#looking at my old Chloé bottle | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

generalluxun · 2 years ago

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Fanfiction: Late Bloomer (hanahaki)

Author's note: I don't normally write angst, but I wanted to give hanahaki a try, using the more true to folklore version that isn't about getting someone to love you(ala Beauty and the Beast) but instead having to share your own feelings openly. It's angst and angst with beautiful moments(I hope) mixed in, with an ambiguous ending. as usual it's also posted on AO3 which is linked in my Bio. Comments and critiques are welcome! Summary:

On what might very well be the last night of her life, Sabrina Raincomprix pulls out a very special scrapbook, pressed between the pages is the past, the past she has never shared with anyone. She relives how she got to this moment one page at a time, preparing herself for the end. A phone call interrupts her self-imposed exile and brings news that could change her life forever.

Even if it does though the question looms... change it how?

Sabrina kept her fist clenched tightly over her mouth until the coughing fit passed. Only once she was no longer gasping for breath, and the tingling in her limbs subsided, did she open her hand to reveal… nothing this time; a reprieve. She heaved a wheezing sigh, resettling the afghan over her shoulders before fixing the desklamp she had knocked askew in her throes.

It cast a small yellowish halo into her darkened room, highlighting little more than the scrapbook she had set before her. Some people had photo albums. Sabrina had this, and likely she wouldn’t even have this much longer. That’s why she was here now, to look through it one more time, in case the final bloom came suddenly.

She opened the book to the first page, and there pressed carefully under plastic against a white backing was a single petal. Sabrina ran her finger over the line of it, the color had faded in the intervening years, but in her mind it was still vibrant. It was a Rose petal, mostly pink with slender fingers of red reaching out timidly from the base, as if seeking light for the first time. Sabrina’s feverish mind was all too eager to take her back to that time, a better time.

Chloé had been jumping from foot to foot when Jean showed Sabrina into her suite. As always, Chloé was dressed in the finest fashion the world had to offer, and bedecked with makeup enough to turn her into a miniature adult, rather than the nine year old child she was.

Instantly her friend dashed to the foyer table and pulled down a package, “It took you long enough to get here! Look look, it’s from Mommy!”

Sabrina tried to give the package Chloé held a curious once over. She barely got to look before Chloé dashed away to her room. Sabrina waited, that’s what she was supposed to do. Jean had already left, so Sabrina had a moment of real worry that Chloé might forget about her and she would be stuck in the foyer all night.

“Chloé?” she ventured.

Chloé came running back, package and scissors in hand. She missed the bottom step and nearly crashed headlong into the floor. Sabrina grabbed her scissor-hand and Chloé curled her whole body around the package as she fell, turning a dive into a tumble. Sabrina fell to her knees beside Chloé, heart still in her throat.

Her friend sat up instantly, the near-miss utterly ignored with her usual bravado, “It came today. You are the worst for not getting here sooner!”

She took the scissors from Sabrina’s hand and went to work inexpertly attacking the packing tape. Sabrina took the moment to read the label properly this time. ‘From the Offices of Style Queen Enterprises. Thank you for your continued patronage.’ A seed of fear sprouted in Sabrina’s analytical mind.

It germinated when Chloé finally got the box open. Chloe yanked sheets of excessive decorative tissue packing out by the handful before producing a bottle of wine. She held it up and shot Sabrina a confused look. Sabrina could only give her a fragile smile. How could you even begin to explain what it was to someone who wanted to believe so badly?

Chloé’s brows knitted in her thinking face, and a little spark lit itself in Sabrina’s chest. Chloé brightened, “Mommy must think I’m so mature, I can have a whole bottle all to myself now, just like daddy at dinner.”

She set the bottle down with a confident nod, and Sabrina knew that flimsy excuse was reality for her friend now. More things came out from the box, each with their own explanation.

A fitted polo, size large: It’s a nightshirt!

An expensive wristwatch, men’s: Oh, this must be for daddy. She had to get him something after all.

Front row tickets to a fashion show in Paris that Andre would never send Chloé to: Oh, mommy just wants to show how much she cares. Those are places no one else can sit, because it’s my spot, even if I don’t go.

Catalogs of current and upcoming lines: She just wants me to remember how hard she’s always working…

Each justification took longer. Sabrina was biting her lip, hoping it would end before her friend’s fragile truth cracked. The ‘gifts’ were in a pile beside Chloé. already forgotten, as she pulled more paper from the box, searching frantically for any remaining surprises.

She came up triumphant with a small box of chocolates, only four in all. It was a foreign brand Sabrina didn’t know, but she guessed it was very expensive. Sabrina let out a nervous giggle from relief. Chocolate was something that didn’t need an excuse. Chocolate could have any meaning Chloé wanted it to.

Chloé broke the seal on the treats and revealed each individually shaped confection, “Aha, see? You can tell they’re exceptional, because there are so few of them.”

Sabrina scooted closer, curious about the flavors, but she also knew what would cheer her friend up. “You should eat them, all of them, right now.”

Chloé seemed to come out of a daze, as if she had forgotten Sabrina was really here, and had simply been talking aloud to herself. Sabrina was used to that, too. What she wasn’t used to was the long stare Chloé gave her in reply.

Sabrina ducked her head, trying to figure out what she might have done wrong. “I mean, if you want to…”

A smirk curled on her friend’s lips, one Sabrina had seen her practicing in mirrors. “Oh, they’ll get eaten alright. We are going to eat each and every one.”

Sabrina watched, dumbstruck, as Chloé’s perfect manicure pulled out one of the chocolates and struggled against it before finally breaking the truffle into messy uneven halves. That spark turned into a searing heat in her chest. Sabrina felt the prickle of sweat at her hairline, and her mouth went dry as those sapphire blue eyes watched her expectantly over the smushy treat.

Too much would come tumbling out, things she wasn’t supposed to be thinking of yet. Sabrina stuffed the half-truffle into her mouth to keep the words down. Silently, Chloé went to work breaking the next. They ate without talking, and things returned to normal. The fire burned but Sabrina kept her lips resolutely shut. Starved for oxygen, the flames ebbed. The only thing she told Chloé that evening had been ‘Good night.’

She’d gone home, and had her first coughing fit while brushing her teeth. There, pink amidst the green toothpaste in the sink, sat this single petal.

Sabrina turned the next few pages, each of them holding their own individual petals. Each petal having its own tale of feelings she hadn’t understood, but had been taught to fear. Flipping through each the slow progression of the pinks into reds told the tales of three years of her life.

Chloé had changed in those years, and Sabrina could honestly admit now, not for the better. It had been gradual at the time. Hours spent in front of a mirror had honed Chloé's expressions into a mirror of her absent mother's. Quotes and ideas stolen from magazine clippings shaped the inside to match the outside. Chloé began to practice her own brand of cruelty, using her father's power much as he had himself, to push people around when all else failed.

Through it all though, she was still Sabrina's friend. When Chloé's public persona leaked into personal life she could be every bit aloof and dismissive, but she would come back later to apologize, at first with words, then later with gifts when she didn't remember how to say the words anymore.

Sabrina turned pages to whole flowers now, still roses. She mentally teased herself for her lack of imagination while moments drifted up from each one.

Her father couldn't make parent's day at school because of an important meeting as Police Chief. Sabrina hadn't cried, she'd stood stoically off to the side. It's only one day, she told herself.

Then Chloé was screaming at her father the Mayor, it wasn't always easy to follow why. Sabrina scooted over to see if she could help but Chloé clammed up at her approach. She jabbed her father in the stomach with a painted nail and the Mayor fled, pulling out his phone.

Sabrina's father had shown up minutes later. Demoted for the day to beat cop, he had no business attending high level meetings, and spent the rest of the day with her, losing horribly at all the fun games. Chloé never said a word about it, but Sabrina caught her looking now and then. Those looks had combined to give birth to a tricolor rose, with eddies of yellow and pink among the red.

Sabrina turned page after page.

This one was the time someone had made fun of her glasses. Chloé had traded her for the whole day, they both bumped into things a lot, but seeing Chloé stare down the other girl and dare them to make fun of glasses had produced a red rose with only hints of pink.

It had gotten easier to think about her feelings, to admit them to herself, but she was still scared to voice them. What would Chloé think? What would she say? Her dad was a pushover, but he was super worried about his image too. It was the one thing that made him put his foot down. Chloé's mom was a distant worry, but also not. Ever more what Audrey thought, Chloé thought. Not knowing the answers sealed Sabrina's lips to all but a steady stream of blossoms.

Sabrina turned the page to the single largest flower in the the book. Bloom, stem, extra petals. Coughing it up had her in tears. The thorns left her tasting blood for a week.

There was a time when Sabrina thought it might stop. The meanness had peaked, Chloé became distant, and Sabrina very nearly left. Then Chloé was there, standing in a Ladybug costume and holding a Cat Noir costume in her arms. A Cat Noir costume for Sabrina.

Everyone knew what Cat Noir and Ladybug were. Sabrina's hands had trembled when she took it. Her lovesick mind had raced. Does this mean- Is she saying?

Sabrina had worn the costume and felt happier than she knew possible. They chased Jean, fought imaginary criminals, drank chocolate on the rooftop, and fell asleep on each other while 'monitoring for Hawkmoth' (watching TV).

The flower had convinced Sabrina to come clean. There was no doubt in her mind, and she couldn't keep this up any longer. The morning she chose for confessing though, Chloé was all aflutter with the latest news of Ladybug. She had videos to share, and watching Chloé watch the screen, Sabrina saw the look she had longed to receive herself.

Sabrina went home, envied Ladybug, and coughed up another flower.

She'd thrown that one away in a pique. There was a blank page where it should have been in her book. Page, page, Sabrina reached one with a glorious scattering of petals rather than a bloom. There were colors, every color, but oranges and purples stood out strongly. Even now, she blushed, and her fingers traced her own full pink lip print preserved in lipgloss between two sheets of plastic.

"It's, you know, whatever, right? I'm just saying that everyone is doing it now, and I don't want to be the only loser who doesn't know how to play."

Chloé held the tablet awkwardly, bright colors and dashing characters surrounded the title screen on it, 'Super Penguino!!!' with three exclamation points.

Sabrina swallowed to coat her suddenly dry mouth, "You want to play… with me?"

Chloé looked away with a toss of her head. Her reply was dripping with her usual affect, "Practice, Sabrina. We should practice, both of us. You don't want to be lame either, do you?"

YES! Sabrina screamed, but only on the inside. To Chloé she simply said"I- I- If that's what you want."

"Right, good. Well let's get to it. No time like the present," Chloé's words ran together, but as she pushed and handled Sabrina to the couch it left no time for consideration.

Her friend scooted in close, right up against Sabrina. Chloé's scent of cosmetics and perfume was always heady, this close it was overwhelming, or maybe that was the warmth of her hip against Sabrina's. They each held one side of the tablet, the game had a little thumb sensor circle so both players had to give up one hand to play. Each was only one half of the whole. Leaned in over the screen Sabrina felt Chloé's ponytail bump her bob with a careless movement. her glasses bumped the other girl's forelock in turn.

They began.

It was awkward at first. Chloé wanted to control everything, unsurprisingly. 'Too fast.' 'Too slow.' 'What were you thinking, putting your hand there?' 'Don't squirm so much.'

Yet she kept at it, with a determination Sabrina had last seen pulling apart four little chocolates. Sabrina squirmed, trying to keep her heart in check. More than tomorrow's sunrise, she didn't want to be the one to screw this up. Eventually they figured it out. There was a natural rhythm if you just let yourself relax.

They made it to the next level.

Triumphant music played, blue and white light from the screen washed one bronzed cheek as Chloé slowly turned her head. Turn- pause. Turn- pause, back. Turn-

The music faded before the beat of Sabrina's own heart. She turned too, averting her eyes while trying to remember the names of every saint she could pray to. A quick glance back to be in line, then away. A little further. Glance again, catching those sapphire eyes shooting away while the gap became smaller. Sabrina couldn't hold the tablet steady, but she didn't dare let go.

Gloss met gloss. The taste was familiar, she'd copied Chloé's brand long ago. The pliant warmth behind it was a wholly new experience beyond even her more ardent daydreams. It lingered, neither one seeming to know how to disengage. They did drift apart though, and her friend’s eyes were, her breath in light pants. Here was the moment. Sabrina felt it in her chest, all she had to do was say it.

She lingered just a second too long, the mask slipped back into place across Chloé’s expression. Game over. Chloé raised an eyebrow, turning a tender moment into an act. “Another round?”

It wasn’t the only time they practiced. It was the only time Sabrina ever came close to being able to say what she felt though. She was too afraid now, too afraid to lose these little moments. In the end, she lost them anyway. Emotion bottled up too long blurted out foolishly in front of the whole class, as they comforted Nino and Alya. ‘You know, sometimes even Chloé and I-’

Chloé’s reaction should have been expected. Sabrina wondered how she could have been so foolish, even as she traced the dried petals with a fingertip. Her lips were softer. Chloé had never been one to share emotions easily, too much risk in being hurt. Sabrina could sympathize. It had meant an end to practice though, and a further retreat.

Then came Miraculer, she’d let her emotions get the better of her, but Chloé had helped in the end. Next was Miracle Queen, Chloé had let her emotions get the better of her, and Sabrina was powerless to help. Audrey, Zoé, Vesperia, Lila, it all piled up. The colors became muddled, the stems grew thorns again, the thorns grew dark and hard.

Sabrina had tried to turn away again, in New York. A boy there liked her, and he was fun to talk to, but Sabrina’s eyes kept wandering back to the fire escape, hoping a head of gold might pop over the side, onto the roof. It never did. Sabrina kept in touch with the boy for a little bit, but his sweet letters, tinged as they were with feelings Sabrina knew all too well, never produced flowers of their own. In the end, she felt like she was being dishonest with him, and let the friendship lapse. She slipped the one letter she’s kept, her last, from the pages of the book and opened it. Delmar, that was his name.

The girl Sabrina had grown up with was nearly gone at that point, vanished under a pile of anger and resentment. Lila made everything worse, but she was too strong. Sabrina never knew the right words, the way to remind Chloé of what she was before she had become what she desperately believed her mother would love.

In the present Sabrina adjusted the afghan again and sipped hot tea with honey. It helped soothe her throat these days. She left red marks on the lip of the cup, then pressed a tissue to her lips until she’d caught the errant drops of blood. She was avoiding the next page.

It was still there when she finally gave in. A single chrysanthemum among the roses. It had been the catalyst, the sign she took to mean she had to end things. The scheduling ploy was an excuse. It was a joke of a plot itself, petty, pointless, and cruel. With it, she had an excuse to call Marinette. She started the ball rolling, and when all was said and done, she was free; free, and alone.

The flowers didn’t stop.

The next page, a bud that never bloomed.

Sabrina watched the plane lifting off. She’d made it to the airport, but lost her nerve and merely stood out at the fence, watching the end of the runway. When Audrey’s private jet took to the air, Sabrina felt a part of her going with it. She’d screamed the truth into the roar of the engines, screamed when she knew no one could hear, not even herself.

She’d fallen to all fours and coughed up a long string of climbing roses, barely a hint of red in the tight green buds. She’d nearly gone right there, suffocating as she pulled the long vine hand over hand, fearing it would take all of her with it. It didn’t though, and with weak hands she plucked a single bud from the mass.

Sabrina ran her fingers over the bud again. She had never been quite sure if it was a new beginning, or a never began. She still wasn’t, though she feared it was the later. After all, there were more pages.

Sabrina had made new friends, good friends. People afraid of Chloé emerged in the wake of her absence. Zoé was sweet, and kind.

Zoé could talk for hours about anything and nothing. Her world of words were the opposite of Chloé’s silences. It helped, having too many words for thoughts sometimes, and they shared a connection through the person missing from both of their lives, for better or worse. Sabrina would visit Zoé at the hotel. Sometimes she would still make a wrong turn and end up at the door to a now empty suite.

They stood on the balcony, leaning on the rail in the balmy summer air. Sabrina’s mind had wandered over the Paris skyline while Zoé’s voice played gentle background notes. Sabrina’s name brought her back down, she shook her head and asked softly,”I’m sorry, what?”

Zoé ducked her head and smiled, “I was just saying that after everything, you’ve been really strong. It’s inspiring.”

If only you knew. Sabrina merely shrugged, “If you say so.”

Zoé brushed the pink bangs back from her eyes. “I do. I also think, you’ve really gotten, you know, more confident, and… I like that.”

Sabrina’s mind was back on the ‘everything’ that Zoé had brought up. “I’m not that confident.”

Zoé shuffled nervously. She was closer than Sabrina remembered. “Well, um- it’s more than that. I guess I’m just kind of making a mess of it but…”

Zoé had reached up, brushing back Sabrina’s bob on the side facing her. When Sabrina turned Zoé was even closer. Those soft blue eyes, sky instead of sapphires, were asking a question even as she closed the distance between them.

Sabrina felt a sharp sting in her chest. Zoé’s features seem to shift, not to what Sabrina had feared, but instead to Delmar. It was New York all over again. Sabrina stumbled back, tripped on a deck chair and sprawled.

“Oh god, I’m sorry Sabrina!” Zoé reached for her.

Sabrina scrambled, staying out of reach. She backed away quickly. She backed away from a beautiful girl who was doing what Sabrina could not. “I- I- no. I just- I gotta go.”

She’d turned and fled, bolting from the hotel, running all the way home. She’d thrown herself in the shower, burning hot. She’d tried to scald away the moment. Instead she’d heaved up a new rose. This one a red so deep it was almost black, but red still. There were thorns, but the thorns were pliant, the sting was lessened. She’d known even before she’d set eyes on it, it wasn’t for Zoé.

Time marched on. Things were awkward with Zoé now, and Sabrina knew it was her fault. Zoé didn't understand, she couldn't understand. Why? Because Sabrina wouldn't tell her. She wouldn't tell anyone. The reasons were different now, but the effect was the same. Everyone was so proud of the person she had become. With Chloé gone people felt free to vent old grievances, and they assumed she wanted to partake. How would they react, knowing how she still felt? How could she explain love for what her friends so clearly saw as evil?

More pages, and the blooms became brighter, the thorns smaller. Absence dulled the lows and enshrined the highs. Pretty little things, they were still killing her, and faster than ever. The fence she had built around her secret was becoming too obvious. Maybe no one knew exactly what, but they knew something. Each opportunity to come clean that past by was another lance through her chest, another flower in the sink.

Sabrina turned to empty pages. The future, her future, if it would even last that long. A coughing fit left her with her forehead pressed to her desk, panting, but still today's offering would not dislodge itself. It would be soon though. She always paid for the day after the sun set. One more flower revolting against being denied light.

Sabrina shifted from her desk to the window. Coughing fits came and went, her tea got lower, but still peace was denied her. Her phone's ring pulled her from daydreams built from moments that had never been.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Sabrina… how are you?"

"Marinette?"

"Yeah, um, it's me. I was just calling to check up on you."

Sabrina glanced at the back of her hand, at the flecks of red her last fit had left behind. "I'm fine, why?"

Silence, then, "I just… wanted to be sure you were okay. It's been a while I know, but it was still a big deal, and since she's back in town again…"

Thorns coiled up and grabbed the inside of her throat. Sabrina choked, coughed, and croaked out in a whisper, "She is?"

-----------

Sabrina was cold, she had left without her jacket. Her purse was stuffed with a growing collection of blood flecked tissues, but she wouldn't stop. She'd turned off her phone to keep people from reaching her, but still she was scared. She knew her friends. There was every chance they were on their way to ambush her and put a stop to this, for her own good.

Not Le Grand Paris, they hadn’t been back there since the split. Sabrina had kept tabs though, and made her way to a beautiful home hidden away in a compound in the heart of the Bastille district. The Kenzo House, once home to a giant of Fashion, and now owned by another. Sabrina had to stop to catch her breath, leaned up against the wall of the compound. Another coughing fit had her doubling over in a panic. What she had been so ready to accept was now a ticking countdown, one she had one last chance to outrun.

The world swam before her eyes as she dabbed her lips, then looking at the tissue wiped her teeth. More blood, too much blood. There had never been this much. Sabrina could feel the thorns stuck. Was that a blessing or a curse? A sign of the end, or one last chance as death held his scythe in check. Turning, she staggered to the gates; locked. Her hands shook too much to make use of her less-savory skills. Sabrina was left to lean on the buzzer, pant, and hope.

Her knees began to shake. She shifted herself off the buzzer, slumping to the wall again. She turned her eyes skyward. At one point she might have been able to climb these walls, but it was too late for that. Tilting her head too far made her light headed, colors exploded then dulled into grays and darkness. She began to slide slowly down the wall, a leaf tickled the roof of her mouth.

“Sabrina?”

A chest punch from the inside out. Sabrina’s heart beat as if it had never bothered to try before. Color exploded back into the world, then grew instantly too bright. She squinted as she raised her head, and there, still a creature of gold; Chloé.

She was thinner, sharper. Sabrina wanted to ask if she had been eating enough. One look at those thin wrists answered the question though. Eyes so sharp they should have had facets were wary and clouded with confusion. Lips that had spilled more venom than honey were still parted from that single word. She wore a silk half-robe over pajamas that looked too big on her. What happened to you?

Sabrina tried to steady herself, tried to get an explanation out a greeting, an acknowledgement, anything. Instead she lurched into the gate, gripping the iron bars and letting them cool her feverish brow. Stupid to come here, I can’t, even now. I’ll just end up making a mess. It won’t matter in the end.

She could hear Chloé’s response in her head, put together from a lifetime of experience. Which would it be: ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘Ewww, What is your damage?’ ‘Ugh, are you sick? Don’t give me your germs!’ ‘What are you doing here, traitor?”

The touch of perfectly soft fingers covering her own through the bars. “What happened to you?”

Another beat, Sabrina’s ribs ached as if she might explode. Adrenaline had her salivating. She swallowed and couldn’t stifle a whine from the pain. The gate opened, and Sabrina staggered with her support gone. Instead of iron, her fists gripped silk. She very nearly dragged Chloé down with her. Sabrina’s neck wouldn’t obey her. She could only loll her head back and pick out the yellow and blue of her friend through swimming shapes and blurs. So close, she had been so close. This was all wrong. It would only make things worse.

That same adrenaline that was wracking her body gave her just enough morbid strength to haul herself up and grit through teeth pushed apart by vines, “I love you.”

Her grip slipped and Sabrina fell. She fell and coughed green leaves wet with red. On hands and knees she coughed, and spat around what she couldn’t stop. “Forever- loved you- long- kids- never to- sorry-"

And then her words were stolen. She heaved and shook, coughed and gagged. More and more came up. She felt warm arms around her, holding her, rocking her. She was taken back in time to falling asleep dressed as Cat Noir. Sleeping in leather, that had been uncomfortable to wake up to. She couldn’t laugh at the unbidden memory, not physically. Her oxygen starved brain laughed twice as hard for her. Pain lanced through her head that outmatched anything in throat. Darkness closed in, and the one thought Sabrina held onto amid it all was, I did it.

One last heave, and Sabrina felt what came out dragging itself up from her toes, tearing who knew how much with it. Pain beyond the ability to even feel it anymore, just the sense of things flowing from her lips until she fell.

Confusion creeped in. She was still breathing. Did people breathe in the afterlife? She hadn’t hit cold stones when she fell. She was curled on something warm. Sabrina tried opening her eyes, and was forced to try and comprehend what she saw. So much green, so many knotted vines. How had that all fit inside her? How had there been room for any of herself left in her skin? Perched atop the mass a single white lily opened its petals, untouched by the gore of its passing. The thing that drew her unfocused eyes though, was, roots. The flowers never had roots before, but this one did. Long, feathery roots that had dug in deep and held on. Now, they were gone, with all the rest.

Sabrina let out a slow and tortured, but still alive, sigh.

