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milarqui · 2 years ago

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Scarlet Lady: Intermission

Directory | Dark Cupid

It was finally Friday, and also finally the end of classes. And the girls were going to take advantage of it!

Granted, they were planning to study for their exams, but it was also a chance to have fun together.

“It was really nice of you to invite Chloé to our study sleepover, Marinette!” Rose cheered, smiling, while Marinette gave a more strained smile.

“Yeah, well... it was nicer of her to rip up the invitation,” she replied, remembering Mme. Bustier's face when Chloé made her choice.

“But did you have to invite Lila?” Alya complained.

“Alya, Lila is five times cooler than Chloé,” Marinette said, knowing that her friend still had a bone to pick with the Italian. “And I can't exclude people.”

“Yeah, Alya.”

Yeah, she was going to have her hands full with these two.

----

Meanwhile, the boys gathered together at Kim's suggestion.

“If the girls are gonna hang out, we should too!” he suggested, and everyone else let out a “YEAH!” in response.

“What should we do?” Nino asked.

“Movie? Museum? Arcade?” Ivan offered and Adrien lit up with the last one.

“Wow, I've never been to an arcade before!” he commented.

“Alright, arcade it is!” Nino said, and Adrien put his arms around Nino's and Nathaniel's shoulders.

“YEAH!”

“Let's win Adrien all the Marigold merch!” Kim said, and Adrien was shocked out of his enthusiasm.

“YEAH!” the others yelled.

“Wait, no!” he tried to interrupt.

Yeah, he had forgot to mention that little tidbit the other week...

----

School had finally let out, and Ondine and Kagami were making their way home: since the latter's house was on the way to the former's, they had made it a habit to walk together.

“It's too bad we couldn't go to Marinette's sleepover,” Ondine commented as they passed by an arcade. “Practice is really ramping up.”

“Yes. It's unfortunate, but my mother must remain ignorant of my friendships. Excluding Adrien,” Kagami replied, which was yet another thing Ondine thought was quite messed up with Kagami's mother. She chose not to comment on it, though.

“Almost, almost!”

“Aw, you dropped it!”

She recognized that voice, and turned to see that it was indeed her boyfriend.

“Kim?”

“Wuh-hey! It's Ondine!” Kim cheered up.

“Ondine!” Max said. It was clear Kim had come out with his friends, and since she was with Kagami... perhaps it was time to help her friend meet more people?

“Hey guys! Come meet Kagami!”

“Right now?!” Kagami asked, shocked. Oh, right, she was kinda bad at this. Well, as her best friend, it was her mission to help Kagami come a bit out of her shell!

----

“Hey, Kagami!” Adrien said as he arrived, and Kagami quickly clinged to him.

“Hello, Adrien.”

“You guys know each other?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah! We have fencing together!”

Kim gave Adrien a knowing look.

“So you know each other, or you know each other?”

“Huh?” Kagami said, confused. Adrien realized what was the meaning and waved his friend off.

“Oh, no, we're just friends!”

Kagami tugged on Adrien's sleeve.

“I thought we were good friends!” she said, and Adrien took her hands in his.

“You're absolutely right, I'm so sorry.”

Nino watched with bemusement.

“You guys are definitely giving the wrong impression,” he said, bringing the two Marigold dolls he had got out of the claw machine. “Here you go, dude!”

“Thanks, but you don't have to,” Adrien said, while Kagami kept her eyes on the dolls that resembled her favorite hero so much. “I don't have a crush on Marigold.”

“Whaaat?” Nino said, surprised – so much that he didn't notice Kagami stealthily picking one of the dolls. “I'm so lost, who do you like? You wrote that poem for someone.”

“It's Marinette, right?” Ivan suggested.

“Marinette for sure!” Ondine said.

“It's obviously Marinette,” Kagami added.

“WHAT?!” Kim shouted, and Adrien turned to see him, Nathaniel, and Max loaded up to the gills with the stuff they had won. “So you don't want this stuff?!”

“Oh my Lord,” Adrien said, shocked.

Even with Kagami taking one or two things, Adrien had found his arms full of Marigold merchandise, so much that he found himself unable to open the car's passenger door. Thank goodness Nino was there, even if he was still embarrassed.

“Dude, I can't believe how wrong I was!” he apologized. “I'll step up my game, promise!”

“No worries, Nino! See you tomorrow!”

