#ive only had him 2 days) the teacher then challenged me to a race to see who could do it fastest and when the bus dismissal

[asfdhgsdkjhgb]

im riding the high of academic success

[jflashandclash]

Traitors of Olympus IV: Fall of the Sun

Twenty-Three: Thalia

Rabbits with Ratbbitude

             Axel must have lost his mind. And not in the “a god drove me mad and now I’m trying to kill my loved ones” kind of way. In the “I finally cracked and see the white rabbit” kind of way.

           At least, that was the only conclusion Thalia could come to when Axel started berating the rabbit she and Reyna caught.

           Fortunately, they found a rabbit quickly after leaving Axel and Calex to their heart-to-heart. This must have been a gift from Tyche, since Thalia didn’t want to stray too far from the river and the boys, and she also didn’t want to walk in awkward silence near Reyna for too long.

           After a tree branch caught Reyna’s breastplate and made a sound worthy of a horror movie, Thalia had Argentum and Reyna fan out to the side, to scare animals towards Thalia instead of away. After all, praetorian armor and shiny dogs weren’t exactly designed for stealth. They had more of the “look at me; I’m important” ring to them.

           They weren’t gone for long before the praetor and hound helped corner a rabbit straight into Thalia’s net.

           “Not bad for a praetor.” Thalia grinned. Reyna might need some stealth work to become a huntress—if she’d ever have interest—but definitely not bad. When Thalia thought of how easy Reyna had escaped Thalia and the huntresses’ confines before, Thalia should have expected no less.

           Argentum held his head high with pride, his tail darting back in forth happily. Thalia wondered how often Reyna’s guard dogs got to hunt and whether or not Reyna would want to set up a doggy play date with the wolf pack. Although Thalia knew Reyna did the whole bath house things with her female comrades, she felt like Reyna didn’t spend nearly enough time with the girls.

           As they walked back, no longer having the hunt as an excuse for silence, Thalia debated on all the questions she wanted to ask Reyna. Things still felt kind of weird with the whole Axel-threatening-her-with-Mayan-love-poetry-thing. (Axel was SO weird.) But she got the vibe Reyna didn’t care, didn’t feel threatened, or was amused by the whole thing.

           If anyone was acting awkward, Thalia figured it was her; despite the love potion, Thalia felt guilty having thoughts about any boy, never mind it being Axel. With Euna, Thalia hadn’t known if there might have been a loophole in her huntress vows, but the Boys Have Cooties Rule was pretty well established.

           Which bought Thalia to the things she was really worried about: one boy in particular and her huntresses.

           “How were the huntresses before you left? And how was the camp?” Thalia asked. “Eminent destruction still on hold for the day?”

           With all the time Thalia spent on the hunt, Jason often, shamefully, slipped her mind. With everything that happened between Axel and Pax, she was passively worried about him. He was powerful, but she didn’t want a god taking her little brother from her again. Er—he was her big brother now, right? Being a huntress was confusing and made aging stupid. Major downside to immortality: no more birthday parties.

           Thalia also felt guilty for encouraging two huntresses to leave their pursuit of the Teusmessian fox against Artemis’ direct order to continue, and Artemis wasn’t always known as a forgiving goddess. Thalia wondered if Artemis and her sisters were still locked in a challenge they could never win, like catching the Energizer bunny.

           “Lesedi and Christiana were still scouting for the camp when I left. No contact from the gods, as support or enemies, other than the ‘near-Death’ experience that Calex had.” Reyna shuddered and Thalia thought about what it must have been like for Calex to race Death. While they had been going through the jungle, the Brit had been double checking everyone else’s movements, like he was scared they were going to grade his forest-traversing skills on grace and coolness. Despite his insecurities, she had to give him some kudos for racing death and winning. Grace and coolness points earned regardless of jungle-traversing skills.

           “That rabbit looks… strange,” Reyna said, changing the subject and making Thalia wonder if Reyna was also nervous thinking about her own troops in the upper world.

           Once the rabbit froze up in Thalia’s net, she stopped paying it much attention. Thalia held her net up to peer at the tiny mammal in the turquoise lighting.

