#two VERY important photos my cousin sent me of our cat this morning. oh my gods. im choking with laughter

[definitelynotshouting]

something something "scarian fans when someone mentions that cactus ring." is this anything

[ladylb]

University Style - Marichat May 2019 by Lady_LB Chapter 9

Covers the Prompts: Rooftop Save & Balconies

Adrien was in trouble and he knew it.

Especially since Marinette was quickly ejected from their class this morning after her loud outburst after she had read the article that he may have just said too much about their relationship together.

I really do want to date her. Adrien thought wistfully, technically I’ve already married her, online that is, but I really wouldn’t mind making it real.

It hadn’t helped that Nathalie had come and literally took him out of class just as it was ending so that he could speak to his father, his manager and the PR director for the company. In a way, it was good news. While the article read more into his relationship with Marinette than was true, it described the way that he wanted it to be and that actually was good exposure somehow.

Trouble is, between putting out the publicity fires that had started and getting informed by his team about the next steps etc, Adrien had missed the whole day at school.

The really bad news was he hadn’t been able to get a quiet moment to speak to Marinette or call her and while she hadn’t been mentioned in the article by name, he knew she was recognized during class so they had a very limited amount of time to discuss what ‘we’ meant.

Adrien took a deep breath as he entered his apartment that evening, changing out of his Adrien look into the comfortable guise of Andrew as he checked his messages.

First, he started with the messages for Adrien, since he actually had two phone lines but there were only three messages that mattered on that line from his closest friends.

“Adrien, Adrien, Adrien. The response to this article was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! They must have taken something out of context because, well, because! Call me when you’ve started to think like a sane person!”

Chloe was always so inspiring.

Alya was just scary. “Agreste! You are in SOoooo much trouble mister! Call me before I have to hunt you down!”

At least Nino was calm and Adrien didn’t have to hold his phone away from his ear during any part of it to hear it. “Dude, Mari is confused, upset and I’m officially warning you that you had better be hiding until the gurls calm down! I’ll try to distract my gurl, but no promises Bro!”

Adrien was surprised that he hadn’t received a message from Marinette.

Then he checked his messages for Andrew and as usual, there weren’t many. But there were only three messages.

“Andrew, Hi. I’m sorry I missed you this morning, our teacher has no heart and I’m sorry I reacted that way and got kicked out and missed you. I kind of knew something like that might happen if I was seen with your cousin, I just didn’t think that I’d be practically going out with him all of a sudden, not that he’s a bad guy, it’s just I’m still a little confused about” – Beep

“It’s Marinette again, and as I was saying, I’m confused about why they think that. I mean, I like your cousin, oh my gosh do not tell Adrien that or I’ll never live it down! Ugh! What I mean is, he ah, has started to grow on me? But I’m still a little mad at him. He can be so cocky and infuriating sometimes, but he can be sweet too. Pfft! And then there’s you! How can I forget you? Adrien must have said SOMETHING to have mislead the press like that” – Beep

“Me again, I’m sorry, I’m probably filling up your voicemail. I’m not ready to talk to Adrien, it’s just, ugh, I wanted to apologize and talk to you sometime in person… there is a reason why I kind of used to have a rule about not dating models. I-I would like to talk to you about it sometime and tell you about it if you let me. Give me a call, if you want to, um, yeah, well, bye.” -Beep

I really should apologize to her in person. Adrien thought, but it sounds like she’s not ready to meet the real me exactly… or at least not all of me.

Adrien walked out to his balcony as he pondered the situation and saw the figure of a woman sitting on the apex of the sorority’s roof.

I’d recognize that figure anywhere he thought wryly, I guess now is as good of a time as any to go and see her, strange she’s so calm. She doesn’t seem upset. Maybe she’s calmed down?

…

Adrien had changed his look back into Andrew, having had to become Adrien to be allowed back at his father’s headquarters during all of their meetings today. Then he had climbed Marinette’s fire escape to get to her meager balcony and then from there climb up onto the roof just like she had probably done.

I still can’t believe they want me to do a public announcement about my relationship with Marinette. Andrew sighed as he gazed at the beauty before him, and I can’t believe that I only have two days to win the heart of my beloved, but she’s not ready to see Adrien yet.

