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dessarious · 2 years ago

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Guilt and Consequences Pt21

Beginning Previous

"So how many times have you been thrown out of schools exactly?" Izzy seemed to be taking this whole thing fairly well, but Lila hesitated.

"Twenty-six." Sabine's eyes widened at the number, but Izzy laughed.

"We're definitely related." At Lila's confused look, Izzy kept going. "I've been thrown out of just about every boarding school in the US and five in Europe. Of course, mine were because of grades more than anything else."

"But you're smart."

"That really doesn't matter when you refuse to do anything but doodle on tests and homework. It was my form of willful disobedience for my grandparents pulling me out of the public school I was in. Not the brightest thing to do, but I was hurting and extremely pissed off about being pulled out of what was left of my life." She frowned at the ceiling. "If not for Aunt Penny, I probably would have done worse."

"Who?" Lila's question made Izzy's eyes light up.

"That's right, you only met her a couple of times when you were really little. She'll be so happy when she hears you're alive. She's Dad's sister. Well, adopted sister, but that's beside the point. I'll text her to see when she's going to be in Paris next."

"That wouldn't happen to be Penny Rolling, would it?" Lila almost choked at the question, but Sabine sounded amused.

"Yes actually, do you know her?" Lila heard laughter and turned to see Chloe and Marinette on the stairs.

"I guess you are actually connected to Jagged Stone, Rossi." Chloe's tone was dry. Lila groaned.

"Alya can't find out about this. It'll just make her more determined to believe I was telling the truth all along." Wait... Jagged and Penny both loved Mari. "She's going to hate me." Izzy just looked confused, but Sabine rolled her eyes.

"No, she won't. You're family, and it's not like you were purposely trying to cause harm."

"Jagged Stone loves Mari just as much as he does Ladybug. There's no way they're going to be okay with me."

"Wait, your daughter is the little designer Penny told me about?" Great, even Izzy knew about Mari's talent. She'd be lucky if Penny even acknowledged her, let alone wanted anything to do with her. Sabine nodded with a proud smile.

"They don't need to know what happened, and it was all a big misunderstanding anyway." Chloe scoffed at Mari's declaration, and Lila just wanted to bash her head into a wall. Mari was the only one who could possibly consider what happened a misunderstanding. Even Izzy was looking at the girl like she had a screw loose.

"I'll talk to Penny and explain things. It will be fine, I promise." Izzy's words should have been comforting, but Lila just felt sick. The fact that she had to be explained to a relation didn't say much for her. "Why don't we head out to get your stuff? We'll worry about the rest when it happens."

"I suppose." Izzy frowned at her and Lila had a feeling she knew that she'd be worrying about it, regardless. When she stood, she pulled Lila with her before turning to Sabine.

"We'll be back later, but I'll probably take Riley out for dinner after we're done, so it won't be quick." The woman just smiled at them.

"Of course. Have fun." The smile Izzy wore worried her. It was more manic than anything else.

——————————————————————

"You're not going to tell me what happened, are you?" Lila had come back into the lobby to find the staff cowering behind their desks while Izzy glared at them from near the doors. She'd rushed her out to the car before Lila could say anything.

"It's nothing you need to worry about." She got into the backseat as the driver held the door. She hadn't expected it, but it made sense that Izzy had a driver. Especially in a place she didn't know well. It still felt weird, especially with the man eyeing them like he expected an explosion. Whatever happened, it must have been loud enough for him to hear it. "You just need to worry about where you want to go to eat after we get you a camera and a new laptop just in case she can track that as well."

"I've been through everything on there and haven't found anything suspicious, but most of my stuff is backed up so it's not a big deal either way." She didn't mention that she hadn't stored anything she considered important on anything but flash drives and SD cards she could hide easily in years.

"I'll keep your old one with me just like your phone, so you'll be able to get whatever you need from it. I just don't want to risk her finding you."

"You really don't need to buy me a new one. I'm sure I can use Marinette's or go to a library if I have to for anything while you get things figured out." Izzy sighed.

"It's not about what you can work with. I want to get you whatever you need or want so that you don't have to go without anymore. Just let me try to assuage my guilt, please." The last part sounded almost desperate, so Lila dropped it. She wasn't certain how to feel about someone spending so much on her, but if it made Izzy feel better it seemed like it would be okay. "You're thinking too hard again. I can see it."

"Is there something wrong with me?" She winced as soon as the words came out. The question had been floating around in her head as long as she could remember, but she hadn't meant for it to come out.

"Why do you think something is wrong with you?" Izzy's tone was off.

"I... I don't understand things I should. Even when I was little, I acted differently from how everyone thought I should."

"Being different doesn't mean something's wrong with you. You see and relate to the world in a way most people don't." Lila could only frown at her. That certainly sounded like something was wrong. Izzy sighed. "Riley, everyone sees the world differently. I see it in terms of how much I can piss off my grandparents. Your friend Marinette sees it in terms of design. Mine is certainly less healthy, but that doesn't make either inherently wrong."

"How do I see it?" It was a stupid question. How was Izzy supposed to know that?

"Why and how." Izzy's words sounded like a statement, not a question, and that just confused Lila more. "You look at everything around you and ask why and how it works. You ask why things are the way they are. You ask how things can be different. It's against your nature to just accept things at face value. It's why it never even occurred to you that lying to those nitwits would backfire."

That was... an interesting theory. It seemed true to a point, but if she wasn't affected by something, or wasn't interested in it, she ignored it. If it became an issue, she'd research it. It was why she'd read so many books on psychology to try to understand the way her mother was with her. It hadn't helped at all, but she did try.

"Would it be easier if I just accepted things?" Izzy frowned at her.

"Easier for who? No, never mind. First, you would go insane if you didn't pick things apart. Second, giving other people the advantage like that is a terrible idea. If you don't look past the surface, it can be dangerous. Look at our father." Lila blinked in confusion at the tone.

"You blame him?"

"I don't want to influence your opinion of him, but all he had to do was look into her actions, or what she was doing with his money. He never did. Misplaced trust is the quickest way to get hurt. Look at Marinette." Lila tried to remember anything from the time before her father died, but there wasn't much.

"I don't remember him spending time with me. I do remember you arguing with him. He always said you were too cynical." Izzy winced.

"He was of the opinion that I didn't like your mother because I was jealous of the time he spent with her, and nothing I said would get him to think otherwise. I think he tried to not spend individual time with you because he thought it would make me angry. If I'd realized that at the time, I would have tried to do something about it."

She didn't know how to respond to that, but luckily they made it to the electronics store. Maybe she could come up with something if she had time to process. The store wasn't bad. She found a nice camera, and Izzy insisted on buying extra lenses for it too. Their computer selection wasn't great, but they had the components to upgrade or build yourself. Lila protested, but Izzy said buying everything she needed to build a desktop would let her get what she wanted (even though Izzy seemed set on getting the most recent and powerful components) and it would give her something to do while she had to hide at Mari's house. Besides, she shouldn't need a laptop until her mother was dealt with and they could get her a new one then. Lila didn't really think she needed two, let alone three, computers, but Izzy seemed so excited about it.

When they finally left, Izzy asked her if she'd figured out where she wanted to eat. Lila mentioned a cafe nearby she wanted to try, just to make sure they didn't end up in some high scale restaurant. She really didn't want to be stared at because they weren't wearing the right clothes, and she'd heard good things about the cafe.

"Lila!" How could her luck possibly be this bad? "Why haven't you been at school?" Seriously? She turned to look at Alya and Nino walking towards her. Alya's older sister was sitting at a table nearby. Fantastic.

"She's transferring to a different one." Alya glared at Izzy and Lila didn't even want to know what was going through her mind. Izzy, on the other hand, seemed to just dismiss the girl.

"Who are you?" The demanding tone just got an eye roll, and Lila could practically see the steam building in Alya's head. She really didn't want to deal with her being Akumatized again.

"Izzy's my sister. If you don't mind, we'd really like to eat in peace." She didn't know where the words came from, or the cold tone, for that matter. Izzy wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. Alya and Nino both just seemed stunned. She tried to walk away before Alya found her voice, but she didn't manage it.

"You don't need to transfer. Whatever Marinette threatened you with, we can help." Lila could only groan and bury her head in Izzy's side. It shouldn't be possible for someone to be this stubborn about something so stupid.

"Oh, you're that classmate." Alya bristled at Izzy's tone but didn't have time to respond. "Look, you really need to drop this. I don't hold out any hope you'll listen to reason, but if you don't stop this nonsense, I'll be sure to get restraining orders for both my sister and Marinette. They don't need all this stress."

"I'm trying to help her." Alya's indignant tone caused Izzy to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"No, you're not. You're trying to prove to yourself that you were right to believe Riley, and that your opinion of Marinette is justified."

"Who's Riley?" Yeah, this was just going to make things more complicated.

"I am. My mother changed my name a long time ago, but I prefer Izzy use the name I was born with." They didn't seem to know what to do with that.

"Why would she change your name?" Nino at least just sounded confused. Lila wished she had an answer for him, but she didn't actually have a clue what her mother's reasoning was.

"It doesn't matter. And it's really not the point." Even Lila could hear how drained she sounded. "I made a huge mistake lying to you all and assuming you'd call me on it, and I own that. But you need to stop blaming Marinette, of all people, for my bad behavior and your ignorance." She only just noticed that Alya's sister had walked over, and she seemed extremely confused.

"What happened with Mari? You never said anything."

"She's been bullying Lila ever since she transferred."

"Marinette? Tiny ball of sunshine that wouldn't stand up for herself over anything, but always helped and stood up for her friends? That Marinette?" Oh thank god, someone else could see the insanity. Alya blinked at her for a moment, as if trying to get her brain to reset.

"She's jealous because Adrien likes Lila more than her." That just got another frown, and Lila fought not to gag at the thought.

"That doesn't sound like her. Didn't she help the model when he wanted to date someone?" That definitely sounded like Mari, but Lila hadn't heard about it. Must have been before she came or while she was out of school.

"That's not the same." She actually stomped her foot when she said it. Rather than responding to her, her sister turned to Lila.

"Was Marinette bullying you?"

"No. I lied, and she called me on it. That was it." Well, that was all Mari did, at least. Alya looked like she was going to argue, but her sister shot her a look and her mouth clamped shut.

"Why don't you two go back and sit down?" Alya pouted, but she and Nino did go back to the table. "I'm Nora." She held out a hand and Lila just blinked at it. Izzy shook it instead.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Izzy, and this is my sister Riley, er, Lila. Have you decided what you want other people to call you by chance?" Lila just shrugged. Nora just seemed to roll with it.

"Did I hear something about restraining orders?" Lila cringed, but Izzy just sighed.

"Look, I know that Riley isn't innocent in all this, but your sister is blatantly refusing to believe she was wrong about her. She's already attacked Marinette once with some of their other classmates and I'm not about to risk it again. That girl has dealt with enough because of this nonsense."

"They did what!?" More than a few patrons side eyed them at Nora shout. "Do you have proof of that?"

"There's a video if you'd like to see it, but as I said, right now, everyone just wants to be done with this. Marinette doesn't want to get anyone in trouble, but neither her mother nor I are going to let this continue. If you can just get your sister to calm down and back off, it would solve a lot of problems. Marinette and Lila are both transferring to a different school and that should be the end of this."

"Mari's transferring over this?" Nora ran a hand down her face. "Alya doesn't do calm, but I'll talk to her and our parents. My mom's been trying to get her to agree to therapy for all the hero chasing she does, but I'll back her up this time. If what you're saying is true, she needs it more than I thought. I would like to see that video though, no offense." Izzy just pulled out her phone. When she'd asked for the video while they were talking earlier, Lila hadn't thought much of it. She certainly hadn't expected to need it so soon.

"Of course." She handed the phone to Nora and Lila just waited. She seemed far too calm, but she developed a twitch in her right cheek as she watched. When she handed the phone back, her expression was blank.

"Thank you. You can tell Madam Cheng that Alya won't be bothering her daughter again."

"I'm sorry." It took her a second for Lila to realize the words came from her. She'd been thinking them since this conversation started, but she hadn't meant to say them. Nora cocked her head in confusion. "None of this would have happened if not for me."

"Alya is old enough to make her own decisions. Regardless of what you told her, her actions were her own and completely unacceptable. Her being so suggestible is another thing we're going to have to address. Thank you for bringing this to our attention." She sounded grim, and Izzy frowned at her.

"You don't seem surprised."

"Tempers run in our family. It's why we've all been Akumatized except mom. My outlet is sports, and we thought Alya's was her blog and running after the heroes. I'm not surprised that this happened, but I can believe she'd do that to Mari, especially after everything she’s done for her."

"Maybe being Akumatized has something to do with." Yet another thought that she didn't expect to come out of her mouth. Nora frowned at her. "It's just that everyone in the class has been Akumatized, except Marinette and Adrien, and they're the only two that know I was lying. Well, Adrien knew because Ladybug called me out in front of him, so maybe not. But maybe being taken over like that leaves people vulnerable to suggestion. It would explain why he tends to go after the same people so much if he basically leaves a door open." Now they were both frowning at her. Nora ended up letting out a bark of laughter.

"Thanks for that thought, kid. Because I didn't have enough to be worried about." Lila opened her mouth to apologize, but Nora put a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. You might even be right, so that's one more reason to get Alya, and all of us honestly, into therapy. I'll let you get on with your meal." She watched as Nora grabbed Alya and practically dragged her outside, Nino jogging behind to keep up. She looked back at Izzy to find her still frowning at her.

"Is that what you really think is happening?"

"It makes sense logically, but given we're dealing with magic, I don't know. It may just be that he has a limited range or something else entirely as well. I don't have enough information to be certain." Izzy was still frowning at her, but eventually shook her head as if trying to get rid of a thought.

"We'll talk more about this later, but we do need to eat." Lila wasn't certain what else there was to talk about, but she just nodded. "Please tell you you've gotten over your 'I only eat green food' phase."

Beginning Previous

Tag List

@readeracctagmepls @aestheticnpoetic @akana-sama @schrodingers25 @runestarchild @paradoxal-occurance @heaven428 @animegirlweeb @deepestobservationwombat @iggy-of-fans @yin-390 @thehufflepuffranger-blog @trippingovermyfeet @misslenamooney @ladybug-182 @zalladane @pale-lady-dreamer @smolplantmum @peachedpocky @bezzy-d @naoryllis @sassakitty @18-fandoms-unite-08 @toodaloo-kangaroo @nobigdealcy

#lila rossi #lila redemption #original character #sabine cheng #alya cesaire #alya salt #nora cesaire #nino lahiffe #miraculous ladybug

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rachaelswrites · 4 years ago

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Party Time is Over

Noah Schnapp x Gyllenhaal!reader

You and Noah go to a party

Word Count: 2,247

A/N: I got a little carried but I really love this paring so please send in more ideas for them

Warnings: fluff, underage drinking/partying, brief mention of hickeys

You and Noah rarely got time to yourselves, in between his and your dad’s filming schedule. This weekend was the one chance Noah was in town with no work responsibilities and you wanted to surprise him. He thought you were still in London with Jake, but his project finished early and you got home that weekend. You’re really close to Noah’s whole family and especially Chloe, his twin. You asked her for his flight information and met him at the airport Friday night.

You were both extremely jet lagged and fell asleep as soon as you got into his bed. Chloe of course, saw and posted a picture of the two of you asleep. You and Noah didn’t post about your relationship often but when you did, fans went crazy.

You woke with one of Noah’s arms around your waist and his other hand occupied with his phone, scrolling through TikTok. “Good morning,” you mumbled while kissing his cheek.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Good,” you said sitting up and stretching your arms, “Much better than in London. Try sharing a room with my dad,”

“I can only imagine,”

“Sometimes I wonder if he stays up all night to make noise and make me miserable on purpose. Because if he is, its working,”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” he replied, setting his phone down. He rolled over and sat so he was now facing you. He grabbed your hands and started pressing kisses to your knuckles, making you giggle, “So. What do you want to do today?” he asked.

“I dunno. Just spend time with you. Dad has a new project soon so I want to be with you as much as I can,”

“We can stay in and watch movies. Finn told me about some good ones I think you’d like,”

“Ok sounds good,” you kissed him and got up from the bed, “Let me shower real quick and I’ll meet you on the couch,”

You quickly showered and got ready. You changed into sweatpants and one of your favorite band tees, but as you were leaving Noah’s room, you spotted a hoodie that you wanted to steal. You slipped it on and made your way downstairs. Noah was wrapped in a blanket and was laying on his back. You walked over and laid down next him, placing your head on his chest and wrapping your arms around his torso. You looked at him, studying his face.

“What’s up Y/n? You’re staring at me,”

“Sorry. You’re just really handsome,”

“I look dead. I literally woke up like thirty minutes ago,”

“Still a cutie,” you mumbled.

“Aww. You two are so cute,” Chloe said from the kitchen. Noah stuck his tongue out at her which she responded with a middle finger.

You slapped Noah’s chest playfully “Stop bickering and start the movie please,”

“Fine,” he said going to Netflix, “I know you don’t like watching movies your dad is in, but this one is really good, according to Finn,”

“No this one is fine. It’s actually my favorite of his,” you watched as he pushed play on Wildlife. You watched a few more movies until you got bored. You stood up from the couch and walked over to the window, “It’s nice out today. We should go out,” you turned and looked at your boyfriend, seeing his expression, “or we can stay if you want. I’m just bored,”

“No, it's fine. I know you have the attention span of a goldfish,”

“Hey! It's not my fault,”

“I know. It’s one of the reasons I love you,” he said getting up and walking over to you. He hugged you from behind and kissed the side of your neck.

“Mm hmm. Sure. I love you too,” You turned in his arms and kissed him.

“I gotta go get ready. I’ll be down soon,” he said, pulling away.

“M’kay,” you sat back down on the couch and waited.

After ten minutes, you and him were walking hand and hand down the streets of New York. “Let’s go on the subway,”

“Why? Where are we going babe?”

“Let’s go to my place. We can find something to do there,”

Noah nodded and you two caught a train and took your seats. You were on the other side of the city so the ride would take a while. Your phone started buzzing in the pocket of your sweatpants, so you fished it out and answered it.

“Hey honey I got a notification that you left Noah’s house and saw that you were moving. I was just wondering what you’re up to,” your dad said.

“Oh yeah. Just on the subway,”

“You’re on the subway by yourself? You know I don’t like you going there by yourself,”

“I’m not by myself Dad, I’m with Noah. He’ll keep me safe. Right Noah?” you asked your boyfriend, he nodded. “He said he would. We’ll be fine,”

“Text me when you get off then,”

“Will do. Bye Dad,”

“Bye Y/n,” he hung up and you and Noah continued your conversation.

You got off at your stop and walked the few blocks to the apartment. You opened the door and greeted your dad, who was at the kitchen table reading.

“Dad we’re going up to my room is that ok?” you asked.

“Yeah just keep the door open and hands to yourselves. I don’t need mini yous crawling around here anytime soon,”

You rolled your eyes and went to your room, Noah following. You two just sat around lazily watching TV or scrolling through social media. Noah was sitting at your desk when his phone started ringing and he answered it. You were sitting on the floor by your bed and rolled over closer to him. “Hey what’s up man?” he asked. You tried to hear what the other person said but couldn’t make it out, “I would love to but I’m with Y/n today. I don’t know when we’ll see each other again,” he paused to listen to the other person, “I can ask her,” he lowered the phone and looked down at you.

“Do you want to go to a party later. Some of my friends are throwing one and they invited me. We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,”

“Are you kidding? Of course I want to go! For the past three weeks I have been stuck in London, spending the whole time in a theater or hotel room with my dad. Do you know how much I miss interacting with people my age!” you said, jumping up

“So is that a yes then?” he asked

“Duh,” you walked towards your closet to pick something out to wear.

Noah turned back to the phone, “I guess we’ll be there at six,” he hung up and watched you, “What are you doing,”

“Picking something out. I can’t wear this,” you gestured to your current outfit, “To a party. What do you think about this dress?” you held up a black mini dress, one you could find people wearing in a club, (nothing too revealing otherwise Jake would flip). Noah gave you a thumbs up and you changed in the bathroom. You came back out and looked for your favorite pair of heels.

“You look good Y/n,” he said.

You pulled on a pair of silver heels and responded, “Thank you. You do too,” he was wearing black jeans and a blue bomber jacket with a white shirt underneath. You grabbed a denim jacket to throw on over your dress. As you walked downstairs, you yelled to your dad, “We’re going out, I don’t know when we’ll be back,”

“Hang on. Where are you going?”

“To a party,”

“Be safe,” your dad said, pointing a finger at you, “No drugs and no drinking,”

“Ok I promise bye,” you waved to him and shut the door. That promise was not kept for long.

By Eleven, you were surprised you and Noah weren’t blacked out by now. You didn’t plan on drinking but it started with one drink, then two, and then too many more that you lost count. You only realized Chloe was there when she came over and pulled you from Noah. You and him had been dancing in the center of the room. His hands were on your waist and he was kissing all over your neck and collarbone, most likely leaving at least one mark you would find the next morning.

“Chlo Chlo! What are you doing? M’dancing with Noah,” you slurred.

“You’ve had too much to drink. Let me call your dad so he can come get you.”

You shook your head and tried to get away but she grabbed your hand, “Y/n come on, where’s your phone?” you pointed to the pocket of your jacket on the floor and she reached over and grabbed it. She saw you had several missed calls from Jake. Her grip on you loosened and you slipped away going to find Noah again. Chloe found you two again but this time you were making out. She separated you two again and led you to the doorway of the apartment you were in. “Your dad is here. Take your phone and jacket,”

She opened the door and walked you down to the lobby where your dad was. “Oh my God. Y/n what the hell?” he said putting his hands on your shoulders, “You smell like alcohol. How much do you drink?”

“I didn’t drink anything Dad. I told you I wouldn’t,” you said, very clearly intoxicated.

“Y/n,” he warned, “Tell me how much you drank,”

You started counting on your fingers but once you reached five and kept going, Jake had enough, “Ok I get it. Let’s get you home sweetheart. Can you walk?”

You shook your head. Even if you could, you didn’t want to. You had discarded your shoes two hours ago but your feet still hurt. “Ok. I’ll carry you then,” he helped you put your jacket back on and picked you up but was confused when you didn’t have shoes, “Where are your shoes?”

“I dunno,” you mumbled. Luckily, Chloe came back to the lobby with your shoes in hand.

“She forgot her shoes. Thought she might want them,”

“Thank you Chloe,” he took the shoes from her and carried you to the car. He set you in the backseat and tried to buckle you in but you kept slapping his hand, “Y/n stop. Let me put your seatbelt on,”

You stopped attacking him and he got in the driver’s seat and drove back to the apartment.

You managed to walk to the elevator and inside the apartment before collapsing on the couch. “Dad can you get me some water?”

“Sure,” he said from the kitchen. He filled up a glass and offered it to you. You swallowed it in one big gulp.

“Do you want to change out of that dress. I can get you some stuff from your room,”

You nodded and pulled a blanket over you. He came back carrying a t-shirt and shorts and tossed them at you, “Hey c’mon wake up.”

You groaned and got up and trudged to the bathroom. You changed and walked back out and flopped on the couch. Jake picked up the dress you left on the bathroom floor and headed upstairs to his own room, “Goodnight Y/n, I love you,” but you didn’t hear him because you had already fallen asleep.

You woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. The light from the kitchen was hurting your eyes and you felt a weight on your legs. You sat up squinting. You saw your dad using your legs as a laptop stand. Jake noticed, and looked at you, “Good morning sunshine,” he said cheerily.

You groaned, his voice ringing in your ears, “Shhh. Stop yelling. You’re being too loud,” you whisper-shouted.

“I'm not even yelling. I’m just talking,” he responded.

“Shhh. I have a headache,” you moved your finger to your lips.

“I figured you would. You partied hard last night. I left you some stuff in the bathroom,”

You rolled off the couch and made your way to the bathroom. He left you a bottle of Advil and Gatorade. You took the pills and took a drink of Gatorade. You looked at yourself in the mirror and you looked awful. You looked like a train ran over you three times. Your shirt moved and exposed your collarbone. You caught a glance and gasped. There was a huge hickey left by Noah. You had no idea how to hide it from your dad.

You left the bathroom and went into your room, searching for something to use. You spotted the hoodie you stole from Noah the day before and slipped it on. You went into the living room to join your dad. “Why’d you put a jacket on?” he asked.

You shrugged sitting next to him and putting your head on his shoulder, “Just got cold,”

“It’s not for hiding that giant hickey I hope. Cause I already saw that,”

You shot up, “What! When?”

“Earlier this morning. I went to see if you were still alive, I saw it,” he explained, “Don’t feel bad. I’ve seen worse,”

“Eww,” you said, smacking his arm, “I didn’t need to hear that,”

“I’m joking. Just next time you go out, don’t get wasted. I love you, but next time Noah can take care of you,”

“Sounds good to me,”

Taglist

@ssebstann @peachyprincessss @emmy-writes-sometimes @teenage-incompetence

#jake gyllenhaal #jake gyllenhaal x daughter #jake gyllenhaal x teen #jake gyllenhaal x daughter!reader #jake gyllenhaal x teen!reader #noah schnapp #noah schnapp x reader

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gryffindorcls · 5 years ago

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A New Light

This is a birthday fic for my wonderful friend, @hermionemonica! HAPPY (BELATED) BIRTHDAY, MY AMAZING FRIEND!!! I hope you enjoy this little bit of Adrienette!

---

AO3

Fanfiction

Word Count: 11,203

“What are you smiling at?” Kagami took a long sip from her drink.

Adrien shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“You have been staring at the wall and smiling for the past five minutes. You are either in great pain or are thinking about something that makes you happy.”

“Great pain?”

“Yes, whenever you get hurt, you smile and brush it off.”

“When have I ever done something like that?”

“Last week when you got distracted and tripped at fencing practice. As I recall, you bruised your arm.”

“I was waving to a friend, and I didn’t want her to worry.”

“It was a pretty bad bruise. Is that what is hurting you now?”

“What?” Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, Kagami, I’m not in pain.”

She took another sip. “Then why are you smiling?”

“I was just thinking back on my day at school.”

“I take it you had a good day then?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I did.”

“So, what happened today that made you smile like that?” Kagami set down her drink. “I would love to hear about it.”

“Well, Marinette came into school on crutches today. She sprained her ankle, and the doctor told her that she had to stay off of it for a few days.”

“And her being hurt is what’s making you happy? I do not understand.”

“No! It’s nothing like that. Seeing her in pain is the worst. But Alya was on a field trip to the tv studio with the school newspaper, and Marinette needed someone to help carry her belongings. I offered, and she and I got to talk a lot today.”

“I see. Anything else?”

“At the end of the school day, I walked her home, and her mom gave me a whole bag of pastries!” Adrien reached into his backpack and pulled out a brown paper bag. “Would you like one?”

Kagami shook her head. “No.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, taking a large bite out of a chocolate croissant. “They are delicious.”

“I’m sure they are.” She took a deep breath. “I think we should see other people.”

Adrien choked on the pastry. “Excuse me, what?”

“I’m breaking up with you.”

“But...why? What did I do?”

“Tell me, who were you waving to when you fell down at fencing practice?”

“Marinette, but I don’t see how…”

She held her hand up in the air, effectively silencing him. “That’s why.”