From outside her field of vision one manicured hand reached out to touch one of the petals on the lily with a single nail. In the wake of pain, reason creeped slowly back in. What she’d said, to who, where she was, it all tumbled back in on her. She turned her head slowly in Chloé’s lap and looked up. Dark blue eyes looked back down, unreadable.

Falling back into old habits, Sabrina mumbled, ”S-sorry.”

Chloé reply, “Can you stand?” was quiet, but neutral.

“I- maybe.” Sabrina tried to roll to her knees.

Chloé supported her, helping her up. “Then let’s get inside before the police arrive. Mommy has the buzzer set up to call them whenever someone pushes it.”

Sabrina leaned heavily on her- she didn’t even know anymore. She stooped once, plucking the bloom from the vines. Whatever happened next, it was proof of what she had done. Together they walked into a home out of place in Europe. Kenzo house was Japanese luxury and traditionalism blended to elegance. Sabrina would have loved to enjoy it, instead she just had to focus on her feet staying under her and trying not to drip errantly on anything.

The sound of a TV turned up too loudly came from somewhere in the four story mansion. They never got close though. Chloé ushered Sabrina into a surprisingly small room, complete with sliding rice-paper doors. Inside was shockingly sparse even for the side. A small bed, possibly even a single, sucked to one corner, A desk in the other, a single bureau with a lamp on it, and a low shelf with magazines.

Chloé deposited Sabrina in the desk chair and then backed up, sitting on the bed and picking up Mr. Cuddly- minus his diamond eyes. Once settled though, she didn’t seem to know what to do next. She watched Sabrina in silence.

Sabrina felt too weak for the moment. She knew, logically, she should be dead, but then, logically people didn’t cough up flowers either. Something felt… off? There should be more, there always was in books and movies when this happened. Sabrina felt the need to make it clear, “I meant it, you know.”

Chloé answered simply, “Yeah,” in a tone a thousand miles away.

“I just couldn’t…”

“I knew.” Chloé wasn’t looking at her, she was looking down at Mr. Cuddly. “Or, maybe I dreamed I knew. I thought about you a lot.”

Something was very off. Sabrina cast around for some clue, but there was so little to work with. Wait, that’s something itself, isn’t it? Sabrina swallowed, her once-tortured throat felt pink and new. “I uh- Is this your room?”

Chloé looked up, then around. Her hands played with Mr. Cuddly’s ears. “Yes, mommy picked it out for me.”

Sabirna tried to joke, “I thought you’d take the biggest room in the house.”

“Losers don’t get nice things.”

That didn’t make sense. “Chloé you’re not-”

“-that flower thing. You know how it works?

Sabrina wanted to change the subject back, but again, old habits. “Hanahaki? Yes, I’ve read up on all the tales and history of it. I had to, to try and survive.”

Chloé looked back at her, eyes even darker in the dim light, “Tell me what it means.”

Sabrina touched a hand to her forehead, then lifted her glasses to rub her eyes. When she finished Chloé was still staring at her with am unblinking intensity. “Well… it comes from holding your emotions in. It’s… there’s not a lot of real science behind it. It’s a magical illness. So, it can vary? There are tales of people who died very quickly from it. I… it’s been nearly ten years.”

Chloé looked back down to the bear in her lap, “Why flowers?”

“From what I read, the story goes, your emotions are a garden. You’re supposed to let them out, share them with others. If you don’t, if you bottle them up, they don’t go away, they keep growing, they fill you up until they come out the hard way. The longer it goes, the more you fill up, eventually, there’s no you left, just a husk around what could have been. The flowers are kind of like clues? Experiences maybe, ways to figure out what you are feeling, for your spirit to tell you what you need to do.”

Those blue eyes turned to the Lily in Sabrina’s lap. “And that?”

Sabrina looked down at the bloom and wracked her mind, “They can mean a lot of things. Right now? I’m hoping… rebirth, a fresh start.”

A hint of bitterness, “I thought you had that already.”

Sabrina would not let it begin this way. “There a lot of starts in life, as many as we give ourselves really. It’s hard to start. It’s scary. But it’s also, not? It shouldn’t be. Just because you start over doesn’t mean you have to throw out everything you’ve got.”

Sabrina tried to put it in terms her friend might understand. She struggled then brightened.

“You changed your look all the time, but yellow came with you through everything, right?”

All of Sabrina’s enthusiasm, all her her explanations, seemed to hit Chloé and vanish inside of her. Instead of responding directly she reached down under the skirting on her bed and pulled out a shoe box. She flicked the lid off and pulled out a clear plastic bag. She threw it to Sabrina and asked, “So, what do those mean?”

Sabrina caught the bag one handed, carefully setting her flower on the desk before opening it. What she saw through the clear sides made no sense, and what she pulled out did no better. Flowers, but wrong. Petals where leaves should be. Blossoms of thorns. Stems in Blues, reds, yellows, and all colors swirled together on a single stalk. They were beautiful and unsettling in turn. Sabrina looked up to ask a question, but the desperate look on Chloé’s face was its own answer.

Sabrina held one up. “They’re different, that’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. Maybe… Maybe they just know quite how to be flowers just yet. Maybe nobody told them. Maybe they’re doing the best they can without any sun.”

Chloé watched the flower in Sabrina’s hand for a long moment. “They’re mine. They were mine, a long time ago. I bet you never knew. I didn’t tell you everything, you know. I didn’t want to bother you. I was scared, and I… I pushed.”

Sabrina held them out as if they might be weapons, shaking them at her friend in earnest, “Don’t you see? You can do something about it! I did! Me! Little Sabrina. That means you can too! You just have to take that first step. I’m here, I won’t let you fall.”

No harsh denial, but no emotional refrain either. Again, Sabrina’s words seemed to hit her one-time friend and simply vanish. Instead of an answer, Chloé reached down and plucked another bag from the box. She tossed it to Sabrina too. “And those?”

Sabrina opened the bag, and a sour scent instantly assaulted her nose. She looked in and…

Chloé…

No colors, not even wrong ones. Bloomless flowers, dried and curled leaves, mold spots on wet black stems, black spots on crumbling brown. These flowers had never stood a chance. Sabrina closed the bag, then curled up around it in denial. She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut to stop tears. She shook her head harder, trying to drive this moment from reality.

Chloé took it for an answer. “That’s what I thought.”

It brought Sabrina back to her senses. She uncurled, stood up, and threw the bag across the room where it tore the paper screening. “No! No, I did it! No one knew, but I did it anyway! I don’t care! It can’t- No! I don’t care just, shout, be mad, order me around! Anything! It can’t all be for nothing. You’re still alive! You’re still alive, that means there’s a chance!”

Sabrina dove to her knees in front of Chloé she took hold of the other girl’s wrists, the thinness making a horrifying sense now. Sabrina had been bursting, her friend was rotting.

“Chloé, we can fix this. I’m not giving up!”

From somewhere in the house, “CAROLINE! KEEP IT DOWN! Children aren’t meant to be seen or heard! I’ll have to have them install soundproofing again!”

Sabrina flinched. Chloé didn’t. She just said in the same soft tone. “You’d better go. I’m glad you visited, Sabrina. I’m glad I could do something right for once, even if it was just standing there. I listened, so I suppose that’s new for me.”

Sabrina got to her feet, weakness purged, determination rising. “I am not going to give up.”

“Well, that’s one of us.”

Sabrina growled. “At least tell me. Tell me who it is! I can find them. I can make this happen. You don't need to be afraid of what happens. I'm here, you saw, I'm proof you can survive rejection!"

Chloé stood slowly in counterpoint to Sabrina's frenzy. She took Sabrina's hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "It’s not the rejection I’m avoiding. It was good to see you Sabrina. Please go?"

Please, from Chloé, was shock enough to shake Sabrina's resolve and steal her voice. She could only nod, and let herself be led back outside. There were no police to greet them, just a dark gate and empty street. Sabrina's vine had sunk its roots in the ground beside the gate and curled its way up the wall, new buds were forming along its length and one had even opened beside the gate latch.

Seeing it unlocked Sabrina's tongue. As the gate closed behind her she warned, "I'll be back."

#miraculous ladybug #sabrina raincomprix #chloe bourgeois #hanahaki #ml fanfiction #ml fanfic #Marinette dupain cheng #zoe lee #audrey bourgeois #angst #ambiguous ending #feels #young love #unhealthy relationships #confessions #implied child abuse

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mcheang · 4 years ago

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Exclusive

Edna Mode was a renowned designer, famed for her harsh but accurate critiques, her fierce and practical lines, and of course, being the designer of the majority of superheroes.

And now she was hosting a fashionista gala, inviting those worthy of a Mode gala. As for those asking for an invite, Edna just asks who they are and calls security.

Lila, as the self-proclaimed BFF of Ladybug, and Gabriel’s muse, had already boasted of receiving the glamorous invitation. It didn’t just come in an envelope, it came out of the sky in a rosewood chest, accompanied by a bottle of wine and canapés. (Or so she says. Adrien and Marinette rolled their eyes. Chloé wasn’t paying attention)

Alya: Girl, I’m so jealous. But hey, maybe this will be a good thing. After all, Adrien is going with Kagami. Chloe will just stick with her mom. That means it’s a chance for you and Marinette to know each other better.

Oh yeah, did I mention that everyone knows Marinette is MDC?

Lila forced a grin but didn’t want to make any promises.

Imagine Lila’s rage to know she wasn’t given an invite because she was just a model. Adrien was the heir to a fashion company. She was not.

With all the bragging Lila did, she can’t back out or Chloe and Marinette will call out her absence. (Chloé learned about Lila being a guest from Sabrina later from gossiping)

So, she stole Marinette’s invitation. She did some editing and made her own customised invite, brandishing it for her class to see.

Marinette saw her invitation missing, rolled her eyes and reported the theft to Edna. Plz, everyone knows Edna invited her. She didn’t really need a piece of expensive paper.

The day of the gala arrived, and Lila brought out her invite.

The guard looked at his clipboard. “You’re not on the list.”

Lila: No, but I do have an invite. Obviously someone must have made a mistake with your list.

The guard snorted. “If that’s the case, then your fingerprints and eye scans should have already been registered. That’s what opens the doors.“

Lila gulped and thought about sneaking in with the next guest. But no such luck. Security made sure one person entered at a time.

As the security guard moved to push Lila back into the crowd of fans, Lila cried out that she knows Ladybug and Gabriel.

Guard: what’s your point?

Lila: You’ll be fired for this!

Guard: Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard this all before.

Another guard just scoffed. “You’re only a model. One of many in the industry. Miss Mode doesn’t care for models.”

Lila: what are models if not the face of fashion?

“Spoiled, stupid little stick figures with poofy lips who think only of themselves” Edna herself was at the entrance, wondering what was causing the disruption in her guest entrance flow.

Lila: How can you say that? Then why would Ladybug be my Best Friend?

Edna: the day Ladybug says she is your Best Friend is the day I wear crocs. And I don’t mean crocodile leather.

Edna points at a random guard. “You, get this so-called model out of the way. She is blocking the queue.

Oh by the way, Edna calling out Lila was caught on camera by the reporters.

One of them questioned why she was kicking out Gabriel’s muse when his son, a supermodel himself, was invited.

Edna: I did not invite the boy because of his face. I invited him because I saw potential (basically she realized he was Chat Noir. She would never invite Adrien otherwise. As seen from her quote, she doesn’t have a high opinion of models) That is, if he ever gets out of his father’s shadow. Because, let’s face it darling, what can Adrien do besides look pretty and play with swords and piano? You would think the boy would be in part of business meetings, but no. At this rate, Gabriel needs this gala to get out of that stuffy house. Realize that maybe his parenting methods are flawed compared to some other talented figures here. Look at Miss Kagami, focused on upholding her family legacy of fencing. MDC already knows how to run her own business after learning a bit from her parents. Even Audrey’s daughter has been joining in on becoming a fashion critic and throwing parties for political parties. But I must go, my guests await.

Back inside the party, guests were avoiding a seething Gabriel’s eyes. He had come to scout out the superhero guests, only to be called out by Edna on live tv.

Marinette went up to Edna and asked one of her fashion idols why she burned the Agrestes in public.

Edna: do you think Gabriel would change his parenting ways if we did not expose them to the influential figures of this industry, as well as the public eye? I guarantee you Adrien will be allowed more freedom of choice, lest Gabriel wants his son to be known as a coddled boy who can’t even make his own decisions.

Edna didn’t bother softening her sharp voice as she says these words.

Adrien flushed.

Quickly changing the subject, Marinette asked why Edna hated models.

Edna: it’s not that I hate them personally. I just hate their jobs and what they represent. Models nowadays are beautiful only according to the world standards. People who see them want to be like them, never mind that the models they see on the screen are airbrushed to unrealistic and impossible perfection. Now models focus only on their own appearance, trying to maintain their beauty as time ages them. They go on diets and become superficial. Whereas outside the modelling industry or such like, you don’t need to be stereotypically beautiful to be worthy. Where your worth is measured in kindness and bravery and talent and intelligence and anything beyond superficiality.

Adrien overheard and he frowned, not liking the idea where his appearance on ads is not exactly right. He only joined the company to make his father happy. But maybe it’s time he stepped into the business side of things and exit the modelling world. Bonus: no more Lila!

Edna snorted, “Though I must admit Gabriel surprised me with his newest model. Her attitude is lousy but she doesn’t strike me as a model. She just doesn’t have that model walk. But enough about the old man, my dear MDC, let’s talk about you. I love your gender-neutral line. And was wondering if you would like to join me in creating my next line of clothes for the Incredibles. A rare opportunity but I like style. Now take this offer before I change my mind.”

Marinette: wait, do I have to fly over or-

Edna: you are too excited, darling, but don’t worry, my assistants will send you the details.

Why are the Incredibles getting a new look? The kids are growing up and Edna wanted to move on to new styles.

As Marinette was flabbergasted, Audrey congratulated her for landing the job. Kagami and Adrien also beamed at her good fortune.

Even the Incredibles admitted they looked forward to working with her. Violet was a big fan.

Gabriel was seething and thought about akumatizing himself but come on, one villain against a room of superheroes? No thanks.

Drinking a glass of wine, he eventually admits that Edna had a point, however loudly and rudely it had been announced.

He would not be around forever and he wanted to leave the company in Adrien’s hands. In order for that to happen, his son needs to know business (if he can’t design, he can hire designers)

And yes, Lila was a lousy model. She survived by shooting with professional models who managed to overpower her mediocre work. But a deal was a deal. Besides, her contract was only for a year.

After the gala, Adrien happily quit modelling (aka Lila) to spend more time with his father, learning about how to run a company.

Marinette and Edna proudly claimed credit for the fashionable Incredibles.

Violet also became the talk of the school for her MDC exclusives.

Lila had been humiliated on air. Alya hesitated but finally did her research. At the end, she collapsed over the ruined credibility of her blog. But she can still get revenge by informing the principal, Ms Bustier and Mrs Rossi what Lila lied about. The perks of being a class vice president for a busy class president is that she also has the contacts list for emergencies.

Considering how Lila framed Marinette, there would be no suspension or detention. Only expulsion. Good luck finding a new school when Edna’s gala was a global topic.

When Lila returned to school for her last week (it takes time to gather evidence and get the attention of busy adults), nobody wanted to talk to her or even exchange glances. She quietly kept to herself, hoping for this to blow over soon. She was still a model working for Gabriel. She could befriend other supermodels (as if. Like they would want to befriend her after Edna called her out)

Hell, even her jobs were down. Gabriel just told her to take test shoots to fill up her portfolio until the hype died down (aka her contract expired)

When Lila was expelled, she was ready to be akumatized into Chameleon again. Except one problem. Everyone avoided her like hell so how could she kiss her target. Even Adrien was told to stay away lest his reputation be tarnished.

Ok, I admit it. I was hit by “I’m no Angel” quotes as I wrote this. But seriously, does anyone feel weird at the idea of trying to become thinner when your weight is just right, all the while you know there are people out there even thinner than you are and are starving, not because they want to be stereotypically thin, but because they cannot afford food?

#miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml fic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #Lila is exposed #Lila gets exposed #everyone knows Marinette is MDC #post ladybug episode #post episode ladybug #Gabriel salt #ml salt fic

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verfound · 4 years ago

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WIPWed: Festering Folder Edition: Unsolicited Advice

Ok so I misjudged how many there were/how many could be answered together, soooo this is the last one for today! @mintaka14 wanted to know about "Unsolicited Advice", which...I really need to finish up oh man. 😂

I think I started this last October? Maybe September? I shared a bit of it back then. It's focusing on Anarka and Marinette. Marinette has recently broken up with Adrien and is struggling with the breakup (or more why she dated him in the first place, how they broke up, and how she had treated Luka during/since). She finds herself at the Trocadéro, struggling to find some inspiration, when Anarka finds her. Marinette's been avoiding the Liberty, and Anarka for the most part knows why, so they have a heart-to-heart over how First Loves are sometimes just Stepping Stones, how a First Love doesn't have to be the Last Love, and Have I Ever Told You About Boarding School? (The angst is lessened by Anarka telling her about how she met Jagged at boarding school, how they dropped out/ran away together, how Jagged was her first Big Love, but how ultimately loving Jagged made her realize her real Big/True Love is freedom.)

I don't think I've shared this particular conversation before, or if I did I think it was only a SSS of it...

I had this all queued up and ready to go, the snippet selected, when you got me working on it again and Dammit Min here have some more of what I posted Sunday.

“I’m sorry,” she said, closing the sketchbook and setting it down beside her. She sighed and laid her hands on her knees, flexing her fingers in a way she’d seen Luka do when he had too much nervous energy and no guitar to relieve it with. “I…I’ve been kind of a wreck lately.”

“Understandable,” the Captain said with a nod. “These things take time, lass. Broken hearts don’t heal overnight. Anyone who’d expect that of ye clearly never had a heart themselves.”

“…what’s that say about me, then, if I expected it of myself?” she asked quietly. The Captain chuckled and offered her the drink again. She shook her head in a polite refusal.

“It says ye’re human,” she said, shrugging as she took a swig. “It says ye want to be through it. He was yer first, aye?”

Marinette wondered what it said about her that all she could do was shrug. The Captain leveled her with a knowing look, and she hung her head before picking at the cuffs of her capris.

“He was yer first,” the Captain said. Marinette looked up, frowning as her eyes roamed over the plaza before them. It was a beautiful day. A normal day. She hated that she didn’t feel very normal.

“He was…what was expected,” Marinette finally said. When the Captain raised a bushy eyebrow over her red glasses, Marinette sighed and toed the steps before her. “Did you know, when he first joined our class, I didn’t like him? I didn’t even know him. All I knew was that he was Chloé’s friend, and that was enough to know I wouldn’t like him. But then…then he was nice to me, and I…I got so stupid over one kind gesture. I didn’t even know him, but I was convinced I was in love with him.”

“The heart be funny that way, sometimes,” the Captain chuckled. Marinette pursed her lips and shook her head.

“I still didn’t know him when we started dating, not really,” she sighed. “It’s like…it’s like there was the Adrien in my head, the one I was convinced was perfect and I was destined to be with, but then there was…Adrien. And Adrien wasn’t as perfect as I had always made him out to be. He wasn’t real.”

“And there be the rub,” the Captain said. Marinette sighed, nodding.

“There’s the rub,” she agreed. “Adrien wasmy first big crush, but…can I honestly call him my first love? I don’t know if I ever actually loved him. Not like I love…”

She stopped, her mouth snapping shut with a click of her teeth. The Captain’s eyebrow lifted again, and Marinette’s grip tightened on her knees. The Captain looked back out over the Trocadéro and finished her drink. When the bottle was empty, she leaned forward and hung it between her knees, spinning it idly by the mouth for something to busy her hands with.

It was something Marinette couldn’t help but notice, the way the older woman couldn’t seem to sit still even while being still. The way excess energy seemed to thrum through her like a plucked string, constantly moving and going and being. It was something Luka shared with her – something Marinette shared with her. It was also something she had never noticed in Adrien, who was so used to rules and keeping his place and had never been filled to bursting with a creative desire so strong you just had to get it out or you’d explode.

She wondered if that was her answer, right there. If you were supposed to fit with your Person, why had she never fit with Adrien?

“First loves be tricky like that,” the Captain finally said, tapping the glass bottle against the stone steps. The sound reminded Marinette of her bangles, the clicking of her rings, of wind chimes glinting in the sun as they moved with the breeze. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pulling it into her lungs and holding it there until it burned. “Me first was a useless lagabout. Still. Gave me two wonderful bairns, so he can’t be all bad.”

Marinette started at that, her eyes popping open as she turned back towards the Captain. The Captain’s eyes were crinkling around the edges with her smile, distant and warm as she looked out over the milling crowd. She knew about…of course she did. When the Captain had finally come clean with Luka, after that akuma had forced the truth from her…Marinette had been the first person Luka had gone to. But even then, the Captain had always played those cards so close to her chest. She never spoke about Luka and Juleka’s father, not if she had any choice in it. He was part of her past, and the Captain had always been more focused on moving forward.

Marinette said nothing. She didn’t know what she could say. For her part, the Captain just tapped a slow, tinkling beat on the glass bottle with her rings. The silence continued to stretch, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it. The Captain would talk when she was ready, just as she knew Marinette would.

“It’s funny, when ye’re young,” she finally said, her fingers still tapping at the bottle like she was picking at old strings. “Ye think in such strict, narrow ways. Life be in black and whites, and ye can’t imagine it being any other way ‘til one day…it is. Ye think ye be meant fer one person. That one person be yer fate, yer destiny, and no one else will possibly compare. Could possibly take that place.”

A group of kids ran by, screaming and laughing as they disrupted a group of pigeons. She expected M. Ramier to yell at them – to see a purple butterfly flapping its way across the sky – but he just laughed and offered more crumbs to the little girl with the yellow shorts. She ran over to the spot where the pigeons were regathering, tossing the crumbs out for them and giggling as they cooed.

“But a heart’s a big place, Marinette,” the Captain said, smiling as a breeze blew through her hair. She closed her eyes and breathed it in, her fingers stilling on the bottle. “Bigger an’ stronger than ye could ever dream. Big as the sea, lass. There’s room enough fer a world o’ love there.”

Marinette swallowed and looked back at her knees. Her heart didn’t feel very big right now. It felt…fragile.

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lovemidnighteclipse12 · 5 years ago

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OLD - Family Soul Bound Maribat ~2~

This is just an idea I have since there are a lots of soulmates are romatic and platonic stories so I thought of this idea, I don't know if this is my original idea or someone else’s so I introduce you to Family Soul Bounds Maribat

-From lovemidnighteclipse12 fromTumbler and MiFallen from Wattpad

P.s. Kawmii’s can stop a soul bound from reacting to protect their holder’s identities, unless they are revealed to their packs, this is for protection

~Master List~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Previously

Marinette felt the bound closer than ever and thought one word ‘shit’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Present - 2 days later

The Waynes were walking about near the Eiffel tower at noon when a alarm started and an explosion could be seen

Freedom-”I AM FREEDOM, AND I DEMAND THE LADYBUG AND CAT MIRACULOUS!”

The whole family froze when a red blur swung in front of them

Ladybug-”get to an akuma shelter now!”

Then she swung away, the family ran seeing Ladybug fight with a yo-yo? When they got to the shelter to see a TV showing a live feed of the battle

Jason-”she’s fighting with a yo-yo, how is that possible and when did a children toy became a weapon?”

Mar’i-”can I do that with a yo-yo it looks so cool!”

Dick-”no sweetie, it’s dangerous”

As the fight continued they saw no one come help Ladybug

Tim-”so she fights alone”

Damian-”why doesn’t she have someone to help her”

Chloe-”you mean Ladybug”

Tim-”yes we do and who are you?”

