#where when marinette gets closer to luka | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mochegato · 11 months ago

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Thank You, But No

“Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!” Marinette uttered in a combination of mutters under her breath and exasperated groans. She was running late to meet Tim for dinner, which admittedly, wasn’t new or surprising, for either of them. It had become so common for one of them to be late, they had a punishment for it, whoever was late had to pay for the meal, or the next one if they missed the meal entirely. Which was fine for M. Co-CEO of a billion-dollar company, but she could NOT afford another dinner. Not even a Batburger dinner.

Not that Tim would force her to pay. He’d brush it off and pay with a smile, but she didn’t want him to have to because he was being generous, which of course he always was. He was the single most generous, thoughtful, considerate man she’d ever met, and she’d met Adrien, Luka, Nino, and her dad, so that was saying something. He was brilliant and funny and understanding. He was an absolutely amazing person and even better boyfriend.

Which isn’t to say they didn’t have issues… such as their propensity for getting wrapped up in whatever they were working on and being late for dates or missing them entirely, as mentioned previously. But they always made it up to each other and made sure the other knew how important they were. Or at least they tried. Maybe they weren’t as successful as Marinette had thought. That would explain why there was still an underlying feeling that something was off. It was tiny but niggling.

That feeling always stopped her from feeling too secure in their relationship and her actions. She wanted nothing more than to build a life with Tim, but that niggling was holding them back. They were just short of fully trusting each other. She knew why she was holding some things back. She wasn’t ready to tell a man she didn’t fully trust about the nineteen little gods and innumerable troublesome monks that came with being with her. But she couldn’t figure out what was holding him back if it wasn’t that her constantly being late made him doubt her commitment.

So she needed to get to the restaurant before him, but everything that afternoon seemed to be colluding against her. She’d narrowly avoided having to go to the warehouse or to a customer to handle random issues several times throughout the day, the issues seemingly getting increasingly significant as the day went on. She’d spent the entire day putting out fires and now was running late.

But! She was only a block from the restaurant. She could see the awning as she ran and although she was late, she was still earlier than Tim typically was, so there was a very good chance she would be able to beat him. She grinned as she picked up speed, weaving between people as she flew toward the crosswalk.

However, that is when Gotham struck. Just as she reached the street corner, a car exploded in front of her. Everyone immediately backed away and lowered themselves closer to the ground as they edged away from the explosion. Marinette, however, froze after crouching down rather than backing away.

She studied the scene taking in every detail, searching for anyone in need of immediate help and calculating where her help would most be needed. But nothing appeared to need attention. The explosion was controlled and concise. Only the car itself was damaged. She couldn’t even see any bodies, not even the driver.

She cautiously moved closer to the exploded car waiting for the rogue’s next move. But nothing happened. She stood warily and moved slowly toward the restaurant. In all likelihood, it would still operate as normal. The incident wasn’t large enough to garner Bat attention. The cops would appear eventually. Nothing that any Gothamite would take note of the next day, really.

She kept her movements tentative as she crossed the street. Something seemed off, something she couldn’t quite identify and it was disconcerting. It almost came as no surprise when she felt herself suddenly drifting off into a black void mid-step.

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Sensation flooded back to Marinette with a drawn-out groan. Her head was fuzzy. Her limbs were weighed down. She snuggled into the luxurious sheets wrapped around her. She loved these sheets. They were silky and soft and… she shot up into a seated position, eyes wide… and they were definitely not something she would be able to afford.

She instantly fell back onto the bed with a whimper, clutching her now throbbing head, and looked around through her fingers. It took a few seconds for the scene around her to register. She was in a grand room. Her entire apartment could fit in this one room. She eyed one of the paintings on the wall. Just that painting alone was worth more than everything in her apartment combined.

There was only one family she knew personally who could possibly have a room like this. She sat back up slowly to examine the room again. It had to be Wayne Manor… some hidden, supremely pretentious room in Wayne Manor. Oh no! Did she pass out and Tim found her and took her home to Wayne Manor! Instead of his own flat for some reason… Oh, this was a catastrophe. It was so embarrassing.

She collapsed back onto the bed with an embarrassed groan, her eyes clamped shut. There was a lot more gold than she had ever seen in Wayne Manor before. Why would he have taken her to Wayne Manor and this room? What was she supposed to get from this? There had to be a message in this bizarre behavior, right?

“Finally awake I see.” Marinette’s eyes shot open. That was not Tim’s voice. That wasn’t even a male voice, so it definitely wasn’t Alfred’s voice or one of Tim’s brothers either. She sat up warily, eyes darting around rapidly to find the source of the voice, which was considerably more difficult than it should have been in the cavernous room. She froze when she finally located it.

A tall, lithe, impeccably put together woman sitting in a shadowy corner leaned forward, but didn’t say anything, choosing instead to stand gracefully and observe Marinette impassively. After a few long seconds under her scrutiny, Marinette shifted uncomfortably in the bed, pulling the opulent sheets tighter around herself. Her gaze broke away, nervously taking in the room around them in greater detail, now knowing with certainty that they were not in Wayne Manor. “Where am I?”

The woman stalked closer to Marinette, her movements intimidating in their precision and control. “Somewhere far away from any heroes. Somewhere nobody can find without a guide. Somewhere not even your dear Detective would be able to find you.” Her voice was without the cruelty Marinette would have expected considering the content of her statement.

It was that contrast more than anything that made her register her words. “Who’s ‘my detective’? Do you mean Sabrina’s dad! He’s not a detective! He’s just an officer. And he can’t even find his badge half the time. Sabrina has to stop over and find it for him most mornings. Saying I’m somewhere he can’t find doesn’t narrow it down. It could be his guest room… except for the whole,” she motioned to the gilded room.

The woman studied Marinette with a complete lack of emotion on her face except for a single brow arching. The effect was like being completely transparent before her, which was a feeling Marinette was familiar with from that glass akuma. But this was worse. This felt more invasive, more revealing. “Interesting.”

“I’ve never had someone creepy say that to me and not have it mean something bad,” Marinette observed petulantly.

The woman’s lips seemed to strain to stay in their perfect pout. “You may want to keep your mouth closed if you value your tongue.” Despite the war on her lips, her voice was even and commanding, bordering on cold.

“You guys may have kidnapped the wrong person then,” Marinette grumbled.

“Oh no, no, I don’t believe we did,” she hummed, her eyes twinkled with something Marinette couldn’t identify.

The urge to reach up and feel for her earrings was overwhelming, but Marinette refused to give in. If they didn’t know who she was already, the movement would signal the truth. It was a clue Marinette was not willing to give. A blank façade fell across her face. “And I would recommend speaking clearly and sparsely when you are brought to the throne room,” the woman advised.

Marinette’s façade immediately dropped as her brows furrowed. “The what now?”

“My father is not known for looking kindly upon fools,” she continued as if Marinette hadn’t spoken.

Marinette blinked at her. “Did you just sa…”

“You will put those on,” the woman interrupted sharply and motioned toward the clothes laid out on the bed. “There are no cameras or microphones in here, so you don’t need to worry about that, if my word means anything to you.”

“It doesn’t,” Marinette answered instantly but did turn in the direction indicated, noticing the clothes for the first time. Even without touching them, she could tell they were extremely high quality both in the fabric and in production. It would easily be the nicest, most ornate outfit she had ever worn. It was truly an inspiration for her. However, it would also easily be the skimpiest thing she’d worn in public other than her bikini. It was so tight and skimpy, it looked like something a comic book artist designed for a female superhero. It was most definitely not what she wanted to wear when she was brought to face whoever was behind all this. “Thank you, but no. No, I would prefer not to.”

“You will put it on, or you will wear nothing,” the woman warned firmly, “which I’m sure my father will also enjoy, both the result and the process of stripping your current clothes from your body scrap by scrap.”

Marinette’s eyes widened with every word, absolutely confident in the honesty of her words. She looked back at the clothes that she would be wearing. “Right… I will… put those on.”

“Wise choice, you may yet survive the night,” the woman nodded and turned. “The dressers will be in soon.”

“I know how to…” Marinette ripped her eyes from the clothes to the woman, but she was already gone, “… dress myself,” she finished lamely to the empty room. She finally allowed herself to reach up to her ears with a groan at the lack of earrings. She was going to have to do this, whatever this ended up being, without her powers and then somehow search what she was positive was a ridiculously large complex for her earrings.

She let out a long, deep breath and started putting the clothes on by herself. “It’s not like I’m a designer or anything,” she grumbled. “Not like it’s my entire job to come up with an outfit, accessories, hair, and makeup. What would I know.”

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Okay, so maybe she didn’t know what was expected for this particular occasion, because just like the room, there was considerably more gold involved in her outfit, accessories, and even makeup than she would have ever used on her own. And in all honestly, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to get the hair accessories actually stay in their artfully styled placement, especially with all the sharp movements she kept making around the women helping style her and the guards escorting her to their destination, the throne room, if the woman was to be believed, which Marinette was inclined to do, about that fact at least.

As soon as she entered the room, pushed at the end of a few very sharp swords was actually a far better description, she had to fight her jaw dropping. She’d thought the last room was ostentatious, but this new room made the last room look like a cheap, roadside motel that hadn’t been updated since the 70’s. The room was covered in gold details and ornately carved, deeply stained woodwork. The ceiling was far above her like the grand entryway of Wayne Enterprises. Operas could be properly sung in this room. Centered against the back wall, a raised platform towered, demanding attention in its size and ostentatiousness.

A single chair sat at the apex with an ancient man seated, just as impeccably dressed as the woman earlier had been. A step down and behind the chair was a line of other chairs, a few fille empty. One of the seated figures was the woman she had seen earlier. As before, the woman gazed impassively upon her, like Marinette’s discomfort and fear was beneath her consideration. The two others in line only vaguely resembled one another, some not at all, but Marinette surmised they were all his children and the empty chairs for even more of his children.

She stopped at the bottom of the short staircase to what must have been considered the throne and waited to be acknowledged. The man, who had to be the father the woman had spoken of earlier, stared at her with a similarly intense gaze as his daughter, but significantly more sinister and creepier. She had to stop herself from fidgeting under it.

The longer it went on, the more uncomfortable it became until she had to say something. “Um… hi,” she offered uncertainly, adding to her discomfort with a small, awkward wave.

“Hello…” he responded. His voice was exactly what she had expected from his appearance, bold but empty and dripping with smarm. “… Guardian.”

Marinette lifted her head slowly, eyes wide in horror. “Oh no,” she gasped, barely louder than a breath.

“Welcome to my throne room,” he stated with no indication of warmth or welcome in his voice. “You, my dear, you have the immense honor of becoming my bride.”

Her eyes somehow managed to widen even further at his words despite her actions being sluggish, the world around her not quite registering as real. “Oh… no. No, no, no, no… no. No, thank you, no. No, no. Thank you but no. No, no, no, no…” she shook her head woodenly then looked back up at him and pursed her lips. “Noooo.”

“You will join me, and I will make you my queen.” The sinister glint in his eye and eerie curl to his lips suggested he believed this was an incredible honor. Marinette could not quite see what proof he had to back that up, but she suspected he was one of those men who based their personal value on delusion rather than evidence.

She was sure a statement like the one he had just uttered was supposed to be a request, but it was stated like a command. A statement of fact, like ‘the sky is blue’, ‘water is wet’, ‘this situation is messed up.’ “Que…Oh, no. No, I’m not really the royalty type. Queen? I wouldn’t be… I hate velvet!” she finally exclaimed. She stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest to accentuate her point.

His vile smile dropped, his lips instead forming into a hard, thin line. “I realize you may believe you are unworthy of me. Your ability to realize your inferior status is one of the reasons you will become a perfect wife.”

“Oh… no,” she muttered, shaking her head, her eyes unfocusing. “Adrien warned me something like this would happen if I moved to Gotham.”

“But I assure you,” he continued, completely oblivious that she had said anything, or that she was no longer listening, “you are not as far beneath me as you may believe, Guardian. With your given powers and my natural strength and intelligence, we will have many strong brilliant children.”

Marinette’s eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. “Oh… no. No, thank you. No. I think we should reevaluate that decision… maybe tweak it… just a bit. I can’t… I’m already dat...” She stopped short, offering a strained smile instead. It was a decidedly terrible idea to mention Tim to a madman.

What she wouldn’t give to have Tim there with her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to bury her face in his chest and have him wrap his strong arms around her. But at the same time, she couldn’t imagine anything worse. He was safe where he was, far away from what was happening to her. No, she didn’t want Tim with her. What she wanted was to get out of that room, find her earrings, and get back to Tim’s embrace and not leave it for a week.

She shook her head to try to concentrate back on where she was. “How about…” she forced air out of her lungs, “no. No, no, no. You have kids!” She motioned toward the seats behind him. “You already have MANY kids. You do not need me to have ‘many.’”

“I need better,” he bellowed.

Marinette gasped and straightened up to her full height, which granted, even if the man had been on the same level as her and standing, would not have been much against the towering man, but she refused to accept his statement unmatched. “Okay, rude. I think maybe they need a better father.”

“Silence!” he thundered. His voice echoed throughout the chamber with a ferocity and strength, she was surprised nobody except her flinched.

The woman from earlier almost imperceptibly shook her head, just enough to catch Marinette’s eye but not enough to catch anyone else’s. “Right. Silence. Shutting up, sir,” Marinette grumbled grudgingly.

“Start the ceremony,” he commanded.

In the blink of an eye, Marinette was shoved forward and up the stairs, tripping frequently on her skirt she hadn’t been given time to gather up, a skirt that managed to cover almost nothing of her legs but still drag under her feet, until she was next to the ancient man while another man in a significantly less ornate outfit was ushered into the room in front of them. “Wait, now?” she exclaimed, looking around frantically. She could not get married! Not like this. Not to him. It was supposed to be Tim. They were supposed to build their relationship, develop their trust, then get married.

No, this couldn’t happen. “Oh, no. No, this is all happening a bit f…” the word died in her throat when quicker than she could track, a dagger dug into her throat, hard enough for beads of blood to appear at the knife’s edge, but only that much. She wasn’t sure if the restraint was luck or because he didn’t want his ‘wife’ to bear visible scars, and she was not willing to find out. Especially considering he was able to do it without standing and she still had no clues where her earrings were.

The new man cleared his throat and looked between the two of them anxiously, his eyes begging Marinette for forgiveness she was too dazed to be able to give. He cleared his throat when she didn’t respond and continued anyway. “We are…”

“Skip to the important part,” the ancient man growled. Marinette tried to back away from him but the guards behind her must have anticipated the response as before she could move a millimeter, she could feel the points of their swords digging into her bare shoulder blades.

The man offered a strained smile. “Isn’t the entire ceremony the imp…” he froze as the dagger that had been at her neck, suddenly appeared at his, drawing rivulets of blood.

“Do you wish to continue your insolence?” her soon-to-be-husband hissed. He waited a few beats while he stared down the petrified man. “Do you?” he demanded louder. When the man shook his head sloppily, the dagger disappeared so quickly Marinette couldn’t say where it went.

The other man’s eyes darted between the two of them again, sweat mixing with the blood running down his neck and staining his collar. “Do you…”

“I do,” the ancient man barked impatiently.

“Right…” The other man nodded anxiously and turned to Marinette. “Do yo…”

She shook her head so rapidly the man in front of her blurred. “Oh… n…”

“She does,” her betrothed cut in loudly.

“Okay, yeah, I suppose that can… can count,” the other man stammered. He was slowly inching away from the couple, putting as much space between him and them as he could before he was able to sprint out of the room, and Marinette had never been more jealous of anyone in her life. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

“What?” she exclaimed. No. No, no, no, no. No. She could not be married. Not to this man. This was not the future she planned. Her heart sank as the man’s lips puckered and he pulled her closer against his body.

His predatory grin dropped when an explosion sounded nearby. “What,” he seethed. He glared at the wall closest to the explosion like it was solely responsible for the disruption and hissed when the sounds of fighting carried into the room. “Impossible!”

The sounds increased in volume until it was so loud, they could almost make out the words being screamed in the fight. It quickly became apparent the fight would breach the throne room in moments. The ancient man shoved Marinette away with such force, she sprawled on the floor and scrambled to keep from falling off the stage, but his eyes never left the door to check on her, not that she would have expected him to. He pulled out his sword from wherever he had secured it, she still wasn’t sure where that was, and wielded it in preparation.

“Father,” the woman from earlier said quietly but forcefully, “we must leave before he comes.”

“I am not afraid of him,” he hissed, his eyes still glaring at the door in anticipation.

“No,” she agreed, but Marinette could see the roll of her eyes behind her father’s back. “But a battle that need not be fought is a foolish one.”