“I don’t understand.” Adrien’s chest began to tighten. “What does Marinette have to do with any of this?”

“You’re in love with her. Everyone can see it.”

“I’m not in love with Marinette. She’s just a friend.”

“And apparently, everyone can see it but you.”

“Kagami, I don’t understand what’s happening right now. Nothing is going on between me and Marinette.”

She sighed and shrugged. “I know. It’s because I’m in the way.”

He did his best to control his breathing. “You don’t love me anymore?”

“Adrien, I will always love you. You have been an amazing boyfriend, but the longer that we are together, the more I come to realize that we are not meant to be. Honestly, I’ve been waiting to have this conversation with you for a while. It’s okay for you to be in love with Marinette. I see that now.”

“Kagami…”

“I am not mad.” She paused and scrunched her face. “Well, I’m not mad at you. I am upset with myself for not thinking about things logically before we started going out. I was blinded by the idea of dating you, and I did not take the time to see how much better your life would be if you were with Marinette instead. She makes you happy.”

Adrien groaned with frustration. “Yes, because she’s my friend, and even if I did have a crush on her, she’s not in love with me.”

“There was a time when I thought you were perfect, but it turns out I was wrong. You’re a wonderful person, Adrien, but you are very oblivious.”

“I’m not oblivious.”

“Then that means you are refusing to admit your feelings for her because you’re scared.” Kagami shook her head, reached across the table, and took his hand. “There’s no need to be afraid. You two are perfect for each other.”

He took back his hand and hung his head. “But she’s only ever been my friend.”

“And we were friends before we started dating, and I hope to continue being your friend after today. Things change, and I have learned that it is okay when they do.”

“How did you even come to the conclusion that I’m in love with Marinette?”

“Well, your face gets brighter whenever you see her or talk about her, you’re always leaning in her direction, and you’ve told me at least three dozen times how amazing and incredible she is. The list goes on, Adrien.”

“I can’t love her.”

“But you do.”

“Even if I did, I can’t. We’re just friends. She's not interested in being my girlfriend.”

“Excuse me for sounding like Chloe when I say this, but that is ridiculous.”

He closed his eyes and sighed. Deep down, he knew that Kagami was right. Adrien had always harbored feelings for the girl who sat behind him in class. While he enjoyed hanging out with Kagami, spending time with Marinette was different.

Marinette was magnetic. Adrien was naturally drawn to her energy, and he was enamored by her kindness. He’d always felt like she could be more than just a friend, but his love for his partner had prevented him from exploring those feelings.

Had he thought about asking her out when he moved on from his crush on Ladybug? Yes, but he’d assumed that she wasn’t interested after she disappeared halfway through their escape from the Bourgious’ mind-numbing anniversary party. Besides, she had Luka.

Asking out Kagami had been his way of letting go of the unattainable love interests in his life. Kagami was cool, and he was definitely attracted to her. He desperately wanted to love her the same way he loved Ladybug and Marinette, so he did his best to make their relationship thrive.

For months, he took her on dates, bought her flowers, and celebrated their milestones, but his heart refused to cooperate. He never felt the same dizzying adoration for Kagami, and this was something that racked his mind with guilt. Nonetheless, Adrien had worked hard to move on from his former crushes, and he didn’t know if he was ready to once again embrace his feelings for Marinette.

“I don’t know what else to say.”

“Say that you will think about it. I want us both to be happy, and neither of us will be truly happy if we stay in this relationship.”

“I guess,” he whispered. She stood up and walked around the table. “Good, now I must get going.”

“Already?”

“We have nothing else to talk about.”

“And what am I supposed to do now?”

“Go home and think. Find your happiness.”

“How can I be happy when you’re the second girl who’s rejected me? I really wanted us to work out.”

“I know.” Kagami knelt down and cupped his cheek. “And I’m not rejecting you. I’m setting you free.”

“As long as I am Adrien Agreste, I will never be free,” he mumbled.

It was a truth that had been woven into every fiber of his being. Chat Noir was his only escape, and his civilian life was bound not only by his father’s rules and expectations but by his life in the public eye. He longed for freedom outside the mask, but it was a dream that seemed woefully out of reach.

“You have the power to change that. It is all about how you look at the world, and perhaps it is time for you to start looking at things in a new light.” Adrien’s broken spirit began to mend under Kagami’s unwavering stare.

He sat up straight. “I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try.”

“You need to be honest about your feelings.” She smiled. “Once you do that, everything will fall into place.”

Ladybug’s final rejection played in his mind. “I already tried doing that with...someone else, and it didn’t work.”

Kagami removed her hand from his cheek and rose to her feet. “Think about it this way, if Marinette had been the one to tell you that she loved you the day Miracle Queen showed up, would you have kissed her, or would you have pulled away at the last second like you did with me?”

“I...I don’t know.”

Why are you lying, his mind screamed, Of course, you know.

“Yes, you do. Goodbye, Adrien. I’ll see you at our next fencing practice.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the cafe.

Even though he was surrounded by people, when Kagami disappeared from sight, Adrien became painfully aware that he was sitting by himself. It was a sensation that he knew all too well.

He pulled out his phone and texted his bodyguard. His phone chimed with a response a few seconds later.

Gorilla: 5 minutes

Adrien groaned. He had five whole minutes to sit by himself and think. At least when he was alone in his room, he had the luxury of talking to Plagg. There were too many people in the cafe for his Kwami to safely come out of hiding, so he sighed, rested his head on the table, and waited for the Gorilla to arrive.

He felt empty, but he was surprised to find that he wasn’t sad. Being rejected by Ladybug had hurt infinitely worse than hearing his now ex-girlfriend say that she wanted to break up with him. By the time his phone chimed a second time, he had concluded that it was the absence of Kagami's presence that upset him more than the actual break-up.

After hastily grabbing his belongings, he walked out of the cafe and hopped into the backseat of his family’s car. On the way home, he stared at the passing scenery. When they drove past the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery, a dull ache thudded against his chest.

It doesn’t matter what Kagami says, I can’t ask out Marinette. She doesn’t love me like that, and it would ruin our friendship.

He turned his head away from the window.

And I can’t lose her as a friend.

The car pulled up to his house.

I almost lost Ladybug’s friendship by being too forward.

Adrien hopped out of the car, walked into his house, and made his way to his room.

Marinette can never know how I feel.

Upon reaching his room, he closed the door behind him, sat down at his desk, and turned on his computer. His Kwami flew out of his backpack and landed in his lap.

“You okay, kid? Plagg asked, sympathy lacing his tone.

“Yup.” Adrien nodded. “I was just about to do my homework before I have to get ready for bed.”

“And you don’t want to talk about what happened at all?”

“Nope.”

“Then something must be really wrong. Talking about your love life is your cheese.”

“My cheese?”

“Yes.” Plagg flew into his cheese cabinet and emerged with a large wedge of camembert. “You love telling me about your crushes almost as much as I love eating cheese.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I guess I’m just not in the mood for it tonight.”

“I don’t want you bottling this up and getting Akumatized. That would be apocalypse-level bad.”

“I promise that I’m fine.”

“Your girlfriend broke up with you. You moped for weeks after Ladybug rejected you.”

“This is different. I was in love with Ladybug, and as much as I love spending time with Kagami, I never actually fell in love with her.”

“You were pretty upset in that cafe.” Plagg crossed his arms. “You can’t tell me that you weren’t.”

Adrien shrugged. “I think I was just shocked, but then I realized that Kagami was right. Yeah, I’ll miss her company, but we really are better off as friends.”

“Look, kid, I didn't say anything when you started dating sword girl because I wanted you to be happy, but I knew it wouldn't last forever. I’ve been preparing for this moment for a while. A break-up is a big deal, and it's okay to be a little upset.”

“What do you mean that you ‘knew it wouldn't last forever’?”

“I always thought you’d wind up with pigtails. Kagami was right about that, too. Your whole face lights up when you talk about Marinette...and you talk about her all the time.”

“No, Marinette is just a friend, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“Are you serious? Adrien, I…”

He cut off his Kwami. “Do you remember when Kagami asked me if I would have kissed Marinette if she’d been the one to confess her love first?”

“I hear everything...all the time.” Plagg shuddered dramatically, prompting Adrien to roll his eyes.

“Then you heard me tell her that I didn’t know, but that was a lie.” He paused and released a heavy sigh before continuing. “My answer to that question will always be ‘yes’. I remember wishing that Marinette had been the one to stay that day. I would have kissed her in a heartbeat.”

“A-ha! So, you do love Marinette!” A smug grin settled on Plagg’s face. “I knew it.”

He threw his hands into the air. “Of course I do! I would be an idiot not to, and honestly, I was an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Remember the time she tried to kiss me when I pretended to be a statue?”

“Yeah, I do. That was one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to watch, and I’ve been alive since the beginning of time.”

“Once I started to move on from Ladybug, I realized that I’ve had a crush on Marinette for months. Since then, not a day has gone by that I don’t regret that moment in the wax museum.”

“Then just tell that to Marinette so everyone can be happy and move on!”

“I can't! No one can know how I feel about her. It would ruin everything.”

Plagg shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that Marinette walked away!” A lump started to form in his throat. “Yes, I would have kissed her if she’d stayed and told me that she loved me, but she didn’t. Kagami did. Then two days later I saw her eating ice cream with Luka. Do you know how hard it was to be okay with that?”

“Maybe it’s not what you think.”

“She walked away, Plagg. Marinette isn't in love with me. Was there a time that asking her out was a possibility? Sure, but I missed my chance...and she’s in love with Luka now. If she knew that I liked her, she wouldn't want to be my friend anymore.”

“I see where you’re coming from, but I really think you may have misread the situation.”

“I learned my lesson after Ladybug. I will not pursue another girl who is interested in someone else. I refuse to set myself up for heartbreak again. Getting rejected by Marinette would earn me a visit from a purple butterfly.”

“But what if she is interested in you?”

“Whenever I’ve asked her if she sees me as more than a friend, she’s always said ‘no’. I would ask her out on the spot if she told me that she loved me, but it’s not going to happen.” Tears started to pool in the corners of his eyes.

Plagg poked Adrien’s cheek. “No, don’t do that. I didn’t mean to push. Please don’t get upset.”

“I’m fine. I’m not going to get Akumatized. Not this time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Adrien picked up his textbook and waved it through the air. “I have my homework to distract me, remember?”

“Fine, but I’m still going to watch out for purple butterflies.” Plagg punched the air. “Nothing will get past me.”

He scratched his Kwami behind the ears. “Thank you for caring.”

“For you, kid, always.” Plagg nuzzled his cheek before flying off to the other side of the room.

For the rest of the evening, Adrien did his best to focus on his schoolwork. Every time his mind conjured up an image of a raven-haired girl with pigtails, he pushed the thought away.

After doing a sub-par job on his physics homework, he took a shower and climbed into bed. He tossed and turned for two hours before falling into a restless sleep. When he awoke the next morning, his mind was filled with fog.

Still doing his best to not think about his love life, he got ready, ate breakfast, and hopped into the car. When he arrived at school, he noticed Marinette struggling to simultaneously carry a box and juggle her crutches, and without a second thought, he sprang into action.

Seeing that the light was green, he sprinted across the street, grabbed the box from her hands, and placed a steadying hand on her back.

“Thank you, Adrien.” She smiled, and the emptiness he’d felt the previous night melted away.

Maybe asking her out wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“You’re welcome.” Adrien’s heart pounded in his chest. “Next time, text me if you need help carrying something to school.”

“I appreciate the offer, but hopefully there won’t be a next time. If the doctor gives me the all-clear today, I won’t have to use the brace anymore.” Balancing herself on one crutch, Marinette gave him a thumbs up.

No, she’s your friend, Adrien. Don’t mess this up.

“T-that’s good!” He swallowed against a dry throat. “So, your ankle is feeling better?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a little weak, but I can walk on it as long as I sit down and take breaks.”

Why does she have to be so cute?

“I’m really happy to hear that.” Adrien reached out and touched her arm.

“I...oh...um...we should probably use our feet now.” She shook her head and groaned. “No, wait, that sounded weird. Sorry, We should go to school...um...using our feet. WALKING! THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL IT.”

“So cute.”

“What?”

Oh, God, I said that out loud!

“I...uh…”

“Did you just call me cute?” Her voice sounded strained. “Unless that’s not what you said! Of course, that’s not what you said! What did you just say?”

Change the subject, Agreste!

“I said, um...oh, shoot! Yup! That’s it. Oh, shoot! We’ll be late if we don’t leave right now!” He chuckled nervously as he shot a finger gun in her direction.

She pinched her lips together and looked away. “Uh, yeah, okay. I guess you’re right.”

Adrien could feel the tension in the air as they slowly made their way across the street, up the stairs, and into the school’s courtyard. With each passing step, the desire to move past their previous conversation grew, but every time he opened his mouth to speak, he choked on his words.

“So,” Marinette said, cutting through the silence, “how was your date with Kagami last night? I remember you telling me that you were taking her to that cafe she and I love going to.”

Knowing that his answer would usher in more awkwardness between them, he stifled a groan. He opened and closed his mouth several times before slumping his shoulders and hanging his head.

She leaned in. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He took a deep breath through his nose and nodded. “It’s just a little uncomfortable to talk about my relationship with Kagami at the moment.”

Marinette’s cheeks grew bright red. “Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry! You’re right. It was very rude of me to pry. It won’t happen again.”

“No! No! It’s nothing like that!” He paused and shifted the box onto his hip. “She kind of...broke up with me.”

She gasped. “Oh, Adrien! I’m so sorry! Are you doing alright?”

“Surprisingly, yes. I’m actually not that upset.

“You’re not?”

“Really, I’m fine. Kagami and I weren’t right for each other. It’s better this way.”

“You really think that?”

“Yes, I do.”

An unreadable expression passed over her face before she turned her head away and looked at the ground. “That’s too bad. You both seemed like a good match for each other. You both have so much in common.”

Adrien swallowed. “Sometimes it’s the opposites that work best together. Almost like two halves of a whole.”

Someone like you.

“Y-yeah, um, maybe.” She cleared her throat. “We should go in. I need to drop off that box of supplies in the artroom before we head to Miss Bustier’s class.”

He forced a smile. “Lead the way.”

As they made their way into the school, his mind chanted the same phrase on repeat. She’s just a friend. She’s just a friend. She’s just a friend.

When they finally arrived at their first class, he tried to not think about the fact that she was sitting right behind him.

She’s just a friend.

Or that she smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.

She’s just a friend.

Or that all he wanted to do was sweep her off her feet and kiss her until they both ran out of air.

She’s just a friend.

By the end of class, he was ready to scream. When Miss Bustier dismissed everyone, he ran into the hallway and sprinted down to the locker room.

She’s just a friend. She’s not in love with you.

Adrien groaned. “Why me?”

“Bro, are you okay?” Nino rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been kind of out of it all morning.”

“I told myself that I would stop chasing after things I can never have, yet here I am. Alone and miserable.” He thumped his head against his locker.

Nino took off his hat and scratched the top of his head. “I gotta be honest, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Did your dad do something?”

He shook his head. “No, this time it was all me. I have no one to blame but myself.”

“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Maybe another time. Let’s just get ready for whatever Mr. D’Argencourt has in store for us today.”

“Whatever you say, dude. I’m here if you need me.”

“Thanks, Nino.”

Not wanting to be late for class, Adrien changed into his gym clothes and did his best to compose himself before walking with the rest of the boys to the courtyard. When they arrived, Mr. D'Argencourt instructed them to stretch while he retrieved a bag of rubber playground balls from a storage closet.

Adrien never understood why Mr. D'Argencourt insisted on having his gym class play kickball in the school courtyard. They played plenty of other games in the stadium, but never kickball. Even after three incidents in which windows had been broken or cracked, he still refused to move the game to a larger venue. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt. Nonetheless, despite the safety concerns, he was grateful for the distraction that the game would provide. He was looking forward to spending the next hour away from the all-consuming thoughts that made his heart ache.

Today, Mr. D'Argencourt decided to have the boys play against the girls. Adrien stifled a groan. Gym classes were always infinitely more competitive when Alix and Kim were on opposing teams.

After a coin toss, the girls chose to kick first. Adrien took his place on the field and watched as each girl took their turn. He did his best to keep his eyes glued on the kicker, but the familiar clink of crutches behind him pried his focus away from the game.

The ache in his heart came creeping back when Marinette took her seat on a bench, shot him a smile, and waved in his direction. For a moment, he forgot where he was, and he returned her gesture with a timid wave.

She’s so beautiful. Does she even know how beautiful she is? Someone should tell her. I should...no, she’s just a friend. She’s just a...

A rush of moving air breezed past his arm, pulling him away from his thoughts, and a cacophony of groans sounded across the field. Adrien spun his head towards home base just in time to see Alix score a point for the girls’ team.

“Stop flirting, Agreste!” Kim called out from the pitcher’s mound, “You can talk to your girlfriend later.”

“My Adrikins is not dating Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe said as she sauntered towards home base, “He’s dating that rude fencing girl. Not that she’s any better, but still, he has standards.”

Don’t you dare talk about my girl that way,” Alya yelled from the sidelines, “And by the way, it’s kind of hypocritical to call someone rude when you’re also saying mean things about other people.”

“Ugh, whatever.”

A flash of anger surged through his body, and Adrien did his best to remain calm and collected. He and Marinette were just friends, and as much as he wanted to change that, he could not.

Thoughts of his conversation with Kagami and Plagg the night before sent an unpleasant pang through his chest. “Can we just get on with the game? Marinette and I are great friends, nothing more.”

Chloe turned towards Kim. “You heard him. Are you going to pitch the ball or what?”

Kim rolled his eyes and looked at Adrien. “Just keep your mind on the game, Mr. Model. Some of us are trying to take this seriously.”

Adrien took a deep breath, looked at Marinette, and shrugged. She shot him a sympathetic look and mouthed a quick “sorry” before looking down at the sketchbook sitting on her lap.

He nodded, smiled, and turned towards home base.

She’s just a friend.

He watched as Lila walked up to the plate.

She’s just a friend.

His eyes tracked the ball as it shot across the courtyard.

She’s just a friend.

Everything stopped when the ball hit Marinette on the side of the head, causing her to fall off the bench.

Adrien bolted. Within seconds, he was kneeling next to Marinette, cradling her in his arms.

“Oops!” Lila said with a sickening sweetness in her voice, “I guess I’m not very good at this game. Is Marinette going to be okay?”

Ignorning the urge to scream at Lila, Adrien brushed Marinette’s bangs away from her face, revealing a large bump. “You’re hurt.”

She turned her head. “No, I’m fine. Really, I am.”

“No, you’re not. You need to go to the nurse so she can call your parents.”

“I don’t need to go home. I have a group project in art, and…”

He cut her off. “And they will understand that you getting medical attention comes first.”

“But I already missed a day because of my stupid ankle. I can’t let them down again!”

“Marinette, go with Adrien to the nurse.” Nathaniel stepped out of the crowd that had begun to surround them. “It’s okay. You’re not letting us down.”

“Are you sure?” She bit her lip. “It doesn’t really hurt that bad.”

Adrien pulled her even closer. “But it’s going to hurt a lot later.”

“I guess you’re right. Let me just get my things.” She pulled away from his grip, attempted to stand up, and stumbled.

Without hesitation, Adrien snaked one arm around her back and the other under the bend of her knees. She squeaked when he stood and lifted her into a bridal carry. Disregarding his classmate’s gasps, he met Marinette’s startled gaze.

“Don’t worry about your stuff,” he whispered, “I don’t want you to get hurt again. Hold on tight, okay?”

She looped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his chest. “Okay.”

Not wanting to jostle the girl in his arms, he slowly made his way to the nurse’s office. “Sorry about the smell. These gym clothes have to get washed. I know they probably stink right now.”

She giggled. “Don’t worry. I love you.”

He stopped in his tracks.

It was only three words, but coming from her lips, they were the most beautiful three words in the universe. They were a patch of sunlight on a dreary day, wrapping him in the warmth his soul longed to feel. They were a million shooting stars, granting the wishes of all who gazed upon their wonder. They were so simple, yet they were everything. She was everything.

All too soon, the crippling fear set in. They were the words he’d wanted to hear Marinette say more than anything. What if his exhaustion induced haze made him hallucinate the last 30 seconds of his life? What if he was actually in the middle of an elaborate dream? What if it was all a cruel trick that his mind had decided to play on him?

“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?” He held his breath as he awaited her response.

She giggled. “Repeat what?”

“What you just said.”

“I said that I love the way that you smell. You don’t stink.”

Adrien shook his head. “Marinette, that’s not what you said.”

A befuddled expression overtook her features. “Then, what did I say?”

“I love you.” The words tasted sweet on his lips. “You said ‘I love you’.”

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Did you mean it?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “No! Of course not!”

His heart sank. “You don’t love me?”

“Well, it’s not that I don’t not love you. People are allowed to love their friends as friends. Right?”

“So, you don’t see me as more than just a friend?”

“Adrien, I...I…I can’t do this anymore!”

She didn’t say no.

“What?” A flutter of hope washed away the disappointment.

“Some things are better left unsaid.” She mumbled, turning her head away from his.

SHE DIDN’T SAY NO.

He swallowed. “It’s okay. You can tell me. I promise it’ll be okay.”

“No!” She hopped out of his arms and covered her face with her hands. “I don’t want to hurt even more! I’m so confused!”

“Your ankle!” He reached out his hand, and she backed away from him.

“I’m fine. I have to go.” She rushed into the nurse’s office and slammed the door behind her, leaving Adrien alone in the hallway.

“She didn’t say no.” He said to himself, unable to believe what had just happened. “She may actually love me!”

Adrien grabbed his hair and laughed. He spun in place as he resisted the urge to run down the hallway screaming the wonderful news.

I may actually have a chance! She didn’t say no! She...she ran away.

His joy evaporated like water falling onto a hot stove. Disappointment washed over him, forcing him to face the reality of his situation.

Sitting down on the cold, hard floor, Adrien put his head in his hands. For the first time, Marinette did not deny that she had feelings for him. But if she had a crush on him, why would she run away? More than anything, he wanted to be overjoyed. But maybe his assumption was wrong. Perhaps she didn’t like him romantically.

Or worse.

Maybe she did have a crush on him, but she resented having those feelings. After all, she had Luka.

Even though he knew it was going to happen, when Marinette didn’t return to school after lunch, he once again wanted to scream. His need to talk to her consumed his every thought.

Adrien spent the rest of the school day in an energetic haze. His body wanted to run a mile while his mind wandered in and out of daydreams.

He did his best to pay attention in class, but it was no use. The more he attempted to listen, the more his teachers’ words sounded like incoherent babble. His leg bounced under the table throughout every lecture, and he wrung his hands in his lap whenever Marinette’s slip of the tongue ran through his mind.

“I have to talk to her again. Maybe if she knew that I loved her, too, she wouldn’t feel so bad.”

Ten minutes before his last class of the day was scheduled to end, Adrien finally snapped. Waiting to see Marinette was proving to be a torturous task. He groaned and slammed his head onto the desk.

“Dude, what’s going on?” Nino whispered, tapping him on the shoulder, “You’ve been acting weird all day.”

Adrien lifted his head off the desk. “She told me that she loves me.”

“Who?”

“Marinette.”

“She did what?” Nino asked loudly, prompting the teacher to shush him.

Not wanting to get in any more trouble, Adrien began to scribble his response in a notebook.

Adrien: When I carried Marinette to the nurse, she accidentally said that she loves me. At first, she tried to tell me that she meant something else, but when I asked her again, she ran away.

Nino’s expression changed several times while he read Adrien’s note. He then took a deep breath and began to compose a response. When he was finished, he surreptitiously slid the notebook back.

Nino: She’s probably super embarrassed. You should give her the night to calm down before you talk to her again.

Adrien: I can’t do that. I have to talk to her tonight. There’s a chance that she may actually be in love with me. I have to know how she feels.

Class came to an end before Nino had the chance to write back. As everyone began filing out of the classroom, Adrien leaned over, grabbed his backpack, and began to pack up his belongings.

Nino grabbed his arm. “Don’t do it, bro. You’ll only make her more upset.”

Adrien cocked his head to the side. “Why would telling her that I love her back make her upset?”

“I’m sorry, what? You love her?”

“I know she ran away, but if she knew...I don’t know. Maybe we could be more than friends. I think I’ve loved her since the day we met, and I have to tell her. It’s killing me, Nino.”

“You already have a girlfriend, dude.” Nino crossed his arms. “And she’ll be the one doing the killing if she finds out about this.”

He shook his head. “No, she won’t. Kagami broke up with me.”

“She what? When?”

“Last night.”

“Bro…”

He did not want to dwell on his break-up when there were more important matters to attend to. “It’s fine. Kagami actually told me to go ask out Marinette, but I didn’t want to.”

Nino took off his hat and scratched his head. “Okay, now I’m lost. You love Marinette, but you don’t want to ask her out?”

Adrien waved his hands in front of him. “No, that’s not it at all! You see, I realized a while ago that I had a crush on Marinette, but she’s in love with Luka. When Kagami told me she loved me, I tried to move on. But Marinette just told me that she loves me, and she didn’t completely deny it. I think I might have a chance, Nino!”

“My dude, you have more than just a chance, and I can tell you for a fact that she’s not in love with Luka.”

“You think?”

“No, I know.” Nino’s eyes darted around the room before he leaned in and continued. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Marinette has been crushing on you for months.”

His friend’s words were like music to his ears. “Really?”

“Yeah, and when you started dating Kagami, she told us that she moved on. She even went on a few dates with Luka, but Alya told me that Marinette turned down the chance to be his girlfriend like two weeks ago. She still insists that she doesn’t have a crush on you anymore, but between you and me, I can tell that she still likes you. I think she was just saying that to make herself feel better.”

“She loves me?”

“Yeah, bro. Like, a lot.”

“But when she ran away from me today, she told me that she didn’t want to hurt anymore. Does she hate being in love with me?”

“Not exactly. The dudette was massively bummed when you started dating Kagami, but she wanted to respect your choice. Alya was over at her house every day for a while because of it.”

A prickling sensation formed behind his eyes as a pit formed in his stomach. “I broke her heart.”

“Yeah.” Nino lowered his head. “But you never knew about her feelings, so it’s really no one’s fault.”

The emotional whiplash of the last five minutes began to wear on Adrien’s mind. With a heavy heart, he closed his eyes and sat down.

She loved him, but he’d hurt her. His fists clenched when he recalled the pain that had consumed him after Ladybug’s final rejection. While he harbored no ill will against his partner for making him experience this heartbreak, he kicked himself for knowing that he’d made someone else feel that way. Not only had he broken someone’s heart, but he’d broken Marinette’s heart. Sweet, beautiful, and kind Marinette.

She deserved better.

She deserved to know the truth.

“I have to fix this.” He turned to his friend, his heart full of determination. “I have to go talk to her right now.”

“Finally!” Nino cheered, holding out his fist, “I wish you all the luck in the world, my dude!”

Adrien laughed and tapped his fist against Nino’s. “Thanks! I’ll tell you how it goes!”

“Trust me, I’ll hear all about it from Alya first.”

“Yeah, probably. Okay, I’ll see you la…”

A distant crash cut him off.

