#ml flash fanfic

[wisteriasymphony]

thinking of adrien finally working up the nerve to kill his father, axe from the garden in hand, only to be stopped by plagg.

"You're not doing this, kid," he warned.

Adrien grit his teeth, gripping the murder weapon in his hands—it had a bulk to it that he wasn't used to, but Adrien would find a way to force it through Gabriel's head anyways. "I'm not going to let you get in my way," he snarled back. "I'm tired of letting him get away with it."

Within a single breath, Adrien's arm lit up in agony, nerves shot as if suddenly stripped from the skin and muscle and exposed to the air. The young man dropped to his knees, unable to express the pain with more than a sharp hiss lest he be caught wandering the halls this late at night. The axe nearly dropped to the floor, if not for Adrien clutching it tight in his other hand, letting himself slowly sink down. The sting had a clear source, he soon realized—his ring, illuminated green.

"Adrien. You need to listen to me when I speak to you."

"And how is this supposed to help you?" He spit back, now clinging onto the pained forearm, phantom sensations of blood and pus leaking out the unexposed muscle and onto the hallway carpet. "You're no better than my goddamn father, keeping me leashed with the threat of pain!"

Plagg didn't care to listen. "I have been nice to you so far. I've let you quit your little team, get cozy with the wrong kind of people, all of that. But you keep forgetting that you still have a part to play in this world, and you haven't been sticking to it."

Adrien kept seething and whimpering over his arm, beginning to claw at it with his nails with the fruitless hope that maybe the agony was only surface-level. Plagg lowered a paw, and Adrien's arm grew numb and dropped with it, slamming against the ground.

"Gabriel Agresté cannot die tonight. You are not the one allowed to kill him. This has never been about you. I've been too nice to you for too damn long, I guess—Or maybe you were right all along, and I should've picked another pawn entirely! But I'm putting my foot down here, Adrien—"

Adrien picked up the axe—its weight even more unwieldy in a single hand. He raised the weapon to swing it down onto his other arm and sever it at the elbow; With the flick of his paw, Plagg moved it out of harm.

"Fuck's sake, kid! What did I say about listening? You're out of control!"

Finally able to breathe comfortably again, Adrien stood up.

"Maybe," he sneered back, grasping his miraculous. "I like it better that way."

Adrien had never been much of a pitcher, but aim wasn't really his goal in this particular instance. Swinging the ring like a baseball, Adrien chucked it away, nearly losing his balance as he threw his arm out. Like a single drop of moonlight, the silver ring soared out into the lightless hallway.

Adrien grabbed his axe and ran.

[the-daiz]

hiii i loved your flash falling in love fanfic sm it was so cute😭😭

your other idea of having a scenario of him falling for a reader that's strong also seemed very interesting. could you maybe write that but with like.. a short reader? like a reader whose power doesn't match their size at all? (hero or not)

(i may be projecting on the height part😔)

if not, that's ok. i just rlly like your fanfics/hcs, and i enjoy reading them a lot!! <3

Flashy flash, falling inlove? #2

Genre; fluff, hcs

Pairing; Flashy flash x reader

Short! Reader

side note; Isn’t projecting the whole point of x reader fics? 🤔🤔 I’m so glad you enjoy my fics ml! I appreciate your support sm sm 💋

not proofread (sorry)

Flashy flash doesn’t really focus on much.

well, what I mean is: his focus rarely strays to anything but himself and his duties, which sounds slightly narcissistic but he’s simply goal-oriented (and self-loving).

he merely wants to eradicate all evil and get stronger.

Truly, it’s surprising when you catch his keen interest.

You were strong. Possibly as powerful as him, that was the first thing that caught his attention.

The first time he caught you using the full extent of your power, he wasn’t sure if he was jealous or completely riddled with admiration.

but first he needed to test out how truly strong you were, and what better way to do that then accompany you on one of your hero missions, respectfully inspecting you as you slay the fiends bringing terror to the innocent.

very arrogantly asking you to a duel, apparently.

He’s very… stuck up about it. Which obviously doesn’t sit right with you, and your first impression of him isn’t the best.

He can’t help but look down on you, literally and figuratively, because of your miniature size.

However, when you finally have your duel, whether you win or lose or you end up in a draw, he does quickly learn he shouldn’t underestimate you.

After that interaction, he starts watching you more closely, maybe whenever you’re in the same parameter, or even going out of his way to find out what your schedule is and observing you from afar .He’s very subtle about it.

That was when he started experiencing something else other than respectful curiosity…

It’s how easily you navigate your strength and weaknesses, the immense sense of confidence that radiated from you and the power in your every move, it just kept pulling him deeper every time he witnessed it.

He began to talk to you more often.

He’d suddenly appear whenever you’re fighting any monsters and help you defeat them, then swiftly stir the conversation so he’s talking about anything that may be of interest to you, just so he can stretch out this conversation for as long as possible.

His tone is neutral and even a little cold, which fits the stoic expression on his face, so you can’t tell if he has any feelings for you.

Other people can though.

His quite oblivious to his own emotions. He just thinks you’re just another strong hero he can benefit from by being close to. Despite the fact he stares at you longer than he’s stared at anything else, and the fact he often times thinks about you and what you’d do, say or think in certain situations, or even the fact you give him a sense of inspiration he didn’t know he longed for.

ironically, the way it really dawns on him that he likes you, is when he catches himself adjusting how he looks on the reflection of a window before going up to talk to you.

Now that he thinks about it, he’s been taking even more care of how he presents himself ever sense he started hanging around you.

He starts growing more distant after really evaluating himself.

he doesn’t want these feelings to become a distraction for him in the future. He’s still a hero with a duty and a status to maintain.

It doesn’t last very long however, because in that small period of time he realized how much you meant to him.

it irritated him tbh, and he started cursing and insulting you in his head.

But all the negative thoughts dissipated as soon as he glanced at your face. The face that never left his thoughts or dreams.

His attraction to you manifests in subtle ways— He starts to stand closer to you. He compliments you a bit more but often times it’s (a little) back-handed. Whenever he’s in the hero association building maybe for a meeting or such, and he catches wind that you’re there too, he’s quick to ignore everyone else to look for you.

He’s still stuck-up, but he’s now a more gentle, patient, considerate AND stuck-up version of himself (to you at least)

He also invites you to spar or train together every now and then, and he gets so. Incredibly. Excited. If you make time for him. ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE THE ONE INVITING HIM TO TRAIN/SPAR.

He pretends like it’s whatever, and he doesn’t care that much. But he can’t stop thinking about it, like he just keeps looking at the time and calculating how many hours, minutes, seconds are left before he meets up with you.

I can see him confessing to you in a ver stupid way, straightforward and stupid. Something that would keep him up at night because it was so embarrassing and out of the blue.

After one of your sparring sessions, maybe you two are just talking and catching your breathes. And maybe he says something… er, stupid like…

”you know, a lot of people are impressed by me. Obviously.” *pauses awkwardly* “I, uh… i guess I’m kind of impressed by you too. Don’t let it get to your head though, when you can’t even reach my head.” -flashy flash, with a snarky smirk.

”your back-handed compliments are getting a bit old, flash. I can’t really tell if you actually mean them or want to get a rise out of me.” -you

Shit.

He starts to panic internally.

and his heart starts racing.

and he gulps.

“No- I- Sorry- I’m complimenting you! You’re very impressive! I’m impressed!” He blurts out loudly, his face frowning but flushed with red. You blink, surprised by the sudden switch in his demeanor.

”oh, it’s fine. I wasn’t being that serious-“ -you

“I don’t think I can do this anymore, the fact is, I’m inlove with you.” -flashy flash

”Wha-”

The confession is so bizarre, you burst out laughing.

he’s very flustered when you do, and is a little hurt, thinking you may be making fun of him.

How he is in a relationship with you…

In public, he doesn’t really do much. Just makes an effort to be around you when he can, and tells you to stay safe whenever both of you have to part ways.

but behind closed doors, he’s like a new person.

He’s soft and gentle with you, holding you, caressing you, kissing you. Everything.

did I mention that he’s very good with words? He’s very good with words. He tries to charm you constantly, reiterating his devotion to you with a new set of vocabulary each time.

He teases you as much as he sweet talks you though. Especially when it comes to your height.

He doesn’t mind your height difference, but he does find it kind of adorable. The way you crane your neck to look up at him, of how you can slip through small spaces thanks to your size, and how it sometimes helps you with being flexible in battle. But most of all, he likes when you have to stand on your toes and pull him by his collar to kiss him.

if you steal his clothes, he’ll complain and act annoyed, but he adores seeing you wear them. They’re so big on, but that’s what makes it so nice, it’s like a part of him is able to protect you. (In a strange/unique way)

He’ll gift you one of his favorite shirts/hoodies and drench it in his cologne. And will say something like “You steal it so much you might as well just have it. My god, you’re such a hassle.”

He likes giving you pet names like, “gorgeous” or fucking “sweetheart” or maybe even “sweetness”, or the typical “love”, “darling”. He’s very diverse.

When he’s feeling cocky he’ll call you “tiny” or “short stuff” (corny ass)

Just loves spending time with you and generally watching you do stuff.

sitting in your presence is simply intoxicating to him, it provides him with such tranquility he’s never known in his life.

You’ll catch him warmly smiling at you a lot.

He does worry about you sometimes if you’re assigned a dangerous mission, he’s confident in your abilities but that doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid you might get hurt. He’ll send you a short text like ‘hey, you alright? Call me when you’re done’ and he’ll check his phone constantly throughout the day.

when you finally text/call him, he’ll breath a sigh of relief then pretend he wasn’t worried in the slightest.

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for 2023: 20K - 40K words

So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!

Alliance!Adrien’s AI is self-writing, enabling him to grow and change and adapt. As he learns and starts analyzing some of his own systems, he finds some disquieting correlations. Why are there such strong connections between akuma attacks and the Alliance network?

Fu keeps on trying to give Marinette Miraculouses. Marinette refuses to cooperate.

Chat is happy with the person Fu chose to succeed him as Guardian, but confused. Why did he choose Multimouse?

One of Hawk Moth’s akuma attacks ends tragically, with many dead, Adrien in critical condition, and Chat Noir MIA. Alya’s prepared to go to extremes to save the people she cares about, if it comes to it.

In Kuro Neko, Adrien decides to seal off his more rebellious, wilder side, in order to make himself into the perfect partner for Ladybug. This has unintended consequences.

Chat Noir suddenly turns on Ladybug, joining up with Monarch as Cat Walker. Marinette’s devastated. At least she still has Adrien by her side.

Nino offers to fake-date Adrien in order to get the paparazzi off his back. He starts to wish it wasn’t fake.

All this and more below the break!

---

The Ghost in the Machine by @jheqiawrites

As part of this function, Adrien knew about Monarch, the akuma butterflies, the victims, and, of course Ladybug and Cat Noir, the heroes of Paris. He was authorized to contact the Ladyblog as well as the citywide alert system if one of his platforms was active during an akuma manifestation, allowing his friends to get somewhere safe until Ladybug and Cat Noir could deal with the situation

While the necessity of these functions was disconcerting, it was programmed to be his routine so he gradually grew used to the inconsistencies. After all, humans tended to be selfish, highly inconsistent, and often flighty, but once you had observed them for a while an intelligence such as his could begin to see the patterns.

That is until she came online.

This is just a beautiful, though bittersweet story. I adore how Alliance!Adrien grows and changes throughout the story, how he develops as a person. He starts off not being able to figure out what he’s feeling, needing to make new modules in order to try to process the emotions he has welling up, and not totally understanding his own reactions. But as time goes on he grows and gets a better handle on himself. This isn’t an “evil AI” story, he’s just a person who’s slowly figuring out who he is and how to handle himself. 

Not that it’s entirely about Adrien Alliance figuring out his own emotions, there’s other things going on as well. He’s worried about why there seems to be weird surges in the Alliance Network right before akumas attack, for instance, and why the details about the reason for that seem to be hidden from him, making him more paranoid about the Alliance system the more he looks into it...

 It’s just... it’s really good and absolutely worth a read. 

