#slams my fists on the table WHERE IS HE KAGAMI

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 5

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Sweater~

Shoves romance to the side and shoves friendship in your face!!!

Ao3

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“Marinette,” Adrien whines as she opens the curtain the second they get back, “Sleep,”

“Just a minute, I want to design Damian something,” Marinette takes up residence at the desk, throwing open her sketchbook, “I will be friends with him!”

“Wasn't he kind of a jerk to you?” Adrien flops onto the bed, Plagg rig after him, "I think we should go back to that point, maybe sleep on it,"

“You were a jerk too~” Marinette sing-songs finishing up a rough sketch of a sweater.

“I was trying to get the gum off your seat!” Adrien slams his hands down.

“Sure you were~”

“Mariiiiiii,” Adrien collapses back into the bed covers, muffling his whining.

“Come on you,” Marinette collects her sketchbook, “Come get material with me,”

“No, it’s time to sleep,”

“It’s midday,”

“Your point?”

"Ok, Plagg 2.0 should I get you some camembert while I'm out too?"

"I'm up!" Adrien sits bolt upright, "Never call me that again,"

Marinette ends up dragging Adrien out of the mansion he pouts as Alfred delivers them into the city she thanks him profusely.

“We were just in the city why didn’t you pick up fabric then?” Adrien walks by her side down the street.

“Because I’m stuck between 2 concepts and I need to see the fabric before going forward,” Marinette bounces along looking through the windows there are quite a few craft shops in the area which suits her just fine.

“Please don’t run off,” Adrien gently holds her sleeve, “Marinette this city…”

“It’s filled with a dark energy,” Marinette agrees, even in this nicer area had something ominous hanging over it, “It’s like it’s seeped into the city’s very bones,”

“And the Akuma aren’t helping things,” A child across the street starts crying and they both instinctively lookout.

“On the plus side at least hawkmoth doesn't send Akuma after every little thing,” Marinette forces herself to relax, moving on as the kids parents comfort them.

“On the downside, he sends them after emotions that are a lot worse,” Adrien follows along into a store as Marinette filters through the shelves.

“Maybe but we can handle this,” Marinette absent-mindedly raises her fist, meeting Adreins, “Do you think I should make something for everyone, you know as a thank you?”

“I haven't gotten them anything,” Adrien takes the armful of fabric Marinette passes him as she brings out her sketchbook to select old designs.

“I’ll handle the making,” Marinette ticks off a vest she thinks with be perfect for Bruce, “And you handle the finances,”

“I stole my father's credit card,” Adrien says with a grin, “He’ll probably find out where I am soon anyway so might as well start using it,”

“In that case,” Marinette pulls out a roll of incredibly expensive fabric, “We also need new phones,”

“And we should go out for lunch,”

“Get our hair done?” Marinette adds, looking at her half hacked off hair “I still need to fix mine from this,”

“I was thinking our room could use a chair?”

“And the bookshelf is looking a bit empty,”

“A nice expensive rug would really liven up the room,”

“Would it be completely inappropriate to get a motorcycle?”

“Yes,” Adrien agrees, “Let's do it,”

They stop to get new phones first, having destroyed their old ones when they ran away. Adrien finds the most expensive restaurant in town, but it's on the far end so they stop to get a motorcycle first.

“I didn’t know you could ride,” Adrien gestures for the waiter in their private room, “Yes can I please have the duck?”

“My Nona taught me,” Marinette sips at the most expensive drink she can legally buy, “I thought you hated duck?”

“Oh I do,” Adrien grins, which drops when his phone starts ringing, “How did he even get this number?”

Marinette looks over his shoulder to see Gabriel trying to call. Adrien purposefully hangs up rolling his eyes.

“We should go do our hair next,” Adrien leans over the table with a manic grin, ”I was thinking of dying it hot pink,”

“Love the concept,” Marinette cringes at the very thought, “But the execution is flawed, you need to dye it a color you actually like not one just to spite your father otherwise he's still just controlling your life, just in a different way,”

“You're right,” Adrien sighs leaning back examining his blonde locks, “What do you think?”

“A nice pastel or cherry blossom pink would look amazing,” Adrien perks up at the suggestion he can still keep the pink, “Actually I might do that too- oh wait! Will that affect our transformation?”

“Not unless you really want to deep down,” Tikki explains, her and Plagg gorging themselves on expensive cheese and treats.

“Well deep down I really don't want to give away our identities like this,”

“It’s a plan then,” Adrien smiles, “Now do you want to order anything else?”

“Thanks but I’m full,”

“What's that got to do with anything?”

 ---

 “Looks great Nette,” Adrien gives her a side hug, the hairdresser shooing him away while he does the final touch-ups.

“Are you talking to me or yourself?” Marinette smiles at the new and improved shock of pink hair.

“Well obviously I look fabulous, but you look great too,” Marinette rolls her eyes at him looking back in the mirror. Instead of evening out her hair, they had made it look like her little episode was actually intentional giving it nice layers and even doing an undercut on the other side. Unlike Adrien, she didn't go all pink, instead the tips being white ombre up to pink and then her natural hair color.

“Thanks, you have to send a picture of your hair to Nino he's more invested in your teenage rebellion than you are, he’s probably also hurt you left him out of the running away part,”

“He has suggested, more than once, running away together,”

“Why what's wrong with Nino's family?”

“Nothing at all,” Adrien quickly covers, “I think he just really wanted me to run away, his mum offered to pack us lunches,”

“Well, maybe we could have used the turtle,” Marinette sighs, “But I could do that to Nino, you already had to leave Kagami behind, have you given her a call yet?”

“Oh um, about that-" Adrien points at her tapping his chin thoughtfully, "Never mention it again,”

“Adrien,” Marinette scowls, “Call your girlfriend,”

“She’ll kill me,” Adrien hides partly behind a seat looking meek, “Also you don't get to lecture me, you haven't called your parents,”

“That's different,” Marinette groans sinking into the seat, only to get told off for moving, “They’ll want me to come home, how am I supposed to explain that I can’t,”

“They’re your parents,” Adrien stresses, “I’m sure they’ll be happy enough to know your ok,”

“Maybe,” Marinette hums, the cloth being removed from her shoulders letting her get up, “I just feel so bad for putting them through this,”

“Maybe one day they’ll understand,” Adrien walks with her to the front to pay.

“Maybe,” Marinette looks down at the bill, “Wow this is a lot more expensive than the usual dye job,”

Made sense because they were in the higher income distinct of the city.

“Why Marinette,” Adrien grins swiping the card, “That's the point,”

Ten minutes later they were laughing as calls kept pouring in one after the other. They are only interrupted when they get the distinct feeling of an Akuma.

“Duty calls,” Adrien sighs putting his phone on silent.

“Seems so, at least we can call out skills multiple times," Marinette walks casually into an alley with him, “What are you up to?”

“About three,” Adrien shrugs transforming, “It takes about double the time for the transformation to drop now,”

“Same, wish I could say that gives us the edge but really it only keeps us from falling off the cliff,” Marinette also transforms, her new costume bringing a smile to her face.

“How eloquent my lady,” Marinette playfully pushes him, Chat catches himself catapulting over the building, she quickly follows behind.

The Akuma is standard, Marinette guesses the akumatized item is the wrist watch. The problem comes with their recurring thorn in her side.

“Ladybug-”

“Get out of the city,” She cuts Batman off, “Yeah, yeah let us handle this first,”

Marinette throws her yoyo out just in time to deflect an attack headed at Chat.

“Do you need any help?” Robin asks, Marinette smiles, partly at the aghast face Batman makes.

“Do you think you could tag-team it with me?” She asks formulating a plan, with the extra help she might not need the lucky charm, “Make your attacks big and draw his attention, grab the wristwatch if you can,”

“On it,” Robin gives her a nod jumping into the fray, Ladybug doesn't give batman a chance to object running after.

Robin does a good job they work in perfect sync falling back when the other moves to make an attack. When the Akuma focuses on them too much Chat swoops in and gets their attention giving them the chance to swipe at the wristwatch. It goes on she sees Robin get thrown back after another failed swipe at the wristwatch. Ladybug takes the chance to move forward grabbing for the wrist, she isn't watching out for the other arm, the impact hitting and sending her flying back.

“I got you,” Her momentum is stopped by a hand bracing at her back, saving her from crashing into the adjacent building.

“Thanks, Robin,” He helps steady her as she finds her footing again, “I’ll move in you follow me up,”

“No need,” He smirks brandishing the watch.

“You did it,” Ladybug beams, taking the watch and smashing it to the ground, “Great job!”

“Ah, thanks,” Ladybug doesn't pay attention to how Robin brushes, focusing on purifying the Akuma and fixing the damage.

“We made a pretty good team,” Ladybug turns to Robin when everything is settled, “Pound it,”

Robin meets her fist with some hesitance, which disappears when she smiles at him again.

“Ladybug!” Batman yells heading their way.

“Ops sorry,” Ladybug cringes, “Sorry! Cant stop gotta go, bye bye!”

They run from the scene faster than Batman can hope to catch them. They end up back at her newly brought bike stacked with fabric and protected by a bit of luck. Marinette races home to make everyone's gifts, knowing just who she wanted to start with.

 ---

 “There you are!” Marinette exclaims, having spent the past half hour searching the manor for him.

“What do you want?” Damian snaps as if he wasn't just playing with the cat on the floor half a second ago.

“Nothing, I made something for you~” He continues to scowl but Marinette doesn't let it discourage her, “Here, I didn’t know your size so I made a baggier style, do you like it?”

Damian takes the sweater holding it up to where she put it on him looking down a little shocked. Marinette almost wants to laugh at the expressions trying to shift back from awe to disinterest, it’s cute. She smiles wondering what his face would look like if she made a matching one for the cat, and maybe Titus too.

“.... It’s well made,” Damian eventually allows, folding it over his arm, Marinette notices how his fingers linger on the soft fabric.

“Good to know,” She smiles, bidding him goodbye before the moment can be ruined. She bounces down the hall humming to herself.

“Someone's happy,” Tikki flies out of her bag.

“He liked it, why wouldn't I be happy?”

“Someones really happy,”

“Stop it Tikki,” Marinette giggles, making the kwami laugh in turn.

“Just like adrien~” Tikki sing songs floating down the hall ahead of her.

“Well then, keep Kagami far away from this one,”

“Don’t turn into a stuttering mess and we have a deal,” Tikki agrees.

“Please Tikki I’m not thirteen anymore,” Marinette brushes her off, ready to go make the others gifts, if she spent the whole time humming to herself Tikki wasn't going to explain why to Adrien.

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Taglist? nope don’t have one, horrible at keeping track of them sorry~

[flufflepuffle296]

Heathers au: Beautiful Songfic

This is more centred around Veronica/Marinette so not really any mentions of Heather/Heather/Heather. Sorry if someone’s done this before I apologise I just got into Heathers like two days ago. Also I changed some lyrics and took others out to make it more “realistic”. Sorry I suck at endings, it’s 5:30am rn and this is my first fic so be nice please! (I’m on mobile so I can’t add the keep reading tag so sorry if you don’t like this) xxx

I brushed down my dress: I couldn’t give them anything to criticise me over. Everything had to be perfect. I had to be perfect. Chloé sat next to me, my beautiful fiancée, slipping on her kitten heels. She may be 3 months pregnant but no Bourgeois woman would be seen wearing flats. I was in a red floor length a line dress — I grew out of my childish pink years ago, before it even went out of fashion! My hair was twisted into two plaits that were knotted together into a stylish bun at the back. Chloé meanwhile had stuck to her white and gold aesthetic, currently in a slim fitting white dress, showing off her small baby bump, decorated with gold jewellery. I rummaged through my drawers, trying to find a lipstick, when a thin book toppled out. I picked it up, and laughed fondly when I saw what it was.

My old Collège and Lycée diary.

I flipped through it, landing on the page that stuck most clearly in my mind. It was the day my class reminded me of my current reality at that time, shocking me out of a bubble that had surrounded me during the summer holidays that year.

September 1st, 1989.

Dear Diary: I believe I'm a good person. You know, I think that there's good in everyone, but—here we are! First day of senior year!

And uh... I look around at these kids that I've known all my life and I ask myself—what happened?

I bit my lip. What happened? I knew darn well what happened. Lila Rossi. She came in, flaunting her friendships and connections, a new disability every other week to cry about, another rumour about me coming out every 3 days.

Alya ended our friendship, Adrien continued to cry about Lila’s feelings. Lila just kept doing what she did best. The class gave up on changing my mind and instead decided that calling me names would be better. Because logic?!

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Burnout!” “Bug-eyes!” “Poser!” “Lard-ass!” Were the insults they liked to yell daily. Yeah, they weren’t the most creative...

We were so tiny, happy and shiny. Playing tag and getting chased. Singing and clapping, laughing and napping. Baking cookies, eating paste.

Nino and Kim used to come over to the bakery when we were kids, where we’d gorge ourselves on sweets, before celebrating our sugar rushes by chasing each other in the park and then crashing on my sofa, cuddled in blankets and laying on top of each other.

Then we got bigger, that was the trigger. Like the Huns invading Rome. Welcome to my school, this ain't no high school: This is the Thunderdome. Hold your breath and count the days, we're graduating soon. College will be paradise, if I'm not dead by June!

But I know, I know, life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray for a better way. If we changed back then, we could change again. We can be beautiful...Just not today.

I scoffed at my optimism back then. Them changing? They never did, I don’t know why I bothered trying at that point. I should’ve moved on but hey! We all make mistakes. It’s just that sometimes you make 11 friendships worth of mistakes.

“Freak!” “Slut!” “Cripple!” “Homo!” “Homo!” “Homo!”

I cringed as I read their old “insults”. They would write homophobic messages across my locker, getting Alix to spray paint a few slurs across my work after I came out as bisexual.

Things will get better soon as my letter comes from Harvard, Duke, or Brown. Wake from this coma, take my diploma. Then I can blow this town. Dream of ivy-covered walls, no smoky French cafés. Fight the urge to strike a match and set this dump ablaze!

I had purposefully sent out applications to universities far away from these people, from Paris. All three schools accepted me, something I can’t say about my classmates, most of whom were rejected for essays on false information (sourced by Lila) and a quick scan over the Ladyblog meant not a single newspaper would even consider my ex-best friend. Gabriel Agreste, as I later found out through my internship in America, had to bribe several schools with double tuition to get even one to accept Adrien, after he got exposed as sexual harasser and disgraced hero “Chat Noir”. I turned back to my diary, having to peel off rock hard gum from the page that someone had smeared in “revenge”.

Le Chiên Kim. Third year as linebacker and eighth year of smacking lunch trays and being a huge dick.

“What did you say to me, skank?” He would yell, his fist raised in the hallway.

“Aah, nothing!” I then cowered. I may be Ladybug, but he was 150lbs of pure rage. No one can compete with that!

But I know, I know... Life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray, For a better way. We can be beautiful...

“Marinette! Wide load! Honnnnnk!”

He was the smartest guy on the football team. Which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf.

“Hey! Pick that up! Right now!”

“I’m sorry, are you actually talking to me?” He used to snarl, his hands covered in sauce from knocking my tray.

I stood my ground, I had been practising for this moment. “Yes, I am. I wanna know what gives you the right to pick on me. You're a high school has-been waiting to happen. A future gas station attendant.”

Kim then smirked, crouching down to eye level and pressing a finger to my forehead. “You have a zit right there...” he pointed out, causing the cafeteria to laugh at my expense.

I used to ask myself “Why... Why do they hate me?”

And hear Adrien whisper “Why don't I fight back?”

Watch as Max Googled “Why do I act like such a creep?”

Listen in on Lila stamping her feet in the bathroom asking “Why won't he date me?” Clearly frustrated.

Kim panicking as he wondered “Why did I hit him?”

And Chloé sob down the phone “Why do I cry myself to sleep?”

I would stay up late, screaming, begging. At my lowest points I would cry out “Somebody hug me! Somebody fix me! Somebody save me! Send me a sign, God! Give me some hope, here! Something to live for!”

I remember when I first met my real friends. The famed trio had gone into the bathroom and I followed after them, clearly my throat.

“Who are you?”

“Uh... Marinette Dupain Cheng. I crave a boon”

“What boon?” Chloé asked, filing her nails.

“Um. Let me sit at your table, at lunch. If our class think that you guys tolerate me, then they'll leave me alone...”

Chloé threw her nail file out and began circling around me, running her hands through my hair, commenting that “For a greasy little nobody, you do have good bone structure!” Before coming to a conclusion.

“And ya know, ya know, ya know? This could be beautiful. Mascara, maybe some lip gloss, and we're on our way. Get this girl some blush; and Kagami, I need your brush. Let's make her beautiful.” Sabrina and Kagami, chimed in, echoing her words.

“Let's make her beautiful...”

“Let’s make her beautiful...”

“Make her beautiful...Okay?” Chloé ordered, dragging me out with Kagami and Sabrina, driving me to her hotel. They sat me down, taking my hair out of its bunches and brushing it out. Kagami painted my nails a deep navy with surprising precision, manning my cuticles. Sabrina twirled my hair into a high bun, leaving a few pieces at the front to frame my face. Chloé came back from her wardrobe, throwing a blue blazer and grey skirt at me. I changed into my outfit for them, to which they clapped their hands in glee. They dragged me back to school, taking in everyone’s reactions to the new and improved me. This became my new daily outfit for the rest of the year — the class couldn’t find anything bad about it, and even if they did Chloé would threaten them with her father’s power.

I was happy with my squad. Kagami taught us Japanese and Chloé taught us American English that she’d picked up from her mother. I taught them self defence, under the guise of learning it from my mum, unknowingly training them for the day I would rip Chat Noir’s miraculous from him, before slamming it into Kagami’s palm. I needed help that day, so thrust them bee and the fox miraculous at Chloé and Sabrina respectively. They became permanent heroes, Kagami under the name “Noirette”, Chloé under the new guise of “Buttercup” and Sabrina “Renard Rouge”. Akuma attacks have never lasted more than 15 minutes since we got rid of that alley cat, and we’ve been closing in on Hawkmoth recently.

I shook my head, snapping the crude book shut, throwing the diary in the bin. Today was going to be the day I made peace with all that happened, our 10 year school reunion. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna make up with anyone, just that I will finally leave everything behind. I found my lipstick and smeared on the crimson lip, smacking my lips together. I grabbed my clutch and helped Chloé stand up, though she wobbled a little in her heels. I slid her miraculous into her updo, blowing a kiss at her as to not ruin her makeup.

We met up with Kagami and Sabrina in the hallway, Kagami in a wine red suit with gold jewellery, and Sabrina was in emerald green to compliment her red hair. We stepped into the limo awaiting us outside and set off, arriving at the school 10 minutes later. We walked up the steps, hitching up our dresses and arrived in the courtyard. It had been lit up with fairy lights, with stands of food and drinks scattered around the court. Our old classmates were huddled in small groups, whilst Mlle. Mendeleiev’s was in a large group, enjoying each other’s company after 10 years apart.

No one noticed us, until Rose pointed at me and whispered “Who’s that with Chloé?” The group turned to stare at us, trying to place my face. Adrien looked up from talking to Lila, who seemed to be flaunting a rather tacky Gabriel engagement ring, and whispered,

“Marinette?!”

The class began gossiping amongst themselves, “Marinette? Marinette? Marinette?!”

I ignored them, their childish ways were behind me, and walked up to Aurore and Mireille, fawning over their relationship. They turned Kagami, asking her about her life and squealing over her Olympic medal for fencing. I grinned as I watched my old class, happy that they had moved on from each other — well apart from Alya and Adrien, who were still hooked on Lila. I was finally, content! I thought back on my diary, one particular paragraph standing out to me at this time.

And you know, you know, you know, life can be beautiful. You hope, you dream, you pray, and you get your way! Ask me how it feels, lookin' like hell on wheels...My God, it's beautiful! I feel so beautiful... And when you're beautiful...It's a beautiful frickin' day!

Chloé boasted my achievements, my business, my awards, and the entire of Mendeleiev’s class started chanting “Marinette! Marinette! Marinette!”, much to my embarrassment. I boasted her’s in return, Sabrina revealed how far she’d come as a lawyer, Kagami swung her prized sword from side to side as she listened to us all catching up, laughing at the memories.

It really was a beautiful day.

[transsexualhamlet]

*slams fists on table* CATASTROPHE ANIME

yeah this is just my long ranting hypothetical post about “omg what if there was an anime for catastrophe at 16″ because I’m like that @autpunk-godling feel free to add on because we just yell about this for hours on end

I have also now brought it up in the discord server just bc i wanna yell about it

This is the recording of all the shit we came up with screaming about it

-it could only possible like after the manga is finished and translated officially plus resurrection novels probably finished or close to but like,,, we can hope, we can dream, please-

-people coming to it and seeing the trailers and shit would probably see the school and the cherry blossoms and go “oh it’s ouran high school host club but like with swords” and then everyone fucking dies and the fans are like I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS???