           He was a cute little thing. For some reason, she strongly felt it a “he.” His ears were long, twice as long as the average rabbit in the United States, except maybe the jackrabbits Thalia had hunted in the desert. His fur was the color of the desert, a light brown. Admittedly, Thalia—in her years as a huntress—had never seen a rabbit look so annoyed and put upon. This rabbit combined both expressions flawlessly. It was like Nico in tiny rabbit form.

           Then she noticed the weird thing: this rabbit had a long, curled-up tail, like that of a chinchilla.

           “I really hope this is a rabbit,” Thalia grumbled, lowering her net so she could more easily dodge around hanging vines and would-be snakes.

           “How do you think this rabbit is going to get us across the river?” Reyna asked.

           Thalia rolled her eyes. “Like I have any idea what Cat Breath is thinking. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with instructions. He didn’t even specify dead or alive.”

           “One is slightly more amendable than the other,” Reyna muttered. She used her spear to push away a snake dangling in Thalia’s path.

           Thalia really didn’t want this quest to go from “hunt the rabbit” to ��rabbit resurrection,” so she had to agree. “We should name him,” Thalia said, carefully hopping over a tree root that poked up from the soil.

           Argentum made a soft clang when he jumped to the other side alongside his owner.

           “He doesn’t look like a Cottontail,” Reyna snorted at the rabbit’s long appendage.

           “What about Bugs?” Thalia said. The sound of the blood river was getting closer. They would meet up with the boys soon. She held her net up again to see if the rabbit reacted to the name.

           He glared at her apathetically.

           “And what are you going to do if Axel needs to kill Bugs?” Reyna asked, the humor thinly veiled in her voice.

           Although Thalia had hunted down and killed plenty of animals, beasts, and monsters during her time as a huntress, these wide, black, vaguely irritated eyes suddenly felt a bit too personable, like he was a little punk rabbit. Thalia heard stories of the augury readings at Camp Jupiter, where they sacrificed stuffed animals for various ceremonies.

           With her spare hand, she made a tiny spark. “He can try.”

           They laughed as the forest broke to reveal the shoreline, where Axel and Calex were still seated.

           “Axel,” Thalia held up their catch, “You can’t hurt Mr. Bugs.”

           For a moment, no one moved but the dogs. Aurum sat up, alert, then rose to join Argentum at Reyna’s side. From the way Axel’s jaguar ears were flattened into his hairline, and the way Calex smirked, Thalia got the impression that Axel just shushed Calex. Ugh, boys, Thalia thought.

           Axel closed his eyes and exhaled. His ears twitched up, seeming to contradict the forlorn expression. “Thalia… I’m sorry.”

           The mire in Thalia’s chest died. “What?” She held Bugs up higher and realized, with horror, what he was talking about.

           “I’m going to have to cut out and eat his heart,” Axel said.

           Calex’s jaw dropped. “Are you bloody serious?”[1]

           Queasiness overtook Thalia. Had Axel eaten rabbit hearts before? Had she given someone mouth-to-mouth that had eaten a raw bunny heart before?!

           “Gross!” she said. Thalia glanced to Reyna, to see if Reyna would support finding another way across the river and, maybe, sympathize over her mortification of exchanging saliva with this guy.

           Reyna’s face was twisted up, like she could barely repress a laugh.

           Axel’s serious face cracked into a smile.

           “Augh.” Thalia rolled her eyes. “Could you at least pretend at something less gross next time?”

           Axel rose. He dusted the dirt off his leather pteruges and the pants under and then stood straight. He coughed into the back of his hand. “Thalia, let me see Bugs.”

           Calex stood up beside him, picking his golden bow up from the ground. He reached up, like he wanted to grab the black scarf he usually wore around his neck, only to remember he’d put it in his bag, since it was way too hot down here for winter wear. “Mate, you’re not actually going to eat his heart, right?”

           Axel tried to give Calex a blank stare, but couldn’t quite manage to repress his smile. “Give me the rabbit.” He walked over to remove Bugs from the net.