“Oh no,” he groaned as an Akuma Alert popped up on his phone.

“That’s the second one this week.” Nino shook his head. “Maybe you could ride out the attack at Marinette’s place.”

“No, my dad wants me home during attacks.”

“Same.”

Another crash shook the ground and almost knocked both boys to the floor.

“Jeez. That sounds close.” Nino looked out the window. “Looks like the Akuma is in the park. I better go check to make sure that Alya isn’t making any stupid decisions before I head home.”

Seeing the worry in his best friend’s eyes sent a paralyzing thought crashing into his brain. Marinette doesn’t have a Miraculous. She’s unprotected.

He gripped the strap on his backpack. “I hope Marinette stays safe during the attack.”

Nino placed a hand on his shoulder. “Bro, don’t sweat. Marinette’s strong. I’ve seen her go face to face with a few Akumas before. Didn’t you call her our everyday Ladybug once? She’ll be fine.”

“But what if she’s not?”

“Then text her.”

With a nod, he dismissed the alert on his phone and hastily typed out a message.

Adrien: There’s an Akuma super close to your house. Are you okay?

He waited for a response with bated breath. “She’s not typing anything back.”

“Maybe she’s taking a nap?” Nino grabbed his backpack off the floor.

“The ground literally just shook. How would someone stay asleep through something like that?”

“I don’t know. Alya told me that Marinette sleeps like a rock. Apparently, she can sleep through anything.”

“I’m still worried.”

“I feel you, but Marinette’s gonna be okay.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because we have Ladybug and Chat Noir! They always get the job done! And my hero obsessed girlfriend is probably chasing after them as we speak. I gotta go! Stay safe, dude!”

As Nino rushed out the door, Adrien looked at his empty notification screen and gritted his teeth.

“I hate Hawkmoth,” he grumbled, opening his shirt collar for his Kwami to fly out, “Let’s get this over with. I have things to do.”

“Do we have to? I’m hungry,” Plagg whined.

“You’re always hungry. Besides, I need to transform now so I can make sure that Marinette is okay before I meet up with Ladybug.”

“Wait, no. That’s not such a great…”

Not wanting to deal with his Kwami’s pre-transformation protests, Adrien cut him off. “Plagg, CLAWS OUT!”

He closed his eyes and waited for the light from his transformation to fade. Usually, he loved the sensation of the Miraculous magic washing over him. For the first time in a long time, he was excited to get back to being Adrien.

Kagami had been right. Marinette was the key to finding the freedom that he longed for in his civilian life. With her, he could find the same kind of happiness outside of the mask that he had when he was running across the rooftops with his partner. He knew that now, all he had to do was tell her that he felt the same way.

But first, he needed to make sure that she was safe.

He opened the classroom window, unsheathed his baton, and vaulted onto the rooftop. He quickly leaped across the street and landed on Marinette’s balcony. The hatch leading to her bedroom had been propped open.

“Princess,” he began, kneeling down next to the windowed hatch and peering into the bedroom, “it’s not really safe to have your window wide open during an Akuma…”

The rest of his words got stuck in the back of his throat when his eyes landed on an empty bed with rumpled blankets. Hopping onto her bed, he peeked over the ledge and scanned the darkened room below.

“Marinette? Are you here?” His heart rate quickened when he didn’t receive a response.

He returned to a sitting position and did his best to control the panic that was starting to overtake his senses. A persistent ring grew louder in his ears as his hands began to shake. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the side of the hatch, hoisted himself onto the balcony, stood up, and ran his fingers through his hair.

What if something happened?

The Akuma roared in the distance.

What if it took her?

He closed his eyes and gripped his baton.

I have to find her.

“Chat Noir!” A familiar voice sounded behind him, breaking his train of thought. “What are you doing?”

Thank God, she’s safe!

He whipped around. “I was looking for you, Princess!”

When he opened his eyes, he was met with an angry-looking Ladybug. “Chat, stop messing around. We have an Akuma tearing up the park and putting people in weird sticky nests.”

“You’re not her.” He choked back tears. “I could have sworn you were her.”

“Who?”

“Marinette! She’s not here.”

Ladybug slowly made her way towards him. “And...uh...how do you know that she’s not here?”

He turned back around and looked at the open hatch. “When I saw that she wasn’t in bed, I went inside. Her room is dark, and she didn’t answer me.”

“You went inside?”

“I had to! She got hurt today and got sent home from school. When the Akuma showed up, I texted her, and she didn’t answer. I thought she might be asleep, but she’s not! She’s not here!” Tears started to flow freely down his face.

“That’s a lot of personal information.” Ladybug rested her hand on his forearm. “Maybe you should stop.”

“But I have to find her! I have to make sure she’s safe!”

“She’s fine. Come on. We have to go.”

“No, you don’t understand! What if she’s trapped in one of those sticky nests the Akuma is making?”

“Then, when I use the Miraculous Cure, everything will go back to normal.”

“But...I can’t just...I have to...I love her, and I know she loves me, too! She loves me, Ladybug! I was going to talk to her about it after school.”

Ladybug dropped her hand and took a step back. “You...love her?”

“And she loves me! I was an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. My feelings for her were always there, I just didn’t want to admit that I had them.” He wiped his face with the back of his hand. “I didn’t get to tell her.”

She shook her head, grabbed his hand, and dragged him to the edge of the balcony. “We don’t have time for this right now. If you really care about Marinette, you’ll help me defeat this Akuma and make the city safe again...just like we always do.”

The logic behind his partner’s words began to seep into his brain and level his senses. “You’re right.”

She nodded. “Yes, I am, and if we don’t take care of the Akuma now, the whole city will be covered in nests.”

“I guess you could say that we’d be in a sticky situation.” He shot her his best grin.

“Not now, Chat!” she yelled before tossing her yo-yo and swinging into the chaos.

Unsheathing his baton, he vaulted into the park; however, before he could land, a long translucent strip flew past him, causing him to lose control and land in the fountain. He groaned and stood up. His long hair clung to his face after he attempted to shake the wetness off of his head.

The Akuma pointed its weapon and released another strip in his direction. Before he could react, the strip hit him, slid off of his suit, and fell unceremoniously into the water where it lay like freshly shed skin from a snake.

“Pay attention!” Ladybug called from the other side of the park. “Don’t get stuck in its webs, kitty!”

“They’re not webs!” screamed the Akuma. “Sticky Fingers doesn’t make webs.”

“Great, an Akuma that talks about itself in the third person.” Ladybug sighed. “First, a distracted partner, and now this.”

“I will steal your Miraculous just like I stole those office supplies, and no one will be able to stop me this time! No one can escape Sticky Finger’s tape!” The Akuma howled with laughter.

“Wait, you’re trapping people in tape nests because you stole office supplies? Wow, Hawkmoth is really getting desperate.”

Chat climbed out of the fountain. “Bold of you to assume that Hawkmoth wasn’t desperate all along.”

“While true, you still need to work on your timing.” Ladybug shook her head. “I thought you wanted to end this fight quickly.”

“I do.” He pointed to her yo-yo. “I’m just waiting for your grand plan.”

“Right.” She threw her yo-yo into the air. “LUCKY CHARM!”

A spotted bucket landed in her hands. She held it up and scratched her head.

“That Lucky Charm’s got you looking a little pail, LB.” He crossed his arms. “I’m guessing that means that you don’t have any ideas.”

“Just give me a second.” Her eyes darted around the park. “That’s it!”

“You have a plan?”

“Oh, I have a plan.”

“Awesome! Lay it on me.”

She shoved the bucket into his hands. “Go fill this up with water, and dump it onto the Akuma’s head.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Isn’t that just going to make him even madder than he already is?”

“Yes, but it will also take the stickiness away from his tape. Why do you think the tape didn’t stick to you after you fell into the fountain? Whenever I try to put tape on something that isn’t completely dry, it falls right off!”

“Oh! I’m on it!” He gave her a little salute before filling up the bucket, jumping onto the Akuma’s head, and dousing Sticky Fingers with water.

The Akuma roared when all of its once sticky strands fell into useless piles around the park. Without skipping a beat, Ladybug tossed her yo-yo around Sticky Fingers, wrapping the indestructible wire around its form. The Akuma fell to the ground with a crash.

Keeping the wire taut, Ladybug called out her next command. “Use your Cataclysm on the thing all the tape came out of! I think that’s where the Akuma is!”

After calling for his power, he slammed his hand down on the weapon and watched as it crumbled to pieces, releasing a cursed butterfly into the air. Ladybug then cleansed the Akuma and called for the Miraculous Cure.

Chat turned to the dazed man sitting in the middle of the park. “Maybe try asking for the office supplies next time.”

The man slumped. “It wasn’t just office supplies. Yes, I was stealing those, and I got caught, but that was only after my partner found out that I embezzled one-hundred thousand dollars of the company’s money.”

“Uhhh, yeah, maybe don’t do that either. That definitely doesn’t sound like the right thing to do.”

“I got fired. I ruined my life, and I lost my best friend.”

Before he could respond, Officer Raincomprix placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll take it from here. Thanks for helping out.”

“What’s going to happen to him?” he asked quietly.

“He’s going to prison for a very long time.” The officer turned towards the man. “Mr. Morel, you’re under arrest.”

The man stood up and clenched his fists. “Is it really so bad to want to be rich and happy?”

“Being rich doesn’t make you happy,” Chat snapped back, “It’s having people you love that brings true happiness.”

“And how would you know something like that?”

“Trust me, I just do.”

A loud groan behind him forced his attention away from the man. He whipped his head around to find his partner holding her head with a pained expression plastered across her features.

He rushed to her side. “Ladybug, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Her voice was strained. “I just bumped my head earlier. It’s no big deal.”

“Let me take a look.” He reached up and brushed her bangs out of the way, revealing a fresh bruise. “That looks...just like Marinette’s bump. She really got hurt today. Did you get hit during the Akuma battle? Why didn’t your Miraculous Cure work on it?”

She shooed his hand and turned her head away. “It’s nothing, Chat. Let it go. I’ll go home and rest. I promise.”

“Good. I care about you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know. Thank you for watching out for me.”

“Always, LB. And I’m going to hold you to that purr-omise. If you show up to patrol tonight, I’ll be purr-etty mad.”

Ladybug laughed. “Two cat puns using ‘purr’? You’re slipping, kitty.”

Seeing her reaction warmed his heart. They had come so far over the past few months, and he cherished his friendship with Ladybug. While he couldn’t be with her romantically, he would always love her.

There was a time when he resented her rejection, but he now knew that the experience helped him grow as a person and accept that there were different kinds of love that someone could feel. Without it, he never would have been able to move on from his crush on her.

Oh, no...Marinette.

As his worry for his partner began to fade, thoughts of Marinette flooded his mind, restarting the nervous flurry in his gut. “Ladybug, I have to go! I hope you feel better, but I need to go see Marinette!”

“Wait!” Ladybug chased after him. “Maybe give her a few minutes before you go bursting into her room.”

He didn’t stop. “No, she didn’t answer my text. I have to go see her right now!”

After running out of the park, he used his baton to vault back to Françoise Dupont. He jumped through the window he’d opened at the school and called off his transformation. He grabbed his backpack, pulled his phone out of his bag, and cringed upon seeing the thirteen voicemail notifications from his bodyguard.

He’d forgotten about the Gorilla, and while he knew that the man cared about him, he had the tendency to be a little overprotective. Nonetheless, Adrien was on a mission.

He had to go see Marinette.

He had to make sure she was safe.

He just hoped that his bodyguard could still be swayed to let him go to the Dupain-Cheng’s before whisking him back to the mansion.

With a quickened pace, Adrien made his way out of the school, but seeing the Gorilla frantically pacing in front of the car stopped him in his tracks. Gathering all his courage and summoning his best kitten eyes, he descended the stairs and walked onto the sidewalk.

He cleared his throat, causing his bodyguard to whip around and visibly relax. “Uh, sorry to keep you waiting. When the attack started, a few of us got kind of scared and hid in a closet, and I left my phone in the classroom. I would have gone back for it, but the ground was shaking.”

His only response was a sympathetic grunt.

“So, I know my dad probably wants me to get home now, but I need a few minutes to...um...drop off notes for Marinette! Yeah, she...uhhh...got sent home early because she got hurt during gym class.” Adrien scratched the back of his head and did his best to smile.

The Gorilla sighed and nodded.

“Thank you!” Taking advantage of the green light, Adrien began to cross the street. “I’ll only be a few minutes!”

When he reached the bakery door, he paused. Thinking back to the empty bed he saw through her windowed hatch, his mouth went dry and his heart pounded against his chest.

Ladybug used the Miraculous Cure. She’s okay. She has to be okay.

He shook his head and attempted to brush away the feeling of dread that weighed on his thoughts. Logically, Adrien knew that Marinette was fine, but worry consumed him nonetheless.

I must see her.

With a determined nod, he grasped the handle, swung open the door, and crossed over the threshold. Adrien immediately lost himself in the aroma of freshly baked bread and vanilla. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air smelled like his sweet, beautiful Marinette, and he relished the way the air clung to him like a cozy blanket on a cold winter’s night.

“Adrien! What a pleasant surprise!” Sabine said cheerfully from behind the counter, breaking him out of his reverie, “Is there something I can do for you, sweetheart?”

“Oh, uh, is Marinette here?” He gripped the strap on his bag. “I wanted to check and make sure that she was okay after the whole ball incident in gym class.”

She clapped her hands together and smiled. “That’s very thoughtful of you. She’s upstairs. Feel free to head on up! I’m sure Marinette will be thrilled to see you.”

“Thanks!” He rushed through the bakery and bounded up the stairs.

His body buzzed with anticipation as he made his way up to the apartment. Before finally making it to the hatch that led to Marinette’s room, he was greeted by an enthusiastic Tom who ruffled Adrien’s hair before sending him on his way.

With as much confidence as he could muster, he knocked on the trapdoor. When he didn’t get a response, the panic from before started to settle in his stomach. Determined to see Marinette, he lifted the trapdoor a few inches and peeked inside the room.

“Marinette! It’s me, Adrien! I’m coming in. I hope that’s okay. I was really worried, and I wanted to…” The sound of soft sobs stopped him in his tracks.

Adrien thrust open the hatch and ran across the room. He found Marinette kneeling on the ground, clutching her phone against her chest while tears streamed down her rosy cheeks. He dropped to the floor and tentatively reached out his hand.

“What’s wrong?” He wiped the tears from her face using his thumb. “Is it your ankle?”

Marinette shook her head. “No, the doctor took off the brace when he checked the bump on my head.”

“Are you feeling sick?”

“No.”

“Did someone hurt you?”

“No.”

“I’m out of guesses. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

Choking back a sob, she turned her phone around, revealing the screen with the message he’d sent. “Chat Noir told Ladybug that he texted Marinette because he worried about her.”

Adrien drew back his hand. Her words were like a needle, piercing through the bubble of secrecy that surrounded his double-life.

“How did you…” He swallowed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Marinette, you can’t tell anyone. I trust you, but you have to promise…”

Before he could finish, she placed a gentle hand on his cheek and shot him a watery smile. “My partner told me that he sent me a text, and apparently he’s in love with me.”

“Y-your...partner?”

“Yes, Chaton. My wonderful, goofy, yet lovable partner who puns way too much at all the wrong times.”

Adrien searched Marinette’s face for the solution to a puzzle that he’d been trying to solve since he’d received his Miraculous, and he found every answer behind her shining bluebell eyes. They were the same eyes that had looked to him for reassurance in the heat of battle. They were the same eyes that sparkled every time he saw them under a moonlit sky. They were the same eyes that glowed with fiery passion whenever their owner found the solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem.

They were his lady’s eyes.

“You’re…” The rest of his words never came.

As if able to read his mind, Marinette nodded and laughed. “Yes, I am.”

“All this time you were right behind me?”

“Yes, and apparently we’ve been dancing around each other for a while.”

“Of course I fell in love with you twice! It only makes sense for our everyday Ladybug to be the actual Ladybug.”

“I’m so happy that it’s you.” She pulled him into a tight embrace. “Everything makes so much more sense now.”

He snaked his arms around Marinette and felt all the tension from before leave his body as she rested her cheek against his shirt. All felt right with the world until a second revelation slammed into the forefront of his mind.

Ladybug told Chat she loves another boy.

Marinette loves Adrien.

And Marinette and Ladybug are the same person.

Adrien pulled away. “I was the other boy.”

She laughed. “You caught that?”

“You turned me down because you were in love with me. Like, me me.”

“Yes.”

“All this time I thought you were in love with Luka. Nino told me you weren’t, but hearing it from you...wow. Just, wow.”

She grabbed his hand and held it against her chest. “Do you feel that? Every beat sings your name. It has since the day you gave me that umbrella, and it always will. It broke when I thought I had to let you go, but it never stopped wanting you. My mind tried to move on, but my heart never did.”

He closed his eyes and became lost in the steady thrum under his palm. He tried to speak, but no words came. Adrien was lost in the sea that was Marinette. The waves of her love pulled him in, and he never wanted to return to shore; however, a sobering thought extinguished his elation.

“Adrien, say something.” Desperation clung to her words.

“You don’t love Chat the same way you love Adrien,” he whispered, pulling his hand away and clutching it against his body, “He’s just a friend to you.”

“Yeah, he is my friend.” She brushed her fingers against his cheek. “He’s my best friend...and I fell in love with him, too.”

He looked up. “What?”

“Every time I turned down my partner, a piece of me broke. My heart was conflicted, but my wonderful Chaton grew on me more and more with each passing day.”

“But…”

“Adrien I love every single part of you. I love your smile. I love the way your eyes light up when you laugh. I love the way you stand up for others in and out of the mask. I love how brave and loyal you are. I love you and only you. Today. Tomorrow. Forever. Finding out that you’re Chat Noir is…” Her tears fell onto the floor. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

He lunged forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. His heart pounded against his chest while he became dizzy from the sweet smell of her hair and her breath against his neck. Holding Marinette was better than a dream come true, and he never wanted to let go.

“I love you, too.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his cheek. “There are not enough words to express how much I love you.”

“Then maybe we don’t have to say it.” His eyes fluttered shut as her words tickled against his skin. “Kiss me, Adrien.”

Removing a hand from her back, he pulled away, placed his fingers on her chin, and lifted her head. “Are you sure?”

Marinette’s eyes and nose crinkled as she released a subtle laugh. “Yes, I’m asking you to kiss me.”

He tentatively closed the gap between them until their lips brushed. Wanting more, he tilted his head and leaned into the kiss. He immediately found himself addicted to the sensation. Her breath became his oxygen, leaving him wanting more with each passing second.

Not wanting to stop, he shifted her closer to him, and she responded with vigor. However, all too soon, their need for air forced them apart, and Adrien lamented the loss.

“Can we do that again?” he asked between heavy breaths.

She rested her forehead against his. “We can do that whenever you want.”

“My lady, if we were to kiss whenever I wanted, we would never do anything else. What kind of heroes would that make us?”

“Silly kitty.”

Her fingers laced through his hair as he continued to hold her. Adrien melted under her touch and became putty in her hands.

“I could stay like this forever,” he said, sighing contentedly.

“Oh?” Adrien could hear the teasing lilt in her voice. “Does that mean that you don’t want to eat leftover pastries and cuddle on my chaise while we watch a movie?”

He pulled away. “Wait, that’s an option?”

“And maybe half-way through the movie, we could try kissing again?” She bit her lip and looked up at him through her eyelashes.

“Oh, God, yes.” He swept her into his arms. “Shall we go, my lady?”

She squeaked when he rose to his feet. “Is this whole ‘carrying me around’ thing going to become a habit.”

Adrien leaned in and nuzzled her nose. “I hope so. Well, as long as you’re okay with it.”

“Always, kitty.” She put her arms around her neck and rested against his chest. “Okay, I’m ready.”

He carried her over to the chaise and gently rested her against the pillows. He sat down next to her and brushed her bangs away from her eyes. The purple edges of her bruise peeked out from behind the loose tendrils.

Adrien cupped her face in his hand and ran his thumb over her cheek. “Does your head still hurt? It seemed like you were in a lot of pain at the end of the Akuma battle.”

She placed a feathery kiss on his palm, sending a warm shiver through his body. “I’m fine, kitty. It hurts, but I’ll live.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Actually, yes! Could you get the painkillers for me? There’s a bottle on my desk.”

He hopped up and gave her a playful salute. “On it, my lady. While I’m up, did you want ice?”

“No, that’s okay. I’m kind of cold right now, and I had ice on it earlier today.” She smiled. “Just the painkillers and some water. Oh, and if you wanted to grab the pastries from downstairs, that’d be awesome.”

“You got it.” Adrien threw open the trapdoor and hurried down the stairs.

Before he made it to the kitchen, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled out the device and looked at the screen.

Gorilla: ETA

Without responding to his bodyguard, Adrien called Nathalie and begged for permission to stay at Marinette’s house. He silently cheered when he received a positive response a few minutes later.

His phone buzzed again.

Gorilla: Pick you up at 9

Adrien smiled.

Gorilla: Have fun

Triumphantly, Adrien walked into the kitchen. Even though he knew that Tom was a much warmer father than his own, he still found himself surprised by the older man’s desire to help. Within minutes, he had a tray full of snacks and two glasses of water ready to take upstairs.

“Thank you.” Adrien picked up the tray. “I really appreciate it.”

Tom chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Anytime, son. I’m just happy to see that Marinette has someone like you in her life.”

Son. He mulled over the word in his mind. He called me son.

“Sir.” Adrien looked down. “Would it be okay if I took Marinette on a date this weekend?”

Tom clapped his hands together and beamed. “Finally! Of course, you can! Just as long as you never call me ‘sir’ again. Tom will do just fine.”

“Okay, si...I mean, Tom!” He could barely contain his joy. “I’m going to take these up to Marinette.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you!”

As Adrien walked out of the kitchen, a surge of warmth blossomed in his chest. When his mother left, his house stopped feeling like a home but seeing Tom’s reaction made him realize that a home didn’t have to be where you lived. It was a place that was filled with love, and every inch of the Dupain-Cheng’s apartment was dripping with love.

For too long, he’d been trapped in his gilded cage, forced to accept his solitude without complaint, but with Marinette in his life, he didn’t have to anymore. He finally had a place where he belonged. He finally had a place that felt like home.

With a skip in his step, Adrien brought the food and drinks up to Marinette’s room. Before taking a seat on the chaise he grabbed the medicine bottle and set it on the tray.

He then settled himself next to Marinette who rested her head against his chest and draped her arm around his torso. Adrien looped his arm around her back and pulled her closer. He nearly combusted upon feeling her body wiggle as she snuggled against his side. At a loss for words, he kissed the crown of her head and became lost in her essence.

“You’re so warm,” she said with her face buried in his cotton t-shirt, “I could stay like this forever.”

“Me, too, princess.” He kissed her again. “Me, too.”

For the rest of the evening, they watched movies, ate food, and held each other. Eventually, Marinette’s breathing became slow and steady. Even though his arm had fallen asleep, Adrien didn’t dare wake the sleeping girl in his arms.

She trusts me, his mind sang, Maybe I’m her home, too.

A tear escaped and trickled down his cheek. He wasn’t alone anymore, and he never had to be alone again. He had Marinette, and she had him.

He was complete.

He was home.

He was loved.

He was free.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfiction #adrienette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #two dorks in love #ao3 #fanfiction #a new light #one shot #fluff #tooth rotting fluff #SO MUCH FLUFF #fluffy hurt/comfort #cuddles #kisses #identity reveal

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danny-williams · 4 years ago

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in sickness and in health

set immediately after s8.6, because i think Danny being worried about Steve’s health is literally the most married thing ever

1. change his diet

It doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen overnight because Danny knows that it can’t happen overnight - otherwise Steve will notice and all of his efforts into our sneaking the SuperSEAL will go to waste because he and Steve will fight, and Chloe made it very clear that he and Steve fighting was not good for Steve’s health.

Even if it significantly improved Danny’s mood everytime he got Steve riled up. His serotonin levels could take a hit for a bit (he’d just finagle more time with Charlie from Rachel).

It takes a lot of back and forth, and a promise to let Kamekona buy into their restaurant (currently un-named because he refused to have an italian joint named Steve’s) but Kamekona finally agrees to reduce the amount of butter he puts on his shrimp.

“But only for Steve’s plate bruddah,” he says, a frown on his face, “I’m not changing my recipe for anybody else. This is prime shrimp you’re messing with here - I hope you know that. This shrimp won me awards.”

Danny grimaces, “Technically, Chef Morimoto sabotaging your competition won you that award, but we’ll go with your version of things. As long as you keep this from Steve. I do not need him knowing that I’m messing with his food.”

“You got it bruddah.”

Everything else after that is slightly easier. Even with Junior home, Steve still comes over to Danny’s a lot - so Danny starts shopping smarter; buying low fat food and including more greens in his diet.

The jersey in him is crying, weeping for some good grease - the kind that slithers off the meat and onto your fingers, but he reminds himself it’s for a good cause. Besides, it’s not like he isn’t still eating good food - he’s just eating it less.

That’s not a terrible thing.

2. to do list

He’s in his office, finishing up the last reports of the drug bust they made earlier that day - when there’s a sharp rap on his door. Danny looks up to see Steve standing on the other side, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

He waves him in, and Steve slams the paper against his desk. “What are you, some sort of caveman? Did they not teach you how to politely put things down in the Army -”

“ - Navy - “

“Why do you gotta,” he gestures at the paper, “now my ink is all smudged.”

Steve ignores him, which is par for the course at this time, “What is this?”

Danny looks at the paper, and then back at Steve, “What do you mean, what is this? How should I know? You’re the one that brought it in.”

Steve points at the paper aggressively, “Look at it, and explain to me what it is.”

He smoothens out the paper, “It’s looks like a to-do list. Are you getting old babe? Do we need to take you to an eye specialist, maybe get you fitted for some glasses? Reading goggles?”

“Danny I don’t need -” Steve cuts himself off, and honestly, Danny is really enjoying how worked up Steve is about this whole thing, “I mean, what is it doing on my desk?”

Danny bites his lips, spreading his hands out wide, “I don’t know maybe you uhh, maybe you decided that you needed to make a list, make sure you know everything you had to do for today. Did you hit your head or something during our drug bust today? Maybe get a concussion - lose a couple of braincells?”

“I didn’t write this Danno,” Steve says in a frustrated tone, “Lou sure as hell didn’t write it, Tani’s too new to even think of pulling something like this - and we both know Jerry doesn’t have the balls for this kind of thing. That just leaves you. So I’m gonna ask you again, what is this doing on my desk?”

“Okay look, we’ve both been really busy with the restaurant right?”

“Steve’s.”

“No, not Steve’s because I’m still undecided on the name - but the point is, we’ve both been busy. So I thought you might you know, benefit from having a list of things that we had to do for it. So that you could plan your day better.”

Steve opens his mouth and shuts it again, furrowing his brows at Danny.

“And that’s all this is? Making sure I keep up to date with the restaurant?”

“That’s all it is babe.”

“You’re up to something,” Steve grabs the paper, pointing a finger at Danny accusingly, “I don’t know what you’re up to - but you’re up to something.”

“Just making sure our restaurant doesn’t fail!” Danny calls after him, but waits until he’s out of sight to pull open his drawer and pull out the pile of unfinished to-do lists.