He hissed and tucked his sword away as he whirled toward the back of the room, rushing with his daughter toward a hidden door, his other children already long gone. “How did he know?” His voice was lower than it had been since she met him, but still managed to carry through the room.

The woman pointedly ignored Marinette as she moved behind her father. “Likely a tracker. Did you check her for a tracker?”

“Of course I checked for a tracker!” he thundered and turned on her, attempting to stare her down.

The woman raised an eyebrow but refused to cower at his vitriol. “Then I suggest having your men do a better job next time.”

The man growled but moved through the door his daughter had been urging him toward with a final flourish of his cape. And just like that, he was gone and the room empty as his guards had all disappeared without a sound and through some mysterious, possibly magical means, because they certainly hadn’t gone through the door at the front of the room or the door the man and his daughter had disappeared through.

She searched the room for their escape route, hoping to follow their lead. Following that man and his family seemed like an absolutely terrible idea. The last thing she needed was him remembering she existed and trying to take her with him. Going out the front door would lead her straight into the fight, which without her earrings, seemed like a worse idea. But she needed to get to her earrings and she needed to get them now, before anyone else found them. And that was all assuming the man didn’t realize she was Ladybug as well as the guardian and take the earrings with him.

She started down the stairs swiftly, intensely inspecting every centimeter of the side wall as she moved. She had just caught a slight irregularity in the wall when the front door slammed open and several figures rushed in. She squawked and attempted to find a place to hide, but she had managed to position herself directly in front of the stairs when the door opened. She could not have selected a more exposed location in the room if she tried. Even if she’d been at the top of the stairs, she would have been closer to the back door and would have had the chance to get to it before they could get to her.

It took a full few seconds for her to register that the figures rushing toward her were not a threat. In fact, she recognized them. The Teen Titans were there. The Teen Titans had come to rescue her. She furrowed her brow. No, that couldn’t be right. There was no way they’d come just for her. There had to have been something else going on and she was just a collateral bonus.

Red Robin rushed ahead of the rest of the team, directly toward her. He reached her in mere moments and reached out for her like he was afraid she would disappear if he didn’t, but he stopped just short of touching her, his hands hovering over her body as though he would be able to sense any damage that way. “Marinette! Marinette, are you okay?” She blinked at him and nodded numbly. Maybe she was wrong. There was no way for them to know her name if she wasn’t the objective. “Are you sure?” he asked again.

She quirked her head to the side to consider his voice, his lips, his expression as he examined her. The way his brow furrowed just slightly and his lips pursed a touch, like he was afraid of showing too much emotion and giving away his hand. She wished she could see his eyes. She could almost picture the frantic darting of his panicked blue eyes hidden behind the white lenses of his mask.

Her eyes widened as her subconscious realization became fully conscious. “Oh my… Oh no. No, no, no. Really?” she exclaimed, taking a step back to get a better look at him and yep, there was definitely protective padding built into the suit, but she knew those arms, she’d spent a good half an hour tracing her fingers over the edges of those biceps, triceps, and deltoids just the night before.

“Mar… Mademoiselle?” he asked cautiously.

She closed her eyes and dropped her head back with a heavy sigh. “I’m never going to live this down.”

He raised an eyebrow at her response, but his eyes quickly zeroed in on her newly exposed neck, almost reaching toward her neck, but diverting his hand to run through the hair she’d brushed out of his face that morning. “Are you sure you’re okay, Mademoiselle?”

“Mademoiselle? Really?” She righted her head to look him in the eye, raising an incredulous eyebrow at him until his shoulders fell slightly and he smiled sheepishly.

He finally allowed himself to reach out and touch her, starting by tenderly tracing the skin around the cut on her neck, his touch so tender and cautious, she almost couldn’t feel it. She slowly stretched her neck to give him a better view without ever taking her eyes off his, waiting for him to satisfy his fears and assure himself of her safety, knowing he wouldn’t be able to move on until he had.

His eyes slowly moved from her neck to her clavicle, arms, stomach, and legs, his fingers trailing the path his eyes forged. His brow furrowed at the goosebumps that trailed his fingers. His eyes jumped up to meet hers, realization dawning. He quickly removed his cape and draped it over her shoulders. “It’s insulated,” he murmured. “I know how cold you get.”

He pulled the cape closed around her and ran his hands down her arms a few times, his eyes never leaving hers. He took a breath and slowly reached up to remove his mask. The look in his eyes took her breath away. There was such a depth to them, almost boundless with emotion, almost limitless with devotion. “How did you know?” he asked softly, close to a whisper.

Marinette cupped his face tenderly. She gently traced the skin around his eyes where his mask had sat. “I’d know you anywhere,” she answered in the same breathless tone.

He searched her eyes, hoping it conveyed all the relief he felt at finally having her in front of him. “I’d find you anywhere,” he whispered. Her eyes suddenly watered and she collapsed into his arms, body shaking as she cried and digging in deeper when he wound his arms around her.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe,” he repeated over and over in her ear like a mantra. He kept repeating it until her tears eased. He pulled back just far enough to meet her eyes. “I’m here and you’re safe. I’ll always rescue you. I’d tear the world apart to protect you.”

She was no longer crying but her eyes were red rimmed and broken. He suddenly felt overwhelmed again and pulled her to him to reassure himself she was still there. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry he took you,” he muttered into her hair.

She shook her head. She could feel his lips rub against her hair with each shake. “It’s okay. It’s not like it was your fault.”

He pulled away to meet her eyes again so he could convey how earnest he was. “It… Marinette it was,” he affirmed, regret and guilt bleeding from his voice. “He knows who I am and… has a bit of an obsession with me. He took you because of me.”

She met his eyes firmly. “He didn’t. It wasn’t about you. He thought I would produce good kids for him.”

Tim jerked his head back and wrinkled his nose at the thought. “Ew.”

“Right?” she exclaimed with a false lightness.

“But Marinette…” He groaned and removed a hand just so he could run it through his hair and immediately settle it back at her waist. “…you have to know, you came to his attention because of me. It really was my…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she repeated more forcefully. “It wasn’t Tim. I can’t exp…” she let out a frustrated groan and met his eyes with renewed determination. “It wasn’t your fault. I need you to believe me even if I can’t say why. Not yet. Not here. But soon.”

He shook his head, his lips pursed unconvinced. But, instead of focusing who to blame, obviously him, he focused on her; her safety, her health, her emotions, her in his arms when he was terrified he might never see her alive again. His eyes traced her face, his fingers trailed after in a tender embrace until he slid them over to tuck her bangs behind her ear. “How are you? Really?” he whispered.

Marinette dropped her head onto his chest again and nuzzled into his arms, letting his warmth and security seep through her skin and into her bones. “It was horrible. I didn’t know when I would see you again.”

He tightened his arms around her as if it would protect her against that possibility. “I’ll always come for you,” he reassured, his voice just loud enough for her to hear… and Superboy, but that was irrelevant. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Was it just your neck?”

She shook her head against his chest, refusing to reduce any contact between them. “No, nowhere else.” She suddenly jerked back and looked up with wide eyes. “But he… we’re married.”

Tim blinked at her. “Wait, what?”

She shook her head blankly as her mind started running through the repercussions. “He… there was a ceremony,” she rushed out. Her words were coming out so quickly, they almost merged into a single word. “There was a ceremony and a holy person, I think, that didn’t want to but he did…”

“Did you say I do?” Tim cut in before she could spiral too deep.

She shook her head as she blinked, her mind still racing but on a different track now. It was all a bit cloudy, but her mind ran through all the events of the past hour as well as she could remember it. “I didn’t… it didn’t seem to be an important factor.”

“Then you’re not,” he assured her confidently.

“But…”

“She married?” he asked over her shoulder. Marinette whipped around but Tim kept her in his arms, pulling her closer when Marinette squeaked and tried to jump away from the figure behind her.

“No,” the woman from earlier confirmed. “Father skipped through that part. Don’t worry my dear. You’re not my stepmother. You are uncorrupted.”

“Uh…” Marinette tried to edge away from her, unsure how to respond. But Tim held her tight, which had to mean he didn’t think she was a threat; Marinette however still wasn’t convinced.

“And I’ll keep him away. I’ll convince him he is wrong about you… though we both know he’s not, don’t we? Speaking of, here are your things,” she handed Marinette a Hermès bag filled with her clothes, “all of your things,” she said pointedly. Marinette took the bag and looked in warily to find her clothes, but more importantly, her earrings at the very top.

“Thank you,” Marinette gushed, offering the woman a smile for the first time.

The woman nodded. “Keep the bag and the outfit. You’ve earned it.”

“Oh… no,” Marinette deferred and held the bag out away from her. “No, thank you.”

The woman scoffed. “The bag is mine, go ahead and keep that for yourself. No association with my father. Used Bruce’s money, actually, so no guilt.” Marinette was so overwhelmed by everything happening she almost didn’t register Tim’s snort at the woman’s comment. “Sell the gold from the accessories or donate it. I suspect that’s the kind of thing you would like. Father won’t notice.”

“Thank you, Talia,” Tim offered with a nod.

“You’re welcome, Tim,” the woman, Talia apparently, nodded back. “Keep her safe. She’s more valuable than you know.”

Tim looked down at Marinette, his gaze swimming in adoration. “I intend to.” When he looked back up the woman had disappeared again. “Should I be worried about that? About her interest in you?” he asked Marinette lowly.

“I am,” Marinette grumbled. “It’s probably the smart move.” She leaned her head back on his shoulder and let out a relieved sigh when he tightened his embrace and guided her out of the compound and toward their plane.

“She’s the one that told you where I was?” He nodded without looking at her, his eyes scanning the area to ensure all threats had been removed. His team seemed to have fallen into step behind them, keeping a bit of a distance to give them privacy, but Marinette could feel their eyes darting to her frequently. “She mentioned Bruce. You know each other well?”

He nodded. “A bit too well sometimes. Other times…” he kissed her temple letting his lips linger and pulling her closer when she melted into it, “other times I couldn’t be more thankful for her.”

Marinette cocked her head to the side with a hum. “She’s a bit creepy. Sexy!” she added quickly. “But creepy… which is usually a combination I hear about from booktok men, not real women.”

Tim snorted “Booktok, huh?”

“Zoé,” Marinette shrugged. “I know far more than I want to.”

“Ah, yeah, I can see that,” he snickered. He urged her on ahead of him up the plane’s rear ramp, following close behind her, making sure he had at least one hand on her at all times. He waited until she was at the top before speaking again. “She’s Damian’s mom.”

Marinette whirled on him instantly. “She’s what!”

“Yep,” he answered, popping the p.

“With Bruce?” she clarified.

He let out a deep sigh. “My family is a bit of a mess. This is really just the tip of the iceberg.” He shook his head and motioned toward some seats, finally removing his hand to pull out a strapped in container, pulling out a few blankets and pillow. “Ready to go home?”

She nodded tiredly and collapsed back against him, sagging against him until she would have fallen down if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around her waist. He sat down, pulling her down into the seat next to him and wrapped the blankets around her with tender, gentle movements.

She watched him move, her affection for him growing with each soft pat and caring rub. “Will you stay with me?”

Tim looked up from the blankets to meet her eyes with a fond, understanding gaze. He brushed her cheek softly and opened his mouth to respond but closed it quickly with a furrow of his brow. “Why don’t you stay with me? Forever?” he added hesitantly.

She blinked at him. “Tim! Are you…”

“Yeah, yeah, I am. Asking you to move into my home, I mean. Well, no, it would be our home,” he rambled. “I’ve wanted to ask you for so long. The only thing holding me back was,” he motioned toward his suit and then around them. “And now that you know…”

Marinette stared at him; mouth slightly ajar in shock. Her mind tried to process all the possible implications, the benefits and dangers. Was it too soon? They hadn’t been dating too long, but they’d been dating long enough for her to know him and know that she loved him and that’s what mattered, wasn’t it? The emotion, not the time.

Was it too dangerous? If she moved in with him, it was going to be difficult to hide the kwami, and yeah, he was probably in a better position than most to understand what it meant to be a Guardian, but it still wasn’t a secret she was willing to share. He would only be the third person she’d ever told. Alya and Adrien were the only people she’d told and the prospect of adding another person to that list was terrifying.

Was she in the right place mentally to make the decision? And if she wasn’t and if she made the wrong choice, would it destroy their relationship? If she said yes just because she was in need of some stability in that moment, but then after a few weeks needed space, would going backward in their relationship harm it? But then, it really wasn’t an in the moment decision. She’d wanted to take the next step in their relationship for a while but had been too afraid. It felt like Tim was hiding something and now she knew what it was.

But all the processing meant Marinette was dead silent for a while too long. Tim’s arms loosened around her, not dropping, but not as tight as he started backtracking frantically. “I mean, if you need some time… This was probably the wrong time. I shouldn’t have…”

The uncertainty in his voice kicked Marinette into action. “Tim?”

“Yeah?” he asked tentatively. She could feel his hands clench almost like he was fighting pulling them back.

She pushed forward and placed a firm kiss on his lips, pulling away after a moment just far enough to whisper against his lips. “Shut up.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” he grinned moments before he pulled her closer to kiss her deeper. He wound his fingers into her hair as hers found his shoulders to hold him against her, reveling in the feel of him, the assurance that he was there, it was him and not someone else. He seemed to need the same assurance, his hands running over her and squeezing her frequently. They didn’t part until one of his teammates passed them and cleared their throat to remind them they were not alone.

Marinette settled back into her seat with a giggle and rested her head on his chest with a contented sigh. “Please take me home… to our home.”

He grinned and dipped down to place a tender kiss against her forehead. “Are you sure?”

She smiled brilliantly. “Oh, yes. Yes, please.”

#maribat #timari #timinette #Timari January #Timari January 2024 #prompt - tender

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 3 months ago

Note

So, the Miraculous Ladybug TV Tropes page recently added this under the Broken Aesop section on the YMMV page:

Adrien/Cat Noir had many instances where he could have discovered the identity of Ladybug/Marinette, but always respected the private life of his beloved, despite knowing that learning it would bring them closer (The only time when he learned it accidentally, Adrien was punished with the apocalypse, no less, and a Retcon.) His attitude was presented as the right thing to do. In the meantime, Alya has been akumatized on the fact she wanted to know Ladybug/Marinette's secrets. Both times, she tried to violently force the issue with her powers and the second time was after she tried pressuring her into revealing them. But, as a reward for her pushy behavior, Alya has been entrusted with Ladybug's identity and the secrets of the Miracle Box. And Adrien's reward for respecting her privacy? He's still (and more and more) left in the dark, and will very likely be the last one to know.

Any thoughts?

I don't fully agree, but it's also not exactly wrong.

I love Alya, but I've never been a fan of the fact that she learned Marinette's secret identity, especially because the episode where it happens - Gang of Secrets - really failed to make the confession feel like a wise move. It's one of the many episodes with a wacky moral.

For those who don't remember, the episode has most of Marinette's female friends worrying about her. They know that she's keeping secrets because, for some reason, Marinette didn't tell anyone about her breakup with Luka:

Rose: They were so cute together! Alya: Yeah, except they broke up. Juleka: He was like super sad when they did. Alya: But the real problem here is that Marinette never told us anything. If Luka hadn't told Juleka, who told Rose, who told Mylène, who then told Alix, who finally told me. Then I, her BF in the whole world would still be in the dark! Yesterday I was in the restroom and I heard her crying.

This is... really weird. Why didn't Marinette tell them? The episode never explains and I can't figure out her logic because they'd obviously learn the truth. There's no way that Juleka wouldn't know!

My best guess is that the writers wanted a conflict over secrets, but they didn't want to have Marinette's girl friends pick up on her Ladybug-based lies as that would invite a level of complexity that they really can't resolve. But that's a meta reason. As far as the actual text goes, there's nothing to explain this baffling choice.

What's even more weird is that making it about the Ladybug secrets would have worked if Alya was the only one worried because the episode ends with Alya learning the truth. Having the episode only be about Marinette and Alya would make a lot of sense. Instead, it's about the whole, rarely-seen girl group so we're stuck with the Luka conflict. Yay.

Either way, I'm not wild about the actions Alya and Co take. Their first choice is to call Marinette. When she doesn't pick up, they leave a very sweet message. If things ended there, then we'd be fine, but right after that, we get this:

Alya: Maybe we should go to her house. What do you think? Mylène: We'll give her an eternal friendship bracelet so she never forgets that friends can tell each other anything and that we'll always be there for her.

