#out of safety i’m posting this while not in paris anymore

[flaminghotjareau]

jemily was there…

[out-with-the-boys]

The Dance- Chapter 28

Homelander x Supe OC

Notes: 18+ No warnings apply for this chapter. Each chapter will have individual content warnings as they apply to avoid spoilers. Find this work on AO3. Tumblr master post here.

Previous chapter.

The television cast a dim glow across the small living room. Morgan sat on the sofa, her legs crossed on the plush cushions, a hand resting protectively over the swell of her belly. A news anchor’s voice played from the speakers, clipped, urgent—detailing yet another ripple from the evidence Mallory had finally brought forward.

Things must have been too chaotic after the incident in Paris for her to throw the book at Vought until then.

“Breaking tonight: Former Vought International CEO, Stan Edgar, has been taken into federal custody pending investigation into charges of corporate corruption, unethical experimentation, obstruction of justice…”

The anchor’s words faded into the background as a clip of Edgar being escorted in handcuffs played on the screen. His expression was as impassive as ever, a mask of control even in defeat. Morgan felt a pang of satisfaction watching the man who had orchestrated so much of her misery brought low. But it was fleeting. Even with him gone, she was still trapped.

The segment shifted, the anchor’s tone darkening as she addressed another piece of breaking news. “Sources confirm that Victoria Neuman, allegedly super-abled and deeply embroiled in the Vought scandal, has not been seen since the release of this damning evidence…”

Morgan exhaled shakily. Neuman’s disappearance wasn’t surprising—she’d seen this coming. It was the inevitability of it all that unsettled her. Vought was no longer the unshakable monolith it once was. The cracks were showing, widening with every passing day. Public protests were spreading. Shareholders were fleeing. And yet, Morgan knew that Vought’s fall from grace didn’t guarantee her freedom—or safety.

The baby shifted slightly, an almost imperceptible movement beneath her hand, and Morgan murmured, “We’re not out of this yet, are we?”

The familiar chime of an incoming video call jolted her out of her thoughts. It was only a matter of time before Homelander called. As the news feed disappeared, there was a brief moment the tv screen went dark and she caught her reflection, faintly visible. 

Exhaustion etched deep lines into her features. She didn’t recognize herself anymore—not the quiet scientist who had once dreamed of building something meaningful, nor the confident new member of The Seven who had tried her best to navigate Vought’s treacherous waters. Now, she was someone else entirely—someone caught in the storm she’d helped unleash.

Morgan let out a long breath before answering the call. She didn’t want to, but she knew ignoring him wouldn’t stop him. If anything, it would only make things worse. After another moment Homelander’s face appeared on the screen, his eyes sharp and calculating, but there was something else there—fatigue. His mask of control was cracking, just like the company he likely now ruled.

“You look cozy,” he began, his tone tight, almost mocking. “All settled in while the rest of us deal with the fallout. Must be nice.”

Morgan didn’t rise to the bait. “You’re the one who wanted me imprisoned here, remember?” she replied, keeping her voice steady. “Safe. Comfortable. Out of the way.”

His jaw tightened, and for a moment, he didn’t respond. Finally, he said, “I didn’t want you locked up. I wanted you out of harm’s way.”

“Feels like the same thing from where I’m sitting.” She gestured to the room around her. “I can’t leave, I can’t talk to anyone, and I’m being watched. Sounds like a prison to me.”

Homelander leaned back slightly, his eyes narrowing. “You think I don’t see what you’re doing?” he said, his voice dropping, quieter but no less dangerous. “Acting like you’re the victim in all this?”

Morgan raised an eyebrow. “And I suppose, somehow, you are in all of this?” she asked, keeping her tone calm, though her pulse quickened.

His expression darkened, the faintest flicker of doubt or betrayal crossing his face. “You think I couldn’t figure it all out? Edgar. Becca and Ryan. You had your hands in all of it, didn’t you?” He paused, his voice sharpening.

Her stomach twisted, but she refused to flinch. “You’ve lost a lot of people lately,” she said softly. “That doesn’t mean it’s my fault.”

“Don’t play dumb,” he snapped, his voice rising. “You think I don’t know how you operate? You get inside people’s heads, make them see what you want them to see, do what you want them to do. Even without your powers, you’ve been toying with all of us since the beginning.”

She held his gaze, her face calm even as her pulse thundered in her ears. “Edgar made his own mistakes. And Becca? She never wanted any of what happened to her. She wanted out from day one. I didn’t have to manipulate anyone for any of that to happen.”

He let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “You are such a goddamn hypocrite.” he said, his tone cold and cutting. “You’ve been playing everyone in your own way. You manipulate everyone you touch, Morgan. You’ve even got me questioning my own decisions.”

Morgan scoffed. “Maybe you should be questioning them,” she said, her voice soft but unyielding. “Because right now, all I see is someone trying to hold onto power at any cost. Even if it means destroying everyone around you.”

For a moment, the silence between them was deafening. His expression flickered, the weight of her words sinking in despite his best efforts to dismiss them.

“You don’t understand,” he said finally, his voice quieter now, almost pleading. “You don’t know what it’s like to have everything and still feel like it’s never enough. To lose everything and have no one left.”

Her chest tightened, the raw vulnerability in his voice cutting through her defenses. For a moment, the anger she had felt toward him softened, replaced by something more complex. She recognized the loneliness in his words, the gnawing emptiness he tried so hard to mask with power and control. It wasn’t so different from the isolation that had been wearing on her these past weeks.

“You think I don’t know what that feels like?” she asked quietly, her voice softer now. “To have everything and still feel like you’re losing yourself? To wake up every day wondering if the choices you made were worth it?”

His gaze sharpened, the faintest flicker of recognition passing through his expression. “And what would you know about that?” he muttered, but there was no real venom in his voice.

Morgan exhaled slowly, her fingers curling over the swell of her belly. “I know what it’s like to lose pieces of yourself, bit by bit, until you don’t even recognize the person staring back at you. I know what it’s like to be trapped, to have your life picked apart and rebuilt into something you don’t even want. And I know what it’s like to be alone. Even when you’re surrounded by people who claim to care.”

Homelander’s eyes darted away from the screen for a moment before snapping back to hers. “I didn’t want this for you,” he said, his voice low, and soft. “I just… I didn’t want to lose you.”

Her throat tightened, and she fought to keep her voice steady. “I know,” she said softly. “But the harder you hold on, the more you push me away.”

The silence between them was heavy, charged with something neither of them could name. For the first time, Morgan saw the cracks in his armor for what they were—not weakness, but pain. He had built himself up to be untouchable, invincible, but underneath it all, he was just as human as she was. Just as lost.

“You don’t have to lose everything,” she said finally, her voice trembling but resolute. “But you have to stop trying to control it all. You can’t hold the whole world in your hands, Homelander. And you don’t have to.”

His expression flickered, a storm of emotions crossing his face—anger, confusion, vulnerability. He leaned closer to the camera, his voice barely above a whisper. “And what am I supposed to do, Morgan? Just let it all go? Let you go?”

She swallowed hard, her chest aching with the weight of the moment. “Maybe. Maybe you start by letting me breathe.”

Homelander didn’t respond right away. His eyes searched hers through the screen, as if trying to decipher some hidden meaning in her words. For a moment, the silence stretched between them, heavy and oppressive.

“You make it sound so easy,” he said finally, his voice quiet but laced with bitterness. “Just… letting go. But you don’t know what it’s like to have the whole world expect everything from you. To be the answer to every problem. And when you can’t be—” He stopped himself, jaw tightening.

Her voice was steady but soft. “You think I don’t understand expectations? I was brought into The Seven to control you. To keep the world safe from its greatest weapon. Do you know what kind of pressure that is? To know that everyone sees you as nothing more than a leash?” She shook her head. “You’re not the only one who feels trapped by what people want from you.”

His eyes darkened, his jaw still tight as her words settled between them. “You think you’re some kind of martyr?” he asked, his voice sharp and biting. “Like you’ve had it worse than me? You have no idea what I’ve sacrificed. What I’ve endured.”

Her lips curved into a bitter smile. “You’re right,” she said, her voice quiet but cutting. “I don’t know what it’s like to be you. To have the world worship you one day and turn against you the next. To have all that power and still feel completely powerless. But you know what, Homelander? At least you chose this.”

He flinched, just slightly, but she caught it.

“You chose to embrace what Vought made you,” she continued, her voice rising. “You chose to play their game, to revel in their lies, to become the face of everything they stood for. But me? I didn’t get a choice. I was brought into this mess because you couldn’t be trusted to control yourself.”

The words hit their mark, and for a moment, Homelander’s expression was unreadable. Then his lips curled into a humorless smile, his eyes cold. 

“You’re walking a very fine line,” he warned, his voice low and lethal. 

She leaned forward slightly, her gaze unwavering. “I’ve been walking that line since the day I joined The Seven,” she said, her voice hard. “And every step I’ve taken has been to survive you. Don’t you dare act like you’re the victim here.”

The silence that followed was deafening. For a moment, she thought he might lash out, might unleash the full force of his fury. But instead, he leaned back, his expression unreadable once more.

“Did you ever really care, then?” he asked, something barely restrained roiling just below the surface of his controlled mask. “Everything was just for show then?”

Morgan froze, the question striking deeper than she expected. Her mind raced, torn between the truth and the lie she’d been telling herself for weeks. She opened her mouth to answer but hesitated, the weight of his gaze pinning her in place.

“I…” she began, her voice faltering. She looked away, her fingers tightening instinctively over the swell of her belly. “It’s not that simple.”

Homelander’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing. “It is that simple,” he snapped. “Either you cared or you didn’t. Either you felt something real, or you were just playing me like everyone else.”

She exhaled shakily, her heart pounding in her chest. “I cared,” she admitted softly, the words tasting like ash on her tongue. “I still care. But that doesn’t change anything.”

“And why doesn’t it?” he asked, his voice breaking. He immediately tried to regain his composure, but that small crack in his facade didn’t escape her. For just a moment, she could see that small boy from his memories again. All he’d ever wanted was love and approval, and it had been denied him time and time again. 

And here she was continuing the cycle.

Morgan’s throat tightened, her mind racing as she held his gaze. She wanted to hate him—needed to, for her own sanity. But seeing that flicker of vulnerability, that small, broken part of him that had never stopped yearning for connection, made it almost impossible.

“You think it’s easy for me?” she said finally, her voice trembling. “You think I don’t feel guilty every single day for how this turned out? For leaving you? But I couldn’t stay, Homelander. I couldn’t become another person in your life who fed into the lies and the chaos. That’s not love.”

His expression shifted, the anger draining from his face for just a moment, replaced by something raw and unguarded. “Then what is it?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Because from where I’m standing, it just looks like you gave up.”

She flinched at the accusation, her chest tightening with the weight of his words. “I didn’t give up,” she said, her voice firm but quiet. “I chose myself. For once, I chose what was best for me.”

Once more, his expression hardened. The disdain in his cold, blue eyes was almost palpable as he sneered. “And look where that got you.”

The screen went black before she could respond, leaving her staring at her own reflection once again. Her chest ached, her thoughts a tangled mess of doubt and determination. With a tremulous exhale, her hand drifted to her belly. 

She wasn’t sure how long she could keep this up.

But she had to. 

Song: Falling Apart by Michael Schulte “Try to untie from an old life, But it always drags me down.” Author’s notes: Ya girl is going through it. The consistent push and pull between these two is such an interesting dynamic to me. While Morgan’s powers don’t make her an ‘Empath’ she definitely feels so much empathy toward him just from what she’s gleaned from his memories. It really makes it hard for her to look at her situation with a strictly logical lens. Homelander is so not good for her (and that’s why I have too much fun writing this) but she’s still pulled in his direction. Anyways, that’s enough commentary from me. Thanks for reading! See you next chapter!

Next chapter.

[artzee-bee]

End of all things [1] | Chat Noir x witch!reader

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug (Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir)

Summary: Y/N had been Chat Noir’s friend and moral support for a long time now. Even though she had magical powers too, she never liked getting involved with akuma attacks, but now, as Hawkmoth’s gotten control of the miraculous of creation, she couldn’t stay indiferent anymore. She had to save her friend and Paris!

Genre: Mostly angst? A little fluff

Warnings: canon typical violence, mentions of death/dying

A/N: This was requested, but as I was writting it, it got very long and I’ve decided to post it in 2 parts. I’m not gonna post the request just now, so as to not spoil the rest of the story but Part 2 will be coming out on friday!!!