Chloé-”Chloe Bourgeois, my father is the mayor and Chat was renounced for sexual harassment against Ladybug 3 days ago and you can find out more on BugOut app on the calming techniques, self defence lessons, information and interviews that Ladybug does and alerts on potential akuma sightings and were the akuma was last spotted, the app owner works with news stations for videos of the fight to add on the app, it gets endorsement from Ladybug and do not trust The Ladyblog because it’s a tabloid wannabee also don’t risk your life by going outside in akuma attacks you can be killed even if Ladybug can just miracle cure and fix everything and revive people from the attacks, you will still have the trauma and know the feeling of death”

Bruce-”wait people come back to life because of this cure”he was cautious

Chloe-”yes now excuse me, I need to go, and check on everyone else”

Chloe left walking away they turned to the screen and saw Ladybug with a red and black spotted spray bottle and then ran towards the akuma and spryed their eyes and graded an object and broke it, a black and purple butterfly came out, Ladybug quickly catches the akuma and a white butterfly was released and she thrown the object in the air shouting, the battle lasted two hours of analysing her fighting style

Ladybug-”MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

Little ladybugs spread across the city fixing all the damage the Waynes were shocked, everyone else were leaving the shelter and the Waynes were walking back to the hotel to get ready for the Charity gala

Bruce”that would be useful in Gotham”

Jason-”yeah it would”

Tim-”guys I just found the app, it has a lot of information on it and it seems to only be available in Paris”

Then they all felt the connection growing stronger then further away when their in their hotel room

Mar’i-”did we just missed them”

Damian-”tt. yes”

Kori-”but don’t worry we’ll find them”

Mar’i-”I know we will mommy!”

Selina-”don’t we got an gala to get ready for?”

Bruce-”yes lets all get ready we’ll meet back here before going, got that”

Damian-”yes father”

They all disperse to their rooms to get ready

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette felt the connection and walked away from the hotel back to the bakery to get ready as she entered the apartment Tom was there

Tom-”since your Chloe’s plus one you need to wear the fake skin when you there understand mistake”

Marinette-”yes sir”

She made her way up to the attic, her room to get ready for the gala.She had a shower and got dressed placing on the fake skin when she felt, rejection, pain, sadness it never gets easier dealing with having to cover her marks, it hurts more then the last, she put up her midnight black hair into a bun leaving the rest of her hair down as she gets her make-up done and placing on a red long sleeveless dress with some golden accents around the dress, it showed a little bit of her back if her hair isn’t there and she’s wearing black high heels. It’s 6 o’clock when Chloe arrives in her limo to pick her up, Marinette leaves quickly grading her bag and quickly left to the limo before Sabrine and Tom can speak to Chloe, she quickly entered the limo to meet Chloe who looked fabulous as always.

Chloe knew of her situation with her pack family

Chloe-”did they make you wear you know what”

Marinette only nodded still in pain wearing the fake skin Chloe came closer and hugged Marinette feeling sadness for her friends situation

Chloe-”you know we can always go to the police and report this right, you shouldn’t have to do this, go through this nettie”

Marinette-”b-but t-they r-raised me bee, it’s I the least I can do” her voice sounded so broken

Chloe-”nettie..people don’t that, it’s wrong nettie let me help please...”

Marinette-”can I think about it..”

Chloe-”okay nettie, we’re here come on”

Marinette-”okay”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier with the Waynes

Everyone was in the living talking waiting for the time to go when they felt there packmate placing on the fake skin again, they hated it Mar’i started to cry when a shock of pain shot through all of them they just stared at each other in shock why did they feel pain?

Tim was the first one to act pulling out his and started typing away

Mar’i-”why did we feel pain?”

Dick-”Tim did you find out why?”

Tim was silent looking at his phone

Jason-”Tim you okay?”

Tim-”recent research on packs shows that a packmate wearing fake skin feels their other soul bounds feelings of the situation and depends on how many packmates there are depends on how much pain the pain the packmate gets for wearing fake skin”

Everyone was silent

To be continued.................

~Master List~ Previous Next

#Batfam #mlb #batman #ladybug #maribat

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spartanxhunterx · 4 years ago

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Bug And Shell(d): The Bubbler.

Normally Nino was excited for birthdays, between him, Kim and Marinette they were often a blast or at least memorable.

Today, however, was Adrien's birthday and Nino was a little afraid on how to proceed, just slightly really.

He'd only known Adrien for all of a few weeks and he felt like he didn't know much about his new bro-friend.

So he had decided to pick out a gift based on a little something that he did know about him. That was wrapped up in the box.

For now though, Nino's attention was drawn to the other item that had arrived with it. All very last minute but he didn't care. Opening the packaging he pulled out his brand new wireless headphones, gone was the plain orange and black colour scheme.

His new ones were custom designed with the outside of each ear piece looking like Carapace's shield, the inside was a dark green much like the darker shade on his costume and the head band came with a soft plush cushion of the same colour.

Overall, not bad and he could always claim it was his way in supporting the heroes, even if he looked a little biased towards his own alter-ego.

As long as their wasn't any harm, then there would be no foul.

"I'm not as caught up with technology as I probably should be." Wayzz stated as he flew around the headphones, inspecting them. "But I'd imagine these won't last forever, power wise at least."

" No they won't, " Nino picked up the headphones before pointing to a small cover, opening it to reveal the ports for wires. "That's why these are here, so I can re-charge it and not worry about power."

he placed them on his neck, feeling a little tension fall out of him at feeling the weight on his neck. He'd gotten slightly stir crazy without his last pair, which he had broken helping that old gentleman, he had almost been tempted to break out the old-old headphones that he kept locked away.

"That's better, come on dude." He opened up his jacket and waited for Wayzz to fly into the inner pocket. Picking up the wrapped present he tucked it under his arm before he left his room, messing up Chris' hair as he walked past him he called his goodbye as he shut the door.

"Here you go dude." Nino placed the slightly haphazardly wrapped present in front of Adrien before he swung around the table to sit in his seat. "Happy birthday dude."

" Oh, " seeing that look of genuine surprise on Adrien's face made this worth it, seeing the real excitement as his hands rested on top of the box before he turned to him. "Thanks Nino, you didn't have to do this you know."

" I know. " Nino leaned back slightly. "I wanted to, you're my buddy after all."

He leaned forwards, arm leaning against table. "Besides what friend would I be if I didn't celebrate my buddies birthday?" Holding up a hand to cut off Adrien's protesting he pointed to the gift. " Now are you going to sit there all day? Or open your present? We gotta get it done before miss Bustier gets in here. "

Nino watched as Adrien gave in, fingers carefully peeling back the paper as he tried so, so hard to not tear the paper.

Nino was patient though and let Adrien open it in his own time. By the time he was done the standard red paper was half torn off, half preserved and left all over their desk. Not that he minded though.

He saw Adrien peer into the clear plastic, seeing the Ladybug themed wireless headphones that were the same model as his.

It felt a little cheap or unoriginal but when the headphones came with a '50% for a second pair' deal he couldn't not capitalise on that. Besides, now he could also make the argument that they symbolized their friendship as they both had a single set of the pair.

"100% accurate, Ladybug themed headphones dude. How's that for a B-Day present?"

"Its... Wow, thanks Nino, I don't know what to say."

Slinging his arm over his shoulder he pulled Adrien into a side hug. "Its cool dude, Don't need to say anything," He smiled at him, getting one in return. "Say, why don't I throw you a party?"

That made Adrien's face drop slightly and Nino's own smile dropped as well.

"I don't know Nino... My father... I don't think he'd allow it."

Nino was about to respond, however, Both Marinette and Miss Bustier had entered the room. Marinette handed a wrapped gift to Adrien as she past him. "Happy birthday Adrien."

" Thanks Marinette. "

Before Bustier could get on their cases about the mess Nino scooped up the torn paper before depositing that into the trash bin as Adrien slipped the gifts into his bag.

"Alright class, hope you've settled down now. Cause its time we get started."

" Come on man, it's your B-day, Insists. " putting away his tube of bubble mix Nino wrapped his arm around Adrien's shoulder, leaning himself closer to him. "You know what? I'm gonna have a conversation with your pops."

"Don't waste your time, he's not going to change his mind." Nino shook his head. His best bud wasn't going to go without a birthday party, not if he could help it.

"Adrien, dude, I promise you, I will get your father to let you have a birthday party. I promise."

Adrien turned to him, about to respond but was interrupted by Chloé, who had come running from behind them and latched onto him in a sort of awkward hug.

"Adrikins! Happy birthday!" She pulled back and Nino caught onto the genuine smile she seemed to give him. Perhaps Nino was imagining things but he was sure Chloé had been smiling more ever since Adrien had started going to school. It was subtle, but he could see it.

Perhaps her friendship with Adrien meant more to her then people realised.

"Anyway. I ordered something special for you for your birthday, it should be there by this afternoon... Provided the moving guys aren't lazy or anything."

" Thanks Chloé, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. " A cars horn went off several times and the trio turned towards Adrien's limo as it pulled up. "Anyway, I gotta go, Photo shoot."

Nino's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "On your birthday? Not cool dude."

The two of them watched as he walked to the car and Nino adjusted his hat so it wasn't loose. "Looks like I've got some business to take care of with Adrien's old man."

"You. Speak with Gabriel? Don't make me laugh Lahiffe, Gabriel would never waste his time with you."

He shrugged at the blonde girl, a small smile etching onto his face. "So? I thought you of all people would have been thrilled that someone was trying to give Adrien a B-Day party. "

"I'm just saying it how it is." Chloé spoke as she examined her nails. "Uncle Gabe is very stubborn and set in his ways. So don't come crying to me when you can't do anything."

"I'll keep that in mind... Cosplay."

" Hey! "

Standing in front of Adrien's house made Nino feel slightly inadequate and nervous. Here he was, outside his buddy's house that looked big enough to house his family, cousins and other distant relatives and still have empty space inside.

Given that it was only Adrien, his dad and several staff, he could understand why Adrien was so keen on getting out of the house. It must have been terribly quiet.

Stil, he resolved his nerves and pressed the button on the intercom as Wayzz nestled into the crook between the headphones and the back of his neck for his comfort, yet out of the way of prying eyes.

He was not, however, expecting to have a large camera come out of the wall and nearly smack him in the face.

"Yes? How may I help you? "

Must've been some fancy camera.

"Uhh... I'm Nino..." He spoke slowly, confusion clear in his voice. "I'm a friend of Adrien's and I was hoping to speak with his father regarding his birthday."

With each passing moment that was silent Nino grew more uncomfortable.

"Please wait, I'll be out there to guide you in a moment. "

within a minute the gates pulled back open and he could see someone walking towards him, he stepped several steps forwards until the two of them met.

"Come with me. Mr. Agreste will see you but only for a moment, he is a busy man."

Ah, this must have been his assistant. Nathalie, if he remembered correctly from when Adrien would take about his home.

The two of them stepped into the front door and Nino's hands shot into his jackets pockets and his hand fiddled with the bottle of bubble mix that was in there. He could feel Wayzz wiggling his way down his top and had to tense to not squirm in front of Nathalie.

Hqer head turned to him with one eyebrow raised but she didn't say anything.

"Nervous. Just a little."

She nodded before peering at her tablet before looking back up at him.

" Mr. Agreste will be here in a moment. "

Great... Just Great. He brought out his tube of bubble mix before unscrewing the cap, his hands fiddled with it as he waited, not spilling a drop.

Even though he knew they could most certainly afford to have to pay someone to clean it up.

Was it him or did the house feel cold?

"Adrien's not home yet." The sharp voice of the man of the house brought his attention to the top of the stairs, his hands freezing in place as he was dragged out of his thoughts.

He suppressed a shiver as he looked Mr. Agreste in the eye, he could feel no warmth coming from those eyes, not like what he saw when he looked in his mother's eyes.

Closing the cap of the tube he swallowed down his fear. "No I know du-Sir. I came to speak with you, actually."

" Me? " There was a shift in his posture that Nino couldn't place and the raise of an eyebrow that made him worry.

"Yes, I came to ask about giving Adrien a party du-Sir, it's his first birthday with some real friends and I think he really deserves to hav-"

" No. " Nino blinked at his cold voice, causing him to stop mid-sentence. "Adrien is my son, and I say what is best for him."

Somehow his eyes grew colder and Nino had to fight to not cringe away. None of the those present in the room noticed as Adrien slipped in behind them.

"Du-Sir. Adrien has been working really hard lately." Slowly Nino extending his fingers as he started his list. "Piano, Photo shoots, fencing, Chinese. I think it's only fair that he gets one day to enjoy himself. "

"Nino?" He turned to his side seeing Adrien next him. " You're here? "

Wrapping his arm around Adrien's shoulders he pulled him closer before before bumping his fist to his shoulder. "Of course, you're my buddy."

" You know what young man? " Looking back up the stairs Nino grew hopeful, maybe he had gotten through to him. "I've just decided that you're a bad influence on my son." Both boys eyes widened at that, Nino's hands tightening around his bubble tube. "In fact, you are no longer welcome in my house ever again, leave."

" Father. " Adrien called out, pulling away from Nino but Gabriel didn't listen as he turned and walked to his study, adjusting his tie as he went.

Nathalie stepped in front of Nino before he could try to follow. "Goodbye."

Eyes darting between between her and Adrien, he took a deep breath in before turning and walking out.

Adrien caught up to him after he was a few steps out and stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. "Nino, I'm sorry, my father is stubborn... Thanks for trying though. "

"Its not fair Adrien..." Nino struggled to form his words as he gestured to Adrien, as if he could convey his thoughts that way. "Its totally not cool dude. "

Pulling his strap up his shoulder he turned and stalked away, he could feel Wayzz moving up his jacket again and he simply tapped where he was gently.

Plopping himself down on the park bench he pulled out his tube of bubble before taking the wand out and blowing a few bubbles out into the air.

"That dude it straight up not cool."

He switched forwards before resting his elbows on his knees. Trying to regulate his breathing and calm himself down, it wouldn't do to stay in a bad mood.

"But dad!" His eyes shot up, landing on the child who was trying, and failing, to break out of his father's grip.

"No Son, it's not playtime, you've got chores to do." He watched as the boy was taken out of the park before blowing a sharp breath out of his nose.

"Why have parents got to ruin everything man?"

Feeling Wayzz moving around again he opened his jacket enough to let him pop his head out. He didn't want to make him feel like he was trapped, not in the way Adrien was.

"You agree with me right little dude?" He turned his head away as he shook it. " I mean, we're kids, we should be allowed to have fun and be ourselves. "

"While I agree, I must say kids need adults, to guide them through life." Nino didn't stop him from floating out of his jacket, just a little in front of him as he started to look around. "But please calm down, being angry won't solve anything."

"Maybe not but I'm just so... Ugh, " he kicked his leg out at the grass, watching as it bounced back into place with ease.

"Please. Master, copy me. Deep breaths, in and out, copy me."

Nino turned to him, missing the pleading expression Wayzz was giving him before he groaned and rubbed his hand down his face. "You don't need to call me that dude, it's not necessary."

Today had been going so great until now and he couldn't help but feel like it was his fault.

He jerked slightly as Wayzz thumped against his temple. " Nino. Akuma. " The words spoken in his ear caused his head to jerk up, eyes widening as they landed on the black butterfly that was making a direct path to him.

"Woah!" He threw himself off the bench, before backing away from the butterfly without letting it out of his sights.

Why was an Akuma after him? He had a miraculous. Didn't they grant him immunity to being akumatised?

He grunted as his foot hit a upsticking root of a tree and he fell flat on his butt. His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to find some way out of this situation, his arms pushed against the ground as he tried to back away.

"Think happy thoughts!" Wayzz fluttered around him, trying to be both encouraging and hidden. "It can't get you if you're happy."

Happy thoughts? What was his most recent happy thought? Seeing Adrien happy this morning? Maybe Marinette's smile? that made him happy.

He could tell it wasn't working as the Akuma grew closer, his eyes darted to the tube in his hand and he threw it at the butterfly without thinking. As it made contact it sunk into it, leaving it to go a horrid grey colour.

"Ohh... That was close dude. Sorry about that." He kept his eye on it as he fell back to lay down on his back, just in case it came out on his own.

Wayzz landed on his shoulder before patting his check. " it's my fault, I should have warned you sooner, you're not immune to the Akuma's, I should have told you. "

Rubbing his head, Nino gave a slight huff. "Not your fault, I shouldn't have assumed." He sat up pulled Wayzz into the crook of his neck and gave him a one handed hug. "What are we gonna do about that?"

"We need to get Ladybug, then we release the Akuma and she can purify it. Don't touch it. "

He nodded as he began to stand. Eyes looking around to find the closest place to transform. He didn't want to leave the Akuma unattended for long.

"No!" His attention was drawn to the centre of the park, the boy from earlier was back and it looked like he was out for round two.

He watched as the boy ducked and weaved around people, doing his best to avoid his father. It looked like he really intended to stay at the park for as long as he wanted.

Which, now that he was looking at it more calmly, didn't look as good as it did before. He Could just imagine himself and Chris in that situation... It wasn't good.

Feeling Wayzz tugging at his clothes he was about to turn away before he saw the kid catch sight of the tube of Bubble mix. His eyes widened as he saw the kid make a break for it, no doubt thinking it was nothing more then bubbles.

"No, Kid! Don't! " Despite trying to run to it first, he had thrown it a good distance and had neglected to move closer in case the Akuma sprung out of it.

He, unfortunately, wasn't fast enough as the kid had picked it up before he could stop him. Hawkmoths symbol appeared over his eyes and Nino could see the discoloration that occurred around his eyes.

"Kid!" he Stopped before him, hands hesitating to reach for the akumatised object, in case it somehow affect him too. " Don't listen to him kid, he won't help you. "

The boys father stopped not that far from him, seemingly hesitating to come closer. Nino grew hopeful when the boys eyes looked towards him and not spaced out, maybe he did get through to him.

"Yes... Hawkmoth." Oh Speakers, Hats and tables that was not good.

The dark bubbles clouded around him and Nino scrambled to get a few feet back. As the bubbles peeled away he caught sight of the Akuma's form. And... ugh, it was going to make him sick just looking at it.

The boy now looked like a cartoon character, his top half was a bright red colour while his arms where a solid black, small 'bubbles' were sat around his joints and his legs were the same. He looked entirely like he was made out of plastic.

"Jason?" His father seemed to snap out of his stupor, stepping closer to his son. Nino was torn between running off to transform and staying to try to convince him to hand him the Akuma.

The akuma, Jason, turned his head towards the man with a frown on his face. "My name's not Jason." Quick as anything the boy raised his wrist and Nino saw what looked like a water gun strapped to his wrist , a small tube lead back to a tube looked backpack on his back. "Its bubble boy!"

In an instant a large bubble shot out and captured the man within it, turning it from its original purple to a sharp green, as the man floated up Nino decided that was his moment to finally get away.

The sound of an explosion caused Marinette to stumble off her chair with a scream, her dinner going flying, her mother jumped from the noise too.

scrambling to the window she could see both Carapace and an Akuma fighting it out.

"I... ugh, I'm going to my room! To hide!" Marinette scrambled up to her room, not giving her mother a second glance. Said woman stared after her daughter in confusion before closing the shutters on the window, just to be safe.

Carapace dodged to the side as another burst of bubbles shot past him, the park had long since vacated she to the Akuma and now it was just him and said Akuma.

"Listen to me kid! This isn't the way. This isn't solving anything, just causing more problems."

The akuma screamed at him, much in the same was all kids did when they were angry before pointing his bubble gum at him. "It's bubble boy! And I say it's playtime, Forever! "

Bubble boy fired off three massive bubbles towards him, two red and one purple. He knew he could deflect the red ones but he also couldn't touch the purple one without getting caught in it. He also would have time to deflect the red ones of he avoided the purple one.

He was about to cast Shell-ter when he felt something wrap around his torso. He was quickly yanked up and over the Akuma, at the peak of his impromptu swing he caught ladybugs eyes from where she was flying before he landed to a skidding halt well behind the Akuma.

"Just as a serious question. Is this going to become a regular thing with you? "

Fluttering down next to him, Ladybug let her yo-yo hang limply. "You're my partner, of course I'm going to protect you."

"Yeah, but that's my job." He muttered quietly before taking his shield off his back and holding it in front of him. " Be careful of his bubbles, red explodes, purple captures you and they're unbreakable. He's already sent someone high up with one. Akuma's either in the bubble gun or in the backpack. "

"Right," She nodded, eyes squinting at the Akuma . "Then let's get this done before I'm missed."

Spinning her Yo-Yo into the air she called out- "Lucky Charm!" - The ladybugs swarmed around each other into the air and came together to form A- "Skipping rope? How's this going to help?"

"He did say that he wanted playtime to last forever."

Ladybug nodded as she looked around, her nose scrunched up in thought. " Right I got it, " She tossed one end of the rope to him, which he caught. "You ever tie yourself up?"

Catching her meaning he nodded before he brought up his shield, the rope handle in his other hand. "Right, ready?" Receiving a nod he ran forwards, Ladybug floating just behind him.

"You won't stop me!" Bubble Boy raised his hand at them, a large red bubble forming at the end of the bubble gun. "It will be Playtime!" He launched the Bubble and it shot towards them with speed.

"Shell-ter! " A small semi-circular shield formed around his shield, protecting their front halves and allowed them to keep moving without removing it.

The bubble hit dead on, causing it to explode against it, the force caused his arm to real back. Instead of fighting against it he let himself be spun, throwing the shield once he was fully turned around again.

it flew through the air until it sailed right past the kids head, causing him to flinch in surprise.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction Carapace slid to the boys left while Ladybug flew past his right, as soon as both of them passed by his shoulders they turned to loop behind him.

Carapace ended up on his right, while Ladybug was on this left, the skipping rope was looped around his chest and arms, loose.

"Now!" Both of them pulled, tightening the rope just enough to pin his arms down. Slowly Carapace wrapped his side of the rope around his arm as he moved closer.

Grabbing the Akumatised object he carefully removed it from the boy before violently tossing it towards his returning shield, where it shattered on impact and released the butterfly within. Ladybug released her end of the rope to capture it and purify it.

Carapace relaxed slightly as the boy when more limp in his arms as his Akuma form was stripped away from him. He carefully pulled the skipping rope away before throwing it to Ladybug And pointing upwards. The boys father was still up there after all.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

There wasn't nearly as many magical Ladybugs as before, given the lack of damage, but Nino knew he would never tire of seeing them swarm the area.

"Jason!" And there was the boys father, Nino released the boy and both of them collided into each other in a hug. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. What had he been thinking when he was groaning about the adults earlier?

The ringing of their miraculous brought him out of his trance and he turned to Ladybug as she began to hover slightly. "Not to charm and dash but I've gotta go."

" Bug wait! " He reached out and grabbed her wrost, stopping her from flying away for just a moment. "We need to talk."

Oblivious to Ladybugs face growing darker he looked to the father son duo as she began to talk. "Now's not a good time Cara, our timers."

" I know," as if to punctuate her point their miraculous beeped again. "Eiffle tower, Tonight, ten thirty, yeah?"

Carapace was so caught up in organizing what he was going to say that he missed Ladybugs dreamy sigh. " Yeah... ok... " Snapping out of it Ladybug shook her head. "I mean, yeah sure, Ten thirty, not a second late."

Nodding Nino let her go, watching as she fluttered away, chuckling as she looped in the air. Flashing the duo a peace sign he made his own quick exit.

Adrien's birthday might have been a bust but he had learned several important things today and Ladybug needed to know about them.

Which is why he found himself waiting on the top of the Eiffel tower, far above where anyone else could even reach. He didn't mind the height, despite how it was a little difficult to actually get up there for him but they needed the privacy.

Especially since what he was going to talk about was not something he wanted any civilian to hear. Lest he cause a little bit of a panic.

He was a little nervous about bringing it up to Ladybug, given that the Akuma was originally after him and he couldn't quite say that without worrying Ladybug and/or revealing who he was. Both of those things were bad in their own right.