This isn't a terrible idea. Checking on a friend when you're worried about them is a reasonable thing. The problem is the way that check up goes down. The girls basically invade Marinette's room and start messing with her stuff like this is some fun little hangout session, almost discovering the miracle box in the process:

Marinette: What are you doing here? Alya: We're just checkin' in on you, girl. Rose: Aw, it looks just like a real house, look how the roof comes off to show the inside! Marinette:(frantically) No! No, don't touch that! Move away! (As Rose opens the roof, Marinette gets down, pushing past through her friends and Rose as she hides what is inside of the dollhouse, while Rose accidentally drops the roof, which cracks. The girls gasp in shock.) Rose:(kneels to pick up the cracks) Sorry, Marinette! Marinette:(angrily) Will you please leave my room?! Alya: Chill out Marinette, it's just a doll house. We'll totally help. Marinette: No you won't, please go! Alya: Okay Marinette, there's clearly something wrong and we're not leaving you like this till you tell us what it is.

The scene goes on like this until Marinette lashes out and tells them to get out even if it means ending her friendship with them, which is a response that I find totally justified. Marinette is quite obviously very distressed by her friends' presence and they are refusing to listen to her pleas to leave. They're also giving that refusal in a highly confrontational manner, which is the completely wrong tone for conveying concern. They do not come across as caring. They come across as demanding.

Marinette has every right to be upset by that. It's okay to not want people to invade your room, touch your stuff, and demand to know you're secrets. It's also okay to get upset when people keep ignoring your clearly stated and perfectly reasonable boundaries.

While I fully support wellness checks, this is not how you do them. It's like a variation on the scenes where people confront Gabriel in Adrien's name. They're all impressively terrible examples of how you handle a very complex situation. Worst possible way you could go about it. Children, do not try this at home!

Of course, Marinette's justified reaction leads to the girls getting akumatized, leading to a fight, leading to Ladybug saving the day, leading to everyone being friends again even though the girls never apologize for how they went about their wellness check. Rose's quick sorry for breaking Marinette's doll house is the only one we get in the entire episode. Then we get this:

Alya: You go ahead girls, I just have one last thing to say to Marinette. (closes the door to Marinette's room) You didn't tell us everything, did you? A journalist and a BFF can tell these things. I won't try to figure it out or force it out of you. (sits beside Marinette) If you can't tell me what's in your heart, it's your right. Marinette: Will we still be friends? Alya: Marinette. I'm your best friend, and I'll always be. That's why it kills me that I can't help you with whatever's making you feel so alone. (Alya sighs, and is about to leave Marinette's room when Marinette grabs her hand.) Marinette: Alya, wait! Stay. You're right, I am alone. (grows increasingly emotional) More than ever before. I can barely take it anymore! You know why I broke up with Luka? Not because I don't like him, he's amazing! It's 'cause there's something that I can't tell him. You know why I have to forget Adrien? For the exact same reason! You're right, I keep secrets, I lie all the time! I lie to my friends, to my parents, to everyone and the worst thing is, I can't do it any other way! Alya: There's always another way. Marinette: No, not this time. I have no choice. All this is bigger than us, Alya. Way too big. Alya: If it's too big, two of us can handle it better than one. Marinette: If I tell you, things will never be the same between us again. (shakes her head) It'll mess up everything, maybe even destroy it. Alya:(voice breaking) Marinette, I'm your very best friend. Marinette: And I… I'm Ladybug.

Maybe this is just me, but this doesn't feel like Alya respecting Marinette's boundaries. It's certainly not as bad as the earlier scene. In fact, I like a lot of this in a vacuum, but because of that earlier scene, this one feels uncomfortable. Once again, Alya is so sure that she knows what she's talking about even though she really doesn't.

In the first scene, Marinette was right that they all needed to get out so that she could protect the Kwamis and in this scene she was right that the Ladybug reveal wasn't the kind of thing where sharing was the clear right choice. This would all play so much better if Alya said her first few lines and then actually left, only to be called back by Marinette several hours later. Then we'd really feel like Marinette was making an informed choice instead of revealing her identity in a panic.

Another option would be to have Alya offer comfort without needing to know what is upsetting Marinette, maintaining the secret identities while also giving Marinette some much needed support. Saying she'll support Marinette no matter what and then getting up to leave just doesn't feel super supportive to me. It feels like Alya is (unintentionally) making Marinette panic by saying one thing while technically doing another.

Remember, Marinette just had a really stressful day where she almost lost all of her friends, making this an incredibly charged moment that ends with Alya leaving while clearly disappointed. Of course Marinette would try to salvage that! Her brain isn't focusing on Alya's genuine words. It just sees Alya leaving and panics. It doesn't help that this opening line would put a lot of people on edge:

You didn't tell us everything, did you? A journalist and a BFF can tell these things.

"I know you're still keeping secrets, but I respect that" is not the best way to start a conversation with someone who is clearly struggling.

Because of these issues, I don't feel like Marinette truly decided to make this serious choice. I feel like she blurted it out in the middle of a panic attack, so this scene never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. This is especially true because we never get to truly see the fallout of Alya processing the reveal and comforting Marinette. The scene just ends and the next episode has them back to their usual dynamic, just with the bonus element of Alya knowing the whole Ladybug thing.

To be fair to Alya, a lot of this comes back to our oft-discussed issue of Miraculous trying to speed run major story lines in 20 minutes because it's a formula show so it can't let things play out properly. That doesn't change the fact that this feels rushed and unsatisfying. It's not the natural conclusion to an episode where Alya learns to respect Marinette's boundaries, but I don't think that's actually the lesson here. The lesson seems to be that Marinette should share her secrets with her friends to lessen her mental burden.

Once again, that's a lovely lesson in a vacuum, but a really weird one for the show that gave us Chat Blanc and Miracle Queen in the previous season and that will include Sentibubbler, Ephemeral, and Nino accidentally outing Alya to Gabriel in the exact same season. Season five will even see Luka leave the country because he knows the secret identities!

Writers, when it comes to secret identities, you really need to pick a lane. Are they good or bad? Is sharing them a No Good Very Bad Thing, an act of trust, or no big deal? The inconsistency around this topic is a major issue for the show as the Alya reveal really undermines everything going on with Ladynoir. While there's solid logic for Ladynoir not sharing, similar logic applies to Alya at this point because Gabriel literally knows her secret identity! Through no fault of her own, Alya is not a safe person and that makes it really hard to watch Alya get the reveal while Adrien stays in the dark. I can justify him not knowing. I can't justify Alya knowing.

I'll wrap this up by saying that I don't agree that Adrien has respected Ladybug's boundaries to the point where it feels like he should have been rewarded (narratively speaking, of course. This is a story after all). He may not be all that pushy about an identity reveal, but he's pretty freaking pushy about Ladynoir becoming a thing, so Ladybug not being ready to trust him does feel earned. Plus, as I said above, it's not like there's no logic behind them keeping their identities a secret. We know that they're dating on the civilian side, but as far as they know, they're total strangers.

If you look at it from that perspective and ask, "what are the benefits of a reveal," you'll find that they're not overwhelming, especially when compared to the risks that come with a mind-controlling super villain on the loose. I totally get why Marinette isn't telling him a thing, I'm just not really sure why she needed to tell Alya. The more logical route here is for Marinette to keep her secrets and look for support on the Ladybug side of things. Ideally that support should be Chat Noir or Su-Han, but it could be Alya, too. I still think that's a bad call since Alya's identity is in the villain's hands, but it would still make more sense than Marinette telling Alya all of her secrets. Another route would be for Alya to learn by accident. She walks in at the wrong time and, ooops, no taking that back. That's the only way I'd personally write Alya learning at this point in the story.

Sorry if this one was a bit of a ramble, the writing around the topic of secret identities is one of the elements I truly don't understand. I have no idea what the writers are doing here. It's not even a "you didn't think this through" thing like the sentimonster stuff. It's a "you spent all of last season telling us that identity reveals are bad and you're about to spend all of this season also telling us that, so why do we randomly get an identity reveal that's magically okay? Rena Furtive doesn't even do anything useful for the plot, why make her a thing?? Are you even trying to tell a coherent story???"

#ml writing critical #ml writing salt #anon ask #identity reveal salt

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maddascanbe-blog · 11 months ago

Text

Finally! I will say now that the class girls will likely take a long time as well.

Kagami's first and second looks here are meant to be her pre and post character development outfits.

Buckle in, this is a long (haha) one

Kagami in cannon is clearly designsed to resemble Marinette in a lot of ways, both are of Asian decent and have blue-ish hair and blue eyes. Both have freckles and even their suits share a very similar color pallet. At least Luka was different from Adrien in more than personality.

I didn't want that for my Kagami. I wanted her too look like more than a Marinette clone. So she gets to keep her freckles since my Marinette doesn't have any. Her hair is a darker color instead of a blue, and her eyes take on a stormy grey color. And of course their body types are different, namely Kagami is both taller and ripped.

Ryuko's hair is more blue since I gave the miraculous blue, white, and gold accent to match the weather pattern on her chest. Her hair get's shorter, pinned back and is a bit more wild. It's probably got some static. Little horns and some armor to keep her extra safe as well as further resembling scales. Her suit is closer to an orange shade than Ladybug's cool red. I almost switched her to blue since I agree with the sentiment that the dragon should have been blue. But red looked good too.

I don't particularly like any of the akuma designs for Kagami. I like Oni-Chan in concept at least (hate the name) so I decided to combine that with Riposte to create her initial design. Than she gets a pallet swap and a few thorny details to represent the rose. And Bara-Oni, literally just 'Rose Demon' I ain't creative, when Lila pulls her stunt. Which would have less to do with "How could Adrien do this to me," to "That bitch is kissing Adiren when he is CLEARLY uncomfortable!"

Kagami's personality is very similar to cannon, however her character still has some pretty harsh changes. Kagami has come to realse through Adrien and Marinette's friendship that she isn't very happy with her life. Her mother is trying to live through her, forcing Kagami to participate in fencing and putting pressure on her to perform perfectly in every aspect of life.

This comes to a head when she is given Longg. While sitting in the akumatized mech her mother became, all because she had the audacity to make friends, she actually waits long (haha) enough for Longg to explain the miraculous. When Longg explains the weapon he points out that she must be thrilled to have a sword. At which point Kagami has an emotional breakdown and sobs that she doesn't even like sword fighting. That she would rather learn hand to hand combat and that she's wanted to switch for years but her mother refused to hear it.

Longg says her can change her weapon to better suit her, and she get's armor and the abilitly to summon gauntlets when her power activates.

After having this break she and Adrien sit down and try and find ways for Kagami to feel more like an individual without being disowned at 16. Cutting/dyeing your hair and getting a Tattoo are two of the results, and since Kagami already has short hair and doens't really want to go shorter she gets the tattoo instead. Subtly referencing her time as Ryuko but in blue (her favorite color). And of course her mother is blind and doesn't know

Is it kind of shitty to abuse your mother's disability to use her money and get a tattoo? Maybe. But that's what you get for mentally and emotionally warping your duaghter to the point where she lies about her favorite color to please you. She, Adrien, and Chloe are in the "Our mom's suck" club together. Chloe will be collecting her for new wardrobe shopping.

#miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #miraculous ladybug #ryuko #kagami tsuguri #kagami tsurugi redesign #ryuko redesign #miraculous fanart #miraculous redesign #miraculous re-write #riposte #riposte redesign #oni chan #oni chan redesign #dragon miraculous

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rosie-b · 8 months ago

Text

Your Lies (Tell the Truth)

Written for day 8 of @adrinetteapril - Soulmate Markers

Every child knew the legend. Many adults were lucky enough to have experienced the reality of soulmate marks for themselves. Even Alya and Nino had figured their bond out! This seemed like an open and shut case.

But as Marinette stopped to look closer at the black ink she didn’t remember putting on her skin, her mind raced as she tried to determine what else it could be, other than a soulmate mark. Because it just couldn’t be, right? She’d been the only one to confess her love. Adrien had rejected her.

(I promise it's not too angsty; there's some crack and fluff as well!)

You can read the fic below or on AO3!

It was here.

Marinette had spent months both dreaming of and fearing this moment; she’d tried both to finally reach and forever avoid it, but the time had finally come— today was the day she’d finally worked up the courage to tell Adrien she loved him.

She’d imagined all the best outcomes, the ones where Adrien smiled and said he loved her too, where they went out to get ice cream and then started dating and got married and had two or three or four kids (and a hamster). She’d spent hours trapped in nightmares of the worst ways it could go, where Adrien laughed at her and had his father ban her from ever working in fashion or talking to his son again and Chloe found out and then Lila, and Alya and her parents, and….

Suffice it to say that she’d imagined a variety of ways this moment could have gone.

But now that it was here, none of those scenarios matched what was happening in the moment. None of them had captured the pain like heartbreak in Adrien’s eyes that followed the shock of her confession. None of them had prepared her for the unsure, gentle way he tried to turn her down.

She didn’t know how to react to it. What do you do when you tell the nicest boy in the world that you love him, and all he can do is say no, he has to say no, and the ground doesn’t even have the decency to swallow you up with your shame?

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Adrien had finally said, his sad, green eyes hardly daring to meet hers, “I just don’t feel the same way. It wouldn’t be fair of me to date you while I’m still trying to move o— er, I don’t want to hurt you the way I hurt Kagami,” he stuttered out. “You’re an amazing girl, Marinette, and I like you a lot, but I don’t trust myself to be the partner you deserve to have. I don’t want to play with your feelings, or make you feel like a second choice. Besides,” he continued, rubbing the back of his neck, and looking at her tentatively, “Weren’t you and Luka…?”

Marinette tried to answer when Adrien’s voice trailed off, but she found that her throat had closed in on itself. She couldn’t speak through the lump sitting there. She just shook her head, looking up at Adrien bravely while she held back her tears. She’d known this was going to happen! She shouldn’t have bothered trying.

Adrien’s eyes widened as the silence grew longer. “Oh, no, please don’t cry, Marinette! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you, really, but I did, and I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay,” she rasped out, hating how feeble, how broken her voice sounded. “You can’t help how you feel. I get it, Adrien. I, I’ll be—” I’ll be fine, she tried to say. But the words wouldn’t come out, and all she could do was be grateful she’d waited until the end of the school day for her confession. This way, she could offer Adrien a pitiful smile and wave and walk away from the scene of her heartbreak. This way, she could suffer in peace until she managed to put the shattered pieces of her heart back together.

It’s okay, she told herself as she waved to her friends (only friends) and barely managed to not run, but walk to her home. You’ll be fine. So he doesn’t like you back. So what? You’ll be fine. You’re a big girl; you’re Ladybug; you’ve got this.

She had trouble believing her own encouragement. And she still felt like something in her had died the moment Adrien’s smile had slipped off his face, the moment she knew he’d be turning her down.

Marinette started walking a bit faster.

__*__*__*__*__

Adrien watched Marinette turn away, feeling useless and helpless and more miserable than he could remember having been ever before.

Why did I have to turn her down? Why couldn’t I have just said yes and gone on a few pleasant dates and then accepted the breakup when she eventually realized what I’m like and dumped me?

Adrien wondered if he could still do something to salvage the situation; if he could run after Marinette and beg her to come back, to not hate him, to give him a new chance.

Before he could do anything, though, Alya grabbed his arm and yanked on it, pulling him closer to her before he could leave. “You better not be serious right now, Agreste! What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” he responded, wincing at the tight grip Alya had on him but knowing that he deserved this pain.

“Yes, you were. That response you gave her sounded practiced. Now, what was your reason for doing it?”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “I, uh, it’s Marinette; I didn’t want to, but I didn’t want to hurt her, either, and— I’m in love with someone else, right now. She's just a friend. That’s all it is, honest!”

Alya frowned. “Okay, then, tell me who the lucky one is. Make me understand this faulty brain of yours. Who could you possibly prefer over Marinette?”

Adrien’s mind went blank as he tried to think of what to say. “Ladybug,” he blurted out, and slapped his free hand over his mouth as his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest.

Not the truth, not the truth, anything but the truth! Why didn’t I just lie?

Alya’s eyes narrowed. “You turned down Marinette for Ladybug?? Oh, no, sunshine, absolutely not. With an excuse like that, you’d better be Chat Noir,” she fumed. Her eyes, blazing red-hot with fury, added the silent warning, or else.

Adrien gulped. “I, no! I’m not Chat Noir! Why would you think that? I mean, no, I didn’t, I’m actually in love with–”

Alya scowled and let go of Adrien’s arm. “Forget it, Agreste. You have the evening to get this figured out. Don’t walk into school tomorrow unless you’re going to do it with a real excuse. I understand having celebrity crushes, but I can’t excuse turning down a real chance with a girl as sweet as Marinette for a woman who’s about a thousand percent unavailable! Get your act together, now.”