---

Thanks, But No by @pauliestorylover

For every miraculous that Fu cupped in his palms, an image of the same blue-eyed girl flashed through his mind. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was born to hold the miraculous—she resonated with every single one of them far better than even the late Celestial Guardian, and it was Fu’s duty as the last Guardian not to allow such talent to slip through his hands.

Too bad Marinette wasn’t on the same page.

Or; au where Master Fu keeps throwing miraculous at Marinette hoping one will stick, Marinette goes around handing out miraculous like candy, and Wayzz has never seen anything so ridiculous in his millennia-long lifespan.

This one’s fun. Everyone except for Adrien ends up with a different Miraculous than in canon, and it’s really interesting to see how they all adapt. Marinette’s thorough noping out is pretty funny too, and there’s some sweet bits of Adrino and Alyanette in here!

---

The Power of Love by @nedjsmlfavs

In which Ladybug announces that she’s pregnant via her long term boyfriend and Chat Noir is a supportive partner. After all, he can hardly be upset when he’s been dating his Princess for years!

A different take on the show’s tagline (“The Power of Love Always so Strong”) written for Valentine’s day 2023.

This is just a sweet, fluffy fic about Ladybug and Chat Noir finding out they’re having a baby, revealing to each other, getting married, and becoming parents. Gabriel actually tries to do better here, as he does actually care about getting to know his grandchild, and realizes that he can’t undo this timeline without undoing his granddaughter’s existence as well. 

---

Radio Silence by @into-september

When an inexplicable change between Marinette and Adrien brings the two closer than ever, Alya is left on the outside of a secret too confounding to be about cheesemaking or puppy love.

[No S4 AU]

This is a wonderful Alya-centric fic, with her just being baffled by Marinette’s and Adrien’s newfound closeness. But it’s not all about her being puzzled by the Lovesquare. Things really get rolling when Lila makes her entrance and Marinette and Adrien are particularly hostile to her, with Alya being confused about it and thinking there must be a misunderstanding here, somewhere, even with Lila saying something she KNOWS can’t be true - partially because she doesn’t want to believe she’s been fooled all this time.

But this isn’t a saltfic. Alya’s treated like a full person, and her perspective and thoughts are given credence. She and Marinette talk things out in depth, with both of them feeling badly for accidentally hurting the other person, and reassuring each other (Marinette also told a lie, though unbeknownst to Alya, it was connected to her being a superhero. Alya, however, didn’t know that, and just knew that Marinette lied to her for no clear reason), and they make up. It’s really nice and treats the characters with love and respect.

It’s got a lot of similarities to The Investigation by @11jj11, so if you liked that fic, you’ll probably like this one too.

---

I’ll give myself a name (something stupid and pretentious) by @bbutterflies

Nino looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. Usually he wouldn’t answer, but he had nothing better to do – and could still really use a distraction – so he did. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nino.”

Nino stood up quickly, chest tightening. He knew that voice. He’d been waiting to hear it again for over two years. “Adrien?” he whispered.

“Yeah. It’s me."

-

When Monarch is defeated (and revealed to be Gabriel Agreste), Chat Noir immediately goes missing. Adrien disappears not long after. When Adrien finally shows up in Paris again, Nino would do anything to make sure he doesn't disappear again.

Ah this is lovely, Adrien’s been in a lot of emotional turmoil since Monarch’s defeat, convinced that everyone would hate him, SHOULD hate him, for not realizing that his father was the villain, and should hate him even more for disappearing like he does. But slowly Marinette and Nino get through to him, convince him that they just want him back. 

And also Adrien and Nino smooch. Multiple times. So that’s a bonus XD.

---

The New Guardian Is... Multimouse?  by The_Rabbit42

During the events of Miracle Queen, Master Fu passes on the role of guardian to a surprising successor... Multimouse! Marinette is frustrated, Alya is confused, and Chat Noir is oddly pleased. How will this affect Marinette's friendships and partnership on both sides of her identity? How will this affect Adrien's view of the girls in his life? And how long will they keep it together?

I adore this fic! It diverges from the season 3 ending, with Multimouse - who Chat knows is Marinette, becoming Guardian instead of Ladybug. Which leads to some ripple effects, like Marinette not confessing her identity to Alya, since she’s able to get some support from Chat when he drops by her house. Not that that stops tension from building between Ladybug and Chat Noir, since she won’t just let Chat go and get a Miraculous from Marinette during a battle, and she won’t tell him why, leading him to think that she just dislikes Marinette or doesn’t trust him to get Miraculous like she does. But even while all this tension is building between Ladybug and Chat Noir, Chat’s still able to talk to Marinette, air his feelings in ways he doesn’t feel like he should do with Ladybug, and it’s all a great, complicated situation that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing unfold!

---

Two Steps Back (One Step Forward) by @buggachat

Sure, Adrien hadn't been texting her as often as he used to. And sure, Nino noticed it too. But just because Adrien had struggled with depression in the past, didn't mean he was struggling now. Surely, he'd tell her if something was wrong. Right?

Marinette just missed him, and she had a tendency to catastrophize. Surely, he was fine.

But if he wasn't... well, she wasn't above hopping on a flight back to Paris to make sure.

—————

Marinette's at an internship in New York, and Adrien has a depression relapse.

Once again buggachat comes out swinging with a fic centered around Adrien being super depressed and his friends charging in to help him, despite him not wanting them to because he feels like a burden. It’s not easy and Marinette goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, especially since his apartment is in bad enough shape that it can’t be changed to something that a human should be living in without also going shopping, but gradually she helps drag Adrien out of the hole he’s gotten himself stuck in. The emotions are on point and just... if you want to read a hurt/comfort fic with Found Family helping one of their own who’s struggling and doesn’t think they deserve it, this is a great fic to read.

---

If only I could break free by megetstoread

It started with Adrien being upset about going away, but led to a lot of revelations.  

Another Sentiadrien fic here! After telling Adrien that he’s being sent to London, Gabriel takes advantage of Adrien being distraught to akumatize him. Luckily Ladybug’s right there and deakumatizes him before he can even do anything, but it shakes both her and Chat, leading to her allowing him to tell her a lot more about his home life than usual, and for her and Adrien to investigate to see whether there might be more to Adrien’s inability to stand against his father than just psychological abuse.

---

Skinny Dipping in the Seine by whensparksfly

When Marinette and Chat Noir cross paths one stormy night, an unexpected friendship blossoms, and between the two of them they’re both able to admit what they’ve been looking for the most — freedom. Vowing to tackle all of the things they’ve never tried before, they set out on a series of adventures to complete their bucket lists.

Cute little Marichat fic here! Just Marinette and Chat Noir hanging out and doing things they’ve always wanted to do, like going to a rave or, well, skinny-dipping in the Seine.

---

Nor No Man Ever Loved by @jheqiawrites

It starts with a gift to cheer up a friend, a friend Marinette's heart is trying to move on from. But when she is blatantly confronted with her feelings by the most unexpected person, Marinette's life takes a turn for the better.

Welcome to my Adrienette April story. It is based around Shakespeare's Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds. Each chapter will be framed around part of the sonnet and should be able to stand alone, though the story itself will all be tied together.

This is a nice little story, mostly focusing on Marinette’s perspective while being there for Adrien, WITH Adrien, while dealing with his father and the aftermath of his father’s takedown. We do get some perspective from Adrien though for things like his therapist appointments. I really like that it covered some of the therapy Adrien should have after this event, he needs it.

---

Villainous Matchmaking by @nedjsmlfavs

When Chat Noir is tragically unable to attend an event with Ladybug, the mayor calls in a favor from a designer ‘friend’. Now she’s attending in style, on the arm of the hottest male model in Paris. Which would be fine if it weren’t for one, tiny issue: Paris’ favorite domestic terrorist now knows how Ladybug feels about his son. This leads him to his greatest plan yet, using Ladybug’s extremely obvious crush on Adrien Agreste to akumatize Chat Noir.

A Ladrien/“platonic” Ladynoir fic

This is adorable and hilarious. Gabriel keeps on “accidentally” releasing things which makes it looks like Adrien and Ladybug are a couple in an effort to make Chat Noir jealous, while Adrien and Ladybug ae just over-the-moon about getting to spend time together and finding out that the other person loves them XD.

---

Vantage Point by @ashes-555

Most of the time, with more information, life get easier and things make more sense. But Alya discovers that sometimes, knowing everything is just plain complicated.

Alya POV fic here, which instantly drew my attention, I think most people know how much I love fics giving her some focus. 

This is set post-Gang of Secrets. Basically, Ladybug tells Chat that he can tell someone his secret identity, and he chooses Alya (he thought about telling Nino, but he didn’t want to rock the boat with Nino since he’s his best friend, and he figured Nino would let it slip to Alya anyway). Which leads to Alya just. Dying. As she deals with knowing the full truth about the Lovesquare and not being able to tell Adrien and Marinette that they’re chasing each other around in circles.

The fic soon changes gears, though, becoming a Hawkmoth Defeat fic, with Rena coming up with a plan to discover Scarlet Moth’s location, and then everyone dealing with the ramifications. 

---

Justifying the Means by @ashes-555

When the worst happens, Alya finds that she may be willing to do the unthinkable. Is any sacrifice to big to make for her friends?

Once again, Ashes comes out swinging with an Alya focused fic! 

Basically, there’s a major, destructive akuma attack. During it, Ladybug orders Chat to cataclysm a building in order to stop from being trapped. Unfortunately the building collapses, injuring or killing a lot of people - unbeknownst to her, including Chat Noir. Gabriel releases the akuma, which means she has no way of fixing the damage, either.

A lot of of focus is placed on Alya and Nino worrying over Adrien, who was found in the wreckage barely clinging to life, in a coma, with the doctors unsure whether he’d make it. Shadow Moth takes advantage of their distress to make an offer: if he gets the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, he can make a Wish to fix everything, including saving Adrien. With as dark a place as Alya and Nino are in, they seriously consider it. Especially with how unhappy both of them are with Chat Noir supposedly “abandoning” Ladybug and Paris as a whole, and Nino being angry with Ladybug for failing (since Alya knows that Marinette is Ladybug, she’s far more understanding on that front).

I love how much credence Alya’s thought and emotions are given here, and that she doesn’t go for the more drastic option right away, either - she talks with Ladybug about it first, tries to do it her way. She understands the costs, but... her friends are important to her, and she’s desperate. I think this was a really good way to present a more antagonistic sort of Alya. She’s still very much herself here, and still considers Marinette her friend, willing to do things her way to an extent, and understanding why Marinette doesn’t want to use the Wish, even though she disagrees with her. Alya’s mindset, her emotions, her problems, are given respect and credence by the narrative. She’s still willing to talk things out, she’s still sympathetic to Marinette and the enormous trauma and guilt she’s going through, she just disagrees with Marinette’s approach. She wants her friend back.

If you want a fic that has some solid focus on Alya as a person, on her emotional struggles and mindset and just... dealing with things, I highly recommend checking out “Justifying the Means”.

---

Would Trust You With Everything by @kasienda

Nino breaks off, tears streaking down his face. Adrien wishes he was here as himself instead of Chat so he could offer a hug.

“It’s not like I don’t think she deserved her privacy. It’s just it felt like I was her last priority. And if I knew why, then maybe we could overcome it. But when I don’t, I’m not willing to be her last thought. You know? I always put her first.”

“Yeah,” Chat agrees, able to relate too well. He always put Ladybug first too, and he’s not sure it has ever been the same for her. “I’m sorry you’ve been so alone through this."

“I haven’t been totally alone,” Nino disagrees, holding up his phone. “My best friend has been keeping me company virtually most of the day.”

“Yeah? It helped?”

“I don’t know if any of the stuff he sent helped, but like, given what I know he’s up to, he totally had to move heaven and earth to talk to me so much, and that really helped. You know, just knowing that someone was thinking of me.”

“I’m glad,” Chat Noir said. “I wish he could be there in person for you.”

Nino sighs. “Yeah, me too, but at least you’re here."

...

Season 4 au - canon divergent from Rocketear Rocketear led to DJWiFi breakup.

