#i mean. it was okay but also my mom makes crepes with us every now and again so it ain't anything special
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i have been so absurdly productive with my chores today that I've decided to write instead of resting
#yknow how it is with neurodivergence. either dont get anything done or do EVERYTHING in the span of a few hours#i mean. i organized my whole ass room and went shopping and mopped the whole apartment and did laundry and then stood in line#for an hour for one (1) crepe b/c college makes people kinda crazy like that#i mean. it was okay but also my mom makes crepes with us every now and again so it ain't anything special#doormat decorating tomorrow though!#anyway. wow my hip joints fucking HURT#also im boutta write soooo much fluff and comedy#a lil treat after the torture i put you guys through
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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
(Jean x fem!/reader) -> (Angst...) -> 3.5k
Notes: some of the events placed might be a little rushed...but regaredless, enjoy :’D
Ⅳ > Ⅵ
Time had passed after you and Jean confessed. These past couple of days had been peaceful, and enjoyable. Your friends around you chose to give you both space every once in a while. Not knowing when duty would call you (yet again), you both chose to spend your time wisely.
For example, one time, he brought you to the top of one of the hills. You both star gazed with each other till the horizon rose. Both of you in awe of such a beautiful sky. Though enveloped in darkness, each star had its own light, brightening the shadows the galaxies held.
Another being that you both rode for a while. It was great being able to bring out your horses to roam around fields (without the worries of titans). You were also able to make and give Jean a flower crown. Though made of weeds (dandelions), he loved it regardless. He also tried to make one for you, but it didn’t go as planned.
Lastly, although this involved everyone else, you made pancakes. Sasha, Jean, and Connie had helped you out. They weren’t fluffy, but that had to do with the lack of ingredients (imagine crepes). You gave them out and made a jam with the strawberries Sasha and Connie had picked. Reiner and Berthold also helped the two in their spare time. Although not many were there (in both berries and people), the six of you enjoyed two pancakes each.
“THANK YOU Y/N, I LOVE YOU!” Sasha exclaimed and almost took Reiner’s plate, but he shoved her away before she could.
“I haven’t had these for 5 years...I won’t let you take them now-”
“Five years? This is my first time…” Jean pouted and then looked at you. You instead gave him another strawberry to see everyone shocked.
“WHAT, NO FAIR!!” Connie yelled.
“FAVOURITISM AT IT’S FINEST!” Said Sasha, Jean winked and you rolled your eyes.
“Y/n...what about me?” Berthold frowned as you sighed and gave him one of your crepes. He then remarked he was joking, but you insisted. This was one of the treats you loved making for him growing up, and since it had been a while, you wanted to give it to him while you could. Jean looked somewhat shocked, as the other two snickered.
“Hehe, that’s what you get Jean,” they both said in unison.
“Oh shut up.”
You shook your head and got up. Since you had finished, you then whispered in Jean’s ear:
“Come and help me with the dishes,” he immediately got up and followed you as the others watched.
“I can wash them,” you looked at him uncertain.
“I’ll help you regardless,” from there, a water fight broke loose, along with a little teasing here and there. You both laughed, enjoyed your time for Bertholdt to then come over.
“Hey I just wanted to ask...but you do know that all of us are going to be on standby, starting tomorrow, right?” you glanced at Jean and then turned towards Bertholdt.
“Yes, I do,” Jean wasn’t coming with you guys. You weren’t exactly sure as to why, but regardless, he seemed a little sad. You then watched as Berthold put a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, be careful out there...okay? Don’t worry about Y/n, we’ve got her.” “Yeah! We all do!” Connie blurts from the other side.
Jean then smiled and nodded: “Yeah...I know you do.”
--- The day came where you now had to perform your duties. You were grateful for the days given, but now, it was time to go and commence your obligations. As you went to your horse, Jean came over and gave you a very tight hug. You knew he didn’t want you to leave (and you didn’t either), but duty called. He sighed and then kissed your forehead. You then looked up at him as he held you close.
“Be safe...I’ll see you soon...Y/n,” you then slid out of his grasp, and sat on your horse.
“You too love,” you watched as his eyes trailed. It seemed as if he wanted to say more, but kept it to himself. You bit the side of your cheek, wondering about what he would say, but decided to let it go as you followed Bertholdt, and Reiner. You guys rode at the back of the group.
“It’s not like you’ll never see him again,” Reiner teased as you smacked his arm.
“Shut up,” you both laughed to then hear Berthold say:
“But Jean?...ah, I guess he’s better than Eren.”
“What?” Although Bertholdt was timid in front of others (including you), he had his moments where he spoke his mind. This being one of them. “I mean, he’s nice and all, but I thought you would get with someone like Armin, you know? Someone a little quieter, and intelligent,” Reiner than responded:
“I mean, you do you, but don’t get too attached,” he joked. You decided to ignore what he said, and because of that, his tone of voice changed from being goofy, to serious.
“I mean it, L/n. You can do whatever makes you happy, that’s fine, but know that type of stuff comes with a price. Especially on the battlefield. Remember, here on Paradis, you might be a scout, but when you go back to Marely, you are a soldier.”
“Nothing about our operation has changed, there was just some delay. Now that we have a clear objective of where the founder is, we have a sense of direction. If your little affair is going to get the best of our mission, drop it. Remember what we came here for, Y/n,” you froze as he said that. Even though you weren’t from here, it felt like you grew up and lived your entire life with the people of Paradis. You did for about five, maybe six years of your life, but even then, such a foreign place felt like home. That being the case, there were times where you had forgotten about your mission. Especially during the training course. However, when Eren arose out of that carcass, that was when an upsetting wake up call hit you, one you tried to snooze for as long as possible. Secretly, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to live out such a dream with your comrades here...but you wanted to push that thought to the side. That way, you would never have to wake into the horrendous nightmare Marely had waiting for you. You sat there in silence for the rest of the ride. For once, you actually needed to listen to what Reiner’s “warrior'' had to say. Though you hated that emotion, it was one who spoke the truth at times. Plus, even if you didn’t want to accept his words, they would revolve around you eventually. You all then halted at the buildings, and made your way.
--- “If you want to sneak out, I will too.”
“But why?” Connie asked as he lazily moved his finger.
“Don’t you think it’s suspicious? We have none of our gear on yet our superiors are geared to the bear of their bones.”
“Maybe it’s bears?”
“For bears, all you need are guns.”
“Guys...let’s settle down, we won’t be here for too long,” you said.
“Um, guy!? I hear footsteps-”
“Sasha, that would only happen if wall rose had fallen,”
“TITANS ARE COMING! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!”
You all got up immediately. Not having time to put on gear, you all got on your horses, ready to help scope/save civilians. Connie and Reiner decided to go south...near the direction titans were running to. Though you were a little scared, you decided to follow anyway. You were concerned about both Connie and Reiner. Plus, three mutuals were better than two. -> You all made it to his village. You looked around the area with Reiner, wondering where everyone had gone. Titans seemed to have imprinted the buildings, but there was no blood shed. It was a mysterious scene alright, but what spooked you even more was Connie’s statement.
“Guys...I think...I think that’s my mom.”
“What?” both Reiner and you asked in unison. Impossible?...how?... Was that even possible? It could only be if... As you kept on thinking, Reiner then said:
“Connie, I think you’re reading too much into this.”
“I...maybe...it’s just a hunch though,” you sat there worried. Maybe it really was. The look on Reiner’s eyes however, made you think the opposite. You chose to leave it alone as your superior said:
“Come on, we need to regroup with the others. No one is here, so let’s go.”
--- It was now dark outside. Your superior held a torch as he guided the rest of you along the wall, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Problem was, things were. You weren’t exactly sure as to why, but a feeling got the best of you. Knowing that, you approached Reiner with a worried tone in your voice.
“Something feels off...why is that,” you whispered.
“I’m not sure...but keep your guard up,” he responded with.
You then met with another group who had come from the west. You sat there in fear after hearing that they had encountered nothing over there. It should have been a good thing...but no sight of any titans? Whatsoever? Something bad was going to happen, and you could tell as you all grouped, and rode off elsewhere.
“You, rookies. Go and sit in the tower, we’ll patrol from above.”
“Right,” everyone then climbed up the stairs and sat beside one another.
You sat beside Bertholdt as Ymir and Reiner headed elsewhere. You weren’t in the best mood and he could tell as he scooched in a tad. He scrunched both of his legs which were held by his arms. He then looked at you with a sorry look, and then started conversation.
“You okay? What’s up?”
“Bertholdt...what if...what if we, no...I die here?”
“You think you’re going to die before me?” he chuckled and then saw his joke didn’t lighten the mood. He decided to tuck his playfulness away, and instead seemed more sincere.
“Y/n, you will make it back home...we all will. So don’t worry too much, okay? Overthinking is my thing after all,” you nodded and then asked:
“Hey Bertholdt...could you do something for me?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“I will, but you’ll have to do the same for me as well.”
“Of course, I promise,” he smiled and then patted you head, just like old times. Although you have grown up, he’s always seen you as his little sister, and always will. He admired you and would try to protect you, no matter the cost. To your surprise, you then were told that titans started approaching. You all rose immediately, chasing for the exit as Reiner led.
“REINER, WAIT FOR US!!”
“WHY IS HE ALWAYS FIRST!?” Connie yelled in frustration.
“GUYS, THE TITANS ARE IN! COME AND HELP ME!”
Before you could get there, Bertholdt ran faster than you. While he aided Reiner, you helped the girls who had found a canon.
“REINER, MOVE!” You yelled and he did so.
“That should hold them off,” Christa said.
“Yes, now let’s go back up,” your body motioned upwards as everyone followed.
You watched as Christa helped fix up Reiner. Although not obvious to some, you and Berthold could tell Reiner was very much enjoying that interaction. And he told you not to get attached to Jean, that hypocrite. You and Berdtholt watched from afar as you whispered:
“Not like he’ll need it anyways,” you meant that both literally (since he was a titan and could heal) and jokingly. Thankfully, Berthold got the joke and chuckled.
“No but...has Reiner always been the self-sacrificial type?” Connie asked as you both froze.
“No...he used to be...more of a warrior.”
“A warrior?...I don’t get it,” Reiner replied.
‘Well I do…’ you thought to yourself.
Though Reiner did have his moments where he was a “warrior” and what not, deep down, you knew he was also a coward. That was another reason why you took her words lightly. Because whenever he would spur, you knew it was out of either fear, the truth, or both to cover up his worries. Like you said, every smile had it’s frowns. Reiner was no different from that, and neither were you.
Your little moment was then interrupted as the sound (and feeling) of collision occurred. You all went up the stairs to the outdoors of that building. Two bodies were laid down and titans were coming up the tower as you spoke. You were told by your superior that someone was toying with your situation, but who? First, no blood shed at the village, second, no titans appeared until now, and third...the coordination that took place...was too odd to call it chance. But what exactly were you guys fighting against?
They then ordered for you to stay back as they both flung. You watched as they fought endlessly. After one titan fell, another appeared. Why was...why was that happening? Berthold stood in front of you as the blades of the two dull. You knew what was yet to come and looked away. The yells of their screams, though you’ve heard them before, still sickened you to this day. Though, you weren’t sure as to why…since you were trained at both here, and Marely to think otherwise.
Ymir then grasped Christa. You weren’t exactly sure as to what would happen, but you then saw her grab a knife from Connie. You were confused as to why she would do such a thing.
‘How is that?...’
“Okay...what’s your plan exactly?” Reiner asked as she touched the tip. “Not sure, but I guess we’ll figure it out together.”
“Ymir, wait. We should plan things out before you go head first into something-”
“Y/n...don’t worry about me. Instead, Christa. Remember the promise we made on the snowy mountain...I have no say as to how you live your life, but...live for yourself,” you saw as the girl sprinted off the building, knife in hand.
All of you watched from afar, shocked. Just what was she doing? Connie grabbed Christa and once you saw that damn spark, you understood what was going on. Ymir had Marcel’s titan...the Jaw. The boys behind you stared terrified, if only Marcel didn’t get eaten by Ymir...would this all have happened?
You gazed as Ymir took out titan by titan. Christa was ready to jump off the roof, while those below kept on fighting back. You weren’t sure what to do exactly, and instead clung onto the brick. Terrified for what was yet to come. Christa then yelled:
“TEAR THIS TOWER TO BITS! LIVE FOR YOURSELF!”
Although you wished Ymir could’ve done differently, it was probably the best option for the six of you. So she did. She ripped each tile to pieces, knocking down titan by titan. She then jumped back, telling you all to hold on. You gripped onto her hair (along with the others) and watched the castle collide with the monsters below.
“YMIR!” Christa screamed as Ymir ran towards the titans arising.
“Hey ugly!! You still have a job to finish!” Connie added.
You couldn’t believe that the jaw was under your nose the entire time. She was just as good when it came to hiding (like the four of you). You watched as titan, after titan beat her exterior to a plump, and the next thing you knew...a titan was right behind you. You knew too damn well the armoured was too important, so you did what any soldier would have done.
“REINER, MOVE!” You pushed him to the side.
“Y/N!” They all screamed as it grasped you.
“DAMNIT!” Reiner yelled as it held you captive. You struggled your way out of that mess, why here, why now? What would Jean think?
‘Jean…’ you froze in terror as the mouth opened, only to hear Bertholdt screaming at the top of his lungs.
“WHY!? WHY Y/N!? LET HER GO!!” You heard him cry as you then slipped into its mouth...watching the place go dark, along with your conscience.
---
“Hey,” it was the morning of the day you were headed towards the standby zone. Jean still embraced you and you could smell the scent of the breeze that lay on him. You sobbed on his shirt knowing this would be the last time you would get to see him.
There was no going back. This was it. The warmth Jean had given you, would now be gone...“With no type of heat, your body started to ice. Instead of struggling, you accepted it...something you wish you didn’t end up doing.”
--- “Heyo kiddo, you can get up now,” your eyes fluttered and then sprung open. Your body was drenched and your muscles sore. Soon enough, you recognized that voice. It sounded way too familiar for you to ignore.
“Zeke…” you coughed as he replied:
“Yes, Zeke Jaeger. The one and only-'' you immediately stood up, put your hand to your heart, and the other behind. But you then quickly changed as you shot your right to your side, and the left with your palm faced towards him. You were terrified to say the least.
“Relax...it’s just us, so no need for formalities. Anyways, tea?” you did as told and sat across from him. Now things were starting to make sense. If Zeke was here, he was probably the cause of all of the commotion, coordination, and suspicion.
You had always known Zeke as the playful kind of guy. Though you weren’t a warrior, since Bertholdt and Annie were, you often got to interact with Zeke. He seemed like a nice person with good intentions, but seeing him from this perspective, had you thinking otherwise. You took the cup he gave to you as he started to go on yet again.
“Honestly, I was expecting one of the warriors...but I guess having you here isn’t a loss. At Least they actually brought me someone who’s from Marely,” he sighed as the titan who devoured you, then went on it’s way. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, well isn’t it obvious? To take you home silly, along with the founder.”
“Eren Jaeger?”
“Yes, the man himself. Which if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly does he look like?”
“Well...he’s a brunette boy. 5’9 I would assume, and he also has deep blue, yet greenish eyes.”
“I see, also, what is this gear exactly? I comprehended the idea behind it, but could use more information.”
You and Zeke spent the next hour talking. You explained the way things worked here, along with the ODM gear, and what you knew based on what the warriors had told you. You also explained how this happened in the first place, how their titans were revealed (but not their identities), and how you saved Reiner by pushing him to the side.
“Excellent reaction. We can’t afford to lose the armoured at this rate.”
“I guess so…”
“Also Zeke...why come now?...after all of this time?...” he sighed and then looked at you.
“Well, time is running out, and I already gave enough time for the 4 of you to settle things. I’m surprised but glad you’re still alive.”
“Which reminds me, Y/n, I’m dismissing you from this mission?-”
“What!?” you immediately shot up after hearing him.
“Is there something wrong? Your family is back in Marely, waiting for you. Plus, if you do, the military might acknowledge you. Saying you protected the titans and served marely during the mission to paradis.”
“Though, I can’t guarantee anything.”
‘But...Jean...the others…’ you weren’t given the time to think as he then called out:
“Pieck, come here.”
“Pieck?”
“Why hello Y/n,” she said as you flinched a bit.
“Since she’s armoured, ride at her top if anything. You remember how to shoot, right?” you nodded and he then continued.
“Okay then. I won’t see you for a couple days, but until then, you’ll ride home in the boat at the doc,” right before you climbed up Pieck, Zeke stopped you:
“Ah wait, you’ll need this,” he grabbed you an armband and placed it in your hands.
“I’ll see you soon.”
--- Pieck sent you to the doc. Your eyes dimmed as you both stepped closer to the boat. You were glad the people there were Eldians, because that meant you could let go of your composure (to an extent of course).
“Tell the general that we’ll be on our way soon enough,” they all saluted and agreed. You were now on the boat, and felt as it started to move.
You stood there and watched as the Island drift further from you. If only you could have stayed longer, used your time wiser, and gotten to spend more of it with Jean...you would probably never see him again. The difference between this scenario, versus the one before (the incident that led to your “death”), was that now you were leaving Jean...but alive…. You thought it would’ve been better if you had left him dead. That way, you could have a peace of mind.
Now this guilt would live with you for gosh knows how long. Not only that, but the lingering feeling for him...would always trail behind. You didn’t know how you would cope with this...and honestly, you hoped you wouldn’t. Because it would be the only thing that would make your departure bitter yet sweet...
Ⅳ > Ⅵ
#jean#jean kirstein#jean x reader#jean x you#jean x female reader#jean kirschstein#jean kirschtien#kirschtein#jean kirschtein x you#jean angst#am tired#chapter five#one of us#horse boy#angSty#cant wait for next chapter :D
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wherefore art thou, romeo? | an osamu x f!reader one-shot
pairing: osamu miya x f!reader
word count: 6.1k words
contains: a boatload of crack, fluff if you squint, high school setting, more bickering than working on the actual play, mutual pining, best friends to lovers, brief mentions of the romeo and juliet with leonardo di caprio in it
summary: being best friends with the miya twins for years has prepared you for all of their shenanigans but even you’re taken by surprise when osamu, the guy you’ve been in love with for years, nominates you to play juliet for the class play and atsumu to play romeo
a/n: *squints at word count* okay this was supposed to be released in three chapters but i ended up writing all of it in one go and i didn’t know exactly where to separate the chapters so here it goes
the day started out fairly normal, if fairly normal meant that your two best friends were using your ruler to divide a candy bar accurately into two during homeroom while waiting for the teacher, could be called ‘fairly normal.’ but when those two friends were the miya twins, that’s how normal things got. the teacher arrived a bit later, announcing some reminders about the cultural festival dates, before the time was handed over to the Class President, a guy with glasses and straight black hair that you and your friends just called ‘Mr. President.’
“for the cultural festival, our class, due to majority votes, has decided to put on the play: ‘Romeo and Juliet,’“ Mr. President announced. judging from his cheeky smile, you could tell that he may have had a hand in those ‘majority votes.’
“aw, yuck. don’t tell me ya voted for that, y/n,” atsumu nudged you from behind your desk.
“why are you assuming its me?” you grumbled, batting his hand away.
“aw, no crepe cafe then,” osamu said sullenly beside you. your gaze was pulled to him, as it always was. now that the spring inter-high was over, osamu was mostly in his school uniform, not that you minded. his silver hair, that he got in trouble with the principal for, was pushed haphazardly to the side and gleamed in the sunlight.
“now,” Mr. President continued. “what we have to decide on right now is who gets which acting roles and who gets to do the technical jobs.”
“painting sets? painting sets?” atsumu poked you and osamu.
“hmm, i’d kind of like to work on the lights,” you hummed, already imagining yourself scrolling through your phone and switching on the spotlight once every few minutes. osamu was quiet and you knew he was probably thinking of painting sets too.
“now, is there anyone who’d like to volunteer for playing romeo?” Mr. President asked, surveying the class. “you can also nominate people and--”
osamu abruptly raised his hand up. your eyes widened, wondering if he was going to volunteer. atsumu had the same concern.
“whoa, whoa. don’t tell me yer thinkin’ of playing romeo?” atsumu laughed incredulously.
but that isn’t what osamu did. in full Dramatic Flair, osamu miya pointed at his twin and announced “i nominate miya atsumu to play romeo.”
the laughter in atsumu’s voice died as quickly as the class erupted into murmurs. based on the snatches of conversation you heard, atsumu was going to be wielding a sword and probably wearing tights.
“okay, that’s one nomination for atsumu to play romeo,” Mr. President nodded, writing atsumu’s name on the board. you stifled a giggle as you heard atsumu stand up in his seat behind you.
“wait! wait! i nominate ‘samu to play romeo!” atsumu exclaimed hurriedly. the reaction wasn’t as loud as before and osamu flashed his twin a smug grin.
“i’ll make sure to get a nice, bright spotlight on you,” you smiled cheekily at him.
“so, we have atsumu-san nominated to play romeo and--”
“i’m not done,” osamu interrupted. “i also nominate y/n to play juliet.”
if atsumu reacted at a snail’s pace, yours was quite similar to how ketchup fell out of a bottle: none at first, before coming out all at once. within that length of time you spent staring into the void, Mr. President already wrote down your name on the blackboard and proceeded with the rest of the nominations (there weren’t any). the class voted, and you just barely felt someone pat you on the back to congratulate you for the role.
it was right when the decision over the roles was over when you turned slowly towards osamu, who had the audacity to flash a peace sign at you, and whisper ‘what have you done?’
...
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YA NOMINATED US TO PLAY ROMEO AND JULIET!” you and atsumu practically screamed at osamu during lunch break and for the rest of the day until you got to the miya twins’ house, where you spent most of your time, and cracked open the script that Mr. President handed out.
“sheesh, that was hours ago. get over it already,” osamu said, not looking up from the book he was reading: Beginner Techniques in Set Design. you didn’t even think he was reading, just mocking you and atsumu about the fact that he got the awesome job of painting sets.
“it was hours ago but atsumu and i are stuck with rehearsals for weeks!” you complained.
“not only that, but we’d have ta read shit and memorize shit,” atsumu seethed. “and we know that y/n sucks at that!”
“hey! i bet i could do better than you!”
“i don’t think ya can!”
osamu watched the battle from the top of his book, smiling to himself as you and atsumu quickly got into one of your fights that distracted you from the main reason behind the fight: osamu himself. ‘they’re still just like kids,’ he thought, watching you proceed to trap atsumu in a headlock.
the three of you had been the best of friends since grade school when you pushed atsumu off a jungle gym and osamu laughed and high-fived you. it was when the three of you were eating breakfast after a sleepover in your first year of high school, when you said that atsumu only had two brain cells and that ‘one was a skater boy, the other said see you later boy’ and osamu laughed so hard he got milk coming out of his house, that he realized he just might be in love with you.
“so, why didn’t you nominate yourself to play romeo?” suna asked him the next day while they were in the middle of stapling felt stars on a piece of dark blue fabric. like osamu, he was also lucky enough to be put in set design. “i mean, if you like her so much.”
“because i don’t want to play romeo,” osamu said as-a-matter-of-factly. “and i think making ‘tsumu do it is hilarious.”
“you really do have a one-track mind,” suna hummed and turned around to where atsumu and y/n were already busy working on the scene where romeo and juliet meet.
“ugh i have to kiss her hand?”
“well, do you want to kiss my foot?”
“i’d rather kick ya in the face!”
“you know, i feel like this on its own would make a great play,” suna said, watching the scene.
“a romeo and juliet where the lovers actually hate each other but their opposing families desperately want to push them into an arranged marriage. sounds pretty neat,” osamu mused.
“okay, why don’t you two take a break, collect yourselves, and then we’ll come back in ten,” Mr. President sighed. at that, you and atsumu quickly stopped quarreling and stalked off in different directions. you headed straight for osamu and suna.
“sometimes i can’t tell who’s the more insufferable one between you two,” you narrowed your eyes at osamu who had the audacity (the only thing he never seemed to run out of) to smile innocently.
“it’s one of life’s greatest mysteries. like, whether the chicken or the egg came first,” suna added.
“just give it a few weeks. atsumu will soon embrace his fate and you’ll be an amazing juliet,” osamu patted the top of your head. if you weren’t so annoyed with him you would have felt the butterflies in your stomach. except now you just wanted to bite his hand off.
“you know what, i’m going to kita’s later,” you muttered, pulling your phone out to text kita shinsuke, aka your adoptive mother.
“hmm? why?” osamu asked.
“because he’s the only sane person i know. plus he’ll help me out with my lines,” you explained, sighing with relief when you got a prompt reply from kita.
“oh, well i was planning to buy some convenience store snacks that i saw on sale for when i do homework later,” osamu said, trying not to sound disappointed.
“maybe next time,” you smiled apologetically. “but in the meantime, maybe get your twin over there to memorize his and not fuck up.” osamu looked up at his brother who was holding the script up a few inches from his face.
“you’re right,” osamu agreed. “but, it would also be funny to edit out a few words here and there.” you returned his cheeky grin.
“you read my mind.”
...
“kitaaa what if it means something that osamu chose to make me and atsumu romeo and juliet,” you groaned, face planted on the coffee table in kita’s living room while he peeled tangerines. “like, what if he realized i actually liked him for this long and this is his way of friend-zoning me?”
“osamu’s the kind of person who’d tell you right away if he doesn’t have the same feelings for you,” kita shook his head.
“that means he’s going to reject me soon!” you sat up, planting your hands on the table.”
“y/n, you’re doing it again,” kita gently reminded. “think of it this way, maybe he nominated you to play juliet because he wants to see you as juliet. but he’s not fully ready for the commitment so he nominated atsumu to be romeo.”
“or he just wants to mess with us, which is probably the case,” you chuckled half-heartedly. “maybe i’ll just believe that.”
“or, think of it this way,” kita placed a peeled tangerine into your hand, like the mom friend that he was. “you could use the opportunity to be the best juliet ever, someone that osamu can barely tear his eyes away from.”
“and i can show up atsumu at the same time!” you grinned at the idea. kita sighed.
“you know, i feel like your sheer desire to just beat atsumu at everything may be a hindrance but go on.”
“yeah, yeah, you lost me at ‘beat atsumu at everything’,” you sang as you cracked open your script. “now help me. i have to memorize all this by tomorrow.”
...
“i think yer all wondering why i’ve gathered ya here today,” atsumu began.
“we’re... in the volleyball clubroom,” aran spoke slowly.
“which is where we always hang out,” suna added. atsumu raised an eyebrow and a hand to silence them, which sometimes worked.
“i’ve gathered ya guys to form the all-important, top-secret team with only one goal in mind!” atsumu paused for dramatic effect, which suna purposely ruined by coughing. “we’re gonna to get myself out of playing romeo for the class play.”
“let me guess, whatever it takes?” aran asked, his arms folded.
“whatever it takes!”
and atsumu took that completely seriously. the next day, he gathered aran and suna to the clubroom again to execute his master plan, version 1: operation casting call.
“get it? cause, ya know, i’m part of a cast, and i’ll be showing up in a cast,” atsumu grinned proudly, showing off the roll of bandages that he bought yesterday at a drugstore.
“okay, first of all: lame pun,” aran sighed. “secondly, that’s not a cast you’re just wrapping your foot in bandages and not encasing it in plaster which i think was what you were originally going for. lastly, do you realize just how many holes your plan has?”
“oh yeah? like what?” atsumu crossed his arms and scoffed.
“like the fact that your twin brother would know whether or not you were injured yesterday,” suna brought up.
“...i’ll jus’ say that i sprained my ankle jus’ now,” atsumu said.
“as if he’s going to believe you,” suna snorted.
“i’m just saying, please ditch this plan before you embarrass yourself,” aran sighed. atsumu felt his face heat up with embarrassment.
“sh-shut up! this plan is gonna work and i’m not gonna play fuckin’ romeo for another day!” atsumu snapped. “now help bind my foot.”
aran and suna looked at each other. “you’re taking a video of what’s happening later,” aran said while suna nodded.
“i hate ya guys,” atsumu crossed his arms.
a few minutes later, his foot was all wrapped up thanks to aran and atsumu was propped up on suna as he hobbled into the classroom. with full dramatic flair that he never seemed to run out of, atsumu slid open the door to the classroom.
