camgirl yae miko and ei(separate) where they're usually alone fucking themselves but one day they decided to have reader to fuck them instead

So, it's a date?

Thank you for the request anon! I hope you enjoy it. I assumed the reader was fem? Please correct me if you wanted gn or male reader!!! I wasn't really feeling the smut so I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanted I also don't really how to write camgirl so I hope this will suffice.... Please Enjoy.

This takes place like in a more modern time. LIKE MODERN TECHNOLOGY EXISTS BUT ITS STILL TEYVAT CURRENT TIME! hope this makes sense :(...

word count: 3,046

WARNING: SMUT!! MINORS READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

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You sat down on a nice padded chair, pulling your book, notebook, and pen out you placed them down. You skimmed through the book, another romance book about teen lovers with unexplainable powers. Maybe Miko would like this one? Hmmm… You only knew her for a few weeks, sure you've had multiple book discussions before but you could never really tell if she was enjoying these little sessions as much as you did. While skimming through the pages you're startled by a hot breath swirling itself around the shell of your ear, gasping sharply you turn and see the culprit herself, Miko. "M-Miko?! A warning would've been nice?! You nearly scared me to death…" she placed two drinks down on the table, "What's that? I can't play a harmless prank on my dearest Y/n?" Deeply blushing at her remark, you grasp the shell of your ear. "I-its fine… I guess…" you mumble turning the other way and smiling softly. "Ah, there's my shy book partner, hehe." Clearing your throat, you take a sip of the drink she brought you both, "Mmm this flavor is new. What kind is it?" "It's an aromatic blend, preserved Sakura petals, boiled and brewed especially for you." you took another sip, tilting your head, "For me?" she smiled slyly, "Yes, I commissioned them to make this special brew for us today!" blushing you stare into the cup, a reflection of you flustered self makes itself known. Ahhh how you wished to confess your true feelings towards the sly kitsune, her soft, slender fingers combing through your hair, looking up you see her sneaky smile… ahhh a dream that would be "Y/n? Are you even listening to me right now?" Eyes widening you look up from your cup sweating bullets you gulp before asking what she had said. With a playful sigh, she combs through her thick silky her she looks at you endearingly, "I was asking if you wanted to go on a date in a few days. Of course, if you don't want to then-" "YES." you shout shooting up from your seat towering over her. Slumping back down as quickly as you did up, "Ehem… I mean, yes, Miko. I would love that." She giggles at how quickly your demeanor can change when you get excited. "Good. We'll settle the date after our meeting." "Oh yes- the books!" you pick up the book you were currently reading and hand it to her. "Let's see what we have here…'

It seemed like her gaze lasted on you more than it did on the panels of the book.

"And that's why I think the mc should end up with their childhood best friend!" You close the book with a loud 'THUD' "That's a nice point but don't you think this newly introduced bad boy would make much more sense? He can help the mc unlock her true potential with her powers. Plus I think they would make a lovely couple!" Miko retorted, "Agh, you're missing the point here…" Hanging your head in disapproval she giggled as she took one final sip from her drink. "Whatever you say Dear… Ah before we wrap this up how about we settle on a date and time?" smirking playfully she watched as you fiddled with your hair. "Well when are you free?" you asked avoiding eye contact, "I'm free this Saturday. How does that sound?" sitting there you wonder if you have anything planned. "Hm, Yes- I should be free. What time works best for you?" "5:30 sharp." you make a mental note of the time, "Where should we meet?" "The Grand Narukami Shrine. All the other shrine maidens should be off duty by then, so we'll have the whole place to ourselves. Does that sound good?" "Yes of course.” you replied full of glee. She picked up her empty drink and bowed, "I hope to see you then. Farewell, Y/n."

Today was the day! Your first official date with THE Yae Miko. Sure, you knew nothing about her but this would be the perfect opportunity! Slipping on your cute frilly dress you were sure Miko would like, a pair of Mary Jane heels specially imported from Mondstadt, you slipped your purse over your shoulder. Making your way over you begin to compile a list of things to talk about, her hobbies, favorite foods, favorite color if she's ever been on a date with anyone else? No, scratch that one. Oh well, you had a whole hour to think of funny jokes, interesting topics, etc.

You finally made it up the mountain, gosh you were hoping she had a few snacks prepared because you were starving… Oh? Looking around you notice she wasn't there to greet you, well it's not like she ever said she was… You walk around the shrine buildings and she's nowhere to be seen. Maybe she's inside? You open one of the doors and you hear faint moaning… Miko? Oh no. What if she's in trouble? You rush in quietly turning the corner and…

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Oh my god. Yae was hunched over her tongue lolling out as she rode her above-average-sized dildo. She covered her mouth with her free hand while the other fondled her breast. All you could do was stand there in shock and watch. Was the head of The Grand Narukami shrine really doing this? ON THE SHRINE GROUNDS? WHAT IF SOMEBODY FOUND OUT? Wait, that's the least of your worries right now… You glance at her again, she's wearing a harness that squeezes her perfectly shaped breasts, a drop shoulder sweater that leaves her chest exposed, and pretty pink garter belts that hold up her sheer stockings that were a size too small for her voluptuous tighs. Oh, how you dreamed of them around your head… Miko's small laptop went off with a 'ding' noise, she let out a small 'Thank You' as she began to ride the toy faster, wet noises and whimpers echoed against the walls. After a few more thrusts she slammed her hips down with a loud whimper as she came undone on the toy. Getting up and off of it she looked into her camera and read a few things along with a handful of usernames. "Ah Thank you for all the generous donations~! I'll be taking a quick break for now, please leave some suggestions on what you want me to do next. Like should I try the new Mitachurl toy I just received in the mail? I'll be back!" with a quick press of a button she muted herself and her screen changed to a pretty pink and a 'Stream starting soon~!'

Yae got walked over to you smiling slyly, "So my dearest? How did you like the show? Surely that was enough to get you worked up and ready." Taking a small step back you struggle to speak, "Miko I- I thought this was gonna be a date? T-this is…" you turn away with a deep blush. "This is- Gonna be one date to remember wouldn't you say, Y/n? Please, I saw the way you eyed me down like a lustful hound. C'monn it won't be that bad~" she pinned you against the wall and nipped at your neck, "You know you want this, Y/n. You can't hide your true intentions from me silly~" You could feel her electrifying gaze on you. Letting out a deep sigh you agree. "Fine, only because it's you." Yae smiles happily clasping her hand together before she began to hastily undress you. "Let's get this pretty dress off and oh my! Where did you get these shoes? They are sooo cute! Y/n, dearest, you're gonna have to take me shopping sometime!" you let out a quick 'haha of course' before she pulled your cute lace panties down. "Oh my~ someone is excited~" she stared at your cute little pussy before taking your last piece of clothing off.

"Okay, so here is how this is gonna go, we're gonna have a bit of fun edging each other until we hear a 'ding' when we hear that 'ding' that means we can make each other cum, then rinse and repeat with different toys. Got it, Love?" you nod before a question comes to mind, "Wait- will everyone know it's me, or like am I gonna get publicly shamed?" Yae is glad you're so smart, "No, this stream is strictly for those who make great donations to the shrine. So you won't have to worry about any of your friends or family seeing this. Now, let's start~"

The stream starts back up and you lean into Miko shyly hiding your bare body. "Ah, I'm back everyone, and with a guest! Please welcome our lovely guest today, "Ai." Okay, that clearly isn't your name, it's just some random name Miko made up to protect your identity (even though you'll be seen naked on camera…) "H-hello everybody!" you wave shyly at the camera a little camera shy. "Let's see… How much have we ma- Er, I mean… Which toy got the most votes, let's see!" Yae scrolled around and pulled up a poll, "Mitachurl" was the number one. "Oh~ It seems Mitachurl is the winner of this round!" she opened the box next to her and pulled out this massive toy. Was she really gonna fuck you with this? Surely not, right? THIS COULD LITERALLY SPLIT YOU IN HALF… Taking out a bottle of lube she poured some on it before she turned towards you smirking, "Okay Ai, just go ahead and lay back… Let mommy take care of everything~" Gulping loudly you lay back whispering some prayers.

Circling the tip around your clit she pressed a few kisses to your neck whispering, "If it ever becomes too much you have to tell me, okay?" you nod agreeing to do so. Pouring some lube onto your genitals she rubs a few more circles into your pussy, slowly inserting it into your aching hole. "Mmmffmm~" you cover your mouth biting onto your middle finger as your legs lifted up slightly. "Oh, my~ Don't shy away from me now" Placing wet kisses into your neck she pushes the dildo in your wet hole "MmmMMMmmm s-so big-" you feel a burning sensation throughout your lower region, nipples perking up as Miko suckles on them. "Okay Ai, I'm gonna put it in fully." nodding you brace yourself for the burning and splitting sensation, "okay, I'm ready." With a quick thrust, she slams it into you, thrusting it in and out slowly and harshly. "M-Miko! Its hurts- oh fuck~" Miko shuts you up with a deep passionate kiss, using her free hand to rub circles into your clit. Everything felt overwhelming, the pain began to fade away and pleasure made itself known. LIKE REALLY KNOWN. The thick and long dick was rubbing against your sweet velvety walls and all you could do was squirm and let out sweet little whimpers, practically begging Yae to fuck you faster and harder. Yae hummed softly as she looked over to her newest comments, still thrusting the toy in and out of you, "Ah thank you all for the sakura petals! If we can get a sum of 25,000 mora by the end of the night, I and Ai will take some lewd photos for you all! If you donate an extra 1,500 mora you may request us to do anything for these photos! Remember 25,000 mora and an extra 1,500 mora will we do anything you request!" she smirks before turning her attention back to you. "Please… Go faster Yae… Please~" she slows her paste, "Ah ah ah" pulling it out of your seeping wet hole she smirks, "It hasn't even been 10 minutes my sweetest sakura~ We have to go a biittt longer~ Cmon I know you can hold out a bit longer~" she pulls out another toy, a small egg-shaped one, with a click of a button it starts vibrating. Quickly holding it against your clit, thighs shaking as your tongue lolls out as you pant loudly, "Ohhh that feels s-so good~!" Spreading your legs apart further as you push your waist into the air to try and feel more of the harsh vibrations, Miko leaned over and placed her supple breast into your mouth, you weren't sure what to do so you began sucking on it. "Ah you dirty girl~" Now this turned some on some weird old guy and with a 'ding' you smiled happily, you could finally cum.

With a quick 'Thank You' Miko set the vibrator on max while she pulled herself up and put on a belt, buckling the Mitachurl onto her pelvis, and with a swift movement she slammed her hips into you. "OH MY GOD~!" she pulled her legs over her shoulders as she tried to get herself deeper into you. Pushing you into a mating press she began plowing into your aching cunt, "You like being mommy's little bitch, huh?" grabbing your hair she forced you to look into her deep purple eyes. "Yes, m-mommy~ Nnnghhh you're so big~ Go on and fuck my slutty little pussy~" Lapping at your neck, biting and kissing your neck she marks you as hers. 'DING' Miko lets out a surprised gasp, the vibrator toy she keeps on her puffy pink clit starts vibrating at max speed. Looks like someone donated a shit ton of my money to set that off. "My my… Looks like one of you sick old fucks really wanted the most out of this, huh~ Mmmm yes that feels so good~ You dirty old men better stroking your dicks to this, hahh… Play with your pretty red tips, oh yeah~ Just like that~ Oh you're so big aren't you?" Turning back to face you she places a quick wet kiss on your lips, "Ai I'm pulling out real quick." Gasping for air as she got up and off of you for a second, once she pulled out you whimpered. "Ah~ I'm so happy we reached our goal of 25,000 mora~ Thank You all! Since I'm so nice I'll go ahead and turn on the second camera!" Reaching over she clicked the camera to 'ON' She looked at the screen and moved it accordingly to face your neck and pretty supple breasts. "Okay, let us continue~" Aligning the dildo into your hole swiftly, hips slamming into you. Eyes rolling up you can feel the big slimy tip kissing your cervix, walls squeezing around the veiny dick. Yae's tits bounce against yours, and both of your tits are squishing together perfectly. "You like that, Ai~ You like how my big monster cock fucks you good, huh?" Nodding as you claw at her back desperately, "Yes~! Fuck me harder Mommy" Miko can feel herself coming undone, she was whimpering. "Yes~! Let mommy fuck your sluty little pussy… hah…" Your pussy was so done with being edged it felt like you were about to cum, finally. Biting down on your lower lip, and shutting your eyes closed everything felt heavy. Pussy quivering, clit heavy and puffy from all the stimulation. Swiftly she pulled out of you. "Hold on baby girl…" Discarding the strap she pulled the vibrators off both of your puffy red clits she scooted closer to you as she spread her legs. Slamming her hips into you, you began scissoring. "Mmmmffnnnmmmghh yes yes YES~ Just like that~ Bet your gonna cum all over this slutty pussy, huh~?" Miko turned towards the camera, "Yeah, you dirty old men better stroking your tiny dicks to this, yeah? Just like that, oohhhfuucckk~ What's that? Are you gonna cum? Just keep stroking, just like that." With a loud whine you came, "FUCK MOMMY~ IM CUMMING~ FEELS SO GOOD~" It felt like a water balloon burst, you squirted all over her pussy, and she pulled back as she placed her wet mouth onto your cunt. Slurping up all your juices, tongues circling your clit, you came again. It felt like your juices wouldn't stop pouring out. "Oho~ I can't believe I landed myself a squirter~ Oh how lucky am I?" You fall back, limp and sore, she wasn't done yet though. Crawling over you she placed her cunt over your face, "Open up~" you opened your mouth, tongue ready to be used. Grabbing onto a nearby pillow, Miko began riding your face. Your tongue flicked back and forth inside of her feeling her gummy walls on your tongue. "Hnnghhh~ You're so good for mommy, come on make her cum in your mouth. Show me you deserve it." Taking this as a challenge you start lapping at her puffy pink clit and placing wet kisses on it. Moaning into it Miko could feel the faint vibrations as straddled your face harsher, "Yesyesyes so good~" It felt like her pussy was fluttering. Finally, the cord in her snapped. "OHFUCK~ YESYES YESYES!! YOU'RE SO FUCKING GOOD FOR MOMMY, MY GOOD GIRL~!" Lapping up at her cum. It was sweet, not wasting a single drop.

Miko wobbled off of you as she caught her breath, "A-and that concludes today's stream! I- I hope you all enjoyed it~ Again thank you all so much for the donations. Alright, Ai, it's time to say goodbye." Struggling to get up you face towards the camera and flash the camera the cutest smile you can muster up, "T- Thank you all~ I'm so happy I was able to be part of the stream. I hope Ms. Yae Miko invites me on sometime again." Bowing out of respect you clasp your hands together and then lean against Miko closing your eyes. It seems like you were falling asleep, oh well you can't find the strength to walk off-camera… The last thing you heard was Miko saying her thank yous and goodbyes.

"Y/n, let's go get you washed up." The kitsune lifted you up like it was nothing, walking over to the bathroom. Being placed into the warm water felt nice your limbs relaxed as you let out a contempt sigh. "Sorry if I was too rough on you, those old perverts like to watch it rough." "It's okay, I don't mind." Huffing she smile dumbfounded before she poured the warm water onto your head…

"Y/n, are you comfortable?" "Yeah… I am so ready to sleep." She wrapped her slender arms around you, nuzzling into your neck, and inhaling your scent, "I'm glad. Good night, sweetheart." Humming in response you drifted off to sleep…

The Empresses Concubine

CW!! Raiden has a cock! +more pure smut

The Raiden Shoguns divine gaze was not to be spared lightly. If she were to look at you, you should bask in her divine presence as that meant she has picked you to be a one her concubine. Out of all people, you were chosen. This will be no easy feat but you did your best to satisfy the gods “special” request.

Naked with nothing but heels, leash, and a collar on you hold onto a piece of furniture, you are spread out before her, all your pride and shame have flown out the window. Her slim fingers trail down your back down and around the plump of your ass before she places a harsh slap against it.

Yelping out you try to contain your whimpers, she ghosts her fingers over the red hand marks laid on your ass. This goes on for a period of time before she demands you bend over the railing of her balcony. With a yank of your leash connected to your collar you’re already bent over, a whole nation- under her control- is bellow you. You’re praying no one is looking up to their gods abode- seeking answers to their prayers they shall not find, but a bitch a of concubine ready to serve the almighty shogun.

Her tip is leaking with precum as she pulls your leash, making your arch back as far as it can go. Stroking her massive cock with a couple of veins popping out, she slides the slightly violet tip into your cunt. It’s a tight fit, but she’s sure she can squeeze all her mass in- no, she will. She needs to feel your spongy walls around her cock, needs to feel your warmth milking her dry as she pumps it in and out of you. Needs you to feel her twitch inside of you after she dumps her load into you for the nth time, only to flip you as she spreads you legs as far as she can before she takes you missionary. The way her big balls slap against the bottom of your pussy, slick from your sopping wet hole make a loud ‘plap plap plap’ noise every time she thrusts balls deep into you. The way you make her feel from the tip to the base a sweet and beautiful bliss she’s been chasing for an eternity- an orgasm that makes her wail as she bites into your neck to subdue her loud cries of pleasure.

While you can only babble loud cries begging and praising her to stop, for more, something in between. The string in your belly has long since snapped and all you can feel is an overwhelming pleasure inside- the way her pelvis rubs into your overstimulated clit, the way it feels so nice and warm all throughout your wet pussy, looking down you notice a ring of cum around the base of her cock. Oh how lewd this all was.

She thrusts one last time before picking you up and taking you to your now shared bed before lying you down (she’s still inside of you) then throwing your legs over your shoulders, she’s signing you praises on how she knows your body probably hurts from being stretched in a weird way but she’s gonna make you feel so so, so good if you just let her take care of you.

Once she starts thrusting again you can already feel yourself cumming. You, absolutely cock drunk, call her daddy. Oh and she’s 100% into it. Starting off slow she asks, “What was that, Darling?” you can try to hide all you want but she’s not gonna take no for an answer. “Did you just call me ‘daddy’?” if you nod you can bet she’s breeding you till the morning. All her other concubines will hear you yelling “daddy” over and over again all night.

You can be sure that you’ll be promoted from concubine to empress immediately after your night together. Oh, and you can be sure that you’re coming out pregnant and your mind absolutely broken from being fucked so good by the Raiden Shogun. Whether it be the puppet or Ei, you’re going to be fucked so well, just as a pretty/handsome empress should.

THANK YOU FOR READING!! :3

Here we go again~! Part II ~!!!! (● ˃̶͈̀~˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

HU TAO

About [F/N] ( Open Minded) : Aiya?? [F/N]?? Of course, I know [F/N]~! They’re an adventurer!!! They’re one of the few that bought my discount coupons ~! They said if they died on one of their adventures, they were in my capable hands~! Hehe~! If only others were as open minded, as they are. Truly, adventuring is a dangerous business! In all honesty [F/N]’s really brave! I mean, they risk being my customer every day, after all!!! Oho? Too morbid for you? Boo. You’re boring.

About [F/N] ( Writing) : Ahhh~! To be allowed to read their lyrics~! I still can’t believe they didn’t tell me that they wrote! I had to hear it from Xinyan, and she didn’t even mean to let it slip. We were just discussing her new song and pow!!! Hehehe. Still, they get soooo flustered! [F/N]’s always been really hard to tease, but now I have a secret weapon ~! They’re super shy about their talents~! Now, now~! This is my secret weapon, mkay? I’m trusting you with it, so you’ll have to take it with you to the grave…

YANFEI

About [F/N] : Oh!!! I’ve heard of them!!! They’re really hard working!!! They’re an adventurer, right??? You should give them my card! If they run into any trouble, I’m sure I can sort things out for them! Besides, I’ve been wanting a chance to meet them for agessss!!! Well, yes! I’ve heard very good things!!!

YELAN

About [F/N] ( Impressions) : Huh? You’re curious about them? They don’t strike me as the sort to get into any trouble, though they can be a bit too trusting at times. That’s reckless and I’ve told them as much before. Still, it’s undeniable that they’re competent in taking care of themselves. Otherwise, I’d be a little more insistent that they watch their back.

About [F/N] (Work) : We’ve worked together a few times in the past. Ningguang needed an extra hand, and the Adventurer’s Guild is convenient. They’re surprisingly good at martial arts, as kind as they are, I’d originally thought they’d be a bit softer. Goes to show, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

KEQING

About [F/N] : Ah, the adventurer. I met them once when we were both in the wilderness. I showed them how I made my electro lanterns, and in turn they gave me their recipe for a disinfecting salve. They’re well versed in exploration and seemingly competent. Very straightforward, as well, if not a bit… Hm… Soft?

NINGGUANG

About [F/N] ( Deadlines ) : Ah? The adventurer? They’re very good at what they do. I’ve commissioned them specifically, several times. Whether it be retrieving my investments from treasure hoarders, or picking up a simple package, they’ve never failed to meet a deadline. Their work is excellent, which is not something I would say lightly.

About [F/N] ( Personality ) : Not only are they a good worker, but they’re charismatic as well. Perhaps, it’s their artistic nature, but that silver tongue of theirs is often put to good use. They have a knack for smoothing out conflicts. I’ve heard others say that [F/N] is soft, I disagree: they’re sharp enough to know when to act a certain way. They’re a good person to have on your side, if you’re in need of assistance.

GANYU

About [F/N] : I’ve seen them a few times running errands for Lady Ningguang. I feel for them, as they’re often as busy as I am. Still, I cannot deny that they’re a good worker! I haven’t heard anyone say a single negative thing about them, regarding their work. Their personality? Well, I can’t say for sure, but I’ve heard that they’re actually rather cunning…

BEIDOU

About [F/N] : [F/N]? That Adventurer? I don’t know them very well, though I believe they’re friends with Kazuha. They helped him load some stuff on the Cruxx once, in exchange for learning that leaf whistling trick that he does. Weird trade off, in my opinion, but whatever floats their boat. Kazuha’s a good judge of character, and I’ve heard good things from Ningguang, so they’re cool in my books.

Prompt #29: Contravention - An

Content Warning:  inferred underage sexual abuse, violence, murder, yakuza

It was going to be a long, long day.  An could feel the headache already starting to build behind his temples as he listened to the petty bureaucrat drone on about the damage done to the buildings road near the docks.  Damage done by his pupil and bodyguard while the pair tried to escape the trap laid for them.  Damage done to buildings and roads claimed and protected by Sugisekki-Kai.  Buildings and roads that were already being repaired far more efficiently and thoroughly than any public works commission could manage.  Not only repaired, but improved and the impacted families were given shelter and compensation for their damaged goods already.

Yet, this pompous, self important, little manling showed up with supposed proof that Sugisekki-Kai was responsible for the damages and should be paying Kugane the appropriate amount to repair them.  Which of course meant lining the pockets of the sniveling worm An was forced to listen to.  His placid gaze aimed upwards towards the man’s face so it looked like he was paying polite attention instead of imagining all the different ways he could make the man scream as payback for the inconvenience of taking up his time.  

Yet, something about the man was familiar. So as the waste of space and breath continued to ramble about the consequences of fighting in Kugane, An dug through all the various bits and pieces of information gathered on the public officials over his years serving the Family.  Ahhh, then it clicked.  Of course.  No wonder he was so disgusted.  Nothing was proven, but there was enough crumbs to put the pieces together if one was smart enough to do so.  Fortunately, An was more than capable of such.  He picked up his cup of tea, finished it, and set it down with a distinct clink of china.  It was so out of place that the blustering buffoon stumbled on his words which made the perfect opening for An to take over.  “I assure you that repairs are already being done, while we have no connection to the events that caused the damage we do care for the people who live in the neighborhood.  Many of them work for us and it is impossible for someone to work well if they are preoccupied with the safety of their children and family.”  “It is not your place to conduct these repairs, the roads are public pro-” “It is done as a courtesy since the buildings are not.  There are plenty of young men who are just old enough to want to be called men but young enough to be prone to trouble who were able to be put to work.  It keeps them busy and from doing things they should not be participating in and earning some money for their families in a constructive way.  It’s important to protect our youth, don’t you think Sir...”  An tipped his head as if trying to remember the man’s name then shrugs it off, dismissing it as unimportant.  The official started to bluster, but An simply stood up drawing his hand, palm down, through the air like one might a knife to cut him off.  “Jin Huian is one such young man, he was almost a tragedy.  But he’s turned his life around since he started working for us.”  An’s eyes focus sharply on the worm, any hint of polite interest gone from his eyes.  Instead they were sharp and unyielding.  “It’s always for the best when someone overcomes hardship, don’t you think?” The man paled at the name and was already standing by the time An asked his question.  “Yes, yes, of course.  I see you have it all in hand.  I won’t bother you any longer.  Good day.” If that wasn’t an admission of guilt then the petite raen would eat his geta. An doesn’t say a thing, keeping his eyes pinned on the man’s back as he walks away.  It was tempting to drop him where he stood, but it would be too obvious.  Instead he waited until the door to the room closed, then gestured to one of the servants standing in the corners.  The woman bowed in response, then placed her hand flat upon a nearby section of the wall which slid open so she could walk through.  No one mourned the worm when he didn’t show up for work the next day.  Particularly with how his body was found, genitalia mutilated and stuffed into his mouth as a gag. Even the Sekiseigumi understood that message and started looking into the man’s contacts. A few weeks later there was an empty storefront in the red light district, the owners seemingly abandoned the building out of the blue while the gaol was significantly fuller that same evening.  Funny how things sort themselves out.  