The heavy thump of feet hitting metal caused him to spin around, meeting Ladybugs eyes with a nod. "Sorry I'm a little late, didn't want to get caught sneaking out."

Nino chuckled as he shook his head. " Oh, I know that feeling. The paranoia that you're being watched, your heart racing like it's beating its last. I know it well. "

"Sneak out a lot then?" Nino couldn't quite place the look that was in her eyes but he got the impression that she was... Impressed? Or maybe evaluating something about him.

"Not a lot, but sometimes I just needed some air and a walk around, you know?"

She shrugged, her wings fluttering behind her, despite being on the ground. "I guess, sometimes I need new stimuli to be able to work on some of my projects. "

He nodded and the two fell into a sort of awkward silence, he offered with his hands, finger brushing over his miraculous as Ladybug swayed side to side slightly.

"So?..."

"I learned something today, a few things actually." Slowly Nino moved to the centre beam that stuck up the middle, before hitting his back against it and skidding down till he was sat down.

"We're not immune to the Akuma's bug. " Unknown to him, his words had ripped Ladybug out of her hypothetical daydream of Carapace confessing to her atop the tower.

Thoughts on having a hamster on hold she moved closer before kneeling down in front of him. "What do you mean? "

"Earlier, with the akuma," when he got a nod from her he continued. "The boy, he wasn't the original target for the Akuma." Seeing Ladybug about to open her mouth he held up his hand to signal that he wished to finish .

"There was this other boy, had these sick headphones styled after me, he was upset..." He completely missed the way how Ladybugs eyes widened in surprise, he had not way of knowing that she knew his civilian self. "Or mad, I dunno. "

"Point is, it went for him and he threw... Whatever the item was and it absorbed the Akuma but didn't turn him." He took a breath in as he pulled one of his knees closer. " The boy picked it up, became the Akuma. "

"Oh..." Ladybugs eyes darted around for a moment before she moved and sat next to him, their shoulders touching. "So we can trap Akuma's?"

" As long as no-one touches the item and we somehow get you there to purify it quickly. "

"Ok?..." Ladybug twisted her hand in a Thoughtful manner. " So, how does all that connect to us not being immune? "

"I made an offhand comment to Wayzz, about being glad we were immune. He said we weren't, that Akuma can come for us and we need to be careful."

He shivered as he remembered how close that Akuma had come to him, never again. Noticing the far off look in ladybugs eyes he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and bumped their shoulders together.

His missed as her face began to go the same shade as her suit, hands shaking slightly from the surprise contact. "Don't worry about it too much Bug. Just ask your Kwami to help you find your happy place, that should do it."

" Yeah... ok... "

Despite it all, Marinette couldn't stop herself from looking at Carapace in slight awe. She leaned into his hold, glad to be able to take advantage of this moment, even if it wouldn't last.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Bug and Shell(d)#Ninette #Carabug #Caranette #Ninobug #Turtle Nino/ Carapace

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otpnessmess · 5 years ago

Text

Daminette December Day 5: “Fire”

Guess who decided to completely forgo studying to write instead :D For those who asked for more backstory on Day 2, here it is! It can still be read on its own, however. There’s also mention of a car crash near the middle, nothing long or explicit but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Now, enjoy!

Ao3 - Masterlist

Marinette had always loved fire. Dangerous as it was, what with being able to consume entire rooms in seconds or entire forests in very few hours when it wasn’t controlled, it brought good memories to her.

When she was a child, her parents used to take her camping during the summer holidays. They would close down the bakery for a week and camp out in the countryside. She would help her papa collect materials to make a campfire, making a circle with rocks, and piling the logs, sticks, and pinecones they had found in the middle of it. Her favorite part was always seeing it lit up. The blue and orange flames hypnotized her, the crackling sound of burning wood lulling her into a calm state. After they finished setting it up, the three of them would sit in front of it at night and sing happily, her dad occasionally adding more wood. They did that until it was time to have dinner or go to bed.

Marinette had fond memories of those times.

She also associated fire with the smell of home. The giant oven where her parents cooked the bread every morning made its wonderful smell spread throughout the whole building, and she loved it when they let her look at it while it was being cooked. The little girl simply found herself drawn in by the intricate patterns of the fire, even if trying to commit them to memory was futile, as they kept disappearing into thin air before she could.

One of the first dresses she had designed, when she was 12 years old, had been a homage to this particular aspect of her childhood. A beautiful gown with several tulle layers that tried to emulate the color range of the flames. Reds and oranges and yellows with very delicate touches of blue made up the skirt, while the top was a deep red corset with an asymmetric neckline. Young Mari had been very proud, and had made that dress as soon as she had been able to save up money to buy the materials she needed.

These were some of the main reasons why Marinette liked fire so much.

But it’s well known that an innumerable amount of good can always meet its demise in the hands of one single bad thing.

No matter how many compliments you receive on your outfit for the day, the one mean comment from that person that doesn’t like you will be the one to stick with you.

You can do several good deeds and favors to people. They will always resent the one time you couldn’t help them.

No matter how many good memories you associate with something, how pure the feelings you attach to it are. One bad experience will bring it crashing down.

And crash it did.

The smell of singed flesh and smoke was making Marinette dizzy. She couldn’t see anything but she could hear screams and calls for help. Was that her maman? She wasn’t able to tell. Where was her papa? He had been driving when a car derailed from the next lane over, colliding straight into the side of their car where Marinette was leaning against the window.

Her body was screaming at her to move, to get away from the intense heat surrounding her, yet it hadn’t been able to.

Mari thought she could hear someone calling for her, telling her to hang in there. She was trying her best, but the smoke was filling her lungs and she could feel the agonizing pain from her burnt skin. Turned out, trying her best wasn’t nearly enough, and the girl lost consciousness not long after.

Only to immediately wake up again with a scream.

Breathing heavily she tried to move her hands around to check where she was and started panicking a little when she couldn’t. She noticed something was holding her down and tried to squirm her way out of it.

“Shh, Angel. It’s okay, it’s just me.”

That voice made Marinette quickly snap back to reality. The something now felt like two very familiar strong arms, and they were gently holding her close in a tight hug.

“Damian…” She finally breathed out and relaxed against him, letting the warmth of his body seep into hers. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. It’s only 2, and you know I wouldn’t let you wake up from one of those nightmares alone.” Her boyfriend was trying to soothe her by running his fingers through his hair. “Was it the same one again?”

Marinette weakly nodded, still burrowing her face on his chest. Her little birdie smelled like home, a mix of his cologne and the baked treats Mari gifted him with every day. She knew she was safe with him.

Damian hated seeing his love like this, terrified and curled in on herself. It made him feel small and useless. Even if living together now let him be there for her every night, helping her settle back down and fall asleep again, he was powerless against the nightmares. They would keep on coming no matter what they tried to do. Provided, they had become much less frequent after she had agreed to start seeing a therapist (she had smacked him with a wooden spoon when he tried suggesting it that way, perhaps he shouldn’t have snickered), but they hadn’t been completely eradicated.

“Stop that. " Marinette could almost hear all of his thoughts spiraling down, as they always did whenever something happened that he couldn't fix. She felt slightly guilty about making her boyfriend so worried, but at least it wasn't as bad as it once was. Damian's reassurances that he didn't mind staying up with her whenever those awful dreams of hers didn't allow her to fall back asleep had managed to diminish the urges to bottle it up so she wouldn't bother him.

Mari carefully cupped his face and used her fingers to ease the lines on his face. "If you keep frowning like that you'll get so many wrinkles before you're 25, birdy. It's not worth it."

"I was frowning 24/7 by the time I was 10, Angel. It's a little bit late for that." He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist, burrowing them further under the covers. Marinette had yet to let go of his face, but he knew what she was trying to do and closed his eyes. "Like what you see, Nette?"

As he received a rewarding giggle, the man felt himself completely relax under her delicate fingertips, her hands tracing the lines of his face in adoration. Mari would do this all the time after she found out it calmed him down.

"Actually yes, even if my eyes have never been able to see you, my hands know you well. You know you're beautiful, mon petit oiseau. Have I not told you that enough?" She ran her fingers delicately over his lips before stealing a sweet kiss. "I love you Dami."

Marinette was aware that uttering those magic words usually made Damian forget about everything else and just focus on fighting her over who could give the other more affection. Lo and behold, this led to a war of kisses that had them rolling around in bed laughing. His favorite spot to leave kisses had always been her neck, and he enjoyed teasing her way too much.

"That tickles! Ahhh, stop!" The giggles and whines echoed off the walls of their shared bedroom and Damian relented and let her go. Though not before kissing her once again on those lovely pink lips of hers.

"Aww, you're no fun, Angel." He settled back under the covers while stroking her hair.

"Don't think I forgot about what happened the last time you had too much fun, mister, Chloé said my neck looked like a murder scene and laughed for an hour before helping me fix it."

"That wasn't my fault, You looked too beautiful and I couldn't resist." He pouted more out of habit than anything. Around the time they had started to become close, he had unknowingly started to mimic Marinette's expressions, at least until one of his brothers pointed it out, and now it just stuck with him.

"Sure you were, you giant baby. I don't understand how anyone could think you're dangerous, you're a softie."

Well, in all truth, she did know how. One of the reasons she loved it when they were alone was because he was so carefree then, he didn't have to cater to any kind of reputation. Damian didn't need to be Talia Al Ghul's son, or Bruce Wayne's son, or even Robin. He was just Damian. A guy a little bit rough around the edges, but devoted to Marinette in every way. Just as she was to him.

"Only for you, Nette. Only for you."

Long forgotten were the nightmares and the fire in Marinette's mind, and as she snuggled closer to Damian's chest, letting his heartbeat lull her back to a (hopefully) peaceful sleep, the last thing she heard was a soft "I love you too Habibti. Always."

That’s it for day 5! Thank you for reading, and let me know what you thought of it! Also, I love all of your lovely comments and I cannot express how happy they make me. Love you all <3

Tag list

@daminette-december2019 @tbehartoo @18-fandoms-unite-08 @vixen-uchiha @thesunanditsangel

#daminette #damian x marinette #damian wayne #daminette december #maribat #marinette dupain-cheng #marinette dupain cheng #ml x dc #liswrites #day 5

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whatarubberchicken · 5 years ago

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Lukadrinette - Part 10

Because I lost all of my bookmarks when I moved to a new computer, and because Tumblr is such a pure, good, well-functioning website, I cannot find most of my posts for this story, so I have finally decided to post it to Ao3. I will leave the original posts as they are here on Tumblr, and if you can find them, great. If not, it’s now listed under:

My Sweet Blueberry Sandwich

(ff.net link to come)

(If anyone has any suggestions for tags, I am more than willing to hear them! I still suck at tagging.)

I will post a chapter a day until we catch back up, but no promises for after that. Hopefully, NoNaWriMo will be good to me this year.

That being said, enjoy! (Nothing too explicit this time but I’m still gonna put it under the cut, and yes, I did write this chapter before “Desperada” came out, so I was laughing REALLY hard during that episode.)

........

Adrien was not pouting, thank you very much.

After all, how could he be? Here he was, with the girl of his dreams and the boy who’d made him question his sexuality, eating thick, hot soup after a day filled with fantastic sex. He was certainly not panicking internally on all the many ways he could’ve screwed this up already, or mentally listing all the things he could buy them to make them let him stay for just one more day, or—

“How long are we gonna play the silent game?” Marinette asked. Adrien’s eyes flew to her face to see her smirking at him as she tore her bread in two.

“I—uh… was too busy eating!” he said quickly, digging into his soup for another bite. “It’s really good!”

The look she and Luka gave him told him he still wasn’t fooling anyone.

“I… um… what do you wanna talk about?” he asked timidly.

“Hmm….” Marinette tapped her lips with her spoon as she pondered. Her eyes lit up. “Celebrity fantasy hook-ups! Who would you want if you could have anyone?”

Are you kidding? I’m kinda living it right now, Adrien thought silently. Out loud he answered, “You guys know I’m a celebrity, right? And that I’ve actually had celebrity hook-ups?”

“Yeah, but not fantasy celebrity hook-ups,” Marinette teased.

“This isn’t fair,” Luka complained. “You already know mine!”

“Huh?” Adrien raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. Luka grinned and pointed at him, then Marinette, and then raised his fingers to his eyes in a blatant imitation of a mask.

“Oh,” Adrien said, ducking his head so they couldn’t see him blush. He had a feeling he’d be donning some sort of Chat Noir costume in the very near future, and honestly, he wasn’t against it. It would certainly be nice to Mari in her spots again….

“Oh, come on,” Marinette pouted. “You’re telling me neither of you have even entertained thoughts of a Jagged Stone/Clara Nightingale threesome?!”

Both boys thought about it and shook their heads.

“Clara’s too perky,” Adrien said, “don’t get me wrong, her flexibility is… amazing. But no, she’d probably try to sing to me while—yeah.” He shook his head again.

Luka snickered. “Note to self, don’t try to sing to Adrien while fucking him,” he said, pretending to write on his hand. Adrien made a face and chucked a piece of bread at him, pleased when his lover caught it in his mouth.

“As for me,” Luka said, swallowing, “Jagged Stone is no-go territory, babe.”

“You were happy enough to meet him,” Marinette said, scowling.

“True. True,” Luka nodded. “He’s been my idol for as long as I can remember. But…,” he winced a bit. “When I was little, my mom… hinted heavily that he was my dad.”

“WHAT?!” Marinette and Adrien both stood up, shocked. Luka held up his hands.

“She wouldn’t confirm anything. And she left that part of my damn birth certificate blank, so there’s no way to know unless I ask him for a paternity test—which I am NOT gonna do,” he added quickly, shaking a finger in Marinette’s direction. She puffed her cheeks at him angrily.

“But—”

“Babe, I am all grown up,” he said, grabbing her hand and rubbing it soothingly. “If I ask him now, the press will catch it, and they’ll make it look like the band is trying to land some sort of favoritism angle. I’m not doing that to them. Especially not now.”

“But, Luka—” Marinette tried again.

“Besides, the test could always come up negative,” he pointed out. “Just let me dream.”

She still looked upset.

“Ugh, now I’m not gonna be able to fantasize about him either,” she pouted, sinking back into her chair.

“Are we doing something wrong, to make you want to fantasize about other guys?!” Adrien exclaimed, also sitting.

“He’s too old for you anyway,” Luka added, winking. “Unless you’ve got a daddy kink you haven’t told me about.”

“Ewww, gross!”

“NOPE!” Adrien said, loudly enough to make them both pause. He held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, guys, but that’s a hard no from me. If you guys are gonna be doing any ‘daddy’ roleplays, I can’t be a part of it. Just—no.” He shuddered.

Marinette wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, I can see why,” she said. Adrien’s hopes rose a little. If anyone could understand just how deep this ‘squick’ went, it would be her.

“Don’t worry, Adrien,” Luka said, nodding at him. “It’s a hard no from me too.”

“No daddy kinks all around,” Marinette agreed, raising her glass high. They sealed the agreement with a toast, clinking their glasses together.

“So, Adrien,” Luka said, looking thoughtful. Adrien’s pulse spiked. “If you wanna—”

“What’s that sound?” Marinette interrupted, looking around.

Adrien and Luka also fell silent, listening. Adrien felt himself flush when he realized his phone was buzzing. He dug it out of the pants Marinette had forced him and Luka to put on after they’d tried to jump her while she was cutting vegetables. (He was personally glad Ladybug’s Lucky Charms had all been innocuous objects. Mari with a weapon was scary!)

The caller ID had him groaning, though.

Erica.

How dare she call him after ghosting him last night and leaving with another man?

“Your girlfriend?” Luka guessed.

“Ex,” Adrien corrected, growling. “I don’t deal with cheaters and she knew it. We were over the moment she left the club without me.” He moved to put the phone back in his pocket.

“Answer it,” Marinette said, exchanging a wicked smirk with Luka. “Put it on speaker.” Adrien blinked at her, then obeyed, feeling a little thrill go through him when they both abandoned their seats to come stand behind him.

“Adrien?!” Erica’s shrill voice filled the air. “Oh my God, why haven’t you been answering your phone?!”

“Because I didn’t notice you called,” he said. It was a lie, he’d seen it when he’d checked his messages earlier, he just hadn’t cared enough to call her back. He gasped. Marinette had just run her fingers through his hair, with extra emphasis on the nails against his scalp.

Oh sweet Jesu! If it had been a hard no from him with those other kinks, THIS was an exultant YES!

“Sorry, sweetie!” Marinette called, to his delight. “We’ve kinda been keeping him busy!” She scratched him again, and Adrien couldn’t hold back his moan.

“Who the hell—”

“Very busy,” Luka added on his other side, deepening his voice a bit and giving Adrien’s earlobe a quick nip. Both those actions sent a jolt right down the pit of his stomach. “We’d like to thank you for letting go of someone with such stamina! We’ve had quite the day!”

On the other end, Erica had gone conspicuously silent. Adrien pulled the phone closer to himself.

“So, uh, yeah,” he said softly, “as I’m sure you already know, we’re through.”

“How dare you!” she shrieked. “After everything I’ve done for you!” Marinette snorted in derision and started massaging his shoulders.

“What?” Adrien laughed, leaning back in his chair to relax against her minstrations. Oh, this was priceless. “What exactly have you ‘done for me?’”

“I—I—”

“Besides leaving me on my own so you can fuck another dude?”

“That’s—We’re just cousins!”

“Oh, kissing cousins?” Adrien laughed again. It would’ve actually been funny if he hadn’t heard that same excuse a thousand times over from his other casual encounters. “You had your tongue pretty far down his throat before you left, babe. Try another one.” Luka chuckled in approval and swirled his tongue around Adrien’s ear.

“Like this?” He whispered. Adrien wanted to whimper.

“Fine,” Erica seethed on the other end. “Fine! Be that way! Do your new partners realize how codependent you are?! How much you cling to whoever you’re fucking?!”

Luka and Marinette’s attentions stopped and Adrien felt his breath leave him. Oh God. Oh no. Please don’t let them…. He looked up at Marinette and Luka. They both still looked amused.

“That’s okay,” Marinette called towards the phone. “I like to cuddle!” To emphasize this, she wrapped her arms around Adrien’s shoulders. Relief and warmth flooded him. If he hadn’t already been sitting, he would’ve fallen over.

“And there’s two of us, so we should be able to handle it,” Luka added, kissing the top of Adrien’s head. He wanted to cry. It felt so good. He was safe, and happy, and loved—

“Oh, you are just sick!” his ex spat. “Boys and girls? It’s—it’s unnatural!”

Adrien stared at his phone in disbelief. She’d known he was bisexual from the start! She’d never seemed to have a problem with it before!!

“Somebody sounds jealous,” Marinette drawled.

“You’re a freak!”

“And you’re,” Luka leaned over to tap on Adrien’s phone, “cancelled.” He hung up on her and grinned at Adrien. “And that, my friend, is how you take out the trash.”

“Thanks, you guys,” Adrien said, letting out a shaky breath. “Usually my break-ups require a few more shouting matches and bottles of wine.”

And more of me sobbing into my pillow, he added silently.

“Aww,” Marinette cooed, holding him tighter, “poor Adrikins.”

Adrien gave a weak laugh. “Please don’t ever call me that again.”

“Only for Chloé, huh?” she pouted, pulling away.

He shot her a wry grin. “It just sounds weird when you say it.” To his surprise, her face softened.

“All right then, kitty,” she said softly. Adrien felt his heart leap, especially when she let him go and stroked his hair again. Yes! Yes, that one will do quite nicely, thank you! “Let’s get supper cleaned up and then we can go cuddle, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered, leaning into her touch desperately.

“Why don’t you two go ahead,” Luka suggested. “I’ll clean up.” He started clearing the table.

“You sure?” Marinette asked, giving him a quick peck as he passed by.

“Yeah. You can,” he gave Adrien a suggestive smirk, “get him ready.” Adrien gulped, wondering just what they might have planned for him—

“No sex tonight,” Marinette suddenly declared.

“What?! Aww…” He and Luka made disappointed sounds.

“Nope,” she said firmly. “If we’re going to try for a real relationship here, we have to have more than just the physical. And since you two have already jumped the gun today—”

“I already apologized for that!” Luka protested.

“—then we need to have a session where everyone feels loved and accepted,” she finished, glaring at her blue-haired boyfriend. “So,” she turned on Adrien, “tonight we are going to cuddle your ‘codependent’ ass until you get some much-needed sleep.”

Adrien opened his mouth to retort, but then he closed it again. Who could argue with something like that?

#lukadrinette #lukadrienette #i still don't know how we're all spelling this thing #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine #my sweet blueberry sandwich

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flairmagazineblog · 4 years ago

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Top 2020 Fall Fragrances

The change in the seasons means a change in routines, wardrobes, and of course, your signature fragrance. Jewelry and perfume are essential to completing a look and making a bold fashion statement. To help you transition from those cold piña coladas to pumpkin spice lattes, we have rounded up some of the season’s best perfumes. If you are sick of your summer scent, want to switch it up, or really want to get in the fall mood with spicy gourmands and deductive roses, this is just for you.

Tom Ford’s ‘White Suede’

There is a Tom Ford fragrance for every season, outfit and mood but White Suede is a very appealing choice for the fall. The artisanal scent is an additive blend of warm and spicy scents. Keynotes of musk, thyme and suede create a multidimensional fragrance that is as perfect for the boardroom as it is for the best restaurant. Ford himself describes, “White Suede is wild, charming and irresistible. An addictive musk creation captures the primal essence of leather and suede, sending a powerful message of raw desire.”

Gucci’s ‘Mémoire d’une Odeur’

Out with the old and in with the new! Dive headfirst into fall scents with this earthy and woody perfume by Gucci. Earthy with key notes of vanilla, jasmine and chamomile, this universal fragrance happens to be season-neutral as well. The classy green bottle that holds Gucci Mémoire d’une Odeur is adorned with gold accents and perfect for fall afternoons or date nights.

Louis Vuitton’s ‘California Dream’

If you can’t give up the beach and are already deep into a wanderlust trance, yearning for the next tropical trip, then this new Louis Vuitton scent is a perfect choice. Capturing sunsets, Instagram photos, drinks with the little umbrellas and the perfect tan, this amber, vanilla, mandarin blend is luxurious but subtle. California Dream was crafted by the master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud and truly captures the beauty of a sunset even if it’s a fall one.

Chloé’s ‘Rose Tangerine’

Founded in Paris over 60 years ago, Chloé represents elegant femininity. The French brand’s newest scent, Rose Tangerine, is fruity and floral with notes of blackcurrant, rose and tangerine and a strong base of cedar and white amber. Bringing forth images of bright sunny days, garden parties and endless mimosas, the perfume is contemporary and fun. If fall means picnics, bike rides and shopping, then Chloé’s Rose Tangerine will invoke the perfect Parisian day.

Heretic’s ‘Dirty Rose’

Want a great perfume but want to avoid sulfates and synthetics? If you want to venture into the world of natural perfumes then Heretic’s Dirty Rose is the perfect choice for you. The natural perfume falls into the floral family but with notes of rose, pink pepper and bergamot. The fresh floral scent is sassy enough for fall and is definitely not your grandmother’s rose scent; the juxtaposition of floral rose with citrus and spice makes the scent irresistible and modern. The brand is proud to stand out from the crowd using 100% naturally derived materials to create clean and natural scents.

Marc Jacobs’ ‘Perfect’

Perfect is the well, perfect name for the bottle of this new Marc Jacobs fragrance. Inside the light-hearted bottle is a feminine fragrance that opens with rhubarb, daffodil, cedarwood and ends with comforting notes of almond milk. The fragrance was inspired by Marc Jacobs‘ mantra, “I am perfect as I am.” This fall, embrace your true self because as Jacobs says, “It’s just a reminder and it’s not really about perfection because you never totally get it right.”