-everyone new would know the spoilers for the end by like episode 2 bc manga fans wouldn’t be able to shut up cause someone would just like post a screencap of guren saying “i’m gonna save the world” with a pensive emoji under it some anime only would see it and by the end of the day everyone knows how it ends

-gureshin exposure and seeing it on screen like just imagine how fucking gay it’ll look like I swear this would become the new mikayuu like imagine,,, the beginning when he’s leaning over guren’s desk, the love hotel scene, love hotel 2 electric boogaloo, when they fight over who gets to top omg “become my subordinate” “no u” and every time shinya LOOKS at guren, the part where he comes back to guren’s house and goes “uwu you were looking at my phone”, the motorcycle scene, the *thinks about shinya while taking a bath* the entire part where guren goes demon and shinya saves him and holds him and i,,, and well the entire end

-guren’s va in the last episode would be DEAD lemme tell you the SCREAMING I WANT TO HEAR IT

-Hypothetically this would probably cover 2 seasons, the first season covering books 1-3 and 2nd season covering 4-7, and then like. No one’s gonna want to end it at *guren sticks sword in slot* so like uh resurrection’s gonna need to be a thing unless it gets cancelled which uh fuck i hope not

-more appreciation for characters, THERE WOULD BE PEOPLE ACTUALLY PAYING ATTENTION TO MITO, GOSHI, SHIGURE, AND SAYURI, guren antis would actually just shut up because they’d see him being a fucking softie, and uh well kureto stans would have something to answer for

-the MEME possibility just THINK of the MEMES

-i want to see the trailers,,, i want to see them,,, i want to-

-the levels of horniness compared to vampire reign omg like they’re the same age as yu squad and they like all wanna fuck like how will that translate to anime like

-the. the last episode i. omg it would be so intense I can’t it would be so epic there would be so much blood oh god

-this would cause more exposure for the manga too because 1. the old anime-onlys would come back, 2. everyone already in the manga fandom will be revived for any kind of content, 3. the fans who’ve dropped off will probably watch it, 4. new fans who liked WIT studio shit will be like :eyes emoji:, fans who looked at the trailer and went that sounds kinda gay will watch it, actual shonen fans and people who like high school anime and liked the vampire reign school arc would watch it, like it would have a pretty good base

-like bro there would be actual diversity in ships kjhghjkj like people would actually pay attention to the characters omg please i just want some content like yes of course gureshin but like also the other characters please CATASTROPHE CONTENT OMG I NEED IT C A T A S T R O P H E  C O N T E N T

-you know how the dub for the vampire reign anime is like 80 percent gayer than the sub with the “girlfriend or boyf-” “or a lover” etc uh how can they possibly make some of the shit in ca16 gayer but they WOULD like uh some of the stuff shinya already says in canon is like so fucking gay like the “you’ll never get a husband if you don’t let me clean your wound haha”, the misunderstanding in the love hotel, the “uwu people will think we’re a couple” on the motorcycle, all of that, there’s more, literally every time someone makes a joke about being in love with guren fucking-

-it would actually be good bc new anime tends to be Shit so yeah people would watch it I swear I think it would get even better ratings than vampire reign because it has a comprehensible plot and the ending and shit is already decided, I think different people would like it

-ok but like the problem is there’s a different beginning in the manga and the light novels of ca16. And like, the manga’s beginning would be a really bad thing to go with. In the light novel, the book starts right off with Guren going into first shibuya high school with sayuri and shigure, explaining the situation with the ichinoses and the hiragis. That’s a good beginning, it gives a good idea of what the story’s gonna be like, it doesn’t give away what’s going to happen. Whereas in the manga, they decided to shoot in before that a bullshit chapter that’s straight out of fucking tokyo babylon. I don’t even,,, it was really bad, and it doesn’t even seem to be canon. There’s no indication that’s anything but like crossover fanfic because the gist of that chapter was Guren, Sayuri, and Shigure like,,, exorcising a bitch which is like so not the vibe of this story. It makes no sense?? That’s not even what Guren did in middle school? What???? There’s also a bunch of really offputting shit in there, if you’ve ever seen it. That’s gonna get rid of so many potential fans. It’s a really bad idea. Also at the end it literally gives away the fact that Guren’s gonna end the world which is just. shit. it’s shit. Like everyone’s gonna know anyway just don’t give it away in canon!!! It was a bad idea in the manga and it would be a terrible decision to do in a potential anime.

-what would it even be rated omg like it’s. So much hornier than vampire reign so like I don’t even fucking know like, there is sex,,, with fucking m a h i r u, i don’t like that, and i mean other than that every other word out of someone’s mouth is wanna fuck like that’s fine in a light novel but on screen uh

-!!!!!! THE OP AND ED !!!!!!!!! the SHIT that would be FORESHADOWED in the ENDING i sWEAR TO GOD I JUST WANT TO S E E  I T like even if they just reused scapegoat and xu it would still be fucking amazing LIKE OK. KAGAMI FORESHADOWED CHAPTER 94 WITH THE ORIGINAL ED WHAT THE F U C K KIND OF FORESHADOWING WOULD GO ON WITH CA16

I just really really really want another song to vibe to ok and I want to see the images i want to see them fighting I want to see them in front of cherry blossoms uuuuuuuuuuu please like I want to see Mahiru like posing with two swords or some shit please omg please mahiru don’t turn into a demon you’re so sexy ahaha

like broooo I really just want to see it like anime ops are just so amazing and epic and the eds are all kinda sad and foreshadowy and UH FOR CATASTROPHE THAT’S LIKE A L O T LIKE THE IMAGES THAT PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ARE JUST GONNA SEE AND GO “F U C K” like just imagine the ed having like. like guren’s sword in a slot in a white room or like a flash forward to the world after it’s ended

-we can see on screen, colored: NOYA, SAITO, (ferid with green hair???), I want to see all of them omg also maybe they can decide for sure what aoi’s eye color is

-THE ELEVATOR FIGHT WITH GUREN AND SAITO GHHHGHGHGHGH I JUST WANNA S E E IT

-we get to see them actually fight with magic and not like jumping off of buildings abilities and shit

-Guren going demon omg omg omg

-BABY YU BABY YU BABY YU BABY MIKA BABY MIKA BABY SHINOA BABY SHINOA

-I think the anime wouldn’t want to have it end with Guren sticking the sword in the slot so I think they’re probably pull a vampire reign episode 1 and after the sword thing just like,,, fast forward to a quick ambiguous shot of Guren at 24 standing in a broken world in his demon army uniform uuuh like OW I WANNA SEE IT I WANT TO SEE IT I WANT TO oH MY GOD THE CINEMATOGRAPHY-

-in conclusion *mails kagami 12 dollars* pwease mw kagami

[buginetye]

Marichat!!!

Fairy Lights and Flower Boxes

Sorry this is so late! Anyway, I need sleep, so here’s something quick ‘cause I don’t know if you mean a doodle or a fic!

P.S. the fic is after Chloé has apologized, become nicer, and actively tried to help take down Hawkmoth and Mayura, even as a civilian.

Edit: I kinda forgot about Kagami so just assume she fell asleep or smth idk. Also fixed my spelling :/

~

“Girls night!” Alya had decreed as soon as she walked into class and saw Marinette’s dead expression.

And that was why, at 8pm, Alya, Kagami, Chloé, Sabrina, and Juleka were in Marinette’s room, engaging in a heated debate over who the better hero was: Chat Noir or Misterbug. The six girls had become quite close since Juleka and Sabrina figured out all of their identities, and accidentally told them all that they knew they were a hero in a group text instead of four individual ones. (It was 3am when they finally cracked it, okay? Everyone makes mistakes when they’re tired!)

“Misterbug is clearly better!” Marinette said, slamming her hands on the table.

“You’re only saying that because he doesn’t make cat puns,” Chloé remarked, met by murmurs of agreement from the other girls.

From Sabrina’s shoulder, Trixx chimed in, “Hey, I like his puns! Chat Noir is definitely better!”

“No way! Not with that stinky, cheese-eating kwami of his!” Tikki said, wrinkling her nose as she munched on a cookie.

“Is it not pointless to debate such things? They are the same person under the mask, after all.” Longg, in a flash, stole Tikki’s cookie and returned to his perch on Alya’s head. He winked at the bug kwami and ate it.

“Hey, Longg, be careful! You know I love you, but that does not mean that I want crumbs in my hair!” Alya said, already trying to get any crumbs out.

Mullo squeeked, hiding behind Chloé as Sass chased him. “Hey, leave him alone!” Pollen said, flying between the two kwamis.

“Aw, you’re no fun,” Sass said, slithering back to Juleka as Mullo stuck his tongue out at him from the safety of Chloé’s sleeping bag.

There was a tap on the window, and Marinette walked over to open it, telling the kwamis to hide.

“Come on in, Kitty,” she said as she opened the window. The cat squeezed inside the opening that should have been too small for him to fit through, seeing as Marinette had barely opened it, but through the physics of however the fuck cats work, he fit, seemingly with ease.

“Princess,” he said, bowing and kissing her hand as she giggled. He turned, noticing the others, who were all regarding the interaction with suspicion. “Am I missing something, or did you just not invite me?” He pouted while giving her puppy eyes.

“It’s a girls night, dummy,” Marinette said as Alya threw a pillow in his face.

“Well then, can I join?”

“Hmmm...” Chloé trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. She looked around, and the others nodded, knowing her well enough by now to predict exactly what she was going to say. “Only if we can give you a makeover.”

“Anything to spend time with my Princess.” Marinette blushed deeply, which was not lost on the others. “By the way,” he said, shaking flowers out of his hair, “what’s with the flower box?”

“I needed a little garden of inspiration, okay?” she said as the others hid their laughter.

2 hours later, Chat Noir, the hero of Paris, had on bright red lipstick, some black eyeliner, and some black eyeshadow, blended into green at the edges. (The girls had somehow managed to cover his mask in concealer. Don’t ask how.) He had a tiara on his head, and Marinette had shoved a frilly, sparkly pink dress at him to put on over his suit. He had just finished putting on knee-length, silver, extremely high-heeled boots on over the normal boots his suit came with when he heard a crash.

“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” he said, trying to turn around but tripping on Alya’s sleeping bag as his heels got twisted in it. “Ow.”

“I’m okay,” Marinette called from her position by the window, tangled up in fairy lights. Sabrina and Juleka giggled, took a picture or two (or three...or ten...) and then went and helped her up, untangling her from the lights. The girls strung them up by the window.

“Hey, can I get a picture for the Ladyblog?”

“But of course! I couldn’t deprive all of Paris from seeing me look this fabulous.” Chat Noir posed over dramatically while Alya took some photos. (The rest of the girls may or may not have photobombed one of them, resulting in a subsequent photo of Chat Noir laughing maniacally as the girls fell on top of each other in a large pile on top of Sabrina’s sleeping bag.)

“Hmm, maybe one with some fairy lights in the background would look nice,” Longg mused, having snuck up into Alya’s hair, hidden from Chat Noir’s eyes.

“That’s a great idea! Hey, Juleka, Chloé — could you hold up some fairy lights for me, please?”

“Hey, watch the claws!” Chat whined after Chloé tripped on Juleka’s foot, tangling up the fairy lights in his claws.

“Oh, here, let me help you,” Marinette said as she sauntered over. “Little Kitty got caught in a mousetrap?”

“Only one set by the best, Princess,” he winked, nodding at where the mouse miraculous had previously hung on her neck while they had fought Kwamibuster.

She blushed lightly as she set to work untangling him, only to be stopped by the lights twisting under someone else’s control, wrapping her and Chat closer together until they were nose-to-nose.

“Hey!”

“Oops,” Sabrina said, fist-bumping Chloé. “How utterly careless of me!”

Marinette tried to back away, but Sabrina tightened the lights even more. She could feel his breath on her face, and his lips brushed hers as he spoke. She turned bright red.

“Well, this seems like...quite the situation we’ve found ourselves in, huh, Princess?”

“Oh, shut up and kiss me, you silly cat.”

“Whatever you say, Princess.” He closed the gap between them.

The kiss was passionate, and when they pulled away, they were both bright red, and Marinette had gotten some of his concealer on her face and some of his lipstick on her lips. As they gasped for breath, Alya said, “Yes! I got it all on camera!”

“Alya!”

“What, Marinette? Is something wrong?” The journalist had an innocent expression on her face, before the two tangled-up teens started laughing, turning back to face each other.

“So...” His voice trailed off, and he gulped, looking away. “Would you want to, uh...go on a date tomorrow night?”

Her eyes lit up at th prospect. “Of course! I’d love to!”

“I’ll pick you up on your balcony at 6?”

“Sure.”

“Dress casually, okay? And maybe something to hide your identity, like a baggy hoodie.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know, Kitty. I am your Mouse-inette, after all, no?”

“Yeah.” He looked her in the eyes. “Yeah, you are.”

He pulled her into another kiss, and after they pulled away this time, Chloé said, “Is this how you two lovebirds are going to act all the time? I’m starting to regret this.”

Everyone laughed.

“What? I was being serious!”

The two rolled their eyes, and were about to kiss again before they were quickly untangled and pulled apart by the girls.

“So...” Alya butt in. “Truth or dare?”

[black-streak]

Waiting for the Worms- One of My Turns

Part 13

Woah, so many violence warnings. My god, Mari went off at the beginning here. I support her in her decisions. Any guesses what comes after this?

CLOSED list of people I anxiously await for the reactions of: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Gasping into awareness, Marinette's eyes shot open, flying around her surroundings only to lock on to the masked men holding machine guns making their way through the space, a strangely dressed man she vaguely recognized cackling behind them to the sounds of screaming. 

A total of eight of them wandering the enclosed space. Green edged into her vision with the next gasp as fear and unadulterated anger pulsed through her. They were here for Damian, that had to be. How did they find them so quickly, dammit?! She left his belongings on a perfectly sized unrecognizable corpse, it should've taken twice this long to identify the body as not the heir and even longer to track them down to Gotham and fly out. They couldn't be here, they would not get him, he was hers now. Her family, her only family that knew she was alive and they couldn't have him. She wouldn't allow it.

Green overtook her vision for a moment and she decided they deserved whatever came to them in her insanity. She pulled the hood she felt on her back up and over her head while tugging up the scarf around her neck to hide the rest of her face before giving in and dropping back into the screaming cesspool of her mind. 

Marinette became an observer to her own actions, with no say in the matter beyond the absolute need to protect what was hers. At the scream that echoed out, she launched herself up and over the edge of the table, grabbing the first man by the wrist and yanking so his back turned towards her. Her toe pressed into the back of his ankle and presses forward to force him to stay standing on both feet to not fall forward, grabbing the hand holding the gun and yanking it back to brace the hilt of his own weapon against his shoulder to avoid the recoil ending on her. In reaction he immediately opened fire without thought and she took advantage, swinging in the direction of the next two approaching men, somehow hitting in only nonlethal spots as though something was redirecting her. The bloodthirsty screams raged louder at the lack of death and the man in her hold tilted back to pin her into the table behind. Her hand disarmed him without thought, slamming it into his head causing blood to pour from one side as he dropped to the ground.

Turning, she disassembled the weapon in fast practiced motions she didn't recognize, taking the clip and throwing it in an arch, catching the attention of the next attacker and making them focus on avoiding the projectile and she ran forward, sliding in at the last moment with a knife she grabbed off a passing table and slicing the woman's achilles tendons. 

The voices screamed in joy and the green grew brighter in victory as one particular idiot launched themselves at her. She used their own momentum to launch them face first into the wooden floor, taking the bloodied knife and shoving it deep into their lower side, avoiding major organs without meaning to as she twisted out from below, coming to a stand. Five down, three left, plus the familiar one.

One had disappeared from view while the others trained their guns on her. She didn't have her knives or staff on her. She wasn't sure how she knew this, but knew it all the same. Reaching towards the table closest to her, she gripped a hot mug and a small plate, breaking the latter on the table to create a jagged half moon shape. They would do. 

She watched as her body launched forward and into the first one before they could fire, the other two visible ones filling their ally with bullet wounds in their attempt to hit her. With the body launching back towards them, she threw the hot coffee from the mug into the face of the closest enemy, delighting in their agonizing screams as their face blistered. In the same instant, she launched the half moon behind her where the jagged edge embedded itself into the forehead of the one who disappeared before, attempting to sneak up behind her. It stuck where it landed, not deep enough to kill, but enough to pour blood down into their eyes and blind them as they stumbled back and yanked at it. 

Kicking the blister faced one over and out of the way, she focused in on the last one. The leader of the group. Their body language was nervous and the voices went into a frenzy of anger and fear and outright panic with the sight, ready to take out the last threat. From where she sat in the back of her mind, she thought perhaps she wasn't the type of pushback they were used to. She hated how much she wasn't in control of her actions at this point but felt secretly pleased that her madness held off enough to not kill any of them yet. So long as they received medical attention soon enough. Someone must've called this in by now, so she forced herself not to worry on it, watching as her body held still waiting for her opponent to strike, knowing the fear would fuel the man to lash out soon enough. Then the madness would take him out and she could go back to her new life with Dami, out of their reach.

The man chose this moment to shoot at her, though it seemed more a dart gun than anything. She caught it midair and threw it back, watching him jump in a panic, the dart puncturing his skin before he could dodge the unexpected rebuttal. She watched as he clawed at the mask on his face until it fell away and twisted on the ground, freaking out at her feet. Finally she knew why he seemed so familiar. Scarecrow. She faced the man once as Robin when they were younger, the darts always holding the newest batch of fear toxin. The toxin she breathed in. 

Threat diminished, she frantically glances about before launching herself out a back entrance and into a side alley, yanking the scarf off her face as she escaped from view, gasping for air unaffected by the toxic fear gas. She turned down two more alleyways before pressing into a wall and focusing on counted breaths, hearing Damian in the back of his mind counting with her in a soft lull. The green slowly faded out and she looked around.

How did she get here? Where was here? Why wasn't she back in the apartment with Damian? Nothing made sense right now and she desperately forced back the panic at knowing she ran out on him even if couldn't figure out how.

Voices sounded from around the corner and as they drew closer, she heard her name. Her real name. As the first one turned the corner, she fisted their collar and twisted, pinning them up against the brick wall where she had been leaning moments before.

"Who are you? How do you know me?" She demanded, not realizing she had switched to arabic.

Molten brown eyes widened in fear, stuttering out, "Mari? Marinette it's me! Snap out of it!" 

She heard footsteps stop behind her, giving a wide berth as though to not crowd her. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on the face in front of hers, taking note of the shape of their nose and sway of their black fluffy hair. They were older but she couldn't help but be reminded of 'Marc?' she thought to herself, "What are you doing here?" she kept up in arabic, still not fully aware enough to realize it.

"We brought you here, remember? For your seventeenth birthday," a voice called carefully to her right. Whipping her head to the side, she recognized Juleka, Chloe at her side. Twitching to the side a bit, she noticed Kagami on her other side, looking ready to jump in at a moment's notice. Marc spoke up then.

"The gas took hold too fast, we got caught up in the illusions. By the time we came to, masked men were bleeding all over the place and you were nowhere to be found. We came running after you as soon as we realized you were gone. You must still be under its effects."

Her eyes jumped from one face to another in confusion and panic before staring down at herself. This was. This wasn't. How was this possible? Was she back in her old body? She thought the connection was lost. Thought she'd never see her old life again. As shock overtook her, the others became weary in her still silence.

"You don't think," Chloe trailed off, meeting Kagami's eyes around her.

"A switch? Wouldn't we have realized if she still had a soulmate? I thought she lost them years ago?"

"It has to be though.They obviously don't understand what's going on and that definitely wasn't any of the languages she speaks."

Arabic. She spoke arabic, they just didn't know it. Spiraling further, she dropped her hands from Marc's shirt. If this was her old body then his body, Jason's body, was where she left it. With Jason inside of it. Jason was in his old body in her new apartment. With Damian. Who only learned the truth within the last week and had no idea what he was waking up to. With a boy (man?) who thought she was dead up until this point and would have who knew what reaction to finding himself in his supposedly dead body in a strange place with a strange boy.

Panic shot through her and she took off away from the group in what she thought was the approximate direction of her home, only to get yanked back by the wrist. As the momentum launched her back, she turned with hand raised to shove off whoever had stopped her only to feel a tug at the back of her mind telling her it was time to go. Letting herself fall forward against a startled Marc, she quickly gave in.

…

Coming back into Jason's body, she stopped facing a door only to feel small hands push at her back, urging her forward.

"Lets go! You promised we'd find her so move already," a small boyish voice sounded behind her. 

Turning around, she dropped to her knees in from of Damian, "Dami? Are you alright? Is everything okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't know the connection would wake up."

She watched as he looked her over, chewing on her bottom lip as relief swept over his face and he pushed forward to hug her close.

"I'm okay. Everything is fine, you couldn't have known. Are you okay? He mentioned you being attacked and hit with toxin?"

"I took care of that. Nothing to worry about. You know better than to doubt me," she teased, tucking his head under her chin and taking in his warmth and scent, comforted by his relaxed state. She heard a small triumphant noise and a soft "knew it" and gave a half laugh, half sob. 

He had feared for her as she feared for him. Within the span of the switch, he not only apparently argued with her soulmate, but convinced Jason to hunt her down out of worry. Sitting flat out on the floor, she tugged him down into her lap, surprised when he allowed it.

"He knows now."

"Knows what?"

"Where we live, how you came back, everything. It was stupid of me, I shouldn't have blindly trusted him like that. He'll probably come here now."

Processing this, she pulled back a touch and looked at him, using her thumb to smooth out the wrinkle between his eyebrows before slowly answering, mind still reeling from everything that happened.

"It's okay. If you found him trustworthy, I trust your opinion. I suppose all we can do now is wait." He ducked back down against her chest, a silence falling upon them as they thought on what was to come.

[galahadwilder]

$21 to buggachat! If you felt like adding something to Sin Ship or continuing Sweethearts a little bit (maybe Adrien and Marinette get back to find out their ice cream has melted to Andre gives all three of them a shared cone to make up for it?), that would delight me to no end.

Hesitate

A sequel to Sweethearts, and part 2 of “Kagami Has Two Hands.” Like that fic, this one was written to help raise money for @buggachat’s laptop repairs.

Sponsored by @art-deco-shrimp (the ask above is from their main account).