Ahh, Adrino my beloved XD. I love the identity shenanigans in this one with Adrien being around Nino as both Adrien and Chat Noir, and both of them vaguely describing their situations to each other. It takes Adrien a bit to figure out that he has a crush on Nino, but once he does...

---

Dr. Walker & Kitty Hyde series by @pearl484-blog

Summary of the first fic, Rain Falls, Everybody Lies:

Chat Noir loves the rain. He loves the danger. He loves the excitement, and he especially loves how much Catwalker hates it. 

Jekyll and Hyde AU

Adrien AUGreste Entry 3: Rain

So like the summary says, and the title indicates, this series is inspired by the popular conception of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - not how the book actually goes, but how it’s portrayed in popular media, with Jekyll splitting himself in two, with a “good” side and a “bad” side. 

During Kuro Neko, instead of just changing his appearance through changing his mindset, Adrien took more extreme measures, sealing off his “undesirable” characteristics, his anger and sadness and all his sharp edges, into the ring so he could assume a more placid, genial persona that’d be more accepted - Cat Walker. 

But Chat Noir’s still there, taking over whenever Adrien gets too testy, and desperately trying not to be pressed out of existence entirely. With embodying Adrien’s sealed anger and snappishness and rebelliousness, he’s not too kind to the other heroes - he already felt looked down upon and ignored before this, and seeing them accept Cat Walker while he’s fighting for his life doesn’t endear them to him either.

The series isn’t unfair to them - this isn’t a case where one party is entirely in the wrong and another’s entirely in the right. Marinette, Zoe, Nino, and all the others - they did wonder about what was going on with Chat, but he wasn’t in a position where he could see it, and he did have legitimate questions about how much Ladybug would budge on things, if he’d told her what he was going through. It’s a series that emphasizes characters hurting and lashing out in some terrible ways, but that hurt still being respected, and working things out, trying to get everything to a better place.

---

First Dance, Second Chance by @gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights

After fighting by Ladybug's side as Aspik, Adrien finally has an excuse to connect with her. But when Gabriel voices concerns about Ladybug during a charity event, Adrien realizes she might need him for more than just one dance.

Or, the one where Ladybug and Adrien work together to find out Hawkmoth's identity, while maybe squeezing in a date or two along the way.

Ladrien Hawkmoth defeat fic here! I love Ladybug and Adrien teaming up to figure out how to track down Hawkmoth and defeat him, and being super supportive of each other more generally. If you like Ladrien and Hawkmoth Defeat fics, you should check it out!

---

The Great War by icebelle24

'And maybe it’s the past that’s talking, screaming from a crypt Telling me to punish you for things you never did So I justified it'

The unthinkable happens, and suddenly, Chat Noir’s allegiances change. Now Ladybug stands on the opposite side of the battlefield from the boy who was once her partner, left alone to make sense of an impossible situation.

At least she still has Adrien to give her hope. Or maybe things are not entirely as they seem.

I adore Ladynoir enemies au, and this is a good one. The reveal of what’s really going on is pretty great, everything makes sense. I love the pieces of Alya’s POV in this as well, as she’s trying to support Marinette through one of the biggest betrayals that could possibly happen, even while Marinette’s making some frustrating decisions that don’t make much tactical sense. Everyone’s pissed at Chat Noir (now Cat Walker) for apparently siding with Hawk Moth, and the subsequent frustrating inability to make any headway against him, as Ladybug always insists on fighting Cat Walker personally, and letting no one else take part. 

---

The moment I knew (I’d no choice but to love you) by @bbutterflies

“He’s dating me,” Nino said, taking Adrien’s hand in his own.

Adrien could only stare back at him in shock.

“How dare you all force him to come out?” Nino continued, glaring at the reporters. “That was disgusting.” He pulled Adrien over to the car, guided him in, and shut the door behind them.

In the relative quiet and privacy of the backseat, Adrien finally processed what had just happened. “So… when were you going to tell me we were dating?”

This Adrino fic is delicious XD. Reporters keep hounding Adrien about his love life, so Nino finally gets them off Adrien’s back by fake-dating him. Problem is, Adrien’s actually been madly in love with Nino for years but has never been able to tell him. And now as they’re spending more time together, Nino’s beginning to find that he’s enjoying all these “couple” activities more than maybe he ought to if it’s entirely platonic...

If you want to see Adrien and Nino PINING for each other while “fake” dating (is it really fake if both parties want it to be real?) then you’ve come to the right fic!

---

Evillustrator Reimagined by onewaywriteturn

A full, mostly-standalone rewrite of the episode "The Evillustrator".

Nathaniel never planned to tell anyone about his secret crush on his friend Marc, but his world changes when Chloe picks up his sketchbook and mocks his art in front of the whole class, inadvertently outing him as bisexual. Now as the Evillustrator, he has two objectives: to take vengeance on Chloe for what she did to him and to go on a date with Marc for his birthday.

At the same time, Marinette is already struggling to defend Sabrina from Chloe when she learns of the Evillustrator's crush on Marc, one of her good friends. And while getting Marc involved with an akuma fight is messy enough, the fact that Marc has secretly liked Nathaniel for a long time complicates the situation so much more.

If you ever wanted to see Evillustrator rewritten to focus around NathMarc, this is the fic for you! The two of them just PINE for each other so hard and are so convinced that the other person couldn’t possibly actually want to date them, even with Evillustrator making it uh. Exceedingly obvious XD.

[ladybeug]

MAN THE MUSICAL NUMBERS CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD I HAD TO PAUSE AND STARE FROWNING okok!!! so the thing was that one time agessss ago you said liking ml fanfics is just wanting to read the same story over and over again and after that textbook 2016 post reveal final kiss that sentence just flashed in my mind and everything that happened in the movie (the ladynoir patrol fighting in the rooftops, the adrien snapping at his dad, gabriel being actually decent) just shifted in context for me and the realization of how fanfic coded the movie is and how that directly related to my enjoyment was so clear i couldnt stop laughing hdhshsjs

WOW ACTUALLY

i remember saying that and its STILL TRUE!! And honestly you're putting it in perspective for me, thats why i liked the things i liked about the movie. like the ladynoir patrol fighting on the roofs also did lowkey make my dreams come true they could have done whatever they wanted in the rest of the movie, that scene is what i live for.

And that last scene really did feel like it was out of a fanfic, A 2016 FANFIC, its OLD FANDOM VIBES. back when we were still chewing up the concept of a reveal and not picking apart the bones of adrien's identity like mad scientists.

I remember thinking im sure ive read this scene somewhere. idk where but i have. all of it in different pieces a million times.

Anyways thank you for sharing this i love it?? good take

[generalluxun]

Control (an ML Fanfic) Chapter 1

CW: Senti-people, angst, so much angst. Referenced Child abuse and bullying. Full text below the cut, link to AO3 posting in Bio.

A fun and rebellious gesture by her friend Zoé leaves Marinette accidently in possession of something more precious than she ever expected to hold.

It's a blessing. It's a curse. It's life itself.

She has no idea what to do. There is so much wrapped up not only in WHAT, but also WHO. Her friends and partners can offer advice, consolation, and support, but in the end when you are both Ladybug and the Guardian you are the one in control.

“Okay, you need to check this out.” Zoé sat down beside Marinette at the lunchroom table.

She looked around quickly then reached into her bag and pulled out a small plain box. Marinette put down her sandwich and peered over curiously. She even went so far as to peek around herself, not sure who they were on the lookout for. Adrien was out for a modeling shoot, and the Nino & Alya show were getting in some extra Super Penguino practice down in the boiler room.

Zoé opened the box and upended it between them, a sparkling mound of gold and gems tipped out onto the table. Marinette, suddenly nervous, looked around again.

“Isn’t it cool?”

Zoe reached for one of the pieces of jewelry, using the box to ‘hide’ the pile from the room at large. She slipped a pendant on a thin chain over her head, letting the thumb sized sapphire thump against her chest. She flicked her bangs and held out one hand towards Marinette, fingers limp.

“Dahhhling, all the finest women are wearing big accessories this year.”

Zoé dissolved into giggles and Marinette’s nerves eased. She reached for a ring with a huge square cut emerald on it. “Where did you get all this? Costume jewelry store?”

Zoé shook her head, her giggles turning into an impish grin. “It’s my mom’s.”

Marinette dropped the ring back into the pile.

Zoé pouted, “Oh come on, have some fun. It’s not like she’ll ever miss it. I dug this box out of the back of one of her closets. You should have seen how dusty everything in it was. She won’t care if any of it never comes back.”

Marinette gave her friend a brittle smile, “Zooooééé…”

Zoé was already fishing through the pile again, trying on four rings on a single hand, as well as adding two necklaces to the one she was already wearing. She dropped her alliance ring into the pile to slip another ring on and waggled her fingers again.

Marinette hunched slightly, nervously poking the pile. She shifted jewelry that she had previously thought fake, jewelry that could buy a dozen new ovens for the bakery, and found a simple gold band at the bottom of the pile. She picked it up and glanced at Zoé.

Her pink’d friend gave her an encouraging smile, “C’mon Marinette, be a rebel, and look GREAT doing it.”

Marinette rolled the band between her fingers. Was it warm? Or was that just her nerves? I can always just give it back by the end of the day. It’s just borrowing.  She slipped it on and held up her hand for inspection. “Sorry, my outfit isn’t exactly made to go with gold. It’s a pretty ring though.”

Zoé gave it a critical glance but then flashed Marinette a pleased smile. “It’s okay, I just wanted to give you first dibs on anything. I’m going to Robin Hood the rest of it one way or the other. Do you think Adrien would like any of it? I know he’s rich, but you can’t tell me he wouldn’t look great in some dangly earrings.”

Marinette pictured it, and felt herself starting to flush when a sharp voice cut into her daydream.

“What are you two doing? Playing Dress up? What are we, ten?”

Zoé glowered as Chloé strode up to the table, running her gaze over the other two with her classic smirk well in place. Zoé pushed her chair back to stand but Marinette beat her to the retort.

“Just go away, Chloé.”

The Blonde terror blinked once, ”Yes, Dupain-Cheng.” Then she turned on her heel, and, without looking back, headed right out of the cafeteria.

Marinette stared after her. Zoé nudged Marinette gently, “You have to show me how you do that,” she teased.

I have no idea, is she just out of fight? Lila’s not around… Zoe interrupted her thoughts again, trying to slip a lovely pearled gold bracelet into Marinette’s purse. Marinette snatched Tikki’s home away from her in a rush. “Oh hey, that one looks cool. Let me try it on first though. I’m not sure my wrists are as big as your mother’s.”

By the time they’d picked through everything -Marinette avoided actually keeping anything else- she’d completely forgotten about the exchange.

------------------

It was two periods later when an akuma hit. Mr. Pigeon again, because of course Mr. Pigeon. Giving the power of Genesis to a flock of birds was surprisingly destructive. Usually the things pigeons dropped from the skies were cause for discomfort and disgust, not serious injury. Mr. Ramier wasn’t a villain at heart though, and so, once Ladybug had sorted out the chaos, wrapping the fight up was routine for her and her partner.

Marinette was the last one back to class as usual, and came in just in time to hear her least favorite auburn haired fox giving a deep heartfelt speech, “-so glad no one was hurt. These attacks are really just getting so dangerous anymore. I know everyone wants to help, but we have to be sure we don’t get in Ladybug’s way. Maybe if our class representative could take more of a leadership role, no one would be separate-” Lila stopped mid speech, “Oh! There you are Marinette. We were getting worried.”

Ms. Bustier gave an encouraging smile to Marinette, “We’re glad you’re safe. Lila had just brought up the idea of having a class rally point, and keeping together in a group when an akuma strikes.”

Lila turned her doe-eyes on Marinette, “As someone who is always finding herself isolated whenever there is trouble, I would hope you would support me on this, Marinette. It’s so very lucky you haven’t been hurt yet. I just want to keep everyone safe.”

Marinette’s mind raced to come up with a rebuttal. This was a challenge more dangerous than all the Mr. Pigeons put together. But before she could answer though there was another salvo.

