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unmaskedagain · 5 years ago

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Mean Queens

This was for a prompt I mentioned earlier today. I decided to test my hand at Loyal!Alya fic to see how it plays out. Hope you like it.

Marinette had officially been exiled to the back of the class and excommunicated. Lila and most of the class had been waiting for Marinette to arrive; each with cold looks on their faces. The bluenette had looked for Alya, hoping her bestie could tell her what was going on. But there was no sign of the glasses-wearing girl yet. So she had tried to catch Adrien’s eye but he had refused to make eye contact.

Then it all came out.

The class accused her of being a mean and horrible to Lila since the day the Italian girl came to class. Nino told her she’d become even worse of a bully than Chloe. Alix had called her a jealous bitch. Most of the class agreed. Even Sabrina who usually followed around the blonde Queen Bee now clung to the coattails of the newest golden ticket.

The end result? They weren’t going to be her friends anymore.

“Cool,” Marinette had shrugged and took her seat in the back.

Chloe got to class just as it happened, took one look around, snorted, and joined Marinette in back; claiming the left seat next to her. She knew the difference between diamonds and fools’ gold. And diamonds are a girls’ best friend.

Alya arrived not long after. She had been late on purpose. The entire weekend, the class minus two (Marinette and Chloe) had been firing messages back and forth in a group chat about Marinette. It had started Friday after school. Nearly everyone had bashed their once favorite bluenette while Alya had been the only one to defend her. Adrien just said he wanted to stay out of it. Things took a dark turn when Alix admitted and joked to tripping Marinette as revenge. Then Mylene admitting that spilling coffee all over Marinette’s sketchbook hadn’t been an accident. It got worse from there. However, they all claimed it was in defense of Lila. Alya was left stunned. Nothing Marinette could’ve done deserved any of what they did. How could she be so blind as to not see that the so-called “accidents” weren’t accidents at all.

No matter what Lila said, Alya just couldn’t believe Marinette was capable of such things. She had known the girl far too long. And honestly, she was a little surprised the kids who she knew had known Marinette since like pre-k and then suddenly they could think the worse of the so-called “Everyday Ladybug”.

To make it worse, the things they said about Marinette were terrible and just mean. The girl who had done so much for them deserved better. So Alya kept fighting for her friend, trying to convince her friends that something wasn’t right. Maybe Lila was a bit confused or something.

But they wouldn’t listen.

Then Alya thought maybe if she could get Marinette to realize how amazing Lila was then everything would be fine. She just needed to show Marinette proof.

…There was none.

There was literally no evidence backing up any of Lila’s stories. Not even the ones about her mom being an ambassador. The only real information about anything fantastic the Italian girl did came from the Ladyblog. And Alya had deleted that video within seconds upon the realization that Lila hadn’t been telling the truth.

Alya didn’t hesitate to create another group chat about trying to explain that maybe something was a bit fishy about Lila. She spent most of Saturday just trying to get them to listen to her. But she just got accused of being biased. Even Nino had blatantly told her that she was too close to Marinette to see what she was really like.

Was this how Marinette felt, she had found herself wondering.

“Can you prove she doesn’t actually know Ladybug?” The words tasted sour in Alya’s mouth. The more she thought about them, the worst the taste and feeling in her stomach got. Though she had remained silent the look Marinette had given Alya was like the bluenette was questioning her sanity. Or maybe her intelligence.

Because Alya was officially questioning both about herself.

Of course, Marinette could prove Lila didn’t know Ladybug! She was the one who originally helped Alya get her first big interview with the hero.

And when Alya realized (remembered) that, she also remembered that fact Marinette knew Jagged Stone very well and could easily dispute Lila’s cat and plane story. Her bestie also knew Clara Nightingale and managed to become friends with the superstar; there was no way Marinette wouldn’t ask the singer if she knew Lila Rossi. She probably already had. And the answer was probably no.

Alya pinched her nose to fight the urge to slap herself. The idea that Clara Nightingale stole Lila’s dance moves was obviously a ridiculous lie; one she had eaten up.

By Sunday morning, Lila had subtly hinted that her classmates’ chances of meeting all the celebrities she knew and the opportunities they stood a chance for were decreasing. Or as Lila texted:

No one wants to be associated with a bully. (sad emoji)

I’d hate it if people thought you were one too.

They’d never work with you then.

That was all it took for the class to agree to drop Marinette like a hot potato.

And that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Alya was concerned.

She was at Marinette less than half an hour later. Alya apologized for not believing Marinette about Lila. She had taken off her glasses when she began to cry. She handed her phone over, and let Marinette read the group texts. The hurt that flashed over the Asian’s girl face nearly broke Alya’s heart.

“You’re my best friend,” Alya had stated firmly. “I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve had your back. I’ll do better. I’ll be better.”

Marinette wiped tears from her face. “You had my back when it counted the most.” A cold look appeared on her face. “Tomorrow, we’ll find out who’s really my friend.”

Alya agreed but wanted to point out that friends didn’t do what they did. She couldn’t stop herself from remembering all the nasty words and mean jokes they made about her bestie. “Okay, but then we get revenge.”

“Nothing to mean.”

“No promises.”

Alya looked at the faces of the kids who she was once her friends; to be clear, they weren’t anymore. She couldn’t trust them. If they could turn on someone like as awesome Marinette for a few sickly sweet promises and false tears, then they’d drop Alya, who could admit to herself she wasn’t nearly as nice as the bluenette, in a hot second.

She didn’t bother saying good morning to them. Alya shook her head and promptly walked to the back of the class and sat in the right (in more ways than one) desk next to Marinette’s. To her credit, Alya didn’t blink twice at Chloe’s new chosen seat; as she far she was concerned Marinette needed all the friends she could get.

Alya crossed her arms and glared at the class. A cold fury filling her. Still, she gave her ex-friends, Nino (her soon to ex-boyfriend), Lila a small smile and a chuckle, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

There would be hell to pay for they did her best friend. This wasn’t war. No, War meant the ingrates in her class actually stood a chance. They didn’t. It was Marinette, Alya, and Chloe versus everyone else. This was a war, it was an execution.

First thing first was they had to plan.

After school, the three girls met up at Marinette’s.

“No matter more being a doormat, Dupain… Marinette,” Chloe corrected at the last second.

Marinette frowned, “I’m not a doormat.”

“You kind of are girl,” Alya said, despite the part of herself that hated agreeing with Chloe. They were on the same side, she reminded herself, the same team. “You’re are constantly running around to help everyone. You’re constantly doing favors; handing out free custom design clothes, banners, food, the works. And they treat you like dirt. They’ve been treating you like dirt, and yet you still help. It’s not right. I never thought it was.”

At first, Alya hadn’t said anything because she was too new and didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But she should’ve.

“It has to stop,” Alya continued. “They’re not your friends anymore; you don’t owe anyone anything. Even if they were; your designs are way too badass to be giving them away for free.”

Marinette nodded. She could agree to that

Chloe put a hand on her hip, “The three of us are the most formidable girls in class; possibly the entire school. Outside of class, most of the school loved Mariette; the artists, the geeks, the fashion club, bakers’ club. Thanks to the Ladyblog, Alya is the most known girl at school; people trust her because Ladybug trusts her. Me? I’m the richest girl in school and I throw the best parties; the elite follows me because they have no choice, and the popular because they don’t want to risk not getting an invite. As hot and as smart as we are, we are ruling that hellhole. You know what our problem is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Marinette’s too nice. I’m too bossy. Alya’s too stubborn.”

It wasn’t the first time or the millionth that someone calls Alya stubborn. “We need to work as a unit; they come at one of us, they come at all of us. Lila isn’t done yet.”

“She lied her way to the top,” Marinette said. “As long as she thinks I’m any kind of threat to her, she won’t stop.

Chloe nodded, “Mostly because of the tops a long way from the bottom and it’s her social status, her reputation, everything she got since she came to school that’s on the line. The fall will kill her;”

“Then let’s make sure she takes our ex-friends with her,” Alya said darkly. “We got nowhere being nice and honest. Lets’ try mean and ruthless.”

Marinette wanted to protest but the texts from her so-called friends still tore at her. They had said so many hurtful things; about Marinette, her designs, her parents’ bakery. It was terrible. “What do you have in mind?”

Alya smirked, “We’re going full scorched earth.”

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

They let the class think they were safe; let the worry of any potential consequences slowly fade from their minds. It took weeks before their ex-friends would stop reading themselves for an attack whenever Chloe, Alya, or even Marinette entered the room. And during those weeks, the girls assembled their powerbases; slowly but surely, they took their rightful places at the top of the social hierarchy.

A few of the so-called Queen Bee of the school took afront of this and did their best to sabotage each other

But what none of the other social climbers expected was for the three to combine their forces. Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were cold and merciless in defense of their new positions; each one using their own unique still to remove or outright destroy their competition and anyone else that got in their way.

However, it was until Olivia Knight, the former most popular girl in school, popularity fell to just above the Goth kids that people finally got the message.

There were Three new queens in their school. Call them the Lannisters, Call them the Tyrells, or the Baratheons’; whatever However the message was the same. The Queens would do anything it took to keep their thrones.

Two months; nine parties, one school election, a dance (where Chloe was elected Queen) and joining seven clubs between them Marinette: Fashion and Art. Alya: Track and Comic Book Club. Chloe: Mathletes and Drama. Finally, all three joined the World Travels’ Club. That way they had a foot in with the nerds, jocks, the geeks, the loners, the goths, and (by way of throwing awesome parties) the popular kids. And Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were officially the most popular girls in school.

Marinette and Alya were surprised to learn the kids from Bustier’s class were lower on the overall school’s popularity scale than the creepy loner kid that hangs out behind the gym and smokes. They only really hung out with each other and seemed to have more problems than any other class in school. The main idea seemed to be that Bustier’s class was black hole no one ever managed to crawl out of until Alya, Chloe, and Marinette surfaced. Or a budding cult. Now that they had broken free, the three could see how they had gotten that idea.

When they were in class, it was like they were in their own world. They were all in high school now but most still acted as they did on their first days of middle school. It was like they refused to grow up, mature mentally and emotionally. Bustier never seemed to mind.

She was a hindrance. She blamed the victim and protected the bullies.

It was why Bustier had to go.

Getting Bustier fired was remarkable easy. A week’s work of videos of what life was life every day in her class, and she was gone.

A substitute didn’t come to replace her. No someone (Chloe) had leaned on Damocles hard to get the entire class split up until a permanent one could be found. Thus they were in for a hard lesson.

The first? Who really ruled the school?

The best part was for that ditch the girls were planning on leaving their ex-friends in, those morons brought the shovel themselves.

It took a few days for Bustier’s class to settled into their classes and schedule but once they did, they immediately tried to go back to their old ways.

The teachers shut down most of it; making it clear they would NOT be tolerating any crap.

Still, that didn’t stop everyone.

Bustier’s students, as they would be known by the students and teachers, yelled out they’re answered, frequently disrupted the class, argued loudly with each other.

Lila tried to spin her stories again but Marinette and Alya already spread the truth about how much of a liar she was so one bought anything she said. Most just ignored her. Lila didn’t like that. She thrived off attention. No attention meant Akumas. Unfortunately, this just caused Lila to look even more immature than she already did.

When Alix “accidentally” tripped Marinette. Marinette let herself fall, crash, and spill all her school supplies. Alix and Mylene snickered.

Aurore who had witnessed the event didn’t hesitate to call them out, drawing the attention of the other students. They saw Marinette on the floor, Alix and Mylene laughing and came to the correct conclusion. Marinette’s new friends rushed to help her, glaring viciously at the two girls while she did so.

Word spread quickly. And then Alya “accidentally” let it slip about the mean texts about Marinette. And then Chloe “accidentally” revealed all of the classes’ dirty little secrets; things that had only be known by Bustier’s students. Rumors flew.

It wasn’t long before most of the student body would rather be seen with the creepy loner smoker kid than with any of Bustier’s students.

No one realized just how true that statement was until Marinette announced yet another fantastic party. Chloe, Marinette, and Alya had become known for them.

…This party was different.

Usually, it was a mass invite; welcoming anyone and everyone.

This party was an invitation-only which was strange because it seemed like everyone in school was invited. Until they got to the party that Friday night and realized just who wasn’t.

Bustier’s students.

It was the worse sentence the Queen could’ve delivered to their ex-friends. It wasn’t just a drop on the popularity scale. It wasn’t social exile. The message was clear; Marinette, Chloe, and Alya would not tolerate their ex-friends whatsoever.

No one wanted to get on the girls’ bad side. No one would even consider risking it. No one wanted to be the next Olivia Knight. Olivia who never fully recovered her reputation or her social status; most of her old friends wouldn’t even speak to her anymore. They were not about to put their necks on the line for losers Bustier’s class.

They’d only lose their heads.

The (Demon) Queens of school decreed it, by next Monday, the students of Bustier’s class would be deleted.

And yet that still wouldn’t be enough for them.

As far as they were concerned they were only just getting started.

Move over Heathers, Plastics, the Queens have arrived.

#ml salt #ml fic #alya deserves better #class salt #a little bit of adrien salt #marinette dupain cheng

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strayneoct · 4 years ago

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My best friend.

yandere!Felix x reader

warning: violence, stalking, slight cursing

“y/n truth or dare?” Your best friend Felix asked, you guys were playing a spontaneous round of truth or dare after your little movie marathon. “Truth.” You responded rather monotone- Felix smiled after the word left your lips. He looked at you smugly and raised his eyebrow, “Good choice my dear, dear friend.” He said, smirking. “Did you ever sleep with your oh-so-pretty boy, Chris?” This question took you off guard, which led to you choking on your Capri Sun that you were currently drinking. “FELIX, OH MY GOD,” you exclaimed in shock. The boy next to you just laughed at your reaction while waiting for the answer that you had yet to tell him. “I... um…”you started, “I guess?” You said unsure, Felix looked beyond confused by your answer. “What do you mean ‘you guess’?” You looked at him in a shy manner and let out a deep sigh. “Nothing major happened, we made out and got a bit handsy. We got tired after some time and he stayed over. So I guess we slept but not with each other, you know?” Felix looked skeptical and displeased with what you said. Was he really that disappointed that nothing happened? Or is he being like this because of another reason? “What? Why are you making that face?” You asked the boy who was now moving a bit away from you. “Nothing, I just didn’t expect that. I thought you were too vanilla for that stuff. Anyway, let’s move on. I believe it was your turn to ask me.” You were slightly offended by his statement. “Vanilla? Me? Doesn’t he know me at all?” You thought to yourself, but since he seemed so eager to change the topic you just moved on from it. “Okay, fine. Truth or dare?”

“Dare!” he said excitedly.