*

She’s only been dating Adrien for two weeks now, and already she’s gained a newfound respect for Alya for not going berserk and throwing him and Marinette into a closet together and slamming their faces together until they admit their feelings. Two weeks of this bullshit is driving her insane. She keeps dropping hints, bringing up the confusion of the ice cream flavors, sending him articles about polyamory, commenting on Marinette’s beauty, and he simply agrees that Marinette is indeed gorgeous, that poly relationships are cool, that the ice cream is a mystery—and then refuses to think any further. Marinette, meanwhile, continues to stubbornly insist that her feelings for Couffaine are romantic when even Kagami, who is notoriously bad at reading social signals, can tell that Mari is just relieved at finally having someone who lets her relax.

She swears, if she hears Adrien call Marinette “just a friend” one more time, she’s going to leap on a butterfly and light the school on fire.

They’re having another double date—neither Adrien nor Marinette seems to have figured out why she keeps insisting on those, though to his credit Luka seems to be growing suspicious, based on the looks he keeps giving her—and Marinette and Adrien are absolutely crushing the high score at the arcade’s Dance Dance Revolution machine. Their synchronization is, quite frankly, insane: they’re matching perfectly step for step, every footfall landing at just the right moment, to the point where they’ve begun to gather a crowd. As Marinette gains confidence, they’re even starting to show off a little, swapping pads back and forth mid-song without missing a single beat. Kagami is mesmerized.

Marinette as she laughs and Adrien lifts her, swinging her onto his pad. It’s a stunning display of trust and athleticism, and Kagami’s heart starts beating faster at the sight—and then, next to her, Luka reminds her that he’s there as he sighs in lovesick delight. “She’s incredible,” he murmurs, staring at Marinette.

Instantly, Kagami’s shoulders shoot up to her ears and her spine practically folds in on itself as she reaches for a sword she’s not even wearing. She grinds her teeth. “Yes,” she says, letting her hand drop to her side and forcibly relaxing her muscles. “She is.”

The worst part of this is that, much as she wants to, she can’t hate Luka Couffaine. He’s a good person, and he seems to genuinely have feelings for Marinette. More than that, he’s genuinely good for her. But Kagami has seen the way Mari looks at Adrien, and the way Mari looks at her, and… well, Marinette doesn’t feel the way about Luka that he does about her.

If circumstances were different, Couffaine would be exactly the kind of person Marinette needs as a friend, especially given how rough her life has been for the last few weeks. But they’re not. And right now Luka Couffaine is an obstacle.

The game finishes, and Marinette cheers with delight at the perfect score. Adrien, Kagami, and Luka are all staring at her.

Kagami is the only one who notices how the other two look at Marinette.

*

Kagami doesn’t usually spend lunch in the cafeteria—her mother sends a car for her every day, but she’s managed to convince her that she’s working on a group project (another of Marinette’s generic “sneak away” suggestions). Waiting in line is a bit uncomfortable, and the only thing on the menu that doesn’t fill her with revulsion at the thought of a horrible texture in her mouth is the soup, but it’s worth it when it takes her only a few moments to find her target.

“Césaire!” she hisses, sliding in next to her and carefully lowering her soup to the table. “I need to speak with you.” She glances around, lowering her voice. “Privately.”

Alya looks up from her sandwich, and Kagami doesn’t miss the momentary distaste that flits across her face. “Tsurugi,” she says, her voice carefully controlled as she waves away a curious Nino. “What do you want?���

Kagami swallows. “Marinette tells me you have been… assisting her with her love life.”

“I was,” Alya snarls, keeping her eyes locked on Kagami as she places her sandwich back on her tray. “Why? Do you have a problem with that?”

Kagami shakes her head. This is going downhill rapidly—there’s a reason she rarely interacts with Césaire. “Actually,” she says, trying to keep her voice from trembling, “I could use your help.”

Alya blinks. “Help? With what?” she says. “You already have Adrien, what do you want my help for?”

“Adrien…” Kagami swallows. She looks down at her bowl, stirring her soup uncomfortably. This is proving to be much more difficult than she expected—she’s having trouble finding the right words. “He is in love with Marinette.”

Alya glares at her, then rolls her eyes. “Tough shit,” she says. “You knew that going in.” She turns back to the table, producing her phone and beginning to scroll through a website Kagami doesn’t quite recognize. “You made this bed,” she says. “Not my fault you’re not ready to lie in—”

“You do not understand!” Kagami snaps, sloshing soup out of the bowl and onto the table. She berates herself for a moment for letting her temper get the best of her again, focusing on her breathing to calm down. She’s never quite understood Alya’s dislike of her, but given how she’s reacting now… well, it’s starting to make a certain amount of sense. “I am not… jealous,” she grinds out. “I want to help.”

Alya raises an eyebrow without looking up from her phone. “What, you’re gonna make him forget all about her?” she says. “I’m not helping you plan that.”

Kagami clenches a fist, breathes in, unclenches. Then she twists her head, glancing around the cafeteria, making sure nobody is looking before leaning in. “I have feelings for her as well,” she whispers.

Alya’s head snaps up. “What,” she hisses, her eyelid twitching.

Kagami immediately finds herself doing something she has rarely done, even in the face of Akuma—she starts retreating. She folds into herself, ashamed of her own weakness but unable to stop herself from withering under Alya’s glare.

Alya reaches forward, snatches Kagami’s tie. “If you’re planning on cheating on him—”

Kagami gasps. “Absolutely not!” she hisses, slapping Alya’s hand away.

Alya narrows her eyes. “Explain,” she says.

Kagami compulsively smooths out her tie. “Adrien and Marinette are in love with each other,” she says. “And I am… interested… in both of them.”

Alya blinks, and then the corner of her mouth twitches upwards. “You’re angling for an as well as,” she says, her voice suddenly much lighter and more playful, “not an instead of.”

Kagami blinks. “I’m not sure I understand,” she says. That sounds right, but… maybe not? She can’t be sure.

Alya rolls her eyes, but this time it’s fond instead of cruel. “You want to date both of them,” she says, “and for both of them to date each other.”

“Yes!” Kagami cries. Alya finally gets it!

Then her entire body locks up as she realizes that her voice has carried across the entire cafeteria, and now everyone is looking at her.

“Hey,” Alya says, her voice soft. “Look at me. Don’t look at them. Look at me.”

Kagami does, sees the kindness in Césaire’s eyes, and feels her heartbeat begin to slow.

Alya smiles. “Mari does the same thing,” she says, standing up and snatching her sandwich from her tray. “Come on. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

*

“Ughhh,” Alya groans after Kagami finishes explaining, slamming her face into her desk. “They’re getting worse.”

Kagami’s lips twist into a wry grin as she slurps the last of her soup straight out of the bowl. “I am glad you appreciate my predicament,” she says, carefully placing the bowl on top of the pile of paper towels Alya provided so as not to muck up Mari’s desk.

“Right, okay,” Alya says, placing her glasses back on her face. “So you need them to realize they like each other, and that you want them to… what, share you?”

Kagami nods, sweeping some droplets from the desk. “Approximately,” she says.

Alya nods. “Okay,” she says. “I’m going to give you the same advice you gave Marinette at the ice rink. Don’t hesitate.”

Kagami looks at her with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t understand,” she says. “I’m… not?”

Alya tosses her hair. “You kind of are,” she says. “It’s the same problem Marinette has—she’s scared, so she goes indirect and it gets misinterpreted.” She rubs her chin, bracing her elbow against the desk. “When you started dating Adrien, did you wait for him to make the first move?”

“Of course not,” Kagami says, then—“Oh. Oh I see.” Trying to get the two of them to figure it out on their own…

Alya grabs her shoulder. “You have to be direct with those two,” she says, smiling. “Otherwise they’ll never get it.”

Kagami smiles back, and this one feels a little more comfortable than her previous attempts. “I doubt they would understand it if I dragged Adrien to Marinette’s house while naked and covered in cheese,” she says.

Alya snorts, covering her mouth. “Marinette was right!” she says. “You are funny.”

*

“Adrien,” Kagami says as fencing practice begins winding down. “Can I speak to you once we’re finished with the showers?”

“Yeah?” he says, casually ripping his helmet from his head, releasing the tumbling golden curls. “Everything okay?”

Kagami bites her lip, which she’s glad is hidden behind the mask. “Yes,” she croaks. “Fine.” Marinette is one hundred percent correct—the boy is unfairly attractive, and she swears on Longg the kindness in his eyes makes her weak.

He turns, walking towards the shower, and she feels her knees wobble a bit at the sight of his shoulder blades. Jean snickers, jabbing her with his elbow, and she responds by punching him in the shoulder.

*

“What’s up?” Adrien says, pulling on his shirt.

Kagami braces her elbows between her knees, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. Be direct. Don’t hesitate. “You’re in love with Marinette.”

Adrien freezes, one empty sleeve still hanging off his shoulder. “Gami?” he says, weakly.

She doesn’t really have a plan for how this conversation is going to go, so she’s not quite sure what to do next. She’s made the first move. Let him take the next.

“I—I don’t know why everyone… keeps saying that,” he says, pulling his arm through his remaining sleeve. “I’m—Marinette and I aren’t… anything.”

Kagami leans back on the bench, crossing her legs at the knee. “You know that’s not true.”

“Gami, please,” he says. He drops to his knees in front of her, taking her hands in between his own. “I don’t know what Alya told you, but… I’m with you. And you’re the one I want to be with.” He purses his lips. “I don’t—”

She presses his cheeks between her hands. “Adri-kun,” she whispers. “I love her too.”

Adrien’s eyelids quiver. “What?”

Kagami presses her forehead to his. “Even before we moved away from Osaka,” she says, “I never really expected to have friends. Okaasan never let me do anything with people my age. And then I met you… and her.”

“I don’t… understand,” Adrien whispers. He’s tearing up. Trying not to cry. “Are you… breaking up with me?”

Kagami can’t help it: she laughs. “Of course not!” she says. She loosens her grip on his face, cupping his cheek, and he leans into her touch with a soft mewl. “I wouldn’t give you up for anything, Adrien.”

He melts at her words, his face collapsing into her lap with a wordless whine of relief. She smiles, stroking his hair.

“I love both of you, Adrien,” she murmurs. “And you love both of us. So can we not… share?”

Adrien stiffens. “I—what?” he says, then her words seem to process in his brain and he gasps. “The ice cream!” he says. “You—you knew.”

Kagami nods. “Monsieur Glacier can see triads,” she says, “but only if he knows to look for them. That’s why he was so confused the first time you took me to him. That why I asked.”

“Marinette’s cone was both of us…” Adrien mumbles. He blinks. “Blue eyes. You said… ‘neither of us has blue eyes’.”

Kagami nods, resumes stroking his hair. “And Marinette does.”

Adrien crawls up onto the bench next to her. “But the strawberry chocolate chip,” he says. “That’s…”

“You called her ‘Everyday Ladybug,’ did you not?” Kagami says.

He looks at her in confusion, and she turns back to the lockers. “She told me,” she admits. “I… wasn’t happy about that, at first.”

Adrien groans. “Oh, my god,” he says. “I am in love with her.”

Finally! Kagami wants to leap up, to dance, to cheer, but that’s not how a Tsurugi acts. Instead she schools her reaction down to a smile and her quivering palms.

But then his face falls. “Let’s say I do want a…” He trails off. “It doesn’t matter,” he mumbles, looking at the floor. “She doesn’t like me like that.”

Kagami freezes. “Who told you that?”

He chuckles mirthlessly. “She did.”

And suddenly a whole bunch of things fall into place, like an icepick through the front of her brain. Why Adrien seems to have been so oblivious to Marinette’s feelings. Why he thinks she’s been rejecting him all this time. Why, despite all Marinette’s signals, he’s never made a move.

“Adrien,” she says, laughing. “She—she was…” She can’t get a breath out, can’t stop laughing, can’t stop crying over how ridiculous this all is, how in love with these two dorks she is, how perfect they are for each other and how stupidly painful they’ve made everything and how, if they hadn’t, she’d have never had a chance. “She was lying!”

Adrien states at her, his face knit with confusion.

“Why do you think I disliked her so much at first?” Kagami chuckles. “She was competition.” She reaches out, flicks his nose. “She said you gave her an umbrella, and that was it for her heart.”

Adrien splutters. “But she—I don’t…” He throws his head into his hands and moans. “Why didn’t she say anything?”

“She is frightened,” Kagami says, rubbing his back. “Which means it’s up to us to make the next move.” She smiles, and she can tell her practice is paying off—it feels more natural than she can ever remember. “If this is what you want.”

Adrien swallows, nods. “I—I think I do,” he croaks, beaming back at her.

*

“The next move” ends up being taking Marinette back to Sweethearts Ice Cream. This time, with Luka.

“Luka,” Marinette says, clutching at her wrist as they walk. “Have I been… using the wrong pronouns for you?”

Adrien, whose arm is resting on Kagami’s opposite shoulder, glances sidelong at her. She simply nods in response. Be patient.

Luka chuckles. “No?” he says with wry confusion. “I’m very definitely cis. He/him is fine.”

“Oh.” Marinette’s voice falls. “It’s just… last time I was here…”

As she and Luka continue their conversation, Adrien buries his nose in Kagami’s hair. “You’re incredible, you know that?” he murmurs, just low enough that Marinette and Luka can’t hear them.

Her whole body warms, and when she tries to suppress her giggle, it comes out as a squeak instead. She’s starting to understand why Marinette is such a mess around Adrien sometimes. All her composure is evaporating, and to be honest, she’s more excited about that than scared. It’s freeing.

“Mari?” Adrien calls. “Are you sure he’s around here today?”

“Um,” Marinette responds. “Adrien… you’re looking right at him.”

Kagami raises an eyebrow. “I told you,” she says, squeezing her boyfriend’s side. “You need glasses.”

They approach André Glacier’s ice cream cart, and Kagami feels her feet and fingers begin to buzz. If she’s right about this… this is the moment. There’s no going back.

“Hello again!” André says. “Back for more Sweethearts?”

“Marinette was right,” Kagami says. “It is the best in Paris.”

André beams, quickly setting about serving Kagami and Adrien the same cone as last time. Kagami shoots Adrien a knowing look, and Adrien rolls his eyes.

André smiles, then turns to Luka. “For you…” he says, tilting his head. He glances at Marinette, then back to Luka. His mouth twists downward. “Oh.”

Luka raises an eyebrow, glancing at Kagami with suspicion. Marinette only looks confused.

“Not everyone likes every flavor,” André says, sorrow in his eyes. “And some mixes don’t find favor.” He sighs. “I can offer you a couple’s cone, but I fear you’ll wish I left alone.”

Marinette and Luka look at each other, and Luka swallows. “Goddammit,” he whispers.

“Luka?” Marinette says. “It’s—it’s just ice cream, it doesn’t… necessarily mean anything…” She trails off, looking at Adrien. “Right?”

Adrien’s mouth moves like a fish, and Kagami does not envy him. She’s watching Luka, watching grief play out across his face.

He steps forward. “Two cones, then,” he says, resolute.

André nods, reaching into his cart. “The Lady first,” he says, all the music gone from his voice. “Peach for the lips, mint for the eyes, and blackberry hair.”

Luka takes the cone, looks at Adrien and Kagami, and gently presses it into Marinette’s hand. “For you, my melody,” he whispers.

Kagami feels her chest twist at the endearment. Maybe if things were different…

“Birthday cake, fudge, and Dutch chocolate,” André says as he hands over Luka’s cone. “I’m sorry. I know you were hoping.”

Luka swallows. “I know,” he says, taking the cone. “I know.”

Adrien turns away, burying his face in Kagami’s hair. He’s shaking. She can’t blame him.

*

She’s only a little surprised when Luka texts her later that evening. She gave him her number when they first started double-dating; this is the first time she’s heard his text tone.

She glances at her door, then silences her phone, even cutting the vibration so her mother can’t hear her getting “distracted” from her work.

Luka: u knew

Kagami: I suspected

Kagami: for what it’s worth, I am sorry

Luka: wondered y u hated me

Luka: I’ve seen the way u 2 look @ her

Luka: and her @ u

Luka: take care of her?

Kagami: of course

Kagami: though I do not understand half of what you just said

Luka: I GREW UP ON FLIP PHONES

Kagami: ah. “Txting speek?”

Luka: ��

Luka: never talk like th@ again pls

Kagami: it did seem ridiculous when I typed it, yes

Kagami: when are you going to do it?

Luka: already did. Dragging it out wldnt b fair 2 her

Luka: she’s gonna need u tmrw

Kagami: I’ll be there. And so will he

Luka: thx

Kagami locks her phone and gives herself a moment to feel guilty. If she hadn’t taken them to André’s, this would never have happened.

Or maybe it just would’ve happened later, after they were too involved to not be hurt by it. Maybe she saved their friendship.

She still feels guilty.

*

When she sees Marinette the next morning, the guilt gets worse. She looks despondent, listless, and though Juleka seems to be doting on her, trying to cheer her up after the breakup with her brother, most of Marinette’s energy—both her joy and her nerves—has bled out of her.

Kagami’s heart corkscrews into her stomach. She can feel the acid eating at it.

She gets updates from Adrien and Alya between classes throughout the morning. She won’t tell anyone what happened, but the whole class seems to be rallying behind her, trying to cheer her up, and things are getting… well, a little better. She’s still heartbroken, it seems, but at least she’s laughing again.

When class lets out for lunch, Kagami charges to Mme. Bustier’s class, heedless of the people in the hallways between her and her target. She bursts through the door, ignoring the confused stares of the rest of the class as she snags Marinette’s wrist. “Come on,” she says. “Okaasan thinks we have a group project.”

Marinette blinks. “What?” she says.

Kagami smiles, a fully-natural one now. “We,” she says, glancing at her boyfriend, “are taking you to lunch.”

*

Lunch is… quiet. And awkward. Kagami and Adrien sit across from a despondent Marinette in the quiet cafe, watching her pick apart her salad and meet nobody’s eyes. Kagami feels awful.

Adrien glances at her, nervously licks his lips, and she knows he’s not going to do anything. He’s going to wait for Marinette to talk. And she isn’t going to.

Don’t hesitate.

Kagami clears her throat. “Luka texted me last night,” she says.

Marinette chokes, her fork slipping out of her hand and clattering onto the table.

“Marinette?” Adrien says, his gaze soft. Kagami can see him straining not to reach out to her—how did this boy ever think he wasn’t in love?

Marinette’s eyes close, and she sniffles, wiping her nose. “I ruined it,” she whispers. “I ruined everything.”

Adrien reaches out to take her hand. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault—”

“You don’t understand!” she cries. “He—I… I tried. I tried so hard.” She slumps into the wooden back of her chair. “I wanted to be in love with him… I really did.”

Kagami swallows. “What happened?”

Marinette sobs. “He… he asked if he…” she begins. She glances up at Adrien, then her eyes flick away just as quickly. “If… he was the one… I really wanted to be with.”

Kagami’s hand clenches around her croissant, digging trenches into the flaky crust.

“I tried to say yes,” Marinette whispers. “But I just…” She sobs again, burying her face in her hands. “I ruin—I ruined everything.” Her shoulders are shaking. “How stupid am I?”

Kagami is frozen. She wants to help, but deep down she knows that no matter what she does, what she says, it’s only going to make things worse. She has no idea what to do.

Luckily, Adrien does. “The heart wants what it wants,” he says, reaching out to squeeze Marinette’s shoulder. “You’re not stupid for feeling.”

Marinette shakes her head with a whimper. “I’m stuck on someone who doesn’t even want me,” she whispers. “Why—why can’t I let him go?”

Adrien glances at Kagami. She nods.

Adrien turns back to Marinette. “Marinette,” he says, his voice soft. “What makes you think I don’t want you?”

Marinette freezes.

A chill rockets across Kagami’s skin as all her hair stands on end at once. She can see the warring emotions in Marinette’s mind—guilt and shame and hope and elation—and for the moment, nobody moves.

Then Marinette lifts her head. “How—” she squeaks. “How did you know it was you?”

Adrien smiles. “Gami told me,” he says. He glances at Kagami, licks his lips. “I wish you’d told me earlier.”

Marinette frowns. “It… doesn’t matter anymore, anyway,” she says, looking at Kagami. “You—you’re together now, and…”

“And your ice cream flavors mentioned two people,” Kagami says, laying her hand on top of Marinette’s. “Blackberry, mint, and peach.”

Marinette’s eyes go wide.

“I have black hair.” Kagami says, then nods at Adrien. “He has green eyes.” She breathes in, interlacing her fingers with Marinette’s. “And we both have two hands.”

Marinette’s mouth drops open. “Are you…” she whispers, her eyes flicking between them both. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”

“Kagami and I are both in love with you,” Adrien says, taking her other hand. “We were hoping… that you’d be okay with sharing.”

Marinette’s mouth opens, closes, opens again. She turns to Kagami. “I—You said…” she says, her eyes narrowing. “You told me you’d be okay with losing my friendship… if it meant you could be with him.”

Kagami blinks as the bullet of Marinette’s words strikes her right in the gut. “I—I only said that to Ladybug.” She swallows. “And I said it as Ryuuko.”

The table is utterly silent for a half-second, the only sound the chatter of the cafe around them. They’re in a bubble of time when everything around them has sped up, and they are frozen as the world zips by unimpeded.

Then Adrien drops his fork. “Oh my gods,” he gasps. “My Lady?”

Marinette’s head snaps around to him. “Chaton?” she hisses.

For the second time in less than a minute, Kagami’s brain catches fire. Adrien kept speaking about a girl he liked who didn’t like him—it wasn’t Marinette who was turning him down (except it was, sort of). The two of them disappearing every time an Akuma arrived. Ladybug’s choice to call on Ryuuko whenever Marinette was with Kagami.