Breaking news: local werewolf and local troublemaker are soft for each other.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS! @annasassiart I am living for how happy they are! Thank you for this stunning piece of art💕

daily angst anonymous, hi hi. happy late thanksgiving uhh yeah. your writing is amazing as always so here we go! How about ayaka kamisato with a bodyguard!gn!reader who falls inlove with each but reader is dying as they confess their love for each other lol</3

Ayaka With a Dying Bodyguard S/O

Character: Ayaka x gn!reader

Warnings: blood, death

A/n: hi hi <3

Ahhh I’m embarrassed I realize this was submitted in November and it’s like January now, I hope this isn’t too late

• At first Ayaka was resistant to getting a bodyguard. Ayato insisted even though he knew better than anyone her capabilities in battle. So she was determined to give you the cold shoulder even before meeting you in an attempt to chase you away.

• When you first saw the Shirasagi Himegimi her beauty was unrivaled. Even though her face was covered behind her signature fan, everything about her spoke to you, sending you wavelengths that this was the woman you’d give your life for.

• Even if she was cold to you, the more you put your life on the line for her, the more you both warmed up to one another. Even though it was your job, because of your protective nature, she eventually caught feelings for you as well.

• This type of relationship was forbidden, and you both knew full well the consequences. So as a result neither of you confessed your feelings. Though some outsiders would say it was quite obvious.

You would catch Ayaka giving you small giggles and winks throughout the service the Yashiro Commission was hosting. Your job was to stay by her side and protect her, something you were determined to carry out even if it meant sacrificing yourself. 

When the clock struck midnight Ayaka asked you to accompany her to the balcony, her social battery had taken a blow after International acting with so many guests of high importance. She rested her body on the balcony railing, folding her fan to expose her face for the first time this night to show her relaxation around you. You stood behind her, your posture still as stiff as ever, unwilling to budge from your role by letting your guard down. 

You managed to catch a glimpse of her face, so elegant and so poise. Something about the young woman absolutely left you speechless, she took your breath away, which allowed you to perform your job so valiantly. “You can loosen up around me,” Ayaka said, her tone of voice was shaky, opposing her message to you. It was obvious the princess was still shy around you even after all you’d been through.

“I wish I could, but I fear something might happen to you. If I let my guard down I won't be able to perform my job optimally,” You walked up to the railing next to her, still not willing to rest on it as she was to show camaraderie. The stars shined like stars in her pale blue eyes, only for her to look at you with those same mesmerized eyes. You swore at this very moment if the Archon’s permitted it you would’ve confessed your undying love to her.

As if bad luck had struck upon you instead, from your peripheral you saw a cloaked figure approach Ayaka. Almost out of instinct, you wrapped Ayaka with your own body to shield her, not being able to react fast enough to counter the attack. A sharp pain struck your lower back, like a dagger had been shifted through your guts.

The only things you could remember were muffled sounds and blurry vision of the next events. What you could make out of the chaos was the dark figure being taken down by nearby Shogunate Infantry. They were far too late however, your blood loss was moving much faster than the medical team took to reach your location. 

Ayaka was holding your dying body in her arms, her navy blue skirt being coated in a deep layer of your blood. She had a panicked look, her eyes glossy as tears streamed down her cheeks. A face full of far too much concern for a mere servant of the Kamisato Household. “You should save your tears for something greater. You’re alive and well, I’ve done my job. Be happy will you?” you barely managed to say.

She shook her head in denial. “You must know... you were far more than just my bodyguard to me. Save your strength, whatever you have to say could not be more important than your life,” she said, looking around for medical assistance.

“If possible Lady Kamisato I would die over and over again… just to be able to protect you for all of eternity,” even on the brink of death her beauty exceeded all expectations. “If I am reborn in another life, would you accept me by your side?”

“I thought I had told you to save your strength,” she panicked. “If you talk like that I might really lose you, please remain silent.” Before she knew it, life had already faded from your eyes. She looked at you in pure disbelief, your body draining of natural warmth. She rested her head on your chest, trying to remember anything of you fondly. Your scent, the feeling of your skin, even the taste of your lips.

If only you two had a different relationship, maybe you would’ve been together.

I also love those winter prompts! Would I be able to request 💙💙💙 for Bucky with Steve and Tony for a ❄️ scenario? Currently in a winterironshield mood

ahhh me TOO 🥺i'm going to blame (affectionate) @softersteve for that bc of her very soft winterironshield fic the other day 😌... I hope you enjoy a small soft moment and a grumpy, cute sick bucky <3

(cold/flu symptoms + snow day)

****

"Okay, sweetheart, I love you but there's no way you're actually reading that," Tony says, nodding at the tablet in Bucky's lap. His eyes are glassy, almost dazed, and the only thing he looks like he should be doing is napping.

"That's what I said," Steve pipes up, joining them in the living room. "And he calls me stubborn." He's carrying a mug of something hot and steaming that he sets on the coffee table in front of Bucky.

"You are s-stubborn," Bucky huffs, though between his scratchy throat and congestion, there's no bite to his words. Before anyone can reply, Bucky swipes at his nose, eyes going even more hazy and unfocused, then sneezes into the crook of his elbow.

“uhh… huhhIShh!” It's soft and strong enough that he sniffles tentatively a few times, then grabs a handful of tissues from the box by his feet.

"Bless you," Tony says, rubbing his shoulder. "You're both stubborn, by the way," he adds, smiling fondly at the two of them. "Unlike me, who is notoriously easy-going."

Steve can't suppress a laugh at this, and Bucky manages a small smile before his nose twitches again, right around the edges, and he leans into his handful of tissues as another rush of sneezes shivers through him.

"h’Uhh… uhhISh! Ittchshhh! Hiiisshh’uuh!”

Steve frowns, his forehead creased with worry as he joins the two of them on the couch. "God bless you, Buck," he murmurs before leaning in and nuzzling a kiss to his cheek. "You never sneeze this much."

Bucky's hair had been up in a haphazard ponytail that's rapidly falling apart, and Steve pushes some of the fallen strands back away from his face, letting his hands linger at Bucky's forehead. "You feel a little warm," he says, looking up at Tony to confirm.

Bucky groans as Tony presses a hand to his cheek. "You are pretty hot, Buckybot, and not in the good way. Does your arm feel okay?"

"A little sore, but no more than the rest of me," Bucky admits. He rubs a hand over his face, and when he lets it fall, he looks more flushed and tired than he had even a few minutes ago.

Steve makes a soft, concerned sound. "I can get the thermometer, but I know we have Tylenol in the bathroom, that should help with your fever. We have the liquid kind you like."

Bucky looks ready to protest, so Tony takes the opportunity to drape a blanket over him, smiling when he doesn't hesitate to curl into the warmth of it.

"Apparently Wilson was out of commission with this for almost week, so you might as well get comfortable," Tony says. He gestures to the window. "Not like there's anything better to do on a day like this. anyway."

The snow had started yesterday, coming down steadily through the night and into this morning, with no signs of stopping. Tony's thankful for it, though: it gives them all an excuse to stay right here and do exactly nothing for the rest of the day.

"Great, I'll be sure to thank him for this next time I see him," Bucky sighs. He scrubs at his nose, apparently trying to will away the ticklish feeling in his sinuses, though it's to no avail.

Bucky's breath catches a few times, almost uncertainly until the itch crests into two more stuffy, wet sneezes. "uhhISshhhiew! eisshhOO! Ugh, I'm sorry," he says, sniffling. He sounds even more stuffed up than he had before, his words losing definition as he snuffles through his cold.

"Aw c'mon Buck," Steve says, softer now, "a snow day'll be nice. We can watch that baking show you like, and you can pretend to enjoy the tea I made." He snuggles himself in closer to Bucky on the couch, letting him rest his head against his shoulder. Tony smiles, watching as Bucky all but melts into the hug.

"And I'll order us takeout from Anthony's," Tony adds.

By now he and Steve are on either side of Bucky on the couch, the tablet sitting forgotten on the coffee table, and Bucky looks like he might just be coming around to the idea of sick day snow day.

"That doesn't sound so bad," Bucky admits. He turns and presses his face into Steve's shoulder, sniffling slightly.

With the snow falling down around them, and a day to spend on the couch with the loves of his life, Tony thinks it sounds just about perfect.

Errand Boys

A Mitsuhide Akechi fanfiction, this scene takes place well after the events of the romantic epilogue. Approx. 1800 words. Miyake meets up with the girls from MC's modern day job and Mitsuhide goes shopping!

First: Mitsuhide and the Maiden

Previous: Will and Skill

Miyake knew nothing about wedding dresses. He didn’t want to go on this ‘adventure’ but Sasuke and Mitsuhide abandoned him to it. Which was how he found himself walking into a familiar sewing shop with Lady Akechi. Four familiar faces greeted them with smiles.

Kei smiled mischievously as she saw who it was. Masako blushed and hurried to the back, while Aiko and Takara hurried forward to welcome them into the shop. For several minutes, Miyake was able to blend into the background, listening as they chatted excitedly about some designs Lady Akechi sent them.

Sadly, his peace was not meant to last. Kei sidled up to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Miss me?”

“Uhm . . . no?” Miyake took a step away.

“Kei! Leave him be. Look! You already turned his head into a tomato!” Lady Akechi came to his rescue, fending off her fellow seamstress.

The tall girl shrugged. “I was just teasing. Anyway. You have another week on that last commission. What brings you by?”

“Yes, do share,” Takara purred. Her round cheeks were pink and her eyes shone with excitement as if she already guessed the reason for their visit.

“I need a wedding dress. It’s too big of a project to make all by myself, so I was hoping . . . I thought maybe I could commission it? And we could work on it together.” Lady Akechi swallowed nervously.

Miyake watched the girls’ faces. Delight, jealousy, razor-sharp focus, and smiles all around. The room burst into another round of excited chatter as the chatelaine gave them an amended version of their situation. The wormhole turned into a job that might call them back any moment, and her father’s ultimatum was turned into their idea to make it official before she moved back with Mitsuhide.

Takara leaned on the counter. “So, tell me the truth. Are you preggers? Is that why you need to get married right now?”

“What? No!”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! Sure as I can be.” Lady Akechi frowned. “Anyway, what’s up with the personal questions? Do you quiz all your clients?”

Takara laughed. “Sometimes. Especially when we need to consider it for the dress fit. But if you’re sure . . .”

“I am!”

Masako giggled. “You heard her. But hey! If she’s not having a baby, that means Miyake is still single.”

Two sets of eyes landed on the warrior and he felt stripped where he was standing. “Ah. Uhm. I am . . .” He looked at his lady for help but she just shrugged. “Single.” His shoulders fell.

“Ahhh, look what you did, Masako! Now he’s all sad.” Kei shook her head. “I think we should take him out for some sweets. Cheer him up.”

Aiko nodded. “Yes, perfect. Get him out of our hair while we do the fitting.”

“What? I can’t leave my lady here alone. Lord Akechi would-”

“Miyake, why don’t you go and grab something to eat. I’ll be fine. We’ll just be measuring and looking at fabric. Nothing even remotely dangerous. I promise.” The chatelaine grinned. “Besides, I think if you don’t go out with them, they will just keep teasing you.”

The warrior sighed. “Alright. But don’t leave this shop until I get back. And no sharp objects. Don’t pick up anything heavy.”

Lady Akechi laughed. “Yes, yes, mother hen. Keep it up and I’ll change your name to little Hideyoshi. Go and have a good time.” She shooed him out with Masako and Kei in tow.

Miyake was nervous. He wasn’t sure what they wanted from him, or how he ought to act.

Kei and Masako had a thousand questions once they got him alone. Where was he from, what work did he do, had he gone to college. Miyake felt entirely out of his depth, but he remembered one of Mitsuhide’s tactics. Instead of answering, ask.

It worked like a charm. The women went from interrogation to telling stories about their lives and experience. Kei, it turned out, got picked on a lot for being so tall. And Masako had never had a boyfriend. Both were college graduates and loved making clothes almost as much as Lady Akechi did.

“I wish there were more guys like you, Miyake,” Kei sighed. “Are you really going back to your home town soon? I’d love to meet you for coffee or a drink.”

“Same,” Masako smiled. “It wouldn’t have to be a date. You’re just the first guy I’ve met that listens.”

Miyake was impressed again at his lord’s genius. Apparently, if you listened to women, they thought you were amazing. Perhaps that was how he’d seduced the beautiful chatelaine. “I’m sure we’ll be back a few times to work on the wedding dress. I’d be happy to go out with you then, as long as Lady Akechi is safe.”

“Such a dedicated bodyguard.” Masako rested her chin on her hands. “It’s almost like a romance.”

“Except that she’s marrying your boss.” Kei added.

“Ah, yep. I don’t - Lady Akechi and I, we would never -”

The two women laughed. “It’s ok, Miyake. We’re only teasing,” Kei reassured him.

By the time they got back to the shop, the linen mock-up of the dress was almost complete. The chatelaine stood on a little raised platform, covered in pinned fabric as Takara and Aiko circled, adjusting the fabric and pins. It was hard to say what the finished dress would look like, but Miyake was impressed with this temporary version. It looked nothing like the wedding clothing of the Sengoku, but something of a blend between the kimono that he knew and western dresses.

“Do you think he will like it,” the chatelaine asked.

Miyake nodded. “Yes.” He took a step closer. “That’s a lot of fabric. It’s very plain though.”

“This is just to base the fabric cut and fit from. We picked something special for the dress.” Lady Akechi shared a secret smile with her friends. “I’ll show you as soon as the fabric comes in.”

He felt warm at the way she included him in her secrets. “I can’t wait.”

***

Mitsuhide entered the jewelry shop alone. He had no idea how modern trading for expensive items was done, but he was confident he could figure it out on the fly. He felt more himself after the hours spent training his bandits. More able to handle the strangeness of this age with the strategies he knew well.

There were glass enclosed cases with soft lighting and velvet pillows displaying a variety of rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. They all looked finely made, a glittering hoard of beautifully cut gems and polished metal.

A sales clerk hurried out to meet him. A small man with a moustache and dark brown eyes. He took in Mitsuhide’s fine clothes and regal bearing, and startled as he met Mitsuhide’s golden gaze, giving away his nervous constitution. “Welcome. Are you here for yourself or someone special?”

The question sounded scripted. If that was so, unsettling the trader would be as simple as pulling him off script. He took note of the name tag. “Ren. Are you the owner?”

“I - no. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t deal with hirelings. Is the owner here?” Mitsuhide made his voice as arrogant and cold as he could.

It worked as expected. The sales clerk puffed up, full of offended pride and a need to prove himself. “No, the owner is out. But I assure you, I am authorized to answer all questions and finalize any sale.”

Mitsuhide pursed his lips as if considering. “I suppose I can talk to you for now. I hope you won’t disappoint me. I hate wasting time.” He gestured to the displays. “I am looking for a ring for my fiancée. I hope you have something better than this trash.”

“Oh! Of-of course. This is just for our less discerning clientele. Please, let me show you to our private sitting room. I’ll bring out some pieces that are sure to catch your eye.”

Mitsuhide kept his severe expression as he was led to a comfortable room with plush seats and a wood counter. The sales clerk brought out loose gems and ring samples, and a sizing kit. Though Mitsuhide had no real idea of how to tell a gem’s value, he knew how to read body language. He was certain the clerk was unsettled now and eager to please. Perfect.

“As you can see, we have an excellent selection. Different cuts and sizes, with the highest color and clarity ratings. And for the setting, of course, you can choose one of the traditional designs or our jeweler can customize to your specifications.” The clerk looked up, hoping for some assurance this was good enough.

“This is your selection?” Mitsuhide kept his expression neutral.

The clerk eagerly set out the gems he was proudest of. Natural pearl, diamonds in several shades, sapphire. “These are our finest in stock. Of course, if you know what you want and it’s not here, I have contacts-”

Mitsuhide pointed to a gem that was almost the exact color of her eyes. “This one.”

They talked for several more minutes, mostly Ren explaining the best setting and metal to display the gem. Then he gave Mitsuhide the price. It was . . . expensive. More than double his whole stipend from the university. But he expected as much. He wanted his little one to have the best, and a treasure worthy of her was not going to come cheaply.

Of course, Mitsuhide did not come into this shop without a plan. “Do you accept gold and silver or should I liquidate my assets first?”

Ren looked at him, startled. “Gold and silver?”

“Yes. Is that going to be a problem?”

“I . . . no, we purchase both as one of our services so I could accept it as payment.” He looked intensely curious, but left it at that.

“I will bring payment tomorrow. I expect you to begin work on the setting today.”

Ren opened his mouth to protest but closed it again without a word. He nodded.

Mitsuhide left the shop and headed for the remains of his old castle. It was nothing now but a low stone wall across the lake from Azuchi, and a statue. He walked along the rock wall, looking for his sign. Eventually, he spotted it. A bellflower, etched into the rock. It was barely visible now, after 500 years of wear and tear.

The stone was still mortared solidly and took some time to work loose. Behind it, a rotted leather sack sat in a hole he’d bored into the rock. “Good.” He smiled thinly. This proved two things. One, that they would go home - a worry he hadn’t been willing to voice. And second, that he could assign himself actions now that would happen when he returned and could impact his time in the future.

It was a dangerous piece of knowledge. The rules of time travel were not clear. Even Sasuke was uncertain of much. This was a tactic he should use sparingly, but Mitsuhide was glad it worked. He had a backup plan, but preferred not to use it.

The leather sack was heavy, and in danger of tearing open from age. This wasn’t the place to open it so Mitsuhide tucked the bag away carefully and left to meet up with Sasuke.

Next: Heroes

;; 𝖆𝖑𝖇𝖊𝖉𝖔

otherwise read as: you’re a stressed out bitch and albedo is worried

--

❧ masterlist

Being an assistant to the Acting Grandmaster of Monstadt is no easy task. It was your job to make sure that Jean wouldn't get overworked again, and to keep her in tip-top shape.

When the job was offered up to you, you immediately accepted; Jean was a close friend of yours, and it hurt you to see her so stressed out every day while still tending to the everyday tasks of helping the citizens of Monstadt. You were willing to take on her mountains of work to give her a break, because Barbatos knows she deserves it. [perhaps he does-]

"Are you sure about this (Y/N)? It's a lot to get through, surely I can at least help somewhat-" You rolled your eyes at her, shooting her a playful smile.

"Jean! It's finee, I got this! You just go take a break, maybe go out for lunch with Lisa? I'm sure she would be more than happy to oblige!" You winked at her, laughing at her slightly flushed face

"Well, if you're sure, then I will be taking my leave. But please let me know if you need me to come back at any moment, and I will be sure to come and help." You turned her around by her shoulders, marching her out of her office and leading her to the doorway of the library.

"Now! Go and take a break! Go on a date and romance that-"

"(Y/N)!!" You giggled at her reddening state.

"Alright, alright...LISA!! JEAN'S HERE AND SHE HAS SOMETHING TO ASK!!" You called. You saluted to Jean, who was looking at you with panicked eyes.

"(Y/N)!!"

You raced back to her office, quickly grabbing the piles of paperwork and list of commissions to do today and sprinting down the steps into the basement of the headquarters. [idk where the lab is so bear with me here]

"(Y/N)!! Get back here!!" You could hear Jean yell in the distance.

As your assistant, it is my duty to help you with your future, and that includes matchmaking. You'll forgive me when you have a girlfriend.

"Albedo!! Door!!" You yelled out into the hallway. Sure enough, just as you were about to run into the door, it opened, letting you inside before closing swiftly behind you.

Panting, you heaved the piles of paperwork onto a nearby cluttered table, accidentally knocking over a few oddities.

"I was about to visit you, but it seems you visited me first." He chuckled.

Ahhh, cute!!

"Do you mind if I do this work in here? I wouldn't want someone to walk in looking for Jean and just find me lurking about." Albedo nodded, and you sighed, sitting down in a nearby chair and rolling your neck in preparation for the time that would be needed for the mountain of paperwork in front of you.

"Did you give Jean another break today?" Albedo asked softly.

"Yup! As her trusty assistant, I gave her a date as well!" He chuckled at this, wrapping his arms loosely around you from behind and resting his chin on your head.

"And I presume that's why you ran in here full speed?" An amused tone filled his voice, and you could imagine the playful smirk on his lips.

"Yup! Now, to get this work done!" You thought that once you started, Albedo would go and work on his experiments and whatnot, but to your surprise, he stayed behind you, watching as you filled out forms and whatnot for Jean.

"Albedo?" It had been almost half an hour, and while you not were displeased that he had stayed, you were a bit confused as to why.

"Ah...nevermind." Yeah, you weren't about to risk him leaving.

After a while, he got off and moved to the chair beside you, reaching to the main table in the middle of the room and grabbing his sketchbook and a pencil. He started sketching something on the paper, and you tried to lean over to see, but he angled himself back. You frowned, pouting as you laid your head on the table, continuing to sign papers.

"(Y/N), are you almost finished?"

"Not nearly, why?" Albedo let out a long sigh, not responding to your question. You brushed it off, not thinking much of his response.

--

Several hours passed by, and you were almost done with the paperwork. Albedo had stayed in the lab the entire time, sketching for a majority of the time, using the time he wasn't sketching to briefly tidy up a bit.

"(Y/N), are you done yet?" He asked, shutting his sketchbook and placing it on the table.

"Almost done, I probably need like another hour. I have no idea how Jean did this all by herself before..." Your head rested in the palm of your hand, your eyebrows furrowed as you thought of how exhausted Jean must have been, especially with the Fatui in the city, as well as the Stormterror threat that had happened a few months back.

If only I had noticed sooner...

Your pen paused against the parchment as you thought of your actions in the past.

"How about you finish the rest tomorrow (Y/N), and we can maybe grab some dinner and go home?" Albedo's hand gently grabbed the pen out of yours, setting it down on the table.

"No no, I should finish it now. It has to get done at some point; besides, I'm doing this for Jean. I told her it would get done, so it's going to get done." You picked the pen back up and continued on with doing the work, rapidly scribbling across the parchment as your eyes scanned over the document.

A frown appeared on Albedo's face. You hadn't told him, but he knew you felt guilty for not noticing Jean's fatigued and stressed self before. You didn't really notice it, but you were always working just as hard as Jean, just in a different way. On top of being Jean's assistant and taking on her work, you were always helping people around Monstadt with little errands, doing extra commissions on top of the ones assigned, attending to emergencies in Monstadt, Dragonspine, and Liyue, and so on.

He was getting worried about you; he didn't want you to end up fatigued like Jean was before. The only problem was that you were quite stubborn and didn't like to listen to other people when it came to your well-being. you always said that you would take a break if you weren't feeling well, but Albedo saw right through that lie.

"(Y/N), please. I'm worried about you." You looked up at him for a moment, your eyebrows furrowed in a confused look.

"Why are you worried about me? I'm fine Albedo, really." He merely sighed in response, his gloved fingers reaching out to gently brush your darkening eyebags. You looked to the side, groaning  

"You're reminding me of Jean when she kept overworking herself; she said the same thing to me. I don't want to see that happen to you (Y/N). It's not healthy to keep taking on all of the work, so please just come and rest. Do it for me?" You could see a glint of sadness and desperation in his eyes, and you nervously looked down at the documents before looking back to him.

There isn't too much, so I might be able to get the rest done tomorrow...

"Ahh, okay then, you've convinced me. Let's go." You stood up from the chair, stretching out before stacking up the papers before you left.

As you walked out of the lab with Albedo, he discarded his gloves and put them in his pocket, and laced your fingers together, enjoying the feeling of warmth from your hand. the two of you made your way to Good Hunter, quickly grabbing some food before heading home.

It was late at night, which meant that the stars were out and shining in their full glory. the moonlight poured out, spilling onto the streets with a milky glow.

"Albedo, thanks..." He looked towards you to find a most amazing sight indeed.

You shyly looked away, a red tint coloring your cheeks. As he looked at you, you slowly made eye contact with him, giving him a small smile.

His unoccupied hand shot up to cover to lower half of his face as he looked away; he could feel the intense flushing of his cheeks at the cute look you had sent him.

"Ah, it was my pleasure..."

Cute...

~~

GIFFING 101 - YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE ON HOW TO GIF

I have gotten many, many asks before about how I gif and I finally decided to make a tutorial. This is going to be very long, very image heavy and with a lot of details and examples. I mean it, I’m going through every, single aspect of giffing that I can possibly think of. From start to finish. And please read the disclaimer at the very start.

* I use a macbook pro but this should probably work on windows too!

I hate doing this but if this helped and you want to, please consider donating to my ko-fi or if you want, commission a theme or page from me at @amaanat <3

tutorial under cut, I hope it helps!

★★★★★

- CONTENTS 

disclaimer

what will you need to create gifs?

how to download videos?

extracting your scene from handbrake using VLC / built in video player

opening in photoshop

trimming, cropping and resizing videos

sharpening

colouring and psds

masks 

adding subtitles

editing frames / timeline speed

multiple gifs in one grid. 

actions

exporting the gif

last minute tips and extra links. 

★★★★★

- DISCLAIMER

First off, this is not meant as a post where I am saying look here, this is the only and perfect way of giffing. Not at all. When I started out, there were many tutorials available that helped me figure out how to gif, and I slowly developed my own style and I would like to create an in depth tutorial that helps you grasp the basics. Heck, make your gifs whatever way you want, go absolutely crazy on colours or whatever, this tutorial is just here to guide you through the process of gifmaking, because I know it can be very intimidating to people who are just getting into it. That is why I made this and why I spent 8 hours writing this, because I want others to know too and this is the kind of in depth tutorial I needed when I was starting out 4 years ago. Thanks for reading, hope it helps and go crazy ahhh go stupid. 

★★★★★

- what will you need to create gifs?

photoshop. I use photoshop CC 2020 on a mac and I pay monthly bc of student discount. There are many, many links you can find on @completeresources for downloads. You can use any photoshop you like, as long as you have the timeline option. 

Handbrake. This nifty program is used mostly to convert MKV files to MP4, but I also use it to quickly extract the part of the video I want, because opening an entire movie in photoshop can quickly clog up space bc of cache and it’s a pain to find that one second scene you want with that tiny scrollbar. Download it from here.

your video (downloading explained down below)

extras: VLC, just to find how many seconds the scene is at, so we can input the time in Handbrake. You can use any other player though for that step, I use VLC or Quicktime. Download VLC from here.