Part 2

~~~

Chat was pacing around the room, waiting for you to be done with your potion. You had heard from your parents that there had been a new akuma attack today, but as the news reported, the two parisian heros took care of the problem in no time. For this reason, Chat’s presence at your house felt unusual. Normally he would stop by when he needed to rant, when he was in need of comfort and reassurance but the fight today went well, so what could possibly be bothering him?

“Ok, I’m done” you said, screwing the cap on the little bottle and placing it on your shelf “Wanna talk?” you asked, to which Chat gave you a shy smile

“Yeah, a little”

You made your way to your bed, motioning for him to follow you. You got under your covers and passed him his favorite plushie, a cat to no one’s surprise

“So what’s up? Is it about the fight today?”

“Well no it’s more like a...personal problem?”

“Oh…”

“Claws out” in a rush of light and electricity, the infamous hero vanished before you, transforming into Adrien Agrest

“Well, what is it?” 

Adrien revealed his identity to you months ago. You first met him as Chat, but when you really got to know each other, he decided you needed to know all of him. Well, he needed you to know all of him.

You listened to him rant until way past midnight. Until you were both too tired to stand up straight, so you laid down in your bed, covers up to your necks, muffled stories told in between yawns. You listened carefully, giving him your full attention. He fidgeted with the collar of the stuffed toy and you used your magic to make 2 hot chocolates. Eventually, everything that needed to be said, was said. You offered Adrien to watch a movie, since that always cheered him up, but he refused

“It’s late and I have a photoshoot early in the morning. My makeup team will be angry with my dark circles anyways, better not make it worse” he joked

Adrien transformed back into Chat and you cast a safety spell on him, which you did every time he left your house late at night. He always teased you about being ‘too protective’, but deep down he found it sweet how much you cared and wanted to know that he would get home in one piece.

“Night Chat” you said, wrapping your arms around the hero

“Good night Y/N!”

The next few days went by quietly. You hadn’t run into Adrien at all, but you texted a bit back and forth. Sunday evening however, things took a toll for the worst. You turned on your tv, ready to catch up with your show when you heard Nadja Chamack’s voice doing the news report

“It seems as though Rena Rouge and Chat Noir are struggling to stay on their feet! They have taken shelter under a fallen bus, leaving Ladybug alone to defeat Hawkmoth'' your pulse skyrocketed. As you watched the screen you could see Chat and Rena off to the side, struggling to catch their breath. Rena seemed to be in pain while Chat was trying to help. Ladybug was using her yoyo the best she could in order to protect herself from the supervillain, who was wielding his cane like a sword over her head. The fight was clearly going in Hawkmoth's favour! You grabbed your jacket and ran out the front door and onto the empty streets of Paris, towards the Eiffel Tower, where the fight was taking place. 

People screamed at you from their balconies to go home, warning you about the fight and the danger you were putting your life in but you didn’t care. All you could think about was how they needed you. Chat needed you! Every late night talk and every inside joke shared between you two replaid in your head like a broken record. Behind Chat’s tough mask, his alter ego of hero and protector, was the fragile figure of Adrien Agreste. The young blonde boy who cried during romantic comedies, who liked to have his hair braided and forgot how to speak when someone complimented him. If you didn’t help, the heros would loose and he would most likely die! Alongside Ladybug and Rena who, even though you didn’t know their real identities, were still young girls. As you ran down the street, you heard kids crying inside one of the homes. You ran past but at the last second you heard Nadia’s voice coming from their tv

“Ladybug was akumatized”

You approached the Eiffel tower from the side, where you could see everything going on. In front of the tower, right next to Hawkmoth, stood Marinette Dupain-Cheng, dressed in a tight, dark red suit, darker than Ladybug’s. Black butterflies replaced the dots of the heroine's suit and the purple butterfly mask of Hawkmoth’s control was shining over her face. Marinette was Ladybug! She did, in fact, get akumatized. On the other side, you saw Rena and Chat, struggling to stay up right. They were obviously in a lot of pain and extremely tired, but Hawkmoth was merely mocking them.

“After all this time” Chat spoke up, but his breaths were shallow and rapid “I thought you’d know one thing about us! We don’t give up without a fight. Never will. Especially not against you” and with that, the two ran at each other.

“It doesn’t have to end like this, you know?” he said “We don’t have to fight to death. I wouldn’t want to have that on my conscience. All you have to do is give me your miraculouses willingly. The town will be safe, you will be safe! It’s the most heroic option you’ve got. You won’t be any good to Paris if you are dead”

You knew this was not just another fight between them. This was it. Either the heros won or everything they’ve worked for would be lost. Hawkmoth would win and get his hands on both miraculous and god knows what kind of destruction that would bring not only upon Paris, but the world. You focused all your energy in one spot in the air, right between where Chat and Hawkmoth were supposed to clash but before they could reach each other, you sent a wave of energy that blew both of them apart, like a bomb. Hawkmoth flew back into the Eiffel tower while Chat hit the pavement with a thud. Confused and certainly disturbed, both of them began looking around for an answer as to what happened when, finally, Hawkmoth’s eyes landed on yours.

“Aha, miss Y/L/N. What a spectacular honor to finally meet you!” you didn’t reply, instead you stood tall, maintaining eye contact

“I know a lot about you. Seen a lot. Felt a lot of your emotions. None of them can compare to the powers I’ll have with the two miraculouses. With Ladybug’s earrings and the guardian under my control, I’d say my mission here is almost over’’

“Y/N get back!’’ Chat screamed but you were too involved now to run. This was your fight too.

“It is time you give up Hawkmoth. Paris is not yours, neither are the miraculouses. We will destroy you, no matter what it takes!”

“Listen to yourself, kid! <<Destroy me>>? The most you can do is pull a rabbit out of your hat…” before he could finish his sentence, you snapped your fingers in his direction and instantly, the ground around beneath Hawkmoth and akumatized Marinette, fractured. From within the cracks, many tangled plants came out, encapsulating the 2 villains. You sprinted towards Chat and Rena, ignoring the signs of struggle coming from the prison of weeds.

 Alongside the two superheros, you hid inside a corner coffee shop, which was now empty.

“Y/N, you need to leave!! You are putting yourself in too much danger!” Rena told you, as she collapsed to the ground from exhaustion

“Stop with that already! I am here and I’m not going anywhere!”

“Yes you are!” Chat looked at you. His voice was calm and yet, his eyes were filled with disappointment “You are not a superhero. This is our job!”

“You need help”

“No we don’t!” Chat had never, in all your years of friendship, raised his voice at you, let alone yell “ You need to stay safe! You could die! Hawkmoth doesn’t care about anything if it helps him get what he wants! I am ready to take that risk. Rena is too” you both turned to the red headed hero, only to see her slowly nod “But I can’t allow you to take it”

“You can’t tell me what to do”

“I don’t want you to die!” he screamed again “I love you and I will never forgive myself if you don’t come out of this alive!”

Before you could say anything, you saw Hawkmoth and his minion, through the cafe window, cutting through the last of the plants and escaping your trap. You grabbed Chat’s arm and pulled him to the floor, from where you could not be seen

“We’re in this together now” you said in a stern voice, looking the blonde kid right in his eyes “Whether you like it or not '' this time, he simply nodded.

You stuffed your hands into the pocket of your jacket and pulled out 3 little bottles, containing a mate, green liquid. You had prepared one for each of the heros, now you’d only need two.

“Here, drink this!” You handed each of them one “Regeneration potion. Should put you back on your feet.” as soon as they finished drinking the brew, you could see color coming back to their faces

“Where’s Marinette’s akuma??” 

“Her necklace” replied Rena “It’s a gift from her kwami”

“Got it. You deal with Hawkmoth. I’ll bring Marinette back!”

Chat and Rena exited through the front door, grabbing Hawkmoth’s attention. He called out to Marinette to attack, but before she could take a single step in your direction, you had snuck up behind her. Using a simple invisibility spell, you managed to exit unnoticed behind the two heros. It finally felt like the fight had truly begun. From the corner of your eye you could see Chat and Rena doging Hawkmoth’s attacks while you, were doing your best to get your hands on the stupid necklace! Even though she couldn’t see you, Marinette seemed to almost always know what your next move was. She would expertly block all your attack and would keep you an arm’s length away at all times. Finally, you had enough and in one swift motion, you pinned her back to your chest, ripping the necklace away. A wave of black and purple took over the both of you and when it vanished, all you were left with was a half unconscious Marinette in your arms. You dropped her to the ground slowly as she was coming back to her senses. You wanted to talk to her but your thoughts were driven away as you heard Chat scream bloody murder.

On the opposite side of the platza, you saw Hawkmoth rip Chat’s ring off his finger, forcing him to detransform. The exhausted figure of Adrien Agreste fell to the ground with a thud. Hawkmoth had, indeed, gotten his hand on both the miraculouses.

[haikyuu-scenarios-drabbles]

you weren’t supposed to hear that (F! reader)

A collection of instances where your roommate hears you moaning their name whilst your fingers are between your legs. Or your neighbor. Or maybe you walk in on them saying your name. Take your pick 😈

warnings: NSFW, manga spoilers (in terms of what the boys do post timeskip) words: 9.7k (oops)

a/n: wow it’s been awhile since I wrote one of these!! This has been half finished for a while and i finally got the inspiration to complete it. please enjoy!! 💖

Other parts: Kuroo | Sakusa

Ushijima Wakatoshi 

Being Ushijima’s roommate is fairly simple. He’s easy to get along with once you get past his jarring frankness and strict regime. Seriously, the guy never changes his routine; working out at 6am, breakfast at 8, leaving for practice at 9, home at 5, dinner at 7, and in bed by 9 o’clock. He’s a machine, but you don’t mind his predictability. It certainly makes your life easier being able to plan around his tried-and-true schedule.

You saw his ad for a roommate a few months ago when you were desperate to get out of your parents’ house and into the world. They weren’t too keen on the idea of you living with a man, but upon meeting Ushijima, they changed their minds quickly. Neither of them able to believe that stoic Ushijima Wakatoshi would ever lay a hand on you. Plus, the deal was far too good to pass up, he is seriously underselling the room you’re currently renting; and there’s the bonus that he’s frequently absent at away games, leaving the entire apartment for you to enjoy alone.

You learned quickly to keep your mouth shut on who exactly your roommate is, never inviting anyone over anymore in fear of them finding out from the various volleyball paraphernalia Ushijima so sparsely decorates the apartment with. It became difficult for you to tell if people you just met actually liked you, or if they just wanted a glimpse of the infamous Ushijima Wakatoshi and maybe an autograph. And don’t even get you started on his fangirls that he’s so oblivious about.

To your surprise, he was indifferent about having a roommate of the opposite sex. You thought for sure he’d try to ‘keep your honor’ or some shit like that, but all he’d asked you was what your job was to make sure you can pay rent, if you were tidy, and if you didn’t mind being alone. He’d seemed satisfied with your answers, and you’d moved in the following week.

The first and only time Ushijima has someone over, you get home from work surprised to see an interesting looking character standing in the kitchen across from him. They both look up at you, Ushijima giving you a slight nod in greeting while a wide smile spreads across his friends’ face.

“Ushiwaka! You didn’t mention your roommate is that pretty!”

Ushijima blinks as if he’s never considered that about you before, while you chuckle. “Ushi…waka?” You don’t think you’ve ever heard anyone refer to him in such a casual manner before.

The red-head beams, slinging an arm around Ushijima that he surprisingly allows. “Yup, me and Wakatoshi have been friends since high school!”

Now it’s your turn to blink, never having expected Ushijima to have friends outside of volleyball. Especially not ones who call him by his first name. In fact, you don’t even know if he considers any of his teammate’s friends either. He doesn’t spend any time with them outside of volleyball (that you know of) and so far, this is the first person he’s brought to the apartment since you moved in.

“Well,” the visitor nudges Ushijima in the side, who’s expression hasn’t changed throughout this entire interaction. “Are you going to introduce me or what?”

Finally, Ushijima speaks, his deep voice rumbling through your chest as he says, “This is Tendo, we played volleyball together in high school.” He doesn’t show it, but he notices your piqued interest at that information.

“Oh?” You say, “Do you still play?”

Tendo waves his hand dismissively, “Nah, it wasn’t for me. And I’m nothing compared to golden boy over here.”

You try to hide your amusement. This is definitely not what you were expecting from one of Ushijima’s friends. Tendo is rather enjoyable and chatty, much unlike the stone of a man sitting beside him.

“Tendo is a chocolatier in Paris,” Ushijima supplies.

Now you can’t hide your surprise. “Wow! That’s really amazing. What are you doing in Japan then?”

“Just visiting,” he beams. “And of course, I had to see my best friend Wakatoshi-kun.”

“Are you going to his game tomorrow?” You ask, ignoring the way Ushijima’s attention focuses on you. He didn’t think you paid much attention to his volleyball schedule besides when he’s going to be away.

Tendo nods excitedly. “Wouldn’t miss it! You should come too!”

You open your mouth to give some excuse, but then close it again at Tendo’s expectant expression. You bite your lip nervously; in the time you’ve been living with Ushijima you’ve never once actually seen him play. There’s a part of you that avoids it, fearful you might become one of his dreaded fangirls. But you can’t refuse Tendo’s invitation, and to Ushijima’s surprise, you agree to attend.

Clapping his hands together Tendo says, “We get to sit in Ushiwaka’s special seats! Maybe I’ll bring some chocolates for us to snack on…” And when he sees your eyes light up at that, he smiles again, “Chocolate for the lady, done.”

You laugh, and then Tendo is seeing himself out, telling you he can’t wait to see you both tomorrow. And once he’s gone, you can’t help feeling like you don’t know what to with yourself now. Not with Ushijima’s stare boring into your back. After a minute he says, “You don’t have to come.”

And if this had been the first week you’d known him, you might’ve taken that a little personally. But knowing him, he thinks he’s just stating something. He doesn’t see how it can be interpreted as him not wanting you there. “No, it sounds fun! And Tendo seems nice.”

“Tendo is very kind,” he states, and you have to resist the urge to chuckle at him. Ushijima is not a man of words and if that had come out of anyone else’s mouth you would’ve thought they were little strange. But in the months of living with him, despite your limited interactions, you’ve gotten used to his mannerisms.

Looking away from him, you start retreating down the hallway to the safety of your room, but before you disappear you say one more thing. “Plus, I’ve never seen you play.” Then you’re gone, not to be seen for the rest of the night. You don’t see him watch you until you’re out of sight. If you had, you would’ve been shocked by his dumbfounded expression at how the small smile you gave him made his heart stutter for a moment.  

Ushijima has to leave much earlier than you do for the game, but he informs you that Tendo will be by to pick you up and go to the game together. Then, for the first time probably ever, he bids you goodbye and tells you he’ll see you afterwards.

Tendo comes by the apartment a few hours later, sporting an Ushijima jersey and a box of chocolates he asks to hide in your bag. For having just met him yesterday, he easily leads the conversation, asking you all sorts of things—though he seems particularly interested in your relationship with Ushijima. You try to assure him it’s nothing. Really, you aren’t even sure if you can consider Ushijima your friend. Right now, you’re pretty much strictly roommates and that’s it.

When you let it slip that you’ve never seen Ushijima play, Tendo is shocked. “Really? Not even on TV or anything?”

You shake your head. “Nope! I guess I never thought of it.” The lie slips through your teeth easily and Tendo doesn’t bat an eye at it.

Though he does grin telling you, “You’re in for a treat then! Have you ever watched volleyball at all?”

Your regretfully admit to him that no—you’ve never seen a game. You do vaguely remember the rules from high school, but they’re a bit fuzzy now. Tendo tells you not to worry and spends the rest of the train ride to the stadium filling you in on all the aspects of volleyball. And the more he talks, the more excited you get.

When you finally enter the stadium, Tendo is amusingly proud to show off your VIP tickets to be allowed entrance to the special seats reserved solely for Ushijima’s guests. To your delight, they’re some of the best seats in the house and you and Tendo get to work on the chocolates you snuck in while you wait for the game to start. Already the stadium is buzzing with excitement and you can feel your own continue to grow.

Meanwhile, Ushijima hasn’t said a word that he has visitors today. So, it comes as a complete surprise to his teammates when a chorus of cheers erupts from his seats when he enters the stadium. He doesn’t take note of how shocked his teammates are—he’s never had any spectators before. And none of them ever expected one of them to be a girl.

“So, who’re your friends?” Heiwajima asks during warm-ups, nudging Ushijima in the side and motioning his head towards you and Tendo.

“Isn’t that Tendo-san?” Kageyama notes, his own eyes up in the stands.

Without looking upwards, Ushijima replies, “It is.”

Heiwajima rolls his eyes. “Yeah, we aren’t so interested in him as we are the beauty sitting next to him.”

Now Ushijima lifts his attention, eyes drifting to you. He hasn’t told anyone on the team he has a roommate. Not because he has any reason to hide you, but there has never been a reason for him to bring you up. So, he doesn’t think much of it when he says, “That’s my roommate.” And then introduces you.

Everyone on the teams’ eyes nearly bug out of their heads at that information.

“Ushijima, you bastard!”

His brow furrows. Why is he a bastard? You’re just his roommate. And he never lied to anyone about you, nobody ever asked.

“Keeping that a secret from us this whole time!”

He ponders that. He wasn’t really trying to keep any secret. “It’s not a secret,” he says. “You never asked.”

The team guffaws at him and continues to grill him about you until Hirugami claps his hands and tells everyone to focus on the match. They’ll have plenty of time to discuss Ushijima’s secret roommate later. Again, Ushijima tries to explain it you were never a secret, but Hirugami brushes him off and tells him to start spiking warm-ups.

It isn’t hard for him to ignore you and Tendo during the game. He’s used to having nobody here for him, so he just treats it like any other day. It’s nothing special, he’ll play the way he usually does. Meanwhile, up in the stands, you can’t keep your eyes off him. You finally see why he works so hard, and maybe understand him a bit better.

He loves volleyball, you know that—but seeing him in action really drives it home. He’s a machine. Every time he serves or spikes you swear the other team’s arms are going to rip off from the force of the ball. And the sound that ricochets in the stadium when the ball connects solidly with the floor is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. It’s like a clap of thunder rattling your bones and before you know it, you’re cheering loudly alongside Tendo with no qualms.

It’s exciting being here. You can feel your heart racing in your chest each time the Adlers or the other team is at a critical point, and sometimes you catch yourself holding your breath in anticipation for the outcome. You never thought watching a sport could be so thrilling.

And Ushijima is incredible. You suspected as much, but actually watching him for the first time is something else. You can’t help gobbling up the sight of him, his powerful thighs thrusting him into the air when he jumps, his biceps on display when his hand connects with the ball—and above it all, that sharp look in his eyes that sends goosebumps prickling down your spine without your permission. If Tendo notices you shamelessly ogling your roommate at all, he doesn’t comment.

He's oblivious to the fact he’s actually playing a lot more intensely than he usually does. Which some of his teammates never imagined possible. And most of them, besides the clueless ones alongside Ushijima, have a pretty good idea what’s different about this game. Though they can’t pinpoint if it’s just a result of having spectators in general, or if it’s you specifically.

The Adlers come out victorious after four hard sets, winning the first and second, but then having to snag the win in the fourth. You watch as the team gets swarmed by reporters looking for a post-game interview and Tendo tugs on your arm telling you that Ushijima is going to meet you by the locker room. You must give him a surprised look because he holds up the card dangling around his neck with a grin. “VIP, remember?” You giggle and follow him out.

In the locker room, Heiwajima and others try desperately to invite him, you, and Tendo out with them after the game. But he has to decline, you three already have plans. And he doesn’t wait around to see their disappointed expressions as he heads out of the room to look for you and Tendo. He finds the two of you nearby and once you catch sight of him, a smile splits your face in two.

“That was amazing, Ushijima! I’ve never had so much fun watching a sport before!” You gush once he’s in earshot.

“Volleyball is very fun.” He nods as the three of you head towards the exit. Ushijima purposefully avoids the spots he knows he is likely to be ambushed by reporters or fans, opting for a back exit instead that he sometimes uses when he wants to make a quiet escape.

“I had no idea being left-handed was such an advantage! Tendo told me it really throws people off apparently.”

Tendo sneaks him a smile and then throws an arm around his shoulder. “So, where is the great Ushiwaka takin’ us for dinner?”

You end up at a nice restaurant not too far away, and of course Ushijima gets recognized a couple times being this close to the stadium. He politely agrees to autographs and declines photos, seemingly unaware to the fact they’re just taking them secretly when they return to their tables. And while you’re waiting for your food to arrive, you can’t seem to stop talking about volleyball. Admitting that you’ll probably watch a few more of his games from home now and even cover your face in embarrassment when Tendo suggests you get your own Ushijima jersey to wear in support.

It’s then that Ushijima realizes he very much enjoys listening to you talk about what you thought of volleyball. Though he does feel heat creeping up his neck at the thought of you wearing one of his jerseys. All the while, Tendo is sitting beside you smirking up a storm, and Ushijima can’t for the life of him place why.

After dinner, when you’re walking a bit ahead of them and out of earshot, Tendo nudges him playfully in the side. “She’s pretty great, right?”

He looks at your back, expression unchanging. “She’s a good roommate.”

Tendo groans dramatically. “No blockhead—like, she’s pretty great, if you know what I mean.”

He blinks. “Do you want to ask her out?” Tendo can’t help slapping himself on the forehead. Who was he to think that Ushijima has any idea you are available, and he has a very high chance with you?

“Not me,” Tendo spells out slowly. “You.”

“I don’t want to ask her out.”

Tendo’s thin brows lift. “Are you sure about that?”

Tendo doesn’t miss his slight hesitation before he says, “Yes.”

And he doesn’t—you’re his roommate, and a good one. He likes having you around, but not the way Tendo seems to think.

But Tendo isn’t convinced. “Okay~,” he sing-songs before skipping up to loop his arms through yours and make you laugh about something. Ushijima thinks about that for a few minutes, why doesn’t Tendo believe him?

~

When you first moved in, it took a few weeks to get accustomed to each other. But once you figured out his schedule it became a lot easier. You know exactly when to hide in your room if you want to avoid him and when to come out once he’s gone. After going to his volleyball game, you especially try to avoid him during the times he’s walking down the hallway towards the shower, damp with sweat from a workout. Your brain can’t seem to function seeing him slick with the shine of sweat, his hair clinging to his forehead, and a towel draped around his neck—it’s too much for you, as much as you hate to admit.

But one week, you swear he’s on a warpath to make you a stuttering, flustered mess. Despite knowing the fact you’re certain Ushijima has no clue he can have that effect on people, much less do it on purpose. But every single day he’s waltzing around the apartment without a shirt on and while he doesn’t seem to see the problem with it, you don’t think your heart can take it much more.

And it’s the final straw when you see him a few days later, a thin sheen of sweat covering his skin as he saunters across the apartment from his home gym towards the bathroom in the hallway. All while you’re standing dumbfounded in the kitchen trying really hard not to get caught staring at his enormous biceps or the way the shine of sweat accentuates the dips of his abdomen. It’s in this moment you can truly understand why he has so many fans despite his rather stone-like demeanor.

“You have got to put a shirt on,” you blurt when he’s halfway across, knowing this will turn into some dangerous territory if he keeps walking around the apartment half-naked.

He stops in his tracks, his head cocking the only indication he’s confused by your statement. “I don’t want to wear a sweaty shirt,” he says by way of explanation. He doesn’t seem to notice your flustered expression. “I might catch a cold.”

You resist the urge to groan and slap yourself on the forehead. “Fine, then I’m wearing whatever I want around the apartment,” you say, determined to make him realize why he can’t just walk around like that. Though knowing Ushijima, you’ll never get through that thick skull of his.

And as you suspect, he simply replies, “Alright.” Before disappearing into the hallway and the bathroom to take a shower.

You lower your forehead to rest it on the cool countertop, shaking your head at how dense he really is. And you’re beginning to realize you think it’s endearing. While his infuriatingly toned body may be a major perk, you’re starting to see that you like him too. Now you actually groan. You swore this would never happen—not with Ushijima at least. But here you are.

After that, you make a pointed effort to wear the shortest shorts you can possibly find whenever he’s around. And you purposefully pair them with an oversized shirt, so it doesn’t look like you’re wearing pants at all. But if it has any effect on Ushijima, you can’t tell. You can’t help cursing his dumb impassive expression every time you retreat to your room for the night. Seriously—is he swayed by anything ever?

However, Ushijima hardly knows what to do with himself the first time you strutted out like that. He might be dense, but he’s still only human. His eyes naturally span down the expanse of your exposed legs and he has to grip his water bottle like a vice in order to keep it from clattering into the sink when you rise to your tiptoes to grab something from the top shelf. Your shorts ride up even more, hugging the curves of your ass as you stick it out to balance yourself.

You let out a surprised sound when he appears behind you, easily picking up the thing you were vying for and handing it to you without so much as a word.

“I really need a stepstool or something, huh?” You joke, taking it from him gratefully and blissfully unaware he was just blatantly staring at your ass.

He doesn’t say anything, but the next week you find a small stepstool leaning against the cabinets for you.

~

Staring at your phone in your hands, you thank any god listening that you brought it with you. How stupid do you have to be to lock yourself out of your apartment when you’re taking the trash out? Sitting on the floor against your door, you lean your head back on it and let out an exasperated sigh. You already went down to the office for help, they called a locksmith, and they aren’t available until tonight. And by that time, Ushijima will be home from practice and you won’t need the service anyways.

You have several options here. You could call a friend and stay with them until Ushijima gets back from practice, but they all live too far to walk to, and you don’t have your wallet. You could hang out in the apartment buildings lobby until he gets home, but if your phone dies, you’re stuck with nothing to do and no way to contact anyone.

The last option is slowly beginning to seem like your only option: calling Ushijima at practice for help. Burying your face into your hands you groan—you really don’t want to do that. Plus, you doubt he’s going to answer his phone anyways. After you sit there for a few more minutes, you take a deep breath and steel your courage. Leaving a message is better than nothing.

Despite deciding to call him, you still stare at his contact for a few moments before finally pressing the ‘call’ button. It rings a few times, then unsurprisingly goes to voicemail. When it beeps for you to leave your message, you swallow your pride and say, “Hey Ushijima, I know you’re at practice, but I locked myself out of the apartment…and the locksmith can’t come until tonight. If you by any chance get a break, would you be able to let me back in? I’d really appreciate it…sorry for the inconvenience and disrupting practice!”

Then you hang up and slump against the door again. Might as well head down to the lobby to sit somewhere more comfortable than the hallway floor. You turn the brightness down on your phone to conserve battery and resist the urge to just sit in the lobby scrolling through social media to pass the time. If he by some stroke of luck calls you back, you want to make sure your phone isn’t dead.

“Hey Ushijima, your phone was ringing in the locker room while I was in the bathroom. It was your roommate~,” Heiwajima teases. Ushijima slowly looks past his shoulder back towards the locker room door—that’s odd. You’ve never called him before. “And she left a message!” He coos.

Before Heiwajima can make any more comments, Ushijima strides past him to check his phone. They’re taking a short break and he doesn’t see a problem with making sure everything is alright. You wouldn’t have called if it weren’t important. He doesn’t see the rest of the team share suggestive looks behind his back. Before you, Ushijima refused to check his phone during practice, no matter how many messages he had (which are few and far between but still).

Upon hearing your message, he calls you back immediately.

You’re shocked that he’s calling you back within a half hour of your call.

“Uh, hi,” you say upon answering the call. “Sorry for bothering you. I’m surprised you saw my message so fast.”

“Heiwajima heard my phone ringing while he was in the bathroom.”

“Lucky me,” you joke.

He gets straight to the point. “I’ll leave now.”