“Mr. President! sorry to say this but i sprained my ankle!” he cried. everyone inside turned to look at him with you raising an eyebrow at the dubious looking ‘sprained ankle.’
“you know, if you spoke like that all the time you’d make a great romeo,” his twin quickly piped up from near the door where he was busy painting a tree.
“shut up ‘samu, ya traitor,” atsumu muttered at him. Mr. President had walked closer and inspected the bound foot.
“osamu, is this true?” he asked.
“w-wha? don’t ya believe me?” atsumu splattered. beside him, suna had already brought out his phone. mad, atsumu pushed himself off his ‘friend’ and tapped his ‘sprained’ foot on the ground. ‘it hurts! see! ow!” atsumu lied.
quick as a flash, osamu kicked atsumu’s good foot, causing him to hop on his ‘sprained’ foot.
“fuck! ‘samu!” he yelled.
“well, i guess there’s nothing to worry about,” Mr. President smiled and clapped his hands together. “and atsumu-san, that was a good attempt at acting. i hope you channel that passion into rehearsal today.”
atsumu could do nothing else but mumble. “yeah, fine...”
...
“i can’t believe atsumu even thought that his plan would work,” you laughed, recounting the events of earlier that day. you were sprawled across the wooden floor backstage the theater your class was going to use for the cultural festival. osamu was right beside you, painting one of the backdrops for the play.
“i really do think all the brainpower went to me sometimes,” osamu mused as he carefully painted the sky around the white clouds. there was a look of pure concentration on his face that made you think that maybe osamu was quite excited to do the set design for the play. ‘it’s always the things that you don’t really expect him to get into,’ you wondered as you watched him.
“hey, is this shade of blue a bit too... blue?” he asked, holding the paintbrush to you. you scooted over next to him, grateful for the excuse to be nearer osamu.
“it could use a bit more white to look more like the sky,” you answered.
“hmm, can you pass me that can of white from over there?”
“sure, let me just-- hey!”
a splatter of blue paint landed on your nose as osamu swiped his paint brush over it. once again, he had the audacity to snicker as you grabbed the paint brush from him to splatter blue paint over his hair.
“you are so dead, miya osamu,” you narrowed your eyes and grinned at him as you picked up the tube of red paint from beside your knees.
“wait, wait y/n,” osamu laughed and held up his hands in surrender. “that’s red paint right there.”
“you didn’t seem to have a problem with brushing light blue paint on my nose!” you exclaimed pointing at your face.
“well, it is a bit of a good look because it brings out your eyes--” he was cut off by you squirting red paint right at his face. slowly, osamu raised a hand to touch the paint on his cheek. “you know, i kind of deserve that.”
“you definitely do,” you stared down at him with both hands on your hips before bursting out laughing. osamu blinked up at you before joining in the laughter. even with your blue nose, you still looked absolutely radiant. just like how you were earlier during rehearsals as you did your best performance of juliet. you captured everyone’s attention and even atsumu actually made an effort to get to your level.
“come on,” osamu chuckled, standing up and ruffling your hair with the hand that still had red paint on it. “let’s go wash up.”
the feeling of him ruffling your hair was such an old and familiar gesture that you couldn’t even remember when osamu started doing that. but you could clearly remember everything else you did when you were kids. watching cartoons and mixing different kinds of cereal in the morning, trying to climb up the drainpipes into each other’s rooms, the endless cycle of calling each other names, crying from too much teasing, and saying sorry only to forget two minutes later.
you watched, head cocked to the side as osamu washed the paint from his face while you dried your hair. he didn’t realize just how much soap he was getting in his eyes and the cute, childishness of it made you giggle.
“what?” osamu looked, or rather, turned his head to you.
“your eyes are going to burn at this rate,” you snickered, stepping over to him and placing your hands under the faucet before gently washing the soap from osamu’s face. you didn’t even realize what you were doing until you were doing it and by then, it was too late. osamu didn’t seem to mind, not even when you used the towel around his neck to pat his face dry.
“there, now you just have a big red stain on your nose,” you laughed nervously as osamu opened his eyes.
“at least it goes with my hair,” osamu snickered, tossing his towel over your head before ruffling it. you felt your face heat up and smiled awkwardly at him in response.
“is this your idea of trying to dry my hair?”
“i think it’s kind of working.”
“it’s not working,” you laughed, taking the towel from him. “but thanks.” you felt your throat tighten with the words you wanted but were too afraid to say. you didn’t know when you started falling for one of your best friends and maybe it was thanks to all the shoujo manga you’ve read for years, but you knew that the best friend and the main character rarely ever got together.
luckily, it was osamu who said something. “you know, you were pretty good earlier as juliet. i bet ‘tsumu was threatened,” he laughed, lifting his bag and starting to walk towards the school exit. you jogged to catch up to him.
“no thanks to you though,” you snorted.
“hey, it’s all for the sake of making memories,”
“we could have made memories while painting sets,” you huffed. “you know, like more paint fights.” osamu flashed a sideways smile at you.
“we’d have those regardless. i wanted to see you as juliet.”
you could feel your heart beating loudly in your ears as you forced yourself to think of a million other reasons as to why osamu would say that, only to focus on the single, most probable one that could mean everything you’ve ever dreamed of coming true. “osamu, i--”
“i can’t believe ya left me!” atsumu exclaimed loudly behind you two, causing you to jump. you turned around just as he slung his arms around both of you and his twin.
“i can’t believe you thought pretending to sprain your ankle would work,” osamu muttered, looking slightly annoyed at his twin.
“shut up! i can’t believe ya’d break my cover! my own brother!”
“i think you two are way past that already,” you snickered, slightly annoyed at atsumu’s sudden appearance but unable to admit that you didn’t miss having him around either.
‘if i never get to confess to osamu, i’ll still have this,’ you thought, with a satisfied smile on your face.
...
“no offense, atsumu, but i think you should just move on from the fact that your plan to get yourself out of playing romeo just isn’t going to work,” suna said, lounging across his friend’s bed and uploading the video he took of atsumu’s ‘master plan’ failing. “just accept your fate, like what romeo did.” atsumu stopped pacing and regarded suna with a raised eyebrow.
“ya read the play?”
“i read the summary,” suna answered. “at this rate, everyone knows you’re going to be faking some accident.” atsumu made no response and suna realized he needed just one more push. “also, you’re basically losing to y/n.”
that got atsumu’s attention. “since when did she wanna be juliet anyway?” he muttered.
just then, the door to their room flew open and in walked a very excited aran carrying a relic from the past, an actual DVD in its case, and a bag from the convenience store.
“yer late,” atsumu scowled at him.
“yeah, and you didn��t listen to what i said and looked really dumb earlier,” aran said, much to atsumu’s embarrassment. “anyway, i think i have a solution to your woes,” he grinned, presenting the DVD to the two of them.
“what the fuck am i gonna do with movie ‘romeo and juliet?’“ atsumu frowned.
“it’s not just any romeo and juliet movie, it’s the romeo and juliet movie!” aran said enthusiastically. “starring leonardo di caprio!”
“who now?”
“he’s the guy who didn’t win an oscar for years until the bear movie,” suna explained.
“ooooohhh.”
“you uncultured shits,” aran sighed. “anyway, atsumu, just accept your fate--”
“that’s what i’ve been trying to tell him!”
“... and open your eyes to how awesome it is to play romeo!” aran finished. atsumu looked from the DVD in his friend’s hands, to suna on his bed, and to the bag of convenience store snacks, before sighing and nodding.
“if i decide it’s shit ten minutes in, we’re dropping the movie and yer all gonna tell me i’m right.”
but he was wrong, oh so wrong.
just like every middle-aged mom or english literature university student who watched Romeo + Juliet, atsumu was pulled in by leonardo di caprio’s sincere, expressive eyes. he practically swooned at the scene where romeo and juliet met from different sides of the fish tank to that iconic pool kiss, and by the end of the movie, atsumu almost teared up. he tried to hold back his emotions, in the hopes of not looking lame in front of his friends, only to find aran practically sobbing and suna clutching his knees to his chest.
“that was... really fucking beautiful,” atsumu cursed as the credits rolled.
“do you understand now? what it means to play romeo?” aran put a hand on his shoulder.
“do it for leo di caprio, atsumu,” suna added. atsumu sniffed and nodded his head eagerly.
“i will, i’ll do it for leo.”
...
it was a normal day at school, if normal meant you were wearing a blanket wrapped around your waist to make you ‘feel as if you were in costume’ and mixing vending machine coffee and vending machine chocolate milk in styrofoam cups with your best friend who also happened to be the guy you were in love with. that was as normal as thing got when you were best friends with the miya twins.
and that only meant that seeing atsumu come in for rehearsals, with a determined spark in his eyes, and recite every line to utter perfection that you knew william shakespeare himself would be proud of, was just pushing the boundaries of ‘normal.’
that only meant you had to be on your A-game too and before you knew it, you and atsumu had put on your best performance yet. your undying competitiveness and atsumu’s devotion to leonardo di caprio had gone a long way. all throughout that, osamu had a ‘cat-who-just-ate-the-canary’ smile on his face as he watched from the props area.
“you look like you’re going to say ‘all according to keikaku’ at any time,” suna observed.
“oh, i am saying it in my head,” osamu said, watching you and atsumu onstage. he had hoped for two outcomes: either you were both comically terrible at the play, or that you were slightly mediocre. but a part in his mind knew you would find a way to surprise him. you always did, after all.
yours and atsumu’s performance got everybody in class even more motivated about the play. osamu ended up in a million meetings with the fellow set designers, even learning how to paint trees to look as life-like as possible. although being busy wasn’t enough to distract him from looking at you, especially when dress rehearsals began and you were wearing the most stunning dress that the costume department worked on. meanwhile, atsumu pretty much rehearsed, ate, and slept with his prop sword.
finally, the big day of the cultural festival came around. despite the fact that you utterly loathed having to play juliet at first, you couldn’t help but feel proud at how far you’ve come.
“hey, maybe i should just go to acting school or something,” you joked, sitting beside osamu and smoothing your dress over your legs which dangled over the side of the stage.
“you’ll run home crying after you hear any sort of criticism,” osamu snorted.
“mean! i deal with criticism really well!” you pouted. osamu raised an eyebrow at you and you rolled your eyes. “you know i was joking. the fact that i haven’t received any acceptance letters from the universities i applied to is kind of making me crazy.”
“so, is the fact that you’re playing a fourteen year-old girl who has to hide her love from her entire family before later killing herself a good way of escaping?” osamu asked.
“yeah, that and watching atsumu’s surprising transformation,” you snickered, turning around to watch atsumu and suna horsing around onstage. or rather, it was just suna from one end of the stage tossing chocolate chips at atsumu who was attempting to catch them with his mouth.
“i asked suna and aran about what changed but their lips are tightly sealed,” osamu shrugged. “i like to think that he hit his head somewhere.”
“well, he’s going to hit his head some time during the day at the rate he’s going right now,” you said, watching atsumu laugh and choke at the chocolate in his mouth. it was funny at first, until you noticed that atsumu kept on coughing.
“osamu,” you quickly tapped his twin. osamu turned around and immediately rushed over to his brother who was now turning a bright shade of red.
“oh my god, were there peanuts in that chocolate?” you asked. atsumu let out a gasp and nodded his head.
“i’ll go get his meds,” osamu quickly jogged off only to be replaced by a very concerned Mr. President. “someone get him some water!”
“i never thought atsumu-san was allergic to nuts. is it serious?” he asked, handing you his water bottle which you opened and quickly gave to atsumu who was now sitting down on the floor.
“well, it’s mostly rashes and an itchy throat but as long as he takes his medicine, he’ll be fine,” you shook your head.
two allergy tablets, an apology from suna, and a long explanation later, atsumu was lying down in the nurse’s office with the swelling noticeably reduced. “unfortunately, he’d have to sit out the rest of the play so that the reaction completely subsides,” the nurse told you, osamu, and Mr. President. you sighed and regarded atsumu with hands on your hips.
“you thought they were chocolate-covered raisins, didn’t you?”
atsumu didn’t say anything except: “i’m sorry leo di caprio.”
“this is the absolute worst time for this to happen,” Mr. President sighed as he addressed your classmates backstage. “there’s only thirty minutes before showtime and our romeo is out of commission. anyone have any bright ideas?”
“does anyone else here vaguely know atsumu’s lines?” you asked around. “someone who read the script?” instead, you were met with silence. as much as you wanted for some miracle to happen and for the show to go on because you genuinely did want to play juliet, putting up a half-assed play with one of the two main characters gone wasn’t going to look good either.
you sucked in a deep breath, preparing yourself to make the call, but osamu, who had noticed your expression earlier, stepped forward. you looked at him with wide eyes and just caught him glance at you before addressing mr. president.
“i can step in for romeo.”
“osamu...?” you asked.
“i haven’t really read the script but i’ve heard atsumu rehearsing by himself often enough to pick up a few lines,” osamu rubbed the back of his head, already feeling nervous.
“also, twin-sense,” suna piped up. “you know, your psychic connection between twins?”
osamu nodded his head slowly. “yes, that too.”
“alright, alright,” mr. president nodded his head. “well, i guess that’s better than nothing and osamu can fit into atsumu’s costume too. if you can, use these thirty minutes to read as much of the script as possible.”
“got it,” osamu nodded. and with that, everyone resumed preparations and you were pulled into the dressing room to get your hair and make-up done. when you emerged, osamu was sitting on the floor against the far side of the backstage, bent over a copy of the script and muttering in concentration.
“hey,” you greeted, sitting down beside him. he was already dressed in his costume: a white, long-sleeved shirt with golden buttons and some tassels on the shoulders. his hair was also combed back with a few strands falling across his forehead.
“god, i can’t believe atsumu memorized all this shit,” osamu shook his head and looked up at you only to stop short. he had seen you about a million times in your juliet costume but with the make-up and your hair arranged so elegantly, you looked absolutely breath-taking.
“something wrong?”
“i... i’m just panicking about having to play romeo all of a sudden,” he blinked.
“i know. scary, isn’t it?” you nodded. “i... you didn’t have to though. i’m pretty sure everyone was ready to throw in the towel.”
“and waste all my hard work painting sets?” osamu raised an eyebrow at you. “no way.” you tossed your head back and laughed.
“well, if you put it that way...” you nodded and smiled bravely. “the show will be fine. if you forget a line, just improvise. the most important thing is channeling the emotion.”
“i think i can do that,” osamu smiled and reached a hand out to you. “to the best show ever?”
you grinned and shook his hand. “to the best show ever.”
...
the show was a complete disaster. as much as osamu did try to recite atsumu’s lines completely from memory, it was as if everyone was thrown off their game throughout the entire play. cues for special effects were forgotten (someone accidentally turned on a smoke machine during the first scene), props were misplaced (the actor for Tybalt was using a footlong hotdog against osamu’s prop sword), and there were more than a few times when someone missed their lines. at one point, you ended up reciting Team Rocket’s iconic spiel after the line ‘a rose by any other name is just as sweet.’ but, despite everything being a shitshow, it still ended up being overall entertaining. the audience laughed through most of the obvious fails and that caused the actors to loosen up just a bit.
and it was osamu who ended up spearheading the comedic aspect of your ‘romeo and juliet’ play. from his dry, deadpan delivery of the very emotional lines, to his small inserts and side-comments about the play itself. you even had to stop yourself from laughing at times. but if you and atsumu were amazing at playing the scripted ‘romeo and juliet’, you and osamu were complete naturals when it came to improvising.
“i don’t know if this is a success by conventional definitions,” Mr. President addressed everyone backstage as soon as the play was over. “but... we sure did make everyone out there laugh.”
“and i consider that a win!” atsumu cheered beside you. he was looking much better, still with a bit of rashes though and his voice kind of heavy from the medicine. “kind of sad that i didn’t get to play romeo though,” he whispered at you.
“that’s alright. i channeled you in spirit,” osamu patted his twin’s shoulder.
“like hell ya did! i couldn’t believe ya used the dagger to kill yerself at the end,” atsumu argued.
“right?? i had to be all ‘oh romeo, you must have forgotten to use the poison you brought in your pocket!’” you recalled.
“i see dagger, i use dagger,” osamu reasoned. “wait, that’s ‘Macbeth’ isn’t it?”
“in a nutshell,” you shrugged.
“ugh, i’ve had enough of nuts for a day, don’t even mention it,” atsumu groaned, pushing away from the two of you and wandering off to the snack table that your classmates prepared.
“damn, i had more puns up my sleeve,” you sighed, watching him leave.
“you’ll find a time to use them, don’t worry,” osamu reassured you. “in the meantime... do you want to, get out of here first? explore the rest of the cultural festival?” you felt your face flush but nodded nonetheless.
“i’m sure no one will notice the main characters of their cast go missing,” you grinned. “let’s get out of here, romeo.”
when osamu meant ‘let’s check out the cultural festival’, he really meant buying a bunch of snacks from the stalls set up all around the school. but then again, that’s what he did all the time. soon enough, the two of you were sitting on the rooftop with your prized horde.
“thank god i don’t have some weirdass nut allergy like tsumu. that’s definitely evidence that i got the stronger genes,” osamu said, biting into a crepe he just bought. “also the fact that he didn’t check that chocolate-covered nuts packet.”
“i still feel sorry for him. he worked really hard to play romeo well,” you sighed.
“hey, i tried to play my part seriously. well... sometimes.”
“you did nail the whole ‘yearning for my love juliet’ part right,” you grinned, remembering the surprise at seeing the tenderness and longing on osamu’s face as he recited romeo’s lines about being in love with juliet. ‘well, that’s something for me to daydream about for the rest of my life you,’ you thought.
that was until osamu said “well, it’s good practice for when i actually confess to someone.”
confess to someone.
‘does that mean, all this time? he’s liked someone?’ you felt your stomach drop. you’ve never known osamu to be expressive when it came to people he had feelings for. were you just ignoring all the signs? was--
“it’s you, idiot,” osamu sighed.
“wait, what?” you looked at him with wide eyes. osamu sighed again and ran a hand through his hair.
“you know, i was thinking of a more suave way to say this but you looked like how you did earlier when you were supposed to be engaged to tybalt,” he chuckled. “so, i put two and two together for the first time. you’re the one i like, y/n.”
it was the moment you’ve been waiting for for so long, and yet the only thing you could come up with was “haha, cool.”
in response, osamu stared at you long and hard before taking another bite out of his crepe. “i think your brain is fried,” he muttered through a mouthful of crepe.”
“hold on, hold on,” you held a finger up, finally coming back to your senses. “you had a crush on me and also the audacity to make me juliet and have your twin brother as romeo?”
“i thought you’d be really cool as juliet but i didn’t want to go through the work of being romeo,” osamu said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “obviously it backfired but--”
“that’s called karma, osamu,” you pointed an accusing finger at him. “if you think i’m going to let you off easy i’m--”
you were cut off by osamu’s lips meeting yours and the taste of whipped cream and strawberry on your tongue. your brain short-circuited, trying to think of a way to describe this situation other than ‘haha, cool’ again. osamu, sensing your brain waves, pulled you even closer with a hand on your cheek.
“are you going to let me off now?” he raised an eyebrow at you after you parted. you smirked.
“i’ll have to think about it.”
“yeah?” osamu mumbled, his smirk matching yours. “what else do i need to do?” you leaned forward before taking a bite out of the crepe in his hands. you chewed while grinning at the surprised look on osamu’s face.
“now we’re even.”
taglist (still open to anyone who wants in!): @montys-chaos @miyumtwins @strawberriimilkshake @pocubo @sugawara-sweetheart@akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan@therainroguefanfiction@atetiffdoesart@stephdaninja@oikaw-ugh@charliefredb@dramaqueenweeb1469@tremblinghearts@applepienation@doodleniella @haikyuu-my-love
#haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! x reader#hq x reader#haikyuu!! x f!reader#hq x f!reader#osamu miya#osamu#osamu miya x reader#osamu miya x f!reader#osamu x reader#osamu x f!reader#haikyuu!! one-shot#osamu crack#osamu fluff#osamu one-shot#osamu fanfic#haikyuu!! fanfic#haikyuu!! fics#haikyuu!! fanfiction#hq!! fanfic#hq!! one-shot#haikyuu!! crack#hq!! crack#haikyuu!! fluff#hq!! fluff
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I’m sorry about your friend situation. All I can say is I don’t mind listening to (reading) your rants; I hope you feel at least a little better after you do. And that there are people more than willing to listen even if you can’t see us.
Would you mind showing us some photos of your flower book? Only if you want. I imagine Loki has some of those same flowers in his garden though 💚 🌺 🙂
-🎭
thank you so so much💗
and omg i love u for asking lol
okay so i'm not able to put a photo of every page because i have like over 40 pages rn i think? so can't include all of them lol but they all follow the same structure: 1. the genus, species, family ect. 2. where it's native to or cultivated, and where you can find them now 3. characteristics/how to identify 4. if they're edible (and if not what makes them inedible or toxic) and their medicinal uses 5. their symbolism and meaning 6. just everything else and other facts lol
and then i'm hoping to get a pressed flower for every page! (of course not for the toxic ones lol) so some pages have more room (like the sunflower page) because i have a pressed flower for it already i need to add. and when i do a get a pressed flower i'll re arrange it so the actual flower can fit!
i don't have any actual pressed flowers in it yet just because i'm worried while writing on other pages it'll wear them down, so i'm gonna wait until i have a bit more done before putting them in!
so here's the table of contents for the first section! the book itself is split into 5 sections (i put a pic since idk how to explain it lol), so just to keep everything more organized and makes it easier to find things each section has a table of contents. so the sections don't really mean anything except that's where the book splits lol (uh don't ask why there's that random sticker at the top i found it at my aunts and thought it was cute but didn't know where to put it lmao)
and here are some of the pages (of course had to include the violet page lol)
i actually have no idea if that sticker is an anemone bc it's hard to tell what flowers are on stickers i have learned from my aunts sticker collection lol but i thought eh close enough
and here are some of the flowers i already laminated that i'm going to add. i have a TON more flowers i want to laminate but i'm still waiting for some to finish pressing and also when i had it out laminating those ones it wasn't heating up right but my mom fixed it so i'm going to be laminating more! (the crepe myrtles (very bottom left) got melted lol so i'm scared to try laminating my other ones since i can't find any here! i had to get them when i went up to utah) and i still need to cut them out, but i'm waiting until i actually put them in so i don't lose any
and here's a page i'm adding in that i just finished the other night! (i still haven't decided if i'm going to color it or not)
thank you for letting me infodump skdjsksjsjsjs
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The Surrogate - Chapter 5
The Surrogate: A Clintasha Fanfic
Masterlist PREVIOUS //
Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing: Clint Barton x Natasha Romanoff x F!Reader
Word Count: 1732
Rating: E
Warnings: Blood and Serious Injures, talk of past miscarriage and red room fuckery.
Synopsis: A freak end of the world incident leads to meeting your two best friends, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. While your friendship with the two Avengers is anything but conventional, they are your all-time favorite people. When you find out that Clint and Natasha want to start a family but have exhausted all their options, you realize your powerset might allow you to give them what they want. Having your best friends’ baby might seem like a good idea on paper, but when you are as close as you, Clint, and Natasha are, will doing something so intimate mean feelings get a little mixed up?
Chapter 5
“Nat. Let me carry your baby.”
Your words seemed to just hang in the air like a storm cloud, freezing the room and yet mesmerizing it at the same time. With every passing moment that Natasha didn’t answer the more sure you were that you’d just crossed some invisible line and now they were going to see you as some interfering busy body or something. Or that mentioning it had hurt her and she wasn’t going to want to be around you anymore.
“What? What baby? Nat’s having a baby?” Clint asked, finally breaking the silence with his total confusion.
Other than the fact that Clint speaking seemed to shake her out of her trance, Natasha completely ignored him. “But that still wouldn't work,” she said, bracing her hand on the door frame to steady herself. “The genes…”
“But don't you see, Nat,” you implored, taking her hand. “If they're inside me, my powers should correct the flaws as they pop up. I’ll be growing them, the cells will be going through meiosis inside me, sharing my blood and nutrients. I fix new problems. So… It should work.”
Natasha blinked at you and her mouth opened and closed like a fish. “Would you… Are you sure you actually want to do this for us?”
You nodded. “Yes… Yes, I think I do. If I'm your only chance and this is something you really want. You guys are my best friends. I want to do this for you. You deserve to get to be happy and this is… it’s big and you should get to have it.”
Natasha launched herself at you and wrapped her arms around your neck as she peppered your face with kisses. “Oh my god. I can't believe you. I don't deserve you,” she babbled between each peck.
You started laughing and hugged her back. “You deserve everything good,” you whispered.
“Can one of you please explain to me what's going on?” Clint asked in frustration.
Natasha pulled back from you and you smiled. “Okay… okay… I’ll leave you guys to it. You let me know,” you said, patting her arm.
“You can stay,” Natasha said.
“What… but we were…” Clint whined, looking back at the couch.
“It’s fine. I gotta sleep anyway. And you guys should talk and I guess do each other. I’ll see you tomorrow,” you said.
Natasha hugged you again - this time a tight bear hug, squeezing you tight against her and burying her face in your neck. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Tears pricked your eyes and you rubbed her back. “See you tomorrow.”
You headed back to your room and despite still completely buzzing you only really had the energy to take off your pants and shoes and fall into bed. It took a little while for your brain to decide to switch off and there were a few hours where you tossed and turned while you went over what it might actually be like being a surrogate for them. What procedures you’d go through. What being pregnant would be like. Eventually, your brain finally switched off, letting you sleep.
You didn’t wake until late the next morning when the rumbling of your stomach got loud enough to wake you. You ignored it, by first going to the shower. You hadn’t eaten since the debrief where they had a sandwich platter, but you hadn’t showered in three days and you woke up being able to smell yourself.
As soon as you were out of the shower there was a buzz at your door.
“Who is it, FRIDAY?” You asked, wrapping your towel around your waist.
“Agents Barton and Romanoff,” the AI responded.
You rushed to the door and pulled it open to find Clint holding a mug of coffee and Natasha was holding a plate of crepes and fresh fruit. You grinned at them. “I’m guessing you want to do it?”
“Can we come in?” Natasha asked.
“How did you know I was awake?” You asked, stepping out of the way of the door and going and grabbing another towel and wrapping it around your head.
“We asked FRIDAY to tell us,” Clint answered.
You grabbed the coffee cup off him and took a long drink as he took a seat on the couch. You put your cup down and went back into your bedroom to dry off. “So? Tell me... What’s going on?” You called back to them.
“Well, after you left I talked to Clint about your offer,” Natasha said coming to the bedroom door and standing at it without looking in. “We talked for a long time, about what happens if you do it? Are we meant to be parents? Is it what we want? How we’d feel if it didn’t work. That kind of thing.”
“Right,” you said, as you hastily dressed. “But what did you decide? You’re worse than watching ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’”
“‘Cause I don’t want to say it while you’re naked on the other side of the door,” Natasha teased.
You stepped out, the towel still wrapped around your head and went and sat down next to Clint, taking another drink from the coffee before starting on the crepes. “Okay… go,” you said, looking between the two of them.
“If you are serious about wanting to be our surrogate then; yes. Please. You have no idea how much that would mean to us. I don’t think we’d ever be able to thank you for it,” Natasha said.
“Nat, come here,” you said, patting the spot on the couch beside you.
She came and sat down and looked at you like she expected you to tell her that in the cold light of day you’d decided it was a bad idea. You took a bite of the crepe, and chewed it slowly, enjoying dragging it out. Clint began to tap his foot nervously on the other side of you, while Natasha balled her hands into fists.
“I absolutely do want to do this for both of you,” you said. Both Clint and Natasha pounced on you wrapping their arms around you and hugging you tight.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Clint babbled as he squeezed you tight.
“We’re going to be parents, Clint,” Natasha mumbled, as she pressed her cheek to yours.
Clint pulled back and looked at her smiling, his eyes shimmering a little. “Yeah, Nat,” he said. “We are.”
He leaned over your head and Natasha bridged the difference, bringing her lips to his. You crouched down underneath them and went back to your food, shrugging your shoulders in an attempt to shake them off. “Can you maybe not make out over the top of me?”
“What?” Clint teased, pulling back. “You’ve never complained about being in the middle of a sandwich before.”
“I also wasn’t eating those times,” you said, pushing him off you.