She stormed off, grabbing Nino’s hand and tugging him along after her as she went. Nino turned his head over his shoulder to shoot Adrien a glance, but he couldn’t tell if it was a sympathetic one or not. Adrien was pretty sure Nino didn’t know which type it was, either. But he, at least, was still willing to look at Adrien despite the rather large mistake he’d just made, and Adrien was very grateful for that. He wasn’t used to even that much affection.

Maybe that’s why he’d made his big mistake.

__*__*__*__*__

Marinette had never been more grateful for the comforting magic of warm showers. She let the water run hot, stepped into a cloud of warm steam, and let the water run over her face, washing away the last of the salty tears she’d cried into her pillow under Tikki’s watchful, caring gaze. She huddled under the shower head, shivered once as her body adjusted to the new temperature, and took a moment to just breathe and feel a little more alive.

After a while, Marinette moved on to the real part of the shower. As she reached out to grab the shampoo bottle, though, she noticed a large black squiggle on her forearm, and her heart stopped. Was it a spider?

No, it wasn’t. But it looked like writing… and Marinette knew she hadn’t gotten a tattoo or written on herself with a pen recently.

There was only one other explanation she could think of…

On the day when all bonded soulmates have confessed their love to each other, the lies they tell will show on the other’s body for twenty-four hours after the last confession.

And yet, her skin must not have gotten the message, because there, in thick black letters on her left wrist, was the sentence “I just don’t feel the same way.”

Suddenly, the warm shower didn’t feel so magical anymore. The afternoon’s messy confrontation had followed her inside the pure white stall, and she didn’t feel safe there anymore. But even though there was a pit in her stomach, she knew that if this was truly Adrien’s soulmark on her, then she still had a chance.

There was more black ink twisting around Marinette’s elbow. Hesitant, broken, and hopeful despite the rejection, she read it out loud.

“It wouldn’t be fair of me to date you…”

Marinette felt like either screaming or crying again. Maybe both. She and Adrien were soulmates, then? But how had his marks shown up on her skin, when she’d heard a rejection, not a confirmation of his love? Had he somehow confessed his love to her before today, and she’d either missed it or misheard it? Had he been disappointed and moved on and now, when she’d finally confessed, he wasn’t even in love with her anymore?

Or worse, were they the kind of soulmates where one person loved the other romantically but the other person held a platonic kind of love, instead? Had his oh-so friendly rejection been enough to trigger their soulbond, like some twisted blessing-turned-curse?

Marinette didn’t know how she’d survive that. She couldn’t handle knowing she’d made a fool out of herself by confessing to an unrequited love; she couldn’t fathom ever falling out of love with Adrien Agreste, either. Was she doomed to a one-sided love forever?

There were three last lines of ink, with the first two being on her right forearm. Marinette turned it over to read them apprehensively.

“She's just a friend." Ouch. "And... I’m in love with someone else, right now,” she mumbled aloud. Huh. She didn’t remember him saying that. It must have come out after she left. Okay, well his loving some other, more perfect girl was understandable, but it still stung.

But wait! If this was something Adrien had said today, and it was on her skin in his writing, it was a soulmark. And if it was a soulmark, then it was a lie, because the only things you can say that will appear on your soulmate’s skin are lies! So, Adrien didn’t love someone else!

“I must be dreaming,” Marinette muttered to herself. “Tikki!” she called as loudly as she dared, stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around herself as she did so. “Tikki! Come look at this; help me out!”

Tikki zoomed over at high speed. “Marinette! What is it?”

“Tikki, look, look at the marks! We’re soulmates; Adrien and I are soulmates! How are we soulmates?? He said he doesn’t love me, but he was lying, but he still turned me down! So why are the marks here; how is this possible? Did he confess his love while I was walking away? Or why else do I have soulmarks now? I don’t remember him ever confessing to me in the past!”

Tikki stared at the marks for a moment while her holder panicked, and a slow grin spread across her face.

“Marinette, this is amazing! But I can’t actually tell you why your soulmarks showed up today,” she added with a twinkle in her eye.

Marinette paused. “Wait, but you do know why they’re there, then?”

Tikki nodded, unashamed and still smiling. “Yes, but telling you the reason would be a serious breach of Adrien’s privacy. The only way I can tell you is after you’ve figured it out, yourself.”

Marinette frowned. “Fine. But, hold on, there was one more soulmark I haven’t read yet.”

Tikki’s eyes widened. “Oh? Where is it?”

Marinette twisted her arm around, straining to see the mark. “It’s just past my right elbow. Here! Look, it says, ‘I’m not Cha….’”

Tikki and Marinette both stared at the soulmark for a minute and then slowly turned and stared at each other, instead.

“I’m not Chat Noir,” they said in unison.

Marinette fell backwards, catching herself on the wall just in time. She propped herself as her mind raced, piecing together black skintight suits and white overshirts; sly smirks and kind smiles. They all belonged to the same boy, the quiet one in her class and the boisterous one always proclaiming his undying love.

“Well, that explains it, then,” she said dazedly, as memories of a candlelit picnic lovingly set up on a rooftop surfaced in her mind. They really were soulmates! Now, the soulmarks’ sudden appearance made sense.

Even if the first soulmate confesses years before the last, once they have all confessed, the marks of their bond shall appear as proof of their love for one another.

__*__*__*__*__

The next day, Adrien walked into school feeling more timid than a mouse and about as innocent as a flea during the Black Plague. Or maybe a certain cheese-loving cat.

His plan was to sneak into school, because Nathalie had given him a Look when he’d tentatively suggested that he was possibly not feeling all that well and asked what Father would think if he stayed home earlier that morning. So, he had to go to school, despite Alya’s warning yesterday. He’d sneak past Alya, sit in the back of the class, and only say something during roll call before falling silent for the rest of the day, so that Marinette (and Alya) could forget he existed.

Adrien had had an absolutely miserable night and made no progress on finding a cover for why he’d turned down Marinette, but he was sure that however bad he was feeling, she’d be feeling ten times worse. The least he could do to help was stay out of her hair.

But that turned out to be unnecessary. When he saw Marinette waiting by the top of the stairs at the main entrance, bouncing on her heels and barely suppressing what seemed to be a huge grin, Adrien wondered if he’d somehow teleported to a different universe. Was Marinette… happy? Not that she couldn’t be happy, of course! It was only that he’d expected her to be much less bubbly and much more stutter-y and shy and, well, sad.

It was cool that she’d moved on so easily, he admitted! But for some reason, the thought of it made his chest ache. He should be happy for her, so why was he feeling hurt by her smile?

“Adrien!” Marinette called as soon as she saw him. Every nearby student heard her voice and fell silent or muttered quietly to each other in response to it. Had they all heard about what had happened yesterday? Was everyone in on what was going on now? Was this part of an elaborate plan by Marinette to get revenge?

Was that why she was happy? Because she knew soon, she could get back at Adrien for breaking her heart?

That just couldn’t be it, though. Adrien might be stupid sometimes, but he knew Marinette well enough to know she’d never do something so cruel to him, or anyone else, for that matter.

He walked up to her, shyly raising one hand in a wave. “Hello, Marinette,” he said. “You look happy! Um, are you feeling better? I’m so sorry about yesterday, I don’t know what I was thinking! I was so rude and I hurt you and I understand if you never forgive me but—”

“It’s okay,” Marinette said, flippantly waving one hand in a dismissive gesture.Then she stepped forward, her eyes glinting determinedly as she spoke to him in a very serious, confident manner. “I don’t love you. I’m in love with someone else right now. And one more thing: I’m not Ladybug,” she added, by now having stepped close enough that she whispered the last part into his ear while standing on her tip-toes.

Adrien’s heart plummeted all the way to the second circle of hell.

“What?” he gasped out, feeling unreasonably hurt, crushed, even, by the words Marinette had dropped on him like a heavy building he couldn’t crawl out from under. Was he this unloveable, that she’d moved on so easily?

Then again, if he was going to be alone forever, maybe he deserved it after what he’d done to her.

“I don’t love you,” Marinette repeated, smirking, and he flinched. Then her gaze softened, and a smile took the place of her cruel smirk. “Give me your arm,” she told him.

Adrien stared at her. “Why?” he asked in a cracking voice, feeling fearful and a little bit trapped. “What are you going to do with it?”

Marinette giggled. “I need to show you something, before it’s too late,” she said. “It’s probably under your shirt.”

“Under my—?” Adrien hadn’t finished his sentence before someone was pushing him forward, right into Marinette’s arms, and she reached down for his shirt sleeve and folded it up past his elbow.

“Look here,” she said authoritatively, presenting him with his own forearm.

What? Adrien thought, and he slowly processed what the sudden appearance of Marinette’s hurtful words on his arm in black ink meant.

“I don’t love you,” Marinette repeated, and the words appeared on his arm as she spoke them. “And I’m not Ladybug,” she whispered again, giving him just enough time to see the new words appear before she folded his sleeve down again to cover them.

“I— you— Marinette,” Adrien gasped out, feeling stunned and relieved and more than a little awestruck by this wonderful person that he already loved, who still returned his affection somehow, and who— “Oh, my goodness,” he breathed. “Marinette, we’re soulmates!”

Marinette grinned and nodded, doing her little wiggle-dance she always did when she was happy.

“Yes!” she agreed, cheering.

“Yes!” Adrien cheered right back, and picked her up and spun her around. “I love you! No, wait, I want to see your marks, too. I don’t love you,” he tried, and black ink peeked out of Marinette’s shirt and sprawled onto her wrist. “I don’t love you,” he repeated, and more ink appeared at her neck.

He knew what it meant, and Marinette knew, too, and that knowledge was temporarily theirs to play with. So they smiled at each other and stood marveling over the beautiful lies stamped on their skin.

“I don’t love you, either,” Marinette said with a giggle, and Adrien held his hand up in awe as more ink appeared there.

“I don’t love you,” he said one more time, loud and happy, and an ominous thud came from behind him.

“Adrien Agreste!” Alya boomed. “I told you not to come to school if you couldn’t do it without hurting Marinette!”

Marinette smirked. “It’s okay, Alya,” she said, holding up her left wrist, bare except for Adrien’s words. “I don’t love him.”

Adrien searched and searched for the words until Marinette pointed them out on his forehead.

Alya stared at the two of them, relieved and yet still visibly taught with nerves. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” she remarked, putting one hand on her hip. “Nino and I never did this. We just lied about favorite colors and future dreams. Like normal people. But, this is cute, too, once you get past how weird it is, I guess. You figured it out, then?” she asked, looking at Adrien.

He nodded, feeling one last guilty twinge that was wiped away by the black writing he could still see from the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry it took me this long. Wait,” she didn’t mean ‘did you find out each other’s identities,’ did she? “Wait, which part were you asking about?”

Alya smirked. “Well, the whole school knew you were in love with Marinette before you did, apparently. How does it feel to be the last to know?”

Marinette slipped her hand into his as Nino’s stifled laughs sounded from somewhere nearby. How long had he been watching them for?

“Be nice, Alya,” Marinette chided playfully. “It just took a while to get through his thick skull. I swear, his mind is a bag full of cats sometimes!”

Adrien stared down at Marinette with pink cheeks, feeling happily surprised by her pun.

“I love you so much,” he said seriously, and she giggled and leaned against his side.

“I love you, too,” she responded, and Alya nodded, smiling.

“Now that’s the way it’s done,” she said in a satisfied tone. “Agreste, you’re on my good side again. So, if you’ll let me do the honors, you may kiss the bride!”

Marinette shrieked as Alya grinned evilly and Nino laughed and cheered Adrien on.

So, he pulled Marinette into a quick, soft kiss. It wasn’t their first, he knew, but he was glad he’d finally be able to remember this one, so he dedicated the gentle brush of Marinette’s lips to his memory and grinned in what he knew was a dopey manner as he pulled away.

Then Marinette was yanking him back down for another kiss, and he could only imagine that this was the definition of bliss. Who cared about being on time to class? He had the best soulmate in the world, and he was content to just stay in her arms.

#soulmates #adrinetteapril2024 #ml fanfic #adrinette #ml au #rosie-b writing #miraculous ladybug

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verfound · 3 months ago

Text

FIC: "Cookie Teeth" (MLB; Lukanette; LBSC Lukanette Month 2024)

@lovebugs-and-snakecharmers is doing a Lukanette Month for September 2024, and we all just kinda tossed some prompts in the disco to compile a list? We ended up with 71 prompts, so I decided I’d roll some dice to pick a prompt, do a twenty minute (ish, bc we all know sometimes they run away from me) sprint, and try to get some short fics out this month?

Read on Ao3

Prompt 19: Thief

“Hey!”

Luka jumped at the shout, the macaron tumbling from his fingers as he jumped back. He looked up to see a girl with short black pigtails angrily stomping towards him. Her face was red and puffed out in anger, her blue eyes sparking…kinda like Ma’s did when Uncle Roger came to ‘visit’. She stopped in front of him, her hands placed firmly on her hips, and peered up at him.

…she was so tiny. Like…tinier than Juleka, and Juleka was pretty tiny. And yet…for as tiny as she was, he was fairly certain she could kick his butt if she wanted to.

She’d bite his ankles, at least. She looked like an ankle-biter.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” she asked, rocking forward onto her toes to make herself just a little taller. He leaned back, but she just followed. He held up his hands in defense, which might not have been the best idea: there was still a half-eaten macaron in his one hand. “You’re only s’pposed to take one!”

“…I did,” he said, waving the one in his hand. She puffed out her cheeks again and stomped her foot. She pointed to the ground where the second one he’d been about to take was lying in crumbles.

“You was taking another!” she huffed. “That’s two!”

Congratulations, you can count, he might have said, if she had been his sister and not a total stranger.

“But it wasn’t for me!” he said instead, hoping to get her off his back. He pointed across the park, where his sister was still playing in the sandbox. Ma was still sitting on the bench nearby, laughing with another parent. “See? That’s my sister. I was getting one for her. And my ma. One for each of us.”

“The sign says take one,” the girl insisted, folding her arms across her chest. Her white shirt had pink flowers on it surrounding a smiling cat. He couldn’t help but think a shirt that happy didn’t belong on someone so…not. “You was takin’ three! If they want one, they gotta come get ‘em!”

He was about to argue – or maybe just agree and go get Juleka anyway – when a huuuuuuuuuuge man walked up, chuckling, and patted the little girl’s shoulder.

“Now, now, mon choux,” he said, his mustache twitching with his smile, “I think we can be a little lenient, don’t you? He wasn’t trying to take them all for himself.”

“He was!” she insisted. “Papa, he’s a teeth!”

…he was a what?

“You worked so hard on those, and he’s just stealing them!” she continued, and his eyes widened.

“Hey! I’m not a teeth…thief!” he cried. “I was just taking them for my ma and sister – honest!”

“Marinette, sweetheart, that’s enough,” the man said, sighing. He knelt down and turned her towards him, frowning. “It’s all right. He can take more than one – we made them to share, didn’t we?”

“But…but…the sign…” the girl insisted, her voice warbly, but the man just shook his head with a smile.

“Maybe this time we go more with the spirit of the law and less the actual letter of it?” he asked, tapping her nose. She looked back over at Luka, her eyes watery, and seemed to study him for a long moment before nodding. She slipped out of the man’s hold and ran back over to the table where an older woman with short, dark hair was handing a box over to a super old guy with eyebrows as big as his mustache. She swiped a long, thin box from the table and ran back over to him.

“Here,” she said, shoving the box at him. She still looked uncertain. “I’m sorry. You can take these.”

The man smiled, nodding in approval, and she shoved them a bit closer. Luka blinked as he reached up to take the box. What the heck…?

“Thanks…?” he asked. His eyes widened when he opened the box to find it was a whole box full of macarons. “Oh, wow, you really don’t –”

“I’m sorry!” Marinette insisted, stepping back when he tried to hand the box back to her. “…even if you are a teeth!”

She turned and ran back to the table where the woman – her ma, he assumed – was waiting. She tucked herself into the woman’s shirt…dress…thing, peeking back at him when her ma laid a hand on her back. The man chuckled and shook his head.

“…it’s thief!” Luka called, his brow furrowing. “And I’m not!” He looked back at the box of macarons, frowning. “…I’m a pirate.”

“Enjoy the macarons, son,” the man said, chuckling as he patted a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about Marinette. She’s…a little particular about things like signs. She really didn’t mean any offense.”

Luka nodded, but then he puffed his cheeks out as he stared at the girl still watching him suspiciously from where she could barely see over the table the bakery had set up for the neighborhood fair.

“…I’m not a tee…thief,” he said, looking up at the man. “I’m not.”

“I know,” the man said. He waved him a bit closer, and once Luka had stepped over to him he leaned in to whisper in his ear: “Marinette would never tell you, but she’s a notorious cookie ‘teeth’ herself.”