He’s going to have to be sneakier about them this time.

3. less bickering

Danny ponders over this one for a while, mainly because Steve expressly told him not to change. It would defeat the whole purpose of sneakily managing Steve’s stress if he notices, so Danny’s careful about it.

Mostly because after her day with Steve, Chloe pulled Danny aside and gave him enough of a scare to last him ten lifetimes.

“Look,” she’d said, “I don’t mean to tell you how to manage your relationship with your partner. From what I hear, you guys have been together for close to seven years, and I’m sure you worked out some sort of rhythm. But from what I can see Detective, you fight him on everything.”

“What do you mean I fight him on everything, I,I, I let him drive my car, I let him eat at my house, he even sleeps at my house on occasion - and what do I get for it? I get shot at and almost killed three times before lunch.”

“You guys don’t have an easy job, I agree. But I don’t imagine that for the Commander, someone who’s come from the Navy and is used to absolute obedience, that it’s easy when you question even his smallest actions.”

She had a point, which is Danny is now trying to figure out how to organically stop fighting with a man he literally punched just hours after they met.

“Okay here’s what’s going to happen,” Steve says, just as they pull up at the suspect’s house. They’re chasing the kidnapper of a twelve year old girl, so everybody’s a bit ramped up, especially Danny. He hates cases with kids. It makes it easier to take a backseat and give up control to Steve on this one.

“I’m going go through the front door,” he gestures with his hands, “Lou, Danny - I want you to get the back. Tani? I want you out here, in case our perp tries to make a run for it?”

Danny has to physically swallow back the words on the tip of his tongue, because asking Steve if they should wait for back-up would be questioning his actions - and Chloe said that was bad for his health.

Steve gives him a look, like he knows that’s something’s wrong - but before he can say anything there’s shot fired inside the house and everything goes to shit.

Danny and Lou turn the corner as quick as possible, just in time to see someone run outside the back entrance and jump across the fence.

“Lou, get back to the truck, see if you can cut him off like that,” Steve jumps after him, panting into his ear-piece, “Danny?”

“Right behind you buddy,” he says, even as he aims and shoots at the two guys who wander out behind their perp, clearly looking for him, “our friend over here had company over.”

Thankfully, there doesn’t appear to be anyone else coming out of the house, and when Danny makes his way in - 12 year old Danielle Rodriguez is tied to the radiator, shivering despite the constant sweltering heat that is the fine island of Hawaii.

“Hey hey,” he swings his gun behind his back and lifts his hands up, “my name is Detective Danny Williams okay? I’m with Five-0. I’m one of the good guys. Now how about I get you out of this and back to your parents?”

Later, when they’re back at HQ and Danielle has been reunited with her teary-eyed parents - Lou mutters to Danny, “so how come you didn’t ask Steve to wait for back-up?”

“I’m trying something new.”

4. well bred social behaviour

“Danny!” The door swings open, even though Danny is fairly certain that he locked in, but he doesn’t reach for his gun, because there’s only one person on this entire island who walks into his house like they own it.

“In here!” he calls out, and sure enough, Steve walks in a couple seconds later with coffee and a brown bag.

“Are those malasadas?” he asks, reaching out for the coffee in one hand, looking up briefly from floor plans to ensure that there’s contact between his palm and the coffee cup, “Did you bring me malasadas?”

“No I bought myself malasadas, but since I’m generous I’ll give you one or two.”

“What’s this?” he asks over a mouthful of malasada, peering over his shoulder and Danny bats at him because he’s dripping sugar all over the plans, “Is this Steve’s?”

“For the last time, we’re not calling the restaurant Steve’s I don’t know how many times I have to go through this with you. But yes, to answer your question, these are the tentative plans that our interior decorator drew up for the restaurant.”

“Interior decorator?” his voice comes out all muffled, and Danny sends him a withering look, “You’re disgusting you know that? Can you finish chewing before you talk? Please? Is that too much to ask for?”

Steve swallows obnoxiously, and grins at Danny. He’s got cream on the edge of his mouth, and it should disgust Danny - instead he’s thinking about leaning up and licking it off.

“Thank you, for the coffee by the way,” he says instead, “I appreciate it. That was a nice thing to do.”

“You’re welcome,” Steve replies, and Danny can hear the surprise in his tone, but he resolutely ignores it - instead pulling Steve into a conversation about the booths.

5. sex

There’s probably a code of conduct somewhere, Danny muses, that involves something about not having your ex-girlfriend spy on your partner. Well, spying might be a bit extreme.

He and Melissa split months ago, because it was clear after two disasterdly Valentine’s Days, that it just wasn’t working between them. Her exact words were, and he quotes, “You’re never going to love me the way I love you. Not when Steve occupies all the real estate in your heart.”

She wasn’t wrong, was the thing, and after they’d gotten past the initial awkwardness that the fact that Danny was in love with someone that wasn’t her - they actually fell into a good friendship.

It helped that Melissa didn’t know a lot of people in Oahu except Danny, and that their relationship had been a lot like a friendship in the first place. Except with more sex.

Like a lot more sex.

Honestly, given that Steve was the reason they broke up, Melissa was surprisingly gamely when Danny asked her to stay in touch with Lynn, and let him know how things were going with her and Steve.

(He thinks it’s pity, but he doesn’t actually ask because then she might actually answer)

“They broke up,” Melissa says with little fanfare, over their weekly coffee, “Lynn won’t tell me much. But they split about a week ago. Guess she got tired of waiting around for him too.”

It might also be the fact that Melissa is convinced that Steve is just as much in love with Danny as Danny is with him, nevermind the fact that Steve has never showed interest.

“What do you mean they broke up?”

“I mean they’re over. Ended things. Done.”

“Huh,” Danny says, over his coffee, trying to figure out the best way to convince Steve to let Danny take him out for a guy’s night to get over Lynn without revealing how he knows that Steve needs a guy’s night to get over Lynn.

In the end, he doesn’t even have to be all that sneaky about it, because Steve comes to him - asks him out for drinks; so all Danny really has to do is play the dutiful wingman.

“I’m sorry about you and Lynn,” he yells over the music, after the alcohol has sufficiently loosened his tongue, “you guys were good together.”

“It was never going to work out,” Steve yells back, and gives Danny a significant look, “bit like you and Melissa.”

“How do you - how do you know about that?”

“What you think that you and Melissa are the only ones who engage in pillow talk? Lynn talks too, on occasion. When we weren’t you know, busy with other stuff.”

“Other stuff?” Danny chuckles, “Is that what we’re calling it now? You can say sex Steve. This must, must put a damper on your whole two or three days a week thing. Oh wait no sorry, how many days did you say it was? Five?”

“I’ll have you know,” Steve says, staggering on his feet as he and Danny stumble outside the bar, “that me and Lynn had a lot of problems. But sex wasn’t one of them.”

“Well -” he furrows his brows, and stops suddenly, pulling Danny close to him, “Sex might’ve been one of them.”

“What happened? You need tips in bed? Smooth dog?”

“I am very good in bed!” Steve says, affronted, “It was not my skill that was the issue here.”

“Then what was it? No come on don’t clamp up on me now, I have to hear this. What was the issue?”

Steve turns bright red, “I might’ve - I might’ve said the wrong name in bed, a couple of times.”

“Babe, you are unbeatable. No really, you are. First you, you leave the engagement ring that you were going to give Catherine just lying around - then you take off with Catherine in the middle of a romantic dinner, and now you’re yelling her name in bed? Buddy I’m surprised she didn’t break up with you sooner.”

Steve’s giving him this look, like he can’t for the life of him understand what Danny’s saying. “No it wasn’t Catherine why would you think it’s Catherine. No it was - “

And that’s about as far as Steve gets, because a second later, he’s retching their dinner all over the side of the road.

+ 1: love him

They’re all out on his lanai: Danny, Tani, Junior, Kamekona, even Duke’s made it out - and Steve’s got the grill set up just a couple feet away from the chairs. Half his attention is on the grill, the other half is on Danny - the way he’s stretched out on the old chair; loosened from the beer he’s been nursing, and smiling at something Tani said.

“Keep an eye on that meat,” Lou says, startling Steve, “I don’t want my dinner burning.”

“I’m not gonna burn your dinner Lou jeez, have a little faith. When have I ever burnt your dinner before?”

Lou looks over at Danny, and back at Steve with raised eyebrows, “you’re a bit distracted today. Forgive me if I’m cautious.”

“He thinks I don’t know what he’s doing,” Steve says in lieu of a response, “but I found his list the other day. All the things that stress management specialist said, Chloe or whatever her name is - he’s got it all written down. He’s driving himself crazy, worrying about this thing.”

“Have you ever stopped to consider why he’s so worried?”

Steve turns to Lou with a frown, “it’s not that hard to put together Lou. He’s worried about my health. I get it, I am too - but I’m not running myself into the ground thinking about it day and night.”

“Look man, I’ve been with you guys for a couple of years now, and let me tell you something about Danny. Now I’m not pointing fingers or any of that, but I’ve seen that man care about a lot of things - but nothing the way he cares about you Steve.”

Steve opens his mouth to reply, but Lou just holds up his hand, “you didn’t see him Steve. The day you got shot? The day you almost died? You didn’t see him that day.”

“Danny was - he had broken ribs, and scratches all over his face. They told him to land the plane in the water did he tell you that?”

Steve shakes his head silently.

“The people in Air Control or whatever you want to call them, they told Danny that his best chance at survival was landing the plane in the water, swimming to shore. But he knew that landing the plane in the water meant that you might die, and it wasn’t a chance he was willing to take. He didn’t even stick around long enough to watch you get taken in for surgery, he was already on his way out looking for the sons of bitches that shot you up.”

“And I’ve never seen anything like it Steve, I’m telling you - I didn’t know he was capable of that kind of violence. There was this one guy, their ring leader, who managed to limp his way over to the helicopter. When me and Kono got there, Danny was standing over him with his gun out, and he had this look on his face - I was worried if I stepped in, he might shoot him just to get to this guy.”

“And after all that was done, he marched right back into that hospital, barrelled right past all of us, and offered up his liver. There wasn’t even a second’s hesitation. Apparently he’d already had the blood-work drawn up, in case anything like this happened.”

Lou claps him on his shoulder, “I love you man, I do. But I don’t love you the way Danny does. I don’t think anybody does.”

“Would you -” he gestures at the steaks, “would you watch over the grill for me? Just for a bit. There’s something I gotta do.”

He doesn’t wait to hear Lou’s reply, just stalks over to Danny and grabs him by his elbow - hauling him up.

“Hey where are we - why’re we going inside, you Neanderthal I was in the middle of a conversation what’re you tugging me around for like I’m some sort of -”

The rest of Danny’s sentence gets lost against Steve’s lips, as Steve turns him around and braces him against the nearest vertical surface. His mouth is already open, which Steve uses to his advantage; pressing his full weight against Danny and licking into his mouth; memorising it with his tongue.

They break up with a wet sound, and when Steve opens his eyes, Danny’s pupils are blown black.

“What was that for?” Danny whispers between their lips, and Steve half smiles at him, “that was me saying thank you. I know what you’ve been doing, trying to manage my stress for me. This is me saying thank you.”

“Huh,” Danny slides a hand around his neck, squeezing, “Why don’t you run that thank you by me again one more time?”

Fin

#my writing #mcdanno #hawaii 5 o #steve mcgarrett #danny williams #developing relationship #5+1 #danny is worried about steve's health #fluff #taking care of each other

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alleycat97 · 5 years ago

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Soft Side Pt. 2

“Chloe chill, you’re pacing is killing my vibe.” Veronica spoke locking her phone.

“Is this ugly? What if she hates it? Maybe she will think I’m insulting her?” Chloe quizzed as she nervously patted down her clothes.

Chloe had finally decided on wearing an orange flannel tied up in the back making a crop top and khaki shorts. She was hoping it would be ‘stylish for a fair’.

“Oh Chloe you look perfect, she will love it and the effort you put into it.” Veronica added.

“What about Poppy? How am I going to get away without her knowing?”

“You leave Poppy to me, I’ve already got us a manicure lined up for starters tonight.” Veronica winked. “I told her you were hanging with Ford and Luis.”

“And she bought it?” Chloe asked concerned.

“Well if she didn’t, I’m sure you would know about it by now.” Veronica replied.

Meanwhile, Bea was just as nervous. Why? She wasn’t sure. Maybe she was unsure of Chloe’s intentions. Maybe it was a trap. Or maybe, just maybe, she genuinely liked Chloe and was nervous about this ‘date’.

“I can hear you thinking.” Zoey laughed as she watched Bea pacing.

“What if it’s a trap? Why would she want to go out? I don’t feel good about this.”

“Then why did you agree so quickly?” Zoey smirked.

Bea thought over the encounter, she knew from the second she saw Chloe, she was taken back by her raw beauty. So when Chloe asked her to hangout, she just went with it. It was exciting, it was unexpected, it was love.

The doorbell rang and Bea tensed up, “Its her. Omg what do I do!”

“Answer the door dummy!” Zoey laughed shoving Bea to the door.

Bea took a deep breath and opened the door revealing a equally anxious Chloe wearing, flannel?

“Oh wow you look incredible. I love that shirt!” Bea blurted out first thing, seemingly causing Chloe to calm down.

“Oh this thing? I’ve had it for years.” There she was, confident Chloe was back. “Ready to go?”

The girls said bye to Zoey, who threatened to kill Chloe if Bea got hurt. The two made it to Chloe’s car and surprisingly, Chloe opened the door before Bea could.

Bea was ready to submit herself right there in the back of Chloe’s Mercedes. Chivalry was huge back home in Winchester, and Chloe was knocking it out of the park so far. Bea started to settle in, Chloe was actually taking this serious.

The ride was somewhat quiet, both girls were nervous. It was a complete awkward silence at times, the situation these two were in and the nasty things they have said. Neither thought they’d be here.

A slight shiver ran down Bea’s spine causing her to shake slightly.

“Are you cold? Here let me turn the heat up.” Chloe quickly doing just that, to Bea’s satisfaction. “Would you like to listen to the radio?”

“Ummm yeah sure. Do you listen to anything country?” Bea asked trying to figure out the radio.

Chloe noticed her struggling and let out a giggle, “Here, allow me.” Chloe found a country station, Thomas Rhett started blaring and Bea immediately started humming and swaying in her seat.

“I take it you like this song?” Chloe said with a chipper smile.

“Love it!”

Chloe wasn’t a country fan, but she really enjoyed Bea in her element, it made the drive blow by.

It was an hour drive out into the country, and on a Friday night, the fairground was packed. Chloe paid for parking and found a spot in the grass lot, she had never seen so much grass and dirt in her life and she was silently freaking out over the dirt on her car.

“Well! Come on! We’re going to miss the fair!” Bea started jumping up and down like a child.

“Ok ok I’m coming.” Chloe giggled catching up with Bea.

Chloe was taken back by the fair. It was similar to some of the movies she had seen, but the smell of the fried foods, the overall aura of the place was nothing she could have prepared herself for. Her mouth was watering at the smells.

“Let’s get something to eat, here look! They’ve got all the good stuff.” Bea said pulling Chloe over to a booth with a small wait line.

“Is it all greasy?” Chloe asked looking over the menu.

“Mostly, but I’ll take care of it.” Bea insisted.

“I’ll have the buffalo wings and the deep fried Oreos. And my lady will have a Gyro and the frozen yogurt. Oh! And two lemon shakeups please.”

Chloe didn’t hear anything past, ‘my lady’ She was too busy smiling like an idiot.

She didn’t even realize she was sitting down at a table and eating her food, the fair taste overloaded her circuits and brought her back to Earth.

“Earth to Chloe!” Bea shouted.

“Huh? Oh.” Chloe's face became red from embarrassment.

“Are you with me? You totally fazed out on me.”

“Oh I’m good. This food is delicious thank you.” Chloe was impressed. Not just by the food, but how Bea knew she would like it.

“You’re welcome. Fair food is like it’s own entity. You can’t come to one without eating this mess.”

Chloe looked at Bea’s platter of grease and wondered what she was missing on, and as if her mind was read, Bea was offering her some food to sample.

Chloe grabbed a wing off the plate, it was hot, and slimy and the smell of the dip and rub flooded her nose almost making her sneeze.

“I’ve never had one of these before.” She said before taking a bite, sauce going all over her mouth making Bea laugh.

“Here, you have a little something...” Bea reached over and wiped the sauce from Chloe’s face with her thumb and then licking it clean. The touch alone was electric, Chloe didn’t want Bea to remove her hand.

But she did and she tried to hide her pout. After eating, the two wondered around eating cotton candy. They went to the livestock show, the rodeo and finally, the finale, the Ferris Wheel.

Chloe wouldn’t lie, she was very nervous. She didn’t do heights. Especially on a cheap carnival ride, but here she was climbing willingly on the death trap.

The where near the top, stopping every time to get more riders on, Chloe made the mistake of looking down.

“Isn’t it great up here? The view is beautiful.” Bea said looking to a mortified Chloe. “Chloe?”

“Hmm?” She said timidly.

“Are you alright?”

“Uh huh.” She said unconvincingly.

“Oh my. You’re scared of heights.” Bea said at the revelation. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to disappoint you. I thought I could do it.” Chloe said, naturally moving closer to Bea.

Bea wrapped a protective arm around Chloe who nuzzled tightly into her side. The soothing sensation of Bea rubbing Chloe’s armed calmed her down significantly and soon the ride began. It was actually nice looking over the fair, the cool night air filling her lungs, the warm embrace she was in. This night was perfect.

Before they could step off the ride, Bea placed a perfect kiss to Chloe’s temple and whispered, “I have one last thing for us.” Chloe melted. There was no way that just happened.

Chloe was pulled from her fantasy land day dream by the rugged sound of a man, “Step right up and test your skills and win a prize! How bout you little lady? Think you got what it takes? All you gotta do is shoot the bandits, but watch out, the Wild West is full of unknowns.”

Bea slapped down a $10 bill and grabbed the gun. Ready to win and adrenaline pumping.

“Well look at this little pistol. Think you got it in you missy?”

“Just turn on the game.” Bea stated.

The game sprung to life, cutouts of bandits and sheriffs dropping from the ceiling, Bea shooting true, never missing a shot. A good 3 minutes of blasting the bandits for a perfect score earned her a top prize. Bea looked her options over and obviously there was only one worth her pick. “I want that one.”

Chloe was staring at a giant Koala bear and Bea struggling to talk around it, “Here, I won this for you. I hope you like it.”

Chloe nearly fainted. This was the sweetest thing. How did Bea know she loved koala bears? God she was going to die.

“Thank you, I love it.”

The girls made it to the car and Chloe happily strapped her new bear into the backseat, Bea teasing her that it didn’t need to be buckled in. Chloe wasn’t having it, this was basically her child now. “I just want to make sure he’s safe.”

“He?” Bea laughed.

“Yes he. His name is Karl.” Chloe said immediately.

“Karl the Koala.” Bea couldn’t hold it in. The cuteness was too much. “I like it.”

The drive back to campus was much like the drive to the fair. The date was over and both girls had to get back to the unknown. This was forbidden to even happen, but neither wanted to believe it.

Chloe walked Bea to her room, lugging Karl along. “I really had a wonderful time Bea. This was the best date I have ever had.”

Bea couldn’t help but feel a ‘but’ coming on.

“But...” Chloe said earning a eye roll from Bea. “I don’t know how this will work. Poppy will kill us both if she finds out. I’ll be ruined, Poppy is dangerous Bea. She will kill me and then she will make sure your life is miserable. Even when you die.”

“Chloe.” Bea said calmly placing her soft hand on the girls cheek, reigniting that spark of energy. “I’m not worried about Poppy. I’m a big girl and you can’t worry either. I had a wonderful time tonight.”

And then quickly, before she could think, she was meeting Bea in the middle, her soft lips sweetly pressing against the other girls. It was wet, it was innocent, it was perfect. The kiss that sealed her fate. “This is going to be difficult.” Chloe admitted, pressing her forehead against Bea’s.

“I love difficult.”

#playchoices #pixelberry #chloe x mc #queen b chloe #chloe st james #queen b poppy #poppy min sinclair #queen b mc #queen b choices

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 4 years ago

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TATMILB, CHAPTER 2

Penelope spent her life writing love letters, which didn’t seem like a terrible idea until the letters were mailed out and Schneider received one of them. Hoping to fool their exes, they agree to fake a relationship. But are they lying to everyone around them, or to themselves? aka my To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before-inspired AU.

Penelope x Schneider, ODAAT. available on ao3 with extra author’s notes.

Chapter 2: Penelope is confronted by Nikki, who accuses her of having feelings for Schneider. Alex’s high school drama hits too close to home. Schneider joins the family for dinner; hijinks ensue.

“I got a call about a packet I needed?” Penelope asked the receptionist while she waited for Alex to get out of his last class. “I think it’s for my son’s baseball season. Alex Alvarez.”

The woman at the desk nodded and walked away, leaving Penelope alone in the silent office. Every visit to the school made her feel vaguely guilty, echoes from her own youth. Or maybe today, it was the knowledge that she’d taken time off work to run errands. She wanted Alex to be able to do things like baseball, but missing the hours felt irresponsible.

Scrolling idly through social media, Penelope took a second to consider her schedule for the rest of the day. Pick Alex up since she already had to come here, grab groceries on the way home...homework for the kids before dinner but also for her...hopefully time for a movie, if she didn’t crash first. Her school schedule had her worn out lately. She was so close to the end of it.

With her eyes on her phone, she didn’t see Nikki walk up, though she heard the click of sharp heels on the floor--and the sharp clearing of her throat.

“Penelope!”

“Nikki.” Ugh.

She couldn’t seem to get away from Schneider’s not-girlfriend lately. Though they had broken up three or four times by now--Penelope had lost count, not that she was really keeping track--their hookups were back on again, as nauseating as ever.

Penelope had no idea what Schneider saw in her, even for meaningless sex. She was just so...Nikki. And after Homecoming, Schneider had been really upset. The most genuinely hurt by a woman that Penelope had ever seen him.

She had tried her hardest to be sympathetic in between hovering at her Mami’s bedside and mourning her own breakup...but then a month later, Nikki was back in the picture.

As Schneider’s best friend, she couldn’t be expected to say nothing about that. It was insane. A terrible idea.

Apparently so was telling Schneider the truth about the situation, because during his next fight with Nikki, Penelope’s words found their way out of his mouth. Now Nikki was even more venomous than she used to be whenever they crossed paths.

It wasn’t like she’d told Schneider not to go back to hooking up with Nikki, Penelope thought in her own defense. She just hadn’t been in favor of it.

“Are you signing up for extra volunteer hours this year?” Nikki asked, a little too close as she leaned against the reception desk next to Penelope. “You know you’re running behind again, and the St. Bibiana PTA always needs...dedicated parents, who really care about the success and future of their kids, to help out here.”

Penelope sucked in a breath and silently counted to three. “I’m sure that’s true,” she replied. “Just like the world needs dedicated nurses to help out those kids and their parents when they get sick.”

As if being a working parent was a bad thing, she thought, furious. As if Nikki was giving so much to the world by sitting on her butt during charity events and hitting on other people’s husbands while she volunteered.

“What are you up to today?” She asked, instead of getting into any of that. You do not fight with a snake, she could her Mami advising her, with the wisdom of a woman who’d dealt with plenty of them in her long lifetime. Unless you want to get down in the dirt with it.

“Oh, just checking on the Prom committee’s budget. The kids have started planning, and we want to make sure they have the most fun ever, don’t we?”

“Of course.”

She remembered Prom fondly, but now that she was a parent instead of a teenager sneaking booze in her bra--especially since she used to be a teenager who did that sort of thing--Penelope’s thoughts on Prom were much more along of the lines of please God don’t let my son have too much fun.

“Are you going to be a chaperone this year?”

Penelope checked the time, wondering what was taking the receptionist so long. Once she got the forms turned in, it would be easy to make a quick exit. She could wait for Alex in the car.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule when we’re a little closer to the date.”

“Well, don’t wait too long to decide.”

“I’m not planning on it.”

Nikki’s tone slid from bossy to patronizing. “You know, if you don’t get those hours in, there’s a fine.”

“Yes, I got it!” Penelope snapped back. “I have no intention of skipping out on my volunteer hours this year, just like I haven’t missed them any other year.”

“Jeez, Penelope.” Nikki tossed her hair, victorious at the show of temper. “There’s no need to get upset.”

“Oh, don’t tell me how to feel, thank you. I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation.”

“I saw an acquaintance, a fellow parent,” Nikki’s tone dripped faux affection, making Penelope’s fingers twitch. The urge to remove her earrings was strong. “I wanted to say a friendly hello, because anything else would just be rude, wouldn’t it? While we waited here, in our kids’ school? But you know, Penelope, it’s not my fault that Schneider likes me more.”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“Your crush on your landlord. It’s painful to watch, and it makes it hard to try and get along with you. Maybe you should talk to someone about that...the fact that you have a thing for Schneider.”

She took a full step back, trying to digest Nikki’s accusation. Did the idea somehow come from Schneider? If he thought she had a thing for him, wouldn’t he have said something to her instead?

“You’re crazy.”

“No, what’s crazy is the way you tried to weasel between Schneider and me after we had one little fight. I thought you didn’t understand what we have, because you’re such a conventional, old-fashioned person...but that wasn’t it. You wanted him all to yourself, so you tried to get rid of me. It didn’t work.”

Penelope shook her head. “Schneider and I are friends. Who he’s with has nothing to do with me, whether I think it’s a good idea or not.”

Obviously, she added silently, glaring at Nikki. Since he’s with you.

The receptionist came back, forms in hand, and Penelope almost expressed her relief out loud. She settled for a slightly louder thank you than was necessary, as she took a seat to fill them out.

Nikki became background noise then, grating but ignorable background noise. Penelope assumed she got what she’d come for as well, because she clicked her way back down the hall without further unpleasantness.

Something must have really gotten under Nikki’s skin, though Penelope couldn’t have said what--there was no reason for her to pick a fight in public over Schneider when, as Nikki herself had pointed out, they were back together.

Shrugging it off, Penelope went to her car and waited the ten minutes it took for classes to let out. Alex was easy to spot as he left, surrounded by his friends. It still amazed her sometimes that she had raised such an outgoing kid. He got that from Victor, she knew. She’d had friends in school, but not quite so many.

“Hey, Mom.” He slung his backpack onto the backseat as he settled in.

“Papito.” She ignored the urge to kiss him on the cheek, aware that parental PDA was worse than death now that her baby was half-grown. “We’re stopping at the store on the way home. How was your day?”

“Good.”

She glanced his way before pulling out of the lot. “Phone down, Alex. How about you give me more than one syllable, since I took time off just to make sure your extracurriculars are all set?” And got kind of attacked in the process.

He rolled his eyes, but slid his phone back into his pocket. “I don’t know, Mom. Things are good. What do you want from me?”

“Details. How are you doing in that science lab? How are your friends? What’s happening in your life?”

She stretched out the last word to make him laugh.

“Alright. The lab still kind of sucks, but Maddie helped me out today, so it wasn’t so bad. She’s in a fight with Casey this week.”

“That must be hard for your friends, huh.”

“Not really. We’re all used to it. They’re, like, always fighting. And it’s why she’s helping me--she wants to make him jealous.”