“Maybe we should talk logistics?” Natasha said sitting back. “I don’t… this is really sudden and I don’t know if you want to just go right into it or wait or…?”
It was unusual to see Natasha so nervous and unsure. Clint moved around the couch and put his arm around her, taking one of her hands in his.
“I mean, I guess we need to talk to HR and maybe Steve about things like maternity leave, but honestly, it’s up to you. If you want to go to see a specialist today, I’ll go with you,” you said.
“Right, I guess -” Natasha let out a breath and looked at Clint.
“You’re totally freakin’ out, Nat,” Clint teased. “That’s supposed to be me.”
“I just… I never expected to have this be even an option,” Natasha explained. “I feel like I should take it now and I can’t get any more ready than I am now. But am I? I haven’t even thought about it.”
“Then maybe you should,” you said. “Think about it that is. I promise I’m not going anywhere. I came to you, you didn’t come to me. It’s understandable that this is a lot to deal with right now.”
Natasha looked at you and seemed to blink back tears. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she said.
You hugged her again, holding her as she tried very hard not to cry. Clint hugged her from behind. “Maybe this is it,” Clint said. “Maybe you get to shake all that stuff off and get something new, Nat. You get to be someone’s mom.”
Natasha swallowed and pulled back. No one said anything as she did her best to center herself again. You and Clint both knew how much she hated looking vulnerable so you went back to your crepes and Clint stole a strawberry from your plate.
“So,” Natasha said, breaking the silence. “I was reading up on it and they need to give both of us hormonal therapy to get us to peak fertility and they’ll harvest eggs from me. Then they’ll get Clint to fertilize them and they implant them into you when you’re at your peak. It’s expensive but we can afford it and we’ll cover all your medical expenses too. Obviously. Do you want anything else? Payment? Or I dunno… anything?”
You shook your head. “Just both my favorite people to be happy.”
“I really want to kiss you right now,” Natasha said.
You smirked at her. “Go ahead.”
She leaned in and brought her lips to yours. It was different from all those times in the past when you’d kissed either of them. Normally, when you kissed Natasha it was either because she’d been injured, and then it was wet and desperate and there was the spark that passed from you to her. Or it was a lead into sex and it was passionate and hungry. This was soft and tender. Her lips landed on either side of your lower lip and she very slowly pressed them down as she pulled back. You had never felt so much love poured into a kiss as in that kiss between you and Natasha just then. It made your heart tighten up and your hand instinctively moved to her jaw. She smiled as she pulled back and as you looked into her eyes. It felt like your heart skipped a beat and right then in that moment, you felt yourself beginning to fall in love with Natasha Romanoff.
// NEXT
#clint barton#natasha romanoff#clint barton x natasha romanoff x reader#clintasha x reader#clint barton x reader#natasha romanoff x reader#clint barton x natasha romanoff#clintasha#hawkeye#black widow#hawkeye fanfic#black widow fanfic#fanfic#fanfiction#reader insert#pregnancy#the surrogate
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for your zelink prompt,,,how do you feel about a modern AU where the two bike to the beach and have a picnic?
a/n: I added ‘high school’ to the prompt too hope you don’t mind asghjjhas (’: Also this turned out a lot longer than I planned hope that’s okay ;-; I want to practice writing in Link’s voice more so this is in his pov!! Anyway! I hope you enjoy this, and thanks a lot for the prompt <3
ao3
hot buttered apples with chamomile tea
There are two types of monsters: ones that sleep under your bed and ones that sleep behind your eyes. For Aryll, it's the former.
And Link saw a lot in the latter.
He rubbed his eyes to try to erase the bags that rest stubbornly underneath them, but he wondered if he was just making it worse. Probably. But why did it matter anyway? He usually got three hours of sleep tops, so he always liked to think that darkness had become a permanent edition to his features. He tapped his toes against the pavement, waiting, peering around the corner of the school's brick fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the black car that Zelda usually pulled up in. With five minutes left until school started, he was beginning to worry—she was never late. And for the first time in his entire high school career, he was early.
It was a last minute trip they had planned, when they had snuck onto the school roof after class yesterday.
"I want to see the ocean," she had told him, under the summer's unrelenting heat. They were both sticky with sweat, even though they were sitting under a shady area, and the next thing she said made no sense to him. "I've never been to the beach before." Living here and never once going to Hateno Beach? He thought she was kidding at first. But she stared at him dead in the eye with her lips pressed into a thin line, as serious as ever. When he jokingly proposed that they ditch school the next day to go to the beach, she didn't hesitate to say yes.
It had taken him practically the whole day yesterday to convince her to sneak up onto the rooftop, and yet she was completely fine with ditching an entire day of school to go to the beach.
She was weird and unpredictable and he loved it.
He decided to check his backpack again for the twelfth time in the past hour, just to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. His memory was pretty terrible to begin with. He always found something new that he had forgotten whenever he went to check his backpack. The first time he checked, he realized he didn't bring any cups. Just that one thermal bottle whose lid doubled as a cup. The second time he checked, he realized he had forgotten napkins. If worst came to worst, he guessed he could just offer up his jacket or something, if she really needed to clean her hands or wipe her mouth—would that be any better though? When was the last time he washed his jacket?
"Link?"
Before he could try to sniff his sleeve, Zelda's voice pierced his thoughts.
He zipped up the backpack once more and peeked around the corner again—and finally, he saw her familiar twin braided blonde hair bobbing up and down as she ran toward him.
With… a frenzied kind of pace.
"Link!" she shouted again, breathless, as she waved her arms up and down in panic. Behind her he could hear another person shouting—but it was hard to hear their voice, since it was drowned out by the sound of Zelda urgently telling him to go, go, go.
Fumbling, Link lifted the bike away from the brick fence and rolled it out, hopping onto the front seat.
"I thought you said you had two bikes!" Zelda exclaimed, quickly tossing herself over the second seat without missing a beat.
"I mean, this is kinda like two bikes isn't it?" She only learned how to ride a bike three days ago and he wasn't comfortable with leading her down a rather windy road to get to the beach on her own. The last time he taught someone how to ride a bike was Mipha, years ago, and she almost face planted into a cliff because he let go of her bike and had forgotten to tell her how to brake.
Besides, he had to bribe Aryll fifty rupees to take the tandem bike out today. If he wanted to borrow her regular bike, she would've asked for a hundred. That was equivalent to a week's worth of mowing Tokk's front lawn.
Link was probably getting scammed by Tokk, but he was only 40% sure about that.
"Won't we look ridiculous riding this around?" Zelda scoffed as they began pulling out onto the road. "I thought we were supposed to be discreet? A tandem bike—Oh Hylia!" She kicked his shin with her foot, urging him to hurry. "Impa's coming!"
"Who?" Impa? He didn't think Zelda had mentioned her before.
"Miss Zelda!"
Link glanced at the direction that Zelda had come from, and he saw an angry looking young woman in a black suit racing toward them at an alarming speed. A chill ran down his spine as they locked eyes.
"You!" Impa shouted, pointing a furious finger at him. "Who are you!"
Without a second left to waste, Link clicked into gear and pedaled away fast before that angry finger could intentionally poke out his eyeballs. They shot down the road, with Zelda's exhilarated laughter mixing in with the sound of the rushing wind whistling by them.
For some reason, it was a strange and distinct sound, like it was reverberating all around him; he felt trapped in it.
Until her laughter abruptly stopped.
"Look out—!"
He looked up; but by then, it was too late. An apple that hung low from the tree smacked him square on the forehead with a resounding thud.
——————————————————————
"You know," Zelda said, accepting his hand as he helped her down the rocky cliff that led to the shoreline, "the beach looks different from above."
Link hadn't been to Zelda's home before, but he knew what it looked like from below. It was an odd-looking building that used to be an abandoned lighthouse, but then someone moved into it a couple of years ago, and that someone had hammered on weird platforms and objects to it, so now it looked like Hateno's novelty sculpture.
"Your room's at the top of that lighthouse building right?" Link asked, grunting as he jumped down onto the sand with a hefty thud. He turned around and held out both of his hands to her.
"Mhm. Purah let me have the upper loft when I moved in with her. The view's amazing at night, you can see all the stars." Zelda crouched down and gratefully accepted his hands. Her hands were rough. She jumped down.
Link couldn't see the stars from his bed, because a gigantic tree was right in front of his window.
Her prickling stare withdrew him from his thoughts—she studied his face as if she was observing every detail on it. He could count the sun freckles that had begun appearing around her cheeks; heat climbed to his cheeks as he leaned back a little, finally aware of how close they were.
"I hope that apple won't leave a bruise on your forehead," she muttered, her eyebrows furrowing together, with that little crease appearing between her brows. Always one crease, never two. "You took quite a hit back there."
"I—" he paused, his mouth still slightly ajar.
What was he gonna say? That he was too focused on the sound of her laughter to the point where he wasn't paying attention to the road?
She tilted her head quizzically, waiting for him to speak.
Link let go of her hands to adjust the straps of his stiff backpack. "I know a spot near the rocks," he muttered, turning to a cluster of boulders near the water. It was flat enough that they could place the blanket down and set the lunchboxes and thermal bottle without having to worry about them falling over.
They walked side by side.
"The patterns on the rocks are so symmetrical," she murmured, tapping her chin with her finger. "Like the cliff we just climbed down from—you could tell during high tide the water reaches it, just barely though. I've always found it fascinating that exposure to water erosion could create such beautiful patterns. Don't you agree?"
Link nodded, and a smile quirked up on her lips. The hop in her step was a little higher than usual as she sped up to reach the cluster of rocks faster. He liked listening to her observations of little details, even though he didn't offer much opinion of his own. It was nice to hear and see Hyrule through a different kind of lens.
She was already climbing up the rock by the time Link reached it, and she stood there proud and tall with her hands on her hips, facing the vast ocean.
"We should eat before the food gets cold," Link called up to her, unzipping his backpack to hand her the picnic blanket. It used to belong to his mom. At one point he stole the key to his dad's chest and opened it up to find a bunch of things that used to be hers, probably, because there was a picture of her in there, squished in with a bunch of other stuff. He stole that picture too. And to this day, his dad still hadn't noticed anything was missing.
Link wondered if his dad knew, and just let him... have it.
"Of course," she said, her eyes glinting hungrily. She grabbed the blanket from him, and with it, his thoughts.
She spread it out as he climbed up to her.
Her reactions were always funny whenever Link brought food for her. For some reason, she always tried to mask her excitement—but she was terrible at hiding the anticipation that gleamed in her green eyes, and even more terrible at trying to keep a smile from erupting on her face while he pulled out the two lunchboxes.
"Chamomile tea," Link stated, as he pulled out the thermal bottle next. He paused to watch her, and her mouth formed an 'o' as she greedily grabbed it from him, opening the cap up. He popped open the lid of one of the lunchboxes and slid it toward her.
There were sliced hydromelons, egg pudding, honey crepes and fruits, and her favorite—
"Hot buttered apples!" Zelda exclaimed, reaching for one.
In the other box he had a handful of savory foods—maybe he should've opened that one up first.
"I'm glad you took my suggestion." Her fingers paused just before she picked the slice up. "But first, the tea," she said quickly, as if she was reminding herself. She poured it into the lid of the thermal bottle, handing it to Link.
"I want to see your expression when you try it," Zelda insisted, beaming. She was smiling a lot today—more than she has in the past two years that he'd known her. "You take a bite out of the apple first, and then drink the tea, and then it tastes amazing."
"Just like that?" he asked, eyeing the light crisp color of the chamomile tea she handed to him. It reminded him of apple cider.
"Trust me, Link. You'll want to keep eating it," she promised, tugging down at her two braids. She always did that when she was waiting for something—every time she was standing in line at the vending machines to get the both of them candy pop sodas at school, she did that same little tug. "I'm picky with my food, so you know I wouldn't simply be saying this without meaning it."
Link picked up the slice—the hot buttered apples had turned into warm buttered apples by now, but he figured it wouldn't change the taste all that much. As soon as he took a bite out of it and took a sip from the tea, her eyes sparkled.
The combination of the two warmed his stomach—the pinch of cinnamon she had recommended he put on it really kicked it for him, and he had to refrain from shoving at least ten more into his mouth. Considering how much she was staring at the hot buttered apples, he wanted to save the majority of it for her.
"Good? Right? They both have that toasty taste but it's a different kind of toasty. The chamomile tea, when brewed correctly of course, has that touch of floral kick to it too! And the hot buttered apples with that sprinkle of cinnamon just melts in your mouth and it's the most wonderful thing ever, isn't it?" She quickly thanked him as she accepted the tea when he handed it to her, and she picked up a slice to take an eager bite of her own.
"It's really good." He wasn't the best at expressing himself through words, but despite their simplicity, it seemed to have gotten through to her, as that gleeful glint in her eyes only gleamed brighter. "Did your parents—" He paused mid-chew, realizing just a little too late that his question was going to dampen her brightness.
And it did, just a little.
Idiot.
Whenever he asked about her immediate family, she would tense up—just like now. She cast her eyes down at the lunchbox, eyeing all of the food that he had prepared, her lips pursed. She would always be on the brink of telling him, but then she would turn away in the end.
Maybe… she needed a little push, to talk about it.
"My mom hated apples." The words felt weird in his mouth—he's never spoken about his mom to anyone, and he only brought her up once to his dad. Link raised his eyes to meet hers. Zelda had stopped chewing too, and looked at him with wide, curious eyes.
"That's what my dad told me at least, when I asked him what she hated the most." No one in his family ate apples that much, and it all made sense when he found out about that little fact a couple of years ago. It was hard for his dad to talk about her—time didn't heal the pain behind his voice when he told Link those three simple words: She hated apples.
And behind those three simple words were years upon years of grieving, and he never asked his dad about her again.
He watched as Zelda picked up another slice, her mouth parting slightly. "My mother loved making all sorts of meals with apples."
Loved, Link thought.
Past tense.
They sat in silence for a bit, just munching on those hot buttered apples, while passing the tea back and forth between each other.
"My mother made a snack for me that always involved apples in some way—whenever I was sad, angry, or when she was proud of me." He expected her to look lost in thought as she spoke, but she wasn't. She was as present as she could've been, and he was... it made him feel a little better. Less alone. "Hot buttered apples with chamomile tea was my favorite. She made it for me quite often," she said, chuckling. "What was your mother like?"
She gave him the last slice.
He hesitated; both in accepting the last piece and at her question. The only thing he had was a worn out picture of her, weathered down by age. And that blanket. "I don't know, I don't remember anything," he admitted, taking the slice from her.
Her gaze softened.
Link once punched another classmate in grade school because they asked him, how could he be sad? If he had no memories of his own mom? What was there to be sad about, since he couldn't remember anything? And for the longest time, he didn't let himself be sad over her. How could you be sad about someone you had no memories of?
But one day, Aryll barged into his room—her face red, with snot running down her nose, crying, because she had an argument with their dad. "What if I forget about her, Link?" Aryll had said to him in between her choked up sobs. "I feel like if dad never talks about her, she'll disappear forever."
He knew then that there was pain with memory, and pain without memory. One wasn't more valid than the other.
Because either way, no one won anything in the end.
"I wish I could've met your mother," she said. "I'm certain I could've changed her mind about apples."
There wasn't a lick of a tease on her face. She was serious.
For the first time in a while, Link laughed.
#zelink#botw#breath of the wild#sorry i took a hot second but I just kept adding stuff to it and then it became kinda long LOL#my fanfics#thank u sm for the prompt!!!#the-astrumnauta#syilca answers#one more prompt to go baby!
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Longest Night (50) Celebrating
Here we go! The last chapter! And it’s a doozy!
I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I grew up calling all of my parents friend’s ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’. Some of them I still do. Which was really fun when I dated a family friend and kept calling his mom ‘Aunt Julie’. We are not related. Fun times!
Also, there’s some nicknames in this chapter. “Peepums” is Tom. “Nonnie Cheng” is Sabine. And “Nonna Gina” is Tom’s mom. You know how grandparents all have their weird nicknames.
Ao3 | FF.net
20 years later
—
When Marinette awoke that morning, she was alone in bed. It wasn’t that odd. Adrien had always been an early riser, but this was a different reason than just that.
But she didn’t worry. It was best just to leave things the way they were.
Dressing in a robe, she went downstairs to start making breakfast. The kids were old enough to get ready on their own now, and as long as they were down before 7, she didn’t bug them.
The first into the kitchen was the youngest, Emma. A complete girly-girl and lover of all things pink and fashionable. Even at 12, she had her own sophisticated sense of style (party cultivated by her grandfather). She danced in her pink dress and adorable white flats. “What do you think, mama? Perfect for career day? Do I look like a professional?”
“Of course you do, sweetheart.”
She beamed. “Where’s papa?”
“Oh, uh, I’m not sure. He couldn’t sleep last night, so he went for patrol. He hasn’t been back yet.”
Emma frowned hard. “He’ll be there for career day though, right?”
“He wouldn’t miss it for the world! But Peepums and Grandfather Gabriel are going to be there too.”
“Is Peepums bringing treats?”
“I would assume so. He never passes up a chance to bring snacks. Now, I’m making crepes, you want one or two?”
“Just one, mama.”
“Alright.”
The next down the stairs was the oldest (by two minutes) Hugo. “Morning mama,” he smiled brightly.
“There’s my birthday boy! Feel any older?”
“No, but I feel wiser!” He joked, as he jumped on the stool by the counter.
“Where’s Louis?”
“Stuck in the toilet.”
“And you mean that figuratively, right?”
He shrugged. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Crepes, blueberry, your favorite.”
“Yes! I want five!”
“You can have three, I don’t want you to get a tummy ache before school.”
“Lame! Bring on the crepes!” He pounded his fists on the counter.
“Three, and then if you aren’t stuffed, I’ll consider more.”
Then came the unmistakable sound of a body slowly falling down the stairs, before a dark haired teen crawled across the floor and collapsed next to his mother’s legs.
“Ah, Birthday boy part 2. Welcome to the land of the living!”
“It should be a crime to have to wake up early on your birthday.” Said the boy, face flat against the ground.
“You truly are my child,” said Marinette with a smile.
“Where’s pops?” Asked Hugo, digging into his second crepe.
“Out on patrol.”
This caused Louis to stir and look up. “Did something happen?”
“No, he just couldn’t sleep.”
Hugo frowned. “Nightmares again? He’s been having those a lot lately.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure why he’s having them. But you kids don’t need to worry about it.”
“Are we still okay for our party tomorrow?”
“Of course!” Marinette beamed. “Even if papa wasn’t feeling great, we’d still have it! Aunt Chloe reserved the rooftop pool for you, after all.”
“…I’m so excited,” said the child on the floor, with no enthusiasm. “You just can’t tell right now.”
“Well, you’re not going to get any rest on the floor. Sit in your seat and eat your crepe. I’ll make a little coffee.”
“…yay…”
—
Emma bounced nervously in her seat. She was flanked by Tom and Gabriel, who had both already presented for career day.
The day was almost over, and her father hadn’t shown.
“It’s okay, my little cupcake.” Tom assured, petting her blonde hair. “He’ll be here.”
“And if he doesn’t make it,” added Gabriel, “It wasn’t because he didn’t want to. He’s probably out there stopping a criminal, saving lives. I know you’re the most important thing in the world to him.”
Emma nodded, believing both of her grandfathers, but also not wanting to be one without a dad on career day.
Through the years, Emma had gotten used to her father’s unpredictable behavior. He loved her to the end of the world and back, and would move mountains for her if he could. And most days, it really really showed.
But some days, he just wasn’t…there. Emotionally, spiritually, or like today, physically. Her mother had similar episodes, but mostly in mood swings. She got angry sometimes, seemingly over nothing. Never directed at Emma or her brothers, thankfully, but Emma knew that there was something different about her parents.
She knew the story. She had been told pieces of it growing up, but never allowed to watch the footage. Mama and Papa had been kidnapped and tortured, because they were superheroes, and they were never the same after. The details were vague, and she was told it would be too scary for her to handle every time she asked. But she saw the scars, heard her father’s screams at night.
Most days, she didn’t want to know.
“Alright! I think that’s everyone!” Miss Bustier called. “Thank you all for participating in our career day! It’s awesome that we have such a wide range of jobs just in this very room!”
Emma deflated. Her father really wasn’t coming.
Tom laid a giant hand on her head and rubbed.
But then, there was a knock at the window.
“Chat Noir?” Miss Bustier asked.
The man in black waved as she opened the window.
“So so sorry I’m late!” He apologized, hopping into the room. “I caught a robber, and I walked him down to the police station and we had to do all this paperwork—“
“Papa!” Emma shouted, leaping over her desk. She ran to him, and threw her arms around him in a crushing hug. “You made it!”
“Just in time it seems,” he laughed, hugging her back. “I’m sorry I’m late. Can you forgive me?”
“Of course! Come on, it’s your turn to present!” She took his hand and led him up to the front of the room. “Everyone, this is my dad, Chat Noir! He’s a superhero!”
—
The next day was Saturday, and Marinette was full of stress up to her neck. She paced poolside, as her family helped set up for the party.
“Alright, Nino’s on music, Alya’s on Emma duty, Chloe covered catering, mom and dad have the cake, Gabriel and Emilie have decorations…what am I missing?”
“My Lady, you’ve gone over this list a hundred times. We’re fine.”
“Drinks! I forgot the drinks!”
Adrien pointed over at the bar. “Luka and Kagami are on drinks, remember? Luka’s making his mimosas for the adults.”
“Oh, right.” Then she pointed at him. “No alcohol, alright? Not with your medication.”
“Oh come on, these are Luka’s mimosas! I’m gonna get krunk!”
“Dad’s gonna get krunk?” Asked Hugo, from the pool.
“No one is getting krunk!” Marinette poked Adrien in the chest. “Look what you started!”
“I’m only teasing.” Adrien laughed, taking his wife’s hand. “Relax My Lady, it’s a party, a sweet 16 party! Everyone’s here to have fun. And they will as long as we relax.”
Marinette got close, whispering conspiratorially, “that’s just the thing! Do you remember our sweet sixteen parties?”
“Well...I didn’t have a party,” Adrien shrugged. “You, Alya, and Nino helped me escape the house and we went to the movies.”
“Yeah, and they spent the whole time making out, so you and I just sat there awkwardly.”
“I think I put my arm around you,” he grinned. “My very good friend.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
“And your sixteenth...was that the year that Lila told everyone it was on a different day?”
“And you were the only one who called to confirm it was on the original day, and so you were the only one that showed? Yep, that’s the one. I cried on you for 15 minutes when I realized no one else was coming.”
“I mean, yeah, that sucked, but we still had fun with your family.”
“My point is, this is Hugo and Louis’ sixteenth birthday. I want them to have a good one, to have what we couldn’t have.”
“You have their gifts in your purse, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Then I wouldn’t worry about it. Their friends and family are coming, everything looks good, so just relax.”
Marinette took a deep sigh. “You’re right, my love. Whatever happens, happens, and we’ve done all we can.”
“The party will be fine, Mom.” Said Louis from a lounge chair.
“Ah! Louis? Why aren’t you in the pool?”
“I’m perfectly content just relaxing here. I’ll get hot soon enough and go in the pool.”
“Are you sure?”
Adrien wrapped an arm around his wife. “Marinette, let him alone. He’s fine. You know he’s our introvert.”
“Mama! Papa!” Emma called, running towards them from the hotel elevator. “Look at the swimsuit grandfather Gabriel got me!” She twirled, letting the shimmery, glittery greens, teals, and purples swirl in a kaleidoscope of color. “I look like a mermaid!”
“You sure do, Princess!” Adrien beamed.
Emma squealed in delight before running back to Alya.
“See? All of our kids are enjoying themselves. The guests are slowly trickling in...” he gestured to the elevator where more classmates with gifts arrived. “And no catastrophes yet.”
“Fine fine, Kitty, I get it. I’ll have a mimosa and lighten up.”
“Have one for me too!” He called after, as she headed to the bar.
Soon, the guests arrived. Hugo and Louis had invited their entire class of 18 kids. Some parents stayed to help with chaperoning, and some even brought younger siblings that were friends with Emma.
It was turning out to be a real shin-dig.
So far, Marinette felt at ease. The four parents that had stayed were mostly just hanging out at the bar, but the kids were in the pool, and no one was drowning.
Louis still reclined on the lounger, sunning himself.
“You're still doing okay over here, kiddo?”
“Mom, I’m doing so okay. So okay, it’s ridiculous. Nonna Gina brought me over a virgin mimosa, cause everyone’s talking about them. I feel like I’m on vacation.”
“As long as you’re content, I’m happy. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t feeling left out.”
“Nah,” he waved her off. “I will go swimming, but I’m going to wait until after eating.”
“Okay, kiddo.”
Seeing Hugo happily enthralled in a cannonball contest, and Louis sunning himself like a cat, she decided to check in with her youngest. Though she saw Alya at the bar talking to Kagami, and Emma nowhere in sight.
This used to make her panic immediately. None of her kids were especially hyper or rambunctious. They didn’t run off on their own, especially without letting her know.
But there was still a fear, still a niggling doubt in the back of her head that said ‘what if’?
As calm as possible, she approached the adults at the bar, and asked Alya. “Have you seen Emma?”
“She ran down to the lobby to use the bathroom,” Alya answered casually.
“Alone?”
“Yeah, Marinette, she’s 12. She can handle going to the bathroom alone.” It was a reassurance, no judgement. Because sometimes, Adrien and Marinette needed a reminder that their children were well adjusted and had plenty of common sense.
Marinette knew that. And it wasn’t the bathroom part she was concerned about. It was the trip down to the lobby by herself.
She heard a father speak softly, “for superheroes, they are certainly overprotective of their kids. Kind of feel sorry for them.”
Marinette nodded at Alya, and retreated sheepishly. Was her paranoia ruining her children’s lives?
“What’s with that look, My Lady?” Adrien asked, softly, sipping on his drink.
“Sorry, sorry, I just…overheard something I shouldn’t dwell on.” She looked at the drink in his hands, narrowing her eyes.
“It’s virgin!” He handed it to her. “I promised I was going to quit. Getting plastered at our kid’s birthday would be the worst time for them to find out I have a problem.”
“It’s not a problem yet, but that’s why I want you to stop. So it doesn’t become one.”
“Hey! Let go Isaac!” Louis’ voice carried over the water. Instantly, Marinette and Adrien were alert and looked to see a larger boy pulling Louis toward the pool by the arm.
“Hey!” Marinette called out. “Let him go! If he doesn’t want to go swimming, don’t force him!”
“Oh come on, Lady!” The father from the bar shouted over to her. “What’s the point in having a pool party for your boys if they aren’t even going to go swimming!?”
SPLASH
Louis surfaced with a gasp, and then a defeated “aw man!”
“Are you okay kiddo?” Marinette asked. “You didn’t have your phone on you, right?”
“No, I’m fine.” He took off his soaked shirt and dropped it on the edge of the pool with a loud plop. “Just…didn’t want to get wet yet.”
“Dude, come on Isaac, don’t be such a turd!” Hugo chastised.
“He looked lonely!” Isaac argued.
“Whatever,” Louis said, defeated. “Just…don’t dunk me, okay?”
“No promises!”
Adrien frowned at the exchange as Louis swam over closer to his brother. “Isaac, Isaac, why is that name familiar? Is that the kid that’s been picking on Louis? Why is he here?”
“Oh,” Marinette smacked her head. “That’s what they were asking about!”
“What? Who?”
“A few weeks ago, the boys were asking me questions about what to do about a classmate people don’t get along with. They asked if they should include them in the party if they were inviting the rest of the class. I told them that would be the right thing to do, but I didn’t realize they were talking about Louis’ bully!” She groaned. “And it looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” She glared at Isaac’s dad at the bar.
Adrien smiled over at the pool. Both Hugo and Louis were laughing and seemed to be having a good time. It seemed Louis was already over his impromptu dunking. “Our kids are resilient. It’ll take more than that to bring them down.”
“They are strong.” Marinette breathed. “Stronger than me.”
It was then that Emma returned. “Hi mama, I’m back. Aunt Alya said I should check in with you because you were worried? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
Marinette smiled at her. “It’s fine Emma. You told Aunt Alya, so someone knew. You just know I’m a basket case.”
Emma frowned at her mom. “You’re not a basket case. You’re just...worried?”
“Does that bother you? Do I make you feel trapped or smothered?”