           That was when he held the rabbit at eye level by the scruff of its neck.

           And shouted at it.

           Everyone jumped. Aurum and Argentum growled. Without realizing it, the four of them had been speaking hushed voices, only slightly raised to keep over the slurp of the river. Axel’s yell was so unexpected and loud, Thalia feared whatever monsters lived here—or those Lords of Xibalba—would show up to complain about noise code violations.[2]

           He didn’t stop. In some staccato, foreign tongue, he snapped at the rabbit.

           The rabbit, if possible, looked more annoyed.

           “Axel, what the Hades?!” Thalia said.

           “You’re giving away our position to anyone within this underworld and the next three over!” Reyna snarled.

           Axel waved them off with his free hand without breaking eye contact with the rabbit.

           Calex blinked in confusion. “Axel, have you gone mental? I don’t think the hare cares. Leti antal t’u’ul—”[3]

           “You can understand him?” Reyna asked.

           Calex’s confusion turned towards them. “Of course—Right.” He seemed to realize Thalia and Reyna were in the dark about his I apparently speak obscure languages thing. “Yea, ‘love speaks all languages.’ It’s an Eros thing. He’s repeating himself a lot. Let’s have a look see…”

           Axel hadn’t paused in ridiculing this poor bunny, and Thalia had a suspicion he might bore the tiny thing to death. If pushed, it might break and jump for the blood river. Maybe that was Axel’s plan: to force autosacrifice the way teachers induced sleep during horrible lectures.

           “Uh, he started something with… giving this rabbit lots of titles. They’re a bit posh. ‘Father of all Hares,’ ‘Child of None,’ and the likes. Then something about, ‘To you, one who stole my father’s boat, one who stole my uncle’s boat, thief of my family’s property,’ and ‘then, you shall undo it therefore, it shall be returned again,’ else…”

           Calex tilted his ear to the side, and began to translate, at almost the same time Axel was moving his lips to shout,

           “’I will pull it,

           I will rip it off,

           The way our fathers did before me,

           And their grandfathers before them,

           Ending the tail of the taleless rabbit,

           Beginning the tale of the tailless rabbit.’”

           Thalia’s head spun at that last verse. This reminded her of stories about the sphinx, though she heard they had upgraded from riddles to pop quizzes.

           The rabbit rolled its eyes. “Okay, fine. Would you just stop? No one has talked like that for, like, a thousand years,” the rabbit said.

           “Okay, fine. Would you just stop—” Calex started to repeat.

           “The rabbit spoke in English,” Reyna told Calex, her eyes wide.

           Axel and Calex seemed as shocked that the rabbit spoke in English as Thalia and Reyna were that it spoke at all.

           All of them stared at the fluffy bunny.

           Thalia had met plenty of talking monsters, though, she suddenly realized, very few talking animals. Thalia wasn’t ready for her little Bugs to speak and braced for a, “What’s up, doc?”

           Its accent was a bit too Hispanic to pull the typical Bugs Bunny voice, though she assumed there was some Spanish Looney Tunes voiceover.

           “You’re not supposed to be able to speak,” Axel said, “Your flesh was condemned to be devoured and homes be left to wander, thus spat by the Framer and the Shaper, by She Who Has Borne Children and He Who Has Begotten Sons, because you could not worship them with words.”

           Thalia glanced over to Calex, who shrugged. “No idea.”

           “Holy K’an Ti! Do people still address the creators like that?” the rabbit asked. “We other animals may not be as longwinded as man, air bag, but we got words.”[4]

           “Santiago and Frasco’s boat…?” Axel growled. “The boat—”

           The rabbit shuddered. “Please, just don’t start talking with repetition again. I’d rather you rip off my tail. I’ll get Frasco and Santiago’s boat. I’ll talk to my friends for help. Augh, you sound like my great-times-one-thousand grandpa. Now, let me go.”

           Axel glared, then gently set the rabbit down.

           Bugs shook himself out, used his back leg to itch behind his ear, then examined Axel. “What jackass told you to address us like that anyway?”