Chloé pipped up from the front row, “Oh, who really cares, as long as it’s just Dupain-Cheng? Ladybug can’t even keep the miraculous safe, what hope do we have with her watching over us?”

Marinette, already riled up, had patience for this. She rubbed her face with a hand. “Stop it Chloé. The first thing Ladybug did was save you from becoming sidewalk crepe, you should be grateful.”

Chloé’s sudden, “You’re right,” sucked all the energy from the room. Marinette wasn’t the only one confused.

Lila cleared her throat petitely, “As much as I am Ladybug’s biggest fan, do we really want to put all this extra work on her? If the idea of organizing a group is too much for you, I would be happy to help.”

Marinette glowered. “Thanks, but no thanks, Lila. I think allowing people to act independently and make their own best decisions is better.”

Lila didn’t seem to have an instant answer. Marinette briefly enjoyed the unfamiliar feeling of getting the last word in, but Lila finally spoke up, "What was that, Chloé?"

The blond turned around in her seat. "What was what?"

Lila held her phone in both hands, giving it what appeared to Marinette to be a conspicuous little shake. Not that anyone else will see it that way. "I am quite sure, I heard you say something, didn't I?"

Chloé looked down at her phone, then her face twisted into its habitual sneering frown. "I am not saying that! Why would I say Ladybug can't handle it, Lila? She can handle anything. She saved me, she's saved all of us. Your idea is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

All eyes ping-ponged back to Lila, she looked down at her phone and her face turned to panic. "Oh no! My phone has a virus! It's sending random texts! I better get this fixed! We'll talk more later."

She ducked her head quickly, ending the exchange. Ms. Bustier looked lost for a moment before nodding Marinette back to her seat. Marinette glanced sidelong at Chloé before leaning over to Alya. "That was weird, right?"

Alya leaned in too. "Not that weird, malware is getting ridiculous lately."

Marinette grimaced. "Not that. Chloé, speaking up for Ladybug."

Alya looked past Marinette. The blond was pointedly ignoring Ms. Bustier, tapping away on her phone. "I don't know, it's Chloé. She was a fan before. And we all know she's a bit of a… butterfly."

Marinette groaned. "That was awful. You are not allowed to work on any more Cat Noir content for the blog for an entire week."

------------------

The next day started off rotten. Marinette had wanted to bring pastries in for the class while they filled out their prospective schedules for the next year. She’d gotten up too late to do it easily, but not late enough to not make it possible. Rushing around her parents, trying to stay out of the way, she’d managed to get three dozen assorted done and ran with them all the way to school.

In the front doors, up the stairs, no time for her locker! The boxes started to wobble as she ran. Rose yanked open the door to the classroom and Juleka lept aside. I’m going to make it! Ms. Bustier’s desk is right-

Marinette’s purse snagged on the doorframe. She spun as she fell, the boxes scattering and spilling. Marinette hit hard, skidding to a stop right in front of Chloé’s desk.

The blond leaned forward to peer down at her, “Another failure, Dusol-cheng?” She laughed into the back of her hand to punctuate the insult.

Marinette grumbled, crawling to retrieve one of the boxes. “Why don’t you get down here and help me, Solé?”

She’d gathered up half a dozen when she bumped heads with someone. Marinette flinched back onto her heels, rubbing the spot and blinking… right across into Chloé’s sapphire gaze. Chloé had four croissants in the crook of one arm, and was rubbing her head with the opposite hand. “Watch where you’re going, Dupain-Cheng. Here, take these.”

Chloé shoved the pastries into Marinette’s arms and crawled off in search of more. Marinette sat stunned for a long moment as others joined in too now, gathering up the fallen food. Soon everything was restored and two of the boxes had been taken up to the upper seats by Rose and Ivan to pass around.

Marinette let Nino and Adrien grab a couple each before tentatively walking over to Chloé’s desk. Sure why not. “Umm, thanks?”

Chloé looked up from her phone, clearly not paying attention. “What do you want, Dupain-Cheng?”

Of course. Marinette shook the box. “Look, just take one and we’ll ignore each other again.”

Chloé thrust a hand into the box and came out with a croissant. She didn’t say another word, or even look Marinette’s way after the fact. Marinette moved on to Sabrina, then sat down at her desk.

She pulled out a pen but could not concentrate on the form in front of her. Her head was filled right up to the top with nothing. She found five minutes had vanished without her putting a mark on the paper, and yet she still just sat quietly spinning the ring on her finger with her thumb. The ring- I have to give this back to Zoé.

Marinette’s eyes were drawn to it. It was such a simple, tasteful, piece of jewelry. It didn’t feel like something Audrey would own at all. Not nearly enough glitter. The passing thought made Marinette giggle. She felt light headed, staring at that golden band. Marinette blinked away an afterimage, then blinked again.

She was looking down at a form -her form?- She was doodling diamonds in the corner. It all seemed so pointless. She ran her pen back over her name again, making the letters thicker, more bold. She liked the way they curved and curled: Chloé Bourgeois.

Marinette jolted, bounced off the back of her seat, caught her sternum on her desk, and was left gasping for breath. Alya had a hand on her back instantly, rubbing. “Marinette, what’s wrong?”

Marinette waved her off, trying to steady her breathing while her brain screamed at her in mindless horror. She finally managed to get out. “Wrong- pipe- scone.”

It earned her amused smiles and looks of concern from the class, but thankfully a lifetime of actual disasters gave her plausibility for a handful of made up ones now and then. Alya helped her up with a concerned, “Maybe you should grab a drink?”

Marinette nodded, not trusting her voice for any complex thoughts. She glanced to the front of the room. Ms. Bustier nodded wordlessly to her over a smile, and Marinette bolted for the door.

She did actually stop and gulp down water at the fountain. She couldn’t drink enough, and yet her stomach threatened to return it all at any second. Marinette shuffled a step to the side and leaned on the brickwork wall. The rough facing tugged at her clothes as she sank to the floor. Head in hands, Marinette blocked out the too-bright light.

She could still feel it.  Her thumb wouldn’t leave it alone. Twist, twist, twist, it turned on her hand. It can’t be what I think it is. Even if life had taught her the world was full of impossibilities lately, this was one thing she was simply not ready to accept. I can throw it away right now. Zoé won’t even remember. I can just pretend it isn’t what I think it is, and no one has to know.

Someone did have to though. She did. She was Ladybug. Marinette raised her head slowly. She blocked out everything, which was easier than she had expected. Nothing in the world seemed to want to be in focus anyway right now. She stared at the golden band once more, and her vision began to blur.

Form, phone, form, phone, back and forth like a hyperactive puppy. Almost nothing was filled out. Her thumb scrolled insta so quickly she couldn’t even make out the images. Something caught her eye -no not hers- her thumb flicked ‘like’ and resumed scrolling. Sabrina was talking beside her, a low buzz of words that didn’t stick. Marinette had to know, there had to be some way to be sure. She made her eyes scan the form, they kept trying to drift back to her phone. There, perfect. She picked up her pen, spun it once with a deftness she admired, and scribbled on the line marked ‘Personal heroes’ Vesperia.

Marinette came back to herself, shaking. WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo?

She grabbed the ring to pull it off, but froze. If I take it off, where do I put it? What do I do with it? God, she’s a…

It was insane. That stupid plain band shone dully on her finger; it was nothing. It was everything. It was power that no one should ever have. It was opportunity. It was every single slight piled up over a lifetime answered in a single object. Marinette was in complete control now, she could do anything, have anything, settle anything.

Marinette’s thumb wouldn’t stop playing with it. Twist, twist, twist, an entire life spun on her finger. Anything she wanted it to be. And nothing, if I want it to be.

That dark thought came from someplace wounded. Her better self flashed Sentibug before her eyes; flashed that brief look of pain and fear. Marinette pulled up her shirt to muffle a sob. Home. I need to get home. I can talk to Tikki. I can- She will know what to do.Marinette staggered to her feet. She lurched to the rail and slewed down the steps on legs that didn’t want to work. The door was a short sprint then she would be out of the building. She could run home without stopping, dash up to her room and be far from… it.

[wilygryphon]

Profile Masterpost

Hi. WilyGryphon here. How is everyone doing?

What you can expect from me: I write fanfiction and I draw, and I will reflect and provide commentary/reblog commentary and gags that I particularly like on fandoms that I am involved in.

I also stream video games on Twitch. Come check me out: https://www.twitch.tv/wilygryphon

My YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@WilyGryphon (most of my media right now is stream VODs)

My ask box is open, and I would love to hear from you!

My Works:

Kingdom Hearts - Destiny Vault

My first fanfic. Ongoing. Tells an all new, all different adventure that diverges from canon after KHII. Upon learning that Maleficent and a new foe have gathered an assortment of villains to seek a great power that would change the balance of power—and will cause untold destruction in order to get it—the heroes unite and go on a quest to thwart them. Along the way, they learn of and work to solve the problems faced by friends old and new.

Fic: FFN AO3 Tags: X

Heart of Steel

Fusion Fic Crossover Saga between Kingdom Hearts and the Arrowverse (will ultimately expand into greater Disney and DC Comics lore). Sora and Kara Zor-El are adopted siblings, and they journey together with Donald and Goofy to save the worlds from the forces of Darkness.

Fic: FFN AO3 Tags: X

Non-Penned AUs

All Miraculous Ladybug AUs linked on the sub-masterpost Here

Miraculous Ladybug Rewrite

How I would redo the story of Miraculous Ladybug if I were to do so. Notable details would be: Chloé gets a redemption that sticks; Gabriel is more consistent in terms of his standards and what he is willing to do for his goal; Season 3 finale identity reveal; and Adrigaminette endgame. Here

Gryphonverse

A massive multimedia multi-fandom Crossover which I am currently outlining. Includes several different works that take place in the same world (and some that are in different worlds but tie in with the others; they all share the same continuity). Here

The Key to the Miraculous (KH + ML Crossover)

Sora winds up in the Miraculous Ladybug universe after the events of KH3, and he ends up befriending the cast and joining forces with Ladybug and Chat Noir. Here

Ragnarok de Dies Irae

Post-KH3 Epic where recent crises have destabilized barriers in space-time, resulting in sealed gods returning to threaten the worlds. The Guardians of Light work to stop these entities and restore order to the worlds. Meanwhile, Sora works to protect the stability from a different plane of existence while searching for a way back home. Here

My Fandoms:

TV Series:

Arrowverse (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman) Stargirl Superman & Lois The Owl House Amphibia Gravity Falls Miraculous Ladybug Warrior Nun Avatar: The Last Airbender Once Upon a Time Tangled: The Series Young Justice Spongebob Squarepants Danny Phantom Fairly OddParents Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Scooby-Doo The Mandalorian Teen Titans Wednesday DC Animated Universe Ben 10 Veronica Mars iZombie Generator Rex Galavant Kim Possible Phineas and Ferb Sleepy Hollow (2013) The Secret Saturdays The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Movies:

Marvel Cinematic Universe DC Extended Universe Star Wars Disney Shrek How to Train Your Dragon Indiana Jones Nimona

Video Games:

Kingdom Hearts Final Fantasy The Legend of Zelda Professor Layton Ace Attorney The World Ends With You Sly Cooper Nicktoons Unite Super Mario Bros Super Smash Bros

Books:

Harry Potter Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Trials of Apollo The Kane Chronicles Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel The Bartimaeus Sequence The Savior's Series The Powers (Haven's Secret) The Sisters Grimm Septimus Heap Land of Oz The Maze Runner

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

5, 8, and 9 for the new year ask game?

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

lmaooo im so plateaued in all things fanfic rn bc i've been working on grad school applications and my thesis (the latter of which i am. very behind on) so i don't have any snippets to share BUT i am happy to offer my latest idea for a fic:

post-ffh, mj walking through the streets at night, gradually making her way to flash's house. spider-man shows up, as mj knew he would, bc it's not safe for anyone (but especially a young woman) to be walking by herself at night. they have a convo (memory flickers, mayhaps?). mj ends up getting to flash's place, flash is on his balcony, and yes i will try to insert a romeo and juliet joke there. then they have a conversation (more memory flickers?! who is to say!). and the fic will conclude with mj asking flash a very important question that i shan't share here 😌

and that's my idea!

