#no judgement it's my first time writing chloe

[valalice]

ﾒ taking the best naps in chloe's bed.

cw. fluff. fem!reader. established relationship. chloe is a tease. barely suggestive towards the end. not proofread.

the bed dips as chloe sits on the edge, the palm of her rubbing steady circles on your back. she thought the sensation would cause you to slip further into dreamland, but her warm palm on your clothed skin startled you awake.

eyes fluttering open, you think the blue haired girl in front of you to be apart of your dream, the silhouette of her figure blurred—wait, you don't remember falling asleep—are you even dreaming right now?—the blunt ends of chloe's nails rake along the length of your back, sending blots of shivers down your spine; you've got to be dreaming right now, or you've somehow passed and made it to heaven, because of course the perfect heaven is chloe price scratching your back.

"wakey wakey, sleepyhead." chloe teases, her voice hushed. almost as if she didn't want to shatter the hazy space you're in.

groaning you push your head further into your (chloe's) pillow. losing the battle and letting your eyes shut once more. "'m not sleeping." your words borderline incoherent with your face smushed into the pillow. chloe chuckles, feeling the bed dip further as chloe leans down closer to your face.

"didn't catch that." even with your eyes closed you can hear the smirk that's plastered on her face right now, her fingers now ghosting over your back, but pulls them back when she feels you shifting.

with a huff you push yourself off the pillow, not bothering to open your eyes. "i'm not sleeping." you reiterate, before flopping back down onto the plush cushion, getting comfortable once again.

chloe hums, "you sure about that? because whatever you were doing for the past few hours looked a lot like sleeping."

"i was resting my eyes." you answered matter-of-factly. when truthfully you don't remember falling asleep. you remember chloe picking you up to hang out, you remember the jingle of keys opening the door, the short stamped up the stairs, and laying on her bed, then everything just blanks. but, you cannot be blamed, ever since you've known chloe her bed has had some tight grip on you sending you straight to sleep; it's troubling whenever you want to spend any kind of time with chloe in her room and the moment she turns away from you, your body is limp as your consciousness drifts off to sleep; much like today.

"right, because sleeping and resting you eyes are completely two different things."

you're sick of your asshat of a girlfriend at this point, so you flip your body on to your back, making sure to huff to make your annoyance known; but not flipping over to lay on your other side because you're not that annoyed just yet. your actions cause chloe to fully shift into bed next to you on her side, propping her head on her hand as she stares at your "resting" figure. a nimble fingers coming to trace along the indents on your face caused from the pillow, the corner of her lips twitching upward; she wants to tease you for it, for sleeping so well in her bed, but she lets the warm content pool fill in her stomach that you feel safe enough with her to sleep this well in her bed.

a beat passes, and chloe's fingertips stay tracing along your features with a featherlight touch; around the perimeter of your face, over your eyebrows, down to your eyes and under them to swish pass your eyelashes and trace circles around your cheeks, up your nose and down its bridge, and to your lips where she payed extra attention to the shape of them, she knew them well. and she wanted to kiss them, kiss you, but decided against it, for now.

chloe's hand settles on your stomach. you don't know what compels you to flip into your original position, her warm hand following your shifts to lay on the small of your back, pushing your body closer to hers. you finally, and fully open your eyes, meeting chloe's, the blueness of her eyes still striking yet soft, like a watercolor painting. the hand on your back keeps pulling as close as humanly possible till your legs are intertwined.

you don't bother to prop your head on your hand like chloe, much preferring the comfort of your head against the pillow and not the potential ache of your wrist. "how long was i out for?" voice quiet and laced with a twinge of embarrassment, whisper like and preserved only for chloe to hear.

she twist her lips up, looking up towards the ceiling for a moment before her gaze settles back on you. "for a couple hours. it's gonna get dark soon, so if you still want to go out somewhere we can leave now." the hand on your back has now found its way beneath your shirt, the fabric bunched up just a bit to expose some of your stomach and the glimpse of chloe's hand and wrist, her thumb smoothing at your waist.

now it's your turn to momentarily think, embarrassment rushing back through your veins. embarrassed because you've lost the imaginary battle with chloe's bed, again, and embarrassed that also spoiled the plans the two of you had. "do you still want to do go out?" making her question whether you wanted to still do the activities planned up to her, it's only fair in your head. although, you know she doesn't care either way.

the soft glow of the sun setting illuminates chloe's features. and it's at this time that you realize her signature beanie doesn't reside on top of her head, you take this win and reach up to comb through her short locks with your fingers, pushing hair behind her head and her side band out of her face; she hates when you do it, but she doesn't do much to retaliate besides the spew of words she'd say, your just like to see her more, all of her. "not really," now it's her turn to be lulled, being tempted by the mistress of sleep. her eyes fluttering shut, savoring your touch, eyebrows knitting together, her face strained yet still calm; she remembers, engraves even, the feeling of your touch, your skin on hers, you, into her mind, just incase you slip through her fingers like liquid and all she has is the vibrant memories of you. "i picked up that movie you wanted to see. we could watch it?"

your lips curl into a smile. only chloe could make you annoyed one moment then the next make you want to smoother her in kisses. "that sounds nice." you agree, taking a piece of her hair and twirling it around your index finger. the blue suits her well, a little too well, but your mind often drifts to if scenarios of chloe's hair; if she decides to let her hair grow out ever again, if she lets the blue fade and eventually chop it off, if she randomly gets bored of it and decides to bleach and dye it another color. you don't care what she does her hair, you know she'll look hot with anything, you just hope you're there to see the changes.

in a swift movement chloe grasp onto your wrist, freeing the hair wrapped around your finger as she tugs slightly at you, she wants you up just as she is. and with a huff you prop yourself up on your arm angled behind your back, face to face with chloe. her hand drags down from your wrist to just above your elbow, pulling you close again till the tips of your noses meet. only then does open her eyes. "promise you won't fall asleep."

you groan, rolling your eyes. "i don't chose to fall asleep. the bed, your bed, it casts some kind of sleep spell on me." you argue with sincerity. chloe doesn't buy it, her eyes squinting and an eyebrow shooting up; she's not convinced.

this time she doesn't pull you into her. but instead she uses the grasp still on your arm to push it into the mattress, giving her enough leverage to slot a knee between your legs and hover above you, leaning down. "then i guess you better fight it off, 'cause the next time you fall asleep i'm waking you up with tickles." you bite back your growing smile and the bark of a smart remark that you'd much prefer to woken up another way.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Scarlet Lady Top 10 Favorite Characters: Number 10

For @zoe-oneesama

Okay, I realized as I was writing these that there is way way WAY too much to each of these and why to be able to put them all into one post, so I'm breaking them down into individual essays focusing on each one to keep them palatable.

So without further ado....

Number 10: EVERYONE

Yeah, I know it may be cheating but at this point it was the only choice I could make.

I came to regret making this list, specifically because I couldn’t seem to make up my mind as far as who all would be on it. I reread the entire series. I kept switching people in and out as I was reminded of characters or scenes I loved. And I came to a realization that there is no character in the whole of this series I didn’t enjoy to some extent that they didn't deserve some love in this list and I kind of wish I could have added all of them just to give them all some spotlight.

Yes, it is partly because everyone is vastly improved compared to Canon. But as I reread the series, it came to mind that if Canon didn’t exist and I didn’t have the comparison between the characters, I still very much would have loved this series and everyone in it.

Cause and Effect Exist

It's important to have a setting in which the characters and their actions make sense for the world they live in. When the setting is supposed to be modern day earth, we need the people to be able to show that they are capable of surviving in it on a day to day basis without being so massively incompetent that they would do something like accidentally ingesting poison. Or forgetting how to breathe.

I would think it would be obvious, but sometimes Canon makes me wonder. Which is never a good look for a show that is supposed to have some level of seriousness and involve superheroes.

Here’s the thing Canon can’t seem to get: when a majority of the things that go wrong in a plot are because of everyone having to be stupid to make the plot work, you have a problem with the writing. Changing the material in a story so that younger people can enjoy it does NOT mean dumbing down the characters and throwing in arbitrary lessons with no real reason to them. Even if the show itself is geared towards kids, you can’t treat the audience like they’re stupid.

In Scarlet Lady, the people aren’t stupid.

Silly, yes. Wrong, often. Overdramatic, definitely. But while they may make stupid choices sometimes, they aren’t so dumb that anyone should have concerns about their ability to function at a higher level than an overcaffinated 2 year old.

They’re fooled initially the way many of us would be with a biased story that hits the news first. Oblivious to the problems in a situation that they logically wouldn’t have much direct insight into. Prone to making mistakes and incorrect judgement the way that anyone would. That's normal. That's expected.

But they’re not so incapable as to forget things that happen right in front of them between one day and the next. Or even between one scene and the next.

Things carry over. We see cause and effect. We see consequences—bad and good. And those consequences extend not only for the episode or season but for the entire series.

Aurore KNOWs Alec cheated her before and maintains a tight control over him and prevents more of his antics.

Adrien and Alya maintain a cold attitude towards Lila for some time after her reveal as a liar. And it even remains a point against her as used by Chloe as herself and as Scar to discount what she says.

The boys of the class remember Adrien’s “love letter to Marigold” and try to win him her merch because they’re bros like that. 

Adrien himself remembers the instances of his dad being a massive prick and instead of being surprised and “sad boi uwuwu” each time it happens like it’s supposed to be a surprise that the massive prick would choose to be a prick, he very clearly moves through the stages of grief to the point of a sort of acceptance that involves planning around and even for him.

Gabriel’s horrible parenting and general lack of concern for Adrien or his wellbeing as he ends up a casualty of various akuma attacks was played off for laughs when such incidents occurred. Then they were brutally called out against him in the Finale as a way to counter his claims of doing everything for Adrien’s sake. And the big reveal of the Birthday Scarf…utilized in the last way anyone would have wanted.

And Chloe is perhaps the biggest example as her antics ARE NOT forgotten or ignored by anyone. The classmates still interact with Chloe and are relatively nice to her, but they don’t just forget that she’s treated them horribly. They don’t act surprised when she does anything horrible. Nor does anyone just laugh it off or excuse it as “just who she is”. We see follow up to her behavior—the class fully expecting her to cause trouble and actively try to plan around it. People calling her out on past behaviors. And even bigger consequences as time goes on. Such as Adrien breaking off the friendship. And a blink and you miss it fridge logic moment in Ikari Gozen when you realize that when they said she was banned from all future Gabriel-involved competitions, they meant it.

The fact that by the time the big reveal happened that Chloe was Scarlet Lady, no one was shocked.

Story-wise, this is showing the passage of time and the effect the events of the story are having. It’s showing that there is lasting impact and that what happens to the characters matters.

Meta-wise, this is Zoe rewarding us for paying attention.

Continuity exists in Scarlet Lady. Time exists. The people exist. When anyone does anything, you get the sense that they aren’t operating in a vacuum. The things they do matter. There are consequences. There is an impact. And if there is an impact in the story, there will be an impact on the audience.

Which leads to…

Character Depth/Character Growth

Usually in TV shows of this nature, if there ARE character arcs for the side characters, they only occur over the course of a single episode devoted to focusing on them before moving on elsewhere. 

Canon didn’t give us that much at all in favor of having every episode that should focus on other characters learning and growing instead forcing Marinette to be wrong in some way and learn an arbitrary lesson that often would have better served for someone else.

In Scarlet Lady, the arcs we get are impressive for all that they’re relatively unobtrusive. They aren’t big. They aren’t world-ending. And the thing is, most change in life isn’t. It can just FEEL that way.

Like the way it felt for Kim when he first found out Ondine liked him and then had his confession to her screwed up.

And the way it felt for Kagami when she lost that first match against Adrien.

Then there’s the way it felt for Chloe when she was dismissed by her mother, had her popularity go downhill, and ended up losing her Miraculous.

…or the way it felt for Adrien when he discovered his dad was Hawk Moth.

The reactions we witness are in a great part due to actions outside of the characters’ control, but are ultimately a result of the experiences they have had and the ways they have changed as a result.

The question becomes: are the characters that we meet at the beginning pretty much identical to how they are at the end? Is the world?

The answer in Scarlet Lady is no.

Whether because the characters themselves change or our perception of them does, we can see that they have all undergone some sort of events that create a difference between the start and end points.

Not all of them HAVE to undergo some big emotional arc. Not all of them NEED to. But the characters still mostly go through some sort of growth by the end that I feel make them stronger and healthier people.

You’ve got the big life-altering changes like Lila and Sabrina.

You’ve got the little changes like Nino and Ivan.

You’ve even got the most minuscule, beginning stages of change in Chloe.

You’ve got growth that creates such perfect setup with Mylene when she starts off scared and traumatized by how things went with Stoneheart then is the one who confronts him in the end. And the parallel between the finale and the beginning when she returns him to normal by kissing him just like they did in that first episode to change him back then, too! (Just….GOD, I CANNOT GET OVER THIS!)

You’ve got them reaching out and making friends and relating to people they hadn’t before.

And by the end of it all, we get characters who feel like people rather than props.

They don’t all have to change. They don’t necessarily need to go through an entire emotional arc and back again. They just need to be part of the world they’re in.

Nino doesn’t just pop into existence when Adrien or Alya need someone to interact with. Kagami isn’t just a non-horrible or non-evil love rival for Adrien or a stepping stool for him to “practice“ at being in a relationship before it’s time for him to try the “real thing” with his endgame pairing. Luka isn’t just a decent guy who is the only actual form of support for the female lead and yet only lacking that precious “male lead” title or all around just not “Adrien enough” to fill the role.

Adrien isn’t just a “sad boy” meant to be a main love interest, Villain’s Morality Pet, and the one everyone idolizes and chases after just cuz he’s the male lead and that’s how you show he’s desirable I guess. Marinette isn’t the atlas keeping the story alive because no one else is apparently capable of learning lessons and changing, or even just the bare basics of functioning as individuals. Chloe isn’t just there to be horrible for no reason and get away with it so she can continue to be horrible until the writers suddenly need her to be sympathetic.

And the rest of the classmates aren’t just some Greek chorus there to fill the background.

We see them interact. We see them making jokes or jabs. We see them even…*gasp* having different opinions!

And on something as major and life-controlling as feelings about the “Hero of the City” no less! Why, that’s the sort of thing that would break up friendships and determine who you can sit next to at the cafeteria! The horror! The scandal!

And…oh hey. This puts the characters in different groups. It links them with characters other their Canonically designated pairings and groups. This lets them disagree on things and not need to vilify any of them. This creates implications that add depth to the story and to the people in it.

The characters can disagree without being enemies. They can be wrong without having to be evil. They can make mistakes without having to be stupid. And they can change and grow—both for better and worse.

And we see both and in different ways. SO many different ways.

Adrien goes from excited and impulsive to buckling under the forced responsibility and weight of a partner who hinders more than she helps.

Lila goes from selfishly bad and self-serving to selfish but friendly with better direction of her talents in a less self-serving way.

And Chloe just goes from selfish and bad to selfish and worse..

I mean, it says something that the combination of Lila’s growth and Chloe’s fall from grace resulted in Hawk Moth being unable to use Lila as a tool for his Heroes Day plot like he originally intended.

The key is that whether they necessarily grow or become better people, these characters are still IMPACTED by the events around them and AFFECTED as a natural result of the world they live in. 

You can’t help but feel for them in some way as a result. It’s part of why I love them.

The other part of why I love them is a bit more epic though…

Crowning Moments of Awesome

If there’s one thing I love, it’s seeing characters be awesome. I love it when characters get to be awesome. I would love to see more of it. Especially when the ones involved are characters you wouldn’t normally expect or get to see have a chance to shine.

And it’s when you see these characters be awesome that you really get the sense that yes, this character would work as a hero.

Seeing Max help against Robustus. Seeing Kim help against Odine. Alix stepping in during Pharaoh, calling out her brother’s fan fiction, and helping the heroes escape the security system at the Lourve. Alya stepping in during Copycat to clue Chat in to what’s going on and later keeping Anansi distracted to keep her away from Chat while he’s trapped. Rose kicking Nightmare!Chat in the face to defend Marinette even when she’s on the run from her own nightmares in Sandboy. Luka leading groups twice to stepping in and helping the heroes deal with akumas. Nathaniel standing up for Marinette and Sabrina when they’re accused in Rogercop and then helping the heroes in Reverser.

These little moments of support make such a big different and really make it make sense that the heroes would trust these people with magical jewelry to help them in battle.

And the little moments of characters being petty or strong or smart or turning the tables or just showing off what they’re capable of. Even without superpowers.

Adrien getting petty revenge for Nino and finding a tactic to counter Gabriel in the future.

The Police Force in Rogercop just saying “Nope” to obeying an obvious akuma. 

Zoe manipulating akumas twice to help the heroes. Her two Reasons You Suck Speeches to her mom and Bustier.

Every instance of payback that Tikki gets against Chloe.

Everyone in the Finale. Just…EVERYONE in the Finale. The characters who manage to avoid akumatization by either spotting the flaws in the illusion or refusing to give in to fear and even protecting others. Nora smacking any akuma that enters the home. Claudie pulling off Power Mom and ordering Max to stop attacking the city then helping to calm him down. Prince Ali and Juleka freeing Rose by kissing her! Chris, Ella, Etta, and Manon saving Mylene! Mylene saving Ivan with a kiss in a direct callback to how they first got together in Stoneheart! (Yes, I am still stuck on that!) Ondine saving Kim! Lila and Sabrina saving Alix! Luka facing Riposte alone and unarmed and then Kitty Section saving Kagami! ALL of the Heroes making a final comeback to help take down Hawk Moth for good! Just—AAAAAH!

How could Miraculous have peaked with this in Season 2 when this is Grand Finale material? Because there are few things more awesome than getting to see ALL the characters the heroes met and befriended and helped throughout the course of the story stepping up at the final battle to help take the Big Bad down!

Like…can we just take a moment to appreciate how everyone gets a chance to stand out in some way? Not all of them necessarily good, exactly (looking at you Andre). But still stand out and be memorable. Even characters who didn’t originally get much focus. Especially characters who were originally functioning as cardboard cutouts to fill a scene.

Anyone remember Aurore? How for the FIRST akuma in the pilot of the series and one who is quite frankly the most interesting and noteworthy, we don’t really get to see her again except in the background.

In Scarlet Lady, we got to actually look in to the contest and how she lost as well as the aftermath. She wasn’t some arrogant showoff who deserved to lose to the “sweet down to earth rival”, she was a girl who legitimately tried her best and had valid reason to be upset. Seeing her get revenge on Alec for cheating and humiliating her on live TV was well worth it.

Or how about the Photographer? Just there to take photos of Adrien in the park for a photo shoot or be the school photographer, but otherwise has no personality and is only remembered for his weird “spaghetti” line.

In Scarlet Lady, his role is two-fold. He acts as a sort of supporter for Adrien in his crush. Taking really good pictures of him being happy with the girl he likes. Taking more class photos at the behest of this girl for the sake of a friend who missed out on the class picture. And then there’s his OTHER role as a sort of antagonist to Chloe. He becomes one of the only ones in the early seasons willing and capable of dismissing her tantrums.

They’re both given more character. They get moments to stand out and BE awesome. So is everyone.

EVERYONE. From the classmates and big named characters we see regularly to the side characters who only appear once or twice. They all get some good scenes and focus that give them their own identities. All of them are memorable. None of them can really be ignored or forgotten. And part of what made making this list so difficult was that I found myself getting attached to pretty much everyone as I came across each of them that I couldn’t quite make up my mind.

Everyone in this fic has done something to make me happy and warrant my approval. Even the characters I normally wouldn’t like at all had their moments to shine and elicit an “okay, that was cool” from me.

Thus I grant this spot to everyone. To all the characters I don’t get the chance to mention. To all the ones I like albeit somewhat less than others. To all the ones I know are horrible but can’t help but like regardless. To all the ones I fought with myself for THREE MONTHS over which one would get this spot.

I love all of them.

[glossykissies]

the readers and… who?

— the series ࣪𓏲ּ ᥫ᭡ ₊ ⊹ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃

episode three: deer reader

introducing… my newest moodboard series! i will be creating moodboards based on my different readers with some of the characters i think they pair best with! along with the moodboard will be a brief description of their dynamic. i will mostly featuring characters that i write the most on this blog, but who knows, maybe i’ll throw in someone niche! part one can be found here. enjoy scrolling through ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱ ౨ৎ⋆ ˚｡⋆

nate archibald (gossip girl) ♡

oh to be the quiet, esoteric, artsy girl on nate archibald’s arm! nate loves a girl who is different, and deer reader is just that. a humble, sweet, adorable girl living in the city and he couldn’t help but feel swept of his feet by her. a great thing about her dating nate, is he can afford to spend on her odd collecting habits, always gifting her with a new sonny angel, blythe doll, or antique each date to win her heart. she’s terribly shy, clinging to his arm with those sweet bambi eyes at every event she comes along to — but it’s all worth it, even when the mean socialite girls of new york don’t get her.

ellie williams (tlou2) ♡

the first time ellie spotted sweet deer, she was tending to the animals of jackson — looking so unshaken by the world, eyes wide and yielding. the second time she was reading her books in the cantina in spring. by this point, ellie was head over heels. she didn’t know if deer liked girls, hell — she didn’t care, she needed to be around her. they began to speak and ellie learnt all about what she liked, even read the books she recommended (and enjoyed them!) for their first date, ellie snuck her out to an abandoned art museum that she knew she’d love, protecting her from all the scaries. the rest is history!

jim halpert (the office) ♡

jim just can’t leave the new quiet receptionist alone. sometimes he borderline thinks he’s bothering her too much, but she seems to enjoy the company. he gets her out of her shell, defending her from weirdos like dwight and judgemental karen’s like angela — all whilst the two of them bond over music and film. on the days she doesn’t come into the office, he finds himself staring at the space — wishing she was there to flirt with talk to.

clark kent (smallville) ♡

when deer joins the photography team for the college paper with chloe, clark falls head first for her. little does he know, she’s had a silent crush on him for years. she’s unbelievably shy, unable to have a single conversation without shoving her face into a pillow and screaming afterwards, overthinking every interaction. clark senses this, but with his gentleness — he opens her up to him and she finally relaxes, letting him claim her.

[goldenlaurelleaveswrites]

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe

Ch16 Juleka vs. the Forces of Alya Césaire

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe (AO3)

There are a couple of people I need to thank for this chapter.

First of all, a big thank you to @mintaka14, for letting me borrow Roarr's name for makeup from Living Arrangements (It's such a good read and I highly recommend it).

And a huge thank you to @verfound for helping me through the crisis of confidence this chapter gave me, and for beating some sense into me (with love and giggles as you pointed out all my dumb typos 😂). I would still be spinning myself in circles if it weren't for you, so thank you for beta reading this!!! 💖💖💖💖 And for letting Dingo and Bri stay when they insistent on being mentioned in this chapter 😂

Finally, a huge thank you to all of you for the ongoing support and kindness. It really means so much to me, and I can't thank you enough.