----

As Adrien got into the car, he noticed that he had his arms full of merchandise from the heroine, Marigold. It looked like he was unable to fasten his own seatbelt, so he waited until he could put everything in a secure place and fasten his seatbelt – Mr. Agreste was always very clear that, save for emergencies, Adrien had to be secured before the car even started – which was hard because Adrien didn't even know how to put things without covering the car's floor.

Then Adrien looked at him and waved one of the objects, and he nodded. Carefully grabbing the statuette of Marigold wielding her weapon, he smiled.

This was going to go into his collection.

----

“Sir, Adrien is on route home,” Nathalie said, picking one of the grapes from the dish in front of her.

“Thank you, Nathalie.”

“It was kind of you to allow him to go, Master,” Nooroo complimented, taking advantage of the fact that, for once, Gabriel did not seem to be ready to akumatize someone else.

“Bah. Who knows what my son would do to retaliate if I denied him,” Gabriel complained. “He might wear crocs.”

“Adrien's rebelliousness has been increasing since he started school,” Nathalie noted, although the memory of him cursing at her before his first day at Françoise Dupont was still fresh in her mind. She ate the grape, savoring the mix of sweet and sour.

“True,” Gabriel admitted, “but the alternative is having him wander the house and discover our plans.”

“I'm home!”

Quickly, Nooroo hid away to avoid being seen by Adrien, and Gabriel and Nathalie looked towards the lobby... where they found Adrien walking in.

Wearing Marigold antenna.

And with an armful of miscellaneous Marigold merchandise.

“My friends scored!” Adrien happily said, unaware of how uncomfortable the two adults were feeling. “You want any of this?!”

Gabriel chose to reject the offer, but she decided to pick the spinning top: it was the most inoffensive of all the objects in the pile, and she felt a bit of comradeship with the younger girl, even if they were in opposite sides of the fighting.

“My son, a Marigold fan,” Gabriel lamented, covering his face.

“It's only natural, sir. She is a hero, after all,” Nathalie replied, testing the toy. “Look at it this way: at least, he's admiring the smart Marigold and not the incompetent leader, Scarlet Lady.”

Gabriel struck the table in an uncharacteristic fit of anger.

“Scarlet Lady is not incompetent! She's the slipperiest of the whole group!”

“Ah, of course, Sir,” she replied, trying to mollify him... even though she knew very well the real reason why he said that.

Because if she was an idiot, you'd be the guy losing to that idiot.

----

Chez Marinette, the hour was getting late, and it was clear that they had worked hard – and their minds were exhausted. Marinette palmed the table and stood up.

“Studying, done! Let's party!”

“YAAAAY!” the girls said in unison.

“I gotta charge my phone, go ahead and get into PJs!”

While the girls took turns to change their clothes, Marinette ran upstairs: she did need to charge her phone, but she mostly wanted to check on the one being that lived in her room, hidden in a part of her wardrobe.

Her phone was now charging – but also prepared to cue some videos. The spicy chips bag was opened just enough to allow Pollen to access its contents without risking an accident. And the bed was just perfect for her.

“Do you need anything else, Pollen?” she asked the kwami, who smiled at her.

“This is more than enough, my Queen! Thank you for such hospitality!”

Marinette picked Pollen up and gave her a sweet kiss in the head, causing the kwami to blush slightly.

“I just want to make sure you're taken care of. Let me know if you need anything!” she said, helping Pollen into the bed. “See you for patrol later!”

As the first video of the list began, Pollen pondered something.

Am I the Queen?

----

Now dressed in their pajamas, the group had sodas and popcorn ready while waiting for their pizzas to arrive, and Alya leaned down towards Alix.

“Hey, Alix, why do you hang with Lila and Sabrina?”

Alix turned to her classmate with a quizzical expression.

“Huh?!”

“I mean, aren't they a bit girly for you?”

Alix admitted it might look like that, but she wouldn't let that pass.

“Sure, they go shopping and dress up with each other,” she said, looking as Lila laughed at an imitation Sabrina was making, “but they're fun. I like talking to them. Isn't that enough?”

She pulled her phone and opened the photo folder.

“Besides, they're sportier than they look,” Alix finished, opening the photo from the last roller derby game, and Alya felt her jaw drop.

“WOW.”

It certainly deserved the shocked expression: Sabrina's look of utter wrath as she threw another skater into the ground, while Lila cheered in the background with a maniacal face, was something she had never expected from her 'girlier' classmates.