“Mhm, I dare you to send the girl you are crushing on a picture of your abs.” You said smugly, now it was Felix’ turn to look shocked. “You can’t do that, I look like shit right now. This is not fair”. You just shrugged and retorted, “Sorry, Lix but I don’t make the rules. You have to! Be grateful that I didn’t say to send her your nudes.” “Alright- just you wait. I’ll get you back in the next round. Ahhh, this is so mean. I’m gonna go to the bathroom first and freshen up, since I look like trash.” You only laughed at that and gave him a thumbs up.

You started to feel a little sting in your chest when he vanished to the restrooms. You still couldn’t really comprehend Felix having a crush on someone. He was talking a lot about them within the last few weeks. To be perfectly honest, you were a bit jealous, but you would never tell him that. You always thought that you two would be together, so there was never another person in the picture. Sure, you kinda went on a date with your classmate last weekend, but you had no interest in him or whatsoever. You never thought of any other boys, the crushes that you’ve had were nothing special. It would always last for a few days or maybe even a few weeks. It seemed like- the more time you spent with Felix, the more you could see yourself together with him. You only went on a date with your classmate, Chris, because your other friends forced you. They wanted you to get “laid” because apparently you started to get more annoying and cranky day by day.

Felix was never really a fan of the idea, but you never thought much of it. You assumed that he’s just protective over you. It hurt a bit that Felix only saw you as just a friend- or even a sister, because you always felt this weird feeling when you’re with him. Having no idea what the feeling is supposed to mean and you still need some time to figure it out. But you know for sure that you will always love Felix, no matter what type of love. All you want is to have him by your side and the knowledge that you’ll always be together, either as friends or maybe even more.

After your train of thoughts, you start to entertain yourself until Felix comes back so guys continue with your silly game. You turned on some soft music from your favourite playlist to keep yourself company. The boy took a little longer than you expected, so you grabbed his phone to surprise him with some funny pictures of yourself while you waited. You took his phone with the familiar phone case you got him for his birthday and smashed in his passcode. “Huh, what’s this?” You said out loud. His phone wasn't unlocking. “Did he change his passcode? But why?” You tried to unlock the phone several times but to no avail. Is Felix hiding something? Would he really have any secrets from you? What would be so bad that he would change his passcode and hide it from you?

Curiosity suddenly hit you like a truck. You tried to think of different things the code could be. His mother’s birthday. The day when his first pet passed away. Nothing worked. You ended up typing in your birthday and to your surprise, it unlocked. After a little victory dance, you began to think of where he could’ve hid something from you. Before you started to look at his messages, you noticed a photo of yourself that you’ve never seen before. It was a picture of you sleeping in his bed, cuddling one of his beloved plushies. At first you were a bit startled- but you shrugged it off, he is your best friend and best friends take random pictures of each other all the time, right? Your heart started to swell up at the thought that Felix loved and cherished you and your friendship so much that he put you as his wallpaper.

“I bet he was texting someone about something” You whispered to yourself, but you suddenly stopped. “I can’t do this. I can’t just invade his privacy like that. Maybe he had a surprise for me and changed his passcode? Mhm…I have to trust him. Maybe he’ll tell me what’s up when I mention it?” You thought. After a second thought you pressed on the camera app. You decided that you should just trust him and wait for him to be ready to tell whatever he is hiding and then started to take some selfies. You took a bunch of photos with silly faces, laughing to yourself. It made you happy to see that you gained a bit of confidence and that you’re starting to be more happy and satisfied with how you looked.

A few minutes passed and you got bored of taking selfies, so you decided to go to his gallery and delete the ones that were a bit ugly or blurry. Opening his gallery, something immediately caught your eye. It was a folder that had your name as the title. Suddenly you felt this weird feeling again. It felt so odd, you couldn’t even describe it. Maybe it had something to do with the folder? It started when you saw it, so maybe if you look into it, you’ll figure it out? You eagerly opened the folder. It held a lot of random photos of you. At first you found it really sweet and cute. But the more you scrolled, the weirder it got: there were pictures of you going out with other friends, when you were grocery shopping, at school, at work, even from outside your window. Even photos of you while changing… “What the hell is this?” You thought, you kept on scrolling through the folder and felt unsafe.

Why does he have all this? Where did he get it from? Did he take these himself? All those thoughts made you feel dizzy. You found a picture of yourself in your room while you were… Oh my god. This is way too creepy for you to wrap your head around. With shaky hands, you closed his gallery and started to dig even deeper into his phone. There was an app called live camera that made you curious. You tapped on it and it opened. The app showed you live videos of every corner of your apartment. Your room, your bathroom, the kitchen, even the damn walk-in closet. You saw Felix being filmed in your bathroom. He was looking through all your laundry and started sniffing it. You can feel yourself starting to panic more and more. All you wanted to do is get out of here now, even if this was your apartment, you needed to get out as fast as possible.

“What are you doing?” You heard his familiar voice say. You froze up immediately. How come you didn’t even notice that he left the bathroom? Was the app delayed? It doesn’t matter to you right now. All you wanted was to find a way to get out. “Uh… I wanted to take some selfies because I got bored. You took way too long, What were you even doing?” The boy in front of you suddenly looked nervous. “I washed my hair because it looked kinda oily, hope that was okay.” He lied. You never thought that he’d ever lie to you, but after what you saw, this isn’t a surprise anymore. He sat down and went to grab his phone. “WAIT,” you exclaimed. Felix halted and looked at you, puzzled. “You know, I’m kinda tired right now, let’s just go to bed and continue this tomorrow. You can give me your phone, I can go charge it for you.” He simply declined and put it in his pocket. “Fine, let’s go to bed then. I know that you need your beauty sleep, so let’s go. Do you wanna change first? I can go change in the bathroom if you want.” He suggested. This was it. This was your chance. You can get out when he’s changing. “Yeah I’ll go change in my room and you can change in the bathroom”. Felix just smiled. You stood up and went to your room as fast as possible. The moment you closed the door you started to panic again. Fetching your phone out of your back pocket, you started to type a message to your friend Chris and asked him if you could come over. Thankfully the boy responded after seconds, thank god for his insomnia. After reading his confirmation, you rushed to pack some clothes and put on your shoes.

Taking a deep breath, you opened the door and looked around to see if he was already done. To your luck he seemed to still be in the bathroom. You tippy toed to your front door and grabbed the doorknob. SLAM, the moment you opened the door, you felt a strong force that shut it as fast as you opened it. “Where do you think you are going?” At this point you were scared for your life. “My mom texted me, something happened and I need to be there now. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” you quickly came up with this lousy excuse. “At 2am?”, he asked. All you did was shrug. “You know, my phone takes pictures of people that use the app right?” He said casually, your eyes widened. He saw you grab your stuff. He looked at his phone. How could you forget the cameras that he installed? You felt his hand wrap around your arm and he dragged you to your room and locked it. “Let’s have some fun…” was the last thing he said before locking the door. This is a Felix that you never expected to see. In a matter of seconds, he became your worst nightmare.

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This was the first time that I ever wrote a fic, so I hope you guys liked it 🥺

also big thanks to my friend Harlie for correcting my grammar haha ily

#stray kids #stray kids imagines #stray kids yandere #lee felix imagine #lee yongbok #lee felix #stray kids x reader #kpop imagines #kpop

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firefly464 · 4 years ago

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The Real World - Chapter 12

Alright chapter 12 lets goooo. Another slightly slower chapter, but I promise that its gonna be picking up real soon. Also Pami wrote the irl bit because shes the coolest and I love her :D

Made in collaboration with @i-have-this-now Thank you to @rivys for beta reading and editing!

Master Post

First - Previous - Next

~~~

Dream stared at his friend, confusion and worry filling his mind. The teenager had been staring into space for the past minute or so, not responding to either him or Tubbo. Dream hadn’t been too concerned, until he noticed that Tommy was crying.Tears were streaking down Tommy’s face, forging a path on his cheeks. His expression was filled with a mixture of hope and fear, his eyes glazed over, like he was listening to something that no one else could hear.

“Tommy? Hellooo? You ok?” Dream asked, waving a hand in front of his face. No response. He glanced over at Tubbo, trying to see if he had any ideas. Instead, when Dream made eye contact with him, Tubbo flinched and sank back into his seat, as if trying to disappear. Right. Of course Tubbo was scared of him. Everyone was scared of him.

“You know I’m not going to hurt you, right?” He asked, trying to lighten the mood.

The younger brunette stared at him in fear, unsure of how he was supposed to respond. If Dream had said those same words to him a month ago, he would have ran, no questions asked. Now though, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know this man, had no idea what he was like. All he had to go off of was what Tommy had said.

His eyes darted over towards his spaced out friend. “What did you do to him?” He asked, struggling to keep the tremor out of his voice. He had only stood up to Dream once, and it had resulted in him nearly losing his arm. Slowly, as to not draw attention to himself, he moved his hand to the hilt of his sword. If this went south, then he sure as hell needed to be ready to defend himself.

“Nothing! I didn’t do anything, I promise” Dream dropped the bow and put his hands up in an attempt to show he meant no harm. He understood why Tubbo was so scared of him, but that didn’t change the fact that it stung. How could it not? Someone who he had thought of as a friend was now trembling before him in fear.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but if you hurt Tommy in any way I will not hesitate to run you through.” Tubbo’s voice shook with fear, despite his best attempts at keeping it steady.

Seeing the young teenager like this, Dream couldn’t help but be filled with pity and sadness. He was only 16, still just a kid. He should have been worried about homework, or some other small problem. He shouldn’t be stressing over whether or not he was going to live through the day, or who was going to try and hurt him next. It just wasn’t right.

Dream nodded, his hands still raised.“I promise, Tubbo, I didn’t do anything, and I don’t plan on hurting either of you.”

“Tubbo…” A soft voice startled them both. Tommy was now staring at the fallen bow, the tears freely flowing.

Tubbo’s attention was instantly drawn to his best friend, his eyes filled with overwhelming concern. “Hey man, you ok?”

Tommy looked up at his friend. A pang of homesickness shot through him. Everything about the boy next to him felt… wrong. He knew that it was still Tubbo, but that didn’t change the fact that it didn’t seem right. He was too tense, too nervous. It was as if at any moment, he could be attacked. It was so different from the laid back attitude of his Tubbo. The one that got excited over the smallest things. The one who casually went around killing people in game for no real reason. Tommy couldn’t help but miss the energetic and fun loving Tubbo from his own world. Still, he was still his friend.

Without hesitation, Tommy reached over to give his friend a hug. The tears continued to flow as the words of the message replayed in his mind. ‘I swear, we’re gonna figure something out and get you guys out of there. I promise.’ It wasn’t much to go off of, but goddammit what did he have to lose?

Tubbo couldn’t help but flinch at the sudden hug. “Hey, is everything alright?”

“Sorry, sorry” Tommy quickly said, backing up and giving his friend space. He frantically wiped the tears off his face and tried to compose himself. “Yeah, I’m good.” “What the hell was that? You just zoned out, are you sure you’re ok?” Dream asked.

“I uh, I think I just got a message from Tubbo. Our Tubbo,” he made sure to clarify. “Apparently he’s been working with Wilbur and the other Tommy to try and bring us home…”

Dream felt his jaw drop. “Wait, really?! You’re kidding!”

“I swear to you that I am not joking. Trust me, I want to go home as much as you do.”

“How?! What did he say? What do we do?”

“There’s- There’s a console. Apparently it's like the server console back home, but it's an actual physical computer here. According to Tubbo it has the ability to do some really weird shit.”

“Like run regular commands?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Damn, imagine what kinda fucked up shit you could do with that kinda thing…”

“Uh huh, imagine what kind of fucked up shit this other Dream already did with that thing.”

“Fuck, you’re right.”

“So how exactly does this help us get home?”

“Right, right. I guess that the other Dream figured out how to swap people’s souls across dimensions or something with it.”

Dream’s face lit up as he made the connection. “We could do it too! We could use the command to swap us back and put everything back to normal!” A rush of excitement filled him. Finally, finally they had some direction. They actually had a goal, something to work towards. They had hope. “Where is it? Where can we find it?”

“See, that's the problem. Actually, there's two problems. One, we don’t know the command. Tubbo was thinking if we could make it to the console, we might be able to communicate with them and figure something out.”

“Wait, what? How would that even work?”

Tommy shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m honestly just hoping that Tubbo knows what he’s doing.”

“Riiight. So what's the other problem?”

Tommy took a deep breath and tried to find something, anything else to look at. He didn’t want to look Dream or Tubbo in the eyes when he told them the truth. Eventually, his eyes rested on the white, porcelain mask that hung on the wall. The simple smile seemed to bore into his very soul, taunting him in a way. He looked away. “The computer is super far away. Apparently it takes a couple days to reach on foot.”

“Ok? And?”

“According to the other Tommy, the other Dream is going to delete the server in a little less than 48 hours, which would most likely result in every single one of us dying a very painful death.”

Dream let out a low whistle. “Right. So you’re telling me that we have to go and find this super powerful computer that's really far away, try to come up with a plan, and figure out what the right command is within the next 48 hours, or the world will be deleted and we all die.”

“Yeah pretty much.”

“Right. Ok, no pressure.” he ran a hand through his hair, already trying to figure out what the best course of action was. “Where exactly is the console?”

“He said it’s in this room made out of bedrock in the middle of a dark forest, almost directly east of us.”

Dream nodded. “Got it. Tommy, go let George know what's going on. See if he wants to join us. It’d probably be smart to have someone who actually knows what they’re doing with us. I’m going to get together some supplies.”

“Got it. Tubbo, do you wanna come with us?” Tommy asked, startling the brunette.

He had been deep in thought, trying to keep up with the conversation. He was confused, but he also didn’t want to ask any questions and risk angering Dream. He shook his head. “I’m good. You guys uh, you’ll need someone to cover for you, right? I can tell Wilbur what's going on…” He was lying, of course. He just didn’t want to spend any more time around Dream. Sure, Tommy trusted him, but that didn’t change the fact that just looking at the man brought back painful memories.

“Ok, that's probably smart. Make sure he knows that the other Tommy is safe, ok? He’s going to be coming home soon.”

A slight smile crossed Tubbo’s face. “Alright. I can do that. I’ll uh, I’ll see you guys later then.” He rushed out of the base, running towards L’manberg.

Dream and Tommy were silent, neither of them mentioning the obvious. If all went according to plan, then they would never see this version of Tubbo again.

~~~

“Florida?!” Tubbo cried, flabbergasted. “We’re going to Florida? That’s like a 9 hour flight!” All this SMP stuff was making his head spin. First, it was just Tommy and Dream’s disappearance, then it escalated to something much, much worse. His friends’ lives were at stake if they didn’t do anything. He honestly didn’t want to believe Tommy, but something told him that what he’s saying is true.

“Look, I’m used to taking on my problems in person. I can’t just sit in front of this thing- whatever weird gadget this is- and do nothing! We have to go there!” Tommy explained.