A little bit of house keeping now. The next chapter is likely going to take quite a bit of time, especially because I have bits and pieces of it written and it always takes longer to write a chapter that already has pieces I need to integrate in.

Also, I'm issuing a content warning for this chapter. Juleka's anxiety is very prevalent in this chapter. I don't describe it in detail, but it is present in the majority of the chapter. Please use your best judgement when deciding if this is something you're comfortable with. I would much rather you take care of yourself and skip a chapter than read something that might upset or trigger you. 💖

With all of the being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter!!! 💖💖💖💖

__________________________________________________

The classroom was warm, just shy of uncomfortably so. And Bustier’s voice was nothing but cloying white noise; she had no idea what her teacher had been droning on about for the past half hour, and she sincerely doubted anyone else did either. 

All of their year end tests were written and done. Their projects submitted. Their lockers mostly cleared out. 

Now all that was left to do was make it to the end of the second last day of classes. 

Sleepily, she blinked her eyes and let her attention wander to the rest of the class. It seemed they were all paying as much attention to Bustier as she was. Ivan was drumming out a beat on his desk with his fingers, bopping his head along to the nearly indecipherable sound. Alix was leaning back in her seat, and was barely making an effort to hide the fact that she was playing on her phone. Kim was out cold, and Max and Markov were reading something on Max’s phone. Nathaniel was drawing, and beside her, Rose was doodling. 

She let out a sleepy sigh as her gaze drifted towards the front of the classroom. Chloe and Sabrina’s seats were empty; apparently they were skipping again. It wasn’t like they were missing much. She propped her cheek in her hand as her gaze travelled across the aisle. 

Adrien had been in a funk all day. He had tried to hide it, but little cracks in his facade had let it shine through. But it seemed everyone had assumed it was because the school year was almost over, and he wouldn’t see them every day anymore. At lunch, most of the class had tried to console him, assuring him that when he wasn’t busy or travelling over the summer that they would all hang out and that they would call and text. Maybe that was contributing to his funk. But given the argument he had had with Ladybug last night… well, her money was on that. 

She was still on edge from last night. 

And given the look Chat had given her last night… In all honesty, they were just lucky Shadowmoth needed time to recharge between akumas. That, and that—according to Roarr—wearing a miraculous provided some protection against akumatization. Otherwise… 

Well, they were all lucky they were just dealing with a moping classmate. That, and… 

Marinette had been uncharacteristically quiet today. Her mind had very obviously been elsewhere for most of the day. She assumed everything that had gone down last night was what had Marinette so preoccupied. Pensive even. 

During morning break, after Marinette and Nathaniel had gone to the art room to discuss some costume ideas for the comic with Marc, when she had been coming back from the washroom she had overheard Alya telling the rest of the girls Marinette was obviously thinking about summer break and Adrien. 

She turned her attention to Alya and Nino. 

They were very obviously texting each other. Which, to be fair, wasn’t exactly uncommon. Or something to be suspicious about. But considering the way Alya had been acting the past couple of weeks… 

That, and every so often, Nino would sneak a glance back at her. 

Well, sneak was being generous… It was obvious he was either trying to be subtle, or that he thought he was being subtle. Either way, he wasn’t. M. Damocles always gave her grief about her hair, asking her how she could see with her hair covering half her face. What he—and many people for that matter—seemed to forget was that hair was hardly a brick wall. Sure, it obscured her vision a bit. But she could see through her hair well enough to see Nino glancing back at her over his shoulder every time he thought she wasn’t looking. Just like she saw Alya kick the back of his bench every time she caught him looking back at her. 

Really, it was a wonder Bustier hadn’t noticed what was going on. 

Honestly, she had to wonder if Bustier had noticed her class wasn’t paying attention and was letting it slide, or if she actually was that oblivious.

She stifled a yawn as she directed her gaze to the clock. The time was crawling by. She could swear that clock had said twenty after three for the past half hour. 

Sighing, she dragged her gaze away from the clock. It seemed a watched clock didn’t move anyways….

Her frown returned as her eyes settled on Adrien once again. 

The past few weeks had been hard, having to be civil to Adrien in class when she knew he was Chat. When he was making her life a headache with his constant whining and tantrums. But coming into class this morning… it had been really hard to act normally towards him. Thankfully, he never really interacted with her all that much anyways, but he hadgreeter her along with the rest of the class when she had come in. 

And she had done her best. 

She really had. 

But she had maybe been a little… cool with her greeting. Which was frankly way more than he deserved. The good thing about being quiet was that people generally didn’t take note when she was extra quiet, and they didn’t tend to pick up on the nuances of her voice. Rose would have, and so would Marinette. But neither of them had been there when she had entered the room. So no one had really seemed to notice. 

Except… 

Alya’s eyes had narrowed as soon as she had mumbled her reply to Adrien. It was hard to tell if Alya knew she had seen the way her eyes had narrowed, given she had caught it out of the corner of her eye herself. But she knew she hadn’t imagined it, because as soon as she did look directly at Alya, her expression had shifted into a casual smile.  

But she had felt eyes on her as she had made her way back to her seat. 

She didn’t like it. All the hidden looks and glances from Alya. Coupled with those messages- the curt and deleted ones, And the pushiness and insistence on her voicing her support for the schemes… 

It was weird. 

But Nino… 

She cast a surreptitious glance down at Nino. He quickly turned away, his hat slipping with the movement. Subtle indeed. He couldn’t have been more blatant if he had tried. 

As weird as Alya had been the past couple of weeks…well, it was even weirder coming from him.

She sighed. There was no real point in dwelling on it though. Alya… she didn’t like to think about it, but Alya was definitely getting suspicious. That was the only explanation- though if Alya was suspicious, why was she still insisting on her helping with the schemes? 

It didn’t make sense. 

Regardless, if Alya was suspicious, well, it was safe to assume she had shared her suspicions with Nino. 

This… complicated things. 

She would need to be even more careful going forward.

Sighing to herself, she folded her arms on her desk and rested her chin on them. At least, if she was deep in thought, she would look like she was paying attention if Bustier clued in to the fact her lesson was going unheard. 

***

They were gathered at the base of the front steps to the school, a little off to the side so as not to end up trampled by the steady stream of students emerging from the building, clearly excited by the prospect of only one day left in the school year. 

“And you’re sure you don’t have time for ice cream?” Alya wheedled. “I can text Nino. He and the guys were going to shoot some hoops, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a change of plans. You know Adrien loves Andre’s ice cream.” 

She had to fight to keep herself from rolling her eyes. 

Even if  that particular ploy was weak by Alya’s standards, Alya was never one to miss an opportunity… 

Marinette shook her head, and she could have sworn she caught sight of her rolling her eyes… “No, I need to head home. I still need to finish my dress.” 

“Are you going to finish in time?” Mylène asked worriedly. 

Marinette nodded. “It’ll probably be cutting it a bit close, but I’ll have it done.”  

“I can wait to see it,” Rose sighed dreamily, “I can’t even imagine what you’ve cooked up this time!”

“Neither can I,” Alya agreed. “And it doesn’t help that my bestie won’t even give me a sneak peek,” Alya added in a playfully pointed voice. 

Marinette let out a semi-exasperated sigh. “I told you, it isn’t ready to be seen yet. Besides, you’ll all see it tomorrow.” 

“Fine, fine. But you can’t blame a girl for trying,” Alya laughed. “But you’re going to look amazing, I just know Adrien won’t be able to take his eyes off of you!” 

Marinette’s smile faltered for a second at Alya’s words, before returning. But it was tighter than before. Less genuine. 

“I’m just looking forward to wearing it,” Marinette said noncommittally. 

“I sure hope so, given how much time you’ve been spending on it. You missed one heck of a race last weekend. You should have seen how close-”

“I’m sure there will be plenty more races for Marinette to watch,” Mylène said, gently cutting Alix off before she could get too far into regaling them with every detail of the race. Again. 

“When’s the next one?” 

“Third day of break,” Alix grinned, “We both figured we would want to sleep in after the dance and Max has a dentist appointment the second day of break.” 

“I think that should work! We could do a picnic?’ 

“A victory picnic, I like it!” 

“You haven’t won yet,” she mumbled with a chuckle. 

Alix stuck her tongue out at her. “Yet.” 

“Anyways, I should get going…” Marinette said, taking an awkward little half-step back. “The dress won’t finish itself after all.” 

“Of course. Text if you need anything?” she asked.  

“Or if you’re bored!” Rose added as she stepped in to hug Marinette as well. 

“I will,” Marinette promised; there was a hint of laughter in her voice. She may have have been responding to Rose… but Marinette’s eyes were on her. With a smile, Marinette stepped forward and hugged her goodbye. 

Over Marinette’s head, she caught what looked like a frown flickering across Alya’s face. But then Marinette was pulling away, and once she had stepped back out of the hug, the look on Alya’s face was gone. 

Once all the goodbye hugs were exchanged, and Marinette was out of sight, Alya turned to the rest of them. “Ok, since ice cream was a bust, we can head straight to my place. It’s probably a good thing anyways, we have lots to get through.”

She fell into step with the rest of the group as they made their way towards Alya’s place, though she lagged a little behind Alya, Alix, and Mylène. As they made their way through the streets, Alya began going through a list of things they would need to prepare for one of the many plans they had cooked up for tomorrow. 

Because of course it couldn’t just be one plan.  

Alya had insisted that they plan multiple schemes. 

Each of which, of course, had a ridiculous name. 

“So for phase ‘Belle of the Ball,’ we’ll need to make sure…”  She only listened with half an ear as she followed along behind the rest of the girls. They had spent the past two weeks cooking up all of these plots, she knew them like the back of her own hand. They all did, as Alix had pointed out when protesting to this last scheming session. 

But Alya had insisted. 

As Alya had pointed out—while casting a glance in her direction—something always went wrong with the plans. And that meant they had to be ready. 

Under other circumstances—before she had found herself going toe to toe with Alya—she found Alya’s tenacity and determination admirable. She was bold and willing to do whatever it took to reach her goals. She was the very definition of if at first you don’t succeed…

The thing was, she couldn’t help but wonder… it wasn’t just that Alya’s scheming was bad for Marinette… at times… most of the time, the more she thought about it… it felt like it was bad for Alya. 

Alya was tenacious. Determined. Though some people might say headstrong or even pig-headed. Alya wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. And, despite what her actions may have screamed, she cared about her friends’ happiness. 

The problem was, Alya had something of a tunnel vision problem. She was so fixated on the idea of Marinette liking Adrien that she couldn’t—or maybe wouldn’t—acknowledge the fact that Marinette had moved on. Just like how she was so caught up in the pursuit of Ladybug’s identity, and the idea of Ladybug and Chat Noir being destined soulmates that she couldn’t see what was staring her straight in the face. 

“You ok?” Rose’s voice jolted her from her thoughts. She looked down at Rose, who had fallen into step beside her. “You looked far away,” Rose said as she slipped her hand into hers. 

“Yeah,” she tried to muster a smile. The feeling of Rose’s hand in hers made it much easier, despite the dour thoughts clouding her mind. “Just thinking,” she said as she laced her fingers with Rose’s. 

***

She sat in silence as Alya stuck a pin into another colour-coded scrap of paper to fix it to her cork board. The cork board was covered in a rainbow of scraps of paper, each colour indicating a different person, with the scheme name, details, and phase number outlined on them. 

It was a technicolour disaster. 

And the more of the schemes—which were all phases in the ‘Operation Fairytale Ball’ plot—Alya added to the board, the more she could feel a headache brewing. 

It was honestly impressive how Alya managed to keep track of all the details of the various schemes and plots. If journalism didn’t work out for her, Alya had a bright future in tactical mission planning ahead of her. 

“…so then when he sees the punch ladle is missing, he’ll have to ask her where the spare ones are. And then when she offers to go, Rose, you mention we need more napkins too and suggest Adrien help her.”

Rose made a sound of agreement, not looking up from the plethora of nail polish bottles she had spread out on the floor in front of her. 

“And then Juleka, while they’re gone, you’ll find Luka and keep him busy. By the time they get back, we’ll be ready for Phase: Glass Slipper.” Alya finally peeled her gaze away from the cork board to stare at her. Hard. “You’ll be able to do that, right?” There was a challenge in the way Alya was staring at her. It was almost like… like she was testing her. 

“It’s a plan,” she murmured. It was a plan. A terrible one. One she had no intention of carrying out. But it was a plan. 

Alya’s eyes hardened at her words. She had been careful to phrase it as the truth. Well, a half-truth. The words were true. But the intention behind them had been a lie. 

And Alya did not look satisfied: her eyes were hard and narrowed behind her glasses.

Alya opened her mouth to say something, but Mylène of all people interrupted her. “And that’s where the faux flowers come in, right? And what flowers were you thinking?” 

She could have answered those questions: yes and red roses. Because they symbolized ‘true love.’ 

At least all the other colours of roses hadn’t been ruined for her… 

Alya shot her one last look before turning to Mylène. “We need red roses; they’re the most romantic flowers. And yeah, once they come back they’ll…” 

She fought back a frown as best she could as Alya launched into going over every excruciating detail of the next phase of the operation. 

After the countless hours they had spent cooking up and reviewing these schemes, how could Mylène not remember the flowers? The flowers she was in charge of?

She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts. But as Alya continued on her tirade of the operation, her mind couldn’t help but wander. 

And it seemed she wasn’t the only one… 

Alix was paying barely—if any—attention to the whole conversation. She was flopped out on Alya’s bed with her legs up the wall and her eyes glued to the screen of her phone. 

Rose was on the floor, surrounded by an army of nail polish bottles. All in varying shades of pink. It seemed she still hadn’t decided on which shade of pink would go best with her outfit for tomorrow. 

Mylène was sitting beside Alix on the bed, though she wasn’t upside-down. She was sitting cross legged, with a pillow in her lap and her chin propped up in her hand, a bored look on her face.  

“And then you’ll keep Luka occupied so he doesn’t interrupt them, right, Juleka?” 

She jumped at the sudden sound of Alya—very pointedly—saying her name. “Sorry, what?” 

“You’ll make sure Luka- or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t ruin the moment.” 

“I’ll do my best.” 

Alya didn’t look satisfied by the answer, but she continued on. Time seemed to drag by as they went through the next four phases of the operation. And it didn’t help that it felt like Alya was asking her something every other minute. 

And she did not like how loaded the questions felt. 

She did not like it one bit. 

“…and because Nino isn’t doing the music, you’ll probably need to stall for a while, Alix, while I-” 

“Y’know, I really don’t see the point of this,“ Alix groaned. 

“What? What are you talking about?” Alya demanded as she turned to look at Alix as she crossed her arms. 

She followed Alya’s gaze, and watched as Alix rolled to right herself and sit up. “We’ve been over these plans a billiontimes, Alya,” Alix complained before looking back down at her game.  

“We have been reviewing them a lot,” Mylène quietly agreed. 

“But we have to!”

“Do we?” 

Alya’s gaze snapped to her so quickly, it was a miracle she didn’t have whiplash. “Of course we do. Don’t you want Marinette and Adrien to be happy?” 

She hesitated; it suddenly felt like she was standing in the middle of a minefield. She needed to weigh her words carefully. “Of course I want Marinette to be happy. But she’s already going with Luka.  Can’t we just let them enjoy the evening? Can’t we just enjoy the evening? Without scheming?” She certainly wouldn’t object to a scheme free evening. 

“Juleka does have a point-“ Rose started to say. 

“You’re only saying that because she’s going with your brother.” 

Back before she had seen Marinette transform, had she found herself on the receiving end of such a glare, she would have shrunk in on herself. She would have faded into the background. Even a month ago, before she had become a tigress, she probably would have. It was the easy thing to do. Far easier than standing up to anyone.   

But she was a tigress now. 

And tigresses knew how to fade into the background. To move about unseen and undetected. 

But they also knew how to roar. 

“No, I’m not. I just want her- everyone to enjoy the night. I want Marinette to be happy and-”

“And that’s what I want!”

“That’s what we all want-” Rose started to say, only to be cut off again. 

“After all the time she’s spent pining over Adrien, trying so hard to get him to notice her, you just want her to give up?” She met Alya’s glare with stoney silence. But before she could muster up words to redirect this conversation, or at least stall it, Alya’s eyes narrowed even further. “I knew it!” she hissed. “I knew something weird was going on-“

“Oh not this again,” Alix groaned. 

“Not what again?” 

Mylène—who at some point had gotten up—stepped forward tentatively, hands held out as if trying to placate. Though she wasn’t sure if it was her or Alya she was trying to calm. “Alya thinks-“

“I know-“

“Alya thinks you’ve been messing with the Adrien plans…”

Shoot. “What?”

“I told you it was dumb, Alya,” Alix said pointedly before looking up from her game to look at her. “She thinks you’ve been plotting against us.”

Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot. 

“We told her it was just little miscommunications and accidents-“ Mylène started to say, only to be cut off. 

“But I know it’s been more than that!”

“But Juleka wouldn’t lie to us!” Rose cried out indignantly, knocking over one of her bottles on nail polish as she stood up.

“Everybody lies. Right, Juleka?” 

Alya was right. She would lie. She had lied to them. For months.  But she had done it for Marinette’s sake! 

And now this left her with a dilemma…

Was it better to come clean and tell them? Or was it better to stay quiet?

If she told them, she would have to tell them that Marinette had told her that she wanted to be with Luka. But Marinette had sworn her to secrecy, and she couldn’t betray Marinette’s trust. But if she didn’t come clean, she would be lying to them, which, granted, she had been doing every time she meddled with a plot… but those had always been little white lies! 

Hadn’t they? 

What was the right thing to do? 

She could hear the blood rushing past her ears.  It was the only sound she could hear. Everything - everyone - was silent. They were all just… just silent. Staring at her, waiting for her to- were they waiting for her to respond? Were they waiting for Alya to say something? 

She was suffocating in the weight of the silence. 

What was she supposed to do? 

How did she get herself out of this? 

“Come on Alya, that’s enough,” Mylène reprimanded. Her usually quiet voice was like thunder in the silence room. Suddenly, they were all talking

“Just let it go, it’s a stupid thing to fight about-” Alix added, only to be cut off.

“It’s not stupid! It’s-”

“Bijou, it’s ok. Just breathe…” 

All of their voices were overlapping. Blending into each other until they were an almost indistinguishable cacophony. All muffled by the blood rushing past her ears and the thoughts ricocheting around in her head. 

What was she supposed to do?

She needed quiet. Peace. To think. 

She needed to get away.

But how?

For once, Shadowmoth was her saving grace. 

The akuma alert blared from all of their phones. She jumped at the sound.  Alix was the only one who hadn’t, actually. Then again, Alix had been the only one to be somewhat disengaged in the growing tension over the Adrienette plots. As Alix had said when they had settled into the meeting, she had mostly been there for the snacks. 

Quickly, she scanned the akuma alert. There wasn’t much information about it, but it was by the tower. 

Why was it always the tower? It was like akumas and tourists thought that was the only important place in Paris. 

But it didn’t matter. 

She needed to leave. She needed to be somewhere Ladybug could easily find her if she needed help with this one. And given last night… it was a pretty good possibility. 

She froze when she looked up from her phone, her words dying on her lips. She could also see Alya’s desperation to go to ground zero of the akuma battle. 

But Alya also looked like she wasn’t done arguing yet. 

As it was, Alya was at an impasse. Both with herself and with her. 

Because Alya couldn’t stay to argue with her and go get footage for her blog. 

Or at least, she would be at an impasse with Alya. If she wanted to continue arguing with the equivalent of a brick wall that was. 

“I gotta go. Need to check on Luka and Ma.” The lie was bitter in her mouth as she dashed towards the door.  

“But bijou!” 

“I’ll be careful!” 

She was already out the door before Alya’s spluttered protests could reach her ears. 

***

Her feet pounded against the pavement as she ran towards the Liberty. 

If Ladybug needed her, she needed to be somewhere she would be easy to find. 

At least her story- her lie about needing to check on Luka and her ma was believable. Of course, neither Luka nor her ma were supposed to be onboard right now. Luka was hanging out with his friends at Aimee’s place, and her ma was staging fight choreography at a community theatre in a completely different arrondissement. None of the girls knew that though. And the Liberty was docked close enough to the tower that, while not directly in harm’s way, was close enough that under other circumstances she would be worried. 

But Juleka wouldn’t lie to us!

Rose’s words echoing in her head almost brought her to a halt. 

She needed to keep going. 

But the words weighed on her. 

Rose had been wrong. She had lied to them. She had been lying to them for months now. 

It had never felt great to lie. But they were harmless, small little lies. Or at least… 

It had started with little lies. Little white lies. About texting the wrong time or texting the wrong person… 

But the lies… they had become bigger. 

And so much easier. 

And the more she lied- whether by omission or fabrication, the harder it was to tell where the line between a half-truth and a lie lay. Was it even really a line anymore? 

Had there ever been a line? 

And with how easy the lies, the half-truths, the misdirections…  how easy it had become to lie to her friends, her family… how easy it had all become… 

The fact that she had so easily brushed off all of her lies until now… until she had been confronted and questioned point blank… 

What kind of person did that make her? 

She needed to keep going. 

She didn’t have time for this. 

But how was she supposed to move forward now?  

She pumped her arms and legs even harder.  Her lungs were starting to burn as she sprinted along the sidewalk, dodging dawdling tourists and ambling people left and right. With every step she took, the same question pounded through her head. Echoing the sound of her feet against the pavement. 

What was she supposed to do now? 

Finally, the Liberty came into view. She had barely made it on board when she saw a flash of red drop from the sky, down into the clutter of the meeting place they had hidden amongst all her ma’s chaos. 

She darted over just as Ladybug peeked out from behind a crate. 

“Good, you’re here. Are you free to help?” 

“Always. So what are we looking at?” she asked as Ladybug pulled the bracelet from her yoyo. 

“Not sure yet, I wanted to see if I could find you on my way there.”

“Well, glad that worked out,” she chuckled as she slipped the bracelet on. “Yeah, I’m free. Roarr, stripes on!” 

***

She stared in disbelief as the ‘akuma’ was loaded into the back of a police car by an officer. 

“…came all the way here, and decided he wanted to pull a prank,” Officer Roger groaned as he watched the door to the police car slam shut. “The embassy will have to deal with him. Tourists,” he added under his breath. 

“Well,” Ladybug sighed as she massaged her temples, “at least no one was actually akumatized. I might need to do a press conference or something to remind people akumas aren’t something to joke about.” 

“I’ll talk to the Commissioner and Mayor about it” Roger sighed before turning back to face her and Ladybug. “Good to see you, Ladybug. Purple Tigress, always a pleasure.” 

“Take care,” she said with a nod before Officer Roger turned and headed back towards the cluster of police cars. “Talk about a waste of time,” she grumbled as she watched the cars drive off. 