“Yeah,” Alix sagely nodded, “they got a lot of rage to work out.”

---

Meanwhile, Juleka had offered to do make up for all the others, which they gleefully accepted: Juleka could make wonders with the most basic of supplies, and she had brought a very diverse set of makeup tools to the pajama party.

Of course, that gave everyone free range to speak of personal matters, and for Mylène – who was currently in Juleka's capable hands – there was a matter she was really curious about.

“I never got to hear how you two got together,” she said, nodding at Juleka and Rose, who was acting as Juleka's 'assistant'. Rose giggled.

“You could say it took a while for us to get on the same page!”

“Huh?”

----

“Wanna get ice cream?” Rose asked.

Does she mean as a friend? Juleka thought, blushing.

----

“Will you go to the movie with me?” Rose asked, blushing.

As a friend, right? Juleka thought, uncertain.

----

“I love you, Juleka,” Rose said, kissing her for the first time.

As a friend?! Juleka thought, her face burning from the clash of thoughts. And because Rose's lips felt really nice against hers.

----

Juleka tried to push back those embarrassing moments to the back of her head, and turned to do her wonders on the party host.

“Is there someone you like, Marinette?” she asked, and Marinette smiled.

“There is, but... I don't think I should go for it.”

“Why not?!” Rose cried out: she was a sucker for romance stories, and seeing her friend lose hope in her own romance was something she disliked.

“He's a very busy guy with an erratic schedule, and I've been getting busier myself,” Marinette explained. “It's just not fair to either of us. I'm doing what I can to support him.”

Juleka pulled a spray and aimed at Marinette, who closed her eyes.

“Well, don't forget you have other options,” she said, pressing it.

“'Other options'?” Marinette asked, just as the doorbell rang. Shaking her face off, she rushed to the door.

“Pizza for you!” the delivery boy said, and she smiled when she saw who it was.

“Luka!”

Marinette picked up the boxes – feeling her face getting as warm as the pizzas – and invited Luka inside while she got the cash.

“Hey, Jules,” Luka said, greeting his little sister.

“Guys, this is my brother, Luka,” Juleka presented him.

“Hey, Luka,” Lila intervened, entranced. “Are you Juleka's older or younger brother.”

“Older,” Luka said, smirking.

“How much older?” Lila insisted.

“Older.”

Lila pouted at being denied such critical information about the cute boy in front of her, but her interrogation was interrupted when Marinette returned with the money.

“Here, Luka,” she said, adding a tip for the boy's work. Luka smiled at her.

“Thanks. You look really pretty, Marinette,” he said in an appreciative tone, making her blush even harder.

“T-Thanks!”

The moment was interrupted when Juleka grabbed a cushion.

“Okay, time for dumb boys to get out,” she declared, slamming the cushion on Luka's face.

“AH!” Luka complained, causing Alix to laugh as he tried to regain his dignity and left. The girls picked up everything they'd need for dinner and placed it around the table.

That was when Sabrina found a box full of toys and dolls.

“Huh? Marinette, what's all this stuff?” she asked, curious, and Marinette turned to her friend.

“Oh, that,” she said, picking the Marigold doll she had crafted a couple of weeks before. “It's for when I babysit! I had to make my own because they used to not make any. Scarlet Lady only worked with expensive brands, you know.”

The girls approached the box and checked Marinette's creations: they were all hand-crafted and very well detailed representations of most of the heroes and Akumas that had shown up since past September, and even if they were a bit of a bad memory for some of them, they thought they were cute, and began to pick one or two.

Meanwhile, Alya scratched the back of her head: Marinette's comment about Scarlet Lady had shaken her a bit.

“Uh. Well, she has an important job! She deserves royalties, right?” she suggested.

“Ha!” Lila laughed. “Royalties for what, sitting on her butt while being a glory hound?””

Alya's eye twitched.

Teams had formed.

On Team 'Scarlet Lady' stood Alya (with Small WiFi), Mylène (with Pebbleheart) and Rose (with Mini-Reflekta).

“Why, you–!” Alya said, her hand itching to close around Lila's neck for a moment. “She's a hero! Everyone knows she's the best!”

On Team 'Heroes' were Juleka (with Xiaomaotif) and Sabrina (with Rogersmall and Vanishrinker)

“I don't really care,” Juleka said.

“Yeah, all the heroes work hard, right?” Sabrina asked.