Your eyes widen. He’s going to leave practice right now to let you back in? “Oh—um, you don’t have to do that! I’m just waiting in the lobby; I can wait until you have a longer break or something!”

“I can come now,” he says plainly. Then he hangs up on you. You sit back in the chair you’re sitting in and huff out a breath speechless. Never once has Ushijima left practice early. And now he’s just dipping out without hesitation because you’re a major idiot? You can’t fathom it, and the little voice in the back of your head that’s been slowly falling for him is absolutely swooning at the thought.

When he enters the gym again, Heiwajima finds him immediately, while the other members of the team look curiously on as he asks, “So, what’d she want?” Immensely interested in the fact that judging from his sweatpants and jacket over his practice clothes, Ushijima looks like he’s about to leave.

“She’s locked out of the apartment,” Ushijima explains as he heads towards the door.

The team looks around at each other surprised. They don’t get another word in as Ushijima explains to the coach the situation and says he’ll be back in less than hour. Then he’s out the door and a few of them start chuckling to themselves, while the more clueless members wonder why in the world Ushijima would willingly leave.

The gym isn’t far from the apartment, so it’s not long until you see Ushijima step through the front doors and sweep his gaze across the lobby. You greet him right away and the two of you get in the elevator. The silence is unbearable for you—though you’re sure he’s completely fine with it.

When you reach the door and he lets you in, you finally say, “Thank you. You really didn’t have to leave practice though; I could have waited.”

You swear his eyes soften, but it might just be your eyes playing tricks on you. He appreciates that you are being considerate for his time, but he found he wasn’t keen on the thought of you being locked out. It didn’t sit right with him. Not when he’s only 20 minutes away. He’ll be back in under an hour, and that’s better than you just sitting out here for several hours.

He just nods his head and says, “I’ll come anytime.”

At those words, that voice inside your head becomes a pathetic puddle and it’s an effort to keep your knees underneath you.

He can’t explain the way his heart lifts at the smile you give him. Stepping backwards into the apartment, you say as you’re closing the door, “See you when you get home.”

Home.

He’s surprised how that word coming out of your mouth makes him feel.

~

Any feeling of domesticity is thrown out the window the morning you’re walking around the apartment in one of his sweatshirts he lent you a few weeks back when you were cold. He’s stops in his tracks in the hallway seeing you in the kitchen at the stove cooking breakfast, his sweatshirt too big for you covering your shorts and just brushing your bare thighs.

Without giving him the chance to quell it, against his will, his dick strains against the front of his sweatpants and he rushes out the door with barely a goodbye in hopes you don’t see it. It doesn’t even go away on the train on the way to the gym, no matter how hard he tries. His thoughts subconsciously drift to the sight of you and how soft your thighs looked. It’s shocking to him how much he liked seeing you in his clothes. It was the same sort of sensation he felt when Tendo suggested you get yourself an Ushijima jersey—only it’s a hundred times worse.

He tries to ignore it, walking into the locker room like nothing is wrong, stripping his sweatpants and jacket off and shoving them into his locker before he looks around and sees Heiwajima staring at him with raised eyebrows. Then his eyes pointedly look downwards before he lifts them to meet Ushijima’s again. “You wanna deal with that before practice?”

“It’s fine.” He’s sure it’ll go away once he starts warming up.

But then his thoughts drift to you warming up and stretching in his clothes. You bending over, his sweatshirt sliding up your chest, revealing more of your ass and thighs as you count to ten. And any sort of effort he’d put forth to settle down is destroyed as his shorts feel uncomfortably tight. What is going on with him? He hasn’t been able to stop thinking of you as of late, and it’s only been getting worse.

Heiwajima just starts laughing. “Seriously dude, nobody wants to look at that all day.” Then he motions his head in the direction of the showers.

Ushijima’s eyes widen, realizing just what he’s suggesting. He hesitates for a moment, but eventually concedes. He won’t be able to play like this. Nobody seems to care as Ushijima grabs his towel and heads off to the showers, despite feeling distraught about what he’s about to do. He’s never really been one for masturbating, so it surprises him how easy it is to let you in his sweatshirt come to mind as he wraps a hand around his cock. And he comes a lot faster than he expects too.

That’s the first time he jerks off to the thought of you. He tries to brush it off as a necessity for him in order to practice well that day, but it soon becomes a terrible habit he can’t stop. Especially when you keep doing things that make him uncomfortably hard. Like still wearing those tiny shorts around the apartment, doing yoga in the living room, showing him your Ushijima jersey you finally ordered online—seriously, never in his life did he think this would ever become a problem.

He hardly knows what do with himself at this new infatuation.

~

Recently, you’ve started going out on dates because you’re beginning to feel this strange tension between you and Ushijima, and you have no idea how to deal with it besides letting some other guy pound you into a mattress while you ashamedly picture it being Ushijima instead. One night, when you’re bidding him goodbye as you’re on your way out the door, he asks you, “Will you be home tonight?”

Your heart stutters a bit at that word. Home. And then you feel disgustingly guilty that he’s noticed you don’t usually come back after these dates. Meaning you think even he can put the dots together on what you’re doing.

But really, he’s asking because what you’re wearing is already making his pants feel tight and even though it makes him feel a little ashamed, he needs to get his frustration out somewhere that you’re out spending the night with other guys. It makes him feel incredibly jealous—an emotion he’s not used to yet.

“Probably not,” you tell him, swallowing your pride about it and shutting the door.

For the next couple of hours, he tries to resist the demon in his head telling him to go sprawl out on his bed and think about you with his hand wrapped around his cock. But even after he makes dinner, works out, and takes a cold shower; it’s still there nagging at the back of his head. And he knows it won’t go away until he’s coming into his hand with your name spilling from his lips. He resigns himself to this becoming something he does now and heads off to his bedroom to satiate himself.

Your date is terrible. He wasn’t like this when you met him at the coffee shop last week, but tonight he must be feeling extra lucky. Enough to let his cocky, asshole nature shine through and you find yourself forcibly smiling your way through dinner. It doesn’t help that all you can think about is a certain stone-faced, stoic, gentleman who’s just sitting there waiting for you at your apartment. And just the thought of letting this guy touch you tonight makes your skin crawl. So, once the dinner is over, you end the date short, blaming it on not feeling well. He looks pretty put out that he won’t be getting his dick wet tonight, but you’re not inclined to care very much.

Unsurprisingly, the apartment is dark when you return. Ushijima goes to bed promptly at 9 o’clock every night, so you weren’t expecting to find him awake. So, you’re stunned into silence when you hear sounds emitting from his room on your way to yours. It sounds like he’s…panting? Is he working out?

Your brow furrows and your curiosity gets the better of you. You know it’s wrong, and such an invasion of privacy, but you just can’t stop your fingers closing around his doorknob, turning it slowly to just get a tiny peek into his room.

Your heart comes to a jarring halt at the sight you stumble upon.

Never, in your entire life, did you think you’d catch Ushijima Wakatoshi masturbating.

It never even occurred to you that is something he might do, not really seeming the type to.

And holy shit—is it a sight.

Your mouth involuntarily dries up at his enormous hand wrapped around his equally massive cock, pumping it from base to tip as his hips work in unison with his hand. His hair is a bit damp, and fuck—his cloudy, lust-filled gaze is making heat pool in your core. Additionally, he’s completely and utterly naked. Who the hell jerks off totally naked is beyond you, but you aren’t complaining as you watch the way the muscles of his abdomen ripple with each movement of his hips and breath he takes.

You could probably stand here watching him do this forever if you’re being honest.  

That is, until your name falls from his lips.

You swear the floor drops out from under you.

At first, you think he’s caught you. But you soon realize that is very much not the case. His hips start shuddering, his pace becoming erratic as he chases his orgasm and you’re suddenly struck by the thought of: you don’t want him to finish without you.

And before you can hesitate, you open his door fully and step into his bedroom.

His reaction is nothing like you imagined from someone who just got caught masturbating by their roommate who’s name not two seconds ago escaped his mouth. Anyone else would have yanked their hand away and scrambled to cover up. But not Ushijima.

To his credit, he does cover himself, but he does so in such a calm manner, you’re shocked. Plus, you can see he clearly still has his hand around his cock beneath the blanket. The two of you just look at each other for a few moments, and after what seems like eons of silence, he opens his mouth and says, “You said you weren’t going to be home.”

Your brows raise, amused he’s chosen that as his defense. “I think I said, ‘probably not’ actually.”

His expression doesn’t change as your gaze drifts downwards towards his impressive erection that somehow has not gone away despite that he’s lying there in all his naked glory caught red-handed.

You lick your lips subconsciously. “Can I help you?”

He wasn’t expecting that. Nor was he expecting the way his dick twitched in his grasp at your words. Or how heat is spreading across his entire body at the way you’re looking at him. Is he really going to let this happen? He’s pretty embarrassed you caught him, but you don’t seem phased at all. To him, you almost look…excited.

You don’t really wait for him to respond, taking the way he eyes you up hungrily as a yes, and stepping further into the room. Tentatively, you start lifting away the blanket he covered himself with, and he seems to be in a daze as you toss it aside, baring him for you to see. Glancing up at him, you see he’s breathing heavily, his pupils blown wide as he watches you—and while he may not be able to tell you with words how he feels, his body is telling you enough.

But you still want to make sure. Settling yourself between his thighs, you set a hand on each of them and squeeze lightly to get his attention. His olive gaze rises to meet yours and you ask, “Is this okay?”

Without hesitation, he replies, “Yes.”

And if you know Ushijima at all, he means what he says.

You get yourself a bit more comfortable between his legs, chastely kissing each of his thighs, finding it immensely ego boosting at the way they tremble at your touch. You make your way to the base of his cock and lick one stripe up to the tip. He groans quietly at the sensation, realizing his hand will never be enough again.

His fists curl into the sheets beneath him as you take his head into your mouth, and you fail to suppress the quiet groan that emits from you at how heavy he sits on your tongue. Your mind immediately wandering to what he might feel like inside you—if this goes that far, that is. His eyes haven’t left you, watching you intently as you take more of him into your mouth, the weight of his heady gaze making heat pool between your legs.

Steeling your confidence, you hold his stare as you take nearly all of him into your mouth and start bobbing along his length. A barely audible hiss escapes him, the muscles in his arms straining with how hard he’s fisting the sheets. Yet, you still have his rapt attention, and it makes you want to make him feel so good he has to close his eyes and lean his head back against his pillow.

The thought of having Ushijima Wakatoshi a puddle beneath you makes your thighs clench together. An action that surprisingly doesn’t go unnoticed by him.

In a matter of minutes, you’ve made him throw all qualms out the window and you soon get your wish of seeing him let go. His eyes close, head leaning back revealing the strong column of his neck, and his hips start to move in tandem with your bobbing motions. A guttural groan escapes him when you hollow out your cheeks, and the sound rumbles through you before adding to the growing ache between your legs.

You can’t imagine he’s even close to reaching the end of his stamina, but you are certainly losing patience. So, you pop off his cock, and start making the motions to undress so you can finally fulfill your fantasy of riding him.

He startles you by lifting himself to rest on his elbows, his deep voice filling the silence, “Wait.” You pause, your dress already halfway off. He sits up and pulls you into his lap, completely unbothered by the fact your clothed core is now sitting directly atop his prominent erection. “Let me,” he says so softly you think you might combust.

His hands replace yours, and he gingerly unzips the back of your dress and starts sliding it off your shoulders, each inch of newly exposed skin met by the soft press of his lips. You have no idea if he’s ever been with anyone before, but whatever he’s doing is making your insides scramble and burn. His movements are slow and meticulous, like he’s savoring each touch are you’re positively melting in his lap.

Eventually, you have to stand up to shimmy the dress down your legs, but he sits at the edge of the bed waiting patiently before his large hands rest at your hips and pull you back into his lap. Now you’re looking down at him, so you lean down and press your lips against his.

He’s somewhere else entirely—heaven, maybe, as you kiss him. Your lips are soft, body pliant and warm against his as his fingers dig into the plush skin of your hips. He groans involuntarily when your fingers slide into the hair at the base of his neck, tilting his head so you can kiss him even deeper. You’re pleasantly surprised when his tongue darts out questioningly and you happily open your mouth for him.

I’m doomed, you think as his tongue sweeps in at the same time he uses his hands at your waist to grind you down onto his hips. He feels absolutely huge beneath you, and you have no idea if he will even fucking fit inside you. “Fuck…Wakatoshi,” you breathe. His fingers grip a little harder at your voice saying his name like that, but you’re too dazed to notice what it does to him. You continue, “Fuck me, please.”

He makes a noise in the back of his throat, and for a moment you think he’s going to comply with your request. Instead, he murmurs, “Not yet.”

You almost pout, but then he’s unclasping your bra and lifting you to set you down on the bed. He doesn’t waste much time ridding you of your underwear next, and you have to resist the urge to cover yourself as he stares at you with a near predatory look in his eyes. “You’re perfect,” he says, clear as day and you feel heat course through your veins at his words.

He’s looking at you like you’re the only thing in the world to him right now. The intensity of his wanton gaze making you squirm beneath it until he lays his body over yours, the comforting weight of him pressing against your skin as he takes your lips again. He elicits a moan from you, his fingers dancing along your sides and his tongue sweeping into your mouth, making you nothing more than a trembling mess underneath him.

His lips leave yours, but he slowly begins trailing kisses along your jaw, down your neck and across your collarbone; almost as if he’s worshipping every inch of your skin before he reaches your breasts. He takes both of them into his enormous hands, the callouses of his fingers scratching along the supple flesh, making your back arch into his touch. Pressing a chaste kiss to your sternum, he rolls your nipples between his fingers, all while keeping his steady gaze on you. And you have no idea how the simple action of him just teasing your nipples while pinning you with those olive eyes is so unbelievably erotic your head begins to feel light.

And then he takes one of them into his mouth and you about lose your goddamn mind. How the fuck does he know exactly what to do? In the time you’ve known him you’ve never once seen him be even remotely interested in anyone. But at this point, you’re well past the point of caring how he learned his way around a woman’s body.

His tongue laps at the pert bud, all while he keeps his meticulous pace on your other nipple before turning the attention of his mouth to it. Without thinking much of it, your fingers dive into his hair, curling into the strands as he continues his worshipping. Though it does pull a deep rumble of pleasure from his chest that goes straight between your legs.

“Wakatoshi,” you pant breathlessly, chest heaving, desperate for him to do something about the growing ache at the apex of your thighs.

This time, he seems to heed your words. He pops off your breast and wanders with his lips down the expanse of your stomach, his hands finding purchase at your hips as he settles himself between your thighs. Your thighs tremble in anticipation as he presses soft kisses to each of them, fingers kneading your hips and pulling you closer to his mouth.

Never in your life did you think you’d have Ushijima Wakatoshi between your legs, looking for all the world like he’s about to devour you.

He groans as he slides his tongue between your folds, drunk on how wet you already are. And despite the fact his cock is throbbing almost painfully and leaking on the sheets, he knows to take his time. If you want him to fuck you, he has to make sure you’re ready for him.

You throw your head back, fingers fisting into the sheets as a lewd moan escapes your throat that only makes him bury his face even deeper into you. His tongue finds the bundle of nerves at the apex and sweeps across it, moving in small circles that have you finding purchase in his hair to keep him there as you move your hips in unison with his tongue.

A loud gasp fills the air as one of his thick fingers enters you, the ministrations of his tongue not stopping as he slowly pumps it in and out of your core. He’s kept his attention on you this entire time, his gaze never wavering as he watches you fall apart at his mercy. And he finds he’s thoroughly pleased at how easily his finger slipped into you, enough that he tentatively prods another one at your entrance that after a moment slides in without any resistance.

It’s so satisfying that he buries his face even deeper, his tongue pressing harder against your clit as you fuck yourself on his fingers. At the sensation of his second finger, your own find purchase in his hair, babbling utter nonsense that if you were in a clearer state of mind you might be a little embarrassed about.

“Please,” you beg, desperate for his cock inside you, “fuck me Wakatoshi. I want you inside me.”

He nearly falls apart at your needy request, but he isn’t finished yet.

You continue to plead with him, until you abruptly feel the absence of his tongue and you look down to find him staring intensely at you. Your throat clams up at his smoldering gaze as he says simply, “You aren’t ready.”

Your mouth drops open as you blink in surprise. Is he joking? Are you not frantically fucking yourself on his fingers right now, desperately asking for him to be inside you? How can you possibly be anymore ‘ready’?

“What are you talking about?”

Now his eyes drop, and very quietly he murmurs, “I’ve been told I am…quite large.”

“By who?” You blurt.

All he says is, “Others.”

You decide to leave it at that, your attention traveling to his erect cock, it pulsing so hard you can almost see it and dripping from the tip. You swallow nervously trying to imagine that going inside you. Ushijima just watches you eye him, his two fingers still knuckle deep in you, which he seems to have forgotten about as he angles his head in question. “Do you want to keep going?”

Warmth blooms in your chest at his concern. “I would very much like to,” you reply, smiling innocently at him, despite the fact the position you’re in is very much the opposite of innocent.

And the answering small smile he gives you makes your stomach flutter. It’s so soft and dazzling, it nearly knocks all the breath out of you. He presses his lips to your inner thigh, smiling against your skin, and all you can do is stare in awe of him.

Then, as if remembering where is fingers still are, he drags them slowly out of you, his mouth latching on to your clit once again before sliding them easily back in. Soon, he’s got you writhing on his fingers once more, toes curling and your own fingers gripping onto his bicep you can feel flexing with each thrust of his hand.

He waits a bit longer, until his fingers are soaked with your wetness again, before tentatively prodding a third finger at your entrance. He stifles his groan against you when he finds that it slips in along with the others effortlessly. Particularly as the grip you have on his biceps tightens, nails digging into his skin and eyes flaring open at the new sensation.

“Fu—fuck,” you mewl, holding on to him for dear life as he continues his slow and methodical pace. At this point, you’re practically shoving yourself onto his fingers, wanting him to fuck you deeper and trying to match the pace at which his tongue is flicking against your clit. The sensation becomes overwhelming, your thighs starting to tremble with the effort to not come around his fingers and mouth.

“Wakatoshi, please—I’m going to—,” you try to warn him, nails digging so hard into his arms that you’re leaving small crescent indents in his skin. He doesn’t stop though, not until you’re practically sobbing, “Let me come on your cock, please.”

That seems to be his undoing. His fingers and mouth abruptly leave you, eliciting a small sound of discontent from you. But you quickly shut your mouth at the sight of him leaning over you, aligning his hips with yours, one massive hand palmed around his cock as he pushes forward.

When the head of his cock sinks into you, a strangled gasp rips from your throat at just how utterly massive he is. Instinctively, your fingers wrap around his wrist to keep him from going any deeper as you say, “Slow.”

His brow is furrowed in concentration, as if it’s taking all of his willpower to keep from snapping his hips forward and sinking to the hilt in you. “Of course,” he growls, his voice taking on a deep tone that makes your toes curl.

And inch by glorious inch, he pushes deeper into you. His forearms coming to rest on either side of your head as he takes your lips to distract you from him nearly splitting you wide open. You tug him closer, fingers tangling in his olive hair, slanting your mouth against his and slipping your tongue inside which he gladly allows.

Eventually, his hips meet yours, and he pulls away to rest his forehead against yours, his toned chest rising and falling with the deep breaths he has to take in order to keep his sanity. The feeling of your tight walls clamping down around him is enough to make him hiss through his teeth, “Shit.”

The word alone makes heat pool in your core. Ushijima Wakatoshi never swears.

“Holy fucking shit.” You correct him. He’s seated fully inside you and you’ve never felt so full in your entire life. Your legs splayed out to either side from just how big he is, and once glance down confirms his thick thighs are shaking with the effort to be gentle.

He just shakes his head at your crass words, then pulls out slightly before ramming his hips back into yours. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pull him close to you, your chest meeting his and his head finding the crook of your neck and he begins slowly. And while you’re very much enjoying each of his careful, deep thrusts, you very much would like to be pounded into his mattress. You’re certain he can.

You wonder if he’ll dirty talk with you.

Running your fingers through his dampening hair, you whisper against his ear, “You feel so good, Wakatoshi.” He merely responds with a kiss against your neck and a small approving growl that makes you keep going. “You know what I thought about anytime I was in someone else’s bed?” He makes no indication whether or not he likes you talking to him, so you press on. “This,” you murmur, “You.”

He stops, and for a second you think you’ve gone too far. But then he rises from your neck, and you swear to god—you almost come on the spot at the carnal glint gleaming in his eyes. Like he is about to utterly and completely destroy you. Your entire body buzzes with anticipation as he finally draws his cock almost all the way out of you before driving his hips home in a way that sends you into total euphoria.

His pace becomes brutal, his hips punishing, wordlessly making you realize it was a mistake for you to ever think anyone but him should be between your legs. It was pure luck you stumbled onto something you didn’t realize—he was immensely jealous every time you came home in the morning, clearly having spent the night with someone else.

It drives him so wild that he growls against your lips, “You’re mine.”

The words are so deliciously possessive, you can’t help the way your walls tighten around him, nor how your legs wrap around his waist and start helping him with each thrust of his hips.

“Yours,” you say, lips brushing against his. His hands wander down your sides, fingers digging into your hips pulling you even closer so that there is virtually no space between your bodies. He’s resting almost his entire weight on you, and his warmth and build is so strangely erotic, the coil in your stomach winds tighter and you can feel your impending orgasm begin to climb.

He cages you in his arms, hips never relenting, seemingly chasing his own release. His quiet grunts of pleasure are going straight between your legs, and you can’t help but start exploring the expanse of his exquisitely toned chest pulling an even deeper sigh from him making you almost melt on the spot. Your hands eventually find a place to rest in the dimples of his hips, relishing the sensation of his muscles moving beneath your fingers.

He refuses to finish before you, no matter how unbelievably tight you’re pulsating around him. So, he reaches between your bodies, fingers finding your clit, pride filling his chest at how you moan lewdly; your head falling back and fingers grappling even harder onto his hips. He takes the opportunity to press kisses to your throat, shoulders, collarbone—any expanse of skin he can get his mouth on.

“Fuck—yes,” you groan, hands leaving his hips to weave their way into his hair, using your legs to push him even deeper and meeting each of his thrusts with your own. You start quivering under him, your body preparing for the onslaught of pleasure rising in your chest, threatening to snap at any moment.

You come completely undone when Ushijima commands, “Come for me.”

Something about his husky, lust filled tone; his lips making their mark all over your skin, and the harsh thrust of his hips sends you over the edge. Your body bows off the bed, and Ushijima meets you, his arms wrapping around your middle to press you against his chest as his lips latch onto your neck and he buries himself to the hilt in your wet heat.

For the second time tonight, he curses quietly, holding you to him as your walls pulse with your orgasm and he finds his own release alongside you. You hold on to his shoulders for dear life as waves of pleasure roll through you, your body spasming in his grip all while he kisses you softly. It’s tender and erotic at the same time. As you start to calm down, he claims your lips, tongue sweeping in as you push his damp hair off his forehead before cupping his cheeks.

He pulls away from you, only to set his forehead against yours, your warm breath mingling. Both of your chests are still heaving, and although it’s silent, it’s comforting as he holds you.

After a moment, you open your eyes and find his closed, his lips curved into a barely noticeable smile. It fills your heart seeing him look so…content. “Wakatoshi?” You say quietly. His eyes open and your throat closes at just how handsome he is. “I…I like you.” Your eyes close now, embarrassed at how pathetic that sounded.

“I’d hope so.”

Your eyes burst open finding him looking at you comically seriously. You know he doesn’t mean it as a joke, but you can’t help the smile that rises to your lips. He gazes at you curiously as you ask, “And? Do you like me?” As if his softening dick isn’t still inside you right now.

Though, it still makes your heart flip when he replies without hesitation, “Yes.”

“Good.” You grin. “I’d hope so.”

You kiss him again before he finally pulls out of you and without a word, he gets off the bed and disappears out into the hallway. You grimace at the mess between your legs but are pleasantly surprised when he returns with a warm towel to clean yourself up with. While you deal with the mess, he rummages around in his drawers and at first you think he’s looking for clothes for himself, until he hands you a pair of his briefs and a t-shirt.

You must eye them curiously because he sets them on the bed saying, “Sleep with me.” He doesn’t word it like a question.

Taking the clothes, you smile teasingly up at him. “I just did.”

To nobody’s surprise, he’s relatively unfazed. “Overnight,” he explains further. “In my bed.” Though the light dusting of pink coloring his cheeks as he says this makes you want to smother him with kisses all over again.

You slip on his clothes and climb beneath the sheets as your response. You watch him dress, marveling over the muscles shifting in his back and arms until he covers them and joins you in the bed. He draws you close to his side, letting you run your fingers across his cheek before settling at his chin and pulling his lips to yours. You kiss lazily until you both grow tired and you tuck your head under his chin, letting his fingers intertwine with yours and enjoying the affectionate kiss he presses to the top of your head.

He surprises you when he says into the silence, “Are we going to do that again?”

The chuckle that escapes you is by no means meant to be mean. He just fucked you better than anyone in your entire life and if you were in deep shit falling for him before this—you’re doomed now. Yet, you don’t mind in the slightest. Not when being here in his arms feels exactly where you should be.

So, you kiss his neck and reply softly, “Yes.”

You don’t see his answering smile.

~

taglist: @bobawithpomegranate @anothermessedupbitch @abswrites @toorus-goodgirl @apollochjld @vicassa @sssjuico10

[miraculous-sunflower]

don’t steal adrien’s phone - a fanfiction by miraculous_carnation

hi yall! this amazing piece of art isnt unfortunately done by me- it’s by the ultra charming miraculous_carnation on ao3, so be sure to check her out! i’ve gotten her permission to post this here, so dont worry! enjoy the show!

Lila Rossi posed for the camera, putting on a flirty face, Adrien sitting next to her. They were at the Palace of Versailles, the place for their photoshoot. Lila hugged Adrien in a way that made him uncomfortable, running her hands across his back. The photographer, noticing Adrien’s discomfort, asked them to take a 5 minutes break.

Lila walked to where Adrien was sitting. “So, Adrien! The photos are going to look awesome, right? I mean, we look so in love!”

Adrien’s eyes opened wide when he heard her voice. “Um, Lila? I know I’ve said this a lot, but can you please stop touching me? It makes me uncomfortable, and I already have a girlfriend,” Adrien tried to explain.

Lila narrowed her eyes at his last statement. Ugh, that Maritrash. What did Adrien see in her?

“Oh of course, Adrien! I’d never want to do something that would make you feel uncomfortable,” she whispered, leaning towards his mouth. Adrien grew stiff. Luckily, the photographer called for them just in time. Lila rolled her eyes, but then put on a fake smile.

“Oh well, anyways, we better go back, Adrien! We have to finish the shoot!”

Adrien hated photoshoots with Lila. They were the worst. Luckily, it was only for another 30 minutes, because after that, he had an interview with Nadja Chamack on Face to Face.

Lila hid behind a bush, watching Adrien get up and head toward the photoshoot. Perfect. She ran over to the table and picked up his phone.