“You’d think they’d learn. C’mon,” Ladybug said, nodding towards the rooflines. Wordlessly, she followed Ladybug up. Once they were balanced on the roof, Ladybug turned to her with a wry smile. “Well, I can’t say I’m sorry it was just a tourist. You’re still ok for patrol later tonight?” 

“Yeah.”

“Great. Thank you, Juleka, you’re really saving my butt right now. Hold onto it until the end of patrol,” Ladybug added before she could finish undoing the clasp on the Miraculous. 

She nodded. “I’ll just message you a good place to meet up once we’re done?” she asked as she fiddled with her Miraculous. Ladybug still took it back most of the time after patrols, but she had gotten to hang onto it overnight a couple times. And she would be lying if she said she didn’t mind relinquishing her hold on it. She was going to miss hanging out with Roarr and patrolling the city. 

“That sounds perfect.” She glanced up at Ladybug to find her smiling thoughtfully at her.  

***

She went halfway towards home as Tigress before she ducked into an abandoned back alley. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she dropped her transformation. 

“I was looking forward to a good fight…” Roarr complained as soon as she was out of the Miraculous. 

“I know,” she murmured, holding out her hand to the disgruntled kwami. “But it’s just as well. Ladybug doesn’t have much time left to work on her project, and I’m all out of emergency candy.” 

“I guess…” Roarr mumbled as she settled into her palm. Despite her obvious disappointment at the lack of a fight, the kwami seemed unable to stop herself from purring as she stroked the soft fur on her head. 

“I need to stop by the store on the way home and pick up some more eyeliner-”

“Your war paint,” Roarr corrected. 

“Sure, my ‘war paint,’ but I’ll get you some more emergency candy. And…” she said, a smirk drawing across her face as Roarr’s ears twitched at the shift in her tone, “I’ll get you some anchovies too.” She couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the thought of the smelly, canned fish that Roarr adored. “Would that make you feel better?”

“I suppose…” Roarr said, her purr slipping into her voice. 

“Come on then,” she said, gesturing to backpack. As soon as Roarr was safely hidden in her pack, she shrugged it back onto her shoulder and slipped out of the alley. 

Once she stepped into the store, she made her way to the cosmetics aisle. Listlessly, she began perusing the display racks. Normally she enjoyed shopping for makeup—especially when her favourite eyeliner was on sale—but the deal on her favourite brand of eyeliner didn’t muster the usual excitement it would have. 

Getting excited over a good price on eyeliner felt trivial compared to everything that was going on right now. 

“What’s wrong, Juleka?” 

She jumped at the sudden sound of Roarr’s voice in her ear. 

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Get back in my bag before someone sees you!” She cast a glance around the aisle, but thankfully no one else was browsing the cosmetics. 

“It’s fine, your hair is so thick no one can see me when I’m hidden in it.” She let out a sigh of exasperation, but Roarr continued on, undeterred. “So what’s the matter? Usually you’re happy when you’re looking at all this stuff,” she felt Roarr’s tail flick against her ear, “but you aren’t today.” 

“Well,” she said slowly as she picked up a random lipstick off the shelf and made a show of looking at the packaging. Hopefully, if anyone came into this section of the store, it would look like she was just mumbling over the packing of the lipstick instead of talking to her hair. “Alya caught on to what I’ve been up to…” 

As she continued through the store, she filled Roarr in as quickly as she could, pausing in front of random displays under the guise of browsing to give herself more time to explain everything.  Or at least, everything she could. But even that was only half the truth. Roarr still didn’t know that she knew Marinette was Ladybug, only that she had been interfering with the plots to get Adrien and Marinette together. 

Even confiding about her dilemma was a mockery of it.  

“…and it’s just a huge mess now,” she groaned as she dropped another bag of Roarr’s favourite candies into her shopping basket.  

“So what are you going to do?” 

“I don’t want to keep lying-” 

“I didn’t ask what you didn’t want to do. I asked what you’re going to do?” 

“I don’t know. I mean- Bustier is always drilling it into use that lying is wrong, and they’re my friends…” 

“But…?” 

“But if I tell them, they’ll ask questions. Alya will demand answers. Answers I can’t give without betraying Marinette’s trust. And I would never do that.” 

Roarr let out a satisfied purr. “A good tigress protects her own, and you’re a great Tigress. This Marinette girl is lucky to have you.” 

She bit back a wry smile at the way Roarr distanced herself from Marinette. “But what should I do? What’s the right thing to do?” 

Roarr let out something that was a cross between a yowl and a sigh. “You’re asking someone who’s kept her existence a secret from the world for millennia. As for the right thing… you mortals have such rigid understandings of what those concepts mean. There’s right and wrong, and there’s right and wrong.” 

“So… you think I should lie?”

“A Tigress fights her own battles, whether with her claws or her head.” Roarr nuzzled against the back of her neck. “Trust your judgment. You may not realize it, but you know what you’re doing.”

***

As she began making her way back home, she tried to think of how she would do her makeup for the dance. She already had a pretty clear idea, but there were still a few details she needed to decide on. Same with her hair. And her nails. 

Really, she tried to think about anything except what had gone down during the meeting. But as hard as she tried, her mind kept finding its way back. Relieving every moment of it. 

And dwelling on all of it. 

‘I told you it was dumb.’

Except, it wasn’t… 

‘We told her it was just little miscommunications and accidents.’

There had been nothing accidental about any of it… 

‘But I know it’s been more than that!’

And the one time Alya was right… 

She could tell them. She could come clean and fess up. Tell them- not everything. But she could tell them she had been sabotaging the schemes. 

Except she couldn’t. 

Lying was wrong. 

But right now, telling the truth didn’t feel right either. 

And while Roarr’s advice- well, it felt like a stretch to call it advice… but while Roarr’s words had comforted her, they hadn’t really given her an answer.

If anything, Roarr had only given her more food for thought. And it was tough things to chew on.   

By the time she was trudging across the gangplank, she was still no closer to an answer. If anything, it felt like she had spiralled further away from one. 

“Hey, Jules,” she looked up from her feet, where her gaze had drifted at some point during the walk home. Luka was sitting on the edge of the stage, his guitar in hand. 

“You’re back already?”

“Yeah, Nadine had an audition tonight and Bri had a shift, so we packed it in early. Captain called by the way, she’s going to be later than she thought and the crew is all grabbing a bite so it’s just you and me for dinner. We’re doing takeout, anything you feel like?” 

“I’m good with whatever. Just no-”

“Olives. I know,” he chuckled as he idly strummed his guitar. But then he frowned. He strummed the same notes again before he looked up from his guitar to meet her gaze. “Is everything ok? You sound a little flat.” 

She hesitated. Luka  was always the first person she turned to for advice. But he was… well, he was honest. And she knew honesty and lies were a bit of a sore subject for him, given their ma’s refusal to tell him the truth about his father.  

“C’mon Jules, you know you can talk about anything with me,” he said as he set his guitar aside and patted the empty stage next to him. 

She sighed as she sat down next to him. “What are your thoughts about… about lies? And lying?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Is the truth always better than a lie?” 

He turned to her with puzzlement and concern written all over his face. “What’s this all about, Jules?” 

“Say you weren’t being… entirely honest about something to a friend.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And you were doing it because at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do, even though you didn’t like it. And now some people think you’re telling the truth and others think you’re lying and you suddenly aren’t sure-” 

“Jules,” Luka’s voice was quiet and gentle, but firm. “Take a breath.” She did as he told her, and once he seemed satisfied that she was at least a little calmer, he continued. “Now, why don’t you tell me what this is all about?” 

She sighed. If there was one person she could be straight with about her recent involvement in the Adrien schemes, it was Luka. “You know how the girls and I used to plot all those schemes to get Adrien and Marinette together?’ 

“Yeah I- used to? I thought those were still happening. Or did they stop when I asked-”

“They are. Like Alya would give up.” Luka snorted at that. “But… but I’ve maybe been kind of completely sabotaging them for months now.” She spat the words out as quickly as she could, and she suddenly felt so much lighter. 

“Really? You don’t say…” The sarcasm was practically dripping from his voice. “What?” he added when she snapped her head to stare incredulously at him. “All those times you found excuses for me to spend time with Marinette? You know Couaffines can only be so subtle.” He had a point: she was still her mother’s daughter after all. And maybe subtlety had gone by the wayside when she had been dealing with him… but subtlety only went so far when dealing with her brother’s particular brand of idiot…    

“And you’ve been telling me to ask her out for months. Remember?” She rolled her eyes, but allowed herself a wry smile at the memory of the multitude of headaches he had caused her. “So I take it you’re asking me this because the girls found out?”

“Alya suspects. The rest of the girls think she’s being paranoid.”

“And you don’t know if it’s better to come clean?” She nodded glumly. He sighed as he leaned back on his hands. “Honestly, I don’t know, Jules. It sucks being lied to, and they’ll probably find out eventually.”

“But if I have a reason not to tell them?” 

Really, it was a matter of reasons. 

“It would have to be a pretty good reason. At least, I think so. And I guess that’s where it gets more complicated. Is it better to hide the truth because it hurts? Or will it hurt more when they find out you’ve been lying to them? Will the lies even protect them from the hurt?”

Her gaze dropped down to her lap. 

They would be hurt. 

If she told the truth now, they would be hurt. But they would also be hurt if she told them the truth later.  

If she didn’t tell them, if she kept lying and they found out, they would be hurt. 

But if she told them the truth, Marinette would also be hurt. 

She would be going back on a promise. 

And if she kept lying and they all found out she had been meddling, would Marinette be hurt then too? 

No matter what she did, someone could end up getting hurt. 

She saw Luka shift out of the corner of her eye. She turned in time to see him shift to gaze down at his bracelets. She watched as he flicked listlessly at them. To anyone else, it would look like he was just fiddling with his jewelry. But the way he was flicking at it… it was obvious he was thinking about a particular bracelet.  

“But I think… well, there are some lies that need to be told. I made you promise not to tell anyone about how I felt about Marinette-”  

“Which I didn’t.” 

“But I’m guessing you had to tell lies to keep it a secret?”  

She had certainly been… creative with the truth. “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”   

He turned to her with heavy eyes and a grateful smile. “And I think that makes things more complicated too. Keeping secrets but also being honest.” He had no idea. “Honestly, Jules, I don’t think I have an answer for you. I don’t think it’s an easy black and white problem.”

“I figured as much.” With another wry smile, she stood up. “I’m going to go chill for a bit, and then I have to go out again. Are you ok if we have a late dinner?” 

“Works for me. Tom and Sabine sent Aimee home with a ton of stuff and Nadine brought falafel and fatayers-”

“Did you bring me any?” 

“You really think there was any left by the time everyone had their fill?”

“Dingo ate most of it, didn’t he?” 

“Of course he did.”

“You owe me then.”

“Wouldn’t Dingo-”

“Well, better you had all of that today.” If she was going to bring a dour mood to the boat, it was also up to her to break it. “Wouldn’t want you to have garlic breath for Marinette, now would we?” 

“Jules!” 

She smirked as she walked away; she didn’t need to look to know his ears were probably glowing bright red. 

“Coast is clear,” she murmured once she was in her room. Roarr zipped out of her bag to hover over her shoulder with wide, pleading eyes as she unpacked her shopping bag. With the emergency candy stashed in her backpack and purses, and her new makeup carefully arranged on her dressing table, she rolled her eyes affectionately and pulled out the can of anchovies with only a little disgust.  

“And you said I could watch videos on your phone while you read…” Roarr wheedled, giving her her best puppy—kitty?—eyes as she clutched the unopened can to her. She liked to use her claws to open them. Or, as Roarr called it, delivering the killing strike. 

She pulled her phone out of the depths of her bag; just as she was passing it to Roarr, her stomach plummeted to the bottom of the Seine. 

Two missed texts from Alix. 

Five from Mylène. 

Thirteen from Rose. 

Between the false alarm, her shopping expedition, and her rather preoccupied walk home, she hadn’t thought to check her phone…  

Rose 🌹💗: I wanted to say sorry

Rose 🌹💗: I feel really bad about not telling you 

Rose 🌹💗: I didn’t think Alya would be so intense

Rose 🌹💗: I thought it would be better to just go along

Rose 🌹💗: that she would realize sooner or later she didn’t need to worry  

Rose had sent those messages ages ago. 

And she hadn’t responded. 

Quickly, she began typing. She just hoped Rose didn’t think she was mad. 

Queen of Darkness 🦇: I'm so sorry! I got home but the akuma was a false alarm so I went out to get more eyeliner for tomorrow and I didn’t check my phone! I promise I wasn’t ignoring you  

It wasn’t the full or exact truth. But she had picked up eyeliner. And hadn’t been ignoring Rose—or the rest of the girls—on purpose.   

But it still felt like a lie. 

Dots appeared on the screen immediately. 

Rose 🌹💗: It’s ok!!!!!

Rose 🌹💗: I wanted to say sorry

Rose 🌹💗: actually

Rose 🌹💗: can I call you????

Rose 🌹💗: I want to say it properly 

She pressed the dial button, and Rose picked up before the first ring could even finish. 

“Angel, I’m-”  

“I’m so sorry, bijou!” The anguish in Rose’s voice was palpable. “I should have never let things go so far! I should have told you right away! Or at least sooner! Before it ever came to this! But I thought it would be better to just try and go with it. That maybe she would give up? Or see reason- I don’t know but the point is-”

“Rose. Rose. Slow down. Take a nice deep breath for me,” she waited while she listened to Rose inhale deeply and then exhale. “Can you start at the beginning? Because honestly, I don’t really know exactly what it is you’re apologizing for.” 

Rose sniffled. “Yeah, I can do that. I just, please don’t be mad at me,” Rose’s words tumbled out in an almost incomprehensible stream. 

“Take another breath.” She waited while she again listened to Rose’s breathing. Usually, it was Rose telling her to take a deep breath. “Ok?” 

“Yeah.” Over the line, she heard Rose take in a shaky breath, like she was trying to work herself up to say whatever it was she was apologizing for. “Ok, so you remember when we went shopping? And Luka bumped into the guys while he was out buying guitar strings? And he joined us all for lunch, and asked Marinette to the dance and sat beside her during lunch?”

How could she forget?  

“Well, Alya thought that you had made Luka come. That you had ruined her plan on purpose.”

Which she had. 

“And- well, she told us that she thought it was weird how the schemes with Adrien seemed to be going worse and worse the last few months. And she thought… well, she made this chart…”

Of course she had. 

“It started with that time you texted Marinette the wrong time for the movie. And, well, she was just so sure that you were trying to ruin things with Adrien. We all tried to tell her how ridiculous it was! You would never do anything to ruin Marinette’s love life.”

Technically true. Just not in the way Rose thought… 

“But you know how Alya can be sometimes…”

Try always. 

“And she was so sure that you were sabotaging things so she set up secret meetings without you to plan other schemes that you wouldn’t know about.”

So was that what the unsent message had been about?

“And she said that if the schemes we planned at the meetings you were there for went wrong, that would be proof that you were meddling.” 

“But the plans always go wrong.”

Sometimes, they just needed a helping hand. 

“That’s what we all told her. But she was so insistent. She wouldn’t listen to reason! And we- well, we went along with it. The secret meetings, I mean. The day I said I couldn’t go to lunch…” 

“There was another meeting after the one I went to.” It wasn’t even a question at this point. 

“I didn’t like it. None of us did. But… I guess we thought that maybe we could get her to listen if we humoured her for a bit? Help her realize how silly she was being about the whole thing. I think we all hoped she would realize herself.  Beforeshe could make any accusations like she did. That’s what we wanted to avoid. None of us liked it. Leaving you out that way. Lying and going behind your back. I wanted to tell you. We all did. But- we…” On the other end of the line, Rose descended into a fresh wave of tears and sniffles. 

“Shhh, it’s ok,” she murmured gently. It took a while, but after several minutes of offering quiet, and what she hoped were soothing and comforting, words of encouragement, Rose was able to talk through her tears again. 

“I didn’t like lying to you. But I thought it was the right thing to do. Please don’t be mad at me- you have every right to be- but at least let me make it up to you. Please?”

Her heart twisted at Rose’s words. At the tears in her voice. 

How could she be mad at Rose? Especially when she had been lying for far longer. 

She hesitated. 

She could tell Rose. She could tell her that Alya was right, and that she had been sabotaging the plans the whole time. 

But not without going back on her promise…  

“I know,” she said quietly. “And I’m not angry; I understand why you didn’t tell me.” The words tingled on the tip of her tongue. But… she couldn’t. “Your heart was in the right place. It always is.” Rose sniffled at her words. “I love you. Ok?”

She just hoped she was making the right choice. 

“I love you too, bijou.” 

***

She flew across the rooftops; the speed with which she was running and leaping, it felt like her feet didn’t even touch the ground. 

It was a sharp contrast to the heavy thoughts warring inside her head. 

She should have known going into all of this that it would only be a matter of time before Alya got suspicious. If not of her specifically then at least of all the ways the schemes went wrong that didn’t have to do with Marinette getting flustered or Adrien’s scheduling. She should have suspected this would be a bridge she would need to cross sooner or later. 

But she hadn’t realized later would come so soon. 

And now that she was here… 

She had never enjoyed lying to the girls. But it had been so much easier when they had no idea what was really going on. It had been easy enough to brush off the feeling of the lies in her mouth and the pangs of guilt that echoed in her chest.  

And she had never lied directly. 

Or at least, not often. 

She had just… misdirected and misrepresented with her words. 

She came to a halt at the end of a block of row houses, catching herself against a chimney. 

Wasn’t that the same thing as lying, really? 

If she told the girls the truth—well, part of it—now, would they understand? Would they forgive her? 

Would they believe her if she said she had seen the way Marinette was reluctant to participate in the plans she knew about? That she had noticed how uncomfortable Marinette was around Adrien? Or would they chalk that up to Marinette’s nerves?

Rose, Mylène, and Alix might- they probably would… but she couldn’t see Alya believing her. And even then… would Alya just take that as an admission of guilt anyway? For meddling? Would her friends be hurt? 

Was there even a right answer? 

Her talks with Roarr, Luka, and Rose had just given her more to chew on. 

Roarr had said she knew what she was doing. 

But obviously she didn’t. 

And the kwami’s stance on what the right thing was… was less than helpful. She wasn’t even entirely sure she understood what Roarr had meant. 

Luka had said there were some lies that needed to be told. He had obviously been thinking about his duties as Viperion. 

She had never questioned lying to keep Ladybug’s secrets… 

But Marinette’s secrets were just as important as Ladybug’s. 

And how could she live with herself if she only protected some of those secrets? 

And Rose… 

She wasn’t mad at Rose. How could she be? All Rose had been trying to do was protect her feelings. 

And Alix and Mylène… they had both confessed the truth- the full truth of what had been going on behind her back. They had confessed. They had apologized. And they had checked in on her too, to make sure she was ok after the way the meeting had ended. 

She still wished Rose- that all of them had just told her from the start. 

But that just made her a hypocrite. Her hands weren’t exactly clean… 

She had told Rose her heart had been in the right place. And it had been. 

She liked to think hers was, too. But she had also become so accustomed to lying. To secrets. And everything Rose did was paved with good intentions. 

 Would the rest of the girls be as understanding? Would they see things the same way? 

And worst of all… 

Was she only feeling this way now… questioning all of this now because Alya had called her out? 

Would she have crossed—or, more accurately, gotten stuck on—this bridge eventually? 

Or would she have just continued to lie? 

Guilt and indecision weighed down her otherwise light footsteps as she bounded across the rooftops towards her meeting place with Ladybug. Usually patrol was a good way to blow off steam, but she felt just as tense as she had when she left for patrol. Maybe even more so, knowing she wouldn’t have Roarr curled up under the covers with her tonight.  

Even if the kwami’s advice hadn’t been helpful, the cuddles always made her feel better. 

By the time she had made it to the top of the south bell tower of Notre Dame, Ladybug was waiting for her.

Ladybug was sitting on the edge of the roof. One of her legs dangling over the edge, the other she was hugging to herself, resting her chin on it as she stared out absently over the city. The sun was still in the sky, but it was sinking towards the horizon. 

“Ladybug?”

Ladybug turned, but didn’t stand. “Yeah?”

“You ok?”

“Oh, yeah. I just… I have a lot on my mind.  I’ve had a lot on my mind for a long time. But especially after yesterday…” Ladybug trailed off, her face flushed with the same shade of embarrassment as last night, when she had collected the Miraculous and apologized profusely for having such a heated argument with Chat in front of her.  “You look like you have a lot on your mind too.” 

“Yeah,” she mumbled, kicking a stray pebble, “you could say that.” 

Ladybug offered her a half smile and patted the empty roof beside her. “Maybe we can have a lot on our minds together for a bit? I…” Ladybug smiled shyly, “I wouldn’t mind having a break with a friend.” 

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

They sat in silence for some time. Ladybug had gone back to staring pensively out over the city, her hands uncharacteristically still in her lap. An errant breeze ruffled their hair as she turned her own attention out to the city below her. 

It was almost comical, really. 

That after dealing with countless schemes, ad campaigns, and even akumas, this was what she was getting hung up on. Lying and secrets. 

How could she be a hero if she didn’t even know what the right thing to do was? 

She sighed.  They never showed this in the movies, and none of the interviews with the American heroes that Alya always watched ever talked about this. There wasn’t a guidebook on how to deal with this. 

But… if there was one person who would understand lying and secrets better than anyone she knew… 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course!” Ladybug said, angling to turn to her. “I’m always here if you need to talk.”

She smiled gratefully at Ladybug, before taking a deep breath. “How do you deal with it?” she asked quietly. “The lying, I mean?” 

“…the lying?” 

“You know, the lies. Akuma attacks, well, they happen without warning and I figure you’ve got to have a life outside the mask so I assumed you must have to make up excuses to slip away.” It wasn’t quite the kind of lying she was grappling with. Though, to be frank, she still wasn’t all that great at coming up with excuses to slip away in case Tigress was needed, too. But it felt close enough. 

Beside her, Ladybug shifted, then sighed. It was a heavy sigh. A sound that expressed the weight of magical jewelry and everything it entailed. “I hate it.” Ladybug admitted quietly. 

Ladybug had her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them close to her chest. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, but her gaze was far away. Like she was trying to see something just out of sight. 

She let her own gaze drift back to the sky in front of them as she waited for her friend to gather her words. 

“I guess… I guess it helps that I know I have to. To keep them safe. Telling people, it would put them at risk. And it’s my job- I want to protect them. So I lie. I lie to my friends. To my family. To Lu- lots of people.”

She nodded solemnly, her gaze fixed out on the city below. Somehow, they had come to the silent agreement that this conversation was easier to have without looking the other in the eye. 

It… it was different. Maybe. But it also wasn’t. 

Marinette lied to the people she loved to protect them. 

She lied to the people she loved to protect Marinette’s happiness. 