“Tommy, what will you tell everyone else? What will you tell your parents? You can’t just prance up to them and go ‘hello dearest parents! As it turns out, I’m not your son, but I’m him from another dimension! Y’know how he plays that video game? It’s that dimension! Anyways, I’m off to Florida to go do a murder! I’ll be home before dinner!’ How do you think that’s gonna go down?” Wilbur said.

“Will, I know what I’m doing! This psychopath is gonna try to kill my friends. I need to save them.” Tommy told them desperately. “If we reach him, we can get to his computer and I can go home!”

“We don’t even know where he lives, Tommy!” Wilbur retaliated.

“Well, I might.” Tubbo said, nonchalantly.

Wilbur blinked. “You what? You’re not going to hack him, Tubbo-”

“He isn’t our Dream, Will. This is probably the only chance we have to do this! Lives are at stake!”

“But there’s laws--” Wilbur sighed, pulling on his face in resignation. He still had trouble believing in this. Dimension travel? Souls? A few days ago he’d say they never existed. But, now… “Okay, fine. I can get us three to Florida. Earliest flight I can get us will be at about five-in-the-morning. We find Dream and we…” Wilbur trailed off.

“Kill him.” Tommy gritted out.

“NO!” Wilbur and Tubbo shouted.

“Tommy, we are not going to kill him. We need our Dream and Tommy to come back and send both of you back. If you kill him-” Wilbur explained.

“Okay, fine,” Tommy sighed, cutting off whatever it was Wilbur was about to say. “We won’t kill him. We just need to hold him long enough for him to tell us the command.”

“And what if he refuses to tell us?”