Adrien, as Andrew, looked up at Marinette, she was leaning back and looking up at the sky and the moon as if it had all the answers. Kissed by the moonlight, she looked like she had just descended from heaven.

Well, here goes…

“May I join you?” He calmly called out.

Marinette startled and yelped as she lost her grip and tumbled down the roof.

Andrew was able to brace himself and catch her before they both fell off, as they both caught their breath as he chuckled and told her as he held her close, “I knew you’d fall for me.”

Having not seen who he was, she twisted in his arms and smacked his shoulder lightly, “Cha-!” She exclaimed but then her eyes widened, then she bit her lip, which was just SO, so tantalizing… but not yet Agreste!

Which was when her heard her apologize as she brushed off his shoulder, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize how much you sound like your cousin Andrew!”

Andrew chuckled, “actually, it’s a reasonable mistake. Can we ah, go sit on your balcony to talk? I mean, I don’t mind cat-ching you,” Andrew quickly brushed the back of his neck nervously, “I just don’t want to risk you getting hurt Marinette.”

“Well, I don’t mind being caught.” She smirked lightly at him and Andrew almost lost his balance again. He hadn’t taken the time to change his pants or his shoes from being Adrien and they were not meant for rooftop climbing.

She giggled as they slowly stood up, “come on Andrew, let’s get down from here. I can make us some cocoa.”

Adrien nodded and followed her as she climbed down to her balcony.

…

Ten minutes later they were standing on her fire escape / balcony.

“Marinette, there’s something important that I need to talk you about.” Andrew told her nervously.

She glanced at him from the side, “yeah, me too. Can I go first please? I actually have two things to talk to you about.”

Andrew nodded and waved his hand, “ladies first.”

“Thanks. Well,” she sighed and looked out over the campus or at least what they could see from their position anyway, “I know I said that I don’t date models, and well, I guess after agreeing to go out with Adrien I’ve kind of decided to not follow that rule anymore, I just, well, I hope I don’t come to regret it.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you see, I made that rule because I’m a closet nerd and fell in love with a guy that I had never met in person online a few years ago. Eventually we even got married in the game, if you can believe that.”

“Actually, I can.” He whispered, but she didn’t seem to hear him.

“Sir Noir he, well, he was someone special and I, I loved him so much.” She swallowed, “I found out that he was a model because he sent me a photo of him and a couple other models, that wasn’t released until like a week after I got it.”

Andrew nodded as he followed along to the familiar story, a small grin on his face as he listened intently. “I sent him one of me with a bunch of my girlfriends, but soon after that, he had less time online. He had mentioned that he had a tough job, as a teenager mind you and it just kept getting worse. He had all these horror stories about working late, sore feet and muscles from standing still for so long, the exhaustion and the extreme and limited diet! I couldn’t believe it. It literally hurt to hear what he was going through and I didn’t understand, not really and well, I took too long to tell him how to contact me and eventually he just… disappeared.” Then she sniffed.

Andrew noticed that a she had shed a tear, for him! He swallowed and wrapped his arms around her brushing her tear away with his thumb, “Oh, Mari… I…”

She sniffed, “shush!” She patted his arm to make her point, “I’m not done and if I don’t say it now, I don’t know how I’ll ever bring it up again.”

He nodded.

“O-okay, well, my heart was broken and I just broke more as the months passed. My last message to him was to ask him to meet me in the game so I could give him my real-life phone number, just like he wanted, but after three months, well, it was time for me to accept that I needed to move on. So, I went through all the stages of grief, and once I hit the acceptance and anger part, well, I wrote off models because it hurt to see what they went through, especially since I couldn’t be there for him.” She sniffed and he hugged her close.

“Anyhow, I’m sorry about taking that out on you, and kind of Chat Noir.” He could practically feel her roll her eyes, “but I’m not ready to talk to him about it.”

“Oh? He ah,” he cleared his throat, “Chat mentioned that he wanted to talk to you, did he do something wrong?”

“Well, he did seem to make the press think that we were about to be engaged.”

“Oh, yeah.” Andrew exhaled, “I really don’t know how to explain how that happened.”

How can I begin to tell her that I’m Sir Noir, Chat Noir and Adrien? Andrew wondered.

Marinette nodded, “Actually, that is the second thing that I need to talk about.”

She leaned back and looked into his meadow green eyes, “your eyes, they’re practically the same as Adrien’s, do you know that?”