Sure, she wasn’t exactly out there saving lives with her lies. But wasn’t misery just as much a threat? Especially with Shadowmoth?

“How do you… how do you know when it’s the right time to lie?”

“It’s always felt like lying was the only option. Sometimes it’s just a little lie. Y’know, ‘oh I have to go to the washroom’ or something. But sometimes I need to make the lies bigger. And when I do, well, I try to only do it when I need to. When I need to do or say something, even if it’s hard, to protect someone.”

“I see.” 

“It never goes away though.”

“What?” 

“The guilt. Knowing I’m lying to people I care about and that I’ll keep lying. Even though I know it’s the right thing, I still hate it. But in some ways… I think the guilt is good.”

“How so?” The guilt that had been eating away at her all afternoon and evening… how could such a horrible feeling be good? 

“If we feel guilty about lying, that means we’re still good people, even if we can’t be honest. Or at least,” Ladybug sighed, “that’s what I tell myself to try and stay sane.” 

She frowned. “I… I never really thought of it that way.”

“I don’t know if it’s true, but it helps to tell myself that, at least.” 

“Whoever you are, Ladybug, you’re a good person.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small smile creep across Ladybug’s face. “So are you, Tigress.”

They settled back into silence, though it was a somewhat lighter silence this time. The only measure of time was the sun continuing its slow descent towards the horizon. 

“I’m tired of lying. I want to tell… people the truth. But I guess I’m so used to keeping secrets- and it’s such a big secret and it wouldn’t just change things for me-“ Ladybug cut herself off abruptly. Tigress turned to look at her friend, who flashed her an embarrassed smile. “I’m sorry. You asked me- you asked for advice and here I am blathering about my own problems. But I wanted to ask… you asked about the lying… is it too much? It know how hard it all is, and if this is getting to be too much-“

“No, no. It’s fine. I- I like being Tigress. And I don’t mind you talking about your stuff. Actually,” she said slowly, “it helped. A lot. And for what it’s worth, I think if there’s someone you trust enough with your secret, I’m betting they’d be happy to help you share the burden.”

“Maybe…” Ladybug said thoughtfully. 

“I guess it’s a good thing I had patrol tonight.” 

“Oh?” 

She smiled wryly. “Misery loves company, especially when it’s over the same problem.” A look flashed across Ladybug’s face that made her pause. “Or… did you have something else on your mind? You know I’m here to talk too, if you need it.” The fury in Ladybug’s eyes from last night flashed in her mind. “Yesterday…yesterday was a lot. Are you doing ok?” 

Ladybug’s face softened into a smile. “I know. And I am. Doing ok, that is.” She must not have looked particularly convinced because Ladybug chuckled. Enough so that the corners of her eyes crinkled, warping the spots of her mask. “Really, I’m fine. I promise,” she said before turning back to look over the city. “Last night was hard. Lying is hard. But sometimes…sometimes… well, I think it’s good. To do the hard things, that is. Even when you really don’t want to.” 

That did not sound… reassuring. 

Maybe it was good to do hard things sometimes, but Chat had made things harder than necessary yesterday. He had been for a long time. 

There was still a hint of a smile onLadybug’s face, but it was caught somewhere between wistful and wry. And the look in her eyes… it wasn’t unlike the look Marinette got when she was studying a piece of clothing, trying to figure out its construction and such. Then the glint in her eyes was gone. 

She shifted beside Ladybug, opening her mouth to say something. But before she could figure out the words, Ladybug broke the silence. 

“I promise, I know what I’m doing. Trust me.” 

“I do.” 

She did. She just hoped Ladybug wasn’t going to make things harder for herself than they already were. 

Speaking of which…

“I’m sorry for keeping you so long. I know you’re working to a deadline.”

“Don’t worry about it. I was probably due for a break anyways and…” Ladybug smiled softly, “it was nice. Talking about all of this. I’ve never really had anyone who got it.” 

Ladybug- Marinette should have had someone who got it. She deserved someone who got it. She should have had someone from the start. 

And she… she hadn’t realized it until now. But she hadn’t really had someone who got it either. Not all of it. Luka… there were some things she couldn’t tell hm. Some things he couldn’t get. But even if she couldn’t talk to Luka about everything, he was always there. And just knowing he was there made all the difference. But… 

She hadn’t truly realized, hadn’t truly appreciated how much it meant to have someone who got it. And it made her heart ache that Marinette had been without someone for so long. 

“I may not get all of it, but I’m here. Whenever you need me.” 

***

“Get all your errands done?” 

“Yep. Get all your love songs written?”

“Nope,” he half sighed. She could hear the eye roll in his voice. “Food should be here soon. I ordered sushi.” 

“Did you get-” 

“Yes, I got spicy tuna. And spicy salmon.” 

“Good. I’m going down below for a bit. I need to figure out how I’m doing my nails for tomorrow- yes, you can borrow my good black nail polish.” 

“Thanks. I’ll let you know when the food’s here.” 

Once she was back in her room, she spread her nail polish bottles out across her dressing table. She probably wouldn’t do a manicure, given she had the lace gloves, but her shoes were open toed so it would be nice to have her toenails painted. 

Plus, she could really use a nice, relaxing pedicure. 

Honestly, she could do with a whole spa day. But that would have to wait. For now, an at home pedicure would have to do.  

She had just gotten her choices narrowed down, and was trying to decide which of the two deep plum shades would better match the lipstick she was planning on wearing when Luka’s voice floated down from above deck. 

“Jules.” She frowned at the sound of his voice. It was… it wasn’t… usually, when he called her to let her know their food was there or he needed her help with something- “Alya’s here to see you.” 

She almost dropped the bottles of nail polish. 

She should have seen this coming, what with the way they—she—had left things at the meeting earlier. Really, when she thought about it, it was suspicious that Alya hadn’t shown up earlier. Like right after the akuma was declared a hoax. Although… maybe there had been another meeting, like the ones Rose had told her had been going on… 

But Rose hadn’t said anything about another meeting taking place after the one she had run out of. And based on the timestamps, Mylène, Alix, and Rose had all started texting her almost right after she had bolted out. 

Grimacing, she set down the bottles of nail polish. Alya was probably the last person she wanted to talk to right now. Except maybe Adrien.  It was probably too late to pretend she was in the shower or something… 

But even if they didn’t have… whatever this talk was going to be now, she would only be delaying the inevitable. 

Sighing, she got up. 

It seemed the time had come for her to cross this bridge. 

She just hoped it wouldn’t end up burnt… 

Luka was standing with his guitar slung over his back and his hands shoved into his pockets. Most people found Luka hard to read; people said he kept his cards close to his chest. Maybe it was a Couffaine thing, or maybe it was just a sibling thing, but she had never had trouble reading her brother. And she did not like the look on his face. 

What most people would mistake for his resting face, she recognized as guarded. And there was something in his eyes- annoyance. And a sudden fatigue. 

Alya was standing across from him. She looked like she was ready for battle, with the tense way she was holding herself. Like she was ready to spring into action at a second’s notice. To say nothing of the hard and determined look on her face. The same look she had whenever she…

What had she said to Luka?

They both turned to look at her as the top step squeaked under her foot. 

Alya’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses, the lenses flashing in the dying light. 

The tension in the air was palpable. 

Luka looked at her with a silent question in his eyes. Luka was perceptive—about most things—and the vibes Alya was putting out right now? Well, Kim would have picked up on them… 

A few months ago, she would have asked him to stay. She would have needed him to. Part of her still wanted him to. But she also wanted- needed to do… whatever this was going to be, on her own. 

She squared her shoulders, and nodded. He gave her one last questioning and concerned look, which she returned with another nod. He nodded and left with a promise that he was close by if she needed him in his eyes.  

As she watched Luka warily head down the stairs below deck, she steeled herself for the oncoming storm.

“I would have come earlier,” Alya said. It was a good thing she hadn’t come earlier, especially as she had come with no warning. “But I got held up.”

Alya didn’t offer anything more, which left her with the distinct feeling she would not like whatever it was that had held Alya up. 

If she had to guess… her money was on a new set of schemes. 

Part of her wanted to ask, but there was no way Alya would tell her if her suspicions were correct. Not after this afternoon. Especially not, given the way Alya was watching her, with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes boring into her.  

“Just as well,” she said carefully, “I was out earlier. I had errands to run.” 

“Oh?” It was impressive how Alya could make it sound like both a question and accusation. 

“I needed to pick up some more eyeliner for tomorrow.” 

Alya’s eyes narrowed even more, and her mouth twisted into a tight line. Part of her couldn’t help but wonder if Alya was about to demand to see her literal receipt. “Speaking of tomorrow, I don’t know what you’ve been- what you are playing at, but it needs to stop.” 

“I’m not playing at anything.” That, at least, was the honest truth. 

When it came to Luka and Marinette’s happiness, there was no playing.

Alya raised her brows. “The movie incident?” 

“I texted her the wrong time for the movie we were going to go see.” 

Technically true. 

“The time we tried to get her to the park to see Adrien and she was out without her phone? You were slow to reply. And your messages never agreed to the plan! I went back and checked.” 

“I was on the way home from the laundromat, I had my hands full! And Marinette forgets her phone at home all the time!” 

“And the photoshoot?” 

“Marinette made an outfit specifically for me to model, and I had the makeup masterclass starting the next weekend-” 

“You were supposed to bail because of the class!” She and Alya both froze at the outburst; Alya’s eyes went wide, like she hadn’t been expecting to start shouting. She folded her arms across her chest as she watched Alya take a breath like Bustier always told them to. Though her exhale was still more of a huff than anything. Alya’s gaze refocused on her. “Luka asked her to the dance.”

“He did,” she agreed carefully. 

“Adrien was supposed to ask her when we all met for lunch.” 

“I didn’t know that.” That was the honest truth. Alya hadn’t told her about that particular scheme. Not that that would have changed anything… 

“You should have known,” Alya snapped, a note of desperation making its way into her voice. “And Luka looked at you before he asked her.”

“So?” 

“You put him up to it. You told him to ask her, even though you know Adrien and Marinette are meant to be.” Alya stepped towards her, a hiss slipping into her voice as she pointed an accusatory finger at her. Pain flared in her hands as her nails bit into her palms from how tightly her hands were balled into fists. But she refused to shrink. She refused to back down or balk. “You’ve been ruining the plans to get Adrien and Marinette together. Admit it.” 

Alya was staring her down. Hard. 

Months ago, she would have wilted under such a look. She never even would have made it far enough into a conflict to reach this precipice. 

But here she was. 

And she was not happy. 

Alya had shown up, unannounced. She had said only the Universe knew what to Luka. Although she had her suspicions. 

And now, Alya was flinging accusations. 

Yes, those accusations were true. 

Yes, she had been meddling and sabotaging at every turn. 

But she had done her best to listen to Marinette and Luka. 

She had respected what they wanted. 

She had never picked a fight over any of this. 

And now? 

She was not happy. 

Familiar heat was bubbling up in her stomach and coursing through her veins. Tension was seeping into every inch of her body. She pressed her lips together as tightly as she could, biting down on their insides to keep herself from saying something she would regret. 

Alya looked just as tense: her chest was heaving and all her weight was on her toes. Like she was ready for anything. And she was staring hard at her. 

It would be so easy to give into the white hot anger running through her right now. The anger at being confronted in her own home. 

At having accusations, as true as they were, flung in her face. 

At having to even be in this position in the first place… 

But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. 

She had decided a long time ago that she never wanted to be Shadowmoth’s puppet ever again. And now that she had been given responsibilities, had protected Paris, had worked alongside Ladybug? 

Well, that only strengthened her resolve. 

She refused to be used like that to hurt her friends, her family, her home,  ever again.

And part of those responsibilities- part of protecting everything she held dear, was not just fighting akumas. 

It was preventing them too. 

She took a breath to steady herself. “We both need to take a breath,” she said as calmly but as firmly as she could. “Neither of us wants to akumatized.”   

Alya stumbled at her words, like she had been broken from some sort of trance. She shook her head and then blinked at her, like she was startled by the notion that either of them could be at risk of akumatization. 

Without waiting for agreement—or protests—she let her eyes slip shut and began to inhale deeply. A moment later, she heard Alya join in with her. 

She let herself focus on the steady rhythm of her breathing, and the slowing of her racing heart. Once she felt calm enough, she opened her eyes again. 

Alya was staring at her once more.Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, and there were still hints of a glare in her eyes. But at least it seemed her anger had melted back into suspicion. “Thanks,” Alya said quietly. “I needed that.” 

“Me, too.” 

“But you never admitted to it. To any of it.” 

Right… 

The truth was a tricky thing. And lies were just as difficult. 

If she told Alya the truth about her interference, maybe it would help Alya step back and look at things for what they truly were. Maybe it would help Alya let go of her fixation on making Adrien and Marinette happen. 

But she had made a promise. 

And if she told Alya the truth, she would have questions. Questions she wouldn’t be able to answer. Not without breaking her promise and betraying Marinette’s trust. And she would go to her grave before she did that to Marinette. 

Which meant that the truth would just lead to more lies anyways. 

‘I think there are some lies that need to be told.’

‘I thought it was the right thing to do.’

‘I guess it helps that I know I have to. To keep them safe.’ 

Under the guise of taking another calming breath, she steeled herself. 

And lied as honestly as she could. 

“I didn’t tell him to ask her out the day we went shopping. I haven’t done anything to hurt Marinette’s happiness.” 

Alya’s frown deepened as she left out a huff. Behind her glasses, her eyes were once again narrowed with suspicion. For her part, she did her best to look cool and collected. She forced herself to stand tall, but she couldn’t keep herself from fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. 

“I don’t believe you-” 

“-and if you see the dry-cleaners,  then you’ve gone too far.” Luka’s voice and footsteps floated up from the stairs, and suddenly he was standing beside her—but a little ways off to give some semblance of privacy—his phone pressed to his ear. “Sorry,” he mumbled, covering his phone, “delivery guy got lost.” Alya’s face turned to disbelief before settling back into a suspicious glare pointed her way. He shot her a look with a silent question, to which she nodded. “Yeah, Darrel? Yeah, I’m still here. So if you take the next right, you should be on the North bank. We’re the houseboat with the huge stage. I’m on deck, just look for blue hair.” Luka started waving; she and Alya both looked in the direction he was looking. A tall, lanky guy with a phone pressed to his ear glanced at them and his face brightened. 

They watched as the guy—Darrel—bounded down the steps and approached the gangplank. 

“I have no idea how I missed it the first time,” he said as he ambled across the deck, completely oblivious to what he had just walked in on. How he couldn’t feel the tension in the air, thick as pea soup, was beyond her. “Not many houseboats have stages. Anyways, sorry for the delay. That looks like a wicked set up, I bet you could put on a pretty awesome concert…” 

Alya eyed her suspiciously as Luka began to talk shop with Darrel. 

Would Alya want to keep going in circles with her after Darrel was gone? 

Would she- who was she kidding? Alya was not one to give up-

“I should get going. Let you have your dinner.” 

What?

She snapped her gaze away from Darrel and Luka to look back at her friend. Alya was still watching her through narrowed eyes. But the heat that had been behind Alya’s eyes was gone. Replaced by a coolness.   

What…

“Uh- yeah. Sounds good…” 

“I’m sure tomorrow will be the night. The night Marinette’s dreamed about? The night she finally gets together with Adrien. Right?” Ok, yeah. Alya was definitely not giving up. 

As admirable as her tenacity was… it was just as much headache inducing. 

“Yeah,” she said slowly. 

With one last look, Alya turned on her heel.  

She watched as Alya made her way across the gangplank. Just one misplaced step… that’s all it would take… 

If she were a better person, she wouldn’t be having these thoughts. 

If she were a worse person, she probably would have already given into the temptation and pushed her into the river. 

But she wouldn’t. No matter how tempting it was… Sure, out of the girl squad, Alya was the one she was the least close with. And the past couple of weeks—months for her—had certainly put a strain on their relationship it seemed.

But Alya was still her friend. 

And it was the Seine. 

She watched as Alya, now across safe and sound, headed towards the stairs that led to the street. As if feeling her eyes on her, Alya stopped and turned around to meet her gaze. It was hard to tell with the last of the evening sun reflecting off the lenses of her glasses, but based on the way Alya’s mouth was screwed into a tight line… She felt pretty safe on betting that her response to Alya’s parting words had done nothing to quell her suspicions. 

Screwing her courage to the sticking place, she returned Alya’s gaze measure for measure. They stared at each other, caught in a silent showdown. And it seemed neither of them wanted to swerve first. 

Would it be better to just give Alya the win? 

Let her think she had called chicken first? Try and get her to lower her guard? 

Or would it be better to hold firm? 

Stand strong and not shrink back into the shadows? 

Before she could debate herself into any more circles—she had had more than enough of that for one day—the sound of Darel's voice broke the air. 

“Thanks for the tip, man,” Darrel said. She turned just in time to see him pass Luka a large paper bag filled with their dinner as he shoved the cash into a bag clipped to his belt. “Have a good one,” he said as he turned and headed towards the gangplank. Still seemingly blithely ignorant of the showdown he had interrupted.  

Her gaze followed his movement, and then drifted past to the stairs to the street. But there was no sign of Alya. 

“Watch your step,” she half-mumbled, half-called after him absently as her brows furrowed. She jumped at the feeling of a hand on her shoulder. When she turned, Luka was giving her the very definition of a ‘concerned older brother look. 

“Everything ok?” 

She looked back to the empty stairs, and then nodded with a sigh. “Yeah. Let’s eat.” 

As she and Luka headed towards the stairs down below deck, she looked back one last time. 

[jadeyarts]

hello! Had fun stopping by!

A lil quickie before I go,,,, do u like FOPANW? What are your thoughts? Kinda wanted chloe to be one of the teachers but idk enough about her to say that makes sense for her character. I did want soarky the dog back cause i liked his design but only as a bg character or a way for a fairy to hide like when wanda and cosmo were fish.

hey, glad to hear that you've enjoyed visiting my blog and taking a gander at my work! means a lot to me.

as for FOPANW... i admit, i still haven't watched it. i've been busy with... a lot, and i don't have netflix anymore... so i am refraining from passing any judgement on the contents or writing until i can make a fair assessment with first-hand experience rather than relying on information from a friend's liveblogging. so currently the only thoughts i have are regarding the visuals and designs. i think it looks fine, objectively good stylized cgi animation... but i do mourn the fact that it lacks the UPA inspired bob boyle artistic influences that i really loved in the original series. i would have preferred if it used a cel-shaded faux-2d animation style, like bunny maloney. and i don't really agree with some of the design choices, mostly regarding the fairywinkle family. they're not bad, mind you, just ... changes i don't think suit the characters or i don't find as aesthetically pleasing.

regarding ideas for chloe as a character in the context of ANW... i'd need to actually watch ANW first to really be sure. in my personal post-canon fanon i've been playing with the idea of her becoming an art teacher, which i do have my reasons and explanation for, but i don't know whether it'd work in the context of ANW. in fact i'm not sure how much of ANW works with my fanon or vice versa so i've been playing things kind of loose, kind of vague, and flexible. we'll just have to see, won't we? it's liable to change depending on what aspects of ANW i'd be willing to incorporate into my fanworks.

and as for sparky... after rewatching season 9 with my partner i have to say that sparky should have just been schnozmo. without the dog jokes, half the time sparky's writing is either mark chang (again) or schnozmo (again). so sparky could have just been schnozmo's disguise or something, honestly. it would have made for a better use of the niche carved into the series to make room for him, and it woulda fleshed out schnozmo more. the colors are off, which might mean losing what you enjoy about his design but i've got to speak my truth.

[princessmisery666]

PM666Reads - Fic Recs - November 2022

I read more than I realized in November, here's my fic recs for the month.

Summary and warning's as per written by the author.

To the authors - thank you for putting in the work 💕no one gets enough recognition so thank you for taking the time to write and being brave enough to share it with us 💟

📖Jake 'Hangman' Seresin

The Best Benefits (series) - @writercole -Jake has had the same best friend since he was paired with her for a physics project in freshman year. If they were going to fall in love, it would have happened by now, right? Warnings: mutual ending, discussion of being shot down, some possible spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick, unrequited love

First Impressions - @imjess-themess - The four terrible impressions Jake leaves on your dad and the one time he gets it right. Warnings: Jake being an asshole, swearing, angst, fluff, mentions of sex Minors DNI! 18+

Ask Me Again - @writercole - Jake loses a bet to Phoenix and has to finally man up. Warnings: Fluff, crack, drinking, alcohol consumption

Between The Wolves - @blue-aconite - She was, after all, running away from him. From their future. A future she didn’t want. Warnings: None

Already On My Knees - @antiquitea - you have a meeting to attend via zoom when jake is leaving for work. he has interesting ways of saying goodbye. warnings: explicit, minors do not interact! oral (female receiving), brief masturbation (male), semi-public sex.

Filet Mignons and Parking Spots - @withahappyrefrain - Against your better judgement, you agree to have dinner with the human equivalent of a Hangnail, aka Jake Seresin. Warnings: Language, lots of banter, Jake getting turned on by women who are mean to him.

📖Robert 'Bob' Floyd

Study Drabble - @wildbornsiren - You’re trying to study at the bar-- but your attention is elsewhere. 

Show Me Your Fangs - @antiquitea - Bob leaves a bite mark on you that you wear proudly out to a game of pool with the dagger squad at the hard deck. it leaves bob a little flustered. Warnings: explicit, minors do not interact! sex in public, unprotected sex, strangulation, kinda dom!bob, bob’s glasses attempting to make a getaway.

📖Dean Winchester

Cabin Fever - @slytherkins - After a hunting accident takes Dean out of the hunting game for good, he retires to a cottage in the woods with his one true love, but it's not exactly a fairy tale ending. Pain and disability chip away at his Happily Ever After--and his sanity. After he fails to protect Chloe from a monster out of the woods, Dean falls prey to the monsters in his own head, and she and Sam must come to his rescue. Warnings: depression, Disability, Suicidal Thoughts, Angst with a Happy Ending, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Animal Death, Animal Attack, Chronic Pain,Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD.

Let It Snow - @dean-winchester-is-a-warrior - Dean and I are on an adventure together, and I'm loving every minute of it. Warnings: Smut, PinV, fingering, oral (m receiving), lots of fluff, my crappy HGTV-based knowledge of house construction.

The Soldier - @myinconnelly1 - no summary. Warnings: Character Death, Depictions of extreme gore and violence, TW: suicide (no depression)

Duck Dean Afternoon - @mrswhozeewhatsis - no summary. Warnings: This is crack. So many things you never wanted to know about duck dicks are in this. Seriously, it’s bad.

To Soothe the Savage Beast - @dean-winchester-is-a-warrior - grump Dean. Warnings/Explicit 18+: None. All fluff and some kissing. (link to reblog as my computer blocked the actual fic page for some random reason.)