Oh, sweet gods, she’s fallen in love with Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“Mari-chan,” Kagami says, squeezing her hand. “The first thing I said was that I couldn’t bear to hurt you.” She looks at Adrien. “And… I said I wouldn’t give him up for the sake of our friendship.” She rubs her thumb on Marinette’s palm. “You never asked me to.”

Marinette—Ladybug—looks at her with watering eyes. “I don’t—” she begins, choking on her words. “I don’t know what to do.”

Kagami swallows. They’ve gone so far off anything she’d planned for, anything she’d prepared for, and she doesn’t know either. But she knows where to start.

“Marinette,” she says. “Don’t hesitate.”

Marinette blinks, then grabs Kagami’s lapels and yanks them both toward each other over the table, their lips mashing together with a burning heat that flashes across Kagami’s skin, followed by the feeling of every hair on her skin standing straight up, every nerve in her body sparking like she’s turned into a lightning bolt. (She has to check to make sure she’s not wearing her Miraculous—she swears she’s discorporating.)

Marinette breaks the kiss first, gasping. Kagami drops back into her chair, all her muscles loose—she’s kissed Adrien before, but she has never, in her life, been kissed the way Marinette just kissed her. She wants—she needs more.

Marinette turns to Adrien. “I’ve been in love with you since the day you gave me your umbrella,” she says.

He reaches out, takes her hand, presses her knuckles to his lips. “I’ve been in love with you since you first stood up to Hawkmoth.”

Marinette’s face glows pink. “You never really hid that,” she giggles.

Adrien nods, his own face growing steadily redder. “I—this is a lot,” he says. “I think I’m going to explode.”

“Me too,” Marinette whispers.

Kagami would concur, but she’s still speechless from the whirlwind that was Marinette’s kiss.

She looks at Kagami. “So… are we…?”

Kagami swallows, shakes herself loose. “We are... whatever you want us to be,” she says, taking Adrien’s hand. Smiling is coming easy now. “What do you want, Marinette?”

“I want you,” she says. “I want both of you.”

“You have two hands,” Adrien says, holding up his free palm. “Why not use them?”

Marinette grins. “Why not?” she says, taking both of their hands. “Mon Chaton. Ma Dragonne.”

“My Lady,” Adrien responds, melting.

Kagami’s pulse is squeezing her ears, but she has enough brainpower left to whisper one more word. “Mushi-Chan.”

[vgckwb]

ML: Isolation Chapter 9: Window to the Soul

Adrien was on his way to school. He was looking at the news reports of Cat Noir’s latest appearance. There was a lot to it. After all, since Adrien talked to the receptionist first, there was a witness. He was watching the interview the reporters were doing with Manon and her mom, who Adrien was shocked to find out was news personality Nadja Chamack.

“Cat Noir was super nice!” Manon said. “He came right away, and he agreed to help me! Isn’t that sweet of him?”

The reporter interviewing her asked “And what did you ask him to do?”

Manon smiled. “I asked him to give someone a letter.”

“A letter?” The reporter asked. “To whom?”

Manon got a little sad. “My old babysitter.” She then got mad. “Everyone says she did something bad, but I don’t believe it! I know she couldn’t!”

The interview then turned over to Nadja, who was asked about her daughter’s actions. “Well, Manon has always been a little precocious” she said. “But I never thought she’d be able to do any of this.” She stared solemnly at the floor. “It’s because she can’t accept what happened with her old babysitter. Even now, she insists she’s innocent. I’ve tried telling her, but she can be so stubborn sometimes.” She sighed. “I guess she needs to grow up before she can come to terms with it all.”

Adrien felt scorned. Keep it together. Nobody knows yet. He then looked and saw Lila outside of the school. She was looking at something on her phone and tightening her fist Adrien was curious. He approached her slowly. He looked over her shoulder to see she was watching the same interview. “Lila?”

“Huh?” Lila said, turning around in surprise. “Oh Adrien, it was just you.”

“Sorry,” Adrien said. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

Lila giggled. “It’s OK. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

“So, you’re watching that interview as well?” Adrien asked.

“Huh? Oh yeah” Lila said. She looked sad. “I’m glad Cat Noir is willing to help people, but that little girl’s old babysitter was Marinette.”

“I see,” Adrien said. “You feeling alright?”

Lila smiled. “Yeah. I guess… To be honest, it’s hard to see someone praise Marinette. After everything she’s done to me…” She sighed.

“Try thinking about it from her perspective,” Adrien said. “You have trouble believing Marinette is nice. For her, it’s the opposite. She has trouble imagining her babysitter is mean.”

Lila sighed. “I guess…”

“Don’t worry,” Adrien said. “I’m sure she’ll understand the truth eventually. Well, we should get to class.” Adrien started walking to class.

Lila got a menacing smile on her face. “Perhaps sooner than you think.”

During break, Alya went down to Nino and Adrien’s desk. “Can you believe it?!” she said.

“What is it?” Nino asked.

“Cat Noir showed up again!” Alya reminded him.

“Uh, yeah. We’ve seen it. It’s all over the news” Nino said. “Are you going to get this worked up every time Cat Noir does something?”

Alya pouted. “You idiot! Don’t you even know how Cat Noir found Manon?”

“Ummmm, no?” Nino answered.

Alya slammed her hands on the desk. “It was through the Noir Notes website!”

Nino was surprised. “Woah, seriously?!”

“Uh, YEAH!” Alya said. “Took you long enough.”

Nino looked disappointed. “Sorry,” he said. Adrien giggled.

“You know what this means?” Alya asked. “Cat Noir has seen Noir Notes! AND he takes responses from it!”

“I’m happy for you Alya,” Adrien said.

“I wonder what I can say to get him to meet me!” Alya said.

“Hold on. You might be jumping the gun on that” Nino said. Alya looked confused. “Cat Noir is a hero. He only comes out to help those in need.”

“He’s right Alya” Adrien chimed in. “I mean, I’ve been checking Noir Notes routinely, and that seemed to be the first one he responded to.” Alya got disappointed. Adrien smiled. “Still, I’m sure if you have the right request, he might come and talk with you.”

Alya siled. “You’re right. Sometimes I get a little too overzealous on these kinds of things. I’m sure I’ll meet Cat Noir someday!”

“That’s the spirit!” Adrien said. Although meeting with Alya as Cat Noir could prove to be beneficial. It just needs to be arranged as a coincidence. Luckily, Alya’s very crafty. I might not need to arrange much on my end.

After school, Adrien had fencing. He enjoyed practicing with other people. Seeing new techniques really broadens his horizons in the world of fencing. While everyone was doing the same routines, everyone was doing them just slightly differently. Adrien was feeding off that energy.

Of course, no one was more energetic than Kagami. Adrien could watch her all day. Of course, that wouldn't be in the spirit of their agreement. So Adrien kept on practicing vigorously as well, hoping to open everyone else’s eyes.

After practice was over and everyone had changed, Kagami approached Adrien. “Oh, hey Kagmi. You were really at top form today.”

Kagami glared at him. “I wish the same could be said to you.”

“Excuse me?” Adrien said.

“Don’t get me wrong!” Kagami protested. “You were excellent.” She tightened her fist. “But it didn’t have the same energy as when we fought.”

“Huh” Adrien said.

“I thought you were taking things seriously,” Kagami said.

“I am,” Adrien said.

Kagami scowled. “Then why were you doing marginally worse?!” Adrien was shocked. “I’m more worried now that if your skill decreases, you won’t even stand a chance of not being manipulated by Chloe, let alone Lila.”

Adrien laughed. “You don’t have to worry. At least, about Chloe. We’ve been friends for a lifetime. I know all of Chloe’s tricks, so they don’t affect me.”

“Friends?” Kagami said.

“Yeah. In fact, she and her friend Sabrina are coming over tonight” Adrien clarified. “I’m not sure how I’ve unimproved, but I hope to work on it for the next class. Well, seeya.” Adrien walked off. Kagmi grinned.

“Wow!” Sabrina said, looking around Adrien’s room.”This place has everything!” Adrien smiled, though it felt hollow.

Chloe approached him. “I know that look,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his head. “Well…” He sighed. “I get a little sad when someone compliments my room.”

“Oh” Sabirna said, turning around. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Adrien said. “It IS a nice room and all. It’s just…” he sighed again. “A lot of this stuff was here to keep me in here, you know?” Sabrina looked at him curiously. “All I ever wanted was to get out and see the world for what it really is.”

“Oh. I see” Sabrina said.

Adrien sensed her sadness. “But hey, that doesn't mean I don’t enjoy the stuff in here. For instance…” He walked over to the foosball table. “I’ve gotten really good at foosball.”

“HAH!” said Chloe. “Don’t forget who taught you everything you knew.”

“Oh you’re a teacher now?” Adrien said.

“Why don’t we settle this then?” Chloe said.

“Wha-what’s going on?” Sabrina said.

“It’s nothing, Sabrina,” Chloe said.

“Chloe and I just have a long standing foosball rivalry” Adrien said.

“No matter how many games we play, we appear to be evenly matched” Chloe said.

“I see,” Sabrina said. “Well, I’d sure love to see two masters play.”

“So, what do ya say?” Adrien asked.

“Bring it on!” Chloe responded. They got on either side of the table, and began playing. Sabrina watched from the goal Adrien was trying to get into, no doubt to see whenever Chloe got a goal. However, as they said, they were evenly matched.

Eventually though, Adrien won the match. “Told ya” Adrien said.

“Grrrrrrr” Chloe growled. “Next time, I’ll win for sure!”

Sabrina laughed. They both looked at her. “I’m sorry. It’s just, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Chloe so worked up. I kind of miss that part of her.”

Chloe blushed slightly. She sighed and said “Good game either way, right?” Reaching out her hand. Adrien shook it. They spent the rest of the evening hanging out in Adrien’s room, until Sabrina’s dad called to pick her up.

After she left, Chloe looked at Adrien and said “I think I should get going too.”

“Hey” Adrien said. “Sabrina’s really nice.”

Chloe smiled. “Yeah.”

“Maybe you should be more open with her,” Adrien said.

Chloe was caught off guard, but quickly went back on it. “Y-You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Adrien looked sad. “Look” Chloe sighed. “It’s not that I don’t care. I just… Things are more complicated than they appear sometimes. You’re new to society and such. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt.”

Adrien was curious. “Where did that come from?” Chloe glared at Adrien. Adrien nervously smiled. “Sorry.”

Chloe let go of her anger. She looked off to the side. “I want to be more earnest with Sabrina, but...”

So I was right. Whatever Lila has on Chloe is related to Sabrina. I better not push it for now. “I understand Chloe. You go at your own pace.”

Chloe smiled. “Thanks Adrien.” She left.

Adrien went to his computer and messaged Marinette. “Hey, so since Nathalie knows your secret, how long before we can let someone else in?”

“You want to let someone else in on all of this?”

“Well, if we can trust them. More allies is always better.”

“I guess…”

“I’m not going to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“...Well, I’m not ready to let anyone in just yet.”

“That’s OK. Hey, did you get the letter?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Adrien found that weird. “Why?”

“It’s personal.”

“OK. So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, that shoot is coming up. To be honest, I’ve always wanted to watch one of your shoots.”

Adrien blushed. “Oh? So, you wanna come out for it?”

“NO! Sorry. No. But I was wondering if you could tell me about it when we meet up Saturday. Your shoot’s the day before, right?”

Adrien smiled. “Yup. Although, to be honest, I’m not sure how I would describe a shoot. However, I do have an idea that could work. Just leave it to me.”

“OK.”

“Well, good night.”

“Good night.”

The next day at school, as Chloe was walking the halls, she got approached by Kagami. “Hey” Kagami said.

Chloe was surprised. “What do you want?”

Kagami leaned in and whispered “I know about what’s going on. I want to help.”

Chloe felt frightened, confused, and angry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Huh? You know. With Lila” Kagami spoke back.

“Look, just because you two don’t get along, there’s no point in dragging me into it!” Chloe protested.

Kagami stared into Chloe’s eyes. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“As far as I’m concerned, you keep your petty squabbles to yourself!” Chloe said. “There are bigger things I need to worry about!”

Kagami smiled. “I see. Thank you. This has been eye opening. Alright, I'll leave you alone.”

“Huh?” Chloe said.

“But know this: Salvation is closer to you than you think,” Kagami said. She walked off.

Chloe was confused. “What?”

After school, Adrien got a text from Kagami asking to meet. Adrien met up with her in secret. “So, what’s this about?”

“Who’s your source?” Kagami said.

“Pardon?” Adrien said.

“Who told you Lila was bad?” Kagami asked “I asked Chloe if it was her today.” Adrien tensed up. “It wasn’t her. So who is it?”

“Why do you need to know?” Adrien asked. “Aren’t we after the same thing?”

“Yeah, but how long do you think that will be enough for?” Kagami scowled back at him. “I’m fine with taking down Lila, but what about after?” Adrien got curious. “Are we friends, or is this a business deal to you, Mr. Hotshot Model?”

Adrien glared at her. “I have no intention of backstabbing you.”

“Then let me in!” Kagami said.

“Unfortunately, that’s not up to my discretion” Adrien sniped back.

Kagami stared at his eyes now. “Oh I see. That explains everything.” Adrien was confused. “Alright. I’ll back off for now.”

“Wait!” Adrien called out. “What did you figure out?”

Kagami chuckled. “You’re protecting someone. You have a reason for getting this defensive.”

“How could you tell?” Adrien asked.

“Simple,” Kagami said. “You had the same look in your eyes that Chloe had when I confronted her. She’s protecting someone, and since you two grew up in such close quarters, I assume you two have picked up similar traits.”

Adrien smiled. “I see.”

“This also explains practice yesterday,” Kagami said. Adrien was confused further. Kagami smiled. “The first day, I had challenged your honor. That day, you had something to fight for, as you do now. But at practice yesterday, well, you were just practicing. You do better when you have something to fight for.”

“Huh” Adrien said. Kagami’s insight was really helpful here. Adrien smiled. “Thank you, Kagami.”

Kagami got embarrassed. “You’re-you’re welcome.” They stood there. Kagami then awkwardly left and said “Well, seeya!”

“Seeya later then” Adrien said, cheerfully. He walked back to the front of the school, as he was expecting his bodyguard to show up any minute now.

“Adrien!” Lila called out. Adrien turned around and waved. Lila rushed to him.

“Hey Lila. What’s up?” Adrien asked.

“I just wanna say, I thought about what you said,” Lila told him. “And you’re right. She’ll learn the truth eventually.”

It was said innocently enough, but Adrien looked into her eyes, like Kagami inadvertently taught him. He could sense the malice in them. Just what is she planning?

Lila looked back at Adrien. “Oh? Staring at my eyes? You know, I could get the wrong idea about that, you know?”

“What?” Adrien said. “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s OK,” Lila said. “I don’t mind.”

Adrien’s bodyguard pulled up. “Well, there’s my ride. I should get going. Seeya!”

“Bye!” Lila said.

Adrien got in the car, and it pulled off. Adrien thought to himself. Of course. Lila couldn’t have one what she did if she couldn’t catch people off-guard. This might be a bigger project than I had anticipated. He thought about what Nathalie said. I could use some parental guidance.

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 5011 Chapter: 31/42 Summary: Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. Some are fought at the conference table, with whispers in the shadows, or even in the bedroom.

In a world where the Senju and Uchiha traditional lands were too far apart to have ever made them enemies, Butsuma and Tajima are the ones who come together and sign a treaty of peace. Madara isn’t happy to have his life signed away for him in a political marriage to strengthen the bond between their clans. He is even less happy to have Tobirama make assumptions of him from their very first night together. What follows from there is a journey of healing, of learning, and finding the places to belong in the places least expected.

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Chapter 31

Tobirama had obviously just finished rinsing off the dishes from his lunch when Madara slammed in to the room, the walls of their house still echoing with how he had slammed the front door open as well. From the calm way his husband reached for a tea towel to dry his hands he must have felt Madara's chakra coming from halfway across the village. Surely anyone with even an iota of sensing capabilities had felt him as he made his way through the streets like an erupting volcano on the move, chakra boiling and spilling around him in a dark miasma of rage.

“I take it whatever meeting you were called to did not go well?” Tobirama asked. They were supposed to have eaten together for their lunch break, a lovely little date that Madara had been the one to set up for once, but plans were interrupted when a runner came to summon him back to the tower. It looked like the other had eaten without him.

“Fucking imbecile!”

“Mm. Not well at all.”

Tobirama’s eyes flickered away to the clock on the wall and Madara guessed he must be checking that there was enough time left of their lunch break to listen to the sort of rant they both knew was just waiting to burst forth. Just a little under twenty minutes was left until they should both be back at the office. Madara had checked. He had a temper, sure, but he wasn’t irresponsible with it. Mostly.

Before saying anything Madara first spent a couple of minutes stomping in circles around the table just to get some of his frustration out, snarling and blistering the air with language so strong it was a good thing Kagami had not chosen today for one of his spontaneous visits.  Over the years he’d learned this was a vital step so he didn’t turn such language on whoever he was venting to, not wanting to sound accusatory. When he finally stopped pacing he felt no calmer and desperately cast about for a way to feel so. He solved the problem by stomping over and shoving his face flat against Tobirama’s chest where he released a muffled scream against the warm, solid muscle of his husband’s pectorals.

“Feel better?” Tobirama asked dubiously when the scream was done.

“No.”

“Would you like to tell me what happened?”

“Your father is as terrible a man as mine is!”

Nodding slowly, Tobirama dared to point out, “That is not new information.”

“I knew he was an ass; I didn’t know he was this much of one! Can you honestly believe what he said to me!?” Madara huffed and ground his teeth with indignation until he was pulled up short by Tobirama’s answer.

“Until you tell me what he said I can’t believe anything really.”

Madara paused and took a deep breath. It didn’t help very much. He still felt as though he were on the verge of blasting steam out of both ears when he allowed himself to speak again. “Not only did he imply that pretty much anyone can do my job which means I’m not needed for them but he basically told me that I should be grateful to him for allowing me to focus on ‘less taxing responsibilities’. I’m going to kill him!”

Rather than defend his father – who they both knew did not warrant any defense – Tobirama mirrored his husband’s actions and took a deep breath in through his nose, letting it back out slowly through his mouth.

“Well, in answer to your question: no. I cannot believe he said that to you.”

“I’ve worked damn hard to improve the security teams! Their morale is up, their patrol patterns are tighter, I even worked out a schedule so no one ever has to stay on night duty for more than a couple of weeks at a time! Now he’s basically demoted me to a regular tower lackey and he says I should be grateful!?” Madara snorted and clenched his fists in a pantomime of strangling someone’s neck. “He even had the gall to tell me it would be better if I focused more on my duties as an heir! I know my own damn duties!”

He was gratified to see the clench of Tobirama’s jaw, a sign that he wasn’t overreacting to the situation. If Tobirama was angry enough for it to show visibly in any way at all then Madara knew the insult given him was serious enough to warrant his own rage.

“While I will freely admit that I was upset those projects were given to you in the first place I will also be the first to say that you have more than risen to whatever challenges such duties posed. You make an excellent lead for the security teams. I cannot fathom what he thinks to accomplish by removing you from them.” Tobirama’s brows knit together with a frustrated confusion Madara was not at all happy to clear up.

“Oh I can tell you why,” he spat. “He said, and I quote, that I should appreciate being relieved of such taxing work as I am clearly stretched too thin with all the projects I have taken on with you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Right? That’s what I said!”

Tobirama’s jaw clenched again. “Does he understand the irony that he is working towards the exact same goal as the man he’s trying to undermine with this asinine move?”

“Probably not! He doesn’t think! Neither of them think anymore! It’s like they signed their damn treaty and then threw any collective sense either of them had ever possessed out the window! Some days I can hardly believe my father is the same man pulling such idiotic stunts as he does – and now your father has decided to pitch in to the madness!?”

“No, you’re right. I don’t think either of them see a thing beyond the end of their own ambitions anymore. They built something that the world had never seen before and now they both want to rule over it uncontested.”

“They’re idiots!” Madara shouted.

He was startled to see a bit of humor flash across Tobirama’s face. “Utter fools.”

“Yes! And now their foolery has relegated me to little more than a lackey, a paper pusher. I barely pull any weight on the council now. Fuck, I’m no better than the Akimichi heir who falls asleep in almost every meeting!” The humor was gone immediately from Tobirama’s face and his husband reached out to pull him back in to a tight embrace.

“No. It won’t stand. Who else has little enough on their plate that they can take up all the work you do? Let him flex his authority if he must, this can’t last.”

Madara sighed tiredly as he felt all the energy and fight drain out of him. “But it can. All he has to do is split it up between a bunch of different people. He’ll probably promote that terrifying cousin of yours to my position if he thinks anything like Tajima does. My father accused him of trying to oust the Uchiha, if you’ll recall, and it seems Butsuma has finally decided to retaliate. By doing exactly what he was accused of, I might add!”

The chest he was buried in once more heaved with a sigh to match his own.

“I am so rarely optimistic, anata, will you not let me have just this once?”

“Fine. Oh yay. Gee I can’t wait to be reinstated when Butsuma magically stops being an asshole.”

“Much better. An excellent mood to go back to work with, I’m sure.” Tobirama didn’t exactly sound in high spirits himself but Madara appreciated having the tension broken even if he wasn’t actually ready to be positive.

“I’ll show you high spirits,” he grumbled.

There wasn’t much time left before they needed to leave, barely a few minutes, but no matter how much Madara wanted to spend it cuddling Tobirama insisted that he find something to eat while he had the chance. Seeing as they were meant to attend Hashirama's for dinner that evening Madara did have to agree that it was safest not to leave his stomach too empty. It was always a gamble eating with Hashirama and Mito, their tastes being so varied. One never knew if the meal would be a wonderfully prepared delicacy or some monstrosity they discovered at the market and just had to try. Madara lived in fear of the day they discovered that durian fruits existed.