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

oh, wow, this is a really good question! to be fully candid, the main reason i have story ideas but don't end up writing them is a lack of time or motivation, so most of my mental fic vault is probably not that thrillingTM lmao. i can think of one fic that would have been a lot more intense than what i usually write, which would have been a medium fanfic that involved allison getting kidnapped and possibly tortured. it's been so long, i don't remember the details, but i think i wanted to explore the line between her psychic powers and her strength of will. a pretty messed up concept, all things considered, but i've lost a lot of writing-related interest from medium over the past year(s) so i don't think i will be writing this fic anytime soon.

another story in the vault i haven't written but do want to write is my ladybug dies fanfic for miraculous ladybug. sometimes!! i just want a lil angst!! but i need to revisit my ml enthusiasm lol.

9. Short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in January?

answered here! (basically what i talked about in #5)

[quixotin]

hi i come bearing humanitarian relief from optygami

so like, yikes huh?

I didn't expect all the angst and that last scene absolutely DESTROYED me in the worst possible way. Anywhoo, I was so unwell that I dreamt a follow-up. This is a new level of brainrot. So, without further ado welcoome to another edition of

bullet point fics that i'll probably never write but I need to get out of my system: post-Optygami edition

After Optygami, Chat pretends he's ok but he's actually quite sad that Ladybug didn't need him to defeat the Akuma. Even more so, that instead of going for him, she went for Rena and Carapace.

lol Milk Bar scene 2.0.

He tries to hide it, but unlike other things that make him sad like oh idk, his entire family life, this is new. And he can't hide it because Ladybug was the one person that never failed to make him feel needed and wanted.

So, he's at school and he's looking sad and Marinette notices. She kicks into Supporting Friend Mode the way she's done with Zoé, Juleka etc. and asks him what's wrong. Adrien at first doesn't want to say, but Marinette gives her one of her Motivational Speeches™️ and convinces him.

Adrien says that it's hard to explain, but he feels like someone really loves is pushing him to the side and he feels like he is not needed anywhere.

Marinette will very much Not Have That

So she starts telling him all the good things she sees in him and how everyone, especially her, is lucky to have him around. And girl ain't even blushing or stuttering.

"Adrien you're always so kind and compassionate to everyone, you always make time for us even though your Father is so strict with you. You're always willing to give everyone the benefit of doubt, even when they don't deserve it. You're a great friend"

Adrien high key is tearing up btw

And my boy is so starved for affection that he's just. He falls for her immediately??? He never realized Marinette saw him like that??

He feels so acknowledged???????

also Nino sees and he reassures him as well.

"Whoever this friend is can go take a hike if they don't value you, dude. smh I'll throw hands for you."

appreciate the i r o n y

THEN...

Alya figures out Adrien is Chat Noir and she has that oh no moment. Without telling Mari why, she is ADAMANT that she tells Chat immediately about everything that has been going on with the guardianship.

"Trust me Marinette. Just trust me. You NEED to tell Chat about these things."

Marinette confesses she had not told him because she knows he's going to be very angry at her that she relied on someone else in her hour of need and she's scared she might lose him because lesser things have made him doubt himself to the point of returning the ring.

"Alya you don't understand," she says crying. "I know him. I know this is is going to hurt him so much."

Alya, out of curiosity, asks why she came to her and not Chat when things got too heavy and Marinette explains the incident in Chat Blanc and how absolutely scared to the bone she is that it might happen again. Not because she wouldn't be able to fix it, but because she couldn't bear seeing Chat being hurt like that again.

Eventually Marinette gathers the courage to tell Chat Noir and of course he's sad, heartbroken, angry and no matter how much Ladybug tries to apologize or reassure him that she trusts him, he simply can't.

Chat says he understands that she needed to lean on someone and it's her right to choose who that is.

"Don't worry m'lady, I understand. But... I need some time off. After all, something tells me you'll make do even if i'm not there."

BIG OUCH 😃

Marinette is devastated and recognizes her mistake and understands she is in no position to ask Chat to be there but that doesn't help the fact she's absolutely heartbroken.

As a civilian, Adrien notices Marinette is sad and talks to her. Mari cries bc she says she made a terrible mistake and she managed to really hurt one of the friends she loves the most and is scared she lost them for good.

Adrien consoles her and tells her she did the right thing by coming clean to them, and that she should have faith in her friend bc "friends fight sometimes Mari, it's normal, right? They will come around. You were honest with them, and that's what matters. They'll appreciate it eventually."

"Besides, e-even if they don't... I-i'll always be here for you"

"And if they don't, I'll personally go and punch your friend in the face"

aaaahhhh adrinette fluff.

And so, while ladynoir is crumbling to pieces, adrinette is like, VERY close to becoming canon but bc of what happened in ladynoir they refrain from showing their romantic feelings but are like, "No way I'm making the same mistakes again" so they become each other's closest confident (sans the whole Miraculous thing of course)

Adrien starts telling Mari about "this friend" and the problems in his family. Marinette start tellings him about "these responsibilities" and "this friend I have" and they unintentionally coach the other through how to proceed to heal the ladynoir partnership.

Simultaneously, Adrien's help lets Marinette understand how very much she loves Chat and him taking the break from Ladybug's company and replacing it with Marinette, lets him know how head over heels he had been for her all this time = tada! reverse love square.

They become super, super close friends. Like deadass ppl think they're dating (but what else is new smh)

"Ha ha, no. We're Just Very Good Friends™️" *they say as they're literally holding hands or snuggling on a bench*

Eventually Chat Noir comes out of his little break and Ladybug and him meet up to talk and it's like, an ugly crying sobfest ahaha :)

LB apologizes again and begs him to forgive her, she promises she'll do better and she'll show him how much she need him and--

"M'lady, stop. I already forgave you. It's all water under the bridge so--

"No! No it's not, because I can't believe I made you think you're dispensible. Chat Noir you're my partner and you'll always be my partner and I treated you like you weren't but I just... I couldn't tell you, Chaton. I couldn't--"

"But why? What couldn't you tell me, m'lady?"

LB breaks down and explains the Chat Blanc incident to him

"I was so scared. I was so afraid for you and so terrified that I wouldn't be able to bring you back. I'd never be able to forgive myself if one day I cannot bring you back, Chat. I want to know who you are but if knowing puts you at risk, then I won't do it. I love you more than I want to know your identity."

ajgkfahgfak gajfkk UGLY SOBBING.

"Then... that means we cannot be together... ever?" Chat asks and his voice is cracking because he's doing all humanly possible not to cry too.

"Not until Hawkmoth is defeated. I promise minou, as soon as we defeat him, we can be together. In the meantime, we have to keep the secret."

Chat Noir gently wipes off the tears from Ladybug and steps closer to her and goes "Then, m'lady, if you'll allow it, I'd like us to keep one more secret."

He leans down slowly, to give LB a chance to say no if she doesn't want it to happen, but she doesn't stop him. They kiss.

"This one stays between us," Chat mutters and then smirks at her. "See you in the next Akuma, m'lady."

The end.

[irrepressible-domovoy]

The Masks We Wear

Part Three of the Reality ‘Verse is up!

For those just tuning in, this is based off of an idea where Flash Thompson is the Flash from DC Comics. Parts One and Two (Hatred’s Lies and Truth’s Understanding) were huge hits and everyone kept asking for more, so here is my try at another.

Thanks to @ragingstillness and @fightyspidey for beta-reading, because I was actually worried this one might be a little rambly. It’s very personal to me and I hope it comes across in the way it’s intended.

(Note: You can find the other parts under the Reality ‘Verse tab on my actual blog)

After everything, their relationship hadn’t changed that much.

Well, when they wore their masks and didn’t use their real names things stayed the same. (Mostly.) The big difference was that now they did team patrols mixed in with their solo patrols. Mr. Stark had been surprised, but he hadn’t disapproved. (Though, the Batman-Iron Man feud was well-documented, he wasn’t going to deny his mentee an ally)

But at school and during the day, when everyone knew who they were…

Peter didn’t want to pretend that things weren’t awkward, because they were. But it sure would’ve been easier if Ned and Michelle didn’t constantly pull him aside to ask if either he or Flash had been hit on the head recently. Peter hadn’t told either of them anything other than the bare bones: Flash was a friend now.

They weren’t so sure he’d really changed, but they tried to be nice. Or, Ned did. Michelle was her usual standoffish self, but that was part of who she was as a person. But they both still acted like Flash was going to turn around and bite them at any moment, so it made him uncomfortable and Peter knew that.

Which was why when they had been teamed up in psychology for a project, instead of using the library and its computers like anyone not trying to struggle through life would, they were sitting across from each other on a roof in the warehouse district with their homework spread out around them and their phone data depleting rapidly.

Peter was engrossed in his textbook, chewing distractedly on a pencil with his mask pulled halfway up his face, when he happened to notice that Flash’s pen had been making the same circle on the page for the last… How long had it been? The black ink had gotten really dark, enough to sink through the page and probably stain the one underneath.

“You okay?”

The other boy shook himself, looking up with half-glazed eyes.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

Peter set his pencil down and clasped his hands together. When someone needed to talk, you listened.

Flash sighed.

“Come on, man. Not again.” He bent a little deeper over his papers.

Peter raised an eyebrow. The other boy, not even looking at his face, tossed down his pen and sat up.

“Why do we act different in the masks?”

The web-slinger cocked his head to the side. He didn’t act all that different, did he? Maybe a little mouthier, sure, but he was still Peter underneath it all.

“I mean,” Flash scoffed. “Me, I get. You, though?”

Peter’s gaze fell to the books, not taking in anything more than a sea of black and white shapes.

“I actually hadn’t realized.”

Flash rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t mean it was a bad thing; I just meant that you’re different under the mask than you are without it, and I was wondering why that is?”

Peter thought back over what he’d been reading in his homework.

“In psychology they talk about masking being a way to protect yourself from negative or harmful emotions. It’s not necessarily healthy, nor is it viable long-term, but it is an answer.” He took a breath. “But I think our cases are closer to that of a different belief.”

Flash had settled back against some piece of the building and was listening, his thoughts carefully hidden behind a blank expression.

“Some say that everyone has three faces: One they show to everyone, a second they show to close friends and family, and a third they never show to anyone at all.”

Flash’s mask creased between his eyes.

“Like masks.”

“Exactly.” Peter leaned forward a little, getting excited. “But it’s a little different for us because two of our three masks are for the public.”

Flash motioned for him to continue.

“Have you ever seen Miraculous Ladybug?” The spiderling tried to keep the glee out of his voice.

“That French anime-type show for pre-teen girls?”

Peter couldn’t see his eyebrows, but he knew that one of them was raised in judgement.

“Don’t knock it until you try it.” He continued: “In the beginning, Chat Noir and Ladybug are both so very different from who they are as civilians; Chat’s a total pun-master while his alter ego is a nerd who blushes at everything and Ladybug is the suave leader who almost always has everything together, when her alter ego is the clumsiest and most awkward girl in Paris.”

“Is there a point to this?”

“In Season Two you see something you hadn’t before: Those two sides that were almost like different people start coalescing; you realize that they weren’t two different people and neither of them were a mask. Because they were both always there, with or without the superpowers.”

“So how does this random, fanboy vomit-post answer my question?”

Peter smiled.

“That right there.”

Flash screwed his mouth up.

“We might act completely different when we’re at school or on patrol, but it’s still us.” Peter softened his smile. “The differences between the personas we, or anyone else give out, depend on who we’re around and where we are but they are always us in some way. And who we are in the mask may actually be the most raw version of ourselves, stripped down to the bare parts, because hardly anyone has any expectations from the us underneath.”

Flash still looked skeptical, so Peter tried a different tactic.

“You said I act differently at school than when I wear the mask. That’s not me betraying myself; that’s just self-preservation.” He gestured to his face. “When I wear this, I can crack jokes and everybody loves me for it because it’s funny. But if Peter Parker started doing it at school? How do you think people would react to that?”