“Then we make him tell us.”

~~~

Master Post

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#hey whoever commented about how they had to go to florida #you're a prophet and really cool #i dunno how you managed to figure it out but im just gonna assume it was magic #tubbo_#tubbolive #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #wilbursoot #wilbur soot #The Real World #The Real World AU #dream smp #l'manberg #my writing #mcyt #mcyt au #fanfiction #dream team #tommyinnit

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zigtheeortega · 4 years ago

Text

redeemed

pairing | m!raleigh x mc

word count | 6.6k

warnings | cursing, innuendos, mentions of sex

tags | @natesewell, @choicesarehard, @empressazura, @raleighcarrera, @pixeljazzy, @pixelsandkink [tagging people who usually ask to be tagged !]

author’s note | i’ve talked about this before but i’m not a huge fan of the platinum mc’s personality, so i’ve kind of crafted my own that’s quite a bit more rebellious than canon. i’m obsessed with the idea of an mc who’s romancing raleigh and falls into the same pattern of behavior and it genuinely concerns them – so yeah i play with that idea here! i deviate from canon some but not too much ! this is my submission for day 2 of @platinumweekend as well ! also i had no idea how to end this so i apologize for the fizzle out at the end lol

•─────────────────•

As soon as he stepped off stage, he was shuffled to his tour bus, Fiona on his heels. She looked like the human embodiment of rage in a grey blazer, a look in her eye that made him thankful he wasn’t the one it was directed at – or at least he hoped he wasn’t the reason she was two seconds away from a murderous rampage.

She slammed the door behind her, locking it, running to the windows and closing the curtains, peeking out at the paparazzi that no doubt had already tried flocking at the edges of the blocked off area where the bus was parked.

“Damn, what’s the problem? Can’t I at least get my food from craft services? Jesus,” he complained, grabbing a bottle of water from the fully stocked mini fridge, downing it while Fiona frantically ran around the bus, turning off every electrical device in sight.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

She wheeled on him, a few strands of her hair sticking to her lips. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Yeah, you won’t let me go get my fuckin’ overpriced grilled cheese that I know is waiting for me,” he jabbed his thumb towards the venue. “At craft services.”

She eyed him, pupils wide, her anger nearly palpable. “It’s bigger than food.”

He ran a hand through his damp hair, some strands completely drenched in sweat. “Lay it on me.”

And the three words that fell from her lips were soul crushing, his post-show high wearing off in an instant.

“Dom’s been arrested.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He sat up, posture rigid. “What happened?”

“Not here. We’ll talk on the plane,” Fiona said, twisting the knob of the closet door, grabbing the black duffel bag on the ground. She tossed it at his feet, motioning for him to stand. “The jet leaves in an hour. I packed for you.”

“The plane? Where is she?” He was getting more and more frustrated, nearing hysterics. He should’ve felt a bit more shame about how worked up he was getting, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

Fiona took notice, her fiery gaze softening at the edges, the blue flames flickering across his face. “Not here, Raleigh.”

He slung the duffle bag on his shoulder, walking to the door.

“Wait –” Fiona said, leaning over the couch to pull the curtain to the side, peering out again. “I paid off a security guard to distract the paparazzi. And when he does, we have to run to the car that’s gonna pull up any minute now – undetected,” she shot back at him, her icy gaze warning.

Within minutes, a security guard with a similar build to Raleigh sprinted towards the venue, jacket over his head, paparazzi on his heels.

With the camera’s flashing finally pointed away, they were able to slide into the back of the cab, thankful that Hank had connections everywhere. The driver rolled up the barrier without question as soon as Fiona tossed him a wad of cash that she’d fished out of a plain leather pouch.

She shook the pouch, her lips set in a thin line. “You know what this is?”

“A purse?” He asked, brows furrowed. “Is this some kind of fuckin’ trick?”

“It’s an emergency fund. Cash. Not traceable.”

She shook her head, dropping the pouch into her lap, before pinching the bridge of her nose. “When Dom first started getting into trouble, I had to pay off a few people here and there, but when it became more frequent, I had to actually sit her down with her accountant and sort this out.”

“Sort… what out?”

“How much money she needed to allocate to her… antics,” she rolled her eyes, propping her elbow on the back of her seat, hand pressed to her forehead.

She looked drained. Fiona never looked disheveled, but he sensed this was the closest she’d be to it.

“If it’s money she needs, that’s fine. Lemme call my agent –”

“There’s only so much cash I can hand people under the table before it becomes a problem. Not just financially, put publicly,” she sighed, chewing the inside of her cheek. “I’ve been able to cover up the smaller mishaps, but this, I’m afraid, might be the start of something… much worse than disorderly conduct.”

“You gonna tell me her charges?” His jaw set in anticipation, already running through a list of the best lawyers in L.A. that got him off from potentially hefty lawsuits.

Her short locks swayed as she shook her head. “I don’t think it’s my place to tell you.”

He blew air out of his cheeks, leaning into the corner of the cab, legs splayed wide as he tried to take a nonchalant stance. “Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”

“You’ll be glad you have a bedroom, shower, and fridge on the plane,” she said with another shake of her head.

––––

Raleigh laid in bed, aimlessly scrolling through his burner account.

He never really cared for social media under the public eye. Every post of his was either related to tour or the series of brand deals for products he never used. Each page was a personified advertisement – some shit he regretted signing up for.

One drunken night, his curiosity got the best of him and he found himself making a pretty inconspicuous profile, following some funny internet personalities and political commentators. And although he had plans to delete it, once Dom came into the picture, he unabashedly lurked.

He followed her on all platforms, and when he had the chance, he watched her stories, voted in her daily polls, and occasionally scrolled through her old instagram photos.

This time in particular, though, he was looking for something specific without really knowing if there was an answer.

He scrolled to her first post, hundreds down, smiling at high school Dom. Thick eyeliner, layered hair, brace-adorned grin – she was a poster child of adolescence.

Photos of her with Shane at pep rallies, in Halloween costumes, in prom formal wear filled the screen, later transitioning to senior portraits, graduation photos, and dorm photos. A setting of picturesque normality as Dom grew into herself, growing out her choppy layers, softening her makeup, her gleaming smile lighting up each photo.

She grew more beautiful with each year, each little phase of her life coming with a new style, a new little identity or association, Dom’s willingness to try new things the reason she was able to break free from her small town.

God, was Raleigh so fucking envious of this imperfect little portion of her Instagram. If someone were to look this far back for him, there’d be photoshoots and magazine spreads and paparazzi photos all neatly planned. The shaky off-guard photos, the unedited red eyes, the off guard photos, the expressions they made in them… it was something Raleigh never had the chance to do.

Being in the business for ten years, everything was pristine, crisp – always smiling or smoldering, no in between. Sexy and rugged or smiling and happy. Like he had two modes and he wasn’t ever able to exercise those other parts of himself because being in front of the camera was restrictive – while Dom was able to be unabashedly herself.

He was breaking shit just to feel something, to have some range of emotions even if it was a stupid fucking publicity stunt where he damaged property or made out with another politician’s daughter or attempted irreparable blows to his public image.

The more recent the posts, the more calculated her photos got, the phrase “ad” showing up more and more. But even with a skincare brand deal, her step-by-step skincare routine video was on brand for Dom, her bright smile and wit always present in everything she did.

But Raleigh couldn’t help but feel like parts of her were slipping away.

Her online persona was still pretty crisp, except for her style shift – tattoos, a couple piercings, and some edgier photoshoots signified a tonal shift in Dom’s aesthetic, but nothing he hadn’t seen before.

Hell, when he used his first innuendo on his solo album, there was widespread outrage on Sunset Skatepark fan forums, ripping into him for singing about using his dick (even though he was definitely an adult and definitely not a virgin).

But other than her general style, nothing was different. Nothing to indicate this downward spiral that Fiona kept a secret.

Where’s the shift? He thought to himself as he scrolled to the top. When the hell did she start changing for the worse?

She’d come a long way from her clean songs that didn’t require a radio edit. He felt a pang of something in his chest –– regret, maybe? Was he the reason she’d changed?

The questions sent him into a near tailspin, his pulse quickening at the realization.

He was the problem.

She’d since deleted her photos with Raleigh, because their breakup was so public, but he could tell that the shift happened right around the time she started spending more time with him.

He’d been a mentor of sorts, opposite of Avery, showing her the ropes… which meant that he was teaching her how to evade the press, fuck with the paparazzi, pick out industry plants – the whole nine yards.

She was impulsive, daring, adventurous, fearless – all the qualities he liked in himself. But he never thought those traits would take a negative turn, morphing her into a rebel with an affinity for breaking laws.

He could blame himself all he wanted, but he couldn’t blame her for taking the same route he took.

He knew it better than anybody – it was hard to shift the public’s persona of you. Once you did something horrible to make them hate you, either the rebrands and ass kissing worked, or you get written off by everyone.

Raleigh Carrera was a special case, a wild card of sorts who toed the line, unpredictable, both with his craft and his behavior. The nastier his lyrics, the crazier his publicity stunts were, the more polarizing he was.

And that was no doubt the route Dom was on, heading towards an inevitable press nightmare – if people were to find out the home grown rags-to-riches Dominique Avalos dove headfirst into her rebellious phase with no smooth transition, she wouldn’t be able to Google herself for months without having a panic attack.

She’d changed drastically, but that’s what fame did to people. Some people cracked under the pressure, or they rebelled to show the public they were in control of their narrative… or that they desperately wanted it back.

He took a shaky breath, swiping out of the app.

He wasn’t sure if he could save her, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t gonna try.

––––

The moment the jet touched down, Fiona was in full manager mode, adamant on abandoning his phone, stressing the importance of going off the grid.

“If anyone finds out you’re here, they’ll be able to put two and two together. Why else would you be in the same country as Dom when you’re supposed to be heading towards New York for your next show?” She asked, hand outstretched.

“I hate it when you’re right,” he grumbled, tossing his phone into her palm. “Where are we exactly?”

“I can’t tell you,” she sighed, looking exhausted. He had a gut feeling she hadn’t slept a wink since they’d boarded the plane.

“Why not?”

“It’s a bit safer that way.”

He scoffed. “You’re serious? Look, I’m not exactly thrilled to pull the A-List celebrity card, but this is borderline kidnapping.”

“Let’s just say you might be able to pick up on some of the language,” she said, turning on her heel to exit the plane.

Within minutes, they were pulling onto a dirt backroad, the small houses they passed barely casting shadows onto the ground.

The town itself was seemingly innocuous – the tiny brick houses riddled with dust, the stone paths lining the road cracked and deserted. The tiny town had turned in for the night, their old Sedan sticking out like a sore thumb despite the old model.

Raleigh squirmed in his seat, twisting the expensive watch on his wrist. He fucking hated this.

No matter where he went, he was noticed in some capacity – so wearing a Rolex and Cartier rings in a small village in the middle of nowhere just made him look pretentious.

He slipped the rings and watches off, shoving them deep into the pocket of his jeans, ignoring Fiona’s calculating side eye (one he knew all too well).

The only light, other than the gas lamp posts and their high beams, came from the building at the end of the road.

The car pulled around the side, flicking their lights off, the driver peeking around before motioning for them to exit the car.

“Throw the hoodie on, Raleigh,” Fiona ordered while slipping on a ball cap of her own, her casual t-shirt and leggings wildly different from her normal outfit.

“Sure,” he murmured, tugging the hood on.

The walk from the car to the dusty glass front door was short, Fiona breaking into a light jog to keep up with Raleigh’s brisk pace.

The makeshift “waiting room” in the front corner of the station was empty, the scratched up folding chairs in crooked rows. The front desk was occupied by a sleeping form, head buried in the crease of his elbow, snore muffled by the counter top.

The other officer stood at the back near an old vending machine, sliding coins into the slot, the clink of each piece ringing out against the brick and linoleum.

No cameras, he thought, after a quick scan of the room, shoving the hood back in its place at the nape of his neck.

The holding cells were farther back, but he couldn’t see her.

He stepped up to the counter where the man was sleeping, giving a gentle knock to the top. The man stirred, unfurling his arms, while the other man in the back glanced up from where he was, elbows deep in the snack machine as he fished out his bag of chips.

Raleigh offered a basic greeting in Spanish, frowning just a bit when both officers’ eyes lit up – the phrase “famoso” and “celebridad” falling from their lips almost as soon as they recognized him.

Yeah, he was gonna use his notoriety to their advantage, but that didn’t mean it still didn’t sting when people immediately tried gauging what they could get from him when they realized who he was.

For a long time he’d been waiting for the day where name dropping himself didn’t get him out of deep shit.

And the day he met Dom, when he assumed she knew who he was, all she did was raise her brow as if to say “Why the fuck should I care?”

It startled him, truthfully. But it was such a breath of fresh air. He couldn’t remember a time before or after that someone showed no interest in him.

The officer in the back jogged to the front, pulling his phone out of his back pocket while asking for a picture.

He looked to Fiona, who was shaking her head furiously, stepping up next to him like her 5’5 stature was enough to shield him. “Nobody can know we’re here.”

He nodded, turning back to the men, trying to negotiate with them.

Yes, Dom’s here.

No, you can’t see her.

He racked his brain trying to figure out how he was gonna get himself – and Dom – out of the situation unscathed if he couldn’t give them a photo or autograph.

“Dom bought me the Rolex and Cartier rings, right?”

Fiona’s brows furrowed. “Yes. She gifted them to you on your birthday. You know this –”

“No, what I mean is, she has the receipts? Or you do?”

“I don’t have them, but I have access to them,” she said, still confused.

“Get rid of ‘em. I haven’t told anyone she bought them for me.”

Her face lit up in recognition, and she nodded, encouraging him to go on.

He dug in his pockets, fishing out the watch and thin bands.

After a quick exchange, the officers took two rings each, and began rapid fire arguing over the Rolex. They tossed Raleigh the keys, stepping out the front door.

“I’ll keep watch,” Fiona said, turning towards the door.

“Hey –” Raleigh said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

She quirked a brow at him. “What?”

“You’re not coming with?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Why not? I’m not even sure what the fuck I’m supposed to say –”

“She specifically asked for you.”

He took a step back, resting his palm on the countertop behind him. “What the – are you… are you serious?”

She nodded once. “She might’ve been slurring, but she was clear as day. She wanted you.”

He blew air out of his cheeks, running a hand through his short waves.

Fiona’s gaze softened, her eyes still piercing. Fiona was a lot of things – steadfast, headstrong, determined – but she wasn’t soft. She didn’t sugar coat shit.

“She’s missed you. She doesn’t confide in me much, but even I can tell she’s unhappy. Be gentle with her,” she said, gaze tearing right through him.

The walk to the holding cells felt miles long – his resolve was shrinking with every step.

He wasn’t afraid of seeing Dom, not at all. He was afraid of whatever part of himself that might’ve been reflected in her.

The cell was empty, save for the curled form on the bench, long dark hair cascading over the edges of the seat.

“Dom?” He called, hearing her sharp inhale of breath as she stirred, bending into a long stretch, her limbs unfurling until she was lying on her back on the bench, tilting her head towards his voice.

God, even when she looked like life had torn her to shreds, she still looked beautiful.

“Raleigh?” She croaked, her eyes squinting to adjust to the low lights. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

She arched her back, stretching again, her long frame covering the bench. It was almost the right level of distracting to stop the creeping annoyance at her question.

“What do you mean? I’m here to bail you out, obviously.”

“Where’s Fiona?” She asked groggily, rolling off the side of the bench awkwardly, trying to gain her footing.

“You asked for me, didn’t you?” He raised a brow, sliding his forearms through the bars, resting them there.

“She told you?” She asked, voice raising in betrayal, a scoff following his silence. “I was drunk.”

“And? You still asked for me.”

“Oh, fuck off,” she murmured, crossing her arms as soon as she was balanced.

He dangled the keys between his fingertips, gently jingling them. “I’ll let you out if you tell me what happened.”

Her lip curled in annoyance. “You’d really leave me here?”

“You don’t want to find out.”

She ran a hand through her hair, blowing air out of her cheeks. “Alright.”

He unlocked the door and slipped in, the heavy door creaking as he slid it wide enough for him to fit through.

She backed up, plopping back onto the bench, arms lowering to curl around her sides.

He followed suit, sitting a couple feet away from her on the other end of the bench, shoving his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie.

She stared at the floor, clearly waiting for him to make a move.

“So…”

“So, what?” She grumbled.

“So… how’d you end up here?” He asked, trying to remain as relaxed as he could since she was clearly on edge, ready to tear him a new one at a moment’s notice.

“I was drunk. I got in a fight. Here I am.”

He sighed. “Look, you don’t have to tell me everything, but I can’t help you if I don’t know if you’re ankles deep or neck deep.”

She chewed her lip, chin dipping lower, strands of her hair falling forward, creating an inky veil. “Fine. I’ll tell you but… can you not… look at me?”

Raleigh’s face contorted in confusion, but he listened, swivelling until he was facing the back wall, propping one leg up on the bench.

He waited for her to speak. The break in conversation was a bit too long – but before a quip could fall from his lips, she spoke.

“I did get drunk, and I did get in a fight. I’m telling the truth but I, uh, left out some details,” she started, her voice low.

“I, uh, was passing through this town after my last show because I wanted to go to a bar without being noticed. Like the old days. I know it was stupid, but I didn’t think anyone would find me here.”