His eyes widened, and he leaned around the man to stare at Marinette. When she saw he was looking at her again, she scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out at him. His eyes popped open, and the man laughed as he patted his shoulder.

“Go on, son,” he said, nodding at him. “Enjoy your macarons.”

Luka nodded and turned to head back to his ma, but he gave one last look at the little girl by the table before he left. She stuck her tongue out at him again, and he tried not to bristle.

…Juleka would probably love her. They were both brats.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #tom dupain #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc lukanette month 2024 #prompt: thief #childhood au #meet as kids #there's no real relationship here?#but we all know it's lukanette #cmon

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flightfoot · 1 year ago

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Do you have ML fic rec with supernatural theme? Smt like Spellbound or Bell the Cat thing perhaps?

You're in luck, I love supernatural/fantasy ML fics! I tagged everyone I know the tumblrs for, feel free to tag anyone I missed!

COMPLETE FICS:

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Dreams of You by @chocoluckchipz

Dreams had long been his only escape. Dreams of Ladybug, the girl who had always been there for him. If only in his dreams. And only while she was also sleeping. Because with the first rays of sunshine gliding over her skin, with the first fluttering of her eyelashes, from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, memories of Adrien would vanish from her mind. She would go on living her life. He would always be the only one who remembered. At least until they meet in the real world and fall in love all over again, something that would’ve been easier to do if Adrien wasn't a prisoner in his own home.

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May I Introduce Myself, Your Highness? by @chocoluckchipz

Whether picking up a stray animal off the streets or saving a dying child at the market, Adrien had always strived to be the best version of himself. Truly, he would've been the perfect candidate to be snatched up by a kwami, were he an orphan, dying somewhere remote after a short life full of nothing but suffering and misery. Yet as it stood, the sole heir to the French throne had little to complain about. Apart from, perhaps, a complete absence of a love life. That is until a mysterious girl, wandering around his gardens at night, catches his attention.

---

How Marinette Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Ball by @rosie-b

Hidden from the crowds thronging around the busy fairy portal in Paris's town square, a fae gate sits at the edge of the forest, locked, rusty, and full of ancient magic. Marinette thinks that this abandoned gate must not work anymore... but one day, a fairy disguised as a black cat steps through it.

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a winter so warm by @rosekasa

winters were hard for even the best of vampires, but at least adrien had marinette to keep him warm with her cuddles.

december was going to suck without her. so it was only to be expected to get extra cuddles in before she left, right?

(well, not really, considering those heating supplements he was taking, but she didn't need to know about that).

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Stitched Together by @nedjsmlfavs

Stitch Witch Marinette was just supposed to be having a nice, terrifying outing with her best friends. She never expected to find a magically trapped kitten, but here we are! Whatever happened to this poor little guy?

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The Mer-Human Race by @rosie-b

Bringing her hand closer to his lips, Adrien tried to plant a kiss on it, but Marinette pulled away before his lips could touch her.

“Save it for your girlfriend,” she said teasingly. “Or do you still not have one yet?”

Adrien smirked and crossed his arms.

“It’s a girl,” he said. “And I know her in real life. That’s all you get. Now, let’s get back to planning, shall we? We have a mermaid to beat.”

---

See This Chance by @19thsentry-blog

Luka died in 2016. Yep. Crushed by the Arc de Triumph when Mayura’s Robustus slammed into it. It was kind of a big deal, but once you’re dead, you’re dead—especially when there’s no Lucky Charm to bring you back.

Luka’s been dealing with it in the typical ways.

Written for FeLuka week 2023.

---

the legend of the firefly by @agnes-writes

“She’s… beautiful.

If he were to describe her, he’d say that they bottled summer in her eyes, and painted the night sky in her hair. Her lips are curved into a wistful smile, eyes trailing the thicket of trees where Adrien stands.

Her gaze sets his heart stuttering in his chest as it softens, and Adrien almost believes that look is meant for him.”

OR: A pair of lovers create a romance that transcends time, and leaves a mark like no other.

---

Anchor by @liiinerle

“Marinette. Please take that sabre out of your neck.”

“Right. Thanks. I forgot it was there.” She grabbed hold of the guard and pulled; the blade slid out like it had only been run through butter. After dropping it on the floor, she picked up one of the teacups and picked up a biscuit from a tin she’d brought in; she placed the biscuit on the saucer plate and handed the whole thing to Kagami, who could only really resign herself to accepting it.

-----

Marinette has raised Kagami from the dead, and also happens to be dead herself. It turns out some bad choices were made in the past. But that doesn't mean they'll lead to bad outcomes for them now.

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delicate in every way but one by katrinette

When Marinette finds a wanted ad that provokes just enough questions in her mind that she can't help answering it, the reward is sweeter than she could have imagined.

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whose woods these are (I think i know) by Reiaji

Four years after his future turns to cinders, Adrien is a servant in the house he was meant to inherit. Disowned by his father and abused by his stepmother, his days are filled with drudgery until he meets a masked huntress in the forest behind his father's chateau. As his friendship with Ladybug turns to first love, he dreams of a future spent at her side. Then, on the eve of the Princess's masquerade, he meets his guardian—and is granted a wish. [Ladrien Cinderella AU]

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don't you worry child by @mexicancat-girl

Marc and Nathaniel have a good life, married and living together in a cottage in the woods. But they consider having children at some point. Marc in particular really wants to start a family with his husband. He knows the fey are real, so he goes searching in the woods to find one to strike a deal. He may get a bit more than he bargained for in the process.

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hella enchanted by @xiueryn:

Years ago, Marinette's father died and she was left with her awful stepmother. With magic forcing her to obey every command, she lived as a servant and gave up hope. When a man appears, searching for the very fairy that blessed her, Marinette decides to give life one more try. AU.

(a different ella enchanted au.)

---

How Could I Not? by SorryJustAnotherPerson

In fairy tale books, Princesses were saved by nights from ferocious dragons. Those books were not their story, but Rose was happy to flip over a new page with her Juleka every single day.

Many years ago, she was put to this tower by her parents and her kingdom, along with a fire breathing dragon, so she could find her prince charming one day. How foolish for them to not calculate her falling in love with the dragon. I mean seriously.

How could she not?

Once Upon A Time by kao_rei:

"Humans fear wolves. I mean, we're horrible, sickening creatures, aren't we?" Adrien laughed.

"I don't think so," Marinette muttered. "Well, not anymore when I met you."

Marinette's days are all the same—she puts on her red cape, makes deliveries for her parents' bakery, and goes home to rest before another busy day. Adrien is a wolf-boy who watches her from afar, awaiting the day they finally meet to change their stories.

While falling in love may bring about some challenges, they're willing to fight through them together because they'd never settle for a "the end". They want a "happily ever after", too.

(In which Marinette is Little Red Riding Hood, Adrien is the Wolf, and they fall in love somewhere between deliveries, flower fields, and shiny red apples).

---

life's waiting for you by @mexicancat-girl

Marc is the shy and soft-spoken Prince of the Underworld, used to being ignored at best and feared at worst. He greatly admires Nathaniel, the Prince of Nature, who’s much too out of his league. Handsome, kind, charming, and charmingly modest, with hair as red as a rose and talented artists' hands. Yearning for the love of a nature deity when he’s a deity of death is beyond ridiculous, so Marc keeps his hopes low. But an encounter at the border between the Underworld and the surface leads the two to speaking, which leads to Marc showing Nathaniel his writing and Nathaniel his art. And from there blooms a beautiful friendship…Or maybe more.

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to love beauty is to see light by sagansjagger

Young common-mer Adrien will do anything to please his father, Gabriel Agreste. Adrien will even alter his tail, that hideous thing. But the sea witch he seeks out is not who he expected. A common-mer striking up a friendship with an anglerfish-mer is taboo among mermaid kind, but Marinette Dupain-Cheng is too interesting for Adrien to just leave her alone...

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Ghost of You by its_just_iori

It finally happened. The akuma attacked at the wrong time. They weren't prepared. For the first time, there was a casualty. Someone was killed. Marinette doesn't care that her identity was exposed to the world; she can't stop blaming herself for what happened. If only she'd been ready... if only she'd done more... There's nothing for Adrien to say. There's nothing he can do other than stay by her side and help her through this pain.

---

The Pink Lady: Marichat May 2018 by seasonofthegeek

In this story, Chat Noir, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Queen B, and Paon are the heroes of Paris. The Ladybug Miraculous has been lost for almost a century and it takes all of their combined power to cleanse akumas sometimes but they’ve found something that works since they don’t have another option. Hawkmoth is one of their villains, but not the only one plaguing Paris. Chat Noir happens upon an old hotel one night on patrol and discovers something and someone he didn't expect.

INCOMPLETE FICS

The Beauty of a Rose by properjitterbug

In the small town of Bellerose, Marinette and Adrien are childhood friends while secretly pining for each other. They lead happy lives until one day a long, forgotten promise is stirred awake; changing their lives in ways they couldn't imagine. With time marching on, Marinette is left to chase after ghosts of her past as a strange creature appears in the depths of the mysterious forest. Arc 1: Chapters 1-11: Complete Arc 2: Chapters 12-?: In Progress -- Werecat!Adrien x Marinette

Note: this one's M-rated for a reason.

---

what worse luck by GuardianKarenTerrier

He doesn't know what happens. One minute he's struggling against the leash spell, the next he's tripping on his own momentum as the magic suddenly snaps, as he tastes freedom for the first time in- in ever, probably. Adrien doesn't stop long enough to think about where he's going or why. He just bolts. (Marinette's spell goes wildly off-target, but it's a stroke of luck for everyone involved that it does).

---

fire lily petals by @fragileizy

“Do you believe in soulmates?” His little witch looks up from her mortar and pestle, setting a heavy book in front of him at the table. The weight of the textbook upsets the flame of their oil lamp enough to scatter and smudge the shadows around them, and he stares down at the page for something to do instead of looking at her glittering eyes. Of course I do, he wants to say. Of course I believe in soulmates. I believe in it every time you look at me, Marinette. It’s as true as the demonic seal that stains my chest at our contract— it’s as true as the demonic seals that burn on your ear lobes that you keep hidden with your hair at our contract. But he’s a coward. He’s nothing more than a coward. The great Chat Noir, the legendary demon who has fought countless demonic wars, who has looked at the concept of death thousands of times, helpless to the way this witch looks at him. “It’s very... fairy-tale-like. Is it not?” Part One: Chapters 1 - 20 Complete Part Two: Chapters 21+ In Progress

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Living With Dragons by @nomolosk

Stifled at home, Prince Adrien just wants to have an adventure. Accidentally captured instead of her mistress, Marinette Dupain-Cheng just wants to go home. But when you're living with dragons, things are bound to get interesting, and both of them might just end up finding something they like better. Set in the world of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede.

#ask #ml fic recs #miraculous ladybug

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quickspinner · 4 months ago

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"I would really love to know what you are trying to prove or accomplish with these questions, since it seems like you don’t actually read the work of any of the authors you petition."

Just wondering how you or other authors would fix the show.

Well, that really depends on what you mean by "fix." I'm not sure how Luka and Adrien being friends would fix anything because they ARE friends in the show.

If you want a love square endgame, I think you have to go all the way back to Despair Bear, which is where the LS peaked IMO. Up until that point it seemed like Marinette and Adrien were inching closer to each other. I would've reversed the love square at that point, with Adrien becoming more interested in Marinette and Marinette being more torn between him and CN, preventing her from confessing while she tried to figure out her feelings.

With no hate to Kagami, it's her introduction and more importantly, Adrien's reaction to her, that really tanked any believability for the LS for me. When contemplating moving on from LB, he consistently chose Kagami without even a thought of Marinette as an option, and that was just completely it for me. It's not just that Adrien is interested in Ladybug, it's that he is totally *uninterested* in Marinette, and that's where all the "he's socially awkward"/"he doesn't understand his own feelings" completely fall apart for me. The show doesn't generally let us inside Adrien's head the way they do Marinette's, so if there was any internal conflict there, they completely failed to convey it. They could have had him think for some reason, possibly through Chloe or Lila's manipulation, that Marinette wasn't actually interested in him and so he pursued Kagami and Marinette then thinks she would have to give up on him, and go at the alternate love interests to keep the drama going, and there could have been some interesting ground to explore there. Imagine how Frozer would be with Adrien going, well, Marinette would have good advice and I know she's not interested in me so it can't hurt to ask her about Kagami instead of being blatantly oblivious.

I also have beef with the way Adrien handled the hero team becoming more prominent; given his background it is reasonable for him to be upset and think that he has to shine above the rest to get LB's attention, but instead of sulking around and not showing up in fights (which, up until this point, was an aspect of salt fics I thought was comedically far-fetched) I would have had him seek out Su Han for training, potentially giving him a mentor figure/someone to talk to about it his relationship with LB, AND give him something solid and specific to contribute to the battle and relieve the burden on LB. (Who did they end up having do this though? *Luka*. Who had every reason to legitimately consider himself out of the fight. Just saying.)

Yes, I'm aware that was a really long sentence. Wordy bitch don't care. 😂

This would also require Su Han to be less of a dick, but there you go. Fix those things, and the godawful speech about "I can't help disrespecting your feelings because my own are so strong," and I would be nicer to Adrien. Give him some narrative accountability instead of acting the spoiled brat.

Oh yeah and also fix the speech where the rich white male supermodel teen icon tells Nino that asking out girls is easy. I've never forgiven him for that. And have him apologize in Frozer for letting his feelings get in the way of teamwork and leaving LB in danger without backup.

#quickanswers #quickrants #adrien salt #ml salt #ml writers salt #don't come at me I tagged it every way I could think of #love square salt

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 1 year ago

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IOTA Reviews: Perfection

This is another Lila episode, so get ready for dumb writing and lies only an infant would find convincing.

Let's get into the twelfth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Perfection

We start off with a sort of funny scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir doing heroic things while casually discussing the new relationships they're both in, unaware that they're talking about each other. It's less the irony that I like, but just the visuals showing how they're so experienced as superheroes at this point, they can casually chat while saving people.

Of course, even though the last scene confirmed that Marinette and Adrien are officially dating after four and a half seasons, the main conflict for the civilian plotline is that Marinette somehow isn't able to simply tell Adrien that she loves him. So basically, even though they're now in a relationship, the show is still going to rely on Marinette stuttering around Adrien like an idiot. Oh, thank God! I thought the writers were actually going to have Marinette and Adrien talk with each other like humans beings for a second there.

We then get a montage of Marinette struggling to get closer to Adrien, stumbling around and breaking stuff as if she was a character in an infomercial, culminating in a scene where Marinette attempts to confess to a picture of a cow, only to say “I love moo” instead. Get used to her saying this, because it's going to be a running gag.

During the aforementioned montage, we get a decent moment where Lila helps Chloe realize she needs to be more discreet when it comes to screwing with Marinette instead of her usual blunt attitude, which does a good job showing the one thing that sets Chloe and Lila apart: Their approaches to dealing with Marinette. It's not much, but it's something.

Meanwhile, the writers remembered Adrien is a musician, as he wrote a song for Marinette. A bunch of their friends come over to the Liberty, including Kagami.

Adrien: It's great to see you here, Kagami. You get to hear the song I wrote for Marinette.

Kagami: You made your feelings clear and you're dealing with them. That's good. I'm very proud of you.

Man, even the characters are glad the Love Square is finally going somewhere.

After another scene where Marinette once again tries to confess to the picture of a cow (the writers are really running with this gag, aren't they?), Adrien starts to perform the song he wrote for Marinette. Fun Fact: Adrien was originally going to sing a cover of that one song from Miami Connection, but Luka helped convince him that it would be better if he used his own song instead.

As for the song itself? Well, the music itself is nice, but the lyrics? They're decent, showing how Adrien doesn't want anything complex from his relationship with Marinette, but I'm just going to say it: I don't like the way Bryce Papenbrook sings. Like, I don't know how to describe it. It's not awful, but I just don't like the way he delivers the lyrics. He just sounds so monotone when he sings, which makes it hard to take this grand romantic gesture seriously.

Marinette once again struggles to tell Adrien she loves him, so we get even more of Marinette blaming other things for her hesitance, but not before we get more jokes about the cow picture.

Marinette: I'm just grabbing the cow to tell Adrien that I love him because I have the "I love" but not the “moo”. I know it's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous.

You know, at least C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, a show full of cow puns, actually did more with the jokes instead of just saying the words “cow” and “moo”.

Kagami tries to talk to Marinette, only for her to essentially be ignored. After Marinette transforms into Ladybug as an excuse to get out of there, Kagami then decides to call Lila about Marinette failing some kind of “friendship test”.