📖Dean & Sam Winchester (no wincest)

Protective Winchester (series) - @ellen-reincarnated1967 - no summary or warnings.

Goodnight - @waywardnerd67 - One of (Y/N)’s favorite things is when they end up staying the night in Baby. Warnings: Fluff

‘Do You Know How To Take Care of a Sick Person?’ - @glygriffe - no warnings or summary.

Brothers Day - @mrswhozeewhatsis - no summary or warnings.

Tattered (series) - @stusbunker - no summary. Warnings: Medically suppressed Omega, Soulless Sam, talk of oral, rough sex, hair pulling, jealous Dean, First Person POVs all around, love triangle.

Such a Good Girl - @justagirlinafandomworld - You never wanted to choose between Sam and Dean. You knew, in your heart you never could. Count your lucky stars, you don’t have to. Warnings: SMUT WITHOUT PLOT. 18+. Oral sex both male and female receiving. Threesome. Not Wincest. 

📖Andy Barber

Keep The Change - @navybrat817 - Your new favorite customer may have a job for you. Warnings: Slight angst, swearing, reader is broke (is that a warning?), Andy Barber (he’s a warning, okay?)

Teachers Pet - @cockslutpadalecki - Your relationship had to start somewhere. Warnings: student/teacher relationship, reader is 18, sexual tension, explicit sexual content, Andy being the best goddamn teacher ever (you’ll see), male masturbation, a little female masturbation, nipple sucking, brief insight to reader’s unhinged yet impressionable mind, bit of cum eating, 18+. 

📖Steve Rogers

Lumberjack!Steve (series) - @navybrat817 - Steve finds a home with you. Warnings: Fluff, brief angst, mention of trauma, mention of explicit sexual content, canon divergent, falling in love, slight feels (it's me), Steve Rogers (he’s a warning, okay?).

Come Around Sundown - @cockslutpadalecki - What happens at Christmas is never just a one time thing, and when summer break rolls around, you find yourself repeating past mistakes. Or is it a mistake? Warnings: age gap relationship, use of pet name (little mouse), explicit sexual content, mention of previous sexual encounter (oral sex— fem receiving), reader is in her 20s, Steve being covered in tattoos, female masturbation, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it kids), cream pie, 18+.

📖Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw

Locked In - @callsign-fox - You, Bradley, and Maverick are reunited for one of the toughest missions you’ll ever face. The downside is, you and Bradley aren’t talking. No warnings listed.

Roosters Brood - @tongue-like-a-razor - The squad gets a little surprise in the form of Rooster spawn. Warnings: fluff, dad Rooster, Rooster loves his hot wife, some Hannix vibes, Hangman may actually be the superstar of this drabble..oops

📖Wade Wilson

Truth or Dare - @babblydrabbly - Warnings: language. jumping off a roof. body image issues (deadpool). food and drink mention. one smoocheroo.

📖Rhett Abbott

Home Isn't Just A Place - @wildbornsiren - He’s missed you.  "Sometimes home is a person because you can come inside.” Warning: EXPLICIT MINORS DNI: unprotected vaginal sex. Creampie. 

[tsunderedoctor]

Hey Purple! Got a headcanon request I hope will be fun...how do you think Zoro, Smoker, and Rob Lucci (and Law for you, if you'd like) would react to a S/O a strong and normally self-sufficient S/O...but the S/O is essentially a vampire, and has a strong preference for their blood? Would the character allow their S/O to drink from them? Thanks, and hope things turn around for ya' soon!

Thank you Bedlam! ❤️❤️ (I also apologize it took a while- apartment hunting is not as fun as I though it would be-) But this ask was super fun to write!! Thanks for sending it in!

Just wanted to mention a possible trigger warning for mentions of cuts and blood- just in case!! 💞

Babes Below~!

Roronoa Zoro

He at first finds your strong physical strength to be admirable and amazing! He would want to fight and train with you whenever he could! He’s convinced you must have trained all your life to be as amazing as you are in physical strength. 

When he finds our your physical strength comes from drinking other’s blood, he’s a bit confused, but shrugs it off, he’s seen more weird things before. He still believes you worked hard though to get where you are, so he respects you and appreciates you helping him as well get stronger.

The first time you had drank his blood, it was completely by accident. He had cut himself while practicing, the tree he was fighting happened to break just right, and a piece of the wood cut into his arm. You were helping him clean the wound, when you couldn’t resist anymore and licked a bit of the blood on his bicep. 

You’ve never tasted blood like this before, you believed it was due to his pure intentions and strong heart. Breaking away from his arm you looked up at him to see his blushing face and confusion in his eyes. 

“I-I’m so sorry! Please don’t think less of me!”

“It’s fine--”

He didn’t think you would actually find his blood to be appetizing enough to ask for more, your only reply was always a deep blush, especially when you told him how you usually bite people’s neck to get the blood. He comes to not mind it too much, knowing you are doing it to protect yourself and the crew, he just wished it didn’t have to be in such embarrassing ways! 

Smoker the White Hunter

He knew about your special ability due to you working for the marines and being in the G5 unit. He made sure you knew that you weren’t allowed to bite the other members, due to them being normal humans and the only way you could be in the unit would be if you agreed to only biting enemies or himself. 

For the most part, it was mostly the enemies. The others didn’t mind your special ability and praised you for your hard work and dedication to the unit and always protecting them. Smoker himself would even praise you when you protected the unit in their time of need. 

Everything went relatively smoothly, until you felt yourself get weak after a hard battle, you were slowly losing your strength. Noticing your weakened state, he grabbed your waist and leaned you against his shoulder as he got you inside a safe place. He remembered being told once that your powers come with a price and if you don’t get enough blood you become like a regular human.

“Drink it.”

He had managed to cut his palm just enough to give you the blood you needed. Unsure, you shook your head at first, almost scared to drink the blood of your beloved commander. However, he ushered his hand closer to your mouth, closer to your nose making your instincts kick in.

After that, he seemed more willing, almost robotically, to give you his blood. He even sometimes made excuses to give you his blood; the enemy was too strong still or they had to take them straight away to Impel Down. You didn’t mind it too much after awhile, it eventually became something personal between you and your commander alone. 

Rob Lucci

Another one who knew of your abilities due to being in the CP9. He held no judgement on how you got your powers, as long as you were healthy and safe, he was fine with how you got your blood. 

Luckily, the organization provided you a supple amount of blood, so you never seemed to go out. 

Unfortunately after your teams fire from the organization, you had lost that once unlimited amount of blood. Leaving you growing weaker and weaker as days went by. Lucci was the first to notice this, and did his best to find ways to get blood, but eventually came to you one night with a preposition.

“For the time being, you are going to drink my blood.”

Confusion graced your features, but he continued to speak, not giving you a chance to question him.

“It’s the easiest way for now, until things go more smoothly, Cipher Pol requested our audience in a few weeks. I believe they will want our help again, if that’s the case we can get you more blood, but until then, you will drink from me.” 

Even when you and the others become part of the CP-0, he still feels suspicious and nervous of the organization and the possibly of failing their expectations, so once in a while, he will remind you that despite your strength, he wants you to still rely on him in your time of need, just in case you two find yourself alone again. 

Trafalgar D. Water Law

(I headcanon that Law has somehow saved everyone in his crew so that’s why I went with this scenario-)

He had learned of your ability almost right away, doing his own research he found you in front of a bar that held criminals of all kinds. You were fighting with some marines who had a bounty on your head for your odd abilities, to say he hasn’t heard of you would be an understatement. Quickly coming in with a swift “Room” and a “Shambles” the men you fought were now deformed creatures of their former selves. 

Turning towards him, ready to fight him if needed be, you let your guard down as he raised his hand in silent defeat. You continued to eye the man, feeling your body weaken by the second. 

“What do you want?” 

He raised his brow, curious that even in a weakened state, you still wanted to fight. He definitely admired that, but knew it was also a stupid attempt, if he wanted to, he would have already killed you by now.

“You seem to be in need, and looks like I’m the only one willing to offer it.” 

You glared once more up at the man, but your eyes widen as you watched the pirate bite his finger before bringing it closer to your face. Continuing to stare at the man, a dark glint shined in his eyes before he spoke again. His words holding a tone of a person who seen too much in his young life.

“What do you say, you ready to join the Heart Pirates?” 

Tag List: @chloe-abbacchio @musical-apple @macdonaldsmanager and whoever wants to join!

[concernedbrownbread]

Come Home With Me

For @adrienaugust Day 3: Umbrella

Summary:

“Adrien,” Plagg said softly, “It’ll rain soon.”

“Let it.”

His voice was vicious. Desperate.

He wanted to go home. But he really, really didn’t want to go back.

The rain started hitting his face harshly, punishment for his indecision. Adrien wanted to curl up in his bed and cry, but he didn’t want to ever see his too-white, too-big room again.

“Adrien?”

His eyes snapped open, focusing past the blur of water to the person who had spoken.

“Marinette?”

Or, Adrien finds himself alone in the rain, trying to find home, and Marinette lends him her umbrella.

Word Count: 1397

Relationship: Adrien & Marinette (Platonic, but can be interpreted differently), Adrien & Plagg

Warnings: Implied/Refrenced Emotional Abuse

Read here or under the cut

---

“You’re gonna catch a cold out here, kit.”

Adrien’s lips pulled into a bittersweet smile, “I think that’s the least of our worries.”

Plagg sighed, hovering just above his shoulder, “At least transform into Chat Noir.”

Adrien shook his head, “You’re tired, and I’m running out of cheese.��

Plagg sighed, and didn’t say, then maybe we should go back.

Adrien’s never going back to that manor. Father could try dragging him kicking and screaming, but he was never going back.

(He had said that before. So many times.)

The wind picked up, the chill of late October stinging against Adrien’s exposed skin. He was underdressed and overwhelmed, with nothing but his school bag and his phone. His calls to Nino and Chloe had both fallen through, the reception bad because of course his luck ran that way. Adrien truly did feel alone.

Alone, but away from that wretched house.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the park bench. At least he was free here.

(A terrible, nagging part of his mind that sounded so much like Father told him, you’ll go back eventually, he’s your dad, you’ll forgive him like you always do .

That part of his mind, cold and quiet, called this little stunt for what it was - a childish tantrum.)

Tears stung at his eyes.

“Adrien,” Plagg said softly, “It’ll rain soon.”

“Let it.”

His voice was vicious. Desperate.

He wanted to go home.

Plagg said nothing, finally realising that Adrien was serious about staying out. He settled onto Adrien’s shoulder, a comforting weight. He didn’t try to talk Adrien out of this stupid bit of rebellion, but he didn’t encourage him either.

Plagg always gave him space to figure things out for himself.

He appreciated that, but after a life of being told what to do, Adrien wasn’t sure how to figure things out.

The first droplets of rain are kind, a gentle warning. Adrien refused to budge. His heart hammered against his ribs, a steady rhythm that only picked up with the downpour.

Go back, Adrien tried to tell himself. Back to the manor, where it was cold but at least not drenched. Back to Father, who would hug him and say never leave me and it would be more suffocating than comforting. Back to his life, as Adrien Agreste, the perfect little model.

But he really, really didn’t want to go back.

The rain started hitting his face harshly, punishment for his indecision. Adrien wanted to curl up in his bed and cry, but he didn’t want to ever see his too-white, too-big room again.

“Adrien?”

His eyes snapped open, focusing past the blur of water to the person who had spoken.

“Marinette?”

She shifted her umbrella awkwardly, “Uh, hi. You’re wet - no, I mean, er - getting wet - “ she trailed off.

Adrien smiled fondly, “Yeah. What are you doing out here?”

“I was running an errand for my parents,” Marinette managed to say, with minimal stammering, “You?”

Her eyes were wide and concerned and warm against the autumn wind.

Though he counted Marinette as a friend, he couldn’t say they were close. He didn’t know how much to tell her, if anything at all. Had he been behind his mask, he wouldn’t have hesitated at all, but he never knew where Adrien stood with her.

Still, Marinette was dear to him, and always had a habit of showing up when he needed her most.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing here,” Adrien admitted quietly, “Or what I’m doing at all,” he scoffed, "Or where to go."

“Come home with me,” Marinette said boldly. Then, "Not - not home WITH me - I meant - come to my house - the bakery that is - at least, it’s out of the rain - and it’s close - "

She trailed off, smiling nervously, angling her umbrella so that it was covering him.

He couldn’t really say no. And the thought of macarons were always enticing.

“Thank you, Marinette,” Adrien said, “I promise to be out of your hair as soon as the rain clears.”

“Don’t be silly, you can stay forever - um, as long as you like, I mean.”

The bakery was much closer than Adrien had thought. Stepping into its warmth, Adrien was hit with the aroma of freshly baked pastries, which made him instantly hungry.

“My parents aren’t in,” Marinette said as she left the umbrella by the door, “Do you want something to eat?”

Everything, “Sure.”

“I’ll get you a towel too.”

Marinette got them so much tooth-rotting sugary goods that Father would flip if he saw them, which only made Adrien devour them with glee. Marinette giggled when Adrien got cream on his nose and tried to lick it off, completely forgetting he didn’t have Chat’s tongue right now.

They sat by the window, the steady pitter-patter soothing the last of Marinette’s nerves - enough for her to crack a pun about pastries, one that Adrien had to use next time around Ladybug. She laughed when he shared the story about the time he and Chloe had eaten enough sweets to make them sick, and he gasped at her story about how her dad invented a new kind of muffin recipe.

By the time they were finishing off the last macaron, Adrien had forgotten all his previous worries.

It all came crashing back however, when Marinette said, “I noticed your dad didn’t sign the form today. For the trip to Nice.”

Adrien flinched, “No, he didn’t.”

“How come?”

She was more curious than judgemental, which was why Adrien felt comfortable enough to confess, “I think he’s punishing me.”

Marinette drew back, “What? Why?”

“I messed up a photoshoot the other day. There was an akuma attack and I had to … go hide - I guess it’s not really an excuse - but - “

Marinette slammed down the glass she’d been drinking from, “That is SO unfair!”

Adrien shrugged, “It’s nothing new. He might just be being protective, I don’t know. Though … I sort of decided to not go back home today, because of it,” he laughed, “Overdramatic, I know.”

“He’s the one being overdramatic!” Marinette frowned, “Does Nino and Chloe know? I’m telling them, we’re kidnapping you. I’ll tell Alya too, she’ll tell the whole class,” she paused at her phone, “Should I tell Kagami and Luka? They’re not even on the trip …”

Adrien felt his insides warm. Hearing their names out loud … he sometimes forgot how many people he had, that cared for him.

Had he really been worrying over where home was, when he had already known?

“Marinette,” he said softly, “It’s okay. Thank you.”

“It’s not okay,” she pouted, but relented by putting her phone down.

“I know he loves me,” Adrien sighed, “I just wish he’d show it more.”

“Oh Adrien,” she reached over, covering his hand with hers, “I’m so sorry you have to go through that.”

“Yeah,” Adrien smiled, “Thank you.”

“You can stay here tonight if you like.”

Outside, the rain had slowed to a drizzle.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, “I think I’m okay now.”

Marinette didn’t seem to be pleased, but she didn’t push it, “At least take the umbrella with you.”

“I couldn’t - "

“It’s yours,” she blushed, “You - uh - gave it to me. First day of school.”

“Oh,” he grinned, “You kept it.”

“I forgot to give it back,” she softened, “Anyway, I think you need it more than me. For the next time it rains.”

Adrien gulped, blinking back the stinging in his eyes. He cleared his throat gently, “Um, before I go. This might sound weird, but do you have any cheese?”

Marinette laughed, “I do, actually! I keep it around for ... stray cats.”

It took Adrien a moment to realise she was talking about Chat Noir.

“You’re an amazing friend, you know that?” Adrien blurted out.

Marinette grinned, “I’ve been told. And you are too, don’t you forget it!”

Outside, holding plenty of cheese and pastries and one well-used umbrella, Plagg peeked out of Adrien’s jacket.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Plagg snorted, “Then let’s go home. Your dad’s worried.”

“I doubt Father even noticed.”

“Other dad.”

Adrien had no idea what Plagg was talking about until he checked his phone, only to be bombarded with seventeen worried messages from the Gorilla.

“I’m in trouble, huh?”

Plagg only laughed.

Adrien grinned back, looking up at the sky. The rain had come to a stop now, leaving the skies grey, but the world clearer.

---

Author's Note: When I tell you this fic refused to cooperate with me, I mean that I had 5 stories in my head and came up with the 6th this morning. At least I had fun writing the rain as a metaphor!

Platonic Adrinette is an under-used gem, they are such a wholesome duo. The ship is fine, but nothing beats friendship <3

Also, on Gabriel - I don't doubt that he cares about Adrien, but sometimes caring isn't enough. In this case, it DEFINITELY isn't enough.

[smilingperformer]

Discussing the good and bad of Pokémon Journeys: Part “Goh”

Oh boi... this part is gonna be a doozy. Because I have a lot to talk about Goh, or as I tend to call him, Gou.

TLDR; I like Gou as a character but I very, very much have issues with the way he's currently written in the show. And that frustrates me deeply as I'd love to feel more positively about him. More under the cut, with Journeys abverted as JN.

Where do I even begin... Maybe by how I first became a fan of Gou's character, by after some time started to go back to neutral ground.

Like, ever since the very first episode, we've got a very clear picture of what kind of character Gou is: a bookworm, loves Pokémon, loves to show his knowledge and isn't exactly good at making friends. His only friend before Satoshi (and before learning about Tokio/Horace's reasonings for not showing up to their meeting place) was Chloe/Koharu, and we still don't know how the two met. Thou my guess is that their childhood friendship bonded over their parents meeting during some job or by Koharu feeling the need to be Gou's friend. Who knows, it's something I want to learn about. But that's besides the point, cough.

But like, from the very first episode on, it became clear that this show wants to focus on Gou, and telling his journey on becoming a Pokémon Trainer who wants to catch all of the Pokémon in the World, in order to get closer to catching Mew, the mythical Pokémon who's said to contain DNA of all existing Pokémon. He had a very strong introduction arc, with showing his dynamic with Koharu, having him meet Satoshi on top of Lugia, first getting to know Satoshi (and Rockets) and then catching his first partner Pokémon in Hibunny. However, as time went on and episodes started piling up, I started feeling like something about him was... off.

I feel like the first time I had an issue with the writing involving him was in JN006, where he went on his first catching spree. Where he kept catching Pokémon with ease. Small struggle at the start when trying to work together his dynamic with Hibunny, but the rest of the ep felt way too easy. Then again, Gou IS flat out Pokémon GO promotion. No one can deny that. His purpose is to promote GO's capture mechanic. It is the most successful Pokémon Mobile game of all time.

Anyway, the easy captures piled up on and on til JN010 when he finally had to use dozens of pokeballs to catch one. single. Dewgong. I loved this so much. It made me feel more at ease with his goal mechanic and I felt like I'd be fine with him from there on out. And I was. Til I started having new issues with him. All thanks to Satoshi's new goal in PWC finally having been established.

As time went on, it became clearer and clearer, that Gou was more focused on when it came to his goal progression, development in character level, and in what kind of quality his episodes would be.

Everyone knows how much I love JN032. Everyone does. It's one of my absolute fav episodes in the series. However, it also kinda is what first prompted me starting my worry that hasn't gone away since then: That Gou feels more like the protagonist than Satoshi does in this series, and not really an equal dual protag he was advertised to be.

Before the pitchforks are getting aimed at me, hear me out. I know, that based on some statistics, the focus is equal, with sliiiightly more inclinded towards Gou. However, that's where the issue is: Gou has, so far for me, had way better focus and way better episodes in this series, than Satoshi has, while also getting progress on his goal on other character's focus episodes. When Satoshi's episodes have been about PWC and training his Pokémon, Gou's had the kind of episodes that are more character exploring, developing him, evolving him in some way. And it, frustrates me. Because despite my better judgement, it gives me this feeling that Gou is stealing Satoshi's thunder, even when some type of statistics would suggest otherwise. It gives me this feeling that Gou is here to write Satoshi out. I do not like that I feel this way, I don't know how to get rid of this feeling and I hate it here.

Again, I like Gou's character, he's sweet, well developed, and I do enjoy seeing him in his own episodes. But I have come to noticed, than whenever he gets goal progression in an episode that's supposed to focus on Koharu or Satoshi, I feel so.... angry? And I've never, ever felt like this while watching other characters progress. And I know it's irrational.

Like, his main partner's already fully evolved, his secondary partner Sobble is already evolving soon despite only having one focus episode for itself before it, and he's caught all three of the Galar starters now, with some of his other not-that-important Pokémon making appearances every now and then with possible evolution showcases. And it's all done so fast. Same issue was with Satoshi's poketeam evolving in fast arcs, but I forgot to mention about it? But then again, I am somewhat fine with it as I get the writing style is to focus on one 'mon and then move on to another. Which is not to my taste completely but I digress. ANYWAY, back to Gou.

After seeing discussions and joining in on some on tumblr and twitter and elsewhere, it does appear that Gou's development speed and progression speed is incredibly fast. Like, seriously fast. He's caught a lot of Pokémon by now, and the show's already shown about 50% percent of all existing Pokémon in a bit over a year. About 30% being caught by Gou. (Statistics borrowed from EntityMays' Living Dex trackers, links in posts will disrupt showing in tag search so, google EntityMays's Living Dex, and you'll find the statistics there).

This is also very apparent when you think about how fast Gou suddenly became a good battler, when at the beginning he sucked. A lot. I get Satoshi could be a great example on learning how to battle with good strategy in mind, but we barely saw Gou struggle. We Satoshi struggle in OS, so I would have prefered more struggling by Gou. His first battle against a legendary ended up in Zapdos almost getting caught and uuuuuggh, while it's a pretty good episode it really should have been at later point, same with Suicune episode. Thou with the latter I have WAY more issues than just the placement but, I'm not gonna rant about that today.

And what should I say about his dynamics with other characters... They're good, I am a huge fan of how the dynamic between Koharu and Gou works, as their childhood friend dynamic is shown so, so well, and you can just tell the two have mutual respect as Gou gives Koharu the space she needed when she wasn't into Pokémon for a while, and when she then became partners with Eevee, Gou was so so SO darn supportive just, AGH. Love how these two work.

And everyone knows I fell for Gou x Tokio dynamic straight away. Like they had a friendship built up right away when they first met as little kids and Tokio missing out on their promised meeting due to being sick and not having any means of contacting him yes still considered Gou his friend after these years when Gou considered him a traitor of trust and Gou then forgives him for it and just aaaaaahhh-. KRHM. Excuse me.

Then there's Gou and Satoshi's dynamic and I already said in my post about Satoshi how I feel intimidated by the fans of their shipping and how it makes me feel.... kinda sad about not being able to like their dynamic for what it is. I LOVE it a ton. I have said it a countless times, they're a broTP to me. They're dynamic was very enjoyable for me to watch, and even Gou was. But like, on TOP of these issues I mentioned before this part, I also have another issue with Gou: his fanbase, or the crazier part of it.