★★★★★

- how to download videos

Ok so I will quickly go through a few methods here for getting your clips. 

1. t*rrenting.

This is the most popular method for getting your film or tv episode. I personally get my t/rrents from rarbg dot to or if I am having trouble finding one, I go to 1337x dot to, because they compile them from different sites. I copy the magnet link and go to the qbittorrent application, import magnet link, choose the files I want and it downloads. Remember, the higher the seeder leecher ratio, the quicker it will download. 

But which file should I choose?? there’s so many? Well yes there are many many files for different movies. On RAR, I found more than 40 t/rrent files for Endgame. I think that generally, the 4/5 GB 1080p copies are just fine. I have compared giffing with a 60GB Interstellar Remux (which is directly ripped from bluray) file to giffing from a 4GB 1080 file, it literally gave me the same quality and the 1080 looked crisper. So yeah don’t kill your computers space, just go for those 3/4/5GB files. 

hot tip - don’t download from yify, the quality is way worse.

2. movies from twitter accounts such as logolessHD.

these accounts post MEGA links to movies and shows, but you will have to request to follow them to be able to get the links. Then you can download the movie from there. The accounts you can get these links from are here: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. The quality can be a bit less though compared to t/rrents. Here is a link to a tumblr blog with these kinds of downloads too. 

3. downloading from youtube.

ok, use 4kvideodownloader for this. It is incredibly easy to use, you just need the youtube link. Always Always go for 1080p, if you can’t then 720 at the most because otherwise quality gets really bad really fast. 

4. netflix / screenrecording

If you don’t want to download / can’t find something, try using netflix and screen recording. In my experience, SC only works on google chrome and not safari so jsyk!! Here is a tutorial on how to screen record on mac (or for quick access, click command+shift+5) and windows. 

NOTE: quicktime screen records at 60fps, which is nearly thrice the frame rate of movies and shows, so at the end you may end up with duplicate frames in the timeline of photoshop, so you will have to delete those frames one by one sorry. 

★★★★★

- extracting your scene from handbrake using VLC / built in video player

muahaha here’s where the magic starts to happen. Open handbrake and import your video. For this part I am going to use a scene of Keanu Reeves from the 2019 movie Always be my Maybe. I will demonstrate with that scene up until colouring, because then I will show how I colour different scenes!

So when you have opened the image in HB, you get this layout. (link to imgur)

it is a bit intimidating, I know. So basically, first, click on where it says chapters near the top right and click seconds. then, input the time you want to extract from the entire video. For the Keanu scene, that scene starts at 00:57:18 and ends at 00:57:21. These are not exact timings, I usually add an extra second so the entire scene is captured and I heavily recommend you do the same. 

Now down below, you can click browse and edit where your new video will be saved and you can also change the name of the new clip. Always ALWAYS remember to keep the .mp4 ending do not cut that part out!!! If the ending says .m4v change it to mp4!!

Ok then I undertake the following steps to ensure the video that will be exported is of the highest quality possible: 

Firstly, I uncheck all these three boxes: 

Then you see this bar here right? Well I will edit the dimensions, filters and video now. You don’t have to do anything for audio, subtitles or chapters so leaving that alone is best. Lets go to dimensions first.

Here are my settings for dimensions:

The storage size depends on if your file is 1080p or 720p. Most movies are shot in a ratio of 2.35:1, so if it does not say 1920x1080 like a 1080 file should be, don’t fret. The cut off parts are just the black bars you see when watching the movie. Handbrake doesn’t recognise nor convert them so that’s one less thing we have to worry about. 

Now onto filters. Literally do NOT change anything there. Leave the settings as they are, which is like this:

Finally, go to video. You will see this kind of window and these are my settings (imgur)

Firstly, leave video encoder at H264 or 265 depending on how your video is encoded. For the FPS, choose same as source for the framerate and click constant instead of variable!!! This will ensure your video is smooth. For quality, bring the slider all the way to the right. RF0 means it will be at the best quality possible. I didn’t edit the settings at the bottom at all so just leave them be.

Now click this green icon (imgur) at the top and your video will start encoding! It does not take long at all and then your video is ready to made into a nice lil gif!

★★★★★

- opening in photoshop

woohooo we got our video!! Ok now open photoshop. Click on file -> open:

now search for the file you extracted from VLC and import it! Now your screen will look like this (imgur). With a different video, of course lol. 

★★★★★

- trimming, cropping and resizing videos

ok so firstly, we will trim the video. As you can see in the image I linked in the step before, the screencap you see is of someone else in ABMM, not Keanu, like I want. So use this slider:

and click and drag it to where your scene begins and shows up in the window. Then, click the following button to split at playhead. 

This will split the clip and so the timeline and layers section will look like this (imgur) (mine has three sections because there was space before and after the keanu scene so I cut two parts which made three clips)

so now all there is left in trimming is delete the layers of the video you do not need! For me in that image it was layer 1 and 3!

cropping and resizing

This depends on the kind of gifset you want to make. This picture is a handy guide for resizing:

This post is also very very useful for resizing info

Ok now I will crop my gif. Click on this tool:

and now my interface looks like this. I am using the ratio 6 by 4 but you can use whatever you want. 

Ok now you may need to crop some black bars but since I don’t have to, I just moved the crop area around a bit and clicked enter to crop it. Just play around with sizes and whatnot, and get a feel of what you like!!

cropping tip: crop as close as you can to the edges. The more you zoom in, the more pixels that will be visible and it will make your gif extremely grainy!!

So now for resizing, go to image -> image size or click command-shift-i

and you will get this window. 

A LITTLE NOTE - I personally do not use automatic but a friend who shared her sharpening psd would prefer if I kept it secret, but automatic is what most people use and it is what I used up until november 2019 and it worked just fine.

Ok anyway now I want to make my gif 268px wide so I will input that as width and make sure you click this!! It makes sure your height and width are proportional!

ok now we have this. After you’ve done that, click ok!

congrats, you just resized a gif!! Your gif probably looks smaller now in the main window once you click ok, just zoom in to it! don’t worry about it looking bad quality, sharpening is next!

This is how my gif looks with trimming, cropping and resizing (with 0.05 speed)

★★★★★

- sharpening

Now we sharpen! Make sure your layer is selected Go to filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen and this window will pop up:

These are my settings which most people use. Just remove gaussian blur

I have more accurate and use legacy checked too!

click ok! Now ... your gif might look a bit oversharpened. That’s why we use a bit of gaussian blur. Go to filter -> blur -> gaussian blur.

now I think most people also use a 1.0 radius so set that and click ok.

But now your gif looks too blurry. Lets fix that. Double click the icon below in the layers panel

and adjust the opacity! My go to is between 25 to 35, just so the gif looks smooth!

Now we’re done with sharpening! This is how our gif looks with sharpening with 0.05 speed:

sweet right? Now .... the best and hardest part ... colouring!!!!

★★★★★

- colouring and psds

First I will shortly talk about psds. They are photoshop files, that save the entire document which means you can share it with someone after uploading it and when they download and open it, they can edit the layers, tweak things just like they made the file in the first place. Many people upload psds of gifs with colouring so others can use that colouring. You can find so many psds on completeresources (I only linked gif psds but they have psds for icons and headers too) or allresources. I do not use psds but colour from scratch every time so I will not be explaining them further, sorry. 

So for colouring, I will go very in depth into different styles. Here are the main types of colouring I have noticed people use on here:

simple - I normally use this for scenes with people in it

vibrant, bright - I use this for scenes with lots of colours in them

pale

black and white

gradients - I use this to spice scenes up a bit

colour palette 

I only go for simple, vibrant and gradients and never do cp, pale or black and white, but I will link a few tutorials by talented creators who do and after that I will explain the three ways I colour by showing you three different examples :)

Some useful tutorials I have found for pale/bw/cp colouring are:

this pale tutorial by @samecoin​. Especially useful read because Tippy explains how to avoid whitewashing in pale edits.

this pale tutorial by @kateausten​. Very easy to read and to follow.

this colour palette tutorial by @freddyfreemen​. They explain the basics and provide a psd too.

this colour palette tutorial by @stenbranlons​. Very image heavy which guides you through every step of the way.

A blog dedicated to pale resources is @finesources​ and is definitely worth checking out!

this tutorials page by completeresources has many many tutorials on how to do different kinds of styles

Btw, this is a useful website that explains all the different adjustment layers in photoshop if you’re still getting the hang of them

ok now onto my examples for the colouring. I will first do simple colouring for which I will use the keanu gif. For vibrant and gradient I will use two different gifs. I usually put my colouring into a group so first, close the video group layer and click this to make a new group which will contain the adjustment layers for our colouring:

SIMPLE COLOURING

First I will brighten the gif up with some curves. That is this tool:

Then you get this window:

As you see, I have selected that white eyedropper tool. Using that I will brighten the image. Basically, you want to click on the whitest part of the gif using that tool. This is because wherever you click, the eyedropper will turn that part into white and adjust the entire gif that way so if you click somewhere dark, you’ll get this white bright fuzzy mess. So I clicked on the lightest place which imo is the white specks near the glass in front of his hand and now my gif looks like this:

Ok now if you look at the above image, there is a black eyedropper two steps above the white one. You want to use that to click on the darkest place of the gif bc it’ll turn that to pure black. Here is my gif when I did that:

not a massive difference but it balances things out. Now I will add some saturation. Click this icon:

which brings up this window. I have already set saturation to around 15 to make it a bit warmer:

and the gif looks like this now:

I think it looks nice, but I would like to add something extra. That is why I am going to play around with selective colour to make the background pop a bit and make the black colour more dark. So click this icon:

and you get this window and these colours (imgur). You can play around a lot with selective colour and manipulate colours! So if I turned the black dial on reds to +100, they would become wayyyy darker. However because I want the background to pop, I would use the colours magenta and blue (and black for the final touch). For those my settings are this: 1 - 2 - 3 (imgur). So now my gif looks like this:

And now i think we are done! For comparison, this is what the gif looked like with absolutely no colouring or sharpening:

And that was all for simple colouring!! Lets move on to vibrant colours!!

VIBRANT COLOURING

For this I will use an example from Thor: Ragnarok bc thor is my soft bb. I did not do much for this first example except play around a lot with selective colour and I used the exact way of adding saturation and curves as shown before. Honestly just playing around with selective is the best bet to get vibrant colouring. The gif without sharpening etc was this:

the gif after colouring and sharpening is this:

pretty sweet huh? Just play a lot with saturation, hue and selective colour and channel mixer and you can create a lot of styles that way!

GRADIENT

for this I will use another clip from Thor, but from The Dark World. It is a bare clip where it is raining and I will add a gradient on it. This is the gif without colouring nor sharpening:

now we will do the sharpening and colouring. I already applied a basic curves and saturation layer so now it looks like this:

It looks a bit better right? Ok lets get that gradient applied. Click here:

and click on gradient, NOT gradient maps bc those are different things and I honestly dont know how maps work. 

now this is what will appear, I haven’t changed anything to this yet:

What style, colours, angle you choose is up to you. I personally am going for 0 angle because I want it going right. Now, to choose colours, double click on the colour shown next to the word gradient. This window will show up:

The fun part is you can do what you want here. Just experiment, click the buttons, adjust opacity etc. When you click at the bottom of the bar somewhere another stop marker appears meaning you can have even more colours! Just click on the bottom markers and edit to your hearts content! Use the top button to adjust opacities. Personally I went for this gradient:

Ok but now we have a problem because our gradient is fully covering the image and you can’t see anything. That is where blending modes come in. Right click on the gradient layer and click blending options. This window will pop up (ingur). When you click blending mode, these options appear (imgur). 

Here is a good guide explaining the blending modes

I just recommend playing around seeing which one suits you. I went for overlay, which makes my final gif look like this:

and that was that on colouring!! Let me know if u have questions about it! Onto the next part, masks!

★★★★★

- masks

I will not go in depth here, but instead I will link some tutorials but the amazing @thepunisher​ who has explained it much better than I ever will be able to. The tutorials are all in this link. If you have any questions do lmk but idk how I could explain it. 

★★★★★

- adding subtitles

although we wish we could, we can’t all lip read so we need subtitles also I’m hard of hearing and need them anyway but yeah, I will quickly highlight how I add subs! I use the font Arial Rounded MT Bold Regular.

I will first link to this post because it helped me a lot and may explain stuff better than I do. 

Lets take the keanu gif we had earlier. In it, he says ‘fish flakes’. Now what I do is this. Click on this icon:

and drag a box around the gif fully. Add your text. Mine looks like this now:

Well that ... does not look like a subtitle. BTW my settings are:

*when there are two people speaking I change the colour of the second person to #ffff00 - also for 540px gifs I usually use 12/13px text.

Ok now I will add the stroke and drop shadow. Right click on the layer of text, click blending options and change your stroke and drop shadow settings to this and this (imgur). Now just click the move tool or hit V on keyboard to select it and drag the gif down wherever you want. Now my final gif looks like this:

Ok, now if you have two gifs and you want them to be the same distance from the bottom, right click the text layer of the first gif document, click duplicate layer and you will get this window:

now click on destination and depending on what files you have open in PS, you will get this window:

now just choose where you want the text to go and if the gifs are the same sizes itll appear exactly where it did in the first one and you can edit the text for the second. You can do this with adjustment layers, groups etc too!!

Now text is done! Off to the next part!

★★★★★

- editing frames / timeline speed

We are done editing, now time to convert to frame animation and edit the speed! 

Ok click on the four bars on the right side of the video timeline. It will bring up a menu. From there, select this:

This will make individual layers of every frame into clips. Now, click this at the bottom left side of the video timeline:

This will convert your video timeline to a frame animation timeline. Now it looks like this (imgur). you’re probably wondering wait where the heck did my layers go well don’t fret, lets click the four bars on the right side again and click this:

now look! We have got all our frames into the timeline! Just delete the excessive frames at the front. Now click the four bars again, select all frames and then click the number at the bottom and change it to 0.05 or 0.06 or whatever speed you want:

Now we are done with this step!

★★★★★

- multiple gifs in one grid

I myself am not going to explain this, instead here are links to a few amazing tutorials that will help you further

this tut by @brolinjosh​

this tut by @futurist​

★★★★★

- actions

Now actions ... man they make everything so much easier. Basically actions are a sequence of steps you undertake in photoshop that are recorded which you can then save and use on multiple files. This makes the giffing process much much faster!!! For instance, these are the actions I have saved (mind the doubles lol I am experimenting a bit!)

As you can see, I have one for undertaking the entire video timeline to frame animation process and one for sharpening and the subtitles. It has saved me around 75% of the original time I put into creating sets before which is a lifesaver. 

I cannot explain how to make actions bc I am really bad at explaining stuff, but here are some tutorials:

- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/creating-actions.html

- https://completeresources.tumblr.com/post/66560261468/how-make-action-%D0%B7 

- https://completeresources.tumblr.com/post/50583786863/how-to-use-an-action

- https://completeresources.tumblr.com/post/50362731526/how-to-use-actions-on-gifs

https://www.creativebloq.com/adobe/create-own-photoshop-actions-61411918

★★★★★

- exporting the gif

now we’re at the final stage! When you have your gif ready, go to file -> export -> save for web legacy

ok now the next window is this which looks intimidating I know

Well basically, those are my settings above. Make sure the looping option is set at forever. Also on the left size you see how big your gif is, make sure it is under 8mb but tumblr is unstable so keep it under 5MB and it should be fine. 

I use different exporting types at times. Sometimes I use selective and pattern, sometimes diffusion or adaptive+dif. Just remember that the gif size depends on which you choose so keep that in mind. Here’s the difference (if u can even spot it). 

selective + pattern

selective + diffusion 

adaptive + diffusion

Personally I mostly only use selective + pattern!

btw make sure your matte is at NONE!!! This is because otherwise you have those whitish transparent borders on your gif, esp noticable on dark gifs, like shown in this tutorial by the talented @joewright​ !

And congrats, you have officially made a gif! Now go experiment, have the time of your life and do whatever the heck u want with your gifs. And if you want me to see them, tag me!! I track #usernums !!!

★★★★★

- last minute tips and extra links

man idk what to say here really but here goes:

@completeresources​ and @allresources​ are amazing places to learn more about gifmaking, pls take advantage of the opportunity

reminder: quicktime records at 60FPS, so unless you want a laggy gif delete the extra duplicate frames in the frame animation timeline!!

When opening import video frames to layers, do not click skip every second frame!! do not!!!!

Do not steal gifs. Try making them. I know it takes time and it can get frustrating but don’t post someone elses gifs as your own. Even the ugliest gifset in existence made originally by someone is better than a stunning set put together full of stolen gifs from various users. Don’t be that person

Don’t be afraid to ask for help pls just go on anon if u want!!

use the tumblr dimensions!!! I cannot stress enough how important this is because if you don’t, your gifs will look stretched af and lose quality so like .. don’t do that

Twice Fated: Chapter One

Another multi-chapter fic, hahahaha i can’t commit to much. @salty-fang is writing the sugar part! Go checkout my masterlist i’ll be updating both halves there

Twiste Fated: Master List

The Master: Master List

--------------------------------------

Marinette has everything she could ever want, her commissions are doing amazing, because of Jagged’s upcoming tour, she’s dating her dream boy, they have a nice apartment near the center of Paris, and best of all Hawkmoth is defeated.

“Hi, my Lady,” Adrien purrs, entering the apartment. “How was your day?”

“Pretty good, just lots of work,” Marinette yawn, putting her pencil down. She stands up and wraps her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. “Did your dad have you modeling with girls again today?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You reek of desperation,” Marinette giggles, walking into the kitchen. “Are you staying for dinner tonight or do you have another meeting?”

“I have a meeting for an upcoming shoot that’s out of the country,” Adrien says, walking down the hall to get changed. “I should be home by eleven.” He says, fixing his collar as he appears from down the hall.

“That’s a long meeting, don’t die of boredom,” Marinette giggles, earning her a chuckle from Adrien.

“Trust me, I won’t die,” Adrien says, kissing her forehead before rushing out of the apartment.

“Umm… goodbye,” Marinette says, the slamming door echoing through the apartment. She was once again left to work in the deafening silence of their apartment. She sighs before going to continue her work. It was an hour or two later when she was disturbed by her ring tone.

“Hello?” Marinette greets, holding her phone between her ear and shoulder as she continues to sew.

“Hello, my little fairy!” Her grandma’s cheerful voice rings through her phone filling her work area.

“Hi, nonna, where are you this week?” Marinette asks, putting her stuff down, deciding now was the perfect time to take a break.

“I’m outside of Italy, I’m heading to see your parents real soon, so I’ll be able to see you as well if your commission doesn’t take too much time up,” Gina says.

“Nonna, I will always make time for you,” Marinette giggles.

“What’re you doing right now?”

“I’m warming up some dinner.”

“Ooh does that mean I get to say hello to my little fairies boyfriend?”

“No, nonna he’s at a meeting right now, I’ll let him know you said hi, ok?”

“Of course, well enjoy your dinner, I just wanted to say hello,” Nonna says.

“Bye love you, Nonna!”

“Bye-bye.” Marinette hangs up and turns on the t.v. to watch whatever’s on. She sighs and eats her food in silence. She gets annoyed and just leaves her food and lays down. She hears Adrien stumble into their room about an hour or two later.

She sits up, “How was the meeting?” she asks with a yawn.

“Ahhh yeah, yeah that was great,” Adrien chuckles, swaying as he enters the room.

“Are you drunk?” Marinette asks, sitting up.

“No… no no I’m just a bit tipsy,” Adrien says, attempting to pull his shirt, but almost fall over in the process.

“Your father saw you like this and you made it back here?” Marinette asks, standing up. She helps him undress. “Go take a shower. I’ll bring you some water, food, and medicine.”

“Thank you, Princesssss you’re so good to me,” Adrien says in a sing-song voice.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, just go wash yourself,” Marinette sighs. He gets out of the shower fifteen minutes later all dressed. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Marinette,” he says, plopping down on the couch, he runs his temples before running a hand through his still-wet hair.

“This is the third time this week,” Marinette sighs, putting her head on his shoulder.

“I know, I know I’m sorry, it’s just these meetings have been getting to me,” Adrien says, taking a bite from his sandwich.

“It’s only Wednesday, and the only reason you didn’t drink on Sunday was because we had family dinner, are you ok?”

“The meetings have just been long and boring,” Adrien says.

“And the easiest thing is to drink?”

“Makes listening to my father more bearable,” Adrien shrugs. “Well, I’m going to go pass out.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just put this away, night,” Marinette sighs as he disappears into their bedroom. For third time this week alone, she left to clean up after him. She puts the plate and glass away, she picks up his clothes from the bathroom and puts them into their room. She heads back to the living room to turn off the lights but was distracted by a call from Adrien’s phone.

“Umm hello?” Marinette asks, picking up the phone to see who the number was as it wasn’t saved in Adrien’s phone.

“Hi, I just wanted to make sure that Adrien made it home alright,” A feminine voice comes from the line.

“Who is this?” Marinette asks, fully awake now.

“Oh you’re his girlfriend, right?”

“Yes, this is she, who are you?” Marinette asks, pacing around the living room a bit.

“I’m one of the model for an upcoming photoshoot, he was drunk and I wanted to make sure he got home safe,” the voice said.

“Umm ok, well, he’s home safe and is asleep, good night,” Marinette says, hanging up quickly. She knew she should trust Adrien, she trusts him with her life. She couldn’t sleep that much that night, her thoughts kept her up. She trusts him but she doesn’t really trust the other models. She tries to give the models the benefit of the doubt because not everyone has bad intentions. She decides instead of sleeping, because there was no use, to work on her commissions.

Adrien walks into the living room in the early hours of the morning as she was finishing one of the outfits. “Good morning, how’s your hangover?”

“Ah! What are you doing up this early in the morning?” Adrien yawn, rubbing his eyes. He starts brewing a pot of coffee.

“Couldn’t sleep so I’m working on Uncle Jagged’s commissions,” Marinette shrugs, putting her work down. “You got a call last night after you passed out.”

“From who?” Adrien yawns, grabbing a mug from the cabinet.

“I didn’t catch her name, it was the model from your meeting last night,” Marinette says, standing up to grabbing her own mug.

“Did she say what she wanted?” Adrien mutters, pouring himself a cup.

“No, she was just making sure you got home safe because you were a bit drunk. Oh, by the way, Nonna called last night. She said hi, and she also said she’s going to be in Paris next week so we’re going to have dinner with her,” Marinette says, pouring her own cup of coffee.

It was another week and another couple nights of Adrien coming home drunk. She hated how much he drank, she’s tried to help him but he’s never listened.

“Adrien, just remember we’re going to my parent’s house because my Nonna is in Paris,” Marinette says, putting on her clothes, she has a meeting about a commission in the early afternoon.

“Yeah, of course,” Adrien mutters, getting dressed for work. A couple of minutes after Adrien left, she throws up the little she had eaten for breakfast. She had been feeling nauseous recently, she chalks it up to stress of commissions and a drunk Adrien before brushing her teeth. She later grabs her sketchbook and swatches of fabric. She sighs, and even though she feels sick, she continues to go on about her day.

--------------------------------------

Permanent Tag List:

@ash-amg @bee-wrecker @damianette-is-life @mjisntme @i-will-be-your-ace @k-poplunardreams @chocolateherringtacofan @toodaloo-kangaroo @i-is-mysterious @zambie-trashart @imnotfluffy @nanakeid @animegirlweeb

it’s demi’s birthday so ,, headcanons of what demi and her s/o would do for her birthday/valentines day ?

AHHH YES BIRTHDAY GIRL i love her sm!!! here u go anon :D - mod vera

demi birthday hcs + valentine's hcs!

you're getting drunk with her, no excuses.

she probably wakes you up at the crack of dawn like ":>. you know what day it is?"

give her gifts and she will MELT.

you two get to spend the day together, no matches for the two of you.

take a walk with her, let her talk about whatever, hold her and give her kisses. she'll start tearing up.

if you have a whole day planned, she'll follow along blindly and every surprise you have install for her makes her so happy.

you may commission edgar to paint her (to which he reluctantly agrees) and when you give it to her herself at you and holds you tightly.

she's VERY cheeky. the odd "[ name ], my lips hurt, can you kiss them better?" line comes from her when drunk, so you can't help but oblige.

she gets dressed all fancy for you.

if she has a favourite skin for you then you should wear it for her. it'll make her day ten times better, but even if you don't she still thinks you're the prettiest person to ever exist.

at the end of the day, when it's just the two of you... demi may propose (since it is valentine's afterall and this is when people propose the most). if you've been together for a while, she'll get down on one knee in the moonlight and ask you to be hers forever. if she does, you two will have a very romantic night and you HAVE to flex the ring she gives you the next day. you just have to.

if she doesn't, or backs out, she'll whisk you away to your room for some fun party games! expect jose and kevin to join in too.

you may start a rave though. if the party breaks out of the walls of your room then there will be a rave.

everyone but naib and a few others don't attend. andrew and aesop included since andrew's having his midlife crisis and aesop is just being aesop.

at the end of the night, demi will be passed out in your arms, half-dressed (she probably took off all the uncomfy parts of her attire and kept the comfy ones on so she could just go to bed immediately).

Dimitri x Wife!Reader - Commission (N/SFW)

ohoho

oHOHOHO

@queenofthespacesquids has graciously commissioned Dimitri smut from me :') and has been an absolute angel during this whole mess of a pandemic!

This reader is a general female reader and the commissioner wanted to share the Dimi love so they've allowed posting here!💖💕💖

Thank you once again for commissioning me! I hope everyone else enjoys it too!