Andrew swallowed, “yeah? It must be the family resemblance?”

Marinette smirked a little, “I guess. Well, I need to be honest here Andrew, when I first met you, it was like a lightning strike, I found myself attracted to your sweet disposition and your humor if you can believe that,” he chuckled, “and your kindness. That hour you spent helping me move in at such a crazy time was so, well, you.” She blushed and he grinned at her as she quietly admitted, “I was already attracted to you after so little time.”

Andrew gave her a squeeze and a nod, requesting that she continue.

“Then you had to leave and I start unpacking and find that photo that Sir Noir, my online husband from so long ago, sent me, well, after I wind up having to save your cousin’s Kitty hide from his admirers.”

Andrew chuckled as he interjected, “I know that he appreciated that.”

“I know, but as I was saying,” Marinette’s voice sped up as she began to ramble, “there were only three guys in that photo and one was a guy with the last name of Agreste, and now that I think of it, he, he looked like you and well, Adrien too. I’ve only heard about Adrien as a model before to be honest. Plus, after all this time that I spent with Adrien, I don’t know what to think. I think that I might like him too and it’s so confusing, I don’t even know…” she paused, not knowing how to go on.

Andrew smiled gently with a wide grin, “you like me, and you like Adrien too?”

Marinette blushed as she gave him a small nod as she cupped Andrew’s face. “I feel… so conflicted. I don’t know which guy I like or even if one of you is the guy that I’ve already given my heart too.”

Marinette seemed to steel herself, “Andrew, I’m sorry but I really need to ask you this, because I really need to know, but are… are you my Sir Noir?”

end chapter.... the earlier chapters can be found at the link below

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18716623/chapters/44391187

[phoebehalliwell]

Socks & Starting Anew

req: could you please write a fic about penny and allen in 1940s

summary: penny, searching for meaning, purpose, or hell, maybe just a little adventure, leaves boston to return to her ancestral home in san francisco, where, with the proper guidance, she’ll find a life all of her own.

a/n: oops it’s long than expected sooo uhh (pt 1/3)

Winter 1945

Allen chose to stay. After the war ended, he saw many fellow shipbuilders pack up and head out, back to their small hometowns, to rejoin with a wife they had left, a little baby now a bustling toddler, or even just a high school sweetheart still flaunting a promise ring. Allen could have gone back home - he was sure people remembered him - but no one was waiting for him. So he chose to stay. There was something about the city of San Francisco that called to him, inexplicably; the great energy of discovery, youth, passion, that seemed to hang in the air, thick as the fog. He couldn’t go back home now - the idea of travelling north, buying some land, and settling down with some chickens and a temperate wife had never felt more foreign to him. No, he would stay in the city. Something was waiting for him here.

Spring 1946

It was time for a change. Penny had no gift for premonition but she knew something grand waited in her future, she just had to find it. It was actually her father who suggested she return to the old family home and take up with Cousin Pearl. Penny had always wanted to visit the house - she has studied it rigorously as a child, begging her mother to take her so she could see the Nexus herself. Her mother refused, of course. She hadn’t set foot in the house since some unspeakable disaster in the 20’s (unspeakable as it might have been, Penny still knew what had happened that February so many years ago; a curious mind and an unbreakable will had led Penny to uncover many things she shouldn’t have). So, she packed her bags and sent a telegram to one miss P. Bowen at 1329 Prescott Street, and was on a train the next morning.

Three days later Penny landed at the train platform in San Francisco, almost immediately tripping over a cat. She apologized to the creature and continued on, beginning the trek to the manor (Cousin Pearl refused to drive under any circumstances, but Penny didn’t mind the fresh air). She hadn’t made it three steps before the cat places itself in her path yet again, wrapping its way around her legs. She attempted to nudge it to the side to no avail.

The cat, black with white markings on the chest and legs, peered up at her with big eyes, meowing softly.

“Oh, no.”

Meow.

“No!”

Penny bent down, putting herself at level with the cat, matching its wide eyed gaze with a much sterner look of her own. “Look at me.” She pointed her finger at the cat. “I am not in the market for a familiar. I do not want guidance, I do not need guidance, and I am not willing to take up the responsibilities of pet ownership. Understand?”

The cat responded by softly licking Penny’s finger.

Penny scowled. “You’re disgusting.”