“Well, Adrien, let’s see who you really love,” she smirked.

“Welcome back to, Face to Face! This is your host, Nadja Chamack, live in Paris!” Nadja Chamack enthusiastically said while the audience clapped. “Today, we have a very important guest. He’s a model, born here in Paris, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the son of world famous designer Gabriel Agreste, Adrien Agreste!”

2 seconds later, Adrien walked onto the stage, wearing a suit, created specially by his father, strutting in the way his father taught him when he was little. ‘Flash a flirty smile to the audience, then greet Nadja Chamack professionally’, his father’s words repeated in his mind. His father cared about his appearance and reputation, after all…

“Hello there, Nadja! How are you doing today?” Adrien politely asked. He wished he could be somewhere else,particularly running around as CHat Noir, maybe playing a game of tag with Ladybug…

“Oh, well I’m doing wonderful!” Nadja responded, snapping Adrien out of his daze. “Anyways, I’ve got a bunch of questions for you! First one, are you dating Lila Rossi, a fellow model from your father’s company? Are the rumors true?”

Adrien sighed. There were so many rumors about that going around, many of them created by Lila. She already convinced the class that they were dating, when he actually was dating Marinette.

“Sorry, Nadja, but that is incorrect. I am not dating Lila Rossi, but I am dating Marinette Dupain-Cheng, of who you may know.”

Nadja smiled at the name of her friend’s daughter. “Yes, I know Marinette, I commissioned her to create a dress for Manon for my sister’s wedding, and it came out beautiful! Everyone in the audience, go check out Marinette’s website!”

Lila Rossi was watching the Face to Face interview, fuming. She didn’t know he had an interview! How dare Adrien say that! She’d ruin his relationship with Marinette! She tapped into his phone, already knowing his password, courtesy of his father. Gabriel Agreste gave her access to all of his son’s social media accounts for safety reasons. She logged onto his Instagram account and made a new post, adding the photo of Lila kissing him on the cheek.

“So grateful for my girlfriend @lilarossi! Love you!”

She smirked. No way he was getting out of this one.

Nadja Chamack was confused. Apparently, a new post from Adrien on Instagram was posted just now, but how was it possible? Adrien was talking to her the whole time!

She coughed. “Adrien, it seems that there has been a new post on your Instagram,” Adrien looked shocked, “can we have the post on the screen?”

Adrien’s eyes grew wide as he saw the post. “Nadja, I didn’t post that! I couldn’t-”

“I know you didn’t, Adrien. You’ve been talking to me the whole time right now!”, Adrien let out a sigh of relief, “Is it possible your social media team did it?”

Adrien shook his head. “No, they don’t put out posts like that. They only put out posts that promote the brand!”

“So if it wasn’t your social media team, who was it?” Nadja said in confusion. There were several murmurs in the audience as well.

Adrien narrowed his eyes. “Well, I have a hunch. What is the post about?”

Nadja caught on with his thinking. “Oh, so you believe Lila Rossi posted this? How would she have gotten your phone?”

Adrien thought about what happened before the interview. “Well, you see, before coming here, I had a photoshoot with Lila. She probably took my phone then.”

Gabriel Agreste was watching from the safety of his home. Lila Rossi had not thought about this beforehand! She was going to ruin his plan and his brand! How dare she!

Nathalie walked in. “Sir, would you like me to delete the post and disable Adrien’s social media accounts?”

“Yes, Nathalie. Have Adrien’s social media team clean up the mess.” Gabriel sighed. The only good thing that came out of this was that he figured out his son was dating Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It was a good choice, as Marinette was exceptional.

Lila’s eyes grew wide at the revelation. She posted about herself on Adrien’s account when he was in an interview! It made her the prime suspect! Hopefully Mr. Agreste’s social media team could take the blame.

She dialed Mr. Agreste’s number. “Hello, is Mr. Agreste there?”

She was greeted with the monotone voice of Nathalie. “Excuse me, Miss Rossi, but Mr. Agreste has decided to terminate your contract on behalf of Gabriel. You will never model in his brand again. Goodbye.”

Lila gasped. How dare that dumb assistant! She was Lila Rossi! How dare Gabriel Agreste do that to her! She would ruin him!

“On top of recent events, Lila Rossi has lied about many things. She even got Marinette expelled once!” Adrien explained to Nadja, excited that he found a way to expose Lila.

Marinette was watching all of this from the comfort from her room, her mouth wide open. Well, she wasn’t super surprised, Lila would do something like this, but Adrien called her his girlfriend! Sure, they were dating, but she didn’t think he would announce it publicly!

Girl, are you watching Face to Face? Can you believe Lila lied?

Hold up, you’re dating Adrien? Why didn’t you tell me?

Girl, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. I thought we were BFFs!

Marinette snorted at the latter. BFFs? Yeah, right. Alya literally announced to the class two weeks ago that their friendship was over and that her new best friend would be Lila. Go figure!

“Wow. As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, startling revelations about the newest Gabriel model has come through! Hold on, we have a new post from the official Gabriel Twitter account! Can we please have this on the screen?” Nadja exclaimed.

Adrien read the post, not surprised. Of course his father would try to save face. It wasn’t new. He was just happy he wouldn’t have to model with Lila anymore.

The audience and Nadja gasped when they read the post. “Wow! It looks like the Gabriel brand has officially terminated Lila Rossi’s contract!” Nadja had to act surprised because this was predictable from the fashion designer. Typical Gabriel.

“Well, folks! There was a lot of drama today, but that concludes today’s interview! I hope you come again for another episode of, Face to Face!” Nadja concluded.

Bonus Scene:

“Well, Adrien, you made a good choice with Marinette. She could take over the designing area of the company while you take over the business side. When will you marry her?”

“FATHER!”

“Well, kid, he’s not wrong. Pigtails makes pretty good bread. And oh how good it tastes with camembert! Oh my sweet gooiness!”

“Shut up, Plagg.”

[ravennm84]

Marinette Family Court Reveal

After the overwhelming resonse I received from Marinette Family Court Circus, how could I not write a sequel? This story focuses more on what was going on with the class and what they’re seeing on the news. There will be some salt coming, so have a glass of water on hand. Anyways, Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!

The class was in a state of shock. In the span of 24 hours, there was so much joy and tragedy. Gathered at Alya’s apartment, they watched TVi news as Hawkmoth and Mayura were unmasked as Gabriel Agreste and his assistant, Nathalie. The class was in an uproar for a while, wondering if Adrien had been involved.

Lila shed tears, real ones, at the loss of her modeling job and the chance to keep Adrien as a trophy boyfriend. Now, he was useless to her. Anything to do with him would be toxic to her reputation, her only chance was to use her tears and claim that she’d had no idea that he was involved in such things. That he must have been trying to use her to get close to her mother to have international backing. Luckily, her classmates were such sheep that no one questioned what she said. They just comforted her, even ignoring the announcement of Adrien being exonerated of any charges, beyond a reasonable doubt, a few hours later.

The following day in class, Mme. Bustier came in and announced that not only had Adrien been pulled out of school for his own safety, but Marinette would not be attending for a while. “I’m afraid that she was in a terrible accident and has been put in the hospital.”

“How bad?” Alya asked, standing from her chair.

“She’s alive, but I’m afraid that her parents and grandmother were killed in a fatal car accident.”

From there, gossip flew all around the room. How bad had it been? How hurt was Marinette? Do you think the accident was Marinette’s fault?

What?

They weren’t sure who asked that question, but it brought up other things. How she’d been acting strange the past few months. The way she’d distanced herself from everyone in class. How she’d been bullying Lila when she thought no one was looking. Always calling Lila a liar even though she had no proof. It was clear to everyone that she was a troubled girl, but the idea that she’d caused the accident and killed her parents and grandmother? That didn’t seem like the girl they knew.

Still, they weren’t sure. So, no one really reached out to her in the hospital. No one called or went to visit to see if she was alright. Except Lila, she put the fear of her bully aside and went to check on her, only to call Alya crying an hour later.

“I don’t understand why she hates me so much.” Lila sobbed on Alya’s couch and the spectacled girl rubbed her friend’s back. “All I did was tell her that I was worried about her, but she yelled at me and told me to get out of the room. But I can’t blame her. I think she’s just scared.”

“Of course she’s scared, she just lost her family-”

“No, she killed her family!” Lila stressed, looking freaked out. “She admitted it to me, like she didn’t think anyone would believe me! She said she distracted her father while he was driving and caused the crash since they were starting to get wise to how she really is, and that her grandmother was just ‘collateral damage’. I didn’t think anyone could be so cruel!”

Alya was in shock. She hadn’t thought that Marinette, someone she used to think of as a friend, would ever do something like that. Especially to her own family. But… Lila had never lied to her, why would she start now? “Do the police know about this?”

Lila shook her head. “I’m not sure. But I do know that she’s talking to a lawyer, she’s probably going to get her inheritance and disappear before anyone figures out what she’s done.”

“Don’t worry, girl. I won’t let her get away with this.”

“What are you going to do?” Lila asked, her voice trembling.

“Whatever I need to do to get justice for Tom and Sabine.”

~oOo~

To say that the reaction Alya got from the Paris Police Department when told them that she had a source that Marinette had killed her family in order to collect her inheritance and disappear… it hadn’t been well received. Officer Roger came to the interrogation room personally, seeing as how she was in his daughter’s class, as Alya sat with her extremely angry parents.

“Do you want to explain why you just tried to file a false police report?” Officer Roger asked her.

“It’s not false! I have a source.”

“And who might that be?”

She hesitated at that, Lila had begged her to keep her name out of it. “I’m not really comfortable saying.” 

“Then how exactly did this source of yours, gain this information?”

Thinking it over for a moment, she decided that was okay. “It was someone that visited Marinette, she admitted to my source that she purposefully distracted her father while he was driving and caused the crash.” When Officer Roger looked even angrier, she knew that must have been right and he didn’t want to admit that he’d been wrong.

At least…

“Mlle. Cesaire, as this has been made public knowledge, allow me to tell you exactly how wrong your source is. Firstly, Tom Dupain was not driving the car, Gina Dupain was driving. As for Marinette causing the accident, that’s also untrue. Street cameras confirm that four university students ran a red light and struck their car. The driver of the other car even confessed to having been drinking and causing the accident.”

Alya was in shock. Tom hadn’t been driving and Marinette hadn’t caused the accident… that would mean…

“Hate to break it to you Mlle. Cesaire, but whoever your source is has lied to you and caused you to be charged with filing a false police report.”

All the way home, Alya’s parents were scolding her for even thinking that Marinette could do such a thing. “She has always been such a good friend to you, and don’t think we don’t know about all the times you had Marinette watch Ella and Etta while you went off on dates with Nino. I bet you never even offered to pay her for babysitting the girls, did you?” Her father snapped as he parked the car outside their apartment building.

“And what about all the dresses and handmade gifts she gave you, some for no reason at all. Did you ever even thank her for those? And still, you accuse her of killing her entire family and almost getting herself killed for money? Why would you ever believe that?”

Seeing no reason to keep it to herself anymore, she told them. She told them how Marinette seemed to change when her new friend, Lila, came to school. How she had been calling her a liar just because she was jealous about the glamorous life she lived, the celebrities she knew, and her crush on Adrien. How she kept on accusing Lila of lying and faking injuries, even to the point of hurting her when Marinette threw a napkin at her and strained her sprained wrist. And then, when Marinette had been expelled, how she had accused Lila of being behind the whole thing.

When she was finished explaining, she thought for sure that she’d convinced her parents. Then she saw the looks on their faces.

“Alya, at any point, did you ever look up any of Lila’s claims?” Her mother asked in a slow, even voice.

“Now you sound like Marinette!”

“You do not talk to your mother like that!” Her father snapped before taking a deep breath to steady himself. Even without Hawkmoth around, it was difficult for people to express themselves as they used to. “Alya, I want you to take out your phone and look up any articles that have to do with Jagged Stone and Lila Rossi.”

Realizing how upset her parents were, she did what her father told her, knowing that she would find the proof in a couple minutes and they would see that Marinette…

Her phone read 1 result found: the Ladyblog.

Confused, she looked up any connection between Lila and Bruce Wayne. She said that she was practically a member of the family and that she and Damien Wayne were…

1 result found: the Ladyblog

Her hands were beginning to shake as she did her search for Lila and Tony Stark, that had to be true! She had talked about meeting him over video chat in class and how they’d talked about…

1 result found: the Ladyblog

Search after search, it was all the same. Lila and Clara Nightingale, Lila and Prince Ali, Lila and XY, Lila and the Avengers, Lila and Ladybug: 1 result found: the Ladyblog.

“I-I don’t understand?”

“Did you, at any time, check your sources before posting them?” Her mother asked, but Alya didn’t answer. She’d thought that Lila’s word had been enough, but… “This Lila girl has been lying to you, and apparently she’s been bullying someone who you used to think was a real friend. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

And she really was. She’d turned on Marinette, accusing her of being a jealous bully that had killed her own family, all on the word of a liar. So when her parents grounded her and told her that she was to shut down the Ladyblog, she didn’t argue. The blog was so full of lies that she would never be able to use it as a credible source for work experience in the future, if she even had a future in journalism anymore.

~oOo~

The next day at school, Alya could barely lift her eyes to meet anyone around her. Her mother said that she should be ashamed, and she was. She was ashamed, mortified, depressed, and all together hating herself after spending the entire night thinking of all the cruel and terrible things she had said to and about her former friend. She wasn’t going to delude herself thinking that she and Marinette could ever be friends again, she didn’t deserve her after throwing her aside for a bunch of fake stories and glittery lies.

But there was still one thing she could do. It wouldn’t make things right but it would probably be something Marinette would have done if she could have. So Alya got to class early and connected her laptop to the overhead projector. When everyone, barring Adrien and Marinette got to class. She got down to business.

“Everyone, I’ve got something very important to tell you, it has to do with Marinette.” She could already hear the murmurs around the classroom, Lila must have messaged them the lies while she’d been at the police station. “I want to start by saying that we have been misinformed. After speaking with the police and doing a ton of research, I can say with close to 100% certainty that Marinette never bullied Lila and that Lila has been lying to us since she got here.”

Before Lila could say anything, Alya brought up her first powerpoint slide. “I did a search last night on all the connections that Lila’s told us about with Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Prince Ali, and many others; and they all came up the same thing” The slide showed a screen shots of her searches, showing the only result being the Ladyblog. 

“Lila also told me the other day, how she went to visit Marinette and she confessed that she distracted her father while he was driving to cause the accident and kill her family so she could collect her inheritance.” Alya switched slides to the news article on the accident. “Yet the police report, traffic cameras, and witnesses all claim that to be false. Marinette’s grandmother was driving. The other driver admitted to running the light and causing the accident. And seeing as Marinette has never hid her dislike of Lila, it’s highly doubtful that she would even let Lila into her hospital room, let alone tell her something like that.”

The class had been staring at the slides in a state of shock until Alya finished speaking. Then all of them were whipping out their phones to do their own searches. Lila looked to be in a state of panic, unsure if she could bring anyone back to her side after showing all this evidence and everyone suddenly looking things up themselves.

“Oh, and Lila,” Alya said in a slightly sweet voice that made the italian glare. “So you know, my parents grounded me when the police charged me for filing a false police report after what you told me. They also decided to call the embassy to talk to your mother directly. I hope you at least get into as much trouble as you tried to do to Marinette.”

The girl didn’t want to stick around to find out, she was about to run out of the class but Mme. Bustier entered a second later and told everyone to take their seats. Lila tried to get herself excused multiple times, but the teacher just said “I understand that you must be upset by everything that has happened, but please know that you don’t have to leave the room to cry. This is a safe place again, and we are here for you.”

Before Lila’s 4th attempt to be excused, M. Damocles’ assistant knocked on the door and said that Lila was required in the office. The girl shot Alya an if-I-could-kill-you-now-I-would look before gathering her things and stomping out of the classroom. Alya hoped that she would never see the girl again. 

Then just before lunch, Markov came on and alerted everyone that the news was talking about Marinette. Mme. Bustier turned the projector back on and plugged Markov in. Sure enough, there was Marinette, looking much worse for wear. She was in a wheelchair with her right leg and arm in casts. They could see cuts healing on her exposed skin and she was much more pale than the last time they saw her. But what really caught the class’ attention, was what the bar read at the bottom of the screen. “Custody battle between Stark, Wayne, and Stone”.

The camera switched from Marinette to Jagged Stone. “Tom and Sabine were like family to me, some of the most rock’n’roll folks I’ve ever met. When I got the call saying that they were gone and Marinette had no one else, all I could think about was being there for the rockin’ little lady. She is the kindest, smartest, and most talented girl I’ve ever met. Whatever it takes, I’m going to do what I can to help her.”

Then the camera went to Tony Stark. “Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng were the kind of people others should strive to be; they stood up for what was right and let you know if you were wrong. I was on the receiving end of their lectures more than once, and they’re probably one of the reasons why I put on the suit over and over again. They helped make me a better man… and now they’re gone. I can never repay them for how they helped me, the least I can do is try to give their daughter a safe environment to heal.”

Finally, the camera came to Bruce Wayne and his sons. “I know the pain of losing one's parents when you’re young, it’s not something I would wish on anyone. But I had a support system when I was young, one of those people was Gina Dupain, a wonderful woman that forced me to see that there was still good in the world. She passed that goodness and strength to Tom Dupain and was lucky enough to find a good woman like Sabine. The fact that they are gone from the world… all I could think when I heard of their passing was how dark the world would become without the three of them. But there is also so much goodness in their daughter, Marinette. If I can have the opportunity; I just hope that I can do for Marinette, what Gina did for me.”

When the camera switched again, it came to Nadja Chamack, who looked a little teary eyed. “This story has been admittedly difficult for me to remain objective, as I know… knew the family personally. I do agree with Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, and Bruce Wayne in saying that Tom, Sabine, and Gina were wonderful people and it is a great loss that they are no longer with us. TVi news will continue to follow this story as it develops. Back to you, Alec.”

Mme. Bustier’s class watched the news in total shock. They’d had no idea that Marinette knew Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, but how could they have forgotten that she knew Jagged Stone and Nadja Chamack. Hell, Alya had even watched Manon with her more than once. 

All the things Lila had promised them, Marinette probably could have done and more. She could have introduced Kitty Section and Nino to Jagged Stone and given them an in to the music industry. Computer programming and robotics for Max, there was no one better known in the industry than Tony Stark. Business and charities, an introduction to Bruce Wayne could have done wonders for Chloe, Sabrina, and Mylene. If Alya had even asked while they were still friends, Marinette may have asked Nadja if they were offering any internships at TVi for her. And even if her former friend didn’t have any obvious contacts in sports for Kim, or art for Alix and Nathaniel; with the way her name was getting out there with her fashion designs, she’d have probably made connections within the next few years.

A look around the room told Alya that the class was thinking the same thing. If they had just listened to their friend, instead of calling her jealous. If they had looked into a single thing Lila said instead of blindly following her. If they had even just gone to visit Marinette in the hospital rather than leave her alone during the hardest time of her life… No, they had no right to ask anything of her and all of them knew it.

Later that day, just before school let out for the day, Markov alerted everyone that Marinette was leaving the courthouse and the little robot was reconnected to the projector. What they saw was Marinette giving a small smile, her lawyer looking relieved, and the three men smiling fondly at the teenage girl. When the reporters started firing questions at them they were silenced when Marinette raised her good arm and motioned for everyone to calm down before pointing to Nadja.

“Has the judge come to a decision on the subject of custody?” Nadja asked, pointing her microphone at Marinette. Only to be answered by her lawyer, the bar listed his name as M. Contere.

“Mlle. Dupain-Cheng and I have presented a proposal to the judge, it has yet to be finalized but I will say that it holds potential.”

Marinette pointed to another reporter, who had been politely raising his hand. “Mssrs. Stone, Stark, and Wayne seem to be in high spirits, does this indicate that the final decision will allow for all parties to have interactions with Mlle. Dupain-Cheng?”

M. Contere kept a straight, professional face, but everyone could see the happy crinkle at the corner of his eyes. “Although I cannot, at this time, comment on the specifics of the proposal, I will say that it is in the best interests of my client.”

Marinette chose a young girl who looked a bit overwhelmed but smiled gratefully. “This question is directed to Mssrs. Stone, Stark, and Wayne. What kind of accommodations are you planning on making if receiving custody?”

The three men shared a look before smiling at the young reporter. 

“Anything Marinette will need to heal and make a future for herself,” Bruce Wayne began.

“And probably a bunch of things she’ll say she doesn’t need, but will end up giving her anyway, since she deserves everything.” Tony Stark smiled down at her, earning a you-better-not look from Marinette, and caused a few reporters to chuckle.

“All of us here see this rockin’ little lady as family, these custody hearings will make it official. I can say with great certainty that, no matter what the judge decides, myself and these two men will do everything in our power to help her in any way we can.” Jagged said, as he placed a gentle hand on top of Marinette’s head.

M. Contere pointed at a different reporter this time, and was visibly surprised by the question. “There has been a rumor going around that Marinette purposefully caused the accident to collect her inheritance, any comment?”

The three powerful men that were standing behind Marinette became visibly upset and Marinette began to cry. Before Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, or Bruce Wayne could advance on the reporter to demand where he had heard such a claim, their lead lawyers stepped forward. The intimidating force that the three of them exuded was enough that all of the reporters took a few steps back.

“That question is a blatant falsehood that was founded by rumor, not facts,” stated the Stone lawyer in a cold voice as he stared down the reporter who asked the question.

The Wayne lawyer continued, speaking clearly so no one would mishear or misquote what was said. “As stated in the police report and other sources, the accident was caused when a group of university students failed to yield at a red light and struck the Dupain-Chengs’ vehicle. The driver has already pleaded guilty to charges of DUI, three counts of vehicular manslaughter, and vehicular assault.” 

The camera panned over to Tony Stark’s lawyer, as he finished speaking quietly to the three men before turning back to the camera. “These comments have also come to the attention of the Paris Police Department, as someone attempted to file a false police report on the matter. After a brief discussion with Mssrs. Stone, Wayne, and Stark, they have agreed to work together, along with the PPD, to find the source of these rumors and see the individual brought up on charges of slander, harassment, and defamation of character; among other charges.”

“No more questions,” M. Contere said as he and the other lawyers escorted their clients away from the courthouse. The reporters tried to ask more questions, but were met with icy looks and ‘no comment”.

Alya couldn’t help but smile at that. After school, when Officer Roger came to pick up Sabrina, she would tell him exactly who her source was. She would tell who her “source” had been and all the things she’d said about Marinette since she’d started attending school. She would show him all the recordings on her blog before it was shut down and send him video copies of Lila’s interviews as evidence. If she was lucky, Lila would also be charged for slandering Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, and Bruce Wayne; as well as Marinette.

Again, Alya knew that this wouldn’t fix her friendship with Marinette, but it was also the right thing to do. And for the first time in a long time, she was going to be on the side of good.

Taglist:

@whydoexamsexist  @geekydragonyt  @thornalchemist23

@maribat-is-lifeblood  @ironspiderstark  @miyla-lokidottir

@futursworld  @luveverything12  @dreamkitty25

@smolplantmum  @imablinkmarvelarmy  @moonlitiiminie

@chez-pezeater

[chicoriii]

Season 4, Episode 17 - Larme Ultime (Rocketear)

So this is a DjiWifi episode from which comes a screenshot I've seen over a month ago (I think). It's good they got it, before season 4 started I really wanted it to happen and to see a kiss between Nino and Alya in it (but that didn't happen and I don't get why, only the main pairing is allowed to kiss in this show or what?), but now I could not be excited about it anymore, because I'm sick of Alya and I'm not able to hide it. Yes, I'm biased, but I'm just a normal viewer and I have right to dislike her favouritism.

My the biggest thought after watching this is that it looks like since Optigami, Alya is not only a deuteragonist, like I said in my post about Sentibubbler, she's actually more like a co-protagonist now. That was an extremely Alya-centric episode (even more than Lie was was about Adrien, as it was mostly Ladybug who saved the world like almost always, also because Chat sacrificed himself again), while in Optigami and this one she has screentime comparable to Marinette. I'm still trying to avoid spoilers (so please, don't tell what's going to happen in the next episodes, I don't want to know), but I'm sure that either 15 or 16 is also highly about her, because we've seen the new Rena's suit in this episode and it looked like it wasn't the first episode with it. But really, I won't be surprised if Alya has lots of screentime in both episodes and all others to the end of the show as well. I don't think Adrien is ever going to get as much special treatment like Alya. :/ The creators have never been as nice to him.

Didn't the writes have enough ideas for another story arcs? And thanks to it they were able to save money, because then creators could just reuse old models of villains more than before. Have anyone noticed that S4 has even fewer number of completely new characters than previous seasons? The scientist seen at the start of the episode has detailed model, so she had to be akumatised in any of the previous unreleased episodes (or one of the next ones). And why she looks a lot like Alya, is she her relative? If yes, you know what that means? Another excuse to make an episode full of the fox wielder, because, you know, it’s not like she already got enough occasions to shine in S4. 

Speaking of Rena Rouge's new suit. What a waste, it would be great for a potential chameleon Miraculous, so it seems it won't be ever created for canon. So bad, I think it's one of the coolest animal, so a Miraculous based on it would be awesome. It could one from an African Miracle Box which should appear, since they are planning making an African special. The suit is good and all, but I still feel disappointed that it's not the superpower of a chameleon Miraculous. :(

Why is Nino acting over the top out of nowhere? I like film noir atmosphere, fedoras and especially jazz music full of saxophones (my favourite music genre and instrument), but it looks totally ridiculous when he's like that. I thought it's Marinette's speciality, and he beat her in that category. I'm not trying to say it's a a bad thing, it just feels weird seeing Nino like that. And since I love jazz, I would like to listen to that film noir-esque music more once I got 5.1 audio, since it was hardly heard in the episode. It didn't sound much interesting, but it's too early to judge it seriously.

Too bad they had written the main conflict in the episode using one of the biggest romantic cliche - misunderstanding in which one character see and\or hear something, but not the whole thing, so said character interprets it wrong. Motifs like that are rather annoying, so it's good something similar haven't happened in the Love Square's arc (yet at least). Though I have a big issue with how they write it this season and I'm going to make a post about it (is anyone interested?).

The akuma is one the ugliest and has one of the most laziest power ever. Really? He shoots using tear bullets and does nothing more? I know many people hate Bubbler's design, but no matter how silly it looks, it was much more creative than this.

And of course the whole thing with Alya remembering the whole conversation with Chat Noir was extremely far-fetched. The could think about something more believable, but I'm not surprised it happened, since I think this season is generally more lazy written than previous ones.