______________

The twelfth sigh that day fell from Dimitri's lips. Drooping shoulders accompanied the heaving huffs he gave as his horse trotted along the roads of Fhirdiad.

"We'll be arriving soon, boar. Contain yourself."

Felix travelled afoot alongside Dimitri's white steed. A frown on his face, he shot Dimitri a judgemental look.

Dimitri paid him no heed.

"Awww, c'mon Felix. Give the guy a break. He's a man separated from his lady, doesn't it break your heart?"

Sylvain rode up to the two on his own horse, sticking to Felix's left.

"The only thing it breaks is my patience. I'd understand if this was his first time away, but he does this every time."

Sylvain laughed, his swordsman friend only deepened his scowl.

"Well...They've only been married for a little while..can't imagine they've had too much time alone considering he's the freaking King."

Felix scoffed,

"Y/N's with him all the time, they're attached at the hip, it's a miracle they haven't fused together yet."

Both of them turned to face the blonde man when he gave another longing sigh at the mention of your name.

Sylvain trotted his horse closer to Dimitri, which forced Felix to move to his left. Felix gave him a "Tch." in response.

Sylvain patted Dimitri's shoulder,

"Think of it this way, I'm sure your lady was very lonely. When you get back, she'll probably want lots of-"

Felix stomped on the ground near Sylvain's horse, spooking it and causing it to rear up before it sprung forward, Sylvain, fumbling to stay on and regain control.

"That absolute fool…Don't listen to his inane..."

He trailed off when he looked back to Dimitri, who looked extremely troubled.

"..Lonely..?..My wife is..lone...ly..?"

Dimitri's expression quickly went from yearning, to worry. Felix slapped a hand to his forehead in defeat.

"Ugh, you two are absolutely impossible…"

_______________

The gates of Fhirdiad were in sight not long after that. The soldiers standing guard alerted their fellow knights about the return of the king.

Many thought that Dimitri should remain on the throne and not step foot out into danger, it was  a great risk to have the king out and about after what happened to the previous one.

But Dimitri firmly believed in being involved with the people, and seeing for himself what his people needed. The Kingdom was still recovering from the war, constant patrols were necessary.

Unfortunately, this meant that he was often forced apart from you. He would take you with him but it was not the most intelligent of ideas to have both the King and Queen away at the same time. 

He wondered...were you really lonely? He knew Dedue had stayed behind as your guard but did you miss him the same way he missed you?

He sighed again, he wanted his wife.

"We're here, boar. Quit moping."

Dimitri looked up, they were in fact in front of the gates. But he honed in on something much more important.

"Dimitri!" 

His wife.

She was waving. Smiling and waving at him from just a little bit inside the gate. He could see a couple of advisors begging her to come back inside where it was safe. 

Felix and Sylvain essentially watched a man be reborn right in front of them. Dimitri perked up and a bright glimmer found its way into his blue eye, he kept his gaze on her. He knew he was to remain cordial and in line with the rest of his troops but...his wife.

The moment he was able to, Dimitri clambered off his steed and headed straight to you. You stood, adorned in blues and whites, the colors of Fhaergus. Laughing lightly as you held your arms open for him. He did not hesitate to jump right into them and return the hug you gave him.

He squeezed tightly, and pulled back far enough to pepper a couple kisses on your face.

He remained completely unaware of the dozens of eyes watching the two of you. Many of them simply civilians who had come to witness the return of their king. They smiled at the scene, Fhirdiad was well aware of the King's love for the Queen.

This was not the first time he had arrived absolutely starved for his wife's company. The people found it soothing, King Dimitri did not seem so far out of their reach when they saw how very much like them he was. Many were quite fond of the two of you and those of older generations would have a couple "Ahh to be young again.."s when the two of you were spotted together.

Once again, a royal advisor came along to try to usher the local King and Queen back into the palace.

"Please, your majesties-" Cut off by the firm grip of a hand on their shoulder, the man who was about to plead the resident King and Queen to please for the love of the goddess head back inside, turned towards the source of the sudden looming shadow.

He came face to face with a less than pleased Dedue.

"Do not interrupt their Majesties…"

Dedue had not meant for the man to apologize and run away but...he could not help the pleased feeling that ran through him at having protected the precious time their Majesties had together. The Queen doted on him and The King never failed to remind him that he was family. He was extremely grateful, he thought it to be the least he could do.

He quite enjoyed seeing them happy.

Briefly pausing his barrage of affection, Dimitri's lips pulled down into a frown accompanied by what can only be described as puppy dog eyes.

"Were you… lonely..?"

You...weren't sure how to respond. Of course you wanted him home but were you lonely? Dedue and the others had kept you company and they made it difficult to be lonely.

Your attention was caught by a redhead casanova standing a few feet away from the two of you. He was nodding, giving you a thumbs up, and mouthing "Say yes". You then watched as Felix jabbed his elbow into his side before dragging him off by the collar, probably off to go train.

Turning back to your giant lion of a husband, he was still awaiting an answer. You don't know what possessed you to trust Sylvain but between not knowing how to respond and his look of confidence, you threw caution to the wind.

"Of course..!.Isn't it natural to miss my husband?" 

For a moment he looked even more saddened, like it was somehow his fault that you had been lonely. You smiled softly at him and laid a gentle hand on the side of his face, cupping his cheek.

"Hmm, didn't you miss me too?"

Leaning into your touch, Dimitri's frown dissipated, and a serene expression was left behind in its departure. Your hand was tenderly covered by his own as the other arm wrapped around your waist tightened just a little.

"Dearly."

Smiling at each other, it seemed as though no one else existed around you. Just a husband and wife who were reunited.

"Your majesties."

Dedue stepped forward.

Dimitri turned to look at him, keeping you in his arms as you did the same.

"Please Dedue, call me "Dimitri". You know you're family to us, Y/N and I would love nothing more than to drop formalities."

Dedue smiled tenderly, his heart warmed.

"Yes, your majesty."

You couldn't help the giggle that escaped you at the way Dimitri was rendered speechless. You doubted that Dedue would ever move past the habit, Dimitri would have to settle for having his name used in private!

Giving your husband a comforting pat, you turned your attention back to Dedue when he continued speaking.

"Your majesties, there are no matters that require your assistance urgently. Please, take this time to rest...both of you." he added.

You smiled and thanked Dedue, who with a bow, went off to the kitchens. His cuisine had grown quite popular among the people and he was often requested for cooking duty in spite of his status as Dimitri's right hand man.

Shooting Dimitri a bright grin, you wrapped your  arms around his as his hold on you loosened.

"Shall we go?"

His smile softened further, your lips parted to tease him about being handsome but before you could, a surprised yelp escaped your lips as you were suddenly pulled off of your feet and into strong toned arms.

You heard a couple whistles from onlookers as you collected yourself, Dimitri had already begun moving and walking off towards your room as if he wasn't carrying an entire human being in his arms.

You stabilized yourself by wrapping your arms around his neck, marvelling up at him briefly before laughing.

"Hmm, this is familiar!"you chirped.

Dimitri's strides slowed just a little as he focused on you. He pressed a kiss to your forehead, not noticing the respectful bows of passing attendants.

He laughed lightly,

"Ahhh,yes, our wedding night, you nearly tripped on your own dress when I set you down."

You made an offended sound but felt your heart warm. Dimitri used to be nothing but proper to you, now he was comfortable teasing you.

"Yeah well, you cried when you saw me in it."

Dimitri sputtered,

"T-that is not..!..I-.."

He stopped walking, locking eyes with you as red burned on his cheeks and tips of his ears.

"That is unfair Y/N...you were beautiful.."

You smiled contently at him, sighing softly. Somehow, you had netted yourself the sweetest man on the planet. Tooth-rottingly sweet. You wondered if he knew how charming he was.

"How did I get such a precious husband again..?"

You leaned up to press a kiss to his lips. Not satisfied with a peck, Dimitri careened his neck to return the kiss. A wave of warmth ran through you as the sound of lips melding together slipped into your ear.

You pulled back just enough to murmur against his lips,

"Hurry…"

At probably the fastest speed you'd ever seen him move, Dimitri barreled through the castle halls at breakneck speed. You couldn't help but laugh at his eagerness as he neared your room. Barely getting the door open and crossing through, he was back at engulfing your lips, shifting you in his arms so you pressed against him.

Pulling away reluctantly, you patted his shoulder.

"Set me down here."

He seemed unwilling to let you go but the ever obedient husband he was, he voiced no complaints. Though he did look like he was itching to snake his arms around you again.

Locking the door, you watched with amused eyes as Dimitri's face went crimson the moment you got on your knees in front of him.

"M-my love…!.you don't have to..!.please let me-"

Dimitri moved to help you up but you simply grabbed a hold of his hands and brought them to your cheeks.

"Dimitri…" you locked eyes with him, taking in the flustered expression he wore, "You're always spoiling me...let me take care of you too…!"

There were a lot of things in life Dimitri could handle. Being king, fighting in arduous battles, even the most extraneous of labors. But seeing his wife kneeled in front of him, eager to please him in such a lewd manner was not one of them.

"Y/N...if it is what you wish…"

You frowned, you wanted him to enjoy it too…

Looking back in front of you, you were surprised by the bulge protruding from his pants. You couldn't help the cat-like grin that enveloped your lips.

Reaching out to tug at his belt, you purposefully brushed against the swell, not missing the soft intake of breath from him. You looked up and smiled cheekily at him,

"What I wish,huh…" teasing evident in your voice.

Maybe it was a little mean, but the way he buried his face in his hands as his blush travelled down his neck was well worth it. He was so cute it was almost unfair. This was most definitely not your first time doing anything intimate so to see him flustered even after all the other nights he seemingly couldn't be satiated…well, it was adorable!

You decided to give his heart a bit of a break and turned your gaze away. Working his belt and tugging his pants and undergarments just low enough for his length to slip out, you swallowed thickly as you were reminded about how well endowed your husband was…

Placing a hand on his thigh to stabilize yourself, you curled your fingers around his member and gingerly began pumping its length. Dimitri's hips lightly followed your hand as you rubbed and teased the tip. You thought you wouldn't tease him more but the slow pace you took was probably his greatest enemy right now.

"Y/N..please, this is torture.."

You laughed but indulged him. Tongue wet and warm, you gave a long drawn out lick before taking his cock in your mouth. Head beginning to bob up and down the thick throbbing length of your King, you didn't fail to notice the way Dimitri's hands clenched as he leaned against the door for support.

Struggling to maintain himself, Dimitri watched as he disappeared in and out of his beloved wife's mouth, the lips that kissed him so sweetly, wrapped around him and sucking with such rhythm and heat that he had to fight his own wanton need to buck into your mouth.

It seemed that despite how fervently he had pounded you into the mattress so often after your wedding, he would still be a blushing mess when at your mercy. But he couldn't help it. His wife, his precious wife...full of nothing but love for him..there were times where he was unsure of whether he deserved such devotion.

He knew he shouldn't doubt your decisions but he couldn't help but wonder why him. You told him often about everything you loved about him but the question lingered. What exactly had he done to be blessed with you? Perhaps it was pointless to mull it over, he couldn't let you go either way.

Still...his wife..his wife...Y/N Blaiddyd…

His length twitched in your mouth, and your pace stopped as gentle hands reached down to brush hair out of your face, tenderly caressing your cheeks. You looked up to meet loving blue eyes, Dimitri's expression was soft, and you weren't sure what insighted it. 

But it didn't matter, letting your eyelids flutter shut, you nuzzled a little into his touch before continuing. His body responded to your affection with a slow roll of his hips, and a soft breathless moan of your name.

Encouraging him to keep moving, you pulled him a little closer. His breathing was growing rapid and the wary slides into your mouth were building into broken thrusts, desperate to keep feeling the inviting heat of your tongue.

Your jaw was getting sore but the face Dimitri made as he got closer and closer to release was too great of a reward to stop. Burning the image of your King panting and losing himself to pleasure into your mind, you couldn't help but feel a little pleased with yourself. 

"..!..Y/N..!!..I'm going to-..!"

Expecting you to let him go, Dimitri was helpless against your increasing speed. Bucking into your mouth while his fingers dug into your hair, he shut his eyes tight as the ache and throbbing of his cock was finally rewarded with the white pleasure of release.

Driving him in as deep as you could, you enjoyed watching him as the rush of warm cum spurted down your throat. Making a show of swallowing, you let his member slip from your lips.

But before you could make a comment that would net you a cute blush and a stammer from the golden haired man, you were pulled up carefully and wrapped into a tight hug.

After a split second moment of surprise, you returned the hug, one hand reaching up to stroke and play with Dimitri's tousled hair. Burying his face in the curve of your neck, Dimitri murmured a soft but bashful Thank you. You would have laughed if it wasn't so sweet. 

He was still so polite…thanking you for sucking him off...heh.

"Hmm, don't thank me yet. I'm not quite done with you!" You sing-songed.

Dimitri pulled back just enough so you were facing each other, you admired the color on his cheeks. He kissed your forehead softly, 

"May I..?"

Now it was your turn to be putty in his hands, it was hard not to be when he was asking with such decorum to undress you. Your face matched his as you turned around, giving him access to the lacings and buttons on your dress.

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the back of your neck as he worked on freeing you from your clothes. 

You busied yourself with a mantra reminding you not to pounce on him, but that internal chant was disrupted by the sudden sound of fabric tearing, followed by something dropping on the floor, rolling to a stop in front of you. Looking down, you saw a button.

Silence filled the room and nobody moved a muscle as you stood, feeling a little colder than when you had first walked into the room.

"Dimitri."

"Y-yes..?"

"Did you rip my dress?"

He didn't respond immediately.

"...I..will acquire a new one for you…"

He knew you wouldn't chide him, but he still felt guilty. Expecting you to laugh it off, he was caught by surprise at the sudden barrage of peppered kisses on his face accompanied by you latching onto him through arms snaked around his neck.

He hugged your waist reflexively and though he was extremely happy to be at the receiving end of so much affection, he wanted to know what he had done to deserve it.

"Y/N?"

You cuddled into him, full of glee, having the dam holding you back from smothering him in as much love as you could muster, broken. 

"Dimi, you're so cute! Hnnng, why is my husband so cute??"

Dimitri was unsure of what to say but he was happy he was being complimented,

"Two seconds ago, while I was doing something sinful to you, you were absolutely gentle and careful with me but now that you try to be the same to my dress, you go and tear it!"

It was amusing, but also so endearing that you couldn't help the swell of blatant affection that had welled up in your chest. Dimitri was much too kind, handsome, adorable, strong, and intelligent all in one. You were often teased about how much your husband fawned over you, but you were very much the same.

He made you very happy and it's all you wanted for him as well.

Leaning forward, Dimitri captured your lips in a drawn out loving kiss before resting his forehead against yours.

"..Of course...I could never hurt you.."

That netted him a return kiss from you. 

Dimitri…

Being even just a little rough during sex constituted as hurting you to him. He knew you weren't helpless, and you could very much handle yourself, but he couldn't help but treat you like you were fragile. He always believed you had to protect the things you love. 

Boy, he really took the priest's "to love and cherish till death do you part" seriously…

"My apologies for tearing your dress..I'll replace it, I promise."

And the sweet man was still concerned over something so trivial...You reaaaaaally loved your husband.

You pecked his lips before leaning forward to purr in his ear,

"It's okay. I like it when you tear my clothes off."

It was not but a split second after that you were carried off to your bed, the sound of fabric being torn off your body, music to your ears as an impish grin rested on your lips. With his immense strength, it was an easy task.

The chill from the sudden lack of coverage was ignored as you relished in your riled husband fumbling to take off his armor. When the plates of steel had hit the floor, Dimitri was quick to sink the bed with his weight and hover over you.

"W-would you like me to do the same..?"

Even when he was eager, he was polite.

As sure as you were that he was skilled with his tongue, you had no more patience left to spare.

Shaking your head, you pulled him down so you could let your lips meet, murmuring against them,

"No...I don't want to wait anymore...I just want you, Dimitri."

Making a sound that was strangled by the way he smothered your mouth with his, you felt the hardened tip of his cock align with your entrance, ready to slip into you.

"I-it's wet..." Dimitri noted against your lips.

For as much teasing as you had given him earlier, you were certainly getting your dues at how torturously slow he was sliding into you.

You knew you couldn't rush it but feeling every inch of Dimitri's length filling your core and being unable to have him just pound you into the mattress..it was unfair.

Feeling Dimitri's hips meet yours, you were relieved that you didn't have to wait much longer. The kisses that Dimitri was making to your neck were growing to be too much when coupled with the feverish groping of your chest.

Filled with him, your hips moved on their own and rolled up onto his cock, wanting for him to move. 

The slippery inviting heat of his wife's insides mixed with his wife's needy hips spurred Dimitri into slow drawn out thrusts. Thrusts much too leisurely for you.

"Dimitri..faster..please.."

Maybe it was the way you breathed it out next to his ear or the fact that he was always quite obedient in bed but Dimitri did as he was asked.

Building up to a strong steady pace of deep rams of his cock into you, Dimitri wrapped his arms around your waist, keeping you close and in place as he slammed himself in and out of you.

Finally being given what you wanted, your legs wrapped around him as little cries of his name escaped your lips. It had been much too long since the last time you'd done this.

"I-..missed you..!"

You panted out, digging your fingers into his hair as your stomach burned from the pleasure.

Dimitri hugged you tighter against him, almost in comfort and agreeance. It was all he could do, he couldn't trust his mouth to form any words at the moment.

He had missed you so dearly, he did every time he had to leave you behind or when you left his side. He loved you more than anything else in the world and it pained him to think you might've felt lonely all on your own. 

He was always elated upon his return to find you smiling and welcoming him back, he found comfort in having a home to return to and being able to do the same for you whenever you travelled to neighboring territories to maintain peaceful relations.

Every time you parted, he felt a piece of him was missing. The nights he spent away from you, wondering what you were doing and whether you were faring well, were torturous. Quiet nights, missing you and your company would lead to the shameful pumps of his cock into his own hand, imagining it to be his wife's heat he was plunging into.

He missed you, this, everything.

Maybe it was unbecoming of him, the King of Fhaergus, to love sex with his wife so much but the mutual wanton need to be together and be one was much too enticing to him. Being as close as he could be to the person he vowed to share his life with..it was precious to him, and he was sure you were the same.

"I..!.love you, Y/N-"

Garbled words in between frenzied thrusts somehow still clutched at your heart. You're not sure why, maybe it was just hitting you how much you truly missed him but your eyesight blurred with sudden tears.

Maybe it was just Dimitri. So full of love and so willing to offer it to you despite him sometimes wondering whether he deserved yours. You just wanted to seal away all those worries.

"Dimitri-..!..Dimitri..!!..I love you-..!.I love you, I love-"

Your cries of his name and declarations of love were muffled by desperate lips melding with yours, tongues slipping against each other as the bed creaked with each jut of his hips. The lewd sound of skin slapping against skin and the wet squelch of you clenching around him burned into your ears.

Hips bucking up wildly, the building white heat that pooled in your stomach finally spilled over the edge as you shook and trembled against him, vision blurring momentarily. All at the same time as your husband's erratic thrusts grew jerky before you felt the hot spill of his seed inside you.

Panting and settling against each other, you ran shaky fingers through Dimitri's hair, smoothing away any strands plastered to his forehead.

Ignoring the wet feeling of cum slipping down the curve of your ass.

You sighed contently as your breathing evened out, a feeling of serenity taking its place. Your husband peacefully rested against your chest, eyelids fluttered shut as he let you caress his face and play with his hair.

The two of you stayed quiet for a long time, just basking in the afterglow of your affection. Dimitri silently relished in his wife's gentle tender hand, enjoying the coolness of your wedding ring when it touched his skin.

He listened to the calming beating of your heart, the same heart that was so open and devoted to him. The same heart that loved him back with as much fervor as his own. The heart that his beloved wife promised belonged to him, just as he had promised his to her.

"..Dimitri..?"

He moved slightly, indicating he was listening. 

"..Welcome back."

Shifting, he faced you, joining your mouths in a soft sweet kiss.

"I'm home."

hi bby so i was gonna send this yesterday, but i totally chickened out. do you write your own works and fanfic simultaneously? i try to write my own works, and i think i've found an idea i'm going to stick with for a while, but it's just difficult for me. it's so admirable that you're able to write so much amazing stuff and still do other things!!!

hey sweetheart!!! pls never be afraid to send me smth ahhh. i do write my own work! and yes, i write it while i write fic haha. right now it's a little imbalanced because i'm working on commissioned fics, but when those get done i'll be more balanced. (and y'all don't know this but last stop is planned to be an original work later on... maybe.)

writing anything is difficult, full stop, but writing original works can be super daunting and hard and honestly? it's really, really lonely work. but if you have an idea that you love you should go for it! i think that's such an excellent idea and i would honestly love to see what you come up with!

it's definitely hard to balance them out but i think it's worth it. especially if you want to do professional writing one day or you want to self-pub or trad-pub your work. you have to start somewhere because writing books is literally all about practicing. i'm technically on my third novel right now (if you don't count the three times i rewrote book two and if you don't count tcor) and it's still so fuckin hard haha. but there's a decent community out there for writing (and i actually run a server that focuses on original work and publishing, although there's a lot of people there that write fanfic too!)

tldr; i am so EXCITED for you and if you ever need any help, or feel like talking about it, i am available! you can ask anyone - i love mentoring people in my craft and i think i am really helpful about 50% of the time!

and you didn't ask but i feel like SHARING bc i'm an oversharer, but right now i'm working on "the gods will burn" which is a fantasy where ecoterrorism meets religion, told through the eyes of a man who wars with his trauma. this is the pitch, the first line, and the moodboard in case anyone is interested hehe

An ex-soldier is deified as the Wolf God in order to become the Forest God's protector. If he lets the Forest God die, he'll die with her, but it's his comrades who are killing her.

War stories are the best stories to tell, since anything is true when you’re the only one left alive.

Mia Corazón (Commission)

Another commission I got via my FA page. This is from the same person who commissioned “Tick Tock” and “A Grim Dinner.” It features his OC based on Tick Tock the Crocodile, Tock Crockwork...BUT, more importantly, it also acts as an introduction to his newest OC, Caelyum De Macabre - a character based on Davy Jones (with hints of Tia Dalma) from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  And it’s NOT A KINK STORY. HERESY, I KNOW. I had a LOT of fun with this one; my only major regret is that I couldn’t make it longer than it already is. XD Also, just for the sake of making sure people know, I did not make up the lyrics to the song featured here. They’re actually fan-made lyrics for Davy Jones’ theme from the movies, originally created by a YouTube artist called Fiajela. I highly recommend looking up the song - it’s been covered by her and Man on the Internet, and they even made a duet version with the two stitched together. Anyway...hopefully you all enjoy. :)

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Valentine’s Day had come to Night Raven College. As you and Grim walked through the halls of the dark castle, you couldn’t help but chuckle at the decorations: pink paper hearts and streamers of white and crimson were everywhere, making it feel almost as if Heartslabyul had somehow managed to take over the entire palatial academy. Grim frowned up at you, trotting at your side, trident tail swishing as he went. “Nya? What’s so funny, Minion?” he demanded to know. “Nothing, nothing,” you responded with a shake of your head. “It’s just…everything looks so different.” Grim sniffed snootily, crinkling his nose at a poster of two young lovers embracing. “I don’t like it,” he remarked. “It’s all…mushy. It just doesn’t feel right for a School of Villains to be so…nya, what’s a good word…?” “Sentimental? Sappy? Saccharine?” “Gross,” was the word Grim chose, sticking out his tongue and shuddering like a small boy afraid of getting the dreaded cooties. You snorted with laughter. “Well, bring it up to the Headmaster,” you smirked, stuffing your hands in your pockets as you went. “I’d rather not,” Grim grumped. “Besides, we all know Crowley would just ramble on about it, or say he’ll get things done and never do…how come he’s Headmaster, anyway? He doesn’t do anything!” “Your guess is as good as mine,” you shrugged. “All I know is the only home I have is thanks to him, as is the only job. I’d like to keep both, thank you.” Grim shrugged back with an accepting sort of rumble as the two of you ascended the spiral staircase that led up to the Headmaster’s Office. Crowley had sent a call that morning; classes were dismissed for the day, so the university was a little quieter than usual: many of the students were off visiting family or loved ones, and those that were hanging around the campus still were largely engaged in…ahem…PRIVATE affairs. You, of course, could not leave; at least for now, Night Raven was your home, and as you were currently not in a relationship, Valentine’s Day wasn’t much different than any other day. Not that you minded much; it was still nice, in your mind, to see others happy and relaxed, and a holiday was a holiday, at any rate…though it seemed even St. Valentine’s holiday would not be saving you from helping clean up whatever mess Crowley needed dealt with this time. As you passed an image of two small, fluffy kittens holding a heart, a random thought came to your head: “Grim?” “Nya?” “Have you ever wanted to be in love?” “Not really,” the cat-like monster said. “Love is all…icky.” You frowned. “Icky?” you repeated. “All the kissing and hugging and…bleh!” Grim shuddered again, then went on: “Besides, it seems awfully difficult; makes you humans and even beast-men all crazy. I’ve got too much to deal with as it is, thank you very much! Nope. The World’s Greatest Mage won’t ever let love make him all soppy.” Grim stuck out his fluffy chest proudly at this, sticking his nose in the air. You smirked, and paused, reaching down to scratch behind his ears. He froze up…then purred and nuzzled into your touch. “Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…o-okay…maybe I love some things,” he admitted.