He returned to the office when break time was over with a full belly and slightly lowered blood pressure, though not by much. Never had he been so thankful of his own habit to bring his paperwork up to Tajima’s office before noon. After the day he’d had he wasn’t sure he had the energy left to deal with his own father’s cold attitude and he definitely did not want to be the one who broke the news that Butsuma demoted the heir of the Uchiha clan without even discussing the matter between them. That was not going to be a pretty conversation, although he didn’t want to get his hopes up that anything good would come back to him after those two idiots went through their latest blow out.

Since most of the work waiting on his desk pertained to projects he was supposedly no longer involved with Madara found a petty sort of satisfaction in dropping the massive stack of folders and scrolls on the floor to be dealt with by someone else and turned his attention to more simple administrative matters, things he had been doing since the governing body was first set up and they had all accepted basic duties. Hashirama gave him a questioning look but he was easy enough to distract with questions about dinner tonight.

For the rest of the day whenever someone brought Madara some of the things he should have been working on he cheerfully directed them to the growing pile of work on the floor. In the farfetched event he was actually allowed to continue the duties that were rightfully his it was likely he would regret ignoring them all day but that was a problem for the future, not to be considered right now.

No matter how wide he pulled the smirk across his face, however, it did nothing to lessen the stinging anger of rejection, the hot ball of betrayal for having something he cared about taken away from him without any real reason. Pretending everything was fine wouldn’t fix anything but it was the only way he knew how to deal with such emotions so he forged onward with a grim smile baring his teeth. And he smothered the tiny voice in the back of his mind that told him maybe it would be better if he took the time to work through what he was feeling sooner rather than later. The voice sounded suspiciously like Hashirama anyway and when did that oaf ever have anything smart to say?

Rather than take out his repressed emotions on the most convenient victim, Madara somehow managed to keep all of the insults against Hashirama to himself until his friend returned from dropping off documents to Butsuma. They wandered downstairs together to drag Tobirama out of his office and found Mito waiting for them just outside the building. Madara had only just opened his mouth to let loose at last and make fun of how many times today Hashirama had knocked over his pencil cup when their attention was called back by an unwanted voice.

Butsuma rather noticeably did not look Madara in the eye as he approached, though there was something about the tightness around his mouth that said he was holding back some sort of expression trying to form. Whether that was a smirk or a frown Madara didn’t know. Surprisingly, the man headed directly for his second son.

“Word arrived from the Daimyo this afternoon,” he announced. “His eminence regrets that he was too distracted to thank you and your mission partner properly after the two of you managed to uncover a coup being planned right under his nose.”

“None of us do this for acknowledgement,” Tobirama responded dutifully. The way he spoke gave Madara the impression he was only saying what was expected of him.

“As any shinobi should say. However, his eminence wishes to give his thanks personally as well as an apology for so rudely sending you away while you were injured. He has extended an invitation for you and Izuna to stay with him and attend a proper celebration of your deeds.” If he puffed his chest out any farther Butsuma may have been in danger of sprouting actual feathers to preen, clearly pleased with himself as though he had anything to do with the matter.

Ignoring the way Hashirama tried to thump him on the back in congratulations, Tobirama simply nodded and asked, “When is he expecting us?”

“You are to leave in four days and arrive on the fifth.” Again Tobirama nodded and Madara mentally crossed his fingers that the man would go now so he could begin soaking up as much of Tobirama’s attention as he could to make up for the time they would be apart. Of course, because that was just his luck today, Butsuma had to open his mouth again. “Unfortunately it seems Izuna will be much too busy to attend at the capital. He does, after all, have some incredibly important duties on his hands nowadays. I had thought it would be good if you took your husband along with you to stand in Izuna’s stead.”

That, at least, explained what Madara now recognized as a repressed smirk. It was little more than a miracle that he recognized anything beyond the haze of anger that fell over his eyes and suddenly it became very difficult to smother the instinctual urge to activate his Sharingan.

His temper only worsened when finally Butsuma’s gaze slid over to lock with his own and he could see the light of satisfaction dancing in those beady little eyes. Never in his life had he wanted so badly to punch someone. And considering the swift and vicious nature of his temper Madara really thought that should say something, both for the amount of anger he was controlling and the strength he was demonstrating in not actually throwing any punches.

“Your generosity knows no bounds, father,” Tobirama’s dry tone broke through his reveries and Madara turned to give his husband an incredulous look until he continued. “We never did get a honeymoon. It’s very kind of you to allow for one now. Since Madara's duties have been lightened perhaps we’ll set off a day earlier and take our time on the journey.”

Butsuma’s left eyes twitched. It was the most beautiful thing Madara had seen all day. He’d thought watching his own father’s plans get turned back on him time and again was fun but those incidents had nothing on the petty satisfaction of seeing Butsuma experience the same thing and knowing he couldn’t contradict his son without Hashirama and Mito asking questions. Indeed, Hashirama was already cooing over the idea while Mito granted them both indulgent smiles. Neither of them seemed to notice the tension between the three men all staring each other down with poison in their eyes and their faces held in masks of civility.

“Please send word to the Daimyo that we will of course accept his invitation. If Izuna cannot pull himself away from his work for a day or so to attend to his eminence then we will be happy to do so together. Thank you for letting us know, father, I will use the rest of this week to prepare for my own absence.”

“Right,” Butsuma mumbled. “Be sure that nothing falls behind while you are gone.”

“That goes without saying. Now, if you will excuse us. Good evening.”

Not another word was spoken as Tobirama gently and skillfully guided all members of their group off down the street while somehow also distracting his brother from the fact that their father’s cheeks were turning purple.

Madara wasn’t sure how his husband managed it but within a couple of minutes he had Hashirama and Mito walking several feet ahead of them engaged in conversation about what they had both gotten up to that day, neither looking back to see why their intended guests were lagging behind. Honestly, however, he didn’t care very much about the how when it gave him a few moments to just breathe and cling to the hand that slipped down to capture his own in a bracing grip.

“I’ll kill him,” he whispered.

“Anata…”

“No I mean it, I’m really going to kill him. How dare he?”

“To be honest I don’t blame you. It’s bad enough to remove you from the things you’re good at but to send you away without warning just because–”

“No!” Madara almost felt bad for cutting his husband off but he was just so angry he couldn’t contain himself. “How dare he compare me to Izuna? How dare he imply that Izuna’s work is more important than my own? We perform wildly different functions! I don’t- UGH!”

He’d never so badly wanted to know how the hiraishin worked because right then he would have very much enjoyed the ability to just disappear without a trace. Sometimes the Body Flicker just couldn’t take him far enough. Thankfully he was blessed with the calm rock that was Tobirama, who said nothing about having his fingers squeezed so tight they could both feel their bones grinding together.

“I didn’t think of that but you’re right. It was unfair of him to do that. Crafty as well, though I can’t say for sure whether it was his intention to sow discourse between the two of you.”

“Well I don’t care what his intentions were! That was unfair! And terrible! I am not my brother and my brother is not me and we don’t do the same job so you really can’t compare how important either of us is – and maybe if he didn’t take my fucking job away from me then I wouldn’t be so ‘unimportant’! He can go straight to hell!” Madara snapped his jaw shut when he noticed his voice beginning to rise. They were still in public and no matter what people thought he did understand public decency.

After allowing him a moment to calm himself Tobirama looked around, the corners of his mouth tightening to see the street they were on was still quite busy. “If you would prefer not to be in company right now I can make our excuses to Anija.”

“It’s fine. We’ll make him listen to me bitching too. He deserves it.”

“Mm and what did he do to deserve such an honor?”

“He’s always so bloody happy!” Madara cried, indignant. “It’s not fair! Why can’t I be that happy all the time?”

It wasn’t until they had gone several more steps in silence that he realized there was anything amiss. When he turned to say something else he noticed Tobirama’s face was pulled in to a pensive expression, almost hesitant as he opened his own mouth, words slow and clearly very carefully worded.

“Are you unhappy most days?”

“What? Oh. No, no that’s not- I didn’t mean that. I meant- fuck’s sake every time I think ‘yeah this is good, I’m happy’ one of our fathers does something to kick us down again. I swear sometimes they can smell when we’re happy and they deliberately swoop in to ruin it. I hate them. I hate both of them. They’re old codgy bastards and they need to be retired. By force.” Madara scowled down at the ground in front of them, even angrier than before but now it was at himself for almost giving the impression that he was unhappy after both of them had been trying so hard to build what they had between them.

Tobirama seemed to understand at least, the pensive look slipping away and leaving sympathy in those pretty red eyes. Neither of them said much more for the rest of their walk to Hashirama's house. Madara distracted himself for a while thinking about how good he’d gotten at reading his husband’s expressions. The man wasn’t really much more expressive than he ever had been, still the same blank looking face on most occasions, but it had gotten easier to interpret the micro-changes and even the smallest quirk of his lips became a smile in Madara’ eyes, a certain shine became amusement. It was a testament to how close they’d become and thinking about their relationship did help keep his temper reigned in for now as he kept his concentration on happier things.

When they were only a couple of streets away from his house Hashirama finally turned and blinked behind himself as though only just remembering they were there too. As soon as he spotted them his face broke out in a sunshine smile that only served to reawaken Madara's annoyance.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you two! Mito was just telling me all about her day and it sounded so lovely!”

“Bully for you,” Madara called back. “Not all of us had lovely days!”

Hashirama all but ground his heels in to the dirt, screeching to a halt so he could wait for them to catch up with him and Mito. “Did you have a bad day Madara? Why didn’t you tell me! I would have cheered you up!” At his side, Mito shook her head.

“You were right there when Butsuma-sama told him in so many words that his brother was more vital to this village than he is. Would that make you feel good if he said it to you?”

“Well…I would be proud of my brother?” Hashirama tried. He winced when all three of them gave his sharp looks.

“Obviously I’m proud of my brother,” Madara snapped. “But it’s shitty to compare us against each other as if that means anything. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Its- its- he’s not unimportant but I’m important too, damn it, and your stupid father can’t just take that away from me and laugh in my face about it!”

Eyes wide, Hashirama wilted. “Oh. Yeah. That wouldn’t feel good at all. Wait, what did he take away from you?”

Barely able to contain himself, Madara was almost grateful for the white hand that slapped itself over his mouth as Tobirama very carefully cleared his throat and suggested perhaps they should all go inside to discuss this. That was probably best. If any other words came out of him at that moment they would have been very loud and not at all tasteful. Biting his tongue until he was sure the indents would stay for weeks, Madara stomped off with the rest while they all quietly made the rest of the journey to Hashirama's home.

The moment the door was closed between them and the rest of the world it was like all restraints fell away and Madara stood in the genkan for fifteen minutes shouting to his heart’s content. Sometime during the flood of words Mito and Tobirama slipped away to prepare tea so by the time his words ran out and Hashirama led him in to the living room there was a steaming cup waiting for him next to where Tobirama sat on one half of a spectacularly ugly loveseat. Madara had enough kindness in him to wait until the man didn’t have a cup up near his face before flopping gracelessly down next to his husband and snatching up his own tea.

“I can’t believe he did that.” Hashirama shook his head.

“Can’t you?” Mito asked with sharp words. If he were feeling more himself Madara would have been surprised she had said anything that might even remotely be considered in support of him. They still hadn’t really warmed up to each other even after all this time.

“Well…okay yes, I suppose I can believe it of him.” Ignoring his tea, Hashirama rubbed tiredly at the bridge of his nose. “Some days it’s hard to reconcile the man he’s become with the man who raised us.”

Although Tobirama remained silent Madara was sure he felt the weight of both himself and Mito staring, waiting for his contradiction. It never came and yet they could still see it in his eyes. Butsuma had raised one son, buried two, and forgotten the one he deemed to not require his attention. As much as Hashirama wanted to love the man there had never truly been a father to love in him.

Madara scowled down in to his cup. He almost wished he could say the same of his own. Would it have been better to lose the affection he once so cherished or to never have it at all and feel no loss?

“I’m surprised you’re as calm as you are about all this,” Mito said but when he raised his head he saw that she was speaking to Tobirama, who only hummed and sipped his tea.

“Plotting a murder should never be done loudly.”

She granted him a gentle smile that should absolutely not look so deadly and then lifted one eyebrow. “I agree that silence is golden but I would have expected you to be a little more vocal now that we’re all alone. You did not go without insult yourself, my dear.”

“Your concern is appreciated but I’m fine,” Tobirama deflected while Madara blinked rapidly, trying to remember if Butsuma had said anything bad that he might have missed.

“Calling Izuna’s work too important to set down is an insult to both of you,” she pointed out. “You work more than the rest of us put together some days and he can send you away without a thought but not Izuna? One might begin to think he had changed his mind and decided to support the Uchiha above his own clan.”

“And I’m sure that when he realizes that he’ll be foaming at the mouth with disappointment for himself.” Tobirama shrugged it off as no big deal while Madara did his best to sink in to his own cushion and disappear.

In his anger he hadn’t even realized it but Mito was right. Of course Butsuma would think to send him off now that he apparently had nothing important to do but to pull Tobirama away from the hundred and one projects he always seemed to have a hand in? Any shinobi worth their salt was used to picking up and leaving on short notice if the mission was important enough but an invitation from the Daimyo wasn’t something that came on short notice. Invitations to the capitol were just as full of pomp and ridiculousness as its inhabitants. The Daimyo would have sent word more than a week in advance, which meant that Butsuma had deliberately been sitting on it all this time and just waiting to make his move. It was a miracle he hadn’t waited until the day before if that was his game.

What kind of man, he wondered, would throw his own son under the bus just to toss a petty insult in someone else’s face? Now Madara found himself faced with a new dilemma. He couldn’t decide if he was angrier on his own behalf or on Tobirama’s as the full scope of Butsuma’s idiocy sank in.

His husband must have noticed his stricken look, murmuring quietly from one side of his mouth.

“You were preoccupied and with good reason. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Madara told him just as quietly. “Would you like help planning his murder?”

Tobirama’s quicksilver smile was there and gone in an instant and that was all the answer he needed. He could be a tad blind in his anger but clearly Tobirama understood.

“Guys, please stop whispering. You’re making me really nervous.” When he looked up Madara saw that his best friend was wringing both hands anxiously, clearly not able to hear what they were saying but still under the impression that they were indeed plotting a murder. He knew them both so well.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Madara replied petulantly.

“I didn’t! I asked!”

“Semantics.” Delicately lifting the teacup he had almost forgotten about, Madara sipped at the drink before it could go cold and listened to Hashirama whining at him without any outward reaction.

Finally having the chance to yell everything out of system when he came in the home, Madara found that he really didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Chewing over the issue wouldn’t change anything and listening to Hashirama's sympathetic murmurs would only keep him concentrated on feeling down. Distracting the man was as easy now as it had been in the office. With only one sentence wondering about some gossip he’s overheard yesterday he had Hashirama off on a tangent chasing this new topic and although he could tell he hadn’t fooled either Tobirama or Mito he was grateful that both of them let the subject drop as well.

It was a relief to let the mood around him lighten. Madara was happy enough to join the conversation at times but for the most part he tried not to be obvious about leaning in to his husband for a bit of comfort. More and more as the months went by it was starting to feel like their lives were ever-changing in way they shouldn’t be and he realized he was coming to rely on Tobirama as one of the only constants he had left.

When he felt a pale hand slip in to his own for a brief squeeze and then slipping away before anyone could notice their PDA Madara bit his lip. It wasn’t all bad. If all he had left in the world was Tobirama then he was doing alright, he thought.

[deathbymeow]

For You, I’d Die.  Chapter: 4. Shots

Adrien walked into the club, nodding at the bouncer at the door. He never had a problem getting into places, everyone new his name. It could be a curse just as much as a blessing sometimes. When everyone knew your name there was no privacy and everyone expected something from you.

She was the first thing he saw as he climbed the stairs towards the VIP lounge. No matter how hard he tried he was always drawn to her. He could find her in a crowed without even trying. It didn’t matter if he was transformed as Chat or if she was in her spotted ladybug suit. She was his compass guiding him home and he would always be hers even if she didn’t know it.  

Her black hair was out and fell down her back curling on the ends. Thigh high black boots that should be illegal showed just a hint of her toned legs, until Alya spun her around and Adrien caught an accidental peek at her black lacey panties. If he wasn’t already dead, he would be in a second as Alya let go of Marinette, who spun laughing into his arms.

Marinette looked up at him with some seriously sexy kitten eyes. Yep, dead. He was memorized by the way the flashing light seemed to make the blue of her eyes look like the sparkling sea. A surprised pout formed on her pink lips and she blinked her long lashes a few times before bopping him on the nose giggling.

“Adrien… you made it.” She breathed, smiling up at him, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hey, Marinette. You look amazing, like always.” He hugged her back, just a second longer than he would anyone else.

Adrien held her at arm’s length to get the full effect of her outfit. The high waisted black skirt had small pleats, giving it the movement that allowed it to lift. Her long sleave top was made of tight black lace, showing off her perfectly toned body. The lace was see-through enough to show a hint of her lime green bra. If that wasn’t enough to kill him for the second time, what he saw next surely would. Around her neck a little gold bell hung off a satin ribbon. He instantly recognized it as the present he’d given ladybug on her eighteenth.

Adrien lightly flicked it and his sensitive ears heard the soft ding over the loud music. He could see her shiver as his fingers skimmed the soft skin under the bell and he intentionally let his fingers linger against her warm skin. He traced them along her neck and up to her cheek, brushing a wild strand of hair behind her ear. His thumb skimmed over her miraculous and he smiled as a soft blush formed on her cheeks.  

“Dance with me Agreste.” She said, sounding breathless. He nodded as she pulled him onto the dance floor.

One thing he was yet to learn, was how to say no to her so without hesitation he took off his leather jacket and threw it on the nearest lounge. Completely forgetting about the little black kwami snuggled in his pocket.

The music faded momentarily, and Nino was introduced by a deep voice. A loud cheer rung out from the packed club and Nino started his set with one of his original songs. When the bass dropped the crowd went wild, but Adrien was only focused on the dancing girl in front of him that was intent on torturing him. She danced against him, throwing her hands in the air and closing her mischievous eyes. The wicked smile on her lips gave him the feeling she knew exactly what she was doing.

Alya grabbed the bartender and yelled, “Get this boy a drink. He’s going to need it when my girls finished with him.” The bartender watched Marinette and Adrien for a moment then smirked and nodded in agreement.

Marinette knew how to move her body and tonight she wasn’t holding back. It wasn’t news to Adrien, but normally it was Luka that got all of her attention. He knew there was something going on between the couple. Marinette had taken two weeks off work much to his father’s disapproval. She’d ignored all of his texts and calls. He was worried about her and wanted to talk but now wasn’t the time.

He was slightly confused by all of her attention, but figured it was best focused on him than some of the other creeps in here that would use her vulnerability to their advantage.

The bartender returned and put their drinks on the table.  He gave Adrien the thumbs up and disappeared back into the crowd. Adrien grabbed Marinette’s hand and lead the still dancing beauty to the table.

“I’ve been worried about you.” Adrien half yelled next to her ear so she could hear over the music.

Marinette turned to him and softly smiled. “You shouldn’t be Agreste. I’m fine.” She winked at him and took a sip of his drink.

“Somehow Marinette, I don’t believe you, but I’m not going to push. Just know I’m here if you need me.” He kissed her on the top of the head, and she wrapped her arms around him.

“You’re too cute Agreste and god you smell good.” She mumbles into his shirt. Adrien chuckled; he knew he wasn’t meant to hear that but having the cat miraculous for ten year had its perks. One of them being extremely good hearing.

Alya startled the two when she slapped the table and yelled. “Let’s do shots.” As if on cue a heavily remixed version of Shots started to play.

“Ugh, I hate this song Nino.” Kim whined behind them. “But I’m in for shots Al.”

“You sure that’s a good idea Al?” Adrien asked pointing to an unaware Marinette who was still cuddling him.

Marinette loosened her hold on him and look up at him pouting. “You afraid Agreste?” She playfully stuck her tongue out at him and poked his chest.

“Me? Hmph never.” Adrien gave her one of his model smiles and flagged down the bartender.

Adrien was afraid though. Afraid of losing himself in her blue eyes. Afraid of telling her how he really felt. Afraid of forgetting his morels and trying to kiss her even though she was with Luka.

He hadn’t been in a long-term relationship since Kagami. There had been other girls but no one he really cared about. They always made him feel like they wanted something from him. Whether it was his money or fame he didn’t know or care.

He’d never fully got over his feelings for Ladybug and no matter who he was with it always hung over him like a storm cloud. A constant reminder that she wasn’t his. Ladybug had a boyfriend and was happy, so in turn he was happy for her. That was how love worked right?

There was only one girl that managed to change that.

He’d always been good friends with Marinette, but for some reason she’d always held back with him. He saw how carefree she was with everyone else, but he never got that from her. Until a few years ago when she started to intern for his father’s fashion house.

Marinette was halfway through her fashion degree. Luka had just left to tour with his band and Adrien somehow became her shoulder to cry on. The two spent almost every day together and he found himself falling hard for yet another girl he couldn’t have.

Finally, he got to see the carefree Marinette with all her adorable little quirks. At first it felt strangle familiar and then it started to all fit together. The day she bopped him on the nose then folded her arms confidently over her chest while calling him “silly Agreste” was the final piece to the puzzle.

Marinette was Ladybug and Ladybug was Marinette.

He’d fallen for both of them, at different times and years apart. He felt like the biggest idiot. All this time she’d been right under his nose. Literally, he was at least a foot taller than her.

Torn, he decided not to tell her in fear that he could lose her as a friend if she found out who he was. He would never come between Marinette and Luka. If friendship was all he could ever have with her, then he’d have to be content with that. As long as she was in his life that was all that mattered.