Alya turned to the last team, formed by Lila (with Volpiccona), Alix (with Timecracker) and Marinette.

“Well?”

“She's the worst,” Marinette declared, thus giving name to Team 'Worst', while Lila stuck her tongue and Alix laughed.

“Marinette!” Alya shouted, and tackled her friend to pull her cheeks.

Ignoring the roughhousing, Sabrina checked over the doll of her own Akuma, remembering how she had become Vanisher.

“Y'know, Chloé is probably Scarlet Lady's biggest fan, but I never understood why. She'd even say they're best friends even though I never saw them together,” she said, shaking her head. “But maybe that's why she started blowing me off.”

“Hm,” Lila mumbled, picking Volpiccona. “Don't forget, Scarlet Lady's never humiliated Chloé like she did me. Maybe she's telling the truth.”

“Hmmm...” Lila's words were correct. Perhaps Chloé and Scarlet Lady were, somehow, friends?

“YEAH, RIGHT!” Alix exclaimed, and all the girls began to laugh at how absurd the idea was.

“As if Chloé could stop herself from posting pics all over the place!” Lila mocked the rich girl.

“More like Chloé thinks they're BFFs!” Alya cracked up.

----

The girls had gone to sleep in a good mood, and were now laying around, in different states of sleep, but all likely to remain so for the rest of the night.

All... but one of them.

As soon as she was certain the others would not wake up, Marinette carefully stood, tiptoed around the insensate bodies of her friends (particularly to avoid Juleka and Rose, who looked very cute together) and walked up to her room, where she carefully woke up her kwami.

“Ready, Pollen?” she asked, and the kwami smiled up to her.

“Mhm!”

“Buzz On.”

Opening the window as silently as possible, Marigold jumped out of her room and into the roofs of Paris, keeping an eye on potential trouble like thieves: Paris being what it was, it was not uncommon for problems such as those to appear.

However, it looked like tonight would be a calm night, as she made her way towards her accorded meeting point – where her Chat Noir was already waiting for her.

“Hey, Minou,” she greeted, landing next to her partner, who smiled at her.

“Hey, Goldie!” he greeted back as she sat next to him. “Thanks for taking on patrols, Marigold. Scar wouldn't even consider it.”

“No problem,” Marigold replied.

“Seriously, ever since you showed up, it's like I can finally relax. Even my civilian life doesn't feel like I'm drowning anymore!”

Marigold blushed slightly, looking aside with a pleased smile. This was the kind of vindication she had wanted to hear, and it felt so sweet.

“M-Merci,” she thanked with a minimum of stumbling.

“Oh!” Chat Noir exclaimed, pulling a hairband with antennas from behind him and offering it to her. “By the way, your popularity is on the rise! For you.”

“For real?” Marigold said, softly laughing. “Should I look for matching ears?!”

But, still, she put the hairband on. It was a present from Chat Noir, and she liked what it represented.

And after that, they kept talking. She didn't know why, but... she always felt so at ease when talking with him! It was so wonderful, not just because of what they had in common, but also because he was so nice.

But all good things had to end, and she brought up a particularly important matter.

“Master Fu said Scarlet Lady wasn't supposed to have the earrings,” she said.

“Yeah, he did.”

“Should we do something about it?”

“Hm.” Chat Noir put his hand to his chin. “Never really stopped to think about it. Sure, Scar does the bare minimum, but if we ever came close to defeating Hawkmoth? I don't think she'd give up her Miraculous willingly.”

Marigold clenched her fist. She had known for long how self-serving Scarlet Lady could be... and she could easily believe that she could fall that low.

“What about her kwami?” she asked. Knowing that one of Pollen's friends was in the hands of Scarlet Lady was distressing enough.

“Tikki?”

“Yeah. Can't she take the Earrings herself?”

Chat Noir shook his head, sighing.

“It's not that easy, or Nooroo would've nabbed the Butterfly Miraculous a long time ago. There are rules that kwami are bound to, apparently. Plus, Plagg says Tikki is particularly duty-bound. So long as Nooroo is in danger, she'll prioritize him over herself.”

“Poor Tikki,” Marigold complained. “It just doesn't seem to be fair.”

Chat Noir said nothing, but Marigold knew that his silence was in agreement.

The two of them watched the stars... and they thought of what the future might bring.

----

Animan

@zoe-oneesama Let's take a break, with fun times... and also the memory of Tikki being in the hands of a horrible boss.