“Good kitty,” you teased, and snickered as Grim growled at you and half-heartedly swiped at your hand with a paw. You retracted it and the two of you kept moving. “Come on. The sooner we deal with Crowley, the faster we can get to our own stuff.” Grim nodded, as the pair of you drew nearer to Crowley’s office. You knocked on the door and waited for the sing-song call of “Come in!” before entering. Inside the office, things looked the same as ever, floating portraits of the Great Seven and all…aside from a vase of roses, plus a couple of heart-shaped ornaments on the desk, as well as the fact the purple-and-green curtains had been exchanged for solid red velvet drapes. Dire Crowley himself was seated behind his desk, sorting through paperwork, dressed in his usual attire. His feathery cloak rustled as he lifted his top-hatted head, and smiled at both yourself and Grim as you shut the door to the office behind you, his yellow eyes sparkling behind his Plague-Doctor-esque Venetian mask. “Ahhh! Prefect of Ramshackle Dorm! And the Little Monster!” he greeted warmly, rising and waving his hands, bidding you closer as he stepped around his desk. “Come, come, you’re right on time!” “On time for what, dare we ask?” Grim meowed. “Aren’t you celebrating Valentine’s Day, too, Headmaster?” you asked, politely. “Later,” Crowley smirked, winking and tapping the side of his mask’s long nose. “I’ll be entertaining a cute little fairy sorceress from the Land of Oz later tonight.” He let out a dreamy sigh, placing a hand to his heart. “Ahhh, Miss Upland…one day, you will be mine…” You and Grim gave each other a look, shrugged, then turned back to Crowley. “What’s the problem, then?” you asked, knowing better than to think this was a social call. By now, Crowley had firmly established yourself and Grim as the chief problem solvers of the Academy, so it stood to reason he had a mission for your both. “Oh! Yes, well,” Crowley muttered, and cleared his throat, adjusting and straightening his stance before going on in a business-like way: “As I’m sure you’ll both know, tonight there’s a special performance, directed by our own Vil Schoenheit, for the holiday.” “Nya? Isn’t it that play about the Sea Witch?” Grim checked, tilting his head. “Correct,” nodded the Headmaster. “And the Little Mermaid she assisted. We have a special guest coming to see the show tonight…” He reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a small photograph, handing it over to you. You knelt down to get closer to Grim’s level, and showed him the photo as you both looked it over: the picture was a portrait of a dark-skinned mermaid, with hair black as ebony and scales of red and gold. Her eyes were brown and soft and warm as milk chocolate, and a silver locket in the shape of a heart was clasped about her throat. “Oooh…she’s pretty!” Grim smiled. “Very,” you agreed with a smile of your own. “She,” the Headmaster spoke up, “Is Young Lady Mia Corazón. Her family is one of the richest in the Coral Sea.” “Which is why you invited her,” you guessed, trying not to sound as bored as you were. To your surprise, Crowley answered, “I didn’t invite her! She wanted to see the show on her own…but there is one difficulty: her family insists that she be accompanied by at least two bodyguards at all times. Much like the Al-Asims, they’ve had…ISSUES in the past, and if their daughter is going to be on land for a spell, her parents want to make sure she’s adequately protected.” “That’s fair enough,” you supposed. “Let me guess,” sighed Grim, crossing his arms, “You want us to be the bodyguards then?” “Well, I suppose I COULD hire professionals,” Crowley murmured, scratching his chin in thought. “But they can cost a lot…I’d probably end up having to cut your pay just to-” “Forget it,” you grumbled, while Grim growled and slapped a paw to his forehead. “We’ll do it. But something is worrying me, if you don’t mind my bringing it up.” “What’s that?” “Are you sure WE’RE the right ones for this job?” you pressed, then before Crowley could speak up, you went on quickly: “We’ll do it, like I said, but…are you certain we should?” “How do you mean?” the Headmaster questioned, tilting his head. “Well, we’re not from the Coral Sea,” you explained. “Wouldn’t someone from that area be a better choice? Perhaps Azul could loan out the Leech Twins for a day!” Both Grim and Crowley looked at you as if you had grown a second skull. “…Right,” you sighed, quickly catching on. “Azul. ‘Loan’ us the Leech Twins. And us NOT expect things to go HORRIBLY wrong, one way or another. Yeah, that was a dumb suggestion, sorry.” Crowley chuckled and shook his head. “I have every confidence in you,” he said, with a wide smile. “You’ve solved so many problems in the past! And it’s only for tonight! What could possibly go wrong?” “Well, great, now something will DEFINITELY become a problem,” Grim grumbled. “Look, it’s not that I’m ungrateful,” you pressed on, “Or even that I’ve got a whole lot else to do, just…I’m worried because I don’t have magic. And Grim is…well…Grim.” “Hey!” Grim yapped indignantly. “I could roast any bad guy’s butt if they tried to get to Miss Coronation!” “Corazón,” corrected the Headmaster. “Whatever,” shrugged Grim. Crowley rolled his eyes, then turned his head upward. “You do raise a good point though, Prefect,” he conceded. “I didn’t think of that…at the very least, you two will need some help.” You were just about to agree…when suddenly, you heard Grim shiver. Both you and Crowley looked down as the cat-like demon quivered and hugged himself, the fire in his ears flickering. “Are you okay?” you asked, worriedly. “Y-Yeah,” Grim answered with a slight chattering of his teeth. “But…does anybody else feel like it suddenly got colder in here?” Now that Grim mentioned it, you DID suddenly feel a light chill crawl up and down your back…and it wasn’t too long afterward that the source of the cold made its presence known. With an authoritative BANG, the Headmaster’s office door burst open, causing both yourselves and Crowley to yelp and jump in alarm. You turned around fast, and gulped nervously as you perceived the imposing figure of Chief Jehan – the school’s head of security, garbed as ever in his military style cap and long, black trenchcoat. “Headmaster,” the darkly dressed security chief intoned, bowing his head respectfully to Dire Crowley, “Forgive this intrusion.” “Oh, it’s alright, Claude,” Crowley sighed out, then frowned. “Whatever is the matter?” “I apprehended this rule-breaking scallywag in the school cafeteria,” Jehan stated, indicating a second figure. “Ow! OW! H-Hey, let go of me, you old…! I’ll bite your legs off, you hear me?!” You and Grim were surprised to see the short, thick-hipped, green haired figure struggling in the icy grip of Claude Jehan, trying to pull away as his ear was all but being yanked from the side of his cranium. “Tock?” the two of you chorused. Tock Crockwork just snarled as Jehan glared at him. He tried to return the glower, but it came off more akin to a wounded animal trying to look tough than…well…looking tough. Crowley’s frown deepened, and he stepped past you and Grim – uttering a quiet, “One moment please” – before approaching the chief and the unruly Octavinelle student. “What is the meaning of this?” the Headmaster boomed. The Security Chief pushed Tock forward, releasing his ear. Tock stumbled a bit and caught himself, massaing his sore lobe. “This young ruffian,” Jehan explained, “Started a brawl with Mr. Bucchi over the last Deluxe Menchi Katsu Sandwich. As the latter student was merely defending himself, I felt his punishment should be more lenient; both have been banned from the cafeteria for the rest of the week…but as the one who started the whole affair…” He trailed off as Tock growled rather pathetically, looking down at the floor sullenly. Crowley scowled and hummed thoughtfully, clearly trying to determine a fitting punishment. Your eyes, as well as Grim’s, widened, and you looked to each other. “Grim,” you whispered, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “I think so, Minion, but a show about a math teacher who’s also a criminal mastermind? Who’d want to watch that?” You facepalmed. “What are you two whispering about?” Jehan asked, suspiciously, as Tock and Crowley both looked to you as well. “I think I know a way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak,” you suggested. “You mean, a way to deal with Mr. Crockwork while also dealing with your dilemna?” Crowley guessed. “Exactly.” “Dilemna? What dilemna?” Tock asked. You grinned.

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“Thanks for sticking up for me, snack meat,” Tock groused, petulantly pouting as he walked by your side. “You’re the one who decided to pick a fight with the hyena,” you shrugged. “Honestly, I think I did you a favor.” “Nya…my Minion has a point,” Grim nodded. “Do you really think things would have been better if Crowley had decided to punish you himself?” “Or worse,” you put in, grimly, “Leave you to Chief Jehan?” All three of you shuddered, and Grim even crossed himself at the mention of the security chief. “Fine, I guess that’s fair,” Tock grumbled. “But I don’t like having to protect a fish filet from harm. I eat fish!” “Well, you won’t be eating Mia Corazón,” you sniffed. “Alright…guess I’ll just have to eat YOU instead,” smirked Tock, and licked his sharp teeth. Grim mewed and hid behind your leg. You blushed. “…We’ll worry about that later,” you grumbled, making Crockwork snicker with a wicked smile. “For now, let’s focus on getting you some actual lunch.” “You ARE an actual lunch,” snorted Tock. “I am not on the menu!” you snapped, flushed with embarrassment as Tock gave you a knowing grin. “Well…not till your work is done,” he teased, winking deviously, then smirking down at Grim. “Maybe I’ll have the little hairball for an appetizer, too…” Grim hissed at being referred to as a “hairball,” but said nothing. “Do you always have to be so antagonistic?” you sighed. “It’s what keeps getting you into trouble, you know.” Tock just shrugged carelessly, hips swaying as he walked side by side with you. “So, where are we heading?” he asked. “Can’t go to the cafeteria, and the Mostro Lounge is way too expensive…” “The Mystery Shop,” you answered. “I’m sure Sam’s got something in stock for us all to snack on before we head to the beach to pick up our special guest.” “Nya! Between my fiery awesomeness, my Minion’s brains, and lizard-breath’s strength, we’ll be the best bodyguards ever!” declared Grim. “Call me ‘lizard breath’ again,” Tock warned, “And we’ll be back down to two people, fuzz-face.” “Fuzz-face?!” Grim snapped. “How’d you like to BURN off a few of those calories you’re so proud of, hah?!” “Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” you droned. The pair glared at you, then each other…then growled in unison as they stopped. “Thank you,” you sighed with relief. “Now, let’s be on our best behavior: I don’t want Sam’s Friends to give us a hard time…” As you spoke, your little trio reached the entrance to Mr. S’s Mystery Shop, and the three of you walked inside. Aside from a simple banner reading “Happy Valentine’s Day!” over the door, the shop was completely as it usually was…at least on the outside. To be fair, once you all entered the building, the store within seemed its usual self, too; no heart-shaped décor here, only the usual assortment of voodoo accessories. The strange part came when you not only realized Sam was nowhere to be seen…but you all also noticed who was tending to the store. Or rather, what. “Crabs?” all three of you gasped in surprise. Sure enough, crawling all over the Mystery Shop was an assortment of strange white sand crabs. Their shells seemed to have been made from smooth, ivory-colored stone…and as if the presence of the pale decapods wasn’t bizarre enough, their activities certainly would have gotten some unusual reactions. A few of the crabs were straightening out and sorting through items on the shelves, making sure everything was in top-notch condition. One crab was holding a miniature broom, while the other held a dustpan, the pair of them sweeping the floor. Still another crab was changing a lightbulb, while two more – clicking their claws encouragingly – were supervising. A bunch of crabs carrying a spray bottle and a wash cloth scuttled past you all, near your feet. Yourself and Croc stepped back, but Grim – with typical feline curiosity – leaned down and actually sniffed at one of the crustaceans… “ME-YOWCH!” he yelped, and jumped back, mewling and covering his muzzle after one of the crabs pinched his nose with their pincer. The crab seemed to strut away importantly afterward. “Heh…guess the crab cake bit back, huh?” teased Tock. Grim just growled and massaged his stinging snout. “This is new,” you muttered. “Where’d all these little guys come from?” “Cruel and cold, like winds on the sea. Will you ever return to me? Hear my voice sing with the tide: My Love Will Never Die���” The melodious voice soon sang into your ears, and you and your companions looked towards the source. In a corner of the shop, a lone figure was quietly mopping, and singing the lonely, haunting sea shanty you had heard. The figure was a young and slender man, dressed in a tan-colored jacket with ruffle-ended sleeves, and a brown hip-skirt. His legs were covered by dark beige trousers, while plain brown boots were on his feet. A fishnet scarf was loosely slung about his shoulders, almost like a shawl, and an orange muscle shirt festooned his abdomen. His hair was a curious pink hue, and done up in dreadlocks. “Ahem!” you coughed, catching the young man’s attention. He froze and looked up to you, blinking his brown eyes. For a moment, you noticed there was a look of pain and something…hollow in his face, as if something inside of him was missing and he longed to get it back. An overwhelming feeling of loneliness and sorrow seemed to wash over you…but it disappeared in an instant when the youth smiled. “Oh! Ahoy there! Didn’t hear you come in,” he greeted, bowing his head respectfully as he put the mop in its bucket and then walked towards you and your group. “Can I help you?” “Well, you can start by telling us who you are, and what happened to Sam,” Grim frowned. The young man chuckled, flipping his fishnet scarf over one shoulder. “Sam is taking the day off for the holiday,” he explained, then slowly added, “I don’t…make merry on Valentine’s Day, so I volunteered to keep the shop open and do some cleaning.” “Well, that answers one question,” Tock snorted, crossing his arms over his chest and lookin the taller youth up and down. “Mind answering the other?” “Oh! Right, right,” the young fellow chuckled, and cleared his throat before giving a mock-salute and answering: “Name’s Caelyum. Caelyum De Macabre. I’m Sam’s new assistant.” “Pleased to meet you,” you smiled, and shook Caelyum’s hand, and tilted your head. “Say…can I call you Cael for short?” The young man’s smile flickered, and he paused before quietly beseeching, “I’d…rather you didn’t, thank you.” “No problem, I’m sorry,” you apologized quickly. “Not at all, not at all,” the young man chuckled, and straightened his stance, recovering quickly. “So! What can I do for you, me hearties? Supplies, clothes?” “Food,” growled Tock. “I’m STARVING.” Caelyum chuckled and jabbed a thumb to one part of the shop. “You’ll find everything you need in that direction.” Tock nodded, and sashayed in the direction De Macabre had indicated. Caelyum smiled back at you and Grim in the meantime. “You’re the Prefect of Ramshackle Dorm, right?” he guessed. “That’s right,” you nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, then,” Caelyum smiled. “Sam’s told me all about you: he says you’re his favorite customer.” “He says that about everyone,” Grim snorted. Caelyum chuckled and knelt down. He extended a hand carefully. Grim sniffed it carefully…then smiled and allowed the shopkeeper’s assistant to pet him softly. “You have a beautiful singing voice,” you couldn’t help but comment. Caelyum looked up in surprise…then blushed a bit. “Oh, uh…you heard a little of that, did you?” he chuckled with embarrassment. “Nya! It sounded really sad, but…it was also really nice,” Grim mewed. “Thanks,” Caelyum said as he stood back up to his full height. “What song was that?” you asked, curiously. “I’ve never heard it before. Is it from your homeland?” Caelyum’s smile fell, and he looked askance. “Not exactly,” he murmured, then informed you aloud, in a matter-of-fact way: “It’s a song from the Coral Sea. I come from the Jubilee Port, near the Swamplands: same place as Sam. A…friend taught the song to me.” Catching the hitch in his voice, you smiled sympathetically. “It sounds like you two were close.” “We were,” Caelyum said softly. “Very.” “Nya…what happened?” Grim asked. Caelyum paused…then shrugged. “They left,” was all he said. Sensing the sensitive subject, you decided to drop the matter; Grim caught on and did the same. “How long have you been working for Sam? I haven’t seen you around before.” “Not long,” shrugged Caelyum, seemingly grateful the subject had changed. “He and I have some similar interests, and when I joined Night Raven, I applied for work.” “Oh, so you’re a first year?” “Yep.” “What house? Octavinelle?” you guessed, wondering why Tock wouldn’t have recognized the youth if so. “Scarabia, actually and weirdly enough,” laughed Caelyum, as if the placement struck him as some sort of very funny joke…he paused then leaned in and whispered: “Um…is it just me, or is the dorm head of that house a little…you know…how would you say it…?” “Too pure and innocent for this cruel, unholy world?” “…Yeah, that.” “Yes. Yes, he very much is.” The two of you were interrupted by the sound of Tock snarling in the food aisles. You all turned to see him trying to pry a bag of chips out of the pincers of one of the crabs, who looked very insulted to be interrupted in his work. “Hey! Can somebody make this crab cake let go?!” he snapped. “Oh, sorry!” Caelyum called out, and then snapped his fingers. Suddenly, every single crab inside the building froze…and then their claws and extremities retracted into their shells, leaving only a series of what looked like smooth, white stones scattered around the shop. With a second snap of his fingers, the stone crabs disappeared; there was no puff of smoke or flash of light. One second they were there…the next, they were not. Grim whistled, impressed. “Nice trick,” he murmured. “Is that your Unique Magic?” you asked. “Yep,” Caelyum nodded. “They’re called Locker Crabs, and you’d be surprised the kinds of things I can do with them…” “Cool!” Grim commented. “Hey, Tock!” you called out, hearing the rustling of snack food bags. “Leave some stuff for the rest of us, and hurry up! We need to get to the beach quickly!” “I’m hurrying, snack meat, I’m hurrying!” Tock called back dismissively. “The beach?” Caelyum spoke up, looking interested. “Why are you three heading there? What’s so important?” “We’re on a mission!” Grim cheered, puffing out his chest once more. “Oh, really?” smirked Caelyum, looking amused, and scoffed as he moved behind the front desk. “What for? Some sort of Valentine’s Day meeting, or something?” You frowned, sensing a bitterness to two particular words. “You mentioned you don’t make merry on Valentine’s Day,” you said slowly, approaching the desk and leaning on it. “What do you…y’know…have against it?” “Hm?” Caelyum murmured, then shrugged as he leaned back against the shelves behind the front desk. “Oh, well, it’s…not the day itself. More what it represents.” “Nya? What do you mean?” Grim asked, tilting his head. A shadow seemed to fall over Caelyum’s face, and he looked askance. Something icy and stormy flickered across his features. “Love,” he said, as if the word were some repellent toxin. You and Grim shared a look, then looked back to Caelyum. “Love is a lie,” Caelyum went on, seemingly talking more to himself than to either of you. “It’s like a parasite that burrows into your chest…and even once the sickness it spreads is cured, something in there remains, keeping you from ever knowing real peace. It pulls you along a blind alley, and just when you feel safe, it stabs you in every place it hurts most, and then leaves you to either heal on your own or die. It weakens your defenses, and confuses your resolve. And yet every year, every time this day comes around…I just see people acting like it’s the best thing in the universe.” He shuddered violently, looking positively ill. Grim meowed almost sadly. “I think love is mushy and gross, but…I don’t think it’s THAT bad,” he mewed. His words seemed to snap Caelyum out of it. The witch doctor’s assistant glanced up at you both…and, with a light chuckle, his helpful, friendly smile returned, the shadows departing in an instant. “Well…being mushy and gross doesn’t help,” he joked. Grim sniggered. Your own expression didn’t change, even as the employee leaned forward again. “Seriously, though, what IS your mission?” “We’re gonna be bodyguards!” Grim announced joyously. “Bodyguards?” “There’s a special guest coming to the show on campus tonight,” you explained. “The Headmaster assigned the three of us to look after her, since she’s a VIP.” “A really RICH VIP,” Grim added. “That’s our Headmaster,” Caelyum scoffed with a roll of his eyes. “So, who is this special guest?” “Mia Corazón.” Caelyum’s smile vanished, as if it had been smacked off his face. “Mia…Corazón?” he repeated. “Nya? Do you know her?” Grim asked. Caelyum didn’t answer, looking away; that hollow, haunted stare came to his face as he seemed lost in another world. “Mia Corazón,” he repeated again, then let out a soft, slightly hysterical laugh. “Of all the cursed days of the year…she chooses now…” Before you could ask what was wrong, Tock came lumbering over, arms loaded with various snacks and drinks. “There! That should be enough for all of us…or at least, for me,” he grinned, flashing you a wink that would have made you blush in an instant if your mind weren’t on other matters. He looked towards the assistant…then frowned, eyes narrowing. “Hey…who are you upset with?” The words once again snapped the brooding Caelyum out of it. He looked at Tock with surprise…then shook his head fast and brushed some of his pink hair away from his face. “No one. Nothing,” he insisted, and forced his smile back onto his face. “Now! Let’s, uh…let’s ring this up, aye?” In casual, business-like fashion, Caelyum charged Tock; you were grateful for the recent raise Crowley had given you as you paid for it all. The three of you then left the shop. Just before you exited, you turned to bid Caelyum one last farewell. He smiled and waved back… …But the moment you left, the darkness flooded his face once more, and he looked away, eyes smoldering like hot coals as he reached into his shirt… …Revealing the silver locket that was around his neck. The same sort in the photo Crowley had given you. The young man’s face became cold as an iceberg once more as he opened the locket…and sang to the tune the music box inside played. “Wild and strong, you can’t be contained. Never bound, nor ever chained. Wounds you caused will never mend, and you will never end…”

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“Why did you ask him that question?” Tock Crockwork belched and grunted as he finished up his lunch, licking and sucking on his fingers before looking to you, cheeks bulging as he still chewed his food. “Whuh queshun?” he mumbled out through a full mouth. “About why he was upset?” Grim spoke up, tilting his head. “I mean, he certainly looked upset, so…” “That wasn’t the question he asked though,” you clarified to Grim, then looked to Tock. “You specifically asked, ‘WHO are you upset WITH?’” Tock swallowed and let out a hiccupping burp before speaking. “Mph…yeah, and?” he grunted, patting his stomach and licking his lips free of any crumbs from the sandwich he had devoured. “Well…why did you assume he was upset with someone?” “I didn’t assume, I knew,” snorted Tock, and slung his arms behind his head as the three of you neared the beach of Sage Island. “That was the same look I saw in the mirror every day when I thought of Leona, or those boys back home.” Knowing what had happened in his conflict with Leona, you gulped at Tock Crockwork’s words. “Well, I hope he wasn’t mad at us,” murmured Grim. You smiled thinly; you had a very good idea you knew who Caelyum was mad at, given the context of things…and you were very much hoping you were wrong. You had the sinking feeling those hopes would be dashed as the three of you drew closer to the beach…and a familiar-sounding song, accompanied by the tinkling notes of a music box, drifted through the greenery and into your ears… “Over waves and deep in the blue; I will give up my heart for you. Ten long years I’ll wait to go by: My Love Will Never Die.” The source of the singing soon became clear as you pushed past the last few bushes of the wilderness and stepped onto the open, sunny beach. There was a single white bench nearby; standing beside the bench was a man in what looked like an almost Spartan uniform…and seated upon it was a young woman, with dark skin and long, black hair, dressed in a red and gold dress. In one of her hands, she lifted the pendant of a locket; the source of the music box tune. The lady snapped the locket shut, and she and her chaperone turned fast when they heard yourself and your companions approaching. She smiled, chocolate-toned eyes lighting up with interest. “Oh, hello!” she chuckled, seemingly a bit embarrassed at being caught in her reverie, and stood up as her suspicious compatriot narrowed his eyes at you. “Are you…my bodyguards?” “Yes, ma’am!” chirruped Grim, proudly. “Mia Corazón, I presume?” you smiled, respectfully. “That is right,” the young woman greeted, bowing her head in matching respect and lowering her locket. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Wait a minute…why do you need us to guard you?” Tock spoke up, and pointed to the Spartan-looking fellow. “Wouldn’t he be enough?” “Oh, that’s Firme. He actually has a date with his wife,” Mia answered, giving the man a teasing smile.

The guard blushed. “Miss Corazón, not in front of civlians!” he pleaded. Mia chuckled. “Sorry, Firme,” she apologized. “Now go on; I know she’s waiting for you.” Firme nodded gratefully, then glared at the three of you more seriously. “Protect her at any cost; we’re depending on you,” he ordered. “Aww, don’t worry, we’ll keep the little fishstick safe!” Tock smirked, cracking his knuckles and neck. “You can start by NOT calling her ‘fishstick,’” you droned, noting the nervous look on Mia’s face and the anger on Firme’s. You gave both an apologetic smile. “Sorry. He’s half-crocodile. Trust me, though, he’s a softy when you get to know him.” “HEY! I AM NOT!” snapped Tock, angrily. Grim just giggled. The interaction and your promise seemed to relax both denizens of the Coral Sea. Firme bowed to Mia, and then walked towards the beach…and kept walking, straight into the sea, until his head disappeared under the waves. “Well!” Mia smiled, and cheerily hurried towards your group. “Can we go see the show now? I don’t wanna be late!” “Of course…um…Your Excellency?” “Oh, don’t bother with titles like that,” the girl giggled. “Just call me Mia! Everybody does!” “Okay, Mia,” you chuckled, quite liking her warmth and energy. “Follow us, and stay close.” “I will,” Mia promised as the three of you set off along the beach. “Thank you, by the way; I hope this doesn’t cause you too much trouble.” “Quite the opposite,” grumbled Grim, remembering what Crowley had said earlier. “Why do you wanna see some silly show anyway?” sneered Tock. “Oh, it’s not silly!” exclaimed Mia. “The story of the Sea Witch and the Little Mermaid is important among my people…and besides, I think theater is exciting! I always enjoy seeing it!” “Hopefully our show won’t disappoint,” you smiled. Tock just rolled his eyes and scoffed. “I still think it’s for wimps,” he mumbled…then abruptly froze. The rest of you stopped, too, looking to the croc boy as he sniffed the air and growled. “What is it?” Mia asked. “Something wrong?” “Very,” Tock nodded. “We are being watched.” “How do you know?” you asked. “Instinct? Intuition?” Tock growled and narrowed his eyes, looking at you determinedly. “No, meat. We. Are. Being. Watched.” “By who?” whispered Mia, nervously. “I have an idea,” you murmured with some dread. Before Mia could comment on your remark, all three of you heard a sharp yelp, and turned to see that Grim had inexplicably toppled over. The feline-like creature sat up and massaged his bumped noggin. “Owwww,” he moaned. “What happened?” Mia asked, sounding concerned. “I dunno!” Grim whined out. “Just…s-something seemed to come up from under me and…” “GAHR!” You jumped as, right on cue, Tock toppled over as well. Then it was your turn, as you felt something shift under the sand where you stood, and you dropped to the ground. The wind was knocked out of you for a moment, but you managed to sit up just in time to see three large, round humps in the sand…which seemed to move of their own accord. The three humps began to trace a path, circling Mia, who froze up and squeaked like a mouse, clearly confused and frightened. It only got worse when, suddenly, more and more humps seemed to appear out nowhere: at least a dozen or more, which shot through the sand, burrowing through it with a barely-audible scraping sound… …Then, dust flew up as the shapes burst from the ground. As the dust cleared, you and your friends watched wide-eyed as a consortium of familiar white crabs toppled Mia Corazón, and – working together to lift her, carried her off across the beachside. “HEY! PUT ME DOWN! STOP!” Mia cried out, but the crabs wouldn’t listen, and soon vanished from sight. “Nya…we’re off to a good start with this job,” sighed Grim dismally. “After them!” you barked, and leapt to your feet as you dashed after Mia and her arthropoid captors, Grim hot on your heels. Tock grumbled sourly as he dusted himself off then jogged after you. “Taking orders from my lunch…I’m gonna eat that stupid, mask-wearing, feather-loving…!”