“So she’s using you?”

“She’s improving my science grade,” Alex replied, the duh heavily laced through his words. “And with Maddie all over me lately, Chloe’s trying to get more of my time, so I’m not exactly complaining.”

“Hold up. Are you saying you’ve got these two girls fighting over you? I don’t like the sound of that at all, Papito.”

“Come on, Mom. It’s just the price of being popular. Everybody wants my time.”

“I don’t care. You know I didn’t raise you to be that kind of guy, playing with girls’ feelings or pitting them against each other.”

“I didn’t ask them to be into me!” He protested. “What am I supposed to do, pretend I hate it? I thought you raised me not to lie.”

“Nobody’s saying you should lie. But you can pay attention to their feelings, not just your own. Being a girl is hard, you know--competing for a boy, worrying about whether he likes you back.”

And even when you’re not competing, other girls will believe you are, she thought. Clearly, not everybody grows out of that.

“My point is, you can enjoy the attention and still be honest. If you’re not into Maddie like that, don’t let Chloe think you are. It’s not fair to either of them.”

“Okay, okay. I get it.” Alex slumped a bit behind his seatbelt, shutting down the conversation.

Being the voice of reason led to so many sullen silences now that her kids were teenagers. She couldn’t claim to enjoy that part, but it also couldn’t be avoided. Who would talk to them about this stuff, if she didn’t?

The last thing she wanted was for Alex to grow up to date women like Nikki, directing their insecurities at innocent bystanders. Even though she knew Schneider would never have encouraged today’s bizarre attack, his continued involvement with Nikki made it possible. It took her the rest of the drive home to shake her irritation.

****

Schneider joined the family for dinner that night, like he had most nights since Elena left for Oxford. His presence didn’t fill up the space her daughter left behind, but Penelope welcomed it--at least he never ran out of lighthearted conversation, and always offered to clear the table when they were done eating.

Alex chatted with Lydia in the far corner of the kitchen while Schneider took over cleanup; her youngest had a knack for avoiding chores that she almost admired. No amount of cajoling or bribery had managed to affect it, so Penelope was pretty sure it was a lost cause by now.

Still, there were standards to uphold. She offered up a halfhearted “Papito, at least dry a dish,” but Schneider shook his head at her as he grabbed the last plate.

“I’ve got this, don’t worry about it. I like pitching in.”

She decided not to protest further. Let the rich white guy clean her house for once, Penelope thought, amused at all of them.

With her Mami and Alex discussing dessert options in the kitchen and Schneider at the sink, she got to the TV first--that never happened anymore. She picked something mindlessly entertaining on Netflix and settled in, happy to relax after dinner.

“What are we watching?”

Schneider was done cleaning up a lot faster than she would’ve expected. He took the other side of the couch without an invitation; not that she minded, really. The invitation was implied at this point.

“A documentary about submarines,” Penelope told him with a straight face. Why did he even bother asking? The show’s title was branded in the corner of the screen.

“Interesting,” Schneider said, playing along. “There’s an awful lot of cake-decorating going on here for an undersea adventure.”

“I guess so.”

She smiled at him and returned her attention to the screen. As soon as the others came to join them, her mom and Alex would team up to outvote her choice in programming. Until then, she would enjoy her silly food competition show in peace.

“Since when do you like reality TV?” Schneider asked, pulling her back to the moment.

“This isn’t reality TV,” Penelope shot back. “It’s not like the Real Housewives or something.”

“It’s literally listed as reality TV under the title, Pen. I’m not judging, just wondering.”

“It’s people making cake, okay? I like cake. And I definitely don’t have the energy to make cake. So I’m watching them do it.”

“You don’t have to get defensive,” Schneider said. “You’re allowed to enjoy mindless entertainment as much as the rest of us.”

It had the effect he probably intended, making her want to argue with him even more. Penelope was about to retaliate by bringing up his fascination with zoo livestreams, but her Mami’s lilting “Lupe, do you want me to make some cake?” distracted her long enough for Schneider to steal the remote and switch to a sitcom.

“Give that back--no, Mami, I don’t need you to make us cake--Schneider, you have terrible taste,” she said, all in one breath. “Hand it over before I make you.”

“Tough talk,” he replied, as she stood up to retrieve the remote he was holding out of her reach. His arms were longer than hers, but he also knew her well enough to stand when she did, wary of the damage she could do.

“Oh my god, are you twelve?” Penelope was seriously considering a gut punch now that Schneider’s height had her at a disadvantage.

She heard laughter and shot her mom and Alex a look over her shoulder. “Traitors.”

“I like this show,” Alex pointed out, unrepentant.

“Schneider washed all my dishes,” Lydia chimed in.

“Face it,” Schneider told her, shifting away whenever she moved in his direction, until he'd put the couch between them. “I have awesome taste, and you’re outnumbered.”

“I did more work today than you’ll do all month,” Penelope said, relaxing her stance. She watched him do the same. “You can play reruns at your own house whenever you want, Schneider. Let me have my cake show.”

“Take back what you said about me having terrible taste.”

She nodded and dropped her gaze to the carpet. “I take it back. You’re right, you have excellent taste.”

Seizing her moment while his guard was lowered, Penelope dodged the couch and snagged the remote. She grinned at him.

“In friends. You have really, very good taste in friends, Schneider.”

“Ha, ha.” He sat back down, ignoring the teasing coming his way from the kitchen.

Vicarious cake tasted even sweeter now that she was triumphant, Penelope decided, settling back into her own spot with a firmer grip on the TV remote.

“I’m rooting for the guy with the bluebirds,” Schneider decided, eyeing the last two contestants critically.

“What were you saying about having good taste?” She pointed at the screen when the camera switched to the waterfall cake. “That one is so much better. Your guy could barely pipe his flowers.”

Their debate as the episode wound down was comfortable, a return to normal that was especially welcome after such a weird day. She’d made the right call, she decided, in not telling him about what happened at St. Bibiana’s. It would have only made things awkward between them.

Nikki thinking that she was threatened by who Schneider chose to have sex with was so stupid, Penelope thought. It just showed how little Nikki understood about either of them.

Their friendship was better than anything he and Nikki could possibly have.

#alvareider #one day at a time #odaat #penelope x schneider #to all the men i've loved before #penelope alvarez #schneider #lydia riera #alex alvarez #nikki finn's mom #alvareider fic #odaat fic #my fic

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gilbirda · 5 years ago

Text

The Bet

When two stubborn and dominating people like Chloe and Lucifer decide to pursue a romantic relationship, what neither expected was to get such a kick from their competitive spirit. It was simple: she had a vibrator inside on their date, she couldn't get caught and the devil could use any of his tricks to make her fail. What could go wrong?

Sequel >> [Read on AO3][Read on FF.net]

Chloe wasn’t exactly sure how she got convinced to do this. She was a responsible adult, a serious mom, a cop; and, most importantly, the only mature person in their relationship.

You see, being the Devil’s girlfriend should be serious business - maintain a power position, be the consort of the ruler of Hell, deal with the supernatural on a daily basis. Her father-in-law would be God himself. One might think starting a relationship with Lucifer meant more than dealing with his childish antics and keep her job in the process.

Or, in this case, not be in the risk of being caught with a vibrator on a public place.

Seriously. How the hell , pun intended, was she convinced to do this? She would like to appeal to her competitive spirit, and that Lucifer’s wording entailed an obvious challenge (“Don’t worry, dear, I’m sure this type of excitement is not up you specific alley”). No. It was that damn look when he came back from his bedroom to show her something he bought for her.

He was smiling like a child on Christmas, explaining all the fun functions the model had, the wireless connection and app for the phone, which he had already installed, of course, promising that it could be exciting to try it.

She wasn’t a stranger to vibrators, she had one back at home which had been kind of abandoned since Lucifer took it as a challenge to meet all of her needs; but she knew from the moment his excited smile turned devilish that what he had in mind wasn’t exactly the same she was thinking.

They had a date that night. He challenged her to not get caught, while he played with the different settings of the vibrator from his phone. The loser had to do something for the winner. Even a formal deal was made, handshake and everything.

She had never seen him so focused on something. He was sitting across from her on one of his designer suits, legs crossed, exuding that royal vibe of the King of Hell. In moments like this, specially when she wasn’t trying not to squirm too much on her seat on the diner, she wondered how she didn’t figure his identity out sooner.

“Don’t resist temptation, darling,” he purred lowly, doing something with his finger on the screen of his phone, and the damn thing inside of her started going crazy. She gasped.

“The only temptation I have is what I’m going to make you do when I win,” Chloe leaned towards him over the table, biting her lip when he did the thing with his finger again.

“Something tame, I’m sure,” he purred, looking down at his phone and touching something on his screen with that smirk she liked so much. The vibrator started to turn on and off repeatedly, making her jump in the seat. “I can almost hear it working from here.”

“Shut up,” the woman breathed deeply, taking off her sweater even if it was october and they were on an outside table.

“Feeling hot , love?”

“Paperwork. All of it,” she smiled at him. “And archive my cases for a month.”

He narrowed his eyes, tapping another setting. The vibrator went full power for a second. “And they call me the Devil. Wicked woman.”

“Hmmm,” she hummed, forcing the shiver out of her system. “Desk work. How sexy. That way you could learn a thing or two about proper procedure for once.”

Lucifer bit his lower lip and touched something on the screen. The vibrator went low. She gasped. When he looked at her again she saw hellfire in his eyes.

“I think I know what I want. When I win, of course,” she snorted, but he ignored her. His index finger stayed put on the screen. “How do you feel about a vacation? Somewhere quiet and peaceful,” he moved the finger up and down, and with it the intensity of the vibrator. “I happen to own a private island. I could arrange it as soon as possible.”

“So far it sounds good,” she smiled like nothing was out of order when the waiter came to bring their food. Neither moved to touch it. “You are losing your touch with the retirement, dear. ”

“Uh-huh,” she almost felt his pianinst fingers slide over the screen. She stifled a moan. “The best part is I get to choose everything . Your clothes, your swimsuit, and the itinerary.”

Chloe closed her eyes. She trusted him not to go too far or harm her, but she was sure he could go way overboard without proper adult supervision.

This became too dangerous all of sudden.

“You won't win.”

Lucifer licked his lips, tapping something on his phone. “That’s what you think.”

Chloe bit her lip, this time unable to trap the moan inside her mouth. He heard it and smiled, delighted.

“The perk of having a private island,” he teased as he tapped the same thing on the app, “is that no one will hear your screams.”

She jumped in her place, but forced her hand to reach for the fork and stabbed her pasta with it.

“No one will see your pretty face when you come.” He continued tapping. She rubbed her thighs together.

Chloe ignored him, taking a bite of her somewhat cold food.

“No one but me, obviously.” Lucifer’s smirk widened as he slid his index on the screen, the thing inside of her going wild in the exact same moment she tried to swallow.

She moaned, covering her mouth with her hand when a elderly woman looked at her from a nearby table.

“The food is really good! Haha...,” she was not blushing as she tried to defuse the situation. “That doesn’t count.” The woman narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend when she looked back at him.

“Sure,” he licked his lips, uncrossing his legs and readjusting in his seat. Even if he tried to show a calm face he wasn’t unaffected by the way Chloe was starting to lose control of the situation, or how her cheeks were deliciously pink, or how he could feel her legs moving under the table.

He had to win and fast.

He saw his opportunity when she was distracted by her food, resuming her eating to finish the diner date and declare her winner for the night. Lucifer’s finger tapped the only setting he hadn’t touched yet, something that looked promising, and waited for the signal to kick in.

He could now clearly hear it vibrating inside of her (a thought that he tried to force out of his mind if he wanted to keep his hands over the table), and the table besides them probably could, too. Chloe opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“Luci-hng!” what she was going to say was lost in her throat, mixed with a half-aborted moan and intelligible words. She was close. “Wha-uh-ah...!”

The Devil smiled, sure of his success, and held the glare Chloe was trying to keep on him despite her trembling body.

“Do you yield?” he purred lowly, ignoring the looks from the elder lady, who was now suspecting something was going on between them.

“Fuck you.”

“Ah. That’s for later,” his voice transformed into the tone he usually used for interrogations. “Do you yield?”

She bit her lip, trying to control her trembling body, her eyes burning with a mix of fury for losing their game, and passion. She knew what she needed. She just had to take it.

Chloe slammed her hand against the table and stood. “You. The car. Now.”

She didn’t wait for him to agree, grabbed his suit and dragged him out of the seat and out of the restaurant, not looking back when he dropped some notes on the table.

At first he had been quiet, but when they were almost in the parking lot where they left her car, Lucifer decided to speak. “Not that I’m complaining, this is getting fun by the moment, but I take business seriously and I’d appreciate if you peacefully -”

“Shut up,” was her only warning before she slammed him against the door of her car and kissed him. She pressed her body against his, felt him over the layers of his suit, groaning at the fact that they were too many.

“Detective-,” he whispered when she let his mouth free briefly, attending the skin of his neck. She bit him, hard. “Chloe,” he corrected himself, “um, we are not exactly-”

“Get in the car.”

He shivered, but did as he was told. She followed him to the backseat and straddled his legs with her back against the grid that separated the front seat with the back.

Lucifer put his hands on her hips and looked up at her in adoration. They were so close, their hips grinding, that he could feel the still vibrating toy. He watched her reach for his belt but didn’t move to stop her.

“Are you sure about this?” Not the sex, he had stopped making sure she was on her right mind for desiring him a long time ago; he meant doing this in such a public place.

She growled softly making quick work of the belt, the button and the zipper. “If we are quick and quiet we won’t get caught,” her breath was labored.

“I should feel insulted about the ‘quick’ part,” he complained with a chuckle, but the truth is he wasn’t sure if he could resist for long.

“You can prove your skills when we get home,” her hand gripped his eager and ready member through the fabric of his boxers, her other hand cupping his face to kiss him on the lips. He jumped when she squeezed hard, moaning at the tiny bit of pain.

“Wicked woman,” he breathed on her lips, reaching under the really convenient skirt of her dress, pulling aside her underwear and removing the toy. Chloe gasped when she was released from the vibrating sensation.

She leaned in and kissed him again when she managed to free his cock, guiding it to her dripping entrance and getting it exactly where she wanted it without much preamble. They could have time for slow and tender later. Now, she just wanted this.

“Yes. Just like that,” Lucifer let his head drop back over the seat, closing his eyes to focus on the sensations.

As she started to move, he placed one hand on her hip under the fabric of her dress, helping her guide her up and down. Otherwise he let her do her bidding, unresisting and completely surrendering to her will. Sometimes it humbled her how much he trusted her, how much he loved it when she was on top. One would guess the Devil liked to always be in control, but Lucifer only made this delicious noises and grumbling and deep moaning when she was the one calling the shots.

Without changing the pace, Chloe leaned in and kissed his exposed neck, delighted when he sighed and became even more like pudding under her body. She rolled her hips, smirking when his chest vibrated with a grumbled moan.

“Quiet,” she whispered, putting one hand over his mouth. He whimpered against her hand when she rolled her hips again.

She quickened her pace, breathing hard and focusing on bringing them to their peak. She felt the hand under her skirt grip her with a little bit too much force, the only sign he allowed himself to make of his nearing release.

"Come for me, Lucifer," she breathed on his ear, earning another choked whimper as his body trembled in ecstasy.

She rode him through it slowly, enjoying the way his face lost all mischief and left the man she loved bare for her too see. She couldn't help but kiss him as he came down from his high.

"Darling," he gasped against her lips, recovering his breath, "you didn't finish."

His pout was too delicious not to memorize.

"I was enjoying watching you," she shrugged as if the shiver her words provoked on him weren't a big deal.

"No, no, no," with renewed energy, he managed to push her away from him and softly drop her on the backseat. "We must fix this."

She grabbed his hand when he attempted to sneak it between her legs.

"Home." It was an order.

Lucifer blinked slowly and shook his head as if his brain was restarting.

"Very well," he reached for the forgotten vibrator and put it in her hands. Then he searched in his clothes until he found the pocket-sized wipes he brought just in case and threw them at her. "Get cleaned and put it on. I'll drive."

"Sure." Her smile was too sexy not to kiss. So he did.

"By the way," he kissed her again and the air inside the car changed as he zipped his pants and turned to open the door. "I win."

Lucifer looked back at her with a cocky expression, resuming his usual dominant persona.

Chloe rolled her eyes but did as she was told. Her pride may be hurt for losing their bet, but she wouldn't complain about a vacation in a secluded island with her boyfriend. Who knows, she could test how much she could make him scream.

She smirked. "Sure."

The woman was delighted when his face turned wary. He didn't know what he just got himself into.

#lucifer netflix #lucifer morningstar #deckerstar #chloe decker #warning:lime #gil writes #fanfiction #fanfic #writeblr #lucifer #lucifer fanfiction

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flightfoot · 5 years ago

Text

Divergent Points - Reflekdoll

AO3/FFN

Thanks to @galahadwilder for idea bouncing!

Oh yeah, this is a bit late, but I figure @alya-appreciation-week might appreciate this with the Kwami Swap. Because Ladybug!Alya and Black Cat!Nino are awesome.

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

Alya grinned. Marinette may no longer need help finding opportunities to hang out with Adrien (as Chat Noir at least), nor to push her to get closer to him, but still, any opportunity that Marinette and Adrien had to really spend time with each other as civilians was something to treasure. And getting to participate in a group activity? Even better.

Adrien and Marinette talking with each other about fashion, giving tips, making jokes, really just having a conversation without any stress or anxiety? Not something she’d have thought was possible even a month ago. Finding out that Adrien was Chat Noir really let her relax around him.

Of course the rest of the class had noticed, and many of them were suspicious, but they’d deflected it as best they could. They’d considered telling the rest of the class about Marinette and Adrien dating, but had eventually decided against it. Most of them would be thrilled, but between Chloe potentially lashing out at Marinette if she discovered that Adrien had fallen for her and the ambiguous threat that Lila represented? It wasn’t worth it.

Time to film the main model!

She turned her phone from Adrien and Marinette towards Juleka. She wasn’t filming yet, but if there was one thing she’d learned from running the Ladyblog, it was to always be ready to press that record button.

“How about a little smile for the camera, Juleka?”

Juleka looked up, mumbling something quietly, barely coherently. It sounded like “I don’t think this is such a good idea guys?” With the way her words were blending together, it was hard to tell.

Juleka had been the one to put herself forward as a model earlier, but now she seemed weirdly freaked out. But this wasn’t like Marinette’s freak outs. Those tended to be a lot louder and more obvious, and a lot easier to pinpoint the cause of (Adrien. Almost always Adrien).

By contrast, Juleka seemed a lot more restrained, but in a way that was even more worrying. With Marinette she knew what was going on. With Juleka, she just kinda appeared freaked out and barely responsive, looking down at the ground, eyes darting around, mumbling, and with not being able to hear her really well, she wasn’t even sure what the issue was, much less how to fix it.

Marinette walked over to Juleka, holding onto her shoulders and talking to her comfortingly. Alya relaxed slightly. She wasn’t sure what to do, but Marinette was pretty talented. Maybe she’d be able to help Juleka through… whatever was going on?

She frowned. Juleka was hyperventilating now, even with Marinette there with her.

Hm. 11:30. They didn’t have long before Adrien would have to leave to go have lunch with his father. Whatever they did, they’d have to do soon.

Marinette spoke soothingly to Juleka. “It was great of you to volunteer to model for me, but I can tell you’re not feeling that comfortable about it. Would you prefer if someone stood in for you? These are my designs, I really should model them myself…”

If someone stood in for-

Oh.

OH.

This was perfect!

Adrien was already a model, and Marinette’s designs were unisex, fitting both men and women and looking good on them too. And, naturally, she already had versions on hand that were the right size for both herself and Adrien. (Come on, like she WOULDN’T design clothes in her kitty’s size).

It would be perfect for showing off Marinette’s range for her website!

…Okay so the main reason was because she’d get some matching clothing couple pics out of it. So sue her, they were cute together.

She was still waiting for the day they would get their first hamster together. She wasn’t sure who would be most likely to die of cuteness overload first, Marinette when cooing over the hamster, Adrien for cooing over the hamster AND how cute Marinette was, or herself for cooing over the cuteness of all of them.

Oh who was she kidding, it would be Adrien. The boy was such a smitten kitten.

Wait, what was she thinking about?

Oh yeah. New models for the photoshoot!

“Of course! Awesome idea Marinette!”

Alya grabbed Marinette and yanked her over next to Adrien, positioning them close enough to both be in frame of a potential camera. “If we want to show off how truly awesome this design is for both boys and girls, it’d be best to have the photoshoot with both a girl and a guy! You in Adrien?”

He shrugged. “If it helps. Could be fun! A lot more interesting than my regular photoshoots at least.”

“Perfect! Give Marinette your suit Juleka.”

She didn’t wait for a response, already grabbing the hat off of Juleka’s head and pushing Marinette and Adrien towards two shades they’d set up for any outfit changes.

This was going to be SO. COOL. Even better than the original plan!

The two of them emerged minutes later. She wasn’t surprised that Adrien was so fast at changing, he certainly had enough experience. Marinette was a bit more of a surprise, but she was used to acting fast, so maybe it wasn’t TOO surprising. Plus she was intimately familiar with the outfit and the accessories, which probably helped with the changing speed.

They looked so awesome! With the simple dark blue shirt with black stripes, the outfits were well-suited for casual wear, but the pop of color from the red berets and the addition of the rings and clip-on earrings added some extra interest that took the outfits to the next level!

Wait… rings and earrings…

She glanced at Adrien’s hand and at Marinette’s ears. Both of them were wearing the accessories for the outfit rather than their Miraculous.

She pulled them aside quickly.

“Adrien? Marinette? Where are your Miraculous?”

They both looked slightly uncomfortable, patting their bags.

Ok. So they weren’t wearing them right now, but they were close by. This would be fine. It was only going to be for a little bit, less than an hour. Surely Hawkmoth wouldn’t attack during this tiny little window of time.

Right?

…Maybe she should call for back-up. You know, just in case.

She sent off a quick text to Nino, asking him to meet up with her and the others at Marinette’s house. If there was an emergency, she knew she could count on him.

“Ok, let’s do this quickly before Adrien has to go back.”

They tried a few different positions in the room, but unfortunately-

Alya frowned. “Marinette, I don’t think your room has the best lighting for this. It’s a little too dim.”

Hm. It would mean more of a delay, but- “Maybe we should go outside? It’ll be brighter out there, and the background will be more appealing. Plus there’ll be more room for different shots.”

Alya following Marinette’s gaze as she glanced over at Juleka. She looked better now – well at least she wasn’t hyperventilating or mumbling. Slightly downcast maybe? But at least she didn’t seem ready to collapse to the ground.

The group started heading downstairs. Well, all except for one.

Juleka shook her head. “I’d rather not come.”

Rose looked put-out. “What? Why not?”

Juleka turned away from everyone. “It’s nothing, I just…”

Alya frowned as she checked the time, missing the rest of what Juleka mumbled. “We’ve got to head out now if we’re gonna do this, we only have thirty minutes left!”

Marinette called up to Juleka, looking uncertain. “Well, if you’re sure. Feel free to make yourself at home, we’ll be back soon.”

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

Nino met up with them on the ground floor. Marinette living so close to Francois-Dupont definitely came in handy sometimes.

“What’s going on dudes?”

Alya smiled. Seeing Nino never failed to lift her spirits. “There’s been a change of plans, we’re heading outside for the photoshoot. You up for it?”

He blinked. “Sure. Where to?”

He looked around. “And where’s Juleka?”

“She said she wanted to stay behind.”

Nino frowned. “Is she okay?”

“She said it was nothing.”

Nino glanced up at the top floor, where Marinette’s bedroom – and Juleka – were, but didn’t say anything.

“We can talk to her later if you want,” Alya suggested, “but we’re on a time crunch here.”

Nino hesitated, seeming conflicted. Finally he gave in. “Ok, where’re we going? And how’re we getting there?”

Adrien perked up. “I can take care of that!”

A few moments later, they were all squeezed into the backseat of the Agreste family car. Or, well, one of them. Alya hadn’t exactly kept track. Surely they had a second one in case Gabriel needed to go somewhere?

…Then again, Gabriel almost never left the house.

Alya had… OPINIONS on Gabriel. Between what Adrien had told her and the others a few weeks ago during the Chameleon incident, and what she knew from personal experience… well, most of what she had to say about him couldn’t be spoken of in polite company.

At least Marinette’s family had practically adopted Chat Noir. Adrien had seemed a lot happier and well-assured these past three weeks. She wished that Adrien could just move in with them already, but Nathalie would probably notice that.

She bet that if it was just Gabriel they could manage it though. For a guy who never left home, he sure didn’t spend much time with his son. Though that might be a blessing in disguise.

At least Adrien had Gorilla when he was at the manor. The man wasn’t exactly talkative, but he clearly cared for Adrien and gave him more slack than anyone else did.

Speaking of which…

The car halted. It was fortunate the school, Marinette’s house, and the Eiffel Tower were so close together, or they wouldn’t have had a prayer of finishing this within the time frame.

It wasn’t long before they had everything set up for the shoot. Marinette and Adrien had a few nice poses – nothing too coupley sadly, they had to keep that on the down-low for now. But still really nice pics that showed off the clothes well.

Then the giant Reflekta doll robot stomped into view.

Well, crap.

“Hello, my friends,” she heard Juleka’s voice call out bitterly. “I’ve got something special for your video.”

…And there were the giant laser beams. Welp, typical Tuesday she guessed.

She was more concerned with what was going on with Juleka. She’d seemed a little off when they left, but badly enough to get akumatized?

A small nagging feeling built in her stomach. Juleka’d been freaking out and hyperventilating, she KNEW that, she’d just… well she didn’t know why or how to help, so she’d just… brushed it off. And Juleka had seemed a little downcast when they left, but she’d been so focused on her whole “get Adrien and Marinette in cute matching outfits” crusade, she’d just… brushed right past any niggling feeling she had that something was wrong.

“I’m sorry Juleka, I should’ve stayed with you!” Rose cried, looking distraught.

“I am not Juleka, I’m Reflekta.” The giant Reflekta-bot fired a laser at Rose, which she barely managed to dodge in time. “Everyone always forgot about Juleka anyway.”

The nagging feeling deepened into guilt. Because yes, Alya HAD forgotten about Juleka. She hadn’t meant to hurt her, hadn’t been malicious at all! She just… just hadn’t given her much thought.

Marinette, Adrien, and Nino may be her closest friends, but that didn’t mean that she should forget about her other friends when they needed help.

Glancing quickly around, she saw Marinette and Adrien quickly dash towards some concealed spots.

Perfect! They’d transform soon and-

OH DOUBLE CRAP.

SHE KNEW THEM TAKING OFF THEIR MIRACULOUS WAS A BAD IDEA.

Okay, okay, so Juleka had been transformed into Reflekta again, this time with a giant mech to help her, and Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t transform.

Well today was just peachy, wasn’t it?

Ok good. They were heading towards the car now.

Aaaaand the Reflekmech was turning around to face them.

Maybe she should just stop thinking optimistic thoughts. The universe wasn’t looking kindly on tempting fate today.

They dove behind the car.

“You stole my limelight, Marinette,” Reflekta snarled. “I was supposed to be the star of the photoshoot!”