Since we know that the Chat Noir and Marigold dolls are officially named Chaton Noir and Minigold, I thought about giving the other dolls special names.

* Stoneheart -> Pebbleheart (a pebble is a small stone)

* Maotif -> Xiaomaotif (xiao mao means little cat)

* Vanisher -> Vanishrinker (since the doll is like shrinking Vanisher)

* Volpina -> Volpiccona (piccola means "small" in Italian)

* Timebreaker -> Timecracker (if you try to break something but can't, maybe it just cracks)

#scarlet lady the novel #scarlet lady #milarqui #fanfiction #long post #marinette dupain cheng #marigold #adrien agreste #chat noir #girls PJ party #guys at the arcade

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luminique · 20 days ago

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besides spending quiet time together in lumina square, i think dragging lighter to fun places to take his mind off things is something else that he secretly enjoys.

you don’t have to have a set plan with him. i think he’d enjoy going with the flow of things as long as it’s with you. watching movies at gravity cinema, eating hot pot together, getting teamilk before doing some shopping for the girls.

there are tons of shops there and lots of things to do. recently, teens in the area have been raving about a new photobooth place in lumina square. it gets really busy during the weekends but lucky for the both of you, it was a relatively chill weekday. it was a normal shop that had a few photobooths and many funny accessories.

you both chose some accessories for yourselves (more like you chose and lighter hesitantly agreed). a pair of heart sunglasses, cat and dog ear headbands, and a huge bangboo plushie. he personally would never do something like this alone but seeing you be so indecisive on which accessories to pick did entertain him.

you walked into one of the booths, the screen displaying clear instructions to make sure you knew where to stand and how to take a photo. lighter was a little awkward at first, he’s not the kind to be good at photos, let alone pose for one intentionally. you decided to wear the heart sunglasses first, thinking that it’d match perfectly with lighter’s usual shades. a middle finger pulling down the shades a little as you looked at the camera and he couldn’t help but laugh at your attempt to imitate him.

he did the same pose as you, wanting to show who the true undefeated champion was. backs toward each other, the camera’s shutter goes off and the first picture was taken. that helped him relax a little, not feeling as nervous or awkward as before. until you wore the headband however….

a fluffy cat ear headband was now on your head as you happily held out the dog ear ones to him. “do i really have to…?” he asked you as he hesitated taking it from you. “mhm! and i’m putting it on you,” you chirped, so eager to have him wear something completely opposite to his cool guy image.

he let out a quiet sigh of defeat. he can’t argue with you to be honest, not when you’re beaming with excitement for him to wear it. he bent down a little, letting you place it on his head. he looked at the display, seeing his reflection in it and immediately turns red. you can see the blush on his face and it was the perfect opportunity for the next photo.

two more photos left. you could almost reach your arms around the big bangboo plushie, lighter followed suit and hugged it too. his hand brushed against your arm as he buried his face into the plushie to hide his embarrassment. you seemed to be having fun though, your laugh becoming a familiar sound followed by the camera shutter.

it’s the final photo, you had to make the most of it. no accessories this time, you wanted to capture a natural moment between the both of you. “finally, just one more,” lighter thought to himself, completely unaware of what plans you had. he was unsure of how to pose, since there was no props now.

you got closer to him, wanting to do a pose that had your faces close to each other. holding his hand in yours, you clicked the button on the screen. he knew his eyes should be on the camera but it was focused on the display, on you specifically. your smile, the way your eyes also showed that happiness. this was fun, you looked cute and he’d only try it again if it was wi-

3, 2, 1, click!

the last picture was taken. just before it did, you turned your face towards him, giving a kiss on his cheek. it was captured perfectly, the surprise on his face was evident even though his sunglasses hid the blush behind them. his mind went blank, not realizing that you were picking up the accessories to return them. the screen instructed you to not leave anything behind and to take the photos outside of the machine. “lighter? hello?” you waved your hand in front of him, he quickly snapped out of it and followed you out of the booth.

two strips of pictures were printed out, all of the photos came out exactly the way you wanted them to. you gave him the other strip and he examined the pictures carefully. he looked like a flustered mess in all of them except the first one. he can’t let anyone see this, especially that last one… but you looked perfect. maybe he shouldn’t fuss over it, instead enjoy the fact that he got to spend time with you. a picture perfect memory he could always look back on when he misses you.

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