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Mia cried out as the crabs carried her along the sand, her “volunteer” bodyguards soon out of sight. She tried to fight free, but the crabs pinched and held her fast, keeping her in place. She wasn’t sure how far or for how long they carried her…but suddenly they stopped, and she let out an “eep!” as they moved into a pillar, and pushed her up, allowing her to stand. The mermaid-in-disguise turned around, panting for breath as she watched the crabs swarm about each other…then, they seemed to coalesce and mesh together; their pale shells took on more colors; hints of pink, brown, and orange… …Until, finally, standing before her was a familiar young man with dreadlocks and a fishnet scarf. In his hand, he held a heart-shaped silver locket. “Come my love, be one with the sea. Rule with me for eternity. Drown all dreams so mercilessly, and leave their souls to me.” He snapped the locket shut at the end of the verse, and paused before uttering, in a mechanical, robotic tone, two words: “Ahoy, Mia.” Mia blinked slowly, absolutely stunned. “…C-Cael?” Caelyum blinked back and said nothing, his face emotionless and blank. Mia slowly smiled, her eyes lighting up…then squealed with joy and rushed forward, throwing her arms around the young man…who stood stiff and rigid, not even looking at her, as she hugged him close. “CAEL! I…oh, Gods, what do I even say?! It’s…it’s been so long…I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been?! Cael…Cael, I-I’m so happy…!” “Let. Go. Of. Me. You. BITCH.” Mia gasped as Caelyum harshly pushed her back, nearly knocking her over. Her heart sank as she stared at the young man, who glared at her, grinding his teeth and clenching his fists. She looked deeply hurt…and not because of the push. “Cael?” she whispered. “Cael…wh-what’s wrong? Why…why are you upset with me?” Cael’s eyes flashed with anger. “What’s wrong?! Why am I upset?!” he repeated. “What in Hades do you THINK is wrong?!” Mia flinched as the boy from the swamplands’ voice rose to a perfect scream. Cautiously, steadily, she approached. “Cael…please…I-I don’t understand. I…I’ve wanted to see you again for such a long time, and now-” “How DARE you?!” shouted Caelyum, silencing the aristocratic mermaid. “How dare you say something like that to me?! After what you did to me, do you expect to believe you’ve ever cared?!” “I…what…I do care!” Mia pleaded, and tears began to twinkle in her eyes. “Cael, what are you talking about?” Cael laughed; a dangerously unhinged, malicious sound. “Oh-ho-ho, you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about! You should!” he spat…then, the bitterness was replaced by pain as he went on. “Two years, Mia. Two years I waited, and you never returned. You…y-you broke your promise to me…and did you ever think of me in those two years? Did you think of me even once in all the time since, until now?” Cael’s eyes began to brim with tears of his own; he was shaking. Mia felt her heart sinking further in her chest. “Of course I did,” she said, softly. “You’re…you’re my best friend.” One could almost hear Caelyum’s last heartstring break. “Best friend,” he repeated, in a dead, soulless voice…then hung his head. “You still don’t get it, do you, Mia? You broke my heart, Corazón…” Head still hung low, dreadlocks casting shadow over his eyes, Caelyum De Macabre lifted one arm, and snapped his fingers…and Mia nervously stepped back as a swarm of crabs appeared to trail across his arm and mesh together…forming a silver cutlass. “…And now, I’m going to break yours. Literally.” Ominously, Caelyum began to approach. Mia felt panic rise in her, and started to back away…then yiped, almost comically, as she tripped on her own dress and tumbled back. “C-Cael…Cael, PLEASE!” she cried out, as the boy loomed over her, his face twisted in anger as he began to lift the sword above his head… “HEY! BACK OFF!” FWOOSH! A jet of blue flame shot between Mia Corazón and Cael De Macabre; the lad from the swamplands jumped back, then growled angrily, turning to face the source. You had finally arrive, with Grim at your side, both of you glaring at the bokor’s assistant. “That’s enough, Caelyum,” you warned. Cael sneered. “It’s not enough,” he hissed, “Until she endures the same amount of PAIN and AGONY I HAVE!” With a roar, he rounded about to try and strike Mia down…then froze in place when he found she had seemingly disappeared. Startled and caught greatly off guard, he was unable to avoid the green scaled fist that grabbed hold of the back of his jacket, and cried out as, with a roar, the owner of the fist hurled about seven feet away, sending him rolling through the send. His sword spun through the air before stabbing into the ground right at the edge of the shore. Caelyum coughed and snarled and spat as he got onto his hands and knees…then glared as he found Tock Crockwork – now in his full “true form” – glaring at him, fangs and claws bared. “Keep away from the fishstick, swamp meat,” he spat. “Thank you,” Mia whispered. Tock just smirked at her – somewhat cockily but not cruelly – then glarde back at Caelyum as yourself and Grim moved to stand beside him, all of you making sure to create a barrier before poor Mia. Cael rose to his feet shakily. “Leave her alone, Caelyum,” you said. “This is not your fight!” he snapped back. “Uh…yeah, it kinda is,” Grim snorted. “We told you, this is our job today!” “You don’t know who you’re protecting,” Cael viciously sneered, his shoulders trembling with fury, his fingers clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white as the bones under his skin. “She cursed me!” “Cursed you?!” Mia exclaimed. “Caelyum, I never did ANYTHING to you!” “Yes, you did!” Cael answered…and gulped back a sob before explaining: “You made me love you.” All eyes widened; you and your friends looked to Mia, then back at Caelyum. “Ohhhh…now the pieces are coming together,” Grim murmured. “I know the look in your eyes, meat, and it’s not love,” Tock said, darkly. “Not love as it should be, anyway.” “Cael…I-I’m so sorry,” Mia quavered. “Of course you’re sorry,” Cael scoffed. “Everyone’s sorry when it’s too late.” So saying, he lifted his hand…and the sword that had stabbed into the ground “dissolved” into a group of crabs. They scurried across the beach, crawled up his side…and reformed into a cutlass in his grasp once more. “Put the weapon away, Caelyum!” you beseeched. “It doesn’t have to be like this!” “Yes it does!” Cael yelled. “Don’t you get it?! I can’t be free! I’ll always remember! I’ll always feel that pain! Love is a curse; a curse that hurts me, every day of my existence…but after today, I’m going to change that.” He closed his eyes. You had a bad feeling you knew what you’d see when he opened them again…and you were correct. One of his eyes was suddenly surrounded by a fiery aura. “Today, I break the curse.” KA-ZAM! The familiar black cloud of Overblot surrounded the shopkeeper’s boy. Blue and orange light flashed in the gaps between the vapor as it swirled around the fellow from the swamplands…until finally, the mist parted. When it did, you all found that Caelyum De Macabre had gone through an alarming transformation. His brown-tinted clothes had vanished, replaced with a blue-gray uniform like a navy seaman. One of his arms was stuck into the sleeve of a long, tattered cerulean coat with gold lining, which hung about his shoulders almost like a cape. A blood red sash was lashed about his middle. While his left eye was surrounded by orange aura, a tattoo had appeared over his right, in the image of a pirate medallion. His dreadlocks had transformed into a head of writhing, wriggling, pinkish-purple tentacles, like those of a squid; each tendril’s tip was smeared with ink. His left arm had become a white crab claw, ink oozing from its joins; his right leg had become a crab’s leg, too, and was also oozing with Blot. A single black boot covered his one human foot…and he still held his cutlass in his one human hand. Cael grinned viciously, pupils pinpricks as he pointed his sword at you. “Yo-Ho, me hearties!” he bellowed. “Shiver ‘em from stem to stern!” At these words, the ground before his feet seemed to ripple…and then, a swarm of Locker Crabs came scrambling from the ground, racing towards your group. “I’ll take care of this!” Grim pronounced, and summoned a wall of flame. As the fire struck the crabs, they vanished in a cloud of silver smoke…but more just kept coming! Caelyum laughed and began to move towards your group, swaggering as the point of his crab-leg stabbed into the ground repeatedly. Seeing the approaching dark mage, Grim paused to hurl a fireball in his direction…only for Cael to split in half, crab legs showing in the “seam” of his being, as the fireball hurtled past without causing any harm. He stitched himself back together and kept moving forward, as if nothing had happened. Tock Crockwork roared and charged at Cael, swinging a punch at him…but De Macabre simply swept up his crab claw and, in a fluid, wrenching motion, whirled Tock about and flung him to the beach floor. He grinned with deranged excitement as he moved closer to yourself and Mia, leaving Tock to choke in the dust. “Hold them off, Grim!” you called out as he continued to scorch the crabs. “I’ll try!” Grim called back. “Run for it, Minion! RUN NOW!” And you did, holding onto Mia’s arm as you dragged her after yourself. With a wild laugh, Caelyum lifted his sword up…and then “melted” into a swarm of crabs, which scurried after the two of you as you raced along the beach. Behind you, Tock snarled, clutching his banged skull as he watched the horde of crabs vanish. He angrily kicked away a few that Grim didn’t manage to stop, and then charged forward. Grim panted; he was already growing weary. “I…I can’t hold them off!” he meowed. “There’s…there’s too many-EEP!” “Stop whining and shut up,” snarled Tock, whisking Grim up in one arm and sprinting on, the pair pursued by the remaining Locker Crabs. “We’ve got more important things to worry about, come on!” Unaware that your friends were on the chase, you hurried along with Mia Corazón. The crabs that made up Cael’s being clicked and scraped behind you with a deeply unsettling sound, urging you to go faster and faster. “Wait!” Mia gasped. “If…I…can…talk…to him…!” “I don’t think he’s in a mood to talk!” you replied. “Right now, all we can do is…!” You trailed off and stopped short as the crabs suddenly caught up with you…and then moved around you, reforming in front of you into a column. Thinking fast you looked around… …And were just in time to grab hold of sturdy tree branch, as a sword reshaped and then stabbed at you. You barely had a moment to parry the strike, the blade cutting a notch into the wooden limb you held. “Stay behind me!” you hissed to Mia, as Cael reformed fully. “So, it’s a duel then?” Cael cackled. “Alright! EN GARDE!” You yelped, instinctively blocking as the sword slashed at you once more. The slash was followed by a lunge; you jumped back quickly and parried that strike, too. CLING-CLANG-CLING-CLANG! The cutlass and the branch clattered against each other, the sound of the steel against wood that was tougher than it looked ringing out. Each time Cael tried to get around you to lunge at Mia, you blocked his path. You laughed softly, amazed you were holding out; guess one didn’t know how good they’d be at something like a swordfight till they tried! You ducked another slash, and responded by swinging your stick around. WHACK! Caelyum reeled as you managed to smack him across the face…then slowly turned back. He looked…annoyed. “Ow,” was all he said, almost sarcastically, before swinging his blade around again. You quickly lifted your branch… SWACK! And gulped nervously as the cutlass sliced it clean in half. “Oh, boy.” “HA HA!” laughed Cael, and lifted his crab leg, kicking you hard in the stomach. You coughed, dazed and winded as you crumpled to the ground. Now, nothing was standing between the enraged Caelyum and his prey: Mia. The mermaid with legs began to back away in fright…then cried out sharply as Cael thrust out his crab claw and grabbed her by the throat with it. A grin of evil triumph spread across his face as he lifted his weapon above his head. “And here we are at last,” he crooned with twisted delight, and squeezed, making Mia gasp for air. “Any last words, my dear?” Mia gulped…and looked pleadingly into the Swamplander’s eyes as she uttered five simple words. “Cael…please…I love you!” Just before the last three words were uttered, Cael had prepared to attack…but then he froze. The grip of his pincer loosened as she said those three golden words, and the demented smile vanished from his face. He hesitated, as if those words had caused something in his brain to just shut down… Which was all the opportunity you needed. CRACK! ���GAH!” exclaimed Caelyum, and dropped Mia, who coughed as she hit the ground. His tentacle hairdo wriggled like a horde of angry snakes as he glared at you in rage: the stone you had thrown at his shoulder had hurt! With a furious roar, he swung his sword around his head three times, trying to cut you into pieces. You ducked and dodged each strike as fast as you could…only to fall back as Cael summoned a horde of sand crabs. You squirmed and grimaced as the crabs pinned you to the ground, acting like organic shackles. You winced as each time you moved, they pinched you hard, making you stay still. Caelyum smirked victoriously, and pointed the tip of his cutlass at your heart. “Tell me, Prefect,” he taunted. “Do you fear death?” “Do you?” CHOMP! Caelyum began to turn around towards the voice, his face etched with surprise…and stayed perfectly still, as if he’d become a statue, paralyzed in shock. The red marking of Tock Crockwork’s unique power – One Minute to Die – was evident on his left arm. “NOW!” the crocodile shouted, as Grim hurried over. The feline-like creature wasted no time: he focused his power, a bright blue aura surrounding him…before, with a spiteful hiss, sending a huge jet of flame towards Caelyum. Caelyum was sent flying through the air, clothing scorched, and rolled across the dirt, still in the position he had been stuck in. Only a few seconds later, he convulsed, and groaned, trying to stand up… …Only to find Tock looming over him. “This,” the crocodile hissed, “Is why I’M top of the food chain, snack meat!” WHAM! He spun around, slapping his tail across Cael’s face…and the Overblotting mage fell still and silent, rendered swiftly unconscious. The sword disappeared without warning from his hand, as if it had never been there. The crabs he had summoned all vanished in the blink of an eye: just like at the shop, one moment they were there, and the next they were not. All four of you – yourself, Mia, and your friends – sighed with relief. “Thanks,” you nodded to Tock as he helped you to your feet. “Hey, I’ve gotta protect my territory; that includes you,” Crockwork shrugged. You decided not to comment on that. “Are you okay, Miss Corazón?” meowed Grim, nuzzling up against the mermaid’s side. She smiled weakly and patted his head before standing. “Physically, yes,” she said. The teenaged girl’s eyes then lit up with concern as she hurried over to Cael’s side. “Cael…Cael, are you okay? S-Speak to me!” she pleaded. “He just tried to kill you!” Grim snapped out. “He wasn’t thinking straight,” Mia defended him. “Just…h-he didn’t understand…” She sniffled and bowed her head. “…C-Caelyum…I’m so sorry…” You and Grim shared a sad sort of look. Tock just looked confused, above all else. “What happened between you two?” the croc grimaced, crossing his scaly arms. “I think we’re about to find out,” you said, and pointed as silver mist began to wisp off of Caelyum De Macabre’s form. A moment later, a blinding white light surrounded the young man…and the mist formed a cloud, inside of which – as always seemed to happen – pictures from the past began to appear… “Tag! You’re it!” “I’ll get you! Ha Ha Ha!” In the swamplands of the Jubilee Port, a small boy with pink dreadlocks giggled and hid behind a tree by the riverbank. For several seconds, he sat anxiously…then yelped when, out of the river burst a familiar, dark face with flowing raven hair. “GOTCHA!” sang out the girl with the gold and ruby tail, and reached out a hand to playfully tap his shoulder. “No fair!” huffed the boy. “I always have to stay near the water; you never let me have an advantage!” The girl giggled and smirked teasingly. “Not my fault you’re a lousy swimmer,” she cooed. The boy grumbled and pouted. She smiled gently. “I’m sorry, Cael; I didn’t mean it,” she said, placing a hand on his leg… “AHA!” the boy laughed, and tapped her hand before jumping away. “You’re it again!” “HEY! THAT’S CHEATING!” The two laughed as the girl swam through the river, chasing the bayou boy up and down the banks…before finally leaping out of the river with a victorious cry. “RAAAAH!” “EEK!” Young Caelyum yelped as he was thrown to the ground. The girl with the fish tail grinned, flippers wagging happily as she kept him pinned. “Gotcha again!” she sang out. Young Cael giggled and wiggled under her. “Hey, lemme go!” he demanded with a slight laugh. “Hmmmm…if I do, will you just tag me again?” “…Maybe?” The mermaid glared…and tickled her friend with her tail. Cael squealed with laughter before flashing an evil smile. “Ohhhhh, you wanna play that way, huh?” He tickled her back and the two rolled across the bank…before yelping and splashing into the river. A moment later, both rose from the depths Caelyum coughing and floundering. “Help! Mia, help! I’m drowning!” “I’ve got you, hold on!” Mia said, and helped Cael back to shore. The boy sighed with relief and began to wring out his clothes. “Thank you,” he gasped out. “No problem,” Mia smiled. “I’m sorry you got all wet…” “It’s okay; I’ve got other clothes,” Cael smiled. Mia nodded, then smiled a bit more sadly. “I still should have been more careful: there may be more clothes, but there’s only one Caelyum.” Cael blushed. “Hush, you’re just teasing me now…” “No. I’m not,” Mia said seriously. “You’re my best friend, Cael.” Cael blinked, pausing in his activities. “…But…don’t you have other mermaid friends?” “I may have OTHER friends, but you’re my BEST friend,” smiled Mia. “And there’s only one of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Cael blinked again…then smiled sentimentally. “Heh…well, um…you’re my best friend, too, Mia. And, uh…a-and I feel the same.” “I’m glad,” Mia smiled. A pause. “You should really suck less at swimming though.” “Oh, hush. Say! Maybe you can teach me?” “Sure!” That word seemed to be a cue, for the scene changed to a few years later; the same river on the bayou, the same boy and girl, just a little older. “MARCO!” “POLO!” The Mermaid floated with her upper half above the water, eyes closed, flapping her tail as she blindly searched for her friend. Cael would pop up now and again with a gleaming, gloating grin as he watched her try to find him: he’d learned to swim VERY well in the years since that time playing tag. “MARCO!” Mia called out again. “POLO!” laughed Cael. “Oh, this is impossible, you’re too fast!” “Suck less at swimming,” teased Caelyum. “I’m a MERMAID, all we DO is swim!” “You can walk!” “I need a potion or a spell for that,” huffed Mia, and turned around, trying to feel about for her friend. Cael smirked and dove under again, swimming cautiously around her in the wide river… …But as he popped up again, he was due for a terrible sight. He gasped as he saw Mia blindly reaching closer to the shore…where a venomous serpent glared at her oncoming form almost hungrily… “MARCO!” “MIA, WATCH OUT!” Confused, Mia opened her eyes…then gasped as she saw the snake rearing back to bite her! She pulled away just in time, and at the same moment, Cael glared and snapped his fingers. The snake heard a clicking noise, and turned its head to find a white crab snapping its pincers. The pincers swung towards its throat… SNICKER-SNACK! And that was the end of the snake. Mia swam back to Caelyum’s side as she snapped his fingers again and the crab disappeared. He hugged her close. “Are you okay?” he whispered, worriedly. “Yeah…i-it didn’t get me,” she panted with relief, and squeezed him tightly. “Thank…th-thank you…” Caelyum smiled warmly and returned the hug…then froze up as Mia leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said again, and nuzzled against his bare chest. Cael blinked…then blushed red as a tomato and grumbled. “…Hey, what are friends for…? More time passed, and the swamp disappeared. The scene now became a lonely pier. On it sat Caelyum and Mia, who was now in full human form. “Do you really have to go?” he whispered. Mia nodded sadly, hanging her head. Cael bit his lip, and looked away, tragedy in his eyes. “…When…w-when will you be back?” he asked, timidly. “I don’t know,” Mia admitted sadly, then smiled gently up at her friend. “My mother said I need to start learning more about the family business; spending less time on land and…well…with you.” Cael frowned and clenched his fists. “I see.” Mia’s smile fell…and she gave Caelyum a hug. He relaxed. “She’s set in her ways,” she said softly. “But I will never forget you. And I WILL come back.” “Do you promise?” “Of course. You’re my best friend,” smiled Mia…then reached into a bag she had with her, stationed between the two. “Here…I have proof…” Cael tilted his head as out of the bag she pulled two silver necklaces with heart shaped lockets. She gave him one, and clasped the other around her neck. “What is this?” Cael asked, crinkling his nose in confusion. “A sign that we both share the same heart,” Mia said, and giggled. “That’s the really sappy way of saying it, anyway. Put it on and open it!” Cael did, and at the same time he opened the locket, Mia did too…and soft, beautiful melody chimed from the music box contained. Caelyum’s eyes widened. “That’s the song you taught me,” he recognized, and looke dup to Mia. “The one about the pirate and the goddess of the sea?” Mia nodded. “It’s your favorite…my favorite…OUR favorite,” she said gently, and took Cael’s hands in hers, looking into his eyes with deep-rooted affection. “And as long as we share these lockets, share these songs…we’ll never truly be away from each other.” Caelyum smiled weakly. “I don’t know about that,” he chuckled, wryly. “But…thank you, Mia.” He paused. “You…you know I love you…right?” Mia blushed. “Yes. And I love you too.” Cael gaped. “You do?” “Of course, silly! You’re my best friend!” Cael blinked…then smiled and shook his head wearily. “Yeah…I know,” he said softly. “I…I know.” A pause…and the pair began to sing together to the mingled tune on their music boxes as they watched the sun sink on the horizon beyond the sea. “Warm and welcoming as the sea, someday I will return to thee. Hear my voice, sing with the tide: Our Love Will Never Die.” Time passed once more, but the music box still played. The next scene played in silence, as Cael lay on his bed silently one night. He hummed to the tune on the locket, and glanced sorrowfully towards a calendar on his wall. Every date was crossed out with a red X. He sighed…then snapped the locket shut…before a lightbulb seemed to go off over his head, and he reached towards his book case, grabbing a specific spell book… This short tableaux was followed by another as Caelyum was now found…underwater. His lower half had become a white-scaled fish’s tail as he swam through the water, using a spell that would turn him into a merman for a few short hours. He’d taken a boat out to the coordinates where he knew Mia lived. Now, he swam quickly and quietly through the city, looking for Mia. His eyes darted this way and that, seeking some sign of his long lost friend; two years without any sort of contact – never a call, never anything written – and he was now so close to seeing her again! He smiled wider as he moved into one of the higher rent neighborhoods of the underwater area, carefully brushing past other, natural merfolk going about their business. His heart was beating fast in his chest; when he found her, he’d tell her everything. How he felt, how much it hurt to be without her, how much he never wanted to be separated again! Then he found her, as he turned an alley…and that fast beating heart seemed to skip a beat… …As his face filled with sorrow. Only yards away – never noticing he was there, he saw a strong, burly-looking merman with blonde hair…hugging his Mia and kissing her full on the lips. He clamped his eyes shut…and swam away, out of the city and back towards the surface. His tears were lost with the tides. Thus ended the vision, as the blinding light faded, leaving an unconscious Caelyum De Macabre lying on the ground, back to his usual self. “…Prefect?” “Yeah, Grim?” “Is it, like…a requirement that we stand here for several seconds in total silence after we see those?” “No, I think it just happens.” “Ah. Okay then.” Tock Crockwork said nothing. A few moments later, Cael groaned and began to stir. He blinked his eyes and clutched his pink-haired head as he started to sit up. “Ugh…what…wh-what happened?” he slurred out. “You tried to turn my food into shish-kabob,” droned Tock, thumbing towards you. “Shut up,” you grumbled. Confused, Cael turned towards your voices, and looked about to say something…until he heard sniffling and whimpering. He turned…and found the teary-eyed face of Mia staring back at him. “C-Cael,” she whimpered…then let out a squealing cry that caught him off guard as she threw herself upon him and began to cry. “CAEL, I’M SO SORRY! I’m so, so sorry…please…please, I’m sorry, PLEASE…!” Caelyum, as you might imagine, looked beyond uncomfortable…and with a growl, he managed to push Mia off of him. She whimpered like a kicked puppy as, without a word, he got to his feet and turned away from her, one hand on his chest, clutching his silver locket. “Sorry isn’t enough,” he answered, coldly. Mia gulped…and stood up. “Cael…please don’t walk away,” she begged. “Why not?” Caelyum snarled back over his shoulder, and began to stumble away. “Because I love you!” Cael stopped. He didn’t turn around…but he stopped. Mia paused…and took a deep breath. “I love you,” she said, firmly now, not desperately. “I…I always loved you, but…but I was…I don’t know, I…I was worried…” She hung her head and paused before going on. Cael turned his head slightly to show he was listening. “When I returned to the sea, my mother didn’t want me to ever go back to the land. She forbid it. She told me I had to stay under the water, and…and find a proper husband. She told me to forget about you, and…that merman you saw? He was…my betrothed.” Cael growled. “WAS,” Mia pointed out, and then went on quickly: “Cael, I could NEVER forget you, and I could NEVER stop loving you. Those two years…they were agony for me. That time in the alley…I asked him to kiss me because I wanted to show him we WEREN’T right for each other. He agreed; there just…wasn’t a spark. We liked each other, but…we both knew it would be wrong.” She swallowed, and lifted her head. “So…we both spoke to my mother. And…she realized what she’d been doing was wrong. The very next day, I went back to the swamplands; I looked everywhere for you…you weren’t there.” Silence. “I’m so sorry, Caelyum,” she sniffled. “I’m…I’m so-” Cael stopped her with a raised hand…and slowly turned towards her. All of you were surprised to see tears in his eyes. “…I just tried to kill you.” “Yes.” “I ran off over this whole misunderstanding.” “Yes.” “All this pain, all this time…and you really loved me?” “Yes.” “And…you…still love me? After all that?” Mia smiled. “Yes.” Cael blinked…then let out a wet laugh. “Wow,” he chuckled. “I…I guess swimming isn’t the only thing we both suck at. I mean…we’re n-not very good at this whole ‘relationship’ thing, either, are we?” Mia shared a sniffling laugh…and the pair promptly ran into each other’s arms. “I’m so happy I found you,” Mia sobbed with joy. “I’ve missed you so much…” “Not half as much as I’ve missed you,” Cael choked. The pair squeezed each other…then backed up, holding each other’s hands and staring lovingly into each other’s eyes. “Play the song you sang long ago,” Cael began. “And wherever the storm may blow,” Mia continued. “You will find the key to my heart,” both finished. “We’ll never be apart.” “Aaaaand…kiss,” you murmured to yourself with a smile, as the pair did exactly that. Tock snorted, rolling his eyes as Grim stuck out his tongue and grumbled something about “soppy mush.” The two lovebirds parted after a few seconds…then seemed to remember you were all standing nearby, and blushed before backing away from each other like scalded cats. “Um…s-sorry,” Caelyum mumbled. “About trying to destroy us, or for that sappy display?” droned Tock. “Because I can forgive one of those…” “It’s the destroying us part, isn’t it?” you guessed. “Yyyyep.” Cael hung his head and shuffled his feet guiltily. “…I’ve…had a lot of pain bottled up for years,” he said silently. “And…when I heard she was coming here…I…well…” “It’s alright,” you soothed, moving closer. “I can understand. And for the record, we won’t tell the Headmaster.” “Nya…or Chief Jehan,” Grim added. “Claude Jehan?” Mia spoke up, and tilted her head. “Is he really as scary as they say back home? The Ashengrottos and Leeches have a LOT of stories to tell.” “I’d imagine,” you snickered. “And no. He’s not that scary.” “Right. He’s WORSE,” Tock responded. “Amen,” you and Grim chorused. Mia gulped nervously; Cael chuckled softly, smiling at her with puppy-eyed affection. “I…hope he’s not going to be at the play tonight,” she said slowly. “Trust me, you’ll be fine,” you soothed. “Well, we won’t be if we don’t get there on time!” Grim reminded you. “We’re already behind schedule, thanks to all this!” “The hairball has a point,” nodded Tock, stiffly, then grumbled under his breath: “I still say it’s all for pansies, though…” All of you chuckled…except Mia, who took Cael by the hand. “Can…can he come, too?” she asked, shyly. Cael looked shocked, as did Grim and Tock. You just smiled wider. “If he wants to,” you answered. Cael blinked…then grinned so wide his face nearly seemed to split in two. “Please!” he nodded eagerly. “Then come on!” you called, and gestured for the reunited lovers to follow. “Let’s get moving before my pay gets docked! I have a pet to feed, you know!” “I AM NOT YOUR PET!” snapped Grim, while Tock cackled with amusement, snapping his fingers and resuming his humanoid form. Caelyum De Macabre and Mia Corazón just smiled and squeezed each other’s hands, following at a steady pace. It took longer than it should have to reach the theater, in the end, but you still made it in the nick of time. When asked why it took so long, you had an honest answer: Cael and Mia were so busy staring into one another’s eyes with everlasting love, it made getting there quickly difficult. In your mind, and theirs, it was more than worth it.