Adrien stared at his wife in horror. Likewise, so did Emma. “No! Not at all!” She hugged her around the waist and added, “Nonnie Cheng worries about where I am too. She says it’s because you went missing, and it’s scared her ever since. I don’t want to scare you, mom.”
Marinette hugged Emma tightly and said, “I have the best kids in the world.”
“In that case,” Emma grinned. “Can I have some soda?”
“Sure, just tell Aunt Kagami what you want.”
“Thanks mom!” She beamed and scurried off.
“And no running!” Marinette called after. “Girl’s got my clumsy streak. She’ll break her neck.”
“Crisis averted it seems.” Said Adrien.
“For now,” Marinette narrowed her eyes. “But Ladybug never rests!”
Adrien pecked his wife on the lips. “Someone has to be responsible.”
“Hey pops!” Hugo called from the pool.
“What’s up?”
“We’re going to do a diving contest! You should join!”
“Yeah!”
“Come on Mr. Dupain-Cheng!”
“Show us some Chat Noir style!”
Marinette nudged him. “Go ahead. Show those kids how it’s done.”
He smirked. “Okay okay.” He took off his shirt and laid it on the lounger by their bags. Then he entered the pool from the shallow end, coming up behind the kids. “How does this diving contest work?”
“It’s easy!” Said Hugo, “we’re going to take turns coming up with unique ways to jump in the pool. Winner is the best technique, or most creative.”
“I got one!” Said a chubby kid. He climbed out of the pool and up on the diving board.
“Make room!” Someone called. “Cannon ball champion on the loose!”
“This is called ‘The Patrick Star’!” He bounced twice, getting real air before leaping out, parallel with the water, arms and legs spread out like a starfish.
And he collided with the water with a resounding clap, making everyone go, ‘ooo!’
The kid surfaced, his entire frontside pink. “Ow.”
The rest of the class laughed at him.
One by one, classmates would come up with a dive, though most were a lot more elegant than the first.
“I call this, ‘The Ladybug’.” A girl said. She ran and jumped, twisting in the air while throwing her arm, mimicking Ladybug’s yo-yo. She managed to say “bug out!” Before she hit the water. Marinette whistled. “She’s got my vote!”
“Come on, Pops,” said Hugo. “It’s your turn!”
“I don’t have a—“
“Just make something up! Go go!”
Adrien pulled himself out of the pool and headed toward the diving board, aware of the people watching, curious.
This was his twin boys’ special day. He had to be impressive. He had to be the cool dad.
He took a running start, falling into a front flip as he hit the diving board. His adult weight bowed the board with force, sending him up into the air. He curled tightly into a ball, using the momentum to rotate three times, before coming out of the ball and diving seamlessly into the water.
When he surfaced, the crowd of kids were going wild. They screamed and chanted “Dad! Dad! Dad!”
Obviously started by his boys.
Adrien beamed as he treaded water. Being Chat Noir was great, even with all the pain it had brought him. But being his kid’s hero was the absolute best.
But everything came to a screeching halt as Isaac, the butthole kid, let out a loud, “EWWW!!” Grabbing everyone’s attention. “What’s wrong with your dad’s back!? It’s all gross!”
Adrien slammed his eyes shut, all at once feeling self-conscious. But this was just a dumb teenager. Maybe he didn’t know any better. But before he could gather himself to calmly explain his scars, his boys spoke up for him.
“It’s scarring, you jerk,” said Louis.
“He got it from being a superhero, when he was just two years older than we are!” Added Hugo.
Isaac scoffed, “Chat Noir and Ladybug aren’t real superheroes! Not like the ones in America! All they do is rescue cats from trees and show up for charity events. They don’t even do anything anymore!”
Adrien sloppily backtracked, reaching out for the edge of the pool.
“Just yesterday, he caught a robber! That’s not nothing!” Hugo defended.
“Oh yeah?” Said Isaac, “My dad said that they used to fight supervillains, but they couldn’t stop the guy responsible for them! He said they’re losers and failures!”
“Hey Jean,” said one of the parents. “Tell your kid to shut up.”
Isaac’s father took a chug from his beer and shrugged. “Someone had to say it.”
“Monsieur,” said Ladybug with god-like patience. “I suggest you and your son leave. I don’t feel the need to play host to someone who could be so hateful and misinformed.”
“Misinformed?” The man, Jean, scoffed. “I was there. I saw the stream back then. I remember what it was like. The weekly akumas, classes and events always cancelled. The only reason they stopped is because Hawkmoth gave up. I don’t think you guys should be getting recognition anymore. Sorry, not sorry.”
“Mom?” Louis called from the pool.
Jean frowned, continuing. “The rest of us have to make a living working hard, every day. You and your husband just put on some skin tight leather and prance around. Now you’re set for life. It’s disgusting.”
“Hey man, if you don’t like it, you can leave,” said Alya. “No one invited you. I heard your son was only invited out of obligation.”
“Mom!” Louis called again.
“Marinette and Adrien suffered enough for a lifetime. Every day is a struggle! How dare you say otherwise!”
“MOM!” Louis screamed.
Marinette whipped her head over to the pool, seeing Adrien struggling to keep his head above water. Louis and Hugo were holding him up. She hurried over. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“He’s having an attack!”
Tom rushed over, reaching his hands under Adrien’s arms, and pulled him out of the pool. He tried to set him on his feet, but he kept leaning forward, trying to lay down. His eyes were wide, but unfocused, as his breaths came rapidly.
Marinette tugged on his arm. “Come on, Kitty. Not here.” She called over to Chloe. “Is there a room we can borrow for a second?”
“Follow me!”
Louis broke off from the group, but Hugo and Marinette were quick to escort Adrien away from the party.
“Mom?” Emma asked, right as they were about to get on the elevator.
“It’s okay, Honey. Dad just needs a minute. Stay behind with Aunt Alya, okay?”
Emma nodded, though didn’t look convinced.
Chloe showed them to her room, where she quickly got a towel for Adrien to wrap up in.
Hugo and Marinette eased him down to sit on the couch. There, he slumped, his head resting on the back of the couch.
Louis found their room, cup in hand. “I brought a coke. I know that usually helps.”
Marinette sighed in relief. “Thank you baby,” she took the cup from him and put it in Adrien’s hand, then helped him take a sip.
They sat for a while, watching Adrien breathe slowly and take occasional sips from his drink.
“I’m so sorry boys,” Marinette looked to them sadly. “We didn’t mean to ruin your birthday.”
Hugo frowned at her. “What? You guys didn’t ruin anything. Isaac’s the one that pooped on our party.”
“Yeah,” added Louis, “and we were having a great time up until now. Don’t worry about it mom.”
Adrien very shakily brought the cup towards his face, and Marinette was quick to help, so he didn’t spill. “Dad’s going to be fine,” she explained. “Why don’t you boys get back to the party?”
“If it’s okay, I’d like to wait until dad feels a little better. I’d feel guilty if I left,” said Louis.
“Me too,” said Hugo. “And I need a few minutes to calm down to keep from punching Isaac in the face. What he said was dumb. He has no idea what you guys do.”
“…it shouldn’t have bothered me…” Adrien said, softly.
“Dad?”
“I’m okay,” he took a deep exhale. “Just…lost myself for a moment.”
Hugo hugged him tightly around the shoulders. “Love you, dad. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m sorry for scaring you boys…and your friends. But I’ll be alright now.”
“You recovered pretty quickly,” Marinette noted.
“It’s because I have my big strong boys with me.” He wrapped his arms around his sons. “There was nothing to worry about.”
Except, there was.
Alya burst into the room, Chloe behind her, with a look of panic.
“Marinette, come quickly!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Emma! She’s been akumatized!!”
—
As Emma watched her father be rushed out of the party, a stone fell into her gut. No matter how often this happened, no matter how good they got at catching the attacks, it still scared her when it happened.
She was torn between wanting to be with him, and not wanting to see that vacant expression on his face. Her mother said it was a coping mechanism he developed a long time ago, when they had been kidnapped. He just switched his brain off when he got overwhelmed, as to not experience pain. It only happened a few times a year, only in super stressful situations where he thought about his torture.
Emma wiped at her face as she looked over the party. Alya was chastising the adult man that had talked bad about her father, and Hugo and Louis’ friends were ripping into the kid that started the whole mess.
Everyone was angry and yelling.
“Emma?” Gabriel asked, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright, dear?”
“Oh, Grandfather…” She sniffed. “I’m just…scared.”
“Your father will be alright. It’s nothing physical, it’s just a mental state.”
“I know…” She screwed up her lips. “But I’m scared people are going to keep saying that stuff to him. Mom acts like I’m too young to understand what’s happening…but people are forgetting that they are real superheroes, and they act like they’re mascots. I’m scared this is going to happen again.” She rubbed at her damp eyes. “He doesn’t deserve it. Neither of them do.”
“You really love your parents, don’t you?”
“Of course! They’re the best!”
“Then, I have a plan. Would you be willing to help?”
“Of course, what is it?”
“Come with me, we’ll speak in private.”
Curious, Emma followed Gabriel into the hotel, down to a conference room. He locked the door behind them.
“You remember our little secret?”
“That I know you were Hawkmoth?”
“Yes. My plan requires me to come out of retirement, just this once…and to akumatize you.”
She looked startled. “You want to turn me into a supervillain?”
“Only if you agree to it, dear.” He pet her hair. “My goal is to make you a supervillain, so you can terrorize Paris and remind them of what Ladybug and Chat Noir used to do. I’ll be able to see through your eyes, so I can stop and undo any damage if something goes wrong.”
Emma crossed her arms. “You’d make mom and dad fight me?”
“Not fight you, rescue you.”
She frowned again, thinking about it. Then she nodded. “Let’s do it!”
Gabriel smiled at her, and opened his sports jacket, where Nooroo was hiding. “Nooroo, Dark Wings rise!”
In a flash of purple light, Hawkmoth had returned. Inside his cane, a little white butterfly fluttered.
Emma danced on her toes. “What kind of powers are you going to give me? I want to be pretty!”
He chuckled at her eagerness. “Of course, my sweet Emma.” He evilized the butterfly, and then coaxed it into the paw print bracelet she was wearing.
A purple mask appeared on her face.
“Mermaidia, I’m giving you the power of the seas. You may travel through any body of water, and turn those that oppose you into sea creatures. In exchange, you must give Chat Noir and Ladybug a taste of nostalgia. Do you accept these terms?”
“Absolutely, Hawkmoth.”
The dark purple fog encompassed Emma, turning the sweet blonde girl into a real mermaid, with purple hair, shimmering scales, and an abundance of glittering gold and jewels. In her hand, she held a trident.
Hawkmoth took a bottle of water from the table, and poured it on the floor.
Mermaidia stepped into the puddle, and disappeared.
—
“Regardless if you feel like you’re right, it’s still your opinion. And an opinion doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole, especially to people who are hosting this party!” Shouted Alya.
The rest of the parents were quietly watching the exchange, not really wanting to get involved. But they were also paying attention to a similar argument in the pool.
“You are a grown adult and a parent. It’s your job to teach your kid respect and kindness, two qualities I haven’t seen from him today.”
“Look lady, I know you’re friends with the Dupain-Cheng’s and all, but come on. It doesn’t bother you that they don’t work at all? What’s the point of them calling themselves superheroes anyway? They should just hang up the suits and get real jobs.”
“They. Can’t.” Alya emphasized. “Did you not just see what happened to Adrien? What if he was working and he had an attack? What then, smart guy?”
“He won’t have attacks if he was doing something with his life!”
“They are full time parents, and full time heroes! They do more than just ‘rescue cats and make celebrity appearances at charity events’! How can you be so ignorant?!”
“What did you call me!?”
Screams came from the pool, and the argument halted.
Mermaidia had made her appearance.
“I am Mermaidia! You all have grown too soft and comfortable! I’m here to remind you what it was like back when there were akuma!” She laughed, pointed her trident, and turned a child into a fish.
The party descended into madness, as Mermaidia shot rapidly. None of the teens in the pool escaped, and all turned into various fish and sea creatures.
Isaac turned into a starfish, and Emma stuck him to her arm. “You’re coming with me. I want you to see how wrong you were.”
Several adults had tried to escape as well, but Mermaidia stopped them in their run.
Only those who knew the identity of Hawkmoth, or were previous Miraculous users didn’t panic. Rather, they stood staring, confused. Alya backed away carefully, and escaped into the hotel. Whether Emma purposely let her go or not, she would never know.
“Emma?” Asked Sabine.
“I’m not Emma anymore, I’m Mermaidia!” She turned Isaac’s father into another starfish, and stuck him on her other arm. “You mocked my parents, but now, they’re the only ones that can save you! Ahahaha!”
“Emma, stop.” Tom demanded. “You’re a good girl. We can’t let what people say get to us. People will always have their opinions that we disagree with, but we can’t take it personally.”
“But I can take this personally!” She shouted back. “My father is the greatest man alive, and no one will doubt that when I’m through! Just you see!”
She turned the rest of the assembled party goers into creatures, before leaping into the pool and disappearing.
—
Ladybug, Chat Noir, Alya, Chloe, Louis, and Hugo all returned to the party, only to find a bunch of fish.
“What the…?”
“She’s called Mermaidia,” Alya clarified. “She’s turned everyone into sea creatures. She appeared from the water, so I think she can transport through liquid.”
“She totally can, dude,” said a sea turtle from the pool.
“Nino?” Asked Chat Noir.
“Cha dude, what do you think? Pretty fitting for me, huh?”
“Are you okay?”
“Totally. All the little dudes are too.” He gestured to the fish in the pool.
“Emma turned the kid and his dad who started the argument into starfish.” Said a sea-snake. “They’re on her arms. So be careful when you attack.”
“Luka?”
“Yep.”
“Where’s my mom and dad?”
“Over here!” Called a walrus. There was a crab next to him, waving a claw. “We’re fine, honey. Just save Emma!”
“Next question,” Said Ladybug, wielding her yo-yo angrily. “Where’s Gabriel?”
Chat Noir rested a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s focus on saving Emma, and then we’ll find him.”
She sighed. “You’re right, as always, kitty. However, I think we might need some help with this akuma.” She opened her yo-yo and reached inside, pulling out two octagonal boxes. Then she turned to Hugo and Louis. “I hoped to give you your presents later, and hoped you wouldn’t ever have to use them. But desperate times come desperate measures.”
Hugo and Louis smiled at each other, with excitement.
“Louis, my wise, observant, and cunning child, this is the Miraculous of the Snake. With it, you can turn back time an infinite amount of times in a five minute duration. You will use it for the greater good.”
“Sweet.”
“And Hugo, my brave, bold, and exuberant child, this is the Miraculous of the Turtle. With it, you can create an impenetrable shield. You will use it for the greater good.”
“Yes!”
“Louis, to transform, simply say ’Sass, Scales Slither.’ And Hugo, your phrase is ‘Wayzz, Shell On’.”
“Sass, Scales Slither!”
“Wayzz, Shell On!”
A flash of green and teal, and the boys were turned into superheroes. They high fived each other.
“The Reptile Boyz are back in town!” Hugo cheered.
“Really? ‘Boyz’ with a ‘Z’?” Chat Noir asked flatly.
“It’s cool, old man!” Said Louis.
“Alright team, let’s focus,” Ladybug said, a bit too fondly for the situation at hand. She took out her yo-yo, and looked for intel. There was a special report live from Nadja Chamack.
“—Mermaidia is the first Akuma in 20 years! It was thought that Hawkmoth had retired, but it seems he has one ace left up his sleeve. The akuma was last spotted at the Luxembourg park! Hopefully, Ladybug and Chat Noir are on their way! Again, this is a real akuma, so it is advised to stay indoors and away from water!”
“She’s at the park! Let’s go!”
—
This wasn’t nearly as scary as Emma thought it would be. In fact, she was having a lot of fun. Hawkmoth did advise her that she would be influenced by her anger, but that really didn’t seem to bother her. It was really fun to turn people into sea creatures.
Though, she did feel really guilty when she hit people that were crying in fear.
But that’s what her parents were here for! To undo all this! It was fine!
“I am Mermaidia! And Ladybug and Chat Noir are your only chance for salvation!”
“Now now Emma,” Chat Noir spoke from behind. “Go easy on us. We’re a little wet behind the ears.”
Emma had to stomp down the urge to run and hug her father, and instead declared. “There you are, Ladybug and Chat Noir! Ready to do battle?”
Ladybug simply crossed her arms. “If you don’t give up your akuma, you’re grounded.”
Mermaidia stomped her foot. “You can’t ground me if you can’t catch me!” And she leapt into the fountain.
“She’s escaping!” Cried Hugo.
“Quick, fan out! Look for sources of water, and call as soon as you get sight of her!”
—
This was not Hugo or Louis’ first time using a Miraculous. Every once in a while, Marinette and Adrien would allow the children to pick one out to try, and then they’d have a family game of tag out on the Paris rooftops. The rules were to stay safe, and to not allow the media to take pictures. And at the first sign of danger, they were supposed to go home and let Mom and Dad handle it.
So the boys were familiar with their powers, but boy, they were not ready for the anxiety of an Akuma attack.
They may have been older, but Emma was still the reigning champion of tag.
“Find anything?” Louis asked, crossing his brother.
“Not a scale,” said Hugo. “Have you activated your Second Chance yet?”
“No, but I will the second we find her. Then if she escapes, we can just reverse time.”
“Smart.” Then, Hugo’s eyes caught on something in the river. “Huh?”
“What?”
“How often do you think whales go down the Seine?”
“Uh…never?”
“There she is! She’s on top of it!” Hugo activated his distress beacon on his shield, making sure to keep up with Emma, but also stay out of sight.
“We have to play this carefully. She can literally jump into the water and disappear at any second.”
“Not if there’s no water to disappear into,” said Chat Noir, appearing from nowhere.
Hugo resisted a scream. “D-Chat! You’re too sneaky!”
“I’ve been doing this a while, kiddo. Ladybug’s not here yet?”
“No, what’s the plan?”
“I have half a plan…”
“Then it’s a good thing I have half of one too!” Said Ladybug, finally joining them. “After you sent your signal, I called the French Waterway Commission and had them close the lock she’s on.”
“What did what the what?” Hugo asked.
“The river is made up of locks,” explained Louis, “chambers that fill and empty with water so boats can travel. The ground isn’t level, and the water level changes.”
“So Ladybug basically had them dam up the section Emma’s on right now,” said Chat.
“But she can still travel through water, so once she reaches the dam, she’ll just abandon ship, er, whale.” Hugo observed. “So then what?”
“Then we put my plan into action,” Chat cracked his knuckles, and stealthily made his way to the river bank.
Louis and Hugo watched in fascination as Chat called his Cataclysm and touched the water. In a boiling wave, it rolled quickly past Emma, evaporating as it went. It didn’t even have time to settle, just went up in a cloud of steam.
The whale that Emma was on run ashore, and she came to a halt. “What?”
“Nowhere to run now, little girl!” Ladybug called.
Mermaidia jumped from the back of the whale and landed in the sand. It wasn’t even damp. Chat had literally evaporated all the water in that section of the river.
“Second Chance!” Louis activated his bracelet. And just in time too, as Mermaidia shot a beam at Ladybug, and turned her into a dolphin. “Second Chance!”
Time restarted, and Louis shouted. “Ladybug, dive!”
Ladybug dove out of the way, missing the three shots Mermaidia took.
“I’m not going to take it easy on you just because you’re my mother!” Emma shouted. “So let’s show Paris what a real superhero looks like, hmm?”
“Oh you are so grounded when this is over, little lady!” She dodged another blast, and called for her Lucky Charm.
Hugo called for Shelter while she glanced around, looking for the purpose of the tennis racket her Miraculous had bestowed upon her.
Then it dawned on her.
A grounding wasn’t enough for her naughty child. Oh no. This called for the big guns.
The second Hugo’s Shelter faded, she shot out her yo-yo, catching Emma around the arms, and yanked her to lay across her leg. Hugo and Louis peeled the captive starfish off, while Chat took the trident. All the while Mermaidia wriggled around, fighting against the yo-yo string.
“No akuma in the trident, my lady.” Chat Noir shrugged.
“Oh, I’ll get it out of her.” Ladybug raised the tennis racket. “Where’s the akuma at, Emma?”
“This is cheating!”
“Okay, you asked for it.” And Ladybug brought the tennis racket down on her bottom, once, twice, three times before Emma cried out. “Okay okay! It’s in my bracelet! Stop! Stop!”
Chat broke the bracelet, freeing the butterfly, as Ladybug set her crying daughter down in the sand.
She caught and purified the butterfly, and removed everyone from the bank of the river before casting her cure.
Emma Dupain-Cheng returned, pouting, and still rubbing her behind. “I was just trying to help…”
“Where’s your Grandfather?”
“He’s in a conference room at the hotel. But don’t be mad at him, please…”
Before Ladybug could yell more, Isaac and his father approached her. “Uh, Ladybug?”
“Yes?”
“Look, I wanted to—we wanted to apologize. Thank you for rescuing us, and I’m sorry. I guess I had forgotten what it was like having akumas around. You still stopped Hawkmoth, right? Well…until today…”
“Hawkmoth is a friend of ours now,” Ladybug clarified. “He’s paid for his crimes, but today has shown that he hasn’t quite learned the right way to deal with problems. I believe he was well intentioned, but we will be having words.”
Isaac’s father nudged his son. “You want to say anything?”
Isaac shyly looked at the family and admitted, “thank you for inviting to the party. No one invites me to things.”
“Yeah, well, work on your boundary issues, and maybe it’ll happen more often,” said Louis.
“If you guys want to head back to the hotel, I think there’s still time for cake!” Said Chat, with optimism.
—
After the Miraculous cure restored the party, everyone gathered again and lunch was served.
But, the Dupain-Chengs were in the conference room. Marinette and Adrien frowned at their youngest and Gabriel.
“Now, son--” Gabriel began.
“What were you thinking?” Adrien interrupted.
“I was thinking that Paris needed a little reminder of all the hard work you guys did.”
“Yeah, cool,” sniped Marinette. “Except now they think you’re out of retirement, and that’s a huge reminder that we didn’t stop you!”
Gabriel took the brooch off. “Then here. Make it official. Tell them that this akuma was my swan-song and I made it to surrender.”
Marinette took the brooch regardless, and put it in her bag. “I don’t know what I’ll say to the media. They’ll want to know who you are, and if you’re going to prison…and akumatizing your own granddaughter?”
“I told him I was okay with it!” Said Emma. “I knew what I was getting into. It’s not that big of a deal!”
“Not that big of a deal!?”
There was a knock on the door, as Hugo and Louis peeked their heads in. “There you are, Grandfather!”
“Hi boys,” he smiled at them, softly.
The twins pushed passed their parents to stand in front of him, arms crossed, just like Marinette and Adrien.
“What you did was terrible,” Said Louis.
“So awful,” echoed Hugo.
“You could have permanently hurt or traumatized people.”
“Done thousands of dollars of property damage.”
Gabriel sighed. “I know…I just—“ But he was cut off as the boys wrapped him up in a tight hug. “What?”
“Thanks for the coolest present ever!”
“Yeah! Mom gave us our Miraculous, but the chance to use them on a real akuma!?”
“Hey!” Shouted Emma. “I was the akuma! No thanks for me!?”
They gave her a noogie. “Thanks twerp.”
“You’re a twerp!”
Marinette and Gabriel met eyes. He gave a sheepish shrug. “I know I’m bad. But I deeply love my family.”
She then gave up trying to be angry. “Alright fine. I admit it. It was fun to fight an akuma again. But it’s over now!”
Adrien shook his head fondly. “Thanks for meddling dad.”
“Your welcome, son.”
“I want cake!” Hugo shouted.
“Cake time!”
“Yay cake!”
“No cake for Emma. Only broccoli.” Marinette clarified. “You were naughty.”
“Aw man!!”
--
AND THAT’S THE END!
Oh my word this story got AWAY from me! It was only supposed to be maybe 20 chapters when I first started on it? But here we are, a year and a half later, and over 200,000 words! I kinda can’t believe I’m done!
Anyways, thank you all for sticking around through all the heartache. I appreciated every single review and like. And one parting question: What was your favorite part?
#miraculous ladybug#ml#ladybug#chat noir#ladynoir#adrienette#gabriel agreste#fanfiction#longest night#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste
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Mom ~ I’m not saying you have to do this BUT Chuyao teaching for the last snack item at the same time AU hahahah 🥰
hahahaha right up my alley, and much crack below - chuyao’s hands meeting over a plate of snacks that ends up evolving into a marriage proposal LMAO
--
“So Youning,” Bai Qili asks over family dinner one evening, “When are you and Detective Lu going to get married?”
Lu Yao, who has just stuffed a large spoonful of his favourite fish maw’s soup into his mouth, almost spits out the mouthful, and it is only Chusheng ducking out of the way fast enough that prevents his suit from being a casualty of Lu Yao being stupid, considering how he’s seated right next to him.
Regular family dinners with Lu Yao in the mix, that’s right. Somehow, somewhere, after Bai Qili extended the invitation for dinner for the third time, Lu Yao began tagging along for all dinners. Bai Qili seems to have adopted him of sorts, be it as a potential son-in-law (not true) or a starving child in need of some tender loving care (read: cheapskate), and on the once-a-week dinners these days, Lu Yao’s favourite dishes make an appearance too.
“Dad!” Youning says in disbelief, her eyes wide. “What gave you the idea that I like him? That we are even together, or that we can even stand to be in the same room with each other without arguing?”
“Don’t lie to me. Nothing can escape my eyes. Otherwise, why are the both of you still staying together? And I see you have some new dresses and those hats that you like from those yangren stores down on Bai Lu Xia street. Just with your salary, how can you afford those if not for Detective Lu buying them for you?”
Lu Yao protests, “Lao ye-zi, I don’t have that kind of money either-”
At the same time, Youning yells, “I earned this! Ask Chusheng-ge! He’s the one who buys things for me as payment for gathering information on his cases, okay? What do you mean, are you saying that I’m not competent enough to-”
Lu Yao looks between Bai Qili and Youning in confusion and fear, as if the Green Dragon Gang leader is about to command him to marry his daughter, or else.
When he is stressed, Lu Yao eats. Well, even when he isn’t stressed, he’s eating, so unconsciously, his hand reaches out for the jianbing on the table, his eyes still on the father and daughter duo.
Instead of coming into contact with a crisp, oily piece of snack, Lu Yao’s hand knocks against skin, and he jerks, as if burnt.
Looking up, he sees Chusheng staring at him too, their hands connected over a plate of jianbing that Chusheng knows is his favourite.
Lu Yao’s cheeks flame immediately, and he retracts his hand.
“You... you can have it first,” he says, embarrassed for no reason at all.
“No,” Chusheng replies, and inches the plate closer to Lu Yao. “You have some first.”
Pushing the plate back, Lu Yao shakes his head, “No, you have it first, Lao Qiao.”
“This is your favourite! Just take the piece on the top I know you want that one.”
“I.... I can take the next one, you take the first one-”
“San Tu, just take-”
They’re interrupted rudely when a third hand moves between them, and snags the very first jianbing from the top of the stack, effectively ending the argument. It’s Youning, and as she nibbles on the pastry she just stole, there’s a really smug look on her face.
“... what?” Lu Yao asks, frowning.
“... I was mistaken.” It is then that Bai Qili speaks, catching their attention. His eyes are considering as they look between Chusheng and Lu Yao. “I see. I see.”
“Lao ye-zi,” now it is time for Chusheng to frown, “What do you mean?”
Bai Qili nods, “Chusheng ah, you know that I treat you like my own son, right? I know I’ve been hard on you, but... I am still rather open when it comes to these things. Others might have an issue with it, but what have I not seen? Back in the day, the number of brothers in the gang who looked twice at each other...”
Uncomprehending, both Chusheng and Lu Yao cock their heads to the side in absolute bewilderment.
“It’s alright!” Bai Qili declares. “Lu Yao will still be my son-in-law no matter what. I was mistaken to think he wanted to marry Youning. It’s the same if you marry him instead, Chusheng! And to think the both of you thought I wouldn’t accept it... is that why you decided to use Youning to hide your relationship?”
Then to Lu Yao, “I’ll call your father and sister tomorrow, and we can start making arrangements.”