Flash nodded his head slowly.

“So, in your case it’s necessary to hide that part of yourself.”

Peter shrugged.

“Again, I didn’t know I was doing it, so I guess it was subconscious.” He gestured to the other boy. “And I don’t know about your life, and I don’t expect you to tell me anything, but it kinda sounds like the same deal.”

“Why’s that?” And there was the defensiveness.

“I only mean that you, in the mask, seem like a cool guy. You’re nice and easy to get along with, but you’re also really kind and open with your emotions, and that can be a target.”

Flash’s jaw clenched.

“So you act all tough in school; you act like the stereotypical ‘cool guy’ and nothing more.” Peter held up a hand to stop the objections. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. There’s no shame in self-preservation.”

Flash looked off into the middle distance.

“And like you said, the person at school and the superhero aren’t two different people; they’re just two halves of me.” He focused on Peter. “I’m just protecting myself.”

“As long as you - or I, for that matter - don’t hurt ourselves or anyone in the process, I don’t see why we should feel bad for keeping certain parts of ourselves separate.”

Flash leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at the clouds. His words were a whisper, but weighted.

“And we define what the mask separates.”

[swingsdown]

specificity or late night flash fiction #1 miraculous ladybug (s2 spoilers) | marinette-centric/ladynoir

marinette isn’t so different now that she’s ladybug. she’d always wanted specificity. maybe it came from being half-chinese and being raised in a decidedly parisian way (too parisian for her family in china, still too visibly chinese for paris), or maybe it came from being in the same class as chloe bourgeois for five years running.

but.

marinette has always craved recognition in the smallest of ways. not in terms of popularity or fame, but the connection...of being wanted, of being needed. of someone seeing her for who she is and deciding that marinette dupain-cheng is enough. when she was young, she’d wanted to not be picked last for dodgeball and she’d wanted to stop dreading group projects--that moment when all the other children had been paired off and she’d be left standing by the teacher’s side, avoiding her classmates’ eyes as she was unceremoniously forced into a group.

being ladybug had given her that, and being ladybug had given her chat noir. chat, who proclaimed his love and flirted and looked at her with awestruck eyes. chat, who called himself wholly marinette’s own. being ladybug had been her special secret and chat had shared that with her. marinette would never tell tikki, but knowing that they were the only two people in the entirety of paris who knew the city the way they did--by dusk and dawn and night, across rooftops and in all the forbidden places roped off to the public, as a blur under their feet or over their heads--it half-helped to make it all worth it, outside of her natural desire to do right. chat made up for all the rest. 

as ladybug, marinette felt she had an obligation to treat her duty with a certain sense of responsibility, and deflecting chat (especially when she felt so drawn to adrien) had been a part of that. but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the attention. she’d be lying if she said she didn’t relish the way he turned his smile on her or the way he sometimes lingered with his hands, with his hugs, with his eyes. 

she and chat knew each other like they knew the city of paris: intimately, in a way that she knew no one else ever could.

and then she’d given the miraculous to alya, and watched as chat bent over rena rouge’s hand, watched as chat joked and teased and grinned at rena in the easy way that he’d always smiled at ladybug. 

and marinette isn’t--she isn’t jealous, per se. or she is, or she has been, always, of alya. alya, who even when she hadn’t had a super-powered suit had run into danger and magic and uncertainty in pursuit of the truth. alya, who’d always been confident and loved and sure of who she is. alya, whom marinette had almost given tikki to and who had not stumbled as rena rouge as marinette had the first time as ladybug. 

marinette watches the easy banter between chat and rena--the handshake, for god’s sake--and she feels sick. she loves alya, she loves alya and she’d given her friend trixx for a reason, and she loves chat, but...but it’s different now. it’s not chat noir and ladybug, standing at the top of the notre dame and connected by a very specific destiny. it’s chat and rena and ladybug and a casual bien joue not loaded with the meaning that marinette thought it’d had. 

you’d said you’d loved me, marinette thinks in the aftermath. you’d said that i was your best friend. 

but the things that she’d thought were hers--that were theirs--apparently hadn’t been at all. 

marinette wonders if it would matter if the girl behind the mask changed. she wonders if she should have given the ladybug miraculous to alya after all.

- -

next

note: a new thing where i try to do a timed sprint every night. no proof-reading. no agonizing over plot or characterization or tone or structure. just word vomit, directly into the tumblr text box. 

for further clarification: i know this isn’t a popular interpretation of the characters or of the interaction between chat and rena, but the fact is that marinette really was a lot less confident before tikki entered her life and i wanted to explore why (and bc specificity is a huge issue w me and i didn’t like the dynamic between chat, rena, and lb at all so this is me working through it). no, marinette isn’t romantically jealous, and no, rena and chat’s friendship isn’t meant to be romantic or viewed as such.

[beanzwriting]

Alya’s Declaration

Also on AO3

This was my gift to chatbug

“Marinette, you’re missing the point!” Alya exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

“And what point would that be?” Marinette asked, raising her brow.

“That I’m trying to be romantic!”

“By sending Nino the twelve days of Christmas?”

“Yes! Don’t you know how the song goes? On the First day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree. The song itself mentions true love. How is that not romantic? I’m surprised you didn’t do it for Adrien considering how mushy you two are now that you’re finally together.” Alya huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Uh, maybe because six of the twelve days involve birds and Adrien is allergic to feathers?”

Alya blushed. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” She watched as Marinette smirked, but she refused to let it stop her. “But that’s still not the point, and don’t think I don’t realise that you at least thought about doing it!” she said, pointing her finger at her best friend who just blushed in response.

“Anyway, back to you and Nino. Why are you freaking out over this? What aren’t you telling me?”

Alya slumped and sat down next to Marinette. “I love him, Mari,” she whispered.

“I know you do, Al,” Marinette said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“The thing is, I haven’t told him that I love him,” she said, resting her head on her best friend’s shoulder.

“Ohhhh, so want to do a grand gesture and then tell him?” Marinette asked and Alya just nodded.

“There’s your problem.”

“Huh?” Alya asked, lifting her head to look up into Marinette’s smiling face.

“This is Nino we’re talking about. I’m not saying he wouldn’t like a grand gesture but I know he wouldn’t like you stressing out over this.”

Alya sighed. “I know you’re right, I do, but I just want to show him how much he means to me. We’ve all seen what Adrien-”

Marinette cut her off. “I’m going to stop you right there. Don’t compare yourself or your relationship with us, or anyone else. I love Adrien, you know I do, but do you know why I made him stop with the grand gestures?”

Alya snorted. “Because you were running out of space to store the gifts?” she teased.

They both had a giggle until Marinette sobered up. “Partly, but honestly? It was the reason behind why he did them.”

Alya frowned. “What do you mean?”

Marinette bit her lip before giving a nod and speaking again. “Please don’t repeat what I’m about to say, not even to Nino. It’s not that I don’t trust you two, but I’d rather Adrien tell Nino if he wants to.”

“I swear,” Alya promised.

“So you obviously know how he has the games and stuff in his room?”

Alya nodded when Marinette paused.

“Adrien was doing all of those grand gestures to show me that he loved me. I didn’t mind that but what bothered me was that he thought he had to do them. No, that doesn’t sound right. What I mean is, there’s no warmth in his house. His father barely talks to him let alone tells Adrien that he loves him. Instead, his father just bought him stuff like the games or a laptop or whatever. I think to some extent Adrien thought that the more expensive the gift, the more you loved the person you gave it to. When I ended up getting sick, Adrien came to visit me and because my parents were so busy in the bakery, mama asked him to bring me my medicine and soup. We talked and during the conversation I told him that him being there and looking after me was worth more than all the grand gestures and expensive gifts in the world.”

Alya sniffled, trying to resist the urge to demand Adrien come to her house so she could hug him. Or better yet, go to his house to not only hug him but punch Gabriel in the face. Adrien should know what love truly was. Marinette smiled at her, a knowing look in her eyes, but Alya could tell there was more she wanted to say so she just waited.

“I didn’t tell you this to upset you, or give you the urge to punch Gabriel in the face,” Marinette winked and Alya laughed at how well her best friend knew her. “I told you this because the point is, you don’t need a grand gesture to show someone you love them. It’s the little things, like getting them coffee when you know they’ve been up most of the night. Or bringing them soup when they’re sick. I know you want to do something romantic for Nino when you tell him you love him, but romantic doesn’t mean you have to go all out. It doesn’t mean that you have to stress yourself out preparing for the perfect moment to tell him you love him. I’m pretty sure that no matter what, when you tell Nino you love him that will be the perfect moment because of the two of you, and not what’s going on around you.”

Alya stopped and thought about Marinette’s words and realised she was right. “When did you end up being so wise and sappy?” She joked, nudging Marinette with her shoulder.

Marinette just laughed. “Have you forgotten how sappy and romantic my boyfriend is?”

The girls laughed but in the back of Alya’s mind a plan started to form.

Alya walked with Nino around the streets of Paris, one hand wrapped around his while the other carried a cup of hot chocolate. They were looking at the Christmas lights as they made their way to the park. Marinette and Adrien were going to meet up with them at the big Christmas tree but they still had time.

When they reached the park Alya smiled. Kids were running around laughing and playing, couples were snuggled up together under blankets and carollers were singing. Once she realised they were singing the Twelve Days of Christmas she couldn’t hold back her chuckle.

“What?” Nino asked as they continued walking, throwing away their empty cups when they passed a bin.

“It’s nothing,” she said, smiling over at him.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, just heard what song the carollers were singing.”

“Ah yes, the twelve days of Christmas, filled with six days of birds,” he said, pulling her closer to his side.

When she raised her eyebrow at him, he just chuckled. “Adrien and I were discussing Christmas songs during the week. He was telling me how he liked the fact that it’s about giving gifts to your true love, but not the fact that six of the days involve birds. Something about it no longer being romantic if he was sneezing every few seconds.”

They both burst out laughing and when Alya glanced over at Nino everything seemed to stop. They had moved out of everyone’s way when they had continued to laugh and were now closer to the trees where lights had been hung up. Nino had a huge smile on his face which seemed to glow from all of the Christmas lights around them. He’d traded his red cap for a red beanie which had a light cover of snow on it.

The world around them faded until all she could see, and all she cared about, was Nino. “I love you, Nino,” she said softly.

Surprise flashed over his features for split second before he smiled again and pulled her into a tight hug.

“I love you too, Alya,” he whispered in her ear, before turning and kissing her.

Alya relaxed in his arms and kissed him back, enjoying their perfect moment.

[mirime-kisarrastine]

An Impending Parenthood

I’m posting this ficlet here, too. Because I can. Links to AO3 and ff.net. Based on my older post.

~~~~~

"Tell me something embarrassing about yourself."

Adrien regretted his inquiry almost immediately after. Up to that point he had been watching Marinette sketch, which was one of his favourite pastimes. She was downright adorable, what with the look of concentration on her face and her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Sometimes it still seemed unreal that he had gotten so lucky as to have her in his life. She was perfect, not in the flawless-goddess-kind-of-way but rather in how she made even something silly look adorable instead. And he wanted to see and know more. He wanted to know all about her, to keep falling ever more in love with the girl who would trip over her feet in the morning and graciously back-flip and somersault in the afternoon.

Hence his ill-timed question.

"What?" She dropped her pencil and it rolled away. Adrien flushed but persevered.

"Sorry, that came out wrong. I just meant, tell me something about you I don't know."

"Why?"

Adrien shrugged.

"We're dating and I want to know more about you. Is that so bad?"

Marinette blushed. It wasn't that they knew nothing about each other. There were months of partnership and friendship on both sides of their masks and those months brought a wealth of knowledge about each other. They knew a lot of big things but there were also many missing details. They were small, seemingly insignificant things but they were things which made up the complicated mosaic of their respective lives.

"No, it's not bad," Marinette said and frowned in thought. "I don't know what to tell you, though."

"Anything you want," Adrien said. Marinette hummed as she thought about it.

"It's not really embarrassing, although Alya teased me about it a lot," she started as she looked down to her hands, her fingers nervously twisting together. "I had already picked the names for our children, long before I was even able to talk to you as a normal person."

Adrien's breath caught. Children? She wanted to have children with him? He, a father to her children?

"Adrien?" she asked uncertainly and then let out a surprised "Oof!" as he hugged her as hard as he could.

"I love you," he whispered and he felt her arms tighten around him in response.

"I love you, too," she said and he could hear the smile in her voice. "I take it you want the kids someday?"

"With you? Absolutely. Nothing could make me happier."

"Me neither."

In that moment, Adrien knew he was the luckiest person in the world.

