#but i hadn’t been running in the 5 minutes before that. i just powerwalked home chugging water

[fingertipsmp3]

I’m a whole dumbass sometimes. Only I would see that it’s the hottest day since last summer and be like “oh why don’t I go for a run in the middle of the goddamn day”

[mortaljin]

Out of the Sky

Word Count: 2.1k Warnings: Profanity Genre: Fluff, light angst (we’ll see) | Guardian Angel!Namjoon

Summary: How your adorable, clumsy guardian angel still manages to save your life is beyond you.

A/N: This was originally supposed to be a oneshot, but I hate going so long without giving you guys something. So, it will be a mini series. Tbh, I’ll likely change the name of this once its finished.

Masterlist

There was a lipstick smudge on your chin that you just couldn’t seem to correct in the amount of time you did not have to do so; the bright pink smudge was the aftermath of that sandwich you didn’t think to eat before doing your makeup. Your friends would be here any moment and you were in desperate need of just starting over.

You felt a little stressed, if not downright defeated, at the failure of your looks tonight. The outfit you picked out last night—which was SO cute—no longer looked flattering anymore. But now, as you stared at your reflection, your usually cute fashion sense seemed to be as bland as ever.

Sighing, you leaned into the mirror a little closer and took the pad of your finger to smudge off the pink blotch. The lipstick was removed alright, along with the rest of the makeup in that area. There was, unfortunately, no time to completely fix your chin area. So, you blended in some foundation and called it good.

At least your hair looked nice.

Right?

The beginning of doubt creeping into your head was shaken by the alert of your phone, which you presumed signaled the arrival of your friends. Instead of fussing, you straightened yourself out and decided that it would be okay to not be perfectly primped tonight.

You would not be the center of attention tonight, anyway.

With the ping of your phone echoing in your head, you left your bathroom and scurried down the hall. Yuki wanted to go out on the town tonight, so your best bet was anything other than heels. She could run a marathon in them, but not you.

Your purse’s contents were laying haphazardly on the entryway table with your keys in one bowl, wallet in another, and other things in the drawers. And, of course, your purse had fallen and had been kicked under the table. It was a wonder how you ever managed to find anything.

I’ll clean this in the morning, you thought as you rushed out the door.

The sandals you decided to wear slapped across the hard floor as you powerwalked towards the elevators. Your apartment itself was small and a sight for sore eyes, but the complex itself? Every time you left and came home you were reminded why it was literally the cheapest place in the city.

The entrance of the building swung open and you were met with a much warmer night than you were expecting. It was early fall, but it felt like a midsummer evening instead. The weather, although odd, helped to lift your spirits ever so slightly.

All day you had been tripping up. As if life itself was nipping at your heels everywhere you went. It was the can of soup you dropped at the store this evening, or the pen that you just bought yesterday running out of ink this morning.

Even when you accidentally knocked over the trash in your kitchen it felt worse than it actually was. The mundane things of life just felt like they had a twist today.

Your phone had not dinged in the last few moments while you were leaving your home, so, you thought it best to actually check your texts.

The space between your brows creased as you furrowed them at the message on your screen:

Yuki 5 minutes ago: Were runming a lol late, sryy Y/N!

You huffed in annoyance at her lack of time management. Turning off the phone screen, you sat on the concrete steps. It was better to sit out here, you decided briefly, than to anxiously wait around in your apartment where you would surely continue nitpicking your looks for the evening.

The sun was almost done setting; the last sliver of the peachy glow barely reached the sides of the surrounding buildings. The warmth no longer stretched across the city but, instead, the cool, collected solace of the night was beginning to take place.

You sighed dreamily. Nighttime was always the hour in which you felt most comfortable, almost as if all your insecurities were masked in the darkness. The night was mysterious, enchanting, even sublime—

The screeching of tires could be heard in the distance, and you lazily looked up to see a car coming. It was still a couple miles back on the flat stretch of road, but no one would be driving at this hour except idiots and… your friends.

Adjusting your purse strap against your shoulder, you stood from the steps and began making your way down the sidewalk towards the edge of the road. The wind had been still when you first walked outside, but now it was picking up around you.

It was heavy enough to the point it made your hair whip around; your lipstick likely hadn’t fully dried and you couldn’t see through your own hair. So now you were standing there like a blind idiot with, again, sloppy lipstick.

In the midst of your delirium, you managed to notice the ground below you was rumbling ever so slightly. The uncanny situation made panic crawl up your spine and you took a couple steps back as you finished fighting with your hair.

As you looked up, the sight, and crack, of the nearby tree barreling straight towards you forced your feet to haul yourself backwards. You hit the edge of the sidewalk and tumbled ass first into the grass.

The crash of the tree was deafening as it knocked out a couple mailboxes and disturbed trashcans set out for pick up.