And Youning, that lying, conniving, ridiculous woman, goes, “That’s right! That’s why Chusheng-ge has been paying me for my assistance in clothes and accessories, Dad.”
It seems that Bai Qili has gotten it all wrong, and Youning is having the time of her life making this mess worse, because he and Chusheng, they aren’t together!
Well... that’s not to say that Lu Yao hasn’t considered it, or stayed up in bed on sleepless nights worrying if he would ruin his friendship with Chusheng if he confessed. As soon as the fear and doubt comes, however, Lu Yao thinks back on all the things that Chusheng has done for him. The way Chusheng looks at him, the way he talks to him in that gentle, indulgent tone.
He must like him somewhat... right?
If it wasn’t for the words unspoken between them, Lu Yao would believe that every meal they had, every movie they went to, every walk they took together.. those were dates, but Chusheng hasn’t said anything.
The uncertainty has put them both at a stalemate of sorts, their relationship intimate but not official. They haven’t even once confessed to each other, and despite everything, Lu Yao cannot get rid of that niggling fear in his heart, that Chusheng is only being nice because they are the closest xiongdi ever, that Chusheng still wants to marry a woman like Tong Li...
“We’re... we’re not,” swallows Lu Yao, looking up. “Lao ye-zi, we aren’t-”
“Mnn,” Chusheng cuts in suddenly after clearing his throat loudly once, and Lu Yao feels his whole body go cold. “Let’s do that, Lao ye-zi. We should also discuss the betrothal gift with the Lu family.”
Gaping at Chusheng in shock, Lu Yao’s throat entirely dry, he croaks, “What-”
Chusheng is smiling at him, but it is the sight of that faint red blush on his cheeks that gives him away, that convinces Lu Yao that this man is serious and not making a cruel joke at his expense.
“You haven’t even-” Lu Yao protests weakly, “You didn’t even... also, why are you the one giving the betrothal gift?!”
“Do you want to give me the betrothal gift then?” asks Chusheng, leaning close. “I don’t mind. What’s mine ends up becoming yours anyway, so after the betrothal gift comes in, I’ll hand it all over to you. Was that your plan? Smart, my San Tu.”
Youning’s snickers are deafening on the side, while Bai Qili’s acceptance and approval is blinding.
“... no one is marrying anyone until we go on a date!” Lu Yao finally exclaims in an outburst.
His flailing hand is caught by Chusheng, and that’s when it finally sinks in. Chusheng is not joking. Chusheng is holding his hand in front of Bai Qili.
Chusheng wants to marry him.
“Anything you want,” Chusheng says.
---
All over a plate of jianbing guys!
*xiongdi - brother
*lao ye-zi - title to refer to the master of the house, usually an older person
*jianbing - chinese crepes!
*betrothal gift or pinli/caili - the guy is usually supposed to pay a ‘bride price’ when marrying his bride, and the money in some cases is provided by the guy’s family. in this case, if lu yao’s dad pays the bai family the ‘bride price’ for chusheng the ‘bride’, the money would probably end up going back into lu yao’s pockets anyway at the end of the day, which is a steal for him XD
---
~ from this list of prompts! ~
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Rewatching GG 2.0!
And now, to episode 4
Why didn't the school board suspect it must be the other teachers keeping gossip girl? I mean, kinda obvious
The way Audrey and Aki worried about Max and tried to reach him during the whole week even after he revealed their secrets to each other...
Julien is good at improvisation
Don't Monet and Luna ever get tired of carrying the show on their backs with every word they say
They are even funnier rewatching
WAIT WAIT WAIT I RECOGNIZE THESE BAGS
THEY USED AN OLD SCENE FOR THE NEW TRAILER
THIS WAS IN THE NEW TRAILER!!!
I freakin' love Lola Morgan
The more I watch the more I am convinced that the shy and kind Aki that most people see it's totally not what he acts like and deep down he's just like every other character
"girl" "girl" "girl" Oh Obie
Julien's face lol
Is it just me or did Julien do a full 180° between the first (or first couple) episodes and the rest?
She's definitely growing on me anyway so
Not the point but God it has been so long since I last ate a waffle or a crepe Obie dude why must you tempt me like this
The way Obie knew Julien probably her entire life and dated her for who knows how many years but still didn't knew what the day meant
"Clack, ding. Clack, ding."
"Is that why you asked me if second cousins was incest? It isn't. I hope." Okay I might strongly dislike Jordan but he's funny sometimes
Kate prioritizing GG over her actual work... Bro
Luna is cute when she's lying
Again, Audrey and Aki caring for Max after promising their best friends they would stay away from him
"Who are you calling?" *Clearly Max's voice* "My mom"
Their "bye" was cute
Okay it's a fact I love hallway scenes
"Handful of our friends" you have absolutely no common friends??? She literally has no friends
"You want me to murder my sister?"
I just wish Julien and Zoya weren't being kept apart by basically everyone they know
Okay this episode is funny
Obie's "I don't think this is about a party" face
Like, why was he smiling?
Obie is fully willing to spend money on Zoya when it's him controlling what she wastes it on
Milo Sparks! Can't believe this is the same baby Georgina pretended was Dan's son and then ditched one day to go on a beach trip making Dan think she had left him for good
Eight grade is 10 yo in USA? In Brazil it's 13-14 yo
Georgina raised him right... by her standards at least
God I wish I could punch Rafa in the face now that I know it was all a game to him
Why is Kate so cheerful
Okay but I really want to see Zoya keep the outsider tradition and take over GG, or at least become aware of who it is
Georgina's wall having a giant picture of Blair Waldorf is still absolutely perfect
Audrey's smile looking at the options notebook <3 if I knew how to screenshot things on my computer I'd add the pics
Obie whose side are you on?
Idk why but I just hate how he tells Zoya who she is sm
Family reunion! Love the drama in those
For two people who hate each other Davis and Nick do not seem to hate each other at all
I want Zoya and Julien to be friends but I also love their fights aaaaa yes I regret saying they will never be the new Blerena bc while they really won't be they might be good frenemies after all
Zoya dong that hand thing synchronized to the music... Love it
Why is Keller yelling like girlie I know this is the magic of teen shows but people should be able to hear you
Why is Kate so obsessed with like a 17 yo?
Aki's face lmao
Another scene I have memorized ✌️
Milo being in no one's side, every scene makes me see just how much Georgina must be proud
Shhsjsjs I cannot listen to a word Obie says
I literally cannot watch this scene
Let me just put this on 3.0 speed so it's bearable
I still don't get why in hell did Lunet think showing the director's cut would be a good idea for anyone involved
Here comes my comfort Aki × Audrey scene <3
I really hope they never have a real fight, no matter whether or not they end up together
"For you to get your shit together before I find someone else to care about" just realized what he meant by this
Fck Bella!
Zoya crying breaks my heart
Friends!!!
Can't believe I didn't notice Julien still liked Obie
The exact moment I started to really loathe Rafa, again!
Time for second comfort Aki × Audrey scene
Calloways and Lotts bonding, love it
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Do Androids Enjoy Paris? (An Ash x Reader Insert Fic, Rated T)
It’s decades later when you find him. He’s in surprisingly good shape for being almost 50 years old. When you run a diagnostics check on him days later, you’re almost touched to see how well he was taken care of. Yearly upgrades and tune-ups, expanded memory chip, barely any wear or tear on the joints or internal wiring. He could be a museum piece, he was so well kept. And now he was yours.
So what does one do when they’re suddenly gifted with an android copy of an unknown dead man?
Take him to see the world.
When you bought the house from Kate’s mom, you didn’t really understand what the Ash Clause referred to. According to the contract, you just had to maintain the Ash model for the length of ownership. When you asked your friend what Ash was, she chuckled and shook her head.
“Oh wow, I haven’t thought about him in years. He’s like this weird robot my grandma had. I think I saw him once. He was kind of like a memory bank, I think he would do some cleaning.” She said and you shrugged. You could take care of a sentient vacuum.
But when you finally get to the little house, you don’t see any robot. You find a vacuum, covered in dust, but very little else. It isn’t until your third night that you meet Ash.
You’re in bed, trying to fall asleep. You’re not used to the countryside and you had been staring at your phone right before trying to sleep, which you know is bad. You’re in that hazy almost dreaming phase when you hear a thud from above. You freeze in your bed, suddenly terrified that a monster is going to come crashing through the roof and eat you.
Instead, you hear the sound of a chair being pushed across the floor above you. There’s nothing above you but the roof, you’re on the second floor. The house is just two floors and an attic. Your stomach drops and you let out a shaky breath. There’s someone in the attic.
Grabbing your phone and a frying pan from the kitchen, you carefully pull down the steps to the attic. All the noise stops and you preemptively dial 999 in case there’s a murderer up there and you need to call the police. Your finger hovers over the button as light floods down over you.
The attic is small but decorated with furniture. There’s a plush rug under your toes and a nice coffee table with soft squishy looking chairs around it. There’s a computer plugged in and a rack of clothes. Does someone live up here? Did Kate forget to tell you about a renter?
You hear a throat clear and you whirl around, holding your frying pan out like a weapon. The person you see isn’t scary, he isn’t holding a gun or anything, but you still scream in surprise.
“No please, don’t scream. I’m not dangerous I promise!” He assures you, stepping forward as you leap back. You fall into one of the armchairs and it knocks the breath out of you.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m Ash. Didn’t Kate or Indira tell you about me? I know you bought the house.” He says, kneeling in front of you to perhaps seem less threatening. It worked a little and you slowly felt your heart return to a normal rhythm.
“They just told me I had to maintain an Ash model. I was expecting a cleaning robot, not a person!” You shoot back, once you find your voice. You haven’t lowered your frying pan. At that, Ash ducks his head bashfully. He doesn’t flush or turn red though, like a person would. He also hasn’t blinked since you noticed him.
“That’s me. I’m the Ash model. I’m an android technically though. This is where I stay.” He says with a note of resigned acceptance, sweeping his arm out over his humble abode.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Why are you up here? Why do I have to take care of you? You look kind of familiar, have we met before?” You ask, ignoring his identity for a moment, as he sits down on the couch across from you. Despite it being 2 in the morning, he dressed like he’s going to work. He’s wearing dark slacks with a blue button down shirt; he’s even got shoes on!
“It’s a bit of a long story.” Ash says and he explains it all to you. As the time passes, you listen as Ash reveals family secret after family secret. You find yourself staring at the pulled skin of Ash’s knuckles or the way the light shines across his multi-shaded hair. He’s a feat of engineering, that was for sure. Androids weren’t super rare in society, though they were uncommon. Androids took the place of people when it involved inhospitable environments or testing reactions to new drugs. Androids couldn’t feel pain but they could mimic the human body’s reaction. They were essential in the field of science and medicine. Which made it all the stranger that Kate’s grandma just had one.
It’s a sad story to be sure. Losing a loved one is never easy and grief can make people do crazy things. Now you know why Ash’s face looks vaguely familiar to you. You’ve seen his face in an old wedding photo of Kate’s grandparents. But then the passage of time actually sinks in. Kate, like you, is in her late 20s. Martha was her grandma! Ash has been up here for decades, sitting alone and getting sent to a facility once a year for upgrades. Martha’s been dead for 5 years now and the house has been empty. Kate mentioned that she hadn’t seen Ash since she was a little kid.
“So you’ve just been alone for all this time? Hasn’t anyone visited you?” You ask, incredulously. Mrs. Portman was his daughter! Well, sort of, not really.
“Yes. Indira comes to visit sometimes, usually when I have to get upgraded. We talk and she has tea and it’s very nice. But other than that, no. She stopped seeing me on weekends when she left for school. I assumed she was busy living her own life. After that Martha stopped coming up as well. I think it bothered her that she was aging and I wasn’t. I never minded though, I don’t care about that sort of thing. Do you want tea?” The change of subject does little to distract you. All you can think of is the clause in your lease contract.
“You realize that I own the house now, I bought it from Mrs. Portman. You were part of the contract I signed. I’m supposed to take care of you. I own you. Doesn’t that bother you? You’re being passed down like a family heirloom!” You point out, shaking your head as Ash offers you tea. You don’t think he can drink it and it seems rude to use up his supply.
“Why should it? Martha wanted to take care of me. I have a nice life up here. I have the internet and I get to see people sometimes. There’s not much I need.” He says simply and your heart breaks for him.
“But Martha’s dead! She’s dead and you’re still here! Don’t you see how cruel that is? She’s allowed to die and be at peace and, depending on your belief system, finally be with her Ash. But instead of shutting you down, she’s kept you running. There’s no reason. It’s not like Mrs. Portman has really interacted with you in years. So why are you still running? Don’t you deserve some peace?”
Ash pauses and looks at you. It’s strange, but he seems almost sad. AI technology has come a long way, but his ability to mimic sadness is honestly amazing.
“Martha’s dead?” His voice sounds hollow and you get up and join him on the couch.
“Yes, she died five years ago. You weren’t told?” You reach over and grab his hand. It’s cool to the touch but very soft. It feels like skin, though you know it’s synthetic. He feels human.
“No, I wasn’t told. I always assumed that when she died, I’d either go live with Indira or I’d be shut down. I didn’t think she’d keep me running with no purpose.” He sighs and his chest doesn’t move.
“Maybe she couldn’t bear the thought of you dying. Maybe she thought Indira would want you in her life. I don’t know. But what I do know is that we’re here and we’re together now. I signed that contract and I’m going to take care of you. But you get to decide what that means. If you want to stay up here and be left alone, I can do that. But if you want to be shut down, I understand and I can do that too.” You promise and he looks at you. His eyes are beautiful and wet, hazy blue and light green mixed together and piercing into your soul. You’re in awe of how his eyes bore into you.
“I don’t know what I want. I’ve been up here so long. I was only made for a few things. I don’t have wants or needs besides basic maintenance.” He says shakily.
“Well, now’s the time to figure it out.” You whisper in the quiet of the attic. The smile he gives you is blinding in it’s sincerity and joy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You go to Paris first, walking along the Seine in the summer. You show Ash all the artwork he’s only ever seen through a screen, watch him embrace the human condition as he marvels at a Monet and shakes his head at a Picasso. He doesn’t tan like you do but after giving a little boy back his ball by the Carrousel du Louvre, he has a riot of freckles across his shoulders that match the toddler’s.
He does that a lot; change his appearance as he meets people. He has a mole on his clavicle that disappears occasionally. He can’t seem to decide if he wants it or not. You don’t care either way, you tell him he’s beautiful at least once an hour. He responds back in kind and while someone else would take that as a lie; he’s an android so what could he know about human beauty, you beam at the words. You figure he’s probably objective so the small words are taken as the compliment they’re intended to be.
The only weird parts are when you need to eat and sleep. It’s strange at first to go to a cafe and eat in front of him. He always tastes things but he never swallows, politely spitting it out in his napkin. He doesn’t have taste buds, he can’t enjoy the bouquet of flavors you bring to his lips every breakfast, lunch, or dinner; but despite that he always asks to try. You can see how desperately he wants to be human so you humor him and let him try your crepes.
He doesn’t sleep, though he will lay down in bed with you. He makes no sounds and only mimics breathing to keep you from feeling uncomfortable. Eventually you ask him to stop. You’ve always hated noise when you’re trying to sleep and it’s nice to be held by something that doesn’t snore in your ear or drool on you.
“I can if you want me to.” Ash teases one morning and you throw a pillow at him. His laugh sounds like triumph.
You’re walking along the Pont des Arts, Notre Dame in the distance and vanilla ice cream in your hand. The stroll is leisurely and even, Ash swinging your hands as you tread across the wooden boards. You’re going to Italy next and then maybe Spain. He’s decided he wants to see the world and you’re only too happy to show him.
He stops and rests his arm on the railing, the wind ruffling his hair back. You lay your head on his shoulder which is warm through his linen shirt.
“Would you want to have sex?” He asks suddenly and you almost drop your ice cream in the river. You pull back to look at him, your face pink.
“I just know that when couples travel together they usually have sex. I can have sex, I have the equipment for it. I’ve done it before.” He says and his tone is so casual and even. In perhaps an ironic twist, you’re the one who feels like they’re short circuiting. You eat some ice cream while you try to come up with an answer.
“Ash, I think you’re so handsome and I love the time we spend together. I enjoy sleeping next to you in bed and holding your hand. But sex isn’t the same as that. Kissing isn’t the same as that. I would love to kiss you and have sex and make this relationship more physical but I want that for the right reasons. I want to have sex with you because you want to, not because you think we should. Not because studies show couples have sex on holiday or because you did it before.” You counter, squeezing his hands.
“It’s hard for me to want things. I don’t think the way you do.” He reminds you. You give him a soft smile and step back to throw away your ice cream. Your hand is cold against his cheek but he doesn’t react. Not the way a human would.
“I know Ash and that’s okay. I don’t mind if our relationship never turns physical, if it doesn’t look like other relationships. I enjoy spending time with you and I care about you. It’s okay to not want something.” You assure him but instead of looking relieved, he looks angry.
“But I should! I want to want things the way you do, the way normal people do! I watch everyone go through life, experiencing the world and they feel things. I don’t feel things and it’s not fair!” He yells. People walking by look at you but you don’t pay them any attention.
“But you do feel things, I know you do. You don’t like the BeeGees. You prefer wearing blue over any other color. When we went to the museum, you said you liked Monet over Manet. Those are opinions, those are feelings. Sure, they might not work the same way mine do, but human beings are all so different. We all see the world in different ways and I’m sure there’s someone out there who thinks the way you do. You may not be able to eat the food you try, but you still want to try it. That’s feelings.” You say before leaning forward and kissing him softly.
His lips are soft and dry and if you close your eyes, which you do, it’s like kissing a real person. You pull back and notice his eyes are closed as well. Your heart thumps against your ribcage.
“I don’t need to kiss or have sex to function properly. But that was nice. It was soft and it made you happy. Seeing you happy makes me happy. I know that sex is something couples do to show their affection and I want to do that for you. I want to make you happy in that way. I want to kiss you and have sex and be like a normal couple.” He says definitely, pulling you into a hug. He’s very good at hugs but you make a mental note to have him look up asexuality when this is done. It’s not a perfect comparison but it might help him feel better.
“Okay Ash, when we get back to the hotel, we’ll have sex. But until then, let’s just explore. Want to see Notre Dame today?” You agree, your hand sliding down his forearm to mesh between his fingers. This time he leans down and kisses you. It’s still a little stiff but you’ll teach him. He wants to learn. Pulling away, continue your walk down the bridge and onto the street.
“Yes, I would like that.” He smiles, and you fall in love.
Tagging @babbushka because she asked so nicely lol.
#be right back#do androids enjoy paris#black mirror#self insert fanfiction#reader insert fanfiction#ash starmer#ash starmer x reader#ash x reader#this is just a weird oneshot that wouldn't leave me alone#i just think the idea of ash staying in that attic is so sad#he deserves to see the world#domhnall gleeson#black mirror fanfiction#not beta'd#this is obscure and i dont think anyone will read it#but i wanted to put it out#my writing
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lowkey
genre: angst, romance, enemies to lovers! au, secret lovers! au
BASED ON A BOOK! “ Letters to the Lost” by Brigid Kemmerer
warnings: typos,mentions of death, car accident, cursing, smoking
words count: 8k.
song: lowkey by Niki
requested by: @deniiiloves
“Me too.”
Everythings was shaking.The words, the sheet of paper you were holding was shaking,your hands.Your eyes burned in the sight of the foreign handwritting.You closed them tightly and tried to take a deep breath.
Someone read your letter.
It’s been two days since you last came here on the cemetry.The letter should have been taken by the wind or animals.But now it is in your hands once again and not only this but someone felt the need to put on a comment.This was unacceptable.This was private.Between you and your mother.
It was a boy.You were absolutely sure.There were greasy fingertips on the edges and the handwritting was ugly.It radiated arrogance.How could he even think about it. To insert himself out of nowhere into your grief and to have the guts to claim that he knows how it feels. He does not. He doesn’t even have the slightest idea what kind of pain this is.
You showed up late for school, with reddened,running make up and shuddering breath.Again.It was late September, months after your mother’s death but your desparate tries to get yourself together weren’t so successful. After school you went there again.After all you weren’t in the mood for homework nor to go at home and lock yourself in your room.There was something different this time.You feel colder than usual.You feel exposed,too vulnerable.Every single thing you want to say could be seen,read,judged.So this time instead writting to her, you wrote to him.
‘‘Privacy is an illusion.
Obviously you know this,since you read my letter.It wasn’t addressed to you.It wasn’t for you.It had nothing to do with you.It was between me and my mother.
I know she is dead.I know she can’t read the letters.I know there is very little I can do to feel close to here anymore.
Now I don’t even have this.
Do you understand what you’ve taken from me?Do you even have an idea? What you wrote implies that you undestand what agony is.
I do not think you do’‘
This was the first weekend you didn’t go to the cemetry.But you are glad you did this morning because you found a letter.
“What is this?” asked Mina.
“A letter.”
She said no more because she ptobably thought it was for my mother.I let her think that.
“I don’t think you understand agony yourself.If you did, you wouldn’t have interfered with me.
Did you ever think that my words weren’t meant for you to read,either?
Are you getting crazier than you already think you are? When you read the letter for the first time this morning instead of crying, you found yourself getting angry and you wanted to punch this damn loser in the face.The silence was making you even more furious because it only caused you to overthink even more.
The bell rang.You needed to move, you didn’t want another detention.Mina escorted you to your class not asking why you suddenly looked worse than normal, which you deeply appreciated.Of course during classes you were just physically attenting.Nothing really sparked your interest anymore, you notes were messy and you didn’t even feel bad.After the teacher dissmised the class you wanted to exit the classroom as fast as you can and so you did.
You felt a sharp burn and let out a cry as the hot liquid makes contacted your skin and clothes.A cup of coffee has exploaded over you and unconsciously you fell on something solid and you see scuffed black boots.
Lee Donghyuck, with his shirt and jacket were soaked also with coffee,was “shinning” in front of you.The star quarterback that had got a criminal record and a frequent seat in detention.He’s tall,amazingly handsome but mean enought to keep all the girls away, and not only.He was simultaneously trying to help you up and pull you away from him.He looks at you with face with absolute derision and with his rough voice half whispers.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
You are definetely not afraid of him,who does he think he is?
“You ran into me”
“I wasn’t the one running” he takes a sharp move forward which causes a great intensity humiliating and horrible.
Okay, maybe you were afraid of him, a little.
“Lee Donghyuck.Late.Again” Mrs.Kim,my freshman biology teacher.
“I wasn’t late.She ran into me”
Mrs.Kim pursed her lips, looked at us,probably notice the coffee stains and sighed.
“No food is allowed outside the cafeteria-“
“Coffee isn’t food” interrupted Donghyuck.
“Mr.Lee I believe you know the way to the principal’s office”
“Yeah, I could draw you a map.” his voice sharpened and you start wondering if he is going to hit the teacher.” But as I sad this is not my fault”
Then he left the conversation,throwing the paper cup into the trash can.
———————————•••———————————
“You are right.
I shouldn’t have interfered with your grief.I’m sorry.This doesn’t mean you are right to read my letter and I still kind of hate you for that.I have been thinking about your “me too” and what it meant and whether your pain is anything like mine.
Not that it is any of my business.”
———————————•••———————————
It was Sunday afternoon and you were sitting in the sunlight for two hours.It’s a popular day at the cemetry and you’ve been watching mourners come and go all after noon while re-reading your answer.
“I’d say you are kind of dark but I’m writting to a girl who leaves letters in a cemetry, so I guess that’s given.
You said you were wondering if my pain was like yours and honestly I dont’t know.
You lost your mother and I haven’t lost mine.Don’t you think it’s funny how people say “lost” as if they are just misplaced?
My sister died four years ago.My father killed her.She was ten. People assume we spent her last days in a hospital surrounded by doctors but we didn’t even know they were her last days.
Cancer didn’t kill her.My father did.And I could have stopped it, but I didn’t.
My dad is in prison now, and my mum is married to a dumbass.’’
I’ve read the letter seventeen times and I read it one more.
“Me too”
He’s lost his sister. Four years ago. She was ten so now she’d be fourteen. Is the Letter Guy an older brother- or a younger one? Your conversations were too mature there is no way you were writting to a twelve-year-old.Just no way.
———————————•••———————————
“I’ve started a 35 notes to you and they all start with “I’m 17” and no more.
I sound like an idiot.I just don’t wanna loose it . I don’t even know you but I understand you.
And I feel like you understand me. And that’s what I like so much about it.”
I couldn’t believe I actually did write this.But what I couldn’t believe more was the response.
“I don’t wanna loose it either. But maybe we could take it digital, so we are not at the mercy of the elements?
I set up an anonymous accont
thedark@freemail.com
your move,Cemetry girl.”
Wow.
The moring breeze qas chilly, and it ruffled the paper.You read it again.
Wow.Wow. Suddenly you needed to move. You kissed your palm and slapped it to the gravestone.
“Sorry Mom,gotta go.”
From: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
To: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
Date: Wednesday,October 2 ; 7:17 AM
Subject: Going digital
The Dark? Don’t you think that’s kind of ghoulish?
———————————•••———————————
Mina was waiting for me while I was hopelessly seaching for one book of mine and that’s when I overheard the conversation of two girls next me.
“Do you know him?”
“Lee Donghyuck.Duh, who doesn’t?
“Is it true that he stole a car?”
“Yeah and not only he stole it but he ran it into an office building”
I did not heard the last asnwer and I honetly didn’t really have a choise because Hendery, a friend of Mina approached us.
“How are you girls doing?”
“We are fine, what about you?” Mina asked, while trying to hide her huge smile, failing miserably.
“Never been better.So...” he put his hands on his waist and gave me and Mina a glance “Are you two going to the homecoming tomorrow?”
Mina nudged me with her hip feeling my uncomfortable state.
“It doesn’t have to be a date. Just hanging out”
A dance? Now? Maybe it wasn’t that bad idea i neee some distraction.
“Sure”
“Really?” the both look at me,not believing what they heard. Honestly I didn’t beleive it either.
“Yeah,of course”
———————————•••———————————
From: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
To: Cemetery Girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
Date: Wednesday,October 2 ; 8:16 AM
Subject: Ghoulish
We met by exchanging letter in a cemetry so I don’t think either of us is in position to call the other ghoulish.
Are you going to the Homecoming? I am. I know you probably don’t feel doing such a thing but I think that you deserve to feel something else beside grief, you deserve to have the normal life of a teenager.
You felt yourself blushing. He cared about you. And he was right, you felt guilty going to the Homecoming When you told your father that you were going, he looked like he was having a stroke and then he handed you his credit card and told you to get whatever you wanted. He seemed releived that you started opening up but you felt almost as if you are faking it.
———————————•••———————————
A blue-silver party factory exploaded in the school gym.Ballon bouquets hang everywhere,along with crepe-paper rosettes and streamers crisscrosedin every direction. It is so cheesy but secretly you really liked the way the tiny mirrors throw spots of light around the darkned gymnasium.
You haven’t seen Hendery yet, instead you were clinging to Mina. Then your eyes rake over the crowd. The Dark is here and he could be anyone.
“Are you looking for Hendery?” Mina leaned in close.
Not at all.
“Yes.Have you seen him yet?”
“No.Let’s go over by the food tables so he can find us.”
/ Wonder what I'll do when the cops come through/
Along the black wall,six long tables that have been set up were filled up various kind of snacks and bottled water. You picked up a cup of a punch and lifted it up to your lips,prepared to scan the crowd again. But you choke on the drink and almost cough it all over Donghyuck. I didn’t really expect him to comply with the dress code of the Homecoming, but he did. He was wearing a white shirt,khaki trousers, and blue-and-green-stripped tie. You did your best to get your heart rate under control.
“Stalker much?”
“Yeah” he says with his voice rough low and full of sarcasm. “ I’m stalking you at the food table” He moved to get past you.
“Looking to spike the punch?”
/ And the whiskey's run out/
That was a mistake and you realize it as soon as the words leave your mouth. You shoudn’t have said anything. Donghyuck looks like a dog ready to bite. With eyes made of ice he looked at you.
“No.” Then he moved past you again and walked away. You saw him how he gave a bottle of water to somebody, but it took you a moment to make out who it was.
It was Mark Lee, Donghyuck’s best and probably one friend. It was the first time for you to see him not wearing a hoodie and he is actually a very decent-looking guy.