On the other hand, I'm surprised that Marinette is actually aware that Shadow Moth should not know that Alya is still Rena Rouge. It seems that the whole episode 15 (or 16) is about they trying to figure out what to do with that problem.  I won't be surprised if Alya would do it all by herself like it happened with protecting charms in Mr Pigeon 72, because it's completely normal that a random person who has never met Fu is better at decrypting the grimoire than someone who has been trained to be a guardian to some extend :/ Still I think they should not be sure that camouflage mode would solve the problem completely. From what I understand the new suit doesn’t make her completely invisible to others. Rena could be seen by anyone who takes a photo of her and then post in on the internet (it won't be believable that she's the only one crazy about superheroes in Paris). But at least they tried to do something and Marinette sees the danger to some extend. It’s something new.

It's not like Alya is careful, she's completely reckless (and they think she's a good reporter material? Don't make me laugh) and she still thinks more about her own fun in being the superheroine than safety of herself or the world. But of course, it's not gonna happen, because plot armor is very strong in this show. I really had a feeling that she acted like a little child in the first minutes of the episode. She's unable to see that her situation is not a joke. She should be all happy that Marinette still lets her to keep the fox Miraculous. She really lacks humility and I see it clearly since Optigami at least. Besides, Marinette ignores another red flags, that Alya is taking pictures of herself in the new suit no one is supposed to see and thinking about posting them on Ladyblog (was Bunnix right that Alya is able to reveal Miraculous secrets on her blog because of her overenthusiasm and lack of ability of seeing consequences of her actions?).

By the way, now I think, if Alya can't keep in secret that she's still Rena Rouge from Nino (which happens because it's needed for the plot), so how could she be all fine with keeping in secret other facts like that Ladybug gave her the fox permanently and she knows her identity (which isn't happening because the plot doesn't require it)? She still has to lie on Nino because of these secrets.

They are making Marinette a big hypocrite this season. Since she revealed herself to Alya, it's been shown that secret identities rule was bullshit from the start, but Marinette is still saying that heroes can't reveal their identities to anyone. What? What has she done before like not revealing herself to someone, so how she dares keep saying about how crucial is keeping secrets from everyone? Sorry writers, I can't take that rule seriously anymore since Alya knows and no one should. Because Marinette told Alya, she could tell it to other persons she trust as well. What's the difference between her best friend and the rest of the people in the world? Is Alya the only person she trusts? In fact, revealing herself to Sabine, for example, would be much better choice. She's actually wise and mature unlike Alya and her secrets would be much more safe with her mother.

I've seen Chat Blanc again on TV recently and I remembered one thing Ladybug told to Bunnix there: "The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share." (Google Translate says that the line is exactly the same in the French original). Some episodes later, she isn't thinking twice if she should tell all the guardian secrets to Alya. Okay, she revealed her identity because of being too emotional in that exact moment, but then when she calmed down, she should be able to think if telling all the Miraculous secrets is a good idea. The other hypocritical thing is telling Chloé "you can't be Queen Bee anymore, because Hawk Moth knows your identity" but still calling the other heroes whose identities have been exposed.

So I can't even blame Alya for telling Nino the truth if the guardian herself is not following her own rules. Not to mention, Marinette doesn't address wrong things Alya is doing at all, so no wonder she feels she could do anything, she won't get punished, no matter what. After all, it's not the first moment in which she does something her best friend forbid her.

And we can say the show has been confirmed that Nino is even worse at keeping secrets, especially in crisis situations, so why people wanted to see Adrien revealing himself to Nino? It's obvious that he would tell Adrien's secret to Alya and maybe some other people as well.

I thought that since S3 finale Adrien is supposed to know identities of every backup hero from seasons 2 and 3 and I was ready to be salty about that as well. But yes, actually after purification of Miracle Queen's akuma, brainwashed heroes didn't detransform. They were forgotten completely and we don't even know what happened with them exactly. I suppose Ladybug took their Miraculous when Chat Noir wasn't there anymore.

Adrien has every right to be angry at Ladybug, she treats him so badly, since Alya knows her own secrets and she doesn't even have the guts to admit that. But I'm going to say about my the biggest issue in the Chat Noir and Ladybug's situation in another post, I hope I would write before the next episode airs.

[flightfoot]

Greeting the New Dawn

Set post-Reveal in @buggachat Bakery Enemies AU, whenever that ends up being.

Thanks to Queenie for betaing!

AO3 ---------

“If you want me to leave, I will.”

Adrien looked off to the side, as if he thought that he wasn’t even worthy of meeting her gaze. As if already looking elsewhere, trying to impose on her as little as possible. “I can put in my resignation and tell your parents I found a different opportunity elsewhere.”

Marinette’s mouth went dry, her stomach dropping into a cavern. He- he couldn’t- not again- he couldn’t leave her- she’d only just got him back!

She willed desperately to say something, to stop him. 

Nothing happened.

Instead, she felt her mouth move, saying words she didn’t want to say. “I think that would be for the best.”

Adrien’s face fell further, his breath hitching slightly.

He didn’t say anything. Marinette suspected that if he tried, that hitch would devolve into full-on sobbing.

He turned around, heading for the door. 

Marinette regained control of her limbs. She reached out to grab him, to stop him from disappearing-

Her vision turned black.

-----

Marinette happily hummed as she kneaded some dough, her father joining her song. She’d missed spending time with her parents while she was in New York. 

*ding ding*

A customer?

Moments later, Sabine walked through the entryway to the kitchen. Marinette relaxed.

Until she got a closer look and noticed her eyes glistening.

“Maman?” 

“A-Adrien- he- he-!”

She burst into tears.

Marinette saw it then. Adrien desperately scrounging out of garbage bins to survive, getting thinner and thinner, having been unable to find another job. Losing his apartment, being forced out onto the streets.

Until finally someone had caught him going through their dumpster, recognized him, and decided that trash like him was unworthy of even having those rancid scraps. 

Adrien leaning against the dumpster, beaten and bloody as the rain came pouring down. Slowly closing his eyes.

He didn’t open them again.

-----

Marinette looked out the window at the rain. She’d given him her umbrella, he’d be fine. He said so himself. She didn’t need to do anything more, right? He could walk straight, he hadn’t even been slurring his words, he was coherent. Everything would be fine.

------

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Today, Adrien Agreste, son of the infamous supervillain, Hawkmoth, was found bludgeoned to death in an alley. The weapon of choice? An umbrella given to him by my favorite babysitter, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Let’s give her a round of applause for helping set up the circumstances that allowed Paris to get rid of that loose end, once and for all.”

-----

Faceless masses quietly muttered all around Adrien.

A person would occasionally glance at him. Their face would twist up, fear and anger warring over their features.

Until they’d just walk away.

Leaving him alone, crying, desperately trying to reach someone, anyone.

They all slipped through his fingers like water, leaving nothing behind.

A flash of yellow. A defined figure. The last friend Adrien had.

“CHLOE!”

She turned around, gave him a glance.

Her hair swished as she turned back.

She didn’t look back a second time.

------

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Today Adrien Agreste was found dead in his apartment. Police are currently treating the case as a suicide-”

Marinette turned off the TV, getting back to designing her new outfit. It was sad what happened, but right now she wanted to concentrate on something more hopeful. 

She smiled as she looked at the red dress she’d just finished, its black accents making the bright red pop that much more.

Her Kitty was out there. She just needed to find him.

------

Marinette jolted awake, panting heavily. She threw off the covers, shakily getting to her feet. Stumbling forward, she reached out for the light switch.

It took her several tries to hit it. Her arm was shaking so badly she just kept on missing. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, she rocketed down. She really missed being Ladybug right about now; she could’ve just swung down to the first story.

A seeming eternity later (36 seconds later, to be exact), she rounded the corner into the kitchen.

The light was on, the sound of dough being rolled out punctuating the quiet of the early morning. 

Please let him be there please let him be there please please PLEASE-!

A blond-haired man turned around. “Mari-?”

She hit him like a freight train.

Instinctively Adrien wrapped his arms around her as they rolled to the side, dough spraying everywhere. 

She couldn’t bring herself to care.

“MARINETTE!” Adrien shouted, anxiety tinging his voice. “What’s wrong? Is someone hurt? Did anything get on you? I’m so, so sor-”

She just pulled him even tighter against her, muffling his voice with her shoulder. 

*thump thump thump*

Adrien was alive. He was here. He wasn’t in an alley or a grave or… or ALONE.

Not anymore.

“Ni-nightmare,” she choked out, trying not to cry. 

The blood drained from Adrien’s face. “It was him, wasn’t it?” He asked quietly, his voice quavering slightly. “I- I should’ve known, I wish I’d-”

“NO!”

She was NOT letting him take the blame for this. 

“It wasn’t your fault kitty, NONE of it was your fault. It was his, ONLY his, you did everything you could to stop him.”

Adrien frowned. For a minute she thought he was going to argue, but he seemed to think better of it. 

“And- and it wasn’t him anyway. Not really. It- it was you.”

“I- I’d never try to hurt anyone here, I’d never try to hurt you, regardless of what happened with Mother I-”

Marinette winced. Foot, meet mouth. Again.

“It wasn’t the Peacock nightmare. It- it was-”

She took a deep breath, pressing her head into his neck, feeling his pulse. “There were so many times when things could have gone worse than they did. Where you could’ve gotten hurt or killed. And- and I would never even have known I lost you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, My Lady,” he murmured into her ear. “Not unless you want me to.”

“If you want me to leave, I will.”

“NO!” She shook her head violently. “Never. I- I couldn’t stand it if-”

If I never saw you again. If you killed yourself because you thought no one wanted you around. Because you thought you deserved it. Or that you deserved to be out on the streets, struggling to survive, because of who your father is and how people see you because of it.

“I want you here,” she told him more calmly. She needed him to know that. To internalize it. “You deserve to be here. You deserve happiness and safety and people who love you and- and just every good thing in the world!” 

She’d tell him this every day if she needed to, until he believed it.

“I- I dreamed that you’d died those times. Like- like when you asked if I wanted you to leave. Or- or thinking back on what could’ve happened if you’d walked home while drunk. But the worst one? Was where you committed suicide before I ever ran into you as a civilian.”

She needed to bake Chloe some cookies. ALL the cookies. She’d probably comment about how she was only tolerating Marinette’s cooking in order to seem nicer to Adrien or something, but she didn’t care. If it weren’t for Chloe, then Marinette’s best friend, the love of her life, would probably be dead.

“In that nightmare, it barely even registered that you’d died. Just- you were just some stranger. Some stranger who was dead now. That- that was most horrifying of all.”

Her hearing about him dying and barely even caring because she didn’t know him - it terrified her more than anything else. Logically she’d known that was a possibility before she’d found out Adrien was Chat Noir, but- well she’d never really seriously thought about him dying. And- and part of her thought that because of how close they were, she’d just know if he was hurt, if something had happened to him. Would recognize him on sight if the worst happened.

But neither of them had known the other when they ran into each other at the bakery. And she’d never had a clue that the boy on the billboards was the same boy running alongside her on rooftops. 

Adrien held her tighter. Something wet dripped onto her neck.

She didn’t comment. His shoulder was damp from her own tears.

“It didn’t happen.” He told her. “It could have, but it didn’t. I- I know what it’s like to have those ‘what ifs?’ running through your head. Sometimes, the best you can do is tell yourself that everything did work out. That it’s okay. I- I tell myself that all the time. Every time I think about what could’ve happened if I never met your parents- if I’d never started working here. If I’d never seen you again. Never met Nino or Alya.”

“Adrien…” 

“It doesn’t help. There’s nothing that can be done about ‘what ifs’. It may not make those thoughts go away, but- but at least it doesn’t matter what could’ve happened, because it didn’t. And thinking about it in circles won’t help.”

He grinned at her. “You know what will?”

She blinked at him, lost for words.

Until she felt something sticky on her forehead.

Reaching her hand up, she got the substance off. 

Dough coated her fingers.

Her partner gave her a shit-eating grin. “Ooops.”

“Oh you are ON.”

As she chased her kitty around the kitchen, trying to tag him with bits of the fallen dough, she smiled.

He was alive. 

Maybe he wasn’t okay yet, but he would be.

And so would she.

[quixotin]

@miraculous-bullshit ask and you shall receive! :D (sorry I tagged you again!) Note: reposted to not clog poor @toujoursmiraculous post :D 

Interruptions 

based on this thread

For what it’s worth, it took a lot to upset Luka Couffaine. He prided himself in that. He was never one to make a big deal out of things, unless absolutely necessary. Mild inconveniences like being flipped off for accidentally bumping someone in the metro, someone cutting him in a waiting line, entitled moms berating him at his job, being made fun of, not getting his way with something; these were all easily brushed off.

It’s not that he didn’t care, he just knew there were bigger things to worry about than an asshole being an asshole. He lived in Paris, after all. A city that big was bound to be ridden with them.

However, he had learned something about himself recently: His weak spot was Marinette. His skin positively crawled whenever anyone tried to harm, belittle, mock, or otherwise wrong her. There was a second element to this pet peeve of his; he had also discovered that he hated when someone interrupted them. It wasn’t jealousy or anything. It was more the fact that Marinette being the sheer tornado of creative power that she was, was always up to something. Finding a way to squeeze himself into her schedule was already a feat in itself, so he prized every minute he got to spend with her.

Needless to say, this was the precise reason why Luka was so excited for the weekend. He and Marinette were going to spend the entire Saturday afternoon together and the first order of business was going to the park and get ice cream.

The first offense happened at the hands of someone he otherwise respected.

Marinette and Luka had set up a blanket on a spot under a big, hefty tree. The ice cream was already gone, and Luka was playing a few new songs for Marinette. He had, rather evidently, sat a bit closer to her in the hopes that she might lean against him. Which she did, inadvertently causing for Luka’s heart to skip a beat or two. Now that’s an irony, a musician missing a beat.

Sensing Marinette resting her head against his arm, Luka put down the guitar and tentatively shifted to try and bring Marinette into his arms.

Then it happened.

Out of nowhere, a blur of a person crashed down through the foliage of the tree, falling right in the middle of the pair, and effectively dissolving the calm of the moment.

“Meowch! Heh, sorry!”

“Chat Noir?” Marinette exclaimed, uncharacteristically annoyed as Luka and her crawled from the pile of cat on top of them.

Chat Noir scrambled to his feet and gave them a sheepish smile. “Apologies er, fellow Parisians! Got stuck in the tree for a second there, hah.”

As Marinette grumbled, Luka simply shrugged, smiled coolly at him, and joked, “It happens. Maybe next time we’ll call the fire department to get the cat unstuck?”

Chat Noir blushed with a bit of embarrassment, largely due to the fact that Marinette actually laughed at the joke. Luka had no way of knowing this, of course, but Chat Noir had caught glimpse of him and Marinette as he vaulted through the city and had decided it would be a good idea to spy on them by perching on the tree they sat under, which only added to his shame.

“Yeah. So uh, yep. Sorry!” he babbled again, before scurrying out of the picture.

The second offense was at the hands of Paris’ resident terrorist. And Chat Noir. Again.

After getting their ice cream, Luka and Marinette walked around the city a bit and ended up at the steps of the Trocadero, where as luck would have it, an Akuma appeared.

As Luka and Marinette scrambled to get to safety, Chat Noir cut in to push them out of the way from one of the Akuma’s attacks.

It did not escape Luka that Chat Noir scooped Marinette up and vaulted away with her. He was glad Chat Noir was fulfilling his duties and that Marinette was now at least out of harm’s way, but really, was it so hard to escort them to the nearest shop to take shelter as he had done with literally every other person at the site of the attack?

A couple of minutes after he had disappeared with Marinette in tow, he came back for him.

“Your turn,” Chat Noir said with a wink, and took Luka away to an indistinct street away from the Akuma.

Luka gave Chat Noir a perplexed look. “Where is Marinette?”

Chat Noir scratched the back of his head. “I– she must have already hidden away,” he offered lamely.

Feeling a bit irked and suspicious that Chat Noir might have a crush on Marinette, he said, “I’ll look for her, then. Thanks for keeping my date safe, Chat Noir.”

As he calculated, he saw the discomfort in Chat’s face. “Yeah, no problem at all!”

Additionally, Luka quickly discovered he was right about something else: Chat Noir had very likely put Marinette somewhere else. Not only was he not able to find her anywhere, but she was not even picking up her phone anymore.

Luka worried that something might have happened to her, his contempt for the catboy growing by the second.

“That… that… that furry!” He grumbled to himself as he tried to figure out a way to contact Marinette, hoping to the heavens that she was okay.

After the Akuma was neutralized, Marinette called him. Yes, she ended up several districts away and apologized profusely about something she had absolutely no control of which both endeared and saddened Luka.

He had noticed Marinette tended to blame herself when things didn’t work out around her, even when she had no way of controlling them.

“Hey, hey, no stress,” Luka said chuckling, as he interrupted Marinette’s mortified rambling. “We can meet back in the movie theater.���

He let a sigh of relief as he spotted Marinette waiting for him by the ticket booth. He ran to her and threw his arms around her without thought, only realizing what he did when Marinette hugged him back.

He blushed and hugged her tighter.

“I’m got hit by the Akuma after Chat Noir took me away,” Marinette explained. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m just happy you’re okay,” he said, finally pulling away and smiling at her. “So, which movie should we watch?”

Luka pointedly noticed the fact that Marinette suggested to watch a scary movie. The first time he had gone to the movies with her, Alya, Nino, and Juleka had tagged along and he remembered her adamantly informing everyone that she wouldn’t join if they picked anything scary.

He wondered why.

“Really? You sure?” Luka said.

“Yeah, you like scary movies, right?”

“Yeah, but you don’t,” Luka said. “I’m happy to watch anything you wanna watch.”

A light blush crept onto Marinette’s face again. “I wanna watch a scary movie.”

Luka tried not to entertain the thought that the reason why Marinette wanted to watch a scary movie with him was probably a plot with the end goal of having an excuse for them to hug throughout the movie. He didn’t want to get his expectations too high; he was already writing songs about her as it was.

As they took their seats, Marinette seemed to pick up where they left off at the park before Chat Noir interrupted them. She sat decidedly close to him–as close as one could to justify any casual brush of the hand as an accident— while Luka, in a sudden bout of confidence, put his arm around her.

He tensed up, waiting for Marinette’s reaction, and was pleasantly rewarded when she relaxed into his grasp and leaned her head against his chest.

“Oh, I just remembered,” she said, while waiting for the movie to start, “I have something for you.”

She reached into her purse and produced a small box.

Luka beamed at her as he picked the little gift from her palm. “You didn’t have to give me anything, Marinette.”

“I just wanted to do something nice for you,” she said, shrugging and giving him a warm smile.

He opened the box and found a guitar pick that Marinette had hand painted with little blue-and-black motifs. His heart swelled for her and found himself wishing he could kiss her.

“I love it,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. “Thank you.”

“I… I have something else for you,” she said, turning herself so that she was squarely facing him.

His pulse hitched up, realizing he wasn’t the only one wishing for a kiss, as Marinette trained her eyes on his.

He couldn’t look away. He felt as if a sort of magnet pulled him towards her, a sort of force that he was unable to escape from even if he wanted to.

A short gasp escaped him as the distance between them shrunk slowly, almost painfully. He was so close he could feel Marinette’s warmth on his skin. So, close their lips almost brushed. So close that–

“Hey guys!” an all-too-familiar voice chirpily greeted them from behind Luka, effectively and immediately interrupting them and causing Marinette to flail and throw the bucket of popcorn she had on her lap.

Luka sighed, this time at the end of his wits. Third interruption, of course it had to be at the hands of whom Luka considered to be the densest human alive. He turned around to find none other than Adrien Agreste, accompanied by Nino. Luka could do little to help himself from giving him the meanest look he could possibly conjure.

“Hey, Adrien. Nino,” he said, clenching his teeth. “What. A nice. Surprise.”

Adrien, oblivious as always, seemed not to grasp what had just transpired. Luckily, as Adrien went on about what a coincidence it was to end up in the same movie theater, at the same showing, and how cool it would be to watch it with them, it was apparent Nino knew better.

“Um, dude, actually, I think I’ll have to sit at the front this time if you don’t mind,” Nino said, interrupting Adrien’s question of whether they could sit with them. “Yeah, my glasses have been giving me trouble…”

Adrien could do little to hide his disappointment but in the end went with Nino. Luka, on the other hand, would have kept grumbling to himself even after they had left if it weren’t for Marinette’s quick kiss on his cheek, which interrupted his train of thought.

“Thanks for being so patient,” Marinette said.

Luka, unable to stay irritated so long as Marinette looked at him like that–with those bright blue eyes and cute little smile, chuckled. “It’s no problem.”

There would be other opportunities, he thought to himself as Marinette snuggled back next to him. For now, he was happy with just watching the movie and enjoy having Marinette in his arms. At one point he was even brave enough to peck her on the head, in one particular scene where Marinette hid her face against his chest with the excuse that she was too scared to watch.

Encouraged by the quick kiss, Marinette looked up to him and again, he found himself drawn to her lips. So, close he could brush his nose against her, so close he smelled her perfume. So close that–

“AN AKUMA!” someone screamed out in the movie theater hall, unchaining a mass hysteria that propelled the audience to rush to the exit.

“Of course,” he muttered under his breath as Marinette sprung up and he followed after her.

Dammit! What does a guy have to do to kiss his crush? Was moment with Marinette too much to ask?

Judging from the smug little smile Chat Noir couldn’t help but sport as he herded him and the rest of the civilians to safety, yes. Yes, it was. It took a lot to annoy Luka, but he now kept a list: Anyone wanting to hurt Marinette, being interrupted when he was with her, and the idea of cats in general. Especially black cats.

“I’m just saying, dude’s a bit weird,” Luka said, hanging out with Marinette and some of her friends a couple of days after Chat Noir’s repeated attempts at sabotaging his date, plus then some more. The story had been quite the laugh for everybody and the group now heatedly discussed whether they knew of other couples Chat Noir liked to sabotage, much to Marinette and Adrien’s mortification.

Adrien, Nino noticed, was quite uncomfortable with the topic. He squirmed in his seat and went to great lengths to not cross glances with Luka.

“Yo, you okay?” whispered Nino.

“Huh?”

“You seem a little… uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine!” Adrien hurried to assure him, but then resumed being consumed in his thoughts. Great. Marinette’s boyfriend now had it out for him for accidentally having interrupted them a time or two.

Okay, maybe it had been around ten times so far, but in his defense half of those were due to Akumas and the rest… Well, the rest were just... you know, “accidents.”

Nino did not comment so as to not add fuel to the fire, but he suspected that Adrien was not only lying, but had finally realized his feelings for Marinette. Nino chuckled to himself, feeling a little sorry for Adrien. Poor dude had the timing of drying cement.

--

ta-da!

I couldn’t include the part where LB kisses Luka because that sent me into outlining a multi-chapter angst fic and we are NOT doing that cause these babies deserve happiness :)) but alas, here you go

[moonlitceleste]

I’m a warrior (now I’ve got thicker skin) Pt. 1

Part 1          Part 2          Part 3          Part 4          Part 5

I’ve toyed with this idea for a while, but I never posted it because I couldn’t think of the right song to go with it (that part comes in later). Thankfully, the idea came to me and I get to write it out!! It’ll probably be long, so I’ll split it into separate parts.

It’s three years since Hawkmoth started attacking Paris. By this time, the class has long turned on Marinette; however, she found solace in Adrien, Chloe, Kagami, and Luka. Together, they make up the permanent Miraculous Team.

They’ve finally defeated Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste, Nathalie Sancoeur, and Lila Rossi have been arrested. It’s made very public knowledge that Lila initiated contact with Hawkmoth out of pure spite and that her sole purpose was to target Marinette-Dupain Cheng and get her akumatized.

Lila is unable to lie her way out, because ever since Lila had gotten Marinette expelled, the latter had been keeping detailed notes on everything she had lied about and done. The only reason Lila hadn’t been exposed earlier was because Marinette was actively preventing it. She had deduced that Lila was working with Hawkmoth and knew she was a valuable connection.

Alya had also been posting Lila’s lies on her blog consistently, and there were quite a few blatant jabs towards Marinette in there.

Anyways, it’s been three weeks since that all went down. And people were still following Marinette around, from reporters to random citizens. The public was curious as to why Hawkmoth decided one girl was special enough as to be his target.

Tired of having to evade everyone, Marinette decides to give them what they want. She has an adequately large Twitter following since she was best friends with Adrien, Chloe, and had previously worked with big names such as Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale.

She shoots a one-take video and explains everything, but not before a quick disclaimer.

“I didn’t know whether or not to, but I realized that telling this story could raise awareness, or maybe just help someone feel less alone. But before I start, please don’t send hate to anyone mentioned in this video. Whether or not they deserve it, and no matter what they did to me, no one deserves to be bullied.”

“I’ve never really told anyone the full story before, and as counter-intuitive as it may seem, telling it to a camera is a lot less scary than it is to an audience.”

Marinette doesn’t hold back. She starts from the very beginning, from when Lila came in. I don’t like the Marinette-creepily-follows-them-because-of-jealousy thing, so I HC that in Volpina she followed them because she got bad vibes from Lila and was worried for Adrien’s safety. She says she saw Ladybug calling her out and that’s how she knew she was a liar.

She continues telling the story about how when Lila came back, everyone believed her immediately. She repeated the lies that Lila said and tore into the ridiculousness of them--the tinnitus she got from saving Jagged Stone’s cat from an airplane runway, how her arthritis flared up after saving Max’s eye from getting gouged out by a napkin and seemingly switched wrists constantly. How her classmates glared at her for being the cause of Lila’s pain and how the teacher didn’t even check for a doctor’s note or blink when they moved her to the back of the classroom.

She talked briefly about Lila’s threat, and how an akuma went after her but she managed to calm down in time, and that Lila was akumatized immediately after.

And then she talked about the expulsion. In great detail. But not before a little backstory about how her principal was quick to ignore anything her childhood bully did because he was easily swayed by money and influence. How her teacher had always told her to be the bigger person. Set a good example. Show people what the Marinette’s of the world are like.

And despite her being the “example”--the perfect student and class president, he expelled her without a second thought or even proof if what Lila accused her of was true. Lila’s parents weren’t even at the meeting, but hers had to be.

She wasn’t un-expelled until Lila herself claimed that she had a “lying disease,” which she later figured out was because Adrien helped her out.

She mentions how ironic it is that “my classmates who I’ve known since childhood and my best friend all turned their back on me in an instant. The four friends who stuck with me were all very new, and I had a dislike for 3/4 of them at some point in time.”

After explaining the beginning in detail, she summarized the rest of what they did--it started with glares and small jabs, then escalated to tripping her in hallways. Most weren’t outright malicious, but the more bull-headed like Alya, Alix, and Kim did the worse stuff like “accidentally” pouring water on her. After all, she was bullying Lila even after Lila had been so nice to her!

And then the Hawkmoth part. Emotions and akumatizations.

“Even though I know I didn’t do anything wrong, it was hard for me to remember that since the whole world seemed to be conspiring against me. But my true friend were there for me, and if they weren’t I’d have long succumbed to Hawkmoth’s influence.

I didn’t actually think Lila would turn my friends against me; I trusted them. Every time I was almost akumatized, it was because of injustice. I just had to remember that in due time, justice would come for her too.