           Axel’s entire body tensed. Thalia had taken more notice of his muscles at Lemnos Resort than she was willing to admit, and she was happy he hadn’t done that motion while they were under the love potion. His knuckles went white around his sword hilt.

           “The boat,” Reyna reminded the tiny rabbit.

           Bugs snorted and hopped off into the jungle, this time along the shoreline.

           Aurum and Argentum watched his movement like they were barely resisting another hunt.

           Reyna made a whistling noise, and they dematerialized. Thalia really needed to ask what happened when they did that. Did Reyna carry a spare Pokeball around that none of them had noticed?

           “So,” Thalia said, “Your family has a boat.” Although watching the rabbit berate Axel was fun, she was mad. “You couldn’t just tell us that we were crossing on a boat, instead of freaking us all out like a jerk?”

           Axel’s muscles slowly relaxed. He released his sword hilt and raised an eyebrow at Thalia. “Huntress, if I’d have told you I needed you to catch a rabbit with a tail, so I could yell at him until he fetched my uncle and Santiago’s boat, when all of you already think I’m lost geographically and losing my mind, how would you have reacted?”

           Thalia crossed her arms. Earlier, she’d removed her parka and stuffed it into her backpack, so she could feel the cool touch of her Aegis bracelet. “I would have caught the rabbit.” That previous urge to hit him across that dumb goatee returned.[5]

           “Lieutenant,” Reyna said.

           Calex stared at her.

           Thalia didn’t realize until then that her fingers had sparked.

           Calex cleared his throat. “Right. So, chatting with rabbits..? How did you learn to chat with a rabbit like some old chap? That uh, family business? Typical Pax tradition?” He sounded eager to avoid a fight.

           Axel tilted his head towards Thalia in confusion, like he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

           In Thalia’s rulebook, openness with the team and trust were necessities. Although Luke would have never wanted to worry Annabeth or the others at Camp Half-Blood, Thalia often wondered if things would have been different if he’d voice his opinions more openly, if he could have gotten help.

           They needed to get across the river and work as a team to get to Euna, but Thalia sparked her fingers one last time, for good measure and to remind Axel she was here to keep him in line.

           “Axel,” Calex said.

           Axel sighed and nodded to Thalia. “I underestimated you, huntress, and for that I am sorry.”

           “The rabbit is right,” Thalia said, almost more annoyed he apologized, “You speak like the representative of an ancient geriatrics ward.”

           Reyna choked on a laugh. Calex let his escape.

           Axel sighed and shook his head, smiling softly.

           He turned to Calex before remembering that Calex’s question had also revolved around how he couldn’t talk like a person from the 20th or 21st century. Thinking that meant a lot from Thalia: some of the girls she hung out with referred to Jesus as “that youthful upstart.”

           “Uncle Frasco told me to talk to the rabbits like that if I ever ended up in Xibalba,” Axel said. His lip twitched, like he couldn’t decide to smile or frown. “He was kind of like… a more willful Ajax—”

           “So willing to jeopardize people’s lives for a practical joke,” Calex said.

           Axel decided on a cross between the two expressions: a sad smile. “Still pranking me from the afterlife.”  

           Reyna took a step forward to touch Axel’s shoulder.

           Without looking at Reyna (or, if Thalia had to guess, thinking through any consequences) he slipped a hand up to enlace their fingers.

           “Hey, praetor, huntress.”

           Reyna almost kicked the rabbit that seemed to materialize at her feet. Reyna and Axel released their hands to go for their weapons.

           Bugs itched behind his ear with his foot, careless of his potential incoming obliteration. “Come on. We got his boat ready for you.”

           Reyna and Thalia exchanged a look.

           “For us?” Reyna asked.

           Like Hades Thalia was hopping onto some ancient Mayan boat to cross a river of blood without their guide.

           “I mean, Prince Longwinded and the Yoruba pup can come along, but you two are the ones who captured me. It could have saved you a mouthful and me a headache if you would have just asked for the boat instead of Prince Longwinded.”

           Calex grinned. “Cat Breath, Prince Longwinded. You’re acquiring quite the list of titles, mate.”