‘‘ You guys look NICE” Hendery appeared all of a sudden.
“So do you” said Mina.
You spent some time trying to dance with Mina and Hendery but eventually you got tired and you didn’t wanted to ruin the fun the other two were having.
‘‘ I’m thirsty” you excused yourself.
You stepped off the dance floor and moved to the bleachers. There was a gap in the riser there,backed by the emergency doors.The lights didn’t reach there. You almost felt as if you are in a cave, all by yourself.
“ I don’t want to scare you” said a soft voice behind you and someone moved from the shadows. It was Mark Lee.
“It’s okay”.
Mark smiled softly at you and then you thought about it. If you had to compare Mark and Donghyuck, they’d be like white and black or day and night. You and Mark talked how was the night going and then you aked him if he had a date.
‘’ I don’t really date, I’m more like wingman’’ then he looked at the darkness behind him.
‘‘For who?’‘
‘‘No, for Hyuck.He’s outside,grabbing a cigarette.’‘
Then you heard steps.Donghyck freezed when he saw you and his eyes iced over again.
‘‘Stalker much?’‘
‘‘Hasn’t anyone ever told you that smoking will kill you?’‘ you told your cheeks not flush.
‘‘You are kidding. They should write that on the package.’‘
‘‘How can you be so mean?”
He’s closer suddenly you could smell his cigarette-stinking breath.
‘‘You know nothing about me”
You speak with thinking as fast as he takes one step back.
‘‘ I know you are a loser with a record.’‘
And here we go again. The guilt. How could he make you feel so guilty? You looked up and saw Donghyuck’s colder than normal. He made a sign to Mark and they both turned back to going back to the party. You ran after them, not sure why, and you shouted at them to stop, no of them actually doing so.
“What?” a sharp turn was made by Hyuck.
The apology was burning inside you throat but never came out.
“ I think it’s time for you to go back to the dancing floor, princess. Wouldn’t want anyone to catch you slumming with the losers?”
This felt like a slap. Everything tonight was a mistake, You shouldn’t have come here in first place.
———————————•••———————————
From: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
To: Cemetery Girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
Date: Friday,October 4 ; 10:04 PM
Subject: You owe me,Cemetry girl
I hope you are having better night than I am.
The cemetry is well of silence. It was dark but you could find the way to your mother’s gravestone even if you were blind.There was nothing really to do there especially this late.You just sat, thinking you could handle the very chilly weather but the more time was passing the colder you felt.
You are not completely sure how to answer The Dark’s email but eventually you started typing but you stopped as some raindrops landed on your screen.Cold pours down from the darkness. You ran towards the car, shivering and then you put the key ready to go home.
And then the car won’t start.
What.The.Hell
Beat this, The Dark.
You breath shuddered. You flipped every dial you saw, killing everything.Then you inserted the key and gave the ignition a try again.
The car gives a pathetic rum-rum-rum sound but then flares to life.Victory! You kept both your hands on the wheel and peer into the darkness But a loud clunk sounded from beneath the car then the vehicle lurched sideways and began to spin.All you could see was darkness.
Help me, Mom.
It took you a while to unwrap your fingers from the steering wheel and then you noticed that your entire left tire is gone. You tried calling your dad.Three times but he doesn’t pick up. Then you called Mina.Straight to voice mail. You had no choise so you clicked the mailing app and told everything The Dark about you night.
He replies almost immediately trough chat.
The Dark: Are you OK? Cemetery Girl: That depends how broadly you are defining OK.
The Dark: Seriously. Please tell me you are not standing on the side of the road.
Cemetery Girl: I am in the car and the doors are locked.
The Dark: I am still in school. Do you want help?I can come to you.
Oh my God.
You didn’t know how to answer on such a thing. Did you want to see him? Defenetly. But you really liked is as it was.Anonymous. But you were desparate and stuck of the middle of nowhere.
Cemetery Girl: Yes.Please come and help me.
———————————•••———————————
Inbox: No new updates.
It’s been almost twenty minutes since you last messaged him. Where is he? Did he saw you from far and got disappointed ? You were already overthing what could have happened. The headlights had gone dim for minutes ago, which must be a sign the battery is getting ready to give up. Before you realise you were sobbing in your hands.You don’t stop the tears.
Knuckles rapped on your window. You gasped and jerked your hands down.There was a guy beside your car.
He’s here! Oh,he’s here! Thanks, God.
But then your vison started to clear. It’s not The Dark. It’s Lee Donghyuck.
/ 'Cause I've been lookin' at you since half past two/
‘‘Are you broken down?” he said loudly.
‘‘No, I’m fine.” you yelled back.
He didn’t particularly believed you.
‘‘Did your tire blow out? I saw the rubber on the road’.‘
‘‘I’ve already called s-someone.And he should be here any m-minute.”
‘‘So you don’t want my help?’‘ his eyes went darker.
‘‘No, I’m fine’‘ you suck a shaky breath through your teeth.
He looked up at you,standing there in the rain.
‘‘Suit yourself’‘ he swang your door and turned away.
You had two options. to sit there all night,shaking and freezing OR asking Donghyuck for help.
Damn it.
‘‘Wait!’‘
He turned to you and just stared.
‘‘Is your battery dead?” he said after a minute.
‘‘Yes, I haven’t replaced for a long time.’’
‘‘Shoking.’‘he jerked his head towards the car.’‘ Come and sit in my car, so you can warm up.’’
And so you did.
You expected his car to smell like cigarettes and to be some kind of miserable but it’s totally the opposite. It’s clean and smelled nice and it was kind of cosy? He slided into the driver’s seat and started the engine and than you let your your body welcome the warm feeling. You both sit in silence for the longest time untill he spoke up.
“Are you afraid of me?” for the first time his eyes weren’t as cold as ice , instead they were soft and unexpectidly beautiful. You just stood up there, thinking of possible answer.
“If I say yes, are you going to use it against me?”
“No” his voice was even.
“Then yes,a little.’’
/ Wanna take this downtown?/
He didn’t say anything. Silence,again.
“What happened? Why are you wet and how long have you been waiting?”
“I still don’t know this whole time I was trying to figure out what’s going on.”
“From the look of your tires, you are luck it wasn’t all four.”
“You are kidding. I was so busy memorizing the latest copy of Car and Driver before showing up at the Homecoming!”
He looked amused.
“You are kinda funny when you are not so busy being judgmental.”
/ This liquid courage got me way too honest/
Everything about him was so unexpected. He’so prickly and then he’ll startle you with words that sound dangerously close to concern. You watch him in silence fixing somethings in your car and when he was ready he told you he’d follow you home so he is sure you were okay and you couldn’t even say “thank you” because he never stopped as you reached your house.
From: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
To: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
Date: Friday,October 4 ; 11:32 PM
Subject: Home
I wanted to let you know that I made it home safely. I hope you are okay.
By the morning the rain had moved out,leaving the temperature even colder.
From:The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
To: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
Date: Saturday,October 5 ; 01:06 AM
Subject: Tonight
I’m sorry I was late tonight, I had to drop a friend off first. He was flipping out about curfew. By the time I came to you, you were already gone. But if I’m honest, I’m glad we haven’t met yet.
———————————•••———————————
“Tell me again how he kissed you!” you said,smilling widly.” You must have left out some detail.”
Mina giggled and blushed. Then she started telling you the story again.
“Look. There is Hyuck’s weird friend.”
You followed her gaze and saw Mark, back in his hoodie. You hezitated for a moment but you went for it.
“Hi,Mark!”
He looked up in a surprise and almost seems to shrink into himself untill he located you,waving at him and his whole frame relaxes and he changes his course across the stree and up into Mina’s driveway.
“Hey.” he said.’’How’s your car?”
DongHyuck must’ve told him about yesterday.
‘‘It’s okay.My dad let me trade yard work for new tires and a battery.’‘
‘‘Your dad sounds like a nice guy.’‘ his eyebrows go up.
‘‘He is.’‘
‘‘ I’m glad you got you car taken care of. Hyuck said it was in pretty bad shape.’‘
‘‘It was...and tell him thanks.No one else stopped.’‘
Mark’s expression leaked out some tension but he nodded once.
‘‘I will.’‘
‘‘Come one Y/N’‘ said Mina.’‘We need to go inside for dinner.’‘
‘‘One sec,’‘ you said but when you turned Mark was on the sidewalk,moving away,heading home.
After Mina fell asleep you decided to write an email to The Dark to tell him about Lee Donghyuck because if he didn’t help you, you honestly did’t what could’ve happened.
———————————•••————————
During one of the breaks between the classes you were hanging out with Mina in the yard of the school.
“I have to go to the homeroom,” you said. “ I don’t need another detention.”
“Okay,see ya.”
You ended up in the path of Lee Donghyuck. You considered ducking away and losing yourself in the ocean of students, until you realised that he seemed to be considering the same thing.
“Hey.” you said.
“Hey.” His voice was quieter than you expected. You knew you were going to be late, but for a heartbeat, you didn’t want to move.
/ Be as quiet as you can, 'cause if anyone sees,they'll just blow shit up/
A breathless Mina caught your arm. “Y/N, what are you doing?” Her eyes flick dismissievely at Donghyuck. “I thought you didn’t want to be late.”
“Just a second.” you looked at her in a begging way and she let you arm free but when you turned Donghyuck was already gone.
It was absolutely killing you that you didn’t know who The Dark is. You could’ve just ask him who he is but you didn’t if you were ready for that. Maybe the mystery us part of what’s so attractive about him. Maybe you’d meet him and he’d be horrible.
He wouldn’t be. You just knew it. You found him fascinating.
———————————•••——————————
The parking lot is only half full by the time you left the building. The only cars left are students with sport or club obligations, of which you had none.
Oh, and Mark and Donghyuck.
There were standing behind Hyuck’s car ,leaning on the tailgate and Donghyuck has a cigarette between his lips. You didn’t really anticipate seeing them right now but you didn’t have a choise.
“Stalker much?” Donghyuck calls, but his voice isn’t cruel, he is teasing?
/ No one's gotta know, just us and the moon 'til the sun starts wakin up/
“You know you are not allowed to smoke on school property.” He took another drag and blowed smoke rings.
“You seem to be awfully concerned about my smoking habbit.”
“ I hate it. It’s disgusting.”
The words came out of your mouth before you really considered them. Donghyuck looked startled , and he tosses the cigarette on the ground and stoomped it out.
“Sorry I didn’t know.”
He could sprout wings and you’d have been less shocked right now.
“Thank you, I hate them too” Mark made a small clap.
“Stup up,Mark.By the way should we go?”
“Yeah,maybe”
“Where are you going?” you didn’t even know why you were asking them.
“ At my place,” said Mark.” Wanna come?”
‘‘Scared?’‘ taunted Hyuck,his eyes challenging.
‘‘Not at all,’You lied.’‘ Let’s go.’‘
———————————•••————————
Mark’s house was like a mirror image of Mina’s.Nothing about it is surprising.Mark said his mother would be working for the afternoon. She had a bright,welcoming smile,radiating so much warmth that I felt lucky to be invited inside. Then we went downstairs.
‘‘Do you want something to drink?”
You inhaled to asnwer- but your throat caught.Being in the pressence of a loving mother remended you of how much you’ve lost,Your brain locked up as a grief tangled up the gears inside your had.
You haven’t visited her for days.
Guilt punched you in the chest. It became worse when his mother same downstairs with a plate. You had to turn, inhaling deeply,bliking your tears away. Your body felt like it was on a hair trigger. You needed to get it together. You cannot have a panic attack when somebody asked you if you wanted a drink.
‘‘You are okay.’‘ You heard a voice beside you. Hyuck was there with his voice all soft that you’ve never heard of it. You blikned uo at him.
/ Wizard with words tellin' me my energy's so bewitchin' /
‘‘You are okay’‘ he said again.
You liked that, how he was so sure.Not Are you okay? No question about it.
‘‘How did you know?’‘ you slowly turned to face him.
He pursed his lips as if he was hesitating.
‘‘ I know...the signs.’‘
‘‘I’m going to get some sodas,’‘ said Mark.’‘ I’m going to bring you one.Blink once if that’s okay.’‘
You smiled, but it felt watery around the edges.He was teasing you, but it was a gentle teasing. Friendly. You blinked once.
This was okay. You were okay.Donghyuck was right.
‘‘Take it out on the punching bag’‘ said Hyuck after Mark went upstairs.
‘‘Really?’‘ your eyes went wide.
You weren’t a violent person.but hitting something sounded really good. You drew back a hand and swing,throwing your whole body into it.
Ow.
‘‘Whoa...,’‘ a hand caught your arm’‘ I don’t want to be sexist but I didn’t expect you throw a punch like that. For a moment I was worried you’d break your wrist.’‘
This whole moment with Hyuck was meaningful and you wanted to see more of that side of him.
/ So I'll go first, there's an open bar, let's close this distance /
Then his phone rang.
‘‘It’s my stepfather,’‘ he seemed hesitant to pick up.’‘ I don’t really get on well with him.’‘ But he did pick up.’‘ What happened?’‘ he seemed worried.’‘ I don’t care Alan,I’m coming.’‘
Mark was coming down the stairs when he saw his best friend leaving.
‘‘What happened?” asked Mark.
‘‘My mom collapsed while making dinner, I’m going to the hospital.’‘
Soon after Donghyuck left you excused myself and went back home.
———————————•••————————
From:The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
To: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
Date: Monday,October 7 ; 10:22 PM
Subject: Story Time
Marrige laws are funny. If you want to get married, you can go down to the courthous , sign a few papers,and be married in less than 15 minutes.But if you want to get divorces,you have to wait a year.Even if your husband is in prison. A dumb part thought Mom would wait Dad’s 10 years of sentence. To my know ledge she never visited him either, and I can understand her, he killed her child afterall.
After the first year my mum started dating. no one really lasted long until numer six.He tried to win me over and of course I didin’t let him and since then he hates me up to this day. How should I be grateful that yet another guy was swooping in to ruin my mother’s life?
Sometimes i wished I had died in the car with my sister. They got married last May. And now my mom is pregnant.
You were sitting in the dark,staring at his email and your heart is pounding like crazy. I sense that ‘’Congratulations’’ isn’t the right thing to say. You wanted to ask him more but he probably wan’t in the mood right now. Then something hit you. Donghyuck and The Dark were very similar. They both had stepfathers that they didn’t get along with shared an atittude. But if Donghyuck was The Dark why didn’t he tell you in the night of Homecoming? Also you’ve never heard Donghyuck mention a sister but then again, you haven’t mentioned your mother in front of him.
If The Dark is Donghyuck, is it a good thing? you could still hear the rasp in his voice. You are okay.
Then another thought tamped your heart down. If this isn’t Lee Donghyuck, what would that mean?
———————————•••———————————
From: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
To: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
Date: Tuesday,October 8 ; 6:24 PM
Subject: Mothers
My mom was always on assignment ,so we never really had the opportunity to have a ‘’girls talk’’ althought I could’ve emailed her. When I was younger she encouraged me to send her letters, Most of the times a letter with a lot of foreign stamps was the highlight of the week. But in my letters,sometimes I lied.Her letters were full of grand advantures and she had photographs to prove every single one of them. ‘’Ian is sending me to Malaysia this week’’ or ‘’I’m going to be a few more days in Iran, Ian wants me to get some shots of those protests.’’ Ian is her editor. So I’d lie, like I’d tell her a photo of mine got and award from the city council and thinhs like this.Anything that could grab her attention. But know all of this was meaningless. I wish I’d just told her the truth. And now I lost her. So talk to your mother and tell her how you feel.
———————————•••———————————
Mina had to skip lunch becuase of her french teacher and you went to Donghyuck and Mark’s table.
‘‘Would you like to join us?’asked Donghyuck.
‘‘I will, thanks.’‘ you sat next to Mark.’’ Woah,Mark what’s all this?’’
‘‘Mom’s obsession.She always packs up enought to feed an army.Here,help yourself’‘ he pushed a small plastic (sorry!) plate to you,full of caprese salad.
You felt Donghyuck’s heave glare on you.
‘‘How’s your mother?’‘
‘‘She’s coming home this afternoon and what they are telling me is that it was just a dehydration.’‘
‘‘So you are seeing her today?’‘
“‘Maybe, I have a community service on Tuesday nights?’‘
Oh, you were curious.
‘‘What’s it like?’‘
‘‘I ride a lawn mover.’‘
‘‘And how long do you have to do it?’‘
‘‘Probably forever”
“90 hours’‘ corrected him Mark.
‘‘Is it okay if I ask you if they put you in jail for you know?’‘ you asked hesitantly.
‘‘Yes.’‘
‘‘Was it scary?’‘
‘‘Yes. I was there two nights.’‘
‘‘Your mom left you there?” your eyebrows went up.
‘‘Yes, maybe Alone made her. No one really bothered to get me out but whatever?’‘
You felt some tension in the air.
‘‘Can I say something?’‘ Mark spoke ,visibly trying to surpress feelings.’‘ Hyuck do even hear yourself sometimes? No one bothered to get you out? I would have gotten you out, my mum but you deicded to stay in a jail cell and pity yourself,calling no one,acting like a martyr.’‘
Hyuck’s hands tightened on the edge of the table.’’What’s your problem?”
‘‘You made choises to be there,so stop acting like such a damn victim.May twenty-fifth was one day.There are three hundred sixty-four ones.”“
‘‘I am the victim?” Hyuck looked like a thunder.’‘Who’s the one hiding in hoodies when it’s eighty degrees outside?’‘
I am frozen in place,my mind repeating that one sentence,my heart tripping along.It takes my a moment to get my voice to speak up but you achieved to whisper.
“What’s May twenty-fifth?’‘ you demanded.
‘‘The day I wrecked my father’s truck’‘ Donghyuck swalloed.
‘‘The day you got drunk? The day you crashed into a building? The day you barely remember?’‘ You were screaming,yet you couldn’t catch your breath. He doesn’t utter a word. The room started spinning. A hand cathes my my arm ‘‘ Y/N, Y/N’‘ a familiar male voice is speaking to me but my vision is not working properly.
May 25. The day my mother died in a hot-and-run crash.
———————————•••———————————
From: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
To: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
Date: Tuesday,October 8 ; 3:28 PM
Subject: I need to know
Are you Lee Donghyuck? If you are, I don’t know if I can ever talk to you again.
———————————•••———————————
Your dad knocked on your door and you were so tempted to pretend you were sleeping but you call him to enter the bedroom.
‘‘Do you feel like company?’‘
No, you felt like crawling under you bed and sleeping there until you die.
‘‘No, Dad, I’m really tired.’‘
‘‘Okay then, I will tell them to leave.”
Them?
Your first thoughts are Hyuck and Mark and your heart skipped to quadruple time. ‘’Wait! Someone is here?’’
‘‘Yeah, Mina and some boy Henry...?
‘‘Hendery.Can you send them up?’’
‘‘Darn,we are coming in,’‘ Mina yelled from somewhere downstairs.’‘ You can ignore my calls, but you can’t ignore Nachos BellGrande.’‘
They showed up in your room,looking like they have just stepped out of a novel, an angel and a hipster sidekick. Your phone lit up suddenly.
The Dark: What happened are you okay? Cemetery Girl: I’m okay,Friends are over. Will write back latter.
‘‘So what was all this about?’‘ asked Mina.
You inhaled slowly.
‘‘Lee Donghyuck wrecked his car on the same night my mom was killed. That’s why I got so upset . I thought that maybe he can be involved because he was drunk and he blacked out.”
Mina stopped eating with a chip halfway to her mouth.
‘‘ I haven’‘t talked to anyone.I don’t know what to d-.’‘
‘‘Do you have a computer?’‘ asked Hendery.’‘ I could look it up.’‘
‘‘How?’‘you straightened.
‘‘I have the password to the local beat crime feed.From my internalship.We could see the both cases and the details.’‘
It doen’t take Hendery long to log on to the system.
‘‘Date?” he looked up at you.
Your mouth went dry. Could this be happening?
‘‘M-May twenty-fifth.’‘
He quickly tapped at the keys, then frowned at the screen.’’ I see hit-and-run report,but the victim’s last names as Wong and Kim. Who are they?
‘‘Maybe the drivers.She was taking a taxi home from the airport. Wong would have been the driver.’‘ You whispered.
Mina took your hand.
‘‘The accident took place on Hammonds Ferry Road, that’s weird because it isn’t on the way to the airport.I mean it’s not far but still.’‘
That’s really weird.
‘‘There is nothing really much more about this case.Let’s see that loser’s police report,and we’ll see if anything mathes up.’’
He is not a loser.You almost said it outloud.
Hendery was tyoing something when he said.’’ I don’t know if this is good or bad thing.’’
Just tell me please.
‘‘It’s not him.’‘
You were so relieved.’’ Just turn it off,okay? ‘’ And so did Hendery.
‘‘Is that your mothe’s gear?” Asked Hendery,nodding at a pile in the corner.
‘‘Yeah, her editor is trying to get it from us...-’‘
‘‘Did the cops search her memory cards? Like what if your mum was able to take a picture of the vehicle?
Your breath hitched.’’Do you think that’s possible?’’
‘‘I don’t see why not.’‘ answered Hendery,reaching for a bite of his taco. Then he looked at you a litle worried,as if he is afraid to say the next thing.
‘‘Say it,don’t worry.’‘
‘‘So, it’s written she died from internal bleeding,probably from the seatbelt. So there might have been time ,especially if she had her wits with her.’‘
Holy crap.
You picked up her digital camera but Hendery took it away from you,making things easier. He slided the cards free and then returned to the computer.When the program loaded you had the chance to see youe mother’s talent once again.All the photos were amazing just like always. But there was nothing connected to the crash.
‘‘Did she have more cameras?’‘ asked Hendery.
‘‘Just two cheap back-ups.’‘
‘‘What’s that?’‘ Mina pointed to where light glinted off a lens,poking from a canvas back.
‘‘Ít’s her film camera but we don’t have a dark room.’‘
‘‘But Mr.Geradi does.Do you want me to take it. I can develop it if you want?’‘
‘‘No’‘ you shook your head.’‘That’s her pictures.I want to do it.’‘
‘‘Okay’‘
You look up,inhaling deeply. ‘’Thank you guys for coming over.’’
———————————•••———————————
Cemetery Girl: I’m okay,False awarm. The Dark: What’s with the false alarm? Cemetery Girl: Lee Donghyuck didn’t do what I thought he did. The Dark; What did you think he did? Cemetery Girl: He got drunk and wrecked his car on the same night my mom died.I was worried he was involved somehow. The Dark: And he is not? Cemetery Girl: No.
Some minutes passed before he asnwered.
The Dark: How do you know? Cemetery Girl: My bestfreind’s boyfriend did an internership in a newsroom over the summer.He still has access to their crime beat database.He looked both cases up and the times don’t match.Mom died before he even got in his car. The Dark: Are you okay? Cemetery Girl: I don’t know what I am. Anyways did you talk to your mother? The Dark: No.Because I got home late from work, and my stepfather was practically standing sentry outside her door. Cemetery Girl: And you can’t tell him you want to talk to her? The Dark: It’s complicated. Cemetery Girl: It’s only as complicated as you make it. The Dark: Well, I guess I’m good at making things as complicated as possible.
/ So pick your poison, love, let's go somewhere a little more exclusive /
And with that he ended the conversation.
———————————•••———————————
From: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
To: The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
Date: Tuesday,October 8 ; 11:45 PM
Subject: What happened?
If I upset you, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.Please don’t stop talking to me.
———————————•••———————————
From:The Dark <TheDark@freemail.com>
To: Cemetery girl <cemeterdygir@freemail.com>
Date: Wednesday,October 9 ; 07:22 AM
Subject: Talking
I don’t think I can do this anymore. You know nothing about me,nothing about the real me.You only know what I’ve shared,,only a snapshot and you’ve made a judgment of me , based on the little you’ve seen, and I think it’s all wrong.
I’m not a good person,Cememtery Girl.
You don’t need me.
You deserve better.
/ Tension so intense like an asteroid /
You quickly closed the email and went to the chatlist but there was no green light- his name had disappeared entirely.
WHAT.
You tried to type a email to him but the immeadiate respond wasn’t what you were expecting.
This user does not have a Freemail account.Please try again.
He couldn’t do this. Your chest was collapsing,and you started shaking.
“Y/N? Are you okay?” asked Mr.Gegardi. Your mom’s canvas bag with her film camerawas lying in the pile beside you,while you were trying to make your heart beat again.
‘‘Yeah,’‘ You cought.’‘I’m fine. But I came here to ask something.’‘ Mr.Gegardi nodded at you to continue,’‘Can I use the Dark Room?’ I know how to do it.”
Mr.Gegardi nodded once again.’‘ I am pretty sure you can.’’
Your heart was beating so fast that your chest ached.
‘‘Do you know what’s on the film’?”
‘‘Not really,maybe some graphic war zone shots,or they could be anything’‘
‘‘Oh’‘ he continued nodding while pouring chemicals.’’So this is your mother’s film?’‘
‘‘Yeah’‘
He set the bottles down and turned to face me fully.’‘ Do you want to start from the end? Like maybe the last 5 shots?’‘
‘‘Um.Sure’‘ your heart was still jumping around.
He cut the film and holded it up to the strip but it was impossible to tell what might have been on it in that moment.You put the strip into the enlarger,shined it onto the paper,then floated the paper in chemicals to bring the images out.
‘‘I could be wrong, but I don’t think these shots involve a car. It looks more like a person.’‘ said your teacher.
Maybe it was the person who hit her! Maybe she did take a picture of them!
‘‘Mr.Grgardi can I finish developing them alone?’‘
He seemed to hesitate for a moment but then he sighs.’‘Okay,I will walk down to the teacher’s room to get a coffee’‘
You nodded and looked down, the images were becoming clearer.And then you are alone.
The images had processed.
You blinked.And then you blinked again.
It’s my mother on the photos.Smilling.
Naked.
An arm covers one breast,but the other is unashamedly bare.
You stopped breathing.
The next tray developed.Another one of my mother,still naked ,a tangle of arms ,a blurred neck,some dark hairand the edge of a jaw.
The tears went cold on your cheeks.
These features are not my father’s.
The next tray..This one caught them both.You seized the picture with your hands.
It’s Ian.Mom’s editor.He is shirtless,holding her against him.
You thought of your father for the past mounths.She was cheating on him.Cheating.
It felt like she was cheating on you too.How could she? You stood there,sobbing into your hands. You see something else. Her boardng pass,laying on the ground, probably it had fallen from the bag.
Right there the boarding pass was a wet mess but the date was in huge letters, right in the middle.
WEDS MAY 22.
Wait.
You blinked a few times,as if your tears had somehow turned ‘‘SAT’‘ into ‘‘WED’‘ or ‘‘25′‘ into ‘‘22′‘.
Your breath hitched again. Three days ealier than we expected her.Three days before she died.
All of a sudden Hendery’s voice echoed in your head.
‘‘Hummonds Ferry Road isn’t on the way to the airport’.‘
She came home early,exactly like you’d begged her to do.She came home three days early. Just not to be with you.
———————————•••———————————
You were running. And you couldn’t stop. You were out of your mind.You reached the cemetry and ran even fast to reach that gravestone.You were screaming. You fell into the rough grass and started punching the gravestone really hard. You saw your fingers were bleeding but you didn’t care.You were furious. Tears were streaking down to your face and you didn’t understand exactly what you were screaming but you punched the gravestone again.
Then something happened. Someone grabbed you,pulling you against them.Instead of fighting,you collapsed against the persone,sobbing into their chest.
‘‘It’s okay’‘ he whisperes and you know exactly who he is.’’Do you wanna sit down?’‘ he asked you.
‘‘Not near her.’‘ you both sat a few yards back to an old gravestone.
You leaned into him and after a while he asked.
‘‘Do you wanna talk about it?’‘
‘‘No’‘
He brushed a strand of your hair awat from your eyes and then you lose it.
‘‘She was cheating’‘ you whisper.
‘‘What?’‘
‘‘She was cheating.On me father.She came three days earlier than we thought.I developed the photos in her film camera. They were shots of her ans her editor in the bed’‘
His eyebrows practically hit his hairline.’’Wow’‘
You grasped your hair.’‘Gosh, what am i’m going to tell dad.’‘
‘‘Do you have to tell him anythng?’‘
‘‘I don’t know.’‘
Silence fell for a while.