Often times I feel like I'm unable to enjoy Gou's character without being reminded of the fans who constantly think of him as shipping fuel, or think he's flawless and anyone disagreering is in some form a negative trait filled human being, etc etc etc. In a way, I feel like I'd enjoy Gou and his dynamic with Satoshi way, way more, if I had never learned about this side of the fandom. Let people like their dynamic the way they want. Be it romantic or platonic. Neither is wrong, but pushing one side to push their own headcanon to other people's head is just, bad act. Having this feeling in me has actually made me wonder, whether I would have liked other characters I am such a huge fan of, if I had been watching their shows during their airing times (for example Serena).

Now what would I have done differently with Gou? Firstly, slow the fuck down. I would have prefered to see Hibunny way more. I would have prefered to have one Galar Starter, namely Grookey, go to Satoshi, as it would help me feel less like Gou's stealing his thunder. I would have prefered if Gou and Satoshi's goals were established around same time. I would have very much liked it, if Gou wouldn't be catching Pokémon each episode.

Now what COULD help me like him better from what we have by now? Well. Slow it down. Have him interact with Koharu more. Give him a rival to further make him shine on his own instead of seemingly relying on Satoshi to shine through. Hell, maybe make Tokio his friendly rival. And on top of that, please let him not catch Pokémon almost every single episode. I'd love an episode where he captures some Pokémon that prefers to be free, and he then would let it go. I think that would make his character be good on his own, and make me feel better about him once again.

Cough. I think I've got my point clear. As said, I like Gou, but very much dislike the way he's written in such fast pacing and in a way that, despite statistics stating otherwise, making him feel like he's the sole protag and not sharing spotlight as dual protag. And I hope to god I can get rid of this feeling as the series goes on. Because right now, I don't have high hopes :(

If you've read this far, thank you for reading, and I am so, so sorry this became a long long rant about the issues I have with Gou, but I hope I managed to bring out what I like about him as well. Hopefully next time's gonna be a more positive post, as I'll try writing about my full on feelings about the handling of Koharu, or as dub audience knows her, Chloe.

Once again, thanks for reading, have a good evening or morning or whatever time it is by the time you've read this, and I hope you'll have a fantastic time ♥ And as a reminder, these are just my opinions, and if you disagree, you are totally valid.

Til next time! This was Smiling Performer aka Aleira, signing out!

[dessarious]

Guilt and Consequences

Okay, so this is just something that wouldn’t leave me alone. It has absolutely nothing to do with my other fics and may actually be a one shot. (We all know that’s not something I do but hey I can hope). Anyway, I’ve always hated the way Lila’s character was done. For so many reasons. The biggest issue I had was that there’s never any explanation for her personality. Sure, there is a small percentage of people that are straight up evil, but not many and it’s lazy writing to make a character, villain or otherwise, with absolutely no reason to be the way they are. If you’re not going to flesh out a character don’t make them a focal point period. Okay I’ll stop ranting now. This is in no way canon, nor is it meant to be.

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AO3   Next

“You told her what?!” Adrien flinched as Lila yelled in his face but she didn’t care. This idiot had completely destroyed all her plans with no thought what so ever. How had things gotten so bad?

“It doesn’t do any good to put more pressure on the situation. I told Marinette that you’d come around once you got the attention you wanted, so she should just let it go. Take the high road.” She was dangerously close to punching him in his sanctimonious face. The only thing stopping her was that getting arrested for assault wasn’t something she wanted to experience right now. Not to mention she now had to try and fix this insanity.

“That is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Ignoring things may work with paparazzi but that is not how you should deal with anything else. More often than not ignoring a problem just makes it worse.

“I’ve been ignoring Chloe’s bad behavior for years and she’s getting better.” Lila felt like her head was going to explode. As good as Adrien was in science he apparently didn’t understand causal relationships. The boy was far too dense to survive in the real world.

“As I understand things, Chloe didn’t start improving until Marinette stood up to her and Ladybug called her out on her bad behavior. Your enabling simply allowed her to continue what she was doing without consequences. People don’t change without a reason Adrien. Most need a pretty enticing incentive to do anything out of the norm.” She couldn’t deal with this anymore. Lila knew that she wasn’t going to make him see the error in his thinking. Everyone thought of Adrien as a ray of sunshine but she’d seen first hand how hard he held onto ideas even when all the evidence pointed to the opposite conclusion. Instead she turned and walked away as he yelled justifications at her back. She knew he wouldn’t actually follow her because his ride should be there any second. He wouldn’t risk getting in trouble, no matter how much he wanted her to agree with him.

She didn’t even know where she was going at this point, just wandering randomly while she thought. Everything had gotten so out of hand. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before and she had absolutely no idea how to fix it, or even if it could be fixed. She didn’t think so. It’s like the perfect storm of stupid, incompetence, and compliance had coalesced into this mass of insanity that she couldn’t see a way out of. Why did everything have to be so complicated? She’d done the same thing dozens of times with the exact same result. Why did things have to turn out so differently this time?

Before she knew it Lila was standing in front of a building she had no wish to enter. She knew she had to, but honestly she would rather step into traffic. Still, if there was any hope of salvaging things this was where she had to start. She just hoped she’d be able to get out some sort of explanation before they threw her out. She took a deep breath before opening the door.

“Good morning! What can I do for you dear?” Lila hesitated. Surely Marinette had told her parents about what was going on, right?

“Madam, my name is Lila Rossi. I was hoping to talk to Marinette.” There was absolutely no recognition in the woman's eyes. What the hell kind of alternate reality was she in? From everything she could gather Marinette had a great relationship with her parents. Even if she had let Adrien talk her into staying quiet at school, why would she hide what was going on from them?

“Of course, and you can call me Sabine dear, no need to be so formal.” She followed as Sabine led her up the stairs at the back of the bakery and into a little apartment. Lila had lived in a lot of places, but not one of them had ever said home the way this tiny space did. “Marinette’s room is up there. I have to get back down to the bakery, just knock before you go in.” Lila could only stare at the woman’s retreating back in panic. There was no way Marinette wanted her of all people anywhere near her room. She’d expected Sabine to get her to come out here. She looked back at the trapdoor with no idea how to proceed.

Eventually she worked up the nerve to climb the stairs. A few minutes and many attempts later, she managed a timid knock. There was a muffled ‘come in’ and Lila almost had a heart attack. Now what? Against her better judgement she slowly opened the door and poked her head up. She saw Marinette hunched over her sewing machine, not paying any attention to who had entered. But what caught her attention was the bruise on Marinette’s cheek and a strip of gauze around her forehead. Lila’s anger from earlier reignited with a passion and before she knew it she was in the room standing directly behind the girl.

“How could you listen to that moron’s advice?” She winced the moment the words came out of her mouth. That was not how she wanted to start this. Marinette jumped and actually fell off the chair. Lila flinched back at the fear in the girls eyes when they registered who she was.

“Wh- What are you doing here?” Marinette’s eyes were darting every which way, looking for escape routes or something to defend herself with most likely. It hurt knowing that this was all her fault.

“I… I didn’t mean to scare you.” Then why did you yell at her dumbass? “I’m here because…” Why exactly was she here? She really should have planned this out, or at least had any idea of what she was going to say. “I’m here because I need to apologize to you, and I think you deserve an explanation for why I apparently destroyed your life.” Marinette’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Lila couldn’t blame her.

“You want to apologize to me?” The skeptical tone caused her to break eye contact. It was well deserved but Lila didn’t even know where to start. She was a selfish creature by nature so apologies didn’t come naturally, but this was something that needed to be done.

“Yes. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you because of me. I never thought…” She couldn’t continue. No apology and no explanation was good enough for what Marinette had gone through because of this mess. Lila didn’t even know everything because apparently the class had been bullying Marinette for over a month but they’d kept it from her because she was too ‘nice’ and wouldn’t have approved. How did you even begin to make up for something like that?

“You never thought what? That your plan to take away all my friends would affect me? That you making my school life a living hell would hurt me?” The girl sounded pissed and Lila couldn’t blame her but the tone sent her into her defensive mode anyway.

“I never thought anyone would believe the garbage coming out of my mouth!” Marinette blinked at her in confusion, all the fight suddenly gone.

“What?” Lila sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Where did she even start? None of this was going to make sense to Marinette. Honestly she wasn’t certain it made sense to her anymore either.

“I should probably start at the beginning.” Marinette motioned her to continue. “My mom is a diplomat, that wasn’t a lie. She’s something of a fixer. Basically when a situation has escalated too far they bring her in to smooth things over. Because of that she gets moved a lot more often than most. I think the longest we’ve lived in one place is about nine months.”

“And that makes it okay for you to lie and bully people for no reason?” Bully? She hadn’t considered that before. From Marinette’s perspective she understood why she said it though. Especially after the bathroom incident. Lila winced.

“I didn’t mean to… The lying has a purpose but I’ve never had to escalate things before. It’s not an excuse, I should have considered things better. I just…” She just what? She’d just been so focused on her goal that she hadn’t bothered to look at the collateral damage. Hadn’t even considered that there would be. “Look just let me explain, then you can yell at me.” If she didn’t get this out now she wasn’t sure she’d be able to.

“Fine.” Lila shifted nervously as Marinette’s full attention was focused on listening to her. Having that much animosity directed at her was extremely uncomfortable.

“So when I was little the moves were more frequent. Because of that my mother hired tutors and enrolled me in online classes rather than try to attend school. There didn’t seem to be any point in having me adapt to a new place and teachers every couple of months. About three years ago things slowed down a little and she decided it would be good for me to socialize with other kids. Despite my best efforts, I was enrolled in school. I hated it.” That was a vast understatement. The curriculum wasn’t advanced enough and the kids were all immature and annoying. The teachers were boring too. Not to mention that she was used to learning at her own pace and having the ability to choose subjects that actually interested her. School was basically torture.

“I wasn’t happy and told my mother so but she thought I just needed time to adjust so she basically told me to suck it up and deal with it.” She’d had a perfectly researched and reasoned argument but her mother wouldn’t even listen to her. “A couple days later a boy was annoying me. He refused to leave me alone after I’d told him many times to stop and eventually I snapped and punched him in the nose.” It had felt really good at the time.

“Really?” Marinette sounded somewhere between horrified and amused and was obviously trying to keep a straight face.

“Really. I was sent to the principal and he called my mother. I was expelled because they had a zero tolerance policy for violence. My mother was not happy with me and lectured me about solving my problems in a different way, but she let me homeschool again because she wasn’t certain how long we’d be there and didn’t want to go through the effort of finding another school. I thought I’d won, until the next time we moved and she put me in school again.” Once again she’d argued to be allowed to stay with homeschooling. Once again her mother had ignored her.

“Let me guess, you just walked up and punched someone the first day?” Lila let out a snort of amusement and shook her head.

“No. Mother made it very clear that physical violence had far too many repercussions, so I had to get creative. I read the school rules trying to find the easiest way to get thrown out. I tried disrupting class constantly, but that just landed me in detention. So then I tried stealing. That got me thrown out quickly enough, but it also could have had legal ramifications that I didn’t understand at the time. My mother made it very clear to me after though.” Yet another fun conversation where her mother talked at her and wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise. Lila couldn’t understand how she could be such a good diplomat and still have no idea how to listen to her own daughter.

“So you got to homeschool again?” She blinked at Marinette for a moment before nodding. She’d gotten lost in her own thoughts. “But I’m going to assume it didn’t last.”

“No. Every time we move she tries again. I don’t understand why she bothers. The next few schools I refined my technique. I found out that lying was the easiest and least complicated way to get thrown out quickly. They just don’t want to deal with it. Each school has slightly different thresholds but I found that obvious misinformation coupled with lying about medical conditions usually got me back home within a week. I thought I had it down to a science, until we moved here.”

“So wait… you’ve just been trying to get expelled this entire time?” Marinette was looking at her like she’d grown another head. Lila wasn’t surprised. To anyone else what she did sounded insane and maybe it was a little. But it worked and she was a very results driven person. “What about the Akumatizations?”

“What about them?” Lila couldn’t figure out what that had to do with anything.

“If you wanted to be found out, why were you so upset you became Volpina and Chameleon?” Lila winced. She’d watched the limited footage and remembered how she’d reacted after. She’d been disoriented and confused and had just lashed out.

“I was expecting Adrien to call me out. The necklace I showed him came from his father’s line after all. I misjudged how involved he was in the industry apparently. I wasn’t expecting or prepared for an actual Superhero to call me out. I’ll admit I reacted badly, but in my defense I didn’t know then how little it took for Hawkmoth to Akumatize someone.” That had been a less than pleasant realization. Maybe she should try and apologize to Ladybug after this as well. It wasn’t the hero’s fault that Lila couldn’t deal with normal social interaction and lashed out when she felt threatened.

“And Chameleon?” Lila winced at the soft question. She still didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she’d threatened Marinette. Well that wasn’t completely true but she didn’t realize how far she’d gone until she saw the Akuma.

“You were the only person who seemed to have a spine and didn’t believe the bullshit I came up with. I was trying to push you into reporting me to the teacher or convincing everyone else that I was lying. I’ve never been in a situation where people actually thought that my lies were real before. Looking back it was a stupid thing to do.” And wasn’t that an understatement. “After I left I realized how harsh I’d been and was coming back to make sure you were okay when the Akuma phased through the wall and straight into me. Apparently my being mad at myself for overreacting was enough to let him in, again.”

“Why keep lying though? You had to have realized it wasn’t working at some point so why keep doing it?” That was a really good question and she didn’t have a good answer. Lila ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

“At first I thought that I just needed bigger lies. I also expected the teacher or principal to call my mother and verify the ‘disabilities’ I said I had. Other than that I guess it was just habit. It’s what I’ve always done in that situation and I didn’t know what else to do if I’m being honest. Everyday I’d tell myself that today was when everyone would see through the bullshit. That’s also why I started lying about you.” Once again, in hindsight it was an extremely stupid move. Marinette looked confused.

“You’ve been lying to the class about me thinking it would make them realize what you were doing?” Yeah, it was a really stupid plan.

“Yes. I did my research. Everyone loved you. You were the class rep for crying out loud! I thought that lying about you would get them to at least think things through. I mean they’re supposed to be your friends. They’re supposed to know your character well enough to question it when someone says you’re doing something so completely off track from your normal. I didn’t expect them to believe me without question and I absolutely didn’t expect them to retaliate and hide it from me.”

Marinette’s head snapped up in shock. She was looking for something in Lila’s eyes but Lila wasn’t sure what it was. The girl's expression softened suddenly and before she knew it, Lila was on the receiving end of a crushing hug. What the hell?

“If you’re trying to suffocate me there are easier ways to do it.” The words just popped out and Lila winced again. So maybe her mom had a point about her needing more social interaction. It still didn’t mean she should be forced to endure school. She felt Marinette let out an amused huff and pulled back.

“So what brought on this need to come clean?” Lila’s eyes automatically went to Marinette’s injuries before snapping away to the wall.

“Alya slipped and told me what they did last night. I went to Adrien first since he knew Ladybug called me out to try and get him to make the others see sense, or at least help you protect yourself. That’s when he told me what he said to you.” She felt her anger resurfacing just thinking about that conversation.

“That’s what you meant.” Lila just blinked at Marinette in confusion. “When you first got here you yelled at me about taking a moron’s advice.” Lila winced at the reminder but nodded. “Apparently you’re not the only one prone to making mistakes and snap judgments.” Her tone was dry but still held a trace of amusement. Lila wasn’t certain what to make of it.

“I’ll text my mother and have her come here after work so I can explain what’s going on to her and your parents.” It was the least she could do. There was no way to fix this, but at least she could come clean.

“You can’t do that! What if one of them gets Akumatized over it?” Lila just frowned at Marinette. She couldn’t be serious. Her worried expression said otherwise.

“You can’t keep letting people hurt you because you’re scared how they’ll react. Hawkmoth is going to keep using people and that’s not your fault. It’s not your job to make everyone happy, especially not at the expense of your physical and mental well being. They need to know what’s going on so you can get out of that toxic school environment.” Marinette actually rolled her eyes.

“Just because you don’t like school doesn’t mean it’s a toxic environment.” Lila stared at her in shock. Marinette was serious. The phrase ‘what the hell’ was quickly becoming her new mantra.

“You’re kidding right? Your teacher avoids her job at all costs by making the class police itself. She blames the victims for things they have no control over because it’s easier than actually confronting someone. The principal hasn’t once tried to call my mother to verify absences or illness. That’s not even including your classmates who have gone full Lord of the Flies over a bunch of lies.” How could she possibly think any of this was okay? Marinette seemed confused as she mulled over Lila’s words. How long had this shit been going on?

“I suppose it may seem that way to someone walking into it, but I think your prejudice against school in general is part of your viewpoint. Things have always worked themselves out before and I’m sure everyone will come around eventually.” She was going to have an aneurysm. Apparently Marinette was just as bad as Adrien at holding on to things despite the evidence. She reached out and gently touched the gauze on Marinette’s forehead.

“They could have killed you. Alya especially is prone to acting without thinking things through or caring about the consequences. It’s why she posted all those ridiculous interviews. Honestly I’m surprised she hasn’t been sued yet. I took care of the site though.” She wasn’t even paying attention to the words coming out of her mouth, too focused on where Marinette’s blood was seeping through. This was all her fault.

“What do you mean you took care of the site?” Marinette’s tone was off but she couldn’t place the tone.

“Hacking is one of the things that I actually like doing. I took down everything with me and purged it from her harddrive. I also took down that stupid picture of Ladybug and Chat kissing after Oblivio. It’s not much but it’s as much of an apology I could manage to Ladybug even if she never knows who did it.” Alya had ranted for days about the Heroine’s denial. It was beyond annoying at the time.

“Why do you want to apologize to Ladybug?” Lila blinked at her before letting out a sigh.

“After my Akumatizations I said some things… let’s just say I wasn’t in a great headspace. I tend to go feral when I feel threatened. Add that to the whole lying and keeping in character to get expelled… She has enough to deal with without hormonal teenagers mouthing off at her.” Marinette was studying her again and Lila couldn’t read her expression at all. It made her more nervous than she would have thought.

“I still don’t think we should tell our parents. Maybe we can turn things around ourselves.” Damn it. The girl was out of her mind.

“That school is a breeding ground for bullies and narcissists. The administration needs to be held accountable for their neglect or who knows how many others could get hurt. There needs to be consequences or things will never change.” There was no way they could fix this themselves. She wasn’t even sure teams of lawyers and therapists could fix this at this point. Marinette was frowning again. Lila wanted to convince her this was the right thing, but if push came to shove she would tell the Dupain-Chengs the truth so they could do something about this. Her mother would just want to bury it to keep Lila out of trouble. Marinette’s parents would do what they had to to protect their daughter, at least she hoped they would.

“I don’t want anyone else getting hurt… Maybe we can talk to the principal. If we say we’re going to look into a lawsuit or call the police, maybe he’ll change.” Lila rolled her eyes.

“He won’t take anything seriously coming from two teenagers. Look, I realize your self preservation instincts aren’t very strong but you need to tell your parents what’s going on. If nothing else you can transfer schools. Honestly, you probably should.” She looked devastated at the thought and Lila’s guilt came back full force. She knew that she couldn’t control the actions of others, but if she hadn’t worked them up they never would have gone after Marinette of all people. They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. Marinette probably would have been perfectly happy not knowing what her classmates were capable of.

“I can’t just leave my friends.”

“What friends? The only person who has bothered to tell me to back off is Chloe. Something about you being more fun to square off with when you actually have a spine.” That girl was at least what she seemed. Lila could respect that far more than Adrien’s fake personality. In his defense she didn’t think he was doing it out of spite, he’d just been playing a part most of his life and probably had no idea who he was, let alone how to be himself.

“They didn’t mean it. I’m sure once they understand the situation they’ll calm down.” There had to be a way to get through to her, but Lila was getting far too frustrated to think things through properly. As usual, her mouth went into gear before her brain.

“If we tell them what’s going on now they’ll just transfer all that anger to me, assuming they don’t think you threatened me into backing up your story that is. Sadly, I have a feeling that it’ll be the second.” She would be fine with the first honestly. It would give her a reason to have her mother pull her out of school. Unfortunately given the class’s track record she couldn’t chance it. Alya could easily whip everyone else into a frenzy if she decided Marinette was forcing Lila to back her version of events. The girl hadn’t been able to find the truth yet so there was no reason to think she would come to her senses now.

“I suppose you’re right. I wouldn’t want them going after you.” She couldn’t have heard that right.

“What?”

“What you did was wrong but you don’t deserve to be bullied for it. I don’t want to be part of the reason that would happen.” Her supposed friends attacking her didn’t phase her at all, but the thought of those same friends bullying the person who’d set them on her in the first place caused her to pause. Lila would never understand that mindset.

“So can we at least talk to your parents about what’s happening? This has gone way past too far and I really don’t think we’ll be able to stop it by ourselves. Please.” Marinette finally nodded and Lila felt a tightness in her chest loosen. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start. 

AO3   Next

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 14

First

Previous

Next

The next day was The Day.

It had been a full month since they had moved into the house.

Tensions had settled somewhat, people had more or less grown used to each other’s presence… but, on that one particular day, the five of them were on edge.

It was the day to begin posting.

Chat bit his lip, scrolling through all the different videos he had taken on patrols. Should he just go in the order that he had taken them in? That would certainly be easier than any arbitrary system he put out.

Then again, if he actually figured out a system it would make what he was doing feel like it had more effort. Out of all the account themes that he knew (Chloe was still refusing to answer any questions about hers), his definitely required the lowest amount of effort.

It fit him, but still.

He decided to schedule a little bit. It would go dogs, then cats, then more unusual animals, then repeat.

There. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Hopefully, Fu wouldn’t take issue with it --.

He tore through the skin of his lip and hissed in pain. He dropped his phone on the bed next to him and brought his hands up to stem the bleeding until he found a tissue.

He walked to the mirror and snickered to himself when he saw his reflection.

Thank the kwamis he wasn’t home anymore. His dad would have thrown a fit about him ‘ruining’ his perfect face.

The door opened and he looked over to see Chloe. “Bonjour --.”

He groaned a little. “Bonjour. You’re not taking tonight’s patrols from me, but you can come along if you want.”

“What? No. I need more time to edit a video for my account so I’m going to be announcing the start of our accounts.”

“You had a month and you’re still not done?” He teased, tossing the bloodied tissue in the trash.

She scoffed. “Not like I owe you an explanation, but I have an hour of footage to go through and edit down to a few minutes at most.”

Ah. Yeah. That would be hard.

He followed her to where everyone had congregated on the couch.

Well, actually, Ladybug and Carapace were the only ones on the couch, Rena was standing behind it, peering over the other miraculous holder’s shoulders as they scrolled through their phones.