She tried to shove the cat away with her hand, but it just pushed its head against her, working its way into a pet.

“Incorrigible,” Penny muttered, standing up sharply and walking away from the train station.

The cat called out to her, but she didn’t turn back. Then, a man called out to her.

“Hey! Is this your cat?”

Penny turned back to see a man with cropped auburn hair holding the familiar. It snuggled up to him.

“No,” she responded, “it’s yours!”

Cousin Pearl wasn’t happy Penny was late - it wasn’t like she had planned anything - she just anticipated punctuality. To be fair, so did Penny, until she encountered the rolling hills of San Francisco. She had seen the post cards and the photos, sure, but nothing could have prepared her for the hike had just accomplished with two suitcases and kitten heels. Sweaty, tired, and aching, all she really wanted to do was lay down, but Pearl had other plans.

Penny wasn’t going to be living in the manor for free, that was for sure. Pearl wasn’t charging her rent, she wouldn’t do that to family, but from the second Penny had stepped on that train in Boston she had secured herself a job as Pearl’s assistant.

“It isn’t easy running the best portrait studio in the Bay, as I’m sure you can assume, and I do not get my reputation from slacking off.” Pearl began moving from room to room, adjusting items that she viewed to be askew. “People come here because they know they will get beautiful, quality photos in a clean and efficient manner.” Pearl kept talking to her as she walked; Penny quickly moved to follow her, abandoning her bags in the foyer. “This means keeping the house clean, and not leaving your personal belongings everywhere.”

She paused at this line, looking Penny up and down.

Penny’s eyes widened as she remembered her luggage sitting near the front door. “Sorry. Um, if you don’t mind, where is my room? Just so I know where to keep everything.”

Pearl turned on a heel, heading towards the stairs. “Of course,” she said, not turning back, “right this way.”

Penny quickly darted into the foyer to grab her bags, rolling the two large suitcases to the base of the stairs. She paused, sizing them up. She had just conquered the many hills of San Francisco, if she took another step upwards her legs might give out.

Pearl had already reached the upstairs floor; she could hear the faint click of a door opening and Pearl saying “This room will be yours,” as if Penny was there to see which one she was referring too.

Penny stared down her challenger, stepping onto the first step and hauling up one suitcase alongside her. She frowned at the other one, moving to lift it, but then rolling her eyes instead.

She swung her arms forward, and the suitcases moved themselves up the first landing, and with a turn of the wrist, rotated, and then a final movement, and they carried themselves to the top of the stairs. Penny smiled, darting up to join them.

Pearl was already watching as Penny reunited with her possessions on the second floor. “Well,” she said, “ I guess that brings us to the second over of business. Before each of my appointments we go extra lengths to secure the house against demonic attacks, a method which you will soon be in charge of, so it’s important you pay attention.” Pearl began traversing the length of this hallway, headed towards yet another flight of stairs, these presumably leading up to the attic. 

Penny looked into the room whose door was left ajar - her room, she assumed. It was quaint, with pastel wallpaper and framed photos of old family members. On the bed were extra linens and another comforter, all folded neatly and left for her. Penny flicked her wrist, and her suitcases rolled into the room, and, with a tiny wiggle of the fingers, managed to close the door behind them. Penny smiled, satisfied, then picked up the pace yet again to rejoin Pearl.

Pearl stood in front of a book, large, skinny, with a green leather binding and a large triquetra in the center. “This is our book of shadows. The protection spell used before each booking is here,” Pearl indicates a page very plainly labelled “Protection Spell”, then flips to another page, this one labelled “Lunar Cycle Protection Spell”, “and this is the protection spell I cast every full moon. Understood?”

“Is that it?” Penny tried not to sound underwhelmed, but it didn’t quite work.

Pearl didn’t judge her, surprisingly, but instead nodded solemnly. “Warren magic hasn’t been quite the same since Polly. She took her toll on the book.”

Penny nodded, unsure if she should try to comfort Pearl. She didn’t have to decide; Pearl quickly snapped out of her melancholy.

“But I’d rather see it lost to the world than in the hands of some demonic bastard.” She shut the book, turning to Penny. “You must be tired after all your travelling. Why don’t you rest? We’re starting bright and early tomorrow.”

Penny smiled, relieved, and pulled Pearl into a hug. “I’ll be ready.”