Kagami: You were right, Lila. I checked every box on your friendship test. Marinette doesn't consider me her best friend. I'm not even sure she ever considered me a friend.

Lila: Oh, no, Kagami... I'm so sorry she didn't see all the effort you've been making to get closer to her. Someone as amazing as you deserves a more considerate friend and... I'd be honored to be that friend.

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I know I used this clip last time, but this is essentially the same problem I had there. Lila only had a single line in this episode before this scene, and it was her talking to Chloe, and I don't think Lila and Kagami have even shared a scene together before this episode, much less exchange numbers. Yeah, Kagami had been checking off things on a sheet of paper earlier in the episode, but we never got any explanation as to where and when Lila even gave her the friendship test. While we know that Lila's test was obviously fake, it seems out of character for Kagami to be this gullible, given that she was able to easily see through Adrien's lies last season (Lies).

Kagami then decides to just give up on having friends entirely, deleting all of her contacts except her mother's. I'm not sure if it was an animation error, or if the writers forgot, but for some reason, Adrien wasn't listed in there. We then cut to Lila, cutting Marinette's face out of some random pictures she got.

The scene's clearly supposed to be menacing, but I'd be more invested if I actually knew why Lila was so obsessed with Marinette outside of Marinette telling her to stop being a liar.

Kagami goes somewhere so she can be alone where she cries, where Monarch senses this and akumatizes her into Ryukomori through her ring.

Ryukomori's design is simple, but I think the concept behind it and use of Miraculous power makes it work. Monarch gives her the power to make it hard for her to see or hear anyone (insert your own Helen Keller joke here), and thanks to the Dragon Miraculous's Wind/Lightning/Water Dragon, Ryukomori is now a giant cloud person who can shoot lightning. Yeah, you have to wonder why Monarch gave her powers that would make it harder to see people, much less get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted to see from the Miraculous powers used this season: Past heroes getting akumatized and having perverted versions of the powers they're familiar with.

Adrien sees this and transforms into Cat Noir, meeting up with Ladybug and showing her the friendship test he found earlier. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to talk with Ryukomori, but in her current state, it's hard to talk to her, so they'll need to find a different way to communicate. Ladybug and Cat Noir try arranging some cars into a kanji sign.

Hey, this is a French show! I'm supposed to be seeing french words I don't understand, not Japanese words I don't understand.

Ryukomori ignores the kanji, so now, the two have to come up with another plan while Monarch goads her into trying to kill them so she can finally be alone, whipping up a storm in anger.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a box of ironing beads, and gets an idea. Cat Noir goes to Socqueline's art shop (because I guess the animators really want to get their money's worth out of this character model and set) for supplies while Ladybug assembles a bunch of her friends and shows her a picture she made using the beads, wanting to make a bigger one for Ryukomori to see by holding up these panels to reveal it.

As simplistic as it is, it's a pretty cute visual, and it does the trick, causing Ryukomori to reject the Akuma. While I guess the Akuma was already de-evilized by Kagami, Ladybug hands her a Magical Charm as the students cheer for her.

Marinette apologizes to Kagami about how insensitive she was, but Kagami explains that she feels pressured to be perfect around others, which is meant to parallel Marinette's anxiety around Adrien. The two make up, and Marinette calls Kagami her best friend alongside Alya. Of course, Marinette somehow never asked about the friendship test, because that would actually clear everything up, and then we wouldn't have Kagami and Lila becoming friends again. Marinette and Alya talk about what exactly is keeping her from getting closer to Adrien, something that they'll figure out together. And so the episode ends with Tomoe storming into Gabriel's office that she endangered her daughter's life by akumatizing her... ignoring the last four times she's been akumatized (Riposte, Heroes' Day, Oni-Chan, Lies). In fact, if she's working with Gabriel, shouldn't she know Kagami was also Ryuko, and—okay, forget it, episode's over.

This episode was very hit or miss. The scenes with Ryukomori were well done. I like the way they called back to earlier episodes and how emotional the memories made Ryukomori, and the overall message of friendship was handled pretty well. But while I really like the way Ryukomori was handled, the road there was a pretty bumpy one. The subplot with Marinette wasn't funny, Adrien's song was really forgettable, and the writers just expect us to assume Kagami would fall for Lila's lies when earlier episodes have shown how perceptive she is. I get that the episode's probably setting up Kagami learning the truth in a later episode, it seems very out of character for her.

Overall, this episode just had a great Akuma fight, and a mediocre first half. Nothing too special, but it's still better than “Illusion” or “Determination”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... KAGAMI

While Marinette came close thanks for her inability to say three basic words, Kagami ended up taking the award home. Not only did she fall for Lila's lies without even questioning her, she assumed that Marinette didn't care for her in the slightest, and after that, decided she had no other friends, not even Adrien, and after everything that happened, she still chose to believe Lila even though her test ended up being false when earlier episodes showed her being able to see through lies.

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aidanchaser · 2 months ago

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Read Chapter 5 on Ao3

Though Marinette greeted the Lucky Lady’s patrons and took their orders with her usual grace and charm, she worked automatically. Her mind and her heart instead took up residence in Max’s office. As she seated a pair of young ladies, she wondered if Adrien was okay. As she poured a bottle of wine for a young veteran, she wondered if Adrien had fallen asleep. As she made her way out of the kitchen laden with plates, she wondered if he might have run away.

But despite her worry, she did not dare go up and check, and neither did anyone else.

The very first guests through the Lucky Lady’s doors were two burly men with white lilies pinned to their suits. They were polite, turned in weapons without complaint, and insisted on a corner table where they had a decent view of the entire floor. They ordered a single bottle of wine that they nursed all evening.

Though the staff regularly dropped money, information, or just pleasant conversation off in Max’s office, tonight it was as if the Lucky Lady had been built with a single floor. No one had any interest in drawing their guests’ attention to the stairs. Instead, Max made himself comfortable in the boys’ dressing room, and if he did need anything from his office, he used the rooftop entrance to slip in and out unseen.

Marinette, in her bright red dress, brilliant lipstick, and iconic mask did not have the luxury of slipping away unseen. She felt Gabriel’s men watching her specifically, so she was careful to give them no signs of distress. Her lipstick was freshly applied and her mask securely in place. She served her tables and made rounds to the others as well, engaging in polite chatter and keeping spirits high among the guests. That was her job as the face of the Lucky Lady.

And it was an exhausting job.

When she took her mid-evening break and turned in the evening’s first set of profits, she did not dare go outside for a smoke. She slumped onto the floor of the boys’ dressing room and looked up at Max, who had commandeered the boys’ table with stacks of ledgers.

“Do we have a plan?” she asked.

“For which part?” Max said, without pausing his careful count of the cash Marinette had handed him.

“Any of it.”

“Marc suggested firebombing Gabriel’s warehouse.”

Marinette wrinkled her nose. If Max was making jokes, they truly were in trouble. “Have you asked Chat Noir? He might have some… insight after his investigation today.”

Max picked up an envelope from the desk and dropped the cash inside. “You can ask him when you deliver these profits to the safe.”

“I’m not going up there. That’s exactly what they’re waiting for.”

“Cover up your dress, take off your mask, and don’t be seen.”

“But I’m on a break.”

“You’re supposed to deliver cash to the office before your break.”

She snatched the envelope from his hands and slunk across the hall to get her coat. Arguing with Max was no better than arguing with Alya. They were in charge because somehow they always managed to be right. Marinette, for all her luck, could not compete.

Though she readily pulled her coat over her dress, Marinette hesitated to take her mask off. She knew it would incite suspicion if Gabriel’s men caught sight of Ladybug sneaking onto the roof, but she was not about to go into that office bare-faced. Adrien could not know who Ladybug truly was; the very notion twisted her stomach into knots. As long as she wasn’t seen, wearing the mask shouldn’t matter.

So in her mask and the high red heels she wore as she worked work the floor of the Lucky Lady, she scaled the wall. She crouched low to avoid being seen, but a shadow behind one of the chimney walls moved as she approached. Marinette froze. In the dim evening light, she could see the shape of someone’s shoulder, shrouded in a dark coat. She thought longingly of her yo-yo, still tucked in the dressing table drawer.

Marinette crept closer, one hand ready to turn her belt into a weapon—but as she rounded the corner, she saw it was only Luka, without his mask and, like her, wearing a coat both to protect himself from the cold and to protect his fine, extravagant suit from wandering eyes

She groaned softly and slumped down beside him. “I thought you were one of Agreste’s men,” she sighed.

“Sorry. I didn’t think the alley was a safe place to get some fresh air tonight—are you still wearing your mask?”

Though she knew the answer, Marinette snapped, “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because if Agreste’s men see Ladybug up here, they’ll know something’s wrong.”

Marinette hummed in irritation and reached into her pocket for a cigarette. She offered one to Luka, but he shook his head.

As she put the paper to flame, Luka gestured to the street below. “See the man reading the newspaper?”

Marinette squinted down to look at the line of cabbies, ready to transport the evening crowd between dinner, shows, and their homes. She saw the one Luka was referring to, the only one who had a newspaper out as he leaned against the door of his car.

“Can’t imagine he can read well in this lighting.”

“Don’t give him any excuses to be suspicious.” Luka snatched Marinette’s mask from her face. The string caught in her hair as he pulled and she winced as she tried to grab it back, but his lanky arms were no match for her. Even as he used one hand to untangle her hair, he used his other to keep the mask out of her reach.

Marinette blinked as the evening chill sank its teeth into her cheekbones. “Come on,” she hissed. “Max is sending me in there and Chat—Chat doesn’t know who I am.”

“Does it matter?” Luka asked.

It mattered more than anything, but she couldn’t tell him that. Irritably, she pulled a cigarette and lighter from her coat pocket. “Do you know who he is?”

Luka shrugged. “I don’t know his name, but I think I know his measure.”

“He said he stayed with you?”

“He’s given you that stray line, hasn’t he?”

Marinette nodded as she pressed the paper to flame.

“I’m sure I’m not the only person he stayed with, but I always kept a place for him. He came in and out like any good cat would. Why do you ask?”

“I just—” She paused to take a drag of her cigarette and collect her thoughts. She felt fragmented, burned out by the truth of who Chat Noir was and what he had been to her—what he had always been to her. “What you said about his family, I thought… I thought maybe you knew him.”

“He doesn’t open up so easily. But he told me some things. If half of what he told me is true, his father could give Gabriel Agreste a run for his money.”

Marinette choked on the smoke in her lungs. “What do you mean?”

Luka tipped his head back and looked up at the stars. “He let it slip once that he had family in Paris. When I asked why he couldn’t stay with them, he told me that he’d grown up feeling like a prisoner in his own home. Always watched, alway under guard. War breaking out gave him an opportunity to escape, at least for a while. Said his family would be preoccupied with profit and he could get away in the meantime. I don’t know why he was so insistent on keeping his face hidden even from me, though. Honestly, I wondered if Mayor Bourgeois had a bastard son for a while.”

Belatedly Marinette realized that Luka was trying to make a joke, and she grunted a laugh but it was too late and too awkward.

Luka pulled his gaze down from the sky and looked at Marinette. His pale eyes looked almost silver in the moonlight. “I’m sure you’re worried about Adrien, but I believe Chat Noir when he says he didn't hurt him. I don’t think he could.”

Marinette said nothing, unsure how to respond without spilling Adrien’s secret. So instead, she merely held the cigarette out to Luka. He hadn’t smoked in years, but tonight felt like the sort of night to lean on old habits. Luka, as he always did, showed more resilience than Marinette could dream of. He waved her offer away and pulled himself up, though he did not fully straighten out of a crouch, lest his height give them away.

“I’d better get back. I’ll leave your mask in the girl’s dressing room.”

“No, wait, Luka—” she hissed at him, but he was already slinking over the edge of the rooftop and out of her reach.

She laid herself out on the concrete helplessly, one hand still outstretched to where Luka had vanished and the other clinging to her cigarette. In desperation, she mussed her hair and tried to pull it low over her face, but the bob refused to comply. With a low groan, she put the cigarette out against the chimney wall and crawled to the hidden panel that led down into Max’s office. A large, non-working light hid the seams of the trapdoor, and Marinette shifted it as slowly as possible. The last thing she needed was someone to look up and notice fixtures moving.

Once she had the trapdoor up, there was a second catch for the panel of Max’s office. Marinette tried not to think about Chat Noir fumbling with the catch, hands slick with blood, struggling to stay on his feet after being shot by his own father.

Marinette also tried not to think about what would happen when she dropped down into that office without her mask. She pulled her coat tighter against her throat. Could she pretend she was just Marinette, dropping by? Maybe if she took off her gloves, smudged her makeup again…

But as she lifted the second panel, she was met with nothing but darkness.

Her heart raced, but she dropped into the pitchblack regardless. The carpet muffled her fall and she hesitated, ears on alert for any unseen dangers. When none came, she called tentatively, “Chat?”

“I’m here,” a voice to her left whispered.

She turned to see his silhouette against the window, only his edges haloed by the streetlights outside.

“That is you, isn’t it, Ladybug?”

“It’s me,” she answered, then bit down on her tongue. If he decided to turn on a light, she would have no excuse or explanation for what he saw. She fumbled for Max’s desk and considered knocking his lamp to the floor and hoping it broke. “Why are you in the dark?”

“They’re watching.”

Marinette slid the envelope through the deposit drop on top of the safe and joined Adrien by the window. “‘They?’”

He lifted his chin a vaguely westward direction and Marinette turned to look. She found the cab driver Luka had pointed out to her.

“One of my father’s men.”

“So close the curtains.”

There was a hesitation, something caught in his throat, and then he managed, “I’d rather keep an eye on him.”

Marinette recalled what Luka had said about Adrien feeling like a prisoner in his own home. It was not hard to draw the line between Luka’s brief story, the Chat Noir she knew who always had his eye on exits, and the Adrien who had taken risk after risk just to escape his bodyguards during their one summer together.

“No one wants to keep you here against your will,” she said.

He snorted. “I think Rena has a different opinion.”

“She’s just looking out for your safety—”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“You were shot.”

“I’ve been shot before, too.”

Marinette leaned against the wall on the other side of the window and tried to make out his expression in the darkness. It was hard to see much more than a line of silver where his hair met the window and the tiniest bit of white on the edge of his nose and chin. Even the blood stains against his stomach were little more than black spots bleeding into a blurry gray.

Though it was a risk to add more light, she reached into her coat and pulled out two fresh cigarettes. She held one out to him.

He hesitated only briefly before reaching for it. He took her lighter, too, and was careful to hide the flame behind his hand so no one watching would see it. She did the same as she lit her own.

Even in the dark, she could see his shoulders sag as he let out a breath of smoke. She could tell by the light caught in his lashes that he had his eyes closed.

“Can I ask you a question?” she whispered.

“Isn’t that a question?”

It was exactly the sort of joke Adrien might’ve made, grinning in the late summer sunset. It was the same quip Chat Noir would have given her on her balcony with a quirked eyebrow beneath his mask. But she could see no sign of a smile now, no quirk of his lips even as the amber glow of his cigarette illuminated them.

She pressed ahead regardless. “When you told me to investigate your father last night, how much did you already know?”

“Everything I told you was everything I knew at the time. I didn’t exactly have Chloé as my date last night for fun. I knew you would be listening. I only stayed behind after she left because… well, I wanted to see you alone.”

Marinette bit down on her tongue to keep herself from choking on it. That wasn’t especially fair of him, not when he had turned away when Ladybug had tried to kiss him. “Why not show up as Chat Noir?”

“My freedom’s been… well, I don’t have much of it, any rate. My father’s gotten worse and he keeps getting worse. Besides, how could I have explained what I knew?”

“You still managed to show up at the warehouse.”

“My father locked the windows on my bedroom so I couldn’t get out. He did not, however, lock the windows in his office. My new role managing his money meant I had access to the office. Last night, I was worried I hadn’t given you enough to go on, or that you wouldn’t trust my word as Adrien, so once everyone was asleep, I snuck out through his office. I thought if I could find out what he was smuggling and tell you, you could stop him. That’s also what I tried to do tonight, though it didn’t go nearly so well.”

Marinette watched the embers at the end of his cigarette drift to the wound in his side.

“You found what you were looking for, didn’t you?”

His laugh was soft and dry. “I suppose I did.”

Marinette rolled her cigarette between her thumb and her forefinger. “Can I ask one more question?”

He took in another lungful of smoke before sighing, “If you’re going to ask how long I’ve known about my father’s work, I’ve known since my mother died.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted to ask.”

But when he did not give her permission to press, she stayed silent. She reached over to Max’s desk and fumbled along its surface for the ash tray. Once she found it, she tapped her cigarette against its edge, then passed the tray to Adrien.