I think my greatest fear was that even once Hawkmoth was gone, Lila would be able to lie her way out of it and somehow, she would convince everyone that I was in the wrong again. But that didn’t happen, and I’m glad that I didn’t give in to my negative emotions.

Part of that is because after a while, I just became numb. I haven’t let myself feel anything after all these years--at this point, my automatic response is to click and delete my negative emotions. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I don’t have to do that anymore. The reason I never talked about what happened was because I was scared once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I couldn’t risk getting akumatized.

My knee-jerk reaction right now is to say I’m fine, but I’m not. I don’t know when I will be. I still have thoughts of what I did to make everyone leave me so easily--why they were so quick to turn. But hopefully, letting all this out is a step towards healing. It’s made me stronger, but I’m ready to close this chapter of my life and move on”

She ends the video after a brief end note and a reminder to not send hate to her classmates (but it ends up happening anyways).

“Maybe this could have been all prevented if my classmates had at least tried to listen to me, or if my teacher or principal had done their job. Everything may have worked out in the end, and I’m very grateful for that, but maybe it could have been stopped earlier if anyone had stepped in to help. If you see someone struggling, don’t stay silent. My true friends stuck by me, and they gave me the hope that there really was light at the end of the tunnel. You can give someone hope too.”

(There’s more said in the video, but those are just snippets I have right now.)

Parisians are horrified at the full story, and it spreads like wildfire. People add English subtitles, and it spreads even more.

A girl being targeted by an emotional terrorist for three years, having to suppress her emotions while actively being targeted by said terrorist or else the world would end?! Yeah, people ate it up.

And then Adrien and Chloe tweeted something, and then Bruce Wayne got involved, and soon enough, Marinette became known as the Girl Who Saved Paris.

TAGLIST

@2confused-2doanything @abrx2002 @alenee13 @animegirlweeb  @anonymously-odd  @buginetye @catthhay @certifiedbidisaster @dreamykitty25   @ertyzeta @fishandnoodles  *@how-to-function-properly  @iamablinkmarvelarmy  @ihavehomeworkbutistillhere @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @kris-pines04  @miracleofadisaster @momothefemur  @nach0 @nathleigh *@our-preciousss  @starpony999 @swiftie-miraculer13 @t1dwarrior-of-earth @thatonecroc  @theg0ddesspersephone  @thenillabean  @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @tired-butterfly @trippingovermyfeet @user00000003 @velvetterabby

[spiltscribbles]

you did the mini fic way i loved you (which was amaaazing) but how about champagne problems where remus says no to sirius' proposal because he gets spooked by a couple of purebloods :(

~Notes: Nonny babe! I can’t believe you made me write such angst😩😩😩 This isn’t quite that but I hope you like it anyways🥺🥺 ILU!!!

.-

A Reblog Is Worth The Sexiest Bottle Of champagne!  |  The Way I Loved You FIC  |  Send Me A Prompt/Song??💜

.-

“I’m afraid of a lot of things, but mostly, most sincerely, I am afraid of being completely unraveled by you, and you finding nothing you want in here.”

—L.M. Dorsey 

.-

When Remus’s father leaves for the final time three weeks before his tenth birthday, his Mam spends only two days in bed before she drags out an old bottle of Dom Pérignon and pops it open,  pouring them each a glass with a smile the wrong side of worn as she beckons him forwards with an indulgent bend of the knuckle. “Come along, mon amour. Just this once, just to say farewell.”

As he thumbs the skinny tumbler bubbling with the amber liquid that’s been his mother’s favorite ever since growing up in her Northern French town on the outskirts of Paris, Remus wonders if he’ll ever forget the words his father spewed before leaving— the declaration that they must be cursed if their first child turned into a monster and their second came out stillborn. Wonders if he’ll ever forget the livid, borderline murderous expression that spilt over his mother’s delicate features before she screamed at him to leave for the final time. Wonders if he’ll ever not feel so weary— So destitute.

“’S all just champagne problems mon petit lapin,” she says in that airy way of her’s that somehow still radiates a knowledge beyond his reach.  “None of  it ever matters, not truly. Not ever.”

Remus eyes the dark circles smudged against her pale skin, and the way her caramel curls fall limply from her bun. She’s always been the most beautiful woman in the world  through his eyes but he now thinks she might be the strongest too. So strong that she’s sitting there, right in front of him in their small kitchen— and she’s pretending that her tiny son, her first and only born, hasn’t brought absolute ruin to her life that should’ve been buoyant and lovely for such a pretty, quick witted Muggle girl.

“Yes, I know Mam,” he says instead of the truth, because if he’s being at all honest he’s always been a bit of a coward and a bit too desperate for some semblance of normality.

.-

It becomes a mantra of sorts to Remus as he stumbles into adolescence. He calls every inconvenience in his life,  champagne problems, and drinks the hurt away in a secret nook off the astronomy tower that he purposefully left off the map he and his friends had created with a sheer pulse of brilliance and adventure and a need to leave their marks on this stupid sodding castle.  A castle that’ll inevitably kick them out on their arses from it’s relative safety with such cold indifference. A castle that will soon be brimming with a new generation of students sullying the same spaces, same corridors   they once spent their days laughing and jeering and frolicking about— creating mischief in it’s hallowed halls. The one and only time that Remus was able to hold his breath and wrap himself in warmth he never knew and will never know again, not ever in the same sort of youthful ignorance— One that he only feigns to hold when around his friends because he thinks he’s never been young, not the way they are. Remus reckons he  aged a century and a half after the bite and a century more after his father had left, and then a millennia when his mother was diagnosed with third stage breast cancer when he was a fresh fifteen.  A death sentence dressed up in bows of apology by the doctors and shiny wrapping-paper of potential hope if the aggressive treatments they employ  make a difference. And soon enough the ever green that was his juvenescence will turn brittle and gray and awash with memories of hopelessness, only adorned sparingly by  memories of Peter’s  quiet companionship and  James’s affable grins. Lily’s easy laughter and Sirius’s searing snogs. Instances of respite that were eventually drown out by the shitty Wizard champagne he’s able to finesse after sucking off the twenty something who works night shifts at the Hog’s Head.

But it doesn’t matter.

All of his issues are inconsequential at the end of the day; from a paper cut, to his worst transformations to the time his first boyfriend sneered at him with pure distain after he had snubbed his wanting to go further subsequent two months of furtive touches and inconspicuous dates. It’s all just a load of shit, a collection of champagne problems just like his Mam had said all those years ago.

 Even that incident the morning in fifth year when he found out that his best friend— the boy he would’ve done just about anything for, anything only  just to see him smile— had weaponized his most hated form. When Sirius nearly made him into a murderer, into a beast, when he nearly proved true the self fulfilling prophecy that every werewolf is as dark as creatures can become. The charms of veelas, combined with the insatiable cravings of vampires and the wily natures of goblins.  When Sirius had nearly turned Remus inside out, made him everything he hates.

But no. That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t. Because paper cuts heal, and the full moons set, and James hexes a legion of boils to sprout up all along Quintin’s face. And at the end of the day, he’ll always love Sirius first and last and the very most. He’ll always forgive him any indiscretion because when Sirius’s hand— soft palms and callus fingers— caresses his side, Remus feels close to whole, close to alive, close to something real. And God Remus loves him so much it aches in his chest and creeks in his bones.

So when he comes back to Hogwarts the night after his mother’s funeral— two months divorced of that incident, two months of painful quiet and empty arms and heart wrenching need— Remus lets Sirius collect him into his embrace, and lets them cry together under the canopy of night fall, and when Sirius begs him to come back to them, to forgive him, to let him inside the most protected nooks of his mind  once more, all Remus says is “yes,” and “All right,” and “I never stopped.” He doesn’t tell him that he doesn’t think he’s ever ben there’s in the first place, doesn’t think he’s ever been here or anywhere. He doesn’t tell him that sometimes it feels like he’s some faded sepia photograph come to life in the form of his too skinny body and too large eyes and too gangly limbs. He doesn’t tell Sirius that he doesn’t think he’s ever been anything meant to last on this plane of existence, but he does let Sirius kiss him and hold him and fuck him because it’s the first time since Sirius left Grimmauld back in December the he looks something close to at peace. And Remus knows that he never wants to be someone who makes him frown with that protruding vein on his temple. Someone like Sirius— Someone so beautiful, so vivid, so alive— deserves a life painted in technicolor. And Remus refuses to be the person to drain the vivacity from his every breath. To scuff out his lust for life.

.-

The first time Sirius asks Remus to stop gulping down the champagne and gin and Ogden’s finest by the fist fulls, it’s their final night of their final term and after Remus barbs a little too forcefully that their dingy little dormitory is the one place for him after Lily jokes that it’s a madhouse. 

“It’s gonna bloody kill you Remus, it’s already doing it for fucks sake. You can’t even walk straight most mornings damn it!” He shouts in the quiet of their room while James and Lily are ensconced in her own bed on the other end of the tower and Peter is off snogging his Hufflepuff girlfriend in some deserted third floor closet.

“All right,” Remus tells him after swallowing down the last of his champagne, words pouring out his mouth like warm molasses and arm slugging languidly when he tosses the empty bottle to the side before patting the empty end of his bed for Sirius to lie down besides him. He doesn’t want to fight, doesn’t have the energy for the shouts and accusations and hurt that they always fling at each other during these more heated moments. He supposes he doesn’t have much energy for anything at all anymore.

Sirius stilts from where he’s looming above him, tongue poised for another verbal lashing. But he must see something in Remus’s face, or probably just feels exhausted in similar ways, because he only breathes in— tension melting from his shoulders— and slinks off his jacket before shuffling into the comforter besides him.

And in the future Remus will wonder whether if he remembers it correctly that it felt like everything was standing on an axis as Sirius rode his cock— slow and steady and minutes that feel like decades. Or maybe he’s just recalling it differently because he realized for the first time that night that  for every inch of him that loves Sirius, the other boy feels that same sort of enthralling passion. Only difference is that Sirius’s always been the greedy sort, the once and future king of all or nothing. Remus is the contrary of that. He’s lived with nothing before and he’s perfectly fine with living that way again, had never really expected much from his life anyhow. But Sirius deserves to have everything and Remus knew then—  will always know, that he could never give him that.

.-

The year following their graduation is beautiful in that way that transitional periods always are. A turning of an age eclipsed by sunlight and laughter and kisses that makes Remus feel like they’re melding into one another, becoming indelible parts of each other’s very skin and bones.

But it’s also a time when Remus realizes just how helpless his condition has made him, how despite his top marks in no less than seven NEWTs, he’s always just a werewolf in the eyes of the Wizarding world. So while Lily studies in St Mungos and Peter takes up post at the ministry and Sirius joins James in the Auror’s academy, Remus works days at a quaint bookshop with a doting elderly woman who makes him soup when she thinks he’s looking peaky, and a gay night club with a handsy boss that leers at him with an intrusive air and asks regularly if he’s still with that boyfriend of his.

Remus feels like a fraud.

So when he gets that letter from Dumbledore sent to the flat that Sirius insists is their’s but Remus only ever calls his— he replies with a hasty scrawl on the back of some spare parchment, telling him  that of course he’ll do anything to help the Order. Tells him  that he understands the discretion that’s required of such a mission. He tells his past headmaster that he grew up collecting secrets like school children collected friends, so this won’t be an issue. He doesn’t tell him how it’s a practice so ingrained into him that sometimes even he doesn’t know who the fuck Remus John Lupin is most days, doesn’t know the seams that string him together like a pair of tattered trousers. He doesn’t tell him that he’s only afraid of one thing and it’s his boyfriend’s dedication,  because Sirius is the sort who loves unadulteratedly and without conditions. Sirius doesn’t yet understand that the boy who he’s let inside the most intimate parts of him, the boy who he shares a bed with night after night is the same monster a younger him— in a spur of passion—  had planned to deploy as a means of destruction.

Sirius doesn’t understand how foolish it is to intwine his life with Remus’s, even if he thinks it’s some sort of challenge, if he looks at it with the romantic lends that he could love the monster out of someone. And it’s positively idiotic to think as much, like Sirius’s tender hands and sweet whispers can be Remus’s cure. 

It’s so fucking stupid! And occasionally Remus wants to bash his head into a wall, but instead  kisses him with devouring intent before he could.

The owl nips at his finger for the last remnants of the stale biscuit Remus had offered it in thanks and he watches it soar away like he could never do.

.-

The first time Sirius tells Remus he loves him, it’s in the bathroom of the Longbottom’s small cottage— amidst panting breaths and thrusting hips and grappling hands as they try to get one another off as quick as possible before someone finds them in such a compromising state.

Remus has just spent three weeks in a werewolf camp in the south of Glasgow, and came here to find Sirius as soon as he can home. And while they get lost in one another in this cramped loo he forces himself not to think of how Sirius had been chatting up and chuckling with Emmeline Vance.

Emmeline Vance,  who is a beautiful blonde witch with vibrantly green eyes and a full smile that isn’t even slightly crooked like Remus’s own. Emmeline Vance who is the pure blooded daughter of the Swedish Minister of magic, and who came here to London because her country has never discriminated against half bloods or muggle borns— even if they brand their dark creatures with tattoos and lock them up in cages whenever they try to speak up against their lack of human rights.

Emmeline Vance who is the perfect complement to Sirius’s dark brooding and pale eyes and charisma that radiates off of him like the leading man in a novel written during the generation of disillusioned artists who had survived the first great war in the Muggle world. And Remus sometimes feels like Sirius’s gaze is trained on him like Gatsby towards  the green light he watched every night thinking of his beloved. And sure Lupin and Daisy might be a pair of flowers but one is poisonous and the other is bright with life and Sirius has always been the sort to pick the worst option because he’s a glutton for punishment, and sometimes Remus thinks that’s all he is. Sirius’s warped way of punishing himself for being born into such a fucked up  family— fettering himself to a poor, halfblooded, halfbreed, as some sort of declaration that he’s not the heir of the House of Black any longer, that he rebelled against them with every fiber of his being. That he’s the precise antithesis of their values even if he shares the same eyes and imperious air and steadfast beliefs on top of his  effortless genius— even if they are beliefs that juxtapose against his family’s blood supremacy.

And Remus hates these sorts of contemplations, hates how they make him feel like a trader to the love between them. But he forgets about it all when he remembers how Sirius glanced up and caught his gaze when he first stepped into the living room, amiable expression morphing to one of pure wanting the second he spotted him,   coldly disregarding an extremely glum looking Emmeline, as  he strutted towards  Remus and dragged him to the only empty spot and kissed the moonbeam scars that litters his skin and calls him beautiful despite it all— Maybe even because of it.

.-

The eleventh  time Sirius asks Remus to marry him, it’s the night of Regulus’s funeral, when his limp body was found slashed against the grounds of  the Hampshire woods after three weeks of being declared missing.

It’s spoken in a voice that’s so raw and primal and demanding that it makes Remus curl into himself when he hears it, getting lost in the sensations all around him— Sirius’s hot breath skirting the back of his neck, and Sirius’s large hand clenched around his dick, and Sirius’s length pounding into him with such force that their headboard smacks against the wall. And when they’re done, Sirius slides out of him amidst a round of peppering kisses along the ridges of his spine and expanse of the shoulders and on the hinge of his jaw. It feels like not an apology so much, but a plea. And Remus knows that the last year has been rough on them, on their relationship. Knows how difficult it is that Remus has been spending nearly as many nights spying on the wolves as he has in the flat. That Sirius wants to know where the fuck Dumbledore is sending his boyfriend, that he hates Remus only slightly because he’s so tight lipped about it all.

He’s argue that James tells Lily what he’s up to, and Remus would remind him that they’re married, and then Sirius would get a look on his face that’s so betrayed and so pained and so furious that Remus spends the night on the sofa instead— Well he would if Sirius didn’t have a habit to coax him back into his arms with mumbled apologies and gentle caresses and barely their kisses before the night ends.

So Remus lets him do the same now, and he ignores the questions about where he was all this time and shrugs off the way Sirius tries to reason that none of them know how long they have left living, how he wants to spend the rest of his days as Remus’s husband. And he watches Sirius flutter his eyes closed and waits for his breath to even out.

He never tells  Sirius that he wants to wed him  so badly that it���s cutting against his heart like a knife licked with flames,  even if he’s been in love with Sirius for practically half his sodding life.  Ever since he had jauntily invited him to sit in the cart with him and a  bespectacled lad, along  with another that was a bit plump and eager looking.

No. Through all the shouts and begging and sneers of tonight, Remus never dared tell him that. Remus knows Sirius, and if he had said as much,  then that would’ve been it for him. Sirius would have fought for Remus with every inch of his being. He would’ve made sure that Remus excepted his love, that he would have utilized the ferociousness and ferocity and indignation that breathes in his every vein and what makes up the marrow of his bones as the beautiful and brilliant and incandescent scion of the ancient and most noble House of Black— would’ve done so until Remus gave into his demands. 

Remus promised himself a long time ago that he’d never be the one to scuff out the light that shone in Sirius’s very soul. He’d never watch himself turn Sirius into  a  burnt shell of anything bright and fluttering and lively that ever existed in the spaces of his ribs and the valleys of his chest. Not like what he did to his Mam— eventually killing her. Not like how he drove his father away because the dread was too heavy of a burden to carry.  

Remus would rather Sirius hate him then watch him suffer through that.

Anything but that.

So Remus quietly packs his few belongings in the same trunk he’s had since first year with a flick and swish of his wand. And he pens Sirius a missive that he just doesn’t feel the way he had when they were in Hogwarts. And he tells him that his missions have him traveling all over the continent and it’s too much work to constantly be coming back home. Tells him that he knows about the brunette Muggle boy he had fucked back in August when he thought Remus was fibbing about his whereabouts and he lies  that it’s all right because he tells him that he’s been shagging a professor from Beauxbatons named Benjy for the past six months whenever he was sent to France under duress of Dumbledore. Even if the truth is that he refuted his every advance because his love for Sirius will always sing the loudest in his heart.

He sets the goodbye on the dresser that is only piled with Sirius’s things now, and doesn’t let himself sneak one last kiss while Sirius continues to doze. Tries to imprint the image of him— so gorgeous and so so human— in his mind’s eye, hopes he’ll recall the precise slope to the small of his back and the flyaway strands of his ink black hair and how he breathes in two beats longer with every third exhale. Knows that he’ll never memorize just how jutting his cheekbones really are, or how his lashes kiss the top of them with such grace that it’s close to angelic. And he’ll never again  feel the neediness Sirius could evoke with his fingers and tongue and cock, but maybe that’s all right. Maybe Remus got his time in the sun and now he has to repent for steeling that snatch of heaven for all these years.

Nothing could’ve kept the flame between them flickering for long, and that’s a truth Remus knows as inherently as his knowledge that Sirius was the great love of his life— But  Remus was always destined to either spare him or burn the golden tapestry that made up the picture of Sirius Black until it was nothing but ash.

So he leaves and he tells himself that it’s the right decision for both of them.

~My Wolfstar FIC Masterlist~

[waitingfortheendtocome]

Forced to Let Go CH 1

I wrote this a while a go and posted it on my AO3 account. I was meaning to post it here but I kept putting it off until I completely forgot about it lol. This is a Jemily(JJ/Emily) three chapter Fic. It was meaning to be a one-shot but It grew too long so I split it into three parts. I was listening to Easier to Run and My December by Linkin Park, as well as Britney’s song called Everytime which where the songs that inspired this fic so I was listening to those songs while writing them.

Gif’s I use aren’t mine credit goes to the creator I don’t know who made it I borrowed it off the gif sets tumblr gives you. 

Warning: angst, angst, angst and more angst. Heartbreak, self-doubt, loneliness

Chapter One

******************************************************************

Emily’s Apartment

Emily walked numbly into her apartment early in the evening. She had just got back from working the local case which happens to be a bank robbery case. She didn’t exactly enjoy the case but it made her realize just how badly she needed to get away. Besides the bank exploding near her, trying to solve the difficult case and saving the victims, she had to save none other than Will which to her felt like an insult to injury. Things with JJ haven’t exactly been all that great and perhaps that was her fault but she could hardly be blamed. Her and JJ were the best of friends technically they were past being best of friends at this point they were lovers.

JJ had been the first person who welcomed her into the team, the first person who treated her like an equal and made her feel welcoming. Emily fell for her the moment she laid eyes on her, Emily knew she was screwed the moment JJ smiled brightly at her and shook her hand. Maybe all along Emily read too much into it but the small smiles and the light blushes the lingering touches that accompanied them when they started getting closer and becoming best friends. Emily and JJ hung out often but what caused Emily to confirm her feelings was after they shared a room for the first time and began having intimate conversations Emily was casual when JJ mentioned dating other women and told the younger woman that she dated and been with women since is her preference. Emily had studied the thoughtful look JJ carried but it wasn’t brought up again at least not until months later where it was followed by a kiss.

Emily should have tried harder to resist but she couldn’t help it by that time Emily knew she was in love but knew she would never come forward first and express her feelings first. For one she hadn’t wanted to get hurt and two she didn’t know how JJ felt for her whether it was her experimenting or her actually having feelings for her and wanting more. Safe to say she now knows exactly what JJ feels for her as well what this whole seven plus years were to the woman she considers a best friend. Nothing more than an experimentation, something to get her curiosity out of her system. Emily felt her heart shatter at the idea that to JJ all this time it wasn’t anything more than an experiment.

Emily walked into her kitchen shaking the thought out of her head and grabbed her bottle of wine, a wine glass and sat in her living room filling her cup not even bothering to turn the lights on. What was the point? The darkness around her for once it felt welcoming and it fit her depressing mood. Her heartbreak, betrayal and loneliness. The feelings once alienating to her she now welcomed it like a second skin, this no longer felt like home to her.

“Maybe I really am meant to be alone.” Emily grumbled to herself as she filled her glass

But her thought wandered again as she took her first large gulp of wine back to the blonde and Emily hated herself for even thinking about her but she couldn’t help it. Emily was in love with the blonde despite the heartbreak she was currently nursing. After that one kiss JJ and Emily ended up having sex casually at first but it became frequent especially when they shared a room or JJ stayed over. Emily’s hopes started to grow the more they hung out together believing things might lead to more but it never did so Emily waited patiently which slowly became hopeless when they went to New Orleans and saw JJ spend a little too much time with that detective Will which lo and behold the two ended up secretly dating so Emily ended her whatever it was with JJ which became hopeless when the blonde showed up in Emily’s old apartment questioning why she was distant.

Emily got confused until JJ pointed out why they weren’t hanging out like they use to until Emily felt offended letting JJ know that they can’t have sex because she is with Will. JJ obviously got offended and stated nothing was serious to say Emily ended up having angry sex was understatement if JJ’s loud reactions was anything to go by but much to her own frustration neither bothered to stop their casual sex. Even after Doyle came back when they were in Paris the two were going at it but now that Doyle was dead and things were going back to normal Emily just couldn’t do it. She felt broken, confined in her own skin and felt alone. She just didn’t feel the same anymore so two weeks ago she ended up confronting JJ about it. Emily couldn’t handle being someone else's dirty little secret. Being someone else's secret fling. A second choice. Even if that person was JJ who she loved.

Emily loved JJ. She fell in love with her, her bright personality, compassion, kindness, her beautiful smile to match all her beauty. JJ was Emily’s light. Emily’s anger. Even then Emily couldn’t be second best to Will so she had confronted JJ about it. That led to a heavy discussion and JJ’s last words before Emily promptly left JJ’s hotel room during the Oregon satanic ritual case broke and shattered Emily into millions of pieces. Not only that but it only proved that the blonde didn’t feel the same way despite JJ’s countless reminders but Emily just didn’t feel it.

**********************************************************************

Flashback

Oregon-JJ’s Hotel room

Emily tried to hold back her tears as she looked away from JJ and out the window as a form of distraction. She knew if she looked at JJ she'd break down. She wondered why she even bothered coming to the hotel room to bring up what they were or even ask if they could be more. She assumed JJ felt the same way. They have been secretly having sex for years now so she just assumed the feelings were mutual. Emily herself tried several times to stop it due to JJ and Will but the blonde didn’t seem to think so saying that it was okay as long as no one found out which made Emily slightly uncomfortable but ignored it. She had been content with at least having JJ in some form so they continued. Emily got the courage to talk to JJ about it, to ask her what they were and if they can be something more. Although Emily wasn’t outright with the last request knowing it was a bad idea so instead she hinted it in a way that can be brushed off quickly.

To say it was a mistake was an understatement because they began to talk about their feelings and JJ reassuring Emily how much she loved her but and wanted to be with her but couldn’t according to JJ she couldn’t hurt Will or do that to him which baffled Emily due to the fact that she technically was going behind his back but Emily didn’t voice it instead she looked away. Granted when Emily began to see how close JJ and Will were becoming due to Emily’s request she had insisted on them not sleeping as often the only times they did was when they were overwhelmed from a case or spontaneous but spread out in actuality Paris was the last time they were in bed together. JJ tried a few times but Emily refused now glad she put her foot down because here she was standing in the blondes hotel room getting her heart broken on top of everything else she is going through right now.

“Emily please say something.” JJ asked her voice cracking trying to contain her own emotions heartbroken over having hurt her best friend

“I’m not asking you to leave him, he is your safety net, comfort. What you’re expected to marry and spend all your life with. I would never ask you to leave him.  I just needed to know if I had a shot. A chance. If you would have given us a chance but I know what sacrifices that made JJ I’ve been out for most of my life now remember,” Emily told her shaking her head feeling hurt and betrayed, “Those times JJ, the intimacy I will always cherish them. You know I love you dearly Jayje, but at the end of the day after we have sex I look beside me to find the side of the bed meant to be yours cold and empty. I wished to have you wake up beside me every morning, wrap my arms around you and hold you while you fix yourself coffee in the morning and I whisper I love you. Take you out on dates, show you the world because you deserve that and more. All this sneaking around I realize now I can’t anymore. I can’t do it anymore. Especially not after everything that has happen.” Emily turned away from JJ barely able to contain her own tears.

JJ's eyes become glassy from the unshed tears, “I’m sorry Emily. I love you. I truly love you and wished to be with you but I can't. I don’t want to hurt Will and I can’t make that kind of commitment. I’m so sorry Emily.” JJ whispered between sobs

Emily shook her head with a sigh and walked away with an indifferent shrug but paused to squeeze JJ’s shoulder as a form of letting her know that they aren’t any hard feelings despite her shattered heart.

“It’s fine JJ I wasn’t expecting you to and I knew what your answer would be but I can’t continue sleeping with you either. It isn’t fair for me or Will. I care about you Jayje and don’t worry this wont fuck up us working together or our friendship just pretend we didn’t have this conversation is for the best.” Emily told her as she opened the door and walked away.

**********************************************************************

Emily’s Apartment