That was her first mistake. Smaller towns surprisingly had the most dedicated fans – maybe because they’re bored or nothing exciting happened in their towns, but most of his die hard fans came from the middle of nowhere.

“The first hour was fine, and I was able to drink and dance with strangers. Most of them were a lot older than me and spoke zero English – and I speak a little bit of Spanish as you know, so I could make some small talk, but I was on my own just… enjoying myself and my freedom,” she said, and he could almost see the grin tug at the corner of her lips.

“I noticed someone taking photos of me with their phone, so I got a bit paranoid and sat in a booth in the back drinking for a little while longer so I could figure out my next move,” she continued, before sighing loudly. “I guess they told the local news or something, because by the time I decided to leave, I ran smack into a reporter on the sidewalk.”

Silence ensued again, this time more deafening than the last.

“I didn’t mean to give her a black eye. Or break the camera. Or elbow the camera man in the face when he tried restraining me. I just… couldn’t think straight. I was mad. Intoxicated and wrong, but still mad.”

“I know Fiona’s trying her best to get me out of this mess but… I think I went too far this time.”

Raleigh stared at the wall, racking his brain for something. He was a little dumbfounded that she spilled to him so fast. He figured it was gonna take a bit more digging to get her to open up, but she blossomed in front of him; despite the wilted petals, he was relieved to know she still trusted him enough to confide in him.

“Are you gonna say something?” She asked, a bit timidly.

“Not if I can’t look at you.”

“Okay, then don’t say anything.”

He sighed, settling into his spot on the bench, waiting again for her to speak.

“Why did you come?”

Instinctively, he shrugged. “You asked me to.”

“But you don’t owe me anything. We’re not together.”

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t drop everything to come help you. I mean, I’d like to think we’re at least acquaintances, if not friends,” he joked, resting his arm over the back of the bench.

“Sure,” she said, voice straining just a bit. Just enough for him to notice.

Dom was a special kind of resilient – one trait that Raleigh was sure she didn’t copy from him.

He knew that being a woman in the industry was already hard enough – everything from beauty to body standards to raging misogyny was enough to give people reasons to hate her, as stupid as they were.

Raleigh benefitted from the standards in place for men. He was young, attractive, talented – didn’t matter what he did wrong. He’d bounce back.

But he’d seen some vile shit since he’d ascended to fame. So many celebrities fading into obscurity after one mishap. One bad album. One bad interview. One rude encounter. One rumor.

For some reason, despite diving headfirst into troubled waters, Dom bounced back every time, fire in her eyes, her jaw set in determination, her face painted with the look she got when she was ready to face the world.

But whatever she was feeling in that moment, in that jail cell in the middle of nowhere – was enough to break her.

He heard her take a deep, shaky breath, and he started to turn, but he felt her warm palm on his shoulder, holding him in place.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

He listened to her labored breathing, likely struggling to hold back tears, while he stared at the cracks in the wall, trying to think of something – anything – to console her.

“Did Fiona seem… upset?” She asked, seeming a bit nervous.

“It’s kind of hard to tell, to be honest. She’s pretty intense all of the time,” he laughed, not really meaning to.

He was relieved to hear a light chuckle from behind him.

“Yeah, I figure she’s pretty mad at me. I don’t blame her,” she sighed, another break in conversation ensuing. A couple beats later, she asked, bluntly, “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” he answered with zero hesitation. “I know you’d do the same for me.”

She laughed again, a bit more genuine that time. “Not sure where you got that impression.”

“You wouldn’t leave me here to rot if I asked you to come, Dom. You’re not that heartless,” he teased gently, glad that things were taking a lighthearted turn.

“I’m just glad you’re not gonna lecture me. I already know I’m gonna get an earful from Fiona, not to mention the shit I’ll get from Shane and Avery. I couldn’t handle one from you.”

He grimaced. “Uh, well, you’d rather hear it from me than Fiona, right?”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” she mumbled under her breath.

“You know I normally don’t care what you do, because it’s your life, and you should be able to do whatever the fuck you want, but Dom…” he trailed off, trying to choose his words carefully.

“I know I fucked up, Raleigh. I don’t need you making me feel more guilty than I already am,” she said defensively, voice raised.

“I’m not gonna make you feel guilty. Just offering some advice.” God, did those words feel foreign to him. Offering advice. He never did shit like this for anybody.

He took her silence as a green light. “You’ve just gotta slow down, Dom.”

Whatever impact his words made, he couldn’t see it, since he was still facing the damn wall. “Can I please turn around? I can’t talk to you like this.”

“Sure.”

He adjusted himself on the bench, trying to look attentive without staring. She was stunning, even with the smudged makeup, the dark circles, the red eyes “You don’t have to do anything and everything you’re asked to do, but you gotta find some kind of balance.”

She wrung her hands in her lap, picking at her cuticles absentmindedly. “Yeah, I know.”

“I mean balance the good and bad, Dom. There’s a line for people like us and you can’t cross it often. You can get close, but you can’t just dive over it and not expect there to be some fallout.”

“I know,” she said, bluntly, looking a bit more annoyed with each word that came from his mouth.

“You can cause some chaos, but some of it isn’t acceptable,” he said, watching her expression contort in anger. “For them. Not acceptable for them. The average person, I mean.”

“Oh, you’re one to fucking talk!” She rolled her eyes. “How are you gonna sit here and tell me that your brand of shit stirring is okay, but mine isn’t?”

“I’m not the one sitting in a jail cell right now, Dom,” he said, calmly but firmly. He wasn’t used to being the rational one, but he had to be level headed. He was trying to save her.

She ran a hand through her hair, leaning back against the back of the bench. “You’re infuriating, you know that?”

“Trust me, I know.”

“You’re hypocritical.”

“Not necessarily,” he said, propping his arm up on the back of the bench. “I was in the industry for years before I started dirtying up my image. You just got here.”

“And you’ve been here too damn long to act the way you do,” she nearly spat, lashing out.

“I’m too far gone,” he simply stated, keeping surprisingly calm through it all.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“I’ve been here for a long time, which means, I’ve got a lot more fuck ups under my belt. Irreparable damage, if you will.”

“People love you,” she said, matter-of-factly, like that solved it – it honestly relieved him. A bit of Dom’s naivete from when they first met was shining through.

“People also hate me, because I’m a little shit who sets fires for fun,” he grinned. “For legal reasons, my lawyers insist I clarify that I’m joking.”

She rolled her lips, trying to suppress a smile. “People who hate you don’t know you.”

He nodded. “You’re right, and you’re so close to the point I’m sure you can taste it.”

“I’m too far gone to save. No matter how hard I try for the rest of my career, I can never get away from the wild card label. Plenty of people don’t wanna work with me. I’ve damaged business relationships. Lots of artists don’t want to collab with me because of how it’ll make them look.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because I know you don’t want this. You’re too good for whatever baggage comes with being a ‘rebel’, Dom. I don’t want to see you turn out like me.”

For the first time that night, she stared at him – really stared at him. Her deep brown, nearly midnight eyes searched his for any sign of insincerity.

“You’re… serious?” She asked finally, brows furrowed in confusion.

“One hundred percent honest,” he said, nodding.

She sat back in her chair, chewing on her lip, contemplating.

“Can you turn back around again?”

He nodded, wordlessly facing the wall again.

“I left out a few details,” she said from behind him.

“I’m listening,” he affirmed.

“I, uh, was pretty hammered by the time I left, so it was even harder for me to understand what people were saying,” she said before he could speak. “I heard the reporter say ‘Raleigh’ and ‘novio’ and I saw red… so… I, uh… swung.”

His chest clenched, tightening until it was difficult to breathe. He was thankful she’d asked him to face the other direction, because he knew his reaction betrayed his cool demeanor.

“I guess I’m not over it,” she laughed humorlessly.

He ran a hand over his face, racking his brain for a response, but coming up short.

“You, um, don’t have to say anything if you don’t feel the same. I shouldn’t have gotten attached. It’s on me.”

That made him turn, swivelling around before she could finish speaking.

She flicked her head towards the bars of the cell, raising a hand to cover her face. “I said ‘don’t look at me’, Raleigh. Goddamn.”

Years and years of PR training and interviews and he had no idea how the fuck to console her. Partially because he was trying to get a grip on whatever the hell was going on in his brain as well.

Instead, he answered her with a question of his own, a tactic he’d used anytime he wanted to deflect in interviews.

“Why can’t I look?”

Dom tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, slowly rotating to meet his gaze. She sank her teeth deep into her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.

“Fuck,” she cursed, rubbing the backs of her hands under her eyes, the dried black mascara under her eyes beginning to liquidate again. “Because I’m crying, Raleigh. And I don’t cry.”

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong? I know there’s more to it than you’re telling me,” he asked, holding up two of his fingers in a solute. “No judgement.”

She sighed, crossing the room to put some distance between them. She began pacing, taking slow steps as she spoke.

“I might’ve fucked up my career and I keep letting people down and I’m destructive because this whole fame thing isn’t what I signed up for and I didn’t think I’d cave under pressure like every other mid twenties child actor who goes through a premature mid-life crisis, but here I fucking am,” she said, nearly out of breath by the end.

His legs carried him across the room before he could think twice, pacing towards her while she strode across the room in the opposite direction.

“God, I’m so fucking stupid –”

“Stop. You’re not stupid.”

“I am,” she said, wheeling on him. “And – and I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed that my manager and – and my ex –” She stopped in her tracks, rubbing a palm over her forehead, shutting her eyes.

He reached out to her, but let his hand fall almost immediately.

“My acquaintance had to fly out to a fucking village in the middle of nowhere to bail me out –”

“Dom, stop –”

“– because I fought a fucking reporter over not being able to handle my fucking feelings –”

“Dom –”

“– like an adult with a functioning frontal lobe all because I love someone who –”

Her eyes popped open, her expression horrified. “Oh my god, I’m – I –”

She dug the heel of her hands into her eyes, dropping into a squat. “Fuck, fuck, Goddammit –”

“Did you just –”

“Yeah, Raleigh, I did. Don’t make me feel worse, alright? I know I fucked up,” she groaned from her heap on the ground.

“You just said you love me, Dom. I think I’m allowed to react,” he said, a slight teasing to his voice.

She glanced up, glaring. “Okay, then, react.”

Her gaze was fiery, her deep brown irises challenging – something else a bit more vulnerable lying beneath.

She was terrified.

He leaned down, gripping her around the waist to pull her back up, wrapping his arms around her upper back, hugging her to his chest.

She melted into his arms, relaxing and leaning into his embrace.

“I didn’t mean to say it,” she murmured into his chest.

“So do you?” He asked, chin gently balanced on her head.

“What?”

“Do you love me?”

“I don’t know,” she said truthfully, voice small.

“You don’t have to know. I don’t know either,” he said, just as earnest, feeling her tense in his arms. “But I do know that I like you enough to want you around, and that counts for something, right?”

She laughed (as genuine as he’d heard it), leaning back to look at him. “Yeah, it does.”

Their bodies were still pressed together, Dom’s chin tilted upwards towards him, their faces nearly touching.

“If this gets out, don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re a bad person,” he said, voice low. “You’re the best person I know –”

Dom closed the gap between them, capturing his lips in an intense kiss. He cupped her face in his palms and held her in place, moaning into her parted lips.

God, there was nothing that compared to kissing her. Nobody matched up. He’d made out with a lot of people since he was flung into stardom at sixteen, and no one – absolutely no one – left him in a daze like she did.

She gripped the strings of his hoodie, pulling him closer, sighing contentedly against him.

The smell of her shampoo mixed with the sweet scent of her skin and the warmth of her hands and her chest flush against his – it was the next best thing to being inside of her.

He pulled back, trying to catch the dreamy, half-lidded look she always got when they parted.

“So… did you take your jet here?”

He smirked and rolled his eyes. “Out of context, that sounds so superficial.”

She grinned, her first genuine smile that night. “Oh, but you’re not? Hanging around a rising artist to cling to relevancy?”

He laughed, the sound reverberating off of the walls. “I really am rubbing off on you, aren’t I?”

“Yep. The good and bad,” she agreed, still smiling at him.

“The good?” He shook his head. “Nah, I’m not so sure about that.”

“You’re literally the reason I haven’t walked out on my label and moved to bum fuck nowhere and lived off the land,” she said, shrugging. “You taught me how to have fun. You were the only one keeping me sane.”

He thought he was the one encouraging her to leap over the edge, but he was the one tugging her arm back.

The whole time he was convinced he was a bad influence, but he was doing some good – for her.

But with that revelation came the guilt at her words.

“‘Were’?”

“Well, we don’t really talk anymore. I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

“Yeah,” she chewed her lip, stepping back, unraveling herself from his embrace. “I’m sorry.”

That was a slap to the face. Dom rarely apologized, because if she felt she was right, she wasn’t going to budge. She was stubborn as hell.

“Huh? Why?” “I don’t want to guilt you into spending time with me… or feeling things for me,” she said, rubbing her arm. “I didn’t mean to corner you.”

“You didn’t. I wanted to come.”

She glanced up, blinking at him. “No, you didn’t –”

“I did,” he emphasized, slipping her hand into his, intertwining their fingers. “I kinda missed being forced to hang out with you. Feels like old times.”

She couldn’t stop the laugh from ripping from her, this one louder than the last. “Oh, shut up.”

“No, but seriously, I’m here for you. Whatever you need. Always.”

“Thank you.” With her free hand, she punched his shoulder lightly. “You’ll regret that sooner or later.”

“Nah,” he said, lip curling into a smirk. “I don’t think I will.”

––––

#playchoices #platinum #raleigh carrera #raleigh carrera x mc #platinumweekend #my fic #jade writes choices fics #tbh i really loved writing this one - it's really special to me !!

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hotpinkhoshi · 5 years ago

Text

kiss it better | one

pairing: mark tuan x reader

genre: angst, smut, brother’s best friend au (sort of)

warnings: age gap (nine years), cursing, explicit sex, slow burn

summary: you were off limits for more reasons than mark could count. but everything changed for him the day you walked into his tattoo shop with those big innocent eyes and a laugh like his favorite song. he couldn’t. he wouldn’t. and yet…

*a/n*: hiiiiii! so here we go. i don’t have much to say except that you’ll probably notice this chapter is a bit shorter than they usually are for my fics. with this story, chapters may or may not be shorter in length. this is just easier on me, and helps me to keep a regular posting schedule. now, i’m not going to say i won’t post longer chapters, but i just wanted to get it out there. i have a tentative posting schedule in mind, which i’ll make a post about later, but i’d say you can probably expect a new chapter every two weeks.

also, just want to say- i hope everyone is staying safe and healthy right now. stay home, wash your hands, avoid contact with your face, and if you have to order food tip your delivery drivers a lil extra! and to those that don’t get to stay home and still have to work, i’m right there with you. we’ll get through this and all we can do is take it day by day ❤️

✩ index here ✩

make sure you read the prologue first!

Today had started just like any other day. Mark got up and went about his morning, brushing his teeth, eating his breakfast, and taking his usual ten minutes to sketch the ideas in his brain before heading off to work.

It’d been slow, but Mark wasn’t worried. There were enough appointments on Saturday and Sunday to make up for a slow Friday. The temperature had reached an uncomfortable high, so he’d dressed himself in a black muscle tee to offer some relief from the sticky air.

The early afternoon went smoothly. Mark took the opportunity to work on some new designs and do some organizing in his tattoo room, while the other guys opted to sit around showing each other funny videos on their phones.

By the time lunch rolled around, he decided to sit outside with his iced coffee, scrolling through social media on his phone while relaxing in the shade of the awning. He glanced up mindlessly, his eyes drawn to a figure standing across the street.

A girl holding an ice cream cone. Mark’s breath caught in his throat because, no, it wouldn’t be you. You’d be back home, attending some tiny college where your parents could keep a watchful eye on your every move, not here in the great big city.

Then the girl dropped her ice cream cone, her whine audible even from where Mark sat. He couldn’t help the laugh that fell from his lips. He shook his head, just as there was a knock behind him on the glass of the door.

Dahyun popped her head out. “Youngjae needs help grabbing some boxes from the back, can you help? Jackson and Yugyeom are being assholes.”

Mark nodded, one last glance across the street before he stood up, heading back inside.

-----

You took in a deep breath, squeezing your eyes shut as Mark pressed the tip of his tattoo gun to your skin. Just the constant buzzing of the tool was enough to set your nerves on edge.

Once you felt it, though, it wasn’t so bad. It hurt, but you’d been through worse. It was comparable to a thousand tiny kittens scratching you with their claws, over and over again.

“You doing alright?” Mark asked, once one long minute had passed.

You nodded, your arms squeezing the back of the chair you were straddling. It was an uncomfortable position, but it was the only way Mark would be able to access the back of your shoulder. You’d also had to strip down to just your bra, so at least you were given some modesty.

“Yeah. Just... how long will it take?”

Glancing over your shoulder, you noticed how hard he was concentrating. His tongue was stuck between his lips, peeking out the corner. He was entirely focused on the art that he was tracing onto your skin.

“Not long. The shading is what will take the longest, but it’s small, so I should have you out of here within the hour.”

You exhaled slowly and pressed your forehead into the cushioned back of the chair as he went over the same area a few times. Though he muttered a ‘sorry’, you found yourself wincing from the pain.

Yerin had left to get ready for work, as the stenciling and position process had gone on longer than either of you had thought. You’d made Mark move the stencil several times until you liked the positioning. Admittedly, it had been a stalling tactic to delay the inevitable pain that was coming.

“How’s Taehyung?” Mark asked, just as he took a break from tracing onto your skin. You opened your eyes to see him reaching for a cloth to wipe across your skin.