Rebecca Minkoff’s ‘Rebecca Minkoff’

American fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff has turned her creativity on to a new project and her signature fragrance encapsulates her brand’s style. With a heart of jasmine and tobacco, and base notes of Tonka, patchouli and leather, the perfume that was a year in the making has finally launched. Minkoff’s first fragrance is warm and sensual and is made with sustainable ingredients. In an interview, Minkoff said, “I stopped wearing fragrance when my first baby was born because I didn’t want him to breathe in toxic chemicals and substances. I also didn’t want to create something that would create more waste for our environment. Beyond thrilled that our fragrance is is vegan, gluten-free, phosphate-free and manufactured without animal testing.”

Giorgio Armani’s ‘My Way’

Bergamot meets Egyptian orange blossom in this new floral fragrance developed by perfumers Carlos Benaim and Bruno Jovanovic. Keynotes of tuberose, vanilla and orange blossom were inspired by connections made by modern women who are keen to broaden their horizons. Consciously sourced ingredients make this a carbon-neutral project that emphasizes the brand’s promise of achieving carbon neutrality for its products by the year 2025.

Top 2020 Fall Fragrances was originally published on FLAIR MAGAZINE

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blacknight1230 · 6 years ago

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“A Night Under the Stars” - Chat Noir Imagine

Prompts: “To be honest, I just wanted to chance to look at the stars with you.”

The sky was beautiful this night. Despite the bright Paris lights, you could clearly see the stars and constellations in the night sky. The balcony outside your bedroom window was where you liked to hang out on nights like this. Well, more specifically, when you everything got to much for you.

You had recently moved to the City of Lights with your family, your mother and father having earned new jobs in the city. As such, this forced you to pack up everything and leave. This included leaving all your friends behind and going to a new school, Françoise Dupont High School. Which is the reason why you were currently trying to relax on your bedroom’s balcony.

Going to a new school, in a completely different country on top of it was stressful, but it only takes one person to create your school life a living hell. This person was Chloé Bourgeois, the so called “Queen Bee” of the school. Being the daughter of the mayor, she was very spoiled and used everything in her power to humiliate others, crushing them with her callous and careless ways. You thank your new friends, Marinette and Alya, for preventing you from going crazy from the Wasp, as you liked to call her.

Yet, there were days where it just seemed to get too much and only the night air seemed to fix it. Your delicate fingers rubbed your tense forehead, trying to massage away the frown lines. “Rough day,” a voice said. Your head snapped to the rooftop of the building next to you, a dark figure standing on it. When the mysterious person jumped onto your balcony, you could finally see who it was.

“Chat Noir!” you exclaimed in shock. “At your service, mademoiselle,” the black cald hero smirked and mockingly bowed. “What are you doing here?” you asked the cat boy. What is one of heroes of Paris doing here? you thought. “I should be asking you the same thing, kitten. It’s awfully late for a school night,” Chat flirted. You mentally rolled your eyes at him; he was such a massive flirt it was unheard of.

“Fine, you want to know. School. Dealing with school has me out here,” you answered. “I’ve gotten tired of being pushed around by the mayor’s daughter, Chloé. So I came out here to look at the night sky and get away from it all.” “Sadly, I know how bad Chloé can be. Not only does she humiliate all her classmates, but she doesn’t even see the charming and good looking man I am!” Chat exclaimed.

You let out a small snort, finding it funny that Chat was so bummed out by another female’s rejection towards him. “That’s Chloé for you, haughty, pampered, drama queen with mommy problems,” you scoffed, not taking your eyes on the moon and stars.

Unknown to you, Chat was staring at you with a love struck look, his green eyes glistening with admiration, as you stared off into the distance. “What about you? What’s your reason for hanging out with little old me?” you said, turning your head to the side to look at Chat. The young hero was caught off guard, a faint blush on his exposed cheeks. “To be honest, I just wanted to chance to look at the stars with you,” he said, his eyes closed and one of his hands rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

You tore your gaze away from Chat, eyes downcasted as a blush fanned your cheeks. “Why do you want to do that? I’m just me, I’m no one special,” you uttered. “Of course, your special, kitten! You’re just too modest to realize how stunning you are!” Chat protested. “No offense, but you don’t know a thing about me, Chat Noir.” you replied.

“I might be a hero, and a bit of a flirt, but its not like I don’t have a life outside being Chat Noir. I go to school, I have friends and family, I even have a crush on a certain girl in my grade!” Chat defended himself. “And I know things about you too, (y/n). I know you like to hang out underneath the cherry tree in front of the school yard. I know you have a little notebook that you have on you at all times that you draw or write in during classes. I know you always buy (favorite cookie type) cookies at the cafeteria.”

During this ... outburst, Chat slid across the banister and closing the short distance between you two until he was right in front of you. Your breath was caught in your throat, your nerves going haywire. “H-How do you know all of this?” you stuttered. A part of you thought he was a creepy stalker, waiting in the shadows to kidnap you in order to keep you all to himself. But the more rational part theorized that maybe he was one of your fellow classmates. But who?

“Let’s just day, Collegé Françoise Dupont has students with many secrets,” Chat said. “One of them is that a certain male student has a crush on a certain (brunette/blonde/dark haired) girl who likes to observe the moon and stars.” “You go to my school!” you exclaimed breathlessly when he confirmed your suspicions. Chat just smirked and shushed you. “Quiet now, kitten. Let’s just have this moment together,” he whispered in your ear.

Before you could press him more, Chat closed the short distance between you two, his lips meeting yours in surprise kiss. Your eyes were almost bulging out of your head. Chat Noir was kissing you! Said hero was holding you close, his masked eyes closed in content. You eventually relaxed into the kiss when the shock of what was happening faded away. Your once stiff arms that hanged by your side moved up to wrap around Chat’s neck, a sigh escaping your lips. You could feel Chat smirking into the kiss and if you weren’t preoccupied at the moment, you could have snapped the smirk off his face.

You and Chat separated from each other at the same time, having to breath. All you could do was stare into Chat’s green glistening eyes. “What’s the matter, kitten? Cat got your tongue?” Chat teased, a smirk on his face. “Shut up,” you mumbled, unable to come up with a snarky reply as your cheeks burned red.

Chat just chuckled, until a beeping sound caused his ears to twitch. He looked down at a ring on his hand, which you never noticed before and quickly distanced himself from you. “I’m sorry, my kitten, but I have to go. À demain, mon chatton,” he said, before hopping over the balcony without another word. You then saw him hopping across rooftops in the distance.

In a daze, you went back inside, absentmindedly moving to lay on your bed. Despite how tired you were, your mind was running a marathon. You couldn’t stop thinking over the kiss and what Chat said. As your mind ran rampant, you slowly realized something. The identity of Chat Noir.

Despite getting little to no sleep, thanks to your revelation the night before, ou were very peppy, almost bouncing off the walls in excitement. Marinette and Alya noticed this, giving each other a side glance before confronting you. “What’s up with you, (y/n)? You’re acting like you drank two giant bottles of Mountain Dew,” Alya said, stopping you in your tracks. “Guys, something amazing happened last night!” you exclaimed, bouncing on your feet. “Really! What happened?” Marinette asked, excited and curious about what could make you this happy. You weren’t really going to tell them what happened last night, only going to give them the barest details, but before you could do that, you saw a certain someone in the distance.

Adrien Agreste was talking to his friend, Nino, as he was walking when Chloé interrupted them. You couldn’t hear what she was saying, but you could tell she was annoyingly sucking up to him, trying to earn his attention and affection. “Sorry, guys, I have to do something. I’ll be right back,” you told Marinette and Alya, before walking towards Adrien, Nino, and Chloé.

“Hey, Adrien!” you velled out to the blonde. “Oh, hey, (y/n)!” called back, ignoring Chloé and her advances when he noticed you. “Hey, (nickname), how’s it going?” Nino greeted, giving you two finger pistols. Chloé hauntly turned towards you, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed as she glanced at you. “What do you want?” she huffed as I came closer.

“How are you -” Adrien started to say when you were close enough, but he was interrupted when you suddenly kissed him on the lips. Adrien’s eyes widened, body going stiff in shock as you kiss him, the boy not knowing what to do and what led to this scenario. Nico, Marinette, and Alya looked at the scene eyes wide and mouths open, while Chloé screeched in horror.

You separated from Adrien, who was still standing shock still and held one of his lax hands. “Thanks for hanging out with me last night. I had a lot of fun. Maybe we can do it again sometime?” you said, looking into Adrien’s wide eyes with an innocent smile on your face. You promptly walked away and towards the main entrance of the school, Alya and Marinette tripping over themselves as they tried to catch up to you, hounding you with questions oce they caught up to you. Meanwhile, Chloé ran away crying hysterically, probably to complain to Sabrina.

“What the heck was that?” Nino asked his best friend, who was still standing there in shock. “I’ll tell you later, Nino,” Adrien said, his friend confronting him causing him to snap out of it. Adrien left Nino, heading towards the nearest mate’s bathroom, hand enclosed over the small piece of paper secretly given to him by (y/n). Once he was alone and in a safe place, adrien read the slip of paper. It said the following:

Did you really think I wouldn’t figure out your identity Chat? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I wouldn’t do that to you, especially after last night. I’m looking forward to move star filled nights together.

Love, (y/n)

As Adrien read the note, Plagg appeared from his miraculous ring, reading over his shoulder. “I told you their was nothing to worry about! And it looks like she feels the same way!” the kwami exclaimed, floating next to the blondes head. A smile graced Adrien’s lips as he looked off into the distance, his eyes watching (y/n) being pestered by her friends at her locker. “Yeah, I guess you were right,” Adrien said, a love struck look on his, before heading towards the girl who captured his heart.

THE END

#chat noir imagine #chat noir #chat noir x reader #the tales of ladybug and cat noir #the tales of ladybug and cat noir imagine #miraculous ladybug imagine #miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir #miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir imagine

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iwroteinapastlife · 6 years ago

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Artist

It’s @chlonathweek day 5 and we gettin angsty up in here~

***

“No, Chloé. Since Sabrina will be out of town for the rest of the week, you’ll have to pick a different partner for the art project.”

When he was six years old, Nathaniel’s mother had told him that life was about opportunities. Every moment was an opportunity, from the greatest of life’s changes to the smallest of life’s details. Every moment was a choice—a choice of stay or go, a choice of start or stop, a choice of do or don’t. Every choice had its consequences and it was on those consequences that human lives were decided. On those consequences that opportunities were taken.

And it was a simple fact of life, she had told him, that the consequences unknown, the opportunities left untaken, were the ones he would dwell on the most.

Perhaps it was the thought that he was sick of dwelling that brought Nathaniel to take the opportunity presented before him. That brought Nathaniel to raise his hand.

“I’ll do it.”

A general level of friendly chatter had sprouted in the class as students had begun discussing project plans, but conversation eased to halt then. He knew every set of eyes in the room was on him. His eyes were only focused on one.

“No,” she immediately said. She addressed the teacher, but those cold eyes never left him. “Madame Bustier, I’d prefer to do the project on my own.”

He tried not to let his fear show. He tried not to run from that soul-shaking gaze.

“Chloé, that would leave Nathaniel without a partner too. Plus, working with the class artist will be beneficial to your art grade.” In his peripheral, he saw Madame Bustier wave him forward. “Thank you for volunteering, Nathaniel. You can come sit next to Chloé for the rest of class.”

The twitch of her jaw. A look like murder. Then eye contact was broken and in just that split second before she turned to face forward again, Nathaniel swore he saw something more. Something painful.

If he did, it was hidden again by the time he was sitting down next to her. The rest of the class went on with their discussions, though he didn’t miss the glances of Marinette and Nino as they not-so-subtly spectated.

“What the fuck are you doing, Kurtzberg?” Chloé immediately snapped. “What do you want?”

“What’s the matter, Chloé?” he asked absently as he opened his sketch book to a new page. “I thought you’d be happy to have a partner who can do all the work for you.”

Wait. Shit. The words had slipped out almost as if reflex—fighting fire with fire. Except in this case, it was more like fighting a candle with a flamethrower.

Her jaw fell slightly ajar and her brows pinched together in fury. Her eyes though; swimming in her eyes was a splash of genuine hurt.

Chloé pressed her lips together and looked away without another word. She began gathering her supplies and throwing them in her purse. Guilt was an immediate led weight in his stomach and he knew that in his head, he would be kicking himself for many years to come for being rude to his fucking soulmate. Especially when he was actively trying to get closer to her.

“Wait, Chloé, I’m sorry.” He set his hand on her notebook just as she was reaching for it and that fed up look was on him again.

“Look, I don’t know why you wanted to be my partner and I don’t care. You’re right. You can do the project by yourself.” Even though he wasn’t holding the notebook hostage, she made a point to yank it out from under his hand. A moment later, she stood up and the school bell followed her out the door as if on cue.

He scrambled to grab his stuff and rushed out after her. She had a naturally fast walking pace, but she was definitely going faster than usual. “Chloé, wait!” She had already managed to make it to the school’s front door when he caught up to her. “Chloé!”

“Leave me alone, Kurtzberg,” she spat, still not slowing down.

“Wait!” He caught her wrist and the tips of his fingers met the exact mark that had started this all.

She spun to face him. “What!?”

He didn’t let go. He didn’t move. He was paralyzed under that icy gaze and he didn’t think this far and he didn’t know what to say but he needed to say something and, “The first time I ever spoke to you was when I defended Marinette’s floral design against you,” he blurted.

The worst possible combination of confusion and irritation. “So??”

“So…” His heart slammed against the inside walls of his chest and he knew he couldn’t turn back now. “That exact design is tattooed on the back of my left shoulder.”

At first, there was no change in her expression. It was as if her entire being had come to a screeching halt and the only thing her body knew to do was keep breathing. Then the wrinkles in her forehead softened the slightest bit as understanding took confusion’s place. Irritation, however, remained steady.

“Okay, and?”

He blinked. “And? Chloé, we’re—,”

“Soulmates?” she cut him off. “Yeah, I know. Newsflash, Kurtzberg,” she slipped from his grasp and held up her hand, putting his signature on display, “Your art gets spread around the school like wildfire. I’ve known for years.”

Years.

“Why didn’t you—?”

“Tell you? Are you serious? How was I supposed to tell you when you hated me from the start? When I had to watch you date someone else for two years, call someone else your soulmate for two fucking years? How was I supposed to tell you!?”

That cold fury didn’t budge, but now that hint of hurt he had seen earlier was as present as the guilt weighing heavy in his chest. Seeing her then, an avalanche of understanding came crashing down over his head. He doubted the pain he could clearly see now was even half of what she’d been holding inside. He didn’t know. He had no idea. This whole time, his soulmate was in pain because of him and he didn’t know.

“I… I’m sorry,” was all he could think to say but God that didn’t even begin to cover it.

“Yeah,” she said flatly. “Me too.”

With that, she turned to leave, and again, Nathaniel caught her wrist. Heaving a tired sigh of frustration, she faced him once again. “What do you want, Nathaniel?”

He didn’t know, if he was being honest.

In this moment, he wasn’t in love with her. He wasn’t desperately hoping to kiss her, nor did her clear displeasure with his presence make his heart break. His pulse didn’t spike from a look alone and his name on her tongue sounded no different from any other. She was beautiful—he would have to be blind not to see that—but he didn’t find himself sneaking peaks at her during class nor filling his sketchbook with her visage. When he woke in the morning, his first thought wasn’t of her and he didn’t see her face behind closed eyes when he lay down at night.

He didn’t know her favorite color or her favorite song. He couldn’t tell you what her pet peeves were or what tiny joys she found in life. He had no idea if she preferred the books or the movies, the comics or the show. He couldn’t possibly guess what seemingly harmless topic would spark a 10 minute rant, or what activities she secretly loved that she never wanted anyone to know. Did she like pineapple on pizza? Sprinkles on ice cream? Could she walk somewhere without listening to music? Did she take a water bottle with her everywhere? Chapstick? Lip gloss? Did she prefer writing with pen or pencil? Blue or black ink? Coffee or tea? Hot or iced?

He didn’t know. Chloé Bourgeois was, for all intents and purposes, a total and complete stranger. He didn’t even know if she was human.

“I want to know you,” he finally said.

“Why?”

She was listening. Giving him a chance. The anger was fading from her tone and though she sounded tired, for the first time since he saw her tattoo, he felt he might actually have a chance. An opportunity.

His grip on her wrist tightened the slightest bit, as if afraid that if he let go, she would leave and that opportunity would be lost forever. “Because I don’t know about you, but I know that it would be the biggest regret of my life if I never even tried to get to know my soulmate.”

The slight brightening of her eyes. The tiny intake of breath. It was subtle, almost nonexistent, but he didn’t miss it. The reaction to him calling her his soulmate.

“But you hate me,” she argued. He could hear her desire to fight subsiding with every word. “Don’t try to tell me that you don’t, because we both know that isn’t true.”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “I do.” His first impression of her had been awful and what he’d learned from Marinette after that had only made it worse. She was a bully, she was selfish, and with her father being the mayor and the richest man in Paris, she was also untouchable. He had never thought to look any deeper than that, because that was all the reason he’d needed to dislike her. But if she was his soulmate…

He shrugged, giving her the smallest of smiles. “And I’m clearly wrong.”

Chloé didn’t say anything. She stood there, looking back and forth between his eyes with an expression that he could only describe as exhausted and unsure. Eventually, her gaze dropped to where he still held her wrist.

With one last reluctant squeeze, he released her. She cradled the wrist in her other hand and swiped a thumb over the tattoo, staring at it as she thought.

“You’re right,” she finally said, voice low. When she looked up again, her usual air of confidence had returned. “You are wrong.” He couldn’t glean from her expression whether that was good or bad. He swallowed thickly, waiting on her every word. She let out a long breath, and with it, an immense weight seemed to ease off her shoulders. “And I probably am too.”

So…Did that mean…?

She fished her cell phone out of her purse and unlocked it. “Give me your number,” she said as she handed it over.

A flurry of pins and needles washed through him then as sincere blue eyes met his. It was the first time she had ever looked at him like that—ever looked at him with anything but antagonism. It wasn’t a happy look, but it was new. And it wasn’t…cold. Her eyes shined like the first day of spring and he could feel their warmth slowly spreading through him. It was a feat just to look away.

He tried not to let his fingers shake as he typed his information into her phone and handed it back.

“I’ll text you about the art project,” she said, and with one last look over her shoulder, walked away.

#chlonathweek2k19 #chlonath #miraculous ladybug #soulmate au #soulmate tattoo #werecreatures au #supernatural creatures au #this is it #angst

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angelofthequeers · 5 years ago

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Ladybug and Reine Nuit: Chapter 11

Antibug

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

@miraculousl4dybug @livinthebilife tagged as requested :)

Part 10 | Part 12

With Adrien officially no longer talking to Chloé, she seems to get ten times meaner in the following month. She’s rude to everyone, constantly criticising everything she can think of, and she treats Sabrina so appallingly that the poor girl now comes to school with bags under her eyes and a permanent defeated smile. Marinette’s heart aches for Sabrina, honestly.

Chloé’s also caused at least four akumas since Gamer had been defeated. Three are students from their school that she’d ruthlessly bullied, while the fourth is a little boy she’d gleefully picked on in the park. And now Ladybug and Reine Nuit are dealing with a fifth person akumatised because of Chloé: an elderly lady called Antiquator, dressed in a long white Edwardian dress, with primped, curly dark hair, short black gloves, lilac skin, and glowing violet eyes.

“How on earth does an old granny get akumatised?” Reine Nuit comments as she and Ladybug hide with Chloé, Sabrina, and Adrien in an empty store. Down the street, Antiquator is zapping people and things all around her, and anything she zaps turns into an antiquated version of itself. Cars turn into automobiles; streetlamps turn into old gas lights; and people are turned into versions of themselves that may have been around a hundred years ago or so. Nothing particularly harmful, but certainly annoying.

“No idea,” Chloé scoffs, clutching her broken arm to her chest.

“Chloé Bourgeois!” Antiquator howls. “Come out, my dear, so that I may teach you the manners that a rich young brat such as yourself should have learned years ago!”

“Of course,” Ladybug sighs. “Chloé, what did you do this time?”

“Nothing! And I’m offended that you’d think that of me, Ladybug!”

Ladybug raises an eyebrow. Chloé shifts.

“Well…”

“Chloé was in a hurry to get to her hair appointment, so she pushed the lady out of the way!” Sabrina says. “Then when the lady told her that she needed to learn some manners, Chloé just said that –”

“Are you actually serious, Sabrina?” Chloé stamps her foot and towers over Sabrina, who shivers and ducks behind Ladybug. “How dare you just spill everything like that, especially when Adrien’s filming it all? What, are you gonna tell her all your little secrets too? How you love to dress up as Reine Nuit? How you suck your thumb in your sleep –”

“Chloé!” Ladybug cuts Chloé off. “Stop it.”

“Why? She humiliated me!”

“By giving us the deets we need to figure out where Oldie’s akuma is?” Reine Nuit says. “I think it’s in her ring, by the way.”

“You should be nicer to your best friend, Chloé,” Ladybug says. “And to others. You’re not being a very nice person.”

“Excuse me?” Chloé hisses.

“…So, I’m just gonna go Cataclysm the ring,” Reine Nuit says slowly.

“Lucky Charm.” Ladybug catches the bottle of motor oil and tosses it to Reine Nuit. “Pour that under her feet.”

“You gotcha, angel bug.”

“How dare you treat your number one fan like this?” Chloé swells with rage. “After everything I’ve done for you, Ladybug!”

“If you were really my number one fan then you’d want to treat others with kindness,” Ladybug says firmly. “I don’t condone bullying, Chloé.”

“Bullying? I don’t bully people! I only respect those who are worthy of moi!”

“Chloé –”

“No!” Chloé clenches her fists, whimpering when she moves her broken arm in the process. “How could you do this to me, Ladybug? How could you just betray me like that? Just because everyone treats you like you’re God –”

“Here you go.” Reine Nuit pops back in and hands Ladybug the empty bottle of oil, then stands aside to let Ladybug step outside and purify the akuma.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Chloé doesn’t look any happier once her arm has been mended by the ladybugs. Instead, she just looks angrier.

“Perfect princess Ladybug,” Chloé hisses, her bright blue eyes glossy. “Everyone loves you because you’re such a goodie-two-shoes! Well, I don’t need your lecture! And I don’t need you!” She directs this last part at Sabrina, jabbing the redhead with her finger before flipping her ponytail and storming out.

“This is all my fault,” Sabrina mumbles. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, you should have.” Ladybug puts a hand on Sabrina’s shoulder, giving what she hopes is a reassuring smile. “It takes courage to stand up to your friends, Sabrina.”

“But now she’ll hate me!”

“Can’t you make friends with anyone else?” Reine Nuit says. “That whole Chloé thing doesn’t seem healthy.”

“I don’t want to! Chloé’s just had a tough life, okay?” Sabrina snaps. “It’s my job to be the best friend ever for her! And I totally ruined that!” She runs out, sobbing. Ladybug grimaces at Reine Nuit.

“That went well,” she says. Reine Nuit just shrugs.

“I dunno what you want me to say.”

Ladybug is prevented from replying by her earrings beeping. “Gotta go! Bug out!”

The next day, Chloé’s not at school, but Sabrina is, and so she’s forced to sit up the front alone with hunched shoulders.

“We should talk to her,” Marinette whispers to Alya as Ms Bustier does roll call. “She looks pretty miserable.”

“Probably just Chloé drama,” Alya says dismissively. “Not our business, girl.”

“But still…”

“Now, class –” Before Ms Bustier can say anything more, their classroom door is kicked open to reveal a familiar blonde ponytailed girl. But it’s not Chloé; at least, not normal Chloé, anyway. Instead, she’s wearing Ladybug’s suit and mask but in inverted colours: black with red spots.