Emily shook the memory away and got up from her chair and walked to the bedroom putting down the now half empty bottle of wine and dropped on her bed curling into a ball and sobbed uncontrollably no longer able to contain her heartbreak anymore. What was the point after years of giving someone all your love and them not even bothering to give it back. Emily remembered all the touches, kisses, caresses and whispers of affections they’ve shared. Waking up beside each other in their shared hotel rooms the rare times they get to share a hotel feeling content and happy to wake up beside the woman she loved than realizing those are the only times they wake up together and her heart would ache at all over again. Emily wondered if Doyle was right all along. His whispering words hunting her whispering how she’ll never have the woman she loves and will end up alone with no one. Emily's body shook remembering the painful stab wound and equally painful branding mark that she still had on her. She was going to get the blackbird tattoo but now just the thought brought out more heartache. She’s going to get it but will have to wait until she wasn’t hurting which was worse she hated the brand mark.

What made it worse was fate slapping her in the face by forcing her to save Will. At the end of the day she ended up saving him for JJ’s and Henry’s sake not even for Will’s sake since Emily never found him interesting and found him slightly boring but she didn’t know what JJ saw in him. Saving him was Emily’s tipping point. Emily’s breaking point was what led her into drinking half a bottle of wine was the text she received from Garcia letting her know what Will proposed to JJ and she said yes. Emily knew that was an impulsive request for marriage and knew it was JJ who requested it and that hurt the most especially when Emily knew JJ never wanted to marry him. Emily secretly knows she pushed JJ to him and hates herself with passion for it. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t be here and see them together anymore. What's worse in two days they are going to say ‘ I do' . Two days if that didn’t scream rushed wedding before she changed her mind then Emily wasn’t sure what did.

Emily laid in her bed for what seemed like hours, her bedroom as dark as the rest of her apartment sobbing every time she thought she was getting it under control another fresh wave of tears fell and another heavy sob broke out of her causing her to sob even harder. Until her body tired itself out and she ended up crying herself to sleep. A few lone tears flowing out of her eyes even when she slept, her shoulders tense and body curled up as if attempting to protect herself from her own heartache.

*********************************************************

Next Morning

Emily stirred awake not sure how long she was asleep let along. She sat up feeling a headache but didn’t care. Emily woke up worse than when she was the night before. Memories of the night before coming back to her quickly, the case, Emily’s call from Clyde, the discussion she had with JJ weeks before, Emily distancing herself somewhat from the blonde. She still went to team gatherings and the girls nights but she no longer let JJ sleep over nor did she linger back when they were parting ways. Now any time Garcia calls to go home Emily leaves with her or quickly after but now Emily realized she couldn’t do it anymore. Emily felt broken she couldn’t have this life back. Doyle took her life from her, taking it back like nothing and going back like nothing happened made her realize that he destroyed that for her. Emily realized now that the only thing that kept her here was also taken from her and she no longer had a chance with.

JJ was the only thing that kept her here. The hope that they can be together but now that is gone too. Emily stuck around hoping that she still had a chance to be with JJ especially after the conversation they had in Paris where JJ promised they’ll meet again and even hinted at them being official and her giving Emily a chance. Emily grabbed her phone and texted Clyde letting him know she accepted the offer and will fly to London the following evening. Now all Emily had to do is take today is back her suitcases book a flight. She didn’t have to worry about the furniture since she could pay the landlord to get rid of it.

Emily didn’t think she just pulled out all her suitcases and began the slow process of packing her bags.

“Come on Emily…. Don’t think about it just pack and leave don’t look back.” Emily told herself

[pink-imagines]

spice it up

request: Ok this is something that’s been on my mind for a couple of days now, and it’s SUPER CHEESY but plz bear with me haha. I’ve been watching a lot of ANTM and it inspired me to think about an au where Bakugo is a pro-hero and Y/N is a upcoming top model visiting Japan to walk and display a new line of lingerie based off of Pro-Hero’s costumes (kinda like for a Victoria’s Secret fashion show) She’s chosen to wear the Ground Zero lingerie and she gets permission to shadow Bakugo for a day or two to get a read on his personality so she can base her walk off of him. Thing is, off the catwalk, Y/N’s personality is free-spirited, laidback and even a little shy, so when Bakugo meets her he’s like “why the fuck would they choose an extra like her to be me?” but little does he know on the catwalk her personality does a complete 180 and is outrageously fierce and confident. Pro-hero’s got a free invitation to the fashion show so with some convincing from his friends (and maybe because he was curious to see how the hell she was going to pull this off) he goes to the show and his reaction to when she steps on the catwalk… Lol I want to leave it up to you. Wow that was wayyy longer then I expected it to be. I’m sorry to spam you like that 😂 I feel like ppl are either going to love or hate this idea so if you don’t want to write it I honestly don’t blame you haha. Either way I love your posts! You’re writing style is very fun to read!

a/n: hellooo! hope you’re doing well! sorry for the late update, but i hope that this is an alright imagine!

warnings: description of lingerie(??)

masterlist

You were exhausted. The airport had always been a stressful place, but now you were jetlagged aswell. Flying to Japan wasn’t an easy task, but it was worth it. You carefully pushed the sunglasses you were wearing up the bridge of your nose. It was a weak disguise, but you really couldn’t care less.

“The car’s waiting outside. Let’s hurry up.”, your manager spoke fast. You grabbed your bag and followed after her. The paparazzi were flooding the exit, luckily they had put up fences. This was one of the reasons you had to look atleast a little bit dressed up on airports. Which was the most uncomfortable thing ever, but you just had to live with it. By “dressed up” they usually just meant “don’t wear sweatpants”. So you could still wear your comfy pair of jeans and a nice sweater or something of the sort.

“How do you feel after travelling so much? From New York, to London, to Paris and now here in Tokyo. How do you cope?” The same questions were popping up everywhere, but you didn’t stop for any of them. The only time you did stop was when you saw a few fans getting strangled against the fence. You hurried towards them, got their things signed and made sure they got back to safety.

“Let’s go, Y/N.”, your manager warned.

“Coming!”, you sighed and kept walking.

The next day you were driven to the place where you’d be messured for the lingerie.

“Y/N? Over here, honey!”, the designer said. He got you into a chair as soon as you arrived.

“What do you have for me today, Ray?”, you smiled kindly.

“So, heroes are a big thing. So we’ve made a line of hero-inspired lingerie, we think it’ll be a hit.”, he said with a big grin and showed you the sketches, “We’ll get them ready as soon as possible, but we need to match the right hero to the right model.”

“Alright, I trust your judgement.”, you looked through the sketches, “Give it to me, Ray.”

“Okay, okay. Since you’re the most charesmatic of the girls, we want you take care of the hothead.”, he pointed at one of the sketches, “Ground Zero.” You looked at the sketch. The top was some sort of dulled down orange color, in a lacy material. That wasn’t that bad, it was the usual, but there was a leather harness on top of it... a leather harness that connected to a leather choker. The bottoms were high-waisted and in the same lace material but black. But that wasn’t it. There was a pair of leather, knee-high, boots along with it.

“It’s... extreme.”, you sighed, “But, sure... I’ll do it.”

“Oh, thank you, Y/N. You’re a life saver, no model in Japan wanted to take the roll.”, he chuckled, “Here I’ll show you what we thought we should do for the face.” He showed you a face with cat-eye eyeliner, a simple nude lip and some sort of explosion looking thing behind the ears. You guessed that was a part of Ground Zero’s hero costume.

“Looks great, Ray.”, you smiled.

“Go get yourself meassured, your manager is booking you a meeting with Ground Zero so that you can study his personality.”, he said calmly and started to walk away.

How had you gotten yourself in this mess? To be honest, you didn’t know anymore. Everything happened so fast and now suddenly you were in the lobby of a hero agency, waiting for Ground Zero to go on his lunch break.

“Y/N Y/L/N?”, a rough voice asked behind you. You turned around to see a pair of crimson eyes staring into your soul. His hair was messy and he was just wearing jeans, a hoodie and a leather jacket. You didn’t know why you thought he’d show up in his hero costume.

“I’m guessing you’re Ground Zero?”, you stretched out your hand.

“You can say Bakugo.”, he scoffed and ignored your stretched out hand. He instead put his hands in his pockets.

“Are you ready to go?”, you asked.

“Why else would I be here?”, he sighed and walked to the exit. This was gonna be an exhausting week.

Bakugo walked as if he had just proven a point, or like he had just won an argument. To say the least, there was only pure confidence flooding in his veins. You hated it, but you simply had to see this as a job. You weren’t in your body, you were only watching from the audience.

“Are you just gonna sit there looking at me? You’re not gonna talk?”, he quirked an eyebrow at you.

“Fine then... um... what kind of music do you listen to?”, you asked innocently.

“Music?”, he bursted out into laughter, “That’s it? You really are just another extra!”

“Listen, man, you’re the one who wanted to talk. So talk.”, you kept your calm, you didn’t want to make a scene out in public.

“Eh- this place sucks, let’s go to my apartment. We can talk there.”, he shrugged and walked faster.

“Your apartment?”, you squeaked.

You were just supposed to follow him around for a while every day, but now you were in his apartment. This was only the first day! His apartment was nice though... it kind of had an oldschool aesthetic to it. Like he came straight out of a private school in England during the 1980′s.

“You asked what kind of music I’m into or something?”, he sighed and walked over to a record player after taking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket. You stopped for a second. Didn’t he just make fun of you for asking that? You watched as he flipped through a few records.

“Yeah, I did.”, you answered cautiosly and hung up your coat next to his jacket.

He effortlessly handled one of the vinyls and quickly put it on the record player... it started playing and-... was that The Beatles? Bakugo sat down on his couch as if it wasn’t extremely shocking for him to listen to this.

“You listen to The Beatles?”, you asked as Paul McCartney started signing the first verse of Yesterday.

“Who doesn’t?”, he sighed, “C’mon, sit down.” You sat down in one of the armchair’s and finished listening to the song.

“You don’t seem like you listen to this kind of music.”, you commented as the next song started playing.

“I don’t only listen to this, idiot.”, he snarked, “This was the first thing I found.”

“Whatever you say.”

A few days went by and you’d go through the same schedule. Wait for Bakugo to go out for his lunchbreak, walk around for a bit, go to his apartment and go home when he had to start his next shift. He started making you lunch, and he was a surprisingly good cook. 

For the last day he stopped you before you parted ways.

“Wait-... can I meet you at your hotel later tonight?”, he actually looked a little bit nervous for once.

“I mean, yeah... but why?”, you gave him an unsure smile.

“I’ll take you out for food, something spicy... unless you can’t handle that.”, he grinned, his confidence was suddenly back.

“You wanna bet?”, your laughed.

“Alright then, it’s a bet.”, he chuckled, “I’ll meet you around 7 in the lobby.”

“For sure. I’ll see you!”, you waved goodbye and so did he.

Just when you were about to sneak out to the lobby your manager walked past.

“Where are you going?”, she asked.

“I was just uh...”

“And why’s Ground Zero in the lobby? He’s starting a commotion! We don’t need that, we need you to rest for the show tomorrow!”, she sighed.

“Please, I just wanted to-”

“No, Y/N. You can’t go out tonight, you have a damn show tomorrow.”

“Well, please just tell Bak- I mean... Ground Zero that I can’t come... and that I’m sorry.”, you pleaded, “Please.”

“Fine...”, she agreed.

The next day you woke up early to go to the fitting, so that you could later that day go to the show. Since they had your measurments, it fit perfectly.

“Hey, Laura!”, you stopped your manager as she passed by your make up station.

“Yeah, what’s up? Need anything?”, she asked.

“No-... I was just wondering if you know if Ground Zero would be here tonight.”, you asked.

“I don’t know, honey.”, she sighed, “He hasn’t said anything about it.”

“Alright, thank you.”

You got a moment alone in your changing room before you were going backstage. There was a harch knock on the door, which prompted you to go over to it and open the door. 

“Is it time to come out n-”, you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw Bakugo in front of you.

“Hey.”, he said quietly.

“Hi.”, you responded, “How did you get back here?”

“It’s not that hard for a hero of my status.”, he grinned and puffed up his chest a bit.

“Okay, okay...”, you chuckled and wrapped the silk robe you had on tighter around you, “Well, I’m happy you made it.”

“Y/N! Showtime!”, you heard your manager shout.

“Coming!”, you answered.

“Good luck... on the show...”, he muttered.

“Thank you! I expect to see you in the crowd.”, you grinned and ran up to the backstage area.

-

Maybe he should’ve tried to see what she was wearing. He really hadn’t thought about it at all...

The show was in alphabetic order, so he’d have to sit there for a bit before she’d come out. He really didn’t care much for the other models and he might’ve fell asleep for a few minutes here and there... but that was the chair’s fault! It was too comfortable, it even had armrests! How could he not fall asleep? Just for a bit... 

“Ground Zero!”, they shouted, making him almost jump out of his seat. Eijiro, who sat beside him, let out a quiet chuckle.

“Shut up, man...”, he whispered before glueing his eyes to the runway. He didn’t even recognize her at first. Y/N was... different... and it wasn’t just the clothing... or more like the lack there of.

Her whole aura was different when she walked she was like a whole new person. She was fierce, confident, simply the embodiment of a goddess of war and destruction.  Katsuki’s eyes were glued to her, every curve and edge, and his mouth was slightly agape in shock. He didn’t even realize that people were taking pictures of him.

After the show Katsuki made his way backstage, where he met up with Y/N who was now wrapped up in her silk robe again.

“What did you think? Did you like it?”, she grinned.

“I-...”, he looked around at the people around him who were all watching, “It was alright.”

“Alright?”, you laughed, “Okay then, you diva, I’m gonna go get changed!” His gaze followed her form as she walked away from him to her changing room... until he noticed that people were staring at him.

“Oi! What are you looking at!?”

-

The next day you were already at the airport early in the morning, which was way to early since the plane didn’t leave for another hour. So you decided to look at the articles about last night.

You scrolled quickly through most of them until you saw a picture of a familiar face. It was Bakugo! Looking absolutely star struck as your figure strutted down the runway. A smile spread across your lips and you took a screenshot of the photo.

“Hey, do we have Ground Zero’s buisness email or something like that?”, you asked your manager.

“I can get it for you. Why do you need it?”, she quirked an eyebrow at you.

“Oh, I just wanted to thank him.”, you smiled sweetly, “Also, do you know the next time I’ll be working in Japan?”

“In a few months or so.”

“Perfect.” You couldn’t wait.

-

permanent taglist: @theoceanphoenixhasrisen | @raven-r0ses | @darkbeautyswife | @sondering-thoughts | @gowoneandonlyone | @bnhabadass | @queenblackcat | @jayetheanimefreek101 | @witchy-anna 

tagged for this fic: @bnha-violetnote​ | @succulent-momma​

[aziraphales-library]

Hey!!! I’m kinda new, and I’d like to know if you can recommend me some good GO fics? My only request it’s that they should mostly be Teen Up or Gen s fics... and maybe some good AUs (I’m in love with those)

Okay, here we go!! I went a little all out on this post because it’s more about personal preference, but I still stand by it :D

An Angel who did not so much Fall In Love as Settle Into It Gradually by TheLadyZephyr - 7.5k - Rated T

Crowley was standing in the middle of the room, hands in his pockets, looking a little lost. Aziraphale eyed the distance between them. Five steps. Five steps, and six thousand years, and a battlefield spanning an eternity.

The story of the little moments over the millennia that shape an angel’s regard for a demon, and the way he slowly, with great reluctance but inevitable surety, falls in love.

I simply adore this fic. It’s one of those fics that follows them through the ages and its just done so well. I don’t even know what else to say, just that you should go read it, and the fanart is also gorgeous!

Something So Magic by apliddell - 3.9k - Rated G

Crowley gets stuck in his serpent form, and Aziraphale tries his best to help.

This fic is simple, yet adorable, and I cannot get enough of it. 

How Much To Give, How Much To Take by thechemicalgirl - 3k - Rated G

“It’s like…’ he paused, trying to calm down. ‘It’s like after I came back from Heaven and we switched our bodies back, something has happened. I can’t use my power anymore, not even to start the Bentley.”

Crowley loses his demonic abilities and Aziraphale tries to help him cope with it, but things get much more complicated than that.

Angsty, but also soft, and just a great execution of a favourite premise.

In Peace I Will Both Lie Down and Sleep by fizzybiscuits - 5.6k - Rated G

Aziraphale starts having nightmares. For some reason, he doesn’t talk to Crowley about this right away.

Title is from Psalms 4:8. “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

This fic just has everything. It’s a stellar example of an established relationship fic and is cavity-inducingly fluffy.

Be All My Sins Remembered by CloversDreams - 43.4k - Rated T

“The trial,” Beelzebub continued loudly, “will consist of seven tests.”

“Seven…” Aziraphale muttered under his breath. He had a bad feeling about this and it showed. He twiddled his thumbs nervously as he waited for more details.

Crowley scrunched his face and shook his head. “Oh you don’t mean–”

“Correct. The Sins have been charged with the task,” Beelzebub interjected.

“Crap.” Crowley groaned. He slapped his hands onto his face and dragged them downward slowly. This was just what they didn’t need.

Gabriel nodded. He had a rather unpleasant grin on his face as he said, “Don’t know much about them, myself, but they can be a pretty gnarly group of high-class demons from what I’ve heard. On par with the archangels back home. Wouldn’t want to… what’s that delightful human phrase? Oh, right. Wouldn’t want to cock this up.”

Listen, in my opinion, this fic is massively underrated. I unintentionally binged it all in one go because it was so gripping. The angst in some chapters had me practically screaming, and the whole idea is a brilliant take on the seven deadly sins. The pining is magnificent, and I live for the Husbands drama. 

Let Sleeping Snakes Lie by Blue_Sparkle - 2.6k - Rated G

Aziraphale confesses his love for Crowley when he can contain it no longer. Oh, not to the demon himself of course. To a sleeping snake.

Another fic featuring Snake!Crowley, this one is magnificently soft, and I adore the scene in Stardust it’s inspired by. Just can’t stop coming back to read, 10/10 recommend!

Serpent of Eden, Original Tempter by noodlefrog - 33.4k - Rated T

During Crowley’s trial, the agents of Hell present evidence that the demon has been fraternizing with the enemy. Careful to protect Crowley’s pride (and his own concealed feelings), Aziraphale turns on the saunter and leans into his friend’s reputation as a tempter to spin their relationship into something that looks more demonic than lunch dates and feeding the ducks.

This fic combines Pining, Misunderstandings, and a fantastic ‘what if?’ for the execution scenes, and I am here for it. The Original Characters are written fantastically well, and I loved the bonus chapter!

What They Say About Assumptions by DragonGirl - 7.9k - Rated T

While it’s true that God bestowed upon the angels the divine power to sense love of all kinds, that does not mean they were given the ability to sense exactly who or what that love is directed at. A minor design flaw that hasn’t been much of an issue. Until now.

Or:

Aziraphale has known that Crowley loved someone since the beginning. He’s also spent most of that time believing that someone was a demon.

Aziraphale’s obliviousness in this fic was so ridiculous it felt plausible. It was hilarious but also heartwarming, and has one of my fave love confessions. It was angsty as hell in the best way, and I just implore that you read it!

Futile Devices by ticketybye - 3.2k - Rated G

Crowley pretends to sleep. Aziraphale talks.

Just adorable. Cavity inducing fluff and love confessions are my favourite things and god does this deliver on that.

Foolish Principality by seashadows and WikdSushi - 6.6k - Rated M

Upon moving into a South Downs cottage, Crowley gets left alone while Aziraphale rushes to help the new proprietors of his bookshop. Thanks to a miracle gone wrong, Crowley discovers Aziraphale's greatest material secret, and a few things neither of them could ever fully face.

Is rated M but in my opinion there’s nothing too bad in here, though you should judge for yourself. The poetry is beautiful, horrifying masterpieces, and it is honestly fantastically funny and sweet.

——

Y’all know by now that I adore anything by Arinia, but this fic is one of my faves:

Just This Once by Arinia - 2.7k - Rated T

An idea came, slowly at first, before filling up his heart, setting every nerve alight. It might be another decade, another century even, before he saw Crowley again. No one had come to rescue him from Above. No one had chastised Crowley for wasting a miracle from Below. Perhaps, just this once…

The streets of Paris are soaked with blood, and Aziraphale realizes just how much he owes Crowley for saving his life.

It’s freaking adorable, the kissing is fantastic, and I have a secret love of the French Revolution that made me love the fic all the more. Read it, I beg you.

——

As for AUs, I don’t read loads, but I do have some faves!

Neighborly Affection by Thestarlitrose - 4.6k - Rated T - Human AU

Anthony J Crowley was four years old the first time he met the tiny Ezra A Fell; he wasn’t impressed.

He was forty-six when he found him again in a bookshop in Soho.

The Childhood Friends, Flower Shop, Christmas, Friends to Lovers fic nobody asked for in the middle of October.

This fic is a complete tangle of tropes, and it’s also incredibly sweet. Perfect for the fast approaching holiday season!

a book elegantly bound by AwkwardPotatoChild - 6.5k - Rated G - Library AU

Two idiots. One book series.

or alternatively, Aziraphale and Crowley are united over their common love of books and the scheming of one Miss Anathema Device

This fic manages to be both very funny and incredibly endearing at the same time. The book names were hilarious, and I adored Anathema’s matchmaking.

A Jaunt Or Two by sonicsora - 3.1k - Rated T - Human AU

They meet by happenstance twice over, only to end up quite woven into one anothers lives. It’s all quite accidental, but sticks.

Crowley realizes a bit belated he’s quite attached to this man who freely uses the word jaunt and wears cream-colored suits.

This fic is just adorable. It’s sweet, fluffy, and exactly my kind of thing. Also Gabriel’s a dick in the comedic way, which is fun to see.

Restoration by arealshitwizard (gaiusgallus) - 2.6k - Rated G - Human AU

Ok I had this idea in my head and it wouldn’t go away so here is Aziraphale as a painting restorer and Crowley as a flash stock broker… There’s just one chapter sorry for my sins

This is a really unique fic (I know I keep saying that, but it’s true!), and featured such fun interpretations of their characters!

——-

I’m aware that 90% of this list is very specific to my preferences, and that it got a little out of hand, but I hope y’all enjoy the recs anyway! XD

Does the blog have any favourites they’d like to share?

~ Mod B

[mikauzoran]

Ladrien/Marichat: Drunk Ladybug on My Balcony? Yeah. This is Fine.: Chapter Thirteen

Read it on AO3: Drunk Ladybug on My Balcony? Yeah. This is Fine.: Chapter Thirteen: The Revelation

“Here we are. Safe and sound,” Ladybug announced with forced chipperness as she set Adrien back down in his room.

Reluctantly, he removed his arms from around her and stepped back, doing his best to put on his own fake smile.

“Today was really fun,” he remarked with a lightness he didn’t feel.

“Yeah,” she agreed enthusiastically, but the joviality didn’t make it to her eyes. “I had fun too. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.”

“I did,” he affirmed earnestly. “It was really great, and I seriously appreciate you going to the trouble of organizing all that for me. I’m never going to forget today.”

“Me either,” she whispered, a bit of the false cheer wearing off, revealing the bittersweet melancholy hiding below the surface. “I had such a good time getting to know you better.”

“Me too.” He braced for impact as he added, “We should do it again sometime.”

She winced, averting her eyes. “Adrien… I’d love to, but we can’t. It was madness for me to even think of dating you as Ladybug in the first place.” She looked back to him with pleading, desperate eyes. “This is too dangerous. Like I said before, I don’t know what all Papillon is willing to do to get to me, but…I would never forgive myself if my selfishness and carelessness got you hurt. We’re lucky no one recognized us today and posted pictures where Papillon could see and start targeting you.”

“I know,” he sighed, gaze dropping to their shoes. “I don’t care about the risk for myself, but…I would never want to bring that kind of guilt on you if something did happen…. This wasn’t a good idea.”

“No,” she agreed softly, stepping in closer and taking his cheeks in her hands, making him look at her. “But today was the best mistake of my life, Adrien Agreste, and I can’t bring myself to regret it.”

“Yeah?” he breathed, letting himself get entranced by her swirling, sea-like eyes.

“Yeah,” she confirmed, smile infused with light and warmth and love.

“Well,” he chuckled, taking heart in looking on the bright side. “At least you can still ask me out as a civilian. This doesn’t have to be the end.”

Her smile flickered and faded as her brow pulled into a conflicted frown. “Adrien…I don’t think that’s possible now.”

Her words were like a cold shower, sending a jolt through his system.

“Wait. What? Why not?” he demanded, a whine creeping into his voice.

She gazed at him sadly, shaking her head. “What are you going to think the next time some black-haired girl comes up to you and asks you out for coffee? You’ll know it’s me right away, and that can’t happen. I have to keep my identity secret at all costs, not just for myself and my own safety but for the safety of all of Paris and the Miraculouses and kwamis in my keeping. I have to think about the bigger picture,” she informed him ruefully, feeling the weight of her yoke of duty then more than ever. “I can’t just think about myself…so this has to be the end of this. I’m sorry, Adrien.”

It occurred to him that he could simply ask Marinette out, but the unfairness of the entire situation agitated him.

“If you’re not allowed to think about yourself, who’s going to?” he challenged. “This isn’t right. It’s not fair that you have to bear such a heavy burden alone. I know what it’s like to have to keep secrets from everyone, Ladybug. It’s exhausting and isolating, and, after a while, it makes you feel like a bad person because you feel like you’re always lying to everybody in your life. I don’t want that for you.”

He eyed her pleadingly, willing her to relax her guard and let him in, let him be there to help support her.

“I don’t really want that for me either,” she admitted with a tired sigh, tears beginning to build at the corners of her eyes. “…Sometimes it just can’t be helped, though. I’m sorry, Adrien, but I can’t do this. Please don’t make this harder than it already is,” she begged, just barely managing to resist the temptation he offered.

He could see her on the edge of breaking, but pressing her further felt wrong and manipulative. He didn’t want to push her into something she would later regret, so he backed off with a soft, “Okay. Sorry.”

“Me too,” she whispered, her hands dropping to take his and give them a squeeze. “…Maybe the stars will align and we’ll get to date someday.”

“Maybe I’ll find you and ask you out first,” he hummed impishly.

“Please don’t try to find me,” she entreated, feeling sick with worry. “You can’t know who I am.”

He bit his tongue, knowing that it would only scare her off to tell her he already knew.

“Kiss me,” Adrien pleaded.

Ladybug blinked, startled by the urgency in his voice. “What?”

“If this really has to be the end of things between us, can’t you at least kiss me? You said that you wanted to earlier. If we can’t be together, can’t we at least have this much?” he reasoned. “Give me a kiss to remember you by.”

She worried at her bottom lip as she studied him carefully, weighing her options.

“Please, Nelle?” he whimpered, and his yearning gaze nearly did her in.

Reasoning that one kiss couldn’t hurt, she stepped in, taking his face gently in her hands and bringing it down to hers.

She’d intended the kiss to be brief and sweet like cherry blossom petals floating on a river, but she did not anticipate the spark she felt inside of her when her lips met his.

It was like an electric zap radiating through her body from the tips of her toes to the ends of her hair, and, judging by the way he gasped into the kiss, Adrien felt it too.

What Ladybug had intended to be a chaste brush of lips quickly devolved into a sloppy, hungry crush of lips and tongues and teeth and hands.

Before she could really think through what she was doing, she’d pushed Adrien back and down onto his couch and was on top of him, seeing what kind of noises he made when she bit, licked, or sucked on different parts of his neck and throat. She quickly found out that he purred when she massaged his scalp, and the sound only encouraged her.

“Wait,” Adrien gasped, getting a hold of himself several minutes later.

She lifted her head and blinked blearily down at him, mind hazy with hormones. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t lie to you anymore,” he groaned. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t what you want, but things have gone too far and gotten out of control. I can’t keep secrets from you anymore, My Lady.”

She opened her mouth to seek clarification, but he alleviated the need by calling, “Plagg, transform me.”

In a green flash of light, it was Chat Noir beneath her on the couch in place of Adrien.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated, eyes begging for her forgiveness. “I shouldn’t have agreed to go on a date with you right after we’d just talked about waiting to start a romantic relationship until it was safe, but…when you showed up to ask me out, I figured that Adrien must have been your mystery boy all along, and it was just a dream come true, so…I should have said no, but I didn’t. I’m sorry. You know I think with my heart far more often than with my head.”

Ladybug did not respond right away. She was too busy gaping at her partner with her mouth hanging wide open as her mind bluescreened.

“Please say something,” he pleaded through a grimace, starting to feel ill. “I can tell you’re not taking this well, but—”