‘‘‘How did you know I was here.” you asked him.
‘‘I didn’t.I saw you.I work here,sort of.’‘
‘‘Community service’‘ you whispered and he nodded.
‘‘Y/N!’‘ you saw your father running to you’‘ Y/N I was so worried. Your teacher told me you ran out leaving a mess, and we’ve been searching for you.’‘
You started crying once again.’‘I am so sorry’‘He was hugging you tightly and that was all you wanted in that moment.
‘‘It’s okay.’‘ your father patted you hair.’‘Let’s go home’‘
You saw how Donghyuck was making steps backwards , fetching his globes.
‘‘Wait!’‘ you pulled away from your father and once again you were standing ,breathless in front of Hyuck. You closed the distance and pull him over to whisper. ‘‘We were wrong. You make your own path.’‘
The spell is broken.
———————————•••———————————
When you got at home you and your father had a long talk. You told him what you knew and what shocked you was the fact that he knew it already.
‘‘Y/N , please don’t doubt your mather’s love, she loved you so much that she stayed with me.Your mother was just- a bit of a free spirit.’‘
‘‘How long did that go on?’‘
Your dad shruged.’‘ I don’t know.Forever,probably.But I didn’t know untill a few years ago.’‘
You continue the painful conversation and sadly you were really disappointed in her.
But you had your father.You threw yourself into his arms and it was the best feeling in the world.
———————————•••———————————
From: Lee Donghyuck <Lee.Donghyuck@AACountyStudentMail.org>
To: Y/N Y/L/N <Y/N.Y/L/N@AACountyStudentMail.org>
Date: Wednesday,October 9, 10:27 PM
Subject: Making new paths
I thought i’d be spending the night at Mark’s tonight. I had a huge fight with Alan and mum in the morning.Forget making a path- this morning’s conversation was like aftermath of nuclear bomb. But Alan’s car broke down and I helped him fix it and we talked, we’ve never done this before.
It feels harder to write under my own name but here I am,not hidding anymore. I should have told you at the Homecoming night but I wasn’t ready to let go of what we had.
———————————•••———————————
From: Y/N Y/L/N <Y/N.Y/L/N@AACountyStudentMail.org>
To: Lee Donghyuck <Lee.Donghyuck@AACountyStudentMail.org>
Date:Tuesday,October 10, 5:52AM
Subject: Letting go
I’m glad you never told me. I didn’t want to let go either. In fact I’m still kinda sad that It’s over. I keep thinking about our conversations and I probably will never stop.
There is a lot you don’t show the world,you know and I think you should.Give them a new snapshot.Show them what you showed me.
And on that note...what now?
———————————•••———————————
INBOX - Y/N Y/L/N
No new messages.
By lunchtime, he hasn’t writtien back. You had no idea what that means.Neither he nor Mark were in the cafeteria.
You were sitiing with Mina and Hendery who were feeding or kissing each other and it was hard for you to keep yourself from sighing heavily.
Then a denim-clad leg swung over the bench, and weight droped beside you. Somehow surprised,yet not at all, Donghyuck was straddling the bench.
‘‘Feel like taking a walk?’‘ he said and you nodded eargerly.
And then he surprised you by taking your hand and you went out in the school yeard.
‘‘You didn’t email.’‘ you started.
‘‘I wanted to talk to you.’‘ you hardly noticed the pink tint on his cheeks.’‘And now that I am not The Dark I don’t really know what to say.’‘
‘‘It’s okay’‘ you said softly.’‘We don’t have to talk’‘
He was thinking.
‘‘Wait,’‘he said.’‘I have an idea.’‘
He turned to you, and before you were ready for it,he moved close.Very close.So close that his cheek was against yours and one of his hands was on your neck.His breath tickled his ear.
‘‘Is this okay?’‘he whispered.
‘‘More than okay.’‘
His thumb brushed against your neck in a soothing rhythm.’‘I like you.’‘
‘‘I like you too.’‘
‘‘You were the first person to see all of me,Y/N. The first person to make me feel like this. The way you saw me as The Dark was worth more than a reputation and a record.I don’t know if anyone will ever see me the way you did.’‘
You drew back and put both of your hands on his cheeks.’‘I see all of you, and I’m looking at you that way now.”
He took your hand and put it on his heart and closed his heart.’‘You are killing me ,Y/N.”
“Look at me’‘ you teased.’‘You cannot mae your own path with your eyes closed.’‘
‘‘Watch me’‘ then he leaned and captured you mouth with his.
/as long as we keep it lowkey/
masterlist
———————————•••———————————
so hello guys! this is the first scenario,based on a book. I highly recommend ‘‘Letters to the Lost’‘ , 10/10. If you want to know how the book actually starts, or to see the things from Declan Murphy’s (Lee Donghyuck) POV and a lot of more interesting moments , you should definetely read it. Than you so much fore reading this! <3
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Why did you last feel like crying? This past weekend I was just extra moody and on the verge of tears.
How long ago and why did you last feel infuriated? I get easily irritated and frustrated, but it’s been awhile since I’ve felt infuriated.
Do emotions control you or do you control your emotions? My emotions got control over me a few years ago and I haven’t been able to gain it back. :/
Do you keep your friends secrets/private information to yourself? Yes.
What negative quality do your friends bring up the most? I wouldn’t want friends who did that. I do that enough myself as it is, I don’t need anyone else pointing out all my negative qualities all the time.
What quality do you think you have that others don’t think you do? I don’t know. I feel like people in my life overestimate my abilities rather than the other way around. I feel a lot of pressure to maintain that illusion. <<< Same in regards to feeling like people overestimate my abilities. Although, in terms of the long list of negative qualities I believe I have, my loved ones would disagree on a lot of them.
Do you often “jump” to conclusions? Yeppp. Always the worst ones, too.
Do you find being alone with strangers scary, interesting or indifferent? It could be scary depending on the situation, but I’d definitely feel anxious and uncomfortable.
Do you think you know a lot about the world? There’s a lot more I don’t know.
Do you know first aid? No.
Does the sight of blood make you feel sick? Y Yes. It makes me feel weak. I can’t even look when having blood drawn and getting it done makes me sweaty and weak.
Does your first name have an L in it? Nope.
Middle name have a C in it? Nope.
Last name have a R in it? Yes.
Do your initials spell a legitimate word? If so, what? Nope. The word above, does it have any connection to you at all?
Do you prefer classic rock or nope alternative? Nope alternative?
Do you like Kings of Leon? Yeah. I loved when Sex on Fire first came out.
How about The Script? Yes.
Does crying make you feel better? Sometimes.
Do you know a girl called Becca? Nope.
How about a guy called Gregory? No.
Does someones background effect whether you’ll be friends with them or not Uh, well yeah. Like if they have a sketchy background or have done things I’m not comfortable with.
How about their religious background? I’d have a problem with a satanist or if they were involved in a cult.
If someone admitted cheating in a past relationship of theirs, would you trust them? That would likely make things complicated, but I guess it would depend on the situation. Although, you’re likely just getting their side of it and it may not be accurate or they’re leaving things out that paint them in a better light than their ex. It would just really, really depend on the situation and it’d take a lot of communication.
Do you drink tea and/or coffee every day? Coffee, yes.
Did you ever want to be a cook as a kid? No.
How about a fashion designer? No.
Do you wish that magic was real? I mean sure it’d be dope to make something you want appear or happen whenever you want. It could also be tricky, though, and used for the wrong reasons.
What food would you love to wipe off the face of the earth? I’m picky, so there’s a lot of foods I don’t like, but plenty of other people enjoy them so I’m not going to wipe it off the earth just cause I don’t like it.
Can you use a bottle opener? Yeah...
Do you own a cheese grater? Nope.
What time will it be in 38 minutes time? 4:26AM.
What day/date will it be in 11 days time? May 25th. Damn.
Have you ever owned a pet fish? Y Yep. I had a fish tank full of fish as a kid.
Do you prefer fire or ice? Fire in terms of bonfires and in a fireplace for the comfy, coziness of it and I love the smell of it during the fall. I don’t use ice in my drinks, so, not a big fan.
Do you rap along with rap songs? Ha, well my attempt to rap along.
When happy, do you become more talkative? Yeah.
Bowling or sailing? Why? Bowling I guess if I had to pick out of the two. Have no interest in either one, though.
What colour is your kettle? I don’t have one.
How about your microwave? Black.
Do you prefer sitting in the front or back of a car? Front.
How about in a train? On the bus? I’ve always had to sit in the middle on buses cause that’s where the wheelchair spots are.
Do you care about politics? I admit that I really haven’t been following closely these past few years. I used to pay more attention, but I just... can’t. It’s too much.
Obama or Bush?
Blair or Brown?
When did you last cook something from scratch? I don’t cook from scratch. The only cooking I do is packaged ramen.
What things make you jealous? Im rarely jealous. <<< Same. I feel envy more than jealousy.
Do you think the censors/fcc go a bit too far or are just right? I am confused as to why it’s okay certain curse words but not others. And I really don’t get why in “asshole” just the “hole” part is bleeped out lol. Do you feel hungry, thirsty, sleepy or none of the above? Right now I’m just sleepy.
What’s your Mum’s Mum called? How about your Dad’s Dad? Lupe/Charles.
Do you prefer crepes, pancakes or waffles? Waffles and crepes.
Do you have ice-cream in your fridge right now? I think we have some.
How about chicken nuggets? Not chicken nuggets, but my brother has a bag of chicken wings.
Do you eat fish often? Never. I hate seafood. <<<< Saaaame.
Have you ever taken a martial art? Which one{s}? Nope.
Do you know anyone who is scared of you? I can’t imagine anyone being afraid of me, a stick thin, super shy, and awkward af girl. haha.
What person who has died would you bring back and why? I wouldn’t mess around with bring people back from the dead. I believe I’ll see them again one day.
Do you like watermelon? Yeah. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had any, though.
Can you remember the month of your first kiss? October. I remember that because it happened at my high school drama department’s haunted house.
Do you make friends easily? No. I also don’t try to to be honest.
What makes you different from everyone else? DNA <<< Hahaha welp that most certainly does.
I give you a piece of paper. What do you draw/write on it? I’d do random doodles and write random words in cursive cause that’s what I do when I doodle.
What pictures or photos are up in your lounge? Is that like the living room? If so, we have a few framed photos on the shelves we have.
Do you like purple and white patterned things? Sure.
Do you know anyone called Pipa? No.
I say purple, you think… It’s my mom’s favorite color.
What do you think is the most interesting thing about you? Nothing.
Do you like being complimented or does it make you uncomfortable? They’re nice, I’m just super awkward.
Does the description of your starsign correspond with your personality? Nope. I’m so opposite of how a Leo is described.
Do you have a photo album? Yeah, several old photo albums (physical ones) and several on Facebook and my phone.
What artists paintings do you find the most beautiful? I don’t necessarily go for beauty in art. My favourite painters are Dali, Kandinsky, and Klimt. Weird over beauty for me. <<< That’s how I am. One of my favorites is The Scream by Edvard Munch. I like the melting clocks one by Dali, too.
What about the most disturbing? Hmm. There’s definitely paintings I’ve seen that I thought were disturbing, but of course I can’t think of a specific one at the moment.
Have you ever gone to a camp or summer school? I’ve been to two camps: science camp and Girl Scout camp. I also had to do summer school once in the 6th grade cause I missed a lot of school due to spending months in the hospital and at home after having surgery. I voluntarily took a few summer classes in college.
What was your favourite cartoon as a child? A lot of the stuff that was on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, WB Kids, and Saturday morning cartoons on ABC.
What was your biggest fear as a child? Bugs.
Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater? Fly.
What about invisibility or mindreading? Invisibility.
Do you like what you see in the mirror? Nopeee.
Can you remember all your past teachers names? Not all of them, but a lot of them.
Do you like talent shows? Which ones? I enjoyed when we had talent show assemblies in elementary school. Those were fun.
Have you ever failed an important exam? In what? Yes, in math.
Do you find people taller than you intimidating? Just about everyone is taller than me.
Do you think you are better than people of a different country/background? Wow, absolutely not. I don’t think I’m better than anyone.
What’s your favourite thing about your country? We have our issues and I know other countries make fun of us, but we have a lot of good qualities and I like where I’m from.
Who is your favourite bzoinker? I don’t go on there.
What websites do you have bookmarked? The ones on the toolbar are Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, and a couple PDFs from Bible studies.
Do you use bows and ribbons to decorate your gifts? Yeah. I love wrapping presents and making them look all nice and pretty.
Do you listen to the same type of music as your parents? What type is that? We like a lot of the same, yeah. Especially my mom and I.
What TV show scared you as a kid? Are You Afraid of the Dark haha but I also loved to watch it. That intro is what really got me. Oh, and Unsolved Mysteries. That was a show about real life mysteries and murders and such.
Family Guy, The Simpsons or South Park? Why? Out of the three I’d pick Family Guy, but I’m not into any of them. My family loves Family Guy so I see parts of episodes here and there all the time and I’m familiar with it. Sometimes it’ll give me a little chuckle.
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Welcome to the Neighborhood - Chapter 3/ The Baby Shower - Drakgo Fiction
@sweet-or-sarcastic // @anavrp // @sophiecooper18 // @random-emerald-thoughts // @benjimators // @marvelousavengfulslytherin // @littlevirago // @evielovesfood // @dianenguyenbjh // @brianaisontheinterwebs // @saultnpeppah // @poisonivy123 // @dragonrider167 // @dangerouswxmen // @galevwide // @disneyevilprincessblog
Shego was nearing the end of her pregnancy when she finally conceded to having a baby shower thrown for her.
She still felt self-conscious and uncomfortable about being pregnant. She never really wanted kids or imagined she would have kids until things got serious with Drakken. Shego felt like pregnancy wasn’t in her nature, but there she was, seven and a half months pregnant with a baby girl to be named Rhea.
Just as uncomfortable as she was mentally, she was physically. Shego wasn’t sure she could go through this again. Just because she didn’t have a period didn’t mean she didn’t bleed from somewhere else! More than once she had to deal with a nose bleed and even her gums bled at one point! She was still nauseous and always hot. She felt as big as a house. She hated it! She hated being pregnant! If anyone thought she was caustic before…
Her work life may be the only thing that was faring well in her eyes. Just around her third month, Shego was granted maternity leave. Her job was too dangerous for a pregnant woman. Thus, she went back to her old stomping grounds, substitute teaching. And okay, maybe this time around she enjoyed the littler kids more than the older.
Shego often caught herself wondering about the child growing inside her when substituting for the lower grades. She liked the way one student had her hair done and would have to remember it for Rhea. She wondered if Rhea would be the bubbly little girl with bright eyes or the quiet reader with a thirst for words. Inevitably, she would run into trouble makers whose parents let them get away with far too much and say to herself Rhea will not be like that.
Jill and Savannah, her longest friends, constantly pestered Shego about letting one of them throw her a baby shower. Shego never saw the point of a shower. Rhea had everything she needed already, and everyone (that Shego wanted) would be at the hospital when she was born. A shower felt like she was showing off she was pregnant and felt greedy to her.
Then, her own mother took things into her hands. Shego literally received an invitation to her own baby shower in the mail.
It wasn’t that Shego was estranged from her mother like she was her father. On the contrary, they spoke daily, and she had an amazing relationship with her mother. Her mother, Kate, simply knew her daughter well enough to know that if there was to be a shower, she’d have to take it into her own hands. With the help of Jill, Savannah and her son-in-law, the shower was planned behind Shego’s back. The only thing Shego did for the shower was to make a post on the neighborhood Facebook group to warn everyone that the neighborhood may be a bit crowded car-wise but that she would make sure it wouldn’t be an issue. Yeah, she may be a former villain, but she hated it when people were inconsiderate.
Shego sighed and admitted defeat. Apparently, Drew wanted to throw one and Rhea was just as much his as she was hers and Shego couldn’t deny him anything.
The guest list was short. Just the parents to be, Jill, Savannah, Kate and Drakken’s mother, Miriam. Shego’s brothers were invited, but none wanted to risk getting their heads bitten off by their hormonal sister for not using a coaster.
Kate also knew her daughter well enough to know that Shego would be unlikely to participate in any games or activities that weren’t Cards Against Humanity or something just as politically incorrect. She herself conceded, planning a simple dinner and gifts party, though she was willing to bet she could get Drew to bob for pacifiers.
Shego did allow decorations which matched the theme of Rhea’s nursery; Starry Night by Van Gogh. Her room was painted deep blue with gold stars and glitter in the paint and fairy lights. The motif spread out into the living room with blue and gold crepe paper and streamers.
Kate did make her daughter wear a plastic tiara and sash for the party which Shego only put up a minor fuss about. She bribed Stephanie with the promise of a full month of early morning childcare for Rhea’s first month of life in Stephanie wore them.
Just as dessert was about to be served, there was a knock at the door. Drakken and Shego stood to answer the door, with Kate behind them. Shego peaked out a nearby window and sighed.
“Who’s that?” Kate asked.
Shego groaned, “Our annoying neighbor, Janice. She tries to get us to go to church with her, like, every Sunday.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Drakken said, his napkin still tucked into his collar, before he opened the door.
“Hello, Janice. We’re in the middle of our baby shower. Can we do this later?” He asked, eager to get back to the table a second helping. He noticed Jill eying the last dinner roll and she noticed that he noticed.
“Oh, it won’t take long,” Janice said as the party gathered behind the once evil doctor and sidekick. “I saw your post on the Facebook and thought I should bring over my homemade lemon squares!” Janice beamed. Drakken wasted no time in grabbing one for each hand and chomping down, “I make them with Youthful Essential Oil’s lemon oil!”
Drakken grimaced once the taste got to him, “Tastes like perfume. Why not use the actual lemon?”
Janice’s face deflated, she clearly never thought of that.
Drakken kept eating, “Yeah, these are terrible.” He started smacking like a toothless duck and grimacing at the taste but continued taking bites. “They taste like my grandma’s perfume.”
Savannah took a tiny piece and gagged, “It tastes like literal bile!” She said with her hand over her mouth.
Mama Lipsky shoved herself between her son and Shego. “Ya gotta get lemons from the orchard off highway 51.”
“Well, I don’t know what is sprayed all of those lemons. Pesticides and such.” Janice argued, holding her dish of perfumy lemon squares protectively.
“That’s Old Man Jenkin’s orchard. Everyone knows he’s been using natural stuff to get rid of pests since forever.” Jill said peaking from the back. “Like ladybugs and whatnot.”
“Who knows what’s in that bottle,” Shego said, “Essential oils are not regulated by the FDA. They can put anything in there. They aren’t even cleared to go on your skin, let alone in your mouth.”
Shego looked to Drakken, starting on his third piece. She shrugged, he was a lost cause anyway.
“Well, I guess it’s an acquired taste. Stephanie, I would love to host a pox party for your little one, my Jeremiah still needs to get the virus!” She said excitedly, “Oh I have so much to share you with you about those nasty vaccines!”
“You don’t vaccinate!?” Shego yelled. In fear of catching anything that could harm Rhea, she covered her mouth and nose in precaution. She hid behind her husband as a human shield. At this point, looking idiotic in a plastic tiara and sash were the least of Shego’s worries.
“I remember getting the smallpox vaccine in 1967 when I was a little girl. I still have the scar!” Mama Lipsky said proudly. “Have you ever seen someone with smallpox? It’s not a pretty sight.” She chided Janice.
Janice began to stumble over her words, trying to preach her message. “The science just isn’t there.”
“My husband is a scientist!” Shego screeched, her free fist clenched, still covering her mouth and nose.
“Yeah, vaccines have proven their merit, like, a million times over by now. Anyone who says otherwise is falling for pseudoscience and dribble.” Drakken said as he began to pull apart an oily lemon square in his hand, “Can I use this as cologne?” He asked Janice seriously.
“Lady, what do you do for a living?” Jill asked, her hands on her hips, “Where’s your degree?”
“Okay, that’s enough of this,” Kate said, wrangling everyone back inside.
Shego broke away from her mother’s guiding arm, “I don’t want you or any of your little toxic cretins around my family!” She hollered, “I will call the CDC to tent your ugly ass house of biological horrors!”
Drakken quickly scooped his wife up and closed the door.
“Steph, what did I tell you about antagonizing the neighbors? This was supposed to be a fresh start!” Drakken whined.
“Oh yeah, I’m antagonizing. Don’t come crying to me if Rhea is born with toes on her forehead because of those idiots!”
“Well, you did say that your neighbor Michael’s shoes were last season,” Savannah said, deliberately riling her friend up.
“Well, they were ugly!”
“Let’s have cake and ice cream!” Kate announced, trying to break up the tension.
The ruckus died down with the addition of dessert and the party resumed.
Drakken and Shego were cuddled on the couch, his arms around her as she leaned on him and her legs kicked up on the cushions. Everyone was in a deep discussion about what kind of parents they’d be as the couple laughed and enjoyed the company.
“Steph’s totally gonna be one of the tiger moms, but not like the crazy strict kind.” Jill said, adamantly, “the kind that goes Hulk if someone bothers their kids.” Still holding her plate of cake and chocolate ice cream, she flexed her arms and frowned deeply, her voice growling, “You hurt my kids! I hurt you! Roar!”
Shego laughed and rolled her eyes, playing the ends of her hair.
“Well, my Drewbie will be an excellent father!” Mama Lipsky smiled.
Then, there was another knock at the door.
Shego’s hands instantly flared green, “If that Karen Hun Bot is back you’ll have to squeegee her off the sidewalk after I’m done with her!” She yelled, standing up as fast as she could (which wasn’t really that fast anymore) and waddling to the door.
She threw open the door about to yell, “WHA -oh.”
On the doorstep stood more neighbors, Juliet with the elderly Miss Hazel on her arm, a small quilt slung over Juliet’s free arm.
“Janice get to ya first?” Juliet teased.
“You have no idea. C’mon in. Want some cake and ice cream?” Shego asked.
Of all the neighbors, Shego liked Juliet and Miss Hazel the best. Both were independent who didn’t take shit from anyone. Miss Hazel was wise and friendly and Shego could bitch about others with Juliet.
“No thank you, dear.” Hazel said, “We just popped over to give our congratulations and our presents.”
Juliet took a cookie that Mama Lipsky made as everyone sat back down.
“I hope this works with your color scheme,” Hazel said, offering the quilt to Shego.
“That’s why you asked me about the colors!” Drakken said in sudden understanding, snapping his fingers.
Hazel grinned and nodded.
The quilt was the size for a baby and simple with wisteria blossoms on the corners. “Is this for us?” Shego asked, hoping she was not misunderstanding and making herself look like a greedy fool.
“Indeed, it is.” Hazel answered, “I’ve been watching the wisteria you planted. I’m glad they’ve taken off so well.”
“It’s my favorite flower,” Shego was genuinely appreciative. “You really didn’t have to go through all the trouble…” She had only spoken to Hazel a few times. It was mostly Drew who knew her as he helped install her video doorbell, remote controlled and adaptive technologies that would help her remain independent. It was a win-win for him; he got to tinker and was paid in baked goods.
“It’s no trouble, darling,” Hazel said with a dismissive wave of her age gnarled hand. “It gave me something to do with my time. Every baby needs a handmade blanket.”
Juliet herself gifted several boxes of diapers and burp rags as well as a few new toys and treats for Commodore Puddles so he wouldn’t feel left out and act up.
The night ended with Shego realizing that neighborhoods and baby showers weren’t that bad.
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Ladybug’s Kitchen
Happy belated holidays, @noblechaton! I hope you had a wonderful start to your new year, and I hope you enjoy this gift for the @mlsecretsanta exchange!
This assignment was a joke. Alya knew it, and the utterly ridiculous editor who assigned it to her knew it, too. She grumbled the entire walk to her desk and half-slammed a notebook onto her desk for good measure.
"Whoa. Is everything okay?"
She rolled her eyes. "Chloe just told me my next assignment is finding out who this stupid food blogger is. Just because her dad practically owns the school, doesn't mean-"
"Doesn't mean she should be able to run the paper like some kind of dictator," Nino finished for her. "I know."
"It's a fluff piece!" Alya hissed, glaring in the direction of Chloe's small office, built just for her when she decided to take over the school newspaper. "She doesn't even care about this. She just wants to be in charge something!"
"Then, let her." He shrugged. "Do your own stuff on the side if you want. She won't care."
"I care! And so should you! This is why journalism is dying!"
"Really?" he didn't need to give her more than a look to point out just how ridiculous she sounded.
"Okay, so it's not the only reason," she said, still annoyed but at least now she'd let out some of her frustration. Finally, she slumped back into her chair and pulled out her phone. "Have you ever even heard of Ladybug's Kitchen?"
"Now, you have to be careful when you pipe in the filling. If you overfill it, you're going to have some messy macarons. And it's harder than you think to clean chocolate filling out of the carpet. Not that I've done that..." She laughed a bit at her own joke, which was oddly endearing in Alya's opinion. "Just a little swirl like this, and you'll have the perfect treat for your family or your friends or even just yourself if you've had a long week."
"Are you still watching that?" Nino peeked over Alya's shoulder. "It's been hours."
"I'm doing research," she answered, despite the blank notebook beside her. "She doesn't ever show her face."
"Yeah, that's kind of her thing."
"I noticed." She paused the video. "You can see her apron, and sometimes, you can see her hair, but that's as close as I can get. I'm just looking for clues."
Nino reached over to scroll down the page. "How many videos does she have anyway?"
She swatted his hand away. "Hey, don't make me lose my place. She's been doing this for years, and I'm watching all of them. She had to leave a clue somewhere."
"Seriously?" he chuckled. "What happened to this just being a fluff piece?"
She blushed. "I'm a serious journalist, okay? I take every assignment seriously."
"Half of your last fluff piece was filler text. You just put your questions in and all of the mayor's answers were just lorem ipsum whatever."
"What, you don't think our mayor speaks Latin?" she smirked.
"Okay, Mademoiselle Serious Journalist. Have fun with your crepes." He stuffed his laptop into his bag and waved. "I'm off to fail a chemistry test."
"Good luck!" she called after him. "And they're macarons, not crepes! Maybe if you don't fail, I'll buy you some so you can learn the difference."
"Seriously, one point away from failing really shouldn't earn you anything, especially not the best macarons in Paris," Alya grumbled as they waited in line.
"Hey, you said if I didn't fail, you'd buy me some."
"I also said maybe."
"Next!" the woman behind the counter called with a smile brighter than sunshine.
Alya paused for a moment, just staring at her until Nino pushed her forward, and she nearly stumbled into the counter. "Uh, hey!" Alya straightened and smiled back. "A dozen macarons and um..." she scanned over the available pastries. "Do you have any crepes?"
She smiled. "Sure! What flavor did you want for the macarons?"
"What flavors do you have? Like vanilla or chocolate...?"
She produced a list from behind the counter and handed it to Alya. "We definitely have a lot more than those. You can pick up to six different flavors when you buy a dozen. Why don't you take a minute to decide, and I'll get your crepes started, okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Dude, you're blushing," Nino murmured once she'd stepped out of earshot. "And you're staring."
"Shut up!" Alya glared at him and shoved the list into his chest. "One more word, and I'm getting nothing but apricot."
"Rude, using a man's allergies against him," Nino said under his breath as he scanned the list that spanned both the front and back of the page. "She wasn't kidding. There's tons of flavors here. I didn't even know some of these existed."
"Let me see." Alya held up the list so she could read the back. "Wow, I've never even heard of pomegranate macarons."
"Do you still need a minute?" Alya hadn't even noticed the woman had returned from the back. "I know there's a lot to choose from."
"Uh, maybe," Alya said, glancing over and trying not to stare this time.
"I can recommend a few." She stepped out from behind the counter to stand beside them, and Alya could feel soft heat spreading over her cheeks. "The cheesecake and the strawberry are really popular, but my favorites are the green tea and the honey and lavender."
"Those sound great," Alya answered quickly, releasing the list so Nino could look it over some more and Alya could look anywhere else. "I'll get those two, and he can decide the rest." How was it possible for someone to actually smell this good? Was it just because she worked in a bakery? Maybe it was just the bakery.
"Perfect! And what about the crepes?"
Alya wasn't exactly new to the idea of flirting with women she found attractive. Some would even say she was good at it, but right now, she couldn't even speak. This wasn't like her. Sure, she'd felt flustered and tongue-tied before, but that was back when she was a teenager and still new at all of this. She shouldn't have trouble answering a simple question just because this woman was exceptionally pretty.