The question caught you off guard. Just the name of your brother was enough to rub salt into the wound you’d been holding closed for the last two months. You gulped, turning your face to press your other cheek into the chair, hiding your expression.

“He’s good. He’s been in Japan for two years now, I think. He’s happy there.”

You barely even noticed Mark returning to your tattoo, the pain less noticeable while your mind was occupied.

“That’s good. I saw on Facebook he has a girlfriend now?”

You nodded. “Mhm. Her name’s Jennie--she seems nice.”

Mark didn’t need to know that you hadn’t spoken to your brother since the week before you moved to Seoul. He didn’t need to know you’d been avoiding his calls, texts, and e-mails. Most of them you deleted without even opening.

From what you knew, Taehyung and Mark had simply drifted once they both moved out of your tiny town and started creating a life for themselves. Taehyung spent his years after college roaming the world, taking photos and putting on exhibits until he secured a steady photography job for a Japanese magazine.

Mark moved before that, though you hadn’t known he’d moved to the city until today. You hadn’t ever been close to him besides the casual greeting when he’d be downstairs playing video games with Taehyung while you were doing homework.

When you were younger, you’d had an innocent crush on him, only because he was one of the few boys that paid you any attention. You’d only ever had a handful of conversations, but he was always polite and even helped you with your math homework once or twice. It really hadn’t taken much to impress you back then.

“So, how long have you been in the city?” Mark asked.

You were grateful for the slight change in subject. It was only a matter of time before he started asking about your parents, and you wouldn’t have been able to pretend any longer.

“A couple of months. I just… wanted a change,” you told him honestly.

Maybe you’d gotten more than you’d bargained for… but regardless, you were grateful for your newfound independence.

“I get it,” Mark replied. “Alright, outline is done. Now we’ll just have to shade. I’ll give you a few minutes, okay?”

You lifted your face from the back of the chair and sat up straight. “Can I see it?” you asked.

It took a moment for you to realize Mark’s ears were turning red because without the shield of the chair, your entire bra-clad chest was now on display for him. It didn’t help that you’d chosen a pink, lacy bra just because it was the first one you’d grabbed out of your laundry bag.

Quickly, you leaned forward again to cover yourself with the chair, biting forcefully onto your lip. You could feel your cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“Sorry…” you said.

Mark cleared his throat and turned around, reaching for a handheld mirror on the table behind him. “It’s okay… I’ve definitely seen worse. Not that it was bad, or, well-”

It was obvious he’d put his foot in his mouth. You found yourself giggling, bringing your hand up to cover your mouth. Mark looked as if he was desperate for the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head at himself as he turned back around. “Here,” he said chuckling softly as he held up the mirror behind you so that you could see the work he’d already done.

You managed to stifle your giggles as you turned your head. It was no wonder Mark was known for pieces like this--his lines were crisp and clear, flowing in such a way that it looked as if your skin was born with this intricate design. You couldn’t wait to see how it looked when it was complete.

“Good?” he asked.

“I love it,” you said, smiling wide. “Makes the pain worth it.”

Mark looked pleased with your answer. He set the mirror down and got up, switching out the ink on his pen for the color he was going to use for the petals, a soft cool toned purple.

You resumed your position against the chair after a few more minutes, fists clenched as you prepared for the pain.

-----

It turned out not to be so bad. Mark kept you distracted, asking you questions about your experience in the city so far. When he sensed you avoiding the topic of home or your parents, he didn’t push.

Once he got your tattoo bandaged up, you sat around talking for another half an hour while he showed you photos of his drawings, as per your request. You’d never known that he was so talented.

“I guess I should be going,” you said after a lull in conversation. If you wanted to get back to your room before your roommate began their daily music blasting and loud video game routine, you’d need to head back.

“Where are you staying?” he asked, pulling off his gloves and washing his hands in the miniature sink against the wall.

“Just… this little place,” you answered. Little was an understatement.

When you’d moved out, you’d only had a suitcase and a finite amount of cash. It hadn’t exactly been planned, so your options were limited. You stayed in the first hostel you could find, and you were disappointed to find that the wages you received from serving couldn’t provide you with anything better.

You shared a room, currently with a Russian girl a few years older than you that seemed to only be staying in Seoul to play shooting games and blast ear-piercing rock metal. Your last roommate hadn’t been nearly as bad, but you weren’t having great luck.

“Here, I’m just finishing up for the day. Why don’t we grab a bite to eat, then I’ll take you home.”

Your efforts to refuse his offer were basically ignored. He gave you no choice as he led you out to the front room to pay for your tattoo, whispering something lowly to Dahyun as she wrote up your bill.

“Mark,” you said in protest once you saw the total. You didn’t know much about tattoo pricing, but you were sure this was significantly lower than it should have been.

“What? It’s a family and friends discount.”

You sighed. As much as you wanted to refuse his help, you had to admit you could take whatever discounts you could get. Tattoos were expensive and you certainly didn’t have the budget to get one as impulsively as you had today.

“I’ll get my stuff ready, then I’ll meet you outside, okay?” Mark asked and you nodded, watching as he walked off to his room.

“Family and friends, huh?” Dahyun asked, eyebrows raised as she watched you sign your receipt. “You must have gotten really close back there.”

You laughed, sliding the receipt back over the table. “It turns out, he used to be best friends with my older brother. So… family, I guess,” you said, though you never really saw him as such. No matter how many times your mother acted like he was her second son.

“Wow, small world,” Dahyun said as she handed over a sheet of paper with a list of bullet points on it. She went over the aftercare process, recommending the creams and ointments that she preferred, and ways to help it heal faster.

After thanking Dahyun over and over for her kindness, you gathered your things and waited outside of the front door for Mark.

When your day began, you never would have thought you’d be having dinner with your brother’s old best friend, bringing back memories you hadn’t quite been ready to revisit. But he was so sweet to you, so easy to talk to, you couldn’t bring yourself to say no. You didn’t want to say no.

You’d always admired Mark’s choice to move to Seoul straight out of school, with no plan and no connections to the city. And he only came back for holidays and special occasions. While you were hastily packing your clothes into a duffel bag, you remembered thinking briefly of him.

“Ready?” Mark asked from behind you as he exited the shop. The sunlight hit his skin, bringing your attention to the swirling designs upon his shoulder. The way his shirt was cut allowed you a peek of his ribs—you could see loopy cursive etched on his skin but you were unable to make it out.

“Yeah, let’s go,” you replied with a smile, tearing your eyes from his bare skin.

#writing #fanfic #got7 fanfic #mark tuan #mark tuan fanfic #mark fanfic #mark smut #mark angst #mark tuan smut #got7 scenario #got7 smut #got7 angst

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alisarb · 4 years ago

Text

Thoughts on Frenchie and Kimiko (deleted scene + 2x04)

Okay so tHINGS have happened since we last saw each other, folks, so let’s get cracking immediately.

Spoilers for The Boys season 2 until 2x04, stop reading if you haven’t seen it yet!

Before I delve into last episode’s events, I’d like to talk a bit about two deleted scenes that I think still play a vital part into context for the kiss scene in 2x04. Get for a LONG meta post.

The events that lead up to that kiss are influenced by everything we saw last season and that I talked about in a previous post: Kimiko opening and sharing her trauma with The Boys because she trusts Frenchie, Frenchie telling her and only her about his dad and his traumatic childhood, how their relationship is defined by freedom and absolute liberty to choose without judgement, etc.

Then, on season 2, we see that Kimiko has begun to interact with the other members of the gang a lot more (Hughie approaches her from behind to praise her on her writing practice and she smiles), and that everything has been going a bit roughly since Butcher left, holing up in the back of a store with some sketchy guys that Frenchie knows.

It’s obvious from the beginning of the season that Frenchie has been stressed and frustrated since everyone is highly wound up, but the moment Kimiko goes to him to show him the origami piece he stops to pay her attention and smiles.

One of the main points of this season is that Kimiko is finding a voice, a way to communicate. Unfortunately, another main point of this is that Frenchie is struggling to understand her.

He doesn’t get what the paper means, or why she keeps talking about “a boy and a girl.”

This boy, as it turns out, is her brother, who was also taken from the terrorist group into America and injected with Compund v, turning him into a Supe like her sister.

The conversation between the two of them is very telling. At one point, she asks if it hurt when they injected him, and he says: “I wanted to die.” She replies: “Me too”, and goes on to say that Vought had turned her into a monster.

A few scenes earlier, Kimiko goes into the store with Frenchie and brutally murders one of the employees. Frenchie looks completely horrified at the excessive force and shocked at Kimiko for “returning to her old habits”, in a way, but then realizes that he belongs to the Shining Light Liberation Army.

These two things help us understand her personality: when we first meet her, she’s locked in a cage and is completely feral and savage (understandably so). She’s only able to form a bond with Frenchie, and uses violence towards people without much remorse.

However, this season she doesn’t seem so prone to it, and I think the change in her character is what surprises Frenchie at the store.

Now, before we go into 2x04, let’s talk about the deleted scenes.

The first deleted scene: Cherie

I’ve tried to record the scene but to no avail, so I’ll describe it for those who don’t have Prime Video since I can’t find it uploaded anywhere else.

The scene is presumably set at the beginning of 2x02. We see M.M working on his dollhouse when suddenly some voices can be heard arguing in the background: Frenchie and Cherie. Frenchie sounds angry and tense and Cherie talks in a playful, passive-aggresive manner.

Frenchie: You’re getting on my nerves. You need to shut up.

Cherie (laughing, playful): You shut up. Just fucking say the truth then.

Frenchie (tense): Bye-bye...

Cherie (now visibly angry too): That’s all I’m asking. Say the fucking truth.

Frenchie (shouting): Okay, you can stop right there, okay?

Cherie: You wanna fuck her? Fuck her! Just (I didn’t get that part lmao)

Frenchie: We are not-! I would never sleep with her!

Cherie: Why!? Then what does she do, then? I mean, I see the way you look at her!

Frenchie: It’s difficult, it’s difficult to explain, okay? She’s special!

Okay, I won’t transcribe the whoooole conversation because IT’S LONG but I’ll describe the rest and quote the final part:

Cherie gets offended because, oh, Frenchie can fuck her hard and rough just fine but she’s too “magic and special.” Then Frenchie tries to explain (through C.I Joe characters wtf Frenchie) that him and Kimiko are like soulmates: they can “read each other thoughts”, and they think and feel the same, they are the same.

This mirrors what Karen Fukuhara, who plays Kimiko, said in a recent interview (posted a week before 2x04) when asked about the nature of their relationship:

“It could be love, romantic love. It could be like paternal love, because in the comics, she is portrayed as a younger girl, I think, when you first see her. Or it could be something deeper than friendship, something that we call “twin flame,” something that ties two people together kind of like a magnet, soulmates, if you will.”

Cherie grabs him and asks him how does he know what the fuck she’s thinking if she doesn’t say a word. Maybe he’s just projecting what he wants to believe into her for this very reason (VERY TELLING OF THE KISS SCENE).

Then, she turns around to leave and runs right into Kimiko. Cherie touches a strand of her hair and tells her: “I don’t think you’re too magic to fuck” before she leaves.

Kimiko looks at Frenchie confused as fuck, ofc.

The lovely @daddy-winter asked me what I thought because they’ve been announcing for a while now that their characters will drift apart this season, and I think this scene is key in understanding that.

Their relationship has been interpreted in many ways throughout the show, and this scene marks it clearly as romantic, as it shows Cherie being jealous or at least annoyed with how much attention he’s giving Kimiko. This also resembles a scene in S1 when she demands to know when he’ll be with her again. Then it takes a turn when Frenchie tells her he’d never sleep with her (which seemes to be disproved when he later tries to kiss her).

The way I see it, this scene was too open-ended, and at the same time, gave away too much of what’ll happen with them. I also don’t think it’s truly fitting with Cherie’s character since she later learns Frenchie tried to kiss Kimiko and is not excessively annoyed nor surprised (CHERIE KNEW FROM THE BEGINNING AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL).

We don’t see all the glimpses into their relationship and everyday life. In fact, when S2 begins we’re taken already into present day with no clarifications as to how much time passed (it doesn’t seem like more than a few weeks) or what has happened in that time (except for Butcher disappearing and them hiding with the gun smugglers). But we get this scene, which, as another user commented, is incredibly romantic in the way Frenchie straight-up affirms he would never sleep with Kimiko.

And now we get to the dreaded 2x04 and the terribly terribly timed kiss.

2x04 and dumbass Frenchie’s fucked up timing

The third episode ended with the death of Kimiko’s brother by Stormfront (played brilliantly by Aya Cash, btw) and her staring at the TV with boiling anger and grief.

The fourth episode begins pretty much the same way, and it reminds us of an earlier version of Kimiko: disheveled, huddled up under a table and staring at the TV in a dark room.

Frenchie, who was first introduced as a character way too comfortable with taking pills, stops getting high in S1 (coincidentally when he meets Kimiko). Then, all of a sudden, we start 2x04 with him snorting coke and getting high as a kite (Butcher’s words, not mine). The stress of the situation could be triggering enough on its own, but as we talked about at the beginning of this post, he’s seen relaxing instantly when Kimiko is around. However, the minute they start drifting away even the slightlest (them not being able to communicate, her isolating herself to grieve her brother) he feels the need to consume again.

That’s how he finds her: high, tense, and emotionally destroyed. An explosive mix, to say the least. He goes up to her to comfort her, but does the stupidest thing he could do: he goes in for a kiss. Of course, she pushes him away swiftly, and is shocked and angry.

The timing is terrible: she’s grieving her brother and the last thing she needs is to deal with this right now, especially when the show has already established that she’s emotionally fragile and not ready for more than slight contact (and just with Frenchie).

Once again referring to Karen’s interview, when asked about her brother’s death and whether or not it will be a setback in her character’s development:

“But then because of this loss, it’s going to create rifts within her relationships, especially with Frenchie. In a way, it’s not necessarily Frenchie’s fault or anything he does. Actually, scratch that. He does do something. But Frenchie’s not the source of the pain, you know? The source of the pain is the death, and she doesn’t deal with it. I mean, nobody deals with death the right way. The rest of the season is her grappling with how to deal with loss and grief”.

Later in the episode, Frenchie goes to Cherie (for the first time in presumably a long time) and they sleep together. Afterwards, she asks him to tell her what’s wrong and he admits to trying to kiss Kimiko. He affirms he was just “trying to make her feel better.” I’ve seen some discussions about how this means the relationship could still be platonic and he didn’t know any other way to do it, but I want to offer a different approach.

We already know Kimiko is inexperienced. I mean, it’s not explicitly said but we can all assume she probably doesn’t know a lot about normal, functional relationships apart from the one with her brother. Everything she’s known outside of that is violence, abuse and cruelty.

But we forget Frenchie is just as inexperienced.

They both come from abuse, and even though he prides himself in being succesful with women, Frenchie has never been in love. He doesn’t know how to properly love someone or communicate with them. Yes, he has had sex, but he doesn’t know anything about intimacy (sexual or otherwise). Kimiko was the one to show him, and the only way he can think of to comfort her is sexually, as it seems to be the thing that works for him (that, and drugs). This is confirmed when he later goes to sleep with Cherie to drown his sorrows, probably still high or drunk or both.

His face in Cherie’s bed as he tries to convey his feelings is heartbreaking. He just doesn’t know how to function in such a situation, and he’s terrified that he destroyed their bond by going too fast.

There’s another deleted scene set in 2x04 where Kimiko is in her room watching Stormfront’s speech and she finds a mouse wandering about. She feeds him, as it probably reminds her of her brother (her nickname for him was Mouse because he used to feed mouses in the camp that didn’t have a mom). Then later, she tries to feed it again and finds it dead under her bed, caught in a mousetrap. She breaks down and goes to Stormfront’s rally as Frenchie keeps pounding her door, pleading her to let him in. He hears the noise and forcibly opens the door, only to realize she’s gone.

The next we see of them is already at Stormfront’s rally, where he saves her from literally killing herself. As Frenchie says, she will not survive. Stormfront is more powerful and dangerous and she’s probably too weak anyway to fight her again. She looks at him and it’s clear there’s no resentment from before in her eyes. Kimiko feels safe with Frenchie, and she feels love for him:

Look at this and tell me they don’t love each other, I DARE YOU

But her grief and her vengeance are too much of an obstacle right now. She needs to leave and sort it out. It’s a clever, intelligent move for her character and for once I’m so glad the writers are aware that female characters are more than their romantic interest. She gets annoyed at him when he tells her “let’s go home”, for the simple reason that he’s not understanding her. He does it out of pure concern for her, but also comprehensible selfishness: he loves her and doesn’t want her to die. But by doing that, he’s belittling her need to get revenge for her brother. In this matter, Kimiko feels alone for the first time, and it mirrors the S1 scene where he offers her a choice to leave and find her brother. Now, he just can’t bear to see her go (of course now she’s in a lot more danger, but still).

This episode is so perfectly described in a post by @pineapplesperhaps: it is about love. From the title (Nothing Like It in the World) to the whole plot: the women talking about it and relationships in a ‘When Harry met Sally’ style (about communication, which is sorely lacking between them this season); every character’s story this episode is marked by love in this, in all of its forms: Hughie and Starlight, Butcher and Becca, Homelighter and milk. And then himself. Thinking about it, let’s not bring that up ‘cause it was too disturbing. Also please stop writing scenes about Homelander and milk I can’t bear it anymore wRITERS-