~~~~~

Adrien's face was starting to hurt from how much he was smiling but he couldn't help it. While they were still young and the event was years in their future, the fact that Marinette wanted to build a family with him, that she had dreamed about their possible children to the point of naming them, it made him feel downright euphoric.

"Whatever put you in such a good mood, Adrien?" Sabine asked as he was helping her set the table for the dinner. Marinette's parents had been delighted when he and Marinette had started dating and kept inviting him to stay for dinner whenever he visited Marinette which was sadly not as often as he could manage.

"I just found out something wonderful today," he replied as he thought back to the whole already picked the names for our children thing from earlier.

"Is that so?" Tom asked as he and Marinette started bringing the meal over. Adrien caught Marinette's eyes and grinned at her at which point she blushed but then she grinned back.

"Best news of my life," Adrien confirmed, still looking at Marinette.

"Then we should celebrate," Tom suggested as he raised his glass of water.

"Why don't we let him tell us first?" Sabine said pointedly. "If that's something you want to share, of course," she added.

Adrien didn't have to think about it. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops, sharing it with two people who would be most likely just as excited as him about it - they had told him often enough they already considered him a part of the family - was going to be great.

"Marinette and I are going to be parents," he blurted out. Tom dropped the glass he was holding. Sabine's smile was suddenly very forced. And Marinette... Marinette face palmed before she hissed at him.

"Worst. Choice. Of. Words. Ever. Kitty."

[generalluxun]

Control (an ML Fanfic) Chapter 2

CW: Sentipeople, child abuse, bullying.

Full Text below the cut. AO3 link in my bio.

Marinette has run home with Chloé's amok. but... what does she do with it? She turns to Tikki for help, but in the end, the choice is hers. With much-needed support she stumbles towards an answer, but first she needs to know more...

"Marinette, what's going on?" Tikki's voice piped up from where she had finally freed herself from Marinette's purse.

Oh no, I never let her out. Marinette rolled to the edge of her bed, still a blanket burrito, and peeked down. "I'm sorry, Tikki."

The kwami flew up to perch beside her on the bed. "That doesn't answer my question."

Marinette stuck her hand out, presenting her be-ringed finger. "It's this…"

Tikki examined the golden band before looking up with worry lining her cherubic face. "It's very pretty?"

Marinette withdrew her hand and pulled her head back in the blanket too. "It's an amok."

"It is? Where is the sentimonster? Did Monarch attack? Did something happen and I don't remember?"

Her kwami's little panic moment was oddly reassuring. Marinette mumbled against her cotton shield. "No, no attack Tikki. I just found out. I know where it is. I came home to talk to you because I got scared. I got to thinking though, I'm sorry."

Tikki's small paws tried to worm their way into the blanket. She struggled to poke her head in, bringing the light pink glow with her. "Well, if you know where it is, there's no reason to be scared! Ladybug can take care of it. You've purified amoks plenty of times before."

Marinette cringed until she was a ball. "I didn't know!"

"Marinette?"

Marinette burst from her shell. "It's a person, Tikki! Not a lollipop, or a giant eye, or an icky floating leech! It's a person. She might be the worst person I've ever known, but she's a person. Are they all people? What have I been doing? What else could I do? What do you do when a giant monkey is throwing exploding bananas in downtown Paris?"

She pulled her hair until the physical pain matched the frustration and self doubt she couldn't vent. Battles flashed before her eyes; some hard, some trivial. Each feather that floated was now a 'what if?' 'what if?' 'what if?'

Tikki's slight weight settled on her shoulder and hugged her cheek, "Marinette, Marinette! Calm down, it's okay. Just tell me what happened, and we'll find a way through this."

The combination of pain and Tikki's voice both combined to lure Marinette out of her spiral. She slumped, exhausted. Her thumb continued to spin the ring. A corner of her mind whispered, I wonder what I would see if I looked now.

Marinette dug her nails into her palm until the whisper went away. She reached up to gently pet Tikki between the antennae; she needed the contact. Okay, where to begin. "Someone else found it, they didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was. I found out accidently. But, now I know…"

Marinette shrugged helplessly. From her past, anger surged, and she threw her head back.

"Ugh! It's not fair! I'm not even allowed to hate the worst person ever." She held up the ring again. "What if she was made that way? What if this is what someone wants? She can't just get out of everything she's done by being a sentimonster!"

Tikki was hovering nervously. Marinette knew she probably sounded unhinged. She felt unhinged. This seemed like a fair excuse to be.

Tikki asked sensibly, "Who, Marinette?"

Marinette held out her hand in limp-wristed parody and singsonged, "Chlo-é, Bourgeois. The literal worst person in all of Paris, after Monarch. A stupid, spoiled, selfish little princess who made my life a living hell!"

She slipped the ring off her hand and held it up between two fingers.

"And, here she is. Right here, everything about her. Somebody made her."

Marinette was stuck somewhere between giggling and crying. She wanted to do both but neither felt right. Why couldn't it have been someone nice? Who makes something like Chloé?

That answer came quickly. Chloé was a mini-Audrey in every way. Did Audrey make her? Did someone else make her for Audrey? Is she working for the Monarch? Did André make her for Audrey? Is he working for the Monarch? Both made too much sense, but also didn’t. None of this made sense.

Marinette was inches away from pulling her hair again when Tikki spoke up, “What are you going to do, Marinette?”

Marinette did laugh at that, and if Tikki’s expression was anything to go by, it sounded every bit as bad as it felt. She stuffed the ring back on her finger. “That’s what I was going to ask you Tikki. What should I do?”

“What do you mean?” Tikki settled on Marinette’s knee and Marinette was reminded just how much the kwamis related to things differently than humans did at times.

Marinette held the ring to her chest, fingers still turning it. “It’s- She’s a person, Tikki.”

Sentibug flashed before her eyes again. It was different… right? It had been troubling, but Marinette had convinced herself: Sentibug wasn’t real. Marinette was the real Ladybug. Sentibug was just a good imitation. Sitting there now, with someone else’s amok in her hands, Marinette began to see the fragile shield of denial for what it had been.

Marinette whispered, mind still far off, “Should I use it? I have already, accidentally. I made her do things. I could make her do anything. I could make her stop doing anything.”

Tikki tilted her head. “That sounds like a way to get her to stop being a bully to everyone.”

Twist. Twist. Twist. The last several years flashed before Marinette’s eyes. “If I do that though, what’s left? It’s just a Chloé doll, and I’m pulling the strings. Does she even exist? Do I become responsible for everything she does and doesn’t do? It’s not-”

Marinette dropped her hands into her lap, toying with the ring.

“It’s not like I haven’t dreamed of it. I mean, can you imagine being a little kid? A magical ring that turns all the tables, that gives you the chance to make your bully the one who has to do what you say.”

Marinette held her hand up, turning it to catch light on the ring, “I could be the real Queen Bee myself. ‘Chloé do this. Chloé do that. Chloé, stand on your head.’ People would laugh.”

Marinette dropped her hand, then hugged herself as more memories made themselves known.

“I’ve heard them laugh.”

Tikki flew over to land on Marinette’s hand. “You’re not a bully, Marinette.”

Marinette smiled down at her little friend. “That part, I know Tikki. That’s why I can’t just use it for whatever. That’s why I’m sitting here wishing I’d never found this thing instead of sitting in class, rewriting her personality one command at a time.”

Tikki’s antennae drooped. She was quiet for a moment then perked. “You could give it to her?”

Marinette chewed on her lip. “Would she take me seriously? Should I try as Ladybug? She hates Ladybug now… well maybe not anymore.  Should I undo that? Can she take care of it? Does she really understand what it means? How many people would, if you handed them something and said, ‘Here’s your life and your free will, keep it safe.’?”

Tikki looked down again. “So, what are you going to do?”

Marinette sighed. “I was hoping you could tell me. Master Fu didn’t tell me about anything like this, and I’m thinking now that I’ve been handling sentimonsters wrong from the start.”

Tikki floated up, such a darling look of concentration on her face that Marinette reached up to hug her, but Tikki floated out of her grasp.  She finally snapped out of it and gave Marinette a very serious look as she spoke, “What I can tell you, that you might not already be telling yourself, is that you have time. If Chloé really is a sentimonster, she’s been around for years. That means it’s not some new plot. Whoever made her might have even lost her amok and not know it's still around. You can give yourself time to consider what you want to do, instead of stressing yourself out trying to solve it all right now.”

Marinette thought about that. She thought about what Zoé said. Covered in Dust. A tiny fraction of the tension eased. She smiled, “Thanks, Tikki. I needed to hear that.”

Her Kwami flew back in and hugged against Marinette’s shoulder. “Anytime, Guardian!”

Marinette patted her gently. “Is there anything else you know about Sentimonsters, Tikki? Is there like a… factory reset? Can I undo what I did to her? What about what someone else might have done? Can I just tell her to be her own person from now on?”

Tikki rubbed her little paws together uncertainly. “I’m not Duusu, but I don’t think it works that way.” She thought again before answering, “It’s like… you can’t unmake something. You can make something, and you can destroy it, but you can’t erase it having been made. Every change you make, even if it's trying to put things back where they were, will actually be creating something new.”

Marinette sighed and flopped onto her back. “I was afraid of that.”

She heard her father’s booming voice from below, calling to see if she felt well enough for food. Suddenly aware of her hunger, Marinette scooted out of bed and headed downstairs. Her thumb never stopped. Twist. Twist. Twist.

------------------

Later that evening, her homework still sat undone. It wasn't hard, but she couldn't focus. The ring was always there, always slightly warm. She'd tried taking it off but then it just sat there, leaden on her desk and in her head. She even closed it in a drawer. That lasted mere seconds. Out of sight, anything could happen.

Marinette laid on her divan, hand held up to the ceiling and mind full of questions. It's not even mine! Is this what it would feel like if it was? Would it be worse? What am I supposed to do? How did this even happen? I don't know enough.

As if in response to her musings the room around her began to grow fuzzy. She felt it happening, but for once in her life just let go and let it happen.

Quiet was the first thing she noticed. It was deathly quiet. She was a rider this time, less in control. She could feel Chloé there, separate this time, but knew should could just reach out and-

Chloé pulled one of her forelocks and winced. Annoyance and confusion rippled across the space her mind occupied within Marinette's. Marinette felt a little guilty for the pettiness, but a tiny bit of selfish relief too.

She began to feel things more solidly. It was still quiet. So totally alien, growing up downtown over a busy bakery. Chloé's room came into focus, cavernous. Marinette paused -was that her feeling or Chloé's?- could she really find out what the other girl thought, felt, how she worked?

Chloé was still scrolling on her phone, did she do anything else? Marinette tried something gentle, not too intrusive she hoped: do something else.

Her vision shifted. Chloé stood and looked around. There was the balcony, the TV, room service, closets full of clothing and cosmetics to dive in and explore. Chloé didn't move. Marinette felt her own curiosity being swallowed up by… anxiety?

The other girl's thoughts circled her. Which is the right thing to do? Her mother's face leered down at her, disembodied and critical. Ridiculous. She felt sick to her stomach. Ladybug! Ladybug would make it better. She would make it make sense. She loved Ladybug.

Marinette was awash, the feelings were blending. A pang of guilt over Chloé’s newly rekindled love for Ladybug wasn’t enough to dissuade her. She felt pulled but compelled to see this through. Chloé was moving. The view swireled by in a rush. She threw open a closet and dug through designer clothes, throwing them aside wholesale until she found a carefully wrapped package buried deep. 

Marinette recognized the contents through the clear plastic just as a wave of relief slammed into her. Polkadots. It was her Ladybug outfit.