           Axel sighed. His smile turned crooked as he bowed to Thalia and Reyna and swept a hand towards the shoreline. “Ladies first.”

           Thalia rolled her eyes. Reyna snorted. They took the lead after the rabbit, Calex and Axel keeping their eye out for attacks from behind.[6]

           Bugs hopped into the jungle bordering the river. His path paralleled the banks from the safety of the canopy. Thalia had seen other animals do this: a safer way for typical prey to travel.

           “So you’re trying to get to Tartarus,” Bugs said as he hopped along. With the way he faced away from them and the slurping din of the river, his voice sounded small.

           Thalia frowned, trying to remember if she and Reyna had discussed Tartarus around the rabbit.

           Reyna resumed using her spear to push extra foliage and vines out of the way. “You were following us before we captured you,” she guessed.

           “The forest has ears,” he said. “I’m getting the boat to shut up Prince Longwinded—”

           Axel grunted behind them. Thalia almost hoped he’d speak up in protest and further prove Bugs’ point.

           “But, you never asked anything in return for releasing me and christening me with the name, ‘Bugs.’”

           “You’re keeping the name?” Reyna asked in surprise. She shoved some wisps of stray, black hair out of her face. Sweat stuck the pieces she missed to her cheek. She must have been boiling in her praetorian cloak.

           The rabbit paused to glance back at them with what Thalia could swear was an incredulous look.  “Of course,” he said. “How am I supposed to know what to be called if I’ve never been named?”

           “The longer we stay here,” Calex muttered from behind, likely to Axel. “The more you and that dodgy prick of a brother make sense.”

           Ahead, Thalia could see something long, narrow, and colorful through the trees. There was movement around it, and the closer they got, Thalia could make out four deer. Their fur was a chestnut brown-red, except for a grayish portion near the heads. Their front legs looked shorter than the typical deer Thalia had hunted in North America or Artemis’ sacred stag. The single stag present had horns that protruded backwards, like a gazelle’s, instead of branching out into a network, like an elaborate keyholder.

           Similar to the rabbit, Thalia blinked to realize these deer had long, red tails that curled into a question mark behind them.

           Thalia clenched her bow, wondering if Calex was doing the same. Yes, these were just deer, but deer could trample an unwary hunter, and maybe Xibalba deer liked to nibble on trespassing demigod flesh to prepare for winter. This could have been a trap. How would that look on a gravestone: death by startled deer.

           “Free advice in exchange for releasing me,” the rabbit said, “Different underworlds often exist in one place at one time. It can just depend on who is guiding you as to what the underworld looks like, and how you make it from one underworld to another.”

           As they got closer, Thalia thought she could hear a conversation happening ahead. When Reyna’s armor clanked softly, the conversation abruptly halted. The deer all froze, staring directly at them.

           For a disorienting moment, Thalia had to wonder if all animals could talk, including animals in the upstairs world, and if their feigned silence was the best orchestrated hoax of the mythological world.

           Bugs didn’t mind the deer’s attention. He continued hopping forward. “You will not make it across the Red River. No one has. The Lords of Xibalba don’t make it so easy to dodge the Houses of Torment. The Pax princes before Prince Longwinded, they didn’t make it across. Just ask Lord Santiago how he hurt his leg.”

           Thalia could hear Axel puff up his cheeks and pop them. One more piece of information to beat out of Axel later.

           “You’re close to the heart of Xibalba, which means you’re close to the heart of Tartarus. If you want to get to Tartarus, you need to be the one that takes charge.”[7] Bugs’ ears twitched towards Thalia.

           The deer bolted further down the shoreline.

           “Why me?” Thalia asked, wiping some sweat off her brow. She was glad they weren’t going to be lunch for a pack of ravenous deer.

           “The Mayan prince can get you there, assuming everything goes right. But, if he panics, his homeland will grab him and hold him here, as he will be fighting against his nature to leave this place. I’m unsure the Yoruba pup has an afterlife or how strongly the Orisha would pull him. Praetor, you have a similar chance to the Yoruba pup, since I don’t know if you have any remnant connection to Coaybay and the op’a from your Taino descent.”[8]

           Thalia glanced to Reyna. The praetor looked as confused as she felt.