The bartender put a tray of shot glasses all filled with different coloured shots on the table in front of them, bringing Adrien back to reality.

Adrien ran one of his hands through his hair, trying to clear his head. Marinette was dancing provocatively in front of him with Alya.

“Shots it is then.” He said lifting the glass to his lips.

The rest of Adrien’s night was a blur of drinks, blue eyes, more drinks, laughter, even more drinks, dancing and way too much physical interaction with Mari. Not that he was complaining, but he was definitely going to need a cold shower when he got home.

At some point Nino finished his set and joined them. They continued to dance and drink until the music momentarily faded. The DJs voice rung out through the club. “This was a request from one of you, sassy things out there,” he pointed into the dancing crowd, “for the beautiful Marinette Dupain-Cheng in our VIP lounge. It’s safe to say, we can thank her for the slick new tunes from Four-sided Tragedy.” The music started to play again, and the crowd went wild.

A few people turned to look at her as “I’m going under and this time I feel there’s no one to save me. This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy,” played throughout the club.

Adrien felt Marinette tense against him. Her glass dropped out of her hand and shattered around their feet. Alya was instantly by her side, wrapping her arms around a shocked Marinette.

“Oh my god, there’s a remix already. Mari honey, are you Ok? Do you want to go?” Alya asked holding her face.

“What the actual fuck?” Nino yelled, looking around furiously.

“No… Yes… What do I do, Al?” Marinette looked shattered and it killed Adrien.

Adrien clenched his fists; he could feel his temper rising and his impulsive thinking took over. He grabbed his jacket and the girl’s bags, passing the bags to Alya and put his jacket over Marinette’s shoulders.

“Nino get Kim and Ivan to take the girls out the front with you. I just have to do something.”

Before anyone could stop him, he took off down the stairs, taking two at a time. He pushed his way through the crowd to the stage where the smug DJ was playing his set. Going around the back he snuck onto the stage before anyone noticed.

Adrien grabbed the DJ and slammed him against one of the speakers. “Who the fuck requested the song?”

“Whoa… Adrien Agreste?” The DJ smiled raising his hands in surrender.

“Don’t test me. Who was it?” Adrien growled, pressing his arm firmly across the DJs chest.

“I don’t know. Just some girl.” The DJ said smugly.

Adrien let him go and took a step back. “You’re pathetic.” He turned to leave.

“Hey Agreste. So, I guess we have you to thank for the song too. I hear she’s a great fuck.”

Adrien saw red. He turned and before the DJ had time to react Adrien’s fist connected with his nose sending him stumbling into the sound board. Blood started to pour from his nose, but Adrien didn’t care, he went to punch him again, but Nino and a bouncer grabbed him and dragged him off the stage.

“What the fuck Nino. Did you hear what he said. You should’ve let me give him the beating his punk ass deserved.” Adrien yelled still struggling against the hands that were holding him.

“Adrien there’s press here. We have to go. The girls are waiting around the corner but if the press find them…” Nino didn’t have to finish Adrien stopped struggling.

“I’m good. I’m good!” Adrien raised his hands. The bouncer let him go grumbling something under his breath about the youths of today.

Adrien and Nino took off towards the exit pushing their way through the dancing crowd. Even with a busted nose the smartass DJ managed to change the song to Apologize and as they walked out, he heard the lyrics “It’s too late to apologize, I said it’s too late to apologize,” being played over and over.

They found the girls with Ivan and Kim where Nino had left them. Adrien wrapped his arms around Marinette. She snuggled against his chest. “You Ok?” He asked suddenly feeling guilty for leaving her.

“Mm hmm. I just wanna get out of here. Can I go back to your place, I don’t want to go home?” She asked looking up at him with those damn eyes.

“Sure.” He answered with out really thinking about it, but it wasn’t like he would’ve said no to her anyway.

“Adrien do you really think that’s a good idea. She should come home with me.” Alya offered.

“Hello I’m still here. Alya you don’t have to babysit me. I’m good. Go have fun with Nino, don’t let me ruin your night.”

“Are you sure Mari? I really don’t mind.” Alya looked at Marinette, clearly worried.

“Hey guys, we don’t have time to for this. The press is heading this way.” Nino said, looking over his shoulder.

“Shit… Shit. Adrien, you better take good care of her, or you’ll have me to answer too.” Alya gave Marinette a kiss and her bag then nudged the two towards to road. “Quick grab that taxi.”

Adrien grabbed Marinette’s hand, he looked down at her and she nodded. “Don’t worry Al. You know I will.” He yelled over his shoulder as the two ran towards the taxi. His sensitive hearing heard her reply as they jumped into the taxi.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about Agreste.”

Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

[darkisucksanditwrites]

Focusing

Happy 11.10! :D 

No one noticed the blue haired boy in a Seirin uniform slip back into the locker room at the stadium.

Kagami noticed though and stirred, but didn’t turn around when the door clicked shut behind him.

“Kagami-kun, the team is waiting.”

“Yeah. Give me a minute.”

Three years later and it still wouldn’t stop amazing Kuroko how Kagami learned to ‘sense’ his presence and become more and more immune to his ‘sneaking act’ as he so kindly put it all those years ago.

More than that, Kuroko figured that giving Kagami a mild heart attack before their last game in high school wouldn’t be a good idea.

Tetsuya bit his lip.

Last game.

It was finally happening.

Kagami stood with his hands on his hips, looking up at their display case full of various basketball trophies they acquired over the years.  When Kagami and Kuroko joined Seirin it was more than modest, but now? Now it was full.

Kuroko approached their ace and stood beside him, not speaking but waiting.

“Hey.” Kagami pointed a finger at one of the trophies. “You remember that one, right?”

Kuroko looked to the mentioned cup and smiled.

“Of course. Our first won Inter High.”

Kagami grinned.

“And that one?”

“Second Winter Cup. Second place.”

Taiga hummed.

“That one was from the international junior competition, right?”

Kuroko nodded.

“Yes.”

Taiga nodded back, not looking at Kuroko. He looked lost in thoughts. He then stopped his wandering gaze on one particular piece and smiled fondly.

Kuroko didn’t need to look to know which one he looked at but he did anyway and felt the same familiar fondness and nostalgia as well as a bit of sadness Kagami must have been feeling as well.

They could have stand here for longer, immersed in their own thoughts of the years spend together playing, winning, loosing, bonding. But Kuroko knew now it wasn’t the time for it.

“The team-“ He stopped when he felt something grab his hand.

He looked down and saw Kagami clutch at his fingers.

His hand was shaking.

“Are you nervous?”

“Yeah.” Taiga replied sincerely. “I am.”

Kuroko sighed, grabbed his hand and squeezed back.

“We practiced as much as we could, we did whatever we could. Now we only need to trust each-“

“I am not nervous about that.” Kagami interrupted.

Kuroko waited patiently for Kagami to continue.

“I am more than certain that we will win.”

Kagami’s optimism and faith in him (in everyone) always seemed to knock the breath out o him.

“Then what?” He said quietly, squeezing his hand.

Taiga took some time to gather this thoughts and reply.

“The thing…after.” He said finally meeting Kuroko’s eyes for the first time since he entered the locker room.

“College? I’m sure you will get into one without any problems.”

Taiga shook his head.

“I mean. This.” He said and for emphasis squeezed Kuroko’s hand. Tetsuya’s cheeks felt warm and he swallowed.

“What about…it?”

Taiga rubbed the back of Kuroko’s palm with his thumb, thinking. His eyebrows were furrowed and he looked serious. Kuroko felt his stomach jump when he looked at him and when he opened his mouth, he covered it with his free hand.

“Wait.” He said and licked his lips. “Whatever you want to say…please leave it for after the game.”

Kagami frowned.

“Because you don’t want to hear it?” He pried Kuroko’s hand from his mouth.

Kuroko shook his head.

“Because I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else, and we do need to focus, captain.”

Taiga blinked and burst out laughing.

“You’re right.” He said and pulled Kuroko closer his hands letting go of Kuroko’s palms and diving into his soft hair, tilting his head and kissing him deeply.

Kuroko didn’t protest, but his toes did and he had to break the kiss, when his legs started shaking. Unfortunately for him, Kagami still grew a few inches while Kuroko stayed the same height. And sometimes it still frustrated Tetsuya.

Kuroko licked his lips.

“What was that?” He asked while Kagami was caressing his cheek fondly. “Please save that after we win.”

Kagami grinned.

“It was for good luck.”

“Oh? I thought you were more than certain that we will win.” Kuroko teased by quoting Kagami.

Kagami didn’t catch the bait this time.

“Eh, it’s always better to be prepared right?”

“Maybe.” Kuroko hummed enjoying the affection, but knowing they should hurry. “Taiga-kun, please. Furihata-kun will come searching for us any moment. Or someone from the first years. Do you want to traumatize them?”

Kagami snorted and let go of Kuroko.

“Fine, fine. Just. One more thing.”

“What-oh.” Kuroko stopped when Kagami grabbed both his hands again and lifted them up to his face.

He dropped a kiss to each of his wrists, nuzzling there for a brief moment and then pressing Kuroko’s palms to his face. Or rather hiding in them. He only did it a couple of times before and each time it was a moment where Kagami felt particularly venerable.

This time though…Kuroko felt that it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Okay. I’m ready.” He said and let go of Kuroko. He inhaled, closed his eyes and when he opened them there was fire in them.

“Let’s go kick Aomine’s ass. Again.”

Kuroko smiled back, his heart suddenly racing as if he was running around the court for the past twenty minutes.

“Kagami-kun.”

Taiga looked at the boy next to him and when he saw the raised fist, he gave him such a smile Kuroko was afraid he was going to get kissed again.

But Taiga was thoroughly focused on the game now and he only lifted his own hand and touched his knuckles to Kuroko’s.

“Yeah.”

Kuroko nursed his glass of cola and slumped heavily against Kagami’s warm side.

He hides his smile behind the glass when he feels the taller player’s hand slip subtly around his waist and press him a bit more snug to him.

No one seems to care at their indulgence in some well-deserved PDA. The rest of the team is loud and boisterous, somehow still having energy to play boardgames and argue over the match they just played.

Kuroko’s eyes slide over all his teammates and friends, the older and newer, thinking back himself to just a few hours ago and being grateful, not only for their support but for them just…being.

Despite that overwhelming fondness for his team he also feels the lingering fatigue in his whole body and soul. He played as hard as he could, he has no regrets but he’s just so tired.

He wants to indulge himself even more, be able to rest his head on Kagami’s shoulder and feel his arms around him.

He just wants to sleep. For a week.

But life isn’t so easy. First there was the ceremony, then they had to survive the onslaught of hysterical and enthusiastic parents.

And now, the party.

Kuroko’s eyes are at half mast, he’s ready to just call it a day and go crash, leaving Seirin in capable hands of their new members, but he still has duties as the vice-captain.  

He wills himself to sit a bit straighter and finishes his drink, hoping it will help him stay a bit more awake. At least for twenty more minutes.

Kuroko glances at the clock. It’s almost midnight. They should end it.

But there is something comfortable in that form of lethargy. He knows he will always be a part of this team, but tomorrow…tomorrow everything will change.

Tomorrow he will have to start thinking about the future.

And that’s a little terrifying.

Tetsuya suddenly blinks awake.

He remembers Kagami’s words from the locker room.

Kuroko licks his lips and nudges Kagami who looks as if he’s about to fall into the arms of Morpheus himself.

“Kagami-kun?”

“Hn, yeah?”

“You…wanted to tell me something. In the locker room?” He specifies when he sees no traces of understanding in deep, red eyes.

Taiga blinks and then straightens, suddenly awake.

He finishes his own juice and stands up from the floor where they both were sitting around his coffee table.

“Come on.” He says quietly.

Kuroko’s intrigued and stands up as well, following Kagami quietly out of his living room and into his bedroom.

No one probably noticed them leaving, but Kuroko closes the door anyway.

When he does it, he suddenly feels his heart give a wild beat in his chest for some reason.

He’s nervous?

He reaches to the light switch, but Kagami grabs his hand before it can reach and pulls him closer.

Kuroko is confused for a moment, because he was so sleepy, but he understood when he saw the blush on Kagami’s face. The room is illuminated by the street lamps and the reflected moonlight and Kuroko always liked how it made everything look so soft and dreamy here.

Kagami is quiet for a moment and Kuroko wants to prompt him, but then he reaches into his jeans pocket with his free hand and brings out something which glints metallic in the light.

Kuroko doesn’t know what it is because it suddenly disappears in Kagami’s hand, but then he doesn’t need to see it when it’s placed into his own palm and he recognizes the hard edges of Kagami’s home key digging lightly into his palm.

Kuroko’s eyes widen and his mouth drops a little open. He’s actually speechless. Whatever he could say would just spoil the moment so instead of that he pulls Kagami down and kisses him like he wanted the moment he heard the sound of the buzzer.

Kagami kisses back but then pulls away and laughs.

“I take it as a yes.”

Kuroko rolls his eyes but smiles into another kiss. The worries about the future he carried with himself for the past six months have settled down suddenly. They’re still there, but he suddenly feels brave enough to take a peek at them.

Tomorrow.

For now, he just wants to relish in this.

Not for long though.

Kagami’s bedroom doesn’t have a lock and the doors swing open when Kagami’s hand is on Kuroko’s butt and Kuroko’s hands are sliding over Kagami’s back under his shirt making him purr.

They’re not about to go any further when there are people present, but Kuroko feels like they deserve this.

Still, it isn’t something Furihata has been prepared to walk on.

“Hey, Kagami where do you keep-OH MY GOD.”

Kuroko jumps in Kagami’s arms when the door slams shut and they stare at each other for five seconds before Taiga bursts out laughing, his booming voice carrying over the walls.

“Kagami-kun that’s rude.” Kuroko reprimands but his mouth is stretched in a smile.

“He should have known better.” Taiga snorts, looks at Kuroko and dives in for another kiss, this time short and playful.

“I’ll go see what he wants.”

Kuroko nods and lets Kagami go, slightly regretfully and watches him leave his room, leaving the door open.

Kuroko notices that the clock on Kagami’s bedside table shows 00:12 and the voices in the living room are still loud and cheerful. If not a little scandalized.

And the key in his hand is warm.

[quantumchickpea]

Short Fic prompts #50 asked by disneyjackie

Number 50: Going Through a Divorce au

(Spin it to where they start over and work it out after some craziness.)

Marinette stormed up to Adrien, who was busy talking to a model at the biggest fashion show in Milan for Fashion Week. She had just got done helping another model get into an extravagant gown when she had saw him.

It had been months since they had gotten divorced. Her brand was taking off and she had been invited to go to the biggest fashion event of the year. She had been ecstatic, but scared that she would run into him. It made her angry, upset, and happy all at the same time. She had spent the last few months angry at him for what he had done. Angry at what she had done. Angry at everything that had happened between them. But she still cried every night that her bed felt empty, lonely. How her heart was broken. How her apartment was three sizes too big without him. How cold the nights were without his warm body beside her. Loving her. Whispering about how pretty she was.

“Excuse me…” She gave the pretty model, who was busy flirting with her ex-husband, a fake smile and pushed an irritated Adrien by his woven button down shirt to an area that was mostly empty of people. Adrien sighed as he let her push him off to the side. He glared down at her with his arms crossed over his chest. He had had enough of this. It had been months, what more could she say than what she had. She had already made it clear about how much she didn’t want him anymore. How she didn’t love him anymore. Not that he had helped in that situation at all either, but he was still mad at her. He had only done what he had to get back at her in spite. It was always like that between them.

“What do you want, Marinette? How much more can I take?” Adrien flung his hands down to his sides and clenched them into fists. “You said how you felt months ago. You told me how you truly felt about me. So, WHAT MORE CAN YOU SAY?” His voice echoed off the vacant walls and a few people looked over at them.

Marinette looked around them and grabbed his shirt, pulling him into the bathroom that was nearby. She locked the door and glared up at him. “I may have said how I felt months ago, but at least I didn’t just scream our business for the whole damn fashion show to hear, you big idiot!”  Her voice was low and in an angry whisper as she spit the words out of her mouth. She poked him in the chest with each of her next words. “May I remind you that you were the one that cheated on me!”

Adrien growled and got into her face, backing her into the long dark sink. “And may I remind you that I only did that because some woman had a fling with a certain musician named Luka! I loved you Marinette. LOVED you!” He slammed his palms down on either side of her on the sink. “You don’t think I regretted sleeping with Kagami every single damn DAY! You don’t think I regret it now?” He leaned closer to her and her cheeks flushed as his lips got mere inches from hers. “YOU DON’T THINK THAT I DON’T MISS YOU! THAT MY BED ISN’T EMPTY. THAT MY BED ISN’T COLD without the one woman that matters.” His voice broke and he bowed his head, licking his lips. He slowly peered up at Marinette and watched her eyes shake. “You were- you were the one girl that mattered, Marinette. But then you found someone you liked better. That’s all. Someone you found to be dangerous and interesting and- and better than me. Better than-” Adrien transformed and became Chat Noir, causing Marinette to tremble. “Better than this bad boy cat, that you used to trust and let follow you around, Paris. I’m done, Marinette. Enjoy your moment of fame. I’m glad your brand is working out now. I’ll see you around.” He dropped his transformation and unlocked the bathroom door to leave. He hoped she would stop him. Tell him that he was wrong, anything, but she didn’t move or speak. Adrien sighed and dropped the door behind him, leaving her alone. “That’s what I thought.” He spoke under his breath and left to go walk down the runway in his father’s brand.

______________________________________________________________

Ladybug lit the black candle and situated the plates of croissants and chocolate chip cookies on the small round bistro table. She had spent all day making the stuff in her hotel room kitchen. She sat down on the table and waited for Adrien to come out to his balcony. She didn’t know how long it would take for him to, but she knew that he did every night for his new habit. She hated it, but she understood why he would turn to it.

Adrien knocked the pack of cigarette against his palm and one slid out of place enough for him to grab it. He put it between his lips and flicked a lighter to set the end on fire. Adrien grabbed it with his thumb and forefinger, blowing out smoke as he jumped back at seeing Ladybug on his terrace. “What are you doing here?” He settled down and ignored everything on the table that she had laid out. “I thought I told you goodbye.”

“You did. Um- Bu- but I didn’t get to talk. Um…” She tapped her bottom lip with her finger. Adrien groaned and leaned on the banister with his forearms. He took another long drag from his cigarette, before blowing it out. He tried to ignore that she was there, but it was hard for him to.

“I- Luka has nothing on you. He meant nothing. I- well when it happened he did. But it was only because you were so busy and I thought you didn’t love me anymore. I thought that you didn’t care about me anymore. You stopped telling me I’m pretty. You stopped surprising me. You stopped sending me flowers when you were on trips. You stopped complimenting me, hugging me, telling me a simple I love you.” Ladybug clutched at her sides and didn’t look up at him. “You stopped telling me how beautiful I was without makeup. You stopped telling me how special I was to you. Started pointing out my flaws. Luka- he- he complimented me. Told me how amazing I was. How pretty I was. How he appreciated how my body isn’t as perfect as it was when we were teens. I- I became obsessed with his compliments and you faded into the background. I’m- I’m sorry. But I know my sorrys don’t mean anything to you because I say them so much. Um-”

Adrien sighed and sniffed as he watched the end of his cigarette crumble and fall into ashes along the sleek banister. He didn’t have much more he could give. His left finger felt empty without the black band on it that had ‘kitty’ engraved inside the band. Just like her platinum engagement ring had had ‘bugaboo’ engraved inside the band. He rubbed his finger with his thumb on the same hand and took another drag from his new coping mechanism. His new one aside from drinking Vodka; which he would pour himself a shot later after this was over.

“Look. Um- I understand why you would go after Kagami and I know it’s my fault. I- I just-” Ladybug grabbed his bicep and made him turn around to face her. She took in his puffy eyes and how red they were. How his bottom lip quivered and his muscles were tensed up. How his eyes waverd and the cigarette shook in his unsteady hand. How his body seemed to radiate energy. She watched his adam’s apple move as he swallowed hard. “My bed is also cold and lonely. My ring finger is heavy like my heart. And when I think about us and how long… it took for us to even admit that we loved one another… it’s just. I- I wasted it. I hurt you because I was self-conscious and lonely. Why couldn’t you have taken me with you on your long trips? Why couldn’t I go?” She burst into tears and Adrien looked away, smoking more.

He blew out smoke as he stubbed out his cigarette. He dropped it onto the concrete and twisted his foot on it. “You were busy with your brand. I wasn’t going to jeopardize that and ask you to travel with me, while I modeled, Marinette. It was your dream. IS your dream. I’m not gonna stand in your way. You got your dream job. I never did. I’d rather you be free to do what you want to do and not what I have to do.” He walked back towards the doors to his hotel room to grab a drink. He needed one after hearing her talk.

Ladybug followed him into his apartment and watched him pull out a bottle of Grey Goose. He took out a crystal shot glass and poured a shot for himself. “You know, if you really wanted to talk to me and be honest?” He gestured to her with the glass. “You’d come here as Marinette, not Ladybug.” He knocked the shot back and cringed, before he started to pour another one.

Ladybug dropped her transformation and a red light enveloped Adrien as he knocked the second shot back. Marinette ran up and hugged him from behind, circling his waist with her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I miss you. Please. Please can we fix this? Please?” She cried into the back of his shirt, clenching the soft material in her fists. He looked over his drink with unamused dull green eyes. “I know I fucked up, but you did too.”

Adrien sighed and set his glass down on the bar. He turned around in her arms and leaned back against the bar with his elbows. “Marinette… I-” He rubbed his eyes with his finger and thumb. “I don’t know if we can be fixed.”

