#bief cameo of

[miktoast]

so i was just re-reading my reference sheet for Miraculous Ladybug AU's when i found this bit that i'm absolutely in love with. for some context, i was explaining the various nicknames characters have for each other and how they came about. also, please note that this is an AU where Stoneheart took place on the first day of their second year of lycee. Also note, in this AU, Ladybug goes by Coccinette.

Adrien's Nicknames for Marinette and Ladybug:

—Ma Cherinette (as in "my dear [cherie] Marinette" after Nino's short film, where Adrien makes an inside joke of pretending to act like their old roles but with their own names) [Adrien to Marinette]

"Agent Dupain-Cheng! Ah, how I've missed you, ma Cherinette!" Adrien swooned, draping one arm around Marinette's shoulders while the other clutched at his chest. He could feel her tense momentarily and hunch into herself before drawing on the confidence that made her a worthy Madame President when M. D'Argencourt got akumatized, and worthy Buginette when Coccinette was out of town and Marinette had to face Evillustrator herself.

Her spine straightened as she rose to her full height under the weight of Adrien leaning against her, and as every time before that they had done this little bit of improv, his admiration for his friend resurged with vigor.

"Oh, Officer Agreste, mon cœur, I have burned every second we've been apart. The next mission, won't you ask me to stay?" She turned to him, causing his arm to slip from her shoulders until his hand caught on her hip. She grab his hand from his chest and held it delicately between her own before turning her face upward so he could meet her eyes.

Her eyes… They were shining so blue, so filled with love and heartache, that Adrien himself began to feel an ache in his chest, as if he had just learned to breathe and had only ever been suffocating before.

"You know I'd follow you anywhere, if only you'd ask. Even if you wish to wander only in this little town." She closed her eyes, and the spell should have been broken, but still he found himself captivated as she pressed her cheek against his knuckles, as if they were his lips giving her tender kisses. Her words burned him deeply, echoing with his own sentiments towards a girl, and surely it must be the girl in front of him that he is so attached to, for surely no other could set his chest ablaze with as much ferocity as she.

He exhaled softly, and thought that he must be blowing smoke into her hair as the blaze burned higher. "Cherie… you are a brilliant phoenix, and I would never think to cage you at my side. You set my heart on fire, and the embers burn even when we are apart. Let us feed the flames now, so that when you must fly, I will still feel your warmth."

His hand, which had been gripping bruises into her hip, rose to the back of her head. He pulled her forward until her forehead came to rest on his collarbone, and he buried his nose in her hair, thoughts only on how his knuckles pressed into the supple flesh of her cheek, how his fingers dug into the base of her hairline, how his lips brushed her scalp, and how certainly she would remember him, if only by the watercolor marks on her hip.

It was only after several minutes that he seemed to remember that he wasn't some detective who finally returned to his distant lover when he heard giggling and the shutter-click of a smartphone camera. It was several extended seconds more when he finally brought himself to raise his head, dreading to break the scene and have Marinette leave his arms. Alya met his eyes over black hair, a sly grin on her face while she waved her phone screen from only a meter away.

He couldn't stop the glare as he reluctantly pulled away.

“Oh, drop the look, ‘mon coeur,’ you know Nino would never forgive either of us if someone didn’t get this on camera for him to use later,” Alya snorted, stepping towards the pair.

Adrien simply huffed in reply, finally letting his arms drop. His skin immediately began to feel too hot without Marinette’s soothing coolness to sap the extra heat. He noticed, with no small amount of smug, that Marinette shivered, and goosebumps raised on the back of her arms once his heat no longer blanketed her. Even better, it took her several more moments to pull his hand from her cheek, and even more after that to actually drop his hand. Once her grip relaxed, he allowed himself to squeeze her fingers before finally letting go.

All the while, Alya continued to watch, thankfully not recording this time. These soft moments with Marinette, where he allowed himself to dip into his bursting stores of love and get a little out of his system, he wanted to keep only for himself and Marinette. He wanted to keep Marinette’s soft moments only for himself. He wanted no one else to get to see how Marinette acts when indulging in affection, however unrealistic that possessive want may be; after all, Marinette was full of affection and gave it freely.

But this affection?

These embraces, these kisses of the knuckles against her cheek like a cat, this “burning” devotion (however pretend), this affection which Marinette only seemed to give to him? He wanted it all. He didn’t want to see Marinette get a partner and give these affections to them. He didn’t want others to leech off of these affections with their seeing and their hearing when they indulged in these morning rituals. He wanted it to be only Marinette’s and his, he wanted them to be done for him alone, for the rest of time.