No. Marinette didn’t do that.

She had.

She’d gotten an idea in her head about what she wanted to happen, and she’d brushed aside any obstacle to getting it done.

Obstacles including Juleka.

Heck, she’d taken the hat right off of Juleka’s head, barely even looking at her as she did it!

Alya’d always known she had a bit of a one-track mind, but seeing the negative results of that so clearly displayed…

How many other people had she accidentally hurt in her overeagerness?

“But- you told me you didn’t want to!” Marinette shouted at Reflekta, indignant.

“You didn’t let me explain,” Reflekta told Marinette. Then she blasted her with a Reflekt laser, turning her into a Reflekta clone.

How many times could Murphy’s Law activate over the course of two minutes? Because this was getting ridiculous.

“Ha! Maybe you’ll understand me better now that you’re in MY shoes!”

Honestly, if she thought it would help, Alya would stand in the way of a beam herself. She still didn’t quite understand what was going on with Juleka, but with the hints that she HAD gotten? She wanted to learn more. To figure out just what she’d done wrong, and how to do it right next time.

Adrien tried to open the trunk, to no avail. Of course not, like Gorilla would be incompetent enough to leave it unlocked. She guessed that Adrien hadn’t had to get a lot of things out of the trunk himself though, so it was understandable that he didn’t know.

Oh. And now the Reflekmech had picked up the car with the Miraculous, thrown it, and Reflekta’d Adrien. She supposed that might as well happen at this point.

This was so much less nervewracking back in the days when she had Ladybug and Chat Noir on pedestals as invincible superheroes, and didn’t realize that they were just kids like herself.

Ok. What could she do to help?

“Alya!” Nino shouted.

She startled. With how hard she was concentrating on Adrien and Marinette, along with thinking about her own role in this akumatization, she’d completely forgotten that she’d asked him to come just in case something like this happened.

He hurried over to her. “What do you think we should-“

A beam of light interrupted his sentence. Two seconds later, both of them were a lot more pink and in far less practical shoes than they were before.

Juuuuust great.

At least they kept their own voices. It’d be a nightmare telling people apart otherwise.

“For now? Run!”

She took him by the hand as they bolted, trying to help keep him moving without stumbling. She was decent at running in heels – they weren’t exactly her favorite kind of shoes to wear, but she had some experience at least. Nino had none.

Get away from akuma now, plan later. Maybe try to find the Miraculous and Adrien and Marinette? That was less of a “plan” and more of an “aspiration” though.

“Ladybug? Ladybug?” She heard a familiar voice call out faintly.

She froze, causing Nino to bump into her. “Why did you-“

She put her fingers to her lips, silencing him. Looking up, she scanned the sky.

A small red-and-black blur darted around.

“Tikki?” she called out, wanting to attract her attention, but no one else’s.

Hordes more people ran past her screaming.

…She probably didn’t need to worry about that too much, come to think of it. There was a bit of a distraction going on already.

Tikki flew over to them. “Alya?”

She nodded.

“Nino?” she asked, looking to her side.

He nodded as well.

“Where’s Plagg?” he asked.

“Still trying to find Chat Noir. I’ve been trying to find Ladybug, but…” her antenna drooped.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Alya told her, “I’m sure you’ll find her eventually.”

The bug kwami perked up, eyes widening.

Ooh. Alya knew that face. That was the ‘I’ve got a brilliant idea’ face.

“Alya, how would you feel about being Ladybug?”

Her?

Be Ladybug?

She’d be lying if she said it’d never crossed her mind. Heck, after finding out that Marinette had wanted her to be Ladybug, that she’d even tried to give her the Miraculous because she believed she’d be a better Ladybug than her? Alya’d daydreamed about it for weeks, what might have been.

Not that Alya was unhappy with the way things had turned out – Marinette was a BRILLIANT Ladybug, she doubted that anyone else could make use of it the way she did – but it made a girl wonder.

She reached out eagerly for the Miraculous… and hesitated.

Back when she’d first transformed into Rena Rouge, she’d nearly let her ambition and desire to be a superhero override the promise she’d made to Ladybug. Her promise won out, but it’d taken a little pushing from Trixx.

Was she making the same mistake, letting her desire to be Ladybug, something she’d dreamt of since the superhero had first appeared all those months ago, override what was right?

“…Are you sure?” she asked. “This whole mess was partly my fault to begin with. Whatever was going on with Juleka, I should’ve stayed and listened, but I got so caught up in my own idea for the photoshoot I just… sorta ignored her.”

Tikki smiled at her. “You made a mistake. That’s okay, Alya. Just apologize once we fix this and be a little more careful next time.”

She bit her lip. “Are you sure I can do this though? Ladybug’s always coming up with all these crazy plans. My mind doesn’t work the way hers does.”

The little bug flew up close to Alya. “Remember what she told you before? You might not be able to do things the way she does, but you can do them the way YOU do. I’ve had lots of different Ladybug, each one different. You can do this.”

“She’s right,” Nino spoke up. “You might not come up with the super complicated plans that Ladybug does, but you can do them your own way. You’ve got this.”

She smiled at Nino and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. It was a little weird with them both still being Reflekta clones, but they made it work.

Taking a deep breath, she held out her hand. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Tikki dropped the earrings into her hand. Automatically they turned from the spotted earrings she knew, to solid orange ones.

Ah. Camouflage mode at work. Not a huge surprise they were orange for her, since that was her favorite color.

She went to put them on… and paused.

“Uh… Tikki?” she said. “My ears aren’t pierced. Or Reflekta’s, for that matter.”

“No problem!” she said cheerfully. “Marinette’s aren’t either.”

RECORD SCREECH.

“WHAT?!”

“Shh!” Nino pushed Alya around the corner, trying to keep her out of sight.

A group of Reflekta’d people looked around, trying to find out where the shouting was coming from.

Luckily Reflekmech started stomping their way, so they booked it pretty hastily.

Yay for giant robots bearing down on them?

“The earrings magically pierce the wielder’s ears when you try to put them on, and unpierce them when you take them off,” Tikki hissed. “All the piercing Miraculous are like that.”

Seriously?

Wait…

“Other piercing Miraculous? There are MORE?!”

“Ah, well, you know…” Tikki shook herself. “Never mind that, we have other things to worry about!”

Alya gave Tikki a searching look. “You’re right. Don’t think I’ll just forget about the other Miraculous though, I AM going to ask more about them later.”

Tikki looked away.

Alya looked at the Miraculous quizzically. “So I just hold them up to my ears…?”

Tikki looked back at her, nodding happily. Alya got the distinct feeling she was thrilled with the subject change. “Just pretend you’re putting on normal earrings, the Miraculous will do the rest.”

Well she’d never done that before, but maybe intention was good enough?

She moved one to her ear lobe, squeezing her eyes shut.

Then, it was in.

Eyes widening, she felt the earring.

There it was, secured like a perfectly normal earring. At least so it seemed, until she felt around it and noticed that there was no “hole” exactly, that it was sticking out of. It was almost like it phased through her ear.

Hm. Maybe it was related to how Kwamis could phase through things? She’d seen Tikki do that back when Marinette first met her.

Focus, Alya. Investigate Miraculous later, defeat akuma now!

Putting the other earring in (and honestly it was still weird how it DIDN’T feel weird to do that) she took a deep breath, looking to Nino and Tikki for encouragement.

They both grinned and nodded, Nino giving her a thumbs up as well.

Okay. Time to do this.

“Tikki, SPOTS ON!”

She shivered for a moment as the pink light rushed over her.

Blinking, she looked at her hands.

Red and black spots.

Her heart pounded.

She was Ladybug!

Or rather…

She looked back at Nino, staring at her with awe and pride (not that unusual to see from him, but it made her heart skip every time).

She smiled back at him. “Time to introduce Paris to Marybug!”

Nino gaped. “Wait, what?!”

Alya smiled. “What, did you think I hadn’t picked out a name already? Even before I knew what – and who – Ladybug and Chat Noir actually were, I daydreamed about being in their shoes. And finding out that I was almost the Ladybug Miraculous Wielder – well, I was going to at least consider what I could’ve named myself.”

Nino shook his head. “Yes, but – Marybug? That sounds way too similar to ‘Maribug’, aren’t you worried someone might draw the connection?”

She laughed. “That’s what makes the name so perfect! See, here’s the thing – it actually makes sense when researched, and I assure you, the Ladyblog is gonna have a front page article about this in the next few days. It turns out, that the ‘Lady’ in ‘Ladybug’, is actually supposed to be the Virgin Mary. So it’s just replacing ‘Lady’ with ‘Mary’. And if it just so happens that it sounds like ‘Maribug’, and Chat ever slips up and starts to call Ladybug ‘Mari’ or ‘Maribug’ or anything like that, well… it’ll be embarrassing that he almost called his partner by the name of a different Ladybug Miraculous wielder, but that’ll be all.”

Nino chuckled. “Should’ve known you had a plan with that name.”

She smirked. “…Also, it’s just a fun little reference”.

Throwing her yo-yo, she swung away, ready to make her (second) superhero debut.

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

This was a goddamn MESS.

At least most civilians had already fled. (Though it took a little longer than usual. Those heels were hard enough to WALK in, running in them when you had no prior experience with the giant hat thing unbalancing you? No thanks.)

So. Yo-yo. She’d practiced a little with a toy one she’d bought, imagining what it’d be like to swing on one, so she had a teeny bit of experience? She guessed?

Well at least she was an expert on the moves Ladybug used. Even Adrien probably hadn’t studied them in as much detail.

Hm. Competition for later maybe?

FOCUS, MARYBUG. FOCUS.

She shook her head.

Ok. What first?

Maybe try to contain it? It was bad enough running rampant over here, best to stop it from leveling more residential buildings.

She flung her yo-yo at the Eiffel Tower and some nearby lightpoles, creating a makeshift fence.

Downside: the lightpoles were too flimsy and she’d aimed too low to make an effective fence. It tore the lightpoles right out of the ground.

Upside: It tripped.

The mech crashed, Reflekta’s startled scream ringing out.

Yes! Point one for Marybug!

Leaping down, she ran at her downed foe. If Reflekta was controlling the doll, maybe removing her would stop it?

She pulled back to throw her yo-yo, and barely dodged the beam from the Reflekta robot’s eyes.

Oh, right. It could still do that. That was bad.

So just sending the robot crashing to the ground was out. That HELPED, it stopped it from moving around as much and restricted its range of attack, but she still couldn’t actually stop it from attacking, and she couldn’t get Reflekta out that way.

And if getting Reflekta out didn’t stop this robot… what then?

Lucky Charm? This was pretty early in the fight, but Ladybug DID usually call for one if she was stuck…

LIGHTPOLE

So, don’t stop and ponder, because apparently Reflekta had figured out she could get even MORE range (as if the Reflekta laser beams weren’t enough) by using a lightpole as a makeshift bat.

Dangit, WHY WERE THE VILLAINS ALLOWED TO IMPROVISE WEAPONS.

Also, a partner would be really nice right now! No wonder Ladybug and Chat Noir were sent out together; fighting an akuma by yourself without having someone to distract the supervillain was a NIGHTMARE. Maybe if she had a more purely offensive Miraculous that would make sense, but the Ladybug miraculous was built around tricks and plans. She needed time to think and plan; time she wasn’t getting right now.

A familiar staff smacked the lightpole out of the mech’s hand.

Awesome! Plagg must’ve found-

She took a closer look.

And did a double-take.

Still a black suit with cat ears, but this time the ears were attached to a black hood, and the seams of the outfit were bright green.

She grinned. “So, what’s your name, handsome?”

“Uh- what-“ he spluttered, looking taken aback.

She rolled her eyes as she tackled her boyfriend out of the way of a beam.

“Your superhero name! You’re not using the turtle anymore, ‘Carapace’ doesn’t make sense.”

He stared at her. “I give up. How can you always recognize me?!”

Her gaze softened. “You’re always there when I need you. I need a partner to take down this akuma; of COURSE it’s gonna be you.”

He blushed.

She laughed.

“ARE YOU SERIOUSLY IGNORING ME RIGHT NOW?!” Reflekta screamed, her mech barreling towards them.

She flinched. Ok, flirt later, akuma now. Bad enough she’d shoved Juleka to the side earlier, she didn’t want to repeat that mistake.

Especially since this time she might get flattened or Reflekta’d (again) if she did. That would be bad.

“Can you keep the mech busy? I need some time to think,” she said, dodging another beam.

“There’s something you need to know first,” he told her. He motioned for her to follow him to an out-of-the-way rooftop.

Marybug frowned. What info could Nino have picked up in the last two minutes? She’d JUST left him!

“So, less than a minute after you swung away, Plagg flew by calling for Chat Noir. Of course I answered him. He gave me some new info before I transformed. Apparently both that robot and the purple moth on Heroes Day were sentimonsters, creations of the Peacock Miraculous. They work a lot like the Butterfly MIraculous’s akumas, except the object that’s infected – it’s called an amok by the way – doesn’t transform the person themselves. A sentimonster just kinda… manifests. Whoever holds the amok controls the sentimonster.”

“…Well that would’ve been nice to know earlier. Why didn’t Tikki mention this?!”

Nino shrugged. “Maybe she forgot? Or she didn’t realize she was allowed to? Plagg mentioned something about having gotten permission to fill us in.”

Honestly she was surprised he’d waited for permission. He didn’t strike her as the type.

Wait… if the amok was used to control the sentimonster…

“Reflekta must have the amok!” she realized.

But… crap. How to get to her?

“Hey… uh… okay I give up, what should I call you?”

He thought for a moment. “Call me Panther.”

“Panther, can you keep the robot occupied? I want to see if I can spot something I can use to get in or get Reflekta out, or some pattern in its movements – SOMETHING we can use to take Reflekta and the sentimonster down. Hard to do that while dodging attacks.”

He nodded, pole-vaulting away.

She slapped her cheeks.

Ok. Focus, Marybug. Everyone’s counting on you and Panther. You can DO this!

Panther smacked the Senti-bot with his staff, dodging its attacks and just generally keeping it occupied, but doing no real damage.

The attack and movement seemed the same as ever, nothing special ther-

OOH

THAT SLOT ON THE BACK OF THE MECH’S HEAD LOOKED IMPORTANT.

Hm… but how to access it? She didn’t have something to open it with, and besides, it wasn’t like the sentimonster was just gonna stand still and let her and Panther get inside.

Well, if she didn’t have everything she needed right now, then…

“LUCKY CHARM!”

She’d wanted to do that for so long!

A remote fell into her hands.

…Huh.

What the heck could she use it for? Did it control something in particular? Or was it gonna be one of those weirder, utterly insane Lucky Charms that no one in their right minds would be able to decipher?

(Seriously, she wasn’t sure whether Marinette was a genius, crazy, or both. Probably both.)

She pressed a few random buttons.

Far away, she spotted a giant TV screen – one that normally displayed ads, but occasionally broadcasted news to the masses, like akuma attacks – turning on.

Right now it just showed static – nothing was being broadcasted, not on that channel.

Not yet.

A grin slowly spread over her face.

Marinette had her insane Macgyvering (some people had started calling it Ladybugging, something Alya THOROUGHLY supported) but Alya?

Alya knew how to put on a show and draw people’s attention.

Jumping out of cover, she waved frantically.

Panther dodged and weaved around the sentimonster’s attacks, extricating himself from the fight and making his way over to Marybug.

“COME BACK HERE! STOP LEAVING ME AND GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS!” Reflekta roared.

Marybug winced. Well THERE was another one for the guilt trip.

“You got something?” Panther asked quietly, just in case Reflekta could hear them and zone in on their location.

(Probably unnecessary. With how loud the beam firing was and how far away the robot was, she doubted Reflekta could hear anything short of screaming at the tops of their lungs.)

“I think so.” She pointed at a nearby metal beam the Reflektmech had knocked over. “Think you can cataclysm this into a long, thin sheet of metal? About a foot wide and an inch thick, if you can manage it.”

“…Maybe? Not like I’ve ever done this before, but I can give it a shot? Why?”

She explained her plan.

He grinned. “Babe, have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“Only every day. Now c’mon, let’s show the world what Marybug and Panther can do!”

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Let’s see, where was she? She had about as much sense of self-preservation as Alya did, she had to be-

Ah!

Probably should’ve expected her near the TV; that area had a good view of the chaos, while being out-of-the-way of it.

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!”

Marybug landed in front of Nadja. “Could I take the microphone for a minute?”

Nadja stared for a moment, but shook it off. Handing it over, she asked, “Who are you and the new mysterious superhero? Are you two replacing Ladybug and Chat Noir? What’s happened to Paris’s favorite duo?”

Marybug gave the camera a confident smile, making sure to press her remote’s button so the TV was tuned to the channel Nadja was broadcasting to. “I’m Marybug, and my partner’s Panther! Don’t worry, we’re only replacing Ladybug and Chat Noir temporarily. They’ll be back soon; I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw them later today in fact.

But enough about us; I’d like to interview the true star of show, Reflekta!”

“WHAT?”

Reflekmech turned around, stomping towards Marybug.

Hearing low voices? Probably couldn’t do that in a mech.

Hearing a gigantic TV cranked up as loud as it would go? Now THAT she could hear.

“Reflekta – what would you like to tell the public. Everyone’s here watching and listening to you!”

For a moment Reflekta was silent, the mech completely still. Then-

“You’re really listening? You’re not gonna brush me off and ignore me?”

“No. This is YOUR show. It’s all about YOU. You’re not going to fade away into the background and be lost; not now.”

Reflekta speaking quietly from within “Yes I’ll get the Miraculous, I know we have a deal, but I need to do this first; I’ll get them afterwards, don’t worry.”

More loudly; “I want people to pay attention to me. They never paid attention to Juleka. Just because she shrunk back and mumbled didn’t mean she wanted to be ignored. She just wanted people to recognize she was there! She existed! But her ‘friends’ threw her away the moment things got hard and just… let her stew. She obviously WASN’T okay!”

Marybug’s stomach curdled. “You’re right. They should’ve tried harder, checked in on her more. Checked in on YOU more. I promise, once you’re deakumatized, I’ll talk to your friends, try to help fix this.”

“I don’t want to be deakum- AH!”

The robot lurched around, no longer being controlled. A moment later it evaporated, leaving a feather behind. Juleka, newly freed from Hawkmoth, was caught by Panther a moment later.

“Wait- what- who’re you? What happened?” she asked, confused.

Marybug smiled. “He’s Panther and I’m Marybug – we’re filling in for Chat Noir and Ladybug temporarily – and you were akumatized.”

Juleka buried her face in her hands.

Crap. What did Ladybug and Chat Noir usually do with akuma victims? She didn’t just want to leave Juleka, not again, but-

Aaaaand her earrings were beeping.

She gave a strained smile. “It can happen to anyone. It’s Hawkmoth’s fault, NOT yours. I’m sure your friends will tell you the same thing. But for now, Bug Out!”

Throwing her yo-yo, she swung away just as Rose made her way to Juleka.

Ok, good. Hopefully Rose could help comfort her until she herself could get back. She still needed to apologize.

Panther pole-vaulted over with her, both of them eventually landing in an abandoned alley.

“Not bad, kitty cat,” she smirked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks. Reflekta was so distracted, she didn’t notice I’d entered the robot until I’d already hit her hand.”

She laughed. “I think you might have our own resident Black Cat beat in the stealth department. Unless he can figure out how to pull off that ‘materializing behind locker doors’ trick as Chat Noir. I swear I STILL want to know how he does that.”

“Don’t we all?”

They both chuckled and detransformed. With a small pang of regret, she handed the earrings over to Tikki, Nino handing the ring over to Plagg. “I liked being Marybug, but… well, I’m really glad Marinette kept the earrings. How she does that on a daily basis, I don’t know.”

“She’s one of the best Ladybugs I’ve ever had!”

Alya smiled. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”

As Tikki and Plagg flew away to find their holders, she turned to Nino. “Come on, let’s go! We have a photoshoot to complete – IF our model still wants to do it anyway.”

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Marinette, Adrien, and the rest of the crew were all circled around Juleka by the time the two of them arrived. With a jolt, Alya noticed that while Marinette had her earrings back, Adrien’s ring was still missing.

She shook her head. Worry about that later. Plagg could take care of himself… probably. Maybe. She hoped.

Nothing she could do about it right now anyway. And Adrien didn’t appear too worried, and she KNEW how much he cared about Plagg, so it was probably fine.

“Juleka, I’m so, SO sorry, I should’ve listened to you more closely. You’re my friend too, and I just brushed you off when you were obviously not okay. That wasn’t cool of me. Do you still want to do the photoshoot?”

She smiled, perking up a little. “Yeah, that’d be awesome.”

Alya snapped several photos, some of Juleka and Adrien together as planned, but then their friends kept on getting in the frame and – well, most of the photos may not be suitable for Marinette’s website, but they suited her digital photo album perfectly. Adrien and Juleka both seemed especially thrilled with how things turned out. Neither of them had a ton of photos of themselves having fun with their friends.

As she looked over the photos, her eyes wandered downwards.

A very familiar red and black box sat in front of her.

Heart pounding, she opened it.

And smiled at the sight of the familiar orange fox-tail necklace.

#divergent points #ml fanfic #ml fic #miraculous ladybug #alya cesaire #reflekdoll #Kwami Swap #Ladybug!Alya #Black Cat!Nino #fix-it fic #djwifi

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tinylilemrys · 5 years ago

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Save the Last Dance - a Reddie fic

Read it on AO3

Rating: T

Word count: 3,980

Tags: fluff and angst, getting together, mentions of PTSD, internalised homophobia, first dance, prom

Summary:

Eddie invites a girl to prom and almost instantly regrets it – even more so when he realises that the reason Richie has been so mad since he asked her and the reason he’s been watching the two of them is probably because Richie has a crush on her.

He’s never been happier to be proven wrong.

Prom was such a fucking waste of time, Eddie decided, watching Chloe Parker dance her fourth dance with Steve Himble, the president of the AV club (who had cleaned up surprisingly well). It wasn’t that he was jealous – he really wasn’t. He’d only asked her to prom a few days ago because she was his lab partner and he’d overheard her complaining to her friend that no one had asked her yet. Before that, he’d been planning to go stag with what was left of the Loser’s club after Mike, Ben and Bev had moved away, a fact which Richie had been only too happy to point out.

“Well that’s just fucking great, isn’t it, Eds?” He’d said, throwing up his arms in frustration. “Stan’s already decided not to fucking go and now you’re flaking out on us too? To go with Chloe fucking Parker of all people? Do you know what happens when two out of four stags stop going stag, Eds? Everyone assumes the last two stags are each other’s little deer boyfriends. Is that what you want to happen to Bill and me?”

Eddie hadn’t had the energy for Richie’s bullshit that day.

“If you’re so worried about looking gay, Richie, I suggest you and Bill grow some balls and actually fucking ask some girls.”

And then he had stormed off, trying very hard not to think about why Richie being scared of going to prom with another guy made him so angry. They hadn’t spoken since then and all the while Eddie hoped and prayed Richie wouldn’t find a date. He didn’t think he would survive it. Thankfully, he was relieved when Richie did, in fact, only show up with Bill.

Best to ignore all those emotions too.

From his table, he watched Richie and Bill leaning against the opposite wall of the gym, talking and drinking cups of the punch that Eddie was sure, in addition to breaking about fifty health code violations, had also been spiked by now (maybe even by Richie himself – he wouldn’t put it past him). Though he hadn’t had a chance to see him up close yet, from this distance Eddie had to admit that Richie looked damn good in a suit. Not that he’d ever tell him. He’d rather down the entire bowl of punch than admit that out loud.

Eddie’s stomach jolted when he realised that Richie was looking back at him, probably wondering why he was staring. He quickly dropped his gaze to his shoes and tried in vain to stop his cheeks flooding with colour.

This was dumb. Why was he sitting here alone waiting for Chloe to come sit down when it was clear that she was having a much better time with Steve anyway? Sighing, he got up from the table and made his way over to his friends.

“Hey, Eddie,” said Bill, clapping a hand to his shoulder. “Sorry it didn’t work out with Chloe.”

Eddie was about to shrug and say it was no big deal when Richie interjected.

“Yeah what’s up with that? Did she feel how tiny your dick is while you were dancing and get scared? I thought she was looking kinda sick.”

“Actually, Trashmouth, she told me it’s because she kept seeing this gangly grotesque creature in bottle cap lenses staring at us. It put her off.” It wasn’t entirely untrue. While it certainly wasn’t true that Richie was grotesque (again, never admitting that out loud), Chloe had pointed out about midway through their first and only dance that Richie was watching them. The knowledge made Eddie so self-conscious that decided he couldn’t bring himself to dance again, hence Steve swooping in to the rescue.

To his surprise, Richie’s eyebrows shot up into the tangle of hair he seemed to only barely have styled and though it was difficult to tell in the colourful lights, Eddie thought Richie might be blushing. He suddenly felt more nauseous than he did when Chloe had offered him a glass of punch earlier. Vaguely he realised that Richie was snapping out of it and hurling some witty retort back at him, but Eddie couldn’t make it out over the blood pounding in his ears at the sudden realisation that the reason Richie had been so mad at him for asking Chloe to prom, the reason he’d been staring at them while they were dancing, was that he liked her.

Suddenly everything made sense and he couldn’t be there anymore, not with the lights and the colours and the people and the Richie of it all. Without thinking twice, he ran as fast as he could outside to the nearest patch of grass and once there, was violently sick.

Most of the time he could deal with his unfortunate crush on his best friend by pretending it didn’t exist. If it was anything, it was just his wild teenage hormones sending him confusing signals. But that didn’t explain why every time Richie got him a thoughtful gift, or their banter was particularly on point, or it was just the two of them in Richie’s car singing along to whatever god-awful song was playing non-stop on the radio at the time, Eddie knew that there was no one else in the world who could make him feel as happy. But as Richie made no secret of his issues with the whole gay thing, it was far safer to just try to convince himself that he wasn’t feeling anything but really strong platonic love for his best friend.

The blood rushing in his ears calmed down enough for Eddie to hear the sound of footsteps running towards him. Worried it might be the Bowers gang, he whipped around in time to be tackled by a pair of long arms and a faceful of curly hair a moment later.

“Eddie, what the fuck man?” says Richie, holding onto him. “Are you okay? You scared the shit out of us.”

“I’m fine, Rich, I was just… I was just a bit overwhelmed in there and panicked,” he replied. Richie didn’t seem to be letting go so he took the opportunity to wrap his arms around him in return. He could feel Richie’s heart racing against his chest and his own seemed to be trying its damndest to catch up with it.

“W-we thought it might be it again,” Bill explained, his voice small and scared, and Eddie realised what he’d accidentally done. It had been almost six years since they beat that fucking clown down in those sewers, but every single one of them still had nightmares about it. Suddenly running away with no explanation was the worst thing he could have done to them.

“God, guys, I’m so sorry,” he said, squeezing his arms tighter around Richie who was shaking. “I just needed air. I wasn’t even thinking that… just, Jesus fuck, I’m sorry.”

“You’d better fucking be,” said Richie, letting go of Eddie and straightening his suit. “I didn’t survive that whole fucking ordeal just to die from a dumbass-induced heart attack at eighteen.”