He obliged and tapped his cigarette against the crystal bowl before she placed it precariously on the window ledge. Finally, he gestured for her to continue.

“I just want to know why you went back to your father.”

Even in the thin threads of street light, she could see every muscle in his body go taut.

“I know that after your mother died—I mean, I can imagine how hard it was after your mother passed, but you obviously have had some freedom for a while. You didn’t have to go back after the war—You had us, Adrien.” It was the first time she had used his name as Ladybug, and the first time she had used it so tenderly in years. As it fell from her lips, the rest of her voice seemed to fall with it. She had more she wanted to say to prove to him that he had always been where he belonged, but the words could not come. Instead, his name hung between them, a weighted, bulky thing. She wondered if he could hear the heartbreak in her voice, if he knew just how much he mattered to her.

Because, in the end, Marinette did love him. She may not have been willing to admit it until he turned up with blood on his hands, and she might hate herself for that, but she did love him. And she wanted him to know it.

The glow of his cigarette flared as he took in a long draw of smoke. He let it out in a slow, steady stream from his mouth and nose that curled around his hand. When he did speak, his voice was soft and distant, like he was speaking to her from a different room, and like he was answering a fully different question.

“When my mother died, I knew it was because of my dad’s work. I thought she was a victim, a piece on a chess board that had been leveraged against him by a rival. I thought he was so careful with me because he didn’t want me to become that victim, either. But after an… incident around the time Germany invaded, I learned the truth. My mother was his accomplice. I didn’t believe it until I saw the books written in her hand. She kept all of his accounts, suggested deals and business opportunities—I wasn’t thrilled to be shipped off to England, but I was plenty eager to get out of my father’s house.”

He paused to take another lungful of smoke. The crescents of his cuticles caught the orange glow of his cigarette as the embers encroached on the end of the paper. Still, he did not put it out.

“I wasn’t in London long. My cousin’s family was already making plans to head to the country. But within a week, I was sick of all my news being filtered through my father’s right hand woman—and I’m sure she wasn’t particularly pleased about being demoted to nanny for his adult son—so my cousin and I hatched a plan. His father had been insisting that he join the military, and I wanted out. We’d always looked alike, so he pretended to be me and stayed, while I left and pretended to his parents that I was him, and that I would ship out with the British Infantry.”

Marinette no longer remembered the question she had originally asked. She was too enraptured by his tale. “And it worked?”

“His mother found out, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want her son going to war, but she didn’t know how to stand up to her husband. Our lie made everyone happy, so she let it slide. I came right back to Paris, found you raiding one of my father’s warehouses, and jumped right in. I suppose you know the rest.” He put his cigarette out in the ash tray and left the end of it there on the windowsill. The streetlight glinted off of the silver ring around his finger and Marinette’s heart leapt into her throat.

His mother’s wedding ring. She’d seen Adrien wear it, had held it, slid her fingers against it, but had never known it existed beneath Chat Noir’s gloves.

“After the war, I couldn’t very well pretend my cousin was still fighting on the frontlines, so I went back to London. My plan was to return to Paris under my own name, gather what money I could, and run. Maybe to you—I didn’t know—I didn’t expect to be put under lock and key when I returned.”

In lieu of a cigarette to hold, he twisted the ring around his finger. Marinette offered him what was left of hers, and he took it gratefully. He took in two lungfuls, drinking the smoke like it was the end of a bottle of whiskey.

“Two weeks,” he said, voice raw and cracked from the smoke, “two weeks of nothing but the four walls of my bedroom and my mother’s diaries. I think my father thought she’d do more to convince me than he could. But it wasn’t… it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I think I had imagined she was torn, or she felt compelled or, or—” The glimmering end of the cigarette dragged across his face as he buried his failing words in his palm.

She wished desperately for some light, some glimpse of his face, but to know him was to allow herself to be known, and she wasn’t ready for that. But she did reach her hand out to him, only for him to lean away. He vanished from what little light there was from the window and fell into the corner.

Marinette swallowed down a surge of hurt. She had known Adrien through such intense swells of grief, had sat with Chat Noir through a dozen melancholy evenings, and at no point had he shied away from her hand like it might worsen his wound. She knew what Marinette had done to hurt him, but she did not know why he refused Ladybug in this way. “Chaton…”

“Please, don’t—”

“I’m sorry—”

He took in a sudden gulp of air, ragged and desperate, louder than any words they had exchanged so far, and Marinette realized with a shock that he was trying not to cry. When he spoke again, his voice was barely a whisper. “She loved it. She loved the thrill, the excitement, the danger—she loved it until it got her killed and I—when I read her journals I saw—I saw you in her excitement, her creativity, her planning—and I couldn't—” He lost his words to another burst of tears, a ragged and desperate gasp. “I didn’t want that, I couldn’t want that.”

As if this explanation undid his rejection, Marinette crossed the window to reach him. She was no longer concerned with who might see her nor how the thin light might hit her bare face. As Adrien sank to the floor, she followed him, even as he tried to curl in on himself. She plucked the cigarette from his fingers before he could singe his hair as he buried his head in his arms. She sat beside him, her body pressed against his, the way they had used to hide in the back of her parents’ delivery truck. She slid her fingers through his the way she had the first time he had spoken to her about his mother in a voice almost as broken. She pressed her lips to his arm, the only part of him she could reach.

“You don’t have to tell me the rest,” she whispered.

With that small permission, he shifted his arms and his weight, enough that she had an opening to truly and properly hold him. This time, when she reached out for him, he fell against her chest and buried his face into her coat.

Marinette had never held Adrien quite like this. There had been tears, for during that summer his grief had been fresh in a different way. And even Chat Noir had had moments touched by melancholy. But these muffled sobs against her chest were new. He gripped her hand with the desperation of a man drowning. She ran her other hand through his hair and down his neck, the way her mother had always done for her.

This was how she had cried when her letters to Adrien had gone unanswered. She recognized the loneliness, knew what it was to be abandoned by someone you loved and trusted.

Just hours ago, Marinette had denied him her love just as his parents had. It was no wonder he felt so alone, no wonder he had gone after his father in a state of recklessness. Hadn’t Marinette done the same after Adrien had left her when she had taken on the job of defending Paris in the middle of a war?

So she held him the way she had been held, the way she had wanted to be cared for. She held him until his tears dried out and his breathing slowed. She rubbed circles into his spine until he relaxed enough to let go of her hand, until enough of his sense returned and his cheeks suddenly burned hot against hers.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, but she shushed him and pressed her lips to his temple.

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

She was the one who had failed him, who had failed to see just how much he was struggling. She lashed out in her hurt; he’d turned his inward.

He pulled away from her and she let him go. He fell back into the wall with a heavy thud. “I need you to know—I—I never told my father this was what I wanted. I swear.”

“I believe you,” she said, with an earnestness she might not have felt an hour before.

“He didn’t even ask me to take my mother’s place so much as told me to. He put her ledgers and her gun in my hands and I—I told him I wouldn’t, I swore to him I wouldn’t, and he—”

“I believe you,” she repeated more forcefully. She reached her hand out into the darkness and found the bump of his knee.

“I’m not him. I’m not him and I’m not her either.” His words bled together like the notes of a drunken soldier’s song. “I’m not him,” he repeated a third time as Marinette searched through the darkness for his hand. When she found it, she squeezed it.

He squeezed back, albeit half-heartedly. When his grip loosened, she leaned forward and anxiously pressed the back of her hand to his nose and mouth. He murmured something unintelligible, but did not stir as his breath fell hot and warm against her skin. Still unsatisfied, she traced her fingers across his jaw until she found his pulse. Though it was faint, like music from an adjacent room, it was steady. She did not think he was going to die on her tonight.

“Adrien?” she whispered.

He stirred beneath her hand, but said nothing, as if he was fighting sleep and losing quickly. She reached into her coat pocket and removed her penlight. She was careful to shield the light from his face, but she used her small flashlight to hunt for the pillow Luka had retrieved. She placed it carefully behind Adrien’s head, hoping it might alleviate some stiffness when he awoke.

She was quiet as she used a chair to climb up and out of the office. She could only imagine how much he needed this rest. His physical wounds aside, and even dismissing the emotional stress he had just shared with her, she knew how long he had been awake because he had spent much of the last twenty-four hours with her.

As she hugged the rooftop to avoid being seen by anyone on the street below, she considered her unfortunate position. He had rejected Ladybug for she reminded him too much of his mother, particularly the part of her he feared or perhaps even resented. She could understand that. Marinette, however, had rejected Adrien outright for his ties to his father. His tired and worn insistence that he was not his father seemed meant for Marinette as much as for Ladybug. How many more times was she going to hurt him?

At least once more, she thought, when he finds out the truth.

It was harder getting down the building than up in her heels, but she managed it with some effort. The door to the back hallway of the Lucky Lady pulled open easily, and Marinette slid back into the world of laughing guests, loud music, and thick smoke.

But before she could return her coat to the ladies’ dressing room, a burly pair of shoulders, nearly as wide as the hallway itself, appeared at the end of the hallway, broader even than Ivan.

Marinette froze as she took in the man’s face—and the white lily pinned to his suit.

His eyes looked her up and down and she knew at once that he recognized her as the girl in the bakery, for she recognized him as Adrien’s bodyguard. Her fingers twitched, but she did not need to feel her face and check for her mask. She knew it was gone. There was no helping it; she had been spotted.

#ml fic #ml 1920s au #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic

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mc-lukanette · 14 days ago

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Luka loved Marinette. He loved her so much and still felt like he hadn't fully expressed it no matter how many years passed. It wasn't for lack of trying - words, songs, gestures, he'd done it all - but simply that there may've been no way to convey it under human limitations.

Thus, he accepted that he could only love her as much as he could. He courted her, dated her, and married her, all in the hopes that she might understand one day.

He even loved her in his dreams.

It wasn't as good as having the real deal, but he knew her body well enough that it almost felt real. When she'd push him down on the bed, he could imagine the plush surface and scent of the freshly washed sheets.

She'd lean down for a kiss, her flavored lip balm rubbing off on him. He'd long since foregone wearing it himself since they got together, knowing that it would always end up on his lips anyway.

Dream Marinette had the exact accurate amount of freckles going across her nose. He knew because he'd counted them before on days where they had nothing to do and he'd taken to watching her sleep the morning away. Stroking her face, her skin wasn't perfectly smooth either, having been neglected skincare on days where she was too busy to think about it.

He'd pull the dream Marinette down to kiss her nose, her forehead, her cheek, and anywhere else he could. Mutual kissing was his personal favorite, but it was just as important to him that every precious centimeter of her body receive attention from him.

She loved to be praised, to be told that she mattered and that she was doing great where she was. He'd say as much in-between the soft gasps in reaction to her breath against his skin or her fingers playing with his hair. During warmer nights where she'd wear shorts instead of pants, her leg had a chance of nudging his shirt up just enough during their movements that he could feel her skin against his side.

She was the one who made his pajama tops for him in the first place, actually. He found that it all depended on her mood, as sometimes she would gift him shirts with pointless buttons, shirts with strings, or shirts with cuts low enough that she could kiss his chest.

Always with purpose, of course, whether that be to play idly with the little additions or tease him. He'd watch, mesmerized by the movements even if they didn't appear like anything special; she was special to him.

She designed her own pajamas as well and liked the buttons the most. It let him technically remove it even if she was laying on the bed, but was a task that took time. She loved the attention and he loved giving her that attention, so he would hold off for the perfect moment.

When it came time to play his own part in their duet, they would switch spots, Marinette letting out an excited squeal as he flipped them over. Her hair was just long enough that it could get trapped underneath her back, creating potential problems if she turned or tilted her head. Just in case, he took the extra time to check, gently tugging the hair out and letting it spread out gorgeously over the bed.

She'd exhale against his hair when he kissed her collarbone, nails grazing his back as she grasped his shirt in her hands. When her pulse quickened, he'd nestle his face against her neck, feeling and estimating the BPM of her pulse so long as he could distinguish it from his own.

He was a simple man. He too loved to be praised and told that he mattered, but his favorite sound was her name rolling off his tongue. She knew it too, her blue eyes in that blissful contradiction of innocence and mischievousness as she called his name, over and over.

It was as if she was beckoning him closer, reminding him with her tone that he was hers, or merely liking how it sounded out of her mouth. He loved it all the same.

Depending on how much skin she was showing that night, he could see the little marks she'd accumulated over the course of her life: a scar on her shoulder from when she was a child, another near her ribcage, and multiple similar-looking ones at her hip that she promised to tell him about one day when she stopped being embarrassed by the memory.

He was fine with that. In his mind, it was just another thing to look forward to learning about his wife.

Sometimes, the marks would be something more temporary, like a slight redness to her leg when she bumped it against the table that morning, which he would be careful not to accidentally irritate. It gave him the perfect excuse to treat her just a little differently than usual, keeping her guessing as to what he might do next.

She had a particular noise she made whenever he slipped his hand under her shirt. If his hand was colder that night, it'd be a shuddery whine, but if it was warmer, then she'd let out a pleased hum. He always made sure to touch the scar at her ribcage, cherishing it even if he couldn't see it at the time.

When her grip on his shirt tightened, he knew what to prepare for and moved back appropriately as she pulled it off of him. It was a bittersweet feeling, seeing her so carelessly toss her work that he loved so much to the side, yet knowing that it meant she could freely touch more of his skin. Whether he had a "conventionally perfect male body" or not, her fingertips traced over the lines of it in such a way that he felt like, in her eyes, he did.

They caressed the other's body, they kissed, they hugged and cuddled each other. Before long, neither were below or atop the other anymore, or at the very least it was hard to keep track.

And then, not long after that, he'd wake up, the sun from the window shining against his back. Marinette would consistently be in his arms, face buried in his chest whether he had a shirt on or not, using him as her shield against the unfairly early morning.

"I had a dream about us," he'd say if she was awake, eager to spill the details.

Every time, she'd playfully admonish him, giggling and hitting his chest. "We're married! You see me every day!"

He'd chuckle, squeezing her tighter and telling her, almost like a promise, "Not enough."

Thus, the cycle would continue. Perhaps it did seem silly to others that he would seek to please her in the realm of his own dreams, but it was all he had left that he felt he could do.

He was thankful that her time as Ladybug had long since passed, and long enough to where she didn't tense up when she got an alert on her phone. The normal girl with the normal life who actually was anything but that, was now an extraordinary woman with a (relatively) normal life.

However, that didn't give her back the time she'd lost saving Paris, nor time she felt had been wasted that they could've spent together. He'd told her repeatedly that he didn't blame her and that all that mattered to him was the time she chose to spend with him now, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't wish that he could allow her that time back.

Despite that, he could still dream and tell her about it. He could practice pampering her in his mind to then follow up on in reality, trying to make up for the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years that they could've had. He just needed her to know that, whether awake or asleep, he thought of her, and not even the time they "lost" would give him enough to express that.

But he could try.

#queuekanette #lukaneventte: No Context November #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette

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romancemedia · 4 months ago

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I feel more relieved now for Marinette and Adrien's relationship when season 6 begins for Miraculous Ladybug. I was worried Marinette and Adrien might be hitting the reset button on their relationship because of the upcoming special and a few things I read... but those worries are gone. (Thank God!)

It's confirmed, they are still very much together by the time the new season starts and are closer than ever, but even with Gabriel Agreste gone, they'll still be facing some challenges in their relationship, one of them being secrets aka their secret identities as Ladybug and Cat Noir. I really don't want to get my hopes up and believe this might be the season where the FINALLY find out, but only time will tell... And aside from secrets, some fans are worried the love triangle with Luka might not be completely over after some new info was released.

I have no expectations and instead I'm just simply happy they are together at last and will enjoy whatever the new season throws our way.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My Thoughts #Adrienette #Marinette x Adrien #Marinette Dupin Cheng #Adrien Agreste #Future Episodes

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arlakos · 4 months ago

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AU where the the Wish actually rewrites Reality Post Season 5

Adrien wakes up to a world where everything is different. In this world, both his father and mother mysteriously fell ill and passed away when he was young, but was taken care of by a much sweeter Nathalie, who pretty became his mother after Gabriel left everything in the will to her. He goes to a school where he's been friends for much longer and thus much closer (except for Lila, who left the school soon after she joined due to quickly being exposed, and a Chloe who pretty much broke down once Adrien drifted off from her and became a loner). He has a girlfriend in Marinette and a world where he could have everything he wanted.