“We just have to try. Do counseling. Something. I- I want to fix us. I miss you. I miss you eating my baking and cooking. I miss your kisses and hugs. I miss you in my bed. I miss your arms around me. I miss running through Paris along the rooftops, watching the sunset together. Watching meteor showers with you from the top of the Eiffel Tower. I miss everything. I’m sorry. So sorry. I promise to never let my eyes wander to another man. I promise to listen to you. If you say jump… I’ll jump.” She grabbed his shirt and looked up at him with tears falling down her pink cheeks. “I pro- PROMISE.” She burst out into tears again and he gave in and touched her cheek with his palm. He ran his thumb beneath her eye to catch her tears.

“You know what Nino told me?” He watched her eyes grow wide as a smile appeared on his lips. “He told me I was crazy to divorce you. Told me that if I truly loved you? We’d work it out. That we’d make it work. That we should have tried to instead of rushing into signing those papers. I was so mad. So angry at you that I didn’t even stop to consider it. But then again… if you truly loved me… you wouldn’t have gone after Luka.” Adrien sighed and watched her close her eyes and cry harder.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered through tears and bile rose in her throat at the thought of Luka touching her and Kagami touching her ex-husband. “Was- was she better than me?”

“How about you tell me. Was Luka better than me?” Adrien smirked down at her and watched her shake her head with her lips pressed in a straight line. “Well, then what do you think?”

“I’m so SORRY!” Marinette burst out and clutched her body against him to sob into his shirt. Adrien held her and brushed the back of her soft dark hair with his fingertips. He felt whole again, like he had found what he was missing. “Can we just forget about it and try again? Start over?”

“I’d love that, Marinette.” Adrien sighed and held her against him, stroking her back with his hand. She focused on his breathing and how his voice vibrated in his chest. “I’d also love to eat some of that delicious stuff you baked. I haven’t had your baked goods in so long.”

Marinette leapt away from him and ran out to grab the trays of cookies and croissants. “Have some.” She smiled with her eyes closed as happiness filled her heart. “Tell me what you think.”

Adrien grabbed a croissant and took a bite of it. His eyes went wide as the flaky pastry crumbled into his mouth and warm chocolate coated his tongue. “You rolled dark chocolate into these?”

“I did. Just for you.” Marinette smiled up at him and watched him finish it, before he grabbed a cookie. “I thought you’d like it.”

“They’re perfect as always, Marinette.” Adrien touched her chin and bent down to capture her lips with his. She parted her lips in a gasp and he slipped his tongue past her lips. She slowly closed her eyes and kissed him back, clutching his shirt in her hands. She kissed him like she couldn’t get enough. He broke the kiss and sighed, looking into her shimmering blue bell eyes as she caught her breath. “Just like you.”

Marinette searched his emerald eyes and watched them shine in the moonlight, before she tangled her fingers into his soft blonde hair and yanked him down for another heated kiss.

Songs I wrote this to are below. :)

[princess-mari-dpc]

Can We Hug Like This More Often?

Read on AO3

Marinette wasn’t sure why he didn’t fist bump her back after the akuma fight with Onichan, but it did make her even more confused the more she thought about it.

Now Marinette wasn’t jealous, just upset that he didn’t go through with the tradition of a fist bump. A truly platonic way of saying, “Good job.”

Another issue Marinette rightfully had is why Adrien and Chat Noir still seemed to trust Lila, even though she was a proven liar.

As much as Marinette didn’t want to admit it, she was upset with Adrien. Majorly.

Tiki told her to talk it out with him, and try to get answers, but like any other teenage girl Marinette didn’t listen to good advice when it mattered most. She just decided to ignore it, which always leads to resentment and angry.

Understandably within the first day of this resentment Alya took notice, but it’s not like she could talk to her about it. All that would happen is getting accused of not liking Lila, and Marinette didn’t want to go through that again.

“Okay so what did Adrien do to you? Because you haven’t given him heart eyes or really any attention since he sat down today,” Alya asked after the first class of the day.

“Uh. I’m just having a bad day that’s all,” Marinette replied. Well it wasn’t a lie.

She didn’t get much sleep last night. Not after finding out that Kagami had feelings for Adrien as well. More and more girls seem to have feelings for him everyday, and Marinette didn’t want to be like the rest of them.

Marinette knows that change doesn’t happen in a day, but she also knows that there are things that can speed up that change. For one getting over the borderline creepy obsession she had of him.

She decided to ditch the schedule and all the photos on her phone and wall. She replaced her wall with pictures of her friends, which she can happily say that some photos have him in them.

Although she is still angry that he went along with Lila, even when he knew she was a liar. However, she can’t help but cut him some slack because she never told him she threatened her.

The rest of the school day went pretty normal until lunch.

Marinette was sitting in the cafeteria with her lunch her mom packed (always with extras, so she could share with her friends) when Adrien sat next to her.

She lifted her head up in search for Alya and Nino with no avail.

“They both don’t understand the English assignment too well and were planning to ask the teacher during lunch for help,” Adrien said before she could even ask where they were.

Marinette sighed heavily while slumping her shoulders because she had a feeling that this was one of Alya’s “coincidences”.

She looked down at Adrien’s plate and noticed that it was just a salad.

“Want a crossaint?” She asked, she could be angry but still be nice.

“Really? I forgot to grab the rest of my lunch today and only grabbed the salad, normally I have chicken and some sort of pasta with it,” he said with a grateful smile while taking the crossaint from her.

Marinette internally groaned. Lunch was going to be tough.

One because he always sits next to her at lunch and he seems not understand personal space (normally she didn’t mind). He always sat with their thighs touching and shoulders brushing.

And two, his everlasting politeness and kindness.

She grabbed her cell phone and pulled up her social media so she could take her mind of of him for a second. Only for him to be the first thing on her Instagram feed.

“Hey that’s my post,” he reached over and double tapped for her (which ruined her new goal not to like every single social media post), “hated that shoot, but it’s a really good picture.”

“Yeah it’s pretty good,” Marinette grumbled and kept scrolling.

After a while she could feel Adrien’s posture slump slightly. He turned towards her, making them touch even more (internal scream).

“Okay what’s wrong?” He asked her one hundred percent serious.

She continued scrolling and through halfway gritted teeth she replied, “Nothing.”

Adrien huffed and snatched her phone from her, locked it, and put it in his pocket.

“I didn’t think you liked liars,” he said while crossing his arms.

Marinette’s eyes snapped towards him and that’s when he knew he was in trouble.

Her normal bright, happy eyes were dark and stormy. He immediately recoiled and knew he said the wrong thing.

“I don’t like liars, but I also don’t like it when the one friend of mine who knows that Lila is a liar agrees to hang out with her,” Marinette tells him, clearly angry and on the verge of angry tears.

She gets up and almost runs away with her head low, not caring that he still has her phone and her backpack because she will not cry in front of him. She does make sure she has her purse with Tiki who is buzzing against her leg for comfort.

“Marinette!” She can hear him collecting off of the stuff left on the table and quickly running after her.

He catches up to her with his bag slung across his body and her pink backpack that she forgot on his back and catches her wrist.

She tries to fight is but when he says, “Mari, please let me explain,” in a sad almost begging tone she’s a goner.

She grabs his hand and takes him into one of the empty art closets and shuts the door and turns on the light.

She sees a couple of empty buckets and flips them upside down and makes them into make shift chairs.

They sit down knees touching because the closet isn’t too big in silence for a few minutes before Adrien finally decides to start.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know she was this bad. I always assumed that she was just lonely and wanted attention, because I understand how it feels to have an parent who is more focused on work than their child. I just thought that she wanted to impress people and I don’t know I thought she did it for attention. But then I realized that she is really hurting the people I care about most... and I just-“ he stopped his non stop ramble almost shedding tears too when he felt a hand rest softly on his knee and run it reassuringly.

“Adrien just breathe, I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Marinette said looking up at him.

“No I made you cry and I can’t forgive myself for-“ he started and Marinette cut him off.

His eyes were trained on her hand on his knee when she bent down to chase his eyes.

“Hey. You didn’t make me cry. I kinda did that. I should have talked to you earlier like a mature person but I just let myself wallow in pity, which just made me angrier and more upset,” Marinette explained, she never wanted to make him feel guilty.

She notice him relax a little and she smiled at him.

“I think I should also let you know why I’m more upset than it seems I should be. I never told you that she didn’t just lie to me. She also threatened me,” Marinette continued.

“What?” Adrien’s brow was furrowed and he was majorly confused.

“Yeah. I was upset because she cornered my in the bathroom told me that she was going to take all my friends away and I guess when I got the message, thought she was going to succeed,” Marinette shrugged and removed her hand from him, but when she did he brought his hand and engulfed hers.

She looked at their hands and back up to him. He was smiling at her with a beautiful smile that she wished that he used more often. Then brought that hand up to his lips and placed a kiss on her knuckles then placed their joined hand at their knees.

“Mari, I promise that you won’t lose me as a friend I will always be by your side,” Adrien said while running his thumb soothingly across the back of her hand, “and now that she threatened you maybe we should go tell the teacher.”

“You know what, lies always find a way to the surface. I don’t want to spend my time worrying about her,” Marinette started and squeezed his hand, “especially since I know that your are always going to be in my side.”

He smiled back at her and they both decided that I was time for them to get back to class.

“So are we good?” Adrien asked after Marinette dropped their hands and placed the buckets back in their respective places.

“Better than good,” she replied then wrapped her arms around his torso in a bear hug.

At first she thought she did the wrong thing and tried to back away, face probably as red as a fire truck, but as soon as she tried to pull away her face was smushed against his chest again and her head was tucked under his chin.

They stayed like that for a while.

“Hey Mari?” He asked her.

“Mhmm.”

“Can we hug like this more often?” He asked almost scared she would say no.

Marinette.exe has stopped working. She truly thinks that she has reached her Adrien Agreste limit for the day, but somehow he manages to rapidly nod her head squeeze a little tighter and say,

“Anytime you want.”

This time he blushed as they parted.

“So,” Adrien coughed awkwardly, “let’s get to class?”

Marinette face was red as she nodded, but for the first time Adrien’s was red too.

————————————————————————

They made it back to class a couple minuets early and sat in their proper seats. Alya looked at both of them and started nudging Marinette for more information, but Marinette just sat with her chin in her palm thinking about how today was one of the best days of her life.

Then Lila walked his in all of her glory and walks right by Marinette, when there isn’t a reaction both Alya and Lila look confused for a slight second.

“So Marinette, where were you at lunch today? I planned to stop by your lunch table and say hello but you weren’t there.” Lila asked.

Marinette snapped out of it, met eyes with Adrien and then turned to Lila and smiled brightly at her.

“Oh you know I was around,” was Marinette cryptic response.

“Well I heard that Rose’s locker was stuffed with a couple of hate notes and I thought that since your were just ‘around’ at lunch maybe it was you.” Lila said with a smirk and her arms crossed.

Adrien’s palms slammed on desk in front of Lila and faced her, “We both know that’s not true.”

There was a collective gasp from the students and Marinette was looking up at him with wide eyes, which he met and then looked back up at Lila.

“Because Marinette was with me during lunch. We had some stuff that we needed to talk about and we sorted it out, but if you are concerned about the hate letters in Rose’s locker we can go ask the principal to pull the video camera footage,” Adrien said it in his polite tone which is what made everyone take it seriously. No one has heard the sunshine child go off on anyone.

“Are you really going to defen—“ Lila started but was quickly cut off.

“Yes I really am defending her because she is the sweetest, most driven, creative person in this classroom and I’m sick and tired of you trying to bring her down with your lies, but one day the truth will come out and Mari and I will be sitting back watching it all unfold,” he spat out angrier this time and turned around, clearly expressing that the conversation was over through his body language.

Lila huffed and sat were she was assigned, no doubt deciding what her next strike would be.

Marinette looked up and noticed that the class was in shock with their eyes fixed on every subject of the argument. She also saw that Adrien was still noticeably angry. She reached up and laid a hand on his shoulder.

He looked back at her and as he saw her grateful smile, he relaxed and squeezed her hand once before releasing it and siting up straighter in his chair.

Marinette leaned back and smiled, fully aware that the everyone’s gaze was fixed on them, but she didn’t seem to care.

————————————————————————

After the last class of the day she knew that Adrien was still at the school because of his fencing class (just because she threw away his schedule doesn’t mean she doesn’t remember some of it). Anyways she caught him before he entered the locker room to change.

“Adrien!” She waved him down and he stopped, smiling that smile that was prone to making her knees weak.

“Ah uh- I just wanted to say thank you for sticking up for me today in class. You didn’t have to say anything, but you did and I just— thank you.” Marinette smiled awkwardly (but he thought it was adorable) before waving and trying to leave.

“Wait!” Adrien grabbed her hand pulled her into another hug, similar to the one before.

“You’re welcome, Mari.” He said while squeezing her tightly and then letting her go and running off to the locker room bidding her goodbye.

Marinette just smiled stupidly while turning around to head home.

She looked down at her phone which was a message from Alya. Attached to the text was a length message that basically told Marinette to explain and a picture of her and Adrian hugging.

With her head smushed against his chest and his face smiling happily while they hugged each other close.

She looked down at her phone and smiled, this was definitely going to be the first photo up on her wall.

[uta-no-knb]

Aomine x Fem!BestfriendReader. They're at the mall and they run into her ex. The memories of him stepping on her self-confidence part of which was how she was 'ugly' come rushing back. Now back at the apartment (either Aomine or reader's) How does Aomine help reader completely forget her ex? He's been in love with her for so long and she has same feelings for him too. Full-on nsfw with fluffy aftercare please. Thanks!

So since most nsfw scenes with Aomine are kinda the same (and I already kinda did one for Aomine), I kinda re-used it but edited it to fit-kinda. It’s not full out nsfw, I apologize, but I hope the humor that makes up for it is alright.

Damn it (F/N) pick up,” he growled, as he pressed the end button on his phone for the fifteenth time within the span of 2 minutes; every time, it kept going to voicemail.

Momoi, himself and you were at the mall just handing out. One thing he knew, he was going to the bathroom and the next, you were nowhere to be found.

Where did you go, F/N?

One thing he would never admit-especially to you-was his deep concern for you. Sure you were his best friend, but as time went on, he saw you more than that and feelings developed. ….and that’s something that no one thought he would ever develop-with the exception of Kuroko…that sneaky former shadow of his is very sneaky and he will eventually learn how he does it.

“Dai-chan!” Turning around, he saw his other childhood best friend running up to him in a panic.

“Have you seen (F/N) anywhere?!”

“No. Have you?”

“What do you think I’ve been doing for the past 30 minutes?! And I thought she was with you!”

“You could’ve been looking at Mai-chan magazines again! And she was, but I got side-tracked by some guys-”

“Would you tell me what the hell is going on?!”

Momoi sighed and sat down on a nearby bench. “While (F/N) and I were about to walk into (store name), and before I got sidetracked, (F/N) and I saw her ex.”

“Wait, what ex?" He asked, which caused Momoi to slam her lips shut.

"Nothing-"

"Satsuki!" "She didn't want you knowing because you can get pretty overprotective." The moment she saw the male open his mouth to speak she continued "I will not say who it is but they abused her verbally when they were together."

Once the female had said those words Aomine completely tuned her out.

'Someone had abused (F/N)? More importantly, did it without me knowing?"Aomine was brought out of his thoughts by his phone ringing. Looking down at the caller I.D.

"Bakagmi as much as I want to have a one on one with you-"  

"Aomine-kun"

...That wasn't Kagami.

"Tetsu? Why are you using Kagami's phone?"

"That's not important. I just wanted to let you know that (F/N) is here with us at his apartment."

Relief flooded through him; you were safe.

"What did you do to make her cry this time?"

"It wasn't me!" Even though Kuroko wasn't there in person, he could feel the former shadow giving him an"I don't believe you" glare. "Seriously Tetsu, I didn't do anything."

There was another voice that he heard on the line-it was faint but he recognized it as Kagamis voice.

"Ahomine!! WHY DID YOU LET HER TALK TO HANAMIYA!! YOU KNOW HOW HE TREATED HER!"

"HANAMIYA?!" He yelled. "When was she fucking dating that bastard?!"

"You didn't know?"

"I'm on my way," and with that, he slammed his phone shut and walked away.

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

“Oi! Let me in!” Aomine exclaimed, as he pounded on the apartment door in front of him.

Right as he was about to slam his fist against the door again, the door opened revealing a mop of teal hair.

“Please calm down, Kagami-kun.”

Without thinking, he lightly shoved the shorter male out of the way, only to come face to face with Kagami, who was currently yelling at the bathroom door.

“How long has she been in there?”

Kagami sighed and turned around. “At least an hour. Hopefully you’ll have better luck.” He walked away from the door and headed over to Kuroko.

“Aomine-kun, Kagami-kun and I are going to run to the store really quick. We’ll be back.” And with that, the shadow disappeared with his light.”

Facing the door, he lightly knocked. “(F/N), open up.”

There was no response from you. With a sigh, he placed his ear against the door and could faintly hear you crying.

It really hurt his heart that you were like this.

“(F/N), if you don’t come out right now, I will break this door down.”

After a few minutes, he heard the door unlock and open.

Disregarding your appearance, he wrapped you in a hug, bringing you close against his chest; one of his hands around your waist and the other on the back of your head. In response, you wrapped your arms around his waist and your shoulders began to shake as you cried.

“Do you have any idea how worried I was when I didn’t see you at the mall?” he whispered. “I thought something bad had happened.”

You just sobbed into his chest, allowing the warmth radiating from him to engulf you.

“Oi. Don’t get snot on my shirt,” he said in a joking way, which only caused you to smack his back.

With a small smile, he picked you up bridal style and walked you over to the sofa and gently sat you down; immedietly taking a seat next to you. He grabbed the box of tissues that was on the coffee table and handed it to you, while wrapping his right arm around your shoulder.

“(F/N). Why didn’t you tell me you were dating-especially dating that asshole Hanamiya?”

“Because I knew you wouldn’t approve,” you whispered, grabbing a tissue and blowing your nose. “I really liked him a lot Daiki.”

“How could you like an asshole like him?” he asked, his voice getting louder. He can’t help but get angry anytime his name was mentioned.

“It doesn’t matter,” you whispered. “We broke up six months ago.”

“Why?”

You paused, and tears started to roll down your face. “He-he was just-he dated me because of a bet he made with his team; he was supposed to date me, hoping that after sleeping with me, I would be more lenient with what his team does-”

“You slept with him?!” he yelled, which frightened you.

“N-no,” you stuttered. “We were about to, but I told him no...that’s when he started to step on my emotions and feelings.”

Aomine simmered down a bit-relieved that you didn’t give your virginity to that asshole.

“When I told him no, he started to crush my self-confidence-saying that I wasn’t sleeping with him because I was too fat and ugly and didn’t want to embarrass him. And when I briefly saw him today, his words came back. It didn’t help that he saw me and started to actually talk to me. He kept saying I was ugly and that’s why I will never have a boyfriend...and now I’m starting to believe him-”

“Well you better stop it because I’m getting pissed at you,” he said, which immedietly startled you. You looked at him with wide eyes; you didn’t want your male best friend to hate you-he was your rock and pillar. Plus, you realized after the break up that you were actually in love with the blue haired male.

“D-Daiki-”

“Don’t ever say that you’re ugly, because you’re not. You’re way to pretty to be ugly-”

“Stop saying lies because you’re my frie-”

“I’m not lying,” he growled standing up, facing away from you. “I may be lazy and I can be an ass, but if there’s one thing I’m not is that I’m not a liar. You should know this by now.”

“Daiki,” you whispered, also standing up.

He figured it was now or never; he was going to tell you the truth.

“Look, (F/N). I need to be honest with you.” He turned around so he could look at you. “We’ve been best friends for years now and during that time I’ve realized that I don’t want to be friends with you anymore.”

The moment those words left his mouth, you gasped, tears threatening to spill down your face. The fact that after years of friendship, the one guy, who you valued more than anything wants you out of his life, hurts. You could feel your heart break.

This was something that you definitely didn’t need to hear now.

“W-What?”

He nodded. “I’m serious. Recently, I’ve been having these thoughts. We do have a strong connection, but I want something differe-” he saw that you started crying once again. “Oi, don’t cry-”

“Stay away!”

You backed away from him. “I can’t believe you-”

“Let me finish, baka!” he yelled back, grabbing your wrist, “I don’t want to be friends with you anymore because I want to be more than that! I love you more than a best friend.” He rubbed the back of his neck, as a faint blush painted his cheeks. “I want to be in a romantic relationship with you.”

You paused as those words hit you.

“Y-You love me?”

“Yes,” he replied releasing your wrist and sitting down. “If you just want to be friends, that’s fine, but I reall-”

Cutting him off, you sat on his lap, straddling him. If this wasn’t enough to catch him of guard, what you did next sure did. You kissed him, which in result, had him kissing you back.

You broke the kiss after a minute and rested your head against his forehead. “I never thought I would hear you say those words,” you said with a smile, faint tears falling from the corner of your eyes. “I love you too-”

This time, the male was the one to silence you with a kiss. A pleasurable tingling sensation washed over him as you returned it with grace and tenderness. As you continued to kiss, your movements became more intense and passionate.

Your hands began to roam up and down Aomine’s chest and they slowly worked their way up and tangled themselves in his hair. His hands did the same thing, except worked their way up your back, which send shivers up your spine.

You looked down at Aomine and flashed your mischievous smile, as you planted a hard kiss on his lips.

Aomine’s hands snaked around your waist, then worked their way under your wet top, effortlessly lifting it off her frame. Underneath, you wore a navy blue kami, and he couldn’t help but trace the lines of your cleavage with the tips of his fingers.