“I’ll prove to all you losers that I’m better than Ladybug! I am Antibug!” Chloé declares. Her eyes narrow at Sabrina, who whimpers when she approaches. “Sabrina Raincomprix. Antibug doesn’t like traitors!” She giggles. “Hey, that’s something Ladybug would say!”

“Help!” Sabrina shrieks when she’s dragged out of her seat and slung over Antibug’s shoulder. With a mad laugh, Antibug shatters the classroom window with her yo-yo and swings out, taking Sabrina with her.

“Um…” Ms Bustier blinks. “Class is…cancelled for now. I need to go and tell Mr Damocles that one of my students was just…kidnapped by another.”

Marinette takes advantage of her classmates swarming out of the room to duck up the back, where she can’t be seen. As soon as the classroom door shuts, Tikki comes flying out.

“This is my fault, Tikki!” Marinette says. “If I hadn’t been so hard on Chloé –”

“You told Chloé exactly what she needed to hear, Marinette,” Tikki says firmly. “Her reaction is on her.”

“But now Sabrina’s in danger!”

“Then you’d better go save her!”

Marinette takes a deep breath. “You’re right. Tikki, spots on!” The transformation washes over her, warm and bright and full of life, leaving Ladybug in her place as the pink sparkles fade. When she bursts out of the classroom and rounds the corner down the hall, she nearly collides with Reine Nuit, who yelps and catches her to stop her from falling.

“Guess I swept you off your feet,” Reine Nuit grins. “Get it? Because I transformed in a supply closet? With brooms?”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Ladybug says, rolling her eyes. “You know the situation, right?”

“Chloé Bourgeois is Antibug. And she kidnapped Sabrina,” Reine Nuit says. “I think the whole school heard that. Where would she have taken Sabrina?”

Ladybug chews her lip, then pulls out her yo-yo and swipes to the news channel to see if there’s any information there. Nadja’s face immediately appears on-screen.

“I’m Nadja Chamack! Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! We’ve just received reports of a new akuma called Antibug, who appears to have a hostage at the Eiffel Tower!”

“Let’s go!” Ladybug says, flicking her yo-yo closed. She and Reine Nuit bound away through Paris towards the Eiffel Tower, where helicopters can already be seen even from this distance. When they arrive, they spot the news crew and police force on the ground. Up at the top of the Tower is Antibug, who has a sobbing Sabrina tied up tightly and dangling off the edge of the Tower, with the extra rope from her bonds wrapped around the tip several times to secure her.

“Release my daughter, Antibug!” Officer Roger orders through his megaphone. Ladybug and Reine Nuit take this chance to leap up to one of the viewing platforms to avoid being seen. “Or the strong arm of the law will come down hard on you!”

“Then why hasn’t it?” Antibug cackles. “Ladybug, Reine Nuit, you’d better come and save this poor little civilian quick smart! Or else she’ll be taking an impromptu lesson in bungee jumping!”

“I’m sorry, Chloé!” Sabrina howls. “Please don’t hurt me!”

“Oh, shut your pathetic hole already,” Antibug sighs. “I don’t know why I put up with it, honestly.”

Ladybug and Reine Nuit exchange a look. They need a plan. They can’t just go charging in there –

“I’m going to count to ten! And if you “heroes” aren’t in front of me and giving me your Miraculouses, a certain police officer is going to end up childless!”

– but they need to make a move before Antibug sends Sabrina hurtling to her death.

“One!”

“We need to focus on saving Sabrina,” Ladybug says. “We can’t do anything while Antibug can drop her. And she’ll be expecting one of us to play diversion while the other saves Sabrina.”

“Two!”

“What if we do let Antibug drop her, though?” Reine Nuit says with narrowed eyes.

“Three!”

“What? Are you crazy, Reine Nuit?”

“Four!”

“It might be the best way to free her, Ladybug. You can catch her with your yo-yo.”

“Five!”

“But what if she’s expecting us to do something like that?” Ladybug says. “She can’t be certain that we’re not hiding nearby, waiting for her to drop Sabrina so that we can save her.”

“Six!”

“You really think Chloé’s that smart?” Reine Nuit says.

“Seven!”

“She’s got Hawkmoth in her head now. We don’t know what he’s told her.”

“Eight!”

“We win either way,” Reine Nuit argues. “If she drops Sabrina, we catch her. And if she doesn’t drop Sabrina, we know that we need to be smarter about it.”

“Nine!”

“I hope you’re right,” Ladybug sighs. It’s too late now to come up with another plan anyway. “I don’t know how far my Miraculous Ladybug goes when healing stuff.”

“Ten!” Antibug giggles and goes silent. Ladybug and Reine Nuit tense near the edge of the platform, ready to spring into action, and Ladybug moves on autopilot when she hears Sabrina’s terrified scream. She swings out, ready to catch Sabrina…only to find that Antibug hadn’t actually dropped Sabrina, but rather had released the rope dangling Sabrina from the Tower just enough to create the illusion of letting the girl fall. Which would have made Sabrina scream. And Ladybug had fallen for it.

“Ladybug?” Reine Nuit hisses, still safely hidden. “What’s going on?”

“There you are, you little insect!” Antibug says, securing Sabrina’s tether again. “You would’ve actually let me drop Sabrina, wouldn’t you?”

“Like I was gonna let her actually crash,” Ladybug calls back. With the game up, she swings up to the top of the Tower to confront Antibug, with Reine Nuit right behind her. There’s no point in Reine Nuit staying hidden; no way will Antibug fall for the same trick twice.

“Help me, Ladybug and Reine Nuit!” Sabrina sniffles. Her eyes are red-rimmed behind her glasses and her cheeks are shining wet, and Ladybug’s heart breaks for her but she can’t figure out a way to free Sabrina yet, so she forces herself to give Sabrina what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

“Help me, Ladybug and Reine Nuit!” Antibug mimics in a shrill voice. “Give me your Miraculouses, or I’ll drop Sabrina for real this time!”

“You expect us to believe you after what you just pulled?” Reine Nuit says. Antibug rolls her eyes.

“You might not even have been here yet,” Antibug says. “That was just a way to flush you out if you were. And it worked.”

Reine Nuit curses under her breath, then leaps forward and charges at Antibug. Antibug easily dodges, deflecting attack after attack with her yo-yo, and Ladybug takes this chance to rush to where Sabrina’s rope is attached to the Tower and unravel it. She’s only got one shot at this. If she fails, Sabrina could end up splattered on the ground!

“Ladybug?” Sabrina whimpers when she jolts downward as Ladybug gets her tether free.

“You have to trust me, Sabrina,” Ladybug says. “I’ll get you down.”

“Hey!” Antibug finally notices what Ladybug is doing, and she snarls and bats Reine Nuit aside. “Don’t you dare –!”

“Go!” Reine Nuit shouts, dive-tackling Antibug. Making sure that she’s got a tight grip on Sabrina’s rope, Ladybug takes a dive off the edge of the Eiffel Tower and waits until she’s near one of the viewing platforms before throwing her yo-yo at it while swinging a shrieking Sabrina back up at the sky. Her split-second calculations pay off; her yo-yo arc is perfectly angled to catch Sabrina as she starts falling, and Ladybug wraps herself around Sabrina to protect her as they go rolling along the cool metal floor of the platform.

“Oh my god,” Ladybug gasps, pushing herself onto her back. “I can’t believe that worked.”

Sabrina just keeps crying. Ladybug hurries to sit up and untie Sabrina, who throws herself at Ladybug and hugs her so tightly that black spots dance before the hero’s eyes.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” Sabrina sobs. “You saved my life – thank you –”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Ladybug chokes out. “Let’s get you back to your dad first.”

Sabrina nods and lets go of Ladybug, who gasps in air. “But what about Reine Nuit?”

“She’ll be fine…I hope. I have to trust that she can hold her own.” Ladybug wraps an arm around Sabrina’s waist, then uses her yo-yo to carefully swing back down to the ground. Sabrina lets go about a metre above the ground, landing with a sharp exhale before running to her father.

“Dad!”

“Sabrina!” Roger throws his megaphone away and wraps Sabrina in a bear hug, burying his face in her hair. The scene makes Ladybug smile briefly before she remembers that she’s currently in the middle of an akuma battle and her partner is fighting said akuma alone. She swings back up to the top of the Tower, just in time to instinctively catch Reine Nuit when Antibug sends her flying with a hard kick while her baton lies nearby.

“Whew!” Reine Nuit breathes when Ladybug sets her down. She dives to grab her baton and hefts it in front of her. “Nice timing, angel bug.”

“Where could her akuma be?” Ladybug says. She dodges Antibug’s yo-yo and hits back with an attack of her own, but Antibug dodges that in return. They’re too evenly matched, like mirrors!

“Not her earrings.” Reine Nuit points at a pile of black dust nearby. “I crushed ‘em but no akuma came out.”

“Stand still!” Antibug snarls when Ladybug leaps out of the way of another attack.

“Her yo-yo?” Ladybug says.

“Don’t think so,” Reine Nuit says. “She didn’t have it when she was akumatised, did she?”

“Hmm.” There’s one way that Ladybug can solve this problem. “Lucky Charm!”

“Anti-Charm!” Ah. Of course Antibug can summon her own Charm. And when she gets a massive sword, while Ladybug gets a pepper shaker, Ladybug ponders the best way to throttle a kwami after she turns back into Marinette.

“You know, the only reason I’m not totally freaking out right now is because I’m choosing to believe that you have a plan, buggy,” Reine Nuit says rather casually. Too casually, really. When Ladybug glances over, she sees that her partner’s bright green cat eyes are locked on Antibug’s giant sword.

“Give me a minute and I will, kitty.”

“A pepper shaker?” Antibug laughs. “Really? I guess this goes to show that I really am the better one of us, Ladybug!” She springs into action, swinging her sword at the heroes, and Ladybug and Reine Nuit yelp and leap out of the way. “Now, give me your Miraculouses!”

“Hurry up!” Reine Nuit demands. She extends her staff to propel her to the other side of the narrow platform, just before Antibug can slice her in two. But Antibug is there in a heartbeat, knocking aside Reine Nuit’s staff and cornering her against the Tower tip with the sword.

“You see?” Antibug’s eyes glimmer as she digs the sharp edge of her massive sword into Reine Nuit’s unprotected chin. “I don’t need you, Ladybug. I don’t need your lectures! I don’t need Sabrina! I’m the better one!”

“I wasn’t trying to lecture you, Chloé,” Ladybug says, holding her hands up to try and placate Antibug into not hurting Reine Nuit. Her stomach jolts at the sight of the thin line of scarlet welling against Reine Nuit’s dark skin under Antibug’s blade. Why can’t she come up with a plan? What on earth can she use the pepper for? “I was trying to offer you advice.”

“Advice? Ha! I don’t need your advice!”

“Well, Adrien’s not talking to you anymore, is he?” Ladybug says. “I thought that my advice would help you get him to talk to you again.”

“It’s not about – why should I have to change myself to make my friend like me again?”

“You shouldn’t have to change yourself,” Ladybug says soothingly. “No one dislikes you for being stubborn. Or headstrong. Or not sugary sweet. What people dislike is that you’re mean to them. That you threaten them to get your way, just like you blackmailed Mr Damocles into giving you Max’s spot.” Her earrings beep at that moment. What’s interesting is that Antibug’s black mask also beeps and flashes, then loses a red spot. Of course! The akuma must be in the sunglasses she wears, and it looks like they’ve turned into her mask!

“It’s not my fault that they can’t handle me!” Antibug shrieks and leans back to swing her sword through Reine Nuit’s throat. With this opening, Ladybug acts purely on instinct; she throws her yo-yo to catch Reine Nuit around the waist and pull her out of the way of the sword. Now that she knows where the akuma is, a plan suddenly hits her, involving the pepper, Reine Nuit, and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.

“I need you to distract her again!” Ladybug says, yo-yoing her partner’s staff back. Reine Nuit groans as she takes it.

“If that sword cuts me in half, you’re so Lucky Charming up a tube of glue to stick me back together,” she says, then leaps back into battle with Antibug. Ladybug throws her yo-yo to loop around Antibug’s ankle, then leaps up to feed it around the tip of the Tower, much like Antibug had done to Sabrina. Then she jumps back down to the platform.

“Take care of her mask when I say so! That’s where the akuma is!” Ladybug calls. Reine Nuit nods.

“Cataclysm!”

With everything in place, Ladybug waits until Antibug and Reine Nuit are closer before jumping and sprinkling pepper all over Antibug’s head. As predicted, Antibug descends into a sneezing fit and loses her grip on her sword, letting Ladybug yank on her yo-yo to haul Antibug up into the air by the ankle.

“Now!”

Whistling, Reine Nuit walks up to Antibug and swipes her sparking claws across the black and red mask, which crumbles into dust and releases the horrid purple akuma. Now that Antibug’s harmless, Ladybug lets her drop to the metal below their feet to free up her yo-yo.

“Good job, kitty,” Ladybug says, catching and purifying the akuma before throwing the pepper shaker in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

After the healing ladybug stream fades away, Antibug melts away to reveal Chloé, who blinks and squints around at her surroundings. “Uh, what am I doing here?”

“Pound it!” Ladybug and Reine Nuit say. Chloé narrows her eyes at them.

“I was akumatised, wasn’t I?” she says. Ladybug looks at Reine Nuit and nods down at the ground. Taking the hint, Reine Nuit starts to bound down the Tower to take care of Sabrina.

“You were,” Ladybug says, kneeling next to Chloé. “I’m not going to apologise for what I said during Antiquator, Chloé. But I will apologise for not making more of an effort to check up on you and make sure you were doing okay afterwards.”

Chloé snorts. “I don’t need your pity,” she snarls. “I need Adrien back.”

“Then try to be nicer. The reason Adrien won’t talk to you is because then you can continue to be mean while still having him as a friend.”

“Whatever.”

“Chloé –”

“Just take me home!” Chloé snaps. “I don’t need you, Ladybug.”

Ladybug’s mouth downturns. “Well, I’m more than willing to be there for you if you ever need me again,” she says as she gathers Chloé in her arms. Chloé just ignores her. Although she can’t deny that she really dislikes Chloé, Ladybug can’t help but sympathetically wonder what’s going to happen from here on out.

#miraculous ladybug #aotq fic #aotq: reine nuit au #chat!alya #marinette dupain-cheng #alya cesaire #chloe bourgeois #sabrina raincomprix #antibug #antiquator #it's called learning chloe #good job traumatising your best friend #poor sabrina #she's gonna need a lot of therapy after that

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ladybub · 6 years ago

Link

The next chapter is here! I got on a roll last night, I wanted to get the next chapter out ASAP so that we could get that sweet, sweet action going.

Enjoy!

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Sabine Cheng, Tom Dupain, Chloé Bourgeois, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Lila Rossi, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Nathalie Sancoeur Additional Tags: Overboard AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Miraculous, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Fluff, Fake Marriage, I have literally got nothing planned, i am winging this, most likely smut Summary:

Overboard AU. Marinette Dupain-Cheng hasn't had the best of luck in her life, not only has her husband Luka passed away tragically three years ago, she's one failed test away from losing her scholarship, and also already lost her job at the cafe. With three children to take care of, she doesn't have the time to dawdle and needs to find another job, or a miracle, stat! Meanwhile, on his own personal yacht, Adrien Agreste - the heir to the Gabriel fashion line - hasn't a care in the world and women on his arms at all times. He's living the life of a Bachelor with no problems whatsoever, other than the hangovers he gets the morning after. However both their luck changes after a chance meeting, and when the son of the rich designer has an accident which causes him to lose his memory...

So... Marinette didn't end up with a job at the end of the day.

It seemed word got out about a clumsy waitress that was rumoured to have recently broken over half the mugs in the Le Blanc café - her old workplace - in one fell swoop, and had gotten fired. So when Marinette rocked up, resume in hand, it seemed that the managers were all too eager to turn her away, saying that they had no positions available and that they were very sorry - no matter how much she insisted.

She knew her luck was bad, but come on! She figured she wasn't going to get a job straight away, but she couldn't believe not one place would give her any hopeful indication that she had a chance. Even the ones that did take her resume didn't seem like they were interested. She felt the fuzz of anxiety in her mind, as her fear of losing the apartment loomed overhead.

Marinette shook her head and slapped her cheeks. She didn't have time to dwell on that right now, she had to get on the game! She opened the van door; she had just parked near the dock, right next to the hugest yacht she'd ever seen. Like, seriously, this thing was practically a cruise ship. It had multiple rooms and levels, and was absolutely spotless. She already knew that they had a kitchen on board, a fully-functional chef's kitchen nonetheless! More staff ran around on the board, and there were people on the deck, setting up for the party. It looked like it would be a long night.

She started packing the containers in the van onto a collapsible trolley that was tucked in the back. It wasn't even dusk yet and they needed to have everything ready by 9pm. She was so happy that her parents had opened the store to catering. Since they got the extra business, Tom and Sabine had extra time on their hands. They had taken a small step back now that they were older and the business was pretty self sufficient. They loved to babysit their grandchildren regularly for Marinette, and she was so happy that they were so involved in the kids lives, but mostly happy that they could take the time to enjoy themselves.

Marinette immediately felt out of place when she took a step onto the boat, just to her right was a giant spa! As she continued through the yacht, she walked past exquisitely décored rooms, each with their own ensuite. When she reached the kitchen, it was brilliantly polished and sparkling. As if it was brand new and untouched.

She finished depositing all the containers of food into the kitchen and already had completed the preparation, so all that was left was to stick them in the oven when the client wanted the appetisers shared around, and she was currently waiting for the first batch to come out. All the cold appetisers were plated and ready to go.

Marinette sat and watched the other staff scamper around in the meantime. She knew at 9pm, Tikki - the other server who was rostered for the night - would arrive, but that wasn't for ages away. She knew no one else here.

It seemed like the client wasn't here either, since no one bothered to greet her when she arrived. She couldn't help but feel curious about the many rooms in the boat, and quickly checked to see if anyone was paying any attention to her. Nope, coast seemed clear. It couldn't hurt to have a quick look around the yacht, right? She wasn't a thief, she just wanted to have a peek at exactly how big it was.

It was huge.

There was one kitchen, with in-built pantry the size of a room, two bathrooms - one with a bathtub, three master bedrooms and the forth one had its own balcony over the first floor. The fourth bedroom was the one she was in now, and it seemed to belong to someone, considering all the blankets were mussed up and there was more personal decorations around the room.

She quickly called Alya, she just had to know where she was. It didn't take long for Alya to answer.

"Hey Marinette, what's up?"

Marinette held in her giddiness, "Alya, you won't believe where I am right now. I'm doing a catering job for the bakery, and the place we're serving is a freakin' 5-star mini cruise ship!" She walked into the en suite, and eyed off a bottle of Gabriel cologne on the bathroom bench. Look's like the client is a guy... She thought.

"Really?! Who is hosting the party?" Alya asked excitedly, "Someone famous you think?"

Marinette quickly popped Alya onto speaker as she opened her emails, "Hmm, let's see... A guy named Adrien Agreste..." Her mind went blank, as it stuttered over the last name. "Wait, as in Gabriel Agreste's son?!" Marinette almost shouted.

Alya gasped on the other side of the phone, "You've got to be kidding me! Model for the Gabriel fashion line, mega hottie, Adrien Agreste?" Marinette knew the exact face Alya was pulling right now, and she was already dreading her next words. "Get in girl! This could make your career if you manage to get a contact with Adrien. Plus, have you seen him?" Alya made a noise that Marinette didn't want to put too much thought into.

"No way, Alya. I mean, you know that I used to have photos of him in Collège... But that was just a... Celebrity crush on a 14 year old boy. I haven't really been paying attention to social media, so I have no clue what he looks like now. Besides, I don't want to use some poor guy. I want to achieve success on my own merit."

"Mari, if you saw him you might change your mind." Alya encouraged, "You HAVE to open up Instagram right now, his handle is-"

"Do you mind keeping it down?" The voice came from the bed. Alya went silent and Marinette's blood went cold. No way.

Marinette's turned around, words of apology on her lips but then froze. It was like she was watching a magazine shoot in real life - on the bed was Adrien Agreste, sex hair from sleeping, and completely naked. Luckily (or, unluckily, depending who you asked) the sheet covered the important parts, but as he stood up, unbothered by her presence, and she got a full glimpse of his ass.

Notably, she noticed that on his left cheek, there was a cute little paw print, with the words 'Chat Noir' written below it.

Her face went beet red and she quickly looked away, she finally spluttered the words that she meant to say before. "I'm so sorry, I had no clue anyone was here. I was just looking around but I-It was rude of me to intrude, I'll leave now." She quickly turned to leave, hoping that if she walked off fast enough, he'd not notice her face and she could not die of embarrassment.

Before she'd managed to get out the door she heard his reply, and paused. "Don't worry about it, I'm not shy." Said Adrien, wrapping the sheet around him, and gave her a charming smile. "I mean, the world has seen most of it anyway." He shrugged, moving past her and into the walk-in wardrobe. As he dropped the sheet behind him onto the floor again, he gave Marinette a wink before walking out of view to get dressed.

After Marinette started thinking straight again, she began for the door once more. "Still I'll get out of your hair." Right as she reached the door, she saw Adrien's blonde head pop out of the wardrobe.

"Oh, wait!" He called, causing Marinette's heart to skip a beat. He walked out the wardrobe, buttoning up his perfectly pressed white shirt. "While you're here, do you mind getting me a..." He pursed his lips in thought, "A bloody mary. Yes."

Marinette's brain froze. Again. But this time, it wasn't because she was getting lost in his emerald eyes. "O-Oh, sorry, I'm not a bartender, I'm one of the servers of the catering company you hired, Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. We're here to serve the appetizers."

Adrien looked at her for a long moment. Shit. So much for leaving before he saw you properly. Marinette scolded herself. She then felt her skin prickle as his eyes dragged over her body. She suddenly felt self conscious. "Is there something on my uniform?" She looked to check.

"No, no. You're fine, it's just..." Adrien let out an over dramatic sigh, "You're a bit flat, princess. I prefer my girls with bigger breasts, what a shame, since your face so cute." Adrien gave her a very fiendish smile. "But still, I wouldn't mind if you crawled into my bed at the end of the night." He winked at her.

Marinette felt herself flush in embarrassment, but also felt like she had a bucket of ice water dump on her head. That was no way to talk to someone! Who did he think he was? "I-I have to go. To serve the food." She bit out. "You'll have to get your own drink." She stormed off.

Marinette reached the kitchen and opened the oven to peek inside. She closed the oven door, making a new timer for the next 5 minutes. She was barely containing the growing anger inside. If she wasn't representing her parent's bakery, she would've clocked the guy. Well, probably not. But she wish she could! Right in his smug face, maybe break his nose. Okay, that's excessive. She sighed, frustration now mingling with a bit of sadness. At least now she'd be able to distract herself with serving, and she'll just ignore him. She'll treat him like any customer, and the moment that the kitchen closes, she's out of here!

She groaned. Except that she had to come back in the morning and collect all the equipment. She couldn't be packing away everything and transporting it into the van so late at night. Guess she'll just have to take it as it comes, she didn't want to let her parents down.

Finally, right as the timer went off, Tikki arrived in the kitchen, a cute little ladybug pin on her apron.

"Tikki! Just on time, as always." Marinette was relieved to have someone else with her now. "I love your haircut! Short hair looks really cute on you."

Tikki touched the short red locks on her head, "You think? I was worried it'd look weird, but..." Her smile shined brightly. "I really love it! My head feels so light."

"Its super adorable." Marinette began filling the trays with the first round of appetisers, and set the first tray on Tikki's open hands. "Now we're just serving in the open areas," Marinette instructed, "I'll be keeping an eye on the ovens and get the new trays ready as they are needed. When you want a break, let me know."