"Chocolate sounds good," Nino said from behind Alya, handing over the list as he did, "And we'll get cheesecake, strawberry, cappuccino, and orange."
"Coming right up." She looked back at Alya. "And could I get your name? For, um, for the order?"
And maybe it was Alya's imagination, but did she just trip over her words? "Alya. And you?"
"Marinette," she darted back behind the counter. "It'll be ready in just a minute."
"Huh," Nino said, watching her leave. "Was she blushing?"
"God, I hope so," Alya murmured.
"You know..." Nino spoke between bites. "If you buy these every time I don't fail a test, I might pass chemistry."
"Yeah, I so didn't sign up for that." Alya reached for another one while the latest video from Ladybug's Kitchen loaded. "If you want to pass, buy them yourself."
"But, if you do, you get to see Marinette again."
Alya hated how quickly her cheeks reddened at just the mention of her name. She'd nearly dropped the bag twice when their order had come out, and Marinette had been painfully sweet about it. "Who says I need to buy anything for you to see her again? My mom's been asking me to pick up some better bread. Apparently, she works at the best place in Paris."
"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even know she existed." He snatched one of the macarons from her pile. "You owe me."
She slapped his hand away. "Nice try. If we get married, maybe I'll send you a box from our honeymoon."
He shrugged. "I'll take what I can get." He looked over at her screen. "Any clues yet?"
"Nope." She sighed and clicked play. "And I've gone through all of them twice."
"Twice?" His brows raised. "But, you said she has tons of videos."
"I take my job seriously, okay?"
"Maybe you just have a thing for bakers," he teased.
"Yeah, like you've got a thing for models?" she smirked. "Or did you think I missed that perfume ad you've been staring at?"
It was nice to see Nino blush for a change. "That's research. Chloe needs a model for the front page."
"Sure..." she chuckled, grabbing one of his cheesecake macarons. "You keep telling yourself that."
As annoying as it was to admit Nino was right, maybe she really did have a thing for bakers. She'd been watching for hours now, and Alya was beginning to suspect she had a crush on a voice that she couldn't identify. Ladybug was cheerful and encouraging, and she had the worst sense of humor, but Alya chuckled at it anyway. She was humble, too, showing her failures right along with her successes.
"Everyone burns cookies every once in a while. And that's okay. It's not a great feeling, I know. The first time I burnt my cookies, I cried. I mean, I was seven, so of course I cried," Ladybug chuckled at the memory, holding up a blackened cookie. "My dad found me, and he told me that mistakes just means you're trying something new. Or, in my case, it means I got too invested in a tea party with my stuffed animals.
"So, just keep trying. And make sure you set a timer!" Ladybug waved at the camera. "Hopefully, I'll have something a bit more appetizing for you tomorrow! Thanks for watching, and I hope you all had better luck than I did making this!"
"Are you still going through her videos?" Nino dropped down beside her. "I thought you saw all of them like a million times."
"Yeah, I did." Alya took the coffee from his hand and drained it. "I'm not getting anything. And everyone says the same thing. They know she's in Paris, but that's about as close as they can get."
"They?" Nino took the cup back and frowned down at it once he realized it was empty. "Now you owe me coffee and macarons."
"In your dreams. And, yes, they. I'm not the only one looking for her." She smirked. "There's boards and websites trying to figure it out, and she visits sometimes to say hello."
"Nice." He nudged her side. "So, if everyone's trying to figure this out, maybe it's more than just a fluff piece, huh?"
He actually flinched at the look she sent his way. "Just because Chloe got lucky, and this is actually interesting doesn't mean she gave me a good assignment. She thought this was fluff, and she wants to waste my time."
"Whoa, hey, I'm not arguing with you. Just saying. It's a good piece."
"It will be if I can figure out who she is," Alya mumbled, scrolling through the notes she'd made for any sort of connection she might have missed.
She might never have figured it out at all if not for one little mistake.
Ladybug had just posted up a video, and Alya had started watching the second it was available.
"It took me a little while to come up with an idea for this video. I feel like I've kind of shared everything I know how to make with you guys, so you'll need to send in some new recipes for me to try." She shuffled through some pages beside her as she spoke. "But, then, I was inspired by a customer that came in the other day. They were looking at macarons and couldn't pick a flavor.
"I mean, I can't blame them. All the flavors are amazing. So, I offered some suggestions, and they went with my two favorite flavors. And that got me thinking, maybe I could try out a new recipe based on their order. You can find the full recipe under the video, but I'll go ahead and walk you through it. Hopefully it's better than my cookies from last week!"
Alya scanned every frame while Ladybug spoke, looking for even the hint of a reflection or some sort of personal item that might give her a clue.
"So, first, we'll gather our ingredients. Some of them are a little unusual, so feel free to come back and bake with me later on if you need to go get anything."
Nothing. Even when it looked like she might catch a glimpse, the image was blurred or distorted, or even in one case, replaced with a tiny stock photo of a ladybug. Whoever edited her videos was thorough.
"So, some of you might be wondering why I'm making a recipe based on a customer. It's not something I do every day, you know." She measured out flour as she spoke. "But, well, I have to be honest with you guys, this customer was just really, really gorgeous. And I really wanted to ask for their number or try and flirt or anything, but I just kept chickening out. I'm sure at least one of you knows that feeling."
Alya frowned. She knew it a bit too well. She'd tried to work up the nerve to ask Marinette for coffee or lunch or anything, but she hadn't even walked by the bakery since the day she and Nino went. She could use the excuse that she was busy working, but it really was just that. An excuse.
"And, anyway, they came in with someone, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't. But, I just wanted to try my luck. And if they ever come back, maybe I will. I know I always tell all of you to take chances, but I have to admit, sometimes I'm scared to try something new. You've all been brave enough to bake with me, so let's all try to take chances outside the kitchen, too! Even if it means embarrassing ourselves in front of someone we like."
Alya rolled her eyes. She had to, since it really was a bit on the cheesy side, but it was just like Ladybug to say something like that, and it hit a bit too close to home for Alya's liking.
"So, here we are! Honey and lavender crepes! Let's see how they taste." She pulled out a fork and cut off a piece to eat. "Oh, that's even better than I thought! I hope yours all turned out great, too! Tune in on Thursday for part two! We'll be making green tea crepes with our own handmade whipped cream on top!"
"Wait..." Alya frowned. "No way..."
It had to be a coincidence. Just because that happened to be her order and she happened to be with someone when she made the order and she also happened to go there a few days ago... It didn't mean anything.
Alya started the video over again, this time scrutinizing each frame. Her heart was racing, but she was still trying to convince herself that it was all in her head. It was just too convenient. Like something out of Hollywood or a cheesy made-for-TV holiday movie.
But then she saw it.
There, in the middle of the papers Ladybug looked through was the recipe she'd written down. Anyone else might not have recognized the significance, and Alya might not have even seen if it if she wasn't so desperate for evidence.
There it was. The title, clear as day: "Crepes for Alya". The recipe was for her.
And that meant Ladybug was actually Marinette.
And that meant Marinette was interested.
Alya arrived at the bakery moments before it was time to close, a little out of breath and hoping she wasn't somehow wrong.
"Welcome!" Marinette greeted her when she walked through the door. "What can I get y-"
Oh, that was definitely a blush. Alya grinned, all confidence now that Marinette was the one visibly flustered. "Hey, Marinette! I actually had a question for you."
"Sure!" Marinette relaxed a little. "It's, um, good to see you again, Alya!"
Great, now she was blushing, too. "Yeah, you, too." But, she had the upper hand here, and she had to find out the truth. "Do you do any special orders? You know, stuff that's off the menu?" she asked, her smile just a bit playful.
"Maybe." Marinette leaned in a little, her voice dropping just enough that Alya could tell she was starting to realize Alya was flirting. "What did you have in mind?"
Alya approached the counter, close enough that anyone else wouldn't overhear. "Well, I was thinking of some honey and lavender crepes. Maybe green tea, too, but I don't know. Do I have to wait till Thursday for those?"
The color drained from Marinette's face. "What? I mean... I don't think I've heard of anything like that, but I um, I could look that up or..."
Alya grinned. "Really? And here I thought you made the recipe for a really, really gorgeous customer just like me."
"What? No!" Marinette realized her mistake in an instant. "I mean, not no. You are really, really gorgeous, but I didn't make a recipe for you. I don't know what you're talking about."
Alya pulled out her phone to show the video, paused right at the moment where the recipe's title showed on the screen. "You know, if you wanted my number, all you had to do was ask."
Marinette stared at it, clearly stuggling to think up some explanation. Finally, she looked back at Alya. "You're not going to... tell everyone, are you?"
Even if she wanted to, Alya knew she never would. "Not a chance. I'm way more interested in dating you than making you famous."
"Thank you." Marinette grinned, and Alya couldn't help but smile back. "I really-" Then, her eyes widened. "Wait, did you say you want a date?"
Alya laughed. "Yeah. Is that a yes?"
"Hold on." She ran over to the back. "I need to leave early! Mom, can you take over?"
"Sure!" A voice answered from the back. "Is everything okay?"
"Yep, just gotta go! Bye!" Marinette tore off the apron. "I'll be five minutes. I just need to freshen up."
She was gone before Alya could clarify that exactly meant tonight, but maybe it was better that way. Who was she to argue? The more time with Marinette, the better. She pulled out her phone while she waited, a slow smirk spreading over her lips. Besides, her deadline was tonight, and the only thing that could make a date with Marinette even sweeter was turning her phone on silent and ignoring irate calls from Chloe during said date.
"Ready to go?" Marinette asked, somewhat out of breath.
Alya looked up, briefly mesmerized by Marinette's quick transformation. She'd somehow managed to pull her hair up into a perfect updo, put on a hint of makeup, and change into a gorgeous pink dress in just moments, which left Alya was simultaneously jealous, impressed, and completely smitten. "Absolutely."
#mlsecretsanta 2k18#miraculous ladybug#alyanette#au#food blogger au#sort of college au since that's where I imagine Alya and Nino are?#my writing
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So, What Are We Doing This Summer?
It was called to my attention that Henry's age was confirmed as 17 in either the Frittle episode or his birthday episode (I've not repeatedly watched those, so I didn't remember), which would either put them in their senior year or put Henry as a graduating 18 year old next year, which does happen, so I'll go with that.
Also, for some reason, all of the italics and bolds and such disappear whenever I paste to Tumblr. I honestly don’t feel like redoing tonight, but the ffnet post has them, for various emphasis on words and stuff, if that’s a better read for you.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13274210/7/So
So, What Are We Doing This Summer?
There was no Sweet Sixteen thing that she wanted to do. To be fair, her parents wanted to throw her something and invite her friends over, but she just wanted a nice dinner, some cake, maybe a museum trip and to look over college packets. Last birthday, she went to a show that she wanted to see with her friends, but it was such a hectic night that she almost didn't get to see it.
That's how plans with the friends tended to go. Unexpected and hectic. So, Sweet Sixteen, she was doing things with her parents! And that was all that there was to it!
"But, what about the time WE want to spend with you?" Jasper asked.
She furrowed her eyebrows and handed him a pamphlet. "Here. Underline cons in red, highlight pros in pink."
"What is this?"
"College brochures."
"Why are you looking at college brochures, we still have more than a year of high school left?"
She laughed, "And I very well can't figure out what schools to apply to after graduation. Senior year student council has so much to do for all of those senior ceremonies, I want to make sure I've given myself time to think about where I'm going."
"Why not Swellview University?" He wondered.
"It's on my list, but not my top choice. I want an HBCU or an Ivy League school."
"I'm gonna go right there to Swellview U. It's a good school!"
"I'm sure it's great. It's just not exactly what I want," she said and they heard the sound of Captain Man and Kid Danger coming down the tubes.
She smiled at them as they approached, resuming some kind of debate. "Dude, there's no way that a giant pancake could best a giant waffle. The waffle has ridges!" Henry fussed, then kissed her on the cheek.
"What are you two even TALKING about?"
"Animated and animatronic breakfast foods," Ray said, popping gum into his mouth. "Henry thinks that sausage would be more of a romantic than bacon and that a giant waffle could defeat a giant pancake in a fight to the death, covered in butter and syrup!"
"HOW do these subjects get started?" Charlotte wondered as they changed back.
"What about a crepe?" Jasper wondered.
Henry and Ray both laughed and repeated, "Crepe?"
"Oh yeah, a giant CREPE can fight!" Ray taunted.
Henry added, "Guess it's gonna just roll up to the scene, since he's gonna lose his innards if he steps up." The duo fell on each other laughing. Jasper sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not sure why you entered their weird little world."
"Third Wheel Syndrome has me sensitive, I think."
Henry took a seat next to Charlotte and asked Jasper, "What do you mean?"
"Since the two of you got together, I'm feeling left out," Jasper admitted.
"How? I just spent four hours stuck in a vat of scrambled eggs and country gravy. You and Char have been here going through…" he picked one up from in front of Charlotte and she sucked her teeth. "College brochures." He set it down, "Jasp you're leaving for college too?"
"No. I'm marking pros and cons for Charlotte. I'm going to Swellview University. We talked about this."
"I know! I was gonna be super upset if you were gonna run off on me. Bad enough she will be." He pointed a thumb to Charlotte.
"What happens when that happens?" Jasper wondered.
"It's at least a year in the future. We haven't even discussed what we're doing this summer," Charlotte said. The three were quiet for a moment. Ray and Schwoz were talking among themselves a few feet away.
Henry broke the collective silence between their trio by asking, "So, what are we going to do this summer"
"There's my birthday.." Jasper said then squinched his face and shook his head, "You weren't talking to me, were you?"
"I was talking to you both. Anybody have plans already?"
"I never have plans," Jasper said, almost certain that Henry was definitely only talking to Charlotte.
She said, "Same old same old for me. Summer Youth Program in June. Beginning of July trip with my parents. The only thing different this year is I'm going to add three or four campus tours of whichever colleges have the least cons and most pros."
"Need company?" Henry wondered. She furrowed her eyebrows and actually looked up at him. "Just to you know, make sure that you enjoy yourself despite the work."
"I love college tours. I'll enjoy myself," she said.
Henry pouted, "Fine." She looked questioningly at the sky about his salty tone, but left it alone. Henry sighed, "Jasper, do you think you'll want to spend any time with me this summer?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Jasper cheered. Charlotte rolled her eyes. She hadn't said that she wasn't going to spend any time with him.
In fact, her visits would be four weekends from the entire summer. Her Youth Program was on Thursdays. Her trip was two weeks. Aside from that, she was pretty sure she'd see both of these clowns every other summer moment. She'd tuned out the boys making plans without her whenever she heard Jasper declare, "It's gonna be super hard for us to do these things whenever you and Charlotte are married and stuff."
Henry shook his head and Charlotte chimed in, "Whenever what?"
Jasper reminded her, "Remember that whole hashtag Henlotte thing?"
"That was a joke, Bro," Henry said, laughing a little uncomfortably. "Nobody actually thought that I was proposing or that we were gonna be kissing. That's why it was so hilarious."
"Yeah, but you are kissing. You kiss a lot. You're together. Charlotte's thinking about her upcoming colleges before junior year end. Do we really believe she's not thinking beyond that?" Henry's head turned sharply and quickly to Charlotte.
She scoffed and said, "Don't look so panicked. As it turns out, I've been focused enough on my educational future that I haven't been circling anything in bridal books on the off chance that my boyfriend ever wants to me to participate in the antiquated institution of marriage."
Henry sighed, relieved, "Oh thank God. Wait. So… You never wanna get married, at all? To anybody?"
"Honestly, it's never crossed my mind. I've had one stupid boyfriend and I'm only 16. Why I would daydream about becoming someone's less respected partner is beyond me."
"Less respected?" Jasper repeated.
But Henry was stuck on "Stupid boyfriend?"
Charlotte snatched her brochures from Jasper and explained, "Married women are taken less seriously than their married male counterparts in the corporate world. Whether I go into STEM, academia, politics, business, or even if my degree proves useless and I wind up regretting decisions in retail - women are already valued less and when you add a wedding ring, they're expected to be full time workers and full time homemakers while Daddy retreats into his little solo space to unwind after his hard day's work. And don't let her become a mom! She doesn't get the necessary time off to be the kind of mother that everyone expects. Simultaneously, whatever kind of mother she is, the workplace thinks is too much." She was stuffing her bag and then looked at Henry, "And for the record, just because I haven't thought about it doesn't mean that I need your graphic depictions of relief about it!" She snatched her bag and headed for the elevator.
Jasper called out, "Okay, but that explanation of the workplace tells that you've definitely thought about it."
She glared at him and snapped, "That information is common knowledge to women!"
As the elevator door shut, Henry looked confused. "So.. Am I supposed to be thinking about marriage, or not?"
"I think that you shouldn't be, because Charlotte doesn't have marriage plans, but maybe if it crosses your mind, try to not seem repulsed by Charlotte being your wife? Her execution of the subject was all over the place."
"The place of lies," Ray said. "Women wanna get married. It's their reward for being good girlfriends!"
"That's a gross oversimplification of like everything involved in what you said," Henry commented. "Honestly, now that I think about it, Charlotte has literally never mentioned anything about weddings or marriage or anything like it. Not even so much as a "I'll play this song someday at my wedding."
Ray commented, taking a seat by Henry, "That's probably because she's been resigned to the fact that nobody's ever gonna marry her. I mean, she's the worst, amirite?"
"You're not," Jasper said, at the same time Henry said, "No."
"So, either of you can picture having Charlotte there, every single day, nagging you, telling you what to do, why this is unsafe or that's unwise?"
"That sounds like every day of my life since 5th grade," Jasper said.
"Yeah! Char is the smart one. We all know that. We need someone like that everyday!"
Ray muttered, "Still the worst."
"What is your problem with Charlotte?" Henry asked, exasperated."I mean, what if this does go different for us than my other relationships and it winds up being something real and lasting. Do I always have to worry that you're gonna be a butt to her?"
Ray laughed, "Yeah. I've known this was coming for a long time. I'm not treating her any differently no matter what status you have. Because as far as I'm concerned you've always been endgame… Also, she's the worst."
"Because she forces you to have to be better?" Jasper wondered.
Ray groaned and mumbled, "For your information, yes."
.
Charlotte came home and her uncle was on the couch, watching TV. What else was new? "Hey, Uncle Roscoe.
"Hey, Niece! You wanna watch the Kids Danger cartoon with me?"
"No. I've gotta look over college info so Mom and Dad will be able to plan my visits in between their orchestras and excavations. Speaking of, are they out tonight?"
"The Swellview Opera House. Your mom says there's a casserole just for you in the oven. Don't worry, I don't want whatever that is. I'm ordering a pizza." She nodded, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to discuss her college choices with them tonight. "You wanna watch one of your wedding dress shows?" Uncle Roscoe wondered.
"No."
"Not even Say Yasss, This is Your Drass?" He turned off the TV and wondered, "What's wrong, Tiny?"
"Sometimes, I feel like an outsider. Even in my own home and even with my only friends. Like, we're all sharing this one life, but nobody's on the journey with me and those that are on the journey, we're not on the same page."
"You know, I was an outsider like that too. Shoot, still to this day, as a starving artist."
"How can you be starving when you live here and eat everything we have?"
“I ain’t eat that grass casserole your mom made you.”
“I’m sure you mean bean sprouts,” she said, “And that’s not the whole casserole…” The doorbell rang and she looked at him. He reached for the remote control and she gave him a look. “I’ll get it.” She went to the door and by the time she peeked out of the peephole to see Henry nervously bouncing, Uncle Roscoe was laughing at something on the television. She called, “I’m gonna step outside and talk to my friend, Unc.”
“Girl, I’m watching my shows,” he said. Basically, he didn’t care.
She opened the door and stepped outside. Henry laughed, “Your friend? Something you need to tell me?” He joked, awkwardly. “What do you need, Henry?” She asked, sounding irritated.
“I need to explain what happened earlier.”
“Okay.”
“So… Jasper was talking about marriage and we’ve never spoken about that, because neither of us are thinking that far ahead into us. But, whenever I seemed relieved, it wasn’t because I think I’d never wanna marry you or something. I just thought that we were both in the same space - a space where that’s not even a conversation yet. So, I’m sorry if I sounded insulting to you.”
She shrugged her shoulders, “We rushed really fast into the entire boyfriend-girlfriend thing. There’s no need for us to rush anything into anything else. So, it’s fine.”
“But, you seemed upset.”
“Yeah. For the reason that I told you, but it’s not a big deal. Honestly, I have other things to be upset about. Maybe it just landed on you. So, I’m sorry.”
"You wanna talk about your things?" He asked.
She sighed and leaned against the front door. "You know how my parents and I go on a trip every summer together?"
"Yeah?"
"This year is the last one. Next year, they're sending me on a solo trip after graduation to see the world myself before college."
"That sounds awesome."
"But, I hardly see them now and I just want them to go over the pros and cons of these colleges with me. I know that sounds silly to other people, but it's a huge decision to make and I wish sometimes that they'd be more involved instead of just trusting my judgement. They raised me to be independent and they don't realize that sometimes, I could use just a little dependency, you know?"
Henry nodded, "Yeah, I get that. I haven't been able to depend on my parents in quite a while. But… I've always been able to depend on my friends. So, if you just need someone to lean on, I literally have nothing better to do than here for you." Henry offered her a hug and she smiled a small smile and accepted it. When she was hugging him, he said, "And it'd be excellent, I think… some time in the far future… you know?" She looked up at him. "IF we were thinking about that."
She nodded, "If I was gonna sell myself out in that way, it'd be with my best friend." He laughed. "I meant everything that I said about marriage! The only way that I'd be on board is if it was handled like a business arrangement with someone I trust."
"You trust like two people," he chuckled.
"Yep. And they'd both be IN the marriage."
"Me and???"
She stared at him and suggested, "Think it through."
"OH, YOU!"
"I already regret this unofficial contract."
"Fortunately, we've got a long time to even think about that. We haven't even discussed.. the physical evolution of our relationship." Her eyes widened and she wondered if he was talking about what she thought he was. He noticed and quickly changed the subject, "Or what you and me are doing this summer!"
She relaxed and nodded, "Aside from the few weeks, four weekends and Thursdays, I'm all yours…" He raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm open! I mean my time is free! I have a casserole to check on. I gotta get inside!" She rushed back in, shut the door and Henry shook his head and left. "Why would bring that up, Henry? She was already having a day. I mean, sure.. you wanna discuss it. But, you haven't been together that long and it was a FLUKE that you even got her. This happened kinda haphazardly. You're gonna screw it up if you keep being weird!"
Charlotte leaned against the door, breathing hard. Are… we THERE yet??? She glanced out of the window and saw Henry look back at the house before walking away with his head down. A few minutes later, she got a text: Hey. Sorry if I scared you bringing up THAT. I won't mention it again. I don't want stuff weird between us. Call me when you don't feel awkward.
She sighed with relief and replied instantly: Thanks, Hen. You're a great friend and honestly the best boyfriend.
Henry: Not stupid boyfriend?
Charlotte: Not at all. ILU
Henry: SAME.
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Character Interview Tag
@yetmorestories tagged me!!! Thank you Frand!
Guidelines: answer these 12 questions in the voice and manner of your character(s) and then tag as many or as few writeblr guys, as you would like⭐️⭐️⭐️
I did the four mains of my current wip!
1. What did you have for breakfast? Theo: Oatmeal, and eggs, and...what were those…?
Wilma: Berry crepes.
Theo: Yeah those.*laughs* And some juice and stuff.
Cameron: I don't usually eat breakfast.
Wilma: Not good for him, we're working on that.
Theo: You had some fruit.
Cameron: Okay, I had coffee and fruit.
Beatrice: I made pancakes and a fruit smoothie.
2. What can you cook perfectly?
*Cameron and Theo and Beatrice all look at Wilma*
Wilma: Don't look at me! *she laughs* I can cook fine, I don't think there's a specific thing- no wait, pot roast, I can cook that perfect each time.
Theo: She cooks everything perfect the first time. *thinks a minute* I can cook eggs and, I mean if I have instructions I can make it.
Cameron: I can make chili perfectly. Its won contests.
Theo: *looking at his nails* You’d have to get out the house for that.
Beatrice: Pancakes. 3. If you could choose a pet, what what would it be? Theo: Dog! Cameron: Boring!
Theo: *scoffs*Oh okay, what do you want?
Cameron: Nothing. I've never wanted a pet.
Beatrice: Never? Like even if it could be anything- Blue Jay for me- you don't?
Cameron: *shakes head* Nope. I don't think I'd take care of it. *looks at Theo* But its still more interesting than a dog.
Wilma: I had a bunch of cats, I love cats.
Cameron: Yeah she carries food for strays in the car. *starts laughing*
Wilma: What?
*Cameron keeps laughing, Theo starts joining him* 4. How is your relationship with your parents? Wilma: I was very close to both my parents.
Theo: Yeah, I'm pretty close to them. Like there's a lot of us and I'm in the middle, but, they never did any of that...you know, they were attentive to all their kids. They're very supportive, really good Mom and Dad.
Beatrice: Uh, Okay. I mean we're not, like really strained, but I guess not as close as we could be...Well I mean my Dad and I have more in common than Mom and me.
Cameron: Far as I know I'm an orphan. Next question.
5. What is your favorite read? Cameron: Anything, I like really thick books, but I'll read anything. I liked comics as a kid. Theo: Fanfiction.
Beatrice: I liked comics too, and I use to read a lot of poetry, but it's been a while.
Wilma: I don't do a lot of recreational reading. 6. Do you put both socks on first, or one sock, one shoe? Everyone in unison: Both socks then shoes. Theo: Pretty weird question... 7. Do you fold your clothes before bed?
Wilma: Yes, my mother stamped the habit into me.*she laughs* I do it without realizing. Beatrice: I try.*laughs*
Cameron: I hang my clothes up, yeah.
Theo: Me too. 8. How do you feel about marriage? Wilma: I had one of them bests, I always told my kids if they're wanting to then the heart wants what it wants...I also told them to be very sure, don't just choose anyone. Beatrice: Yeah, I think as long as you're sure. Like, um...two mismatched people it doesn't end well. But like in general, sure.
Cameron: Uh...I never really thought about it.
Theo: I've thought about it, I'd like to...but I don't think it's in my cards. 9. Who was the last person you crushed on? Cameron: I don't get crushes.
Beatrice: *cracks up*Oh whatever!
Cameron: *laughing*I don't! Not in a long time.
Beatrice: “Not in a long time” That's better.
Cameron: I don't get impressed easy. *looks at Beatrice.*
Beatrice:*slowly nods*That also sounds about right...Anyway, there was someone in highschool.
Theo: There was a girl at the Academy, but she was seeing someone.
Wilma: My husband. 10. What does your dream home look like? And where would it be? Wilma: I'm already living there actually...I can't think of anything else.
Theo: I think a place in mountains, like in Colorado. Where I only have to like, drive an hour to rock climb. A nice little house, like not too fancy.
Beatrice: I...would like a little cottage-
Theo: B stands for basic.
Beatrice: Whatever! *she laughs and pushed him lightly* Like yours wasn't! Anyway, yeah, a little cottage in the county.
Cameron: Next question. 11. What’s your worst habit?
Cameron: *loudly* Oh I know this one! Theo pesters people and never shuts his yap. Wilma smothers-
Theo: Worst habit! Like biting your nails!
Cameron: Being a pain can be a habit.
Theo: Well in that case, your’s is whining like a baby every second of every day!
*Cameron is about to say something, when Beatrice moves her chair to sit between them*
Beatrice: I bite my lips. 12. What do you do for living and how do you feel about your job? Beatrice: I own my own flower shop! It took ages to get going, and I sell some clothes inside too! I love it, I've always wanted to grow and sell flowers, ever since I was little.
Wilma: Right now I'm a Private Investigator, and I'm pretty happy.
Theo: Same as Wilma, I'm very satisfied with what we do. Its helped a lot of people.
Cameron: I do the finances-
Wilma: You do other things.
Cameron: I was initially suppose to do the finances amd stuff. So it gives me a bed...Yeah, I'm pleased with it, I guess.
tags! @marewriteblr @georgiacambrielwritblr @she-writes-love
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