Yet he feels he cannot belong. Because in waking to this new world, he lost his father. He knows that Monarch is responsible for it somehow (because his father would never willingly sacrifice himself for anyone else, except maybe his Mother and him, yeah right)

Contemplating this new world, Adrien finds the Butterfly Miraculous by sheer chance in a pawn shop. Desperation taking over him, he buys it and takes it home. With the confirmation that it isnt a replica, Adrien decides to use it to become the supervillain Greyling, desperate to use it to restore the world back to the way it was so he can confront Monarch for what he did.

Naturally, Fu detects this evil Miraculous activation, and manages to escape before Adrien can send his first akuma after him. Fu decides to give the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous to Marinette and Luka Couffaine respectively, hoping they will recover the long lost miraculous and put a stop to this new evil.

(And so the cyle repeats again….)

Adrien, Kagami and Felix all remember the old reality due to being sentimonsters, since pre-canon plays out the same and sentimonsters work differently from reality. Gabriel would have also remembered the old reality ... but he's dead so... yeah.

The Miraculous Wish doesn't just take into account the wish of the user when doing equivalent exchange, but also any factors that may have changed as a by product. Since Gabriel is no longer the Butterfly Villain ... Adrien inadverently becomes on in his place.

Nathalie still respects Gabriel due to him passing away early rather than being manipulated by him like in canon. This results in Adrien being raised by her and eventually forming a motherly bond with him.

Although Greyling sets into motion the events of canon, it is set around the timeframe of season 5 due to the lack of an early Hawkmoth when Adrien was younger.

Audrey stays in New York along with Zoe due to the lack of Style Queen in this new reality.

Lila gets exposed much sooner because the lack of Hawkmoth to distract everyone means everyones attention is on her, leading to her slipping up at some point in season 2, where she had to stay at school. (Basically, she's full of sh*t like ususal, but has no plot armour to back her up this time).

Lack of Queen Bee also meant that Adrien dissasociated from Chloe sooner alongside Sabrina. Although the latter denies it, the loss of her childhood friend and friend/minion breaks her without the ego she gained from having a miraculous, leading to her becoming a recluse. Nobody cares though because Chloe was hated like in canon, so nobody notices her being more quiet than Juleka, not even her father.

Adrien lacks a lot of the benefits Gabriel had from his reclusive job as the boss of Gabriel, so Adrien makes far less akumas than Gabriel did, but is more smarter with his time.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug AU #miraculous fanfic ideas

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celestiall0tus · 1 year ago

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Amaranthine - Chapter 7 - Poison

Beginning || Previous || Next

“You’re going to absolutely love her. She’s kind, but not to a fault. You know, like how some kind people are pushovers? Not her. Oh! But watch out for her roomie, Xiulan. Whatever happens, don’t let Xiulan speak her mind, got it?” Juleka instructed.

“Is she really that bad?” Luka asked.

“I thought the same. Like, there’s no way she’s that bad. I got such listening to Xiulan go on a three-hour rant that I forgot what I even said in the first place. And when you think you can leave, you can’t. She’ll keep you there until she’s done talking.”

Luka grimaced. “Ok. Don’t challenge Xiulan. Got it.”

“Good. Now, back to Mari. Uh, she’s a really hard worker. Owns her own store where she sells herbs and her sweetheart bouquets.”

“Herb shop? What kind?”

“Huh? Oh, medicinal.”

Luka raised a brow.

Juleka rolled her eyes. “Luka, it’s Chinese medicine. At least, I think. I don’t really know too much. She’s only just started to teach me a few months ago and lessons can be slowed if we invoke Xiulan or she gets up to her tricks.”

“How often does Xiulan do that?”

“Oh, you know, only when she’s bored.”

“And how often is she bored?”

Juleka didn’t answer. She gave Luka a nervous smile and chuckle.

“Right. How does Marinette tolerate this Xiulan chick?”

“Well-,” Juleka started.

A loud cry interrupted Juleka. Juleka and Luka looked up as a single black cloud formed in the sky. They gawked at it with the crowd around them.

“What is that?” Luka asked.

“Whatever it is, it has to be Adonis. We have to get inside. Now.”

Juleka pulled on Luka’s arm, dragging him with her. He chanced a glance back as the cloud broke apart and moved with a segment heading towards them. The crowd that had gathered now ran to shelter with them. He fought to keep on his feet while the masses pushed them around, desperate to escape what came their way.

Juleka yelped as she fell. Luka called out to her but was caught up in the rush of the people. He shoved people back as he fought against the current to Juleka, who struggled to regain her footing with the stampede. He called again, but his cry drowned out by the boom of thunder. He saw her and reached out as the black cloud reached them. He glanced up to see they were large, monstrous wasps with their stingers at the ready. They dove and stung anyone left behind. His eyes widened as one dove for him. He froze and watched as Juleka jumped up and protected him from the attack as it stung her.

Fear tore through Luka as he caught Juleka’s heavy body. He fell to his knees, clutching her body. He looked up as the wasp dove for him again but was halted when fat raindrops poured from the heavy black storm clouds. He watched the monster wasps flail wildly in the torrential downpour before they fell to the ground.

Luka caught back up as he looked down at Juleka, who was still as death. He pressed his ear to her heart, making out a faint, slow heartbeat. He cradled her closer as he looked around desperately for anyone, but all he saw was other wounded and wasp corpses. He bowed his head and mourned Juleka when there was a metallic click against stone and a pop. He looked up as the street was replaced with a large auditorium filled with countless other wounded.

Luka’s heart dropped seeing so many afflicted as more filled the room. How many more fell to those killer wasps? How many have already died? Was there any hope to still save any of them? Was this all the heroes could do? Corral them in one pen all to do what exactly?

“Lay the afflicted on the floor!” a familiar woman’s voice boomed overhead.

Luka furrowed his brow at the voice but complied. He set Juleka down in front of him. He took her hand, flinching slightly at how fast she was losing warmth. He kept his eyes on her when there was a blur of motion and a cut near her heart. He panicked and reached out to stop the blood but paused. He raised a brow as purple liquid was pulled out of the wound. He reached out towards it when he heard music.

Luka looked past to the middle of the room. His heart skipped a beat and his breath stolen away when he saw the dragon knight. She danced around in an elegant, captivating display as she pulled the wasp’s venom from the afflicted. A fox woman accompanied her with Celtic folk music he had heard all his life. He watched her every enrapturing movement along with the familiar, upbeat music. Before long, people rose as they were each freed of the venom’s grasp.

Luka broke his gaze when he heard Juleka wake up. Relief flooded him as warmth and color returned to her and she sat up.

“Where are we?” Juleka asked.

Luka didn’t answer. He pulled her into a hug as tears gushed from his eyes.

“Easy, Luka. I’m fine.”

Luka froze. He moved away and glared at Juleka. She gave a nervous smile as she shrunk under his glare.

“Don’t you do that ever again. Do you hear me?”

Juleka opened her mouth, but she shut it and nodded.

Luka sighed and pulled Juleka back in for a hug. He glanced over at the dragon as her dance entered a crescendo. Juleka moved away and they watched the dragon together. She pooled the venom into an orb over her. Once everyone was well, she purified and transformed the poison into a shower of mist that carried the scents of lavender and sage on it.

Everyone marveled while Luka and Juleka kept their eyes on the dragon, who stood still with her arm still outstretched. They watched her slow movements when she finally lowered her arm and her first step. She took another step, then crumbled to her knees. Cries of panic and fear tore through the auditorium as she hit the ground.

Luka leapt to his feet and pushed past everyone to the dragon. Fear placed a chokehold on him seeing her this close unconscious. He moved closer when the fox woman rushed him. The fox met his gaze and smiled.

“I’m sorry, Luka.”

Luka’s jaw dropped. He opened his mouth to speak when light formed around the dragon. He cried out as the dragon was consumed by the beautiful display. He frantically searched the light when it faded, and the dragon and the fox had vanished. He uttered a silent curse before he returned to Juleka.

“I’m sorry,” Juleka said.

“It’s… yeah.”

Juleka leaned closer. “Do you think you’ll do the thing now? I know you’re still thinking on it, but you know.”

Luka huffed and pulled back his jacket sleeve. He stared at the black bracelet that remained where Juleka put it the night before. He still wasn’t fully sold on the idea of being a villain like Adonis. After today, he didn’t think he could bring himself to hurt the innocent. He wouldn’t be what Adonis was. If he did this, then who did that leave?

Luka stretched his mind. He didn’t want to oppose the dragon, but he couldn’t rule it out. Even so, it felt wrong to after what she did today. Not like Carmine and Midnight. Where were they during all this? What help did they offer? How many were lost due to their negligence and complacency? They made no effort to hide they left the dragon to protect the people while they went about their business.

Anger flared into pure rage within Luka. Carmine and Midnight probably just focused on the monster while the dragon had to push herself to faint doing what those two should be helping her with. How could they be ok with allowing the dragon to give everything while they barely did anything? He wagered they’d be completely lost without the dragon and her assistance, yet this was the thanks she got.

“Luka? You look angry,” Juleka remarked.

“Yeah, I guess I am, but I have a target in mind.”

“Target?”

Luka leaned closer so he was within earshot of Juleka. “I can’t be like Adonis. I don’t have it in me. I can’t oppose the dragon for several reasons. However, there are a pair of heroes I feel could use a lesson on what happens if you get too complacent.”

Juleka grimaced. “Well, just don’t kill them. Know this, they’re the only ones that can destroy Adonis’s monsters for good.”

“I’m a little offended. You’d think I’d go that far?”

“Normally, no. However, you looked angrier than I had ever seen you. Angrier than a moment ago when you were mad at me.”

“Was I? Shit. Maybe this isn’t a good idea. Maybe I should just become a hero.”

“You could, but I’m sure you’ve heard how she is around Carmine and Midnight. She really just acknowledges their presences, nothing more.”

Luka let out a harsh laugh. “Then maybe I shouldn’t do this at all.”

“You got this. Just don’t lose yourself to those emotions. I know it’s difficult. It takes me every ounce of strength to not snap a person in half for just looking at Rose wrong.”

“You’re too much like our mam at times.”

Juleka smirked. “Excellent. I just need to strike fear with a mere word like Mam does with ‘duckies.’”

Luka shuddered and Juleka laughed.

“Seriously though. You want to meet the dragon? You want to be with her, right?”

“I… yes.”

“Then this is your chance. You can be a hero and just be close to her, or you can be a villain and get her full attention. You don’t have to be Adonis, but just enough of a threat.”

Luka nodded. “Yeah. I think I can manage that. Hopefully.”

“Then why don’t we get home. I think the snake should strike tonight during their patrol.”

“What about the dragon? Shouldn’t I wait until she’s rested?”

“Good point. Tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow.”

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #au #miraculous au #alternate universe #mlb fanfic #fanfiction writer #fanfic #fanfiction #amaranthine au #soulmate au #luka couffaine #mlb luka #luka miraculous #juleka miraculous #miraculous juleka #mlb juleka #juleka couffaine

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domxmarvel · 2 years ago

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To the ends of the ocean

Masterlist

Day 8-Boat (Tinkerbell and the pirate fairy au) Female!Reader

A/N: I know it’s a weird au but I recently rewatched the movie and I can’t stop thinking about it

A knock on your door woke you up,it was the middle of the night and whoever was knocking wasn’t stopping.

“What could be so important?” You opened the door to see Luka standing there,he quickly moved closer to you.

“It’s very important,come on” He dragged you behind him,begging him to slow down. He only did when he reached his house. “You need to see this” He dragged you inside and seemed to hesitate before saying “Just promise you’ll keep it a secret”

“Luka,what is it?” He pulled the sheet off the table,showing a bunch of supplies,Vials,bottles and bowls. He grabbed one of the bowls and pulled the lid off,letting you look inside. It was filled with what looked like regular pixie dust,but it was orange. He dipped his fingers into it and moved to the window.

“Back up a bit” He extended his hand and the moonlight bent at his fingertips.

“How are you doing that,you’re not supposed to-” He turned back to you.

“incredible isn’t it?”

“Where did you even find this dust?”

“I made it”

“Bluebell,you know you shouldn’t be messing with the dust.It’s too dangerous” You held his hands,still glowing with dust. “I don’t want you to get hurt”

“I appreciate your concern but I need to do this. If I don’t we’ll never know what it's capable of”

“I’m not gonna stop you am I? How can I help” His eyes widened “If I can’t stop you,I could at least make sure you don’t get hurt”

The sunlight on your face woke you up,you yawned,not realizing you had fallen asleep. Looking over you saw Luka asleep on your shoulder,some blue dust on his face. You shook him carefully.

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know” He yawned before stretching his arms above his head. You pointed out the dust on his cheek which he quickly wiped off. “I should get going”

“Wait” He grabbed your arm. “Well now that we made the dust,we still need to test it out”

“How about tonight?”

“That sounds great” He seemed to blush at the idea,it was cute and you couldn’t stop yourself from kissing his cheek.

The late night rendezvous continued until he had used up all of the blue dust,which you knew would happen and you thought that was it until he somehow showed up with three more pieces. You wanted to say something,because you were worried. If someone found out you didn’t know what would happen to him. You decided to stay quiet about the whole situation,opting to distance yourself from him. That was until you started not seeing him anywhere,after three days you decided to check on him. Knocking on the door,it slowly opened. It hadn’t been closed properly or locked,which made you even more worried. Stepping inside you saw that it was messy,like he had left in a hurry. You were later told by Marinette that someone found out about what he was doing,and he had escaped before someone could even speak to him. So he just left without saying anything,without saying goodbye.

*One year later*

It had already been a year since he left and it was time again for the season's celebration.

“Are you alright?” Marinette asked,putting her hand on your shoulder.

“It’s weird to be celebrating today. It’s been a year since he left,I just can’t stop thinking about him”

“I miss him too,but we just have to move on”

“I don’t understand how everyone can just move on like he was never a part of our lives!” You hadn’t realized that you yelled until everyone was staring at you. You left as quickly as you could. Flying up into one of the trees that let you see the festival still,you just sat there. This was where the two of you would hide when you didn't want someone to find you. Everyone was at the celebration so it was strange to see someone fly by you,you flew behind them,ducing in between the trees so that they wouldn’t see you. They looked extremely familiar but you couldn’t see their face. You saw them fly behind the audience in the stadium,throwing around some pink glitter that made flowers grow. That wasn’t glitter, it was pink pixie dust,and there was only one person who knew how to do that. “Luka” You whispered,feeling like saying his name would somehow prove to you that it was really him. The flowers bloomed and you saw everyone fall asleep and him flying away,towards the pixie dust tree. You followed behind him,until you reached the tree. He immediately made his way to the room with the blue dust,you heard the clicking of the lock followed by it opening. Peaking your head through you finally got a good look at him,it really was him,he was back. He was back,but he was back to take more dust,not for anything else. You were the only one who could stop him right now,you just hoped he’d actually listen to you. You peaked through again and he was gone,but you didn’t see him fly out and all the dust was still there. You took one step in,looking around. He quickly jumped in front of you,pushing you back against the wall. His sword against your throat,which quickly dropped to the ground when he finally looked at you.

“Y/N”

“Hey,Bluebell” You could see his eyes get softer and like they could flood with tears at any moment. He hugged you,wrapping his arms around you as tightly as he could as you did the same. He suddenly pulled away from you to grab the blue dust before turning back to you again.

"I know I left without a word and I have a lot of explaining to do,but please come with me"

"Luka,I-" You were going to say no,but all you could think of was how everyone moved on with their lives and did not care where he was or if he was even okay. You felt like the only one who cared and you weren't going to make him feel like you didn't. You weren't going to pretend like he was never a part of your life. "Of course I'll go with you"

"You truly are the only one that understands me. Come on you're going to love my boat" He took your hand as you flew,he led you to the coast.

The ship was beautiful as he said,he had a small crew but they seemed to be close,it gave you some comfort knowing that he had someone there and wasn't completely alone. They quickly welcomed you into the group. They set sail and gathered on the deck to just talk,they kept asking questions about you which wasn't exactly surprising. You answer what you were comfortable with until Luka stood up which made everyone stop and look at him.

"It's getting late,everyone get some sleep, we have a long day ahead of us. Y/N come with me" You followed close behind him,he started talking about the dust and what he learned.

"Luka" He stopped and turned to face you,giving you his full attention. "You said you'd explain" He sighed,his face falling. You knew this wasn't going to be pleasant but you had to know. He sat down at the table in his workshop,gesturing for you to sit down which you did.

"After I ran out of the blue dust I tried to get more,which was way too easy" He said,bragging about it but simultaneously bringing up a really good point. "Anyway I was found out when someone noticed some pink dust on my arm,I was kicked out" He paused for a moment "so I left because I didn't want to get you in trouble"

"You know I would've left with you"

"I know"

“Well I’m with you now and I’m not going anywhere”

~~~~

@aagn360

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