“If you’re that upset about Chloe, we don’t have to stay, you know,” said Bill, changing the subject. “I think I saw enough of prom to say that I went. How about you, Rich?”

“Yeah, we can go if you want.” Richie turned to Eddie as he replied. His voice was tight and his eyebrows pinched and though Eddie knew that Bill was just trying to steer the conversation away from talk of Pennywise, he wishes he’d chosen any other topic of conversation. He didn’t need the reminder that Richie was mad at him for taking his crush to the prom. “I’ll give you a lift home if you need one, Eds.”

“Please,” Eddie replied with a small smile which, much to his delight, Richie returned

Richie’s car, much like the rest of the man, was a mess. The floor was littered with junk food wrappers and there was a suspicious stain on the backseat that Eddie was convinced was because one of the previous owners had used it to transport a body. It was the reason Eddie always insisted on riding shotgun.

As the car choked hesitantly to a start, he stole a glance at Richie’s profile, silhouetted against the lights outside.

Well, one of the reasons anyway.

“You can just drop me at S-Stan’s,” said Bill from the backseat and Eddie stomach dropped. Bill had been doing so well with his stuttering lately. It still took him a little longer to get through a sentence sometimes, but Eddie hadn’t heard him properly stutter for months. He’d caught on two words tonight already and somehow Eddie knew it was because of him – because he’d scared Bill. “I p-promised I’d come over after.”

“Sure thing,” said Richie, turning right instead of left like he would have done if he was taking Bill home. Eddie’s stomach sank further. He lived a lot closer to Stan than he did to Bill which meant that in dropping Bill off first, the trip was going to be a lot shorter.

“You know they sell cars with turn signals that work, right?” said Eddie to mask his disappointment.

“Where’s the fun in that?” said Richie, smiling for the second time that night. “I like to think I provide my fellow road users with a sense of adventure.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing my mom won’t let me get my licence.”

“Still not?” asked Bill.

“Yeah, Eds, she should know by now that it’s way more dangerous for you to be driving with me.” Richie was frowning the way he always did when Eddie’s mom was brought up outside of the context of sex jokes.

“Yeah, like I’d be dumb enough to tell my mom I let you drive me around.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “She’d find a way to ban you from driving too.”

“She would never,” replied Richie in a mock-scandalised voice. “I’d stop doing that thing she likes in bed.”

Eddie rolled his eyes again and Richie laughed, gently bumping Eddie’s knee with his fist in that way that Eddie pretended to hate but treasured for ages afterwards each time.

What he loved about Richie was that things could be super weird between them one moment and in the next, he would still go back to making Eddie feel like the most important person in the world to him. It should have caused whiplash, but he was so used to it at this point that it was just further evidence that neither of them was very good at staying mad at each other.

All too soon, Bill was climbing out of the car at Stan’s place and Eddie felt his mood, which hadn’t been the greatest all evening, plummet to new depths. As they watched to make sure that Bill made it safely into the house (a habit that, post-Pennywise, they’d all adopted) he began trailing his thumb along the cut on his left hand like he always did when he was nervous.

“Hey are you okay?” asked Richie who was now watching him with concern,

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Richie raised an eyebrow above the frame of his glasses. “Okay, fine, I’m lying. I don’t want to go home right now. You know my mom.”

“Biblically,” Richie smirks and Eddie thumps him in the shoulder.

“Fuck off, Rich, I’m serious. She’s going to want to know why I’m home so early and I can’t tell her the truth. I wouldn’t put it past her to track Chloe down and demand to know why she stood me up and I can’t put Chloe through that. But I also just don’t have the energy to make up a bullshit story either. I’m just… can we just drive around for a while? Just until it would be a normal time for me to come home?”

“I mean sure, but it would probably be a fuck-ton easier for you to just crash at my place tonight,”

“Oh my god, please,” Eddie replied, so relieved he could cry. “That would be an actual lifesaver. Your parents won’t mind?”

“If this is the night they start giving a shit about who I invite over and when I’m going to be so fucking pissed.”

Eddie laughed. He couldn’t help it. The idea of not going home and on top of it spending the rest of the night with Richie had him lightheaded and giddy. In response, Richie gave Eddie what to him felt like a fond smile, before starting the car and racing towards his house as quickly as he could.

Upon arriving at Richie’s house, his parents gave them both a short and friendly ‘hello’, barely looking away from whatever they were watching on TV, and a moment later they were upstairs, sitting on Richie’s bed. For the first time that night, Eddie felt himself relax completely.

“I can’t believe your parents just said ‘hi’ and left it at that,” said Eddie. “If that was my mom, I’d be there for another hour.”

“It’s just because you’re here,” Richie replied. “Trust me – if I came home alone they would have pounced.”

Eddie got the sense that Richie was just saying that to make him feel better, but he didn’t mind. They were alone for the first time in weeks and he felt like he could breathe again. He was always his most real around Richie.

“So that was senior prom,” said Richie, leaning back on his elbows. Eddie followed suit.

“That was senior prom. Did it live up to the hype?”

“Not even a little.” Richie shakes his head. “I spent ten minutes getting ready for tonight, you know that? Ten fucking minutes. That’s seven more minutes than usual. Think of all the shit I could have accomplished in that time.”

“It was worth it,” Eddie replied, hoping his blush wasn’t too obvious. He was still not completely over the sight of Richie in a suit. Richie shrugged.

“I guess.”

A silence fell between them then, full of things Eddie wanted to say but had no idea how to start. He wanted to tell Richie how much this meant to him, how sorry he was that he had accidentally brought back memories of Pennywise, how much he wanted to kiss him right now, how lonely he’d been these past few days without them talking, how sad he was that he liked Chloe, how much he wanted to kiss him right now…

“Sorry, I… I mean, sorry about not going stag with you and Bill. I know you were looking forward to it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Richie replied. “Chloe’s great. I totally get it.”

God, he was already regretting bringing Chloe up. But this was good, he told himself. If Richie did like Chloe, he was sure it would help him get over his stupid crush on him.

“Look, Rich, I’m sorry. If I had known how you felt, I never would have asked her.”

Richie scrambled to sit upright and stared at Eddie as if he had just worked out his deepest, darkest secret. Eddie slowly sat upright too, feeling the anxiety build in the pit of his stomach. He’d started this, wanting to know for sure whether or not his assumptions were right, but now that he was about to find out, he didn’t want to.

“If you had known how I felt?” asked Richie, looking embarrassed and terrified.

“Yeah, about Chloe,” said Eddie. “I know how you feel about her. It wasn’t hard to figure out with how much you were watching her while we danced.”

Richie’s shoulders relaxed at this and Eddie wondered how long he’d had these feelings if being able to confess them was this much of a relief. Eddie watched as he sat there for a moment or two, staring through the Nirvana poster on the opposite wall before scrubbing a hand down his face, shaking his head (his curls bouncing in that way that Eddie always found adorable) and making his way over to the CD player on his desk. A few seconds later the intro to a cheesy rock ballad that Eddie vaguely recognised from how often it had played on the radio a few years back started and Richie was walking towards him with his hand open.

“Dance with me?” he asked. “Your date kind of got stolen and I feel bad that you only got that one. And, I mean, we might as well while we’re still here in our suits looking pretty.”

Part of Eddie’s brain screamed at him not to. It was a bad idea, Richie would know exactly how he felt about him and then where would they be? He’d made it clear over and over again how much of an issue he had with anything gay. But there was another, far more insistent part of his brain reminding him that Richie had been the one to ask him to dance and that if he didn’t dance with Richie Tozier now, there was no guarantee that he would ever get the chance again.

Trying very hard not to think about the state that their friendship would be in after this, he took Richie’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled into his arms. He realised a second too late that it would have been far safer and less obvious to put his hands gently on Richie’s waist than to wind his arms around his neck as he did, but the damage was done and Richie, thankfully, didn’t seem to mind.

Dancing with Richie was so different from dancing with Chloe. For one, since Chloe was shorter than Eddie, he’d been the one with the arms wrapped around her waist and she’d had her arms around his neck. They’d been dancing just as close, but it had been nothing more than swaying to the music. This was different. This was Eddie reeling from the scent of the aftershave Richie had put on for the occasion, the jolt every time their feet brushed, staring up into Richie’s brown eyes, magnified by his glasses, and trying to fight off the overwhelming sadness at how in just a few minutes this was all just going to be a memory.

They swayed together through most of the first verse before Richie spoke.

“So I suppose this is where I tell you that I don’t have feelings for Chloe,” he said. “Like, where the fuck did you even get that idea?”

“You were mad at me when I told you I was taking her to prom,” Eddie explained. “And then at the dance, you were watching her while we danced. I just, y’know, put the pieces together.”

“Yeah, congratulations, dipshit, you put them together wrong.” Richie rolled his eyes. “I was watching you. And yeah, I may have yelled, but I wasn’t mad. I was hurt and disappointed because going stag with you and Bill would have been as close as I could safely get to taking you as my date to prom.”

“Wait. You wanted to be my prom date?” Eddie stopped swaying, his head spinning with this new information. Richie had wanted to take him to prom and probably would have if society wasn’t such a bitch. “Fuck, Rich, I thought you had issues with the whole gay thing?”

“Deflection.” Richie didn’t look proud of it, pulling his gaze away from Eddie to stare at a patch of floor. “Fuck, Eds, I’ve been in love with you since we were twelve. And there’ve been so many times where I’ve wanted to tell you, but I’ve just been scared shitless to. I had no idea how you would react, if you would flip out and stop talking to me and I just couldn’t lose you. I still can’t.”

He swallowed and took a deep breath.

“You looked so upset when you thought I might have a crush on Chloe and it just… I guess it felt like for the first time you might feel the same way.” He looked up at him then and there was a jolt in Eddie’s stomach as he fully realised what was happening. Richie pulled him closer ever so slightly, and Eddie didn’t resist it. His body had turned to jello.

“Am I wrong?”

He couldn’t speak, his heart was pounding in his throat, but he somehow managed to control the muscles in his head enough to shake it.

And then before he could say anything else, Richie’s lips were on his, soft and still vaguely fruity from the punch, though he desperately tried to push that horrifying thought from his mind. Instead, Eddie focused on the little surprised hum Richie made when he parted his lips and how Richie’s arms were tightening around him, pulling them so close together that there was no space between them. With daring he didn’t know he had, he slowly slid his hands up to tangle in Richie’s curls and was met with another hum (or perhaps moan) of approval. He’d never felt anything like it. He never thought he could feel anything like it. Yesterday he would have thought this moment completely impossible, but here he was in Richie Tozier’s messy bedroom being kissed by him.

They eventually pulled apart and as Eddie rested his forehead on Richie’s shoulder, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Fuck, was it that bad?”

“No, you dick, I’m laughing because I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve too. We’ve missed out on six years of this shit.”

“Jesus, Kaspbrak, are you fucking kidding me?” Richie pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and Eddie felt it spread through his whole body. “Why are we like this?”

“I wish I knew,” Eddie replied.

They danced the rest of the song, now so close that it was impossible to do much more than shuffle their feet, but Eddie wasn’t complaining. This was easily the best moment of his entire life.

As the song started drawing to a close, Eddie laughed again.

“Jesus, what now?” asked Richie, but there was no venom to it.

“Of all the songs in the world you could have chosen to be our first dance, you chose a Bryan Adams song.”

“Alright, al-fucking-right,” Richie replied. “Next time how about you plan out the sweeping romantic gesture and I’ll be the shithead giggling at everything?”

Eddie just laughed and kissed him again.

Later that night, after calling his mom to tell her that he would be sleeping over at Richie’s and assuring her that, no, it wasn’t because he’d been drinking, or that Richie had been drinking, that he just wanted to hang out with him, the two of them climbed into Richie’s tiny single bed. Richie was yawning already and Eddie had no idea how he could be tired at a time like this, not when a whole new world of possibilities had just opened to them.

“You want to know why I chose that song?” Richie asked, taking the hand that Eddie had not-so-subtly left on the pillow between them hoping he would do that.

“Yeah, please enlighten me.”

“I mean, it doesn’t make me sound like any less of a fucking dork, but it’s from that Robin Hood movie, Prince of Thieves. You remember? It was the first movie we saw together without the rest of the Loser’s Club and, I don’t know, now the song always reminds me of you.”

Eddie leaned over to kiss Richie again, wondering how any of this could possibly be real.

“Thank you, Rich,” he said. “For everything.”

“You’re welcome,” said Richie through a yawn, pulling Eddie closer to him and falling asleep within what felt like seconds. It took Eddie far longer, and when he eventually gave in and closed his eyes, the Robin Hood in his dream had curly dark hair and a rather anachronistic pair of glasses.

#reddie #reddie fanfic #reddie fic #richie x eddie #eddie x richie #it 2017 #i'm supposed to be writing other things #but this popped into my head and i had to write it #enjoy x #long post

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kathasofwander · 5 years ago

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The YJHD Miraculous

Ok hi! I am from India, where Bollywood is one of the major movie industries.

Anyway. Back in 2013, There was this movie, called Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. It’s there on Netflix, so if you wanna watch it, go ahead. You might get a inkling of the movie when you read the whole thing, so anyway.

When I last saw the movie, A few dialogues really reminded me of Adrien and Marinette’s situation and I thought up the whole thing. So here goes.

(This is going to be an incredibly long post. Please bear with me.)

Ladybug and Cat Noir are some 17-18 when they defeat Hawkmoth. Chat/Adrien, is very obviously shocked and saddened when the villian is finally unmasked. This is pre identity reveal, and they reveal their identities after the fight. They part ways after talking about everything they could, (except their feelings) and she lets him keep Plagg. Marinette is happy that her best friend is also the guy she loves, so she decides to tell him her true feelings. She waits a week, because Gabriel Agreste is awaiting trial and Emilie has gone into a deep coma. Three weeks later, when everything has cooled down, she makes her way to the Agreste mansion, only to see Adrien leave with a bag. “Adrien?” she calls out. “Oh hey Mari!” he replies. “Are you going somewhere?” “Yeah. I realised that Father didn’t let me see a lot of the world with his obsession to keep me ‘safe’ and the whole miraculous thing. So I am going on a tour. I want to see the world he wanted to shield me from. I am an adult now, so I can do as I want” He explains. Mari’s heart breaks, but she keeps a brave face, and wishes him luck. She had been hoping that his feelings for Ladybug wouldn’t change after getting to know who she was, but well.

8 years pass. Alya and Nino are getting married. It’s happening in Martinique, where the Cesaire family is from. Marinette, is obviously the Maid of Honor and Nino has been in touch with Adrien all these years, so Mr.Sunshine is his best man. They all agree to meet at the venue a week before wedding to catch up. And since Mari is designing the wedding gown, she arrives with Alya. She is meeting Adrien for the first time since he left 8 years ago, so she’s nervous. Alya and Tikki help her calm down. “Its ok girl! Adrien is going to be happy to see you!” She says. “Alya’s right, Marinette! He’s not just Adrien, he’s also your superhero partner.” Tikki tells her. She agrees with them and cools down. When the four finally meet, Adrien is surprised to see how different Mari is; more confident, bold and...beautiful.

Alya decides to show the other three around Martinique. Adrien thanks her because it was the only place in Europe he hadn’t been to. Alya decides to be the ultimate wingwoman and makes him and Mari sit together in the car. They even walk together during the sightseeing and spend the whole time together. They enjoy the tour and on the ride back, Adrien drives the car with Mari sitting in the passenger seat. The to-be bride and groom have passed out in the backseat. “You have been awfully quiet during the whole drive back to the hotel.” she says. “Huh? Oh yeah. I have been...thinking.” he says. Plagg and Tikki come out of their wielder’s bag/coat and hover in front of them. “He’s been doing that a lot.” Plagg quips. “Thinking?” Tikki asks. Plagg nods. “What are you thinking about?” Mari asks. “Home. How different things would have been if Father wasn’t Hawkmoth, or if I was not Chat Noir.” he says. She looks at him softly. Her heart was breaking for him. Adrien was so young, and had been through so much; his mother’s disappearance, his father’s arrest, the possibility that Emilie would never wake up. “They took mom off the ventilator last year. Called me to ask for permission.” Adrien explains further. “She wasn’t getting any better, so there was really no point in keeping her in the hospital. Nathalie was the only one from the family at the funeral, apparently.” He finished. He stops the car on the side of the road, gentle enough to not wake their sleeping friends. “Adrien, I am so sorry!” Mari says, and hugs him tightly. He holds her in that position, and they stay like that for five minutes.

Mari pulls away, and suddenly resigns to her seat. He wants to ask her what the matter was, but Alya wakes up. “Have we reached?” she asks. “Nope, but we are almost there.” he says and continues driving. Mari jumps out of the car as soon as the vehicle comes to a stop in front of the hotel, and runs up. All the wedding guests are already there, so the other three greet them and time flies as they are all meeting everyone. Chloe is surprisingly there with her girlfriend; someone she met while in New York. Adrien talks to them, and when the gf (I cant think of a name please help) goes to get a drink, Adrien asks her. “How did you find her? She’s incredible, and seems to tolerate you.” Chloe hits him lightly. “Sometimes, when you spend enough time with the right person, you just know. We were classmates in New York, and even worked on a project.” She explains. Adrien has an epiphany of sorts. All the time he spent with Marinette, whether it was 8 years ago as superheroes in Paris, or as themselves during the tour, it had all felt right. Just like it was meant to be. He excuses himself from Chloe and runs towards Mari’s room. He knocks on the door. “It’s open!” she calls. “Adrien!” she says when she sees him. “Hey! You aren’t going to meet everyone?” he asks. “Oh no, I have to work on...Alya’s wedding gown.” she lies. “Alya told me you were done with it long ago.” he counters. “Are you all right? You seem pretty out of it since we got back.” “Oh yeah. I am fine.” Tikki flies up from her seat on the table. “She’s not fine at all, Adrien. She’s been upset for the past five hours.” she says. “Tikkiiiii!” Mari scolds. “What? It’s the truth.”

“Upset? About what?” Plagg flies out and settles beside the ladybug kwami. “Nothing, Absolutely nothing. I am fine.” Mari denies, while facing the window. “You are lying, Mari. You have always done this; hiding your true feelings from everyone.” Adrien points out. “Oh what do you care about feelings? You gave up on your love for ladybug as soon as you found out it was me.” she bursts. Then she calms down, “I am sorry Adrien. I shouldn’t have said that. I better go down to meet everyone.” she turns to go. “What do you mean?” he stops her. “What’s the matter Mari? You have been avoiding me since we got back.” he asks. “I haven’t.” she lies again. “Yes.” “No” “Yes.” “FINE, yes. I have been avoiding you. Because I cant stay with you any longer.” she says. “What?” “Adrien. why dont you get it? If I stay here with you any longer then...I will fall in love with you, again. But you won’t, again.” she rants. As she is about to open her mouth to say more, he silences her with a soft kiss. She melts into it, and a few minutes later. he pulls away and rests his head against hers. “I never stopped loving you, My Lady.” he says. “The eight years that I spent away from Paris, from you, I have missed you so much.” he says. “Remember when I said, that I have been thinking about home? I want to come back. Enough of seeing the world. I want to be with the girl I have loved for so long.” he says. He kisses her again, and this time, it lasts much longer.

An hour later, they go down to meet everyone and for dinner. No one says anything much when they see Adrien and Marinette holding hands. Alya smiles and nods at her best friend. Nino gives Adrien a fist bump through the air. No one sees Alix handing Kim a 20 euro note, grumbling slowly.

Ok so, the actual movie ended very differently. VERY DIFFERENTLY. I had to change some parts of it to fit into the Miraculous storyline. But here it is.

I finally wrote it! It was in the back of my head for so long and its finally here!! Oh god! Wow! Enjoy! Please tell me how it was. (Except the fact that it was an excruciatingly long read. I know that, please and thank you)

#miraculous ladybug #yeh jawaani hai deewani #a bollywood miraculous

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inyourwildestdreamslove · 6 years ago

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Playing Pretend

Diego X Plus Sized Reader

A night out with your best friend doesn’t go as planned when Diego ropes you into being his girlfriend.

It happens sometimes… that crushing feeling like you aren’t good enough. That you would never be good enough. Especially when you go to one of Diego’s matches regardless of how much you loved supporting him. You’ve kind of been avoiding the gym for a while, not because anyone ever goes out of their way to make you feel bad, but because there were so many great bodies floating around. Clearly he would never look twice at you like that if he had a size 2 in a sports bra and leggings to pursue. It’s not like he hadn’t done that for years anyway, all while you watched from the side, the forever supportive friend. Sometimes you feel like the best friend of your own real life RomCom….

Tonight you look nice though. You had to, to even begin to feel like you could compete with the women at the gym. You were dressed to the nines in a nice black jumpsuit with the your hair curled and a Smokey eye with a deep berry lip. Several of the guys and their wives or girlfriends were going to dinner after the competiton tonight and Diego had insisted you come citing the shit he would get from his friends if you didn’t show and guilting you for missing his last few matches.

He may have also mentioned a particularly pesky woman who didn’t know how to take ‘no’ for an answer and declared you his savior for tonight.

So here you are… Your shoes click against the arena floor and you crane your neck to find someone you know among the people crowding the area. You knew Diego’s gym usually sat on this side and you hope you find Ally and the others soon. Suddenly you see about four sets of waving hands and you rush towards the familiar faces. The four women in front of you vary in age from 22 to 35 each one pulls you into a hug and you spend the time catching up until the matches begin.

“I’m so glad you came tonight!” Exclaims Ally as you all sit down. Most of you have known one another for years at this point and every time you get together it’s like old friends. Another woman has included herself in the group by clinging onto one of the younger girls. Heather was sweet if not a little naive, but was always a friend to everyone.

“Me too,” you say with a sigh as you both sink into your seats.

“So how have you been? How’s the magazine?” questions Piper from around Ally.

“It’s great! The new issue goes out on Monday and everything got completed today, so I can finally have a weekend off.”

“I’m sure Diego is happy you were able to come tonight!” pipes up Tiffany, “You know how much he loves when you come!”

“Yeah I don’t think Diego would let me miss this, he probably would have hunted me down tonight if I didn’t show up.”

“He loves when you support him!”

Around that time lights dim and the announcer booms over the intercom system. With no hesitation the matches are under way and the four major gyms in the area that compete hold nothing back trying to take home the title of champion.

Diego’s match is one of the final ones. When he makes his entrance onto the mat he does his fanfair and when he catches your eye he winks and you hear the women go wild. And why wouldn’t they? He’s handsome, and ridiculously… well…let’s just say he takes very good care of himself. Diego makes quick work of his opponent and after the last couple of matches they hand out the prizes. The Lion’s Den had won.

Diego hops down from the ring, and with sweat still glistening on his well toned body, makes his way over to you.

“Finally got my favorite girl to come to one of my matches!” he says as he attempts to hug you.

“NOPE!” you exclaim as you hold your arms out to stop him, making the others around you laugh. The other women of the group successfully fending off their own husbands and boyfriends. A few of the guys manage to steal a peck, but know better than to mess up their someone’s outfit for tonight.

“Come on! I don’t even get a hug?” begs Diego as he puts his arms out and takes another step towards you.

“Not until you shower you don’t.”

“I’ll give you a hug!” exclaims the new addition to the group. Suddenly you knew this is the woman that Diego was talking about.

“Ah… ha ha… It’s okay I wouldn’t want to mess up your outfit Chloe.”

“Oh you could mess my outfit up anytime Diego,” she purrs up at him as she steps between the two of you.

She is quick to draw Diego and a few of the others into conversation and seem to make the effort to pointedly ignore you. You roll your eyes at the behavior but spend a few minutes talking to your friends that you hadn’t seen in a while. The looks of distaste for the woman not going unnoticed by you. After several minutes of catching up, you and several others have decided that it’s past time to eat and you all couldn’t leave until the guys had showered and changed.

“Diego!” you exclaim to get his attention, “I’m starving, can you go get your shower now so we can go?”

“Of course she is…” you hear Chloe scoff at the same time you hear Diego’s “Sure thing, (N/N).”

You feel a few of your friends bristle beside you, but try to bury the sting of her words. You don’t have to be told that your larger frame isn’t as desired as hers, but dammit… you have just as much a right to eat dinner as she does! The soft fire in your heart veins doesn't stop you from folding in on yourself though. You feel your gaze drop to the floor, but not before you see the triumphant smirk on her lips. This is why you don’t see Diego comes towards you, so when his strong arm wraps around your middle and his right hand is buried in your hair as he captures your lips in the most passionate and fiery kiss you’ve ever had in your life, you are stunned for a moment, before you kiss him back. When he pulls away you’re breathless and your sparkling eyes gazes back into his. He rests his forehead against yours and he brushes your nose with his before he pecks you again.

“Be back soon baby…” he hand slides down and grabs your ass before he pulls back and turns to the shocked faces of his friends.

You watch as smiles break out onto the guys’ faces and choruses of ‘finally’ and ‘it’s about time’ ring in your ears as the guys drag him away hounding him for details the the whole way. The second they are gone the girls rush over to you with squeals and start to prod you for details.

You know this is because of the bleach blonde that is now standing a few feet away with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

‘He just needs a cover… don’t think too much into it,’ your mind whispers.

“WHY did you not tell us?!”

“We decided to keep things a secret for a while. We’ve been friends for so long… if it didn’t work out we didn’t want it to cause a ruckus in our lives.”

“With that kiss I’m sure there has been plenty of ruckus between you two!”

The girls break out into a chorus of laughter and after about 20 minutes the guys return. Diego is wearing black jeans with a white tee shirt and a black jacket over it. His combat boots echo throughout the arena before his arms wrap around you from behind, his lips pressing a soft kiss to your temple as he whispers in your ear.

“You look amazing you know that?”

You turn your head to face him and send him a soft smile before you press a sweet kiss to his lips. You definitely don’t mind playing the part of dutiful girlfriend for tonight. He wraps his arm around your shoulder as yours slip around his waist and the two of you head outside to his car. Ally and her husband Brendon slide into your backseat.

“I’m so excited for you two!” Ally exclaims as she slides her arms around you in a quick hug from behind.

“I know! It’s been a long time coming! I’m glad you two are finally together!” says Brendon as he slaps Diego on the shoulder. You could tell that Diego was becoming a little uncomfortable with the lie, so you quickly turn and ask the couple about their 3 year old, Sophie, and all of her antics. They launch into stories telling all her cute little anecdotes and thrusting pictures into your face.

“You two will have the cutest kids!” squeals Ally from behind you and feel another stab to your heart.

Brendon, thankfully, attempts to reel his wife in telling her this is new and that she shouldn’t scare us like that. You glance over and see that Diego is overly concentrating on the road and that he’d barely contributed to the conversation.

‘He’s afraid I’m mad at him…’ you think to yourself. You have been friends long enough to know Diego is silently panicking.

When you pull up to the restaurant you send the couple inside to grab a table while your turn to your best friend.

The second they are far enough away Diego launches into his apology, “I-I’m so s-sorry! I just c-couldn’t ssss-stand what she said to y-you!”

“Diego,” you say putting a calming hand on his shoulder, “I’m not mad… A little warning would have been nice though…”

His eyes continue to bore into your own, “I-I just don’t want you to ever think you aren’t the most beautiful woman in the room okay? Fuck what everyone says or thinks about you, you are amazing and perfect. If some asshole said to you what Chloe did… I would have knocked them to the floor…”

You shake your head, “Diego… there are always going to be people who think they are better than me because of my weight. And most days I keep my head up and I don’t let things affect me… Sometimes though it’s like being 13 and teased or 16 and rejected all over again...it’s just apart of life.”