She cut him off with a guttural curse.

He blinked at her for a moment, and then a sly grin slowly curled up the corners of his lips. “On a first date? I’m sorry, but I’m a little old fashioned. You’ll have to marry me first.”

“Oh my God,” she groaned, covering her face with her hands as she had a mental meltdown.

He winced. “Sorry. I really am sorry. …On a completely serious note, are you okay?”

A muffled, “No,” leaked out through her fingers along with very Marinette-like sounds of despair.

“Sorry,” he repeated. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I just…I really did understand earlier when you were talking about it being unfair to Adrien, him not knowing your identity. I felt guilty for keeping this from you this whole time, but I knew you didn’t want to know, so…” He shook his head. “But I couldn’t keep lying to you. …Sorry for messing things up,” he summarized dejectedly, ears drooping.

“…Do you hate me?” he whispered, half afraid to learn the answer.

She dropped her hands down to her sides and looked at him with eyes full of sorrow, compassion, regret, and love. “Chaton, I could never hate you. Ever,” she stressed, reaching out to stroke his cheek. “In fact, I think I love you now more than ever before.”

“O-Oh,” he choked, so happy it was hard to breathe.

“And you didn’t mess anything up,” she assured with a cloudy smile. “I did.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Detransformation.”

In a swirl of pink, Marinette appeared, wearing the same blue dress as she had their last movie night.

A broad grin stretched across Chat’s lips as he sat up, taking her face in his hands.

She hesitantly peeked one eye open and was surprised to find him beaming at her like she had arranged the stars in the night sky. She blinked, noting, “You don’t look surprised. Or angry.”

“Because I’m neither, Princess,” he chuckled, running a hand down the side of her face, neck, and shoulder. “What better outcome could I hope for than for the two girls I’m crazy about to be the same person?”

“And, let me guess,” she snickered. “You’re not surprised because you were able to see Ladybug in your ‘Everyday Ladybug’?”

He bit his lip. “Actually…it was more like suddenly seeing Marinette in Ladybug earlier today when we were browsing in the Place du Tertre.”

The grin dropped off her face. “What?! Wait. What?! You figured out my identity?!”

He made a half-hearted, wobbling gesture with one hand. “I mean…sort of? I didn’t know for sure until just now, but…”

“Oh my gosh. All those questions you were asking!” she gasped as she mentally reviewed their day from that point.

He winced. “Yeah, well…I mean…”

She slapped his arm, and not in a fun, playful, joking away. “I can’t believe you! You were purposely trying to figure out my identity!”

“To be fair, I had already figured out your identity,” he reasoned, hoping she magically accepted this loophole and decided not to be mad at him. “I was merely seeking confirmation.”

She smacked his arm a second time, clearly not amused at his semantics.

“Hey, you’ve been in love with me for years and never said anything,” he whined, trying to shift the focus off of himself. “To Adrien or Chat Noir. If anyone has the right to be upset, it’s me.”

“I had my reasons,” she spluttered indignantly, hoping he wouldn’t ask for the receipts. “It’s not like you told Marinette you had a big, ridiculous crush on her either!”

“I’m sorry,” he snorted. “I just thought it was painfully obvious to anyone who listened to me rant regularly about how amazing and talented you are. If you’d shown interest in return, I would have gladly confessed to my gigantic crush on you, but, unfortunately, someone has been lying to my face the past seven years about how they’re not interested in me, they’re just a fan of my father’s work,” he returned with a sour pout.

“You are literally a model,” she whined in her own defence. “I thought you’d laugh in my face.”

“Princess,” he cooed, reaching up to stroke her face. “Who could say no to you?”

He leaned in to give her hair a reassuring nuzzle. “Marinette, you are the most awe-inspiring woman I know. You’re kind and brave and funny and gorgeous, and I would have to be a bigger fool than I already am not to fall deliriously in love with you.”

She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as she whispered, “I’m so sorry, Minou.”

“Shhh,” he comforted, pulling her in closer. “I’m sorry too. Maybe…can we try to accept that we both screwed things up and attempt to move beyond this?”

“…Yeah,” she decided, giving a little nod. “What’s done is done, so let’s just try to do our best going forward.”

“Sounds good,” he agreed, savoring the warmth of her body pressed to his, her sweet scent.

Earlier, he’d catalogued them in sorrow as she carried him back home, wondering if he’d ever get to experience them again. Now, he took stock in joy, planning to appreciate these sensations for years and years to come.

Suddenly, Marinette pulled back with a gasp and stared at him wide-eyed. “What are we going to do about akuma fights?! We just talked last week about how every second counts and how romantic feelings could cloud our judgment and get in the way in battle. What are we going to do now?!”

He grimaced, beginning to massage her shoulders in hopes that it would help her calm down. “My Love, I’ve had feelings for you for years now, and you just told me the other night that you’d loved me for almost as long. We’re going to have feelings that could potentially get in the way no matter what. We’ve had those feelings all this time, and I think it’s been pretty okay. I mean, I know I’ve sacrificed myself more times than you’re comfortable with, but the point is that we’ve managed all this time, haven’t we?”

“I guess you’re right,” she reluctantly agreed, slowly coming to see that what he said was true.

“Yes, we could have a fight or, God forbid, break up, but I’d like to think that our friendship and our partnership is strong enough to see us through, so…we’ve gone years suffering through trying to suppress our feelings, I, for one, would like to try making a romantic relationship work,” he suggested timidly, mentally crossing his fingers. “Who knows? Maybe when we stop holding ourselves back, we’ll be a better team than ever before. Want to give it a try?”

She didn’t need to think about it. “Yes. Definitely. Yes.”

“Really?” he laughed in joy and relief as his wildest dreams came true before his very eyes.

She nodded enthusiastically, joining in his laughter. “Yes. Really, really.”

He surged forward, capturing her lips once more in an exuberant kiss of celebration.

This one was more playful, less heated, but still full of fireworks and emotion.

Several minutes in, Marinette pulled back and glared at Chat Noir. “Heeeey. You sneak into my bedroom. Adrien Agreste sneaks into my bedroom.”

He quirked an eyebrow, wondering at the relevance of this revelation. “Technically, you invite me in. I always knock, even when the skylight is open.”

“Adrien Agreste has seen the inside of my bedroom,” she groaned in embarrassment, covering her face with her hands and letting out a moan of misery. “You’ve seen me in my laundry day sweatpants!”

He rolled his eyes fondly, gingerly taking her hands in his own and prying them away from her face. “Princess, look at me.”

She did so, her cheeks stained red as realization after realization informed her of all the unflattering sides of her he had seen.

“It’s just me,” he soothed. “Just your big, stupid cat, and I think the world of you.”

She pursed her lips, considering this for a moment. “…Yeah. You are, aren’t you?”

He nodded encouragingly. “Remember that time I got my tongue stuck to that lamppost?”

She burst out laughing, accidentally spraying him with spit which he gracefully wiped off, not minding in the least.

“Oh my gosh,” she giggle-snorted. “You did. You’re such a dork!��

“Your dork,” he confirmed.

“My dork,” she hummed and went back to kissing him.

They didn’t make it ten minutes before the next outburst.

“I tried to give you the Snake Miraculous!” she gasped.

Chat’s ears flattened. “We’re going to be having moments like this for years to come, aren’t we?”

“What the hell were you thinking?!” she demanded.

He shrugged. “You said you needed Adrien. I’m stupid in love with you. Emphasis on the stupid.”

She frowned, debating on her reaction. His reasons weren’t exactly good, but they were flattering, so maybe she could forgive him.

He took the liberty of kissing the crinkles from her brow. “Later, you’ll have to tell me how you pulled Multimouse off because I’m dying to know, but, for now, could we maybe kiss and snuggle? Maybe watch some movies?”

She instantly perked up. “Can we have a Disney singalong? I’m sort of in love with your voice.”

“Just the voice?” he asked again with a teasing eyebrow waggle.

“All of you,” she informed softly, leaning in to press a butterfly kiss to his lips. “…But your voice in particular.”

“I can live with that,” he cackled, pulling her back down onto the couch with him.

 Alya and Nino were lounging on her bed watching X-Men: Apocalypse when her phone buzzed.

“Why are you grinning like you just got the biggest scoop ever?” Nino inquired cautiously, lifting a suspicious eyebrow.

“My ship has sailed!” Alya cheered, nearly jumping for joy. “Adrien and Marinette are dating! Aaaaaahhhh!!! This is the best day ever!”

Nino frowned, pausing the movie. “Wait. Adrien’s dating Marinette or Ladybug? They should still be at the Eiffel Tower, right? Did she tell him her identity? Did he tell her his?”

Alya’s mood immediately plummeted. “Hold on. Let me figure this out.”

She shot quick texts to Marinette and Adrien, asking if they’d revealed their respective identities and who was dating whom.

“Okay. Full identity reveal. Everybody is dating everybody,” Alya reported with a contented sigh, sinking back down onto the bed. “These two are exhausting.”

“Tell me about it,” Nino snorted. “Why do they have to be so complicated?”

Alya shook her head. “Thank God Marinette locked us in the panther cage, right?”

“We never really thanked her for that, did we?” Nino snickered.

Alya shrugged. “Meh. I’ll work it into my maid of honor speech at her wedding. I consider my debt paid in full after all the identity shenanigans I’ve had to put up with getting her and Adrien together. I single-handedly defeated the Love Quadrilateral. My job here is done.”

“Awesome work, Al,” Nino chuckled, leaning in to give her temple a light peck.

The

End

[doodlegirl12345]

“A Lesson In Tightropes” {1/5}

Hello everybody, this my first post on Tumblr. I written this story prior the release of Miraculous Ladybug season 4. A lot of things in this won’t match up to the current season. So think about it in a way of an AU story.

Read A Full Version Of Part 1 of “A Lesson In Tightropes” on Wattpad

Part 1 : Balance

Balance.

Another important skill needed in this never ending circus that we call life. As that’s what it can be seen as a complex balancing act. From the moment that we learn to move or stand we are supposed to follow a straight line without a certain end. As time starts to build up things are shove into our hands to juggle from small things such cleaning your room, washing behind your ears and finishing the vegetables on your plate. To the attempts of finishing ten page papers for university, keeping your light bill paid, and scrimping enough money for this month’s rent. The round shiny pennies that you have been juggling had turned into round shiny porcelain plates. More fragile and easier to break while trying to walk the straight line of a tightrope. The crowd that’s watching is ready to boo at you for any misstep and misdeed that is done, like the entertainment that you are. While the crowd that is supporting you and your accomplishments seem small like they can barely make a sound, even when it becomes too much and you fall without a safety net.

Up above the colors of orange and yellow painted Paris’ sky as the sun rose one early spring Friday morning. Sunlight quickly took its reign warming the frosty air from the previous night. The few people that were already out during this early morning minding their business as most were returning home from a grueling night shift or leaving for the long early shift that the day would give them. But right above them was the city’s beloved heroine Ladybug swinging through the sky with her trusty yoyo. The bug tossed the yoyo to latch onto the rooftops ahead to prolong the cycle of rush and relief of her body being pushed through the sky by her own hands.

As she had only one solid thought on her mind: home.

The few people who would look above and see the heroine had a few names that come to mind: hero, protector, role model, icon and savior. With all the things that Hawkmoth had thrown at her she seemed unstoppable. However, those were the people who easily let themselves get lost in the sparkle. They couldn’t see or wanted to notice the sway back in the bug’s posture, the misshapen form as she swung or the hesitation between each jump as she hanged onto the yoyo’s wire for dear life.

As underneath the surface level, it was clear that the spirit of exhaustion had been clinging onto her.

Nevertheless, Ladybug couldn’t stop moving as she sprung forward from the rooftop of Collège Françoise DuPont to the balcony of the nearby bakery. Nearly missing her footing on the balcony’s railing, the bug then jumped forward into the balcony’s opened trap door landing onto her bed that was underneath the opening. She landed flat on her back letting the cushiony padding of the mattress break her fall.

“Tikki,” the heroine said groggily. “Spots off.”

Magical red dust surrounded her body peeling off her costume and reverting her back into her civilian clothes. Tikki landed on the bed’s pillow, eyes already shut the kwami letting out a small yawn. While Marinette’s eyelids felt heavy, she felt herself slipping into a deep slumber needed to recover from last night and all of the previous nights before. Ever since she had returned home from her trip from New York. There have been back to back akumas and sentimonsters that Ladybug and Chat Noir had to deal with for the past three weeks. All of them appeared during the dead of night. It was like this Hawkmoth’s revenge for them not letting him plunge the world into another world war.

It was akuma alert notification, the most recent of many.

She suited up like usual, leaving her home after midnight hoping that this wouldn’t take long as she still was exhausted from the previous night. But those hopes were for nothing as the villain Creature Feature took hours to defeat, leaving both her and Chat Noir dragging themselves home, exhausted. Marinette turned over, eyes now shut as the mattress cushioned her aching body as she tried to reach dreamland. However, as she started to drift, a loud beeping startled the new guardian causing her eyes to fly wide open and herself to raise up. Marinette looked ahead to see at the foot of her bed was her phone ringing. She reached forward grabbing her phone as her alarm for school was going off.

But it couldn’t be time not yet as between last night and the night before she barely had gotten four hours of sleep! The guardian shut off her alarm and stubbornly threw herself underneath her covers. It can’t be time for school. That wasn’t fair as she didn’t want to go. Maybe today could be her sick day, better yet a mental health day.

It was the minimum of what she deserved.

But she heard a knock at her bedroom door, the guardian’s body didn’t even budge.

There was more knocking on the door, her mother’s voice came through the door calling out to her. “Marinette, sweetie it’s time to wake up. You don’t want to be late for school again. This will be the fifth time this week that you have been hard to get up!”

Marinette just let out a loud groan, taking her pillow on her head and bending it to cover her ears like this was going to be one of the worst days of her life.

An hour passed as the guardian dragged herself out of the door of the bakery with her purse and backpack. Instead of her usual outfit she was wearing a black tank top underneath a soft pink cotton top with short cutout sleeves, black sweatpants, and pink converse sneakers. She had dark sunken in circles underneath her eyes. A few minutes after not responding Marinette’s mother came into her room after Tikki hid trying to coax the young guardian out of bed. It got to the point it was easier for Marinette to force herself out of bed than trying and failing to get some sleep in the midst of that. In addition, her typical arsenal of excuses failed her, each one that she could think of Sabine counteracted with the statement of hearing it all before.

So Marinette got up and got ready just figuring the best thing to do is suck it up for another day. That was the notion that she had in her mind as she crossed the street to school. As outside in front of the steps students stood in their own groups chatting away with each other before class started. Marinette spotted Alya leaning against the wall of the school steps on her phone.

“Hey,” Marinette yawned as she approached her friend.

“Hey girl,” Alya said looking up from her phone. “You’re actually on time today.”

“You can thank my mom,” Marinette faintly smiled. “She wouldn’t let me be nearly late five days in a row.”

“Good mom, but hey are you okay?” Alya raised a brow.

“Yes, I’m a little bit tired,” the guardian nodded her head. “No big deal.”

“Well you’re not the only one,” her best friend gestured her head to the right. “It seems that your “friend” haven’t gotten much sleep either.”

Marinette turned her head in the same direction as she saw Adrien and Nino a few feet away. Adrien looked similar to her, a glazed look with deep dark circles underneath his eyes.

“Dude, you okay?” Nino asked him. “You look wiped.”

“Huh?” Adrien asked, almost like he was spacing out. “Yeah I just had a long fencing practice last night to get ready for our tournament in the next few weeks. Then I stayed up late doing homework.”

“So you sure you are fine?” Alya asked, bringing the attention back to her. “These couple weeks, you have appeared more exhausted every time I seen you.”

“I’m just a little jag lag from our trip.”

“The trip that we came back from three weeks ago? Nice try, M, that’s not going to work this time.”

“Um...well...it’s true.”

“Okay maybe I’m sounding a little pushy but I’m just a little worried about you.”

“That’s sweet but there’s nothing to worry about.”

“It’s not just me but other people. Alix texted me asking if you were coming to the Louvre this weekend to check out the “Fashion Through The Ages” exhibit like you said you were, considering that you cancelled going ice skating last with us last weekend.”

“Really? Why did she not text me?”

“Maybe because it’s been a little hard to reach you lately? You really haven’t been picking up or replying to our texts. So she just figured what was the point?”

Marinette bit her lip as she remembered last weekend she had come home from defeating the villain Archaic around seven in the morning after she got an akuma alert two in the morning. She was utterly exhausted and knew no way that could make it to the ice rink around eleven so she just texted the girls that she couldn’t go and went to bed. Practically for these past couple weeks beside school it’s been a trade off her sleeping and being Ladybug.

“So what?” Marinette’s eyes shifted to the side.

“So what? I’m worried about you ever since we got back from New York. You’ve been saying that either you’re busy or that you’re going to just go home to sleep. But you are still looking exhausted. Is there something going on? It’s starting to look like you have a double life or something.”

“Double life?!” Marinette exclaimed. “No way, I’m too boring to have a double life. I’m so dull that flies don’t even land on me! Boring is my middle name Marinette “Boring” Dupain-Cheng!”

“Well Miss Boring then what’s keeping you up at night?” Alya folded her arms, as if she wasn’t going to accept anymore deflection.

Marinette was at a loss for words as the truth feeling poison in her throat that if spilled as it would come up like acid. That she would die either way in this public setting. Unless she did her least favorite habit.

Lying.

“Okay okay you got me,” the guardian gave her friend a tight smile. “You’re so good, Miss Reporter.”

“Huh?” her friend looked confused.

“I’ve been working hard on a very special project...for you and the girls,” she wrapped an arm around Alya’s shoulders.

“Really?”

“Yep, I have been doing this project for weeks...that’s why I have been busy and tired. It’s all for you girls.”

Alya just looked at her with a stern face.

Marinette bit her lip as she thought. Is she buying this? No way that she’s buying this, she knows me way too well.

Her friend just shook her head. “That’s really sweet but leave it up to you to do something nice that is causing your own detriment.”

“Well you know me...I’m a giver. So everybody can stop worrying, it’s all over now.”

“Alright,” the inspiring reporter sounded skeptical. “Then I guess we can come over and you can show us the surprise tomorrow.”

“What?” the guardian looked confused.

“You said it was over, that means you’re done right?”

“Right... I guess that’s what it means, right...”

“Cool, then the rest of the girls and I can come to your place tomorrow before you go to the museum. Since Nora and I gotta take the twins to the circus tonight.”

“Circus?” she asked her as if it’s the first she heard of this.

“Yeah, I told you on Tuesday that Ella won four tickets for Andrea’s Traveling Circus that is going to be in town this weekend. As she won the award for most improved student in her class. Nora and I were going to take them since my mom and dad are going out to celebrate their wedding anniversary, remember?”

“Oh yeah.”

A string of electronic chimes came from the school causing the students to wrap up their conversations as they started to make their way up the steps.

“Ugh, the warning bell, we got five minutes until class starts,” Alya started to walk toward the steps. “Let’s go, the last thing that we need is Ms. Bustier marking us late.”

“Right,” Marinette yawned while following her up the steps feeling this was going to be a long day.

With that Marinette entered the school and dragged herself through a typical school day with an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. To her it felt like the day trudged on even during lunch while Alya told the girls about the surprise, the one that the guardian had came up on the spot. So imagine her relief when she reached her last class of the day: Early World History. Her sleepy eyes were glued to Ms. Bustier as she was in the middle of her lesson about the industrial revolution. As the teacher lectured the guardian tried to keep her eyes open, keeping her mind and hands busy by taking notes on her school issued tablet.

But it was hard to keep her head up.

She looked at the clock as it read 1:05 pm. There was only fifty five minutes left of the school day, fifty five long excruciating minutes. While her head felt like it weighed like a ton of bricks that went through a centrifuge.

Come on Marinette you just got less than an hour left, you can do this. She thought.

However, her eyelids were getting heavier. She rubbed them a bit letting out another yawn. Before she knew it she could hear the ringing of the school bell causing her bolt right back up in her seat with a loud gasp realizing that she had been laying her head on her desk. Marinette’s eyes darted around the classroom to see that all her classmates were staring at her with confused expressions on their faces. Suddenly her face turned a shade of beet red.

“Okay class that is enough for today we will finish up our lesson on Monday,” Ms. Bustier said, her stern eyes right on Marinette. “For homework please read chapters eighteen and nineteen over the weekend.”

After that instruction the class packed up for the day and started to leave for dismissal while Ms. Bustier turned to the classroom’s chalkboard starting to erase the board’s chalk writings.

“D-did I fall asleep?” Marinette turned to Alya.

“Yeah halfway through class,” Alya replied.

“Halfway through class? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried nudging you but you wouldn’t budge. It was like trying to move a brick house.”

“I was that out of it?”

“Yeah you literally were snoring during class,” Nino chimed in.

Marinette’s face became a deeper shade of red. “I don’t snore.”

“Trust me you do,” said a familiar voice.

Marinette looked away from Nino to see Chloè standing in front of their desks, arms folded with a little smug smile on her face.

“Seriously Dupain-Cheng who knew someone like you snored just like a pig,” the mayor’s daughter laughed. “I guess the whole class knows now.”

“At least I don’t sound like a strangled cat when I talk, like you do!” Marinette snapped at her.

Chloè’s blue eyes narrowed in shock as if she was surprised that kind of comment had been made.

“Marinette, can you please stay after class as I would like to talk to you,” Ms. Bustier said, still erasing the board.

Paris’ newest guardian’s eyes suddenly become big as saucers. While Chloè’s smug smile returned as she left the classroom.

Marinette buried her head in her hands. “I don’t believe this.”

“Do you want me to stay for you?” Adrien asked her.

Marinette moved her hands and looked back at the golden haired model. “Really?”

“Yeah it’s the least that I could do after you convinced my father to let me go to New York,” he said.

A tiny smile formed on her lips at that sentiment but then she looked at the dark circles underneath his eyes. He looked just exhausted as she did.

“Um no you don’t have to,” Marinette told him. “I mean...I appreciate it but I made bed now I need to lay in it.”

With that the group packed up the things and her friends left the classroom to carry out the rest of their day. Marinette walked down the steps with her backpack and purse to Ms.Bustier’s desk where the teacher was sitting looking through a stack of papers.

“Ms. Bustier, you said that you wanted to talk to me,” Marinette approached the desk, already feeling like she was on pins and needles.

“Yes Marinette as we have something to discuss,” said the teacher.

“About sleeping in class? I’m so sorry I didn’t mean too. I just didn’t get much sleep last night but I promise it will never happen again.”

“It is not exactly just that but also there is something else I would like to discuss.”

Ms. Bustier pulled out one of the sheets from the stack of papers that she was holding and placed it on the desk. It was a quiz paper with Marinette’s name written in the guardian’s own handwriting. The paper was covered with red ink markings and up top the final score was twenty five percent.

“This is your history quiz grade from the quiz that we took on Tuesday. I graded them all but didn’t have a chance to pass them out today like I planned,” Ms. Bustier told her. “But your grade is twenty five percent Marinette which is a F. Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Uh...I’m sorry.”

“This wasn’t a hard quiz either as the second lowest grade in the class was seventy two percent. Most of these questions were things we discussed in class and the others were from the textbook. Was you able to study?”

Marinette’s eyes shifted as she thought back to Monday night this week. She had taken a nap after coming home from school then started up her chemistry homework when her phone went off with an akuma alert. Steel Titan, a giant robot sentimonster was terrorizing downtown. By the time she got back she only had an hour before school that she used to finish her chemistry homework instead of studying.

“Just a little...I was busy,” she sheepishly told her teacher.

“With what?” Ms. Bustier’s eyes shifted from stern to concerned. “After falling asleep in class I’m worried about you Marinette. I have noticed that your grades have been slipping. So I would like to ask, is everything okay? Is there something going on at home?”

“What? Of course not, everything is fine.”

“Well about your personal life? Family, friends, relationships? If there is something you want to talk about I’m here to listen. It can be about anything.”

Marinette was unsure how to respond. What could tell her that she actually been Ladybug this whole time? That every time that she had been running late or had to excuse herself for a bathroom break she was saving the city. Along with Chat Noir she stopped Hawkmoth from plunging the world into another world war with two other heroes. That was now she was Paris’ only guardian of the miraculous because her mistakes caused the other one to give up his memories due to her getting so emotional over a guy she had recently given the friend label. That might have to suffer the same fate if she ever had to give up her title as guardian. That the thought of that actually terrifies her. She has been running herself so ragged that sometimes standing up is a chore.

Those are the things that she wanted to tell her but couldn’t.

“Nope, I just should have studied like I was supposed to,” Marinette told her. “Um, to be honest it’s my fault. I...stayed up late watching this show called Infinity Lights and I put off studying.”

“Infinity Lights? I love that show, how far are you?” Ms. Bustier stated.

“Uh,” Marinette started as she never saw a single episode of the show. The only reason she said it was because she saw a build board advertising the show when she swung home this morning. “Not far just the first season.”

“Ah so stakes haven’t really hiked up yet but what do you think about Miranda and Nick?”

“I like them. Miranda is my favorite.”

“Really? My favorite is Bridget. But is that the only thing going on?”

“Yes, I didn’t do well with organizing my priorities. So I’m in trouble?”

“Not exactly the grade that you earned on the quiz still stands; it is just a quiz grade so it shouldn’t impact your final grade significantly compared to a test. However, I would like you to promise me something.”

“A promise? What kind of promise?”

“I would like you to promise me that over this weekend you are going to get some rest. I expect you to come here Monday morning on time, well rested, homework done and ready to learn. If you can’t do it then I have no choice then call your parents and schedule a conference with your parents. To let them know about your grades and lack of sleep, do you understand?”

Marinette hanged her head. “Yes ma’am.”

After wrapping up things with Ms.Bustier, Marinette went home instantly going straight to her bedroom to get to work. As she had dug herself in a hole with her friends telling them about a great surprise that apparently took three weeks to do. She entered her room, dropping her purse and backpack on the floor to sit at her desk to think of something to make. Tikki flew out of her purse suggesting she get some sleep as she looked exhausted. But the guardian protested stating that she lied and now that she had to lie she must become an honest person by making the lie true. Tikki tried to convince her otherwise but Marinette was insistent. So here she was hours later still at her desk working in her sketchbook surrounded by wadded up balls of paper on her desk of rejected ideas. At first it was hats then phone cases then it was hand knitted scarfs. But either it was that she didn’t have enough time or materials.

It wasn’t until an hour ago that she settled on making homemade earrings as it looked enough that time was taken and she had the materials from a jewelry making kit that ironically Alya gave her for her birthday.

So there she was sketching as she had to make five original pairs of earrings all before tomorrow afternoon. However when trying to sketch Alya’s the first one on the list she couldn’t think of anything. It seemed the well of creativity that she usually tapped into had dried up.

Not to mention she was still tired.

“This is hopeless,” Marinette groaned.

Suddenly she heard a familiar beeping alert sound coming from her purse on the floor. The guardian’s heart was now filled with dread as she stood up from her seat being pulled to it by curiosity and obligation. She went into her purse and pulled out her phone to see the already lit screen. It had a notification that said:

AKUMA ALERT: SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTED BETWEEN THOMAS AVENUE AND DURAND AVENUE. PLEASE AVOID THIS AREA FOR THE TIME BEING. IF NEARBY GET TO SAFETY. ANOTHER NOTIFICATION WILL BE SENT ONCE THE AREA IS DEEMED SAFE. IF THERE’S A EMERGENCY PLEASE CALL EMERGENCY SERVICES.

Marinette looked at the notification as she knew where those streets were located deep downtown. It appeared that her alter ego was needed.

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

For the full version of part one, check it out on Wattpad. If you made it this far, thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

Also a little music to set the mood. Especially if you read the full Wattpad version.

Also here’s a link to the song on YouTube.