Rena looked up when she heard their footsteps and gasped. “What happened to your lip?”

“I lost a fight...” … with his own mouth, but that was beside the point.

Carapace raised his eyebrows. “You lost a fight without leaving your room?”

Rena’s lips twitched into a mischievous grin. “Who knows, with all the stuff in his room something could be living in there and no one would know.”

He fought the urge to sink into the fabric of his turtleneck (which he now felt weird wearing considering the actual turtle in the group never wore turtlenecks). “Shut up.”

“Nice comeback,” commented Carapace.

“Thanks,” he muttered, dropping down onto the couch beside him and resting his head on his shoulder.

Chloe hummed as she set up her phone to take a video of them all and then she paused, looking at everyone. “Costumes? Since this is the announcement video?”

Ladybug set her phone in her pocket. “Sure.”

“Oh, what if we start in costume and then we detransform?” Said Carapace.

“Why?” Questioned Rena.

“For the drama. Obviously.”

No one bothered to reply to that, instead they all called their kwamis to transform.

Chloe pressed to start recording and then waltzed over to take a seat on Ladybug’s lap. To Ladybug’s credit, her face remained neutral. They all knew she blinked behind her mask even if they couldn’t see it.

Rena snickered a little behind her hand.

Ladybug’s skin flared bright red. There it was. She’d finally finished processing.

“Was… was the spot beside me not good enough?”

“Nope!” Chloe said brightly before turning her attention to the camera. “Hello, Paris… and others, though I don’t know why you’d bother with our accounts if you aren’t Parisian. We’re the miraculous team!”

They went in a line from left to right introducing themselves and then detransforming to show off their civilian clothes.

“Now, you might be wondering: what’s going on?”

“A good question. Not even we really know,” Chat muttered.

(Carapace, the only one close enough to really hear, was now smiling more sincerely.)

“We’ve started TikTok accounts that we’re going to be maintaining until we defeat Hawkmoth. Why’d we decide to do this?”

Everyone’s gazes briefly pulled away from the camera to send Chloe looks that varied from slight exasperation (Carapace) to amusement (Rena).

“No reason! Just convenience!”

Chat rolled his eyes a little.

Chloe went on to explain what each of their accounts would be about, except...

“You forgot your own niche, Queenie,” said Ladybug gently.

“I didn’t forget.”

They waited for her to go on and say what she was going to be doing, but she didn’t.

The other miraculous holders exchanged wary looks.

“All their accounts are going to be in the caption. Follow them!”

The video cut.

~

A day passed, but no one was really getting picked up by the algorithm, it seemed.

They had all convened in the living room again to discuss what to do.

Chat had the most followers, which wasn’t a surprise considering he was just posting cute animals.

Ladybug actually had quite a few as well. A few of them were actual Parisians, but most just seemed to be random French speakers who wanted to get their lives together. Good for them.

Everyone else was having trouble getting their videos seen.

Chloe was taking this especially hard. She had flung herself over the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.

Ladybug didn’t seem all that concerned about the possible impending akuma as she sat down on the arm of the couch. “It would probably help if you had actual content,” she commented.

The other barely lifted her head to send her a glare.

Carapace sat down in the armchair with some chips and salsa. “Maybe we should just use all the trending tags to get people to see us.”

“We could tag our videos as cosplay and then see how long it takes them to figure it out,” said Rena, grinning as she stole some chips.

(Carapace sent her a tired, halfhearted glare but apparently decided it wasn’t worth the effort to keep his food away from her.)

Chat wasn’t really concerned about all of this. He sat in the window, smiling as the sun beamed down on his back. “I don’t know. If we want we can get some blogger to report on it.”

“If we do that one, how about the Ladyblogger? I’m pretty sure she’s the most popular one,” offered Ladybug absently. “And her blog has the option to send in stuff anonymously, too.”

Chloe pushed herself up to a sitting position, apparently done sulking. “Nope, she’s been inactive for a few months. Said something about her schedule getting too hectic, I think.”

“Oh! Is that why I haven’t seen her around?” Said Chat, trying to hide his relief. “I thought I’d done something to offend her or something.”

He noticed, vaguely, that Rena was now bright red. His brain struggled to figure out why and then it clicked. The Ladyblogger stopped showing up a little while before Rena had appeared… she must be feeling left out!

He gave her a tiny smile. “There’s still other blogs, though, so we could try that.”

“You know, I always thought it was weird that the Ladyblogger had always chosen Ladybug for her name when Chat was there first,” mused Carapace.

“Do you know any good puns for Chat Noir that has to do with blogging?” Said Ladybug, a little defensive.

“Fair.”

“She also had a different name originally, she just changed it when Ladybug came on because of the pun,” muttered Rena.

Ah, so Chat had been wrong about Rena’s feelings about the Ladyblogger. Clearly she was just a fan of her work. That made sense, that seemed like the kind of content she would enjoy --.

Chloe was the one to pull everyone on track: “Who cares? If she’s been inactive no one’s checking her page, so we need a new plan.”

The five of them lapsed into silence as they considered the options.

“I could get Nadia Chamack to report on it?” Offered Ladybug.

“No one under thirty really watches the news. Wrong demographic,” Rena pointed out.

Chat hesitated slightly before raising his hand to get everyone’s attention. “Can’t we just use Chloe’s dad? I mean… everyone follows him to find out what insane thing he did for his daughter this week.”

Chloe sent him a glare.

“No offense,” he added quickly. “That’s definitely on the people of Paris for their… judgementalness and tendency to --.”

“Chat, do yourself a favor and shut up,” advised Rena.

“Okay.”

There was a moment as they all thought about it.

Chloe pulled her phone out. She dialled a number and there was hardly a beat before she smiled and said: “Daddy! Hi!”

There was a collective wince that the mayor’s daughter opted to ignore.

“I was wondering if you could -- oh. Thanks! I’ll text you the info to tell everyone, then...”

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @mialuvscats @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write

[story-collector]

The Family We Chose

Part 2 (I honestly have no schedule for writing this so I’m just kinda doing it as it comes to me but I will try to be fairly consistent)

14

The next year as school started we finally were able to add to our team. We added our three new family members. Chloe was given the Bee Miraculous, gaining the name Honey Bee. She was an valuable asset and even if we hadn’t added her I believe she still would have been family. She was a great strategist and fully dedicated to bringing down Paris emotional terrorist. Kagami was given the Dragon Miraculous, gaining the name Ryuko. She was a hard worker and aimed to please. Winning was ingrained into her very being by her mother so losing was never an option. Our third was Luka with the Snake Miraculous. Viperion was a steadfast calm that helped our small team immensely. The three very quickly showed how much they wanted to be on the team.

Our nights were a little less hard now. Patrols were more evenly spaced and emotional comfort was in abundance. We had a bigger support network now, even if it was just each other. We were a family that we knew we could rely on. More memories were made, another album started to get filled. Our civilian lives improved slightly, having more time to indulge our interests and focus on school helped lessen the stress we had. But it didn’t stop all the bad.

We were still just children. Most of us were 14 with Luka being 15. We were young and still relatively inexperienced but we did the best we possibly could. Unfortunately it wasn’t always enough. Nights were still hard, plagued with to still body’s and unseeing eyes. Makeup was something we were all to experienced in. Lies became the norm to our family’s and other friends. We were okay, just stressed. No we weren’t going to turn into an akuma. We were fine. Tears were hidden in the rain and atop the roofs of the city we vowed to protect with our lives. Sometimes we did give up our lives, and remembered every time we did. Some scars would fade with the magic, others were faint, almost a trick of the light, and some were never visible to begin with.

Once a week we would patrol together and then sleep in a pile in someone’s room, making sure to leave before the sunlight touched the trees. The night time was our time, no matter if we were daylight hero’s or not. Homework was still done on top of the Eiffel Tower. The album was still filled. Interests were still ongoing. But it was all done mostly together. The others were my models as I would sit on roofs and design new outfits for them. They would help me with ideas and eventually making a website. Money was brought in by everyone. Chloe managed to buy a warehouse just for the team. The outside was broken and dirty and old but the inside was our home.

This became a sanctuary for us, and it was near this sanctuary where we found the youngest member of our family. We found him slumped behind a dumpster, his to small body almost hidden in the darkness. The blood coating his body made it hard to tell where it was coming from. We gathered him up in our arms and rushed him to our base. We didn’t know much of medical procedures but we new just enough to save him. What little we knew almost wasn’t enough. We didn’t have all the supplies, the scars would be ugly, he had to be constantly watched. Medical supplies was put on the list of things to gather. Just because we had magic didn’t mean we would always be able to save someone with it.

The young (tiny, too small, too young) boy didn’t wake for almost two weeks. Our free moments, every second of them, was spent at his side or around him. The amount of scars he already had was heartbreaking. The amount of weapons he had was terrifying. They told a story we didn’t want to hear. When he woke up he was weak, we had to help him eat, we had to carry him everywhere. He was light, to light, and to much muscle for an 8 year old. We learned his name was Damian.

We never told Master Fu about him. We never told Paris about him. He was our secret. At first he was angry and rude and constantly insulting us and trying to attack us. It was clear he didn’t know what physical comfort was. He didn’t know a gentle touch. We likened him to a wild animal, small, scared, confused, and hurt. It took a month before he could start to walk again and a month and a half before he was fully healed. He had started to trust us during his stay. Three months later he was still there. He warmed up to us, leaning into our touches, and reciprocating the attention we gave him.

He told us he was raised by the League of Assassins. He was their Heir. He didnt want them to hurt us, but we couldn’t let him go back to them. So he stayed with us and as the League realized that he was alive, and that we had him they grew angry and would attack us in the dead of night while in patrol. Our supplies of medical supplies grew massively very quickly. Our uniforms were changed to blend into the dark of Paris skyline.

As young as he was, he was helpful. We learned to fight from an 8 year old and in the end that may have been what kept us one step ahead of the League. He became somewhat of a son to us, or a little brother. He was family and we were as close as ever. Many nights were no longer spent in our own homes, but instead with him. Lunch breaks from school weren’t spent with friends as often, they were spent with him, showing him the world he had missed growing up. He became inspiration for clothing for children. Our interests were brought into the Sanctuary and we taught him. He taught us as well. Weapons, fighting, Arabic. We taught him as much as we could. French, English, Chinese, Sign Language in English and French. The learning was slow going for a lot of us, some of us learning new things from the others. But we learned fast, became better and better everyday.

He blossomed under our care. He became the child he was meant to always be...mostly. He was raised and Assassin and you can’t take something that is ingrained in a child since birth out of him in a year. Against our better judgement we would bring him on some nightly patrols. Night time shenanigans would ensue (our photo album grew and we had to start a new one) and attacks would still happen from both the League and Hawkmoth. The year was eventful, but we grew as a family and as a team. Our base was almost fully set up. It became our home. It was his home now, with the sewing machine in the corner and my commissions piled up on the tables, a full musical set up in the corner with couches and bean bags, a makeshift run way for our more dramatic members (Chloe and Adrien), and an area for fencing and practice in every form we knew.

The year was filled with sleepless night and alter egos and stress and anxiety. There was mourning, dangerous and deadly battles, new scars to go over the old and a child to care for. We were family and no one could take that away.

[exciting]

As requested, books / series I read in 2020 in the order I read them, with a few brief thoughts. (This took me a hot second because there are a few and also I moved cities) Should I keep a consistent goodreads? Yes I should but I didn’t think of that at the time, so bone apple teeth & sorry if I offend you abt your faves x

P.S. I can’t figure out how to do a read more on mobile so long post ahead!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - This is one of the most vivid published fantasy books I have ever read... I read it twice in rapid succession. The fandom POPS off. I must say I have issues with certain aspects e.g. fae lore completely ignored à la Twilight, all love interests 500+ years old and technically a different species, etc (I’m not going to deconstruct the entire series here but just know that I could... Nesta deserves better)

Cruel Prince by Holly Black - This fucking slaps, HB clearly has done her research, the lore is near immaculate, and it explores the Fae in such a unique way, tying it to the modern world subtly and seamlessly. My only qualm was that the books felt quite short; truly wish there had been more content.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (6/7) - So basically I read this in one single, hyperfixated fit which meant I literally locked myself in my room for three days straight and read all six books back to back in a row from morning to the wee hours. Which is not to say it was spectacular; although it was a VERY rich world, sometimes it was too much... this felt like 6 stories in one. Ik she was young when she wrote this but it is my humble opinion that SJM needs a better editor & I personally think Rowan is a grade A asshole / straight up abusive (& personally think the ACOTAR Tamlin plot was born from that?). It’s good but not as good as ACOTAR. Skip-read the last book. 

Grishaverse (Shadow and Bone) by Leigh Bardugo (3) - This is essential to read before SOC but was very much simply a YA fantasy book, although the world was cool and the way the love plot played out was, imo, a subtle middle finger to the fantasy trope. Felt very much aimed at younger readers though? Really liked the sandwhich structure of the Proluge and Epilogue, especially in #2

Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo (2) - INCREDIBLE continuation of Grishaverse, better than the original series by a mile. It has the range, the diversity, the representation (the male lead is a disabled asexual and still the most cunning of the entire cast of characters), the plot is phenomenal, and it manages such a well rounded plot in only two books which means nothing is stretched out or squeezed in more than need be. Deserves all the praise it gets.

King of Scars series by Leigh Bardugo (0.5/1) - Personally I don’t consider this book canon, and while it’s nice to see the rest of Nina’s journey & the world again & everyone else, I don't like it. I will, however, be reading book 2 when it comes out, so shame on me, I suppose.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (1/1) - this was incredibly cool although it went off in a completely different direction than I thought it would based off the first few chapters? One of my favourite YA-author-debuts-New-Adult novels in 2020 though!

Crescent City by Sarah J Maas (1/1) - This was supposed to be SJM/s New Adult debut, although personally I would put her other series in New Adult, and I can’t say a remarkable amount was different with this except they said “fuck” and “ass” a lot. WHY is the romantic interest 500 years old AGAIN. I just... don’t... I just don’t think it was necessary... the world was cool though, and the last half of the book was riveting, but the beginning was quite slow and I thought the sword thing was predictable. I am interested to see where this goes though.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (3) - This world is so fucking cool... four Londons aka parallel universes & the one in ‘our’ world is set in industrial era London. Magic, girls dressing up as boys, thieves, pirates, royalty... it all just slaps. Schwab is an incredible writer & I was completely immersed.

Midnight Sun by SMeyer - I didn’t think anything could possibly detract even further from the Twilight story but I was sorely mistaken... seeing the stalking from Edward’s POV - and it was worse than depicted in Twilight, for the record - completely obliterated any sort of romance the first half of the original book may have portrayed. I still hold the opinion that the entire series would have been better if some kind of vampire lore had been abided by, if only to see all of the villains thwarted by someone dropping a bag of rice on the ground, forcing them to have to count them all.

An ember in the Ash by Sabaa Tahir  (3/4) - This was just a very stereotypical ya fantasy series, emphasis on the YOUNG... it wasn’t anything to write home about but I remember quite enjoying it at the time. 

The Power by Naomi Alderman - This book is FUCKING incredible and EXCEPTIONALLY thought provoking... essentially women alone develop a power of electric shock etc. and then take over the world from men, and it explores feminism and the balance between equality & tipping the scales in the other direction. Written by a friend of M.Atwood in a similar tone to handmaids tale, I would say? Content warning; there are some exceptionally graphic scenes in the latter half of the novel. 

Hamlet by Wllm Shksp - I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read it but Ophelia is my favourite name in the entire world & we love to see a woman go batshit (although she didn’t deserve that). 

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas - this was unsettling in the best sense of the word... it was a little slow & honestly more of a concept than a big reveal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I finished it? A Secret History vibes but make it blurry like the memory of all those dystopian novels you read when you were young?

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab - This is without a doubt my book of the year, and probably the best book I read in 2020? I stayed up all night on a friend’s couch reading it, got a book hangover and reread the ending, and then thrust it upon my mother who doesn’t usually read but read this, and loved it just as much. HIGHLY recommend and you HAVE to read it, it’s beautiful and endearing and just plain wonderful.

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (3/3) - I went into this knowing it was going to be terrible, because I had received a blow by blow telling me as much; although I must say that it did learn a remarkable amount of new words, the books did get better as the series went on, and it did have a rather charming ending? BIG content warning for almost everything.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari - mind-expanding & must recommend for everyone, there is everything in this and I daresay everyone should posses this kind of knowledge? I listened to it as an audiobook (which I recommend because it’s rather hearty) but will be buying this in hardcopy & rereading it with annotations. 

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read, and certainly the most beautiful portrayal of the story of Achilles and the battle of Troy I have ever seen. Patroclus deserved the justice that was given to him in this book; indeed, all of the characters were written with justice and grace. Highly recommend.

Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan (3/5) - Apollo is my favourite Greek God, and the sexiest greek god, and Rick Riordan’s writing slaps, as always. It did pain me to see Apollo, the sexy immortal, have to be forced back into a 16 year old’s body but everything else? Whimsical & wonderful, as expected. 

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong - a retelling of Romeo and Juliette, except it’s set in Shanghai in the 1920′s, and the protagonists already have a history. Very well done, characters are incredibly diverse in race, sexual orientation, gender, and ability / disability (and honestly, representation has never appeared so effortless and elegant). Also it includes a monster and possible magic. Incredibly underrated and highly recommend.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix. E Harrow - this was such a unique concept, and truly captivating, the story was charming, and felt like the kind of beautiful fairytale you would read as children but with more grit? ABSOLUTELY recommend this one

The Pisces by Melissa Broder - I hated this so much, not my vibe at all. Mermaid smut x therapy but make it cynical and judgemental (I know there was a moral in there but that’s not my point) also the dog dies.

Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith (1/2) - really interesting & unique concept (all unwritten novels / ideas reside in a special library that is part of Hell and then sometimes the books can come to life) however, my first thought upon reading this was “this reads as if it’s stemmed from one of those writing prompt tumblr posts” bc of the tone and whatever and as it turns out I was somewhat correct, it did stem from a short story (not bad just obvious). It did kind of settle down as it went on but I found reading it kind of a drag, and I don’t think I will read the second one.

Abandon by Meg Cabot - 1. Meg Cabot’s writing always fucking slaps 2. Hades and Persephone but make it modern & very 2000′s & somehow kind of unique 3. I literally loved this, sue me

Medusa Girls (Sweet Venom) by Tera Childs - Like Percy Jackson except they are descendants of Medusa so they are Gorgons and have fangs & venom (hence the title). Gave me very 2000′s vibes? Quite cool but tbh I found the books quite short (like two hours each, if that)? Do NOT read the GoodReads description of the book before you read it, you will spoil it for yourself.

Bring me their Hearts by Sara Wolf - In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated YA series I read in 2020. The heroine is endearing, self aware, witty, and loves to look pretty even while kicking ass which in my opinion is an incredibly underrated trait. Also, immortality without being hundreds of years old? VERY sexy. HIGHLY recommend. 

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova - High commendation to be given for the fact that it is a standalone and yet manages to fit in the plot of what would usually be a full fantasy trilogy without cutting corners or being a million miles long? Also sweet storyline & beautiful ending? If you liked ACOTAR you should read this as a “what would have / could have been had SJM had a different editor” (No shade I promise).

The Iron Fae by Julie Kagawa (4/4 + novellas) - Incredibly detailed faerie set around the modern world & our current use of technology & iron in it. Very neat adventure-style series, by the time I read the last novella I was well and truly done with the world (aka provided enough content to be fulfilling). Was definitely aimed at a younger audience though, NO smut / smut was brushed over.

The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black (3/3 SS) - This is technically the prequel to Cruel prince, set in the modern world, but with the fae world inside it as it traditional? All I have to say is that it is excellent & I highly recommend it.

Bridgerton series (The Duke and I) by Julia Quinn (9/9) - I read this after watching the Netflix show twice through and I am obsessed, although the books were not quite as elegant as the show, and some parts that made me cringe either by their portrayal (it is very firmly set in the 19th century and thus some things are not handled with tact or grace), the characters were exceptionally loveable and I am so excited to see where the show takes them! Lovely language & an abundance of words I had never seen before (always a plus). 

[sd1970x]

Marinette, work in progress - Chapter 1

Read also on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26203645/chapters/63770623

----

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Simone de Beauvoir

There is almost nothing about Marin Dupain-cheng's life, an aspiring clothes designer, that makes them happy. Certainly not the bullying they keep getting at school.

Marin doesn't even know her true gender identity yet.

Both of these are about to change. But would that be enough for her to fight the demons within? ----

CW - Homophobia

Pronouns note: in the beginning of the fic, as Marin(ette) is very much closeted, I am purposefully using he/him pronouns as these capture the correct perspective feel. Pronouns will change as soon as she realizes who/what she really is.

---

So, this is my first work after almost two years of not producing any new ones. I am planning to explore mental challenges involving the crossing of the gender barrier, the very same ones I am now fighting after discovering my own gender identity, as I was writing it in a Miraculous Ladybug fic.

This work is planned to be about a dozen chapters and around 30-40k words when complete.

Thanks go to: V- for inspiring this fic and for being the amazing and caring person they are. Wonderful beta feedback and copyediting: Skye, MyKeyboardDidIt

(further thanks will be updated as goes! if you helped with beta/ideas just hit me up and i'll add you!)

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

"Dear, your alarm’s been going off for fifteen minutes! You’re going to be late for your first day of school!”

You say that as if it’s a bad thing. As if I don’t want to be several hours late. Or days.

“Yeah Mom, I’m coming.”

Marin dragged himself out of bed, his form hunched as he made his way to his closet, regarding his clothes with indifference.

I Don’t even like any of them. And I doubt they would solve the real problem here. That I do not like what I see in the mirror.

Myself.

His hand drifted to a random shirt of no particular interest and he casually tossed it over his head. He shuffled over to the bathroom, glancing at himself in the mirror.

Ho-hum. Same old me, isn’t it?

His hair was in its usual mess on top of his head. Foregoing using a brush, he ended up lightly combing through his hair with his fingers until it looked somewhat acceptable.

I guess that’s okay, he thought while shrugging.

As he was brushing his teeth, his eyes strayed to his face. Studying it. Scrutinizing it.

I ought to shave better than this, He thought. His hand reached for the razor, but he stopped short of picking it up.

What even is the point. Either way, trying won’t make any difference.

The image in the mirror appeared to give him a judgemental look, his own blue eyes prying into the inner parts of his soul.

Well, at least these eyes aren’t half as bad. Perhaps they would have been of some use if they had been matched with another person altogether.

He sighed and turned his head away, as if that would be enough to make the thought disappear.

It wasn’t.

The stairway creaked just a bit as he went downstairs to the kitchen where his parents were already toiling about.

“Your need to patch up your shave, my boy,” Tom said. “You want to look good for the ladies, don’t you?”

I’m not into girls, Dad.

Maybe one day I’ll gather the courage to tell you that.