"Got it, ma'am!" Tikki smiled playfully, before shooting an excited eye beyond Marinette and towards the music, which had just begun blazing throughout the yacht. "I can't believe that we're here, I feel like I'm on one of those party boats for celebrities."

"Well, considering the host, it pretty much is..." Marinette laughed weakly, she really didn't want to ruin Tikki's fun by being a wet blanket, but she knew she should tell her what happened the moment before. "Our client is Adrien Agreste, and unfortunately the only nice thing about him is his face." She scowled.

"Adrien Agreste?!" Tikki exclaimed, "Wait." Her excitement turned into a look of concern. "What happened? Did you meet him or something?"

Marinette sighed as she finished preparing the remaining trays and walked out the kitchen with Tikki, "He called me flat, and then invited me to his bed! I've head of negging but," She huffed, "he really seemed like he didn't care about hurting my feelings at all. Trust me, avoid him if you can. Adrien is a entitled brat."

Tikki gave Marinette a pitying look, "I'm so sorry, Marinette. You didn't deserve it, but," Tikki stopped and smiled at two guests who took a few quiches of her tray, "What do you expect? I mean, he's had beautiful girls throwing themselves at him all his life, and people sucking up to him for his wealth. He probably has some sort of God-complex."

"Ugh, you're probably right." Marinette's nose crinkled up, but she gave Tikki a reassuring smile, "I won't let it get to me, don't worry. I have bigger problems to think about."

Tikki reached up to Marinette and pinched her cheek, "That's my girl!"

It was an exhausting night, but Marinette was glad it was finally over. Lucky for her, Adrien was distracted the rest of the night and seemed to forget about her existence entirely - which, she admitted made her bristle slightly. What happened was so insignificant to him that he didn't even notice when she served him multiple times, whilst she had anger coursing through her the entire night every time she looked at him.

She parked the van in the same spot she had last time, and unpacked the trolley from the back. She'll be in and out, before anyone knew she was there. She brought along a cap this time which she pulled far down her face and wheeled the trolley up onto the deck and into the kitchen with no issues.

Just has she finished putting the last container into the van, the trays were the last things she needed to get. She sneaked onto the yacht one last time, and was just ready to leave the kitchen after collecting the trays when she heard the sound of two set of feet coming down the hall. She quickly ducked behind the wall, not wanting to be seen.

"Adrien, this has been going long enough. I won't tolerate any more of your abhorrent behaviour." A pang of familiarity hit Marinette. This voice, no, it couldn't be...

"Or what, Dad?" Adrien's voice spat out, "You'll cut me off? Your heir?" Marinette heard Adrien scoff, and she could tell that they both moved into one of the spare bedrooms just outside the kitchen. Adrien's words confirmed her suspicions, right in the room across from her had to be Gabriel Agreste. The same Gabriel who hasn't been seen out in public in years - and here he was, on Adrien's yacht.

"Perhaps I will!" Gabriel snapped, and Adrien seemed to go silent for a while, probably shocked to hear his father raise his normally reserved voice. "I will not have some brainless, alcoholic bachelor as the face of Gabriel. If you don't fix up your act soon, son..." A pause. "You won't be an Agreste anymore."

Marinette sucked in a shocked breath, was he going to disown Adrien? She couldn't believe what she was hearing, and she couldn't hear anything from Adrien either. A long moment passed before she heard someone leaving the room.

"You have one month. The week before the Spring Gala, if you don't come back to the estate with the intention on apologising and becoming an heir worthy of the Agreste name... Don't bother coming back at all."

With that, Gabriel Agreste left the boat. Marinette couldn't help but feel bad for Adrien, she couldn't imagine having that sort of relationship with her father.

She waited a few minutes before peeking out into the hallway, she couldn't hear anyone anymore. Perhaps now was the time to get out of here.

But before she could get away completely, a voice called out.

"Hey! Server girl." Adrien stood at the door to the bedroom, his eyes were red and when he walked up to her, she smelt the distinct scent of alcohol coming from him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you for a drink." He shot her a entertained look as he stumbled a little when he made his way towards her. "Instead, how about some more of those little..." He gestured with his hands, "cheesy, bacon... Egg things. Hm?"

All sense of sympathy Marinette felt was gone as she remembered the night before, but she couldn't bring herself to get angry at him after what she just heard. Not to mention, she was in uniform. Ugh, she hated the hospitality industry sometimes. "Sorry, the contract was only for yesterday evening. Besides, there's no more food and all the equipment is packed away."

Adrien plucked out his wallet and then grabbed a wad of cash, dumping it on the trays she was holding. "Go get me something to eat then. I'm feeling something..." He thought for a moment, "sweet. Maybe fruit? What's in season right now?"

Marinette balked at the money, but still, grabbed the cash and shoved it into Adrien's chest. "I'm not doing anything for you. The contract is over. I'm going home."

Adrien grabbed her arm before she could leave, "Aw, come on. I don't bite." He winked, "Unless you ask."

"Ugh!" Marinette yanked her arm from his grip, "I don't want to spend one more moment with a sleeze like you."

"Me-owch. This girl has claws." Adrien didn't seem perturbed by her comment, "Did I hurt your feelings last night, princess? I was wondering why I didn't see that cute ass of yours in my bed."

Marinette felt the disgust curl in her stomach, "No. I just would never sleep with someone who didn't respect anyone but himself." She turned on her heel to leave, only to feel herself begin to pitch to the side - falling right into the spa!

Or, well, she almost did. Then two muscular arms wrapped around her and stopped her from falling. Marinette became very aware of that fact that she was pulled towards Adrien's bare chest. Did this guy ever have any clothes on?! She couldn't stop the blush that made its way to her cheeks. Adrien was a prick, but, even she had to admit was he fit.

She pushed his arms away hurriedly, "Get off of me!"

"Is that anyway to thank your saviour?" Adrien chuckled, the sound deep and sardonic.

"I don't need your help." Marinette straightened up and smoothed down her clothes. "It's just a little water anyway, I would've been fine."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

"Alright then..." Then Marinette felt his hands on her again, but this time instead of pulling - he pushed her!

Marinette fell into the jacuzzi with a large splash, the trays clattering to the floor loudly, some of them denting as they fell down the steps beside the jacuzzi, down into the entertainment area below. When she resurfaced, she gasped loudly, "What the fuck! I could have seriously injured myself if I hit my head." She spluttered, and wiped the water from her face, "You really are a dick, you know?" She didn't care anymore, she couldn't hold in the anger.

Her only answer was Adrien's entertained laughter.

So she got out of the jacuzzi, slapping away Adrien's offered hand while he snickered. When she began collecting the trays, she noticed three of them had huge dents in them, making them unusable. Her heart sank. These were her father's favourite silver trays that they saved for the high-class events, like the one last night.

She stomped up to Adrien and waved them around in his face, "You need to pay for the damage on these, look!" She pointed at the dents, "These are custom silver trays that my father ordered for the business! They cost hundreds of dollars, and that's just for one of them!"

Adrien shrugged, "Not my problem, you dropped them."

Marinette seethed, "You pushed me!"

Adrien bent to her level, "What you gonna do, sue me? With what proof?" He laughed as he walked away, "Since you're not going to stay and suck me off, you can leave." He looked into the distance, waving someone over.

"W-What?!" Marinette spluttered, "You can't do that, you- you damaged our property!" Suddenly, the sun that was warming her back disappeared as a large shadow blocked the heat.

"Gorilla, escort her out. If she struggles, just throw her into the Seine." Adrien plastered on the fakest, sweetest smile she'd ever seen. "Bye bye, server girl."

Marinette didn't want to satisfy him with a response. She turned towards the Gorilla, a frown deeply set on her face. "I can see myself out. This isn't the last you'll hear from me."

She left the yacht in a huff, trying to ignore the burn of Adrien's stare on the back of her head.

Oooh, she was going to make him pay her family back, one way or another.

Notes:

Yes. Adrien is a huge dick in the beginning. I promise that he'll get his just desserts, and also that he'll get better.

Chloe and Lila will be back in later chapters, I promise there's more to them than being the bikini girls who hang off him.

I hope this chapter was more entertaining than the last! I really want to get to the good, juicy stuff. It'll come, eventually.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrien #adrienette #love square #fake marriage au #overboard au #my art #my fic

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mikauzoran · 6 years ago

Text

Adrienette Drabble Twenty-Six: Boy

Luka smiled faintly down at Adrien. “Come on. Let’s get you some air.”

Adrien found himself being half-carried towards the exit as the alcohol he had consumed too quickly hit him all at once. His feet weren’t doing what he wanted them to do, and his mind felt pleasantly fuzzy like the world was covered in pillows. (That thought alone was enough to tell him he’d had too much too fast.)

Thankfully, the uncovered area at the stern of the boat was deserted with no one to witness Adrien’s muddled state.

“Here.” Luka sat him down on one of the folding chairs and knelt in front of him to loosen Adrien’s tie and undo the top few buttons of Adrien’s shirt.

Adrien’s eyes slipped closed as he enjoyed the brief sensation of being touched. Luka’s long musician’s fingers brushed Adrien’s throat like butterfly kisses, and it was nice to be fussed over.

“Just breathe,” Luka coached, settling down on the chair next to Adrien’s. He placed one hand on Adrien’s shoulder to steady him and began rubbing soothing circles on Adrien’s back with the other.

Adrien nodded, concentrating on filling his lungs with air.

They sat like that in silence for what could have been one minute or five or fifteen.

When he could finally breathe normally again, Adrien opened his eyes and looked sheepishly at Luka. “Thank you. And sorry. I was just—I didn’t…I mean…”

“It’s okay,” Luka assured, gradually retracting his hands. “Panic attack?”

Adrien gulped and nodded. “How did you know?”

Luka shrugged, smiling sorrowfully. “Jules has been having them since we were little…since our dad walked out on us. Unfortunately, I’m an old hand at helping people through panic attacks.”

“Sorry,” Adrien whispered.

Luka shook his head. “You’re fine. I mean…you know what it’s like.”

Adrien gulped and nodded yet again.

“You going to be okay if I’m gone for a sec to get you a glass of water?”

“Oh, you don’t have to…uh…” Adrien trailed off, mind going blank, as Luka cupped Adrien’s cheek in his hand, studying Adrien’s unfocused gaze and splotchy coloring.

Luka pressed the back of his hand to Adrien’s forehead. “You’re still overheated…. Have you been drinking?”

Adrien looked away. “Maybe a little bit? I sort of…had a little too much a bit too quickly on an empty stomach.”

“Will you be okay on your own for five minutes?” Luka inquired again without passing judgment. “I want to go get you some water and a snack.”

“Okay,” Adrien begrudgingly agreed, cheeks coloring. “Sorry. Thanks.”

“No worries,” Luka chuckled softly. “You trigger my protective big brother instincts. Be back in a minute, okay?”

Adrien nodded in a daze, watching Luka go.

“I don’t like this,” Plagg sighed, coming out to lick at Adrien’s face like a mother cat.

Adrien closed his eyes and leaned back, resting his head against the wall behind him. “Which part? The one where I’m just barely on the right side of ‘drunk’ or the one where Prince Charming finally showed up to rescue me?”

“All of this,” Plagg scoffed. “The part where you’re vulnerable and emotional and being taken care of by that guy who hat-boy told you to steer clear of at all costs.”

“I don’t know what Nino was on about,” Adrien sighed. “Unless he was worried about Luka sweeping me off my feet in my current susceptible state. I mean, Luka is obviously wonderful. I don’t see why I should stay away from him.”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Plagg hummed. “…You doing okay?”

“Not really,” Adrien chuckled. “I guess I deserved all that for being an idiot all these years with Marinette and then going off the wall and dating all of those girls?”

“Nah,” Plagg snorted. “What does that jock-guy know? Nothing. He knows nothing about you, so he should just back off.”

“I’m probably not going to see him again after tonight anyway, so it most likely won’t matter,” Adrien muttered.

“If you carry what he said around with you, that’s going to matter in your everyday life. Let it go, Kid. You’ll be better for it.”

Adrien hummed softly, enjoying the heady feeling that his mind was full of cotton.

Luka returned, as promised, just minutes later with a glass of ice water and a small plate of finger foods. “Here.” He pressed the glass to Adrien’s cheek. “This should cool you down. Take slow sips, all right?”

“Thank you so much, Luka,” Adrien sighed, accepting the glass and dutifully taking a cautious drink. “I’m sorry again. I’m betting this wasn’t what you had in mind for the evening.”

“No,” Luka chuckled, retaking his seat beside Adrien. “The original plan included coming up with plausible excuses to wander off and not be too intrusive while my date spent the evening celebrating with her friends. Honestly, spending the evening with Adrien Agreste on a romantic, starlight boat ride is an improvement. I mean, how many guys can say they’ve done that?”

Adrien laughed sheepishly. “Including you and me? Two. …Well, I’m glad to hear I’m not a huge damper on your night.”

“Nah,” Luka assured, holding up the plate of hors d’oeuvres for Adrien to select something. “Will you eat any of this? I wasn’t sure what you like other than Marinette mentioning you weren’t a big fan of animals.”

“Oh, I’ll eat anything. What I like isn’t really relevant, but thank you for being so considerate.” Adrien smiled judiciously, picking up a fig and goat cheese puff pastry. “…You and Marinette talk about me?”

Luka shrugged. “I’ve been taking her to lunch lately on weekends to make sure she remembers to eat, and I seem to be picking a bunch of places you two have been before. Apparently, you guys have elaborate eating rituals where you get half her salad and she gets half your fries and she picks certain vegetables out of her dish and gives them to you while you give her your cucumbers and pickles and-and what have you. It takes her a while to decide what she’s going to get at a restaurant because you’re not there to eat your part and order the corresponding dish. It’s kind of adorable.”

“Are we that bad?” Adrien smiled sadly through a blush.

“Yes,” Luka snickered. “It’s like I’ve only got one half of a set. I’m going to have to take you with us next time.”

Adrien gazed nervously down at his bite-sized pastry. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on your time together…but…I mean…if Marinette would be okay with me tagging along, I’d like to hang out with you two. I was just talking to Marinette last week about how it’s been forever since I’ve seen you and how the three of us needed to spend some time together.”

Luka nodded. “I wouldn’t be opposed to you coming with us sometimes. I like you, Adrien. I’d like to be friends, and I know what a big part of Marinette’s life you are, so I’ve kind of accepted that as long as she’s in my life, you’re going to be a part of that too.”

“T-Thanks.” Adrien took a big gulp of water and almost choked.

Luka thumped him on the back. “Easy. Small, slow sips, remember?”

Adrien nodded.

“How are you feeling?” Luka inquired after a minute. “Your face is still red, but your coloring is more consistent now.”

“Tired,” Adrien confessed, taking a slice of bruschetta from the plate. “Panic attacks just kind of wear me out. Still tipsy, but my head isn’t spinning like it was. I don’t know how much of this is the alcohol and how much is anxiety. I mean, I just had, like, two glasses, but I don’t really drink, so my alcohol tolerance is pretty much nonexistent.”

“You’re pretty cohesive,” Luka offered. “You’re slurring a bit and speaking a little slower than normal, but you don’t really seem drunk besides the lack of focus in your eyes and diminished motor control.”

“I think the fresh air is helping. And the water and the food.” Adrien turned to look up at Luka with deep gratitude in his eyes. “Thank you so much for this. I’m really sorry I’m a mess, but I seriously appreciate you taking care of me. You didn’t have to do this.”

Luka smiled warmly, shrugging a shoulder. “We all need a little help every once in a while. And, like I said, you trigger my protective big brother instincts. …Did you want to talk about why you’re a mess? Would that help at all? I mean, I saw you earlier, and you seemed like you were fine hanging with Nino, dancing with Chloé. Did something happen?”

Adrien shook his head. “Girl problems, mostly. One of my classmates has it bad for an ex-girlfriend of mine, and he’s choosing to take out his frustrations with her on me. Maybe I deserve a little of his anger because I’ve certainly made mistakes, but there was no need for him to get so aggressive and pick mercilessly at the scabs of all of my insecurities.”

Luka rested a hand on Adrien’s back, rubbing soothingly.

Adrien melted at the touch. “I need to find some way to bottle you so I can have you with me whenever I’m feeling like rubbish.”

“You still have my phone number?”

Adrien’s eyelids fluttered open. “Yeah?”

“Call me sometime,” Luka instructed. “I’m serious. Let’s be friends.”

“…Why would you want to be friends with me?” The words easily slipped past Adrien’s liquor-loosened lips.

Luka cocked an eyebrow. “You’re interesting. You’re funny. You’re a talented musician. I like you. Why wouldn’t I want to be your friend?”

Adrien smiled ironically. “I may not be an emotional blackhole anymore, but I’m kind of still an emotional whirlpool right now. People don’t usually volunteer to get close to that.”

Luka shrugged. “I’m sure you’re better when you haven’t been drinking and haven’t just had a panic attack. I saw you earlier this evening, and you looked like someone I’d want to know. Besides, I liked spending time with you before when I was teaching you guitar, and I want to get to know the person Marinette is always talking about.”

Adrien could feel his cheeks burning in pleasure at the flattery. “Okay,” he conceded. “Sure. Let’s be friends.”

They fell into a reflective silence as the boat sailed by the Ile de la Cité.

“So,” Luka sighed. “What have you been up to lately? It’s been about a year or so since we last really talked, hasn’t it?”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah. Almost two years. I guess a lot has happened since then, but nothing’s really coming to mind. I mean, except for the past month or so, I’ve been doing pretty much the same things I was doing when you were giving me guitar lessons: modeling, fencing, piano, Chinese, basketball, hanging with friends when I can squeeze it in…”

“What’s changed in the past month or so?” Luka inquired conversationally.

Adrien grimaced, meeting Luka’s gaze. “So…I’ve kind of been trying to recover from an emotional meltdown.”

Luka winced.

“Are you familiar with opera?” Adrien asked.

“I’m a lover of all types of music,” Luka assured. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I was going to say that my meltdown was just short of the level of Electra in her exit aria in Mozart’s Idomeneo, if you’re familiar with the work.”

Luka winced again. “Wow. Complete with your mother and her lover killing your father and your brother killing them and getting driven mad by the furies for matricide all while the guy you were in love with announces his marriage to someone else?”

Adrien laughed softly. “Perhaps I was being a little overdramatic comparing my own mental breakdown to hers.”

Luka shrugged, with a comforting smile. “Opera is full of extremes. That allows it to explore the whole range of human emotion. It doesn’t have to be realistic as a whole so long as the emotions ring true. The point is that you identified with Electra’s desperation and pain and anguish. You saw some of what you were feeling in her…at least, that’s what I’m guessing. I don’t mean to tell you what you felt.”

“No,” Adrien was quick to assure. “No,” he breathed. “That’s it exactly. That’s…really deep.”

“Is it?” Luka chuckled softly.

“Yeah,” Adrien stressed.

Luka smiled. “Don’t look too impressed. I probably paraphrased that from some article I had to read for class or one of my professors.”

“You study music?” Adrien leaned in slightly.

Luka nodded. “And literature with an emphasis on nineteenth century Russia.”

“Do you think you’ll be a professional musician? I know Marinette was talking about Kitty Section gaining traction, but I didn’t think Juleka, Rose, or Ivan wanted to go into music as a career, so…”

Luka shrugged, looking out at the Right Bank. “There are a couple other groups that I play with. I do some paid gigs from time to time. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make a living off of it, but I’d like to. I want music to always be a part of my life, even if that’s teaching or giving lessons while I do something else more stable. I’m kind of at a point where I need to think realistically about the future and being able to provide for a family in a couple years. We can’t all be Jagged Stone.”

“But maybe just being Luka Couffaine will be enough,” Adrien offered innocently.

Luka turned to meet Adrien’s gaze and smiled. “I like your bright-eyed optimism. Don’t let the world crush that out of you, okay?”

“I’m serious,” Adrien insisted. “I’ve heard you play; you’re magnificent.”

“One guitarist doesn’t make a popular band,” Luka chuckled, pleased at Adrien’s sincerity.

“But your music is beautiful,” Adrien argued as if by virtue of this alone the world should surrender a place in the annals of history to Luka.

“You’re cute,” Luka laughed, shaking his head.

Adrien stopped breathing.

Did Luka mean that Adrien was cute in a dismissive sort of way? Like “that’s cute”, “that’s funny”, “that’s hilarious that you would say that”, or “you must be joking”? Or did Luka mean that Adrien was…cute?

Was Luka flirting with him? Did Adrien want Luka to be flirting with him? Sure, Adrien thought Luka was attractive…as attractive as Adrien could find another guy, but…between Luka and Adrien it could only be flirting. It would only be making out. Adrien wasn’t interested in a relationship with a guy, but…flirting felt good. Flirting made him feel desirable…desired. With Marinette, there had been so much rejection, so many nos. It was nice to get a “yes, you’re wanted”. It was nice to be sitting there with Luka, Luka’s eyes on him alone, Luka fussing over him, Luka taking care of him, Luka being nice, Luka touching his arm and back, and…

It was everything that Adrien needed in that moment, especially with Kim’s insidious words still ringing in Adrien’s ears.

Maybe it was the alcohol or the starlight or Paris all lit up or Adrien’s insecurity or his deep well of affection deficit. Maybe it was the kindness and fondness in Luka’s eyes, but Adrien decided that if he ended the evening making out with Luka, that was okay. If he didn’t, that was also okay, but he decided to allow himself the option. It was time to stop blaming himself and berating himself and holding himself up to unreasonable standards. It was time to just let himself feel good within safe parameters. He wasn’t going to let himself feel bad about anything that happened between him and Luka that night.

Luka was still talking. “…wish I had my guitar with me. I’d play you my new song.”

“Maybe I can come over sometime and you can play for me then,” Adrien suggested, popping a pitted olive into his mouth. “I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to musically since the last time I heard you play.”

“Well, I’ve been super inspired the past two weeks, so there’s plenty of new material to sort through.” Luka shrugged. “I don’t know if any of it’s good or not, but the inspiration is solid. Maybe you can help me separate the chaff from the wheat because my eyes are a little clouded recently, so I’m probably biased.”

“Maybe you could help me brush up on my rusty guitar skills while we’re at it?” Adrien proposed.

“I bet you’ll pick it back up in no time,” Luka snorted. “I’ve never seen someone learn an instrument so quickly before.”

Adrien laughed sheepishly, pressing his water glass to his neck. “I mean, the concept is similar to the violin, and I spent the first eight years of my life in close proximity, so…”

“You played violin?” Luka quirked an eyebrow.

Adrien shook his head. “…My…My older brother Félix. He used to take part in competitions. I used to watch him practice for hours.”

Luka’s eyes widened. “I always thought you were an only child. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine…” Luka shuddered, thinking of Juleka.

In his slightly addled state, it took Adrien a minute to catch on. “Oh! Oh, no. He’s not…he’s not dead; he’s just…estranged. He and my parents had a big falling out, so…I haven’t seen him in a decade, and I wasn’t allowed to talk about him until recently.” Adrien looked away. “That sounds bad. I guess it is bad. Um…but…my dad reached out to my brother’s family a few weeks ago, and it’s looking like maybe they’ll be reconciled eventually, so…”

Luka gently nudged Adrien’s shoulder with his own.

Adrien blinked, looking up into Luka’s kind blue eyes.

“It’s okay.” Luka gave a muted grin. “Everyone’s family is a little screwed up in one way or another. I mean, mine of course, but even Marinette’s family, and they seem perfect at first glance. As you know, her grandpa didn’t speak to her dad for twenty years because of the interracial marriage thing, so… Don’t worry, Adrien. I’ll only ever judge you based on you, not your family.”

Adrien searched Luka’s eyes and found only honesty. “Thanks,” he whispered, turning away to smile into his water glass.