Your knees threatened to buckle underneath you as you stood up, heart pounding and confused. A faint shimmer could be seen in the foliage of the fallen tree, and your hand flew to your head to confirm you had hit your head.

Standing in horror as you watched the rustling of the tree, you prayed for your friends to arrive already so that they could get you admitted.

The light you think you’re seeing is only a side effect of disorientation and streetlights. Only, you heard the sound of a man groaning at a distance. This caused you to brace yourself at the arrival of another person.

But the person that you saw wasn’t who you were expecting.

It wasn’t a neighbor in the complex, nor some random person strolling the streets at night that you heard. No, out of the shimmering foliage rose a man so beautiful you thought you were seeing God.

He looked hurt, you assumed, from the way he was hunching over with his head down. Coughing, he stood up. You stood mesmerized as he shook out his shoulders, trails of golden dust falling from them as he did so. He rolled his head around, stretching out his neck until he noticed you were standing there. Staring.

Once he had caught sight of you, he turned fully towards you and smiled brightly. It was a terrifying sight, almost, to see a man so beautiful looking at you the way he was.

The fear was different than you had ever known, not fear for your safety. No, you weren’t afraid that you would be harmed. Instead you feared what you did not know.

Oh, but how you wanted to know.

“Are you Y/N?”

He was calm, professional, as if you were talking to a businessman. Not an angel.

Your mouth was left agape as you stood there in the night air with him. Surely you looked like a suffocating goldfish as it opened and closed without words, but still. You were in awe.

He apparently took that as a yes because he stepped forward through the foliage, hand outstretched.

“My name is Namjoon, your guardian angel.”

“What?” You lifted a trembling hand to your forehead, checking for any sign of a fever. “Ha… haha…” Maniacal laughs stumbled from your lips as you shook your head in disbelief. “I’ve finally lost my fucking mind.”

The man, “Namjoon,” stood there and watched your insanity with curiosity.

“Holy shit,” you wiped wetness from your eyes, “that’s rich, mister “guardian angel,” You added air quotes for mocking affect. “You did some shit guarding, then. I almost fucking died!”

Your mocking turned into screeching once you realized this psychopath was being as serious as could be. Surprisingly, no one from your apartments had come out to investigate the loud crash. Instead, the ruined tree laid silent in front of you.

He simply shrugged. “I’ll admit I cut it a little too close just now but…”

“But what?” You cute him off, “I’m supposed to be going out tonight and your psycho ass nearly killed me. Look, my friends are here now.”

Either your friends were driving really slow, or the incident with the “guardian angel” took much less time than you thought it would. Ignoring burning annoyance in your chest, you took off once again down the sidewalk leading from your apartment’s entryway.

You heard a tsking noise behind you.

“What do you want?” You gritted.

“Three more steps and that car is gonna get you.”

You rolled your eyes and began to turn as you heard the sound of the approaching vehicle. Desperation bubbled inside of you with the chance to get away from whatever it is that is going on here.

But before you could inch any further up the sidewalk, bright lights blinded you. The headlights came from your right with only enough time to throw your hand in front of your face before you were promptly getting pulled back.

The headlights belonged to a car that was certainly not being driven by your friends. This was obvious not only in the car itself, but also in the way that it jumped the curb and took out a couple of the trashcans.

Garbage laid splattered right in front of you; the knowledge that it very well could be you spilled out right there was enough to have your dinner threatening to leave your stomach.

“Oh, please don’t puke on me,” Namjoon whined.

It was only then that you registered that his hand was still firmly wrapped around your wrist; he had not let go since jerking you back from the sidewalk. The adrenaline was crawling up your throat and the events that just occurred only helped to confirm what the crazy man had been telling you earlier.

Your free hand flew to your mouth as your racing heart caused your emotions to rush out. “Oh, my g-g-god!”

Tears clouded your vision as your words got caught in your throat.

“H-how did you k-know th-that that was going to h-happen?”

He chuckled, but it didn’t seem as though he was laughing at you.

Honestly, you were still so scared right at that moment. It was two near death experiences back to back in the presence of some otherworldy man and it was almost too much to bear.

When you blinked away the tears that had no doubt ruined your makeup, you realized his eyes were so… sad?

Namjoon was no longer shining so brightly, instead it was a warm, soft glow radiating around him. It was only now that you realized his large, feathery wings were drooping.

He let go of your wrist and backed away.

“Y/N, please don’t be scared of me. You’re not scared of me, right?” His voice was low, yet brimming with panic.

You weren’t sure how to answer. One part of your mind was screaming to get away from the unknown entity. The other was nudging you to be curious, to find out more.

Luckily, the sound of your phone dinging distracted you from giving him an immediate reply. You were still trembling slightly, as was made obvious by your lit up phone screen shaking in the dark.

Yuki: this is Anna, we’re gonna have to cancel plans Yuki pre-gamed too hard. Shes sick, next Friday sound good?