 The End

Miraculous: Rise of Anatis 43

Ok. That's Puppeteer done. I hope you guys like this :D It came out pretty good but man I hate that episode. I re-watched it to work out how to adapt it to my AU but it such a cringe fest. Anyway, I'm glad it's over now. As you probably guessed, Alya is gonna be on the receiving end of an Anatis lecture soon. Honestly, that's going to be so fun to write. Anyway, Duck out :D

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Chapter Forty-Three: The Puppeteer Strikes Again

"Thanks for coming by so quickly, Lu," Marinette sighed as they headed up to her room. She looked pretty tired and she had asked him to help babysit Manon. She had a piece to finish but Manon was a full time job so she called him. "I really have to get this piece done,"

 "No worries, Melody," He smiled as they walked into her room. Manon was sat playing with the handmade dolls of Anatis and Lady Noir as well as a number of their villains. Luka couldn't help the soft smile that came onto his face as he glanced at them. Marinette walked over to her and gently knelt down.

 "Manon, this is Luka. He's gonna sit in and help look after you today as I have to do some sewing," She explained, making Manon look up at Luka with big eyes. "You've met him before at the zoo. He helped us find Elle and Ella but once I'm done with the sewing, we can play together and get some ice cream. Sound good?"

 "Yay! Ice cream!" Manon grinned before grabbing Luka's hand, making him sit down as Marinette smiled. She got her sewing machine set up and began work as Luka and Manon played with the dolls and began to work on the commission she had. It was a time sensitive one and she only had two days to complete it so she was planning to power through it today. Of course, she had forgotten that she had to babysit Manon that day but that's why she called in Luka. She knew he would help keep Manon happy while she worked. She laughed a little as she heard Luka do an over dramatic impression of Hawkmoth, complete with a typical evil laugh. She glanced over and noticed they were reenacting Heroes day. Luka had held of the Hawkmoth doll she had made.

 "Give me your miraculous," He stated, moving the doll's arms as Manon played with the Anatis doll. "or feel my rage!!"

 "Never!" Manon stated, making the Anatis doll stand up to the Hawkmoth doll. "You will give me your miraculous instead! Take that!"

 "Ahhh noooo!!" Luka gasped as she hit the Hawkmoth doll with the Anatis doll. "Curse you, Anatis! You have stole my cane!!!"

 "Ha ha! I win!!" Manon laughed as Luka made the Hawkmoth doll shake his little fist. She giggled at his action before jumping up. "I wanna be a superhero!! I would totally fly!! Hey, Marinette!!! I want to be a superhero!"

 "Really?" Marinette asked before accidentally pricking her finger. "Ouch,"

 "Hey, Manon, why don't we play superheroes?" Luka suggested, getting her attention. He shot Marinette an apologetic look but she gave him a sweet smile. She told him that she had some spare fabric in the cupboard before focusing on the task at hand. He took it out and made a makeshift cape from Manon, who proceed to climb onto her chaise lounge. 

 "Lulu! I wanna fly!!" She shouted, making him chuckle at the nickname. He moved over and let her climb on his back before carefully moving around the room as she giggled and held out her arms. "Look! Mari!! I'm flying!!"

 Marinette looked up and smiled as Luka spun around a little, making Manon giggle. He continued to play games with Manon as she worked on her project, teaching her songs and pretending to be a pirate, calling himself One eyed Lu. Manon got the nickname Mad Manny and was his second mate, which she loved. The 'treasure' they were looking for turned out to be a number of cookies, which he gave some to Marinette before putting on a movie. Sometime after their treasure hunt, she was nearly done but before she could join them, her phone vibrated. She picked it up and saw Alya was ringing. She pressed answer.

 "Hey girl," She smiled. Though happy to hear from Alya, she was sure she was spending the day with Nino so she was wondering why she was calling. "Everything ok?"

 "You're coming with me and Nino to the Grévin Wax Museum!" She gasped, making Marinette frown a little. She didn't want to be a third wheel. "Adrien invited us!"

 "Uh?! What?!" She gasped, surprised before glancing at Luka and Manon. "But I hav-"

 "There's no saying no," Alya declared, waggling her finger. "We're coming to get you now! You don't have a choice, girl,"

 "But I'm finishing my commission and I have Manon here," She gasped, glancing over at her. She was giving Luka a new hairstyle, not that he minded the pigtails. "And Luka's here too. He's helping me with babysitting duties so I can finish this piece,"

 "Hang on," Alya stated before asking Nino something. She waited a few minutes before facing the phone again. "Adrien says it's ok for Manon and Luka to come by as well,"

 "I don't know..." Marinette muttered, knowing why they were doing this. They were still trying to set her up with Adrien and she really didn't want to be set up with him. Not after her revelation. She had been trying to move on with her crush and sure, she wanted to get to know him as a person but on her terms, not them. "I shouldn't,"

 "It will be fine," Alya grinned, making her frown a little. "Manon will love the museum and Luka can keep an eye on her. Anyway, we're here!!"

 "What?!" She gasped, calling both Luka and Manon to look up at her as Alya hung up. Literally, a few seconds later, they came up into her room, grinning. "No, no... seriously?! I can't-"

"Can't what?" Manon asked, confused as Alya turned off the machine and dragged Marinette up. 

"We're going to the Grévin Wax Museum and Adrien invited us," Alya explained, making Luka look confused. He was on friendly terms with Adrien but not enough to get an invite to hang out with them. However, Manon cheered and jumped up, abandoning the hair styling. Luka took out the bands and stood up as Alya literally dragged Marinette out of the house. He followed and waved to Sabine, who waved back before getting in the car with the rest. It was a bit of a squeeze but they managed to fit in. Though it meant he was pressed against Marinette, who was trying her best not to freak out. The car started and soon they were off to the museum. Adrien was staring up ahead and Alya was whispering to Nino. 

 "Then I'll leave Marinette alone-" She whispered but Manon heard her.

 "Hey! Why are you gonna leave Marinette all alone!?" She gasped, upset at the idea. "Don't you like her?!"

 "What you guys talking about?" Marinette asked, jumping a little. She accidentally elbowed Luka. "Sorry, Lu,"

 "It's fine," He smiled softly as Manon leaned over and tugged his jacket.

 "Don't let them leave Mari alone, Lulu!"

 "I won't," He smiled reassuringly. "But what are you guys talking about?"

 "Oh nothing!!" Nino gasped, holding up his hands. "It's got nothing to do with Marinette and Adrien together... uh... to look at the statues as just friends! Yeah, totally just friends! Nothing more!"

 Marinette gasped, clearly looking embarrassed. Sure, it was one thing for Luka to know about her kind of crush on Adrien but she could knew Luka wouldn't judge her for it or try to make her look like an idiot in front of him. There's also the fact that Adrien isn't available but he still hasn't told anyone about it. She got why but that meant Alya would be pulling stunts like this.

 "Don't worry, Manon," Adrien stated, making her look at him. "It's Nino and Alya are boyfriend and girlfriend. They probably just want to spend sometime together without us. Though Luka, you should hang out with me, Marinette and Manon too. There's a whole music section that you would love,"

 "Thanks, Adrien," He smiled before gently leaning closer to Marinette. "You ok?"

 "She told Nino," She muttered, looking at Alya before she looked back at Luka. "I told her not to tell him but she did anyway,"

 He frowned as he looked over at Alya and Nino who had gone back to whispering. It was pretty obvious what they were planning and why. They were intending to force Adrien and Marinette alone together. Probably so Marinette can confess her feelings for him but he could sense that the idea was trouble. One Adrien had a relationship with Kagami and two it would be embarrassing for both parties involved. He sighed and glanced over at Adrien, who seemed completely unaware of the whole thing. He frowned a little. It must be nice not been aware like the way he was. It wasn't that he thought Adrien was ignorant but Luka wished he had a similar mind set. He knew his own faults and one of them was that he was over thinker and saw far too much. His mother always told him that the way he saw the world was different to other people. It was one of the things that made him a good match with Tikki. Even Master Fu had said so but sometimes he wished he could just be normal like Adrien. 

 "You ok?" Marinette asked, making him look at her and nod before the car pulled up and they got out. Adrien greeted a woman waiting for them. She mentioned something about how a piece of his statue as they walked inside. Manon was holding Marinette's hand as they walked.

 "Look, Marinette! We get to go in when it's closed!" She grinned, clearly excited. "It's like we're princesses! Hey, Lulu, are you a prince?!"

 "I'm the prince of pirates," He grinned, making her gasp in surprise and excitement before she ran off. Marinette smiled as she glanced over at him.

 "Prince of pirates?" She asked, making him grin. "You're really good with kids, you know?"

 "Kind of had to be," He muttered as they walked an entrance. "Ma was always busy with work and well... you know what my stepfather was like..."

 "So you had to look after Juleka," Marinette mumbled with Luka nodding as they came over to Manon, who was stood near a Jagged Stone Statue. The woman, Veronique, was explaining to Manon that it wasn't the real Jagged Stone. Manon proceed to pull funny faces at him, making Luka laugh before she ran over to him and gently pulled his hoodie. He looked at her as she grinned up at him.

 "Can I ride on your shoulders, Lulu?" She asked.

 "Sure," He replied, kneeling down and helping her onto his shoulders before standing up. The group walked through the museum as Veronique told them it's history. However, Nino was talking to Adrien and Alya was talking to Marinette. Adrien looked really puzzled by Nino but Marinette looked annoyed at Alya as she crossed her arms.

 "Why did you tell Nino everything?" She asked, looking betrayed. "You promised you wouldn't,"

 "I didn't I swear," Alya replied as they walked through the museum. "Besides even if I had to him everything, he would still be clueless. Urg! Who cares anyway!"

 "I care," Marinette gasped but Alya choose to ignore that.

 "I've set everything up with Nino, who doesn't know a thing, so you can finally pour your heart out to Adrien, girl!" She grinned, clearly excited.

 "Wait... what?!" She gasped, looking at her.

 "We'll take off and leave you alone with him!" Alya grinned, placing her hand on Marinette' shoulder. "Then you can still your beans to him! It will be perfect!"

 "No! I can't!" She gasped, turning red but she couldn't exactly say why to Alya. No one had any idea that he was with Kagami and revealing she knew could in fact reveal her identity as Lady Noir. However, Alya was giving her a questioning look. "Uh... what about Luka?"

 "What about him?" Alya asked, confused. 

 "Well... I like him too..." She gasped, hoping he didn't hear her but he seemed more busy playing with Manon. She couldn't help the soft expression she shot towards him. "I can't tell Adrien I like him when I like Luka too. It's not fair on either of them,"

 "Girl, this is your one chance!" She gasped before sighing. "Look, I can't make you do it but I'm telling you today is the day!"

 She gasped and rushed over to Luka and Manon when Adrien looked over at her, causing him to frown. Manon was showing Luka a statue of her mother before rushing over to Marinette.

 "Look, my mummy is famous!" She grinned, making her smile before the three of them returned to the lift and got in with the others. The silence in the lift was awkward but they soon forgot about it when they went inside the art studio. 

 "Welcome to the workshop," Veronique stated, gesturing to it. There were spare parts and tools around. They looked around in amazement. "This is where all of our artists create and repair our statues,"

 "Cool," Nino gasped as they walked through the work shop. Veronique pushed open some double doors and walked through them, revealing the wax vat. There were pipes everywhere and stairs that lead to a walk way in the room. It was also hotter and darker then the work shop as the wax had to be kept in liquid form.

 "And this is where we store our wax," She explained, gesturing towards the large vat. "It comes straight from our very own beehives, up on the roofs of the museum,"

 "Wow," Marinette muttered as she glanced around. Luka grinned as he stood next to her before they followed Adrien back into the workshop. Veronique's assistant, whom Marinette and Luka recognized as Theo Barbot aka Actis, was setting up the wax which they would be using to make a cast of Adrien's arm. He gestured to the seat, which Adrien sat on as the others examined the different parts. Nino was looking at a head and complimented the detail of the beard. Theo explained that they used real yak hair as he prepped Adrien's arm. He secured it in the box and poured in warmed wax, that was warm enough to take form but not to burn Adrien. He secured it and set a timer before leaving with Veronique, explaining they needed to check on something and that they would be back as soon as they could. Manon wondered over to the heads of some of the unmade statues and examined them. Nino decided to pretend to be one and jumped out of her, making her laugh.

 "My turn! My turn!" She called out, grinning. "I want to play statues!" 

 She ran over to Marinette and grabbed her hand. 

 "Marinette! Come on!" She gasped, pointing towards the door. "Let's go play hide and seek and statues!"

 "Su-"

 "Marinette can't, Manon," Alya stated, cutting off Marinette and winking at Nino, who grinned back. Manon frowned a little. "But we'll play with you. Marinette, you take good care of Adrien! He must not get bored for a single second,"

 "What?!" She gasped as Nino pushed Luka out of the door as well, causing him to give her a confused look before he was ushered outside of the door. She gasped and rushed over. "Wait!"

 However, the door closed, making her groan in annoyance.

 "Um... are you ok?" Adrien asked, making her look at him in surprise.

 "Oh yeah! I'm fine and dandy!" She grinned, moving her arm to the side. "Are you ok?"

 "I guess but I'm confused about something," He admitted, causing her to frown. "Do you hate me?"

 "What? No!" She gasped, holding up her hands. "Why would you think that?"

 "Because Nino said you didn't want to be here," He replied, making her sigh and pull a seat next to him. He glanced at her with an insure look before looking aside. "And you've seemed quite distance recently... it's like you're trying to avoid me..."

 "Adrien, it's not that I don't want to be here and I'm trying to avoid you..." She stated, making him frown. She would admit to herself that she had kind of been avoiding him since the anniversary of his mother's disappearance but it wasn't exactly intentional. She had been busy with her new project and her hero work as dealing with Lila and her crap... plus she was still dealing with her realization of her behavior towards him. It wasn't easy though. Her crush on Adrien was deeply intertwined with who she is that she was finding it hard removing it from her but it was something that had to be done. The talk with Luka had really helped though so she wanted to start anew and actually get to know the real Adrien, even if it doesn't go into a romantic thing. For one, he's in a relationship with Kagami and she wants to get to know him. "It's just... I'm meant to be babysitting today but I also have a project to finish. I asked Luka to help keep Manon entertained so I could finish it. I was close to been done when Alya called. I tried to explain to her that I didn't have time but she just wouldn't listen and wouldn't take no for an answer. She also knows I can't say no to helping a friend so here I am,"

 "I see," He muttered, frowning. "But I'm glad you don't hate me,"

 "Of course, I don't," She muttered in return. "But now Luka will probably hate me,"

 "Why would he hate you?" He asked, confused.

 "Because Alya and Nino just dragged him off and I've basically been ignoring him and Manon since they turned up," She gasped, covering her face. "I don't want him to hate me,"

 "Hey, I don't think he will," He gasped, making her look up at him. "Luka's super cool like that and he's your friend,"

 She nodded, making him smile.

 "You like him, don't you?" He asked, making her look at him in surprise before panicking.

 "What?! No!!" She gasped, jumping. "I mean we're friends but just friends! Great friends, ha ha.... besides..."

 She looks down at her hands.

 "He probably only likes me as a friend," She sighed, holding her face in her hands before she realized what she said. "I mean... uh... Toilet! I need to use the rest room... excuse me,"

 She jumped up and rushed out of there before Adrien could say anything. He shook his head and waited for the timer to go off before going after her. He should make sure she's ok.

 ~Meanwhile~

 Manon giggled as she ran off into the heroes area of the hotel. The four of them had split into two teams to play hide and seek. Luka and Manon were the first team to hide while Alya and Nino were trying to find them. Luka had hidden nearby in the music area while Manon headed to the heroes area to hide. She giggled again as she heard Alya and Nino coming to look at her. She climbed up on the stage next to the Anatis and Lady Noir statues. She giggled again and pulled a pose, just as Nino and Alya entered, looking around as they did. Alya walked over to the statue of Lady Wifi and stopped, frowning as she looked up at her. Nino noticed and walked over as she sighed and looked sad. He cleared his throat and lifted his hat.

 "Excuse me, Lady, but what exactly is your super power?" He asked, glancing at her. "Make me fall super in love?"

 "I don't need a super power for that," Alya smiled, placing her hand on her heart as she looked at him before she looked back at that statue with a sad expression. She still felt guilty about all of the times she had become her, especially the most recent time. That was part of the reason why she demanded to bring Marinette to the museum. Not only could she get the Adrienette ship sailing but in her own way, she wanted to make up for been Lady Wifi and trying to target Adrien. Since her bestie is in love with him and he needs a better love interest then Kagami, it was perfect. However, she frowned as she looked up at her akuma self again and she felt bad again. "I know it's not really ourselves when we're akumatized but it's weird to ourselves like that, as super villains,"

 "It's because you don't look at them properly," Nino expected, placing his arm around her shoulder before gesturing towards the statues. "These aren't super villains. These are all the people who Anatis and Lady Noir have saved,"

 "You're right," Alya smiled, leaning against him before he began to tickle her, making her laugh and push him back a little. "Hey, what are you doing?"

 "Ooh, I've been akumatized and now I'm Tickleman!" He declared, wiggling his fingers and making her laugh.

 "Noo! Not the tickles!" She gasped, pushing him away a little as she got into the game before she ran off with him chasing her. "Help! Anatis! Lady Noir!"

 They ran out of the room, completely ignoring Manon. She frowned to herself and climbed down from her hiding place as her lip trembled. Since coming to the museum, hardly anyone was paying her attention. Back at Marinette's home, she had explained that she had to finish a project and she understood that she needed to finish it that but Marinette had promised to play with her when she was done. Plus she had brought around Luka to play with her until she was done but since coming to the museum, only Luka had paid her attention. Everyone else had ignored her. Tears began to roll down her face as she didn't understand why they had been ignoring her. What did she do wrong?

 "Why doesn't anyone want to play with me?" She frowned, walking away from the statues as she tried to wipe her eyes but it didn't help. She was still crying. She stopped in front of some of the villains before looking up and coming face to face with the Puppeteer. She didn't remember been her but her mum had explained to her what happened and how she was freed from Hawkmoth's grips. Anatis had ended up playing a game with her and putting on a puppet show. She grabbed the wand from the statue and grinned as she imagined what it would be like to be the Puppeteer again. She could make everyone play with her forever that way and she would be able to play with Anatis and Lady Noir again. No one would ignore her then and she would get to play with superheroes. She looked down as she thought about been ignored, causing more tears to spill. It just wasn't fair. Why did they get to run off and play while she was treated like she was invisible? She failed to notice a little black butterfly fluttering towards her.

 "Puppeteer," Hawkmoth's voice echoed in her mind as the akuma entered the wand. "Glad to see you again... so no one wants to play with you, huh? I'm given you the power to play with them,"

 "We'll have lots of fun," Manon replied, holding up the wand before moving her hand to the side, allowing herself to be engulfed in purple smog as she turned into the Puppeteer. She flew up and laughed happily before frowning as she heard Alya's laughter. She pouted before eyeing up Bubbler and Lady Wifi. She flew over to them and tapped them, bringing them both to life. "Capture Alya and Nino,"

 "Ready or not!" Nino called out, getting closer. The two statues stood still while Puppeteer hid. "Here I come!"

 He rushed in and looked around for Alya, grinning to himself but he threw a glance at the Bubbler and moved over, looking at it. Only it blinked, causing him to almost scream but the Lady Wifi statue threw a pause on him, trapping him there. A few minutes later, Alya came through to look for him. She thought she could catch him off guard and tried to tickle him but realized with horror, that he was paused. She saw Lady Wifi and tried to run off, causing Bubbler to jump in front of her and take out his sword. Lady Wifi paused her and he trapped her in a bubble as Puppeteer flew out laughing. 

 "This is so much fun!" She declared as Hawkmoth opened a connection with her.

 "Puppeteer, don't forget to bring me back my little toys," He ordered, making her nod. "Anatis' and Lady Noir's miraculous,"

 He dropped the connection and she flew over to the other villains, bringing them to life with a tap.

 "I'm gonna play with you and you," She stated, bringing Gamer and Evillustrator to life before flying over to the statues of Anatis and Lady Noir. She tapped them and brought them to life as well. "And you and you!"

 She laughed as she flew up and continued to bring them to life. Meanwhile, Luka had decided to come out of his hiding spot as Alya and Nino hadn't come to find him. He figured that they didn't really care about finding him since the game was for Manon but he was also concerned that they decided to run off to have time with each other. He got it because they were a couple but they had also agreed to play with Manon so if they had decided to run off, he was concerned that she might get upset. He walked past the wax statues and headed into the heroes section before gasping as he saw Nino and Alya paused and trapped in bubbles. A bubble and pause icon were thrown towards him but he managed to jump out of the way and dodge them, looking up at Lady Wifi and Bubbler but Alya and Nino weren't akumatized.

 "What the?" He asked as they got prepared to attack him again. However before they could, Puppeteer flew into the room, making his eyes widen in surprise. She must have been akumatized.

 "Manon?" He asked, making her look at him. "What happened?"

 "No! I'm Puppeteer now!" She corrected before he was suddenly grabbed by a mummy and the mime as she flew in front of him. "And no one wanted to play with me so now I'm making them play with me!"

 "I was playing with you..." He pointed out, making her look at him. "We were playing Pirates... I'm One eyed Lu and you're Mad Manny.. and we played Hide and Seek... we were playing Superheroes while Marinette finished up her project then the three of us were gonna get ice cream after remember?"

 She made a thoughtful face as he mentally cursed Alya for interrupting their day. Marinette was more then happy to go and play with Manon while Adrien before turning to her wax minions.

 "Take him to the workshop!" She ordered, causing them to march him out before she made Hawkmoth come to life. Luka struggled as best as he could but the wax models had a strong grip on him and dragged him off. "Find Marinette and Adrien! I want to play with them too!"

 ~Meanwhile~

 "Uh! Plagg!! How did he work out I like Luka?!" Marinette gasped, holding face in shame as Plagg floated near by.