“Sure…. You know, I’ve been learning to play that old keyboard these past few years,” Luka delicately switched topics. “I know I’m nowhere near as good as you are, but maybe, sometime, do you think you’d deign to play a duet with me? I’ve been watching these guys on YouTube who do four-handed renditions of songs from video games, and I thought that might be something you’d be interested in, since I remember Marinette mentioning that you two were both big gamers.”

“Yeah, that would be totally awesome!” Adrien agreed enthusiastically, taking a carrot and ricotta tartelette from the snack plate while simultaneously palming a cube of cheese. He ate the tartelette himself and surreptitiously slipped the cheese to Plagg. “What kind of music are you working on for the piano? Is there anything in particular you like to play or a piece that you’re learning?”

“I like jazz a lot. Right now I’m working on a couple of things, but the one I like most is Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante Defunte. I’m a big fan of Ravel.”

Adrien scrunched up his nose and laughed. “You’d get along well with my father. Dad adores Ravel.”

“And you?” Luka prompted.

Adrien shrugged. “Depends. A lot of his music is lovely and technically beautiful, but I don’t personally get caught up in it like I do Rachmaninov or Mahler or Shostakovich.”

Luka shook his head. “Ravel’s Miroirs No. 3, ‘Une Barque sur l'Ocean’ just floors me. Like, my insides melt and I go into a trance it’s so gorgeous. I feel it here.” He placed a hand over his heart. “Is there a piece that does that to you?”

Adrien pursed his lips and thought for a moment. “…Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons. The first allegro non molto part in particular is just jaw-dropping for me. I used to love when my brother would play it.”

Luka nodded his approval. “I once saw Avi Avital do the solo part on the mandolin, and it was phenomenal. Vivaldi’s music itself is arresting, but that performance in particular…it passed by in the blink of an eye I was so enraptured.”

“Isn’t it amazing how music can do that to you?” Adrien sighed dreamily.

“Is it any wonder I want music in my life always?” Luka chuckled.

“…You know, I misjudged you,” Adrien admitted bashfully. “You’re a lot more complex than I originally gave you credit for. I thought you were only into contemporary music like Jagged Stone. I didn’t realize you liked opera and classical music too.”

“And rap and folk music and big band and ska…Gregorian chant, enka, salsa… Honestly, I enjoy some more than others, but I think there’s value in all music because music is the highest form of expression of the human experience. Music does something that words alone can’t.”

“Is that something you’re probably paraphrasing from one of your professors, or can I gush about how deep you are now?” Adrien hummed.

Luka laughed heartily, giving Adrien’s shoulder a playful nudge. “I honestly think I sound pretty pretentious. I’m glad you’re impressed, though.”

“You’re very impressive,” Adrien mumbled shyly.

“Thanks.” Luka grinned as he studied Adrien’s face.

Their eyes locked, and Adrien gradually leaned in.

“Are you feeling okay?” Luka inquired, noting the dilation of Adrien’s pupils and the distracted look in the younger boy’s eyes.

Adrien jerked back slightly. “Fine. Yes. Good. I mean…I can still feel the alcohol, but it’s more of a buzz or a hum now whereas before it was overwhelming, so…better. Thank you.”

“Good. You’re looking and sounding better.” Luka smiled, eyes crinkling.

“What color is your hair originally?” Adrien blurted out.

Luka blinked in confusion but answered anyway. “It’s black. Why?”

Adrien grimaced. “It…figures.”

Blue eyes and black hair yet again.

“I don’t know why exactly. I was just curious since you’ve had your hair dyed since we met. I figured it might be black because it looks like you have black lowlights, and Juleka’s hair is black, so…do you maybe want to dance with me?” The words slipped out before Adrien could put them in check.

Luka’s eyebrow slowly arched. “Dance?”

Adrien’s cheeks were already burning, so he decided to go all in. What was the worst thing that could happen? “Yeah. Dance. Together.”

“You…dance with other guys?” Luka inquired hesitantly, making sure he understood what Adrien was proposing.

Adrien shrugged. “I mean…sure. Why not? Girls dance together all the time. Why can’t guys?”

Luka’s brow furrowed. “I feel like two guys dancing together is different than two girls.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be,” Adrien countered, beginning to pout slightly. “It’s really stupid that girls can do things that guys aren’t allowed to without being judged. That’s part of the reason why I’m a feminist.”

“Oh?” Luka smiled curiously.

“Yeah,” Adrien insisted. “True feminism is about equality. It means girls can open doors for me or give me flowers without that being weird. It means I can be a stay at home dad or talk about my feelings or cry in public without being called a wimp. It means I can dance with another guy without it necessarily having to mean we’re gay.”

“Down with the patriarchy. I’m all for that.” Luka winked teasingly. “So…what I’m hearing is that you want to dance with me to make a feminist statement.”

Adrien’s cheeks burned pink as he smiled up sheepishly at Luka. “Honestly? You’re really wonderful, and I think you’re cute, and I want to dance, so…” He bit his lip nervously.

Luka’s eyes widened. “Like…dance as in ballroom like you were doing with Chloé earlier?”

Adrien gulped. “More like…contemporary dance. Like how Juleka and Rose dance together.”

Luka’s mouth slowly dropped open of its own volition. “I…thought you were straight.”

Adrien looked away, his entire face to the tips of his ears going red. “I mean, I am. For the most part. I think. I think I am. I’m not…” He looked up searchingly at Luka. “It’s not like I would sleep with you, but…if you kissed me, I would kiss you back, so…I don’t know what that means.”

Luka nodded, giving Adrien an appraising look and thinking, “That…lends new meaning to his blush and the dazed expression. If only he’d said something before two weeks ago.”

“Sorry,” Adrien backpedaled. “I didn’t mean to make things weird. Earlier when you said I was cute, I must have misunderstood because I thought—”

Luka rested a hand on Adrien’s knee. “—You didn’t misunderstand anything,” he assured. “I would very much be interested in dancing with you if you’re feeling well enough, but…does your father allow you to dance with other guys?”

Adrien grimaced. “Technically? I think my dad is homophobic, but, technically, he didn’t say anything about it being against the rules to dance with men. It’s only against the rules to make out with anyone, so I think I can dance with you so long as I don’t make out with you…and even then, I think it’s only against the rules to make out with you if someone gets it on camera,” Adrien added with a tentative wink.

“I’ll take that under advisory,” Luka chuckled.

This was weird. This was entirely foreign to Adrien. He’d spent years flirting shamelessly with Ladybug and getting nothing back. Flirting with Luka was sort of empowering. The encouragement of Luka’s smile felt good. It felt really, really good to flirt and not be brushed off.

“There’s just one thing.” Luka fixed Adrien with a solemn expression, taking his hand from Adrien’s knee. “Right now, we’re flirting, and I’m fine with that. You can flirt with someone just for fun and not really mean anything by it or expect anything to come from it. If we’re just flirting for fun, that’s fine. I can do that. This is only a problem if you’re at all serious. As you know, I have a girlfriend, and I’m crazy about her, so nothing more than friendly flirting is going to happen between you and me. If any of this meant anything to you, I don’t want to lead you on. Okay?”

The concerned look in Luka’s eyes, so full of care, was oddly touching.

Adrien smiled awkwardly, blushing as he laughed off Luka’s reservations. “No worries necessary. I mean, not that you’re not attractive, but…I’m not interested in a relationship. I’m just…” He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he attempted to find the right words. “I kind of got my heart crushed, and the rejection still sort of stings. Flirting and having someone else flirt back makes me feel better, so…platonic flirting is all I really want right now anyway.”

“All right,” Luka agreed with a nod. “Sounds good to me. Give me your glass of water and see if you can stand up.”

Adrien did as requested and carefully got to his feet. He stood still for a minute, making sure of his balance before giving Luka a thumbs up.

Luka smiled, resting his hand at the small of Adrien’s back just in case Adrien lost his footing as he guided Adrien back to the main room.

“Fair warning,” Adrien remarked as they made their way to the dancefloor. “I’ve been told that I’m a bit of a slutty dancer. I believe Nino’s exact words were that I turn dancing into a full-contact sport, so if I do something that makes you uncomfortable or if there’s someplace you don’t want my hands, please, please just tell me.”

“Likewise,” Luka insisted, his own hand moving to Adrien’s hip.

Nearly half an hour flew by on the dancefloor. Mentally, Adrien checked out, losing himself in the throbbing of the music, the warmth and press of the other dancers, the smell of sweat mixed with dozens of perfumes and aftershaves, the contact between his own body and Luka’s. He didn’t have to think about Marinette or his family situation or learning to love and care for himself or university coming up in a few short months…so he didn’t. He melted into cyan eyes, strong hands, and his own heartbeat, only mentally coming up for air when a slow song interrupted the thrumming beat in his veins.

Luka and Adrien blinked at one another, each unsure of what to do.

Luka smiled sheepishly. “May I have this dance? I mean…while we’re making a feminist statement about two guys dancing together and everything.”

Adrien laughed heartily as he wrapped his arms around Luka’s waist. “Down with the patriarchy.”

“I’d hoped you’d say that,” Luka chuckled, slipping his arms around Adrien’s neck.

“As much as I’m enjoying your undivided attention, shouldn’t you check in with your date?” Adrien wondered. “I’ve been hogging you for nearly an hour now.”

Luka glanced over to where Marinette, Alya, Rose, Juleka, Alix, and Aurore were all dancing together, giggling and falling over one another. “Nah. She’s doing fine without me,” he assured with a doting smile.

“I didn’t even ask who you came with, since you’re not in our class,” Adrien realized. “Juleka?”

Luka shook his head, lacing his fingers at the back of Adrien’s neck. “Girlfriend. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have come. I mean, tonight is supposed to be about what she and her friends have all accomplished. It’s not supposed to be about us as a couple, but I guess Marinette felt like since she could invite a date, it might be weird or hurt my feelings if she didn’t invite me? I told her I was more than perfectly happy to hang on the sidelines while she had fun with her friends, so…”

Luka looked back at Adrien and frowned at the pallor of the younger boy’s face. “You okay?”

Adrien’s feet stopped moving as he stared blankly into concerned blue eyes. “You…Marinette…is your…girlfriend.” The words fell from his lips like tiles from a crumbling building.

Luka’s frown deepened in confusion. “She didn’t tell you?”

Adrien laughed, smiling sheepishly as the walls slammed down. “Sorry. Yes. Of course. Of course she told me. I mean, I’m one of her best friends; she tells me everything. Why wouldn’t she tell me? She told me immediately. Okay, maybe she called Alya first and they screamed in excitement about it for a while, but I was second on the list as far as people she told. Sorry. I just…you know. Mental breakdown recovery lately. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and that just…slipped. Because we don’t exactly talk about you much. I mean, we do talk about you. She told me about your date the other night and-and dancing and going for crepes with you and the Jagged Stone concert and everything, but…you know. Mostly we talk about other things.”

Luka nodded slowly, unable to shake the feeling that something was definitely off. “Right.” He decided that the easiest thing to do was just go with it and ask Marinette later. “Sure.”

“Like…we talk about her internship with my dad and my parents’ wedding coming up in a few months and what I do with my free time now that my schedule isn’t so strict,” Adrien continued, suddenly feeling like he had something to prove, like he needed to demonstrate that he was still a relevant part of Marinette’s life even if she wasn’t talking to him anymore…even if she was cheating on him with other guys.

“We talk about everything,” Adrien insisted. “Sometimes we stay up texting until early in the morning just talking about nothing. She bounces ideas off of me, and I’m always the first one to see her new designs.”

It would be like that again in no time. Marinette was bound to miss him eventually and realize what a stupid mistake she was making dating other people. Destiny had literally—literally—chosen them for one another. Everything would be fine if Adrien could just avoid having a total meltdown on the dancefloor.

Adrien pulled Luka in closer, resting his head on the other boy’s shoulder because Adrien really, really needed someone to ground him and physically hold him together in that moment and he was forced to work with what he had at hand.

“You doing okay?” Luka inquired, resting his head against Adrien’s.

“Yeah. Yeah, totally fine,” Adrien lied. “Just a little tired. Just… Actually, no.”

Luka lifted his head and tried to angle his neck to catch a glimpse of Adrien’s expression. “What’s wrong? What do you need?”

Everything.

Marinette to love me.

“Sorry. Anxiety,” Adrien explained haltingly. “All of the sudden something just reminded me of…”

“Shh. It’s okay,” Luka whispered soothingly into Adrien’s ear. “Just breathe. Do we need to go back outside to get some air?”

Adrien shook his head. “No. Sorry. I just…stay like this, please?”

“Sure.” Luka began to rub at Adrien’s neck gently. “Um…sometimes with Juleka it helps if I distract her by talking about something else. Do you want to talk or…?”

“I don’t know,” Adrien answered, preoccupied by his thoughts. He wanted to get away. He wanted to transform and run home and make a pillow fort and hide under the covers until the world decided that it was done kicking him while he was down.

“Okay…. Well, let’s try it, and you just tell me if it’s helping or not. Um… Oh. Hey, speaking of Marinette’s new designs, what do you think of the latest ones?”

Adrien’s mind locked up as he tried to come up with something he could say to make it sound like he’d actually seen the designs that Luka was talking about. “Oh… Er…I’m not sure. I mean, I always love everything that Marinette does. I don’t know that these are her most creative designs ever, but I do like them. She’s taken the necklines in an interesting direction.”

“Necklines?” Luka hummed thoughtfully.

“Hemlines,” Adrien corrected, hoping that there was something unique about the way that Marinette had done them. “I meant hemlines.”

“Oooh. Yeah. I see what you mean. With the way they’re gathered and kind of…not toga-y, but sort of…like ancient Greece.”

“Precisely!” Adrien lied. “Marinette and I were just talking a couple weeks ago about how Neoclassicism is making a comeback in fashion.”

Luka was quiet for a moment. “…I’m just now realizing that I don’t know too much about fashion.”

“Honestly, I don’t either,” Adrien sighed. “Let’s talk about something else?”

“Sure,” Luka easily agreed. “Will I see you tomorrow at the party?”

“P-Party?” Adrien looked up to meet Luka’s gaze.

“Marinette’s party?” Luka clarified.

Adrien’s heart sank. “Oh. Yeah. I’d forgotten.” He smiled winningly. “Unfortunately, I have a thing tomorrow, so I can’t make it. I mean, it’s an all-day thing, so I can’t even get away for a little while. I had to choose between coming tonight and coming tomorrow, and I couldn’t risk making Chloé mad by picking Marinette’s party over hers, so…Marinette understands.”

Luka nodded. “That’s a shame that you’ll miss it.”

“Yeah,” Adrien muttered. “I really would have liked to come.”

“I’ll have to throw a party sometime and invite you,” Luka suggested as the slow song came to an end. “We’ll have to work together to find a date you can make.”

“That would be…great, actually. Thank you, Luka.” Adrien was oddly touched by the offer. He wondered if Luka would be so nice if he knew the true nature of the relationship between Adrien and Marinette.

“Sure.” Luka tentatively pulled away as the pumping dance beat resumed. “You feeling better?”

Adrien nodded, giving Luka his most convincing smile. If he could only hold on for a few more minutes…. “Yeah. Thanks. All better now. I don’t know what that was, really.”

Luka shrugged, returning the smile.

“I think I’m going to head to the upper observation deck, though, and get some fresh air.” Adrien tried to make a graceful escape.

“I’ll come with you,” Luka offered.

“Nah, I’ll be fine on my own,” Adrien deflected. “I’ve had a great time with you, Luka, but I think I really have kept you to myself for too long. You should go check in with Marinette.”

“You’re positive?” Luka studied Adrien skeptically.

“Definitely, but, again, thank you. This was fun.” Adrien leaned in to give Luka an air kiss but got more cheek than he had intended. “I’ll call you sometime, yeah?” Adrien called over his shoulder with a wave as he fled in a calm, collected fashion.

Adrien forced himself not to run until he made it to the stairwell to the upper deck.

#Adrienette #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Adrien Agreste #Adrien Agreste #Luka Couffaine #Mikau's Writings #There's a Daisy

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pancakecakes · 7 years ago

Text

AU Yeah August- 15 Life Swap

One-shot.

Summary: Adrien is in love with the school’s queen, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Ladybug is in love with Chat Noir. Everyone is swapped, but everyone is cool.

Tags: Life swap, Marinette, Alya, Adrien, Nino, Chloé, Cararouge (Carapace x Rena Rouge) .

Notes: I wanted to do a quick drawing but I didn’t finish it (｡•́︿•̀｡) I’ll post the sketch and I’ll upload the finished version when I upload it to AO3. This is for @auyeahaugust

Everybody knew who Marinette Dupain Cheng was. But why wouldn’t they know? She was the only daughter of the best patisseries in all of Paris. Maybe the best in the world.

Dressing in black and white formal clothing and delicate black earrings, with her beautiful hair in a high bun, red eyeliner and pink lips, Marinette walked in the hallways fully confident. By her side, Alya Cesaire with an orange fashionable dress and long white heeled boots. She was the daughter of the best chef of Paris, they were destined to be best friends.

They were not the kind of popular people that made others feel inferior, but they sure were the ones that were trapped in their own world, and didn’t let anyone in. Marinette was a famous young designer and Alya had a successful web page as a reporter, and the creator of the Ladyblog. They both had the highest grades in every class and were the class president and vice-president.

Even when the school was the most prestigious one in Paris, everybody knew both girls were out of everyone’s league. Everyone respected them, admired them and loved them, but always from afar.

But Adrien couldn’t take it anymore. With messy hair in a black cap, white sweater, black t-shirt and old jeans and tennies, Adrien sat in the school’s garden with his best friend Nino.

“I really want to talk to her.” Adrien’s voice was desperate “But I’m just a scholarship student with no special talent. She’ll never be interested in me.” He sighed.

Adrien was the sweetest guy in school. He won a full scholarship because he was smart. Something very special because College Francoise Dupont only accepted the kids of only the most successful and influent people around the world. And occasionally a couple of people won full scholarships, but they really had to be very intelligent. The exam was almost impossible.

“Come on Adrien, wining a scholarship here isn’t nothing.” Nino’s family were important people. Adrien didn’t know much about his family because they traveled a lot, but he got in because of their connections. They meet the first day of school and they were best friends since. “But ok, I have to admit you aiming for the school’s queen is also kind of…” Nino dressed in a formal-casual style in his daily life. He had a simple V-neck dark green sweeter over a white shirt, persimmon dress pants and brown shoes. In his face he only wore those elegant glasses he loved. Sometimes he would use his contacts and bring sun glasses of different colors.

“Stupid.” Chloé said before Nino could finish. “Why would you want to be with someone like Marinette? The girl must be very superficial, just look at her. You deserve someone who appreciates you the way you are, not someone who will change you.” Chloé sat beside Adrien, pouting.

Chloé’s and Adrien’s families were best friends, so they grew up together as if they were siblings. Chloé had always been in love with Adrien. She knew he only saw her as nothing more than a sister, so she always bottled up her feelings. But she couldn’t help being jealous of other girls.

With her long blonde hair loose, a fluffy white jacket over a yellow and black stripped shirt, black shorts and long heeled boots, Chloé took off her white sunglasses as she stared at Adrien waiting for his reaction. She got in because her mother was an important fashion critique and her father had something to do with politics. Chloé loved fashion and dressed only in the best clothes. This caused many people judge her before meeting her, thinking she was a bratty girl, when in fact she was very sweet, smart and cute.

“You both are judging her for what you can see in the outside,” Adrien added “but in the inside she is really soft, and her smile is the most amazing of them all.”

“Marinette? Smile? As if that pretty statue knew how to smile.” Chloé said, letting her jealousy talk. She sighed “I’m sorry, I just think you shouldn’t aim too high or you could get hurt, Adrien.”

“Chloé is right. We both support you, but neither of us want to see you hurt.” Nino put a hand in Adrien’s shoulder.

“Look, I know you said she acted really sweet and smiled to you when you gave her your umbrella the first day at school, but I don’t know, maybe you imagined it? If that really happened then why she never gave the umbrella back, or why never smiles or talk to you when you say hello?”

“I know it sounds like a lie, but it really happened, I swear!”

“And we believe you, Adrien.” Nino gave a cold stare to Chloé as he slowly said it “But we need you, we can’t protect Paris if you’re distracted.”

Adrien covered his face in hands and let a pained sound out “I know we have to protect Paris and have a normal life but I caaaaaaaan’t stop thinking about Marinette.”

Nino laughed and Chloé pouted again.

“I mean, if you ever dated Marinette you would talk good about me when Alya is present, right?”

“NI-NOO!” Chloé hit Nino in the arm with all her strength, which wasn’t much.

“Hey, Alya is amazing. If she ever looked at my direction I’d go directly to heaven.”

“What would your girlfriend say if she knew you said that?” Adrien smirked.

Nino blushed “I already told you me and Rena aren’t together!”

“Are you sure? You’re always pretty close and you always flirt instead of actually fighting the akumas” Chloé smirked and then giggled.

“I’m pretty sure Rena is in love with you, I saw her blush when she saw you last fight.” Adrien added.

“We don’t even know each other’s identities.” Nino’s face was red.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were directly chosen by Master Fu. Master Fu gave Ladybug the fox and peacock miraculous, and she entrusted someone with the fox miraculous. Both of their identities remained a secret even up until that day.

Master Fu gave Adrien the Bee and Turtle miraculous to choose the next heroes, and even when they were supposed to keep their real identities as a secret, Adrien choose to ignore the rule. The three of them didn’t know who Ladybug or Rena Rouge were in real life, nor the whereabouts of the peacock miraculous.

“If in other reality I was in love with Ladybug, I think I wouldn’t care who was beneath that mask, I’d still love her.”

Nino and Chloé looked at each other, face full of resignation. They knew Ladybug was crushing on Chat Noir since day one. It was painfully obvious, and the worst part of it was Adrien didn’t even notice.

“Oh, Adrien…”

‘Why am I in love with such an oblivious moron’ Chloé’s thoughts made her sigh.

They heard an explosion coming from inside the school and shortly afterwards tons of students running towards the exit.

“An Akuma!” The three of them said at unison and quickly transformed.

They helped the other students scape as they waited for Ladybug and Rena Rouge to arrive. With the most elegant movements, Rena Rouge fell from the sky, looking fabulous as always.

“Hey there turtle, I missed you, babe.” Rena said with a flirtatious voice.

Carapace blushed, because of the conversation they had earlier “I missed you too, d-darling.”

“What, seeing me made you this nervous? Are you finally falling in love with me, my love?” Rena smirked.

“Please stop flirting, there’s an actual Akuma in this school. Where’s Ladybug?” Queen B asked.

Ladybug fell from the sky in the same elegant way Rena did. “The Akuma is near the music classroom, let’s move everyone!” Ladybug always looked so professional and strong. Well, at least when Chat Noir wasn’t there.

“Glad you made it Bug!” Chat Noir petted Ladybug’s shoulder and then he started running to the direction she mentioned.

Ladybug turned red and suddenly her legs stopped working properly.

“For God’s sake,” B whispered, “I’m going with Chat, catch up when you can.”

“Seems like you have a job to do. See you there, beautiful. I’ll be waiting.” Carapace followed Chat and B, leaving the pair behind.

“Oh, baby, what am I going to do with you.” Rena sighed.

“I can’t help it,” Ladybug covered her mouth with both hands “he touched my shoulder…”

“We need to go, we have to fight the Akuma.” Rena gave Ladybug a hand “You’re always so clumsy around him, no wonder why he can’t figure out your identity. Nobody would guess you’re the school’s queen.”

Master Fu did tell them they were both attending to the same school, but that was the only clue he told them.

“Shut up Rena, you wouldn’t flirt like you do with Carapace if you weren’t transformed.”

“Who knows, I really like him.”

“Do you think Chat knows I have a crush on him?”

“That oblivious piece of -?”

“Rena, language, please…”

“No, I’m sure he doesn’t know. Now please let’s go back to battle.”

Ladybug blushed and smiled “Yeah, let’s go.”

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