Karen mentions in the interview that there’s an episode this season about Frenchie’s background story that will also cause another shift (not rift, mind you) in their relationship. I’m so excited about it.

I think their drifting apart was inevitable and necessary to a degree for them to be able to come together in a healthy way. Kimiko is learning who is she as a free person, as a Supe, as a member of The Boys, and it’s hard to do so while figuring out the complex relationship with Frenchie. I don’t think she didn’t want him to approach her romantically, but the timing, as everyone has pointed out, was terrible to say the least. They are both new to this kind of bond and need to find the common ground necessary to get closer.

I am hopeful that this rift will only make their bond stronger and help them move forward with their relationship. The show has already established that Frenchie feels attraction towards Kimiko (as much as you want to comfort someone you don’t kiss them if you see them as a little sister or a daughter; besides, in the deleted scene with Cherie, she asks him if he sees her as those things and he denies it), and I think it’s pretty clear those feelings are returned, just expressed differently. The way all their physical interactions in the show have been initiated by Kimiko prove this.

To conclude this essay about the pairing that will probably kill me, I want to recommend a fanvid of them with a song that perfectly describes them: x&y by Coldplay. The lyrics talk about a lover the singer tries to comfort after a terrible loss but being ultimately unable to do so.

Trying hard to speak And fighting with my weak hand Driven to distraction It's all part of the plan When something is broken And you try to fix it Trying to repair it Anyway you can

I dive in at the deep end You become my best friend I wanna love you But I don't know if I can I know something is broken And I'm trying to fix it Trying to repair it Anyway I can

This is the video, it’s perfect and beautiful.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk and please keep up the fanfiction, you’re the ones that keep me going till Friday arrives.

#frenchie #kimiko #frenchie x kimiko #kimiko x frenchie #the boys #the boys season 2 #the boys spoilers #the boys spoilers season 2 #i will literally die next week #when i tell you i GASPED when he went in for a kiss #like i knew he was into her fuck holy fuck the writers are not playing #we all know kimiko is the one that's going to kiss him next time

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ilooklikeaburntchickenugget · 4 years ago

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Holiday Dates (Pt. 2)

A/N: So here’s a part 2! I feel like this is almost like a slow burn, but not really, because there’s still chemistry and a soon to be date. But hope you guys enjoy! Pairing: Teen!Gerard Way x Teen!F!Reader Word count: 2,851 Warnings: Swearing, public humiliation, and cyber bullying mentioned.

The project took hours and hours for you two to do, but every minute was worth it. You and Gerard had managed to split up the work pretty evenly, doing research of experiments, outcomes, everything, and concocting a Powerpoint that was pretty professional.

It was the day before your presentation, Thursday during lunch. You had yet to tell anyone besides your parents about the date with Gerard that would be taking place the day after. Your mom was excited at first, your father on the other hand took a protective stand, insisting he know more about Gerard and meet him, which you of course warned the boy about.

But walking to your usual table and sitting down everyone grew silent. You gave a confused look, “What’s up guys?” You asked taking a sip of your water.

“When were you going to tell us about your date with the nerd?” Jason asked, a stupid and cynical smile on his face. Your eyes went wide as you thought of an excuse.

“Um I was-” “Never gonna tell us, huh? Your friends that you were going out with a weirdo? Do you know how this could affect our reputations around the school?” You squinted your eyes at him, looking for any signs of him being sarcastic. But of course, there were none.

“What, do I now have to ask you for permission to go out with who I want to go out with?” A sudden confidence grew within you.

“I never said that.” He snapped back.

“You’re implying it.” You looked around at your friends who were all giving you looks, silently agreeing with Jason. You scoffed, getting up and grabbing your bag, “I can not believe this!” You said, “You really think me going on a date with Gerard is going to ruin your “reputations” around here?” “Yes, yes it is.” Jason responded.

“Go to hell!” You fired back, “It’s not like any of this is going to matter after high school anyways.”

“Y/N, people are looking.” Shanna harshly whispered at you.

“Let them look!” You said right back, looking at Jason again, “The audacity you have is unbelievable! My ex seriously trying to prevent me from going out again? At least Gerard isn’t a douche bag who just wants to fuck me.” You eyed him, his mouth partially agape in shock now, “So I would suggest, you go fuck yourself. All of you.” You stormed away unsure of where that sudden confidence came from. Everyone in the student commons were staring at you, some people even had their phones out. So yes, this would probably be the big news of the school in T-Minus 15 minutes.

You decided to instead walk to the bathroom having no where else to go. On your way in your internal rage you bumped into someone, not knowing who. “Oh I’m so sorry I-” “Hey, Y/N.” You heard Gerard’s calming voice, looking up to see his sweet smile and beautiful eyes. Damn he was gorgeous.

“Hey.” You responded, sighing, “I’m sorry about that I-” “No it’s alright, really.” He said, scanning your face for a moment, “What’s wrong?” His perfect eyebrows creased.

“It’s just,” You sighed, “I got into a fight with my friends over stupid stuff and I don’t know, nasty things were said.” He lightly nodded. “Where were you headed?” “To the bathroom,” You admitted, “I don’t really have any where else to go considering I just cursed out all of my friends.” “Well you didn’t to me.” He lightly smiled, “Here, c’mon, let’s go sit with my friends.” He told you.

“Oh, I um I-” “No, c’mon, I’m insisting.” He softly smiled.

“Oh, okay.” You said, walking next to him down the hall to the cafeteria. You walked in, and to be honest, there was something so warm about the all wood room. You hadn’t been to the cafeteria since your freshman year, being a junior now, but this was clearly where all the outsiders hung. And you didn’t mind it.

He walked you through the various aisles, tables on each sides of students talking and laughing, until you hit the final table at the end of the room, in the center. There were three other boys there. You studied each one of them individually, moments at a time. The first one had big, curly, red-ish, but kind of brunette hair. His fro was pretty impressive, and his red sweater looked pretty comfortable you had to admit.

The next you knew was Mikey. He was your lab partner in biology last year, as he was two grades ahead in science. He was really nice and docile, super sweet and helped you pass bio.

And finally was a short guy, not more than four inches taller than you, he was sitting on the table with a leather jacket that contrasted his button up shirt and tie. His sleek black hair and ear piercings caught you first.

“Hey guys.” Gerard greeted them, taking a seat at one of the empty chairs, another empty one next to it where he motioned for you to sit down. All three boys looked up to him with smiled before their eyes moved to you, their mouths all dropping and eyes going wide. “This is Y/N.” “Yeah you dummy, we know.” The black haired boy spoke. “I think every damn person in this building knows.” Gerard rolled his eyes.

“I, um, I’m Ray, Ray Toro.” The fro boy spoke up.

“Nice to meet you.” You kindly smiled.

“I’m-” “Mikey, you were my bio partner last year.” “You remember me?” The thin boy asked with a light smile.

“Yeah, of course I do.” You responded, “You were the sole reason I passed that class.”

“Wait, you two already know each other?” Gerard gave you a confused look and you both nodded.

“Why?” You asked next.

“We’re brothers.” Gerard responded and now it was your turn to give a confused look. “For real?” You asked and they both nodded.

“Mikey, why didn’t you tell me you knew her?” Gerard now turned to his younger brother, eyeing him.

“I thought when you said Y/N, you meant another Y/N. Like Y/N Hamilton or Y/N Patricia. There are a lot of Y/N’s.” He sighed.

“Wait, you’re going out with Gerard?” Black hair boy asked. You nodded and he laughed, “You’re joking.” “No, I’m not.”

“Dude, why?” Gerard harshly nudged him.

“Shut up, Frank.” He defended you and Frank rolled his eyes.

“So why are you hanging with us?” He asked next.

“Because my friends are a bunch of asshats.” You admitted.

“Oh, miss goody too shoes swore.” Frank smiled and you eyed him, tempted to slap the boy across his face.

“Frank, you’re really good at ruining everything.” Gerard commented.

“So, what’re you into?” Ray asked, trying to break the tension.

“Honestly?” You inquired next and he nodded. “Well, I really really love to read. I love graphic novels and comic books too. And dogs, I love dogs.” “Then you should fit right in.” Mikey said next.

“I thought Miss Perfect like clothes and jewelry and all.” Frank commented, his words creeping under your skin and biting. You kept your composure not trying to blow as you had just done so to your previous group of friends. “Leave her the fuck alone.” Gerard demanded, Ray and Mikey’s eyes going wide. Frank sighed and leaned back against the wall.

“Fine,” He stated reluctantly, “I will.”

“For the record I do like jewelry and clothes,” You looked at him, “But that doesn’t mean I can’t like other things too.”

The day went on after lunch, the video previously of course got passed around like wildfire. You chose to ignore it all, Gerard texting you halfway through your last period to ask how you were doing. You weren’t sure how to properly respond other than a simple “Fine.”

But the weird stared and mumbles as you walked down the halls with piercing eyes of fellow teenagers who managed to drill into your skin made you extremely uneasy.

It wasn’t until you were walking out of school and someone decided to call for you. Because of course, Jason had to label you as “psycho girl”, which was being passed around the school.

“Hey!” You heard another familiar voice. You looked back to see Frank pushing the throw the guy against the wall. He might’ve been small, but he had some guts. “Leave her alone!” He demanded, walking down the stairs to where you were with Mikey, Ray, and Gerard following.

“You alright?” Gerard asked you with a concerned look on his face. You nodded.

“Yeah,” You responded barely above a whisper, Gerard motioning for you two to exit the building along with the other guys.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” He asked once the two of you were outside of the building. You shook your head.

“It’s the exact opposite way from where yours is.” You lightly laughed.

“I can still go-” “It’s okay, Gerard, really. You’ve done enough for me already.” You lightly sighed, “I’ll FaceTime you later, alright?” He nodded and gave a tight smile before turning the other way.

You got home, locking yourself into your room on the verge of breaking down. That was until your phone rang. You got up looking at it to see Gerard’s name popped up so you answered. “Hey,” He smiled on the other end.

“Hey.” You responded trying your hardest to smile. “So, um, should we try to finish the project?” He asked and you nodded, propping your phone on your computer.

You opened up your shared project, talking to one another and going through who would present what. You could tell Gerard was trying to make you laugh, and while he usually would have been wildly successful with his stupid jokes, he barely got a snicker out of you. “Night sugar, you did well.” You lightly smiled.

“Thanks, Gee.” You stretched. “Never as smart as you though.” He rolled his eyes.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit.” He leaned back on his bed. You rolled your eyes this time.

“Goodnight, Gee. You’re the best.” “Night.” He responded and you hung up.

You barely got any sleep last night. Even after deleting all social media to try and get away from any video of you surfacing and finding it’s way to you, your anxiety was still spiked. The melatonin didn’t help either.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see the boys at your locker talking. Gerard saw you walking towards them, and smiled, walking up to you. “Here,” He handed you a cup filled with the magic liquid in a cup, aka iced coffee. You smiled and took it from him. “I didn’t think you would get much sleep last night.”

“Well isn’t that so sweet of you.” You smiled genuinely for the first time in almost a day, scrunching your nose. You briefly looked over his shoulder to see your now old friends all looking at you, so you made a move.

Getting on your tip toes you leaned up and kissed Gerard on the cheek. When you pulled away his mouth was wide open, his face immediately turning red. Looking to your right you saw the three boys all staring the same, with their mouths agape, except for Frank who had a smug smirk on his face. You couldn’t help but roll your eyes.

“What was that for?” Gerard asked a few seconds later, his voice barely above a whisper.

“For brining me coffee,” You smiled up at him, “And not being an ass.” You gave him a quick wave before walking off to your own class, the guys muttering some things as you left, what you assumed to be about you.

Your day went on pretty typically, ignoring all the nasty rumors and murmurs from your fellow peers who, based on one 15 second video, had managed to rebrand you as a person, and completely recreate a reputation for you.

That was until your AP Psych class finally came along. You walked in, sitting next to Gerard who smiled up at you. “You ready?” He asked and you nodded.

“I just wanted to say,” You started right after the bell rang, “That I wouldn’t have wanted to do this project with anyone else.” “Me neither.” He smiled, looking at you genuinely.

One by one Mr. Young called up the partner pairs, you and Gerard managed to be called last. “Ms. Y/L/N and Mr. Way, you’re up.” He announced from behind his desk, pulling up the presentation you sent to him.

The two of you walked up to the front of the class, each of you standing on one side of the board. You had practiced over FaceTime at least three of four times, but presenting in front of Gerard was drastically different from presenting in front of 30 of your own peers. So naturally, your anxiety skyrocketed.

“Good morning, everyone.” Gerard began, as planned, “I’m Gerard.” “And I’m Y/N.” You put on your best face. “And we decided to do our project on social psychology, and how the human mind works and functions in given social situations.”

One by one you went on from each slide, you gradually getting more comfortable. You had to admit, you would have probably broken down completely by now if it wasn’t for Gerard occasionally stepping in on the spot to help you. But by the end, the two of you were going back and forth flawlessly off of each other’s ideas, a true team and everyone could tell.

“And that’s all, thank you all so much.” Gerard smiled and you did too, walking back to your desks as the class clapped.

“Thank you Ms. Y/L/N and Mr. Way that was wonderful.” Mr. Yang smiled, finishing up a few notes he has started writing when you started your presentation.

“I fucked it up.” You immediately told Gerard as the two of you walked out of class, the end of the bell still ringing. “I really fucked it up.” You groaned.

“No, you didn’t.” He lightly smiled, “You did great.” “Oh, please, if it wasn’t for you coming to save my ass we would both have a D on the project.” “Sugar,” He stopped you in the hall, taking you by your arm and pulling you to the side, “No, you didn’t fuck anything up. You did great, and I know we did extremely well on that project!” “Stop making me try to feel better,” You complained, “I fucked up both our grades.” “No you didn’t,” He argued, “And I’ll have confirmation of that by the end of the day, because Mr. Young always puts in the grades within a few hours.”

And much to your chagrin (well, not really) Gerard was right. By the end of the day when you were checking your grades on your phone, there popped up a new grade inserted for the project. Lo and behold it was a 97. Because a 98 would have made it an A+, and Mr. Young never gave out A pluses.

“See, I told you.” Gerard smiled, strutting up to your locker. “We nailed it.” You swung your backpack around your shoulder, standing back up and looking at him.

“Yeah I know,” You sighed, closing the door shut. The two of you began walking down the hall to where the other guys were, all at Frank’s locker. You stood there with them, a light and random conversation going about, taking up the intermediate time before exiting school for break. “So I’m picking you up tonight at 7?” Gerard asked, the two of you now outside and on the sidewalk. You nodded and smiled. “Great, see you then sugar.” “Bye, Gee.” You smiled and waved, walking the other way.

Every hour after that you were at the very least mentally preparing yourself for your date with Gerard. Sure, that saying may come with a negative connotation, but it was more so just you trying not to completely fuck up.

You had managed to do your makeup, not too heavy at all and quite natural, even though Gerard insisted numerous times that you were beautiful as is. Your mom also helped you with your hair, letting it’s natural texture go but with some very minor styling, getting some frizz and imperfections out.

“Sweetheart, you look gorgeous.” You mom clapped and smiled at the end.

“Mom, I’ve gone out with guys before.” You complained, looking at your phone. 6:58.

“Yes, but this man seems more,” She pondered trying to find the right words for a moment, “Respectable.” You rolled your eyes.

“Gerard is a great guy.” You concluded, sitting at the kitchen island across from her.

“Good,” She began, “Then he and your father should have no problems.” You nodded. Just a moment later you all heard the doorbell ring. You took a deep breath, letting out a slower one. Mainly out of excitement, but also trying to prevent yourself from squealing and jumping into Gerard’s arms the first time you saw him.

“Here goes nothing.” You mumbled under your breath.

#gerard way #my chemical romance #gerard way x reader #mcr gerard #my chem #my chemical gee #my chemical gerard #my chemical romance x reader #gerard way fanfiction #mcr

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shmowlwrites · 5 years ago

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(LATE) NaNoWriMo Day 4

Daminette pls. But going off the “Wonder Woman’s mother was a Ladybug” thing. Sister/mentor/(personal favorite) treating Marinette like her mom. Whatever you like.

Okay so this turned out as a general “found family” kind of thing and Daminette doesn’t happen until later. Adrien is a decent human being in this because I’m so tired of writing and reading salt that I’m just going to leave the readers to assume Adrien actually had character growth in the show and stopped being a pushy, petty, sacrificial child.

Anyway, this thing was 2340 words so buckle in babes!

Diana Prince perhaps should have been aware of the Hawkmoth problem, seeing as she was an employee of the Louvre. But do not blame her, she would have known the problem her city was going through if she hadn’t been on leave to deal with the other side of the world’s problems.

It was a year before she finally got to return. A year that had so much happen within it. She finally learned of the Hawkmoth issue when Hal was complaining about this reoccurring video about “Miraculous” that also managed to delete itself. If he got to watch it as soon as it appeared, he could only get halfway through before it disappeared again. He couldn’t trace it to the city it came from. Ladybug and Chat Noir never said where they were from before the video deleted itself. But he was also complaining about the Miraculous. What were they? What did they do? Ladybug and Chat Noir only said they held those Miraculous.

Diana knew. Diana nearly threw a fit at the knowledge that the miraculi were active again, somewhere in the world, and she never knew.

On her first day back at the Louvre, her boss filled her in on everything that had happened and she wanted to strangle this “Hawkmoth” and “Mayura.”