She tore open the packaging, no wait, Chloé did. Marinette was watching the actions but feeling what they sparked. She held up the costume -joy. She ran to her mirrors, shedding clothing as she went. She had one arm already in a sleeve when the face and voice returned. Marinette was sure Chloé was alone, but she heard the words clear as day. "Look at you. Really Calorie, polkadots? You're hideous, and fired too."

Marinette's anxiety spiked. She could feel her hearts thudding in her chest. She could see herself in the mirror, half dressed, and what she saw was… disappointing.

The weight pressed down. Marinette knew it well. It was crushing the air from her lungs. She sank to the floor. Relief, a way out! She dove for her phone.

Marinette fell off the divan. Her own thoughts echoed the shared impressions. She staggered toward her phone. No wait, she already had it. Manicured fingers stabbed the top contact.

"Daddy! I want you to get that stupid Ladyblog banned!"

"Honey? I can't just shut down a blog."

Her mind raced. "It's a menace! A hazard! It's utterly ridiculous! It gives away all of Ladybug's secrets. Shutting it down is for public safety! You have to do it daddy, and fast!"

"I'll see what I can do, sweetie. Daddy's in a meeting right now."

She stabbed hang up.

Marinette slumped to the floor, still clutching her phone, silent from a call she had never made, only heard. The anxiety that had engulfed her unwound itself. It was someone else's problem now. She was still sick to her stomach, expecting the voice to return, but she wasn't alone now. Someone else would have it worse.

She sniffled, pulling her arm back out of the Ladybug costume. She could keep liking Ladybug, she just had to be sure no one knew. A thought entered her mind, the most insane of things. She raised her hand to her mouth, and bit down.

Marinette yelped from the pain, but it worked. She was in her room. Her heart, just hers, was still pounding but the familiar began to overtake the unknown. Tikki floated over to her and Marinette heard her with ears she was sure were her own. "What happened, Marinette? Was it the amok?"

Marinette nodded while examining her hand. The anxiety was ebbing now too. This was her own emotion, risen in echo to what had come through the bond. "Yeah, I think so. I got stuck inside the connection."

You were using it?" Tikki's voice rose in shock.

Marinette winced, "I wasn't planning on doing anything. I just thought a look couldn't hurt. Apparently it can."

Tikki sighed. "People aren't simple, Marinette."

Marinette sulked. "I always figured Chloé kind of was."

Tikki gave her a courtesy giggle and flew up to brush her bangs. "Are you going to be okay?"

Marinette nodded, "yeah, Tikki. Thanks. I won't fiddle with it any more tonight. I promise."Her kwami nodded and floated off, leaving Marinette to her thoughts. She rab a finger along the bite mark on her hand and hissed in pain. Gouges, but no blood. One thing is for certain, I will have to be more careful next time.

[lycorogue]

Hey girl! For your "Ask about WIPs" game, I'm interested in "I Don't Care" and/or "Seduce with Caution." Hope you're well, stay safe!!

Hey right back! I am doing well. Hope the same for you and yours.

[WIP tag game: my list]

Ya know what, no one else has played yet, so I'll go ahead and indulge. 😀

I Don't Care

This story actually started life as a "tumblr exclusive" one-shot called Stranger in a White Dress (published here May 2018). It was actually one of the first fanfics I posted to Tumblr. It was inspired by the song "Play Me Like a Violin" by Stephen (*warning: the music video has flashing bits, so those with photosensitivity, please be careful if you watch instead of just listen).

I don't know why specifically I latched onto Gabriel Agreste and Emilie Graham de Vanily, but it seemed appropriate somehow. The story was them having a meet cute in college. Emilie would have blown into Gabriel's life for a few minutes, stole a kiss unexpectedly, and then blew back out of his life just as abruptly.

The story stayed like that for quite some time. Then, August 2019, I heard the acoustic version of Ed Sheeran's song "I Don't Care". At first blush, the song sounded like something my husband would sing, but the more I listened the more I realized it could be Gabriel singing about/to Emilie. This song was kind of the theme of the Agrestes' relationship, in my opinion. Hence stealing the song title for the story's title. I took the first verse about being at a party, and continued my story. Gabriel was dragged to a party by his flatmate, and Emilie coincidentally was there. The two reconnected, and Gabriel turned a one-time chance encounter at a club into a potential relationship.

I'm not entirely sure where else to go with this story, aside from knowing I want it to be the love story between these two. Possibly ending with Adrien's birth. Possibly continuing until Emilie's "disappearance." Not sure which yet. However, this whole story is a bit of a slow process while I wait for inspiration to strike again, mostly by way of new music. I have been a touch obsessed for the past year with the songs "2AM" by MK (feat Carla Monroe) and "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur as a back and forth between Emilie and Gabriel respectively (the fact that "2AM" has a female vocalist and "Say You Won't Let Go" has a male vocalist just makes it all the better). The only snafu there is that this would be a chapter about them drinking too much while out, and/or Emilie drunk calling Gabriel and asking for him to spend the night with her. As spontaneous as I like making Emilie, it seems a bit abrupt considering where their relationship stands at the end of the 2nd chapter. So I want to come up with a buffer one showing their first official date as my 3rd chapter. I'm just not sure what said date should look like yet. Thus this WIP sits in waiting.

If you want to read the first two chapters, you can find them over on AO3, FFN, or DA.

Seduce with Caution

This one is actually my current WIP. It's also my first foray into Miraculous Ladybug smut (aged-up, of course).

For some reason, August brings out the smut in me (is it the warm weather?), and I've written other smutty fics during that month in the past. Most have never seen the light of day. I've written a couple using the X-Men OCs created for my husband's play-by-post role-play game. I've written one using my D&D character and one of her partymates. The only smut I've officially published though was my interpretation of a handwaved sex scene in the book Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (mostly because the series was fairly unknown and that book had been published 7 years prior, so I figured not many would even find my smut).

I have never tried ML smut before though, despite enjoying a lot of the ones I've found. I just couldn't get past the mental image of the Love Square as 14-year-olds.

Last year, however, while reading Dressed to Confess by @zenmisery , she had a bit where Chat Noir's costume acted as a bit of a magical chastity belt. For some reason, that gave me this fantastic concept for a MariChat sex scene. I started working on it, but I realized that it seemed too abrupt of an interaction between these two characters without also having the story be post-reveal and the two of them being in a relationship. The concept, though, would have been how MariChat could spend a night together without Marinette finding out who Chat Noir is under the mask first. The whole premise crumbles if they're already in a relationship and/or it's post-reveal.

I just couldn't get the balance right, and so I abandoned the story. Right around December, I tried again by backtracking a touch to include the seduction and foreplay leading into the sex scene. That too seemed a bit left-field. It felt like glorious crack, and I was tempted to just run with it because crack is a fantastic story "genre" but I... just can't find it within myself to do so. So the story was abandoned again.

This past August I revisited the story once more. After 3 or 4 false starts, I tried backing up even further with my story's starting point. Now this story has become a slow-burn, sexual tension, blushfest. There's implied masturbation, and later chapters will include make-out sessions with heavy petting, but the actual true-blue smut won't show up until the final chapter or so. So my "Porn without Plot" has become "so much pining with a sprinkle of smut thrown in for flavor". 😅

I still don't have a concrete story figured out, but the working summary is: "While 19yo Chat Noir tries to demonstrate to Marinette his new 'moves' to try to win Ladybug over, he accidentally seduces Marinette. Now she has to come to terms with the knowledge that she finds him sexy and highly desirable, all while still holding a flame for Adrien. Meanwhile, Adrien has to wrestle with the knowledge that he found Marinette getting hot and bothered over him a major turn-on. Chaos ensues."

Considering it kept me over a year to write just the first chapter (but only 3 days to write the second one), I want this story complete before unleashing it onto the world. I also need to build up the confidence to let the rest of the fandom read my first ever MariChat smut soooooooooooooooooo..........

ANYWAY, yup. That's what's up with I Don't Care and Seduce with Caution.

A romance story between young Gabriel and Emilie where I humanize Gabriel....

And a slow-burn MariChat smut story that will only really include anything explicit in the last chapter or so.

Thanks so much for the ask! This was fun. Feel free to ask me more!

I've also talked about my original WIP Glitches here, here, and here, as well as talk about my other Gabriel-humanizing project When Love Matters here.

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

2021 Year End Fic Review

i was tagged by @praetorqueenreyna and @lady-tortilla-chip!! thank you lovelies, sorry it took me so long to get to this 💛

for my answers, i’m only going to count posted stories as being truly complete. for example, my monk x medium crossover and my spideychelle medium!au are technically finished, too, but because they aren’t posted, i won’t be including them (although if i wasn’t sick, maybe they would’ve made it 😭)

How many stories did you complete?

34 🙌

What is your total word count for the year?

a whopping 169,294 words (excluding the final few chapters of No Ordinary Exchange, bc i can’t be bothered to calculate at that level of detail)

What fandoms did you write in this year?

atla, tdp, mcu, and katherine philips lol

Did you write more, less, or roughly about what you expected?

way more. keep in mind that the above word count doesn’t include the roughly 50k of unposted fics i have also written this year, lmao. i was super productive over the summer bc i worked an office job where absolutely nothing happened, allowing me to spend the entire time writing! everyone thank the universe for my 2021 levels of productivity bc besties it’s never happening again

What’s your own favorite story of this year?

close tie between If I’m What You Choose, my spideyflash fic, and you do what you can (until it’s not enough) bc i really love betty&liz 🥺😭. If I’m What You Choose was just plain fun to write bc i was able to indulge in all my flash-centric headcanons + his and peter’s dynamic is a JOY to play with, but you do what you can (until it’s not enough) is really special to me because female friendships are horrendously disregarded by fandom and sometimes you just gotta make the content you want to see!

What is your most under appreciated story of the year?

To Mrs. M.A. Before Absence, and that’s bc it’s a ficlet based off a poem from like 1650 lol

What’s your most appreciated story of 2021?

by hits? where you belong, a so-called sambucky fic that’s actually just me propagating my “wilson family speaks louisiana french” headcanon 😌

by kudos? how’s your lip?, a super quick sambucky oneshot i wrote after ep 4 (?) of tfatws based on some rizzoli & isles dialogue lol. it was really just an excuse for me to write sarcastic banter 😂

Biggest fanfic related disappointment of 2021?

probably the relatively low feedback for impulse, my “flash gets the venom symbiote” ficlet. all the comments i got on the story from the spooder-man discord were WONDERFUL!! what was disappointing was that there was another venom!flash story that kind of replicated what i did in my ficlet in a less effective way, but it got considerably more hits/kudos/etc. than mine. now, don’t think im angry or that they plagiarized me lmao, bc it’s not that at all! like i said, im just disappointed in general with the lack of response toward the fic. but i do also recognize it’s a super niche idea re the mcu fandom 😂

Biggest fanfic related surprise of 2021?

SARAHMAY AGENDA R I S E!! when i came up with sarahmay as a ship, i expected to only write a few oneshots, which yeah, i did. but i also wrote Is This Love?, a 40k sarahmay + sambucky fic (that’s 55/45 in sarahmay’s favor)! it got way more positive feedback than i expected bc sure, sambucky is fairly popular, but the mcu fandom is horrible at acknowledging sapphic pairings, especially sapphic pairings with women of color. needless to say, i am delighted with how many people i managed to get onboard the sarahmay ship via that fic 😌✨

Something you are looking forward to working on in 2022?

SO MANY THINGS!! my spideychelle medium!au, part 4 of why’d you have to go and make things so complicated? (my flash-centric series), some ml ideas that have been brewing ever since i caught up with s4, a venom!flash multichap, possibly more acadec friendship fics, a katara-centric oneshot (shorter than broken pieces still belong, lmao), and m o r e. i have too many ideas and not enough time, as per usual

tagging: @drowning-in-cacophony, @ambivalentmarvel, @seek--rest, @justoceanmyth, @itsmoonpeaches, and anyone who wants to do this!! (yes, that means you 😌) apologies to those who have done this already, just ignore my tag!