           She could hear Calex gulp behind them.

           “You, huntress, are almost full Greek. If you come to a place of in-betweens, a place where the worlds converge, and you take the lead, you will naturally find your way home,” he said.

           “To Tartarus,” Thalia corrected, uncomfortable with the assertion that Greek Hell was home. If she was about to come upon some new property, she would need to do some major redecorating.

           “Whatever,” the rabbit said, hopping through the break in the trees onto the bank.

           The long, narrow object the deer had clustered around was a canoe. It must have been carved from one tree, as there were no seam lines signifying separate pieces of wood.  Along the exterior, there were colorful depictions of warriors and animals dancing. The bottom, unfortunately, was stained with blood.  Here and there, jade, obsidian, and pearl were imbedded into the decorations. There were perfectly four paddles waiting to be used.

           “She’s beautiful,” Axel muttered.

           When Thalia glanced back, she saw Axel’s expression had gone slack. He puffed up his cheeks and popped them wistfully. For some reason, the reaction gave her the uncomfortable feeling that their guide had never been here before.

           A rabbit giving directions and a guide who had never been to the place they were leading them through. Great, Thalia thought.

           “Yea, your dad and uncle put a lot of hard work into carving and painting this thing. Why do you think we had to steal it from them?” Bugs asked. He stopped hopping beside the boat, and sniffed the exterior.

           Axel scowled.             “Rabbit, I was only half-joking about eating your heart.”

           “Yea, yea. I heard your friends. They don’t have the gut for you to do it. Yellow-livered colonizers.”[9]

           “Are you complaining that our presence is keeping you alive?” Calex asked.

           The rabbit didn’t respond to him. Bugs turned and hopped back towards the jungle, like something had spooked him. “Just uh, when you fall in, don’t drown.”

 Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy and I hope you have an awesome New Year’s Eve!

 Footnotes:

[1] I resisted ALL the jokes I could have made with the Britishism. It was difficult…. But I persevered. Though Calex is mad they need to cross that bloody river.

[2] Little does Thalia know, this is what happens in the real Popol Vuh.

[3] Yea, the grammar is awful in this one, and I really need to actually sit down and study again, but it is supposed to say, “He’s a rabbit.”

[4] “If we couldn’t talk, then the louse couldn’t have delivered a message to Hunahpu and Xbalanque from their chiich.” “Who?” “Eh, you’ll read about it in Jack’s stand alone novel. Don’t worry. It’ll be a lot less confusing when you get the whole story.”

[5] Get in line, Thalia.

[6] Between his years of crushing on Reyna and his recent interest in Thalia, I think it dangerous to expect Axel to focus on their surroundings if he’s bringing up the rear.

[7] Mel’s betacomment: “Wait… is the underworld… racist?”

Jack: huh…. Apparently? XD

[8] Because our lovely lady is from Puerto Rico.

[9] What’s something that Romans, Greeks, and Brits all have in common? XD

[novella12nite]

Only Us

@ghostchild-whelp-dipstick-spook , @mlsecretsanta

Merry Christmas Spooky I’m your Secret Santa! I hope you enjoy this Mutants AU fic I made. Your blog is full of superheroes so I wanted to do some superpower hurt/comfort.  If you have an ao3 account lmk I’d like to gift it to you!

Read it here too: ao3

 ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡

Adrien went straight the restroom after Chloe spilled her drink on his shirt. She had offered to send his shirt to the cleaners, but he turned down the offer saying he would wash it off himself. He needed a break from the party anyway.

After coming to the academy he could almost say he was a different person now. No longer was he the new student with a mysterious gift. The rumors about his powers being unstable ostracized him at first, but thanks to Nino, who helped him with the transition into school, he was able to make new friends. The class party was going great but for some reason, in the back of his mind, he had a feeling that it was only temporary.