Representing the Justice League, Diana, as Wonder Woman, managed to find Ladybug and Chat Noir while they were out on a patrol. Ladybug was stiffly polite and Chat Noir was acting like a puppy getting adopted. Several meetings later, Diana learned that Ladybug didn’t know how to respond to the daughter of a previous holder.

In her meetings with them, Diana could only keep thinking of one thing: whoever their previous mentor was, they sucked. Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t know much about their powers. They didn’t know the history of their Miraculous. They didn’t know how to properly fight and had been winging their battles since day 1.

Diana found herself connecting to the two strongly. Ladybug was like the little sister she never had. Chat Noir was like a son who melted in any show of affection - which strangely also included compliments on growth.

“I think what you two need is to get out of the city and learn how to fight from someone who has taught kids how to protect themselves quickly,” Diana found herself saying during a break in a training session.

“But what if Hawkmoth sends out an Akuma while we’re gone?” Ladybug fretted.

“You have the horse miraculous, yes?” Diana nodded to the egg box.

“Oh… you want me to take that with us?” Ladybug’s brow furrowed even more.

“Of course! Right now, I’d say nowhere is safer for the miraculous than with you. The temple is still regrowing, they won’t know what to do with your box while it is still incomplete. But, if you are so anxious about leaving Paris, I might be able to convince my friend and one of his sons to come here instead.”

“Really?” Chat Noir perked.

Diana gave him an easy smile. “I’m sure he’d be happy to.”

“For us?” Ladybug asked.

“You two are like my family by now,” Diana held out her hands. “And my friend will do anything for family.”

Bruce and Damian Wayne were in Paris by the end of the week. 16-year-old Damian was still a brat, but he was still a growing teenage boy forgetting old customs and learning about the real world. Bruce thought getting him around other young superheroes might help- he was horrendous at socializing with civilians due to still believing he was superior.

That was a horrible mistake, Robin’s first act was to insult everything about Ladybug and Chat Noir. After a good long lecture from both Bruce and Diana, Robin apologized to both… in a way that left them more confused than accepting of him.

A week later, Bruce tried the “let’s have a civilian day” card. Ladybug nearly threw a fit.

“We aren’t supposed to know each other’s identities!” She recited.

“Why not?” Robin scrunched his face. “I know all of-”

“You’re Gotham’s superheroes,” Chat sighed. “You don’t deal with a magical emotional terrorist. Ladybug and I are not immune to Akumas, we aren’t immune to strong emotions. What if one of us gets Akumatized and we know the other’s identity? We could tell Hawkmoth. We could succeed in taking the other’s Miraculous. And then what? He wins. We have to stay secret until Hawkmoth is gone.” He said it with practice, the concept having been drilled into his mind by Ladybug during their earlier days.

“I’m sorry, Batman and Robin, we would like to, but please understand that for the safety of Paris, we literally cannot,” Ladybug gave a sad smile.

They were there for another week before Robin, after pinning Ladybug with the end of his katana, suggested just hacking CTV cameras to track Akumas.

“It might work,” Chat grinned, before getting a light punch to the stomach and a “constant vigilance!” from Batman.

“I surrender,” Ladybug told Robin before pushing Robin’s katana away and pushing herself into a sitting position. “It might. But I don’t have high hopes- kwami can’t even be seen on camera. What’s to say the effects of a Miraculous can’t either?”

“But,” Chat was buzzing, “you’re Cure always does! We’ve seen it on the news enough times.”

Ladybug pursed her lips. “I don’t know the first thing about hacking.”

“Good thing we do,” Robin cracked a grin.

“Do you normally find such joy in illegal activities?”

“Are you kidding me?” Chat’s voice was shrill and Ladybug had turned to Diana with wide eyes.

“Is it true?”

“We didn’t tamper with the footage besides getting it, if that’s what you’re asking,” Robin shrugged.

“But- but-” Chat sputtered, his cat pupils in fearful slits and tears glossing his eyes.

“Chat?” Ladybug softly called.

“That’s,” Chat’s bottom lip trembled and he looked between Ladybug and Diana. “That’s my house. Hawkmoth can’t be my dad- he can’t be!” Chat shook his head in denial.

Ladybug paused in trying to comfort Chat, now realizing the boy before her was Adrien, the boy that used to be her crush. She was unsure on how to continue.

“Chat,” Diana spoke, moving forward to slowly place her hands on his shoulders. “Whether or not your father is Hawkmoth, somebody is sending out Akumas from your house. Since this is personal now, do you want to go with us? We’ll understand if you don’t.”

Chat blinked several times and looked between each person in his company. “I- I’ll go. You’ll need my help to get inside anyway.”

And so, in the middle of the next almost harmless Akuma attack, Adrien stayed in his room rather than go out. He popped open his window. Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Ladybug swung inside and they began their journey through the house. Adrien led them to Gabriel’s study and faced the portrait of his mother.

“There’s a safe behind the portrait. It’s where I found the grimoire. And now that I think about it, the peacock miraculous was in there too. I didn’t think much about it at the time,” Adrien rubbed his arms. Wonder Woman reached out and he grabbed her fingers in comfort.

“What’s done is done, do you think the portrait could also lead to where Hawkmoth is?” Batman asked.

“I think?” Adrien scrunched his face.

Robin walked up to the portrait, running his fingers around it. “There certainly are buttons on this, under the guise of being mosaic pieces.”

Adrien stepped up to it, fitting his fingers onto the supposed buttons, and before anyone could protest, he pressed them. The floor below them opened up and the elevator began to descend. They quickly fitted themselves into the tiny space.

Gabriel was standing in the middle of a garden, before something brightly white.

“Father?” Adrien’s voice was hardly audible but Gabriel Agreste still whipped around and saw the group of five.

“Adrien!” He barked, unsure of who to call. “My son…”

“Father, no,” Adrien moaned, backing away. “How could you!”

“Adrien, I’ve been doing this for us! I’m bringing Emilie back. Don’t you want to see your mother again?” Gabriel stepped aside, tilting his head towards the coffin.

“I would, but not this way,” Adrien shook his head, looking away from his father and the coffin. “I’ve grieved and moved on. Mom is dead and you shouldn’t be trying to change that!”

Gabriel frowned and narrowed his eyes. “Fine then. Nooroo, Dark Wings, Rise!”

He called his Akuma back and sent another one, to whom they didn’t know. But what they were trying to do was get the brooch back. Gabriel, Hawkmoth, had almost lost from the shock of seeing his son transform into one of his own enemies, Chat Noir.

Mayura joined, but Robin was quick to bring her down when she had doubled over from the sickness her Miraculous was causing her. Volpina made another return, hindering a good portion of the entire operation. Chat Noir had accidentally cataclysm-ed the entire platform, sending everyone down. There, in the dark and in the knee-high water, they continued the battle. Hawkmoth’s cane was shattered and he hid behind Volpina and her illusions.

Volpina held up a good fight, but her mistake was physically attacking Ladybug. That had cemented her as the real Volpina.

“Finally,” Volpina screeched, hands on Ladybug’s earrings. “Finally! You little bug will finally be gone!”

She had gotten one earring out before Robin had sent a flying kick towards her, and the two of them began wrestling in the water. Ladybug was slowly disappearing, and the familiar form of Marinette was coming out of the suit.

“Tikki, Spots off! Where’s my other earring?” The two of them began hunting the earring.

Chat Noir’s timer was finally up, and he returned into Adrien and was kicked away by his own father. “Plagg!”

Diana finally managed to shove Hawkmoth’s face under the water and rip the brooch off and left Gabriel to find Marinette. Batman held the struggling Gabriel by his arms.

“What’s her Akuma?” Robin called, having learned the same trick.

“It should be her necklace! Don’t destroy it, we need Ladybug to purify it!” Adrien responded, finally finding Plagg and giving him a soggy slice of cheese. His night vision back, he dove under and plucked the earring from the ground and pushed it into Marinette’s hand.

“Tikki, spots on!” Marinette called and Ladybug shot at Volpina and ripped the necklace off of her. The familiar sound of the Akuma’s wings managed to be heard over the infuriated screeches of Lila and the struggling grunts of Gabriel. Ladybug caught and released the Akuma.

Emilie’s coffin was found in perfect condition after the Cure was cast. Gabriel and Lila were given to the police. Afterward, Adrien and Marinette were standing in front of it.

“Do you think perhaps she isn't actually dead?” Adrien asked, reaching out to touch the coffin while Diana came walking up behind them.

“A misused Miraculous can be damaged, and a damaged Miraculous will injure anyone who uses it,” Diana explained, taking her circlet off.

“I had thought Nathalie was sick with the same thing as Mom, they both started coughing before it began to actually start crippling them. I wonder why she was using the Peacock, then,” Adrien trembled.

“The temple might be able to help,” Marinette suggested. “They are the ones who know everything about the Miraculous. And, now we finally have the whole box.”

“You might be right, sister,” Diana placed a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “But don’t put all your faith in them. They might not be able to bring her back.”

“If-” Adrien began, his voice trembling. “If they don’t, where am I going to go?”

Diana offered her hand again and he squeezed her fingers. “If you want, I would take you.”

“You would?” Adrien raised his eyebrows.

“Of course,” Diana grinned. “Marinette is like the little sister I never had. You, you are like a son to me. Marinette has her family and has grown with guidance. You… when I came, you were like what I imagine Bruce feels when he found his sons. Someone who needed guidance. Someone who needed an adult there who cared.”

Adrien looked on the verge of tears.

Emilie truly was dead, when they gave her to the temple. Adrien changed his last name to Prince and stayed with Diana. Marinette let him keep Plagg, but changed Tikki for a zodiac, taking Mullo. She didn’t want both the black cat and the ladybug active at the same time anymore.

Diana stayed around in the bakery while not on Justice League business or at the Louvre, and got to know Tom and Sabine quite well. Marinette and her relationship strengthened, and Marinette quite liked to tease Adrien at school by calling him “her nephew.” Nobody really knew why.

As they grew older, Adrien and Marinette kept in touch in their civilian lives and stayed as partners in the superhero world. But, Adrien never re-entered Marinette’s love life. No, he got his kicks out of returning Marinette’s teasing here.

Damian Wayne and Marinette had gotten to know each other in the month he and Bruce had been in Paris. Marinette had a delivery to them, and then continued having deliveries. That was on Bruce’s part and him trying to set Damian up. Well, it worked, and the two fell into an awkward “I like you” stage after the downfall of Hawkmoth. When Marinette graduated, she had gone to Gotham University so she could be closer to Damian and they really did start dating then.

Adrien got his kicks from this. Whenever Diana came for a visit, Adrien was with her and always asked how Damian was treating his aunt. There were normally angry, muttered snide remarks in Cantonese from Marinette and smug replies in Mandarin from Adrien.

Life was as peaceful as the life of a superhero could be for our young, found family.

#Maribat #Diana is Marinette's older sister hc #Daminette #platonic Adrienette

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en-theheights · 5 years ago

Text

All the problems with HSMTMTS:

I keep getting asked question on what happened in the fandom, and what is going on against all of the s*xual assault allegations against J*shua and T*m. This is going to be the post where I lay out all that I know of and inform the tumblr fandom on it because not all of you are on Twitter, and Tumblr is literally the heaven amongst fandoms. After this post, I’m DONE talking about this show and being apart of this toxic group. Along with talking about the s*xual assault allegations, I will also be addressing the issues during the BLM movement and other crap that not only the cast and crew have been a part of, but also the fandom itself. Let’s dig in.

Sidenote: I really don’t want any hate, I’m just trying to be open with you guys and inform you all. Also, I’m doing my best to remember everything, so if there is something that you want to know more on then please just message me personally cause I’m seriously SICK of discussing it publicly.

Not eveything in the fandom is due to JUST the cast and crew. This fandom is FULL of very toxic and creepy people.

A few months ago, someone (a grown women) who was overly obsessed with Olivia hacked into her grandfather’s account to turn it into a fan page to get undercover information on Olivia, as well as getting information on where Olivia lived. This grown women has also done some other seriously inappropriate things. If you want to learn more about the sketchy things that this women has done than you can go to Twitter and look it up.

There are always ship wars in fandoms, but this one takes it WAY too seriously. I’ve seen people get attack on their looks just for being a part of a ship. The ones that are heavily abusive are Rina vs Rini, Seblos vs CJ, and redlyn vs Redky. It has cause people to leave the fandom due to how bad the attacking got. On Tumblr, everyone’s pretty open about ships, but on twitter it is a literal battle field.

Disgraceful people still continue to ship the actors instead of the characters. J*livia and J*fia is what I’m going to talk more closely about. (First, josh is a grown adult and both Sofia and Olivia are minors, please unfollow me if you don’t see anything wrong with that). Sofia had to delete a few of her tik toks after one with Joshua went viral and people wouldn’t stop shipping her and him in her comments. Like one video she did, the caption was “I want a boyfriend” and people assumed they were dating and wouldn’t stop tagging him in her videos. As for Olivia, people have been shipping them since the beginning of the show. Fan accounts on all platforms have dedicated their time to this. I don’t necessarily remember if Sofia or Olivia came out saying that they were uncomfortable when they got shipped with their cast mates, but it started causing drifts between the actors because of this and Joshua wasn’t featured in any of Sofia’s videos after that and Olivia didn’t post as much as she use to with him. It goes to show that shipping actors makes things awkward and strained within their personal relationships. DONT DO THIS!

A person stating that they were friend’s with Olivia came out to expose Joshua of being a bad boyfriend after she tells everyone that Olivia and Joshua has been secretly dating during the press tour of HSMTMTS. There was clever evidence that showed they were dating and the girl came out with multiple receipts, and even went so far as to go on Instagram live to speak on the matter. But she then came out stating that it was false and she only wanted some attention. Apparently she was a j*livia stan. I can’t find anything on twitter about it anymore, since I’m pretty sure eveything was deleted. This can ruin people’s careers and I don’t know why anyone could think it’s okay.

There are genuinely a lot of creepy adults that roam around in the HSM fandom. On twitter, there would be grown adults writing in detail how the kissing scene between Joshua and Olivia made them feel. People continue to post the gif of Nini and Ricky kissing and write out why it’s so important to them. People have taken that kissing scene and literally turned it into nasty and inappropriate sm*t on AO3 and Wattpad. Note once again that these characters are minors and it’s NEVER okay to write inappropriate stories about children. Grown adults need to be held accountable for their actions if this is how they’re acting.

Some parts of the fandom genuinely hate on both Sofia and Olivia for literally nothing. Just jealousy between their ships, and because of it, they think it’s okay to to personally attack the actresses on their looks and where they are in there careers. People continuously pin Olivia and Sofia against each other, like for example people bashing Olivia for not being as successful as Sofia, or Sofia being bashed because she doesn’t have the same singing career as Olivia. It’s once again, DISGUSTING!

This one is more about Disney and then not doing their part. Disney cut out the majority of Seblos’ scenes, which caused a lot of turmoil within the fandom and why Seblos felt unattached and awkward while they were together in all of their scenes after the dance episode. People called out Disney and said they they shouldn’t have put Seblos in if they weren’t going to go full out with it.

Onto the cast and the crew:

Kate (miss Jenn) got a lot of hate for exposing that Frankie (Carlos) and Joe(Seb) are in an actual real life relationship without asking them for their consent to tell the world. Don’t know whether they had spoken about them being in a relationship or not, but Kate didn’t speak on it after that either.

A video came out a few days ago of the cast taking cast pictures during their tour, and Mark (Mr. Mazzara) was standing beside Sofia in which it looks like his hand was rubbing Sofia’s lower back, and she seemed uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s a stretch or not because the video is super blurry and it’s hard to kind of see their faces, but you can clearly see his hand go behind her back. Personally for me, I didn’t notice anything too alarming, but you’d have to see for youself. I won’t be posting that and instead you can dm me personally and I’ll send you the link to the video.

A past comment of Joshua’s was exposed in which he is saying the F slur. #joshuabassettisoverparty was trending world wide on Twitter, with people wanting him off the show. He has apologized for it since then, but not many ever forgave him and it was just really his young girl audience that came to his defense, even though it wasn’t their apology to forgive. People that only stan him because he is a cute cis white male didn’t see the problem in what he had said, and kept saying that he was young and that it’s not a reason for us to hate on him, but he was only 17 when he said that, and it’s no excuse. Personally to me, his apology was super bland and he didn’t address it personally on his Twitter, but instead replied to a post saying he’d do better. Here’s what he had said:

Here is his apology on this:

Joshua also went on a live in which he said “boys, gals, or whatever” People accused him of being transphobic and enbyphobic. Others think that his words were being blown out of proportion. Here is that video:

I found it to be very ridiculous and rude that he doesn’t follow anybody on twitter or tik tok. On a live video, Julia said something about him not following her, and he just says that he doesn’t follow anybody and she shouldn’t take it personally. Honestly not that big of a deal, but it’s still shows pitifullness and arrogancy. Don’t know what his contract looks like with whatever agency he’s with, but maybe they’re just strict on that, but idk.

People hate on Matt (EJ) for being republican. He hasn’t done anything problematic or said anything out of offense, so for me he’s good. UPDATE: Turns out, Matt is friends with Benjamin Lawson Adams, a convicted pedophile. Here’s a brief statement in what happened:

He worked for the Weinstein company, so no surprise there. His arrest happened in May 2016, and his license was suspended to practice Law in July of 2018. If Matt knew what was best for him, he would stop having any and all associations with this dude.

That’s all I can think of on situations not regarding the s*xual assault allegations or the BLM movement. But there’s probably so much I’m missing. I’m going to make a part 2, cause the next half is too long to post here as well. I’ll label it #exposinghsmtmts so others are able to see it.

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