A bitter sneer came from your mouth and it didn’t take long before you were shoving your phone in your pocket and looking up towards Namjoon again. Yuki’s lack of proper spelling made sense now.

“You’re not real,” you decided on. “I can’t be afraid of what’s not real. Goodnight.”

You muttered the farewell to yourself and ignored the exasperated sigh coming from the not-actually-real being behind you.

[sariahsue]

Seeing Double, Chapter 5

Summary: Ladybug has discovered Cat Noir’s secret identity, and he doesn’t know that she knows. And she doesn’t know that he knows hers. He doesn’t know who Marinette has a crush on. She doesn’t know why Adrien is suddenly flirting with her.

Read chapter 1 here Read chapter 4 here

    Marinette woke up grumpy, having slept terribly. She was mad at Cat Noir. She was mad at Tikki too, but that was hardly the kwami's fault. All she'd done was ask what was wrong about a thousand times and offer words that were supposed to be comforting but didn't fix anything. She buried herself deeper into her warm blankets, too tired to move but too alert to go back to sleep.

    She'd have to get up for school soon and see him. She didn't want to see him. She didn't want to think about him. She didn't want him to come haunt her balcony again. She didn't want to go fight an akuma, where she was guaranteed to see him.

    A quick glance at her cell phone told her she only had a few minutes until she had to start getting ready. Marinette set it back down slowly and quietly, hoping her movement wouldn't upset the spot on her pillow where Tikki's small weight dimpled the fabric.

    He'd changed his mind so easily. Two days ago, he'd taken every chance he had to tell Ladybug that she was amazing, they were meant to be together, that she was the only one for him. And he dropped that crush in a few measly hours. If he'd gotten over her so easily once, how quick would he be to get over her a second time? She'd never be able to keep the attention of a flirt like Cat Noir.

    A part of her wished Tikki would just intuitively understand what was wrong. She didn't want to have to explain. But she was pretty good at imagining Tikki's arguments anyway. "He probably didn't mean it that way. Wouldn't it be easier to just ask what he meant?" "You turned Cat Noir down. You wanted him to move on, didn't you?" "Weren't you complaining to me – just last week – that you thought he only liked you because he thinks you're a 'perfect' superhero and not because of who you are?" "You won him over from yourself. Isn't that a good thing?" "Don't you want him to like you?" The answers were all yes, of course, but that didn't make her feel any better.

    She sighed and twisted in her blankets. (It wasn't like she could get any more tangled, anyway.) At least something good had happened from this whole thing. She'd learned that she barely stuttered around Cat Noir, which was a huge relief. They'd both be safer if she could function as a normal human being in his presence, and he'd be less likely to guess her identity. The bad news was the lack of stuttering was probably due to her still partially viewing them as two separate people. She'd need to work on that.

    Her twisting and turning was slow to wake Tikki, who had been putting up with it for most of the night, but wake she finally did, looking as cheerful as ever.

    "Good morning. Do you feel better?" she asked cautiously.

    "Not really." Marinette threw the blankets back over her face. Did ladybugs make cocoons? They totally did, right? Because she wanted one. It was dark and snug in here. It smelled familiar and soothing. And Adrien wasn't in here, so that was an added bonus. Adrien snuggling under the blankets with her... Another benefit of cocoons: no one could see her embarrassed blush.

    "Maybe school and Alya will help take your mind off things," Tikki said. She phased right through the covers and landed on Marinette's nose. She only groaned, so Tikki tried again. "Do you want to talk about it now?"

         "Just leave me alone to die," she moaned and swatted at her face.

Tikki dodged out of the way. She must have been tired of being pushed away, because her tone was clipped as she phased back out of the blanket. "Get. Up."

    Marinette's goal for the day was easy: Avoid Adrien at all costs. It shouldn't be too hard, she reasoned. She only had to see him the WHOLE STUPID DAY!

    She made herself late on purpose, so she wouldn't have time to talk to him before class, though it wouldn't have mattered. He showed up thirty minutes late himself, informing the teacher that he'd had an emergency photoshoot. Apparently, the pictures from yesterday hadn't been good enough and needed to be redone. Marinette propped her book open on the desk and hid behind it before he could look at her. Her fault. He'd been distracted after she'd shown up. He sat down without a word and unzipped his bag quietly.

    Alya poked her in the shoulder and raised her eyebrows, then nodded toward Adrien, wordlessly asking what was going on. Marinette pressed her face into the table and didn't say anything.

    She kept the book up as a barrier all class, but it couldn't stop her from hearing every time Adrien shifted in his seat. Was it her imagination, or was he more fidgety than normal today? Twice, she peeked around her wall and found that he was sneaking a glance at her. Both times, she squeaked audibly before ducking back out of sight. The second time, it had been loud enough to get the teacher's attention. The end result was that Marinette was told to lower her book shield and pay attention. She could unhappily fulfill one of those request, but paying attention turned out to be too much to ask for. She couldn't focus her eyes or thoughts on anything but Adrien, who kept his head bowed for the rest of class.