“I’m liking this view,” he smirked, as his snaked his hands under your top.

You flinched back and wrapped your arms around your waist. “Dont!”

“You’re shitting me right now (F/N)?” he growled, as he gripped your wrists in and forced them away from your sides.

“Thi-Hanamiya said-”

“Forget Hanamiya!” he yelled, startling you. “Everyone knows Hanamiya is a fucking dick.

“But Daiki, I have stretch marks and-

“So what?! I don’t care about those. Your body is perfect.” He leaned in and started kissing your neck.

“D-Daiki,” you moaned.

“Now, I want you to stop all this nonsense and let me show you how much I love you.” He resumed kissing your neck and moved lower each kiss.

“D-Daiki,” you moaned, urging the male to go further. You could feel his member harden through his pants, and you grind your hips, making the male moan.

“(F/N)-I don’t want to force you-”

“It’s alright Daiki,” you replied.

You reached down and unbuckled his belt, your fingers trembling from the rush of hormones coursing through your veins. You started to stroke him through his pants and smirked when he let out a groan of pleasure.

You lowered the hem of his boxers a little bit so his member was released, and a hiss escapes his lips. You stroke him and run your thumb over the tip of his member.

“F-Fuck.”

Growing braver, you lowered your head, your mouth hovering over the head. You were not anticipating the event that occurred before you could put his member in your mouth

“We’re bac-WHAT THE FUCK!”

So yea, I hope it was alright. I know it wasn’t fluffy after care, but I made it fluffy....kinda? 

[midorimaniac]

Midorima x Reader and Chocolate Brownie

The very first fanfic I wrote for Midorima.

I slammed my last wad of cash onto the table, before calculating exactly how many days of the month were to be spent cashless. I sighed. 2 weeks. Not good. The cashier frowned at my empty wallet before handing me the bill receipt and the brown bag that had my favorite warm chocolate brownie swimming in chocolate syrup. I reached forward for it when my hand met a larger…taped one. I tilted my head as my eyes bore into blank green ones. “That’s my order.” I managed to say, craning my neck to look at him. In my defense, I was barely 5 feet and he was definitely more than 6 feet tall. The green haired giant looked down at me, not out of spite, but because he had to. “I ordered first, nanodayo.” I frowned, grasping the packet tightly, before snapping, “I don’t care. Get another.” And turned to leave. Of course, the cashier had to pipe in, “That is the last piece we have. I apologize for the inconvenience.” The last word came out as a squeak when my glare met greeny’s annoyed frown. The cashier busied himself, hoping to not to be accused for causing a murder.

“Look. Order something else. I’m sorry, but I’m terribly late.” I said, eyes glancing at my wrist watch. If I didn’t reach the gym in the next ten minutes, Riko-senpai would have my head on a spike. He taped fingers wrapped around the brown cover, inches away from mine. “I need this today, or my day won’t be good. Get something else to eat.” He pulled at the bag, and me, by extension. Man, was he strong. I huffed, pulling it towards me. “Do I look like I care how your day goes? Please, let go of my breakfast.” I bit out sweetly and as politely as I could. “That cannot happen, nanodayo. Oha-asa says that chocolate brownie is my lucky item of the day. Hence, I need it more. You can eat something else.” He said, voice indifferent as he adjusted his glasses. I adjusted mine too, on instinct. “And waste another ten minutes? No, thank you. Let go.” I replied, not intimidated as his shadow loomed over me. “You are wasting time right now. I have better things to do than argue with someone so immature.” He replied, voice flat. Immature? Me? Says the guy who wants brownie because “Oha Asa” says so. I rubbed my temples with my other hand; grip still tight on the bag. “Wanna split?” I squeaked, when I realized that I was late and hence dead. “No.” He deadpanned. A bulb went ding! in my head. And I asked, “You do not intend to eat it, do you?” I raised a brow as he visibly stiffened before relaxing and answering in a why-are-you-even-asking-me-this?-don’t-you-already-know-you-moron voice, “Of course not. Are you deranged?” I clenched my fists, “You want to carry around a brownie for the next 24 hours and you think I am insane?” Our glaring contest was broken by my cell beeping. It was Riko-senapi’s ringtone and I jumped. Damn it! “Fine, keep it. I won’t be able to eat it in peace anyway.” So I stomped off, leaving the jerk with my brownie.

I had transferred to Seirin from Rakuzan a few months ago, where I was the team manager. I had helped Akashi with most of the team strategies; of course, Mr. Absolute would rather bite off his tongue than say it. I knew enough about the sport to be appointed as Assistant Coach, thanks to my elder brother who was an international level basketball star. I wrapped my arms around my stomach as I leaned forward, elbows digging into my knees as I leaned forward from where I was sitting on the bleachers as another stab of hunger tore through my insides. I pouted as my wallet felt thin and light against my back pocket. “Need. Food.” I groaned out loud and Teppei chuckled from where he sat next to me. “Do you have a death wish?” I asked, whirling in his direction. Kagami would have shit his pants by now, but of course, Kiyoshi-senpai didn’t even flatter. “Why didn’t you just say you were hungry, huh?” He asked, his voice deep and jovial. My eyes trailed over the team, warming up for the practice match against Shutoku. They were really fired up, especially Kagami—I rolled my eyes as an aura of dark red surrounded Seirin’s tiger. “It’s fine, senpai. They are all really excited. We’ll all eat after the game.” I smiled. The Shutoku team entered the gym. He was amongst them, hand taped and holding my brownie bag. “Him?” I yelled in my indoor voice, as Teppei hastily shushed me. Of course, my outburst was loud enough for him to ignore Taiga and gawk at me from across the court. I huffed, turning away as Teppei laughed his ass off. “Him? Midorima Shintaro, “stole” your brownie?” “I paid for it. So it IS stealing.” I crossed my arms on my chest,as everyone took their positions.

The game was better than expected. It would have been a draw, had Mr. Arrogant not sunk in a 3-pointer from across the freaking court as a buzzer beater. No one was depressed, though. Well, no one, but Kagami, who demanded a one-on-one with Midorima. He was a really sore loser. It was when I was leaving the gym with Riko-senpai discussing something regarding the game, when something or rather someone very large and very heavy knocked the breath out of me as my back hit the ground, head painfully colliding against the concrete. “Ow!” I groaned as I looked up, eyes meeting green. He abruptly stood up apologizing, dusting himself, before holding out his hand for me, looking away. I snorted, standing up on my own. Riko-senpai gaped at the Shutoku player who glared at his teammate. Said teammate was laughing like a buffoon. “Takao, that was not funny. Someone could have gotten hurt.” The team’s captain, Miyaji Yuya said, pulling him up by the collar. “Excuse me? Someone?” I replied, crossing my arms. Everyone looked at me, before Takao, smiled apologetically at me. “Shin-chan wanted to talk to you. So I gave him a push. We’ll let you talk now.” I gawked at Midorima whose cheeks turned pink, eyes still averted from mine. “So?” I asked, after everyone had been dragged away by Mr. Hawk Eye. “Takao, speaks nonsense all the time.” I sighed, shrugging at his response. “So I’ll go now.” I was about to step away when the taped hand wrapped around my wrist. “Huh?” My eyes met his and he abruptly let go, adjusting his glasses. “Great game today.” He started. “You guys, won. Congratulations.” I never said I wasn’t a sore loser. His lips tilted upwards in a smirk. “Of course, we did, nanodayo. I had my lucky item.” “And..?” I pressed, leaning up to look him in the eyes. “And a great team.” He said, clearing his throat. I smiled. Kuroko’s basketball worked wonders. “..for the brownie?” He mumbled out. “Huh?” I asked, eyebrows raised. He looked at me, all serious, and sighed before he asked me if I was deaf. “Thank you…”, he said, “I could do my best, because of you.” My stomach growled and I flushed. Why? Why, in front of him? Said guy smirked again, before arrogantly stating, “Let me buy you another, nanodayo. You have no cash.” “Are you asking me out, Shintaro?” He flushed before walking ahead as I followed him.

[raendown]

All I have to say is finally.

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3048 Story summary: Madara used to be a man feared even by those of his own clan. Life's really changed since the village was built. Among those changes is his relationship with one Senju Tobirama - and apparently everyone else knew about this even before he did.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 9

It was quite lucky that Tobirama was home today, Madara thought as he stomped his way to the bedroom. By some unforeseen stroke of luck neither of them were required at any meetings that day, allowing them both to work from home and ensuring that Tobirama was present to watch over Kagami while Madara went and expressed his irritation somewhere away from the child. He was not throwing a tantrum, just venting his feeling in a completely reasonable and very adult way. Stomping didn’t count. That was just the way he walked.

While Madara would be the first to agree that fatherhood was an extremely rewarding experience he would also be one of the first to get upset each and every time his child sicked up on him. There was little he disliked more than being coated in someone else’s vomit. Give him blood, give him intestines, hell, give him the pureed remnants of an opponent’s brain splattered across his face, anything was better than vomit. At least when Kagami had been sick that one time it had been somewhat excusable. Now the only excuse was that he had eaten too fast.

Muttering darkly under his breath, Madara tore the shirt from his body and threw it through the door of the laundry room as he passed it by. He marched in to the master bedroom with his chin jutting out aggressively in front of him and headed straight for the dresser. Without even bothering to check what he had grabbed he shrugged his way in to the first shirt that came to hand, tying off the obi and storming halfway across the room again before he noticed anything amiss. The shirt felt too small for some reason. Looking down at himself, he realized why.

This wasn’t his shirt. This was Tobirama’s shirt. In fact, he was pretty sure it was the shirt that Kagami had thrown up on when he’d had the flu. Ironic, considering why he’d needed to change now. What was it doing in with his clothes instead of the drawers the younger man had taken over?

After a moment of thought it came to him: Tobirama had left it here that night, thrown in with his laundry and forgotten about. Then, of course, it had been taken away to be washed and returned to Madara, who didn’t generally like to sort his clothing before putting them away. He was lucky if he remembered to separate pants and shirts rather than stuffing things in to whichever drawer happened to have some free space at the time. It boggled him how his partner managed to keep his clothing so organized all the time. Except for this one little item which had made its way in to Madara’s possession.

Checking around to make sure no one was looking – as though someone would dare to sneak in to the home of not only Uchiha Madara but also Senju Tobirama, he raised the collar and ducked his face in to it, inhaling deeply. Despite having been washed and left in a drawer for more than two months, it still smelled like its owner. Tobirama’s distinctive scent of sandalwood and weapon oil washed over him like a wave of calm, like the scent of hope that he hadn’t even noticed he associated with safety and happiness until this very moment.

Madara’s fingers twitched and his eyes shot open, staring at the wall with abject horror. A tiny squeak escaped him and before he knew it he was scrambling for the door. It crashed against the wall as he fell through it but he didn’t bother to stop and check for damage in the plaster, just hurried down the hallway with heavy feet. He nearly ran straight in to Tobirama as he burst in to the living room, the younger man catching him by the arms at the last second to avoid a collision.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. Madara made another squeak, frozen in place for perhaps ten seconds before he reeled away and lunged for the front door.

“No! Nothing! I go – have to – I have to go!”

“Madara?”

“No!”

He was gone before the other could say anything else, slamming the door behind himself and taking to the rooftops. Only when the cold air rushing past his face began to cool it did he finally register the raging blush which had taken over his features. Were he wearing his armor he would have matched the color of it. Instead he was still wearing Tobirama’s shirt.

Madara ran faster.

When he dropped down from the rooftops and wrenched open the front door of the home he’d arrived at, the hinges squealed in protest of his accidental overuse of strength. In his haste he left it wide open, pouring himself in through the doorway and immediately screaming loudly for Hashirama.

He found his friend sitting at the kitchen table where he had been enjoying lunch with his wife. Mito looked a trifle annoyed at the interruption but Hashirama had a more proper response, worry plain in his expression. It was obvious that he was trying to ask what was wrong but was having a bit of difficulty through his overlarge bite of rice. Madara beat him to the punch.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT I’M IN LOVE WITH TOBIRAMA!?”

In the silence that followed, Madara would almost swear that he heard crickets.

Hashirama stopped chewing frantically, staring at him with wide eyes and stuffed cheeks. Mito regarded him as one might an idiot who simply could not understand something. Eventually she sighed and rose gracefully from her chair, scooting around where he stood gasping for breath, and kissed her husband delicately on the top of his head.

“I’ll leave you two alone, shall I?” She waved without looking back as she floated from the room. Hashirama gulped his mouthful down in what looked like a very painful swallow.

“You…uh…didn’t know that?” he rasped.

“NO I DID NOT KNOW THAT.”

“Madara it was…kind of obvious, you know?” Hashirama scratched wonderingly at his head. “I mean, everybody else knew. You guys live together and you’re raising a baby together and he flirts with you all the time. That’s part’s kind of gross, actually.”

“Well when you put it like that…” Madara whimpered faintly. “I didn’t know! I can’t be in love with him! That’s not fair!”

“Huh? Why can’t you be in love with him?”

“What if he doesn’t like me back!?”

Hashirama staring at him with wide eyes for the second time in less than five minutes probably should have been enough of a clue. When he burst in to laughter it definitely should have been enough of a clue. Unfortunately Madara had always been just a little too quick to anger and even in the midst of a complete and utter panic attack it was no different. He was across the room and bringing his fist down on top of his best friend’s head in less than a second.

“You’re supposed to help me not laugh at me! Idiot! Dolt! Black thumb!”

“Oh that one’s rude!”

“You’re the one being rude! I hate you! You’re a bad friend, laughing at me in my hour of need!” Madara spun around and stomped back out the way he had come in. “Well fine! I don’t need you! There’s only one thing to do now!”

“Where are you going?” Hashirama called after him.

“I’m leaving of course! I can’t stay there knowing this!”

Hashirama tried to call him back but whatever he was saying was lost in the vortex as Madara used a body flicker to return home. If he simply appeared in the bedroom then perhaps Tobirama wouldn’t know that he was there and he could gather some clothes and escape with the younger man none the wiser.

Of course, because that was just his luck, Tobirama found him almost immediately. Evidently in his haste he’d forgotten about the whole ‘he’s a sensor’ thing. He didn’t have to ask where the baby was; he could hear him giggling away as he babbled to himself sleepily in his bedroom, probably in the crib. It was about time for his afternoon nap.

“Madara?” Tobirama took a few steps towards him, stopping abruptly when Madara stepped back. “What’s wrong? You rushed out so fast; I was worried.”

He wanted to say something caustic, something jagged and heated to wedge in to the space between them and give himself some room to breathe. Perhaps it would be better that way, easier to leave if he could just pretend his world was still normal for just a few more minutes. Yet he couldn’t seem to say anything at all. No words would come to him, leaving him staring at the other man with wide frightened eyes and a stiff spine as he stood frozen like spotted prey.

Something in his expression must have spoken to Tobirama in some way, revealed something to him that Madara was unaware he was giving away. The concerned fear in his face melted away to be replaced with something soft and gentle. It was an expression he had worn before but Madara had never been able to decipher its meaning. He dearly wished he could now.

When Tobirama took a step closer he took one back to match, keeping the distance between them. The younger man shook his head without losing the softness in his appearance and took another step closer. They matched each other step for step almost like a dance until Madara’s back hit the wall and he had nowhere else to go. He gulped, feeling trapped as Tobirama continued to come closer. He should have looked like a predator on the hunt but instead he looked eerily similar to how he always did just before gracing Kagami with a hug.

Madara’s panic increased a little with each step until finally they were chest to chest, barely a few inches separating them. He gasped when a pale hand rose up to cup the side of his face.

“Finally figured it out, did you?” Tobirama murmured quietly. Madara trembled.

“You already knew,” he accused in a tremulous whisper. Tobirama only smiled and tilted his head a bit closer.

“That you love me?” he said. “Yes, I knew that.”

It felt a little bit like the world ending. Life as he knew was over. Madara couldn’t even pay attention to the way each breath he took was shaking in his lungs. All his thoughts were the man before him. How could he not have known?

“Then why are you here?” he demanded. The words carried much less authority than he tried to inject them with. Tobirama’s gentle smile grew wider but no less gentle. His thumb stroked Madara’s cheek in a reflection of the way Madara had touched him not that long ago.

“Because I love you too.”

A cry escaped Madara’s lips and almost before he could process those words Tobirama leaned forward to close that last inch of distance between them.

Their first kiss was merely a brush, lips barely even touching. Only when Madara whimpered did Tobirama sink in to him and press more firmly, angling his head to deepen the kiss until it washed away the very reality around them. Madara wasn’t aware of digging his fingers in to sharp hip bones but he was more than aware of the arms that boldly wound their way around his neck until Tobirama was clutching him like he never wanted to let go. Honestly, he was more than okay with that.

When they parted he was panting, only just realizing that he had been holding his breath. His heart was leaping about inside his chest so much he actually feared it might burst straight out through his skin but he couldn’t help it. The only sound he could hear was the roar of blood in his ears and the happy little hum of contentment Tobirama made as he pressed their foreheads together, gazing in to his eyes with that look which had baffled him for too long now.

Apparently they’d both been in love this whole time. Go figure.

It took a few tries for him to be able to speak. Partly because of his continuing lack of ability to get proper oxygen, partly because Tobirama darted in to steal another kiss and set his head to spinning so badly he had to hold on tighter to the hips in his grasp.

“Oh.” Were he at all able to process any of this, it might have rankled that he didn’t have anything more intelligent to say. “I didn’t expect that.”

Tobirama sighed and leaned away to shake his head. “Uchiha Madara you are….one of a kind. And I wouldn’t change you for the world.” Madara flushed to the very roots of his hair.

“Sure you would,” he grumbled, looking away in an attempt to salvage some dignity. “You’d wish I was a better cook and that I knew how to make the bed properly or that I could talk about those dumb experiments with you more and –”

“Madara.” He fell silent. “When I said I loved you I meant that I love you just as you are and that I will continue to do so even if you never remember the difference between cloves and clover.”

“Oh.”

“You can huff and scream and stomp your feet all you like but it won’t hide what I can see inside. And I like what I see, otherwise I wouldn’t have waited nearly half a year for you to figure this out in your own time because I know how uncomfortable it would have made you if I had forced you to face it before you were ready to.”

“Hmph. Quit being so mushy.” His tone belied his words, breathy and enraptured. Even his body betrayed him by pushing impossibly closer in to his partner’s body. Tobirama laughed at him and, for once, he didn’t mind in the slightest. It was a happy laugh, a fond laugh, a laugh that he finally understood.

“No,” Tobirama denied, still grinning widely. He looked so beautifully carefree.

“You – what the hell?”

Before he could reply properly Madara was cut off by a loud banging noise coming from the front of the house. Instinctively, they both froze and stared through the open door towards Kagami’s room, praying that the sound hadn’t woken him up. When they heard no crying both of their gazes turned to glare through the wall in the direction it had come from.

Knowing that Tobirama could feel the chakra of whoever was in the house, Madara felt no need to panic if his partner wasn’t doing so. Obviously it was someone they knew. But he very much did not appreciate having his home invaded without notice in such a loud manner – and he especially did not appreciate it happening just when he was having a moment that he had been waiting on for what felt like his entire adult life.

Whoever was in the living room was about to feel the wrath of an angry Uchiha.

“Madara?”

Tobirama tilted the corner of his mouth down in a confused scowl but Madara went pale with rage when he heard his best friend’s stage whisper all the way from here in the bedroom. What. The hell. Was Hashirama doing here?

“Madara? Are you here?”

“YOU EMPTY HEADED, BULL FOOTED, NO BRAIN BUFFOON!” Madara was out the door and down the hall before Tobirama could catch up to how angry he suddenly was.

Hashirama screeched when Madara descended upon him, throwing up both hands in defense and scrambling to get away from the murderous look in his eyes. “I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU WERE OKAY!”

“GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!”

“I’VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!” With another screech, Hashirama dodged the tiny tongue of flame Madara spit at him. It hit the wall and left a scorch mark, which Hashirama glanced at before looking back to his friend in shock. “I’m just looking out for you!”

“I DON’T NEED YOU TO! GO AWAY!”

“What on earth is happening right now?”

The two men who had begun grappling each other across the coffee table paused and looked over to see Tobirama standing at the end of the hallway with his feet plants and his arms crossed. His expression was none too pleased and they both felt a small shiver of fear go down their spines. Until Hashirama gasped dramatically and pointed wildly between him and Madara.

“You’re both here!” He exclaimed. Madara shook him a bit.

“Obviously! Now shut that stupid hole in your face and leave!”

“But Madara you said you were running away from home!”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I SAID!” Madara could feel the warmth in his cheeks almost as strongly as the weight of Tobirama’s gaze focusing on the side of his head. He shook the man in his grasp again. “I told you to get out! I don’t need you here! You’ll wake the baby with your useless hollering so just go!”

“Oh! Oh! Did you two confess!? You’re both so in love! My baby brother and my best friend!”

Hashirama burst in to tears with no more promoting. From his spot across the room, Tobirama continued to glare at Madara in a way that told him the younger man was not going to let that little tidbit slip by and that he would certainly be hearing about his foiled escape plans later. He wasn’t sure if he was shivering in dread or anticipation.

Either way, the moment between them had been thoroughly ruined by Hashirama’s buffoonery and if he was going to get in trouble later he figured he might as well earn it. The stupid leafy idiot sobbing all down his front certainly deserved the thrashing that was about to come his way. That’s what one gets for interrupting something so important. He finally had something fantastic happen to him, he finally had his moment for love to bloom, and Hashirama just had to jump in and ruin it.

Down the hall in his bedroom, little Kagami slept peacefully on, lulled in to sweeter dreams by the oh-so-familiar sound of his daddy’s indignant screaming.