“You’re so damn amazing though…” he says as his hand cups your cheek.

“You know… you’re pretty damn amazing yourself…”

He laughs a hollow laugh as he looks down, “No I’m not...Always number two…”

“Come on… we both need to eat something… this is getting to be too much… We’re celebrating how amazing you are!”

He nods before he jumps out of the car and you follow. His arm automatically goes around your shoulders as he guides you into the restaurant. Your friends are already set up at a table and they yell happily when the two of you walk over to them. As you sit down you notice the way that Chloe is looking at you as if she wasn’t done with you yet. Diego pulls you towards him and he whispers in your ear.

“She tries anything you let me know…”

You let out a soft giggle before you push him away, like he had just told you some dirty secret.

He sends you a sly smile before the two of you focus on the menu before you. Appetizers arrive before you really have a chance to look over everything and the snide comments continue to flow.

“Make sure that you keep the nachos out of (Y/N)’s reach… we wouldn’t want her to eat them all…”

“That’s what you’re getting? Maybe you should have a salad...”

“You know… I’m surprised that Diego hasn’t offered to train you… It definitely couldn’t hurt…”

“You aren’t actually getting dessert are you.”

You could feel Diego vibrating next to you with the effort to not reach across the table and smack the girl in front of you.

“You know what…” you mutter after that last comment, your self-confidence shattered, “I think I’m just going to go home…”

“I’ll drive you,” Diego mutters as he gets up to follow you.

“You should stay and celebrate with your friends,” you say with a pained smile.

“Yeah Diego! You should stay!” exclaims Chloe with a devious smile.

“You know… we’re going to head out too…”

“Yeah us too.”

“See you guys next time okay?”

As all of your friends get up to leave you notice the way they all spit insults at Chloe, who has the audacity to look offended.

Half way out of the restaurant Diego turns around and stomps back up to her, “You know what… that woman is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met in my life. She has been there for me when even my own family wasn’t. She is smart, sexy, funny, and kind. She is everything I could ever want in my girlfriend and more and after what I’ve seen tonight… You aren’t even worthy of standing in her shadow. You ever talk about my woman like that again and I’m throwing your ass out of the gym… actually you know what… we don’t allow that kind of behavior. Don’t ever come back.”

With that Diego turned towards you and pulls you towards him for your second deep kiss of the night. You were far more prepared for this one and you wished that it could have lasted forever.

“Diego…” you whisper.

“Yeah (Y/N)...”

“The whole restaurant is looking at us…”

“Let them look… I’ve got the most beautiful woman in this place...if you’ll have me...for real?”

You look up into his deep chocolate eyes and you can hardly believe your ears.

“You know I could never say no to you…”

He sends you the most breathtaking smile before he dips his head down and captures your lips in another heart stopping kiss.

This is for all my curvy girls. I want you to love yourself and know that you are worth so much more than what a couple of nonsense opinions are. I’ve struggled with my weight my entire life and will probably continue to do so. I want you to know I see you, I’m here for you and I will do my best to build you back up when others want you to fall. I hope you love this. Muah

#diego hargreeves x reader #diego hargreeves imagine #diego hargreeves x you #diego hargreeves x plus size reader #plus size reader #plus size fanfiction #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy imagine #the umbrella academy fanfiction #diego hargreeves romance #diego hargreeves

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yayneloveart · 6 years ago

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Good Omens/Lucifer 5

They pulled up to massive gaudy mansion which the Dowlings currently called home. Valets were taking keys from anyone who didn’t bring a chauffeur which didn’t go over well when they tried to collect Crowley’s keys from him. One whispered threat and an unseen glare later and he finally gave them over to the now terrified valet.

‘I think that was a bit much,’ Chloe commented.

‘I don’t like other people driving my car,’ Crowley gritted his teeth as he pulled a large wrapped present from the backseat of the car. They approached the front doors and were greeted by a doorman.

‘Names?’ he asked as he held up a guest list.

‘Ashtoreth, plus one,’ Crowley switched to his soft old lady voice. The doorman checked them off and let them inside. Most of the other guests had already arrived and the rooms were full of important people having drinks and talking about whatever politicians talk about at parties. Crowley dropped the present at a table covered in boring looking gifts.

‘Let’s start with Mr. Dowling and work our way around from there,’ Chloe suggested. Crowley craned his neck and looked around the crowd for the politician, his height and heels giving him a good vantage point.

‘Over there, probably on his third glass of wine,’ Crowley lead Chloe through the crowd until they made it over to the birthday boy’s father. ‘Good evening, Mr. Dowling.’

‘Nanny Ashtoreth! So nice to see you!’ He bellowed, handing his wine glass to Mrs. Dowling so he could give Ashtoreth a bear hug. Crowley tensed up and tried to subtly worm his way out of his grasp.

‘Honey, you might be crushing her,’ Mrs. Dowling pulled him off and had a server take away their drinks. She turned back to Crowley and gave him a gentle hug. ‘It’s nice to see you, Warlock was very happy to hear you were coming.’

‘I’m glad, I can’t wait to see him again. And let me introduce you to my niece, Chloe,’ Crowley gestured to his undercover partner who shook hands with them.

Chloe immediately started to talk with the guests, learning who was working on the campaign and how they knew the victim. After a while she realized that Crowley wasn’t with her and she was forced to go look for him.

‘Please tell me he’s not doing something Lucifer would do...’ she mumbled to herself as she sneaked through the empty rooms looking for him. She followed the sound of clacking heels on the floor and eventually found him wandering through a deserted hallway.

‘What are you doing?’ She asked.

‘I’m looking for Warlock, he wasn’t anywhere at the party,’ he explained.

‘I get you care for him and want to catch up, but we’re also here on a mission and I need you to help me identify anyone suspicious at the party, like anyone who smells like that cologne.’

‘Dowling was wearing it, so the killer was with him right before the murder. Now, I think I’m getting close,’ Crowley walked to a door and slowly opened it. Chloe walked up beside him and saw that it was a large linen closet with a window. At the window was a young man lowering a rope outside, the other end tied to a large exposed pipe.

‘And what do we have here?’ Crowley laughed as Warlock quickly turned around, looking terrified.

‘I wasn’t doing anything, I swear!’ he yelled as he tried to stand in front of the rope. ‘Nanny?’

‘Master Warlock, nice to see you again.’

‘Oh thank God you’re here,’ he ran up to him and gave him a hug. ‘I don’t know anyone here, my dad invited his friends and their asshole kids.’

‘Well that’s a shame, a young mans birthday should be about him,’ Crowley sighed.

‘Hey, are you helping me up or not?!’ a voice yelled from the open window. Warlock quickly let go of Crowley and ran over to the window to pull someone up. Another young man covered in twigs and leaves tumbled through the window to the floor.

‘This is a friend of mine, my dad didn’t let me officially invite him because hes a ‘troublemaker’, so we decided to sneak in,’ Warlock pulled his friend up and started pulling leaves out of his hair. ‘Adam, this is my nanny from when I was a kid, Nanny Ashtoreth, and her friend...?’

‘My niece, Chloe.’

The young man brushed his long blond hair out of his eyes. He looked up at Crowley and Chloe and had to choke back a laugh. ‘Nice to meet you, Ashtoreth.’

Chloe saw Crowley stiffen, then relax. ‘Nice to meet you, Adam.’

‘It’s his birthday too, and since hes so far from his family I figured I could share some of my party with him.’

‘I’m looking forward to getting some rich people food,’ Adam laughed. ‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ he leaned back to the open window and called out, ‘Dog, stay down there out of sight, I’ll be out in a bit.’

‘Maybe we should get back to the party before anyone notices we’re missing,’ Chloe shifted on her feet nervously.

‘I could stay out of the party the whole night and no one would notice until they brought out the cake,’ Warlock scoffed, but still started to walk back towards the guests. Chloe started to follow him but stopped when she heard some harsh whispering. She turned and saw Crowley and Adam having a heated conversation, Adam looking very amused while Crowley gripped his arm.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered to Crowley and he released the young mans arm. Adam smiled and jogged to catch up to Warlock.

‘I know him,’ Crowley said cryptically. There was a beat between them as Chloe waited to him to elaborate, but he never did.

‘How do you know him? What’s going on?’

‘It’s complicated.’

She realized that she wasn’t going to get much more out of him and had to accept that anyone related to Lucifer had their secrets. They arrived back at the party just in time for the cake to come out. It was gigantic with fondant sculptures of the Dowlings on top with the campaign logo on the side. There was also the logo for UCLA and some fondant books, to squeeze in something related to Warlock. Pieces were cut and passed out by servers to guests.

‘Could you wrap this up for me? We’ll be leaving soon,’ Crowley told a server and handed his cake to them. ‘And have the valet bring my car around.’

‘We are?’ Chloe asked.

‘Once Warlock has opened my gift.’

‘... Oh no.’

Chloe had a feeling that Crowley was more like his brother than she realized. This was proven once Warlock started to unwrap his gifts, the first few being boring things like Burberry ties and fancy cuff links. He looked bored until he saw the large colorful box Crowley brought in and decided that one probably had something fun in it. Crowley started to slowly walk backwards towards the front door while also tugging Chloe with him.

��Crowley, what’s about to happen?’ Chloe asks him nervously.

‘I thought Warlock might want to have some actual fun on his birthday,’ Crowley chuckled.

‘What is that?’ They could hear Mrs. Dowling asking. ‘Is that a nerf gun?’

A pillar of fire erupted from where Warlock was standing and the crowd yelped in surprise, Warlock laughing at his new toy. The flames hit a curtain and it caught fire, setting off the sprinklers. The crowd got soaked as Crowley and Chloe ran through the front door down to where his car was idling.

‘What did you buy him?!’ Chloe yelled at him.

‘That flamethrower Elon Musk started selling,’ Crowley laughed. ‘I thought it would liven the party!’

‘You are exactly like Lucifer!’

#good omens #lucifer #crowley #anthony j crowley #nanny ashtoreth #chloe decker #warlock dowling #adam young

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hannahmcne · 6 years ago

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Lost on the Case - Chapter 1

Alya blew into the building five minutes before she was late and disappeared into her office. The cherry-stained door had absorbed all the warmth from the morning sun hitting it, so it was toasty inside her office. She sat down her thermos of hot coffee on her desk and shuffled through the stack of finished assignments on her desk. A smile spread across her face.

At the beginning of the month, her boss Celine, or Carly, as everyone called her, had given her a stack of thirty-two assignments because: "I'm getting tired of you always begging me for more stories or clocking out early because there's nothing to do." Now, three days before the end of the month, she was done.

Smiling, she hefted the stack up and wandered to Carly's office. Alex was just leaving when she walked up. He laughed and held the door open for her. "Wow, Alya. We're not going to have any more news to cover if you keep this up." He chuckled.

"Heck no, we're not." Alya agreed with pride. "Did you two just get done making out?" She winked.

Alex turned bright red. "Ah! Um, no, no I just needed to tell her to order more supplies for the printer downstairs."

"Uh huh, sure." Alya rolled her eyes cheerfully. "Whatever you say, Boss."

Alex turned a deeper shade of red that reminded Alya of her old classmate Nathaniel, and then shut the door behind her. Alya chucked. Alex and Carly weren't actually dating, but everyone had been teasing that they were since before Alya had arrived.

Alex was the production manager. He oversaw the printing and distribution of the paper. He was also the person everyone went to if they needed public-domain files for any past stories or information because he had connections in city hall and in the police department. Carly was the brains and genius behind the design and formatting of the paper and its accompanying magazines. She was the one who assigned the reporters to certain cases and oversaw their work. AKA Alya's superior.

Alya cleared her throat politely and waited for the slim, dark-haired girl at the desk to glance up at her. Carly was fifty-seven with pretty grey streaks in her brown hair. She had grey eyes and a small mouth and nose. She was shorter than the average(you couldn't tell when she was sitting down), and so skinny that she could squeeze underneath Alya's desk and hide. Alya knew this because Carly had pranked everyone's office last April Fool's day, but since Alya had come in early, so she hadn't been able to finish booby-trapping her office. She'd hidden under the desk until Alya had pulled her chair out and spotted her.

Carly finally looked away from a set of color swabs she was examining for a magazine and saw Alya holding her stack. She groaned. "Don't you dare tell me, Alya Lahiffe, that you finished thirty-two different individual assignments?"

"Guilty." Alya chuckled, putting the stack down on Carly's desk. "Do you have anything else for me to do?"

Carly sighed and picked up the first two portfolios on top of Alya's stack. "Great work, as usual." She muttered. Carly sighed and set the folders down on top of her desk. "Okay Alya, I do have one more file. I usually give it to a more advanced reporter, but I think you've got this. It's the hardest file we have on record though."

Alya's breath caught as Carly opened a drawer and scraped the bottom. She pulled out a yellow folder with a red and black sticker on the front. Alya drew in a sharp breath as Carly handed it over.

"The Ladybug file?" Alya asked hesitantly. She didn't dare reach out to touch it.

Carly nodded. Alya took it reverently as a bright, blinding smile spread across her cheeks. "Thank you so much! This is such an honor… I don't know what to say!" Alya took a few steps away from the drawer.

"Now, hold on," Carly said, holding up a hand. She pointed to a chair in front of the desk. "Pop a squat. There are a few things I've got to explain."

Alya took a seat in the chair. Her heart was racing. Carly took a deep breath. "As you know, the Ladybug file was started back when Ladybug and Chat Noir announced they were taking a quick retreat for health reasons and Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, and Carapace took over protecting the city. Since then, we've been trying to root out where they went. It's one of the few mystery quests the department has. Most of them are just 'interview and report'. No one has ever gotten very far on the case. Every year, before we acknowledge the disappearance and honor the cities' current heroes on Heroes Day, I give it someone to see if they can find anything. Some years it comes back a little fuller, other years information is disapproved, and it comes back lighter. You're innovative and resourceful. Let's see how much you can find out." Carly spread her hands.

Alya swallowed. "And, if I don't?" She asked.

Carly shrugged. "Well, just me giving you the file means you have to write something about the disappearance of the dream team for the holiday. What usually happens is the reporters poke around, and if they don't find anything, then they highlight some of the things she and Chat did for the city and do some speculations on when she'll return. Hero's Day is in two months."

Alya swallowed. "Okay." She agreed. She stood up and walked backwards to the door, keeping her eyes on Carly as her supervisor returned to her desk work.

"One more thing, Alya." Carly said as Alya set her hand on the knob. "There are no extensions for this project. While it's possible to be reassigned, I only open the file this time of year because we can't afford to spend resources on this year-round. You have two months, and then after Heroes Day, you will need to return the folder. Understood?"

"Understood." Alya nodded with a dry throat.

"Good. There's not much else for you to do, and I know you're more comfortable working at home, so feel free to clock out early if you want. I'll call if we get anything else in, but your coworkers have priority now that you have that." Carly opened a pdf on her computer and turned her attention away from Alya. Alya swallowed hard and decided to leave before Carly changed her mind.

"Thank you, thank you, Carly." She gasped as she turned the knob. "I swear I won't let you down."

Carly nodded distractedly and waved her off. Alya quickly escaped and shut the door behind her. Then, she tucked the file under her arm, balled up her fists, and squealed. Everyone in the vicinity turned to her, but she ignored their questioning looks as she dashed out of the building.

The Ladybug file… the Ladybug file! This was an office legend, and part of the entire reason why she was here today. If she hadn't first started reporting on Ladybug back in Ecole….

It felt good to be back in the same territory she'd started in; Paris's heroes. She took the subway back home and dashed up the stairs to her apartment.

"Nino! Nino!" She called, hoping her husband hadn't left to his record label already. Unfortunately, the apartment was empty. No biggie. She pulled out her phone and dialed his number as she ran into her room to hunt down her laptop. He didn't answer the first time, so she dialed again, and he answered on the third ring.

"Sup Alya?" He asked. "I had to leave my meeting. What's up?"

"You'll never believe what just happened to me!" Alya squealed.

"What?" He asked.

Alya waved her hands even though he couldn't see them. "I got the ladybug file!" She shrieked. "Carly said she thinks I'm resourceful enough for it! Me!"

"Wow, that's super Alya." Alya could hear Nino smiling through the phone.

"I know! I can't let her down. I figure if anyone can figure out where our favorite cat and bug team went, it's probably the Ladyblog owner, right?" Alya asked as she fired up her laptop and traced a finger over the ladybug sticker on the front of the portfolio.

"Not to mention the first civilian Ladybug trusted enough to give a miraculous to, right?" Nino teased.

"Right," Alya said, moving her hand to finger the fox-tail necklace against her neck. After Ladybug had left the city, Alya had been given her miraculous full-time, along with Chloe and Nino. Trixx, her Kwami, was asleep in a pocket that she'd sewn on the inside of her jacket. Marinette had taught her how to back in Ecole.

Marinette… and suddenly she was sad. Thinking about her old best friend really put a damper on her mood. She swallowed.

"Hey Nino, I think I'm going to drop by Tom and Sabine's to get something to eat." She told him.

"Let's make it a date. Can I meet you there for lunch?" Nino asked. Alya could tell he needed to get back to his meeting.

Alya giggled. "I would love that." She said honestly.

"I love you, Ren." He whispered.

"And I love you, Carapace."

They chuckled together and then said goodbye. Alya set her phone on the dresser in her and Nino's bedroom and studied her reflection. It was just Marinette's parents… no big deal. She exhaled and decided to quickly change her clothes.

Thirty minutes later, she was wearing a dark pair of blue jeans and a breezy white shirt. She redid her makeup and put in a pair of white earrings. Then, she scolded herself for being silly. It was Marinette's parents. They adored all of her old friends. She found her purse with her wallet and identification inside and took her phone with her as she left to go to Marinette's old place, leaving the ladybug file on the couch beside her laptop.

Almost ten years ago, a horrible tragedy had befallen Alya's classmates. Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been kidnapped while on a walk, only a block and a half from her house. It had been just after evening hours, and no witnesses had been around. All the police had was a foggy video from a street cam, where you could see a man in all black jump out from where he'd been hiding behind a car, slap a cloth over her mouth, and then drag her unconscious body into the backseat. They'd tried tracking the vehicle to no avail. It had disappeared through some of the slums of Paris and had only reappeared once briefly while going through an intersection. Even now, they had no idea where the car had gone with her. Marinette was listed as a missing person. She'd be almost twenty-nine if she were still around. Maybe she'd have married Adrien Agreste.

Alya hailed a taxi to take her to the bakery and climbed in. She put on a playlist to distract herself from her thoughts of her old best friend and decided to glance through last year's Hero's Day publication for ideas. After about ten minutes of stop-and-go traffic, she looked up and spotted a limo in the lane beside them as they turned into the heart of Paris. 'Adrien used to drive around in limos like that', she thought.

Three weeks before Marinette had been kidnapped, Adrien Agreste had committed suicide. Mr. Agreste's assistant, Natalie Sancour, had gone upstairs to wake him and found him missing. They tried to find him using his phone, but it was plugged in beside his bed. Nothing was gone from the room and the security cameras didn't show anyone leaving. Then, one of the gardeners made a horrible discovery. Adrien's body was on the grounds underneath his third-story bedroom. Adrien had opened the window in his bathroom, closed it behind him once he made his way outside, and jumped to his death on the grounds below. Police found his fingerprints around the glass and a suicide note in his pocket. Alya had never been given the opportunity to read it, but she suspected it said something along the lines of: 'I hate the way I'm imprisoned, my father hates me, no one knows anything about me and I feel alone.'

Just a hunch.

At any rate, in three weeks the class lost two of the happiest, most positive, go-lucky kids in the class. They despaired for months, but eventually moved on. Alya had survived by burying herself underneath her work and using her achievements as shields from the pain. Awful strategy? Sure. Effective? Absolutely.

Today, Alya was a reporter for Parisian Culture, a top magazine, and paper headquartered in Paris. The Ladyblog had died off mostly, though she still uploaded theories and hunches from time to time. Nino released albums and mixtapes for both other artists and himself. All in all, it was a good life.

The taxi let her out on the corner of the street, besides the park where Adrien used to have photoshoots. Tom and Sabine's boulangerie hadn't changed. Not even the gold lettering of the shop's windows had faded. It still used the same design Marinette had created when she was thirteen and had the same flooring, smell, and reputation as the best in Paris.

She pushed the door open, relishing the sound of the bell announcing her presence, and smiled as she wove her way through patrons waiting for their owners. Only Tom was behind the counter. He hastily rang up orders and brought fresh pastries up from behind the counter. Alya wondered where Sabine was.

Tom was a little older, a little rounder, with more than a few grey hairs in his beard and hair. He still smelt like bread and gave the best bear hugs in the world though. The years had not been kind though, and his back was sorer than it used to be, with every laugh and smile etching a new wrinkle. It pained Alya's heart to watch him and Sabine grow old.

The bakery finally began to clear out. Tom noticed her standing among the crowd and shot a smile her way. He quickly finished up and gestured her forward.

"Hello, Alya! It's been a while," He said.

"It has," Alya agreed. "Where's Sabine?"

A pained smile crossed Tom's face. Alya felt her smile drop as Tom reached up and scratched the back of his head.

"Listen, Alya, I know this will disappoint you, but…" Tom sighed as he removed his apron. He folded it quickly and laid it on a weighted scale. It weighed about two-oh-seven grams. "Sabine and I have been talking." Tom continued. "It's been almost ten years since Marinette disappeared, and that means in less than two weeks she's going to be labeled dead by Paris law. Sabine and I are old, and it hurts us to keep holding out hope she'll come back at this point." Tom raked a hand through his salt and pepper hair. "Sabine is upstairs now, cleaning out her room. We've decided it's time. She's getting a head start on the small things, and I'll help out with dismantling furniture later."

"Oh," Was all Alya could say. She twisted her hands nervously. "Do you guys want some help? I'm off work for tonight – I'm supposed to meet Nino here, but after that I'm free."

"That would be helpful," Tom said, his eyes full of gentle tears. "You could probably take a few things of hers too if you wanted."

"Thanks, Tom," Alya said, patting his hand. "Can I head up then?"

"Yes, feel free," Tom agreed. The bell over the door jingled and a group of students from Alya's old school wandered in, chattering excitedly. Tom straightened up and blinked his tears back. Alya hovered for a moment to relive memories, then cleared out and walked to the stairs to head up into the apartment.

Up on the third floor, Sabine was surrounded by hangers and clothes. A trash basket and a box of tissues sat on the floor beside her, along with a large cardboard box partially full of Marinette's clothes. Sabine looked up, surprised when she saw Alya.

"Hello, Alya," She greeted. "What are you doing up here?"

"Tom let me up. I asked if you guys needed help." Alya said. She sat down and began to remove clothes from hooks. Sabine sniffled.

"That's nice of you dear. This job is a bit much on an old woman like me."

Alya didn't say anything.

They worked through Marinette's closet. A few things, like scarves and gloves and boot toppers, Sabine pawned off to Alya. They used one of Marinette's bags to hold all the items.

"Don't you want some of these things?" Alya asked.

Sabine shook her head. "The memories are a bit, ah, much." She admitted.

Marinette's room was dusty. No one had been up here for at least seven years. Alya looked up at Marinette's old bed. Even from a distance, the trapdoor that led to her balcony had grime blocking it closed. Odd shapes strung the steps down through the dust. Alya smiled at the sight. She could still imagine Marinette half climbing, half falling down.

Alya cleaned out Marinette's backpack, which included all her schoolwork from years ago. The textbooks had long ago been taken back to the school, but Marinette's notes from literature, science, math, and her advanced design classes, it was all here. Alya had forgotten how her friend used to dot the 'I' in her name with a heart… the memory made Alya reach for a tissue too.

Alya cleaned out the desk while Sabine took the computer, lamp, chargers and other things and put them in a box to be donated or sold. Alya tried to burn the Adrien Agreste heart collage into her brain before Sabine tore it down. Even at nineteen, Marinette had been over the moon for that boy.

Into a box went patterns, buttons, lace, needles, pins, and zippers. Odd bits of cloth, thread, and beads followed. Tucked in between the chaise and the dresser was a half-moon shaped box Alya remembered very well. She smiled and tipped the box on its side just like Marinette had kept it in her workspace. It popped open and Alya glanced inside, expecting to see Marinette's worn, old diary.

The magic box was empty.

Alya frowned. "Sabine?" She asked. "Do you have Marinette's diary?"

Sabine looked up from where she was packing up the Ladybug and Chat Noir dolls Marinette used to entertain Manon with. She frowned at the magic box in thought.

"No." She shook her head. "I haven't seen it."

Alya looked back down in confusion. Marinette couldn't have had it on her the night of the kidnapping, right? She never took that diary anywhere. She wouldn't have just randomly decided to take it on a walk with her, right?

Tom called upstairs that it was lunchtime. Sabine thanked Alya for her help, and Alya said that, if she didn't mind, she was going to stay up for a few more minutes. Sabine gave her a sad smile and a nod and disappeared down the trapdoor staircase.

Alya began to search. She looked under the bed and in the chaise and all over Marinette's work area and couldn't find any trace of the diary. It had vanished. Her heart began to pound as she examined everything in the room. It seemed to be exactly the way Marinette had left it. But on second glance, a few minute things fell out of place with the picture Alya had in her head.

The diary was missing… and so was the small picture of her and Marinette that used to hang on the wall over Marinette's workstation. An heirloom ring that Marinette had gotten from her grandma wasn't on the jewelry stand where it usually was, and while Marinette's pink flower handbag that matched her shirt was there, the white beaded purse that Marinette had gotten from a flea market and hand-beaded was missing.

"Alya?" Nino called from downstairs. "Are you still up there?"

"Coming!" Alya called back in a strangled tone. She ripped her eyes away from the room and pulled open the trap door. Nino stood at the bottom with one hand on the railing like he had been about to climb up. He frowned when he saw her.

"Babe, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." He asked.

Alya stumbled down the step and sat down a few feet from the bottom. "Her diary is missing." She told Nino. "And a couple of other things. They're missing."

"Missing?" Tom asked. "We haven't touched that room since we helped her put it together.

"I know," Alya muttered. "They're gone though. They just… vanished."

Nino helped her down and watched her sit on the stairs. "They have to be up there somewhere." He realized. "What else is missing?"

"A photo of us," Alya replied immediately. "Her grandma's ring and that white bag she used for Easter and Christmas."

"Maybe she sold the bag," Nino suggested. "And the photo could have fallen. And the ring..." He paused. "I don't know. Maybe it just fell off the stand and rolled somewhere."

Alya furrowed her brow. "I guess." She muttered. "But... what about her diary? That didn't ever go anywhere. She guarded that thing almost as much as she guarded her purse at school."

Sabine patted her arm. "We'll probably find it as we clean more things out." She decided. "Let's not worry on it. Now, Come and have lunch with us."

Nino leaned down and helped her to her feet. Alya followed the other adults to the table, feeling a little tingle of excitement and worry in her spine. Maybe it was just her reporter vibe on steroids, but she swore she could smell a mystery coming.

**This story is available up to Chapter Seven on AO3 and FanFiction.Net.**

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