbored any real hostility toward me, and I was baffled by his attitude and the statement he had made. “Look, man, I'm not trying to start any trouble. My girlfriend – well, sort of girlfriend – thinks she's an actress and I just agreed to bring her to let her meet some people. I didn't know you were attached to this or that you'd be here.”

   “Yeah, that's not good enough,” he replied as he nervously scanned the room. At first, I thought he was just making sure Wycoff didn't see us arguing but then the lightbulb in my head clicked on.

   “Oh fuck. Jane's here isn't she?”

   “Leave her out of this.”

   “Like that's possible,” I retorted. For better or worse, the four of us were all wound up in each other; there were no separate relationships between us. I searched the room myself, looking for Jane's head of thick blonde curls but instead, I spotted Shannon, still trying to chat up that actress. “Yeah, we have a fucking problem.”

   Roger rolled his eyes at me. “Look, I can't leave, this is essentially work for me. But maybe...”

   I cut him off. “Shannon's here too.” I knew the situation needed no further explaining.

   Roger swore and shook his head before dismissing me, presumably to go and find Jane in order to keep the two of them far apart. I made my way to Shannon, feigning interest in the chit chat he was making with the woman he was trying to pick up … Michelle, her name is Michelle something... while I continued to scan the room and figure out how I was going to get Chloe out of there early without a scene. Only minutes later I spotted her.

   Jane had changed her hair color so that it was redder, a coppery, almost strawberry blonde, but it was definitely her, walking right towards us, no Roger in sight. She was wearing a pale green dress that picked up the color in her eyes and I didn't fail to notice the way the silky fabric shifted with each step,  hinting at what I knew first hand to be a rather spectacular body. I hadn't thought much about her after the first six months or so, there hadn't been any point, so I wasn't prepared for the way my heart sped up or my mouth went dry as I watched her cross the room. For a moment I even forgot the reason I was standing in that particular spot, but then Shannon was asking me a question and I broke free from my reverie just in time to step between them and block his view.

   “Shannon, can I have a word with you? In private?” I asked as I bit my nails and tried to keep him from looking past me.

   Shannon's eyes widened and his gaze shifted from me to Michelle then back to me. “Uhm, right now?”

   “Yes, right now.” Knowing we didn't have much time I grabbed his arm and started to turn him around but he shook himself loose. There was just enough time for him to see over my shoulder and I knew by the way his eyes widened even further and his arms went slack that he had seen her.

   “Jared...”

   “Come on, Shan, let's just get out of here. I'll go find Chloe, you wait in the car.”

   “Jared...”

   Shannon didn't move, didn't even seem to blink. I took a deep breath and turned around to find Jane standing behind me, Roger coming up fast on her heels. We had been so close to avoiding this. One more minute and they would never have seen each other. Hell, if I hadn't given into Chloe and her whining none of us would have to be doing this right now. Thinking with my dick had gotten me into a lot of stupid situations before but this was a new one.

   “Hi, Jane.” Shannon's voice was hoarse and hollow and as soon as he had spoken he upended the glass he had been holding and polished off its contents. I still couldn't tell which way all of this was going to go but I was sure that whatever was about to happen neither Roger nor I needed it to be happening in front of this particular audience.

   “Let's not do this here,” I said, again taking Shannon by the arm. I didn't think I could get him all the way out to the car but I  had noticed an unblocked hallway with some doors and I started steering him to the nearest one.

   “Come on, Jane. I can put you in a taxi and send you home. I can finish this evening out on my own,” Roger offered. I glanced over my shoulder to see him take Jane's arm in much the same way I had taken Shannon's. Her initial response was the same as his, to shake it off.

   Jane started to slowly follow after us, eyes glazed slightly over as if she were sleepwalking. Roger tried to take her arm again and she swatted his hand away. “Stop it,” she hissed. “I know what I'm doing.”

   I reached the door and jiggled the handle. Finding it unlocked I pushed it open and stepped inside to make sure the room was unoccupied before attempting to pull Shannon in with me. The air seemed to be growing thicker by the moment and everything was happening slowly. Shannon stood frozen in the doorway, watching Jane make her hesitant approach while Roger tried to halt her and my brain frantically tried to sort out what was unfolding.  “Shannon,” I hissed him and he seemed to find himself, giving his head a shake before stepping into the small study. Just then Roger caught up with Jane and swept in from behind, ushering her quickly forward into the room and shutting the door behind them.

   “Are you guys living in LA now?” I asked. I didn't know what else to say but if the last few minutes had been any indication I thought we were going to need some ground rules going forward so whatever was happening didn't happen again. No one really seemed to be listening to me, however. “I guess maybe we might want to try to be able to avoid each other in the future...” I ventured.

   “Like I can keep you two out of my head,” Jane said quietly. “You keep turning up like bad pennies. And that fucking song....”

   “Which one?” Shannon asked her. Jane just shook her head, not even meeting his eyes.

   Shannon looked at her for a moment, and I watched his expression go from apprehension to comprehension and then something akin to glee. His eyes crinkled and his lips turned into a cruel smirk. “Well, well, well. Now look who's not over it.”

@thepromiseofanend @msroxyblog@nikkitasevoli@maliciousalishious@llfd1977@mustlove6277@fyeahproudglambert @little-poptart@snewsome756@guccilowell