“Well… not really…”

After all, what difference does it make?

“Come now, where’s the spirit? Every girl is different, they can’t all be like Chloe,” Sabine interjected, attempting to be helpful but having just the opposite effect.

“Ugh, Mom, why’d you have to mention her at all?”

Marin frowned as he sat down for breakfast, unable to drive Chloe’s image away from his mind. He took a bite off of his omelette and was struck by the apparent blandness. He set the fork down, sighing quietly to himself.

And there goes my appetite. It’s not the omelette that’s the issue though....

A sip of fresh juice did the trick, the taste too strong to be overridden.

“Cheer up, buddy!” Tom came over. “Take these macarons to school, maybe a tasty start would help lighten up your day!”

“Thanks, Dad, these are awesome.” He said as he picked them up, giving him a half-hearted smile in return.

I appreciate the gesture..., but it feels more like bribing my classmates with these. Guess anything is worth a try at this point.

---

Marin walked into school where everyone was bustling about and chatting with old friends.

Bright banners greeted the students and everything still felt pristine and clean. The corridors even had flower bouquets placed as decorations. Marin took a breath of air, relishing in the floral scent, and proceeded to enter class.

The classroom was freshly painted and even the furniture had been patched with an attention to detail. Marin barely allowed himself a moment of excitement, before despair and weariness took hold again.

It may look different, but looks won’t change anything for people like me. It’ll still be an endless test of mettle against bullying and harassment.

He cautiously went for his seat and observed his classmates.

So there’s Nino, he’s kinda-sorta okay with me. Something I could never say about Kim. Max hasn’t been mean either, but he’s with Kim, so... At least I don’t see her , maybe we’re not in the same—

“What do you think you’re doing?” a loud cry halted his thoughts and confirmed his fears.

Chloe. The nastiest of them all. Here’s to an old-new welcome, a start-over that amounts to absolutely nothing.

“Ugh. Here we go again,” he muttered quietly, hoping Chloe wouldn’t pick it up.

She came over, an accusing look plastered on her face.

“That's my seat.”

“But Chloe, this has always…” he attempted to retort, then quickly backtracked.

“Fine, just… take it. I don’t care.”

“Take it? It’s always been ours.” Sabrina added, bearing the same mocking countenance.

Sabrina helped herself to one of Marin’s macarons uninvited, then made a puking motion.

“Ugh, they are so gross!” she said, even though she was quick to pocket one for her friend as well.

Chloe paid no heed to the macarons as she was already busy teaching Marin the new rules.

“Listen. Adrien's arriving today and the last thing he needs is someone who needs straightening like you giving this class a bad name. Stay away from him, get it?”

Marin tried his best to ignore the obvious insult and focus on the more pressing question.

“Who’s Adrien?”

Both Chloe and Sabrina chuckled, making Marin regret asking.

“Adrien is a famous model. Pretty, rich, glamorous, someone to look up to. Like me. And just like me, he’s everything you’ll never be and everything you’ll never have.” Chloe fawned over her imaginary description as Sabrina took up the task of reprimanding Marin for the question.

“A loser that doesn’t even know who Adrien is, needs to sit as far away from him as possible. You’re enough of an embarrassment to our class as is.”

Marin opened his mouth as if to deny every word, but opted against it.

You’re wrong. One day, I’ll be a famous and successful designer and every single one of you will be sorry for how you treated me. I just have to persist through this. I won’t bite it this time.

He picked up his bag wordlessly and slowly went towards his designated seat.

At least that’s what he planned to do, but the new girl pre-empted him as she grabbed him by the hand and helped him to the seat next to her. Apparently she had overheard the conversation and didn’t plan on letting it slide, at least as far as her expression read as she looked towards one Chloe Bourgeois.

“Hey! Who elected you queen of seats?” She cried out.

“I did. Good luck dethroning me with your pariah friend.” Chloe laughed at her.

It was then that Miss Bustier entered the class, finally putting a timely end to the whole ordeal.

“Has everyone found a seat?” she called.

“Hey. Don’t let her get to you.” The new girl turned towards Marin again.

He nodded.

“If only I could… She makes my life miserable. My only comfort is the thought that I’ll be free once I graduate.”

“I’m Alya, what’s your name?”

“I’m Marin” He replied. “Pleased to meet you.”

“For those of you who don't yet know me,” Miss Bustier called yet again, “I'm Miss Bustier and I'll be your teacher this year.”

At least with the lesson going on, I should be safe from unnecessary trouble.

Marin pulled out his history book, the same one from last year, bearing yet another reminder. "Marin the Gay-boy" scrawled over the cover, courtesy of Kim.

Safe, huh.

“Everything you’ll never be, Everything you’ll never have.”

Like a clean history book.

It was then when the memories came back to life, a flashback from last year.

---

“Who did this?”

Marin looked about, trying to discern any dead giveaways by his classmates. Too many of them seemed to be smiling too mysteriously to be able to get anything out of them.

You need to stand up for yourself! Show them weakness and they’ll hunt you down like prey!

… easier said than done.

He took another good look at his history book. A small red scrawl was now adorning it, not unlike a barb stuck in flesh and equally painful.

“ Marin the Gay-Boy ”.

“Please… tell me who did this.”

Weariness engulfed his voice as it went weak.

I’ll find out who did this! I’ll…

Drip.

Drop.

The book’s hardcover had just won yet another adornment, as Marin’s teardrops started collecting over it.

Marin picked up the book, tucked it by his side and blasted away from class, his legs carrying him as far as he could, a bout of laughter coming from his classmates in his wake.

By the time Nino found him, his tears had mostly dried out.

“I saw it, dude. It was Kim.”

Marin sighed.

“Thanks, Nino. I… there’s nothing I can do about it, now can I?”

Nino nodded.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

---

I may have missed first period and the picking of seats, but I haven’t missed out the first day entirely. I guess luck is somewhat on my side, today.

“Hey there, Adrikins. Here’s your seat, I saved it for you. Right in front of me!”

So, I have that going for me as well!

“Thanks, Chloe, that’s really nice of you!”

As Chloe and her friend Sabrina went to do something else, Adrien found it to be an opportunity to introduce himself to other students around. What caught his attention the most about the nearby student were his orange headphones, seemingly a fixture of his appearance.

“Hey, I’m Adrien, pleased to meet you!” he offered his hand and got answered with a sturdy shake.

“Yo, I’m Nino. So, you’re that guy Chloe mentioned earlier?”

It was at that moment that he caught something happening out of the corner of his eye.

“What’s that all about?” he called towards Chloe and Sabrina, as both were putting gum on one of the seats.

“The brat that sits here needs a reminder of his place in the hierarchy. I'm just commanding a bit of respect, that's all.”

“You think that's really necessary?”

“Ah, you've got a lot to learn about school culture, Adrikins. Watch the master.”

Hardly convinced, Adrien went about trying to remove the gum from that seat, as he heard another male voice.

“Oh. So that’s your method of choice. How original.”

The voice sighed as Chloe and Sabrina laughed.

“Uhhh… I…” Adrien tried to protest, as he turned towards who he presumed was the seat’s owner.

The first thing that struck him about this boy is that he had a good amount of untapped potential. Smooth black hair, bright blue eyes… given proper care, he could look so much nicer, but he was relatively unkempt and his clothes were poorly matched too.

“And to think I imagined this year would be any different. Stupid, stupid, stupid. ” The boy lamented.

“No, no, I was just trying to take this off!” Adrien tried to salvage the situation, but to no avail.

All the while, Chloe and Sabrina continued to laugh.

“I see you’re in cahoots with Chloe. You don’t need to play pretend with me.”

“See?” Chloe said, “Gay-boy here knows his place. As he should.”

Marin just covered the gum with spare tissue paper and sat by Alya.

“There you go. Adrien Agreste, daddy's boy, teen supermodel and Chloe's buddy.” Alya quipped.

“I bet he’s used to not seeing or caring how people beneath his status feel,” Marin muttered.

---

Alya had little interest in the class, but much more interest in her table partner. She quickly learned that Marin wanted to be a famous designer after he graduated. While she wasn’t a professional, the sketches Marin gave her seemed really good. But there was something else to watch for, too. How his face had lit up when he handed her his sketches. For a moment there, he seemed to be another person altogether. His face brightened up as he took at least a hint of pride in his handiwork.

And you should. Not to mention that a smile looks so much better on you than that sad face you had on earlier.

They had a free hour just after class, so Alya was only mildly surprised when Marin caught her hand and pulled her towards somewhere as he ran forward.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked.

“The best place this school has to offer.” he grinned and continued to dash forward.

“I present you… the art club room!” he exclaimed.

It’s as if he’s another person entirely.

Marin waded in, showing Alya all the different areas the art room had to offer.

A wall for street art, mostly cleaned from past works but still bearing color marks of older works. Desks used for writing, pen scratch marks still visible even after having been cleaned for the new year. Drawing stands, also marked by some uncleanable paint blots. Then there was...

“... Here it is. A state of the art sewing machine, My best and only friend in this entire school.” he laughed, but in a moment the smile dropped from his face.

“That… I…”

He sat by, not nearly as happy as before, and pulled a derby hat from the nearby drawer.

“I worked on this last year and haven’t managed to finish it yet.”

Alya picked up the hat and casually caressed the fabric. It felt somewhat sturdy yet comfy.

Marin flicked the machine on and seemed to be mulling his next move. Eventually, he just turned it back off without doing anything.

“We technically shouldn’t be here without a teacher, so let’s go.” His passionless voice took over again.

Alya could see this was nothing but an excuse, but she declined to call it out. Her instincts told her there was no chance on earth Marin wasn’t keen on violating this rule more than once.

“It really is a lovely place.” She tried to brighten up the atmosphere, with mild success.

“And I loved the hat.” She said as she handed it back for Marin to place in the drawer again.

That seemed to work a bit better.

“Wait ‘till it’s complete, then. I’m sure it will suit you well.” Half a smile crept to Marin’s face.

---

Marin bid Alya farewell as he left the classroom and slouched towards the school’s main doors.

He cautiously opened it, only to find rain pouring outside and the sky filled with grey clouds.

A fresh start, huh? The morning’s nice weather is already gone. At least the bleakness isn’t hiding anymore.

He stood by, still sheltered, when he found out another person was standing next to him.

That Adrien guy. And he just noticed me. That’s the last thing I need right now.

“Hey!” Adrien called.

He slowly sidestepped to maintain a safe distance between them and turned his head away, muttering a slight ‘hmph’.

“Hey, listen buddy… I really was trying to remove that gum from your seat.”

Marin turned his head around and looked at Adrien, wide-eyed.

I… I must be dreaming. Did he really just say that?

“S-so… you weren’t…” he tried to piece together his words and found himself unable to do so.

“Of course not. I came here to study, to make friends… I’m not here to harass or insult people, where’s the sense in that?”

He is sincere about it. Somebody that doesn’t see me as the “gay punching bag” everyone else does.

“I didn’t even get your name.”

“It’s… It’s Marin.”

Marin’s heart nearly skipped a beat, one that he was sure Adrien managed to hear even with the rain’s sound muffling it.

And then, there was an inaudible sound he missed.

A cracking sound, as the nearly-impenetrable shell, one that was built layer over layer of self-defence from bullying and mistreatment, sealing off his emotions, gave just a little bit of way.

Adrien let his hand out of the shelter, feeling the raindrops accumulating.

“So, Marin, It’s raining and I’ve got a ride, need an umbrella?”

He nodded ever so slightly and Adrien pulled out a black umbrella. A click and a whoosh and it was now open, handed for him to take.

Marin cautiously reached out for the umbrella Adrien handed him, his hand shaking and trembling.

That’s… so nice… so… so unlike…

No sooner than he had picked it up though, his hand slipped and triggered the activation switch, the umbrella closing shut over him.

Adrien laughed for a brief moment and gave Marin a slight friendly shoulder bump.

“You keep safe, alright buddy?”

“A… al… alr-...”

Marin barely even noticed his bag dropping, hitting the ground with a ‘thud’ and his personal effects rolling about on the wet pavement. His eyes were transfixed as Adrien waved goodbye and proceeded towards his pick up car.

He’s not going to insult me or beat me or humiliate me.

Someone I can trust. Someone I can rely on.

I feel… safe next to him.

.

.

Oh, Adrien!

Maybe things were going to be different after all.

---

Unnoticed by them both, there was another figure watching the exchange, clad in a hawaiian t-shirt and accompanied by a green looking creature.

“Are you sure of your choice, master?”

“Yes. He will make a fine Chat Noir…

… and she will make for an unforgettable Ladybug.”

next

[supertoyslastallsummerlong]

Ramblings time!

Today it’s about positive things Connor can say about Hank in his conversations with Amanda.

The first one is one of my favorites as a shipper, but not only. It’s “Intriguing” answer to question what Connor does think about his future work partner in Waiting for Hank.

I think he's irritable, and socially challenged. But I also think he used to be a good detective... He's an intriguing character. 

 It’s the only positive option Connor can choose at this point. And putting aside Connor’s obvious competence kink yes, all other options are true - Hank at the moment of their first meeting is unpleasant and unprofessional,  addicted, dysfunctional. But still, investigating prototype can find him interesting. Maybe because he hasn’t find the key to this contradiction, the answer to the question what made the heroic Leutenant into broken man. I still wonder why this piece of information needed to be hidden, and I have couple crack theories to why.XD One of them is that Cyberlife concealed this from Connor, because deemed it irrelevant to investigation. They send Connor to investigate, not to build good relationship with Hank Anderson.

(Also, Amanda presents work with Hank as something they ‘have’ to do, unfortunate but unavoidable condition. Maybe it’s true, but again, why give deviant cases to Hank, man who really wouldn’t want this? I’ve read a theory that Hank was chosen because he has no family left and therefore Cyberlife would not have to answer to them in case Hank died. Or maybe DPD chose Hank because he had too many discipline trespassings, and couldn’t refuse and not be fired, because others wouldn’t want to work with an android investigator - first of many who may soon replace human detectives. )

The second example comes after Nest. The thing here is, if Connor chooses to save Hank, he’s letting Rupert slip away, But his answer about this event is calm, and yet displays the growing level of understanding between them. 

He seemed grateful that I saved his life on the roof. He didn't say anything, but he expressed it in his own way...

Okay, that attention to detail is even sweet, but really, how else detective prototype expected human to react after his life was saved?XD And yet, it can mark Hank’s gratitude as something important for Connor. As well as him getting used to Connor in general, it seems.

I've come to understand him better, and he's growing accustomed to my presence.

The ‘positive’ option sounds restrained, but at the same time it’s so reassuringly confident. Connor clearly considers understanding Hank satisfactory.

The next instance is the one I find invitingly not simple. It is an option after Eden Club and night in park where Hank pulls a gun on Connor. Enough turmoil to throw off even non-deviant. This is the variation where Hank didn’t shoot.

My relationship with Lieutenant Anderson is problematic. He continues to struggle with psychological issues... I suspect it clouds his judgement regarding deviants.

What I like about this? First, that if Connor chooses it instead of Eden club investigation, he puts more emphasis on his partner than on his mission. And secondly, while it is Connor trying to tell Amanda that Hank is not suited for the job and better be removed on the basis of his mental state, she catches something else underneath and tells Connor off. Nothing matters more than your investigation. What's happening is too important. Don't let Anderson or anyone else get in your way.  Connor is visibly bothered by Hank’s state - and maybe, not only because investigation is at risk, but because Hank is in danger.

And finally, the piece from Last chance. It is not directly a positive statement about Hank, but bear with me. Amanda asks Connor about doubts and conflicts only if he killed Tracis and/or Chloe - both instances include not only serious decreasing of program instability, but has big negative impact on his relationship with Hank. And both concern empathy - or lack thereof. And if Connor admits to having thoughts that are outside of his program, Amanda is visibly taken aback.

Why is this answer displeases Amanda? Shouldn’t it be easier to control android who willingly, albeit with difficulty, admits that he might be deviating? Maybe because Connor is not supposed to let any doubts slip in, even if they are true. Thought crime as it is.

What does Hank has to do with this? First, his name was voiced with emphasis by Amanda.  Do you feel anything for these deviants... Or for Lieutenant Anderson? Deviants and Hank are on the same level of forbidden, why? No, i’m not writing it in shippy sense.  In fact. maybe it is easy - the answer is empathy. When Connor is moved by other androids and their stories of abuse and injustice, he steps closer to deviation - and the same if he is invested in getting closer to Hank, to understand him better with all dysfunctionalities. When Connor wants Hank to stay alive and get better, an android who’s supposed to not give a damn and pursue investigation.

[pl-panda]

Damienette arranged marriage: part 15

Three in a row. I’m on fire tonight. 

Credits: Miraculous Ladybug team for the elements I take from MLB show. DC for their characters, @ozmav for the AU, @maribat-archive for giving me access to so many different stories to have take inspirations from, @thyladyanput for idea for Chat Damian and me for the plot.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Part 12 Part 13

part 14

Damienette arranged marriage: part 15

NEXT

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

Damian slowly approached and took Marinette’s hand. He leaned over so their faces were only centimeters apart.

“I am sorry.’

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

Damian hesitated. He still was not sure of this. Back in the league his grandfather always told him that emotions are for weak. Kissing someone like that was just a tool to exploit them. His mother had a bit more… romantical approach. That this is part of loving someone and a symbol of commitment. Of course he was five back then so she probably spared him some details. But this was only reinforced when he left the league. It was always symbol of affection and girls at school kept babbling about how magical it would be. He never bothered to really listen, but he did suddenly remember all the talking. And there was Marinette.

She told him that she didn’t like being kissed. There was this one instance with Felix where she legitly punched him. She told him that she was waiting with her first kiss for the right moment. Well, she admitted she had to kiss Chat Noir once to save him, but it was just a peck on the lips. That would work… Just a peck… But he still couldn’t do it. He didn’t want to ruin it for her. Damian, deep down, wanted it to be mutual thing. 

In the far corner of the room, Tikki, Ryuko, Viperion and Jon stood awkwardly. It was like watching Sleeping beauty, especially with Marin in this dress and her hair low. But the image was broken by her pain, so visible on her face, and the eerie green glow around her chest. Also, all except Tikki were silently processing other revelations. Excuse us, what the hell?

Damian finally straightened. He couldn’t do it. He wanted to. He wanted to ease her pain so much. But he could not do it that way. He had to do it, but his whole body rebelled against him. He knew her for twenty-four hours and she already meant to him more than he would ever admit. Maybe it was because they were married, but she did not treat him like anyone but himself. She did not distinguish between Robin, Wayne, Al Ghoul. She just saw Damian. And she gave him a chance. She opened in front of him and he was not about to abuse this. He didn’t want to be like Chat d’Amour who just saw her as his property. She should be allowed to make the choice herself and not be forced.

“You need to do it.” Tikki finally urged him. “She is so much pain. I don’t know how long her heart will survive.”

Damian sighted. He leaned again and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. “I am so sorry.”

He was about to kiss her properly when suddenly her face turned from the expression of pain into… calmness. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at surprised Damian with recognition. Tears formed in her eyes.

“I am so sorry! I didn’t want to kiss him. I swear. I tried to stop him but he was just so strong…” 

“What are you talking about?” Damian asked bewildered

“Chat… He… he kissed me… And then there was the pain. And all the time this scene kept replaying in my mind… I am so sorry…”

Damian pulled her into tight hug and started to whisper to her ear. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It was not your fault and I would never blame you. I am the one who should be sorry for what my mother did to you…” All the time, he kept stroking her hair, smoothening them after they turned into the mess when she wriggled from pain. 

“B-but… I… He… We… You…” She couldn’t form an intelligible sentence at the moment. 

“I do not care. It was not your fault. You did your best I’m sure.”

They sat there in peace. It was surprising for everyone gathered (including now awake Chloe who was still trying to process everything that happened. Given the amount of news and emotions in one day, she was doing fine. Finally, Marinette stopped crying. 

“If you say ‘I’m sorry again’, I will go out there and not come back before I bring you skin of that envious bastard.” He threatened. “You are not at fault and I will not let you blame yourself.” He said in stern voice.

“T-thank you... “ She said weakly. 

“Now we have to sort out a bit of a mess that formed.”

“What mess?” Marinette asked curiously. 

“You are Ladybug…” Chloe stated, finally regaining the ability to speak. She still sounded like she was not fully there. “You are married. Your husband is Damian Wayne. He is also Robin. You are Ladybug!” The last sentence was shouted.

Kagami looked around and decided that secret identity was not as important as comforting her only friend. “Longg! Open Sky!” The Kwami left her choker and floated next to Tikki. “Mari-san. I honestly have no words to even start describing this situation, but I trust your judgement.” The fencer then turned to Damian. “That being said, I feel obliged to challenge you to a duel to test your worthiness to court my friend.”

“I like her.” Chloe commented. 

Luka also decided to just drop his costume. “Sass! Scales rest!” He was now dressed in his usual garments. “I would challenge you for a duel as well, but I think if you can beat Kagami then I will pose no challenge. Beware the Sabine though.” He half-joked, half warned the poor boy.

“Can we tell them everything?” Damian asked, looking at Marinette.

“I… Fine…”

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

When they finally sorted this mess out and left, they decided to take a stroll through the park. 

“I… thank you.” She finally said after walking a bit in silence. “I just… I mean we… And he… You… we… Ugh! Why is this so hard!” Marinette threw her hands up in the air and accelerated the pace until Damian stopped her and cupped her hands with his.

“tt. You did nothing wrong. You are perfect to me. My own Angel.” He said, trying to comfort her. 

“You… You think I am an Angel?” She asked shyly.

“You know how my brothers call me demon spawn. I… Earned this. I was awful. And it didn’t help that others always saw me as either Robin, Wayne, Al Ghoul or just Demon Spawn. You just saw me as Damian. I should be the one thanking you.” He said honestly.

Marinette blushed, becoming the color of her dress. THey just stood there as the sun set behind the buildings.

“Just to be clear. I do not care if he kissed you. It was wrong and I will still skin him alive for that.” Receiving a glare from her he huffed, but continued. “But I want to make sure that you understand. You are not the one to blame. If he tries something like this again, there will be no place in heaven, hell or earth that he will hide. That I can promise to you.”

Marinette was silent, taking his words in. A smile was plastered on her face. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you. I…”

“Shhh. I know. I am also happy.” He paused for a moment. “But if we already revealed the marriage to your friends, I think it is time to reveal it also to your parents.” He stated. “Otherwise they might learn from a different source and I do not wish to be at war with them.

Marinette agreed and they walked back to the bakery, hand in hand. They entered and Marinette led him to the living room. She could hear the talking and got curious, but shrugged it off as a TV playing.

“Maman! Papa! I am home! There is someone I wanted to intro…” She walked into the living room, still holding Damian by his hand. The sight was as scary as it was amusing.

Sabine was standing next to Talia Al Ghouls who sitting there… tied with heavy ropes. 

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