    At the end of first period, Marinette sprinted out of the classroom, Alya in tow. She had it all figured out. She would claim that she needed to talk to Ms. Mendeleiev about something, so she couldn't possibly be expected to talk to other students between classes. Then, she'd spend lunch at home, and maybe she'd conveniently have a fever that afternoon.

    "You can't avoid him for the rest of your life," Alya said as they powerwalked down the hallway.

    "I can try." Marinette kept a firm grip on Alya's wrist.

    "I'll catch up with you later, girl," she said, tugging away from Marinette's grasp. "Gotta talk to Nino real quick."

    "Wait!" Don't leave me!

    Alya broke free and moved out of reach before Marinette could grab her and keep her there. She hadn't said anything earlier about Nino. Why was it so urgent now?

    "Hey, Marinette." Adrien said.

    She tried to jump at the voice and spin around at the same time. It didn't work out too well, and she ended up losing her balance. The lockers were kind enough to catch her as she fell. She made quite the crash when she hit, and several people looked over before continuing on to their next class.

    "Oh, h-h-hi, Adrien." There were only five minutes in between classes. And this was Cat Noir! She could last that long against Cat Noir, right? Sweat already trickled at the back of her neck. Probably wrong.

    He'd reached out to help steady her, but retracted his hand before he touched her and dropped his gaze quickly. Something was different. He seemed more hesitant, and he took a small step back when he saw that she didn't need his help staying upright. She knew it. He was put off by her weirdness and wanted to keep his distance!

    "I- I'm sorry about yesterday. Are you okay?"

    "Oh, sure!" she said, smiling in what she hoped wasn't a creepy way. "It's your fault." She watched his face contort into a crinkled frown. "I mean, MY fault! NOT your fault. Sorry." She held her books up and ducked behind them. How many more minutes until class started? It'd been five already, right? Please tell her it'd been five.

    "Listen," he said, pushing her books down so she would meet his eyes. "I was- I was thinking, and I figured I should probably tell you-" He seemed to think better of whatever it was. "Is something bothering you? I mean, you've been really quiet all day, and I was just wondering if maybe something happened yesterday, maybe at school, or... or after school, that you wanted to talk about? You seem... really upset."

    He shuffled his feet nervously, and she suddenly felt guilty. She'd never stopped to think what running out on him would make him feel. She expected Cat Noir would think she was just a weird random citizen, laugh it off, and go find someone else to flirt with. But Adrien would be concerned about his friend and maybe a little hurt. She had to stop seeing them as two separate people.

    "Oh, I'm okay," she said. "Really. You don't need to worry." Should she tell him she knew? She didn't think she was ready. But she also didn't want to hurt him. If Cat Noir and Adrien were the same person... it had been bad enough rejecting her kitty and hurting his feelings, but – her heart squeezed painfully as the full weight of the realization sunk in – but she'd been rejecting her sweet Adrien, too. Did he still feel that way about Ladybug? Or had he moved on already?

    "Okay," he said, finally taking his hand off her books and scratching the back of his neck. "As long as you're sure you're fine." He didn't sound very convinced.

    She started to reply, offer some comfort, tell him the truth, but she stopped when she heard a loud shriek.

    "MY HAIR!"

    She'd heard Chloe's screaming enough to be able to identify it from a distance, and she gave an exaggerated sigh. It was only when more people joined in that she realized something was wrong.

    Marinette and Adrien locked eyes. Clumps of students stampeded past them, looking for shelter, and they were quickly left alone.

    "We should, uh, get to class?" she said. No, stupid. He's not going to believe you're still going to class during an akuma attack! "And- and lock ourselves in for safety?" NO! That was even worse! "I m-mean-"

    "Good idea," Adrien said, panicked. "But I'm... going to go check on Chloe first. Yeah." He dashed in what was clearly the opposite direction of the screaming and started glancing into open doors, probably looking for an empty classroom to transform in. Marinette watched him go until he turned a corner and was gone.

    Tikki popped her head out of Marinette's purse. The akuma must have been close, because the hallway was already emptied of other people.

    "See?" Tikki said. "He likes you."

    "But which of me?" she asked. "Spots on."

    She knew she didn't have time to wait for an answer, and Tikki couldn't provide one for that question anyway. Did he really like Marinette? Did he still have feelings for Ladybug? Cat Noir could be an insincere flirt sometimes, but Adrien didn't strike her that way. When her transformation was complete, Ladybug raced down the hallway, where she could hear Chloe's wailing.

    So which was it? Who did he truly have feelings for? Or was he just playing both of her identities? There had to be some way to find out.

Read chapter 6 here