 "Because it's obvious," Plagg cackled, making Marinette groan. "Cheer up, Dollface, Blondie doesn't seem to care and it's not like you confessed to the blueberry. Besides, it's so obvious that Blueberry likes you back. He probably dropped whatever he was doing to help you with Manon,"

 That didn't seem to help as it caused Marinette to groan.

 "Besides, who cares about friendship?" Plagg asked, making Marinette look at him. "What? I'm just saying,"

 "I care about friendships, Plagg," She declared, standing up. "Luka and Adrien are very important to me and I want to get to know both of them better but I wanted to do it on my terms. That's part of the reason I asked Luka to help me today. I know I can always rely on him and I wanted to ask him to go out for ice cream with me... but I was scared he would say no... so I used the fact that I had to look after Manon today... I mean I did need help and I didn't lie but I figured that it would be nice to see him as well... uh! I'm a terrible human being and baby sitter!"

 "Dollface, you're not terrible," 

 "But I let Alya and Nino steal Luka and Manon away..." She groaned, holding her face in her hand before looking up. "Why didn't Alya notice that I was uncomfortable around Adrien? It's hard to remove the crush I have on him when I'm pushed into a situation to 'confess' to him. I don't want to confess to him anymore. My crush on him is unhealthy ad so is Alya's actions with it. I need to talk to her about it..."

 She got up and made her way out of the bathroom as Plagg flew into her purse. She walked outside and gasped as she saw Adrien sat down, looking at his phone. She frowned a little before walking over to him, causing him to glance up.

 "Hey," She muttered, playing with her hands. "Mind if I join you?"

 "Be my guest," He smiled, gesturing to the seat next to him. "Are you ok?"

 "Yeah... I'm fine..." She muttered, nodding. "Sorry for running off like that..."

 "It's fine," He smiled before glancing at his phone again and sighing.

 "Are you ok?" She asked, making him look at her before he sighed and looked down. He looked almost guilty. "Adrien?"

 "I guess I'm not really ok," He muttered, sighing. "It's sound stupid and selfish but I just wanted it to be me and Nino today. It's been so long since we've actually hung out on our own since he got with Alya. I mean don't get me wrong I'm happy that the two of them are together but I really just wanted to hang out with my best friend and Alya ended up inviting herself and you guys along. Not that I don't want to hang out with you either..."

 "Alya told me you had invited us and she didn't give me much of a choice," Marinette stated, feeling bad. Adrien looked at her in surprise. "I'm so sorry, Adrien if I had know I would have made it clearer that I was busy."

 "It's not your fault, Marinette," He sighed, frowning. "I'm the one been selfish,"

 "What? No!" She gasped, making him look at her. "Adrien, wanting to spend time with your friend isn't selfish. Inviting yourself along is and I'm so sorry because it's my fault she decided to do that,"

 "How is it your fault?" He asked, confused. "You didn't make her..."

 "No... but she did it on my behalf..." She sighed, making him frown. "I didn't ask her but she was trying to set it up so I could confess to you,"

 "Confess?" He asked, making her nod. "I don't understand,"

 "I..." She took a deep breathe. "I had a crush on you for a while and Alya has taken it upon herself to help me confess. This is just the latest of her schemes and it's ended up getting you hurt,"

 "You have a crush on me?"

 "Kind of... but the thing is it wasn't healthy at all," She admitted, looking down. "So I've been trying to let it go. I guess that's why I've kind of been avoiding you but I want to be your friend so I'm sorry,"

 "No... it's fine," He smiled, nodding. "I'm glad you told me but I-"

 The sound of someone running towards them interrupted him as they looked over and saw Hawkmoth standing.

 "Hawkmoth?!" The two of them gasped, causing Hawkmoth to spin his cane and rush over to them. He dived at them but Adrien grabbed the umbrella off the Aurora statue and used it to block the attack.

 "Marinette!" He gasped, pushing him back. "Go and get some help!"

 "Oh no!" Manon's voice echoed, making them both gasp. "You're gonna stay and play with me this time!"

 "Manon?!" Marinette gasped, shocked.

 "Nope! I am the Puppeteer!" She declared as Hawkmoth pulled away and began to fight Adrien. Marinette moved out of the way. "I want to play with you and my statues!"

 "Be careful!" She yelled out as he held off Hawkmoth and ran off. She escaped into the lift, causing Plagg to fly out. "Looks the Puppeteer is back, Plagg,"

 "Aren't your friends somewhere in the museum too?" Plagg asked, a little worried. Hopefully, Luka and Tikki got somewhere to transform. Marinette gasped as she realized.

 "Alya, Nino and Luka are all somewhere in the museum and if Puppeteer wants to play, she might go after them!" She gasped before holding out her hand. "We have no time to waste... Plagg! Claws out!"

 She transformed and exited the lift, running back to Adrien. Hawkmoth had just knocked him down and was able to stab him but she jumped and kicked him, sending him flying. Adrien blinked as she held him up. Hawkmoth got back up as well and charged at her. She blocked Hawkmoth's cane with her baton before knocking him back and slicing him up with her claws. He fell to pieces, causing Adrien to look back at them in surprise.

 "Ooh! A wax statue!" Adrien gasped before turning to Lady Noir. "Is Marinette safe?"

 "Yeah, she is," She nodded, placing her baton on her belt. "But I need to find your other friends. You need-"

 "I'm coming with you," He declared, making her frown. "Look, I won't get in your way but I know how to fight and I think sticking with you in the safest thing for me to do,"

 "Fine," She sighed, shaking her head. "We should check the Heroes room first. That's where she found Hawkmoth's statues,"

 "To the heroes room then," He grinned, causing the two of them to run off. They ran down into the room but Lady Noir grabbed him around the waist and jumped, causing Lady Wifi and Bubbler to trap each other. "How did-"

 "Cat senses," She grinned before noticing the statue of Puppeteer. She threw her baton at her but she didn't react. Lady Noir walked over and picked up her baton as Adrien moved over to her. She stopped in front of the statue and frowned as she looked at it. "The real Puppeteer had a wand but this one doesn't..."

 "Maybe because the real one has it?" Adrien asked, glancing around. "By the way, where is Anatis?"

 "I'm not sure," She frowned, glancing around. "But I'm sure he'll get here soon. Anyway, let's go check the work shop? It seems like no one is in this area,"

 "Right," He nodded, backing away from the wax dolls. He couldn't help but find them creepy. He turned and saw Lady Noir had disappeared upstairs. He rushed out and followed her as they ran upstairs. They opened the door to the workshop and rushed inside, finding their three friends. Nino and Alya were trapped in pauses but Luka wasn't. He was sat on a chair but wax hands were keeping him pinned to it while one covered his mouth. His eyes widen in relief when he saw Lady Noir and Adrien. She moved over to him and torn off the hands, destroying them in the process.

 "Is Marinette safe?" He asked, as soon as she freed him. His voice and expression was laced with worry. 

 "She's safe," Lady Noir nodded. "She's hi-"

 "Don't tell me where she's hiding," He gasped, getting up. "Manon is looking for her and Adrien. We should get out of here before she realizes he's here,"

 "Uh ok," Lady Noir nodded, moving out of the room with the two boys as quickly as they could. Lady Noir's ears twitched and she pulled both boys behind a wall. Seconds later, Puppeteer flew by with a number of Wax models following her. It appeared she was heading back to the hero area. They waited a few minutes before Lady Noir let out a sigh. "We need to get you two hidden,"

 The two boys nodded and followed her as they ran away from the area they were in.

 "Why did she have you, Alya and Nino in the workshop?" Lady Noir asked as they came into an area without wax statues.

 "She wants to play with us," Luka muttered, frowning. "We were playing Hide and Seek before she was akumatized but something must have gone wrong,"

 "What do you play with you? Like a game?" She asked but he shook his head, making her frown a bit. "Then what was her plan?"

 "To turn us all into wax statues," He admitted, frowning. "That's why she wants to capture Adrien and Marinette. She intended to drop us all in the wax vat and make us into statues so she could 'play' with us forever. She intends to do the same to Anatis and you as well,"

 "That's mildly disturbing," Lady Noir admitted, looking a little pale. "I'm glad we got you out of there but isn't she going to do the same to Nino and Alya,"

 "She's a child. While she is smart, she lacks the same attention span or logic that an adult has," Luka muttered, making Lady Noir raise an eyebrow. "Instead of 'turning' us one by one, she wants to find all her 'toys' and change them at the same time. That's why she was holding me, Nino and Alya there. She didn't need to worry about those two escape but that's why I was held down by those wax hands,"

 "Hmm... makes sense," She muttered, frowning but Adrien seemed really quiet. "Adrien, are you ok?"

 "I just.... do you think it's because me and Marinette weren't paying her enough attention?" Adrien gasped, making Luka and Lady Noir frown a little. "I feel like it's my fault... I should have just come here alone..."

 "Adrien, we don't know that," Lady Noir argued, glancing around the corner. "We don't even know how she was akumatized. Luka, you said you were playing Hide and Seek with her?"

 "Alya and Nino were with us too but I don't know how she got akumatized... but this place has CCTV right?" He suggested, making both of them look at him. "Maybe we can see what happened from there?"

 "That's a good suggestion, Luka," She nodded. However, she couldn't afford to disappear, especially when Anatis wasn't here yet. "You two should go and look at it. Maybe even lock yourselves in the office while I keep Manon and her statues busy,"

 "Alright, Lady Noir," Luka replied, getting a nod of Adrien. "Hopefully, Anatis will be here soon. If I see him before you do, I'll pass on the information we get,"

 "Ok," She nodded before giving them a salute and running off. Luka turned to Adrien.

 "Do you know where the security office is?" He asked, getting a nod of him. The two boys ran off and made their way to the security office but there was no one in the office. Luka tried the door and frowned when he discovered it was locked. Adrien, however, was looking away from him with a worried expression. With Adrien distracted, he got Tikki to open the door. "Adrien, come on,"

 "Huh?" He mumbled as Luka pulled him inside. "Sorry,"

 "It's fine," Luka replied, grabbing a seat and going over the footage as Adrien watched. 

 "How do you know what to do?" Adrien asked as Luka re-winded the footage and typed, getting it to play.

 "My ma taught me," He replied, making Adrien raise an eyebrow. "Trust me when I say you don't want to know how she knows. Ah... here we go..."

 Adrien moved over and frowned as he watched the footage. It showed Manon running into the heroes room and pretend to be a statue next to the Anatis and Lady Noir statues. A few seconds later, Nino and Alya came in but instead of looking for the little girl like they expected, Alya walked over to the statue of Lady Noir with a look of sadness. Luka could understand. It must be hard to see yourself like that but then she and Nino talked before the two of them began their own game, running out of there and completely ignoring Manon. The little girl then moved and walked away as she cried. She wiped away her tears as she came face to face with herself but her tears kept coming as she took the wand. A few minutes later, an akuma flew into her wand. Luka paused the video and looked at Adrien. 

 "Alya and Nino... just abandoned her?" He asked, frowning before looking at Luka. "How do we get this information to Lady Noir?"

 "One of us should go..." Luka muttered before clicking his fingers. "You go. If Puppeteer comes across you, you can just-"

 "Pretend to be a statue," He grinned, making Luka nod. "Alright, I'll go but close the door behind me,"

 "Right," Luka nodded, shutting the door as Adrien rushed out. Once Adrien was gone, Luka transformed into Anatis and rushed out. He ran as fast as he could to the Heroes room, clearing a pathway as he did. He ran in as Lady Noir and Adrien were trying to fight off a bunch of wax akumas. Adrien had taken the sword off Captain Hardrock and was slicing through them as Lady Noir was kicking some of them but one of them was about to grab her from behind. Anatis threw his yoyo and destroyed it before kicking one of that was about to take out Adrien. The three of them proceed to take them out as best as they could before the two of them turned to Anatis. "Adrien, thank you for your help but go find somewhere safe to hide. Me and Lady Noir will take it from here,"

 "But the statues..."

 "I've cleared a path for now but I suggest you get going before more come back," He ordered, getting a nod of Adrien who ran off. Once he was gone, Anatis turned to Lady Noir. "Sorry, I'm late. I had a bit of trouble getting in. Most points of entry were barricaded by wax models,"

 "No worries, you're here now," She grinned, spinning her baton. "Adrien informed me of where the akuma is and what caused her to become an akuma. She was abandoned by Nino and Alya when they were playing a game,"

 "I see," Anatis frowned even though he already knew this. "And the akuma?"

 "It's in her wand so we just need to get that," Lady Noir explained, causing him to nod. "But she flew off while we were fighting her minions. I think she's returned to the work shop,"

 "Alright, let's head there and save her," He nodded as a head and several eyeballs bounced down the stairs. Lady Noir nodded and ran with him. The head charged at him but he jumped and stepped on it before running upstairs. However, Mime came to life and threw an invisible lasso around Lady Noir, capturing her before she could follow him. The dismembered head attempted to take her ring off with it's mouth as she was pinned down by other statues but she extended her baton and freed herself before destroying the statues. Once that was done, she turned to run upstairs but found herself face to face with Anatis. She frowned as she was sure he went upstairs.

 "Uh... Annie... should't we go save Manon?" She asked as he walked over. She frowned deeply when Anatis didn't react but instead stepped forward again. She instinctively took a step back until she was leaning against the wall as Anatis stood in front of her and took her hands in his. A blush covered her face as she looked up at him However, his eyes were as alive as normal and his skin was a little bit too shiny. Realizing he wasn't the real one, she gasped as he leaned in as if to kiss her. She could feel him trying to slide the ring off her finger. "Anatis... I have one word for you..."

 She narrowed her eyes.

 "Cataclysm," She declared, causing him to turn to dust before she rushed off to find the real one. She burst into the workshop and stopped the hand that was about to steal his earrings before knocking the statues that were pinning him down off him. "Get off Annie, you pale imitation!"

 She knocked the head of her wax self before helping him up.

 "Thanks for the rescue, kitty," He grinned before looking over at the door to the wax area. "She went in there and it looks like she might have Nino and Alya there,"

 "She must be enacting her plan then," She frowned before noticing his lucky charm. "Any idea what to do with the lucky charm?"

 "Uh... not yet," He replied as the wax models got back up. Lady Noir gave him a wink before she tackled them so he could look around. He frowned as he glanced around before several craft items lit up, along with a star. Smiling to himself, he got to work and transformed his lucky charm into a replica of Puppeteer's wand as Lady Noir defeated the last wax model. "Lady Noir, I've got a plan,"

 He held up the wand to her, making her grin before explaining the plan. The two of them pushed their way into the wax room as Anatis pretended to struggle against Lady Noir. She was holding his arms as if she had captured him. He even called her a fake to add to the act. Puppeteer laughed as they came to a stop, allowing Anatis to glance around. Nino and Alya were still paused and placed in the corner next to a table. Adrien wasn't in the room, meaning he had found a safe place but there was a sheet with string hanging above the wax vat, making him frown. She had hostages but the plan would still work. Maybe even better then he originally intended.

 "I've almost beaten you, Anatis!" She declared, laughing before she pointed her wand at them. "Lady Noir, give me his earrings then we can make him and the others into our toys forever!"

 He struggled and tried to move away from her as she reached for them but she paused, making him look at her with surprise. Puppeteer and Hawkmoth fell for it as she talked to him, confused as to why her wand wasn't working. Anatis smirked and took out the replica, making her gasp.

 "It's not working because I swapped them earlier," He stated, grinning. "You lost, Puppeteer,"

 "I don't care!" She declared, pulling down the sheet. Theo and Veronique were tied above the wax vat, making him gasp. "If you snap my wand, I'll just turn them into real statues!"

 "No!" He gasped before frowning. "Don't do that... I'll give your wand back, Puppeteer... you win..."

 He held out the wand, causing her to fly over to him and take it but Lady Noir's ring beeped, confusing her. Anatis took the chance to jump at her and grab the real wand, snapping it in half and releasing the akuma. He took out his yoyo and captured it before taking the other wand and throwing it up into the air, declaring the magic words. The swarm appeared and fixed everything before Puppeteer turned back into Manon. She gasped as she saw Anatis and ran over to him.

 "Annie!!" She gasped, hugging his leg as he knelt down.

 "Hey, kiddo, you alright?" He asked, making her nod as he ruffed her hair, causing her to giggle. "Why don't we go find your babysitter?"

 "Annie, I better scramble before I transform back," Lady Noir declared before rushing out. Anatis smiled and stood up, offering Manon his hand. She grinned and took it as they walked out of the wax room, just as the group ran in. Marinette rushed over to Manon and hugged her. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to-"

 "I don't think you should be the one to apology, Marinette," Adrien stated, glaring at Nino and Alya as Anatis frowned. Alya glared back as Nino rubbed the back of his neck. "Not only did you invite yourself along but you also lied to Marinette and then completely abandoned Manon which directly lead to her akumatization,"

 "I didn-" Alya tried to argue but Adrien held up his hand.

 "I saw the footage on the CCTV, Alya, along with Luka," He stated, causing Marinette to look around for him. Adrien turned to Anatis and smiled. "Thank you for saving us, Anatis,"

 "No problem, Adrien," He replied, shaking his hand as his earrings beeped. Alya was crossing her arms while Nino was looking down. "I have to go but Alya, I think you should listen to Adrien. It's not cool to invite yourself to anything or leave a little kid. I suspect that Manon felt like she was been ignored and was hurt by that,"

 "You should also not force people into uncomfortable situations," Marinette added, crossing her arms. Anatis was about to leave but decided to stay. He had a few minutes before he transformed back. "I told you I was babysitting. I tried to tell you we couldn't go but you didn't even listen to me or give me a chance to explain. You just turned up at mine, despite that I had already told you I was busy,"

 "Why is everyone ganging up on me?!" Alya gasped, storming out. "Come on, Nino!"

 "Actually... I'm gonna stay with my bro," Nino stated, causing Alya to stare at him like he's grown two heads. "Look, I love you and all but Adrien wanted to hang out with me and it's been ages since we've gotten to. I'm with you all the time and you know how his dad is,"

 "I... um.... urg!" She gasped before storming out. Nino turned to Adrien and apologized to him before doing the same to Manon. Marinette turned to Anatis and smiled a little.

 "Shouldn't you get going?" She asked, making him look at her. "Not that I... I mean... you don't have time to hang about right?"

 "I thought I better stay in case of another akuma," He muttered, making her nod as his earrings beeped. "But I really should go. It was good seeing you again, Marinette. I'm glad everyone is safe,"

 "Thanks to you and Lady Noir," She smiled, shyly as he walked over to the table. He climbed on it and opened a window. "Not going to use the door?"

 "Doors are for people with no imagination," He joked, making her laugh before he disappeared out of the window. He slipped back into the museum and dropped his transformation, heading back to the gang. However, he ran into Alya before he did. She completely blanked him, causing him to shrug before he ran to the workshop. However, he stopped at the heroes room and smiled at the statues of him and Lady Noir. Shaking his head, he ran upstairs and into the work museum. "Sorry guys. I got locked in the security-"

 "Lulu!" Manon declared, running and diving at him. He caught and smiled as Marinette walked over as Nino and Adrien chatted, causing Adrien to take out his phone.

 "So... I just saw Alya storm off?" He asked, making Marinette sigh.

 "She didn't like that we called her out on her behavior..." Marinette admitted before looking to the side. "I'm sorry for ignoring you all day... I just was trying to get Alya to understand something..."

 "It's ok, Melody," He smiled, making her give him a look of relief. "Now why do we all go look at the statues since we came here to do that?"

 "That's a great idea, Luka," Adrien grinned as he looked up from his phone. "Nathalie and Father are ok with you coming over for a couple of hours after we're done here, Nino... though it will just me and Nino if you guys are ok with that,"

 "Oh that's fine by me," Luka grinned before noticing the looks between Marinette and Adrien. "But I think me and Nino owe Manon here a real game of hide and seek before we go,"

 "Yeah, we do," Nino agreed. "Catch up with us... now... shall we go hide and get Luka to find us?"

 "Yeah!!!" Manon declared, running off and causing the two boys to follow her as Marinette let out a sigh.

 "He's really good at reading emotions, isn't he?" Adrien smiled, causing Marinette to nod before he faced her. "Um... about our talk earlier... I'm glad you were able to open up to me but you should know I'm dating Kagami... um... we've been keeping it secret because of the whole been famous thing but I think it's time we told our friends. Hopefully, this will help Alya not doing something like this again so I'm gonna talk to Kagami tonight,"

 "Thank you," Marinette nodded, smiling a little. "I'll talk to Alya to when she calms down. She needs to know that I'm letting go of my crush on you but I want to be your friend... if that's ok? I know I hurt-"

 "Marinette, you are my friend but I would love to get to know you better and be a better friend to you," He gasped, making her look at him. "And it wasn't you who hurt me. It was Alya. She hurt both of us by been pushy and she hurt Manon too but we can move on and learn from this..."

 "Thank you, Adrien," She smiled, generally touched by his words but her heart didn't flutter in the same way it use to. He grinned before grabbing her hand.

 "Let's go find the others,"

 ~Later that Afternoon~

 "Thank you so much for looking after her on such short notice, Marinette," Nadja smiled as she reached into her purse. She took out a number of bills and gave them to both Marinette and Luka. "And you too, young man. Though I don't think I caught your name?"

 "Luka, ma'am," He smiled before glancing at Marinette before looking back at her. "And it was no trouble,"

 "Did she behave?" She asked, getting a nod of Marinette but she also informed her that she got reakumatized. Nadja frowned but listened as she explained. "I see. I'm glad you told me Marinette. I appreciate your honest but a word of advice. Your friend sounds very pushy so you need to be firmer with her,"

 "I will," She nodded before waving to Manon, who had run to her mom's side. "Bye, Manon!"

 "Bye, Marinette!" She grinned before turning to Luka with an impish expression. "Bye, Marinette's boyfriend!"

 Marinette gasped and blushed madly before trying to say that he wasn't her boyfriend as Manon giggled and ran inside, causing her mother to apologize and run after her. Marinette turned to Luka with her nervous grin.

 "K-Kids eh?" She asked before noticing his cheeks were just as red as hers. "Wait... are you blushing?"

 "U-Um... No?" He replied, going even more red before grinning nervously as she gasped. 

“Oh my god, you are!”

"Please don't tell Juleka or Rose. I'll never heard the end of it,"

---------------------------------------------------------------

Next Chapter: https://sassyduckqueen.tumblr.com/post/640089186164162560/miraculous-rise-of-anatis-44

asks :)

i woke up to so many nice messages you guys are the best 💕💕💕

Coup de Grace.... SO GOOD. I love how you made toshiro such a supportive loving boyfriend. Made me feel bad when he had to get the ax. You really have a gift! You crank out these fics so consistently and it’s all quality!!! Amazing work and hope you’re staying hydrated❤️- @shadowkunoichi

ahhh thank you bby!! initially i was going to make toshiro a much less important part of the fic, like he was always gonna die, but i was gonna leave him nameless and not really give him much of a role, but i liked this better haha

Omfg Rhi the end of Coup de Grace with the voicemail was fucking genius. I gasped out loud. Literally how are you so good at making my heartrate jump. Also the smut? Fucking chef's kiss. I gotta ask though what did the boys do to make reader's friend stop talking to her? Like I'm trying to think about what it would take to get my friends to completely ignore me, and I can't come up with anything. - @ks350

!!! thank you so much, for once i’m actually really happy with the ending haha. as far as what the boys did to drive away her friends, for some of them it was enough to start spreading nasty rumours - you cheated on your finals last semester, you’re fucking one of the professors to get a better grade, and then when details of their own less than exemplary behaviour, things they told you (and only you) start leaking out, it’s easy to trace it back to you. it doesn’t help that you’re pulling away from them either, your new friends demanding so much of your attention. and for those loyal, dedicated few, threats finish up the job nicely.

You have given us all the goodness 😫😫😫 ... words are failing me ... how do you write poly yandere men so well???? Erasermic and bo/kuroo/akaashi are all i need in life and all i want!

aw, thank you!!! 

MAM THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL IM CRYING IM CRYING YOU ARE AND YOUR WORK IS A MASTERPIECE😭😭😭

sdfghjbvfghjkl i’m glad you liked it!!!

Would you say Bo is the kind of leader of the coup de grace trio? Or are they very much a partnership. Did they simultaneously decided to take reader or one mention it first? I freaking love your work so much. Absolutely saving my pennies for next commission slots!

no, not a leader. he is the one who ‘fell’ first and so naturally he got first dibs, but they’re all equal - and dw, kuroo and akaashi’ll have plenty of time to have the reader to themselves haha, but thank you!!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT ENDING THO! IM SHOOK! THAT FIC WAS AMAZING! ❤️❤️

thank you so much, sweetheart!!!

Reader: pulls away from Bokuto when he kisses her

Me: What is you doing girl!! Get in there!! Get our mans!!!

(Also your fic was amazing you’re the best!!)

at least one of us should get the man we want 😭sdfghgdfghj haha i’m glad you liked it tho!!

rhi, that was fantastic as usual! what did the boys do to your friends and boyfriend?

the friends i explained ^^ but they definitely killed poor toshi. i like to think they drove him out to the lake, took turns beating him bloody and got rid of the body, but imagine what you’d like 

This fic made my day so much better! I’ve been having such a rough couple of days 😭😭

aw i’m sorry bby, i hope things get better soon 💕

oh to be sandwiched between BoKuAka in bed wow

i feel this on a spiritual level, bby

I remember you’re post about yandere Kyoutani and this brought back many of the same emotions

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28878681

oh dang. first of all, love me that lil sprinkle of oikawa and makki, but yeah, no this was great. i need more kyoutani in my life 

Hii I loved breaking point and read all of the follow ups too 😙 would you ever consider writing a sequel?? Like how would reader’s life at school change after what’s happened 

thank you bby, but tbh probably not. there will be more miya twins goodness coming soon(ish) but i wanna write fresh stuff y’know?