He stared at his reflection for some time. When he grinned he counted the lines that formed at the edge of his eyes. There really was nothing he could do but grin and bear it. His headmaster tried to vouch for him but the council had declined. They had decided it was safer Adrien remain in the Academy until they could properly claim his powers are stable. He was not sure what more proof he could offer, he thought he was getting better at school compared to being trained at home.Before he came to the Academy he could barely hold a glass, he can pick it up put down and drink from it. His father had sided with the council as well;  Adrien sighed taking off his black gloves. His hands looked normal, but he knew if he ever came in direct contact with any object it would fall apart into ashes. The door opened and Adrien turned to see another person in dire need of the restroom.

“Marinette?”

She looked up clearly frazzled “A-Adrien! O-Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to! The uh door was unlocked and I thought no one was, I’m just going to leave,” As she inched her way to the exit, Adrien noticed that she hid her right arm behind her back.

“Wait! Marinette, what’s wrong with your hand?”

“It’s um- stuck.” She stated.

Adrien scratched his head in confusion. “Your hand is stuck in your purse?”

“Actually it's stuck in another dimension, that is inside my purse.” She clarified.

That’s right, Marinette Dupain-Cheng his classmate had her hand submerged in another dimension. It was her gift. He had seen her use it dozens of times in school and he like many others were in awe of it. She could create pocket-size dimensions and store various objects that re-materialize when she pulls them out. He heard his other classmate Alya call her a “modern Mary Poppins” much to his friend’s dismay. Marinette is one of the nicest people in his class, she always there to help others and was recently elected class president. She is also well known for being rather clumsy and gets fluster easily so this was not new.

His hand shot up covering his mouth, trying not to laugh. The annoyance on her face only made her look cuter.

“Hey, it’s not funny” She pouted.

“I’m sorry,” Adrien smirked, he wasn’t going to let an opportunity go to waste.

“Don’t you dare-“

“Do you need a hand, Marinette?”

Marinette glared at him, annoyed. he chuckled at his own brilliant pun as he put his gloves back on.

“I’ll get one of the teachers to help you right now.” He stood up walking towards the door.

“No!” She cried out, “Please can we just keep this between us? I wasn’t supposed to…”

She didn’t finish, using her free hand to cover her mouth. He looked at her confused but decided to ignore it.

“Ok then, what do you want me to do?”

“Let me think.” Marinette pulled her purse inside out, her hand half submerged in what looked like another plane of existence.

“Can you grab my waist? If I just pull my hand out, the tear will close ”

Adrien hovered over her, “is this ok?” He wrapped his arms around her waist, almost hugging her from behind. There were very close.  He hoped he didn’t have any bad breath.

“On my count. 1, 2, 3!”

Adrien lifted her off her feet, and with both of them pulling her, she was able to successfully release her hand, causing both of them to fall backward. The portal lingered for a moment and then vanished.

~~  

“Are you alright? I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah, it’s fine Marinette,” Adrien chuckled. “I have a hard head.”

Marinette checked him, trying to make sure she did not just injure her crush. She could not believe she just fell back on Adrien! He insisted he was okay but wanted to sit for awhile in the bathroom before rejoining the party festivities.  She accepted the invitation and they sat together on a nearby bench in the hallway.

“You think they’ll look for us?” He asked.

She shrugged. “Probably not, Alya and Nino are most likely doing couple stuff.”

Adrien laughed. The sound of his voice made her heart leap out of her chest. She wondered: was there ever a moment just the two of them? All day she had been trying to get a chance to speak to with him alone. Unfortunately, there was never a moment alone, especially with Chloe in the picture. She had this plan to give him a present but no thanks to her portal that has vanished, it was most likely the present would be lost forever. Perhaps Alya was right about just talking to him would be enough. Now that they were finally together, she was nervous about how to go about what she needed to share with him. They sat in comfortable in silence.

“I can not thank you enough for your help.” She finally said.

“Save me a slice of cake, I saw you brought one in earlier.” He suggested with a toothy grin.

“Kim ate the last slice, unfortunately. But I-I can bake you one!” She blurted out.

She saw his cheeks bloom red. “Really?”

She nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. For a split second, it looked like he was going to inch closer and hug her. He remained at a respectful distance, though, she looked at both his hands that were planted firmly on the bench.

“Adrien, can I ask you something?” He hummed. He looked like he was in a good mood; she’d hate to ruin it by being privy, but she was curious.

“Does it hurt? Your hands I mean…”

He nodded. “A little bit. Things turn black or crumble when I touch them, there are only side effects though, nothing too serious.” He placed them up in arms’ length so she could see them from a distance as well.

She did not speak, unsure of how to respond, so he continued.

“Don’t tell anyone, but they denied my request to go home,” he babbled on.  “Headmaster said it was ok, but my father said I would be safer if I stayed here in school.”

Marinette’s eyes were blown wide; she tore away from his gaze and looked straight on. She did not expect such an honest answer.

“Marinette, I think he’s afraid of me.” His voice cracked, “there’s no other explanation for why he would not want me to come home.”

“Adrien I do not-

“It’s ok, I’m okay.” He shook his head vigorously, “I would be scared of me too.”

Marinette did not believe that. She refused to.In fact, she felt more secure with Adrien than with anyone else. He looked at her like she was a mad woman. She did not realize she said that last part aloud.

“Let me elaborate; Adrien you have the most control with your gift out of everyone in our class. You know how to control your powers. While mine are unpredictable, I lose things, I summon stuff I don’t know what use I have for them. I have no control.” She looked at him, eyes filled with tears.

She reached over to take his hand. He didn’t grab it, but he didn’t move it away either. His expression was unreadable.

“What I’m trying to say, or least what I’ve been trying to get out all night is that you have a friend staying with you this holiday break.” She wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, “I’m not allowed to go home as well.”

She leaned back on the wall. The two of them sat there in silence, without words. Adrien beckoned her to lean against her shoulder.

“Well look at us, two mutants with unstable abilities who can’t go home for Christmas.”

“The world’s just not ready for us.” She answered in a low voice.

“Well, when we are ready will make an unstoppable duo.” He smiled at her, “Until then, m’lady do you happen to have any plans this Christmas?”

She wiped her eyes breaking into a smile, “Hmm I was planning to sleep until noon but after that, I have no appointments, Monsieur Agreste.”

“Splendid! I was wondering if you would like to play Ultimate Mecha Strike IV? I’ll pick you up at half past twelve.”

“Oh, Of course, but I need to bake a cake at four, for a party of two.” She played along, “I could use an extra hand. Would you like to help?” She saw his eyes shine with delight.

“You had me at cake.” He answered.

~~

Adrien did not realize he had a crush on Marinette until New Year’s Eve. Both of them were sitting in the blanket fort they had made in the common room.

Everyone went home for break the next day, so they had the entire dormitory to themselves. They rearranged the furniture in the hallways and walked around wearing high-knee socks. Marinette challenged him to some sort of “sock-slide race.” They spent hours sliding across the empty dorm hallways. To fill up the silence, Marinette blasted Christmas music. They watched movies, played video games, baked a cake, and Marinette even taught him how to bead bracelets. They had exchanged them as presents Christmas morning.

He felt whole when he was with her like he could interact freely with stuff without destroying them. He figured she felt the same as well like she had a clearer head when she materialized objects. They supported each other and confided in one another. Adrien never felt like he could open so much about himself to another person in just days of spending time together.

Maybe it was the fairy lights they stringed up which made the mood more romantic, the way she hugged him at midnight it felt warm and he wanted to give one back in return. He could hear a small voice inside him reasoning with him. She’s amazing, she’s sweet, she’s beautiful, you are in love with her.

A/N

Marinette has dimensional storage powers: store anything in a fold of dimension/space and re-materialize.  (Marinette can’t control her powers fully. She can’t predict what she can materialize and a majority of the stuff she stores she ends up losing. She also can’t close these tears so she temporarily sews them up and ties objects with string) Marinette has public acceptance but not control.

Adrien the power to destroy anything he touches.  (is trained to control but is still reserved and wary around people even if their like him raised his entire life to be cautious) Adrien has control but not the public’s acceptance